Chris: Well, I finally finished the next chapter. Amazing, ain't it? Anyway, just as a note for you. While the shoujo-ai pairing will be the main focus, there is a heterosexual pairing, namely one involving Jordan. Because, you know, Jordan is funny.

Disclaimer: I don't, in fact, own the copyrights to Riviera.

Chapter 5: A Little Knowledge…

"Umm…Melissa? I…uh…have to tell you something." Sif walked up to the witch, who looked up irritably from her studying. Melissa shut her magic tome and slammed it on the wooden table.

"What is it? Please don't tell me it's something stupid, because I swear on the lives of my ancestors that I will destroy whoever is causing me this distraction." Melissa snapped, grabbing her staff from where it lay on the floor. She looked up at Sif and tapped her foot impatiently, studying the Grim Angel's face. Sif flushed slightly, but steeled her nerves and looked Melissa straight in the eyes.

"Jordan decided it would be a hot idea to go shopping and took the rest of our money to buy things. And…he promptly lost it at gambling. He also…uh…gambled away some of your spell books." Sif said, preparing herself for the blast of anger that she was certain would erupt from the female magician. Melissa sighed and removed her magician's hat, scratching her hair. Sif leaned forward a bit, since this was a reaction that wasn't expected at all.

"God dammit, Jordan!" Melissa screamed and pointed the tip of her staff towards the sky. Yelling out a word of magic, the crystal that topped the staff glowed a fierce red. Suddenly, the portion of the roof that covered Melissa's room exploded in a shower of fiery sparks. Panting in anger, Melissa stalked out of her room and towards the common room in the small hideout that they shared. At the sight of the fiery aura of anger that surrounded her body, Silvei immediately left the room, dragging a protesting Melanie along with her.

"What's going on, Silvi?" Melanie asked, struggling against the archer's grip. "I can walk by myself! And what's wrong with Melissa?"

"Too many questions!" Silvei shot off rapidly. "And my name is Silvei, not Silvi!"

"Silvi!" Melanie responded petulantly, pouting as the archer continued to pull her into a more secure area of the hideout. The young vampire finally managed to squirm out of Silvei's grasp and she folded her arms angrily, sticking her tongue out at the tall archer. "So what happened?"

"Melissa is angry." Silvei shuddered. "And I mean very angry. I haven't seen anything like this since the day she found Jordan peeking at her when she was taking a shower. Trust me, it is not a good idea to be anywhere near her right now."

"Ohhhh…" Melanie nodded. "Thanks for telling me, Silvi!"

"My name is Silvei!"

---

"Melissa!" Sif chased after the furious witch, who was busy venting her anger by launching fireballs at the scraggly trees that surrounded their hideout. Someone with the gift of foresight had made the trees inflammable, so while the trees didn't explode in a beautiful array of fire, it still helped Melissa burn off her rage. Sif grabbed Melissa's hand tightly, trying to get her to stop. "Calm down! Please! Nothing good will come out of you killing Jordan!"

"Yes there is! I'll feel a lot better!" Melissa retorted, her mouth split into a feral grin. She scanned the trees, seeing if she could spot the rogue hiding within the leaves. "Oh Jordan…I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to give you a present…like these fireballs up your ass!"

Sif winced as two new explosions rocked the once peaceful ruins. She worriedly pulled on a strand of her long, sea-colored hair and continued following Melissa, thinking of some way to stop her rampage. From what she knew of Melissa, though, the only way she would succeed is if she brought out Jordan and let Melissa fry him into ashes. "Um…Melissa? Maybe you should come inside. Jordan hid already."

"Oh, I'll find him. I'll find him." Melissa cackled insanely and tossed another pair of fireballs at the trees. "He can't hide from me forever."

"But Melissa, you've barely recovered from your injuries! You might overexert yourself!" Sif shouted worriedly, silently summoning Draupnir into her hands. If she couldn't convince Melissa to stop through words, then she would just have to knock her out until Melissa came to her senses.

"I'm fine!" Melissa groaned. "Demons recover easily from stuff like that, I swear. Now please stop disturbing me. I've got a rogue to kill."

"…You leave me no choice." Sif brought her Draupnir up and sent it crashing down on the witch's head. Melissa crumpled without a word and Sif felt a pang of guilt and fear rush through her body. Running over to make sure she didn't hit Melissa too hard, she examined the pulse and felt relieved as she found out that Melissa was just unconscious. "It's for your own good."

"Phew, thanks Sif! I always knew I could count on you!" Jordan leaped down from one of the trees and landed next to the Grim Angel, smiling gratefully. He brushed leaves from his pants and hugged Sif tightly. "Oh man, if she had found me…Well, I wouldn't be standing here right now!"

Sif wasn't amused. "Jordan, why did you do that? You knew that Melissa would kill you if you gambled away her things. You're just lucky she didn't ask me where you were, because I certainly would have told her."

"And I owe you quite a bit! But actually, I just wanted to razz her a bit, get her pumped up! Besides, she seemed kinda depressed after our encounter with that other girl…Malice, was it? Grim Angel, right?" Jordan looked at Sif, his head cocked to the side.

