Rin's body lay still on the throne room floor, carefully watched over by Satan. After his conversation with the human twin, the two sides of Rin had fought against the other. He chose not to step in this time, knowing Rin's demon half had decided to go along with his own plan. The human ego had been naïve and foolish to think he could win against a deal with a demon. Especially one that shared his own mind.

Satan had stayed hidden in the shadows watching the events unfold closely. Holding back his own maniacal cackle at both twin's looks of horror when they realised, they had lost. His own conscious had returned to the throne room when the merge was complete. Now he just had to wait for Rin to wake up.

The main doors opened, and Iblis entered the throne room. Confidently approaching the King of demons. She bowed her head slightly before speaking.

"How did it go? Was the merge successful?"

Satan didn't take his eyes from Rin's body laid on the floor. But nodded.

"It is done. He tried to beat the demon half, so he wouldn't have to merge. But the demon had a better plan up his sleeve it seemed. Even better when they had an audience from Assiah…"

"An…audience?" Iblis turned to her father confused.

"Yes. It appears there is some sort of connection between him and his human brother. Seemed to pull the younger from his sleep into his own mind. He witnessed everything." Satan said; corners of his mouth turned up into a smirk.

"I'm sure he will tell the Paladin and the other exorcists then." She folded her arms, looking down at Rin. He looked peaceful for the first time since he'd arrived. "Do you want me to return him to his room, or are you going to let him wake here?"

"Leave him be. It won't be long now." Satan gave her a sideways glance, noticing that she was also waiting for him to awaken. "Are you concerned for him Iblis?" She stiffened next to him; a toothy grin forming on his face. "Considering your earlier comments, you seem to have grown attached to him in so little time."

She frowned "I am merely looking after him in your best interests Father. He seems to trust me, if not for that he wouldn't have returned to Gehenna. Your plans would've failed and he'd be in Samael's hands."

Satan nodded; the smirk remained. He knew better, it was obvious she cared for the boy but was not going to question it if it got him what he wanted.

Their attention was pulled by a groan that sounded from Rin on the floor. He rolled on to his side and squinted his eyes open to a dimly lit room with a blue hue. He managed to push himself into a sitting position, every muscle screamed at him before his stomach lurched and he expelled the contents of his stomach on to the black stone flooring.

"How do you feel?" Satan's deep voice made Rin jump in surprise, not realising he was watching over him, he looked up to see both Satan and Iblis with serious looks on their faces. The first thing they noticed were his eyes, twisted by blue flame, just like Satan's. The merge was complete.

Rin let out a little laugh "I feel nauseous and everything hurts, but my head feels clear. The clearest it's been since I got here."

"Good." Satan acknowledged. "The nausea and pain will hopefully clear up after some rest. Do you remember what happened whilst you were in your mind?"

Rin paused to think, he remembered every detail, including Yukio being present and that deal that had sealed his fate. It was odd though; he didn't feel any different. Then again, was he supposed to?

"Bits. I remember talking and a fight, after that it's a bit blurry." He lied. Satan just nodded without uttering a word. Could he tell he was lying? After a few moments Satan stepped forward offering his hand to help Rin up, without even thinking about it he took it and pulled himself to his feet. Satan seemed to look approvingly at him before speaking again.

"Now, summon your flames."

Rin did as he was told, surrounding himself with his own flame. Much bigger than the pitiful amount he had before. He kept going, almost like he knew Satan wanted to see more. His flames soon reached the ceiling of the throne room, and one of the adjacent walls, flicking at the tapestries there charring them slightly.

Even Iblis had to step back slightly, she was a fire demon but blue flames could still affect her somewhat. What was interesting was how calm Rin was, surrounded by enormous blue flames and he was unaffected by the same problems as before. He still couldn't control them properly, everything they touched burned, but that would come with training.

At least now he could use them without the pain of his mind being split in two. As fast as they appeared Rin pulled them back in. Iblis watched with awe.

"Much better. How did that feel? To access your power with no repercussions; nothing holding it back?" Satan held Rin's face so that he couldn't turn away, he wanted to see the truth in his eyes as well as hear it.

"It…It felt good." An involuntary shiver of excitement trailed through his body when the words left his mouth. Satan smiled in approval. He almost looked proud of him.

"Good, you may rest now. You've had a rather exciting day and I'm sure it has taken its toll on you." Rin nodded "Iblis, please make sure Rin gets back to his room." Iblis nodded towards the door and both her and Rin left the room, leaving Satan to his musings.

