Several months had passed since the spawning of the two meta-clones Spyke and Kurt2. Spyke had settled into the bizarre family of the Hotel rather well, considering. Kurt2, however, had changed his name to Demon and taken up residence in the hotel�s attic. He�d become gradually quieter and more malevolent, occasionally just sitting in a corner chair of the common room all day, watching everyone else go by.

Even Ulic was creeped out. Evyl, however, was just worried. It had all been his fault, cloning himself some friends, then totally screwing up by dropping a gummi worm in the tank while cloning Spyke. Kun had returned from his little field trip some time ago, and had resumed his usual avoidance of everyone, especially Spyke. He hadn�t even met Demon yet. Kun was usually either asleep or out at night, and Demon slept most of the day and only showed himself at night.

Fortunate for Demon, considering the backhand, force-toss, force-bolts-and-choking session Evyl had suffered after Kun had found out about Spyke. Then again, Spyke had turned out relatively normal compared to Demon.

Well, normal by Evyl�s standards, at least. His fondness for imported and specialty beers, and his addiction to soap-operas were the least of their worries. No-one had yet to convince Spyke that he was mostly human due to Evyl�s accident, and could go out in the sun like normal humans. Spyke had even found out for himself once. He�d fallen asleep next to the window, and woke up around 2 in the afternoon, sun pouring onto him and not being crispy-fried-Spyke. Didn�t care. He still moaned and hid in his room all day, regardless.

So far, the tally ran thus:

Maul didn�t mind Spyke, but hated Demon with a vengeance. The two had a habit of growling territorially at each other when they were in the same room. Demon usually won, smirking triumphantly as Maul sulked off.

Ulic was secretly afraid of the fuzzy-blue clone and his mood swings. He was more likely to backhand Spyke across the room for farting than willingly enter the same room as Demon.

Xanatos treated Spyke with the same respect he treated Evyl. None whatsoever. He seemed to like Demon, at least the fact he could teleport, and was suddenly able to bench-press a Buick without breaking a sweat. Then again, Xan was more likely plotting all the things he could manipulate the shape-shifting, teleporting clone into doing than actually considering him as a human being.

Kun despised Spyke, and hadn�t even met Demon. He�d heard odd noises in the attic, and been told Demon was living up there, but he hadn�t bothered to be curious about the being living above him.

Spyke hated Demon. Flat-out hated, with a side-order of jealousy and seething dislike. One, he was the only person in the building that knew Obi and Demon had spent the night together. Two, he�d developed a curiosity as to what mutant blood would taste like, and had informed Demon of it one day as torment. Demon had snarled, transformed into his new form and sent Spyke out of the room in a panic.

Last but not least: Demon.

Demon hated everyone. Well, at least he was hostile and cool to everyone, including Evyl at times. Which was another thing that worried Evyl.

Demon had been building a sort of alter-ego, one with bigger muscles, patterns in black like Maul�s, and letting his hair grow out past his shoulders. Evyl wouldn�t have minded, seeing as his alter-form was a lot more inclined to poof into his room for a quick mind-shattering night, then poof out again, but he was starting to worry him.

He was starting to worry everyone.

--------------

Evyl had just gone upstairs to bed when he heard Demon waking up. Actually, he heard a loud thump, then a grumble and a scrape of someone standing and walking across the floor above.

Demon had taken to sleeping in the front room of the attic, near the two big windows in the tower, right above Xan�s room. Xan hated it, muttering about trading rooms with Maul. Maul had simply threatened to kill Xan if he felt it was that much of an annoyance.

After a fistfight, the two had settled down and accepted it.

With a sigh, Evyl turned back down the hall and headed for the attic steps. Unfortunately, he had to pass Exar�s room to do so. The Sith�s room light was still on, So Evyl crept past with all the stealth he could manage, then tripped on the bottom step of the attic access.

Swearing to himself, he stood, dusting himself off then continuing up the stairs.

Demon was sitting on an old trunk, framed by the moonlit skyline beyond as he stared out the windows. His tail was twitching slowly beside him, brushing the floor occasionally. Evyl sighed, crossing his arms over his chest, then striding over to him.

"There something you want?" Demon asked as he approached. Evyl blinked mentally, noticing the forcibly-faded accent. He paused a few paces away, then walked over to sit on the other end of the trunk.

"Nah, just wondering when you last saw sunlight," Evyl teased. Demon shrugged, luminous eyes never turning from the view outside.

"I don�t miss it," he said, sighing slightly. Evyl lifted an eyebrow at him.

"Spyke didn�t turn you or something, did he?" Evyl asked, a note of fake warning in his tone. Demon smirked, turning his gaze from the window to him.

"No," he said, then smiled and shook his head. "Vhy are you alvays being silly around me?" he said, his accent returning. Evyl shrugged.

"Not scared of you, I guess," he said, then smirked. "I�m silly around everyone else too, you just haven�t been downstairs to visit in so long you�ve forgot," he said, tilting his head at Demon. He smiled, then sniffed and returned to staring out the window. They were silent for a few moments.

