Chapter 20: Onward Toward the Light

Kaiza looked down at the letter again, reading it to himself once again.

"Kaiza if you're reading this, it means you were able to escape from the Sinful Seven and found your way home, we are so sorry we couldn't see you grow, neither of us were fighters, we only had a short while to write this note to you and…"

Kaiza couldn't read part of it due to blood splatter, he continued onto the next part.

"...There was so much we wanted to tell you; we were both happy when you and.."

Another blood splatter, so he continued.

"...The only protection that this small little family had, was that strange fire hound, I guess stories of old, called them Hell Hounds. For some strange reason, upon seeing you for the first time, it reacted like you were it's long lost cub, it was pretty sweet. That dastardly Wrath had to go and kill it, you were so young, you shouldn't know what death was, but you started wailing as loud as your little lungs could."

Kaiza wiped his eyes, feeling a weird feeling of remembrance and his mind shifted to his first time noting Blazing Hound revealed it was alive. Then a name he never heard before escaped his lips.

"Vivian."

Kaiza got up slowly, looking around the room, as the words on the letter continued as he had memorized them.

"Those bastards, the Sinful Seven, will be here soon, we don't care what their Master says, we say screw the Destiny…"

Kaiza slid his hand over a few rocks on the wall, until one pressed inward, causing several rocks to fall to the ground, revealing a small cubbyhole, with a small box inside.

"...If you have found your way home, we have hidden a small chest for you, which contains a clear crystal, which is connected to a necklace."

Kaiza pulled out the small box, opening it open, seeing the small crystal.

"We know jewelry usually isn't a male thing, but you are probably one to not worry about that. Your Father found it in a large pit, when he was working, snuck it from the others, one pale white and…"

Kaiza took out the necklace, putting it on, looking around the room one last time, making his way toward the exit.

"This letter has been going on for long enough, even if you never read this letter, just know we are so proud of you and your…"

The letter ended before it was fully finished, Kaiza felt sadness, anger, resentment for everything the Sinful Seven has done to his family, Kaiza left the building as the others looked toward him, he was about to say something, until his old house was blown up and he was shot forward from the blast. His body rolled for a bit, then stopped, as he looked toward what once was his house, seeing Wrath walk through the dust that the blast created.

"WRATH!" Kaiza shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Well look who I found, did you have a nice little reunion with your family?" Wrath asked, in a condescending tone. "Before we have our little playdate, let's add one final playmate."

Wrath raised both of his hands up, red runes appeared in his palms, he created a circle in the air, pushing both hands forward, filling the circle with runes.

Back at the Dreadnaught Crusader

"Sora, I have something I need to tell you." Desiree said, walking into the center room.

Sora looked up from what she was doing.

"Sure dear what is it?" Sora asked.

"Sora, I'm…" Before she could finish, a red circle with runes appeared under her and she was teleported away.

"Desiree!" Sora yelled.

Sora slammed her fist into the intercom.

"Desiree has been stolen, a red runic circle appeared and took her away!" Sora yelled over the intercom. "All available soldiers, prepare for a battle."

She slammed her fist into the alarm, as Ryu rushed into the room, pulling up a holographic screen.

"The tracker I placed on her is still on the move then." Ryu said, pressing an earpiece, speaking through it. "I have given you all the visuals for the tracker."

Sora looked at her own screen, to see where the tracker was heading, looking up at Ryu, with a concerned look on her face.

"She is heading in the direction where the others are currently." Sora said.

Ryu pressed into his earpiece and shouted.

"This emergency has changed into Code Red, the tracker is headed for the away team!"

Gishiki and Jan, hobbled into the cargo room, still weak after their last battle, moving toward their vehicles.

"You were listening to the talk not long ago, weren't you?" Gishiki asked Jan.

Jan stopped in place, setting his hands onto the War Horse.

"I'm not going to tell you to give up fighting." Gishiki said, leaning against the Angelic Chariot. "I always pushed myself when I used to go by the name of Fallen Angel."

Gishiki pulled out a small carton, taking out a little white stick, putting an end in his mouth, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling.

"I didn't know you were one to smoke." Jan said.

Gishiki looked down at the ground, taking the thing out of his mouth.

