Post by Bene Elohim on Feb 8, 2024 13:35:43 GMT -8
The events of the HYBRID Wrestling show, Predator and Prey, were now in the rearview and the world had taken on a whole new appearance. The events many never thought would ever come to pass have happened: a Kenyon, a Maguire, and a Sears have bent the knee.
To those living in the small, secluded farmhouse, it was like something they never imagined. Now Ananiel, Ramiel, and Sariel stood at the window of the second-floor office, watching the dust plumes billowing up the country driveway. The body language of the trio was one of tension and apprehension.
They didn’t imagine their Lord would take their news well. Truth be told, they didn’t take the news well themselves.
Sariel gave the pair a slight pat on the shoulder, and together, the trio turned and exited the room as the dust cloud drew closer to the quiet farm. They walked down the stairs, being joined suddenly by black robed figures exiting the various doors and falling in behind the pair.
In pairs of two with Sariel walking at the head, they descended the stairs and walked through the main living room of the house. Past the doors leading to the porch, the others waited as the group filed out. Anyone wearing a black robe continued past the porch to stand in the grass while Sariel, Ananiel, and Ramiel paused just in front of Aniel, Arakiel, Turiel, Tamiel, Satariel, Armaros, Samyaza, and Baraqiel.
They all stood, waiting until the pair of vehicles pulled up. The black SUV in front and the yellow Camaro close behind it. The two slowed to a stop and the doors popped open, three on each vehicle. Xaria stepped out of the driver's seat of the SUV with Zachary Sears from the passenger side and Lord Lucifer behind the driver.
From the Camaro came Ashley Kenyon out of the driver's seat, Aerynn Maguire from the passenger side, and Maiko Adachi behind the driver’s seat. For the first time since they had found the woman, Maiko’s hair was now down over her face. It was bright blue, nearly turquoise. The hole in her nose, created by the men who had taken her, had been turned into a piercing hole that held a hoop between the nostrils.
Aerynn took one look around at the small farmhouse and a peel of delighted laughter left her throat.
Aerynn Maguire: "How did we nay find dis?"
Ashley Kenyon: “Cause we were looking for a burning fucking wasteland, not a sweet little farmhouse... "
Lucifer glanced behind him and a small smirk appeared on his lips.
Lucifer: “The easiest way to hide something? Don’t hide it.”
Ashley Kenyon: “...I hate how that actually makes sense now…Dammit.”
Lucifer actually chuckled and turned his attention to the gathered force standing on the porch and just beyond. As the group passed between the two factions of black-robed Demons, they all fell to a knee. When they reached the porch and climbed the stairs, Sariel, Ananiel, and the others all inclined their heads.
Then one by one, the newcomers were embraced in warm, even welcoming fashion by each member of the collection that awaited them. Zachary, Ashley, and Aerynn, all embraced as a family as they were called “brother” or “sister” by the group.
That was until they came to Maiko. Sariel, Ananiel, and Ramiel sank down to their knees and took the woman’s hands in their own. Ashley immediately reached out to grab Maiko before Asmodeus could make an appearance and attack them, but to her surprise, Maiko did not recoil.
Sariel: “Mother. Can you forgive us?”
Maiko: “...Forgive?”
Ramiel: “What we…”
Ananiel: “...Did in the…”
Ramiel: “...War Games match was…”
Both: “Unforgivable.”
Maiko slowly smiled and her hand moved behind her to touch her spine that had required medical intervention to fix.
Maiko Adachi: “You were only following orders.”
Sariel: “...But you left…”
Maiko Adachi: “Lord Lucifer had lost his way, forgotten what we created this for. You gave him what he asked for...I gave him what he needed.”
Zachary Sears: “You told us ve vere here for a reason, ja? Vas this it?”
Lucifer glanced from the Twins, Sariel and Maiko, back to Zachary and then back again before blowing out a little chuckle and shaking his head.
Lord Lucifer: “No. I wanted you all to see what exactly you have signed up for. You all know what my Children had become. What it was turned into in greed and bitterness.”
Zachary Sears: “Some better zhan others...”
Most of them allowed this to slide, all except Aerynn who stepped forward and popped Zach square in the chest.
Aerynn Maguire: “Dannae forget who was in that “war” long before anyone knew yer name.”
Lord Lucifer: “Enough.”
