Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
Feel the Weight of What We Owe
[Kalawarna]
"What do you want from me?" she asked desperately "Please, don't do this. There has to be something I can do, please!" she continued pleading, her words falling on deaf ears while the human continued doing his own thing.
Davis seemed to pay her absolutely no mind as he started setting up his spells, wards and hexes both. She was but a convenient element in the experiment he wanted to conduct, she knew. She was just one more cog in the machine he wanted to test, nothing more and nothing less.
It was all she was and all she could be for him.
"Please!" she wailed, finally getting a reaction from the human, even if it was barely a pause. "Please, tell me what I can do, there has to be something else… Please…" she pleaded frantically, tears running down her face as her mind bombarded her with the many, unpleasant and disturbing results that the human's experiments could get from her.
"You know what my problem is with you?" Davis said, turning to look at the circles he'd been setting up before looking up and moving to take the seat across from Kalawarna once more. "That you don't mean anything you say. You aren't sorry, you are just desperate. Because I know you'd have been perfectly fine with what you did if things hadn't gone South. You aren't sorry for what you did, you are sorry because you are not the attacker anymore, now you are the victim. Tell me I'm wrong."
Kalawarna opened her mouth instantly, intent on doing just that. However, ultimately, she knew it was useless. Davis would know she was lying, either because he really had a way to tell or because his mind was made up about the matter. Would she make things worse for herself by lying? That question gave her pause for long enough that the human took it as an answer of its own.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," he said, grinning bitterly before shaking his head. "So, I'll feel terrible about doing this… but I've run out of mercy for idiots like you and those you worked with. The kid gloves are off now, and you and the rest of your idiotic group have only yourselves to blame."
"Please, I can… I can change!" Kalawarna tried, looking on in dread as the man continued working once more. Each spell that he cast, she felt, and it added on the mounting pile of fear that she already carried with her. "I can… I can… Please, give me a chance. Please, don't do this," she continued, getting more agitated as she saw him stand up and move towards her. She couldn't be sure, but something told her that everything was set up.
"Do you have any predictions about how this is gonna go? Because I'm really curious, even if this sounds disturbing even to me," Davis asked her, completely disregarding everything she'd said before. "I guess I can give you a minute or so, if you want," he added, leaning back against his chair.
"Is there something I can do? Please, I'll do whatever you want me to," she whispered. She felt as if someone had taken her heart in their hands and squeezed when the only reaction she got was mild annoyance and boredom. "I can… Please, I can be useful. I can change. I can," she instead desperately. "I just need a chance."
"Like the chance my family didn't get?" he asked her, tilting his head. "Like the chance many others weren't given by Khaos Brigade?" he pressed on. "Why should I give you a chance?"
"So I can make up for the things I've done," she answered and her soul all but left her body with the borderline angry expression on Davis's face.
"That's a lie, wanna try again?"
She flinched.
"I… I don't want to die. I don't want to… to…"
"Suffer," Davis finished for her with a snarl. "Suffer like you've caused others to suffer, right? That's what you were getting at."
"Yes," she whispered her weak answer.
To that, Davis just tapped his finger to the table, a dull, low sound that shouldn't have felt so loud to Kalawarna's ears. It felt like the sentence falling on her, like judgment being delivered. The end of a conversation in which she had never stood a chance.
"So you see why I shouldn't give you that chance, right?" he asked, making her deflate on her seat even more. "Even if I did give you half a chance, I'm sure all I'd get is a knife to the back, be it literally or not. I wouldn't trust you with anything, literally."
"I wouldn't," she denied. Kalawarna knew she'd get nowhere, but she still wanted to say that. If only because… Well, it might be the last time she might get to voice anything at all. "I wouldn't. I know how things stand. Give me a chance, and I won't ever try to do anything. I know I stand no chance either way so…"
"So you'll just wait and turn sides whenever it's better for you, huh?" Davis asked, making her flinch. "If they capture you, you are on their side, if we do, you are in ours. Just when I thought you and your organization couldn't fall lower…"
To that, she said nothing, because there was nothing she could say that would sound even remotely good.
For a long moment, however, nothing happened as Davis stared at her. Through every breath she took, every second she just sat there, Kalawarna waited for the experiment to begin. She was sure she didn't deserve even a warning in the human's eyes. What did it matter if she was ready or not, after all.
Ultimately… Nothing happened.
Then, Davis sighed.
"I'll give you one chance," he said, and Kalawarna's eyes widened. Sure, she'd hoped against hope that it would happen, but she knew the chances were next to zero. Yet she couldn't bring herself to believe her ears as the words were spoken. "One chance. Take half a step in the wrong direction, think about taking a step in the wrong direction, and I'll experiment on you until there's literally nothing left for me to do with you."
