Midnight, and a minute after.

"Stop sulking."

David cringed, staring over the yellow patches of grass, all that remained of the once lush green, rolling plot of Twin Knolls park as the rain came down upon them. "Look at all of this, Karen."

"I've seen it a hundred times. It's wasted land. Flatten it out. Build new homes for The Order."

David shook his head. "What's happened to you?"

"To me?" Karen pushed David's shoulder. He did not budge.

"Yeah. To you."

Karen sighed. Grifford said it would be like this, but for how long? How long did she have to suffer his recovery? "Babydoll, I love you, but you're mourning over monsters."

"They were my friends, Karen."

"They were Coven. We kill coven." She stepped up next to David, her hair wet, matted to her head, and neck. Her long duster was soaked through, her clothes as wet and cold. If not for the rites and blessings, she thought sure of it that she could catch her death here.

"No one is beyond redemption."

"Goddamned Walker echo."

"Language. You knew it my whole life. Did you think I wouldn't try to save them?"

Karen sighed, and lay her head on his shoulder, sliding her arm around him. "Baby, we would save the world if we could, but it wasn't about saving them. It was about saving her."

David grimaced.

"Yeah. You wanted Jasmine to live, and be something she wasn't. Do you think I would accept that, and stand by while some witch loved on my man?"

David frowned, despite her affections. "I never forgot you."

"You could have fooled me."

"Maybe I got in too deep over my head. Maybe not. I can't help who I am any more than I can change what I am. I loved her, sure... but she wasn't you."

David felt Karen's arm tighten around him, felt the pressure against his ribs. He heard her breathing quicken, and her voice caught in her throat.

David flexed against Karen's tightening embrace. He grunted. "I was born for you, and you only. I'm the older of the two of us, of course..."

"...by fucking minutes, you asshole."

David felt a smile forming at the corners of his mouth. "You know, our families would come here every year. There was nothing but green, lush grass, and frost, and the fireworks..."

"It's the past, you sentimental oaf."

"Why can't it be now? Why are we all that's left of our line? I had a brother and a sister, and they ran through this park. Children, and then later, grown. Sometimes I think I can feel her here... but never him. Why not him?"

"Is that why you come here? To find your family? David, turn and face me."

"You're right there."

"No, turn and face me." Karen pulled him around until they were face-to-face. She rested her forehead to his, his skin cold against hers. "You're looking at your family. Bart is gone, baby. Clayton, and Emily. Jonathan and Nadjia. They're all gone... but look to me! I'm right here, and while you mourn people who never really loved you, you're looking past the one person you know for a fact loves you most of all."

David clenched his eyes shut.

"You better not start crying, David. If you make me cry, I'll kick your ass."

"I'm not going to cry, you dope." His voice was hoarse. Strained. "I can't look you in the eyes, and not feel shame."

Karen all but giggled. Her laughter was grim. "Shame. There's no shame. You had a job to do, and you did it. Took longer than it would if a badass like me were charged with the task, sure... but you did it, all the same."

"All I ever wanted to be was someone like you."

"I couldn't fall in love with someone like me. I didn't fall for someone like you. I fell in love with you."

"Yeah. I don't always know why."

Karen rolled her eyes. "I don't know why the Griffords favor your line or let you Walker boys choose your mates, but historically speaking, baby? It never panned out. Julie Anne Wood, deceased. Nadjia Natalie Sharif..."

A cold wind passed over them, and Karen felt a deep chill creep up her back.

"Deceased."

"That's right. Jasmine. Deceased."

"Jasmine Melody Wood."

Karen shook her head, and heaved a heavy sigh. "Have you ever read any of your mother's diaries?"

"No."

"David, they're there so you could understand them better. Mom's diaries. Dad's journals. It's tradition in The Order."

"It's painful. I never really got to know either."

"Your mother spent her marriage watching your father do this, same as you, you know. He followed that same echo you do, but for him it lead every year to the crash site."

"Fifty-seven."

"...I wish I could have been a fly on the side of that bus. I wish I knew what it was the man expected to see."

"...maybe just to see her."

"Julie Wood is dead."

"It's raining, and I'm here."

"Jasmine Wood is dead." Karen kissed the tip of his nose. "David, honey. That's just a ghost story people tell around the campfire. Nobody comes when it rains. Fuck, take a look around. Everyone's at home. Warm. Out of the rain. Nobody comes when it rains."

David stared over the remains of the old park, and in that moment it felt like a graveyard. Perhaps not a place for the dead, those rotting remains that people left behind, but a grave for memory, then. A place where happiness went to die. "We both know that isn't true."

"David, let's go home. Let's put on a fire, and take off our clothes, and maybe you and I can figure out how babies are made."

David felt warmth flood his ears. "The birds and the bees, now? Here?"

Karen flicked her tongue out and licked the tip of his nose. "We both know that we both know how it works, you dip. I'm trying to seduce you."

"Stick to combat."

"I love it when you pretend you don't like it."

"Ugh." David shrugged and wrapped his arms around her. "I owe you so much."

"As long as you remember it's me, and not some witch, or some fallen angel..."

"...redeemed."

Karen pushed her forehead into his. "...as long as you remember it is me you owe, you'll never owe me anything at all."

David nodded.

Karen smiled. "Just be mine and mine alone. That would be enough. I'll warn you, beloved. I'll burn the world to ash before I ever let you go."

"God, Karen, you're scary."

"One of us has to be, I guess." Karen nuzzled the side of his wet face. "Come one, let's go home. It's cold, it's wet, and we're off tonight. There are no more monsters out there."

