Dongho laid, silently, on his bed. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the day's events, highlighting the important parts, and the ones to remember.

Kevin transferred into his Health class. Lucky. He didn't have a class with him before. But Kiseop has the same class, so Kevin doesn't pay much attention to Dongho. But, strangely, he's fine with that.

He slowly, not losing focus, went back to yesterday. Xander mentioned something about his memories of Lucifer... He didn't say much. Something about Eli. He didn't seem to want to dwell on it.

But, after this new discovery, Dongho noticed that Xander avoided the fallen. It seemed off, to him. Maybe Lucifer doesn't like Kyoungjae...?

Realizing he was getting side tracked, he went to the day before yesterday. All unimportant. He went back weeks, months, years, each note-worthy thing getting smaller and less important the farther he went back. Until, finally, he had reached his limit. The beginning of his existence.

His head started to hurt as he tried to push passed the barrier. He winced and almost let out a scream; something had to be tearing his brain in half. A tightness rose in his chest as it got harder to breathe. He could feel blood dribbling out of his nostril.

Just when he was about to give up, a bright light flashed in his mind's eye. His perception cleared, revealing what he recognized as the outskirts of Heaven.

A blond head was seen in his vision-- and at first, he thought his mind had wandered to the day he first met Soohyun, so he quickly tried to shake it off.

But then; he noticed the blood dripping from the boy's fingertips. And the fact that his clothes, as well, were tainted with blood red splatters scattered at random across the pure white garments.

The angel-- he assumed, even though it did not have wings that he could see-- turned and looked directly at him, his lip slightly quivering as his teeth chattered. A surge of pride rushed through his chest, though he didn't quite know why.

Faces, pure white and smiling, flashed through his mind, faces he knew nothing of.

“Good job completing your first mission, Eli,”

The wingless angel was about to say something, but the memory disappeared.

Out of shock; Dongho flung open his eyes as his mind raced to and fro. He hastily wiped the blood off his nose-- as well as his ears, he discovered-- and got out of bed.

Eli? His mind screamed. Must have been him as an angel... He certainly didn't look like Kyoungjae. He didn't have any wings, though. That's the only thing Dongho couldn't connect.

The small demon didn't allow himself a moment to feel accomplishment for accessing Lucifer's memories, as he stomped to the Fallen's room, hellbent on getting answers.

“Kyoungjae!” Dongho yelled, slamming the door to his bedroom open.

The ex-angel in question calmly looked up from his math book, seemingly unfazed by the demon's aura, “Yes?” he said, just as calm as his demeanor.

His passiveness and apathetic attitude made Dongho extremely angry in this moment, “What's your relationship with Lucifer?” his eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms over his chest and sunk his balance onto one hip.

The other demon look genuinely surprised, and hesitated before answering, “I have none. Satan renamed me when I fell to Hell, bu--”

“Fine,” Dongho said shortly, interrupting the older. Kyoungjae could play dumb. But Dongho knows what he saw and heard. “What's Eli's relationship with Lucifer?”

Kyoungjae glared, angry that he'd been found out, “I don't see how that matters to you anyway, brat,” he seethed, staring at Dongho evenly, trying to intimidate the smaller boy.

Dongho scoffed, unfolding his arms, and shifting hips, tapping his foot impatiently, “Just so you know; I will find out,” he threatened.

“See if I care,” Kyoungjae said passively, turning back to his homework. Dongho, still a bit frustrated, huffed away. “By the way, your nose is bleeding,” Kyoungjae smirked as the smaller demon growled back at him.

“Why don't you just go back to Heaven, already? No one wants you here!” Dongho shouted, finally pushed off the edge of his limit toward Kyoungjae. In all honestly, he spat the words out of pure jealously toward him. Why couldn't he have been in his place? Dongho hated to be born-- or rather; spawned-- so filthy. He would have given anything to be in Eli's place, amongst angels, and he definitely wouldn't have fallen and turned into Kyoungjae.

