"I'll give you one last chance to explain yourself, Mr. Trayer. You were found to have Miss Brode's DNA all over you, and you are already on record as having violent impulses. What happened that night? How did she lose her arm?"

Cobalt glanced up across the table, adjusting his wrists so the handcuffs didn't rub against them quite so painfully.

He was sitting in an interrogation room deep within Brimstone's police station, having been almost dragged out of the hospital just a few short hours after coming to. Cuffed and forced into an uncomfortable folding chair, a pair of officers had been grilling him for most of the day, sounding as though they were trying to make him confess to something terrible. A digital recorder sat atop the table, taking in everything that had been said.

"I told you already. It was the Devil, he attacked her with a cleaver," he answered, trying and failing to wet his parched throat.

The officer in front of him folded his arms. He was a stern-looking Oni man, while leaning against the wall was a Fallen clutching a cup of coffee. The Oni sighed and flipped through a case file.

"The Devil you allegedly killed in self-defense?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. I- I think. Look, it's hard to remember, okay? Everything's kind of a blur," Cobalt answered.

The Fallen officer scoffed and marched over to the table, slamming her coffee down with such force the lid threatened to pop off altogether.

"We're not buying it, Trayer. We already have video evidence of you chowing down on your own flesh. Who's to say you didn't take a bite out of Miss Brode and try to pass it off as another act of heroism?" she hissed, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"That's outrageous!" he cried.

"Mr. Trayer, it's in your best interest to be honest with us. The media is already having a field day with this, and if you continue to stall-"

"I'm not stalling! I didn't hurt Whitney! I'd never do something so horrible to her!"

The Oni shook his head and shut the file.

"Be that as it may, Mr. Trayer, you have to look at this objectively. We have a crime scene in Eeyarro's Pharmacy containing a lot of Miss Brode's blood, and several hours of unaccounted time in which you and the victim were alone together. Not to mention nearby CCTV had been sabotaged with what appeared to be claw marks," he explained, nodding to Cobalt's hands.

He clenched his fists, digging his bone claws into the palms of his hands.

"Epsilon must have tried to set me up, then!"

The Fallen officer leaned in close with a hateful look on her face.

"And yet you can't provide a location of this 'basement' that he 'tortured' you in, nor can you produce a body, or any evidence pertaining to this Devil's existence at all! What, did you run out of clout with your Iron Hound antics so you had to try and invent a new Devil threat to keep us all interested in your smalltown hero fantasies?!"

"I DID NO SUCH THING!" Cobalt suddenly yelled, slamming his fists down hard upon the table, denting it badly.

The two officers exchanged meaningful glanced with one another. Before the Oni could ask anymore questions, however, the three demons were alerted to someone knocking on the interrogation room door. Leaving Cobalt in his seat, his interrogators answered it, exchanged hushed words with someone in the hall, and abruptly left. A moment later, an Imp in a pristine policeman's uniform stepped in and shut the door quietly behind him.

Cobalt had met him before, several months ago in that alleyway bearing his father's mural. Calvin Srenth, chief of the the BPD and father of Arnn. Before the Incubus could say anything, the chief of police gestured for him to stay quiet as he sat down opposite him.

"Interrogation concluded at... 7:23pm," he announced aloud, checking his watch before reaching over and shutting the recorder off.

Taking a deep breath, the Imp leaned forward and looked Cobalt dead in the eyes.

"It's alright, son. No-one's watching. You can relax," he said, pointing a thumb at the mirrored window behind him.

Swallowing hard, he relaxed his shoulders.

"What are you doing...?" he asked quietly, still a little on edge.

"Throwing you a bone. The whole town is rife with goggle-eyes sensationalists and opportunists looking to make a quick brand off your misfortune. I'd say you could do with someone in your corner, eh?" Calvin replied, raising an eyebrow.

Though he certainly appreciated the friendly face, the Incubus couldn't help but feel like whatever he was doing wasn't by the book.

"But I'm under investigation, right? A- And you had a personal connection to my dad, so isn't helping me out... wrong?"

The Imp nodded slowly.

"Maybe. No more wrong than taking payments from Charles Brode to ensure you end up in the can, though," he answered coolly, alarming the Incubus.

Seeing the look on his detainee's face, Calvin pulled out his phone and began to swipe through his messages.

"Yup. Had a few trusted code monkeys trawl through the department's emails, and a few - those two in particular - were more than willing to sully their badges for some extra scratch."

He sighed.

