ASSAULT

By Hydraa

Despite all the times he’d been furious with him and wished he were dead, or even the times he’d tried to kill him himself, Aion had actually been grief-stricken when Chrno finally died.

He’d felt it, but there had been nothing he could do. Healed unintentionally by acolytes but still so weak, with no source of astral except for a grievously wounded Genai, Aion hadn’t been able to go to his broken bird’s rescue. He’d only been able to feel Chrno weaken and finally slip away, vanishing from the world between one heartbeat and the next. Already torn by the deaths of Viede and Fiore and the theft of Shader and Joshua, Aion had felt destroyed.

He recovered, of course. Aion always recovered and always would. A thousand of his followers had died when they first broke free of Pandemonium. If he could handle that, he could handle anything. So long as he had even a single follower, he could recover.

Genai wasn’t really enough though, not after Aion had had thousands. Aion cared for Genai, nursed him back to health for more than the reason that Genai was his only power source. The power stones Fiore used to make for him were gone, with no way for him to gather more. His sword, with his horns forming the hilt was lost, taken by the Magdalene Order as a trophy. A king with a kingdom of one, Aion had only existed, living each day with no more goal to strive for.

And then Chrno woke up.

Aion had felt it, so clearly there could be no doubt. Between one moment and the next, Chrno’s essence had been back there in his mind, and with the barely felt, hard to grasp triumph he felt from Shader, Aion finally understood.

Chrno hadn’t died after all. He’d come close no doubt, but Shader had put him in her healing tanks and left him there for years, forcing Aion to think his broken bird was gone forever. How bad had Chrno’s wounds been? Aion hadn’t known whether to kiss Shader or kill her for making him suffer so.

Cautious but greedy, Aion had drunk deep of Genai’s energy and gone to see for himself, teleporting from their hiding place to the very doorstep of the Order. With the old wards broken, the nuns and priests didn’t know about his presence as he slunk through their lawns and up to a small cottage he’d seen before.

He saw Chrno reunited with the demon girl Rosette, and cursed that he hadn’t got there sooner to take mastery of Chrno himself. Still, he and Chrno were brothers and there was no way for Chrno to lock Aion out completely. Aion felt his brother’s joy and revelled in it, even as he raged. He’d thought Chrno was dead, grieved for him, and Aion was angry.

He slipped away to plan his vengeance, and a way to slake the desperate hunger he had for demon subordinates that always harboured in his soul.

--000--

The bells peeled out, ringing a song that had nothing to do with worship. Summoned from their regular duties, the priests and nuns of the militia ran out of the buildings, carrying arms as they headed for the vehicles that would transport them. The bells rang out a four toned cry. A major incursion had been found.

Rosette ran at their front, easily outdistancing her fully human troops as she raced for the first of the cars with a machine gun in one hand and a pistol in the other. For all her demon nature, she still preferred regular weaponry. There was nothing else quite like a machine that could hurl a staccato of sacreds and gospels at her enemy.

Despite her speed, boot heels sounded at her side as Chrno ran up by her side in his adult form. Rosette’s lips firmed.

“You’re not coming.”

He barely glanced at her. “Yes I am.”

Her frown deepened even further. He’d been awake for barely four days. He hadn’t even tried to change shape or use his powers. Shader had made it clear. She’d let him out early. Only a few months mind, but he wasn’t at full power. His legions were still subject to strain.

Rosette wasn’t going to take the slightest chance of that happening.

“You’re not coming!” she shouted, skidding to a halt in the middle of the sidewalk. “Is that clear?”

Chrno stopped as well, glaring at her stubbornly. “If you wanted to give me orders, you shouldn’t have freed me from your control.”

Maybe she shouldn’t have, Rosette thought as she ground her teeth, but she had. Despite his natural submissiveness, Chrno could choose to disobey her if he wanted to now. He just wasn’t supposed to bother.

