This is a continuation on Burnout, my previous Binding of Isaac fic. I know some readers had previously expressed concern because they're unfamiliar with BoI. I'd recommend reading it anyway. This is a full AU, and literally every character in this chapter but Eden is non-canon and basically just an OC.
If you're still confused on the premise- the generality is an Urban Fantasy AU, where two halves of a family have aligned themselves with Heaven and Hell respectively. Neither of them are particularly nice groups, but neither are they pure evil.
Jacob and Esau are basically Sam and Dean Winchester, using the weapon/meister mechanics from Soul Eater, with a number of other related powers.
====
Highway to Hell
"I spy, with my little eye, something… yellow."
"I will murder you, Esau."
There was a pause, cornfields streaming by on either side, Jacob gritting his teeth and staring at the road.
"That's Cain's thing, not yours." Esau smirked at him from the passenger seat. "Well?"
"Corn." Jacob's eye twitched. It had been fields for the past 800 miles. He'd forgotten that middle America was apparently nothing but, with towns virtual oases in the endless expanses of corn and tobacco and- he hated Flyover Country.
"That's right," Esau said. "Your turn."
"Wrong." Jacob pulled the car onto the side of the road and stopped. "Yours."
They both looked at the clock for confirmation. It had indeed been two hours. 6pm. Late enough that the sun was just beginning to edge behind the treeline, but not enough to hit full sunset.
They exited the car. Esau was stretching on his side, working the kinks out of his arms. Jacob used the opportunity to dump out the stale dregs of his gas station coffee, and then wade into the cornfield to take a leak.
When he returned, Esau was leaning against the driver's side, shading his eyes with one hand as he checked his phone. "Lilith texted me. They've confirmed the Apostles have set up shop. They're… waiting for us to return before making a move."
Jacob made his way round to the passenger side. He glanced at his brother over the car before getting in. "We'll need to cut the trip short."
Esau copied him, sliding in behind the wheel. Jacob busied himself with adjusting the seat- too far back, and weirdly warm from Esau's body heat.
"There's an airport about three hours north," Esau said. "You wanna just skip bumfuck-ville and head up?"
Jacob fixed him with a stare, eyes sharp behind his glasses. He held it for a long moment, until Esau squirmed in his seat and raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, geez."
"We're almost there anyway," Jacob said. He rubbed his eyes. "Five churches max, and we can quit."
"Agreed." Esau shifted the car into drive and pulled back onto the tarmac. He accelerated quickly, and by the time he hit the speed limit, was already fiddling with the stereo. They crossed over from cornfields to what Jacob thought might be hemp, stereo flicking between songs as fast as Esau could register them.
Jacob spoke up occasionally, vetoing Esau's pause on a throbbing techno album that sounded like a headache waiting to happen, and then voicing his support for a jazz track – Esau shot it down.
They finally settled on some electrojazz band that Jacob had never heard of, but were solid enough that they could both agree on.
The car sped onward toward their final stop.
XXX
Out here, the towns all blended together. Usually no more than a single main road, with a few smaller streets branching from it like veins from an artery. The buildings were all the same. Fast food chains. Gas station. Thriftstore. Bar. Maybe a Walmart if the place was thriving.
And the churches, of course.
The little burg they pulled into just before seven pm was no different. Jacob had stopped keeping track of the names somewhere back in Kansas, and their newest town's name faded from his memories as soon as the roadsign disappeared from sight.
Esau pulled off, idling in the parking lot of a McDonalds while Jacob plugged in his phone. He pulled up the GPS and keyed the coordinates.
Jacob smiled thinly. "Lucky us."
"What?"
He held up the phone to Esau. This particular slice of Americana was so remote that there were only four religious institutions. One of which was, of all things, Unitarian.
His brother laughed, his freckled face dimpling. "What the fuck?"
"Not counting them," Jacob said, refocusing on the phone. "The closest is… two blocks that way. Methodist."
Esau pulled out onto the main strip. Traffic was light, but Jacob found himself keeping watch for any cops. The car had out of state plates, and sheriffs in these small towns liked to hand out tickets to tourists. That, and Esau wasn't much of a believer in speed limits.