"Not that I'm surprised. The entire BPD's rotten to the core. Look, Cobalt, you're not going to jail, not if I can help it. But I'd appreciate it if you tell me what happened. As a friend, if nothing else," Calvin asked him, leaning forward as he clasped his hands.

Swallowing hard, the Incubus looked up in the eyes of one of his father's best friends. Taking a deep breath, he thought hard.

"... There really was a Devil."

"Go on."

"He attacked Whitney and I at the pharmacy. He was able to stun me with just a couple of hits, and then he grabbed a cleaver and just..."

Cobalt screwed his eyes shut. The image of Whitney pleading for her life on that cheap linoleum floor would be forever burned into his memory.

"... kept swinging it at her until she stopped moving. H- He cut her arm off, and I wasn't able to do anything about it."

Calvin nodded along with his story.

"The docs did mention that the wound patterning was fairly irregular, like multiple blows from a poorly maintained blade. Couldn't have been made from claws or the like."

"R- Right. When I came to, I was in some kind of basement. I didn't pay attention to where exactly it was, just that it looked like it was under construction. Epsilon - the Devil - had me chained up, but I broke free."

"And that's when you killed him?"

"I... I had to. I buried him in a hole he dug for me and Whitney. Buried him in concrete," Cobalt said, staring at the floor.

The Imp raised an eyebrow.

"And Miss Brode's missing arm?"

A lump formed in Cobalt's throat. Taking a second to gather himself, he swallowed it painfully.

"... I buried that too," he added in a shaky tone.

Staring hard at the Incubus, the chief of police got out of his chair and paced around the room, buried in his own thoughts.

"There's a couple of active construction projects going on around the cove. Sulfur Blood payroll scams, the lot of them. Seeing as we've gotten no reports of breaking and entering or misappropriation of equipment, I'd say you were held in one of those. Unfortunately, due to an... arrangement the BPD has with Lorenzo Suyas, we're unable to encroach upon his enterprises," he said aloud, moreso to himself than to Cobalt.

The Imp sighed.

"Probably for the best. That concrete will dry, and that Devil bastard will remain entombed in an unmarked grave."

"I don't understand why no-one believes me."

"You want my opinion? Probably because you didn't fit the mould of a hero anymore. Fighting that that night in the plaza, or saving those two students from those freaky ruins? Magazines and rumour rags love that kinda shit. But trekking through the snow, covered in blood with a mutilated Nymph in your arms? That probably put a few folks off their dinner," Calvin answered, gazing into the mirrored window.

Cobalt's head hung lower.

"I- I don't get it. I was trying to help her."

"I know, kid. Believe me, I know. Back in the day, when your pops was fighting for the personal freedoms of every student at B.I.D., the local papers dubbed him a monster too. Some were paid off by Vio and her cronies, of course, but others genuinely believed he was just an anarchistic rioter, here to bring the uncivilised West Country to the shores of Aporue. The general public is an unpredictable beast, Cobalt. One moment you're the hero of the hour, the next you're to be despised, and then..."

He folded his arms.

"... you're forgotten altogether. And they just move on to the next big thing."

Shaking his head, Calvin returned to the table.

"Leave it with me, alright? I'll check with Lorenzo's people about any Devil sightings; I can at least count on him to hate Devils just as much as anyone else. As for Brode's briberies, best I can do is suspend those involved. The man's a bit too well-connected for me to bring down any real law onto him."

He fished a key out of his pocket and slid it over to Cobalt, allowing the Incubus to fiddle his handcuffs open. As he shook them off, the chief of police scoffed.

"Law. What a joke. Especially in this town."

"Um... Thank you, Mr. Srenth. What should I do now?" Cobalt asked in a small voice.

The Imp leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin.

"Now? Head home, take a shower and try to relax over the holidays. Oh, and spend some time with your mom, yeah? Jezzy's been blowing up every phone in the PD just to make sure you're alright," he answered with a sidelong grin.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

They both stood up and headed for the door. Holding the door open for Cobalt, Calvin suddenly reached up to put a hand on the Incubus' shoulder.

"Hey. Despite everything, you very well saved that girl's life. Brass couldn't ask for a better son," the Imp said in a soft, reassuring tone.

Cobalt just bit his tongue and nodded, keeping his eyes to the floor as he was guided out of the building.

He wasn't so sure. The gurgling in his stomach told him that well enough.

