Disclaimer: I do not own "High School DxD."

{Chronostrasza}

[Yserastrasza]

PoV: Shoichiro

Well, this is... interesting.

I just used the summoning spell to pull Karawarner to me, but what I actually got was... well.

I don't know how else to describe it, other than there's now a giant ice sculpture in my room.

I think Karawarner is somewhere under all this ice. Otherwise, why would her feather have pulled it to me? I could use some fire to melt it, but that seems a little haphazard. Not to mention really, really messy.

Fortunately, there's plenty of real estate outside for her to thaw out.

I head outside to a nice clear spot and teleport her out to me. It's late morning, so hopefully being under the sun all day will do the trick. If not... I really don't know what I'm gonna do.

Before I can contemplate any further courses of action, Rias and her crew are gathered around me, along with Haruhi. I stand there with a look of sheer what-the-fuck on my face for a few moments before it hits me: it's almost time for our morning training session to start.

The one that I didn't have the presence of mind to cancel last night after talking with Rias... oh well, no better time like the present. I strongly suggest they each get in an hour of training, on their own, but other than that today's an off day.

Everybody looks at me like I've got a dick growing out of my forehead except for Rias, who acknowledges my instructions with a nod and an almost imperceptible smile.

Not really sure how I feel about that.

In any event, I grab an apple off a nearby tree and sit down to contemplate what exactly to do with this fallen angel ice sculpture on my mother's lawn... but someone else desires my attention at this moment.

"Haruhi-nee... what's on your mind?"

"Nothing, really... I was just hoping we could talk for a while."

Seems fair enough... and so talk we do.

We talk mostly about relationships, especially about my sudden abundance and her sudden lack. She still misses her husband, but has at least come to legitimately accept Kaa-san's decision to send him away. She's also surprisingly on board with me having two lovers already and possibly taking more. "I see how both of them bring out a different side of you," she says. "I see how you become so calm and docile around Asia, yet are always playing cat-and-mouse with Lysandra. It's entertaining to see who is the cat on any given day. But this one..."

She looks at Karawarner. "This one I have to admit makes me more than a little nervous.

I want to respond to that, but she is of course correct so in the end, I just shrug. "Me too."

"What are you going to do with her?"

"First things first, obviously; wait for her to finish thawing -"

I don't even get to finish my sentence before the ice absolutely shatters and Karawarner breaks free of it. For a moment she looks like she's ready to raise all sorts of hell.

A very brief moment, until she collapses in the fetal position. I go to check on her, and I mentally kick myself for my stupidity.

She's freezing. Par for the course if she's been trapped inside magical ice.

I scoop her up - fuck, she's so cold she's actually burning my skin through my clothes! But it doesn't matter; I have to get her to the infirmary. Between Sakuya and Asia, I'm confident they'll be able to take care of her.

Even if not entirely willing.

I haul ass through Kaa-san's castle on Haruhi's heels as she both directs me and clears the way.

Now, I know someone is reading this thinking "wHy DoEsN't He JuSt TeLePoRt?" I don't just teleport because I don't know where in the castle the infirmary is, because I've never been there. Certainly not since seven of my teammates were hospitalized by my defiant stepsister, because seeing them in their comatose condition would likely only anger me further.

At the end of the day, I can't teleport to a place I've never been or seen.

Although running carries its own dangers, because whatever magic is at work here is starting to affect me as well. I can feel my legs getting heavier making it harder to run, it's hard to draw a full deep breath because my lungs are starting to burn, and my vision is getting hazy. I can feel Chromie busting her ass trying to keep me put together - she really is a dependable partner - so I focus on following Haruhi until we get to the infirmary.

Somehow I manage to keep from blacking out until we get there.

3rd Person PoV

Haruhi burst into the castle infirmary, and Shoichiro collapsed right behind her with Karawarner still clinging to him.

"Haruhi, what's going on?" one of the nurses asked.

"I don't know, but this girl is freezing and she needs help."

