As Evil Does

by P. S. Power

  Not that she knew that for certain.

  No one spoke, as they climbed the mountain, using the carved steps provided to them. It didn’t take long. After all, none of them were slow or out of shape. That wasn’t a thing that they could afford to be. Not in the past and, it seemed, not in the new world they were facing. Not if they were going to have to fight off Angelic attacks.

  That was a thing that got Keeley to nearly stop then. Bente had, clearly, been set upon. The thing there was that the Angels had tried to use things that vaguely resembled nets at first. They hadn’t landed when thrown, the woman shifting out of the way using perfect form. They just hovered in the air, not doing anything to her when her hand brushed them at one point.

  According to the memories, that was when one of them had pulled the more powerful weapon. A sword of light that fired white hot flame. Even though that wasn’t truly correct. It was a stream of energy, but not a plasma at all.

  Keeley spoke then, having worked out what was likely needed.

  “Okay, everyone, we’ll need to be as good as possible when we face them. I think that it’s an energy compatibility issue. Being good is probably as close as we’re going to be able to come on short notice to matching the energy they use. If we get close enough to that, it probably won’t be able to affect us. Not much. It will have to be enough, if that’s the case. I mean, I can’t fake being an Angel yet, at least.” She didn’t think that was likely, anyway.

  Michael made a soft, considering, sound then.

  “There is likely some truth in that. It would be more useful if you could resonate at my own frequency, but that might be impossible for you, having physical forms as you do. Barring that, being very good should offer some protection. Humans who are pure of spirit are rather resistant to my kind. It’s why some of us had to fall, in order to aid them.” The Angel, still looking like a slightly weathered farmer, simply reached the top of the stairs where there was a well-maintained courtyard. A flat stone expanse at least. A spot carved from the mountain itself, that had been swept clean of all snow. Further back, built into the mountain itself, was a nicely large stone temple. It was big enough to house hundreds of people, if they were a little cozy.

  Taking a deep breath, Keeley changed again. Causing her mind and body to exude as much goodness, a thing she wasn’t really that familiar with, as she possibly could. Then, working harder this time than the last, she didn't allow that portion of her to slip. It was clear that her very being cried out for it to happen, to become what she was supposed to be but also that she didn't have to let it.

  Instead she fought for control, using all the discipline that she’d learned as a Greater Demon, to force herself to be as far away from that state as possible. The others with her, all of them, seemed to be doing the same thing. It was difficult to tell if they were really managing it or simply faking it better than she was.

  Not that it really mattered at the moment.

  Pointing toward the only obvious door, a red wooden thing that could use a fresh coat of paint, she shrugged.

  “The Mimic is that way. Shall we just walk in, or…” She looked around. They weren’t going to be using a secret side door, she didn’t think. Not unless anyone was seeing something she wasn’t. That there would be such a thing hidden in the complex made sense. Keeley wasn’t seeing it though, in the moment.

  Tarsus looked at the same things she did, then smiled. The youthful looking man pointed to the left, his finger unwavering.

  “There should be a way in, over this way. How about Darla and myself go in that way, and meet the rest of you in the main chamber, behind that red door in… Call it eight minutes? We’re going to have to do some crawling, I wager.” Even for them that would be slower than walking.

  Unless they manipulated time or space to make it work better.

  Linden nodded at Tarsus then.

  “Eight minutes. We’ll go in at seven minutes and forty-five seconds. That way you can come from behind if we’re attacked first thing. If we need to flee, use the lines?” That, interestingly, was aimed at Mike. The man in the know about their new enemies.

  For his part he shrugged.

  “Truly, there is no place or speed at which you can move that my kind cannot follow you. We are weak, in many ways. In battle we cannot harm the base material of this or any physical world. Evil burns in our presence, but also weakens our forms in return. We are, by our combined natures, ill-suited to fight one another. There is an eternal war between good and evil, but that is as much due to the essential conflict of what we are as it is any effort on either side.”

