Post by thefangedrose on Feb 25, 2024 20:40:47 GMT -8
Disclaimer
This series contains elements of a supernatural nature and will play a parody of the Judao-Christian faith. It is not meant to be mocking or subversive but simply done for a creative outlet.
You. Were. Warned.
The supernatural elements of this storyline were not always present. “The Pact” is a concept that kept Jesse’s original “Walk the Line” idea alive while honoring that none of them had these “abilities” five years ago.
I hope you enjoy it.
I give you Chapter 13!
Civil War 2
Chapter 13
Aftermath
Location: Reddick, Florida
Date: February 23rd
Time: 6:55 AM
It was early and it should surprise no one that Michael was still awake. Seated at a small desk overlooking a window in what had once been his parent's room he sat looking out over the property where he had grown up.
Lucifer and his horde had not made a single move since taking the Sarcophagus back, and the Kingdom’s home with it.
But Michael knew this whole process well. Having served as the host for so many years, he knew Lucifer’s M.O. well. He would wait and watch. Look for some kind of weakness that could be exploited.
His gaze moved out along the property when he spotted Danielle kneeling in a patch of bright sunlight that streamed through the trees.
And his mind went back….
Location: Somewhere in Eastern North Carolina
Date: November 14th
Time: 7:02 AM
They had escaped, but only barely and not without casualties. Maya Kennedy, one of the woman’s closest friends had lost her life to the horde during the fighting and it was clear by their body language that this weighed heavily on them.
The first night had been quiet, but it was more out of shock than any real concern. None of them expected that to go the way it did. They weren’t just beaten, but they were beaten badly.
On every front.
The group gathered in one small room while the hulking masked form of The Sins stood crossed-armed in front of a door that connected to the room beside them. He had carried the blanket-wrapped blonde woman inside, laid her down on the bed, and had been standing guard since.
The group had all huddled together, sleeping where they could in the one single room…all except The Sins who stood statue-still guarding the door, allowing only Michael into the room beyond.
Sleep came in short fitful spouts with more than one of the women jolting awake from a nightmare of the day before. The next morning all of them looked a little worse for wear, but none more than Morgan who had bags under her eyes and was visibly irritable as she sat outside.
She sat with her back against the wall on the other side of the motel with one leg up, foot planted flat on the ground with one arm over her knee. She hit her vape, eyes narrowed on the opened door and the masked man beyond it.
The eyes beyond the mask shifted to her and it was as if she could hear it clear as day.
The growl of warning.
“Oh, fuck this shit.” Morgan snapped and billowed the vape smoke from her nose.
Morgan pushed herself up and stalked around the hallway corner making her way back to the room. She passed Jasmine, Moe, and Mary who were in deep discussion about the consequences of their home falling and the fact that they all knew now that Morgan’s cousin Jessie was now being held in the Castle.
Seeing the determined, even pissed-off look on Morgan’s face, Lily rose from the bed and opened her mouth to say something to calm her down while at the same moment, Ashley and Maiko half stood from where they sat heads together and talking.
“Morggy….” Lily whispered.
“Morgana…” Maiko warned
“Morgan, chill….” Ashley added.
“Fuck that.” Morgan snarled. “We lost friends yesterday! My fucking Cousin is gone…GONE!”
The Sins just stared down at her impassively and let out a second growl of warning. The message was crystal clear.
‘Stay away from the door’
Morgan wasn’t about to take that lying down and in return pulled her arm away from where Lil had been trying to pull her away. She walked boldly up toward him, getting up chest to stomach and looking up at him.
“You got something you wanna say?!” She demanded.
Whatever bait she laid, the masked man stood passively with his arms crossed over his chest. The gravely hissing voice however came from the depths of the mask.
“Step back.” It hissed. “I will not warn you a second time.”
“WHOA!” Jasmine shouted.
“DON’T YOU THREATEN HER!” A male voice shouted from the corner where Carlisle, Jason, and Chrissy stood.
The only one in the room who wasn’t suddenly tense by the situation was the beautiful Asian woman, Hana, who stayed seated in the corner with her hands folded over her lap merely watching.
However when the door behind the masked hulk opened and the short dirty blonde haired Michael Rivers stepped through that changed.
“Enough.” Rivers snapped. “The lot of you.”
“Fuck you too!” Morgan snapped.
That caused Hana to tense and unfold her arms to place one on each of the armrests. Protecting Michael took precedence and she knew it.
“There is no need.” A new voice called out.
The voice was soft, even attractive and a second figure appeared in the doorway behind Michael. She was blonde and very slender with a petite build and startling blue eyes. One by one she looked at the group.
