Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 23:52:32 -0700
From: Darc Blackwind <arboc969@hotmail.com>
Subject: TRANSGENDER ARCHIVE Fallen Angel by Darc Blackwind Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Darkside's Past

 A terrible silence had overcome Cal as he followed the vice-principal
through the crowd to his office. He opened his door and walked inside,
ushering him and Althea in as well. He took a seat behind his desk and
looked at Cal and Althea as they sat in chairs opposite him. "So," he
drawled, folding his fingers in a steeple, "do you have any idea who did
this?"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean, sir?!" Cal asked angrily, not
caring the consequences of his actions. One of his lovers was gone. Miranda
was dead, and this bastard son-of-a-bitch assistant principal was obviously
not concerned, by his tone of voice.

"I'm not pointing any fingers, Calvin," the assistant said in that same
lifeless voice. "It's just that, with your last incident three weeks
ago. . . . You understand, don't you?"

"Look, you worthless son of a rat-fucking whore!" Althea growled, leaping
up out of her seat. The assistant principal was taken aback. "Cal didn't
kill her! He was with me all last night and yesterday! HOW DARE YOU??!"

"You forget yourself, Shira!" he began, blustering. "You are the guest
here, and you treat your hospitable vice-principal with some degree of
respect!"

"Look, `sir', our friend is dead! We want answers! Either you give us them
now, or we walk and find them out directly!!!" Cal growled, standing up and
laying a hand on Althea's shoulder gently.

Just then, the door flew open. Aria and Tawny rushed through. "What the
hell happened?!!!" Aria asked angrily, slamming a fist on the VP's desk.

"I have ways of getting to the bottom of this!" Tawny threatened.

With four angry, agitated teenagers gathered around his desk, the assistant
principal had no choice but to bow down to their demands. "Fine. You
win. . . ." he drawled lazily. He then motioned for them to watch the
monitor of his computer. There was a police report on it, listing details
of the homicide. Miranda's picture was in the upper left corner of the
screen. "As you can see, her estimated time of death was at approximately
8:36 PM November the third."

"How did she die?!" Tawny growled, her eyes narrowed and her teeth
bared. Her hands were clenched into fists, as though she was eager to slay
Miranda's slaughterer.

The assistant principal looked at her curiously. "It's interesting that you
should be here, Tawny Jameson. As I understand it, you're new here, are you
not?" Tawny nodded, her eyes almost glowing. "Well, as far as I can see,
Tawny, you have no right to be here. You didn't know Miranda, did you?"

"YES I DID!!!" she shouted, knocking over the VP's mug of coffee as she
slammed her fist into his desk.

"Look, you worthless, rabid mutt, you tell us what happened, or else!!" Cal
growled. Aria nodded.

"Fine, my infantile children. The janitor found Miranda last night in the
library. He said he heard screaming, so he went to go investigate. When he
had at last located the building where the torrential screaming was coming
from, he saw . . . a . . . . . being of some sort . . . attacking the poor
girl. . . . When he tried to intervene, the creature attacked him too. He
is in the hospital as we speak."

With that last sentence, Cal, Althea, Tawny, and Aria rushed out of his
office and ran down the hallway. "It's too bad about that poor freshman," a
voice behind them scowled as they ran through the doors. Cal and Tawny
stopped and looked around at the man dressed in all black. It was Evan.

"What did you say?!" Tawny growled, taking a step closer.

"It's too bad about that poor freshman," Evan repeated, sounding as though
he was having the time of his life. "Such youthful exuberance and such
beauty, rolled up all into one. . . ."

Before Cal could attack, Tawny had already dropped the hawk-nosed,
buzzard-faced heretic. A shot to his solar plexus from her right fist and a
strike to his testicles from one of her powerful thrust kicks had totally
incapacitated Evan before he knew what happened. He lay in the fetal
position on the floor, twitching and groaning in agony. Tawny knelt down
and grabbed him by his hair, lifting him up to look into his eyes. "Do you
want to say any more, my oh-so-pathetic and weak specter?!" she whispered,
slamming his head against the brick wall. He shook his head, shaking
violently. Tawny got up and kicked him in the side. "Good!"

The two walked back to Althea and Aria, who both had looks of astonishment
on their faces from what Tawny did to the demon master meant to be the
Unknown Assailant. "To the hospital, then!" Cal said as they continued
running outside, avoiding the patches of ice from the blizzard they had the
night before. Cal leapt over the roof of his jeep and landed on the other
side, opening the door and unlocking the others for Tawny and Althea. Aria
piled into the back seat as well. "To the hospital, then!" he said as he
hastily backed out, spinning a brody on the slick parking lot.

The drive to the hospital was fast. Knowing that it might have very well
been Evan who attacked Miranda, Cal pondered why he didn't draw his boot
knife and stab it through his throat flesh and ended his life. I guess I
need to be sure that it truly was Evan who did that. He used to be my
friend, after all. . . . Cal thought as he spun into the hospital parking
lot and parked in the vacant handicapped parking space. He shut off the
ignition and ripped the key out, then opened the door. All the others
followed suit.