  Keeley could see that, so nodded.

  “Which makes one wonder why there is violence being done at all. My people wouldn’t have been able to be a threat to yours. They probably aren’t now, either.” Being that they were either captured or dead.

  Tarsus waved to Darla.

  “Eight minutes from… Now.”

  Focusing, Keeley generated a digital readout in her head, then pushed just a bit of magic into it. The thing wouldn’t be as accurate as a good watch, of course. Not over a long period of time. A quartz time piece was a modern marvel, after all. Over a few hours it should work pretty well, just using focus and magic for it. She might drift a few seconds in that time, but this wasn’t exactly a precision military operation. Their entire plan was to just go in and see what was happening.

  They hadn’t even suggested violence, other than possibly being attacked.

  Which, she realized, was probably a sign that they were all truly managing to be more or less good, at the moment. Not that being good meant they had to be stupid about things.

  She stood there, waiting in silence, with Bente taking a slow, rather deep breath, and then imbuing a thought with power. A single flash of light took place, leaving a spear in her hand when she was finished. It was created from nothing, which was interesting. Keeley had never mastered that level of magic, even if she knew it was possible. Really, it was another thing that she needed to put on her list of things to learn and refine, if she could pull it off.

  The thing looked and would probably feel perfectly normal, when it stabbed you, but it wasn’t actually there at all. It was an idea of a thing, given just enough power to make it real. After a fashion.

  Keeley didn’t bother with that sort of thing, since the weapons she had with her wouldn’t work at all. Not against Angels. Her fists might, but she wasn’t even certain of that, at the moment. She was, at least possibly, putting out too much positivity for that.

  Softly, she smiled.

  “Peace and love, man. Peace and love.” The words were a bare whisper, which had Mike smiling in her direction, rather than scolding her for mocking him.

  “That is the way of my kind. To come at us with a pure heart today will baffle and confuse, more than anything else you could do. Still, I should go in first? They might try to attack, if they feel their plan is being threatened. There isn’t much they can do to me.”

  Why that was, she didn’t get to hear, since the red door, a heavy thing made of solid wood, opened, with a single glowing being, a pure white and blue that was brighter than the sun, floating out.

  Then, after seeing them and coming closer, the thing…

  Sang.

  It was like nothing Keeley had ever heard before. Bells mixed with chimes and perhaps a woodwind instrument. The sounds were perfectly mellow though and not discordant or harsh. Even as the being moved in front of Michael, perhaps recognizing one of its own.

  Instead of speaking in English, Mike, still looking out of place in his overalls and boots, made a different but similar sound back at the other Angel. It went on longer. Much so.

  Then they went back and forth for several minutes, with no explanation coming as to what was being said. When it was close to time to move in, Keeley simply walked away. Leaving the others to do what they thought correct. She couldn’t understand what was being spoken of at all, and Michael didn't call her back, even though h
e glanced at her.

  Bente moved with her, but Linden gave a single nod and stayed there, with the Angels. He seemed prepared to fight, without being aggressive about it.

  She pulled ahead at the door.

  “I’ll go first. Let’s see if we can do this without fighting, first thing?”

  The words got a rather unladylike sound from the very attractive woman.

  “Are you saying that I might be taking this a little too seriously? I’d rather keep my face, if it’s all the same.” Given they didn't know what they were walking into, the tone of the words were actually rather playful. Less accented than they normally were when the fashion designer spoke, as well.

  That, no doubt was for Keeley’s benefit.

  Making certain they could easily communicate, in case it became important.

  The door was open still, and while it was darker inside, no sense of heat was coming from within. Pretending it was normal, like they were there for a casual visit, Keeley walked in, not trying to sneak around. After all, they were going to be noticed. In a case such as the one they were moving into, they’d stand out incredibly, so attempting to go unnoticed wasn’t going to work. Even shifting into the form of a Tibetan monk with yellow robes and the proper footwear wouldn’t. Not if the place was infested with Angels.