Zachary smiled and laughed, brushing his chest where she had touched him before looking up into her eyes. The German Shotgun refused to stand down from the Irish Princess.
Zachary Sears: “Couldn’t get ze job done, though, could you?”
Lord Lucifer: “ENOUGH!”
Lucifer’s hand came around and slammed a closed fist into the railing beside the stairs. The group did fall silent, but there was no submission in the eyes staring back at him. This didn’t surprise him.
Submission from a Fallen Angel took time and loyalty. It wasn’t like the Demons, built through pain and madness.
It took time.
Lucifer, now with their full attention, turned and began into the house, speaking over his shoulder as the others followed.
Lord Lucifer: “The Hell as it once was is no more. There are no more Cabins, no more Killing Fields, and most of the Demons have been allowed to return to their lives and their homes should they wish to.”
Maiko Adachi: “What?!”
Maiko’s voice was an outraged scream of hate and fear.
Maiko Adachi: “Dimitri?! Liss!? Crane?! You let them go!?”
Ashley Kenyon: “Twoey, breathe.”
While Ashley tried to keep the Demon within the woman she loved at bay, Lucifer glanced back again and snorted.
Lord Lucifer: “Of course not.”
Aerynn Maguire: “Ye jus’ said...”
Lord Lucifer: “I said most of the Demons. The more serious offenders and those more likely to target innocent women and children? There is no way I’m releasing them back out into the world.”
Ashley Kenyon: “And what, exactly, did you do with those?”
Lucifer smirked again but didn’t turn. Sariel, Ramiel, and Ananiel answered from the back of the group.
Ramiel: “Anyone who..."
Ananiel: "Poses a continued..."
Ramiel: "Threat to the…”
Ananiel: "Innocents is given..."
Both: “...Permanent solution.”
Sariel: “Where they cannot hurt anyone again.”
Zachary Sears: “Und vhat role vill ve play in all zhis?”
Lord Lucifer: “The same as always. You watch, observe, and report. Once I have seen all the facts, you deal the justice.”
Xaria Linette: “One way or another.”
With a calm approach, Xaria walked alongside Lucifer on his left. She was about to press on when the Twins softly began to speak.
Ramiel: “This is not…”
Ananiel: “...Why we asked…”
Ramiel: “...You here…”
Both: “...Lord Lucifer.”
Lucifer turned his eyes to the pair at the back and lifted a brow. He extended his hand and allowed them to pass the group to the head and lead them. The Twins and Sariel led the group past the stairs and beneath a little arch between them.
Beyond the arch was a door leading into a small room. The walls were bare and there wasn’t a single chair in the entire room. The only furniture was a large desk with a map sitting atop it. Stacks of papers, both handwritten and typed, sat strewn across the desk. The map had nearly sixty colored pins pushed into various parts of a half a dozen states.
Ramiel: “We have been…”
Ananiel: “...Following them, as…”
Both: “...you commanded.”
Sariel: “Checking in from a distance to make sure those we have released are staying true to their command. Looking for any hint of reoffense.”
Zachary Sears: “You are keeping tabs on them….?”
Zachary asked as he approached the desk, staring down at the map. Before Lucifer could answer, Maiko walked around the table and let out a soft, musical laugh. She slid an arm around Ashley’s waist and laid her cheek against her arm.
Maiko Adachi: “You don’t really think he’d just take their obedience at face value and risk the safety of the innocents around them, do you?”
Lucifer and Zachary exchanged a telling look, as Zach finally saw firsthand the lengths Lucifer would go to to ensure that no child or woman was harmed. Aerynn stopped beside Ashley on the other side and motioned to the maps red and grey pins.
There were a dozen grey pins.
Aerynn Maguire: “That many reoffended?!”
It was over twenty percent, which was insane to her. Even for the kind of people who became Demons in the first place.
Sariel: “The grey ones are the ones who have disappeared.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Disappeared? Like, just poof?”
Sariel: “When we send in a team to check on them and watch to see for signs of reoffense, their homes were empty. Belongings gone. Subjects vanished.”
Zachary: “Zhat seems high. Twenty percent?”
Ramiel: “We both…”
Ananiel: “...Thought the same…”
Both: “...thing.”
Sariel: “So we looked a little deeper.”
Lucifer came to stand at the head of the table and laid his palms down on the map, looking up at Sariel. Xaria approached the table as well, her emerald green eyes scanning the map.
