Behold the new chapter, people! I know I've been absent for over a month, for which I apologise, but I'll try to make it up with this rather long chapter that even introduces a new POV! Ain't that awesome? A big thank you to Flame Falcon for co-writing Gabriel.

So go read it, enjoy and don't forget to review :)

Colours

The sky was dark still as Gabriel made his way out of the room he'd spent the night in. It was a mystery to him how Fox and Falco, whose room he'd been in, were not suffering from respiratory problems. He had taken notice of the fur on the floor, yes, and also of the feathers that had gently floated through the air. Despite the room's two anthropomorphic inhabitants' shedding, it was a room that was still relatively clean.

The two seemed to groom their pelts with great care, Gabriel concluded, for he'd found five different brushes in Fox's drawer and several feather care gels in the bathroom. The two even had their own vacuum cleaner standing in the corner, he'd seen.

But despite these precautions there had still been a noticeable amount of stray fur and feathers in the room, and Gabriel only realised how it had affected him when he stepped out of the door onto the hallway, where the air was suddenly much cleaner and his lungs were all at once more inclined to take deep breaths.

He went back into the room for a moment. The air was stuffy, terribly so, and Gabriel went out on the hallway again.

The reason why neither Fox nor Falco had health problems was obvious. They were not human, not Hylian, not Twili, no beorcs or something else, and as Gabriel slowly began to make his way down the hall, he had to admit to himself that it amazed him how tolerant and open the ambience in the Smash Mansion was.

It would be unthinkable for this facility to be located on Gabriel's home planet, Earth. He'd traveled its countries, met its people and seen its wonders, but tolerance was something one could look for in vain. He did not know whether in Snake's age, Earth's inhabitants had learned something new, expanded their horizon, but Man as Gabriel knew him was a creature filled with prejudice, naturally suspecting and selfish.

And even if Snake was many things, one thing Gabriel could not call the sniper was intolerant. No, the man was certainly not the most pleasant person, but he treated every Smasher, every creature exactly like he would treat a fellow human, and for that the demon hunter respected him.

Initially, Gabriel had had trouble adapting to his new living situation; but that had been months ago. And it didn't even matter anymore, he thought, jogging up the stairs. He had found his calling, had learned about his true nature. It would be impossible to be part of the Smash programme— after this horror was over, he would leave to fulfil his destiny.

What is your destiny, Gabriel? a voice in the back of his head pressed him.

To clean the Mortal Realms. That was clear.

But didn't your brothers manage to keep the universe running without your help? All this time, you've been gone. You're still so young, Gabriel.

And maybe he was young, yes. Physically. But since the past Him had resurfaced, no one could claim he wasn't wise beyond his years. "Shut up", he quietly hissed.

"What?"

Gabriel jerked and stopped in the middle of the hall. "Who's there?" he demanded, sword in hand. "Show yourself!"

Whatever had been hiding in the shadows, it was not shy. He'd expected something to step out of the dim light at the end of the hall, but instead, something as heavy as a rock abruptly landed on his back, sending him crashing to the ground. He screamed in surprise as sharp claws painfully buried themselves in his back and neck, drawing blood while he wriggled like an eel to shake the creature off his body.

His attempts were successful, for the something on his back flew to the side as Gabriel violently shifted his weight. His sword lay just centimetres in front of his face; he was lucky not to have landed on it— it would've cleaved off his nose with certainty. But he reached for it and instinctively jumped to his feet, charging towards the black creature with a battle cry.

The demon was scrambling to its feet after having regained focus, but was not further allowed to stand up, because Gabriel swung his sword and cut off its head wit a clean, swift move. The body slacked down like a doll, the head rolled down the floor akin to a football.

Gabriel gasped. That had been an unexpected attack that could've easily ended up unfavourably for him. He cautiously kicked the limp body, turning it to the side. It was black, its extremities very short and its torso thick, but the most remarkable thing was the dead creature's size: It measured a metre at most— including the head.

A skaza.

Small and stupid, but where there was one, there were many. Gabriel's fingers tingled in anticipation, and he immediately looked up to where the demon had hid. And suddenly, as he kept still, he heard something from above: It was but a faint sound, but it was there, a soft buzzing and shuffling.

And indeed, after running up the stairs, all Gabriel's eyes could see was black, even though the morning light shone through the windows. Dozens of skazas were cluttering the floor, silently crawling out of the rooms. They hadn't yet seen him. Gabriel couldn't suppress a grin as he turned back, pressed himself against the wall and hectically rummaged the pockets of his coat until finding the object he was looking for. It was small and green as he brought it to his face to briefly examine it; an interesting gadget he'd found in the weapons vault. From what the Infidel had told him, one had to pull on the weird protruding ring and get rid of the egg as fast as possible. Gabriel had never used it before, but it sure was a weapon that sounded appealing. "It's worth a try", he mumbled and crouched down, gripped the ring, ripped it away in one curt motion (briefly wondering whether it was supposed to detach) and quickly threw the egg round the corner, hoping that none of the skazas would notice it rolling towards them.

