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Kouriko's green flash of light illuminated the eerily black cave, the wolf like creatures kept coming at them as they killed more and more. Two of them had Cindy backed up against the wall, snarling jaws snapped inches from her face. Vilot saw that she was in trouble and ran at the wolves with her knifes, lodging one into each of their heads. “Thanks Vil.” Cindy smiled and took a knife, throwing it at the nearest dog.

“There's too many!” Trixie shouted as one of them snapped at her wings, trying to bring her down from flying. “I prefer domestic dogs to these inbred mutts!” She scowled as one tried to bite at her leg, Kouriko burned it with a ray of green flames just in time. Another two came at Cindy, it was almost as if they used tactics to fight. In just enough time Cindy spun around and snapped two shards of rock from the cave wall and jammed them into the dog's throats.

“Why does it have to be stinking wolves that we always fight? Where's the interesting stuff like dragons?” Vilot rolled her eyes as she slashed out at a wolf. Kouriko laughed, and joined her at the front slashing.

“Oh please, this is about as exciting as you'll see around these parts. Further north is where you see all kinds of things, trolls, serpents and even dark pixies.” She looked over at Trixie and winked as a joke.

“Yeah, you're just jealous stupid Nymph.” Trixie flew past Kouriko into a wolf and knocked it's head on a rock.

“Wow, you guys are tense all of a sudden...” Cindy pointed out from behind. Trixie giggled as she explained.

“Well Nymphs and Pixies have never really been too close, a few thousand years back there was a great battle and guess who won? That's right, Pixies.” She smiled brightly, right in Kouriko's face as if to mock her.

“Talk about not letting go of the past, wow.” Kouriko sighed and took a step back. “Okay there's no more wolves, I guess we're done?” She pulled a knife from one of the wolves spines and handed it to Vilot.

“Right, we should get going and look for Ice or Asura.” Trixie put her weapon away and started off on the track, Kouriko and the others trailed along behind her. None of them knew about the war at Asura's territory, they were still confident they would find him.

***

Sis's communication crystal lit up in her pocket, as she went to answer it Jaden took it from her. He answered and sighed. “Assazel...”

“Gayden, nice to see you alive.” Azazel smiled.

“Don't... Don't call me Gayden, it's weird.”

“Whatever, down to business. I have a little tiny confession to make.” He laughed.

“Go on...” Jaden squinted his eyes, not really wanting an answer from him.

“I may or may not have killed your boyfriend Asura. See you at the funeral, soz' for your loss.” He grinned and hung up.

“He's not my boyfriend, you-” He sighed and put the crystal back in Sis's pocket. She smiled over at him, making sure he was okay.

“I don't believe a word he said, and if you do then that makes you twice the idiot he is.” She rested her head on his shoulder and hugged him as they walked through the dark alley. Jaden stopped, Sis did the same.

“You're right, we should stop somewhere for the night.” He smiled and sat down against the wall.

“What're you doing? Let's go to a hotel or something. Beds are nice this time of year.” She laughed and kicked a puddle of water towards Jaden.

“For that to happen we would need money, and unless you want a rob a bank then I suggest we stay here for the night.” He wiped the gritty water from his forehead. Sis smiled and rolled her eyes. “Oh wow no, we are not robbing a bank.” He crossed his arms like he was ready to sleep.

“Well, I think otherwise.” Sis raised a hand surrounded by fire and dragged Jaden to his feet with the other hand. “Come on, I can melt metal with this and we won't get caught because we can move faster than humans!” At this point she was practically begging, Jaden sighed and nodded. Across the road a short, fat cop bolted up the bank doors, with a last shake of the chain to test if it was tight enough, he set off towards the Chinese takeout. Once he was completely out of earshot Sis signalled to Jaden for him to follow, they darted across the street, almost being hit by a few taxis and bike riders on the way. Eventually they made it to the bank doors, Jaden stood by watching for anyone that might be looking at them as Sis melted the lock off, slowly opening the door they slipped inside, careful not to trigger any alarms. Jaden pointed up to the top corner. “Camera's got us. They be here soon, what should we do?”

“Run for the vault, don't bother with the alarms because they've probably seen us and are on their way.” She called out to him from the other side of the room, shouting over the triggered alarms. Jaden followed her through a back corridor to find the vault, it wasn't easier than he though it would be. Finally up ahead Sis called him over to her. “Found iiiiit!” She smiled mischievously as she burned the metal door into a pool of glossy liquid. She ran inside and collected all she could grab, which wasn't very much. Jaden reluctantly went inside and helped her, still looking out for cops.

“Don't take more than you can fit in a backpack.” He smiled as he gave her a bottomless bag, it could fit anything inside it, probably the whole world. Sis piled the stacks of money in one by one, not even trying to hurry.

“Are you trying to get us caught?”

“Not particularly, why?”

“Um, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the cop sirens outside and the helicopter!” Jaden grabbed the last of the money and slung the strap on the back over his shoulder.

“Why are you bothered? It's humans, we're demons. Well I'm part dragon so we can both fly off.” She smiled.

“And fly where exactly?” Jaden scowled as men in black body armour with rifles filed through the doors and cornered them against the wall.

