The Hydra Sin

Into the Woods We Go

Following Meliodas, Hawk, and Elizabeth had been rather boring, I watched as they went to a village and Meliodas pulled a sword from the ground, releasing the water that had been stored there by a Holy Knight. The more I learned about these knights, the more concerned I was becoming, 'If they would stoop to doing something like this, then they have stooped even lower than I thought they would have.'

I was sitting at the top of a cliff, when I felt an enormous amount of power approach, I looked and saw a spear coming in, and watched as Meliodas caught it and then threw it back, after being dragged through most of the town. If that spear was thrown by who I think it was, then he could very well have more info on where the other sins are.

I looked at the Boar Hat and sighed. I wanted nothing more than to talk to the captain and explain what had happened, but something told me that now wasn't the best time; besides, I had overheard where they were heading, so there was no real reason for me to follow them all the way there. A small side journey could be good.

I grinned to myself and transformed into my mist body, not bothering to look back before I zoomed in the direction that the spear had been thrown from. 'I'll see you soon Captain, and when I do, I'll explain everything to you, I promise!"

***

I finally made it to the tower and watched from a small distance as the tower collapsed and the attendants swarmed about like ants. I had to wait for a good moment to talk to the knight because I really didn't want to have to worry about the entire kingdom being notified on my return.

After about an hour of waiting, my target was left alone in a meeting room, and I stole in, still cloaked in my mist body, cloaking my powers behind a shield.

"Whoever's there can come out. I sense your presence." He called out, and I chucked, putting away Durendal but not putting my mental shield down at all.

"You've gotten a lot more observant since I last saw you. I remember when you were just a kid, following Meliodas around like a lost puppy." I grinned as he whipped around, grasping his sword and glaring at me.

"Who are you? I don't remember your face, and I don't like feeling like I'm at a disadvantage." He said calmly, drawing his sword slowly and trying hard to appear threatening.

"Why I'm injured. I played with you all the time when you were young, and I was practically like a big sister to you, Little Gil." I smirked as his faced distorted in confusion and then realization slowly dawned, taking the color with it and causing his sword to lower.

"Janis?" He said quietly and I nodded. I honestly wanted to run over and give him a hug, but that would be one of the dumber things I could do at that moment, especially since his sword was still drawn and he looked ready to run me through.

He cleared his throat and looked at the ground, "I never thought I'd see you again, especially after that day." I nodded and then pulled out Durendal and whispered, "Mist shield."

He looked at me confused and I smiled at him, "I sensed that you had an eavesdropper, so this shield should give us a few minutes to talk in peace. What is going on Gil?" I asked, but before he answered, I gasped as his armor dug into my body as he hugged me.

"I never thought I'd see you again, Jan. I saw you there when Dad died, but I couldn't do anything. I am so sorry that all of this has happened." I felt a small wet spot spreading on my shoulder and my eyes widened as I realized that Gilthunder, one of the kingdom's strongest Holy Knights, was crying.

"Gil, it's okay, there was nothing any of us could do. You know how my hands are tied in situations like that. Anyways, we don't have much time until whoever is trying to get through my shield succeeds, so we need to talk."

He nodded and then moved to sit down at the table, "Well, I guess I can start off. I am being forced to act like the kingdom's puppet by a magician who found out that Margret and I knew who was behind the plot to overthrow my Father; sadly, I haven't had much of a choice but to act like a horrible stuck up knight because of this." I looked at him in sympathy as his face showed obvious pain for what he was being forced to do. "I assume you know that I found out earlier that Meliodas is back, that spear could only have been thrown like that by one person, and I need to find him."

"Well, that is understandable. I have been following Meliodas for the past few days after Elizabeth appeared at my house searching for him, she met up with him and now they are traveling together to find the other six sins."

Gil looked at me in confusion, "But not you?"

I shook my head, "Nope, he still thinks I killed Zaratras all those years ago, and I saw the anger in his face when he talked about me. I need to confront him soon, but I really am not sure on how to do that." I sighed, and he looked at me in sympathy

"I can't image how it would feel to be blamed by my closest comrades for the death of my Father, that sounds horrible."

