"Your Sky is also astute," Lucius was calm, keeping his composure. When she neared him, he took several steps back. A creature in such close proximity violated the wide ranging circle he considered his personal space. That small room was feeling far too crowded for his liking. Without a word, Lucius returned to the open space of the Archive's main hall. Silas and Sky followed. Lucius could breathe easier in the open space of the hall, his back to the Collector and ghost. 

He took a deep breath, clearing his throat.

"Do not approach Johannes without due caution. Neither of you will survive if you blindly challenge him. I've seen him kill. How he kills. He is a force of nature that dares to rival Lucifer." 

Silas heard him loud and clear. 

"You?" Silas' black eyes widened as Sky's expression was taken by surprise.  

"You've seen him?" Sky continued in question. 

"Oh yes," answered the bookkeeper, nodding his head in reminiscence. 

"Where?" Sky asked. Lucius shot her a glance again, looking over his shoulder to the pair. Her questions to obvious answers were annoying. 

"Where else but here?" Lucius was quick to reply as the answer should have been evident. He never left The Archives. Was this the rumor Moon spoke of? The betrayal of Faust in Hell's Archives?

"Who did he kill here?" Sky asked, not realizing she was pushing the limits of a conversation of incredible weight. There was sudden darkness in Lucius' expression.When Sky saw the look on Lucius' face, her voice, filled with forthcoming questions, silenced. Sometimes her curiosity got the better of her. 

"Why, me, of course." Lucius said, managing to chuckle through his hurt.

"Lucius isn't dead." hissed Silas, unconvinced.  

"No. Well, yes. You see, I am a resurrected." The bookkeeper answered, his reply bringing a chill to the air. Silas' eyebrows furrowed while Sky's interest peeked. She was growing closer again, swimming around Lucius to get a clearer look at his face.  

"A resurrected? You were brought back to life?" Sky's head was now filling with questions 

"To put it so simply, yes." 

Sky was wide eyed in disbelief and curiosity. How was it possible when the only thing they had ever heard of resurrection was that it was impossible.

"H-how?" She needed to know. Was such a thing possible? Feeling this, Lucius met with her turn, cautious as the floating chains were beginning to surround him. "Tell me, please." 

Casting a glance to Silas, Lucius knew both were hungry to know what he knew and his annoyance was apparent. Their curiosity of his privacy was not welcomed and Yona was entirely to blame. 

"What is it you both want to know? How I died by Faust's hand? Or how I was reborn again by Lucifer's?"   

Sky bit her lip. 

"You both come here, motivated by your own means, into my Archives. With your questions and wandering thoughts. Just more distractions from my work." The edge in Lucius' words could cut steel. With his attention fully on Sky, he reiterated his primary warning, "Soul Collectors should not search the answers to their questions here. Questions that lead to answers that lead to more questions."

This was exactly why Silas didn't like The Archives. As Lucius' reserved nature slipped with his irritation, a growl and a bark of warning rose from him sending Sky back beside Silas. 

Lucius was difficult.

"Speak Lucius," Silas said, undeterred. He caught the attention of the Devil's bookkeeper. "Tell this one how Faust came to be feared by Lucifer." 

For a long moment, Lucius contemplated. His hands pressed into fists. Being pried for his nightmares was not what he considered his purpose. Although if Faust had escaped Lucifer, there was a chance of him returning to the Archives to finish what he started. Shuddering inwardly at the thought, the lycanthrope finally spoke,

"I cannot speak for Lucifer or his... fear...," The word left a bad taste in his mouth. "but Faust is not what he seems. You are approaching his Collection as any other. I can see. Such carelessness will be your downfall." 

That sinking feeling Sky had returned in the pit of her being and in response she felt a tug on the chains. Looking back at Silas, a look of discretion. Silas was more cautious of Lucius than in his actions towards Faust. 

"I suppose what it is that you both want to know is that I knew Johannes well when he worked for Lucifer. He would come here often as he had been granted limited access to the Archives. A fascinating man, he was. Almost Dæmon-like in nature, I did not see him as human. He came here to learn what he could of Hell and its history. No other had ever taken such an interest. Perhaps there was even a time that I may have begun to enjoy his visits. He was intelligent and focused. I began to trust him more and more, not seeing what was happening right before my very eyes. He was planning something. Exploiting my knowledge of this place. His evil plan was set into motion on his final visit to the Archives. He came with the intention of stealing Hell's knowledge for himself. That I would allow him so easily. He was mistaken and yet, so was I. How I fell to him. Even as myself I was unable to stop him." Lucius' voice trailed off into the depths of the arched stone halls with no end. Lucius, despite the look of frailty, was once described by Yona as a Hell's bookkeeping guard dog, a formidable foe that Silas never had the pleasure of facing. Faust had defeated him. Stopping for a moment in his thoughts, his gaze returning to the ghost woman floating before him. 

