Shadow noticed the annoyed look Teko gave the ceiling, knowing full well what was on her mind with the look. "Hey, don't be too hard on the kid, okay? He only means well, and he wishes you guys the best as well - besides, I asked about Naru, and he told me that he noticed you two were growing a bit...close, since they had returned for the first time in a good, long while. Since I've been worried about this little rascal, about how he's doing since he and I have last really sat down at the same table for breakfast-time at the very least, I decided to seek him out and ask around. He's rarely home, and when he is, he keeps himself locked up in his room most of the time and rarely comes out or lets anyone in," Shadow explained as he sat in the chair. "Naru's not one to do that, and I've noticed the blatant changes to his personality and demeanor as of late - not to mention a darker aura about him the more time passes. It's my sworn duty to not let him do what I did in my past, and I'm intent on doing so. And he knows what that may entitle if I have to go the extreme route."
Naru would nod and, stopping his gentle leaning on Teko so she could go sit down - and so he didn't fall over at the most inconvenient time in the history of serious discussions - decided to sit back onto the table nearby, separate from the one Teko was sitting at so she could have some space to herself. He had learned that much, at least, that personal space was still needed, regardless of how close a couple was - intrude on it, nerves get grated fairly quickly. "Well, it doesn't surprise me - I knew they were peeking in anyways, so the fact that Rube was so willing to tell another one of us the news should anything related to it all come up is just something to be expected," Naru said, shrugging and frowning at Shadow. "And I apologize for isolating myself more than I should. You know I'm a private person, prefer to keep my own business to myself unless I need to seek the counsel of others - bad habit I got from Ryan. Or he got it from me, I'm not entirely too sure which way it goes, but we both suffer from it; he just works more on fixing it than I do, because I've more of an ego than he-"
"Not meaning to cut in here, Naru, but that ego bit is false," a voice said from the stairs, drawing the attention of both Naru and Shadow, it being none other than Marduk standing there, his arms crossed. Placing himself into the situation without care or fear - it was hard to tell, as his expression was a firm, yet blank one, a perfect poker face that hid what he was thinking, as well as what emotions were dominant at the time with him. "You carry that 'ego' of yours - like the rest of your past - like a briefcase, filled with pictures and mementos from days long since passed. You carry it to cling to the past that made you who you are today, to remind you of everything you have faced in the wake of the path you choose to take, every turn presenting a choice that you have to make - to face all that you gain with it...as well as everything you lose to it."
"How did you-" Naru started to speak again, when he was once again cut off by Marduk. To a degree, he was getting annoyed with it, but then again, there wasn't much he could do. He was curious, to say the least, how Marduk knew so much about him, things he never told people and usually kept secret...had Marduk been able to reverse his own mental fortitude to allow him to passively intrude on the minds of others? It made him wonder how Marduk knew so much, especially when so little of it had actually been stated...
"I know because I know, Naru. I walk the same path you do, only I made different choices along the way, and thus I walk a different path than you. But they do intersect at points at times, and I know the path you walk - as does Shadow. He has helped me a little, on the side, with learning things, but most of it has been done on my own. Where I lack contacts with the information I seek, there are those who are willing to part with what I want to know...either with a favor, or some persuasion," Marduk explained, leaving the 'persuasion' both to be open for interpretation...and yet leave it to being rather clear what it entitled, given who it was that mentioned it. "But I have been keeping close tabs on you for my own reasons, as well as my own worries. I know much of what is commonly known, but the secrets you hold...those are proving harder to uncover the truth from amongst all the lies; and the more I learn, the more it becomes clearer what I may have to do."
Naru blinked, shuddering at his own thoughts. Teko could actually sense...fear, in Naru - a feeling the boy rarely exhibited, fearing nothing due to his immortality, arrogance, or other factors. The fact he actually was experiencing fear was a bit on the unnerving side to him. "...And what, if I may dare ask, will that entitle to being?" Naru asked, his voice a little shaky - something even Shadow noticed, looking at Marduk and not liking the smile the tiamat gave the boy.
"I'll be happy to explain to you the factors at hand," Marduk said, the smile not a pleasant one - it was more sinister than anything, like he was delighted to see Naru scared, like a person who enjoyed to torture people to death slowly and painfully would give their next victim. "I know your dealings with demons in Hell. I know you have powerful allies there, and friends in high places that can leak you information from within. I know you're slowly becoming a demon, becoming corrupt by the dark power that flows from within you - you like it, you revel in it, and you want more, more to embrace. Well, let me tell you, I do not take kindly to demons that allow their hearts to become black as the night, so I'll tell you up front now: stop this path, or should you continue along this path and become one of them...I will kill you. And your immortality will not save you this time."
There was an odd, yet very dark and evil look in Marduk's eyes...like there was something else there to him that wasn't him, something sinister, something vile and evil as could be, looking out of his eyes...something that Shadow clearly was missing, something that was visibly scaring Naru, something that Teko would be able to see as clear as a bright, sunny July day.
Something was not right with Marduk.
Like he wasn't even Marduk in the first place.
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