Archive of Our Own

Work Text

"Aaaaaarghhh I TOLD you everything already!”I was going to kill them. I really was this time. No jury would convict me - I was a woman on the edge and they were about to push me over. Riiiiight over, screaming all the way. “She didn’t say anything other than to tell Air she loved him and that was it.”It had been three days since Mist rang my bell and took off with Papa’s book. I had no idea why she took it or where she went but no one seemed to believe me. I had endured three days of constant questions, badgering, and outright skepticism and I was absolutely sick of it. Even my darling Omega was getting on my last freaking nerve.His eyes were full of sympathy when he looked at me from across the kitchen island, as though displaying such emotion would break me down and I'd end up weeping my confession in his arms. “Ellie, you were the last one to see her before she left. Surely she gave some sort of hint to her state of mind. I know you two grew closer these past few weeks…” Omega trailed off, indicating it was now my turn to spill my guts.I leaned in, glancing around conspiratorially. “Fine. You wanna know what happened?”He nodded solemnly.“Are you sure? Reeeally sure? I mean, once you hear it you can’t ever go back.”His eyebrows rose in confusion. “Back to what?”Gods help me, the fool had begun whispering.I dropped my voice lower to match his and replied, “Normal life. What I’m about to say will change the course of history. The world as we know it will cease to exist.”Omega, clearly holding his breath, just stared back at me with wide eyes.“Okay, I’ll tell you.” I looked around again. “That crazy bitch sucker punched me, gave me a message for Air, then took off to parts unknown. Now quit bothering me about it. Asshole.”I shoved away from the counter and the glare Omega leveled at me once he realized I was playing him. I fled from the kitchen, aiming for the door leading outside; perhaps I could go hide in the woods for a while. Anything was better than staying around a bunch of people who thought me a liar (even if they believed it was for a good reason).A massive hand landed on my shoulder as I crossed the threshold into the living room and I shot a foot straight up from the floor with a yelp. “Jesus, Air! I know you think I’m holding back but scaring me to fucking death isn’t going to help!”The spooky giant didn’t seem concerned about my near heart attack. His face was even more stoic than usual but that was to be expected, I supposed. He hadn’t said much since Mist left and I imagined he was feeling some of the same emotions he felt when Belial ripped his family from him the first time. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.He looked me dead in the eye, his words slow and deliberate. “You’re certain she said nothing of her intentions?”I sighed helplessly. No one was happy about this situation but it was steadily getting out of control. They’d all drive me batshit before the week was over.“Air, I promise you she said nothing. I have wracked my brain trying to remember every little detail of our conversation that day, and the days before. She’s a billion years old – what makes you think she would tell me her plans?”He opened his mouth to reply but I cut him off. “Her last words to me were about loving you and I absolutely believe she does. She took the book, yes, but we don’t know why and shouldn’t you be giving her the benefit of the doubt? Mist hid things from you in the past to protect you and I choose to believe she’s doing the same dumb thing again.”Air tried to protest that last bit but I wasn’t having it. “Yes I said dumb, and her actions are dumb! I’ll defend her reasoning even though I don’t know it, but taking off like that without a word of explanation is dangerous, reckless and stupid. I-“A shadow moved in the doorway of the hall just beyond the stairs to the basement studio; someone was eavesdropping. I shrugged Air’s hand from my arm and moved past him to see who might be lurking, but when I reached the hall I could see no one.Air stirred behind me, obviously not ready to let the Mist situation go. “Ellie-““I’ve said all I intend to say on the matter. If I remember something important you’ll all be the first ones to know, okay?”The only place for someone to end up in this hallway would be my domain: the library. The library had been quite the hub of freaky activity the last few months and I was a little peeved the Powers That Be were trying to make my haven into a horror show.Creeping along as stealthily as I could, I approached the library entry with bated breath. Nothing stood out as I peeked around the corner. The room hadn’t changed much: stacks of books littered the tables and floor (leftovers adrift from my cataloging project) and dust covered the rug in front of the fireplace where I’d bounced off the mantle after Mist used me as a punching bag and busted up some of the stonework. A phantom pain shot through my jaw at the memory; that little demon woman could have a successful career in bare knuckle fighting.Slowly I made my way to the center of the room, looking around as I had just three days earlier, trying to figure out where Papa’s book might be hiding. It felt like a century had passed in those three days.My reverie was short lived when something invisible wrapped itself tightly around my throat, lifting me up from the ground to slam me down on one of the tables nearby. Newly healed ribs cracked audibly and I struggled for air.A familiar masked face wavered into view. “My book! Tell me what she did with it.” Papa’s voice was a violent hiss as he squeezed his fingers so hard I felt something pop ominously in my neck. Because choking the life out of me was totally not counterproductive when I tried to speak. Ugh.When Papa had shown up right after Mist disappeared he'd done something similar to what he was doing now, his iron grip nearly crushing a few bones in my shoulders as I lay on the library floor trying to stave off unconsciousness. The others had been there to bring him down from his frenzy and they told me he ranted for a while before taking off once again. I found his behavior extremely disturbing, especially now that he was attempting to murder me.All he needed was a candlestick and we could play Clue. Just call me Mrs. Peacock.I sputtered uselessly and slapped at Papa's arm, doing anything I could think of to get him to realize his hands around my throat meant I couldn't talk. He was muttering like a raving lunatic and felt it necessary to keep lifting me up slightly only to knock my spine against the solid wood beneath me with jarring intensity.  I was seriously afraid he'd break the damn table if he kept it up much longer. Omega and I had thoroughly tested the strength of these tables more than once but this was far less fun.Finally, I was able to maneuver my leg so my knee scrunched against my chest. I held it there for a brief moment, feeling my muscles coil tightly in anticipation and then kicked out with every ounce of Ghoul strength I possessed. Apparently it was enough to shake Papa, causing him to tumble backwards when my foot met his chest and I rolled to drop to the floor on my knees. The table I'd just been sprawled on exploded in a cloud of splinters; Papa's rage was a terrible thing. I could think of nothing else but diving for cover under another table but his hand found my ankle and dragged me away from safety. His muttered curses became audible and I listened while struggling to get away."Can't have it. She can't have it! It's mine! My book. Those are my spells. TELL ME. TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME..." He kept repeating the last part over and over like a prayer or a mantra and I felt the familiar anger of not being trusted burning in my gut. Sister Imperator's training kicked in at that moment and I snapped my other foot out to nail Papa directly in the face. Surprise took him down to the floor and I scrambled up to place a chair between the two of us. Such a move wouldn't have been possible if Papa was in his right mind. Luck was on my side in that instance."You listen here, you featherless fuck – I don't know anything about Mist or your book and I suggest you take a second to chill the fuck out." My hands shook as I pointed a finger at Papa like a parent scolding a naughty child. "Are you going to behave?"Maybe Mist was off ripping pages out of the book one by one, or lighting them on fire because Papa was incoherent by this point and merely screamed hysterically in response. The path between the door and I was clear: it was now or never if I was going to escape.I darted toward the exit, spurred on by Papa's wailing.  Maybe...he...wouldn't...notice...Nope. Another force hooked around my waist and dragged me away from the door frame. The slick wood slid through my fingers when I tried to pull away from his grasp but my efforts were futile. He was standing once again and yanked me to him, though he pulled too hard with his invisible leash and I whizzed past his body. I would have fallen down once more but instead I rolled into the momentum of the fall, executing a backflip to land in a crouch.Pissed failed to accurately describe the incredible amount of anger filling me. Power I didn't even know I had flooded my voice as I sneered at the former Angel."I am so done with being thrown around like a toy. It's your turn to SIT DOWN."  All the power infused in my voice bled out of me to flood the room in a rush. The blue/black wave of magic hurtled at Papa and wrapped around him as tightly as his fingers had been on my throat. He fought against it like a champ but it was simply too strong; one knee crumpled under him, then the other.Papa Emeritus III, strongest of all the Fallen Angels, was on his knees and I had put him there.He ceased his efforts to get free and watched me with hatred simmering in his eyes while I crossed the room to leave. I couldn't let him go if I wanted to; I didn't know how, and I wouldn’t have anyways.A deep rumble echoed off the walls. "You are terribly fortunate no one was here to witness this display, Eliana."  The magic enveloping him began to dissipate. "The Ghouls may hold you in high regard but I will not hesitate to kill you."I stared at him in disbelief. Papa had acted a little squirrly now and then but he'd never threatened me so blatently. He wasn't finished. "Those are MY Ghouls. I gave them a reason for living, a purpose, power. They are successful because of me; they owe their lives to me; their loyalty is mine. You might be a good lay but they will always belong to their Papa."It crossed my mind to stay and argue, which would have been unbelievably stupid.I hightailed it from the room to find safety in numbers.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I stayed in my old room in the main house that night. I'd told only Omega about the incident with Papa and while his outrage on my behalf made me feel much better, I didn't exactly consider myself safe with only him to protect me in his cabin in the woods. I didn't tell him this of course, so I explained to him I wanted some time and space to myself. I sure as heck didn't say no when he offered to stay in the room next to mine though. Now I had him next to me, along with Mercury, Salt and Sulfur a few rooms down the hall. They had no reason to protect me but if Papa tried to burn the house down I thought maybe they'd try to stop him. Maybe.
All was quiet and it encouraged me to go to bed early; expending so much energy during my mini battle tuckered me out. I smushed my face in the fluffy pillows on the bed...and almost immediately felt a shift in the energy of the house. It was jolt eerily similar to the feeling the house had when Papa's book was in residence.
Mist!
Tangled in sheets, I stumbled out of bed and into the hall where all was still silent and dark.
For about a second.
Omega's door banged open and he stepped into my line of sight in all his bare-chested glory; I sincerely regretted my decision to spend the night alone.
Down the hall more doors opened. Sulfur emerged from one room, Mercury, Salt and a sheepish looking Alpha all trailed out one by one from another. HA! Earth owed me twenty bucks (though I didn't expect Salt to throw himself in that mix, how scandalous). To my surprise, Earth and Water each wandered out of separate rooms as well.
Since Omega was the closest to me, I whispered, "What're they doing here?"
"I told them what happened with Papa. Did you feel the house change a minute ago?"
I nodded and took off, knowing everyone else would follow. Mist obviously wasn't upstairs so that made the main floor the next best place to find her. The living room door leading the patio clicked open the second my foot hit the bottom stair and Air's immense presence filled the room.
"She's here."
I silently gestured for him to lead the way because we all knew where this showdown would take place. It was nearly impossible to walk sedately to the library when all I wanted to do was fling myself dramatically at my friend and scold her for causing everyone in the house so much pain. Two dramatic events don't much make for a peaceful household and it was damned inconvenient.  
I glanced at Air, wondering how well he was holding up. He’d finally get some answers as to what his wife was up to but I wasn’t entirely certain he’d much like those answers. I still believed Mist wasn’t the bad guy in this scenario but who knew how much losing her children had changed her. I know I wouldn’t be sane if such a horrifying thing happened to me.
Stretching upwards on her tiptoes and poised at the top of a ladder, Mist had her back to us while we filed into the room. She slammed a book into place and slid down the sides of the ladder with no hesitation, turning to greet us with a neutral expression adorning her face. I almost believed she hadn’t done anything but take a short vacation she forgot to tell us about.
It was odd- I thought I’d known exactly what to say to her once we found her, but this was…weird. What does one say in this situation exactly? ‘Hey friend, why’d you beat me and leave?’ or ‘You’re an asshole but you’re back and I’m glad to see you?’ Perhaps, ‘What gives?’ was an appropriate reaction.
Air didn’t speak either, but flicked his wrist as I’d seen him do so many times before and the book Mist had hidden at the top of the bookcase flew down to his hand like a bird flying home. He barely glanced at the cover.
“You brought it back.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement. The light overhead bounced off the book jacket, confirming it was Papa’s book. Mist lifted her chin in defiance of his words but kept silent, as though willing us away would force us to leave. Fat chance.
We didn’t have time to decipher her stoicism because an ungodly screech tore through the house, rocking its very foundation. It happened often enough but wasn’t a feeling I wanted to get used to. We heard the ominous cracking of the window panes behind the heavy curtains and managed to turn away before the glass burst forth in a torrent of deadly shards aimed right for us.
A tornado of black magic, inky and foul, swirled through the openings and ripped precious volumes from the shelves to feed its hunger. It sounded as though a train were sitting directly on top of us and we could do nothing to block the noise, the heat, or the roiling earth. Cracking an eye open, I could see a man at the center of the mass, a man with great black wings spread out behind him; he was using them to fan the flames of his chaos.
Maniacal laughter sprayed the walls and nearly drove us to our knees. Only the Tria Prima remained standing in the face of the onslaught, observers for the moment. They had no stake in this fight. The laughter grew louder as the wind died down but we could finally make out the man at the center of it all:
Papa Emeritus.
Oh well, what a surprise.
We’d already discussed the possibility that this was a ruse by Papa to regain his lost powers rather than some altruistic treasure hunt for his most loyal Ghouls. I wanted to be surprised it had worked out this way but after our last encounter I was more surprised at the restraint he showed while slowly dropping breadcrumbs for us to follow. It wasn’t exactly as if he were a patient sort of fellow.
“Oh, my children!” Papa’s voice boomed around us with uninhibited exuberance. “Look what you have brought your Papa!” He then legit danced a complicated jig down the center of the room.
Insane couldn’t possibly describe what he’d gone.
“And Mist! How could I forget you, my lovely? You were brilliant!” Papa caught her up in his arms in an attempt to twirl her around the room with him. “None of this would have been possible without you.”
Mist looked less than thrilled with his fervor and shoved out of his embrace, disgust plain as day on her features. “I don’t know what you think I’ve done, Emeritus, but you’re clearly delusional. Just because the book is in your presence doesn’t mean you can even read it.”
Clueless, the Ghouls and I exchanged confused glances. Were they or weren’t they working together?
Papa laughed merrily at Mist’s assertion and with a flourish produced a piece of paper in his hand. “Stupid girl – do not tell me you never thought I might guess what you are? What you are capable of?” He wagged the paper in front of her nose. “I only needed this one teeny, tiny, oh so important spell. And you have helpfully translated it for me!” He giggled again as Mist gasped and searched her pockets frantically. I couldn’t imagine anything they both might need.
Not finding what she was looking for, Mist made a grab for the paper in Papa’s hand but was unable to move quickly enough to take him by surprise. “Papa, please. You don’t understand – I need that spell. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you but…” A sob caught in her throat and made her words impossible to get out. Air still stood impassively next to us, seemingly unaffected by his wife’s distress.
Papa continued to dart just out of her reach. “Ah, ah, ah little one! I need this spell more than you do I think. How else am I going to be the most powerful being in the cosmos?”
Mercury stirred at hearing those words; his dark eyes tracked Papa around the room with laser focus. It appeared as though Papa said something he shouldn’t have.
Mist stopped in her tracks. “You’re not- Papa, if you know what that spell is then you don’t need me to tell you it isn’t to be trifled with. That’s a door you don’t want to open!”
“But my sweet Mist, you were.”
Mist looked more ashamed than I ever thought someone could. “I didn’t…mean to…it wasn’t supposed to…”
“Wasn’t supposed, didn’t mean to – oh woe is you, Mist!” Papa was mocking her now, much of the lightness in his demeanor vanishing. “You were going to watch the world burn for your own selfish reasons and yet you stand here and lecture me? Such arrogance will be the death of us all, will it not?” He hopped up on a table so we all could see him.
“My Ghouls! Your Papa has a plan and it is time to enact it. Fight with me and you shall want for nothing. Fear and pain you will know no longer. Your Papa will take care of you, but you must prove yourselves to me. On bended knee I expect your undying gratitude, your word that you will serve me in the coming battle. Consider this my cordial invitation to you all – even you my esteemed Tria Prima, to join me two days from now in -
Necropolis!”
With drama only Papa could pull off, he disappeared in a thunderous haze of smoke and mystery.
We all stood stunned for a minute, until Omega broke the silence. “Do we clap? I feel like we should clap.”
No one laughed but it did break the ice, as it were. Mercury strode over to Mist and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “It is probably best, my dear, if you tell them who you are.”
Tears gathered in her eyes but didn’t fall as she faced us, her gaze anywhere but Air’s face. “I don’t…think I can.” Her voice wavered.
“Of course you can!” Mercury sounded remarkably chipper considering what he’d just witnessed. “We’ll start with something easy – how is it you can you read a Fallen Angel’s spells?”
Taking a deep breath, Mist squared her shoulders. “I am an Angel.”
Earth fell over.
Mercury patted Mist on the arm, asking, “And how did such a thing come to pass? I cannot imagine a dutiful creature such as yourself Falling.”
Her head shook violently. “No, it was not my doing. Belial wanted a toy, so he performed a forbidden rite that dragged me down from Heaven and locked me in this body. I retained all of my abilities but this body has limitations so I am bound by the same laws the Fallen are. Belial didn’t know it would work out that way and was vastly disappointed.”
She shuddered. “It’s the only reason he came to think of me as a daughter rather than a more useful weapon. I am truly of his blood because of the ritual but it does not change the fact that he kidnapped me and now I am nothing more than an abomination.”
“Stop.” Air barked. It only took a few strides of his long legs before he reached Mist, his enormous hands coming up to cradle her face so that her eyes would finally meet his.
“Whatever happens in this life or the next, you are not an abomination.” She gave him a watery smile and buried her face in his chest.
Mercury backed away to give the couple space but continued his questions. “This explains how you could read the book then. Now for the hard part: what spell did Emeritus just take?”
Mist turned her head so we could hear her answer but remained cocooned in Air’s arms. “It’s another ritual…It’s meant to open a portal.”
“To what?”
“Another dimension.”
“One like where my Master resides?”
“Yes.”
“And what lies in that dimension that would hold interest for Emeritus?”
She pulled away a bit from Air to look at all of us. “Before Angels and Demons existed, even before Lucifer and God, there were other Gods who ruled. I don’t know how and I don’t really know why they left but they hold an unfathomable amount of power. The ritual is to open the portal to those Gods.”
Mercury seemed unfazed by her explanation. “Why would Emeritus want to open such a portal?”
“I don’t know that either, but the ritual makes the Gods slightly vulnerable. It sounds like he wants to defeat one, take their power, and rule.”
“Why did you have the spell, Mist?”
She looked ashamed again but soldiered through. “Wherever the Princes of Hell come from, they must be descended from those old Gods. Because I have Belial’s blood I could, I don’t know, hear them sometimes?”
Air pulled her closer and moved his hands over her back in small circles, reminding her she wasn’t alone.
“There was one in particular – it whispered in my head constantly. It told me…it told me I could have my children back.” Now the tears she held back began to track down her cheeks. “It said if I opened the portal and let it into our world I could have the power to bring them back.”
She looked up at Air, eyes pleading with him to understand. “I didn’t have you anymore; I didn’t have anyone. I was so alone. I just – wanted them back.”
