Eighteenth Night: The Foes We Face

On the roof of True Cross Academy.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Rin's screams filled the air. He was strapped to some kind of cross blood poured out of him onto a complicated array. The weapons that the exorcist had used during the crusade were in piles exuding blood that pooled together in the center of the array. Kurikara was thrust into the ringing the area in blue flame. Hundreds of exorcists ringed the roof chanting in latin.

Allen rushed forward, "Rin!"

He was intercepted by Apocryphos in all his creepy white glory. "If I can't absorb you I'll just have to kill you instead!"

Allen growled as feathers began sprouting from his arm and side making him cringe. Allen shifted to his Noah form, eyes darkening to molten gold, and skin greying as seven stigmata appeared on his forehead. Innocence wouldn't be of any help here, even so Lavi readied his hammer making it grow until it was larger than himself. Rhode summoned her candles and Lero standing on him so she was up and out of the way.

Lavi smashed his hammer to the ground as Allen leapt away. "Fire Seal: Conflagration of Ash!"

Apo-chan emerged unharmed. Rhode stabbed at him with a few candles as Allen ran in right hand charged with Dark Matter. Dimly Allen registered as Yukio arrived on the roof, and started talking to Ernst. He was too busy with Apo-chan to notice anything else. Apocryphos changed his arm so they were shaped like blades. Allen cursed under his breath as he dodged another swipe of blade like arms.

Gehenna Gate was open. The exwires and Mr. Tsubaki had arrived. Corpses littered the ground covered in burn marks, the tar-like substance inside the gate rise up, Shima started flailing around in fear.

Bon remained pretty stoic, "We need to get out of here lets grab Rin and go!"

Bon and Mr. Tsubaki ran up to Rin lifting him onto Bon's back, and stepping away from the gate. Just as Bon was about to head back to the others he spotted Allen, Lavi, and Rhode fighting a white creepy figure. Lavi and Rhode were both acting as support since Rhode wasn't really meant for this kind of combat and Lavi's hammer was almost useless against the sentient Innocence. Then Bon made a huge mistake.

He called to Allen, "Walker!"

Allen turned out of instinct only to find that he now had an arm piercing his abdomen. Fortunately Bon's called had also distracted the Apocryphos. In that split second before the sentient Innocence could pull away Allen placed his blacked right arm on the Apocryphos causing him to explode in a shower of dust and green sparks. Allen that was left was a large glowing green cogwheel.

"Rhode!"

The Noah of Dreams wasted no time swooping down and taking the unusual piece of Innocence in her hands and crushing it leaving only green dust behind. Allen nodded his thanks, the feathers on his arm and side receded, as his Noah form faded. Dark blood stained the shirt Allen was wearing (he had long since gotten rid of his coat as it only got in the way). Rhode Candles vanished, and Lavi's hammer returned to its bangle form.

Lavi caught Allen as he fell, "You alright there Moyashi-chan?" Lavi hoisted the 'younger' teen onto his back as they retreated.*

"M' name's Allen." Allen mumbled tiredly, "m' fine."

Bon caught up with the threesome, "Are you alright?! Walker's bleeding all over you!"

Lavi grinned, "Moyashi-chan's fine or he will be in a few minutes." Lavi himself was not in the best shape suffering from scratches and bruising, a few cracked ribs, and a long cut along his right arm. Rhode was the only one to have not suffered any damage from their fight, not only because she was floating on Lero the entire time, but because her real body was still in her dream realm. About halfway back to the others A plane flew overhead dropping some kind of bomb into the Gate. Purple light filled the area for almost a minute then the light faded, but the Gate was unharmed. Demons spilled out flooding the area.

Lavi looked around the area, just in front of the Gate there was a figure wreathed in blue flames, "Hey is that Yukio?"

Allen shifted as his eye activated he muttered loud enough for Lavi to hear, "S'not Yukio, Satan."

Lavi tensed.

Shima squinted his eyes, "But he told us he didn't inherit Satan's power!"

Shiemi stepped closer to the figure only to be pushed back by a wall of blue flame, "Yuki!"

The flames around him grew brighter, creating wing like shapes behind Yukio. Two balls of brighter flames hovered by his side as he laughed manicly. Rin woke up.

"Rin!" Shiemi cried.

Bon looked over his shoulder, "You okay?"

Rin wasn't paying them any attention to them, his gaze was locked on the laughing Yukio before him. "Is that really Yukio?" Rin jumped off Bon's back running to his brother, "Yukio! What happened to you! Come on Yukio, what's going on? I thought I was the only one to inherit the blue flames."

