Nothing lasts forever (open)

He still wasn’t sure if he really liked this new life. Hell, he still wasn’t even sure if he really could call it ‘new’.
He still remembered his past life, in his original, older body; though he’d deny it if anyone ever asked about it. He remembered the devil, he remembered the angels, the demons, all his tricks (magical and con-related) and, much to his annoyance…he remembered all the friends he’d lost.

"Trust the devil to find a way to screw me over when I think I have everything covered…" John, or Johnny as he was now calling himself, sighed.

He stared absent-mindedly out the window of the motel room he was currently staying in, cigarette in one hand as he thought about it, wondering if his trick had really been worth it.

He’d been working on a ‘case’ as he referred to dealing with anything demon or occult related and it had gone wrong, despite his ability to shape events to his liking.

Everyone thought he was dead, so currently, Johnny was currently alone (more than he usually was anyway); left to try and live a semi-normal life while he could, because he figured his old life would catch up with him eventually…one way or another.

He lost track of how long he sat there, jumping slightly when he heard a noise outside, hesitating before getting up, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Better not be some arsehole out to ruin my peace.” Johnny muttered to himself as he headed outside to investigate.

The city had always been one that he enjoyed since coming over on a ship. It was different than where he was from, The United States that was. Then again, everything was different than where he was from. Or should he say when. Sometimes he still forgot that his time was different than the one that he was from.

Yes, Jason Blood was a different breed of man.

When he was young, the world had been a place of kings and knights and warriors. Jason Blood of Norwich had grown up trained to be a member of King Arthur's Court. He became a knight of the round table, a defender of the meek. Morganna Le Faye had changed all of that. By seducing him and feeding him lies, Jason grew to think that she was the one who was truthful and not King Arthur. That had led to his betrayl which had led to him becoming bonded to the demon Etrigan. That gave him eternal life. At first, he had cursed it. Then he grew use to it and used what he had picked up over the years to become a paranormal investigator. He did a lot of his work back home in England but he also had an agency in New York City.

Which was where he was now.

The task should have been a normal one. Klarion The WitchBoy had bewitched a couple of teenagers into helping him steal and Jason was attempting to stop them. The problem was the fact that Klarion was waiting for him. A spell had been cast and for some reason he was bending over in pain, turning into Etrigan.

Johnny headed outside, a half finished cigarette in his mouth, freezing when he realised what was going on.

"Bloody hell..." He sighed, slowly shaking his head. I knew the quiet was too good to be true.

He stayed in his spot for a moment as he took in the situation, quickly working think of a plan. Much to his annoyance, Johnny couldn't think of a way to fix the problem without using his powers, meaning there was a good chance someone would recognise him despite his physical changes.
Hurrying over, Johnny focused on creating a magic circle around the man who seemed to be in pain, using the ashes from his cigarette, seeing as he didn't bring much else with him before coming out to investigate. He drew a few symbols inside the circle, allowing it to prevent the man from further harm.

He could deal with whatever was causing the man pain later; for now he figured he needed to get rid of the attackers.

Johnny got to his feet, the protective circle glowing a firey red now that it was complete, a dangerous look in his eyes as he turned to face Klarion and the teenagers.

"Alright kids. I'm gonna give you 'til I count to three for you to get on outta here before I transport the lot of you to hell." He growled, aiming a fireball at their feet as a warning.

Doubled over, Jason feeling the pain of his bones shifting. It hurt every time he changed but this one hurt for a reason. A young man had ran outside and was using the ashes from a cigaratte that hung from his lips to draw symbols of protection. Jason could barely use them when he wasn't turning into a demon but the demon blood in his veins thought it was particularly nasty and it always caused him pain.

"Oh this is no fun," Klarion pouted, an insane look in his eyes. "Maybe you should be worried more about what's in the circle with you. Not us."

With the snap of his fingers, the three disappeared and Jason was yet again without a lead on this case. He growled at the man, "Do you know what you're doing!"

"Oh don't worry, I am. Problem is you're in the way." Johnny muttered, rolling his eyes as Klarion and his 'friends' disappeared. He frowned at the tone the man in his circle spoke to him in. "I normally do know, yes."

He kneeled before the man to examine one of the symbols he'd drawn. "This circle normally protects me, so obviously you have more than just blood..." He muttered, more to himself than anything. Reaching a hand out, the con-artist rubbed out the symbol he'd drawn, causing the spell to stop working. "I should be able to help you, if you tell me what exactly's going on."

Normally he'd just use his powers to figure out who or what was causing the man pain, but he'd realised a few days beforehand that doing too much while helping others was bad for him. Very bad. As he waited for an explanation, Johnny stared down absentmindedly at the smudge of ashes left on his hand from the symbol he'd rubbed out.

