Devil & Devil: Different
(sequel to Deja-Vu)
Hours later, after the sun had fallen and the stars had come out, there was a knock at his door. Sword ignored it. The door opened anyway.
"Sword?" Ios paused at the entryway, looking around. "Oh, you *are* here."
Sword grunted and continued polishing his devil-sword. He'd stropped it earlier and gotten a good edge on it, but it had accumulated a lot of gunk over the years it had belonged to somebody else. Sword was determined to clean it up and make it even more his own than just by the sword choosing him. Even if he had neglected it since he got the devil-spawn. The devil-spawn was an artificial tool he would get rid of as soon as he got his body back. A devil-sword was like a mini-minion. And he should really take better care of this one.
"You didn't come out tonight."
Sword didn't really see that as something that needed a comment or reply.
Ios sighed, ^What's wrong?^
Nothing was wrong. Why wouldn't the stupid angel leave him alone?
"You gave me a bit of a scare today... How *did* you survive the Might? Let alone protect Kanna?"
Might would often destroy all devils around it... By the way Ios phrased that, Sword realized that the angel may not have been holding back just for Kanna alone. Sword had been well within the range of the blast... He looked up at the angel, his shell breaking just a bit. Then he refocused his attention on the sword with an effort. And he wasn't about to answer.
Ios came further into the room and shut the door.
Stupid angel. A look wasn't an invitation. With a grunt, Sword hefted the devil-sword and put it up on the wall where he'd installed a frame earlier. The sword could easily get free of it if it needed to.
"All right, I won't press. But Sword..."
Sword turned and tackled the angel, driving him to the floor in a ground-shaking crash. Taken by surprise, Ios automatically grappled back, and they wrestled across the room. It wasn't a real fight -- there were no challenges, and they were being careful of where they were. Staying in the room and avoiding breaking anything. But it was good to match strengths and get some physical roughhousing without breakage. It was just the right amount of action after the day they'd had.
They finally came to a halt with Ios on top, pinning Sword down, his golden hair tickling Sword's face, and his sweat dripping down... Sword had a sudden sharp surge of desire, his imagination painting that same picture but with Ios sweating and on top for a very different reason... His normal fantasy was one of him raping the angel. But lately, he'd been having dreams the other way too. If Shiva had been the one wrestling him, Sword would have known damn well where this position would have led...
But this was the angel. Ios laughed and rolled off Sword, brushing his hair back and wiping the sweat off. He stood up and stretched, blue eyes gentle on Sword and dancing with merriment and joy. The gaze flipped briefly to Sword's middle, and then back up as the angel's grin widened. Not clueless, but just plain not interested, and didn't that cool Sword's heat quickly enough?
"Fucker." Sword stayed lying on the ground for another minute.
Ios sat down on Sword's bed. "We found the old vessel in the temple and made sure there wasn't any residue left. Thank goodness the humans managed to get out of the way in time." ^Thanks to you, they said.^
Sword didn't respond to either the words or the thought. He sat up cross-legged on the floor and looked at the angel.
A knock at the door interrupted anything before they started. "Are you boys okay?" Souma and Kanna's father opened it a crack and looked in at them, with BatCat peering around the bottom edge.
"We're fine," Ios replied in his human-polite voice -- never mind that it wasn't the least bit like Kanna would have responded. "We were just playing. Sorry to have disturbed you, Sir."
"Oh, well... okay, that's all right then." The father looked as faintly anxious as he always did, unsure how to do anything relating to them.
Sword snorted at the weakling human, disdainful of the fear. Ios gave him a reproachful glance, which he ignored.
The father backed out and was leaving when Sword thought of something. ^Get in here!^ he summoned the small cat demon. BatCat squeezed through the door before it shut and looked at him expectantly.
"Tell me what you know about a demon named Brandishon -- would have been in Hell about 300 years ago."
Ios gave him another look, this one questioning, and Sword continued to ignore it. He was damned well going to ignore anything that Ios was going to say because, hell, he was just the latest devil and the fuck Ios would have to say about anything about his life.
The small devil switched into her cat-girl form to answer. "Brandishon. A powerful demon of the sixth rank, wielding the powers of Moxitoxin and Aboruitan. One of only 20 demons of the time to have survived the great culling of the Nightmare Rides on Darkness Falls. Known as well for being the longest surviving challenger of, er..." BatCat's librarian-recital ran down as she glanced uneasily at Ios.
