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On a long and lonesome road, east of Issei's house, a girl walked alone in the dark. Normally this girl would not be troubled by the dark, she was a devil after all. However, tonight was different. The girl had been ambushed and attacked and held hostage for about a week. Her arms were weak from fighting, her wrists her bruised from ropes or chains, her legs all cut up and weak from running.

She limped to cross the street but tripped on her own feet and came crashing down on her head. The last thing she saw before she blacked out were headlights of a car coming towards her.

Somewhere not too far away from her, Issei was driving home from his dealer. Sure, he could teleport, but he just loved the night air and open road. His new toy hummed in the night as he drove along. That new toy was a twin turbo V6 Nissan 400z. It was just released from Nissan and Issei had managed to convince the large business to let him sell a couple as well as have one. The sleek design and raspy exhaust almost made him forget of his other cars. The moon was bright, and the roads were empty. Issei turned the radio up and enjoyed his relaxing ride home.

Not a minute later, his devil senses picked up a familiar presence. 'Hm. Who could that be?' He turned the car down a side street and idled along. His eyes darted forward as the body of a girl lay before him in the street.

'Two long tails in her hair? Is that..?' Issei got out of the car and approached the girl, she was still breathing. He rolled her gently onto her back and saw her condition. She was bleeding from various wounds on her arms and legs. A long cut ran down her torso that had ripped her bra open. A phone was visible in an inside pocket.

"Well, I guess it won't hurt." He turned the screen on to see a cracked image of the Sitri peerage. 'That's where I recognize you.' His arms pulled her head into his lap, and he shook her shoulders gently. "Ruruko. Ruruko Nimura. Can you hear me?"

Upon hearing her name being called, Ruruko opened her eyes to see a boy with brown hair staring at her with worry. "Huh?"

"Do you know me?"

"Ise.. Issei Hyou… Hyoudou." She began to lose consciousness again.

Issei quickly pulled out his phone. "Rias, big problem. I found one of Sona's pawns. It's Ruruko."

Rias' voice went to a mix of relief and fear. "You said Ruruko? Sona told me she went missing days ago!"

"Yea, well, she's lying here half dead in the middle of the street in her own blood. Call Sona tell her to meet us at my place. I'm bringing her home."

"Is she in a state to teleport?" She asked. Since teleporting took energy, it might not be safe in Ruruko's condition.

"No, I'll have to drive her back. Get a spare room ready. Tell Asia to meet us in there, we're gonna need her. Find Yuuma and get her to bring up towels and wet cloths to clean her."

"Okay Issei, be careful. Whatever did this to her could still be out there."

"I will, I'll bring her home safe and sound. I love you."

"Love you too."

Issei carefully picked Ruruko up and placed her in the passenger seat. Her bloody clothes stained the seat beneath her. "Oh well, not a fan of cloth seats anyway." He sat in the driver's seat and began to drive off. That's when it hit. His senses detected a holy presence nearby. It reminded him of Freed's aura. 'Did you find a stray exorcist?' Of course, Ruruko couldn't answer him.

The car sped along back to sanctuary as Ruruko balanced on the delicate tightrope that was life and death.

In a dark alley

"Damn that brat actually got out." A man in a dark cloak cursed. The second he had turned his back, the chains holding his prisoner snapped and she ran past him. He had managed to get his hands on a light sword and since he was once a priest, the holy aura accepted him. That was the cause of most of Ruruko's wounds. "I had you for almost a week and I never got the chance to break you." The man turned and left, but he was not going to give up his prize.

Issei's house

Issei screeched into the driveway and pulled up to the front door. He ran to the other side, pulled Ruruko out of the car, and carried her inside. Akeno and Kuroka had taken the children to another room so they wouldn't see the bloody Ruruko and scare them.

Le Fay met him at the stairs and led him to the room that was prepared. The little witch wasn't a big fan of blood and tried to keep away from Ruruko's bleeding wounds.

Eventually, Issei found the room he was after. He expected to see Rias, Asia, Yuuma and Ravel there to help with healing, but the other bishop wasn't there.

"Hey, Rias. Where's Ravel?"

"She wanted to spend her birthday with her family this year, she'll be back tomorrow night." Rias helped him lay the Pawn on the bed and got to work cleaning her up. Yuuma handed them the towels and cloths to begin washing the blood off before stepping back to the side of the room.

Asia, who sat in a chair, activated her Twilight Healing and looked Ruruko over. "She has some deep cuts in her arms and legs. She also has so bruises going towards her, umm, lower half."

Silence filled the room for a minute. No one dared ask the question of what those bruises were from. No one wanted to know.

Issei knew what that meant. "Asia, can you tell if she was raped?"

That got everyone's attention. At that exact moment, Sona walked. "If my Pawn was raped and tortured, the man who did this will pay the ultimate price."

"Thanks for coming, Sona. I'm surprised Saji didn't come. She is his junior after all." Issei stepped back to where Yuuma was to let Asia work.

"He was preoccupied with a mission, but he will come here later." Sona focused back on her Pawn. "Poor Ruruko. How did this happen?" She said in a rare show of emotion.

Rias stood next to her friend. "Sona, what could she have been doing to cause this?"

"I sent her out on a normal contract call. She was supposed to be gone for two hours and return. That was Monday night." That meant Ruruko had been missing for five days. Sona was shaking with rage.

Asia leaned back in her chair. "The good news is that she wasn't touched in her privates. I can find no injury and her purity is still there. The bad news is that she has been drained of all demonic energy."

Issei helped Asia stand back up. "Thank you, Asia, you and Anastasia can go rest now." Even though they hadn't confirmed it with a visit, they still referred to their child as Anastasia. He helped his pregnant wife out of the room and down to his. Yuuma followed them out to help with Asia.