Two blocks, and three stoplights up, was the church. The building was steepled, painted crisp white with black trim, and looked out of place in the rural town. Like something from New England transplanted far inland.
Esau pulled in.
Jacob rolled down the window. Cool night air wafted into the car. He inhaled, tasting the scent.
Gas. Diesel. Faint oil smoke from a passing car with a bad engine. Cooking oil from the Hardee's next door to the church, and rot from its dumpster. The sharp, icy aroma of faith from the church.
Jacob shook his head. "Just a church."
They kept going.
It was growing dark, the town around them shutting down for the evening. The next church was on the outskirts, and the route to get there wound through more fields and woods. Esau began drumming his fingers on the wheel after a few minutes, and Jacob made no move to stop him.
He was just as sick of this fucking trip as his brother. Two more stops, and then they were going straight to the airport. Let Eve take the next roadtrip. It didn't always have to be them and Cain. Even Azazel had stepped up this round.
Lilith was blind, and too busy wrangling her brats to really travel much, and Bethany was too unstable to drive long distances, and didn't do well sleeping in new places.
Beth.
Jacob's grip tightened around his phone. A traffic light up ahead clicked from green to yellow. Then to red. Esau ran it without slowing down.
"Don't say it," his brother muttered.
Jacob caught his eye. Shook his head. "Keep doing it."
Esau's pale eyebrows rose. "Seriously?"
"I want to get home." He left it at that, but he knew Esau understood.
They drove in silence, broken only by Jacob pointing out turns, and the rumbling of the engine under the hood.
"She hasn't texted me back," Esau said suddenly.
"She forgets." She hadn't replied to Jacob either. After a moment, he repeated it to Esau. There were no secrets between them. No place for jealousy, real or perceived.
A passing car- the first in some time, illuminated Esau's face for an instant. He was frowning, his face uncharacteristically grim. "Lilith said Bethany isn't sleeping."
"Yeah."
"I'm tired of this."
"I know."
"I am," Esau repeated, his voice rising slightly. He glanced over at Jacob. "All of this shit. Worrying about her. Running around on a wild fucking goose chase because half the family are goddamn loonies."
Jacob nodded. He opened his mouth. To reply. To agree.
The words didn't come. It was a long-standing sore that Esau was breaking open, and Jacob didn't have the right words to capture the way he felt. Like he wanted to find Lazarus and tear him apart for taking them away from Beth and the rest of the family. Like anyone who stood in their way was going to die.
He met Esau's eyes.
Nodded again.
"Fucking right," Esau growled.
Two minutes of silence, headlights eating up the road, and Jacob found himself pointing.
"We're here."
Their stop was Baptist. Some variation on denomination that he didn't recall seeing often. It was alone beside a narrow two-lane, surrounded entirely by waving, rippling, hateful corn fields.
Orangey-brick. White trim around the windows. A small paved area out back with a jungle gym and two swings. Just another of a thousand other American churches they'd seen on their trip.
The parking lot was full.
Jacob set his phone down. After a second, he picked it up again to check the date and time.
The parking lot was full at 7:30 on a Wednesday. They exchanged a look. Churches like this filled up on Sunday morning and were probably closed the rest of the week. The congregations were just too sparse; the populations in these towns too low. Unless this place had an amazing bingo night, something was wrong.
Esau turned into the lot and parked. He deliberated for a moment, and then pulled the car around, facing the exit. Then he parked it again.
They got out.
There was a tang in the air. Sharp and cool, like winter wind on a mountain, yet somehow… metallic. It burned the nostrils, like standing downwind of a fire, Jacob's sinuses itching in objection.
Consecrated ground.
Esau was already pulling his gear bag out of the backseat, but Jacob held up a hand. "Hold on. There're a lot of people in there."
"They made their choice." Any semblance of geniality had vanished from Esau's voice. "We're not waiting any longer."
"That's why I was going to suggest the proper method for killing a large number of people at once."
Esau straightened up, his eyebrows raised again. "You don't mean…?"
Jacob offered his hand.
His brother let the gear bag fall back into the car. "Oh, man, it's been ages. You never let me do it."
"Because you like when I use to you shoot people in the face." Jacob found himself smiling, mirroring the expression on Esau's face.
