Cure of the Cambion

Amory sat on his knees in the middle of the woods for a long while before Vincent eventually began to stir.

The sun was beginning to set on a distant Smoky Mountain horizon, the beams of the dying orange light casting weakly through the branches and sending several beautiful rays across the endlessness of autumn leaves, and Vincent slowly began to blink himself awake, his eyes dazedly wandering over to the side, and traveling up to Amory.

The two were silent for a moment.

Vincent began to gaze into the sky, looking vexed and exhausted, the right side of his face still dark and scarred, though he no longer felt a shred of the terrible burning pain that he was consumed by only moments ago. Now, he felt lighter than air, and calmer than ever, no pain at all, completely normal and unbothered, if not tired.

He lay there silently, and minutes passed by, simply perplexed, not knowing how the pain could have just left him, or how he could still be alive now. The DNA of an angel and the overwhelming influx of demons had been waging a horrible, fervent war inside him—and now, out of nowhere, the war had ended, and the agony had gone. He thought such a thing was impossible. He was certain that the only way to end it at this point was death.

But, somehow, Amory proved otherwise.

Vincent glimpsed briefly at him, then sighed, returning his gaze to the sky.

“You could have just killed me,” he mumbled, his voice still throaty and grating.

Amory stared down at him quietly for a second.

“Didn’t want to,” he eventually murmured.

Vincent let out another sigh, this one deeper, gazing absentmindedly through the branches far above them.

Amory stared for a moment longer, then huffed out a breath and turned, extending his legs and outstretching across the ground as well. He lay on his back just beside Vincent, facing the sky and folding his arms behind his head, simply resting on the leafy ground alongside someone he’d called a friend, just as he’d done countless times in childhood.

“I guess you were right,” Amory muttered. “I did end up showing you mercy again.”

Vincent remained silent, still staring upward, his hand resting atop his stomach, thumb scraping lightly against the fabric of his overcoat.

There was a long, strange pause in the air, neither of them knowing what to say or do now.

“How do you feel?” Amory wondered, glancing over at him.

Vincent continued staring into the sky.

“Bizarre,” he uttered. “Like I’ve just woken up from a dream.”

Amory examined him thoughtfully.

“A long dream,” Vincent added, his deep voice growing softer, and his brow hardening, giving the sky a questioning sort of look.

Amory stared upwards again, pondering on this.

“Maybe you did,” he speculated. “Maybe… the more demons get in your head… the less you you are. And… maybe you haven’t been you in a while…”

Vincent was quiet for several seconds.

“Well… I’d never… considered that,” he admitted. “Being what I am, I figured being affected in that way just came with the territory.”

Amory glimpsed back over at him. “Did Valek ever do the procedure on you too…?”

Vincent paused for a moment to think. “He’s been doing that nonstop for the past two weeks… but… before that, I… honestly… can’t remember much.”

Amory gave him a grave, disturbed look.

“You showed up at the King’s Place and opened fire… on Crowe, and Raven, and a whole bunch of innocent people,” he said grimly. “And you tried to do that to me and Ari, too.”

Vincent said nothing, sighing yet again.

“And I thought that was really out of character… even for you,” Amory remarked, surveying him astutely. “So, let me ask you something… do you remember the night before that? The night before you went to the King’s Place… what were you doing then?”

Vincent made a quizzical expression, thinking rather intently, but he still didn’t reply.

“Or before you went to intercept someone at Moonvale,” Amory added. “All the times you ever did anything like that… do you remember what happened right before?”

Vincent glared up at the treetops, still not saying a word.

“Ari said Canterbury sounds like MK-Ultra… and they do things just like MK-Ultra,” Amory told him. “It’s like mind control… but it’s done with demons. Maybe Valek doesn’t just do that to all the patients there. Maybe he does it to you, too… and… maybe he’s done it a lot more than you even know.”

Vincent remained silent, his face heavy with perturbation.

“And I get that feeling about you a lot, too… especially now,” Amory sighed. “Because… sometimes… I swear… it’s like you’re a totally different person than you were the last time I saw you. It’s like there’re two different versions of you. There’s the guy I grew up with… and the guy who hunts people.”

“Well, that would… explain… a lot,” Vincent said wispily. “I don’t remember what even changes my mind half the time anymore…”

Amory stared, grimacing sadly and taking in a deep breath.

“I think he has,” Vincent realized, glaring at the sky as if it had wronged him somehow. “I think he has done that before… but this time was just… different, somehow…”

“There was an angel in you this time,” Amory shrugged. “I bet you had more resistance to it than you normally would… and you remembered more of it this time, too.”

Vincent choked out a scoffing noise. “Resistance… okay, sure… I’d call it torture , but to each their own…”

Amory chuckled.

There was another pause.

Vincent blinked up at the scenery, then finally turned his head and gave Amory a glance.

“What year is this…?” he thought to ask.

Amory faced him, opening his mouth to reply, then he sputtered out a laugh and shook his head.

“I don’t think I should tell you that if you don’t already know,” he said. “You’re just gonna go back home and tell your dad…”

“Oh… hell if I would,” Vincent chided. “He’s not gonna know a damn thing. Fuck him in particular.”

Amory let out a breathless little laugh.

“So this is where you’ve been staying, huh,” Vincent muttered. “Whatever this time is…”

“Mmm… not gonna tell you that either,” Amory replied.

Vincent rolled his head to the side again, giving him a long, caustic stare. “Do you really think I feel even the slightest shred of loyalty for my father right now? I don’t expect you to believe me right off the bat—but trust me—I’m certainly not prioritizing running back to him with any prudent information regarding his little agenda. I really couldn’t care less anymore.”