Le Fay could tell it was best for the two kings to be alone. "I'm gonna go to bed." She quickly left as well.

Sona was still angry. "I should have been there. I should have gone to look for her."

"Well, the past can't be undone. At least she wasn't killed. She can wake up and you can tell her you're sorry." Rias offered a comforting hand.

"I…" She pulled her glassed off and wiped her eyes. "How can I call myself a king if I allowed one of my own to be captured and tortured?"

"It's not easy. I know what you mean about letting a pawn get hurt." Rias looked back out to the door. "I've let him down so much in the past."

Now it was Sona's turn to offer comfort. "And look where you are now. You two are married, and you have a beautiful baby girl." She looked down a moment. "You're way farther than me in life."

The two women sat down on the bed across from Ruruko. "You know, your sister came here a couple of weeks ago." Rias started trying to change the subject.

"She did?"

"Yea. My brother sent her here to acquire help from Issei about marriage. She was so innocently confused." Rias chuckled.

Sona cocked her head to the side a bit. "What did she do?"

"Serafall didn't realize my brother sent her here for Issei to 'help' her. Which meant Issei was to marry her."

"Oh." Sona had heard of her sister's issue with marriage and having a child. She just never thought she'd go to the Red Dragon to help. She then remembered about six months ago when Issei had come to her asking her to babysit his children while he took care of Valdos Kasadi. She remembered her idea of 'joining his family'.

"Sona?" Rias had noticed her friends blush and got curious. "You're blushing."

"Oh, I, uh…" She sighed. "I don't know what to say. I can see why you fell for him."

Rias just giggled. "I had no idea you felt that way about him, or anyone for that matter." Sona was usually a reserved and quiet person.

"It was after he brought the kids to my place when they let Valdos out. Seeing him handle them with so much love and care tugs at a girl's heart, you know."

"Oh, I know."

Issei came back and sat with his fellow kings. "Any changes?" His eyes stared at Ruruko on the bed as he clenched his fists.

"She's still out. Sona, can she stay here tonight?"

"I don't see why not. Her parents don't love her anyway. Hell, they probably never even noticed she was gone." Sona looked away in disgust.

Issei looked upon the girl on the bed. The only thing he wanted was to murder the man that did this to her. He wanted to get revenge for her.

Before long it was past everyone's bedtime. Rias, Asia, Yuuma and Le Fay had all gone to bed leaving Issei and Sona with the still unconscious Ruruko. Saji never did come by. He was probably hunting the bastard that did this.

"Issei?"

"Yea Sona?"

"Thank you. You've been so good to her, and you don't know her."

"Well, I wasn't going to leave her half dead in the street."

"Anyway, thank you." Sona stood and took her leave.

Issei was about to exit the room when Rias met him at the door.

"Coming to bed, dear?" She asked sweetly as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I was actually about to come ask if you minded me staying here with her tonight. She doesn't need to be alone right now."

"Adding another girl to your harem. Tsk Tsk, Issei. She just got here." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I don't mind and Asia's already asleep. See you tomorrow love."

"Goodnight Rias." With one final kiss he shut the door.

Issei returned to the bed that he had been sitting on and pull the covers down to get under them. Normally he would take his clothes off, but if Ruruko had awoken to see him like that, it would be very awkward. He decided it would be best to leave the lamp on since it was likely she had been kept in the dark.

Hours past and Issei had fallen asleep. Across the room, Ruruko was stirring slightly. Her body was sweating and shaking.

"No, please. Don't hurt me." She murmured.

Issei woke up to the noise and noticed her. "Ruruko?"

"No! Don't hurt me!" She was getting louder.

He carefully got off of his bed and made his way over to her. Just as he was about to touch her arm she shot up.

"NO!" Ruruko stared wide eyed at a room she was not familiar with. It was not her bedroom, nor was it the place she was kept. Her breathing was sharp and ragged as she tried to piece her surroundings together.

"Ruruko?"

She jumped and backed away from whoever just said her name.

"It's okay. It's me, Issei Hyoudou."

Ruruko began to calm down a tiny bit but was still terrified. "Issei?"

"Yea, it's me. Do you remember me picking you up out of the street?"

"N-No." She remembered headlights before she passed out.

Issei sat up on the bed with her and offered her his hand. "You don't have to worry, you're perfectly safe here. Whoever did this, won't hurt you anymore."

She took his hand. After a second, she pulled herself to him and held onto him like he was the last thing on the planet. "Issei!"

"Yea. I'm right here." He rubbed her back and stoked her hair trying to get her to calm down. She was now crying hysterically on his chest. A new bit of light shown as the door opened. Rias peeked inside to assess the situation. Issei noticed her and held his finger to his mouth telling her to be quiet. Rias simply nodded and left them be.

After another few minutes, Ruruko began to calm down. Her cries became short hiccups, and her tears were fewer than before. Issei went to stand up, but she didn't let go. She held a firm grip around his upper torso.

"Ruruko?"

"Please, don't leave me alone. I'm scared." Her cheeks were flushed. Those who knew Ruruko knew that she didn't scare easily. She was tough, even for a pawn she was tough. But being in her situation for as long as she was, took its toll on her mentality. She needed someone with her.

He'd been here before. Feeling the fear someone had of being alone after being held hostage was not too different from Akeno and Asia's fear of being alone if he had died; or Koneko's fear the first night at her old master's manor. "Alright." Issei laid back on the bed and let Ruruko lay beside him as she snuggled up to his chest. He simply stroked her long hair until he felt her fall asleep again.

"You poor girl, raised by a family that didn't want you, then became a prisoner. I'm so sorry Ruruko." He lightly kissed her head and for the first time tonight, he saw something that brought him comfort. He saw Ruruko smile.