Century

"Get up."

He opened his eyes tiredly and looked up into worried blue eyes. The nun was leaning over him saying something and slowly his hearing came into focus.

"Chronos, wake up!"

He became aware of his surroundings slowly, looking around everything had a dark cast to it, soot permeated the skies and tall intimidating buildings surrounded them. Dark oil floated on the top of the water in the bay, garbage floated by in the gentle breeze and the sound of machinery drowned out any stillness in the air. Babbage... they made it to Babbage.

Sitting up slowly he winced at the black fog in his mind and rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. His wings felt heavy and dirty, he shrugged a shoulder freeing one that had been stuck under him, all the blood drained from it at the awkward angle making it numb and tingly.

"I hate this place." He muttered, his wings felt heavy and dirty. Everything here felt dirty. Granted he was a demon but this place was filthier than hell.

"Um... you hate everything." Rosette leaned back on her knees. "Caledon is too 'pink'." She held up her fingers in quotations. "Steelhead is too damn cheerful, and Steeltopia's Emperor is crazy."
"What can I say, I am a demon, never satisfied, never full, never sedate."

"Yeah yea... save it." She held up a hand before standing up. Looking around she realized they were in an alley... well maybe. Most of the streets looked like alleys here. "Aren't you going to ask me what happened?"

"We must get out of sight." Chronos stood, one wing dragging behind him grabbing the girl by her arm pulling her towards a darker narrower alley. "My kind is not welcome here."

"Your idea was to come to Babbage, not mine."

"My brother owns a warehouse here." Chronos fished through a pocket and found a large key, "It's close to the canals. I frequent here to spy on others for their enemies."

"You're a henchman?"

"Invisible informant." He reminded her finding the large warehouse and entering in the back.

"What is this stuff?" Rosette looked up at the warehouse full of boxes simply labeled 'From Steelhead.' with a little tree stamped on the side.

"A joke." Chronos walked over to a broken box and opened the lid.

"Seeds?" Rosette was confused.

"Yes seeds, do you see a tree around here?" He watched her say 'oh' quietly.

"Careful, you look like you're about to pass out again." Rosette took a hold of his arm there was sweat across his brow and in his violet hair. She found a switch and some dim yellow lights turned on. There was a worn couch in the corner and a giant Victrola on a box, "You're here a lot aren't you?"

He slumped down extending his wings out letting them drape over the couch. "Yes. Now, what happened?"

Rosette sat on a small barrel in front of him, "Well I should be asking you what happened. Since we left Shamian Alley you've felt like you got a fever, your eyes clouded over and you weren't responding to my questions. When Babbage came into view you're eyes were entirely red and you're skin was pale and cold... more so than usual.

Then you just.. fell."

Chronos nodded his head, "You were not hurt?"

"I fell into the water, you my friend hit the pavement."

That would explain the sprained wing then. He folded his arms leaning back on the couch giving it some thought, "Shamian Alley." That woman... "She cursed me." Chronos swore lightly under his breath, "She threw a curse at me."

"What woman?" Rosette shrugged a shoulder, "I... oh that woman." She remembered the dark figure in the alley. "Wait, why would she throw a curse at you? And who is she anyway?"

"I have not met her, but I know of her." Chronos recalled the tale told by his own mother, demon mother to all demons in Pandemonium, even she retold the stories with fear in her grey eyes.

"Wait, shouldn't we be telling Lunar about this or Tensai?"

"She did not come to harm anyone, my being there was incidental. She came for Lunar more specifically." He closed his eyes leaning his head back.

"Are you sure, I mean she cursed you and you're a damn higher level demon."

"Lunar is a lot more powerful than she is... at least now he is."

"What do you mean?" Rosette asked, rather worried.

"If she is here, that means he is now a hundred years old."

The Traveler.

"Get the hell up!"

"Ironic choice of words." Chronos stretched upwards, wings uncurling and stretching out to their full length. He yawned and looked down at the petite nun who was busy glaring at him. "What?"

"We missed the ferry to Caledon."

"I can fly us there." He shrugged a shoulder. The trip would not be so long for him if they stopped in Babbage for a brief rest.