"Which room is the victim janitor from the high school?" Tawny asked,
getting to the reception desk first.

"Room 452," the old receptionist said. "But, ma'am, he's . . . not well!"

"Yes, we know that!" she growled, looking over her shoulder to see Cal
catch up with her first. "Room 452, Cal!" With that said, the two took off
running up the stairs. Five flights of stairs later, Cal and Tawny arrived
at room 452, gasping for breath. The door was open, and a man wearing
insectile, black sunglasses, a black jean jacket, and black wrangler jeans
with brown hiking boots on was bent over a mangled form in a
bed. I.V. tubes and many other hoses and wires were stuck into him. It was
obvious that he was on life support. The man standing over him looked up
and smirked.

"So, look what the cat dragged in, huh?" he asked Cal.

"Hello, Fen. . . ." Cal growled, his fists clenching.

"It was a demon attack. Ask the man yourself!" Fen said, walking over to
them. "Hello, Tawny. How're you holding up?" he asked, strangely
compassionate. He laid a hand on Tawny's dainty shoulder.

"Get off of me, Fen!" Tawny growled, smacking his hand away. "I still
haven't forgiven you or forgotten what you did!"

"Still angry about Lydia and I?" he asked condescendingly. He hastily
avoided a right hook. "I'll take that as a `yes'. . . ."

Cal knelt by the ruined janitor's bedside. "Sir!" he began, shaking the
sleeping janitor awake. "Sir, we need information! Could you please tell me
what it was that you saw attack Miranda?"

The janitor looked up at Cal with blank eyes. "It . . . was horrible. . . !
There I was . . . sweeping the floors, when I heard this ear-piercing cry
come from outside. . . ." The janitor shuddered, the image he was relating
still haunting his vision with every waking and sleeping breath. "Upon
hearing the second scream . . . one that cried `Help me, dear God help me',
I ran outside to see who was in trouble. . . . The moonlight was full about
that time, rising up over the mountains. . . . I am superstitious about the
moon. Bad things happen when the moon is full. . . . And, this occasion was
no different.

"When I got outside . . . I saw that a frail, young woman was being chased
by something large; something black and scaly and . . . evil. The shroud
. . . the being, if you will . . . had glowing green eyes that looked sort
of like a snake's. . . . It had tremendous leathery wings, and was
muscular. It had tremendously large, ribbed horns that curved all the way
back to its knees, and the creature had hair on its head that made it look
like its head was aflame. . . . Its body was covered in this weird
. . . scaly, crystalline substance, and it had large spikes on its
shoulders and running down its spine, or at least that is what I think it
was. . . . To top it off, this . . . demon . . . . . had a long, thin tail
with a . . . scorpion-like stinger on the end. . . ."

Cal listened with bated breath as the old, beaten janitor related his
tale. It didn't sound like Evan. Evan didn't have the tail or the spike
armor. "Well, at first I thought I was seeing things," the old custodian
continued, grunting as he shifted his bandaged leg in the hospital bed. "I
mean . . . how could such an abomination of God be real? It just didn't
make sense. . . . Nonetheless, the girl was running from something, and she
dove into the library window, shattering the glass. I ran to help her
. . . and that is when I saw the demon fly into the same broken
window. When . . . when I arrived . . . I saw the creature had cornered the
poor freshman. . . . The lady was trembling, shiny tears streaming down her
pale face as the moonlight made her skin almost ghostly. . . . I ran as the
abomination slowly and menacingly approached her, and he, it, looked back
as I hit it as hard as I could with my broom. The broom broke over its
spiked shoulder, and it looked back at me, its glowing, serpentine eyes
narrowed in anger. That is when the creature lunged at me, grabbed me about
the throat, and threw me into the wall. I crashed through it, stunned, as
it cornered the freshman again. This time, when I did regain my senses
because of an earth-shattering wail of agony, I saw that . . . the demon
had held her around the waist, its fangs imbedded deeply into the flesh of
her neck. Blood; crimson, thick, viscous blood flowed from the creatures
jaws and teeth as it drained the poor woman.

"She screamed and fought back, but the demon was just much too
powerful. . . . After she stopped kicking and screaming, the demon
. . . tore off her clothes and raped her. Somehow, the poor woman was still
alive, despite the grievous bite wound to her neck, for she weakly tried to
fight back against the devil's onslaught. It was for naught,
though. . . . After, at least I think that after the demon had his way with
her, he drank more of her blood."

"Sir, can you describe the demon's equipment?" Tawny asked as Cal opened
his mouth to speak.

The janitor shuddered and wretched, straining his mind to provide
answers. "Wh, who are you people?" he asked weakly as he adjusted his
pillows from behind his neck.

"We're demon slayers and holy warriors. We knew the freshman that was
attacked, and we are going to track down the abomination and terminate it
with extreme prejudice!!!" Fen grumbled, cracking his knuckles.

Althea walked up to Cal and put her arm around his shoulders. She could
sense that he was having a hard time dealing with the news of Miranda's
death, though he hid it well. "How are you?" she whispered as Cal looked
down at her with a sort of petrified anger in his eyes. "How are you
holding up, Cal?"

