Our First Fall

A Meliodas and Elizabeth story
Thank you SinfulFics for beta'ing this. You are a wonderful friend.

Chapter Forty-One: Ouroboros

"Elizabeth." A concerned, familiar voice called to me. "Elizabeth!" Meliodas' voice pierced through the haze.

"She's collapsed- ow!" Drole rumbled near me in his deep voice, obviously pained as he continued, "It's some kind of barrier." I tried to lift my lids to see if I was still suffering from blindness or to move so I could redirect the force around me. If it was too much for Drole, who had the defenses of the Giant King, it must mean multiple Archangels erected the protection ark.

I smelled burning meat and instantly thought of Meliodas' cooking, then the sound of sizzling met my ears reminding me briefly of Anarak and Zeno's end. That's when I felt the power, dark energy flecked away inside the bubble. My mind mulled this information over and somehow, came up blank.

"Meliodas!" Drole exclaimed, alarmed, "this is strong goddess magic, for a demon like you it would be excruci-" Strong hands adjusted me, pulling me up and out. The magic around me vanished and I was in his arms again. My eyes opened and the world came into view. The fairy forest had dark smoke billowing from the treetops in the distance.

Drole and Gloxinia's concerned faces were over Meliodas' shoulder and I focused. His green eyes shone as they looked at the tender spot on my lip and jaw. That's when I realized who's skin sizzled and smelled like burned meat. Meliodas' flesh had done the same thing in the cube when I'd explored my own power with that atom blast.

"Elizabeth..." He murmured as if in prayer, then his voice grew stronger. "Everything is okay now." But I knew he wasn't talking to me, he was convincing himself.

"Meliodas." I whispered with pinched brows as I realized he must have been worried. If the sheen of sweat coating him was any indication, he must have run through this forest to get to me. He smelled so nice but I felt myself falling apart inside. "I failed," I told him, apologetically, as tears welled and dripped down in heavy drops. "I didn't even realize... I should have known!" How could I not have picked up on my own people abducting and rounding up innocent demons?

Chaos erupted above us, a mass clash of light and dark energy on a scale that should scatter everyone. The power levels were beyond any normal demon or angel. This was a clash of those that were lent the power of their gods, our parents. The Ten Commandments vs the Archangels.

"You did nothing wrong. I'll figure something out." He told me, but his words didn't take the burden from me as he intended. He shouldn't shoulder the responsibility to fix this on his own. I couldn't stand by and let Meliodas suffer anymore- no, I wouldn't let him.

Above us, two of the Ten Commandments, Derieri and Monspeet, had changed. While I'd been passed out, the two had evolved into their final form. Meliodas had told me about the process, they surrender themselves to their darkness by removing six of their hearts, becoming an Indura. They couldn't return to themselves. In the end, they only stopped destroying when they died...

Derieri had grown dark and elongated into a hound demon where her long choppy hair swung out like a whip. Her claws slashed and I could imagine her punches with those would be deadly as after each punch landed the magic behind the hits increased to do more damage than the last. A combo paired with those claws would be fierce.

Monspeet's limbs had grown exceedingly long, from high in the sky they hit the ground of the forest floor as if like a spider, only far too lengthy. His face had stretched, his darkness concentrated and the power from them both shook me.

"With them like this, it would be best to let them rampage until their final heart gives up... It's the only way." Meliodas spoke, soft and sad but I couldn't abide by his words. I wanted to help him... I never wanted him to lose a friend again and these two had been dear to him.

"No. I won't let you suffer anymore. Not when I can help it!" In a rush, I healed his burned arms while pushing off his solid chest to propel myself up in flight. His rooted stance was something I counted on but it was his concerned face that gave me all the strength I need to meet the Commandments again.

I will heal them!