"Oh hell no, I am not going to ride on... you." She pointed an accusing finger at him.

He grinned utterly amused at her flushed angry state ducking under the broken door of the monastery he lived in. The vines were beginning to overrun the place casting a foreboding doom upon the place, he rather liked it.

"How do you expect us to EEEP!" She latched herself around his shoulder when he picked her up and began to fly in the air, "I am going to scream in your ear!"

"You already are, and if you are not quiet I will drop you." He emphasized by flying lower barely missing the top of a pine tree.

"Where are we going anyway?" Rosette asked as they flew into the dense fog of Shanghai's industrial district.

"I sensed Doctor Steampunk last night."

Rosette seethed, "I am going to yell at him when I see him!"

"He won't drop you, but I will if you keep at it." Giving her a glare he gracefully landed on the uneven stone walkway of Shaiman Alley dropping her on the ground. She yelled at him in her most loudest boisterous voice. He heard some scurrying and found some scamps peeking at him from behind a barrel. There were scamps almost everywhere but the little things have found tunnels and other places to hide, that is why no one ever saw them. Little devious things.

At the end of a lane close to the pier was a run down storefront that was ever closed Doctor Steampunk lived in. He opened the door snorting when it was unlocked. Did he ever have a sense of self preservation? Apparently not if he leaves his door unlatched in a dangerous neighborhood. The house was filled with trinkets and gadgets of every sort scattered about the place on any smooth surface he could find. The stale air caused him to sneer, looking around there was a fine layer of dust on everything.

"What a slob!" Rosette tip toed around several stacked books nearly knocking over a small Asian table that had various tiny statues of Buddha and small boxes overstuffed with gears. She turned and was faced with a giant curio cabinet that had a zillion various types of ancient to modern light bulbs. "Okay I am not going to move otherwise I'll knock everything over."

Chronos furrowed his eyebrows plucking a sepia photo that was severely aged. A small young version of himself in his childlike state was standing there in an over sized coat with a serious expression, beside him with a grinning Doctor with his fists on his hips in a very Tensai like manner. He remembered this trip, they were in England about two hundred years ago. Replacing the photo above others he did not care to look at he scanned the room turning slowly around.

"WING!" Rosette called out to him when his folded wing was about to knock a candelabra over.

He frowned looking at the wall where twenty clocks sat still. "He is not here."

"What?" Rosette carried several books stacking them in the corner of the room.

"The clocks, they've all stopped." He precariously stepped over some objects and walked out of the house.

Rosette looked over to the wall of clocks realizing none of them were ticking, and like the demon said, all of them were stuck to a single time.

"I thought you said you sensed him?" She caught up to the demon who was wandering around the alleys.

"He must have left again." He almost grinned when she cursed a rather lovely string of obscenities that would make a sailor blush. What a model nun she made.

The air began to chill, and he felt a very distinct shiver up his spine. Eyes widened when he realized all the sounds of the rushing wind, the birds, the children, even Rosette stopped. Putting a hand out and pushing the girl behind his back he turned and narrowed his eyes as a shadow began to cross the alley. It was a dark blur, a figure that slowly moved gracefully. His breath caught and held.

It stopped, long pale hair almost glowing in the shadow before turning and merely glancing at him through misplaced strands of fur. Every bone in his body cried out, shadows ran before they merely passed on not sparing him another glance.

"What was that?" Rosette had been peeking over his shoulder. "Who was that?" She wondered about the figure who had just passed by, she couldn't make out a face but she was sure they were glaring at the demon.

"I... I don't know." His wings shivered. No... that couldn't be... that seriously couldn't be.

"I have to leave." Chronos muttered walking quickly out of the alleys.

"What... we have a mission in Caledon." Rosette yelled at him.

"Caledon, perfect." Chronos wrapped his arms around her waist and flew straight into the air ignoring her screams. If she was here... he would not.

End and Outcome

“What the HELL is this?!?”