  There was light, making it easy to see everything going on. Along the far wall, in cages of pure energy, where most of the missing Wise Ones seemed to be hanging out. Of interest, standing in front of those cages, hands glowing purple, looking fierce, was Zack. He stood there, ready to fight, in front of hundreds of glowing light beings. None of them moved at all.

  It was, in some odd form, a stalemate. Zack couldn’t fight them all. Not alone. At the same time, none of the ethereal beings seemed willing to face him in battle. In the end that probably came down to what Mike had just told them. That his kind weren’t well suited to fighting.

  Looking at the whole thing, Keeley watched for a while, then nodded. Taking her time, she pushed herself into being as good as possible again. Using first magic and then common sense. It burned, of course. At first anyway. After a few moments, that portion faded, leaving her feeling almost normal.

  After all, if evil was what evil did, then the same probably followed for being good. That meant, instead of leaping in and fighting, she clapped her hands to get attention. That had about half the Angels turning around to look at her. There was no real threat in the move, on either side. They just looked at her, not seeing her as a threat, as far as Keeley could tell.

  Which meant she was able to smile and mean it.

  “Hello! We’ve come to take our friends back. We’ll have a conversation about what you want us to do, but later. I think Michael will help set that up for us? Taking prisoners… that really isn’t to His plan, is it?” She paused then, since they’d been really effective at that part of things. All of the Wise Ones in the cages looked over at her, since they weren’t stupefied or anything. Just baffled.

  Interestingly enough it was The Wild who spoke to her. He’d been an insane Greater Demon, prone to violence for little to no reason. Back a year, the man had affected the aspect of a mountain man, complete with coon skin cap. Now he was dressed like a teen boy. His face was the same, only younger. His form was lean, but muscular, without pushing the boundaries of credulity. His voice was pleasant, considering the cage of fire and light he was in.

  Keeley didn't have another name for him. He tended to give different titles that way, as it suited him. At least he had in the past. It was part of his persona, or had been.

  “Keeley… We seem to be trapped here. The Line Walker is holding something back from us. I can see it, but…” There was a smile then. It seemed rough and ungainly. “As soon as I look away, I forget what’s there. The same with these bars of light. I can see that they burn me, but I keep failing to note they are there. It’s a trifle annoying, to be honest.”

  Several of the others chimed in then, letting her know what was happening. Others called out to Bente.

  Not really understanding that hundreds of Angels held them trapped. None of them got that, except for Zack. He spoke then, his voice dark and brooding.

  “They… We’re surrounded by Angels. Hundreds of them. I can’t get the others here free. I can walk through the bars, but I can’t work out how to affect them.” There was bitterness to the words. Probably because everyone had been trapped there for at least a full day, if not longer. That meant they’d all be getting pretty hungry. It was a drawback of being what they were. They had to eat, and do a lot of that on a regular basis, or else it cost them in a major fashion.

  Keeley, ignoring the Angels that floated above them, about five feet from the carved stone floor, smiled even larger.

  “It’s easy enough. Everyone, change shape and become good. Like a good Human being. Really do it though, don’t just act it out. Become a good person. You can use magic for it. When you get it right, you should be able to remember what’s out here. Don’t freak out about it. I was just suggesting that we have a meeting about the whole thing, later. That will work, in this case. We don’t need to fight or even argue about it.” She shrugged. “These beings aren’t bad. They also aren’t unreasonable, I don’t think. We can talk this out and see if we can come to an accord?”

  The Wise Ones were used to that kind of idea, if in a different form. They’d always bargained for things among themselves, after all. That meant, picking up on what she was saying, most of them nodded, even if they still couldn’t hold the floating beings in mind.

