Demon Chase - 1x1 (Saeli and Sam)

This is a continuation of HERE!

Atlas was shocked when Mira basically tackled him. It made sense when he saw the arrow wiz past her head as she looked up. The half demon must have heard the snapping of the bow string, an attribute he himself wished to have. Brandishing his blade as soon as she got of him, Atlas turned to the forest to see the culprit. No more arrows flew and he saw the figure in the distance. Glancing at Mira, he saw her cradling Zune's form in her lap and a look in her eyes he couldn't quite place. There was familiarity, which was not necessarily a good sign.

Trinton dropped down from the tree, sauntering out into the open area. "This wouldn't be a boyfriend, now would it, Mira?" Trinton asked his foster sister coldly, his steely glare sliding between Mira and Atlas.

"Why...." Mira whispered, barely audible. "Why do you hunt me? Destined to curse me with a life of pain! Why?!" Mira asked her brother, her voice trembling and her eyes brimming with tears.

Trinton grinned, turning towards his sister. He began walking towards her, and as he did so, her eyes widened. In Mira's frightened haste, she left Zune's body to escape her brother. However, he quickly pinned her against the outer wall next to the cave entrance. Trinton cupped Mira's face in his hands and said sweetly, "Because, dearest sister, you are mine. And ONLY mine."

Atlas was shocked to hear this was Mira's brother. They did not exactly look alike, and she seemed to be a lot kinder than he was. She obviously was not happy about his appearance. Picking up a rock, he threw it at the back of the man pinning Mira to the wall. "Hey, get off her!"

Trinton chuckled and grabbed Mira's wrist. He pulled her into him, spinning to face Atlas, with his head resting on Mira's shoulder and his hands firmly, tightly holding Mira's arms against her. "Why should I? Why would you even care, you're just a lowly human. Humans have no right to meddle with demons and devils," Trinton said coolly.

"Ignore him! Just hurry up and get this over with!" Mira growled unhappily to her brother. She knew he would kill Atlas if given the chance, and Mira would prefer her brother to not gain that chance.

However, spotting her bluff Trinton's features darkened and he growled, "Oh? Most of the time when I find you, you beg[i] anyone nearby for help, but this time someone capable of fighting is near and yet you want me to [i]ignore him? It seems this petty, filthy human has left a mark on you, dearest sister."

Atlas's eye twitched at the way Trinton was holding Mira. That filthy demon needed to get his hands off of her right now. His face contorted in anger as Trinton stood then insulting him and Mira looked miserable.

"I AM NOT A FILTHY HUMAN YOU BASTARD," Atlas shouted as he knelt to the ground and placed his palm against the dirt. He used his abilities in order to make the earth buckle under Trinton and send a jagged rock up towards his back.

Trinton moved swiftly to the side, easily tossing Mira to the ground and out of his way.

She landed on the ground with an 'oomph' and scrambled up, pulling her knives out. Once her brother touched the ground, Mira lobbed knives at him with quick accuracy.

However, Trinton grinned and avoided the two sharp objects, the knives only grazing past his hair and coat collar.

Trinton sped toward Mira with a shadowy hand, but instead of slamming into her, he went past her and drove his shadow spiked hand into Atlas' chest.

Mira's eyes widened in fear and her anger consumed her as fire wrapped around her and transformed her into a fearsome dragon. She roared her murderous intent to Trinton, easily noticing his face sink that she could transform into a dragon. Few devils could transform into dragons and it has never been recorded that a demon could until now.

Mira dashed forward and slapped Trinton away with edged talons. Trinton, not wanting to delve further, escaped with three large and bleeding gashes across his chest.

As Mira's rage subsided, fire engulfed her once more and she transformed back into a human. Tears welled and dripped off her pale cheeks, holding onto Atlas and pleading for his life.

A tap on the shoulder roused Mira to look at Zune, obviously on the verge of death. "Use this," he said feebly, handing her a dragon necklace.

