CHAPTER 6:

STRAY EXORCIST

The next night was when Issei ended up in a whole heap of trouble. It started well enough. As the Occult Research Club went to do their business for the night, Rias handed Issei some details for a potential new pact. Issei sometimes used his bike instead of a magic circle, the incident with the two Fallen reminding him that he needed to become stronger. Tonight was one of those nights.

When he entered the darkened house, though, he realised something was wrong. Partner, something's clouding my senses, Steiner said. Be careful.

Issei crept in, calling out for the person who summoned a Devil, and soon found a living room being the only room with lights on. Wary that this was a trap, he made his way in. And soon regretted it.

Nailed to a wall at the far end of the room, upside down, in a parody of crucifixion, was a mutilated corpse, with rather dark religious phrases scrawled on the walls nearby in blood. Issei fought down an urge to vomit.

And then, he heard, in a sing-song voice, "Ooh, a little Devil. Why, it's my lucky day!"

Issei turned to find a young man, anywhere from just younger than Issei, to maybe even his early twenties. Silver-haired, handsome, if it weren't for the psychotic glimmer in his eyes, as he danced around, singing a song. Issei got the important parts: that this was an Exorcist. And in all likelihood, a Stray: most of the time, Exorcists targeted Devils and the Fallen, not humans.

There was something very vaguely familiar about this Exorcist, though. "Anyway," the Exorcist said, "my name is Freed Sallzen…and I exist only to kill."

Issei felt a chill run down his spine at the too-familiar phrase, his eyes widening in horror. This seemed to delight Freed even more. "Oh, so what Raynare and Dohnaseek told me is correct! You'd only be having that reaction if you remembered me…Vivi."

"Black Waltz Number 3," Issei muttered. "You look more handsome than you did. That's the only improvement." He looked over at the corpse. "Still killing people for no reason."

"He was a human who wanted to make a pact with a Devil," Freed said with a shrug. "He was corrupt and filled with sin. Ending his life before it corrupted any further is a mercy."

"You don't believe that, do you?"

"No," Freed admitted with a smirk. "But it's a handy reason. The thing is, little Vivi, I enjoy killing. I exist only to kill, but it doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. Sadly, the Church thought I enjoyed it a touch too much. Ungrateful fools. I channelled my talents and inclinations into something helpful, and they discard me. Oh well, such is the way of one like us, born to be weapons. I have new masters, who give me all the victims I need. A shame Princess Garnet, or that stupid oaf Steiner, or that monkey Zidane aren't here. Or maybe they are, and I haven't found them. I'd love to have Steiner and Zidane watch as I rape Garnet, and then disembowel her. There's something just so…lovely, so intimate, about the feeling of stroking someone's intestines as they spill out of their body." Freed grinned psychotically. "I guess I'm going to have to make do with your intestines."

"I'm not going to make it easy," Issei growled, summoning Steiner into existence.

BOOST! the dragon roared into his head.

"I'd be so disappointed if you did," Freed sneered, pulling out a gun, as well as what looked like the hilt of a sword. When he activated it, a blade made of white light appeared.

Issei cocked his head. "I think George Lucas is going to be suing the Church when he hears about this. I mean, really, you have actual lightsabres?"

"Handy little things. Light is, after all, poisonous to a Devil. A weakness I don't have!" Freed lunged, with Issei dodging, barely avoiding a slash or a volley of bullets.

"Bio!" Issei yelled, causing a green gelatinous blob to envelop Freed briefly.

Freed growled, looking a little haggard from the poison. "So, you learned some tricks since we last met."

"A lot of them," Issei said, before diving to avoid another volley of shots. He fired a Flare spell at Freed, but the crazed priest avoided it, only getting a mild burn on the side of his face from a stray bit of energy.

"Oh, son of a bitch!" Freed snarled. This time, he managed to hit Issei, sending the young Devil sprawling to the floor. "I hope it burns," Freed hissed. "ASIA! IN HERE, NOW!"

