[1] The Return of Bentley Hellbourne

This was probably the least holy thing to ever happen in Jericho's little United Church.

It was biblical mayhem. Spells were flying back and forth. The golden blades of the angels clashed against the chaotic and improvised weapons of the demons, whether they were table legs, microphone chords, hymnals, it didn't matter. A couple sanctuary lights had been blown out and the furniture was scattered and shattered to the point where the entire room was made unrecognizable in the duration of about sixty seconds.

There were only three beings that were not participating in the destruction. Camael was one, alongside the quiet angel beside her. It seemed as though they were above participating in the fighting, despite one of them being the chief instigator. And the other was Bentley. She didn't even raise a finger even when spells were being aimed right at her face. Much to the annoyance of her brother, who singlehandedly had to stop the both of them from being blasted to a pulp.

"What are you doing??" He asked her, "Why aren't you at least protecting yourself?"

"I'm blind remember! It's not my fault I can't see who's trying to kill me and who's not."

"You are literally the most annoying creature in all four realms, you know that?"

Bentley just smiled. Although Xander had been expecting this, he was still getting increasingly annoyed and increasingly exhausted.

Around them the brawl continued. By some miracle, the only thing that had died so far was the respect for the surrounding room. Maybe it was because both sides were too hesitant to draw blood, or just that they were equally matched to the point of near stalemate. But no matter what the reason, Xander was glad there was at least some current notion of safety in the whole mess.

Noticing how neither Xander nor the one beside him had moved at all during the fray, Smythe called out to him.

"Whatever you're planning, you better get on it. This ain't as easy as it looks,"

Having seen the look on Smythe's face earlier when she had first spotted 'Bartimeaus', Xander wasn't actually quite sure which of the two she was talking to.

"I know! I know! We're working on it!" He reassured her, then he quietly whispered to Bentley: "You have a plan right?"

That same goddamn smile spread across Bentley's lips.

"Hold on to something," She said.

"What?"

A ripple of energy burst outwards, radiating from Bentley's body and filling the air with the smell of cinnamon. Xander had just enough time to grab on to a nearby lectern, but everyone else in the room, angel and demon alike, was sent flying backwards. The few pews that remained standing all toppled over each other like dominoes, some catching unfortunate angels in between them. It was truly an energy to behold, and yet somehow Bentley still did not give away her identity.

As the passing energy reached Camael, she raised a shield of white light. However, even with this counteraction, both her and the one beside her stumbled slightly as though blown back by a heavy wind.

Now everyone was still. All eyes were focused on the blind demon in black. Before now, most of the angels hadn't really paid her any mind as she wasn't familiar to them, and therefore must not have a name powerful enough to draw attention. But now that she had silenced the entire room using just one offhand piece of magic, their expressions turned to uncertainty.

"What is wrong with you all?" Bentley said loudly to everyone —though even if she had spoken softly they all still would have listened. "Fighting?? In a house of God?"

A feeling of guilt suddenly sparked in Xander's heart. With all the commotion, he had forgotten the significance of where they all were. It was a sanctuary, after all, and should have been treated as such. Looking around, he saw that the other three High Council members looked as though they shared the same feelings. Only the angels drew faces of defensiveness, as though they could somehow justify their actions if the owner of the house in question were to show up and demand they do so.

Sensing the discomfort of the group, Bentley continued, "Now Camael and her flock, I understand. But Smythe? Knox? You're the High Council of Hell! The prime examples of demonhood! Is this how we behave on holy ground? Tell me something..."

From her sleeve, she once again pulled the 'it'. Everyone else in the room was now on even higher alert.

"This thing, is it really worth fighting over? Bentley Hellbourne died for your peace and this is what breaks the deal? I'm ashamed of you. And the worst part is... None of you can even touch it."

To prove her point, Bentley walked directly up to one of the angels. Then she reached into the pouch and pulled out the soul fragment with her bare hands. Everyone in the room held their breaths. To them, whoever this newcomer was had to be extremely powerful to be able to touch such a thing and not die instantly. She held it lightly in her palm and even offered it to the angel in front of her.

"Prove me wrong," She told him, "Touch it,"

Ever so subtly, the angel tried to back away.

"Just ignore her, brother." Said Camael.

With a winning smile, Bentley turned her back on the angel and addressed the entire room. All the while making Xander grow more and more nervous.