Ludociel was facing off against Derieri while Monspeet fought off and held down Tarmiel and Sariel. A true testament to the Indura's power as the Archangels were our most powerful fighters, granted graces and obviously a boost of something more since I'd seen them last. Ludociel turned to me as I moved before him. He's relieved as he was having a hard time keeping up with Derieri. The only physical sign of his struggle was his jostled hair. "Stand down!" I commanded, for the first time taking and using what came with my birthright.

"Elizabeth, let us combine our powers to take them down!" Ludociel howled, like a war cry and I frowned. He wasn't abiding, I'd make him.

"I'll save them!" I confessed and heard Ludociel scoff. With everything I had, I crossed my arms, invoking my new ocean of power to rise up and shout, "Let There Be Light!" My power expanded into two flower coated swirling beams and they struck the Indura at their chests, stopping them in their path from the very darkness inside of them. I wouldn't allow our clan's trust to be destroyed an ounce more. I wouldn't let it be too late for the damage to be healed between us. If I could save them, they would see, wouldn't they?

My magic funneled like a drill, my power spinning and barely breaking the surface. I held my ground, breaking out in a sweat as the Indura fought back, resisting.

If I let him, Meliodas would try to take all our burdens on himself but I wouldn't allow him to fight alone. He had me.As my magic bloomed flowers around me, I noticed the troops were gone. The army behind the Commandments... had they escaped or had they been torn apart? I had friends in that mass. Had all of those lives been lost too? I shook away the thought, knowing it was too late to save them if they were gone.

Ludociel bellowed behind me, the words drowning in my ears as the pressure of the magic flowing through me interrupted my comprehension process. Was he rallying Tarmiel and Sariel? What I could make out sounded like it. With my attention divided, I sagged back an inch as I realized Ludociel wanted to use the other Archangels to go against my orders.

I feared their response, trying to focus on them and saving the two demons losing their minds before me. I couldn't watch, but I listened as Tarmiel and Sariel refused him and my chest eased. The Archangels were divided and a sliver of hope, one I needed desperately, flared inside me.

Ludociel produced his blades at my back. I should have known that he wouldn't stop that easily. "It's pointless trying to save them!" He howled, enraged and I knew he was going to attack.

The two Indura moved closer to me, snarling like animals and gaining from my split attention. Strong demon energy flared, shooting through the air and heading right for us. Instantly my focus sharpened back on my task. The one person in the world I could rely on, the one man I trusted above anyone, hovered at my back between me and Ludociel.

"Don't worry Elizabeth, let me handle this," Meliodas spoke as relief flooded me. Ludociel wouldn't dare go against us now and I could put my all into saving them again. Meliodas came! Of course, he came. I felt Meliodas' demon energy chill the air and it cooled my overheated body, reassuring me rather than alarming me, which contrasted with the Indura's emanating power. Ludociel sounded furious but I didn't look away from my charges, straining my magic to dig deeper into Derieri and Monspeet's darkness to find their true selves again.

"Thank you." I called to Meliodas through my exhale, "I know I have no right to apologize for Nero and Aranak... it was basically my fault what happened," I started to Meliodas. Ludociel wouldn't have it, screaming his interruption.

"What use is there to apologize to a beast!?" I wouldn't stand for Ludociel's view that Demons were beneath us, beneath anyone.

"Who decides the worth of a being!? Whether a person had value? Morning light and nightfall, They bathe us all equally. Humans, Giants, Fairies, Goddesses and Demons." I appealed to the Archangels' hearts just as I had to countless demons thus far. Ludociel was too shut off, stuck in his way... but Sariel and Tamriel... they flew up and lent me their strength! They stood up to Ludociel by taking my side and adding their magic to mine!

"Go!" Meliodas encouraged me with his hostile cheer and I did. I released it all as I funneled Sariel and Tamriel's power into my own to save Derieri and Monspeet. More hope bloomed. If we could just get the two sides to talk, we could end this war. In the rush of combining the two Archangels' power with mine, I heard their words but don't understand them.

