Okay, so, I couldn't stop writing after I finished the last chapter last night, and I know it's a shorter chapter than the past couple. But there's a point to that, because it will help transition to the next chapter which is going to explain a little more about the vampire half of Hecate. This chapter though, focus mainly on the 'fight' between Ban and King. As we know, Hecate can't really fight now that she's armless, but there is so much more that goes on.

Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, and know that I have the next chapter on the go already. Let's face it, once you get the end, you might want me to hurry up and finish Chapter 9 too.

So enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Seven Deadly Sins, not that I wouldn't love to have the rights to have Ban... I own Hecate, her ability and any other characters not part of the anime.

Rated M for suggestive themes, strong language and potential explicit scenes later on.

I'd love to hear some feedback you guys, hearing from you guys really make my day!

See you next update!

Hecate could only watch as the siblings clung to each other in fear and horror after witnessing what was happening with her and Ban. It was taking all her self-control to keep her blood from flowing out of her body. She would have reattached her arm herself, but she needed another person's help to do it properly, plus, she really didn't want to scare the kids anymore than they already were. But she knew the longer she kept pushing herself like this, the more likely it would be that she would overwork herself and potentially push her limits to their breaking point.

"Hey, Ban." King said smugly, then turned to face the halfling, watching as she tried evening out her breathing while watching him with weary pink eyes.

She hadn't changed a bit over the past decade, not that it surprised him. They had many strange people in their group of Sins, but she was the one who always seemed know who was different than others. He was surprised she was there though, even after being told by that Holy Knight; he didn't fully believe him. Everyone knew Hecate was a wander by trade and could easily disappear without a trace. But there she was, with Ban, like always. The two never seemed to part ways, suck at each other's side, not back then and not even now it seemed. And that, admittingly, made him angrier.

He couldn't understand why they were so chummy together!

Or how they could smile around each other knowing what they did!

They didn't deserve to live happily, not when she had suffered and paid the ultimate price!

And because of that, he was going get vengeance for her!

"And of course, you're here too, Hecate." King observed bitterly, noticing the way her eyes flashed and a smirk crossed his face. "Too bad I didn't catch more than just your arm; you deserve to feel more pain that just that... but I'll get to you in time. Just wait until I finish him off." He mused, nodding to Ban.

"If you wanted to kill me, you would have done so, instead of trying to prolong it. It really isn't like you. But I guess it is nice to see you too… I suppose." Hecate spoke blandly, not sharing in the same amusement as him, which caused him to smirk as he turned back to Ban.

"Isn't this a touching reunion after all this time?" King asked the two, knowing the halfling wasn't going to speak again. After all, she had other things to worry about, so he would focus on Ban and mildly wondered what the smug bastard was going to say to him next. "What's the matter, Cat got your tongue?" he goaded, feeling the halfling toss a glare of annoyance at him.

Ban slowly turned to look at the kid, his brows pinching together at the use of the Sin's nickname for his Kitten. He had been solely focused on her, making sure she would be alright that he was hardly paying attention to the kid. But it seemed he knew who they were, at least knew enough to know her nickname, but as the kid spoke to him, he grew annoyed. How could a kid like this know them? He barely looked old enough to be alive when they were an actual group. Not to mention that he could float around, which reminded him of Elaine, almost. Something wasn't adding up though.

"Who… are you?" Ban asked, clueless to the kid before him.

He mildly noticed his Kitten giving him a bland look, it seemed she knew who this kid was. Which was strange, since he didn't remember ever meeting someone like this. Though he supposed it could have been when he was black out drunk or out of it… he didn't know. Maybe his Kitten would be willing to tell him, but after hearing her sigh and mumble something under her breath about him being so thick-headed, he guessed that she wasn't. That annoyed him. He also knew she wasn't going much use if this kid really did try attacking him. She had to focus on keeping herself from going on a rampage, another thing that annoyed him further.

Like usual, it was going to be up to him to get things done.

"Who am I?" the King chuckled, amused by what he was hearing. "Have you forgotten even that?" he questioned the immortal who still wore a blank look on his face.

"I don't remember you at all. Sorry." Ban replied, though his tone was flat as he looked over at his Kitten, trying to see if she would give him a hint, but all he was given was a deadpanned look.

Since she didn't seem to want to help him, Ban exhaled softly, focusing on the kid. It seemed he was becoming even more amused by his, a small grin crossing his face as he stared at him. There was something buzzing in the back of his mind that told him he might know who this kid was, but he really had no clue. It wasn't uncommon after all, he tended to not pay attention to stuff like that.

