[IC] MONSTORY

[Dead Cruiser]

Cerasus' reaction to Izzy's answer was measured, to say the least. He didn't seem surprised, only slightly furrowing his brow and casting his gaze at the ground. He looked... resolute, more than anything else. His aura of seduction dissipated, and Izzy had difficulty detecting any emotion at all from his aura.

"I was expecting you to say that. I am now free of doubt. I knew that your kindness would only last as long as I was weak." Had Izzy's goodwill dissipated upon being confronted by his perfect existence? His bitter tone seemed to imply as much. "It was not for who I was-- you would have saved anyone, as long as they were weak." He looked back up with Izzy, his expression vague, but looking generally weary. "Know that I saved you as yourself. A selfless soul like yours deserves better than death by my hands. And you had my gratitude for repaying the favor."

Cerasus stepped forward, his gaze hardening and his stance lowering into a more powerful position. "Now then, I can tell by your expression and your mood that you already know: if you slay me, you will return to the ranks of mankind." The air grew heavy, as Izzy learned anew the difference in power between the two. She already knew how this conversation would end. This was so different from the scraps she had so far, as she felt intimidated and overwhelmed, like the air itself was strangling her. That was the key difference. In no uncertain terms, this was a fight to the death.

Not to mention, she would be fighting the King of Aberrations.

"Don't feel too despondent, my servant." Cerasus looked the slightest bit happy; the hint of a cruel smile at the corners of his mouth. "I'm in the best condition of my last five-hundred years. It's so rare for one of my class. Having to try, that is. Honestly, even I don't know what will happen. You will be the most powerful of all of my foes. There is no need for me to hold back."

[Riven Wight]

Izzy shook her head at his response. “It lasted until I saw you for the monster you are,” she amended, her voice trembling slightly with both anger and anticipation of where she trusted this conversation was going.
She looked fully to Cerasus when he stepped forward, every muscle in her body tensing as she took an instinctive step away, but her heel hit the door of the farmhouse.
“It was more of a guess,” she breathed, her breaths quickened by dread and the suffocating weight that now saturated the air.
With heavy steps, she moved so her back was no longer against the farmhouse, her gaze never straying from Cerasus. If this was going to happen here, she needed to keep him as far away from the building, from its current single occupant, as she could. All it would take was a single misplaced blow for the whole structure to come crumbling down on top of Trevor. She silently cursed herself for putting him in danger yet again. If she lost, he would be an easy target, an ant to a lion with the appetite of an entire pride. Not that she felt like much more than that herself. He was the ancient hunter, and she little more than a foolish cub who dared challenge him. He had at least five-hundred years of experience in both fighting and killing. He knew all the tricks in the book, every single one of her weaknesses, while she knew only what he had bothered to tell her, and had never killed anything more than insects.
But she could not afford to think like that. She tried to shake the thought off, but with little success as he continued speaking. She took a deep, shaky breath, trying to steady her nerves.
I can do this, she thought halfheartedly, taking up her own defensive stance. She needed to find out his fighting style, any patterns or preferred methods. After all, she had only glimpsed a fraction of the surface of what he could do. And rushing in, even if she had wanted to, had since proven a poor idea to figure that out.
She took another breath, and put on as brave and determined a face as she could muster. “Then what are you waiting for?”

[Dead Cruiser]

Cerasus cocked his head to one side, his neck cracking and twisting unnaturally. "I do not want this to be over quickly." He said, quite casually as his head lolled about his shoulders. "I will kill you with malice and enmity, but I will also give myself a handicap. This battle will be... what did that boy like to say? Ah, yes, 'fifty-fifty.' I will set the rules." This was a game to him.

His head corrected itself, and he hopped forward to stand directly in front of Izzy, so close that their legs nearly entangled. In his perfect form, he was considerably taller than her, and stared down at her domineeringly. "I will not fly. I will not hide myself in shadows. I will not turn to mist. I will not turn to darkness. I will not vanish. I will not transform myself. I will not generate matter. Needless to say, this precludes my use of the Aberration Slayer. On my word, I will not use any of my active powers as a vampire. Feel free to use any of your own, limited as they may be.

"Normally, as your master, I should be able to exert a degree of control over you. I will not be so boorish. We will fight only using the refined powers of our immortality. Here, at this distance. This should constitute a fifty-fifty battle." He must have really been bored over the last century to go to such lengths for their battle. Was he letting his guard down against her?