When Mira took it from him, Atlas and herself began to glow. Mira could feel herself growing weaker but she watched as Atlas' wound began to heal. Mira smiled and when Atlas would awake, the energy the necklace took would cause her to faint.

Atlas stood wielding his blade ready to charge at Trinton when he saw him head toward Mira, then immediately switch course. Atlas stood his ground ready for the fight that would come, but he wasn't prepared for the demon that drove its hand into his chest. Coughing up blood and gripping his chest, Atlas collapsed to the ground without a word.

......

Atlas should be dead, he knew, and it felt great, he assumed the assumptions were right. Upon opening his eyes, he blinked in the bright light to see Mira sitting over him. She was glowing, did he end up in hell?
"Mira?" He tried to say but words failed him as he was still weak even if he was being healed.

Mira smiled, but fainted as the movement in the necklace stopped.

Zune coughed several times, blood dripping off his lip. He pointed to the necklace and wheezed, "I will die soon. But before I do I shall tell you of that necklace's property...." He coughed again before continuing, "Mira does not know this, but you both will. The necklace has a magical spell that links two people together. You, who should be dead, was saved by the energy of a devil. Inside the necklace, whenever the jewel is glowing and the inside of the jewel is spinning is when Mira is using your energy or your using hers. To keep you alive, you absorbed devil energy that would heal your wound. But it took a lot of Mira's energy and now she has collapsed. Now, whenever she wants to use any of her major devil powers, she must use your energy to do so, which can possibly kill you."

Zune gave a spit full cough before adding, "It is like two cups of water. You spilled your cup of water, so Mira gave you some of hers since she is a devil and wont die by giving some away. However, if she wants to transform into her true form to fight an enemy, you would need to pour water back into her cup, edging you near death."

Zune wheezed before hauling himself into a standing position and saying, "I, as all of my kind have, will go off. To die alone. Do not follow me. Do not try to find me. If you find me, you must leave me alone. It is my peoples way."

On his way into the forest he turned back and said, "You can have whatever is in my cave. And the demon is gone, badly injured by Mira in her enraged state. Good hunting."

And with that was gone.

Atlas listened to the words that Zune spoke without interrupting once. It made all the wheels in his brain start turning, and sick to his stomach.

It wasn't Mira, it had nothing to do with Mira, it was the fact the essence of a demon, the very beings he'd been killing or capturing for years, is what saved his life. A monstrous creation from hell, that wasn't really monstrous.

His eyes drifted to where Mira was lying on the ground beside him. His assumptions must have been right about her, she really wasn't a bad person. Testing his strength, Atlas tried to stand up and found he could do so with no trouble what so ever. He walked over to Mira in order to pick her up, and carried her into the cave where they had come from.

Laying her down gently on the ground, Atlas changed into a pair of clean clothes and stoked a fire. He was still thinking about everything Zune had said. The old demon had left out an important detail though. If one of us dies, what happens to the other?

Mira awoke with a frightened start while the moon was softly floating in the deep navy blue night sky. A nightmare had plagued her again this night with the face of her "brother" clearly burned into memory. She groaned slightly, feeling a bit sore, and looked over to Atlas who was sleeping soundly in a sleeping bag on the other side of the fire pit.

A thought popped into her head and Mira tried to quickly chase it away, her face blushing. Fighting back and forth with herself she finally sighed, gulped, and crawled over to Atlas. She sucked in breath, hoping not to wake him as she quietly laid down beside him although outside his sleeping bag. With a breath of relief she quickly slid back into a terror free sleep.

Atlas awoke in the morning and went to stretch his arms when he noticed one was currently constricted. Opening his eyes Atlas saw that he had his arms wrapped around a sleeping Mira who lay beside him. Atlas's cheeks turned a fiery red as he pulled away and quickly scrambled out of his sleeping bag.

Without looking at Mira Atlas attempted to make a fire in order to cook breakfast. All that was in the silly human boys mind was that Mira would hate him for cuddling with her while they slept.

