“Well finally.”

“Hello to you too, Charmian.”

She hadn’t even turned around. Or stopped, for that matter – she was still punching away at the bag, a stern and grim expression marring her delicate features. Her ponytail swung in time to the rhythm of her punches and her skin glistened lightly with perspiration. Usually she worked out at the gym rather than in her apartment, since she had a creaky floor and an easily annoyed downstairs neighbour, but she hadn’t wanted to face any more people that day.

“Want to tell me why you’re still working out at seven pm when I know you were working out all day with Zac?”

“It was better than thinking.” Finally she ceased the activity, stepping back with a sigh and rubbing at her sweaty forehead. Turning on her heel, she was faced with a very weary looking Carmel and Lucas. She suspected it wasn’t just the length of their task which had tired them out; despite their amazing capacity to compartmentalise, having to torture somebody was not pleasant. Even though the bastard deserved it, they were soldiers of the light not the dark. It would never sit comfortably with any of them. More surprising was that Nathaniel had joined them.

“I’d forgotten that teleporting could be so nauseating,” he said on seeing her quizzical expression. He did look distinctly queasy. “Don’t do it so much these days.”

“I was more wondering why you were here.”

“We called him in to try and make sense of Anton’s babbling.” Lucas scowled. “By the time he started talking he wasn’t so coherent.”

Carmel’s face wore an identical grimace. “Lucas got really creative with a branding iron.”

Nate’s face turned an even paler shade. “Can you please remember that not all of us are avengers? As a guide I’m not so intimately acquainted with torture and I don’t think I’ve the stomach for it.”

Charmian nodded. “Can’t say I want the gruesome details either. What did we get?”

“Not much.” Lucas pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Anton’s a slippery bastard, I’ll give him that. What I couldn’t get was whether he knows more than he let on or if they’re not telling him everything.”

“His past record, I’d say the latter,” Carmel interjected.

With a nod, Nate concurred. “Agreed. He was hard to decipher but in my experience he looks rather more smug when he’s got something up his sleeve.”

“Okay, so if you think we got all we could out of him then what exactly did he give us?”

Charmian was trying to be patient and not to snap at them to get on with it, but her archery based chatting with Justin that day had left her even more anxious than before. She couldn’t help it. Slowly but surely the line she’d been trying to use to separate Justin from Michael in her mind was melting away. Clinging to such a false distinction had been futile and she’d known it, but her only defence had been to cling to the superficial differences. Yet the more Justin talked and the more he smiled, the more she noticed old mannerisms and expressions shining through. It was little things, the way he laughed a little too loud when nervous or the way his bottom lip twitched when he smirked. The sarcasm was still there, as was the wide smile.

She loved him, she noticed those things… and they were killing her. Not knowing how to protect him was yet again eating away at her.

“We were right, he has been told to tail Justin. His orders were pretty standard stuff though – follow him, try to make a connection, wheel and deal his way into the inner circle. He knows they want him bad but he doesn’t know why, he was just sent to clear the path.”

“And do they know who he is?” Charmian asked fearfully.

Carmel shook her head, and Charmian’s shoulders slumped in relief. “If he does then he’s an amazing actor. He doesn’t seem to know anything at all about Justin beyond the usual, not even what their plan for him is. All we know was that they want him bad enough that they even let Anton out of the pit because they were having trouble breaking in and they knew he was the only one with a shot.”

“God, remember how close he got to Sinatra? If Gabriel hadn’t just happened to be in Vegas…”

“So that’s it?” She asked. “This is all we got?”

“Still, not a total waste,” Nate said. “It’s reassuring that they’re unaware of his personal history. Gives us a chance to observe.”

“Not now we’ve tortured him,” Carmel pointed out. “He’ll go straight to them to warn them that we know something’s up and they’ll put him back underground.”

“But he’ll also tell them that we haven’t got any details,” Charmian said thoughtfully, crossing her arms over her chest. “So they’ll probably feel secure enough to continue in the plan, even if they ditch Anton and try another tack. If they don’t know he’s Michael then as far as they’re aware our only stake in the whole thing is stopping anything that benefits them.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Nate agreed, rubbing his chin with a concentrated expression on his face. “I don’t think this’ll give them much cause for alarm, they’ll just work harder to cover their tracks and they’ll expect us to heavily guard Justin.”