“Hands in the air, drop all weapons!” One of them shouted.

“Well, that's going to take a while.” Jaden laughed as he took his knives, swords and scythe from the crystal. Through their helmets the men looked like confused sheep. As Sis bent down to drop her weapon she grabbed Jaden's scythe and swung it around in a circle, knocking them all against the wall, the body armour shielded the attack so it was only buying them time to get out before more piled in through the door.

“Told you this was a bad idea.” Jaden shook his crystal and all of the weapons returned to it. As they ran he imagined a new weapon, a dagger firing sniper rifle that could change state encase of close combat. Sis raised an eyebrow at Jaden as she noticed the weapon he was carrying, he fired it at the fat cop who stood by a van outside.

“Hey why did you kill that guy?” Sis frowned over at Jaden.

“Eh, I dunno.” He laughed and shot most of the other men outside who aimed and fired back at them. The glass shattered into a sea of crystal shards and scattered across the floor. Jaden actually seemed to be enjoying himself as he dodged countless bullets. “Sudden change of heart I guess.”

Sis growled as her shoulder started throbbing from a bullet wound, for now she ignored it and carried on pelting the men in armour with her flames. She was beginning to get tired and glanced over at Jaden to see if it was the same with him. Instead of slowing his attacks he fired more frantically, as if he was being pumped full of adrenaline. “Jaden, come on! That's enough, let's just go!” She shouted over the deafening gunshots, he flinched a little and ignored her. His eyes flickered over to her direction for less than a second then back to the action. Sis finally gave in and carried him out of the room, spreading her wings she flew through the already shattered glass doors and past the men in armour. For a few seconds Jaden looked as if he were about to protest, but he calmed down as they flew higher.

“I have wings too you know.” He dropped himself from her grip on his hood and fell a few metres before finally opening his wings. “Where are we going Sis?” He expected a reply but was left with nothing but the sound of wind rushing past them.

***

Jako rested his head in his hands and sat down on the bed next to Shred, he gazed at Shred's ruffled hair still dusty with ash. He brushed his hand through it as he slept to get out any remaining ash from the few days before. Surprisingly Azazel had let them both stay and gave them a room. A room together. The past few days all Shred had done was sleep, Jako wouldn't leave his side for more than five minutes, neither of them trusted Azazel.

Shred's eyes twitched open as they adjusted to the light, as he met Jako's ecstatic gaze he lifted himself onto one elbow and rubbed at his eyes with the other hand. “So, do you think there's a god out there somewhere?” He suddenly asked. Jako didn't know what to say.

“Did you have a strange dream or something?” He laughed awkwardly avoiding the question.

“N-no I didn't actually sleep, I was just resting. But do you? I kinda believe there's someone out there from all of the stories. But really who am I to say that, I'm a demon...” He sat up in bed and looked into the mirror. The excited, happy look he usually held in his eyes drained since Asura died. Jako didn't know the pain of loosing a family member, he had no family. The only person he ever truly clung onto was Shred.

“In a way I believe there's a god, but it's not always been the same guy. Like remember that angel everyone talked about for weeks, Larkin or something like that? Apparently his father was god but he died so that means there's gotta be another guy...” Just as Jako thought Shred's expression couldn't get any darker, it did. At the mention of Larkin's name he seemed to be biting back his anger. Jako shuffled awkwardly over to him and rested his head on his shoulder, hoping he wouldn't protest. To his luck Shred just stayed there staring into nothing.

“Jako, are you okay?” Shred looked him in the eye, Jako froze completely. “Jako...? Seriously what's been going on with you?”

“Uh... Um it's nothing, trust me.” He got to his feet and walked swiftly out of the room slamming the door behind him. Someone laughed from down the dark hallway. “Azazel just leave me alone for once. Please I'm not in the mood.” He ignored Azazel's mocking laughs trailing behind him and sat down against the wall. A few days ago the castle was in flames, now it was perfectly fine as if nothing had happened. There was a small thump as Jako rested his head against the wall, his horns accidentally pierced through the new wallpaper Azazel put up as a joke. All Azazel had done since Asura died was a joke.

“Don't rip my wallpaper just because you had a little slip up with Shred...” Azazel growled as he picked Jako up by the shirt leaving him an inch off the ground.

“Put him down Azazel.” Shred stood in the door way swinging his knife around in his hands.

“Or what? You'll tell daddy Satan? Oh cry me river daddy problems.” He slammed Jako into the wall again.

“His name, is Lucifer. Not Satan, that's racist you ass.” Shred growled in defence of his father. Asura had always hated Lucifer, not once had he defended him against anyone, but Shred was different.

“Hello, pizza delivery” Lucifer looked around and frowned. “Who said my name? Ugh, Shred what did I tell you about summoning me?” His gaze flickered over to Azazel.

“Pizza delivery, is that what you say every time?” Jako smiled and coughed from Azazel still choking him.

“Yes, actually it is...” He looked half embarrassed as he walked over to Azazel. “So you're the freak that killed my son Asura, how was it? Because you stole my job.”

“Lucifer, stop it. Asura didn't even do anything wrong.” Shred frowned as he pulled Jako from Azazel.

