Huge shout-out to Dany le fou, who kept prodding me to actually right this chapter as opposed to letting it sit for the rest of eternity. And he also wrote another side-story chapter for Setting The Rules, which I recommend you read over on his page. He also helped me hunt down an Awakened form for Theresa, which is found by googling Clare/Theresa awakened: the scorpion angel? And scrolling down to the forums dot animesuki link, then scroll all the way down to the last post on that page of the thread.

Anyway, second to last actual chapter here, a bonus chapter will follow the next chapter and will probably just be one big orgy, because why the fuck not. Next chapter last one with plot though.

###############################################################

Silver-Eyed Angel

Chapter Eleven

Two Storms Are Born

################################################################

Clare had a bad feeling coiling in her gut as she wandered the streets of Rabona. Though the city, led by the now-Bishop Vincent and Cid and Galk, Captains of the Guard, had welcomed the 'Servants and Sisters of The Silver Eyed Angel' with open arms and no small amount of jubilation, she felt danger in the air. The youma were acting shifty, something the rest of her comrades, both old and new, found utterly unsuspicious because of their proximity to so much young, tender human flesh. She was not so sure. All of the lower-ranked Awakened that were present were handling themselves just fine, not even reacting beyond how a normal human would act amongst others.

Spotting one of the higher ranking youma and a handful of others looking around furtively before heading for an alleyway, she decided to act on her suspicions, cloaking herself entirely, her youki aura vanishing entirely and her scent heavily dampened as she leapt onto the roof and crouched low within earshot of the flesh-eaters.

"Our kin are in place. When the signal is given destroy the half-breeds and Awakened, through sheer numbers if you must. Lady Europa has promised us all the humans we can feed on if we help her take this land and destroy the 'Silver-Eyed Angel'." The leader said, and the mocking way he spoke of her mate incensed the listening warrior, though she did nothing to alert them to her presence. "She will lead the rest to attack the Organization after he and the rest of his bitches exhaust themselves fighting the humans and their resurrected corpse-puppets."

Needing to hear nothing else, Clare quickly and silently withdrew, retreating from range before allowing her aura to slip free, spiking slightly in her anger. Almost immediately, her fellow Ghosts were around her, hands on their blades as their eyes searched for the threat.

"Clare, what is it? Your youki is writhing in anger, it hasn't been this noticeable in quite some time." Miria asked her, concerned, and Clare hissed angrily, clenching a fist as she paced slightly.

"I just eavesdropped on a group of youma. Apparently, they've betrayed our mate for someone named 'Europa', who promised them all the humans they can eat if they help her slaughter his loyalists both here and at the Organization." She bit out, receiving angry growls in response, and Deneve was the first to reply, raising her twin, gleaming swords with a look of such utterly cold fury that all were taken aback.

"So we slaughter all the Youma and move to warn Raki. If even one of his loyalists fall to such treachery, he will be nothing less than inconsolable and such a distraction could well cost him his life against the foes he is preparing to face." She proposed, the others agreeing, all save for Cynthia, who was shaking her head in concern.

"We can't, if we start attacking youma and they drop the façade of allegiance, countless lives will be lost. We must get all of the civilians and loyalists into a central place that we can protect." She said, and grimaces abounded as the group realized she was right. As it was now, the youma were spread out amongst the population. They could never kill or catch them all before the majority of the city was slaughtered.

"Clare, your friends, the Bishop and Guard Captains. Have them order a mandatory vigil to be held in the great cathedral. That will get all of the civilians inside, and we loyalists can easily protect a single building, not matter how many youma attack, as long as no other Awakened have betrayed our mate." Miria suggested, and Clare nodded to her in thanks, glad that her calculating friend had once more found a solution to a problem she thought unsolvable. "Meanwhile, the rest of us will begin gathering our comrades and filter towards the cathedral."

