A fight against an old friend

Meliodas' head instantly twisted round to look at you, his eyes searching your face for answers as to why you can addressed this pink haired knight.

The Holy Knight frowned at the nickname, it stirred up many memories in his mind he didn't need reawakened now. With a turn of the knight's sword, you were launched back into the trunk of one of the large trees. 

Your head snapped back and hit the wood with a painful crack and you gasped for air as the force knocked the oxygen from your lungs, then the pain intensified as the electric bindings seemed to absorb through your skin and ripple through your body. You screamed as tears rose to your eyes as the volts vibrated and sparked under your clothes, rendering you a violently shaking mess against the tree.

Meliodas yelled your name and you slammed your hand over your own mouth, shaking your head at him as you squeezed your other hand so tight your fingernails cut through your palm. Meliodas' arms remained in his pockets, he turned back around to glare at the knight .

Diane looked down at you fearfully, but, like the captain, doesn't move while you clasp your now bloody hand over top of the other, preventing you from screaming. I can't be a distraction to them if they want to beat Gilthunder. His power has grown greatly since I last interacted with him.

What happened to him? Hot tears trickled down over your fingers from your eyes as you stared desperately , he was such a sweet little boy.

The knight, Gilthunder, had his eyes closed. His eyebrow twitching at hearing the strain in your voice as you whimpered. It felt like torture to him, having been the one to cause you this amount of pain, but as his fingers tensed and recoiled from his sword, he felt the watching presence of the dark, unseen figure overhead.

Just as he began to advance towards Meliodas, Elizabeth screamed.

"Gilthunder! Why are you doing this?"

"You know this guy Elizabeth?" At this point the sin of wrath couldn't care less what the princess had to say, but finally let his voice sound felt like he was releasing a buildup of acid from his throat. He could see you writhing against the tree in the corner of his eye and it made his skin crawl. Anger flooded down to his forearms and turned his hands to fists.

"He served my father as one of his Holy Knights! He took care of me like I was his very own sister!"

Diane huffed from her nose, blah blah princess. The giant turned her gaze to Meliodas, even though he was facing away from her eyes cast red at the pink-haired knight. Come on Captain, let me break these lightning shackles so I can kill this guy hurting my best friend!

You bit down on your tongue, feeling the tender pink muscle almost tear as you refused to let your voice take over with the shriek it was so desperately trying to let out. Lightning, it burned like touching the sunlight at the top of the atmosphere, it felt like molten white sparks, flickering across and down your chest and throat.

"You're the one who also stopped the water in Vanya, aren't you?"

Elizabeth gasped at the audacity of Meliodas' remark, "Sir Meliodas! What a terrible thing to say, of course he didn't-"

"Princess" Gilthunder's voice was low and dark, not an inch of emotion across his whole face, "your safety is the kingdom's top priority, I realise this. But I have no interest in saving you, or anything to do with helping you on your useless crusade. So stand aside."

He waved his arm and her electric bonds released around the princess, she quickly relaxed her stance though her face turned sour and sad. The pig was beginning to smoke as it rolled around wailing, trying to choke the electricity out in the dirt, "Waa I can't take it anymore!"

"Hawk!" Elizabeth ran to the pig's side, but before she got to him, the Holy Knight had kicked the boar clean over the trees in a display of strength. A feat that failed to faze either of the sins as their eyes sparked with rage and ruin, their collective gaze flicking to your blood-covered hand, your nails having pushed too far deep into the soft skin of your palm.

When Meliodas turned his eyes away, he spotted Gilthunder's mighty blade pressed against the other side of his neck, "Do you know why the Holy Knights are after the Seven Deadly Sins?"

Meliodas shrugged, his shoulder bumping the knight's sword, "can't remember".

Diane's fists clenched, she couldn't bear to look as your hair began to float, the electricity creeping closer to your brain, torturing your insides without breaking your skin.

How could Gil do this? Why would he try this hard to immobilise me?

You shut your eyes hard in pain, your hair lifting and zapping as your head shot back, both hands locked against your mouth as you bit down on your uninjured palm.

"Half want you to be purged for your traitorous plots against the kingdom" Gilthunder said slowly, "the others want to prove their own strength against you."

Meliodas had already made up his mind. Setting this Holy Knight alight was his next move unless he release your bonds right now. His head remained looking forward however, as the knight stood behind him, sword still against the boy's shoulder. 

"Which side are you?" Meliodas said, the corner of his lip being pulled and bit between his gleaming white teeth as he withheld his frustration.

"Both. I wish to avenge my father Zaratras, the former Captain of the Holy Knights, by destroying his murderers" The sword moved against the sin of wrath's neck, "and prove I have surpassed him."