Air said nothing but continued to hold her tightly as she released all of her pain.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

We retired to our respective homes on the property after Mist's confession. Papa could already come and go as he pleased on the grounds so if he wanted us dead it wouldn't really matter where we stayed. Mercury speculated that wasn't likely the plan since Papa invited everyone to Necropolis (whatever it was) and believed them loyal to his schemes. We had two days to decide what would be the most appropriate course of action and I still wasn't certain how the Ghouls were going to...vote? Settle the score?  I hoped they would not go along with Papa's harebrained nonsense but I couldn't be certain. After all, he had done a lot for them. He was their leader and I very nearly couldn't blame them if they chose to take his side. But if Papa succeeded in contacting a form of life older than time itself to harness abilities he shouldn't have then he and I would be at war. Well, not me personally but me and all of the other Keepers across the planet. It was our job to stop such things from happening since they had a tendency to get a lot of innocents killed and usually one or two cities disappeared off the map. Think The Avengers but like, real. I didn't want to have to fight Papa for two reasons: if the Ghouls picked him then I'd have to possibly kill them, and also I wasn't entirely confident we could beat him. His power was monstrous at this stage in his existence. I’d most certainly be pulled into the fight now since I knew the man personally and had fairly neat, new powers myself. There would be no more hiding in the library waiting for the storm to blow over and I wasn't thrilled at facing my potential demise in a scenario like this.Instead of sleeping, Omega and I made a large pot of coffee and sat on the couch to work out the logistics.  "He's too powerful." I began. "He can't be that powerful – he's still Fallen after all. They have some limits." Omega countered. I shook my head. "Yeah but he's hoarding the powers of three Fallen. You've seen him – his little windstorm sideshow didn't even cause him to break a sweat. And neither Mist nor Air attempted to stop him once he revealed what he wanted." He gave me a skeptical look. "I think Mist and Air were as caught off guard as we were. They're old but they can't always know the future or read a situation better than we can. " "So you don’t think..." I hesitated and looked away, afraid of the next part. "...they want to help him?" Omega arched an eyebrow, his special 'have you gone mad' expression. "What makes you think they would?"  I squirmed uncomfortably. "Um, because they might like his idea? Or because Air feels loyal to him? Mist still thinks she could see her children?" And then more quietly I murmured. "And because the rest of you might help him too." He placed a large hand across my brow and looked from one of my eyes to the other. "What?" I glared at him.  "Just checking to see if you have a fever. These delusions are rather intense."  I smacked him with the pillow in my lap while he laughed. "It's not funny, Omega! You mean you don't feel like helping Papa? Even a little bit?" His expression sobered up fast and he scowled. "I'm not insane, Ellie. I know how bad it would be if Papa becomes king of the world. And that's a big IF, because I highly doubt he's strong enough to usurp a God. Most likely he’ll let the thing into our world, get himself killed, and leave us with an Alien Overlord."  He sighed deeply and scrubbed a hand over his face. "I know he was my friend but I haven't felt that way very much since Papa III showed up. III must have always been an Angel with an agenda and it seriously pisses me off he used our band for his own fucking gain.”  Something flashed uneasily in his eyes, as though he just realized an unsavory truth. “Unless that was the plan the entire time.”  I laid a hand on his arm in sympathy. “No, I don’t think it was. I think Papa I had good intentions just trying to live life after falling. Maybe Papa II was in on it but I really think Ghost was created from something special.” His hand covered mine and we spent the rest of the night wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. Turns out it dropped the next morning.Everyone was crowded in the kitchen trying to cook a variety of things for breakfast (breakfast was a mandatory group affair while lunch and dinner could be skipped) when Earth shot into the room so fast his momentum carried him into the pantry, where we all could hear several shelves full of food come crashing down.  He stumbled out a bit dazed looking but otherwise unharmed. “Turn on the goddamn television. Right now!” It was the closest the small ghoul had ever come to sounding commanding and we ran to the living room where the dusty TV lived. No one ever used the one in here but something possessed Earth to turn it on that morning and we gathered to see what had him so upset.  “…Four Corners are gone, Jim. Just poof! It’s amazing! I mean, in a terrible way of course.” A reporter with slick black hair and a gleaming white, toothy smile did his best to look mournful but failed miserably. He was clearly enjoying whatever he and the talking head back in the studio were discussing. A large black gate stretched out behind the reporter and I could see nothing that would generate such interest from Earth or the news.  Lantern Teeth was talking once more and I tuned back in. “…the size of this thing is simply unfathomable. We can’t even get the entire gate in one shot from the ground!” He laughed gleefully. “Ah, uh but of course the loss of life is heartbreaking. Local police from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico have converged on the scene to begin a preliminary search for survivors while waiting for the military to arrive.” The camera cut back to the studio head, a blonde bouncy woman with a shocking amount of makeup. “If you’re just tuning in,” she spoke directly to the viewer now, “efforts are underway to search for survivors after hundreds of miles of ground surrounding the Four Corners area in the Southwest opened up overnight, swallowing towns entirely.” She paused dramatically. “What appears to be a castle of stunning size has appeared across that destroyed land but it is unknown if anyone resides inside as it is surrounded by a 40ft high fence, keeping onlookers and police out for the moment.”  Earth lunged at the television and quickly switched between channels. Before we could yell at him, he landed on another news report; this one included aerial shots. The world was suddenly splashed with hues of purple, green and red. Even the sky was a lightning streaked flurry of purple and blue/black.   Spiraling up through the roiling clouds stood an utterly enormous castle. It was truly something out of a gothic tale, all black and complete with dozens of towers, turrets, and grotesque statues of monsters – gargoyles, demons, wolves, beasts of unknown origins. Hints of modernity touched the structure in various ways: the stone blocks were black lacquered like fancy imported Italian cabinets, the windows and doors were trimmed with a variety of jewels and precious stones – a display so ostentatious it could be nothing but modern, and every stained glass window depicted Papa Emeritus III in various lewd acts. I’d describe them but many were blurred out by the TV station, indicating they weren't exactly rated PG (you can use your imagination). The castle was plunked down in the middle of an actual city, an honest to god city with streets, homes, and shops. The streets appeared to be made of corrugated metal (another modern touch) but it was hard to tell through a camera lens. No one roamed the sidewalks and all the windows were shuttered, giving it a spooky ghost town feeling. The reporter from the previous station wasn’t kidding about the enormity of the fence keeping the crowd at bay – it was an ornate, fragile-looking thing but stood tall enough that no one besides Spider-man or Batman could climb up and I doubted even they could get down without breaking a few bones.  Daddy E done built himself a fortress. An empty fortress, but a fortress nevertheless.  Water’s face scrunched into a worried frown. “We really have to play by his rules now don’t we?” “I would advise you do so, yes.” Behind us, Lucifer lounged against the door leading to the basement. “Anyone care to explain why that pompous dickhead dumped Papa’s Playhouse near my turf?”  “’Near your turf’? What is this, a bad 80s movie?” I thought I’d taught him better trash talk than that. “Papa’s gone on a power trip.” Lucifer rolled his eyes. “No shit." His wings rustled furiously behind his back; the fact that he was displaying them meant he was ticked off and expecting trouble. Rarely did he display his pretty demon/ex-angel side but I was glad he chose to, because it made me feel better. Papa was a puny 5ft nothing ball of theatrics and Lucifer was a winged, muscular 8ft tall Prince with power so great it shimmered in the air around him like a fine silver haze. Papa couldn't stand a chance against a demon like that. He just couldn't.  "I'm aware he's up to something but I need to know what. And why." We all shivered at the tone of his voice. He was dangerously close to losing control and let some of his rage hit us with just his words.  But he was my friend and boss first and a Prince of Hell second, so I bucked up and told him everything we had learned the night before. He did an admirable job keeping his face shuttered but the seething tension in the room flared to an almost unbearable level as I explained what little we knew of Papa's not-so-secret project.  "...so he invited us to see him tomorrow. We weren't sure what Necropolis meant but uh, I guess now we do." I lapsed into awkward silence and waited for Lucifer's reaction.  A low rumbling began to roll around the room, shaking random knick-knacks on the shelves and tables. The ominous sound was coming from Lucifer's chest and I was worried he was about to cause a small earthquake but before it went that far, he breathed in and exhaled so forcefully smoke came billowing from his mouth and nose.  He looked very steadily at me then. "I entrust none of you are going to go to Necropolis and swear allegiance to Emeritus." He didn't ask it as a question but I shook my head no anyways. I wanted him to understand my priorities hadn't changed; I may love the Ghouls dearly but I still had a job to do. His eyes brightened ever so slightly and he moved on from me to the others. I turned to face them as well. Hopefully Omega was not wrong about where they stood.  One by one they followed my lead and shook their heads no - even Air and Mist. I wanted to cry the relief I felt was so overwhelming. I knew they were good men but friendship is an awfully strong, difficult bond to break and they'd already been through so much.  "Good." Lucifer nodded. "I need to prepare my people for whatever battle may come to us. My advice is to go to Necropolis today. Surprise Emeritus and throw him off balance. Tell him you don't need a full two days to know you side with humanity against him. It will distract him enough that I might gain some ground in this war. We'll need it." His wings flared suddenly in an impressive gesture. "I will contact my brothers tonight. Altruistic fighting is not in their repertoire but they will view Emeritus as a threat to their power and I can convince them to help. Sister Imperator will also be sent back to stay here and I want you to bring in The Flying Fox as well. I don't have to explain why this is an 'all hands on deck' situation." With a theatrical flourish that was Papa III-worthy, he disappeared. Someone must have keyed his aura to the wards or else he would have had to leave through the portal we kept in a spare closet.  We stood silently for a minute. It was time to visit Necropolis.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"So. This is Necropolis." I surveyed the ridiculously large gate rising 30+ feet over my head. It was even bigger in person.Even behind the mask, Mercury couldn't hide his look of disgust. "A cesspool of syphilis to be certain." How oddly...specific of him.Earth scrunched his nose at Mercury's description. "Mmm, looks more like a ghost town to me. A ghost town in despair.""Yeah!" Water nodded in agreement. "Like, you see shapes but no one's there. Spooky."Omega shook his head at their antics and made the first move toward the gate. "Let's cut the chatter guys – I'd rather get this over with and go home."I didn’t like the tone of his voice – the set of his shoulders was unbearably tense and it worried me. Papa was just someone I knew in an offhand kind of way and even though Omega said he would be fine with whatever happened, it still scared me to death he wouldn’t be the same after all was said and done.Wouldn’t be the same in a terrifying kind of way.I shook off that annoying feeling of dread and trailed after him, hustling to catch up with his purposeful stride. “That’s just fine but how do you propose we get in?”The cops still had the gate blocked from the curious (i.e. stupid) onlookers and I really didn’t think they would allow us to flounce right in, no matter how many times we told them we knew the guy who could give Walt Disney a run for his money in the asshole department.My comment brought Omega up short. The others shuffled behind us and we stood awkwardly just beyond the large crowd that grew every hour despite police efforts to keep them away from the area. Fools.As Omega opened his mouth to speak a godawful shriek tore through the air and we looked around wildly for the source of such an obnoxious noise. Earth was the first to identify what we heard – the gate of Demon Land was swinging open.The cops did the smart thing and began backing away, weapons drawn but waiting at the ready by their sides. The crowd, however, lost their damn mind and surged forward in a great rush. That lasted for about thirty seconds and they quickly realized the error of their ways when two dark shapes came winging through the opening, screaming loud enough to rival the gate hinges.The enormous creatures only hovered above the rapidly panicking crowd at first, giving us a clear view of their anatomy. Black as pitch they moved as though they were merely shadows, silent except for those horrible screams. I would have thought them mutant bats but they appeared to have no discernible facial features; where a face would have been looked like a plain black stump of flesh. How they were making sound was a mystery.“What the fuck are those things?” Alpha shouted above the din. Mercury shrugged as though this were an everyday occurrence and mouthed, “Bats?”We didn’t have much time for discussion because Shadow Bat #1 proved it did indeed have a mouth and dove toward the people blocking the gate with its maw gaping wide, dozens of off-white teeth glistening sharply.(Though we were supposed to be the world’s heroes from this moment on it didn’t even occur to me to try and stop the crazy thing from eating anyone)We stood in some kind of fascinated horror as the creature halted its dive and back beat its wings to steady itself in the air; what must have been its throat undulated in a vomiting motion and out spewed forth a liquid so green it rivaled anything ever seen on Halloween. Bile splashed thickly on the humans around us, the splatting sound was enough to turn any strong stomach but the sound could not even begin to compare to the stench. It was as though someone mixed rotting corpses with a landfill, added a dash of sewer water, and blended it all up into one big bowl of puke soup.Our gagging was momentarily halted when the wails of people rose up to drown out the monsters above them. One man who took a particularly bad hit from the goop stumbled blindly past us, the skin on both his forearms sliding wetly from muscle and bone to flop unceremoniously to the ground, his eyeballs melted in runny streaks down the deteriorating flesh of his squishy cheeks.“No seriously, what the fuck are those things?!” Alpha was nearly frantic as I shoved him from behind toward the gate.“Bats! Bats are a good fucking answer – now GO!” My voice was high and thin, fear keeping the words choking in the back of my throat. We ran pell-mell through the throng of disintegrating bodies toward what we hoped would be safety behind the gate; after all, Papa thought we were still his allies. It wouldn’t do well to melt us yet, though it did raise an ugly thought – what if he set those beasts on us after we told him to shove it?The crack of bullets quickened our footsteps and it took me a second to realize the police thought this was a battle they could win. Stupid! But they didn’t know any better and we mighty saviors had been too busy thinking of the kind and loving Papa to remember he had lost his damn mind.It was a hard lesson for everyone to learn.After what felt like eons we sailed past the fence and into the empty streets of Necropolis; knowing what might possibly lay hiding beyond the windows and doors of the buildings around us gave the place an overwhelmingly sinister feel. I desperately fought a case of the shakes and we began to move once more.We would actually have quite a walk ahead as the castle stood smack in the middle of the town. Our magic would more than likely work here but I was afraid it would be viewed as a challenge…though that was precisely what we were setting out do in the long run. Still, it seemed unnecessary to anger Papa sooner than need be. It took nearly forty five minutes to reach our destination and by the time we reached the oversized double doors of that slick demonic palace we had fallen uncharacteristically silent.The doors in front of us slid open smoothly with a velvety whoosh, raising the hair on the back of my neck. Apparently we were expected.I wasn’t entirely certain what to expect once we reached the inside of the castle but it wasn’t what we found.  We entered a cavernous room, dark except for light streaming through tall cathedral windows (fake for sure, as the sky around the area wasn’t bright enough to provide such illumination). This I imagined but the rough stone floor, stone walls, and bareness of the place was not; there wasn’t a hint of furniture or the modernity that flourished on the outside of the structure.A terrified cry echoed off the walls and Mist darted off like a shot toward a set of stone steps. Air was behind her in an instant and the rest of us followed. Well, all but Mercury, Sulfur and Salt that is. They appeared to be in no great hurry as they surveyed our surroundings and moved almost reluctantly to come with everyone. I lost sight of them as we pounded up the steps toward the commotion that was growing louder every second.We burst out of the stairwell into a living room straight from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Fluffy white carpet, an oversized and overstuffed black leather couch and a theater-sized movie screen greeted us, as did Papa, who was lounging casually on the couch.“Ah my friends! I am so glad you decided to join me to watch the show – I know how tempting it must have been to stay and watch firsthand.” He clapped his hands together gleefully and I saw the screams were coming from the speakers stacked next to the screen. The mayhem outside the gate flashed by at a dizzying speed on screen as someone tried to capture everything on film instead of running away like a sane person. A little news logo lit up in the corner of the screen and no more explanations were needed.The cameraman swung his equipment to the sky and managed to get a great closeup of one of the monsters before it landed heavily upon him and the screen went black.Papa scowled in annoyance and shut the tv off with a smack of the remote. “Damned brats. How can I enjoy your welcome home party if they eat the cameraman? Bah, they were useless in the band and now they’re useless pets.”The Ghouls stiffened noticeably at Papa’s words and Water seemed to speak before he had a chance to think. “What do you mean, ‘in the band’?”Papa gave an elegant shrug and walked over to a bar tucked discreetly in the corner of the room. He poured a dark amber liquid in a crystal tumbler and swirled it around almost carelessly. “No need for the hostile tone, dear Water. If I had not turned those interfering wretches into my pets you would not have your position – you or Earth.” He began pacing in front of the screen.Alpha pointed a shaking finger in the direction of the front gate. “You mean to tell me,” His voice shook harder than his hand as he continued, “that those are, are Water and Earth?”“Yes, yes of course, dear boy! Did you believe they would really want to leave a band such as Ghost?” Papa’s answering laughter was scornful. “No, they happened upon my predecessor and I having a word about our future plans for domination once I took over the vessel and would have gone screaming to the rest of you had I not stopped them. Papa II loved them, the foolhardy old goat, so I made them our minions instead of outright killing them.”He stopped pacing and sipped his drink. “They have the potential to be useful but enough of their original spirit remains that they always manage to disobey my orders in some destructive manner. Killing them might have been more of a mercy.”Alpha lunged for the Fallen, his eyes unfocused out of sheer rage, but was stopped by Omega’s solid form. He struggled to get around the larger man but Omega held him fast as Salt leaped forward to assist, locking Alpha’s arms behind him with his own. We hadn't even heard the trio enter the room. Luckily Papa was far too lost in thought over his mad scientist experiment with the two former Era II band members and didn’t seem to notice.Unluckily no one had thought to cover Alpha’s mouth. “You son of a bitch!” His shout was edging on hysterical. “You’re nothing but a fucking monster!”He struggled fruitlessly against Salt’s iron grip. “We’ll kill you! Do you hear me? We’ll destroy you for good!”Papa looked up from his musings and a smile stretched across his face, giving him an almost deranged appearance as his body language shifted from languid to predator. His mismatched eyes were glued to Alpha and his forward movement could only be described as stalking. Salt recognized the approaching danger and released Alpha’s arms but the ghoul made no move to attack or flee.One step at a time, oh so carefully Papa moved closer to Alpha, until he stood directly in front of his second favorite Ghoul. One gloved finger raised itself to rest before Alpha’s nose and waggled back and forth, Papa’s ‘tsking’ indicating the ghoul was in for some chastisement from his Papa.Mercury cleared his throat in an overly loud fashion and sighed dramatically. “This is fucking ridiculous and I have better things to do.” He grabbed Alpha by the shoulder and dragged him away to thump soundly against Air and Earth and faced Papa with an almost amused stance.“The kiddies have come to break up with you, Emeritus. Whatever silly shit you’re trying to pull is illegal by international, intergalactic, and interdimensional standards and if you don’t vow to cease and desist the world will have to unleash holy and unholy amounts of hell on you. Capisce?”Breathing was not an option at that moment in time. Two heavy weights were squaring up and we were about to get caught in the crossfire.This was it.Papa’s laugh broke the silence. It began as a mere chuckle and grew until he was hunched over in the most undignified manner, great guffaws rolling through him in waves. Black eye makeup trickled over the white of his cheeks as tears of mirth couldn’t be stopped from overflowing.Mercury stood patiently as he waited for Papa to contain himself, which he did slowly.“Ah, ah where have they been hiding you then, my masked friend?” Papa’s accent was gone and I knew we were still in grave danger. I’d only heard his hideously fake voice falter once before, after the Ghouls had been killed. Mercury would need to play this very delicately. “Don’t you worry about me, Emeritus. We’re finished here I do believe, unless any of you have something to add?”No one did.“We’ll be on our way then.”Mercury backed away a few steps with his eyes still locked with Papa’s and then presented the fallen angel with his back.None of the rest of us moved; something wasn’t quite right.Papa’s creepy smile returned as he spoke. “That is rather cute, you thinking I might be intimated by such a pitiable creature. Tell me - how much candy can one get when trick or treating in a getup such as the one you are wearing? Is it none? Because the other kids beat you up and take it?”In a preternaturally fast move we could barely see, Mercury went from walking away to slamming Papa in the wall, holding him up with one hand by the throat.“I feel like you’re not understanding me completely.” Mercury’s thickly distorted voice vibrated beneath my skin, making me want toss my cookies all over Papa’s pretty white carpet. “A demonstration is in order I do believe.”Mercury’s free hand slammed open to the left with an artist’s precision and the wall exploded outward. Parts of Necropolis were exposed to our gaze and Papa somehow managed to giggle around Mercury’s hand.