"Shut Up!" Yukio cried, his voice sounded like something was distorting it.

Rin stopped frowning, 'that voice, no way.' "You're Satan."

The exwires gasped. Allen shifted on Lavi's back sliding down to stand up.

"It's about time, it took you so long to notice, you were starting to hurt your daddys feelings!" Yukio continued his earlier manic laugh.

Bon was sweating, "So that's Satan?"

"Why did you take over Yukio's body?!"

"Simple, his was ready before yours. It's a good look for me don't you think?"

Rin was confused.

Satan seeing his confusion decided to be nice and explain, "Both of you have my blood running through your veins, so your bodies are the perfect vessels for me. Sure, I had to wait a few years for you to grow up, but the wait was well worth it."

"Get out of Yukio's body!" Rin charged Satan, a rather stupid idea really. Allen began moving but stopped when the wound from Apocryphos began bleeding again. Satan stepped aside while turning he hit Rin's face with the back of his hand sending him flying across the roof.

"Rin!" Shiemi cried. Her familiar summoned a ball of cotton for Rin to land on. She ran to kneel beside him, "are you okay?"

"Always interrupting, you were raised better than that. I've been dreaming of this moment for the last fifteen years. The day I finally get to bring the worlds of Assiah and Gehenna together and create a new world."

"A new world?" Rin questioned, "you're crazy."

"Now that I have a durable vessel I can move freely around Assiah, and I have a huge Gehenna Gate tailor made for my needs." Yukio/Satan said stalking towards Rin, "this is a golden opportunity! To finally fulfil my dreams!" Yukio/Satan raised his gun aim at Rin, "sorry but I'll be damned if I let a little pipsqueak like you destroy my Gate."

This time Allen's wounds did not impair him. At a seconds notice he was in front of Rin, white cape flaring protectively over Rin and Shiemi.

At the same time Bon decided to gather his nerves, "Hey you! Before you off him why don't you take me on?"

Shima looked at his friend like he was insane, "Dude! Bon!"

Konekomaru panicked, "Are you crazy! That's Satan! You don't stand a chance!"

Bon shifted, "Someone's gotta try!

Lavi facepalmed as Yukio/Satan slowly turn to face them, 'Panda-jiji I really hope I was never this stupid.'

"Oh would you just shut up already!"

Mr. Tsubaki saw it coming before anyone else, "Move!" He pushed Bon aside and was covered in blue flame, "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"Mr. Tsubaki!" Bon yelled.

Izumo summoned a bowl of heaven's sake putting out the flame, Mr. Tsubaki fell to the ground. Shima and Konekomaru stood in front of the others and chanted a spell, "Grant us the divine protection of simple spiritual armor!" A golden rune appeared in front of them.

Konekomaru turned back slightly to face Bon, "Go! We've got you covered!"

Shima turned as well, "Hurry up and get away while you can!"

Bon muttered a chant under his breath holding Shima's K'rik, he pulled back his arm, "Go K'rik!" The staff was hurled into the air. Yukio/Satan chuckled and swatted it aside as if it were nothing more than a bug.

"Stop messing with me!" Yukio/Satan screamed, dark energy shoved the exwires back knocking them unconscious. Lavi used his hammer to block the brunt of it and remained conscious. Rhode still floating on Lero hovered a little higher.

Yukio/Satan held a hand full of blue flame, "You're all so pathetic, you'll make good ash though." Yukio/Satan lazily threw the blue fireball at the group of exwires.

"Leave them alone!" Rin screamed.

"Fire Seal: Conflagration of Ash!" Lavi slammed his hammer into the ground, a snake of fire encircled the exwires protecting them from the harmful blue flame.

At the same time Shura arrived, "Snake Fang!" The blue fireball split in half the remains crashed against Lavi's fire snake. "You heard the kid."

Rin gasped, "Shura!"

Shura propped her free hand on her hip, "That's Miss Shura to you. Hey Moriyama! I can handle this but I need you to get the wounded somewhere safe."

Shiemi nodded, "Hey Nii." The little greenmen jumped up, out of him came five dandelion puffs that picked up the wounded, Shima, Konekomaru, Bon, Izumo, and Mr. Tsubaki.

"So how're you going to defeat me?" Yukio/Satan asked.

"You little four eyed chicken." She muttered.

"That isn't Yukio, that's Satan." Allen told Shura.

"For real!?"

Yukio/Satan stretched out a hand flame shooting out. Shura dodged and wove, cutting what flames she couldn't dodge in half. Allen fell to one knee but stayed in front of Rin.

Rhode floated down next to Allen, "Is it time for our getaway?"

