Everett Ailan's/Malefici's P.O.V
I managed to get to her house on the outskirts of town in just a few minutes after leaving the forest. As far as I know, her parents didn't even know I existed. That was going to make this a whole lot harder.
I remembered seeing an alarm in the house when I was last here, and with a place like this, there was no doubt that opening a door or window right now would set that thing off.
"Your family is very troublesome" I sighed before going around the back. I summoned some black magic and softly kicked the area where the alarm should have been.
When I looked in the dining room window at the alarm, its colors faded. Now it was safe.
I hopped up onto the roof and looked around for a window upstairs. I vaguely remembered where her room was, but I managed to find it anyway.
After climbing through the window, I put her in her bed. Hopefully her parents thought she was just out with a few friends, or studying or whatever. That would be something any of us would have a hard time explaining to our parents.
"Oh hey Mom, did you know that I can transform into a dark magic-using demon with the help of an actual demon in my head using this mark on my arm?"
Yeah. No.
Just as I started to climb back through the window, I noticed that Lucy got back up, and was heading for the door.
I thought she had woken up, but she slammed straight into the door and knocked herself over.
"Really?"
I walked back in and dragged her back to her bed. Maybe she knocked her head a little too hard from that fall, or maybe the monsters did something to her indirectly.
I gasped and fell backwards. What if those monsters did get to her, but they did something other than kill her? Was this even Lucy in front of me?
Even though Everest may never forgive me for this, I had to make sure she was okay. After slumping down on the pink bean-bag chair, I changed back into Everett Ailan.
I wasn't worried about her figuring out my identity this time around, Lucy could have been knocked out in a fight and it would have made no difference in her current state. She was out like a light, and hopefully would be until morning.
Right as I was about to doze off, a shadow left me and manifested on the chair.
"What is it?" I whispered.
The shadow walked over to where I put Lucy to sleep. "Something isn't right about this."
I jumped up. "How?"
The shadow approached me, and it made no effort to resist slapping me in the face. "Moron, how could you not tell she has a fever! It's not even the right season for the flu! Something happened when that monster followed her down that cliff, we just need to figure it out."
"Why don't we just wake her up?"
"Did I not explain anything to you? This is more than just an illness! What we need to do is talk to Polori, we need to draw her out and get her to fill us in on what happened. Lucy here needs to rest."
I crossed my arms. "Fine, go ahead. But how do you suggest we get to her?"
Luzor drew a gray mist out with a sweep of what would have been his hand. The mist eventually took a woman's shape, but she soon fell over and coughed into the fold of her arm.
"Polori?!" Luzor took her arm and tried to help her back up, but it was no use. "What happened to you?"
She looked up at him, and I noticed that she also looked like she had the flu. "You two need to get out of here, right now."
"Just tell us what happened. We can fix this." Luzor insisted.
Polori jerked her arm away. "Once Lucy wakes up, she is going to try to kill him."
"Him?" Luzor questioned, then he looked over at me. "How did this happen?"
Her eyes narrowed. "It was those monsters. She thought she could at least lead them away from the city and hide, but her plan fell apart once she fell from that cliff. They found her in the water, and attacked her."
I momentarily forgot this was someone else's house when I punched the wall. There was no doubt someone woke up downstairs.
Luzor glared at me. "Idiot."
I frowned, but I couldn't disagree with him. This was all my fault; none of this would have happened if I was there with her. That bothered me more than anything.
"Listen to me, both of you. Everything is going to change once she wakes up. She will no longer be the same person, she will forget everything that has happened in the past 3 days. She will be under the control of those monsters, and her first target will be him."
"How can we stop this?" I inserted myself into the conversation.
She glanced over at Lucy. "I've been trying to keep her asleep for a while, but I've been getting sick as well. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep her under my control. You need to get out of here and hide. I wouldn't suggest fighting now."