"Sacrificing the captured didn't activate the coffin, so we'll try Elizabeth's way," Sariel explained. I couldn't see him but his voice seemed to be facing away from me.

"It's our last hope, before we give our lives to you." Tamriel continued and his voice was so heartbroken I knew their last bits of faith to end this rested with me.

I felt the disconnection in the two Indura. The true selves of Monspeet and Derieri were buried deep but I uncovered them once more. Huge shards of darkness fall from the pair of them and for a moment, their bodies were suspended in the air before they fell, they no longer looked like Indura, naked and back to their humanoid shapes.

I saved them... After so many failures, I finally did something right in this war!

More importantly, I did right by Meliodas. With him at my side, confirming they were okay and looking at me as if I hung the moon for him , I let myself sag into my exhaustion, tapped. "Thank goodness!" I hushed, smiling at Meliodas and his smile back made my chest warm. There was nothing left in me. I wanted to make a joke about how many rounds this counted as but I was falling again, the blackness called me. It overcame me in a quick breath, Meliodas' panicked face floated over mine as gravity claimed my limp body.

︵‿︵‿୨ ୧‿︵‿︵

I roused without moving, drowsy. My body ached and I wondered how rough our lovemaking must have been before a rush of memories flooded my mind. Indura, my people captured and killed innocent civilian demons and I saved Derieri and Monspeet. My eyes popped open in alarm which was quickly overcome with confusion. We were in our room, Meliodas sat tensely at my side and I felt heavy.

"Are they okay?" I croaked, Meliodas had his head bowed to his lap between his hands but his back was to my hip on the mattress, he turned, relief shone in his eyes as he looked me over.

"Hey." He hushed, his face softening but I could hear the chaos, the fighting and the screams going on outside. We were still under attack... and for good reason. His hand rose, his fingers grazed my cheek and his thumb barely made contact with the cut on my lip.

"Did Monspeet and Derieri... did they come back?' I inquired again, weary as I couldn't remember much after Meliodas defended me from Ludociel's potential attack. I had finished the task, right?

"Yeah, you saved them. I carried you all, got them to safety and hidden away. I brought you here and I cleaned us up a bit." I thanked him, as I sat up to look myself over. A new change of clothes? Had he bathed me?

"Meliodas... We have to stop them." I told him. "Our plans aren't changing, I will give up my clan but to leave them like this?" I shifted around his back and used his shoulder to help move my sluggish body. Others would join us, I knew if they were given a chance, a choice outside of war, they would take it.

"I know." He whispered. "You shouldn't have to give up your clan, your home just to... I don't know, make it even? I don't want that, I don't need that."

I reached to him, pulling him into an embrace with his back to my chest and I nuzzled my face into his hair, nodding. "Your heart is my home," I whispered, referencing our binding vows, "not here or this clan," and he relaxed into me as I pressed my palm over his center heart.

"Y-yeah." He stammered, voice thin. "We'll stop this, then go. We'll get as many as we can from each side to leave with us. Derieri and Monspeet will, after what you've done and Tamriel and Sariel were on your side for that. Those are heavy hitters, with their example..." His hand gripped at mine over his chest. The war was tearing everything apart, I wanted to run, to just keep Meliodas safe but we had so much to do before then.

As long as he was fine, everything would be alright.

We had already packed lightly, our bags should be stashed in our meeting place. With the power fluctuations outside and the mass amounts of demon energy that seemed to radiate through the Light of Grace, we moved quickly.

We sped away, through the trees, jumping a river and ducking under the giant mushroom patch. The mass gathering of goddess energy there was a beacon, our internal compasses pointing that way. We were in the trees when the realm opened. I felt my mother step into Britannia as if exiting a shower, hot mist followed her. I could feel the steam on my face even miles away. I turned to Meliodas, his eyes were wide, his weapon slung over his shoulder slipped and it indented into the moss in his daze, handle still in his fist. Dark power sparked, another god had entered our realm on the heels of the Deity and the thick smell of sulfur drifted through the air mixing with the humidity.