He knew she was there, he had known she was coming the moment she stepped foot in Boomtown. Her life force had always been strong, yet he wondered why on earth she was seeking him out. Lazily he reached up and with the tip of his talon he raised the bandages from his eyes and peeked at the silhouette of a girl standing in the middle of the doorway with both fists on her hips, feet askew with the backdrop of a blaring sun behind her. “We’re not in hell.”

“This is a… a… a…. CHURCH!” She screamed out loudly flailing her arms about. “It’s completely blasphemous!”

He decided to lower the blindfold back and close his eyes lying on a pallet of broken pews with a wing covering his form. “It was an abandoned church and I remind you I used to be a member of the Magdeline order, whatever lifetime that entails. Talk to the Diocese if you don’t believe me.”

“I did. Apparently I am branded just like you. A nun ‘in whatever lifetime that entails.’” She raised two fingers on either hand to quote what he just said. “I tried to talk to the Doctor about what that meant and why that meant and…”

“Let me guess…” Chronos could only smile, what a man to run off when things got complicated. “I do love guessing.” He sat up stretching out his wings behind him before standing up feeling woozy in the process using a piece of broken off altar to steady himself, “You’re up earlier than noon… you’re here speaking to me more than likely against what you think is your better judgement, and you’re upset.” He finally reached up raising the bandana off his eyes over his forehead looking down at the flustered youth. “The Doctor is gone.”

She glared at him.

He actually liked playing this game of making her mad. He always did as she was the funniest person in the universe when she was upset. Windows would break, the nun would swear up a storm and people would run for cover. Though times changed, he was no longer in need of stealing her soul to survive as he had his horns back, and therefore he was in his fullest demonic form rather than that of the equivalent of an eight year old child. Perhaps it was the detachment of his youth like form that made him want to egg her more, she wasn’t busy hitting him over the head, or pulling his ears, or yelling at him… did he actually miss her abuse. Seriously he should find a bottle and go crawl under a rock or something for a few millennia.

“Hey!” She snapped her fingers in front of his face.

Chronos reared his head back at the intrusion to his personal space, “What is it you want nun?”

“Answer my questions… demon!”

Chronos sighed heavily before sitting on the altar and folding his legs motioning her to pull up a pew and listen. She did so most grudgingly dropping herself down on that bench stirring the dust around to glow visibly in the colored trails of light shining through the broken stained glass. “Welcome to my home, and please before you get hysterical it was abandoned and reclaimed by Lunar, he gave it to me. I am assuming he told you where to find me.”

She looked around the tiny broken church with critical eyes noting the rusted crosses and broken pews and a rather large pallet of wood with a simple drape of cloth that he had been lying on when she came in. “Yea he told me you’d be in the last place I would expect… hey why are there cows outside?”

“Because I don’t want them inside?” He shrugged when she just stared at him. “A demon has to eat you know, I can’t live just off of fear.”

“Oh please!” She glared then after a few moments she cocked her head to the side and stared at him with a thoughtful expression.

“Rosette.” Chronos whispered after he saw her staring at him like that, “He told you, didn’t he?”

“He said some things.”

“And do you believe him?”

“I don’t know what to believe.”

Chronos nodded his head, folding his arms looking outside of the closet window to the outside air. “I am Chronos, born son of Pandemonium, the fallen angel of heaven.”

She gulped loudly knowing exactly who Pandemonium was. “What does ‘born son’ mean?”

“My brothers and sisters are grown, not born like me.”

“So you’re telling me you’re a demon prince of hell?”

“That is exactly what I am telling you.”

“Ah” She muttered rolling her eyes.

“But I carry the brand… sinner, once hornless.”

“YOU!” She stood up and pointed at him, “You’re a sinner of hell?”

“What do you know about the sinners Rosette?”

She sat down and fidgeted a bit, “Well, I was busy throwing spitwads at my friends in that class. But you overturned hell, killed Pandemonium, created chaos and were cast out of hell to terra bringing the other sinners with you? But I was told they were all hunted down and killed?”

“I killed the other sinners, and my brother Aion who sought to take over this plane as well.”

“Oh.” She whispered.

“Your part in all this, you were my contract, the person whose soul I lived off of to remain alive.”

“You thieving bastard!” She yelled at him.

