MY BAD! I didn't mean for it to be this long until I updated again, but unfortunately I've had a very busy semester. Luckily (unluckily?) the rest of it has been cancelled (sort of) due to the Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic, so I've just gotten quite a bit of time to write. That said, this is still a short chapter cus I didn't really have much planned. I think you'll enjoy it, though. More at the bottom.

"If you want someone to blame, make it God for putting a sacred gear in you in the first place."

Raynare looked down over her quarry with a glint of ferocity in her eyes. She'd done as Kokabiel asked.

Issei Hyoudou, assassinated.

Blood poured out of the gaping wound where his heart used to be as he crumpled flatly to the ground.

"Thanks again for the lovely date, though. It was fun~!" Raynare cooed mockingly as she flew into the air, leaving him behind to die alone.

The scene changed. This time it was Kokabiel himself, standing over the fallen body of Issei, riddled with holes but still writhing pathetically. Raynare tried to reach out to him, only to find herself unable to move.

"This is the price of betrayal, Rachiel!"

She screamed in her mind as Kokabiel's foot came down with a crunch on Issei's skull.

Once more, everything shifted away.

She was back in the underworld, at the Gremory mansion. Issei had just jumped in front of the spear she'd intended for Matsuda, and taken it straight through the heart. This time, however, he didn't even live long enough to be given medical attention. He died instantly.

Raynare felt sick to her stomach as the scene melted away once more.

"Do you really think you deserve to be a wife? Much less a mother?"

She turned to face the voice behind her, and came eye-to-eye with a mirror. Opposite Raynare was the spitting image of her before she'd fallen for Issei, clad in skimpy black armor and midnight wings and all. Her tongue and fangs were all longer than normal, and her eyes glared with bloodlust.

"How many times have we lied? How many people have we killed? Do you really think someone like you deserves love?!"

Raynare shot up out of bed, eyes wide and fearful. She looked around frantically until her eyes landed on Issei, sleeping beside her. She put a hand over her heart and slowly started to calm down, still breathing heavily.

"Just a dream...just a dream."

"Nightmare?"

Issei had woken up to Raynare sitting up and staring down at him, looking mildly freaked out.

She took a deep breath and answered, "Yeah."

"Did you kill me?" Issei asked with a grin.

Raynare looked away, guilt on her face. "Yeah."

"Am I dead?"

"...No."

"Then you didn't kill me. Come here."

Issei held out his arms, waiting for Raynare to lay back down with him. After a moment of hesitation, she did. He wrapped her up in a cuddle, then pulled the covers she'd thrown aside back over them. His left hand ended up around her arms, and his right was right over her abdomen, where their child was growing.

"Are you feeling any nausea?"

It had been around ten weeks since Raynare had gotten pregnant. It was at this point that she was supposed to have been feeling a lot of the negative side effects, but it seemed moot.

"Angels don't get morning sickness."

"Oh."

Issei made a note to stop relying so much on human pregnancy books.

"Don't you know the story? Only humans are cursed to have pain during childbirth."

"Wait, really?"

"No, I wish. Hey, gullible's written on the ceiling."

Issei laughed and wrapped her up tighter. "So are you really not gonna get morning sickness?"

"I dunno. Guess we'll see."

"Guess so. Last chance to place your bet."

"Still a girl."

"Really? Hm. I'm still thinking a boy."

"Everyone's entitled to their opinion. It's not your fault you're wrong."

Issei snorted a laugh. She was an equal opportunity smartass, if nothing else.

"We should probably get out of bed." He pointed to an alarm clock on their nightstand, which read 11:00am.

"Tell Azazel we'll reschedule. I'm tired."

"Nope."

Issei untangled himself from the objecting Raynare, and walked over to their blinds. He opened them wide, letting midday sunlight pour in over her. She jokingly bared her fangs, hissing like a vampire might.

"You know, I've always wondered...why do you have fangs?"