[Riven Wight]

Izzy watched him warily as, instead of beginning the fight, he continued to speak, trying to not let his words get to her. Her brows furrowed and she looked at him disbelievingly at setting the rules. Blood would be spilled, but to him, that meant nothing. It was just another day in his life, a chance to play.
She gasped and staggered back when he hopped forward, placing a couple feet between them, his gaze enough to make her stomach do an uncomfortable flip. She could not bring herself to meet it for long.
Something tells me turning into a tree won’t do me much good, she thought bitterly at not having the same limitations on her vampiric abilities.
She inhaled and held her breath as he continued. She nodded stiffly when he finished, but stopped mid-action. “How do I know the moment I show any kind of promise, you won’t break your word?”

[Dead Cruiser]

"I have yet to break my word with you in any way." He said, indignantly. As she was about to object, she realized that he was still keeping his terms of turning her back to human, technically, by allowing her the chance to kill him. "Besides, if I did not offer you a fighting chance, there would be no sport. I don't wish to hold back, but I can't have you abandoning our battle."

Cerasus assumed what Izzy guessed was a battle posture. He held his arms in front of him like a boxer, but his hands were held with the palms open. Perhaps this was more versatile? With their strength, the difference between an open hand and a fist was probably negligible. Checking her surroundings, Izzy remembered that the sun had not yet set. There could still be people around to witness their battle, though their location was rather remote.

"Oh ho? Confident enough to take your eyes off of me, my servant? Fret not, I can smell no humans around for miles. Even if one did approach, they cannot comprehend my existence at my full power. I would be nothing more than a rumor."

A rumor. Nothing more than an urban legend. Idle gossip. But rumor gave way to rumor. And rumors had a funny habit of coming true.

"Of course, I cannot say as much for the rations hiding in the building behind you."

[Riven Wight]

Izzy shook her head slightly with a snort at there being “no sport” otherwise.
“Even if you hadn't bothered to even the odds, I wouldn’t be ‘abandoning our battle,’” she said with only slightly more confidence than she felt.
A battle they were going to have in the open. In broad daylight. When this realization dawned on her, without thinking about it, she looked from Cerasus toward where the road wove its way through the fields a good distance away. If someone was somewhere around, or drove by while they were fighting...
Cerasus’ voice drew her attention back him, and she swiftly mimicked his stance, only with closed fists, her body angled slightly. Her brows twitched downward in confusion when he reassured her. He smelt no humans? Did that mean he was somehow unaware of Trevor?
It took Izzy a moment to realize he was referring to her friend. Anger bubbled in her and crossed her face at him being called “rations.” But that meant Cerasus did know Trevor was there.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she growled warily. “And I swear, if you so much as contemplate using him as ‘rations...’” Her fists tightened, her gaze boring into him with a surprising fierceness.

[Dead Cruiser]

"You'll do what, exactly?" Cerasus' gaze narrowed, a cruel smile playing on his lips. He was mocking her. "If you kill me, you needn't worry for his safety. If I kill you... well, you won't be bothered." He laughed his gruesome laugh again, and advanced on Izzy. "Come, my servant! Use your fear and your rage; drive yourself to the furthest reaches of ferocity!"

He stalked toward Izzy, hands raised aggressively but his stance otherwise wide open. There was no defence to his posture whatsoever; he wasn't even covering his head. This was practically an invitation for Izzy to strike him. Was he that self-assured of his power and speed that he had no thought of protecting himself from her? Or was this still evening the odds?

"Prepare to die, my servant!" He called out dramatically, closing in to attack.

[Riven Wight]

Izzy gave a heavy exhale shaky with emotion, and her gaze darkened at his ridiculing comments.
She could not--would not--lose. For Trevor’s sake, if nothing else, she had to put aside the gut-wrenching feeling about killing someone. No matter what shred of humanity he had shown her on the school rooftop, Cerasus was not human. He was a monster. But she only knew one sure way of doing the job, anything else falling under nothing more than speculation.
She held her ground as Cerasus stalked toward her, watching his every move, every tense muscle that might indicate his first strike.
“I am not your servant!” she snarled, then closed the remaining space between them, ready to bob or lean around any blows he attempted before trying to land an uppercut.