Esau took his hand and pulled him close. Esau's free hand pressed to Jacob's chest, hovering above his heart. He hesitated for a moment, and then plunged his fingers in.
Jacob's shirt and skin parted like water. There was a lurch in his chest, his breath catching in his throat, and then they were on key, hearts beating in sync, breathing in tune.
Esau's arm vanished into him up to the wrist. He reached for a moment, fumbling, and then seized hold of his goal.
"Damocles."
Esau drew the sword from Jacob's heart, and Jacob dissolved, fading into streaks of light and smoke that trailed behind the blade.
Jacob's consciousness flickered, for an instant nowhere, and then he was-
They were.
Esau blinked, eyes adjusting to the new passenger. Jacob was thrumming in their grip, sword shining in the moonlight, silver through and through, blade, handle, crossguard.
They were smiling.
They had their differences and disagreements, but this trumped all of that. Perfect unity.
As long as they were in sync, united toward a singular goal, they were infinitely more together than they were apart.
Esau glanced at the gear for a moment before shaking their head.
'Won't need it,' Jacob said.
"More fun without it," Esau added.
They turned on their heel and headed for the church. It was tempting to run, but Jacob was tempering that, holding back Esau's need to rampage. More fun to stalk, to take in the church as they moved, noting the exits and flattening tires with quick flicks of the sword.
No escape.
Anyone touched by an Apostle was already tainted. Anyone foolish enough to get that far was beyond saving.
They pushed open the front door. It was glass-fronted, opening onto a small foyer. Numerous religious posters and pictures- a mission trip to a developing nation, a teen retreat and summer camp, did little to distract from the faded linoleum and painted cinderblock walls.
A murmur of voices came from further in. Many people all speaking at once. Chanting.
The smell was worse here, and their skin itched, like they'd been suddenly sunburnt. Holy ground abhorred all adherents to the left-hand path, but it was no more than an irritation. They hadn't yet found a church they couldn't despoil.
There was a large crucifix on the wall beside a plaque with the church's name. Esau paused in front of it, and with a single stroke, bisected both.
He giggled.
Jacob rolled his metaphorical eyes. 'Childish.'
Didn't stop him from smirking though.
They padded down the hallway, passing the Sunday school room with a brief glance inside. Empty- all plastic chairs, and tables marked with crayon.
Ten more feet to the doors to the sanctuary. There was another scent in the air now. Something stale and sour, like a whiff of old meat. Something coppery that they thought might be blood.
The chanting was growing clearer. Prayer, spoken in two dozen arrhythmic voices, the words garbled into a dull, stupid sound.
And another, a voice beyond the chorus. High, calling out something. The congregation responded. Another call. Response.
Esau planted their foot in the sanctuary doors and kicked hard enough to knock them both off their hinges. They went down with a splintering crash, and the chanting broke off.
The sanctuary itself was small, made to hold no more than several dozen, and they doubted it had seen that in some time, but now… Every pew was packed. The churchgoers turned to look at them, moving as one.
Slack, empty faces. Men, women, children, plain country folk now moving jerkily, their mouths still half-open from chanting. A few had already succumbed. They stayed slumped in their seats, blood pouring from eyes and nose and mouth.
And at the front of the room-
They frowned. It wasn't Lazarus.
"Eden."
Their sibling was leaning on the altar, one hand holding a ritual dagger, interrupted in carving symbols into a girl's flesh. The girl was bound, the only normal in the room still under her own steam. But even she was only struggling weakly. Her white dress was stained with red, and her face was contorted with agony beneath her heavy bangs.
"Boys." Eden gave them a flat look. They were as pale as ever, their white hair slicked back, a pale carnation tucked behind one ear. Today they had on a white suit, playing the role of southern preacher to a tee. This incarnation was slightly masculine than the last time they'd seen Eden, but it never really mattered much. Eden was whatever it suited them to be.
"Thought I had more time than this," Eden mused.
"Where's Lazarus?"
The androgyne laughed musically. "Never here. I took his form to lead you on my trail. Lazarus is too weak a target to pass up." Their smile melted away in an instant. "He died today. Did you know that?"