Lord Lucifer: “And? Are they turning? Should I put in calls?”
Sariel: “We don’t think so, my Lord. We noticed it immediately.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Noticed what? Good fucking god, don’t tell us you found something woman, tell us what you actually FOUND.”
Lucifer concealed a little smirk, as Sariel made a face at Ashley but did as she asked.
Sariel: “They were all assigned the same person to look in on them.”
Aerynn Maguire: “Dat’s no fuckin’ coincidence.”
Lord Lucifer: “Agreed. Who?”
Sariel: “...The leader of the Demons?”
Lord Lucifer: “VALDEMAR?!”
Ramiel: “And there…”
Ananiel: “...is more.”
Sariel swallowed down a lump in her throat and whispered.
Sariel: “After War Games, you were ordered to return the Matthews estate. Before we had to disband, I told you about some discrepancies in the accounts.”
Lord Lucifer: “I remember, yes.”
Sariel: “...they are also traced back to Valdemar.”
Lucifer’s hand slowly clenched on the table in front of him and somehow he knew they weren’t done yet.
Lord Lucifer: “...And?”
Sariel: “. . .”
Maiko Adachi: “Sara...tell us.”
Sariel: “...The Masterfile is gone.”
Lucifer let out a curse-riddled diatribe of profanity that took even Aerynn back and drives his hand into the table with a loud audible thud, shaking it beneath all their hands. Not even Xaria the Harbinger was about to approach him when he was suddenly compromised like this.
Lord Lucifer: “...Gone?”
Sariel: “...Yes, Sire...”
Lord Lucifer: “The file containing the names of everyone who has helped us stay off the radar for nearly ten years?! Just up and gone?!”
Aerynn Maguire: “It’s nay ‘up and gone’ and ye are a fuckin’ idiot if ye think it just got up and walked away!”
Maiko Adachi: “...Ryn…”
The warning in the blue-haired woman’s tone was obvious, and Aerynn was smart enough to fall silent. Ashley shook her head and looked over at her new leader.
Ashley Kenyon: “It’s that Valdemar guy. It has to be.”
Lord Lucifer: “Valdemar Johansen is one of the loyalist people in all of Hell. Even after I felt he had served his sentence and released him, he stayed of his own free will.”
Ashley let out a barking laugh and began to count off her fingers one by one.
Ashley Kenyon: “The last one to see the missing demons? Valdemar. The last one to have any transactions with these missing funds in this mystery account? Valdemar. And now this master list of everyone who helped you stay off police radar and off god damn watch lists goes missing…Let me guess, he’s gone radio silent as well, hasn’t he?”
Sariel just nodded meekly and averted her eyes from her God. Zachary shook his head slowly.
Zachary Sears: “He’s making a play to turn on you….”
Ashley Kenyon: “Fuck that. How did he feel about all this…”
Ashley motioned to the house around them.
Ashley Kenyon: “All these damn changes you made?”
Lucifer’s eyes narrowed as he went back to the last conversation they’d had about the new direction.
Lord Lucifer: “He was furious. Said that wasn’t what Hell was.”
Zachary Sears: “So he’s creating his own?”
Ashley Kenyon: “He’s got the funds and connections to do it now.”
Aerynn Maguire: “Where does that leave us?”
Lucifer began to drum his fingers on the desk and stare down at the pins through narrowed eyes.
Lord Lucifer: “Ruvik…”
The first name had no sooner come out then Maiko let out a whimpering cry of agony. Ashley and Aerynn immediately locked their arms around her, whispering to the woman to keep her calm and in control. Someone who had been silently observing and studying then spoke up, the natural waves of her red hair moving with her slight movements.
Xaria Linette: “...Who is that, mon Seigneur?”
Lucifer saw the reactions and blew out a deep sigh to calm himself. When he heard Xaria, he glanced up, shifted his eyes to Maiko, and then back without putting the words to it. He wasn’t about to say it aloud, not in front of the woman who was tortured.
Lord Lucifer: “The people I wanted to be found, Valdemar was hunting them.”
As the words left Lucifer, Ashley changed from an attentive lover to an angry hellcat in a split second. She turned her head and her furious eyes locked on to Lucifer.
Ashley Kenyon: “He. Was. WHAT?!”
Aerynn Maguire: “We had an agreement, Lucifer!”
Lord Lucifer: “And I keep my word.”
