I don’t remember getting into bed, let alone falling asleep, the only thing that annoys me is that I don’t wake up normally, instead, I am roused by the rapid high beeps from my side table. It’s still dark and even in the darkness, I can see the red color around the rim of the medallion on the table. I place my hands over my eyes, groaning to myself. Why did I have to be woken up today? Can I not just have a proper day of relaxation that doesn’t involve being stuck in a VEC?

I tap my hand across the wall and the lights next to my bed come on, practically blinding me. I cover my face with my hands and rub the sleep out of my eyes. Slowly I lower my hands, still being berated by the high beeping. It takes a lot of effort to tap the face of the coin. “There’s a job for you with Team Assault, replacing Gates. The job is to assist the police in an investigation. Please go to the 33rd floor, first door on the left. The message will now repeat.” For a moment I pause as the message starts to repeat. I get to help Gates team without actually dealing with Gates. That’s pretty good, it also means I can speak to Mattie. I accept the mission and slip out of my bed, shuffling to the furthest part of the room toward my bathroom.

First I should shower and change. I proceed with the normal morning routine, this time, back in my own room and enjoying the large bathroom that actually has some privacy. Once I’m done and dressed with Valor in my grasp, I enter the main part of the apartment to find a silent room. Gabbie and Walter are at school while Kaiden is missing. He could be sleeping and considering how I barely ever see him sleep, this could be fairly accurate. He might just sleep later and work at night when he has fewer distractions.

Before I leave I stop next to the fridge, pulling it open for a moment to look through the food. Though my stomach denies the desire for any sort of sustenance. Instead, I close the fridge door, making a decision to get something else to eat with Mattie at a later time. I walk to the front door, then turn back. It seems that even though I don’t like going out, that I feel that the world isn’t a place for me, that I inevitably will be put in the position where I have to step out into the world. Perhaps I don’t accept the world, but it’s trying it’s hardest to make me accept it. I’m not really sure when that will happen if that will ever happen.

I make my way into the corridor then over to the elevator before going down a few floors to 33rd floor. The doors open before I reach the floor, and to my surprise, it’s someone I recognize, to my complete dismay. James, from team Expedition. He looks at me for a few moments, as if connecting the dots, then his eyes narrow as if finally making the connection. He steps into the elevator, giving me a harsh look. My heart is beating faster, and I can feel a cold sweat on the back of my neck. I want to get out of the elevator, but now we’re trapped together. “Is there something wrong?” I ask, attempting to sound more confident than I actually feel. For the most part in works, likely the result of me dealing with a few far scarier people than him just yesterday.

“Numerous things, I can’t even begin to list them off, do you want me to try?” He hisses.

I blink for a moment, in that voice, I can hear a hint of desperation, the same thing that I was trying to do, the same why I was trying to hide my fear. A desperation that says that he doesn’t want to fight me, but in he’s only going against me because of pride. It makes me feel safer, it makes me feel more confident, and at the same time, sure of the best course of action. As much as ignoring him is a course of action I could take, to keep him from continuing his aggressive course of action, I need to make him legitimately fear me. To reverse the situation. I take a step forward and I stand over him, much like I do with many others. I am, in the plane that belongs to Humans, quite tall and menacing. He swallows and takes a step back, his back hits the wall. “Why don’t you start?” I growl.

His eyes widen and he opens his mouth, yet nothing comes out. He seems to look around, for any kind of escape, yet finds nothing. He’s breathing becomes more rapid and I can see him shaking.

“What was that?” I ask, almost as if suggesting he said something. His breath catches in his throat. “Let me clarify something. Director Tagert made it clear you were meant to go on a reconditioning course followed by apologizing to me. As soon as you stepped in here, you made it clear that these reconditioning courses have had zero effect on you and you have made no attempt at any sort of reconciliation.” I pause, letting the simple prod at his professionalism and lack of ability to learn sink in before continuing. “However, that doesn’t demonstrate your arrogant ignorance. Your pride required that you engaged me in some offensive outburst without realizing that you lack any sort of weapon to follow up in the situation that things turn violent, while I-” I flick my hand to the left, drawing his gaze. Large flames flicker to life, turning my hands to claws where they flicker across each tip. “Have far more than when we originally fought.” The flames flicker out and his form seems to grow smaller as his shoulders slump.