Asia? Issei thought as he struggled to his feet. He saw the young ex-nun timidly approach Freed.

"I've been poisoned by him," Freed snarled. "Heal it now."

She nodded timidly, before a green glow, definitely not a White Magic spell Issei had ever seen, enveloped Freed briefly. "Handy, isn't she?" Freed said. "This little girl has a Sacred Gear, Twilight Healing. I think you can guess what it does, Vivi."

"Vivi?" Asia asked. She looked over at Issei. "But his name is Issei."

"Oh, yes, but we've met before. Now, little Vivi, stay there." Freed holstered his gun, and began gathering lightning in his hand. The Thundara spell, the signature move of Black Waltz Number 3. "Have you got any last words before I fry your worthless Devil arse with a Thundara?"

"…So you're from that place too."

This wasn't from Issei, but from Asia. Issei realised Asia now looked different. She still had the same face, but the expression, rather than being timid, was now thoughtful, calculating, and serious. It was as if she was a decade, if not more so, older. And Freed wheeled on her. "What?!"

"That was a Thundara spell," Asia said. "Gaia or Terra?"

"Gaia. Why, does it matter?" Freed sneered.

"Well, if you were from Terra, I would be less kind. As it is, Freed, or whoever you are, you are attacking someone who tried to be nice to me. You murdered someone merely for associating with Devils, regardless of their true morality."

"Hey, what the hell gives?! Why the fuck are you acting so different, Asia? And why are you bitching about my methods?" A sneer came over Freed's face. "You know what? Fuck it. Raynare and the others said I couldn't kill you, but I think you could do with a bit of tutelage in knowing your fucking place, you Devil-loving slut!"

As he threw the Thundara spell at her, she held out a hand, and the spell bounced back off, hitting Freed. As the young priest collapsed to the floor, juddering and convulsing, Asia said coldly, "Do you think I would allow you to be anywhere near me without casting Reflect on myself?"

"Bitch…" Freed bit out, struggling to his feet

"Slow," Issei said, and soon, Freed was struggling even more.

"I knew you were from Gaia," Asia said. "We'd better run, he'll call the cavalry before long."

Issei found himself agreeing, even if the nun might be an enemy. So he fled.


They skidded to a halt in a nearby park. Asia pulled him behind a tree, and peered out. "Damn," she muttered. "Dohnaseek and Mittelt are already here and searching for us. I was hoping not to do this until later."

"What do you mean?" Issei asked.

Asia looked at him. "I was excommunicated from the Church for healing a Devil. But…they already were suspicious of me, for my healing powers…and my guardian angels. They were seen as demons. But to tell the truth, they were my only friends in this life."

"Why do you trust me?"

"Because I sense little malice in your heart, and none towards me. But I have to ask, what do you know about Madain Sari?"

Madain Sari?! "You're a summoner?!" Issei hissed. "Like Garnet, or Eiko?"

"So you know what I am. Do you know who destroyed our people and our home?"

"He died," Issei said, thinking of Kuja. "What was your name?"

"I was Jane of Madain Sari."

Issei's eyes widened. That message on the Eidolon Wall, to Garnet's mother and Garnet herself, although Garnet's real name was Sarah. And her mother… "I knew your daughter, Jane. Sarah, aka Princess Garnet til Alexandros."

"What?" Suddenly, a yell from above. "This'll have to wait," Asia said. "If you knew my daughter, then I may be right to trust you over Freed. But we'll have to fight." She closed her eyes, and murmured, as a familiar ring of emerald globes with flames within them circled her. "Come to me, Eidolon of Gravity, Lucavi of Cancer," she murmured. "Come to me, Zeromus, THE CONDEMNER!"

There was a flare of purple and even black light, and a massive form coalesced nearby, a vaguely insectoid, or perhaps even crustacean, being, with a massive torso, a bulbous abdomen, and two arms, one of which ended in a massive, crab-like claw. It peered down at Asia. In a tenebrous voice, it said, "You have called me, and I have answered."

