I sort of got carried away with the whole 'it's finally freaking summer' high, and so I didn't really bother updating recently. Sorry if you hate me now, but I've still got a chapter for you. Yay?

~Judiyah~

He knew I was here; I knew he knew I was here. It was unnerving to say the least. I was well aware that he could watch every move that I was making, but I wasn't sure why he hadn't done anything about it. My father must have had a reason. I didn't know what it was, but there had to be some use he had for me; otherwise, he would have already acted.

Luckily for me, I knew exactly where I was going, (or unlucky...I suppose spending my entire life in that god forsaken castle wasn't entirely lucky). I felt the darkness creeping in on me as I walked, though. After being in Assiah with Grace and the rest for a while, I'd gotten used to the light. I suppose that's why I felt so uneasy.

I turned the last corner before I spotted the door that lead to the prisons. I could remember visiting this place to watch over Grace when she was still here very clearly. It felt like so long ago, so long since I'd escaped with her...since I'd left Scarlet. I grimaced as I yanked the door open. It was strange. I'd expected to be forced to fight off several demons and maybe even face my father, but no one had opposed my advance. It was legitimate reason for caution, but I was too worried about Scarlet to consider my own safety.

I jogged down the hallway, flicking my tail from side to side in anticipation. "Scarlet," I called out. I didn't see any reason to keep my voice quiet. Instead, I called out loudly. There wasn't any answer the first three times I called. I continued to run down the long passageway, glancing into each cell to see if Scarlet was there. The fourth time I called her name, there was a weak reply. "Ju…"

I froze and backed up a few steps. I slowly looked to my left, a bit afraid to see what was there. When I laid eyes on Scarlet, my breath caught. I rushed to the bars that confined her and grasped them tightly. Blue flames lit up around my fingers and turned the tainted iron a glowing, angry orange. When the metal was finally melted enough, I kicked the bars in. I rushed to Scarlet's side, touching her face gently. "What has he done to you?" I asked. My voice broke slightly.

Scarlet licked her lips and tears slid from the corners of her eye, "Jude…"

I nodded and pressed my forehead to hers, "I'm here. Did you think I would just leave you?"

She shook her head slowly. I looked to her hands and saw that there were nails embedded in her skin. I placed my hand over them, "This'll hurt, Scarlet." Her only reply was a nod. I took a deep breath and kissed her cheek, "I'm sorry."

I yanked the nails out of her flesh at the same time. She squeaked, but didn't make any other sound. It scared me that she was so weak that she couldn't even scream out in pain any longer. Her arms fell to her sides. I slowly wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly. She was so thin. "I'm sorry I left you," I whispered into her ear.

She pressed her face into the crook of my neck, "...love...you."

I felt her fingers on my lips and I kissed them, holding her wrist up. I nodded and fought away tears. If I cried in front of her, I'm sure it would hurt her. "I love you, so don't cry," I choked out.

She let out a weak laugh, "It's your fault, idiot."

"Yeah, it's my fault," I said, lowering my lips to hers. I gently kissed her, afraid that, if I kissed her as much as I wanted to, she'd break.

"How touching," said a cold voice. I froze and looked up, attempting to hide Scarlet's body from him with my own. I glared at my father, who was standing in front of the now-fixed iron bars. I growled at him, a deep sound echoing in my throat.

"Well, thank you for coming here on your own; it saved me the trouble of finding you and dragging you here. Though, you are very predictable," Satan said, turning to leave. "I suppose, because I'm so generous, I'll let you two stay in the same place. I bet that blood smell will start to make you nauseous soon, Son."

I watched as he walked away and then turned back to Scarlet. I eased her upright and pulled her close to me. She curled up close to me and I wrapped my arms around her to warm her up, "I won't leave you again, Scarlet."

"I'd kill you if you did," she mumbled.

I smiled, "I know."

Though our situation was dire-being trapped in my father's dungeons and all-I still felt a sense of peace.

~Mikael~

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction?" I asked.

"Who are you to question me?" Leoric said indignantly.

"Last time I checked, you were the most directionally challenged person I know, Leo," I pointed out.

"I seriously spent hours memorizing this," he said as we turned around another corner and ran down a long hallway lined with dimly glowing torches. I didn't question him again as we made our way through the labyrinthine castle of Satan.

"Well, it's a good thing that those Exwires aren't here," Leoric said calmly.

"Why's that?" I asked.

Leoric shot me a sideways glance and smiled. He reached to his waisted and quickened his pace. I watched as he unleashed his wings and launched himself forward. I followed his lead and drew my blades as well, "What's going on?"

"If those kids were here, we'd be in trouble," Leoric repeated.

"Why!?"

"Because they're humans," he said with a smile. With that he jumped forward and fell sideways. I noticed just a moment later that there was a huge chasm in the middle of the hallway. "What the…" I began. I couldn't finish, though, because I had to focus on the task at hand. I launched myself from the rough stones that made up the hallway. I zipped through the air for a few short seconds before I spread my wings and caught the strong updrafts. I beat my wings a few times and rose to Leoric's level.

"If they were here...they'd be either dead or left behind by now," Leoric said honestly.

I nodded, "I see what you mean now."

"Yeah. Come on."

"Are you sure we're not lost?"

"The Princess gave me pretty flawless instructions. I don't think I could get lost even if I tried. Besides, if I do get lost, she'll definitely kill me; that's a fairly strong motivator," Leoric said as we started towards the other side of the pitfall.

I laughed, "She'd definitely kill you. Alright, then. It's about time we find those demons."

Leoric nodded as we landed on the ledge opposites where we jumped, "You've got that right."