"I suppose it doesn't matter." The kid mused as the spear that pierced Ban began rotating inside him.

"Kids, get behind me." Hecate was heard and the sound of feet running towards her echoed slightly as well as their whimpers.

"The important thing is that you…" the boy trailed off slightly as the weapon pushed the rest of the way through Ban as the kid began floating in the air with ease, spraying blood everywhere. "are Ban the Fox Sin, the Sin of Greed!"

Hecate tensed as she watched this all unfold, eyeing the weapon hovering in the air and ignoring the blood splatter on her face. She had to admit, all of this was started to strain her self-control. The halfling wasn't liking the situation at all, and she knew she couldn't try to reason with the kid. He was set in his ways.

"Don't think I've gotten you either, Hecate." The boy said, glancing over at the halfling. "After all, you are Hecate the Wolf Sin, the Sin of Despair. I haven't forgotten about you either." His words were accompanied by a hard glare, but it didn't hold as much hatred as what he had for Ban.

"You can tell me what your deal with is anytime." Hecate responded, wiping the blood from her face before it disappeared and licked it off her fingers.

The extra blood giving her some more stability and strength. The siblings clung to her tunic, and their whimpers audible to the halfling who wanted to give them some compassion, but it was hard with only one arm. She was also focused on the others right now, knowing it could get bad if nothing was done.

"Or maybe you prefer this name: Undead Ban." King stated with a hard tone and the siblings gasped in fear and horror as they watched Ban's chest stitch itself back together, leaving no visible trace of a scar or injury.

"I don't like your tone, kid." Ban frowned, staring up at the boy, starting to get annoyed at the entire thing. "What do you know about me?" he demanded.

"I know your sin." King replied evenly, catching Ban off guard. "Even if you don't remember me, you remember your own sin, don't you?" he asked curiously, his voice growing quieter as he stared down at them. "The terrible, terrible sin you committed. To satiate your greed and gain eternal life, you killed the saint of the Fountain of Youth!"

Images from that time flashed before her mind's eye, the blood, the wound on Elaine's chest, feeling helpless and powerless… He didn't understand what happened, what they went through. No one else actually knew what the truth was, except her and Ban.

"That's not what happened!" Hecate shouted up, tears prickling at her eyes. "You don't know the—"

"Shut the fuck up, Hecate!" Ban yelled, interrupting her to the point where she jerked back in shock.

He had never used that tone with her. Ever. And she would admit that it pained her to hear it, especially coming from him.

King watched them with a frown, he never saw anything like this happen between the two of them before. Despite being part of the group for two years, No one knew the history between Ban and Hecate. He also never heard the immortal call the woman by her name, only by his nickname for her. It was strange to see this interaction between them, it was abnormal at best.

"Yo, brats." Ban spoke to the siblings impassively. "You're cramping my style." He motioned for them to leave with his hand. He barely looked at the halfling, no longer wanting her around when he spoke to her in an indifferent tone. "You're no longer part of this fight either, Hecate—"

"Fuck you, Ban. You don't get to tell me what to do." The woman growled darkly; her eyes dark with anger as she glared at the immortal. "But he's right, you two need to go and find somewhere safe to hide." She turned to the siblings with a soft smile, holding back her anger to not scare the kids anymore. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." She nodded to the entrance encouragingly.

"Let's go, Ellen!" the boy urged, grabbing his sister to leave.

"But they—" Ellen hesitated, trying to protest as her brother pulled her away from the dangerous scene, they had been part of.

Hecate looked up at King watching as he flipped his spear around, so the blade was pointing down at Ban as he sat on the pole. Despite knowing King wasn't directly targeting her, she had no doubt that he was going to try and take a piece of her with him if he could. She was already struggling to keep her body from expelling her blood, and with only one hand, she couldn't do much more than dodge his attacks when they came.

There was only one thing she could do right now, and she honestly hated even thinking about it, but it had to be done.

"I have to make do with a temporary fix…" she mumbled to herself, tucking her severed arm under her amputated arm and slipped off one of the bracelets from her severed arm.

