Havoc and Misery

Jasper hadn't been doing great, but he was still alive. Why? He had no fucking clue. Half of his face was covered in a black stain, or at least it looked like a stain, but it was simply the darkenss moving beneath his skin. Spreading more and more every day. Ivory had been tending to him, and he was thankful, but he knew he couldn't stick around forever. The seraph was nice, nicer to him than anyone he had ever met, but he couldn't bear the thought of letting her see him crumble in to darkness.
He entered his family home, his face unusually stoic and his normally bouncy curls sticking together from being unwashed. Looking at the scene as he entered the living room he frowned, falling on his knees in front of Elora. He had always adored his little sister, been by her side through everything, and here she was bandaged up? He shot Andrew a glare. The brute might be the strongest, but he was clearly incapable of defending their sister. "Simeon?" he asked, his voice raspy and hoarse from screaming in pain when ever the darkness started spreading. It usually rolled around the same time at night, making sleep a rare appearance.
"No ... This is too far," he said, unusually brave of him. But somewhere in all of this he had started to feel a change. Not one he could explain fully, but it was clearly something stronger than just his own willpower, that was for sure. Clenching his fist, he reached out with his still normal hand, touching the bandages lightly, it was not fair for their most tormented sibling to actually have to go through this. "Why didn't you do something?" he asked, clearly aimed at Andrew, but also at his sister. She was more than capable of hurting any attacker, right?

Her reply only seemed to make his lips curl up to a smile as if it was somehow amusing to him. "No, I suppose you wouldnt. But with our plans, you wont have to," he said with a shake of his head. He had always been obsessed with his own plans for a greater future, but it was clear that there was some part of the old Simeon gone. She had seemed to notice too and her question just made the smile fade as he made a deep sigh. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to the window where they could see the pillar. "The void that lies at the bottom of that pillar. That was where I was for what felt like years. Years were none of you seemed to know how or why I had been killed, when it has been quite obvious from the beginning," he said with a cold tone, looking at Raziela. "What took you so long to finally figure it out and bring me back?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

There was much more that Andrew wanted to tell Elora, but he knew it wouldnt change the situation. If she wanted to put herself in further danger, then so be it. The least he could do would be acting out as muscle if she got in trouble, though fighting Simeon wasnt something she'd have to ask him twice to do. Jasper arrived and Andrew felt a bitter taste in his mouth because he knew he was supposed to protect her. That was why he had agreed to move in with her and assure Simeon that he wasnt letting her roam free; Though that had been exactly what he did. "Yes. He is upstairs with Raziela right now," he simply replied, looking at Jasper. It was weird looking at him when he was infected with whatever it was from beyond. Andrew didnt like it.
And then the question hit them. Andrew looked down in shame and frowned. The brute wasnt often sentimental but a hard blow to him had been the fact that he had failed. "By the time I realized, it was already too late," he said in a bitter lowered tone.

".. It's fine Jazz," Elora said but she wasnt sure she really meant it. Because nothing Simeon did was ever just fine. And it had only been lucky that she wasnt dealing with any other issue than the burning pain. The question that seemed to make Andrew react rather shameful only made Elora frown. "Neither of us were ready for what happened. He made everything seem so normal.... Like everything was back to normal. And then he wanted a hug. Only that it wasnt a hug that I got," she explained, shaking her head to then look at Jasper. Seeing the corruption made her pull a sad expression. "You look even worse than Raziela did," she remarked with a deep sigh.

Raziela felt so weird about all of this, she had sacrificed her arm to have him here, and now she was starting to wonder if she should've listened to her siblings. Only she had a hard time dealing with the world where Simeon wasn't a part of it. She truly loved her brother, he was the only one who had understood the pressure she was under, and he shared her aspirations. However now it was so much different.
Swallowing at the mention of where he had been brought back her shame. She had been distracted, she knew that, but she had to do everything alone. And doing that without anyone noticing her true intentions had been rough - hell she had even managed to sneak in to the old archives of the clergy and out again without getting noticed. "You honestly think I was wasting time?" she replied, gritting her teeth as she looked down and away from the pillar. It was too much for her, and was he being serious right now? "I had to do it all on my own, I sacrificed everything to bring you back and now you say I was too fucking slow?"
Shaking her head she stepped away from the window and out of his arms. They weren't his anyways. Her eyes moved back to the corpse on the table as she heard the door downstairs close. Jasper was here, but why had part of her hoped that he had stayed away - just to stall for the time being? The impending doom was above her, making her shoulders heavy as she blinked a couple of times. "Are you going to hurt me too Simeon?" she knew it was a stupid question, but she needed to hear it if that was his intentions. They had always been honest with each other, but she was beginning to doubt that sibling bond they had had when he was still alive.