“Okay, anyway that doesn't matter now. What I'm doing at the moment is trying to get Iceheart's power for myself. She's a fighter... And she bit me.” He pulled back his sleeve to reveal a row of deep wounds.

“Wow. You're weak if you couldn't put up a fight against her.” Jako laughed.

“She's gone hybrid, vampire and demon. Even I can't take that on. Although I heard that's what Azazel's little hybrid project, Reiko is it?, was for. How's she coming along?” Lucifer signalled for Jako and Shred to leave and carried on talking with Azazel.

“I'm surprised your dad hasn't kicked Assazel in the ass yet.” Jako smiled over at Shred and pushed his own hair back behind his ear. Shred looked over at him and narrowed his eyes. He knew Jako was usually an awkward person to be around because he was always acting nervous, but this time it was different. Shred pulled up his pocket knife and flicked it open, shoving Jako against the wall and held the knife to his throat. “What is wrong with you? Shred let me go!” He struggled to get free but Shred was too strong for him so he relaxed.

“I could ask you the same thing... Sorry force of habit.” He lowered the knife and stepped back. Jako stayed against the wall and rubbed at his neck where the knife left a red mark.

“Look, I'm fine. You wouldn't understand.” He walked away and without stopping he looked over his shoulder at Shred. “And don't shove me against the wall unless it's without a knife.” He cracked an awkward half smile and flicked his hair.

“What the actual...” Shred was left staring at him, completely speechless. “Jako! We still need to work up a plan to find Jaden!” He wasn't really expecting a reply. Jako sighed and turned around.

“Fine.” He rolled his eyes and went back to the bedroom to decide what to do.

As Jako flopped down onto his bed there was a crack. “Crap!” He struggled as the bed crashed onto the floor in a heap of wood and sheets.

“Wow fatty.” Shred snorted the drink he just swallowed.

“Says the one drinking that, we don't even need to drink...” Jako went red with embarrassment as he stared at the bed. “Oops, guess I'll be sleeping with you tonight!” He laughed awkwardly and sat down on Shred's bed.

“Hell no!” Shred pushed him playfully onto the floor and laughed, spilling half of his drink over Jako who still lay on the floor. A drop of the drink fell into his mouth, he licked his lips and surprisingly liked it.

“What is that drink? I've never seen it before...” He got up and analysed the can. It was mostly black with a big letter 'M' on the front.

“Monster, I got it in the human world because it's pretty funny seeing a monster/demon buy something labelled with Monster... Ha, you should have seen the guys face when I pulled down my hood and showed him my horns.” Shred laughed again and stuck the can in Jako's face. “Want some?”

“Sure,” Jako grabbed the can and took a quick sip, it tasted weird but he still liked it. “How have you still got this if the last time you went to the human world was like three years ago?” He put the can down on the table and leant against the edge of Shred's bed.

“Dude, I bought like fifty. Well actually I only bought one. After I drank the first one I killed the cashier and took another forty nine cans. That's why Asura wouldn't let me out of the underworld.” He smirked awkwardly as the door opened.

“Shred you can't just kill humans because you want a drink, or fifty drinks...” Jako began but stopped as he saw Azazel stride in proudly. Azazel rolled his eyes and shut the door.

“Wow, I leave you for about 5 minutes and Jako has already become a little brat. Of course we can kill humans, if an angel kills humans then surely demons have that same right as well.” Jako stood up to protest but Shred stopped him. “Boys, I have a task for you both.”

“Well the last time you said that to someone, one of them ended up dead.” Shred sighed and sat back, burying his face in his pillow to ignore Azazel's voice completely.

“Funny you should say that actually.” He snorted. “Because well,” he pulled up a shiny dagger and held it over Shred's back. “if you don't then I have no use for you yet again, and you both die. So what's it going to be?”

“Blackmail never really seemed like your thing Assazel.” Shred's muffled voice came from the pillow without even looking at Azazel he grabbed the knife and flung it at the wall.

“You're going to fetch Jaden and Reiko from the human world. Now.” He walked out the room and slammed the door after himself. A light appeared in front of Jako. He turned to Shred to see if he was interested, he wasn't.

“Hey at least you can kill someone for another fifty cans!” He grabbed onto Shred's arm and pulled him through the portal with him.

As they fell it felt like someone was pulling at them from all directions as they were riding a roller coaster without a track. Jako's hair covered his eyes but he could see shred falling behind him, he looked angry. Something hit Jako on the head, he looked back ahead and saw Shred's monster can floating around in front of him.

“Payback's a bitch, huh?” Shred was smiling again. Ahead of them a light formed like a spiralling version of earth, as they got closer it straightened out. “Cover your eyes!” Shred shouted to Jako, just in time he put his hands over his eyes, around the edges he noticed everything was extremely bright. He lifted his hands away and blinked, the brightness wouldn't go away. “Don't look at the sun, idiot.” Shred pulled Jako into a tunnel, something roared on the surface above them for a couple of seconds at a time before it passed.

“What's that noise?” Jako looked like a lost puppy in a city. Shred laughed and sat down, Jako copied him.

“It's a road, I know we have them in hell but we don't have cars. Humans don't have wings and are too lazy to walk everywhere so they made cars which are just moving things they get inside of.” He explained. Jako realised that Shred was familiar with humans and earth. Maybe there's a reason he didn't want to come back...