"There's an open bed by the window... can you move her?"

{No, don't touch her.}

"Chronostrasza? Is that you?"

{This magic ice is doing a number on Shoichiro. It's nothing I can't handle, but the rest of you don't have a dragon inside you.}

"Fortunately, I do," came a voice from the doorway.

"Asia, thank the Dragonqueen you're here!"

"Chromie, remember that trick you and Ysera used on the boat on our way to visit the Dragonqueen?"

{When I amplified your healing powers by injecting my energy directly into your heart? It could work, but be careful... this ice is unnatural and unlike anything I've ever witnessed.}

"All right, here goes." Asia draped Shoichiro up on one shoulder and Karawarner over the other, while Haruhi held Shoichiro's right hand to Asia's breast at her direction. "Do it, now!"

{AMPLIFY!}

Asia felt a rush of magical power surge through her body, enough to gather the strength to get both of her newest patients to their own beds. She stacked several blankets on top of Karawarner to try and warm her up, then checked out Shoichiro's injuries with Chromie's help.

"How bad is it, Chromie?"

{Mostly superficial burns. I was able to ward off most of the major damage, but he's still very lucky you showed up when you did. Even I could only do so much.}

"That's wonderful..." She held his gauntlet in her lap. "He really is lucky to have you looking out for him."

Chromie scoffed. {Well, this body is half mine after all, I have to do what I can to take care of it. And I'm not ready to scour the cosmos for a new partner just yet.}

[Yes... finding someone to put up with you must be an exhausting endeavor,] Ysera chimed in.

{Puas muaj leej twg puas tau qhia rau koj paub tias tus menyuam dev muaj koob muaj npe yog leej twg?}

Asia was mortified, and dropped Shoichiro's hand out of sheer shock.

{Wait a sec... do you understand the ancient language now too?}

"Yes..."

{Huh... I guess I'll have to keep that in mind when insulting your partner from now on.}

"Wow... I've never seen ice magic like this," Sakuya marveled. "I've studied ice dragons up close and personal before, but they don't produce anything like this."

"But what exactly is 'this,' Sakuya?" Arceus asked her daughter. She, Genjuko, and Rias had all made their way to the infirmary to check on Shoichiro, who was now fully healed and sleeping. They were now gathered around Karawarner's bed while Sakuya examined her. She was stiff, pale and cold to the touch, to the point where Sakuya had to use one of Alexstrazsa's swords just to draw blood, which froze and vaporized upon contact with the air.

"I actually have no idea. It has the effect of liquid nitrogen, but a humanoid body shouldn't be able to deal with that kind of low temperature."

"I see... well..." Arceus looked over to her son with pain in her eyes, which did not escape Sakuya's notice.

"I'll figure something out, Mama." Mother and daughter shared a brief, reassuring hug. "I'm a scientist, remember? It's what I do."

"Well then, I'll leave you to it." Arceus and Genjuko left, and Rias went to follow them but Sakuya stopped her. "Before you go, I need a favor from you."

Rias heard Sakuya's request before leaving, only to return a few minutes later with Akeno. "Thank you very much, Rias... you're welcome to stay or leave, it's up to you."

"I'd like to stay, if that's all right."

"Of course." Sakuya turned to Akeno. "I understand that you and my brother spoke yesterday?"

"Yes."

"About what?"

"He showed me a feather from a fallen angel. I told him that it was under the influence of a powerful type of magic."

"Is there anything - anything at all - you can tell me about this magic?"

Akeno hesitated. She hadn't expected it to be this fallen angel, or this specific type of magic. The type of magic that -

"Akeno?"

"Huh? Sorry... I must have drifted off."

"Well, I need you to focus. Anything you can tell me about this magic, I need to know."

"...Why?"