“You freely offered yourself I could not refuse you and believe me I tried. But you are more stubborn than I am persuasive. I died with you, but my brother willed me back to life returning my horns to me, the doctor found you running away from the nunnery.”

“After my brother died I was taken in by the nuns from the orphanage, I didn’t fit in, I got the switch every day and I hated all of it.”

“Without changing the past they changed its outcome. I am alive and you are alive, that is all that matters. Live your life far away from me.” He stood up and pointed at the door, “You should leave.”

She sighed heavily pulling the habit off her head exposing unruly blonde hair, “I’m still a nun, as much as I hated living at the covenant I took oaths to the order. I can’t leave the order they’re all over the place. They’ve promoted me, to a ranger, so I can go where I want and take down demons wherever I want I only have to check in every now and then.” She seemed truly happy for her promotion.

“Smart decision on their part, otherwise you’d be running for the hills.” Chronos looked to the broken door, “Still, you should go, be a ranger elsewhere not here.”

“I can’t.”

He turned and stared at her and said with an undignified, “Huh?”

She held out a scroll of paper to the demon, “You’ve been reinstated.”

He looked at the scroll with a seething hatred in his eyes, damn them. He took the scroll and read it, sure enough he himself took oaths though different for obvious reasons. “But I died!”

“Tough shit demon. Its either this or you get sealed up like the rest of them.”

He didn’t want to be sealed in another tomb, he had already spent fifty years sealed in a tomb with rotting corpses, before that he spent another ten years sealed away by some rogue priest before he was able to find a way to unseal himself. No he didn’t like the idea but if it kept the nuns from coming after him then so be it. “Fine, but I don’t want to work with you.”

“Tough shit again.”

“What?!?”

“Let’s make this absolutely clear demon I don’t have to like you…” She narrowed her eyes at the demon, “… but I do have to work with you.”

In this I am.

I watched her play with the dogs at the dog park. She was laughing, playing and just so... alive.

I would resort to stalker, let her never remember me... at least she was alive.

- Memories of Chronos the Sinner


"I am sorry Chrono, I really am." The doctor placed his hand on the demon's shoulder, his wing instinctively unfurled knocking his hand away before stalking off into the recesses of the TARDIS perhaps to the place he used to nest in when he used to be a companion of his. The demon stopped at the edge of the wall and in one leap he was in the rafters, sitting with his back towards the doctor laying his wings against the metal and silently sitting there in revere.

The doctor bowed his head silently folding his arms in reprieve at how all the events and persons he had come across and especially all the things he had done to transpired into this. Rose was a young girl, filthy, dirty and living in the back streets of New York about the 1920's. He was there investigating reports of various fluctuations of odd waves of time when he found her, cold and alone. Promising never to get involved he merely watched day after day as she would come into the alley where the box stood and climb into the garbage can to sleep. Eventually their paths crossed and he found out she had run away from a monastery.

She had eventually returned to the order until he saw that she had been harmed over and over again. After that he took her in.

She was Chronos' partner, he could tell now after seeing the demon's eyes in recognition. Somehow the shift in time he was investigating caused a few incidents to not happen, Rosette did not unseal the demon Chronos the Sinner, her brother Joshua was killed, she still joined the order but never became the demon fighting nun without her partner and the drive of finding her long lost possessed brother, and in that scene... she never died.

How to fix this? Perhaps he couldn't. He had not done this, and he had no clue what to do to fix it.

Sighing loudly he decided he would have to sit down with Rose and tell her a few things. He found her sitting on the floor wrapped in a thick blanket, her blue eyes looking up at him sternly. "Rose... Rosette, you have nothing to fear of the demon."

"I know." She whispered looking off somewhere else, "I've seen a lot of demons." She started, "I'm not afraid of them, I used to get in trouble for that you know. I once saw a high class demon, not a little legion a full noble like that winged guy you're friends with... I wasn't afraid of him."

"You're not afraid of Chronos."

"Is that his name." She whispered.

"You know him Rosette..." She looked up at him, cold blue eyes staring in disbelief as he knelt beside her. "... and I want to tell you how you know him."

My eyes hath seen...