“Are you still mad at me?” Jako smiled with relief as Shred shook his head. “Okay good. By the way my head really hurts, is there anything humans have to stop it?”

“Yeah follow me, don't do anything stupid.” He walked towards a building with hundreds of the cars he talked about before, this time they weren't moving and there were no humans inside them. The doors opened as they walked up to it. Shred reached for his knife and held it under the sleeve of his hoodie. The grabbed a small bottle filled with little pellets and walked up the man behind the counter. “I'll take these pills.” He smiled at the guy, deliberately showing his fangs.

“Kid don't mind me asking, but are you old enough to be buying these? Can I see some ID?” The guy was big and looked fairly strong for a human, Jako had never pictured them to look like boring versions of demons. The man's face looked intimidated by them both, as he looked over at Jako, Jako smiled and waved innocently. The guy looked confused.

“Yeah okay here's my ID.” Shred pulled up his knife and slashed at his throat, taking the small bottle he grabbed Jako by the arm and ran away.

“I thought humans used money to buy things?” Jako scowled at Shred, he didn't like the idea of killing people to get what they want.

“Well apparently not Jakie.”

“Don't call me Jakie...” They stopped outside a long building, on the side was a sign that read 'School, please drive carefully.' Jako pointed to it. “What's a school please drive carefully?”

Shred sighed like he was annoyed. “It's just School. Kids go there to learn a bunch of useless crap so people have more opportunity to earn money by teaching them useless crap.” Jako smiled.

“So maybe Reiko could be here?” He went off towards the front door, it was fairly empty looking but all of the lights were still on.

“Wait Jako, we can't just walk right in and be like: oh hey yeah sorry just looking for a girl.” Shred rolled his eyes and pulled him back.

“Actually I believe you can just walk in, they don't even keep straight records here.” A girl's voice spoke behind them, they spun around and saw her sitting on a railing that ran between two sets of stairs.

“Are you Reiko by any chance?” Jako asked without thinking.

“Great, the last time two idiot boys were sent to look for me I ended up getting them killed.” She sighed and jumped down to see them. “Well? What is it now? Azazel still on the hunt and sent two other disposable goons? I suggest you abort mission and crawl back down to where ever you came from.”

“Actually we're looking for Jaden, Asura said something about him before he died so I guess we're fulfilling a dying wish.” Shred looked kind of sad as he spoke about his brother. Reiko picked up on it and started showing sympathy.

“So you're Asura's brother? Both of you come back to my place, but be warned I can go a little crazy sometimes. Mother says it's because Azazel missed something out when he turned me into something non-human.”

“Yeah I'm his brother...”

“Wait a second, does this mean we'll have to go in a car to get to your place?” Jako frowned, ignoring the sad atmosphere.

“Ha, no we can just fly.” Reiko unzipped her grey hoodie and revealed light, feathery wings. Jako and Shred exchanged confused looks and revealed their dark bat-like wings. Jako's wings were more like dragons, built for gaining height and speed. Shred's were smaller for going faster.

As they took off into the sky Jako realised the air on earth was thinner and cleaner than it was in hell, it wasn't thick with the stench of sulphur and burning, it was thin and cold. He looked up at the clouds and then down upon the tall, climbing concrete stacks which seemed to reach up to the sky. The sound of the cars had vanished completely, although there was something else that seemed to get louder and louder. After a minute of flying higher and higher Jako found where the sound was at it's loudest although he still couldn’t find where it came from. “Jako move!” Shred's voice rang in his ears but was drowned out by the loud rumbling. Something flashed in front him, a long metal tube with wings on the front, he knew he could fly fast enough the get out of the way so he covered his face and curled up. Something hit him knocking him down, but it wasn't the metal thing.

“What the hell are doing?” It was a boy with dark green hair and dark eyes, there was a girl with him, she had aqua blue hair.

“J-Jaden?” Jako was dizzy and couldn't see much except blurred shapes moving towards him.

“Jako what were you doing?” Shred flew down to the top of the building where they landed, Reiko followed behind him.

“Awkward...” Jaden's voice was muffled as Reiko hugged him after not seeing him for a few weeks. Sis glared at her through narrow eyes.

“Don't touch what you can't afford girl.” She muttered as Reiko backed away from him. Sis immediately clung onto his arm, still glaring at her. Jako got to his feet, still shaking. He looked more confused than the rest of them, his eyes which were normally one colour when they changed, were two different colours.

“Wow I think you broke it Jaden.” Shred laughed as he helped Jako balance. Everyone stared at Jako's eyes in confusion.

“His eyes change colour when he's scared?” Sis burst out laughing and went up to him to get a closer look.

“No, actually they change all the time, but usually it's just one colour. I think something's wrong with him.”

“Can I have the magical bottle of pills now Shred?” He collapsed onto him like a drunk person trying to hug someone.

“Sure, we can't kill the cashier for nothing.” Shred popped the bottle open, before he could get the right amount out Jako grabbed the bottle and took the whole thing.

“Well shit.” Shred set him down on the floor again and sighed. “Idiot.”