For a brief moment, Akeno saw a blaze in Sakuya's eyes and thought the dragon might strike her down then and there, but she quickly composed herself. "Akeno, I'm going to level with you. I don't know who this girl is, and I don't know anything about her. Here's what I do know: for whatever reason, she's important to my brother. And my brother is important to me. Therefore, logically speaking, this girl is important to me. So I plan to do whatever I can to save her life, but I need your help to do it."

"I'm sorry... I can't." With that, Akeno fled the infirmary, with Rias hot on her heels.

"Well... that didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped."

"I know, right?"

Sakuya whirled around at the voice to see Shoichiro sitting up. "You're awake! Thank the Dragonqueen... how are you feeling? Can I get you anything?"

"Some tea would be wonderful."

"Right away... Asia, can you keep an eye on things until I get back?"

"Of course... Shii-kun, how are you feeling?"

"Still a little chilly, but fine other than that. Thanks to you, Sakuya and Chromie putting in the work to keep me alive... I guess I should thank you too, Ysera."

[Your appreciation is noted.]

"In my culture we say 'you're welcome,' but I guess that works too," Shoichiro said with a slight chuckle. "Now, let's see what we've got here..."

He made his way to Karawarner's bedside and pulled the blankets up. He placed his right hand on her shoulder to avoid touching her with his bare skin. "Chromie, can you tell me anything?"

{This magic seems like it's designed to do more than just freeze... it might actually be devouring the girl's soul.}

"That makes sense... Akeno did call it 'soul magic' yesterday."

{There's something else going on here... I'm feeling an increase in my power output, but neither you nor me is causing it.}

"Really?" Shoichiro let go of Karawarner's shoulder.

{Levels are back to normal, which means -}

"She's trying to draw on our power, for whatever reason." He pulled a chair up to her bedside and took her hand in his.

{BOOST!}

"Are you sure about this, Shii-kun?" Asia asked nervously.

"Not really, but... wait a second, take a look at this! Is it my imagination, or..."

"No, I see it too... it's working!"

They were watching the ice slowly and gradually recede, and Karawarner's normal color was slowly returning to her hand.

"Chromie... I'm gonna try something here."

{What?}

"You're capable of doubling my power, what? Every ten seconds or so?"

{Something like that.}

"How many times?"

{Your current record is ten. I don't know how much further beyond that your body can handle.}

"Well, we're about to find out."

"Shii-kun, what are you doing?"

"If I can heal myself and others by turning time backwards on a very focused area of space, there's no reason I shouldn't be able to turn time forward on a limited area of space as well."

{To reach max capacity in a shorter amount of real time... it could work.}

Asia took a seat on Karawarner's other side and joined hands with both her and Shoichiro.

[Are you sure about this, child?]

"I have to do what I can to help as well."

"Actually, I like this... theoretically it forms a..."

{Closed circuit of energy traveling through her heart,} Chromie and Shoichiro finished in unison.

"Right... it's supposed to operate on the same principles as a defibrillator. Plus with Asia's Twilight Healing added to the mix, hopefully it'll prevent any of us from being seriously injured."

{It's very rare that I say this to my host, but... Shoichiro, you're a frickin' genius.}

Shoichiro smiled, and took a deep breath. "Ready?"

Asia nodded. "Ready."

"Here we go." He focused all of his power on speeding up time in a tight bubble around his right hand.

{Ex-five... ex-ten... ex-fifteen... ex-twenty... that's enough, you're putting some serious strain on your systems. Although that is impressive, boosting your power output by sheer force of will.}

"Yeah... well..." He was breathing raggedly due to the immense strain, and he almost fell out of his seat. Fortunately, Sakuya showed up just in time to keep him upright.

"Is he all right?"

{He will be, in about two, one... AMPLIFY!}

I'm sorry, Shoichiro... I lo-

Karawarner couldn't even get the rest of the phrase out before she lost consciousness.

She woke up in an intense blizzard, and for whatever reason she was also completely naked.

Am I... dead?