The angel shrugged, and Sword cursed. "We know that part. Go on."
"Uh, well, that was mostly it. He was considered to have been one of the great potential replacements for a Devil Lord of the time, but then he disappeared, presumed killed by, uh..." she trailed off again.
"It wasn't me, to my regret," Ios stated.
"You fucking said that earlier -- why the fuck didn't you kill him if you wanted to?" Sword growled, part of his exasperation running over.
There was a longish pause.
"You fucking *didn't* want to!"
"No! For..." Ios threw up his hands, "Sword, it was three hundred years ago!"
"Which you can't fucking tell me you don't remember like it was yesterday!"
"Yes I can, actually." The angel shook his head, "I would go mad if I remembered everything of my life." ^Especially all the deaths.^
Sword ignored the last part, though it did make his rebuttal a little less violent than it might have been. "Angelic dispensation. Do you also not fucking remember everything you've told me in the last several years? And even if you don't remember every little detail about every shitty thing, you remembered Brandishon well enough when you finally showed your damn face today, and you're not going to sit on my fucking bed and tell me to my face that you don't remember why you didn't kill him!"
The pause dragged out again, but this time Sword didn't interrupt it.
"That was quite the speech," Ios finally said in mild tones. "All right. It's not as simple as whether I wanted to do it or not. I sometimes get stuck in habits, and I'd been fighting him for a long time..." His blue eyes were steady on the devil. "You've fought me for six years with over 100 fights. Brandy and I didn't fight as often, and we'd been fighting on and off for about the same time -- for my challenges, that many years is a long time."
Inwardly, Sword winced at hearing the nickname fall casually from Ios' lips.
"I had decided he needed to die... but our 52nd fight was interrupted. I could have chased him. I could have ended the fight sooner. I could have used Heaven's Might... I chose to wait until our next fight. And then there wasn't one." Ios looked over at the devil-sword on the wall. "Initially, I thought he'd fallen in a demon war. And I was glad that it hadn't been me. But then I found out he'd disappeared..." Ios closed his eyes. "I should have killed him."
"Did your stupid God tell you that?"
The angel opened his eyes to glare at Sword, "If I'd had guidance, the devil would be dead." His voice was completely assured of that fact, leaving no room for doubt. "No, it was just a feeling I had. Brandy had gotten... unstable, and he'd changed from when I'd started fighting him. He was on the cusp of battle skills where I wouldn't be sure of a kill, and he'd..." Ios waved a hand vaguely around, "It's a bit hard to explain."
"You kill your challengers when they can beat you?" BatCat asked in fascination, glancing between Sword and Ios.
Sword growled, standing up, his fists clenched.
"No!" Ios fell back on the bed, muttering about devils leaping to conclusions. He sat up again shaking his head, "If that was true, Sword would have been dead after our 32nd fight." The angel grinned at Sword.
Sword fell back a step, startled. BatCat glanced between them again, "But you just said..."
"I said it was hard to explain." Ios got up from the bed and started to pace, avoiding both of the devils in his path. "I accept challenges for different reasons. And sometimes those reasons change. And---" Ios broke off and then shook his head. "I don't think I want to try and explain this."
"Because it would fucking ruin Heaven's master strategist's plans." Sword took Ios' place on the bed, sitting with one leg tucked under, the other swinging loosely.
"Because it wouldn’t make sense to you."
Sword narrowed his eyes and glared at the angel.
Ios paced around a bit more and then finally offered a partial tidbit, "Look, you have to understand that I don't like to kill *any* of my challengers if they make it past the seventh battle."
The two devils glanced at each other. "Like hell," Sword said mildly.
"Name one." Ios stopped pacing. "Besides Brandishon."
"Trogdolite."
"Killed by another angel in regular battle."
"Poison."
"Killed by a devil in a turf war down in Hell."
"Samantha."
"Also killed in Hell."
"Grendel-bite."
"Sixth battle."
"Hawdath?"
"Third. You're stretching now."
Sword looked over to the other devil. BatCat frowned, "Matthias." Sword didn't recognize the name, and presumed it was from before his time.
Ios shook his head. "I killed him six years after we'd stopped challenging each other, in regular battle."
BatCat blinked, "There's a difference?"
"Yes." Ios and Sword shared a look.
Then Sword frowned, "You stop challenges?"