“Which could actually work in our favour…” Lucas said slowly, thinking aloud.

“How so?”

“Because it means you can be around him without making them suspicious of why our biggest and baddest avenger is so concerned with a pop star.” He slowly began to grin. “All they’ll do is assume that we’re following Justin to sniff out their plan.”

“That’s an excellent point.” Nate started pacing. “As I recall one of our biggest problems in Justin’s previous incarnations was keeping his identity from the demons, which made it imperative that you not be sighted together lest they become suspicious of why you were concerning yourself so much with an un-possessed human. But if we know of a plot around him then of course we would follow him, so they’ll put your presence down to that. The only thing I would suggest is that you find one of the guardians to assist you.”

Carmel nodded. “Yeah, otherwise they’re going to wonder why you’re doing the before rather than after like we’re supposed to. Can Katherine give us some time?”

“If not Micah will,” Charmian said. “The whole reason we got this was that he was tailing Justin for me.”

“Three cheers for Micah,” Lucas said. “This is what, our tenth go round?”

“Ninth.” Her voice quivered a little.

“Yeah, well I think we’re all tired of losing this game.” He clapped an understanding hand upon her shoulder. “So anything that keeps them from suspecting who he is gets a big yay from me.”

Charmian drew her shoulders up, trying to remember that she was the leader of the team and that she needed to act like it. Distracting thoughts of both how cute Justin had been when he made his first shot and how in the world she was going to save his life weren’t making it easy.

“Okay then, here’s our next move. We ask Katherine or Micah to follow him not quite sneakily enough so that the demons know we’re protecting him, which should give us cover for me being around. In the meantime I want everybody out on the street looking for Anton’s replacement and trying to find any hell spawn that might know something, get Zac in on it too. Don’t neglect your usual duties, obviously, but I want everybody on this rookie or not. Whatever the hell this plan is I want to know about it, because I’m betting the consequences are way bigger than me having another boyfriend crisis. But we’ll definitely need the guardians on board because I wouldn’t be surprised if they try and come at Justin through his friends and they’re not my charges, I can’t protect them.”

“If it’s alright, Charmian,” Nate interrupted, “I’d like to ask if I can join this little taskforce of yours.”

“Depends. What can a retiree do for me?”

“I just want any information we glean from the demons fed back to me so I can factor it into my research. I’m also hoping that I can pull some strings with the old team to get them looking into why Justin’s so important to them.”

“Done.” She nodded. “Whatever you need.”

“Okay Boss,” Lucas grinned. “When do we start?”

“Get fed and rested if you need it, otherwise now.”

“Eh, torture kills my appetite anyway.” Carmel gave a short salute and immediately vanished. Lucas nodded in deference at Charmian and promptly followed.

She gave a short sigh, turning towards Nathaniel. “So I guess I’d better un-lose Justin’s number, huh?”

Slowly he nodded, his gaze piercing her skull. “I would, yes. Do you think you can handle that?”

“No. But as usual I get no choice so… whatever.” She sat down in a chair, picking up the demon compendium on the table next to it and fingering the aged spine of the tome.

“You know, Charmian,” he said, “as much as I understand why you’re reluctant to give into your feelings after your… unfortunate history, they may not be the weakness you think they are.”

“Really?” She snorted. “Could have fooled me. I’m in love with a guy I keep getting killed and I can’t even warn him or tell him who I am because he’d look at me like I was an escaped lunatic. You know, it’s a good thing they made us all so emotionally cold to be avengers or I’d probably need industrial strength therapy by now.”

“And yet here you are, still trying,” he replied gently. “Many a lesser person would have given up by now. I’d also dispute the idea that you’re cold, given you’ve been in love with the same man for centuries when few immortals ever love at all.”

“For all the good it’s done me.”

“You know the humans say it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?”

“And you think there’s something in that?”

“Yes I do.”

With a world weary expression and an arched eyebrow, Charmian looked up at him. “No wonder you became a priest. You’re a sentimental old sap, you know that?”

He smiled benevolently. “Maybe. But at least I’ve still got my looks.”