Demonic Influence (I hate my co-workers)

Liar, Liar

A/N: Uhh just a heads up the angels are really not nice to Brett and Eddy in this chapter, whether it be manipulation or just violence. You have been warned. I'm also so sorry this is literally the worst chapter ever I have no words to describe how much I hate it but I just have to move on so I can get to the part that I have fleshed out.

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Eddy gritted his teeth, cracked his neck, and strained to pull himself just a bit farther from the archangels. "I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm not the reason Brett fell," he managed to get out, blood dripping rhythmically from his cracked lip.

"And I've said it before but I'll say it again, we know you're lying to us." The archangel Gabriel said this through equally gritted teeth. "Tell is how you conned him into falling."

"I didn't do anything to him!" Eddy responded angrily. "You're closer to the reason that he fell than I am."

Gabriel shook his head, waving his arm absentmindedly in Uriel's direction, who reached for Eddy's throat again. "He did that to himself, from the moment he let your silver tongue influence his holy actions. Brett was a weak angel, but nevertheless, he was a loyal one. Only such a force as a demon could have caused his fall from grace and perfection."

I literally can't even with this dude right now. Eddy groaned as Uriel's fingers tightened over his windpipe again, the constricting feeling making him lightheaded. "He had already killed the man when I got there," Eddy choked out.

Gabriel paused at that. There was a long moment of silence, during which a couple of the lower angels moved to whisper in one another's ears, and the higher ups glanced from one another in confusion. "You're lying," Gabriel finally said, decisively. "That's what demons do, they lie."

"Fine," Eddy spat out, coughing up some blood. "Then I'm lying. What do you care? I'm nothing to you, kill me and be done with it!"

Gabriel's eye twitched. "You've got a mouth on you, demon. Tell me, did Brett ever fight back when you mouthed off, or did he just take it? Did he just let you boss him around, like a coward?"

Eddy could feel his nose scrunch up in disgust. "We talk things out like normal people, he doesn't just take orders like he has to do from you assholes."

"He should be above associating with someone of your... status, let alone allowing them to turn him. You must have bewitched him somehow. How did you do it?" Gabriel just responded, tone measured even as his hands curled into fists.

Eddy looked the archangel straight in the eye, and spat out a glob of blood. "Fuck you," he hissed out through gritted teeth.

Gabriel sighed disdainfully. One of the other archangels cleared his throat, moving cautiously forward to speak quietly in his ear. After a moment of nearly silent back and forth, the archangel nodded, and stepped back. Gabriel turned his attention back to Eddy, who had been using this time mostly for struggling to breathe.

"We're not getting anywhere with you," he directed in Eddy's direction. "So I think we'll have to bring in a second opinion."

Though his sentence was ambiguous, Eddy knew exactly what was happening before Gabriel even had time to finish his sentence. "No, no, no," he started to say, shaking his head, "Wait-!"

Gabriel smoked cruely at him and snapped his fingers. A puff of black rose up in the middle of the big room, smokey and almost completely opaque. When it cleared, Brett was there, still stumbling from the sudden yanking feeling in his stomach.

Eddy felt his heart crumple in on itself as he looked at him. Brett's face was streaked with tears, and his eyes were rubbed red from crying. His wings, now yanked roughly into existence, were blackened and burnt, and looked more like charcoal than anything else remotely distinguishable at this point.

"Brett," he whispered into the open air.

Uriel hissed loudly, a warning. "Don't speak to him. Turn around."

"What?" Eddy's voice cracked slightly. His eyes drank Brett in, struggling to make eye contact with the boy who refused to meet his gaze.

"Turn. Around." Uriel's tone left no room for argument, and, with another prod from one of the other angels, Eddy turned his back to Brett. He bit his lip.

The archangel's questioning began, distain flooding his words.

"Did you, Brett Yang, or did you not, affiliate yourself with this scum willingly?"

There was a long pause, during which Eddy was mostly sure that Brett was trying to figure out this entire conversation, as well as what he was doing back here.

"Yes." Brett's answer was so quiet that Eddy had to strain his ears to hear it.

"And did you, or did you not, engage in a relationship with this... demon?" Shit.

There was a crack in Brett's voice as he responded. "I did."

Eddy tried to turn to face Brett, but found that he couldn't. "Brett, why would you say that?" He asked, accusatory and far too loud.

"Hey," one of the angels warned, shoving his shoulder. Eddy reluctantly turned back to face the wall, more out of shock than anything else. Brett was expressionless, appearing almost numb.

Gabriel, for what it's worth sounded equally shocked that he had gotten an answer out of Brett so quickly, and with so little prodding. "I expected more of a fight from you, cherub. Surely you don't think that telling us the truth will save your skin," he said, and Eddy didn't have to turn around to know there was a smirk on his face.

"I don't."

"You don't think it will save your poor little boyfriend either, right?" Gabriel seemed almost delighted.

"Of course not."

Why was Brett's tone so... resentful?

Gabriel was practically purring. "I see. A lover's quarrel, eh?" He walked slowly around to face Eddy. "Well, they say hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn, but clearly they've never seen an angel's."

Eddy just bared his teeth at him.

Gabriel chuckled. "Cute."

"Why am I here?" Brett sounded tired. Eddy would want to swaddle him in blankets and comfort him, if he wasn't so confused and hurt right now.

"Why, you're here to prove that your little boyfriend over there in the corner is lying to us, Brett, and then we'll let you go home, okay?" Gabriel turned to the other angels and laughed. "It's not like you can do anything that would actually hurt us, anyway."

"Oh."

That was all that Brett said.

"How did the demon seduce you?" Gabriel asked him, tone suddenly sickeningly sweet. "How did he force you from grace? You can tell us, you can trust us. You've always been able to trust us, Brett," he crooned.

Eddy couldn't see him, but he could picture the look on Brett's face, the little way that he nodded right before answering. "I can go home after this... " the former angel said, wings curling in closer to his body as the archangel approached him. He sounded desperate, almost like he could convince himself by saying those words. "Yes. It all started when I encountered him in a pitch black alleyway in the middle of the night."

Eddy winced, closing his eyes and listening as the lies that Brett spun began to choke the life from him. 

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A/N: There will probably be slightly less frequent updates from this point out, until I get momentum back up to one a day, so you guys might have to wait a couple of days between chapters now, sorry. :(