With a slow exhale, the bracelet glowed and expanded to her will, just enough to create a makeshift armlet that would hopefully hold her arm together. She prayed that the armlet would work properly and use the stored blood it had to help her instead of trying to drain the blood from her body. Placing the armlet around the stump of her arm, she hissed at the discomfort, adjusting it enough that she could put her arm inside it. Once it was set, she tried lining her arm up properly and slid it into the armlet, feeling the bonds of her ability touching together as a temporary glue while getting the armlet to tighten around the two joints. She clenched her teeth at the pain of it, but knew it was better than nothing. She barely had any control over her arm, her fingers stiff and almost lifeless.

It would have do, for now.

At least, that's why she hoped, it was hard to tell given how wonky her bracelets were being as of late.

"I'm right, aren't I?" King said as he began his decent towards Ban.

King swooped down, barely missing Hecate, who flipped onto the top of the wall with practiced ease to dodge him as he swerved around to hit Ban. Pieces of her bell sleeves fluttered to the ground, cut cleanly from the rest of her tunic as she landed on the wall with a pant, trying to not wince at the pain in her arm as blood began dripping down the arm. She held her arm, trying to refocus her energy again to her ability to keep her arm intact. There was annoyance in King's eyes as he shot the woman a glare, but he would get to her soon. For now, his focus was on Ban, but if he could still get Hecate too, that was just a bonus.

"I'll ask you again, who the hell are you?" Ban demanded, dodging the attack with annoyance, and lashed out with his fists, breaking the wall that was behind him.

King used the new open space to move to redirect himself, and Ban moved to follow, landing on his feet as his opponent faced him once more. Hecate stood on the wall, panting a little as she watched the two, clutching the armlet that was glowing dimly as blood continued leaking from her arm. Her concentration broke due to dodging King and making sure she didn't put too much pressure on her arm. Even now as she tried to refocus, she was having difficulty doing so.

This was troublesome… and it always happened to them, no matter what.

They always got into fights.

Hecate watched as King disappeared from Ban's view, only to appear between him and her, floating in the air. Weapon poised at his side without him needing to touch it. He looked back at her for a moment, a mix of emotions on his face before shaking his head and focused on Ban.

"Still, I'm glad that you came." King stated, and Ban looked back in surprise. He made a few hand movements, readying his next attack "You walked right into my trap."

Hecate could only watch as Ban dodged the spear, while King continued to strike. The way the battle was going was familiar, something she had seen the two do time and time again whenever they got into an argument. She couldn't help but wonder how Ban didn't see it, how he didn't recognize King from the way he battled. Raising her good hand, she pressed it to her head with a small groan, her vision was started to blur again, which was never a good sign. She could hear talking coming from the road, but couldn't see properly currently, much to her annoyance.

"I wish she could see this." King spoke softly, almost thoughtfully. "I want her to see the wicked man who killed her, and the unfaithful friend who refused to heal her, pathetically begging for mercy as they writhe in agony."

Hecate's heart clenched at King's words. He didn't know anything, didn't understand anything, and Ban, being Ban, was not going to tell him about it either. She carefully jumped off the wall and leaned against it, closing her eyes for a moment to lessen the strain her body as she focused on her ability again. She could feel the armlet thrumming as it absorbed her blood, but it was doing her more harm than good right now. When she opened her eyes again, she was relieved to see the group coming towards them as their Captain moved forward with a mug in hand, for some reason.

"For the last time…" Ban spoke, a cocky tone entering his voice as he raised his hand upwards. "who the hell are—"

Ban cut himself off when something firm hit the back of his head.

"Hey!" the voice of their Captain sounded, distracting the immortal enough to forget what he was doing as he rubbed the back of his head where he was hit. He turned to their Captain with an annoyed pout.

"C'mon, Captain! Butt out!" the immortal whined.

Above King stared at the group, more so at their Captain with confusion. It was as if he didn't expect the man to still look the same after all this time. But then, not many knew what their Captain was, they probably would act in outrage if they did.

"What's the big idea, skipping out of work?" Meliodas questioned him, then looked over at Hecate, about to ask her the same thing when he noticed that she was injured, severely too if he had to guess. He turned to Ban again with a slightly unreadable look and bonked his head once more with the mug. "And you let Cat get injured too! You really are bad at this thing, aren't you?" the blonde sighed, shaking his head.

"What's the big idea? She's fine, can't you tell?" Ban scolded, completely ignoring the halfling as he pointed up towards King. "Anyway, that pipsqueak I've never seen before picked a fight with me!" he stated in annoyance. "He ruined my sweet threads!"