Allen nodded, "Can you take us to the main room in the dorms?"

Rhode sighed, "I was having so much fun." She summoned boxes around the injured who were floating away Lavi, and Shura who wasn't actually fighting but watching a her familiars fight while disguised as her. As soon as there was enough cover she summoned a door getting everyone through before Yukio/Satan could notice.

Izumo stood by the window with Rhode hovering nearby, the other exwires were around Shiemi getting their wounds treated. Rin, Shura, Allen, and Lavi sat together a little ways away from the others. Allen leaned against the wall while his wounds recovered.

"No way! He wants to fuse Gehenna and Assiah?" Shura exclaimed quietly.

Rin nodded, "Yeah."

Everyone gasped as blue flame shot from the Academy roof exploding in the nearby area.

Izumo turned towards Shura, "We should get out while we can, it's not safe here."

Shura shook her head, "No it's better if we stay here, I pretty sure Satan's gonna stay close to that Gate."

"Pretty sure? Why would he?" Rin asked.

"Because his whole plan depends on that Gate staying open. He's got his guard up because of you. You managed to destroy the Gehenna Gate once before when you tried to save Shiro. He'll do everything he can to keep it open."

Shima chuckled, "It's like he's the It, in kick the can."

"What's that?" Rin asked.

"Hide and seek with a can. The guy who's it has to find people but he's also gotta guard a can, if the can gets kicked by anyone the guy who's It loses."

Lavi nodded, "So someone needs to go kick the can."

"Okay but what'd we do about Yukio?"

"Satan's power is too much, even if we attack him all at once he'd kill us. Right now the best we can do is destroy the Gehenna Gate, and stop anymore demons from getting through."

"But we can't abandon Yukio! What about Allen's sword? It exercises demons without killing humans right! That would work!"

Allen shook his head, "Yukio is a half-demon now, and while it might get rid of Satan it will harm Yukio in the process. I should know."

Shura nodded, "I want to save Yukio just as much as you but there's no way to save someone who's been possessed by Satan."

Lavi crossed his arms leaning back against the wall, "There have been records of people getting possessed by Satan and in turn ridding themselves of his influence. Of course they all died, but Yukio is the son of Satan, and therefore isn't physically harmed by being possessed."

Rin looked hopeful.

"I wouldn't place any bets on whether he could wake up by himself...though." Lavi paused distracted by a thought.

"Though what?" Rin demanded impatiently.

Rhode floated closer to the plotting group.

"Rhode might be able to trap him in her Dream."

Rin looked to Rhode eye's pleading, "Can you do it?"

Rhode tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Hmm, probably, seeing as he's more or less asleep it shouldn't be too hard, and if I use my doll form than I can ride on someone's shoulder then getting close enough won't be a problem."

Allen nodded, "I can get you close."

Rhode nodded, "I can't convince Yukio to wake up." She grinned mischievously, "though, if Rin's inside my Dream he could wake Yukio."

Rin nodded enthusiastically standing, "Let's go!"

Allen grabbed Rin's arm keeping him from leaving, "Shura, you and I are going to have to keep Satan busy while Rin and Yukio are in Rhode's Dream as Satan will still have full control of Yukio's body."

Lavi ran a hand through his hair, "Rhode can keep Rin in one of her boxes so he's out of the way, and I guess I'm on babysitting duty?"

Allen nodded, "Gomen Lavi."

On the Academy roof.

Shura kicked open the gate not trying to be subtle. Allen was walking slightly behind her with Rhode in her doll form on his shoulder. Rin's consciousness was already in Rhode's Dream, his body was in one of her dice boxes hidden behind the wall.

Yukio/Satan turned to face them, "So Snake girl and the Earl are back. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Shura scowled, "Shut up ya four eyed chicken!"

Allen frowned. It was true that he took the Earls place. The title, Millenium Earl, was not his and never would be.

Shura touched the seal on her chest removing the blade from inside it. Allen grasped his left wrist drawing the large broadsword. Rhode shifted making sure she was secure in her position on Allen's shoulder.

Yukio/Satan smirked, "You dare challenge me?! HAHAHA! Pathetic mortals!"

Allen and Shura exchanged a glance nodding grimly. Then they did something that could be considered supremely stupid. They charged. Yukio/Satan stretched out a lazy hand, shooting blue flames at the two. Shura went to the right and Allen went left. They both stepped as close as they could to the Demon King, though Allen was farther back on account of his sword being so large. Rhode fisted her doll hands throwing her power towards into the Demon King's mind. She smirked (as well as a doll could) as Allen and Shura leapt away.

