This is an AU for the story Gods of Darkness.

So the first six chapters of G.o.D. will have happened here in exactly the same way. Then things started to get different.

This has already been published by Terence Noran, as part of his Raynare Challenges on my request. Back then I had no real inspiration for this story beyond the basic idea and also little time to write it.

Recently however I have developed some more ideas.

The first chapter is basically the same as the original Challenge, but longer and I added some details. Akeno will probably be the main character of this story.

The plot starts a few weeks after Issei´s confrontation with the Spirit Wraith, that happened in chapters 6 to 8 of Gods of Darkness. But the outcome was quite different.

Gods of Darkness:

A False Image

Occult Research Club, Kuoh Academy School Building

It was one of the many meetings of the Occult Research Club in the last time. A club that was actually not much more than a fassade for the Devil Rias Gremory and her peerage of servants.

Of course for the `normal´ students and the rest of the school, Rias and the others were simply a group of very popular students.

But the truth was quite different. In fact they were one of the most famous peerage of young Devils in the Underworld.

While here at school, the most popular members of their group, were Rias herself and her Queen and right hand Akeno, both were also known as `Great Ladies of Kuoh´ in the school... and Kiba Yuuto, who was popular in first line under the female students... in the Underworld things were a bit different. Here the most well known members of their group - aside from Rias herself - was probably Issei Hyoudou, the current holder of the Boosted Gear - who was known as the current Red Dragon Emperor, hero of the Underworld... and a complete pervert.

But that didn´t keep several of the girls around him to fall in love with him, who had by now basically become his personal harem... just like it was his dream, like he always proclaimed to the world.

But then, a few weeks ago, something had suddenly changed. It was a subtle change that had gone through their entire team. At first most of them had not even noticed, but slowly it became more and more noticable... more and more.

They weren´t sure, but started had it, more or less, at the time after Rias had been attacked by a creature from another dimension, a few weeks ago.

xxx

All of the members were in this moment sitting together in their club room.
At a first glance, everything looks normal. Still, none of them could really deny that there was a certain tense atmosphere in the room. Like it had often been in the last time.

Rias had called this meeting, for the same topic that it had nearly always been during the last couple of weeks, which is to discuss their latest information and findings about Khaos Brigade and their possible plans.

They all knew that the interfactional terrorist-organization was a great threat. But with the way she ran things lately, it was nearly as if she was thinking of nothing else anymore. As if she had become obsessed with them... or as if she knew something the others didn't.

She used to talk with Akeno about everything. But now, Rias didn't spend nearly as much time with her Queen as she used to.

On the other side she was talking an awful lot alone with Azazel and with Issei of course, but that was no surprise for anyone. Especially not since Issei had now finally confessed his feelings to her... and then saved her once time from the clutches of the creature known as the Spirit Wraith.

None of her other servants knew what exactly was said in these meetings with Issei and the Fallen Angel leader.

No, there was no point to deny it... Rias had changed. For the most part she was still the same Club president and King they were all used to.
But sometimes it was nearly as if there was a wall between them.

Yet none of them could hold it against her, after what she had gone through.

They all knew exactly when this change had begun. Right after this creature had attacked Rias, when she had collapsed right in the middle of the Halloween party at their school.

They still didn't know much about this being, only that it drove its victims insane by showing them their worst fears again and again. How it systematically destroyed their minds...

... before it in the end sucked their soul out of their bodies.

Issei and the others had managed to stop it. But nobody would come out of something like this unscathed. They weren´t even sure what this... `thing´ had put their beloved King through, before Issei, with a bit of help from Michael and the rest of them, had managed to drive the creature out.

Well, if they were honest, their help had mostly consisted of helping Issei to reach the so called Spirit Plane, where he had confronted the monster. The rest of it, how he actually defeated the Wraith, that had been Issei´s work alone.

That was what Akeno thought to herself, as she watched him and Rias sitting side by side in the club-room, as they all were discussing their activities of the last weeks.

xxx

"Is that all, Akeno?" Rias asked her.