"Part of being an original angel. Only older Fallen develop body features like that, and since I'm one of the oldest- fangs. You remember how Kokabiel had like elf ears and stuff? Yeah."

"Ah. What about Azazel then?"

"I dunno. He's a smart guy, probably just got rid of them so he'd look a little more like a governor and less like a psycho. They look better on me anyway."

Raynare struck a pose, flared her wings, and bared her fangs once more, looking like something right off of an old-school rock album.

"Fair point. Well, I like them. If you were wondering."

"Of course you do. You've never had anything to say about my mouth before, not even when you were insid-"

"Okay! Taking a shower!" Issei fled.

Raynare grinned like a madwoman and chased him into their bathroom.

"Remember when you said you weren't going to get morning sickness?"

"Fuck off."

"I remember when you said you weren't going to get morning sickness."

Issei held Raynare's hair back as she retched into their toilet, silently marking a tally on the "I was right" counter in his head. He tried to hide his grin. Tried.

"The hell are you smiling about, jackass?" Raynare's voice sounded horrible, probably from just ejecting her breakfast at a speed fast enough to get her pulled over in a school zone. She noticed Issei's smile and was quick to wonder why he seemed so satisfied.

"I was just thinking about how I totally hit the jackpot. You look beautiful even with your face in a toilet."

She groaned in disgust. She knew he was telling the truth too, which annoyed her even more. "Stop, you're gonna make me puke again."

She did puke again, but whether or not it was his fault is anyone's guess.

"So should we cancel? If you aren't feeling up to it, I mean. I wonder if Azazel does house calls?"

"Hell no, we're looking at whatever's causing this shi-" She was cut off by another round of retching. Issei made a mental note that her foul mouth increased exponentially in intensity when she was sick. Given who she was, it was likely not a state he'd see her in very often, so he had to pay attention.

"Alright, up to you."

An hour later

"Why do you smell so good?"

Raynare sniffed Issei's hair, making him just a little bit uncomfortable.

"What?"

"You smell different. What did you do?"

"Nothing. "

"Bullshit. Why do you smell good?"

Raynare moved down to his collarbone, making Issei just a little bit more uncomfortable.

"Probably because you're pregnant and hormonal? You were literally in the shower with me, you'd know if I did anything."

She glared up at him, but didn't argue.

The two were in a rectangular waiting room, with plain beige walls all around and a ceiling just a little too close to the ground. A dinky fan whirred in the corner next to a worn "hang in there!" poster that was slipping off the wall, and if Issei squinted he could see where some ants used a crack in the floor to get inside.

They were beginning to have second thoughts.

"Raynare and Issei?"

A door to one end of the room opened, and in stepped a nurse clad in a uniform that looked far too clean and professional for where they were.

"Azazel is ready for you."

The two of them stood up and walked towards the nurse, who led them through the door and down a hallway that was almost entirely empty, save for a sleek elevator door at the end of it. It looked elegant and high-tech, completely unlike anything else in the building.

The nurse led them into the elevator, which closed without any noise or push of a button. Issei was a little weirded out- he didn't feel any sense of downward motion, despite going 'down'. Raynare was less stressed, on account of her having seen Azazel's tricks before.

After a moment, the elevator opened once more. The trio stepped out, but not into a sleazy and run-down human building like they'd been in before. They were now in the middle of a bustling supernatural hospital, on what seemed to be the third floor.

As Issei looked this way and that, obviously flabbergasted, the nurse continued to lead them forward, turning down a specially marked hallway at a brisk pace. From the specially marked hallway she opened a specially marked door, and on the other side- Azazel in a lab coat.

"Yo, kiddos. Welcome to my secret lair." Azazel moved to shake Issei's hand, and waved at Raynare. The nurse moved past them and began working on a machine towards the back of the room.

"So why all the secrecy? You couldn't just teleport us?" Raynare asked, a little annoyed by everything.

"What would be the fun in that?"

Azazel gestured towards the nurse and machine.

"You both ready for this?"