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Kouriko's green flash of light illuminated the eerily black cave, the wolf like creatures kept coming at them as they killed more and more. Two of them had Cindy backed up against the wall, snarling jaws snapped inches from her face. Vilot saw that she was in trouble and ran at the wolves with her knifes, lodging one into each of their heads. “Thanks Vil.” Cindy smiled and took a knife, throwing it at the nearest dog.

“There's too many!” Trixie shouted as one of them snapped at her wings, trying to bring her down from flying. “I prefer domestic dogs to these inbred mutts!” She scowled as one tried to bite at her leg, Kouriko burned it with a ray of green flames just in time. Another two came at Cindy, it was almost as if they used tactics to fight. In just enough time Cindy spun around and snapped two shards of rock from the cave wall and jammed them into the dog's throats.

“Why does it have to be stinking wolves that we always fight? Where's the interesting stuff like dragons?” Vilot rolled her eyes as she slashed out at a wolf. Kouriko laughed, and joined her at the front slashing.

“Oh please, this is about as exciting as you'll see around these parts. Further north is where you see all kinds of things, trolls, serpents and even dark pixies.” She looked over at Trixie and winked as a joke.

“Yeah, you're just jealous stupid Nymph.” Trixie flew past Kouriko into a wolf and knocked it's head on a rock.

“Wow, you guys are tense all of a sudden...” Cindy pointed out from behind. Trixie giggled as she explained.

“Well Nymphs and Pixies have never really been too close, a few thousand years back there was a great battle and guess who won? That's right, Pixies.” She smiled brightly, right in Kouriko's face as if to mock her.

“Talk about not letting go of the past, wow.” Kouriko sighed and took a step back. “Okay there's no more wolves, I guess we're done?” She pulled a knife from one of the wolves spines and handed it to Vilot.

“Right, we should get going and look for Ice or Asura.” Trixie put her weapon away and started off on the track, Kouriko and the others trailed along behind her. None of them knew about the war at Asura's territory, they were still confident they would find him.

***

Sis's communication crystal lit up in her pocket, as she went to answer it Jaden took it from her. He answered and sighed. “Assazel...”

“Gayden, nice to see you alive.” Azazel smiled.

“Don't... Don't call me Gayden, it's weird.”

“Whatever, down to business. I have a little tiny confession to make.” He laughed.

“Go on...” Jaden squinted his eyes, not really wanting an answer from him.

“I may or may not have killed your boyfriend Asura. See you at the funeral, soz' for your loss.” He grinned and hung up.

“He's not my boyfriend, you-” He sighed and put the crystal back in Sis's pocket. She smiled over at him, making sure he was okay.

“I don't believe a word he said, and if you do then that makes you twice the idiot he is.” She rested her head on his shoulder and hugged him as they walked through the dark alley. Jaden stopped, Sis did the same.

“You're right, we should stop somewhere for the night.” He smiled and sat down against the wall.

“What're you doing? Let's go to a hotel or something. Beds are nice this time of year.” She laughed and kicked a puddle of water towards Jaden.

“For that to happen we would need money, and unless you want a rob a bank then I suggest we stay here for the night.” He wiped the gritty water from his forehead. Sis smiled and rolled her eyes. “Oh wow no, we are not robbing a bank.” He crossed his arms like he was ready to sleep.

“Well, I think otherwise.” Sis raised a hand surrounded by fire and dragged Jaden to his feet with the other hand. “Come on, I can melt metal with this and we won't get caught because we can move faster than humans!” At this point she was practically begging, Jaden sighed and nodded. Across the road a short, fat cop bolted up the bank doors, with a last shake of the chain to test if it was tight enough, he set off towards the Chinese takeout. Once he was completely out of earshot Sis signalled to Jaden for him to follow, they darted across the street, almost being hit by a few taxis and bike riders on the way. Eventually they made it to the bank doors, Jaden stood by watching for anyone that might be looking at them as Sis melted the lock off, slowly opening the door they slipped inside, careful not to trigger any alarms. Jaden pointed up to the top corner. “Camera's got us. They be here soon, what should we do?”

“Run for the vault, don't bother with the alarms because they've probably seen us and are on their way.” She called out to him from the other side of the room, shouting over the triggered alarms. Jaden followed her through a back corridor to find the vault, it wasn't easier than he though it would be. Finally up ahead Sis called him over to her. “Found iiiiit!” She smiled mischievously as she burned the metal door into a pool of glossy liquid. She ran inside and collected all she could grab, which wasn't very much. Jaden reluctantly went inside and helped her, still looking out for cops.

“Don't take more than you can fit in a backpack.” He smiled as he gave her a bottomless bag, it could fit anything inside it, probably the whole world. Sis piled the stacks of money in one by one, not even trying to hurry.

“Are you trying to get us caught?”

“Not particularly, why?”

“Um, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the cop sirens outside and the helicopter!” Jaden grabbed the last of the money and slung the strap on the back over his shoulder.

“Why are you bothered? It's humans, we're demons. Well I'm part dragon so we can both fly off.” She smiled.

“And fly where exactly?” Jaden scowled as men in black body armour with rifles filed through the doors and cornered them against the wall.

