"I still can't help but to feel as if we left something behind..."

Sending a quick glare his way, Anna frowned at Death as she straightened herself on top of Goldling. He had said this about seven times now and each time he would look over at her as if to ask if she felt the same way or not. She couldn't think of anything.

Jonathan had gotten Fury back, returning with both halves of Marco-Polo and then the skin of some sort of animal that resembled some sort of cat and something. Anna could sense the pride that was rafting off him... she probably could have felt more if she hadn't felt Death beside her. He seemed to think that they had left something in Hell. But what he himself wasn't sure of. He had already asked everyone about this at least ten times, trying to let the memory that was nagging at the back of his head to return. Nobody knew what he was talking about.

"Death, I'm sure that you're just..." Anna tried to find the right words and sort through the helpful suggestions that Goldling was sending her. "Thinking of another time."

The Horseman scowled, batting at some of the green flames of Despair's that were dancing in front of his face. He felt like they had left something really important behind for some reason. Sort of like the feelings that he would feel when he accidentally left one of his siblings behind in some place that they didn't know- not that ever happened. "I feel like we just left behind an infant for some reason."

Anna glanced ahead at the four that were trotting. Rebecca had somehow managed to take the lead and she was rubbing it in Strife's face for all that it was worth. The Horseman pouted in behind her, busy in sulking in Rebecca's teasing to really notice anything else. Jonathan and Fury had lined Turbulence and Wrath together to where when they were trotting, they could talk to each other without much trouble. Fury was still a little unnerved about the attack that she had been in but she still didn't try to show it... let along speak about it that much.

"They're all here," she pointed out.

"I know..."

Sighing, Anna reached out to touch Death's shoulder. "Then what is bothering you so much? War maybe? We do have yet to see him."

"He's fine and that's not why I'm worrying." Death knew his youngest brother, War, better than most people and he knew that with someone to protect besides himself, War would gladly blast through Heaven to get this human there. Death had yet to meet Melody, but he could still tell that if Strife and Fury liked her, then the human was decent. He still wasn't positive on the cat thing though.

"Then tell me what's settling on your mind then. We left nothing in Hell, I'm pretty sure."

Death shrugged, Despair flicking his long green tail hard enough to where it lost a few of its precious flames. He can't tell. I can't even figure out what's going up there in his head more than half of the time, the horse commented sourly.

It's not like Rasha would have let any of the demons take anything from us, Goldling piped up, her white mane bouncing lightly. And if they did, we would have heard them screaming from a mile away as he crushed them inside out or something like that. He can be really violent when he wants to be, has anyone else noticed that?

Rolling his orange red eyes, Death finally halted Despair, looking over his shoulder with a frown. Anna stopped Goldling as well, watching her husband's face as he continued to puzzle and question himself. She sighed and whistled. The four up ahead froze, Conniption accidentally running into the back of Geisha when he failed to stop quick enough. While the younger of the group glanced at each other, Anna turned back to Death. She noticed right away how Despair had straightened himself all of a sudden, those long ears of his pricked as he listened to something too far away for her to hear. Death's hands twitched on either side of Despair's mane and before she could say anything to him, Death was kicking Despair and the decaying horse was bounding forward.

"Shit," Anna mumbled.

"Do we go after him... or what?" Rebecca asked, her eyebrows rose at Death's quick departure.

Anna thought for a minute before she pointed to the ground, signaling Marco-Polo to her side without Strife even saying anything. "I'm going after him," she exclaimed, glaring at the four. "You four just go ahead and go to the White City. We'll catch up later."

"Whatever you say," Strife commented dryly.

She almost flicked him off as she snapped Goldling's head back in the direction that Despair and Death had took off in, glancing down to make sure that the puppy hadn't gotten in her mare's way before she too had Goldling galloping forward. Anna rose up off of Goldling's saddle so her mare could get going faster. Goldling was fast too- maybe not quiet as fast as Despair but she could certainly steer up some dust when she wanted too. They were back in the Jungle shortly and she made sure that they hadn't lost Marco-Polo before she kicked Goldling even harder.

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It had been Despair who had remembered.

It had been the little child that Jonathan and Rebecca had mentioned that Samael was using as his end of their deal. Death couldn't believe that he had just forgotten about a little boy or girl. It was inexcusable. By the time that Despair was charging through the Jungle, ignoring the strange animals that looked up or bounded away when they saw them, Death thought that he was going to explode with anger. It was just so stupid that he had done that. What would he have done if that was his child that he had just left behind like that?

Despair burst through the confines of the Jungle in several seconds, blasting apart a poor tree that had gotten in his way. Death barely flinched even with the several splinters that he had to have gained from that. His horse changed his way of running from the short strides so he could watch out for the obstacles of the Jungle to long, lengthy strides. He stretched out as far as he could go, bending up with his ear as his nostrils flared. Death leaned down along with Despair's neck, listening to the steady grunts of power that the horse was breathing.

Hell itself was different than most places. Because Hell represented fire, Despair was charging through a lava field that was falling to pieces underneath them. Gushes of boiling red lava rose and fell beside a well-worn path that had been used by many demons and travelers alike. His hooves were leaving charred marks as they went, only to be swallowed back up by the red liquid that was melting and reforming underneath them. The heat from the molten rock was scorching. One had to be careful when crossing Hell to watch for the little sparks that sometimes floated in the air; one touch could mean the lost of a limb. Air bubbles sometimes the sizes of small houses and various other objects would fly up in the air, pulsating, only to pop with a thundering boom shortly afterwards. Again, one had to be careful for the path was always changing.

The decaying horse's muscles clenched together as he prepared himself for a leap up ahead. The now fifteen foot crack in the path must have just happened because there was a group of demons, all arguing amongst themselves on how to cross. They all paused to watch the Rider of Death and his horse striding forward for a few minutes. When Despair leapt across the gap like it was nothing at all, several of the smaller, weaker demons, scrambled away as the horse continued down the path, barely noticing them.

