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Chapter Text

“Chester, what is this?” Mike asked pointedly with an incredulous look written over his otherwise youthful face. He held up a dark leather bound in one hand as he leveled the newly hired singer with an expectant look. There was a very visible pentagram in the center of the cover. 

It was early 2000 and it was almost a year since Chester joined Linkin Park. And about half of that since he and Mike started dating. 

Right now however, Chester anticipated all of his fears becoming true due to Mike discovering the hand-me-down Book of Demons he received from his older sister. Tobi, a then newly minted demon, didn’t have any need for it any longer so she gave it to him on his 23rd birthday. 

Apparently there was a more comprehensive version of it down in Hell. 

Chester looked for all the world like a kid who just got caught committing a felony. Or taking a cookie out of the cookie jar but on a much bigger scale. His eyes darted everywhere but Mike as he sat down on the ratty sofa in their shared apartment.

Or rather what was about to become just Mike’s sofa. Chester predicted an immediate breakup followed by being kicked out of the band and subsequently the lives of his, soon to be former, bandmates. Ah well, it's been a good time while it lasted. Give his old boss a call as soon as possible and tell him guess who’s coming back. 

And yes Chester realized he could’ve lied and played it off as reading it for a laugh, but something about Mike prevented him from doing so. Chester couldn’t explain it in detail other than loving him so much he wouldn’t dare to give him a false reality. It would be a crime of the highest order to ever lie to one Mike Shinoda.

Mike didn’t come from a broken home, didn’t have a fucked up childhood like him. He didn’t dabble in hard drugs or alcoholism. And he had loving wholesome parents and a brother who looked up to him. Chester can only lay mutual claim to the loving sibling aspect in the form of Tobi who became his legal guardian when he was 13. Their parents split and their dad one day left to go get milk so to speak. 

Mike also never ran wild in the streets either for years like he did. Always on the cusp of being arrested. In short, Chester didn’t want to be the reason Mike eventually became jaded and disillusioned with the world. 

“It’s an encyclopedia of demons. It’ll give you information on all the major demons of every rank in Hell,” Chester explained honestly as he glanced up towards Mike. Even then he didn’t look directly at him, but rather to the side of his face. 

Boy did he look gorgeous even when he was in great dismay.

Chester swallowed a lump in his throat as his nerves increased by the second. He fidgeted with his fingers down on his lap, “It’ll also give you instructions on how to summon a demon.”

“For like a deal?” Mike wanted clarification and he wanted it right this second. There was a note of disbelief in his words among the impatient tone of voice.

It was somewhat of an open secret that demons and angels existed. Most people in mainstream society were in the dark, but the knowledge was there if one searched long and hard enough.

A scant moment passed in actuality before Chester nodded. He sighed in resignation as he accepted his fate. Boy he can hear the grave disappointment already and he hasn't even elaborated yet.

“Yeah. I heard of some cases where people summoned a demon because they’re friends or to have sex….but most of the time it's for a deal.”

“And were you thinking of making one?”

A beat. 

Time to face the consequences of his own actions.

“Honestly yes Mike. Look-” Chester stood up to properly face Mike. He even forced himself to look him directly in the eye. Despite how anxious he felt, and let’s be real it probably showed conspicuously on the outside, he kept his voice steady, “-I’m getting tired of our band getting rejected over and over by motherfuckers who don’t know great music if it bit them on the ass.”

Another beat then Chester continued, “So I figured why don’t I get us a bit of help. To make us the most popular band the world has ever seen. And-and listen you don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to, but I seriously wasn’t gonna ask for more talent. We have fucking loads of that already. But how the fuck can we show the world our skills if we keep getting shut out by all the goddamn record labels out there? The world deserves to fucking hear what we so lovingly created-”

Chester’s explanation was fueled by his anxiety more and more as each second passed. Case in point, the explanation can be now classified as a ramble. He also started pacing around in a small circle in front of Mike.

Chester waved his arms around as he kept on. Because of this, he didn’t notice Mike becoming increasingly intrigued as he searched through the book. He didn’t notice the younger man stopping on the page that detailed what one must do to summon a crossroad demon to make a deal. 

He didn’t notice the contemplative look that slowly overtook Mike’s countenance. 

“-All I wanted deal wise is just a fucking boost into the industry. And ok yeah I also want to get to the fucking top, I want the fame and the glory not gonna lie. But you and the rest deserved that too. You guys worked your asses off to try and get your music career off the ground. I don’t want you guys to suffer through the failure of a band like I did with Grey Daze.”

Meanwhile unbeknownst to Chester, Mike tuned out most of his words as he carefully read each line on the page. As he did so, a deeply rooted desire mired in vengeance crept up from the depth of his soul. A desire that had been relegated to the back burner ever since he became too busy with his music career. But now since it was brought up, all the memories of his lifelong ambition flooded back into the forefront of his mind. 

A spark has been reignited. 

It would be very remiss of him, even downright idiotic, to not notice the golden opportunity in his hands. Mike knew he didn’t want to let this go to waste. Finally he’d have a chance to make his greatest desire in life a reality. And oh boy did the urge grew with an intensity the likes he never experienced before.

Revenge. 

Historical based revenge. A chance to finally give payback to those who harmed his family and others like him back in World War 2. And as the seconds flew by, the more the idea of retaliation grew in its intensity. The more temptation sank its hooks deeper into the nooks and cranny of Mike’s brain. The more Mike wanted to take back what was stolen from his family.

_____________________________________

It was the early 1990s and Mike was staunchly determined. 

“I want to make a deal.” Mike declared boldly, his hands balled into fists as he stared down at the demon before him.

If his dad and his family won’t give him the nit and gritty about what happened to them in the internment camps then fine. 

Fuck them. 

Fuck all of them. 

Mike was infuriated to no end. By both his family’s tendency to sweep everything under the rug, and the fact the Japanese internment camps were relegated to nothing but a paragraph in textbooks.

He will get the information one way or another. Make no mistake. No long will he allow himself to be in the dark about this horrible event. He was stubborn and determined to get his answers by any means necessary. 

Even if it meant setting the world on fire.

Once upon a time Mike believed he was above making a deal with a devil. 

How naive he was.

“Oh cutting to the chase right off the bat aren’t we? No greeting, no hello my name is, just straight to I want to make a deal,” The demon chuckled brightly in amusement as she crossed her arms, “I like you already. First off, how old are you?”

Mike clenched his fists tighter and his eyes hardened with irritation. He growled impatiently, “Does it fucking matter?!”

“Oh feisty too,” Anna commented with a bubbly tone as she leveled him with observant eyes. Her casual demeanor was in direct juxtaposition with Mike. Her eyes grew wide with realization, “Mark was right. You do have the potential.”

Mike grew angrier. He really did not come down here to deal with fucking bullshit. What the ever loving fuck was she talking about anyways? What kind of shit did he have potential for?

All he wanted was to know the truth.

“But to answer your question, yes it does matter. I don't make deals with minors,” Anna walked closer, her resolve unbreakable against Mike’s tryhard attempts to be as intimidating as possible, “Admittedly there’s some that do but most demons actually have a code of ethics believe it or not.”

“So that said,” Anna continued, “Are you or are you not 16 year old Michael Kenji Shinoda of Agoura Hills, California?”

“How-How the hell do you know all that?!” Mike was overtaken by shock and properly dumbfounded by what Anna just said. One can also say the wind was taken out of his sails.

“I’m a demon, Michael. I can easily find out every bit of information about you and your entire family history,” Anna replied, this time in a more pointed, matter of fact tone. 

_____________________________________

“...You don’t have to say anything Mike! I know what you’re gonna say. Chester Charles Bennington what the actual fuck are you thinking?! How the fuck could you fucking do this?! How can you fucking stoop so low as to make a fucking deal to artificially get us into the limelight.”

Chester was visibly fraught with anxiety as he let loose his stream of consciousness with nary a care, “You know its better to get famous on your own fucking merit do you? Do you fucking realize that? Goddamn it Chester I’m breaking up with you-”

“Chester,” Mike said abruptly as he looked up from the book. His voice was strong, concise and enough to startle the older man into silence, “Where exactly do you make a deal? Does it have to be a specific area?”

Mike’s tone was more inquisitive than disgusted, which honestly took Chester by surprise. He for sure thought Mike would have a problem with it, he based that assumption on the fact most people would. 

It took Chester a couple of moments to get his brain to function properly, “Uhh no, not really. You can summon a demon anywhere. But it's encouraged to summon one somewhere where you’re secluded. Less chance of the both of you getting caught.”

“I see,” Mike simply said in a thoughtful tone.

The air was tense but not as tense as Chester thought it was going to be. If anything it was lighter now than minutes prior with Mike’s initial reaction.

“My uhh…my sister did her deal in an abandoned asylum. I was there, I witnessed it,” Chester confessed. He became more visibly relaxed, much more calmer now but he still wasn’t sure what this all meant. It sounded like Mike was taking this all into consideration? As if he wanted to do the deal alongside him.

But then again, there was an equal chance Mike could very well calmly tell him with no uncertainty to get the fuck out of his house. To be fair it was most likely his anxiety talking. They had arguments here and there before, but in this case it was seemingly nowhere near as bad. Chester would definitely know when Mike was truly pissed off. And right now this wasn’t it. He got the vibe Mike was on board with the idea more than he thought he would be. 

“Your sister made a deal, huh. What’s it like?” 

“Umm, well, not as dramatic as people like to make them in fiction,” Chester softly chuckled before he cleared his throat with slight awkwardness, “But yeah there’s not too much to write home. You just draw a summoning circle with the right symbols, recite the words and boom you got a demon to sell your soul too”

“What did your sister ask for?”

“Fame. Tobi wanted to be an actress, and she willing to do whatever it fucking took. Wasn’t even patient enough to try it the normal way either, she just went straight to making a deal with the devil.”

Chester further recounted how when he was 13, he was legally put in his older sister’s care. Tobi was in her early 20s then, around 23 or so. Shortly after they made the move to LA. It wasn’t until after they got settled in and finished with the whole moving deal when Tobi sought out a crossroad demon. At first Chester planned to go hang out with friends that night, but it fell through. So because he didn’t want to be bored out of his wits all by his lonesome, he tagged along.

He watched Mike, searched for any possible signs that would denote any sort of disapproval in this whole thing. Any possible decision that this was ultimately a bad idea and why the hell would anyone want to dabble in the occult like this? He can imagine Mike’s parental like tone in his head. Just because his sister did it, doesn’t mean he should either. The occult was not the way to achieve success in life and Mike would be right. Mike was always right with shit like this. What sane rational person would think summoning a demon was the thing to do. 

But Mike continued to display the same old thoughtful expression as before. Honestly this served nothing to decrease the level of anxiety Chester felt over this. Why was he taking so long? Why can’t he just make a reaction either good or bad? Can’t he cut it out with this neutral crap and give him something to go off. Before Chester would’ve guessed for sure Mike would be unequivocally against this. But now he wasn’t so sure and he wanted to know his stance like yesterday.

“Look I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking,” Chester blurted out, his anxiety now has reached the edge and spilled over. At this point, he started to regret this whole thing. He felt disappointed in himself for letting his frustration over the status of the band get to him. There was time to take it all back. Hopefully anyways, “This isn't the way, you’re right. You’re fucking right Mike. I’ll put the book away in a hidden spot and I’ll completely forget about it. I swear.”

Chester would also still understand if Mike wanted to kick him out of the band over this. If that was the case, he’d offer to give him the name of the guy that was supposed to audition after him. The guy was one of Chester’s classmates back in high school and they were good acquaintances. He can give Mike his name and possible phone number. May or may not work but it was the least he can do. 

But in hindsight, all of his worries turned out to be unfounded. 

Mike immediately closed the book and spoke with utmost determination. Chester was once again brought out of his thoughts and gave Mike his full attention.

“Let’s do it.”

A beat then Chester’s eyes widened with confusion. Although he also felt relieved it didn’t seem like he was about to be kicked out of Linkin Park, “Wait, you actually want to do this?” 

“Sure. It’ll make revenge easier now that I think about it,” Mike explained casually, as if this was a normal topic of conversation, “I mean we’re humans Chester, we don’t have any powers. I can’t exactly give out overdue justice in a satisfying way that doesn’t involve prison.”

Even though the two men were around the same height give or take, Mike gave off the impression he was well over six foot tall. 

“Why do you want revenge?” Chester was genuinely curious. This convo definitely took a swift 180 from just a few minutes ago so he wasn’t sure what to expect anymore. Luckily Mike didn’t appear to be fazed by his question so he continued without much thought, “I mean…no offense but you don’t seem the type Mike. You’re a straight A 4.0 student who never even cheated on a test and-uhh…never mind, sorry.”

If there was anymore Chester wanted to add on, he wisely kept them to himself. Why the fuck does his brain have to run his mouth without his consent in times like these? Why can’t he have better control over the filter inside his head? That was a highly dumb thing to say out loud, Chester kicked himself for saying such a presumptuous sentence. 

“Looks can be quite deceiving Chester,” Mike simply pointed out with a smile. He threw the book aside on the couch before he proceeded to take a half step back. 

For reasons Chester wasn’t sure of, his boyfriend didn’t take any offense to what he just said. Or at least he didn’t express that he did in his demeanor. 

Of course Chester knew that, of course he knew things aren’t always what they seemed. Just because Mike was a goody two shoes who grew up in a stereotypical culdesac, doesn’t mean he can’t be swayed and enticed by instant gratification by way of dark magic.

“Anyways to answer your question,” Mike put his arms behind his back and stood tall in front of the blond spiky haired man. He put a little extra force behind his words “What ethnicity am I?”

“Oh, you’re Asian. You’re half Asian,” Chester pointed in the air towards Mike with full confidence in his reply. 

“Specifics Chester. I need you to be more specific” Mike requested not unkindly. If anything he was slightly impatient.

Thankfully Chester needed only a second to answer, no awkward stretch of silence allowed on his watch.

“Japanese.”

“Correct,” Mike said as he began to leisurely pace around in a small line in front of him. He continued, “And do you know what happened to Japanese Americans in World War 2?”

“Uhh…” Chester wasn’t sure of the answer, he felt so lost now. But he got the notion it had something to do with his reason for revenge. He opened his mouth, but his mind blanked and all that came out was an incoherent noise. He didn’t want to risk saying the wrong thing and, subsequently, offending Mike.

Offending Mike was the last thing Chester ever wanted to do. He’d rather be exiled forevermore to the most secluded area on Earth than say something truly hurtful to the person he loved the most. 

Mike noticed this but still wasn’t fazed. In fact he took pity on him. Mike stopped in his tracks and looked Chester in the eyes, “I’ll give you a hint. It happened after Pearl Harbor.”

Unfortunately Chester still found himself at a loss. He should’ve paid more attention at school. Especially in history class, But it was just his luck he had subpar history teachers all throughout high school. They all sucked in one way or another. And unfortunately they all made history come off as boring to him. 

Chester eventually groaned and apologized as he hid his face in his hands. His slightly muffled words jittered with nerves, “I’m sorry I-I don’t know Mike.”

Mike suddenly took a step forward and grabbed both of his shoulders. Chester automatically looked up and noticed his dark brown eyes set ablaze with rightful vengeance.

“Internment camps!” Mike spat out as he got close to Chester’s face. A split second later, he released his grip as he dashed over to the living room window in a burst of adrenaline. Chester meanwhile was frozen in place, like a deer in headlights, as he watched Mike open the blinds to peek outside. He honestly felt like he was a step or two behind on keeping up with Mike. 

“Wh-what do you mean by internment camps? That doesn’t sound good Mike,” Chester replied, a little too soft spoken then he wanted as Mike didn’t obviously respond to what he just said.

“This is good timing. It’s almost dark,” Mike turned back around, a newfound fire in his step, “Should be completely dark by the time we find an abandoned building.”

“You want to make a deal tonight?!” Chester asked with wide eyes as he watched Mike fly towards the front door. He was a good way north of frantic, the changes in Mike’s attitude about gave him whiplash.

This marked the second time tonight where Chester was completely taken by surprise. He, to be frank, only started to give it some serious thinking just a day ago. Honestly it was a bit pathetic he got found out so damn quickly, but that was neither here nor there by this point.

“Yes. I want to go before we both change our minds,” Mike informed him as he picked up two of his shoes. Only then did he stop in his tracks, “Or did you not want to go through with it after all? Cause if not, then I am. It’s been too long the fuckers in charge of Manzanar went without any goddamn punishment.”

There was no hesitation at all. One of those easy decisions to make while put on the spot. Chester found himself not wanting to back out of this. He talked the talk, and damn him if he wasn’t gonna walk the walk. 

And let’s be real, the notion of losing Mike after ten years already pained him like nothing else. 

“No I do,” Chester readily said as he nodded.

“Great. Grab the book, whatever else we need and let’s go.”

With that Mike worked on putting on his shoes as Chester sprinted off to their room. Luckily for them both, he already had a pack filled with the special candles and chalk they would need for the ritual. This was courtesy of Tobi who wanted her baby brother to have only the best quality tools should he ever wanted to go down the same route she did.

Chester slung the backpack over his shoulder as he ran out the bedroom and back into the living room. Chester grabbed the book before he rushed over to slip on his shoes. 

Mike waited until Chester was done with the second shoe to rush out the door. However afterwards, the latter paused for a second as a sudden realization dawned on him.

“Wait Mike you never told me what you meant by internment camps. I assume they were really fucking bad,” Chester shouted as he closed the door and ran down the second floor balcony after Mike.

Chapter Text

By the time they arrived at an abandoned asylum towards the other side of Los Angeles, Chester had a much clearer picture of why Mike wanted revenge. 

“Holy fucking shit they never taught us that in high school!”

“Course they fucking didn’t. Fucking government rather you learn about how fucking great America is and how we can do no fucking wrong,” Mike rolled his eyes with a bitter tone in his voice.

Even though the car was fully parked, Chester found himself still clutching the seat for his life as he took a few calming breaths. His heartbeat was still beating fast and this was all due to the fact Mike was barreling down the road at a million miles per hour. Or at least that’s what it felt like. In actuality it was more like 30 miles over the listed speed limit.

How the hell were they not caught by any cops. Surely they had to by logic due to them being in a populous city. But somehow Mike managed to elude them. Probably because they were on the backroads for most of the way. 

Who knew Mike was such a speed demon?

A few seconds later Chester managed to relax himself to a point where he could immediately open the passenger door and follow after Mike. He was able to catch up to him in nothing but a nanosecond.

All the same however, aside from simultaneously praying they don’t get into a car crash, Chester was able to process each and every word Mike said in his lesson. He felt like he learned a lot more about this dark, horrible aspect of America in the past 45 minutes than he ever did in his four years of high school. 

The two ended up doing the ritual in a large empty auditorium. On the way there, through the dilapidated hallways, Chester ended up holding onto Mike. The creepiness factor was exemplified by the fact it was pitch black. The only source of light was a flashlight from the glovebox of the car that Mike held in front of him. And to add to the frightfulness factor, there were creeks and eerie noises that echoed from the deepest depths of the building.

Every single one of them caused Chester to hold onto Mike as hard as he reasonably could. How the fucking hell was Mike able to walk through a place like this with a straight face? How?! How was he not overtaken by fright and just be able to walk head on into the seemingly never ending abyss? Michael Kenji Shinoda defied all logical thought, he never once appeared to be fazed by the foreboding ominous vibe this place exuded.

Micheal Kenji Shinoda defied all logic, he decided. Chester wasn’t gonna lie, it was very rock star of Mike to lead the way without any shred of evidence of being scared out of his wits. The amount of stubborn determination he had to not let the asylum win so to speak was off the damn charts. 

Nothing was gonna stop him from achieving his goal. Honestly, Chester found it hot to say the least. But of course now wasn’t the time to focus on that. 

Besides, anything Mike does is hot if you ask Chester.

And hey to give credit where it's due, Chester also did pretty damn well all things considered. He didn’t let anything here change his mind all of a sudden. He didn’t want to be some kinda coward here. What helped was taking deep breaths and reminding himself it’d all be worth it. Don’t back out no matter what. The fact Mike was here beside him helped out a ton as well.

Mike accounted for 50 percent of the reason Chester was able to keep his cool. Well, relatively speaking, he was tense with fear. The other half was due to him just wanting to see Linkin Park finally getting a goddamn chance in the music industry.

What’s spending time at a long forgotten place if it meant all six members of Linkin Park getting what they so craved, a career in music. They already have enough songs written for a first album, they just need a damn label to sign them on. 

The moral and ethical way to stardom clearly wasn’t working so there was no choice but to utilize this last resort.

So needless to say Chester can very much handle some eerie darkness.

Eventually they finished setting up the candles and circle. Now it was time to recite the incantation. Mike was gung ho about it overall, he took charge of the whole ritual immediately after they found this room. Which was fine, Mike acted like he knew what he was doing, like he had actual experience before with talking to a demon. Maybe he has who knows. Either way, Mike knew what he wanted and was dead set on it.

Well so did he but Mike obviously took over the leadership role here. Much like with the band which, for the record, was also fine with Chester. 

It didn’t take long for the circle to glow with magic after Mike finished reciting the words.

“You know, for your first time you're not really freaking out,” Chester observed. Much like with his sister, he kept close to Mike. He chuckled awkwardly, “I was kinda freaking out and too nervous to even speak. I think I mostly hid behind Tobi.” 

However this time, Chester didn’t let his anxiousness show beyond a subtle imperceivable amount. 

“Oh you don’t even know. I’ve been waiting for this moment for years!” Mike exclaimed happily as he faced Chester. His grin reminded him of Tobi all those years ago. How eager and joyous she looked, it was starkly similar.

There was a level of determination the likes Chester hasn’t seen from him thus far as Mike continued to explain.

“Couldn’t make a deal then cause I was too fucking young. I was 16, a minor. But I was fed up already. Fed up by years of being told nothing about what the fuck happened to my dad and his family beyond two fucking goddamn sentences. But thankfully she took pity on me Chester. The demon Anna took me on a trip to the past.”

It didn’t take Chester terribly long to fully register the implication of what was just said. He wisely kept his mouth shut, and didn't dare to interrupt Mike at this point. Especially when it was painfully obvious he was undeniably furious. And especially when it was about something that personally affected his family.

“I saw it all Chester. Saw everything first hand, the Santa Anita racetrack, Manzanar. Everything!” 

Mike took several steps towards the other man as he spoke with increasing amounts of furor. His voice raised in volume, it crept closer and closer to a full on shout. Chester, in turn, took the same number of steps back, his attention fully commanded by the other man.

There was an intense fire within Mike that brimmed underneath his deceptively calm exterior. It burned hotter and brighter as time ticked by. 

Chester, meanwhile, got the feeling one wrong word and he’d be turned into a rug for the living room floor.
______________________

There was an empty grocery store with an equally empty gas station nearby. Both vandalized top to bottom. 

In front of the store stood Mike and Anna. 

“It wasn’t just this your family owned,” Anna said as she turned her attention from the building to Mike. Simultaneously she made a gesture to indicate the area around them, “There was a barber shop, a pool hall and of course the gas station on your right.”

Mike didn’t react. Too appalled at the sight beforehand to pay heed to what Anna was saying. His eyes locked on the nasty racist words written prominently on the side of the building. To say Mike was horrified would be the understatement of the century.

“Hey did you know,” Anna continued as she stepped right in front of Mike. Her bright red hair in stark contrast with her mostly black outfit, “The Shinoda’s were supposed to go on and open up a successful grocery chain. Multiple locations in every state, and Canada. Then they were gonna expand outward until they were considered the Rockenfellers of their time. But alas, history got in the way. You have a pretty good idea of what happened there don’t you.”

Mike finally broke his stupor and shifted his gaze to Anna. Before they came here, she had taken him to the racetrack and the camp itself. There he saw point blank the atrocious conditions his grandparents, his extended family and so many others were forced into. 

All because they happened to look like those who attacked Pearl Harbor.

“Are you sure you can’t just make some fucking exception for me?” Mike asked desperately, his eyes big and pleading in an attempt to persuade her. 

Before all he wanted was the answer his family was so keen on keeping it a secret. But now. Now he wanted something more. He wanted to right the grave injustice put upon his family and so many others. And take back the land that was once under the Shinoda name.

Unfortunately Anna didn’t back down, “Nope. No can do. But that said, I don’t blame you. I would want revenge sooner than later if I was you. That’s what you want isn’t it? Revenge. You feel it, don't you?”

Mike found himself stammering out of nerves before he was able to form a coherent sentence. He swallowed the lump in his throat, “I-I…yeah. A little.”

“You’re lying,” Anna said immediately, her words firm and tight. She shot him an accusatory look which effectively froze Mike in place. He was visibly rattled, his body rigid as Anna sized him up, “It’s more than a little isn’t it Michael. You feel resentful, bitter, enraged. Like I said earlier, I can sense it. Don’t try to hide it from yourself Michael. Embrace it.”

“Y-yes ma’am.”

A beat.

“And there’s nothing wrong with feeling the way you are by the way,” Anna explained, her face now soft and warm with a gentle tone to match, “It’s totally valid. In your case very valid. I’m not gonna judge you, so why don’t you tell me the truth. I mean I already know, demon and all, but just humor me. You want revenge don’t you, Michael?”

Mike didn’t hesitate long before he replied. His eyes were then set ablaze with righteous fury, “Yes. Yes I do. I want retribution for all the fucking injustice my family has been put through by racist bullshit!”

“Now that’s more like it,” Anna grinned proudly before she held out a hand in front of her, “What do you say we make one more stop.”

______________________

“Hey Chester, you want to know a fun fact?” Mike asked, his question was deceptively casual. But the bitter humorless laugh gave his true emotions away.

“Uhh, s-sure,” Chester answered timidly, full of uncertainty. Boy he felt downright awkward right about now. There was a good chance he went with the wrong interpretation Mike wanted. What if he actually wanted him to keep quiet? 

Boy social cues were hard to pick up sometimes. Chester wished there was a manual, especially for scenarios such as these. 

He probably should’ve just shut up and kept quiet. Especially since in this case, Mike ranted about a very real historical event that negatively impacted his family.

“Did you know the Shinoda’s was supposed to own a successful grocery store chain all over North America,” Mike took another step towards Chester while the latter took a step back, “Did you know that if it wasn’t for the war, they would have expanded into other ventures. Eventually they would’ve been the Rockefellers of their time.”

A tense silence passed between the two vocalists. Mike continued his train of thought.

“Can you imagine? Restaurants, politics, tech…you name it. Could’ve fucking had it all,” There was a wistful quality to the words Mike spoke. A yearning for what could’ve been a reality, “But no. Oh no. The war happened and they lost everything. All their fucking hard work was ruined. Gone. My grandparents had to restart their lives as fucking strawberry pickers!”

By now Mike’s voice had crescendo to what would be classified as a shout fueled by indignation. 

“I-uhh-well, I mean-” Chester awkwardly cleared his throat. He truly felt like a deer caught in the headlights. Stuck in a situation he really didn’t know what to do one way or another. 

Although, due to the very nature of the topic, his gut screamed at him to just shut the fuck up. But unfortunately his brain was a traitor and he didn’t realize how tone deaf his words sounded until it was too late “-My grandparents owned a strawberry farm Mike. There’s nothing-”

Chester was abruptly cut off by an incensed yell that reverberated around the room before Mike lunged straight at him. Mike grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands and proceeded to slam against the wall in no time flat. It was hard enough for Chester to let out a pained gasp.

“They had no fucking choice,” Mike yelled in sharp ire as he effectively held Chester in place with his body. His eyes were narrowed and his lips pulled back into a sneer, “They had no fucking choice Chester, because the fucking government wouldn’t allow any of them to own any fucking land.”

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry Mike I didn’t mean to-” Chester began to apologize profusely as he withered underneath the death glare Mike shot him. 

If looks can kill, Chester would be six feet underground ten times over by now.

“Shut up. Just shut up,” Mike seethed as he pressed Chester tighter to the wall. He leaned in even closer. To the point where their foreheads almost touched, “Do you know how utterly humiliating it is to go from the top to being nothing but mere farm laborers? Do you, Chester? Do you?!” 

Chester softly whimpered under his breath as he felt Mike’s heated breath up against his skin.

Just then the air shifted and there was a new presence in the room. A demon stood in the middle of the circle. Chester caught sight of the being just off to the side and his eyes suddenly grew wide with renewed trepidation. Oh don’t get him wrong here, he still had the courage to see the deal through. But a confrontation with a demon would always bring out a level of fear out of him. 

The same can probably be said for most people as well. 

Mike on the other hand wasn’t most people. One look over his shoulder and, within a span of a few short seconds, his facial expression changed from anger to plain old giddiness. As if Mike was a kid who just found out he won an unlimited supply of candy.

“Oh, I see we’re having a lover’s spat here,” The demon laughed as he effortlessly crossed over the line to just outside the boundary. This didn’t ping any alarm bells because it was to be expected. The circle wasn’t created to trap a demon after all, “Sorry for the delay. You two caught me in the most inopportune time. I was in the middle of a Mario Kart tournament. I had to come up with an excuse to leave before I came. I was winning too.”

Despite his obvious demonic nature, his attire exuded a very casual vibe. His appearance was the opposite of what one might have guessed for a denizen of Hell. Plain white t-shirt, baggy jeans and a backwards baseball cap. He wouldn’t look out of place at a frat party.

Mike let out a happy, bubbly laughter. Chester also could’ve sworn he even jumped for joy but that admittedly could’ve been a trick of the imagination. Doesn’t matter anyways. He already experienced whiplash from Mike’s change in mood one time tonight, what’s another to add to the list.

Chester was then dragged by the arm as Mike led the way to where the demon stood. It was at this point Chester got a better look at him and once he did he grew even wider with sudden recognition. This demon looked frighteningly familiar. Even with different clothes he knew he ran into him before.

“Holy fuck we summoned Sorreth,” Chester gasped as his face turned a few shades of while. He immediately hid himself fully behind Mike.

Mike meanwhile looked more downright happy to be here then cowardly for lack of a better term. 

“People usually know me as Mark Wakefield nowadays but yes you did indeed summon the demon Sorreth,” Mark confirmed with a big smile and a dramatic flourish, “You remember me don’t you Ches? I’m the demon your sister sold her soul to.”

A meek yes can be heard behind Mike. Gratefully for everyone involved the demon wasn’t perturbed by this reaction at all. In fact he was amused as evidenced by his short burst of laughter.

“You can come out from over there, it’s alright. I won’t bite.”

After a scant tense filled moment, Chester did as he was told. He stepped out from behind and stood close to Mike. 

Mark smiled bigger with unrestrained satisfaction, “Oh Chester look at you. You’re not the scrawny little kid I met years ago. Aren’t you about to be 24 now? I could’ve sworn you were still 13…god, time goes by fast, don't they?”

It was a goddamn miracle Chester didn’t run off screaming into the night.

Mark shifted his gaze to Mike as he pointed a finger at Chester. He continued, “You should’ve seen him back then, he was still only knee high to a grasshopper.”