"You wishing you were out there?" Evyl asked, and Demon sighed heavily.

"No." Another long silence passed, then he spoke softly.

"Yah," Demon said, then sighed.

"I vant to be exploring, to be doing something other than sleeping or vanking off." Evyl blinked at him in surprise. "Ya, your vord, not mine. I happen to like it, the word, I mean, not..." he said, then paused, looking at Evyl sideways. "Vell, I like /doing/ it too I guess," he said, smirking mischievously.

"I�d rather be doing it now," Demon said, leaning closer to Evyl with a dangerous glow in his eyes. Evyl backed up.

"Um, well, um, not right now. Exar�s not asleep, and I�m not taking his shite if he finds out," Evyl rambled, willing away the familiar twinge suggesting he�d rather be accepting than refusing.

"Live dangerously," Demon rumbled, closing on him. Evyl barely escaped a kiss as he fell off the edge of the trunk. Demon sighed, looking down at him. "You can really spoil a moment, you know that, Obi?" he said, amber eyes cooling back to gold. Evyl faked a grin and shrugged, standing. He looked down as his foot bumped some papers he hadn�t noticed. Bending to pick them up, he noticed Demon tensing out of the corner of his vision. It was a comic book.

Correction, it was a comic book with someone very familiar-looking on the cover.

Daemmon.

"Flaming hells, is this what you�re trying to look like?" Evyl exclaimed, holding up the book. Demon shrugged, staring away out the window again. "You stupid, silly...." he began, thwaping Demon over the head with the comic.

"If you sprout wings and move to Pittsburgh, I swear I�ll never bonk you again!" Evyl said, pointing the comic at him threateningly. "I mean it! Flaming shite, Kurt!" he exclaimed, tossing the book into the darkness, then blinking curiously as he turned back to him.

"Is that where you got the name?" he asked. Demon sighed, then turned and glared.

"I�m not /trying/ to look like him!" Demon snapped. "I�m mutating! I�m changing into something else," he said, then snarled and turned away again. "Vhen you cloned me, you upset my dna. It started mutating again on its own," he said quietly, upset and angry. "I don�t know vat I�m becoming," he said, sounding scared. He looked over at Obi, then at the floor.

"I vas just...." he began, then paused, sighing, "I vas practicing other forms. I saw the comic book, and...." he sighed again. "He already looked like me, so...." he shrugged. Evyl sat back down on the end of the trunk, stunned. He was silent a moment, thinking.

"You can turn into Daemmon?" he asked quietly. Demon looked up, then nodded. To prove his point, a set of dragon-like wings suddenly stretched out behind him, and his hair turned purple in streaks, all the way to the ends. Evyl gasped, nearly falling off the trunk again. He blinked, awestruck, then a slow, curious smirk crossed his face.

"What else can you turn into?" he asked breathlessly, awed. Demon blinked, then closed his eyes, concentrating. The wings shrank away, to be replaced by human-toned skin and long, dark hair. He opened his eyes, then shrugged. Evyl was completely lost in the eyes. Dark brown, with the barest hint of luminosity in the corners.

He looked human.

He looked good.

He looked uncomfortable.

"Is, um...." Evyl began, and Demon shrugged, turning blue again.

"Ya, that�s vhat I�d look like," he said, then paused. "If I�d been born a normal human," he added sadly, almost bitterly.

"I can do others," he said, interrupting Evyl�s thoughts. "I�ve been Xani, and Maul once." he paused, laughing oddly. "I think that�s vhy Maul�s scared of me, I think he saw me being him," he said, smiling softly.

"Ever been Kun?" Evyl asked, then immediately regretted it at the look Demon gave him.

"No," he said coldly. "And I never will," he added, eyes narrowing in icy warning. Evyl gulped.

"I�ve been around you long enough to pick up on those �Exar-the-f'-toy� dreams of yours," Demon snarled, and Obi backed up, startled by his language.

"Yah, I can cuss," he said, "And after all the times I�ve screwed you screaming in the night, you still can see only him," Demon said, leaning forward menacingly. Obi fell off the trunk again. Demon leaned over the edge of the trunk, staring down at him.

"Exar vill never make you scream like that. He /despises/ you, like everyone else in the hotel," he said coldly. "Someday, maybe you vill see that, or maybe you�re just as screwed up as everyone thinks, and you�ll keep your little delusion until doomsday," he said, then smirked bitterly.

"Get out, Obi. Don�t visit me again. If I vant to screw, I�ll look for you," he said, then sat back up and leaned his back against the glass. "Or maybe not, there�s plenty of other non-clones on the planet worth screwing. Goodnight, Obi," he said dismissively, closing his eyes and resting his heels on the edge of the trunk, arms crossed over his knees.

Evyl was somewhere between giving him a force-enhanced backhand of his own across the room and simply breaking into tears. He decided on both.

