The leap through the planes of reality was something that one never got used to. It was a like stepping off a cliff; a terrifying descent through the rift between worlds that curdled the stomach and caused the heart to stop beating for a few, terrifying seconds. Cobalt was a seasoned traveler, so he knew to keep his eyes shut. Staring too hard at the blinding red light and flashing shapes could cause all sorts of problems, from intense headaches to even blindness.

It lasted only a moment though, and when the Incubus felt his feet touch against solid ground, he took a second to allow his nausea to subside. It was only when he heard the sound of someone violently vomiting beside him did he finally open his eyes.

He was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a disused warehouse. The old concrete walls were covered in graffiti, the windows were smashed and the floor was covered in dust and rubbish. High above, sunlight shone through holes in the corrugated ceiling. He shaded his eyes and squinted through them, lurching at the sight of the blue sky.

He was on Earth, a whole world away from Hell. He always seemed to forget how the air smelled different.

"Augh... Blegh..." gurgled a voice from behind him.

Frowning, Cobalt turned around to see Alison keeled over on the floor, lying next to a puddle of her own vomit. Beside her, hovering just a few feet in the air, was an unstable rift, identical to the one created by the device back in her lab.

"You didn't shut your eyes, did you?" he asked, stepping over to the human.

She shook her head, looking rather pale as she wiped the bile from her face.

"I'll remember that for next time. Probably shouldn't have drank so much either..."

Staggering to her feet, the intrepid scientist gave him a dazzling smile.

"We're alive though! That's a plus!" she laughed, slapping his back.

"Right... so where's this sibling of yours?"

She pulled a face.

"Probably at their apartment, at a guess. Need to figure out where we are first, bluebell; gimme a minute."

Pulling a cracked phone out of her pocket, Alison stepped away and began swiping through it, holding the device above her head in an effort to find a signal. While she was busy, Cobalt winced and hunkered down, one hand held to his stomach.

"You alright?" Lilith asked.

"I- I'll be fine."

"Whatever you say."

She sighed heavily, piquing his intrigue.

"What about you?" he asked, glancing back at Alison as she walked in circles around the warehouse.

"Dunno. Weird. Been a long time since I've been to Earth. Time was I was supposed to flatten this place. Doesn't seem all that different to Hell, though. Blue sky notwithstanding."

"There's an argument to be made that we have humans to thank for current-day Hellish technology. That being said, we're still a decade or two behind."

"I suppose Imps can only reverse-engineer so quickly."

Cobalt snorted.

"I suppose so."

"Alright! I got it! Industrial estate outside the city limits, abandoned in 2008! We got lucky with that one, bluebell! If we popped out somewhere like Champs-Élysées or Rue de Rivoli we'd be fucked!" Alison cried excitedly, rushing back over to the disguised Incubus.

Grabbing his arm, she began to drag him towards the warehouse's doorway. Once outside, the pair found themselves in a huge industrial park; a sprawling plain of cracked concrete, disused buildings and little else. Taking a moment to listen, the scientist led them towards the sounds of traffic, and after some trekking, they arrived at a busy motorway. Despite the sun, it was deceptively cold.

Cobalt found the walk a little disorienting. Earth's sky had that effect on demons. Its blue water even more so.

"Alison, you said this would be quick," he complained as they climbed over a fence.

"I know, I know; c'mon, it's just a little walking. We just need to find a car."

"You're from here; don't you have some way of calling a taxi?"

"You ever had to pay for a Parisian taxi before, bluebell?"

"No."

"Then don't ask such a stupid question. Now march!"

They walked on the side of the motorway, with deafening traffic on one side and thick bushes on the other. Once or twice Alison would suddenly pull Cobalt into the vegetation as a police vehicle passed, but aside from that, the trek was fairly boring, allowing his mind to wander.

It hadn't been that long since he fed, and yet the hunger was already returning in force. He could feel every heartbeat in the back of his mind, and beneath his skin he could see his veins pulsing, threatening to blow his human disguise. Worst of all, however, was when Cobalt's absentminded thinking drifted too far, he found himself ruminating on a particular flavour that still lingered in his mouth. Salty and sweet, yet tangy. It danced at the very edge of his tongue, and for the longest time, he found himself struggling to place what it was.

It was only after almost half an hour of walking that he realised he was fantasising about the taste of Whitney Brode's severed forearm.

"Perfect!" Alison suddenly cried, snapping him out of that horrifying thought.

The scientist pointed, drawing his attention to a service station just off the main motorway. It looked fairly busy, and the car park was crowded with vehicles.

"Let's go get ourselves a ride, bluebell!"

As she broke into a sprint, Cobalt's eyes went wide.

"W- Wait, you're not thinking about stealing a car, are you?!" he called, chasing after her.

"Hit the nail on the head!"

"Alison, wait!"

"Hurry up!"

Vaulting over a low railing, the scientist clapped her hands together and began to stalk along the rows of the car park, rubbing her hands with glee. Feeling as though he was unable to stop her, Cobalt just sighed and sat down on the rail, watching her as she scrutinised every car and van she passed by.