I walked up to her and knelt. "If you think I'm the person who runs away at the first sight of danger, you are dead wrong. Hiding now isn't going to solve anything, and it will create more problems in the end."
"Everett." Luzor muttered. "She will be much stronger than she was before, you realize that right?"
I laughed. "Good, I needed a challenge anyway. How much time do we have until she wakes up?"
Polori buried her face in her hands. "Um, lets see. 30 minutes max, so I would suggest coming up with a plan and fast."
Luzor's face turned dark. "Do what you can, Polori. I'm going to send you back."
They said their goodbyes as Luzor sent Polori back to Lucy, and I started to pace the room. "What should we do?"
Just as Luzor opened his mouth to speak, a figure started to tap on the glass behind me.
"Huh? Who's that?"
A flash of red sparked my anger. I stomped over to the window, yanked it opened, and pulled the devil inside.
"If you think you can just waltz in here and try something stupid again, you're wrong."
Demonaris rubbed his head. "Okay, ouch. Listen, I'm sorry about what happened, that was all a mistake. I only came here to apologize. I had no idea that we needed to band together against these monsters."
"Are you kidding me? They are all over the news!"
"I know, I know! What are you doing in here anyway?"
I debated whether or not it would be smart to tell him the truth or lie. He was part of the mess that initially hurt her, but I knew I couldn't do this on my own.
"Demonaris, this is Justine."
His pupils dilated and his voice sounded much higher than normal. "You're kidding! What happened? Why are you in here?"
I glared at the red head. "She was attacked by some of those black monsters, and she is going to try and kill me as soon as she wakes up. Those things took control of her, and we'll be next if we don't do something about it."
Luzor's shadow disappeared a second later and returned to me.
"I'm guessing I came at a good time then." he walked up to her, and I had to refrain myself from punching him.
"Demonaris, wait." he stopped and turned and faced me.
"What is it?"
"Why did you attack Arch?"
"Attack Arch? When did I do that?"
"Less than 24 hours ago, idiot. Apparently that Mermaid User had to create a link in order to save Arch. You better have a good reason for what you did."
He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. Once he transformed back into a human, he spoke more quietly than before.
"I don't think I mentioned this to anyone, but I was told that being second in command of all the Villains does come with some pretty bad stuff. Because I can transform into the Devil, I have almost no control over what I do half of the time. Whenever something like that even happens, I can't even remember most of it. I guess that would explain the big bruise I have then, huh?"
"That's right. I heard Galifici hit you pretty hard when that all happened. What do you remember anyway?"
His pupils dilated again, and he stopped breathing for a few seconds.
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"Why not?"
"I can't say anything! I'd be breaking about 10 rules if I did!"
I frowned and crossed my arms, but decided to drop the conversation. "Whatever. We have bigger problems at hand."
Another figure crawled into the room, and if this wasn't such a serious situation, I would have walked over and slapped him.
"What are you doing here Galifici?! I told you to go home!" I whispered.
He stared with a blank expression across the room.
"Galifici?"
"..."
"Everett, something isn't right." Griffin said as he transformed back into Demonaris.
What happened next was a blur. Galifici lunged for Demonaris, and the latter threw him back through the window.
Demonaris jumped back out. "Stay here and watch over her, I'll be back soon."
I ran back over to window sill. "Demonaris! What happened?"
I couldn't tell in the darkness of the bedroom, but under the street lights, it was obvious.
"Those monsters took him, they took Everest." My heart sunk. The black monsters must have gotten to him when he was on his way back home, and now he is out to get us as well.
"Demonaris! Don't kill him, just knock him out!"
"What?! Why?!" He shouted as he kept dodging my brothers cane.
"The monsters want you to kill him! You're just doing their work for them! Knock him out!"
Demonaris took Galifici's cane in one swift move, and hit him square in the face. He was slammed into a nearby street light. It fell over in two pieces as Galifici went limp.
The devil picked my brother up and hopped back through the window. "Do you know him?"
