Disclaimer: I don't own Blue Exorcist.

It was all finally starting to come to a close. The Vatican was now completely secure - the three he sent having been the final nail in the coffin against Redarm and Yang. The fourth company had managed to detain all the exorcists and Illuminati members they'd found in secure cells of the Japan headquarters - they'd gone around to the other companies' areas and collected their prisoners once they'd ferried all the prisoners from the administrative part of the building.

They had succeeded spectacularly. There were injuries, of course, but most were minor. The worst one was Juuzou Shima - he'd broken several ribs and a leg, but Shiro had been informed that he would be fine in time.

The thing was - it had been easy. Almost too easy. There was just something that kept him on edge. Maybe it was the suspicious lack of Illuminati personnel - though that could be explained by the manpower they would need in their own coup against Satan. They also had their own headquarters, which, arguably, would be more important to keep safe than the Vatican.

They knew the general location of the Illuminati's headquarters, thanks to the youngest Shima; their base was somewhere in southern Germany. And that would probably become their next target.

However, setup for the operation would take weeks - they would try to get it done as quickly as possible, because it would be in their benefit to take the base before Lucifer returned from Gehenna. But there was also the matter of reforming the exorcist order, informing the high-ups (what remained of them) and the ArcKnights and so on about the change in leadership and the truth of the matter.

Doing that in so little time was going to be a serious challenge.

"It's been forever," Rin complained, fidgeting in his bed.

"It's been less than a week, Rin," Iblis responded dryly, having gotten tired of his complaints by the end of the first day.

"But I'm bored!"

"That's unfortunate." Any sympathy he had had dried up along with his patience. Luckily, he had only one more day of complaining to endure before he was to be released; Rin would get out after another three. "You should have thought of that before you went to tackle Satan on your own."

Rin quieted, finally, and turned over in his bed. Iblis winced as he realized the absence of tact in his previous statement; the reason Rin had rushed off as he had was because he'd learned of Thaziel's death. Iblis tried to think of something to cheer him up, but nothing came. "Sorry," he apologized quietly. Rin didn't reply. Maybe a distraction tactic would help?

"What are your plans for after you're released?" He asked, genuinely curious. All he'd heard from Rin via Fuku was plans for the coup, not anything about what plans were after. "Are you going back to Assiah?"

Rin shifted so he was lying on his back. He was silent, and for a moment Iblis was wondering whether Rin would actually answer the question.

"Lucifer."

Iblis was glad Rin had answered, but his minimal response was rather confusing. "Excuse me?"

"He's crazy and thinks that Assiah and Gehenna should be combined. Of course, that means that Assiah will be ruined, and I can't accept that. The exorcists - well, Samael really - have come up with a plan to defeat him. I'm going to go help them."

Iblis just blinked; too shocked by Rin's sudden explanation to do much more. And then he found his voice again.

"Are you insane? You just almost died! You think that fighting Lucifer is going to be easy just because Father was defeated? I hate to strip away your arrogance, but the only reason Satan is dead now is because the three of us worked together to take him down. Are you going to throw your life away? Just because he might do something you don't like?"

Rin's face darkened. "You don't know the situation, Iblis. Lucifer had the exorcists order my execution just to try to make me join him. He didn't care whether I lived or died, not really; he just wanted me to help defeat Father. It would be better for him if I died right now: I'm the only thing standing in the way of the throne."

"If that's true, then why are you here, getting taken care of?" It was a hole in Rin's argument, one he was willing to exploit in order to stop his brother from what amounted to suicide. However strong Rin was, he wasn't yet strong enough to face Lucifer on his own, especially as injured as he was. Iblis pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just stay until you're healed, okay, Rin?"

"…Fine."

It was another week until Rin was mobile, and a week after that he was judged sufficiently healed. Iblis didn't know who was more relieved at that point; him, the nurses, or Rin. He would have liked to say it was from goodwill on the part of him and the nurses, but it really wasn't; Rin was a holy terror when bored. And a week of bedrest and another week after that confined to Lucifer's palace had exacerbated Rin's boredom to the point where he was making his misery known to everyone around him. The palace staff were lucky: they could walk away under pretext of having another task to take care of. Iblis and the recovery staff, not so much.

It was at the end of that second week that Lucifer came and visited them.

