The Confrontation

Buffy was hard at work as some cultists came running in, telling her of the commotion. Her eyes started filling with lightning, anger in her eyes. Instructing the healers she left, marching right back to the room where she saw Amos and Baal on the floor. Walking over she grabbed Amos by the neck, ripping him off of the summoner, whom she grabbed by his tunic. "The two of you are acting selfish," she said in a scary voice, straigthening both of them out before looking at them one at a time. "Stop this fighting and help save my daughter!" letting go of the two men. If they wanted to spend their time fighting, so be it, but she was not wasting any more time on this childish behavior.
Returning to her daughter's side, she walked up to her on the altar. Her heart beat was weak, but she was alive. Placing a hand on Saoirse's forehead the storm in her eyes died down. To Buffy Saoirse sometimes still looked like that little baby in her arms, even if she was all grown, it would always be in her. Her hand moved down, hovering over the trybrid's heart as her hand started to glow. It wasn't as bright as when she had healed that daemon, but it looked quite a lot like when she calmed Baal down. She just hoped she could at least take some of her daughter's pain away.

Amos was probably fully ready to kill Baal if he wasnt interrupted because he was just seeing red. But Buffy intervening and somehow scolding them both at the same time made his jaw quiver because he was selfish. He was so angry at his father for being the one to hurt Saoirse over and over and he wanted it to stop from here on out. As she let go and left them, Amos dried his eyes before he went towards the door. He stopped and looked back at his father with warning eyes. "You will pay for this," he said in pure hatred before he left to go be with Buffy and Saoirse. Carefully approaching the altar, he felt the tears run down his cheeks. "Can I do something?" he asked in a lowered tone, looking at his sister with hurting eyes.

Buffy was happy to see that Amos joined her. She knew how scary it must've looked, but she also knew that her ways were strange even for the cultist healers. The daemon asked if he could do anything and she nodded, guiding him over to the other side of the altar. "Talk to her," she said. She knew it wasn't anything really specific, but her daughter felt lost and it was deep down in her soul. "Remind her who she is, convince her to stay with us," Buffy just had to focus on her energy, needing to locate the darkness within her daughter to drive it away from her heart.
She knew that speaking wasn't the daemon's strong suit, but she knew that her daughter could hear them, she just felt it. "You are Saoirse Lowenna Elior ... You're my little baby; I birthed you and raised you with all the love I had; I gave you a home and the best means to become the beautiful and intelligent girl you are today," she started, maybe because it could help Amos feel less insecure. "You love your family and your family loves you; Please, my child, come back to us."

He raised his eyebrows a little as she said that he had to talk to her? He couldnt really see how that was going to help heal her. He took his healthy hand placing it over hers. Folding his lips as Buffy started to speak to the trybrid first, he was still looking for his words. He remembered what she had been yelled at their father. "You think that we would be happier without you, but you couldnt be more wrong," he just said, his words seemingly unkind but that wasnt how he meant them. "If I hadnt had you or our bond, I wouldnt ever have fallen in love. I wouldnt have known what it's like to have someone... someone that you're so scared of losing. More than anyone else. So please dont leave me now," he said, pleading in tone as he gave her hand a soft squeeze. He wasnt really all about lovey dovey stuff, so it was the truth from his heart. "Not when you've made me fall in love with you like this," he added, feeling a few tears roll down his cheeks.

Buffy let Amos speak, and it was as if it was in this moment she realized that whatever her daughter and he had wasn't just some infatuation. The discussion about half-siblings being together wasn't one she was going to touch, because for all the world knew, they were merely cousins at best. She felt Saoirse's heart beat a bit stronger, her eyes widening. "It's working, Amos, I can feel her ... Tell her more, speak about what you like doing together," she said. He didn't have to wring out his heart, but it seemed like him speaking was at least resonating with Saoirse's soul and heart.
If he managed to say more, it meant that she could at least make Saoirse's situation stable. "She'll have to stay here on the altar for now ... The light that she's in holds the darkness away from consuming her heart," she explained, although perhaps it was obvious. A cultist offered Buffy a bowl, and she nodded taking it before taking it with her free hand. "You are infected as well ... I can feel it but it's not too severe; Here," she said, handing him the bowl with what seemed like a grey like substance that was rather sticky. "Drink this," she instructed him.