"It isn't a cigarette, it's actually just rolled up because of paper, smoking was a bad habit of mine, I was young and naive. The only reason why I went along with the name Fallen Angel, was so I could distance myself from my religious parents and try to make a name for myself." Gishiki said. "After the failure of my gang's final fight against the Devil Kaiser, they started leaving the group to become functioning members of society, no matter how much I cursed them, deep down I was glad they were able to break free of my meddling self."

"Were you ever able to make it up to your parents?" Jan asked, looking up.

Gishiki leaned back, looking at the ceiling again.

"I was never able to, they were killed in an accident. My family has had this weird curse on them, family members would never live too long. I know I hated Kaiza in the beginning, but he basically was the one who saved my gang from possibly becoming horrible people." Gishiki spoke. "I think the main reason why I chose to believe in God was so I could one day, help the man who saved me and help him fulfill his destiny. Like it or not I own him a lot, I know I can trust him, now where does your trust with him lie, are you pushing yourself just for the thrill of the fight or are you helping him."

Gishiki weakly pulled himself onto his motorcycle, Jan looked down at his hands, then up at the ceiling, before pulling himself onto his motorcycle as well, the garage door started to swing up, then the sound of a howling dog, echoed through the room, they both braced themselves for an attack. But they didn't expect what to happen next, as Blazing Hound shot past them with no driver, but once it drove out the garage and hit the sands of the Chaos Realm, it became an actual Hellhound, the both of them looked at each other and drove after it.

Inside the Command Center

Sora saw the Hell Hound run by the large window, followed by both Gishiki and Jan shortly after, she clicked her earpiece.

"What is with the Hellhound, you guys are following?" Sora asked.

"Believe it or not, that Hellhound is or was Blazing Beast, Kaiza's motorcycle." Gishiki said.

"Keep following it." Sora said.

"We can handle ourselves here, you head out as well." Ryu said.

Sora sighed, then put Hell's Access against her waist becoming Puppeteer, in her Air Phase, hopping out the open window, following the other two closing behind by flying after them. Ryu looked at the holographic screen, then sighed heading out of the room.

Back over to the away team.

Lust appeared not in her human disguise, but in her true form, she looked around seeing Akumu, Hikari and Malum recovering from the blast, then her eyes drifted toward a heavily scarred form of Wrath, her eyes then drifted to the one person she didn't want to see her in this form and that person was Kaiza.

"Well, thank you for joining me Lust, now the final members of the Sinful Seven have been brought together." Wrath said, laughing out loud.

Not wanting to let her human disguise be known to make Kaiza hate her even more, she decided to play along.

"It took you long enough to bring me back here, no matter what, these lands change a lot, it is truly maddening." Lust said.

"Now that we are back together, we can combine our powers, with the help of Mister Kaiza Akuma, we can all kill the Master and I will take what is rightfully mine!" Wrath said loudly.

Lust was taken aback to what Wrath just said, that she forgot what was going on.

"Have you gone insane Wrath, there is no way that he can defeat the Master and you said, all of the Sinful Seven members are here, I don't see Sloth at all." Lust said.

"Don't you dare utter her name, she was a spy for the Master, she betrayed me and with the help of Mister Kaiza Akuma, we will be able to kill that useless Master and let me take the throne." Wrath said, laughing loudly.

Lust was about to say something, until she heard Kaiza speak up.

"I will never fucking work with you Sinful Seven, you all ruined my life, you all had a hand at killing my family, they were a small simple family, I fucking curse you all!"

Lust was taken aback, she knew Kaiza was remembering things, as she was remembering her time with him as a child, this was the reason, she betrayed the Sinful Seven, she stayed as Desiree, never wanting to reveal the truth to Kaiza, because she knew he would hate her. Hearing what Kaiza was saying, she knew he found his parents, they were just another lonesome family in the Chaos Realm, just another job to kill them, but after spending six years with Kaiza, she grew fond of him.

"You have no say in this matter, you have no reason to talk back to me, you are far too weak to stop me, you will do what I saw, either if you like it or not!" Wrath said loudly.

"Master Kai!" An unknown female voice yelled out.

Kaiza looked over to see a Hellhound, followed by Gishiki, Jan and Puppeteer. The Hellhound got between Wrath and Kaiza, as they started growling at Wrath, causing Wrath to look displeased.

"I knew there was something strange about that vehicle of yours, who knew the spirit of that mangy mutt, was so annoying, I should just take care of it again." Wrath said, moving toward it.

The Hellhound growled, lunging at Wrath, biting a hold of his neck, Wrath roared out trying to rip the Hellhound from his neck. There others made their way over, as Puppeteer knelt down next to Kaiza.