"I hear you've been giving my staff a hard time, Rin," he said, managing to sound somewhat amused and reproachful at the same time. Iblis imagined it was what a parent would sound like scolding a child and almost laughed aloud - he managed to stifle it, but Lucifer still sent him a suspicious glance.

"I haven't been trying to, but I just got really bored, and Thaziel always used to say - " Rin's breath caught. "He used to say that I was worse than a nightmare colt when I get bored."

"Well, it sounds like he was a smart one. I would have liked to meet him." What was Lucifer doing? Was he trying to get Rin to like him? Why? More importantly, was it succeeding? "All that aside, I've come because I'm returning to Gehenna within the week, and I would be very much pleased if you were to accompany me, Rin."

"Great, sure," Rin said. Iblis didn't understand why, really - Rin was smart enough that he had to have noticed Lucifer's attempts at kindness were rather transparent. He wouldn't fall for such manipulation. But then again, Rin's human brother was still in Assiah, and after losing Thaziel he would want to make sure no harm came to the kid. Iblis supposed he could hold off the matter of succession for at least as long as it would take them to sort things out in Assiah; the news of Satan's defeat was still disseminating throughout Gehenna. The other kings wouldn't be able to do anything about it until Rin was back anyways, as he was technically the one to kill Father.

"I'll stay and sort things here," he offered, as though Lucifer wasn't going to suggest it anyways. Lucifer smiled thinly.

"Yes, good idea, Iblis. I will leave things here in your…capable hands." And with that not-so-subtle dig, he left, taking the tense atmosphere with him.

"Well, that was interesting," Rin said bemusedly. "See you, Iblis. Don't let Gehenna get destroyed until I get back, okay?"

"Sure thing, Rin," he assured his youngest brother. "Sure thing."

Rin slumped against the wall, exhausted. It wasn't so much physical - his body's recovery had ensured getting a full night's sleep every night - but more mental, and if he dared to admit it, emotional. He put on a brave face every day - well, more like obnoxious, he thought with a weary smile. The nurses had practically been begging for him to finally be released and Rin wondered what Thaziel would have had to say about that.

Rin eyed his bed from his position on the floor, propped up against the wall. He'd come to his room, the room he'd stayed in during his years in Gehenna. It was a miracle it hadn't been more damaged from the coup, as it was relatively close to the throne room, which had been almost completely destroyed.

He pushed himself up and walked over to his bed, falling onto it without removing his boots or knives. The point of the scabbard on his thigh was digging into his leg, but he didn't have the energy nor did he care enough to remove it. It was still more comfortable than sitting on the stone floor.

He wanted to take a nap. But his body wouldn't let him, brimming with energy as it was, a result of being back in Gehenna. It wasn't unlike being at sea-level after living at a high altitude; his body was overfull with energy but he still didn't want to do anything. He'd burned some of it off through his recovery, and later by irritating the nurses. Mostly he'd just been trying to distract himself from everything that had happened but now he was alone and his thoughts were starting to crowd back in.

What was weighing most on his was Lucifer's obvious approval of his murder of Satan. It wasn't so much that he regretted killing him; Satan had done awful things against both the inhabitants of Assiah and his fellow demons for millennia. It wasn't wrong that he'd killed him. That didn't change the fact that he was still his father. Rin thought he should feel at least a little guilt, but the only emotions stirred when he thought about Satan was a dull hate and slight disgust.

Thaziel, on the other hand… there was a sharp pain in his hand, and he realized he'd grasped one of the smaller shards of the broken sword he kept in his pocket. He raised his hand to inspect it; the cut wasn't more than an inch or two long but it still hurt so he healed in anyways. Might as well eliminate what pain he could. However saturated in demonic power he was there in Gehenna, he still couldn't heal sadness. Or emptiness, which wasn't really sadness but that was how he felt anyways.

So he'd follow Lucifer to Assiah for a while. Maybe that would help. First, though - his eyelids were starting to grow heavy. It was time for a nap.

When he and Lucifer approached the Gehenna gate they had arrived through, it had been gone, and they figured the exorcists (most likely with Samael's assistance) had managed to destroy it. So Rin was creating one.

"We're going back to the base in Germany, Rin, so make sure your Gate is calibrated properly before you go through. I don't want to end up fighting Gedouin's zombies again, and I doubt you'd want to either."