"Sometimes. If the reasons for the challenges aren't valid anymore and they don't require a death." A shrug was the only emotion they could read off the angel besides his words. "I prefer that to killing them."
"What would make a challenge not valid anymore?"
Ios huffed, "I just said I wasn't going explain every bit of my reasoning. It's not..." He paused for several moments, then looked at the BatCat, "Leave us."
"No way! It's just getting good." The cat looked to Sword.
Sword debated with himself for a moment. Ios obviously had something to say that he didn't want other devils to know, but that he'd tell Sword... Sword decided he didn't want to hear it. "What the fuck is the deal about your Heaven's Might?"
The angel and the cat both blinked at the abrupt change of topic.
Ios opened and closed his mouth, then shook his head, "What makes you think I'm going to answer?"
^Because.^ Sword glared at the angel, all his pent-up anger and the other emotions he didn't want to identify swirling underneath.
The angel held his gaze for only a few moments before looking down and away. He didn't reply to Sword's mental touch, and his impassive face was back on again. "What did you want to know?"
"You're actually going to tell us?" BatCat breathed out, excitement gleaming in her eyes.
The devil and the angel both looked at her then at each other, amusement lightening a bit of the tension.
"It's not a secret." Ios sat down in the chair at Sword's desk, "Just something that those of us who have it don't like to discuss."
"Well, there's the first question -- why only some of you? And for those fucking angels that have it, why don't you use it more often?"
"I would have thought you'd consider it cheating," Ios commented dryly, avoiding both of the questions.
"I do." It was Sword's turn to shrug, "But what I consider cheating, most angels don't give a damn about -- they only care about winning."
"Like most devils."
The rejoinder had Sword glaring at the angel, but only half-heartedly because it was true enough.
"Heaven's Might..." Ios hesitated for a long pause.
"Oh stop it with all the damn pauses already!"
"I'm thinking! Will you fucking let me already?!"
Both devils in the room blinked at Ios' vulgarity. Sword grinned -- it was a good day when he could get the angel *that* riled up.
"Damn it, Sword..." Ios rubbed his forehead. "All right." He got up from the chair again and moved over to the window, looking out and away from the devils. "Heaven's Might is only given to angels who know what the consequences of using it are."
"The consequences are dead devils -- I think all of the Battlegrounds knows that!" Sword couldn't see his face, but he knew that remark would have gotten a grimace from the angel.
"To angels who care what the consequences are," Ios reworded his statement.
"That's a subtle difference," BatCat observed.
"Not really." Insubstantial white wings spread out around the angel, blocking their view of him. They were gone after a moment. "Heaven's Might does more than kill -- it destroys."
Several mocking statements came to mind, but Sword refrained from using any of them, contenting himself with a basic question. "What's the difference?"
"Might channels a pure form of God, generally justice, and that purity..."
"Cleanses the dirty laundry?" Restraint was overrated.
Ios turned around, his blue eyes dark, "I don't like that term."
"What, laundry?"
"Cleanses! Sword, will you knock it off?!"
His only reply was a grin.
"So what does it do?" BatCat interrupted again. Sword knew he'd kept the lesser devil in the room for a reason. He didn't really trust himself with Ios right now. Either they'd end up fighting for real...
Ios made a negating gesture, "It destroys a devil's soul as well as the body."
"Dead is dead," Sword made himself sound bored, though he could never feel easy about Heaven's Might used. It... it left a bad feeling everywhere, and shivers through all devils near enough to feel it. Even today, it had been... it wasn't nice. Which is why he wanted to know more about it.
"Dead for a devil isn't dead -- it's moving to another form."
Sword sat up at that one, his eyes widening.
"You didn't know that?" Ios blinked. Then he looked over at the BatCat, who had switched from her cat-girl form back to her full cat form. "BatCat knows what I'm talking about."
The cat regarded the angel with unblinking eyes.
"By the Bloody Falls of Hangman's Toe, stop the fucking leading statements already!" Sword crashed his hand down on the bed, the mattress making the gesture not as dramatic as he would have liked.
"Sorry," Ios muttered, not sounding all that repentant. "Devils are bound body and soul to Hell. When the body dies, the soul reshapes itself, to a new body, generally a lesser one as part of themselves have been destroyed. This cycle continues on until there is nothing left." He gestured to the cat, "BatCat is a very old soul."