Mira, after a few minutes, rose into a sitting position and stretched her arms, her short shirt rising even higher. For a moment, Mira wouldn't look at Atlas. Not for any particular reason. It's that she felt something odd. Something that wasn't hers. The emotion of embarrassment that she herself was not feeling and she could not place. And she felt a little tired.

Other then that. She could remember nothing after her brother came and ultimately killed Zune.

Atlas heard a slight shifting and glanced behind him at the now awake Mira. "Good morning," he said as his eyes caught movement by her legs. His face flushed even deeper and Atlas immediately turned back around. "Are you feeling okay? You were out cold," Atlas spoke way to quickly and it was way out of character. He didn't know why he was having so much trouble collecting himself.

"Morning. I'm tired I guess. I don't remember anything after... Zune..." Mira trailed off her voice cracking. Sadness welled within, so overwhelming it pushed any feeling of embarrassment away from her. She felt powerless and almost alone, and most certainly worthless.

Mira stared at her hands, tears beginning to well up, she was a failure. She couldn't protect anyone. Everyone she met ended up with terrible fates. She couldn't protect her mother or father, her only family in the world. She couldn't protect villagers that had tried to help her and she couldn't protect Zune.

She knew eventually she'd fail Atlas one day too. What if she just left him alone? Would her brother still kill him? What if she were to just return to her brother, accept her fatal demise? A quick knife to her throat would end everything, send her brother away, keep others safe, end all of her problems.

Defeated, with self-hatred and regret looming over her, a cat preying on a mouse too weak to protect itself, Mira continued to stare at the palm of her hands. At herself, almost.

Atlas was shocked from the sudden wave of sadness that washed over him. He didn't understand what was happening, and it kind of scared him. His feeling of embaressment was completely crushed from the sadness.

Turning around to look at Mira once more he could see the sadness in her eyes and wondered if this was part of what the amulet had done. Standing up, Atlas walked towards Mira and sat down next to her. He put an arm around her and pulled her to his chest. "Mira, he saved my life you know. You could say he went out with a bang, besides I think he wanted to die. It was his time."

Mira jumped up and rounded on Atlas, not menacingly however. Bawling she roared, "It's all my fault! Zune, Mary, David, and all the other good people and friends I've met along the way have all died because of me! It's all my fault, it's all my fault! He follows me everywhere and kills all of my friends and family and I can never do anything to stop him! You should go into hiding, leave me alone! He'll kill you one day too! He never stops, never! It's all my fault, it's all my fault!"

Crying, Mira simply plopped onto the ground with her knees up to her chest and her head buried in her arms, quietly crying.

Atlas was shocked to hear Mira screaming at him. He still felt this overwhelming sadness and wasn't entirely sure why. But now her yelling at him was making him slightly angry and as soon as she plopped back on the ground he shouted. "If you would just calm down for one minute! Don't you know what just happened!? You turned into a dragon and scared your brother off! Zune gave you that damn pendant and you connected us forever! I'm not leaving you, Mira! Ever! I'll kill your damn brother myself if I have to!" Atlas started to quiet down and he once again sat near Mira. "At least he's not going to kill me again. You don't have anything to worry about now."

Mira looked up, blinking her tear stained eyes. "W-what? I don't remember anything?" Mira began to panic, thinking of the worst. "Y-you died? H-he killed you? I-i don't remember any pendant..." Mira said getting upset that she was making things worse.

Atlas wrapped his arms around Mira and whispered "Shhhhhh, let me explain." Atlas started by saying something about the pendant around her neck by gesturing to it, but when he went to put his arm back around her his hand slid to low and touched one of her lady parts.

"I-i don't even know what this pendant even does..." Mira sniffed, not even noticing a problem.

((short post is short, ps who should wear the necklace??))

((Probably her, because it's like her indicator if they get separated and he's dieing. Or should he wear it since her energy is imbued in it?))

"Zune gave it to you before he left, what it did was take some of your energy and give it to me when I was dieing. So I'm basically living as another part of you." Atlas replied, then proceeded to explain everything Zune had told him to her.

