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It was stupidity and desperation that drove the man to do what he did. Pouring bags of salt carefully, making sure not a grain was out of place, and circling the room with tall white candles that were lit one by one. An old crumbling book rested in his hands and he read an incantation from a torn page with a careful practice so as not to trip over the foreign words.
The candle flames jumped, the salt stirred on an imaginary wind, and the circle in the center of it all erupted with a thick dark smoke. Something stood in the center of it all, cloaked entirely by the swirling smoke, and bright red eyes were the only thing seen.
Sirius planted his feet firmly so as not to back away. He was confident, but not stupid. Not entirely. He knew the thing he’d called could kill him without effort if it so wished.
“What have we been summoned for, mortal?” The being’s voice was deep and rough, shaking Sirius to his core. The eyes in the smoke narrowed at him dangerously.
Sirius swallowed thickly and forced his back straight before he spoke with all the confidence he could muster up. “I want to strike a deal. I want limitless power.”
The being hummed, the sound like rumbling thunder, and scoffed. “How unoriginal. Power is easy, but it comes with a price as all things do.”
“I’m prepared to pay whatever it takes.”
“Are y’now?” The being asked with a mocking tone. The eyes in the swirling gray smoke suddenly flashed from bright red to a dazzling shade of icy blue and the glaring squint disappeared. When next it spoke its voice rose several octaves, almost childishly filled with glee. “How fun! And we know just what to demand in return!”
Sirius nodded. His fingers dug into the tome still in his hands as he waited to hear the price for his summoning.
“You will rise to great power, little mortal. Oh yes. A great power indeed with us at your side. But in the end you will eventually fall. And when that day comes one of us will have your heart.”
Sirius thought nothing of being told that he would fall from power. How could he with a demon at his beck and call?
“Deal.”
---
Years passed and Sirius’s power grew. From a young man at the bottom he climbed into higher and higher positions with little effort until he found himself at the very top. He rubbed elbows with the most powerful people in the world and made himself a fortune. And as time passed by he completely forgot about the demon’s end of their deal.
The demon had taken a human form and cemented himself into the role of Sirius’s personal bodyguard. It had been strange at first, but Sirius had gotten used to the ever looming presense. Finding out his summoned demon was actually a two for one deal had made it even better. One was cold and intimidating where the other was in a constant state of joy. Both sides worked to further Sirius’s rise to power. It never seemed to end.
In the end he decided to shoot for the moon and ran for a position in office. With a landslide victory he seated himself as president. His demons twisted the office to control the entire world and no one opposed it.
President Business soon turned to a new hobby: hunting down ancient artifacts imbued with magic. He turned a blind eye to people who vanished after getting in his way. President became Lord in the blink of an eye and used both roles to push himself further down a tangled path.
Soon he took his powerful role foolishly.
His ever present demon had left his mind. High on power Sirius began to think he had a tight chain on the creature. The demon became stress relief. Someone to start fights with on bad days. Someone to knock around when things didn’t go his way. And the demon never fought back. Sirius began to forget that the man who stood ever beside him wasn’t just a human with a strange two souled birth.
Demons didn’t fail the missions they were given.
Demons didn’t come back to their summoners empty handed when told to fetch.
Demons didn’t mourn for humans. Even if they’d grown so attached as to call those humans by familial terms.
Demons didn’t decide not to follow orders due to their own moral codes.
Demons shouldn’t have been affected by magical relics found in the human world.
Good Cop had been no demon. Just another human easily wiped away after getting in Sirius’s way.
Bad Cop was no demon either. Just a simple bodyguard who went on with his job after the death of his soul bound twin.
Sirius had no demons to torment him. Not even as visions of ruby eyes filled with hatred danced in his dreams.
---
Everything had fallen into place and Sirius had never been happier.
Soon he’d have the entire world frozen exactly as he wanted. No one would be able to overthrow him. No resistance, no Master Builder, not even The Man Upstairs himself. He had the last of the threats locked up in a room set to detonate and he stood perched on his doomsday device to leave it all behind.