Mark made a hand motion to indicate how shorter he was back then. Chester groaned in embarrassment. So what if he didn’t get a growth spurt until he started high school.

“Oh Tobi doing great by the way,” Mark said off tangentially. Chester was honestly grateful for the sudden change in subject, “One of the strongest in her class.”

“So wait backup, you’re Mark Wakefield?! You were our old vocalist in my band,” Mike interrupted, rendered dumbstruck as genuine surprise came over him.

No wonder he looked curiously familiar. At first Mike had trouble placing where he saw him. Or even if he just mistook him for someone else. But then the demon revealed his name and everything clicked into place like a lightswitch.

Mark was his old bandmate. Back when Mike and the others initially put the band together. And the one Chester would eventually replace. Never in a million years did he guess Mark would be a denizen of Hell. But in the end it doesn’t matter. He’d be a hypocrite to freak out about that. Really, the only thing to freak out about is the wild, wild cosmic coincidence that Mark had also run into Chester before.

And even that wasn’t worthy to be in true dismay about.

“Oh yeah that’s right, I did use to be in your band. Well I guess in that case, surprise!” Mark moved his arms up as he heartily laughed, “Betcha didn’t think I would be a bonafide demon did you? Oh I can tell you had no idea Mikey. Not even one solitary clue hahaha…well it's alright. I didn’t expect you to. Us demons are supposed to be a secret and all. Which is good honestly, easier for us to do our job.”

Mark didn’t allow Mike any time to respond as he shifted his gaze to Chester. It was just as well. The latter was still stuck in a speechless state of mind anyways, “And Chester, aren’t you also the one that replaced me in Linkin Park?”

Chester felt all the blood inside run icy cold. The color drained from his face as his body seized by the sudden barrage of anxiety. He tightened his grip on Mike’s arm, “Please don’t smite me.”

A beat then Mark bursted out in a good natured laugh. A laugh that lasted a good half a minute before he regained his breath.

“Relax Chester my man. I ain’t gonna smite you, that’s Heaven’s deal. Besides, I willingly left. Big difference between that and getting fired. Honestly, the best decision I made in years. Realized I wasn’t too hot singing in front of a crowd. Weirdly enough, if I was speaking in front of a crowd in order to send as many people on the road to damnation, that’d be different. But singing about the human experience in order for other humans to relate to…nah man I fucking can’t do that. I never even was human in the first place, I’ve just lived on Earth for a long fucking time. I’m actually a Fallen angel. A demon created the moment I, along with so many others, fell into the sulfur pits at a million miles per hour.”

Once Mark was finished with his revelation, the two Linkin Park members stared at him. Now it was Chester’s turn to be rendered speechless. 

“But enough about me,” Mark immediately moved on as he pointed to Mike and Chester, “It’s about you two tonight. You both are here to make a deal, correct?”

“Yes. I’ve been waiting years for this moment,” Mike confirmed with renewed enthusiasm. He straightened his body as he regained the resolve and confidence from earlier.

Mark grinned as he moved a little closer over to Mike, “I can see that. Anna told me about you. You knew her, didn't you?”

Mike nodded, “Yeah I met her when I was 16, took me on a trip through time. God I wish I was able to make a deal then. I’ve been counting down the days.”

Mark smiled while Chester did a spit take and stared at Mike. From all the things he learned about his boyfriend from tonight, this new piece of the puzzle didn’t feel too surprising. Of course he would count down the days. He would too if he was in his shoes.

“Anna figured you might,” Mark stepped closer and here it was easy to tell he was the taller one by several inches.

“You know Anna?” Mike asked, his eyes wide.

‘Yep. We’ve known each other for several thousand years. She was actually my first client. Born a human to a poor peasant family, wanted more in life. Then she grew up and we eventually met. Became a Queen of her tribe in Ancient Britain. She knew me back then as Sorreth of course. But I’m getting off track. My point is Anna told me everything about you Mike. She told me about your potential.”

“You know I’ve always wondered what she meant by that,” Mike commented as he was hit by the memory of his first meeting with Anna.

“You’ll become a powerful demon Mike. That’s what she meant. And not just that, but the most powerful one of all. At first I was skeptical, in fact me being deluded enough to think I can sing wasn’t the only reason I joined Linkin Park,” Mark suddenly gripped Mike’s chin firmly  as he locked demonic eyes on him, “But I see the light now Michael, I have every fucking reason to go as far as to predict you’d become Hell’s new leader.”

“I thought that was Lucifer?” Chester chimed in confusion and Mark swiftly turned to face him. He may or may not have gotten slightly startled. 

Ok fine he did get startled.

“He was. Until the failed attempt to kickstart the Apocalypse ten years ago. The Antichrist obliterated him in Tadfield over in England. Frankly I never liked his leadership anyways,” Mark added more as an afterthought. 

Mark moved to his left to stand right in front of Chester proper, “And you Bennington. I can say the same for you. I sense great power in your soul. I felt it then and it's so much stronger now…in fact you’re probably gonna end up like me, a Grand Archduke! Oh you and Mike are gonna make great powerful allies together.”

Mark at this point looked between Chester and Mike, “I wager you two will finally bring Hell back to what it once was. Especially since Beezlebub fucked off to who knows where with Gabriel last year. So with that said, let’s get a move on shall we? Mike why don’t you start-”

Mark directed his gaze at Mike and leaned in close, “-Tell me what your heart desires.”

“I want revenge for what my family has been put through in WW2. I want to take back everything my family has ever lost. And I want justice brought to any fuckers involved in running the internment camps. Especially Manzanar.”

“Oh vengeful and passionate. I love it,” Mark took a moment to think things over before he spoke once again, “Well I can certainly do that. But I need to ask for further details because this can go two ways. One way would be where I handle the giving out revenge part, essentially doing the dirty work while you enjoy the results. The second way, and I have a very good feeling you’d enjoy this option more…”

“What is it?”

Mark grinned deviously as he put his palms together and pointed them towards Mike, “...You give out the revenge yourself. For this you’d be given a small amount of power to help you along your journey.”

Mike didn’t hold himself back to match the same devious smile as Mark, “I would love that.”

“I knew you would Mike,” The demon said with unbridled satisfaction before he directed the next sentence at the slightly older man, “Chester! What do you wish for?”

“Oh uhh, fame. I want…” Chester paused to take a calm breath in order to push any lingering awkwardness back below the surface. He wanted to be and sound just as confidence as Mike was, “I want Linkin Park to be the biggest, most fucking popular band in the world. I want us to be one of the most famous musicians of all time.”

“Ah, just as ambitious as Mikey over here. God I love it!” Mark beamed happily, “And do you know what this means? Do you know what else makes this much more exciting? I get to own the soul of another Bennington. The last of the whole entire bunch.”

“I thought you only got my sister’s?” Chester questioned as he grew rigid, very much puzzled at the demon’s comment.

“Oh she wasn’t the only one Chester. I own the souls of several of your relatives. A baker’s dozen even, give or take. But, unlike you and Tobi, they’re destined to be nothing more than the common demon.”

With that Mark took a step back and clasped his hands together in front of him, “So then terms and conditions. You’d typically have ten years from the moment the deal is sealed with a kiss. But I’m a nice demon, I know you guys already. Plus I gotta admit, me and Anna, we’re too fucking curious to see how far you both would go in life. I feel like ten years is too limiting for that.”

A stretch of silence filled the room as Mark was deep in thought. It went on for what seemed like an eternity and a half. But in reality it only lasted about two seconds.

“20 years!” Mark declared, a bit too abruptly, “I could also do 25. I want to play it by ear. but 20 years should be enough I think, do we all agree?”

Chester and Mike glanced at each other before they looked back at Mark. They nodded readily and Mark smiled, pleased with their answer. 

“I also want to make things a little more fair since you two are in the same band after all. So what I’m gonna do is extend fame,” Mark pointed a finger at Chester and slowly moved it over to Mike, “Over to you Michael so you can be included. You two will have what I call the Golden Touch. Anything you do creative wise will be an instant everlasting hit no matter the content.”

“That sounds fucking awesome,” Chester commented with a bright smile and Mike nodded his assent. 

Mark thought so too. Then he pointed at Mike and repeated the same motion as before. The demon slowly traced his finger from Mike to Chester, “And you Michael, I’m gonna give the same limited amount of power you have to Chester as well.”

There was a pause then Chester's already bright smile grew even more brighter. 

“So any questions?” Mark asked. He took a couple or so steps back as he awaited any answers, “No?”

When there wasn’t any, Mark put his hands in his pockets before he continued, “Then let’s get on with it. Now then you two have a choice. You can either come up here and give me a big old kiss to finalize the deal. Or you can simply walk away with no catch whatsoever.”

A thick blanket of ominous silence filled the mostly dark room as the gravitas of the situation started to fully sink in. Chester found himself with a blank mind as he was distracted by the sight of his boyfriend. Mike stood tall with a steadfastness that told him he was born ready. Like if vengefulness was his universal given purpose in life.

And maybe it was, who knows? Chester would a hundred percent believe it. 

“I made my fucking choice years ago,” Mike stated with a resolve made out of thick steel. Chester watched as he strode towards Mark with a determined gait in his step. 

Mike wasted no time, he grabbed the sides of Mark’s face and pulled him into a deep kiss. Chester felt a weird pang of jealousy, but it left just as quickly as it came. Mark was a demon, they aren’t bound to human norms and customs. And besides it wasn’t like Chester didn’t know this was gonna be the case. He did his research, some demons have you sign in blood while others go a more…affectionate way.

Somewhere along the way, lines suddenly appeared on Mike’s skin. His arms and neck were covered in thin ribbons of demonic script. It glowed, a neon crimson red which popped out against the suffocating shadows all around them. 

Eventually Mike broke the kiss and took a step aside. There was visible elation etched over every corner of his face. Mike took in a deep breath and exhaled in long awaited relief. Chester reckoned he was in Heaven right now, metaphorically speaking that is.

“Bennington,” Mark called out. Chester flinched with an incoherent high pitched gasp at the abruptness of hearing his name. He jumped an inch off the ground before his attention landed solely on the demon. 

“Yes sir,” There was an understandable level of nervousness inside Chester.

“It’s your turn,” Mark said as he stared directly at him, “Your move. What’s it gonna be? Are you gonna be the rare Bennington who hasn’t sold their soul to the devil. Or are you gonna perpetuate the cycle?”

A few seconds followed afterwards. Chester looked at Mark then at Mike then back to the demon. Like back home at their apartment, he still knew where he stood. So Chester took a deep breath and closed the distance between him and the demon.

Any second thoughts he might’ve had have disappeared from his mind after a millisecond of life.

“I don’t fucking care if I am. I’m not backing out this far in the game Mark,” Chester stubbornly said as he tilted his head up slightly to look him in the eye. It was the truth. If he wanted to renege on the decision he would’ve done so by now. He sure as fuck didn’t feel cowardly enough to do it at this point.

Chester mirrored the motions Mike did. Or almost. He grabbed Mark’s face in his hands, leaned up a bit on his toes and wiped the slight smirk on his face with a deep kiss. Just like with Mike, red lines of demonic script appeared all over his skin. Some also boarded the outline of his flame tattoos which made it seemed like the tattoo itself glowed. 

Chester pulled away and out of the corner of his eyes caught the lines. He glanced over at Mike and noticed his was still visible also.

“One more question, are people gonna see this?” Mike asked as he pointed to the lines on his right arm, reasonably worried. 

It was easy to surmise the lines were the deal itself, written down all over their body. Both Chester and Mike hoped the public won't be able to see them. 

“No, only a demon will. They’ll be rendered invisible the moment I leave. And once you arrive in Hell, they’ll completely disappear. So now if you excuse me, I need to get back so I can reclaim my winning streak at Mario Kart,” Mark said as he walked backwards, “But I’ll be checking in from time to time. I want to see you two make every fucking bit of your ambitions a reality. That’s what I told Anna and what I told Tobi. Got it?”

“Yes sir,” Chester and Mike automatically replied in unison. 

A second later Mark unceremoniously disappeared into thin air with an upwards wave of his hand and a cloud of smoke. As a result, the room just about instantly fell into complete darkness.

Chester may or may have not let out an ear piercing scream as he ran towards Mike and clung onto him tightly like his life depended on it.

Chapter Text

It was the middle of the year 2000 and Chester paid witness to Mike using his demonic power. 

See it was during the months leading up to the release of their first album. Mike had just created the logo for their band and submitted it, a Japanese inspired design and it looked awesome. Very much so. Chester and the other members loved it.

But unfortunately it was shot down almost immediately by the men in charge. Apparently it was ‘too Asian’ for their liking. The record label evidently hired an image consultant from New York City, a know it all type by the name of John. And to add more salt to the wound, not only was the logo rejected but it was also suggested that Joe be some kind of cowboy doctor. With a lab coat and everything.

(Unbeknownst to five Linkin Park members, Chester had also received an email from the image consultant.)

It was frankly offensive to say the least and both Joe and Mike were pissed off. Understandably so. Anyone with half a brain cell would understand that. The two ranted about it to Chester and the others when they were all in the studio later that day. Towards the end of it, Chester began to sense a dark, sinister vibe emanating from Mike. This was shortly before Mike stormed out of the room.

Presumably to calm down, breathing exercises and all that. But Chester had a feeling it was something more. Ever since they sold their soul, Mike had a shorter anger fuse, his tolerance to withstand and brush off insidious bullshit has gone down. A propensity to let his rage boil over in a matter of mere seconds. 

And this wasn’t with everything that slighted him, mind you. He was still the same old Michael Kenji Shinoda for the most part. He still knew what battles to pick and knew when things aren’t a big deal in the grand schemes of things. He remembered the saying about crying over spilled milk.

But when it came to racism and personal attacks to him and those he cared about, then it was a different tune. That was when the horns came out and you better start running for your life and thinking about what you’ve just said and or done. Mike would take every last opportunity to make the culprit regret thinking about it.

To the other band members, Mike went off to presumably calm down. And he probably was to a degree, didn’t want to lose himself and blow their cover. Good thing too since Chester started to detect an sinister aura around Mike. He knew his rage simmered underneath Mike’s skin and it wouldn't subside until due comeuppance was given out to whoever pissed him off.

“I’ll go see if he’s alright,” Chester offered as he faced the band after they all watched Mike disappear into the hallway. 

Chester didn’t allow anyone else a chance to reply as he turned tail and booked it out of the room. 

It was just as well. Brad knew Mike the longest, he’s seen this kind of temper before enough times. So while there was an urge to go see if his friend was alright and console him, the voice in his head told him to leave it alone. That Mike needed space and the rest of Linkin Park needed to keep their asses at a safe distance. With that said, he hoped Chester knew what he was doing.

Meanwhile Chester walked at a brisk pace down the hallway. All the decorations throughout were meant to give it a cozy, relaxed vibe. There was a musical theme going on, which made sense as it was a studio. Vinyl records  and plaques on the walls among pictures of other artists that came here years beforehand. And it was a nice mixture too, from AC/DC and Metallica to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. The soft lighting on the blue grey walls only added to the intended ambiance. The type of place helmed by the idea of casual and a laid back attitude. 

However in reality, the vibe was a much different story. The atmosphere was rather permeated with the same ominous aura Chester sensed from Mike. It honestly wouldn’t be out of place one bit in a secluded dark forest or an abandoned mental asylum steeped in murder and tragedy. The disparity here unnerved Chester almost to the core. Especially when two people passed him by who were obviously unaffected. Just laughing and talking away about one of LA's many sports teams. Unaware of the otherworldly dreadfulness in the air. 

And the more Chester followed along, the more intense the ominous feeling increased. By the time he got to the bathroom, it was downright palpable. He knew Mike was behind this dark wooden door. He grabbed the doorknob, slowly opened the door, and carefully walked inside. 

“Mike?” Chester said carefully, the thick stench of Hellish energy immediately bombarded him when he crossed the threshold. The invisible cloud filled every inch of the place to a suffocating degree. 

Mike was in front of the mirror. He leaned down on his hands as he stare aimlessly at the vanity. 

Chester let the door swing shut as he walked deeper into the room. He was about to call out Miike’s name again when suddenly the other vocalist pushed himself onto his feet and swiftly turned around. It was with such ferocity that it startled Chester and caused him to stumble backwards against the wall.

The fact Mike’s entire left eye was pitched black as night didn’t help matters. Yes Chester knew it was a sign of the power Mark has given them. Yes he knew deep down Mike truly wouldn’t hurt him, he never would. But still the demonic eye didn’t make it any less creepy. Definitely ironic for sure, Chester was on the highway to hell and yet here he was, still easily frightened. Easily wishing there was a way to back away further despite knowing there was no danger at all.

Quite the opposite really. 

Mike won’t kill him. Not at all, not in any case whatsoever. Well except for maybe if he mentions strawberry farms again. Oh Chester learned his damn lesson there, he’d quadruple check the vibe of the room before speaking. Be more aware of his brain to mouth filter so he doesn’t accidentally fuck up and make things harder on himself.

Especially since Mike seemed to easily give in to his dark side.

And Mark may not be happy with a client’s premature death anyways. 

Wait, would he or would he not care? How did that work? What happens if a demon’s client gets into a fatal accident or comes down with a terminal illness and dies before the contract is over. He wagered a demon would be annoyed if they told their client to make all of their dreams and ambitions a reality only for their life to be cut short. But then again a demon could magick away any obstacles to the person’s health. So they can live long and prosper figuratively within the time period of the contract.

“Chester-” Mike slowly came closer. Along the way he snapped his fingers and the door audibly locked shut. Chester instinctively pushed himself further back into the wall even though there was no real reason for his current reaction. Why can’t the wall just swallow and spit him out on the other side.

Mike wasn’t pissed off at him. Why would he? He hasn’t done anything wrong. In fact he seemed relieved, with a happy smile and everything. It was just everything else that threw him for a loop frankly speaking. 

“-What do you say we pay the guy a visit?” Mike said with a dead serious cadency. And with the hardened eyes and devilish smile to match, “You can watch.” 

So that’s what they decided to do. The two immediately left the moment they were done. A quick goodbye and they were off towards Warner Bros Records. Mike was hellbent on giving the label so called image guy a taste of his own medicine. Payback for the rejected email. Payback for the sheer audacity to suggest a gimmick to Joe based on stereotypes.

Mike sure as hell wasn’t gonna let some racist asswipe coerce them into how he thinks the band should be marketed. 

Chester also wanted to kick the guy’s ass. Mike had his reasons and so did he. The difference was he didn’t tell Mike his reasons. Why should he? Mike had more of a reason to go nuclear. With him, the guy was just telling the truth wasn’t he? Not so much the trailer part literally, they lived in a rundown house on the poor side of Phoenix. 

Wasn’t until Tobi made her deal with Mark that the financial situation got better. Enough for them to live in a nice apartment.

But behavior wise, it was a different story. His family was trailer trash in that aspect; drugs, alcohol and other undesirable shit ran rampant in his family. He can count on two hands the relatives that came out decent enough in the personality and morals department.

Doesn’t mean Chester didn’t want to punch John’s lights out. He was gonna do that, but Mike has the right to go first. 

Once they arrived at the building it wasn’t Mike who led the way. Rather it was Chester, he was the one who pushed both front doors open like a gust of wind. And it was also Chester who stormed up to the front desk. The hypothetical observer would be forgiven for thinking it was him who planned all of this in the first place.

Meanwhile Mike followed along at a leisurely pace with his hands behind his back. He acted as though he was just here along for the ride. Like his main purpose was to rein his friend back from landing himself in jail.

“Where the fuck is he?!” Chester demanded bluntly as he leaned over the edge of the counter, There was a bit of a wild glint in his eyes.

The receptionist was understandably startled out of her skin. Metaphorically speaking.

“He means John Williams,” Mike elaborated as he came to a stop just behind Chester. Unlike his boyfriend, he was calm. Neutral and level headed in both demeanor and voice, “Do you know if he’s in today? We just want to talk to him.”

Mike allowed a slight amount of power to seep into his words in order to persuade the young women behind the desk to not make a big deal. Forget this ever happened the moment he and Chester leave. It would do none of them any good if this little trip of theirs got out to the public, which included the rest of the band. Or, god forbid, the executives of the label. 

For obvious reasons, Mike wanted this mission to be hush hush and swept under the rug. 

“Ok let me just check,” The receptionist said as she turned to her computer and started typing. A minute passed before she looked up with a friendly smile on her face, “Good news Mr. Williams is in today. He should be in his office on the 5th floor.”

Chester immediately headed towards the elevators while Mike gave her a polite nod and the smile to match, “Thank you ma’am.”

“I want to kick his motherfucking ass,” Chester muttered in anger as he pressed the button as Mike arrived by his side. He faced Mike with balled fists, “I mean how fucking stupid does he have to be to reject your logo. It was fucking awesome! And I loved the design and how it represented the fucking band.”

The elevator dinged and the silver doors opened. Luckily there wasn’t anyone else on board. Chester continued as he and Mike stepped into the small dimly lit space, “Besides I think its fucking cool you incorporate your culture in your design. You should kick his motherfucking ass into the century for insulting your Japanese-”

Chester would’ve kept on his anger induced rant if it wasn’t for Mike snapping his fingers moments later. The elevator abruptly stopped and simultaneously caused Chester to lose his footing. He stumbled backwards and grabbed onto the rail in order to not completely fall down to the floor. 

And said anger was now replaced with the high buzzing of anxiety. Chester leaned against the rail as Mike closed the, very short, distance between them. Didn’t help that he had the same devilish vibe as before back at the studio. Only difference was Mike’s eye was in its natural form. 

Chester was unsure of himself, stricken with immediate nerves as a realization crossed his face. He asked apologetically, “Did-did I do the white savior thing?”

“Maybe a little. But don’t worry I know what you meant,” Mike was close to his face now. 

Chester was sure Mike meant to assure him and put him at ease. It’s fine, don't worry, he knows you’re cool. You’re not an actual prejudiced asshat the logical voice told him. Unfortunately a good part of his brain was a jerk during these times. So therefore, Chester felt unsure whether or not Mike was about to rip his head off.

Mike continued. There were still no signs from him to suggest he was about to eviscerate Chester into a million pieces. Although he wouldn’t blame him, “I know you’re on the same page as me. However-”

Chester tensed up and swallowed as Mike scrutinized him with a studious gaze, “-I believe there is something more going on.”

“There fucking isn’t,” Chester defended himself but his attempt to make it believable was futile. He was just slightly too riddled with anxiousness to muster enough conviction behind his words.

“There is Ches. Believe me,” Mike interrupted him with a knowing look in his dark eyes, “In the time we’ve known each other so far, I can already read you like a book. There is something else that’s fueling your anger. Care to tell me?”

A pause then Chester pushed himself to his feet, “I told you there fucking isn’t Mike.”

“You’re lying,” Mike said automatically. A few short seconds passed before Chester’s deflated. He looked downwards, towards a random spot on Mike’s shirt. 

“It doesn’t fucking matter anyways,” Chester refuted as he crossed his arms and leaned back. He looked anywhere but Mike.

“Oh I think it does,” Mike replied, straightforwardly. Ever since that morning, he has sensed a burning level of anger within Chester. For most of the day it simmered, but as the day went on, it slowly increased. To the point where it started to boil over by a small amount. 

Aka what just happened in the lobby.

Mike let the silence stretched for a moment before he spoke, “You’re just as furious as I am.”

“Well yeah, he’s a fucking racist,” Chester deflected with a scoff.

“I mean he is, but that’s not the point Chester,” Mike stepped right into Chester’s face for the second time today. His tone rose slightly in firmness, “My point is I noticed how you acted just seconds ago. You’ve barely controlled most of your temper. So tell me, what’s been troubling you?”

Chester stood tall for a few seconds, his resolve strong and he was ready to retort with another statement of denial. Then he realized he couldn’t hold the facade any longer. Mike chipped away at it enough for him to finally concede. It’ll be better to admit defeat then to continue on being stubborn. 

Besides, Chester knew Mike would just prod and prod until he gets an answer anyhow. It’d be easier this way and this whole interrogation thing of his would be over much faster. He wanted to kick John Williams ass sooner than later. He reckoned the same can be said for Mike.

Chester exhaled reluctantly and admitted in a softer voice. He moved his head and made eye contact with Mike, “Fine…you and Joe weren’t the only ones he emailed. He sent me one last night but I didn’t read it until early this morning.”

“What did he say?” Mike encouraged patiently after a moment of silence passed. Despite his outward appearance, the fire inside was stoked even higher by a new layer of resentment. Before it burned with the intensity of a thousand suns. Now the number was more like five thousand. 

Nobody hurts his Chester. Not unless they want to regret being born.

“He said I should downplay being from Arizona. Said my family was too white trash.”

“Oh did he now?” Mike snapped his fingers and the elevator lurched into motion upwards towards the fifth floor. 

Chester nodded as he locked eyes full of indignation. He pointed at himself, “He suggested I pretend to be some fucking goody two shoes from Agoura Hills. Said it’ll fit the band’s image better. Can you fucking believe that?! I’m not gonna fucking bow down to be what some dumbass from New York City think how I should be.”

Chester rolled his eyes and Mike felt a storm within his soul. Another crime added to the list of crimes the so-called ‘experienced’ image guy committed. While Chester continued his vent, Mike planned on how exactly he was gonna lay out his punishment. He was gonna make sure it was drawn out and painful. Something to last him a lifelong impression. 

Problem is, Mike had his doubts about lessons being learnt if he went the civil, talk it out method like most mature adults would. No this was different.  They are dealing with a dimwitted numbskull after all. He’d need to add something like blackmail to the mix. A threat that the image guy would surely heed if he knew what's good for him. Yes, just the thing to make sure the lessons truly stick in his mind.

Mr. John Williams was gonna rue this day. And that was the understatement of the year. 

No it was the understatement of the century.

Eventually the doors opened to a hallway a scant moment or two later. This time Mike led the way with Chester followed him all the way down to Mr. Williams office. 

“Hello Mr. Williams, do you have a few minutes? Me and Chester want to talk,” Mike asked, deceptively cordial as the two entered the office. 

“Sure come on in,” John said as he stopped what he was doing on the computer. He got up from his chair as Mike walked closer to the front of the unimpressive wooden desk, “What can I do for you boys?”

“It's about the emails you sent us,” Mike immediately shot his right hand up in the air and snapped his fingers. 

Chester meanwhile closed the door, but just as he was about to join Mike, the scenery changed in a blink of an eye. No longer were they in an office but rather a field. Said change was instantaneous, quick enough to make Chester jump and stumbled down backwards on his butt. 

He really should honestly talk to Mike about this. Being startled every two seconds was starting to get old, stale and downright annoying. Chester hoped he could get to the point where he wasn’t fazed by shit like this from Mike sooner than later. He doesn’t want to get visual whiplash every single fucking time Mike made a sudden move or whatever in regards to his demonic magic. 

However, whatever annoyance Chester had vanished into the backrooms of his mind the moment he sat up. Mike was in front of him a good few feet away and apparently the scenery wasn’t the only thing that drastically changed. Mike now wore a black kimono with a long flowing jacket to match. There were also the Japanese style socks and sandals.

And from there, Chester noticed their surroundings as he stood up. It was all nothing but vibrant green grass as far as the eye can see. At least in three of the four directions. Behind him, he noticed rocky snow-covered mountains in the distance with jagged peaks of various sizes. They may be far away but they still looked impressive.

Above was a blue sky that can also be equally described as endless.

Since his heart rate slowed back down to normal by this point, Chester was overcome with awe and wonder. He tuned out Mike’s words as he took in the beauty and the sheer peacefulness of this place. He started to wonder what this place was. Where were they? Were they still in the US or were they in another country?  

Maybe Japan? That would make sense. But at the same time maybe not the most plausible guess.

For one, this area didn’t look familiar to any place they’ve gone to before. Two, deep within the demonic powers he was given, Chester was given the notion they were…private to say the least. Really private. As in this place was nowhere on Earth private. Hell there was a good possibility they may not be in the same universe either.

Was that even possible? Teleporting them all to another Earth in a different dimension? Chester assumed that would’ve been impossible given the limited amount of magic they have. Sounded like something only a powerful full fledged demon could do.

His attention now back towards Mike just off to the side, he can see the image consultant. He was rooted in place and terrified out of his wits as he stammered through his words. Chester didn’t catch everything that was said beforehand but he caught enough now to surmise he’d been defending his narrow minded decisions. And failing hard of course, as it should be. 

Mike obviously wasn’t having none of his. He spoke loud, full of rage and ire, his voice boomed for what seemed like miles. His demonic voice backed by unhinged otherworldly power. Even though Chester couldn’t see his face too well from here, he reckoned his one was also black to complete the whole thing.

Wrong place and time to realize it but honestly damn there was a certain level of sexiness with his gravelly voice and dangerous facial expression. And then suddenly Mike created a facsimile of large bat-like wings on his back, two sets of thick black horns and a long thin tail. If Chester didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought Mike was an actual demon. A former angel that Fell from Heaven alongside Mark. The illusion was that convincing.

Right now the image guy was backing up in utter unmitigated fright. John was about to break out in a run when Mike formed a ball of purplish red energy around his right hand. He immediately threw a beam of light straight into John’s back which caused him to fly into the air a good dozen or so feet away. Then Mike stalked closer, each step he made he grew taller and taller. 

Which in turn increased the intimidation factor by tenfold. It was honestly impressive. Being a magical being just seemed to come more naturally to Mike, as if he was meant to be a demon rather than a human.

Also Chester couldn’t begin to guess the height Mike made himself be. Not at this distance at any rate. At least taller than Rob? That was his best guess. And he didn’t want to get any closer for a closer look right this second, so he’ll just do the smart move and continue to watch. Plus he’d be safer from any collateral damage. 

“Whoa now that is an awesome display of power!” Mark said in awe as he put his hand on his shoulder from behind. 

This in turn caused Chester to visibly flinch in surprise before he turned his head around.

If this was the demon’s idea to announce his arrival, well, frankly it sucked. There are better ways than coming in on a person’s blind spot. Chester had his reasons why he didn’t appreciate this method. Good reasons for that, let's just say.

Only exceptions to coming up from behind out of the blue would be sexytimes where he and Mike planned it out beforehand. 

Thankfully Mark took the hint and let go of his arms. He apologized and took a half step back. Mike’s resounding voice can be heard in the distance.

“Sorry about that. I may be an eons old demon but I strictly live by a code of honor,” Mark said sincerely with his hands up in the air. 

“Apology accepted,” Chester paused then asked on impulse off tangentially because honestly the media and lore about demons would have him believing otherwise, “You guys have a code of honor?”

Mike laughed maniacally in the background, the thunderous sound rumbled throughout the air. 

Chester noticed Mark had a similar outfit to when he first met him. Only difference was the Korn t-shirt, the jacket he wore over it and the baggy jeans. 

“Oh yes most of us demons have morals believe it or not. In fact it's expected of us to have common decency and not run around amok on Earth like some crazed psychopath. One step out of line and you risk throwing everything out of balance. You want to be respectful and ethical while doing your job,” Mark explained.

