lavandarlizard2 | but... it *never* rains in California! O.O

I'm a little late; sorry. >.< Tough week in RL. I've discovered that dealing with social service agencies now that my kid is (nominally) an adult, is harder than when he was a minor. *sigh* They just wear me out.... Next part, probably about ten days out. Next weekend I have to stand in line at the DMV to replace my registration sticker that some cretinous fucktard stole. *grrrrrr* Yeah, it's a real good thing I don't have any weapons right now.

BFB - Part 097f - Under Fire

At some point, Tiffany and Heero managed to convince the Human authorities that this was a Magical problem and that it would be handled Magically. I think there was some argument, although I can't imagine why. If I were Human, I'd be burning asphalt getting away from this carnival.

I was again sitting on the wall. Ovalia had very kindly produced drinks for everyone, including the demon, and we were down to just staring at each other. And trying not to stare at my excavation. Heero muttered into his cellphone a few meters away from the rest of us. I think he was talking to Q.

Enrique set his glass of ice tea aside and glared at the demon. "Enough of this; explain yourself," he ordered.

The demon cringed. It was sitting on the ground, down-wind of all of us this time, and certainly didn't seem very demonish. It set its glass down carefully, and nodded thanks to the Were-Tiger.

"I don't intend anyone any harm..." it whispered. "Really."

I couldn't help rolling my eyes at that. It wouldn't look at me; I guess my demolition demonstration scared it pretty well.

"You claim it wasn't you; who was it, then?"

"I don't know..." it whispered. "I've been feeling... odd for a while... Odd ideas... strange thoughts... Like I was picking up on... on someone else's thoughts..." It twisted its hands (paws?) together. "I don't even know if my kind can... can... go insane, but I thought... maybe... I don't know why I got upset with her." It nodded to the Were-Tiger. "I never cared what she is; I mean, like I could talk?"

Enrique snorted. Heero closed his phone and came to lean at my side. He still looked angry, but thoughtful, too; like he was willing to give the demon the benefit of the doubt, at least a little.

"But the voices didn't like her. And sometimes they made me do things..." It shook its head slowly. "I don't know why... and when I tried to figure it out, it just got away from me. Like grabbing at water. And then the voices started making me... go away... go to sleep... And I'd wake up and discover I'd done something. Like today..."

"So you expect us to believe that 'voices' made you do this? That a demon was possessed by demons?" That from Tiffany.

"I'm just saying that's how I felt! I wouldn't shoot anyone! I for sure wouldn't shoot Lord Dragon Chang! He'll come here and kill me!"

"Quite probably." Q appeared next to Heero, his hand on Trowa's shoulder.

The demon jumped as if poked with a pitchfork.

Trowa broke away from Q and threw his arms around me. "Duo! Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Trowa," I gasped. "Turn loose, man; you're gonna break something!"

"Sorry... sorry.... I'm just a little... you know." He looked embarrassed; rather a new look for Trowa. He hugged me again, more gently. "Thanks for getting him back, Duo," he whispered in my ear. "Mistress Loquinn said you saved his life."

Now I was embarrassed, not at all a new look for me. "I was on auto-pilot the whole way," I muttered. "How's he doing?"

"Pissy. He wanted to come with us, but Q said no."

"Yeah, well, things are kind of weird here."

No kidding. Q had moved up to stand near the demon – upwind, of course – and looked more exasperated than angry.

"I'm disappointed," he said sadly. "I thought you understood our terms. And here you are; involved in yet another brouhaha."

The demon scrunched down even further. "Sorry, Lord Wizard... I didn't mean to..."

"'It just happened'; yes, I know," Q sighed. Heero flexed his wings and actually cracked his knuckles like a B-movie enforcer. "Heero?"

"Get up," he growled at the demon.

It whimpered faintly. "Can't I just promise..." it began.

"Demons don't keep promises," said Q matter-of-factly, and then his wand was in his hand.

Q wields his wand with more flourish than any Wizard I've ever seen. Instantly, that graceful wand was pointed at the demon. From the opposite side, Heero pointed a long-taloned finger at the demon.

"Get up," he commanded again, and you could see the demon was being magically compelled to rise.

I've never seen Wizards do this, although I've heard of it. It's just weird to see it happening, like the demon was a puppet and they were pulling its strings. It... bothered me. The thing had nearly killed Wufei; had tried to kill me. I'd even yelled at it and nearly made demon dust out of it, but this was just... weird.

