Twenty-Three

The seconds dragged on for hours, the hours for a millenia. At some point, Abraxas had swept out – Oliver still couldn't decide if he was trapped in a basement or a warehouse – with a murmured, "Be good," and a soft growl. Whatever had crawled under his skin, it was enough to remove him from his favorite, tortuous pass-times.

Now it was just Oliver and Rei, alone and tied back-to-back in god-knows-where surrounded by the smells of god-knows-what – except for one smell. Rei's cooked flesh and hair filled his nose whenever he breathed, bringing with it stabs of guilt that gnawed at his stomach.

For a while, the two of them just sat there, breathing. Oliver's shoes scuffed against the ground. Whenever Rei moved, she released minute gasps of pain.

Finally, the silence was enough to choke him. "Are you okay?"

Before now, he hadn't noted the harsh note to her breaths. Each exhale sounded like it came from the heart of a bellows. She didn't reply for the longest time, but when she did, her words stabbed deep into his skin. "You're a coward."

"Exc--"

"A loveable coward, but a coward still." He didn't have to look at her to know she was probably staring at the floor. "You gave up your sister, the person you vowed to protect above all else, because of me."

"It wasn't just beca--"

"Not just that. You wrecked her life way before this." Her body trembled against its bonds. "You didn't leave her well alone. You could've. You should've. But you were selfish."

Oliver bristled at her words, but he knew she had a point.

"Now you and I are stuck down here, and soon he'll have Lilith, too." The sound of crackling replaced her croaked voice. Ice wreathed around and up his arms, chilling him deep to the bone. "I don't even think anyone knows where we are."

After a moment, the ice melted and drenched his sleeves. "You're right," Oliver said with a shiver.

"You're just saying that because I'm chewing you out."

"No, I'm not."

Rei sighed, the noise strangled in her throat. "Whatever you say, Ginger."

And with that, they were just left with a silence so thick it built in Oliver's throat and choked him. Every breath he took was through a straw. At least, it felt that way. Oliver resorted to hanging his head and staring at the ground until his vision was nothing but a sea of grey.

It seemed like an eternity before he heard the distinctive scraping of metal on cement, followed by mechanical whirring. Cold wisps of wind ghosted over Oliver's skin and seeped into his still-damp sleeves. Feet slapped against the ground, more than one pair by the sound of it.

And then he heard her muffled struggles. Even though he was facing the wall and couldn't see her, he could never misplace the sound of his own sister.

Lil...

Something – probably her – hit the floor and she moaned into the dark. Oliver clenched his jaw and gripped Rei's hands in his as best as he could. Then came more scraping.

"So!" Abraxas slapped his hands together, like he was dusting them off. "Most of the family is back together." His feet clicked against the floor. "Along with the blood whore. How cute."

At his comments, Rei gave a gargled snarl. Her grip on Oliver tightened.

A thunk, followed by Lilith's pained moan. Oliver's heart clenched.

"Well, come on, then. Aren't you going to say hi?"

More muffled moaning. Abraxas chuckled and there was the rustle of fabric. Oliver wished more than anything else in that moment to be able to see her. After several agonizing seconds, his wish was granted.

Held up only by Abraxas's grip on her forearm, Lilith's tear-stained face and greying body slid into view as Abraxas dragged her. Gleaming strips of duct tape were fixed firmly over her mouth and wrapped around her wrists. When she writhed, the hem of her shirt came up, allowing Oliver a glimpse at the dark veins that spiderwebbed across her stomach like bloody eels. Even in the semi-darkness, they seemed to pulse with a life of their own.

Is that...

Abraxas must have seen the surprise on his face. "No smooth words, Oliver? No big threats? I'm almost surprised." He followed Oliver's gaze to her exposed stomach. "Oh." Then, with a gleeful grin that could curdle milk, he dropped her to the floor and pulled her shirt higher for him to see. Oliver bit his lip and looked away.

"She's so close," Abraxas crooned. When Oliver looked back, Abraxas was stroking Lilith's hair, the sight of which turned Oliver's blood to fire.

"You did this to her."

At this, Abraxas clucked his tongue. "No. Really, I did it to both of you."

"The corruption..." Rei said under her breath.

"That's right! The blood whore gets it!" Abraxas's smile, if it could be called that, was all fangs and furrowed eyebrows. Oliver looked back to Lilith, who shook and silently cried against her duct tape. Purpling bruises ringed her neck.

