Stare into the Abyss
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit horror.
Prelude: Family Connections
Yukio stood at the edge of the viewing platform staring out over the city of Rio de Janeiro. His heavy Exorcist's coat folded neatly over his arm, the statue of Christ the Redeemer towering over him.
"So you came," an aged voice declared.
Yukio turned and saw a thick-set man, the top half of his face covered by a mask. "I could hardly refuse an invitation from my grandfather," he said.
"You look so very much like your mother," Egin said quietly. "She was a foolish, headstrong child but it seems I miss her more everyday."
"I wouldn't know," Yukio said coldly. "Until today I'd never even seen a picture of her."
Egin looked sad. "The Vatican ordered Yuri's execution to try to regain the appearance of control. After the Blue Night they only wanted to forget that she'd ever existed. The Blue Night cost me everything: My position, my face, my honor, my only daughter. For a time I was completely without hope, and then Shiro gave me this." Egin held out a locket, it opened to reveal a picture of Rin and Yukio as small children.
"You couldn't come for us without drawing the Vatican's attention," Yukio realized.
Egin nodded. "Shiro was the one sent to deal with Yuri after her escape. A month after the Blue Night he returned to Rome. Shiro reported that he'd done as ordered, that he found Yuri and killed both her and her two new-born children. And then he resigned as Paladin. He said that was the last order of from the Grigori that he would ever follow." Egin explained. "They let him go and were thankful he was willing to go quietly. He retired to a small monastery in Japan."
"Where he raised Rin and I," Yukio realized. "With no one the wiser because the Grigori was afraid of what he might say if anyone disturbed his 'retirement'."
"Walk with me?" Egin requested. Yukio fell in beside his grandfather. "Much like you I came to this place as an exile. I'd lost family, position. After Rome this seemed like the deepest of backwaters. But I've found this place has an energy to it, I hope you will come to see it as well. Here, far away from the stultifying air of Rome I had an epiphany."
Egin led Yukio a small service elevator, almost hidden behind the larger ones for the ease of tourists coming up to the viewing platform. He activated the elevator with a key hung round his neck. The elevator descended rapidly, dropping well below the four stories of the public elevators into the heart of the mountain itself. When the doors opened Yukio saw a gleaming laboratory, and beyond that a vast stockpile of weapons. Dozens of Exorcists in white lab coats rushed about with tablets, vials or securely locked, mysterious boxes. Everyone looked busy and focused.
"From my exile I shall rise again and lead the True Cross Order into the future." Egin declared. "For 600 years the Order has been mired in tradition, mindlessly plodding on, fighting a war that will never be won. But from this weapons research facility we will remake the rules of this war. No longer will we borrow our strength from the traitors of the demon race or their more easily swayed brethren. Here we create human weapons to finally put us on equal footing with the demons."
Yukio looked around the facility in amazement.
"Humanity has always been on the defensive against demons. We pick off the cannon fodder they send into Assiah with relative ease but their generals rarely take the field and we never even try to take the fight to them. No one has ever won a war fighting defensively," Egin continued. "The ultimate goal of our organization is nothing less than the complete and total destruction of Gehenna. Then and only then will we truly be free of demonic influence."
Yukio thought of Rin, his demonic power gone, not just sealed by the Koma Sword's sheath, and smiled. Maybe there was still a way he could get around Mephisto and fix Rin.
"We are a long way from that goal," Egin admitted. "Although we are making good progress in developing weapons that are effective against higher level demons. I believe you filed tested some of our bullets…"
Yukio remembered Kuro falling and Rin's anguished howls. "I'd estimate that they had at least a hundred times the stopping power of my normal bullets," he said without inflection.
Egin looked pleased. "This is where they were developed. As both a Doctor and a Dragoon you are particularly suited to appreciate our work here," he said. "In addition to munitions we also have a number of divisions developing toxins that are effective against demons and a variety of delivery vectors."
They passed by an opening to an isolated terrace about half-way down the side of the mountain. Yukio glanced outside and froze. Rin was sunning himself on the low wall at marking the edge of the terrace.
Several moments later Yukio remembered to breathe. The slim, angular man leaning back on his elbows, drinking in the late afternoon sun looked to be around twenty. The pointed tips of his ears poked through hair several inches longer than Rin's and the tail sprawling beside him had several distinct kinks from having been broken more than once in his past. Not Rin, but the resemblance was still uncanny.
"Who is that?" Yukio choked out.
Egin's gaze followed Yukio's and he scowled. "Subject 106. He's one of the most docile, we allow him a few liberties due to his good behavior."
At the sound of their voices the man -demon- turned toward them. Yukio gasped, where his left eyes should have been was a gaping, empty socket. Faded scars ran across his cheek like tear-tracks from his missing eye.
The one-eyed demon rolled to his feet and bounded over to them with a wide smile. "Hello Grandfather!" he exclaimed. Yukio frowned, for a moment he couldn't put his finger on what was bothering him, then it hit him. If Rin had sounded like that his tail would have been up, twitching uncontrollably, but this demon- his cousin? His tail was wrapped submissively around his thigh. Still smiling brightly the demon continued, "Tell your poisoners they're getting better, I barely tasted the crap that had me throwing up all morning."
To Yukio's shock Egin slapped the young man. "Address me properly."
The one-eyed demon immediately dropped to his knees before them. "Lord Egin, the poison I was dosed with this morning was almost undetectable. If not for the charcoal treatments afterwards I'd actually get to enjoy a meal."
"We don't have to treat you," Egin said coldly and got a shrug in reply.
"Honestly sir, I think I'm building up a pretty good immunity."
"I think you've been out long enough 106," Egin stated. "Go back to your cage."
Yukio watched the one-eyed demon walk away. "He called you 'grandfather'."
"106 was a mistake," Egin grimaced. "There is one truth you are going to have to come to understand here: There is no such thing as a half-demon. You might have a demon parent and a human parent but you are either demon or human, there is no in-between."
Yukio didn't agree or disagree.
After a moment Egin continued. "I am going to usher in a new era of peace. I'd like you, as the last of my family, to be with me."
Notes: I originally planned to avoid everything to do with Ernst Frederick Egin for a couple reasons. First because I see that last arc of the anime as Yukio's story and second because it ends things much too quickly given everything I've been putting Rin through. But some of the feedback from "To Be Good", particularly from taiShafie, got me thinking more about Yukio. And suddenly that this is Yukio's story isn't a problem anymore.
The speed at which things wrap up on the other hand… That still doesn't work for me. So this story is only very loosely based on the Anime arc. Egin's base of operations is now in Brazil, because I sent Yukio there. Egin has been in exile the last fifteen years rather than imprisoned (because it never made much sense to me that he was imprisoned and developing the Messiah Bomb). Egin's plans are in a much earlier stage, the Messiah Bomb is still only goal and he's not ready to oust the Grigori at this exact moment.