Cal managed a weak smile, though he didn't feel like it. "I . . . liked
her. . . ." He sighed. Althea could feel the internal groan of emotional
agony as Cal looked away, wiping his eyes as though the dirty-blond Divine
Soldier had a speck of dust in them. He shook ever so slightly, trying his
damnedest to be the emotionless warrior he always has been.

Althea could understand where Cal was coming from. Miranda was the first
friend the two made together, and she was quite certain that she was his
first friend since Evan's and Aria's leaving him. "It's okay to let it out,
you know. . . ." Althea whispered gently in Cal's ear as she hugged him
about his waist.

Cal nodded, putting his right index finger to his lips. "In a second,
love," he whispered, looking down at her gently. "The janitor isn't
finished. . . ."

"Th, the demon . . . it didn't have any . . . parts. . . !" the janitor
rasped, trying to block the image out of his mind.

Tawny looked back at Cal inquisitively. "No cock. Guess that rules out that
it was a demoness. . . ." she said to him. Fen blushed.

"Tell us what happened after that, sir!" Fen said, trying to get the image
out of his head.

The janitor trembled and shuddered, his eyes bulging and very, very
bloodshot. "Th, then . . . when the . . . girl quit kicking and screaming
. . . the demon slammed her against the ground of the library . . . many
times. The . . . the imprecation wouldn't let up! It laughed and laughed as
the girl's blood stained the gray carpet from where she was being slammed
into. . . ." The janitor closed his eyes tightly, trembling and convulsing
as though he was being electrocuted. "He . . . he then threw the girl out
the . . . other window and . . . flew after her. Two . . . no, three
seconds later, the girl came flying into the building through the brick
wall on the other side of the building, crashing through the book cases and
skidding to a halt beside me!!!" The janitor wasn't taking remembering all
this very well. "The demon swooped down and grabbed the poor girl by her
chest and . . . with his right hand . . . he slammed the claws into her
chest and . . . . . RIPPED OUT HER HEART!!!! HE ATE IT!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Fen walked up to the mad janitor and backhanded him across the face. He
blinked and looked up at him curiously, as though he had never seen
anything like Fen before. "THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" Fen bellowed, slapping the
janitor again. More calmly, he then asked, "Friend, tell me what this demon
looked like, and I won't slap you again."

The janitor put two and two together, and then said, "Th, the demon
. . . had rather shaggy brown-black hair, he was rather muscular, though
slightly stout . . . and he had a . . . rather weak chin. . . . His eyes
were sunken into his head too. . . ."

"How tall was he?" Tawny asked.

"Perhaps . . . five feet six inches, maybe less. . . ."

Tawny looked back at Fen and nodded. "Jinenji. . . ." the two said in
unison.

They walked out of the infirmary in silence. Jinenji? Cal asked
curiously. The name . . . sounds familiar. . . .

Stepping out of the building, they were greeted by a chill autumnal blast
of wind. The sky was a forbidding shade of dark gray, and the sun was
blocked out entirely by its shroud. Cal sighed in depression as they walked
over to where Fen's truck was parked. "So, is anyone going to tell us who
Jinenji is?!" Althea asked as she slid her arm around Cal gently.

Tawny looked at her, Aria and Cal, and smiled. "You already know him. He
used to be on the side of good, until he met up with someone of
malcontent. . . ." she began.

"Who?" Aria asked as she leaned against the side of Fen's truck.

"His full name is Jinenji Matsukawa Shinji Nari Neh, and he was one of the
Calahuwegan demons who fought alongside you and Cal when you took on
Aukos. He is obviously possessed someone right here, hence the demon that
attacked Yoko."

"How, exactly, do you know Miranda?" Cal then asked bluntly, looking up
from the ground.

"Well, I'll tell you later. I don't want my bastard ex blurting it out,"
she said irritably, looking behind her at Fen, who shrugged.

Smirking despite himself, Fen said, "Well, she walked in on me when I was
fuckin' a girlfriend of hers, and she has been bitter towards me ever
since. Talk about sour grapes, huh?"

"Shut your mouth!" Tawny growled. Cal groaned and walked away, towards his
jeep in silence and alone. "Cal? What's up?"

Cal never answered, just kept walking. It always comes down to death,
destruction, and the spilling of blood, doesn't it? Darkside asked him
silently as he opened the door to his jeep. Thou canst only handle so much,
thou knowest. This sort of thing has happened to thou before, and thou
still remembers the pain so vividly. . . . Why don't thou let it out for a
change?

 No, Darkside. . . . I refuse to do so, because that would be succumbing to
the effect that this incident was supposed to inspire, and thus, I would be
losing to the enemy. You know I can't do that. . . . Cal thought back. He
looked back at Tawny, Althea, and Aria. "Are you coming?"

Slowly, they walked back to the jeep. "Cal, tell me what's wrong," Aria
asked, seeing his expression. It was a grimace of what appeared to be
physical pain.