He turned his attention to Zachary and the Twins standing on the other side of the table.
Lord Lucifer: “Find them. All three of them.”
Ramiel, Ananiel, and Zach all looked at one another and then back at Lucifer and nodded softly. Zachary knew what these men had done to Maiko; the girls had told him everything. He’d find them for her if nothing else.
Somewhere in the northern portion of the state of Pennsylvania sat a building that looked like any other. It had just experienced its grand opening the week before after construction workers had been working day and night to get it completed. The building sat at three stories and seemed to be the newest office for an up and coming security contractor.
No one entered or exited without key card identification.
The main lobby sat empty save for a simple, yet elegant, fountain bubbled happily in the center of the room. Against the back wall sat a long curved desk with a man in a gray suit and tie seated behind it.
Around the side of the desk and down a small hallway was a single elevator that led up into the second and third floors. The second floor was like you would imagine for a security company, filled with dozens of offices with small windows in the doors to look into and out of.
Though only a small handful of people were ever here.
The third floor was the office of the company’s C.E.O. Valdemar Johansen, a man with fifteen years of security experience. The office was filled with pictures of him shaking hands with various famous people from all around the world.
All of them fake.
This is where the building ceased being normal.
Across the room from the elevator doors was a second elevator. An elevator with buttons only for B1, B2 and B3. Each of these floors was a solid concrete bunker filled with cold steel cells no bigger than a broom closet, each with built-in chain restraints on the floor, walls, and ceiling to keep the Sinner retrained for judgment and punishment.
The floors were more or less empty with only a small handful of the cells on B1 being occupied by crying men and women. Most of the Demons, taken from their homes after being released by Lucifer and his Children, had chosen to become the loyal army of their new God, Lord Apollyon.
The handsome man who had once served as Lord Lucifer’s first Demon and leader of the black-robed horde sat behind his desk in a black business suit and his hand on his chin, staring at a package sitting on his desk.
When he had taken the master file to help him build a new, true, Hell, he had found something else. The file on a Fallen Angel he’d never known. A Fallen Angel that even Asmodeus and Abaddon had never known. Lucifer’s original right hand, banished and forsaken in the desert of the world to survive alone.
Anthony Crawford, the original Sathanas.
Lord Apollyon had tracked him from place to place until his ultimate arrest on some trumped up possession charge in some no-name Mexican town. Once he located the facility where he was housed, he sent one of the Demons that, like him, had chosen to abandon this new false God.
That morning, the package arrived simply addressed to Mr. Johansen. Inside was an unlabeled DVD and a small note.
“I've been watching him and he does show promise. Going to send some men to test him and see if he’s what you need, Sire. Will send evidence one way or another and proceed unless I get a stop order.”
The note was left unsigned, but Valdemar knew who it was from. He pulled the disk free of the case and slipped it into the drive. After only a few moments, the security camera image of a well-built man with short brown hair, wearing a simple pair of brown pants and a white tank top. The brown shirt was sitting on a small bench in the corner of the room.
The room seemed to be a bathroom of some kind with rows of opened showers along the far wall and he was mopping the floor, happily oblivious to the world around him. That was until a man walked around the divider separating one side of the bathroom from the other. Two others walked around the other side of the divider behind the man.
The man said something but no audio came out, but whatever he said didn't deter the men.
When they came for him, he tossed the broom handle down and kicked his leg out, catching the one man in the chest and sending him off his feet. Then he spun around with another kick as one of the two men behind him was raising his arm for a punch, catching him in the arm and forcing his arm back. He spun and planted the same foot into the same man’s stomach. The second man caught the kick, even if the force did double him over, and the third began to come around behind him.
The man in the middle with one leg held by the second man used the planted foot to jump and twisted around over the doubled over man’s head with a roundhouse kick, taking the third man across the face. He hit the ground on his back with his foot still being held by the second man and kicked his other leg out, taking him square in the face full force.
The first was back to his feet as the second was falling, releasing his leg. He leaned back on his hands and kicked back to his feet just as the man was coming in behind him. He threw himself backward, landing on his hands and then back to his feet as the man behind him kicked where his legs had just been passing by him.
As the first of the men spun around, he jumped and hit a final jumping tornado kick that took him square in the mouth and spun him around in midair before slamming out cold onto the ground.