Jasper gritted his teeth further as he heard the story, shaking his head as he listened to Andrew trying to apologize as well. This was already a shit show and he felt like yelling out loud. He had never really liked his siblings, but he liked Elora. She had been a pure soul, not damned and fucked up as the rest of them. "We don't have to put up with this, alright, his actions led to his death," he said, mostly muttering to himself as he seemed to have a certain craziness behind his eyes.
At the mention of his own condition he simply shook his head, clicking his tongue a few times. "I'm dying, but strangely enough I've found peace with that fact," he said, sounding almost out of character from his normal cowardly self. "I'm scared shitless of course" - and there it was, the frightened expression he usually bore around his family - "but I can't do anything about it." He felt defeated. Worked to the ground with trying to be of assistance up at the temples, but it seemed so pointless when he was doomed to endure torture even after death.
"I want you guys to get out of here ... Go up to the temples and help out or something," he said in a more serious tone. He could hear Simeon and Raziela walk around upstairs. They didn't have much time. "Please, the two of you could actually make a life outside, you know, if the world doesn't end."

Her reply only seemed to make a smile spread on his lips, narrowing his eyes a little at how she was reacting so strongly to his words. A part of him wasnt sure where she couldnt see the sense in his words, but he definitely felt more right just by the way she snapped at him. He however kept his mouth shut and looked back at the pillar for a moment. Even if she was stepping away. He heard the door too but chose not to mind it in the moment. Jasper could wait.
Her question made him chuckle as he turned his eyes back to her. He switched between her eyes for a moment before he turned to her. "You've changed. Somehow, something has changed you. I want to find out what that is," he just said, his words chilling, but he wasnt going to even entertain her question. "I'm sure Jasper has a thing or two to say about Elora's eye. He has always had a softness for her. Maybe this once, he wont be a coward," he said as he went to pass her and go downstairs. Seeing Andrew help Elora to her feet made him chuckle. "You could at least try and see whether she could walk on her own. I've heard that losing an eye disturbs the balance," he remarked, tilting his head before he looked at Jasper. "I see you've been unable to keep your nose out of things that dont regard you. Are you enjoying the infection?" he asked. Obviously, at this point he was just trying to agitate all in the room.

Andrew chuckled at Jasper's crazy words, looking at him with confused eyes. "Where did the fucking bravery come from? Whatever daemon is infesting you?" he asked, but it also wasnt the time to joke around. He sighed and shook his head. "We cant let you die," he just said as he looked at Elora. "You dont want to end up in the Abyssus and come back as.... whatever it is that Simeon is now," he reminded him in strong words. Sure they didnt know how to cure it, but death couldnt be an option. It was enough that they had to deal with Simeon's kind of crazy.
"And we are not leaving," Andrew said as he looked at Elora's bandages. "She's a turned daemon, the temples will do jackshit for her wound, even if she's an Aelius fully and through," he said and looked at his brother. "And we're all guilty by association. You might pass with your reputation, but the rest of us will be locked up and interrogated till we'd wish we werent born, more than we do now," he said in a serious tone, looking at Elora. He helped her up just as Simeon came down, and the brute had to calm himself as to not squeeze Elora's arms in sheer anger, because it wasnt her fault that their brother was an asshole.

"...Simeon you're a real piece of shit, have you realized that?" Elora said out of nowhere, frowning deeply though it was hurting her bandaged eye as she looked at the shell of her older brother - Or whoever it is that he was using to be here. "You wanted us all here to help you into that new shitty body of yours. Why dont we just get that over and done with so you can leave us the fuck alone?" she asked in a shaking tone. It was quite unlike her, she had always been so feeble and quiet, never speaking up or showing emotions. Simeon has always picked on her when they were kids, trying to see if he could push her to react. She felt Andrew's surprised eyes on her but she just kept staring at Simeon. "You finally got that eye. I remember how you always used to say that I never deserved having them. That I was a waste of potential. Well now you've got all you needed, so I can just fuck off and live my life as I want to now right?" she felt her jaw tremble but she pushed herself to keep speaking, holding on to Andrew, though her grip was even shaking.