"A little too well." I said as I turned my attention back to Lucy. "Just put him down over there, he should transform back soon with an injury like that."
I could see a giant gash across the left side of his face, and a bruise on the other. Mom was sure going to get a kick out of this one.
"Sorry. How do you know this guy anyway?"
"You'll figure it out in about five minutes." I wasn't going to hide my brother's identity from Demonaris. The first reason being that my brother was annoying and I felt the need to get back at him, and the second being that Demonaris was one of the only other Villains I knew. As much as I didn't want to trust him, I knew I had to.
His dark hair faded back into a color similar to mine, and all his harsh vampire-like qualities disappeared a minute later.
Demonaris frowned. "He looks just like you."
"Are you stupid or something?"
"I'm not stupid Everett! I was just stating the fact that he looks like you. Is he your brother?"
"His name is Everest Ailan. We had to find Justine about an hour ago, and one of those monsters must have found him when he was heading back home."
"They're picking us off one by one." Demonaris grew quiet. "We need to be careful not to get captured by them. What'll happen when they get back up?"
I frowned. "First of all, don't kill them. Until we can figure out how to get them back to normal, we'll just have to keep them unconscious."
"You know we can't just snap our fingers to make them normal again. We're probably going to need a Hero to help us."
"We don't need a stupid Hero's help!" I shouted a bit too loudly. The only person strong enough to do that was Vitas, but there was no way I would go crawling to her for help.
"The only other person strong enough to help would be-" My heart sunk. There was no way I could just walk up to him and ask for help either.
"Are you talking about Death? That guy is a nightmare!"
"You sound just like everyone else, Demonaris. Doing this might end the war temporarily for the Heroes and Villains, so go try to find Death."
He clenched his fists and opened his mouth to talk back, but left anyway.
As soon as Demonaris disappeared through the window, I cracked Lucy's door open. A dim light could be seen close to the staircase, and I heard some distant footsteps. They must have heard me punch a hole in their wall.
I closed the door as quietly as I could manage, and transformed back into Malefici.
After putting my hands on the wall, I said a short transportation incantation and moved Everest and I somewhere else. You could still tell I was still getting used to this power, since I was only able to transport us to their backyard.
I looked up to find one of the upstairs lights on, and someone inside screamed. "What happened?! Lucy?!"
I slapped myself. Her parents had no clue how she got there if the door never opened, since there was no way she could have gotten through a window. They were going to try and wake her up.
After hiding Everest at the edge of the forest, I hopped back up onto the rooftop directly above her and her parents.
If I didn't do something about this, her parents would be in for a rude awakening about their daughter.
I tapped my metal soles against the roof loud enough so they would hear me. Once I was sure that got their attention, I took some pebbles on the roof and chucked them at her window.
They opened the window and poked their heads out briefly. Once their backs were turned , I jumped over the edge and landed on my feet back inside her room.
"Who are you?!" A man took a lamp and attempted to smack me with it.
I kicked the lamp out of his grasp and pressed my thumb onto his forehead. He was out just like that lamp a second later.
"What are you!?" The mother looked genuinely terrified to see me.
"The help."
As soon as I was sure they were both out, I swung them over my shoulders and went down the stairs. After hiding them in a closet, I breathed a sigh of relief.
"That could have gone better." I muttered as I ran back up the stairs.
Hopefully everything would be fixed after this, or else one of us would be stuck explaining everything.
I lost track of how much time went by, and I almost jumped out of my skin when a figure tapped on the outside of Lucy's window.
I ran over to the window and looked outside to find Demonaris on the roof. After climbing out, I looked around to see if I could find Death.
"Were you able to find him?
Demonaris looked shaken. "You should talk to him first. He isn't in a particularly good mood right now."
I frowned. "Are you seriously afraid of this guy? He not even that much stronger than you moron."