Amory turned and stared into his face—pausing, eyeing the dark, fleshy scarring on him, deeply pressed into the man’s skull and visage in the vague shape of a hand.

“What did he do to you…?” Amory breathed thoughtlessly.

“Doesn’t matter,” Vincent mumbled, turning to the sky again.

Amory frowned.

“He threw a tantrum because I took over the unit assigned to watch your house outside of his orders,” Vincent informed. “And because I proposed a plan of action based around apprehension rather than elimination in the first place. Then—next thing I knew after that—I was solely in charge of the elimination plan, and I was heading out to that damn night club. I spoke against the elimination plan before all this, so I guess he wanted to do his little ‘teach me a lesson’ thing and make me carry it out myself. He loves to pull that shit.”

“Wait a minute… wait,” Amory said, hunching partly upright and propping himself on his arm. “You didn’t wanna kill anyone from Canterbury…?”

“That was never the plan… no,” Vincent answered. “My initial plan was just for apprehension. My father threw my plan out the window because he wanted to throw all caution to the wind and kill everything in his path like a goddamn maniac. Lot of fucking good it did him…”

“So… not even Crowe?” Amory inquired, narrowing his eyes skeptically at the man. “You went on a whole tangent about how people like Crowe needed to be ‘dealt with’ or whatever. You seemed like you wanted to kill him… and now you’re telling me you didn’t wanna kill anyone? ”

Vincent turned his head, staring at him in befuddlement. Then, his eyes wandered back up to the sky, seeming to be searching his mind for something.

“When did I say that?” he asked moments later.

Amory shot him a double-take. “You don’t remember that…? That was right outside the club! The King’s Place! Right after you opened fire at everyone!”

Vincent ran a hand down his face, thinking very intently on this for a moment.

“Huh,” he uttered. “Well… now that I really think about it… that’s all a bit of a… blur.”

Amory took in a deep, grave breath, feeling unfortunately certain that his suspicions likely rang true. The reason Vincent Hawthorn so often acted in stark contrast with how he behaved at other times—it wasn’t just due to conflicts of loyalty or bouts of indecision. He experienced the very same brainwashing procedures as everyone else at Canterbury.

No—actually, judging by the horrid new scarring on his face, and the harsh, drastic side-effects he’d endured—Vincent was undergoing even more than the usual procedures, and he’d probably been experiencing them for longer than anyone else who’d ever been there, having been living under Valek’s thumb for decades, for presumably his entire life.

“Oh my God,” Amory breathed, staring at him mournfully.

“Oh… no, wait, you’re right,” Vincent mumbled, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “I remember saying… something… about Crowe. I don’t remember exactly what I said, I just remember being extremely frustrated that night…”

“Frustrated,” Amory mumbled, pushing himself upright and shaking his head. “No… not just frustrated. You were angry. You were really angry.”

Vincent lowered his hand, staring upwards for a second longer.

“I don’t remember the night before,” he conceded. “I honestly don’t. I know I talked with my father for a while around lunchtime, and… we got into an argument… and…”

He trailed off, pausing again.

“Then… nothing,” he muttered. “I just remember waking up the next day and having a fairly normal routine afterwards… then heading out to do all his little tasks later that night.”

“It wasn’t just the past two weeks,” Amory now knew for certain. “He’s been doing that to you for a long time.”

Vincent sighed heavily, meeting his eyes, then pushing himself upright as well, collecting his hat from the leaves and placing it on his head.

The two of them now sat across from one another on the ground, and Vincent stared down at the leaves for a few seconds before he spoke. He reached into his overcoat, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and slid one out, placing it in his mouth before stuffing the pack away again.

“I do remember…” he mumbled into his cigarette, holding his lighter’s flame to it and inhaling once, releasing a cloud of smoke into the air. “Waking up… pretty damn early the next day… thinking awful damn hard about everything that went down the night before.”

Amory nodded quietly as he listened.

Vincent propped up one leg, resting his arm on it and gazing off to the side.

“And, I remember… wondering… what the hell got me so damn angry that night,” he disclosed, gesturing with his cigarette while he talked. “Because I ended doing a lot of things that I didn’t plan to do, and I’m not the type to deviate from a set-in-stone plan. My set-in-stone plan being my plan… not my father’s plan.”

“Right,” Amory mumbled.

“But… I guess… maybe he knew that,” Vincent sighed, taking another puff and breathing out the smoke. “He knew I was gonna act on my plan from go… and… he responded accordingly. Then, my guy in the unit watching your house called and told me you were spotted going there, so I headed out there… and my father wasn’t supposed to go, you know. He wasn’t even the person who got the call-in. I was. Just me.”

He locked eyes with Amory, giving him a serious look.

“We had three units stationed around different regions of the town,” Vincent told him. “My father was running the one on the north side of town… Victoria was running the one on the east side of town… and I ran the one on the west side of town. I had to switch with Victoria, because her region embodied your old home, and I wanted that one. I didn’t want her or Dad getting the call-in whenever you went back home. I wanted it.”

Amory made another silent nod.

“But he knew,” Vincent stated, jabbing the cigarette at him. “While I was watching you, he was watching me—and he damn well knew what I was gonna do.”

“That’s why he showed up there anyway,” Amory murmured.

Vincent nodded. “Yeah. He didn’t get the call-in-only I did. Only me. But, somehow, he just magically knew to show up at the Evervale house right after I did. Fucking snake was trying to catch me in the act. That’s what it was.”

Amory glimpsed down, gnawing his bottom lip and squinting curiously at him.

“Catch you in the act of what…?” he asked.