Raziela knew she was risking a lot by talking back, but Simeon was right. Something had changed, but it wasn't only her. The person in front of her was no longer her brother, hell, the body on the table didn't even look remotely like anyone she could even be related to. It was a corpse, it's smell reeking and she was starting to feel sick. Sick, because no matter what happened now, it was her fault.
The celestial left, and she was left in the small room. Sure, their family hadn't gotten along, they were born from a purpose and not because they were really wanted. A collection of daemon children, bred to fit in to the narrative of their piers. She could hear voices downstairs, but it was as if she was frozen in to place, staring at that excuse of a body on the table. She could see it had had minor reparations, a few scalpels laying on a tray nearby and she could see some needles as well.
What came over her she couldn't quite describe. Perhaps a feeling of needing to right her wrongs? Swallowing she stepped over to the body, placing her hand on it's face, studying the sleeping expression. The way the face looked hollow and sunken in, it was clear it had been dead for long, but one thing made her more intrigued. She looked at the eyes, knowing one of them contained the one of her sister. A single tear left her eyes as she thought of it all.
Raziela had been the reason why Elora was turned. The daemoness had once been a part of the ritual to turn her own sister, and the guilt had always been in her, she had just pushed it down. Thought that she was a victim of circumstance, but looking at this body she knew she wasn't better than Simeon was right now. That was the only solace she had for what she did next, moving her hand over the man's eyes, prying the one with her sisters in open.
Even when it wasn't connected to her sister, she felt the scorching pain. All of her wrong doings flashing before her eyes, but it was as if she wasn't even phased by them anymore. Raziela had no great powers of her own, but she was skillful in other ways. She had read countless of scrolls at the temple, she had studied daemon history and their rituals since she was just a child. So now she knew how she could hit Simeon where it hurt him the most.
Picking up a scalpel, she was shaking a little, knowing it was risky, but it was her only shot. Who knew carving in an eye would be so difficult and yet feel like cutting in to a bowl of jello? However though the pain didn't subside from looking directly in to her sister's familiar eye, it would hurt Simeon in the long run. Daemons had symbols, ancient infernal writing, but some of them were more often used in rituals.
As she finished up, she tossed the scalpel in the bin, cleaning off her hand before joining the others. The eye was carved, and it would disturb Simeon's vision once the transfer was done, but not affect the usage of the eye. However what he didn't know was that using the eye would make his soul unstable in the body in the long run. It wasn't a perfect solution, but for now it had to do - she only dreaded what might happen once her brother found out.
Downstairs things were heating up, and hearing her soft spoken sister actually talk loudly to Simeon made her hesitate before entering the room. "Should we get on with it then, brother dear?" she asked, seemingly on Simeon's side still, which seemed to anger Jasper visibly.

Jasper was shaking slightly, but as Andrew started lecturing he scoffed, shaking his head in defeat. "I know that I'm a coward, and I know what the Abyssus would mean, but sometimes you can't change fate," he mumbled, wanting to help Elora on her feet, but the brute seemed to handle it as always. Jasper felt his eyes sting, looking at his sister and feeling like he was a complete failure. It seemed like even the soft spoken Elora had more courage in her than him, and that didn't help with his self esteem. What Andrew had said about them being locked up might be better than they thought themselves. Maybe they deserved it, their family wasn't good, and perhaps ending it all was better?
He didn't even dare look at Simeon, but as Raziela spoke he felt the darkness in him flare up. Lunging forward, his hands wrapped around the empusa's neck, pressing her down on the floor, strangling her with otherworldly strength. He knew it was the darkness, it was the destructive part of it that wanted to rip everyone around him to pieces. "Why are you still on his side?" he hissed, his eyes even turning black at this point, clearly blinded by whatever was in him. It was clear it had spread to a point where it couldn't just be taken out like Raziela's had.

Elora's remarks didnt seem to phase Simeon much. Except that he turned his head slightly, looking at her other eye. "Be grateful I didnt take both. I could have," he said in a cold tone, but then his face flared up in a sinister smile. He was glad that the silent unbothered girl finally seemed to have reached her breaking point. He had waited all life for her to finally fight back. Raziela came and Simeon was just about to answer, just as Jasper flew forward and attacked their sister. Simeon stepped back, looking at them just as he noticed Andrew letting go of Elora, "Stay where you are brother," he said in a harsh tone, looking at Raziela and Jasper. He kneeled down and looked at Jasper with a big smile over his lips. "I had never expected this from you, Jasper. You're exceeding every expectation, making a right to all the wrongs that are you," he said in a tone of satisfaction, to then look at Raziela. "Maybe I was wrong about your loyalty to me. But we'll now see your true loyalty to the goal that has always been ours," he remarked, getting back up just as Elora tumbled forward.