The elevator dings as it comes to a halt and I turn around. 33rd floor, my stop. I move away from James and step out of the elevator. I look out of the corner of my eyes as the doors close, he doesn’t seem to recover from his position, seemingly still shocked and unable to move. There’s a faint sense of satisfaction, but intermingled with that feeling is that feeling of shame. A feeling that even though I stood up for myself, it was at the cost of hurting another, that it was akin to that which other Demons would act. I am not another Demon, I want to be different, to show people that I am different and that perhaps was not the way to do it.

I stop in front of the door to Mattie’s room and knock on the door. In any case, it’s too late now. I can regret, yet I can’t revise. There’s some movement behind the door and I can hear voices. A woman who isn’t Gates as well as Mattie saying something in response. I can’t hear exactly what they're saying, but it seems to be said in a joking nature. The door swings open, revealing Mattie, in a black suit, as if he’s ready to go on a business trip, in fact, that’s exactly what he might do. He grins at me. “Hey.” I raise my hand in response and he turns back into the apartment. “Our replacement Gates is here!”

He ushers me inside, and I walk in, looking around. It’s differently decorated than my own apartment. It doesn’t look bland, with a lack of any real personal touch. There’s a lot in the room, wooden chairs and a table, with leather chairs overlooking a television. Rugs are placed in seemingly logical locations and a few paintings hang on the wall, though many of them don’t look like paintings but rather prints of something. In the end, it seems more homely, which is a pretty good feeling. Hercules is sitting at the table, with a woman, with dark skin and long, wavy black hair. She’s casually dressed in clothes much like mine and she has a smile that seems to falter when she sees me.

“Like the place?” Mattie asks, coming up behind me. He taps me on the shoulder. “I designed the place. Surprisingly easy to become a home decorator when you can easily figure out what people like. No such thing as sugar coating anything when I’m involved.”

“It’s not bad,” I respond.

“Ouch. The only one that can sugarcoat her words is sugarcoating her words.” He clears his throat, interrupting his silly tirade. “Anyway, this beautiful woman here is Mala Oners, Hercules’ wife. Between me and you, she’s pretty terrifying.”

“Have to be to keep this guy in check,” She spouts. She follows it up by hitting Hercules on the shoulder, and Hercules smiles almost bitterly. “Anyway. I imagine you’re Elmira, I’ve heard quite a bit about you. I’ll admit, it would be difficult to mistake you for anyone else.”

For a moment I stare at her, she seems to be talking for the sake of talking, her body language seems to suggest she’s unready for my presence. This transfers the feeling onto me, and I’m not like her, I don’t talk to people when I’m nervous, instead I cower in silence. “Uh,” I stutter. “Are you like-?” I make a vague gesture toward Mattie.

She blinks a few times, making an O with her mouth. “No, I’m normal, or as normal as I can get. No offense to the rest of you, but I don’t have the uniqueness of an ability that can kill people with a wave of my hands or a passive skill of reading people’s minds. The most impressive skill I have is my ability to fill out paperwork.”

Mattie grins. “She also wouldn’t want to either, too much stress associated with the job.”

“Not stress, risk. Stress suggests that I’m worried about being overworked. Risk suggests I’ll die as a result of doing the work. You guys are all risking your lives and it’s terrifying for people like me. At least Luke is incredibly durable, but what about you, Mattie and Joseph.”

“I’m fine. I can figure out who is a risk to my health and who isn’t. But are you worried about me?”

“Perhaps, but when you give me that look, I become less worried about you with each passing second. Maybe you, like Joseph, should spend your time out of the firing line and leave the fighting to Ashley.” They seem to be arguing about the risks of the job. Perhaps they weren’t joking with each other, but were they arguing? Perhaps my arrival changed the tone of the conversation.

“Better that I’m around to defuse a bad situation than to be late. By me being here, I can prevent deaths. I think that’s a risk I should take, I’m confident in my ability to run like a bitch if things turn bad.”

“Except if there’s someone who can run faster than you,” I murmur. Both of them turn to me. “Uh-. I follow Mala-” I pause, looking at her for some sort of late allowance to use her name. She blinks a few times, confusion settling on her face. I guess that’s about as close to a confirmation I’ll get. “I agree with Mala’s sentiment. Using a gun to attack Demons was too risky. Besides, shouldn’t you consider your own health above the health of strangers?”

I see a flash of annoyance spark in Mattie’s eyes and I flinch, he always seems to have a sunny disposition, I haven’t seen him get angry very often. “No-one is a stranger. Everyone is important. Thinking otherwise is selfish. They are in danger, and someone has to protect them. You, Nav, Gates and Hercules are ill-equipped to deal with terrified people, and I’m prepared to help them. My life is worth the lives of many others.”