Kyoungjae's eyes suddenly turned black, from their pale angel blue, as he glared at Dongho, “Yeah? Wish I could, bub.” he had to restrain himself from tearing the younger boy's head off. Let's see him go through what Eli had, and still enjoy being an angel so much.

Did he have any damn clue what it's like, having Lucifer in your head all your human life? Having him whisper choices-- more often bad ones-- into your ear while you struggle to discern right from wrong? Trying to decide what you want, not what that voice wants?

Does he have any idea what it's like to have Lucifer implant thoughts into your head, driving you to the brink of insanity? Having him construct fantasies of killing the entire population around you inside your head while you sleep?

Did Dongho know what it was like to be controlled by Satan himself?

The boy grit his teeth, “You know, Eli,” he spat, “I don't think you'll last more than a few more days on this mission. Getting buddy-buddy with Kevin, are we?”

Kyoungjae decided to ignore him. A light flashed in his mind; Dongho was jealous. He was jealous of his 'Eli' side. The Fallen smirked to himself. Good luck not getting holed up, yourself, there, demon. He thought.

After a few more smart-alack comments from Dongho; Kyoungjae was left to himself. The younger went off to consult Xander about his recent breaching into Lucifer's memories. Kyoungjae sighed. What should he do? He didn't want to go back to Heaven. But he knew that, since things were moving really slow down (up?) here, Hell would take action very soon. And he knew what that meant.

They'd try to kill Kevin and drag him down to the hole, to torture him into demonhood.

Whatever conceptions you have that demons lie and steal and cheat their way into tempting a human to the Underworld; throw them away. They can't really take a human soul and make it a demon without consent. It is possible, but a lot more trouble than it's really worth. So they don't go out of their way to get fresh, non-consenting human souls.

Even if their screams are the most pleasurable to the ears.

But with Kevin... well, he is worth it. The sooner they get him, the better. But they'd prefer him as a human.

“Kyoungjae,” There was that whisper again. He chose to ignore it.

“You can't ignore me,” the voice said in his head, “I'm always with you... Watching...”

Kyoungjae scribbled down the answer to the question his History homework had to offer. Ah, of course England and France were fighting at that time. When weren't they?

“Waiting...”

He glanced out the window, by chance, and saw storm clouds that were quickly darkening the sky. Southern California getting rain? Hm.

“Ready to...”

Lightening flashed. He counted it. 1... 2... 3...

“STRIKE!” Thunder boomed and Kyoungjae fell out of his seat. A dark chuckle bounced around his skull, “You're always so fun to play with, Kyoungjae,”

The fallen wanted to break down and cry right there. Insanity was calling him again, calling him to a place he hadn't been in centuries. Instead, he put his forehead to the ground and covered his ears, as if trying to block all the noise invading him. It didn't help; in fact, it made the voices amplify.

Because that wasn't Lucifer or even Satan speaking to him. That tie had been cut the moment he stepped on Earth, possibly even years before that. Maybe around the 40^th feather.

The person saying those things to him...

Was Eli.

And there was no way to get rid of it.

Meanwhile, Kibum didn't feel quite right in letting Kevin stay at his own home this night by himself. Even if all the angels were just across the street.

“You need to stay the night, Kev,” Kibum said into the receiver, listening to the rumble that the weather outside had to offer.

“Why? I'm perfectly fine here. My mom is home, you know,” Kevin protested, “I know you're worried, but there's no reason to be. And I know we're in southern California, but that doesn't mean heavy rain is some kind of omen. Relax,”

Kibum sighed, “Do you remember... The summer between eighth and ninth grade, when we went to the lake in Utah? And I told you to get off that old tire swing, but you didn't?”

Kevin paused, knowing he had been proven, “Allen--” he said warningly.

