Hey… have you guys forgotten about me yet? Sorry about the inactivity. I have gotten all of your PMs, all of your pleas for a new chapter, and I can't tell you how many times I started this chapter, but then got sidetracked, and then never got back… yeah… sorry about that!

Hopefully this chapter makes up for it 3 Once again, I am sorry for the delay, but REST ASSURED this story will be finished at some point!

Enjoy,

Rand0mSmil3z

...

The sky was red. But it was not a solid red color, such as the color of early mornings and setting suns. It was also not the brilliant scarlet of freshly cut roses or painted lips below a powdered mast, nor was it the deep crimson of freshly spilled blood and broken hearts. No, the sky was none of these. Instead, a smoky amber shade cloaked the pale sky. It was the color of dark blood drying onto asphalt, of charcoal smoldering in a dying fire, of the red of the sun dancing across barren sands, of the last light of fireflies flashing once before fading away… permanently.

The sky was a smoky amber shade. And it was under this sky that Mephisto knew that he was going to die.

He had expected his death, if he would be perfectly honest. How could he have not? He was a murderer, a manipulator, and – worst of all – a betrayer. Rin Okumura had been entrusted into his care, and it was under his care that he was made into a weapon. A beautiful weapon, true, but a weapon nonetheless.

Mephisto's cracked lips formed a smile. How I have fallen, he thought as he looked at that amber sky. But what a glorious fall it was.

Satan rolled his broad shoulders. Blue flames licked at his suit. "Are you done?" he delicately asked. "I have some business to attend."

"Well, it's a damned shame that I'm keeping you from it, then," Mephisto replied, his tone equally formal despite the blood dripping from his nose and mouth. Satan's sapphire eyes flashed in the sunlight, but he said not a word, only raised his arm.

And then, suddenly, the sky was no longer amber, but blue.

…...

Rin squinted his eyes at the sky. If he looked closely, he could just make out Satan and Mephisto's silhouettes cutting a dark outline against the sky. Seeing Mephisto, his gut twisted with both hatred and fear … hatred, he understood. But he did not understand the fear.

"Shura," he said. Coming from his lips, Shura's name was both a polite request and an order. "You make sure that everyone stays safe. Yukio," he continued, turning to his brother, "you are also going to stay here. Find Raziele. Tell him that to meet me."

Yukio wasn't sure if he enjoyed being ordered around, but he found himself nodding anyway. "Where should I tell Raziele to meet you?" he asked, dimly recalling the pink-haired demon from months ago.

Rin smirked; it was an unkind, thin smile – and jerked his thumb towards to the two silhouetted above. "Up there," he stated, and then turned his back on Yukio and jumped.

And then the sky burst into flames.

….

Mephisto had often imagined his death. Fantasized about it, really; he imagined that he would go down with a weapon in his hand, much like a samurai in those quaint history textbooks he had forced his students to read. But he had never expected death to come like this; himself, powerless and weak; his father, his power seemingly limitless.

He never even stood a chance.

"Good-bye, father," Mephisto said as he watched the flames climb higher and burn brighter, brighter, and brighter still. Then he simply closed his eyes and waited to die.

He waited. And waited.

But his death never came.

He did not feel his gut tear and his warm blood spill out; he did not feel himself fall out of a sky like a bird with broken wings; he did not feel his life slip between his fingers like sand. He did not experience the very human experience called "Death".

He opened his eyes. Lilac purple irises appraised the world and scanned across the rolling clouds of black smog, the barren field of dead bodies, fighters, and blood, and the blue flames that had seemingly increased in size. One lick of flame passed him, and Mephisto flinched away before realizing that it did not burn. It was hot, yes; but it was not a painful hot. It was warm. Careful. A brief expression of, you are all right now, let me handle this.

Mephisto's eyes widened.

"Rin."

…..

Rin heard a faint whisper behind him, and promptly ignored it. Mephisto was alive – that was good. For now.

A part of him wanted to scream at Mephisto, to accuse the demon of betraying him and selling him away like property, and to the king of hell no less. He wanted to riot at Mephisto, to show him his scars and tell him that he was the reason all of those scars were there, that he was the reason why hell was warring.

Instead he look at Satan, and with a smile colder than a winter sky, said, "Fancy meeting you here."

Satan smiled. His teeth were jagged crags and mountain peaks; teeth made for ripping and tearing flesh off of bone. "Likewise," he replied, and suddenly the two off them were cocooned in flame. This was their battle field; a world of blue, a world akin to the color of their eyes. It was a beautiful, striking world; with walls of sapphire flame entrapping them like a cage, it was equally dangerous.

It was here that Rin knew that one of them would die.

He jumped back. His feet skidded on air; it was a trick he had picked up, but had forgotten how he had learned - something about the way heat manipulated the air. The tatters of his clothes danced in the wind; his armor, dented, scorched, and mauled, were tossed aside and left to fall. They would only slow him down.

"Are you ready?" Satan asked. His tone could have been mistaken as cordial, if it wasn't for the madness gleaming in his eyes or the bloodlust betrayed by every twitch of his clawed fingers.

Rin was suddenly afraid – very afraid. But instead he swallowed hard, willed his muscles to relax, and said:

"Yes."

…..

I know. I am a terrible person. I'm so sorry that I didn't update in forever! I'll try to update more regularly/ more often, but no promises.

On the flip side, I finished my novel! :D It's 325 pages long, and I've been sending it to a few trusted friends to proofread (at least, the beginning…) before I write a query letter and send it to publishing agents. It's going slower than this story is!

So, thank you for being so patient, and again I apologize for my slowness. I hope that this not-quite-a-short-chapter-but-still-a-short-chapter makes up for it…

Xoxoxo

Rand0mSmil3z