“Nice…part-y trick.” He ground out.You could almost hear the leather of the mask around Mercury’s mouth creak as he matched Papa’s own grimaced smile. His hand slid up from Papa’s throat to grip him only by the chin and forced him to look out upon his city.With another punch of power and wind, an entire section of Necropolis was gone. It wasn’t destroyed, decimated, didn’t lay in ruin; it simply didn’t exist anymore. Mercury lashed out twice more: bam! another section of town gone, boom! a chunk of fence could no longer be counted among Papa’s security measures.Mercury leaned in close to Papa’s neck and inhaled deeply. “The stench of you, Abomination, is almost more than my senses can bear.” His voice was barely more than a whisper but was still amplified. “Can you smell yourself, demon? How you do not end your own existence is beyond me but I will do it for you if this insanity continues after this day. Filthy mongrel.” He proceed to spit directly up into Papa’s face.“To me you are a child having a hissy fit, your existence so new it should not be a threat to a flea. Yet here you are. I have only been free for a pittance and I am already sick of you.”Very suddenly he dropped Papa to the floor. The usually smooth Pope was either too stunned or oxygen deprived to catch himself and landed with a thump on his bottom.“You certainly have the message now.” Mercury spat again and turned his back on Papa once again. A wave of his hand was the only indication we were to follow.No one, not even Air, noticed Papa stumble up from his sitting position to launch himself at Mist.No, no one noticed him pressing a folded piece of paper into her hand as she left.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sleep wouldn't come.Impatient Mercury zapped us back home the instant we left the walls of the castle and stormed off to his rooms, his 2 beaked shadows trailing behind like a pair of obedient dogs. Mist and Air followed his lead, walking hand and hand through the back door and off to their small cottage. Mist's face was pale and strained but I attributed it to the fact that seeing Mercury's powers at work once more must have recalled some terrifying memories. Air seemed to no worse for wear but it was a rare day he showed much emotion anyway.   The rest of us idled around the kitchen, dragging food from the cupboards out of sheer habit. No one was truly hungry but the prep work gave us something to focus on other than the horrors we'd witnessed earlier. The realities of the coming war were sinking in more quickly than we were able to absorb. Alpha was the first to speak as we crowded around the restaurant style booth in the kitchen. Omega sat next to him, one hand on his shoulder the entire time we ate in silence. Alpha's eyes were rimmed red though he hadn't cried (not that I had seen) but his voice was thick and shaky when he spoke.   "We'll help them won't we?"  Earth, Water and I exchanged puzzled glances but Omega nodded and replied, "Of course we will. Why don't you ask Mercury or Air if they know of a way to release them, once you have something hot to eat. Ellie could ask Lucifer if they aren't sure what to do." He rubbed his friends shoulder in a soothing way and caught my eye; pain dulled the vibrancy I normally found in his gaze, nearly stealing my breath away. There would be no bouncing back from this.  Alpha's breath hitched on a sob as he stared determinedly at his plate. "...Water...He, and I-I..." He turned helplessly to face to Omega who only nodded again. "We'll find a way to bring them back, brother."  Ah, so that's what they were talking about. We resumed our silent meal, only now current Earth and Water looked equally as miserable. I didn't know if it was from guilt because they joined the band after Papa II and III committed a terrible act or because it still felt like Alpha loved Era II Earth and Water more.  Now I lay awake in bed, finally away from the main house. Everyone needed some space this night and went their separate ways after dinner.  Omega and I ended up back in his cabin, not speaking as we found our way inside. He had gone immediately to the couch and stretched out on his back, one arm coming up to cover his eyes. I flicked a little fire into the fireplace and then went to play an album from one of my favorite offbeat pop bands.My ghoul groaned loudly but did not look at me. "Ellie, why do you torture me with this trash?"Laughing slightly, I plopped down directly on top of him with my back against his front. “Careful there fella, or I’ll put in something worse.”He rolled us both over so we could face the fire, his arms wrapping around me to pull my back against his chest more tightly. His lips settled against my ear and sent goosebumps racing over my skin.“I can feel you, you know.”I wiggled my butt against his crotch. “Gee, I would hope so.”It was his turn to laugh but he didn’t move as I thought he would. “No, I mean I can feel your emotions. It’s not all the time and usually it’s only a glimpse, but I can feel them.”I tensed against his arms. I never felt comfortable when people could read me. The only way I was able to maneuver through life was to keep everyone off guard with a smart mouth and the ability to control their minds. “That’s, um, freaky? Is it a new ability?”“I doubt it. You mean you can’t feel me sometimes?”Giving it some thought, I supposed it did happen to me too. “I mean, I guess so? I always kind of figured I was really good at reading you.” I trailed off, thinking of all the times I somehow just *knew* he was upset, happy, or horny. The majority of those instances occurred when we weren’t even in the same space but with all of our abilities still somewhat unknown I’d never believed it anything special. I told Omega so. “I wonder what caused it?”Omega mimicked me and wiggled his hips against my butt. I giggled and hooted, “That’s right - sex magic!”I felt him go quiet behind me and amusement died in my throat. His next words came out little more than a whisper. “It’s more than just sex now and I think you know that.”The urge to flee returned in a rush and this time I couldn’t resist straining against his hold. “I-I don’t know what you mean.” Now was not the right time. It was so beyond the right time to have this talk.“Christ, Ellie.” He loosened his hold but still wouldn’t let me go. “You don’t have to have a fucking panic attack.”The pesky connection allowing him to feel my distress also allowed me to feel his disappointment. This was not the way he wanted the conversation to go.“Why are you always running away?”“I don’t run away.” I said it automatically, just like I did in every other relationship I’d had.“Bullshit.” He spat back at me. “You take off at the first sign something isn’t perfect. Remember when you fled back to the States to hide for a month?”Oh those were fightin’ words. Breaking his hold, I sat up and turned around to face him.“You canNOT still be upset about that situation! You had a psychotic break – and so did I!”Now it was Omega’s turn to sit up so that we sat side by side on the couch. “You know, I still think that explanation is a flaming pile of shit. It didn’t happen that way for me – I think you convinced Water and Alpha to lie to me.”Oh, of all the asinine things to say. Heaving up from the couch I flung my arms out wide in exasperation, until I felt a familiar feeling creep over me. It was an absolute terror to suppress a grin but I managed.It was worth it as surprise contorted his face when I tore my shirt over my head, flinging it away to the corner of the room. “Look, we can sit here all night and argue or you can realize this might be the last time we’re alone together.” Undoing the top button of my jeans, I held his eyes. “So are you going to fuck me or what?”Omega got up and pulled his shirt off, dropping it next to the couch. “That is the least sexy way a woman has ever invited me to screw her. I don’t know why I’m considering it.”This time I did grin and began walking backwards toward the bedroom, slowly releasing the next two buttons of my pants, sliding the zipper down bit by bit. “Because it’s so much better when we’re pissed at each other.”He came at me then and we eventually made it to the bed to land in a tangle of arms and legs, the next few hours spent forgetting everything but each other. We'd both fallen asleep after but only a short time later I felt the bed shift as Omega got up. I waited a few minutes, then went after him. He stood at the shelves in the living room, the ones holding his records, his fingers trailing over the album covers the way mine often did when I walked through my library stacks. There was strength to be gained from these beloved physical objects and Omega needed his time alone. I backed away from the opening and was about to climb back into bed when a knock sounded at the front door.  Curious, I paused at the foot of the bed and glanced back. I couldn't see much from this angle but Omega passed through my field of vision as he went to see who our visitor was.  A surprised curse rumbled from him, catching me off guard and I inched back toward the door.  "What in all Hell are you doing here?" Okay, judging from his tone this was not a welcome guest.  "Why darling Omega, you shun your Papa as well? I am hurt."  I bit my tongue to stifle my own curse as Papa's voiced floated through the house.  I could hear Omega snort in derision at those words, our connection allowing me to vaguely sense his disgust.  "I'm pretty certain Mercury was clear with his words, Papa. You know how we feel." "Bah, poo-poo on that buffoon. 'Mercury' - blech. An atrocious name to be certain." I heard something bump the front door rather forcefully. "Get away from the door, boy. Shoo, shoo! I am not having this conversation standing on the front porch like a commoner."  "Papa..." Omega gave up on trying to block the man from the house with a halfhearted laugh. His disgust melted away under a surge of amusement and affection. It squeezed my heart so forcefully I had to lean against the wall and shut my eyes tightly until the feeling passed.  "And go put on a shirt - why not that nice black one there beneath the couch. Eh, it is fine to live in a sex den but at least keep it tidy!"Water from the faucet blasted to life and I could hear someone banging around the efficient little kitchen.  "Papa, what are you doing?" "Why, making tea of course." Papa's personality was such a tangible thing I didn't need to see him to know one hand rested on his hip, the other waving around in the air as though his machinations should be so obvious. "Now where do you keep it?"  "Do I look like a man that keeps tea in his cupboards?"  "No...but you DO look like a man who keeps sweets under his pillow." More laughter, from both of them this time.  Chairs scraped against the wooden floor; they must have sat down at the kitchen table.  "I'm almost certain you can conjure tea if you want to, Papa."  Papa gave an answering, "Hmmm." and I heard the slight clink of china settling on the table. “There is something to be said for doing such small tasks with your own two hands.”A comfortable silence descended over the pair as (I assumed) they drank their tea.“Why are you really here?” There was nothing hostile in Omega’s tone but his suspicion was evident.“You said something earlier, Omega. You said “you know how we feel”, and this is just not the truth. That pointy headed mouthbreather gave an impressive speech but not one of you spoke for yourself. I am here to see if what he says is true or if you have not simply been swayed somehow.”“Swayed?”A rustle of clothing indicated Papa had moved but I couldn’t see how. Omega answered my question a heartbeat later. “Ellie? How am I being swayed by her?”“Omega, she is clearly a Lucifer plant! How do you not see such things clearly?” My stomach soured at his words. “She cannot be such a great, how you say, piece of ass? Hmm? I have seen you get better.”A harsh crack shook the wood of the table. “Stop that. You’re only saying this to cause trouble – Jesus, Papa I’m not stupid!”“No but you are acting it! Let me guess: you love her but she refuses to commit, to return your feelings? Yes?”Ah shit. Pardon me for having baggage! I wanted to barge in to the kitchen and pour his precious tea down his pants.“It doesn’t matter if she is some sort of spy or whatever – I still don’t think what you’re trying to do is right!”You go baby! I mentally cheered Omega on, at least secure knowing he would still take my side even if I wasn’t a ‘good piece of ass’.Omega’s mind brushed against mine. Ellie? Are you awake?Oops, too hard! Cheering too hard!I slammed my mental wards in place and hoped he would stay in the kitchen. Eavesdropping wasn’t very nice but I had no desire to face Papa again so soon.“Earth to Omega!” The sound of fingers snapping impatiently. “You only think you know what I want. Have you heard my plans directly from my own mouth?”“Uh, yeah – several times now. You kind of keep telling us over and over.”“Oh.” A pause. “Okay. So we are clear then.”“Papa, I don’t know what you came here to prove or get me to say but your actions have not been of an innocent man, or even a good man! Everything you’ve done since taking over from Papa II has been a lie. You attacked innocent people, turned two of my friends in to slaves, and got the others and I killed for God’s sake! How much longer do you want this list to get?! Why can’t you stop?!”Omega was shouting as he finished. I didn’t need to sense his emotions to know there was hope there: hope that all could still be forgiven somehow, that it wasn’t too late.“Omega, this world is a mess. You would agree, yes?”I could only hear silence.“Yes…well, it is. This wicked little planet needs a guiding hand-” Dear Satan, he was going with the Loki defense. “-and someone needs to stop the destruction. I could do that.”Omega sounded flabbergasted as he answered, “That’s…that’s the stupidest excuse I’ve ever heard! If it were true you know damn well you could rule everyone on Earth now, with the powers you have. Screwing around with an interdimensional God is overkill.”“Ah, you are correct! But…eh, I like power.” Papa sounded so pleased with himself.There was another long pause.“You’ve visited the others?” Omega’s voice had gone flat.“No, you are my first stop. Whatever you say they will hold in high esteem – I needed to know where your loyalty truly lay. I suppose I have my answer.”“Yeah, I think you do. And stay away from Alpha, you’ve hurt him enough. You know how he was with Water…”“The world will be better when I have what I want, you know.”“No, Papa. Somehow I don’t believe it will.”“That’s not what a friend of yours tells me.”Omega sighed heavily. “And what friend would that be?”Papa cleared his throat and I felt a shift in the atmosphere; it felt as if a fluffy blanket had descended over the house and all I wanted to do was bury my face in its warmth and security. Suddenly the looming war between good, batshit crazy, and evil didn’t seem so terrifying. What was I so worried about?And why had I ever wanted to leave this place before? I couldn't remember. Why couldn't I just be with Omega forever? There didn't seem to be a good reason not to. Yes, I should tell him that.But I couldn't. Somehow I was sitting on the floor and it felt nice there. Nothing hurt here.A voice came from the room next to me; it was a lovely voice, with a softly lilting Swedish accent. It was a familiar voice but not a Papa voice, no, to be sure nothing like that had ever come from his mouth. But I'd heard it before.Think, think, think.Laughing. The voice had been laughing, then singing. Yes, it was a Papa voice but his original one, before he had become Papa Emeritus the First. Singing, joking.Omega had shown me videos of the man beneath the mask, had said it was the best way to remember him even though what Ghost became was what he always wanted and sacrificed himself for. Those brief moments made Omega happy-sad. It made me happy-sad too.Why was my brain so foggy?! Something felt unbearably wrong.I shouldn't be hearing the voice of a man long overtaken by an angel.Stumbling up from my slumped position I tried to hear what the voice was saying but the fuzziness wouldn’t go away fast enough. I hung on to the doorframe for a minute to catch my breath, then lurched out in to the living room. Lethargy crashed in to me once more and I managed to fall halfway against the couch before I could faceplant.Clearing away this cobwebby mess in my brain was imperative if I wanted to keep moving. Using the same technique I’d performed when expelling the demon that possessed me so many months ago, I reached deep within my psyche and examined the threads I found there.Unlike the thick tar-like substance that wreaked havoc in my head then, these threads were silvery and fine. They appeared to be weak but closer inspection told me they were coated with a monstrously sticky concoction that could possibly trap my essence if I wasn’t careful.Conjuring up my trusty sword, I decided I didn’t need to hack away at all the threads; just a few here and there needed to be disconnected so my mind could regain some composure. Simply cutting the thread wouldn’t do in this instance either. I touched the edge of the blade to a thicker strand and called upon my will to ignite it. Fire leapt hungrily for the sticky web and made quick work of it. A few more burned sections and I felt more in control. It would have to be enough. I snapped back into the real world to see Omega on his knees near the table. Tears were tracking down his cheeks but his eyes were closed. It looked like he was caught in the same trance I had been in but lacked the will to free himself. It was possible he didn’t want to, considering whose voice it was torturing him.Papa stood over the ghoul, one bare hand stretching out to his forehead as though he were about to bless him. Very abruptly I knew Papa couldn’t be allowed to touch him. If he did Omega wouldn’t be himself anymore and I wouldn’t allow that to happen.Using all the mental strength I could muster, I brought the table up from the floor with an ugly groan and launched it directly at Papa. Everything was still hazy so it didn’t have as much impact as I wanted but the distance it traveled was miniscule and was able to knock him back a few steps. It was all I needed.I came in low to the ground (more to keep my balance than any sort of tricky fighting move) and skittered across the floor as the table served as my distraction. Omega was still on his knees but looked less…controlled somehow? Maybe it was because he was no longer crying. There wasn’t much time to give him more than a glance: I was completely focused on Papa, so focused I didn’t even have a real plan. I just knew I wanted him away from Omega.Papa was shoving the table away to the side when I caught him around the knees in a spectacularly crappy tackle. It felt like I crashed into a brick wall, impressive considering how tiny the man was. He wobbled a bit above me but stayed firmly rooted to the floor while I bounced off his legs and sprawled in a heap at his feet.His face loomed over mine and briefly I gave thanks that Sister Imperator was not here to see this – my embarrassing death.One gloved hand wrenched my shoulder up but my head didn’t seem to want to cooperate. It kept lolling around away from Papa’s face (sure didn’t feel very good either). His uncovered hand reached over and gripped at my chin.It felt as though someone scalded the skin there with an iron heated in the fires of Hell. It didn’t just affect one area but rapidly spread until every inch of my body felt like someone was burning me on a funeral pyre. Screaming and without thinking, I lashed out with every ounce of the gifts Papa had given to me along with what I’d already had as human. Our skin to skin connection would make it more potent but I didn’t know how best to get him off of me.So I went with what I remembered from self-defense training and shouted a giant NO inside of his mind.That flux of power lit up the inside of his head like a Christmas tree. Nothing was lost to my gaze in that brief second of time and there I saw something more horrific than bat-vomit-splashed body parts.The thing that was supposed to be Papa was a vast, hulking presence here in this psyche. If the Nightmare King and Hexxus had a baby then dressed it in the clothing of Lord Malice, you’d have the mind possessed by a Fallen Angel. The stench of damnation was all consuming as well, but the Fallen’s appearance here wasn’t the disturbing part. In the corner, nearly suffocated by the incomprehensibly black ichor, struggled a luminous yellow light. Its radiance was a sight to behold – if I’d had lungs in that instance they would have been totally devoid of oxygen, breathlessness taken to a whole new level.It was the soul of the man who inhabited this body first as a mortal.  He was still here.A mad frenzy shot through me. Something so pure should never be snuffed out in such an vicious way!I’d never tried attacking inside someone else's mind but it was worth a try.  This could be my chance to get rid of Papa once and for all. Manifesting my own sword, I set it ablaze and hastily touched it to the nearest bit of goo that was crushing the soul. The flame worked like a dream and streaked across the inky sludge like lightning. Before I could burn anything else, the fire reached the end of the substance and kept going to lick at the soul to soothe its insatiable hunger. A sharp cry split my skull and suddenly Papa wasn’t the only monster torturing what used to be a person.The cry tore at my concentration far too much and Papa regained control, expelling me with a burst of energy. Or he tried to anyway. Part of my essence had gotten stuck in gunk I’d so carelessly waded into and now we were fused together. Anger surged without mercy across my senses and I let it build until there was nowhere else for it to go but out. Deadly as a cannon shot, the dam with me broke and I was catapulted away from Papa’s mind and his body when my essence slammed back into my bones. I flew up and over the couch to smack into the brick of the fireplace, and Papa was not unaffected by our tussle either. His lithe body careened backwards, through the wood of the front door and across the porch like a marionette dancing in a wild breeze.I couldn’t see where he flipped after that but I knew he wouldn’t be down for long.Something in my back felt out of sorts, making the crawl toward Omega’s prone form incredibly difficult. I didn’t have time to wait for it to heal but my progress across the floor was too slow. Papa would be back in here any second, more torture than teasing in my future now.A sharp flash of light momentarily blinded me and a pair of wings filled my vision.“Lucifer!” It was probably the one and only time his name was said like prayer instead of a curse. My boss looked down on my pitiful form with a scowl and then crouched so I could see him more clearly.“Ellie, I hate to tell you this but you look like shit.”Swiping at him halfheartedly I hissed, “How about we save the jokes for later? Get us the hell out of here!” I paused. “Please.”He looked over to Omega and grumbled. “I told you these ghouls were trouble. See? Passed out already. What good-““How about you insult my boyfriend after we’re safely away from the homicidal manic angel outside? Yeah?”He still looked disgusted but complied. “Get to HQ. I’ll send your boy-toy along momentarily.”Grunting through the pain, I coughed up a bit of blood and spat it out on the floor. “Get the others too. They don’t know what’s going on yet.”Lucifer stared at me as though my brain train had vacated the station. “I hate to break it to you kid but Papa went to see them first.” Now the breath truly did leave my lungs as fear paralyzed them. “No, now they’re all okay…but Emeritus demolished all the houses. The main house, Air & Mist’s place – they’re all gone.”The wall around us began vibrating with all of the intensity of an earthquake. “And I suspect he’s about the trash this place too.” Lucifer caught my arm and dragged me across the room, snagging Omega by his arm as well.The last thing I saw before we ported out was the wall of bookcases crumbling down to reveal the night sky.