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Picking himself up from the floor behind the desk, the bewildered soldier groggily rubbed his head and lifted himself back over the desk, trying not to disturb anything that he hadn't thrown off the tabletop in his sudden passing. As sense returned to him and he saw Pey leering at Edward with a drawn sword, the soldier's usually peaceful mouth twisted into a menacing frown. He had power over this demon, didn't he? He could stop this nonsense!

His soft-soled shoes touched the ground and drawing his sleeve over his mouth, the soldier towered over Pey's crouched form, trying his best to look intimidating (which wasn't something that sweet Bassett tried to do very often). "Pey!" he demanded sternly "What is this about? Stop fooling around!"

But Pey was unconvinced. He wasn't swayed by the command in Odessa's voice nor was he deterred by the sternness in his summoner's tone. His face was livid with flame and disgust for the blade in Edward's hand. It wasn't Edward that the demon glared at, but the sword. The same sword that pierced the flesh of the Master of Assassins...

Fragarach.

Uncontrolled by sensibility or thought, the Nameless threw himself against Edward with demon-like swiftness, incalculable and unfathomable in wild twitching gestures, like a shadow cast by flickering candlelight. By all the fallen warriors, demon and human alike, that sword will not drop another of Pey's kin!

Just moments before Pey reacted in his dynamite manner, quick and explosive, Bassett lunged forward, trying to throw himself between Edward, Odessa, and Pey. He knew his Nameless to be like a suicidal soldier, the same kind that would choose to run headlong at barbed fences and baronets, rather than the one following behind. If he didn't react quicker or before Pey struck or was struck, someone might be killed! Bassett, although fabled as being the resident monster of the battlefield, was also "Button" the sweet faced soldier that dragged his friends to safety while shielding them with his own body. This part of him, his soldier's wit, drove him forward with added strength as he pushed himself away from the desk, arms extended on either side of his body like a barrier.

They collided and...

Having been the center of a Bassett-sandwich between Pey and the storekeeper, the soldier almost had the wind knocked out of him. Thankfully, he had enough sense to throw his arms around his demon's slippery waist and gripped tightly onto the jacket that Pey was wearing. With this, he could keep the wiggling snarling demon from clawing his way over his shoulder onto Edward. Bassett didn't have time to answer the shop keeper as he struggled to lean himself up from against Edward's chest and carry his wildly clawing demon at least a foot away, but it was hard to keep himself balanced!

Blood and fools! The damned summoner got in the way and the shop keeper didn't have any guts to keep his sword lifted! Clawing over Bassett's shoulder, the demon almost levied himself free when the other latched onto the jacket, keeping him from Edward. Kicking his feet wildly and frothing at the mouth with deadly intent, Pey's bright demonic eyes were still hungry for battle.

"Hands off of me, Bassett! I have things to do! Swords to destroy! People to hurt!" he snarled.

The soldier, unwilling to let his demon any closer to Edward, shook his head, and barked a stern, "No!"

With the simple release of his knees, Bassett fell down to the floorboards, bearing his demon with him as he struggled to pin the writhing Nameless. He felt the demon's claw knuckle itself in his hair, his long skinny fingers tangling themselves in Bassett's strawberry locks. "Aah! Pey! What's gotten into you?!" the soldier yelped.

Unfortunately, neither Pey nor Bassett didn't see how close the poisoned blade REALLY was. Pey, somewhat quelled but nonetheless angry about the entire situation, determined that he was going to just get up and move away, for the sake of his summoner. It was then as he was trying to gently push Bassett off of his wiggling form, while the soldier resisted and tried to hold the other down, that something unexpected happened. Of course, the chances were incredibly low of it happening in the first place, but the odds were against the demon and his well-meaning summoner this day. The merest gesture of Bassett trying to hold his demon firm, the slightest flex of Pey's arms trying to push the soldier aside, made the two struggling bodies rebound...And sent both figures into the gleaming wet blade.

Bassett felt a slight sting graze against his brow, and a sickening feeling gripped his stomach like an iron claw. What did Edward just say? The soldier snapped himself away from the blade and rolled partly off of his struggling Nameless, his legs quickly becoming numb from fear.

"Bad idea...Poisoned..."

Throwing his hands to his head to press against the suddenly screaming cut upon his brow, Bassett turned his bleary fear-filled eyes up to Edward, his fingers smudging blood upon his temple. "Ed-w-w-ard?" he choked just before the first real wave of poison rocked his system.