Kalawarna gulped, but her heart soared all the same.
"Am I clear?" he asked, eyes narrowing.
"Yes," she replied instantly, afraid and yet so very relieved.
"I have my eyes on you, Fallen," he said, before chuckling with no mirth whatsoever. "I'm almost hoping you'll give me a reason… for now, let's go," he decided, shaking his head before snapping his fingers. The cuffs around her wrists opened instantly and she shot up to a standing position.
"You won't regret this," Kalawarna told him firmly, because there was no way she would let that happen. No way, not after all the torture she suspected would wait for her down that path. Her mind had conjured enough of those nightmares while she waited, before and after finding out the kind of thing Davis's experiments could involve.
"I'm already regretting it… but let's see, I guess," the human sighed.
[}-o-{]
[Griselda Quarta]
"Welcome, Joshua," she said as the man appeared from a teleportation circle. Interestingly, he had a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. However, there was something even more concerning to focus on at that moment. After all, it took her no time at all to notice that the magician wasn't in a good mood. Where he'd usually wear a relaxed expression, if not outright smiling, he was now all but scowling as he looked ahead. "I hope everything went fine?" she asked, trying to keep her hesitation hidden.
"Everything's fine, yeah," the man replied, rubbing his eyelids tiredly. Then the man looked next to him, at the sight that his familiars made. Griselda herself would admit to being a little intimidated, especially by the serpent. The aforementioned and the spider wouldn't get Joshua many allies in the Church, but considering the state of things… Well, Griselda couldn't very well deny that the man had good reason to want all his familiars with him.
After all…
"Oh, this is just great, isn't it?" she heard the man asked sarcastically under his breath and Griselda had to withhold a flinch at that. She knew very well where Joshua's eyes were looking at that very moment. Behind her, slightly to the side, next to the door they'd have to go through to take him where he'd start doing his job.
"I promise no trouble will be caused by anyone in this building, and if anyone does then they are…" she reassured, before trailing off as she reached the last part. "Then they are traitors to the Church and Heaven," she finished, not quite managing to keep her expression straight.
Joshua obviously noticed, judging by the side-glance he gave her.
"Well, that's… nice to know, I guess," he muttered, staring straight at Xenovia, who had always been less than friendly to him.
Griselda regretted many things, and one of them was letting her ward be so influenced by some of her teachers which were more… radically inclined. Some of which had even turned to the other side of the current struggle that their faction was dealing with. Quite honestly, she counted herself lucky that Xenovia hadn't turned to the other side herself, sad and painful as it was to consider.
"Things must be worse than I thought, if I need this kind of guard while in here," Joshua added then, looking between Xenovia and Shidou, the two Excalibur fragment wielders that stood by the door.
"Not quite," Griselda tried, gesturing for the man to follow her, to which he nodded. "But we've considered it prudent to be err on the side of caution."
"If you say so," the man replied flatly, very clearly not falling for her words. She wasn't precisely lying, but things were tense enough that something could happen. 'To think we'd fall this low,' she lamented to herself. The recent times of her faction hurt, a lot, and that was without even considering that things had never quite been good while she was part of them. There were always sordid stories related to the Church, but she'd always thought they were all stragglers, isolated incidents…
Until she realized that the Church seemed to have been slowly infected and that now there was rot everywhere.
It was only fortunate that they'd managed to get the attention of Heaven more directly and that now they were working on improving things. Everything would have to get worse before it got better, but the prospect of a brighter future was what drove Griselda to do her best to help her faction. 'And for that, I have Joshua to thank for,' she thought, her eyes looking at the man in question as they walked through the corridors of the base he was going to set up defenses for.
The man didn't know it, most probably, but he'd been the one to make her question the decisions she'd so dutifully followed up until recent times. She hadn't understood how the higher ups could turn away from a rising figure such as Joshua's. Sure, the man was no force of nature when it came to fighting, but his wards were about as good as one could get from anywhere. Furthermore, he was only just getting started as a supernatural figure, which meant that he'd only get better with time and that was what most was supposed to get him attention.
And yet, her higher ups had scoffed at such a prospect just because it involved working with factions that, admittedly, they didn't precisely get along with. However, there was peace for the moment between the three factions. Surely they could push away their biases in order to deal with a more pressing matter such as Khaos Brigade.
Except that they didn't.
Now, Griselda knew why. They'd been on the side of the terrorists all along.
"And so, here we are," Joshua mumbled, looking around the room they'd just arrived to and snapping Griselda from her thoughts. The man seemed in no rush to get started, from what she saw. Instead, he walked along the walls of the place, taking everything in while Griselda, Xenovia and Irina stood by the door and Joshua's familiars got settled on the corners of the room. "I guess I can get started already," he said, nodding to himself.
