by Shad N Freud
His mother’s death was still pretty fresh in his mind, and he received regular beatings from the bully boy that ruled the roost when the Matron in charge of the orphanage nipped into her whisky a bit too deeply. That bully loved to remind him of the shame he’d have to live with, being the son of the first traitor to the faith in over a century as he bloodied Carl’s face up.
He sniffled as he rolled back over onto his side and tried to go back to sleep.
“Oi,” his least favorite prick whispered to his friends, “I think little Marc woke up. Probably crying for his mommy. I saw we give the little piggy something to cry about.”
Carl’s eyes snapped open as he stared in horror at the taller, larger boys. “No! Leave me alone!”
“Sorry Marky-boy, but it’s time for your beating. Time to show you why traitors get the shite kicked out of them. Traitors are no better than little piggys, and your mother was a sow to rut with him. So-”
Something within Carl snapped. He lunged forward from his bed and nutted the tallest boy, crushing his nose and blinding him. He swung his fists downward at the larger boy as the two crashed to the floor with Carl’s knees on the boy’s chest, punching with wild abandon as the older boy’s friends tried to pry the scrappy little guy off. The bully curled up into a ball, holding his face as he screamed in agony.
The other boys, meanwhile, had a wild cat on their hands as Carl glared at them balefully, his eyes the ashade of red commonly associated with blood. He was gnashing and struggling to get free, desperate and determined to visit yet more violence on the stupid bastards that tormented him daily.
Finally, the lights came on and Sister Magdelena, the matron in charge of the orphanage, staggered into the room and bellowed at the struggling boys to shut up. She then bent down and slapped the bully’s hands out of the way to see the damage. She sighed as she looked over to Carl, then shook her head as she placed her hands on the boy’s face.
“Hold still, yeh little gobshite. Yeh’ve six teeth missin, yer eye’s been crushed, and ah know I dinnae forget to tell yeh the leave the boy alone. So, yeh had this coomin. It’s goin to hurt, so bite doon on this bit of leather.” She pulled a biting gag from her pocket and jammed it into his mouth, motioning for a couple other boys to hold him down. She placed her hands on his face, muttered a few infernal words of prayer under her breath, and a deep, resonating pulse of Hellish energies infused the boy, causing him to bite down on the leather and scream as he convulsed under the Sister’s ministrations. He finally calmed down, his injuries healed, and turned a gimlet eye upon Carl, who glared back defiantly, likewise having calmed down.
The Matron turned to Carl and gestured for him to follow as she ordered everyone else to their beds. “What am ah to do wih ye, Carl?” Sister Magdelena asked as she looked down at her charge.
Ever since the boy had arrived, he refused to answer to Marcel, preferring his middle name. She could hardly blame him for that, of course, but it spoke volumes about the shame the boy felt. This was not the first time she’d needed to intercede on a student’s behalf, nor would it be the last. Usually, Carl was the one who needed help, as he’d just plain taken the abuse, endured the beatings. At least, that was how it had been until a week ago, when the poor boy started having horrific nightmares about a slide to the deeper regions of Hell.
She shook her head as she opened the door to her chamber. “I think it might be better if we take ye to a Sinisterem and away from this place. Yer da aside, yer mum died protectin’ her flock and was an Inquisitor, so we should be able to get you in. Just have to get you there.”
Carl nodded as he stared at the floor. She lifted his chin with her large, green finger and brought his gaze to meet hers. “Ye’re not in trouble, boy. Tha’ thug and his bully boys will get theirs. Yer made fer greater things, Carl. But the way will be hard, an’ at times it will nae be fair. It dinnae matter. Yer a strong boy, a good one, and ye’ll make a fine Inquisitor someday.”
∞∞∞
Cenere shook the memory from his head before he lit a Black Jack with his thumb. He hated to admit it, but he was developing a taste for licorice after the imprinting he received when Carl died. Camila wasn’t complaining much, however, since several of his predecessors had been amazing at oral. And, since that wish was used, they were being very careful about fooling around; they couldn’t afford a pregnancy at this stage of the mission. So, other methods were required. Where he’d had talent before, he now had centuries off experience added to the mix.