[Dead Cruiser]

It seemed that Cerasus was deliberately allowing Izzy the first blow of the battle, as her uppercut connected completely undisrupted. In fact, it seemed like he wasn't trying to defend himself at all. Izzy's punch landed with startling results, as the impact on Cerasus' chin shattered his jaw in an burst of blood and fragments of bone. Izzy carried through on the blow, ripping his head off of his shoulders entirely. His blond mop was sent flying some feet away, and the jet of blood from his neck doused the two of them in crimson.

However, it seemed that while Cerasus was not defending, he was preparing a blow of his own, which was carried forward by the momentum of his swing despite his lack of a head. Much too fast for Izzy to evade, his outstretched hand went at her neck, cutting her so quickly and cleanly that she barely felt any pain at all. Izzy only came to realize that she had been attacked when her head rolled off of her shoulders, and she found herself staring up at both of their headless bodies. She blacked out the next moment after that.

Only for a brief moment, however, as the next she realized, she had completely recovered. It was startling and difficult to believe, but not even being completely decapitated was enough to kill her, as her regeneration had healed her from even that. However, she saw that Cerasus had also healed in that same time, and was grinning madly.

"This is a true battle between vampires, my servant. Our power far outstrips the durability of our flesh. Pit your immortality against mine, and we shall see who is the victor!"

With that, Cerasus leaped at her, arms slashing wildly. Clearly this was not an elegant battle of carefully blocked and parried blows. This was a slaughter, a test of whose berserk fury could overpower the other.

[Riven Wight]

The outcome of her blow made Izzy falter in shocked horror, but the emotion scarcely had time to register before her own head was detached from her body. It was an unnerving feeling, to say the least, being nothing but a head, with no sensations beside the glimpse of two headless bodies before the world went black. When she came to only a second later, she gasped and staggered back when she realized the sensation of having a full body had returned.
Her eyes wide, she reached up and gently fingered her neck as if checking that her head was securely fixed to it, all but her head spattered in glistening crimson.
She swallowed hard and looked to Cerasus, who had recuperated just as quickly. That ruled out beheading as a means of vampire slaying. And she was fresh out of wooden stakes to try the other method she had heard of. If it was a test of whose immortality and regeneration would give out first, she doubted hers would hold up to his. Her gaze settled for a moment on his jugular at the thought of the remaining option.
When he leapt at her, Izzy dodged his attacks as well as she could, her body turning and crouching slightly to make his target as small as possible. She stepped to attempt getting a clear shot to his side and thrust a couple jabs before trying to pull away, watching for any opportunities.

[Dead Cruiser]

Though Izzy at first took a more cautious, measured approach to her battle with Cerasus, she was eventually reduced to the same screaming, bestial fury that he fought her with. It felt like being trapped in some kind of ironic hell. No matter what grievous harm she inflicted him with, he just healed it right back. She ripped off his head, tore off his arms, pierced his heart, disemboweled him... all to no effect. The things she did to him shocked her, but they had been so easy that she hadn't even intended them. She was simply so strong, and he did not try to defend himself at all.

More hellish was the harm he inflicted on her. All of the same horrific punishments, she received at least twice as frequently. She too simply would not die. The injuries had effects; when her head was destroyed, her thoughts stopped, and so on. She was just already "not alive," and so this harm could not kill her. She felt pain, though. Incredible, agonizing pain. She didn't scream as she fought out of anger, just out of residual pain. Cerasus didn't scream, though. He didn't even cry out, no matter what she did to him. He just laughed. What had he been through in his life that pain like this was nothing to him?

Though the battle seemed hopeless, Izzy knew there was still one thing she could do to kill him. Her instincts told her this, but even if they hadn't, Cerasus himself had told her some time ago. The sure-fire way to end a vampire's existence. Cerasus knew this also, and could probably kill her this way at any time, but insisted on toying with her. This would be her chance. She just had to wait for him to drop his guard, and she would make her final, desperate endeavor.