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Having the ability to automatically heal injuries is one sweet perk of being a Ghoul, but it still hurts like a bitch.I was laying flat on my stomach, feeling every shard of bone knit itself back together and not having a good time.We'd made it back to HQ where Lucifer promptly dragged Omega and I off to the infirmary ward to rest. My pain wasn't so bad and would only take a minute or two to heal but Omega was an unknown. Unconscious when Lucifer set him on the bed, his eyes were now open though he didn't do more than stare at the ceiling while I groaned loudly in the bed next to him.I felt the final 'pop' of a bone align in its rightful spot, letting loose a string of nonsensical swears as I sat up and carefully stretched."You're making a lot noise over there."My heart went into overdrive when Omega spoke. Sarcasm is good – it meant I hadn't lost all of him quite yet."I had to do something to get you awake. You're a horrible date."His responding smile was small and fleeting but it made me feel a little better. Now I needed a way to broach the subject of Papa without upsetting him more."Do you want to talk about it?""How much did you hear?" He glanced over at me, not moving more than his head."All of it."His laugh was humorless. "I knew you were awake." He blew out a breath, his eyes roving back over the ceiling as though he'd find some answers there. "No, there isn't much to talk about. It was a trick – a trick designed to catch me off guard and it worked." He began to frown as he talked. "It was stupid of him to pick last night for that show. He would have been better off saving it for later."Every muscle in my body cringed: Omega didn't know his friend’s soul was trapped with a monster. This would be the most opportune moment to tell him – we were alone, it would give him time to come to terms with it, and we could decide together how best to tell the other Ghouls. Perfect.Instead I said, "Um, well he did try to kill us and the others. It sounds like the perfect way to distract you so we couldn't escape."I could tell him one of his oldest friends was alive. I could tell him the man's soul was being snacked on by what amounted to a demon. I could tell him we would find a way to save the soul and live happily ever after Papa-free.But I didn't.I would ask Lucifer first if it was possible to retrieve or restore the soul. Would his friend return or we be stuck with an empty husk of a human that breathed and moved but did nothing else?And if that were the case and there was no saving the true man then...what Omega didn't know wouldn't kill him.He shook me from my thoughts by literally shaking me. "Ellie! What do you mean he tried to kill the others?"I looked up at him and placed my hand over his where is rested on my shoulder. "Papa lied when he said he came to you first. Lucifer said all the other houses are gone, even the main house. He said everyone's okay though."His hand gripped mine and he pulled me up. "Come on, let's go see if that's true. I don't trust Lucifer as far as I can throw him." I was able to calm him long enough to search the room for spare clothes; I did not feel like having the entire contingent of Keepers see me in my nightgown. We found clean jeans and plain black t-shirts that fit both of us relatively well and dressed in silence. Omega kept his hand closed around mine as we ventured down the hallway, me taking the lead when we came to an intersection. I didn't need to look very hard to find our companions – the amount of noise they were making led us right to them in the HQ cafeteria. Whether they be men or Ghouls, they could always find time to stuff their faces.Walking over to them, we saw they were surprisingly jovial considering what they'd been through, and I said as much when we sat down at the table.Water was scarfing down a burger, half of it sticking out of his mouth as he answered. "At this point I'm just glad we're surviving whatever Papa throws at us. Means we might have a chance in hell of stopping him." His point was then emphasized by a coughing fit when part of his burger went down the wrong way. Earth thumped him on the back until he got himself under control.Omega's face was the picture of skepticism and a hint of distaste as he watched Water hack up a lung. "Very smooth." Directing his words to the rest of the table he asked, "How did you get out of there? I didn't see much warning before..." He fell silent and I knew he was thinking about Papa's "trick"."He hit my place first." Earth declared. "Probably thought I'd be the most trusting, as if. I was already heading over to Water's to watch a movie when I heard the place collapse. Didn't even turn back."Through their telepathic link he had warned Water and the two ported to the main house. After witnessing Mercury's superior skills earlier they knew he would be their best bet to hold Papa at bay. Alpha was already there, and they let Air know what was happening through the link as well."We tried to get to you guys too, Ellie, but your shielding was too strong." Earth said. "We were just about to go get you when Papa showed up.""What happened?!" It sounded like they cut it awfully close with their escape."Mist and I placed the house under our own personal wards." Air broke his silence. "It's a very temporary effect but not even Papa nor Lucifer himself could break through. It didn't sit well with the wards already placed on the property, which is why we could not hold out indefinitely." His arm sat on Mist's shoulders, her body leaning against his side. I realized every time I saw the two of them together since their reconciliation, they were always touching in some small way. It warmed me knowing that even amidst all this drama something good was found once again.“Lucifer burst out of the pathway to your Headquarters and told us to go through. When he realized you were not with us, he said he would find you. There was no time to argue.” Air almost sounded guilty in those last few words and I realized looking at him that he did feel that way. In his mind he’d left us to the unknown because…well, because he was afraid.This revelation rattled me more than I imagined. It was possible for Air to be afraid even though he was a truly powerful and ancient being. Leaving us behind meant he didn’t know how to stand up to Papa. My stomach churned, acid climbing up my throat – could we even win this fight?I viciously tamped down on the bile before it could introduce itself to the table. Something else was vexing me anyways. I turned to Mercury. “So you can pick Papa up and shake him around like a toy doll but you couldn’t kill him? What gives?”Annoyance flashed through Mercury’s eyes, enough to worry I might have said the wrong thing, but then it disappeared as quickly as it came. “It’s not my place.”Silence descended over the table.“That’s horseshit.” Alpha said quietly.Mercury looked at him from across the table but didn’t say anything, waiting for Alpha to continue.Alpha crossed his arms in a sullen gesture and refused to meet Mercury’s eyes. It was childish to be sure but made it clear he had nothing more to offer to the conversation.Water made a noise of frustration and threw up a hand. “Care to elaborate?!”The annoyance I’d seen briefly before came back and stayed. “Because,” Mercury ground out, “free will is not a luxury I am afforded by my Master. I have told you endlessly that I am here only to do his bidding. He has not expressly told me I am to kill Emeritus.” A muscle in Omega’s jaw twitched dangerously and I squeezed his hand tightly in my lap. “But when yo-“Mercury cut me off before I could finish. “That was a loss of control on my part.” He shut his eyes as though speaking to someone in his mind. “My Master likes to see how far I can be pushed; it is the ultimate test of my loyalty.” He indicated Salt and Sulfur with a nod of his head. “We were not meant to become what we are. Puppet Master often leaves me without His guidance, to see what choices I think I might like to make. Sometimes He agrees and sometimes he does not.”“That sounds like a terrible existence.” Alpha’s arms were still crossed but he was looking directly at Mercury now.Mercury shook his head. “I have been well rewarded for it. I have no complaints or desire to change who I am now.”“So-” Earth interrupted their exchange. “So what you’re saying is you can kill Papa, but you won’t because the Puppet Master hasn’t told you to yet?” He couldn’t quite keep the incredulity from his tone.“Yes.” Mercury replied. “It should also be known that He may never give us permission assist you. I do not claim to know His motives.”Air was afraid. Mercury wouldn’t help. Our two biggest hitters were pretty out of commission until something drastic changed. This situation was looking bleaker by the second.To Omega I said, “We better call in Niels. See if he’s gotten anywhere with his plans for Puppet Master. He might be able to help.”Mist emitted a hiccupping sob in that moment, bringing our attention to her. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”The alarm on Air’s face would have been amusing had the situation not been so serious. Mist wasn’t one to fall apart at the drop of hat. Air nudged at her chin with one of his big hands so that she would face him, drawing her shimmering curtain of white hair away from her cheeks.Naked power and raw hurt were at war in her eyes. Blue electricity crackled along her milky skin and her hair began to float eerily around her head like a halo. The lights above us flickered rapidly.Abruptly the magic show stopped and she looked nearly normal. “Papa Emeritus-” She was only speaking to Air, acting as if none of us existed. “As we left Necropolis he gave me something.”Everyone at the table tensed in unison as she drew a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. “It’s a ritual. A ritual to…” Her words fell off as Air stroked a thumb across her cheekbone in a soothing motion. “Air, this is not our fight. I have been looking for a way out of this form for centuries a-and Papa gave that to me.”Air looked uncertain. “What does this mean?”She looked utterly miserable as they searched each other’s eyes. “Papa gave me the ritual to free myself. To finally die.”No one moved. No one breathed.Then the walls around us trembled. It was happening far too much for my liking. Dust began to rain down from what passed for the ceiling and Mercury hissed, “Mist! Stop before you kill us all!”Mentally I filed his panic away in the back of my mind; it was now a safe bet to assume that Puppet Master had to allow Mercury to defend himself in situations as well, and it was possible Mist was powerful enough to cause him harm.She still looked like shit but pain vanished from Mist’s face, replaced with a stern glare. “That’s not me.”The floor underneath us shook with enough force to cause the table we sat around to shift and we stumbled up from our seats. Large chunks of stone were beginning to fall around us, forcing everyone to back up along the edges of the walls to avoid being directly knocked in the head.I shouted loud enough to be heard above the din, “Get to the bullpen!”Earth called back, “What the fuck is that?”Pointing to the hallway I screeched back, “Where all the desks are, you dolt!” I ducked through the doorway and took off at a steady sprint. Omega was close on my heels and I assumed the others would simply just follow us even if they had no idea where to go.Cracks were climbing up the walls and more hunks of ceiling came down hard enough to draw blood. A piece smashed into my shoulder, throwing me off balance and I would have gone down if Omega hadn’t grabbed me by the back of my pants and hauled me upright.Shoulder throbbing and terror riding high in my throat, we careened wildly through the maze of HQ. We didn’t run in to anyone else as we barreled along; if the place had been evacuated then Lucifer must know what was happening.We flooded out from the hallway into the cavernous workspace that housed the majority of the Keepers desks. Lucifer stood on the opposite side of the room where the staircase led up into the bar above, frantically flapping his thick arms as though he wasn’t one of the most powerful beings in the universe. HQ must have been empty because he was wearing his half naked winged form.The stone walls here were also crumbling rapidly and my brain stopped thinking; instincts kicked in and I didn’t even hesitate, racing across the open space like the hounds of hell were snapping at my legs. The others followed closely behind, leaping over broken pieces of furniture and dodging vast pits opening in the floor. A few of us definitely couldn’t miss all the debris but we made it to the stairway with only minor cuts and bruises.I huffed weezily, gripping Lucifer’s forearms for balance. My legs were shaking with adrenaline. “What…?”He shouted in my face, “No time! Up the stairs!”“Port?”Again he shook his head. “Something’s blocking the magic here. We can’t do anything other than run.”And with that he shoved me forward and instinct once again took over to carry me up the stairs. Lucifer had reinforced the wards on HQ after Papa’s first attack but apparently it hadn’t been enough. I slammed through the door leading to the bar and found much of structure here torn away; one minute I was in a dark hallway and the next I was standing outside in the blinding sunlight. Things on the surface weren’t much better than underground: the offices on either side of the bar were demolished in a heap of stucco and chicken wire – the best Phoenix had to offer from their buildings.Whirling around, I found Lucifer standing at the back of our group. “What’s going on?”He didn’t give me a response other than to point over my head. Slowly I turned back and looked up. A few blocks away an enormous purple and black tower tore up from the ground and stuck obscenely into the sky.Necropolis was coming to town.All around us Papa’s town was growing rapidly. Lucifer stalked past me, almost calm amidst the chaos now that we weren’t trapped below the surface. “Emeritus managed to stifle the magic in this region. He’s already taken London, New York, LA, Shanghai – Ellie, the casualties of this are going to be in the millions.” His eyes were a little wild. “He’s coming for me, for us, here.”He jogged away from me and the rubble of our building, crossing the street to a large black SUV parked on the corner. I scrambled after him, attempting to keep my balance as the world fell around us. “How did you know? HQ – it’s empty.”He opened the passenger doors to the SUV and gestured to me to get in. “Oracle. Now get in!”“You’ve got an ORACLE?!” I shrieked hysterically at him, resisting the pressure he placed on my arm to force me inside the car. “You never thought it would be a good idea to ask them about ALL OF THIS EARLIER?!”“They’re not always reliable, okay? Get in the fucking car!”I ripped out of his hold. “No! We’re not all going to fit.” I glanced behind me at the others. “Take Air, Mist, Mercury and the Beaky Boys. Mercury can’t fight Papa directly but he doesn’t know that, so it’s likely he’ll be targeting him too. You’re the only one strong enough to protect him.”As I named them, each person climbed in the car. “Earth, Alpha, Omega, Water and I will run back to my house. It’ll be a tight fit but we can squeeze in my car.”Omega touched my shaking arm gently. “Ellie? What’s the plan?”I stared up at him for a second and then back at Lucifer.“This ends now. We take the fight to him – to the real Necropolis. If we can’t port, we drive. We finish this.”Lucifer nodded in agreement. “Splitting up will keep his focus divided. He can’t possibly be strong enough to keep the magic down in the entire area. Have the Ghouls test it at every block and once it’s back you pull over and get the fuck out.” He ruffled my hair and smiled. “See you there, kid.”I grinned fiercely and slapped Omega on the butt. “Let’s roll, babe.” We took off for my house as Lucifer jumped in the driver seat and tore away into the street.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The tiny backseat of my Mustang was crammed full of Ghouls. Ghouls, mind you, who hadn't had a chance to shower in a great many hours. The street was quiet and empty as I backed the car out of the garage, which was a lucky thing because I was severely distracted by the amount of grunting and groaning coming from behind me."Earth, you've got to move over some.""I'm not even sitting in a real seat – where do you suggest I move to?! Water is already doing a piss poor job keeping his elbow out of my ribs!"Earth's comment was followed by a loud thump and a muffled cry. I glanced in the rear view mirror to find Water had Earth in a modified headlock and looked like he was doing his best to break his neck.I slammed on the brakes and sent them all crashing into the back of the front seats. Omega (already jammed in the front with his knees practically up to his ears) slapped a hand out to brace against the dashboard and glared menacingly at me. I flashed him a large, toothy smile."Seatbelts!" I chirped just to be extra annoying. Then I returned to staring at the men in the back, smile vanishing. "All of you, shut up! We've got to figure a way out of here and fast so I need you to concentrate."Alpha muttered, staring out the small window next to his head. "I knew I should have gone with Lucifer."I snorted and started the car moving once more. "Quit bitching. You'll live without your boyfriends for a few hours." My house was tucked back a few streets away from the main road and I steered toward it. Inside the car it was almost possible to pretend like buildings weren't crashing down around us, that people weren't dying because we had no warning and no time to help.Alpha's head whipped back like a sullen teenager being nagged by their parent. "They're not my boyfriends. Nothing's happened between us. We just talk." Earth and Water did little to stifle their disbelieving laughter and Alpha huffed, returning to his moody staring contest with the palm trees flashing by outside.Children. I was surrounded by children.I was also surrounded by chaos, it's presence making itself known as we reached one of the streets leading to the freeway; the intersection we came to at the exit out of my neighborhood was completely blocked. Both sides of the street had turned into a parking lot where angry drivers were honking and trying to cut each other off, even though they had nowhere to go. It looked like pretty standard Phoenix traffic (though people getting out of their cars to scream in each other's faces wasn't very common, though it did happen on occasion). At least gunfire hadn't broken out on this side yet and for that I was very grateful.Phoenix roads were built on a grid system, so I threw the car in reverse and headed back into the neighborhood, hanging a left at the first street I knew might take us away from the mess of traffic."Earth!" He was still tussling with the others for space; my car really only had room for four people but Earth was small enough he could sit between the two spots and not suffocate to death.Omega interrupted me before I could continue when Water kicked the back of his seat as he tried to push Earth more toward Alpha. "How in all Hell do you survive this clown car?!” Exasperation made his voice low and raw."Simple – I'm never a passenger.” We cruised past vacant-looking houses toward an open intersection. Most of the city was probably still too panicked to hightail it out of town and were choosing to ride the storm out holed up at home. This was our only chance of breaking through. I rolled up to a red light, hazarded a glance left, then right, and punched the accelerator to perform a perfect “California rolling stop”. Tires squealed as I dodged out among the oncoming traffic and everyone in the car sucked in an audible breath.I chuckled and gunned the engine a little. “Relax guys, even if we get hit it’s not like it will kill us.” No one appeared convinced but they finally stopped fighting, making it easier for me to concentrate on darting across the lanes that would get us to the freeway more quickly. Every time I blew through a red light Omega’s normally pale skin turned one shade whiter but I couldn’t feel his emotions whatsoever, which meant magic was still being restricted. I was beginning to feel like a broken record when it came to questioning our strength against Papa but now that Mist had voiced her desire to leave...well, we needed her. We needed Air too and if Mist 'died' or whatever it was she wanted to do then it would put him out of commission. I already knew he wouldn't care if the world ended or not because his would already be destroyed. Hopefully it was exhaustion and fear making her question even staying alive. It was a very human reaction and I understood where she was coming from. We finally blasted up the freeway on ramp and I careened a recklessly across five lanes of fairly light traffic to settle in the HOV lane. Flicking my eyes to the rear-view mirror I found we’d gotten on at the perfect place; a solid wall of cars formed a mile back, traffic too heavy for anyone to do more than crawl along sedately. I could see blue and red flashing police lights close to the front of the pack, meaning an accident had already occurred and chain reaction accidents were going to jam up the roads even worse. I hit the gas pedal with a lead foot and tore down the [mostly] open road. A few cars got on here and there though they fell behind quickly as we raced past them - maybe Papa had only targeted my neighborhood and the rest of the city was fine? Now all we needed to do was wait for our magic to return and we'd be home free.That is, until a tower sprouted up from the ground to the right and angled it's ascent so close to us that I'd swear one of my side mirrors skimmed the outside wall. I shrieked and pulled the wheel hard to the left, trying to ensure we didn’t slam in to the concrete divider in my efforts to overcompensate. The car crested a slight incline in the road and I realized we were in for some trouble.All around us towers were devouring pavement. One popped up on my left this time and I slid the car neatly into the lane to the right, only to have another glossy purple wall appear out in front of us. I braked hard and forced the car back to the left.“Where the fuck is the magic….” I whispered frantically beneath my breath. “Come on…come on…”Two towers grew directly in front of my eyes, forcing me to jerk the wheel all the way to the right, sending the car into a fishtailing side slide. I hit the brakes to control the skid and as we slowed a little, crushed the gas down to the floor. My car sputtered slightly, angry I was making him do so much work all at once, but the engine caught and we rocketed sideways along the lanes to clear the towers. It should have been a near impossible maneuver but the extra weight of four grown men kept the vehicle grounded enough to pull it off. Normally I had to keep extra weight in the truck to achieve such stability. I swung the front end wide to bring the car around straight but we managed to clear the freeway walls, the towers, and other cars. Everyone else had stopped dead when the towers began chewing through asphalt. I was the only crazy person left on the road.We hurtled over another hill and I could see an entire row of towers blocking our path only a couple hundred feet ahead.“Earth!” I barked at him, tense with adrenaline and fear, and just a tinge of exhilaration. “You remember the air trick you did with the books back in the library? The slide?”He nodded absentmindedly but wasn’t paying much attention, too busy paying attention to the shitstorm surrounding the car. Braking aruptly brought his focus back to me and I slowed down a bit so I could make him understand.“Look, Papa’s influence over the magic in this area has to end sometime. My guess it’s close to those towers, because why else block anyone from getting past them?” Earth’s eyes were slightly unfocused but I had him. Omega was scooching back in his seat as though it would protect him if we rammed into the structures before us; his eyes were practically bulging out of his head the closer we drew to the towers. I think my love did not enjoy the way I drove.I felt the slightest glimmer of his terror and my heart kicked into high gear. “Yeah, we’re damn close. Earth, I need you to do the slide trick again but I need it solid enough to hold this car. Like an air road - can you do it?”I didn’t need to see him to know he gulped comically like a cartoon character. “I don’t- I don’t know. I mi-might need help?”Exhaling, I tried to alleviate his worries. “Water and Alpha are right beside you. They can help. I need a big road guys, because if those towers keep coming we need space to dodge them. Make it as fluid as possible, okay?”Fifty feet from the blockade I felt my magic snap back into place and shivered from the sensation. Earth sent out such a tangible wave of power it fluttered my hair as it passed by my seats and exploded through the windshield. The glass didn’t break but it cracked ominously, spiraling out in a web from the center to reach the edges of the frame.I felt the nose of my car lift as though it were going up a ramp. The ground fell away but not fast enough to miss the towers entirely and I felt one of the spires tear some piece of machinery away from the undercarriage. Oh well. We shot up through the open sky.Earth kept our new path low enough that we could plainly see the landscape below us but higher than any of the standing towers, and I hoped it meant we didn't have to worry about them bothering us. Alpha and Water followed Earth's lead and adjusted their magic accordingly, keeping us out of the way of planes (though most of the flights around the world had to be canceled by now considering Papa cannibalized areas with the biggest airports) and more importantly, out of clouds that would have blocked our vision. If the tunnel fell we’d most definitely take some damage but there was a good chance we could survive, albeit with a broken limb or two.  All I had to do now was put the pedal to the metal and we'd hit Vegas in a few hours.From our vantage point we could see the destruction of the city more clearly. Not only did purple/black spiraling towers litter the landscape but they brought with them snarling black trees and vines. The towers flat out destroyed buildings and homes but the plants choked the debris that was left behind. We passed over a few areas where the vines were clearly strangling people who had managed to survive the initial wave of annihilation. I gripped the wheel tighter in my hands hard enough to make the wheel cover creak from the pressure and said nothing. We had to end this with Papa; if we stopped him then we shouldn't have a problem killing off whatever he left behind. Hopefully cut off from his power, it would all die on its own.Static echoed through my brain and suddenly Lucifer was howling inside my mind. “You don’t fucking listen do you, stubborn child!”“Lucifer! What do you want?” I spat back, though I said it aloud. Omega had his eyes squeezed shut but cracked one open when I spoke. The others didn’t react, too busy focusing on the task at hand.