Centuries that were slowly sliding into place and would take years to fully integrate.
In the meantime, he’d have flashes of insight, the occasional voice in his head and unbidden memories from past Grand Inquisitors of Greed. He also tended to catch himself reaching for the baton or pistol on his belt, as Carl was the last one to hold the title and they were his weapons of choice. For the first few days after the big guys death, Cenere walked about in a daze, seeing scenes from Carl’s childhood. Poor guy was plagued by nightmares in his youth, starting…
Camilla looked up when Cenere began swearing sulfurously and withdrew his baton as he walked into the training room. She shook her head as she went back to reading her book. Her beau’s promotion to Grand Inquisitor had not been without a dreadful price. Their esteemed leader was gone, and her man thrust into the role. A role he was doing his best to fulfill, but in private…she knew that her bedmate was having some pretty severe nightmares.
When she asked, Cenere refused to talk about them, a haunted look in his eye, save for saying that Carl had not had the easiest life. Camilla decided that if he were to choose to talk about what he was going through, it would be on his terms and in his own time, so for now she would just give him his space. She turned the page, doing her best to ignore the sounds of feral rage going on in the training room. A training dummy’s head flew out of the room and smacked into her crossed legs before sinking into the floor.
She slammed her heavy book shut and drew Thwack! from her nexus bag. She was frustrated, irritable, and nearing her monthlies. Plus, her boyfriend was – albeit understandably – keeping things from her. So, she decided to join in on the destruction.
Added to the pressure cooker about to burst that was her temper, her best friend had been distant of late. Ever since Carl died. She’d also clearly been having trouble sleeping, as Sachi looked run down, worn out, and short tempered of late. Something completely out of her character for the team’s resident ninja. She had even started snapping at Krang, who was simply confused out of his orbs when she turned on him. She’d had to explain to the poor guy that she just needed space and not to worry; when she was ready to talk, she would.
Camilla shrugged as she entered the training room and ducked as Cenere swung his baton, taking another dummy’s head off as he shot four others. He finally stopped when he realized she was there, his chest heaving with the exertion. She looked over at the wall and told it to pause the training program, then turned to her man as she leaned on the haft of her hammer. “So, what bug crawled up yer sweet arse this time ?”
Cenere held his hand out and a towel fell from the ceiling. He mopped his face, then pulled his hair back into the loose ponytail it had slipped free of. He sat down as a chair rose to meet him. “Carl grew up in this time, right?” Camilla nodded her brow furrowed slightly in confusion. He shook his head as he pulled out his pack of Jacks, lighting a smoke with his thumb. “His soul exists in two places at the same time. The poor kid started having Hell themed nightmares about a week ago.”
Camilla stared at Cenere as what he said sank in, her eyes widening in shock. “Ye don’t mean…”
“Carl was one of us the entire time. He’s always been a twinned soul. And old Lucy sent us back knowing exactly how everything would happen.” Cenere held up a piece of black vellum. “He wrote himself a note that told him how, what, and when to do everything for most of the next seven decades. He played all of us and let us think we’d be risking eternal suffering
if we died in this time. He may be our god, but he can be a real dick sometimes.”
Cenere’s eye started twitching as he continued his line of thought. “He was always meant to be a part of this mission. And I think I know why. I mean, the next Archduke of Purgatory is going to be crowned in eight years. Guess how long Carl’s going to burn for?”
Camilla did the math for a moment, then began rubbing the bridge of her nose as a small vein started throbbing on the side of her head. It was too much.
“Love, unless ye plan on getting me preggers, get out of the room. I need to blow off steam.”
Cenere looked at her in surprise, then noted the look of intense anger on her face and fled the room, deciding that discretion really was the better part of valor just as Thwak! started putting dummies through the floor. The door was slammed shut via the expedient of a dummy slamming into the door.