It wouldn't matter, he decided, sticking out his head. The Infidel had promised that entertainment came with this weapon, and he wasn't to about to miss it.

The egg rolled slowly along the wall, changed course a few times due to its irregular shape and then disappeared under the feet of the little demons. Gabriel furrowed his brow. This was… not what he'd expected. Nothing happened.

"What's this?" he remembered himself say. It had been during his second week in the Mansion, the Infidel had shown him around the weapons vault.

"Careful", Ike said and laughed, but quickly took the egg from Gabriel. The younger man had, full of interest, observed the older man's usually so clumsy fingers suddenly turn cautious as he held the egg and slowly turned it from side to side. "Don't let it deceive you. The most fragile looking things are often the most dangerous ones."

Gabriel wondered why Ike was so reverently marvelling at the green egg. "Well, what is it? What does it do?"

"A bloodbath." The demon hunter rolled his eyes and tried to snatch it from his friend, but Ike swiftly turned and held it out of Gabriel's reach. "Na-ah!"

"What is it?!"

"It's galled a grenade. You pull on this thing", and he gently tapped against said ring, "and get it the hell away from you. And when you manage to do that, you watch the massacre from a safe distance."

"Come on", Gabriel breathed as he waited for the grenade to do something. Nothing happened. "Urgh."

He straightened himself and pulled his sword, ready to ambush the horde of demons, stepped around the corner— and was thrown off his feet due to an extremely powerful explosion. The young man landed on his behind, thankfully completely conscious but speechless for a second. So it was some kind of bomb, that question was settled.

There was no more blackness in front of him; the floor was bathed in sunlight, and the formerly so elegant white walls were completely covered in skaza intestines, red blood dripped from the walls. Gabriel had to quickly clean his face, and he didn't even bother looking down on himself to know that he looked like a walking demon cemetery.

But a demon hunter could not feel disgust for such things— on the opposite, Gabriel felt satisfaction as his gaze wandered over the walls. Not a single demon had survived.

Suddenly, a white shape jumped out from one of the rooms, bigger than a normal skaza.

He'd cheered too soon, Gabriel concluded and immediately charged at the creature with a battle cry on his lips. The demon didn't even have time to react, so fast was it attacked, and the next second Gabriel rammed his sword against the white head, cleaving half of it off.

The demon fell back, its skull a gapping hole as the angel stood over the broken corpse. Gabriel let a laugh fall from his lips as he wrapped his fingers around the throat of the dying beast. "This is the war you make?" He tightened his fingers and felt the never born flesh crumple under his fingers. The demon lashed out with its forked tongue, but Gabriel merely smiled cold. He brought the face in closer to him. "I swear by His power, you will know the meaning of wrath when I will kill a thousand of you filth breeds before your blood dries from gauntlets."

"They are coming", the monster whispered. Its voice was akin to an ugly, ear shattering whispering. "They will be here." It tried to let loose a final defiant roar before Gabriel crushed its windpipe. He tossed the limp carcass aside and pulled out a matchstick, lit it and threw it to the floor for its holy fire to purify the sullied ground. The flames engulfed the body, and Gabriel paid the smouldering corpse a final, contemptuous look before leaving. Then he slammed his sword back into his sheath and began to shake his forearm armour free of loose demon organs. To be accurate, he wasn't far off with his claim to the monster, he mused silently.

He walked down the hallway, hand on the pommel of his sword, but did not feel any sort of a threat. Still, he would not lower his guard. His eyes scanned every corner and looked behind him all the while, just to be sure there was not a chance of an ambush.

He was walking through one of the many hallways of the mansion's living quarters. If his memory served, this was where he used to reside in his mortal shell. His mind proved correct as he saw his door, which was set apart as a somewhat darker colour when compared to the rest of the wall. He felt the knob and seeing as it was unlocked, decided to let himself in.

When he did, a breath of warm air met him. Instantly his bones thawed as he breathed out a sigh as there was not a damage to be seen. He closed the door and slammed the bolt down on door, relaxed as the warm air cleansed him as he pulled his cloak off and set it aside. Then he stepped to one of the shelves and began to rummaged around for something to fill his stomach.