The surprise was enough that Jacob flickered in Esau's hand, their thoughts briefly separating.
What did that cost us? How the fuck? Who did that?
"Dear little Bethie got him," Eden hissed. "So guess what?"
They traced another line on the girl's skin. She whimpered, crying into her gag.
"Isaac passed down the word. The truce ends today. We're done fucking around. It's time to recruit."
Jacob and Esau stared. And then all the pieces fell together. The chanting. The symbols. The sacrifice.
Eden was creating another sibling. Another Apostle.
They charged.
"Kill them!" Eden shrieked.
The parishioners piled out of the pews and threw themselves at Esau.
Jacob and Esau were in sync, and their sword parted flesh and bone and the aged wood of the pews as easily as it split the air. Blood fountained over them like rain.
The second wave stumbled over the corpses, little more than zombies, reaching and grabbing. Esau stabbed a woman in the face, turning his wrist to continue the motion and slice the thrall beside her and-
Jacob's blade lodged in her skull. Thick, glutinous liquid bubbled out of the wound. Not blood this time, but something pus white, closer to putty or jellied bone. The woman gurgled, her skin bleaching, and her eyes darkening. Black sclera, yellow pupils.
"Do you like them?" Eden called. "They're called Deliria. Have fuu-unn!"
Esau tugged, but the blade stayed stuck in the creature, like trying to pull it from a bog. They swore, and Jacob stepped forward.
Sparks rippled down the blade as he ignited their conduit. The Deliria twitched, then writhed, smoke pouring from its mouth as the blade electrified. The monster's liquid flesh blackened and bubbled, and Esau ripped the sword free just in time to meet the next wave of grasping, moaning Deliria.
They found themselves retreating this time, fending off the zombies from all sides. Not all of them were Deliria, but there were more creatures than there were normals, and the mix forced them to pick their strikes, wasting valuable energy on sharpening Jacob's edge with magic.
Dull nails raked across their arm, and they fell back to the doors. The thralls were bottle-necked, but they weren't making any headway. The Deliria was more resilient than they'd initially appeared. There was nothing human left of them. Things that would kill humans were little more than flesh wounds to them.
The Deliria were taking hits and just getting back up.
Further retreat, panic beginning to grow, little by little.
"Full-burn," Esau yelled. "We'll never make it to Eden otherwise."
Jacob nodded.
Lightning bloomed in their free hand. The fluorescent lights that ran the length of the hallway flickered, then burst as the power erupted from them, drawn to Esau's palm.
Their attentions diverted. Esau worked the right arm, wielding Jacob's blade. Jacob controlled the left, spraying gouts of lightning across the thralls. The creatures seized where he struck them, and Esau used the opportunity to finish them off, putting them down conclusively.
They danced on the edge of separation, their minds just barely touching as they relied on the other to know what to do, to take the shots they set up.
Esau impaled a Deliria, and Jacob seized it by the face. He channeled electricity into it. The monster shook, limbs contorting, and then discorporated. It splattered to the ground, little more than a mass of putty in the shape of a man.
The tide turned. The few remaining humans were felled, and they worked through the Deliria one by one. The monsters were too stupid, too mindless to have any tactics, to retreat, or to use their numbers.
"Waste of time," Esau murmured.
Jacob agreed, then paused, his electrical counterstrike faltering.
It was a waste of time. Eden would have known the Deliria wouldn't be able to stop them.
'Stall tactic! Forget them!'
Esau snarled. He charged, scattering the stragglers like ninepins, lashing out to either side as he ran.
They barreled back into the sanctuary. A few thralls lay twitching and dying in the aisles, but the altar was deserted.
A single white rose lay there. Eden's parting blessing.
'Shit.' 'Shit.'
There was no time to investigate or finish off the thralls. They hit the front doors hard enough to shatter them and kept going.
The sedan they'd come in was destroyed. A twisted hunk of metal sat on the pavement in front of it, all that remained of the engine.
And worse, they hadn't disabled every car in the lot. Even now, a set of headlights was disappearing over down the road into the distance.
'Careless, fucking careless!' Jacob berated himself. He was supposed to be better than this! He was supposed to be the careful one. The brains! Now they were fucked, and Eden had gotten away.