The battle paused, the howls and clashes of magic from our clans ceased in response to their entrance. No one could have missed the shift from this power coming into the world. If they stayed, all of Britannia would crumble from the sheer enormity of them. I expected their power to clash immediately, for the hate between them to spark instant action but rather anticlimactically, the world stilled. The forest grew dark in spite of it being morning. The quiet felt creepy, and goose flesh rose on my skin.

"Elizabeth..." Meliodas breathed, his wide eyes were full of dismay, green shining. We were a small flicker of a candle compared to their fire. If we faced them, we would die. The war was over if they entered the battlefield, as there would be no survivors on either side.

I tiptoed to him, as if sneaking, to touch my skin to his.

A boom echoed overhead from the direction our parents entered the world. The ground rumbled and a crack, far in the distance opposite of where they were the ground split. I knew it as I could hear rocks falling with the earth under us shifting. The world was tearing open. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. It fell to us to drive them from this world. Everything here and everyone still alive would be lost if the gods played at war with one another. With what they were willing to sacrifice so far, an entire realm would just be another notch up for the two of them to achieve.

His eyes pinched before shooting wide to look at me as if he had to keep an eye on me. My chest tightened, my hands moved up over his cheeks as my forehead sagged to his. His breath was warm on my face as he vowed, "Whatever the outcome, we'll be together."

"Meliodas," I warbled, eyes filling as I knew what he was saying. The giant broadsword scraped along the dirt a few inches as he pulled me in to capture my lips as if to stop me from refusing his wish. It was a sweet, soft kiss, but I felt too desperate inside to leave it so and I deepened it, my tongue found his and he responded to our urgent dance.

The world faded away, another boom echoed as the world crumbled and lighting struck but we were no longer corporeal. I recognized this feeling from the Demon Gowther, our trips around the Mage-city and Merlin. Meliodas gripped me to him, breaking our kiss to root on the ground no longer beneath us. For a brief second we were in nothingness, clinging together.

Then we were above the clouds, a stone platform under us with both our parents, acting as looming Gods, emanated all their power in a show of clout as if they were flexing before an arm-wrestling match. I released Meliodas, sinking into my own crouch at his side. My brief hope of life on our own fizzled to a dried raisin, dead. I should have known that neither of them would let us go.

They pulled us into their battle.

"I gave you life! Power! And your repay that debt with disobedience! You've defiled your body with DEMON SEED?!" My mother's towering body quaked in her anger, a boom of power so loud my ears hurt and my brain rattled but I stifled my reaction. She appeared to be surfing on a wave of her own manifested energy, her body climbed and climbed tall into the atmosphere, her face a shining light so bright I couldn't see her features.

"Yes," I told her loudly so my voice would reach her, sparking my power to life. "And when we're done here I plan on leisurely being defiled over and over until there is no seed left in him to have," I speak as if this would be over so quickly and easily for us that Meliodas and I would be in the throes mere moments from my words.

Meliodas gave a humorless chuckle. His blade extended to its farthest reach positioned before me, between me and them.

"A CHILD!" My mother howled, her hand coming out and she turned to the Demon King as if appealing to another parent to agree with her assessment on just how ridiculous we were acting. Two parents deeming us and assessing us as children.

The Demon King towered taller than my mother but the mass of black darkness under his waist stretched like an abyss and I wasn't sure if he really was taller or if he made himself appear so. His armor was shining black and gray, with overlapping metal sheets. There were fatal looking hooks at the end of each of his fingers. They were serrated and I wondered if that was what had caught Meliodas' side when his father had taken him to purgatory during my fever.

"Son." The Demon King's voice echoed, the atmosphere cracked and lightning struck, the force of it sounding like a city-wide explosion below. How many people died from that strike? "Surrender yourself to me and all will be forgiven. Now is the time to show where your loyalties truly lay."