A thought suddenly cut through Meliodas' wrathful mindset, "You're the son of the Captain?" he suddenly smirked, "Oh now I remember, you're little Gil!" He frowned again and turned back to look at the knight, "so why are you hurting my angel now? You had the biggest crush on her when you were little."

The sin chuckled when the knight moved imminently in front of him, leaning forward at eye level, "That was a long time ago" he stood back up, stepping a pace from the shorter boy, "Now I'm stronger than any sin or angel."

Both you and Meliodas' eyes widened, remembering back to when Meliodas had taught young Gil that phrase, somethings wrong. Your eyes darted open, and you caught the quick glance Gilthunder gave to you, before his eyes lifted quickly to the trees.

He's being watched.

"That might be true, but most likely not" Meliodas cocked his head to the side, "Is that why you hurt her? Cause you can't beat her in her natural state?"

"How about I remove your bonds? We'll see just how strong you are" Gilthunder growled.

Meliodas shook his head, "Don't bother". With just the simple motion of his heads lifting out of his pockets, the lightning chains shattered instantly with no resistance at all. Diane also removed herself from her bonds, flexing her arms away from her body.

You bit your lip and placed your hand firmly against your chest, murmering an ancient word, lost long ago, into the air. There was a bright white glow from your palm and the electricity disappeared. Spitting blood into the dirt, you sluggishly regained your stance.

The Captain looked over his shoulder at you, "You alright angel-cake?"

Wiping the blood from your lip, you winked at him and nodded.

"Just in case.. I'll have you sit this one out" he waved his hand dismissively at you and you smiled, "Diane" He called up as the giantess quickly perked up at her name, "you too".

Diane sighed in annoyance, knowing there was no way she would disagree, "Oh fine!"

She concerned herself then with picking you up gently and turning over your injured hands with her thumb, "Ooh these look like they hurt" she pouted.

You shrugged, beaming up at her, your usual brightness ever present, "Had to make it look real right?" you joked, although you could still feel the horrible sensation running through your arms and legs as your magic worked hard to repair your insides.

You hugged your now barely covered chest, the lightening had almost fully vaporised a majority of your clothing, now beginning to tear in areas. You caught Meliodas eyeing you up, but when he noticed you had seen him he smirked and quickly turned back to Gilthunder.

Diane noticed as well and covered your body with one of her hands, blocking your indecency from both of the young men, "Pervs!"

Both the sin and the knight went red and shook their hair as they refocused on their fight. You giggled, feeling perfectly comfortable despite the situation, they managed not to illicit a visible reaction to the sound.

Elizabeth tried to peek over Diane's finger to check you were alright, "Is everything ok?" She called you lady as she addressed you, just like she called Meliodas 'Sir', how strange, you smiled. Diane held you up higher to stop the Princess from seeing you.

You managed to lean over and smile at the silverette, "I'm fine, but you should really go check on the roast". In the distance, you could hear the distinct squealing of the boar.

"Then, I'll just kill you" Gilthunder's eyes were low as he looked down upon the feared Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins.

"Right back at you".

There was a tremendous lightning strike as the Holy Knight brought down his sword against Meliodas, only to be instantly countered with the flick of a green-hilted, broken sword.

Gilthunder was sent skidding several metres backwards, his armour visibly scuffed from the lightning burn.

"Like I said" Meliodas said louder, "Right back at you".

Gilthunder moved so fast, the sin didn't even see the Holy Knight before his long sword sliced right across the sin's shoulder and back. You gasped and covered your open mouth, "Meliodas!"

Meliodas fell to the ground, landing on his back, blood seeped in large volumes from his cut, staining his blonde strands of hair. Gilthunder stood above him, "Meliodas, Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Dragon Sin of Wrath" he held his sword's tip to the boy's chin, "any last words?"

Just as you were about to throw yourself down there to heal him, Diane caught sight of what the captain was doing and closed her other hand over you, encasing you in darkness. 

"The others..." you could hear Melioda's faint, pained voice through the giant's fingers, "I just wanted to know what... became... of them".

Gilthunder paused, debating as to whether he should actually honour the request of this traitor, but with the thought of his own honour in mind, he chose to respond. "Of the other five, the only two we know of have already been taken care of; Baste Prison now guards the Fox Sin of Greed, and the Grizzly Sin of Sloth is already dead in Necropolis".

A large grin grew across the Captain's face, "well, thanks!" He said cheerfully, putting his hands on the ground above his shoulders and flipping himself back onto his feet. "So, the Fox Sin of Greed is in Baste Prison, and the Grizzly Sin of Sloth is in the Capital of the Dead huh?" His finger tapped his chin in thought as you saw him again, Diane removing her higher hand from covering you from seeing the fight.

"I see, you feigned your injury to learn your comrade's location?"

