Fanfiction JCA

                                                                   How

         My day was supposed to be routine. Get dressed, do my exercises, wait for orders. Sometimes we'd patrol the halls in shifts to guard the facility. Sometimes we'd get sent after a criminal in a nearby business or house or hotel... But today was far from normal. Why?

"Shoot the nets! Shoot them now!"

"Nets don't do no good!"

"Just slow him down!" Today I was shooting at a monster. He was breathing fire for fucks sake!

"He's breakin' through the front line!" Section 13 had been around for a long time. Long enough to know that this certain monster was bad news without even going into detail about his abilities. He was a demon. Demons are just bad, right? So here we are, fighting for the safety of our planet as he tries to steal the power hidden within our inner sanctum.



"AHHHH-GHK!" I heard them die, screaming in pain or fear, they all ended the same way. Fast. He was darting back and forth to avoid the chi bullets we made especially for him. They had magic in them, good magic. Until now I'd thought it was nonsense to make magic bullets. After I'd run into him a few times, I was thankful for them. They didn't seem to do that much to him, but they made him retreat when he got hit with them. Trouble is he's gotten faster every time, and now we haven't been able to hit him more than a graze.

"Datake, snap out of it!" I jump slightly and re-aim my gun. We'd tracked him to this bridge and I was spacing out at the critical moment? What the hell is wrong with me!?

"Sorry sir!" I shoot at the blur and it changes directions yet again. Damn it, how was I supposed-

"Shooting another net sir!"

"Fireproof?"

"Yes sir!"

"Steel ones here yet?"

"Yes sir!"

"Fire!" They started shooting the nets and one of them caught him on the ankle. He stopped to rip at it with his claws but steel is a bit harder to break than the normal netting. They started shooting more nets and soon he was covered from head to foot. He moved as much as he was able, back and back and back until he was against the bridge edge. We all started running forward and he blew fire at us, something everyone always seems to forget he can do if he's tied up.



I block my face and when the fire stops for him to pull in a breath, I run forward. Someone yells and I turn to see what alarmed them. I'm suddenly being thrown back with a net wrapping around me and falling over the edge of the bridge, knocking him off with me.



         I fell into the water with my hands scrambling for my laser knife. I found it in my pocket and slowly cut myself out of the net, steel thread by steel thread. I get my hands free, my heart thumping hard against my ribs. I slowly cut the rest of my body out and kick forward to head for the surface. I stop and look back when I feel bubbles erupting against my skin. I look down; he's still all wrapped up in that steel thread. If he didn't get free, he'd drown. I could see him already losing most of his breath. He was thrashing too much, his mouth opening to expel bubbles like he was screaming. I turn back to the surface but stop. If I left him there, on the bottom of the river, he'd die. Damn my heart. Damn my logic. Damn me.



         I dive for him and when I get to him, he seems to be straining with everything he's got. I start cutting the threads, but there's at least four nets on him and it's slow going even with a laser. I have to snap each small diamond of netting and then the next and the next. I get his hands free and he's yanking the laser from my grasp. He's stronger than I am of course, so it doesn't surprise me that he can cut through all those threads with one go. What does surprise me is that he's able to cut them all in a completely straight line without a single pause. He kicks off the bottom and my vision wavers as I start to starve for oxygen. I kick off after him and push toward the surface. My vision starts to go black, and the last thing I see before passing out, is a green shape ahead of me, covered in black, breaking the surface and treading water.



         I gasp as I wake up, my whole body trembling as I cough up water, my eyes covered with something and panicking when it sticks to my skin while I try to pry it off. It's a piece of seaweed; I see when I pull it off. I hear a cough and turn to my left. I jump. It's him. He's lying on the bank next to me, not too close, his whole body shuddering violently and half his body lying in the water. His eyes are rolling slightly as I kneel on my knees and watch him warily. His legs give a violent jerk and he's scooted a few inches out of the water. He's trying to get away from the water... it seems like... does it hurt him?