“Guess I’d better make myself scarce for a bit.”
∞∞∞
“Hello again.”
Sachi began weeping in her dreamscape. She turned to glare at the Elder God of Entropy as he used a biscotti to stir his café au lait, sitting at a small café table in a ruined Parisian café with the Eiffel tower in the background, infested with vespids as they grew a hive within the girders. He offered her a seat at the small table and shrugged when she gave him the finger.
He pointed over at a building of flats strung with the entrails of hundreds of people, the wrought iron fence surrounding it festooned with wet, freshly applied skulls. “This was a Paris from a few years ago. So, I know it seems like I was giving you a choice, you know, as to whether you’d help me or not…but, the problem is…you’ve been helping my cause this entire time. And…well, I do apologize for hiding this from you, but you’ve been the one feeding my people information. I mean, I was pretty surprised to see an agent of mine from the future, especially since entering your mind while you slept allowed me to see how things were going to play out. And, to make things even better, I can see what your people have planned.”
“I refuse to help you!” Sachi screamed at the Elder God, tears of grief and rage sliding down her face as she glared balefully at Cthulhu’s assumed form.
Cthulhu turned to stare at her in surprise. “Well, would you look at that? Free will? Pretty sure that’s not a programmed response. Being reviled? Sure! After all, can’t let the cat out of the bag too early. But…well, when you wake up? I need you to do a thing. You’ve still got the gun, right? And it still has all thirteen bullets, right? Well, when you see that dragon friend of yours, line up a shot when he’s talking to the big platinum lizard and shoot them both. That should be just enough to trigger a planar collapse. And, should it succeed, it might just gain enough momentum to wipe out the multiverse. And, if it does…I can finally stay dead.”
Sachi’s look of fury turned into one of confusion.
“Ah, I do love that look of utter confusion. It’s something you mortals do so well. Like a dog!. But yes, I would love to stay dead. Do you have any idea how old it gets, from my perspective, waking up every day and knowing that the plane you plan to visit hates you? That the death of an entire plane is the best-case scenario for your day? If I’d chosen this path, that would be one thing. But, when existence was in the process of…well, Being, I was stabbed in the back by my brothers and sisters, quite literally, and thrown away. Like garbage. And now, every day I have to either be the most hated being on a plane or be the death of it.
“I would love to die. For real. Permanently. Or be allowed to step down. Ever been a fish? Me neither, but nothing would make me happier. Nothing would make me happier than to be a simple being with a purpose. Swim, eat, fight other fish for breeding rights…either serve as a meal for a hungry bear, or spawn and serve as food for the bottom feeders. But serve a constructive purpose other than being the boogey man.” Cthulhu rubbed the bridge of his virtual nose “I just need you to murder a god and his representative for me. Is that too much to ask?”
“I ref-”
“Oh, shut up. I know that some part of you is still the girl we nabbed back at that blasted pyramid. I know you’re fighting this, but it doesn’t matter. I own you. Bought and paid for, got the receipt, whole nine yards, and a bunch of other tired clichés. We injected you with a retrovirus. Do you want to know why I’m here? It’s because you’ve been converted. Your body is no longer even remotely human, my dear. Your resistance to my demands? Laughable. When you wake up, you’re going to remember every time I’ve been in your little mind. And, to make it even better, you will have to watch as the virus forces you to kill them. You should have just said yes.”
“I…I…”Sachi fought as hard as she could, earning a raised eyebrow from the Elder God. Alas, even her formidable will was nothing before that of Cthulhu, tears streaming down her face as she felt his oppressive personality hammer her down.
“You what?” Cthulhu stood from his chair and sauntered over, raising his hand to his ear to help him hear her words. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Could you speak up?”
Sachi fought to force out the words, to resist. But her vision darkened as her last vestiges of humanity were suppressed by the viral agent. Her eyes turned black and her face smoothed, no longer struggling. She turned her head, staring right into Entropy’s eyes. “They will die tomorrow.”