“That’s good to know,” Chester said genuinely, albeit quietly. A beat of silence later and Chester asked before it could turn awkward, “So what are you doing here Mark?”

“I came to watch Ches. What’s fucking better than going to see two shows in one day man,” Mark smiled excitedly, “First an epic Korn concert and now this. This is what the definition of awesomeness is!”

Before Chester was able to respond, there was the unmistakable sound of thunder. Like someone is hitting a giant drum. He turned around and there above Mike were storm clouds. Dark grey bulbous clouds which quickly expanded and blocked every inch of the blue sky from view. And not to mention the wind. At first it was a light breeze but it gradually increased in strength over a number of mere seconds. 

To the point where he had to cover his face with his arms.

Fortunately, before Chester was barraged by a two ton blast of wind, Mark conjured a force field around them. Good thing too, he did not want to be knocked off his feet for the second fucking time. Chester reckoned he would’ve been otherwise by now, the winds outside looked downright ferocious. Thank god there weren’t any trees nearby either. Pretty damn sure they would be dangerously close to the breaking point, if not already broken and in the air.

And it wasn’t just the hurricane strength wind that was new. There was also a brilliant display of lightning every other second all throughout the sky. 

“Do you know where we are?” Chester asked as he faced Mark. He just remembered something from earlier that, as per usual, blanked out on. 

“Pocket universe. Real small one, this is about as much space you two can make with the power you have. But once you become a demon and get powerful,” Mark paused as he smiled big, “Oh the possibilities are endless. For example, if you’re an archdemon like me, you can create a pocket universe that’s nothing but a facsimile of Earth down to the molecular level. And do you wanna know the best fucking part?” 

Mark paused for a moment solely to be dramatic. He walked a little closer to Chester with a devilish expression, “I can make it so realistic a human won’t be able to notice until it’s too fucking late.”

“I’m sure Mike would love that,” Chester said with slight awkwardness. He didn’t have anything better to say, but at the same time he can see Mike taking full advantage of that ability. 

He stole a glance towards Mike outside of the forcefield, he was bent down on one knee. He had to be looming over the image guy. No other explanation.

“Oh he would. I just have a….feeling,” Mark chuckled knowingly as Chester shifted his attention back to him, “So would you by the way. Trapping someone inside a pocket universe has its benefits. Great ones. Perfect for dealing with someone you just fucking hate. I’ve done it plenty of times before. Despicable bastards, all of them.”

The last sentence Mark spat out with vitriolic disgust. 

Mark put his hands behind his back as he continued, “Do you want to know the recent one for example?” Mark asked but ultimately didn’t allow Chester the chance to formulate a response. The demon just plowed ahead, “Firstly tell me…have you been to Wales?

“No but my dad was born in Card-” Chester answered, his mind trying its best to keep up with the speed of the conversation.

“Well there once was a band from Wales,” Mark cut him off abruptly, apparently not too interested in letting Chester finish his sentence, “The year, 1997.”

As if on cue another loud round of thunder can be heard from somewhere in the distance. The timing was uncanny to be honest.

Chester stayed quiet as Mark went on, “There was this cocky, arrogant jackass of a kid named Ian. Wanted to be a rockstar just like every fucking teen out there! He wanted to be a rockstar so bad, he even dressed and acted every bit of the stereotype.”

“So a tryhard?” Chester asked for clarification and Mark nodded.

“Very much so. He thought he had to embody the stereotype of a famous rockstar,” Mark confirmed before he continued with his train of thought, “Anyways point is there was something…off about him. I can tell right from the start. Ian was more than just a jerk with a superiority complex, more than someone who truly believed he was God’s gift to rock music. He was one of the worst examples of a human being I’ve ever fucking met.”

Chester subtly flinched as Mark sharply raised his voice several notes on the last word. 

Mark continued, “You won’t believe the heinous despicable shit he was into.”

“I-I’m not sure I want to know,” Chester was already tense with horror as the color drained from his face. 

“Oh no you don’t Chester,” Mark agreed, “But I’m sure you can come up with an educated guess. I’ll give you a hint, it involves something you’ve been put through as a young boy. So that said, one day Ian wanted to make a deal with the devil. He wanted fame. Glory. Money. Wanted his name to be in every fucking magazine in the world. Wanted to be at the very fucking top of the rock world and to be known as one of the most famous and wealthiest musician of all fucking time.”

“...I assume he summoned you then?”

“You’d be correct, gold star for you Bennington. Yes he did indeed summon me the day he turned 18. Kid couldn’t wait another fucking minute. He first told me all the shit I’ve already told you he wanted…but there was more-” Mark said cryptically as he casually stepped right up in front of Chester. 

Thankfully this time Chester managed to keep calm and stay in place despite the sharp increase of anticipatory dread. It sounded more and more like this Ian guy was a real Piece of Shit. Which felt like it would be the understatement of the century.

“-This son of a bitch wasn’t finished. Let’s just say he all but verbally admitted he was the lowest of the low. The bottom of the barrel of human existence. A prime grade A example of how perversely depraved someone can get.”

“W-what do you mean?” Chester cautiously asked. He felt like he already knew the answer and admittedly he could’ve just left it at that. Unfortunately however, his brain sometimes develops a mind of its own.

“Hmm…well let’s just say he was a very disturbed sexual deviant. The kind that’ll nail you some serious jail time,” Mark simply answered.

Chester blanched even further as his blood ran even closer a short moment later. The implication was all but verbally confirmed. 

A moment of silence stretched between them before Mark resumed speaking. By now his hands were in his pockets, “So I decided right then and there to do the world a favor. One of my best decisions honestly.” 

“What did you do?”

A beat then Mark smiled with genuine satisfaction. He boasted, “I did what ol’ Mikey here did. I teleported him to a pocket universe much like this one. Only much more limiting, there’s only so far he can move before he ends up in the same place again. Solitary confinement is much more suited for a scummy excuse for a human being like him, don’t you agree? It's what people like him truly deserve, and I told him that. Before I left. You wanna know what else I did Chester?” 

“Yeah?...”

“I shrunk the pocket universe down into the fucking quantum realm,” Mark declared with a giddy, prideful laugh, “Now the world, nay the whole fucking universe, won’t have to deal with his sick, disgusting behavior.”

“Holy shit,” Chester exclaimed as he joined in on the laughter. There was a great mixture of pleasant surprise and elation upon hearing the news.

It was genuinely heartwarming for a victim like Chester to learn a demon such as Mark decided to protect the innocent from someone like Ian. Now he wished to one day do the same to the bastard who made his life a living hell back in Arizona. 

Not too long after Mike walked back towards them and now back to his given height. Behind him not too far away was a cage made up of magical energy, and trapped inside was the image guy. And above, the skies have returned to their previously deep blue color. Not a storm cloud in sight.

“Chester,” Mike said as soon as the force field disappeared, “You’re up. I’m not done with him yet, but I wanted to give you a chance to kick his ass before I wrap things up.”

“Uhh…” Chester hesitated, a spike of indecisiveness sprung to life and overtook his mind. On one hand yes he would like to go and put him in his place. Give him a knuckle sandwich and whatnot. But on the other hand, he was still held back by the idea of losing control of his temper. For far too long, Chester felt like he was nothing more than a puppet entangled by the whims of this cruel universe. 

Isn’t it too much to ask to still retain a hold over at least one goddamn thing in his life? Specifically his temper? Yes he can admit it’s tempting to take up on his offer, but the desire to have control over one major aspect of his life was still too strong. Deep down on a subconscious level, Chester craved order. He craved the same kind of order Mike and the others lived with and experienced for most of their lives. Mike was even lucky enough to not have his bodily autonomy stolen at a young age. And Mike also didn’t have to suffer through the gauntlet for several years afterwards with lifelong trauma as a result.

“Oh? Does our Chazzy have a grudge against our guy too,” Mark teased with a devious smile. He put his arm around his shoulders yet again, “Did this idiot say something to you as well?”

“Yeah but Mike already kicked his ass good.”

“He did yes,” Mark agreed but it was also obvious he wasn’t satisfied with the response, “But why miss an opportunity. You have the power don’t you? I didn’t give it to you for it to be unused and squandered away. What exactly did he say anyways?”

“He fucking called me and my family white trash,” Chester replied, straight to the point with renewed irritation. He clenched his fists at the raw audacity of the email, “He wanted me to be some dumb straight laced kid with a stick up his ass.” 

“I see. Isn’t that reason enough? He clearly offended you, insulted you-”

“Mike has more a fucking reason to go after him Mark,” Chester interrupted as he gestured to Mike. 

“You have just as much of a reason Chester. I mean true, the shit you faced is very different then what Mike faced. But that doesn’t make it any less valid. Any less infuriating! What you experienced was classism,” Mark explained as he walked behind him and placed his hands on his shoulders.

Mark leaned in close to his ear before he continued, “And I have a very good feeling this isn’t the first time you dealt with this, am I correct?”

“Yes but-”

“Then have at it Chester. Go after him! Kick his fucking sorry little ass, you know you want to. You know you want to teach that narrow minded fool a lesson in etiquette. All that pent up anger from years and years of being bullied and treated as nothing but an outsider. You remember high school do you?”

“Yes,” Chester replied slightly softer as he watched Mark walk around to the front.

“Then you remember you had trouble making friends there, correct? You tried so fucking hard to get along with the other kids but they shunned you for one asinine reason or another. All throughout your four years you were shoved into lockers. Teased. Brutally made fun of. Called white trash more times then you can fuckin count. And it wasn’t just the popular kids humiliating the shit out of you, even some of the teachers got in on the action. Unceremoniously pushed down to the lowest of the high school totem pole within the first fucking week of your freshman year. And all just for the crime of being born into a poor working class family from Phoenix Arizona.”

“You didn’t have to fucking lay it out like that,” Chester responded with an aggravated glare. He was annoyed by the blunt, very raw way the demon said it, however true it was. Chester didn’t need to be exposed like that in front of everyone, or more accurately Mike seeing how he was the only other person here. 

Well…ok it wasn’t news to Mike to be fair, but still its the fucking principle of the matter.

Mark blinked and his eyes flashed a demonic shade of black for the briefest of seconds, “I’m a demon Chester. It’s my job to lay out the cold hard truth. Like for instance, how the desire you have to rip his ass is growing stronger within you by the second. Yet you’re still afraid, why is that?” 

Mark observed as he leaned in closer towards his face, “What’s holding you back?”

“I don’t want to lose my fucking temper alright. Its the one fucking thing in my life I always had control over. Everything else was taken from me so what else do I have left other then how’d I react to the fucking ignorant dumbasses of the world.”

“I see. But you shouldn’t let that stop you Bennington,” Mark said, his voice deep, smooth and deadly serious. His fangs now exposed to the world, “I gave you power, power you should take full advantage of. Use it whenever someone pisses you off, even if it's deemed inconsequential to the rest of society. I know you want to. Give in to your dark side Chester, just let the urge take over and follow your heart. In fact I’ll let you and Mike in on a little secret-”

Mark then took a step back to direct the next part at both of them, “The more you give in to your dark side, the more stronger you’d fucking get.”

“That’s music to my ears,” Mike said with an enthusiastic grin. For some reason a small part of Chester expected to see him sporting fangs despite being very much alive. Alive but with an added bonus.

Would definitely complete the whole vibe he has right now for sure. 

“I do want to kick his ass,” Chester declared with full conviction. The only problem was his subconscious still kept him rooted in place instead of actually walking the walk as they say. 

“That’s what I like to hear,” Mark smiled approvingly, “But yet you’re still afraid. Too scared to let go of your inhibition. You gotta ignore it. Let it consume you until you can’t fight it back any longer.”

“Mark, is it alright if I say something?” Mike suddenly asked as he gestured towards Chester, “Or would that be crossing a line.” 

Mark faced him and a second or two as if to process the question before he smiled with an excited chuckle, “Nah, go for it!”

With that Mike immediately grabbed Chester by the arm and pulled him into his arms. He held him tight against his body. One hand was around his waist while he gently held his chin in place with the other with delicate fingers 

Mike blinked and now his one eye was completely black, “Listen to me Chester, I know you. I know you well enough to know you’ll feel better afterwards. Trust me,” He spoke softly, patient yet with steady persuasiveness, “Ignore all the fucking bullshit about turning the other cheek. Dig deep into your power and use it. It’s exhilarating. I promise, you’d love it. You want revenge?”

“Yes.”

“Then take a deep breath. Relax and let the dark side take over Chester. Let it take over every cell of your body,” Mike kept speaking as Chester closed his eyes and inhaled, “I know you want vengeance just as much as I do. You want to tear the world apart for all the classist bullcrap you’ve been through. And I have to admit for selfish reasons-”

Mike leaned in closer, “-If I become Leader of Hell, I want you by my side as my right hand man.”

Mike closed the distance and gave him a warm passionate kiss before he pulled away. Just then Chester opened his eyes and now he had one demonic eye of his own.

“That’s it, that’s it Chester,” Mike cheered with a big loving smile. 

It wasn’t just the eye that proved Chester finally gave in, but the fact every single one of his tattoos now glowed with demonic power. Chester then turned around towards the cage and took a deep breath. Just then his closed fists were engulfed in flames.

“Oh that’s hellfire, I love it!” Mark let out a happy laugh as Chester walked towards the cage. 

Mike stood there and watched as pride swelled up inside him, he couldn't be more proud of his boyfriend if he tried. Afterwards he would go to finish things off by messing with the image guy’s sense of time. Now the asshole from New York thinks he’d been trapped in the cage for years as opposed to only just mere seconds.

Chapter Text

It was summer 2001 and Linkin Park had already released their first album. It became the best selling album of the year, breaking the record briefly held by NSYNC. Pulled in massive numbers the first week and it continued to do so thereafter as more and more people discovered the band in the months that followed. Not just in America but in Canada, Mexico and other countries worldwide.

They were also nominated for several upcoming awards as well. Which, yes, included a Grammy. Everyone around the world fell in love with the band and the members the moment they heard the album. 

In other words, they were finally famous. Linkin Park has become the definition of an overnight success, a worldwide phenomenon as they deserved. And quite literally too. But of course four out of six band members don’t know that. To them it was in the metaphorical sense.

Chester and Mike were on the second bus. The one where they set up a makeshift studio to work on music while out on the road. That’s what the rest of the band thought they were doing. And granted to be fair there was a kernel of truth somewhere in there like a needle in a haystack. Mike was working in the backroom. 

But it wasn’t on songs or lyrics, rather it was a planned outline for his revenge. 

Mike wanted to have a final draft of it sooner than later so he can get started. Nobody blamed him, least of all Chester. After all, time on Earth was now limited for the both of them. So of course he wanted to make good use of his time.

And because the door was thin, Chester could hear him from all the way in the lounge area. He can hear Mike talking out loud in a mixture of English and Japanese. He was also pretty damn sure he heard gleeful laughter every other second. So all of that combined and it was obvious nothing in the world can break his concentration.

While Mike was diving deeper into the throes of revenge, Chester was out laying down on the sofa in nothing but his grey underwear. And in contrast to Mike, he was actually working on a song. He had a notebook in hand, a pen and was deep in thought. He ran into a bit of a writer’s block. But so far he did have the first verse and half a chorus written down.

Still stuck, he let his mind wander somewhat. He started to wonder about the limits of the Golden Touch as Mark referred to it. There were still so many questions to be had there. What would the limits be? What were the parameters he and Mike could go towards before the effects wouldn’t be applied? Would it work if they put out a song that was just plain silly? Something only a young kid would find funny. 

Mike posited recently that it depended on whether or not the song had intent by it. Even then there was another factor, another obstacle to testing this theory. They would have to get the whole band on board with creating and releasing this hypothetical silly song. But on the other hand, Mike could use his limited demonic power to persuade the others. 

If Mike was able to wipe the floor clean with the idiot image guy on limited power, then no reason they wouldn't be able to gently guide the others. Whatever he, or Chester, wanted, the magic would make it happen. To a point that is.

Stuck on the current lyrics but still wanting to write, he decided to jot down the first thing he could think of for the potential silly song. It would have to be unlike any of their Linkin Park songs thus far. Something that would go against what one expected to hear when they listen to their music, which meant this song had to be relatively unconventional. 

It’ll probably be a good idea to not take it too far however Chester realized. He didn’t want this hypothetical track to be taken to the extreme and go against everything the band stood for. No, it had to authentically fit within the core DNA of the band. 

A moment passed and Chester quickly wrote down the first thing that came to mind on another sheet of paper. A title: ‘Da Bloos’. He was already giggling to himself. He can imagine it already, the track being acclaimed to high heavens by critics worldwide. Winning a Grammy and serious analytical essays written about the possible interpretation of the lyrics. It would be hilarious indeed. 

But then of course, another stray thought crossed his mind. Chester wasn’t sure if it required subtly. Like yes it would be extremely funny to have a blatantly obviously silly song with dumb nonsensical lyrics be taken seriously by millions and millions of people. But at the same time would the magic work on a song so conspicuously silly? Chester for sure didn’t want to be a tryhard, he made that mistake plenty of times in high school in trying to fit in. 

The rare time it only seemed to work was when the other kid just wanted his sister’s autograph. Chester learned pretty quickly having a famous Oscar winning actress of a sister, demon deal or otherwise, didn’t make high school any easier to deal with. He was still deemed an outsider, a misfit only good for the means to an end for the other party. 

So Chester decided no, he wasn’t about to make it super obvious. It had to be natural and subtle. He didn’t want the other members, or the public for that matter, to notice within two seconds. Also why the hell did this feel more conflicting then it should be? But either way Chester wanted to bring it up with Mike first. This should be a team effort after all. 

“Hey little bro,” A familiar voice suddenly filled the silence and thus broke Chester’s bubble of concentration. It was so abrupt he screamed embarrassingly high and fell off the couch with an audible thump on the floor.

“Don’t fucking scare me like that Tobi,” Chester groaned in mild pain as he stood up rubbing the sore spot on his head. There was a good amount of annoyance in his demeanor. His sister however wasn’t fazed, just amused if anything. 

“I just wanted a visual confirmation of the rumors-” Tobi simply said casually as she crossed her arms. There wasn’t anything to denote she was at all sorry for scaring the shit out of him. Which honestly was also a note of annoyance.

She stood there in front of Chester in all her demonic glory. In actuality she deceptively looked just the same as any other human in her current form. Curly blond chin length hair and casual attire that wouldn’t look out of place among polite society. 

Only difference was thanks to the power Mark gave him, he could sense Tobi wasn’t human no longer. This also meant he would be able to identify a demon hiding among a crowd of people..

Chester idly wondered what Tobi would look like with all the accessories that came with being a demon. Horns, tails, long sharp nails and whatnot.

”-I heard through the grapevine that you and Mike made a deal with Mark.”

Chester observed immediately she wasn’t put off or gravely disappointed in any way. No angry expression on her face the way a parent would if their kid made a major fuckup. He wouldn’t blame her if she otherwise freaked out, he followed in her footsteps after all. Continued the grand old Bennington family tradition. If anything she was completely unsurprised, looked utterly nonchalant about this. 

He wasn’t sure what reaction to expect but it wasn’t exactly this. 

Every so often during his teen years Tobi would tell him it would be preferable to break the mold and not go down the demonic path. But also just as equally, Chester was told it was entirely his choice. He can do whatever the fuck he want once he turned 18. Scaring him one way or the other wasn’t on the agenda, and neither was coercion. 

Closest that ever gotten was Mark cryptically telling Chester he would make a great powerful demon someday from time to time.

That admittedly confused Chester to a degree in the years before he made the deal.

In short, Tobi acted as though she knew this was coming. Any sane person would have protected their loved one to the best of their abilities from a life of fire and brimstone. Therefore they would react accordingly if said loved one went and got a deal behind their back. But Tobi didn’t despite all her efforts

“Yeah we did.”

“I see your deal written all over your skin,” Tobi made an up and down gesture towards his body, “Interesting that the lines don't intersect with any of your tattoos. It just borders them, makes it pop out more.”

“I remember getting a glimpse of that when me and Mike made the deal,” Chester shared as he absent mindedly glanced at his forearms despite nothing but bare skin between inked art, “It looked pretty cool.”

A comfortable silence passed between the siblings before Tobi spoke again. This time on a more excited note, “So since I’m here already, I should mention…I’ve been shortlisted to be the new Lord of the Flies.”

“Oh uhh congrats,” Chester replied albeit slightly awkward. It felt weird he was more genuinely happy then horrified. Like he should be against this news as it meant there was a chance she could become corrupted. So addicted to the power she’d lose her moral compass completely. 

Yeah Chester didn’t give a shit if Tobi made a deal or not, but she was still his big sister. The last remaining member of his family who was still in his life and willing to stay. He’d hate to see her get so lost in the role that she entirely forgets how to be a human. Eventually becoming a hollow shell of who she used to be. Not gonna lie it would devastate him. 

No matter how annoying Tobi was, he still loved his big sister.

On that note, Chester hoped he and Mike won’t ever lose their own sense of humanity.

“Thanks. It's me against five other demons. The last test is gonna be a one on one match elimination tournament. Mark is gunning for me to take over the spot,” Tobi explained right before the door to the backroom opened. 

The conversation was immediately forgotten as Mike emerged into the main lounge area.

“I have done it!” Mike declared boldly with a happy cackle, “I have finished my plan for revenge! I even got a presentation set up to show you.”

Just as quickly as he arrived, he swiftly went back into the room on the other end of the bus. There was a notable joyous bounce in his boyfriend’s step.

“Wow Mike doesn’t regret making the deal at all. Mark was right,” Tobi observed out loud as she followed Chester into the backroom. 

“Since when did we have a projection screen on the bus?” Chester asked in confusion as soon as he stepped into the room. The first thing he noticed, other than Mike in his immaculate black suit, was a white sheet on a stand against the wall. 

“Since I magick’d it up a minute ago. Come on take a seat,” Mike said impatiently as he ushered Chester and Tobi over to the couch before he dashed over to shut the door.

“This is gonna be interesting,” Tobi remarked as she crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat. She looked over the setup. The bulky apple computer, the stand, the way Mike dressed as if he was at a business conference instead of a small cramped room in the back of a tour bus.

Mike meanwhile sprinted over to the computer and not a moment later the first slide of a presentation appeared. On it was the title ‘The Revenge of Michael Kenji Shinoda’ in big bold letters. The background was an image of the Shinoda family crest with a filter over it for easy readability. 

Chester realized there was an opportunity to tease Mike a bit about the cliched aspect of the title. There was a slight urge to let it out. But thankfully the logical side won over in time and he wisely kept any smart remarks to himself. This wasn’t the right time and honestly Chester thought it worked well enough. Simple and straight to the point. 

Plus he didn’t want Mike to think he was being dismissive or anything like that.

Mike stood to the side as he faced the siblings. There was a metal pointer stick in his hands and at this point Chester noticed how Mike had his hair slicked back into a more professional hairstyle. Somehow he didn’t feel too surprised Mike really went all out with this.

“You look great Mike, very sexy,” Chester began, and it was true Mike does look very hot in a well fitted suit. It was just that he started to feel too underdressed in comparison. Despite the fact they were in a goddamn bus on an empty stretch of the highway. Aka a setting someone wouldn’t think to wear something formal, “But uhh don’t you think the suit might be overkill? I mean we’re on a bus, not a conference room.”

“Not at all Chester. Always dress for the occasion is what I say,” Mike answered with fervor as he pulled out the tip of the silver stick in record time. He then conjured up a clicker in his left hand and pressed a button, “Now let’s begin. This is a plan I’ve spent years making, ever since I was but a teen in high school. Ladies and gentlemen I’m proud to finally announce and present to you my goals for revenge from this point onwards.”

“Wait, you’ve been planning this since you were in high school?” Chester asked, curious and wanting clarification. 

“Since I was 16. Literally the day after I summoned Anna. She showed me what my family has been too afraid to tell me. She wasn’t a coward unlike my dad and his siblings. They were cowards, all of them. They were content with keeping me and my brother in the dark. Anna was the only one not afraid to tell me the truth my family didn’t have the guts to say!”

Mike by now was clutching the pointer so hard Chester half expected it to snap in two.

He was obviously still upset by the whole ‘it is what it is’ attitude the Japanese side of his family adopted.

“Oh my god, you’re very ambitious,” Tobi praised with an impressed smile.

“Thank you,” Mike smiled politely as he pointed the stick to the screen. There were pictures of a small town with text underneath laid out in bullet point format. 

“Babe with all due respect, they most likely didn’t want to relive the trauma-” Chester began as he straightened his posture on the edge of the sofa. He made sure to carefully choose what words to say. But unfortunately he didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence due to Mike abruptly whipping the pointer stick directly towards him.

“Shut up when I’m talking to you!”

A beat.

Chester then sighed at the dramatic reaction as Mike returned to his businesslike, straight as a board posture. All signs of aggravation have disappeared without a trace. He swiftly moved the pointer stick back to the screen beside him and began to speak.

Mike explained how over the course of the next several years he will slowly acquire the land his grandparents lost in World War Two in the small town of Orosi. Then he’d reinstate the businesses the Shinoda’s had; the grocery store, the barber shop, every single one that used to be under the Shinoda name. And then when the time is right, Mike will expand them to other locations. First California and nearby states, then all across America before finally, worldwide. 

By this point Mike was 30 slides deep and he just reached the slide labeled ‘Possibilities’. There wasn’t too much listed on there, just an idea to rename the town of Orosi to Shinoda. 

“Before we got into part two of my masterplan, I wanted to show you an idea I’m playing around with,” Mike grinned as he moved the stick to the text on the screen. It was so fast it might as well have broken the sound barrier, “Renaming the town. I’m admittedly only 95 percent sold on it but I’m heavily leaning on making it a reality.”

“I’ll love to see that,” Tobi encouraged as she sat up, “You should do it. Hell you could even rename the entire state to Shinoda if you wanted.”

Mike pointed at her with a big delighted grin on his face. He didn’t think of that. What a truly great idea, “I love it!”

He snapped his fingers and a new line of text appeared underneath the first line.

Chester however wasn’t sure about this new development, “Mike, a town is one thing but renaming a state? That’s pushing it.”

Mike immediately locked his eyes on Chester with an intensity of 10,000 suns. As if the goal was to bore holes into the target, “It’s justice! Restoring the family honor. Righting the wrong that has befell my grandparents. You would do the same thing Chester, don’t lie to me. You’d rename Arizona to Bennington in a hot fucking second if you went through what I did!”

Then it became so quiet one can hear a hypothetical pin drop. 

“Hold on, what the fuck are you talking about Mike? You never went through internment. Your dad and grandparents did. You personally grew up upper middle class with loving parents in a fucking gated community,” Chester pointed out as he stood up, “Whereas me and Tobi grew up the opposite in the shittest part of town. Divorced parents, mom wasn’t in the picture and a deadbeat dad who just left one day. We were as blue collar as you can get. Barely middle class, we didn’t get financially stable until Tobi made her deal with Mark.“

“Sure but none of your relatives were ever forced into involuntary confinement for three fucking years. They weren’t forcibly removed from their house with only two bags of belongings to their name. They weren’t treated like cattle. And did not have their land taken away afterwards,” Mike shouted back. 

Both vocalists were locked in a mutual heated glare, caught up in the moment as tension sizzled in the air around them. 

It was to the point where they didn’t even notice Tobi quietly leaving. Thank god Talinda texted on her flip phone, wonderful timing really. She’d rather shadow the elder demon and learn more on the art of deal making then witness a fight between her brother and his boyfriend. Less awkward too.

“If that hypothetically happened I still wouldn’t fucking act like I personally went through it. The closest you got was a goddamn field trip with Anna. How long did that take by the way, 30 minutes? 45?!-” Chester ranted as he walked closer to Mike. He wasn’t aware at the time but he subconsciously tapped into the power and he grew a few inches taller than Mike.

“-Also even with my shitty upbringing, I still wouldn’t seek out revenge to the fucking extent that you did. I wouldn’t put together a fucking powerpoint detailing it to the last goddamn minute. You know exactly what happened to me and yet you don’t see me wanting to burn the world down.”

“Well, I mean…that’s different-” Mike began but Chester cut him off abruptly with a sharp, dangerously low voice and a hardened glare that shook him to the core. 

“Michael Kenji Shinoda don’t you fucking dare. Don’t you fucking dare finish that sentence. Granted I never experienced racism. But I’ve had to fucking deal with classist bullshit almost every fucking day in both middle and high school. Even outside of school I had to deal with it,” Mike felt the wind taken out of his sails as he impulsively took a step back. 

In the past whenever he heard his full name spoken out loud, it usually meant he crossed a line and done fucked up. Apparently, as he just learned right now, it was still the case. Even more so since it was Chester as opposed to his parents, he never wanted Chester mad at him like this. 

Chester continued, “Arguably it was worse during my teen years cause I went to a fucking rich public high school. Where, in case you haven’t noticed, I was treated as a fucking outsider. I was fucking made to feel I don’t belong in your fucking rich world since day one! Not only was I considered the black sheep of the family, but I was the black sheep of the entire fucking school. Even among half the teachers. You, on the other hand, were considered one of the fucking cool kids.”

“That doesn’t mean I didn’t personally encounter any racism!” Mike yelled back. Which was honestly a very good point to make.

“Of course it fucking doesn’t Mike! I’m not trying to fucking invalidate your experience or play white savior. My point is you personally, barring anything you haven’t told me yet, only had to deal with someone calling you the J word one fucking time in high school. I’ve dealt with classism, I’ve dealt insults and class related prejudice more times than you can shake a stick at. Do you know how many fucking times I was shoved into lockers during those same years? Enough to last more then a fucking lifetime.”

A heavy silence fell over the room. It's been years since he’s been chastised like this. Mike forgot what it was like to wish the ground would open up beneath him and swallowed him whole. It wasn’t a great feeling to be reacquainted with. And this wasn’t the first time he was scolded ten ways to Sunday by someone he truly cared about other than his mom or dad. 

The first honor goes to Brad back in senior year in high school. He laughed along to a joke a classmate made and didn’t realize it was wholly insensitive until Brad told him after school. 

Both times Mike was cut to the core. Both times the words sank in and Mike realized he fucked up. But the difference was Brad wasn’t shouty about it, Chester was. As if he just greatly disappointed his father and was about to be punished. Sorry diehard Linkin Park fans, Mike can’t play the show because he’s grounded for the next two weeks.

“I’m-I’m sorry I…” Mike said softly, genuinely apologetic via shakey words. The words trailed off into nothingness, unsure of what to say. All he knew for sure was there was a tsunami of raw emotions coming to the surface.

Mike caught a glance of his suit, he felt downright silly and embarrassed wearing it now. Chester was right, it was overkill. He silently snapped his fingers to change his attire to a way more casual look. A simple t-shirt and blue jeans.

“I got too caught up-” Mike tried again but his voice cracked with emotion before the words faded away once again. 