         I crawl forward and very quickly poke him, yanking my hand back and falling on my rear end. I feel silly when he doesn't move except to shiver and groan in pain. I sigh. Well I'd saved his life, so why not go and help him some more? It couldn't hurt anything but my body, right? I mean my team was going to hate me for saving his life, why not spare him some pain? I was supposed to be one of the good guys, right? "Okay, here we go... gonna help the psycho demon and hope he doesn't rip my throat out." I stand up on wobbly legs; I step tentatively toward him and just barely touch him with my shoe. His eyes roll to look at me and I sigh. "Don't worry; I'll get you... relatively dry." So I lean down and pull on his arm until I can get under him to hook my arms under his and yank him foot by foot out of the water. Eventually I get him at least six feet away from the water and decide that's far enough. I kneel by him and reach up to take his pulse since he'd gone quiet and still. He started shivering again and I sigh in relief. I could feel his heartbeat, but it was slow, passive. He felt colder than he was supposed to... or well... colder than a human was supposed to feel anyway.

"Over here!" I jerk away from him and look up to see my team headed toward us. I realize we're not that far from the bridge. We must not have drifted that far. They run up, their guns aimed at him and draping a blanket over my shoulders.

"You alright?" I turn to my commanding officer.

"Fine... but I think... I mean... it seems like the water hurt him."

"Good, he'll be nice and docile until we can lock him up." I frown,

"But... what if it kills him?"

"One less demon to capture." I shudder at the cold in his voice and watch as they secure his mouth with an electronic muzzle that will stop his fire breathing, and mute his voice if we wanted. They pull his arms behind his back and his eyes blink open to roll around and look at them. They cuff his wrists and then his ankles together, and then connect them with a cable.

"Um... sir?" Something has occurred to me. Just now.

"What is it?" He's watching them load him up, he's barely paying any attention to me.

"Could I... I want to guard his cell." He looks at me then.

"Why?"

"I... feel like I have to do it. I'll take double shifts; I know you like to switch up the schedule... I'll take any time."

"You think he's gonna get out if you're not there to stop him?" He sounds amused.

"Uh, yeah. I'm just a little paranoid." I smile nervously.

"I'll put you on night duty. You can have one shift. Nine p.m. to five a.m."

"Thank you sir. I'm sure that will make me feel much better."



Chapter 2



He's been asleep for two days.

It shouldn't worry me.

I shouldn't care, right?

I've always been this way, always quick to care about the wrong people. The people we go after, they don't deserve my compassion, everyone says so. He's killed so many of my comrades... so many lives lost, and I saved him. I made it possible for him to kill again. Section 13 didn't do death row. We contained, we didn't kill. Because we're supposed to be the good guys. It's the code passed down from Augustus Black himself, the original magic captain. Oh he didn't DO magic. He fought magic. With magic users. But he's been dead for more than two hundred years now.

"Uhn..." I hear him groan behind me and turn to see him sit up in the bed and reach for his head, smacking himself in the face with his gloves. They were fireproof and so tight around the wrist that they couldn't be taken off. He blinked at them and groaned, flopping back onto the cot and sighing.

"You've been asleep for two days." He turned to look at me, almost lazily.

"Have I?" He seemed unconcerned.

"Water hurts you, doesn't it?" He simply stared at me. "Why did you do it, Drago?" He raises a brow.

"Do what?" I take a deep breath.

"I remember blacking out. I also remember waking up almost right next to you." His eyes narrowed.

"So what?"

"So you saved my life."

"You saved mine first." He was glaring at me now. "Demons are bound to repay debts. They're like contracts for the soul to us. It's your fault." He sounded really disgruntled.

"I'm sorry. But I really don't think you're as tightly bound as other demons. You're half human aren't you?" He growls, sitting up.

"I'm not a good guy. Stop trying to make it seem like I saved you out of the goodness of my heart. There isn't anything there."

"I don't care if you're good or evil." He narrows his eyes further. He looks surprised and angry.

"Don't you?"

"I only care... that you saved me and you didn't have to. It doesn't have to be because you like me or because you felt like it was the right thing to do. Point is, you did it." He looked slightly more surprised now. His eyes wider, but still narrowed just a bit.

"You don't think saving a life is a good thing?" I shake my head.