"Good, let's go." Clare ordered, and the Ghosts of the North flash-stepped away, leaving her to head for Bishop Vincent's home, asking a guard she passed to send his Captains to meet her there, immediately, smiling slightly as he saluted and clattered away without question. It seemed it paid to be famous as a Claymore and the Silver-Eyed Angel's primary mate. It did not take her long to arrive at the mansion, humble though it was, of the city's prime prelate, and she was admitted without question and led directly to his study.

"Lady Clare? This is a surprise, though a welcome one! What can I do for you?" he asked warmly with a broad smile, and she couldn't help but smile back despite her cool nature and gnawing worry. He was a good man, warm and inviting and kind, just like Raki was. It was easy to see why entire cities entrusted their souls to his leadership.

"I would rather wait for Cid and Galk to arrive if you've no objection, Your Grace. I'm afraid what I have to say isn't good news, and I would rather explain it only once." She responded, and he blinked, taken aback by the seriousness and worry coloring her tone, and nodded his understanding. It did not take long for Cid and Galk to arrive, but even that handful of minutes were enough to have her on her feet and pacing back and forth once more, anxious enough that she actually began to gnaw on her bottom lip, a habit she had thought broken during training all those years ago.

"Your Grace? Clare? What's going on, Guardsmen Enric said it was urgent?" Cid inquired as the pair strode through the door, and Vincent gestured for Clare to speak. Taking a deep breath and folding her hands behind her back, she began to explain what she had discovered, as well as their plan to handle it. To say that the three humans were shaken was an understatement, but all three of them were onboard with the plan. The problem, however, was that not the entire city could fit into the cathedral, despite its enormous size. The crypts and catacombs beneath them had more than enough space if combined with the building proper, but it would look immensely suspicious for hundreds of people to be going down into burial chambers during a vigil. It was Cid he thought of the solution, rogue-like acrobat that he was.

"I know of some other entrances to the catacombs, ones both inside and outside the city. If we can filter enough men and civilians to those places without arousing suspicion, we can use the guard's anti-youma formations to hold the tunnel entrances until Clare's people can strike them from behind. We may only be humans, but in those tunnels only a handful of youma can attack at a time, and our shield walls can hold them indefinitely." He suggested, Galk nodding along in agreement, and Clare smiled in relief, glad that they had a plan. The agreement made, the three men scattered to their tasks, leaving her to and start spreading the word amongst her siblings.

It did not take long, on the grand scope of things, for said plan to be enacted. Groups of guards, with a Halfling or Awakened attached to identify disguised Youma, escorted groups of humans into the cathedral or to various other catacomb entrances both in and out of the city. Those Youma that commented on all the activity were told that the humans were going to various sacred places in order to pray for Raki's success, and accepted it at face value. They didn't understand how humans thought anyway, and once youma-kind ruled this island it didn't matter where the humans went now, they would be hunted down and devoured eventually after the fact.

Finally all of the loyalists were in position, and they settled down to wait for the youma to commit their treachery.

############################################################

Yet another of the Organization's human soldiers fell with a scream as Raki's blade bisected him at the waist, and yet another human soldier replaced him. Raki had no idea how many he had killed, how many his forces had killed, but they seemed nothing short of inexhaustible, and they were clearly fighting a holding action. Obviously they wanted to keep his people at bay long enough for the Organization to revive the Legendary Eight, and there were more than enough of them to manage it if something drastic didn't change soon.

"Master, the Organization has released some Awakened and youma on our people! We've taken some light casualties, nothing more than injuries for the moment, but they've caught us off guard!" Dietrich, who was overseeing the left flank, reported as she appeared beside him and impaled another soldier.

"Damnit! Fine, all Awakened are authorized to go to full power. We need to finish this shit before…" Raki snarled in response, but a titanic blast of youki cut him off. Eight blurs shot out of the Organization, cutting down more than a few of his weaker Awakened, before coming to a halt and revealing themselves to be Halflings, and Raki's eyes tightened as he fell on the small, gentle smile on the center-most figure.

Theresa of the Faint Smile had taken to the battlefield.

##########################################################

"C'mon, what the hell are we waiting for, let's kill 'em already." Licht groaned, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she eyed the forces of The Traitor with excitement and no small amount of bloodlust in her eyes.