Even if there was some sort of poetic justice in all this, Andrew was drawn towards that natural instinct of protecting his family. Even if he hated it more than anything, despised how even if this family was the worst that had ever happened to him, he was still bound to it by blood. He couldnt lose anyone, even if he hated their guts. Simeon had been the only exception to that. But the others werent. But only what horrors would Simeon do if he was stood up to? The celestial was the one with all the aces and the rest of them were just mere puppets to him. He felt Elora's shoulder push him as she went ahead.

She was done being a puppet. Simeon had already took what he wanted from her, if she lost another eye, then so be it. She didnt care at this point. But Raziela, despite how they had never seemed to get along, Elora had never blamed her for what happened. They were twins and Elora wasnt ready to lose her. So on unsure feet, feeling the whole room in a different view as she only had one working eye, she stumbled forward and fell just to land on Jaspers back, wrapping her arms around him. "Jasper, please let her go, this is what he wants" she whispered in a broken tone, shaking her head. At least in her mind, he was strangling the wrong person, it was supposed to be Simeon, not Raziela. "He wants us to kill each other so we wont be in his way," she whispered, tightening her grip around him.

It was as if his body was boiling with anger, holding down his own flesh and blood and really trying to kill her. Raziela. Her name meant nothing anymore, she was just an enemy in his head at this point. Simeon's words meant nothing, he felt like he was blinded by the task at hand, and it didn't even phase him what was said.
However that changed as he felt a tiny body fall on him, those familiar arms wrapping themselves around him and his ears finally listened to her plea. Elora had held Jasper a few times, mostly when he was either having a bad trip or was in such a bad mental state that he couldn't move. His pain was one he struggled the most to handle, but it was as if his sister had always been there to pick up his pieces, even though she hadn't needed to.
Reluctantly he seemed to let go of Raziela, who was now on the floor heaping for air like there was no tomorrow. He sat on his knees, Elora's arms around him as he was slowly coming back to himself and the dread that fell over his face was indescribable. "Raz ... Raz, I-I'm sorry - I-It wasn't me," he mumbled in panic, feeling his eyes water, but the darkness still remained on his skin. His discoloration looking awful as ever, but it seemed more stable than it had beforehand. His breath was shuddering as he started crying, looking down at his hands that were red from how hard he had been squeezing the empusa's throat.

Raziela was surprised as she felt back, feeling Jasper over her and her lack of air supply make her body spasm as she tried to pry his hands off her neck. Gasping for even the slightest of air, and yet nothing got through to her lungs. Simeon's words didn't help - was he really not going to help her? After everything she had sacrificed, he didn't care one bit for her, and she felt stupid for only realizing it now.
For a second she had just accepted her fate, her vision growing blurry as the air in her system was fizzing out. And then suddenly she could breathe, gasping as she crawled away in pure reflex clawing slightly at her neck to make sure nothing was still holding her. Her eyes were watery, her neck a discolored purple and red. Her eyes fell on her sister, or rather her arms and the part of her head poking over Jasper's shoulder. She felt like she couldn't speak, her vocal chords had been pretty damaged - that was easy to tell as every time she swallowed it stung.
On shaky legs she got to her feet, only to tumble and lean up against the railing of the stairway. Her breath hadn't caught up yet, and somewhere in her she felt like she never would catch up. "Y-oou..r n-n-n-ooo-t.. S-s-im-," she tried vocalizing as she looked at the celestial. Simeon was cruel, but not this kind of cruel. Something or someone had possessed his spirit.

Simeon just smiled at the whole ordeal, like it was amusing to him. Even if it was throwing the other's off, he didnt seem to care at all. Once Jasper had returned to normal, he scoffed and clapped his hands. "Show's over. Get upstairs. Once the transfer is over, you're all free to leave," he assured them. Looking down this body he was in, he let out a cheerful sigh. He was really looking forward to changing into something new, something that wasnt a celestial and oddly nervous by default. He was tired of the looming feelings that this guy had in him. "Andrew get Raziela on her feet and help her upstairs. I imagine she's quite out of breath," he said as an ending note, heading up.

As Simeon left, Elora still kept her arms around Jasper. She was sobbing, and it didnt help that her tears got into the wound in her eye and made it sting like nothing else. She was so worried that he was lost to whatever had infected him but it seemed that he had been able to come back. "I hate him so much..." she whispered quietly, hiding her face in Jasper's shirt while she calmed herself down but she was shaking with anger and frustration and well pain too. She then let go and sat down on the floor, placing a hand over the bandage while scrunching her face in pain.