"There's a Devil! Destroy it!" A petulant voice came from above. A series of Light-Spears hit Zeromus, making him resemble a porcupine of light.

"Idiots," Asia muttered quietly. "The more damage they do to Zeromus, the more he can dish out. The greater the gulf between his fully healthy state, and his actual vitality, the greater his power."

"GRAVITY WELL!" Zeromus roared, and suddenly, a pair of winged shapes were pulled out of the sky, hitting the ground hard. One was Dohnaseek, and the other was apparently a teenager in a Gothic Lolita-style dress.

"What the hell is this?!" Dohnaseek snarled as he and the other Fallen struggled to their feet. "Asia, what is the meaning of this?!"

"You took me for a fool, Dohnaseek," Asia said, her voice eerily calm. "I know what you wanted from me. I played along. You thought I was an innocent that you could take from. But I had 'guardian angels' of a very different sort who warned me of your true intentions. This is one of them: Zeromus the Condemner, the Lucavi of Cancer, one of the Thirteen Zodiac Eidolons it is my privilege to be able to summon. Beings who can rival a Sacred Gear in power."

"And you're throwing your lot in with a Devil?" Dohnaseek sneered. "Then again, considering these 'Eidolons', I shouldn't be surprised. This one looks like a Stray that's been away from its master for too long!"

"Such a display of righteousness coming from one willing to associate with a madman like Freed," Asia said. "And I have had these Eidolons since I was born. Holy or diabolical, they are gifts of providence that I will do with as I will."

"ISSEI!" At this moment, Issei didn't know whether Rias' voice was welcome or not at this point. But as Rias came running to them, Dohnaseek whirled, forming a Light-Spear to hurl at Rias.

"HASTE!" Asia yelled, and suddenly, Rias was running at great speed, easily dodging the Light-Spear Dohnaseek sent her way.

"STOP!" Issei yelled, hitting the teenaged Fallen, who was forming a Light-Spear of her own, and she froze, her eyes wide from the spell.

"Mittelt!" Dohnaseek yelled. He glared at the three of them. "You're all dead!"

But even as he readied another Light-Spear, Zeromus roared, "BIG BANG!" Energy gathered around his now-open claw, energy that put Issei in mind of Rias' own Power of Destruction. The orb fired out, with Dohnaseek dodging to the side.

"You missed," the Fallen sneered, only to realise that Asia had pulled Issei and Rias down for cover behind a nearby rock. And he turned to see the orb right behind him, about to explode.

Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the area, a shockwave filled with scintillating bolts of energy crackling and strobing throughout it. Mittelt, frozen to the spot, was merely hurled away like the toy of some petulant giant child. Dohnaseek, however, being close to the epicentre of the blast, disintegrated slowly, screaming all the while.

When it had finished, the trees around them were flattened for at least a couple of dozen metres all around. Zeromus faded in a flare of light. Issei helped Asia to her feet, as Rias got to her own. Akeno, Kiba, and Koneko emerged soon afterwards, obviously looking like they got hit by the shockwave, though not enough to do more than get dirt all over them, like Asia, Issei, and Rias. "Oh my, President," Akeno remarked. "You do go over the top, don't you?"

"It wasn't me," Rias said quietly, still in some shock, staring at Asia.

Kiba seemed to understand, or even sense something, staring at Asia. "You're from Madain Sari," he murmured.

Asia looked at him sharply, before she seemed to sense something from Kiba. She nodded.