The group of eight warriors had been revived only minutes before by the mad scientist of the Organization, who had explained quite urgently that a traitor to The Organization had gathered a horde of Awakened warriors and other traitors and was attacking the Organization. They had been brought back to life for the express purpose of crushing the rebellion and safeguarding the people until a new, pure generation of warriors could take the duties over properly.

"Only a total fool charges in blindly against unknown enemies, especially if those enemies outnumber them 10:1. There isn't a single warrior or Awakened out there below single digit status, and several of them are Abyssal-status." Theresa's rebuke was delivered almost absently as her eyes locked onto the male leading the enemy forces, his black armor gleaming in the sunlight as his allies fell into formation around and behind him, ready to attack the moment he gave the command. There was something familiar about his youki, but his control was so tight and the amount he was using so small that she couldn't feel more than a whisper, far too little to identify the cause of her déjà vu. Raising her voice, she addressed the force at large. "Traitors to the Organization, this is your only chance to surrender and die honorably as our kin. Refuse, and you will be treated as common youma, and butchered as such."

"The Organization is the true enemy of Tolouse and the world at large, not us. It is the Organization that creates the Youma and churns out endless canon fodder to perfect their living weapons for the war across the sea. All of you, especially yourself Theresa of the Faint Smile, are more than welcome to abandon those filth and fight for Humanity at my side. If not," the male's eyes hardened and an imperceptible shiver of power rippled through the air, causing the Legendary Eight's eyes to widen with varying degrees of obviousness. "Then my forces will subdue you, with lethal force if needed, and carry out justice all the same. Even should we fail, our sisters all across the island and within the Holy City will have spread word of the Organizations treachery. Should they sense my death, the armies of Man will march against your handlers themselves."

Theresa frowned thoughtfully at his words. She could sense the truth and conviction in his words, though whether it was the actual truth or the truth as he perceived it was of course unknown. What truly struck her, however, is the utter confidence that the humans would descend on the Organization with all their armies if this attack should fail. Surely the likes of the Holy City of Rabona would not have been easily deceived by a treacherous Awakened, and from the sounds of things an entire generation of warriors had joined him. How was that possible? No Awakened should have been able to convince so many warriors to join his side, and according to The Council the youma served him as well. The idea of the two groups serving the same Master was ludicrous to say the least, the hatred between them was literally in their blood and souls.

Her contemplation was broken by Licht shouting a war cry and charging the male with incredible speed. That cry was quickly turned into a chocked gurgle as a half dozen warriors descended on her, all single digits, and impaled her from various angles. She frowned in distaste as her broken body collapsed to the ground. The idiot had let arrogance and bloodlust blind her and had been defeated by, though strong, rather weaker opponents.

"Lutecia, Sistina, what can you sense about our enemies." She said finally, addressing the two former Eyes, both with youki-sensing abilities far beyond the comprehension of the younger generations. She had been surprised to learn that the Organization had chosen a full quarter of their number to be Eyes, who were notorious for being less adept in close-combat, but had been chastised for forgetting that the older generations were far, far more powerful than any after. She was the only one to reach their strength after the Organization began creating weaker Claymores in an effort to keep them from Awakening.

"The male is hiding his true power, even from our Eyes, but he is almost unfathomably powerful. Whatever creature was used to create him was no mere youma, or even a powerful Awakened." Sistina responded, eyes closed as she reached out with far more supernatural senses.

"He is channeling youki constantly into his followers, enhancing their power and keeping their Youki levels from falling to low. So long as he keeps feeding them power, they could fight without stopping for nearly an infinite amount of time, for his youki is also soothing aches, pains, or exhaustion." Lutecia added, her own eyes open but blank. "There is a great Horde of Youma approaching, but something is amiss. They cloak their energy from us and the traitors alike. They're lead by an Awakened, a powerful one at that. A single digit, most likely, but not an Abyssal."

"Why would they do that if they serve him…" Theresa mused, before glancing at the male and hollering at him. "Before we start fighting, mind telling me if you brought any Youma to back you up? It would be very disappointing to have a fight between warriors ruined by filth interrupting."