-----

Despite Calvin Srenth's kind words of reassurance, Cobalt wasn't feeling any better, and he certainly didn't feel as though he was ready to return to B.I.D. As he trekked back through the town, however, he realised that he was attracting a lot of stares, and not the kind he was used to. Whereas he had weathered looks of confusion and awe before, the general population had begun to look at him in a new light;

Revulsion.

Rumour spread faster than any truth, and the word was that Cobalt Trayer was a flesh-eating monster who devoured the arm of his own student. The worst part was that it wasn't strictly untrue...

Unable to bear the eyes burning into him, he took a sharp detour into the Brimstone Nature Park. In its overgrown and snow-covered state, it had been completely abandoned, allowing the Incubus to trudge down it's frozen pathways without being disturbed. It was bitterly cold, but for some reason it wasn't bothering him.

"... Look, I'm-" Lilith began, sounding unsure of herself.

"Don't. Just... don't," he responded, his breath coiling away in the wind.

"Out of all of them, Epsilon probably deserved to go that way. I just-"

"You called me a monster."

"I didn't mean to-"

"You did. And I don't blame you."

He stopped at the lake, taking a moment to stare at its frozen surface. Nothing moved within or around it. The entire park was completely silent; not even the birds made a single sound.

"... Don't blame yourself, kid. It's... not your fault this happened."

"I don't want your pity, Lilith. I really don't."

"It's not pity. I'm just saying I understand when circumstances fuck you over."

Putting his hands into his pockets, the Incubus hunkered down by the shore, staring intently into the glassy ice.

"She wanted to be a musician. She wasn't very good, but I told her to keep practicing. I fed that dream, and now she can't follow it because of me," he breathed.

"You didn't cut her arm off."

"No, but I did eat it. That doesn't strike me as anything better."

"Well... because of that you managed to beat Epsilon. You still saved her."

"I bit chunks out of him too, Lilith! A- And I liked it! Not to mention I remember you begging me to stop!"

She didn't respond to that.

"I just... I don't know what to do anymore. I can't pretend that everything's okay. My mind's in shambles, my body's a mess, memories don't make sense and everyone in the town sees me as something I'm not! I- I'm on my own here!" he cried, slamming his fist into the ice.

He shattered it effortlessly, sending a deep crack spidering out across the surface of the lake. A few months ago he wouldn't have even been able to make a dent in it.

"You're not alone, kid."

"What, I've got you?! Is that what you're saying?! Because none of this would have happened if it weren't for-!"

"You still got the girls, don't you?!"

He held his breath. True enough, even after everything - everything - that they suffered because of his actions, that lot outright refused to let him go it alone. It was... baffling, to be honest. Cobalt didn't understand why, but he was grateful for them nonetheless.

Still... no-one could find out about Whitney's arm. No-one, not even them.

"I know I've been ribbing you hard about them, but... Agh, look, don't mistake this for me getting soft, but they remind me of the Alpha Corps. Before the Rapture. Before everything fucked them up."

Lilith sighed.

"Beta was always a thick-skulled moron, but he was dependable. Always had my back. Delta was annoying as shit, but funny too. Gamma... she always knew what to say. Had a beautiful singing voice too, before she stopped talking. Even Epsilon. He used to be a mother hen, always making sure we had what we needed and were safe out on missions. I- I just..."

She went quiet for a moment.

"You just what?"

"... That human's lab is just over there, right? D'you think we could go talk to them?"

Cobalt took a deep breath of the crisp winter air. He wasn't in any hurry to be back in the public gaze.

"Sure."

Resisting the urge to cut straight across the - now cracked - frozen lake, Cobalt rounded the shore and passed behind the stilled waterfall. Plugging the code into Alison's front door, he descended into her laboratory, feeling the heat from the ventilation system she installed gradually warm his bones. By the time he reached the central chamber, all the snow had melted off his clothes.

It was clear from a glance that the scientist had been busy. Her homemade Jump Gate was almost complete. She had covered its previously-exposed internals with welded sheet metal, and most of the support scaffolding had been dismantled. Atop the machine, he could see the bloodstone he stole for her sitting in a containment cell, ready to power the machine when the time came.

Carefully stepping around the device, he picked his way through a cataclysm of chemistry supplies over to her desk, where the woman herself was sitting. Though upright in her chair, both arms were slumped by her side, and a dirty magazine was spread across her face. Soft snores rumbled from beneath it.

