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"You misunderstand on many accounts," he said, his lips thinning into a bemused smile. He turned back towards the counter and continued to cook, adding ingredients to the beaten eggs and picking up a spatula to blend the mixture. He hummed a little under his breath a moment, the subtle smell of kindling fire and ash permeating the room, masking the aroma of whatever he might be concocting. "I'll clarify Malik first. While you and I regard Kane as a person, he regards her more typically and befitting of a demon- as property. Our parents compensated him handsomely for wooing her, wanting to find a way to continue our prestigious bloodline, but I believe that during the process he became somewhat attached. He has an unhealthy obsession with her, one that I believe is based very strongly on her strong willpower. She is unusual in her defiance."

Now he shuffled a few things back in the fridge before adding some dry ingredients to his bowl, mixing now with both hands. The dough was firm, his kneading of it sending small ripples through the muscles of his arms and up to his shoulders as his back was once again turned to the fallen. "I don't know why you need concern yourself with him- but should he make an appearance after all this time, fighting will not be his first resort. He much prefers trying to manipulate, break, and toy with people. While I may cripple the body, he seeks to cripple the mind."

Pulling out a pan, he picked up the dough and broke it into pieces and spread it along the surface. How domestic- an innately evil creature making cookies. He set the temperature for the oven and turned around, leaning against a counter as he waited and regarded Gabriel in the meanwhile. "Which leads me to the next point... Kane, as you know her now, is most likely done ascending. It only took her this long because Malik made it a point to break her and turn her back towards the darkness. I detest the monster, but one must admit he is quite skilled. After she killed Mercy, Kane then suffered a psychotic break and has slowly crawled her way back towards what I feel is most likely her true self. To answer multiple questions then- at least for us, it is possible to be ever-changing what we are. Kane has nearly ascended to this level and fallen back to mine multiple times before she met you."

His eyes flickered towards the slumbering form, watching her take slow, even breaths in a calmed sleep. His eyes grew slightly more peaceful and warm as he watched her, although his attitude and diffident tone did not improve. "I do not believe you need my guidance. If you are truly her lover, she would not pick you unless you had the same strength that she has... an innate voice that leads and directs. Tell me, fallen, do you want to fall? Do you want her to ascend? If she were to become an angel, like those of our world, she would have to forgive. She would have to forgive Mercy and Malik and let go of all her anger and hatred. Her sense of justice would no longer allow her to commit great sins and atrocities in the name of her cause. Is that what you wish?"

Now his eyes moved back towards Gabriel, probing and questioning. "What is it you want?"

Devon leaned against the kitchen counter, tilting his head to the side in an imitation of Gabriel. Steady crimson eyes looked past the tall man and to the slumbering female who twisted ever so slightly in her sleep, slowly curling up on her side. A faint smile tugged at the edges of his lips, although it seemed to be a mirror of the bemused grin earlier and not one of brotherly affection.

"What I want? You haven't met Ashley. My sisters, when they were much younger, were very alike. At some point, though, the isolation drove them to cope in different ways and deviate. I had always seen them as a pair, this singular being divided in two that vexed our parents. Ashley was a calm, inhibited, unnaturally patient person while Kane was emotional, forthright, and rash." His gaze flickered once more to the fallen angel. "They intrigue me. Part of me wants you to change her, to slowly meld her into the perfect angel Ashley is becoming because I am curious as to whether they will converge and you will love them both or whether this was an unavoidable end."

"Another part of me wants to see how different they can retain, how strong they truly are as different as they have become. Ashley has been unwavering and steadfast, and after Mercy's death Kane gained that fortitude, perhaps more. It would be easy for her to either fall entirely to the lures of Hell or to blindly follow the light with no real thought, but she insists on a road of sin in the name of good. It is enchanting; I like her better than Ashley for it."

"Kane has never fully attained this level of ascendence- all her previous attempts were thwarted by Malik. I would not worry about her becoming too holy, but rather getting caught up in the darkness and drowning once more. I can't imagine that you will cause this reaction inadvertently, but I do caution against trying to control her anger or soothe her memories. Her fury is righteous and that anger, that indignation, that unquenchable zeal I think is what keeps her between the two sides. If she is appeased and forgiving, passive and merciful, then she will turn from sin and ascend further. If she is consumed by darkness entirely and lets her sense of justice turn to pure hatred, insanity caused by lost hope and perspective, she will be worse than me. Last time that happened, she did that," he said, gesturing towards the large oil painting over the bed. The vibrant colors painted a vivid picture, one of unrestrained flames engulfing something impossible to discern as more than shadows and blurs.