Sif looked down, a small frown coming across her face. "Yes…She seemed to be from Asgard. But there was something strange…something corrupting about her. I can't explain it well."

"Then don't explain it! And cheer up! We beat her, didn't we?" The rogue slapped Sif on the back gently. "Anyway, I didn't actually lose any of her spell books. In fact, I won a couple of new ones! And something that's even better for Melissa's spirits! I found out where Ein will be heading next! Good work, I know. Seems they're heading for a place called Mireno Cemetery. We can confront them there!"

Sif blanched slightly. One thing that she wasn't hoping for was another encounter with Ein. If their objectives crossed, she might have to fight a fellow Grim Angel. Sif desperately hoped that they would somehow pass Ein's group. Still, if she mentioned that, not only would the demons not trust her as much, but she knew that Melissa would be disappointed in her. "U-Uh…That's great…!"

"I know! Aren't I great?" Jordan said, his ego swelling like an overripe applecot. He looked down at Melissa's body, slightly afraid that she would wake up before he could explain his trick to her. "You want to get Melissa back to her room?"

"R-Right." Sif nodded and gently lifted the unconscious witch in her arms. "I still wish you could have just told her instead of having me lie to her."

"Bah, it's just to get her blood going! Don't worry, she'll be just fine."

---

"Jordan, I'm going to kill you!" Melissa leaped out of the bed and began strangling the rogue the moment she woke up, her eyes burning with anger. Jordan flailed around, trying to escape but ultimately failing. "Gamble away my spellbooks, will you? After I kill you, I'm going to burn your body into ashes and then stomp on them before feeding them to fishes!"

It took the combined efforts of Sif, Silvei, and Melanie to pry the furious witch off of Jordan. Melissa glared at the gasping rogue, panting heavily. Jordan scrambled away, holding his hands out in a feeble attempt to placate her.

"It was a joke! A joke!" Jordan rasped. "I didn't lose anything and in fact I found out where Ein is going!"

"Oh!" Melissa immediately stopped struggling and a wide smile crossed her face. "Good. Where's Ein going, Jordan? Will I have to burn the information out of you?"

"No, no!" Jordan shouted. "He'll be at the Mireno Cemetery two days from now, trust me. I got this information from a reliable source, my ears. I snuck into Elendia and overheard him talking about some sort of Accursed that was at the cemetery. And I stole these spellbooks too."

"Good work, Jordan." Melissa said happily, accepting the three books Jordan handed to her. "Ooooh…Multi-elemental spells. I haven't seen anything like this in ages. Well, everybody rest up so we can head for Mireno Cemetery tomorrow. Good bye!"

Melissa practically floated out of the room, accompanied by the awestruck and dumbfounded looks of the other demons. The last time any of them had seen Melissa this happy was…never. Even Silvei, who had been with Melissa the longest, had never seen anything as strange as a happy and cheerful Melissa.

"That was…odd." Jordan said, rubbing his throat. "By Hades, this hurts."

Silvei let out an exasperated sigh and bent down, examining his neck. She lightly bopped Jordan on the top of the head. "You big idiot. You were asking for it when you decided to play this joke of yours. I swear, next time, I'm not going to treat you."

"Then I guess I should thank you now." Jordan promptly leaned forward and kissed Silvei on the mouth. Silvei responded by punching him in the face and stomping out of the room haughtily. Jordan, now nursing a rapidly reddening eye, whimpered in pain and began to poke at the sore spot.

"Jordan, you're funny." Melanie let out a childish laugh and kissed the rogue on the cheek before flying off, humming a cheerful song to herself. Jordan looked up at Sif and winced.

"You aren't going to hit me too, are you?" Jordan asked.

"No, although I honestly think I should." Sif knelt down and shook her head. "Jordan, you need to get more serious about things. Life isn't a game to just be toyed around with."

"Bah, who says? I'm a demon. Everything is just a shiny little gem to us." He replied, wincing as pain lanced through the right side of his face. Pushing himself off of the floor, he stretched and rubbed at his head.

"Why do you say that?" Sif asked, a little sad. The ease of which Jordan had said his answer both worried and interested her. Back in Asgard, life was considered to be one of the greatest treasures a person could possess. Yet here, among demons, life was a toy, something that could be thrown away at a moment's notice. 'Is that why they are considered demons? They don't understand what it is to live?'

"Well, what else can I say? Demons live and die every day." Jordan shrugged. "It's inevitable. Whether it's from old age or from the excitement of battle, death will spring up from its hiding spot and clench us in its jaws. We know this, so we might as well plunge ourselves into the thick of the action. Nothing better than knowing you went out with a bang."

With this, Jordan walked out of the room, where he was promptly punched in the stomach by an angry Silvei. With a huff, Silvei dashed off again, no doubt to get ready to punch the rogue again at some later date. Jordan keeled on the floor, taking in deep breaths of air and trying desperately to not throw up. Sif sighed again and helped him up.