“That’s unfair Matthew,” Mala mumbles. “There are others who care about you, yet they don’t care about the lives of others.”

“Yet there is one in this room who can agree with you, Mala.”

Mala looks stunned for a moment, she looks at me and then back at Mattie. “I-”

“It’s not you, Mala. And my conjecture is purely based on possibility as I can’t read Elmira’s mind. Enough, I make my own decisions and this is not something either of you can convince me to abandon. I do this for me just as much as I do this for the strangers.” He turns away as if annoyed that the conversation even started. I can sympathize, but I’m glad that none of it is about me. He exhales. “Alright, Elmira, before we head out, what’s your hero name?”

“Elementalist.”

“Not bad,” Hercules says, it’s the first thing he’s said, he seemingly knows enough about Mattie. “Though I think Gates is a better name, sorry.” I shrug and he seems to grin at that. “So I guess it’s time to get going. I’ll fetch Joseph. We should get on the road.”

“Righto. Elmira and I will meet you in the car.” He makes his way to the front door and I follow him. I turn back and bow my head, in farewell. Mala gives me a small smile, it’s a change i n the way she met me, originally she was worried, but now she’s a bit more comfortable with my presence. We then make our way into the passage and back into the elevator. Once inside with the doors closed, Mattie turns to me. “You want to ask me something, but you’re nervous. What is it?”

I shake my head. “I do, but I want to figure out how to ask it.”

“Oh? You want to ask it tactfully. I don’t exactly have the pleasure of hearing someone talking to me with tact. I’ll happily wait to hear your attempts but until then I want to inform you about the right course of action while on the job.”

“And-?”

“While we’re working, I am Janus, you are Elementalist. We use those names so the media refers to us as such. We use them to protect our families and those who we know. To protect ourselves on the off chance we do die and we won’t be around to protect our graves.” I nod solemnly. I don’t understand, nor will I attempt to understand, but I feel that they wouldn’t be using fake names if there wasn’t a problem with everything Mattie mentioned.

We reach the parking garage and step out onto the main road. We reach Mattie’s vehicle, except it’s not the same vehicle yesterday, rather it’s a vehicle connected to a large trailer, nearly identical to the trailer used to transport us when Lucifer commanded the attack. The only difference is the color of the trailer and vehicle is different. “I thought that it got caught in the explosion,” I say.

“It did. We had to get a new truck and trailer. Doesn’t feel the same, but it works just as well.” I feel like I need more context. Where would you get another vehicle or trailer? Are they that easy to get? I’ll figure it out by myself, I have other questions I want to ask instead. I climb into the passenger side while Mattie sits in the driver’s seat. He clears his throat. “Alright, considering this is your first job, I got something I should probably tell you.”

“Hm?”

“Well- Uh, how do I explain this one? It’s a bit difficult to explain-.” He taps the steering wheel with his fingers. “Basically, for Vigors and Magic Users, there are two organizations that take them in and a third group which isn’t really a group.” He pauses, his brow furrowing as if he’s forming a new sentence, but it takes a while for him to continue.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m getting there- Uh, let’s say that the third group consists of Vigors who aren’t really powerful, or they either haven’t been discovered or don’t want to be. The first part consists of Vigors who have a minor ability like having a tiny electrical charge in their body, while the other two are a bit more dangerous. So the guys that haven’t been discovered likely want to be discovered and will either start helping people in an effort to catch our eye… Or criminals who are trying to catch the eyes of the SYNC.”

“SYNC?” I ask. “Is that the other group?”

“Mhm, we have the SYNC or the Syndicate. The CPO or the Citizen’s Protection Offices and lastly what I would call the Inactive. Basically, the CPO are what we would call the good guys, the SYNC are what we would call the bad guys and the Inactive walk the thin line between the two. This can be explained by the fact that a few of them are vigilantes, people who chase after criminals with the intent to kill.” His face seems to sink with the last few words, it seems he has strong opinions about vigilantes.

“I guess vigilantes aren’t exactly good guys either.”

“No- I understand their intentions, but I also know that they aren’t fixing anything, just creating another killer. I’d talk a lot more about it, but I don’t think I have the time or patience to do so.”

There’s a thud from behind us, a sound that seems to shake the entire vehicle and then something on the dashboard, the front of the car crackles to life. “We’re in the back, you can start driving,” Nav grumbles through a phone.