I nodded, "It is, but I can't really blame them; I mean, all they saw was me standing by his body, and it's not like I had let them get to know me beyond the fact that I was the King's assassin when we were working together. Anyways, right now I know that you need to talk to Meliodas, so I will tell you that they are going to the Forest of White Dreams. They probably won't get there for another couple of days, which is why I came here to see what in the heck was going on."

He looked down at the table and sighed, "Jan, I really need to see him. I know that if I can just talk to him, then I can help him understand that I'm in trouble, I also really want to help him, but I'm not sure how to."

We sat in silence for a minute until a thought came to my mind, "How about you go there and fight him, I know you two have your code, and I'm sure he wants information on where the other sins are, so he'd probably give you an opening all on his own."

He looked at me in shock, "How did you know about our code? We were alone when he told me that?"

I laughed, ""You forget I was the kingdom's best assassin and spy, I know things!" I winked at him. "Okay, the magician is about to break through, I would guess that we have another minute at most."

He stood up and laughed, "Well then, before you go, I need to tell you that King is alive and working with the kingdom for right now. Do you think you could talk to him? I know that Durendal allows you to do that with some people.

"Yeah, because it is a mist weapon, it has the ability to link the user to specific people, namely those who have strong ties to nature. I could probably get Diane, and the King of the Fairies is probably as connected with nature as anyone else." I sighed and stood up as well, "I hope you don't mind getting beat up a bit? We have to convince your stalker that nothing happened, and I have a reputation to maintain." I grinned at him evilly and his eyes widened, "I am after all the Hydra's sin of deception, we can't do a shoddy job, now can we?"

I called on Durendal and lunged at him. We fought furiously for a few seconds and when the shield broke, we both had a good number of cuts, but he was obviously worse off than me. I pushed him away and glared at him threateningly, "You should know better than to challenge the Eight Deadly Sins, Holy Knight Gilthunder, we have a mission, and we will not let anyone stop us, especially not you. You've been warned, if you are smart, you will retreat and let us be."

Suddenly I used my screech power and Gilthunder dropped to the ground; I continued until he was almost passed out, "Remember this day Gilthunder, you have almost been killed twice by the sins, if you try to make it a third, I guarantee that there will be nothing left of you." I then shouted, "Mist body", and disappeared into the night, searching for the Captain and Princess.

***

I entered the forest and grimaced at the memories that assaulted me, this had been my home after the village I was born in discovered that we were banshees. I had come here to seek refuge after my whole family was killed in front of me, and I had only narrowly escaped; I stayed here for years until the King sent guards out to petition me to come and work for him.

I turned sharply as I heard voices and backed far enough into the mist that no one would be able to even sense me here. Meliodas and the Princess came into view with Hawk trailing behind, they appeared to be chasing some prankster imps.

I felt a tug on my skirt and looked down, "Miss Janis, is that you?" An imp was looking up at me with wide eyes and when I nodded, what could only be described as a smile made its way onto the creature's face, "I knew it! Miss Janis, why did you leave us all those years ago, we have all missed you terribly since then! Now we just have a big woman threatening us to let her stay here and she isn't nearly as good as you are! All of us imps have missed you!"

I smiled at it and patted its head, "I'm sorry I left, but I had things I needed to do, little one"

"Are you staying?" It looked so hopeful and it nearly broke my heart to shake my head.

"No, little one. I have to follow my comrades, but hopefully, someday I will be able to return" Banshees and imps had always shared a close connection because of the fact that we were both creatures of darkness to some extent; I guess you could call the banshee the older cousin of the imp.

I picked the creature up and followed along behind where Meliodas and Captain went and heard a loud voice yelling out, "Captain? Captain, captain, captain, captain!" I sighed as I recognized Diane, the serpent's sin of envy, yelling out her joy at having seen Meliodas. I climbed into a tree that was a little way away from the situation and resolved to wait until I was needed.

As I sat there, I remembered what Gilthunder had told me about King, and I summoned Durendal to attempt to contact him. I opened my mind and allowed myself to sink into the mist and spoke, "Harlequin, King of the Fairies, I seek you" I waited and suddenly felt a consciousness pushing against my own.