They say that order is begat from chaos.

They also say that life is a full circle, that you end exactly where you begin and you begin where you'll eventually end.

I was born in Pandemonium. It is not only a place in the underworld, it is a person as well. She is our mother, our queen, our mind. Unlike my collective brother's and sisters, I was born from her, not grown from the legion that infest my black blood. Our minds were as one, we were a family in hell. I was not the only one like myself... I had a brother... his name was Aion.

Being directly descendants of angel blood we were different, and eventually along with Aion we sought freedom from the collective. He said it would be freedom, he said it would be a revolution... he lied to me.

I helped lead a coup de ta and killed my own brothers and sisters to overthrow our mother, Aion succeeded in killing her. The other nobles in the family caught us, and cast us from hell branding us the name... Sinner.

So I am Chronos the Sinner, I carry that title with great weight.

From all the evil I have ever done... the worst of it all was to take the life of a young woman, a nun. I killed her, took her soul to feed mine... yet here she was standing right in front of me.

From chaos to order.

Full circle indeed.

.....

The demon stood there, eyes impossibly wide.

She blinked a few times trying to focus on the other person in the TARDIS the Doctor was speaking to. From all the time she'd been here she never once saw him bring someone into the ship, he didn't speak much of himself and so she rewarded him by telling him none of herself either... you had to give to get... that was always her policy.

Yet when things went into focus she could only stare at the shocked face of an impossibly tall man that wore a bunch of leather and... had... big... black... wings.

She blinked.... "AIIIEEEE!!!" Instantly there was a gun aimed at the demon, "Stay back Doctor!" She warned the man keeping her gun aimed between his eyes. He stared and a sort of sad expression crossed his face.

"Rose where did you get that gun?" He had never for a moment thought she could have something like that... and in his ship none the less.

She narrowed her eyes at the demon who made no move to run or cower, "These bullets are infused with holy water."

"I know."

"It can kill you!" She warned and the demon merely stood there nodding his head as though he understood what she was going to do. She'd never seen a demon like this before, usually she encountered lesser blob things or possessed creatures or... rodents. This was a full up full fledged high class demon. She shook, frightened that her bullets would be no match for this creature. The Doctor took a step between her and the demon standing in the path of the gun.

"He won't kill me, or you."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "You're a demon worshipper, aren't you?"

Demon worshipper... The Doctor could only smile at that accusation. He had been called many things, that was a first for demon worshipper. "No Rose, he is one of my companions. And he is a member of the Order of Magdalene as yourself it would seem." He reached up and held his lapels as the girl stared in shock. "Put the gun down Rose, or... Rosette."

The gun shook in her hands as she lowered the barrel. The demon made no move, though she still saw his eyes staring intently at her the entire time. "You've got a lot of explaining to do." She glared at the Doctor.

"As yourself, how did you sneak such a thing on my ship without my notice?" He held out his hand expecting her to hand the gun to him. She hesitated and after a moment placed it in his hands. Such a curious thing, different from its more dangerous counterpart that shoots regular bullets. This is obviously a blessed holy object. Still... he opened a drawer and placed the gun inside closing it and making sure it did not open. "Why don't you wait in the parlour Rose?" She nodded but before walking off she turned to make sure the monster didn't follow after.

Turning around he saw the sad eyes of Chronos the Sinner. Reddish violet eyes turned to him and he felt the full brunt of pain and true suffering in that look.

Chronos finally opened his mouth and whispered, "Doctor... what have you done?"

Rosette

50 years in the future set in New York circa 1920

"He's dangerous!" The mother superior just about had enough of this age old argument with the young stubborn girl. "I will not allow you to remain here if you bring along that... creature!"

"He is NOT dangerous, he's my friend!"

Sister Kate slammed her hands on the oak table and stood up, "He's a demon Rosette! He will turn on you the moment you turn around, on all of us!"

The blond girl glared her blue eyes at the mother superior as she stood in that giant room filled with religious antiques dressed in dirty filthy torn clothing and mud stuck to her hair and dirt on her face. "Chronos is not like that!" She balled her fists tightly as tears began to pour down her cheeks.

