Author's notes: This conversation idea popped into my head this morning on a bus and would not leave me be till I wrote it. >_> Just a general conversation between Jezebel and Cassian. ai_kizu and I had a conversation not too long ago about how we dislike seeing Jezebel's very complex personality maimed and completely twisted around. I'll admit, he's certainly a hard character to pin down and I can only hope that it meets ai_kizu's approval.
"Do you consider me evil, Cassian?" The question came out of nowhere and had the dark-haired man pausing. He'd come to deliver yet more paperwork to Jezebel and had thought the man thoroughly immersed in studying whatever it was that he had laid out on the operating table.
Cassian had learned a long time ago not to question or look too closely at what Jezebel's experiments consisted of. He'd thought himself a hardened criminal by the time he came into the doctor's employ but the blond somehow had a knack for proving Cassian just how wrong he truly was.
Currently, Jezebel was watching him with the patience of a cat waiting for a mouse to make just one false move. There was a distinctly predatory gleam in violet eyes as they studied Cassian unblinkingly.
Forcing himself to remain nonchalant, Cassian finished laying the armful of papers he'd carried into the room on the corner of Jezebel's desk. He finally turned to meet the doctor's clinical gaze with a expressionless look on his face. "Evil? No. Bloody off your rocker, certainly."
His answer seemed to amuse Jezebel and he tossed back his head with a laught, that almost too effeminate visage all but glowing. There was no denying that Jezebel was a beautiful creature. Too bad Cassian had learned in his time with the doctor that sometimes the most aesthetically pleasing packaging often masked the most dangerous entitiesl. He had learned that the brightest, most vibrantly colored flowers were often the most poisonous. Cassian now knew that while Jezebel was beautiful, a dark and twisted madness existed just beneath the surface. A madness that made a man with the face of an angel into the most cold-blooded killer Cassian had ever met.
"Ah, Cassian, you do amuse me." Jezebel's lips curved upwards into a taunting smile. "Always honest to a fault."
"I'm glad I amuse you." Cassian grumbled with a dangerous narrowing of grey eyes. His youthful face hide a man who was thirty-five years old. It was a face that he hated but the eyes always gave him away. No child had eyes like Cassian and they fascinated Jezebel to no end. Especially when they were flashing with aggravation and annoyance like they were right now and it made Jezebel want to tease him.
"Oh, but you do." Jezebel assured him with a faint smirk and climbed to his feet. Cassian watched him warily as the doctor shook back ash blond hair and ran his fingers through the tangled curls with a delicate wrinkle of his nose. "And why am I 'off my rocker' as you so eloquently put it?" Jezebel was well aware of his particular brand of madness but there was a masochistic streak in him that continually sought out abuse from those around him. Or at least, that's how it appeared on the surface.
"Did you want to climb out of those gore-smeared clothes before or after I explain that to you? This might take a while." Cassian stated with a droll tone of voice. "Was that part of a human at one point or another?" The shorter man asked, tilting his head towards the hunk of dissected meat that lay discarded on the table behind Jezebel. The doctor's smile was razor sharp as he glanced down at the blood-smeared operating gown he wore. There was something satisfying in watching Cassian's fastidious disgust with his experiments.
"Of course, you didn't expect me to experiment on animals did you?" He sniffed as he moved to pull off the gown and wash his hands at the sink.
"Thus my saying you're off your rocker." Growing tired of this subject, Cassian gave a sarcastic salute and turned to go.
"If I'm insane, what does that make you, Cassian?" Jezebel's question had Cassian freezing once more.
"What do you mean?"
"If I'm insane for doing what I do then what are you? Do you not help to procure the items and people I need for my experiments? Isn't that just as bad as what I do? Are you insane as well or just plain evil?" Jezebel's smile was slightly malicious, violet eyes gleaming with a manic sort of light as they eagerly awaited Cassian's reaction.
"Me? I'm apathetic. I do what's ordered of me, no more no less." In answer, Cassian's smile was wholly unpleasant and slightly feral looking. This was the implacable killer his victims saw and it had a shiver running up Jezebel's spine. The predator inside Jezebel reacted to the menace he sensed radiating from Cassian and the doctor's pupils dilated for a moment before narrowing to pinpoints.
"Does that absolve you of your sins then? Because you were ordered to do it?" Cassian snorted and tossed his head slightly with a derisive look on his face.
