"So you got surprised by that girl?" Pandora asked, twirling her cane. It was a
simple rod of black with a small silver ball at the top.
"I just didn't expect her... she should be dead," Lilith responded.
"Hmm... she doesn't sound like she'd make a good addition to my collection, so that's
fine," the little girl said. "But now that Eveon's the key... do we still get to keep her?"
Adrian had yet to tell Lilith exactly what was going to happen with Eveon, but...
"You can capture her, but after that, just ask Adrian. She might not be able to become one
of your Death Dolls until we get her to unlock the gate to the Creator."
Pandora nodded with a small smile. "And when that happens, me and Solomon will get
power to turn humans into fiends once again."
Lilith shuddered. She secretly felt bad for whoever would be caught by Pandora in her
little trap, but it was none of her concern... though that medicine Eric was giving her was
making her mind race a lot differently than it used to. "Why can't you turn them now?"
She could only watch as Pandora's face turned to a pout. "Us fiends have tried so
hard to keep our blood pure, but... it's been very hard. Me and Solomon just aren't that
powerful. I'm able to temporary de-humanize them, but that's all... and what happened last
month..."
Pandora trailed off with a sigh. "The Lord of Demons could have been our ticket to
regaining our dark powers, but instead, the power was given to someone with a strong will
and a good heart. She purified a huge well of darkness on this earth. It's alright, though.
There are other ways to get what we want."
The little girl smiled brightly at Lilith. "Anyway, someone's followed us here.
Before they come, want to wrap up this conversation?"
"Right... so kidnap Eveon and kill Miki, the black haired girl she's with. If you run
into anyone else that opposes us, you can just kill them too," Lilith said before pausing.
"Or you can add them to your collection. Whatever."
Pandora giggled and motioned to the entrance of the barn. "Like those four? I think
they've come to fight us."
Lilith watched as the door creaked open and some shadowy figures entered.
"It looks like an abandoned farm," Isaka said, kicking a piece of rotted wood on the
ground, not having noticed the place was in use by Lilith and Pandora.
Carmilla looked around with a frown. "I guess it's a good place for bad guys to be...
it's not like anyone would go in here without a purpose."
Tsuru was busy using her demon eye and let out a sigh. "Man, I really hate having to
use my power as Lord of Demons..."
"Why?" Krystal asked. "You're in complete control, aren't you?"
"Yeah, but still... I'm worried about losing control of it, but..." Tsuru shrugged as
they came to the dark center of the barn. The only light spilling in was from the missing
sections in the roof, clearly illuminating both Lilith and, since she had to reveal herself
to talk to Lilith, Pandora.
Krystal and Tsuru drew their swords, while the blonde was glad they made Mina wait
outside for them. "Oh my, speak of the devil," Pandora murmured. "The woman with the two
different eyes is the Demon Lord."
Lilith confidently stepped in front of Pandora, not really caring. "It doesn't
matter. What are you here for?"
"We're friends of Eveon," Carmilla said happily, her shadow beasts starting to
materialize behind her.
"I get it..." Lilith said, red energy crackling around her.
"Do you want some help?" Pandora asked sweetly, even though she already knew the
answer.
"No ? I haven't had a good fight in a long time and they aren't that tough," Lilith
said with a grin as her wings appeared. The red energy continued to gather until she had a
weapon in each hand, both different shaped blades.
Isaka just rolled her eyes. "Wow, pretty magic you got there, but we're so going to
kick your ass anyway."
With that Carmilla's shadow beasts attacked and were destroyed within an instant by
merely coming near Lilith. "Hmm, that?s weird," the vampire murmured. "I don't exactly
recognize her power."
Krystal readied her stance. "It feels... it reminds me of Tycara's energy but much
more malevolent."
All four women exchanged glances before attacking. Carmilla powered up her beast so
it could crush through the energy and provide a distraction. It took Lilith a few swipes of
her blade to kill it, but by that time, Isaka charged at her with a fist full of dark
energy.
Lilith grinned as she blocked the demon's attack easily with one her swords and
deflected her to the side. She parried Krystal's blow with a little more difficulty due to
her holy power, but it caused her no problem... well, until...
Tsuru lunged at her with the Demon Blade and Lilith sidestepped it instead of
blocking the hit head on. She tried to block Tsuru's katana, but once it came in contact
with Lilith's swords, the red energy that made them began to disappear.
"Wh... what the...?" Lilith quickly backed away, but got a light cut across her
chest. Unfortunately, she backed up right into the claw of a shadow beast and it grabbed
her tightly.