Andrew felt like he was almost like a piece of furniture in this whole scene. Unable to act, unable to help or interfere. Simeon was the puppeteer and it seemed that the rest of them were just puppets. He went to Raziela as Simeon had gone, looking at her throat before he looked at her with serious eyes. "You did this to yourself, so get over yourself. Not one of us will pity you," he reminded her. It was her who had brought the bastard back, in whatever moment of madness that had made her force that summoner to open the Abyssus and bring him back. If she hadnt, Jasper wouldnt be infected, Elora would have her eye and they could have all gone on with their lives. "Were he all you hoped for?" he asked in a sour tone. He was just so angry, he couldnt help himself. Jasper and Elora was a mess and the maniac upstairs was only laughing at their sorrow.

Upstairs had Simeon prepared everything. The bowl, a couple of knives. Aelius blood was sacred and his soul was partly bound to it. He was lucky that he had been able to attach to Adam, but he now wanted his own body. For that to work, the blood of the Aeliuses had to enter the body.

Jasper blinked a few times, everything made no sense anymore. As Elora let go, he sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close, whispering apologies into her hair, because he had no other soothing words to tell her. His eyes were still on his hands that were shaking as he still felt the tremors of something else controlling him. He looked up at Andrew as he started accusing Raziela of everything, and yet he was a hypocrite, cause he was following Simeon's orders like a fucking dog. Letting go of Elora he stood up, helping his sister up as well if she wanted the help.
"So now it's Raziela's fault that Simeon is cruel?" he asked, shaking his head as he didn't feel that was right. "You are the biggest and strongest of us all, and yet you can do shit to protect any of us," he said, shaking his head as he went up the stairs. He was done wasting time. They needed to get this over with, and then he swore to dedicate the rest of his life to the clergies up in Raleska to find a solution to all of this.

Raziela was quiet. She knew it was her fault, even if Jasper semi-defended her it wouldn't change. She guessed it would be true in the end, that Andrew's wrath would be his own undoing. The worst part was that she couldn't even defend herself, because none of them knew what she had been through, and that was her burden to bear.
Andrew grabbed her, and she shook him off of her, walking by herself and giving him a warning glare. Even if she only had one arm, she wouldn't hesitate to throw a fight. Upstairs it looked like a ritual, and she already knew her role. She walked forward, holding out her wrist, knowing that none of her siblings would ever willingly give their blood. So here she was, sacrificing more of herself to a cause that was long gone. She looked at the celestial, her eyes bloodshot from the choking incident. Her eyes said it all; Get it over with.

"Oh I'm sorry, I completely forgot that you ran around helping her like a lapdog to get this all up and going! Was it fun holding onto that fenix'es soul?" he just snarled back in retaliation, even if Jasper was right, that he was completely useless. It was interesting that he had all this strength and no way to utilize it. But would it really be the Aelius way to look in and reflect?
Seeing the bowl in the room and Raziela to be the first one to go forward, Andrew rolled his eyes with a sigh. There was no point in trying to rebel now, Simeon had clearly shown how little he'd hesitate to get his way. So Andrew rolled up his sleeve and joined Raziela with a blank expression on his face.

"Stop fighting!" Elora just cried in frustration, looking around at them all. "Just stop it! There's no point. It's just shifting blame at this point and it's not helpful," she said, sniffling before she shook her head. There really was no point in furthering the damage, make everyone suffer more than they already did. She got up, still rather disoriented and adjusting to her new sight or lack thereof. Heading upstairs she watched as two of the siblings readied their wrists, she stood there for a while before she finally went up, using Andrew for support as she lifted out her wrist, Andrew helping her with her sleeve. She wished she could tell her sister that she didnt have to be alone in this, but with Simeon around, saying anything at all was just not possible.

Seeing them all slowly come into place amused Simeon greatly. He grabbed one of the knives, checking it's sharpness before he turned to Raziela first. "Always so loyal. I can always count on you, cant I?" he asked, grabbing her wrist before he made the incision to get the blood flowing down into the bowl. He didnt say anything to the others, why should he? He knew their stance, he knew they hated him. They just wanted it over with so they could leave and he wasnt going to keep them from that for much longer. Eventually the bowl was filled with the blood that he wanted and he wafted them all away. "You can go now, all of you. Except you Jasper," he said, using the knife to mix the blood. "I need your corrupted blood," he said.

Raziela gave her blood in silence, just looking at the body on the table. She knew she would never be forgiven for anything she had done, but she had to try and make amends somehow. However she feared that she would never be able to. What would Dahria say? Would she finally realize what sort of monster her girlfriend truly was? It seemed as though her siblings had been right all along, and when Elora didn't speak up, she knew that her twin was on the side of the pureblood.