He buckles his seatbelt and I do the same, reclining in my chair once finished. Mattie starts the car and leads the car forward before glancing at me. “So what did you want to ask me?”

“Where’s Gates?”

“That’s not the question you wanted to ask me.”

“But I want to know the answer anyway.”

“She’s with her Mother and Father. She’s enjoying some family time.” I’m a little startled. I figured Gates would just be putting her legs up and doing nothing because she could. She strikes me as that kind of character, her lack of assistance during the Demon attack seems to have cemented this belief. He snorts in amusement. “What did you think that most people in the tower were orphans? A lot of them still have family alive, they just live in the tower for the sake of both convenience and responsibility.”

“Then what about you?” He seems a little stunned by the question. “I mean- Kai said he wanted to talk about his past, about his family, but he felt that if he told the story then it would be improper, that he wouldn’t be able to empathize with his own situation.”

“Kai did?” Mattie asks, then he shakes his head. “Of course, he did. I guess it doesn’t matter too much, but it’s been a long time. I left everything in the past. I think Kai is expecting a lot more out of me than I can give you.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s expecting me to be a bit more passionate about our past and while I’m not deadpanned, I’m not exactly moved by it as much as I was long ago. As I’ve said, it’s been just me and Kai for a while, about twelve years. So more than half our lives. Our parents died when we were young, caught up in a multiple car collision, and we didn’t have any other family, so we ended up in foster care, moving around from house to house. We didn’t have anyone we were close to excepting each other, and as you can see with our relationship-” He shrugs, punctuating the point. “It’s not great. Kinda my own fault for that, I want him to have a happy life and I don’t think that’s possible with me.”

“How can you say that?” I mutter.

“It’s the whole mind reading thing. I already messed up a lot for him. In any case, our life hasn’t been great, we had a bumpy childhood and such, but when I turned sixteen, I packed up, grabbed Kai and brought him here. From that point, it was smooth sailing. It’s been a long time since I was upset about losing my parents. There’s just far more worry about losing my brother.”

“Don’t you think he’s reciprocating? That he’s worried about you? You keep wanting to avoid him for the sake of allowing him to develop normally. To him, it’s almost like he’s lost you.”

“You know, that actually really fucking hurts,” Mattie says, bitterness clouding his voice.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble. He seems angry, I probably should have kept my mouth shut, at least tried to make him feel better. In fact, I shouldn’t have asked him on such a bad day.

“No. Don’t be. You’re right, but whether you’re right or wrong, it still hurts. Just hearing someone else say it hurts more than me repeating it to myself. It’s just, I don’t know how to- be his brother without being-” He pauses and he raises a hand from the steering wheel. “Without feeling like I’m prying, without knowing that I know his very thoughts. That in spite of his desire to keep things away from me, that they will never be hidden and he knows that.”

“That’s something you created, not the power you had.” He looks at me, but only for a second before focusing on the road. He’s gaze said one thing explain. “I mean, you responded to his thoughts. You made him feel like everything he thought and hid from you was inevitably going to be unearthed. It’s become an unavoidable concept and he’s likely likened that feeling to talking with others. He shuts himself off, it makes him feel like there’s nothing he can hide even when there are people who aren’t like you.”

“I-” He exhales loudly. “You’re being very observant today. Didn’t really think you had it in you. In fact, you’re the kind of person who has trouble with your own emotions, being able to observe others emotions strikes me as an incredibly strange and impressive skill for someone like you.”

“Am I wrong?”

“No, you’re right. It’s not like I haven’t noticed a lot of this by myself, but there’s not exactly an easy solution.”

I give him a look of complete bewilderment. “I have horns on my head, what do I do to stop goring people?”

“Well, you don’t butt heads with people-” He seems confused when saying that.

“Exactly. The concept is similar?”

“How so? How are your horns similar to my power?”

“Well, they're always there and they’re always a threat, I have to go through an effort not to harm people with them. The difference between you and I is that I make a conscious effort not to gore anyone, you don’t. You read people’s minds and then bring that which is hidden to light. You respond to their thoughts and not their voices. No-one needs to know that you know what they thought. Even if you did hear what they thought, you can pretend like you didn’t hear it, just in the same way I might assume I didn’t hear you talking a mere moment ago.” I shrug. “I don’t really know how your power works, but talking to someone normally instead of talking about their thoughts seems like the logical course of action.”