He looked back at her as she closed her door and buckled herself in. "What
do you think is wrong, Aria? My friend is dead. . . . I'm just trying to
deal with it. . . ." he said in a lifeless voice. "Sorry to snap at you."

They pulled out of the parking lot and Cal drove them to the high
school. "You guys do what you will. I need to think. . . ." Cal said after
a long silence. Tawny and Althea nodded and followed Aria to her red
sportscar. Cal then pulled out of the parking lot and sighed, his hands
clutching the steering wheel tightly. "Darkside," he began sadly, "why do I
always have this curse?"

Darkside shrugged from inside him. "I know not thy answer, my
comrade. However, my shadow counterpart, remember this always, I am always
with thee. Thy pain is my pain too, knowest thou. . . ."

"Yes, Darkside, I know you're with me forevermore. . . ." Sighing, Cal
turned to the turnoff for the highway out of town.

"Whither goest thou?" Darkside asked.

"I don't know. I'm . . . I'm just trying to get by. . . ." And so, Cal
drove away until he could drive no further.



* * *



The day passed in silence while Althea, Tawny, and Aria waited for Cal to
return. Soon, it became night, and the three found themselves in Aria's
living room, sitting in front of a roaring fire conjured by Aria in the
fireplace. Unable to stand the silence any further, Aria asked, "So Tawny,
how did you know Miranda?"



Tawny sighed. "Well, Aria," she began, unsure whether or not to tell her
anything, "I guess you could say that Miranda was the one who turned me
into what I am. . . ."



"What do you mean, Tawny?" Althea asked curiously, sitting comfortably on
her knees in front of the crackling, crimson-gold flames.



"I'm two things that God despises, really. The first would be that I'm
bisexual," she said straightforwardly, looking into Aria's eyes
intently. Aria blushed fiercely when her eyes caught Tawny's lustful
gaze. "The second would be that I'm a psychic vampire, or a psi-vamp,
simply put. . . . When I reach a certain level of rage, I transform into a
pseudo-demon, with no demonic spike-armor or horns, but the leathery wings
and eyes and fangs. Ask Cal about this when he returns. His dark side and I
fought last night, and I won."

Aria smiled. "How'd you manage to survive? Darkside tends to be an
unstoppable juggernaut when he manifests. . . ."

"Well, it was purely strategy that pulled me through the fight. I threw my
halberd at him and pinned him to the ground, and then I drained him of his
energy. He fell after that. . . ." Tawny sighed. "Well, anyway, back to
Miranda. . . . She and I met shortly after I became a demon slayer. Mind
you, I still retain my powers because the Demon Slayer Guild isn't directly
connected with the Almighty. So, my lesbianism isn't that much of a
hindrance to me. Anyway, on a blackened battlefield we met, where hundreds
of thousands of corpses of dead soldiers lay, charred beyond
recognition. She sat on a blackened, cratered boulder, crying, when I
walked up to her. `Are you okay?' I asked as I approached her."

"Hold on," Aria said. "You were involved in a battle? Where?"

"This was up on the Astral Plane. I most certainly could not be anywhere
near a real-life battlefield full of dead soldiers at the time because I
was only fourteen years old then. . . . I'm nineteen now. . . . Well,
anyway, her shimmering raven hair wreathed a sad, sad face. . . . She was
weeping for the soldiers that were killed in the battle. `No. . . .' she
replied, looking down at me with blood-shot eyes. `A terrible thing has
occurred here today that was meaningless. . . .'

"`What?' I asked as I walked up to her. I had arrived late in the evening
up there that night, and I had no idea what had happened. `Tell me,
please!' She sighed sadly and said, `Well, a demon battle occurred here,
between a powerful demon and a band of Divine Soldiers.' The demon's name
was Jinenji. . . ."

"Who is Jinenji?" Althea asked curiously as she heaved herself up onto the
plush, warm couch next to Aria and Tawny. She hugged her knees for warmth
and comfort, as it suddenly felt rather cold in the room, despite the
blazing, sanguine fire and the warm presence of Aria and Tawny. "I mean,
you mentioned him in the hospital, when we were interrogating the
janitor. . . . What is he to Miranda?"

Tawny smiled. "Jinenji Matsukawa Shinji Nari Neh had a love affair with
Miranda, who in the demon world was known as Yoko-Moriyokani Ishtakuren
Furaija Kiryashta. I know because I walked in on the two of them having sex
in a most vulgar fashion. See, Miranda had pinned Jinenji to the wall with
chains and she was fucking his ass from behind as he groaned and begged his
`mistress' to continue."

"What?! Miranda had a penis?!" Aria asked, alarmed.

"Yes. All demonesses have them," Althea said. "Even I have one. Christ,
Miranda and I fucked while you guys were training!"

Aria blushed a radiant, glowing shade of beet red from hearing this. "B,
but, Cal said that you two had made love on your first meeting. . . . He
was lying?" she breathed, horrified and intrigued at the same time by the
image.