"You're not wrong," Rin agreed. He was lost in thought, planning rather, speculating how things would turn out. Rin wasn't going to stay with Lucifer long once they got back to Assiah; the reason he had done so in the first place was to have backup when he finally tackled Satan. Now that Satan was defeated, there was no real reason for him to stay with the Illuminati - and truth be told, despite Lucifer's rather likable personality, Rin didn't want to stay with him. Whenever he looked at Lucifer, it brought to mind the image of him dirty, bloodied, holding up Satan's severed head. It made Rin wonder if that's how Thaziel died - and then logic took over and informed him it was probably much more painful than that.

He looked over the symbols chalked onto the stone floor and nodded to himself. He stood, wincing as his knees popped - he was still young, but that didn't mean his body wouldn't protest at kneeling on a stone floor for hours on end. It was time to activate it. He grasped the metal shard in his pocket and drew it across his palm. The blood dripped onto the circle, causing to glow and faint blue, and the stone underneath started bubbling ominously.

It was always a little disturbing, watching the miniature heads that looked as if they were made of tar crying out like small children in pain. It was necessary, however, and Rin stepped into the bubbling mass and sunk through it into Assiah.

And immediately dodged as something flew towards his head.

"What the…!" His exclamation was cut off with a grunt as he dropped to the ground, the Gate quickly dissolving behind him. A canister of holy water burst right above him and he hissed in pain as it stung his unprotected skin - which, luckily, was only his hands and head. It still hurt.

He crawled away - best to keep down until he figured out what was going on - and when he reached a wall he stood with his back to it to survey the scene. It seemed as if the exorcists had found the base; not surprising with the combination of Samael's cunning and Shima's information. But now they had a bit of a mess on their hands… it was really just bad luck that Lucifer had arrived when he did.

A thought struck Rin and he felt the blood drain from his face. If the exorcists under were attacking the base, then was Yukio there too? He gritted his teeth and made his way to the entrance hall, where it seemed as if the most intense fighting was occurring, if the energy spikes from that direction meant anything.

He made his way there slowly - even though the people around him weren't amazingly strong, there were a lot of them, and he had to take care of them. He'd tried not to kill any of them, so it took him longer than he thought it would to make it to the entrance hall. He looked around desperately, hoping yet not expecting that his brother was somewhere else. Sure enough, he spotted a familiar face across the room and forced his way through over to his brother.

"Yukio!" He yelled, and his brother turned.

"Rin!" His eyes grew wide. "Duck!"

Rin dropped into a crouch and grimaced as he felt something splatter him from behind; he glanced back and saw what remained of a partially decomposed corpse. So much for not fighting Gedouin's zombies; the Illuminati members must have pulled out everything they could to try to fend off the exorcists.

"Thanks," Rin said. "How are things going?"

"They're okay, Mephisto's holding off Lucifer for now but I Dad's fighting Todou - the one who absorbed the demon at Kyoto, I think they're having a little trouble there."

Rin nodded, it was about what he had expected if they Illuminati and exorcists ever went head-to-head. Not that he'd expected it to happen so soon, of course, but life often failed to comply with expectations.

"All right, I'll head on over. You be careful, Yukio," he said, and for nostalgia's sake hugged his brother briefly. It was almost comfortable, despite the setting. "I mean it."

"I should be telling you that," Yukio responded, arching an eyebrow.

"Whatever." Rin turned to the other end of the hall where he could see a figure flying with wings of fire in combat with several others. The wings were kind of cool and Rin wondered briefly if he'd be able to do that when one of the exorcists was knocked back and hit the ground hard. He didn't get up. "That's my cue."

He ran to the other end of the hall, using bursts of flame occasionally to launch himself over particularly intense fights. He didn't have time to waste; with one of their men down the small group that had been fighting Todou was pressed to their limit. Rin built up speed and right as Todou was about to toss a fireball Rin crashed into him, knocking him out of the air.

They landed roughly, but Rin had managed to shove Todou under him and ended up somewhat upright with a knee on Todou's chest. Todou flared his flames, but Rin flared his as well, forcing Todou's down and reinforcing his own body. He punched Todou in the face solidly then jumped back to arm himself. In a second his knives were in his hands and crossed in front of him, blocking a truly massive straight sword - Angel's sword. He smiled grimly, toning his aura down, and angled his block so the sword would slip down and away and maybe get stuck in the ground. It would buy him enough time to explain. Or for Shiro to get them to back off.

