Chapter 21: Demon's Never Cry, But Angel's Do

[Trackman281]

WARNING: This chapter is one of my more darker one's I really want to include one of my characters more, but first she needs to go through hell, you'll guess who it is just by the title. While yes this chapter does have a couple of USB scenes in, this one is more story focused, I'll return to all the stuff you know and love next time, but this chapter MUST be told. Please try and enjoy.

Note: The following chapter takes place during the events of the last chapter (Chapter 20).

CHAPTER 21: DEMON’S NEVER CRY, BUT ANGELS DO

The rain beats down over heartfelt city and the dark clouds block out the moons rays, encasing the city in complete darkness, the rain hammers down over an derelict industrial estate as four figures are seen standing just under a shelter, while all four are female, three of them seem to just be hired mercenaries wearing standard fatigues and body armour while brandishing automatic rifles, but the fourth female looks completely different.

She’s wearing a black hooded rain cloak that’s pulled up unto her head, she’s wearing a bullet proof vest on top of a dim greenish – yellow suit, attached to it are a few smoke grenades, her forearms have long black gloves covering them along with her hands having gold gloves, she’s wearing black laced boots and dark coloured trousers held up by a black belt with many pockets on it, there’s also a golden locket necklace dangling around her neck. When the lightning strikes we get a glimpse under hood and see she’s a pale white skinned woman, 31 years of age, medium to long jet black hair and autumn green eyes. She also has very heavy bags under eyes through sheer tiredness.

As they stand around waiting a fifth figure emerges from the shadows wearing a full black robe so her identity cannot be discovered, she ignores the three mercenaries and heads straight for the fourth female.

“This is all I could obtain, a friend of mine owed me from several years back, they managed to grab a vile of this serum, be careful though as this is the last of the dosage and I doubt the original maker would be happy if they knew that somebody else was using her serum.” The black robed cautioned.

The female she handed too, didn’t even look up from under her hood.

“Her name...........What is her name?” She said calmly.

“The one who killed your wife doesn’t have a definitive name, all I know is that they’ve simply dubbed as.......Demon.” The cloaked figure revealed.

“Demon huh, *scoff* fitting name for a monster, this is perfect because when she gets a load of me, she’ll find out why my name is simply........REALITY.” The female now known as Reality reveals herself.

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The next morning and the rain appears to have dispersed over night as a bright sunny days graces heartfelt city with its presence.

“Come on Demon let’s hustle up, you’ve got a bounty to do.” Maryse shouts out.

“Yeah, yeah I’m coming, why can’t anyone else do this.” Demon protested.

“Well, Libido, BB and Tinker are out on their assignment retrieving a pearl necklace aren’t they, Tina is currently on her way to stop Ricochet from an assassination job, Marie, Stasis and Mag are out getting shopping for us and Soph has only just come back from an assignment and she’s currently resting up, which means it’s all on you now.” Maryse explained.

Demon looked over and saw Soph passed out asleep on the sofa. “Uurrgghh fine.....But you don’t have to come with me.”

“Oh but I do, these industrial areas can be a nightmare to traverse through, especially the derelict one’s, come on I’ll take you there then leave to do your thing.” Maryse responded.

Demon grabbed a combat knife and loaded up a revolver she recently acquired before following Maryse out of the flat.

They used the underground subway trains until they reached their destinations, after that it was just a straight walk always to the area.

“Okay so we know that’s a group of smugglers are moving through and if this bounty is to believed then they are smuggling through a shipment of possible explosives, your job is to get inside and defuse them, now remember a lot of these guards probably have no idea what the cargo actually so I highly advice you think before savagely killing them.” Maryse said knowing full well just how much of a butcher Demon can be.

“No promises.” Demon whispered with a smile across her face.

After a short walk they came across the derelict estate, most of the warehouses and factories and been joint together, but now it seems this estates prime was long behind as most if not all the building were empty and void of life. Maryse and Demon crept from behind building to building until at last they found a couple of buildings with life in. Several female guards were patrolling the perimeter of a couple of heavily boarded up factories, Maryse signalled Demon to quietly take one of the guards out, to which Demon nodded and went in for a closer look.

A lone female guard marched around the outer most part of one of the factories, she was 35 years of age, light brown skin, long brunette braided hair and brown eyes. She was wearing black boots, beige combat trousers, black fingerless gloves, a red beret and a long sleeve dark green cotton shirt. She was wielding an AK47 in her hands and although it didn’t matter to Demon, her name was Marne.

As Marne walked her route she walked behind a load of stacked canister and barrels, this is where Demon made her move. Demon jumped straight from the top of the barrels, kicking Marne straight in the back of her head causing her to hit the floor hard, as Marne tried to get up in the confusion Demon used the back of her heel and cracked down again on the back of Marne’s head this time knocking her out cold. Even though Marne was knocked out, Demon sat on her back and wrapped one hand around her chin and the other around the top of her head, she clutched her grip and got ready to snap Marne’s neck.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Maryse suddenly called out.

Demon didn’t turn around but just smiled and let go of Marne’s head, raising both hands in the air.

“This is the only way to make sure she won’t wake up and blow my cover.” Demon smiled.

Maryse checked Marne’s pulse, thankfully she was still very much alive, just heavily out cold.

“You shouldn’t do this........You don’t know who she is, she might have family waiting for her or anything, it’s not your right to take her life, she’s probably just a hired goon who has no idea what’s really going on, in other words, she’s just trying to make some money.” Maryse explained.

“Yeah, well so am I, look I need to get changed.” Demon said grabbing Marne by her ankles and dragging behind a load of canisters.

Demon pulled off Marne’s boots, unzipped and pulled off her trousers, unclipped and removed her fingerless gloves, slipped off her beret before sitting her up and yanking the shirt off of her body before just letting Marne fall back down on the ground. Here we see Marne is wearing a pink and white striped bra and a pair of dusky pink bikini panties.

While Demon was getting changed into Marne’s uniform, Maryse made sure that she was the one who tied up Marne as she didn’t trust Demon to do it, she tied up Marne’s ankles, thighs, wrist and tied her arms to her sides using several lengths of rope from a bag she had slung over her shoulder, she then whipped out a piece of cloth and used it as a gag, now that Marne was all bound and gagged, Maryse dragged her half-naked body further behind the canister and right out sight. Once she emerged from behind them, Demon was all changed and ready to go.

“Get in there and get it done, I’ll wait for you out here and for god’s sake being an infiltrator means, using your head, knock out women for their uniforms then move on, killing is a weak individuals tool and shows how uncreative you are, a REAL infiltrator doesn’t need to kill, just take what I said into consideration will you.” Maryse’s final words were to Demon before she set off.

“Hah, shows what you know, where I’m from I’m hailed as a hero the more I kill.” Demon thought to herself as she made her way to the entrance.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Demon got passed the other guards at the door very easily with her disguise, once inside she saw dozens of both male and female combatants, most likely hired guns checking cargo and doing various patrols. Demon chuckled and their pathetic layout and thought about just how easy it would be for her to swiftly kill everyone in the building, but she just rolled her eyes and continued on course.

As Demon surveyed the area suddenly and massive and obvious sign was lit up above a doorway, it simply read “VIP Cargo holding area, authorised personal only.”

“Too damn easy, God I don’t know why it takes my sisters so long to finish a mission, I’ve been here less than ten minutes and I’ve already found my primary target.” Demon gloated to herself.

First things first though, Demon needed a change of clothes as she was certain a simple guard didn’t qualify as an authorised personal. Demon was correct about her assumption as a female emerged from the door Demon needed to get into holding a clipboard.

Her name was Katriana, she had white skin, long blonde hair in a Dutch braided hair style, teal blue eyes, a purple cap, red and white camo trousers, black boots and a dark grey sleeveless vest.

As Katriana began to inspect a shelf of crates she heard a voice behind her.

“Yo commander......Or whatever, it seems some idiot and smashed a case of important looked vials over in this storage closet, I don’t know it looks pretty important.” Demon said half arsing her disguise.

“You show some respect you simple grunt and besides that impossible we wouldn’t keep something like that in a storage closet anyway.” Katriana shock her head in disbelief.

“Oh no, then what the hell is this leaking all over the floor then, it looks like an expensive substance to me.” Demon replied with a shrug.

Katriana grumbled and cursed under her breath as she walked into the storage closet.

“Well come on then, where in this really expensive substance then.” Katriana looked around and didn’t see anything.

Demon didn’t even respond with a witty one liner or anything but instead kicked Katriana in the back of her leg causing her stumble to the floor before Demon gave her a vicious punch right in the temple of her head, Demon quickly shut and locked the door, before grabbing Katriana by her vest, violently hoisting her to feet and slamming her back into the wall which in turn also caused the back of her head to hit the wall too, then she followed this up with several punches to Katriana’s waist and finally one to the punch on her nose causing her to slump down badly beaten and heavily knocked out.