"It's to wash out the rest of the tranquilizer from your system," she said calmly, but she could understand if he didn't trust her. "Amos, the last thing I want is to give you something that won't benefit you," but were her plea falling on deaf ears? She just knew that Saoirse would hate her if she didn't at least offer it. Whether the stubborn daemon drank it or not, well she had no real control over that.
He wanted to talk with her, and she followed, but not before instructing the healers in what to do. She was very meticulous about the order of things, and the healers were clearly struggling. Outside the room she saw how defensive he got, and who could really blame him. Her eyes turned sad as she nodded, "I do see it and while I don't agree with everything, I also understand the necessity of what we are doing here," she said. She wasn't the naïve fenix anymore, she was well informed and could make her own decisions. "Saoirse thinks he's brainwashed me," she had to scoff, shaking her head as she looked down with a thoughtful expression. "Truth is, I'm the one calling the most orders around here." Was it really that hard to believe that she could be in a leading role? Maybe if all Amos had ever seen was how timid she had been. But she was different now, she was strong and assertive. The light within her guiding her when she listened.
"Amos, my daughter won't listen to reason, but I hope you will; I am so close to figuring out how to heal the infected and once I do, the light will unite with the darkness and the Abyssus will change for good," she said, looking at him. Was he thinking she sounded like a complete maniac too? "I'm doing this for my daughter, for you, for every daemon and half daemon who is condemned simply because their god gave up on their afterlife," she said. "I brought you here, because I hope you can calm Saoirse down; The infection spreads the more violent emotions you have and Saoirse's outburst have been many since coming here - I need my daughter to be calm or I am helpless in saving her."
Could Amos not listen to a begging mother? A mother of the daughter that he loved so dearly? She breathed out, turning around to pull down on her dress, showing where her fenix mark was no longer. "My fenix mark used to be here, but it burned away when I realized what I had to do; Change is scary, but with change comes a new hope - A new chance and a new life where you don't have to be forced in to the roles that the Orders of Daemons decide." Turning back around she looked at Amos.

"I'll be fine. At least I wont feel how fucked up my hands have gotten from the chains you chained me up with," he said as he looked down at his hands and wrists. Even the bandage that was meant to keep his finger sealed was covered in some blood. He let her do whatever she had to, standing in the door so he could keep an eye on them all, making sure it seemed like no one was doing something weird to his sister. But if he wanted to know what was going on, he had to close the door and leave her out of his sight. It was weird, because Buffy didnt seem to be the same anymore and if Saoirse believed that she was brainwashed, Amos had to figure out why.
"Dont agree? Buffy, he hurt your daughter and you're just letting him off the hook as if he couldnt have just killed her. Twice! from what I'm hearing too, and that's the third time he has done something to her!" he argued, shaking his head a little like he wasnt too sure what to say. He crossed his arms and frowned, not really disagreeing as she said that Saoirse believed her to be brainwashed. But as she confessed that she was calling the orders, his eyes hardened. "Even for Belial?" he asked, but he had to. Because if that really the case, then she was a danger for the trybrid too.
She started speaking of reason and healing everyone, something that made little to no sense at all. People hadnt even meant to be infected to begin with and all the lives lost could never come back? It wasnt that Amos cared about the lives of strangers, but his friends could be dead and people he really cared about and he would have no idea until this was all over. "You sound just like him now," he simply stated as a fact, shaking his head as he took a step back. She showed her fenix mark but he wasnt even sure what to think of that, because he had never seen it before and he clearly wasnt seeing it now either. "Okay listen. There's no reason to try and even reason with me. I dont give a fuck. Kill the whole world if you have to, but not Saoirse. And Belial has been nothing but a danger to her all this time. I want him to stay away from her," he just said and with the tone of voice, he clearly wasnt interested in any sort of making up in the future. "I know you love him. And I dont blame you for it. But gods, I will fucking kill him if I have to," he said in a cold tone, letting that sink in as he went to check on Saoirse.

