The dried blood cracked slightly as Lucifer balled her left hand to a fist.
"Hmm...I'm getting a little bit rusty..."
She chuckled to herself as she wiped the blood of her knife with her sleeve and carefully let it slide back into one of her pockets.
"So…what's next…?"
It was hard to grasp a clear thought while her body was still exhausted and tired and her brain just wanted to rest for a moment. Luckily for the guards, she hadn't had to get particularly serious.
Judging from their stiff movements, they lacked actual experience and due to the element of surprise being on her side it was a rather short battle.
"As always the higher ups are on the arc and leave the fresh meat behind..." The woman mused quietly to herself and then turned her head to a guard who lay on the floor motionlessly. This strategy was going to bite them back hard.
Slowly she kneeled down next to him, examining him closer. The glove of his right hand was soaked with blood and ripped on the surface of the palm where the blade of the knife went through the skin. It might leave a scar, considering this guy most likely wasn't a God Eater - if the missing bracelet was any indication.
At least, his chest raised and sunk in a steady pattern and his occasional groans convinced her that he would survive this ordeal. With a quick apology on her lips, her hands began to search through his pockets for things that might be of some use for her.
In the end, she held a keycard, an additional knife and a communication device in her hand.
Suddenly the person stirred, groining in pain again and coming back from the verge of unconsciousness.
Lucifer paused in her task, observing him to make sure her mind didn't play tricks on her and then sighed annoyed.
She shook her head.
"This is nothing personal, you know...I know you just do you job and I just do mine."
With a quick, sharp movement with her hand, she hit his neck. She tried to not put her whole strength into it like usual, since she didn't want to break his spine, paralyzing him for life or even kill him over something laughable like being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Not everyone had to be so unlucky.
Before she continued to search through his uniform, her ears picked up a distinct sound amidst the other noises and her head moved up. There was a tiny camera installed in the corner of the room and it was directly pointing at her.
A faint smirk crossed her features although she cursed quietly to herself.
Of course, such areas would be under surveillance and after it recorded what happened in this room, she doubted that reinforcements were too far away. Her hand wandered to her pocket, taking the knife she just acquired out.
Her eyes focused on the camera and then she threw it with the full strength her arm could offer at the device, driving the blade deep into the lens, splitting it apart with an audible crack.
Glass and plastic splinters fell to the floor, accompanied with the last flaring of halfway torn wires. There wasn't much time left.
"A plan...a plan..." She muttered and tried to get her tired mind to work. When she bolted out of this room, they might already come down the hallway, trying to surround her. She had to distract them.
Then she looked down on the unconscious man again and sighed again as she moved the helmet from his face and a pleased smirk crossed her face.
"I'm sorry... It seems I need a little bit more from you." Her hand reached to his shirt and vest, suddenly shaking. Lucifer bit her lip slightly.
"Why can't you be a woman?"
Lucifer muttered to herself as she took a deep breath and continued to undress him.
She hadn't got the time to debate with herself over this particular thing right now. Time was precious and she had to be quick, before the other guards got here. Quickly she pull down her own jacket and threw it into her - now open – former cell. She probably wouldn't have the time to completely change her appearance, but she had to make it somehow convincing.
A moment of distraction, just a moment was needed and she would be gone. After "freeing" him from some more clothes, Lucifer hived up the unconscious soldier and threw him into the cell as well, closing the door and started to dress herself up.
The clothes were a little too big, but it was better than nothing.
Her heart skipped a beat as she heard steps and shouts in her direction. Quickly she put on the helmet, and positioned herself near the door, staging to be just another soldier, beaten and hurt. As soon they were busy with looking for her in her cell, she would slip out. She couldn't help to smile a little bit.
Her thoughts about the past were abruptly interrupted as the door was thrown open and five guards stormed the room.
"Surrender!"
There was an almost deafening silence, until one decided to curse out loud.
"Shit! Where is she?!"
"Look in the cell! She must be hiding in there." She bit her lip to stifle a snicker as she quietly slipped out the door, closing and locking it behind her.
This should at least buy her some time.
With a sly smirk, she started to sprint down the hallway, not waiting for them to notice that they had waltzed right into her trap. She looked around, moving quickly before she finally found an elevator and quickly pressed the button to shut the door.