Demon bent down and pressed her knife up against her throat, before leaning in to whisper in Katriana’s ear.

“You’re lucky I’m being monitored, or make your neck drip ruby’s.” Demon whispered.

Demon got to work and stripped a badly beaten Katriana for her uniform, Demon unzipped and slid off Katriana’s boots, removed her trousers, her beret and violently pulled the vest off of Katriana’s body. As Katriana again fell back against the floor it’s here we see Katriana is wearing a gingerbread brown full cup bra and a watermelon pink thong.

Demon grabbed anything she could find, cables, string, bits of tape and tied Katriana up nice and tight, she tied up her ankles and her wrists before she found and old rag which she wrapped around Katriana’s mouth as a gag. With her out of the way, Demon hastily got changed into Katriana’s uniform before emerging from the storage closet in her newly acquired disguise.

Demon marched through the factory and barged straight through the Cargo room’s door. Much to her surprise when she entered, the room was empty, no cargo, no crates, no nothing, not even any other additional guards, just as Demon was about to turn around and try a different room, she heard to doors behind her suddenly lock preventing her from escaping, she then turned and saw Reality stand on a balcony in front of her, looking down.

“You.......I’ve been waiting so long for this.” Reality whispered in rage.

“Ha, what are you supposed to be, my so called main opponent, I’ve dealt with rougher one’s than you in my sleep, besides there’s a reason why I used to be hailed as a HERO you know.” Demon boasted.

“Hero.......Is that what you think yourself as?” Reality calmly responded.

Reality leapt down from the balcony and onto the floor, she then grabbed two katana swords from a table nearby and slid one across to Demon.

“If you have any honour, you’ll fight me one on one like a true warrior.” Reality said.

Demon smiled and pulled out her revolver before chucking it onto the ground.

“Have it your way, it just means you’re going to die slower.” Demon said while picking her sword.

Suddenly a faint sound of a gun went off followed by a whipping sound as Demon felt something hit her thigh, she looked down and saw a dart in her leg, she pulled it out and stared at Reality who was the one who fired the shot, but before Demon could insult her she suddenly felt all woozy as the room around her started to fade to black.

“Oh no, don’t go too far, we’re going on this journey together.” Reality said as she fired another dart into her own neck and watched the room around her too started to fade to black.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Demon was now surrounded by darkness with a thick crimson red sun hanging over head, her body felt heavy and sluggish as she couldn’t move properly.

“You don’t know me because you’ve never met me before, but I know you all too well. Four years ago you took my wife, you butchered like an animal and I know for a fact I’m wasn’t the first who families you ruined, today you face the cold hard reality of your ways.” Reality said emerging from the shadows.

“You’re kidding I’ve never regretted a single kill in my life, your all just notches for me, nothing more than target practise for me to sharpen my skills.” Demon protested while struggling to move properly.

“I know that’s how you see us, but that’s not what we are and now I’m going to prove it, your body can’t move properly in here because the weight of the grief from all the families you’ve hurt and killed weighs you down like a boulder in the ocean.” Reality calmly explained.

“Ha, how could you ever convince me otherwise anyway?” Demon snarled towards Reality.

“Let’s find out shall we.” Reality replied.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Suddenly the blackness faded and we see a young women with white skin and medium length blonde hair wearing a basic security guards uniforms cowering behind a table with her head between her knees, sobbing to herself as bullets fly all around her. The woman hands are shaking rapidly as she stares at the floor.

“Mum, dad, please forgive me, I can’t do this I’m not brave like my sisters, I’m not strong, I’m so weak, I’m sorry I was such a failure to you, I just wanted to make you proud of me, I love you all and I just want to go home.” The young woman sobbed.

Suddenly the bullets stopped but as the young woman stood up to see what was going on, three bullets smashed right into the woman and she collapsed over the table dead, Demon and a group of clone troopers just smiled and walked past her, clearly happy with their kill.

“She was only 19 years old, her name was Chloe Gill, all she wanted to do was make her family proud of her and now she DIED thinking she was nothing more than a coward and a failure to them.........She will never know how much she was actually loved and cared for, because YOU killed her, YOU ended her!” Reality shouted in Demon’s face.

Demon stopped smiling and her eyes widened at the horror she had committed in her past.

“But.......I didn’t know......I.......I” Demon tried o find the words.

“Let’s try another.” Reality spoke softly.

*************************************************************************************************************************

We see a white skinned woman with long brunette hair sitting with her feet up on a desk, she’s listening to music with her head phones on and she had a massive cheerful smile across her face. Suddenly a pair hand grab her by her neck.

“NO, WAIT PLEASE. UURRKKK!” This is all the woman can muster before her neck is snapped.

Demon stand behind her with an evil smile on her face, she pushes the woman’s body on the floor and takes her keys to open a locked security door, that’s all she was to Demon another obstacle to swiftly eliminate.

“Her name was Holly Tarling, she was only 25 years old and do you know why she was smiling so much? Well I’ll show you.” Reality explained.

The darkness clears again then we see Holly smiling and crying tears of joy as her lover has just got down on one knee and proposed to her in the middle of a tulip field.

“She was so happy, she was finally engaged to the love of her life, little did she know that a week later, YOU were going to take her life from her, her family were so pleased she was happy, her fiancé and his family were busy organising a wedding venue while she was working..........God little did they know that a heartless and cruel creature like YOU, was going to come along and take it all away. YOU took it all away when you needlessly killed Holly, leaving her fiancé standing there at her grave clutching onto a wedding ring he’ll never get to put on her finger as he watches the coffin being lowered down!” Reality snapped in Demon’s face.

“Please........No.........I didn’t know she was engaged, how could I’ve known.........Please NO MORE!” Demon protested.

“No......You don’t get mercy.......You don’t deserve it.......I think it’s time I showed you mine......” Reality said with a glint of sadness in her voice.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Once the darkness subsides again we see a beautiful ball room and in the centre, two women are locked hand in hand dancing, one woman with white skin, black and green eyes wearing a beautiful long flowing purple dress and purple shoes is dancing with another white woman who has long blonde hair but dip dyed black at the end, she has sparkling blue eyes and it wearing a long red dress with red shoes to match, both women are smiling to one another as they dance together in the spotlight while gently music plays in the background.

“This is the last time I ever saw her you.” Reality said as it’s revealed that two ladies dancing together are Reality and her wife.

“Look at her, so happy, so full of life, I danced until my ankles hurt, she could have carried on all night long but I was never as good as her.” Tears fall down Reality’s face.

“The next day she left for work, she was a sentry assigned to protect imports and exports of good from across the world..........That evening I got a phone call saying she had been murdered, when I saw the footage on the CCTV footage, I saw you.......No remorse, no care and most importantly........No heart.” Reality’s tone deepened and she struggled to talk for a bit.

“But the pain didn’t stop there, night after night after night........I’d lie awake THINKING, that maybe, just maybe........She wasn’t dead.........That she was just lost in the darkness, trying to find her way back home to me..........I turned on every light in the house, so if she was lost in the dark, then I was to be the light who would bring her back home............She never came back.......” Reality could barely breathe at this point as she tried to hold her emotions together.

“I’m sorry......I........What the hell have I done.” Demon slouched down to her knees.

“Her name was Laura Fry........She was only 30 years old.........She was my wife, my partner and my best friend..........But look who I’m talking to........A Demon.........You don’t care, you never have.” Reality bowed her head and disappeared into the black.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Demon slouched down as she couldn’t speak, it felt her heart was in her throat, she was realizing all the pain and all the evil she brought, all the lives she’s ruined, all the families broken and it hurt her deep. Then it happened several copies of the company’s leader Anna materialised in front of her.

“Killing is the only way to assure victory Demon..........For the good of the company..........Remember, money is always right.........They’re just people, they can always be replaced.” The Anna copies mocked.

Suddenly Demon saw red as she got to her feet and picked up her katana.

“You.........YOU did this to me. You raised me into a monster, look at all the innocents I killed for no reason........All the pain I bought upon everyone, all the suffering..........YOU MADE THIS WAY!” Demon screamed as she cut and hacked her way through the Anna copies until there were no more.

Once all the Anna copies were gone, Demon fell to her knees and watched as a never ending cemetery appeared before her eyes with all the names of the victims she’s killed over the years with Reality standing in front of her.

“You said to me earlier, you were a Hero.............If that was really true...........Maybe they’d all still be alive.” Reality whispered in Demon’s ear.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Demon suddenly feel a second injection go into her, it was the antidote as suddenly finds herself back in the factory, Reality then inject herself with the same antidote, she watches as Demon lowers her head in guilt and shame before noticing tiny drops of water land on the floor, Demon had been finally brought to tears.

“Good.......Now you finally have a small taste of how we felt........I was hoping to make you feel something before I killed you.” Reality said as she picked her katana blade.