"I don't pretend like what he did won't have consequences down the line, but the artefact within him has gone unchecked for too long - He's finally at a place where he can control it and with my help his burden won't be as severe," she was being rational here. While she did not like to think of what Baal had been the cause of, especially when it came to her daughter getting hurt, she wasn't blind to it. He asked about where her control reached and she breathed out. It was much more complex than Amos made it sound. "Belial and I are a unit, we need to move as one," that was all she was going to say about that. Baal had his own will, but they had found out pretty early on that discussing the course of action was the easiest way to steer them to the right destination.
As he started making demands and threats she sighed, because he was clearly not ready to listen to what they had to offer him. Buffy was young of body, but the artefact within her was much older and making her feel much wiser. "Saoirse simply existing is a danger to her, even in Aurvandil she managed to get infected, is that not true?" she reminded him that he was not without flaws. She had heard her daughter tell about how she came to be infected, and the young daemon clearly hadn't kept his guard up. "I will handle Belial myself, but you must watch yourself - I can stabilize her right now, but one more burst of strong emotions and I might not be able to," she said. This wasn't just about Belial, this was about the fact that Amos felt like he had failed to protect the one he loved.
Buffy sighed, walking back in to the room where the healers seemed to struggle with a mixture she had written down. She went over, taking over the healer that was mixing, sending the healers out to give them some space. "Hold her head," she said, placing the mixture on her daughter's forehead, writing symbols with it. Soon enough it seemed as though the purple markings seemed to fade to a lighter shade, and the trybrid seemed to relax more. "She'll need rest," she said, drying off her hands in her linen dress, moving over to sit down. Despite how strong she was, Buffy was exhausted right now, but she was better at hiding it.

He definitely felt a little more cautious of Buffy, even more so now that it seemed that the things that Baal had been doing, she wasnt going to stop. What was he to believe? Then she reminded him of his own failure and that made him feel so angry. She was right, he had also failed the trybrid, but he wouldnt say that he had been actively trying to kill her, even if this wouldnt have happened if she hadnt tried to help him with healing. He didnt want to hear anymore of it regardless.
Staying by Saoirse's side was what he wanted to do. He held her hand with his healthy one, till Buffy asked for her head to be held. He did so and watched what Buffy was doing. How she suddenly seemed to know all this made sense with what she had told him, but he wasnt going to be less cross with her because of it. Seeing the purple marks fade made him breathe out, taking her hand once again. "I'll be watching her," he just said, looking shortly at the former fenix and then back at Saoirse.  "You should probably go find your daemon before he kills someone else," he said, probably a very not needed remark, but it was Amos after all. He leaned down to Saoirse's head, placing his hand in her hair as he whispered sweet things to her.

The summoner wasnt really unsure that Amos hadnt intended to at least try and kill him. Though he didnt find himself immortal, he wasnt so sure it would work the way Amos had intended it to. The black mass wasnt going to let it's host die and neither did the artifact. He was sitting in their room, leaned back and with his head in his hand. He kept looking at the mural that seemed to be a thorn in his eye. But it was only because he kept thinking of the time where he had seen it in the temples. Saoirse's words rang in his head again and he clenched his free hand and felt his teeth grind together. Whatever that was causing him to be so on edge, he could really live without in this delicate times with Saoirse and Amos both being a thorn in their side.

Buffy knew that Amos was trying to get a rise out of her, maybe find an excuse to show Saoirse that both her parents were demented and twisted. But she just nodded, getting to her feet but she felt her chest heavy. She had overspent herself today, she could feel it, but she refused to let it show. "I trust you with overseeing my daughter, but do not move her from the altar; If you remove her, she'll die," she just said, just in case the daemon got some weird idea of fleeing with the trybrid. It wasn't an ideal solution, but if it meant keeping her daughter alive, she couldn't see any other way.
Moving out to the corridor, she instructed the healers to go in every third hour to reapply the mixture and to send for her if Saoirse's condition worsened. Then she went to the room that she shared with her daemon. Walking in she saw him staring at the mural, but that was his own mind trying to fixate on something. "She'll live for now," she said, moving over to sit down on the bed. She didn't sit long before she laid back down, looking up at the ceiling. She felt so drained and she knew she had to go and get some sustenance, but her body was aching a little, still getting used to the power of the artefact piece inside of her. "Both of them are completely unreasonable and I don't blame them; They have been gone for too long to understand what good will come of this."

Belial was right. The way of the daemons had long been part of everyday life for those afflicted, but she wasn't giving up the hope that they could change things. No, there had to be a better life for her loved ones. Looking at him as he spoke of a more drastic approach, she narrowed her eyes. "What are you suggesting?" she asked, watching as the cultists came in to the room, gathering up sacrificial bowls, knives and paintings. She sat up on the bed, ignoring the cultists as she just looked at her daemon, a bit too tired to actually get up and walk to him. "They are still just kids, Belial, tell me what is on your mind and we'll discuss it like we usually do," still being rather level headed, but she had to keep up her façade around the cultists. She didn't want them to think that she was turning weak now.

Seeing Baal destroy the painting wasn't something she had expected, but for some reason she was starting to catch on. Real change. Yes, that was what they needed. She trusted him enough to let him go, laying back on the bed to get some rest as she would surely need the energy for later.

//End of topic <33//