The woman leant back on the wall and shivered slightly as she felt the cold metal came in contact with her heated body. Slowly she took off the helmet, taking deep breaths to calm her quickened pulse. Now was not the time to get too excited.
She smiled and then grimaced slightly, trying to pull herself together as these unpleasant thoughts tried to twist her mind yet again. The elevator stopped, the door opened. Lucifer exhaled deeply, eyes half open as she gazed out of the corner of her eyes at the group which was waiting for her.
She didn't move at first.
Her fingers already, anticipating a fight.
Her muscles stiffened, ready to attack.
"She is here! I repeat..."
Simply pawns tossed inside a battle they had no knowledge off.
"Quick! Seize her!"
A cold rush filled her veins and her eyes started to glow as a wicked grin graced her lips.
They were just buying time.
And she was losing her patience.
Doctor Paylor redirected one pair of his glasses on his nose and sighed deeply as he glanced at the picture of him, Aisha and the director himself, smiling at the camera.
It was a happy memory which turned into something so alien that he more than once asked himself if this picture was actually real. It was almost horrifying how the death of one dear person could change a kind, intelligent man into a cold calculating creature.
He remembered how back in the day, Johannes had always been a rather stoic person but nethertheless caring about the people he liked and always the basic voice of reason.
After the incident he had changed into someone different. There was no grieving in his eyes, no kind words towards his own child, treating him like a tool and leaving him under the doctor's care most of the time. He would never forget the smile on this man's face as his son managed to kill an Orgetail for the first time.
This hadn't been the gaze of a father but of someone who noticed that his plan finally worked.
Now his own 'weapon' against aragami had turned against him. It surprised himself how he could even dare to think something like this about his own friend, but at this point the person he believed to know, was now a stranger to him.
Dr. Paylor knew that he had sent him and Kota personally to save Shio and stop his best friend.
It felt akin to sending someone to battle despite knowing it was just leading to their death. Their chances would be better if Lucifer was with them, but she had vanished silently into thin air.
She always had been unpredictable in her actions and it worried and gave him hope as always.
The director had said to him that he had to get rid of some 'trash' first before he came for Shio which indicated that something might have happened to her.
Johannes always considered her a 'Wild Card', unpredictable but useful and skilled. He also knew that that woman might turn on him and disturb this plans but he had laughed it off. It was a battle between a simple street urchin against a well-known and respected director of an entire branch.
Logically, she didn't have a chance against him.
The matter where he miscalculated was that he expected her to be just that and judging her abilities, her way with words, her strategic experience it wasn't that simple.
He stood up from his desk. His hand wandered to the picture and tipped it gently over.
Now he could only pray and hope that things might work out.
"You really would be a candidate for the Devil of Sloth, you know."
The doctor tensed, surprised but then a feeling of relief washed over him as he recognized her voice.
"You think so?"
The woman titled her head, an amused smile gracing her lips and made his blood turn cold. A trail of red, dried in liquid was on her right cheek, the black shirt she wore was slightly torn and was darker on a few spots.
Judging her appearance she had been in a fight and seeing the red blood, it wasn't against an aragami.
"The world lies on the brink of destruction and you are still standing here, mauling over memories and …things..."
The woman sighed.
"But that is not important right now...I assume that Schicksal has already set his plan in motion?"
Her empty green eyes flickered slightly, demanding an answer, although her voice was still calm and collected, almost soothing.
"Soma and Kota are already on the way."
Her left eyebrow moved up, clearly surprised.
"Kota as well? That boy has more guts than I thought…" She chuckled to herself but sounded pleased.
"Even so, just two against him and whatever he hides inside this island? That sounds like a suicide mission to me."
He was very well aware of that.
"Although I'm just in this game for the director... I could offer you a deal."
Doctor Paylor frowned.
"A deal?"
"I will get through the trouble to save and protect their lives. All I ask for is a favor of any nature I wish."
He didn't expect that. Protecting their lives should be a natural cause for her as she protected and secured their survival on missions.
"I am not going in there as their leader, doctor. So my tasks don't apply on it. If you don't agree, I will only see that the director is stopped and when someone is in shooting range…well…"
Her smile grew, again sending involuntary shivers down his spine. It looked unnatural, twisted and out of place.
