"Think they are dead?"

"Dead people don't breathe idiot."

"Unless they are zombies! Wait...no zombies don't need to breathe either. What about vampires? Though I suppose they are technically undead. Do vampires breathe?"

"Just shut up and let me work."

"But I wanna help! Hold on let me find a stick to poke them with."

Glaring sun burned Michael's retinas as he forced himself back into the land of the living by threat of stick poking.

"What...what are you doing here?"

Even with the sun's blaze, he recognized that dark figure which hung over him. His horns curling above his head, made for a stark and unforgettable profile. The other form was much smaller than the looming one caring for him. They bounced around on their feet, excited for...something apparently.

"Ooh, ooh he spoke. Let me poke him, please!" the voice dropped. "Even better, can I skin him?"

The man scratched his horns, groaning. "Why do I always get stuck with the newbies?"

Michael sat up, pushing the lank of stringy muscles and faint stench of goat away. If he was here, it didn't mean anything good. He hadn't been lying to Rene when he said he had cut off his official ties with the group he worked for. It just wasn't a complete truth. He wasn't stupid enough to think they'd let him simply wander off. He knew they had been being tailed for a while. The figure rocked back on his heels into a stand. The cloak he worn crinkling and furling  almost creature like in its movements. A gnarled hand reached out from within the long black sleeve. 

Ignoring the hand, Michael looked around. Cassie, Declan, Danny, and Rene were all missing from the field, nothing but their dried blood puddles to show they had ever been there. The thought squeezed his insides, an unsettling grip reality twisted them with. To think Kara would find them, he knew she was angry but that...what she had become. It was his fault. He knew that, she knew that. Kara would eventually be the death of him and if he was honest with himself he had already accepted. In fact, in his darkest he welcomed it. But not now, not when it meet his friends had to die too.

He should have told them what was coming. 

"Where are my friends?" The scent of burning tinged the air.

"Don't be so stupid as to threat me Michael Prince."

The other giggled, an erratic sound which seemed to revel in the promise of violence. Yes, definitely a newbie. Most were not so eager after having actually owned the violence caused. They began a soft chant that sent chills down Michael's spine.

"Stick them through the mouth, then you skin then out."

The horned man waved an impatient dismissive hand at the song.

"As for your friends, I would not know. By the time we got here, they were all gone."

"Not even you are that old and slow for that to have happened. You have basically been on top of us for days. So how did someone else get here first?"

The man bleated and moved away from Michael to talk into the air where he couldn't be heard, most likely was reporting back. Michael wasn't stupid he knew there were different ways people could swoop in. However, it all seemed to suspicious and convenient that his friends disappeared before he woke up. Aches and exhaustion settled on him, dragging down at his soul. They really couldn't catch a break lately. How did five kids from an Asylum become the world's most wanted? He better get a fat check on an awesome movie deal after all this hell.

What if they were dead?

Michael struggled to stand, waging war with his lactic filled muscles. They didn't want to move, acting as dead weight.

"Xander!"

The horns turned back toward him, an unamused look radiating even from a distance.

"Where are they?"

"You wear on me child. I have no time for your idiotic energy today." Xander dismissed him, turning back to the air with which he had conversed.

"Child, child, child. Peel their skin and eat'em up. Nice and soft, keep me young."

The mutterings of the other one made him pause. They had a candiance almost of a rhyme and at first hearing sounded like random nonsense until you thought of each word. He knew of a human-eater that worked within the group and there were a couple of others that utilized humans in less than pleasant ways, but none he had meet delighted in it so they this person seemed to. 

Watching the bouncing little...whatever, he looked for what they could be. The nature of the group was to accept all that were willing to fight the so called "good fight" be they human or creature or something in-between. They were the misunderstood and feared. The things normal humans would call fantasy and lock you up for believing in. To be honest, the list was rather staggering of what they could be.

They had no definable gender from what he could tell. They were a small thing, even shorter than Cassie and had sharp teeth noticeable even from a distance by the slight toothy grin that seemed painted on their face. His eyes traced their ashy skin, covered with swirls and dots in black, some kind of tattoos. Their hair was long and in something that appeared to be dreadlocks wrapped high on their head. It surprised him how well dressed they were with an expensive-looking suit, which appeared just a bit too big, draped across their frame.

Seeing him staring, their smile became wider.

"I see you looking, pretty boy with the fire hair."

"Thank you." Michael smiled back, his lips twitching the whole way to hold that cocky grin in place. He was scared.

"Knock it off Sanguis." Xander approached back, apparently done with his report and willing to address the two of them again.