"Faust was searching the Archives for something. Folders of the 'best', he said. But he didn't know how to navigate the files kept here. Only I know. And he knew that. In a moment of weakness against him, I was collared.  Muzzled with razor wire. He knew my weaknesses. A silver hook and chain to pierce my jaw. I was dragged through these halls, helpinghim while being the outlet for his cruelty. I do not know how your Sky died, but I will tell you how I did. Like a cat with a mouse, Johannes played with me until he was bored and when he was finished and had found what he was looking for, I was gutted. From my mouth to my navel. My insides torn from me as I was left to die. The agony as I tried to gather my innards as they fell from me. I was dead before Lucifer arrived."

Sky's eyebrows were creased forward in concern. Her death had been nothing like that.

"When Lucifer did arrive, I was told he killed Faust where he stood. His soul sentenced to The Ninth Level and that was where it finished. Shortly after that I was resurrected. As a true blood Dæmon; a Fallen, Lucifer holds sway over my soul and the lives and souls of all his Hell born children. I was reborn as myself. The only catch being I can never leave the same place where I died. A fact that means little to me, obviously.” 

Lucius saw the pleading look in Sky’s eyes. Her sad reality was a fact that could not be changed. 

“By his hand, my life was returned but I am sorry to say that despite being the best and last Collectors Lucifer has to offer, you are still both human. You cannot be resurrected, those are the rules. God can resurrect his own Divine. Lucifer can resurrect his own Fallen. Humans and Others are those groups in between that just get taken under the wing by either group upon death. Your Sky is dead and always will be.”

It wasn’t what Sky had wanted to hear and her form sank behind Silas, who, without objection, stood as her shield to Lucius’s words, hiding her view from Lucius' red gaze. The bookkeeper was unimpressed by Silas' protective nature. Hiding from the truth of reality was just another example of stupidity.

"He is watching you.” Lucius cooed. “Learning everything about you, he will use everything he has learned against you. Ask yourself what is your greatest fear? He will discover it and use it to destroy you. The Four others he managed to smuggle out of Hell are not to kill you with but to learn about your abilities, so in the end, Johannes Faust will kill you himself."

His words lingered on the air. 

"Once he has seen your mind, you are his puppet to control. Any resistance is part of his game for the final prize." Lucius’ words trailed off. 

"What final prize?" Silas asked. 

"Don't be stupid, Silas." Lucius mocked, scoffing at the Collector. How could he not know? "You know full well what Johannes wants."

"Revenge against Lucifer." Sky stated, as a solemn matter of fact as she kept half hidden against her Silas' back.  

"Yes," Lucius continued, stepping back from the pair. "and he will certainly do so in a way that breaks the greatest laws of the Fallen and Divine." 

There were many laws made between the souls of men, Hell and Heaven and to which Lucius insinuated was a mystery. 

"Now, if your questions for me are finished, I would very much like for you both to leave me in peace." Lucius said. The entirety of the introvert energy he could muster was spent.

There was a time when Lucius trusted the men of Earth employed by Lucifer. But with Faust, everything changed. There was no trust left. Only loyalty for the one who returned his life to him. He would do as commanded but nothing more. With that, the albino archivist gestured to the exit still within view.

"Get out."

"Lucius, we mean no insult to you or your work..." Sky objected, her face again coming into view over the Collector's shoulder. 

"Your Sky pities me. I can see.” Lucius gave a fake smile. “Do not waste your thoughts on the nightmares of my past. Worry about your future for the wheels of Faust's ultimate plan turn with every action you take. In the end he will use you as pawns in his game against Lucifer before he butchers you."

Turning from the Collector and his ghost, those were Lucius' final words before walking away. Left alone once more, Silas looked to the chained ghost. 

"Come, my Sky." 

Silas, who never looked back to where Lucius had gone, took his Sky by her hand and led her from amidst the shelves of perfectly sorted papers and files, through the Archives to its exit. With a scan of the cards once more, the iron doors opened. It was time to leave.  From the Archives to the lift, Silas made his destination choice on the panel after another scan of the ID cards. In the lobby, Yona would be waiting. 

The doors closed. 

Next to Silas and his devouring darkness, Sky waited. Floating and silent. Lucius had warned that her greatest fear would be realized. Her hand still in his, she looked to Silas and the living chains that were a part of him. 

She knew her fears and she knew for certain that Faust did as well.