“I told you to port once the magic returned. Why are you not here?”
“Two reasons: a). we got stuck on the freeway and I didn’t exactly have time to hop out, and b). I’m not leaving my car behind.”Lucifer's indignation and disbelief screamed across my senses. "Good lord man, calm down! You're giving me a headache. Let Papa think he killed us for a few hours, it'll give us a sur-"Something else screamed but it wasn't my boss.Below us I could just barely see what new monster we were about to face: pouring out of the towers were some truly abhorrent abominations. Their heads were so misshapen it appeared as though they had two and though I couldn't see facial features properly, their body shape spoke volumes. Rail thin, their arms and legs were gnarled with fingers and toes tipped with razor sharp claws that glinted in the sunlight.  Their skin looked like it was covered in the green scales of a reptile and their wings were a leathery deep azure color. Twisted golden spikes dotted their spines and gleamed with deceiving beauty as they fanned out across the city and surrounded the car. Their ear-piercing cries had us all ducking, trying to escape the noise.Lucifer started to say something but I yelled, "Gotta go!" and floored it. There was no way we could fight any of these things from a moving vehicle and I wasn’t about to stop. To do so would mean almost instant death. I was prepared to shake these things off like I did the towers but they didn't even give me a chance. Two crashed into the back of me, hooking their claws around the spoiler and snapping their wings wide to slow our speed. Another one landed on the roof, caving it in enough to make the interior of the car more uncomfortable than it already was. Panic closed off my throat and black spots danced across my eyes - I didn't want to die like this. A large pair of black boots appeared in front of me, crumpling the hood of the car something fierce. Lucifer, with his wings curled tightly against his back, braced one hand above the windshield and crouched down to level a murderous stare at me through the cracked glass. "Of all the stupid, hare-brained, idiotic - oof!" Air rushed out of his lungs when two demons caught him by surprise and dragged him backwards off the hood. Keeping just ahead of the car and in my line of sight, up they flew with him. After a few heartbeats I began to fear he wouldn't break their hold but I should have known better; Lucifer spread his wings with such deliberate sharpness that the arches cracked against the deformed skulls of the demons and punched through them like they were rotting pumpkins. He shook the corpses off and spiraled into a tightly controlled dive directly at the car. Demons were closing in on all sides but it didn't seem to matter as he landed heavily on the already damaged hood. He laid a palm flat against the center of the windshield, where Earth's power had weakened it, and drew back; shards of glass followed his fingers like metal to a magnet. With a flickering shake of his fingers he dispersed the shards and spread his wings once more to cover the opening so Omega and I wouldn't get faces full of dirt and skin-tearing wind, then reached forward to wrap his fingers around my wrist. I felt his magic take over the way it did when he saved us at Omega's cabin and from one breath to the next we went from barreling along Rainbow Road to bouncing over treacherous desert terrain in the middle of nowhere. I pumped the brakes frantically but our momentum was too great to slow us right away.My car was far too low to the ground to survive such mistreatment and the grill crunched solidly against a root protruding up from the earth, flinging everyone forward with bone-jarring intensity. Earth managed to catch himself between the two front seats and was only just barely saved from getting launched through the open space that passed as my windshield. Lucifer was torn away from the hood but managed a far more graceful landing, executing a perfect back-flip and ending in that "I'm a superhero" pose with one hand and knee braced against he ground. As I caught my breath I noticed there were others standing off to the side just behind his kneeling form. Mercury, Salt, Sulfur, Mist and Air were all there as I had expected, but they were joined by a few surprising faces. The Flying Fox stood to the left of the Tria Prima, his enormous dog sitting patiently at his feet. Sister Imperator leaned against a staff next to him, as though she would whack him in the head with it if he even thought about making a threatening move. More shocking, however, was the lineup of all of Hell's Princes - including Belial. The cavalry had arrived.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Was that,” I huffed grumpily as I kicked the car door open, “really necessary?!” Adrenaline made my voice more shrill than usual.Lucifer grunted in disgust as he pulled himself up from the ground, his pitch black wings snapping slightly to remove any dirt clinging to the tips. “You do idiotic shit like that but have the audacity to yell at me?” He was glaring down at me as though he’d like nothing better than to rip my head off. I tried to match his scary scowl with one as equally intimidating but I was woefully outclassed in this arena.I settled for petulant child instead.“I’m sick of this whole ‘surrogate parent’ thing you’ve got going on, Boss.” I hit the lever on my seat so Alpha could stumble out behind me. Earth had already scurried through the busted windshield, while Water did his best to support Omega as he regained his sea legs.Booming laughter echoed from somewhere in the Anti-God Squad and Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Satan.”Confusion clouded my thoughts for a second before I realized he wasn’t just evoking the name of his Dark Lord and Savior. The largest of the Princes (even bigger than Lucifer) broke away from the group and swaggered forward to clap a hand heartily against Lucifer’s shoulder, obviously uncaring of the deadly tension riding high in his brother’s body.“Luci-boy, it never fails to make me laugh when the little apes treat you like you’re one of them.”  As he spoke I found myself having to take a step back just so I could look up at him without putting strain on my neck. Unlike the prettier princes, Satan was rugged…and very ginger.Coarse, flaming orange hair was slicked back away from his face and ended with a slight curl at the nape of his neck. His fiery beard looked wiry and crept up his cheeks in wild rebellion but was otherwise very well kept. The docile hazel of his eyes was almost lost among such vibrant coloring, and while that was enough to draw a lifetime of attention, his build demanded even more. Taller than his oldest brother by at least half a foot and with muscles on the verge of being overdeveloped, not one square inch of the man was soft. Even his wings were a tough, leathery looking brown rather than feathered and I wondered if it was an aesthetic choice he consciously made or if he just got the short end of the stick in the wing department.Satan cocked an eyebrow in my direction as I contemplated this and moved away from Lucifer. Rolling his shoulders, he snapped his wings open to their full width and uttered words in a language I couldn’t begin to place. A great rush of energy rolled over us and suddenly his wings were engulfed in a brilliant, hungry flame.“Feathers just don’t give off the right kind of burn, little girl.” Unsure how to respond, I blinked at him a few times before blurting out the first thing that crossed my mind, “I thought Lucifer and Satan were the same person.”Satan extinguished his wings and fell in to another fit of mirth while his older brother rolled his eyes.“This is a complete waste of time.” Lucifer grumbled, which only served to amuse Satan more. “I’ve brought you all here for one reason and we need to move if we’re going to stop Emeritus from opening that door.” He motioned for myself and the ghouls to fall in line with the others, then went to stand in front of his brothers.“Moloch, you’ve kept your ear to the ground – what type of creatures are we looking at here?” Lucifer must have brought his brothers in to this matter ages ago if they had that kind of intel but I lost Moloch’s reply when a voice spoke quietly just above my head.“Moloch. A few thousand years older than I am. Dabbles in child sacrifice and funds abortions clinics around the world. A right bastard-“I half turned, startled, only to find Satan’s well-formed chest in my face. His enormous hand landed on my head and turned me so I faced forward again. “Wha..?”“Shut up and pay attention.” All of Satan’s irreverant demeanor had leaked away. “Luci-boy is going to ask you to do something dangerous in a minute and if you succeed you’ll be viewed as a threat, not just by the supernatural community but by us. I want you to listen to me and remember exactly what my brothers and I can do, why we’re the Princes of Hell, in case you ever get an urge to move up the corporate ladder.”“I wouldn’t, that never –“ I tried to reassure him not in a million years would I ever come gunning for his power but he told me to shut up again. I focused back on Moloch and committed each detail to memory.The Princes were quite different from one another for beings who were supposed to be brothers.Moloch was tall and rail thin, with slicked back icy blonde hair that lent him an androgynous appeal. His heavy brows made him look like he was always scowling but his pale face was as smooth as a baby’s butt, suggesting he'd never cracked any kind of expression in his life. Coal black eyes contrasted harshly with his blindingly pristine white wings. According to Satan, Moloch was as cold as they came and no one enjoyed socializing with him.As Lucifer moved down the line, so did Satan.“Abaddon.” Abaddon had the powerful build of an archer and dark brown skin that matched his dark brown dreads. His most striking feature were his burning amber colored eyes; it was the kind of color that would never let him pass as human. His wings were a deep, rich chocolate that melted down to feathers of fire the same amber as his eyes. “He has no use for humanity or Earth. He’s a stoic son of bitch and prefers logic to emotions. He runs Hell in Lucifer’s absence. Madness hasn't overtaken him in ten thousand years so we're waiting for him to crack.”The next Prince in line I’d seen before.“Asmodeus.” I whispered. Of all the Princes he was the most beautiful. Though he wasn’t as tall as the others, he was still sleek and graceful with perfect caramel skin and shaggy black hair that half covered his emerald green eyes. He appeared almost too young, something that probably appealed to more beings than I wanted to think about. His wings were black like Lucifer’s but navy blue feathers converged in to star shapes here and there. Everything about him screamed “take me now” and Satan confirmed it.“Mmmmhmm, that’s correct. Az is male in this form but he really has no preference on gender. When he’s human he spends as much time passing as a woman as he does a man, and looks like the dream date of whomever he wants to seduce. Most of his energy is spent running his escort company but he owns a chain of fetish stores too.”“Steve Irwin’s younger brother over there is Astaroth.” We’d moved on to a scruffy, sandy-haired surfer guy with a great tan and tawny wings. He was the only other Prince besides Lucifer and Satan who looked like he was used to physical labor and somewhere in the back of my mind I felt like I’d seen him before. “You’ve probably seen him on his ridiculous television show about wildlife. We can’t keep him away from snakes.” I could physically feel how hard Satan rolled his eyes at that.“I believe you know Belial.” I nodded. Belial was beautiful too, with his long black hair, silver-white eyes, and shimmering green wings, but his beauty was almost artificial. He was romance novel perfect but it felt more alien rather than sexy. I could have been biased though, considering he was the one who temporarily killed the Ghouls the year before and damn near killed me too in the process.“When Belial isn’t riding the crazy train he’s actually a highly regarded corporate attorney. Owns a few companies. Likes to argue.”I snorted softly and twisted slightly to ask, “And you? Who are you, Satan?”In an instant one of his hands wrapped around my neck and cut off most of my air. I arched away from him as I tried to find some relief but it only gave him room to plunge his free hand in to my back, thick fingers grinding painfully against muscle and organs as he reached through to grip at my ribcage, where he gave an almost playful tug. The pain was overwhelming and it was impossible to keep silent but as I struggled I realized no one else could see or hear what was happening. They stared straight ahead at Lucifer as he questioned his brothers.Satan leaned forward so his mouth was directly next to my ear. “I’m the guy they call when someone needs to disappear.” And with that his hands were off of me and he blinked in and out of existence to stand next to Belial.I want to say I wasn't afraid.I want to say a sex addict and a snake wrestler didn't sound terribly intimidating.But the fear churning in my gut told me otherwise. The pain in my bones told me I was terrified out of my mind because I'd gotten the impression that what Satan did was only a miniscule display of his power. I certainly wasn't stupid enough before to believe I could be in their league in any way but this certainly solidified those feelings 100x over.Not to mention they had a guy on their team who ate babies. I came back from my thoughts to find I'd missed everything Lucifer had learned from his brothers, and of course Lucifer was now staring at me like he knew that."Ellie, I need to speak to you before we decide how this is going to play out."Oh great, now I was in trouble. We walked a ways away from the others so we couldn't be overheard."Was Satan telling the truth, that you need me to do something impressively dangerous?" I asked before he could start lecturing me again.Lucifer rolled his eyes (he was going to hurt himself if he didn't stop that) but didn't seem shocked. "My baby brother has a big mouth, but he's right. Normally I'd never bring you and those lunkheads you call friends in to a fight like this but I don't have much choice."I scowled at his insult but stayed quiet, waiting for him to explain. He exhaled heavily but his voice was matter of fact as he continued. "If I had to, I could stop Emeritus myself. To say it would be difficult would be an understatement and a lot more people would die in the crossfire." He stared at me rather meaningfully. "Luckily I don't I have to try."It took me a moment to catch his drift. "Me?! You expect me to do it?!"I knew I was shrieking loud enough for the others to hear when Satan's distinct laugh boomed yet again. Lowering my volume, I still could barely squeak out, "How in the hell am I supposed to do that?"Lucifer didn't appear to be overly concerned. "The easiest way to kill someone like Emeritus is to take him apart from the inside out. I've told you over and over you're the strongest I've seen at mind control, and it's gotten stronger ever since Emeritus changed you." He was very earnest now, and I found it disconcerting. "Ellie, you threw him out with only your mind. You've got a connection, a pre-built path in to his head. You share some of his power. If we can contain those beasts he's going to use to distract us there's a real chance no one else is going to die.""How?" I asked quietly. If it was as easy as he made it sound then there was no question – I'd have to do it his way.Lucifer nodded as though he could hear my thoughts and said, "Get ahold of him and start off the way you did when you knocked him out of the cabin. You'll have to build up your power but you should be able to push the Fallen completely out of the human shell. They can't survive outside of a host; if they want to switch bodies they've got to already have permission from the new person. You push that thing out and it will die."Kill? I hadn't thought about killing anyone. I don't know why; I knew Papa was too powerful to simply stop and then let him go about his business."Lucifer," Rarely did I ever address him by his real name. "what if the host is still alive? What happens to them?"Now I did surprise him. He looked away from me and gave it some thought before replying. "We can't worry about that. I don't know what will happen to them but Emeritus isn't just any Fallen and we've got to stop him. At any cost."I couldn't give up so easily. "Why can't we imprison him the way you did Belial?"Lucifer shook his head. "Belial has an off switch, which is why he's here. I've got him on a short leash but only because we know how to combat the Madness for the most part. No, it's got to be this way."I stared down at the ground, then glanced up to meet Omega's eyes. "I'll never be able to look at him again if I murder his best friend.""You never told him?""No.""My advice? Don't."He began to walk back toward the others and I called out after him, unafraid of those who might hear, "Why do you care so much?"Lucifer stopped for a second but decided my question didn't warrant an answer and resumed walking. I trailed unhappily after him and refused to make eye contact with any of the Ghouls once we stood next to them."Here's the plan," Lucifer's face was even more serious than ever as he addressed the Ghouls, Niels, Imperator, and the Tria Prima. "Your one and only job is to get Ellie to Emeritus. I don't care who or what you have to go through to get her there but if you've got to sacrifice yourself or one another to do it, you do it." He punctuated those last three words rather harshly.Niels, acting quite sullen, was stupid enough to dissent openly. "I don't fight."Before Lucifer could clip the Flying Fox's wings, Satan appeared directly in front of the nerdy little wizard. He didn't touch him, but merely towered over the Fox until he was forced to bend backward at a painful angle.In a whisper any of us could barely hear, Satan said, "You do now, boy."Niels nodded frantically and I would have laughed at his plight if my ribs didn't still hurt slightly. I'd never seen a wetworks man before and I wasn't entirely pleased to be able to check that box on my nonexistent bucket list.A soft sound of distress distracted everyone away from the scene between Satan and Niels, and we noticed Mist with a tearstained face and trembling hands, clutching a scrap of paper. With a sinking feeling, I knew what was coming.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"Mist, don't..." But before I could finish my sentence she held up her hand and shook her head.  "I am done, Ellie. I have said it before – this is not my fight. I've lived far longer than I should have and I don't want to be here anymore." Her eyes may have been watery but her face was set with unwavering resolve. I knew I couldn't change her mind but how I could let her go?  I moved closer to her, faced her so she could see my own resolve was no small thing. "You can't go. We need you!" It came out high-pitched and I kicked myself mentally for sounding so weak, but it was the truth. "And more importantly you're our friend. You can't...just...go." I groped lamely for the right words, sounding hollow to my own ears.  Omega moved in next to my shoulder, right as Air moved in closer to Mist and I fought a horribly inappropriate urge to giggle. Everything was becoming too intense and it all felt so melodramatic. It didn't feel real anymore.  Air spoke his wife's name softly and for a moment I believed this was our shot to convince her we needed her to stay.  "Mist. I will go with you."  There was an outcry from myself and all of the Ghouls. "Air, you can't leave..." "...don't understand why..." "You have to stop Papa..." "….and you're the band dad now..." "How could you..." There was a snort of derision from behind us and Moloch's icy stare gave me chills as he glowered at us. "This is wasting time." He grated out.  Satan slung a friendly arm around his brother and shot the group a massive grin. "Brother, shut up. The humans are having a Lifetime movie moment." Air was gazing steadfastly at us, facing us down the same way Mist had. "I did not support my wife at the time she needed it most and I will not do such a terrible thing again."  Mist turned in his arms, gripping his hands tightly. "You don't have to-"  Air shushed her quietly and took his hands away from hers, bringing them up to cup each side of her face and smooth away the worry lines around her eyes and brow. "Hush, my love. I do have to. I will not leave you alone again, and I could not survive without you now. We go together." He stared down into her eyes as he spoke and a lump crawled its way up into my throat watching them hold on to each other.  Alpha broke the spell by clearing his throat. Loudly. "We need help though." He flung his arms out toward the swirling mass of clouds in the distance that marked the location of Necropolis.  Air didn't bother to look away from his wife as he replied, "You have been well trained. You will be fine."  A strangled sound of disbelief escaped Alpha's throat. "We'll be massacred without you two! You'll leave us to die?!" Omega reached around me and slapped him on the back of the head.  Air did look up then. "You have seven Princes of Hell at your disposal, not to mention the splendid power of Mercury and the Puppet Master. If you die I would rather you blame them for your misfortune. You. Will. Be. Fine." His tone suggested he was done with the subject.  Alpha finally stopped talking but you could tell he would never accept Air's explanation. Part of me agreed with him – we needed Air and Mist to beat Papa. I knew their capabilities better than I knew about those of Asmodeus or Astaroth and better yet, I trusted Air and Mist. We had no reason to believe any of Lucifer's brothers wouldn't stop halfway through the fight just to watch because it amused them to do so.  It didn't matter. There was no going back now and I knew in my heart there would be no changing of minds. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes and I sank back against Omega to steal some of his strength. At least I wouldn't be losing all of them this time.  Earth kept his eyes on the ground as he quietly asked, "How?"  Mist's smile was tremulous when she realized his question meant we had accepted their decision. "It's a spell. I infuse the words with my magic and then simply let go. It will free me from this vessel and because I won't have a new one in place, I will die." Her voiced hitched precariously on the last word and a few tears tracked their way down her cheeks. It was a hard decision for her to make even though she knew it was the right choice. "I have always known the key to unlock my making. We'd come to depend on one another as a second family." Air rumbled, drawing Mist to his side once more. "Selfishness and fear kept me from doing so. Now I have a happy ending, one I do not deserve but one I will gladly take." His attention never strayed from his wife. "It is time."  The tears were blurring my vision too badly to properly see much after that but their voices chant in unison more words only Lucifer and his brothers might know. I squeezed my eyes shut, unwilling to watch two people I held so dear depart. The pain I once felt for the Ghouls after their 'death' was a distant memory since it was no permanent but this time I knew there would no great surprise, no resurrection at the hands of Lucifer to bring them back. It was over. It hurt. "Ellie, look-" Omega's words were urgent in my ear and I cracked one eye open hesitantly.  The bodies of Air and Mist were no more and briefly I was confused over what I was supposed to be seeing, until two clouds floated into view. One was a sunny cheerful yellow that darted playfully around its deep, azure blue counterpart. There was such silly joy in movements of that bright yellow cloud that I laughed out loud and found the others smiling along with me. The little yellow ball must have heard me and fluttered wildly over to where I stood, bouncing through the air around my head. I could feel its energy and smelled the light perfume Mist usually wore. I felt her happiness. The blue ball that was Air made a beeline for Mist and whirled her sparkly form around like a whirlwind, as though they had bodies and were dancing together. Up, up they went in to the bright blue sky until we could see them no longer.