His self-loathing warred with Esau's need to pursue, and they split. Jacob stumbled away, his face twisted with fury.
"Dammit! God fucking dammit!" He drove his foot into the side of a truck, denting the metal.
"Quit wasting time!" Esau seized him and pulled. "We can still catch them."
Their eyes met. "How?"
Esau pointed. A police car sat at the edge of the lot. They hadn't noticed a sheriff among the dead, but there had been a lot of them.
"I'll get the stuff," Esau said. "You start the car."
The door was unlocked. A quick check for the keys revealed none, but it didn't matter. He took hold of the ignition and ripped it straight out of the column. From there, all it took was a twist of his fingers and an application of electricity to start the car. The engine purred into life, followed by a squawk as the radio came on- chattering with requests for the officer to respond.
Jacob switched it off and leaned over to open the passenger door for Esau. His brother slid in beside him, throwing what was left of the gear onto the floor.
"You got this?" Esau asked.
Jacob floored it.
The car they'd 'borrowed' to make their trip was nice enough. Fuel efficient. Nice AC. But it didn't have a damn thing on a police interceptor.
Jacob debated on turning on the lights for a moment before deciding against.
Then Esau flicked them on anyway. He grinned at Jacob. "Oh cmon, like you've never wanted to do this."
They went screaming through the countryside, lights flashing, sirens howling. The interceptor had more horses under the hood than anything Jacob had ever driven, and it tore up the road with almost frightening ease.
Beside him, Esau was opening bags and withdrawing equipment. He loaded the SMG and racked the slide to chamber a round. The gun went onto the center console. Esau pulled out three more mags for it and stowed them in the cupholder.
Brakelights appeared in the distance, little more than red pinpricks.
Jacob found himself grinning once again. Any earlier disgust had vanished in the thrill of the hunt. Just because he was supposed to be the 'smart one' didn't mean he didn't enjoy himself. They still had a chance to finish this right and go back home with a win.
And, judging by the way they were still in sync, hearts pounding as one, breath sliding through bared teeth, Esau was having just as much fun.
Jacob mashed the radio button. He turned the dial at random.
A familiar guitar riff filled the car.
How… apropos.
He turned up the volume to full blast.
They were doing better than 85, the needle creeping toward 90. The car ahead was slowly growing larger. He could tell Eden had sped up, but whatever Eden was driving didn't have the power to outrun them.
They were out in the country now, nothing but the fields and the moon, and their quarry growing ever larger.
Ahead, Eden's car swerved and took a turn fast enough to up kick arcs of dust and gravel behind it. Jacob and Esau were there barely a minute later.
Every trace of information Jacob had ever learned about driving cried out for him to slow down, to ease into it.
He ignored them.
Esau cheered from the shotgun seat as Jacob hit the turn. The interceptor heeled alarmingly, and he felt the right-side tires actually leave the ground. Esau slammed his weight into his door and the car dropped, fishtailing like he'd hit a patch of ice. The engine roared, RPM needle spiking as he burnt rubber, and then they were off again.
The gap between the cars closed. Two-hundred feet. One-fifty. One hundred. Eden's was- of course, pure white. Some kind of sporty model that Jacob didn't recognize, fast enough to keep ahead of them, but not enough to get away. The license plate read simply 'CHRIOT.'
Esau rolled down the window. He had the SMG in his lap. "Hold it steady." He leaned out, lifting the gun to his shoulder.
Jacob sped up, trying to give his brother a better shot, and then-
"Shit- Jacob, hold on."
"What is it?"
"The girl! He's got the kid in the car with him."
Jacob bit his lip. "We don't know that."
"I'm not risking it," Esau snapped.
"If Eden gets away, there's going to be a hundred more just like her. They're breaking the truce!"
"We're not like them."
"Take the shot, Esau!"
"No!"
"It's either that or I have to run them off the road," Jacob said. "You think she'll survive that?"
Esau flinched, his face falling. "Fuck. What are we supposed to do?"
"You need to take the shot."
His brother shook his head. "Not like that. I'll- I'll shoot the tires. The car stops and we kill Eden."
"Can you do that?"
"I have to."