"Bastard!" he snarled, gesturing angrily at Demon, backhanding him across the room as he�d been done so many times. Demon hit the wall, stunned. Evyl snarled, standing, angry energy crackling around his fist and tears streaming down his face.

"If you ever teleport your fuzzy blue ass into my presence again, I�ll turn you black and blue permanently," he snarled, then turned and stormed off across the room. He didn�t even glance back as he rounded the railing and descended the steps.

He ignored the fact that Exar�s door was now open, barreling down the hallway and slamming his own door behind him. He force-slammed his Nightcrawler action figure off the far wall as he crossed the room. Fuming, he flopped onto his bed and seethed with rage, reducing his action figure to molten blue slag with a glare.

He regretted ever finding that damn cloning kit.

--------------

Exar glanced down the now-silent hall around the corner of his door. He turned a glare at the attic door, then stepped into the hall, closing his door behind himself and tying his robe�s belt closed. He ascended the steps near-silently, then paused at the top of the steps.

The blue creature silhouetted by the window hadn�t noticed him yet, so Exar simply strode across the room toward him until he noticed. The now-winged semi-human backed closer to the window in surprise as Exar approached, then stopped a few paces away. He waited for a moment in silence, glaring emerald fire at Demon.

"I don�t want to know what you were arguing about, or why Evyl has stopped ogling me lately in favor of you," Exar said quietly in a lethal tone he usually reserved for executions. "But if you /ever/ hurt him, or anyone else in this building like that again, I swear it will be the last thing you do in this life." He turned and walked back to the stairs in silence.

At the base of the stairs, in the hallway outside the attic door, Ulic Qel-Droma watched Exar from his own room. He waited until Exar was at the door to his own room before speaking.

"You�re going soft," he jibed quietly. Exar turned, the same coolly lethal expression on his face.

"Shut up, Ulic. I�m in no mood to piss with you," he snarled, then force-slammed both Ulic�s and his own doors closed, leaving Ulic in the hall. Qel-droma looked at Kun�s door in surprise, then glared and turned to open the door to his own room. It refused to open. He struggled for a few more moments before pounding on Exar�s door.

"Let go of my damn door or I�ll sleep on your doormat, Kun," he said. "You know I will, and I /snore/," he added with emphasis. He heard the lock snick open behind him, and his door swung open slowly.

"Bastard," he muttered, walking back to his own room. The door slammed in his face.

"I heard that," Kun said from within his room, turning out the light. Ulic kicked his bedroom door, then snarled and sat down, waiting. Kun waited for him to get comfortable against the door before popping it open again, causing Ulic to fall backward into his own room.

"Arrogant bastard," Ulic muttered, standing and closing the door behind himself.

Kun smiled to himself, then rolled over and went to sleep.

-------------------

By morning, Evyl had managed to drag himself downstairs for breakfast, still despondent. Spyke had hogged the last of the cocoa puffs, and everyone instantly knew something was wrong when Evyl didn�t even protest. He�d simply snagged an entire box of cherrios and headed for the common room, ignoring Ulic�s reminder that he wasn�t allowed food out of the kitchen anymore.

Exar had to come to the rescue, yet again.

He sighed, leaning on the back of the couch and looking down at the stripes dyed into Evyl�s hair. Evyl himself was munching on a handful of cereal and ignoring the Sith looming over him.

"Obi, for Force�s sake, get over it and wake up. Demon�s not Kurt anymore. He�s an annoying bastard who enjoys hurting people."

Evyl ignored him, then sighed wearily.

"Go �way Exar," he mumbled.

"No," Exar said, still looming. Evyl sighed and looked up.

"S� my problem," he said, "I made him, I screwed him up, now he�s a vicious ass," Evyl said, then sighed and returned to munching cereal. Exar liberated the box from his grip, forcing him to look up.

"Have you learned your lesson about trying to play with nature?" he asked, and Obi snorted.

"Damn straight," he grumbled, then snickered. "Funny. Hearing that from you," he said, and Exar smirked. He set the cereal box down on the couch next to him.

"Well, I�ve had my �accidents� playing with nature as well," Exar admitted, then chuckled at something remembered. "Mine usually ended up trying to eat me, however," he added, then looked back over his shoulder before speaking again.

"Just watch out for Spyke. If he runs out of cocoa puffs and beer, he /might/ get desperate enough for patricide," he teased, then walked away without a further word. Evyl watched him leave, then sighed and smirked.

Exar was right, he couldn�t change Demon now if he wanted to, any more than he could change himself into the real Obi-wan. He sighed, then stuffed another handful of cereal into his mouth. He looked down at a fallen cheerio, then smirked Evilly.

------

"Dammit, Obi! I told you no cereal out of the kitchen!" Ulic exclaimed. "You did this on purpose!!!" he bellowed, waving his minivac angrily at the ceiling.

Upstairs, Evyl smirked and pretended to ignore his ranting.

It was good to be a clone.

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Did I mention there's a Part Four?

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