"No, we did make love then, and we still make love quite often. . . ."
Althea admitted. She wasn't the least bit abashed by admitting it, though
Aria had a rather hard time stomaching the image of the boy she had almost
decided to go out with being treated in the same fashion that Miranda
treated Jinenji.

"Gee. . . ." Aria said sheepishly as she thought about it. "I really must
have made him change. . . . Homosexuals aren't allowed in the Divine
Soldier Caste. . . ."

"He's not homosexual, Aria," Tawny said sternly. "He's bisexual, like
me. He likes women also. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't like men, just
cock. Surely you don't judge him because of that. He found his soul-mate,"
she gestured towards Althea, "and his soul-mate had different equipment
than you or I, so he adapted. Real quickly, now that I think about it. We
all should be so lucky to have a friend like Cal around."

Aria looked down at the ground and sighed. "Yes. . . . I guess I shouldn't
be shocked about finding this out, but . . . . . before I got cold feet, I
seriously thought about dating him and finding out more about the
mysterious, reserved, loyal ninja. . . . I guess we all have something we
don't want others finding out about. . . ."

"Yeah. . . . However, if we can master that fear, then we can become
invincible. Right, Althea?" Tawny asked as she looked over at Althea
lovingly.

"I agree. I originally thought that my eternity wandering amongst you
people would be very hard, but when Cal found me that morning, things just
seemed to fit into place. . . . I know now that I'm going to stay with him
until we both eventually fade away into the mists of the future. . . ."
Althea said dreamily. "I admit, I love him so dearly that it hurts me when
he's not around. . . ."

Tawny smiled. "I'm envious of you, Althea. I have been searching for an
incredibly long time now, and I still haven't found my love yet. I'm quite
certain, though, that I won't find my love to be a man. Fen really did a
number on me. . . . Anyway, Miranda found her way to me in the real world,
just about the time I met Fen, and we hit it off. Soon, we made love, Fen
and I, and then I came home from school one day to find Fen balls deep into
my best girlfriend, Lydia, whom I desperately wished to make love
to. Running out of the house in a suicidal haze of crying and depression, I
ran to Miranda's apartment and she comforted me. We made love there that
night, and Miranda told me why she knew about Fen. Fen had been hunting her
for several years now, and she managed only to escape by transforming into
different human girls. Back then, she had red hair and a slightly angular
face, but, as usual, she had to run, leaving me alone for far too
long. When I found out her location, here, I came to investigate with Fen,
though we're still on quite hostile terms. However, when she fucked me that
night we slept together, she transformed me into a psi-vamp as a gift to
get back at Fen for betraying me like he did."

A long silence held between the three women, when Tawny sniffled and wiped
her eyes. "I . . . I think I was in love with her. . . ." she then said
sadly as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

Feeling her pain, Aria hugged her gently. "It's okay, Tawny. . . . You can
cry in front of us. . . ." She felt Tawny shudder as she held back her
tears, so she held her ever more tightly.

They hugged for about ten minutes in silence, when an explosion from the
front side of the house shattered the windows and threw the three to the
ground in front of the fire. "What the fuck was that?!" Aria yelled as she
hopped up. Althea transformed into her demon form and Tawny had her halberd
out and at the ready.

"I thought I should knock first before breaking in, DEAREST!!!" Evan
laughed from the shadows. Two glowing eyes illuminated the darkness from
within the house and Evan stepped into the light from the fire. He was in
his demon form. "Hello, new girl and tranny slut. How are you two doing?"

Aria lunged at Evan ferociously, punching him in the face and knocking him
back. "BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU!!" she screamed as she pounded on him
voraciously. Evan grabbed a handful of her long, silky, maple bronze hair
and lifted her back away from him.

"My, my. . . . Quite a temper you have, Aria. . . . It may end up getting
you hurt this night. . . ."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!!!" Tawny bellowed, lunging at Evan as well, her halberd
ready to pierce his chest.

Countering her assault, Evan reversed his grip on her and held her in front
of him, turning her into a human shield. "Feh!!! You should know better
than to do that when I have a hostage, Tawny Jameson!" Evan growled,
punching Aria in the back and paralyzing her, stopping her from thrashing
about. Tawny skidded to a halt in front of the demon master. "There we
go. That was easy, wasn't it?" he asked humorously as he smirked
evilly. "Now then," he turned his head slightly, "Jim, get your ass in
here! You're missing the fun, man!"

Jim flew through the broken wall and window, smashing it down with a blast
of energy from his right hand. He landed next to Evan, smirking
maniacally. His demon form was different, but Tawny knew it right away. "We
finally meet. . . ." Tawny growled, her knuckles ivory-white on her halberd
from clenching her fists in wrath.

"Yes, you and I have been playing quite a game of hide and seek, haven't
we?" Jim asked curiously. His demon form was surprisingly more advanced
than Evan's was, but then again, on the Plane, he was a demon, after
all. He stood at about five and a half feet, had shaggy, ragged, dark-brown
hair that was standing up in a slicked-back sort of way, and his fangs were
longer. His ears were elongated, like those of an elf, and his skin was a
mottled grayish brown. He also had on a crystalline spike armor that
covered his torso and crotch with the sapphire material. A long, scaly,
armored tail with a stinger on the end of it swished around his ankles. To
top it off, his big, bat-like wings stretched about twenty feet in length,
from wing tip to wing tip. His glowing, green, serpentine eyes were sunken
into his face, giving him the effect of the undead and his long, ribbed
horns curved back down the center of his back to about his butt. He was
also rather muscular, though sort of stout, just like in his human form.

