"What is your problem, exactly?" Leo asked, as he stared at the large shelf of books, extending to the heavens – metaphorically – and beyond. The Records were located in one of the towering shelves of the Elysian Library. Any book that comes into being, is shelved into the library. "Knowledge is power, and power is good." Leo could still remember the trainer's lessons, even after the millennium it had been since he'd finished training.

It was a load of bull.

The masked woman waved a hand in the air, before turning towards him. "None at all. But with the amount of sneaking around you do, and the fact that you're sneaking around our data, I saw an opportunity and took it. Now, you work with us." Leo nodded, his lips pursed. It wasn't like he had much of a choice at this point. Either ally with the Angels, or face Oblivion. The choice was simple. The fact that was annoying him, however was that he still knew basically nothing about why.

"Cut the crap. You get a Demon to kidnap me? That's no opportunity. Why am I, a petty Fallen staring upon the whimsical, fabled Records anyways?" Leo couldn't keep the weariness out of his voice. "Because, you, Azulus, are good at this job you've taken up, and we might actually need you. Satisfied?" Leo suppressed a shudder. This was someone who had been on the Council from before...

Someone who had known him before.

"How. Do. You. Know. My. Name?" He asked tersely. The lady's mask smiled at him, silent. Leo stared her down, a feat that was a bit pointless, since her mask allowed her to stare him down without fail. "Are you done with your temper tantrum?" She spoke evenly. He grumbled under his breath, but looked at the Records' bookcase inquisitively. "Then I'll tell you why you're here. One of the Records...is missing."

He stared at her. A prized scroll of data, stocked in the maximum security of the Elysian Library, missing?

She must be joking.

"Do you take me for a fool?" Leo scoffed. "I'm not a dunce, Mrs. ...?" she smiled her elusive mask smile. "Mademoiselle Lillette, is what you can call me, thank you very much." Leo forced himself to smile. "To answer your oh-so-tactful question, Malvent, that is the precise reason that we need you. This Scroll is important, and the fact that the thief managed to successfully take it, well it points to an enemy of Elysium, and the murderer."

Before Leo could re-state the same thing again, Lillette handed him a plain, brown, paper file. Leo took it, and she gripped his hand. "Don't open it here. It's not safe." She muttered under her breath. Her touch reminded Leo of someone yet again, obviously someone important...but he couldn't pinpoint who. It bothered him.

"Alright." Leo nodded curtly. "Now...can you noble and naïve creatures let me go?" She cocked her head to the side. "That will be arranged, no worries." She snapped her fingers, and Leo was no longer on Elysium, the place of horribly wonderful memories.

He was home.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A snowflake, frosty and fragile, rested on her fingertip. Although it was only autumn, Mynth couldn't help but find the cold her aura drew to be comforting.

As she gazed over the city, startling skyscrapers and run-down ramps, streets and alleys and curbs and edges, her own troubles seemed far away. The snowflake dissipated as her breath reached it. Mynth was sitting on the ledge of the Reginald Tower's roof, recovering from her fight with the Fallen Angel. Although he still had done wrong, and deserved his fate, she had to admit he was powerful. Not powerful enough to beat her, but powerful.

As she idly mused, she knew her big mistake had been underestimating him. She'd gone in with her heart, not her head, and that had never turned out well for her.

The city of Avisa was a sprawled-out, heartbeat of urban life and history. Known for its' legends and detailed folklore, it was a natural supernatural hotspot, so to speak.

She turned her gaze to her hand. It was still fragmented, broken in pieces. It looked like she was a hologram, a wisp of wind, breaking away with the breeze. She was.

This was when Kelsio would interrupt her and tell her she was thinking too much. The sharp sting of his death hadn't deadened. The rage, the grief, the love, it was all still there.

But he wasn't.

She felt like they had been unfinished. Mynth remembered when she'd seen him last. He'd been breathing then. He'd been disappearing, getting twitchy, and her confrontation had only scared him off. She'd hoped he'd come to his senses, that addiction was never the way, so she gave him the space.

The space the killer needed to send him off to Oblivion.

Mynth opened her eyes, batting away the snowflakes drifting down on her, and stood up. Avisa, her home. For the longest time, it'd been safe to practice her magic here, but lately . . . she'd sensed the storm. A thunder was approaching, a dark hurricane od power. It buzzed in the air, and she knew her and every other Wendigo was aware of it. The were aware of their sudden mortality.

Avisa wasn't safe.

Mynth's hand curled into a fist. She wouldn't let what happened to Kelsio happen to another Wendigo. She would get them to go. Go someplace, anyplace. It would be difficult, but in that moment of reflection, she knew what she was doing was right.

Her hands went up to her hair, instinctively wrapping it up and tying it up. The snow-white wasn't easy to avoid attention, but she'd manage. They all would.

Avisa wasn't safe. She wasn't safe. They weren't safe.