“Hands in the air, drop all weapons!” One of them shouted.

“Well, that's going to take a while.” Jaden laughed as he took his knives, swords and scythe from the crystal. Through their helmets the men looked like confused sheep. As Sis bent down to drop her weapon she grabbed Jaden's scythe and swung it around in a circle, knocking them all against the wall, the body armour shielded the attack so it was only buying them time to get out before more piled in through the door.

“Told you this was a bad idea.” Jaden shook his crystal and all of the weapons returned to it. As they ran he imagined a new weapon, a dagger firing sniper rifle that could change state encase of close combat. Sis raised an eyebrow at Jaden as she noticed the weapon he was carrying, he fired it at the fat cop who stood by a van outside.

“Hey why did you kill that guy?” Sis frowned over at Jaden.

“Eh, I dunno.” He laughed and shot most of the other men outside who aimed and fired back at them. The glass shattered into a sea of crystal shards and scattered across the floor. Jaden actually seemed to be enjoying himself as he dodged countless bullets. “Sudden change of heart I guess.”

Sis growled as her shoulder started throbbing from a bullet wound, for now she ignored it and carried on pelting the men in armour with her flames. She was beginning to get tired and glanced over at Jaden to see if it was the same with him. Instead of slowing his attacks he fired more frantically, as if he was being pumped full of adrenaline. “Jaden, come on! That's enough, let's just go!” She shouted over the deafening gunshots, he flinched a little and ignored her. His eyes flickered over to her direction for less than a second then back to the action. Sis finally gave in and carried him out of the room, spreading her wings she flew through the already shattered glass doors and past the men in armour. For a few seconds Jaden looked as if he were about to protest, but he calmed down as they flew higher.

“I have wings too you know.” He dropped himself from her grip on his hood and fell a few metres before finally opening his wings. “Where are we going Sis?” He expected a reply but was left with nothing but the sound of wind rushing past them.

***

Jako rested his head in his hands and sat down on the bed next to Shred, he gazed at Shred's ruffled hair still dusty with ash. He brushed his hand through it as he slept to get out any remaining ash from the few days before. Surprisingly Azazel had let them both stay and gave them a room. A room together. The past few days all Shred had done was sleep, Jako wouldn't leave his side for more than five minutes, neither of them trusted Azazel.

Shred's eyes twitched open as they adjusted to the light, as he met Jako's ecstatic gaze he lifted himself onto one elbow and rubbed at his eyes with the other hand. “So, do you think there's a god out there somewhere?” He suddenly asked. Jako didn't know what to say.

“Did you have a strange dream or something?” He laughed awkwardly avoiding the question.

“N-no I didn't actually sleep, I was just resting. But do you? I kinda believe there's someone out there from all of the stories. But really who am I to say that, I'm a demon...” He sat up in bed and looked into the mirror. The excited, happy look he usually held in his eyes drained since Asura died. Jako didn't know the pain of loosing a family member, he had no family. The only person he ever truly clung onto was Shred.

“In a way I believe there's a god, but it's not always been the same guy. Like remember that angel everyone talked about for weeks, Larkin or something like that? Apparently his father was god but he died so that means there's gotta be another guy...” Just as Jako thought Shred's expression couldn't get any darker, it did. At the mention of Larkin's name he seemed to be biting back his anger. Jako shuffled awkwardly over to him and rested his head on his shoulder, hoping he wouldn't protest. To his luck Shred just stayed there staring into nothing.

“Jako, are you okay?” Shred looked him in the eye, Jako froze completely. “Jako...? Seriously what's been going on with you?”

“Uh... Um it's nothing, trust me.” He got to his feet and walked swiftly out of the room slamming the door behind him. Someone laughed from down the dark hallway. “Azazel just leave me alone for once. Please I'm not in the mood.” He ignored Azazel's mocking laughs trailing behind him and sat down against the wall. A few days ago the castle was in flames, now it was perfectly fine as if nothing had happened. There was a small thump as Jako rested his head against the wall, his horns accidentally pierced through the new wallpaper Azazel put up as a joke. All Azazel had done since Asura died was a joke.

“Don't rip my wallpaper just because you had a little slip up with Shred...” Azazel growled as he picked Jako up by the shirt leaving him an inch off the ground.

“Put him down Azazel.” Shred stood in the door way swinging his knife around in his hands.

“Or what? You'll tell daddy Satan? Oh cry me river daddy problems.” He slammed Jako into the wall again.

“His name, is Lucifer. Not Satan, that's racist you ass.” Shred growled in defence of his father. Asura had always hated Lucifer, not once had he defended him against anyone, but Shred was different.

“Hello, pizza delivery” Lucifer looked around and frowned. “Who said my name? Ugh, Shred what did I tell you about summoning me?” His gaze flickered over to Azazel.

“Pizza delivery, is that what you say every time?” Jako smiled and coughed from Azazel still choking him.

“Yes, actually it is...” He looked half embarrassed as he walked over to Azazel. “So you're the freak that killed my son Asura, how was it? Because you stole my job.”

“Lucifer, stop it. Asura didn't even do anything wrong.” Shred frowned as he pulled Jako from Azazel.

