Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story

Disclaimer: If you haven't read the Manga's there may be some spoilers (I did get inspiration from there and tried to stay as close to 'canon' as possible) so read at your own risk.

Chapter One- An internal war

I stood with my brother, half of the commandments and a few fighters hand-selected for this flank ambush team. Before us both sides were preparing. The Goddesses to the left were aligned in the air, with gold gleaming armor and bright white as if they were too privileged to be marred by this bloody war. To the left, hulking beasts, dirty and wielding rusted swords rallied to grunting howls.

This field had seen countless battles, casualties mounted for those on the front lines while the main fighters prevailed. Pawns - it seemed unfair but, in times like this, the strongest survived. It was all the more reason to succeed now. Our goal was taking out any one of the Archangels to turn the tide of the war.

"If I ever hear a horn blow again I will remove my own eardrums." A rough sandpaper voice sneered from behind me. A few of the other demons among us give a scoff in agreement. I grin, half turning to see my younger brother Zeldris standing about seven feet away, as close as my commandment allowed him. Or rather, his own feelings allowed him.

When he was younger he could get closer, but when he grew, so did the sliver of hate he had for me. Call it a rivalry, or resentment, but whatever it was that stemmed this between us, it hurt. There wasn't a single being, demon included, that could get within five feet of me when I used the power of Benevolence.

A 'gift' from my father.

I used the dark emotion that stemmed from seeing Zeldris' hate to let my demon rise, becoming sharper, honed for the upcoming bloodshed. We were getting nowhere. The goddesses deserved to be demolished but with our powers so equally matched, each battle just slowly eroded us both down. It's pointless, like slamming your own head against a wall because you're told to... I spit, disdain for being trapped in this rerun. Fight, kill, rinse, repeat. How many days has it been for this battle? How many years before that?

The trumpeters rose with my ire, darkness whipping about as I sensed a goddess heading in our direction. Someone was lost, or planning their own surprise for this battle. They are unlucky, to stumble onto us. I bared my teeth, feeling myself slip into the dark version of myself. Why not kill one little lost Goddess? Who's here to enforce the rules of war, when we are both sneaking around...

My team sensed the incoming energy, growing restless. A rough-cut grizzly demon growled in warning. Another hushed him with a swift gut punch. Zeldris surprised me, struggling to step closer to me and I turned to watch as the pressure of his hate halts him. The more he struggled the easier his hate would bring him to his knees. The more you fight, the harder it is to escape. It made the slaughter effortless.

"Someone is an idiot." Zeldris hisses, low and ominous. "A dead idiot."

Just ahead, along the tree line, a silver-haired womanly form looked out toward the armies that have gathered. She stepped out, going toward the center of the field as if she planned to walk out there, when she stopped and turned, spotting us. Her face was soft, her blue eyes stunning, but marred with the Goddess triskelion glowing inside them. I looked her up and down, appreciating her short-skirted dress and skin-tight black pants. Her breasts were perfect, round globes.

I expected her to scurry off, already raising my right hand to send one of my men after her but she rose into the air, flying toward me. How surprised will this little girl be when she is forced to kneel before me? Delicious vindication, from her own feelings of demon hatred - she'd be powerless. Goddesses were affected the most, their anger engraved into their being. Her flight never slows, her two sets of wings fluttering for only a second as she lands within sword range, right before me.

What is this? A trick?

With a flick of my darkness, I intensify my Commandments aura and I hear my brother grunt as he is forced back another step, the others under my command physically shielding their faces from the power. The Goddess just tilted her head, looking me over. How... strange. A novelty among the monotony?

Who is this girl? Did she truly not hate me... even with my darkness eking out and bordering into my demon self? Her eyes were clear of any indication she knew what was going on, her brows even furrowed together as she spots those behind me stepping away from us.

"Please." The goddess pleads, her voice a cool gentle breeze in the desert. "No one wants to fight, to continue to war on. Not deep in their hearts... this bloodshed is pointless." I was waiting to feel her goddess breath, at the first hint of their mental powers I would decapitate her. I am tensed to strike, but it never came. Many had tried to take control of me and none had lived to attempt it a second time.

Her words sunk in, a mirror of my own earlier thoughts. Yet, coming from her they sounded idealist and hopeful. Naive. She was fighting her fate when I had resigned myself to mine.

"No amount of pleading will spare you." Derieri spoke, sounding bored. The goddess' eyes roamed to find the owner of the voice, and she flushed when she saw she was naked, clothed only in her own darkness. Is this goddess a prude or innocent? I suppose I'll never find out.

"You've stumbled unto your death," Monspiet concludes, always a step behind her. Even I could tell his feelings but Derieri seemed oblivious to the point of denseness.

The goddesses feet touched down before me, bare and dainty. She wasn't used to walking, I could tell with just one of her long, unsure steps toward me. Her legs were lean and I appreciated them. She's taller than me by a few inches, but few weren't.

"I'll die smiling if someone, anyone, hears me. We - all the clans - are dwindling, weakening, and getting nowhere. It's pointless." Her words surprised me almost as much as her sure, steady voice. The conviction in her eyes shook me, my hearts raced with the continued eye contact.