"She was completely evil, you know," he said casually, languidly. Although he had shifted gears to discussing Mercy somewhat ambiguously, he spoke as if he were flippantly discussing the cookies whose soft aroma were filling the air. Cocoa and coconut scents, a strange pair to be certain, mingled and drifted out of the edges of the oven. "No desire to change. You can't change a person's heart. That is what she fights."

Devon snorted softly, amused. He knew that he was coming across as somewhat haughty, but the demon could care less how Gabriel regarded him- after all, it was Kane that was so enamored and he certainly wasn't quite that much like her. Trying to set aside a condescending attitude and appear more polite than he was for the sake of his sister and their relationship, he licked his lips and continued.

"I will try to explain this as best I can and perhaps if you can grasp it it will help with your ideal. Kane was never wholly evil. She was quite mad in more than one sense, but never truly evil. You see, the reason that Kane can wield the darkness effectively is because she knows how to make herself a good conduit. Anger, rage, and hatred all fuel dark powers, and she is able to grab on this essence and use it to draw out the magic. The most powerful demons are wholly submitted to the principles of the corrupt... they are greedy, lustful, bigoted, and violent. The more they revel in this, the more they absorb into their withering hearts, the more they can pull and call forth it in a form of mystical power. Our sages theorize that magic is like ores in the earth- anyone is capable of mining it, but they must use the right methods and look in the right places."

"If our worlds were one in the same, from what you have said about the angels here, they would still wield light but not be whole. A sense of righteousness would give them the ability to draw it out, and to a great strength to strike with vengeance, but they would be limited in other ways. Healing and cleansing would be lackluster, if not pathetic, without empathy and compassion. Without humility, miracles would not be granted through prayer. They would lack the skills to properly access parts of the light."

"In any case, I suggest to you this: if you are truly unhappy with your descent, look inward. The light and darkness are constants and do not change. I find it very likely that your sudden inability to call forth divine magic is internal rather than external. Even if it is wholly in the hands of god, it has been my experience they are ever loving and forgiving. Take your pick; appeal to your divinity and plead your case, or seek the reason your former peers can throw around their magic as they do. If it just a matter of letting yourself channel the feelings of compassion, love, empathy, mercy, humility, or some other hopelessly virtuous thing, you may be able to tread in both worlds as Kane."

"When Mercy was born, Kane told Ashley and me that she was genetically a demon, but that she believed everyone had free will. If Mercy chose, she could embrace the light and its teachings and grow like her aunt. That is why, I think, she came out of her madness after she killed Mercy. For some, it would be easier to believe that it was an inevitability- that the demon was born only to sin and be malicious. Kane finds more comfort, though, in the notion that Mercy chose her path, even if that means Kane failed her. You should know, then...."

His eyes locked on Gabriel's. The cold rubies regarded him solemnly, blazing quietly. He wanted the fallen's full attention, so he paused for a few moments, making sure the once-angel had digested his speech first. "If Malik comes here, he could use that against her. You mentioned your descent and her ascent may be linked. Malik is cunning- he has used her beliefs against her in the past, and should he convince her that she is the cause of your state, I make no guarantees she will not relapse in some manner. You should find- and quickly- how things are on your world with the followers of the opposites. I might actually regret if you ruined this fascinating exploration of our ranking for Kane, and it's rather inconvenient for me to come here to fix things or kill the instigator."

Humming softly, the demon turned and bent over the oven. Opening the door slowly, Devon reached in and grabbed the cookie sheet. Steam and a sizzling sound accompanied the contact and he retrieved it slowly, setting it on a counter as he kicked the door to the oven close. Perfectly brown circles were evenly spaced along the rectangle, their exotic aroma filling the air. Withdrawing his hand, marred only momentarily by the burns from the heated box, he looked over his shoulder.

"Care for dessert?"

Devon waited very patiently for Gabriel's eyes to turn and then pelted Kane's peaceful form with some very well-aimed arced shots. One cookie sailed over the top of the Fallen's head and landed squarely on her exposed ear and another her hip. It seemed like one of the more benign way to wake his sister- after all, he didn't think that smacking her with a relatively low-key ball of shadow would go over well with the somewhat magically imbalanced man. As morally bankrupt as he could be at times, he had no desire to make things more difficult for himself.