"If neither side can use it, why are you so scared of it falling into the other's hands, hm?" She asked everyone.

"Why should any of us listen to you?" Camael continued her conquest, "Nobody here even knows who you are,"

Vaguely, Xander wondered if she had forgotten this. She was behaving in the exact same way as Bentley had always done. Part of him was worried that she may have forgotten that people didn't regard her in the same way anymore and that she couldn't play the audience like she used to. However, this did not seem to be the case in either sense. Because now, all ears were on her and she was still controlling them like a puppeteer without any of them knowing anything.

"Well you know one thing." Bentley tossed the soul fragment up and down as though it were nothing more than a children's toy, "...That I can use this. So maybe you should listen to me. You say you're the higher being, Camael? I'd like to see you walk over here and take this from me."

Such was a challenge nobody knew the outcome for. On one hand, Camael was a proud example of an angel, and rarely backed down from any sort of test in which she could prove her worth. On the other hand, to take up this test in particular would result in certain death. And even though she was sometimes reckless in her pursuit for glory, Camael was not stupid enough to die for it.

And so nobody moved. Even Camael kept her mouth shut.

"Well?" Bentley addressed the entire room, "If anyone else in this room can hold this thing as I'm doing now, I invite you to come and get it. Just pick it right on up."

Still, nobody moved. The hand holding the soul dropped to Bentley's side, almost disappointed.

"Right. No matter how many years go by, each and every one of you is still just—"

Her words were abruptly cut off by the horrible sound of blade piercing flesh. Everyone in the room suddenly stared wide-eyed in fear as they realized what had happened. Bentley looked down to see the golden hilt of an angelic blade sticking out from just below her ribs. The rest of it, presumably still inside her body. The angel she had taunted with the soul earlier had stabbed her while her back was turned, but it seemed that he had not done a very good job.

But nonetheless, the location of the wound would be lethal.

The soul fragment fell out from her limp fingers and landed on the floor with a slight ringing sound. All eyes shifted from the injured demon to the little white light rolling down the aisle towards the pulpit. As it passed, Yardley shrieked and jumped up onto a toppled pew just to avoid it. A very powerful weapon was now rolling it's way between the onlookers and none of them could stop it without being killed instantly.

Everyone in the sanctuary was still holding their breath as though afraid the lightest movement would cause certain calamity.

Only Camael started forward, but she was quickly stopped by the angel beside her. She glared at him, but he only nodded forward, his eyes fixated on something. The intensity of his stare caused Camael to turn as well.

Then, something even more unexpected happened.

A set of slender fingers curled around the white light, then gently lifted it off the ground. And once again, there was no glowing, no screaming, no evaporation. No reaction whatsoever.

Then everyone's eyes fell on the one holding it. He was on the smaller side of average. Short and naturally scrawny. His skin wasn't exceptionally pale nor tanned nor dark. His clothes, neither formal nor notably casual. Except for his eyes, which were golden and curved in an almost feline way, there appeared to be nothing special about him. And yet he held the formidable power in his hand, looking at it with innocent curiosity as though he truly did not understand what it was.

And this individual, of course, was—

"Atticus?" Camael said, her voice extremely low.

After he had felt that shift in energy back in his bedroom, Atticus hadn't been able to relax. Even though he hadn't shown his face among the angelic ranks in quite a long time, he could still sense when something was happening on the battlefield. So he had left Hazel and Owen to their devices and stepped out for a minute, just to see what was happening.

His intuition led him to Jericho United Church. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he went inside. Perhaps something had happened with Reverend Wilson? The lights were all turned on, so Atticus poked his head inside.

Who could have predicted that upon entering the sanctuary, the first thing he witnessed was Bentley Hellbourne getting stabbed straight through by some no-name angel for no apparent reason? Of course, she was wearing the blindfold and was standing on the other side of the room, so he didn't realize who she was at first. And besides, the dozens of other people in the room were all more interested in the white light that was rolling down the aisle. So naturally his attention had been drawn to that instead, and he'd picked it up without any clue what it was.

Atticus was too fixated on the thing in his hand to really notice that everyone was staring at him. He didn't even look at his surroundings until Xander's shout snapped him back into reality.

"Bentley!"

Now the unexpected audience was torn in two directions. Half of them wanted to continue staring at Atticus and the soul fragment, but the other half had been torn away and directed at Xander as he hurried to his sister's side. Even the angel who had stabbed her looked completely and utterly shocked at what was happening.

