Otherworld

Back in Black [CainXAbel]

Back in Black

[AbelXCain]

"I grant you back your powers and your position as Guardian of Elysium. You're welcome."

"What?"

I don't think I heard that correctly. Even after Hades had shooed me out of his palace so he could retreat into his evil dark lair of experimental toys, I still hadn't wrapped my head around the fact that he'd not only given me back all my powers so that I was just as strong as my brothers, but he'd given me permission to take over Elysium again. It felt like the breath had been knocked from me and my body was running on auto-pilot as I vanished from the front doors of his palace to appear outside the doors to Cain's palace.

And my shock was short-lived as I realized that this was both the best thing that ever happened to me, and the worst thing that ever happened to me.

Cain was going to kill me.

And I wasn't sure if that was metaphorically or literally.

Now that I was given my position back, I would be required to live in Elysium in order to oversee all of it. I would have to hire more people to work for me, including a second-in-command. While it was totally exciting, it was also terrifying.

Cain was going to go balistic on me when he found out I wouldn't be living with him anymore. We'd lived together ever since we made up all those years ago at the Labyrinth. After he confessed to the truth of why he killed me in the first place. A bitter cold combination of ancient ignorance, jealousy, and unintentional betrayal. After we'd finally vented to each other for half an hour, we had made up and gotten together again. Since then, Cain hadn't tried to kill me.

No, instead, he'd practically held me hostage. If I went out, he had to go out too. If I had to start a war against Hades, he was right by my side. The only thing we very strongly disagreed on was leaving Hannibal alive; Hannibal was the Atlantean-Greek hybrid god who'd attacked me all those years ago before Cain and I had officially made up. It was his attack that seemed to wake Cain up to the fact that he'd done the same thing to me for years and I had only made up excuses for it.

It was the fact that I let Hannibal off the hook that drove Cain insane, though.

Even now, I wasn't sure why I had done it. Maybe it was the fact that Hannibal suffered enough without my help or Cain's. Maybe it was the fact that Hannibal had done it for the same reason Cain had killed me in the first place. According to Akin, Hannibal felt like Cain had practically slapped him in the face for getting back together with me. Hannibal had been scared and confused and angry and hurt. And while that was no excuse whatsoever for what he'd done, he was in enough pain without me hounding him. And he was trying to move on, and so was I.

So that was how I had left it.

Other than that, Cain was always showering me with gifts and affection... as well as following me like a desperate puppy. This was one the few times he didn't follow me out of the house, because Hades had ordered I come alone. He knew very well that Cain would throw a bitch fit when he heard, and he didn't want to deal with it. So he sent me home to deal with it.

Part of me was furious that he'd do such a thing knowing Cain's violent history, but then again, Hades had done a bit of a U-turn since he and Lucifer got into a relationship. Lucifer was always jumping all over him if he treated us like shit. Not that he needed to. Now that we, my brothers and I, knew the truth about Hades and why he was the way he was, Hades had calmed down when it came to us. And he would never send me back home if he knew Cain would kill me again.

Even so, that didn't stop me from getting scared.

I didn't want to make Cain angry, nor did I want to hurt him.