"Of course I didn't! Did you really think I would bring anyone into this of anything less than single digit rank? You might think me a traitor, but the lives of my sisters and our allies are valuable to me! The youma were ordered to remain dispersed!" he shouted back, and Theresa frowned, again sensing his honesty, a belief reinforced by both Eyes announcing no tell-tale fluctuation in his aura to indicate a lie. What to do from here?

#############################################

"What in the seven Hells is going on? First that crazy bitch charges us without a word, now her friends want to talk? Master, it must be a trap of some kind, let's subdue them and get on with it!" Rachel growled unhappily, adrenaline and youki flowing through her veins like water as she bounced on the balls of her feet, eager to charge into battle. Fortunately, she wasn't nearly as stupid or arrogant as the one they had already killed, nor was she arrogant enough to think that fighting the others (or even the one slain) would be nearly as easy with them on guard and paying attention.

"I don't know, but whatever it is they seem concerned with something other than fighting with us. We might be able to keep them talking and avoid a fight. I've no interest in risking significant casualties amongst you girls in a fight with them if it can be avoided." Raki responded, eyes never leaving the group as they seemed to be conferring amongst themselves. "Keep your blades ready to defend, but don't take an offensive posture."

"Yes, Master." His servants chorused obediently, and he grunted slightly in satisfaction as he waited to see what would happen next.

"I believe you, oddly enough, despite your treachery. The issue, however, seems to be that a large force of youma led by a single digit Awakened I don't recognize is hiding ever so carefully some distance behind you." Theresa folded her arms under her not-insignificant bust, and Raki's eyes widened as he stretched out with his own senses. He felt…something there, but he hadn't spent much time refining his Perception abilities.

"She's right, Master. Their auras were faint enough I wouldn't pick them up with a passive scan, but now that I know something is there I can see them. It isn't Isley or any of the other Awakened affiliated with us, nor is it Riful." Galatea added, and Octavia hissed faintly in anger.

"It's Europa. It seems she desires more power than she deserves, Master. She will attack the moment we are distracted by engaging the resurrected number ones." The Wild Horse's voice was dark, youki rippling in unison with her pulsing fury, and Raki cursed beneath his breath. He couldn't fully engage either enemy without leaving his people vulnerable to the other. A two front, split-force battle was the only way, but they were absurdly outnumbered.

"Destroy her, Octavia." He snarled, turning to his soldiers. "All non-number ones and twos are to assist Octavia in destroying the traitors and their leader. Dietrich, support Octavia directly, try to destroy Europa quickly. All ones and twos will come with me and engage the resurrected warriors. Awakening is authorized if you must in order to survive."

Octavia awakened immediately, ribbon-like body forming her natural appearance of a young woman fused with a massive horse, and charged towards the distant traitors with her fellow Hand racing alongside. Others seemed to consider doing the same, before electing to begin their battle as warriors. The rest turned their attention towards the Organization's latest experiment, and arguably their most foul.

"I thought you died, Nimue." Chloe said softly, gazing with sorrow and affection across the battlefield against her oldest friend and number two, who was looking at her with equal sorrow and affection.

"I almost did, Chloe, but then I discovered the true horror of my moniker. The entire party hunting those Awakened with me perished as I absorbed their youki, and then their souls, in order to fuel my own life. I couldn't stop it, couldn't control it, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't die in penance. Now I will find my absolution by protecting the innocent and the powerless from the youma and Organization alike." The Immortal responded, bitter self-contempt flooding her voice as she tightened her stance. "Please, do not force me to raise my blade against you, especially not over the corrupt lies of The Council."

"You truly believe this?" came the slow inquiry, and Nimue nodded slowly and firmly, eyes never leaving her sister's eyes. Chloe closed her eyes and hummed in deep thought for a moment, before sheathing her blade and sitting down where she stood. "Fine then, I will not fight against you, but neither will I help you."