“Then the rope broke. So did your arm,” Kibum said smartly, “Come over. My instincts aren't wrong. At least, not when it comes to you,”

The younger boy sighed, very heavily, and few hushed tones could be heard. After a few moments, Kevin returned, “You owe me one,” he said, “You know how she feels about sleepovers on a school night.”

“Hurry. A storm is coming,” Kibum warned.

He just hoped it wasn't figuratively.

Kevin was over in about twenty minutes, barely missing the rain as it started to pour in sheets out of the sky.

“Wow!” he exclaimed, shutting the door behind him, “You weren't kidding. It's really raining out there,” Kevin was all smiles and optimistic in spite of the unfortunate weather circumstances.

The angels, however, sat blankly at the window with varied expressions. Kevin walked over to them, and thought it very curious he wasn't noticed. Allen gave him a glance, but other than that; there was no recognition. Not a cute smile from Kiseop. No ecstatic hug from Soohyun. And not a single shy greeting from Hoon.

What was wrong with them?

Allen was troubled; Kevin had known him long enough to recognize the expression. Soohyun seemed upset, Kiseop looked downright fascinated, and Hoon, frightened.

“Guys...?” Kevin questioned strongly. The volume of his voice against the silence of the house made the quartet jump in surprise. Shifty eyes finally landed on him, still skeptical as to whether or not it were a monster, or something.

After a long moment of the staring spell, Kevin continued, “What are you doing?”

As if hypnotized, the four looked back to the window and stared.

“The High Angel is coming,” someone mumbled.

“Who?” Kevin asked. High Angel? Sounds important. But not scary, like they're making it out to be.

“I've never met her before!” Kiseop said, smiling. At least he seemed excited, Kevin thought. Some normality here.

“Yeah, only she's not coming for us, Kiseop,” Kibum said, turning to him, “She's here for the demons,”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kevin exclaimed, “Back up. She? Coming? Demons? Whole story, please,”

Kibum, frustrated, walked up to Kevin, “I knew I was right in having you stay over here. We'll be lucky if you stay alive tonight,” he said. Kevin had never seen Allen so angry before in his life. The idea scared him.

Silence filled the room, until someone managed up the courage to break it, “He's right, you know. They've found the Heart,” Soohyun whispered.

Kevin blinked. He didn't want to toot his own horn, but wasn't the Wing supposed to be the most important part? Why would the almighty (well, almost) High Angel get involved in this one?

“Because the Heart is a demon. It will be harder to convince,” Soohyun answered.

Hoon, suddenly, despite his obvious fright, found his voice and recalled enough of an old piece of the prophecy to recite it.

“The Tongue is skillful;

The Ear wise.

The Eye is insightful

As the Heart in disguise

Loyalty was important to him

But to the wrong people

He will confide in,”

Kiseop, knowing it didn't mean anything to Kevin, explained, “The Heart will pledge allegiance to the 'wrong' people. Heaven's not quite sure what that means. It could mean 'wrong' as in 'bad', to our standards, so the demons. Or it could mean 'wrong' as in not his race, so the angels.”

Kevin thought that if the Heart was so important, they should have focused their energy on finding him, “Why couldn't you find him until now?”

“The Heart's loyalty is covered up by shame and doubt. And since it's an internal part; there's no visual key to it, either. The angels couldn't know, until the demon accessed his memories,” Hoon quietly explained, after the curtains had been drawn. The thin drapes may have hid the storm from their view; but it could not drown it from their ears.

“Memories?” Kevin asked. Apparently, each pure demon has fragments of the memories in which their body part controlled. From Lucifer.

After explaining all he needed to know, Kevin still had questions. He just wanted to understand this whole mess his life was right now. Was he important to this war, or not? It was all so confusing.

“That's the first bit of the 'prophecy' I've heard...” Kevin started, “Where's the rest of it?”

“39 pages lost in battle,” Soohyun grimaced, “Lucifer's army didn't want us to have it. We had to piece together what was left; making less than a page,” he sighed.

