Pandemonium [original]

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Fuck the human military!" Seph groaned into Caspian's neck. They were still gathering supplies and Sephiram's head still hurt like a bitch. He wrapped around Cas just to complain. "Fuck pain! Fuck injuries! Fuck all those stupid humans!" He groaned.

Caspian stroked his blonde head but didn't grace his complaints with a response. At least they were getting along okay, much better than before. Which may or may not have something to do with the events that went on while they had been "napping".

"We need to get back to discord," Mal said. "The Fire Realm can offer us temporary asylum from the humans."

Demi dropped duffle bags onto the ground in front of the two cuddling figures. "How's the little princess doing?" She mocked.

"Fuck off," Seph told her, gripping Cas's shoulder. He turned to the red headed boy and mumbled, "And you... you can fuck me."

"Do you know how many times you've said fuck in the past five minutes?" Cas asked him.

"Don't fucking care," Seph said.

Demi sat next to him and rubbed his back for a moment, then pulled back suddenly, as if remembering her disgust for public affection. Or any sort of affection at all.

Suddenly, the door flew open and Zaria stomped in pulling bags of supplies. Huey followed close behind, carrying just as much.

"Ready?" Mal asked her. She didn't answer. "I'll take that as a yes. We should be able to Travel directly into the hideout."

"Perfect," Cas said.

Everyone grabbed a bag, distributing the eight evenly among them. After Cas locked the place up, they stepped through the portal, back to their home dimension.

The team ended up in a cave of some sort. Or the mouth of one. Huey fell to his knees and began dry heaving onto the cave floor. Mal patted his back. "Easy buddy," he told him.

Zaria immediately began moving further into it. Cas worried slightly since it was quickly becoming darker as they moved further in. Not that it mattered to Zaria.

After about five minutes of walking Zaria stopped and turned to them. "When we get back here no one touch anything. Or I'll kill you." Still in a bad mood, Cas could see.

They started walking again. Suddenly the dim lights began to brighten. There were mechanical noises from ahead and Cas looked at Seph who shrugged. Cas could see a small opened at the end of the cave that was glowing orange.

When they reached it, he saw the cave opened up into a vast workshop with multiple machines that seemed to have minds of their own. The orange glow was coming from multiple torches and molten substances throughout the cavern.

"There's a space back there where I sleep," Zaria gestures. "There should be room."

The group, save Zaria, made their way back to where she had pointed. There was a medium sized room with a bed in one corner and assorted fur rugs on the cave floor.

"Guess we'll all be on the floor," Demi mumbled.

"It's better than being in a cell with the humans," Rhys said. Huey cleared his throat but Rhys ignored him. Seph seemed very entertained by this so Cas elbowed him.

Seph flinched and Cas quickly began apologizing. "I'm so sorry! I forgot!"

Seph clutched his side and drew in a deep breath. "I'm fine," he insisted. Cas pressed a hand to Sephiram's side to check his wound.

"The cut on your side is open again," Cas said. He began unbuttoning Seph's jacket to find the shirt underneath blood stained.

"Rhys hand me the first aid kit," Cas instructed his brother. "You lay down," he told Seph.

"It must have been the travel," Mal suggested. Cas took the first aid kit from Rhys' hands.

"Most likely," Cas said and crouched down next to Seph to start stitching back what he had done earlier. Demi sat down as well and pulled Seph's head into her lap. He grimaced up at her, but tightly gripped her hand when Cas poked the needle through his skin.

Zaria chose that moment to renter. "I leave you alone for two minutes?" She groaned.

"The travel reopened his stitches," Rhys explained. Zaria didn't look like she cared much.

"He got the worst beating out of all of us," Cas spoke up from the floor. Zaria seemed to scoff behind him and Demitri sent a sharp look her way.

"Don't get blood on my furs," Zaria snapped and went to stand next to Huey, who was watching with interest.

"So we're in your dimension now?" He asked.

"Yep," Mal said. "Home sweet war zone."

"Not when we win," Demi said stroking Seph's hair. Cas was finished now, but Seph was pale and sweating.

Caspian leaned forward and felt his head. "You have a fever," Cas told him.

"And?" Seph snapped.

"I think it's infected," Caspian said in an equally rude tone. Seph's eyes narrowed and they held each other's gazes for a moment.

"It's the pain," Seph insisted, not looking away and refusing to blink. "I'll be okay soon. I just need rest." Cas sighed but nodded. Cas searched a bag for a blanket and pillow setting Seph up an area to rest in the far corner.

"I'll be done in a few days," Zaria told the group.

"How many is a few?" Demi asked.

"Less than a week," Zaria answered. That was a relief but also caused stress to fall on the group.

They wouldn't have to sit around waiting for much longer.

However: the war had just begun.