Then Griselda and the two girls watched the man do just that.
Joshua moved to the center of the room and took out a book from his bag. Opening it, he immediately cast a spell that caused a circle roughly the size of the place they were in to expand from the pages. A second later, a myriad of papers appeared on the ground with magic circles drawn on them.
"You said you wanted these defenses to be temporary, right?" Joshua asked her, looking up from the book and making her eyes snap from the ground and turn to him.
"Indeed… We expect to either have our own solution to this before long or for the issue to be resolved before then, at the very least," Griselda answered with a nod, receiving the same gesture back. Immediately afterwards, the man repeated what he'd done before. Except that this time, instead of papers with circles, wardstones appeared from the book on top of every single one of the aforementioned magical designs.
"That makes things easier," Joshua said, walking carefully from where he'd been to the furthermost part of the giant circle the things he'd pulled out formed. "Now, I'm gonna start and I need to not be interrupted, at least until I've managed to finish the first set of spells."
"We shall make sure nothing goes wrong," Griselda reassured him, to which the man nodded. She didn't miss the fact that he didn't seem very relaxed even after that, nor the fact that he traded a look with his familiars. Regardless of that, Joshua started casting spell after spell, moving around the room drawing some sort of spiral towards the middle of the room once more.
Despite not being a particularly sensory inclined individual, Griselda could very well feel the presence of the wards rising up around the building. That spoke volumes of the level at which Joshua stood. After all, it wasn't his fighting prowess that had earned him the renown that he had. It was his talent in regards to warding – and magic as a whole – that had made it so his name was known throughout the magical community.
Defenses that could take down a Longinus and pull a stalemate with another were nothing to scoff at. Those were artifacts and powers that could take down gods, after all. Griselda was sure that it was a matter of time before something else equally as impressive was added to Joshua's list of accomplishments too, considering how little he'd been part of the supernatural world.
For the moment-
An explosion made her focus snap towards the door of the room.
That had been right outside. 'What happened to the rest of the guards? The other soldiers? Are we under attack? The defenses didn't… activate…' she wondered then, before her heart dropped at the realization that this was an inside job. 'Things have really gotten that bad, have they?'
"You know what to do," she heard Joshua say, even as he continued working like nothing had happened. Immediately, all four of his familiars snapped into action. The spider crawled from her corner up towards the ceiling and then towards the door where Griselda and the two girls stood. The snake approached too, slithering around the circle of ward preparations, carefully avoiding the pieces of paper on the floor. The bird followed suit too, same as the cat.
A cat that transformed into a tiger on the way to the door.
"We've got this under control, Joshua," Griselda reassured, squaring her shoulders and preparing to defend the place as best she could with the help of her ward and Irina. "There's no need for you to do anything other than what was asked of you."
"That's nice," the man replied blandly without even looking up. "We'll be ready just in case. No offense," he added, making Xenovia bristle at the implication. Griselda, for her part, could only smile bitterly at that. It said a lot about the man's opinion of her faction as whole, really, and the worst part was that she couldn't even defend them all that much, as things stood.
Nothing else was said as Griselda moved to leave the room and take care of… Whatever it was that was going on in the building. She dreaded finding out, but it was what she had to do. Difficult, dark times were ahead for the Church, but she needed to focus on finding the best path, the one that would lead them back to the light once more, eventually. Behind her, she heard Xenovia and Irina following.
"... Irina, stay here," she said once they were outside. It wouldn't do to leave Joshua alone to go deal with whatever problem had arised. "Nobody is allowed in, not even me. If you must, check with Joshua. He should be able to tell if whoever comes is trustworthy, but never let your guard down."
"Yes, ma'am," the girl agreed instantly, a serious expression on her face. Griselda could only hope she would listen to what she said and follow the instructions to the letter. She knew, after all, that younger people were liable to… get distracted, or forgetful.
[}-o-{]
[Xenovia Quarta]
A light sword clashed against Excalibur Destruction and she sent the poor man flying off immediately. The fight continued though, considering there were significant numbers in the battle, on both sides. The hard part was knowing who was on which side though, since they were all…
They were all exorcists.
It was annoying, confusing and disturbing to see those people fighting between themselves. Xenovia had always thought the Church a united front. She'd always considered them all more than worthy to watch her back, and now, she was fighting those same people. How had things even ended up like they had?
She wanted to blame the devils, the fallen or some of the other creatures of darkness that symbolized everything the Church stood against. She really did… But she couldn't. Over the last few months, she'd seen and heard many things regarding the Church. Things that had given new perspective in regards to many events she'd experienced and towards what she'd seen through her life.