Probably the only thing Kevin cares about is what it says about him, the Wing. But they tell him the whole thing, anyway, some parts making awkward transitions from foretelling to now-telling.

Storms shall rise up;

casting lightening upon

a barren land

The Tongue is skillful;

The Ear wise.

The Eye is insightful

As the Heart in disguise

Loyalty's important to him

But to the wrong people

He will confide in

Days shall pass

The Fallen shot back at the call

To each his own sins

He will torment himself in

But the Wing...

He is a free man of all.

Obviously, this still meant nothing to Kevin. And he's not sure if meant much to the angels, either. Nonetheless, he appreciated someone trying to help him out in understanding.

He didn't think he'd ever really get it.

Suddenly, lightening flashed very close to them, causing the night sky to become day again. At that same moment, and ear splitting scream erupted from Kevin's lips. All angel's eyes were on him, wide with concern and fright, as he fell to his knees and clawed at his shoulder blades.

He continued screaming, to the point where they each had to cover their ears. Even Kibum's mom came down, rushed and ready to drive to the emergency room, but Kibum pushed her away.

“What's wrong with Kevin? Does he need to go to the hospital?” She touched his back, causing Kevin to grab her arm and shove her away.

“Don't touch me,” he glared. Something was off about his eyes--

“What the hell is wrong with you!” she exclaimed, quickly backing away. She thought his eyes were strange-- not like Kevin's at all. The pupils were dilated so big there were no whites.

“Mom, you need to get out of here! Now!” Kibum commanded, pushing her back upstairs, “Kevin will be fine, I swear my life on it.” Without objecting, she scrambled up the stairs, prepared to ignore the young boy's screaming for the rest of the night.

The screams had now grown guttural, almost like a monster's. Kevin wasn't turning into a monster... Was he? He thought about it. Winced from pain. Screamed from pain. Clawed at the newly forming bumps near his shoulder blades.

He is a monster. Becoming one, anyway.

Slowly, the wings tore from his skin, causing blood to seep through his shirt. Even through the fabric, his bones moving to accommodate the new appendages could be seen.

The angels could only turn the other way and ignore him, too. Nothing could be done to save him-- they couldn't even empathize. All angels' wings grew slowly, just like normal body parts for humans. But the pure demons-- their wings sprouted right out and the feathers came along soon after. Hell has a chemical mix that causes them to grow extremely fast, which is also why their 'High Demon'-- Lilith-- looks as old as the High Angel.

But here, on Earth, even though Kevin is technically a demon, he doesn't get the mercy of rapid wing growth. They grow in slow. Painfully slow.

Over the next few hours, Kevin's voice is long gone, his screams dying down to soft, wispy whispers of a dry throat much over worked for a life time. The fabric of his shirt was long gone, the sound of it ripping being one of the most memorable to the helpless bystanders.

“A-Allen...” Kevin's voice was no more than a whisper, but the man in question still heard it, “Make it stop... Please... Please!” his voice rose at the end as a joint to his wings crowned at his flesh. Kibum was forced to ignore the pathetic plea.

“Sorry, Kevin,” he winced as his screech returned to his tired voice for one last encore. The joint had probably passed. At least the worst was over.

Eventually, his screams died to whimpers which died to heavy breathing. The growth was done, for now, and he had passed out from the pain. It was suspected that it would have happened before, him passing out, if the pain wouldn't have kept him awake.

Just as Kibum was about to, finally, go to Kevin, a voice sounded in the room, “My, my,” it was unmistakeably feminine, “What a show that was,” her twisted smile and deformed face clearly showed delight.

All heads turned to the corner of the room. No one knew how long she'd been standing there, watching.

“Don't worry, though,” she cooed, “I'm only here for one simple thing,” She knelt beside Kevin, examining his face, peaceful despite the ordeal he'd just lived through. Perhaps it was a relief to be rid of it.