They walked in silence through the halls of the castle. Until they finally reached Rin's room, Iblis opened the door.

"Go on Runt, get some rest. You're stuck with me tomorrow and I plan on working you hard as payback for making me chase your ass to Assiah." She smirked giving him a slap on the back. It was going to be their first combat lesson, and this time, she could have some fun. Rin was deep in thought but nodded in response anyway. Saying goodnight and closing the door behind him.

He let out an exhausted sigh. Too many things going through his head since he woke up, including memories he didn't know he had. They had been bugging him the most. A woman's voice screaming in his head not to kill her baby, explosions and more yelling, but no imagery to go with it besides blue flames. He tried not to dwell on it, it was obvious it was just the vague memory that the demon half had mentioned. Thinking of it just brought up forgotten anger, anger towards humans he didn't want to feel. But he guessed this was part of him now, he wondered how many more changes he would notice as time went by. How much had he changed, really?

It was only then he registered his demon heart had disappeared. He must've hidden it away without thinking when he pulled all his flames back inside. He looked at the bed, he was tired but also curious now that he could use his flames more, what could he do with them. He sat on the stone floor in the middle of the room and summoned his flames to his hands. Passing the flames from one hand to the other he noticed his control had improved from before.

Staring into the flames, he had an overwhelming urge to burn something. He looked around to see if there was anything useless nearby; he found a rug. Pulling the rug closer to him, he put both hands on it, his flames coming easily now. He sat and watched as the rug burnt to ashes.

Rin smiled gleefully looking at his hands as if he'd found a new toy and laughed to himself. He wanted to burn some more.

It was Saturday morning, Mephisto had decided to take a break from the scheming, he'd hit a dead end with Rin returning to Gehenna and needed a day of rest to recalculate his thoughts. He and Amaimon were sat playing video games on a big-screen television.

They were interrupted by a knock on the door followed by Belial's voice.

"Sir, you have a visitor." Came the polite tone of Mephisto's servant.

Soon followed what sounded like a shove and a familiar voice berating the servant and louder banging on the door.

"Mephisto you damn clown, open up now!"

The demon let out a sigh and waved his hand, the door unlocked. Shiro barged in without a moment's hesitation; walking stick in hand. He stopped almost dumbstruck at the sight of the two demon kings relaxing like kids on the weekend. Amaimon surrounded by chips and sweet wrappers, Mephisto his empty instant noodle containers.

"To what do I owe this visit, my dear Shiro."

"Don't you 'my dear Shiro' me, we have a problem!" he gave them both an exasperated look.

Mephisto paused the game and turned to his visitor "Another one? Did our Rin return already?" Amaimon perked up at the mention of Rin but was soon disheartened when Shiro shot down the suggestion.

"No, something else happened." Shiro paused for a bit thinking of how to explain what Yukio had told him. "Yukio…had some sort of dream. He said he was in Rin's mind, with Satan and two versions of Rin."

Mephisto frowned before Shiro continued.

"Satan had spoken to him, said something about a merge… before leaving. Yukio said that the Rin's fought against one another before the human half won."

"That's good!" His frown disappeared but the look on Shiro's face told him there was more to this.

"That's what Yukio and Rin thought to. But the demon-half tricked him, trapping Rin and forcefully merging with him. After that Yukio woke up. We don't know anymore." Shiro looked at Mephisto with a worried look "What's going to happen to him now?"

"Rin is going to be more fun to play with." Amaimon bluntly exclaimed.

Mephisto waved him off "Ignore him." Turning back to Shiro "We can do nothing until our young Rin has returned to Assiah."

Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"There is also another urgent matter for you to occupy yourself with. Since you are out of hospital now, the council have decided to take it upon themselves to investigate the incident at your home. Since Satan was involved and you were possessed briefly, they are taking this very seriously."

Upon hearing Mephisto's words, the colour drained from Shiro's face.

"I didn't want to spring this on you till after the weekend, but since you're already here. They've sent in investigators to keep an eye on both of us, even Yukio."

Shiro nodded solemnly but no response left his mouth. It was like rubbing salt in an open wound. He'd lost a son, nearly died and now an investigation was being done because of Satan's involvement. As if that bastard demon hadn't done enough damage already. He wondered if they were going to be able to keep Rin's situation a secret or if it was all going to blow up in their faces.

"What do we tell them about Rin? People know I have two sons, it's not like I've kept that a secret. I might not have spoken of Rin that often but people were aware I adopted two. What do we do when they find out one of them is missing?"