"No you don't know what you're messing with for demons they are more than myth," came a voice much more demonic than the one that Jason had previously been speaking with. He looked up at the other young man, his eyes a burning red that reminded most of the pits of hell themselves.

To lessen the pain that he was feeling from the transformation he spoke, "Change change the form of man, free the prince forever damned, free the might from fleshy mire, boil the blood in heat of fire, gone, gone the form of man, behold the demon Etrigan!"

With a roar, Jason Blood was no longer Jason blood. He was now Etrigan, a hulking yellow demon who had no time for such frivolities as humans. He stepped out of the circle, his voice ringing out towards the other man. "You have helped me lose my hunt that I worked so hard to confront."

"Oh no, of course not; I have no idea at all." Johnny said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the demon. "Hey are you friends with a demon named Nergal by chance? I owe him a good kick in the- whatever it is demons have." He said casually as he arranged the ashes of the erased symbol into a new one.


Hopefully this'll keep him from getting out until I know how to deal with him. Johnny thought before jumping in shock as the man changed into a demon. He was used to just dealing with demons simply possessing a person, but this was clearly different. The words the man had spoken had seemed familiar, but Johnny was sure he'd remember any encounters he might have had with something like this.

The con-artist slowly got to his feet and took a step back, slowly taking in the appearance of the demon in hopes of doing research on it later.

"Hunt for what?" He asked with a frown. "Have you not heard of the rule about full fledged demons coming here. You lot are meant to stay in hell."

"Many a demon Etrigan knows Nergal has brought humanity many woes," he nodded with a growl. He wasn't a bad demon. Yes, he had the same thoughts as many had, wanting to take over humanity and what not, but he had helped many people. As a rhyming demon, anything Etrigan said was in poetic form.

He looked at the circle that he was encased in before listening to the question. He was very unaware of what was going on around him, this young man was. "For young Klarion I did chase, for his capture was my case. A full demon Etrigan is not, you should be careful not to recite what you are taught."

"You do know that's fucking annoying...right?" Johnny said with a roll of his eyes in response to the rhyming. "Actually, come to think of it- you seem familiar. Unfortunately though, my mind currently isn't at its greatest."

He seemed to disappear within his own mind again, struggling to think of where it was he knew the demon from, not having caught the name of Etrigan's human form. He frowned when he realised at the moment, he couldn't recall the name or whether they really had met before. "Okay, so you know that Klarion tosser then? I s'ppose it's reassuring you aren't mates with him." He put a hand to his head before continuing. "Right. At the moment, I feel like someone woke me up from a hangover with a bat to the head, so I'm really not in the mood for any bullshit. If you're not a full demon, I'm allowed to let you go. If you can change back, even better. But I'm not letting you out of the circle 'til you explain."

"Etrigan knows he can be a pain he has been told so since King Arthur's reign," Etrigan rolled his eyes. It wasn't his fault that he always rhymed, he was a rhyming demon. Rhyming demons always rhymed when they spoke. "I do not think we have met but rest assured I am no threat."

Etrigan nodded and spoke, looking over the man as he recited, "Change change o' form of man, rise again the form of man."

With a painful yowl, Etrigan bent over, his skin turning from the yellow of the demon to the fleshy tone of Jason Blood. He let out a pant, not looking at the man, "Klarion...he's more than a tosser mate. And I'm sorry you have a hangover."

"Alright, alright." Johnny said, waving a hand dismissively in hopes he'd stop. He let out a sigh when the demon changed back into a human form. "The rhyming's rather annoying, but I've not seen a bad demon do it before, so it puts you on the safe list." He said with a shrug.

"I never said I had a hangover, just feels like it." Johnny said bitterly, frowning. "And I know of the name Klarion, but I've not ever met him. Care to enlighten me?" He said as he pulled out a cigarette to replace the first one, putting it in his mouth before lighting it.

"Tell me about it," chuckled Jason lightly, "You don't know what it's like to be in the form for an extended period of time. The rhyming sometimes transfers over and I don't even know I did it mate."

He regarded the other man lightly, before realization set in. "John Constantine? We've met before...briefly. I'm Jason Blood. Yes, I know Klarion the witchboy. He was the rather annoying fellow who just left with two other teenagers. He's been bewitching teenagers to do his dirty work. Stealing kids in the night and that sort of thing. Wants the world to be ruled by children."

"Hmm. Must be hell." Johnny muttered around his cigarette, kicking at the ashes to break the circle, freeing Jason. He paused for a moment, straightening his tie to hide the fact that it was actually concern that stopped him.