"Well, shall we finish up then . . . Jinenji?" she growled as her eyes
glowed a viridescent shade in the gloom. Aria squirmed uneasily against
Evan's tight embrace, his large talon on his index finger pressed against
her jugular.



"You were the one that killed Miranda?!" Althea hissed, a halo of energy
illuminating her sexy demonic form.

Jinenji laughed, a low, unearthly growl that shook the floorboards. "The
end of the world is nigh, foolish demoness. It just so happened that I
could no longer control my longing to taste Miranda's blood, so perhaps I
got carried away. Oh well. Who will miss her, huh?"

That was all Tawny could take, so she quickly transformed into her psi-vamp
form and lunged at Jinenji with the sole purpose of destroying the demon
very painfully and very slowly. Jinenji dodged a thrust from the spear tip
of the halberd, his right hand glowing. "EAT THIS!!!" he bellowed as he
threw an orb of energy at Tawny. It slammed into her with grim accuracy,
blasting her back against the wall and disabling her wings. She moaned in
agony as she got up, staggering and covered in the remains of the
wall. "I'm stronger than you think, silly woman. Do you honestly think you
can win against me with that pig-barbecuer?"

"FUCK OFF! YOU KILLED ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS!!!" she screamed as she
blindly rushed him, her glowing energy trailing behind her. She sidestepped
a counterattack slash and uppercut Jinenji in the face with the axe-blade
of the halberd, causing a large slash across his face. He flew back and
landed on his feet after doing a back flip. When he looked back at the
psi-vamp, he smirked and lunged, a large saber in his right hand. He
chopped downward, intending to kill Tawny. However, she blocked it with her
staff and pushed against his thrust.

Meanwhile, Althea was glaring at Evan. "Whasamatter? Is poor li'l Evan
fwightening you? Awww. . . ." Evan said condescendingly, enjoying the
feeling of power he got when he was holding Aria hostage like he was. He
smirked again. "I suppose you're wondering whatever happened to Cal, aren't
you?"

Althea felt her legs tense up and the worry that simple sentence inspired
was unimaginable. "If you. . . !" she growled as she took a menacing step
forward.

Evan nodded, a demonic smirk upon his shadowy, evil visage. "You guessed
it. Right now, Calvin Lillehammer is lying in a pool of blood on the side
of the highway about a hundred miles outside of town. . . ."

"YOU FUCKING LIAR!!!!" Althea screamed, her eyes aflame with an evil red
pyre. She started to lunge at him, but he dug his index talon into Aria's
neck further, making her cry out in pain as the sharp claw broke the flesh.

"Ah, ah, ah. . . . I wouldn't want to nick something vital, now would I?"
he asked sadistically as he dug his claw against her throat malevolently.

"Y, you bastard. . . ." Aria growled as she tried to get free without
accidentally getting the long talon deeper into her throat.

"Now then . . . since I have your attention," Evan began, "let me make this
perfectly clear: either you join us, or we kill her and make sure that
Cal's life support is severed."

"What?!" Althea growled, wanting nothing more than to blast this slime with
a circle of black fire or a fork of lightning.

"Help Him and save your piece of ass and pussy for another day. Simple as
that!" Jinenji growled as he waved his hand and erected an energy barrier
around himself and Evan as Tawny slashed out at him with her halberd.

"Fuck you! FUCK ALL OF YOU!!!" Althea screamed as she let her emotions get
in the way of her logical train of thought and charged at Evan.

"If that's how you want it, fine!" Evan growled as he lifted his hand and
came down upon Aria's neck.

Just as he was about to strike, an explosion detonated from the center of
the room as imperceptibly radiant light pierced the darkness completely,
blinding everyone in the room. When the light faded, someone swathed in
black with a katana stood in the center, his eyes aglow. His black trench
coat billowed as though caught in a high wind and he looked fearless,
hell-bent even. "Thou shalt let her go, lest I slice thee a new orifice!"
the silhouette growled demonically.

"Cal?!" Evan growled angrily, looking at the man fearfully.

"Nay, I am not Calvin Lillehammer of the Divine Soldiers. They called me
when I was alive last, Darc Dragonwind. However, thou shalt know me by the
identity of Darkside!!" Darc growled.

"Darkside?!" Evan asked as he threw Aria out of the way, no longer
interested in her.

Darc nodded, an evil smirk splitting his gaunt face. "Aye! And now, thou
shalt taste the sinewy pain and salty blood inflicted by my razor edge!"

