darker_london | Clash (David, Aly, Brian, Amaris)

There was still so sign of Peter and it distressing the hell out of Aly. She felt the grief of two people; one missing a husband and the other missing a brother and best friend. It was a strange dichotomy of emotion, but it all meant the same thing. They had to find Peter and they had to do it soon.

The mercenaries that made up Dead Meat did seem to have trouble accepting Aly as one of their own, even after seeing she was an angel and even with the experience of the tiny Kali behind them. Aly was different. Some of them had known her before, most notably Saul, and she they had always known her as a byproduct of Peter. His supportive and loving, if not calm and quiet wife. Now she wanted to be part of everything and she had tactical knowledge which caught them off guard.

Aly couldn't spend all her time with them in the compound. It made her feel strangely claustrophobic, which was a trait she knew she had picked up from David. Beyond the experience she had had being held in Amaris' basement for five days, she hadn't suffered anything like he had at the hands of Razvan and Svetlana. And back then, Svetlana had been far more creative with her torment than Amaris had, even if Amaris easily took that title now. David had spent two weeks locked in an underground bunker, and to top it off, he had nearly died while locked in a metal cabinet which had been set on the floor, the door underneath them, like a coffin. He hated enclosed spaces and now she did too.

The city of Rome held no joy for Aly, considering all her friends had suffered there. She purposely steered clear of Vatican City entirely, leaving the recon missions up to the people who already seemed to have a system. She was automatically counted out of those anyway, being female. It was a little hard to pretend to be a Templar priest with her sizeable chest.

Aly knew life had to continue while Peter was missing, and that meant taking care of herself. Perhaps if David weren't with her she would have used it as an excuse not to eat. She could no longer get away with that anymore. David constantly reminded her to take care of herself and if she didn't he interrupted anything she was doing with a constant and very male 'I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Aly, I'm hungry. Feed me. I'm hungry.' in her head until she complied and ate, satiating her hunger and therefore his. It was like the spiritual equivalent of a sibling poking the other over and over again until they gave in.

Currently, David was supernaturally prodding her to eat and she had to give in. I'm hungry, Little Sister. His tone was simple and slightly annoyed, but in a way which made it clear he wasn't angry with her. Just uncomfortable.

"You know it is really me who is hungry and not you, right?!" Aly hissed under her breath so she didn't look like a crazy woman. She was currently walking down a public street. She was going to have to invest in an earpiece so it looked like she was talking on the phone. Talking to David in her head made her feel like she was crazy, and even if it made her look more unhinged to do it out loud, it made her feel better.

Anything you do to yourself, you do to me now. And I'm hungry.

Aly sighed. "Alright, alright! I'll find something to..." Aly tensed all of her muscles, immediately turning her eyes to the sky. There was a demon somewhere. She could feel it. "David!"

I know. See the square in front of you? Walk towards it. If you're in the open, whoever it is is less likely to bother you.

Aly headed towards the square which was full of people shouting and laughing and talking. It was full of people being people. Life. And Aly rushed to join it, even as the demon grew closer. Aly, turn around! The demon had changed direction and now it was overhead, and in front of them. Voices screaming in her head and voices screaming in the square in front of her joined together and in the confusion, she ran the wrong way. And right smack into Amaris herself.

Aly instinctively took several steps back, nearly overwhelmed by the feeling of demon coming off of her. And then an anger so intense washed over her and Aly was taken by surprise. It was David's anger. He wanted to throttle her right here, though that wasn't likely to end the way he wanted it to end...

Had they been in a position to notice, they would have seen that Amaris looked just as shocked and horrified at seeing Aly. "...angel?" she asked, so taken off-guard, she couldn't even lace her words with her trademark poison.

Aly just sneered at the woman. "What are you doing here?!"

"What are you doing here, Alyona. Shouldn't you be bedridden somewhere? Or in a mental institution? Why did they let you out this time? A technicality?" There it was. And both Aly and David knew that wasn't Amaris speaking. It was their brother, Brian. He resided within Amaris just as David now resided in Aly. Here was Aly in an alleyway in Rome with her two dead brothers and a woman she hated who had become a demon because she was as full of spite as Brian was. Apparently Amaris wasn't in the mood to take prisoners. She would have done so already, and that was quite a relief. No one needed to search for two missing people...

"I don't have time for this!" Aly shrieked, even as David railed at her to do something about Amaris. Had he survived the trip to Delford, he would have gone off in search of her. He had been made to watch his wife die at Amaris' hands, and that had come at the end of a very long list of ways she had ruined his family and his life. He wanted her dead. He wanted her ended. Aly, however, was here for her husband. Christina was gone. Peter could still be helped...she hoped.

Aly tried to push around Amaris, but the woman grabbed Aly's arm. Immediately, Aly whirled around and she slammed her palm into Amaris' nose. Amaris and Brian had never seen that coming. Last they knew, Aly was a broken, little weakling. Amaris staggered backwards, blood gushing from her now broken nose.

"OW! I was just going to ask you a question!" Amaris' hands were over her nose, and she now sounded congested. Aly crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, and Amaris took that as a cue to continue. "I came here to get away from you lot! Why are you here?"

"None of your business!" Aly hissed.

"Alyona. Fill your big brother in."

If looks could kill, Amaris would be dead and the world would be better off. "You lost the right to call yourself that when you...you know what? I'm not even going to list the shit you've pulled because I would be here all night!"

"I could just soulsuck you," Amaris growled. "I could soulsuck you and take you anywhere I wanted to."

Aly shook her head. "You haven't yet."

"If I did, your stupid team of flunky soldiers of light would come after me." Amaris spat blood on the street and she bared reddened teeth. "You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone."

"This isn't over Amaris. Your day is going to come. It's just not today."

"Big talk for a cripple," Amaris growled.

Inside her head, David screamed insults at Amaris and Brian in several languages, but Aly was all action. She shoved Amaris hard into the opposite wall and then she balled her fists into Amaris' shirt and she held the demon there. She knew Amaris could get out of it, but so far the demon was so shocked by the turn of events that she didn't even struggle. She just stared at Aly, flabbergasted, her nose still trickling blood.

"If I had anyone else with you, you would be on your way back to London right now, ready to be buried for the rest of eternity under a fucking carpark. But I'm busy. It doesn't matter where you go, Amaris. We'll find you. I don't have to do this now. It will happen." Aly released her and she walked away, leaving Amaris to stare at her retreating form.

David was trying to appeal to Aly to go back and get Amaris, but Aly ignored him. She understood Amaris could kill someone else while she was free. But to use Saul's manpower to go after Amaris too would me to divide their attention. Peter was what they needed to focus on.

Neither of them noticed a thing when Amaris was indeed captured as she stood there in shock. They didn't hear about it upon returning to the Dead Meat headquarters either. It hadn't been their own people who had taken Amaris. It had been the Templar.