^You can tell my incarnations?^ The cat... sounded different in mental voice than the light-hearted child-girl's of the other form. Sword shivered to hear it, remembering his first few encounters with the cat. It was easy to forget that BatCat was a mystery in their group, especially when she rarely joined any of their adventures.
Ios shook his head, "Some angels can, but I don't have that gift. I can just feel that you are a very old soul. And for a soul to live that long in Hell -- you must have gone through many forms."
^To be reduced to this, you mean.^ The cat stared at the angel for another long minute. Then she looked at the door. Without any signs of power being used, the door opened by itself, and the cat walked through. The door shut itself behind her.
"Okay, that was weird." Sword stared at the closed door.
"I thought I might get more out of her than that... but oh well." Ios scratched his head and then looked over at Sword. "Were you really interested in Heaven's Might?"
"You answered it." Sword remembered the charcoal lump that Ios had destroyed. Nothing. Somebody he'd once called 'Brandy', gone without the angel showing a single emotion. "If I killed humans here, you'd kill me."
"I'd try to." Ios shrugged, "As I just said, you passed the point where I could easily kill you a long time ago."
"You could always use the Might on me."
"Only by destroying Kanna and Souma as well." Ios shook his head, "I don't like to use it. That was the other part of your question -- those of us who can use it are the ones who will mourn for the total destruction and therefore we won't use it unless we need to. Those who don't care about the devil's souls they destroy... aren't granted its use. But even beyond that, I can't use it on you now anyway," Ios smiled as he added the last.
Sword had started to formulate another question, but at the additional statement, he paused. Ios hadn't been talking about Kanna there. "What?"
"You're the one who said it -- Heaven's Might cannot harm Heaven's Blessing." Ios gave him a penetrating look. "Not that I know how you got a Blessing in the first place."
"But..."
"It can't be taken away. Congratulations, Sword, you've joined the ranks of the few devils not susceptible to Heaven's Might. Ever."
Sword opened and closed his mouth a few times. Even though he'd just used it to his advantage, he hadn't thought it was *that* encompassing... angels couldn't take it off? Ever? "Should you be telling me that?"
Ios shrugged.
"So who else in Hell can't be harmed?" Sword was already turning over possibilities in his mind.
"Satan. Diablo. Lucifer and any other fallen angel..." Ios shrugged again. "Any of the Hell Lords who were tossed down in the original great Betrayal sixty thousand years ago. I don't know of any others alive today."
The casual reference to something that was not only ancient history but was pretty much *forgotten* history made Sword blink. He was used to Ios pulling out the 2,000 year stuff, but 60,000?
"There have been others... but not for at least 2,000 years. You're the first I've heard of in my lifetime." Ios stared at the devil.
"And you'd really like to know how it happened." Sword grinned. He had something on Ios that the angel didn't know and wanted to know, and Sword wasn't going to tell. It would drive the angel bonkers.
Ios judged Sword's expression and shook his head. "You're not going to explain it?"
"No," Sword replied simply, reveling in it. And that let him take his courage in hand, "Tell me how I'm different from your fucking 'Brandy' demon."
The switch of topics had Ios' full attention and he shot a deeply penetrating look at the devil. "Is *that* what this is all about? Sword..." Ios came towards him, hand outstretched.
Sword hopped off the bed and backed away, putting it between him and the angel. "Don't you *dare* fucking patronize me!" he snarled. If Ios touched him, he was going to rip his fucking hand off.
Ios stopped, his hand dropping back to his side. "Sword, Brandishon couldn't hold a candle to you. You are, without a doubt, the most intriguing-and infuriating-devil I know, and there is no devil I'd rather be here on Earth with." His voice was sincere enough, and the blue eyes were steady on him... but 2,000 years would teach an angel a lot about acting. And the words meant nothing, really.
"How does that fucking make me different?"
Ios blinked.
"You'd say that about whatever fuck devil you ended up with here -- whichever was your current challenge. You accept challenges from 'interesting' devils -- I'm just your latest."
"That's not true."
Sword bared his fangs, "I challenge you to tell me how it's not true! If I'd been in my devil-form when we got here, there would be humans slaughtered aplenty. And then you would have tried to kill me, even with your reluctant Might thing, because there's nothing more precious to you than your stupid humans. So tell me, what the bloody gut hell-worm difference is there between me and your damn Brandy!?"
Ios closed his eyes, "Sword..."