"What am I doing...?" he murmured, clasping his hands.

"Running from responsibility, if you ask me," Lilith answered.

He wanted to get angry at her for that, but the Devil spoke the truth. The only reason he was here - aside from helping Alison - was to give himself an excuse to skip out on school. Because the moment he got back, he would be bombarded with questions and inquiries. He could already hear Mistress Viola chiding him. This latest incident would only give her more reason to pressure him to step down.

"Yeah, maybe. But I just don't know how I'm gonna come back from this. What everyone saw, what I almost did to Karazelle..."

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"You can fight it, kid."

"Fighting it is what's gotten me this bad in the first place."

Lilith sighed heavily.

"For what it's worth, you've given me pause," she told him after a few moments of watching Alison kick the tires on a sedan.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I don't know. Used to think all Incubi were just mindless murderers. Maybe that's still true and you're just an exception, but... you remember what the Golem lady said? Up on that mountain?"

Lottie's mother. Cobalt distinctly remembered her telling him about what happened during the Rapture, when Lady Fesser turned the Incubi loose upon Pandemonium. How they almost seemed to overcome their madness for the sake of their people...

"This is just a shot in the dark, but... What if they really are still in there? And that cure thing actually works? Then that would mean that the original personality isn't completely erased, right?"

"I... guess."

"So surely that means it's possible to overcome Incupsychosis with enough willpower."

"Lilith, I... I don't know..."

"I'm not saying it'll be easy, kid. But surely you gotta try, right? It's better than rotting away by yourself in your room or running from the things you enjoy."

Cobalt clenched his fists.

"... I get it. I'm overstepping. But I saw what was going on in your head, kid. Just for a second, but it was all I needed to see. It's... not looking good."

He swallowed hard.

"Kid... Something's wrong in here. And it's got nothing to do with Incu-"

"Let's just help Alison steal a car already," Cobalt interrupted in a dour tone, rising to his feet.

His his arms firmly by his side, he found Alison hunkered down by a beaten old hatchback. She was fiddling with the door's lock, and had a screwdriver clenched between her teeth.

"Ah, keep a look out for me. Almost have it," she told him, spitting the tool out into her free hand.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you have to stick a wire down the window or something?" he asked, remembering something from an old crime thriller he read.

She scoffed.

"What do you think this is, 1960? Car locks are built different these days."

"This looks like a pretty old car."

"Hey, which one of us has an engineering degree?"

"I thought you told me you were kicked out of your university."

"I got a certification online. Hey, did you know I can legally do dental surgery now?"

"What?"

A quiet click rang out from the car's internals. With a laugh, Alison popped the door open and clambered over to the driver's seat.

"Come on in, bluebell! It only smells a little bit like dried-!" she began cheerily, thumping her hand against the underside of the dashboard.

"Alright, alright, I get it," he quickly interjected, climbing in next to her.

Once Alison got the vehicle hotwired - a feat she managed with frightening ease - she switched the car on and carefully eased them out of the lot so as not to arouse suspicion. Once they reached the motorway, however, all bets were off. She gunned the accelerator, sending the pair of them flying off down the tarmac towards the city looming in the distance.

-----

Though he was a seasoned traveler at this point, Cobalt realised that he never actually had many opportunities to experience the city of Paris for its own merits. Once Alison drove them into the city, he found himself staring out of the windows, his eyes wide as he took in the marvelous architecture all around them. Every now and then he found himself mumbling beneath his breath, whereupon Alison would snort and offer a snide retort, stating that it was a lovely place to visit, but a terrible place to live. As they diverted away from the more historic streets and down into a rather bland looking district, however, the pair fell silent. Clouds had blotted out the sky up above, and the mood in the car grew quite dour.

"Riles," Alison abruptly said, turning down a side street.

Cobalt lifted his head off his hand.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"That's their name. It's Riles."

She had a wistful look in her eye, and she wasn't smiling. Odd... Cobalt wasn't used to that.

"They're a couple of years younger than me. Dropped out of school to pursue an artistic career. It was for the best; school wasn't really kind to any of us, you know? We stuck together through the worst of it, but once Jacques passed... I moved on to Sorbonne, and Riles went freelance," she explained.

The scientist glanced back at him.

"Did I ever tell you about my brother?" she asked quietly.

"You never told me about your family. I figured it wasn't my place to ask," Cobalt answered.

"Heh."

Alison cleared her throat as her gloved hands tightened around the steering wheel.

"Jacques was the oldest. He was an adventurous type; always claiming that he'd find the eighth wonder of the world. I was the middle child. Science was more my thing. Riles was the youngest, and a fucking genius with a brush. Our parents were proud. Y'know, at first."

Her breath caught in her throat. Cobalt figured that he would just give her a moment to collect herself.

"We started fighting when Riles came out. Good old Mère et Père didn't approve of their 'choices', because that's totally something you can just switch on and off. Jacques and I had their back of course, and after that point, we all started getting a little more rebellious. Just the usual teenage things, but one night Jacques snuck out to a festival and..." she continued, trailing off as she turned another corner.