“Don’t argue with me, Chrno,” she snapped, ignoring how everyone else was catching up now. “Shader hasn’t cleared you for combat. I won’t risk you getting hurt.”

“And I won’t let you get into trouble without me.”

Joshua trotted up with the other militia, slowing with them to watch. “Can you feel the love?” he smiled.

“Joshua, don’t,” Azmaria hushed, looking upset.

Rosette didn’t care. This was Chrno. She’d spent two years staring through a glass tube at him floating in a bunch of goo, looking to see if he’d moved even the slightest. She still had nightmares of something going wrong and him ending up back there, or worse. To see him in combat again, to see anything at all trying to hurt him…

“You’re not coming,” she whispered again. “I won’t risk you. Not like this. Not again. I can’t do it again. Do you understand that?”

Chrno hesitated, staring at her.

“Don’t come, Chrno,” she whispered. “Please don’t come. If you love me, stay here where it’s safe. Just until I can handle the thought of risking you again.”

Chrno’s shoulders sagged, a look of misery on his face. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I keep forgetting what it must have been like for you.”

Rosette stepped forward and rose up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “We’ll be back in a few hours. I promise.”

Chrno touched her cheek with the back of his hand and gave her a small smile. “Okay.”

Rosette beamed at him and ran past, running the rest of the way to the cars. “Hurry up!” she shouted to the rest of the militia. They joined her, Joshua and Azmaria giving Chrno apologetic looks as they passed.

Chrno watched them go, peeling out of the Order’s main gate at high speed.

“Damn,” he said.

--000--

For a while, Chrno wandered around the Order’s grounds, too restless to return to the cottage. They were fairly extensive and he hadn’t actually seen them in years, but that got boring after a while. Most of the Order was away with Rosette and those who didn’t fight were mostly away from the grounds, working at different locations throughout the city. The place was almost deserted as a result.

Remington would be around though, probably locked in his office and wanting some company. Chrno still couldn’t really believe that Ewan Remington was in charge of this place, but no one had seen fit to replace him during the last two years, so he had to be doing a good job.

Chrno cut between two buildings, headed for the main administration building where Remington would be. That took him past the lab where Shader was, but he wasn’t really feeling up to her usual excitement levels. He was low on astral, another good reason for him not to go with Rosette, he supposed, but he didn’t want to have Shader gushing over him while he was in a bad mood. So long as he got his astral before Rosette returned, he could wait on visiting Shader.

Chrno passed between the buildings, went across the front lawn of the lab, and as he started around the back corner, a sharp, barbed demon tail into the front of his throat and through his spine.

Chrno’s legs went out from under him like a marionette with no more strings. His knees buckled and he went down onto them, gagging with his arms just as limp and useless at his sides. He would have fallen farther, but the tail held him up, the blood that poured out of his throat and mouth flowing down its length, a pretty red against the white.

Aion came around the corner, his wings furled at his side and the small glasses he wore perched on his nose as he looked down at Chrno appraisingly. “Paralyzed?” he asked. “Good. I’m quite angry with you, but I don’t want you in any pain. Or fighting back. I’ve found I really missed you these last few years.” He knelt down and looked at Chrno more closely. Chrno tried to say something, but he couldn’t get any words out. Aion smiled at him, that smile Chrno had once taken comfort from and then learned to fear. “Try to relax, little bird. You’re taking a nap no matter what you do.”

He laid Chrno down, easing him down onto his side on the grass. Chrno tried to speak, tried to scream for help or do anything, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even get his legions to obey him. Sluggish and sleepy after two years of torpor, they barely responded, moving reluctantly towards the hole in his throat.

Before they could start to work, Aion brushed Chrno’s hair out of his face, exposing his temple, and brought the edge of his hand down hard on the spot where Chrno’s broken horns were in his demon form.

Chrno didn’t know anything after that.

--000--

That had been easy. Aion had always approved of surprise attacks, especially against his little brother. Even after all the times Aion had ambushed him, Chrno didn’t seem capable of becoming paranoid. It was really rather charming.