"Don't just fucking keep saying my name! Give me a god-damned answer!"
"One that you'll like?"
"One that's true, fucker!"
Ios smiled a bit bitterly, "Brandishon wouldn't have rescued me from Hell."
Sword recoiled, "You God-Damn Bastard! You promised you wouldn't speak of that! Ever!"
"I said you wouldn't like it." Ios sighed. "Sword, every damn thing you've ever made me promise not to speak of is *exactly* the reason you're different! I realize you've got this stupid mental image of what a devil 'should be', but that's not true! I don't challenge 'typical' devils, and I certainly don't help them learn how to be better fighters so they can go out and kill more of my friends! You're smart, courageous, honorable, interesting, curious, tenacious, kind, ---"
At 'tenacious', Sword winced, remembering the devil's earlier jabs at him. "Shut the fuck up!" After a moment of quiet, Sword calmed himself down. He was scared, but determined on this. Tenacious. Maybe different from other demons, but no different than Ios' other challenges. He remembered Poison and Samantha well. And it wasn't an easy thing to be placed in their category. They had been weaklings. Laughter and jokes, and curious about everything. But weak and pitiful, scuttling on the edges of Hell, not joining any turfs, backing out from fights when they could and only battling when they had to. Sword wasn't surprised they'd both been killed by other demons. "How come, in 2,000 years, nobody's noticed you fight the weaklings?"
"You're not weak!" Ios snorted. "I wasn't lying when I said you were no easy kill by the 32nd battle, and by now you're one of the strongest devils I've ever fought."
Which basically meant that when he started fighting Ios, he was weak, and just because he was the strongest Ios fought didn't mean anything in *devil* terms.
"Oh for pity's sake, Sword! That was all experience when we started. *Most* of what I am, is experience." Ios tried on a smile, "You've never, *ever* been weak." After another silence went by, Ios lost the smile. "I said there were different reasons I fought. Just because they're not always typical doesn't mean they're the opposite of what you think of as a demon."
"Like Brandishon."
"Yes, he was one."
Sword came out from around the bed and stood near the angel, brown eyes boring into blue ones, his voice pitched low and intense, "And, again -- how am I different from him?"
Ios pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sword..."
"All right, fucker. Just one -- what was it that made you decide to kill him, that apparently I never did?"
The angel looked up, "You're not going to like that one either."
Sword growled.
"All right. All right." Ios started pacing again. "Do you remember our fifty-sec..." he broke off and looked extremely startled. He counted on his fingers for a moment, then shrugged. "Actually, that was it. Our 52nd challenge."
"Exactly fucking like your Brandy." The devil was really pissed now.
"No. Not like him. Some things, maybe, because no one can get away with *everything* being unique -- it's not like I'm any different than any other angel, for instance. But Brandishon... Brandishon was only half of what you are. He didn't have any of your other characteristics. And he wasn't you."
And from the way Ios wasn't saying what those characteristics were, Sword was willing to bet that the ones-not-to-be-named were all the soft, weakly ones. Damn it. And Ios was certainly different than other angels -- it's why Sword and so many others went out to fight him. "There was nothing different about our 52nd battle."
Ios blinked, "You refusing a challenge isn't different?"
Sword closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were glowing brightly. "Your stupid, stupid revisionist challenge numbering again! Damnit, Ios, if I don't accept a challenge, it's not a fucking fight and it doesn't get counted!!"
Ios bit his lip and then lost the battle with himself and started laughing. Which just made Sword madder. It really was part of their standard give and take, and why their numbers rarely matched. But somehow it was always Ios' numbers and not Sword's that were always right...
Sword launched himself at the angel and again they fell to the floor. "You do that *every* fucking time!" The chair next to the desk was snapped into firewood as they crashed into it. "It's not fucking funny! And I'm not wrong!"
They finally came to a rest somewhere over by the window, this time with Sword on top, as Ios was still chuckling and not putting much effort into gaining the upper hand. Sword dropped his head onto Ios' chest.
"A challenge is still a challenge," Ios finally said rather mildly, one of his hands resting on top Sword's back. "A fight, however, is merely a fight unless it was a challenge. If a challenge isn't fought, it was still challenged."
"Fucker." Sword more or less agreed with the reasoning, which is why he never contested Ios' numbering... he just didn't think about it at the time, usually. Or afterwards. And then Ios would correct him in that smug angel arrogance... There was a bare patch of skin on Ios' chest, where his shirt had gotten pulled away in their tussles. Stupid, arrogant, angel. Sword licked the skin, while one hand trailed up and down Ios' neck.