That and the fact that she'd seen first hand many of the events that had led to what was going on at the moment made it so she could only blame the people of the Church. On one side, for taking their beliefs and twisting them into something that was barely a mockery of their faith. On the other, for letting things get as bad as they had.
Safe was it to say that Xenovia was disillusioned with her own faction, but she'd stand by it. They had raised her, they had taught her and they had given her a home. Griselda was all but her mother, even if neither of them would admit it. She couldn't turn away from all that just because things had become hard. It was all a test from the Lord, she was sure, and she needed to remain strong in the face of adversity.
"Xenovia!" she heard someone cry behind her. 'Griselda?' she thought, turning immediately with Destruction ready in her hands. However, she was too late. Xenovia could only look as the exorcist that had stood behind her went for a stab that she didn't have enough time to adjust and block.
For a single second, everything stood still, like time itself had stopped. 'Is this what my life comes to, my Lord?' she wondered helplessly. 'Have I failed you? Did I stray too far? Was I too weak to the machinations of others?' she asked herself, the questions piling up.
She knew she had a lot of things to work through, after all. Teachings that she'd have to forget. Attitudes she had to improve. Opinions she needed to correct.
So many things she had to do.
And now-
Lightning struck the exorcist before he could reach her, but it didn't do so from above. Instead, the bolt came from the side, which made Xenovia turn just in time to see the tiger, Davis's familiar. 'Great, on top of an apology, I owe him a thank you. That's just peachy,' she thought to herself bitterly, but she couldn't muster the emotion as much as she guessed.
She was too relieved for that.
Next to the tiger, it seemed that the snake had also come to join the fight too. Both creatures being about as effective as Xenovia herself would be if she didn't have Destruction. 'And if that's not impressive, I don't know what is,' she mused.
What did it say about Davis, after all, that his familiars by themselves were enough to deal with exorcists like they were little more than annoyances?
That's when she heard a cry to the side which made her turn once more. Someone else seemed to have joined the fight, apparently, and it was difficult not to recognize the plaid shirt, red and black. 'Davis?' Xenovia wondered for a moment, seeing the man parrying attacks and stabbing exorcists. An ugly part of her mind whispered that surely he was an enemy too, the devil sympathizer.
"You are both on our side, be more careful!" she heard him call then, making her eyes widen ever so slightly. Looking around the battlefield, Xenovia noticed shield spells appearing all around, stopping attacks before they reached certain people. 'How does he know who's on whose side?' she couldn't help but ask herself. "Head in the game, Xenovia!" the man shouted then, making her twitch at the order.
That's when she heard lightning hit once more, making her turn to see the white tiger now standing next to her, its paw pushing an exorcist to the ground. 'Were they… attacking me?' she wondered, her mind struggling to keep up with what was going on in the battlefield for once. It felt like nothing made sense anymore. 'Confusing times, indeed,' she thought, her hand gripping harder at Destruction.
Exorcists were fighting exorcists, monsters and a devil tainted magician were working with them. Angels, Fallen and Devils were working together. All that she'd been taught, all that she'd ever been told, felt like a lie as of late. Somehow, that battle, chaotic and sudden, made everything even more real, even more… true.
Her sword met the light sword of those that had once stood behind her. Her hands shook, but she battled anyway. Xenovia wasn't one to fight giving it less than her all, after all. If one thing she'd been taught wasn't a lie, it was probably how to fight. 'Probably,' she thought sardonically. Because there was doubt even there.
What was real?
The tiger remained next to her, fighting and watching her back as the people she was fighting should have. What had the world come to, when she was fighting exorcists with a monster as her ally? In the halls of a Church base, she saw Irina fighting side by side with a snake against people that they'd once thought were their own.
What was fake?
Xenovia saw the bird, small and almost inconspicuous in the chaos of battle, flying above Griselda and singing. She saw Davis, moving through the battlefield as well, if not better than her and Irina were. Taking down her own opponent, Xenovia turned to look at him better.
He never seemed to go for fatal wounds, from what she could see. His shields appeared everywhere, protecting people that were even behind him. Xenovia would swear that, despite his reckless charge between the many fights, he seemed completely unaffected by the attacks that rained on him. Even those that weren't blocked, even those that weren't shielded, even those that weren't dodged. He just continued going on, like nothing could stop him.
Nothing made sense anymore, truly.
That was all Xenovia seemed to know as of late.
[} Chapter End {]
(AN:Please remember that this story is not mine and will never be mine. Make sure to give thanks to the original author on fanfiction.net https://m.fanfiction.net/u/11459794/)