Chapter 2

Akeno´s Pov:

It was nearly a month, a little over three weeks, that had passed since that day... the time when both, Akeno and Koneko had found out the truth about `Rias´.

It was a month in that - at least for them - nothing had really changed.

In other words, they had done nothing about what they found out, Akeno thought bitter. They had just played along and pretended everything was like always. At least for the most part.

It had been weeks of insecurity for them - weeks in that they had not been quite sure what to do.

While they both had liked nothing more than to come out and confront Raynare and Issei about what they found out, there were several factors that kept them from doing exactly that.

The probably most important of them was named... Sirzechs.

Akeno had been thinking about the situation they were in. In the afterward, she was glad that they didn´t just came out with what they had discovered right away.

They knew for sure that at least Azazel was aware about Rias true identity.

Or more precisely of Raynare´s.

But the real question was, did Sirzechs know as well?

What if Issei and Azazel were actually deceiving the Maou about the death of his sister? That would be just cruel. Especially given how much Sirzechs cared about her.

If they had been truly keeping this from him, it might cause new distrust to come up... or at least between Sirzechs and Azazel - maybe even their entire Factions - and possibly destroying the Alliance as a whole. Given how much Sirzechs had loved his little sister, there was no telling how he would react if they were truly deceiving him about this.

So Akeno and Koneko decided to keep their mouths shut... at least until they had found out more.

Not that she couldn´t have understood their reasoning, if they truly kept what happened from him, especially given Sirzechs love for Rias.

Love? Okay, some people might call it a full-blown sister-complex instead, she admitted to herself.

Sirzechs was one of the leaders of the Underworld, one of the Devil Kings... and having him distracted at times like this with news of his sister´s death, was something nobody needed.

Still, Akeno wished she knew for sure. Damn it.

She and Koneko had kept their eyes open for signs if anybody else knew what was going on. But the problem was that they had barely seen Sirzechs and the other Devil Kings in these last few weeks.

This entire situation was just crazy. If someone had told her this a month ago, she would have thought it was a very - very - bad joke.

Rias wasn´t Rias and...

... Rias was dead -gone.

The thought alone was still hard to comprehend for both her and the young Nekomata.

And a lot of other things had happened since then... good and bad things.

Well, as far as it concerned the two of them, it was mostly bad. Given the situation they were in.

One thing, however, she was sure about.

One way or the other, she and Koneko would confront Raynare about all this very soon... and most likely Issei as well.

A small smile started to form on Akeno´s lips.

There was also another thing that had changed during the last weeks.

Issei had now started to actually have sex with them.

The first two - by what she knew - had been Kuroka and... of all people Asia.

Who would have thought that their little Nun would have been one of the first to actually fuck him? she thought naughtily.

xxx

After `it´ had happened and Rias had been `replaced´, for the next time nothing had happened between Issei and any of the other girls.

No wonder after what had happened, Akeno thought.

He must have needed time to deal with what had happened - with Rias loss. The loss that nobody besides him, Raynare, Azazel and maybe a few others even knew about... and now she and Koneko did as well.

But that didn´t cause him to tell them the truth, another part of her responded bitterly. Did he not trust them? Or had he just wanted to spare their feelings? But it should have been clear to him that they would find out sooner or later. Especially if Raynare didn´t want to stay in Rias body.

It was still hard to even wrap her mind around it. Rias, their friend, their Master, she was gone.

All that while her body was still walking around, talking to them, leading them. But it was no longer her. It was bizarre, it was nightmarish, it was... absurd.

Ironically, a part of her had to admit, Raynare was not even doing such a bad job. Of course, she had been a group leader in the Grigori before.

Yes, a team that they had wiped out, she remembered. The Fallen Angel had every reason to want to see them dead. But their team was still working. If she wanted she could have done something to send her, Koneko and Kiba to their deaths weeks ago.

This mysterious threat that she and Issei had mention must truly be a big vexation, Akeno said to herself, for her to cooperate with them like this.

xxx

Well, back to the sex-topic. They had then continued about half a week ago.

The next girl Issei slept with had been Irina, who had come into his room in that night.

There had however also been a tragic side about this. They all had been shocked, to put it mildly, as Irina had presented herself to them with black wings.

She had claimed that it didn´t matter that much to her. But they all could see that it did.

Irina had looked sad, but she only responded something about that she `had been ripe to fall anyway´, whatever she meant by this.