"What makes it good or bad is the meaning behind it. If you just did it to satisfy a debt, then it's not inherently good. Moral to a point, but not selfless or anything like that. And demons probably have their own set of morals, right?" He raised an eye ridge again.

"You think demons have morals?"

"Not like ours. Of course not. But something like... well I heard family matters to demons."

"Yes." He says it succinctly, like it doesn't even register that that's a good thing.

"Family is important to me too. I repay my debts. We're not so different." He tilts his head.

"Aren't we?"

"I guess what I'm trying to get at is... I don't want you to die. But I guess you already found that out, what with my cutting you out of that netting."

"I cut out of the netting, you just cut a small enough hole for me to fit my fist through. You need to work out." He yawned; I imagine his teeth would have looked intimidating if I could have seen them. His muzzle keeps me from it, however.

"I'll never be as strong as you are. Being completely human and all that." He looked drowsy.

"I guess. You're still weak for a human." He lies back as a guard walks up to me.

"I'm here to relieve you." I sigh.

"Okay. Drago?" He turns his head to look at me again.

"What?"

"I'm saying. I don't want you to die, but that doesn't mean I like you. If I ever get the chance, I'll throw water right in your face, and shoot you in the leg to keep you down. But that's not because you're evil. It's because you scare me." He looks passive as I leave. But I can hear him beginning to taunt my replacement.



         I dream about that day. I see how he saved my life, and afterward when he collapses in the water, trying hard to crawl out of it, but beginning to shake and shiver and unable to move. He coughs and claws at the ground, trying to pull himself further up the bank, but he can't move an inch. He growls to himself as he flips on his back and blows smoke as he coughs. When I wake up, I forget a lot of the dream, just remembering vaguely that he was in it. I sigh and haul myself out of bed. It was time for breakfast.



         The day was mostly uneventful. I walked past the containment units a few times throughout the day, not on purpose; it was just on my way. I caught glimpses of all the other prisoners and they didn't seem unsettled so I'd have to guess he hadn't done anything that bad yet... I was wrong.



"Datake." I turn around at the call of my name, my superior officer is standing at the door to my room.

"Yes sir?"

"It's almost time for your shift, so I should tell you now."

"Tell me what?"

"He almost killed several guards today." I blink.

"Drago has the gloves on, and a muzzle, how did he accomplish that?"

"Several different ways. Once he chewed a spoon into a shiv and threw it with such force... it pierced the guards' lung. And went out the other side."

"... and... his muzzle was open?"

"He was eating, it allowed a spoon sized hole for that."

"And... how else?"

"He strangled one who got too close."

"Oh god." I drop my head into my hands.

"I know your morals wouldn't have allowed it, but couldn't you have let him drown?"

"No... which is bad..." I sigh and sit on the bed. "But sir... He..." I couldn't say it. He'd probably taunt Drago with this little nugget of knowledge and Drago would make sure he ended up dead somehow.

"Yes?"

I sigh, "He deserves life, just like anybody else... but I think maybe he should... get locked down more."

"Already done."

"And I think... maybe I should take more than one shift."

"And why is that?"

"... I... want to."



         I walk up to my replacement and you can tell he's happy to see me. He looks like he's spent the last eight hours terrified for his life. I couldn't blame him really. He stepped aside and Drago glanced up at us from behind the see-through plexiglass wall. He did a double take and sat up, gripping the edges of his bed as he watched us switch positions and the last guard walked off. "You're back." I turn to look at him over my shoulder.

"Yes."

"Why?" I blink and smirk.

"Did you think you could scare me away?" His eyes narrow.

"Yes."

"What's so bad about me that you have to try and get rid of me? I'm the only one here who wants you to be alive you know."

"I don't care for women." I raise an eyebrow and try to pretend that doesn't sting.

"Swing the other way, huh?" He looked unamused. His growling turned into words,

"I just think they're useless." I hm.

"Well this woman saved your ass. Hows about that?" He growled again and I chuckled to myself. When I turned around, I saw two guards gaping at me.

"Are you CRAZY!?" They started backing away. "Just cause he's locked up tight does NOT mean he can't hurt you! He's escaped, how many times from high security?" I watch as they run away and turn to see him looking smug.