It was a feeling he was unusual with. Angels, like gods, do not need to eat for survival. Granted, there was an abundance of food in the heavens, Gabriel only ate when he was forced to for courtesy sake. He saw it as decadent and lavish, something that had caused the Schism so long ago. Of course, when Din had given him a glass of rich fire red wine, he had drunk it without complaint. But when he needed to eat for survival, it took his mind off the battle, and a focus on where he was going to get his next meal.

Swearing silent oath to heaven, he pulled out some hardtack and a half finished jar of English raspberry jam. Simple, flavourful, and filling. Sitting down on the edge of his bed, Gabriel opened the package and drew a knife for the jam, which he spread on the cracker and then popped in his mouth. He crunched on the meal and prepared another.

He looked around in his room, taking in all what was in his mortal room. There was still a pot of the drowsy tea Zelda the Hypocrite had left on the warm stove. "For the aspect of wisdom, she is pretty damn stupid", Gabriel muttered, biting into another cracker. There were his sparing gloves, and an assortment of other trivial equipment. His eyes wandered to his steamer trunk. He never really opened it, or at the very least went far into it. Just to retrieve his weapons.

The thought hit him like a bullet. Mortal weapons were by no means elegant like the Sword of the Cross, but as Angels mastered the art of war, humanity was doing damn well mastering the science. He popped in three plain crackers into his mouth, followed by a knife-full of the jam, rose and walked to his trunk. These weapons would certainly make him unpredictable, and it would be nice to feel familiar weapons in hand.

He unlocked the case and smiled for the briefest of instances as he pulled free several weapons. His pistols were sanctified and would be the anathema of the Neverborn. He slung them in his belt. A bottle of holy water was also in there, but it was more designed as creating a barrier then actually dousing a demon with it. It would kill them, there was never just the-

His train of thought stopped when he saw something at the bottom of the chest. The water flask was immediately forgotten as Gabriel reached into the case and looked at what he now grasped in his hands.

"Father…" he whispered as he stared at the portrait.

It showed his adopted father, Abraham van Helsing, sitting in a chair with a much younger Gabriel, not more than three winters old, on his knee with a smile on his lips. The image of those days flashed back to him so fast that it felt like he was blindsided.

Something was different when she woke up. Her chest was heavy, as were her legs and the rest of her body, but her head was peculiarly light. She knew what was wrong the second she turned to the side and tasted hair, only to spit it back out. Her helmet was gone.

"Sam?"

Samus opened her eyes. There in the dark sat a pale figure with long ears and dark hair; a figure she knew. "Hey, Zel. What's up?" she mumbled, still drugged with sleep. The first two minutes were always like this, but after that, Samus was always good to go.

"You're awake, good." The Hylian jumped to her feet and stepped into the dim light that shone through the curtains. Samus could not tell whether it was late in the night or very early in the morning, but it did not matter. She'd never seen her friend like this, and the sight immediately sobered Samus up. Zelda was clad in dark silver armour, her hair was tied back into a single, thick long braid, guns were hanging from her belt— sword and shield were attached to her back, and not just any kind of sword and shield.

The bounty hunter sat up. "Hey, are you allowed to take that?" She pointed at the sword's winged hilt that protruded from behind the princess' back.

"No one ever said I couldn't", Zelda said and stepped aside, noticing Samus' puzzled face as she revealed a sleeping Snake on the bed behind her. "I don't know how much you know, or how long you've been possessed, but there are some things you need to know about."

"Possessed?"

Zelda's face was hard and unreadable. "Right, I guess I'll start from the beginning. Ghosts and demons have invaded the Mansion. They've been creating chaos for the entire week now", she straightforwardly announced, watching as Samus furrowed her brow in confusion.

"I don't follow. An entire week?"

"Some of the demons have the power to possess people, which is why you don't remember any of it, because it happened to you. Possessed Smashers act hostile and attack for seemingly no reason, and the only way to effectively rid them of their possession is to literally beat it out of them."

"Wait, what? Are you trying to tell me I was out for an entire week?"

Zelda nodded. "Aye, but wait for a minute. So get this: Micaiah attacked Ike, knocked him out and attempted to kill him. I prevented her from doing so at the cost of my dress and half of Peach's precious furniture, because apparently the possession granted Micaiah some kind of superhuman strength. I barely escaped with my life, but Micaiah's whereabouts are still a mystery to us, and that was on Monday."

Samus blinked. "How will you explain that to Peach without getting killed after all?"