Kane opened one eye and then the other, somewhat confused and suspicious of what had just occurred. As her eyes started to focus, she opened her mouth to say something towards Gabriel that was less than friendly- but she was quickly distracted by the feeling of a something light on her ear. A hand lazily snaked out of the blankets and tentatively touched the foreign object. Running a couple digits over the baked good, her eyes lit up suddenly. "Devon!" She snatched it and sat up, making eye contact with the demonic sibling first and then evaluating the cookie. Gabriel's presence was noted, but for the moment excused. In the competition between a delicious cocoa treat and blasting someone for what she believed to be a poor decision, the food one.

"Ah, so that's why you are worried," Devon noted aloud. His eyes had fallen from Kane's face to her exposed abdomen. The scanty clothes did not seem to bother him, but he did raise a brow at the fact there was no longer a scar where there had been recently. The gears in his head turning and pieces clicking in to place were almost audible as his sister happily nibbled on the concoction in her head. A smirk curled up on his lips, twisting and curling there with an almost sinister amusement. "So that's why I am here. You decided to try again, this time with someone not quite so deep in the darkness?"

"No!" It seemed that Gabriel wasn't the only person able to get Kane riled up so early in the morning. She didn't seem as enraged as one might expect, though: although she was as emotional as always, the anger was notably less violent and virulent. "No, he just had someone come do that. I needed you to come because I have some angels that are on my tail.

Now Devon looked highly amused. He, of course, understood the problem with being dogged while trying to accomplish any sort of importance mission. It was not as though the fact she was being pursued was surprising- after all, as Kane had told the fallen, that had happened on her home planet. It was who was chasing her that he found intriguing. Lifting both brows, he looked quizzically at the other man in the room, the smirk widening. Although he could never be certain, he suspected that somehow that the male was responsible on some level. The dark angel would not involve herself in a war against celestials and involve anyone else- especially someone she may have romantic attachment to.

"My my my," Devon languidly replied with a jesting tone. "You sure have been a busy boy."

"Of course I'm not well!" The cookie was gone and along with it the chocolate bribe to remain more calm and relaxed. "I slept all of what... five minutes before I got rudely interrupted? Next time you decide to help me, please find some large, cranky dragon to maul me instead! Not only am I borderline indecent for my brother and have my clothes ruined," she began, clearly ignoring the fact that the fire had been, more or less, her fault. He might have inadvertently provoked her into using it, but he was hardly to blame for her lack of self control. "... but I just blew a bunch of magic, you still don't have a full grasp on the darkness, I have a horde of angels riding my a**, and now I've got an ex that will no doubt be hunting me down shortly. I am wonderful!" Her hands were waved to emphasize her frustration, although it was notably less exuberant than usual. Her edge had been taken off by the lack of adequate rest, her eyes only smoldering ashes instead of blazing fires.

"She'd be lying if she said she expected more of me. If you were looking for the cordial, thoughtful sibling you got the wrong one. I am, after all, only a demon." He flashed a toothy smile, arrogance painted over his features. Devon was not altogether unpleasant, but he wasn't affable either. He treaded carefully on the line of being outright offensive and coolly polite, although right now he was casual enough to lean towards the former slightly. "So, my dear Lust, what sort of jobs do you expect me to take? All these people after you is no good for business, I suppose. Do they pay well?"

The embarrassing slip of her true name went unnoticed (and it was immediately apparent now why she had concocted one of her own), her lingering anger redirected at the brother that stood so smugly in her apartment. Had she a couple hours of slumber under her belt, she might have jumped up and stalked over to him in annoyance. As it was now, she had to settle for a mild glare. "Well enough. Try to behave a little? I'll throttle you if you give me a headache."

"Sorry," Devon directed at Gabriel briefly. It didn't sound particularly heartfelt and sincere, but the fact he had acquiesced at all was nothing short of amazing. It either met he was emotionally invested in keeping Kane happy and/or he was somewhat intimidated by her threat. It would be an interesting duel- especially considering Kane's newfound proficiency with some light magic. Neither sibling would have reason to believe that Gabriel would be aware, but in circles where they were both known, the elder brother was well established as the inferior of the two. She could very well be the most powerful at the three when she was in full command of her faculties.

"So, how much do they pay and how many are kills?"

"A few are assassinations, but most them aren't. A couple bodyguard jobs, transporting an item, a robbery, and one to fetch an artifact from someone uncooperative. You better take them all or you're not getting any. This kill job is worth at least a few month's living expenses, so you damn well better not tell me that you 'don't handle guarding kids' this time."