"I will leave you to discuss that with your own, you can either say he died in the accident, Satan could have gone on a rampage briefly and killed him. Or he could've run away before that, you had an argument, after all." This was true, he had run away in a sense the second time. "But be prepared for the fallout of whatever you choose, in case he comes back. I believe Yukio's roommates had been asking him questions about his absent brother, maybe you should discuss with him."

Shiro wasn't aware of that. He quickly left without another word, rushing home to Yukio. Mephisto returned to his game with Amaimon.

"Now what, brother?" Amaimon asked curiously.

"I'm going to have to investigate this myself it seems." Mephisto had a dark look on his face.

Yukio didn't get much of a chance to mope around when he finally came to in the morning. After discussing everything with Shiro at 3 am, he'd soon found the pillow again and quickly headed back to sleep; feeling as if he'd had no sleep at all.

This was supposed to have been a happier weekend, well as happy as it could've gotten with Shiro getting out of the hospital. But things had only gone downhill since they got back to the Monastery last night.

Yukio was currently getting his Exorcist gear on; he'd had a phone call for an exorcism first thing. Leaving him no time to even think about what had happened last night. Which to be honest was probably a good thing. The event itself had horrified him enough he didn't want to dwell on the what-if's just yet.

Once he was ready, he left using a special key.

He arrived at Futsumaya, the exorcist supply shop. Opening the door, a bell rang above his head. The shop keeper, a plump middle-aged lady with blonde hair up in a bun, put down her smoking pipe and looked up giving him a warm smile.

"Ah, Mr Okumura! Welcome"

"Hello, Ma'am. I am responding to the call you made."

"Oh! My that was fast, yes it's Shiemi…" She paused for a moment taking in his appearance "You're looking tired my boy, would you like some tea first? We can talk about Shiemi before we go see her if you like."

Yukio smiled and nodded.

"Yes, Thank you."

A few moments later they were both sat at a table with hot tea in hand. Ms Moriyama looked worried.

"So, how has Miss Shiemi been doing?" Yukio said taking a sip of his tea, he felt a bit more relaxed here than at the Monastery.

"Her legs get worse every day. She can't even stand now…" She said; letting out a tired sigh "On top of that we haven't been getting along, we've hardly spoken to each other."

"And you think it could be demon related?"

"We tried a doctor, they said everything was fine. So, I am turning to an exorcist for answers. It all happened after her Grandmother died in the winter…"

They continued to discuss the circumstances leading up to Shiemi's problem and her symptoms so far. When they had finished and drank the rest of the tea, they moved to the garden.

When they went outside, they saw the young girl on her dirtied knees, hands full of soil and flowers after removing them from a pot to plant into the ground. Her blonde hair sticking to her face in the warm sun. The garden was tranquil, and just being here made Yukio relax. He walked up to the girl.

She startled and squeaked at the sound of someone approaching, having been so engrossed in her garden to notice. Looking up she saw a familiar face, followed by her mother.

"Yuki!" She exclaimed, a bright smile on her face.

It was refreshing after being in so much gloom for the last two weeks, just to see a genuine smile in such a beautiful place. Yukio loved it here more than he'd like to admit.

He returned the smile with his own and knelt to her level.

"Hello, Shiemi."

"H-Hello!" Her mother suddenly approached from behind Yukio, Shiemi's smile vanished and she frowned at her mother.

"Shiemi, Mr Okumura is here on my request, let him look at your legs."

"B-But Mom! A Demon didn't do it!"

"Let's check, just in case." He smiled warmly at her, causing her to blush violently. "If I don't find anything then there's no problem. Okay? So, may I have a look?"

She lowered her head so her bangs hid her face, but nodded slightly.

"Okay…"

"Thank you."

He gently pulled her leg towards him, lifting the bottom of her Kimono up to her knees. He could see large thick vein-like bulges going up her legs, he inwardly sighed to himself and pulled the Kimono back down over her legs.

He explained to them both that it was a Root, the work of a demon in the garden. A Temptaint but she was not possessed - much to her mother's relief.

"It's a low-level demon. A Dekalp, Green man or Ent must've possessed a plant and reached into Shiemi through the soil and her feet to feed off her inner unrest." Yukio proceeded to look around the garden, surrounded by plants and flowers any one of them could house the demon.

He looked back to Shiemi.

"Shiemi, demons usually ensnare their victims through conversation. You must have talked to a demon. Do you have any idea when?" He gave her a serious look, but his features softened a bit when she just looked nervous in response.

"I-I haven't spoken to any dem—" She started but was immediately cut off by her mother's shrill voice.

"Shiemi! Get out of this garden, right now!" Her worry was evident "Your Grandmother cared for this place…But there's no use ruining your health over this damned garden!" Screeching out those final words, Shiemi flinched.

"Mom…don't say that" The tears started to well up in her eyes as she shook, her pain soon turned to anger and she was shouting at her mother.

"I hate you!" She screamed out before collapsing, Yukio caught her just in time, placing her gently down on to the ground.

"Shiemi!" her mother panicked.

"It's ok, she just fainted." Yukio picked her up, bridal style and they took Shiemi into the nearby storehouse. Placing her on a bed inside. "She looked fine, but her spirit is being drained away through her legs. We need to drive the demon off before her life is in danger." Yukio said turning to Ms Moriyama.

Ms Moriyama seemed lost in thought for a moment before speaking.

"It's weird, isn't it? How she sleeps here?"

"Hm?" Yukio looked at her questioningly. They spoke as they walked outside looking back at Shiemi before closing the door.

"Her grandmother lived in this storehouse. After her death Shiemi began spending all her time in here, that's when she lost the use of her legs…" she paused, worry etched on her face "…just like her Grandmother did…"

"Why?"

"I try to ask her but…we always just end up fighting. I'm not a very good mother." She gave a shuddered sigh as they both continued towards the main house. She went on to explain how this was punishment for being too busy to raise Shiemi herself. Leaving her own mother to do it for her when Shiemi was too sick for school. Yukio took in the information and took another glance around the garden, hundreds of plants and flowers surrounded the area it would be impossible to find whilst it was hiding without drawing it out somehow.

In a way Yukio was grateful for the distraction this was bringing; he'd been afraid of being left to dwell on the recent nightmares. But being here and around Shiemi even if he was on duty was still better. He went inside to further discuss things with Ms Moriyama.

They waited a while before Yukio decided to go and check on Shiemi in the storehouse. On arriving she had disappeared from the bed. Yukio looked around worried before he spotted her watering plants a little distance away, partially hidden by a rose bush. He walked over to her and knelt beside her. Her face went red with surprise.

"Yuki!"

"You should be resting, Shiemi. You know your mother is worried about you."

Shiemi pouted before frowning at him.

"Why are you taking her side? She's wrong! I wanted to protect my Grandmother's garden; this was her treasure!" Her fists clenched into the dirt. Yukio smiled at her but Shiemi saw sadness behind it.

"I know what it's like to lose someone you care about."

"Yuki…?" She looked at him with big tear-filled eyes. He could talk to her about this, couldn't he? Shiemi was his friend and he could trust her more than anyone else. Talking to someone might make him feel better and help her in return.

"I recently lost my twin brother; he ran away because of something I did. And now I feel like I've lost him for good." He suddenly felt a hand on top of his, he looked into Shiemi's glistening eyes as she squeezed his hand.

"If he's your brother, I'm sure he doesn't blame you for anything Yuki. Maybe he just needs to get away for some time, and he'll come back home when he's ready."

Yukio smiled back "Don't you think your Grandmother would feel the same way, she wouldn't blame you or want you to be cooped up here all your life. I remember you saying you wanted to go find the Garden of Amahara."

Shiemi blushed at the mention of her dream and looked lost in thought momentarily, remembering her Grandmother encouraging her to go and explore the very same day as the accident. She looked back at Yukio.

"N-no, she wouldn't" Tears started to fall as she sobbed into her Kimono "I'm so stupid, I can't even walk anymore!"

She felt a hand on her shoulder and met Yukio's eyes as she looked up.

"We can get rid of the demon, Shiemi. You will walk again." She nodded, wiping tears away with her sleeve.

Yukio stood, just as he did so the demon's voice spoke.

"No! You will keep your promise to me!"

Roots grew out of Shiemi's legs as she screamed, a giant purple flower appearing behind Shiemi's body wrapping vines around her and using her as a shield. Shiemi fell unconscious in the demon's grasp.

"Coward" Yukio glared at the demon.

"You will not take what belongs to me!" The demon screeched.

He took out both his guns, reloading one of them with capsules of red liquid, the other with his custom silver jacket bullets. Holding them up to aim at the flower demon.

"Let her go, or I'll have to shoot you both."

The demon cackled "You don't have it in you to shoot one of your kind! I will not let her go."

"You severely underestimate me, demon." He flipped off the safety on both guns, aiming one straight at Shiemi.

The demon hissed "You wouldn't dare?!"

Yukio looked back with a blank stare "Wouldn't I?" before pulling the trigger, shooting Shiemi in the chest. The demon screeched and immediately unlatched from Shiemi's body, Yukio immediately pulled the other gun around and shot at the now free demon. Killing it instantly, the demon vanished. Shiemi's body fell to the floor, Yukio ran over to her.

"Mm… Y-Yuki…?" Her eyes fluttered open; Yukio smiled at her.

"The demon is gone; you should try to stand now." He held her hands helping to pull her to her feet, she squeaked as she stood up, her legs worked again.

Ms Moriyama ran out and with a little persuasion, they reconciled happily. Yukio finally returned home, it had been a long day, but nice to spend time with Shiemi. His father was waiting for him when he got back.

"Yukio, come here. We need to talk." The serious tone of voice had Yukio a little on edge. He nodded and sat down with his Father at the table.

"What is it?"

"I spoke to Mephisto, apparently now that I'm out of the hospital the Vatican is investigating the incident involving Satan." Yukio's relaxed posture soon grew stiff "They are going to be watching us and questioning us. As I understand it your roommates were asking about Rin, how did that come up?"

"I was talking in my sleep" Yukio sighed; staring blankly at the table. "I've been having nightmares about Rin since the night he was taken. I was apparently calling out for him and something about a demon in my sleep."

"Oh dear." Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose. "I guess that can't be helped…at least you weren't shouting Satan in your sleep."

"Not that I'm aware of, only one of the guys heard it. The other two sleep like logs. Anyway, they asked about him and if he went to True Cross, I just said he'd dropped out after middle school and was job hunting. That was all about Rin really."

Shiro sighed.

"Although someone has been spreading stories about Satan attacking you, one of my first years mentioned someone talking about it in passing."

Shiro's eyes widened in surprise. Either someone was really good at speculating or someone in the know was spreading the story on purpose. He wondered who though.

"I managed to play it off as a silly rumour because you're the Paladin. But…not sure if they all completely bought it."

Shiro covered his face with his hands, rubbing a sore spot between his eyes. One weekend of stress-free relaxation, that was all he asked. But alas this weekend seemed to be a write-off.

"This is such a pain. But we must decide on a story to explain Rin's absence. Certain people know I have two sons and you have a brother. But when this investigation takes off, they'll wonder why he isn't around. Mephisto suggested either he was killed in the attack… or he ran away because of the argument we had."

"I don't know… If we tell them he died and then he comes home, we'd have to explain somehow. But then we could say he ran away, but always the chance he never comes back. Ugh. I wish I knew how the merge is affecting him…he was himself, said he'd find a way out again now that the pain was gone. But that was before…" Yukio felt Shiro's hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay Yukio, I'm sure Rin is still Rin. He will find a way back to us one day."

Yukio nodded hesitantly.

"I guess we should go with the runaway story, it's the most plausible and for the most part it is true…" They were both in agreement, informing the other priests of the news so everyone could get their story straight. Yukio wasn't looking forward to going back on Monday.

In before the next manga chapter this time~

Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I'm glad it went over well :D! Holy crap I got to 100+ faves... *happy tears* thank you!

kiboeme - I'm so glad you liked it! I felt so evil throwing Yukio in there to watch it all . (I was totally not crazy laughing the whole time). Yuki and Shiro are still trying to hope for the best it seems, which sorta makes it more fun for when Rin finally returns to Assiah again. Note to self: Think up Satan's master plan... really wish the manga would reveal what their goals are in canon - would help a lot! I've given a little snippet of Rin here but it's gonna be a gradual thing (sorta).

Fangirling101B - I hope I can keep consistency with Rin now! It will be hard since there's only so much Demon!Rin material to go by in the manga. Regarding Iblis being a Demon King rather than Queen: They are Demon Kings regardless of the gender of the bodies they possess. As demons I don't suppose they really have genders outside of their human hosts since they are classed as 'Concepts'. So even though I will be using she/her because it's easier she will still be a Demon King. (All the other guys get to be Kings so why shouldn't she!) ^_^

I've started another fic named Take Flight - Rin awakens two years earlier, Iblis takes him to the Illuminati. This is still human!rin as sword has not been drawn. Check it out!