Before his eyes, she was grasped by her neck and hoisted into the air with a muffled, horrified scream, one that shot ice through Oliver's body. Abraxas's free hand, wreathed in shadows, morphed until his fingers were blackened points. He clenched and unclenched this monstrous hand several times before he raised a single claw to the side of Lilith's throat. She was purple in the face, eyes screwed shut as she kicked and screamed.

"No!"

Through all the chaos, Oliver heard the distinctive scrape of metal on cement. Abraxas raised his head. Lilith's head lolled to the side as he lowered her to the floor. Red stained the front of her tank top.

Lilith...

More footsteps. Red filled Oliver's vision, overpowered him with its cloying blood-and-sulfur stench. His fangs punctured his bottom lip. A guttural growl sounded from his throat.

"So." Abraxas's nose wrinkled. "It appears the magic man has arrived." He held Lilith out at arm's length, then dropped her. Her body hit the floor with a thud, a life-sized discarded doll. Through her duct tape, she hacked and spat.

"I caught you, Scourge. And you too, Johnson."

There wasn't just the solid sound of Raphael's boots, though. Through the static in his ears, Oliver could hear the distinctive click of high-heeled shoes.

"Honestly, Raph, I don't know how we keep getting ourselves into these messes."

Magi Raphael and his companion took slow, even steps in their direction. Facing the wall, Oliver couldn't see the new person that had spoken, but the look of surprise on Abraxas's face told him enough.

He wasn't expecting this. Then he mentally shook himself. Of course he wasn't! Who does?

"I didn't think you'd find me so fast." Abraxas's tone was even, but Oliver could see his widened eyes and slightly-ajar mouth. "Perhaps I was too clumsy." As he spoke, he edged for Lilith, who squirmed and screamed on the floor.

Faster than anyone could process it, a shard of light whipped past Abraxas's ear and hit the wall with a thunderous roar.

"I wouldn't touch her if I were you." More clicking of heels. Anticipation welled up in Oliver's stomach, a churning mass mixed with anxiety and fear.

Abraxas's eyes went wider. Black goop welled up on the tip of his ear and streamed down the side of his face in miniscule rivulets. "You... nicked me!"

"The next one goes for your heart." A tired laugh. "I never miss."

A shadow swept past Oliver on either side, one taller than the other. Both of them wore long cloaks that nearly brushed the ground, each one stitched with the same incomplete circle with wings spreading out from the center. Magistrate cloaks. The taller figure he recognized by the shocks of off-white hair, eerily illuminated in the semi-darkness. However, all he could tell of the shorter Magistrate member was their thick, curly brown hair.

"Magi Adelade," Rei whispered.

Silence. Even Lilith stopped screaming. Oliver fidgeted in his chair, sending it scraping against the floor as his anxiety rose higher. For several gut-wrenching moments, no one moved. Oliver wasn't sure if they even breathed.

Then, Abraxas looked to Lilith out of the corner of his eye. The world exploded with motion.

With a single kick, the new Magistrate member had Abraxas against the far wall before he could blink. A breathy groan followed her as she lunged after him. Her hand locked around his throat, giving Oliver a brief glimpse at her deep brown skin.

"Check on the human," she said in a monotone, never looking away.

Raphael turned, giving Oliver a once-over before kneeling at Lilith's side. The moment she lay eyes on him, she started squirming again, not stopping until Raphael groaned and planted a knee against her back. A growl bubbled in the back of Oliver's throat, dying only when rustling disrupted them all.

"Fucking... blood whore... Bitch!"

Lilith took opportunity in that distraction to buck under Raphael's weight, prompting him to lean down and hiss something in her ear.

An other-worldly scream pulled Oliver's attention back to Abraxas. The Magistrate women held a purple-faced Abraxas against the wall, but before everyone's eyes his head swelled. Purple skin bled into inky black and soon, four extra scarlet eyes blinked down at the Magistrate woman. Embers filled the air as thin cracks formed on his skin. Oliver jerked at his constraints.

"Ginger!" Rei said, voice low. "Don't."

No longer struggling, Abraxas raised a thick and furry arm and swatted the Magistrate woman across the face. Something cracked. She flew sideways.

"Still no match for me, I see," Abraxas said as he landed in a crouch, speaking in voices that overlapped one another. A clench of his fist later, accompanied by the cracking of bones and joints, and he glowered down at Raphael. "Maybe you both came here for naught."