"What the Heaven?" cursed out one of the demons, watching with wide eyes as Despair became a small dot down the stone path.

"You've got me," another replied darkly. This one was clearly the higher ranking on of them there; he immediately began snapping orders at his follow demons. "We've got this damn path to fix before Rasha sees this shit! What are you standin' around for? Are you waiting for the other three Horsemen?"

One of the demons was about to answer with a 'yes' when they heard the hooves of yet another horse. Glancing up, the leader squinted against the massive heat wave that had just came up from the lava. He was used to it. Hell was always doing this whenever it was going to have another round of the air bubbles was going to rise up. He noticed that the pair (rider and horse included) were much smaller than what he was expecting.

Anna thumped her heels against Goldling's barrel again, spying the huge gap up in front of them. Marco-Polo was leaving two trails of drool as he ran, his pants causing his chest to heave as he ran beside the mare. But when he saw the demons, he let loose a rippling growl and dove forward, pulling himself forward at incredible speed. Goldling picked up faster too, trying to catch the pup. They both cleared the gap as well, though Marco-Polo slammed into the leading demon and both heads violently began gripping his throat.

"Marco-Polo!" Anna snapped and the two headed dog quickly returned back to her side, the Polo side of the dog carrying an arm proudly in his mouth.

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Rasha paused from drinking the wine that he had been given, glancing curiously out the window that faced the outer walls of Hell. The Demon Lord's ears flicked up a little alertly. Lilith saw this and cocked her head to the side from where she had been studying a book that was probably as old as she was.

"Rasha?" she inquired, wondering what was wrong.

Because he was the Demon Lord, Rasha had a connection with Hell that no other demon besides the Queen had. He could feel the presence of other creatures as they entered and left Hell that were around his strength or greater. He was mentally surprised that Lilith hadn't felt the twin burst of power that he had just felt right then and there. The somewhat of a loin stood up, placing his wine glass back onto the table that he and the Queen of Demons were sharing.

They had been looking through some of the books that Hell had for answers. One of the past Demon Lords had some thing for books and an entire section of the castle there was full to the brim with dusty old paper books. Some were so old that Rasha couldn't touch them; his calloused hands caused the pages to fall apart on contact. Lilith's petite, soft hands though were different and she was the one who was mostly doing the work while Rasha entertained himself in anyway that he could find. Right then at the moment he had came across some hideously old wine bottle that had been crammed in between two books that were as wide as his forehead. Who was he not to try a little wine?

Taking a large sniff, Rasha stuck his head out of the window, his large nostrils flaring wildly as he tried to smell what he sensed. When he caught a dying smell that was not part of Hell, he knew who it was. A crow suddenly ripped through the air to attack at his face, leaving small little mark on his left ram horn before Rasha leaned back and slammed the window closed. He noticed with satisfaction the thump on the other end that meant that he had successfully hit the crow.

"Man, I hate that damned crow. Where did Death get that thing? Heaven?"

Lilith frowned a little at the mention of the Nehilim, not helping but to take the glass that Rasha had been drinking from and drown all of its contents. The other Nephilim had just left so a surprise visit from Death had to mean that something had happened. "What's he here for?"

"You've got me." Rasha poured more of the wine into the same glass, trying to forget that he couldn't ever get a buzz from it. Being a demon had its perks... and its downs. One of those downs was that he could never get drunk or feel what most humans considered a really good 'buzz.' "But I'm sure that he's not here to taste this wine. I think that its rather... different."

"Strong more like it," Lilith stated, watching him swirl the liquid once before he too swallowed it all in one gulp.

"Damn it."

There was a scrambling noise nearby and both demons turned to look at the smaller demon that entered the room, panting. They waited for the demon to catch its breath before they confirmed what they had already known. "The Horseman Death cometh!" screeched the demon loudly, making Rasha growl threateningly. "He'll be here in about seven minutes!"

Snorting, Lilith stood up as she flicked her tail annoyingly. "We knew that, Agares."

"So?" Agares replied, looking at both its leaders.

"So?!" Rasha repeated violently, cracking his knuckles together as he advanced upon the smaller demon. Agares yelped as he bounced back away from the Demon Lord, cursing under his breath. "So go and get the gates open! Do you realize that he'll just bust through them if you don't! And I'll be damned if I have to help you bastards fix it again!"

Agares dashed down the spiral stairs, his long scaly tail being the last thing to disappear as he tripped and fell down the stone steps. Rasha chuckled to himself as he began down them, turning around to hold a hand out for Lilith as he bowed. "My lady?"

Lilith giggled, taking his hand gently in her own. His large loin-like paws dwarfed her own, making her feel so small beside him. Truly, she was, but she also knew that no matter how angered that she managed to make the demon feel, he would never harm her. She knew that if someone was to try and attack her, he would beat their ass once he chased them down to oblivion. Rasha was one in a million kind of demon. He had been like that back when he had been the Demon Lord before Samael had betrayed him, killing all of their fifteen children. She had just heard word that two of their children had survived. One was Mayline, her only daughter by Rasha, and then Ferago, Rasha's eldest son.

"You do know how to charm a woman, Rasha," Lilith teased warmly, expressing her feelings for the Demon Lord.

"Why, thank you!" Rasha purred as he swept down the stairs and let her take the lead. "I had a few to practice on before I meet you." Lilith could hear the lie in his words and she laughed heartily.

Agares was waiting for them when they made it to the bottom of the stairs. He looked flustered.

"How much longer?" Rasha asked.

"He's here."

All of the demons whipped around to see Death standing in the gateway, hand resting on Despair's neck almost angrily.