'Is this what all demons think? But if they possess this attitude, why not devote themselves to more peaceful arts instead of fighting? Haha, what am I thinking? In Asgard, the lesson was this. Demons were evil and had to be exterminated. They were a danger to all who lived. They deserved to be destroyed.' Sif thought to herself. Letting out a heavy sigh, she walked over to the study, where Melissa was no doubt examining her new books. If the Gods could see her right now, what would they say? 'They'd probably mark me as a fallen one and strip me of my wings and my powers. I would be marked as a demon.'

"Hey, Melissa?" Sif asked softly as she entered the room.

"Hmmm?" Melissa looked up from her spellbooks, her blue eyes shining with unbridled excitement. "What is it? Did Jordan do something stupid again? I would so hate it if he ruined the good mood that I'm currently in."

"No, no…" Sif found another chair to sit in and closed her blood-red eyes, taking in a deep breath. She folded her hands on her lap and looked down at the floor. "I was just curious about something. Why do demons have such a disregard for life? Where I came from, life is revered, worshipped."

"Hmm…" Melissa thought about it for a while. "I honestly don't have an idea. It seems to be ingrained in our souls, that killing is a fundamental part of us. If that's true, you might want to have a little talk with your gods, hmm?"

Melissa smirked and continued. "There's been a lot of theories on the origin of demons, all of them Sprite written books, of course. Some say the first demons were Sprites who became corrupted and began murdering other sprites. Others say that the entity that opposed the gods, Hades, created demons in order to eventually take over the world. And even others believe that the demons were created by the gods in order to provide a balance of good and evil in the world."

"…Which one do you believe in?" Sif looked up at Melissa, curious and a little worried.

"Me? None of them." Melissa shook her head and grinned. "We're demons. We're born. We die. Who cares how we came into being? You could ask the same of the gods or of the Sprites. We all live, we all die. That answer your question?"

Sif slowly nodded. "Yes…Not the answer I was hoping for, but it does."

"Why do you ask?" Melissa asked, her eyes shining curiously. "I know you're from Asgard and don't know much about demons since there aren't any there, but you have really delved this deep into the topic before."

"Oh…Well, in Asgard, we were always taught that demons were the living incarnations of evil. Their only care was for warfare, bloodshed, and chaos. It was the duty of the Grim Angels to help protect Asgard by defeating any demons that would dare enter the God's world. You could say the demons were the antithesis of angels." Sif smiled whimsically. "It was my dream to become a Grim Angel, to help defend Asgard against demons. You can't imagine how happy I was to be chosen. I stayed up for hours, just imagining myself as one of the protectors of life."

"You had to give up the ability to dream, didn't you? Why would you want to lose something just for some title?"

"I didn't 'have' to give it away. I chose it. When I was a child, I would always be plagued by nightmares. Demons would come to Asgard, burning and killing. I would try to fight, but every time I would be killed. Other times, I dreamed that I had committed some sin and would be cast down from Asgard to become a Fallen Angel. I thought I was doing myself a favor when I said I would give up my dreams to become an Angel. I never thought I would miss them." Sif took in a deep breath and released it slowly. "And when I came here…I met you, Jordan, and Silvei…You defied many things that I had been told about demons. While you are still too warlike for my liking, you possess…a fire that many angels in Asgard lack."

"Maybe it's just because we're lucky." Melissa shrugged. "Either way, I'm glad you're down here with us. Come on, stop being so depressed. You're weighing down on my good mood. Besides, as long as you're here, you can help keep us on the ground. Honestly, as long as you're with us, we're probably going to live a lot longer."

"Thanks…" Sif stood, rubbing at her eyes. "I never thought I would be happy living with a bunch of demons."

"Well, you better start thinking about it!" Melissa patted Sif cheerfully on the back. "Don't forget, we're heading out to Mireno Cemetery tomorrow to confront Ein. We'll definitely need your help if we ever want to beat them."

Sif froze, going pale. "Y-You want to fight Ein that badly?"

"Of course. He defeated me once. I don't intend on that happening again. And with you on our side, we can't possibly lose!" Melissa stated confidently. "What? Don't tell me you don't want to come."

"…" Sif mumbled something unintelligible.

"Sif?"

"I…I'll be there." Sif said hurriedly as she walked out of the room. 'What am I doing? Agreeing to fight a fellow Grim Angel. I can't be doing this. I have no compulsions to. I could just leave right now and continue with my mission. But why can't I?'

Sif looked around the small, cramped hideout with its crumbling walls and dirt-covered floor. She looked at Jordan, who was sacked out on one of the couches, a small sliver of drool running out of his open mouth. She looked to Silvei, who was busy carving arrows, shaving off strips of wood until she got the perfect projectile. Melanie crossed her path and Sif looked at the young vampire, who was cheerfully humming a tune as she flew through the base. And she looked at Melissa, who was crouched at her desk, studying the tomes with almost fanatical concentration. She closed her eyes and whispered the words that would bring forth her black wings, wings she had been so proud in getting.

'These are my friends.'

Sif flew towards Melanie and smiled at the young child. "Hey, do you want to play?"

Chris: So, how was that? I actually intended for this to be a "Let's battle Ein!" chapter, but it spiraled into something else. Now it's more of a character background/development plus a little theological discussion about Riviera and a little bit of romance. Weird, huh? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review telling me what you thought of it. Thanks for reading!