[Riven Wight]

Izzy tried to pull away from the onslaught, hoping for a moment, even a mere partial second, of a reprieve. A mental and physical agony mingling with a fury fueled in part by the lingering pain burned in her eyes and displayed on her face. The metallic taste of her own blood from the short time it took her to heal coated her tongue in a film. Her chest and shoulders heaved with each breath. Though her body kept healing, she did not know how much more of this torture she could take.
She wanted--needed--this to be over. By any means possible. It took much of her willpower to not just simply give in. But a quick glance to the farmhouse was enough to remind her of why she could not.
Gathering what strength to fight she still had, she let out an angered cry and charged once more into the fray, though every part of her desired to run in the opposite direction. The moment Cerasus let his guard down, she leapt on him, trying to pin his arms to his sides, and her long, sharp fangs aimed at the soft flesh at the base of his neck.

[Dead Cruiser]

Quite predictably, Cerasus' guard lowered to attack her again, and Izzy leaped at him, fangs drawn. He saw the attack coming- there's no way he couldn't have -and his face warped by bloodlust regained its composure. He looked serene now, almost content. Izzy's fangs sunk into his neck, and he made no effort to push her off. Izzy wasn't sure what to do now that he had bitten him, but at that point her instincts took over. She drew the blood from him, and instantaneously knew why vampires were drawn to suck blood. It was delicious-- the most delicious thing in the world. She could go on doing it forever.

Cerasus' breath became shallow as she drank from the pale flesh of his neck, and his limbs trembled. His spilt blood returned, but blood Izzy sucked away did not. That was because she was not merely consuming his blood, she was consuming his energy. As Cerasus had said before, she was eating his very existence. This was one aberration slaying another. She would kill him. The life she once saved, she would now take away.

"Y-you know, my servant." He said, just quiet enough for her to hear, "None of the hunters that came after me knew this, nor did that boy, but I was human once as well. And so I understand... your trepidation to feeding on humans. You only have to do it once, and all of your guilt will vanish. In my time I must have devoured... at least six-thousand humans. Across five hundred years... quite a paltry number. Paltry compared to even one of your human wars. I am no threat to mankind. But I know how you feel. You are a human, and I am a vampire. Prey and predator. You cannot allow me to live as long as I see your kind as food. So be it."

However, a second voice broke the two from the embrace of death they were wrapped in. "W-wait, this doesn't make sense!" It was Trevor's voice. Izzy was shocked enough to release Cerasus' neck, loathe as she was to do so. "Izzy, this isn't right!" He stood just outside the barn, shouting at the two of them. Was he not afraid of dying? Even though Izzy knew she was immortal, she was still terrified to stand in front of Cerasus.

"S-silence, you ration!" Cerasus yelled at him, his voice slurred. His expression was weak, but obviously flustered, and his eyes were clouded over. Izzy must have already drank at least half of the blood in his body. But what had Trevor noticed, and why was it bothering Cerasus?

"Izzy! Think about it! How do you think he intended to turn you back into a human?" Trevor shouted again, a certain clarity in his voice.

"I said silence!" Ceraus roared, his voice echoing against the sky. "Lowly human!" A drop in the air pressure and a sudden glare in Cerasus' eyes indicated the impending use of one of his vampiric powers.

The barn behind Trevor partially exploded, a huge chunk of it blowing away in a shower of splintered wood. Trevor himself stood his ground, shielding himself from the debris with his arms. He looked to Izzy, obviously imploring her to think over the situation from his point of view. Had she overlooked something?

"Damocles tell you something like that? I don't see why not. If he said he would, I should think there's a way."

"He was a bit more pliable after I told him that you wanted to return to being human, and Damocles had agreed."

"I came here to see it again, before..."

"Endless life can be a very dull thing. I know all too well."

"I was looking up ways to cure vampirism, and the same thing kept coming up."

"So be it."

[Riven Wight]