"And it's because he's royally pissed at you, that I got injured in the first place." Hecate bit out, her own annoyance freely showing as she huffed a bit but Ban blatantly ignored her.

"Hey, what's all the ruckus over here?" Diane asked curiously as she came to join the others as they looked up to where King was hovering in the air, in direct eyesight of the giantess.

She was the first to really notice him and paused for a moment before her eyes widen. Hecate heard an intake from their Captain as he realized who was there too.

"Finally… people who aren't dumb and oblivious…" Hecate muttered under her breath.

"King!" Both Diane and Meliodas called out, their happiness and surprise evident to everyone around.

Hearing the name of their comrade though, Ban froze in shock as he stared up at the boy. Probably trying to see the resemblance the boy had to the man he knew. Hecate sighed quietly, she had a feeling he was going to freak out again, and she was right.

"On what planet is that King!?" he demanded angrily, looking down at their Captain as he pointed at King.

There was no way that pipsqueak was the fatty he had spent years around. It was impossible!

"Well… maybe he lost a little weight?" Meliodas offered with a shrug, not looking concerned at all.

Hecate could only smirk at the absurd logic, knowing it was just a blatant and unjust lie that he came up with on the spot. She honestly didn't know why he even bothered.

"A little?!" Ban yelled out. "And that aint even the issue!"

King, we've been looking for you!" Diane said happily as she leaned closer to him. "I'm so happy to see you again!"

Hecate found herself smiling a little as she watched the interactions between Diane and King. It was clear the giantess was extremely happy to see him again as her purple eyes lit up the moment she saw him. However, King didn't seem to see it as a joyous occasion and simply flew off, not even looking back at them. Whatever was going on with him, ran deeper than just the anger and hatred he had displayed to them.

A violent shudder ran through the halfling's body as her breath started coming out in slow, heavy pants. Her vision swam badly to the point where she couldn't make out any shapes, only blurs of colour where the others stood. Her stomach turned violently, sickness overcoming her as she tried gripping her armlet, only for her strength to begin failing. This wasn't good… she waited too long to try and heal herself…

"C-Captain…"

Meliodas turned to look at Hecate, having barely heard her whispered voice. He knew she had been struggling earlier, but now that he got a good look at her, it was far more serious than he realized. Her pale skin was starting to take on a greyish hue, her eyes were flashing between pink, dark fuchsia and black, all seemingly fighting for dominance with her state of mind. Her right arm was limp, looking as if it was barely hanging by a thread before falling off completely, accompanied by blood dripping down from the stump as the armlet returned to its normal state and dropped to the ground. The woman was panting heavily still, leaning against the wall behind her as she tried her hardest to stay in control, to keep her sanity while trying to get the words she needed the others to hear out.

"Cat…?" Meliodas spoke wearily, worry laced his voice, he didn't know what was happening.

As much as Ban didn't want to pay attention to what was going on behind him, he couldn't help it. He heard the barely spoken words of the woman, the sound of something falling to the ground unceremoniously. There was the scent of blood too that started filling the air. Something wasn't right. And it bothered the immortal more than he cared to admit as he turned around to sarcastically ask what was going on. But all of that died in his throat, along with all the irritation and anger as he stared at the woman. Her eyes pleaded with the two men to help her. It was the most expressive thing he had seen in her eyes in a long time, the fear of her losing herself, the fear of not being able to save herself…

She was in worse shape that he realized, at first, he thought she was going to put her arm back in place on her own and start the healing process, but he was wrong. No, he could see that she didn't have the strength to do that by herself. She was fighting enough as it was to just stay conscious, the bracelet on the ground glowing as more blood dripped onto it from her wound. He should have seen it sooner, but he was so focused on King that he didn't bother with her.

And that guilt tugged violently at his heart to see her like that.

"Hecate?" Diane spoke, finally breaking her gaze away from where King had flown off her, still feeling hurt about what happened as she turned to the others, noticing something going on. "What's going on?" she asked the others.

"What is Cat?" Meliodas asked, but there was still no answer.

The woman merely opened and closed her mouth with her pants, fighting for strength to speak. It was Ban who took the first step towards her, arm stretched out in worry as a shudder ran through the woman's body.

"I'm… I'm—" Hecate stuttered, barely managing to get anything out before her eyes rolled to the back of her skull and her body crumpled to the ground.

Lurching forward, Ban rushed to catch the woman before she hit the ground. His mind solely focused on one person as he called her name in a mixture of fear and worry.

"Hecate!"