"Are you okay?" Puppeteer asked.

Kaiza nodded a bit, looking up as his eyes went wide, seeing Acedia walk into view, she raised both of her hands, creating several rock formations around everyone's splitting them up, Akumu and Hikari were together, Malum was on his own, Gishiki was with Puppeteer, Jan and Kaiza were grouped together, along with Wrath and Lust.

"Acedia, how long have you been here!?" Wrath asked loudly.

"Oh poor sweet Wrath, we knew from the start that you would try this, so we have been following you the entire time." Acedia said, calmly.

"ACEDIA!" Wrath roared out loudly, trying to attack her before she moved him over to Kaiza and Jan.

"Kill them and the Master might forgive you." Acedia said gleefully.

Wrath turned toward the two, lunging at them, Kaiza turned into Tectonic and Jan turned into Zwaar Heilige, to hold Wrath back. Wrath flapped both of his wings, creating a large gust of wind, knocking the two off their feet, moving toward Jan fast, slamming his right foot into Heilige's chest, slamming him into the ground, breaking his armor and Heilige coughed up blood.

Diavolo got onto his feet, charging right into Wrath, pushing him from Heilige, jamming his right hand into Wrath's side and twisting it, causing Wrath to howl in pain.

"Fuck all the Sinful Sevens, if you never existed you would have never ruined my life!" Diavolo yelled at Wrath.

Lust looked to the side upset, not even trying to fight, Acedia said nothing, she only gleefully grinned, knowing Lust could do nothing to help.

Wrath slammed his elbow into Diavolo's helmet shattering it, then slammed his knee into his stomach, causing Diavolo to gasp for air, Wrath pushed him off his side, pushing him to the ground, then went over the weaken Heilige, slamming his foot several times into Heilige's chest, as Heilige laid there motionless.

Wrath walked over to Diavolo, creating a red and white energy ball in his hand, lowering it, blasting Diavolo's right leg from the knee down, once the blast subsided Diavolo was missing that part of his leg. Diavolo let out a blood curdling scream, reaching down to his missing leg, as the others were defenseless to watch, Malum broke a rock, charging at Acedia, she turned to face him.

Wrath took a few steps turning around, making a small ball of energy tossing it toward Diavolo, as it shot threw his left arm, Diavolo's arm fell limp, then Wrath started throwing more at Diavolo, just to play with his prey. Lust winced in pain staying quiet, not wanting to anger Wrath anymore, then she saw Wrath summon what looked like his final attack.

"Goodbye Mister Kaiza Akuma, no hard feelings." Wrath said, laughing loudly, and launched the attack at Diavolo.

Puppeteer screamed out, trying to break the regenerating rocks, Diavolo looked up weakly at the final attack, his eyes drifting over to Puppeteer, smiling softly with a bloody face and mouthed the words.

I love you.

Puppeteer's eyes widened, yelling out, attacking the rocks faster. Diavolo saw the blast coming toward him, as he started closing his eyes, awaiting his death. What felt like forever, until he felt something fall onto him, he opened his eyes, until they went wide, what he found was the body of Lust, who was missing her body from the waist down.

"Desiree!?" Diavolo said aloud.

"Haha hey there, y-you knew the truth?" Lust said weakly.

"I'm not an idiot, of course I knew." Diavolo said, scoping her remaining body into his arms. "Come on, you can't die on me, I don't want to lose another family member."

Lust smiled weakly, her form slowly became her adult human form. Gishiki's eyes went wide, finding out Kaiza was telling the truth about Lust, but stayed quiet.

"I-I'm so happy, to know you don't hate m-me." Lust said weakly, coughing up blood.

"I-I could never hate you." Diavolo said, tears rolling down his cheeks. "You're my family."

Lust laid there happily, slowly raising her right hand, gently stroking Kaiza's left cheek, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

"I never thought I would be able to lay in your arms like this." Lust laughed softly, as color was beginning to leave her face.

"P-Please don't die, we could save you, there has to be a way." Diavolo said.

"Would you just shut up!" Wrath said loudly, going to attack them.

Heilige had gotten up holding him back, ripping off a piece of his armor, jamming it into Wrath's chest, then raising his right hand.

"Forbidden Arts, Final Life." Heilige said, biting into his hand.