Krystal and Isaka came over to her. "I guess it is a type of magic," the blonde
murmured. "That's why Tsuru's sword cancelled it out."
Isaka's hand began to crackle with energy. "So now, me and you can finish her."
And that was how Lilith got blasted away by dark and light magic to where Pandora was
patiently standing. The young girl easily caught her with one arm as she flew through the
air. "That was really silly of you Lilith," the fiend said with a smile. "You may have
amazing powers, but you're still human."
Lilith ground her teeth. "I just... let me guard down..."
Pandora just laughed. "I can't understand how you like to do things alone. You
charged recklessly... fiends always work together. And they beat you by working together ?
they were only testing you to see what you could do."
The lavender haired woman didn't like being told what to do, especially by a creepy
Lolita with a penchant for collecting people. Regardless, Pandora was much stronger than
her so she sat back to heal her wounds as the fiend stepped forward.
"I was wondering what the new Lord of Demons looked like," she said, motioning to
Tsuru. "It's unfortunate that you purified all the souls in the Pit of the Damned... you
could have made a world full of fiends!"
Tsuru readied her swords and responded, "I chose to leave things the way they are ?
turning people into demons is cruel considering it's against their will."
"Hmm, I suppose," Pandora said with a smile. "But I don't care. I want a big, big
family."
The four women exchanged glances. "If we get rid of them," Krystal said. "The threat
against Eveon should be greatly reduced."
Since Tsuru was the most powerful, she charged ahead, swinging wildly at Pandora. The
girl blocked every blow with her cane or just moved away. "You're pretty good," Pandora
said before smacking Tsuru aside. "You'd be a lot better if you got in touch with your dark
side."
The ebony haired young woman landed on her feet. "That's alright ? I don't need to
rely on the powers of someone else."
Pandora grinned. "I should probably find a way to extract the Lord of Demons from
you... that way the power could be put to good use." She twirled her cane as her expression
turned to a pout. "But I bet that won't be easy to do at all."
Krystal took Pandora's musings as an opening and came after her, her blade pulsing
with holy light. Out of all of them, only her attacks could really wound a fiend. Without
even turning to face her, Pandora blasted her away with an immense amount of dark energy.
Carmilla reacted quickly by catching the blonde as she fell. "Krystal?"
She just let out a groan. "I'm... fine... just a little winded."
"You can't hit my lover like that!" Isaka yelled before allowing more dark power
gather around her. Maybe it was stupid to fight fire with fire, but it was better than
nothing.
Pandora used her cane to slice through Isaka's attack, but she was surprised to find
the demon had used it as an almost smokescreen to get behind her. Isaka gritted her teeth
in frustration when the little girl blocked her with her own dark power.
"You," Pandora said, almost surprised. "What are you doing?"
Isaka tried to pour more dark energy into her hand to push back the girl. "What do
you think? I'm trying to destroy you!"
"But you're a fiend, aren't you? Why are you helping humans?" At that, Isaka's eyes
widened. She... she wasn't a fiend, was she? She was just a normal demon.
Tsuru jumped in at that point, causing Pandora to back away with a bit of a frown.
She knew that Tsuru's katana would mean trouble so... "That demon that took over your
body," Tsuru started. "Isaka ? just how evil was it?"
The other woman just shook her head. "What does it matter? I guess it was a pretty
nasty soul, but..."
Tsuru rationally explained, "She's calling you a fiend because that 'demon' that took
over your body must have been one."
Isaka put her hands on her hips, contemplating the thought. "Huh... well, I guess I
learned something new..."
Pandora looked behind her to see Carmilla and Krystal were ready to attack while
Tsuru and Isaka were just as anxious. She didn't have time to think of her options before
the exorcist sent a wave of holy energy at her with her sword.
With a sigh, the little girl deflected it away and watched as part of it collided
with the roof. "Oh my," Pandora said with a giggle as wood began to fall. "Looks like it's
going to collapse."
*****
"Y-you know, I've never had lots of friends... I... I mean, I can count them all on
one hand and still have room to spare. My brother kind of counted, but he's a jerk and...
uh... my sister I guess and Mariah, of course, Mariah was my best friend..."
Eveon wasn't really sure what Miki was rambling on about. They had gotten separate
rooms this time, but it only made Miki even more wary about what the sisters were doing.
Perhaps it was better to give them their space after moving to a new hotel.
"I just... we're friends right? We've only known each other for a little bit and I
kind of kidnapped you," Miki murmured, trying to sort out her thoughts. "And I know I'm
keeping horrible secrets from you that you need to know about since it involves the Shadow
Organization."