  Lyn, Zack’s grandmother, who tended to look like a Japanese woman in her mid-thirties, at least of late, had actually bothered to listen to what Keeley had said and tried to alter herself. She used to be known as The Changling. Out of all of them, only The Mimic was as good at altering himself to match a given ideal. There was barely a sense of magic in what she’d done as well.

  In fact, it was so subtle and energy efficient that Keeley shook her head a bit.

  “You know Lyn, I need to get you to show me how you do that. Here I’d thought that I was doing so well, changing shape like I have been. I can see that I still have a lot left to learn that way. You can see them now?” Not that she couldn’t do it before that. It was just being able to hold them in mind that was the hard part.

  The feisty woman, who was old enough to not be shocked by anything, simply nodded.

  “I can. The rest of you should do this as well. Become good, as Keeley suggested.”

  They didn't all rush to do it. It was clear that some of them couldn’t really manage to hold that state well at all, even when they pushed themselves in the right way. It was enough though, so that five minutes later, the stares had moved away from Zack and Keeley and moved to the blue and white beings.

  Tarsus walked into the room, along with Darla. They’d been waiting near the back of the space, in case a fight started. So they could jump the Angels from behind. Not that it was going to work that way, if anything took place. Not if they were truly as fast as Mike had mentioned. For his part, the Arch Angel came in through the front door, the red thing being closed behind him and the other Angel he’d been talking to.

  Looking around at most of the Greater Demons of the world, or at least those who used to fill those roles, he smiled.

  “Howdy. I’m Michael. The Arch Angel. Nice to meet all you folks. Again, for a lot of you.” He waved at Lyn and then about half of the others. It was a strange move, but more than one of them gasped. Understanding that what was happening wasn’t totally new to them.

  Indeed, if they were like Keeley, then Angels had been part of their lives for a very long time.

  Even some of the insane seemed to recall the man.

  The Angel. A being that they’d all been taught couldn’t exist. Or at least didn’t.

  Keeley nodded then, and spoke loudly.

  “I was just suggesting that we have a meeting, later? To find out what your people here want of us. This was�
� Not the best way to make a good impression. I’m sure we can let this one go, in the interest of working out the best plan for everyone? Unless your side insists on a fight? Then… Well, that’s going to be difficult and annoying. I think we’d be best off not going down that road?” She let herself sound slightly amused, instead of angry.

  Not that she knew if any of the other Angels could understand her. She certainly wasn’t singing.

  Mike did that for her, turning to his own people and doing just that, for a much shorter period of time than had been required before. Most of the light beings bowed, a sense of wings showing in the glare behind them as they did it. Those were just arcs of light, instead of feathered limbs. Still, she could get the idea, well enough. Where the old paintings had come from. If she’d seen one of these beings in a dream or vision, then Keeley would have thought of wings as well.

  That or the McDonalds golden arches. One or the other.

  After a moment, Michael raised his right hand and the room fell silent.

  “Would you all be available a month from now for that? Everyone here is… Well, let’s just say there’s some confusion in the room? The idea that so many of you can truly change your true nature isn’t expected by most here. Even if I’ve been telling them it was possible for the last thousand years. You’re simply a different type of being than the host is.” He waved in a sweeping gesture at the Wise Ones, who were still in the cages, even if Keeley was fairly certain they could have simply walked out now. For most of them. The Mimic could, at least. She could feel that, a sense of goodness, coming off of him. A thing which was holding steady, and was more powerful in the moment than what she was managing to hold.

  Not that it wouldn’t fade as soon as her suggestion to be that way went away.

  She laughed a bit. Trying for pleasant, instead of bitchy. It oddly enough wasn’t hard to pull off.

  “I can see that being an issue. The rules have changed for all of us. We very well might need to make some new ones up, as we go along. Now, we should probably let everyone go? Then… We can make a plan to meet? A place and time. A month from now.” She didn’t have a spot picked out for such a meeting. Doing it there, in the temple, was possible, but they didn’t seem to have chairs or food available. Even if they were being good, the Wise Ones would need sustenance.