"...and life feels all the more dull for it."

"That's more like the man I love. There will always be new things to face, but right now we have something we've never had before. A moment's peace and quiet."

✟ ☧ ✟

They walked hand-in-hand, the rain coming down on them. David remembered a time, just before the fall of Lillian's coven - at his hands - that the rain at times avoided him. It fell, but it did not fall on him.

Still, with her hand in his, and his in hers, the cold felt less so for it, the rain without consequence. Twin Knolls fell into the backdrop of the new year, his sorrows into the backdrop of the park itself. 

David heard her breathe leave her before he saw it. Karen tore from his hand, falling away from him in the blur of bold yellow and blue beaded scales. Wet dreadlocked fur slapped against his arm as its tail continued past him, its scales bruising the flesh of his forearm. Even through the thick cloth of his duster, he could feel its knobby scales, its plated armor, the main of thick and greasy hair that lead along it.

No.

David was already in a defensive stance, matte steel blades drawn, his duster pulled back beneath his arms as the winds picked up. It stood on its hind legs, it's large head held up on a short, thick, muscular neck.

"You're not here." David dared not close his eyes.

It opened its maw wide, hot breath and streams of its foul spittle spraying at David as it roared. It reared back its head, jaws snapping, its bright yellow crocodilian eyes fixed on him. David held his ground, and the beast lurched forward bounding toward him.

David stole a glace of Karen, lying on her back, her face an expression of pain.

He had to kill it, or at least buy Karen enough time to escape. "I've not forgotten you.

It was close, closer, closer still.

David saw a bright flash of stars, the breath in his lungs leaving all at once and against his will. He gasped, unable to draw in air. He hit the ground hard for the second round of bright stars, lights stuck in his eyes, even though they were clenched shut tight. David shook his head hard and rubbed his eyes, opening them to see the silhouette of an imposing figure clad in a rugged, rough leather duster.

He gathered his blades, pushed himself back onto his feet, and sheathed his weapons. He rushed for Karen, her eyes fluttering open as he knelt at her side. "...anyone get the number of that train?"

David stared up from Karen, eyes fixed on the battle between the primordial creature, its eyes reflecting bright yellow in the low light. It snarled, and snapped, and the massive silhouette fought back against it. Karen was slow to rise, and David steadied her, as they rose up again to their feet.

"David?"

David raised a shaking hand. "It's one of them. Karen, it's one of the terrors."

"Here?"

"It wasn't all in my head."

Across from them, the silhouettes fought.

"David, we need to go."

He shook his head. "I have to see it die."

"David, baby, that big guy over there?" She pointed. "Baby, that's Bane."

"Impossible. Bane was beaten by Bishop. "

"If that's not Bane, that thing is going to kill him. If it is, then he'll kill us when he's done with that thing. We need to go."

David hesitated.

"Now, David!"

He nodded, and they turned together, retreating into the woods.

✟ ☧ ✟

Bane deflected its tail, the force a bludgeon against his forearm, and answered with a heavy fist to the side of its massive jaw. Bane was rewarded with the glass sound of its breaking teeth, the broken serrated shards flying out the side of its mouth.

It roared at Bane, rearing up on its hind legs, and lunging forward past him. Bane caught it by its tail, his heavy boots sliding in the muddy soil. He dug in his heels, and pulled it to a stop. It turned its large head over the knobby scales of its shoulder, a yellow eye fixed on Bane. It grunted, its voice a low, guttural growl. "Yan... shuf."

"Tannin." Bane planted his boots hard in the mud, and pulled its tail hard as he could. Tannin's clawed feet pulled up clods of mud as they left the ground. Bane pulled, swinging the solitary Emim around him, and then up into the air. Bane pulled against the momentum, slamming Tannin into the ground with enough force that he could feel the impact through his boots.

Tannin twitched, writhing in the mud, trying to push itself up on broken legs. "...weak. Mortal."

Bane released it, the heavy tail flopping limp into the runny mud with a splash, and unsheathed his long blades. "Mortal. I will show you what it feels like to be mortal."

✟ ☧ ✟

David followed Karen in, turning on the lights as they entered Bart's last home, and their first.

"What was that?"

David's eyes were wide, his pupils dilated to pinpricks. "I told you. That was a terror."

"Where did it come from, David?"

"...do you think I made that thing? It was supposed to be in my head, remember? A nightmare? I told you it was real. I told everyone, and they all looked at me... just like you're looking at me right now."

"I just don't understand. What was it doing here?"

"We have to go back, Karen! We have to make sure!"

"We need to tell the judge, David."

✟ ☧ ✟

Grifford welcomed David and Karen into his study. He was dressed in crimson night robes.

"Your honor." David, and Karen bowed in unison.

"No time for formalities." Grifford paused, the memory of Clayton and he discussing formalities and abandoning some of the old ways rushing into the forefront of his thoughts. He shook the memory away.

Karen and David stared, albeit with polite respect.

"Stop staring, you two. Start talking."

"Bane." Karen muttered, and cleared he throat. "Bane... and... and..."

"...a terror."

Grifford narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean a terror?"

"Those monsters in the trees. I briefed you on them when I woke up..."

"When you came out of your coma."

"We saw it, your honor. Like what I saw back then... but..."

Grifford paced his study. "...but real."

David and Karen nodded, wide eyed. To the aged judge of The Order, they looked liked e toddler reflections of their adult selves. "Steel yourselves. I have something to show you two. Something only Samael, and Clayton were permitted to see."

"What is it?"

"Something you have to see, to understand. Rest here tonight."