"To think that the famous Heavy-Handed Chloe would turn traitor thanks to a few words from a worthless bitch who couldn't even die properly." Roxanne of Love and Hate sneered contemptuously from her spot on Theresa's left. "I'll make sure to kill you after we destroy them!"

The psychotic warrior flash-stepped across the expanse between herself and her targets, sword striking at Irene, only for Theresa to block in and give her a closed-eye smile that nonetheless had a significant edge of menace.

"Now, now, I can't have you going after my former number two. She belongs to me. Run along and play with someone else." She suggested sweetly, and Roxanne gave a scoff of supreme aggravation before moving off to engage Alicia and Beth. Turning back to Irene as the two sides began to clash, she tilted her head to the side as she regarded the woman closer to her than any other, and dearer than anyone but little Clare. "I never expected you of all people to desert, Irene."

"I barely survived that battle against Priscilla, losing my dominant arm and falling unconscious. When I awoke, your head and Priscilla were both gone. I couldn't return to the Organization, not after all that, and so I went into exile. Years passed, and a certain warrior came to me, missing her own arm, and possessing your flesh and blood within her. Care to guess whom that was?" Irene responded evenly, blade weaving back and forth slightly as the pair began to circle one another.

"Clare? Little Clare, of all people, became a warrior? Made from my flesh? Well, that just pisses me off…" Theresa said with her ever present smile as her youki spiked heavily. She couldn't believe that the young woman she had rescued so many times, had shown all the horrors of a warrior's life, would ever willingly chose that life for herself. "I don't suppose she told you why?"

"Revenge on Priscilla, of course. She watched you, the only person to ever care about her, die in front of her very eyes. Hatred consumed her existence and she made the life-changing choice to follow the same path you had trod. Then she met Raki," the warm smile on Irene's face as she said the male's name had Theresa narrowing her eyes slightly. "And rescued him from a Youma. He started following her around, just like she had always followed you. Things happened, and Raki was made a warrior and Clare was sent North with half her generation to be purged. Raki believes them to be alive, though I am not so confident."

"Irene, withdraw. This battle belongs to me. Eliminate Roxanne." The man himself broke into the conversation, having already rendered Sistina unconscious and placing her off to the side near Chloe. Theresa raised her eyebrows as her closest friend and comrade inclined her head and departed promptly without a word of protest. "Theresa of the Faint Smile. Clare told me a lot about you, which is why I know you won't stand down no matter how persuasively I speak or how much honesty you sense I speak."

"Correct, boy. You might be right about the Organization, but frankly I don't give a damn. I haven't had a good fight since before I died, and that bitch Priscilla tricked me instead of fighting me honorably. You certainly feel like you have all the power needed to give me a good fight." Theresa smiled her faint little smile, and Raki frowned in response.

"I don't wish to fight you, Clare always spoke extremely highly of you. She would be less than pleased if she heard that we had fought one another, and an angry Clare is something I am not sure I really want to experience, if it's all the same to you." He refuted mildly, and Theresa actually gave a soft laugh at that. Clare had always been a stubborn, strong-willed little thing, and she doubted that becoming a warrior had done anything to dampen her nature.

"I'm sure you don't, but I'm afraid I don't very much care at the moment. I want my fight, boy, and I mean to get it. Now either you and I fight, or I go after your comrades until you will clash steel in their defense. The choice is entirely yours." Theresa's voice was unyielding, and Raki sighed tiredly and nodded his acquiescence, turning to his warriors and their opponents.

"I advise you all take your fights elsewhere. It's going to get very dangerous right here." He suggested, though it was clearly more of an order than a suggestion, and his warriors immediately retreated, forcing their opponents to follow and vacate the area.

"Your subordinates obey your commands without argument, without hesitation. Even Irene yields to you without a word of protest. Why is that?" Theresa asked as they began to circle around one another, blades held ready to strike or defend.

"Warriors are as much youma as they are human, and amongst the youma the strongest rules. Their instincts tell them that I am far, far beyond them in strength, and so they yield themselves to my will." He responded, loosening his grip on his youki and allowing his power to flow as his eyes turned a molten gold. "Now, enough talk. I have a new world order to create and friends to find in the far North. You will not delay me any longer."

