A girl. Afraid, desperate. Her friend missing and wanting to do something, anything, to help. It was admirable. It even fit the idiom regarding the road to hell being paved with good intentions. Emily had unwittingly damned herself by seeking his aid for her own desires. Yet this girl... Laurie, he thought her name was. She had never summoned him before. She had been a part of some festivities, engaged with him in cautious touches and kisses, but the sin of summoning him had always been on Emily's soul. And now Laurie had followed her into hell.

Well, then again, religious town. And most Christian sects preached forgiveness when asked for it. He hoped for their sakes they weren't Catholic or some other denomination that required active confession of sins to a member of the clergy. Excommunication was an option. A very much final option with true heavenly portent. What irony that the finality of damnation was a power of the clergy more than devils.

Not that any of this was particularly his problem. "So Emily is missing," Lelouch reiterated her own words. "I assume the standard responses have been made to a case of missing persons?" There were several explanations, some of them not even involving the supernatural in the slightest.

"No!" the girl exclaimed, worrying at her cardigan as she looked this way and that, expecting she might be found out at any moment. "That's just it! No one even knows she was here, let alone that she's gone!" Lelouch nodded. Someone had gone to decent lengths to cover their tracks. So not mundane but probably still some stray exorcists doing what they did best. Murdering people for sin. "My Aunt Bess drove me down to Tallahassee for my grandpa's funeral. When I got back... No one even recognised Emily's name! Even her dad doesn't remember he's married with a kid!"

That all tracked with his theory... Except for one part. "Married? He forgot he's married? What about Emily's mother?"

"She's gone too, I guess?" the girl asked. "I don't... Her dad still lives in the same house but I don't really know her mom to know if she's missing. I don't even know her first name. I just know her dad is living all alone with no idea who his daughter is!" She knelt down to her handbag sitting on a rock, rummaged around in it to find an envelope and proffer it. "Here, this is, it's all my savings and also my family's vacation fund. You can have all of it, just please," she begged with watery eyes, "Please help me find my friend!"

With the circumstances the girl had outlined... "Given all you've told me, it's quite possible however much money is in that envelope isn't enough to make this an equitable exchange." A complete removal of Emily alone was significant. A removal of her mother alongside that... There was something more going on with this. This wasn't some stray exorcist's overenthusiasm.

"I... Then..." She looked down, bit her lip. Then began to unbutton her cardigan.

"Laurie."

"You can have my virginity," she whispered. "Devils want that sort of thing, right? I... I don't have anything else to give."

Was he a bleeding heart? He might have been. But even so, this was not a circumstance where such a trait would reveal itself. He barely knew this girl. Barely knew the girl she wanted him to find. They had only shared some slight physical intimacy. What did these people matter to him? His work at home called to him. He had other things to worry about. And yet... And yet... This situation was strange. It was so outrageously elaborate. To completely erase the existence of two people from the minds of an entire town? No doubt records had been removed too. The only reason anyone knew of their disappearance was the happenstance of someone not being present for the wipe. Someone was making some sort of significant play. An elegantly woven plan for which Lelouch had happened upon a loose thread.

It would be downright criminal not to pull at it.

"Button yourself back up," he ordered her. She looked up at him with wet eyes, her fingers remaining on her near open cardigan. "I don't want your virginity."

"O-Oh..." The teenage girl looked away and...

Oh, of course she would take it like that. "Not like that. I just don't care enough about sex to use it for barter." This was why he never engaged in this kind of thing in his first life. Well, reason number eight or nine or so on the list but that didn't make it any less a valid reason. Teenage egos could be so unreasonable. Thought the teenager. "Twenty years."

"What?"

"Twenty years," he repeated. "You will act in my interest when asked. I will not take anything from you. I will not knowingly have you implicated in wrongdoing. But beyond those stipulations, if I come to you with an order, you will comply. Those are my terms."

"And... That's not like... You take my soul or anything," Laurie asked cautiously.

It was so strange, looking up to the sky to plead for patience when up there was the last place to find anyone wanting to help him. "No. I will not take your soul. You'll probably need to do a lot of praying and repentance to even the scales from this. But given why you're doing this in the first place, maybe the heavenly host will be understanding."