She wandered around, using her wings to shield her face from the wind and snow, but it was pointless; no matter how far she traveled or in what direction, the blizzard never relented, nor did she come across any landmarks to indicate where she was or where she might be going. Never did the sun set nor the moon rise to indicate the passage of time.

She wandered for a while longer, before reaching an area where the ground felt not quite as firm. Like it was... melting?

She jabbed a spear of light into the ground and it cracked slightly... but then the crack grew... and continued to grow... until she was afraid to take a step for fear that she might fall through.

Little did she know, that was the least of her worries.

A massive demon burst up from below the ice, knocking her into the air and putting her at the true mercy of the storm. It screamed in a voice that threated to tear her mind apart:

"FOOLISH CREATURE, IN TRYING TO CLAIM MY POWER, YOU HAVE STOLEN THAT WHICH WAS NOT YOURS TO TAKE! YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR MISDEEDS WITH YOUR VERY SOUL!"

It can't be... this is the Revenant?!

She fired off as many light spears as she could, as fast as she could, but it didn't make a damn bit of difference. The demon snatched her up and pulled her down screaming into the abyss from whence it came.

Karawarner wasn't out for long this time, but she quickly realized she was no longer in the storm.

She was still freezing cold, to the point where she could only wonder how she was not completely dead, but she was indoors. Of course, the walls were frozen over as well, but she didn't seem too surprised at that.

What did surprise her was the realization of exactly where she was. It was one of the smaller bedrooms of her father's mansion. On the bed sat a little girl, with an older woman behind her. As she moved closer, however, she realized that the two were missing large chunks of flesh, and their bodies were mostly frozen over. Still, they moved like they were alive despite looking like zombies; the girl laughed and smiled while the lady brushed her long hair.

Suddenly, the room seemed to get even colder than it already was, as if such a thing were possible. The little girl jumped and hid in a closet, running right through Karawarner as if she wasn't even there. Just as she closed the door, another zombie burst in the room. This one was taller, probably male judging from its facial hair... and it was definitely evil.

Karawarner watched as the two 'adult' zombies seemingly argued about something for several minutes, although she couldn't actually hear any words from them. They made zombie noises, but nothing that could pass for actual language... that is, until he slapped her. That jolted something in Karawarner.

No... no, it can't be... please, no!

But sadly, all she could do is watch as the two bigger zombies struggled, with 'him' eventually forcing 'her' onto her bed. He ripped off her clothes and forced himself on her, despite Karawarner's useless protests. Then, when he finished, he held a pillow over her face until she finally stopped struggling. As a final indignity, he tossed her body out a nearby window before leaving.

Karawarner tried to jump out the window, but the blizzard raging outside blasted her to the floor. She tried several more times and was rejected each time more strongly than the last. Finally she gave up and simply knelt on the ground, trying to contain her tears.

Mother... I'm so sorry...

She attempted to stand up, but the floor collapsed beneath her, depositing her neatly in the grand foyer of the mansion.

"WELCOME HOME, LADY KARAWARNER," she heard a ghastly wail. She looked up and saw not servants of her house, but more zombies surrounding her. Although there was one that she didn't have to strain herself to recognize, if for no other reason than its round belly.

"Rubije... but I... I killed you..."

As she looked around at the other zombies, she recognized most of their faces as victims of her career as a fallen angel soldier and assassin. Clearly they had now come back to haunt her in this place of torment... but even if she couldn't kill them, perhaps she could at least fight them. She summoned a light spear and did her best to fight them off, but she found it quite impossible to kill that which wasn't alive. Eventually, her spear was knocked away from her and so she tried to make a run for the door, but she was cut off. Standing before her were her mother and father, and behind them someone even taller, darker, more alive...

"Is that... you... Shoichiro? Please... help me..."

But 'Shoichiro' merely kicked her away in disgust.

"No... not you... anyone but you..." For whatever reason, remembering her mother's murder, being confronted by her own victims... it all paled to being rejected by the man she loved.

"Anyone but him?" came a new, familiar voice. It was her fallen angel counterpart, Raynare. "What an insidious sense of humor."

