Samantha Simpson woke up in a place she had seen a few times before, but she was a little confused as to how she got there. The last thing she remembered was that she, Alex, and Clover had been poking around a new club by the docks and were nowhere near Rias's mansion.

Not that waking up here was a bad thing.

Rias went to some crazy lengths to restore the building to the point that it was starting to feel like a high class hotel rather than the slightly run down building they helped her furnish a few days ago. And the other redhead had offered to let them stay the night if they ever felt the need. Not that anyone had taken her up on that yet.

Then the memories hit.

A detour to investigate an explosion, another closer explosion, then burning pain in her chest followed by a slow creeping chill.

Sam shot upright with one hand going to what she was sure to be serious wounds, only to pause in confusion when there was nothing there. Had they gotten Crystal's cousin to heal her? If so she owed Amy something nice.

Before she could do much more than take a deep breath and look around the room she was in, there was a soft knock at the door with Alex and Clover walking through seconds later.

"Sam, you're awake!" The fact that they didn't instantly tackle her into a hug despite being clearly relieved to see her told Sam that something had absolutely happened. And it had probably been bad.

"Hey girls…what's going on? Why are we back at Rias's place?" And why are you two freaking out?

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Yikes, whatever happened must have been bad. Her friends almost never danced around an issue like this. Any topic related to boys, fashion, or parties sure, they could talk in circles for a couple hours. Waking up in an unexpected location? No one in Brockton Bay joked around about that kinda stuff. Way too many horror stories in the news for anything other than direct statements.

"We went looking into an explosion and I got caught up in a second one. Speaking of, did Amy heal me? I need to thank her if she did."

The two looked between each other nervously and seemed to have a silent conversation before Alex turned back to her and sighed.

"No, we couldn't get Amy in time. Rias did something to heal you, but…"

Ah, cape stuff then. Rias pulled some unknown thing out to help her and it must have been pretty weird – not that Rias seemed normal for a cape anyway – and it had everyone scared.

"Okay, so what did she do? Am I part plant now or something?" It wasn't the best joke, but ever since that villain Poison Ivy popped up in Florida, she was constantly hearing about redheads turning part plant.

"We don't know? She asked you if you wanted to make a deal then stuck this weird figurine in you and you started getting better. She wouldn't explain anything else, saying you deserved to hear it first. So Crys is kinda freaking out."

Sam huffed. That sounded pointlessly considerate. But then again, Rias did like to make things all dramatic when she could. The other redhead was probably just enjoying riling up the heroine.

"Well I'm up. Let's go find out what's going on."

-o-

Despite the size of the mansion it didn't take long to move to the room Rias and the others were waiting in – because Rias only actually used a small portion of the house – and Sam was thankful for that. Whatever the other redhead had done to her had left her feeling incredibly weak and sensitive to light. She was almost blinded by afternoon sun peeking through the windows and couldn't wait to go back to sleep once her curiosity was sated.

They walked into the sight of Rias lounging on the sofa while Crys was pacing back and forth nervously. It would have been kinda funny if her cousin wasn't floating off to the side glaring daggers at Rias, obviously upset with the devil cape.

Deciding to try easing the tension in the room – and not risk falling on her face – Sam made her way over to one of the chairs in the room and sat down heavily. "Hey girls. Why the serious faces?"

Rias smiled back. "Hi Sam. How you feeling?"

"Honestly? Like crap. I feel weak and everything is too bright."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"See?! She needs to go to a hospital," Crystal hissed at Rias, waving an arm at Sam. "not just hang out here hoping to get better."

"I told you a hospital won't be able to help her."

"And why not? You keep refusing to say!"

"Because Sam needs to hear it first."

Yeah, this wasn't going anywhere. Sam could tell that this wasn't the first time they had had this argument based on how fast the responses came and tempers were starting to flare. She should do something about that.

"Well I'm here now, so why don't we sit down and talk?"

It didn't take long for everyone to take a seat, but notably Alex and Clover set themselves up on either side of her and looked ready to drag her off while Crystal and Vicky moved between her and Rias.

That…hurt actually.

It sounded like Rias had done something to save her life and now all her friends (and Crystal's cousin) were treating it like she was in danger from the person who helped her.

Way not cool.

"So what's the big thing I needed to hear first so Crys will stop glaring at everything?"

"I am not glar–" "What's the last thing you remember last night?" Rias interrupted.

"Most of it? I remember the second explosion…but not much after that." Sam trailed off softly. She almost died, didn't she?

"Yeah, it was pretty close." It was then that Sam realized she had spoken that last bit out loud.

"But I'm okay now? Back to normal and all healed up?"

Rias's sudden silence wasn't reassuring.

"Rias?"

"You said you'd tell us when Sam got here." Vicky scowled from the side. "She's here, so start talking."

The devil cape rolled her eyes at the demand but did lean forward and start to explain.

"Right, since you don't remember, I'll start from after the second explosion. It…was bad. Really bad. You were bleeding out and we weren't going to get help in time. In short…you were dying." Rias said seriously, and pulled out a small red figurine. "So I offered you a deal. Accept this and you would live…even if it came with some complications." She played with what Sam recognized as a chess piece in her hands for a bit before tucking it away again.

"Complications?"

"Yeah, what do you want first? Biggest ones first or last?"