"Yes Buchou," the Queen of her peerage responded.

"Good, then let us call it a day for now," Rias said to the others, smiling in her usual way. She began raising her arms and stretched her body.

"Wait a moment," she stopped them, just as Akeno, Kiba, Koneko, Xenovia and Rossweisse were turning around to leave the room. "I just wanted to say... I know I was kind of difficult with everyone lately," she told them. "It is just, I am worried. So thank you, all of you, for the patience you have shown me," she stated and gave them a smile.

"Issei-kun, could you stay here for a minute? I need to talk with you about something," she addressed him.

"Of course... Ra - Rias," he answered, with a slight hitch in his tone.

Some of them have noticed the short hesitation as he said this. Well, at least Akeno and Koneko did, mostly because they were the ones really paying attention to it. But they knew all too well that Issei was still a bit unused to call her by her name instead of the usual 'Buchou'. So they didn't think much about it.

"Okay," Akeno replied. But before she left, she bowed down right next to Issei who was still sitting on his chair, "See you later Issei-kun.
Hope we have some... fun, if you know what I mean," she whispered seductively into his ear and winked, before she followed the others and left the room.

Issei and their 'Club President' were being left alone by themselves.

"It was very nice of you to say that... 'Buchou'," he stated with clear bitterness in his tone.

"You sound unhappy Issei-kun. Is it because of... *her*, am I right?" she replied.

"Of course it is..." he started to say, but then fell silent. '...it always is.' He looked down with a pained expression.

"It really isn't my fault for what happened to her, you know?" she said nonchalantly. "I had, in the end, agreed to help. Not for her
sake, but yours. We have just come too late to save her."

"Too late..." he said. "...again. Or, I was simply not strong enough.
Like the last time I failed to save someone I care about...and the one before that . How many more times will this happen?"

"I-I am sorry Issei-kun. I know I... said it before, but... I know how much I hurt you that time. Often, I had wished I had just listened to you and given it back... before. But because of my arrogance, I was far too stubborn and stuck-up to do anything about it."

"Don't worry about it," he told her. But his expression showed how much this memory still hurt him. "As I said, I forgive you."

"I promise you, I will not let anything happen to Asia again," she said. "I will do everything to protect her."

"Just Asia? And, what about the others?" Issei inquired.

A smile formed on her face... a rather mischievous one, to be precise.
Her expression and also her body language had somehow changed since the others had left the room a minute ago. Only Issei will ever be allowed to see her like this. Only.

"Don't worry, Issei-kun. I won't intentionally lead your little friends to their death or something like that, if that is what you mean," she stated. "Even if there were some... temptations, so to speak," she admitted with a smirk.

The color of her eyes suddenly turned from Rias' usual blue irises into a deep violet. A very familiar eye color that Issei knew all too well.

"And, you can also keep the other girls as your mistresses when this deal here is over. I don't have any real problem with that. That means... of course under the condition that, if Azazel-sama should come to his senses and decide to return my feelings, you are willing to share me with him as well," she reminded him smiling. "Of course they all will certainly not be happy if they find out," she said.

"By the way Issei-kun, do you have it?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he replied, returning her smile for a short moment and took something out of his pocket and holding it between two fingers...a single black feather.

Now her expression visibly brightened up even more as she saw this.

"Oh Issei-kun, I knew I could count on you." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss. But he froze up in response as she did that, causing her to notice.

"Issei?" she asked, worried.

"It's... nothing, it's just... I can't get used to it," he said. "It's just wrong seeing you like this... seeing you as `her´.

"I know," she replied. "Well, it won't be for much longer it seems," she stated, looking at the feather.

"You know, you could have also done this by yourself," he reminded her.

"Of course. But you have to admit, the younger sister of Sirzechs Lucifer suddenly showing up at the Grigori Headquarters and on top of that looking through the old room of a Fallen Angel who was killed some time ago, by her hand no less, would look quite suspicious. But with you, considering the history you have with this particular Fallen Angel... it looks less suspicious. Now it seems that I will be myself again very soon."