Her friend rejected this as irrelevant. "Next problem. It turned out that not only is the Mansion infested with ghosts and demons, there are also bug-like creatures the size of a Landmaster. One of them almost sent Gabriel and me to kingdom come, but it turned out that Ike knows how to deal with them, so if you ever meet a disgusting super sized insect called a Rhinotia Maxima, target its neck." Zelda calmly paced from left to right, and it was beyond Samus how she could be as calm in such a situation. The bounty hunter knew her friend was telling the truth; she trusted the princess with her life. "So then we split up and beat up both monkeys, saved Roy from Peach and picked up Marth while heading to Master Hand's office, only to learn that he'd been stuck in a portal that inexplicably had not let anyone exit. It had appear that everyone in there is safe, and Master Hand had been working on a solution —or a spell for that matter— and then bam", Zelda snapped her fingers, "he fell unconscious."

By now Samus had nothing more to say. She just stared at her friend with her mouth slightly ajar, trying to digest the information.

"I'm not good with portals. You know that, everyone does. Still, I tried to break it, which obviously turned out to be futile, so the logical solution that is Ganondorf came to mind. No one had seen him anywhere, so I headed out with Ike to look for him, equipped with a strange but incredibly awesome gadget called the Poltergust, a vacuum cleaner that sucks in ghosts. Well, it turned out that Ike also knows how to use it because he and the other guys are morally not on the right path and have been literally stealing this Poltergust out of Luigi's locker in the weapons vault. So I conducted a magical search in Ganondorf's room and left Ike outside with the Poltergust, and who, of all people, appeared?"

"Luigi." Obviously. Samus bit her lip. She knew more about the whole Poltergust problem than she cared to admit to her friend.

"Precisely. Naturally dear Luigi wasn't happy to see Ike with his beloved Poltergust, again, and chased him down into the garage, to where I followed them and kept Mario Junior from killing Ike just in time." Now Zelda didn't look so calm anymore. Her ears were clearly red in the dim light, and she was walking faster and faster. "As if that weren't enough, the biggest ghost migration you can imagine was passing through the garage, and at the same time, for some strange reason, the arena collapsed."

"No!" Samus slapped her hand on her mouth in shock. "How can— But—"

"Yeah." Zelda shrugged. "The arena blew up and buried the entire garage underneath itself, including the vehicles."

A few moments of silence passed, moments in which Samus let the information sink in. She forcibly exhaled, not having realised that she'd been holding her breath. "What then?", she cautiously asked.

"I crashed an Arwing into the lake in the park", Zelda flatly stated. By now Samus was grinning in disbelief. "Yup, the only way to get out of there fast enough was with an Arwing, and somehow I managed to land it without killing everyone on board", the Hylian continued. "So the next morning we were supposed to meet up with Gabriel, and he did indeed turn up, but unconscious, and guess on whose back?" Zelda stepped aside and pointed at Snake's snoring figure. "Snake, because he and Ike had been plotting all along."

"What do you mean, 'plotting'?"

"Well, everything leads to Gabriel. Ike decided that his behaviour was peculiar, and since Snake's not the most friendly person out there, they started suspecting that our dear newbie was behind all the attacks. For the record, he wasn't, but they tied him up anyway and started torturing him for answers until Gabriel snapped and almost killed them while defending himself, and then, out of nowhere, claimed to be some kind of master angel reborn working for his god and needing to cleanse the universe of sinners. So first he knocked out Snake and was then this close", she demonstrated it with her fingers, and they glowed in a dim blue, "to strangling Ike."

"Did he die? Did anyone die?", Samus urgently asked, but to her relief, Zelda shook her head.

"No. As far as we know, that is. There are still tons of people we haven't found."

Samus rubbed her face in her palms. Her extensive training had provided her with nerves of steel, and after a deep breath, a familiar coolness spread in her chest, replacing the burning nervousness she'd felt upon hearing that the Mansion was under attack and there might be casualties. But she knew how to get herself back in control, and as soon as she looked back up, Samus fixed her determined gaze upon her friend. Zelda was obviously unsettled. And how could she not? But people's true nature showed itself in critical situations, and though the Hylian was on edge, she also radiated with such determination and anger that Samus knew one thing: Whatever was out there, it should better watch out.

"Okay. What happened next?" Her voice was perfectly calm. Panicking would do no good, and she had to know everything to be able to properly analyse the situation. Samus looked down at herself, wondering where her helmet might have gone. Not that she remembered ever putting on the suit, but whenever she did, she never forgot the helmet.