His hand came down and smacked them across the back of the hard. Sanguis hardly reacted. His toothy smile remaining firm. However, the hit seemed to have caused him to nick himself as small droplets of blood now trailed down his chin.

"He hasn't eaten in a while. It tends to make him a bit..." Xander's eyes trailed to Sanguis who had proceeded to lick the blood, streaking it across their chin until they finally got it all. "Moving on, they want us to bring you in for questioning."

Michael stepped back, his body protesting even the smile movement. Damn it, if this broke out he doubted he'd win. He had to find the others. Based upon what Xander said, it did seem like it was unlikely that his friends had been eaten by Sanguis...small relief given he still had no idea where they were. Also given Xander's request, it was unlikely they actually had his friends...he hoped anyway. Xander wasn't above threats for getting the job done. It was why he was one of the group's top retrievers. He knew how to get people to do what he wanted. If they had his friends, it would already waving over his head as bait.

"I quit."

He wondered if he could run. There was a chance of him escaping old horn-face, but shark face could be a problem. He still didn't know what they were.

Long black nails were examined, unrushed by the tension in the air. Michael felt like he was going to suffocate as he waited on Xander.

"I'm aware, but you still have a duty. You swore an oath to help and defend." Xander dropped his hand, the monotone voice running cold over Michael. "Or did you forget?"

The facade, the jokes, the confidence...the prankster prince he had created to honor his brother and remember what he used to be was hard to keep up under the watchful eyes of Xander. This feeling of loss, it knocked him back to those days after his family's deaths.

Shit...he couldn't think like that. They were alive, they had to be.

"No I didn't." Michael swallowed hard, trying not to choke on his fears. "Do I have a choice?"

"Of course you have a choice."

Michael turned, surprised that Sanguis had answered. Their eyes shone as they continued.

"Everyone has a choice. The question is can you live with the repercussions of that choice." They ran a finger along their teeth. "That being said, some choices are deadlier than others."

Xander nodded. "Just be quick about your choice. I have little time for your shenanigans today. Perhaps use that thing between you ears for something other than stupidity for once. If not," The man grazed the tips of his nails up his horns. "I shall be your repercussion, just like in the old days."

An old scar burned across his back, as though it was the day Xander had given it to him. Michael shuttered.

"Fine. Where are we going?"

Xander smiled, dropping his hand. "Home of course."

----------------------------

Rene groaned as she sat up. Everything spun in a melting picture of colors. Why did life hate her so much? Wait, life...she was alive? Her hands patted herself, coming away from her shirt with sticky coagulated blood. Ew. People don't usually bleed if they are already dead. Still nothing hurt exactly.

Kai. Karo.

The words floated within her mind, that seemed more dark and abyssive than normal. Sometimes she hated them...well not really hated them, more herself for helping like she now needed them.

Rene rubbed at her eyes until the watercolor vision dissipated. She was laying in a cave, filled with beautiful crystals which lite it with a faint bluish hue. Laying beside her were Cassie and Danny their faces peaceful. Where were Michael and Declan?

"Your friends are fine. I have put them into a deep sleep so their wounds may continue being healed."

The voice echoed across the area, somehow everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Rene scanned the surroundings, very on edge. She reached to pull a dagger off her thigh, but nothing happened. Dread sank into her, pulling her insides down like an anchor. She began scratching at her thigh, a frantic energy rising within her. No, she couldn't be defenseless not again.

"Calm your mind little Ink Bearer."

A wave washed over Rene and her hand stilled, before relaxing out of the claw it had become. Her frayed nerves were soothed and petted into an unnatural calm. Rene struggled in vain to keep her fight. It was odd to be desiring the overly emotional response when she had been accused of being too robotic for so much of her life. Still the emotions had become something she relied on to fight back, they had always been their simmering beneath the surface. Now that she was fully acknowledging and acting on them, she didn't want to go back, even if this new state for her tended to be like an explosion. 

Tiny spot of lights danced in her vision and it took her a moment to realize it wasn't just her imagination. The lights swirled and pulsed, moving in and out through intricate circles and patterns that awed her even within the numbing calm forced upon her. The lights squeezed together, as though being shoved within a mold, and out stepped a beautiful ethereal woman.

Pale white hair floated, defining the very laws of gravity as it glowed around her head. A long green dress, flowed around her. Long sleeves started from just below the shoulder and tapered into large openings that hide her hands with fabric touching the ground to trace her gestures. Across the shimmering green, flowers and creatures alike danced within stages of life and death. Kind purple eyes gazed back at her from beneath a completely white mask. The mask covered all of her face, only allowing for the eyes to be seen.

"Who...who are you?"

"I am the Two-Faced Queen. Welcome to my realm Ink Bearer."