A little time skip. The moon in the Welkin mission and the Resonance-event already happened.

Silence hung over them. Just every time, Lucifer flipped a page in her book, the room was filled with a short shifting sound as the papers rubbed against each other. Alisa's fingers dug into the white blanket as she looked down. It wasn't uncomfortable but it was certainly awkward and confusing.

They never had exchanged many words, just spoke when it was necessary. Lucifer was not much of a talker herself but she could communicate without losing a word. Ever since Alisa woke up after the 'Moon in the Welkin' incident, she expected a more hostile atmosphere wavering around her.

But Lucifer just gave her an almost apathetic one. She wasn't angry, she wasn't disappointed and she didn't even look at her with pity. Instead, the only flicker of emotion she had felt when they had their memories resonate was sympathy as if she knew what she had gone through.

Alisa glanced at the woman at her side.

Now when she thought about it, she knew nothing about her besides her weird name. Most of the time, it didn't seem to matter. She was a God Eater, she fought aragami but lacked the hatred against them. Every time she saw Lucifer fight, it was calculated and cold. She didn't drag the fight out. Instead, when she dove into the fight, she just killed it as fast as possible. Her expression didn't change, even when black blood splattered into her face or when she left the creature mutilated.

A short shiver ran down her spine as Alisa remembered the rumor about Eric and how that woman to her side failed to react 'properly'. She just had continued as if the young man never had been ripped to shreds in front of her. Additionally, she liked to mock the resident 'Death God' and didn't show a hint of fear even when he tried to glare her into submission.

That woman was incredibly cold or calm to the point of being eerie but still, the silence and her being there in this moment didn't give off a strange vibe. Alisa watched her. Her thin eyebrows rose as her mouth formed silent words and her green eyes followed the words on the paper. Then she frowned. Suddenly she snapped the book close, startling the younger girl.

"If you want me to leave, you should say so."

Alisa opened her mouth and closed, for a moment unable to form words.

"N-No! I mean…." She cleared her throat. "No, that is not the case. I just…" Unsure she tugged one strain of her hair behind her ear and averted her gaze, feeling the heat rising to her cheeks in embarrassment. She didn't mean to stare.

„Y-You don't have to show up every day, you know. I'm sure that you are busy with other things right now."

"That would be?" Lucifer crossed her arms before her chest, looking oddly amused.

"I- I don't know…Reports or training or whatever you do in your free time."

"They forgot to tell you that I'm a workaholic, didn't they?" The older woman smirked and then chuckled to herself. "I have finished the report, the next mission for me is scheduled tomorrow morning. I already did two today and while Gina still checks my God Arc, I can't go on my third."

"W-Wait, three missions? Isn't that a little bit…"

"I stay in the surrounding area and just go more or less from one checkpoint to the other and salvage what I can get. Aragami aren't always involved as it is just patrol duty. Due to Sakuya being told to rest and Kota and Soma who are the only other ones who currently active in this unit, the two of them are mostly sent on one mission involving larger aragami when something shows up too close to the city." Lucifer explained, leaning forward with a sigh.

"I'm sorry…This is all my fault."

Lucifer's expression didn't move even an inch as she looked at her.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I…"

"Made a mistake." Lucifer shook her head. "It happens to the best of us. Eric, for example, should have been my senior and he just found it better to monologue about this greatness instead of looking at his surroundings."

Alisa stared at her, shocked at her rather dry words towards someone who met such a cruel fate.

"In that aspect, I'm also at fault because I couldn't sense the attack earlier and push him out of the way." She chuckled again. Her chuckles always sounded more often hollow than filled with emotion. They more felt like they filled the silence. "But it doesn't change the fact that he is dead and I'm alive. I got a chance to do it better."

"But…this is unfair, don't you think? L…Lindow was well respected and a good man who wouldn't have…" Alisa's lips quivered slightly.

"Life isn't what we want it to be, nor does it care what we think what is fair or not. We just get thrown into the world and are expected to deal with it."

"How…can you be so calm with this? I…"

"You can sit around, pity yourself for making the 'wrong' decision or stand up and try to make a 'right' one." Lucifer moved one gloved hand, pointing towards Alisa's forehead. "Yeah, you might be a piece in a puzzle that leads to his death but there are multiple factors to consider. Two teams just meeting on the same field without being notified and then suddenly a horde of aragami shows up out of nowhere…"

"W-what are you trying to say?"

"Ajin, dova, tori." Lucifer attentively watched how the expression of the girl in front of her changed from lively to distant. She was looking through her, her mouth repeating the phrase like she was in a trance. The older woman tilted her head to the left, eyes narrowing.