Cobalt decided not to disturb Alison, figuring she probably needed the rest. Spotting a plastic remote on her desk, he slipped it into his pocket and slipped down one of the side tunnels. Reaching the bulkhead door to the room containing the Devils, he knocking sharply upon it, unsure of what else to do.

"Ah told ya, ah'm not providin' any more samples! Ah'm all pissed out!" Delta hollered from within.

Turning the handle on the door, Cobalt arduously pulled it open, brandishing the shock collar remote as he stepped into the cell.

Alison had played a surprisingly good host to the two Devil prisoners, providing them with a spacious room complete with furniture and some small amenities. Two beds sat at opposite sides of the cell, and a portable toilet had been set up against the far wall, appearing as though it had been linked up to the town's sewage system, if the erratic plumbing snaking across the wall was anything to go by. Delta was halfway though a game of solitaire at the table in the middle of the room, while Gamma was busy doing pushups by her bed. Both demons glared at Cobalt as he approached, wearing collars around their necks and strange metal devices locked onto their horns, probably to limit their magic.

"Trayer. To what do ah owe the pleasure?" Delta spat, tossing the cards over his shoulder.

He took a deep breath.

"It's not me here to see you," the Incubus told them, opening his arm out.

In a flash of headachey pain, Lilith materialised next to him. Delta grumbled as Gamma stopped exercising, her frown deepening as she looked down at the missing finger on her hand.

"Delta. Gamma," she said curtly, nodding at each of them.

"Ome," Delta responded equally sharply.

Cobalt sat down next to the door, keeping a tight grip on the collar remote in case they tried anything.

"Been a while. I should probably tell you that Epsilon is out. Or he was, at least. He's dead now."

"Can't say ah'm surprised. Old bastard weren't right after the Rapture."

He looked away.

"Still... shit, ah hope he finds whatever mumbo-jumbo he was lookin' fer outside of the Chain."

Cobalt frowned. He cleared his throat, drawing attention to him.

"I've heard this mentioned a bunch of times now. What is this Chain you keep talking about?"

Lilith took a deep, meaningful breath of the stale air.

"It's... complicated for a mortal to understand."

Delta scoffed.

"Is it?"

She ignored him.

"I guess I may as well clue you in now. The Chain is... well, do you know about the Overseers? What am I saying, of course you don't. Okay look; there are five very powerful beings in existence, each holding dominion over one of the four fundamental aspects that make up everything," Lilith explained, leaning against the wall as she folded her arms.

Cobalt frowned. Did she misspeak?

"Creation, Destruction, Genesis and Oblivion. Each of these aspects has an Overseer, who each created a higher people; Devils, Archangels and Dryads respectively. They then created the lesser people, such as demons, angels, fae and humans. Humans don't have a higher people, they're a special case because-"

Gamma cleared her throat.

"... You're digressing..." she mumbled, barely audible from all the way over by her bed.

"Right. So the higher people are immortal, and the lessers are mortal. In order to perpetuate a cycle of life, death and rebirth, the Chain was put in place."

"This is confusing..." Cobalt admitted, rubbing his head.

"Tch, knew this was a waste of time," Lilith sighed.

"Nah, keep goin'! Ah like seein' the gears in his head grind!" Delta laughed, pointing at Cobalt.

She rolled her good eye at this, but continued regardless.

"The Chain's a three-step cycle. When a mortal dies, they're brought to Damnation to have their life essence scrubbed of sin by Devils. Once clean, they're shipped up to Eden to have their souls and spirits separated by Archangels. Apparently that's not fun to go through."

The Incubus cocked his head.

"Aren't souls and spirits just synonyms?"

"What?"

"Ah- the same word for one another."

"No. Completely different things. The soul is that being's unique consciousness and personality. The spirit is just a culmination of the energies required to operate a living being. The spirits are repurposed for newly-birthed mortals while the souls are sent along to the final stage of the Chain, the Evergreen. There, they're more or less looked after by the Dryads in some kind of eternal afterlife-slash-paradise thing. I don't really know much about it. Sounds cushier than some deserve, to be honest," she concluded with a pronounced frown.

Nodding slowly, Cobalt sat still as he struggled to process all of this.

"That... doesn't sound too bad," he admitted.

"Fer mortals, maybe. But we - the thankless donkey's pullin' the damn thing - don't get squat!" Delta roared.

"He makes a point. Devils, Archangels, Dryads; we might be more powerful than the lesser races, but in the grand scheme of things, we're still slaves to the Chain. And if we just so happen to die... well... there's nothing for us."