"He's only alive because you were absolutely worthless," came the voice of her other partner, Dohnaseek. "Had you done your job, he would be the one dead instead of you."

Karawarner fell to the ground feeling physically ill, but her former partners decided to help her up by driving light spears into her back and lifting her up off the ground. The illusion of Shoichiro stepped before her and stabbed her in the gut with his own sword of light. "They're right, of course... you are absolutely worthless. I only saved your life that night because I thought you might be good in bed... but you can't even do that right."

The three dropped Karawarner to the ground, and they took turns stabbing at her with their weapons. Each blow caused the exact same pain as it would have in life, except in this afterlife she couldn't die, so she just laid there suffering under the blades.

Is this the price of my failure? I really am worthless, just like he said...

But as she lay on the floor bleeding from dozens of stab wounds, she began to sense an unusual warmth. Not quite 'heat,' although the temperature did seem to be rising... no, this was more like warmth of spirit. Friendly, kind, helpful, and... dare she say, healing? Her wounds were slowly closing, leaving not a trace or a scar behind. Even her new wounds patched themselves up as soon as the blades were withdrawn.

GET UP.

It wasn't so much a voice as it was a sensation, a feeling... an instinct. Something was feeding her the strength to get back to her feet, and as she did the light weapons became less and less effective, to the point where they were no longer having any effect on her at all. The illusions kept stabbing blindly, but only until she buffeted them away with her wings. She glanced at Raynare and Dohnaseek, and they were instantly disintegrated. Dispatching the likeness of her father took a little more effort, and Shoichiro's doppelganger also put up a decent fight. Finally, there was just one left.

"Mother... I really don't want to fight you."

'Mother' simply raised her hand, and spoke in a shrill, eerie voice, "Then you... shall... DIE!" She fired off a bolt of ice that Karawarner was just barely able to dodge.

Of course... that's not really my mother.

'Mother' kept growing and transforming, until it tore the entire mansion apart and took the shape of the Revenant once again. "I WILL SHATTER YOUR SOUL!" it screamed, but before it could attack, it was struck by balls of bronze and green flame. Flames that quickly took shapes with wings and claws.

Karawarner didn't bother to contemplate what those flames were, where they came from or what they meant; she just instinctively joined the attack, flitting around and striking with light spears whenever she saw an opening. The flames were putting up a decent fight, ripping away the demon's armor piece by piece. Finally, it fell to the ground with what looked to be its core exposed. The bronze flame now wrapped itself around her, filling her with strength while the green flame held the Revenant down.

I know this strength... thank you, I promise not to let it go to waste.

Karawarner concentrated on creating the largest spear of light she possibly could, and then drove it straight down into the Revenant's core. The core shattered, unleashing a final torrent of ice and snow before everything went completely white.

Moments later, she blinked her eyes open. She was in a bed under a ton of blankets, and there was a strange girl standing over her. The girl said nothing, just smiled and sighed before walking away.

Ugh... where am I?

She tried to process the dream she'd just had, but it was all fragments, nothing she could really piece together to make sense out of. Just a lot of snow, ice, dead faces, and a giant ice demon.

She couldn't move her arms due to the weight on top of her, but she could squeeze her hands. The right hand found another hand, belonging to a girl whose face she couldn't see but whose head was laid on her stomach. The left hand found a hand encased in metal, which quickly gave way to flesh. Its owner was also asleep, but she didn't need to see his face to know who it was. She merely gave the hand a strong squeeze as she continued to rest.

...I'm home.

Author's note: I'm going to let everybody interpret, praise and/or criticize this chapter as they so choose, but I do want to say it felt a little tough to write because I'm not a fan of the whole "power of love and friendship" trope in anime, and I promise this is the first/last/only time I use it in this story. I will also say I wanted to use it *now to set up some things between Shoichiro and Karawarner down the road, as well as her eventual redemption. Hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it. :)