She was now slowly adjusting to having Azazel as a direct superior instead of Michael. The leader of Heaven had told them that he was sad to loose her like this and that he is glad to have her still work as part of the DxD team. But she was a Fallen Angel now and would better fit into the Grigori than Heaven. Irina actually agreed and told them all that she would be happy as long she was with Issei.

They had technically - in fact, two Fallen Angels on their team now.

It was a good thing, that she had overcome her stupid hatred some time ago. Otherwise, she wouldn´t know how to feel now.

Irina was then closely followed by Xenovia and then once again by Kuroka... and Koneko, who had been keeping an eye on Issei and Raynare at that time, and just decided to join him and her sister for a threesome.

As Akeno had asked her later how it had been, she had only replied - "very good" - in her usual stoic manner.

The next had been Irina, Xenovia and Asia again. And from then on it was pretty much continuing in that matter.

Issei had also talked to Yuuto about the feelings that Tsubaki obviously had for him and actually encouraged him not to `miss this chance´. (Actually, it was Rias/Raynare, who had pointed this little fact out to him in the first place.)

Akeno knew that he was also doing it with Rias, a.k.a Raynare quite regulary.

And then the rest of the girls had wanted "their turn" too. She herself included, Akeno admitted. But she just couldn´t bring herself to do it. Not as long as she hadn´t confronted Issei about... this.

One funny thing was that Issei-kun was now actually `taking them on´ in groups of two or three at once... and all of them seemed to be completely okay with that. They had truly become just as perverted as Issei. Or in her own case, had been right from the start, she admitted to herself.

To think this, they are finally having fun as a harem... and she, the self proclaimed dominatrix, wasn´t in on it.

She would have actually liked nothing more than to `assist´ Issei by giving the other girls punishments for being so naughty. Right before receiving her own of course, for being the worst of them all.

The thought alone made her feel hot. They were truly a group of fucked-up people, Akeno admitted.

But whenever she thought about Rias, all her excitement was falling down into itself.

Rias - She would have killed Raynare herself weeks ago, even if it meant being declared a Stray Devil and executed. But by all what she heard from both her and Issei, it had not been the Fallen Angel who was responsible for what happened to her. She had merely taken advantage of the situation... and being a bodiless spirit at that time, Akeno could not even really blame her.

No, it was this wretched creature who had attacked Rias nearly two months ago. She had sworn to herself, she would find that monster and find a way to destroy it forever.

xxx

Issei´s harem however had also gotten another, quite surprising, addition. She was far older than all of them.

In fact she was a many centuries old Devil from one of the pureblood families who had been away from the Underworld for a long time and only now returned. Lamia Belial was, as far as she had been told, a great-aunt or something of the current Head of House Diehauser. But of course, being a Devil, her appearance didn´t show that.

She looked like a very attractive woman in her early twenties.

They all had been shocked and surprised as she had made her interest in him known. Not that they - being Devils - had any real moral issues with it. And it wasn´t as if anyone of them had the right to judge.

Given the size of her breasts and her figure, Issei had of course instantly invited her into their harem.

At first Akeno had suspected that she might only be interested in Issei because of his status and fame. But to her surprise, their `new addition´ had actually been talking with him about his personal life, his feelings and his ideas and tried to get to know him personally.

She had not tried to reclaim her status as Head of House Belial, that she possessed centuries ago and instead left it to Diehauser and his heirs. Instead she had, to everyone´s surprise, actually offered to join DxD team, along with her Queen and help in the fight against Khaos Brigade.

She had also never tried to dominate the other harem-members - like Rias sometimes did, she admitted sourly to herself - and was okay with just being another of his mistresses. Quite unusual for such an old and powerful High Class Devil, she admitted.

But all that wasn´t the problem right now. Neither Issei´s newest relationship or Raynare were the topic right at this moment.

Right now they had a Rating Game to win, Akeno thought.

xxxxxxx

Raynare´s Pov:

It was in the capital of the Devil territory of the Underworld. They all were standing inside one of the greatest stadiums for Rating-Games that were currently in use.

And they were in front of a cheering audiance - mostly but not enterily consisting of Devils. There were also a few Fallen Angels, Youkai and other Shinto members and even a few representatives from Heaven present- that applauded their victory.

In short, it was a day in Hell - in the truest sense of the word - At least for one person.

To the outside-world, the audience - and for most others around her - she was Rias Gremory, Devil heiress of her family and one of the two governors of the town of Kuoh in the Human World.

At the inside however, her identity - her soul - was someone completely different.