"What the fuck?!" I muttered. "What are they doing?" I asked Enrique. "They aren't going to... to..."

The Elf gave a lazy shrug. "It nearly killed someone; that's not allowed, Duo. The Wizards won't allow demons to get away with such things and then to claim no responsibility. It'll be all right."

But...

I seemed to be the only one being creeped out by the whole thing. Tiffany stood by, wand in hand, as if backing up Heero and Q. The Elves seemed perfectly relaxed about it. Trowa leaned against my side, his hand brushing mine reassuringly, but it wasn't because of what was going on now. The Were-Tiger watched intently, like it was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen.

The demon shuddered and squirmed and whined like an injured animal. Its limbs flapped disconcertingly and the puppet analogy seemed horribly apt. They were hurting it; it wasn't fear or anger making it twitch and whine; it was pure pain.

I've never thought of my friends as being cruel, but this was just... cruel. It was mean, what they were doing to the demon. If they were going to kill it, why didn't they just get it over with? Why torment it like this?

I tried to hold my tongue; really I did, but when the demon began to weep, I couldn't stand it. I jumped off the wall and ran to Heero.

"Heero! Stop!" I grabbed his arm, but it was like tugging on a steel girder.

"Duo, get back," he growled at me.

"No! Stop it! Don't hurt it!"

"Duo!" snapped Q. "Back off!"

That just pissed me off. So, of course, I did something stupid. I let go of Heero and cut between him and the demon. If I couldn't stop him by force, I'd put myself in the way.

Like I said, something stupid. A lot of things happened all at once, then...

Heero snatched his arm up with a sharp curse, but not before I'd entered the field of his magic. It lifted me right off my feet and I felt like I was being turned inside out for a brief moment. Then it all vanished and I hit the ground hard enough to rattle what little brains I had.

The demon dropped to the ground also, howling in pain. Q yelled "Got it!" Enrique yelled "I've got it!" Heero yelled "Dammit Duo!" Inazuma said something in his bastard Japanese-Hawaiian dialect. Tiffany said "Oh, for pity's sake; *give* me that!"

And the bright sunny day dimmed alarmingly. I thought I'd passed out for a moment, but I could still hear all manner of shouting and swearing, so probably not. Heero picked me up and set me on my feet, gripping my arms painfully tight.

"Don't you ever do anything like that again!" he snarled at me. "I could have killed you!"

"But I didn't want you to kill it!" I yelled back. He blinked at me in confusion.

"I wasn't going to kill it! Q was probing for a control spell. Why would you –"

There was a sharp crack and a strong blast of brimstone, and Zephyrus appeared.

"What is going on here?!" he demanded furiously. "How dare you –" He stopped, staring at the demon. "Dammit, Farquahar, what've you done *this* time?!"

The demon gasped and wailed "NOOOOO!!!"

Q, Tiffany, Trowa and Heero looked at each other for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. Enrique snickered, then doubled over, howling right along with them, leaving Inazuma, Ovalia and I open-mouthed in confusion. Especially as Zephyrus was slowly turning the most apoplectic shade of purple I've ever seen on a living being.

"Zephyrus!" howled the demon in anguish. "You told them my *name*! Even the Lord Wyvern didn't use my *name*!"

I was wobbling quite a bit, but I still recognized that Zephyrus had spoken the demon's true name aloud, supposedly giving anyone who now knew it power over the demon.

Zephyrus turned on the demon. "You *idiot*! I should let them destroy you, you damned jackass!" he snarled.

The demon – Farquahar – huddled on the ground, rocking and whimpering miserably.

"Zephyrus." Q stepped between the elegant fox-demon and the quivering lump on the ground. "We have no intention of destroying your charge." He seemed to give that last word a bit of a twist; at least Zephyrus flinched at the term. "In fact-" He waved a scrap of paper at the demon "-I found what I expected. Farquahar has been bewitched with a control spell."

Heero rumbled and pulled me into a hard embrace. Control? Someone *made* the demon shoot at us? What the fuck?! Now, I was getting mad, but before I had a chance to explode in righteous indignation, Heero called to Tiffany.

"Take Duo and Inazuma home; this may get ugly."

She nodded and grabbed my hand, pulling me away from Heero and over to Inazuma. She grabbed his hand as well. Just as I opened my mouth to protest, our surroundings vanished in a whirl of sparkles and we reappeared in the Magical Investigations office.