"BRING IT ON, FAGGOT!!!" Evan shouted, drawing his flaming sword. And so,
the fight began, Darc with his ninjato katana and Evan with his flaming
broadsword. Lunging into the air at Evan, Darc's blade clashed with his,
throwing out sparks. Countering the attack, Evan threw Darc's sword off of
his and slashed inward from the right and then up in an L slash. Darc did a
back flip to avoid the razor edge of the flaming sword, his trench coat
making him look like one single black blur. He countered the L slash by
slashing out at Evan's ankles, cutting him along the armored greaves that
protected his shins.

"YAAAAAAAAIIIIIIII!!!" Darc bellowed as the tip of his sword glowed with a
radiant violet light. Slashing upward, the blade missed Evan by feet, but
the wave of shadowy energy in the shape of a crescent slashed into his
face, causing a large, angry-looking welt along his left cheek. That welt
burst open, bleeding from the power of the energy's descent.

"THE END OF YOUR WORLD IS NIGH! NEVER FORGET!!!" Evan screamed as he
slammed his fist against the floor, making it explode from impact. When the
light faded, all that could be seen was Tawny and Jinenji fighting
furiously. "JIM, COME!!!" Evan's voice echoed from the smoke clouds.

"It's been fun, LUV, but I must be leaving! Here, though, I'll leave you
with something to remember me by!" With that shouted, Jinenji threw a final
blast at Tawny's face. It crashed into the left side, making her cry out as
she was thrown back over the sofa, unconscious and skidding to a halt in
front of the fireplace. Jinenji laughed and disappeared in the same fashion
as Evan. Breathing heavily, Althea sighed and sat down, exhausted. Aria
helped Tawny get away from the fire, her left eye swollen shut. She was
still unconscious.

An intense silence hung stagnantly in the air between the three
warriors. "Where were you?" Althea asked as Cal sat down on the floor.

"Milady, I am not Calvin. My name is Darkside, or Darc," Cal growled as he
closed his eyes.

"Fine, Darc," Althea said hopelessly. "You had us worried. . . . I thought
. . . . . from what Evan said, . . . that you were dead. . . ."

"Thou shouldst knowest better than to believe thy enemy's words,
milady. . . ." Darc said in a detached tone of voice.

"Who are you?" Althea then asked, laying a hand on Darc's muscular, toned
shoulder. She ran her delicate fingers over his right collarbone, trying to
see if he fancied her like Cal did.

"Didst thou hear me? My name is Darc. . . ." Darc said, sounding slightly
irritable.

Aria sat next to the incapacitated Tawny, looking into her eyes
worriedly. "You'd probably have an easier time talking to a wall,
Althea. . . ."

"And what wouldst thou know of this?" Darc asked sharply.

"Oh, nothing, Darkside. . . . Just that you're too thick-headed for your
own good. . . ." Aria said.

Darc scoffed derisively. "Last time I checked, milady, I was not a mirror
image of thy visage. . . ." He looked back at Althea, his dark eyes glowing
a faint shade of crimson in the gloom of the now tranquil living room. His
glare was somewhat softened. "Before my comrade-in-arms gave me sanctuary,
I was just another wandering wraith. Seven hundred years ago, I was a
knight up on the Plane of Spirits, to which thou knowest by the term
`Astral Plane'. I belonged to a grand kingdom, a kingdom made of freshly
cut sapphires. It was the kingdom of Dagglarund, up on the Neo-Plane." He
looked over at Aria. "Thou knowest of the Neo-Plane, milady?"

"Yes," Aria said, nodding fervently. "Cal and I trained up there with Evan
to fight off the demon Aukos. It was ideal training ground, because it is a
place known to all for its intense spiritual activity. There, the undead
walk freely."

"That, milady, once was the kingdom of Dagglarund. It fell roughly about
. . . the year fourteen hundred and seventy-three. Dagglarund was one of
the strongest kingdoms of the Neo-Plane. There were five kingdoms total:
Dagglarund, Ardere, Zephyr, Cryonodor, and Giwdulkunigar. The kingdoms of
Zephyr and Cryonodor were both powerful nations of warriors, and
Giwdulkunigar was a powerful nation of soothsayers. However, with each
great civilization, there is always a black sheep of the gene pool. That
was the country of Ardere. Though almost as powerful as Dagglarund, Ardere
was proficient in a different way to combat other nations than the others
were. They trained their knights, whom they called the Pandora, in the ways
of shadow magic, along with the crafts of the sword and spear. So, the
Arderean Pandora, led by a vicious patriarch named Golgomath Darshiva
marched first upon the Topaz City of Zarudibatos, the capital of Zephyr, on
the night of October the tenth, thirteen hundred and sixty-three.

"The Zephyrian knights fought a vicious battle with the Pandora, but
eventually the Pandora prevailed after Golgomath Darshiva waved his hand,
yelling out a spell in Arderean language. That spell affected more than
half of the Zephyrian troops, making them burst into flame. I still
. . . remember what Giwdulkunigar's chieftain warned three months before
the first invasion. He told us, `Knights of Dagglarund, I must ask thee a
favor: beware of thy fate. Thy king, Sereno, does not listen to my
words. Heed me, I beg thee: in three months, before the moon of blood
rises, the kingdom of the Hellfire will begin a vicious campaign against
all of the free nations of Spiritial Plane.' The kingdom of the Hellfire
was Ardere, for in their language, Ardere meant just that, Hellfire.