It was wrong.
She chuckled, placing her index finger on her lips.
"And I'm not obligated to care...Time is ticking, so answer or lament the rest of your life because I let everyone just die."
He knew he had no other choice but to say yes to this offer regarding these circumstances and she knew it as well, judging her soft smile.
Something warned him that he might regret it, but right now he didn't have luxury to take risks and put trust into someone who claimed to not care about people in general.
Maybe she would save them, if he said no, maybe she would just let them die and take the director for herself. He couldn't read her motive nor her thoughts and he would rather have her follow the deal than leave her like this.
"Stop him and bring them back and I promise you whatever you want."
Her smile widened, pleased.
"Good. I will take your word for now. Do you suggest a certain route to take?"
"The underground supply routes. You can access..."
"I know where. Just don't forget our contract and tell Tsubaki to call somebody to clean up the prison block. Things got a little messy..." She punctuated the last sentence with a lighthearted chuckle.
Lucifer turned her back to him, sighing.
"...Ah, what I don't do for humanity..."
Then the woman vanished, leaving him standing alone and ponder if it had been the right choice.
Lucifer left him, legs taking her to the lower corridors and her hands securing her god arc on the way. She knew the way since she had already taken them in consideration for another escape route.
The adrenalin kept her awake and her mind ready as she sprinted down the hallways and stairs. After some time she didn't even bother to remember the map in her head as she could finally see the broken machines on the floor.
They weren't exactly delicate and tried to sneak their way past. A burning feeling filled up her lungs as she was pushing her body against its limits and forced her legs to go faster.
"Just a little farther…" She told herself.
Lucifer slowed down as she saw the end of the hallway and decided to not just rush in. She would just look how the situation had unfolded itself in her absence. Maybe thinking about jumping in, in the moment they needed her.
As her eyes adjusted to the light in the room, these thoughts simply stopped in their tracks.
The first thing she saw was Shio falling lifelessly on the floor. The echo of her body hitting the cold metal ground, the desperate shouts of her team and the sweet, devilish whisper in her head, repeating in this void in her mind over and over again.
"You are too late."
Her fingers twitched in response, but she kept quiet, away in the shadows in the entrance and continued to watch, how the Death God picked her lifeless body off the floor, cradling it in his arms and pleaded her to respond.
"You won't go through with this!"
Alisa shouted desperately in the background. It still sounded so distant as if their voices were far away from this place. The girl, the one she herself held at gunpoint, just lay there.
"Oh?"
The voice of the Director called her back. His smug smile, so proud, so calm, yet a flicker of life was in his eyes.
She couldn't decide what kind of emotion it was.
Lucifer licked unconsciously over her dry lips. How he spoke up there, looking down to them like a self-proclaimed judge and leader was disgusting her.
An exhausted chuckle rumbled through her chest.
It felt like a picture repeating over and over in her mind and it felt like she was running in a circle.
"Well, it doesn't matter now, does it? I already extracted the core, so I don't need the body anymore."
To even remember she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, to wait and see what he was capable of. She should have known from the first time she had looked into his eyes that she looked into a mirror.
Suddenly her muscles relaxed as she finally moved, clapping into her hands to applaud him, to mock him for his insolence and drawing the attention of everyone to her person.
"...What a proud little human you are, Schicksal."
She stepped out of the shadows, her weapon shouldered and a pleased, yet cold smile plastered on her face. Her prey looked at her, clearly displeased that she had appeared before him.
"Lucifer. What a nice surprise. I didn't know you were this desperate to be on the front row of this spectacle." His tone was lanced with dry sarcasm, making her chuckle even more.
It felt like a play. The moment she took the stage, she would just play her role and he would be forced into his own.
"Ah, I would have made it far quicker but a certain someone decided it would be more appropriate to throw me in a cell first."
"And unfortunately, it didn't hold for long." Lucifer titled her head to the side.
"What did you expect? Trying to contain something like me with one locked door and a couple of guards?"
She paused.
"They did warn you about me as you bought me, didn't they? Oh what I am saying, I warned you myself."
