“Ah, right.” I shook my head. “Sorry for the disturbing revelation.”
“You’re not human.”
“Not exactly. Neither is Delta, though, and you get on well enough with her.”
She digested that. “Were you telling the truth?”
“Yes.”
“What now?”
“Hey Lucifer, don’t think about how Judy can get to Heaven!” I grinned as the collective sent me the answer I wanted. “Bingo. Oh, you’ll love this, it’s simple. All you have to do is jump in that pit.” I pointed in the general direction of the hole in Hell.
“That’s it?”
“Well... you have to believe that you shouldn’t be here. Then you move on to wherever you should be.”
“Heaven?”
“Probably.” I shrugged. “Pretty sure you’ll have a choice, though. There’s other options than the Christian Heaven, if you want them.”
Judy closed her eyes and nodded. “Well. Please... tell Delta...”
“She knows. They’re in on the secret and she’s monitoring my feed.” I smiled.
“Thank you. And also, please tell Queensguard cheers, eh? I’ll be fine, and they were the best.”
“She can do that. Oh, take Paragon with you, okay?” The fire on his face had gone out, but he was still dead.
Without another word, Judy grabbed him and leaped.
I settled back in my throne. Underneath me, the two Doppelgangers were silent.
I gave it a minute, or two, there on the ice. “You can come out now,” I finally spoke.
There was scrabbling behind me, and I turned to see First Whisper and The Cat emerge from the side of the pillar, hauling themselves over the lip of the ice.
“You have slain Lucifer,” First Whisper’s eyes were wide.
“No. He’s just paralyzed.” I smiled. “The collective is mapping his brain right now. It’s very interesting. We’ll come out of this with all his little secrets.”
The world shook briefly beneath me.
I raised my voice. “Secrets which will remain so, if you do as she commands.” I’d originally developed this nanotech to take care of the dragon, in the event the gravitics failed. He could thrash all he wanted, it wouldn’t matter.
The shaking ceased.
“Good.” I smirked. “Every Damned and human in Dire’s group is going to pass through the pit and out. The living back to Creation and the Damned to wherever they need to go. This is not a request. This is how it works.”
“And us?” The Cat asked, staring at me, pupils contracted. “We know your secret now. I know why you seemed to contain multitudes. What will you do with us?”
“Do?” I shrugged. “Nothing. You can’t come to Creation, the Janissary would pitch a fit.”
“Lucifer will kill us,” First Whisper said.
“Ah, point. Hey Morningstar! If you take retribution against these two or First Worm, Dire is going to spill every secret you have. Yes, even that one.”
I didn’t know which secret that one was, but the collective seemed happy by where his mind went when I mentioned that. “That’s a two way street,” I said, raising my eyes to the two of them. “You’ll have to keep his secret as well. And Dire’s naturally.”
“But you’re leaving,” First Whisper gasped. “Once you are gone, he will not care about your threat.”
“Oh child.” I stood then, and Alpha and Gamma shifted behind me. First Whisper backed away as I strode forward, but I seized her in a hug and didn’t let her go. “Dire seeded you all with nanomachines months ago. She’s monitoring your status from across the dimensions. Just as she’s seeded key points of Hell, and everyone she’s encountered. Those she serves will always see this place. Hell cannot escape them.”
The demons paled, and The Cat backed away.
“Not another word, now,” I said, then shook my head. Time to put the mask back on.
I blinked, as the cold seeped into my bones. The adrenaline had worn off, after I... after... what had happened, precisely? Memory flooded back. I stared at the distance, at the gray steam pouring out of a smoking hole in the ice. “THE NANOMACHINES STUNNED HIM. WE’VE GOT A WINDOW BUT WE NEED TO MOVE FAST.” I shifted my feet, hoping like heck the pain meant that I didn’t have frostbite. “ALPHA, GAMMA, LET’S GET BACK TO THE OTHERS. WE’RE DONE HERE.”
The demons gave me funny looks as my Doppelgangers carried me back, but I paid it no heed.
And twelve minutes later, I strode into the command center on Squeaky with half-frozen feet. The demons were back in their old quarters; this next part was not for them.
“AND SO IT’S DONE.”
Khalid stared at me, eyes white in the dim light.