When he commanded Bad Cop to stay behind and die as well he felt a rush at the shock the man displayed. It wasn’t personal, he assured. He just couldn’t leave any loose ends. The entire world had to end. Everyone had to die. Including a bodyguard that he’d outgrown the need for.
Ruby eyes glinted at him from far below as he was whisked out of sight, a deadly promise dancing in them threatening to burn Lord Business alive.
---
His fall from power wasn’t at all what he’d thought it would be. No danger, no threats, no death. Not even any harm beyond being knocked away by the force of the blast as his doomsday device was rendered harmless. He wasn’t even mobbed by the people he’d wronged for so long. In fact, he was welcomed by those same people with close to open arms.
He helped fix what he’d done. He began to move on.
He swore red eyes were following him.
---
Bad Cop found him alone a week after he stepped down from power.
“Bad Cop!” Sirius greeted with a smile. “Hey, buddy, where you been? I haven’t seen you since. Uh.” His smile faltered just a bit.
“Since TAKOS Tuesday, Sir.” Bad Cop supplied, voice low and quiet.
“Yeah, yeah, right. Since then. You been good?”
A sudden barking laugh left the once bodyguard and Sirius flinched at the sound. “Good?” Bad Cop grinned, too sharp teeth on a menacing display. “I haven’t been Good since y’killed him, Sir.”
What was left of Sirius’s smile quickly slid from his face. He swallowed thickly at the mention and turned his eyes off to one side. “But... After the Kragle exploded. I saw you with another face.”
“A glamour. Not even a good one. Just pretend. Playing his role.” Bad Cop growled. “He’s gone.”
Sirius didn’t know what to say. “I’m... Bad Cop, I’m sorry.”
The other snorted. He pulled off his aviators, ruby eyes locking on Sirius, and changed subjects entirely. “Y’fell from power.”
Shocked at the sudden change Sirius could only nod. “Well, more like stepped down. But, uh, yeah. I’m not in power anymore. Someone else will take over soon.”
“You remember our deal, Sir?”
“Huh?”
Before he could so much as blink he found Bad Cop only inches away. A shocked gasp ripped from him as the cop shoved him back against a wall, pinning him there with an arm digging into his throat.
Bad Cop’s sharp grin was back and he leaned in close while Sirius choked and struggled to move his arm in vain. “Y’forgot didn’t you? Did we really leave so little an impression on you, Sir? That’s alright. I’ll forgive you for his sake.”
A cracking sound started close by and Sirius’s eyes jumped around trying to locate the source. Bad Cop saved him much of the trouble by raising his free arm and flexing his hand. His fingers twisted while Sirius watched, stretching with cracks and pops that didn’t seem to affect the man. Eventually flesh peeled away from bone, Sirius yelping at the sight, and those bones took on a sharpened edge. By the end of the shift Bad Cop’s hand looked more like grotesque eagle talons.
“Remember now, Sir?” the false cop asked in a mocking tone.
Sirius’s throat went dry as the other’s clawed hand neared his face. He struggled to remember so long ago, grasped by the knowledge of how utterly foolish he’d been both then and now. How in the world could he have ever forgotten what Bad Cop really was?
As if reading his mind Bad Cop grinned dangerously. “Oh yes...” he practically purred. “Y’do remember. Pity memory came too late. G would’ve made me spare you in th’end. He always liked you for some reason.”
Hearing that made Sirius’s brow furrow in confusion. Good Cop had liked him? Nothing had ever so much as hinted that that was the case. Sirius had been awful to Good Cop and in the end he’d even killed the other. And yet hearing that the nicer of his two bodyguards had liked him? He couldn’t wrap his head around it. But he didn’t have much time to even try before a searing pain unlike anything he’d ever felt punched him right in the chest.
Or rather, right through the chest.
Sirius’s eyes popped wide and his mouth fell open, though no sound came out beyond a choked wheeze. He felt like his eyes moved at a snail’s pace as he turned them to look down at himself where Bad Cop’s hand disappeared into his ribcage. Those claws had punched straight through the bone with no resistance. Sirius tried to raise a hand, unsure as to what he wanted to do with it, but his limbs felt like lead weights at his sides. He could only watch as Bad Cop’s hand retreated from his chest with his clawed fingers curled around a bloody object.