"So, I can only assume that you got rid of your guards."
Her smile widened a little bit.
"Depends on the definition of 'getting rid of somebody'."
"I think there aren't many for a contracted murderer like you are."
She was silent for a little too long it seemed, as unbelieving gazes of the group turned to her.
"L-Leader...? Is that...?"
A laughter erupted out of her, startling everyone.
"My, my. I'm not a contracted killer, mind you, but I guess you have the right to call me a murderer, after you planning to pull a mercy kill on humanity...You should know what you speak off. Very well, it could be that I killed a few humans on my way."
Lucifer smiled sweetly, but behind her dead eyes something ominous awoke as the next words rolled over her tongue.
"When you invite a devil into your home, you should be prepared for such things. But one pride little fool decided he shouldn't listen and now we are in this mess."
As he started to glare at her, she continued it with a satisfied smile with her monologue. She could see in his face that she had him and she wouldn't stop until his mind and body would be crushed.
"But those little things aside. Normally I wouldn't really care, but I do have my second thoughts when you just decide for a good couple of humanity to just die for a minority, not to forget..." She paused again, looking at Shio who was still motionless in Soma's arms.
The girl who greeted her every time she had walked in, smiled at her, complimented her drawings and sung for her. She even understood a part of her in a sense, even if it was completely misguided.
"Using a child as a weapon."
"Child?" He chuckled. "This child was an aragami."
Then the devil just looked at him.
"It doesn't have to be this kid in particular, Schicksal. Who knows how much bodies and broken souls you have left in your wake of giving humanity this...salvation. How many did die during experiments? How many did you sent to their deaths to get your cores? How many have you get killed to protect your little secret? Brainwashing a child who lost their parents, using your own flesh and blood to do your fighting? What would your wife think of your deeds?"
And there, she could see in his flicker of expression that she had hit something weak.
Sometimes it was just a word, sometimes it took weeks, but even if his cold exterior, he was already beyond breaking point. It just needed a little push.
She buried her God Arc into the ground and took one step forward, just to completely vanish from their line of sight. A playful chuckle escaped her as she appeared on the guard rail again, a knife in hand.
"Show me your true face, Schicksal...This might be your last chance."
"Don't kill him." Her head turned to the calm voice down below, clearly surprised but then displeased.
"I don't think that was in our contract, Doctor." She continued in a more hushed tone.
"Even in those last moments, your friend still defends you after all you have done. A pity, isn't it?"
The director smirked as he slowly stepped away from her. Her eyes followed his every movement. Something was wrong.
"You have interfered with my plans long enough. This time I will make sure you won't survive."
She didn't even have the time to demand or curse what he meant as she barely dodged a lighting beam directed at her, grazing her shoulder and ripping a hole in the wall behind her.
A figure hovered behind him with female features although it was clearly inhuman.
Lucifer's eyes widened as well as the others.
"That's..."
"Arda Nova. An anti-aragami weapon of my own creation. Beautiful, isn't it?" A sudden flash of light enveloped her vision and as her eyes could finally adjust to her surrounding, the man was gone.
"I will make it fast."
The woman grimaced as the voice tore through her mind.
"Leader! Watch out!" Alisa screamed.
The young woman gazed up and saw a large fist coming her way. The metal ground bent and broke as it connected with the surface, parts and dust flew in every direction.
"Leader!"
"This bastard!"
"You are loud, you know that?" Alisa jerked, stepping to the side and almost fell over. Kota's mouth just fell open as his eyes went back and forth to the place she had stood and where she now was.
"How did you..."
Then his expression turned horrified as she saw the metal shard stuck in her left upper arm. She didn't react to it at first, just looking at her former superior or rather the monstrous thing which now hovered over the female one.
"Now...That's one interesting turn of events."
"Wait, let me…" Sakuya walked over to her but Lucifer shook her head.
"Don't bother."
Lucifer's hand clasped around it and she ripped it out, sending her own blood splattering on the floor and her clothes starting to turn darker. Her skin tingled, telling her that the Oracle Cells already tried to mend her flesh together.
Her fingertips wandered to her throat, feeling it burn as she took up her god arc.
"Well then…"
She turned her head back to the abomination in front of her.
"Let's reap."