The vehicle slows to a halt and I can see a few flashing red and blue lights on top of vehicles all of them are parked on the side of the road with uniformed men flanking an entrance to an alleyway, yellow tape is blocking the way into the alleyway. I guess we’ve arrived, pretty bad timing too. I unbuckle my seatbelt and then there’s a loud thud next to me. I look at Mattie whose head is glued to the steering wheel. “Fuuuuuuu-uuuucking- Does it show that I dropped out of school because it’s beginning to feel like I’m the biggest fucking idiot in the world. I seriously do that shit in my job, just pretend I can’t read anyone’s mind and when it comes to my brother and people close to him I drop the ball.”

I feel my face heat up. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re right. Just give me a moment for me to wallow in self-pity. I screwed up and I missed an opportunity. Let’s just hope I’ve got a chance to repair my relationship with my brother as he repairs his own social skills.”

“I’m sure you have time. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, don’t you?”

“Damn right I do. Thing is, wouldn’t have been able to figure it out if it was just me no matter how obvious it was.” He turns to me, the look on his face is that of respect. “I’ll be honest. You’re the best thing that has happened to me and Kai for a long time. Kai is managing better and I’ve got a second chance, I’ve got someone to confide in and someone who feels comfortable with me. You probably saved my life.”

I feel embarrassed at the sudden honesty, mostly because he’s making me out to be better than I am. Without me he wouldn’t have had to risk his life, but I can’t say anything to deny him his moment. I know that at least he would be safer without me. Someone taps on the window and both Mattie and I look out of the window. Hercules is standing there with his fist raised. He jerks a thumb behind him and Mattie nods.

“Alright, let’s get the job done.”

I nod in response, glad to have the subject turn away from me for a while. I unwrap Valor and pull it onto my hand. With the warm metal around my arm, I feel my muscles tense up, drawing the strength from Valor. I unhook the seat belt and reach for the door to leave, then stop, a sudden feeling of nervousness grips me. Our talk distracted me, but I’m gripped with the realization that I’m about to out during the day and be looked at by far more than a few Vigors in the CPO. These people might dislike me just for what I look like and there won’t be the opportunity to pull a hood over my horns this time.

I turn to look at Mattie who shrugs. It’s almost as if he’s offering me to make the final choice, which isn’t exactly a good thing for him to do. I know that I’d prefer to stick around in the vehicle providing in the ways I can, thing is, those ways are limited. I want to help from the shadows, but I’m no Oracle, Navigator or Kaiden. I breathe out slowly. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll know if things are about to go pear-shaped and I’ll make sure you're kept out of harm’s way,” Mattie says, providing me with some assurance.

I’ve come all this way and I’m not alone. I should at least try, give Mattie as much faith as I did when we went to Center Park. I push the door open and Mattie does the same on the other side. I exit the vehicle and shut the door before rounding the side of the car and joining Mattie and Hercules. The blue uniformed men have seen me and they seem both stunned and unwilling to do anything, either scared or trained not to respond. “Took your sweet time,” Hercules grumbles to us. He digs his hand into his pockets and retrieves two earpieces, handing them to both Mattie and me.

I pull the earpiece over my ear and Mattie clears his voice. “Janus and Elementalist, connected, can you hear me Nav?”

“Loud and clear, Elementalist, say something so I can be sure you’re connected,” Nav responds.

“I- I- I can hear you,” I stutter for a moment.

“Good. You’ll go up to the two police officers guarding the entrance to the alleyway and flash your medallion, keep things orderly and listen to what they say. We’re here to do business with the police, to help them get their job done, we’re not here to make their job harder for them.” For a moment he pauses as if taking a moment to confirm something. “Get me some information so I can do something before I die of boredom.”

“Right, right,” Mattie says in a sarcastic tone. He leads the way to the officers and withdraws a medallion from the innards of his pocket. I mimic his movements, as does Hercules and we all stop next to the police officers with our coins in hands. They both look at us caught a little off guard. The guard on the left, a handsome brown haired individual recovers first, looking at our outstretched medallions. He taps the other guy on the shoulder, an older man with graying black hair and he seems to shake himself out of his daze.

He pulls a baton off his belt. A flat plastic head which sparks with small red lights and a screen on the back. He swipes it over the medallion in my hand and there’s a long beep. He looks down at it. “Elementalist-” He does the same for Hercules and Mattie, repeating their names as he swipes the baton. He clears his throat. “You can go through, try not to make a mess of the crime scene.”