"Why would you tell me that?"

"I don't like to make deals with unclear terms," the devil answered. "So?"

"If you bring her back..." she held her hand to her heart, clutching her clothing as she wrestled with the decision. "If you bring her back, then I'll do it."

Lelouch nodded, impressed with her resolve, though not her good sense. "Then we have an accord. I shall begin my investigation."

And there was only one real place to start. Time to pull on that thread.

-(-)-

Lelouch stared up at the modest two story home. Come to think of it, he had never seen it from the outside. Emily's summons were uniformly in the basement and he never had cause to emerge from it. It was perhaps another minor flaw in the cover-up that a man would live alone in such a home. It being rather too large for one person, by human standards.

He straightened his tie, smoothed out his suit jacket and approached the door, giving it three swift taps on the wood frame before he noticed the doorbell and rang that too for good measure. Through the frosted glass panes of the door he saw a figure moving behind it. Then heard the click of a latch. "Can I help you?" the owner of the home asked as he opened the door.

"Mister Withers?"

"That's right."

"A pleasure to meet you, sir. My name is Lelouch Lamperouge. I represent a humanitarian interest for the benefit of the youth of this country." More specifically, one youth of this country. "Our aim is to ensure that a young person in distress is able to return to living in a safe and happy home. I apologise for coming unannounced, but I was hoping I might have a few minutes of your time."

"So this is for like a foster program?"

"All children deserve a safe home."

The man seemed to think about it for a few seconds. "You know, I always wanted to have kids. Never found the right woman. Sure, come on in." The door opened further, letting Lelouch inside, all without any use of hypnosis.

Which was good. He wanted to get inside before getting into any of that. This was, after all, a devoutly religious town. You never knew who was watching while out in the open.

"Can I get you anything?"

"That's kind of you. A glass of water. With some ice, if it's possible?" the devil smiled amiably. "It's quite the scorcher."

"Ha, yeah, guess you're not from around here if this heat's getting to you."

"I admit I only found myself here recently."

"Well don't you worry, before long you'll forget what you look like without a tan." Mister Withers returned from the kitchen with a tall glass of water with ice. "Take a seat where you like," he offered, handing him the glass as he took his own seat. Naturally Lelouch sat across from him. "So, foster homes. What can I do to help?"

"Well," the devil smiled amiably, his stare becoming just that little more compelling, "I'd like to know what happened to your daughter if that's alright."

Lelouch continued to smile as the former father's own eyes grew somewhat vacant. The man's mouth opened. Then shut.

And with the movement, the dreamy stare morphed into one of firm, unyielding focus. A stare of determination. Of drive. "Death to the monsters."

Oh dear.

Withers rose from his seat. Not in panic or urgency. With a smooth, efficient but slightly rigid movement. In that same movement, he reached behind his back, his hand returning to view with a pistol in its grip that was swiftly pointed between the devil's eyes. Lelouch ducked out of the way, more than glad to have done so as a beam of light burst out of the handgun. Not just light. Holy light. Had this been a trap for him? That didn't matter. Not yet. He could analyse once the man had been incapacitated.

He gave the burning cushion of his chair only enough acknowledgement to put it out with a hastily constructed ice water spell. Then focused on the matter of the man programmed to try to kill him. He leapt over the table, caught the gun under his armpit and held it there as Withers tried to fire again, hitting nothing important. As Lelouch wrestled the man into submission he found that he was far too strong for a human. Hysterical strength, perhaps? Something along the lines of how his geass commands allowed people to surpass the body's limits. If so, this was a powerful compulsion. On the level he had been concerned about ever since learning mind control was a known quantity in this world.

Even so, a human pushing past his body's limit was still no match for a devil who (reluctantly) trained his physicality from youth. Before long, the gun had been dropped, the man's head pressed insistently into the table with his arms wrenched behind him, a knee on his back.

"I feel you're being entirely uncivil, Mister Withers," Lelouch chided, kicking the light pistol further away. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Death to the monsters."

