The mist gathered around me like a comforting blanket while chains dug ruthlessly into my skin. When next I'd awoken, I had found myself back in that familiar courtroom but minus Mephisto, Shura, or Rin. I'd even have taken Yukio, at this point, despite the cold shoulder he'd been giving me.

"Mana Feldman!" one of the Grigori shouted down at me, his sharp voice making me flinch. I still had a fever and my vision swayed dangerously, so anything and everything hurt my overly-sensitive body. "You stand accused of being a life brought back through forbidden means. What's more, it is thought that you have even fraternized with a demon."

I snorted at the ridiculous accusations, far-more interested in the whereabouts of a certain demon king.

My eyes followed the shadows skittering about. Many crowded around the people gathered in the balconies while a few climbed the Grigori themselves, as if drawn to them...

'Darkness lies in everyone's hearts...'

My jaw clenched at the snake-like apparition coiled by my lap. I had been forced to kneel on the floor as a sign of "subjugation", according to the ever-obedient Angel. He wore his name rather well. He lacked the free will and morality of an actual human being, instead, dedicating himself to carry out whatever whim or order the Vatican saw fit to give him. Considering how they seemed to like playing God—and, dare I say, believed they knew better than He—it was quite poetic, in a way.

I'd come to realize the mists and creatures I saw that no one else could, were, indeed, Gehenna. But it was Assiah, too. They hadn't melded, like I'd first thought, or else the exorcists gathered here would surely have taken notice by now. Neither Rin nor Mephisto had seen it all either.

There was another explanation. One that had always been in the back of my mind, ready to strike when I least expected it to. One that the car accident had severed, but Mephisto's meddling had mended...

While my body sat in Assiah, my soul wavered in and out of Gehenna. I couldn't control it. I didn't even understand how I was doing it or even why I had such an ability in the first place. All I knew was that I could experience both realms at once. Like I was in the doorway to two rooms; one foot in each. I was walking a line—teetering on it, really—struggling to keep myself from being ripped in two.

"Take it away!"

A rough grab at my shirt collar dragged me to my feet. They shoved me forward, causing me to stumble. Angel caught me, proving that I had a new guard and he was not as friendly...

"Shouldn't we end her suffering now? As painlessly as possible?" the blonde man questioned, his blue eyes glaring at the man over my head who had handled my obviously-sick self so harshly.

"You dare to question the Vatican's orders?" a gravelly voice growled from behind me. A yank on my chains—strapped to my wrists, ankles, and neck—brought me careening back to the hard, unyielding ground. A yelp shot from my throat at the pain coursing through my back. The mist got sucked into my lungs from my gasp and elicited a coughing fit. I sounded horrible even to my own ears.

"See? That proves she is one of the dead brought back," the burly guard pointed a thick, dirty finger at me, as if me being sick proved his point.

If I had been brought back from the dead, I wouldn't be dying. Mephisto's magic was much too good for that. He'd never make such a blatant error.

I must have spoken aloud because my jailor laughed at my words.

"You really are smitten with your demon master!"

Angel, meanwhile, just stood there and watched. A mixture of pity and disgust swirled in his eyes when the guard hauled me to my feet once more and led me off into a side hallway. The heavy iron links made movement difficult, and walking near-impossible. My lungs were already gasping for air from illness and here I was being forced to basically jog in chains that weighed a ton just to keep up with this man's long strides.

Long white curls clung to my skin, made damp by the sweat my fever had worked up. Dark eyelashes fluttered over glazed, dull brown eyes. The tile beneath my shoes gradually shifted to black dirt then back again. The creatures—demons—slowly became aware of my existence. They started to follow, keeping me company on this lonely cold walk to my inevitable end.

Mephisto. Where was Mephisto?

"Get in there," my captor growled, shoving me into an unfamiliar room. No. It was a cell...with straps on the walls and a tank attached to a machine of some kind.

The sulphur in this room reeked. The denizens of Gehenna seemed to smell it, too, as they hissed and skittered about. Most ran out, only a few hobgoblins remained—Amaimon's kin. Those that stayed, huddled close to me, as if to protect me. Sadly, they couldn't do a thing as the human male secured me to the stone wall. My arms stretched above my head and my ankles were secured to the floor so I couldn't kick. It was only when two more came in—dressed like exorcists but with medical patches emblazoned on their person—that it hit me that something more was going on.

I screamed and struggled as much as I could, refusing to go quietly or do whatever they wanted me to do. My illness dragged at my movements and made my reactions sluggish, but I fought past that. Even the hobgoblins made a ruckus, slashing at where the people holding me down were at...but without any success. They were still in Gehenna and I was in Assiah. Maybe they could see what was happening around me since they were demons and had a heightened sensitivity to whatever magick was transpiring here.

"Do it now!" one of the exorcists cried as he and the guard wrestled to restrain my thrashing around. I bit his hand, hard, when he covered my mouth to muffle my cries. His blood washed into my mouth, the metallic taste causing me to spit it back out.

"Mephisto!" I shrieked as something was jabbed into my left arm. A second later, another sharp object pierced the skin right next to the first. The machine was turned on and I felt a pull.

A dialysis machine?

Silence fell for a brief moment during my confusion...and then all Hell broke loose.

White-hot pain surged through my fragile body, consuming me in an inferno of agony. The mists of Gehenna became more like they were in my dreams; the demons, too, were no longer shadowy figures of themselves, but appearing more like they would in person. The stench of rotten eggs soon became overpowering and my cries unbearable. My own screams were lost on my deaf ears, but I could still feel them tearing my throat to shreds. Unbelievable torture—that's what it felt like. Like a dozen swords being skewered through my organs, every bone breaking and repairing only to break again, and every illness I'd ever had rolling into one to give me the worst skull-splitting headache no human had ever felt before.

And the burning.

I'd rather lie down in someone's campfire than burn in these hellish flames! I swear I saw blue fire lick at my cheek when I chanced to open my eyes.

The vial looked like black liquid as it stood next to the machine pumping its contents into my veins, replacing my human blood. I knew what it was. The second it entered my veins, I could tell.

Tears flowed freely down my ashen cheeks even as I fell silent, unable to so much as whimper, I was too far gone.

'Why?' was all I could think as I drifted away, the hobgoblins clawing desperately at my legs only to scamper off at long last.

Why was I being pumped full of this stuff?

Of demon blood...