Demon in turn grabbed her blade and also got to her feet. Both women rushed each other screaming, as their blades clashed and smashed into each other, both women had tears running down their faces.........All the rage, all the sadness, all the pain was rolled into one as both women attacked one another as if they were fighting the failed version of themselves as anger over took them, they were both angry and what they had become, what they should have done and what they can no longer do.

The fight lasted for a long time with neither of them seemingly getting the upper hand until all of a sudden Demon’s arms fell weak and Reality kicked the blade right out of Demon’s hands, Demon herself stumbled backwards and fell straight on her backside. As Reality walked towards her with victory almost certain, Demon quickly found that she had landed next to her revolver from before, now whether it was through sheer survival instincts or not she quickly grabbed her gun and fired a single shot at Reality.

The bullet hit Reality straight in her neck, but through either sheer hatred or adrenaline, Reality still managed to walk an additional six more steps before her body gave way, she collapsed to her knees before face first onto Demon’s lap, Reality was dead.

Demon held Reality in her arms for a while, mourning both her and the actions she had done which led to these events, then Demon grabbed her revolver again but this time placed it to her own head, she was monster, a horrible person without any compassion or love, she thought to herself she didn’t deserve to live..........She gently placed her finger near the trigger.......When suddenly.

The gun was grabbed straight out of her hand as Maryse stormed passed her, Maryse emptied all the unused bullets onto the floor and tossed the now empty revolver down the end of the room, preventing Demon from using it anymore.........Maryse then removed the jacket she was wearing, walked back to Demon and wrapped it round her shoulders for warmth.

“There’s no sense, when wisdom fails, it changes all..............blood red skies, I feel so cold, no innocence, I played my roll.” Demon calmly muttered under her breath.

“Ssshhh......Breathe, just breathe........You’re in a state of shock and fear, I’m here, I’ve got you.” Maryse tried to reassure Demon.

Demon looked up and slowly looked around the room.

“There was nothing truly bad being smuggled here was there.” Demon said trying to make sense of it all.

Maryse took a deep breath.

“No.........I’m sorry, but you were a remorseless killer, I needed you to see that all life is precious and the people you were killing were not just faceless goons, they all had loved ones, families who both needed them and relied on them, they all had wife’s, husbands and children were waiting for them to return home every evening, but sadly it never happened. I knew that Reality could wake you up, she was just one of the many lives you ruined when you killed her wife four years ago.” Maryse explained revealing that she was the black hooded stranger who gave Reality the serum the night before.

“Who is she.....” Demon said still holding onto Reality’s body.

“Her name is Isabelle Fry, she took her wife’s last name when they got married, she’s spent the past four years suffering because of you, I hope you now see the errors of your ways.” Maryse said.

“How did you........Is she at peace?” Demon said trying to find the right words to say.

“I have an old friend who’s life I save over a decade ago, he owed me a favour, then when Tina told me about Kuebiko and her fear toxin, I knew she had some in the evidence locker, so I called in the favour and he got for me, to which I gave to Reality here.............Also, no before you say anything I was never going to let anything bad happen to you, I was watching from a far, if I thought Reality was going to win I was going to step in and only knock her out to save you.......truth be told, I didn’t know if she was going to live through this, but honestly I hope she can find some kind of peace now.” Maryse said looking down at Reality.

A few minutes later Demon was still sitting down with her eyes closed, mourning her actions. When sirens outside starting blaring out.

“Come on, the police are here to secure the area, let’s get you home.” Maryse said.

Demon scooped up Reality in her arms and carried her body out of the factory.

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Later that evening...........

We see Tina going through various archive footage on her computer trying to find out where Glitch has gone to, when the door open and Demon slowly walks in. Tina looks up from a bean bag she is sitting on and see’s Demon as an emotional wreck. Then without warning Demon falls straight onto Tina’s lap and immediately bursts out crying in floods of tears.

“My God......What happened to you?” Tina whispers to herself as she cuddles onto her emotionally destroyed sister.

The next day............

We see that Demon has dyed her hair, the outer most part of her hair had been dyed bright Angelic Blue and the inner most part of her hair towards the roots has been dyed dark independence blue. This is to signify both her name change her heart as she is no longer a Demon but rather an Angel, it also represents that she has completely shed her past life from the company and is now a fully independent thinker just like her sister’s.

Demon......Or rather Angel as she’ll now be named from now in, is just looking at her new tattoo she just had done in a mirror, the tattoo on her back is that of a horrible red demon being impaled through the heard by a blue armoured female angel and underneath in black in excursive writing is the word “Reality”, to signify that Reality’s life would be the last life she ever took and to signify that her life as a heartless demon like individual was well and truly done, all she wanted to do was good now and try to help as many people as she could.

When she paid the tattoo artist she put her shirt back on and left the tattoo shop. She crossed the street and headed through one of the parks, it was a warm sunny day, with clear blue skies, then suddenly Angel felt a tap against her ankles, she looked down and she a ball.

Angle then looked up and saw a small girl staring at her, behind this small girl was all of her friends who were after their ball back. A warm smile went across Angel’s face as bent down to the girl’s level, she then grabbed the ball with both of her hands presented it to the child.

“Here you go sweetie.” Angel said with a calm and joyful tone.

“Thank you, you’re a kind lady.” The child said as she gently took the ball and ran back to her friends.

Angel while still smiling got back to her feet and gently brushed her hair over her ear. She enjoyed hearing that, that she was actually kind, with that Angel then made her way through the park and was on her way back home.

Yes it was official, she had stripped herself of the name Demon and renamed herself Angel, she knew she had a long way to go for her to make up for all the evil she put out in the world, but she was determined to put even more good out there, it would take years to do, but she knew she could do it.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

[rufusluciusivan]

One of your darker stories indeed. I only see some parts with Kuebiko as darker. A more plot-heavy story from time to time isn't a bad thing if you ask me. Character development is everything!

Since they weren't numerous, I'll start with the uniform stealings. Not much to say about them. They were of the same quality as usual. In fact, the fact that Maryse was forced to keep Demon in check to make sure that the latter didn't go overboard was giving them a rather unique flavour. (To the point that I almost regret that this dynamic won't appear again, since Demon renounces her ways at the end. It was definitively making the scenes more suspenseful!)

If I had to sum up my feeling about the story, I'd say that it was intense and emotional, but short. Demon's mindset is perfectly displayed at the beginning, the idea of the serum to force her to relive ther killings and see the pain she's caused was clever, and the scene of Demon confronting her vision of Anna was top-notch and emotional.
However, I'd say that the character development feels too quick in my opinion. With how Demon was presented in previous stories and her mindset, I found that she was breaking too quickly, simply after having been shown that a few of her victims had loved ones left behind... I don't know, in previous stories she didn't strike me as the kind of person who would feel remorse simply by being told that her victims were people with a family. I especially remember her interactions with Tina during their first missions together. I see that the point is to highlight how the Company messed with her mind, to make her think that people are meaningless, that the people she was sent to kill are mere obstacles. Perhaps should it have been a little more explicit during her previous appearances? Or did I just miss some clues?

The conclusion is also emotionally powerful, with Reality's death, Demon on the verge of killing herself, Maryse being there to emotionally support her, Tina showing her good nature by cuddling onto her sister in her of need, and the transition from Demon to Angel... Honestly, my only nitpick would be that the road leading there was too short. Though I'm now curious to see where everything will be going. Everybody loves a good redemption story.

[Trackman281]

Rufusluciousvan - Aahh damn it haha, this is actually the edited version. The original one I wrote was roughly three times longer. I genuinely thought it was too long and people would get depressed over how much darker my original cut actually was. So I edited it.

Although with saying that. I do still have the original cut parts on my computer, so I could always edit it and put them in. If you think that would give the story more depth, but that's up to you if that's something you'd want to see.

I think the best way to sum up demon, or rather angel now. Is out of all of her sisters..... She's probably the weakest (mentally), I mean she knows how to fight but she always had this mindset that everyone she killed was almost like a droid, a faceless grunt with nobody what so ever. In a way just like her....... Then she saw the true horrors of her actions, see unlike Tina who's witnessed horrors and atrocities first hand, she knows what to expect but Angel........she was naive in that sense and I believe that because this was her first true taste of the horrors that she commited, mentally....... She just collapsed.

[rufusluciusivan]

Would you perhaps consider doing an extended cut? If you have the time of course.

I mean, not editing the short version to add all the stuff removed or create a new topic, just copy-paste the extended version in a reply below. Therefore, people who are interested in the story and want to give a look can; and those who aren't interested can read the quick edited version.

[esercito sconfitto]

I agree with Rufusluciusivan, please post the uncut version as reply here below ( well I suppose they are a LOT of replies...)

and after all this story is about regret, atonement and redemption, not really dark ( dark means "hopeless" to me)

[Trackman281]

Aaahh you see, you guys are all absolute LEGENDS you know that, I love this community.