Rias pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to gather her thoughts. Eventually, she said, "What is going on? I feel a barrier suddenly come down around where you were meant to be making a pact, Issei, only to sense you confronting a very powerful Exorcist and one other with Light magic. Then, you and this other, presumably this girl, run off just as some Fallen appear, and I make my way here, unsure of whether you've been captured or have done some foolish heroics. I'm guessing the latter. And then, Asia, was it? She uses a spell on me to enhance my speed, and has summoned up some bloody big crustacean thing that wiped out a Fallen as if it were nothing. I could do so myself easily, depending on the Fallen, but even so…"

Asia peered at Rias. "So, you are Issei's King?" On Rias' nod, Asia said, "I am no longer with the Fallen, or the Church. So make of that what you…" Asia suddenly sagged to the ground, Issei catching her. "Damn," Asia groaned quietly. "I used up too much of my reserves summoning Zeromus."

"I'll take you home," Issei declared. "We've got a spare bedroom, and my parents know about magic."

"Issei, no! I forbid it!" Rias snapped. When he glared at her, she matched it. "Even if she's no longer an ally of the Church or the Fallen trying to gain a foothold here, she may still be a target of the Fallen, if only for revenge, or maybe for her Sacred Gear! And you'll get caught in the crossfire!"

Issei snarled, the anger at the Fallen and at Freed turning onto Rias. "And so what, I just leave her? I'm not going to let anyone hurt her!"

"Don't be an idiot!"

"What, like you are being?" Rias gaped at the audacity of the remark, as if slapped across the face, while Issei continued relentlessly. He remembered his brethren, forced to be weapons by Brahne and Kuja, slaves, and thought about his own situation, now Rias' little pet. "I noticed that you waited until after I was dying to make me part of your Peerage, part of your little circle of so-called friends. You had me over a barrel, when I had no choice but to ask you to save my life by turning me into a Devil. I might not have joined your Peerage if you asked, but I might have wanted to become your friend anyway. But that's the thing, isn't it? Maybe Rias Gremory can't make friends unless she has them as her indentured bloody servants!"

As he stormed away, the semiconscious Asia in his arms, he snarled, "I don't care if you declare me a Stray. I'm not your slave, I'm not your servant, and if you keep this dictatorial bullshit up, I'll never be your friend."

Issei made his way back home, out of the ruined wooded area, anger trailing off him like poisonous smoke. But even then, he was haunted by the sounds of Rias sobbing behind him, even as he was determined to try and ignore it…

CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Asia's true identity has been revealed, and Issei and Rias have had something of an argument. Now, as much as I like Rias as a character, there are some parts of her character I detest, and Issei has a point. Okay, he's ignorant of the fact that Rias and Sona were ordered to stay away from him, and only recruit him into their Peerages if he was in danger of dying, but even so, in canon, Rias basically waits until Issei dies, and canon Issei would have been all too happy to join without dying, I feel. In addition, while Rias' fears of the Church and the Fallen are well-founded, she also seems willing to let Asia die before recruiting her in canon.

Of course, Issei/Vivi is being somewhat disingenuous and a bit hurtful (out of anger) towards Rias: Rias does genuinely care about her Peerage, and Issei is right about her only having her Peerage as friends (Sona Sitri aside), but for the wrong reasons.

Don't worry, we'll have a reconciliation in the next chapter. Issei will realise, talking to Asia, that he crossed the line. Okay, he needed to give Rias a bit of a wakeup call, but it doesn't mean Rias isn't right. Issei is putting himself at risk, and he did tear Rias a new one a bit too viciously.

Review-answering time! Quite a few people guessed correctly who Asia was the reincarnation of, so congrats.

Reishin Amara: You won't be saying that if you knew who Ravel was the reincarnation of. :P

Kruggov: Kuja changed his name when he was young (but had regained his memories). He wanted to basically issue a challenge to anyone who remembered him to 'bring it on'. He's still a narcissist, but he's also more assured, even more than in the game.

The Wandering Soul of 1014: I'll think about that possibility, that another reincarnated character may have given them that idea. Thanks.

Drednaught: As mentioned before, Issei can use Doomsday, but because it causes Shadow damage to his allies, it means that he needs to find a way to shield his comrades from it.

No numbered annotations for this chapter.