"One by one, the other kingdoms fell. What began as a conflict over
boundaries soon evolved into a campaign to conquer the entire Spiritian
Realm! After Zarudibatos shattered and Zephyr fell from Ardere's invasion
army, Cryonodor was next to be hit. The two legions met on the Kawanakajima
plateau, in the icy realm of Kashua." Looking around, Darc saw the look of
confusion on everyone's face. "Kashua is on the northeastern border to
Cryonodor. It's a frozen wasteland, not fit for any form of life. The
Cryons fought against the Pandora there, each army inflicting massive
casualties on the other side. Eventually, though, the Pandora crushed the
Cryon Resistance Force and made their way into the Crystalline City of
Lienograd, in the mid-eastern glacial plain of Cryonodor. Lienograd held
out for a long time, as the campaign against them happened in the
winter. The Arderean army couldn't stand the intense cold, and many of
their lower-class troops died off from the frigid temperatures, but their
elite Pandora fought it with ease. In the end, though, on the morning of
December twenty-fourth, thirteen hundred and sixty-three, Lienograd fell by
a wave of fire that melted Kashua and sent the deluge into the city.

"The last two free nations were Giwdulkunigar and Dagglarund. Receiving
intelligence from the soothsayers of Giwdulkunigar, Dagglarund deployed the
elite knights of the king, the Pandion Knights, to reinforce the barricades
around the border on all sides, and the king also sent a number of Pandion
Knights to Giwdulkunigar's capital of Flanzelle. I was one of the Pandions
sent. No sooner than a fortnight after our arrival into the Amethyst
Capital, the Arderean Pandora struck, fast and furious.

"`Run, Sir Knights!!!' the Giwdulkunigar emperor screamed as I grabbed my
longsword and attached it to my sword belt. `The main walls are going to be
breached any second now!!!' With that assessed, we, my squad and I, that
is, ran through the halls and met on the castle's main defense wall. The
horde of Pandora was unfathomable. It was like a torrent from Hell, there
were so many of the corrupt knights! Throwing up ladders to climb over our
parapets, we fought off thousands before they breached. Eventually, my men
started to fall to their might. The first was a noble lancer by the name of
Rowen. He fell after being blown up by a ball of shadow energy that tore
his very soul out of his armor. More and more began falling and soon, I
found myself alone. Knowing that I was about to die on the swords of my
enemies, I quickly channeled all my energy and charged the waves of
villainous warrior mages with everything I had, slashing left and right
until I was in the center of the multitude. That is when I decided to
detonate myself, taking out the better portion of sixty thousand
Pandora. The Giwdulkunigarian knights fought the remaining five or six
thousand off and the city was saved, thanks to my sacrifice."

 An intense silence hung stagnantly in the air, almost like a foul
stench. Looking from Aria's pale face to Althea's, Darc then began, "Now,
let us move forward several centuries, and the young Divine Soldier Calvin
Lillehammer has just tasted his first defeat by a demon. Lying on the
ground of the Neo-Plane grasslands, he's bleeding to death from a grievous
wound inflicted upon him by a demon named `Takeiyama'. Feeling pity for the
poor Divine Soldier, I heal him and that is when I sense his thoughts and
energy output. He is just like me, I thought as I quickly teleport out of
the region so he wouldn't know who saved him. However, I follow his energy
layline back to the Earth realm and follow him. He was still recovering
from the defeat, wondering who it was that pulled him from the brink of
death, when during his PE hour, he and his comrade Evan have to run a
couple miles for their PE teacher. About two miles into the run, Calvin's
body starts shutting down on him and he collapses, crashing into one of the
cement pillars of the gymnasium. He is about to have a total neural
shutdown, so I step in and use my energy to rejuvenate him. Doing so,
though, transferred my sentience into his subconscious, and now here I
am. I'm not really a bad guy, but do not think that I do not like the taste
of blood."

The three talked for several more hours, and then Althea said, "Well, Aria,
I think we had better go. . . . Are you going to be able to take care of
Tawny while Darc and I leave?"

Aria smiled weakly, nodding. "Yeah. . . . I'll look over her and make sure
nothing bad happens to her. Take care, you two." She then looked at
Darc. "Do you know how to drive?"

Darc shrugged. "Not really, milady. However, I can draw the knowledge out
of my ally Calvin, should I need to. Be on guard, lest the demons return to
thy dwelling for a second helping of mischief." Darc bowed extravagantly to
Aria and then, turning on heel and marching down her sidewalk, he and
Althea got in the jeep and left.

Huh, Aria thought as she saw Darc and Althea leave. I sure hope they make
it through this, Darc and Cal. They're so much alike that it's almost
uncanny. . . . She looked back at Tawny, a peculiar feeling welling up in
her stomach. It felt like she was running short of breath. So, my new
friend here is a lesbian, huh? I wonder . . . what else might happen
tonight. . . .