"Please, spare me the religious talk. I don't believe in the boogeyman or some omnipotent being that's going to scold me for being a bad boy." Cassian's words should have been shocking, they were certainly rude enough but Jezebel merely smiled grimly.
"So you don't think you'll be going to hell once you die?" Unconsciously, Jezebel's hand closed about the cross hanging from his neck. The sharp points dug into his palm as he held it tightly in a hand that was less then steady.
"What's the point of worrying about what'll happen to me after I die? Way I see it, there's nothing I care to do at this point to change things so I might as well live life as it comes. You'd do well to do the same, Doctor." Cassian's eyes narrowed fractionally. "That cross isn't going to do a hell of a lot of good when the reaper comes to collect your soul."
"This is my proof to God that I'm a sinner, Cassian. I thought you knew that." Under normal circumstances, Cassian knew better then to get into any kind of philosophical discussion with Jezebel. His better sense appeared to have deserted him this day however and he paused when he should have left.
"Proof? And what that's supposed to absolve you of your religion's edicts against killing your fellow man?" He hated hypocrisy and Jezebel's too calm attitude was beginning to grate on his nerves. Now, normally Cassian would have just let things go and just written it off as Jezebel being his usual insane self but he found himself thoroughly riled this time. "Do you realize how full of shit you are? You're such a hypocrite."
A shocked look flashed momentarily across Jezebel's features. He straightened slightly as his mouth opened to issue a sharp retort but he was cut off before he could utter a word.
"You go on and on about how you're a sinner and how you're going to hell blah blah but you're not doing a single bloody thing to stop it from happening. If you're so afraid of your God and his retribution then take responsibility for your actions and stop hiding behind some façade of demented un-holiness." The words spilled out before Cassian could stop himself and when he realized just how far he'd stepped into it, his eyes widened and he tensed. "I mean…."
"No, don't try and contradict yourself now, Cassian. You might become a hypocrite yourself." Jezebel murmured with a twist of lips that was too sharp to be called a smile. "I was destined to be a sinner. Father knew it from the start, that's why he named me after the biggest whore in the bible."
"Yeah well considering he named his other son after the first murderer, that's not saying much." Cassian grumbled and hunched his shoulders. Cassians issues with Alexis only began with the man's twisted take on his religion and the way he'd skewed the bible around to use it as a weapon against his sons. "You're not a whore, by the way." That was muttered sullenly as Cassian hunched his shoulders defensively.
"Hmn, perhaps you're right. Perhaps I should have been named Cain and he should have been Jezebel." A distant look touched Jezebel's eyes and Cassian knew he was slipping further and further into the insanity that clouded his mind. "I've heard he's quite the whore."
Cassian grimaced and looked away. Now that he'd stated those angry and cruel words, he was coming to regret them. "You need to help yourself, Doctor." He whispered softly, head bowing as his bangs fell forward to mask his eyes from view. "You could save yourself if you tried hard enough. You don't have to be a complete nutjob who's doomed to hell." It wasn't quite an apology. Actually, Cassian had no idea if his words would even get through the haze of madness that ruled Jezebel.
Perhaps the doctor heard him, perhaps the words touched something in his demented mind because when Jezebel looked at Cassian, those violet eyes were clear and far too sharp. "Who said I wanted to be saved?" With a merry little laugh that chilled Cassian to the bone, Jezebel strode past him.
Unsettled and more then a little sick to his stomach, Cassian watched as Jezebel disappeared around a corner. He looked behind him at the discarded experiment that Jezebel had left forgotten and useless like some toy a child had discarded. Swallowing, Cassian carefully went about the business of cleaning up after the doctor. There was a reason he always wore dark clothing; blood never showed up on black.
Ever after Jezebel had left the room, the stale miasma of his presence lingered in the air. It filled the room with a tang of madness, malevolence and a strange innocence that only Jezebel could radiate in his more mellow moments. Jezebel had left his impression on the room and like the man himself, the room alternated between a sense of death and a feeling of vibrant life. An all around contradiction that made Cassian uncomfortable and anxious to escape as quickly as possible.
He was afraid. Not of dying, he'd been prepared for that since the day he'd joined Delilah. No, he was afraid that one day, Jezebel's insanity would make sense and when that happened, Cassian knew he'd be just as insane as the doctor himself. And then there truly would be no saving him.