Vincent let out a sigh, taking another drag.

“Mercy,” he grumbled, flicking ashes off to the side.

There was a deep, thoughtful silence following his words.

Amory stared at him, his mind now working up a storm.

“What is your… plan here?” he had to ask. “Because you… you keep talking like you don’t wanna kill me, or kill us, or do any of that other stuff that your father wants… but you have to know that apprehension is never gonna work, either. You have to know that me, and Crowe, and Raven are never gonna go back to Canterbury Lab… not even if Valek did want us there, which I know he doesn’t if he’s giving out kill orders. So… you disobey him, you corner me at my house, and then… what? You show mercy? How?”

Vincent inhaled heavily, glancing at him and saying nothing.

“At the King’s Place… you said you wanted me to come with you because you thought you could work out some deal with your father,” Amory recalled. “But you have to know that was never gonna work. He wants me dead. He wants all of us dead.”

Vincent still didn’t respond.

“So what was really your plan?” Amory inquired, leaning closer and examining him questioningly. “How could you show us any mercy if your only two options are ‘apprehension’ and ‘execution,’ both of which are never gonna work? If you really wanna show us mercy… then tell me… what actual plan for that do you have? ”

Vincent flicked more ashes away, sparing him another glimpse and letting out a breath.

“I thought you and I could work that out together if we ever actually got the chance to talk to each other,” he answered. “That’s all I’ve actually been trying to arrange so far…”

Amory took slightly back, staring at him bizarrely, his emotions suddenly lit ablaze.

“ All you’ve been trying to arrange …?” he choked in disbelief. “Do you not know what you’ve done so far? Do you know how many times you almost killed someone close to me?!”

“I…” Vincent uttered, shaking his head and looking away.

“You’re just lying to me again, aren’t you?” Amory griped, tossing up a hand. “Oh, I knew better… I knew better than to think there was any human in you. You’re just gonna talk in circles and spit out lies, just like you did at the King’s Place. You’re nothing but a manipulative liar!”

Vincent glared off to the side, his cigarette held low by his knee, and his finger hooked over his mouth, taking in a deep, stressful breath.

“I can’t believe you… I can’t believe you’re trying to twist everything around like that again. You really expect me to believe that arranging a talk is all you’ve been trying to do? After everyone you almost killed?! Get bent! ” Amory griped, shooting to his feet and swatting loosely over toward the remains of the lab. “You know what? You better just crawl back through whatever magic gateway you came from and just go the hell back home, because I am not gonna go through this with you again! Just go away! ”

He spun around and stormed away to leave, angrily kicking the mounds of leaves from his path as he did.

“Amory,” Vincent called after him, his voice a low, throaty croak that hardly sounded anything like him.

Amory huffed and turned back around, throwing his hands up in the air. “What?!”

Vincent remained still, not moving an inch, staring to the side intensely, pressing his hand harder to his face, finger still craned over his mouth, and he took in a long, trembling breath, looking uncharacteristically grave and remorseful.

“I’m sorry,” he choked, lowering his hand and raising his head. “And that is not an easy thing for me to say.”

“Oh, well, wow—big round of applause for you!” Amory chided sarcastically, holding up his hands and clapping for him. “Oh, look at that, the big tough demon man learned how to say a hard word! You’re sorry? ! The hell with that—you’re not sorry, and you never have been! I doubt if you even know what sorry feels like! You have to be human to know that! ”

“I AM!” Vincent bellowed in a painful rage, a tear running down his face.

Amory took back—suddenly stunned to speechlessness, his anger instantly abandoning him as something else seized his immediate attention.

Now, he was able to clearly see Vincent’s face, the brim of his hat no longer hiding it, and the shimmer of a watery stare glazed his teary eyes—both of them glistening a pained, regretful blue.

“G… get up,” Amory ordered thoughtlessly, thundering directly toward him.

He reached down—grabbing Vincent by the arm and yanking him to his feet.

Vincent staggered and caught his balance as he stood, planting a hand on his hat and preventing it from falling—but Amory swiftly smacked the hat cleanly off of him, removing all the shade from his face and leaning much closer to it, staring into his eyes with vexed intrigue.

He’d never seen Vincent shed a tear before—and he’d also never seen the man’s eyes look so human, so ordinary, both of them the same deep cerulean.

Vincent swallowed and leaned slightly back, ogling him strangely as another tear cascaded down his scarred cheek.

Amory continued staring into his face for several seconds, now totally flabbergasted.

“Oh my God,” he gasped, slapping both hands onto Vincent’s cheeks and making him grunt out a noise. “Oh… my God…”

He pulled him even closer, surveying the man’s eyes as attentively as possible.

Then, when he was finally certain that he truly was seeing two eyes of blue, he slowly released the man’s face, still gazing into him as if he had transformed into an alien species.

Vincent eyed him in bewilderment, wiping his face and shooting him a look. “What…?”

Amory made a faint shake of the head, his mouth drifting agape, feeling truly lost for words.

“Y…” he uttered, clearing his throat and motioning up to his face. “Your eyes are both the same color now…”

Vincent made a strange expression, reaching up to his eye for a second, then cocking his head at him. “Excuse me…?”

“They’re both the same color now,” Amory breathed. “Your dark one isn’t dark anymore.”

Vincent hesitated, staring down and falling momentarily silent. Then, he raised the cigarette to his face and took another drag, a much longer one this time.

“I never even…” Amory exhaled, staring at him profoundly. “I never even realized how much of you was… demon.”

Vincent lowered his shaking hand, releasing a massive smoke cloud into the air.