A moment later Mike felt two strong arms around him and buried his face in Chester’s still naked skin. He was quite overwhelmed and couldn't think clearly of what to say other than ‘I’m sorry’. The tears quickly overwhelmed his ability to speak. He truly didn’t mean to act as though he lived through an experience he obviously didn’t. 

Chester raised a good point, he was only a witness to it for a short period of time thanks to Anna. And that was the cold hard truth. He didn’t pay witness to the historical atrocities firsthand. He was but an observer who had a connection via family history. 

Chester proceeded to walk backwards with Mike in tow over to the couch. He sat down and brought Mike down into his lap. There they sat in silence, nothing but the sound of the road underneath and a car going by at one point. 

“It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair,” Mike eventually regained his resolve enough to form coherent words together, “Its not fair what happened to my dad and his family. They didn’t ask to be rounded up like cattle and imprisoned.”

Chester gently kissed the top of Mike’s forehead and consoled Mike as he continued, “And it’s not fair to be fucking told it is what it is and dismissed over and over again whenever I asked about it. I just wanted to know what happened, was that too much to ask?”

“I’ve been told that phrase once or twice myself,” Chester rested his chin on top of Mike as he held him close to his chest. His eyes blank as unwanted memories flashed in the forefront of his mind, “Different context obviously but…heard it from the family friend who was…um, inappropriate.”

“Oh, oh god that’s really fucked up,” Mike said, his voice a bit on the muffled side. His heart greatly hurt for his boyfriend with a sharp pang of sympathy.

“Yeah,” Chester agreed as he stared at the screen. There was now an inkling of curiosity to see what the rest of the slides were, “Real fucked up. You know on a personal level I have more of a reason for revenge. I could’ve given in and pursued vengeance, burn the world down. But I didn’t because I realized it can end with me. I wanted to break the cycle.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, even if I wanted revenge, I kinda got it anyway,” Chester added as he easily grabbed the clicker from Mike’s hand.

“What do you mean?” Mike asked as he moved his head to look him in the eyes. 

“He’s in prison for life. Was arrested my second year in high school,” Chester started reading the next few slides as he slowly advanced through the presentation. He ended up changing the subject, “How many slides did you make altogether?”

“I don’t know, 50-60 tops,” Mike said and Chester shifted his gaze to him with wide eyes.

“Shit you went all out,” Chester was honestly impressed with how meticulous Mike was with his plan. He was gonna say more but then slide number 45 caught his eye. He stopped in his tracks as he read the name Vernon Dowdell on top of the slide. 

According to the text underneath he was the warden in charge of Manzanar.

Chester continued as his posture became more tense at the sudden recognition, “This guy’s name is fucking familiar.”

Mike unburied his head and turned around to face the screen, instantly curious. 

“I used to be friends with an asshole named Sean Dowdell when I was a teenager,” Chester began to explain on his own accord as he shifted his attention to Mike, “And this guy was his grandpa. Believe me when I say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Chapter Text

Late summer 2003 on the cusp of autumn, Mike and Chester were in the small town of Orosi California. To the rest of the band, they were on a romantic vacation in between touring schedules. Which was actually true for the most part. Mike did want to take a break from the big city and go somewhere where life was slower. A tranquil environment where the hustle and bustle was pretty much non-existent. 

Somewhere where they can both spend some alone time without the weight of life just inches above their heads. 

Both Mike and Chester wanted to vacation long enough to pretend they weren’t about to embark on an intense worldwide tour. Mike wanted to experience the low key vibe of a small town again like he had as a kid. Been too long since he’s gotten a taste of it. And Chester loved the idea of a less chaotic, private media free environment.

But there was an ulterior motive. One where if Mike played his cards right, he’d finally acquire the grocery store his grandparents used to own back in the day. Several months ago, he started the process to restore his family honor. Since then he’d gotten the land where the barbershop used to be as well as the pool hall. Now it was time for the final part of his plan to reclaim everything lost in the name of the Shinoda Family.

“So I’m still thinking of expanding the grocery store,” Mike said. Right now it was mid morning, a beautiful warm sunny day and he and Chester were in a small mom and pop diner, “The pool hall, I’m thinking of having it be the most popular spot for locals and tourists. World acclaimed even.”

“You could turn that into a chain too if you wanted to,” Chester suggested as he took a bite of the french toast he ordered with a bright smile, “Then you can be the owner of two international businesses.”

Mike mulled it over for a moment before he replied, “I could, but I want to focus on the grocery store first. That was the business Anna told me would’ve brought in good money had the war not happen.”

“Alright, that's fair.”

“And it’ll be easier to start with, since the grocery store is still there. We don’t have to worry about any rebuilding,” Mike mentioned before he paused to take a sip of his coffee, “Gives me more time to put the expansion plan in motion. We’ve only got about 18 years left before we become full fledged demons so this is great!”

“Did you find out who owns it?” Chester asked as he looked up at Mike.

“Yes. It's owned by the Gentry family, aka the fuckers that that stole it from mine.”

“Just remember, whoever owns it now most likely don’t have any connection to their grandparent’s crime,” Chester pointed out. He didn’t want any innocents to get caught in the crossfire that was Mike’s revenge. And he knew deep down Mike shared the same sentiment. 

But the thing was, Mike had a tendency to get carried away at a certain point. There was an addictive nature to this demonic power they have, a desire to want more and more every time they used it. A magical drug more potent than anything found on Earth, natural or otherwise, So while Chester had enough experience with addiction to recognize the early signs of danger, Mike, on the other hand, did not.

So with those two aforementioned things combined, Chester has had to tell Mike to reign it back more than one time in the last year and a half. 

Thankfully for all those involved Mike still has a good moral compass. He was self aware enough to realize the error of his ways early enough. And deep down, Mike did not want to do anything he would regret. So needless to say in retrospect, he was very grateful that Chester cared enough to call him out whenever it was needed.

“I know, innocent until proven guilty,” Mike nodded as he opened up the notebook in front of him and placed it down in front of Chester, “So I did some digging, it’s not much but it’s enough. The current owner’s name is Troy Gentry, he was born in the late 60s so any sort of involvement is impossible. And his parents are out of the picture.”

“Dead?”

“No, retirees in Florida,” Mike replied while Chester looked over the page filled to the brim with notes. He and Mike appeared to have different definitions of not much, “But a source told me they haven’t been in contact in years beyond anything store related.”

Chester lifted his head to face Mike with an inquisitive look, “Let me guess, Anna?”

“Yeah,” Mike confirmed after a beat of silence went by, “She told me in exchange for accompanying her to a witchcraft convention. Anyways good news, Troy never wanted to take over the store in the first place. He wants to move to Nashville and be in a country band with his boyfriend that lives there.”

“So he was forced into the business?” Chester asked for clarification as he closed the notebook.

Mike nodded, “Yes, that part is not so good, but everything else is. It’ll be easier to get the store from him. Now the next step would be to figure out how to tempt him into selling the store if need be. Problem is I’m not a full fledged demon yet so I can’t find any info about them, magically.”

Mike paused for a few seconds in thought. Eventually his pensive countenance shifted into a mixture of anxiousness and horror. He spoke with slightly wide eyes, “I’m gonna have to wing it.”

Chester laughed with an easygoing smile, “Nothing wrong with winging it. And you’ll have me to help you.”

“My first thought is making one of those demon deals but I don’t even know if we can make a demon deal. We have a limited amount of power so logic says no and we’re still alive and….” Mike stopped his train of thought, the rest of the words faded out as he groaned quietly in frustration. He wished he knew for sure what they could do with their magic.

Yeah Mike has a good idea based on what he did with the image consultant guy. But on the other hand, if he knew exactly what he can and can’t do then he could plan accordingly. Improvisation wasn’t exactly his strong suit. That was more Chester’s deal. 

“You guessed correctly. Can’t make a deal while you’re still human,” A new voice chimed in and it immediately caught Mike and Chester’s attention. In front of their table was a tall man who looked to be in his 30s. He had a beard and thick wavy hair that went down to his shoulders. 

It was impeccable timing to receive an answer just like that. A coincidence one would expect in a bad cliched filled movie or tv show. 

“Oh, damn,” Mike commented impulsively, quiet but still loud enough for Chester and the man to hear. 

“Eager to own a soul huh?” The man laughed good naturedly before he introduced himself as Chris. The fact he blinked and flashed a pair of black eyes quickly confirmed he was indeed a demon, “Well I’m sorry to butt in but I fear we may have a conflict of interest.”

The two tensed up with a sudden spike of nerves as Chris invited himself to sit down on Mike’s side of the table. Even seated the demon was taller than Mike and, by proxy, Chester as well.

Now there was another question, did Chris hear everything? Which honestly probably did since demons can hear more acutely than a human. On one hand damn it, there was a part of Chester that hoped the two of them would be able to keep things to just their own little world. Nobody’s business but their own. Chester felt somewhat disappointed their attempt at secrecy was not to be. In this case anyways, they did manage to do a good job of keeping it under wraps from the rest of the band.

Somehow.

On the other at least it wasn’t the paparazzi or a fan who overheard them.

“What do you mean?” Mike carefully asked as he faced the demon. Chris’ eyes were now back to its piercing shade of blue. Despite the casual demeanor and friendly vibe, there was a level of intimidation exuded from Chris. 

“So I didn’t catch everything you two said, but I heard enough. You’re going after Troy Lee Gentry, owner of Wholesome Country Foods, correct?-” Chris asked, his interest piqued as he raised an eyebrow. 

Mike felt another wave of nerves shoot up his spine. That was the name of the grocery store that was stolen from his family. The very same one he was targeting. 

“-and I’ve been playing the slow game. Well, fairly slow, over the last six months. As you know, the owner is desperate to get out of the family business, hates his life here so much he’s eager to do anything to move to Nashville. Anything, with a capital A,” Chris held up his first finger and thumb close together in the air for emphasis, “And I’m this close to owning his soul.”

“So you’re saying you got here first?” Chester asked for clarification. Due to their schedule with Linkin Park, they didn’t have enough time to do research in one extensive sitting until over the summer. So frankly it made sense for them to be beaten to the punch. Which honestly kinda sucked but what can you do? Is what it is.

Chris nodded as he glanced at him, “Correct. Now like I said you can’t make a deal yet, but say you can. There’s an etiquette you’d have to follow, basically a human soul is on a first dibs basis. It would be considered rude to outright steal a target out from another demon. And a lower ranked demon wouldn’t think to try that shit on a high ranking demon like an Archduke.”

Chris pointed to himself on the last part. An awkward silence fell over the table as the implications sunk in. Mike and Chester stared at each other with a mutual panicked look while Chris on the other hand didn’t look the slightest pissed off. If anything he was amused.

“Relax guys, we’re cool. I didn’t expect you to know since you two are still alive. I’m assuming you weren’t told about this?” Chris asked and both vocalists shook their heads. Chris nodded as if he just dispensed some sage advice. He exhaled, “Figured. That’s the kinda shit you learn after you’ve arrived in Hell.”

“Makes sense,” Chester said before Chris continued.

“Also it's rare for whoever made the deal to get a certain amount of power, so there’s no point in telling them the rules before they become demons. All you really need to know right now is don’t piss off a demon.”

“Right yes um,” Mike awkwardly stammered. He was uncomfortably unsure of what to do. There was no wiggle room in his master plan for unexpected obstacles. Sure he knew he might need to make a tweak or two but something of this magnitude was wholly out of the blue. 

Therefore he was at a loss of what to do. Eventually Mike tentatively asked, “How should we go about this then?”

“It depends,” Chris said, still as easygoing as before, “Either I help you or I politely tell you I got here first. What’s your motive for going after Mr. Gentry?”

“Oh um, I just want to buy back the grocery store. It’s been stolen from my family back in the 40s,” Mike answered and Chris’ face lit up as realization dawned on him a moment later.

“You’re the guy Mark has been telling everyone about, Michael Kenji Shinoda! We’re all looking forward to the day you take over the throne,” Chris mentioned as his voice grew excitedly, “I’m not even fucking kidding.”

Mike, as well as Chester, was instantly confused at this revelation. Chris took this as his cue to explain further, “Ever since the failed apocalypse 13 years ago Mark has been the de facto leader and he fucking hates it. I mean really fucking hates it. He likes being in charge but he’d rather experience sauntering vaguely downwards into the sulfur pits again then be in the spotlight. He wants to go back to being an Archduke, a leader behind the scenes.”

“Couldn’t he just ask anyone else to take over if he didn’t like being in charge?” Chester wondered out loud. Chris then shifted his attention towards him. Despite the fact his blue eyes were friendly and bright, there was still a subtle commandeering quality underneath.

“Good question Chester. He didn’t trust anyone other than me, Anna, or Talinda to not royally fuck up everything that keeps Hell running smoothly. I was busy with Soundgarden at the time and both Talinda and Anna didn’t feel like they could take on the role.”

A beat. 

Chris spoke again and sufficiently got the conversation back on track, “But back to what I’m here for. Mike I do believe this can be beneficial to the both of us,” Now it was Mike’s turn for his face to light up as Chris got out his phone and flipped it open, “So like I said, Troy is desperate to get out of the whole running a grocery store deal. It’s been in his dad’s family for years and he basically forced Troy to take over once he finished college.”

Several hours later at the crossroads of a secluded intersection outside of town, stood Chris, Chester and Mike. On the other side of Chris was a tall man with short brown hair and a nicely toned body.

It was also literally minutes to midnight underneath a cloudless, starry sky. Frankly it was refreshing to see the night sky without all the light pollution, all the stars twinkled above in a magnificent display. Gave off romantic vibes too. But it wasn’t time to focus on that. 

There was a ball of hellfire suspended in air a good few feet above them which provided both light and a comfortable warm temperature. Chris has stayed with Mike and Chester since he had predicted it would be sooner than later when he would be summoned. And when that happened, he simply took the two vocalists along for the ride.

“You look familiar,” Troy pointed at Chris, a genuine bewildered look overtook his face

“I should. I’ve been hanging out with you for the past several months,” Chris replied with a chuckle.

“You mean to tell me you've been a demon this whole entire time?” Troy exclaimed in complete astonishment. Chris merely just stood there nonchalantly with his hands in his pockets.

“Yes. Although don’t get it wrong, I may be an Archduke but I do want to help. You still want to move to Nashville to be a country singer, yeah? It's all up to you.”

Troy took a moment before he exhaled silently with a nod, “My mom is not gonna be happy if she finds out but at this point I don’t fucking care. I want to be on the first plane out of this goddamn place tomorrow morning. Eddie has been waiting for me long enough to move and start a band with him”

“Well Troy you’re in luck then! Remember how I told you I found a buyer to take the store off your hands,” Chris gestured over towards the two Linkin Park members who stood just off to the side, “The one without tattoos is Mike. He’s the one whose family your granddaddy stole the business from.”

Troy was hit with an onslaught of genuine shock at this startling new information. He spared a quick glance at Chester and Mike, “What do you mean stolen? I mean my grandparents aren’t exactly saints but I was told they got it fair and square.”

“What did they tell you?” Mike asked curiously as he took a couple steps closer.

“They told me the Shinoda’s signed it over before they got sent to Manzanar and when they got out, they'd sign it back. But they never came back and my grandparents didn’t know how to find them so they kept the store.”

A beat.

Then Mike started to laugh in great disbelief. An abrupt string of laughter devoid of any humor before his face hardened on a dime and his eyes set ablaze with fire. 

“They told you that? Really?!” Mike spat out, “Well they fucking told you wrong! Your grandparents are fucking liars, racist liars. They did in fact come back! But you know what they saw?! Do you want to know what was written on the windows?”

“Uhh…”

“They fucking saw ‘No-” 

“They wrote racist shit on the windows!” Chester shouted as he immediately cut off Mike after he sensed a severe increase in power.

Chester at this point had one hand over his mouth and an arm tightly around his stomach. Mike grabbed at Chester’s arm in an attempt to break free but unfortunately for him the latter grew the several inches needed to sufficiently hold him in place. Chester was rightfully worried all hell would break loose if Mike wasn’t reign back right the fuck now.

Nobody here needed Mike to lose control of himself and send an innocent person to the hospital. Or worse. That would be bad for everyone involved. 

Mike struggled to pull Chester’s hand from his mouth, but Chester struggled just as much to keep a steady grip on him. 

“Well fuck they never told me that!” Troy exclaimed once more in shock.

“Of course they fucking didn’t!” Mike managed to pull free just enough to shout in anger, “They were narrow minded bigots who gave in to fucking paranoia and government issued propaganda. I can fucking guarantee you they watched all the Japanese get rounded up onto the trains like it was some fucking zoo!”

“What are you talking about?” Troy looked more genuinely bewildered than before.

“Internment camps. Did you know that? Did you know this oh so fucking great nation of ours treated all of the Japanese citizens like fucking criminals after Pearl Harbor. The fucking government locked them all up until the end of the war- ” Mike snapped, words dripping with venom. By now he tried his very hardest to break free of Chester but, much to his chagrin, it was futile.

Meanwhile Chris moved to stand in between Troy and Mike in order to stop any possible outburst and keep the peace.

“-And guess what?! They were all innocent. All 120,000 of them. Including my family,” Mike finished as the adrenaline ran through him at full speed with white hot fury, “You ruined my family!”

“Micheal! Don’t you fucking dare pull the guilty by association bullshit,” Chester covered his mouth once more as he sharply chastised him. He leaned in close to his ear, “That is such a fucking baseless claim and you know it. He specifically didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“He’s right, I was born in 1967 so how the hell was I able to ruin your family? I didn’t even know the history of the store was all a lie until just now. And even if I was born back then I would’ve wanted nothing to do with my shitty family! Just the same as it is now. Plus I would’ve never condoned locking innocent people up,” Troy replied back with full sincerity.

“Let me go!” Mike demanded despite his words being muffled.

“No,” Chester steadfastly kept his grip despite the fact it was getting harder to do so. By now he was using every single bit of energy he had to keep Mike contained, “Not until you fucking cool it.”

“I think it would be best if I take Troy and finish the deal elsewhere,” Chris said as he stood in front of Troy, “I’ll text you afterwards.”

“Please do. I don’t think I can hold Mike for much longer,” Chester said with notable relief. 

_______________________________

Mike was now the brand new owner of a grocery store and the land it sits on. 

“I was thinking…” Mike said softly as he snuggled closer to Chester under the covers. Ever since they’ve gotten back to their hotel room, a seed was planted in his mind. A new idea for payback, “So we know half the town is owned by Troy’s family on his dad’s side right?”

“Yeah,” Chester waited for him to continue. 

“Well what if I take it all from them? Take all the land they accrued over the years from their racist little hands,” Mike declared with a slightly louder voice. His eyes lit up as he shared this new addition to the plan, “And add it to the Shinoda Empire.”

“Mike…” Chester groaned sleepily as he locked eyes with him. 

“What?! It’s a great idea. This is a way to bring even more justice to my family. This is sweeter revenge Chester.” A pause then Mike gasped as he pushed himself up and over his boyfriend, “Don’t tell me you’re against this idea?!”

Chester rolled his eyes at this reaction in slight irritation, “I’m fucking not Mike, you know that. I just meant it’s 2am. Let’s figure it out tomorrow morning when we’re both rested.”

A scant moment passed as Mike blushed in slight embarrassment. He laid back down, “Oh, right yeah…sorry.”

Chapter Text

It’s mid spring of 2007, just about a month before they were to release Minutes to Midnight. All six members of Linkin Park were in the studio to finish up the last track. Technically it was already finished but somewhere along the line most of the members decided there was something slightly off about it. Something about it just inexplicably did not mesh well. 

The vocals on the other hand were top notch.

But it was very annoying to say the least because everyone thought they were done with it the other day. Finally fucking done and ready to go. To be fair, it was late at night so their collective exhaustion played a big factor in their collective decision honestly. So now since it's been a few days and they were all well rested with fresh new eyes and it still somewhat sucked just enough to warrant another look. 

It wasn’t what a perfectionist like Mike and Chester wanted to hear. But after a minute or two of thinking, they also decided it needed a few tweaks here and there. Which, much to their chagrin, turned into a full lyrical rewrite. All complete with comments from the peanut gallery. Just what the two frontman of Linkin Park wanted.

Oh joy.

This was gonna take up most of the day wasn’t it? Hell this was probably gonna end up being an all night session as well. By that point, everyone would’ve gone home to their comfy beds and it’ll be Mike and Chester left in the studio.

Which wasn’t a bad thing all things considered. They have been known to take advantage of their privacy so to speak before falling asleep on the couch.

Two hours into this Chester was unexpectedly pulled away by Ryan for a second. Apparently his bandmates from his sideband, Dead by Sunrise, were also putting the final touches. Which was fine, Mike was busy going through a rewrite anyways while the rest were on a twenty minute break. It would be quick, Ryan promised. They just needed him to add in vocals for a missing line they didn’t realize until just now. 

“So sorry about this by the way,” Amir apologized just after Chester and Ryan entered the other studio room, “We literally didn’t fucking catch this until almost a hour ago.”

“We thought we had everything recorded,” Ryan added, “We went looking to see if we misplaced the recording but turns out we never did in the first place.”

“It’s alright,” Chester reassured him with a friendly easygoing smile. 

He was more than happy to help his friends. Plus in hindsight it was an honest mistake. Ryan told him what song was missing vocals on the way over and it tracked. Chester initially laid down his vocals for said song a week ago. He remembered it being so late it was officially the next morning when they finally walked out of the studio. He was so exhausted he couldn’t think of anything else but crawling into bed next to Mike. Nothing else mattered.

Chester reckoned the same can be said for the other two if none of them thought to double check if everything was done. 

“Can I listen to what we have first since it’s been a while?” Chester asked as he grabbed the lyric sheet for the song. The other two agreed and he walked inside the small windowed space.

Chester put on his headphones and from then on it was just another Tuesday. A trio of musicians doing their job to make sure people get the best possible version of their next album. Not too dissimilar to the situation at hand on the Linkin Park side. 

Thank god it was a small, easy thing to fix. 

Nothing noteworthy happened, that was until shortly after Chester finished a few takes. He and Ryan were behind Amir around the computer, about to check out the final version on the list when suddenly there was a loud distant bang. The sound was sharp enough to bring everything to an immediate stop. Ominous silence filled the room as all their concentration went out the door without so much as a by your leave.

Needless to say, their concentration was fully broken. The atmosphere turned heavy with a side of uncertainty as all three faced each other awkwardly. None of them were sure if something fell down or if someone got hurt. Either option was an equal possibility. 

Both Ryan and Chester automatically looked at Amir in lieu of directly asking what was the best move to make. Force of habit. It stemmed from years ago when the former two were teens and needed an adult to take charge of the situation. Or to give advice if needed. Understandable given Amir was like a combination of an older brother and the parental figure they never had. 

However before Amir can even begin to think of a response, there was yet another sudden cacophonous bang. But this time the volume was greater, as if something exploded from somewhere inside the building. This time the boys were spurred into action. Adrenaline rushed through Chester as he opened the door and ran down the hallways and around corners with Amir and Ryan right after him.

There was barely anyone else in the building save for the Dead by Sunrise and Linkin Park members. And the bang sounded way too close for it to be outside. Both studios were deep inside the building so it just felt impossible to be otherwise. From that alone anyone could easily surmise it had to have come from the other occupied room.

Chester didn’t really need his otherworldly senses to figure it all out. As he got closer and closer, the more it was obvious it was his bandmates. Why? Simply because at one point he and the other two started hearing an angry mix of voices. The most prominent being Brad followed by Dave. The sound boomed through the air just as Chester rounded the corner. 

The voices died down as soon as Chester entered the room. To say the room was less orderly than before when he left would be the understatement of the year. First thing he noticed, aside from five pairs of eyes staring at him, was the various broken equipment in the room. From the analog mixing machines to the recording booth and computer monitors, all were in different levels of disrepair. 

And there was a good size dent in the wall above said computers.

Next was the fact Mike looked to be in a state of shock. He seized up something fierce with a mixture of panic, despair and massive regret etched deeply over his face. He opened his mouth as if to say something but nothing came out save for an awkward sound. It was obvious he wasn’t in control of the situation and therefore was at a loss of what to do.

A moment passed before Brad spoke with a somewhat hysterical laugh in disbelief, “Hey Chester you came at the right time. You missed the entire show.”

“What do you mean?” Chester asked. His blood ran icy cold as his gut sunk to the deepest pits in his soul in an agonizing crush. Something told him this had to do with his and Mike’s demonic nature. And since Mike can have a short temper, well, the cat must’ve been let out of the bag so to speak. 

Which wasn’t good at all. Not good at all. Especially when you were in a band and had two members more on the religious side. It was one of the reasons Chester and Mike have easily decided long ago that it was better in the long run to keep everything a secret. Sure there were cases here and there were people who made deals and told their friends or relatives about it. But the reality of it going pear shaped was too great of a risk to chance it. 

“He grew horns and-and a tail-” Dave blurted out with a look of horror. Well that just confirmed it. Chester glanced over at Mike who was visibly shaking by now. It was painfully obvious he was on the path to a straight up panic attack. 

Right now all he wanted to do was to run over, scoop Mike into his arms and protect him from the world. 

Chester shifted his attention back to Brad and Dave, he wasn’t sure how to go about this. Unfortunately it sounded like it would be too hard for what’s it worth to play it as something else. There was also the unethical option of using the power of persuasion to make the two to forget. But Chester sure as hell did not want to do that. If he did, he’d be no better than the person who forced himself on a younger him. 

Chester did not want to steal someone’s consent in any sort of way. 

Therefore the best decision would be to let it all out. Confess everything since the opportunity to salvage the secret was beyond the point of no return.

Dave pointed an accusatory finger at Mike in utter freight, “-He’s a demon!”

“Not exactly,” Chester put his hands in his jean pockets as he adopted the best casual and unfazed reaction he could muster. Deep down however he was just as panicking as Mike was on the outside. 

“What do you mean not exactly?!” Dave asked in a higher pitch. By now Rob gently pulled Mike into his arms while Amir and Ryan moved to a spot behind Chester. Joe didn’t move from his place near Rob and Mike by the couch.

“Mike is on his way to being one. He’s still human,” Chester replied calmly with a shrug for good measure, “But he went on down to Georgia to make a deal with the Devil. And I went along.”

Chester proceeded to conjure up his own illusion of horns and a tail, which then elicited audible gasps from around the room sans Mike.

Chester continued, “I got the same bonus as Mike, a small amount of magic.”

“Holy shit they look cool,” Ryan said out loud without much thought. His eyes were big with awe and wonder. 

Maybe too loud because now both Brad and Dave shot him a narrow pointed look.

Chester looked over his shoulder and grinned, “Thanks, they’re pretty fucking sweet aren’t they.”

Ryan laughed in agreement, “Yeah they are. Oh you know what we should do? We should do a Hell theme music video and you can play the Devil. It’ll be awesome! And cheaper cause you already look the part,” Ryan said as inspiration hit him ten fold.

“I’ve always wondered if you were ever gonna follow your sister’s footsteps sooner than later,” Amir commented with an easygoing, pensive tone, “When did you guys make your deal?”

“Seven years ago.”

“Can we please get back on track?!” Dave asked impatiently. Chester immediately returned his attention back around to the front.

“So you two made a deal to gain what, magic powers?” This time it was Brad who asked a question. Just as dumbstruck as Dave was. 

“Nope. I asked for fame and Mike wanted revenge,” Chester acted nonchalant. Like it was a standard topic among casual society.

“This can’t-do-do you realize what you two have done?” Dave sputtered as his voice rose an octave in pitch. Chester meanwhile continued to remain unbothered, “You basically got a one way ticket to eternal damnation. You’re gonna get tortured forever!”

“Yeah, what’s your point? Not like life hasn’t shoved me though the ringer  enough already Dave,” Chester said defensively. Straightforward and devoid of any kind of humor, “If anything I got a fucking preview.”

Brad turned to Dave, confused, “Wait, Hell as in Supernatural or Hellraiser?”

“I don’t really-” Dave replied, only to be interrupted by Chester. 

By now the horns and tail have disappeared into the nether. 

“Good Omens,” Both Brad and Dave stared at Chester in bewilderment, “It’s a novel. Tobi told me it’s the closest depiction to what Hell is actually like. By the way, fun fact, the Apocalypse almost succeeded 17 years ago. It's the one thing the book got right a hundred percent. Or so I’m told.”

“Blasphemer!” Dave instantly declared with a dramatic fervor as he pointed straight at Chester.

Chester rolled his eyes in noticeable annoyance and gave him an unimpressed look, “May I remind you who didn’t go to seminary school.”

Meanwhile Ryan barked out a laugh on impulse. Which only caused Dave to glare at him with unmitigated irritation.

“You think this is funny?!” 

Ryan put up his hands in the air in a placating manner, “Sorry, not meaning to be disrespectful. It’s just you’re starting to sound a lot like my parents and they were overly religious. They’d loudly proclaim something blasphemous in public from time to time. Honestly it was embarrassing. One of the reasons why I ran off to LA at 15 and moved in with Amir.”

“Hold on back up, you said Tobi, as in your sister Tobi?” Brad asked for clarification. For the past few seconds his brain was caught on the name. It was only now that he realized the overwhelming implications of what Chester just said.

All this newfound revelation of a bigger reality kept getting more and more surreal for both Brad and Dave. For entirely different reasons of course.

“Yep.”

“She’s a demon?” 

Chester nodded yes without a beat.

“More than that actually, she’s the new Prince of Hell.” Chester continued beaming while Dave let out a horrified noise, “I’m so proud of my big sis.”

“You’re-you’re proud of her?” Dave asked as his face blanched in complete shock.

Chester tilted his head in genuine confusion, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Why wouldn’t-she’s a demon Chester! An evil being devoid of all humanity. I can guarantee you she is not the same Tobi you know and love.”

“Hey, watch it, Ferrall. I’d be the fucking judge of that,” Chester warned as he shot him a death glare. He clenched his fists tightly, “It’s been three and a half years and so far she’s hasn’t given me a fucking reason to fret about.” 

The abrupt shout filled the room as Chester’s one eye filled entirely with an unsettling shade of blackness. Simultaneously, his flame tattoos glowed for the briefest of seconds. This all caused Dave to reel backwards a couple or so steps into the wall, left shaken like no other. 

In the back Mike flinched slightly in Rob’s arms while Ryan’s eyes grew bigger in awe.

“Whoa did you see that?” Ryan leaned down to whisper excitedly to Amir. There was a boyish smile on his face, “His tattoos lit up, it looked fucking sick!”

“Ryan, not now,” Amir whispered back in a slightly firm tone. It certainly wasn’t the right time to gush over cool little details about Chester’s nature. However he conceded, “I agree, it does look cool.”

Meanwhile while Brad, Dave and Chester were embroiled in further conversation, Joe and Rob tried to comfort Mike as much as they possibly could. Rob sat down on the soft couch and hugged him tightly with one arm across his back and the other around his neck. Mike on the other hand buried his head in Rob’s clothes. 