If he was expecting Meliodas to actually go to him, he didn't react at all when he didn't. The tension built until another boom rocked the world and another crash of lighting force hit the earth below.

"We both know I will protect her with my life," Meliodas spoke as if the gods were before him having tea over a table rather than seemingly a mile above. I had shouted for my voice to reach them and I felt like his approach was better. "What's important to me, I have right here." He didn't move, standing as if anticipating a blow, a flash away from jolting into action. He was used to fighting his father and I shared in Meliodas' stress, my stomach tightened as the seconds passed.

"You've taken her hand." The demon king snorted, dismissive and disappointed. The god looked away from us, we were not viewed as a threat to him. "I think a second miracle is about to occur, are we again in agreeance on punishment? Our bloodlines shall never cross."

My eyes rose to the glowing orb of my mother and through the light, for the briefest of moments, I saw the outline of a face. A heavy ball of liquid dripped from the side of her glow and splashed to join the waves at her feet. "My only daughter... the only child of mine strong enough to survive..." Her voice carried before it steeled hard, "I will never allow this! The chance of sharing a grandchild is unforgivable!"

Conception? They were worried about a baby between Meliodas and me? If that was the cost, I would pay it, my lips parted to offer up infertility but the next boom that shook my brain wasn't from power bubbles popping elsewhere, power erupted here. I braced for impact, but Meliodas reflected the attack, swinging his blade and bringing it back to before me. I snapped into focus.

We fought. It was like my first time in the cube, the force overwhelming both of us as we took hits five times more than we gave. Where their attacks left scorching wounds, ours only seemed to weaken my mother to any small degree. The Demon King seemed to feed off the fight, growing more powerful with each of our struggling blows.

With the next funneled attack from them, the world cracked below, Meliodas' massive sword shattered, the heavy metal ricocheting and a piece nicked my face before I could dodge the hit. Our insurmountable odds blinked out to null. We had met them, head on together to drive them from this world and to end this war. I screamed, the last-ditch effort as I plead to their hearts, "Power isn't worth all this ruin! We're your children!"

The pair of them raise their hands, in unison, and this blow would be our last. A sense of calm rose in me, but the opposite rose in Meliodas as he rushed to stand before me, arms out to take the hit and protect me to the end. I could see the tension in his shoulders, down the muscles of his back. I held my stance and said softly, "You were worth everything, Meliodas." His horrified gaze turned to look at me over his shoulder just as the raw power overtook us and we were blown from the stone platform.

We fell, my lungs were crushed and I knew I'd suffocate in a few moments, I reached for Meliodas, him flying just out of my reach and his ravaged, bleeding face found mine. His expression stopped my faltering heart. He was... crying? My vision blurred, my consciousness faded but I felt his touch, hecame to me. His arms cradled my head to his chest, my knees dangled between his feet.

He released his darkness. I felt the cool comfort of his power fade as he let it go. His wings were still! He could prevent our crash or save himself. My lips parted, to cry out to him, but with no breath, there was no noise. Uselessly my arms and wings flapped from gravity's pull on us.

Meliodas was allowing himself to die.

I had been the weakest link. I failed. If I had any life left we could run from this. I knew what death felt like, having felt it in countless others, but as it came for me the panic scattered what was left of my wits. 'Please don't take Meliodas too!' I pleaded, but his joining me in death is the only comfort I had. At that moment, I hated myself.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas croaked into the top of my head, "a life without you is far more terrifying than whatever world will come next." He was anguished. I didn't feel him squeeze me but I knew he had. I was slipping. "Wait for me." He begged, voice so thick he didn't sound like himself. "I'll be right there."

My soul parted. There in the descent and I fought it. I wanted to crash with him, wanted my soul to be right there when he left his body. But... fate was cruel. I watched our first fall, the last moments we had together and it happened without me. Meliodas' hair flipped around his head, his body shielding mine, cushioning my empty shell, as we slammed into the earth with the same booming force as a lightning bolt from our gods. The trees nearest us uprooted, the ground rippled as if a stone had been tossed into a still lake.