Things had continued as they used to for all of them during the last few weeks, more or less. After all, unknown to most, one of their leaders had been `replaced´ with another person.

For the most others though, the day had so far had just been quite entertaining. The reason was that there had just been a quite interesting Rating Game been taking place, between the Peerages of the heiresses of the Houses Gremory... and Vassago, who was the one who had challenged the Gremory team to this match.

`Rias´ peerage - under the (secret) leadership of Raynare - had won quite easily in the end. But as it turned out, their win was something that their `leader´ was not exactly happy about.

In the moment the victorious peerage, together with their friend Irina, was on their way to leave the stadium where the game had taken place.

In fact, Raynare was furious. Not only because the entire fame for their victory was going in the name of Rias Gremory - a being that she, even now when she was gone, completely detested... it was also the fact that she had to spend the entire day, dealing with some of the most annoying Devils she had ever the bad luck to meet.

The girl who had been leading the other team was a prime contender.

As it turned out she had a grudge against Rias Gremory. And what infuriated Raynare even more was the blasted Devil´s reason for it.

"Are you okay?" Issei asked her, while they and the others were on their way outside. Both of them had taken a bit distance to the rest of the group. Most of the others didn´t paid much attention to it. They just assumed that he and Rias wanted a few minutes for themselves.

Akeno and Koneko however were paying attention to it. They knew the truth after all.

"Okay?" Rias (Raynare) responded. "Why should I not be okay? I have just won a fake battle in the name of Rias Gremory and have spent the day in the most `interesting company´ after all. I couldn´t be happier Ise-darling," she said sarcastically.

"And then this little bitch had actually the nerve to blame us - and kept going on about - the fact that `we´ have taken out Diodora and caused his pathetic House to be disgraced," she said, "- him of all people.

If I think about what this bastard had been trying to do I only wish I had killed him myself."

Issei grimaced a bit at her comment. He was the only one who understood the double meaning of her words. Stll he had to actually agree with her here.

xxx

If some of their teammates overheard them, they should of course think that she was talking about Diodora Astaroth´s kidnapping of Asia, with the intention to turn her into a glorified sex-slave and finally nearly killing her with this hell-device he had trapped her into back then.

In truth, it was actually more the original plot of the Astaroth heir, that outraged her. First, he had intentionally got Asia excommunicated from the Church and then he had intentionally wanted to let Raynare remove Asia´s Sacred Gear, only to attack and kill her right afterwards... and then turn Asia into his servant, pretending to save her.

Raynare was still boiling from rage at the thought that this Devil scumbag had been trying to use her like this.

xxx

Issei felt anger coming up inside him as well, as he thought back about Diodora and his actions.

The group had just arrived at the exit of the stadium.

And as it turned out, Raynare´s bad day was far from over.

Right at the entrance a small group of Devils was waiting for them.

If the Fallen Angel had thought she could never hate anyone as much as Rias Gremory...

... Well, that was before she ever had gotten to meet her family.

"Rias," she heard a - very pretty, young looking - female Devil greeting her in a happy tone. The woman was looking very similar to Rias, only with brown hair instead of red.

Raynare knew exactly who it was, Venelana Bael-Gremory, Rias mother. Her mother, as far as it came to everyone else here but Issei. And the man next to her was her husband and Rias father, Zeoticus, the current Duke of Gremory.

"Congratulations my dear," her `mother´ was saying. "You and your peerage did great."

"Like always," Zeoticus added smiling. "To be honest," he stated, "they seem actually stronger than ever before."

It became even worse, she realized - as the blasted female devil stepped even closer to her and draw her into a tight hug.

`Don´t touch me you filthy Devil!´ a part of her wanted to scream, but she barely held herself back. She had her role to play.

And besides that, Issei was technically a Devil as well... and he would certainly not appreciate it, if she reacted like that to them.

`I hate you. I hate you,´ Raynare repeated in her mind, while Venelana had her arms layed around her. `I hope you die a slow painful death you bitch,´ she thought. `I hope I get the chance to tell you some day what truly happened to your precious daughter and laugh about it,´she continued. `I... ´

`Why did that red haired Devil-bitch even had a family who cared about her this much?´ she asked herself.

`She had done nothing to deserve it. She had been nothing but a spoiled, two faced, corrupt...´

The next moment she had a picture flash through her mind of what had happened to the real Rias... and she had to cringe inside.

No, she would not feel bad for them, Raynare told herself.

"I am hardly the only one to praise," she stated aloud. "Issei-kun has done more for my peerage than anybody else after all."