The elder sister sighed at the girl's stubbornness to see the truth and sighed speaking in a softer voice, "Child, he is not human, he is not a pet, and he is not a friend." She noted the heavy brass watch around her neck that ticked slowly and ominously different from the rest of the clocks in the room, "And he's slowly killing you."

Rosette put her hand on the watch that she carried on a chain around her neck, with tears streaming down her face she screamed out, "This is MY choice!" before turning around, stomping out of the room and slamming the door shut. A few pictures were knocked from the nails holding them up, crashing to the ground shattering the glass. The mother superior put a hand to her face and took off her glasses pinching the bridge of her nose tightly.

A man chuckled heartily, "That went better than last time." He had been sitting on the couch the entire time, a young man in his early 20s with golden hair in blue.

"Father Remington... what am I going to do with that girl?"

"You're going about this all wrong Sister Kate." He stood from the couch and walked over to survey the damage done holding up a shard of glass eye level. "She just lost her brother to the clutches of that evil demon, you're asking her to give up the rest of her family... that demon."

"I can't let that demon stay here, I will take the girl she has promise... but not that creature."

"That isn't wise Sister."

"You're asking me to take a demon into holy ground, that's sacrilegious!"

"It's practical. He needs her to live, she needs him to live... and we need them to find the dark one and put an end to this war."

The nun sat down and folded her arms bowing her head, silently staring through tiny glasses at the file on her desk of one Rosette Christopher... an orphan. It was not her the Magdalene order was interested in, it was her brother with the almost inhuman ability to heal others. Yet a demon came and stole this boy... a demon the girl and her pet demon knew. She didn't like this one bit but perhaps Father Remington was right... this time. She held up a hand, "I must speak to the order heads."

"No need." the young priest stood up.

"What do you mean? You did not go over my head again!"

"Sister, they don't have the time for politics." She was about to protest when he cut her off, "She's dying... remember?" He placed a hat on his head and walked out of the office shutting the door softly behind him sparing the sisters pictures.

He walked down a narrow corridor and down a spiral staircase. The door to his car was open, a small thin boy that appeared no older than ten sat with his feet hanging out swinging back and fourth, long violet hair unkempt about his face. His pale face looked up, and red eyes met with his before the boy looked back down to the ground and began swinging his feet again completely unlike his companion. He found her fuming as she stomped around the car using all sorts of vulgarity he had never heard a young woman use before in the most interesting ways.

He leaned on the car and folded his arms waiting until she noticed him. When she finally did she stared at him wide eyed with a blush on her cheeks, "Well Rosette... how would you like to be a nun?"

52 years in the future

"God damn it!"

"Rosette you shouldn't say things like that. You're in a church." He sipped his soup from a spoon not bothering on turning to his companion to address her.

"The whole damn place is a church!" She sat down straddling the chair in the most unelegant way possible and took the bowl of soup from her companion and held it up to her lips before snorting it down loudly.

The boy looked down at the now empty spot there had been a bowl of soup and sighed, "You didn't have to eat mine." after a moment and her silent pensive state he questioned, "What did she say?"

"She says I'm too careless."

He nodded his head knowing that she must have slammed the door, kicked and screamed her way here. No wonder the mess hall was empty everyone must have abandoned ship. "Rosette?" He watched her as she stared off quietly, "You ok?"

She shook her head, "She needs to get laid major."

Chronos looked up the ceiling and rolled her eyes, "And here I was worrying about you."

53 years in the future

Chronos sat on top of the church looking down into the courtyard where a row of young nuns in blue dresses and white habbits stood as the young priest walked down the line, shaking their hands in succession.

Something inside him squeezed painfully watching the young blond girl reach out and shake his hand, smiling brilliantly at the priest accepting her fate as a nun... a member of the order meant being a demon hutress, exterminator.

In the three years they had been together, she was growing up whereas he was perpetually stuck in this small form as she surpassed his height. But it would never last, she gave her soul to feed his life... she came to this place to learn to hunt and destroy demons... all to save her brothers soul.

Would this change her?

Would she one day turn on him?

