The InBetween

Twenty-Five Battle Scars (Life's POV)

"Wow, only twenty five burns!" Life exclaimed as they healed themself "Sure that's only on my arm. But not too bad I think!"

The pair were in their normal form now, watching the disaster of these newly mutated demons unfold. There was shrieking, crying and everyone was too pre-occupied to even notice Life and Death. Until Doom showed up. The guy had his pentagram cloak covering his face, so either he was protecting himself from the corrupted toxins, or just really insecure about his new mangled face.

Turned out to be the former when he revealed his clear, normal face to greet the deities. "Life, Death! What brings you to the second ring at the most...busy of times?"

Life broke out into a sweat. They had no idea how to play neutral with this whole Lilith thing when it was them fighting to keep her in the pit.

"We just wanted to see if there were any good bars around..." Death said. Their monotone voice made it easier for Doom to believe them. "So," Death said again "How goes it with the toxins?"

"All cleared now, thankfully. Unfortunately though the panic is still present."

"They're sure to like their new looks after a time." Death re-assured.

"How did this happen?" Life asked.

"The only thing we have to go off of are those child souls," Doom said "They must've had something up their sleeve. Along with whatever traitors were working along side them."

"Traitors?!" Life felt their voice c***k from that exclamation. 

"These two," Doom held out his trident and an image of Life and Death in demon form came up. "These are the two that brought in the last sacrifices. They apparently fought one of our guards back at the prison cell, fought off mutants at the entrance to the second ring. And now, the dark-skinned one went missing just as the toxins were spewed. Everything points toward them and we will stop a NOTHING until we find those demons and souls again!"

Doom looked at Life with concern "Why are you breathing so loud?"

Life hadn't noticed it, but they were hyperventilating. "I went for a jog." They lied.

"Oh..." Doom could sense lies, but he didn't press on any further. Which was good, Life didn't wanna pull the hierarchy thing on him and make him feel low.

"Whelp," He concluded "Good luck on finding that bar!"

"Good luck on finding vengeance!" Life chirped with a wave as Doom walked away.

As they watched him go, Death asked the other "Where are the kids?"

"Safe in heaven."

"Good. Now I can finally get back to work."

"Wait!" Life said as Death turned to leave "We can't just give up! These guys are gonna reassemble and find new sacrifices! That means more unfair untimely deaths! We have to put a stop to it!"

Death rolled their eyes and conjured a palanquin to take the two back to Earth. "I was never one to discriminate deaths before. Why should I now?"

"Because it's wrong to let children die." Life argued as they hopped into the silver gurney. 

"Maybe, but it still happens."

Life huffed "You always do this! Senseless death for no reason! Can't you throw someone a bone for once?"

"I believe that would be your job." Death mildly stated, closing their eyes for concentration. On what? No clue.

"What do you mean by that?"

"If 'life' were easier wouldn't there be less 'death' around?"

"That's the fault of humanity's poor evolution though!"

"So I will be the consequences to those faults then."

"Ugh, you're so-"

"Shh."

"Don't shush me-!"

"SSSSHHH!" Death said louder "I'm seeing Doom."

"You've been following him?" Life was surprised. They just assumed Death would leave Doom alone after their interaction. But from how he's mentally spying on him...seeing what he does next...if he is getting sacrifices. That shows Death- somewhat- cares after all!

"So he's recruiting two shadow-imps and a trash demon to go to the first ring and purgatory to find the kids," Death informed "They're safe and sound as long as they stay in heaven. Which shouldn't be too hard."

Life sighed. As long as no shadow-imps are sent to Earth to kill more innocent kids everything was fine. A bit more chipper, Life began bothering Death again about Earth's greatest creations.

"You know I only care about a few earthly things," Death reminded their other-half "I'll tell you again, flowers are not one of them."

"Yeah, but their so pretty! You know what else I'm oddly glad came to be? Binoculars."

"Uh-huh."

"They're just so cool and round and useful for so many things."

"Uh-huh."

"I still love them! They're like little telescopes but smaller and doubled!"

"Uh-huh."

"You know what else I love? Raspberries."

"Uh-huh."

"Don't know why they're called RASP-berries though."

"Yeah, that's really something..."

Life carried on this conversation for the rest of the night. Or however long it was for them to get to Earth. Where they landed it was night, so...

And apart from the tugging feeling in Life's gut about Doom recruiting the Habillabarblab and two shadow-imps to search for Miguel, Connie, Tyrone and Jacob...

They had a stronger feeling all around that everything was going to be just fine.

Yeah, just fine.