Allen glanced at Rhode, "Do you have Yukio?"

Rhodes smirk widened, "Of course. By the way you owe me a years supply of candy for this."

Inside Rhode's Dream

Yukio gasped pulling himself up off the ground into a standing position. 'Last I remember I was seeing Mom, then...nothing. How did I get here?' Yukio glanced around the room, 'for that matter, where is here?'

The 'room' Yukio was in was...strange to say the least. Pointed candles floated around the room. The floor was black and red checked tile. Various toys and books littered the area. The walls were purple and had paintings scattered here and there, most of which were hung crookedly. The strangest thing in the room was a doll. It had it's own person sized throne in the center of the circular room, it wore a white shirt and a fluffy purple skirt with striped purple tights on underneath. Short spiky blue hair covered it's head and a large grin was stitched on it's face. Overall the room (and the doll) reminded him of someone, but a fog in his head kept him from remembering.

Yukio's musings were cut short when he was tackled with a hug.

"Yukio!"

Yukio caught a glimpse of bluish hair, "Rin? Where are we?"

Rin pulled back rubbing his head sheepishly, "Sorry I kinda fazed out when we were talking about it, though I do remember something about it being a Dream. Anyway that's not important right now."

Yukio shook his head, 'Typical Rin.'

"Yukio. You need to wake up."

Yukio frowned, Rin was serious that much was obvious, but… "Rin what are you talking about?"

"You're being possessed by Satan right now."

Yukio's eyes widened as he remembered, 'Satan showed me him and Mom right before he took over my body!' Yukio's face darkened with despair, "Rin, I can't wake up if I'm being possessed by Satan. This is just a Dream, even if you somehow managed to get my consciousness here you can't save someone who has been possessed by Satan."

Rin was furious, "I don't care if it's impossible! You're gonna wake up 'cause you can't leave me! You're all I have left and I'm not about to give up. So are you gonna sit and watch while Satan uses you or are you gonna do something!?"

"Rin," Yukio breathed quietly, this was his brother, doing his best to save him and here he was doing nothing.

"Well?"

Yukio shook off the despair, 'I'm not going to stand by and let Rin protect me while I wallow in despair.' "I've slept long enough."

The brothers clasped hands and Rin grinned, "Let's do this."

Unknown to both boys the doll sitting on the throne grinned and disappeared.

Allen and Shura paused in their attack. Both were panting and more than a little bit battered. Satan hadn't let up in the slightest after Yukio was extracted from his consciousness. If anything he was more dangerous than before.

Allen started as Rhode appeared on his shoulder still in doll form. "Rhode! What happened?"

She grinned, "Rin and Yukio are waking up."

Nearby Rin's box lowered itself to the ground opening as the boy woke up. He took off heading to the roof dodging various pieces of rubble that had littered the area while Satan was spewing flames. When Rin arrived at the scene Shura, Allen, and Rhode stood close to the gate, resting while Yukio/Satan fought with himself.

Rin's eyes locked onto his brother, "Yukio!"

The flames around Yukio's body dissolved and his demonic features lessoned. Yukio smiled at his brother and fell to his knees. Rin ran to catch his brother before he face-planted into the roof.

"Sorry Rin."

Rin smiled, "You really need to stop trying to be the hero you know."

"What a surprise." Satan's voice rang out, "I never dreamed I could be knocked off my feet like that! Unfortunately for you my dream is not over quite yet!" Lightning crackled as the Gehenna Gate untethered itself from the roof and moved into the sky. Demons were summoned by the hundreds, a red light shot from the Gate throwing everyone back and causing more of the tar-like substance inside the gate to covered the ground.

Shura gasped, "A dimensional tear! He's trying to swallow Assiah!"

Yukio's jaw tightened, 'We can't let that happen, no matter what.'

Yukio and Rin leapt back as a giant fireball shoot at the two. Allen fought more demons with the Sword of Exorcism. Shura was still resting, exhausted by her fight with Satan (she's only human after all) with Rhode nearby in her human form candles at the ready. Another fireball went towards the girls, Rhode of course couldn't be harmed by a mere fireball, Shura on the other hand was much more mortal. Allen reached out with his cloak to protect the but someone else beat him to it.

"To you villains who would harm such flowers as these, I, Arthur Auguste Angel shall deliver Justice!" He brandished his sword dramatically.

"Took you long enough Baldy!" Shura shouted.

He ignored her, "Don't worry I will take care of these demons!"

Rin drew his sword at the challenge, "Hey! Get back here!"