He charged, and the battle between the two mightiest beings ever to walk the face of creation began.

########################################################

"Hyaaaaa!" Helen's roar as she bisected yet another youma echoed off of the stones of Rabona, and she took the brief respite of being opponent-less to look around. Their people were holding out well against the Youma, only a few light injuries worth mentioning having occurred. The Awakened Loyalists were slaughtering the bulk of the weaker youma, keeping them from pressing the warriors with the full weight of numbers, but even the stragglers that got through were causing them problems. The enemy knew exactly how many loyalists were present and where they could be found. They knew that all of them were in Rabona, save for a few scattered beyond their reach and those with Raki, and so every traitor to Raki's rebellion not striking against him directly was here.

"Helen, they're starting to run out of people! The Awakened and having to fight fewer and fewer with each wave! Maybe another hour and we'll be in the clear!" Deneve landed next to her, twin blades soaked with blood. Helen grumbled in response, and her stoic partner smirked a little. "Don't worry, I'm sure there are plenty left for you to kill, then we will go help Raki while his people hold down the fort here."

"Now that sounds like a plan to me!" Helen smirked, eyes glinting with pleasure and excitement at the idea of finally getting some good hard man lovin'. She doubted that Raki would be permitted to leave a bedroom (though she doubted the fucking would be limited to the bedroom) for a month or more. None of them were interested in stopping after one time, that was for damn sure.

The youma continued to thin out, and though more Awakened and warriors had to retreat with injuries, their healer-types were more than capable of keeping them alive. When the last youma fell, a ragged cheer went up from the warriors, and Clare began barking orders, deploying small squads around the city to hunt down any who might have disguised themselves, as well as to clear the nearby forests of any vermin that might be lurking about. She herself was heading to speak with Cid, Galk, and Bishop Vincent when two massive youki signatures began to surge to the south-west growing more and more powerful with every passing heartbeat. One was vaguely familiar to her and resonated with her own youki, even if she couldn't put a name or a face to the aura, but the other she knew all too well.

"Raki…" she murmured as everyone around her, Halfling or human alike, fell to their knees before the titanic waves of power.

###################################################

"How long can you keep this up before you lose yourself and Awaken, I wonder? You males were always weaker when it came to restraint, weren't you." Theresa commented curiously as both she and Raki continued to loosen the leash on their power, auras growing exponentially with every passing moment.

"You think Awakening will cause me to lose control?" Raki smirked back at her confidently. "I'm the closest thing to a perfect creation that The Organization could ever achieve. Losing control of myself is impossible, and any Awakened that serve me and ingest my blood retain equal control thereafter. If waiting for me to lose my mind was your plan for victory, I'm afraid that you will be waiting for an eternity."

"Haaa, such confidence. It almost borders on arrogance. I find it so terribly irritating. Nearly as infuriating as the fact that Clare is apparently rather…fond of you, but not quite. I just can't stand it." She said with the smallest hint of a glare, which for her was equitable to frothing at the mouth with rage. Her power exploded outwards as she pushed herself to the absolute limit, her blade cast aside and her uniform shredded as she Awakened at last.

Her form was dichotomous, half white and half a dark, seething purple. Half soft and angelic, half hard and spiked. Her legs had transformed into six long, tentacle-like limbs tipped with large, scythe-like blades, while her four wings were tipped with long and sharp points. Interestingly, her torso from the waist up remained unchanged at all, baring her breasts to the world.

"Show me this power you claim to possess boy, before I remove you from this world." She declared as she gazed down upon him with something very aking to smugness…and eager anticipation.

"Fine. You want it, you'll get it." He responded, totally releasing all restraint over his own power, and the earth shattered beneath him as he transformed.

######################################################################

Next chapter is the last one that will have plot, which will be the end of the Organization and then probably some snippety type things showing the aftermath. The chapter after that will essentially be a bonus chapter and will probably be nothing more than an orgy. *shrugs*