Would you perhaps consider doing an extended cut? If you have the time of course.

I mean, not editing the short version to add all the stuff removed or create a new topic, just copy-paste the extended version in a reply below. Therefore, people who are interested in the story and want to give a look can; and those who aren't interested can read the quick edited version.

You'll be pleased to know that I have posted the extended / uncut edition below, I really hope you find this edition better and I hope it makes it for a more pleasant experience and a more enjoyful read.

[Trackman281]

UNCUT / EXTENDED EDITION

CHAPTER 21: DEMON’S NEVER CRY, BUT ANGELS DO

The rain beats down over heartfelt city and the dark clouds block out the moons rays, encasing the city in complete darkness, the rain hammers down over an derelict industrial estate as four figures are seen standing just under a shelter, while all four are female, three of them seem to just be hired mercenaries wearing standard fatigues and body armour while brandishing automatic rifles, but the fourth female looks completely different.

She’s wearing a black hooded rain cloak that’s pulled up unto her head, she’s wearing a bullet proof vest on top of a dim greenish – yellow suit, attached to it are a few smoke grenades, her forearms have long black gloves covering them along with her hands having gold gloves, she’s wearing black laced boots and dark coloured trousers held up by a black belt with many pockets on it, there’s also a golden locket necklace dangling around her neck. When the lightning strikes we get a glimpse under hood and see she’s a pale white skinned woman, 31 years of age, medium to long jet black hair and autumn green eyes. She also has very heavy bags under eyes through sheer tiredness.

As they stand around waiting a fifth figure emerges from the shadows wearing a full black robe so her identity cannot be discovered, she ignores the three mercenaries and heads straight for the fourth female.

“This is all I could obtain, a friend of mine owed me from several years back, they managed to grab a vile of this serum, be careful though as this is the last of the dosage and I doubt the original maker would be happy if they knew that somebody else was using her serum.” The black robed cautioned.

The female she handed too, didn’t even look up from under her hood.

“Her name...........What is her name?” She said calmly.

“The one who killed your wife doesn’t have a definitive name, all I know is that they’ve simply dubbed as.......Demon.” The cloaked figure revealed.

“Demon huh, *scoff* fitting name for a monster, this is perfect because when she gets a load of me, she’ll find out why my name is simply........REALITY.” The female now known as Reality reveals herself.

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The next morning and the rain appears to have dispersed over night as a bright sunny days graces heartfelt city with its presence.

“Come on Demon let’s hustle up, you’ve got a bounty to do.” Maryse shouts out.

“Yeah, yeah I’m coming, why can’t anyone else do this.” Demon protested.

“Well, Libido, BB and Tinker are out on their assignment retrieving a pearl necklace aren’t they, Tina is currently on her way to stop Ricochet from an assassination job, Marie, Stasis and Mag are out getting shopping for us and Soph has only just come back from an assignment and she’s currently resting up, which means it’s all on you now.” Maryse explained.

Demon looked over and saw Soph passed out asleep on the sofa. “Uurrgghh fine.....But you don’t have to come with me.”

“Oh but I do, these industrial areas can be a nightmare to traverse through, especially the derelict one’s, come on I’ll take you there then leave to do your thing.” Maryse responded.

Demon grabbed a combat knife and loaded up a revolver she recently acquired before following Maryse out of the flat.

They used the underground subway trains until they reached their destinations, after that it was just a straight walk always to the area.

“Okay so we know that’s a group of smugglers are moving through and if this bounty is to believed then they are smuggling through a shipment of possible explosives, your job is to get inside and defuse them, now remember a lot of these guards probably have no idea what the cargo actually so I highly advice you think before savagely killing them.” Maryse said knowing full well just how much of a butcher Demon can be.

“No promises.” Demon whispered with a smile across her face.

After a short walk they came across the derelict estate, most of the warehouses and factories and been joint together, but now it seems this estates prime was long behind as most if not all the building were empty and void of life. Maryse and Demon crept from behind building to building until at last they found a couple of buildings with life in. Several female guards were patrolling the perimeter of a couple of heavily boarded up factories, Maryse signalled Demon to quietly take one of the guards out, to which Demon nodded and went in for a closer look.

A lone female guard marched around the outer most part of one of the factories, she was 35 years of age, light brown skin, long brunette braided hair and brown eyes. She was wearing black boots, beige combat trousers, black fingerless gloves, a red beret and a long sleeve dark green cotton shirt. She was wielding an AK47 in her hands and although it didn’t matter to Demon, her name was Marne.

As Marne walked her route she walked behind a load of stacked canister and barrels, this is where Demon made her move. Demon jumped straight from the top of the barrels, kicking Marne straight in the back of her head causing her to hit the floor hard, as Marne tried to get up in the confusion Demon used the back of her heel and cracked down again on the back of Marne’s head this time knocking her out cold. Even though Marne was knocked out, Demon sat on her back and wrapped one hand around her chin and the other around the top of her head, she clutched her grip and got ready to snap Marne’s neck.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Maryse suddenly called out.

Demon didn’t turn around but just smiled and let go of Marne’s head, raising both hands in the air.

“This is the only way to make sure she won’t wake up and blow my cover.” Demon smiled.

Maryse checked Marne’s pulse, thankfully she was still very much alive, just heavily out cold.

“You shouldn’t do this........You don’t know who she is, she might have family waiting for her or anything, it’s not your right to take her life, she’s probably just a hired goon who has no idea what’s really going on, in other words, she’s just trying to make some money.” Maryse explained.

“Yeah, well so am I, look I need to get changed.” Demon said grabbing Marne by her ankles and dragging behind a load of canisters.

Demon pulled off Marne’s boots, unzipped and pulled off her trousers, unclipped and removed her fingerless gloves, slipped off her beret before sitting her up and yanking the shirt off of her body before just letting Marne fall back down on the ground. Here we see Marne is wearing a pink and white striped bra and a pair of dusky pink bikini panties.

While Demon was getting changed into Marne’s uniform, Maryse made sure that she was the one who tied up Marne as she didn’t trust Demon to do it, she tied up Marne’s ankles, thighs, wrist and tied her arms to her sides using several lengths of rope from a bag she had slung over her shoulder, she then whipped out a piece of cloth and used it as a gag, now that Marne was all bound and gagged, Maryse dragged her half-naked body further behind the canister and right out sight. Once she emerged from behind them, Demon was all changed and ready to go.

“Get in there and get it done, I’ll wait for you out here and for god’s sake being an infiltrator means, using your head, knock out women for their uniforms then move on, killing is a weak individuals tool and shows how uncreative you are, a REAL infiltrator doesn’t need to kill, just take what I said into consideration will you.” Maryse’s final words were to Demon before she set off.

“Hah, shows what you know, where I’m from I’m hailed as a hero the more I kill.” Demon thought to herself as she made her way to the entrance.

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Demon got passed the other guards at the door very easily with her disguise, once inside she saw dozens of both male and female combatants, most likely hired guns checking cargo and doing various patrols. Demon chuckled and their pathetic layout and thought about just how easy it would be for her to swiftly kill everyone in the building, but she just rolled her eyes and continued on course.

As Demon surveyed the area suddenly and massive and obvious sign was lit up above a doorway, it simply read “VIP Cargo holding area, authorised personal only.”

“Too damn easy, God I don’t know why it takes my sisters so long to finish a mission, I’ve been here less than ten minutes and I’ve already found my primary target.” Demon gloated to herself.

First things first though, Demon needed a change of clothes as she was certain a simple guard didn’t qualify as an authorised personal. Demon was correct about her assumption as a female emerged from the door Demon needed to get into holding a clipboard.

Her name was Katriana, she had white skin, long blonde hair in a Dutch braided hair style, teal blue eyes, a purple cap, red and white camo trousers, black boots and a dark grey sleeveless vest.

As Katriana began to inspect a shelf of crates she heard a voice behind her.

“Yo commander......Or whatever, it seems some idiot and smashed a case of important looked vials over in this storage closet, I don’t know it looks pretty important.” Demon said half arsing her disguise.

“You show some respect you simple grunt and besides that impossible we wouldn’t keep something like that in a storage closet anyway.” Katriana shock her head in disbelief.

“Oh no, then what the hell is this leaking all over the floor then, it looks like an expensive substance to me.” Demon replied with a shrug.

Katriana grumbled and cursed under her breath as she walked into the storage closet.

“Well come on then, where in this really expensive substance then.” Katriana looked around and didn’t see anything.

Demon didn’t even respond with a witty one liner or anything but instead kicked Katriana in the back of her leg causing her stumble to the floor before Demon gave her a vicious punch right in the temple of her head, Demon quickly shut and locked the door, before grabbing Katriana by her vest, violently hoisting her to feet and slamming her back into the wall which in turn also caused the back of her head to hit the wall too, then she followed this up with several punches to Katriana’s waist and finally one to the punch on her nose causing her to slump down badly beaten and heavily knocked out.

