Guardians are taught three rules at their first lesson.

One: Trust your instincts.

Two: Always listen to your Bonded partner

Three: Never fight a Devil alone.

Mark managed to break all of those rules in his first fight.

~ ~ ~ ~

Mark raced down a narrow alleyway, closely followed by three really pissed off devils. Mark could've easily taken care of just one or two of the fallen angels, but one of the them had a nasty ability to cover himself in fire, and no amount of skill was going to save Mark from burning his flesh if he tried to punch the guy out.

It didn't help that he had lost sight of his team a few alleys back. With no back-up in sight, Mark decided his best option was to run for his life and pray someone caught up soon.

Something moving in the corner of his eye dragged him out of his thoughts, and with a breathless curse the martial artist ducked down, narrowly avoiding being hit with elbow. The devil that swung at him hissed her fury at missing.

The young Guardian doubled his efforts at running, legs screaming at the excursion. He wouldn’t be able to run much longer. The more this chase was dragged out, the more exhausted he would be when they finally caught up. And they would catch up. All Guardians knew that devils had much better stamina than even an athletic human like himself.

Just as he resigned himself to a difficult fight, his chest began filling with warmth. Mark felt the shift in his head that meant something was there with him. He mentally reached for the growing split in his mind, furiously thinking {About time you caught up, Jackson!}

An obnoxiously happy feeling radiated through the split, and a cheery voice sounded in his head. [Did you miss me that much?]

Mark didn't bother with a verbal response, but merely directed a mental image of the devils chasing him over the split. The happy feeling quickly changed to growing excitement. Mark snorted. His Bonded was always thrilled when a fight was eminent. {I can't take them as I am. The one on the far left needs to be taken out in a single hit.}

[Alright. Give them hell for me!] The split in Mark's conscience suddenly blurred. The familiar feeling of being more than just 'Mark' overcame him, and the warm feeling in his chest turned into a flame that filled his body. His legs stopped screaming for mercy, and instead felt powerful and strong. Mark abruptly stopped running and turned, using the momentum to swing his fist into the flame devil's face. It connected with a sick thud, and the corrupted human went flying back. When he landed he stayed down, apparently knocked out.

The remaining devils stood back, sensing that something had changed about their quarry. Jackson sent another pulse of his strength through their bond, and Mark wasted no time in turning that destructive power into a series of flips and roundhouse kicks. One of the devils backed off, leaving his partner to block most of Mark's attacks.

The host human had probably been very pretty before she had been possessed. Now her face was twisted in a snarl of hatred, and her complexion was pale and greasy. The fallen angel that had taken her must have been powerful, because even with Jackson's ridiculous strength flowing through him Mark couldn't break her blocks. The devil dodged a fist that was aimed for her chest, and surged forward to take advantage of the blind spot.

With a hiss she raked her claws over his arm, digging deep into is flesh and drawing blood. Mark cried out and jumped back, trying to get some distance between him and the now chuckling devil. Jackson worriedly shouted down their connection, but Mark tuned him out, focusing on his opponent.

For a few tense moments they stared at each other across the alley. Mark frantically searched for some way to quickly dispatch the devil when he noticed the growing feral look in her eyes. The smell of his blood was filling the air, and the scent was distracting the crazed devil. The fighter deliberately shifted his body so the wounded arm faced the devil. Her eyes immediately snapped to the dripping wound, her defensive position going lax. Mark held the position for a moment longer, than lunged. With a war-cry he slammed his arm out, catching the devil below the chin.

She launched into the air with a crack and slammed into the wall. Her eyes rolled up into her head. Mark took a couple deep breaths and relaxed his pose. Jackson was still clamoring for his attention, and with a small sigh Mark sent him an impatient {What?}

Mark heard something move behind him as Jackson frantically shouted [There were three of them!]

Something heavy slammed into Mark's back, sending him flying . He landed on the ground with a jarring thud. Something quickly jumped on him, trying to get him pinned to the ground. Mark pushed himself up, throwing the devil off his back. The Guardian quickly scrambled back onto his feet and rushed over to the fallen angel before it could recover. A well-placed punch signaled the end of the fight.

His team finally caught up a few minutes after the last devil was knocked out. Jackson ran over and nearly bowled Mark over in his enthusiasm to deliver a large hug to the martial artist. Mark yelped as the over-whelming strength of his Bonded once more proved to be much, much more potent in its raw form. “Off, off you vicious brute! You're crushing my lungs!” Mark flailed his legs at the demon until he finally relented and let go, flashing the Guardian a grin.