Heilige's armor started to fall off, showing off a grotesque body under his armor, his breathing ragged, pushing Wrath back with ease.

"Finish up, I can't stay like this for long." Jan said, with a harsh voice.

Diavolo looked down at Lust, as her face was sunken in, slowly dying in his arms. He held onto her, tears still running down his cheeks.

"Lust please stay with me, I don't want you to go!" Diavolo said loudly.

Lust's eyes slowly opened, looking into Diavolo's eyes, smiling weakly.

"O-One more t-time before I'm g-gone, I w-would like to h-hear you call me M-Mother, one l-last time." Lust said, with a raspy voice.

Diavolo held her close, crying out loud.

"Mother, don't leave me!".

Lust smiled one last time, fading in Diavolo's arms, as he slightly fell forward as she was gone, crying at his hands. Lust's Black Symbol formed in front of him, then went into his body, his vision faded, going to the black void, only to be met with the face of Lust.

"This will be good bye Kaiza." Lust said.

"But Mother, I don't want to lose you!" Kaiza said.

She smiled softly, until she lurched forward with her eyes wide, then fell to the ground, Kaiza looked up seeing the gleeful smile of Wrath.

"Now she will never remember you, her memories of you are forfeit, you made her weak." Wrath said.

Kaiza roared out, charging at him.

"How dare you hurt my Mother!"

Wrath simply smacked the child, causing Kaiza to black out. Once he opened his eyes, he looked around, finding that he was in his old orphanage. He walked through the building, until he heard an unknown voice.

"So, you now know your missing memories."

The child version of Kaiza, looked over, seeing a white orb floating before him.

"With these missing memories returned, how do you feel?" The voice asked.

Kaiza looked down at his hands, by the time he looked up, his appearance was that of the Devil Kaiser, he was wearing prison pants, his wrists and ankles, chained to prison chains.

"I may curse the Sinful Seven, but Lust raised me, and over time she became my new Mother." Kaiza said. "I may never see my real parents again, but I can't complain about my current life."

"So is your anger about the Sinful Seven over?" The voice asked.

Kaiza's appearance was that of his normal attire and he shook his head.

"Not until Wrath is dead, then I'm going after their Master." Kaiza said.

"And after you defeat him?" The voice asked.

Kaiza looked up at the ceiling of the old orphanage and smiled.

"Dream of the future and maybe run an orphanage." Kaiza said.

The orb stayed quiet, once Kaiza looked down, his appearance was that of a child and the orb had the appearance of a child that looked just like him and Kaiza raised up his right hand.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Kaiza Akuma." Kaiza said.

The child smiled and raised his right hand, shaking Kaiza's.

"I'm Kia Ziolos and before you leave, tell Vivian I miss her." Kia said.

The two fused together, the white gem around his neck glowed brightly and the world vanished. Wrath was getting the upper hand on Heilige, smacking him hard in the chest to knock him over. Wrath looked up from Heilige, only to see Kaiza with his armor, standing up.

"Wrath." Kaiza said calmly, looking at him smiling softly. "Time to die."

This angered Wrath, as he started to charge at Kaiza, Kaiza started walking toward him even with the missing leg, as it slowly started to reform, along with his wounds healing. A new Contract Card formed in front of him, he took in, moving the card down to Hell's Access II.

"The Memories of days gone are back, the Light of the future shines brightly, forming the Warrior of the Light." Hell's Access chimed. "Angelo!"

"Henshin!" Kaiza shouted.

Many white circles started forming around Kaiza, as white armor with gold trimming appeared around him, a pair of angel wings folded out, then went down, forming the bottom parts of a trench coat, a face plate adorned with angel wings, forming Angelo.

Puppeteer saw this, remembering back to the first time Kaiza became Diavolo, knowing this was what he was supposed to become at the start of all this, she could only smile at this outcome.

Wrath roared out, raising his left hand, forming a energy ball, bringing it down toward Diavolo, Diavolo simply raised his right hand, clasping his fingers through Wrath's gripping his hand, which resulted, in the blast backfiring destroying Wrath's entire left arm.

"Hurts like a bitch doesn't it?" Kaiza asked.

Wrath stumbled back, holding onto the missing part of his arm, then roared at Diavolo.

"How the fuck did you become stronger!?"

Diavolo rubbed his chin with his left hand, pretending to think, then stuck out his right hand, flipping Wrath off.

"Fuck you, that's how." Diavolo said, calmly.