"Of course Issei," Zeoticus stated. "Where would we all be without him?" he asked meaningful.

"Well, I for my part are pretty certain that I would be married off to Raiser and probably pregnant with some pureblood baby right now," Raynare/Rias replied with sarcasm and played bitterness.

"Rias - really, we thought we had left this matter behind us," Venelana said.

"What? That you had tried to sell me off to the highest bidder?" she stated. "Why should that bother me?"

"Rias..." her `mother´ started.

"It is Devil custom," Zeoticus reminded her casually.

"Which `our´ family was never so great in following anyway, right?" Raynare responded sarcastically, "unless of course it was in our own interest. Has onii-Sama ever followed Devil custom when he set up Issei-kun to fight Raiser for me?" she asked him.

"Have I been following it, when I was walking around on Church territory to spy on some secret project and ended up recruiting Kiba-kun?" she stated.

At the inside, however, she had to hold back her laughter.

Finally, she thought - the chance to have some fun with these Devils.

In truth she didn´t give a damn if these two had been trying to force their daughter into a marriage with some other bastard.

Quite the opposite, she would have been happy if that Raiser guy had been fucking her hard in the ass every night.

But this was just too good of a chance to mess with them.

"`Rias´," Issei finally spoke up, "I think that is enough. You should really not talk with your parents like this."

Her expression flickered for only a split-second... before she smiled.

"Of course Issei-kun, you are right, I am being silly. I am sorry, Mother, Father. I shouldn´t have brought it up again."

Akeno on her side, had to hold herself back, as she saw the Fallen Angel in Rias body toying with her family like this. She was glad when Issei interferred. She had already wanted to say something herself, but she would have for sure not managed to do it this politely.

"Yes `Rias´... " they heard another voice coming from some distance.

As they turned around, they saw Sirzechs approaching through the corridors.

xxx

Akeno´s Pov:

At one point, she admitted, she had to suppress a giggle, as she saw Raynare being hugged by Venelana and complimented by both of her `parents´.

Most of them didn´t notice how obviously uncomfortable she was. Of course most of them didn´t know her real identity and had no reason to suspect anything being off.

At the same time however, she felt anger and sadness rising up inside her again, when she thought about what happened to Rias... the real Rias.

Especially after Raynare mentioned the past engagement with Raiser and acted as if she was still upset about it.

That bitch. Who gave her the right to toy with them like this?

Damn it. It felt as if she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

She had to hold herself back from saying anything to the Fallen Angel that would have possibly revealed herself to her.

But then Issei stopped her instead.

xxx

"Yes Rias," they heard Sirzechs addressing her a few moments later, who was approaching them through the room, "you should really leave it be, don´t you think so `sister´."

Raynare just nodded.

"You are right of course," she replied.

He was indeed right, the Fallen Angel realized. They had more important things to do.

"Mother, father, if you would excuse us for a moment?" Sirzechs addressed them. "Rias, Issei and I have something to discuss. It is a matter of the DxD team, you understand? It is not as if we don´t trust you with this information, but this topic is for team-members and Faction leaders only," he told them friendly.

"Of course," Zeoticus replied.

"How about you come this evening to dinner, Sirzechs, Rias?" Venelana asked them.

Sirzechs knew, Akeno realized. Or did he? The polite but distant way he spoke to her.

If he did, it certainly made matters less complicated, she thought.

She made her decision. She and Koneko would have a talk with both Issei and Raynare very soon. But before that...

xxxxxxx

Kuoh

As soon as they had separated from the others, she and Koneko were teleporting back to Kuoh Academy.

They were supposed to meet someone there.

During the last week, next to her usual duties and schoolwork, Akeno had also done something else. In fact she had done something that, as short time ago, she had never thought she would ever do.

She had approached a few people, one of them her father Baraquiel - the same father she had been mercilessly shunning for the last few years - and asked discretely for their help.

Beside him, however, she had also asked Michael, the leader of the Angels.

What she wanted was information - information about one thing.

She wanted to find the location of the Spirit Wraith.

xxx

"Father," she greeted him.

The ten winged Fallen Angel leader had been waiting for them in their club-room.

"Akeno," he replied.

`He hadn´t been there.´ That had been her only real argument. As if it were even possible for a parent to be around their children all the time.

What did she expect? That he would be sitting around her 24 hours a day?

Even if he had been there at that time, the Himejimas would have just attacked another time. But she had been too self-centered to even realize that.

It had taken her the loss of another close person to wake up and finally face reality.