Jacob closed the gap. Fifty feet now. Esau lifted the gun again, his top half hanging out the window.
Esau fired. Three round burst. Sparks kicked off the road. A pause as Esau waited to check his shots. He fired again.
Eden's back window spiderwebbed.
Again. The left tail-light went out.
Again. Esau was hissing under his breath, whispering a litany of curses. Jacob pushed the pedal flat, trying to get as close as he could. The road had grown wavy, and he was fighting with the car, forcing it to keep pace around the curves.
Ahead, the road arced sharply. Eden fishtailed, rear tires spinning. Jacob came into the turn seconds behind him. He was ready- he had Eden's reaction to go off of, and took the turn smoothly, even as Eden's car was still screaming streaks of molten rubber across the road.
Esau aimed. Clicked the switch to full-auto. Fired.
Silver holes painted themselves along the broadside of the car. The right side windows shattered. The passenger's door dimpled. Eden- for a moment illuminated in the headlights, turned to look, their face a mask of rage.
And then the right side front tire burst. The rubber went shooting away. Rim met road with a hellish screech. Sparks erupted.
Eden lost control. The fishtail became a spin. The car revolved fully, spitting sparks and chunks of metal before it hit the guardrail and smashed through.
"Shit!" Esau yelled.
Jacob pulled up short, stopping suddenly enough to make the interceptor's brakes grind. They both jumped out, running to see what had become of the other car.
The guardrail sat at the top of a short incline. The white car lay at the bottom, halfway into a ditch. The remaining headlight flickered before fading out.
"Cover me," Jacob said. "I'll go in fir-"
The roof of the car split with a noise like someone punching a hole in a tin can. White tendrils pushed through the cut, forcing it wider, tearing the roof apart.
Eden unfolded.
Colorless wings upon wings upon wings, all horribly organic, with tendrils taking the place of feathers, spreading forth as the shapeshifter bloomed from the wreck.
Esau opened fire, the SMG roaring in his hands for only an instant before it clicked empty. Esau hissed before throwing it aside and charging down the slope.
It was too late. Eden's wings flexed to their full length, and then beat. The downdraft was enough to shoot their sibling into their air like a rocket, the car smashed into the ground by the force of their takeoff.
Someone screamed, and Jacob looked up. Eden had the girl clasped tight in their arms. More than just one set now- multiple limbs clutched the kid to Eden's amorphous form.
Eden was gaining altitude, wings working, drawing away from them.
Jacob lifted his hands and sent a spray of lightning at them. Eden dodged it, their shrill laughter floating down behind them. He fired again, but Eden was out of range now- far above the treetops.
Getting away.
"Shit shit shit shit!" Esau was running back to the interceptor to reload when Jacob turned to him.
"Esau- there's no time. You and me. We can make the shot."
His brother wheeled, staring for an instant before his grim expression broke.
They came together. It was Jacob who took Esau's hand this time. He lifted his hand to the red-head's chest and drew. Esau's body came apart. Everything earthly boiled away for the pure, spiritual core of what they were.
Two bodies. One soul. Resonating.
Esau thrummed in their hands. A greatbow, as tall as Jacob, carved from a smooth, silvery metal. There was no string.
Jacob raised Esau.
The bowstring formed between their fingers. White lightning, conducted between the two poles of Esau's frame. The arrow was the same. Lightning. Energy condensed to a glowing bolt, aching to be fired.
"Kill that fucker."
Jacob nodded. They smiled.
The string left their fingers. The arrow loosed with a boom like thunder.
They aimed high. The shot arced, a shooting star splitting the sky.
Eden's fleeing form, just beginning to lose definition in the night, lit up for an instant.
The arrow ripped through half the wings on one side like paper. Scraps and fragments of Eden fell to earth, and it was they who screamed this time. Eden's flight was suddenly uneven, listing to one side as they tried to grow new wings.
Jacob and Esau drew again.
Fired.
Eden was ready for them now though. They dropped, their remaining wings folding inward to send them out of the arrow's path. It arced harmlessly overhead and vanished into the fields.
"We're not going to get another shot," Jacob murmured.
Esau had no verbal response. There was only a sudden flare of rage from within. Indignant fury that Eden would get away with what they'd done.