She caught him looking from the dormers of the old cathedral and held her mouth open with her fingers as she stuck her tongue out at him.

He sighed... maybe not.

55 years in the future...

"There is never enough time." She whispered softly.

He stopped and stared at her watching the tall nun stand looking out over the city. She never once complained, never once got tired, never once uttered anything about the burden she had to carry until now... time was always against her. That watch she carried drained her life and fed him because his horns were broken off and he could not gather the astral to live.

She turned to him and smiled, "You... you'll always be the same won't you?"

It was the curse of the immortals... a curse to see those you love the most grow and die. Why was she talking like this, where was the swearing and yelling and throwing things? "Are you in pain?" He whispered, choking a bit on his words.

"Idiot." She smiled and whispered good natured bonking his head lightly with a fist. The smile faded, "I'm not going to find him in time am I?" He opened his mouth to answer and she cut him off, "Don't answer that, I will find him."

He smiled, that was more the girl he remembered...

56 years in the future...

Red eyes slowly opened and were met with a pair of green blue eyes surrounded by stark white hair. Chronos flew back hitting his head on the wall realizing he was in a tiny room. As he struggled about in the tiny room the tall figure stood there staring at him calmly and silently. He finally quieted down and resigned himself to kneel on the ground tired of fighting against his reawakening body and the claustrophobia of this room before the man finally spoke, "I am not Aion."

Aion.. that nefarious demon that was the cause of so much pain in his life. Yet how did this stranger know who Aion is, or even his name? Or for that matter... "How did you revive me? I was dead!"

"I have been saving this for you." He replaced an empty syringe in a velvet lined case and shut it softly.

Chronos realized if he was alive then... she... the man stared blankly into his eyes before shaking his head knowing what that hopeful look was.

"She was mortal." Is all the answer he gave.

"I should have died! It was important to me!"

"You did so your promise is kept." The man took a step forward in the moonlight, this being the first time Chronos had laid eyes upon his features. He wasn't a pursuer... or a sinner... or a demon for that matter but he was no human and there was a strong presence of magic that was manifesting in a different form and at a greater magnitude than he had ever felt before.

"Who are you?"

"You are given an option, you may end your life, or you can begin another." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a heavy pocket watch with clamps holding its side together. Chronos reached out swiping the watch out of his hands unsure about how this man or demon or beast got a hold of this. "Why are you doing this?"

"Consider this my gift to you." He raised a hand and touched the demons forehead with a finger staring at the demons wide red eyes and hitched breath as a light shimmer covered his body and he began to grow in size from a young boy to a tall man. Wings protruded and began to flap about hitting the wall wildly before drooping tiredly to the ground and two lumps began to form at his temples protruding out of the skin causing blood to drip over his pale skin.

The man retracted his hand and stood over the demon staring at him for a bit longer before turning around and leaving him there.

Chronos felt the full pain of his still growing horns and the instant surge of power as they immediately began to collect astral to recover his body. He stumbled out of the room into the night as he held a heavy watch in one hand. Wandering like a drunk he kept to the shadows out of sight before colliding into a wooden object. He looked up at the police box and stared a bit wondering how out of place this was.

The door opened and a young man in a tweed suit came out and clapped his hands happily until he noticed the dark figure standing close to him. "What the devil..."

"Demon..." Chronos whispered before falling over, the world spinning until it was all black.

The demon stood at the crest of the mountain looking down at the once lush valley. Once this place had been a great forest before the humans came and began farming the land before the structures became taller and the river had been tamed and the mountains mined, and the land infested with them... humans.

The plumes of smoke from the factories hovered just underneath the layer of clouds poisoning the clouds. Just beyond the dark haze of smoke the city's lights twinkled as they prepared for nightfall.

Humans were afraid of the dark, afraid of what they could not see with their eyes and feel with their senses. His thoughts turned dark as the metal collar slowly started to constrict against his airway telling him not to venture down that road. A single hand delicately reached up and pressed against the cool steel. "I should be back down there in that hole, Doctor." He casually reminded the odd human sympathizing creature that he was dealing with a demon from pandemonium herself and quite unlike his former companion.