"Who dares to summon me? You must be bold to approach the Fairy King without prior warning. Such actions could result in your death."

I sighed, "Cut the crap King, Grizzly's sin of Sloth, we both know that you have no way to retaliate against me doing this, and that just freaks you out."

"Who is this and how do you know who I am?" He demanded with a hint of fear tainting our connection.

"Well, if you think really hard about who has the ability to make a mist connection with those strongly tied to nature, that should give you a hint into who this is, and if not then I'll ask you to say hi to Oslo for me."

"Janis?! Is that you?"

"Ding, ding, ding we have a winner!" I smiled as I sat in the tree, 'How has this last decade treated you?"

"I'm fine, but I'm surprised you have the guts to contact any of the sins after what you did." He sounds bored, but I could hear the edge to his voice.

"Oh, come on King, both you and I know that what happened that day wasn't what it appeared to be. I was brought into an impossible situation and had just finished talking to Zaratras' soul when you guys came in. You know that I was way too close to him to kill him, especially in such a gruesome manner."

"I knew it! I didn't really have time to say anything, because after you left, things happened really quickly, but now that you say that, it makes sense."

"I don't have much time King, but I wanted to get in contact with you because I talked to Gilthunder, and he told me that you are working for the kingdom right now."

"When did you talk to him, and why?"

"It's kind of complicated, but I promise to explain it to you as soon as I can. I just want you to promise to keep an eye on things because something major is happening, and I have a feeling that the Holy Knights are at the root of it."

"Okay. Janis, you know we need to talk about more than just that. Things have happened, and I need to know that you are trustworthy." His voice sounded serious and I sighed.

"Of course, King, things have changed a lot for me in the last ten years, and I have changed a lot. I'll answer any questions you have."

"You seem different Janis. I can't put my finger on it, but I can tell that this isn't the same woman I worked with a decade ago." I chuckled at how right he was.

"I have to go King, but I was serious about saying hi to Oslo for me, I miss that pup." We said our goodbyes and I opened my eyes to feel Meliodas' and Gilthunder's power going crazy. I sped to where they were and saw Meliodas lying on the ground.

"How dare you send your assassin to attack me, I remember you having honor, Meliodas. I guess time really does change a lot." The venom was evident in Gilthunder's voice.

"Wait, you've seen Janis? When? What happened." Meliodas' voice showed a substantial amount of surprise and Gilthunder just scoffed.

"Don't play dumb, she attacked me not two hours ago. I know that she is working with you." With that, he raised his sword to strike, but Meliodas jumped out of his half-dead spot on the ground.

"Well, thanks for all of the useful information you gave me, Little Gil! This helped a lot." I laughed at Captain's scheme, he was a smart little man.

"You just pretended to be gravely injured to trick me into giving you information?! How dare you!" They began exchanging blows at a furious pace, and eventually, Diane grabbed Gil and threw him as far as she could.

I wanted a bowl of popcorn because stuff like this was some of the most entertaining things ever. They began talking and Elizabeth wandered back in from wherever she had been with Hawk. I was about to tune out when I felt a great amount of power surging our way. Captain looked about ready to pass out, despite how hard he was working to hide it.

I contemplated for a moment and then made up my mind when no one seemed to even notice the power surge. I jumped out of the tree and appeared in front of Meliodas with Durendal out just in time to block Gilthunder attempting to strike him.

"Long time no see, Little Gil," I said quietly, "To bad you never learned that mist doesn't conduct electricity; you would have been better off just staying away when Diane threw you the first time." His eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared into my green ones, and I heard gasps coming from behind me.

I recoiled and then pushed Gil back the way he came with all my energy, screaming, "Banshee's Revenge!" This attack flung Gil back into the sky with even greater force than the first time, totally incapacitating him and sapping him of the energy he would have needed to come back.

"Miss Janis, is that you?" Elizabeth asked quietly and Meliodas and Diane gawked at me.

"Hey everyone, been a while, hasn't it?" I said quietly.