~Grace~

"It's not much farther...I think," I said calmly. Well, it sounded calm; I was actually flipping out on the inside. If you think about it, though, I had a good reason to flip out. I was responsible for the dozens of angel warriors following me through the endless hallways of Satan's palace in Gehenna so that I could hopefully find the king of all demons, relying on only the faintest idea of the location of my destination; it was a hell of a day...pun very much intended. To make it all so much better, I had Rin following on my heels like a worried puppy; I didn't doubt that aforementioned puppy would become instantaneously vicious were I to be threatened, though. That didn't exactly comfort me. Sure, I was glad he was here, but I was also worried about him. That's sort of how love works, I guess.

"You think?" Rin asked skeptically.

"Shut up," I growled as we ran, "This place doesn't exactly bring back the best memories for me." Rin scowled, but he shut up. Just then, I skidded to a stop. Rin slammed into my back and sent me flying. I landed on my hip and glared up at him, "You suck."

He offered me his hand, "Just because you're stressed doesn't mean you have to take it out on me." I smiled and took his hand. I could tell he was trying to lessen the tenseness around us by his joking tone.

"Why'd you stop?" he asked as he pulled me up. My anger at him sending me flying, (curse you tiny stature!), had almost made me forget why I'd stopped in the first place. I turned to my soldiers and my boyfriend.

I immediately resumed my commanding demeanor, "Get ready. Something's coming." They immediately tensed and assembled in the formation we'd planned out ahead if time. The formation took advantage of the tight space; it was sort of like the Spartan formation...just a bit of Assiah's history I remembered.

I reached down and pulled my daggers out of my boots, "I don't know what it is, but I can sense it very strongly now. It's something big."

"This is so the stereotypical 'something's coming' scene from horror movies," Rin pointed out.

I smiled, "Pretty much, yeah. Don't drop your guard. I'm pretty sure just because I'm the cute girl I won't get out alive this time."

"You're right. You're the dumb one who dies first," he said, his ears perking up.

I frowned, "Ha."

"Oh, a dark, damp, eerie cellar...I should go in!" he said, raising his voice.

"I do not sound like that!" I protested. Right at that moment, the entire hallway erupted into noise. A few of the stones that made up the walls dislodged and what seemed like a thick black cloud pours from the gaps. My soldiers backed up helplessly; they had sword and spears...they couldn't do anything about this kind of enemy.

"Stay in formation! Protect each other's backs!" I shouted over the shouts. The buzzing of the black intruders almost drowned out my voice, but my comrades heard me. They tightened their formation and did their best to defend themselves. I looked to Rin, "You're thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Aren't I always?" he said with another one of his cocky smiles.

I shook my head, "Just focus, ok? Don't hurt the others." He nodded and we charged forward. Ever since I'd been recognized as 'the Princess' I'd discovered that I was seriously more capable that I'd ever thought I was beforehand. This was as good as any of a time to tap into my newfound powers. As soon as I focused hard enough, light began pouring from me and I felt light. The only way to get rid of so many tiny demons, (I seriously despise coal tars), was to wipe them all out at once. If you don't do it that way, they just swarm together again and you have to start all over from the top.

As I charged forward, carefully memorizing the positions of all of my allies, Rin ran alongside me. He drew his sword and bright flames flared up around him. He winked at me, and, at the same time, we released our power. His blue flames surged around the troops on the right side, eliminating all coal tars they came into contact with. The bright light the pierced the darkness, originating in my palms, took out the coal tars on the left side. I stopped running and let my powers mellow down; we were back to only torchlight.

The other angels looked at me with stunned expressions. "Is everyone alright?" I asked, worried. I made contact with a particularly scratched up looking soldier and he pointed to the ground beside him, "Zeth inhaled some coal tars."

"Shit," I said, running forward. I nudged Rin, "You're not going to like this at all." He looked at me with a confused expression. I'd thought that we'd acted quickly enough, but apparently we hadn't. If one of my people had inhaled coal tars, I was going to have to rely on my angelic powers...yet again. I knelt behind Zeth; the purpleness of his face was disturbing. He was gasping for air. He was clearly in pain, but that's what you would expect if you swallowed coal tars. They were some seriously deadly demons when they banded together.

"Try not to move," I said to Zeth. He couldn't even nod, but I didn't blame him for that. I leaned forward and-don't judge me instantaneously...I didn't want to do it!-kissed him. Ok, so I didn't really kiss him. It was closer to CPR. It's sort of weird, and I really have no idea how I knew to do this, but I pretty much breathed some of my angelic powers into this guy. I don't even want to know what Rin's face looked like at that moment...or any of my other soldiers for that matter. I pulled away and Zeth's face slowly returned to its normal color.

I breathed a sigh of relief and got to my feet, "You alive, soldier?'

He blinked and smiled, "You know how people say that your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die?"

"Uh...yes?"

"That's not what flashed before my eyes," he said with a dazed, somewhat dreamy smile.

"Yeah, that really happened," deadpanned one of the other soldiers. Zeth blinked.

"Wait, seriously?" he asked. His cheeks turned a bit pink. The guy was pretty young compared to the others, so it was no wonder he reacted the way that he did.

"Ease off, man," Rin said, stepping between us, "Don't you normally thank someone when they save your life?"

Zeth got to his feet and coughed a few times. He bowed, "Thank you, Princess." I smiled.

"Just glad you're not dead," I said as casually as I could, "Come on, then. This isn't exactly something we can be late for." As we walked, the rest following behind us, Rin leaned close to me and whispered into my ear.

"You attract a lot of weird guys."

I laughed, "That includes you, you know?"

Alright! Everyone's in their positions for the next big chapter. I'm really sorry that it took me so long, but I had a little trouble writing this one. The next one will be coming up, but I've got to catch up on several of my other stories as well, so it might be a while. Anyways, leave me a review...I always appreciate those profusely.