Devon seemed to mull over it a moment. He obviously disdained playing anything other than a hit man and some of the jobs that Kane took, while paying well, were out of his area of expertise. Still, she was was paid quite handsomely for her kills and the tended to be much more exciting than his. Shrugging and looking outwardly apathetic he responded with a "Sure. Paperwork on your desk?"

Kane nodded and pointed to a stack of haphazardly arranged documents. Devon visibly rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner, most likely to vex Kane further. Despite disdain for her organizational skills, he picked them up, flipping through them lazily. Eyes moved over the printed text and scrawled notes, scanning it for important notes. Gaze not lifting, he addressed Gabriel.

"Do you really intend to stay here? Kane can handle herself if you chose to go. It might be a lot easier than handling her baggage, fighting off half the world in an attempt to right the wrongs of the past. This isn't really your battle. I can help you leave this place if you like."

"Mmmmm. You certainly do have an interesting choice in men. Tell Ashley I said hello. Perhaps you should take him to see Rei some day. It might reinvigorate his faith in the light to see a seraphim like her if you can't do so yourself." He wiggled his fingers in a taunting like wave as they slowly became pitch blank, inky coalesced darkness rolling off him in billowing wisps. After a few moments, without warning, his entire form collapsed, a plume of transparent smoke slipping over the floor where he had been moment before. It was a disorienting, strange way to leave- a sense of wrong prevailing, as if there was a palpable void in the room, an area devoid of space or being. The feeling quickly passed, but it still was unsettling.

"Ugh," was all Kane said at first, flopping onto her side and then her stomach. One leg poked out from under the covers and hung out over the side along with a bare arm. She wasn't trying to cover herself, neither cold nor embarrassed. He had seen it for an extended of period of time- hell, so had Daz. There was no real point in pretending to have a sense of decency when it was more comfortable to ignore it.

"I don't much care what you make so long at isn't raw. That includes fish, by the way. If you have a desire to make yourself some sushi, you can keep it all for yourself. There's probably quite a bit of beef in there. I'm somewhat partial to cow in most forms," she remarked languidly, her hair falling in a curtain over her face as she twisted it to the side, resting her cheek on the pillow. She hook a deep breath, her back rising and falling with the movement.

She contemplated, for a moment, telling Gabriel about the dream. It wouldn't really do any good considering it fact he had already been warned by her brother and there was nothing he couldn't really do to alter it. Even if her fears about changing the Fallen were assuaged, there would be some other nuance of her psyche he would try to rip at. No, this was her figurative and literal demon to fight and she needed to rely on her own strength. Still, the temptation was there, pressing against her mind and heart, tempting her to confide.

It irritated her.

"Awfully fancy name for something that sounds a hell of a lot like steak," Kane mumbled, half to him and half to the accommodating pillow she had mashed her face into. It didn't really smell like a steak, but it was the only comment she could bring herself to muster. Being around so many people in one day was draining- anger for Gabriel for his earlier comments, hatred for the angels, contempt for Dazriel, and frustration with Devon. They weren't all completely bad encounters, but it seemed to make portions of her heart bleed out emotions, leaving hollow portions, waiting for time, rest, and energy to fill them slowly.

"If I start to slip you better call that b*****d and have him help you finish me off," she muttered through the pillow. Surely he knew who the 'b*****d' was. "Last time I lapsed, I incinerated the village that Mercy was burning. I also could run off with Malik at that point and have more hellions. Of course, I could end up slaughtering him too, but we'd pretty much immune to each other's magic and he's much better at stacking a physical battle in his favor, the a**."

It was probably something he didn't want to hear or consider, but since the topic had already been broached now was as good a time as any. If the cocky demon had already tried to lure her through dreams, it was simply a matter of time. Kane highly doubted he'd be on her stoop in the morning, but it would be relatively easy for someone of his strength and specialties to track her. A few days at best, one at worst. The dark angel highly suspected he'd test his waters in his subconscious more before he'd try a physical jaunt.

The close proximity made her somewhat anxious, her muscles tensing momentarily as he lay down next to her. Paralyzed in conflicting thoughts on what to do, she numbly heard herself start to blather on. Why in the blazes was she so uncomfortable? Hell, men in bars had been more forward with her than this, more daring- but it was his closeness that felt somewhat dwarfing and intimidating.

"I don't know why you felt so compelled to bring your friend here," she grumbled, her mind spinning into the aforementioned topic earlier that had nothing to do with what she was rambling about. "I think it was almost more pleasant teetering on the edge of death with that curse the first time around than having some righteous p***k pinning me to the wall. Usually when I'm in that situation I have the satisfaction of killing all those involved."