"Don't know who that is mate." He said with a straight face as he continued erasing the circle with his foot. While he was no god of lies, it was still something that came naturally to him.
Am I really that easy to recognise? He wondered, glancing up at the man. "Dunno about you though, but that still makes him a tosser to me. I might not be a fan of children, but that doesn't mean I support the idea of kidnapping."

"It's not even close to hell. You don't know what Hell's like until you've actually been there," Jason muttered, running a hand over his beard. Yes, he had been to Hell. He had seen the demons and dangers first hand and lived to tell about it.

"You're lying, Constantine. I never forget a face. Not in the eons of time I have been on this Earth I have never forgotten a face," Jason insisted. "I'm not a child person, though I have a teenage daughter of my own."

"Been there, done that." Johnny shrugged, letting out a sigh that covered Jason in his smoke. "More times than I'd like to admit. Makes you realise why they use hell to refer to bad things."

He pulled a face when he was pulled up for lying, looking confused before hiding it and returning to his usual frown. "But I- I look different..."

What happened to all your witty comments Johnny?

The con-artist froze, not sure if he'd thought the words, or if he had just heard it. He looked around nervously before looking up at Jason again. He wondered for a moment if it had been him that had spoken before realising it couldn't have been; it had sounded too much like his own voice.

"How does that work out for you then huh?" Johnny asked the other man, trying his best to sound like he was okay. "How do you have a daughter if you don't like kids?"

He didn't realize how bad he needed a smoke until he was covered in it. Pulling his cigaratte tin from his pocket, Jason lit one up and took a puff. "Sometimes Etrigan gets called down there by his demon brethren. He doesn't mind it but I sure as hell do."

He shrugged as he watched the way that he moved, the nervousness in his body language. There was something different than the last time he had ran into the young man, "You look different but it's still the same basic face. You're not all that different Johnny."

He smirked, rolling his eyes, "Well Johnny, I made a mistake. We all make them. Mine just resulted in having a little girl."

A smug look appeared on Johnny's face as he watched Jason start smoking himself, knowing it was because of his own actions. It quickly disappeared though when Jason spoke. He knew what it was like to be dragged down there unwillingly.

"Trust him to screw me over like that." Johnny muttered, shaking his head. "On the bright side, I'm younger than I was and scar free. I even have my thumb back." He added with a small smile, holding his hands up to show he had all his fingers. In his original body he'd cut one off during a time where he'd been insane.

"All too familiar with those mistakes. My life's been full of 'em."

Jason took a drag of his cigaratte before he crushed it under the heel of his boot. With a smile on his face, he tried not to listen to what Johnny muttered. It was, of course, futile. Even if he didn't want to hear what Jason had to say, because of the enhanced senses that his bond with Etrigan gave him it happened. Someone screwed him over. It was logical reasoning that brought Jason to the thought of it being Satan himself. He; however, kept it quiet. "You are younger, I hadn't expected you to be this young when we finally met. And your thumb...I don't think I knew about that one."

Jason's life up to this point, of course, had been product of one mistake.

He had just sworn to never tell anyone.

"Eh, most people didn't know of it. Everyone generally tried their best to avoid me, especially once they heard I'd gone mental. But the younger part, I can live with I s'ppose; though it's not like I aged all that much to begin with..." Johnny shrugged. "Something to do with the demon blood I had in me- or have...I dunno with this body; he never said."

As he inhaled the smoke from his own, Johnny relaxed a little; the old habit reassuring himself that he was still the same despite his appearance, at least for now. "Could've been worse. But then, who knows how others'll react when- if they realise I'm still around..."

"Mental, pardon the terrible joke I'm about to make, is a frame of mind," Jason chuckled, "What one finds to be completely mental others do not. I've lived in this good Earth to realize that much. Demon blood? It'll turn your thoughts, warp them if you let them get the chance. You have to learn to control it. When I first had Etrigan bound to me, I thought I was going to die from insanity."

"Eh, maybe, but it was apparently still mental enough for 'em to lock me away at one point...or two." Johnny frowned, one hand clenching into a fist in response to the memories. Far from one of his best moments. "Unfortunately for me, it's not just the demon blood doin' it to me. Seeing the ghosts of those who's deaths you're responsible for isn't all that cheery."

He inhaled deeply, finishing his silk cut before tossing the remains onto the ground and crushing it under his shoe. "It's hell more like." He added dryly, a hint of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.

"No, I can't bloody imagine that it is," he chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's probably harder to deal with than constantly bloody rhyming..."

"Oh, I dunno about that," Johnny replied with a small smirk. "I think the rhyming would likely drive me mental a bit faster. You can keep it."

"I bloody hate the rhyming," Jason practically spat, "Sometimes I catch myself doing it in normal speech after I've turned back into Jason."