Mattie steps forward and lifts the tape for Hercules and me to step beneath, we both pass and we’re joined by Mattie soon after, walking down the alleyway. It isn’t long till we come to a stop where there are two men in blue uniforms, much like the other two men before and two white sheets, laid over some vaguely human-shaped bodies. One of them raises his head, a dark-skinned man with a shaved head and well-groomed facial hair. His eyes glint with recognition, which is shared by the older, white-skinned and gray-haired man to his right, though the difference is the dark-skinned man has no reservation in his reaction.

“Janus,” he gasps. I’m unsure whether he’s scared or happy to see him, but I can tell the feeling is perhaps indecisive by how he seems to focus on Hercules and then me. “Where’s Gates?” He asks.

The other man clears his throat and the dark skinned man seems to pale as if he’s overstepped his boundaries. I can see Mattie grin and he winks at me. “Gates is taking some time off, so Elementalist will be replacing her-” The older man opens his mouth to say something, I can see redness creep into his visage. “Don’t worry, both Mirror Knight and Oracle have vouched for her abilities.”

“Ah,” the old man grumbles. It seems that the potentially problematic situation is avoided with the help of Mattie’s mind reading powers.

“So, Sergeant Stale and Officer Weaver. Why do you need the help of the CPO? I trust that your detectives are skilled enough to solve this problem,” Janus says. He names them, likely for my sake, and at the same time asks them to both explain the issue and to cater to their pride.

The older man, presumably Sergeant Stale bends down over the first white sheet and lifts it, revealing the pale corpse of a young woman. She’s completely naked, with a single harsh burn on her left breast the shape of a circle with a spiral on the inside. She has long golden hair which seems to have lost its luster in death, while the tips of the hair are singed slightly as if someone has taken a match to each strand. Sergeant Slate clears his throat. “We’ve been finding bodies like this weekly, young woman, early twenties, all white and all pretty. We’ve found them with burns on their left breast each dying of suffocation. Each with burns on the inside of their esophagus.”

“Sounds like you have a serial killer, how many?” Hercules asks.

“Exactly, we’ve got an issue with a serial killer. He’s gotten five so far, these two included and we thought we could track him down, thought he was normal-” I draw closer to the body, looking down at it, then look at where the other body is. There’s soot on the ground and marking the wall behind the body as if someone set fire to everything but the flames were starved of air soon after. Slate is watching me and I look back at him, he clears his throat. “We thought he was normal, so we didn’t want to call the CPO. I mean, serial killers are what we track down, you guys deal with the guys with powers-”

“And this guy has powers,” Mattie completes.

“Mhm. Originally we thought that the guy would hold a cigarette lighter from a car in the victim’s throat using some sort of… holder-” Slate shrugs as if annoyed at his poor choice of words then continues. “Apparently, we’re wrong-” Slate walks over to the body and stands next to me before pulling the second sheet down, revealing the blackened corpse of what I assume is another woman.

“And we’ve got a vigilante!” Nav yells, making me jump. “Not gonna tell us shit, but it will tell us how capable our killer is.”

Mattie grunts an affirmation and Slate walks around. “I’m assuming this guy is a pretty powerful pyrokinesis, but there’s a problem. Weaver, you can practice your hero worship here,” Slate looks at the other officer.

He clears his throat. “Well, there are really two kinds of pyrokinesis, power, and control. Usually, they have one or the other, this guy has both. He can control exact elements of his power, suffocating someone with a small flame in a victim's throat, or- like our second victim overwhelm them with pure power.”

Mattie looks at me. “Demon?” He asks.

“No chance,” I mutter, my voice a little low and shaky. “I- Uh- We’re talking about Sathanus’ ilk, they are born of pure rage and hatred. They don’t care about leaving marks or going after specific targets. If they were Lucifer’s children, maybe- but then they wouldn’t use fire magic.”

“Human then. Nav, got anything?”

“Not right now, but I’ve got a wild idea that you’ll hate.”

“Shit,” Hercules groans.

Author's Nothes

To be frank, this chapter can suck it. I had it all planned out but it all went to shit the moment it came to the exchange between Janus and Elmira. To sum it up, reading it, it flows really well and realistically. Writing it, it seemed like a convoluted mess. And it might be convoluted, but at least it's the right way instead of just seeming unrealistic. I have a little bit to do, but right now I'm not sure whether it will be longer than the first Arc, but I know that Sathanus won't be as nice as Lucifer.

One last thing. 105k on my doc and we're not even a quarter of the way through. We're in for the long haul.