“And you keep having random blackouts in your memory… and your actions contradict each other all the time… God, that’s really what it was, wasn’t it?” Amory said. “The demon part of you was controlled by Valek, and doing everything evil… and the human side of you just kept trying to do the opposite. That’s all it ever was with you.”

Vincent stared at him, stony-faced, and teary-eyed.

“Okay… you’re not… lying to me,” Amory murmured. “You just don’t even know what’s been going on with you. You had no idea until now… did you?”

Vincent stayed quiet, inhaling another trembling breath.

Amory read him, examining his stoic, hardened visage, masking an obvious tidal wave of emotions buried deep inside, trying his damnedest not to erupt with more of them.

“God… I’ve never seen you look so human,” Amory sputtered with a laugh.

Vincent swallowed roughly, turning away and running a hand down his face.

“Hey… maybe you’re actually free now,” Amory smiled, grabbing his arm and giving it a shake. “You don’t have any demon in you anymore. It’s all gone.”

“I was born of a demon, Amory,” Vincent said in a low, grating voice. “I highly doubt it’s all gone now. I can’t imagine how that’s even possible.”

“Because Valek’s just a demon in a human suit,” Amory told him. “And that human suit had a baby with a human lady.”

Vincent paused, narrowing his eyes at him oddly.

“You’re more human than anything ,” Amory grinned, jabbing his finger into his chest. “ That’s my point. You’re more human than anything else… and now, it looks like that’s all you are.”

“That can’t be all I am,” Vincent mumbled, holding the cigarette to his mouth again.

“But it is. You’re not under his control anymore,” Amory insisted. “ That’s what I’m getting at! Hellooo? Keep up! That’s a good thing!”

“Oh… no it’s not,” Vincent said, scooping his hat off the ground and placing it back onto his head. “I’m in some real trouble now.”

Amory’s smile faded. “Why…?”

“Well… I imagine my father isn’t gonna be too happy when he, uh… notices ,” Vincent clarified, waving two fingers at each of his eyes.

“Why would he notice?” Amory asked. “You’re not going back there, are you?”

Vincent stared at him. “What choice do I have?”

“Here,” Amory said simply. “Just stay with me.”

Vincent fell silent, gazing into him and sighing deeply, suddenly feeling reminded of the last conversation the two of them had shared in Canterbury.

“Listen… Amory, you really are a good kid, and I definitely do appreciate you, believe me,” Vincent said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “But you still have a damn hard time of thinking these things through realistically.”

Amory squinted questioningly at him.

“I imagine you’re staying with all your little friends now… aren’t you?” Vincent added. “Crowe, and your sister, and the doctor from Moonvale, and whoever else… you’re all staying somewhere together now, right?”

Amory nodded.

“Okay… well, think about everything you just said,” Vincent urged, gesturing with his cigarette. “All those things you just said when you got really angry with me just now… think about all of that. Think about all the things I did… and imagine how most of your friends probably still feel about it.”

Amory frowned, staring down and saying nothing.

“Me going and bunking with all of you isn’t a viable option,” Vincent disclosed. “None of them are gonna be okay with it… and, honestly… you can’t really blame them.”

“But I don’t want you to go back,” Amory muttered sadly. “You shouldn’t have to… not now. Everything’s different now. You can finally just break away…!”

“Well… I think… I would rather do that my way,” Vincent replied with a smirk.

Amory let out a defeated cloud of breath.

“And my way… is doing that from the inside,” Vincent added. “That’s the game I’m good at playing… and I’d rather be somewhere that I have some level of power and influence, in any case. That’s the kind of playground I’m used to.”

Amory stared at him hesitantly for a second, then gave him a curious look.

“Are you saying you can be like… a double agent…?”

“If you like,” Vincent shrugged, his smile growing.  “Whatever you wanna call it.”

Amory paused again, reading his face and suddenly seeing the Vincent he knew—a kind, paternal sort of friend like the man he’d grown up with in Canterbury. Now, the human side of him seemed to be flourished in full, and the man gave him a warm, reassuring look, an expression that likely would have been impossible of him on nights like the evening of the shootout. No—this was not like that night at all, and this was not a demon masquerading around behind the face of his friend. This was simply his friend, and no one else.

“Can I really trust you now?” Amory asked him honestly.

Vincent paused for a moment, then chuckled. “Is it gonna matter if I say yes…?”

Amory let out a laugh. “I just… need to ask you something…”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay… um… how many children were living in the south wing the day the lab got destroyed?” Amory wondered. “Do you know…?”

Vincent straightened up, lowering his hand and narrowing his eyes interestingly at him.

“That’s a pretty specific question,” he said.

“I’m asking for a pretty specific reason,” Amory replied, his eyes shifting over to the ruins of the lab.

“I believe… there were only four children admitted to the facility before it all went down,” Vincent informed. “Why do you ask…?”

Amory resisted the urge to release an audible breath of relief. Four children would be much easier to find than ten or twenty of them…

“It’s… just… it’s kind of hard to explain,” Amory admitted. “Is the lab… I mean, your lab, in 1988… is it… different now?”

Vincent paused, scratching his cheek and nodding. “Yeah… yeah, it’s pretty damn different. You did a hell of a number on it… and Dad’s been building all around the new rifts that opened up throughout the property. One of them is even in your old bedroom.”

“Really…?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Where does it go…?”

“No one knows right now,” Vincent said, swatting loosely back toward the lab remnants. “Technically, no one in the facility is supposed to be traversing any of the rifts yet.”

Amory stared, glimpsing at the lab, then back. “But you came through to here…”

“Yeah, well…” Vincent shrugged and took a hit of his cigarette. “I broke the rules.”

Amory cracked a smile, giving the lab ruins another glimpse.