"Oh hush." The man walked up the rise warming his hands by rubbing them together as he surveyed the scene. "They've come quite far haven't they?"

"I hate them."

The man looked over and stared for a moment wondering exactly when the demon had changed so drastically. He used to be an agent for God, fighting against demons that would seek to destroy the world. "You don't mean that."

"I find myself longing for the taste of their death, to eat that fear when they realize there is nothing they can do to stop it."

A hand found its way on his shoulder, "I know you Chronos, you're not a lesser demon."

For a moment the resentment against the Doctor ebbed away, being trapped in a place and time that was not yours did not bother him. There was a time he looked up to this man, followed him blindly and learned from him. That time had come and gone. He shrugged his shoulder causing the hand to slip off before he turned around and stared at the dark eyes of the one called Doctor and narrowed his own as a growl reverberated through his spine causing his wings to furl upwards. His mouth opened exposing long fangs in a display of territorial dominance as his eyes glowed black.

The Doctor calmly stood long after the demon had sharply turned away and stalked back down the hill staring at the grass that had singed with his momentary rage. He bent down and knelt on the grass touching the ground and pulling his fingers back when he felt a physical shock. The grass was cursed forever it seems, even a thousand years no life would ever grow here again.

Chronos was obviously still upset for what he had done, leaving him stranded a hundred years in the past. He knew the younger demon he had was a creature of time so the span of those years should not have been the problem. Perhaps it was the act of desertion, or the fact Chronos found Lunar...

... and the fact the two are related...

How did this fact slip his mind, he had no idea Chronos and Lunar shared the same father. For all the randomness he traveled, for all the places he discovered, people he carried with him... the universal law of metaphysical paradoxes. Throw in enough variables and you'll end up with the entire works of Shakespeare in braille from putting together all the shot up road signs.


Chronos stood in front of the box that stood so innocently out of place among a broken church. When he was 'younger' and without horns he always reverted into the form that required the least amount of astral, the forces that his horns gathered to give him eternal life. His younger self always followed after the odd man, never questioning, always following.

Now... well he was unable to return to his childlike state, he could barely revert to his more human like form. Chronos turned at the sound of the Doctor returning. He reached into the pocket of his waistcoat and took out a key holding it out to him.

Chronos looked at the keys and shook his head, "Unnecessary." The door was opened and the demon watched as the man entered inside he ducked his head folded his leathery wings. He stood once inside, able to spread his wings out with the massive space accidentally hitting a set of wires causing them to sway back and fourth.

The place changed, copper took over the rich woods, wires replaced tapestries. Did it always have the musky smell? He shook his head, the nostalgia rich and almost too overwhelming. Still he clung to the anger and opened his eyes seeing the Doctor standing against the console, red hair and dark eyes so close to his daughters.

The Doctor stared at Chronos wondering about the almost smile to his face before he tightened his jaw and glared at him. He knew the TARDIS could stand against the whole army beating down at the door but a curse? He was playing with fire coming back for him but it was necessary for what he had to do... or undo.

Chronos stiffened and his eyes took a red tint as he was instantly in front of the Doctor, hands fisted around his collar holding him up, "We're not alone."

The Doctor put his hands on the Demons fists and eventually his feet found the floor again. "She was lost."

"You said you wouldn't take children again. Stop screwing up the future!"

"She had no parents, no siblings, the orphanage she's from didn't even bother looking for her. She would have died out there in the forest. She's of no consequence." He pried the claws off his coat and sighed at the lapels with the large holes in them.

Chronos sneered, "You're still looking for a mate aren't you?"

"It's not like that Chronos." He shook his head at the demon. "I cant explain why but I did."

The two of them turned to the sound of feet scuffing along the metal floor. A teenage blond girl stood at the metal archway, the over sized shirt and clothing were torn and ratted. She was rubbing her eyes yawning loudly.

"Doctwooo... wha... loud... yea..." She muttered between yawns.

Chronos' eyes widened and he took a step back when she lowered her hands and blinked a few times staring at him with glassy tired blue eyes. His heart stopped, time stood still and the universe suddenly ceased.

"Rosette."