Fraught with the same pain burning from his shoulder, Pey writhed for a split moment before he became stiff with pain. He didn't dare write more lest he be cut by the same blade twice. His eyes, burning with more hatred than ever rested upon the blade with blame and hate.

"That blade should be SLEEPING! Not clutched in the grasp of a mortal book keeper like yourself!" the demon shrieked in a high pitch roar, his many razor like teeth were clenched hard and he glanced towards his suffering summoner with apprehension. This was something that the demon couldn't protect Bassett from! For they were struck with the same poison.

Bassett let himself lay on the ground as still as he could possibly be while his legs still remained half-way upon his demon's. He knew, from his time in the war, that poison would only move faster if he moved or got too scared. The first time he could handle the second...Not so well.

As the pain settled in and burned within his veins, it grew harder and harder for the scared youth to keep his fear under control and even harder to keep his heart from beating faster. As the pain spread, the soldier could hardly see for he was blinded with its intensity. He whimpered and released sharp sounds of pain, clenching his fists tightly and straining his entire body so he was stiff and rigid.

Beside him, his demon was in the same predicament, following the same movements but with much less sound and much more hate. He shivered as Odessa tested the wound and his nose pinched in a dark scowl. "Heal my summoner if you can," he snarled tersely.

Watching the demon princess lean over his summoner from the corner of his inverted eyes, the Nameless felt his scowl deepen. That didn't look like any way to heal anyone. Of course, he wasn't paying attention when the soldier was first healed by her in the shack so he didn't know that this single kiss was supposed to heal him. He barked from behind her, "Stop making out with my summoner while he's vulnerable, you rapist!"

Before her, his eyes blinking and rolling into his head, the soldier tossed his head from side to side, painting softly. It seemed that things were slowly getting better, but he was still half dazed and even more confused than usual from the startling kiss. "...Mmnn..."

The Nameless stared back at her, his inverted eyes slowly losing more and more color as the moments passed. While his summoner slowly regained more and more vitality, the demon, who was already quite pale, was becoming paler. His long red locks fell over his face in strands and rivers, as his usually struggling movements and fiery attitude had quelled to a ghost of what it was before. He remained more quiet than before as if he were shut behind a case of glass.

"Yeah," the demon prompted again, and his words became more slurred, "Rapist...He better be okay...What kind of stupid knuckle headed questions is that...What kind of sick person would WANT to die?...Besides a sick one, of course, but that's not what I mean...Soldiers like Bassett fight to live...Living is the prize...Of course anyone would want to live...Living...I can take care...The contract, gotta keep it filled..."

The soldier shifted and slowly awoke, his amber eyes blinking open as he brought his hand to his forehead, "Odessa...?" he murmured, "Edward...Pey. Pey...Is Pey?"

Pey, like Bassett, slumped into a quiet relapse for a couple moments as colors returned to his pallid face. Within moments, his eyes snapped open again with more life than ever and the demon jumped up from the floor with purpose, his mouth pulled to a cheshire grin, "That was fantastic. My first kiss!" the demon crooned before he scuttled over to Bassett's side, helping the soldier sit up from the ground, "Hey, Button, you okay?"

The youth rubbed his head and glanced at Odessa, his eyes clearing and his brows raising with question. Had that certain part of his dream...been real? Did Odessa, the little girl who gave him a quick peck to heal broken ribs, just...? The soldier gulped, suddenly feeling quite...different. "I'm okay, thanks to...Dessy. Dessy, are you alright?" The soldier glanced to Edward and said softly, "I think it might be best if you put away that weapon." He looked to his shoulder where Pey held a steely gaze at the demon slayer.

"You look tired," the soldier pointed out as he tested his temple with a curious hand. He brought it down to his eye level to inspect for blood. Nope, no blood, ergo, no cut. She had healed him, through and through, blood and all! The soldier glanced up again at his friend in half-amazement and wondrous gratitude. With his luck, he was lucky to have a good princess demon as his friend. Tilting his head to the side, he prodded again, "Perhaps you should lay down...Do you need to feed?" he asked the last one very softly and kind of hesitantly. he didn't want to make her feel bad, but then again, he didn't want her to fall over from exhaustion.

Meanwhile, the Nameless pale faced demon kept glaring at Edward and his sheathed sword with the intensity of ten million suns. He still meant to do something about the death of his own kin...