Angel leaped into the air becoming a golden light that slashed through anything in his way, only stopping when he ran into a more powerful demon. Rin was close behind the ex-paladin filling the air with blue flames. Neither got close to the Gate before falling back to the earth.

Rin cursed landing close to Yukio.

Yukio frowned, "Separate hits won't work, we have to time our attacks."

Shura dragged herself to her feet sword in hand, "Yukio's right, we need to work as a team, or we'll never get past that wall of demons."

Rin smirked, "Sure you're up to it?"

Shura returned the expression, "Worry about yourself kid, I'm not as trashed as you think kid."

Angel pulled himself to his feet, "I never thought I would fight alongside demons. How revolting."

Yukio grit his teeth at the comment.

Allen leaned on his sword, "I would suggest you get used to the idea."

Shura bit her thumb drawing a line of blood along her blade transforming it, "Snake Fang!"

Angel crouched preparing to leap into the air, "Zodiac Slash!" he once again became a beam of golden light slaying demons.

Yukio calmly fired his guns taking out demons by the dozens.

Allen slashed his sword in the air, "Cross Grave!" twenty demons exploded.

Rin leapt into the air after Angel stepping onto the ex-paladin's back so he could get higher. He slashed his sword at the gate his blue flames hitting it.

"We did it!" Shura exclaimed.

Instead of disappearing as it should have, the edges of the Gate solidified. Allen caught Rin with his cape before the boy smashed painfully into the ground. Above them eyes on the gate widened and in a burst of red light the roof exploded.

Rin shook his brother awake as the smoke cleared. "Yukio? Are you alright?"

Yukio sat up slowly, "Yeah." The roof was in worse condition than before, with more rubble scattered, and the gate around the roof completely gone. "What happened to the Gehenna Gate?"

"It's attacking the city."

The brothers watched in silence as red lasers came from the gate destroying the city below.

Yukio hung his head, "I'm sorry."

"What?"

"This is my fault, everything. None of this wouldn't have happen if it wasn't for me."

Rin didn't try to sugar coat the situation, "Yeah, you made some mistakes, and you're selfish, and stubborn, you don't even look up to your big brother."

Yukio closed his eyes waiting to hear his brother's judgement.

"You really suck, you never said anything about seeing demons, not to mention you're a teacher, and now you're the paladin?" Rin's smile widened as he continued, "have a little faith in your big brother, like you did when we were kids."

Yukio smiled remembering all the times his brother had saved him, "I will."

"Now that we've enjoyed this touching brotherly reunion," Rhode said while standing on Lero, "what are you two going to do about that." She pointed a finger at the Gehenna Gate that was still destroying the city.

Rin looked up at the girl surprised she was no worse for wear after the explosion, though she did have a little dirt smudged here and there. "Rhode! How're the others?"

She shrugged, "They're fine. Currently they're all semi-conscious but they should be up and about soon."

Rin was about to asked something else when a cat caught his attention. "Kuro!"

The cat ran to face him poofing into her large demonic form, "I'm sorry I won't run away from you again. After all I was the familiar of Shiro, the most powerful exorcist ever! Get on."

Rin grinned, "You got it!"

Yukio stood, "I'm coming to."

Rin gasped, "You can hear Kuro?"

He nodded, "My demonic powers were awakened, now I can hear Kuro loud and clear."

Rhode floated back to the others as the two brothers flew away on the cat demon's back. Shura was laying down in a clear spot. Allen sat on some rubble with his Innocence deactivated.

Angel also sat leaning on his drawn sword, "And so the demon spawn are off."

Shura scoffed, "Drop the whole demon human thing. Those boys are off to protect Assiah because they want to protect their home."

Allen flopped back onto his piece of rubble, "Is this what it was like when I was fighting the Earl?"

Rhode giggled, but offered no comment. The others watched as blue fire lit the sky. Suddenly light pierced the darkness. Six pillars of the light surrounded the roof killing any demons who were close and distracting any that could see it. Allen smiled tiredly, 'The light that pierced the darkness.' A bird of blue flames flew gracefully to the head of the Gehenna Gate. The Gate was consumed by the flames. The fight for Assiah was finished. Of course troubling times would come again, that much was inevitable, but for now there would be rest.

AN: And so it it done. I plan on rewriting this adding some of the scenes I skipped over, let me know if there is anything in particular you would like to see added to the story. As part of my editing I will be adding an epilogue. Also If any of you are wondering The fight with Apo-chan wasn't long nor was it dwelt on because this isn't Allen's story, it's Rin's, that I have no experience writing fight scenes. Anyway I would like to thank all of you who read, favorited, followed, and reviewed this story it has been a pleasure to write even if I wasn't consistent.