Aion checked the other demon over carefully. He hadn’t wanted to harm him, but he hadn’t wanted to fight Chrno either. The last thing he needed was the Order getting wise to his presence. The militia and that bitch Rosette were gone chasing Genai’s distraction, but that bastard priest Remington was still around. That was one human Aion didn’t want to fight at all.

He just wanted his brother back, and for that, he needed to be left alone for a while. Without Shader, he didn’t have access to any of the technology he used to and stealing Chrno’s will back from Rosette wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, Aion rather thought it would be impossible without a little honest cheating. The Order had the technology he needed, courtesy of Shader, so Aion was going to borrow it for a while.

Carefully, Aion lifted the other demon up and over one shoulder, grimacing as he felt Chrno's blood soak into the white leather he wore across his back. It was always such a pain to keep it clean. Ears pricked for anyone who might see him, he headed back the way Chrno had come and went to the low white building that he'd learned was Shader's lab.

He was still mad at the cat demon as well, but he knew her betrayal wasn't her fault. Aion had stolen her from Pandemonium. He should have taken better steps to make sure no one else could steal her from him.

Of all of them, it was Rosette Christopher that Aion was angriest at.

Aion shoved the door to the lab open and strode into a morass of equipment and wires that was undeniably Shader. "Shader!" he shouted, putting all the force of his will into his voice. "Shader, come to me!"

There was nothing, the lab silent and deserted.

"SHADER!" he bellowed.

Nothing. "Damn," Aion muttered at last. This would have been a lot easier with Shader's help. In fact, his plan had included re-subsuming Shader under his control and using her to help gain control of Chrno, then leaving with both of them. As far as he'd been able to tell, she rarely left her lab, so where was she?

Right now, it didn't matter, because he couldn't wait. Aion made his way through the lab, looking around. He was familiar with Shader's work and he recognized most of the pieces he saw. The one he specifically wanted was at the centre of the lab and Aion went towards it, grabbing a wheeled steel table as he did. Dragging it up to the machine he wanted, he dumped Chrno onto his back on top of it. The unconscious demon sprawled bonelessly along the table, blood gleaming on his throat and shirt as though he'd dipped them both in dye. His head fell sideways, turned towards the door and the freedom he wasn't going to get. Aion smirked and looked at the machine he'd chosen.

It was Shader's healing tank, a large central machine with legion-filled sleeping tubes pronging out from it at floor level. It could be used for repairing damage, but also for affecting things like memory. Chrno wouldn't have any need to obey Rosette Christopher if he didn't remember her. He'd go back to old patterns then and that meant Aion.

Aion studied the controls, working cautiously but quickly. He'd always bragged that he didn't need to know how Shader's machines worked, but he'd watched her use them many times and he knew the fundamentals. She'd added something to this one though, a second machine hooked up to the tank that hadn't been there the last time Aion saw it. He looked at the label placed neatly on the side and started to grin. It read astral generator.

"Oh, I do so hope that means what I think it means," he purred. If Shader had finally figured out that little secret, Aion wouldn't need to worry about power gems and horns ever again.

For now though, first things first. Get Chrno's mind wiped before he woke up. Chrno could help him haul the machine out then, since it didn't look to be a simple job. Aion flipped the switch to turn the tank on, adjusted the controls…

…And all of the power went out in the entire lab.

"Damnit!" he swore and went to find the switchbox.

--000--

Shader hadn't gone out. She hadn't needed to go anywhere since it wasn't mealtime yet and even if it was, she often forgot. Rosette usually had to come looking for her to remind her to eat when she got working.

She hadn't really been working this time though, just sitting and playing with the computer, cleaning out old files and generally doing some housekeeping. The perimeter alarm had beeped and she'd looked up at the monitors set up over her desk to see Aion walking towards the lab, Chrno slung unconscious over his shoulder.