"Um, Sword?"
Sword ignored the angel and moved his mouth over to the neck, nuzzling and nibbling at the dried sweat there. His hand moved into the angel's hair, stroking through the silky locks. Under him, Ios shuddered.
"Sword, stop that." But the angel's voice wasn't all that firm, and Sword kept going.
He licked up closer to the angel's ear, "I thought you were supposed to be not interested."
Ios shuddered again, his hand clenching on Sword's back. "I'm an angel, I'm not dead!" His other hand came up and loosely encircled Sword, petting him gently. "Plus, these human bodies don't have the best of control, I've noticed."
Okay, that was just NOT fair, bringing that up right then. Sword snorted, blowing gently on strands of golden hair. Okay, not the pure, silky smooth, golden hair it should have been, but he'd take what he could get right now. He went back to nuzzling the angel's neck, his other hand starting to trace the angel's body downward.
Ios' hand clamped onto his, "Sword, I mean it. Knock it off."
Sword turned the grasp and laced their fingers together.
"Please," Ios groaned, his eyes closed tightly.
Well, that was new -- he'd gotten a 'please' out of the angel. Maybe not as novel as getting one from a devil, but... Sword raised his head and contemplated the angel pinned underneath him. "I could take you right now."
Ios opened his eyes.
"I'm stronger than you -- you haven't been teaching that human body as much as you should have been, and I'm more powerful, and I could take you right here, right now, and you wouldn't have a choice."
The angel smiled at him, "You could... but you won't -- and that's what makes you different."
"Fuck it!" Sword was so fucking tempted to make him eat those words and rape the stupid angel anyhow, but then he *would* be just like the others... "God Damn It!" He got up and stomped off, raging around the room.
Ios stayed lying on the ground, his eyes drifting shut again and his breathing steadying out. "Brandishon would have. If Brandishon had found me in Hell, tied up and helpless, he wouldn't have let me go. Yes, he probably would have killed the other devils for daring to intrude on his presumed territory. And maybe even for using his name, though he cared less about that. He *would* have wanted it to have been him to take me down in a legitimate battle, not some other devil. But if he'd found me like that... he would have figured 'oh well' for future battles not fought and taken me right there, and a million times more, and death would have been a relief, if he had found me there."
Sword stood on the opposite side of the room and listened. And remembered. And... and no, he couldn't have done that. Not without defeating the angel. Every other devil he knew would -- including his stupid ex-friends who had trapped the angel using his name with his challenge. But especially not then. And then not after seeing Ios like that, strung up and helpless, drugged with his light faded and his beauty diminished... He wanted to defeat the angel, yes, but not break him, not like that. Or at least he wanted to be the one to do it, not somebody else. But the memory of the faded light... Sword leaned his head against the wall. He didn't know what to think any more.
"Ios, if I had taken your 52nd challenge... you would be dead."
"I know," the angel's voice was completely matter of fact, accepting the statement as truth.
Sword turned back, looking at the angel on the floor, "Then why the fuck did you issue it!?"
The angel sat up and pressed his hands to his eyes, silent and still, his mask of indifference wrapping around him and then off again as Sword watched him fight for control and lose. "Because I didn't want my friends to die." The angel's voice wavered, no longer steady nor matter of fact.
"I killed hundreds that day, both angels and devils. I killed eight of your direct friends that I knew, including your best friend and ex-lover. I went through them like paper, scattering parts everywhere across the Battlegrounds." Okay, maybe that last was prodding a little too far. Sword wanted a response, but...
"I know!" The cry tore from the angel's throat, though his hands still covered his eyes and he wouldn't look up. "I know..." he repeated more softly, full of agony and loss.
"He shouldn't have tried to match me -- he wasn't anywhere near my level." Sword remembered that sucker well -- and couldn't figure out why he'd tried to fight Sword. He really had been an easy kill.
Ios dropped his hands, "He didn't want our friends to die either. What choice did we have? It was a battle. And you'd refused my challenge. I couldn't fight you after that... but you were fighting us. Every angel that could, tried to stop you that day." Ios shook his head, "I'm still surprised you survived the fight with Michael."
