The Shieldmaiden leaped off of the building to confront the woman below, The Demon right behind her. "Hey, you! Stop! Cease and desist!"

The woman turned, her hands still encircled with green fire. Her hair consisted of matted brown ringlets, and the look in her light brown eyes was straddling the line between unhinged and murderous.

She smiled without any pleasure. "You must be the Shieldmaiden I've heard so much about. I expected you to be older."

The Shieldmaiden drew herself up to her full height. "Age doesn't matter."

The woman looked past her at The Demon. "And you've shacked up with the son of Honoria Abadeer?"

"H-how did you..." The Shieldmaiden asked, before frowning. "Who we are is none of your business!"

"Mm... spirited, I see. That's too bad, I'm not in the mood for a fight tonight. Come back later."

The Shieldmaiden was caught off-guard. "What...?"

The woman shrugged and stretched. "I don't think you typically fight during the day, and it'll be dawn in a few hours. A painful death is just going to take too long, and frankly, I don't think you should do a job if you aren't going to do it right."

The Shieldmaiden frowned. "I'm not going to die, and I won't let you hurt Marshall."

"Why would I? He's a ticking time bomb. If I know Honoria correctly, this one's going to be even worse than me. You, however... you are going to die."

"No one is going to die!" The Shieldmaiden growled, drawing her sword.

The woman shot it a scornful look. "Sure you are. Or I am, at least. Because if I don't die, I'll destroy everything. Now, neither of us have time for that, so I'll make you a deal. I will play nice, if you meet me back here the night after tomorrow for a big showdown."

"Two against one hardly seems fair." The Demon commented.

The woman laughed. "Sure, why not? It's not like either of you are impervious to this type of fire. And I'd only have to take one of you down."

"What do you mean?" The Shieldmaiden asked warily.

The woman dug a bit of dirt out from under her fingernails. "If I hit one of you, it's going to distract the other one long enough to go down too. Plus, you'll be blinded by sheer hatred. But here's the thing— I know Honoria and I knew Anthony. And this guy? He will leave you in the dust."

"That's not true." The Demon snapped. "And I am not my father!"

"It's not? Then what makes this girl different? You think your mother's stupid?"

"She sent you!" He growled, moving forward.

The woman lit up her hands, a feral look overtaking her face. "Don't touch me, or Abadeer or not, I will turn you into dust. Followed by me knocking out your pretty little blonde friend to deal with later."

"We're not afraid of you!" The Shieldmaiden snarled.

"You should be, you idiot child! Because now... you're going to die." The woman looked thoughtful. "Isn't it strange? You could have had your whole life ahead of you. You could have done anything with yourself, and lived so much longer, but you decided to play the heroine. But here's some consolation... you'll be dead before I burn this city to ash."

The Demon shot the woman a furious look. "Tell my mother—"

"Oh, shut up. I may know your mother. I may be able to make an assessment of your character. But she doesn't control me, and I have never worked for her. I don't think she even knows I'm in town. What I do, it's because I want to. And right now? I want to watch everything and everyone burn." Smirking, she disappeared into the night as the Shieldmaiden and The Demon just stood there.

"You-you wouldn't abandon me when I needed you, right?" She asked.

"No." He answered readily. "She's crazy, you know that. ...you think I'd just leave you like that?"

"I'm scared that you would."

"Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do." She said softly, before sighing. "It's just an irrational fear, I guess."

He started walking, and she moved to walk beside him.

"Not so irrational, I think. I've... in the past, if I have a problem, or if I get scared, I tend to try and get it out of my sight, and out of my mind, by any means necessary, instead of dealing with it." The Demon explained. "But... I wouldn't run. When you really needed me."

The Shieldmaiden smiled. "I know you wouldn't run." She pulled him into a quick kiss. "But if you're late, I'm not waiting for you."

He laughed. "Don't have too much fun without me."

The Shieldmaiden frowned. "You heard what she said... and she could easily melt any prison bars or handcuffs with that fire of hers."

"...you're going to kill her, then?"

"I don't want to. If there's another option, I'll take it. If there isn't... Marshall, she'd turn the town to ash."

"Is that really our place to decide, though?"

"Yes. No. I... I promised to protect the town. I was willing to do whatever that took. I still am."

"Yeah, I think my skull remembers." The Demon remarked, rubbing the back of his head. "But you didn't kill me."

"I didn't need to."

"True. Regular handcuffs will stop me. But I can't imagine you killing anyone. And I'm worried about what effect it might have on you."

"What do you mean?" The Shieldmaiden asked warily.

"Killing someone can mess you up. And you were emotionally wrecked after seeing another person die that you had no hand in."

"Yeah, I know... but I can handle this."

The Demon eyed her warily, before pulling her close. "Whatever happens, I'll be there for you when you walk out of it in the end. And if you need to talk to anyone about it... talk to me. Please, Fionna. I don't want to see you turn in on yourself because you need help and won't talk about it." He smiled bitterly. "I don't mean to make fun, but you might take on crazier people, the kind who want to steal babies and stuff."

*Author's Note*

Oh, Lauren. You're so hilarious, with your self-referential humor and your repeating of previous issues. And by hilarious, I know that you guys are rolling your eyes.

Fun fact though. I consider Crazy Olivia to be more of a threat than AFF Lich. But she's also human and mentally unstable, so more guilt might be a problem.