"This woman is also a better master of her fear than the men around." He lifts an eye ridge.

"Didn't you say that I scare you?" His voice was terrifying with a growl in it and everything. I shivered.

"Yes. But I'm also... curious, so I just have to shove my fear to the back burner. That's all."

"... how are you able to be unafraid?" I turn around to look at him. He didn't look afraid of anything, but I'm sure a few things made him uncomfortable... like water for instance.

"You're a demon... don't you know how to use fear?" He shrugs,

"Use it against others yes... master it, which is a very rare skill, no."

"Oh." I blinked and turned around to completely face him.

"You just have to have something that seems more important... like... you were probably afraid of what the water was going to do to you, but you saved me anyway. You were afraid, but the fear was less important than the debt you felt you owed me." He looked from my left to my right eye, and back and forth, his eyes narrowed.

"Are you telling me that mastering fear is that easy?"

"Fear isn't meant to kill you, just... slow you down. It's meant to protect you. If you're afraid then you're wary, if you're wary that means you can avoid the worst of what's to come sometimes."

"Fear is a defense mechanism?" He looked completely puzzled. I blink at him.

"Well duh. I mean no offense but... didn't your parents tell you... oh. Right." He growls at me, looking enraged now. "I'm sorry, I forgot... who I was talking to." He blinked as if surprised.

"How could you forget?"

"I guess we were just talking so I just thought of you... as a person. I mean... you are a person, aren't you?" He looked confused, and lost.

"I'm a demon."

"Well Mr. Demon. My parents didn't tell me either, but I figure most other ones must be at least half way responsible. Anyway, fear is only there to keep you from doing something stupid. For instance. Water can hurt you, so it scares you, right? If it couldn't hurt you, it wouldn't scare you at all. Right? So why is the fear there?"

He seems to think about that, his eyes on the ground and moving from side to side. "To protect me."

"Fear is your inner mother and father, telling you what not to do." He blinks at the ground and looks up slowly at me.

"Nothing protects me."

"Fear isn't biased by race, creed, religion, or demon. It protects everyone." I smile and feel my eyes soften as I think about how I characterized my fear. A loving pair of parents. Each fear was thanks to a different parent. This one was mother, this one was father, you know... I realize when I tune back in that he's looking at me with wide eyes and shock written all over what I can see of his face. I blink and realize that soft smile would have been directed at him. I turn around and flush bright red. "Sorry, I was thinking about... well not you." I hear a relieved sigh.

"Thank god. I've dealt with love-struck women before, it's not very pleasant." I bust out laughing.

"What, you mean the DEMON's had admirers?" He actually chuckles. I'm so shocked my eyes widen and I turn to look at his amused expression.

"Women tend to lean more toward demonic things than men. It's simply in them to love the unlovable."

"You're not unlovable." I blink and cover my mouth. "I'm sorry that was-"

"I AM unlovable." He looked even more amused now. "Not because I am demon, which is I'm sure what you meant... I am unlovable because I am myself. I will not change who I am, not for anyone, and to be lovable you must change for someone else." He raised an eye ridge. "Am I wrong?"

"Yes." I was a little miffed now, and I knew he could see it in my scrunched up expression. He's still amused.

"Am I?"

"Yes, absolutely wrong. I mean..." I look at the ground. "I try to love people because they are who they are and they won't change unless they feel like it. I try to love people because I... love them... not because they love me." I turn around and lean back against the clear wall between me and him. "I never thought anyone could be unlovable... I mean... out of all the billions of lives on earth, it's statistically impossible for one of them to not love you. For exactly who you are..." I thought of something then, that I would never ask him in a million years. "Hey Drago, I know who your father is... but who was your mother?" I turn to see him standing right there on the other side and jump slightly when I get a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye. He's looking at me like he's trying to figure me out.

"I don't know."

I blink. "Oh. We have something in common then." He looks surprised again, "I have no idea who my mother is either." He looks off in the distance over to the side of us and I turn to look.

"Hey... babe, why are you talking to it?" I frown at my boyfriend,

"Jake, why are you in here?"