Joe sat next to Rob and rubbed soothing circles on Mike’s back. Between this and the hug, it seemed to help ease some of the tension for the most part. Still, the best thing to do was to get him out of the room pronto. Go to another much quieter part of the building where Mike can finally relax and destress. Painfully obvious the chaos here was not conducive to his well being.

“I think we should get Mike out of here,” Joe said in a low voice full of concern. With how close he was to Rob, he can hear the subtle overwhelmed cries from Mike. 

Rob nodded and proceeded to slip his arms underneath Mike in order to hold him bridal style. However the moment the two stood up, Brad asked a question that caught their attention.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand, why would Mike even want revenge? That doesn’t make any fucking-” 

“He’s half Japanese, think about it! His grandparents immigrated to the fucking US sometime before World War Two,” Chester yelled exasperatedly as another glow of light pulsed from his tattoos. His voice, while still the same volume, was barely just past the point into a bone fide scream this time around.

A beat then Brad replied just as annoyed, “So? What the fuck does that have to do with anything?!”

Chester took in a deep breath in order to keep himself collected enough. Honestly it probably should be Mike answering, it’s his family story. The only confinement in his immediate family history was prison courtesy of his uncle after a failed bank heist back in Wales. Unfortunately Mike was currently out of commission. Too deep within panic mode to put forth coherent enough words. As such, well, this was an awkward situation. 

“Internment camps Brad, ever heard of them?” Joe suddenly spoke up with a force that caught everybody in the room off guard. His casual steady facade belied the undercurrent of irritation underneath.

Everyone in the room, well aside from Mike, swiftly turned their heads around to face him. A few seconds passed in dead silence.

“I assume that’s what his revenge is about right?” Joe directed his next question at Chester who only nodded, Joe took in the information before he continued thoughtfully, “That makes sense. I did a presentation on them for history class in high school.”

“It's why he was given magic. It's to help him along with his revenge goals,” Chester added, his voice down to a much calmer level. 

Brad furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion for a literal second before a metaphorical lightbulb went off in his eyes. Dave however was still thoroughly puzzled. 

“I still don’t understand, weren’t they for enemy POWs?” Dave asked as he looked between Chester and Joe.

The very moment the sentence left Dave’s mouth, all of the lights in the studio went out with a sharp bang. Then the ominous sounds of cracks in the ceiling followed. As a result, the room was left shrouded in darkness save for the light coming in from the hallway. Simultaneously Chester had thrown up his hands to create a protective shield around everyone. Thankfully no pieces fell and a few tentative seconds later, the shield disappeared.

Chester immediately knew this was Mike and thus did not blame him one bit. 

He immediately faced the youngest member of the band. A take charge attitude was evident in his demeanor, “Rob get Mike out of here, now!” 

Rob nodded automatically. He quickly walked towards the open doorway with Joe following him out into the hallway.

________________________________________________

1993 and Chester was 17. 

It was just like any other day of the week. Same old bullies, same old homework and same old bullshit. High school was very much more tolerable before Ryan graduated. Comparatively speaking.

But in any case Chester was always happier to be out of school than in it.

Anyway, he had just turned around on the corner where the apartment complex was. Backpack slung over one shoulder and his free hand in his pocket, he was lost in his thoughts. He planned on doing his homework first, and surprisingly it was a lighter workload than usual, which was nice. 

There were loud chaotic noises in the distance but at first he didn’t register it. Too lost in his thoughts about plotting revenge on the school that he knew he would never act upon it. Plus in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t unusual to hear people in arguments or whatever in this area so he didn’t pay too close of an attention. Most of the time it was just background noise and as long as one minded their own business, everything would be fine.

It wasn’t until he was halfway to the building when he realized the background noises were becoming both louder and familiar. Really familiar. Chester stopped in his tracks and wasn’t long before he realized he could make out at least two of the voices. Ryan and Amir.

The rest of the voices he didn’t recognize but they sure were viciously hostile and downright mean. Whoever it was spew nasty hateful words and the more he listened, the more his blood boiled. It took Chester nothing but a second to discover the source, the nearby alleyway a short distance away. It was easy to figure who the unfortunate target was if the demand to go back to Iran was any indication.

From this point on, the events were a blur. Chester dropped his backpack on the ground near the entryway and jumped into the fray alongside Ryan and Amir.

It wasn’t until afterwards Chester recognized the two assailants who said all those hurtful and utterly vile things to his father figure. 

Of course the fucking asshole just had to be the son of the principle of the school he goes too. And of course his number one lackey was here too. Chester just knew deep down in his bones they were gonna twist things to their advantage and make things hell on him. 

Which, to make a long story short, was how Chester was pulled out his junior year and ended up with a GED. 

_____________________________________________________

Dave, Brad and Joe ended up at Mike and Chester’s place the next day. Joe had questions for the latter two and Dave wanted to sincerely apologize for his ignorant question. Hence the hug that was going on right now between Mike and Dave. It lasted several seconds before the two mutually broke the hug and took a casual step back. 

All five out of six Linkin Park members stood in the area between the front door and the living room. Mike stood in front of Chester while Dave was next to Brad.

“I-uhh, thank you again for the apology, I appreciate it,” Mike said with a cordial but sincere smile all the same. 

Earlier on Dave explained how Brad gave him a short rundown on everything. Well if ‘short rundown’ meant a proper reprimand for an hour and a half. He remembered, too late in hindsight, the first time Mike explained what internment camps were years ago. And Dave felt horrible he blanked out on this particular important piece of information about Mike’s family. Plus he’s shown deep regret over impulsive asking it in the heat of the moment.

Apparently Brad has given him quite the harsh lecture. 

A scant moment of silence passed before Mike continued. His voice was cordial and straight to the point, “Frankly I’m still disappointed, especially since we’ve known each other long enough David. But I forgive you,” Mike ultimately said after a brief pause. The use of Dave’s full first name did what it was supposed to, aka it shook him to the core.

It was true. Mike may have forgiven him, but goddamn it he’d be a fucking liar if he said he wasn’t greatly annoyed it even happened in the first place. 

Dave nodded and said thanks before he turned around and calmly walked out the door. Brad followed him but stopped right outside the threshold into the apartment. He faced both Chester and Mike with a cold hard glare.

“Don’t think we haven’t forgotten about the whole demon thing,” Brad said curtly as he jabbed a finger in their direction.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Chester deadpanned before he abruptly waved his hand up in the air to slam the door shut via invisible magic. 

Afterwards Mike’s resolve broke, the stoic demeanor he had mere seconds ago was now a thing of the past. He deflated as a mixture of uncertainty, aggravation and guilt broke through the cracks and took a hold of him. Honestly Mike couldn’t describe in detail how he felt at this very moment. All he knew for sure was he felt lost and out of control of his current situation. 

Except the parts with Chester. Things with him hadn’t changed and for that he was very grateful. He was the one steady constant in this whole mess. Still with that said, was he angry at him deep inside? Was he pissed he had to spill the beans? Well Mike knew he chose that route because any other options wouldn’t exactly be morally just, Chester told him as such. But it had to be annoying on a level or two. If indeed his boyfriend was angry at him then he wasn’t doing a good job showing it.

What made it all worse was that Mike knew he was the one that caused all this in the first place. Why in the fucking world did he have to lose his temper like that. And over something so minor too in the grand scheme of things. Just because he was told his lyrics didn’t sound like music, it didn’t necessitate the reaction it caused. Even if it was pretty fucking disheartening to hear.

Mike shouldn’t let his emotions rule his actions. Otherwise the whole demon thing would’ve still been a secret and Linkin Park probably wouldn’t be on the verge of collapse. Or a hiatus, who knows? 

Ok to be fair his brain was busy going into Maximum Anxiety Mode. Brad and Dave haven’t actually explicitly said anything to imply anything of the short. Just that they wanted some distance for now. Which alright, fine he supposed. Truthfully the best outcome would be if the two parties within the band end up being akin to coworkers. Not what he desired, part of Mike hoped things would go back to normal fairly quickly, but it was the most realistic. 

Whether he liked it or not.

“Do you mind if we still talk,” Joe asked calmly and Chester nodded after a scant moment went by.

“Sure yeah. Mike, do you want to join us?” Chester asked, concerned as he glanced over to him. Mike appeared to be on the north side of zoned out, not to mention he looked just plain exhausted. 

If Mike wanted to sit this one out and go back to their room then it would be more than understandable. Been through quite a bit within the last 24 hours. 

But Mike opted to join so he took Chester’s hand into his. They both followed Joe from behind to the living room proper. Joe sat down in one of the armchairs while the two vocalists sat together on the couch. A few seconds of awkwardness then fell over their heads. It was almost stifling to be honest.

“So Mike,” Joe began softly but with conviction as he first addressed Mike, “While I wouldn’t have done it myself, I understand why you made the deal. Revenge for the injustice your family has been put through in the past.”

Mike looked up from a spot on his lap to Joe. He gave Chester’s hand a good squeeze as a way to ground himself, “You do?”

“My parents were born in South Korea at the tail end of the Japanese colonial period. And their parents lived through it. Of course I do Mike,” Joe said matter of factly. He looked idly at a spot on the floor before he returned his attention back to his two bandmates, “I even had a dream last night.”

An expectant silence filled the room as Mike and Chester locked their attention onto Joe. A moment later he lifted his gaze back up and continued.

“I dreamt I made a deal for revenge for all the shit my grandparents and their family went through. I don’t remember all the details now but I do remember taking over Japan before I woke up.”

Joe then shifted his gaze over to Chester. A few moments of tense silence went by before he simply asked, “So you wished for fame. Care to elaborate?” Joe simply asked.

Chester straightened himself up. Despite the calm neutral front Joe put on, he can sense the irritation present within him, “It was to give us a push. Nothing more, nothing less. Do you remember the early days?”

A beat then Joe nodded.

“The band kept getting rejected and rejected no matter how much we practiced. No matter how much we finetuned our music. No matter how much effort we fucking put into every fucking single showcase, the record label bozos kept passing us by. You’re a fucking genius when it comes to DJ’ing. Mike is a fucking genius when it comes to rapping and producing our songs. The same goes for the others with their skills. But how the fuck could we show our talents and awesome music to the world if we weren’t even given the chance in the first fucking place?”

Another beat. The force of Chester’s voice meant he had command of everyone’s full attention. Which in this case was pretty much Joe. Mike was too lost in his thoughts to pay full attention. He only registered half of what was said.

Chester let the words sink in before he finished a couple seconds later. He swallowed down any nerves threatening to crop up. 

“And I wanted the band to succeed. I wanted to see you guys achieve your dreams of being a fucking rockstar. Admittedly mine too. So I thought I’d do my part and give Linkin Park a little fucking push past the dumbasses in charge. The rest afterwards is all our natural talent and hard work.”

“I see,” Joe replied as he locked eyes with Chester. He took in a deep breath then exhaled as he clasped his hands together, “Well I understand why you did it. But I gotta be honest, this is a fucking blow to my self esteem. I can’t help but feel like all of my achievements were for nothing. A little bit at least, like everything I did was kind of a lie.”

A beat then Chester nodded. He suddenly found an interesting spot on the ground to look at. It wasn’t any secret among the band members that Joe hoped their success would help him with his true passion in film directing.

“Remember the Grammys back in 2002?” Joe pointed to himself with both thumbs, “First Korean American to win an award.”

Chester grew wide eyed as the implications hit him. What he did has casted all of their awarded achievements, not just Joe’s, in a somewhat manufactured light. And the whole first Korean American to win a Grammy aspect was one of Joe’s proudest accomplishments. He groaned loudly and cursed loudly as he buried his face in his hands in notable regret. 

“Was I the first Japanese American?” Mike asked absentmindedly as he looked up at Joe. He only caught the last bit of what was said due to being distracted by his aforementioned thoughts.

"Hmm, I’m not sure actually,” Joe answered as his eyes darted slightly off to the side in thought. He returned his gaze onto Mike, “I do know neither of us was the first Asian American.

“Fucking hell Joe, I’m so fucking sorry,” Chester genuinely apologized as he lifted his head to face him. What a way to feel like the biggest heel of the century, “Is there anyway I can make it up?”

“Well there’s nothing we can do about it. What’s done is done,” Joe paused, then his face lit up. He put on quite a mischievous smile with the tone to match, “But, there is a way,”

“Name it,” Chester immediately said and Joe grinned bigger. 

Which, going from past experience, could only mean one thing. He was about to do something for Joe’s smug amusement. 

“You have to call me hyung,” Joe said then added after a bit of brief deliberation, “For six whole months.”

Chester stared at Joe while Mike chuckled lightly beside him. Truthfully Mike thought it would be something else that was legitimately on the immature, but ultimately harmless, side. But this? This was utterly wholesome if you asked him. 

Mike smiled warmly as he glanced over at Chester, “Aww I think that’ll be sweet.”

“Six months?!” Chester said out loud and Joe gave a definitive nod.

“Yes. Six months. Both public and in private, this means even during interviews Chester.”

“What?! I mean sure but someone is gonna ask why the sudden…” Chester trailed off as he awkwardly lost his train of thought. He felt a good shot of anxiety when Joe implied doing this in front of the press and whatnot.

Although this was definitely something the fans would get a kick out of too. No doubt about that. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll come up with a cover story. You, and Mike too if he wants, can bounce off of whatever I say,” Joe reassured with an easygoing cadence.

“Fine I can do that,” Chester conceded without any argument.

“Great. And just to make sure we’re all on the same page here, do you know what hyung means?”

“I think you told us before,” Chester replied albeit slightly unsure, “I know it's a Korean honorific.”

Joe nodded, “Yep. It's used for an older male, like a brother or friend and whatnot. And it would be the younger male that says it so typically I would call you hyung. But since this is a special case…” Joe grinned somewhat mischievously as he left the rest of the sentence unspoken.

And it wasn’t long before Chester caught the memo. He was told he acted like he was the youngest in the band anyhow. Youngest Child Syndrome and all that.

Chester sighed, “When do I start?”

“Now. Which speaking off, I should let Rob know about this,” Joe said out loud in a quieter voice. Almost as an afterthought.

“Holy shit Rob-” Chester exclaimed as both he and Mike tensed up in their seats.

They completely blanked out on Rob regarding recent events. What the fuck does he think about all this? They know where Joe, Dave and Brad stand on this whole demon thing but what about their drummer. Where does he stand? Mike really did not want to lose both of his high school friends over this. The possibility of one was already hard enough.

“-What does he think about me and Mike?” Chester asked concerned before Mike piped up at almost the same time.

“Does he want to leave the band?!” Mike asked worriedly as his overly anxious mind ran off the charts with the worst case scenario, “Does he never want to speak to us again for as long as he lives?” 

“Guys, guys don’t worry,” Joe held out his hands in a placating reassured manner, “I have it on good authority Rob is on our side. In fact the holier than thou brothers are pissed at him.”

A moment of silence stretched before Mike spoke with a perplexed expression over his face, “Dave and Brad are mad at him…why? He wasn’t the one that made a deal with a demon.”

Joe grinned knowingly. It was obvious he got some form of entertainment out of what he was about to share, “No, but our precious maknae shall we say has had an kink awakening.” 

Joe allowed the the other two time to registered the implications before he clarified further, “He likes the idea of being fucked by a demon. And I mean he really likes it. It's why he didn’t come along earlier. He’s too afraid of Little Rob showing up.”

“I-I mean…that sounds hot not gonna lie…but we aren’t actually demons yet,” Chester said, slightly confused if only because technically he and Mike are still humans. Just guaranteed to become demons upon their death.

“Right, but it's the whole magic thing. He says his brain is being weird and prematurely thinking you two are demons when it comes to his fantasies so boom newfound kink,” Joe explained as he mimicked something blowing up with his hands.

Chapter Text

It’s July and Linkin Park are now underway on their Project Revolution tour. 

“Don’t mean to be blunt…actually wait no, never mind I do mean it,” Talinda began abruptly. She and Chester just entered the dressing room where there was an apparent line made of salt drawn down the center of the room, “Your two bandmates are idiots.“

Honestly if she said this before the Incident then Chester would’ve made a rebuttal. But as it was, given the context, he was a hundred percent inclined to agree. In the months since May, Dave and Brad have grown to be worried about the two vocalists. To an unhealthy degree. They seemed to believe Chester and Mike instantly lost their humanity the moment they made the deal with a demon. 

And that the two were gonna tempt them and be dragged along to Hell. That aspect was more so on Dave’s part whereas Brad just became distrustful.

Hence the line of salt that divided the dressing room into two. It was a thing Brad and Dave started shortly after the secret was made known. A protective measure according to them, Chester rolled his eyes. There was no point to it, both he and Mike were still obviously the same person. And he voiced this even. Sure Mike needed practice to reign his powers in while highly emotional. But that doesn’t mean he plotted the band’s demise just cause he now has magic. A small amount but that’s neither here nor there. 

And the same goes for Chester.

Just because they had newfound magic didn’t mean they were about to do something malicious.

So all in all, this salt business thing was nothing but a display to signal fear and paranoia was behind Brad and Dave’s actions for the time being. The two even started carrying little bottles of holy water with them whenever they were around Chester and Mike in any capacity. 

Chester honestly wished they would chill the fuck out sooner then later. More for the sake of Mike and the band. He himself wasn’t too fazed actually. To him, this was just yet another piece of evidence that people are bastards with bastard coated filling. 

Mike on the other hand, well, he was put off by this to say the least. An understatement really, Brad and Dave’s reactions have stung him to the core. Shunned and unwanted within his own band just because of his nature. Or well, whatever it was called when you’re in between a deal made and becoming a demon. 

It was downright shitty how the two are treating Mike these days. Especially since Brad has known him for the longest out of all of them. One would think he would know better than to switch on a dime and act like he was some monstrous abomination. But here they fucking were. 

Needless to say, Brad’s approval rating got knocked down several points.

The only thing that kept Mike from spiraling any further, and by proxy the band, was Chester, Rob and Joe. 

With his hands in his pockets, Chester took one small step over the line of salt. He straddled the line. For him there was nothing, for Talinda however, there was an invisible force keeping her back.

“This doesn’t do worth shit against me and Mike,” Chester said as he faced Talinda. He was now completely on the other side of the line, obvious proof Brad and Dave didn’t quite know what they were doing.

“Like I said they’re idiots,” Talinda said nonchalantly as she crossed her arms, “Salt lines don’t work unless the target is a demon. It won’t have an effect on humans whether or not their souls have been marked for Hell. That also goes for any other methods to drive a demon away. Like holy water.”

A beat then Talinda added, “Although holy water is funny. If enough is thrown at a human whose soul is marked, then it can have an effect. Not as bad as a full blooded demon but enough to leave a nasty scar if not healed quickly enough.”

“What happens if the target is a demon?” Chester asked with trepidation. Part of him didn’t want to know. But another part knew it would be best to know for future reference.

“Oh well, it goes from a light burn to…complete and total annihilation. Just depends on the amount of holy water dumped on the demon,” Talinda explained, her tone just a smidgen too casual. She might as well shrugged and said it wasn’t a big deal.

Chester felt his blood run cold almost instantly as he froze with horror as soon as the last part of the sentence came out. Complete destruction. That’s what she said. And it sure as hell does not bode fucking well for him and Mike. 

“But the good news is, relatively speaking, if you know what you’re doing you can sense the danger and react accordingly. You can dispose of the problem and get out safely.”

“How?!” Chester blurted out, rather too dumbfounded for his liking.

“It depends on how powerful you are, but a demon can sense what’s in the vicinity around them,” Talinda glanced around and noticed a random can of soda on the nearby table. She gestured towards the can as she turned to face Chester, “It's empty but say that can was filled with holy water. I would’ve sensed it was a weapon the moment I got close enough to this room earlier.”

“Oh…”

“And if I really concentrated,” Talinda walked a couple of steps closer to Chester, “I could sense if there was any holy water in this building.”

Talinda allowed a moment of silence to go by before she continued, “A human has to be really clever to pull a fast one on a powerful demon with the holy water method. The less powerful demons you’d have an easier time. You can just hide it in a flask or a bottle that isn’t see through and you’re good to go.”

Chester nodded after he zoned out for a second, “I’ve noticed Brad and Dave started carrying a thermal water bottle every time they were with us in public like literally the week after the secret was blown. Also spray bottles.”

“Idiots,” Talinda signed heavily as she rolled her eyes. The two walked out into the hallway to head back to the tour bus. Show didn’t start for another hour and a half so there was still some time to kill.

“I assume they got some two bit pastor to make the blessing? Wait let me guess,” Talinda suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway to look at Chester, “They hired an absolute newbie from a run in the mill church?”

“Actually they got one from one of those megachurches.”

Talinda blinked then barked out a small laugh, “Oh my god that's even funnier. Most of the time, especially if a pastor tries to do the blessing in the original Latin, they’ll hundred percent of the time butchered it up. Which usually means either less potent holy water or ineffective holy water.”

Chester laughed, “Tobi told me the pastor scammed Brad and Dave out of several thousand dollars for his services. Initially it was gonna be for 2 grand but I asked my sister to tempt him to go higher, serves them right for how they’re acting.”

All hell broke loose the moment Chester and Talinda walked out the back door seconds later. It all started with Joe who seemingly appeared out of nowhere and ran towards them in a straight up panic. 

“Chester there you are,” Joe shouted wide eyed as he came to a stop and doubled over out of breath. He really needed to get in better shape. 

Chester grabbed Joe by the shoulders once he straightened up. The air around them grew ominously heavier with a mixture of panic and dread. He had a gut feeling something was terribly wrong. 

“What’s going on?!”

“It’s Mike. Do you remember how I told you Brad and Dave recently upgraded the security on their tour bus? Specialized water nozzles and everything. Even flew in a specialized priest?”

“Yeah?...” 

“He got hit with holy water. He’s hurt. Bad,” Joe said frantically, his voice tensed with fear.

“Fuck. Where is he?” Chester demanded, his body full of adrenaline. There was a subtle trace of demonic tone behind his voice.

“Tour bus. He mistook it for yours,” Joe answered without missing a beat, even when Chester’s grip on him became slightly tighter. 

A beat then he proceeded to run like hell towards where the tour buses were parked, his demonic speed kicking. Talinda followed suit while Joe struggled to keep up.

No sooner than he arrived near the entrance, Chester was bombarded with a sense of raw emotions. Pain and misery spilled out from inside the tour bus in thick waves. It was like he was hit with a category 5 hurricane of misery. Not to mention the anguished pained cries that were undoubtedly Mike’s, the kind that would haunt his dream for the foreseeable future. The sound only just added to the intensity of the storm. 

It just about suffocated Chester not gonna lie, but he didn’t give a shit. Nothing else mattered. Nothing in the universe was more important to him than getting Mike to safety. 

“Mike!” Chester ran towards the steps with the intent to get on the bus and make his way to his boyfriend. 

But frustratingly enough he wasn’t able to as Amir suddenly came out into the open air and intercepted.

“Chester wait, I don’t want you going in there,” Amir instructed firmly as he  gently pushed Chester back a step or two. His face etched with genuine concern for his well being.  

“Why?! Mike is fucking hurt!” Chester felt his indignation growing. Amir would always be the older brother he never had, but not even he will stand in his way.

The faint muffled cries continued to break his heart a million times over. And made him more determined than ever to get to Mike, anything else be damned.

“I know but I don’t want you to get hurt in the process. There’s holy water still everywhere. And there’s a fucking pentagram on the ceiling! Mike is completely stuck within a small circle.” 

“But-but that shouldn’t have any effect on us,” Chester was very much puzzled by this new revelation, “We’re not demons yet!”

“Unfortunately there is a way to trap even those marked for hell,” Talinda jumped in. There was a detectable note of confusion in her voice, “This kind of trap should’ve been almost impossible to find for the average person.”

Before anyone can respond, Chester spotted Brad and Dave out of the corner of his eyes. The moment he locked his sight on them, the duo immediately froze in place, stiff as a board. Suddenly it felt as if the whole world got deadly quiet. The only noise was the heartwrenching sounds from Mike in the background and Rob’s footsteps as he came into view at the top of the steps.

Joe also finally caught up by this point a few second ago. Just in time to watch the show so to speak.

The air grew thicker and thicker with tension as Chester fully faced the remaining two members of the band. Thick enough to cut with a knife. Silence stretched on for what felt like eons, an eternity as no one moved a muscle. 

It was almost like a Mexican Standoff if you will. One that was at high risk of turning into a very real rendition of the Running of the Bulls in Spain, Linkin Park style. And Chester was the bull. 

Rage flooded through Chester’s veins. Intense, white hot rage the temperature of a thousand suns. The anger only grew as the seconds ticked by until eventually his tattoos started to glow ominously. 

Then the tension abruptly snapped. Everything devolved into chaos within a second. 

“I’m gonna fucking kill you bastards!” Chester screamed with unbridled fury as he broke into a mad run. 

Almost simultaneously, Brad and Dave booked it towards the back doors the opposite way.

“Chester, wait,” Amir shouted as he ran after him. Joe and Rob followed not too far behind while Talinda stayed back with Ryan to help Mike.

The more Chester ran, the more he felt his adrenaline fueled power overtake him. This of course translated into faster speed, a good half a mile past then what was normal for humans. Brad and Dave should thank their lucky fucking stars he wasn't a full blown demon yet. 

Unfortunately for them, Chester did have enough magic to outwit any attempts to throw him off. He was very much determined to not let the culprits for Mike’s suffering go out of his sight. 

Brad and Dave weaved through a small group of people before they ran down an empty corridor. Now their next move would be to find a room to hide. Hopefully Chester would just run past them and they can slip out undetected. Put more distance between them and their pissed off vocalist, hopefully enough to give them time to formulate a plan.

But alas it was not to be. Just one second, one second that Brad and Dave decided to spare was all it took. One minute they were catching their breath and the next they were suspended in midair by a strong invisible force.

“You feel this?! This is only but a fucking fraction of how powerful I’ll be as a fucking demon! And I’ll be the Consort to the King of Hell to boot. You wanna fucking know what that means? That means I’ll be just as powerful as Mike!” Chester roared with righteous anger, his voice boomed throughout the hallway. He stood only a mere few feet away with only one arm stretched out in front of him. 

A beat.

Chester continued just as furious as ever, “Now unless you want me to give another fucking demonstration, I suggest you get it through your thick fucking skulls. Mike is the same fucking person as before, just with extra benefits. So give me one goddamn good reason why I shouldn’t kick your ass right now for hurting the one I love regardless of our friendship.”

Before Brad or Dave could muster up a reply, the magic dissipated and therefore was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. Hard. 

“Let me go!” Chester demanded right after he’d been simultaneously tackled by three people who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. 

Chester struggled, tried to get free as he wasn’t done with Brad and Dave just yet. But it was no use. Painfully clear after a few seconds anyways due to the weight on his back. Amir was strong himself but with the added pressure thanks to Rob and Joe, well, he should admit defeat. Chester was effectively pinned down a couple times over with no real fair way to break free.

(Chester never wanted to misuse his powers when it wasn't warranted.)

Amir held onto Chester’s wrists tightly while the other two leaned on top of the former.
 
“Let me go,” Chester repeated himself as he made another futile attempt. This time however, there was a demonic tone to his words.

But Amir wasn’t fazed. Not one bit, his eyes hardened into a warning glare as he tightened his grip on Chester.

“Don’t you fucking dare go demon on me Chester,” Amir bluntly scolded. 

In the meantime Brad and Dave scrambled to get up. Unsure of what to do, they just awkwardly stood there watching the scene before them. 

“I’m not done with you fuckers yet,” Even underneath three guys Chester managed to send a bone chilling death glare to the duo ahead of him. 

Said duo stumbled several steps backwards, but they were still frozen in a state of uncertainty. Eventually Rob looked up and gave them a death glare of his own. A sharp look that belied his calm voice.

“I won’t hesitate to punch you two again. Not even for a second,” Rob said knowingly, “So friendly suggestion, I would leave unless you miss having a black eye. Now.”

The sudden authoritative tone on the last word finally spurred Brad and Dave into action. In a hot second, they finally disappeared out of sight.

_____________________________________

Talinda’s home in her private dimension is big, grand and inspired by the architect of ancient Tenochtitlan. But with contemporary flair with all the amenities modernity entailed. In other words she just wanted to keep an updated look without losing her roots from her time as a human. 

Anyways this was where Talinda teleported everyone minus Brad and Dave too. Mike was very much understandably happy that the latter two weren’t here. For his sake and Chester’s as well. 

Also thank the universe nobody has to worry about any of their Earthly obligations. No anxiety or panic over any potential media storm about their disappearance. Talinda can get them back within several seconds of their departure so there was truly nothing to worry about in regards to their career. Nobody gonna even know five people temporarily left the face of the Earth for two, three or four months.

Today was the day Chester was able to get around to cooking an apology dinner for Amir. There were more words exchanged after the two aforementioned Linkin Park members left and, put simply, Chester said something completely tone deaf. And unfortunately, as it seemed to be the case with him, he realized his grave mistake too late. 

Annoyingly enough. 

Why the fuck did his brain have to go and shut off the filter in his head at the most inopportune times?

“That looks delicious,” Rob praised as he watched Chester put the chopped up vegetables into the pan. 

The aroma plus the light that strewn in from the nearby window gave the kitchen a cozy warm ambiance. 

“Thanks. I’ll use my magic to make a vegan version of it for you after I’m finished,” Chester said and Rob gave him an appreciative nod.

“I would love that,” Rob casually leaned against the counter, his hand in his jean pockets. 

The last few days have been chaotic and stressful to say the least. Mike was in need of immediate treatment so ever since they arrived, he’d been laid up in bed in a magically induced healing coma. And while Talinda knew what she was doing, she needed extra help from an actual Fallen Angel. 

Hence why Mark had also shown up.

Thankfully, much to everyone’s relief, Mike was gonna survive and was even healing faster than expected. Well, relatively speaking that is. He was still a good ways off from full physical recovery. 

“I punched them,” Rob abruptly broke the silence, his voice deceptively neutral but otherwise steady with conviction. 

Chester stopped what he was doing for a second to stare at him. One can almost hear the metaphorical record needle being stopped. 

He didn’t feel too surprised to hear this. Ever since the Studio Incident a few months back, he noticed Brad and Dave haven’t been acting the best around Rob. They wouldn’t let him on their side of the dressing room nor onto their bus. They even stopped talking to him cold turkey. Well unless it was for business and even then it was only if they really had too.

In other words Brad and Davd treated Rob as if he made a deal too.

As an aside, all of this left poor Joe to be the quote unquote official liaison between the two parties. 

“I was wondering about that actually,” Chester admitted quietly as he resumed stirring, “I noticed they’ve been acting shitty to you.”

“Yeah. But that was actually more because I told them my…um, kink,” Rob clarified with slight awkwardness as his cheeks heated up, “I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I made an off hand comment and they asked about it. Well, more like they demanded an explanation but my mind wasn’t focused enough to realize it was anything but genuine curiosity.”

“Your kink?” Chester was only momentarily confused before he was hit with realization, “Oh the demon fucking one huh?”

Rob’s cheeks turned a darker shade of red. He nodded, “Yeah they weren’t too happy to hear that in hindsight.”