Mark scowled at the Xiezhi, but the proud feeling that the Bonded pair were relaying to each other over their link undermined his attempt at being annoyed. This had been their first mission, and Mark was thrilled he had managed to take out not only one, but three devils on his own. From what he could read over their link, Jackson was happy that his human Bonded was tough enough to handle himself. The two grinned at each other, feeling rather pleased with themselves.

Then someone stepped in front of him, and Mark found himself looking into the enraged eyes of his team leader. Jaebum looked furious. He gave Mark a once over, taking in his bruises and bleeding arm.”What's the third rule?”

Mark blinked at the sudden question. “I'm sorry?”

Apparently that was the wrong answer, because Jaebum turned an interesting shade of red and growled out “What. Is. The third rule. Of Guardians?” Mark vaguely noticed Jinyoung come over to pat soothingly at his Bonded back. He rapidly searched his memory, trying to remember the correct words so his leader wouldn't kill him. He mentally poked Jackson, who sent back an equally perplexed poke. Finally Mark came across the right lesson. “Your team-mates are your limbs. Stay connected to your limbs. Trust them to act even when you can't.”

Jaebum turned a less alarming shade of red. He took a deep breath, the one that meant he had just about had it with dealing with idiots, and asked “Then why on Earth did you run off alone?”

Mark stuttered an apology, trying to explain how he thought everyone had seen the devils trying to sneak away, and he could've sworn Jackson had been right behind him and –

Jaebum raised his hand and cut him off. “No excuses Mark. You should've had your link open with Jackson before we even started the mission. You can't make these rookie mistakes.” Mark felt his eyes widen in indignation. Yeah, he had messed up, but he beat the devils didn't he? He should be praised!

Jaebum turned to the other members of the group, glaring at demon and human alike. “I don't want to see anyone on this team make this mistake again. When we head to a mission, open your link with your Bonded immediately. It's the quickest way to convey information.” He turned and began walking away, calling back “Let's head back to base. We need to request a retrieval for three devils.”

Mark felt cold fury wash over him. Jackson gave him a concerned look and brushed a comforting hand over his unhurt arm. [Well, I think you did good.]

Before he could respond the blurred space in his mind suddenly snapped back into clear focus. He only had time to feel Jackson's panic as he was forcefully removed from their connection. The fire in his limbs turned to ice, and Mark could already tell from the dull throb they gave off that there would be hell to pay when the bruises on them finally formed.

But more important was the growing feeling of something wet on his arm. Mark twisted to check and let out a surprised yelp when he realized the whole underside of it was covered in blood.

Jinyoung darted forward and grabbed it, causing Mark to cry out in pain. Jackson snarled in response and pressed into his side, his instincts screaming to protect his Bonded. The younger demon snorted and swatted Jackson upside the head, causing the Xiezhi to snap out of protective mode in surprise. “I'm trying to help him you nimrod.”

Jinyoung quickly scanned the wounded arm, noting how it looked black at the edges and oozed blood at a sluggish rate. “Poisoned.” he muttered, sending Jackson into a frantic tizzy. “Poisoned?! Is Mark gonna be okay? What do we do? Do we need to get help –?” Jinyoung smacked him again. “Shush. It's a weak poison, all we need to do is get him back to base.”

Meanwhile, Mark only vaguely heard the conversation going on around him. After Jinyoung had grabbed his arm, his head had suddenly gone very swimmy. He swayed slightly on his feet. The last thing he heard was the voice of BamBam yelling “Guys, he's going down!”, then the hard ground coming up fast to meet him.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jackson tried to open the Bond that he shared with Mark. Just like the last dozen times he was met with static silence and a distinct feeling of emptiness. The guardian was sleeping peacefully on a tiny, dirty mattress, the poison cleared from his system.

After Mark had fainted the young demon had been told to carry him back to base. Jackson nearly sprinted the whole way back. His control over his human form was slowly slipping, thanks to his panic and his passed out Bonded.

Without a human to anchor them to the Mortal Plane, younger demons had a hard time holding their mortal form together. With every step Jackson felt his horn threatening to protrude from his forehead, and his feet had long ago twisted back into hooves. He had stopped just long enough to kick his shoes off, then continued his frenzied race through the alleys.