The three men were all out on the floor with the brown-haired man standing behind them and the video ended. Lord Apollyon leaned back in his chair and a cruel smirk appeared on his lips.
Lord Apollyon: “He’ll do.”
To those living in the small, secluded farmhouse, it was like something they never imagined. Now Ananiel, Ramiel, and Sariel stood at the window of the second-floor office, watching the dust plumes billowing up the country driveway. The body language of the trio was one of tension and apprehension.
They didn’t imagine their Lord would take their news well. Truth be told, they didn’t take the news well themselves.
Sariel gave the pair a slight pat on the shoulder, and together, the trio turned and exited the room as the dust cloud drew closer to the quiet farm. They walked down the stairs, being joined suddenly by black robed figures exiting the various doors and falling in behind the pair.
In pairs of two with Sariel walking at the head, they descended the stairs and walked through the main living room of the house. Past the doors leading to the porch, the others waited as the group filed out. Anyone wearing a black robe continued past the porch to stand in the grass while Sariel, Ananiel, and Ramiel paused just in front of Aniel, Arakiel, Turiel, Tamiel, Satariel, Armaros, Samyaza, and Baraqiel.
They all stood, waiting until the pair of vehicles pulled up. The black SUV in front and the yellow Camaro close behind it. The two slowed to a stop and the doors popped open, three on each vehicle. Xaria stepped out of the driver's seat of the SUV with Zachary Sears from the passenger side and Lord Lucifer behind the driver.
From the Camaro came Ashley Kenyon out of the driver's seat, Aerynn Maguire from the passenger side, and Maiko Adachi behind the driver’s seat. For the first time since they had found the woman, Maiko’s hair was now down over her face. It was bright blue, nearly turquoise. The hole in her nose, created by the men who had taken her, had been turned into a piercing hole that held a hoop between the nostrils.
Aerynn took one look around at the small farmhouse and a peel of delighted laughter left her throat.
Aerynn Maguire: "How did we nay find dis?"
Ashley Kenyon: “Cause we were looking for a burning fucking wasteland, not a sweet little farmhouse... "
Lucifer glanced behind him and a small smirk appeared on his lips.
Lucifer: “The easiest way to hide something? Don’t hide it.”
Ashley Kenyon: “...I hate how that actually makes sense now…Dammit.”
Lucifer actually chuckled and turned his attention to the gathered force standing on the porch and just beyond. As the group passed between the two factions of black-robed Demons, they all fell to a knee. When they reached the porch and climbed the stairs, Sariel, Ananiel, and the others all inclined their heads.
Then one by one, the newcomers were embraced in warm, even welcoming fashion by each member of the collection that awaited them. Zachary, Ashley, and Aerynn, all embraced as a family as they were called “brother” or “sister” by the group.
That was until they came to Maiko. Sariel, Ananiel, and Ramiel sank down to their knees and took the woman’s hands in their own. Ashley immediately reached out to grab Maiko before Asmodeus could make an appearance and attack them, but to her surprise, Maiko did not recoil.
Sariel: “Mother. Can you forgive us?”
Maiko: “...Forgive?”
Ramiel: “What we…”
Ananiel: “...Did in the…”
Ramiel: “...War Games match was…”
Both: “Unforgivable.”
Maiko slowly smiled and her hand moved behind her to touch her spine that had required medical intervention to fix.
Maiko Adachi: “You were only following orders.”
Sariel: “...But you left…”
Maiko Adachi: “Lord Lucifer had lost his way, forgotten what we created this for. You gave him what he asked for...I gave him what he needed.”
Zachary Sears: “You told us ve vere here for a reason, ja? Vas this it?”
Lucifer glanced from the Twins, Sariel and Maiko, back to Zachary and then back again before blowing out a little chuckle and shaking his head.
Lord Lucifer: “No. I wanted you all to see what exactly you have signed up for. You all know what my Children had become. What it was turned into in greed and bitterness.”
Zachary Sears: “Some better zhan others...”
Most of them allowed this to slide, all except Aerynn who stepped forward and popped Zach square in the chest.
Aerynn Maguire: “Dannae forget who was in that “war” long before anyone knew yer name.”
Lord Lucifer: “Enough.”
Zachary smiled and laughed, brushing his chest where she had touched him before looking up into her eyes. The German Shotgun refused to stand down from the Irish Princess.
Zachary Sears: “Couldn’t get ze job done, though, could you?”
