Let the Beast Out (Jester)

[Kate]

There was a smoke between her lips. Kate had started out hating smoke. Then she had taken up the habit. Then dropped off when life had gotten interesting and exciting. And now... she had picked it up again.

She was standing in the middle of the courtyard, trying to get a moment of silence. There had been plenty of jokes about her being a whore since Jester's little show. She took a deep breath, and slowly let the smoke out. She was sitting on a bench, about an hour after school let out. Kids were home or in clubs, it was pretty damn empty. That suited her for the moment.

The question was why. Why did he do that? He said he had a split personality. He said that this other half did all the evil things. Made her wish she had another side, to blame everything on. But she didn't, which was why she had been honest with Damien before.

He had had a chance. If he had just worked hard, to show her that sweetness was still there. They would have been together again. Maybe. Instead a sweeter man had come along, and opened her heart again. She was with Adrian.

Another long drag. She might even go through a pack today.

[Damien Kross, Jester]

"You know, smokin' will kill ya darlin.'" I said with a wide grin as I watched her. I was sitting atop one of the school's walls, one leg crossed over the other. As always, I wore the suit and tie, purple being the undershirt theme for the day.

What made this situation most interesting was our distance- around forty feet. The power of my Qi allowed me to bend the waves of my voice to her instead of in all directions, letting her hear me clearly from my distance.

I knew for a fact she would be sore... Maybe even violent... So, with the tape recorder and a whistle in my pocket, I smiled at her cockily. I had NO intention of fighting her, and if she insisted, I would use the whistle as a weapon. No, as far as I was concerned, this would be as peaceful as possible.

[Kate]

She heard his voice, but had no clue where he was in the least bit. She didn't reply right away, letting him stew. Kate finished off her smoke and relaxed on the bench. Her arms came up and rested on the bench top.

"Then take your own advice Jester."

Jester. Kate had made it a point before to call him Damien. To say the name connected with all the sweet memories and the wonderful past. But those were just memories, and nothing more. The blonde closed those emerald eyes, not even looking for him. One hand lifted and ran through her hair.

"Why?"

Yeah, she still wanted to know why he had done that to her. Why he had done such a thing. The woman sighed slowly, already itching for another smoke. Damie-- Jester stressed her out. She just wanted to be in her apartment, cuddled up with Adrian. Her heart was hurting, the wound so fresh and new that it bled every time someone poked at it. Jester was poking rather hard.

[Damien Kross, Jester]

The laugh that came from my lungs was by far the loudest in recent memory. It echoed out across the campus, my Qi doing nothing- the strength behind the cackle was enough as it was. Her stupidity was unbelievable... 'Why?' What the fuck kinda question was that?

"I'll make it quite clear dearest." I began, my Qi pushing my voice to her. "As I'm sure you've figured out by now, unless you are completely empty in the fucking head, Damien ain't here right now." I stood, balancing perfectly on the stone wall. "For two years, I watched that poor guy drool over you, and for a while, it was all good. For a while, I even tolerated you. But your recent turn of events was... well... Most shameful."

I leapt from the wall and began my slow walk towards Kate. "I sit there in my little mirror prison and listen to you fill his head with such tall tales... 'I still love you.' That was a good one. Oh, and of course, my favorite. 'There is still hope.' Yeah, that one took the fucking cake." I gave a small laugh. "I think you meant something more to the effect of 'Sure, we can be together, if you just try really hard and I fuck a few people on the side.' I mean, wow, even going after a fellow Pillar? That's low." I referenced her game with Mathew. "And as for your relationship with Vale, regardless of how far it got, was just weird... That guy looks like something infected with the T-Virus. I like to think we're better looking than that." I ran a hand through my hair to strengthen the point.

"You gave Damien hope when there was none, and though I may be a parasite of sorts, even I draw the line somewhere... But, I handle things differently than poor Damien would... Unfortunately, he really IS everything he told you he was... All those faults... The deviousness, the lust... It's all me." I paused, looking her up and down a moment, the distance between us down to a mere five feet. "Christ, if I didn't know about the number of cocks that have been in you, I'd probably have a little reunion with Lust right now." My grin grew sinister. "But you know all about being raped, don't you?"

[Kate]

Funny how it all still hurt so damned much. She looked at him, emerald eyes opening when he was so close. She knew that he probably had that damned recorder on him still. Anything she said would be used against her, no ifs ands or buts. She was calm, even as he tried to rile her, Kate wasn't giving in to the emotions he was trying to say.

"I love Damien Kross. The way he smiled in the morning hoping I'd cook him some breakfast, or how he has to fix things in the mirror until he's as sharply dressed as he needs to be. I love the sweet things he does, and how he cared. I believed every word he said. I believed he loved me, cared for me, and would keep me safe."