The ease at which her attack succeeded shocked Izzy. Cerasus did not so much as raise a hand to push or pry her away. With the strength and speed he had displayed thus far, she was sure he could have. What was he playing at? But any reservations that still clung to her faded the moment the thick, crimson ambrosia poured over her tongue. How much she drank or for how long, she could not say, nor did she care. She felt Cerasus begin to tremble in her grasp, but paid it little mind. It took her a short moment to realize when he spoke, but she heard his quiet words all the same.
Then the sound of Trevor’s voice called for her attention. Reluctantly, she pulled from Cerasus’ neck, licking red from her lips as she looked to her friend, surprised he had exited the building. Though he had shown a disregard for his own safety at least once before with Psychotic Episode, this was no battle with a half-vampire.
“What’re you doing?” she groaned out, panic at him being in the open in her eyes. Her brows furrowed at his second statement. He was the one who suggested slaying Cerasus, and now where was something not right about it?
She stared at him contemplatively at his question. Her attention turned to Cerasus again at the change in the atmosphere, but before she could so much as say something, a portion of the barn blasted away. Even half drained of his blood, his powers were still frighteningly impressive.
“Trevor!” she shouted, her grip on Cerasus loosening as debris rained down on her friend. “You leave him alone!” she growled in Cerasus’ ear. She returned Trevor’s gaze when he looked to her, apparently unharmed.
What had he seen that she had missed? She ran everything pertinent to the situation leading up to this day through her head as quickly as she could, from Cerasus’ promise to return her to humanity in payment for the regain of his powers, to his shockingly quick resignation the moment she went for the kill.
Slowly, she looked from Trevor to Cerasus. “You... want this. Don’t you?” Her brows furrowed deeper. “But then, why not have just let yourself die the night I found you? Why drag yourself who-knows-how-far to save yourself?”

[Dead Cruiser]

Trevor quite boldly approached the two of them, his hair and clothes a mess of dust and splinters, but his gaze was focused solely on Cerasus' faltering form. "Izzy had a reason to fight, but you didn't. I know you came up with some labored reason like wanting to use your full powers, but you came here to be killed by her, didn't you? You made it a fifty-fifty fight. You even provoked her."

"D-damn you..." Cerasus muttered weakly.

"I wasn't totally sure at first, but just now, when I tried to put a damper on your fight, you didn't even try to kill me." The barn exploding. Even though it was behind Trevor, he was completely unharmed. "That's when I knew. Your-" He hesitated, faltering for just a moment before saying more quietly, "Your plan is to die."

"You should have kept your mouth shut..." Cerasus growled, sounding more pained than angry. "What good do you think this will do? Do you think this girl will kill me after hearing those words? This fool that would save a vampire on the brink of death... Do you think she can carry through and end me now that she knows the truth?"

Cerasus sat down on the ground heavily, his lack of blood obviously making him weary. "I thought this would be the most difficult step of all, getting you to kill me. I kept quiet on how I would return you to humanity for as long as I could. I thought we would just have to plunge into it, but Guillotine Cutter provided an easy alternative. I could be the villain. You could despise me and slay me so, with no need to know of my intention." Looking up at Izzy sullenly, he continued. "I had been searching so long for a place to die. I returned here, where I met my first servant, and thought that I was ready. But at the end I... I was afraid." Please. Help me. I don't want to die. "I had been alive for so long, the thought that I would vanish scared me so.

"But you came along. You saved my life. No one in my life had ever helped me before. And so when I sat there, drinking your blood, I decided to make you my servant. My second one ever. You were asleep for so long after that..." Three days unconscious. If Riley was to be believed, Cerasus had sat at Izzy's side attending her for all of that time. "I decided then, while you were asleep, that I would do for you what I could not do for my first servant. I would save your humanity. I would die for you."

Cerasus was a vampire. An inhuman monster. He ate six-thousand people. But he was alive. Wasn't it the same? What Izzy had done for him? What he was trying to do for Izzy? If Izzy hadn't known the truth-- if she had killed him in rage and fear, she would have been deprived of regret and remorse. She would be human again, but would be mistaken about him for the rest of her life. What a fool she would be. She would get her wish, but that would be it. It wouldn't be a happy ending for anyone.

"What a mess you've made of this, you ration." Cerasus said bitterly, glacing back at Trevor. "Your only option is to kill me now, my servant. If you don't... I promise to kill one thousand people every day. Starting with him. Come now. You saved my life, now you will take it away. Be responsible." Tears rolled down his cheeks, staining them red. Tears of blood. "You called me 'Cerasus' from the very start. Only one ever did that before. And you will be the last."

Though he tried to sound gallant, Izzy could still see through his facade. The Cerasus that had cried out for his life in the darkness was the real him. Looking at Trevor, he had no answer but to wring his hands nervously. Even he knew what a hopeless situation this was. There was perhaps only one other person that knew what could possibly be done. Someone who could bring this conflict back into balance.