Shader had shrieked so loudly she was lucky he hadn’t heard her from outside. While Aion had been confident in his superiority as master, Rosette hadn't been so arrogant and she'd spent a lot of time over the last two years ensuring her cat demon would keep her independence. Her ears flat and her tail puffed to twice its size, Shader hit the password lock on the computer and dove for the floor, ducking down just in time not to be spotted as Aion kicked the door open and came in.

"Shader!" he shouted. "Shader, come to me!"

Shader heard him where she huddled under her desk, even with her hands pressed over her ears, and she felt the absolute demand in that voice. Come, obey, submit. She whined, and suddenly Rosette's voice was in her head, repeating the words again that the woman had been repeating every week for two years, at first despite Shader's confusion and later with her full agreement.

"You will be your own person. You will never bend to the will of anyone who gives you no choice. You will be your own person."

"I will be my own person," Shader whimpered and shook in her hiding place.

"SHADER!"

"I will be my own person! I will be my own person!" She wanted to cry, but he might hear her, might have heard her whispering to herself already.

"Be brave," Rosette told her.

Be brave. Her ears still flat, Shader peeked out from under the desk and around the corner, where she had a clear view of Aion at the end of a makeshift corridor formed of equipment and machinery. She could see Chrno as well, lying with his head turned away from her on one of the metal tables with the raised edges that she used for dissecting dead demons. Shader bit her lip. He wasn't recovered nearly enough for this. He needed her help, but she was just a tech demon. What was she supposed to do?

She looked back at Aion and saw him studying the legion tanks. Suddenly, Shader knew what he was up to; the same thing he'd wanted her to do two years before. He wanted to put Chrno in the tank and erase his memory.

Rosette would absolutely kill her if she let that happen.

How to stop him? How to stop him? Would screaming in terror and running away as fast as she could work? Probably not. How about leaping up and letting him have it with a gatling gun loaded with incendiary rounds? Nope. It was on the other side of the lab and Rosette had taken all her ammo. Shader watched Aion for a moment longer, his heart pounding and wanting nothing more than to stay where she was. Chrno needed her though. She had to help him.

Aion bent over the astral generator and Shader moved, her tail tucked firmly between her legs as she crawled out from under the desk and away down the corridor as quickly as she could. Ducking under a generator, she scurried on all fours along a cross alley, over a cable half a foot thick, and reached the wall where the breaker panel for the lab was. Somewhere behind her, she could hear Aion trying to figure out the controls for the legion tank. Kneeling on the floor, Shader reached up and opened the panel, barely able to reach it, and hit the master breaker.

The lights went out. While she heard Aion swearing in the darkness, Shader nearly ran on her hands and knees back into the maze of equipment, this time headed for the other side of the building while she heard Aion stumble his way towards the wall. She actually passed behind him at one point, biting into her lip to keep from squealing as she saw his shadow move in the darkness.

On the wall across from the breaker panel, a phone was hanging, there in case someone really needed to get hold of her, but away from her desk so that it wouldn't annoy her too much. Shader took it off the hook and dialled a number as quietly as she could, praying all the while that he'd be there. She was pretty sure he was supposed to be there.

"Father Remington."

"Help!" Shader whispered. "He's here! Oh help!"

"Shader? Who's there?"

"Aion!"

--000--

Remington had been having a boring day of paperwork and finances, the sort he hated with an outright passion. Now he found himself rather missing it as he sprinted across the lawn, the cross that formed the hilt of his sword in his hand.

He couldn't call anyone to help on this. The militia weren't back and the only other people still at the Order weren't fighters. He couldn't in good conscience involve the novices in training in this sort of thing. Sure, Rosette had done so at an even younger age than many of the girls who'd come to the Order, but she was unique in just about every way. Any of the novices now would die against Aion.