The deep heaviness of what she was doing bore down on her like a boulder. Mynth had been around since the first Angel dropped down and created Avisa, since the supernatural made it into a city, since it flourished and became what it was now.

It was her city. And the fate that awaited it killed her, but she couldn't stop it. No matter how powerful, the buzz in the air, it was something – someone – that she'd be destroyed fighting against.

Mynth took in a deep breath, and drifted away, piece by piece, embodying the chill of the wind, joining with the tumult and turn of the air. She snatched up a rose as she passed, an undefeatable gust of hurricane wind, and she let the winds take her to where she needed to go.

Mynth leapt out of the current, taking solid form again, taking her steps on the soft grass before the stone in front of her. Although there was no soul to put to bed, she mourned her lost love, and had him buried anyways. A pack of wolf-bloods from Dante Avenue, his neighbours, had been willing to help her at midnight, the day he died.

The rose's thorns pricked her pale skin, but it didn't matter, as she laid it down on his grave.

They hadn't bothered with anything else. There'd been no time. "Goodbye. I will never see you again, and I-I want to say this, even if you're gone. Kelsio, I know your addiction wasn't natural. I know your love of hunting was . . . something you weren't ready to share, a-and that's okay. I realize that. I was ready to help you though, I just hope you know." She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "No matter what, Kelsio. You were honorable, even if at the end your judgment became clouded. I was proud of you." She slid down next to the headstone. "I hope I'm doing the right thing. Let me spend one last time with you. One last time." Mynth rested her head against the headstone, the cool wind chilling her already cold body. She didn't mind. For one night, even if it was just one, she wanted to feel at peace.

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Back again?" Red grinned up at him. "You know it." Leo answered, slumping on a bar stool. "Can you get me a shot?" Red nodded. She didn't need to ask anymore, he came around often enough that she was familiar with his taste and moods. As she prepared the drink, Leo tried to find Ryn. "Where's the helldog?"

"Hm? Oh, Ryn. I dunno. He wandered off yesterday." She replied, turning around and passing him a shot glass of straight vodka. "So, what's messing with you?" She asked, sitting down as well. "Messing with me? Nothing, I'm fine." Red rolled her eyes. "Nice try, Leonardo. You suck at lying. Spill." Leo ran his hands through his hair, too worn-out to argue. "I went up to Heaven today." He said heavily.

Leo observed Red, while she processed what he'd said. Jet black-tinted-red hair brushed, and a lot less messy than the last time he'd been at the Demon's Horns. In fact, her eyes were brighter. She looked renewed, rejuvenated, reborn.

Odd.

"Is it for that killer case?" She finally asked. Leo nodded. "I've been hired by them. Did you know that there's been a change of leadership? That info should earn you a nice nugget of gold." Red smiled. "Oh, cheer up. Try not to make too much of it, ok?" Leo stared at her, unimpressed. "Right." He took the shot glass and drank it down. The bitter alcohol stung his tongue but it was good. He wanted to get drunk, but sadly, his supernatural aura would never allow that.

"Oi, look at that." Red muttered under her breath. Leo turned his head to see what it was she was staring at, and his own mouth gaped open.

A dusting of messy light-ish blond hair, distinctive blue eyes the color of the sky, and a tan complexion was staring at them in the form of Zerces. "He's back." Leo mumbled.

Zerces walked over to them, several stares from those who had been around long enough to remember him following. He stopped a few inches away from Leo. "Jack Daniel's, please." Red raised an eyebrow. "You got the money to pay for something like that?" She asked, skimming over his worn brown aviator jacket over a simple tee and jeans. "I have money, lil' Red, don't worry." She nodded, but Leo doubted she believed him.

Zerces had never had much. But it was more or less his own fault, so there was rarely a penny given to him from anyone else.

The one thing he had always had, though, was power.

"Here." Red brought the whiskey out and poured it into a glass. As she pushed it towards Zerces, Leo smiled. "So...what brings the great Zerces back to little old Avisa?" He looked up at Leo, like I was a silly question. His gaze rested on Red, and the same old protectiveness began to rise. "Z? I think you realize that we all thought you were gone for good." Red's voice was levelled.

"You know that was never true." He said, no change of tone is voice, but an obvious depth in his words. "Your wild goose chase?" Leo began to scoot backwards. "Yes. I found it." A sharp inhale. Leo got up, grabbed his empty shot glass, and backed away. For some reason, Red and Zerces' closeness always...bothered him. Leo had deduced and downgraded whatever it was to be simple loyalty. They were one another's dramatic, insane, crazy soulmates, and he'd never liked the tumult that they went through with one another.

But it was their business, and Zerces was back in town. Sighing, Leo tried to find another bartender. He needed a shot. An actual shot, none of this pitiful human waste.

Leo set the glass down on a ledge, and without a second glance, he left the Demon's Horns pub.

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He never came back.

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