“Mikey was right, then,” he murmured, mostly to himself. “They do have a direct path here…”

Vincent let out a smoke cloud, dropped the cigarette butt to the leafy ground, and snuffed it out with his boot. Then, he pocketed his hands and read Amory’s worrisome visage.

“Well, hey… if I’m still in charge of the operation, I can keep the units away from that big gateway for as long as possible whenever the time comes,” Vincent offered.

Amory gave him an odd look. “Big gateway…?”

“Oh, yeah… the biggest rift in the facility had to have an actual garage door constructed all around it,” Vincent explained. “It’s the largest and most intimidating-looking rift of the bunch… and… apparently, it leads to right here… wherever here is.”

Amory opened his mouth, almost blurting out the precise year it was, but he caught himself and gulped, forcing himself silent. Then, he stared at Vincent with a conflicted look for a moment, releasing a stressful sigh.

“I so wanna trust you,” he said glumly. “I really do…”

Vincent eyed him. “Then why don’t you?”

Amory shot him a snide look.

Vincent nodded sideways. “Yeah, never mind …”

Amory smirked again, choking out a laugh and feeling a bizarre mixture of things as he did. Part of him felt delighted, truly overjoyed to have his old friend back, to find that he wasn’t actually dead and gone, and—by an even greater divine miracle—he seemed miraculously cured of his every demonic affliction now. Still, Amory also felt a squirming, uncomfortable knot in his stomach, a deep sense of guilt festering inside him. If his friends—the friends who had all nearly died because of Vincent—were to see Amory smiling and laughing alongside him now, then they would all feel greatly betrayed, and rightly so.

He’d have to keep all of this a secret from the others for now, especially since Amory wasn’t even sure that he could trust Vincent just yet. He truly hoped he could, but he wouldn’t just blindly trust the man right out the gate. No, this would all take some time…

Amory gazed at him, feeling a gnawing curiosity inside.

“Y’know… you said once…” he muttered. “You said… we have to eliminate the things in the world that are fighting us, and that’s just the way it works. Can I ask… do you really… believe that? About you, and Valek, and everything…”

Vincent studied him thoughtfully for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Well… if I’m being honest… in that moment… I don’t think I was necessarily talking about me and my father.”

Amory narrowed his eyes at him.

“I just said we , Amory,” Vincent told him. “And ‘we’ could just mean you and I.”

Amory stared, remembering many of the hurtful things he’d said that night.

“You said you were all I had in the world… and my friends didn’t care about me,” he recalled. “You were saying a lot of awful things…”

“Yeah… well… I needed you to listen,” Vincent replied grimly. “I don’t remember every last thing I said… but I know it wasn’t nice, so I’m… sorry.”

The two of them fell silent for a moment.

“Think I just…” Vincent mumbled, pausing and swallowing. “I don’t know. Think I just needed for you to hear me.”

Amory gazed at him, eyeing him quizzically.

“But it wasn’t even me talking,” Vincent sighed. “So damned if it did any good…”

Amory stared, wearing a painful expression, thinking back to the countless memories of the two of them in Canterbury—and, as far back as the fifteen years carried on, Vincent remained a prominent figure, every step of the way. He was there whenever the young Amory was afraid of his checkups or attending a procedure appointment. He was there whenever Amory was playing parent for his little sister. He was there at his bedside whenever little Amory got sick—and he was there for games, for talks, for advice, for support, for everything.

Now that he really, deeply thought about it—he couldn’t think why Vincent had ever fixated on him in the first place.

“Why… me?” Amory asked genuinely. “Why do you… why have you always… why me? ”

Vincent let out a deep breath, raising his eyebrows and flashing a flattened sort of smile.

“You don’t know how much of myself I see in you,” he said softly. “I actually used to have a soul, believe it or not… and… you remind me of that. You don’t know how good you are. You really don’t.”

Amory flashed a smile, feeling warmed, unsure of what to say.

“And… hey… by the way, you do not have to worry about me or anyone in my unit gunning for your friends anymore,” Vincent added, raising a finger. “I feel like I just woke up from a drug-induced nightmare that went on for decades. Finally have my head on straight now, and I know what kind of calls I’m gonna be making from here on…”

“Okay… so… nobody’s gonna get shot to death again…?” Amory asked.

Vincent stared. “What do you mean, again?”

“I mean… like Ari,” Amory clarified. “The doctor…”

“When the hell did he get shot to death?” Vincent questioned. “We didn’t actually open fire on him that night, Amory—and I think you vanished into thin air with him, didn’t you? Am I remembering that right…?”

“Well… yeah… but he got gunned down later that night at his apartment,” Amory informed. “Zyon managed to heal him… but he was really close to dying…”

Vincent made a face, glancing to the side and pondering on this for a second. “Okay… I know I didn’t do that. My unit was done for the night. That must’ve been her’s…”

“How many people are actually in charge of these units?” Amory thought to ask. “We all kinda figured you were the one calling the shots with those people.”

“Well… it’s mainly divided between three of us,” Vincent replied. “Me, my father, and Victoria. We each have our own unit of operatives, basically. We can exchange them with each other if we ever feel the need to… we just usually don’t.”

“You probably shouldn’t do that now , especially,” Amory figured. “You need the people who’re closer to you right now… not people who’re gonna run and tell Valek and Victoria everything you’re saying and doing. You’re seriously gonna have to do something about that eye, too.”

“Well. I do have sunglasses,” Vincent said curtly.

Amory choked out a laugh. “Yeah, that’ll do it…”

There was another pause.