Lord Lucifer: “ENOUGH!”
Lucifer’s hand came around and slammed a closed fist into the railing beside the stairs. The group did fall silent, but there was no submission in the eyes staring back at him. This didn’t surprise him.
Submission from a Fallen Angel took time and loyalty. It wasn’t like the Demons, built through pain and madness.
It took time.
Lucifer, now with their full attention, turned and began into the house, speaking over his shoulder as the others followed.
Lord Lucifer: “The Hell as it once was is no more. There are no more Cabins, no more Killing Fields, and most of the Demons have been allowed to return to their lives and their homes should they wish to.”
Maiko Adachi: “What?!”
Maiko’s voice was an outraged scream of hate and fear.
Maiko Adachi: “Dimitri?! Liss!? Crane?! You let them go!?”
Ashley Kenyon: “Twoey, breathe.”
While Ashley tried to keep the Demon within the woman she loved at bay, Lucifer glanced back again and snorted.
Lord Lucifer: “Of course not.”
Aerynn Maguire: “Ye jus’ said...”
Lord Lucifer: “I said most of the Demons. The more serious offenders and those more likely to target innocent women and children? There is no way I’m releasing them back out into the world.”
Ashley Kenyon: “And what, exactly, did you do with those?”
Lucifer smirked again but didn’t turn. Sariel, Ramiel, and Ananiel answered from the back of the group.
Ramiel: “Anyone who..."
Ananiel: "Poses a continued..."
Ramiel: "Threat to the…”
Ananiel: "Innocents is given..."
Both: “...Permanent solution.”
Sariel: “Where they cannot hurt anyone again.”
Zachary Sears: “Und vhat role vill ve play in all zhis?”
Lord Lucifer: “The same as always. You watch, observe, and report. Once I have seen all the facts, you deal the justice.”
Xaria Linette: “One way or another.”
With a calm approach, Xaria walked alongside Lucifer on his left. She was about to press on when the Twins softly began to speak.
Ramiel: “This is not…”
Ananiel: “...Why we asked…”
Ramiel: “...You here…”
Both: “...Lord Lucifer.”
Lucifer turned his eyes to the pair at the back and lifted a brow. He extended his hand and allowed them to pass the group to the head and lead them. The Twins and Sariel led the group past the stairs and beneath a little arch between them.
Beyond the arch was a door leading into a small room. The walls were bare and there wasn’t a single chair in the entire room. The only furniture was a large desk with a map sitting atop it. Stacks of papers, both handwritten and typed, sat strewn across the desk. The map had nearly sixty colored pins pushed into various parts of a half a dozen states.
Ramiel: “We have been…”
Ananiel: “...Following them, as…”
Both: “...you commanded.”
Sariel: “Checking in from a distance to make sure those we have released are staying true to their command. Looking for any hint of reoffense.”
Zachary Sears: “You are keeping tabs on them….?”
Zachary asked as he approached the desk, staring down at the map. Before Lucifer could answer, Maiko walked around the table and let out a soft, musical laugh. She slid an arm around Ashley’s waist and laid her cheek against her arm.
Maiko Adachi: “You don’t really think he’d just take their obedience at face value and risk the safety of the innocents around them, do you?”
Lucifer and Zachary exchanged a telling look, as Zach finally saw firsthand the lengths Lucifer would go to to ensure that no child or woman was harmed. Aerynn stopped beside Ashley on the other side and motioned to the maps red and grey pins.
There were a dozen grey pins.
Aerynn Maguire: “That many reoffended?!”
It was over twenty percent, which was insane to her. Even for the kind of people who became Demons in the first place.
Sariel: “The grey ones are the ones who have disappeared.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Disappeared? Like, just poof?”
Sariel: “When we send in a team to check on them and watch to see for signs of reoffense, their homes were empty. Belongings gone. Subjects vanished.”
Zachary: “Zhat seems high. Twenty percent?”
Ramiel: “We both…”
Ananiel: “...Thought the same…”
Both: “...thing.”
Sariel: “So we looked a little deeper.”
Lucifer came to stand at the head of the table and laid his palms down on the map, looking up at Sariel. Xaria approached the table as well, her emerald green eyes scanning the map.
Lord Lucifer: “And? Are they turning? Should I put in calls?”
Sariel: “We don’t think so, my Lord. We noticed it immediately.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Noticed what? Good fucking god, don’t tell us you found something woman, tell us what you actually FOUND.”