"See, that isn't helpful." A subliminal command. One triggered by hypnosis. A sort of anti-tampering measure? Perhaps, Lelouch admitted, the ones responsible for this had covered their tracks even better than he had assumed. Even with the single, implausible thread he had, these people had lain a trap for anyone who happened to find it. A failsafe in case they overlooked something. Why a light gun, though? Had they figured out it would be a devil who would find them out ahead of time? No, that was preposterous. There was no reasonable way for them to reach such a conclusion. Unless they had interrogated Emily... But why would they care for such details as her summoning a devil to fool around? True, that might have been the reason they took her in the first place if it were a stray exorcist, but that was equally absurd. They wouldn't have taken her mother if that were the reason. Nor the resources for the elaborate cover-up.

... He smiled as he realised. It was obvious. Why a light gun? Why a weapon powered by the faith of the wielder? Because this was a town full of the devout. A weapon like that would be the best chance for Withers to fight back against whatever tried to undermine the mind wipe. Even if victory was unlikely, it would almost certainly end in a mess. Were Lelouch a more ruthless sort, Withers would be dead and he would need to do his own cover-up. One made all the more difficult for people in a town of people almost certainly having the same subliminal triggers for attempts at hypnosis.

It would be an enormous incident that would alert whoever was responsible that someone was on to them. But in the here and now, Withers was fine. No one outside knew Lelouch's intentions. And unfortunately for the abductors, he had something far more reliable and powerful than some subliminal triggers to get real answers.

"Mister Withers–"

"Death to the monsters."

"Yes, yes, death to the monsters. Now," he tilted the man sideways to make eye contact once again. "From now on, answer all of my questions with the truth." He nodded in satisfaction. The man continued to struggle but that didn't matter. Only the answers mattered. "What happened to your daughter?"

"She was taken." Withers blinked. "Death to the monsters."

"Mm-hm. Let's try again. Who took your daughter and why?"

"She was needed." As the sentence ended, his lips moved to form a 'd', but shifted again. His answer wasn't complete yet. "She was of the blood. They wanted her because she was a descendent. They needed her for their project. Death to the monsters."

"You still haven't answered, who took her?" And yet, Withers stayed silent. Because he didn't know. Damn. "What did they look like?"

"One was asian, blue eyes, dark hair. Young. Dressed weird. The other was blond, blue eyes, had glasses, wore a suit. Death to the monsters."

"Did they identify each other at all?"

"... The blond one called the Asian 'Leader'. Death to the monsters."

Hm. So far that was a fair number of clues as to the who. And also of what power they must wield. Even now, after being subjected to geass, the man was following what programming they had left. Repeating that one phrase no matter what. And the phrase itself may have suggested some motive for their endeavours. And though he hadn't asked, Withers had also given him the reason his wife had been taken also. If Emily was a descendent of someone of importance, obviously so was one of her parents. "Who was she descended from?"

"... A hero. Death to the monsters."

So he didn't know more specifically than that. "What do they plan to do with her?"

"... Death to the monsters."

He didn't know. "Where did they take her?"

"Into their car. Death to–"

This was fast becoming irritating. And hearing the man wish for his death on every answered question had worn down Lelouch's patience. "What happened during the encounter from the beginning, including everything they said?"

"They came to the door like you did. The blond one pulled out a sword and told me to fetch my wife and daughter. I did. And then... They... They waved the sword again and my wife smiled at him. My daughter smiled at him. The blond asked the Asian if they should get started and..." Tears welled in his red-ringed eyes as his voice grew shaky. "They went around the house. They destroyed every trace that Jan and Emily were ever here. I watched them, the Asian, he did something with a spear and her room was wiped clean. Her books. Her drawings. The teddy bear I won for her when she was eight. All of it, gone. And then... They made it so I didn't miss it anymore. I watched four strangers leave my house, get into their car and drive away." The man wept openly, with no control or desire to stop himself. "Death to the monsters."

The devil was silent. He could only look at the man with pity. Even here, even after the control he was under had frayed from the geass forcing him to relive the horrible events. He was still beholden to it. He couldn't escape their control. Perhaps if Lelouch had geassed him to overcome it, but he hadn't been working for the man's sake. Hadn't realised what had been done, that he couldn't undo it. And even then, if he had chosen to give such a command, he may not have gotten the answers he needed.