"S-so.... does that mean you feel what I feel?..." Mira croaked out.

((Dont matter to meeeee C: ps sorry more short post))

"I think it does," Atlas replied quickly then released Mira and shifted a couple inches away from her. He was growing embarrassed again, just by thinking she could possibly feel what he felt. Then feeling what she felt would make everything ten times worse.

"I-I'm sorry... about all this... I guess I should explain from the top. You see he isn't my real brother. Me, my mother, and my father traveled together from town to town helping people. My mother was human and my father was a devil, not that you could ever tell. When we came across one town it was barren and all the houses burned, corpses strewn throughout the rubble of a once humble town. But my father heard a noise and we followed it. At the time I was only 6 and I hadn't learned any fighting or magic, only a few healing herbs that I had continuously gathered for my mother.

My father was planning on teaching me when I was a bit older but giving me time to 'act my age' he would say. Ah, but among the rubble we found a boy, another devil. My family took pity on him as it seemed his family had died in the fire being only 3 years older than me. That was Trinton.

At the beginning we played as siblings and we traveled as a family and we helped Mother and Father as siblings. But two years later Mother and Father were killed by humans. They had found out that Father was a devil and they assumed Mother was too. So they killed them to try and take their power.

After that Trinton began taking care of me and training me. For a while it was fun, even though sometimes he could be a harsh teacher. But then... he began getting weird. He'd always say his bed was big enough for two if I got scared. Or he'd try to just..."

Mira blushed, not really wanting to spit out the words of what happened. Swallowing thickly she continued.

"Anyway, it was never anything major. But then he started becoming abusive. He'd hit me or become rough in training and then try to come back and say he was sorry and make up with me. Which was ok the first time. However, the third, fifth, tenth. I'd grown tired of it all. So I spoke up to him about it.

That's when he really changed. I was thirteen then, and he tried to make out with me. I saw him as too much of a brother and was horrified. I pushed him away and then he started sputtering his own mad delusions. He was raising an army of demons and devils."

Mira clutched her hand to her chest, clinching her fist around the fabric of her shirt.

"He said he wanted to make a 'perfect' world for he and I. A place without humans like those who killed my parents. A place we would be king and queen. Therefore, I knew I had to get away from him. I had to think quickly, if I ran then he would easily force me into it. So I smiled, agreed with him, and told him it was the perfect plan. He tried to kiss me again but I told him that it could wait till 'our army' was ready for its first strike. He laughed and waved it off with a 'fine' and headed to bed.

I slept for only a few hours before I left, taking no supplies with me. I knew if I stopped to pack he would catch me for sure so I just ran. The first few towns I was in was when I started stealing. Though, I never stole from those who did not deserve it. I always took from the wealthy or the evil. I kept most of what I took, and no one was ever the wiser.

Of course, my brother chased me. Every friend I made it seemed like he found out about and killed. Every nice innkeeper that housed me, every boy that tried to court me, every single person that liked me for me was hunted down and slaughtered.

Then in one town a pudgy man that 'owned' the town through his wealth and bullied the townsfolk tried to buy my.... 'womanly' services. I ended up accidentally cutting off a pinky finger of his and taking a large sum of money from him, though I did drop half in the streets which a lot of the villagers were swift to pounce upon.

That's about the time I met you. The pudgy man put my face on a wanted poster and... yep... That's why I can't have friends. But I don't know what to do either. I've had days when I thought to myself that I could go back to my brother. 'I'm sure if I kept in line then he wouldn't hurt me'. 'I'ts not hard to follow orders'. I never have gone back though. Cut it close a few times. Though this time takes the cake," Mira finished.

She sat down with her head on her arms, arms propped against her knees staring at the fire. Mira never understood why her parents had to find Trinton in that village or why he had taken a liking to her. Sometimes... A lot of times... She wished she could just disappear.

((Holy fuck this took me almost an hour ok then good night @n@ Sammu is tired))