“What did they say?” 

“Dave said I was going to Hell for wanting to be fucked by demons.”

Chester couldn’t help but laugh. There was just something stupidly amusing about dumb religious comments. 

“He did? Thats fucking rich,” Chester said. He couldn’t help but laught softly as he added some spice to the mix of ingredients. There was just something stupidly amusing about 

“Yeah,” Rob agreed as he let out a heavy sigh. There was a brief lull in conversation before he continued, “I just said I was Jewish, we don’t have the same concept of Hell as you Christians too. Then I left.” 

Rob smiled to himself, still proud for answering Dave smoothly right on the spot and without missing a beat. 

“I’m sorry they’ve been treating you like shit,” Chester can very well empathize in this case, “They hardly talk to me or Mike anymore. But they still act like everything is normal with Joe.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that. I don’t think they realize Joe is not happy with them,” Rob commented. By now he was fully facing Chester, “They think nothing has changed between them. Like Joe would be cordial and still crack a joke now and then, but it's all an act. He’s playing nice for the sake of the band.” 

“We all are,” Chester corrected him. The two fell into a comfortable enough silence albeit dampened by the heaviness brought on by the whole situation.

“It was about a month ago,” Rob eventually broke the silence a few moments later, “That I punched them I mean. It was after one of our shows in our dressing room. You, Mike and Joe already left and I was about to leave when I heard them talking about the demon thing.”

“Oh?”

“They were talking hypothetically but,” Rob took a moment to take a deep calming breath to steady himself, “Brad said in a perfect world anyone who has made a deal with a demon would be required to move to a special secured city set up just for them.”

“Do you know what that fucking sounds like Ches?” Rob seethed, his own anger revealed in his countenance, “Concentration camps. That’s when I did it, I walked over and I punched both Brad and Dave. Right between the eyes. I knocked them down to the ground and then I left. Don’t think I even said a word either.” 

Before Chester was able to respond, a new voice caught their attention. A sorrowful sound that would break the heart of even the most emotionally constipated person on Earth. 

Mike stood just past the entranceway into the kitchen. Gotta hand it to Mark and Talinda for whatever Hell medical magic they did. The healing might’ve been slowed due to the holy water but the results could’ve been a lot worse. As it was, His right arm and shoulder was bandaged, there was a sling and his right eye was covered.

He also has been using a cane to help keep balance during his recovery.

“Brad said that?” Mike’s voice cracked with despair, silent tears ran down his cheek as he stood just past the entrance. 

Rob and Chester looked over at Mike with horror as time seemed to come to a complete stop. An unspoken decision was made, the cooking was put on pause before they engulfed him in a much needed hug. The cane fell haphazardly in the process as Mike buried his face in Chester’s clothes. 

Chapter Text

It’s been about a year since gay marriage was legalized in California. Since then, Chester and Mike got married and it was time for the annual Gathering of the Shinodas. A family reunion in other words, something Chester hasn’t experienced until he met Mike. He wasn’t sure what to expect early on but by now he had a good idea.

Definitely nice to be a part of a family that was actually loving and wholesome. He was finally able to fully believe this type of familial activity wasn't mostly the stuff of fiction. It was actually possible for family members to not devolve into alcohol fueled fights within five minutes.

To be fair Chester had an idea that family gatherings can be peaceful and drama free due to all the times he was over at Amir's parent's house for the holidays. But unlike the Shinodas, the Davidsons were small. It was pretty much just Amir, his parents, and an aunt on his mother's side. And of course him and Ryan who were practically part of the family, Amir's younger brothers if you will.

However, that doesn't mean the feeling of awkwardness went away. First time he experienced a big family reunion, he was a mess. Outwardly Chester did just fine but inside he was a bundle of nerves. So great he basically stuck to Mike's side and didn't talk as much lest he messed up and irreparably damaged the relationship between him and Mike's great uncle from Japan so to speak. Especially since Japan has different social customs compared to the US.

But ever since he's gotten together with Mike, the amount of nerves has simmered down to a manageable level. Chester now feels confident enough to socially interact on his own with a Shinoda that wasn't Mike's parents and younger brother. That said, the irrational worry was still there in some capacity. He was afraid he was gonna forget a Japanese social norm or find a new way to accidentally offend someone one of the relatives when it comes to dinner and social interactions.

For some dumb reason, his brain decided to let loose a slight increase of anxiety. Maybe it had to do with the fact this was the first family reunion he went to as Chester Shinoda. That felt the most right. He sure as hell did not want to dishonor the privilege of being a Shinoda via marriage.

Thankfully, in any case, Chester was able to shove it away to a small dusty corner in the back of his mind.

So here they were in Japan since it was decided that this year it was where the reunion will take place by The Powers To Be. Aka Muto's aunts and uncles.

“I’m half expecting to hear golly gee willikers next,” Chester deadpanned in a whisper as he leaned in to his right. This caused the man to his right to laugh under his breath.

"I'm still betting on 'Geez Louise'," Jason replied followed by a chuckle under his breath.

It was a well known fact Mike and his younger brother Jason tampers down the cussing around their parents and the elders among the family. More so Mike then Jason in the grand scheme of things nowadays. Honestly it was respectful, Chester can’t argue against it really. But the amount of times he heard Mike say nauseatingly PG rated forms of cuss words was too damn high.

And ever since this Shinoda lore themed trivia game began, there has been a 200 percent increase of tame euphemisms coming out of Mike's mouth.

Which don't get him wrong, Chester is not getting annoyed. Far from it, and why would he? It was just was one of the things that made Mike 'Mike', He'd have to be an insecure asshole to to get unreasonable pissed.

But damn it, he started to find himself wishing Mike would revert back to the less over the top choices like 'Gosh darn it' or 'Heck' or hell one of the many Southern versions of swearing.

At this moment Chester was at his assigned table at the front along with Mike, his parents and Jason.

“I heard that,” Mike said as he rolled his eyes. He was seated on Chester’s other side. Across from them were Muto and Donna quietly brainstorming an answer for the current question, “Excuse me for not wanting to drop the F bomb.”

“Looked like you wanted to though,” Chester teased with a light burst of bubbly laughter.

His demonic senses has picked up a spike of anger right after Mike answered the last question. It was about a cousin's choice of career and he incorrectly gave pop as an answer.

(It was country music.)

Mike shot him a brief death glare. To be fair, Chester noticed how much better he's gotten over the years in controlling his temper ever since the Studio Incident of 2007. Still had his moments but overall he improved.

“Well I’m not gonna start now. Not in front of my parents,” Mike said with a sharp conviction.

However, poor Mike was unintentionally undermined almost immediately after he made his statement. His mother proceeded to take this moment to shoot out of her seat with a loud, "Oh yes! About fucking time I got one."

Made all the more funnier in her thick Appalachian accent.

Chester instantly erupted in audible laughter. It took a couple of seconds before he was able to regain his breath long enough to reply, “I take that as a cue to relax and not try so hard Mikey.”

"Yeah Chester's right. There's this thing you gotta do, it's called loosening up and taking a chill pill. This isn't some formal dinner with the Queen of England," Jason teased with his own string of laughter.

Mike groaned and put his head down on top of his arms.

Despite not knowing most of the family lore, Chester managed to get a decent amount of correct answers. Which was an accomplishment because he only half paid attention anyways. Chester found trivia games more fun where it didn’t feel only a very select group of people who would even have a slim chance of guessing.

Like, in this case, how the fucking hell would he even begin to guess where cousin Junji went to college abroad? Or how Muto’s aunt and uncle met? Or which Shinoda ancester was an infamous samurai in the late 1700s? Ok that part was interesting to learn truth be told. And granted it was one of the questions he got correct cause he went down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia after hearing it mentioned by Muto once.

But all the same, it was unfair damn it. Most of the blood relatives, especially the ones into the family history, had an advantage. On the other hand, just the speed of which he answered the last aforementioned question was an accomplishment in his book.

("Hey you cheated! No way you could've gotten the answer that quickly!" Someone stood up from a few tables away to yell straight at him.

Chester wasn't sure which Shinoda he was, just that he was a distant cousin from the Japanese side. Apparently also was a sore loser.

"Its called having a photographic memory and ADHD," Chester replied back with a big triumphant laugh.)

After trivia, everyone broke off into smaller assorted groups. Some went off to explore the small Japanese village nearby. Some went inside while others decided to play different games. Like cornholes or capture the flag.

Once upon a time Chester said he couldn’t comprehend the fact a family the size of a small ass town was able to keep the peace. How was everything still so wholesome after the 30-45 minute mark? He admitted it once to Mike how he thought it was the stuff of fiction. That these type of family oriented gatherings was made up and exaggerated to hide the harsh reality.

How was it possible that a big gathering of family members didn't erupt into Chaos Incarnate very early on?

But thankfully it didn’t take long for his brain to wrap around the actual truth and to get into the swing of things. Now years later Chester would be the first to play a game if he was properly egged on.

Especially if it was against Jason. Oh he was so looking forward to a rematch in cornholes against him. He must pay for his cheating ways in the Great Cornhole Tournament of 2013. Just his type of opponent to play against, if they want to get down and play dirty then so can he. Within reason of course, no dick moves or anything like that.

Who knew a goody two shoes Shinoda would actually play on his level.

However a game wasn’t what Mike and Chester were doing, although it was an suggestion. Instead they elected to take a leisurely stroll at the beach right next to the small lake. Nobody else was on the beach but that didn't mean they were secluded. There were people playing just a short distance away in the backyard. That meant they can't get completely complacent with the demon talk, it had to be kept to a whisper.

Sure nobody would be able to hear them if they talked normally. But there were other factors to consider, someone else might decide to head on down to either swim or walk around. They could possibly overhear them in that case.

They could've put up a magical force to shield everyone from their conversation and vice versa. But it was out of the question as they wouldn't be able to hear anything. What if someone was calling for them? Neither of them wanted to risk coming off as rude by accident. It would definitely be bad if they inadvertently came off as your stereotypical arrogant rockstar, moreso given they were in the public eye.

As long they don't yell or use their magic, everything was good.

Besides there was little to no chance of being overheard anyways so an invisible barrier would be too much.

“Come on in Mikey, the water feels refreshing,” Chester encouraged with a smile, the water barely up to his ankles.

The weather was perfect to take a dip in the lake. Comfortable temperatures, slight wind and not a cloud in sight. Just as equally spectacular as the lake was Chester's tattoos which shone brillantly in the sunlight.

But something told Mike to stay on land, the voice in his head told him it'll be safer. It could be the safe kind of water found everywhere in various places. But what if wasn't? What if it was actually holy water? His gut told him to not take a chance despite the contradicting sight before him.

Mike quickly shook his head and took a couple steps back, "No thanks."

Logically he knew Chester wasn't burning up so there was no real reason for this sense of hesitation. It was weird, felt weird if you asked him, because obviously his beloved Chester was still there. He was alive and well.

Very much the opposite of being disintegrated into nothing.

Mike also felt disappointed in himself, he swore there would be no panic attacks whatsoever for this trip. He just wanted to have fun and not worry about his trauma cropping up unexpectedly and yet here he was with a severe spike in anxiety.

Normally the panic attacks would be mild nowadays, nothing that alone time with Chester in a safe place couldn't fix. The water anxiety has grown less and less frequent since the Holy Water incident several years ago. Hell he has only now been able to take a shower by himself without a problem.

However that all said, once in a blue moon, a more intense attack would seemingly come out of nowhere.

Like now apparently.

Why the ever loving fuck was his brain sounding the alarms like he was in actual danger. The urge to 'rescue' Chester and pull him into safety was taking hold, slowly increasing to the brink of containment. Mike can even feel his heart beating more then it should be. His mind racing with unwanted worst case scenarios. He closed his eyes as he desperately tried to will away images of Chester burning up and crying out in pain.

And of course his legs began to feel like jelly and thus about to collapse any minute now.

Chester, having picked up on Mike's greatly distressed aura, got out of the water and walked over. He pulled him into a protective embrace as Mike hid his face in his neck.

"Hey its alright," Chester said with a gentle smile as he soothingly rubbed his back, "I mean the water is normal, not holy at all. But we don't have to play in the water if you don't want to."

"I don't want to stop you Ches," Mike said as he moved his head so he can look into his warm brown eyes while he laid his head on his chest.

"No no its fine babe. I don't want to do anything that causes you any discomfort."

"Thanks but I don't want to be the reason you didn't swim or something."

Chester's face softened as he lovingly gazed upon the other. He reassured, "Yeah but I also don't want to be the reason you were in some sort of pain. Besides I can always swim at another time if I really wanted, I think we're gonna be here for a while."

"True."

"Maybe I can join your brother tomorrow morning. I noticed he's been going down to the beach in the morning while everyone else is still asleep," Chester thought outloud.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind the company," Mike said before a moment of contented silence passed. Eventurally he sighed apologetically, "I'm sorry Chester, I don't know what came over me. I told myself I wasn't gonna have any panic attacks, no matter how mild it is."

"Hate to say it but you can't control when panic attacks happen. Sometimes they just come right out of the blue," Chester said as he hugged Mike tighter, "And you're fine, no need to apologize Mikey. I get it."

"I feel stupid…" Mike groaned, "I mean there's no way this lake would be completely filled with holy water."

"You're not stupid Mike, you never are. Emotions are just fucking weird, you'd think you’ll be ok but then boom your brain decides to be a piece of shit one random Tuesday.”

A minute or so of contented silence filled the air between the two. A moment where there might as well be nobody else in the world but them, just Mike in the arms of love that was Chester Bennington.

"You want to go inside? We can go to our room and watch a movie," Chester suggested.

"Yeah I would like that," Mike answered quietly as Chester began to lead them towards the impressively big cabin. He wanted nothing more then to lay in bed all safe and secure.

“I can’t believe this…” Chester said out loud without thinking as both he and Jason watched the small podium get set up on the back porch. Just like with trivia night the other day, there were tables set up scattered about and there were several rows from the front to the back.

Only this time the tables were divided in half by a long red carpet that ran down from the middle of the deck, down the front steps and across the yard. And they were all decorated elegantly with fancy flowers centerpieces and lacy tablecloths. All surrounded and lit up by a parameter of fairy lights connected to poles.

And to top it all off, some people were even dressed to the nines. Mostly the older folk though with a younger family member here and there. Why? Who knows, the event was already over the top to begin with. It didn't need any more obnoxiousness added to it, as if this was the most important event of the year the world over.

Newsflash it's not.

Besides what other families do this? It was something Jason brought up a few years back, about how even the concept of an Annual Shinoda Family Awards was pretentious in and itself. Honestly Chester would have to agree.

Thankfully from what Chester observed over the years, most here don't take it too seriously. Most everyone wore a variation of a shirt and either shorts or jeans. This included both him and the Shinoda brothers, all three were very much casual in their appearance. Nobody can accuse the trio of adding to the level of seriousness in the atmosphere.

Chester continued, “I know the Shinoda Family Awards are a thing with you guys and I've witnessed it plenty of times before and its completely fine in the grand scheme of things. But admittedly a part of me wishd they would give it a damn rest this year…no offense."

Jason casually laughed in agreement, if someone outside of the family got it and would agree with him then it would undoubtedly be his brother in law.

"Nah I get it. It would be one thing to have it every ten years or even five but every year? That's too fucking much in my opinion,"

Both Chester and Jason were in the back of everything. They stood by the boundary that separated the grass from the beach. Somewhere in the chaotic scene before them, Mike was happily helping his parents set up the projector screen off to the side from the podium.

And thankfully Jason was not offended so therefore Chester can freely tell his worries to go take a damn hike.

"Its all bullshit is what it is," Jason vented as he swept his arm across their field of vision to emphasize his point, "I mean yeah some years its low key and the prizes make sense for what it is, but other times it brings out all of the problems I have with it and its not just the speeches. I mean have you see what the prize is for this year?"

Chester paused for a second to think, then shook his head. He and Mike were too busy enjoying some alone time together while exploring the small village and doing a little bit of shopping. They had came back home just in time for the setting up the show phase to start. Hence Mike enthusiastically helping out.

"I haven't."

Jason stepped a little closer into Chester's space, he didn't want to be too loud as one of the elders that enjoyed the Shinoda Awards a little too much was close by. He didn't want them to deal with any unwanted bullcrap thrown their way.

"A fucking trophy made out of 24 karat gold," Jason said with irritation best he could while keeping his voice down. He rolled his eyes as he continued, "Its to be expected knowing cousin Hikaru. I knew the awards was gonna be fucking insufferable this year the moment I learned he was hosting the reunion."

"Oh, he's the CEO of the biggest law firm in Japan right?" Chester asked, he felt like he heard about that tidbit of Shinoda family lore but it's been a while.

Jason nodded a confirmation before he let out a sigh, "Yeah, or actually was I should say. He recently retired and passed the company down to his son Shoji, aka me and Mike's second cousin. Unfortunately he's not any better in the attitude department."

A moment passed as the two watched Mike bring out the chairs from inside.

"You know I'm somewhat surprised there isn't a band he hired. Hikaru must've gotten talked out of it this time around," Jason eventually mentioned as he crossed his arms.

There was a sense of a needle on a record player being stopped all of a sudden. Chester turned around and gave Jason a confused look, the implication of his statement felt too wild to be instantly believable.

But on the other hand if an family only award event were looking like they were about to be televised to the entire planet, then a hired band didn't sound too far off.

And they say truth is stranger then fiction after all.

Jason caught the memo and explained further, "Oh yeah there was a band last time he hosted. It's was just as ridiculous as you're thinking."

"What kind of band was it?" Chester was curious not gonna lie, he set his full attention on Jason.

"An orchestra, featuring the best of the best in Japan. Luckily I was not there as I had better things to do, but Mike told me all about it. Get this, apparently they were asked to create an original piece just for the occasion. Dad was so embarrassed he pretended to not be related to the family for the rest of the reunion."

Chester busted out laughing, "I don't blame him, I would too. How long have this award shit being going on?"

"Since I was in the seventh grade," Jason sighed. It was subtle but there was a detectable amount of embarrassment mixed in with resentment, "I'm gonna be fucking honest, I'd be a little bit nicer about this whole thing if I've gotten just at least one award. Just one. But nooo…every fucking year its Mike. Its him, either mom or dad or both. Never me!"

"Fuck that's a hell of a long time to not get an award," Chester said with great empathy. He genuinely felt bad for Jason, he knew what it was like to be excluded from something like an award. Only in his case it was one of those participation trophies in elementary school.

Overall in the grand scheme of things Chester knew very well what's it like to feel wholly excluded. It was one of the things him and Jason felt a kinship over, the whole black sheep of the family thing. There was a mutual experience with the role.

Jason once explained how ever since he was an adult, he would take his leave before the family awards if it was possible. Without fail there was a 90 to 95 percent chance it would most years. Half of those times Mike and Chester would also leave with him due to other obligations, or they just wanted to go home early.

This year however was one of those years where leaving and going home wasn't an option unfortunately. Jason can't exactly pack up and go home right this very minute. Neither can Mike and Chester for that matter as all three of them flew over together with Muto and Donna.

In other words, where the hell would they go? They were a thousand miles away from LA.

“Mom and dad got a few awards between each other while Mike has gotten several of them. I got jackshit,” Jason vented further with bitterness laced throughout his voice. A moment passed before he let out a huff of annoyance, "I fucking bet you a thousand and my entire Linkin Park collection Mike is gonna win another dumb award or two."

Over the years that Chester have known Mike and Jason, he observed quite a bit of the dynamics between them and their parents. There would be subtle clues here and there Jason was not exactly the favored sibling while the brothers themselves have a great relationship. Yes the parents loved them both equally but when it came to things like punishment and expectations, among other things, it was disproportionately in favor of Mike.

Sometimes the clues would be so inconspicuous that only a fellow black sheep would catch it.

Someone like Chester for example.

“This whole awards ceremony is nothing but an excuse for the entire fucking family to pat themselves on the back. A grand display of arrogance and vanity if I ever saw any,” Jason continued as he faced Chester. Thank god right now nobody seemed to pay them any mind, "I mean it would cool to finally win but my point is what the fuck am I gonna do with a trophy made of gold?! Most of the time before it'd be gift cards or money which would be way more practical then an expensive paperweight."

"Agreed," Chester nodded.

"I told Mike my opinion about the awards overall once time, know what he fucking said? He said I was just mad I haven’t won anything and to stop being a sore loser.”

Before he can form a response, Chester noticed Mike headed towards them as happy as he could be.

“Hey guys come on and sit down. The show is about to start,” Mike called out with a bright smile as he motioned at him and Jason. He then turned back around and fast walked over to a table near the podium.

Both Chester and Jason immediately shifted their attention to said table.

“Oh joy,” Jason deadpanned with an eye roll before he leaned in close to whisper, "Fuck would I give anything to be drunk right now, it'll make this all the more bearable to get through.”

Chester laughed under his breath, “If I can drink without any issues I’d join you.”

The hosts, who happened to be Muto and Donna this year, has just stepped up to the podium right as Chester and Jason took their seats.

“I hope I win one of the big ones,” Mike leaned in as he smiled excitedly.

“Refresh my memory cause it's been a long time, um…is that the Goody Two Shoes of the Year award,” Chester teased with a straight face. Mike gave him a look while Jason automatically giggled.

Thankfully his inlaws did not overhear on account they were up on the wooden deck.

“It's the Best Achievement of the Year Award Chester. One of the most prestigious of this event,” Mike said matter of factly as he straightened his posture. Chester stared at him for all of one second before falling into light giggles of how serious he sounded.

This only served to make Mike glare at him.

“Sorry, I'm sorry Mike, you know I have trouble taking this seriously,” Chester said, apologetically while being frank at the same time. Deep down he had no problem with the concept, but it was all in the way it was executed.

In the case of the Shinoda clan, this meant it was a crapshoot in a particular year. There was a fifty fifty chance it can be either be really lowkey or be taken way to seriously for anyone's good as this year had already proven.

Another thing to consider is Chester genuinely didn't want to sound harsh or cruel with his teasing over something Mike clearly found some level of fun in.

But with how ostentatious the awards can get some years, good lord did this shit made it harder to keep the comments at bay. Chester truly didn't want to loose control of his brain to mouth filter. He'd hate to be a callous dick to the one person he loved with all his heart.

(Besides, Mike doesn't have to know he spilled his actual opinions to Jason.)

“I know but you promised not to make any jokes this year,” Mike said. He understood where Chester came from, not too many families do a family awards thing. But on the other hand, what was the big deal? As a whole everyone was having fun for the most part and no one was getting hurt. He didn't fully understand any kind of aversion to this to be honest.

That said, with a loaded gun to his head, Mike will fully admit he didn't like the choice of trophy for this year. Yeah sure the fact it was in the shape of the Shinoda family crest was pretty cool but other then that, what use does a gold trophy have?

Mike decided he was gonna use his magic to transform it into something he can use if he won something. Which is very likely based on previous years. He has been needing new headphones for a while, maybe he can change it to that and it can have the Shinoda crest as part of the design.

But with all that said, Mike just wanted one year without any comments from the peanut gallery. Namely from those named Chester and Jason.

Mike shifted his gaze to Jason on his other side, “You too, I don’t want to hear any jokes.”

At this point Muto began to speak. The opening monologue was essentially the same as it was every year. A ten to fifteen minute long speech about all the great accomplishments the Shinoda clan has done throughout the year. Both as a whole and as individuals. And at the end, there would be an inclusion of any new members into the family as well as those who sadly passed away since the last reunion.

“….and last but not least,” Muto continued with proud exclamation. There was a sudden drop in noise as everyone waited in sheer anticipation. Finally, after a few seconds in silence, he spoke, “I want to welcome into the clan my son in law, Chester Charles Shinoda!”

Chester suppressed an annoyed groan as most everyone around him started clapping while Jason barely did enough in order to keep up appearances. An appropriate response if you ask him. On the other end of the spectrum was Mike who clapped like there was no tomorrow.

Which alright it was more than fair in the ‘I’m so happy to see my love acknowledged in any sort of positive light’ sense. Only the universe would know he would do the same vice versa for his husband, Chester always so proud of Mike whenever he gets the recognition he rightly deserved.

“Babe stand up,” Mike whispered excitedly. He made an encouraging hand motion, “You’re supposed to stand up.”

After a moment of reluctance Chester obliged, let out a resigned exhale before he stood up with his arms crossed. He gave a polite smile and a wave to everyone around. The show started in earnest as soon as he sat back down.

Honestly, there was really nothing to note for the first hour or so. Some people spoke English while others spoke in Japanese. For the latter Chester was able to catch the gist half the time. It really depended on whether or not the speaker was slow enough, which in this case the current presenter and the last two were not.

“Up next is Bullshit Award number 4,” Jason translated as he whispered. As a result Chester had to work extra hard to stifle his giggles.

Chester was also seated between the brothers so he was in prime position to catch all the banter.

“Jason stop calling every award that,” Mike whispered as firmly as he could. The first time he figured Jason had joked just to get it out of his system, it would be par the course for him. He's done it before.

But it was getting a little too old after the second or third time to be honest. It was starting to get on Mike's nerves.

“Oh you’re right my bad,” Jason said with false sincerity. He shifted his eyes from Mike to Chester, “What I meant to say was the Im So Annoyingly Peppy Award is next.”

“Jason!” Mike shouted in a whisper as he leaned across in front of Chester.

Meanwhile Chester had to cover his mouth with one hand in order to prevent any whiff of laughter from being heard beyond the two next to him.

The next part of the show, Jason’s translations were no better. Muto got up to introduce the next person, a man who looked to be in his late 50s with peppered hair. He stood tall and proud as he started to speak in Japanese. Luckily this time it was slow enough for Chester to catch that he was about to debut a poem he’d written especially for this occasion.

“Oh that’s one of our older cousins Shoji. He owns the biggest and most successful law firm in Tokyo,” Mike supplied with a bright smile as he whispered an explanation to Chester, “He represented one of mayors back in the 90s. And get this, he's also a world renowned Japanese poet! Has three books published."

Meanwhile, as Mike was explaning, Jason got out his phone to quickly typed out a few short lines on the notes app. Once Mike returned his rapt attention to said aforementioned cousin, he discreetly slid the phone across to Chester.

Get ready to hear the most pompous, atrociously bad poetry you ever heard in your life!

Therefore on behalf of my family I am truly, truly sorry for the amount of IQ and sanity you're about to loose from hearing this godawful poem.

Also just to be clear, my big brother is a little, bold faced liar! Shoji's books aren't known in the West outside of a few mentions here and there on Reddit.

Pffft world renowned my ass, he's considered one of top ten worst poets in Japan.

Chester burst into subdued laughter. It took him a nanosecond but he eventually wrote a sentence of his own before giving the phone back. He wasn't sure he was catching everything, just bits and pieces, but sadly it wasn't enough to paint a mental summary in his head.

“Oh don't worry I’ll give you a summary,” Jason easily assured him as he cupped his mouth and leaned in close to Chester’s ear.

Gratefully for the time being, Mike appeared to be too engrossed by the spoken poem to pay any real attention to the two on his right.

“We the Shinoda family are God’s gift to mankind. As such we should go forth and be absolute condescending shitheads with the biggest superiority complexes the world has ever seen. We should go out and insert ourselves into ever facet of society in order to lead the peasants because the Shinoda family knows whats best for everyone else!"

Jason finished and it was at this point he caught the death glare from Mike. He figured he must've been alerted due to the muffled string of giggles from Chester. To be fair he could've been more careful about how loud his voice was. But on the other hand, he didn't give too much of a shit if Mike heard, he'd been through that song and dance plenty of times before.

“That’s not what the poem is about,” Mike said pointedly before he immediately pulled Chester towards him, “Don’t listen to him. This poem is actually about prosperity. About how we as a family should strive to work hard, meet our ambitions no matter how big, and to be the best we can be to make the world a better place.”

Jason snorted afterwards which earned him another death glare from his older brother.

“Jason Akira Shinoda,” Mike leaned across in front of Chester. The more Jason laughed, the more annoyed he got.

"What?!" Jason stared at Mike with an inredulous look, "Did you not hear what he just said? He literally just fucking implied the world should be controlled by the Shinoda Clan by the next two centuries. Do you want that to become a thing Mike? I sure as hell don't."

“That’s not what he said at all and you know it. You’re mistranslating it,” Mike said in an accusatory tone.

“Oh and you think your translation is right?” Jason shot back as he leaned closer to Mike.

“I know it's right,” Mike responded with stubborn conviction.

“How the fuck do you know? Oh wait, never mind my bad, it's because you’re fucking Michael Kenji Shinoda aka The One Who Knows All.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” Mike asked, both confused and properly aggravated.

“I mean,” Jason made sure to put emphasis on each word, “I rather trust a native speaker over Google translate.”

A beat.

“Hey!”

“Boys,” Muto’s stern voice caused Mike and Jason to snap their heads across the table. The conversation abruptly died a quick death as their dad stood in front of the empty table. As expected, he didn't look happy at all.

To the brothers it seemed like their dad appeared right out of nowhere while Chester already caught sight of Muto walking up just seconds prior.

Mike and Jason instantly lost the will to keep bickering as soon as they noticed their father's Parental Look of Disapproval. A blanket of shame came down over them, the two sat there completely frozen for a second before they bowed their heads and said their apologies.

Muto nodded in satisfaction before he focused his attention on Chester, “Sorry you had to endure one of their little squabbles.”

“Oh it's fine, this is nothing,” Chester dismissed it with a casual smile, “I’ve been through way worse.”

Properly scolded Mike and Jason behaved for the rest of the ceremony.

Finally the time has come for the most important award of the night. The award given to a Shinoda who shown an exemplary display of excellence and contribution to society in some form over the past year.

By now it was late evening and Mike was the most anticpated he'd been since this whole shebang started. He teemed with excitement, so much so he might as well phased out of existence right then and there into thin air. Both Jason and Chester knew he won already, Mike was told a few weeks prior. This was done so the winner would have enough time to put together a well written speech.

Or in Mike's case, a presentation that was a combination acceptance speech and to explain all the things he accomplished in the past year. In excruciating detail.

Ever since Mike did a practice round, there's been a mutually shared gut feeling between Jason and Chester that the ceremony would be extended by about a hour and half. On that note however, they were happy to have had time to prepare for this moment.

So speaking of which, let's fucking do this.

As soon as Mike’s first name was called, he got up and bounced off to the stage. Meanwhile Chester dug into one his jean pockets to grab his air pods, too busy trying to make sure his air pods were paired up with his phone to pay Mike. Next to him Jason did the same thing. Before too long both of their Spotify were opened and there were blessed with the wonderful barrage of music to help get through this.

Jason was listening to the Meteora album from Linkin Park, for Chester it was a Stone Temple Pilots album.

And yes Chester realized this could be classified as rude, but the thing was he heard it all before. More then one time actually since Mike talked about the speech througout the process of putting together the slides. So therefore he knew what Mike was gonna talk about inside and out. Besides he can still catch what Mike was talking about, the volume wasn’t turned up high enough to drown out his voice.