Then, Amory gazed across the landscape, seeing that the sunlight of the day was diminishing, its glow steadily becoming weaker as it shone through the autumn woodlands.

“Damn,” he breathed. “I have to get home soon. I forgot I have a time limit…”

Vincent glanced at him, then at the lab ruins, sighing and nodding. “Well… me too, I guess.”

“Wait… hey, I have an idea,” Amory proposed. “Can we meet back here again later?”

Vincent tilted his head at him.

“Like… in a week from now,” Amory suggested. “Exactly seven days from now… and we can both meet here at noon. Can we do that?”

“I… suppose,” Vincent mumbled slowly, waving his finger between Amory and the lab ruins. “But, um… aren’t we, uh… time-traveling, here? How do you know that a week for you will be a week for me too?”

“Because that’s how the doorways work,” Amory said nonchalantly, as if he was stating common knowledge. “The same amount of time passes on one side that passes on the other side… unless you have an angel that changes the time of day that the doorway lets out.”

Vincent stared at him in confusion, then shook his head once and swatted the air. “I’ll just take your word on that…”

“Yeah… and if something goes wrong, and you can’t meet me at noon, then try at five in the afternoon instead,” Amory planned. “That’ll be our backup time, okay?”

“All right… you got it,” Vincent agreed. “Good deal.”

They fell silent, staring at each other, knowing it was time for each of them to go, but they were both hesitant to do so.

Vincent then turned, facing him fully and giving his shoulder another shake.

“Thank you,” he said genuinely.

Amory smiled—and he impulsively pulled Vincent into a hug, snapping an arm around him and feeling another rush of delight.

Vincent chuckled and patted him on the back, and then, the two of them separated.

“Seeya in a week,” Amory waved.

“Seeya in a week,” Vincent affirmed, giving him a lazy salute before turning on his heel and marching off toward the lab ruins.

Amory stared after him, his smile wavering, watching as he slowly moved farther away.

“Vincent,” he called out.

Vincent stopped and wheeled back around.

Amory gulped and sighed.

“I can trust you now, right…?” he asked.

Vincent paused for a second, then broke into another stride and marched toward him again, stopping just in front of him and holding out his hand.

“Cross my heart,” he said, raising his pinky.

“Hope to die,” Amory nodded, hooking his own pinky around it and giving it a squeeze.

Vincent shook his hand once, smirked at him, and released him, turning back around and walking away again.

Amory gazed after him in silence for a long, solemn moment, watching as Vincent slowly wandered out of view, eventually vanishing behind the broken wall of the lab ruins. Even well after the man was gone from sight, he continued gazing across the landscape.

Finally feeling satisfied, as well as a large plethora of other feelings, Amory turned away from the ruins, wanting to go back home—

He gasped sharply and took back—his heart leaping into his throat—spotting another person behind him, just a few yards away.

Zyon stood in the wide open clearing amidst the woodlands, his hands pocketed in his black trench coat, and his crystalline eyes rather intense, his expression as unreadable as ever as he gave Amory a deep, peculiar stare.

“Holy… crap,” Amory breathed, clutching his chest and shooting him a look. “How long have you been there…?!”

“Quite long enough,” Zyon muttered with a rasp.

“How’d you know I was here…?” Amory said.

“Well… Xena came to my room and told me what you were doing. She asked me to come here and get you,” Zyon answered, taking a step forward. “But… I knew what you were doing… before she ever said a word.”

Amory eyed him thoughtfully, examining his face and sensing that something was amiss. It was difficult to read Zyon’s expression most of the time, but now, if Amory wasn’t imagining it, the angel looked slightly graver than usual.

“Just… um… can you do me a favor, please?” Amory asked. “Don’t tell anyone else what just happened out here with Vincent… okay?”

Zyon’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Which aspect of what happened… your cleansing him of darkness, or your proposing an alliance with that abomination?”

“Both. Either. What …?” Amory stammered, shaking his head once and giving him an odd look. “Wait… abomination? Whaddo you mean?”

“The hybrid spawn,” Zyon growled. “You understand what that man is , do you not?”

Amory paused, glancing back at the ruins, then at him again. “He’s a person…”

“No… he’s a bit more than that,” Zyon replied, striding closer. “He is the kind of thing that shouldn’t exist in this world.”

“Well, that’s not… really… fair,” Amory muttered. “He can’t help what he is…”

“I didn’t say that he could,” Zyon said tonelessly. “I am only stating a fact. He is an abomination, and he should not be.”

Amory stared at him. “Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something? You seem a lot grumpier than normal.”

Zyon’s eyes narrowed again, his expression unusually severe, even for him.

“You are standing at the threshold of the Legion’s doorstep,” the angel stated, taking another step forward. “And you are speaking fluidly and openly with one of them as if he is a long lost family member. Do you not understand the problem with what you’re doing?”

“I understand that it’s a risk… yes,” Amory told him. “But it’s important. It’s important for a lot of reasons. We could use his information. Plus… he was dying, and I had to…”

“You had to act, yes… but you did not have to do what you did,” Zyon said gravely.

Amory shot him a double-take, ogling him in surprise.

“What…? Are you… are you mad at me for that? Geez, I would’ve thought you’d be proud of me for doing that… you of all people…”

“It is an impressive and righteous thing to do, Amory… but for that man… for that man in particular… it might only prolong his suffering,” Zyon explained. “And you entrusting any level of faith in him is a very dangerous thing to do.”

“It’s not faith. It’s a test ,” Amory countered. “We’ll see if we can trust him later on.”

Zyon sighed, gazing into him as if he was looking directly through him.