"Makin' sure he doesn't kill ya." I feel my eyelids lower.

"I don't need your protection." I hear a scoff. I turn to see Drago looking disbelieving.

"YOU'RE going to protect her? From ME?" Now he looks amused and I feel my lips twitching.

"I wasn't talkin' to you, demon." I huff,

"His name is DRAGO." I hear a small shift of cloth and turn to see Drago staring at me. His eyes narrow and dart to Jake. Then he seems to smooth out his face.

"No big deal, people have called me worse." Then he seems to smirk. "But I can guarantee what I call you, will make her more angry with you than me."

"Oh yeah?" He crosses his arms and Drago sniffs the air.

"Did you know that from my cell I can smell everything that goes on in this part of the building? The cross ventilation is just too good." He grins evilly with his eyes.

"So what? What's that have to do with-"

"Well mainly because I smell her on you, so I assume you're intimate in some way, but I can also smell sex on you. And it's not coming from her, so you must have gotten it from someone else." I blink blankly for a moment. Then I walk toward Jake and he backs up a step as I get within arm's reach.

"You can't believe him!" I sniff. I smell him covered in body spray. Which he's been dousing on just before seeing me a lot lately. I grab the scruff of his shirt and pull him closer, sniffing deeper. I shouldn't have believed him, but the truth would hurt more than a lie. And then I caught a whiff of fruity perfume.

"Oh my god." I back away from him and he reaches for me. My fist lashes out and makes contact with his face, sending him flying backward. See... we'd been enhanced. A few of us. I'm stronger than him. Than everyone really. But I didn't know how to control my strength. Which is why most of the time I was weak. I turned and walked back to my post, turning my back on both of them and glaring straight ahead. "Go away." He was crawling away as I spoke, his moaning and crying in my peripheral hearing. I heard a chuckle and turned to see him settling on the bed with a smirk.

"Well, at the very least, you won't have to worry about whether to lose it or not anymore." I have no idea what he's talking about.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He grins,

"Maybe I'll feel like telling you later."



         I yawn widely and wake to the feeling of not being alone. I look at my digital clock which flashes 6 a.m. which means I only got an hour of sleep... why? I sit up and flick on my light, screaming when it comes on. I'm backed into my pillows so hard I hit my head. "What-"

"Relax; I'm not going to kill you." He was curled up at the foot of my bed, looking like a coiled dragon guarding a gold mine. I blink at him.

"You escaped and you come here?" He opens one of his eyes to glance at me.

"I had nothing else to do. Besides, what I want is somewhere in this place, isn't it?" I sigh,

"I don't know where it is."

"I'm sure you don't. You're not nearly important enough."

"Excuse me?"

"You're a peon. No offense." He smirks at me and I realize his muzzle and gloves are gone.

"Okay... and why aren't you going to kill me?" He rolls his eye that's open.

"I don't feel like it." I blink at him.

"Don't you usually kill everyone who cages you? I'm your guard... so why not?" He closes his eye.

"We aren't so different." I blink again. "You and I."

"O...kay... so wh... what do you want from me?"

"Sleep." He yawns now and being able to see his teeth is as terrifying as I thought it'd be.

"You... just want to sleep in here?"

"Warmer in here. The bed is softer."

"..." I just stare at him as he falls asleep. His face is relaxed, and yet I'm still afraid. Then why do I feel so calm, I think. I bite my lip as I watch him sleep. His breath is smooth and controlled... and then I remember that he always has a guard at his cell and someone should have raised an alarm by now. "Drago?"

"Hm."

"Did you kill your guard?" His eye opens again and I'm suddenly staring straight into it. I've never seen something that looked so angry, so... red, and not have it accompanied by an angry face or some kind of danger. But of course he was a danger in himself.

"Like you said, the people who cage me don't live very long." I take a deep breath as I lean back on the pillows, collapsing a bit.

"What are you going to do when they notice you're gone and come looking for you?"

He blows a cloud of smoke and closes his eye, "They'll try to cage me up in a higher security cell, and I'll let them."

"Why?" He smirks with his eyes closed, his wicket teeth glinting.

"Maybe I'll feel like telling you later."