"…Interesting." Her hand reached under Alisa's chin tilting it up slightly towards her. The girl didn't even resist like a puppet. Due to that she saw in her memory and what she was seeing now, she concluded that the girl was just targeting Lindow as her enemy. Then suddenly the girls hand moved, pointing her index finger towards her, imitating a gun.

"Pull the…trigger to destroy the aragami."

Lucifer took it back. She was still dangerous but only with a weapon in her hands.

"Well, look at that… They made her into a sleeper…" The blue haired God Eater clicked her tongue and grimaced almost in disgust. "That's a low tactic but it takes some expertise and time to pull something like that off. They planned it long beforehand." With a sigh, she shook her head.

Suddenly Alisa looked at her horrified and she held her head.

"N-No…That's not right! It's not right!"

Lucifer reacted quickly, dragging her into a hug and patting her head to calm her down. It worked the first time around, it might work again. Her incoherent mumbles gave away to sobs.

"Now, now…It's alright."

The girl clung to her jacket, pressing her face against her.

"There, there…Nothing happened." Lucifer's fingertips combed through her silver hair. Alisa inhaled. She mostly smelled of soap and fresh clothes, mixed with a couple of herbs. It was strangely calming and neutral smell which made her think of a patch of grass. "W-What was that?" Her voice sounded hoarse and broke while she talked.

The girl was nothing more than a crying, scared child.

"Exactly what happened to you with Lindow. This wasn't your fault." She whispered.

"I…"

Her gloved fingers stroke her cheek in a gentle fashion to calm her down.

"...Remember I'm on your side in this."

"Really?" This was such a strange thing to hear from the apathetic woman who comforted her. Her touch was warm, even under the gloves and the fabric felt smooth on her skin. She heard and felt an affirmative hum rumbling through her chest.

Exhausted from the emotional strain, Alisa soon fell asleep in her arms. Lucifer let out a long, almost relieved sigh as she carefully placed the girl's head back at the pillow.

Her green eyes looked at her while she rubbed her chin deep in thought. That girl broke out of her brainwashed state alone which meant that the 'treatment' didn't seem to stick after what happened with Lindow. This was good but if her 'doctor' noticed it, he might try to reinforce it or – if they really were desperate – going to get rid of her.

The woman crossed her arms before her chest.

She couldn't be here all the time but that was a risk she had to take. She couldn't quit her job without gathering too much attention and get anybody suspicious.

A sinister smirk moved over her lips. Brainwashing a kid and using it to do the dirty work for them. This wasn't a matter she could overlook. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought. She folded her hands as she licked over her dry lips.

"I'm going to make you suffer for that, Director."

After another hour, Sakuya came by to take over, finding the girl still sleeping peacefully.

"Any changes?"

Lucifer looked up from her book.

"…What did they say? Will she transfer because of 'mental treatment' or will she stay in our unit?"

"Since her stellar recovery, they are planning her to send her on the field again, so I guess she will stay with us for a while."

"That's good news. To your question, I tried to evaluate how deeply her mind screwed over by the 'treatment' she received."

The medic blinked a couple of times before she opened her mouth.

"You did what?!"

The woman in the chair ignored her clear disapproval of her actions and continued. "It's faulty."

"What do you mean?"

"She broke out of the trance herself after a while and was clearly upset about it. We should be fine when she doesn't have a weapon in her hands. What I'm worried about is what will happen when the director or her personal doctor gets the gist of it."

"You don't really think that they will..."

Lucifer shrugged her shoulders. "She is in the way. Not in the way like Lindow, but still a liability. We should keep an eye on her until she is ready to go out again by herself. Even so…" Then she grimaced. "Her guilt-trip is giving me a headache."

"After all, she pulled the trigger which…" Sakuya bit her lower lip. "And without any evidence, we can't prove anything. Nobody is going to believe it."

Lucifer pulled a piece of paper out of the sides and showed it to her. "You mean evidence something like that?"

The older woman narrowed her eyes and then widened them in shock as she identified it as a highly classified document.

"Lucifer that's…" She shook her head. "Where did you get that?"

"I helped him moving a few crates this morning." The blue haired one responded with an almost innocent impression on her face. "Still, we should see that our rabbit here doesn't do something stupid." As Lucifer stood up she petted her head, slowly, causing the girl mutter something and turn to the side.

She withheld a chuckle but Sakuya noticed her amused expression.

"You seem to quite like her."

"Ah, it's just unusual. Normally such small animals run when they see me."

Chapter finished. Not much fun in this one and it isn't very long. I apologize for that...

Have a nice night,

TheNocturnalHunter