With a snort, Sword walked over and stood looking down at the angel, "For six bloody years I've asked about your friends, and all I've *ever* gotten from you is your rhetorical 'it's an angel's fate, to be killed by a devil'," he mimicked Ios' voice, though not well. "Fuck it, Ios, is *this* what it takes for an honest answer!?" And even now, Ios had turned it back to Sword. Answering, but deflecting at the same time.
Ios didn't look up, "That *is* an honest answer. 2,000 years, Sword -- do you really think I haven't seen my friends killed before? Do you think any of us in the Battlegrounds expect any other sort of death? It *is* our fate. The only question is when it will happen."
"Why the hell haven't you said anything before?"
"And say what? 'Please don't kill my friends?' Do you know what any other devil would do if I said something like that?"
They would then target those friends even more. Maybe not then, but as soon as they got pissed at the angel for one reason or another, those friends Ios wanted saved would be dead. But Sword wouldn't have...
"I wouldn't even be saying it now, if... Habit, Sword -- I have a lot of habits ingrained in me. And..." Ios hesitated before continuing, "What right do I have to ask that? To say it? Angels will die. All of them are somebody's friends. One way or another, a friend will be killed. It might be my friend, it might be somebody else's. What right do I have to ask that I be spared pain so somebody else experiences it?"
"Self-sacrificing stupid angel." Sword sat down next to Ios, close enough that their shoulders touched.
Ios huffed out a half-laugh. "I could bring out my next standard answer to that one too."
"Don't."
"All right." The two of them were silent for awhile longer. Ios was the first one to break it, "Our next challenge, non-battle after that... do you remember that one?"
Sword looked away, not answering.
"You challenged me. And then instead of fighting, you took me down to Hell, to this little glade, with a peaceful lake and then we just sat there for hours."
"The monsters in that lake would have devoured anything that stuck a toe in. And half the plants around it too. It wasn't that damn peaceful."
"You said." Ios leaned his head against Sword's shoulder. "But you didn't say anything else. And we don't have any of that in Heaven's Gate. And you took me there after... after all that. No other devil would have done that. Any of them. Over any number of thousand years you'd like to count."
The angel had been a sad case back then. His living friends had all been avoiding him for not killing Sword the time before, and Ios himself was mope-ville center. A fight would have been no good until the angel was cheered up again. At least that was what Sword had said then. And since then. And would say again if asked. But the way Ios described it... Sword *really* didn't like being reminded of his weaknesses. It might make him different, but it wasn't a way he liked. "If you were going to bring up the 53rd as an example, you would have done that. It was 52 that you cited. Why?"
Ios sighed, "That didn't work out the way I'd planned. I should have just said what I meant. You're right, I try to lead too much."
On the other hand, Sword wouldn't have gotten to see the angel finally admit he had some feelings about his friends, so he was thinking it hadn't worked out too badly. And he'd gotten some good necking in, even if the angel put the kibosh on it. That was going to be good for a few wet dreams later on.
"You were so pissed off that day because you'd turned down Shiva Garland's offer to be his lieutenant, his right-hand demon. With the same offer, Brandishon took it gladly to further his ambitions. That's the main reason I decided to kill him -- because with him, that step would have taken him into dark depths that I would not let form if I could prevent it."
"With Shiva?" Sword startled, he couldn't imagine Shiva with that sort of... never mind, yes he could. If it fit Shiva's plans, he would take them in.
"Huh?" Ios blinked before realizing what Sword was asking -- he'd skipped a few threads of logic with the question. "No, his demon lord wasn't Shiva. Shiva Garland was just barely starting his own rise to power at that time. Gathering minions and making alliances, forming claims, getting territory." Ios shook his head. "Brandy's offer was from a Demon Lord named Gravedigger. That one reported to Baal, who reports to Satan directly. Only three connections away. Brandishon always was ambitious. And he wanted established power, not new power."
Shiva was all about new power, something different, not following the same standard stuff. Which is why Sword and he got along so well, most times. Sword didn't care about the stupid wine demon any more, diverted onto a new track. "Shiva was one of yours, wasn't he?"
"What?" Ios turned his head to look at the devil next to him.
"Shiva used to challenge you." The more he thought about it, the more Sword was certain of it. And Shiva had never said anything to Sword. He knew damn well that Sword regularly challenged Ios. Encouraged it, even. And had never mentioned anything about having known the angel himself.
"Yes, he did, though we didn't fight long." Ios shrugged, "About seven challenges before I stopped accepting them."