"I think so…" Issei said hesitantly. He was the most nervous person in the room, and it was easy to see- Raynare was a close second, but she like usual, she hid her true feelings incredibly well.

"Great! So, I'll explain what this all is. Normally, with a human pregnancy, you'd find out everything about the baby a while later- but with my cutting-edge tech and a little magic, we can determine everything not just early, but with an incredibly high degree of accuracy. All while seeming like a normal ultrasound! Isn't that cool?!"

Azazel got just a bit too excited. Science always was his weak point, after all.

"Uh, yeah. Super cool."

"Really cool."

Issei and Raynare both answered in a complete deadpan, neither very impressed. Azazel waved them both off, stifled.

"Alright, alright, whatever. Let's get this started. Raynare, lie down there and the nurse will hook you up. Issei, if you'll just stand here beside me, we'll take a peek inside her guts."

A few moments later, Raynare was indeed hooked up. The nurse held an instrument over her abdomen while Issei and Azazel looked up and down a screen, Issei waiting for an explanation or two. It all looked like nonsense to him, but he could tell Azazel's eyes were pouring over every single detail.

"We done yet?" Raynare was impatient, not used to being in such a vulnerable state and feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

"Uh...yeah. Hey, Issei...do you get what you're seeing right now?" Azazel asked, looking just a little dumbfounded. It made the poor boy immediately nervous.

"Not really, no. Why? Is something wrong?"

The hitch in her fiance's voice made Raynare just the slightest bit nervous too, though she wouldn't show it.

"You see these things here?" Azazel pointed to something in the image.

Issei followed his finger, nodding. "Yeah. What about them?"

"Well...maybe start buying two sets of baby clothes, yeah?"

All the color drained from Issei's face, and Raynare's heart leapt into her throat. The poor boy nearly fell over, his legs going numb, and she sat up in shock.

Azazel waited a moment, then laughed out loud, putting his hand on his head. "Just kidding, just kidding. You've got what looks to be a healthy, singular baby boy, no twins this time. Congratulations."

The nurse then had to stop Raynare from strangling Azazel with an electrical cord while Issei recovered on the ground.

A few moments later, when everyone had recovered from the fallen general's poor attempt at a joke, the realization slowly sank in. They were having a boy.

After that, Azazel helped with some more minor checkups while Issei stood to the side, and they got a clean bill of health for both Raynare and the baby.

On their way out, Issei stood beside Raynare while the two ascended on the elevator, back the way they'd come. Both were still reeling from the revelation. After finally having a gender for the child, it all felt so much more...real. Neither said anything, but they exchanged a thousand words in just the way Issei rubbed circles on the outside of her hand.

Once the elevator hit the top (ground) floor, Issei finally spoke up.

"So...Tenshi?"

"Tenshi."

Issei was so caught up in thoughts of his son, he never even called Raynare out on her having been wrong about the gender.

As enthralled as they were with daydreaming about their son, they were soon back to reality- a short walk brought them back to Issei's car, and a short drive brought them to a little church- the same one where Raynare had stayed as a Fallen Angel. The two stepped out of the car, and were met at the door by Lisa Lisa and Elsa.

"Ready to begin?" The old nun asked, her usual smile gleaming brightly. "I've renovated the place myself."

The two pushed thoughts of their son down, for the moment.

After all, they had a wedding to plan.

Aight, so apparently the PM system is super broken on Fanfic. I've had people trying desperately to message me, only to have none of my messages go through. Anyway, to avoid having to use that, I made a discord server for my stories. You can use it to talk to me, make suggestions, leave reviews, just chillax and talk, whatever you wanna do. Here's the link:

discord .gg /taPjVJJ

Delete the spaces, paste that into discord or your web browser, and join away! It's not hard, promise. I'm gonna forgo leaving a bunch of other useless nonsense in the AN cus it's about 6 in the morning here and I'm tired, but if you have questions feel free to join the server and ask me directly.

See you next mission!