Jacob pushed all their power into the final shot. Their hair was standing on end, their suit crackling with discharge. The arrow vibrated dangerously, a hundred million volts in one, little more than a lightning bolt held in place by human hands.
They drew the bow to its limit. Esau's metal creaked in protest, but they both knew he could take it.
Loose.
Jacob let go.
The arrow burnt the skin from their fingertips. It moved so fast that they couldn't follow the flight for a moment.
They traced the path with their eyes. Pinpointed the exact spot it would strike Eden. And-
Jacob's mouth fell open. It was going to miss. Eden had moved again. Not purposefully this time- their wings hadn't regrown properly. It looked like they'd hit an air current and been blown off course.
Out of the firing path.
The shot crested.
Descended.
Esau was screaming something guttural inside them.
The arrow curved.
It was impossible. A fucking miracle in action. Except their kind didn't get those, but it was.
The malformed wings on Eden's side exploded in a flash, bright enough to light up the forest like a flare.
The shapeshifter shrieked inhumanly. They dropped rapidly, only to discard a shape into the air.
"The kid!"
The girl's form, tiny at this distance, spiraled down, tree branches breaking under her, and then fell from sight.
Eden, freed from her weight, threw themself into a dive, curving far off to the right, away from the girl, and away from them. In moments, Eden was gone from sight, vanished into the night like a vast, pale moth.
Jacob and Esau split. Jacob turned to his brother to, only to find him already sliding down the slope.
"Esau, wait!"
They needed to go back to the church and mop up. The Deliria probably couldn't last long without a mage sustaining them, but Eden might have left something behind. Information that they could use.
Esau ignored him. He splashed across the ditch, sparing only a cursory glance at Eden's car before running into the forest beyond.
Jacob hesitated, glancing between his brother and their car. The small, growing ache in his chest answered his question.
They couldn't be apart.
He sighed, and slid down the hill.
It didn't take him long to catch up to Esau. His brother had left a trail like a blind buffalo.
It was pitch black in the forest, too much for even their limited nightvision. Jacob lifted a hand full of sparks, casting the trees into flickering relief.
"Thanks," Esau said, not looking at him. Neither stopped running forward.
It didn't take long to find the spot where the girl had fallen. The scent of her blood carried on the wind.
She lay in a pool of moonlight. Her fall had torn a hole in the canopy, spotlighting her body. She was small. So, so small.
Jacob grimaced. They could at least take her back to the church for the authorities to find. Maybe her family hadn't been among the Deliria.
Esau ran to her. He hovered, hands wavering, not sure whether to pick her up or try to heal her. He paused, his mouth creased in a terrible frown, looking at her.
Jacob walked slowly to him. "Let's take her back. I'll carry her if you can't handle it."
Esau shook his head. "Shut up for a second." He leaned over her and pressed his ear to her chest.
He went very still.
And then two wide blue eyes turned up to Jacob.
"She's alive," Esau whispered, awestruck.
Jacob pursed his lips. What were they supposed to do? The closest hospital was miles away, and the girl was mangled. Just looking at her he could see that both her legs were shattered, one arm was bent the wrong way at the elbow, and if she was breathing at all, he couldn't hear her. Alive, but for how long?
He began to voice his thoughts to Esau, only for his brother to shake his head furiously.
"Stop talking- you're distracting me. I need to- just gimme a minute to think about this."
"Think about what?" Jacob sighed and crouched down beside his brother. "Esau," he said very slowly and carefully. "The kindest thing we can do is put her out of her misery. She's dying."
Esau ignored him. He reached out and nudged the kid. "Can you hear me?"
Silence for a long, uncomfortable moment.
And then her mouth opened. She moaned softly. Her teeth were broken, and she had a mouthful of blood. She coughed, once, twice, splattering red froth over her chin.
Esau brushed her bangs back, revealing two black eyes. The girl was squinting at them through her bruises.
"Kid, look at me," Esau said. "I can save you, but I need your consent. It's not going to be nice, and there'll be a price, but you'll live."
Jacob gasped. He seized Esau's shoulder. "What the hell are you thinking? You can't bring her into this."