Zelda crossed her arms, unnerved. "We had to accept the fact that Gabriel is not actually crazy, because he grew a pair of wings out of nowhere and has unsettling supernatural powers, and his tale was just insane enough to be believable. Long story short, we don't know who's pulling the strings, but Gabriel suspects a group of demons calling themselves The Seven. Now, those are pure evil, literal personifications of every sin each living soul has and will ever make. One of them conveniently showed up in the Arwing, and we dealt with it, which was surprisingly easy, after which Ike kind of suffered an emotional breakdown and we all split up again." The princess pinched the bridge of her nose. "Gabriel, Snake, and I wanted to make camp in one of the rooms, but I got into a disagreement with the newbie, and we managed to attract a demon with our shouting."

Samus snorted. "Bravo. I assume you killed him off as well? Or where is the boy?"

"We did, though you interrupted our party, barging in and almost reducing Snake to a pile of ash, since the dimwit refused to raise his hand against you."

In that very moment, said sleeping agent let out a particularly loud snore. Samus stared at him, aghast. "What the hell? Is he insane?" She jumped up, suddenly angry at the man who lay there in complete oblivion. "He gives his best to beat me up when we train, and you're telling me he chickened out when it actually mattered? What is wrong with him?"

In a completely inappropriate move (given the situation), Zelda actually grinned. "A lot. But you should ask him in person when he wakes up."

"Oh, I will", Samus assured her friend, raised her leg and began to stretch. Sleeping in a Power Suit was the most uncomfortable thing in the entire universe, especially when one suffered from a stiff neck already. "Go on."

The brunette reached for a gun on her belt and began to inspect it. "In case you're wondering where your helmet went, I had to render it useless by smashing the visor. And I'm sorry, but you know how you never give up? It's really annoying, and the only way to knock you out in the suit was to expose your head."

Samus nodded. "How did you do it? Fist?"

"Elbow. And I called you a bitch, which I'm also sorry for. But you were really determined to kill me."

"That's reasonable." The bounty hunter cautiously touched her nose and flinched, then raised her brows in acknowledgement. "You know how to pack a punch, girl. My nose seems to remember, even if I don't." She saw her friend grin in the morning light. "Now what? Let's wake him up."

"Wait. That's not all." Zelda's face was unsettlingly serious again. "Apparently the two of the Seven we killed were the weaker ones. During the first attack Snake got possessed, so I tried to transfer the parasite from his body to mine."

Samus raised her arms to begin stretching them. She knitted her brows. "That doesn't sound safe."

"It wasn't. Somehow my body rejected the possessor and I had a seizure. They had to transfer it back." The princess looked to the floor, and the blonde rolled her eyes. That sounded just like Zelda. Apparently none of the guys had been warned that the Hylian, despite her reputation, liked to act impulsively. "During this fit I saw something", she continued.

"Define 'something'. Like a vision?" A muscle in her neck was uncomfortably tense, so Samus rolled her neck.

"Yes, more precisely the Golden Goddesses shortly after the creation of Hyrule, I mean, the Golden Goddesses plus Gabriel's… past incarnation, I guess."

"Okay." Samus stopped stretching for a moment to think. "So we can assume that his story is legit." Zelda nodded. "While having a vision in the first place is rather odd, it's probably reasonable that that's what you saw. Since you're Nayru 2.0."

"Not quite, but something like that, yes." Whatever. Samus knew Zelda had some connection to the Goddesses, but she didn't remember right now what kind of connection it was exactly. She saw her friend screw up her face. "I wished I hadn't witnessed it, though. The main thing I remember is that Din and Gabriel were more than just friends."

Samus blankly stared at Zelda for a moment, trying to understand. Only when her friend added "if you know what I mean" did she make the connection and immediately stuck out her tongue, distorting her face. "Ew! That's gross! How did that diaper even manage to get a goddess?"

"I know, right!" Zelda threw her hands in the air. "Thank you, Sam! He thinks it's completely justified!" Still holding the gun, she then ran her hands over her face. "That's not the point. While I could've gone without seeing that, it made sense, yes. But I haven't told anyone: I had another vision, and I have no idea what it meant. I cannot tell whether it was something spontaneously triggered by the seizure, a game the delirium played with my mind, but I know that I saw something, and I cannot place it."

The sun had begun to rise. But instead of the warmth that should come with it, the light that had started to fill the room was eerie and cold, reflecting the atmosphere of the situation. Samus knew nothing about magic and visions and the like; supernatural powers were something she had never had to truly deal with, had had no possibility to use, and thus she had only approximate understanding of such. Yet her friend needed her opinion, so she would help her as best as she could.

Zelda didn't look like she knew what to do with her hands anymore. They were nervously fidgeting with the gun. "Cut that out", Samus said. "You're making me nervous and you know it. Now tell me what you saw."

"Colours."