"Let's do biggest first." Sam decided. Best to get the major stuff out of the way.

Rias shrugged, but from the look she shot at the two New Wavers this was going to be a big one. "You aren't human anymore."

Sam blinked as everyone else exploded into shouts…

"What do you mean not human–"

"What did you do to–"

"Is she really part plant–"

"Rias, the hell?"

…but she wasn't focused on that. Not human anymore? What did that mean?

"What I mean by that," Rias continued over the noise of everyone else, and possibly reading Sam's mind, "is that the chess piece I used on you is designed to break your body down and rebuild it into the same species I am. A Devil." She flared her wings and Sam felt a small *thump* behind her. Everyone, including Sam, turned to see the same spiky black wings Rias had coming out of her back.

"You turned me into a Parahuman?" Sam asked, not quite believing her eyes. At least until Alex ran a hand over one of them and got a full body shiver in response. It turned out her wings were sensitive.

"Not a parahuman." Rias denied. "You're a Devil now. Which means you get the same basic powers I have. Flight, toughness, strength, and so on."

"Does she get a cool glove then too?" Clover asked.

"That's a separate power from being a devil. She does get to use magic though, once her energy grows a bit anyway. She's too new to do anything right now."

"Oh please, magic doesn't exist." Vicky said dismissively. "What I wanna know is why we shouldn't go straight to the PRT and tell them you gave someone powers."

Rias rolled her eyes. "Call it the ability to use a personal energy field to rewrite reality through imagination and willpower if it makes you feel better. As for the second point…it will get a lot of people killed and eventually Sam herself if she is separated from me."

"What?! Why?"

"Did you think rewriting someone's existence in a few seconds is easy? Sam doesn't have the power to support herself independently yet. She needs to be near me to stabilize her new existence or she will eventually mutate into a monster driven by her desires and try to get the energy she needs by eating people." Rias was looking a little irritated by now.

Crystal on the other hand looked infuriated. "So what you're saying is you mastered her and now she's a hostage we can't even remove from you."

"No, I'm saying I saved her life and this is a consequence of that choice."

"How close and how long do I need to stay near you?" Sam broke in before the two started fighting.

Rias gave Crystal another glare before taking a deep breath and looking back at her. "I don't know the specifics, you are the first person I've reincarnated," Sam idly noted the term she used in the back of her mind, "like this, but you should be fine as long as we are in the same city and just see each other for a few hours a week. As for how long, that actually depends on you. The stronger you grow the less you need me as a stabilizing force. Eventually you won't need me at all."

"Wait, if Sam's the first person you did this to – how do you know all that?" Clover asked.

"I'm not allowed to say." Rias stated instantly.

"Woah, rude much? Don't know if this is the time to start holding out on us girl."

The two heroes tensed but Alex spoke up, "Hold on a sec. Rias, did someone else turn you into a devil?"

Rias grimaced. "I've been a devil the entire time I've been on Earth Bet."

That was…oddly specific phrasing. And everyone noticed.

"Wait. Were you not born on this Earth?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"Do other people have the ability to make people devils?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"Did someone else send you here?"

At that last question Rias locked up. As in still as a statue, didn't move a millimeter still for several seconds. Holy shit, someone turned Rias into a 'devil', sent her to another Earth, and then Mastered her into not being able to talk about it.

That was horrible.

No one said anything for what felt like forever until Rias gave herself a full body shake, plastered on a clearly fake smile, and clapped her hands.

"Right! Well this has been…awful, so let's get the rest out of the way before we get derailed again. General things first, as a new devil you are going to feel pretty weak during the day and even worse in direct sunlight. On the flipside you are going to be faster and stronger than most olympians at night and that will only get better if you train for it. Don't worry though, after a week or so the daylight thing won't affect you as much and eventually you won't notice at all.

Something else you should know is about the piece I used on you. You are now one of my pawns.

Don't let the name make you think I consider you disposable or anything, the pieces themselves are part of a larger system that functions as a tournament game." She paused and looked annoyed. "What, so I can tell them that but not–" and her mouth snapped shut. Rias fumed for a second before going back into her explanation, "Anyways, certain pieces give certain boosts. For instance, a Rook piece grants enhanced strength and endurance beyond a normal devil. A Knight, greater speed. A Bishop," and for this she looked directly at Vicky, "larger magic reserves. And the Queen gets all three. Just like in chess though, Pawns can promote to any other piece if they reach territory the King considers hostile."

Sam and the rest sat in silence at both the new information and the knowledge that despite everything else Rias was also a Master victim. It did help to know that despite that fact Rias was still pushing her boundaries as much as possible to give them as much info as she could.

She still didn't know if she believed everything Rias had said, but one thing she knew for sure was that life was going to get interesting.

"Okay! Way too much heavy talk!" Clover broke up the persistent silence. "I'm starving since we missed lunch waiting on Sam to wake up. Who wants pancakes?"

The tension in the room slowly bled out as everyone looked between themselves and admitted pancakes sounded like a good idea. As they started filing out of the room, a thought popped into Sam's head.

"Wait, Rias, how do I put my wings away? Rias? Rias! Get back here and tell me how to get rid of these!" With that Sam started chasing after her annoying friend as the other devil simply started cackling and ran away.