She had blamed her father because it was easy. Even worse, she had projected her hatred on the entire rest of his - no of their - race. She had been a coward. She had been a pathetic, despicable little person.

But that was over now.

"Father, before we begin, I wanted to tell you. I am sorry," she started, surprising Baraquiel. "I was a fool to blame you for mother´s death the whole time. You couldn´t even have been there all the time and... they had probably been simply waiting for a moment when you were gone and... It was just easy to blame you for everything and - and I was selfish and I was a coward and... I am sorry."

The Fallen Angel leader stared at her for a few moments.

"It is okay Akeno," he answered. "I don´t blame you for the way you reacted. The truth is, I blamed myself as well for a long time."

"I guess that makes us both idiots then, right father?" She giggled.

"But you are clearly the more hardheaded of us," he replied, chuckling as well.

"I guess I am," she said.

"Here is the information you asked for," he told her, returning to business and handing her a folder.

Akeno opened it and started to read.

"Reports about unusual supernatural activities that don´t go back to the three Factions or other known groups, detection of eruptions of energy over the planet, cases of unexplainable sicknesses under the human and Fallen Angel population, ghost sightings and other things," he stated. "Cases where the Churches had been asked for an exorcism. I am sure Michael can tell you more about this."

She nodded.

"Good."

"You are sure about this?" her father asked her.

"I have never been so sure," she answered. "I will find this thing."

"You know I will assist you," Baraquiel said. "But in exchange promise me one thing. Don´t do anything stupid. I don´t want to loose you as well. Not to that creature."

"I promise I will be careful," Akeno answered. "I will accept any assistence you want to give me. But I also promise that I will find this being and personally destroy it."

xxxxxxx

Issei´s home - the evening of the next day

"Yes, Ah - harder," the woman who was on his bed on her knees before moaned, as he was fucking her from behind and kneeding her large breasts at the same time. Her long blonde hair was falling wildly into her face, while they both were moving.

Both of them cried out as he came inside her a few moments later.

"You are incredible for such a young boy," Lamia stated, after they both calmed down. "I knew you wouldn´t disappoint me... in anything." She turned around and gave him a light kiss on the mouth.

Beside them was lying the naked sleeping form of Xenovia, who was the other girl with him for this night.

A few weeks ago, Issei would have thought this was paradise... but that was before they had lost Rias. He still loved them all... and loved doing it with them.

But he still felt the pain any time he couldn´t distract himself somehow.

"Are you okay?" Lamia asked him.

"Y-yes," Issei answered. "I have just been thinking about something." He made up an excuse.

"I see," she stated. "I guess you have much to deal with right now."

"You have no idea," he said.

In opposite to what he believed however, Lamia knew exactly what happened to Rias and who the current `Rias Gremory´ truly was - for good reason.

"Are you thinking about the meeting?" she asked him.

Issei nodded.

"I am," he answered

A meeting between leaders from the Three Faction, their allies and the members of the DxD team was taking place in two days from now.

"Don´t worry about it," she said to him. "I am sure it will all work out. You and the others had been beating these terrorists for months now, right? And now I am here with you as well."

"Yes, I shouldn´t worry," he said. But Khaos Brigade was no longer the only threat, he thought... and no longer the greatest one.

In opposite to the other girls, Lamia was also the only one, who downright told him that she would also be taking other lovers if she wanted to. Well, he was hardly in the position to complain about that, he thought. Not with him having an entire willing harem.

She had told him that right now, she had one other guy beside himself... a "very handsome and powerful Devil", as she called him, but she didn´t wanted to give him his name yet.

Lamia had also mentioned that he would also be at the conference and that she truly wanted to introduce them to each other. She wanted her `two men´ to get along with each other, she had told him.

She gave him a warm smile in this moment. But her thought's at the same time were all but innocent.

Yes, she could not await to introduce him to Rivezim.

Side-note: Irina has become a Fallen Angel in this story. The main reason however was not that she had sex with Issei, in opposite to what Akeno thought.

Remember, everything what happened up to chapter 6/7 of Gods of Darkness, happened in this story as well. It was implied that she should had already fallen because of the strong feelings of anger and jealousy, she felt over the revelations about Rias and Raynare and that it was only Faust´s influence that kept that from happening.

Here Faust had never erased hers and Issei´s memories after the incident and her feelings stayed more or less the same and overcame and turned her at some point. She had then kept the fact that she had turned into a Fallen for herself for a short while.

Akeno however had no way to know that.