[Riven Wight]

Disapproval flashed over Izzy’s face when Trevor marched toward her and Cerasus, hating his growing proximity, and momentarily wondering if Trevor had a death wish of his own. As he spoke, she fully released Cerasus, Trevor’s statement confirmed by two words.
Izzy ran a hand down her face, her palm stopping over her mouth as Cerasus sat on the ground, much of his energy drained from him. Drained by her. Just as he had wanted. At least, almost.
She listened intently to Cerasus’ tale, her eyes unseeingly turned to the summer-green mix of overgrown grass and weeds of the lawn. She gave a shaky, heavy exhale as he finished, and sunk to her knees not far from him.
“You would...” she breathed, then swallowed. She ran a hand through the lose part of her hair, but stopped with her fingers still entwined in the strands.
He had planned this from near the beginning. A sacrifice for a sacrifice. And all she would have known of it was what he wanted. She would have lived on, thinking him nothing but a callous, murderous monster she killed in a fearful, desperate rage. No matter how many people he had killed to survive, she could not easily push aside his choices with her. At last, she looked to Cerasus when he spoke once more. She inhaled through her nose at his threat, her stare intensifying, before shock at his tears made her eyes widen.
She looked at him for a long moment, then shook her head, slowly at first, then with more conviction. “No.”
She exhaled heavily and pulled her hand from her hair. She turned her head so Cerasus was only just in her sight, her voice soft as she began. “For... For an ancient king of the night, you’re an idiot, you know that? And still a bad liar. No one really wants to die. Sometimes we think we do, but we don’t. Just normally, people don’t figure that out until it’s too late. Like you said, I saved your life, but I won’t let you throw it away like this.” She shook her head again. “He,” she nodded toward Trevor, “thinks we met because he told me a rumor about you. I called it being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But... but you know what? Maybe it was fate trying to say something. As stupid as that sounds. So, no. I’m not going to kill you. And you’re not going on a killing spree.”
Izzy took another deep breath, and continued in so low a voice she was certain Trevor would not hear even if he stood directly behind her. “You’re still more human than you think, Carasus. A blood-thirsty monster wouldn’t have cared enough to even consider this. They... they would have killed me without a thought the night I offered my throat. But here we are. There must be another way out of this,” she continued slightly louder. “There has to be!”
She glanced to Trevor, hoping he had something to offer, but he did not. She looked around at the field of gently swaying grass and wildflowers that extended around them for miles.
So much for restoring balance, she thought with a sigh. But the sound cut off half way through. She groaned and her shoulders slumped as she looked toward the sky. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this. We need to find Riley. If this isn’t a time when things aren’t completely out of whack, I don’t know what is.”
Izzy got to her feet and moved to stand directly in front of Cerasus. “So, Cerasus Orion Damocles. The hot-blooded, cold-blooded, iron-blooded vampire. The King of Aberrations, and Master of Bazaar Jokes. You going to help find him, or stay here and brood about your suicide mission going awry?” She offered him a hand to help him to his feet.

[Dead Cruiser]

Cerasus swatted Izzy's hand away, and cast his gaze on the ground. "I have already made up my mind. I made it up when he died, two-hundred years ago. I have no intention of seeking that boy, and have him meddle in my life further."

"Now that's not a fair thing to say. You make me sound like a busybody." A familiar voice sounded, not too far away.

Sat atop what was left of the barn was none other than the mysterious Mohe Riley, the mysterious traveler, vagabond, troubadour and nomad. Having caught Izzy's attention, he gave her a cheeky smile and a little wave. Without a doubt, he had been watching the entire battle, as was his habit. He hopped down from the tall roof of the barn, landing with barely a bend of his knees.

"Fancy meeting you here, what a coincidence. So energetic. Did something good happen to you?" He turned to Trevor, smiled politely and nodded to him. "Ah, the young miss' classmate. This would be our first meeting, no? Nice to meet you."

"Ah, uh, nice to meet you too..." Trevor seemed a little taken aback, perhaps unsettled by the strangeness that surrounded Riley and his mannerisms. "My name is Trevor Hansen."

"A good thing I stuck around town to make sure this business with Damocles wrapped up, or I wouldn't have gotten to meet you."

"Really? I was convinced you were avoiding me."