Vector crossed his arms and shook his head. “No. No, that was too easy. I refuse to believe it was—”
“BELIEVE IT.” I took a seat and rested my mask on one hand.
“No final fight? No battle to end all battles? No desperate gambits at the end of everything?”
“NO.” I said, feeling the tension drain out of me, feeling the weariness full upon me now. I was tired. “THE JOURNEY WAS ENOUGH. AT THE END OF IT ALL, THE VAUNTED DEVIL WAS NAUGHT BUT A FOOL.” I sighed. “KAYFABE IS FOR THOSE WHO DESERVE IT. HE DID NOT.” I sighed again. “WE’LL HAVE TO KEEP QUIET ABOUT THIS. OTHERWISE MILLIONS OF SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE READERS WILL HAVE THEIR FANTASIES EXTINGUISHED.”
“We should be silent about it anyway,” Khalid said. “For far more serious reasons.”
“FUNNY. SHE GAVE THAT ADVICE TO OUR DEMONS JUST A LITTLE WHILE AGO.”
“Your demons,” Khalid said, quietly.
“POINT.”
“Stay quiet? About this? Why?” Vector frowned. “Think of the villainous cred you could reap from this.”
“NAH.” I shrugged. “THE MORE WE POKE THE MORNINGSTAR ABOUT THIS, THE MORE HE’LL BE TEMPTED TO EXACT RETRIBUTION. LET HIM SULK.”
“Prudent.” Khalid nodded. “Otherwise he may accelerate his war. Nobody wins, if that happens.”
I rolled my eyes and didn’t know why. Ah, no matter.
“VERY WELL,” I nodded. “NOW LET US TURN OUR ATTENTION TO LEAVING THIS PLACE.”
Our Damned went first, the ones who had trusted us, worked for us, fought for us all the way across Hell.
Then some of the Damned who had managed to pull themselves free of the ice. With Lucifer gone it was melting, slowly, slowly. Many stayed behind to free others, though. I’d estimate that only a good third of those who emerged from the ice crossed through. They’d come this far, but they were afraid. When they asked us of Lucifer’s whereabouts, we didn’t answer.
The demons took their leave after that. I built them a hovercraft, and they headed back to Dis. They seemed spooked about the whole affair... well, First Whisper and The Cat, anyway. First Worm didn’t want to go but was somewhat mollified when Delta wrote out all of the Monsters and Mangonels books, and appointed him the high Monster Master of Hell. She bade him to go forth and spread the game. After that, he left with the rest, without hesitation.
As for me, I worked, salvaging what I could from the crash site, and working with Vector and Khalid to irradiate important components. Finally, after three weeks, I was clad in a new suit of power armor once more. The Damned who were willing were through, and we could stall no longer.
We said our last goodbyes and stepped off the edge, falling, falling into the pit, the gate...
…and emerged in a field of grass, long and waving. Trees in the distance, along with a farmhouse that had seen better days.
Vector sniffed the air, shielded his eyes against the sun. “It smells... this is Earth. Has to be.”
“WAIT,” I told him. My sensors were at full power, searching...
...and finding.
“ALBERTA,” I said. “CANADA. THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.”
I didn’t know why the pit had spat us out there. It had deposited the Damned elsewhere, in some place our sensors could not reach. But my Chorus... they had s
ouls, as strange as they were. They had been put in random places throughout the world.
Just as we had.
I didn’t care. They would find me later, or vice-versa.
Our journey was done. We were home.
I decanted from my suit, crawled out, and took my first breath of fresh air.
It had been a hell of a time.
“So what now?” Vector asked. “World conquest? Random villainy? Bank robbery?”
I snorted. “No. She’s going to take a vacation. Take a little while, take stock, and see what the world’s been up to in her absence. After that... we’ll see.”
“You don’t have to remain a villain, you know,” Khalid said, moving up and putting a hand on my shoulder. “After what we just went through... no one would say a thing, if you had a turned face ankle.”
“Heel-face turn,” I corrected. I’d tried to explain professional wrestling to Khalid. He’d barely been listening at the time, I supposed. “No. No, the world needs her right where she is.” I said, smiling up at the sky and all the fluffy white clouds. “There must always be a Doctor Dire.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
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DIRE : HELL (The Dire Saga Book 6) Page 31