She smiled, softly before tucking strands of hair behind an ear. A small chuckle, Kate didn't even move. It stung so bad. It hurt so bad. A part of Kate would always love Damien Kross, always. It was just...

"The moment you came out Jester, he stopped being the man I loved. I had hoped he could really come back, that your taint would be gone. But I found it hard to trust... I hope you know I don't care what you think Jester. I don't care what the school thinks, or what you assume with my sexual life or anything of the sort. I do what I want and I have no regrets."

She just kept smiling softly. There wasn't even pain in her eyes. Kate was just... calm.

[Damien Kross, Jester]

"Oh yes, you love Damien so much that as he begs before your very eyes, allowing himself to hardly resemble a prideful man, you grind his soul into the dirt. Granted, at the time, I found it charming... Frankly, at first, it was the time you had the most respect in my eyes. But of course, nothing gold can stay." I grinned.

"The day I came along, Damien's life got better. He stopped being a spineless prettyboy pussy and grew a pair. The way he gave you those puppydog eyes every morning- the way he truly made love to you- the way he worshipped the ground you stepped on- BLEGH! Fucking disgusting." I paused, taking a moment to mimic a cough. "I opened Damien's eyes to the truth- that you were a deceitful bitch. Sure, he doesn't believe me, but that doesn't matter much, does it?"

I smiled. "How does it feel? Knowing that inside of me, your perfect little Damien still exists. All his mannerisms, all his emotion, all his love... it all still exists... just outside of your pitiful reach. The perfect love could have been all yours again, but no... you just HAD to experiment with other men." My grin died. "Do you truly understand why Damien started to give up hope?"

[Kate]

Experimented? Is that what he thought it was? Kate stood, hands in her pockets to clearly state she wasn't going to do anything. She wore a pair of white pants, thick material so nothing showed through. A pale green tank top with a matching white jacket. The pale woman took a couple of steps toward him.

"It... kills me, to be honest."

Truth be told... if he had... if Jester... Sometimes she thought about where they would have been... if things had stayed the way they had been. Where would they be now, over a year later? Together so happily? Kate thought so. She wished it had stayed that way, almost. A certain blue eyed, blonde haired man might start changing things a bit more. Kate really liked Adrian, but she didn't love him. Not yet.

"I didn't experiment with other men Jester, unless you mean a couple of dates. I can't say what I needed from him, but I needed something... I needed to be able to touch him, and not think of you. But two sides of a coin, right? Like a real life Harvey Dent I suppose. The perfect man tainted with the ugly things that boiled up and spilled over."

There was no Damien without Jester, and no Jester without Damien. While she had been smashing up the Mustang, she had thought about that. Kate wanted another Damien, without the Jester. She had slept with one guy since running back in with Damien Kross. James, that had been his name. But how do you explain your nightmares, your pain of being alone with someone like Jester? You didn't. Granted, she wanted in Adrian's pants... but now that they were dating, Kate didn't see that being "whore-ish".

"It doesn't matter any more Jester."

[Damien Kross, Jester]

"Of course it matters." I smiled, wrecking her belief. "I'm not immortal deary. I'm not some fucking vampire or something. Allow yourself to entertain a thought... What if, suddenly, I just went 'poof' and left Damien forever? Where would that leave you? My guess is that you would never fully trust him ever again, because who would you be to know if I was gone or not? Sure, he might say it, but what if it was just me playing tricks on you? Or, better yet, what if I leave when you have a boyfriend- not a fling, an honest to God boyfriend... What do you do when Damien comes back to you, free of corruption, and you can't take him..." I took an inhale of breath through pursed lips. "Wouldn't that sting?"

"Everything you loved about him would be there... But you couldn't take him back... How would you feel? How would he feel? How would your boyfriend feel? Hell, for all I know, you already have someone. Maybe things with you an Mathew worked out and things are going on behind my back. Maybe Richy Rich Adrian and you took things a little further- yes, I know about you and him- I was able to get quite a bit of tasty information out of him... Got it on tape actually... Just didn't want to slander HIS name... Yours was my target."

[Kate]

Slander her name. Yeah, whatever. Adrian... had told him something? Oooh, that one hurt. She chuckled slightly, and lifted an eyebrow. Just smirking ever so slightly.

"Well, considering I haven't hopped in bed with either of them, and I don't know what Adrian told you. And as for you disappearing, and having a boyfriend... I guess if that ever happened, then we'd cross that bridge when it came. If it came at all."

That idea, that single idea broke her heart. Adrian, she liked him. But she loved Damien Kross. She loved the memories they had, the times they had, the love they had had... She bit her lip and looked away. Now it was hard to hide everything, because it hurt so damned much.

It tore her in half. Those emerald eyes showed the pain now, and she felt so... bare. A chuckle, sour and cold. Something ran down her face, and Kate lifted her hand in shock. Wiping a warm tear from her cheek. She stared at it, not even looking at him.