Demon bent down and pressed her knife up against her throat, before leaning in to whisper in Katriana’s ear.

“You’re lucky I’m being monitored, or make your neck drip ruby’s.” Demon whispered.

Demon got to work and stripped a badly beaten Katriana for her uniform, Demon unzipped and slid off Katriana’s boots, removed her trousers, her beret and violently pulled the vest off of Katriana’s body. As Katriana again fell back against the floor it’s here we see Katriana is wearing a gingerbread brown full cup bra and a watermelon pink thong.

Demon grabbed anything she could find, cables, string, bits of tape and tied Katriana up nice and tight, she tied up her ankles and her wrists before she found and old rag which she wrapped around Katriana’s mouth as a gag. With her out of the way, Demon hastily got changed into Katriana’s uniform before emerging from the storage closet in her newly acquired disguise.

Demon marched through the factory and barged straight through the Cargo room’s door. Much to her surprise when she entered, the room was empty, no cargo, no crates, no nothing, not even any other additional guards, just as Demon was about to turn around and try a different room, she heard to doors behind her suddenly lock preventing her from escaping, she then turned and saw Reality stand on a balcony in front of her, looking down.

“You.......I’ve been waiting so long for this.” Reality whispered in rage.

“Ha, what are you supposed to be, my so called main opponent, I’ve dealt with rougher one’s than you in my sleep, besides there’s a reason why I used to be hailed as a HERO you know.” Demon boasted.

“Hero.......Is that what you think yourself as?” Reality calmly responded.

Reality leapt down from the balcony and onto the floor, she then grabbed two katana swords from a table nearby and slid one across to Demon.

“If you have any honour, you’ll fight me one on one like a true warrior.” Reality said.

Demon smiled and pulled out her revolver before chucking it onto the ground.

“Have it your way, it just means you’re going to die slower.” Demon said while picking her sword.

Suddenly a faint sound of a gun went off followed by a whipping sound as Demon felt something hit her thigh, she looked down and saw a dart in her leg, she pulled it out and stared at Reality who was the one who fired the shot, but before Demon could insult her she suddenly felt all woozy as the room around her started to fade to black.

“Oh no, don’t go too far, we’re going on this journey together.” Reality said as she fired another dart into her own neck and watched the room around her too started to fade to black.

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Demon was now surrounded by darkness with a thick crimson red sun hanging over head, her body felt heavy and sluggish as she couldn’t move properly.

“You don’t know me because you’ve never met me before, but I know you all too well. Four years ago you took my wife, you butchered her like an animal and I know for a fact I wasn’t the first who families you ruined, today you face the cold hard reality of your ways.” Reality said emerging from the shadows.

“You’re kidding I’ve never regretted a single kill in my life, your all just notches for me, nothing more than target practise for me to sharpen my skills.” Demon protested while struggling to move properly.

“I know that’s how you see us, but that’s not what we are and now I’m going to prove it, your body can’t move properly in here because the weight of the grief from all the families you’ve hurt and killed weighs you down like a boulder in the ocean.” Reality calmly explained.

“Ha, how could you ever convince me otherwise anyway?” Demon snarled towards Reality.

“Let’s find out shall we.” Reality replied.

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Suddenly the blackness faded and we see a young women with white skin and medium length blonde hair wearing a basic security guards uniforms cowering behind a table with her head between her knees, sobbing to herself as bullets fly all around her. The woman hands are shaking rapidly as she stares at the floor.

“Mum, dad, please forgive me, I can’t do this I’m not brave like my sisters, I’m not strong, I’m so weak, I’m sorry I was such a failure to you, I just wanted to make you proud of me, I love you all and I just want to go home.” The young woman sobbed.

Suddenly the bullets stopped but as the young woman stood up to see what was going on, three bullets smashed right into the woman and she collapsed over the table dead, Demon and a group of clone troopers just smiled and walked past her, clearly happy with their kill.

“She was only 19 years old, her name was Chloe Gill, all she wanted to do was make her family proud of her and now she DIED thinking she was nothing more than a coward and a failure to them.........She will never know how much she was actually loved and cared for, because YOU killed her, YOU ended her!” Reality shouted in Demon’s face.

Demon stopped smiling and her eyes widened at the horror she had committed in her past.

“But.......I didn’t know......I.......I” Demon tried to find the words.

“Let’s try another.” Reality spoke softly.

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As the dark fades we see a dark skinned woman with frizzy black hair and dark eyes, in a one size fits all janitors’ overalls mopping the floors while occasionally pretending to sing into the handle of her broom. As she spins she doesn’t notice Demon casually yet quietly walk into the office behind her. As the woman hears the faint sound of a floor board creaking behind her, but before she can turn her head it’s already too late. Demon grabs her by chin with one hand, tilts her head to the left and injects her in the neck with a needle using her other hand.

Demon let’s go and the woman stumbles forwarding, gasping for air, she falls to her knees and coughs up a load of blood onto the floor, as she struggles to move as her body slowly gives way, Demon just casually sits back on a chair and rubs her hand across a table, before rubbing her thumb across her fingers.

“Tisk, tisk, you call this clean and I thought you were a janitor hahaha.” Demons mocks before the woman takes her final breath.

“Her name was Dola Vallis, she was 38 years old and had been a cleaner for those offices for nearly fifteen years.” Reality chimed in.

Demon didn’t say a word, not a sound, she just stood in their silence, not even blinking.

“You can stand there in silence all you like, but here’s the truth. You could of easily avoided her, she wasn’t even a guard or anything as a matter of fact, it seems you deliberately went out of your way to kill this woman.............What about her huh? What about what happened earlier that day?” Reality continued.

As the scene shifts we see Dola leaving her children with a babysitter.

“Okay mummies got to go work now alright, I love both you very much alright.........God thank you so much for doing this Carole, geez it’s hard to find a sitter at this short notice........Oh and that reminds me, the kids can have cake OR ice cream for dessert, NOT both, the little con artists. Okay be good for Carole and tomorrow I’ll take you both to the fun fair, how’s that sound.” Dola explains as she hurries to get her work bags into the car.

“Well........This is one mother who’d never return home to her kids.” Reality said while standing behind Demon as she watched the whole thing.

Again Demon just stood motionless, was she trying to justify her actions, was she trying to rationalize what she had done........Could she?..........Should she?..............No.

“I can see your mind working, I can see all the cogs inside your heard turning as you try to put all the pieces to together, but the thing is.......It can’t be done, there was absolutely no excuse for what you did, though I can’t help but wonder, it some of the scene’s, a load of soldiers follow you, but at the end of the day, if you died........Would they care?” Reality pondered.

“My sister............Lighter” Demon finally spoke.

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A new scene appears from beyond the veil of darkness, we see a tan skinned woman, with strawberry blonde hair and hazel brown eyes wearing nothing but a green bra and a pair of blue panties, she’s cowering with her back against the wall.

“NO DEMON DON’T!” An infiltrator who kind of looks like the others but has one blue eyes and one brown eye, she has ginger hair and is currently wearing a sentries uniform.

“Move out of the way lighter, she’s seen our faces, she has to DIE!” Demon barked at Lighter who was standing in the way of the half naked woman with her arms stretched out wide, trying to shield her from Demon

“No, look we needed her uniform right, Well we got it, see I’m wearing her uniform now, please Demon, she’s scared, she won’t tell anyone, look I’ll knock her out and tie her up somewhere, she won’t be found until the morning, there’s no need for this.” Lighter tried to reason with Demon.

“Do you hear yourself? If we kill her, we guarantee she’ll never be able to tell anyone about us every again, beside’s what if she wakes up early and wriggles free from her bonds?” Demon said raising her gun with a silencer attached to the front.

“In all my years as an infiltrator, none of my victims have ever wriggled free on their bonds, it’s impossible IF you do it right, so let me do it, I’ll do it right, I can promise you.” Lighter carried on.

But her fate was sealed as the woman peered over lighters shoulder, Demon leapt on this opportunity and put a bullet straight through the woman’s chest. As she fell backwards, Light knew immediately what had happened and turned to try and help her.

“Hey, come on, come on, look at me, I’m right here, you’re going to be fine okay, it only looks bad but trust me this is nothing, it’s nothing, just come on, come on, hey, hey, hey, no, no, don’t close your eyes, please don’t close your eyes don’t.........” The woman fell silent and passed. “.........GOD DAMN YOU! Why........WHY did you do that?” Lighter stood up and shoved Demon against a wall.

“Get your hands of me Lighter, remember a good clone follows orders, our non-clones wills must be done!” Demon protested.

The scene pauses as we Demon shake her head in disbelief.

“I’m not familiar with this one..........Tell me where is your sister now?” Reality said with intrigue.

“She’s dead.........Because of me.” Demon responded.