Ios was the one to stop it? "Why?"
"He was more interested in the power I could give him, and the prestige, than he was in simply fighting me. Shiva... was always one for the long-term goals." Ios touched the back of Sword's hand gently, "For your sake, I was sorry to hear of his death."
Sword didn't pull away, though it was a near thing. "You were there!"
"Kanna was there -- I was unconscious," Ios corrected.
Oh, right. That whole other business where he *hadn't* rescued Ios. Ios could have died in Hell, for all Sword had done then.
"He was an honorable devil, and he was good to you. I'd thought his plans were working out well... but I guess Satan thought they were as well, and therefore the preemptive strike," Ios sighed.
Sword studied his angel, reading more in the tone and what wasn't said than Ios thought he was giving away. "You didn't like him. And you don't think I should avenge him."
The angel wouldn't look at the devil. "I think you should do what you need to. And it doesn't look like we have much of a choice on that anyhow, with Satan after the devil-spawn and sending his minions to collect the 13 fragments. We would be fighting no matter what."
"He was my friend. I will avenge him, and kill Satan for what he has done." Sword paused, then added for good measure, "And get my body back."
"I know you will."
"But?"
Ios stood up and moved across the room, looking out the window again.
I'm not going to get him to say it. This one, the angel will remain firm on. Because he knows Shiva was my friend, and my lover. I wonder which of those affects him more? If the angel wouldn't say it, Sword would. "Shiva was my friend, but he could be a manipulative bastard. Whatever else he had planned with that damn mark he gave me... once we were there, and things had changed, I know damn well he staged his death specifically to get me to avenge him. He failed with his bid against Satan; he thought I could do it instead -- so he sent his loyal minions to me, after testing them and me against each other, and told me about Satan's soul fragments. Yeah, it would have happened anyhow... but he definitely staged that to rope me in. And if I'd been killed in the earlier tests, or somewhere in Hell in the human body... he would have cursed a bit for me being a weakling, and then would have found some other way."
The angel turned around and stared at him. Sword shrugged, "I know it. I don't care. I'm still doing it. He was my friend. I don’t like to be manipulated... but that's what it means to have a devil friend in Hell. Sometimes, one puts up with it." He looked up at the angel, "You wouldn't do it." He meant the manipulation, and sure enough, he could see the angel got his meaning.
Ios turned his hand upward, indicating he wasn't sure whether he would or wouldn't. But Sword knew the angel better than that. "You might think about it, but if there was a chance you knew my honor would be used against me, you'd bend over backwards to try and prevent it." He thought about the human phrase and wondered why it was bending backward than forward... he could think of a lot of things to do with an angel bent forwards. Unless there was an act he didn't know. He grinned, "Manipulating is something we devils do -- not you angels."
Ios flinched, "I wouldn't go that far, Sword."
Sometimes, Sword really, really hated that damn arch-angel. Michael was a right bastard in his own way. And Ios had been caught more times between angel goals and his own honor than Sword wanted to count, especially since they'd come here to Earth.
Sword stood up and thought about approaching the angel, but decided to stay where he was. It was time to end this. He had his answer. Maybe not one he especially liked... but it was an answer. He was different. Different than Brandishon, different than Shiva. Different, and maybe not a Hell Lord... but Ios still fought with him. Still took his challenges, and still gamed with him, and still laughed and talked and... it was enough. But there was just one more thing he wanted to know... Shit. Sword shivered in fear. He didn't want to ask it.
^Sword?^ Ios looked at him in concern, sensing the fear.
Sword closed his eyes. He didn't want to see that look on the angel. He didn't want to give in to it. But he did want to know... Barely above a whisper, he asked, "Are there any other devils you call 'friend'?"
Before he could open his eyes again, he was enveloped in a hug so tight he could barely breathe. He breathed in the scent and feel of an angel -- a specific angel, his angel. Wrapped around him and never going to let him go. Just as Ios had held Rafael all those months ago. Another pain in his heart he hadn't known was there eased.
^Just you, Sword. Just you. You are uniquely my friend. And I'll never have another friend like you, ever.^ Ios' mind touch was soft and it had that particular feel that he associated with the angel. It was truth. And other things he didn't like to think about, but he would accept for this moment only.
"Ios..." He brought his hands up to return the hug. It was more than enough. Sword was different, and he was content to be so.
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