"... Nothing good, at least..." Gamma added.

Standing up, Cobalt looked at each of the Devils individually. Sure enough, they all looked absolute exhausted, and not just from physical fatigue. The five blood-red eyes staring at him all told of several lifetimes worth of thankless toil.

"What about these Overseers of yours? Surely they could do something to improve your, um... work conditions?" he suggested.

They all scoffed.

"Well God's already a paranoid, unstable maniac, and the last correspondence I overheard from Gaia was sixty-ish years ago. Apparently she had another kid, life twelve of them wasn't enough."

"... Don't forget Mankind's Emissary..." Gamma piped up.

"Bah. Empty title, doesn't even mean anything."

"What about the other two, then?" Cobalt asked.

"There's only one other Overseer-"

"You said there was five."

"I didn't. I said there was four."

"No you-!"

"Kid! Do you want me to explain or not?!" Lilith suddenly snapped.

Cobalt kept his mouth shut, his curiosity outweighing his irritation.

"Right... Lucifer. Or Satan, if you wanna go by titles. He's the Overseer of Creation, and the King of Demons. He's also our boss, Alpha," Lilith explained with a sigh.

"And your fa-!" Delta began to yell.

Snatching the remote out of Cobalt's hands, the Devil swiftly hit the switch, electrocuting both of them. With Delta silenced, she folded her arms.

"As I was saying, he's kind of the crux of the whole issue. You see, I don't think the Overseers are any more in control of the Chain as we are, which is why he's... well..."

She reached up and pulled the Iron Artillery out of her eye.

"It's why he wants to take Hell by force. God betrayed his trust with Rapture, and now aggression is all he really knows. He wants better for us, but never stopped to think about a better way of going about it," she said, tossing the prosthetic eye up and down like a toy ball.

"There isn't a better way! Ya think if there was, Alpha'd thought of it by now!" Delta said, rubbing his neck.

Lilith stuck her lower lip out.

"But surely even you can see that an attack on Hell would be suicide! With the way technology has progressed up here, we'd be massacred! It'd be twenty thousand Devils against four and a half billion demons with much better technology!"

"... We have no other choice..." Gamma replied, sitting down on her bed.

"Yes we do! Fight back! Remind Alpha that we can be better! That we once were better!"

Delta groaned and hung his head down low, causing his wild hair to flow all over the table.

"Ya told us yerself a million times, Ome; Pandemonium ain't ever comin' back, so there ain't no sense in pinin' for it."

"I'm not talking about Pandemonium. I'm talking about a new home, one we can build if we stop focusing on the past. If Devils just stopped holding onto that grudge, we could stop surviving and start truly living! Put down the spears and axes and pick up our chisels and paintbrushes, like we were always meant to! Delta! Remember those wood carvings you used to make?!"

The Devil in question looked away.

"Uh... Kinda? They were just wall panels for the palace, nothin' serious..."

"And Gamma! I remember you used to love frescos!"

She too looked away, embarrassed that she had forgotten an old passion. Getting fired up by her speech, Lilith pounded her fist against her chest.

"I wanted to be an architect, remember?! And yet all I've ever designed was military fortifications and outpost barricades! We were meant to be artists! Demons of Creation, for fucks sake! The Rapture took that from us, but we can go back to those times if we just move forward and-!"

Her breath caught in her throat as Cobalt stood up and laid a hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks before she choked. Giving her a pat on the back, the Incubus turned to the two Devil prisoners.

"I can't claim to know what's really being said here. But Lilith's your friend. You should listen to her," he told them.

His hands clasped before him, Delta raised an eyebrow.

"Lilith? What're ya talkin' about? Lilith's dead."

His eyes widened, remembering what Epsilon had said down in the basement to trigger an emotional reaction from his Devil companion. As he looked to her, however, he saw a somber glint in her eyes.

"... Right. C'mon kid. I've said my piece," she said simply, melting into a cloud of metallic magic.

She joined back up with him, returning some of the robbed strength to his limbs.

"Can't change hearts and minds in a day. Just wanted to give them something to chew on," she said from the depths of his mind.

Sure enough, the two other Devils had gone quiet, lost in their thoughts. With nothing else to say, he stepped back through and shut the bulkhead door, sealing it behind him.

"Lilith?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"... Just some bad memories, kid. I'll... Let's not go poking that can of worms right now."

Her tone worried him, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Okay then. I suppose I ought to head home."

"Mm. Hey kid?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry."

"... Me too."