The screams were no longer human. They screeched and moaned and begged. Rin screeched and moaned and begged. Even a man such as Alvar, hardened against cruelty and suffering, had to look away from the writhing teenager. Rin was thrashing, this eyes glowing an eerie, incandescent blue; his tail had lit, the end now burning with the blue flames of Satan; his mutilated knee flopped painfully, cracking as the broken appendage convulsed along with Rin. His tail broke free of its bonds, the white-hot flame melting easily through the metal. Perhaps Alvar should have looked at that and worried, but Alvar was a man with a goal – and men with goals tend not to notice the important things. Though the teenager's pain was not something he could look at, it brought with it a disgusting, wrong sense of joy. Alvar was so close to his goal now, and that was all that mattered.

From deep within, Rin was nothing. He floated; feeling nothing, seeing nothing. Then, without warning, his world flashed red. The flash brought with it an excruciating, debilitating pain. His back arched in agony within the blackness, and his eyes opened in shocked pain. His tail curled in on itself, tense with pain.

Suddenly he was standing, his bare feet on a stone pavement. Fiery torches lined the plaster walls, creating circles of flickering yellow light. He blinked unsteadily, clearing his misty eyes in an attempt to understand what was going on around him.

Why am I here? He asked himself, his head swimming in a misty blanket of ignorance. Then he remembered the pain, and he realised that the mist that was clouding his thoughts wasn't a mist of ignorance, but a mist of pain. The burning hot pain from earlier had now faded into a dull, but very real, ache.

The room expanded above him into nothingness, the weak torchlight didn't even get close to lighting up the ceiling. A small square cage was in front of him, the bars reaching for the dark ceiling. Rin looked up seeing the bars at their highest, and then traced them downwards. He traced his eyes over the slender bars, right down to where they entered the floor. Something dark was within the cage, a soft blue light emanated from the dark silhouette. Rin couldn't tell what it was, and nor did he want to know, he decided to ignore it for now. Looking at his feet, Rin noticed a square of small circular holes around him.

Then, a resounding thud, echoing around him. There was nothing he could do as the room quaked, causing him to stumble. Chains sprouted from the floor beneath his feet, wrapping over his ankles, all the way up to his knees. Even as he struggled, the chains pulled ever tighter, restricting all movement. Two cuffs sprouted from the ground by the arches of his feet and clicked into place, locking Rin in place once and for all. The chains wrapped round his legs again with a flourish, before threading themselves through a loop in the cuffs over Rin's feet.

Rin stood, at a loss for a moment, before yet another great roar from below him made the floor shake again. With a great metallic creaking, and the almighty sound of cogs grinding together, strong metal bars rose up from the circular holes at Rin's feet. The bars glinted crimson in the candle light as they rose, up and up, the bars extended beyond Rin's line of sight.

Rin was in a cage.

It was small; Rin could only stretch his arms if he slid them out of the reach of the bars. He gripped one bar, its cold metallic touch biting into his skin. He clenched his fist around the bar, trying to crush it or something! He wasn't going to be held here.

But where was here?

For a brief moment, Rin surfaced, his eyes opening and staring at the mutilated face of Alvar. The agony seized Rin quickly though, his eyes clenching shut anew. His mouth opened, and strangled screams escaped.

"L-let me goo!" He wailed, his every muscle clenching and thrashing with pain. He pleaded at Alvar with his eyes, knowing all the same that nothing would reach this cold man. Not with the way that said man was looking at Rin – something akin to a sick joy.

Shiemi ran. She didn't even bother to look behind her – she knew the others were following. Their footsteps echoed throughout the tunnel. From beyond them, a terrible, hoarse screaming reverberated towards them. It was from an all too familiar source.

"Let me goo!" The voice screamed, and Shiemi faltered for a step. Tears formed at the edge of her eyes – he sounded so desperate!

All the more reason to find him quickly! She thought, her feet finding their natural stride again. She ran, feeling more and more determined as her feet took her closer and closer to Rin. He had saved her before, he had done so without a second thought about his own health.

It was her turn to save him.

Her fists clenched, creating tension throughout her body. In her right hand, she held the familiar-summoning paper and in her left she tore her skin open with her nails. With a smally flourish of her hands, she drew a line of blood on the pape.