A new memory scene appears as we Tina, Mag, Lighter and Demon moving through a forest as they make their way through the forest looking for traces of an insurgent encampment, suddenly Demon while not really paying attention to where she’s going catches her foot a wire spread across the ground. The wire breaks and a log held up with string and multiple makeshift spikes come’s hurtling towards Demon.

“DEMON LOOK OUT!” Light shoves Demon out the way letting the log impale her body against a tree saving Demon’s life in the process.

Tina and Mag immediately rush over, Mag clutches onto Lighter’s hand while Tina uses all of her strength to try and pry the log off her sister.

“Demon, just stand there, you idiot come give us a hand here, quickly!” Mag shouts at Demon.

Demon just takes a deep sighing breath and leans back against a tree.

“Hey ladies, don’t bother she’s already gone anyway.” Demon says quite calmly and care free.

Mag and Tina look up at each other before turning to find out that it was true, Lighter was dead, Mag swallowed hard before letting go of Lighter’s hand. Tina pressed her forehead against Lighter’s forehead.

“Forgive us, sister.” Tina whispered, holding back the tears.

“Hey come on, we’re losing the light and watch out for traps!” Demon said causally walking away.

“You just lost your sister, Lighter’s dead you moron, don’t you feel anything?” Tina said back with a venomous tone.

“Meh, she made her decision didn’t she?” Demon cold heartedly replied.

Mag saw red and marched straight over to Demon and punched straight in the mouth so she hit the floor hard.

“YOU HEARTLESS BITCH! Lighter just died saving your worthless and pathetic life and that’s all you had to say.......She made her decision.” Mag was trying desperately not to lose it again.

“Yep.......Come on, we’re losing the light and the company wants this finished by sundown, if they’re to get paid in full.” Demon says standing up and brushing herself off.

“Loner.......You can’t really believe she’s that heartless.” Mag said to Tina calling her by her nickname before they discovered her real name.

The memory scene stops.

“I’m not a heartless savage like you, so you can believe me or not when I say.........I’m genuinely sorry for the death of your sister, she seemed like such a nice and kind hearted woman, she died saving your life because you were just so stupid and didn’t look where you were going.” Reality said to Demon.

Demon walked over to Lighter’s body and attempted to touch her face but instead her hand just went straight through the smoke as the scene faded to black.

“I...I’m so sorry sister.......It was me, I was the foolish one, I see that now.” Demon said closing her eyes and coming to the realization that she was the fool hearted one on that day and not lighter.

“Let’s move on to our next one shall we, I think this next one sums up you in a nutshell.” Reality said waving the scene back to black.

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As the scene fades in again we see we’re now in South Korea. A Korean receptionist sits at her desk by a building main entrance, she’s wearing a dark blue suit with her hair neatly tied back. She’s on her phone face timing her husband and children, after a while she blows them kisses and hangs up, she then starts reading through the local news on her phone.

As she minds her one business a hand suddenly grabs her by the mouth and she feels a lot of sudden pain and becomes unable to scream, it’s here we see that while Demon was hand gagging her with one hand, she proceeded to slit her throat using her knife with the other. In the woman’s final moments we tears trickle down her cheeks before she slumps over her desk and dies.

“Her name was Ae-Cha Piao. She was 34 years old, a wife and a mother of two. But that’s not the worst part, let me show you the cold hard horror of what you done.” Reality wave as the scene jumps back by roughly 2 years.

Two years prior we see Ae-Cha Piao lying in a hospital bed, extremely weak and suffering greatly. Her husband is pleading with doctors while her children clutch onto her hands while crying.

“She was suffering from lung cancer........Look how weak and frail she was, look how her children sobbed at the thought of losing their mother to this illness, look how the husband pleades on his hands knees begging the doctors to do something......Anything.” Reality turns to see Demon try and turn.

She grabs Demon by the back of hair and olds her eyelids open.

“YOU WILL WATCH THIS!.................Just when they thought there was no hope, a miracle somehow happened.........Her body started to react well to the treatment, a year later through grooling pain and agony and that was it, the cancer cells were gone..............Seven additional months later she was given the all clear and aloud to return back to work, at last her life was back to normal, at last everything was done and finally her darkest days were behind her.............Then you came along didn’t you..........Roughly four months later you slit her throat from cheek to cheek.” Reality looked down and saw the fear immolating greatly in Demon’s eyes.

“Let’s her tears one more time shall we, those tears that flooded down her face moments before she died, do you know what that tells me..........It tells me, here’s a woman who’s been through it all, literally fought her way through hell and back, scratching and clawing her way through it all, always putting on a brave face in front of her husband and children and then in the end.........It didn’t mean anything did it..........Because she always going to meet her end by the hands of a pathetic, cowardly and cruel killer..........In other words YOU.” Reality let go of Demon’s face.

“But that’s not fair, the company said they were all smugglers, hired guns just disguised an innocent people, that I shouldn’t let their appearances trick me.” Demon pleaded as she saw the true horror she had committed.

“And you actually believed them?...............Then you’re as gullible as you are cruel.” Reality whispered loudly to Demon.

“Come, I have another one already set up for you.” Reality said waving her hand.

“No, please no more, I’m sorry, okay is that what you want to hear?” Demon said as she starting to realize the severity of her situation.

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We get straight into this time as we see three female sentries, standing side by side each other shaking tremendously with their pistol out, all aiming at a doorway.

“Please, we didn’t sign up for this, we’re just guards for god’s sake, the worst we’re supposed to deal with are punks and yobs, not fully trained soldiers, armed to the teeth.” One of them thought.

“Oh God, this is it, I don’t want to die, please spare us!” A second one shouted.

But suddenly the wall next to them exploded as a breach charge had been placed there moments before, during the confusion and all the dust that filled the air Demon entered and systematically gunned down all three women in the room as she was wearing a gas mask and had a pair of heat sensor goggles on while carrying an automatic rifle.

“Room’s clear, proceed to the upper levels.” Demon said on her radio as she left the room.

The scene halted.

“Now two of those women were fortunate enough to die in the immediate shooting, but one of them wasn’t so lucky, watch as it turned out her mother was also working at the same place as her daughter, so she had the misfortune of watching her bleed out in her final moments.” Reality explained.

We see the third woman, a white skinned women with blood stained blonde hair heavily bleeding while her mother tries to talk to her.

“Where the hell are the paramedics!.........I can’t stop the bleeding, someone, anyone, please help me, stay with me baby, stay with me.” The mother pleaded, but alas moments later, the gurgling stopped and the daughter fell silent.

“Her name was Mellissa Banister, she was only 22 years old...........No mother should have to bury their child should they.” Reality wiped a tear away that was forming in the corner of her left eye.

“No.......this isn’t right, the company told us.........They told us we we’re going up against professionally trained mercenaries, heavily armed and only cared about money.” Demon shook her head in disbelief, had she been lied to all this time?

“Yet.....Apparently you never questioned why.........Why are these females wearing basic security guard uniforms, why are they cowering in corners, why are they shaking like leaves begging for mercy, why aren’t they trying to fight back, why do they look like that even if they were to actually fire their guns, they probably wouldn’t even be able to hit the side of a barn?” Reality leaned into Demon’s face to gage her response.

Demon just went quiet and bowed her head.

“I don’t know.........” She whispered in response.

“Come let’s move on.” Reality said wiping away the scene.
“No, no, I’ve learnt my lesson, I’m not sure I can take it anymore, please I understand. I UNDERSTAND!” Demon shouted.

“No you don’t, not fully.” Reality said, carrying on anyway.


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We see a white skinned woman with long brunette hair sitting with her feet up on a desk, she’s listening to music with her head phones on and she had a massive cheerful smile across her face. Suddenly a pair of hands grab her by her neck.

“NO, WAIT PLEASE. UURRKKK!” This is all the woman can muster before her neck is snapped.

Demon stand behind her with an evil smile on her face, she pushes the woman’s body on the floor and takes her keys to open a locked security door, that’s all she was to Demon another obstacle to swiftly eliminate.

“Her name was Holly Tarling, she was only 25 years old and do you know why she was smiling so much? Well I’ll show you.” Reality explained.

The darkness clears again then we see Holly smiling and crying tears of joy as her lover has just got down on one knee and proposed to her in the middle of a tulip field.

“She was so happy, she was finally engaged to the love of her life, little did she know that a week later, YOU were going to take her life from her, her family were so pleased she was happy, her fiancé and his family were busy organising a wedding venue while she was working..........God little did they know that a heartless and cruel creature like YOU, was going to come along and take it all away. YOU took it all away when you needlessly killed Holly, leaving her fiancé standing there at her grave clutching onto a wedding ring he’ll never get to put on her finger as he watches the coffin being lowered down!” Reality snapped in Demon’s face.

“Please........No.........I didn’t know she was engaged, how could I’ve known.........Please NO MORE!” Demon protested.