"Gabriel? Where are you?" Abraham chuckled in a loud voice as he ran through the Scottish country side. Gabriel remained silent— but just barely.A smile erupted from his face. For the past twenty minutes, he had been hiding from his father in a game called Hawks and Hares. Abraham would be the hawk searching for his prey, while Gabriel would be the quick and agile hare who would run and hide.

Abraham was now almost on top of Gabriel, and the young one ran. "Found you! I'm going to get you now! Run, Gabby, run!" So the child did, running forward and moving through bushes and breaking apple tree branches as the old man came in quickly behind him and scooped him up. "Gotcha!"

Gabriel laughed and struggled against his father's embrace playfully, and his father squeezed him tightly. "Yes you do,Papa", Gabriel's high pitched voice responded. They walked through the grasses until Gabriel was put down on the ground and followed his father, feeling warm earth and flowers between his naked toes. "Papa, where is Uncle Kota?"

Abraham shook his head."Uncle Kota is away at business abroad in the Indian Colony. He will be back in a few months."

"I wish we could go with him." It was true. Uncle Kota was like a second father to the lad, who would shower him with affection and care.

Abraham stopped and knelt down in front ofhis son. "He will be back, and one day when you grow and come of age, you will go with him. Listen." He reached into his pocket and produced a small silver object. It was a medallion in the shape of a cross, but crossed with two sabers. "This was Kota's, and he said that it was for your birthday. Well, since it is close", —two weeks, and little Gabriel could swear he just saw a sly smile flash across his dad's lips,"and he isn't here, I don't see why I can't give it to you now."

He took a piece of string, threaded it through and placed it around the neck of the child. Gabriel hugged his father and the two continued their walk.

Now the necklace was drenched in sweat, as a fifteen year old Gabriel slammed his fist again and again into a sand filled sack. "Remember your teaching! Strike true, strike hard, and strike fast!" Uncle Kota's voice yelled in the training hall, and Gabriel did as he was told. "I want to hear it from you!"

"Strike true!" Gabriel yelled and slammed his fist against the sack. "Strike hard!" Another punch. ""Strike fast!" Sweat ran down his temples as he pounded his fists again and again into the sack. After a continual process of this, he felt his muscles ache and stopped to rest his head against the bag.

"I didn't hear a bell! Keep attacking." Kota barked again, and Gabriel responded in fashion, laying another barrage of attacks on the bag.

"Stop!" Kota announced and Gabriel stopped, collapsing on the floor. His muscles ached, but he would not permit himself to show weakness. Kota came down from his observation port in the battle monastery and helped the youth to his feet. "You do will the Order well, young aspirant. We will expect a great amount of things from you."

Gabriel gave an exhausted nod and ponderously followed his mentor back out of the hall, his mind reeling on what exactly this order was training him to do. "Without the Dark, there can be no Light." Kota chimed the Incantation of Loyalty.

"We have purpose." Gabriel responded in turn.

"And we would have no purpose!" Gabriel bellowed as he brought his iron sword around, cutting deep into the cultist's thigh. The human roared in pain while his demonic inhabitant quickly mended the flesh. Gabriel swore a silent oath and pushed off against the nearby wall, driving the sword through the gullet of the cultist.

The man fell onto his back, but slammed an iron forged fist into Gabriel's jaw, knocking him aside. The demon hunter was back on his feet in a moment, sword still in hand. "By the blood." He swore under his breath as the demon snapped his mortal shell back into position. "Kota!Where are you?"

"No one is coming for you, whelp!" The demon's voice echoed through his follower's throat. Gabriel instinctively winced at the greasy tone of the voice. "I will slay you here and break your soul over my knee."

"You have yet to slay me, demon. If you truly come from a place called Hell, then tell your debased kin that it was Gabriel van Helsing who sent you back." Gabriel beckoned the demon forward. The monster charged, diamond sharp claws moving in for the kill. The young man barely blocked it and then slammed his fist directly into left lung of the turned cultist. The blow cracked three ribs, but not before the demon split open Gabriel's armour, exposing muscle and bone to the raw air.

Gabriel fell back, pulling free his pistol. As it was his first mission, he'd beengiven the bare minimum to ensure his survival. He pulled the trigger, but the power was wet with his own blood, and the demon stood ready to cut him down.

There was a flash of lightning as two deafening bangs filled the air. Shattered glass followed suit, and the mortal man whom the demon possessed grumped to the ground as his knee caps were blasted out from under him. His hands were cleaved off just seconds later.

"What kept you?" Gabriel asked as Kota hauled him to his feet.

"Weather." He turned his attention to the cultist. "Jarred. Damned by word and deed. Openly consorting with the unknown demonic forces, and giving yourself up to them."

