Combination

"I commend you," stated the Demon, "For such a young child, you have managed to kill several seasoned warriors. My name is Leone; warrior in service of Lady Sang and Lord Loup. You will come with me and follow your true destiny at long last. It is what was meant to be; if he were in his right state of mind, your father would agree with me. The curse of that woman will be broken at last hear and now!"

"Not today! I won't let anyone hurt me, Mommy, or Daddy!" Angie shrieked. Suddenly, the lights that had surrounded her died down. The young girl was unchanged from her Neutral/True form, wearing the white dress with black lining, ribbons, bow, headband, and boots, and her hair and eyes were their natural colors, however she now had wings; her right one was like what Ange had while her left one mimicked Diable's. A cross was tattoed on top of her right hand while a pentagram was on her left one.

Leone laughed at her and boomed, "It doesn't matter what sort of form you take! In the end, you are still the spawn of the Dark Prince! You know it in your heart where your loyalty should lie. When you are fully awakened, then your father too will realize the truth and return to help us wage war against the human race! Now then…come quietly and I won't have to hurt you." He brandished his enormous ax.

Angelique looked him over; this was going to be a tough challenge. 'I can't charge right into the fray of battle; he's bigger, stronger, and smarter. Somehow, I've got to wait for an opening to take advantage of. Then, I canuse the power that wishes to come out. Both my Light and Dark sides want to work together to create one powerful attack that can knock this jerk right off of his feet and onto the floor.'

Leone swung downwards, however Angelique was nimble enough to evade the blow. She jumped back and he took another swing. It went on like this for what seemed like forever. Angie knew that you can't win on Defense alone, but it was the only option available to her when she was alone and up against such a powerful opponent. And every time he swung, he seemed to get more and more tired.

'If I can somehow get his ax caught on something or wear him down, then I can strike,' the young girl told herself, 'Weakening his defenses and neutralizing his strengths is the only way to fight an enemy this powerful. Mommy wouldn't think like this though; I must get this side of myself from Uncle Culotte.'

"What are you doing? Against the others you struck like a wild cat! But now you're just running like a scared little rabbit. Not so strong without your mother and friends to back you up? Well tough! Get over it ya brat! You won't have them around forever; they're going to die with the humans," he threatened.

Just then, Leone swung his ax down and hit what appeared to be a stone pillar. It stuck fast and he tried to pull it out. Angelique smiled; this was what she was waiting for. The girl called out, "Light of Angels Darkness of Demons!" She shrieked as the power began to flow through her; Light in the cross tattoo and Light wing, Darkness in the pentagram tattoo and Dark wing. Aiming her palms right at her enemy's position, she fired. Both energies ran straight at him; he barely had time to scream before being incinerated. Just then, both white and black lights surrounded Angie; she was returning to her own world.

S...S

The girl awoke to find her mother cradling her in her arms and her father sitting by her side. Uncle Culotte was off to one side looking over at Alouette; who was scolding Francoise for the antics she had been partaking in over the years. Jacques stared at Francoise as well; his mind obviously lost in the clouds. Finally, Auntie Angelique, as she decided to call her namesake, was preparing a healing spell in case the child had been injured. Seeing she was unharmed, the group let out a collective sigh of relief.

Prier hugged her daughter close to her body. "Thank the Goddess that you're not hurt! I know I could believe in you, but my maternal instinct caused me to worry. So…how did it go?" Angie looked into her eyes and told her the entire story about how she'd convinced her two stubborn halves to work as a team to kill the Demon. Then, she spoke about her new attack; how she'd used both elements at once.

"It could probably help us now that they're upping the ante," Culotte told the others, "I mean, Angie surprises the enemy enough when she uses both elements back to back. Imagine her using them both at the same time. They'd never be able to expect that. Prier…I think she's much more protected right now."

"Just as we had hoped. Well, if nobody has been hurt and everything went successfully, then Alouette and I should take our leave; someone else might need our help. Croix…take care of yourself. Be happy with Prier and your daughter," Angelique stressed. Then, a brilliant light appeared overhead and the two angels rose up towards the ceiling. As they reached the top, a brilliant flash blinded the group. When their eyesight had cleared up…neither angel remained; they had returned to Heaven.

Prier noticed Culotte had been reaching his arm upwards; perhaps trying to hold Alouette's hand or to get her to stay. At that, she informed him, "Culotte…you look so stupid like that! You know she won't be able to stay. There are just times when we have to learn to let go of the ones that we love."

It didn't take Culotte long to find a comeback. "Oh yeah Prier. I seem to recall a certain Demon Hunter locking herself in her room and crying for hours when Noir prevented her from rescuing the man she loved from Darkness. Darkness caused, I might add, by losing the woman that he was in love with."

"Shut up about that Culotte!" yelled Prier as she jumped and socked him over the head, "And at least I had Pure Love for Croix; you're crush on Alouette was simple Puppy Love. What else can you expect from a twelve year old? You're not expected to understand what love is at that young an age."

'Those two will never change. But I feel much happier to just be back with these people again. Especially Prier; I missed her way too much over the past four years. Wow, I didn't think I'd be this beat after only one fight; must be my nerves getting to me. Just have one smoke before dinner,' thought Croix.

However, just as he was about to light up, a tiny voice shrieked, "Daddy! Smoking is bad for you; that's what all the other adults say." He turned to see his daughter standing there with a stern look on her face; something she no doubt got from her uncle because neither he nor Prier could manage one like it.

Smiling, Croix put the cigarette away. 'Only for her. I guess I'll just have a drink of water to calm myself.' About this time, Prier and Culotte had been forcibly separated by Francoise and Jacques so they too could cool down. Thinking water would be a good idea, Croix took Prier with him to find something to drink. Angie followed close behind her parents; wanting to spend as much time as a family as possible.

Teefa's Last Words...

Well, I was thinking back to the power of Light and Darkness combined from the anime Slayers TRY (season 3). Since La Pucelle deals a lot with the two energies and harmony between them, I wondered how good they would be working together. So we came up with this little gem of an attack. The design for it was developed only right before we started writing this chapter, and the hard copy of the art sometime afterwards. Said hard copy is a scene of Angelique floating in the void and casting the spell; gold and black colored pencil being used to write the words of each element.

As to how that pillar got there...Angie wished it there. As I said in the last chapter, a person's heart reflected their longings. So when she longed to disable her opponent, her heart created a pillar.

Yeah, I've noticed that I tend to have one or two strong characters in a story. Usually I concentrate on my favorites. Prier will be getting a lot of action in the coming chapters; things are going to get crazy soon.