“See? That’s all I wanted to hear. Now, toddle off to awake, my dear. Time’s a wasting.”
Sachi’s eyes snapped open, and she sat up. She looked down and saw her mechanical beau. She pulled a thin adamantine needle she’d purloined from the sewing room, rolled him onto his stomach, and drove it into the base of his skull. His eyes snapped open and he tried to move, but the pin was interrupting signals from the master to the other sockets. “That should keep you busy for a few minutes.”
She then quietly withdrew and stepped out of their room at the temple. And she immediately saw her target, with the secondary standing nearby. She made her way to a better vantage point, a single tear trailing down her face.
∞∞∞
Before Sachi woke up, Cenere and Camilla had gone out to the grounds, deciding on a picnic breakfast of pastries, juice, and fresh fruit. They enjoyed the sunrise as they ate their breakfast, and sipped coffee as they just took pleasure in each other’s company. Bahamut awoke and yawned as he stretched in a cat-like fashion, causing Camilla to giggle as the dragon opened his eyes, then rolled onto his back to catch the sun’s first warming rays. When she had her back to him, watching the Dragon God act like a house cat, Cenere reached into his pocket.
He withdrew a ring box he’d gotten from the mansion, an enchanted ring with a four-carat ruby set as the main stone resting within. Camilla’s birthstone, surrounded by a number of much smaller one-carat sapphires, his own birthstone. He then moved to a kneeling position, waiting for her to turn back to him.
His hand shook in anticipation, scared of what her answer would be, and cursing himself for being so anxious. While the ring would serve as a symbol of his love for her, the pendant would serve in the place of a wedding ring. Hence the reason why he chose such an extravagant engagement ring.
His eye tracked Jin as he came in for landing with a freshly caught dolphin from the coast. He offered Bahamut a piece, who rolled onto his side and licked his scaly lips.
He noticed Sachi going for a walk with The Gun and realized his hand was burning. His pupils shrank as he looked at the brand and noticed that the Chaotic signal was coming from Sachi. He then watched as she dropped to one knee and sighted the rifle on Jin’s back. He could see the shot would pass through the smaller dragon and into the more substantive behemoth behind him. Time seemed to slow as he dropped the ring box and activated his medallion, literally flying as he lunged for Sachi, drawing his sword as he tried like mad to close the distance and disarm her.
Camilla heard the crack of a rifle, a sword slicing flesh, and the howling of two dying dragons. More importantly, she felt something within her break, as if a leather
strap under tension was sliced. She jumped to her feet and almost tripped on the ring box as she ran to where her best friend lay under her beau. Cenere wasn’t breathing, the bullet from the gun having passed through his heart, killing him instantly. His eyes were closed, a peaceful expression on his face.
Sachi, by contrast looked surprised, her head having been severed from her body and laying a few feet away.
Camilla clutched her lover and began sobbing as she felt his body start to cool. She looked up as she felt a strong wind blow and saw a dark orb form over the corpse of the Dragon God, an orb that began sucking in everything around it as it began to slowly grow. Camilla simply held onto her man, crying as they were slowly drawn into nothingness.
∞∞∞
In the lowest level of the Abyss, the mountain sized body of the embodiment of Entropy stirred, his massive eyes snapping open before the being began laughing, a sound that caused the mountains in the layers above to come crashing down. One crushed a particularly annoying thorn in the Elder God’s side entirely by accident, pinning Demogorgon to the floor of his palace.
The entire multiverse was collapsing and being devoured by Oblivion. He’d finally succeeded! All was to end! He stood, screaming loudly and causing the entirety of the Abyss to collapse in on itself as he opened a hole to Oblivion and allowed his plane to be consumed.
Throughout the Multiverse, holes began to open, drawing in everything in their path, growing larger as they absorbed and devoured the planes they opened in, accelerating rapidly. Within minutes, numerous smaller planes of existence, such as Lucifer’s Hell, ShawCorp Prime, the remnants of McG Prime, and various others had been consumed.