The demon host laughed. It was a sound akin to cracking bone. "I took this mortal as he tried to bind me to the earthly realm. I know you won't kill me. I am merely part of the uprising, insignificant, but I have information on several other demons. And I know you would sooner die yourself than letting a fallen angel like me die without a confession."

It was Kota's turn to laugh, and Gabriel followed suit, though he was unsure as to what exactly was so funny. Kota actually keeled over in his laughter and wiped his eyes. "You? A fallen? What makes you say that?"

The demon host spat. "I turned from the light and embraced the demonic forces, and I would do so again in a heartbeat."

"Yes, I know that much for certain, but why did you turn? Did you want power, wealth, knowledge? Or was it everlasting life? You are not one of the angels who fell during the Schism of Heaven. I know what resides in your body, it is a lesser demon of Envy. Not an angel from the Schism." Gabriel winced at that word, though for what reason he didn't know. Kota leaned down to the crippled man. "I know you bartered your soul away for knowledge. Knowledge isn't power, it is justification. Too much knowledge, too little knowledge. It was knowledge that caused the greatest war in the history of Creation. You will keep your information, as we will not give you such a luxury." He turned away and walked to the window, lit a cigar. "Gabriel, end him." The order was said with such calmness and passiveness that it Gabriel felt as if his master waswas merely asking him for the time.

Before Jarred could utter a syllable of anger, Gabriel severed the possessed man's head from his shoulders with one blow from his sword.

The image changed again, and this one was far more recent. A few weeks ago, if he was not mistaken, and perhaps his favourite memory of the season behind him. Laughter, it filled his ears. He tasted something… spicy, savoury, and acidic. A taco, if he recalled correctly. He was sitting at the table surrounded by Ike, Marth, Link, and even the Captain (who was surprisingly sober). It was late in the evening, and the five had gathered for one last meal before lights out.

"So Link, how goes the conquest of the female species?" Falcon asked as he downed a glass of ice water, while Link looked up in complete confusion. Gabriel wasn't less confused; he looked over to Ike, who chewed on his taco and observed The Captain in utter amusement.

"Fine?…"The Hylian said. "What kind of question is that? Just yesterday I took Midna to lunch, and in the evening—"

Marth cut him off. "Cut the shite. It's practically obvious you are green eyed over her. But it's clear that she is into Ganondorf."

"What? Guys, I don't think you understand, Midna and I—"

Falcon chuckled, "Well, maybe she and Zelda have a little thing going on behind closed doors. After all, Midna is a quiet one. And she does look like she could bat for both teams."

"You would know, Cap." Gabriel slighted Falcon as he sipped his tea. The rest of the table, even Ike, burst out in a fit of laughter. More because Gabriel actually said something that wasn't grim.

"Oohoho, little celibate boy here thinks he knows the ladies more than the love doc. Have you ever been graced?" Ike asked after having swallowed the rest of his food.

Gabriel responded with a sip of his tea and the last of his taco before answering. "I'd tell you, Ike, but as a mercenary, can you count above three?"

The table laughed again, and Ike shoved Gabriel into Falcon. The conversation continued as such, with more slights from Marth's feminine voice to the fact one of the Cap's costumes looks like a breast cancer awareness suit.

"I don't understand." Samus had started playing with her hair long ago, in the middle of Zelda's account. It was something she automatically did when she was confused or tried to analyse something.

"Well… Neither do I, " Zelda confessed and shook her head. "It just doesn't make any sense. Where is the connection to the Goddesses, where is the connection to anything? I guess it's safe to assume the blood was merely the vision's interpretation of my real-life condition, but why end it there, and why cut to… That?"

Now it was Samus' turn to massage the bridge of her nose. Having been done with her stretching, she had sat down some time ago. "Let's look at this again, and just leave the blood out for now. Colours, mostly blue. What is blue? Water? The sky?"

"Yes, and fire can also be blue", Zelda added, pensively.

"Okay, so what do we have here, the elements? And then the less prominent colours, brown, and green and red— that can be fire again, but the others are earth. So we got the four elements represented. What more?"

"That is good, yes. The blue was something very… Vivid, alive and chaotic, so I'd say that could have been water or even fire rather than air."

"Well that is a good start, right? Then next, we have—"

Snake had been tossing about in the bed already, but Samus shut her mouth as she now saw the man slowly opening his eyes. Zelda understood at once as she saw the blonde's expression, and she turned around to the man who was slowly leaving the realm of dreams.

He was awake, but seemingly refused to accept it, closed his eyes and let loose a few deep, sleepy grunts, then turned around to face the wall and get the sun rays out of his face.