Lucifer concealed a little smirk, as Sariel made a face at Ashley but did as she asked.
Sariel: “They were all assigned the same person to look in on them.”
Aerynn Maguire: “Dat’s no fuckin’ coincidence.”
Lord Lucifer: “Agreed. Who?”
Sariel: “...The leader of the Demons?”
Lord Lucifer: “VALDEMAR?!”
Ramiel: “And there…”
Ananiel: “...is more.”
Sariel swallowed down a lump in her throat and whispered.
Sariel: “After War Games, you were ordered to return the Matthews estate. Before we had to disband, I told you about some discrepancies in the accounts.”
Lord Lucifer: “I remember, yes.”
Sariel: “...they are also traced back to Valdemar.”
Lucifer’s hand slowly clenched on the table in front of him and somehow he knew they weren’t done yet.
Lord Lucifer: “...And?”
Sariel: “. . .”
Maiko Adachi: “Sara...tell us.”
Sariel: “...The Masterfile is gone.”
Lucifer let out a curse-riddled diatribe of profanity that took even Aerynn back and drives his hand into the table with a loud audible thud, shaking it beneath all their hands. Not even Xaria the Harbinger was about to approach him when he was suddenly compromised like this.
Lord Lucifer: “...Gone?”
Sariel: “...Yes, Sire...”
Lord Lucifer: “The file containing the names of everyone who has helped us stay off the radar for nearly ten years?! Just up and gone?!”
Aerynn Maguire: “It’s nay ‘up and gone’ and ye are a fuckin’ idiot if ye think it just got up and walked away!”
Maiko Adachi: “...Ryn…”
The warning in the blue-haired woman’s tone was obvious, and Aerynn was smart enough to fall silent. Ashley shook her head and looked over at her new leader.
Ashley Kenyon: “It’s that Valdemar guy. It has to be.”
Lord Lucifer: “Valdemar Johansen is one of the loyalist people in all of Hell. Even after I felt he had served his sentence and released him, he stayed of his own free will.”
Ashley let out a barking laugh and began to count off her fingers one by one.
Ashley Kenyon: “The last one to see the missing demons? Valdemar. The last one to have any transactions with these missing funds in this mystery account? Valdemar. And now this master list of everyone who helped you stay off police radar and off god damn watch lists goes missing…Let me guess, he’s gone radio silent as well, hasn’t he?”
Sariel just nodded meekly and averted her eyes from her God. Zachary shook his head slowly.
Zachary Sears: “He’s making a play to turn on you….”
Ashley Kenyon: “Fuck that. How did he feel about all this…”
Ashley motioned to the house around them.
Ashley Kenyon: “All these damn changes you made?”
Lucifer’s eyes narrowed as he went back to the last conversation they’d had about the new direction.
Lord Lucifer: “He was furious. Said that wasn’t what Hell was.”
Zachary Sears: “So he’s creating his own?”
Ashley Kenyon: “He’s got the funds and connections to do it now.”
Aerynn Maguire: “Where does that leave us?”
Lucifer began to drum his fingers on the desk and stare down at the pins through narrowed eyes.
Lord Lucifer: “Ruvik…”
The first name had no sooner come out then Maiko let out a whimpering cry of agony. Ashley and Aerynn immediately locked their arms around her, whispering to the woman to keep her calm and in control. Someone who had been silently observing and studying then spoke up, the natural waves of her red hair moving with her slight movements.
Xaria Linette: “...Who is that, mon Seigneur?”
Lucifer saw the reactions and blew out a deep sigh to calm himself. When he heard Xaria, he glanced up, shifted his eyes to Maiko, and then back without putting the words to it. He wasn’t about to say it aloud, not in front of the woman who was tortured.
Lord Lucifer: “The people I wanted to be found, Valdemar was hunting them.”
As the words left Lucifer, Ashley changed from an attentive lover to an angry hellcat in a split second. She turned her head and her furious eyes locked on to Lucifer.
Ashley Kenyon: “He. Was. WHAT?!”
Aerynn Maguire: “We had an agreement, Lucifer!”
Lord Lucifer: “And I keep my word.”
He turned his attention to Zachary and the Twins standing on the other side of the table.
Lord Lucifer: “Find them. All three of them.”