"Oh, stop. I could never be so rude. If the young miss told you something weird about me, take it from me, it's just gossip she made up." Wow, what a shameless guy. "You're quite impressive, though. Getting this deeply involved when aberrations don't concern you. Teenage boys are so energetic-- did something good happen to you?"

"They do concern me," Trevor asserted, "If it's Izzy's problem, it's my problem too."

"Boy, ain't that friendship," Riley seemed to be stifling a laugh. "Or maybe it's youth."

"You. Boy." Cerasus spoke up. "Stay out of this. Wasn't that our agreement?"

"I don't remember making an agreement with you, Damocles. I just set things up well. You deciding to die so the young miss could become human again was convenient for me-- that's all. And by me I mean mankind."

That was it. It was probably the same with Guillotine Cutter, when he hesitantly handed over Cerasus' legs. Riley had told him that Cerasus was going to return Izzy to being a human. He must have used that information to strike a compromise. Cutter could return the legs without going against his creed, and save face with his church. But it had taken so long after the fact, what with Izzy's indecision and their conversation on the rooftop, that Guillotine Cutter thought he had been tricked, and marched to the abandoned school alone.

"So things played out more or less like I expected... but Trevor, you sure made a grand mess of things. The young miss really didn't need to know all that."

"I-" Trevor objected, "I still think that's wrong."

"Oh dear. Well, I have to admit, you're one big pain in the ass."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I misspoke. You have one big heart." What a sleazy character. "Either way, that's real wonderful behavior there. A real model student. But what do you suggest we do here?"

"That's for Izzy to decide," Trevor shot back. "She can't end things without knowing the truth."

"You catch that, young miss? You're in a real tough spot here. Your friend is so kind he's cruel. Really something not right about this boy. What is it that he sees in you that lets him trust you like that?" Riley stuck his unlit cigarette in his mouth, another familiar behavior. "So what'll it be? My original plan was to sit back and watch this play out, but that ship has sailed. So if you have a request for me as a professional, I'll hear you out."

[Riven Wight]

Izzy glowered when Cerasus hit her hand away, and returned it to her side. She opened her mouth to give a retort, but Riley’s familiar voice gained her attention She returned the his wave by raising her eyebrows. Of course he would have been observing all this.
"I'm beginning to wonder if you have anything better to do than stalk us," she called as Riley jumped from the remaining portion of rooftop.
She watched the exchange between him and Trevor. When he suggested anything she had said was gossip, she crossed her arms and looked at him incredulously. She gave Trevor a grateful smile at his defense.
When Cerasus spoke, Izzy turned to look at him. “Your agreement?” she asked, her words blending with the first of Riley’s. She snorted softly and shook her head. That explained a couple things.
“Hey!” she scolded as Trevor said “Excuse me?” Her eyes narrowed and she scowled when Riley “corrected” himself.
“So you keep telling me,” she growled at Riley’s comment about Trevor to her. With no answer of her own to give his question, she glanced to Trevor, the same question echoed in her eyes, before returning her attention to Riley. She raised her chin slightly, her arms still over her chest. “My request is another way out of this mess. Because I will not,” she shot Cerasus a quick glare as she continued, “be an instrument in his suicide. If you don’t know of another way, I have the feeling you’ll at least know where to find one.”

[Dead Cruiser]

Riley rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, as you know, I don't work for free. So regarding my fee, ahh, consider the thirty-five thousand you owe me back on." Apparently considering that matter closed, he clapped his hands together as though coming to a conclusion. "Now then. I don't have a solution that will make everyone happy. What I do have is a solution that will make everyone miserable. That is to say, the grief will be shared evenly among you; no one person will win or lose. If you're okay with that, there is a way."

[Riven Wight]

Izzy nodded at Riley’s reminder of not working for free. She had expected nothing less. She sighed and frowned when he gave her his price, but nodded again. It was a small price to pay if it would bring an end to this madness without anyone having to die.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as Riley began, a look of cautious suspicion on her face as he continued. She bent her head and glanced to Trevor, wondering if he was a part of “no one person.” She took a deep breath, taking a moment to decide how to answer Riley.
“We all seem pretty miserable as it is," she said with a snort. "But I can’t make that decision for everyone.” She glanced to Cerasus, then looked back to Riley. “Especially without knowing what that entails. So, let’s hear it, first. What is it you’re proposing, exactly?”