Basically Chester wanted to hear Mike but he also wanted a way to stave off any threats of boredom. Hence the reason why he only had one air pod in.

“Shit I wished Numb was released back when I was in high school,” Jason commented about a half hour into the presentation.

It was no grand secret that Jason was a big fan of Linkin Park. The band knew, the thousands of followers that follow his fan account on twitter knew, basically he was a fan with a few extra special perks. Although with that said, Jason was willing to pay for a ticket full price. He didn't want to feel like he was using his brother by asking for the family discount, or even an outright free ticket, every single time,.

He didn't want to be a moocher like that so if he can't make it, then he can't make it and would wait for the next show.

However if Mike and/or Chester did offer a free ticket then Jason would take them up on that offer.

Going from the slide that was currently on the projector screen, Chester wagered they got about 20 more minutes left.

Finally. There was light at the end of the tunnel.

He paused the song he was listening to in order to properly listen to the other man.

“I can still fucking relate to this song,” Jason finished as he faced Chester, “Its like it was written about my life! And I swear I’m not just saying this cause I’m related to two of the members.”

Chester laughed with a smile, “It's fine.”

“Thanks. But yeah I wish this song was released when I was younger. Do you know how many fucking times I’ve been compared to Mike? Too many. Too many to fucking count. Why can’t you get straight As like Mike? Why can’t you make friends like Mike? Why aren't you on the honor roll like Mike? Why don’t you get elected Student Body President like Mike?”

“I thought he was only class president?” Chester asked, a little confused.

“Only for his freshman year. Then he was student president for the couple years after that. His senior year he was vice president,” Jason explained, “But only because of term limitations. I swear if he could Mike would’ve been student president his entire four years.”

“That…sounds about right,” Chester said after he took a scant moment of thought.

“I never had the desire to get involved in school politics. Or any kind of politics for that matter,” Jason explained. In the background Mike was droning on and on about his secrets to success in life. Of course he tied them all in with how much he and his band got done in the last 12 months.

Apparently it involved a lot of meticulous day to day planning.

Chester caught a small part of it before he faced Jason. He affectionately teased as he gestured towards the stage, “How did I end up marrying your brother.

Once his soft laughter died out followed by a sigh he continued, "I never been for planning out my life this much.”

“Same here, I’d rather live in the moment,” Jason said after a few seconds of nothing but comfortable silence, “I mean nothing wrong with a vague outline but…you gotta allow enough room for all the bullshit life throws at you. Have low expectations, that way you don’t get too bent out of shape whenever life doesn’t go your way.”

“Agreed,” Chester said with a nod. There were a myriad of reasons why out of all the Shinoda family members, barring the one he married of course, Jason was one of the very few he got along well with.

This was one of them. The idea where one should go with the flow and not plan life down to the second. Something Mike found hard to grasp. Even if it snuck in from behind and bit him on the ass.

Chapter Text

Later into the evening was when, in hindsight, things started to unravel.

By now the sun had just gone down behind the mountains in the distance and most everyone has since left. Mike was somewhere inside the cabin doing Mike things while Jason and Chester were outside playing with the karaoke machine.

Jason was belting out the lyrics to Faint while Chester simultaneously cheered him on and took on the rap verses. The two of them putting all of their energy into it without a care in the world, as if they were putting on a full fledged concert. The back porch was their stage but the world was their audience. They actually meant to take turns on who'd do the vocals and who'd do the raps, but in actuality it devolved into the two of them singing the song together.

“Oh they got Numb! Let's do that one,” Jason excitedly suggested once it came time to pick another song.

They two belted out the song like there was no tomorrow. Their voices, especially Chester’s, spread throughout heavily into the air around the backyard. They sang so loud everyone in the vicinity might as well be given an impromptu concert. In reality it was probabaly only Mike, the parents, Shoji and his wife inside the house who heard them.

It wasn’t until the door suddenly slid open then shut two songs later when Chester’s demonic senses kicked in. He was harshly sent back to reality as he caught sight of Mike leading his parents down the steps. Jason kept singing in the background, understanbly oblivious, while Chester immediately ceased action. He stood frozen in place as a sense of inexplicable ominous dread crashed down over him like icy cold water. His gut sickeningly crushed together as alarm bells pinged inside his head.

All he could do was watch in trepidation as Mike led the way towards the beach.

The atmosphere shifted and the vibe was most definitely off. There was no more of the good time vibe of just moments prior, just apprehension and an urge to run the fuck down there, grab Mike and tell him to not do whatever the fuck he's gonna do.

Something wrong was about to happen.

Chester hoped maybe this weird off feeling was just that, an inexplicable weird feeling due to his overactive imagination. But something deep within his soul told him no. That whatever Mike got cooked up might end up being one of his biggest mistakes he'd made in years.

Now don't get it wrong of course. The bad vibes here wasn't the ‘about to be the subject of many a true crime podcast’ kind. Rather it was the ‘oh crap whatever Mike was about to share with his parents is not gonna be taken well’ kind of vibes.

And Chester had a very good idea on what secret it was.

Therefore his mind screamed at him from every nook and cranny to put a stop to it right the fuck now for the sake of Mike’s sanity. Well that, and in order to help keep the relationship he has with his parents intact.

“Ches? Are you alright?” Jason asked several seconds later, only now he noticed Chester had stopped singing. The current track, a Japanese rock song he for sure butchered half the lyrics to, was relegated to background noise.

Chester immediately was broken out of his stupor as he swiftly faced Jason. An awkward second passed as his brain scrambled to put together a believable enough response.

“Uhh…yeah I-think so?…-” Chester eventually said tentatively, albiet absentmindedly, as he shifted his gaze back to Mike, Muto and Donna. The three were now closer to the beach.

Jason followed his line of sight and stood there in silence alongside Chester. The good time, high on life, vibes has now sufficiently left the building and subsequently, it was replaced by a sense of curiosity. Didn't take nothing but a second for it to take over his focus.

“-I just wonder what Mike is up to,” Chester said, which was the honest truth. Despite feeling otherwise, a slight part of him wishfully hoped everything will turn out fine. Maybe Muto would take the news well of his husband's efforts to restore the family honor?

Ha, fat chance.

This was gonna be a disaster and he'd sadly bet a large amount of money on it being one. And the conclusion Chester came too all stemmed from one major factor in play. That is, the stark differences in attitudes regarding the whole demon business.

For the Benningtons, it was practically a Rite of Passage to sell your soul to the devil. While on the other hand the Shinodas are completely in the dark about the whole thing.

In other words, Mike was about to be met with unexpected pushback.

“Probably none of our business,” Chester added quickly after a small stretch of silence passed between the two.

“Right probably not,” Jason nodded as he instantly agreed, but neither him nor Chester made any move to go back to what they were doing. Both of them still watched the scene near the water as Mike and his parents walked behind a small cluster of trees.

A beat then Jason announced as he turned around to Chester. The temptation to eavesdrop was too strong, “Fuck it I’m too curious. I’m gonna go down and see what's up.”

“Same,” Chester admitted without any sort of hesitation. He easily took the lead as he moved his legs quickly down the steps.

Somehow in one way or another Jason and Chester were able to sneak over behind the trees without alerting anyone. Probably helped the most that it was almost nighttime. The sun has just fully set below the horizon and it was officially twilight. Therefore it was harder for them to be caught, no reason to put in any serious effort of sneaking over.

Although that said, Chester knew Mike most likely sensed their presence. He was just too preoccupied to notice.

They quickly got down behind the trees, luckily they were close enough to pick up the words. For Chester it unfortunately didn't take too long before his worries were in fact founded.

“....wait wait wait slow down and back up son, you sold your soul for a grocery store?” Muto asked for clarification. His brain was not processing the words as fast as Mike was getting them out. Nowhere close in fact.

“Um when you put it that way…” Mike said awkwardly but then hastily added with his hands out in front of him. One can hear the palpable amount of anxiety in his voice, “But just-just hear me out dad, I did it for a noble cause. I did it to restore the honor of our family!...”

Mike continued on, nervous as all out as he tried in vain to persuade his parents that the extent of his revenge was justifiable. That the fact he sold his soul to a demonic entity was a much needed step to this endeaver.

The amount of anxiety in his aura was all Chester needed to know Mike really did not expect this outcome.

(There was also a detectable amount of anxiety from Donna, but to a significantly lesser extent compared to Mike.)

“...Look I have a Powerpoint I can-” Mike tried but was abruptly cut off by an angry Muto.

“There’s no way on God’s green Earth a Powerpoint can convince us this makes any sense!”

“But dad it does! You and your family have been served a great injustice. Your parents lost their businesses, their house…you guys were forced to leave home and had to became farm laborers in order to survive. I'm only righting the wrongs this family has suffered through dad. Did you ever wish for revenge?”

“I only wished for an official apology and reparations from the US government,” Muto said plain and simple.

“Oh no please Mike no,” Chester closed his eyes and groaned in dismay as he muttered to himself.

Why the fuck did his gut have to be right?

Meanwhile Jason’s eyes were blown wide open with shock as a mixture of emotions were evident over his face. Eventually he let out out a delighted laugh, “Oh my fucking god he did it. He actually fucking did it.”

Chester perked up at this and immediately set curious eyes on Jason. A brief second passed before he leaned closer. He was genuinely surprised, “What the fuck do you mean by that?”

Gratefully they managed to be inconspicuous even with their reactions. The three people on the beach were none the wiser to the vocalist and his brother in law behind the trees.

“Ok so when I was 12 and Mike was 14, I overheard him talking in his sleep about summoning a demon. At first I thought it was just some weird as shit dream he was having so I didn’t think anything of it. I let it go cause let's be real everyone has weird as shit from time to time. Well two or three weeks later I decided to snoop in my brother’s room cause I was bored. Mom was taking a nap and Mike was out with his dad. Anyways, that's when I found it…”

The words trailed off and a couple of quiet seconds went by before Chester gently encouraged him to continue. Right now he was more interested in this newfound information than the conversation a few feet away, “Found what?”

Jason looked down on a random spot on the grass before he lifted his eyes up to Chester. He let out a steady breath as he recalled past memories.

“A notebook. A thick black notebook I found inside a little wooden box you can close with one of those coded locks,” Jason began to explain under his breath.

In the background they can hear a mixture of angry words from Muto and Donna as Mike desperately tried to get his point of view across.

“And you won’t believe the shit I found inside it. There were very detailed notes about how to summon a demon completed with drawings. Symbols of the occult.”

“Actually I can believe that. I come from a long line of demon dealers,” Chester chuckled with slight humor. He sensed Jason was put more at ease while at the same time a little confused by what he just said.

“Yeah I mean…honestly I would’ve brushed it off as Mike being one of those edgy wannabe gothic teenagers but there was an outline. A detailed outline for revenge that took up the first half of the notebook. And instructions on how to summon an specific demon.”

A beat.

"Would you mind humoring me please," Chester asked carefully as he felt his blood suddenly run cold, "Did Mike happen to write down a name for the demon?"

"I-I…I don't remember the full name but I do remember seeing the name Anna in paratheses," Jason admitted which led to Chester being rendered completely speechless, "And not only that but I saw that name written down a few more times."

"Look I know it all sounds crazy," Jason instantly said in defense of himself. He was very aware of how insane it was, but you can't argue it didn't pertain to the topic at hand. He wanted to finish it for the sake of painting the full picture, "But at least let me finish spilling the beans."

("…You've planned this since you were a freshman in high school!?…" Donna shouted in the background with utter shock.

"Well yeah. You can't blame me for wanting to know more about the history on dad's side of the family!-" Mike protested before he was harshly interrupted.)

"Well to be fair I was the one that asked in the first place," Chester pointed out with a small but friendly smile before it fade away, "But trust me its not as crazy as you think it is."

The sincerity in Chester's words was more then enough to encourage Jason to continued despite the slight hesitancy. In any other context he'd probably be questioning his sanity, and Mike's as well to be honest. But given the context of the current situation plus past frame of reference, the whole demons being a reality didn't seemed too far fetched.

"So my dream wasn't actually a dream then," Jason blurted under his breath as everything dawned on him. He needed a moment or two to wrap his mind around the world being bigger then he thought, even if it did indeed answered a lot of his questions.

"What do you mean?"

("….Did I wanted justice for the death of my two great uncles during the Battle of Blair Mountain? Yes, but I never once thought to take any sort of revenge, nor take it as far as you did Michael…" Donna sternly said, just as angry and disappointed as Muto was.)

"So one day Mike was put in charge of babysitting me while our parents went off on a short two day vacation, Mike was 16 and I just turned 14. It was the first night and I was in my room just chilling and playing video games. Eventually I had to go and um…do my thing you know. I started hearing noises and got out just in time to see Mike walk out of his room with a backpack. So naturally I ask what the hell is he doing but he told its none of my business and to go back to my room."

"Being that I have the role of youngest brother, I of course did not heed his word," Jason smiled knowingly and Chester let out a quiet chuckle, "So I sneakily followed him. I thought for a second that he might leave the house which in that case I would've been shit out of luck. But no he didn't. He in fact went outside to the backyard."

"You guys grew up in a gated community right?"

"Yes," Jason confirmed with a nod. Chester then proceeded to put his face in his hands.

"Oh my god I married an idiot."

Jason bursted out in casual laughter with no bite to it whatsoever.

Not gonna lie there was a sense of relief for Chester to know there was no offense taken with his comment. It was meant to be affectionate, there were idiotic things he's done that would result in Mike saying the same thing.

"It did make it easy for me to stay on the hidden side from my spot in the kitchen, I had full view of everything. I watched Mike bury a box in the middle of the yard before he sprayed painted the summoning circle onto the grass. Even to my 14 year old brain I realized the yard in a well populated suburb is the stupidest fucking place to summon a demon. That's just gonna call attention to yourself, especially when you got neighbors around you who tend to be nosy as shit."

Chester nodded his agreement before Jason continued, "Anyways, there were some other things Mike did but eventually the circle he created started glowing. I don't know what happened afterwards since that was the time I got freaked out and ran back to my room. I didn't want to incur the wrath of an actual demon."

"Smart move," Chester praised before two fell returned their attention back to Mike, Muto and Donna.

“…What you did was a great dishonor to the family name,” Muto pointedly said, disappointment dripping from every word in his sentence. His features were hardened, and his deceptively calm demeanor belied the fury and disapproval etched over his face.

This visibly cut Mike to the core. He stood there at a severe loss for words as his body shook, he wasn't sure whats the best move to make. All he could do at the moment was just stand there like a deer in the headlights.

"Still pretty fucking wild I'm not the one in trouble for once," Jason commented with a big hearty laugh. He couldn't fight the urge anymore to display the need to take some form of audible joy in this new sibling related development.

Yeah he felt genuinely bad for Mike and he wanted nothing more to give him a big brotherly hug. But let's be real here, after years of putting up with Mike getting away with things his parents would get on his ass about, he can't help but be lightly amused.

Holy fuck how the tables have finally turned.

"I'm sorry I'm really trying not to sound mean here," Jason apologized once the sense of mild euphoric joy was out of his system.

Chester then noticed Mr. and Mrs. Shinoda looking their direction out of his peripheral vision. Well shit they must've been a little too loud now. Oh well, he figured they were probably bound to be caught sooner then later.

“Hey man, as the youngest sibling myself I totally get it,” Chester honestly said with a big smile as he and Jason stood up.

At the same time there was a shot of nerves because now there were two sets of eyes staring at them. And they were Not Amused.

Mike on the other hand hung his head down in shame, right now he found the sand a much more fascinating thing to look at. Can't blame him honestly. He just had the reality he build inside his head get violently shattered to the ground.

“Hi Mr and Mrs Shinoda,” Chester greeted with a slight awkward wave as he led the way out of their hiding spot.

Meanwhile Jason made no effort to hide the fact he was taking some form of sibling based amusement. He flashed Mike an annoyingly smug grin, his hands inside his jean pockets, as he came to a stop in between Chester and his older brother.

"Well looks like your secret out of the bag huh big brother," Jason said as he let out a rhetorical chuckle.

Mike immediately looked at him, he really didn't appreciate the response from his younger brother. He dryly bit back, "Nice to see I have sympathy."

"Hey hey trust me I do. But I have to admit, this has been a long time coming Micheal," A short string of laughter escaped his throat as he defended himself, "I mean finally the Golden Child of the Shinoda Family is the one in the doghouse instead of me for a change. To be honest it doesn't surprise me one fucking bit that you went and sold your soul to the devil, I just figured you would've done it much sooner."

“What do you mean by that?!” Donna asked, properly bewildered as she struggled to keep up with all these new revelations.

“Did you already know about this Jason?” Muto demanded as he leveled him a harsh steely look.

Jason however wasn't fazed. Maybe he was for a fleeting moment but then he immediately realized he didn't give any fucks anymore. He truly didn't. Years and years of putting up with the favoritism and clear differences in treatment when it came to discilpine have reached the boiling point. In other words, he was very much done with all the parental bullshit he'd been put through.

The floodgates has opened and nothing was holding back Jason Shinoda from his pent up frustration.

"Are you-are you being fucking serious?! I mean fine yes, I had a strong inkling selliing his soul to the devil was something Mike would do. In fact I saw all of his occult shit when I was fucking 12, I saw it all. Frankly I thought it was all a fucking dream until Chester just told me. And then everything came back to me, it all makes so much fucking sense now. Everything!"

"What does Chester have to do with this?" Muto asked, words sharp and still angry.

A beat.

"That's not the fucking point dad. My point is you don't know golden boy here as well as you think you do. Both you and mom," Jason clutched his fists, his expression matched the other as he faced Muto and Donna. Like father, like son. "You two have been fucking blind because all you ever fucking see is this perfect Golden Child you envisioned him to be. Case in point. this whole demon revelation. Mike making a deal with a demon shouldn't come as a big fucking shock to you guys. The clues has been right there ever since Mike was in high school don't you see? You were just too fucking clueless and naive to catch it."

"What clues?" Donna said in a panic. Her eyes darted rapidly between Jason and Muto then back to Jason as tried hard to make sense of everything.

Jason stared at her in disbelief before he scoffed irritably, "Figures. Well let me list them all out to enlighten you shall we? Hell there's so many I don't even know where to fucking start…oh wait actually I do. Why don't we start with the fact Mike came home one day after school and just fucking ranted for an hour and a half straight about how he was gonna get revenge for us. That was also the same day he found out the camps were nothing but a fucking paragraph in his history textbook."

"We thought he was joking," Donna said frantically, she was at a clear loss of how to respond.

"Joking my fucking ass!" Jason shouted as loud as he could before the world around them fell into dead silence for next moment and half.

It was so quiet one might've as well hear a pin drop a mile away. Or maybe even two.

Thank god they were far away enough from the cabin. The sheer volume would've woken up the rest of the house otherwise.

"Mike was being completely fucking serious. Every single fucking rant he made after that point about the camps and everything about it, he was being fucking serious. No way he was joking as much as you two desperately want to believe. He was fixated on it. Clearly enough to want to make a deal with a demon. You two-," Jason pointed to both Muto and Donna, "-just don't have enough brains to actually think."

"Oh my god," Chester muttered under his breath, his shoulders shaking ever so slightly. He really didn't expect Jason to go down the 'let's insult my parents intelligence on some level' road.

Jason continued, "You two never wanted to think critically. Or play the fair game when it came to me and your precious Golden Child Michael Kenji fucking Shinoda. Nothing he's ever said or done has been taken badly. Whereas with me it was the complete fucking opposite. You treated everything I did as an affront to society, even if I was trying to brighten the mood with the same kind of innocent joke Mike has done sometime prior. Just fucking admit it, you wanted me to be nothing more then a carbon copy of dear old Michael!"

Muto stared at him, intense fury in his eyes beneath his stoic demeanor. He then swiftly directed his attention to Mike with a sudden demand, "Michael, when did you make a deal?

Mike tensed up as he was quickly put in the spotlight. He was frozen with so much anxiety that he didn’t know what to say or do, he lost control of himself. In that aspect it was Studio Incident of 2007 all over again. His brain has completely shut down and stopped working. Mike.exe has encountered a fatal system error, please restart brain and metaphorically press a key to continue. It was the same deal now as it was back then.

Mike nervously fidgeted with his fingers as he looked anywhere else but his parents and brother.

Mainly down at the sand as before.

This whole situation honestly felt more like a movie he was watching with friends with each passing second.

“Are you fucking serious!? Are you really-you're gonna just fucking ignore the goddamn issue I've just fucking told you?! Really dad? Really? Fucking typical," Jason sharply threw his hands in the air, "I'm fucking sick and tired of your goddamn 'it is what it is' attitude. I have suffered because of it, especially when i was in school."

By now Chester moved closer to a spot where he can easily mitigate should things escalate.

"Stop this foolishness right this instance-" Muto interrupted, but it didn't deterred Jason.

If anything this only served to make Jason more aggravated, he clearly wasn't done with his justifiable tirade just yet. He took a deep breath in order to calm himself down enough. He may be pissed off to all ends of the universe but he didn't want to exhibit violence towards his own parents.

Jason finished in a stark matter of fact way, "Look can we be honest here? I know you two are loving parents and care a great deal about me but let's be fucking real," He jabbed a fingers in the general direction of his parents, "If you had to take a fucking guess which one of us would go dance with the devil in the pale moonlight, it would be me."

“Well, you-you really can’t fault us for that Jason, you skipped class and hung around with a bunch of delinquents,” Donna replied defensively with just as much fervor in her words as Jason was with his just a second prior.

"May I remind you those quote-unquote delinquents were my fucking friends. They were some of the nicest bunch of people I hung around in high school. They worked hard to get good grades and to be a positive role model in school and in the community. But you refused to see all that because they dared to dress up differently, had tattoos and smoked weed. Which by the way….guess what two things I fucking did!" Jason yelled as he waved his arms up into the air in a flourish.

Three sets of eyes immediately stared at Jason with rapt attention as the latter took off his shirt.

Because Chester was right behind Jason, he was the first to react as soon as he spotted ink on his back. There was another burst of laughter only this time it was loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear.

“Holy fucking shit,” Chester let out an excited laugh as he clapped a few times.

“Feast your fucking eyes on this,” Jason said full of pride as he turned around to give Muto and Donna a view of his back. Mike would've also noticed if he still wasn't in a zone out state of mind.

(Technically Mike did notice along with everyone else. He lifted his head to watch what was going on after he heard Chester's boisterous reaction.

But nothing was really registering. Not one iota of this has been processed yet. The critical error was still in effect and as a result, everything just felt so unreal like this was nothing but a bad dream and he'd wake up in bed)

Luckily it was still light enough to be able to tell there was colored art. A complex design that depicted a tiger and a dragon fighting each other in an intense battle. Jason grinned in satisfaction as the elder Shinodas were rendered speechless.

The ‘no fucks given’ vibe was very strong in the youngest Shinoda.

“When did you get this Jason?” Muto asked eventually once he was able to form words. The look of Disapproval with a capital D was very much blatant if it wasn't obvious before.

“Oh years ago father,” Jason feigned shame as he turned back around to the front. He topped it off with a hand to his forehead as his voice rose half an octave to an over the top degree, “I don't know what came over me, I'm so terribly sorry. I just had an urge to be myself.”

Jason continued after he took a momentary pause for dramatic effect, "And as for the weed, well, I tried it at the ripe old age of 15."

Chester couldn't help but let out an ugly snort and an unbridled string of giggles as he automatically covered his mouth. Sadly this attempt to reign it all in didn't work. Donna locked her narrowed eyes on him while Muto glared so hard he might as well shot daggers a thousands times into his body.

To his credit, Chester did try to smooth it over by doing a 90 degree bow to Muto and apologizing. However the new impulse round of amusement didn't particular help to sell the sincerity of his actions, Muto still looked at him as though he'd kicked a kitten in his face and offended his ancestors.

(Chester was gonna have to offer Jason the family discount at Club Tattoo if he wanted more ink one of these days.)

"Enough! Enough of this. Can we get back to the main topic at hand?" Muto furiously boomed as he glared at Chester and the Shinoda brothers, "Now what the damn hell does Chester have to do with this demon nonsense? Michael-"

Mike about instantaneously shifted into an attention stance as Muto abruptly settled his hardened gaze on him, "-Was he the demon you sold your soul too?"

"Hey!" Chester said understandably offended. His voice turned slightly demonic as his one eye became fully black He very much didn't appreciate the implications of Muto's question as all.

The sudden spike of demonic powers within Chester has caused the wind to pick up speed. Thankfully it wasn't to dangerous levels, but the increase was enough for both Jason and Mike to get the unspoken memo to keep the other man calm.

"No it wasn't! It was a demon named Anna," Jason immediately said almost simultaneously as he got in front of Chester with his arms out.

"It was Mark Wakefield," Mike corrected as he move to stand right next to Jason. Everything may still feel unreal but no way he was not gonna stand up for Chester, and his brother as well, "I summoned a demon named Anna yes but I was too young at the time. But no it wasn't Chester dad, it was Mark. Me and Chester got deals at the same time."

"You what!?" Muto and Donna exclaimed in unison, eyes wide open due to shock.

"Deals, we both got deals back in 2000 and Mark is the one that owns our souls," Mike explained with a bit more clarity, "It was the only way to rightfully restore the family dignity."

Meanwhile as the conversation went on Mike internally groaned. Just how much worse can this get? It was painfully, painfully clear his plan for this reveal has gone horribly wrong. Went against every expectation he had for how’d it’ll go much to his every dismay. Somewhere along the way he miscalculated. That was painfully obvious. But when? How? What was the fatal flaw he made to cause reality to go the way its going right now?

Mike for sure thought his dad would be on his side since he was the one of the ones affected by the force relocation back during the 1940s. It made complete fucking sense in his head, Muto was sent to Manzanar therefore surely he would've wanted to go all out with revenge. For fucking sake it was government sanctioned racism for crying out loud. By that alone Mike wagered it'd be enough to drive his dad or anyone really to make a deal for revenge.

The sentence Muto said last before Jason and Chester arrived reared its ugly head again. How in the world did he brought dishonor to his family name. It was the completely opposite wasn't it? He was restoring honor, restoring everything back the Shinodas once owned before the wartime hysteria brought on by Pearl Harbor. He was only merely bringing the family back to their rightfully deserved place in the world.

“Michael,” Muto said, tone thick with grave disappointment. He may still appear to be calm but his voice belied the heated fury underneath. He locked a cold, icy glare with his oldest, “I am deeply ashamed of what you’ve done. Your grandparents would be ashamed. I don’t-what were you even thinking son? None of us ever desired to summon a demon and we personally went through it. You didn’t.”

“No, but the demon Anna took me on a field trip-” Mike easily admitted by this point. He still felt like he was on autopilot. It was kinda weird, he was simultaneously aware and not at the same time? Like he aware enough to move into action and help out Jason.

But at the same time it still felt like he was reading off of a script.

"-I saw it all; the barracks, the barbed wire, the watchtowers…everything, I also saw all the racist bullshit you guys had to endear both before and after. I finally understood what you and the rest of the family were hiding from us."

"We didn't tell you nor Jason because it was deeply traumatizing," Muto belted out.

"Well you fucking should've at least clued us in when we were old enough! You fucking had me thinking Manzanar was a fictional place like Narnia up until the 4th fucking grade," This time it was Jason who spoke. He was clearly angry over the memory as raw emotion dripped every which way from every word he said.

Chester meanwhile has managed to quell his demonic side down by counting down from ten from all the languages he knew under his breath. Specifically English and, courtesy of Mike, Japanese. As such, the wind slowly died down to what it was before.

"I did no such thing."

"Yes you did, and you certainly didn't help by not fucking correcting me the first time around dad. I had to fucking find out the hard way so thanks for that," Jason said with undeniable sarcasm.

Heavy thick tension then filled the air between Jason and Mike and their parents. So thick it might as well suffocated them all.

Muto eyes narrowed even further then thought possible as he looked between Jason and Mike, “You two are a disgrace to the Shinoda name. I’m ashamed of you both, very ashamed.”

"Of course you would be dad," Jason rolled his eyes. Despite the bitter tone, he wasn't the least bit bothered by his father's assessment. "Here you go acting like something I've done is as bad as Mike making a deal with a demon for revenge. I honestly wouldn't have it any other way," He finished sardonically.

Muto started at him for all but a second in disbelief. He was also seemingly unsure over whether or not to say anything before eventually he decided walking back to the cabin was the best course of action.

Donna meanwhile stood in place for the next few awkward seconds before she too hurried after her husband.

Now it was just the three of them left on the beach. Jason turned around and placed a comforting hand on Chester's shoulder, "You're ok?"

"Yeah," Chester nodded as he took another deep breath in order to make sure no angry spikes of demonic power will make itself known, "I just-I just really didn't like your dad thinking I was the one that took Mike's soul."

"That was pretty rude yeah. I'm sorry, it's like dad unfortunately to be like that," Jason said with genuine empathy, "Believe me I've been through tons of similar bullshit from him."

So big brother went on a field trip," Jason continued as he shifted his attention to Mike. His cadence and demeanor were back to casual levels now that the main drama was over, "I don't know whether to be more surprised by the fact you actually saw Manzanar in person or the very fact you time traveled."

"I didn't tell dad but I also saw the Santa Anita racetracks," Mike said in further detail after a scant moment passed. "I saw that and everything else I mentioned within a few hours.

The shadows around all three was now pushed by a magical ball of light that Chester created and placed in the air above them.

"Did anyone see you?" Chester asked, curious.

"No, we were invisible. Nobody saw or heard us."

"That's a smart idea," Jason agreed before suddenly something came to his mind. His eyes widened as if he just suddenly discovered the answer to a mystery, "Holy shit do you know what this field trip of yours means? It means your strawberry boycott is finally explained. I've been wondering about that on and off for years."

"Wait hold on, he boycotted strawberries?" Chester asked genuinely confused as he gestured towards Mike. He wasn't privy to this bit of lore about his husband so of course he wanted to know ever little detail about it.

"Oh yeah, did it because according to Mike strawberries were a reminder of the atrocities our grandparents suffered through. The boycott started shortly after I saw him summon the demon in the backyard."

"You saw that!?" Mike piped up in surprise and Jason nodded, "I thought I was being covert."

"You really weren't and next time I wouldn't summon a demon in the backyard in the suburbs. Just some brotherly advice," Jason said.

"Duly noted," Mike deadpanned.

"Anyways it was shortly after that, Mike stopped eating anything strawberry flavored. Strawberry ice cream, strawberry shortcake and he didn't want to drink anything strawberry either. It was rather sudden, one day he just decided not to eat them and honestly that's cool. People's preferences change all the time, sometimes with no rhyme or reasons, who cares. Mom and dad just thought he developed a sudden allergy to strawberries."

"It lasted for a year so I'll give him props for that," Jason chuckled, "Most of the time his boycotts only last one or two days."

"Hey," Mike protested without any true bite to it as Chester let out a good natured laugh, "My boycotts later longer then that thank you very much."