“No......You don’t get mercy.......You don’t deserve it.......I think it’s time I showed you mine......” Reality said with a glint of sadness in her voice.

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Once the darkness subsides again we see a beautiful ball room and in the centre, two women are locked hand in hand dancing, one woman with white skin, black and green eyes wearing a beautiful long flowing purple dress and purple shoes is dancing with another white woman who has long blonde hair but dip dyed black at the end, she has sparkling blue eyes and it wearing a long red dress with red shoes to match, both women are smiling to one another as they dance together in the spotlight while gently music plays in the background.

“This is the last time I ever saw her you.” Reality said as it’s revealed that two ladies dancing together are Reality and her wife.

“Look at her, so happy, so full of life, I danced until my ankles hurt, she could have carried on all night long but I was never as good as her.” Tears fall down Reality’s face.

“The next day she left for work, she was a sentry assigned to protect imports and exports of good from across the world..........That evening I got a phone call saying she had been murdered, when I saw the footage on the CCTV footage, I saw you.......No remorse, no care and most importantly........No heart.” Reality’s tone deepened and she struggled to talk for a bit.

“But the pain didn’t stop there, night after night after night........I’d lie awake THINKING, that maybe, just maybe........She wasn’t dead.........That she was just lost in the darkness, trying to find her way back home to me..........I turned on every light in the house, so if she was lost in the dark, then I was to be the light who would bring her back home............She never came back.......” Reality could barely breathe at this point as she tried to hold her emotions together.

“I’m sorry......I........What the hell have I done.” Demon slouched down to her knees.

“Her name was Laura Fry........She was only 30 years old.........She was my wife, my partner and my best friend..........But look who I’m talking to........A Demon.........You don’t care, you never have.” Reality bowed her head and disappeared into the black.

******************************************************************************************************************
As the scene fades in this time, we see Demon in her younger years, training alongside all eleven of her other sisters from the first batch. It’s also here that we see two males who were studying and making notes on their clone infiltrators.

“Well, out of all the results, it seems that while CI-1262 or the one other infiltrators have dubbed, Demon seems to be physically stronger and tougher than all the others, well with the exception of CI-1138 or as the other infiltrators have nicknamed her, Loner. We can safely say that CI-1262 is the weakest of the batch mentally. Out of all the others, she’s followed our programming and mindset exercises the most fluently, the other infiltrators seem to have a fraction of some individually to some degree but CI-1262 or Demon..........No, nothing.” One of them says.

“Well, that’s excellent, with her being the easiest to manipulate and control, it really won’t be too hard to get to fall in line and who knows, maybe one day she might even whip the others into shape too. Because of how easy it’ll be to control her, I want to give her more liberties and luxuries, she can commune with the basic clone troopers, every so often so she can be seen as the true inspiration what clones infiltrators are. Loyal, obedient, never question orders, always put the need of the company above all else.” The second male states.

“What about the others?” The first male asks.

“No, keep them separated completely from the other clones, we can’t have their independent mind frame come into play, otherwise the others might start questioning their own independence, CI-1262 (Demon) is the only exception and this purely because she’s more droned than the rest of them.” The second male replies.

The scene freezes in place.

“Those.........Those, God damn, manipulative, controlling, worthless lab coats.” Demon felt a surge rage flow through her body.

Suddenly it all fell into place, the reality that she was so weak minded, so gullible, so......Pathetic...........Then more reality set in, all the kills, all those innocents, all the families she hurt, it could of all been avoided, Lighter would still be alive and all those poor souls whose lives she took, they would still be alive too..........Demon felt a colossal wave, or guilt, remorse, pity, anger, sadness, depression and anxiety wash over her mind and swallow her whole.

******************************************************************************************************************

This time as the darkness subsided she was surrounded, by hundreds of scenes, all of the victims’ families in mourning, so many families and loved ones were crying at various funerals, so many families were watching family videos and looking at family photos showing all the victims of who Demon has killed over the years, the cries and screams got louder, it didn’t matter which way Demon turned, they were everywhere, all her wicked ways were catching up to her, Demon covered her ears and closed to drown out the noise, but there so many voices of despair and sadness she couldn’t block it out until she screamed.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH..........I’m sorry, please forgive me, I’ll change, I swear I’ll change, I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know!” Demon pleaded.

Moments later the noises stopped, but when Demon opened her eyes, the floor she was standing on gave way and she fell into a never ending sea of thick black water, as she struggled to swim through it, the water got thicker and thicker until it became a tar like substance, she finally swam upon a set of rocks but as grabbed one to pull herself up, multiple hands emerged from the tar and tried to drag her beneath the waves, but she hung on the rock and still attempted to pull herself to safety.

But standing on the rock above her, was Reality, looking straight down on her before she suddenly stepped her foot down straight onto Demon’s hand, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Look around you......You left all these victims and all the victims’ families and loved one’s in a deep dark sea of despair and depression.........It’s only fair that we pull you into one of your own.” With that Demon released her foot so the hands could drag Demon below the waves.

At first Demon tried to swim to back up to the surface but the weight of all of actions just proved too heavy so she let go, she sank right the way down to the bottom until she hit the floor, she felt the heartbreak of all of her victims flood into her lungs, this lasted for about twenty second before the sea dispersed and Demon coughed and spluttered and finally caught her breath, she got back to her feet and gazed around at the emptiness that now surrounds her.

*******************************************************************************************************************

Demon slouched down as she couldn’t speak, it felt her heart was in her throat, she was realizing all the pain and all the evil she brought, all the lives she’s ruined, all the families broken and it hurt her deep. Then it happened several copies of the company’s leader Anna materialised in front of her.

“Killing is the only way to assure victory Demon..........For the good of the company..........Remember, money is always right.........They’re just people, they can always be replaced.” The Anna copies mocked.

Suddenly Demon saw red as she got to her feet and picked up her katana.

“You.........YOU did this to me. You raised me into a monster, look at all the innocents I killed for no reason........All the pain I bought upon everyone, all the suffering..........YOU MADE THIS WAY!” Demon screamed as she cut and hacked her way through the Anna copies until there were no more.

Once all the Anna copies were gone, Demon fell to her knees and watched as a never ending cemetery appeared before her eyes with all the names of the victims she’s killed over the years with Reality standing in front of her.

“You said to me earlier, you were a Hero.............If that was really true...........Maybe they’d all still be alive.” Reality whispered in Demon’s ear.

*******************************************************************************************************************

Demon suddenly feel a second injection go into her, it was the antidote as suddenly finds herself back in the factory, Reality then inject herself with the same antidote, she watches as Demon lowers her head in guilt and shame before noticing tiny drops of water land on the floor, Demon had been finally brought to tears.

“Good.......Now you finally have a small taste of how we felt........I was hoping to make you feel something before I killed you.” Reality said as she picked her katana blade.

Demon in turn grabbed her blade and also got to her feet. Both women rushed each other screaming, as their blades clashed and smashed into each other, both women had tears running down their faces.........All the rage, all the sadness, all the pain was rolled into one as both women attacked one another as if they were fighting the failed version of themselves as anger over took them, they were both angry and what they had become, what they should have done and what they can no longer do.

The fight lasted for a long time with neither of them seemingly getting the upper hand until all of a sudden Demon’s arms fell weak and Reality kicked the blade right out of Demon’s hands, Demon herself stumbled backwards and fell straight on her backside. As Reality walked towards her with victory almost certain, Demon quickly found that she had landed next to her revolver from before, now whether it was through sheer survival instincts or not she quickly grabbed her gun and fired a single shot at Reality.

The bullet hit Reality straight in her neck, but through either sheer hatred or adrenaline, Reality still managed to walk an additional six more steps before her body gave way, she collapsed to her knees before face first onto Demon’s lap, Reality was dead.

Demon held Reality in her arms for a while, mourning both her and the actions she had done which led to these events, then Demon grabbed her revolver again but this time placed it to her own head, she was monster, a horrible person without any compassion or love, she thought to herself she didn’t deserve to live..........She gently placed her finger near the trigger.......When suddenly.

The gun was grabbed straight out of her hand as Maryse stormed passed her, Maryse emptied all the unused bullets onto the floor and tossed the now empty revolver down the end of the room, preventing Demon from using it anymore.........Maryse then removed the jacket she was wearing, walked back to Demon and wrapped it round her shoulders for warmth.

“There’s no sense, when wisdom fails, it changes all..............blood red skies, I feel so cold, no innocence, I played my roll.” Demon calmly muttered under her breath.

“Ssshhh......Breathe, just breathe........You’re in a state of shock and fear, I’m here, I’ve got you.” Maryse tried to reassure Demon.

Demon looked up and slowly looked around the room.

“There was nothing truly bad being smuggled here was there.” Demon said trying to make sense of it all.

Maryse took a deep breath.