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"We won't be able to help."Our beautiful send off for Mist and Air was shattered by Mercury's announcement.Lucifer, rather incredulous at this point, dragged his fingers down over his face while his mouth worked like a dying fish. It was the same comical exasperation he'd shown when he was masquerading as James but it felt bizarre to see such a funny expression displayed on such a fierce individual.Since Lucifer was having trouble with his feeling words, I stepped in on his behalf. "You want to run that by us again? Mercury? Old pal, old buddy?"Though I doubted much truly rattled the centuries old creature, he had the decency to look mildly upset. "I have not received word of our involvement from the Master. If we assist you with this war we will be severely punished."Groaning, Lucifer turned in a circle, his fingers tugging at his hair until it stood up in all directions. "So you're telling me that I had at my fingertips some of the most powerful beings in the universe, and two of them commit suicide and the other has daddy issues?!" I wouldn’t have called him hysterical to his face but he definitely sounded like he was going to need a light smack before we went after Papa.Mercury cringed guiltily. "We really do want to help but I will not risk the wrath of my Master. Surely the rest of you can -"Satan cut him off before he could finish. "Yeah yeah yeah, pinhead. 'The rest of you will be fine, you're soooo powerful...'" His glance at Lucifer was somewhat serious, even if he wasn't acting like it. "Brother, I wish you'd get a contract signed in blood for these kinds of things before you bring us along."If Satan thought we were in some shit, we were probably in some DEEP shit.The panic Lucifer manifested drained away, leaving him loose and focused; maybe Satan's worry was motivating him to snap out of it."It doesn't change what we have to do. It's time to go."We reached the outskirts of Necropolis a half hour later. It was lucky we had our Ghoul stamina or else I'd have been too tired to do more than sit on the ground and cheer the others on. Sneaking a glance at Sister Imperator, I found her no worse for wear than any of the rest of us, despite her completely human status. Even Niels' dog appeared fine.No one stood guard around the city and all of the curious onlookers from before were nowhere in sight. A glimmering blue sheen of electricity flickered in a dome high above Papa's tower, explaining why the area was so empty. Astaroth broke away from the rest of us as we came to a stop and held his palm up to face the barrier.After a moment of feeling it's energy, he said, "Our intel was correct. He's thrown up a barrier to keep creatures locked out. We'd never be able to break through it."Lucifer didn't look concerned. "But?"Astaroth grinned arrogantly. "But I can reverse it. Right now he and his creatures can move out of it but we can't go in. If I reverse the energy of the shield we'll be able to enter and this shield becomes a cage. Whatever nasty surprises that lay beyond those walls stay there.""This is good, though I wonder what happens if Emeritus simply drops the shield?" Abaddon hadn't said much up until now.Astaroth's grin didn't dim but his answer wasn't reassuring. "I can take the majority of the energy from the shield and manipulate it to match my own. If Emeritus drops it, it becomes fully mine and I won’t have to struggle with it. He might able to take it back from me but he'll have to expend a considerable amount of concentration to do it." He cast his eyes around the empty desert. "As long as nothing tries to attack me from this side I should be able to hold him off until you provide our disruptive distraction."Lucifer motioned in the direction of Niels and said, "He'll stay with you."Niels punched the air victoriously as he sidled up to Astaroth."No, not you Fox. The dog."The gleeful expression on the wizard's face gave way to confusion. "Harry? But he-""Is more than capable of guarding my brother. You aren't weaseling your way out of this fight that easily." Though the situation was grim, there was just a hint of smile tugging at the corner of Lucifer's lips.While Astaroth turned back to the shield and began stealing it away from Papa, Satan placed his hands on either side of Niels’ face and squeezed, causing the small man’s eyes to bug out of his head. "Who names a dog 'Harry'? That's undignified." He dragged Niels away from the group and set about lecturing him on the importance on strong canine branding. Harry parked himself at Astaroth’s back and showed us his teeth.Except for Satan's babbling, we waited in near silence for the all clear from Astaroth. I could feel his magic building, and as it built a change came over the shield. A green haze appeared to ring the line where it met the ground and slowly crawled it’s way up to the top. Green devoured blue in clashing sparks that rained down on us.“It is done.” Astaroth only sounded mildly strained by the effort it was taking to hold the shield, a very impressive feat of magic. Lucifer didn’t speak and walked through the field without hesitation. Once he made it through safely the rest of followed; it didn’t hurt to pass beyond the energy but my senses knew it wasn’t a natural creation and rebelled against being anywhere near it.The barrier encompassed the entire city as well as a narrow strip of grass just outside the main gate. We stood tense, waiting for Papa to strike at us. I manifested my swords and swung them easily, warming my muscles for the upcoming fight. The Ghouls followed my lead and created their favored weapons once more. The ground trembled beneath Earth and the hunk under his feet broke free, lifting high above us to give him a better line of sight with his bow. Sister Imperator’s face was impassive while Niels appeared to be terrified. I almost wanted to yell at Lucifer for dragging him along – he would be more a hinderance at this point.Lucifer turned back to face us, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the castle. “Remember, the first priority is getting Ellie to Papa. No unnecessary fighting; defend and move forward.”I stepped away from the rest and said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Papa has two creatures who spit acid in his control. You’ve got to ground them, not kill them. They’re innocents.”Alpha smiled briefly in my direction and I inclined my head to him. We had to try.Lucifer grunted in agreement. Then all hell broke loose.A wall of black rose up behind him, leaving the Ghouls and I gaping stupidly at the sight. Abaddon threw out a hand and a pulse of pure magic shot forth, bowling over the wall and dissipating it from one breath to the next.Wow.“Shadow creatures.” Abaddon elaborated. “They're not formidable but he’s going to overwhelm us with them the second we enter the gate.”Satan let out an eerie cry and launched himself across grass, gliding through the gate and smashing into another wall of black smoke. Shapes formed within and separated: the revealed creatures were humanoid in shape but had no features except for the 8-inch claws dripping off the ends of their fingers. Satan tackled the one closest to him and took it to the ground. That was our cue. The shadows surged forward and we rushed to meet them. My blade slid through the torso of one and it disappeared in a wispy cloud. They looked solid enough but didn’t have much substance to them. This would be easy.Claws whistled through the air from nowhere and grazed against my cheek. I screeched in surprise and flung myself backwards, trying clumsily to swing a sword around to defend myself. A thin lance of heat and flame lashed itself in front of my nose and caught the wrist of the offending being, dragging it away until the fire cut the hand from the rest of the body. Sister Imperator stood ten feet away, two coils of flaming whips streaming out from her hands. She clapped her palms together and sent both streams reaching for the monster, slicing its body into three chunks with one easy stroke.She howled at the look on my face and yelled above the noise, "You didn't think I was an ordinary nun, did you?" Flipping the whips out to the left and right of herself, she hurtled into the fray, cutting shadows down as she ran.Just beyond where she had been standing, the Flying Fox was looking less than wizardly. Apparently, he had forgotten he could use magic because he was swinging Imperator's staff around like a club in a giant circle. It was a ridiculous maneuver but he was managing to hit a few creatures here and there, and they couldn't get close enough to strike at him.The Princes looked almost bored; their power was far greater than these pathetic distractions and they needed not do more than send that power out in pulses to eliminate the horde completely. The road before us cleared out and I found myself being herded into two circles. The inner ring was formed by my Ghouls while the Princes circled them, sending harsh blasts of magic through the air to keep our path empty."This is taking protection a little too far!" I yelled. Nothing could touch me and I shuffled along uselessly as everyone else used their skills."It's just until we have to fight for real!" Lucifer yelled back. Papa was more than likely watching us and listening so I figured Lucifer was just trying to goad him into revealing his surprises while we were prepared.It worked.There was a loud boom from around the corner where we batted down the last few shadows and footsteps pounded down the street toward us. A lot of footsteps.I couldn’t see over all the tall manly backs surrounding me but that wasn’t a problem for long; the rings of people broke in a rush and I was greeted by some seriously ugly creatures.They looked like mini versions of a cyclops, though they were all at least nine feet tall. Barrel-chested, with legs as thick as tree trunks and flesh the color of diseased fish, they bellowed loud enough to shake the bones in my body. One eye sat awkwardly not in the middle of their forehead but near the top of their hairline, or what would have been their hairline had they not been bald. Ugly fangs spilled over their lips and they had no nose. Water knocked me aside in an effort to keep me from getting slapped in the head by a hand the size of a large trash can lid and ended up taking the brunt of the hit on his shoulder. Bones crunched and he gave a hoarse cry before spinning back out of the way so Alpha could plunge his spear into the thing’s gut. It bellowed again and lashed out with a hoof-like foot, trying to kick Alpha’s legs out from under him. Moloch whirled out of nowhere, his face transformed into something hideous and ugly, and he slammed into the beast before it could reach us. The two went spitting and snarling into a crowd of shadows that had slowly been creeping around us. There were at least ten of the cyclopes running around trying to bash our heads in but the shadows showed no signs of letting up on their assault.Arrows thrummed overhead as Earth unleashed them as quickly as he could. One landed with a solid thunk directly in the eye socket of a cyclops, sending it toppling to the ground. Unsure if it was dead or just in pain, I pushed some of my magic into one of my swords and brought it down the cyclops’ neck. That little push let me remove its head without resistance. With unbearable slowness we carved our way through both shadows and cyclopes. I was bleeding from no less than five gashes across my back and arms, Water’s left arm still hung limp with broken bones, and Omega and Alpha sported the same cuts I had along with some rapidly forming bruises. The Princes looked like they’d barely broken a sweat and I had no clue where Imperator and Niels had gotten to. It was dangerous to get separated in a place like this but I had to trust they could handle it.A familiar screech echoed overhead and those of us who could paused in the fighting to find the source. They winged through the sky to us, belching green acid as they came. Some of the acid landed on a cyclops and it began to scream as the flesh on its head rapidly melted down to the bone.Asmodeus and Abaddon took to the sky and I called up to them as loudly as I could, “Don’t hurt them!” but I wasn’t certain if they heard me. Fingers crossed they would remember our earlier discussion – Abaddon had a level head at least. Asmodeus had shifted into what I assumed was a female version of the bats and looked to be trying to seduce one.We managed to take out the rest of the cyclopes and began moving again. Everyone flowed out into different positions instead of grouping around me, which had me thinking something worse was coming down the pipe. There was a sharp crack reminiscent of gunfire and a loud buzzing followed.“Fucking hell.” Satan pointed above us, where near the castle a rip in reality had opened.Lucie swore colorfully. “He’s managed to open a portal to the other side. Fuck!”Everyone took off at a dead run but we didn’t make it far; around the bend in the road there stood an army blocking our way. Shadow creatures, cyclopes (wearing armor this time) and hulking, drooling wolves with bright red eyes were determined to keep us right here while Papa drew things through the portal until he reached the Ancient One.“Imperator!” Lucifur shouted and the small nun popped up next to him. “Get her to the castle.” He jabbed a finger at me. The Sister snatched her staff away from Niels and blasted a shot of orange light into the air. It stopped just short of the top if the shield and suspended itself there. Less than a minute later a roar rattled the walls around us. I knew that roar.The bone dragon Imperator used to train us came into view outside of the barrier, streaking to us quicker than lightning. Unconciously I held my breath as it blasted past the line Astaroth was supposed to still hold. It passed through without incident and I breathed a sigh of relief.Papa’s army had yet to move and it was making me nervous. We were bringing in reinforcements and he hadn’t tried to stop it. Something let out an inhumanly loud, metallic snarl, sending some of us jumping with surprise. It came from the portal.A giant chunk of metal slid through the opening. It was the color of midnight and I thought it might be some sort of random space junk, until a band of gold appeared and flexed. It was a joint. It was a foot. Its leg dangled down over the city until it crunched on top of a building to steady itself as it dragged its other leg along behind it. None of us moved as we watched it enter our world.Its body was all black, the joints golden. A golden honeycomb pattern webbed out over its abdomen, crawling up its chest to end at the collarbone. What should have been the face was merely a flat surface of darkness, it’s head shaped a bit like a shark fin. What it did have was a monstrous sword strapped to its back that it drew the second it came all way the into the city. The sword was the size of Papa’s castle. The being itself was twice that size.The army in front of us roared in unison.Abaddon and Asmodeus weren’t having much luck distracting the bats.We were well and truly fucked.The air next to Lucifer shimmered slightly and Mercury, Salt, and Sulfur appeared. Mercury’s voice was urgent. “You will not survive this fight against a creature such as that.”Satan flexed his arm dramatically in response. “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”Mercury did not appear to be amused. “It doesn’t bleed.” He was deadly serious. “It came from the same world we spent our exile in. Your magic won’t work on it.”“What kind of magic will?” Moloch asked. Even he was looking slightly panicked.“Mine.” Mercury’s eyes flashed and all the magic he’d kept pent up during our the fight released. The power of it knocked us all to the ground, the buildings around us evaporating into tiny specks of ash. In their place stood…Mercury? And Salt? Sulfur too.We were surrounded by at least 300 copies of the Tria Prima.“Puppet Master is letting you help?” I questioned him as I got up.  “No.”Sister Imperator’s dragon landed a few feet away and Mercury took charge. “Sister – take her and the Ghouls to the castle. Then you and Niels hold off that army. Satan, Asmodeus, and Belial will go with you.“Lucifer, Abaddon, and Moloch will accompany myself, Salt and Sulfur to take care of our giant friend. If it starts pushing on the shield Astaroth doesn’t have a chance to stop it.” He stared at our unmoving forms. “GO!”We scrambled to follow his orders.Papa’s waiting army saw this as their cue to begin the fight once more and came storming after us. Niels, Imperator, the Ghouls and I all threw ourselves on the back of the bone dragon and Sister had him lift off just as the first row of wolves reached our position. The Tria Prima melted into the night and Lucifer, Abaddon and Moloch winged into the sky to act as bait. Satan and Belial were already flying to the castle while Asmodeus came in behind us, still dodging Earth and Water II in their bat forms.This was it.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The clones of the Tria Prima clashed with Papa's beasts with a mighty roar after we left the ground. It took only a minute to cover the distance between Papa’s army and the castle but it was enough time for our cuts to heal and the bruises to fade; even Water’s arm had mended itself. It wasn’t enough time for me to formulate a plan once we landed. I wasn’t a leader – I wanted Lucifer to stand there and tell me what to do. I had a smart mouth and some intelligence but there wasn’t enough prep in the world to ready me for something like this. I was shaking so hard I was vibrating.Imperator landed her dragon at the castle doors and the second my feet touched the ground I leaned over and vomited all over Papa’s shiny tile.“There’s no time for that, girl. Get inside and stop Emeritus.” Imperator slid down after the rest of us and gave me a shove. The horde of cyclopes and wolves were heading in our direction despite our allies dogging their footsteps and we didn’t have time to waste. Persistent bastards.As the Ghouls and I pushed through the door I found it odd Papa hadn’t warded his castle on top of warding the grounds. Maybe there was a limit to his power after all.“Do you think there will be traps?” Earth voiced my concerns.Omega shook his head. “I don’t think so. I doubt he thought we’d make it so far, not to mention this is his moment of glory. He wants an audience. He probably it expected it to be Lucifer though.”Even though none of us predicted trouble at this point, we still moved cautiously inside the castle. Papa had made some changes since our last visit: instead of stone floors and walls, everything was made from marble now. Elaborately ornate furniture framed a large, black-lacquer fireplace all of us could have stood in and still had room to be comfortable. The enormous cathedral windows were in the same place but this time they reflected the outside of the building accurately. The back of the castle sported a large balcony with a raised dais at the very edge of the railing; Papa stood upon the dais, his back to the windows.Alpha looked around. “How do we get out there? The stairs are gone.”I looked up at the windows and smiled. “Glass breaks easily enough.”I was mad. So terribly mad. I was mad he put me in this position, where my friends could possibly die, along with the rest of humanity. He took my comfortable world and destroyed it to the point where I had to put down my books and pick up weapons I didn’t even want to wield. He’d hurt everyone in his quest for unlimited power and the selfishness he displayed made me so disgusted that my insides burned. It didn’t matter if I went into this without a plan – it only mattered that I stopped him once and for all.All the emotion I felt in that moment boiled to surface and burst out from me in one cacophonous boom of energy. There was no time to direct it and all three windows blew out at once, spraying glass all over the balcony and Papa. Oops.Well, it was a grand entrance at least.We hopped up and over the windowsill and landed in a pile of glass, on which Earth promptly slipped and fell over. Some things never changed. The only difference was this time Air wasn’t around to haul him up and dust him off. But now wasn’t the time to think about that.Papa was kind enough to clap for us as we picked our way across the glass to him. “Bravi! What a marvelous surprise this is! A fine entrance, to be sure.” It was genuinely creepy how excited he sounded to see us, like he'd forgotten he had tried to kill us all a few times now.He gestured frantically like he wanted us to move more quickly. "Come! Come on then, you lazy bums! You will want to see this. I have done it!"Papa stood with his arms thrust up to the sky like one of those girls on the Price is Right, showing off a lovely tube of toothpaste to the audience. The entrance to the dimensional portal was high above where we stood and slightly off center from the balcony so one would only be able to reach it if they could fly.I wanted to say something but the words were stuck in my throat. We'd already tried asking nicely and threatening him – what else would I be able to say besides 'we're here to kill you'? Could I actually do it? Killing a creature that's snapping it's sharp teeth in your face is one thing but I'd never killed someone I knew. Would my anger take over and allow me the freedom to end his potential reign of terror or would I freeze like a deer in headlights and get myself killed?Ack, there were too many unknowns in the situation. I knew what needed to be done but damn, it wasn't going to be easy.Papa was content to keep running commentary and he adjusted the portal and waved his arms about like a madman. "Yes, yes I can feel the Ancient One. Mmmhmm. It is there just beyond my reach!" He turned back to where we stood with a wild grin stretching his lips. "I didn't expect so much, uh, what is the saying - crapola to be in the way."I had zero desire to find out what he meant by that."Papa-" I began, but was interrupted by a loud metallic screech in the distance. All of us, even Papa, turned in the direction it came from but could see nothing but smoke billowing in all directions. Moments later Mercury, Salt, Sulfur, Lucifer, Abaddon, and Moloch came sweeping down from above to land on the balcony."I suppose it would be cliché to tell you the jig is up and you should come quietly." Lucifer called to Papa.Papa ignored him and focused on Mercury instead. "I see you made quick work of my distraction."Mercury strode forward so he wouldn't have to shout. "Indeed. I know you weren't counting on my help."Papa chuckled darkly, raising the hair on the back of my neck. "Oh but Mercury, I did. I've been dreaming of ways to make you suffer ever since you dared lay hands on me." His eyes flicked between Salt and Sulfur. "I know your 'Master' will be most displeased by your lack of obedience."Mercury scoffed. "It will be a drop in the bucket, my punishment. I am not worried."Papa answered him with a feral smile. "Perhaps. But he would be even more displeased if something bad should happen to-" Papa made a yanking motion with his hands and the bat creatures fell from the sky. They crashed hard enough to send a shudder through the stone beneath our feet. "-Salt?" Papa yelled as he flicked his wrist. The bat arched its back painfully high as Papa ripped its essence away from the body. He flung it so that it splashed against Salt and sent him reeling, his hands coming up to close around his throat in distress. "And we can't forget about Sulfur!" Papa repeated the same motion with the second bat, tearing its essence out to throw at Sulfur, who went down to his knees in torment."What...the fuck?" Salt was on all fours, coughing and spitting out large gobs of blood.Alpha started behind me, his body going rigid in shock. "Water?" He asked, and started away from the group to get to Salt but Omega hauled him back."It's got to be some kind of trap." He told his friend.Sulfur was sitting up now, wiping blood off of his chin and cursing. Alpha waved his arms as though he were invisible. "Earth!" Omega struggled in earnest to keep him still now, and our Water clamped on to his other arm in an effort to help.Mercury didn't appear to be phased by this development. In fact, he seemed bored. "Is that really the best you have? It's a nice parlor trick but not very intimidating. It is time I ended this chara-"There was flash of blinding white light overhead and we all flinched.