"What kind of bastard stabs a girl while her back is turned," Bentley said quietly.

The fact that she hadn't died yet added another level to her already dumbfounding character. Normally, anything stabbed by an angelic blade, whether it be demon, angel, wandering spirit, or mortal, would die or dissipate instantly if the wound was anything more than a cut just from the sheer amount of divine energy packed into the blade. Even though he knew she had been raised from the dead, Xander hadn't expected her to be able to survive a blow like this, let alone be able to speak afterwards. —Although she should have also died from touching a literal piece of God's soul and that hadn't worked either.

Despite surviving the initial impact, it seemed as though the blade had pierced something important. Blood started to run from between her lips and down her chin. Bentley half-lowered herself half-fell to the ground against a toppled pew. Then, of all the things she could have done, she smiled and let out a little gurgled laugh. Although what she was laughing at, nobody could say.

Xander was already at her side. After a very brief examination of her situation, he determined that this, despite being a case of impaling, would require him to remove the blade before bandaging. And so, without thinking of anything else, he did exactly that.

The loose end of a bandage ribbon landed in Bentley's lap. Without stopping consider what it was or where it came from, he immediately seized it and began wrapping it into a donut shape. He was so intent on making sure his sister was okay that he didn't even realize it was the same bandage she had been using to hide her identity. Even if he did realize this, he might not have cared. Her disguise was allowed to fail, but her body was not.

Now everyone in the room knew precisely where they should look.

"Hang in there, Bentley," Xander told her quietly, pressing the bandage on.

"Stop," She mumbled through bloody lips.

Then some voices resounded through the church, but Xander didn't really hear them at first.

"Bentley... Hellbourne?" Camael's expression was unreadable.

"Bentley!" Smythe called out.

The second voice reminded the two Hellbournes where they were. Xander had no reason to look up from what he was doing, despite this. But Bentley lifted her head and opened her fully-functional eyes. Then she let out another bleeding laugh.

"Well there goes the element of surprise haha," was all she managed to say.

Then her eyes found Atticus and her laugh was cut very short.

Xander glanced up and realized what was happening. His brain immediately entered panic mode as he looked between the two. Both wore unreadable expressions, but Atticus' eyes were glowing brighter by the second. The poor demon caught in between had no idea whether to take Bentley and run, or let the two fight it out. Or even if there was going to be a fight at all. Neither of the two made a move, but their eyes remained locked.

Everyone else seemed to be completely struck dumb with the turn of events that night. From the breaking of the peace agreement, to Atticus' arrival, to the return of Bentley Hellbourne, there was just too much happening. And as basically every one of them knew the story of Bentley's death at Atticus' hands, all of them were once again holding their breaths. All of them, demons and angels alike, were entirely overstimulated at this point and at a complete loss for what to do.

But as it turned out, none of them had to do anything because before they knew it, Bentley had disappeared in a sudden burst of red light, fleeing the scene entirely.

Xander, alongside everyone else in the room stared at where she had been, still speechless.

Only after another pause, Camael managed to cough up a few words.

"Atticus, bring the soul fragment—" She started.

But before she had time to finish, Atticus had also vanished in a burst of white light.

Now there really wasn't anything to do. The peace agreement had been all but thrown out the window and the thing they were fighting over had been absconded with without explanation. Should they keep fighting? Should they just leave? They had come for a ruffling of feathers, not an entire scandal. For what felt like the millionth time that night, the room became silent again.

From across the sanctuary, Xander glanced and Smythe and the two exchanged nods of understanding. Then all four remaining demons disappeared into dark clouds of smoke, leaving only angels behind. All of them turned to stare at Camael for any further instruction as they were beyond the capability of making decisions for themselves at this rate.

Then from somewhere in the building came a cheerful whistling sound. All the angels in the building stayed silent as it approached. They were expecting another terrible trick played by Bentley or one of the other demons. But when the source arrived, it was the last thing they had anticipated.

Reverend Wilson had just finished up his sermon and was doing his rounds to make sure all the lights in the church were off before he went home for the night. Needless to say, when he opened the sanctuary door, he found that the lights were, in fact, on. But in addition to that, the furniture was all but destroyed, there was blood painted on the floor, and there were around twelve people dressed in white armor standing around for no reason whatsoever.

Camael swore.

...