[reverse darkest timeline AU: cellthread #3]

[stilljustandrew]

It's been about two days.

Nobody's come for him.



Andrew's lying down, staring at the far wall.

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[gothamsheiress]

"What did she do?"

[stilljustandrew]

It comes out slower still, halting, stiff with effort.

"She was ... if I didn't swear, if I didn't agree to serve. He was going to give me to her. To possess. And ... and she said, first thing she was going to do was come back here as me. And kill all my friends. With my hands."



"And they'd never know it wasn't me."

[gothamsheiress]

"I think I see," she says, very quiet.

(She feels chilled, as though a slow drip of ice water is making its way down her spine.)

"I understand how fearful that thought is," she adds. "But they would know it wasn't you, Andrew."

[stilljustandrew]

He shakes his head.





"So I made a deal."

[gothamsheiress]

"What deal?"

[stilljustandrew]

It's been so long since he gave this any conscious thought. It's like he's talking about somebody else, long ago and very far away.

"That ... I'd stay. And I wouldn't try to escape. And I'd follow any order He gave me that wouldn't ... hurt anyone. And ... and He could keep trying to convince me to swear. If He promised He wouldn't let her possess me. Her or any other demon."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix breathes in, and finds that her chest feels tight; that the air must struggle into her lungs.

(I beg of you to reconsider)

"I understand."

[stilljustandrew]

"But I broke the deal."

His voice is small and struggling, and his eyes are shut again.

"When I -- I found the knife, and I tried to -- it was to escape. I promised I wouldn't and then -- and He stopped me before I could, but -- but He didn't --"

A scraping breath, halfway to a sob. "He could have said the deal was forfeit. And He didn't."

[gothamsheiress]

"No," she murmurs.

"If he allowed her to possess you, you would be truly dead, sooner or later. Is that not so?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Not --" He swallows, breathes out again. "Not necessarily. Only if ... if the body was injured too badly to survive without the demon. It's not like with angels."

(He doesn't notice that he's shifted from the specific to the general, but at some level it's helping; he's calmer by the end of the sentence.)

[gothamsheiress]

She frowns, parsing that, then shakes her head.

"Not your body. You. Andrew Wells, your soul, would die after some time if you were possessed. Or have I misunderstood?"

[stilljustandrew]

"No, that's what I mean -- that only happens with angels. If they don't deliberately keep the vessel's original soul alive. But with demons, if they're exorcised or if they just move out to a different body ... the original person's still in there. Unless the body dies."

[gothamsheiress]

"All right." She nods, tucking that information away.

"Still. It seems he'd rather have you alive and yourself, to serve him."

[stilljustandrew]

He nods, slowly.

[gothamsheiress]

Brix hesitates -- considers -- changes her mind about what she was going to say.

"And you did agree to follow his orders, so that he would not give you to Meg."

[stilljustandrew]

"Some of His orders," he half-whispers. "I didn't take oath to Him until later."

[gothamsheiress]

She nods.

"Andrew -- I do understand why you agreed to follow some of his orders." Her voice is low, but earnest. "You had no other choice. In your place I think I would do the same." She shakes her head again. "I did do much the same."

[stilljustandrew]

He blinks up at her, the question in his eyes -- and focuses on her face for the first time.

And, slowly, develops a deep line between his brows.

"... When?" he asks, low.

[gothamsheiress]

She's quiet, for a long moment.




"A lover of mine was kidnapped," she says, finally, "a year or so ago, by men who sought to secure my inheritance for their own use. And I would have given anything to keep him safe and whole. I would have agreed to anything."

There is an undercurrent of chagrin in her tone, something just short of shame. She looks down at her hands in her lap. "I said I would be willing to wed his kidnapper. And if circumstances had not been what they were" -- a deep breath -- "I would have kept to that agreement. I would have looked for a way out, yes, but . . ."

She shakes her head, still not looking at him. "And Grue de Agen had not the tenth of the power of your Lucifer. He could have harmed my body, my mind, my friend, but if I had taken my life, that would have been the end of it. And yet--"

[stilljustandrew]

Soft, and strangely numb: "You had to save him."

[gothamsheiress]

"Whatever the cost. Yes."

[stilljustandrew]

His turn to look down, in a mix of something like shame and something like envy.

"I get it."

[gothamsheiress]

"I know you do," she murmurs.

"I think you might understand as few others would."

[stilljustandrew]

"But that was ..." He looks up, that deep furrow between his eyebrows returning, puzzlement or worry. "You said that was a year ago. Not ..."

[gothamsheiress]

She glances up at him, eyebrows raised.