“No.........I’m sorry, but you were a remorseless killer, I needed you to see that all life is precious and the people you were killing were not just faceless goons, they all had loved ones, families who both needed them and relied on them, they all had wife’s, husbands and children were waiting for them to return home every evening, but sadly it never happened. I knew that Reality could wake you up, she was just one of the many lives you ruined when you killed her wife four years ago.” Maryse explained revealing that she was the black hooded stranger who gave Reality the serum the night before.

“Who is she.....” Demon said still holding onto Reality’s body.

“Her name is Isabelle Fry, she took her wife’s last name when they got married, she’s spent the past four years suffering because of you, I hope you now see the errors of your ways.” Maryse said.

“How did you........Is she at peace?” Demon said trying to find the right words to say.

“I have an old friend who’s life I save over a decade ago, he owed me a favour, then when Tina told me about Kuebiko and her fear toxin, I knew she had some in the evidence locker, so I called in the favour and he got for me, to which I gave to Reality here.............Also, no before you say anything I was never going to let anything bad happen to you, I was watching from a far, if I thought Reality was going to win I was going to step in and only knock her out to save you.......truth be told, I didn’t know if she was going to live through this, but honestly I hope she can find some kind of peace now.” Maryse said looking down at Reality.

A few minutes later Demon was still sitting down with her eyes closed, mourning her actions. When sirens outside starting blaring out.

“Come on, the police are here to secure the area, let’s get you home.” Maryse said.

Demon scooped up Reality in her arms and carried her body out of the factory.

********************************************************************************************************************

Later that evening...........

We see Tina going through various archive footage on her computer trying to find out where Glitch has gone to, when the door open and Demon slowly walks in. Tina looks up from a bean bag she is sitting on and see’s Demon as an emotional wreck. Then without warning Demon falls straight onto Tina’s lap and immediately bursts out crying in floods of tears.

“My God......What happened to you?” Tina whispers to herself as she cuddles onto her emotionally destroyed sister.

The next day............

We see that Demon has dyed her hair, the outer most part of her hair had been dyed bright Angelic Blue and the inner most part of her hair towards the roots has been dyed dark independence blue. This is to signify both her name change her heart as she is no longer a Demon but rather an Angel, it also represents that she has completely shed her past life from the company and is now a fully independent thinker just like her sister’s.

Demon......Or rather Angel as she’ll now be named from now in, is just looking at her new tattoo she just had done in a mirror, the tattoo on her back is that of a horrible red demon being impaled through the heard by a blue armoured female angel and underneath in black in excursive writing is the word “Reality”, to signify that Reality’s life would be the last life she ever took and to signify that her life as a heartless demon like individual was well and truly done, all she wanted to do was good now and try to help as many people as she could.

When she paid the tattoo artist she put her shirt back on and left the tattoo shop. She crossed the street and headed through one of the parks, it was a warm sunny day, with clear blue skies, then suddenly Angel felt a tap against her ankles, she looked down and she a ball.

Angle then looked up and saw a small girl staring at her, behind this small girl was all of her friends who were after their ball back. A warm smile went across Angel’s face as bent down to the girl’s level, she then grabbed the ball with both of her hands presented it to the child.

“Here you go sweetie.” Angel said with a calm and joyful tone.

“Thank you, you’re a kind lady.” The child said as she gently took the ball and ran back to her friends.

Angel while still smiling got back to her feet and gently brushed her hair over her ear. She enjoyed hearing that, that she was actually kind, with that Angel then made her way through the park and was on her way back home.

Yes it was official, she had stripped herself of the name Demon and renamed herself Angel, she knew she had a long way to go for her to make up for all the evil she put out in the world, but she was determined to put even more good out there, it would take years to do, but she knew she could do it.

END OF CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

NOTE: THIS IS THE UNCUT / EXTENDED EDITION, start from the top of this post and I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed writing it for you all.

[rufusluciusivan]

You'll be pleased to know that I have posted the extended / uncut edition below, I really hope you find this edition better and I hope it makes it for a more pleasant experience and a more enjoyful read.

Ha! Ha! Thanks a lot for it! First time there's a theatrical cut and extended cut of a USB story on this Board (at my knowledge)! Everyone, let's call Peter Jackson and/or Zack Snyder!

As expected, this exended/uncut version is darker, but also more emotional. The more numerous flashbacks give more weight to the confrontation between Reality and Demon, as their sheer number allows to better grasp the horrors of what Demon did. Having more than half-a-dozen (eight) moments instead of three changes a lot of things: their mere number highlight the atrocity of the actions Demon committed. With only three moments, I think that the reader wasn't allowed to properly feel the emotional impact and the horror of Demon's actions; with eight - counting the two scenes with Lighter separately - the simple fact that the reader spends more time reading it allows to unconsciously assimilate the weight of the crimes Demon committed.

Of course, I can understand that people would be put off by the dark themes and deaths of this story, which is why your warning at the beginning was a good idea. However, we're talking here about personal taste and not quality of writing. When it comes to carrying emotions (horror, sadness, disgust towards the company...), the story is well-written. As esercito sconfitto said, this is a story about regret, atonement, and redemption. The brighter lights often come from the blacker darkness, and it was important to emphasize the weight of what Demon did to fully appreciate her redemption in future stories. While I don't really enjoy lethal scenes in USB scenes, I personally think that death in USB stories, as long as it's used as a tool to develop a story or a character, can be a very powerful tool to convey emotions: to make the reader feel uncomfortable, to emphasise the dangerousness of a character (anti-hero or villain), to convey a feeling of hopelesness or of danger, or to highlight how far a character has gone and how long her road to redemption will be... When it's scarcely used, it makes every moment when a death truly happens more impactful. As you can see, even though this story isn't the longest and features only a few USB scenes, I had a lot to say about it... because it had an impact due to the sudden shift of tone.

I will stand by my point that, in previous stories, 'Demon' didn't strike me as the kind of person who would feel remorse simply by being told that her victims were people with a family. (Though I'll admit that I don't think that this is an impression that this story could have changed. This would need a rewriting of parts of previous stories, and is also probably linked to the fact that Demon didn't get a highlight episode since the mission in Japan. Therefore, it was hard to foreshadow her mental weakness.)
However, the extended cut adds the very important lines of her often being told lies on the true nature of her targets by the company lies, and the VERY important scene of the two lab coats discussing Demon's weak will and how they were going to encourage it and take advantage of it, which is in my opinion the key to understand Demon's character pre-character development. Therefore, I am convinced that the extended version works a lot better at carrying the emotions and the atonement of Demon.

My only regret? I wish that Demon's breakdown with Tina was extended as well. While short, this moment is probably the most emotional of this story because of its symbolism when put into the perspective of the entire series. Indeed, Demon doesn't simply open up and reveal her vulnerability: She opens up and allows herself to be seen at her most vulnerable by the sister she used to despise and dislike the most for her 'sentimental weakness'. And Tina shows her inherently good nature when she instantly chooses to comfort her sister in her most desperate time of need, even though she until now used to despise 'Demon' for her merciless ways. I feel that this is a very important character moment for both of them. So much is happening in only two small paragraphs. Hopefully, we'll see more interactions in next stories...

[Trackman281]

Rufusluciousvan - Once again, many many thanks for reading both parts, I know once you read the shorter version you already know how's its all going to end but I'm very grateful you read the extended cut as well.

Hahaha. Well I couldn't have people spreading rumours of a snyder like cut for years now could I.

Yes, I see what you mean, after reading it back myself then of course reading your feedback, I should never of tampered with it and should of just left it unedited right from the start. The scene with the lab coats I think sums her up perfectly, in previous chapters we've always seen demon as this hardened killer, she's always hanging out with the other clone troopers and doesn't really get on with the other infiltrators. I think she's always seen herself as this poster child of where infiltrators are the best of the best and the fact that she's one of them AND she the other clone trooper considered her a real soldier unlike the other infiltrators (from previous chapters). So demon always saw herself as this perfect clone but actually.......... She was just a tool like all the others.

Yeah I know there are a few people who don't like dark chapters and that's perfectly fine as it all comes down to personal taste. Which is why I have a couple of announcements that I hope people will like the sound of ..............

1. For people worried that my next chapter will dark, have no fear. It will be very light hearted as Glitch returns for next match against Tina, so expect a lot of egotistical banter there. Libido goes on a rescue mission after seeing how corrupted heartfelt cities police are AND........Stasis becomes a pirate captain, she'll travel the sea in search of pirate BOOTY (pay attention to that last word )

2. Some point tomorrow I'm going to release a "pilot" chapter of a new series I'm working on. Because Fantasy seems to be becoming more and more popular at the moment (rightfully so ), I've tried my hand at writing another series set during a Fantasy world of where we follow the adventures of Vendela, born half angel, half demon (or Nephilim for short), as she travels the land of Eredena............. Yes she will always have a human form, so don't worry.