YOU HAVE DISOBEYED
If Mercury's face had been visible I was almost certain all the color had just drained from it. The voice was distinctly inhuman, neither male or female, and grated against my nerves in all the wrong ways.Mercury stammered, speaking to the air. "Master, you know it was not my intention to do so but this-"
SILENCE
Mercury didn't heed the voice, however. "Please listen! This creature threatens us all! It would be beneficial if I ended it now before it attempts to use your power."It was a solid argument and I really hoped Puppet Master was the type of dude who was part of the "powerful but paranoid" club.The silence stretched on. Even Papa didn't move.The voice boomed back at his subject.
YOU DISOBEYED

THERE IS A PRICE

YOU

DESERVE

NOTHING
Three bolts of lightning shot down, striking Mercury, Salt and Sulfur. Or was it Mercury, Earth and Water now?It didn't matter who they were; all that mattered was their screams. The three were forced down to the balcony floor where they writhed in agony I could actually imagine because they were vocalizing their pain quite loudly. Alpha was screaming along with them and was fighting with every ounce of his strength to get away from the others.The torture went on for at least 45 seconds but it felt like hours. As the energy faded I heard Mercury groan. Burnt flesh scented the air and I gagged, unable to escape it. Mercury rolled on to his back and one of his arms did not go with him. Earth and Water lay unmoving.Alpha slumped down and Omega finally released him. He began to crawl to the bodies. It was the first time I'd ever actually seen someone's spirit broken so physically.Suddenly, I remembered where we were. Turning, I was just in time to see Papa creeping over the edge of the balcony. He glanced back at me, winked, and allowed himself to fall over the side."NO!" I cried, because there was nothing else I could do. He would survive the fall but his little escape might give him enough time to finally pull the Ancient One through the door.Before I could take one step to follow him, Papa's mitre flew back up in to our line of sight. It landed with a small thump at my feet.Then came his chasuble.Then the man himself.Like a marionette he came careening over the railing, his arms and legs stuck at awkward angles, as though something was trying to tear him apart. His back slammed down a few feet away from where I stood and a familiar blue beam wound itself around his legs. An equally familiar yellow essence spread across his chest and arms to keep him down.Mist and Air meant it when they said they would try to help.I saw this as my one opportunity to get to him and stumbled across the short distance to fall at his side. He had been wearing his suit underneath his robe so I yanked off his gloves and gripped his wrists.Entering his head was easy this time; we already formed a connection and I tore the metaphorical door off the hinges as my conscious barreled into his. His mind was as equally nightmarish as it had been the last time I was here and I set to hacking away at his hold on the body like I did previously. The pulsing yellow soul of the man who had resided in this body before the Fallen took over was almost completely covered in slime now, with only slits of warmth peeking through. Maybe if I could free him...But Papa had been expecting me this time.A wave of sticky black goo wrenched the sword I manifested with my power away from me and swallowed it whole.Two more waves crashed into my mind and hooked me with what felt like thousands of hot, tiny needles. I was being pulled down into the swirling pool of darkness Papa's mind had become. I reached for the anger I had earlier and tried to force him to let me go but only panic answered my emotional call. The darkness bit and ripped in to me; I tried and tried to fight but only screams echoed around me. They were my own.The world was going dark. I couldn't get back to my own body. Papa would hold me here and drown me in his essence until I was dead. It was hardening around me, keeping me from struggling or moving at all.
Help
It was my last thought.Something rumbled and shook the 'walls' of the space. Cracks formed in the material keeping me immobile, releasing enough pressure so that I could wiggle around once again. As I was attempting to free myself something blasted a chunk of the goo away, then another until I was able to regain some control over my faculties.The imprisoned soul was no longer bound. Somehow it had gotten free and was now on a rampage, the mission to reclaim his own body evident by the way he was destroying bits of Fallen Angel.I gasped and gripped some of the slime, gathering my magic with every breath. Panting, I shouted "The host...revokes permission. Leave...this...body!" I released all the magic I had stored and let it dance across the darkness.A horrible whine sounded and I wanted nothing more than to shy away from it. The soul stretched over me, spreading until it coated all the invasive foulness of Papa Emeritus II and III. The whine became louder and there was an explosion so powerful it knocked me out of his head and back into mine.I was slouched over Papa's body.Raising my head I found his eyes wide, staring straight above us. Black rolled across his irises and stayed there. His body convulsed violently but I didn't have the energy to move or help. The blackness moved until both of his eyes were covered entirely, but it didn't last long; metallic gold chased the darkness, driving it away until there was none left. The gold stayed for a moment and then receded, leaving his eyes to fade to a pleasant green.Somebody turned the sound back on and I was assaulted by shouts and arguing.Alpha. "Water's still breathing, dammit! Listen to me!"Mercury. "I don't need help! Get away from me!"Omega and Lucifer, directly in my face. I couldn't work out their words though. My head was still too fuzzy.I feebly pointed to the man in front of me. "He's still there." I could hardly get the words out.Lucifer and Omega recoiled away from the body like it was a cobra ready to strike."No." I took a deep breath. "Other guy. Still there."Then I passed out.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The man beneath the mask looked heartbreakingly small in his hospital bed.The others were waiting with new Salt/old Water, making sure their friend had suffered no damage during his time spent with Papa III. It left me with too much time to think about what happened on the battlefield.We had been on the verge of losing. Astaroth reported Papa had dropped the shield from his control as soon as the Ghouls and I reached him. The Tria Prima clones attacked Papa’s army from behind while Imperator, Niels and 3 Princes held the front of the castle. We had all the advantages in the world but Papa had still been extremely powerful. Puppet Master’s untimely punishment of his three subordinates served as a distraction we almost couldn’t recover from. The spirits of Air and Mist were a brilliant surprise but we needed more. I hadn’t been strong enough.Yes, we definitely had been heading toward death.But then the man everyone believed to be wiped from his body wrenched his way free of Papa’s hold and sacrificed himself for his friends and, as cheesy as it sounded, the world. I hadn’t had time to check the trauma he had endured before they brought him here, so this moment of peace was my only chance before I had to face the others and tell them I lied.Sharing a body with a Fallen Angel had taken a harsh toll on the man’s body. His dark hair was lackluster and thin, streaked with grey, and deep lines carved themselves into his forehead while more fine lines branched around his mouth. Dark circles radiated out from beneath his eyes, giving him a haunted appearance. His body was emaciated to the point where had he been awake he probably would not be able to walk. Veins stood out in sharp relief where his skin stretched tightly over what little muscle he had left.This wasn’t a human being anymore; it was a shell.Grief for someone I’d never known except through pictures and video welled up unexpectedly in my chest. I did know him for a fraction of heartbeat, trapped inside Papa's head, and he had been beautiful. Watching his soul helped me realize why the Fallen had been so attracted to him.Willing my breathing to return to normal, I edged over to the bed and grasped his cool, pale hand in mine. Pushing out with my power was a strain after how hard I had to drive myself to help defeat Papa but I managed to make the connection. The inside of this man’s mind was in tatters – shards of his psyche surrounded me in jagged pieces, like the broken window panes covering the castle balcony. Gaping red holes pulsed hotly, giving way to a blackness that made it too deep to see how far it went. Unlike when his mind was shared with Papa, this darkness had no life to it.There would be no coming back from this kind of damage.I began to prepare to return to myself when a faint yellow light caught my eye. It trembled, so pale in color it was almost white, hidden away in a corner where I almost missed it. There is still hope –That hope swelled and died when finally saw how tiny and fragmented this little sliver of life was.“Ellie?” Lucifer’s voice from the physical world broke the spell and I flowed back in to my own mind. Tears welled in my eyes and I tried desperately to blink them away as I turned to face my boss in the doorway.My voice was barely a whisper as I said, “He’s still there, but…” I trailed off, unwilling to say what I knew to be true.Lucifer finished for me. “There’s not enough left to save?” I nodded. “Ah Ellie, I’m sorry. I know you were hoping for a different outcome.” His eyes narrowed and he glanced down the hallway. “You know what needs to be done, and I recommend you do it quickly. It is best to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. They won’t understand otherwise.” He started to walk away but stopped. "I thought you should know – Mercury made it but Puppet Master has cut off his power, and a few of his limbs. The previous Earth is dead but Water should survive."I nodded once more and turned back to the body, reclaiming my link to what was left of his mind. That little spark vibrated dully as I approached.“Come on little guy.” I spoke gently through our connection, coaxing as best as I could. “It’s time to go. There’s a better place for you out there.” The soul vibrated harder and with a swirl of energy it brushed itself against me like a cat searching for affection.“That’s right, you’ll finally have peace. No more struggling.” His psyche shuddered harshly as it began to fall apart and I felt the link weaken. I needed to go before he tried to take me with him, but I didn’t want him to be alone.Someone tugged on the edge of my mind. Omega. He was on his way to the room which meant I needed to severe the link before he could feel what was about to happen.“Go on now. Be free.” I didn’t want to leave him alone. He deserved to know someone who cared would be with him until the end.“Ellie?” This time it was Omega prodding at me mentally but I couldn’t break the link yet. It was too soon.It was too late.The soul whirled around me and began to flake apart. Omega was fully melded with my mind now but still I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t protect him from this. Would I ever stop failing?Spinning faster and faster until it was a tornado of pale yellow, the soul sloughed off chunks that melted effortlessly into the darkness. Memories lived in those fragments and I watched them play before me like a movie. Both familiar and unfamiliar faces flashed before my eyes but I didn't need to understand those moments to know they were all happy ones. He had managed to save the most important part of himself from Papa's terrible onslaught and it still wasn't enough to bring him back to us.Right before the final piece dissolved I began to let go. As the link faded away into nothing there was one last explosion a final emotion that wasn’t my own flooded my system: joy.Previously unshed tears tracked unheeded down my face as I came back to myself, dripping down on the hand I still held in mine.Machines would keep the body alive but the spirit of the man would never return.More emotions that weren't exclusively mine tugged at me. Confusion called to me first and I hoped that would be it, but then came the anger and I knew I would not get off so lightly. Wave after wave of a different kind of power slammed into me: anger, revulsion, hurt, betrayal. I took it all in though I could not turn around to face Omega the way I knew he deserved. I couldn’t stand seeing all those emotions reflected in his eyes.Someone called out to him and I felt the onslaught of pain lessen.
“It is better to ask for forgiveness.”
I sent him that final thought and winked out of existence while he was distracted.I would always be a coward when it came to him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I stood at the edge of the grounds, staring at the pile of rubble that used to be the main house. Sinking to my knees, I finally let all the pain and horror of the past 24 hours out in hysterical sobs. It was just so damn unfair that I had to be the one be at the center of this. HQ was destroyed, my house was most likely gone, my car was broken in the middle of the desert, the grounds here were decimated, the man I wanted to be with hated me-"Are you done with your pity party?" Lucifer appeared at my side, his wings curled tightly against his back. I blinked up at him, sniffling and hiccupping in a most unattractive fashion."I'm allowed to have one." I said sullenly. I wanted to be left alone. I had come back to this place because there was nothing left – HQ and my house would be too obvious. I made sure to shield myself from the others but I guess I wasn't good enough to hide from Lucifer.Figures."You made your choice to fight long ago, did you not?" I couldn’t read his tone and that worried me."Yes, but-""'But' nothing, Ellie." He was staring down at me with a peculiar expression on his face. "You decided how you were going to deal with Papa, and you decided how you were going to end things with Omega." Oh. Now I understood; this was his angry face.I tried to stop him before he could lecture me further. "I know that, I'm not stupid."He cut me off quickly. "Then stop acting like there's nothing but empty space in your head!"Ouch. Harsh.He kept going. "Only three people died – do you know how incredible that is? How rare it is for that to happen? Thousands of wars have been fought since I was created and never have I seen so few deaths when confronting the perpetrator directly. No one close to you is gone. The only loss you’re feeling is from decisions you made for yourself."He sighed deeply. "You can't change how Papa went down but quite frankly I don't think you should want to. We kept the fighting localized and without civilian casualties. Isn't that what we work for?"He sat down next to me, close but still not touching. His wings shrunk and disappeared so he could sit comfortably."The Keepers were not something I established." A humorless laugh escaped him when he saw my surprise. After finding out who he was I assumed he'd always been a part of the organization. "It would be really dumb for me to start a group bent on destroying monsters, wouldn't it? Considering I'm one of them?"He didn't wait for an answer. "No, it was formed because of monsters like me and my brothers. Humans learned to be afraid of the things that go bump in the night and an enterprising few decided they had had enough. It started out noble enough and they only killed things that threatened humanity. A few generations later someone realized killing anything like me would stop the threat before it happened. They couldn’t kill as much as they wanted but they did enough to present themselves as a danger to our world.“I was sick of the fighting by then. You know the lore - I’ve done things in my life that should make normal people run screaming. I could blame the madness for it all but that would be a lie. I had a lot to atone for and I could see how the Keepers could be used for mediation, to bridge the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’.”“Why are you telling me all this?”“Because I want you to understand that we did what we were supposed to do, what I changed the Keepers to be: protectors.” Lucifer hesitated slightly. “And- and if you’re going to take my place you need to be prepared.”I managed to count to five before exploding to my feet. “WHAT?!”Lucifer raised himself to tower over me. “Hush, child.”“I will not HUSH!” I shouted at him. “What am I taking over, exactly? That’s a big deal!!”The impatient look was coming back to Lucifer’s eyes. “It is a large responsibility but you still need to calm down. I’m not giving you the whole thing - you still have an uncanny knack for getting in to more trouble than you can handle. No, I'll leave you in charge of the Southwest office."I still didn’t understand. "But why am I being left in charge at all? Where are you going?""I wasn't entirely accurate earlier when I said no one else died. Thousands of people were killed when Papa dropped his flying castles in the middle of a dozen crowded cities. The casualties could be in the millions if he deployed the same creatures there as he did here, but I can't be sure yet. I'm trying to get reports from the offices we have stationed there but communication is sporadic."I need to go to each city and assess the damage. The world knows we're here now and each office is going to need guidance. I can send my brothers ahead of me but as the eldest it's my responsibility to lead the transition. This isn't the first time civilization has discovered the paranormal live among them.""So it's not permanent." I whooshed out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. Being in charge was never in any of my career dreams but I could hold the fort down until Lucifer finished his walkabout."No, but I'd need to be gone a year at the very least. Most likely I'll need 2 or 3 years to be comfortable with how each city is progressing." He glanced away from me and said almost to himself, "If they progress at all."That was a scary thought. Either the world would accept the fact that supernatural creatures (who might not have the best interests of humanity in their hearts) did in fact exist and have a survival dynamic uniquely their own or they would attempt to eradicate them all.Us all.I was part of them now.I could hide my ability before but now it would be impossible. I didn't look very human anymore but that hadn't been an issue since I became a Ghoul, because I was too busy with work and Papa's quest to go out among the normal public. People would know now what I was instead of thinking I'd been disfigured somehow. I wanted to cry again."Why do you think I can do it?" I really had no idea. There were others we worked with who would be better suited to dealing with paper pushing and treaty hammering."People listen to you. They follow you." Lucifer's face was the most sincere I'd ever seen it. "The Ghouls accepted you without hesitation and followed every request and order you've made so far. You're good at tactical decisions and thinking outside the box."I shook my head in denial. "I just get lucky. There's no thought behind what I do! You said it yourself." I was still a little butthurt by his previous comments.He chuckled and ruffled my hair. "You're smart enough to learn the ropes before I go. We'll take a few months and I'll get you up to speed with all the delicate flowers who live in our territory. They're going to need some guidance too so I can't take off yet." He looked at the ruins of the house in front of us. "Besides, there's one more thing we need to do.""What?""Sift through what's left of these houses to find anything salvageable and then rebuild the main house." He said it the way one might let you know they were going to the grocery store to pick up eggs."And how to do you propose we do that?""Magic.""Oh well thank you captain obvious, I was totally clueless on that part." I grumbled, feeling a little better. "I'm not sorting through Omega's cabin.""You have to.""No!""What if I do it and I find your underwear?""Gross!" I could not actually be having this conversation."Tell me about it.""Don't be a jerk. Omega hates me and I don't feel like sifting through memories.""What if I find your sex toys? That's worse than underwear.""You know what, I'm cool with the Earth just swallowing all the debris and calling it a night.""Ellie, you know that's too easy. This is our apology to the Ghouls."I sighed in exasperation. "Fine, but I'm still not sorting through the cabin. The sex toys are clean...mostly."Lucifer's face twisted and I took off to start on Water's place before he could protest.