He had never seen her this upset. Cobalt wanted to tell her that it was okay to stop, but before he could say a word, she shook her head and kept going.

"There was a pyrotechnical accident. Massive explosion. People still don't know what actually happened, just that a lot of people were killed instantly. Jacques... Well, all they found of him was his hand. Blown off at the wrist," Alison sighed, her entire body shaking.

Cobalt could see a tear glimmering in her eye as she glanced over at him.

"Hey. I should come clean. My name's not actually Titch. It's, uh... Sarrabat."

He blinked.

"Alison Sarrabat...?" he breathed.

"Yeah... Once I started making leeway into my research on Hell, my folks got really embarrassed. Told me to at least use a pen name. I mean, everyone around the university already called me an insane bitch, and I remember I had these old science show tapes from America so..."

She snorted, her smile finally returning.

"I mean, 'Alison Titch the Science Bitch' kinda has a ring to it, don't you think?" she said, sticking her tongue out.

Cobalt smiled.

"It does. Do you want me to keep calling you that?"

"What, the full thing?"

"No."

"Aw. Spoilsport."

Eventually, Alison parked the car on the side of the road, just outside an old apartment building. Swallowing hard, he stepped out and gazed up at it, waiting for Cobalt to join her on the curb.

"Let's hope they haven't moved. I'd be screwed otherwise," she breathed, clenching her fists.

The disguised Incubus looked her up and down. He couldn't get over how strange it was seeing her like this. Alison never flinched in the face of the unknown; always smiling and joking right as she was about to do something drastic to him, herself or some other poor test subject. But watching her shake with nerves at the prospect of reuniting with what little family she had left...

Cobalt put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

She nodded.

"Kinda. I dunno, really. Won't know until we go in, huh?"

The front door was locked with a keypad, but all Alison had to do was squint at the four buttons that were the most worn down and plug in a series of random codes, opening it for them after the fourth attempt. They ascended a graffiti-covered staircase, with the scientist muttering beneath her breath the entire time.

After a lot of climbing, the pair found themselves on the third floor, standing in front of a doorway all the way down the end of a narrow corridor. It was chipped and beaten.

With a look to Cobalt for encouragement, Alison knocked.

"J- Juste une minute, s'il-vous-plaît!" a voice yelped from deep within.

A series of loud bangs and crashes rattled from the apartment, but Cobalt found himself more focused on the voice itself. The accent was heavy, but the intonations were almost identical to Alison.

"Let's just hope they remember their English. I drilled that shit pretty hard into them," she muttered, wiping down their coat.

"You don't speak French?" Cobalt asked, surprised.

"Not willingly."

The door cracked open. A gasp echoed out through the dingy hallway before it was thrown open fully.

Riles Sarrabat's appearance was just as bizarre as Alison's, though in a completely different direction. Whereas Alison was gangly and bronze-skinned, Riles was stockier and had a complexion like they hadn't left their home in months. Their hair was well-cared-for and dyed a kaleidoscope of colours - in contrast to their sister's frazzled mop - and perched upon their rounded face was a pair of rectangular glasses. That was where their differences ended, however, as one glance at their clothes was enough to draw comparisons. Riles wore a set of overalls so thickly stained with paint and oils that Cobalt couldn't rightly tell what colour the fabric originally was.

For a brief moment, all three stared at one another.

"Um... Avez-vous besoin de quelque chose?" Riles asked, wiping their hands down the front of their clothes.

Alison cleared her throat.

"Use your words, kiddo," she choked, doing her best to force on a smile.

Riles' face crinkled with confusion, before a look of sheer revelation slowly broke out.

"A- Alison...?" they breathed, jaw dropping open.

"Yup," she replied, blinking away the tears, "it's me."

"But... T- The university said..."

"What are they saying about me now?"

"They said you died. Th- That one of your experiments went wrong and..."

Grinning, Alison pulled their sibling into a tight hug.

"Oh no, that experiment went right. Believe me kiddo; I've got a lot to catch you up on. But first, lemme introduce you to someone."

Letting go, Alison stepped over to Cobalt and threw an arm around his shoulders. He did his best to make a good first impression and just smiled back.

"This here is my good friend Cobalt Trayer," she explained, ruffling his hair.

Riles' eyes went wide.

"Ooh... is he your boyfriend?"

"I mean... kinda?"

"Hey!" Cobalt cried, squirming out of the scientist's grasp.

As she laughed to herself, he fixed his hair and offered Riles a hand.

"Sorry, she's just joking. No, I'm just a friend of your sister's. I've been helping her out in my spare time," he told them, shaking their hand.

They nodded slowly, still-looking completely dumbfounded.

"Uh... Do you guys wanna come inside? I think I need to sit down," Riles breathed, shaking a little from the shock.

With a laugh, Alison wrapped them up in another sudden hug.

"Of course! Oh, it's good to see you again!"

Riles clung on tight to her coat.

"You too. I... I missed you."

"I missed you too, kiddo."