Chapter 6

3 years later….

"Riku, can you hand me that green bottle on the third shelf?"

"I thought Demyx was your assistant," he responds from his position reclining on the purple haired male's couch.

The male gives him a sour look, "I just asked for the bottle, not for your help."

Riku smirks before bringing him the bottle and taking his seat again. His emerald eyes observe the male working on some sort of spell he doesn't know the details of, but it's so high level Riku wouldn't be able to do it anyway. Zexion is a genius with magic, despite only being a few power levels higher than Axel. However, he's still a mid-level demon, so his life is also at risk in the coming power redistribution. It must be why he's been focusing even more on his spells recently, doing whatever he can to protect himself and his assistant, Demyx.

Riku's not actually sure if Demyx is his assistant or not, but he's always flitting around the shorter male and handing him things, so it seemed to fit. Axel first introduced Riku to them a couple of years back, not too long after Sora left. Sora…the name still sets off a twinge in his heart. He hasn't seen or heard from him since, not that he expected to, but it's still a little disappointing.

Anyway, they're associates of Axel's, Zexion isn't really the friendly type, but he deals with Riku's presence well enough. He's nothing like Demyx who's cheerful and non-confrontational. That doesn't mean he's weak though, he's only a level below Axel, he just prefers to avoid conflict. But, they're like night and day, so how they get along so well is beyond him.

Although, unlike Axel, they rarely ever come to the human world. They may occasionally come if Zexion's curious about something, but other than that he says he has no interest in humans and Demyx sees no reason to go if Zexion's not. Riku gazes up at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling, hell isn't as bad as he thought. Sure, there's no sunlight and the world is in a permanent state of dusk, but it could be worse.

There are a lot of these black blob yellow eyed lower level demons, but they typically don't bother him since he's stronger, but there are bigger variations of them that he would not be able to survive long against that he has to watch out for along with some other species. However, for the most part, he stays close to Axel and co, since they know their way around, even Roxas does now. Although he's still near the bottom on the power ladder too, so if they both got cornered, it wouldn't end well for either of them.

Axel's also taught him how to travel via the dark portals which has been extremely convenient lately because he can't help but feel someone's been watching him and he'd prefer if they didn't know where he lived. Of course, whoever it is has probably seen him use the portals by now, so the fact that he's not human is likely known, but it's better than the alternative.

He mentioned it to Axel, but he wasn't able to find anything, just advised him to be cautious. Speaking of which, where is he? He was supposed to be here ages ago. "Where is everybody?"

"Axel had to check on something and Roxas is with him of course, who knows where Demyx has gotten to," Zexion replies without looking up.

"Do you know what is that he's been trying so hard to find? What it is that will keep him safe?"

Zexion stares over at him for a moment, "I do, but I'm not going to tell you."