4 months later
I held the phone away from me and glared at it. It didn't help.Sticking the receiver back up to my ear, I cut the person off on the other end with a frustrated grunt. "Look Achilles, it's not up for debate. You either get your wolves to start bringing clothes with them when they plan to shift or my guys are gonna start bringing them in on indecent exposure charges!...Yes, exactly like dirty humans...Just because normals know about us now doesn't mean they should have to stare at wolf dick every time they walk through the park!" I slammed the receiver back in the cradle and thumped my fists against the desk.I always knew the paranormal community was a stubborn one; they had to be to survive as long as they had. I just didn't imagine they would be quite so pigheaded about everything. For the hundredth time since he left one month earlier I vowed to punch Lucifer the next time I saw him.The world was still standing, but barely. For the first 2 months there were very few issues. Everyone was still processing what happened the night Papa tried to take over so it was much easier than I expected for Lucifer to train me before he had to head to the New York office. He wore his true form to work during those two months we rebuilt HQ but he decided not to tell the others his real identity. Men and women swooned over his pretty face but no one batted an eye at his giant wings and use of magic. It was if they had expected it the entire time anyways.Non-magical humans started off quite pleased to find out about the Keepers."They were already policing themselves, how wonderful!" They said.We reached out to the human community and designated staff set up lines of communication for people to reach out to us in case of an emergency or supernatural occurrence they didn't know how to deal with. It was great.Until they began calling about every shadow on the wall and echo in the night. I had to organize a special team who only went out and debunked all the crap normals were bringing to us.The good news was we were able to recruit a lot of members of the supernatural community. I figured they thought they could fight us more easily if they infiltrated our ranks, should we decide to try and exterminate them again. Their paranoia worked out in our favor and my office had grown exponentially. Being a ghoul also worked out in my favor, as they counted me as one of them.It was craziness most days but I was training a solid team and I expected life to settle down after a year passed. My territory hadn’t been hit the way London, New York and Shanghai had. Lucifer greatly underestimated the damage Papa wrought; most of those cities were totally destroyed. Usually some kind of efforts to rebuild would have been underway by this point but there was simply nothing left to work with, except a lot of shattered glass and concrete. The heads of each office attended a video conference once a week to try and brainstorm how we’d bring the world back to life.Work helped keep me distracted. When I went home all I had were memories and I didn’t like being at their mercy.Staring at the pile of paperwork on my desk wasn’t making me feel all that great though. I needed a distraction.Conveniently, someone cleared their throat outside my office as the thought crossed my mind.Omega stood in the doorway.I stared at him for a long moment. “Well, shit.”Surprise flashed on his face before his expression became neutral. He walked over to one of the chairs in front of my desk and sat down. “I’m not sure how to take that greeting.”I smiled wryly. “I’d be worried about hurting your feelings if you were actually here.”Now he really was looking at me like I’d lost my mind. “Where am I exactly?”I waved my hand in dismissal. “I must have fallen asleep at my desk again. I’ve got too much shit to do to be sleeping right now.”“So this is a dream?”I nodded. “Yep. I’ve had them before like this, but I always wake up before anything important happens.”One of his eyebrows raised in a silent question.“Not that kind of important, you perv. I mean talking.”Omega slid forward in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees. “What would you say?”I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “That I love you. That I’m sorry for running all the time and I miss you so much it hurts to get out of bed most days.”His eyes roamed the room and came back to meet mine, a hint of mischief dancing there. “Ellie. Stop. The romance of your words is more than I can bear.”I stuck my tongue out at him. “What do you want, a fucking parade? You’re lucky this a dream or else you wouldn’t even get that much.”“Why not?” He asked.It was my turn to stare at him incredulously. “Because you wouldn’t ever come here.”“I wouldn’t?” He asked the question carefully.“Of course not!” I was surprised Dream Omega had to ask He was supposed to be intuitive. Even in my dreams I got the shaft, and not in the fun way. “I felt your emotions that night in the hospital. You hated me. I lied to you and then got caught in the worst way imaginable.”“What if I said my anger wasn’t directed entirely at you?”Yeah, I definitely wanted a dream refund. “Who else would it be for?”“The guy in the bed.”“Papa?”“Nope, the other guy.” He echoed the words I said to him after I got blasted back into my body after fighting off Papa.“But…that makes no sense!”Omega shook his head in what I realized what was thinly veiled fury. “It does. It was his stupid quest for glory that got us into this mess. A little bit of recognition, a little bit of fame wasn’t enough for him. He just had to push and push until there was nothing left for any of us.”He got up and began pacing around the room. "It got way bigger than we expected and he couldn't let it go. It consumed him at our expense. He allowed the Fallen to take over and cause this mess."I got up from the desk and moved around to lean against it, crossing my arms as I waited for him to look at me.Eventually he did and I said, "Someone recently told me I should only be angry and upset with myself, because I made my choices. No one forced me to handle things the way I have. I could say the same to you."Omega didn't like that response very much; I could see it on his face.I continued, "You could have left ages ago but you chose to stay. Why?”I could almost feel the bitterness of his words as he replied, “Because I wanted to.”I nodded. “Exactly, and it was good enough for a while that you believed in what you were doing.”Omega was flat out glaring at me now, and I beat a hasty retreat from where I was going with my point. “Okay, he was twat. But the fact that the man himself came back from the brink of death to save us should mean something to you.”“Save us?” Omega asked.I raised an eyebrow. “No one told you?” A shake of the head. “Oh.”I quickly explained those final few moments of the battle: how the sludge of Papa’s mind was killing me, how the soul freed itself and was basically responsible for expelling the Fallen Angel when I wasn’t strong enough.Omega’s eyes were comically wide the more I told him of what happened. “So that night in the hospital…you weren’t encouraging him to die – he was already gone.”“For the most part. I didn’t want you to see that but I couldn’t let go yet.”“And he’s really not ever coming back? His body…?” He didn’t have to finish the question.“Lucifer explained he’s pretty much an empty vessel now. Anything could possess him without gaining permission first.” Lucifer had also said it would be safer to kill the body before we invited trouble into our lives once more but I told him absolutely not. “We had him moved to one our safe houses.”Omega hesitated, then surprised me. “It’s dangerous to keep him alive, isn’t it?”I looked down at the floor. “Yes. But if we ever decide to turn the machines off, that would have to be your decision.”Omega’s boots appeared in front of my feet and I sighed.“Ellie?”“This is the part where I wake up.” If I looked up he would disappear and I would wake up at my desk. I didn’t want to this time; the heat and scent of him were too good. Just being in the same room sent my awareness levels through the roof. Maybe Dream Ellie would get lucky.“It’s a good thing you’re sexy, Ellie Portland, because sometimes you are very dumb.” Omega said with a laugh. It was something I’d told him numerous times when he was being annoying, or a bit slow on the uptake.He reached out and trailed a single finger up from my wrist to my elbow, then up farther across my shoulder and collar bone. His finger rested lightly on the pulse in my neck before venturing beneath my chin, gently tipping my head back until my eyes met his.“That felt real.” I whispered.He leaned forward until his forehead touched mine. “That’s because it is.”I sucked in a breath. I couldn’t take back what I’d said now. “What’s the catch?”His breath fanned my face as he spoke. “You come home and stay there. If something freaks you out we talk about it.”Angling my head slightly, my lips brushed against his in a teasing gesture. “Why?”Omega fully invaded my space with his body. “Because no matter how much power we have, life is still too short.” Then he kissed me so fiercely it left no room for doubt in my head. He wouldn’t allow Papa to take one more thing from him and that sounded pretty damn good to me. I gave up the fight and melted against him, letting the feel of him overwhelm me.I was contemplating whether or not the desk could the two of us when one of the guys from my elite team burst through the door. He stopped short when he saw Omega and I but shook off his surprise in an instant. “There’s a massive bug rampaging through downtown.”I pulled away from Omega and stepped out of his arms. “How massive?”“It ate the bank already.”Dammit. “Assemble two teams and get going. I’ll be right behind you.”He tore back out the doorway and took off down the hall.Omega was looking pissed off again.“What?” I asked him.“You’re running.” He growled.I patted his arm out of sympathy. “No, I’m off to fight a big bug eating the city and you’re going to help me. Then we’re going back to my place to decide how this is going to work – I have a territory to run but I think we can compromise.”He seemed to think about it for a brief moment and then manifested his greatsword. “Deal.”We grinned at each other like a couple of idiots before I remembered we had someplace to be.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Looking into my eyes; See the things I despise; My soul is tainted black
“Mercury, I swear to Satan I will beat you senseless if you don’t stop that howling!” I shrieked in exasperation at the floor above, knowing the target of my fury could hear me. I turned to Omega, who was standing next to the counter with his fingers plugged in his ears. “Why did I think one house was all we needed?”There was a small ‘pop’ of sound behind me and I was enveloped in a backbreaking bear hug. “Because you’re an optimist, dear Ellie!”Several of my vertebrae creaked ominously as our guest squeezed me tighter. “Satan, didn’t we discuss boundaries?” I had to breathe the words out as shallowly as possible since his enormous arms were restricting my chest.“Yes, but those are no fun.” Abruptly he shifted and dropped me back to the floor. “I heard your call and assumed you required my assistance.”I had forgotten and sworn to Satan instead of the gods, something he found endlessly hilarious and decided he would show up every time I did so. Unlike Abaddon Satan spent a lot of time in our world and damn well knew human customs, but ever since the supernatural side of life decided to reveal itself he was having a high time pretending to be clueless.
“Where are you now? I have to carry the cross; Where are you now? You’re the greatest loss.”
“By the fires of Hell itself, what is that noise?” Satan clapped his hands over his ears as Mercury began singing another song.Alpha took a pair of earmuffs off the kitchen table and put them on, his voice rising slightly to drown out the singing. “Mercury’s trying to commune with his Master.” He shook his head, his expression one of pity. “It’s not going too well.”Omega leveled a murderous glare at Salt and Alpha. “It’s both your faults for teaching him how to use the sound equipment!”Alpha had the good sense to look ashamed while Salt sat silently, watching the exchange play out. Rarely did he leave Alpha’s side but their relationship appeared unaltered. Omega told me them being inseparable was pretty normal but Salt's silent persona was not. Whatever happened during his time with Papa had changed him, but for better or worse had yet to be seen.For the rest it was an adjustment to think of their old friend Water as Salt, but he had at least displayed enough awareness to explain he had no desire to return to his old moniker and was more than happy to let the current Water keep the title.“Ghost is dead, and even if it weren’t I would never go back.” He had said.Omega then asked him what he wanted now but Salt merely shrugged and left the room. He hadn’t touched the mask his predecessor favored since the night on the battlefield and I didn’t think Mercury had pulled himself out of his own misery long enough to explain the potential power the Tria Prima could offer.To be fair, at the moment neither of them had any power. The Puppet Master decided on their punishment and left them cold turkey. Judging by the amount of wailing coming from Mercury’s room at any given hour of the day Puppet Master wasn’t giving any indication he was returning soon. We did feel for him because saved our asses when he handled the other-world monster but then again, he didn’t do it for us. To hear him tell it he was only concerned with the Puppet Master’s plans here on Earth and how Papa wreaking havoc with interdimensional forces could have screwed everything up."His voice is great but he won't take a break. We've been listening to the same thing for weeks now." I practically had to shout at this point. Omega and I worked out that our home base should be the freshly rebuilt (and slightly redesigned) Main House. We fixed the portal so I could travel back and forth between HQ easily and still come home every night. Sometimes the Ghouls came with me when I knew it would be an especially busy day; they made a good team and got along well with the rest of the Keepers.Everyone agreed we would eventually need our own spaces like before but what happened rattled the Ghouls and myself badly. It felt right to stay together in one house until we knew there were no more surprises around the corner. We also wanted to undertake the ambitious task of rebuilding the houses ourselves without using magic. We didn't find much to save in the rubble left behind so this could be our way of personalizing them.Satan winced. "It's not my kind of music – I prefer something with more chainsaws."And he really did. He'd found one in the workroom at HQ and tried to tell me it had it's own melody as he swung it dangerously close to my head."I didn't think he would recover so quickly." I said half to myself.Puppet Master had mangled Mercury's body to a disturbing degree during his punishment. His entire left arm had been burned away, as had his left leg below the knee. Muscle and bone were left exposed to the elements as bits of skin sloughed off indiscriminately. Mercury was lucky to know beings like Lucifer and his brothers, because they had used their connections to get him the most up-to-date robotic prosthetics. It was AI so advanced it wasn’t even available to the public, and though anyone else would have viewed such equipment as a gift, Mercury did not. Alpha managed to get him to explain it felt like the last piece of his physical punishment; his magic was very different from the mechanics of artificial intelligence and Puppet Master wanted him to suffer with unknown technology. To me it seemed silly because Puppet Master could not possibly have known how Mercury would fix his body but there was no reasoning with a creature older than all of us put together times ten.Satan’s eyes lit up with glee. "I'll go show him how it's done!"I caught his arm as he started for the staircase. "Actually, since you're here could you help us reset the wards on the grounds? Papa and Air handled their formation and our magic isn't strong enough to fix them."Appearing as non-threatening as possible was my goal when it came to Satan. I never forgot his words that day in the desert when he told me he would end me if I ever grabbed for more power. The Ghouls and I could probably slap together some pretty passable wards but if Satan did this for us he would perhaps always think us a little weaker than we were.I felt like I had left his radar after the fight with Papa anyway - what good is a woman who can't even fight off a Fallen Angel?That was fine by me.Satan sauntered off to the center of the plot of land we held, where building the wards would be most beneficial. I breathed a small sigh of relief as he passed out of sight – pissing off Mercury wouldn’t happen today.Turning back to say something to Omega, I ran into a solid wall of muscle and shrieked in surprise."There's something blocking the wards." Satan crossed his arms and glared at me."What the- didn't you just go out there? What?" I sputtered."There. Is. Something. Stopping. Me." He pronounced each word as though I were a dimwit.If Satan's magic were being blocked it would have to be by something very, very powerful. I had no idea what might be left that could be old enough to hold him back but if it was tampering with our wards we certainly couldn't beat it.I moved to one of the kitchen windows and peered out, eyes straining to see anything out of the ordinary."I can't see anyth-" I began but Earth gave an excited shout, cutting me off."I saw something! It's really fast!"We all scrambled and shoved for the back door, spilling out onto the grass and coming to stop at the trail winding away from the house. I couldn't see anything yet but an odd sound floated to my ears."Is that laughter?" Water asked.Sure enough, light bubbly laughter grew louder the longer we stood. A flash of something pale streaked by, too quick to see. Then another. And another.One of the streaks stopped at my feet.It was a small child. A child with curly fluffs of blonde hair and pink cheeks. He barely came up to my knee.In the blink we were surrounded by five of them; they giggled with apparent delight as we stood totally still.Alpha yipped and swung his hand through the air. "Ack, they've got fangs! It bit me!""Why did you stick your finger in it's mouth?!" Omega roared as one of the boys climbed his leg. His face was all panic.Alpha backed away from the kids. "I didn't! Who expects a kid to have fangs?!" He sounded like he wanted to cry.More laughter joined that of the kids but it was adult this time."What else would the children of the Serpent and a stolen Angel have but fangs?"None of us had noticed Air and Mist standing calmly to the side as their kids ran roughshod over us.If not for the babbling of the toddlers at our feet, you could have heard a pin drop on the soft grass. Even Satan was stunned in to speechlessness.After about a minute a puzzled expression came of Mist's face. "Aren't you happy to see us?"Omega and I traded a look. "Well, ah, of course we are. But....but how?!"Air winked at us (a truly disconcerting sight) and grinned. "Magic."Satan shook his head like a wet dog trying to dry himself. "That's a non-answer! I demand to know how this was achieved!"A look of utter contempt flared in Air's eyes as he turned to Satan. With a flash of clarity I remembered Satan had once been in a position to order Air to do despicable things and there was nothing Air could have done to stop it. If I were Satan I would have chosen my words and tone more carefully, but he must have forgotten who the creature standing in front of him was.“I learned at the feet of every Prince of Hell.” Air said coolly. “My wife was a ward of Heaven. You do the math.”He might as well flipped Satan the bird while he was at it.I was terrified a true fight might ensue but Satan’s only response was to disappear. Most likely he had left for good (at least for the day) so I could relax a little and try to process Mist and Air’s return.Salt squinted at the pair before him, the first real sign of a personality lurking behind those dark eyes. “Are you sure you’re your true selves?”Mist quirked an eyebrow up in obvious amusement. “We are. I had Papa’s book of spells long enough to parse out the most useful incantations and rituals. He was only concerned with the one, whereas we think ahead.” She smiled up at her husband.Their demeanors were more cavalier than I had ever seen them but I had the very distinct feeling the two were far more lethal now than they had been before they “died”.Squeals grew loud once again now that the tension between Satan and Air had dissipated. Earth, Water, and even Alpha began a merry game of chase with the kids while the rest of us watched.“How old are they?” I asked curiously.“They are five in human years.” Air replied.Omega frowned. “Human years?”“Yes. I’d say about one hundred human years equals one year in our time. So truly they are about five hundred years old, give or take.”I fought to smother a sound of disbelief and grabbed Omega’s hand. “Glad you guys are back – we’ll have dinner tonight to celebrate.”It was difficult not breaking into a run as I dragged Omega along behind me; he practically did have to jog to keep up.“Ellie! What-““You’re cool if we never have kids right?” I asked and put on a burst of speed.His tone was bewildered. “Yes, but where are we going?”I stopped and turned to face him, feeling a little wild. “I’m truly happy they’re back and all but it’s going to take those kids another five hundred years before they might not be little terrors. Screw not using magic – we’re going to rebuild our house right now!”Comprehension dawned on Omega’s face and he burst out laughing, letting me tug him the rest of the way to where our cabin would once again stand.  The End

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Here are some of my most favorite Urban Fantasy series – many of which inspired what I wrote here. Books have been my life since I realized high school is hell and no one bothers a weird girl who carries a different book every day. If you like any part of what I did with Ellie and the Ghouls then I’m telling you, you’re gonna die over these books. I am but a pale imitation of a writer compared to these.  The Dresden Files by Jim ButcherYou can’t beat a series where a wizard advertises in the yellow pages and whoops so much ass even my guy friends love these books.Kate Daniels Series by Illona AndrewsOne of the greatest female main characters ever! Illona Andrews and her hubby write bloody fantastic books with a unique take on the all shapeshifter/vampire lore.Innkeeper Chronicles by Illona AndrewsMore crazy twists to vamps and werewolves, this series is a mash up of urban fantasy and sci-fi. It’s something I haven’t seen before.Guild Hunters Series by Nalini SinghThe series I took my tumblr name from, this series is sooo good. The first book is definitely more paranormal romance than UF, but once you get past that it heads into kickass plot territory. BluebellxAodhan forever!!Iron Druid Series by Kevin HearneSoul Eater Series by Pippa DaCostaEllie Jordan, Ghost Trapper Series by J.L. BryanNot UF at all, but my second fave Ellie in literature. This is more horror, where the main character hunts ghosts. They’re super short reads but I’m obsessed.Karen Gillian Series by Diana RowlandI’m so on the fence with these books. The main character swings between cool chick and a super dunce. Mostly super dunce. BUT there is possible potential there because of the world building. The love triangle is annoying AF.Emperor’s Edge Series by Lindsay BurokerAnother non-Urban Fantasy series but holy shit, you would die if you knew how many times I reread these books. It’s a fantasy/steampunk adjacent series where all the characters fit perfectly on Dungeons and Dragons character sheets. I love it. Also a finished series.InCryptid Series by Seanan McGuireSeanan McGuire has a few UF series but this one is my fav.Monster Hunters International by Larry CorreiaThe author is a right wing gun nut whackjob and this series is absolutely not the best in the whole world (because the author cannot write romance to save his goddamn life) but I don’t mind a loony gun obsessed main character when he’s beating monster ass. The first few books are totally worth a read.Dark Angels series by Keri ArthurFinished series.Black Wings Series by Christina HenryFinished series that I’m still not over *cries*Charley Davidson Series by Darynda JonesDark Hunters series by Sherrilyn KenyonMore paranormal romance than UF, one of the first series I ever read where magic exists in our world. I’ve gotten way behind on the books but this is world building at it’s finest.Jane Yellowrock Series by Faith HunterBomb Native American mythology with a fierce female main character. I’ve stopped reading it because I got pissy about the relationship choices but still a great read.Agent of Hel series by Jacqueline CareyFinished series. Only three books so easy to get through. Dante Valentine Series by Lilith SaintcrowA finished series. Demons can be SEXYYYY. Also a cool cyberpunk flair. These three series are not finished and I’m not sure they ever will be. But they’re still really good reads.Grave Witch Series by Kalanya PriceGood god yes, give me Death.Downside Ghosts by Stacia KaneThe main character is a secret drug addict who lives in a world where ghosts are dangerous with a capital D.Deadtown Series by Nancy Holzner There are a dozen more I could recommend but I'll restrain myself.