“Who are you, demon?” Soohyun growled. He knew this wasn't one that was here to help them, like he sensed Dongho was. She was here for one mission-- to hurt them in some way or another.

“Relax,” she stressed, hips performing a sensual dance as she sauntered up to him, “It's me. Lilith. Don't you know?” her eyes looked up, big and bright through lashes that were long and thick. In her human life, Soohyun noticed, she had beautiful hazel eyes with just a few flicks of gray. The pupils were normal again. She could pass for human, despite the scars and niches set deep in her face from blades that cut so deep Earth couldn't even imagine them up.

“Why are you here?” he demanded again, ignoring her slither around his body as she checked him out. Her hair was long and blonde, her fingers sinful and skilled. The slightest touch from her made Soohyun feel impure.

“To get him while his wings are still innocent,” she said simply, in a voice so adolescent, no one processed it until she had already walked up to the young unconscious human and placed a hand on his bloodied wing.

“Dearie,” she sighed, “Better patch up the wounds,” she placed another hand on the spots where blood still freely flowed, “Don't want him dying now,”

Her right hand, on the wing, had harsh, smoky, black tendrils floating from it, while the left, on his wounds, had a bright white light softly emitting from it. She moved her left hand from one wound to the other, keeping the right on the wing as it slowly turned darker and darker.

In fact, since the right wing was being tainted, so was the right side of his hair. The blonde eventually turned to black.

However, the angels were intrigued. They knew she was tainting him, but so what? She was also healing him; a power that none present were able to do yet. They weren't about to stop that, since it wasn't likely they could take him to a hospital to stitch it up. You know, without explaining the whole wing thing.

“What are you doing to him?” Kiseop asked, suddenly. Whatever it was; he didn't like it. Kevin's feathers hadn't even had a chance to grow in, and she's going to make them grow in black. He just wanted Kevin to have pretty wings, like he will get some day.

Lilith smirked, removing both hands, “Oh, you know. A little bit of this, a little bit more of that,” she purred, “Would you like a taste, honey?”

With the same smoke, she caressed Kiseop's cheek. Instantly, a black spot turned up on his flesh, slowly spreading and putting flecks of pure black into his eyes and hair. It wasn't particularly painful to the angel; but he could feel some of his perfection draining away.

When her hand was removed, Kiseop's face still had black tendrils whispering here and there, but they gently faded to the flecks now present in his pale blue eyes, or the tuft of black hair invading that perfect blond all angels carried.

And it was then that the pain hit him. He groaned, clutching the right side of his face, and fell to his hands and knees on the floor. He gasped, as the last of the smoke settled in his hair. His eye burned, and his skin felt hot.

“Don't worry; it's not fatal,” Lilith soothed becoming eye level with Kiseop. She smirked as she saw the smoke in his eye was still moving around, “Well. It might be for you, angel,” she cackled.

Kiseop could only respond with another groan of pain. He couldn't care less about this small amount of discomfort. Kevin had to go through worse. What kind of (extra) Guardian would he be if he couldn't take even a fraction of the pain his human had?

Lilith sighed in a dramatic fashion, and rose to her feet. Her hips sashayed as she walked a circle around the room; as if checking to make sure she hadn't left anything.

“Well, I'll be taking my leave now,” she announced, “And if you guys are so slow next time; we won't have any fun at all. Let's try to liven things up a bit, yeah?”

Smirking, she left out the front door before any angel could say anything.

Demons: 1, Angels: 0

Who knew they'd start off on the losing side of the war?

A/N: OMG, I just LOVE Lilith! XD She's so sassy :P But, sorry for the fail prophecy... I couldn't write it how I wanted to :/

Anyway. I don't really have much to say here except: thanks for reading! It really means a lot to me that someone appreciates what I write ^__^

Comment and subscribtions are love~ And silent readers are, too. Thanks for sticking with me so far. 6 chapters and it's just starting to really go somewhere. LOL.

Look forward to the next one! :)