"I am surprised actually, that nobody had found out so far," he commented.

"You know, being Rias Gremory is really not that hard," she responded. "I just have to act even more arrogant than before... and say stuff on a regular basis on how much I ca~re about everyone here. Like I should care about them," she declared sarcastically... while faltering her hands, nearly as if she was praying.

"Stop that," he growled. "Don't talk about Rias like that ever, not when you are standing here and using her body as if it belongs to you."

"Ah yes, Rias..." she said bitterly...

"... - who knew I was targeting you... but didn't even lift a finger or say a word to prevent me from killing you...and just simply turned you into a Devil without your consent afterwards. But just three days later, she was suddenly able to start a full scale attack to destroy my entire team and didn't spare a single life, not caring if she would provoke a war or not. But of course only after you were dead, resurrected as a Devil and under her boot," she reminded him.

" - Rias, who endangered this entire town against Kokabiel, just because she was too arrogant to ask for back-up from the Underworld. Don't act as if that girl suddenly was a saint, just because she is gone. Because she wasn´t. She was just as full of dirt like me. The only difference is that she was a giant two-faced holier-than-thou prick about it."

Issei said nothing.

"Rias was the one who had destroyed my body in the first place," she reminded him. "Tell me, if I hadn't placed my soul into her body, would have that changed for the better? Should I have stayed a bodiless spirit, while `Rias Gremory´ had been reduced to nothing but a lifeless doll? Who would that have helped?

Your team would have possibly been broken up and your peerage absorbed by Rias' father's or her brother's... or some other random High-Class Devil. Your friends. The Gremory family, they would all be grieving and distracted if they knew that their `precious´ Rias was dead. All that at a time when there are truly other things to worry about. You know about the new enemies out there."

He frowned. "Yeah, the monster that Khaos Brigade is planning to awake," he responded. "That and... *them*."

Yes, he knew. `Them´ - The being calling himself `Faust´ - who Raynare had encountered when she was `dead´ - a super-being with seemingly unlimited power - a wanderer between the realities... and others like him.

"Issei, I don't want to argue with you," she said. "Just... don't."

"I know. But, it's just..." he grimaced.

"How? How in the world can I be sure that you're not playing me again? Why should I suddenly believe that you truly care about me now, when it was you who killed me in the first place?! That you aren't just using me until you have your body back and then betray me again?!" he suddenly exclaimed. "How can I even believe a single word you say?! Do you even know how often I have closed my eyes, seeing pictures of you killing me?!"

"I-I am sorry Issei-kun. I am so sorry," she said quietly, her grip tightened. "Please believe me." She did know, she truly did... She had known the consequences her actions had on him for a long time now. But there was nothing now she could do to change it.

But then her expression hardened. 'No, I won't... I won't let it... Never again. I won't lose him.' She had never realized what she had found in Issei back then, the first time around. Instead she kiled him and had treated him as if he was beneath her. She had truly been a arrogant bitch.

Dieing (well, actually more, having her body destroyed) and having her spirit bound to Issei for months, not to mention several reality-checks from Faust of all people, had certainly helped to change her attitude.

"Issei, what if I simply told you right in the face now that what you fear is true? That I am truly only using you?" she asked him.

This caused him to visibly flinch, as he heard this words.

"No Issei, listen to me," she interrupted him as she saw his expression faltering. "I know more about this new threat than anybody else. I actually met them face to face. I have information about them that nobody else possess... and I am an experienced group leader, the only one who's left in your little Devil team right now. So you see, I don´t need to pretend to care about you, simply because, you need me. And even if I would not care about you, you would still need me - and I need you," she added a bit quieter.