"Shiro! A little help here!" He called, and Shiro shouldered past Angel, who was giving him and dirty look and working his sword free. Shiro stopped short and looked at him, then pulled him into a tight hug - Rin had to make sure he didn't accidentally skewer him.

"The prodigal son returns, eh?" One of the other fighters asked, scratching his head. "All the better, then, since Redarm's down."

"Yes! I'm not here to kill all of you," Rin assured, Shiro having let him go. "I can suppress Todou's flames with my own and give you openings."

"And why should I trust demon spawn?" Angel spat.

"Because you're hard-pressed to keep up with Todou and right now he's a mutual enemy. And he's going to be back up in seconds - the demon he fused with is a phoenix so in order for him to truly die his body needs to be obliterated and the ashes sprinkled with holy water. Very similar to a vampire." Rin glanced back at Todou. "And you have about ten seconds."

The dark-haired fighter grinned. "Can we keep him, Shiro?"

Shiro looked at Rin. "Let's fight."

Rin channeled his flames into his knives and bared his teeth, exposing his canines. He exhaled slowly, and met Todou's charge in a strong stance. His feet slid backwards until Rin was backed up against the wall - not the best position to be, but it gave the others a clear target. And that was the whole point of it, so he'd just have to try not to die. Which, admittedly, was rather difficult as the demon Todou had absorbed had been one of Iblis's lieutenants before things had settled down a few centuries ago.

Rin heard the distinctive pneumatic hiss of a holy water grenade and screwed his eyes shut, deciding in a split second that getting stabbed or bludgeoned by Todou was preferable to burning out and regrowing his eyes. And yes, it did hurt when Todou hit him, but not nearly as bad as Todou had been hurt - his wings of flame had burned off the back of his uniform, and the holy water had splashed all over his back, leaving rather horrific burns.

Rin took his chance and stabbed at Todou. He dodged, but thanks to the burns from the holy water it was only enough that the knife went into his shoulder instead of his heart. It was still a good hit, as it hindered the movement of that arm.

"No!" Todou yelled, and Rin ducked under his arm to regroup with Shiro and Angel and the other exorcist. "You can't - you won't - "

Todou inhaled but his torso kept swelling and eventually it was his whole body that was growing. His features shifted, too, making his whole body look like it was wax being melted and remolded. When he finally settled, he looked like a blend of the demon and a human - his face was vaguely human-shaped, but he had a beak and his eyes were slanted. Feathers covered his body; even his hair was more akin to a bird's crest than a human's hair. The most telling change, though, was the change in size - Todou had become several feet taller and not a little broader.

"Didn't see that coming," the dark-haired exorcist remarked lightly.

"I did," Rin answered grimly. He readied himself, knives up, and Todou once again charged at him. There was one thing about Todou's change in size - though he was far stronger than before, he wasn't quite as fast - the type of opponent that Rin had spent a lot of his childhood training against.

Todou was still fast, but Rin was faster - he dodged when Todou struck and slashed at him with his knives when he saw the chance. He kept Todou busy, drawing his attention to himself so Shiro and the other two could land strong hits on him from further away. Rin couldn't deny that the adrenaline was waking him up from the slump he'd been in; there was nothing like a good fight to get his blood up.

"Hey, demon - what's your name?" Rin grunted. "Actually - never mind - I don't need to know, why would I? There's no way Iblis would allow you back in his kingdom."

Todou roared with rage and Rin was mildly surprised that his plan was working. He'd heard that getting opponents angry clouded their mind (that was something Thaziel would drill into his head every time he lost his temper during a fight) but this was the first time he'd seen it work on an opponent.

"I am KARURA!" He yelled. Rin nodded. That sounded familiar. But the fact that the demon had answered meant that Todou was no longer in control.

"Well, Karuba," Rin said, "If you can beat me, one on one, I will consider you worthy of re-entering by brother's service. If not, I will inform him of your death and in that case I doubt he will remember you at all."

"I am worthy!" Karura bellowed. "I am the only one worthy of being Lord Iblis's lieutenant!"