“Okay, anyway that doesn't matter now. What I'm doing at the moment is trying to get Iceheart's power for myself. She's a fighter... And she bit me.” He pulled back his sleeve to reveal a row of deep wounds.

“Wow. You're weak if you couldn't put up a fight against her.” Jako laughed.

“She's gone hybrid, vampire and demon. Even I can't take that on. Although I heard that's what Azazel's little hybrid project, Reiko is it?, was for. How's she coming along?” Lucifer signalled for Jako and Shred to leave and carried on talking with Azazel.

“I'm surprised your dad hasn't kicked Assazel in the ass yet.” Jako smiled over at Shred and pushed his own hair back behind his ear. Shred looked over at him and narrowed his eyes. He knew Jako was usually an awkward person to be around because he was always acting nervous, but this time it was different. Shred pulled up his pocket knife and flicked it open, shoving Jako against the wall and held the knife to his throat. “What is wrong with you? Shred let me go!” He struggled to get free but Shred was too strong for him so he relaxed.

“I could ask you the same thing... Sorry force of habit.” He lowered the knife and stepped back. Jako stayed against the wall and rubbed at his neck where the knife left a red mark.

“Look, I'm fine. You wouldn't understand.” He walked away and without stopping he looked over his shoulder at Shred. “And don't shove me against the wall unless it's without a knife.” He cracked an awkward half smile and flicked his hair.

“What the actual...” Shred was left staring at him, completely speechless. “Jako! We still need to work up a plan to find Jaden!” He wasn't really expecting a reply. Jako sighed and turned around.

“Fine.” He rolled his eyes and went back to the bedroom to decide what to do.

As Jako flopped down onto his bed there was a crack. “Crap!” He struggled as the bed crashed onto the floor in a heap of wood and sheets.

“Wow fatty.” Shred snorted the drink he just swallowed.

“Says the one drinking that, we don't even need to drink...” Jako went red with embarrassment as he stared at the bed. “Oops, guess I'll be sleeping with you tonight!” He laughed awkwardly and sat down on Shred's bed.

“Hell no!” Shred pushed him playfully onto the floor and laughed, spilling half of his drink over Jako who still lay on the floor. A drop of the drink fell into his mouth, he licked his lips and surprisingly liked it.

“What is that drink? I've never seen it before...” He got up and analysed the can. It was mostly black with a big letter 'M' on the front.

“Monster, I got it in the human world because it's pretty funny seeing a monster/demon buy something labelled with Monster... Ha, you should have seen the guys face when I pulled down my hood and showed him my horns.” Shred laughed again and stuck the can in Jako's face. “Want some?”

“Sure,” Jako grabbed the can and took a quick sip, it tasted weird but he still liked it. “How have you still got this if the last time you went to the human world was like three years ago?” He put the can down on the table and leant against the edge of Shred's bed.

“Dude, I bought like fifty. Well actually I only bought one. After I drank the first one I killed the cashier and took another forty nine cans. That's why Asura wouldn't let me out of the underworld.” He smirked awkwardly as the door opened.

“Shred you can't just kill humans because you want a drink, or fifty drinks...” Jako began but stopped as he saw Azazel stride in proudly. Azazel rolled his eyes and shut the door.

“Wow, I leave you for about 5 minutes and Jako has already become a little brat. Of course we can kill humans, if an angel kills humans then surely demons have that same right as well.” Jako stood up to protest but Shred stopped him. “Boys, I have a task for you both.”

“Well the last time you said that to someone, one of them ended up dead.” Shred sighed and sat back, burying his face in his pillow to ignore Azazel's voice completely.

“Funny you should say that actually.” He snorted. “Because well,” he pulled up a shiny dagger and held it over Shred's back. “if you don't then I have no use for you yet again, and you both die. So what's it going to be?”

“Blackmail never really seemed like your thing Assazel.” Shred's muffled voice came from the pillow without even looking at Azazel he grabbed the knife and flung it at the wall.

“You're going to fetch Jaden and Reiko from the human world. Now.” He walked out the room and slammed the door after himself. A light appeared in front of Jako. He turned to Shred to see if he was interested, he wasn't.

“Hey at least you can kill someone for another fifty cans!” He grabbed onto Shred's arm and pulled him through the portal with him.

As they fell it felt like someone was pulling at them from all directions as they were riding a roller coaster without a track. Jako's hair covered his eyes but he could see shred falling behind him, he looked angry. Something hit Jako on the head, he looked back ahead and saw Shred's monster can floating around in front of him.

“Payback's a bitch, huh?” Shred was smiling again. Ahead of them a light formed like a spiralling version of earth, as they got closer it straightened out. “Cover your eyes!” Shred shouted to Jako, just in time he put his hands over his eyes, around the edges he noticed everything was extremely bright. He lifted his hands away and blinked, the brightness wouldn't go away. “Don't look at the sun, idiot.” Shred pulled Jako into a tunnel, something roared on the surface above them for a couple of seconds at a time before it passed.

“What's that noise?” Jako looked like a lost puppy in a city. Shred laughed and sat down, Jako copied him.

“It's a road, I know we have them in hell but we don't have cars. Humans don't have wings and are too lazy to walk everywhere so they made cars which are just moving things they get inside of.” He explained. Jako realised that Shred was familiar with humans and earth. Maybe there's a reason he didn't want to come back...