Given the tears he shed for a family he only now remembered he had, Lelouch believed he would rather save his wife and daughter than save himself.

"I'll find them," Lelouch promised, no matter how little it meant to the man. He would see about methods to purge this particular brand of mind control also. But for the moment, there was nothing he could do for the man. "I'm sorry about this." With an effort of magic, the man's limbs were bound. The devil carried him to his bedroom and bound him to the bed. A place he wouldn't cause any trouble. There was no way to know if he had any commands to kill himself or do harm to others. Keeping him safe and quiet here would be best until he found Emily. Lelouch would send someone to keep an eye on him in the meantime.

Returning downstairs to the living room, the Bael heir knelt and picked up the light gun from the floor. There were so many of these it could barely be called a lead. From what he could tell it wasn't materially different from any other he had seen, not that he had seen many. This. An Asian man with a spear. A blond, presumably Caucasian man with a sword. They wanted both mother and daughter for their being descended from a hero. And clearly very keen on the idea of death to monsters.

... The sword. A sword that had the ability to control people. And for someone who spent a fair amount of time researching mind control methods, those criteria put forth one distinctly worrying conclusion. When he had told Laurie the price would be high for investigating this, it seemed he had still underestimated it. A mystery deeper than normal was one thing. A mystery that led to the wielder of Excalibur Ruler was entirely another. A contract to find a missing girl should not have such gravity attached to it. And said wielder intent on purging what he saw as monsters?

No. He couldn't ignore this even if he wanted to.

But where to go next. Excalibur Ruler belonged to the Pendragon family. Were they a part of this plot? It seemed a reasonable conclusion but approaching them directly would be... Ill-advised. Walking up to the most powerful wielders of holy swords to ever exist and demanding answers. Some of his plans had been called suicidal. One of his plans was literal suicide. But there was a time and place for such things and this was neither.

But what other options were there? The Asian man was so vague a lead as to be completely meaningless. Interrogate the rest of the town? They had all likely had their own encounters with the two, but he wasn't about to tie up every man, woman and child in town, turn them into mindless monster-slaying automatons in hopes of a nugget of information more than Mister Withers had given.

It pained him to realise it. But the favour he had so recently earned with Rosenkreuz. He would already need to call it in.

This wasn't going to be a pleasant experience.

-(-)-

Vitzenburg Castle. To the unknowing public, it had been entirely abandoned. There was no reason to think otherwise for them. With the benefit of a pact with the Agares, most people entering the building would find themselves in a folded moment in time. A moment in which the castle remained beautiful, picturesque but inexplicably empty. There were stories of people vandalising it, only to return and find the damage undone. Most ordinary people heard those tales and discarded them as silly ghost stories. After all, defacing a historical site like that had a hefty penalty. Obviously the people telling such stories were just lying.

In truth, for those aware enough to use a different, more magical entrance, they would find the castle not abandoned at all. It had been in use for a very long time. The main headquarters of the Rosenkreuz magician guild. Not the oldest in the world, but one of the most famous. Rudiger Rosenkreutz, founder of the guild, had stayed as its leader for more than two centuries, first as a human, then as a devil servant of Lord Mammon. The guild itself survived beyond him, going through two different heads before the current one.

The one Lelouch Bael and Kallen Stadtfeld stood before in this moment. In an office with walls lined with telling drawn mandalas that promised quick response to anything the head of the guild might need. Many of them painted centuries prior. The space filled with ancient scrolls, modern filing cabinets, a grand ebony desk stacked with stained reports on one side and empty pizza boxes on the other.

And sitting on the edge of that desk was a woman of bored disposition. Her dull expression tinged with annoyance detectable in her golden eyes. Her lime green hair hanging down her back like a curtain, swept to her side that she wouldn't sit on it.

And as ever, she remained unimpressed with the young devil before her. "Lelouch Bael. You've been gone such a short time I've barely had the chance to miss you. Come to call in that favour already?"

-(-)-

A/N: This chapter voted for and seen a week early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P. Fear the P. Love the P.