Ramiel, Ananiel, and Zach all looked at one another and then back at Lucifer and nodded softly. Zachary knew what these men had done to Maiko; the girls had told him everything. He’d find them for her if nothing else.
~{Scene Break}~
Somewhere in the northern portion of the state of Pennsylvania sat a building that looked like any other. It had just experienced its grand opening the week before after construction workers had been working day and night to get it completed. The building sat at three stories and seemed to be the newest office for an up and coming security contractor.
No one entered or exited without key card identification.
The main lobby sat empty save for a simple, yet elegant, fountain bubbled happily in the center of the room. Against the back wall sat a long curved desk with a man in a gray suit and tie seated behind it.
Around the side of the desk and down a small hallway was a single elevator that led up into the second and third floors. The second floor was like you would imagine for a security company, filled with dozens of offices with small windows in the doors to look into and out of.
Though only a small handful of people were ever here.
The third floor was the office of the company’s C.E.O. Valdemar Johansen, a man with fifteen years of security experience. The office was filled with pictures of him shaking hands with various famous people from all around the world.
All of them fake.
This is where the building ceased being normal.
Across the room from the elevator doors was a second elevator. An elevator with buttons only for B1, B2 and B3. Each of these floors was a solid concrete bunker filled with cold steel cells no bigger than a broom closet, each with built-in chain restraints on the floor, walls, and ceiling to keep the Sinner retrained for judgment and punishment.
The floors were more or less empty with only a small handful of the cells on B1 being occupied by crying men and women. Most of the Demons, taken from their homes after being released by Lucifer and his Children, had chosen to become the loyal army of their new God, Lord Apollyon.
The handsome man who had once served as Lord Lucifer’s first Demon and leader of the black-robed horde sat behind his desk in a black business suit and his hand on his chin, staring at a package sitting on his desk.
When he had taken the master file to help him build a new, true, Hell, he had found something else. The file on a Fallen Angel he’d never known. A Fallen Angel that even Asmodeus and Abaddon had never known. Lucifer’s original right hand, banished and forsaken in the desert of the world to survive alone.
Anthony Crawford, the original Sathanas.
Lord Apollyon had tracked him from place to place until his ultimate arrest on some trumped up possession charge in some no-name Mexican town. Once he located the facility where he was housed, he sent one of the Demons that, like him, had chosen to abandon this new false God.
That morning, the package arrived simply addressed to Mr. Johansen. Inside was an unlabeled DVD and a small note.
“I've been watching him and he does show promise. Going to send some men to test him and see if he’s what you need, Sire. Will send evidence one way or another and proceed unless I get a stop order.”
The note was left unsigned, but Valdemar knew who it was from. He pulled the disk free of the case and slipped it into the drive. After only a few moments, the security camera image of a well-built man with short brown hair, wearing a simple pair of brown pants and a white tank top. The brown shirt was sitting on a small bench in the corner of the room.
The room seemed to be a bathroom of some kind with rows of opened showers along the far wall and he was mopping the floor, happily oblivious to the world around him. That was until a man walked around the divider separating one side of the bathroom from the other. Two others walked around the other side of the divider behind the man.
The man said something but no audio came out, but whatever he said didn't deter the men.
When they came for him, he tossed the broom handle down and kicked his leg out, catching the one man in the chest and sending him off his feet. Then he spun around with another kick as one of the two men behind him was raising his arm for a punch, catching him in the arm and forcing his arm back. He spun and planted the same foot into the same man’s stomach. The second man caught the kick, even if the force did double him over, and the third began to come around behind him.
The man in the middle with one leg held by the second man used the planted foot to jump and twisted around over the doubled over man’s head with a roundhouse kick, taking the third man across the face. He hit the ground on his back with his foot still being held by the second man and kicked his other leg out, taking him square in the face full force.
The first was back to his feet as the second was falling, releasing his leg. He leaned back on his hands and kicked back to his feet just as the man was coming in behind him. He threw himself backward, landing on his hands and then back to his feet as the man behind him kicked where his legs had just been passing by him.
As the first of the men spun around, he jumped and hit a final jumping tornado kick that took him square in the mouth and spun him around in midair before slamming out cold onto the ground.
The three men were all out on the floor with the brown-haired man standing behind them and the video ended. Lord Apollyon leaned back in his chair and a cruel smirk appeared on his lips.
Lord Apollyon: “He’ll do.”