“When y’fall from power one of us will have your heart.” Bad Cop murmured. “G wanted it metaphorically, but I wanted it physically. And now our deal is sealed, Sirius Business.”
Sirius watched his heart pulse in Bad Cop’s claws once, twice, then a third time before stopping. A moment later he hit the ground with a dull thud and watched as Bad Cop turned his back to leave, letting out his final breath when ruby eyes turned to look at him a final time.
He woke up screaming at the top of his lungs.
Quickly his hands flew to his chest, patting and checking for wounds that weren’t there. Safely in one piece Sirius let out a sigh of relief. A dream. Just a terrible dream. Looking around the walls of the meeting room he felt himself calming further. He’d just fallen asleep after giving instructions to his robots. He had been working hard lately after all.
He got up and brushed himself off before stepping out into the hallway to continue on with his day. Something about his route gave him a growing pit of unease in his belly though, but it wasn’t until Velma informed him that Bad Cop was waiting to see him that it clicked. This was the day his dream had begun. The day he made his fatal mistake.
“Wonderful. Fantastic.” he answered his robotic secretary. “Would you cancel my two-o-clock? This next meeting could run a little bit...” A momentary pause to think over his words. When nothing else would come to mind he finally finished with “Deadly.”.
Putting on his armor gave him a sense of security before meeting with the demon in his office. More for his benefit than trying to intimidate. Bad Cop certainly played the part of a simple intimidated man though, instantly trying to defend himself and looking like he was trying to hide behind the wanted poster he held in front of himself.
“Don’t be so serious.” Sirius really was going for calming, but a slight tremor made his voice come out oddly flat. “Where’s the other guy?”
On cue Bad Cop’s personality switched like a snap and Good Cop’s nervous chuckle filled the air. “H-Hey, hey.”
Sirius’s smile was equal parts non-threatening and nervous. “Hey, buddy. I missed you.”
“Aww... Did you really?” Good Cop sounded genuinely curious as he asked.
He stalled for time by showing off some of the relics kept around the room, eventually drawing Bad Cop back out to politely decline testing one that Good Cop had been about to. The nightmare plagued Sirius even as he lead Bad Cop around longer than he’d originally planned. Yes, the whole plot had already been in his plans. But now he was faced with a decision. Was the nightmare just that? A simple nightmare? Or could it have been a vision of the future? Could he have been given a chance to save himself?
He made the decision right then and there.
“I know things have been a little rough lately,” he began, “and I know there’s been a lot of pressure on you, Bad Cop. What with hunting down Master Builders and following my every command and all. I know it’s probably been super frustrating.”
Bad Cop seemed surprised to hear that. “Um. It. It’s been. Fine.” he said after a moment.
Sirius hummed. “Fine or not, I do know it’s been a lot to handle. So. I may have... done something.”
Silence. Before he could decide to go back on his quickly changing plans Sirius hit a button on a small remote control he’d had tucked in his suit pocket. The floor behind the two opened and like some strange plot device in a movie an entire house was pushed up into view. Standing on the edge of the white picket fence bordering the house was an older couple who instantly perked up at the sight of them.
“Hi!” the woman sang.
“Hiya, son.” the man greeted. “How’s life in the big city?”
Sirius watched as Bad Cop’s confused face flitted between the two and he took a hesitant step toward them. “Mommy. Daddy. What are you doing here?” he questioned quietly.
“I brought them here.” Sirius said, catching the cop’s attention once more. “For, uh, moral support. No one’s better at calming you down after a long few, uh, years of stress than your own parents, am I right?” He chuckled nervously and tried for a smile that only showed just how out of his element he was.
Bad Cop stared at him. It felt like he was trying to stare into Sirius’s very soul. Then, all at once, he seemed to release the weight on his shoulders and slumped just a bit in relief. “Right you are, Sir.” he agreed quietly. “Thank you.”
Sirius left the room after that. He’d watched Bad Cop happily follow the couple he called his parents into the little house and figured some privacy was deserved. On his way back out the door he swore he felt eyes burning into his back.
Yet somehow he felt like things would turn out fine.