Riku nods, he figured as much.

~~~~~
Sora glides down the wide sparkling street surrounded on both sides by soaring rooftops peaking towards a clear blue sky and looks longingly at one of the portals that could take him to the human world. It's been three years and he's still not allowed to leave the Seraph Kingdom, not that he expected to. Three years is nowhere near a punishment when you live as long as they do, decades is more common. But for Riku, depending on how long it takes them to forget, decades could be his entire lifetime.

As he expected before he left the human world, they did find out he had been gone for a long time. When he returned drained of energy and tired, he was immediately taken to the resting hall to replenish his energy over time. He hadn't even fully recovered when the Higher Ones arrived with questions. Why were you gone so long? How did your energy get this depleted? What were you doing? They were relentless in their search for answers.

He answered as best he could without revealing anything about Riku or his location which didn't leave much he could tell them, but he could certainly tell that they were angry with him and his refusal to give clear cut answers. They came to the expected conclusion that he was hiding something and he was locked away to be forgotten.

It was a mere two years later when he was rescued from there, thanks to two seraphs he'd known almost since he was created, Cloud and Leon. They'd had no idea what happened to him ever since he slipped off to the human world, but they weren't worried until Cloud had overheard about his punishment from the upper echelons and that's when they came to find him. As long as he didn't bring attention to himself no one would be the wiser. After all, the point of being locked away was to be forgotten, they didn't care what happened to someone they had found to be guilty.

"Sora," Leon gives him a light smack on the head. "Stop looking at the portal. It didn't do you any good here the first time and the second time will no doubt be worse."

"It's not like I was going to jump in, Leon."

"I wouldn't put it past you. Forget about the human." Leon and Cloud were the only two he had actually told what he'd been up to, he trusted them with his life.

Sora huffs, "Where's Cloud?"

"Why? You want to talk to him more than me? He'll scold you too."

"No! I'm just surprised you two aren't together."

"He was called to the tower earlier today, apparently there's important business they need him for."

"He's always being called there."

"Well, he's exactly what they look for in a perfect seraph. Strong, obedient, and beautiful," Leon finishes fondly.

"And what about you?"

"I'm a little rougher around the edges than he is."

"That is true," Sora nods in agreement.

"I didn't ask you," he growls back. Sora shrugs, giving him a grin. "Seriously though," Leon's tone changes, "Forget about the human Sora. I know you, you're stubborn, you'll try to sneak back, get caught, and they'll put you somewhere even we won't be able to save you."

"Assuming I get caught."

"And if you don't? Then what? You go back, your energy drains, and you're caught again when you come back." Sora looks away and Leon ruffles his hair, "I know it's hard, but trust me, nothing good will come of it. Let's go see if Cloud is free yet."

~~~~~
Riku's shoulder ache from how tense he's been all day. He still can't sense anything, but he knows something has been watching him all day and he's been unconsciously preparing himself for an attack at any moment. Whoever it is seems to know the places he frequents because when he first arrives, no one's watching, but shortly after he can sense their eyes meaning they likely do patrols in case he shows up.

As much as he'd prefer to stay safely hidden away, he can't stay locked up in his house forever, nor can he ask Axel to stay around more, not that he believes for a second that Axel would risk his life to help him, he knows better than that. However, his presence may deter any attacks.

Riku shakes his head, no sense dwelling over it, he'll grab some dinner and head home. He gets a few steps outside his building when he notices the street is deserted even for evening. Riku doesn't have the faintest chance of opening a portal to escape before a force sends him to the ground. He looks up to see three seraphs surrounding him, it's worse than he thought. With demons, he might at least stand a chance of escaping from them in hell, but he knows nearly nothing about seraphs, they may just kill him right here.

"You're a halfling."

"I'm human," Riku replies, already knowing it's futile.

"Your demon blood causes you to lie. We will soon put an end to that." The last thing he sees is cuffs forming on his wrists before a searing pain causes him to white out.

~~~~~
"There's Cloud!" Sora yells dragging Leon farther into the crowd near the city center.

"I can walk on my own, Sora."

"You're too slow, you might get lost. Cloud!"

The blonde haired seraph turns to look at their approach from his perch above the crowd and gestures them up to his post. "Hey."

Leon nods and crouches down against Cloud's side to watch the undulating crowd. "What's going on?"

"They supposedly captured a half demon/half seraph in the human world."

"In the human world? What would it be doing there?"

"From what I heard, it's been living there its entire life undetected."

"How's that possible?" Sora questions from his other side.

"It's believed he had some demonic help. They don't know much about him, he hasn't been very forthcoming about details, but he doesn't seem to know his parents."

"What will they do with him?"

Cloud shrugs, "Probably make an example of him, then kill him."

Sora makes a distressed noise, he's learned all demons aren't horrible and if he wasn't bothering anyone, it doesn't seem right to kill him for no other reason than existing. "That's….not right though."

They both give him curious expressions, but don't have a chance to answer before their attention is diverted to the seraph in the center who has begun to speak. "All gathered here, we have found an abomination hiding among humans, not accepted among either of his blood because he should not exist. The creation of creatures such as this is why we must avoid demons at all costs and kill if the unthinkable should happen. Whoever gave life to this one and did not complete their responsibility, you will be found and punishment taken upon you. Behold!"

The seraphs part and Sora gasps in shock with the rest of those in attendance, but for a different reason. "Riku," he whispers out.