Zelda was at his side in a heartbeat. "Rise and shine, Snow White. I hope you feel well rested, because today is not going to be a walk in the park", she said and gently shook his shoulder, voice so energetic and determined that Samus would be impressed if Snake dared ignoring her.

He didn't. Albeit grudgingly, the agent turned back around and began to sit up, making no efforts to suppress his unwilling grunts. "What time is it?"

"Late", Samus said, "very late. The sun's coming up."

"Too late." Zelda produced a bottle of water and gave it to Snake, who thankfully took it. "People, I bet you the psycho's already up and about since four in the morning and diligently killing demons." She narrowed her eyes. "And he thinks we're not capable of handling the monsters. He thinks us too weak, both physically and mentally. And I'm tired of passively walking around and waiting until something attacks us. That is nothing like us. We have to take the offensive, and we have to prove that we deserve the right to call ourselves Smashers, that there's a reason why our Mansion tops the list of Intergalactic Championship wins. It's time to show Gabriel that we're not a bunch of incompetent fools. It's time to show these demons once and for all that we are not to be fucked with."

"So what do you suggest we do?"

Zelda pressed her lips into a hard line as she violently cocked the gun in her hand. "Besides finding Ganondorf? One thing. Massacring every supernatural being that crosses our path."

Gabriel recoiled as if he had been hit. Feebly, he dropped to the floor and covered his ears with his hands, saliva dripping down his chin. All of the memories flooded his skull, and he tossed around on the floor as something new entered, voices. Not his, but a myriad of them.

"Hey, where's my water?" he heard a voice he knew, filtered out, louder than the others. It was one of the Smashers, and Gabriel ripped his eyes open to see where the body that belonged to the voice stood, but the room was empty. "Marth, did you drink it?"

"No", another voice answered. It was Marth, Gabriel concluded, but only because the prince was had been addressed by the first voice. He was not capable of deep thinking with his senses all over the place and a terrible sudden headache. "No, I didn't."

The demon hunter choked in pain upon hearing the words, and his vision turned red. Lie, he thought, that's a lie! Stop lying!

Another voice interrupted his crazed vision, coming from somewhere completely different, and this one he instantly recognised. "No", the Infidel said. Gabriel curled up into a ball as the word agonisingly drilled itself in his head.

"Look, it's science. It's statistically impossible that there's not a single gay man in the Mansion." It was a female voice this time. "You can tell me, Ike. You can trust me."

Gabriel screamed again at this blatant lie, and he was honestly afraid that his ears were bleeding, so terrible was his pain.

"Sorry. I know nothing."

"Enough!" Gabriel screamed. One second more of listening to those lies and he was sure his head would explode.

He had no idea what was going on, and it scared him more than he was willing to admit. Something had happened to his mind.

He lay motionless on the ground for several minutes. For some divine reason, the visions had left him, right in time before he would've reached his threshold of pain, and Gabriel thanked Him Who was the Father of the Realms, and to his utter surprise, he thanked the three Golden Goddesses and the Goddess of Dawn, whose name he did not remember. He must be going crazy, it was the only explanation.

"Don't be ridiculous, Gabriel", he scolded himself. "An Angel in His Service is immune to the weaknesses of a mortal." Yet he did not know how to explain the voices that had invaded his mind, and as he cautiously raised his hands to his ears and saw the red liquid on them as he brought them back, Gabriel's heart began to pound.

What in Ashera's stony hell has happened to him?

As the sun had risen higher, three figures stepped onto the hallway on the second-to-last floor of the Mansion's Southern Wing, the living quarters.

Snake was by no means easily disgusted, but he felt bile fluid rise in his throat as the putrid stench of rapidly rotting demon intestines reached his nose. Compared to the smell that could've easily killed any man with a weaker stomach, the sight could almost be described as soothingly peaceful, since the actual remains had turned black, and, if extraordinary powerful imagination was applied, almost looked like big black worms glued to the drenched red walls.

A high sound rang through the corridor. Snake flew around to behold Samus crouch on the ground and reach for a small, silvery piece of metal. "A grenade", the blonde said.

"This isn't Ike's work", Snake decided and turned back to the massacre site.

While he'd decided to keep his distance, Zelda had slowly taken a few steps forward. "Then there's only one person left. Sam? Give me a number."

In silence, they all let their eyes wander around the walls. Two dozen perhaps, Snake decided.

He heard the bounty hunter walk past him in her heavy armour. "Given the size of the entrails and the amount of blood, thirty at most."

Zelda turned around, something unsettling in her grin and eyes. "Can we top that?"

Snake saw Samus grin back, and the potentially most confusing seconds of his past year followed as the two women did something akin to a brofist.

"Definitely."