"Come here," She muttered, the usual cute summon sounding more tense and angry than the others had ever heard. It sounded less like a soft coaxing, and more like a fierce reprimand. Her feelings must have got through to Nii-chan, because the paper glowed with a soft golden light before the greenman popped into existence. He took one look at Shiemi as she ran, her face set in determination, and leapt onto her shoulder. Nii-chan growled slightly with anger, anger at whatever had made his master so angry.

We're coming for you, Rin

Rin was back in the dream-cage. Even though he knew now that the cage was just a figment of his imagination, he couldn't break free of it. What kept him here? What was it that held him in this place?

His hands found the bars, and clutched at them. He leant over and rested his head against the smooth metal, his eyes closing momentarily.

He was so tired…

Pain, agony fresh in his mind, as he once again woke to stare once more at Alvar's face. They locked eyes for a brief moment, blue piercing blue. Rin broke the shared gaze, choosing instead to wallow in his pain-wracked body. A shudder of suffering tore through him, forcing his head back and his eyes closed.

The pain washed over him once more, and he was in the torchlit chamber again. Something was different this time.

A rumbling was shaking the floor, and the torches flickered crazily because of an unseen wind.

It seems that possessing you only delayed my fate. an unseen voice whispered from the dark of Rin's mind. The Impure King sighed, and the shuddering of the room deepened.

"What do you mean?" Rin asked, his voice shuddering as he remembered the Impure King's own words:

'Only the blue flames of hell may eject me'

Rin's eyes widened in horror, as he looked once more at the cage in front of him.

"Father," He whispered.

Shiro stood in front of him, within the cage opposite Rin's. Shiro's eyes were shut behind the orange-tinted glasses that Rin remembered so well. Rin knew all too well, however, that this was not the man that had died to protect him.

This was satan.

As soon as he thought this Shiro's eyes opened, revealing piercing blue irises that could only belong to a demon. Satan's mouth pulled up into a smug sneer, and the cage around him shattered.

Satan said nothing, just stared at Rin. He lifted his foot and brought it down, stepping out of the square that had once been his cage. As his foot breached the barrier of the cage, it changed. It became smaller. It became Rin's foot. Satan fully moved out of the cage.

Rin looked out of the cage and into his own face. Satan had his face.

Satan sneered, his incandescent irises swirling with demonic light. Satan reached a hand through the bars of Rin's cage,

"You have done well, my son," He laughed, before beginning to walk away. With each step that the king of Gehenna took, Rin's mind became more blank. It was not the blissful blankness that came with sleep, but a fearful blanket of the knowledge that Rin was losing.

He was losing his mind.

Satan was taking his body away from him, and the further away that Satan got, the more Rin's mind slipped from him. He thumped the bars of the cage, trying to break them

"Come back, you monster," He screamed, throwing his head back in anguish. He was going to die if he didn't do anything soon! And then, his eyes began to close. His legs weakened, his arms slumped.

Through failing sight, Rin saw himself walking away, the blue flames of Satan already beginning to glow.

The thrashing teen had stopped, collapsing against the machine that held him. The room quietened, the last echoes of agonized screams dying away. Those of the creed stepped forward, readying weapons and familiars. Arias took deep breaths, dragoons loaded their guns, tamers and their familiars readied themselves, and the knights drew their blades

The room took a deep breath.

"Hold there," whispered Alvar, holding out a hand as if to stop them from attacking.

A breeze billowed through the room of tense exorcists, their charcoal-black cloaks whirling in the breeze. Rin's hair rustled in the breeze, as it began to circle around him. The circle lit up, shimmering with an electric blue colour. The circle paintings on Rin's arms shone too, along with the line that was drawn horizontally across his face.

To Alvar, he looked almost like a crucified angel.

Blue tears dripped from Rin's eyes, and red blood flowed from his lips. For a moment, Alvar thought that he had failed – perhaps Rin was not the perfect vessel for Satan? After all, it was only when demons rejected their hosts that the host began to bleed. Rin's slumped head lifted, and his back straightened.

His eyes opened, and Alvar knew.

He hadn't failed.