Raphael's body seized. He stole quick glances from Abraxas to Lilith and then back again.

"She's harmless." Abraxas ran a blacked tongue over massive teeth. "Mostly. For now."

More uncertain glances. Oliver could almost see the gears of Raphael's brain working until, with a gasp, his decision was made for him when Abraxas grabbed him in a mighty fist.

"Here comes the magic man, back once more with a magic plan..." Black goop still leaked from the tip of Abraxas's elongated ear and he flicked it with an agitated sigh. "What's in store? What's in store? D—"

Lilith screamed, the sound bouncing off the walls and grating Oliver's ears. Rei flinched against him. Transfixed, Oliver watched as red patches formed in Lilith's duct tape bounds, followed by sizzling.

"Oh!" Oliver could hear the smile in Abraxas's words. "Finally."

Her wrists broke from their bondage with a snap. Her body lifted from the floor without her doing anything. Once upright, she only spared Oliver the faintest of glances before screaming again. The sound she made was choked and garbled, a testament to her rage and frustration. Abraxas watched her, each of his six eyes blinking individually. Red bled into Oliver's vision in slow motion.

"You. Fucking. Goddamn. Piece of shit. Monster." Each word hung in the air like a guillotine about to fall. Abraxas's expression didn't change, but that didn't stop Lilith from taking slow, thunderous steps for him. Each step she took left frosted shoeprints behind. When she finally was close enough, Oliver saw the flames that danced in her palms.

"I'm going to rip your head off with my fucking hands and play soccer with your ashen skull," she growled. Black veins surged along her arms. "I'm going to take one of your arms and beat you to death with it." Slowly, her words began to slur. "I'm going to take your stupid fucking necklace and I'm going to make you eat it. You crazed, overzealous bastard."

Even Raphael stopped squirming with her words. The only soul to move was the Magistrate woman, who was fighting to pick herself off the ground behind them.

Finally, Abraxas ran his tongue over his teeth, leaving thick trails of slime, and grinned. "Such tough words from a little dove," he said. "I didn't think you had it in you."

Now Oliver could taste blood on his tongue. His heart beat so loud that it threatened to drown out the voice of his sister, the sound of Raphael's resumed kicking and sputtering...

"Ginger, you're burning up..." Rei whispered into his ear. If her voice had ever calmed him before, it didn't now. Rage ran through his veins like molten lava. Pressure built, built, built...

With his free hand, Abraxas reeled back and socked Lilith straight in the face, smiling all the while. Oliver only saw red.

Somewhere in the back of his subconscious, he heard his chains snapping, heard Rei's shocked gasp, saw every red-tinged face turn in his direction as he exploded from the chair he'd been tied to. All he could smell was ashes and sulfur and blood. Hot, coursing blood, thick in the veins of every being in the room.

His instincts told him to start swiping at everyone, but he mustered enough of the thin control he had left to lunge straight for Abraxas. Scourge and Magistrate member alike crashed to the floor, the former with the widest smile Oliver thought he had ever seen on someone's face ever.

His fist sank deep into Abraxas's inflated cheek. "Let's finish this, you fucking punk."

The first punch hit him in the stomach, hard enough normally to knock the breath out of him, but it felt like he had only been flicked. He bared his fangs, spittle flying from his open mouth as he wrapped both hands around Abraxas's neck and squeezed. All Abraxas did was laugh in response.

"You may be a Scourge, Oli, but you're still pathetic and weak."

This time, Abraxas hit him square in the face. Oliver reeled with a roar, thrown back when Abraxas bucked and kicked him off. Then Oliver was the one with his back against the floor. Abraxas reeled back, ready to strike...

Static filled Oliver's ears, half a heartbeat before a beam of light shot from the right and through Abraxas's neck. He only had a moment to gasp, all eyes wide, before the black leeched from his skin and he slumped forward. Blood bubbled at the sight, more animated as Abraxas fought to breathe. A long pole with a narrow blade at the end stabbed him straight in the chest before he could fall on top of Oliver.

"That's one down." Hair dangled in front of his face as the Magistrate woman bent over the both of them. Through all the red, Oliver could only make out parts of her face. All at once, it was hard to get air into his body.

Blood dripped down onto him as Abraxas was lifted from him, all of his weight pressed into the tip of the pole that had stabbed him. Rei grunted with the effort. The blood was thick and black, even with all the red Oliver saw, and tasted like ash and oil. After a thud, a hand shot into his face. Confused, Oliver took it, and found himself being pulled up by Rei.