"No need to beat yourself up little Gil" Meliodas wiped some of the dirt off his cheek, "we'll finish this up next time".

"ENOUGH!" Gilthunder yelled and his sword sliced through the air where Meliodas was just standing, instead, he spotted his cloak in the Sin's place. His sword had cut the fabric clean off the rest of his armour.

As the Holy Knight looked around, growing angry and preparing to strike again, he spotted Meliodas wrapping the cloak around your semi-naked body, both of you crouching in Diane's palm. "That better?" the blonde said softly.

You nodded and let him wrap the thick cloth around you, "yes, thankyou Meliodas."

"Anytime angel!" A bright grin surfaced on his face.

"WE'RE NOT FINISHED!" Lightning thundered from above and the dark clouds were alight with dangerous lights. The knight leapt to cut you two apart but Diane stood from her crouch, moving you both quickly out of the Holy Knight's reach.

"Just give me a second" Meliodas winked at you and jumped back off Diane's hand.

Meliodas dodged the next several attacks from Gilthunder before the pink-haired man caught him off-guard and got his sword in front of the sin once more, "Farewell" he hissed.

"See ya!" the Captain chuckled and caught you as you fell into his arms, wrapped in the fabric like a bundle of silk.

Before the Holy Knight knew what was happening, the giant had picked him up in her strong hand and stretched her arm back to prepare to throw. "Let me go!" Gilthunder demanded and lightning struck Diane's hand, reducing her brace to dust.

"Didn't I teach you a long time ago, shocking won't get you anywhere with girls" Diane said darkly and threw him with all her strength, sending him hurtling through the sky at a remarkable speed like a spear.

You waved a hand as the knight disappeared in the sky. "Nice shot Diane!" Meliodas complimented, still holding you in his arms as he smiled up at the giantess.

Diane blushed and twisted her hair with her finger at the compliment, "Oh Captain, Did you really like my throw? It was easy!"

Before you could compliment the giantess yourself, your eyes suddenly saw the severity of the injury on the Captain's shoulder. The gash was deep and cut clean down nearly an arm's length. Even showing signs of clotting amongst the blood that ran out, staining both his clothes and now the cloak. 

Carefully running your fingers along his shoulder, your fingertips glowing with a warm light. Meliodas' breathing hitches and he gently sits down with you in his lap, one arm around your lower back and the other under your knees, letting you have better access.

"This may be uncomfortable" you say, biting your lip and placing both your hands either side of the cut.

He shrugged with his good shoulder, "I'm pretty comfortable right now" he gestured to you in his lap and you laughed.

A snort sounded behind you, "now look here! What the hell did you do that for?"

You close your eyes slightly. Bit by bit, Meliodas helped you to your feet with the cloth still wrapped securely around your body.

"You swine!" Hawk squealed, its big head searching for the Holy Knight.

Elizabeth spotted you and Meliodas and gasped, "are you both ok?"

"Hey, where did he go?" The pig looked around frantically. This, gradually intriguing Diane as she watched the hog wander around on its stubby little legs.

"We're fine" Meliodas smirked as you pulled away so you could better cover yourself with the fabric.

"But Meliodas your wound!" The silverette said as she hurried over, lifting the edge of his torn shirt to look at the large laceration, although it looked a little smaller now, your healing had only had time to stop the bleeding before they had arrived.

"It's no big deal" Meliodas said blankly.

"Hey!" Diane stuck her hands on her hips, "quit being all touchy-feely with the Captain!"

"Where did that knight go?" The swine was still cross, "He kicked me square in the ass!"

Meliodas patted the pig, "right here?"

"That's my pork shoulder?"

"What about here?"

"That's my spare rib."

As you finally started to head out of the gloomy forest, you pinched the dark blue cloak further up your body, leaving only your head and neck visible as you perched on Diane's shoulder. Meliodas sat next to you, neither of you in conversation, just blissfully comfortable. He noticed the cloth as it started to slip past your shoulder, exposing your skin to the cold, and lifted it back up without a word.

"So, Sir Meliodas..." Elizabeth called from her spot on Hawk's back as the pig walked along beside the giant, "Where are we going next?"

"Hm" he tapped his chin, "what do you think Diane?"

"I don't care Captain, the only man I concern myself with is you."

Meliodas thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers together, "it's decided, we'll head to Baste Prison first to fetch Ban!"

"Why'd you decide on Baste Prison?" the pig questioned.

"Its closer"

"That's it!?"

Meliodas shrugged and you giggled.

End of Chapter 4! I'm so excited to write Chapter 5 I'm starting it now, I've got a lot in store!!! Let me know what you think of the story so far!

EDIT: 2022, I'm going through this one chapter at a time to edit, so I can continue this story.