With the last of his strength, from the momentum of our impact, he reached for my bouncing body, gripping my limp hand to keep us together. My soul was called up but I tugged at the hold to stay. I waited, he asked me to wait. His dying request! I will ascend with him or not at all! His beautiful, ravaged face shifted toward my body, his eyes were unseeing, of me above us, or just of everything, I didn't know. He coughed up blood, a spurt of it danced through the air and then... his soul parted from his body.

He'd always been handsome, but the orb of fire that blazed forth from his body was beyond alluring.

Even as a soul, he came for me. Shot toward me like a falling star and I fought the pull to move a fraction closer to him, reaching with intangible light to feel his soul with mine. To be together so completely we couldn't tell the parts of the other from ourselves.

Meliodas...

I didn't have a voice, I didn't know how to be this new form of myself but mere fractions of distance separate us, the relief bubbling inside me when we freeze. We were stuck in place. A cold mist cemented our positions and the pair of us struggled. Meliodas' flames licked up and around, as if dry tinder had been thrown into his coals, an explosion of licking fire. My light glowed, reaching him and the barest bit of me brushed the flickering ends of him.

Instantly, our souls calmed, ensnared but... touching. Together in the overlap that was me and him. Then the two of us were summoned in the wrong direction and in the blur of torment and resistance, our souls were before our gods once more. He fought it, flicking cool flames in bursts from his orb core to expand larger and larger. My soul ached, from the loss of his, but more so as I knew... he was panicking, blind in his overwhelming emotions and crippled by his fear.

Our gods were so determined to keep us apart, they gave their bodies, their lives, to doom ours. Even their precious power, the very thing they invaded this realm for, they gave it up to trap themselves in half-existences, all to form our curse. I listened, centered, as the soul of my love fought his bindings in a sheer frenzy of fight. They made it so even in death, Meliodas and I could never be, would never last.

'We'll fight!' No one acknowledged me. Meliodas and I will overcome anything! Our souls were released from their frozen prison. Meliodas' fire shot to me and I moved with the same desperation to reach him, but the magic held us apart, chains inside our very souls that anchored us just out of reach. Their force was overwhelming until struggling became pointless torture.

We'd lost one another.

My soul lifted away while he continued to endure the agony, flames expanding from his internal battle and I wished with everything I was to take his pain for him knowing he wouldn't stop fighting for a long while. His determination solidified my own but my battle was different. I relived every moment, attempting to keep every detail but as the images played, they fractured and dissolved away no matter the strength of my resistance. The first time he took my hand to hold, the feel of his demon coin in my palm, the sound of his joyous laugh and the feel of his chest humming under my touch.

The very last memory that I had of him, I fought to keep it perilously as it faded from my mind. His face, the one he made when I scored a point for the first time playing Booru at Heaven's theater, our bodies pressed innocently together. He'd been proud of me and I didn't want to forget, I wanted to keep it all and... I couldn't. Melancholy tainted my soul and the glow of me dimmed without the memories that made me strong, without my reason to fight.

The gods took everything from me... confusion settled, hadn't they? I felt it, the overwhelming desolation, but didn't know why... 'Why am I waiting here?' I didn't know, but I waited anyway as it felt important.

Fin

I'm actually pretty emotional about this ending... Thank you all so much for taking this ride with me and please drop me a line, I love hearing what you think. Reviews are welcome and very encouraged. They honestly make my day.

I do have an idea for a sequel (with Barbarian Elizabeth) so let me know if you are interested. I have quite a few projects going on so keep an eye out. Thank you for reading!

I'm on tumblr, if ya wanna chat or see the little extra things I write. The name is JacklynnFrost there too and I mostly just post about SDS. Twitter and Deviantart are under xSamanthrax.