Blood coated the warehouse floor in thick puddles, smeared the walls with its garish coloring. Though the blood was all he could smell, a faint sense of calm washed over him. The red in his vision was desaturating now, turning the world to monochrome.

Then there was a click. Thick cuffs locked around his wrists and at once his body went rigid. He could only watch as the Magistrate woman stepped back into his view.

"What are you doing with my brother?"

"Magi Adelade," Rei began, but the Magistrate woman waved a hand.

"Raph, secure the human... Or whatever she is now."

The human... His subconscious felt further and further away, but at last understanding clicked into place. Lilith?

He couldn't move. No matter how much he wished it, none of his muscles obeyed his commands. When he willed his mouth to open and form words, it did not. A strange sense of helplessness filled him. Even the panic came to him in filtered bursts.

"Oliver Johnson, you are charged with abandoning your post, going on unmonitored rampages, interfering with the affairs of humans, and becoming a Scourge." Adelade paused. "I'd say the most you can hope for at this point is a life sentence in a reprogramming facility... if you're that lucky."

The only strong feeling he could grasp was apathy, and he yanked at it with both hands. It swirled through his body, turning all of his veins to grey. He couldn't even look his sister in the face. What was the point?

"I'd say that is becoming less and less likely," Raphael murmured. Oliver heard his footsteps as his moved, followed by Lilith's panicked gasp.

I know I should care... But I don't.

"By the power vested in me by the Pacific Northwest Magistrate League, I hereby announce that you are under arrest." Adelade grabbed at his forearm and yanked, breaking whatever paralyzing spell she had put on him. Together, they moved further back. When she let him go, his veins resolidified.

"And as for you, Rei Himura..."

Meanwhile, Raphael was moving for Lilith, who stood pressed against the wall. Tears streaked down her face. Black veins shone stark against her dusty brown skin. Rei stepped between them.

"Please..." She glanced Oliver's way before continuing. "There's got to be a way to reverse it, Magi... It's not complete. Rehabilitation?" As he moved towards her, she stepped back, both trembling hands wrapped around her halberd. "Please, Magi... she's just a girl."

"Not anymore." Raphael moved to pat Rei's shoulder, but she swat him away.

"Nonsense!"

"Himura!" Adelade tapped her foot. "I am not impressed."

Though a blush spread across Rei's face, she didn't back down. "She's just a girl," she repeated. "A human girl."

"She was. But no longer. Now please—"

When he reached to touch her again, Rei bat back at him with her halberd, all signs of pleading gone. She lowered into a stance, the razor-sharp tip of her naginata aimed at his chest.

"Magi, I really would hate to have to do this."

"Himura!" Now Adelade was in motion. Each step echoed like thunder. "That is enough! You're in enough trouble as it is!"

Rei lunged. There was a scream. All Oliver could do was watch.

In a matter of three heartbeats, Adelade raked down the center of her own chest and pulled a scythe from where her heart should have been. Just as Rei plunged her weapon into Raphael, Adelade had the tip of her scythe wrapped around Lilith's neck. Raphael's body began its decent. Adelade yanked at her scythe. A bright, fiery flash of light filled the warehouse.

From somewhere far off, Oliver's subconscious screamed.

Another flash of light. A mass dome of ice shrouded Lilith's form and held Adelade's scythe still.

"Himura..." Adelade said. Oliver thought she sounded more shocked than angry.

The ice melted. Adelade's scythe clattered to the floor. Rei yanked at Lilith's hand, half-dragging her across the floor. Her free hand closed around Oliver's forearm. "Run, dammit," she said.

Their feet stamped out an uneven pattern on the cement, the three of them moving to different rhythms all at once. With his hands clasped behind his back, he had to rely on Rei to guide him... and not drop him. Had he still been... well, a demon, he guessed, he would've been glad for the jailbreak. Now all he could feel was a persistent emptiness. Even the sight of his sister – though she looked worse for wear – didn't stir anything in him.

Is this what Scourges are? A sense of emptiness?

He wasn't quite sure anymore. All he could taste was ash and the outdoor air as it slapped him in the face.

Then all he could taste was asphalt. Something stabbed him through the chest – a beam of light, he noted at the last second – and Rei dropped him with a scream. Oliver fell face-first, unable to stop himself with his hands. There was no time to say anything, or even to call for help. There was just ash. Then he closed his eyes and there was just black.