The Goetian Contract
Forgottem Memories
Do I look like I have enough money to own the rights to Chrno Crusade? No, I don't. Hatch, however, belongs to me.
-The story begins... Now-
Azmaria Hendric, age seventy-three, most decorated member of the Magdalene Militia. A once strong woman, and a once frail child, now a feeble and dying old woman in the St.Mary's hospital. Her bedside was decorated with many, many flowers, cards, and pictures but to the white haired woman most important was a faded, black and white picture from her childhood. In the weeks following the taking of the picture, only she had survived. Shaking hands picked up the picture frame and keen, hawk like eyes filled with tears.
"Dwelling upon the past is... not a very pleasant habit." A quiet, almost cold voice spoke from the doorway. She turned so quickly she dropped the pictureframe. It broke upon hitting the floor, glass spreading everywhere. The person who spoke did not cut a very imposing figure, in her mind, but the weapon strapped on his back did. A scythe at least as tall as the person, a young looking boy.
"Are you death?" A foolish question, she realized, but it was all she could think of.
"In some senses, yes, but not for you." The boy walked into the room, glass crunching beneath his shoes, 'till he stood right at her bedside. So close, it would be difficult for the aged militia to miss certain distinguishing features about this "Boy", like that his left eye was black where it ought be white, and only a dim red iris compared to the blue-violet of his other. Or more noticeable was that his right arm was completely vacant of flesh and muscle whilst still somehow working. He sat in the visitors chair even as she leveled a hidden handgun loaded with the latest Prayer bullets at his head.
"Then what are you, and what the hell are you doing here, Devil." The beast before her sighed as if exasperated and leveled an annoyed glare straight down the barrel.
"I am the most powerful Demon in all of Hell, and I come with an offer in appreciation of my teacher. Do you wish to lend me an ear?" Azmaria raised a non-existant eyebrow, especially at such a boast.
"Couldn't this wait until visiting hours?" The "Demon" shook its head.
"Afraid not. After tonight you would never again awaken." Fear gripped her heart, was this thing here to kill her?
"Who was your teacher boy?" Azmaria was familiar with what the boy claimed to be, as a nun she had to be, but she never thought they truly existed, especially not on the plane of the living.
"That crazy blonde and her devil lover, you ought know them. Rosette taught me how to use a gun, that sinner taught me how to fight with a sword." The gun dropped from her hands and this demon caught it effortlessly. Tears spilled from her eyes.
"...I've rarely met two better people than them. I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you had to learn that they could not find peace in death. I'm sorry to say that they died in vain." She slapped him. Hard. But still he continued. "Were you to die tonight, as the sisters intended, you would have learned this anyway. You would have learned that Aion still lived, and that as vast as His love is, so too is His rage and blindness."
"How... How can you dare say such things, you-you monster." A solemn look settled onto his face, at her words, an almost regretful acceptance.
"I died not long ago. A suicide, for I chose to die in the stead of someone that I loved, my innocent sister. For my sin I went to Hell, and became a soulborne demon, a shell embodying the worst attributes that made me. My envy, rage, indifference, and my love. My worst personality trait was also my best, and so I was completely reborn as a demon in body, and less human in mind, and my heart, it stayed the same. I became Hatch, the Ripper King, the next Death. I slaughtered nine-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-six other demons, gods, entities, and fallen angels with too much power to go to Pandemonium. I did all this so that I could return to the mortal world, so that I could take care of my sister, to get her away from my murdering father." Horror was plastered on the face of the aged old woman.
"I tracked her down to a foster home, I found her beaten, raped, and mentally broken. None but she survived my rage in that house, and as I carried her out of the home I found a full squadron of police, swat, and even some of yours there to stop me. I told them they would listen to me or I would slaughter all of them." Azmaria knew of the incident that he spoke of, it had happened two years ago. She had ordered the Magdalene militia unit there herself.
"A father opened fire first-"
"And you killed him, his body hitting the ground before the bullet had even left the chamber. You obliterated the entire group, carrying that girl in your arms the entire time. How nice, now how about the truth?" The demon chuckled, even as she eyed him suspiciously.
"Heh, smarter than I thought. Dear ol' dad came home one night plastered after getting a raise. He tries to sleep, my sister has night terrors, he does something stupid to try to make her stop screaming. He's firing bullets into the walls, I panic, I jump in front of him, BAM, suicide through stupidity." He grinned, how he found this funny was anyones guess.
"I go to Hell, I start pissing people off, next thing I know I got people, demons, demi-mortals, devils and gods wanting to kill me. Chrono taught me, quite painfully, not to get in front of a sword, and Rosette taught me the same thing about guns. The next week, I'm barely conscious in a pit somewhere pulling metal outta me. I lay low, I quit being an angsty little bitch, and I make a weapon for an upcoming tournament." He motioned with his right arm to the scythe on his back.
"I enter, I rip apart the letter ranks, I fly through the ninety-nine-ninety-nine, and get my left eye ripped out by War, who claims it as her prize. After I wake up from having my eye ripped out, I claim Death's scythe, get roped into doing her job if the true apocalypse ever passes, and I go into another tournament a year later after being promised by Rank Zero, the devil 'imself, that if I get to the finals, he'll let me go back to the world of the living. I do that, he does that, and five years after my death, here I am. I go home, scare half my family into the hospital, and find out what happened in my absence. Dad did a short stint in prison for accidental manslaughter, my sister went to a foster family for a year until Mom proved she wasn't an unfit parent, and my Dad got out last year. A little while afterwards I hear about you, do some digging, find out you're connected to two of my old assailants, and wonder if I can prevent a few chunks of lead from getting lodged in my ass." The demon actually laughed.
'"I'm listening, what is your offer, boy?" At this point, Azmaria just wanted him to shut up and leave.
"Normaly you'd get a history lesson, aside from what I've already said, you won't. The deal is very simple, for me. I send your soul back into your body when you first met Rosette, and you will have all your knowledge, experience, and one item with you, under the stipulation that you acquire a copy of the Goetia and call upon some of the demons held within. The item that you will take with you will be a small silver ring, it will be the physical representation of a one-time use contract with Baal, the first demon king, which you may use at the time you see fit." Azmaria was pleased, even though his explanation was lengthy, there wasn't a useless history lesson with it.
"And what do you get out of this?" Azmaria wanted this deal very much, but only a fool would deal witlessly with a demon.
" Number one, I don't get a few chunks of lead, litteraly in my ass. Number two, I overheard Rosette say you have a beautiful singing voice. Care to demonstrate?"
(AN: If someone would be willing to continue this in my stead it would be greatly appreciated.)