A dark shadow similar to Luzor manifested in front of us a second later. It took the shape of a man about our age, but he wore a dozen cloaks and a black face mask.
"I assume your Death?"
All he did was nod.
Demonaris gently pushed me. "There is something I forgot to tell you."
"What is it?"
"I also got someone else to help."
"Did you tell Death?"
He shook his head. "Hopefully she gets here soon."
"She?"
He bobbed his head up and down a few times. "I would suggest standing back a few feet."
I involuntarily stood back and looked around for the uninvited guest, at least uninvited to me.
A familiar figure appeared just like Death did a minute ago, and she put her hands on each side of his face.
"Vitas?!"
The link lasted longer than the others I heard about, and it seemed to be on a much greater scale than all the others. Instead of a small part becoming black, Vitas became entirely black while the Death user turned white.
Death tried to jerk himself away, and he finally managed to after a good few minutes. He was able to hit Vitas hard enough to let him go, and to send her flying.
"Vitas!" Demonaris disappeared to probably get Vitas.
"Death?" I walked up to him. His cloak was still shining white light, and I was sure his face was contorted in agony even if it was hidden by the mask.
He screamed and lunged straight for me, but someone took his wrists and pinned him down
"That's enough from you." Demonaris stated.
"What happened?"
"Death was never coming here to help us Malefici. I had to get Vitas to create a link with him in order for him to change."
I knelt in front of him. "Are you sure he would be willing to help us after all that?"
"He is bound to Vitas now. Strongest Villain or not, he can't break the laws, Malefici."
Vitas came into view again and knelt next to me. "Listen to me, Death. I know you don't like the idea of us teaming up, but if you even try to hurt me from this day forward, you will be dealing with the higher ups. You will die."
I laughed. "Death will die if he breaks any rules."
Vitas put her hand on Death's mask, and it shattered.
She put her hands on his face again. "We work together from now on, please help them with whatever they asked you to do."
His black eyes narrowed, and he wore a frown.
"Release him Demonaris, he can't hurt any of us anymore."
Demonaris let go of his wrists and stood up abruptly. The blackness of his cloaks returned, but something changed since Vitas created a link with him.
"Lets go." Death said quietly.
Nobody said anything as we went back to check on Lucy.
"Okay, I should first let you guys know that Justine isn't Justine right now. I had to change her back so she wouldn't hurt herself."
I opened the window and climbed back inside. "Second of all, another person was attacked, and he is outside right-"
Demonaris climbed through carrying Everest. "I got him."
"Before anyone asks, yes, he is my brother. Both he and Justine were attacked by monsters, and as soon as they wake up, they are probably going to try and kill us."
"Why don't you just take whatever is possessing them out?" Death questioned.
"You need to know where they were attacked before you can just randomly take things out." Vitas replied. "I'll admit that I did run across a couple monsters since I became the Life User. They always try to aim here." She pointed to her middle torso.
"Okay, then lets get started." Demonaris was in a hurry to purify the two.
She put her hands in front of her and waved them. "We can't do that here, we need to go to someplace open."
"Why?"
"Any kind of purification is dangerous when it comes to Heroes and Villains, Malefici. I should be able to help with bringing them back, but I don't want any one getting hurt."
"Playing the good guy." Death scowled and turned away. "Lets just hurry up with this, it's almost 3:00 in the morning."
I carefully picked up Lucy again as to not wake her up. As soon as we left the Rudolf household, everyone decided to just follow Vitas somewhere far away from town.
"Here should be fine." Vitas said after a good 15 minutes of running. "Put them both down here."
Demonaris put my brother next to Lucy, and stood back.
"Brace yourselves everyone, they may still get up and attack you." Vitas spoke quietly.
She closed her eyes and mouthed some incantation before stopping abruptly.
"Vitas? What's wrong?"
She fell to her knees, and everyone just watched as her eyes became dull. Vitas collapsed over herself, and I heard something else fall over next to us.
Death was also unconscious.