“Are you still mad at me?” Jako smiled with relief as Shred shook his head. “Okay good. By the way my head really hurts, is there anything humans have to stop it?”

“Yeah follow me, don't do anything stupid.” He walked towards a building with hundreds of the cars he talked about before, this time they weren't moving and there were no humans inside them. The doors opened as they walked up to it. Shred reached for his knife and held it under the sleeve of his hoodie. The grabbed a small bottle filled with little pellets and walked up the man behind the counter. “I'll take these pills.” He smiled at the guy, deliberately showing his fangs.

“Kid don't mind me asking, but are you old enough to be buying these? Can I see some ID?” The guy was big and looked fairly strong for a human, Jako had never pictured them to look like boring versions of demons. The man's face looked intimidated by them both, as he looked over at Jako, Jako smiled and waved innocently. The guy looked confused.

“Yeah okay here's my ID.” Shred pulled up his knife and slashed at his throat, taking the small bottle he grabbed Jako by the arm and ran away.

“I thought humans used money to buy things?” Jako scowled at Shred, he didn't like the idea of killing people to get what they want.

“Well apparently not Jakie.”

“Don't call me Jakie...” They stopped outside a long building, on the side was a sign that read 'School, please drive carefully.' Jako pointed to it. “What's a school please drive carefully?”

Shred sighed like he was annoyed. “It's just School. Kids go there to learn a bunch of useless crap so people have more opportunity to earn money by teaching them useless crap.” Jako smiled.

“So maybe Reiko could be here?” He went off towards the front door, it was fairly empty looking but all of the lights were still on.

“Wait Jako, we can't just walk right in and be like: oh hey yeah sorry just looking for a girl.” Shred rolled his eyes and pulled him back.

“Actually I believe you can just walk in, they don't even keep straight records here.” A girl's voice spoke behind them, they spun around and saw her sitting on a railing that ran between two sets of stairs.

“Are you Reiko by any chance?” Jako asked without thinking.

“Great, the last time two idiot boys were sent to look for me I ended up getting them killed.” She sighed and jumped down to see them. “Well? What is it now? Azazel still on the hunt and sent two other disposable goons? I suggest you abort mission and crawl back down to where ever you came from.”

“Actually we're looking for Jaden, Asura said something about him before he died so I guess we're fulfilling a dying wish.” Shred looked kind of sad as he spoke about his brother. Reiko picked up on it and started showing sympathy.

“So you're Asura's brother? Both of you come back to my place, but be warned I can go a little crazy sometimes. Mother says it's because Azazel missed something out when he turned me into something non-human.”

“Yeah I'm his brother...”

“Wait a second, does this mean we'll have to go in a car to get to your place?” Jako frowned, ignoring the sad atmosphere.

“Ha, no we can just fly.” Reiko unzipped her grey hoodie and revealed light, feathery wings. Jako and Shred exchanged confused looks and revealed their dark bat-like wings. Jako's wings were more like dragons, built for gaining height and speed. Shred's were smaller for going faster.

As they took off into the sky Jako realised the air on earth was thinner and cleaner than it was in hell, it wasn't thick with the stench of sulphur and burning, it was thin and cold. He looked up at the clouds and then down upon the tall, climbing concrete stacks which seemed to reach up to the sky. The sound of the cars had vanished completely, although there was something else that seemed to get louder and louder. After a minute of flying higher and higher Jako found where the sound was at it's loudest although he still couldn’t find where it came from. “Jako move!” Shred's voice rang in his ears but was drowned out by the loud rumbling. Something flashed in front him, a long metal tube with wings on the front, he knew he could fly fast enough the get out of the way so he covered his face and curled up. Something hit him knocking him down, but it wasn't the metal thing.

“What the hell are doing?” It was a boy with dark green hair and dark eyes, there was a girl with him, she had aqua blue hair.

“J-Jaden?” Jako was dizzy and couldn't see much except blurred shapes moving towards him.

“Jako what were you doing?” Shred flew down to the top of the building where they landed, Reiko followed behind him.

“Awkward...” Jaden's voice was muffled as Reiko hugged him after not seeing him for a few weeks. Sis glared at her through narrow eyes.

“Don't touch what you can't afford girl.” She muttered as Reiko backed away from him. Sis immediately clung onto his arm, still glaring at her. Jako got to his feet, still shaking. He looked more confused than the rest of them, his eyes which were normally one colour when they changed, were two different colours.

“Wow I think you broke it Jaden.” Shred laughed as he helped Jako balance. Everyone stared at Jako's eyes in confusion.

“His eyes change colour when he's scared?” Sis burst out laughing and went up to him to get a closer look.

“No, actually they change all the time, but usually it's just one colour. I think something's wrong with him.”

“Can I have the magical bottle of pills now Shred?” He collapsed onto him like a drunk person trying to hug someone.

“Sure, we can't kill the cashier for nothing.” Shred popped the bottle open, before he could get the right amount out Jako grabbed the bottle and took the whole thing.

“Well shit.” Shred set him down on the floor again and sighed. “Idiot.”