"Then prove it!"

Karura flared his flames again, and a pillar of fire appeared, almost as hot and bright as Rin's. But blue snaked up the pillar, gradually overpowering the orange flame and forcing it into a large sphere. Rin was sweating; he'd never controlled his flames this way before and it was hard. He compressed the sphere, smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a baseball.

"Karura! You'll never be his lieutenant again!" He yelled. Karura roared, and Rin forced the ball into Karura's beak and let it go.

The explosion was immense, scattering unidentifiable pieces of… something across the room. Karura's body was flaming, this time a more natural shade of orange but it wasn't enough.

"Get some holy water on that!" Rin yelled, and sat down, exhausted. Angel took over then, all self-important, and Shiro came over to sit next to him.

"Good job, Rin," he said quietly - most of the other fighting had died down at the explosion but was starting to resume. "I'm proud of you."

Rin looked out at the hall, surveying it for Yukio and breathing a sigh of relief when he spotted Yukio taking a breather against the wall, another exorcist next to him keeping an eye out.

"And I know that Thaziel would have been proud of you, too."

Rin whipped his head back and stared at Shiro, whose eyes were bright but his jaw firm.

"Thanks," Rin said, and that emptiness he'd been carrying around suddenly felt a little less so.

And then he felt a strong demonic presence racing towards the entrance hall and realized that the standoff between Lucifer and Samael had finished and Lucifer was probably going to kill him. He stood and jumped up and down a couple times, pushing Shiro's comment to the back of his mind.

"Lucifer's coming," he warned. "See if you can't - "

It was too late; a body smashed through the back wall and entered the room, dripping blood. The body Lucifer had possessed was different from his previous one, which had, oddly, had almost identical features to his body in Gehenna. This body was, from the appearance, one of the Illuminati soldiers, and rather the worse for wear. It wasn't long before Lucifer would have to switch bodies again.

"Rin," he called imperiously. "Find - "

Lucifer paused as he noticed the corpse by Rin's feet and the lack of distance between him and Shiro. His face morphed into a rictus of fury and he staggered towards the wall and pushed himself back up.

"So you have betrayed me, just as you betrayed Father." He paused, then smiled thinly. "Very well."

With surprising speed, he lurched his way towards Rin, but after just a couple steps veered left and grabbed Yukio, pulling their heads together.

"No. NO!" Rin ran towards the two of them. Lucifer was doing something to Yukio, he couldn't let anything happen to Yukio, Yukio was his brother, Yukio couldn't - If he could only run a little faster -

As soon as Rin reached them a shockwave blasted out from Yukio's body and Rin couldn't do anything but curl up and encase himself in his flames, flaring them as high as he could. Landing was painful; rolling over and over until he hit the wall even more so. But the fear won out. He groaned as he pushed himself up and saw Shiro standing over him, blood trailing from an ear, mouthing something that he couldn't make out. Rin's ears were ringing and he felt dizzy and sick.

But he had to check whether or not Yukio was all right. He stood unsteadily and used what was left of the wall - thank goodness the base wasn't underground - as support. As he approached the blast point he saw dead bodies, many of them turned to charcoal. But Yukio - in the center of the blast he saw his brother's body. He slid down the crater, the shallow walls of which had somehow liquefied and re-hardened into something like glass, and knelt. He let out a choked gasp as he realized there wasn't a mark on his brother besides what dust had settled on him; the slowly rising and falling chest only confirmed Yukio's state and Rin felt himself crying. He let them fall.

He jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder and turned to see Shiro looking amazed.

"Hospital," Rin said, his voice sounding oddly muffled. He cocked his head and winced; the blast had no doubt damaged his eardrums - and probably given him a concussion as well. The hospital was for his benefit as well as Yukio's.

Shiro gently gathered Yukio in his arms and Rin took off his shirt to partially cover Yukio - the blat had managed to incinerate his clothing as well as everything around him. As they made their way out of the small crater, Rin glanced back one more time at the charred corpse of Lucifer's host crumbling on the ground.

It was over.

AN: Oh man you're lucky. I was gonna end the chapter before Lucifer and Rin returned to Assiah, but I didn't know how to end it so I just kinda kept going.

Don't worry, we're close, but the story's not over quite yet. How did you like this chapter by the way? I think it pretty decent.