"However, I do admit that I still like it to play with you a bit." She came closer and let one of her fingers glide over his face and his upper body.
"Because you are just too cute... when you are unsettled," she said to him suggestively... while wrapping her arms around him and playfully biting his ear, before straddling him.

xxx

At the same time. Outside, Close to the building

Akeno and Koneko were there, floating on a small magic circle which was hanging in the air before them. They had overheard every single word.
The two members of the Gremory peerage were now staring at each other with open mouths.

Both of them had been worried, especially since they realized that Rias was actually hiding a part of her presence from all of them.

Of course spying on your King is about the last thing any Devil should do. But they were not only Rias' servants, they were also her friends... and they just could no longer take it, being cut out of the loop like that.

What they got was far more than they ever expected.

"I can't believe it," Akeno whispered.

"H-her? I-in R-Rias? In her body?" Koneko stammered. "What do we do?" the younger girl asked her.

"I don't know, Koneko," she answered. "Believe me, I would like nothing more than to just walk in there and end this charade. But..."

Akeno forced herself to think logically, well somewhat logically, despite her own shock and grieve in this moment. In fact she wanted nothing more than to burst in there and confront the Fallen Angel, in the form of her best friend, right now and possibly attack her.

She realized that the Fallen had a point with her argument - as much as she hated to admit it. Revealing the truth right now would only destabilize their group. And since their peerage was part of the DxD team that was formed to fight Khaos Brigade and their plans, this was the last thing they needed.

And if what Issei and the Fallen said about yet another dangerous enemy was true... one that `she´ had special information about?

"... What can we really do in this situation?" she questioned.

Azazel knew, she remembered. Did that mean that Sirzechs did as well? Michael? If they all knew and accepted the Fallen Angel in this position... yes, what could they do?

"She has seduced him... " Koneko argued, "That Fallen Angel got to him... again... and now she is leading the pervert along. She had wrapped our Issei around her finger," she let out a light growl.

"You sound as if we haven´t been doing the same thing quite often," Akeno replied sarcastically and with a grin on her face.

But a moment later, her grim expression returned to her face.

One horrid truth finally completely started to settle in: Rias was dead... she had been for weeks, and replaced by an impostor... and they had not even noticed. Her best friend had been murdered by that wretched creature... and Akeno herself had not even noticed.

And Issei and Azazel had know... and hadn´t told her, hadn´t trusted her. But she forced herself to swallow down her anger and bitterness.

"I would agree with you Koneko, if it were not for two things," she stated. "If she truly wanted to harm us, she could have done it a thousand times by now... especially with Issei-kun, as you called it, `wrapped around her finger´... and second - Azazel knows about this as well... and he seems to be okay with her being here. and he had been our ally for months now. If he knows and accepts her presence, then there is possible a good reason for that."

Koneko send her a glare, but seemed to accept this argument.

"So what do you suggest we do?" she asked Akeno.

"I admit, I am not sure... yet."

Yes, what? she thought.

As absurd as the thought was... Raynare was leading their peerage... and somewhere deep in her mind, Akeno grudgingly admitted, the Fallen Angel was not even doing a bad job on it.

But Akeno was sure about one thing. The would hunt down the creature that had killed Rias - she clinched her teeth in pure hatred... and then, she would find a way to destroy it.

The idea of this story is basically, what if Raynare had actually taken over Rias body, like she had originally considered.

This story is however based on the same multiple world angle like `Gods of Darkness´ and`Issei Hyoudou: The Guardian´ and is so practically a third part of the same multiple world story. So this is not simply a what-if scenario. Both versions are actually supposed to have happened... in different universes that branched from each other around chapter 7 of Gods of Darkness.

The most notable differences so far are: Issei and Raynare reached Rias too late to save her from the Wraith. As a result Raynare decided to place her soul into Rias now mindless body and was living her life since then.

Issei and Irina had never lost their memories of the events. But Raynare used the new enemy she had been in contact with (Aka Faust and the Dark Order from Guardian and G.o.D.) and her knowledge about them as an argument to get them to play along with her. She had also revealed herself to Azazel.

Highschool DxD or anything related to it, doesn´t belong to me.