Aion. Remington had known the demon wasn't dead, not the way he'd escaped the hospital after Joshua and Azmaria unintentionally healed him. Remington had hoped though, he really had. Aion didn't have any sources of astral anymore, after all, not without Fiore to make power gems for him and without his sword, which had his horns built into the hilt. Both gave him sources of astral, as had his followers. Now he had nothing.

Why was he here? Ewan didn't really have to guess. Aion had come for Chrno.

Ewan reached the lab and slowed to a cautious walk as he went towards the door, his breathing slow and even. He'd forced himself to stay in shape, even after he took on Kate's old job. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war, he'd always been told. It was true and Ewan loosened his collar as he slid up to the door.

--000--

Inside, Aion finally found the breaker panel and felt down the switches until he found the one that had tripped. He flipped it back on and grinned as the lights came back on. "That's…"

He started to turn around and stopped, staring at a case on the wall only a few feet from the breaker panel. It was fronted with glass and large, the interior filled with a variety of swords, a cane with a duck for the handle, and a golf club. Aion didn't pay attention to any of those. Midway to the side of the main display, as though it didn't deserve to be central, was a long, slim sword with ivory white horns forming the guard of the hilt.

"Yes!" he crowed and yanked the door open, breaking the lock with a bang. This outing was turning into a treasure trove of rewards. First Chrno, then a machine that produces astral, now his sword and horns. Aion took the weapon down and felt astral flow into him. The horns in the hilt weren't quite as productive as they had been when he wore them, no longer drawing on demand, but they still stored astral at a steady rate and he could draw on it whenever he needed to. "Yes," he breathed again, caressing them.

A squeal that sounded almost like "oh shit!' echoed from somewhere in the lab.

Aion turned, hissing.

The door burst open and Aion saw a flash of blue and gold, as well as the glow of a sword blade that was nearly a foot thick and nearly eight feet long. Aion saw blond hair and then the priest was in the maze, probably with a great deal more knowledge of it than Aion.

"Oh, shit," he swore himself.

The last thing Aion wanted was a fight with Father Ewan Remington in this chaos of a disaster zone. He wanted that astral generator though, and he wanted Chrno. The demon was still unconscious, his blood pooling in the autopsy table he'd been dumped onto. At least it didn't look like Aion would have to fight him.

"Aion!" Remington shouted from somewhere to his right. "Surrender!"

"Not fucking likely!" Aion shouted back, moving cautiously out into the centre of the maze. It was starting to feel positively claustrophobic to him and he sneered, his sword held in both hands. He had enough astral to obliterate the building, if not to speed time, but he didn't want to risk the equipment he'd come to find.

A scurrying sound came to his left. It almost sounded like someone hurrying around on their hands and knees, he thought.

Ewan came over the table to his right, vaulting it with one hand braced on the wood and that bloody huge sword of his already swinging. Aion brought his own weapon up to block it, his wings spreading to keep his balance, and skidded back a step at the impact. Remington had always been stronger than any normal human. Now he looked at Aion coldly, pushing against him.

Aion beat him at with his wings, ignoring how much it hurt him along with the human. "I should have killed you years ago," he growled.

"Funny, I've been thinking the same thing."

They broke apart, both of them leaping back, Remington stumbling against that table, Aion crashing into a tower of small black cases that proceeded to tumble around them both.

They ran for the open area in the centre of the lab, swords clashing together as equipment crashed down behind them, blocking the makeshift corridor. They reached the open area at the same time and broke apart around either side of the table Chrno was on.

Aion skidded to a halt and swung as hard as he could. Just as fast despite the size of his weapon, Ewan blocked and sparks flicked down onto Chrno's face and chest, sizzling out in the blood. They both swung again, blocked, and Aion kicked the table, sending it skidding towards the priest. Ewan caught it, Chrno nearly tumbling out to the floor, and they both glared at each other.

"I'm not going to let you take him," the priest said.

"He's mine."