She took a deep breath, refusing to meet Eveon's eyes. The blonde was eating a Philly
cheese steak sandwich that they ordered from room service, trying not to antagonize or ask
the green eyed girl about things she didn't want to talk about.
Miki rooted through her bag and took out Mariah's spell book. "I want you to... uh...
borrow it," she whispered, handing it over to Eveon. She took it with a bit of hesitation.
"Miki... are you sure you're alright with sharing this with me?"
"Yeah, it's all about Mariah, so when you..." Miki took out the diary belonging to
Alice Bailey. "Mariah and I... don't ask questions. Don't ask me any question about me,
Alice or Mariah. Just read this and when you're finished, I'll explain everything."
With that, Miki went straight to the bathroom without giving Eveon a single look. She
was completely embarrassed, but Eveon went back to her sandwich, carefully opening the
diary.
Perhaps... she could help Miki more if she understood Alice.
'My sister, brother and I aren't related by blood at all... my brother's family
adopted the two of us from different places, but I always felt like we had a bond
regardless...'
*****
"Good round of practice, Alice," Adrian said, clapping a hand on the little girl's
head. He started to ruffle her dirty blonde hair. "One day... you'll be good enough to work
for the Shadow Organization and fight demons!"
The 13 year old just held her wooden sword with a slight frown. "Yeah, but you're way
better than me..." Her older brother worked for the Shadow Organization ? to Alice, it was
a pharmaceutical company that doubled as a demon extermination group.
Alice wouldn't understand how blind she was until much later. When they re-entered
the house from the backyard, their mother was cooking something as their dad sat at the
table. "Dinner will be ready soon," the woman said with a smile.
But Alice's smile at the thought of food soon fell. "Where's Miki?"
Her father looked up from the paper he was reading. "She's still sick and resting up
in her room."
Alice began up the stairs, worried about her sister. Miki had been getting
progressively sicker and sicker, even though she was brought to the doctor numerous times.
Her parents never seemed worried about it, but Alice was scared that it was something
serious.
When she came into the room, the lights were off and a girl just the same age as her
was sleeping in the bed. Miki cracked open her eyes as Alice came closer. "Are you not
feeling well?"
Miki attempted to sit up, but Alice pushed her back down. "I'll bring your dinner up
to you," Alice said, but her sister grabbed her wrist.
"Will you... eat dinner with me, Alice?"
"Of course I will!"
*****
Alice tried not to cry as she sat in front of strange men she didn't know ? mean from
the Shadow Organization.
"Your parents and your brother... didn't make it. Firefighters couldn't get to your
house in time," one of the men said.
"We... have reason to believe that a kind of demon did it... more of a man made
monster, so to speak," the other continued, showing no regard to her feelings. "Your
brother wanted you to become an operative of the Organization, so we're willing to help
you-"
She just looked up at them from the hospital bed with sad eyes. She'd been knocked
out right before the incident had occurred, but the same demon that set fire to her house.
"Will you help me get revenge? Will you help track down the demon?"
*****
Eveon frowned as she looked at the diary closely... pages had been ripped out and
things had been covered with white out or scratched out beyond recognition. So much for the
complete truth. She noticed how many times 'demon' and 'monster' were replacing certain
words.
Alice began to gush about how much she wished her life was normal, how much she
missed her sister and Eveon started to wonder what happened to Miki... maybe that was in
the censored out parts?
*****
Mariah took deep breaths as she hid in the parishioner's office, clutching the occult
spell book to her chest. She remembered when the priest first took it from her, admonishing
her for her dabbling in magic. It was very un-Christian of her, even though she tried to
argue that it was for the sake of research.
That didn't matter now as she sat in the corner, her knees drawn to her chest. The
priest was lying dead next to the third pew with his throat torn out. Supposedly, rescuers
were coming, but she didn't have a lot of hope. She locked herself in the office because
she knew whatever killed the priest was still out there...
It was like a horror movie gone bad. All of a sudden, creatures descended upon the
small town where she was doing her theological studies under the priest. Mariah had been
too far from her apartment when she saw the first one... it was like a dog - a big, black
gooey dog with bloody fangs. Then there were more, diving into homes and eating people.
She thought the church was safe and she'd sought the priest out. Until she saw him
dead and the stained glass window smashed open from the outside. Now Mariah had to wait in
the locked room, hoping that whatever it was wouldn't get to her...
Her head snapped up when she heard a loud thump above her.
Back to Project Angelus Index - Back to Original Fiction Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction