CHAPTER 3:

AN OFFER YOU CAN REFUSE

"I'm glad we were told to go help you, Raynare, and not just for the obvious reason, given that you're one of the few people I can talk to in this place. Seriously, I'm getting sick and tired of being basically a switchboard operator while our cell is on standby. That sort of job's mostly gone from the human world. I know we have people upgrading the automatic thaumaturgic redirection systems, but still, upgrades shouldn't take this bloody long!"

Raynare nodded in sympathy with her comrade and, if she could tell the truth, her little sister figure in the Grigori. Mittelt was a pain in the arse for a number of reasons, partly because she was a Fallen Angel born and bred on Earth rather than having Fallen from Heaven, and she was only a few decades old. She looked about half her age too, having the appearance of a blonde girl in her early to mid-teens, with a rather small bust, something she had a complex about. She didn't help matters by dressing in Gothic Lolita clothing. Even Nephilim, Fallen Angel halfbreeds, aged normally until they reached adulthood. Mittelt…would probably hit a growth spurt within the next decade. Hopefully.

However, Mittelt, for all her hang-ups and bratty demeanour, was also someone Raynare acted as a big sister towards, especially once her parents fell to a Stray Devil they underestimated. True, a good chunk of their talk was insults about their respective figures and costumes, but there was an actual underlying affection there, something Raynare could admit was absent in her relationships with Dohnaseek and Kalawarner, the other Fallen she was usually grouped with. She trusted Mittelt with stuff she didn't always trust Dohnaseek and Kalawarner with. Kalawarner was as sadistic, if not more so, than Raynare, and Dohnaseek was more of a soldier, cold and focused on his kills, though he too had a sadistic streak. Then again, her entire cell did.

They were currently having lunch at the canteen of the Grigori Headquarters. Mittelt was eating a sandwich and drinking some chocolate milk, while Raynare was having fish and salad. "Can't they speed things up?"

"Not without causing a lot of bugs. They did get a Stray Exorcist who used to do a lot of hacking on the side for the Vatican though, to look over the thaumaturgical code. He was pretty good at getting the humans' telecommunications systems to work the way he wanted to for his hacking."

"And the Vatican kicked him out, because…?"

"He stumbled across Valber Galilei's Holy Swords Project, and he got framed as a spy. Of course, that's also what caused the Vatican to begin scrutinising Galilei's project more." Mittelt sighed waving a hand. "And we know how that house of cards fell apart. Of course, the Vatican and other branches of the Christian Church are still using what Galilei's researchers discovered to grant more Exorcists with the ability to use Holy Swords. Hypocrites."

"Aren't we all? Though humans raise hypocrisy to an artform, don't they?" Raynare shook her head. "No other gossip?"

"Not much. I mean, other than Vali's latest escapades. Battle-hungry moron," Mittelt said. "He keeps pestering Lord Azazel about whether they've found the latest bearer of the Boosted Gear. The other day, he scared the crap out of someone who just had a Twice Critical."

Raynare snorted. "I actually heard about that just before Nyder tricked me into going with him. I mean, I get that, they are similar at first glance, from what I heard, especially if the Boosted Gear hasn't awoken fully, but you'd think the bearer of Divine Dividing would be able to tell the difference. Moron. His little posse of those Pendragon heirs, Sun Wukong's descendant, and that fugitive Nekomata aren't much help in reining him in either, are they?"

"He's become a moody teenager," Mittelt said, with no small irony, given that she looked and acted like one herself. "Lord Azazel is many things, but a competent father with hormonal teen children isn't one of them." Her features softened. "…So, how are you coping with what happened?"

Raynare's first impulse was to retort that she didn't even need to cope, but she had known Mittelt for all of the younger Fallen's life, and while she had known Dohnaseek and Kalawarner for far longer, she got along with Mittelt better. "…Not well," Raynare admitted quietly. "I think I'm still in shock from the whole saga. Nyder betrayed me, and he was going to sacrifice me to gain power. But what was worse was…what he said…that Lord Azazel would never take notice of me. And damn him, he's right."

"Hey, Raynare," Mittelt said gently. "We both know Azazel has only eyes for whatever research subject he's into this time, usually some Sacred Gear or other. Oh, he's got a libido, but I don't think he can manage anything but a one-night stand, and you want something more than that. Besides, Nyder's an arsehole, and he's dead, so screw him. Or rather, don't. I certainly wouldn't fuck him with someone else's dick."

Raynare chuckled morosely, but the wounds from Nyder's words still ran deep. "I said the same thing to him. Well, one of the many things I regret about that sordid saga is that Potter killed him too quickly. Oh, it was messy, but still…"

Mittelt nodded, before becoming pensive. "Who'd have thought that Harry Potter was hanging out in the Underworld Badlands? Good thing he was there to help save your arse, Raynare. I probably would've got there in time, but still…Nyder always creeped me out, but I didn't really say much because you three spoke so highly of him. And we'd had that argument about him once. I don't wanna say I told you so, because frankly, I'm just glad you're alive."

A warm smile touched Raynare's lips. For all that they often bickered, even argued bitterly, Raynare and Mittelt had a strong bond. "Thanks. Still…I don't want to be in such a position ever again. I need power. I should be the leader of you guys, but it makes a poor showing when I've been ganked, even by an ally. And I've hit a plateau with my training. Over a millennium of training and experience, and I still only have a single pair of wings."

"Using pairs of wings as a measurement of power is like men using their dick sizes as a yardstick for virility," Mittelt said with a careless wave of her hand. "Don't worry about it."

Of course, that was a shitty analogy, and Mittelt knew it. Raynare certainly did. The most powerful Angels, Fallen or otherwise, had more pairs of wings, science fact (or at least as close as one could get to science when discussing the supernatural and the divine). The only reason Mittelt said that was because she was trying to be nice to Raynare.

But it didn't stop Raynare from knowing, deep down, that she would never rise above her mediocre station. Never…

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, amazed that he was even remotely calm after what he heard from Azazel, sitting in a cluttered office that had more weird objects in it than Dumbledore's own. Then again, the leader of the Fallen Angels had admitted he mixed in a few mood-stabilising drugs into that liquid he had been breathing in that tank. Of course, what he had been told was pretty fucking insane.

So, God existed. Angels and Devils existed. Gods in the plural existed, from every pantheon that had existed. There had been a war between the Angels, the Fallen, and the Devils that ended mere centuries ago, and even then, in a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty, which meant the status quo was fragile.

What was more, Devils, to stabilise their ailing population after a civil war that further devastated them after the Great War, had taken to converting other beings like humans or magical creatures into Devils. Azazel did explain that these servants in what was known as a Peerage had the opportunity to become high-level Devils as well, and he took great pains to tell him that many Devils treated their Peerages well. But it sounded like indentured servitude that could easily be abused to him, and Azazel admitted that some Devils treated their Peerages as harems, and worse.

And that was without going into the existence of Sacred Gears, holy items that were bound to the souls of certain humans. Items that included the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing, the Sacred Gears that held the souls of the very Dragons he was now a hybrid of. And whose abilities he seemed to now share, to boot.

And if that weren't bad enough, he was an unstable hybrid between two of the most powerful Dragons (with a capital D) in existence. Even now, Azazel was trying to ensure he was stable, at least physically. And he was also trying to ensure Harry knew what was at stake psychologically.

At least, unlike Dumbledore, he seemed to be laying his cards on the table. True, he was trying to be gentle about it, but he did bring up some hard truths. Though there was one question that he needed to ask, albeit first and foremost amongst so many others.

"Okay, so, assuming what you told me is true…why the actual fuck didn't any of you guys get involved with stopping Voldemort?"

Azazel winced at Harry's angry and bitter tone. "After a number of disastrous interactions with the wizarding world centuries ago, there was an unofficial agreement between the Three Biblical Factions not to interfere with events there. I know, it sucks balls, but if too many of us got involved, then it could have sparked off a rerun of the Great War by proxy, if not a full-blown conflict. It's not any comfort, I know. But you should know from your own experiences that the cliché of war being Hell is a cliché for a reason. Of course, your being in the Underworld bypasses a lot of that."

"…Then what about Sirius? He fell through the Veil too."

But Harry's hopes were crushed when Azazel shook his head. "Sorry, Harry. The Veil leads into the Dimensional Gap, not the Underworld. Your godfather probably died within minutes at most, as the void of the Dimensional Gap is extremely corrosive. How you ended up in the Underworld afterwards…I've no idea."

Harry grimaced at the reminder of his godfather's death…and his own execution. He then frowned as a memory, or a hallucination, came to mind. "Does the Dimensional Gap look like an ocean of rainbow vomit?"

"…Not the most flattering description, but yeah, I guess you could put it that way. Why?"

"…I have vague memories of it…though I'm not sure whether they are memories. Some girl in a Victorian dress with no proper top, just some duct tape on her chest, floated over to me, said something like, 'Wizard rubbish…again? Great Red…is too much to deal with already', and, well, the next thing I know, I'm in a crater in the Underworld, aching all over, a Dragon again. I dunno why I hallucinated her like that, I'm not into little kids."

To his astonishment, Azazel laughed, albeit uneasily. "Did the girl have dark hair, pointed ears and purple eyes?"

Harry blinked when he realised how uncannily like the girl he had hallucinated was described by Azazel. "Uhh, yeah, why?"

"Harry, you just met the Ouroborous Dragon God, also known as Ophis, and lived to tell the tale. Believe it or not, that girl was actually a being powerful enough to take on God. Long story, very long, and before you ask about her appearance, Ophis changes appearance every few centuries. Up until Victorian times, which was the last time I saw her in person, she actually took the appearance of an old man. Don't ask me why she currently appears as a paedophile's wet dream, her mind does not work anything like normal people's. And here I was joking when I said to Raynare and Mittelt that Ophis probably kicked you out of the Dimensional Gap." He sighed. "Good grief."

Harry was left in silence for a time, before he finally asked, "What now?"

"Well, that's entirely up to you. Harry, I won't lie to you. You would make a great asset to the Grigori, and you have the potential to become a power that upsets the current dynamics of the Three Factions, let alone the rest of the supernatural world. But I'm not an idiot. I know what you've been through, at least in broad terms, the kind of betrayals and losses you have undergone. I'm sure you trust me pretty little."

"You and your allies helped me, so I'll give you that much, but you'll forgive me for learning to look any gift horses in the mouth, and everywhere else," Harry said.

"Hey, I don't blame you one bit, Harry. If I wanted a conscript, it would've been easy to feed potions of my own design into your tank, make you a slave. But I'm not. At best, I put in what are basically antidepressants and mood stabilisers. God was an arsehole, but one thing He and I agreed on was about the nature of free will. The Grigori are a collection of outcasts of all kinds, and not just the Fallen Angels, but we have humans, magical creatures…hell, my adopted son is a Cambion, half-human, half-Devil. But while we have people who come to us because they have nowhere else to go, I try not to force people to join us, especially not those with as storied a past as you have. That tends to backfire, for obvious reasons. Grigori is already filled with enough backbiting and betrayal, as your rescue of Raynare proved. But allow me to make you an offer, one you can refuse, believe it or not."

"…And what is that, aside from joining the Grigori?"

Azazel gave him a smile. "Well, what I would like is for you to stay here for a month or so, regardless of whether you join the Grigori or not. I say this for a number of reasons. Firstly, on the altruistic side of things, your body is still being stabilised, and we need to determine if you are still at risk of dying from your new abilities and biology. What happened to you was a fluke, even by the standards of your adventures. Secondly, and this is my confessing a somewhat selfish interest, I'm admittedly fascinated by your condition, and I wish to study it further as I stabilise your body. I'm a researcher, first and foremost, and given that you are now a hybrid of the Heavenly Dragons, and share something of their abilities…well, I have to admit, your current nature is fascinating."

"Uh-huh," Harry said flatly. He wondered if he needed an adult.

"After that month is up, barring any complications, you can be free to go. And keep in mind, you're free to refuse even that, and seek treatment for your condition elsewhere. What I've done to you has probably ensured that whatever treatment you need next, you could find it amongst the magicals or the magical creatures. Kyoto's not a bad place to consider, actually. Its leader, Lady Yasaka, is not really a friend of mine, but I'm sure she would happily take you in. I will also make it clear to the other Biblical Factions, as well as other groups I have contacts with, that they shouldn't approach you with conscription in mind. Some Devils may probably try to force the issue, and I don't doubt that some overzealous idiots in the Church will try their luck to kill you for being a wizard, but on the whole, the Biblical Factions will leave you alone."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. Azazel was clearly buttering him up, but he was at least giving Harry more info than Dumbledore did. So he decided to ask the big question. "And if I joined the Grigori?"

"Well, it would mean throwing your lot in with us, and that has consequences, obviously. You'd have to be sure your actions don't spark off another war. That being said, the Biblical Factions have been in talks for a while for a proper peace treaty, albeit on the quiet. Give it a few years at most, and you don't have to worry as much. But you have my protection from the morons of the wizarding world, and I can even get some if not all of your fortune back from the Goblins. They know better than to piss me off, and they owe me a number of favours. I helped smooth things over with the Ministry after the Ranrok business back in the 1800s. I'd help out anyway even if you didn't join the Grigori, I hasten to add. Same with allowing you to contact your friends and loved ones. If you joined the Grigori, you'd be expected to obey orders and do some pretty shitty jobs at times."

"Like?"

"At times, assassinations, usually of rogue Sacred Gear bearers or of traitors to the Grigori, or slaying Stray Devils. Unfortunately, that's the way things go in such an organisation like our own, and we take in outcasts of all kinds, some of them nastier than others. My son, for example, has a Stray Devil who's something of an infamous criminal in his group, though I have reason to believe her crime was blown out of proportion, but neither I or the Devil Kings can do much about it due to her victim and his family being politically connected. Also, we've recruited Stray Exorcists who were expelled from the Vatican or other churches for some reason or another. Many were just heretics or fell afoul of politics, but there are some who make the priests you see on TV being done for child molestation look tame by comparison. So, fair warning. But if you join the Grigori, you have access to my political protection, resources, and a support network. I can help you discover the full potential of your strength, as I have forgotten more about Sacred Gears than anyone has ever learned about them, save perhaps for God Himself, and I have studied the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing many times. I know how Ddraig and Albion's powers work."

"…Can I think about it?" Harry eventually asked.

"Sure. You can stay here for a month to finish the treatment to stabilise your body before you make the final decision. Hell, if you want to discuss getting treated with Lady Yasaka sooner, just ask. If you want to contact your friends and loved ones, just ask, and I'll make the arrangements."

"No strings attached?" Harry asked.

"Harry, saving Raynare is payment enough for that, as is the data you've already given me on your condition," Azazel said. "I'm not an idiot, I do use trickery and technicalities in deals, if I have to. But you've gone through too much in your life, from what I know, for me to want to use that. And your power is pretty frightening. Given time and training, it could potentially kill gods, just like the Sacred Gears it emulates. Now, I dunno about you, but I make it a point to avoid pissing off potential allies who might grow powerful enough to kill me. How does Hogwarts' motto put it? Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. Never tickle a sleeping dragon. Wise words to live by. So, how about it?"

After a moment's consideration, Harry realised he knew what the answer was. Azazel at least seemed friendly and, importantly, frank enough to put his cards on the table. So, for now, Harry decided to agree. Not to join the Grigori, but to at least stay for a while.

He just hoped he wouldn't regret it…

CHAPTER 3 ANNOTATIONS:

Well, Harry, considering you'll be getting a buxom Fallen waifu down the track, I don't think you will.

Of all the leaders of the Biblical Factions, I'm under the impression that Azazel is the most laidback and easygoing, even compared to Sirzechs. But I wanted to also show that Azazel, for all his easygoing nature, is still not a pushover. He's giving Harry the soft sell and divulging the pros and cons about it not because he's a shit negotiator, but he knows Harry won't tolerate any bullshit or lies. Saving Raynare from a traitor, as well as samples and analysis of Harry's hybridised biology, is more than enough profit for him from a pragmatic point of view.

No numbered annotations this time.