"Why not?" Esau's eyes were flinty, his voice low. "Eden broke the truce. I'm not going to let a kid die just to hold up a bargain that no longer exists."
"This is a war!"
"And she's a victim!" Esau shouted back. "If it goes wrong, it's on me."
The girl made a soft gurgling noise. One of her hands, all smashed and broken like a crushed spider, rose. It was trembling.
Esau took it gently. "Kid, do you want me to save you?"
Silence. She coughed roughly, gagging on blood, and Esau propped her head on his knee. It took a long, jagged bout of coughing for her to clear her airway.
Her lips moved. Esau leaned in. Jacob followed him.
"esss."
Esau looked up at Jacob.
Jacob shook his head in frustration. "So be it."
His brother moved into action at once. He pressed a nail into his left palm. The skin split and blood welled up, pooling in his cupped hand.
Esau dabbed a finger in it, and then to the girl's forehead. He drew three symbols.
The numeral Six. Three Sixes, facing outward, forming a sort of triskelion.
"In the name of the Beast, the Whore, and the Morning Star, I baptize you."
Another symbol. An inverted cross on her chin.
"Rise again and be reborn in the skin of kings."
The mark of brimstone between her collarbones.
Esau paused. There was a silence in the clearing that had nothing to do with not-speaking. The night birds and insects had fallen silent. No leaves fell in the trees. No wind moved branches. There was only a terrible, pregnant silence as the world held its breath.
Jacob looked at Esau, all rigid focus and tension, tight lines etched in his face. At the girl, on the edge of life and death and more.
Jacob looked and he knew that this was a ritual that required his participation, or it would fail. There needed to be three of them.
"Speak your name," he said. "That we may write it in the Black Book."
Esau glanced up at him. Flashed a smile.
The girl mouthed.
"M-mah-mah-" she broke off, wheezing. Coughed. The cross on her chin was running with loose blood. "Ma… Mei."
Jacob cut his palm and pressed his hand to Esau's over the girl's heart. Their blood- the same and yet different, mixed and mingled, humming with the power behind the ritual.
"So be it," they said.
And then they each tipped their hand over the girl- Mei's mouth.
She drank.
===
If you're curious about the mechanics in more detail, here's a quick overview:
Jacob and Esau- Twins. One soul, two bodies. Linked, their magic is greater than the sum of its parts, with the cost that they can't get too far from each other without becoming increasingly uncomfortable/pained. Jacob is brunette. Esau is ginger. They have the same electrical powers (taken from Jacob's Ladder in canon), but tend to have different ratios at which they use it.
Originally started out as twins with a mindlink- using the They pronouns for the entire chapter. It became very difficult to write, very quickly, and it was hard to write characterization when, as a flaw with the They/Them pronoun in English, it came across as exposition rather than character narration, if that makes sense.
Shuffled through a couple different ideas for their power sets. The twinlink thing came first, but then I actually sat down and looked at the biblical stuff with Jacob and Esau as feuding brothers. Their characterization swapped- Esau went from the sickly, put-upon older child to the hot-blooded, impulsive brother. Jacob went from being the dumb, conniving asshole to the cool, collected, focused brother, who isn't always as moral as he should be.
Almost made one of them a ghost, with whoever is the ghost alternating, treating the ghost brother like a Stand from JJBA, but it was a headache. The soul eater style weapon transformations kind of came out of nowhere, and I'm pleased with how their personalities turned out. Felt very Sam and Dean to me- though not on purpose.
Eden- Shapeshifter. Genderless and sexless. Using They pronouns got kinda confusing when I had Jacob and Esau using them too. Almost went back and had Eden using It pronouns to reflect how fucking creepy they are. Has shapeshifting to reflect how their appearance changes on each run ingame, and while it wasn't showcased, they can actually swap powersets at random, picking from a large pool of artifacts and magical items, four or five at a time.
Kind of a creep, and we don't see their personality much beyond sadist here. Did kind of lean a little too close to effeminate villain for me at one or two points.
Mei- Psychic. A mod character that just recently came out. Totally noncanon, but I used her and she just jumped into the story. The reason Eden was trying to sacrifice her, and why the arrow curves at the end is because of her latent abilities.
Think Sadako from the Ring, and you've got her.