“Who are you trying to fool?” the angel said softly. “A test? Certainly. We’ll see? Certainly. Yes, everything you’re saying makes basic, logical sense in the grand scheme of it all… but I happen to actually know you, Amory, and I know for certain that you’re doing just a bit more than testing the waters and biding your time with him.”

He slowed to a stop just in front of Amory, giving him an intense stare.

“I know that a deep, core part of you feels almost desperate to be able to trust that man again,” Zyon disclosed. “And I do not want that to blind you. Particularly not with the dangers and risks attached to extending a hand to him.”

“I…” Amory stuttered, pausing and letting out a breath, fidgeting with the edge of his sleeve. “I just… okay, look, I get it, but… it’s still worth trying, isn’t it?”

Zyon examined him. “It’s worth trying for whose sake? Ours? Or his?”

“Both!” Amory responded, tossing up his hands. “Why the hell not both?!”

Zyon sighed again. “It’s not that I don’t agree with what your sentiment is on a whole, here… it’s just that trusting a thing like him is…”

“He’s not a thing ,” Amory griped defensively. “He’s a person .”

“He is also a Cambion, and he does not just relinquish all wicked influences in the heat of a single exorcism,” Zyon snapped. “Particularly not when he’s got Valek for a father.”

“What the hell is a Cambion?!” Amory grumped.

Zyon stopped, his expression flattening. “Do you know what a Nephilim is?”

“Yeah. They’re the offspring of a human and an angel,” Amory replied. “Right?”

“Yes… and what do you think the opposite of that is?” Zyon added. “The demon equivalent to that is called a Cambion. That is what Vincent Hawthorn is, and he lives a regrettably very cursed existence because of it. Trusting him is…”

“What are you getting at, Zyon?” Amory complained. “Are you trying to tell me he’s beyond saving? Are you trying to tell me it’s pointless to even try with him just because of how he was born? That’s not fair! That’s really not fair!”

“Well—the very last thing that this wicked evil world is is fair ,” Zyon said flatly. “And no—that is not what I’m saying. If you would just calm down and listen—”

“Don’t you dare try to make me feel bad for helping someone,” Amory snarled. “Forgiveness is important—it’s so important—and I know I don’t have to tell you that! You’re a part of God! You should know that better than anybody!”

Zyon raised his hand. “I’m not saying—”

“They were torturing him,” Amory ranted. “They locked him up and put him through hell—and does that sound familiar? !”

Zyon fell silent, merely staring at him.

“I can’t just look at that and not care,” Amory choked. “I don’t care what he is—I don’t care who his father is—I don’t care what he did when he was in crazy demon super-soldier mode—I don’t care! I can’t just—I can’t just—”

“Listen. Listen,” Zyon said gently, raising his arm and placing a hand to Amory’s forehead. “You are projecting, and you are losing yourself… please, be calm…”

Amory sighed, closing his eyes and allowing the angel to bestow a wave of warm, peaceful comfort to him.

Moments later, Zyon slowly lowered his hand, placing it instead on his shoulder.

“I understand,” Zyon said sincerely. “You care… so very much… and that is the heart and soul of you. That is a large part of the reason why it was so easy for you to connect with me in the ways that you did… even though it proved to be so difficult for everyone else. You are not doing the wrong thing, Amory… you are doing the right and the more difficult thing. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that you’re doing wrong. I am saying… while you take this path… you must be very, very careful. Particularly with trust.”

Amory stared, sniffing and clearing his throat.

“His eyes changed, Zyon,” he muttered. “He used to have one black eye and one blue one… and now they’re both blue.”

Zyon released his shoulder, sliding his hands back into his pockets and making a few mild nods.

“Well… then… that is… actually… a very good sign for him,” the angel determined. “And a very rare thing to accomplish for a Cambion…”

“See…?” Amory said, cracking a hopeful smile. “He might really be okay now…”

“He might be,” Zyon said intently. “It depends very, very largely on his choices from here on… and… unfortunately… it also depends on his father.”

Amory’s smile faded. “Why…?”

Zyon hesitated before replying, releasing a stressed cloud of breath. “Well… the blood ties between a demon and a Cambion son are rather complicated, and unfortunately, they’re fairly deeply-rooted. There are other ways that Valek can… reel his son back in.”

Amory glanced down, shaking his head and giving the angel a questioning look. “Aren’t there any ways to… break that?”

“Yes. Redemption,” Zyon replied. “Accompanied by the death of his father.”

“Well… I think the redemption part just happened out here,” Amory figured.

“It would have to happen again if he loses his way and returns to how he was,” Zyon said stoically. “And the blood ties will always be there… as long as Valek himself is there.”

“Oh God,” Amory breathed, a stark realization only just occurring to him. “He has that with… both of you now.”

Zyon paused, squinting at him curiously.

Amory met his gaze. “Valek injected him with your DNA to bring him back to life.”

Zyon hesitated, making a slow, understanding nod. “Ahhh… and, suddenly, all of it makes much more sense now…”

“He has like… a genetic connection with you and Valek now,” Amory guessed. “Doesn’t he?”

“It would seem so,” Zyon nodded.

“God… no wonder he felt like he was being torn apart,” Amory mumbled grimly. “Valek put him through the procedure, too… angel and demon, waging war inside him…”

“Well… you have cleansed him of the demonic part of it,” Zyon said. “Now… his connection with Valek is purely genetic, and no longer demonic… but you must keep in mind that this connection is most assuredly still supernatural, and if Vincent himself has undergone the procedures, then he will have abilities just like all the rest of you do. In fact… being Valek’s son, being given angel power, and being given the procedure… there’s no telling what his abilities might be. He’s got the most supernatural variables out of any of you.”