After ages he finally broke out of the maze and into the temporary base camp that his team had pulled together. The camp was nothing special, and to the average citizen it would just look like a few vans parked by each other. But Guardians knew better. Two of the vans were actually fitted out to hold restrained devils for transporting, and the other two vans had medical supplies and a place to rest.

Mark had unceremoniously been tossed into the far left van, where Jackson quickly settled him on the crappy mattress that was there and left to search the next van for an antidote. Of course, if Jackson had actually had any medical training he might of actually found something useful. When the rest of the team caught up they found him trashing the place and tossing supplies all over the parking lot.

Jaebum had soundly cuffed the idiot over the head and banned him from the makeshift hospital room. At first Jackson protested, needing to be close to his Bonded while he was hurt, but Jinyoung assured the older demon that Mark would be fine and had him sit down to rest. Bambam and Yugyeom wandered over and started up a conversation, lightheartedly bickering with each other and teasing Jackson about his hot-headed partner. Slowly the casual banter worked it's magic, and Jackson calmed down enough to pull himself together.

Soon after Jaebum emerged from the van. Jackson immediately raced over, and the obvious concern and worry in his face made the leader fight back a sly grin. He decided to play nice and told Jackson that Mark was fine, just resting up after the shock to his system. Jackson had whooped in relief and raced into the van to wake for Mark to wake up.

That had been hours ago. Mark still had yet to show any signs of consciousness, and Jackson was getting bored. He had tried to amuse himself with poking the brunet's side, but when that failed to produce a reaction it got dull quick. The xiezhi then tried to wake his partner up by opening their connection, but that didn't seem to be working either.

Jackson frowned and wiggled a bit in his seat. He definitely wasn't sulking, he was just bored. So very bored. And his favorite thing to do when he was bored was bother Mark. But Mark wasn't awake to be bothered. The young demon sighed. He tried another experimental poke at the guardian. Still nothing.

Then Jackson got an idea. Maybe he could still bother Mark, even if he wasn't awake? Jackson sat up a bit and chewed on his lower lip in thought. Then he carefully re-opened the link between their minds. [Mark?] The body on the bed didn't even shift. [Mark, I'm bored. Please wake up.]

Was he seeing things, or did Mark's left hand just twitch? [ Jaebum says we can't leave until you wake up. You know, when he yelled at you, I think he was worried about you. ]

Yeah, that was definitely a twitch. Jackson grinned. Apparently the older boy wasn't quite as unconscious as he seemed. A mischievous glint appeared in the demon's eyes. [You know, you look almost cute like this. All sleeping and docile. Much nicer than when you're awake and shouting at me.] At this Mark's face scrunched up a little, and a tiny moan escaped the pursed lips. Jackson did a tiny dance of glee and delivered the final blow.

[ Maybe we should let you fail at fights more often. ]

That did it. With a small pop the white static coming from Mark's end of the connection turned into fury, and the brunet's eyes slit open. Jackson smirked at him. “Up already?”

Mark scowled and kicked out, successfully knocking the impudent demon off the tiny mattress and onto the floor. He turned over on the bed, ignoring the obnoxious laughter that floated up to him. He gave a little growl when he felt the bed dip down under the weight of a new body, but scooted over as far as he could to give Jackson a little more space. Warms arms wrapped around him, and Mark couldn't help but snuggled back into the protective embrace his Bonded had him in. A mutually warm and content feeling spread across their link. As the medicine began to drag him back to sleep, Mark managed to growl “I did not fail that fight. I'm a damn good fighter.”

Jackson hummed in response and buried his nose into the sweetly scented neck in front of him. “Yeah, you're the best Mark.”

~ ~ ~ ~

AN: From wikipedia :

Mentions of the xiezhi in Chinese literature can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, where it is described by the scholar Yang Fu as a "righteous beast, which rams the wrong party when it sees a fight, and bites the wrong party when it hears an argument". It is also described in the Shouwen Jiezi as being "a cattle-like beast with one horn; in ancient times, it settled disputes by ramming the party at fault".

I tried to stop this bit on a cliffhanger, but Jackson demanded he have a moment to be a hero. 

I do read all my comments, and I am working on the three requests I recieved! They'll probably be uploaded sometime in the next two or three weeks. 
Although i will admit, the historical au has me pretty stumped for ideas... Anyway, please comment and subscribe! It helps keep me motivated to write longer parts!