"What power do you have to stop this? Or any of us for that matter?" I sneered as a reflex, my voice was cold and dismissive. Did she know my status among the demon clan? I couldn't bring myself to care as I was too far into my demon self, prepared for battle not for a philosophical discussion on the demerits of war.

"None, I have no power." She's honest? Surrounded by enemies and she's trying to persuade us to rethink our position? She takes a small breath, "but change must start somewhere. My own people won't listen to reason and I thought maybe if someone, anyone could see what I do... We are killing ourselves over-"

A fist size stone slams into the side of her head, surprising us both. She hunches, clutching the side of her skull as blood starts to drip. Her little hand is covered in dripping red and I hear Galand laughing just as the war horns blew.

I hold my palm up, steadying my troops. Those under my command drop into their fighting stance, preparing, and the armies clash together before us in a thunderous crash of metal with pops of magical explosions, war cries and snapping bones. My palm clenches to a fist and my team rushes the battlefield, moving out of reach of my commandments influence.

"The ground!" The girl yells at the back of my comrades "there are traps etched into the..." but none of them bother to listen. She'd just betrayed her clan to warn us, and it went unnoticed. She'd just sustained a blow, bled from an attack from one of them, yet still tried to spare them. What is this girl? Clutching the side of her head she turned to look at me again, her determination still shining but tears welled and something twanged in my hollow chest cavity, echoing.

I watched behind her as the first wave of demons hit the holy symbols and light arks exploded, sending them up a few feet with blood and limbs flying. Not enough to kill, just to slow and maim. She'd been telling the truth.

"You betrayed your people." Her eyes flash at my statement, anger there.

"My people? Everyone deserves to live." I vibrated with tension under her stare, confused why I didn't want to join the fight. My darkness itched to shed some blood but my feet stayed rooted, trapped by this whip of a girl's innocent eyes.

"Get out of here." I tell her, stepping closer still surprised when she's unfazed by my aura. This close I could smell her faint sweet smell, like cloves and sugared apples. I had loved those when I was a child.

I stepped around her, just to pause in my route, her shoulders hunched and she started crying. "I failed... I'm useless." She says so low I'm unsure I heard right, she turns, her shining, wet eyes are bottomless blue as she whispers "Why am I the only one that sees what we've become?" I shudder, masking my reaction by forming wings from my darkness, taking to the sky to be at eye level and avoid the traps she'd risked her life to warn us about.

What have we become? I look out at the battlefield, behind her... and I see it, the blood - demon or goddess, it was red. She started to look, turning toward the battle to see what I was looking at and I felt the need to spare her from the horror. I didn't want her to be tainted.

"My goal is to end this war." I state, honest. She freezes, her eyes going wide and she smiled at me. It was the brightest thing I'd ever seen, even with the blood on her face. My hearts raced all at once, a great humming reverberated in my torso; it almost hurt, that's how full I felt. Even gored and tear-stained, she reminded me of sunshine on a cloudless day. Too bright but pleasantly warm. I basked in her glow, my demon side fading before sense returned in a crash as a severed, bloody head wetly slapped a few feet before me and bounced into the brush of the trees.

She was too close. Protect.

My aura stopping anyone on either side from getting near and I felt gratitude for this curse for the first time since I've received this power. "Go," I order her, using my hand command as if she would listen or even knows my order, the war demon inside of me returning. "The long way, behind me." I force myself away from her, determined not to look back, steeling myself to enter a battle I didn't want to be in anymore. My already shaky will to fight had been stomped out with a few tears.

"... what about you?" Her sweet voice called after me and I cursed myself for stopping.

"I'll be fine" I added a dark, angry look to emphasize my point as I demand, "Don't watch, just go."

"When will I see you again?" Was she having a hard time separating from me... too? I scowled at myself, angry that this war meant so many things - one thing being that a Goddess and a Demon couldn't see each other again. She knew the answer, so why had she asked?

"I don't see how we could." Angry, dark wisps of flames flicker around me as the leader of the archangels spots me in the treeline. The goddess follows and I can see the shock on that self-righteous pricks face as she can move freely while my aura prevented him from doing the same. I grinned, basking in the hate it provoked in him. It fed me, my power growing as his feelings did the same.

"Get out of there!" He howls at her, a scolding yell that stirred the anger boiling in my belly. Don't talk to her like that. His light energy morphed into an ark, flying from his grip as he yelled "Beast, get away from her! I am your opponent!" His aim was off, wide to the right and I had a fraction of a second to comprehend the attack was going to hit her. She wasn't even looking!

Instinct took over and I flew with a sharp propulsion of my wings to protect her, my body between hers and the attack. "Full Counter!" my giant broadsword blade connecting with the magic in a fraction of a blink. This close she whispered "heavens theater" as I felt her soft breath on the back of my neck.

Did he mean to include her in that attack? Was she so expendable? A new rage built along with a desire to teach Ludociel the punishment that came alongside messing with... that beautiful, bright creature. I didn't know her name. When she slipped into the woods I threw myself into the fight, pushing back the advancing Angels and shaping the tides of the battle.

If she turned out to be just like everyone else, I could use her in other ways. Her body came to mind and perhaps even information... She seemed easily fooled. My thoughts weighed heavy as the kills came easily.