The laughter subsided into a comfortable, peaceful silence between the three. There a mutual decision to not head back as none of them made any moves to do so, the shit with Mr. and Mrs. Shinoda was still too awkward. The wounds were still too fresh and, well, space was what needed here after everything. The brothers didn't want to be in the same building as their parents for different reasons.

"So um, the demon thing….you're ok with it?" Mike awkwardly asked, confused and unsure as noted by how quiet the question sounded.

"Yeah I mean," Jason gave a nonchalant shrug, "I already had a strong hunch and like I said earlier, its something I saw you doing. You put a lot of effort into it for this to not be a strong probable outcome. Honestly I'm just relieved I have a confirmation that demons are a thing. I was right!"

Mike smiled in relief as he fully relaxed hearing his brother's words. He let out a breath he didn't know was there as the weight was lifted off of shoulders. He was just so happy to know he didn't completely loose all of his close family and it reflected on his face via his big grin from ear to ear.

"Thank you that-that means a lot."

"Anytime. Plus you're my big brother, I may have my issues being the black sheep of the family but I still care about you a lot," Jason said sincerely as he brought Mike into a loving brotherly hug. He added after they broke apart, "I'd still punch out anyone who hurts you."

"Same."

"I got one more question though," Jason admitted after the little much needed sentimental moment faded away. He turned to face Chester, "What kinda wish did you get with your deal?"

“Fame,” Chester casually explained with a smile, “I’m the reason Linkin Park became famous.

Several seconds passed as Jason stared at him with sudden awe. He was rendered utterly starstruck as he stared at Chester with wide eyes.

Then out of pure fanboy fueled adoration, Jason bowed a full 90 degrees in front of Chester, "I greatly thank you."

Chester automatically laughed out loud while Mike groaned in embarrassment.

Chapter Text

They were back in LA and its the morning after.

The family reunion was planned for another week with fun activites around their little corner of Japan. Taking trips to various villages and eating lot of foods Once upon a time Mike looked forward to this but after his disastrous confession, he wanted nothing more than to go back home and crawl under a big rock.

How in the world did it all go so wrong?

For obvious reasons, Jason also wanted to go home, no argument whatsoever there. So after a 13 hour flight back to LA the next day, all three were at Mike and Chester’s. Since it was so late when they landed, he decided he can get his car from his parent's place in the morning. It just made the most sense honestly. Plus he was too tired to drive himself back to his house anyways.

Now it was mid morning and the sun was fully up. The world was shouded in sunlight without a cloud to be see for miles throughout the city. Jason was still fast asleep in the spare room while in the master bedroom Mike and Chester were awake but still in bed. The latter sat up upright while the former rested against his warm body.

In another timeline in another universe, the two would've been able to enjoy the serene ambiance the sunlight provided with its almost ethereal glow. Just lay there under the blankets all cozy without a care in the world.

But unfortunately, the otherwise peaceful ambiance was soured due to recent events.

Chester can see it in Mike's eyes that he was still troubled by how things turned out, honestly nobody can blame him. The latter just wasn't ready to greet the day. There was small bags under Mike's eyes, his gaze distant as a poignant sense of anguish and confusion hung around him like a thick blanket. Just overall it was pretty clear to see he was overwhelmed.

Lost in his memories in other words.

Which made sense honestly because it was a similar deal on the flight over. Mike didn't want to talk about it and ended up watching movies after a few failed attempts to sleep.

But now it seemed his mind has decided it was time for the memories of what happened in Japan to rush forward like a bag of bricks. This led to a chaotic mess of questions and analyzations, a sort of desperation to scrutinize every single little detail to figure out a reason on how it all went so pear shaped.

"Ready to talk about it?" Chester asked softly and Mike let out a subtle whine in the form of a groan.

"Can't we just forget about it?" Mike asked with a hopeful tone in his voice. Honestly he wanted to just move on from this whole debacle and pretend nothing ever happened, "We both know I royally screwed up."

They merely cut their vacation short and flew back to LA because of all the half written songs and the tracks that needed to be finished for the next album. Yeah that's it. A much more digestible reason why they were back home a week early.

But deep down he knew it was wishful thinking as he had a feeling the whole situation was about to be addressed.

Which fair enough. The elephant in the room should probably be brought up sooner then later he supposed.

"Not this one babe sorry," Chester wasn't angry or in-your-face about it which Mike was glad about. Just semi-casual and a good amount of gentleness.

Not that he was in any real doubts about it, but it was nice to know Chester wasn't about to lose his temper in some weird reactive, abrasive way. Last thing Mike needed was to have more salt be rubbed into the freshly made wound. He already got enough just thinking about it.

Damn, the conversation had barely started and Mike already felt a renewed sense of embarrassment over his recent actions. He genuinely regretted the decision to confess to his parents in the first place.

"Alright," Mike said quietly, his demeanor slightly deflated.

"So for starters," Chester began steadily as he let out a quiet exhale, "What made you think your parents will be ok with this, do you remember what happened with Brad and Dave?"

Mike took a moment to gather his thoughts before he looked at Chester with his full attention. Honestly he didn't really have a solid answer.

"I don't know. I just thought it would be different this time," Mike shifted his eyes to a random spot near Chester, "All my life my parents been supportive of whatever hobby or endeavors I wanted to do. They would encourage me and buy whatever I needed in order to enjoy said hobby growing up, and they would get me lessons from the most qualified professionals in the world. Like one time I decided I wanted to go on a summer long art camp in Italy before I started senior year in high school. It was one of the most expensive camps in the world but they easily made it happen."

A beat.

"I keep forgetting you're from a different planet," Chester teased which helped to lighten the mood a bit as Mike chuckled in response, "But to be fair Tobi got us up a notch so can’t complain too much."

Mike agreed as the last trace of mutual laughter faded away into a brief lull in silence, "So yeah I figured logically it would go similarity as before cause why wouldn't it be otherwise based on what I knew. I was 99 percent sure they would support me."

"Ah I see," Chester thought on the best way to reply before he continued, "I'm gonna tell you what I told Troy the other day. If you're not entirely fucking sure on how someone is going to take the news that you made a deal with the devil then its best to keep it a secret. What I've learned over the years is that most people don't take the reality of selling your soul to the devil too well. Or just Hell and Heaven being real in general. So unless you really, really trust the person, you're better off keeping your mouth shut. "

"Oh,"

"Yeah, shit like this is on a case by case basis. However that said, some will take it in stride and be cool with it like your brother, Joe and Rob, but unfortunately many people won't. They'll very likely react the same way as your parents did."

Mike nodded as he automatically thought back to what happened. The response to his grand reveal, his disastrous confession, and the crushing disappointment and anger he received in turn. It was all too vivid still, as if it just ended hours ago as oppose to the other day. Then his mind suddenly zeroed in on the fact Jason blew up spectacularly like a volcano during the chaos. It was unexpected to him for sure but he was happy in a way. He doesn't feel as alone in being on the short end of the stick as he would've been otherwise family wise.

"I even took your family in account," Mike admitted as he looked up at Chester, his eyes filled with emotion, "You said most of them have made a deal so I figured it was evidence that everything will be fine."

“I mean yes that true, but the thing is me and my family the exception to the rule, an anomaly. We’ve been, as I like to call it, demon dealers since the 1600s, in fact that’s how my dad immigrated to the US from Wales. Got balls to the walls drunk at a pub one day, met a demon and wished to get as far away as he could, per his words, ‘from all of the bloody idiots around him’,” Chester said as he put on an imitation of his father's accent on the last part.

“So he ended up in Phoenix?” Mike concluded and Chester nodded his assent.

“Met my mom shortly after and the rest is history.”

“Was she ok with the whole demon thing?”

Chester took a moment to think it over. He wasn’t exactly sure as it had been a long time since he thought about this. Eventually he opened his mouth, “She didn’t really give a shit. It was after the fact and she couldn’t do anything about it. She told us once dad didn’t even remember doing it in the first place.”

“Wow,” Mike commented in lieu of anything else.

“Yeah,” Chester took in a deep breath then exhaled heavily, “The demon bribed her with a small free wish to not tell him cause it'd, according to the demon, ruin the enjoyment of watching a human with a tainted soul go through life unaware.”

"And she took it?" Mike asked with genuine curiosity.

"Yep, she said she didn't even hesitate. Of course that was also around the time she started to regret marrying my dad."

"Oh…that could've played a role," Mike absentmindedly commented in a quiet voice.

"It did, that's how my mom got a new car and a new set of clothes. And when his time was almost up, she divorced him and ran off with the demon in question."

"Wow."

A contemplative silence took over as Mike processed everything he told, and the more he did the more he realized he has done fucked up. Like royally fucked up.

As in 'most likely inadvertently changed the dynamics within his family' kind of fuck up.

"We'll get through this," Chester reassured him with a loving smile as he sensed the slight increased of despair in Mike's aura. "You got me, you got Jason-"

Suddenly, as if on cue, their heart to heart moment was abruptly interrupted by a loud high pitched scream. Both Mike and Chester immediately sat up straight in bed as they stared at the door.

“Holy fuck that's Jason!” Mike yelled in concern, his eyes blown wide open while Chester groaned in exasperation next to him.

It didn't take Chester too long to sense the presence of another demon, especially when it came to the aura of one particular demon.

“Goddamn it Tobi,” Chester promptly got up and quickly put on a shirt and sweatpants before he swiftly headed out the door.

His older sister just loved to pop in unannounced every now and then to an annoying degree. Ever since she became the Prince of Hell, she decided human created boundaries didn't mean a thing to her anymore.

(Mike deep down was grateful for this unexpected distraction. The sooner his Mistake of the Century TM was forgotten, the better, so in a way he welcomed this new development.)

"Tobi Ann," Chester yelled once he entered the living room downstairs. Jason was in the kitchen crouched behind the island counter clearly spooked from the unexpected visitor.

From the couch Tobi was in a cross legged position with a game controller in her hand. And ever since she took on the role, she'd wore nothing but black gothic attire. Just without the matching crown as she tended to forgo it whenever she wasn't on Earth for business.

She was focused on taking out the enemy players in Halo when Chester walked right in front of her field of view. As a result, there was a slight but noticeable irritated glare in her otherwise unperturbed reaction as she made eye contact with him.

"Doors are still a thing in case you can't fucking remember."

"Well sure but why bother," Tobi casually replied as she shrugged nonchalantly, "Once you learn how to teleport, you might as well cut out the middleman. In fact once you gain your full magical potential, you'd find some things are nothing more then pesky inconveniences not meant to be followed. You'll understand when you become a demon."

"That's still no fucking reason to show up out of the blue, you still need to follow human etiquette. Plus you scared Jason half to death," Chester finished with mild indignation as he made a gestured towards the kitchen.

"I did? Oh my apologies," Tobi said, her tone clearly more insincere then not. By now she had put aside the controller and stood up, the game subsequently forgotten in the background.

Chester rolled his eyes in response, if Jason hadn't already known about the existence of demons already then he would've been greatly annoyed. With Tobi's less then tactful arrival it could've gone a lot worse. But then again, to give her credit, she would've not done anything to seriously reveal the secret if Mike's brother was still truly in the dark.

"Hey," Jason interrupted, albiet awkwardly after he quietly walked over, having just calmed down from his temporary adrenaline fueled panic.

"Sorry about what happened by the way, I should've warned you earlier about Tobi since you know about us now," Chester apologized but Jason dismissed his concerns.

"It's fine don't worry about it. So I take it your sister is a demon too?" Jason asked for clarification. He'd still get his morning cup of coffee but unexpectedly seeing Tobi in the living room was just as effective at waking him the fuck up. His magical exiler of the gods can wait.

"Yeah she is."

"I'm the Prince of Hell," Tobi beamed with a proud expression etched into her face.

"I thought that was Beelzebub?” Jason said after a moment of confused silence passed. Not gonna lie he felt a little perplexed at this new info. Only because this didn't match what he learned about Hell via pop culture and long ago church sessions from when he was a kid.

But then again the media and society in general do tend to exaggerate and get details wrong with a variety of things.

“Oh they were but they ran off with the Archangel Gabriel years ago so I’ve been elected the new Prince.”

At this moment Mike took his cue to show up at the bottom of the stairs, finally looking somewhat ready to face the day. He looked presentable enough in the same shirt and sweatpants combo as Chester but his hair was anything but meticulously combed and perfect. But it was decent enough for a public appearance so to speak.

Tobi swiftly turned around when she caught him out of the corner of her eye, "Oh there's our future king of Hell."

“Hey Tobi,” Mike greeted before he gave Jason an once over. No wounds or bruises and there was a calm vibe in his aura which put him more at ease, “You’re alright?”

“Yeah, I just didn’t expect to see Chester’s sister. I didn't see her at first when I came into the kitchen but then I heard a noise coming from the living room so I turned around and that's when I woke up the neighborhood,” Jason finished with an awkward chuckle.

Mike gave him a look of sympathy as he soothingly rubbed him on the back, “She tends to do that, mainly to rile Chester up.”

“Oh.”

“And it's fun,” Tobi added with a bright smile as Chester rolled his eyes at the way she gleefully put it, "It's always been easy to get a reaction out of him."

“Is there a reason why you’re here?” Chester asked, annoyed.

“Yes there is actually. I’m bored,” Tobi replied plain and simple after she shifted her attention to him.

A beat.

“That’s not a reason Tobi,” Chester groaned as he gave her an exasperated look but his big sister wasn’t deterred.

“It is in my book. Mark is dealing with the Archangel Michael, Anna and Talinda are off in Europe corrupting souls, and Emily is in the studio working on the next Dead Sara album,” Tobi easily explained, “Plus it's a slow day at work. What the hell am I supposed to do, sit on my throne all day?!”

Chester rolled his eyes for the second time that day while Jason chuckled under his breath.

“Don’t you have any underlings to boss around?”

“Not at the moment, no” Tobi crossed her arms as she slightly tilted her head up a little in a thoughtful manner, “They’re either vacationing or causing chaos. So I figured why not pay a visit to my baby brother and his friends.”

“You could've at least texted first that you were gonna show up,” Chester reasonably pointed out, still annoyed over it but at the same time there wasn’t much heat behind it. He knew deep down there wasn't any malice behind her actions.

Plus honestly by now all of them were now used to Tobi and her antics. Just how she was, even more so now that magic was added to the mix.

“And miss any possible entertainment?”

“Tobi…” Chester sighed in a world weary tone that only someone who had a sibling would know.

“Fine. I’ll give you or Mike a heads up next time,” Tobi relented as she rolled her eyes.

“Sorry about her earlier by the way” Chester directed the apology at Jason as he let out a resignated sigh, “We would’ve warned you if we'd known she was gonna show up.”

“It’s alright,” Jason dismissed it easily with a shrug. Truthfully what else was there to be fazed by? He already had a good idea about the supernatural beforehand. If anything he'd been mentally prepared for the most part before everything was undeniably confirmed. Not that he was ever doubtful and narrow minded, but it was easier for him to take this shit in stride compared to most people.

(Like his parents for example.)

But all that said, yes it would’ve been nice to be told about Chester’s sister materializing out of thin air at random.

“I’ll get used to it,” Jason finished as Tobi looked at him curiously for a moment before she took a couple steps closer to him.

“So I assume you recently found out about Hell being a thing, am I correct?” Tobi asked,

"Uh yeah-" Jason nodded. If it wasn't for the fact he already knew the Prince of Hell, and was also his sister in law to boot, he would've felt unnerved standing in front of a powerful being.

Someone who was in charge of Hell with the power to back it up can very easily destroy his very much non-magical ass.

"-It's why we're back from the reunion so early, which actually that reminds me. I need to thank Mike again cause he truly saved me from the agonizing mental pain of having to deal with the rest of the family any longer," Jason then promptly turned to his left in order to completely face Mike before he bowed at a 45 degree angle, “Thank you big brother, from the bottom of my heart.”

“You’re not helping,” Mike glared at him as Jason straightened up, he really did not want to be reminded of the Big Mistake ™ he’d made. Potentially one of the biggest ones in his life. He never ever in a million years wanted his relationship with his parents destroyed. Fuck he could even be disowned, which even just thinking about it for a second made him sick to his stomach, The only solace in this mess was the fact Jason was here for the ride, "I could be disowned over this for the rest of my life Jason….actually they might disown you too now that I'm thinking about it."

"Meh I don't really care about that," Jason said as he leaned back on the edge of the kitchen counter, "Frankly I'm surprised they didn't disowned the both of us on the spot."

Tobi's face lit up with interest and cut in before Mike had any chance to reply to what Jason just said.

"Oh I'm feeling there's more to the story here," Tobi grinned big enough for a sliver of her fangs to appear,

"There is," Jason said dryly as he flash a smile of his own, "Mikey here thought our parents were gonna put him on a pedestal and praise him to high heavens if he told them what he did.

"Oh boy there's a rookie mistake if I ever heard one," Tobi said amusedly as she focused her attention on Mike.

"Please don't remind me," Mike pleaded with a groan. He wasn't sure what the hell he was fucking thinking in hindsight, it just seemed so obvioius now that his parents would definitely not be cool with it, they both came from religious families and were God-fearing folks themselves. That alone should've been a clue as to why it would be a terrible fucking idea, "Things aren't probably gonna be the same with mom and dad anymore."

"Sure, but look on the bright side," Tobi chirped happily without a care in her cheerful tone, "In seven years you'd be starting your training to become our new permenent leader. I can't wait honestly. I was told Anna picked up on that certain spark to be our new Satan the very moment you summoned her. She told Mark and the rest is history."

"Wait, he's gonna be the new Satan?" Jason said as he pointed to his left and confused by the implication.

Tobi swiftly turned her attention over to him, "Yep. The original one got destroyed decades ago."

"Well," Jason said before he quieted as he mulled the newfound information over in his head, then spoke with nothing but the full sincere truth in his words, "You picked a good one to be leader honestly."

Mike smiled to himself at his brother's praise.

“Welcome to Tokyo!” Jason announced loudly with his arms in the air. This elicited him odd stares from quite a few people near the group of four.

“You do realize we’re not actually in Tokyo right?” Mike deadpanned in a bit of a matter of fact tone.

Jason turned around and gave him an slight incredulously stare, “Of course I do. This is Tokyo if you don’t want to run into any of our family members.”

A giggle from Chester and Rob can be heard behind Mike.

With that Jason smoothly swirled back around to lead the way to their destination. Mike let out an annoyed sigh under his breath as he and his two bandmates followed him down the sidewalk.

Because they had to cut the trip short before they could enjoy the actual city in Japan, Mike decided the next best thing was to go down to Little Tokyo and make a night out of it. So that's where they were at. This was the next best thing to fulfill what he'd looked forward too. The fact Rob had decided to tag along when he called to invite him was a happy little bonus. Another unspoken confirmation that he hasn't lost all of his childhood friends.

Now here they were in a club not too long after. It was one of those hidden secrets kind of places, just a little out of the way from the busiest street in the district. But it was no less popular judging from the amount of people packed into the small venue. It was crowded sure but not to an extreme degree.

The white and colorful lights pulsed to the electrified beat of the music on the dance floor. The music was loud, energetic and the bass very much contributed to the constant vibration felt throughout the walls and floors. Combine this with alcohol and the atmosphere was perfect for one to temporarily abandon what troubled them.

Luckily there was an empty booth near the bar area they could claim after they bought the first round of drinks. Nothing too much happened for a while after. A myriad of topics was had as music played in the background, this included details about songs and the kind of sound the band wanted for the next album.

"I'm surprised the whole process is working smootly as it is with Brad and Dave barely talking directly to us." Rob mentioned out loud as he picked up his glass. His body posture didn't exactly reveal what he said he felt, which honestly is usually the case for him half the time.

"They aren't talking to you? what do you mean," Jason asked mostly in shock, he felt like the whole world stopped at this newfound revelation. This was brand new information. What do you mean there's a rift between band members?

Although that said, Jason's mind supplied a pretty strong theory as to why that was the case.

"They aren't receptive to the idea of demons being a thing," Rob plainly said with a casual, neutral expression, "Joe has been playing middleman for the last few years."

"I lost my temper one time in the studio and almost completely destroyed the room with my powers on accident," Mike clarified as calmly and quickly as he could. Even years later he still rather not reopen that particular wound, "Our secret was revealed and they took it about as well as mom and dad did."

"Oh I should tell you this," Chester said as a forgotten related memory suddenly came back, "Ryan told me that after I left the room, Amir told Brad and Dave that if they lay a hand on me, he'd punch them.

Several more minutes passed and eventually it was time for another round. Chester and Jason volunteered to go to the bar and replenished said drinks, somehow they managed to grab the last two open stools just in time. It was really crowded and busy at the moment, lots of people either waiting for their orders or lost in their own little worlds. For Chester, not being instantly recognized was a surefire relief. Well, there was some magic going on to divert attention away from his tattoos and anything else that screamed 'Hey I'm the famous vocalist from Linkin Park!"

But still. Its nice to be out and about where the people around them don't give a shit about a famous rockstar being their midst. Or three of them for that matter.

Next to Chester was a blond blue eyed women who appeared to be younger then he was. At first there was no reason to take much noticed of her. Just another patron who apparently was into his band if her shirt was anything to go by, which by the way, this was an attestment to the fact the illusionary spell worked. She wasn't giving him any iota of a thought and leaving him be.

But then his spidey senses was set off, the voice in his head told him she was a full fledged demon rather then a human like he initially thought. Not a human-born demon either like Anna or his sister, but someone who used to be an angel at the very start of creation then along the way became a Fallen Angel.

"Oh shit you're marked," Was the first set of words that came out of her mouth after an short awkward second-long moment of Chester staring, "I was gonna sweet talk you into giving me your soul, but whoever you sold your soul too won't like that."

"Right yeah, don't want to break any etiquette,," Chester felt awkward as he was jostled back to reality. Not to leave out the fact he felt bad that he stared in the first place. He didn't want to accidentally creep the hell out of anyone, women and men alike, and thus give off the impression he was some sleezy asshole, "Me and my husband were told about it some years back."

"So he's also marked too then I take it?"

"Yep. We both sold our soul to the same guy," Chester explained, the woman listened with interest, "He was also nice enough to grant us a small amount of power."

"That explains why I can sense some level of magic within your aura," She said in a bit of a revelation before she introduced herself as Emily.

Chester introduced himself and Jason, and the three settled into a comfortable level of small talk. Turned out she was the Emily that his sister had mentioned the previous day. A highly ranked demon assigned to help Tobi get the lay of the land, mainly because she was one of two Fallen Angels with the most experience with humanity among the nobles of Hell.

And she was here because her band was performing here tonight.

It was literally a minute after Emily left when Chester heard a boisterous laughter coming from his left. Jason's phone has pinged in the midst of their goodbyes to their newfound friend, he immediately picked it up and noticed there was a notification from Donna in the family group chat.

"Wow," Jason exclaimed with a big smile plastered on his face as he showed Chester the message on the screen. He let out another string of bubbly laughter, "They fucking did it! They finally fucking did it, and it only took them 84 years."

The message in question was short and brief, Donna telling the boys that she and Muto were temporarily disowning them until further notice. A request to give them space in order A succinctly stated sentence, yet the impact was deeply felt.

Chester could only take a very good guess on how Mike might be reacting. He tried to look over towards their table, but because of the dim lighting and the thick crowd, it was almost impossible to tell for sure this far away.

While Jason showed no sign of sadness in the slightest over this, Mike would undoubtedly be taking this news hard.

"Oh ow my heart, my achy breaky heart," Jason sarcastically said. he giggled without a care as he replied back with a simple sad faced emoticon. It was very much obvious he wasn't fazed at all, "You know honestly I thought I would get disowned years ago in college."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I was pretty much partying, smoking weed and getting drunk here and there. Mom and dad just couldn't fathom how I was able to have fun while still getting good grades at the same time," Jason explained with a giddy smile before suddenly an idea struck him like lighting. His smile grew even bigger as he faced Chester, "Holy fuck we should celebrate!"

Then before Chester could say anything, Jason jump out of his chair and got up onto the top of the nearest unused table. He cupped his hands around his mouth and proceeded to shout as loud as he could.

"Anyone here who ever been the black sheep in their family, I'll buy you a drink!"

Chester by now has got caught up the moment and joined Jason on the table for the festivities. As a fellow black sheep himself, he was all for this idea and he was more then happy to help pay for said drinks. Sure there was a major difference in terms of his childhood living situation to be fair. The Bennington family were never rich like the Shinodas were, so no lavish trips abroad, expensive resting, or private schools.

But when it came to the age old game of favoritism, it was the same dog and pony show beat for beat. Just wrapped up in a different flavor.

With the Bennington siblings, the one who got away with shit the most often was Tobi. The two would pretty much pull the same things any other young dumbass kid would do, and almost every single time without fail it would be Chester who got grounded for the next week. Tobi would just either get a metaphorical slap on the wrist or it would be dismissed altogether.

Quite frankly it never made any fucking sense to Chester how he can be considered a disappointment over shit that Tobi has done as well.

Meanwhile for Mike, he wasn't feeling so hot right now. The fun, good time mood he was in has taken a 180 turn, now it felt as though a good chunk of his world has been destroyed. He read the text over and over a few times as if it would suddenly change or hey turns out it was some kind of dumb, weirdass joke his parents decided to pull. But alas it wasn't, this was the reality he now lived under.

Luckily Rob was there next to him, the one close high school friend Mike still had. He'd just sat back down after he arrived with their second order of drinks. Good timing too, he managed to grab them from Chester right before Jason yelled at the top of his lungs..

Rob gently rubbed his hand up and down Mike's his back. He wasn't really sure what to say that wasn't too obnoxiously trite and whatnot.

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare," Mike mumbled with a melancholy groan. A moment of silence then Mike lifted his head up, his eyes full of tears barely staying under control, "I know it was my mistake in hindsight, but I never once thought in the slightest my parents would….disown me."

"I didn't do it on purpose you know, I really thought dad would be on my side. He suffered through the camps himself so I-I don’t know….I guess I pictured him being impressed with how much thought I put into this" Mike continued on with deep regret, "I also never wanted to be the reason Jason got disowned either,

"You weren't. It sounded like he had years of pent up frustration towards your parents from what I've been told and this was just simply the catalyst," Rob wisely pointed out gently as Mike wiped away the stray tears that escaped down his cheek.

"Yeah I mean I do feel proud of Jason for standing up like that. Mom and dad has always been a little unfair to Jason from what I've noticed growing up," Mike said, then stopped as he realized something and made a correction, "Actually there's probably more to the story now that I think about it, that's the feeling I'm getting now."

Silence passed at this point, Mike took a generous sip as he watched the scene up head. Somewhere inside the crowd was Jason and Chester having the time of their lives, mingling and handing out shots to other members of the black sheep club.

"I would worry about how well my brother is taking the news but somehow i get the feeling he's not bent out of shape over it," Mike softly chuckled before it fade away a second later.

Time went by and because Mike was a lightweight, he got balls to the walls drunk pretty damn fast. In another time and place he would've watched himself, didn't want to get so drunk he passed out. But given everything that happened recently, Mike gave himself permission to let loose with the alcohol in order to forget what just happened.

Honestly nobody here with him would blame him.

“I did what?” Mike was confused as he laid on top Chester, voice rough yet soft as he didn't want the raging headache he had to flare up. He thanked every deity up there and in all the different universes the curtain were closes, the morning light would've not helped at all.

Its been years since he had a hangover like this, not specifically the intensity of it, could've been worse, but just in general. If it wasn't for Chester and his magic, the pain would've been sharper and much more acute. What would've felt like his brain being squeezed to death was currently nothing more but a throbbing annoyance.

Just what exactly the hell happened last night?

"You bought tickets to our own show," Chester said with a warm chuckled as he gently ran his fingers through his adorably messy hair, "You thought Jason was the rapper in our band."

Mike groaned as he hid his face in Chester's bare skin. Can the Earth swallow him whoel and he can just die peacefully underground.

"I'm afraid to ask what his reaction was," Mike groaned once more despite being aware of his headache.

Chester laughed under his breath, "It wasn't too bad. You asked him to sign your t-shirt and he obliged."

"Course he would," Mike said softly, he rolled his eyes despite the mild ache in the side of his head.

"You also asked for a picture and you immediately texted Joe telling him that he missing out by staying home," Chester added much to Mike's complete embarrassment.

Why must he be a lightweight Mike wondered to himself, he wished he could handle his alcohol just as well as Chester can.

At this point, the two fell into the quiet and calmness around them. Mike and Chester opted to enjoy their time together in the peaceful silence as they didn't have anything to do today. Which was a fucking godsend since neither of the two were in any particular mood to face the world today, That can wait until tomorrow at least.

"I hope its not permanent. Being disowned I mean," Mike blurted out under his mouth.

"It honestly could be because of the whole demon thing. I'd give it a fifty-fifty chance, however your parents did not look happy at all," Chester didn't want to be abrasive and too harsh to the point of being rude, but he also didn't want to sugarcoat anything either, "It may not be in your favor."

"But you still have us," Chester continued warmly with a reassured smile before planted a delicate kiss onto Mike's forehead, "We'll help you get through this."

Mike smiled as he felt a swell of warmth inside his chest.

“And don't forget, you're gonna leader of Hell soon Mike. You got that to look forward to,” Chester pointed out..

“I am yeah,” Mike lazily agreed before he received a deep kiss.

Eventually Chester got out of bed to grab some snacks and sodas while Mike got the job of picking a movie for them to watch. There was no rush to get out of bed really. Today was strictly a rest in bed day, especially when one took into account that Chester and the Shinoda brothers didn’t get home until 4am in the morning.

When Chester entered the kitchen he saw Jason was already there, awake but not fully ready to greet the day. Case in point, both Jason and Chester were in nothing but their underwear and the former was nursing his own hangover with a ice pack.

"Thanks for letting me stay the night here," Jason said, his voice quiet but loud enough for Chester to catch the word.

"No problem." Chester assured him as he rustled around for stuff needed to properly enjoy a movie. Things like popcorn, chips and the like.

"I should've not get drunk as much as I did. I don't even remember the last time before last night."

"We both celebrated too hard," Chester said with a toothy grin and Jason chuckled in agreement.

"I want to ask something before I forget," Jason began as he put the ice pack away, the headache having died down enough to not warrent using it anymore, "And we can iron out the details later when we feel like functional human beings….um, is it possible to join you guys in Hell without having to sell your soul?"

"Oh, wait you want to join us?" Chester asked taken aback a little in surprise, he wasn't sure if he heard that correctly. Did Jason just basically said he'd rather be a denizen of Hell then one of Heaven?

“Yeah, I mean Mike may have been the Golden Child but he's still my brother, I care about him a lot. And I can say the same for you, you’re the best brother in law I can ever ask for,” Jason took a moment to gather the rest of his thoughts the best he could into a coherent form, "I don't really want to sell my soul, but I also don’t want to become an angel and fight against you guys in some Heaven vs Hell war.”

A beat then Chester grinned. Something deep in his gut told him this would make Mike's day even more brighter, "I have to ask Mark cause I don't know how it works admittedly, but I'm sure it can be arranged. We would love to have you on board with us."