"Then you shouldn't have thrown him away." Grabbing the edge of the table, Ewan yanked his feet up and swung under it, kicking out. Caught in the front of the thighs and the hips, Aion flew back and crashed into the astral generator he'd been hoping to acquire. Delicately made and more than a little bit unstable, it exploded, throwing him forward again.

It was more than he wanted to deal with. Screaming in pain and rage, his hair on fire and his wings singed, Aion landed awkwardly on his feet and ran for the door, swinging wildly at Remington as he passed. The man ducked and Aion was at the door, crashing through it and taking to the air, his sword at least still clutched in his hand.

--000--

Shader poked her head nervously from behind a large safe. "Is he gone?" she whimpered. "Because if he isn't, I'm going to just pee myself now. Oh, wait, I already did that."

"He's gone, Shader," Ewan assured her and leaned over Chrno, laying a hand on his cheek. "Hey," he called softly. No answer.

Shader came up beside him, her ears still twitching spastically in all directions. She bent over Chrno and Remington stepped back to let her work. There was no point in going after Aion, though he did step outside to check that the demon was actually gone. He didn't see any sign of Aion at all. Instead he saw the militia returning and muttered a word that was both blasphemous and ungentlemanly.

--000--

Rosette came back to the convent feeling tired and grouchy. They hadn't caught the demon, but they'd done a whole lot of running around, and she had a grouchy memory of Satella making the militia run around like idiots using her jewel knight. Today felt like too much of the same thing. All she wanted to do was take a shower and lie on the couch with her head in Chrno's lap. Maybe she'd rub his ears for a while. He liked that.

Getting out of the car while Joshua called out instructions to the team, she put her hands against the small of her back and stretched while she looked across the green lawns towards Shader's lab. Chrno might be there now, getting his astral.

Father Remington was standing in front of the shattered door, his sword in his hand.

Rosette couldn't remember crossing the lawn later. She just knew she was suddenly in front of Remington and he was opening his mouth to tell her something she didn't want to hear. She ran inside and there was her nightmare. Chrno lying on Shader's autopsy table with his throat and chest soaked in blood.

Her scream echoed straight across the Order.

--000--

Joshua came into the lab uncertainly. Even he was nervous around his sister when she was in this kind of mood, and she had a real reason to be pissed.

Rosette was sitting on a metal chair in front of one of Shader's tanks, the same one Chrno had been in for the last two years. The same chair. Now he floated in it again, the only difference being he was in his human form, not his demon one. Rosette had no tears in her eyes as she watched him. Instead they looked like chips of ice and Joshua could see her knuckles were white where she had her hands clasped together.

"Rosette?" he said to her. "Are you okay?"

"Go away."

Joshua swallowed and came closer. She was his big sister. He didn't have to be afraid of her. She was upset, that was all. She had reason to be. "He's going to be all right," he reminded her. "Shader said he was only going to be in the tank for a week or so."

Her face twisted. "Go away."

"Rosette…"

"GO AWAY!" she screamed. Joshua jumped and started backing for the door. She was shimmering, her horns and ears lengthening, threatening to go to her full demon form right there. She just needed some time alone, he told himself, said something apologetic, and fled.

Rosette heard her brother go and felt bad about that, but mostly she was furious. She'd left Chrno behind so he could be safe, so he could continue to recover and give his legions time to fully wake up. Instead he'd ended up impaled through the throat and spine and his legions couldn't cope. She looked at his darkened form lying in the tank. It was all Aion's fault.

Her eyes narrowed. Nearly every injury he'd ever suffered was Aion's fault, from his broken horns to his overworked legions. Rosette pressed her hand against the tank opposite her lover's face and looked up.

"Shader!"

The cat's face peered out from the maze, looking nervous, though Rosette was extremely pleased with her. "Yes?"

"You said you put tracking beacons on all your equipment. Does that include Aion's sword?"

"Um, yes?"

Rosette smiled and Shader fled with a yelp at the viciousness of it. Rosette let her go and stood, to go and prepare herself for war.

She was going after Aion.

THE END