"Going on behind your back Jester? I wasn't under the impression that you even liked me. Why would you care? Because Damien does? Why is it behind your back Jester? You had two behind mine..."

Against their wills as well. Even though she loved him, at home. Oh how Kate had loved Damien. Cooked for him, cleaned the apartment, worried, cared... loved....

[Damien Kross, Jester]

"You misunderstand." Ugh stupid bitch. Now I have to go and correct her. "We are seperate entities with one body... Damien- the lovable, smooth-talking, gambling Irishman... And me. Frankly, I didn't do shit behind your back, because I have no connection to you. I did what I wanted... and what I wanted was to demoralize the very essence of Equilibrium- and I did. I got more out of that girl than just a great set of tits- I got honor and pride. Equilibrium lost it's fucking mind when I did what I did." I smiled. "Darien though..." I referenced the other girl. "That was fun." I winked.

"What you need to realize Kate... Is that nothing is certain. Despite the fact it is my existance, I almost wish I could see the pain inflicted on you if Damien were to be rid of me... If I could just hover as a ghost above you and watch Damien's eyes tear as he confessed his love... just to have him realize that you are with another... Flipside- you take him back and crush the heart of your boy toy." I grinned. "Perfect soap opera material."

[Kate]

It did sound like some sort of soap opera. She chuckled slightly, and sighed. If Damien showed up... well, there were a couple of things that would have to happen for things to show up right. Kate just smiled at him. If she knew his thoughts, she'd probably try to murder him. Good thing she didn't.

"And that was the real cherry on top. Darien... was my friend."

He hadn't known that they had been friends. Kate had run into Darien a few times, and they hadn't been the best of friends but they had been friends. He hadn't known, and while Damien would probably hate himself for it... Jester would probably love it even more. He was crazy, he was insane. And as a side note... great set of tits? Were hers not great?

And she was indeed, way better off without him.

"I'm done playing mind games with you Jester, I'll be leaving now... Goodbye Damien."

Over, done and gone. She stepped back, turned, and slowly began to walk away. She still had that sway in her hips as she walked at the relaxed pace, heels clicking on the sidewalk.

[Damien Kross, Jester]

"He's crying."

I let those words ring out, knowing for damned sure they'd make her stop walking. Kate had a heart...

"I can hear him at this very moment... Banging on the glass of the mirror, trying so very hard to escape." I paused, closing my eyes to listen to him.

Kate... Kate!

"He's crying out your name... God, that is pathetic..." I shook my head in disapproval. "You know... Just cause I know it'll hurt more... He really does love you... Always has... I am the supplier of the doubt... I am the fuel of the fire." I spread my arms out to my side, mimicking crucifixion. "I am the Iscariot to his Christ."

KAAAAATE!!!

[Kate]

She stopped, standing there with her legs shoulder width apart. She didn't turn around. She didn't move at all. The look on her face would have given her away. The pain it was causing her, those words he was saying.

"You have no power over me Jester."

Her face was perfectly calm when she looked over her shoulder at him. No pain, no tears, nothing but calm. It was all a lie, but she wouldn't give him that satisfaction. He was getting off on her emotions, and on his.

She started walking, once again.

[Damien Kross, Jester]

"Quite the contrary Kate my dear... I have all the power over you I need." I smiled. "Your comment earlier verifies my suspicion that you have indeed found a new boyfriend... So, I think you know what this means, right Sweetie?" I winked, giving her a little giggle. "I'm gonna find who this guy is and sort his shit out."

I put my hands behind my back and began to walk towards her. "Sure, I have no PERSONAL vendetta against you... But you know, anything that will hurt Damien or will get an amusing reaction from him is always worth the time to me... If beating the crap outta your new fling will get a rise outta my Lesser Half, then I'm up for it."

"Until of course..." I gave a small pause. "...you decide to do something about it. But I guess there's a time and place for everything." I widened my grin. "How badly do you want to fight me? Does all this make you enraged? Do I make your blood boil you hot bitch? Or, wait, what was the name that drove you so far off the cliff?" I faked thought. "Was it, Babe? Or something close to that?"

[Kate]

Ah yes, once upon a time she had HATED being called babe. She recalled it, the times she had yelled at Damien telling him not to call her that. Ha. How stupid it all was. How long ago. The pale woman smirked. Adrian would get the snot beat out of him, but he was a tough guy, he'd get stronger.

"Call me what you want Jester, I really don't give a damn. And you don't make my blood boil in the least bit."

She laughed. Jester making her blood boil? Angry? How could you get angry over his stupid little attempts to have fun at people's expense? He was sick in the head, and that was that.

"I feel nothing toward you except contempt and disgust. You don't make my blood boil in anger or lust."

She had been angry, and emotional at first, and it had hyped up with Adrian's reaction to it all. However, that was in the past. She smiled at Jester, all calm and cool.