“I don’t think he knows,” Amory pondered. “I’ve never seen him use any… powers…”

“Well… Valek has likely kept him under strict control for quite a long while,” Zyon determined. “And keeping whatever abilities he has subdued would be a part of that, I’m sure. He can’t risk his son rebelling against him in any way. Valek himself has demonic abilities, but his son… well… I anticipate Vincent will likely surprise everyone with whatever he can do. Especially now.”

Amory eyed him interestingly. “Why especially now…?”

“Because the leash has been loosened now,” Zyon told him firmly. “And… the Cambion has a new ace up his sleeve that he never had before.”

Amory raised his brows. “What’s that…?”

Zyon met his eyes, flashing a subtle half-smile. “Me.”

Amory smirked as well.

“If he accepts my grace… then he will have my protection now, if he ever has to undergo the procedure again,” Zyon knew. “And… Vincent Hawthorn was there, back in 1944, when Valek first intercepted me here in Mapleview. He has been alive for quite a while, and he is older than he looks. If all of our speculations are correct… and if Valek has been forcing his son to endure his demonic brainwashing methods throughout any of this time… then… he has been exposed to the extradimensional more than… probably anyone else in Canterbury Lab. He has some kind of large, dormant power that he has never tapped into… and now… with your cleansing, and my protection… it’s finally possible for him to… discover it.”

“Whoa,” Amory breathed.

“Now… you’d better hope he doesn’t discover that power and then have another change of heart about his alliances,” Zyon said seriously. “That is going to be a risk we run with him no matter what else happens in these endeavors. Valek will still have a hold on him in some way as long as he is alive… so… if you really want to try to save Vincent as well as everyone else… then… we will just have to deal with this entire conflict being even more difficult and complicated.”

“Then we’ll deal with it,” Amory decided wholeheartedly.

Zyon made a nod, his mouth curling into another faint smile.

“I just… I don’t think the others are gonna understand, though,” Amory uttered. “At least not… right now. I don’t know. They’re not gonna like the idea of me helping Vincent, or Vincent helping me, or… well, anything about him, really…”

“No… and it would likely cause a divide between all of us in the manor,” Zyon agreed. “The very last thing we need is conflict among us. We are all on the same side, here.”

“We can’t tell anyone about this yet,” Amory knew.

“Well… if they ask… I’m not going to lie,” Zyon stated. “Lying is a sin.”

Amory squinted at him. “Okay… but why would they ask?”

Zyon blinked, then shrugged. “They won’t.”

Amory let out a laugh.

“Thank you,” he told the angel sincerely. “Thank you for understanding. I know this is gonna make everything harder, but I just… I really think we should give him a second chance.”

“He’s a Cambion, Amory,” Zyon replied grimly. “He never had a first chance.”

Amory stared, his smile waning.

“Meaning…” Zyon added, sauntering closer and planting a hand on his shoulder again. “Someone ought to finally give him one. Trusting him is a terrible risk, but trying to help him is indeed a very righteous thing to do. Redemption is never out of anyone’s grasp if they reach for it… and… now he actually can. You know you’ve done something remarkable, don’t you?”

Amory flashed another smile.

“I don’t believe you’ve ever tried that before,” Zyon realized, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully at him. “You’ve never tried to cleanse a person of demonic influence before now… and your very first time doing so, you cleansed a genuine Cambion. Do you know how incredible that is?”

“I think I just got lucky,” Amory shrugged. “Crowe told me what happened with you, and John, and Donna. He told me how you were cleansing them… and… it sounded like them choosing to let it all go plays a really big part in it.”

“Yes… it absolutely does,” Zyon confirmed. “Free will is always at the forefront of every spiritual battle in humanity. Cleansing people of demons cannot work if the person does not choose to let them go.”

Amory nodded down at his feet, pondering on everything that had happened between him and Vincent throughout the past hour or so.

“Well… then… I did get lucky. I just… caught him at the exact right time for that to work on him,” Amory mumbled. “He did let it go. He was ready to completely let go of everything when he came out here. He asked me to kill him.”

Zyon paused, staring at him thoughtfully.

“I mean… think about it. He was in a lot of pain. He has part of you in him now,” Amory said. “And Valek had just made him go through the Canterbury procedure for two straight weeks… trying to force the angel back out of him.”

“Oh,” Zyon breathed, his brow hardening, now looking more disturbed. “Oh, then he must have been… truly… tormented.”

Amory glanced down and sighed. “Yeah. So… y’know… at that point… of course he was gonna let it all go. It was tearing him apart inside.”

The two of them fell momentarily silent.

“That man likely has no idea that he’s just achieved true redemption,” Zyon remarked. “He chose to let go, and hand it all over to God… and he’s just been reborn anew.”

Amory stared, making a confused face. “Hand it all to God…?”

“God is inside you , Amory,” Zyon said, pressing a finger into his chest. “Vincent may not realize it, but he most assuredly did just let it all go to The Lord. He just didn’t think of it that way… and he was lucky enough to come across someone out here that he trusts enough to relinquish his every pain and burden to.”

“Oh.” Amory looked down for a second. “Huh. Wow, I didn’t realize that either…”

Zyon let out a breathless little chuckle, patting him on the back. “Come on… let’s go home. I would like to get some more sleep, if I can.”

Amory shot him a look. “How much sleep do you need …?”

“Well… the more rest and recovery I have… the more powerful I will eventually be,” Zyon disclosed, grasping onto Amory’s arm and holding it tight. “And… believe me… we are all going to need that before this is over.”

His eyes brightened blue—and at once—both of them vanished from the leafy landscape surrounding the old ruins of Canterbury Lab.