“Mother….Hana…..Shadow….” Said Danielle with affection in her voice and then her gaze fell on Ashley and that affection faded. “Kenyon.”
Ashley stared right back and inclined her head.
“Devil Bitch.”
“...Pool….” Maiko whined.
“It’s quite alright,” Danielle told the brunette woman and reached out cupping her hand to the side of Maiko’s face. “I have been watching your evolution as you recovered from that vile assault…and am proud.”
“...Thank you, Harbinger,” Maiko whispered, inclining her head to accept the compliment. "It has not been an easy road to walk...but thankfully We had Pool beside us all the way."
Every eye in the room was turned to Danielle as she sat down to lean on the edge of the little dresser where the tiny motel room TV sat. Morgan crossed her arms over her chest and gave Danielle her full attention.
“What the fuck is going on?!” She demanded.
“Michael has told me why I am here.” She began. “...He also wishes you all to be here for this conversation. I do not believe that is wise.”
“The fuck does that mean…?!” Jasmine snapped.
“How much do you know about the story of Lucifer?” Danielle asked, ignoring the outrage.
“What does that gotta do with any of this?” Morgan growled.
“Everything,” Danielle answered. “When I was the Harbinger I took a great deal of time to myself to study and learn as much as I could. Would it interest you to know that Lucifer was never actually cast out?”
Michael looked back at her and raised a brow, curiosity written across his face. Danika gave him the smallest of nods. Morgan however threw her arms into the air and let out an exasperated groan.
“Who gives a shit?!”
Maiko looked between Morgan, Ashley, and a few others who all seemed disinterested in a history lesson then to Danika.
“What exactly is the Sarcophagus, Harbinger?” She asked. “And what purpose does it serve?”
“Do you have any idea how much mass is crammed into a confined space when celestial beings are concerned?” Danika asked Maiko and she slowly shook her head. “Their mere voice is enough to destroy the human mind. Their actual physical presence? The pressure alone would sunder boulders. I believe the Sarcophagus was….Well, a power distribution device. If you put a living human soul inside it? I don’t know if it corrupts it…or shreds it and replaces it but it seems to come out….wrong. If you put in a body that has shed the mortal coil….”
“You get you.” Ashley finished and Danielle inclined her head. “That can’t be its purpose….it makes no sense.
“Correct.” She told the busty black-haired woman. “That isn’t. My theory is that it was made for a celestial being, Lucifer, to safely walk this earth. I don’t know if it's a housing unit or simply….a siphon and distribution system but all signs point to it being made for him.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Carlisle asked from where he stood with Chrissy and Jason and the other man nodded in agreement.
“The cave where the Sarcophagus was found….photos were taken of strange gemstone formations and what appeared to be wing prints….as if they were flash burned into the walls…..anyway, the reason I asked you how much you knew? I found evidence that Lucifer was placed here….or was supposed to be placed here, to protect humanity from him.”
Danielle motioned to the hulking masked figure who looked sharply over at her.
“Me?” It hissed.
“You, big man.” She repeated. “You ever wonder why one of the only things he did early on was to lock you into that flesh prison? You needed to be contained.”
“Does he know?”
Mary asked from where she stood leaning on the door beside Jasmine. Danielle shook her head, but she had a confused look on her face.
“From everything, Michael told me? No, he doesn’t seem to, which is strange. He is Lucifer…of that, I have no doubt. And he is far more connected to Lucifer than Michael was….and yet he doesn’t seem to remember some things. But that is neither here nor there.”
Of all of those in the room, the only one who seemed to be tuning them out was Lilith Meadows. Her eyes were red and puffy from the crying and she seemed more than a little out of sorts. When there was a lull in the conversation she blurted out.
“Can you reopen my link to her?” Lily shouted.
Danielle looked over at the little blonde woman and her expression turned sad. Slowly she shook her head.
“I’m sorry, child.” She told Lily. “The amount of energy it takes to use it? I’m afraid….whatever may have been opened on that property is gone. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
Location: Reddick, Florida
Date: February 23rd
Time: 7:35 AM
“You brought this shit to our doorstep and you had damn well better make it right!”
Morgan’s voice echoed in his mind. Michael’s jaw set as he considered the events and he began to chew on his bottom lip, all the while never taking his eyes off the kneeling blonde woman in the grass below him. Behind him, the door opened and a pair of figures walked in.
The beautiful dark-haired Hananiel and the hulking masked Sins. Hana stopped in the middle of the room and dropped into an elegant bow while the huge figure at her side didn’t stop until he came to the window and leaned on the frame watching Danika in the grass below.
“You called for me sir?”
“Has there been any sign that Lucifer is moving?” Michael asked turning to give her his full attention.
“None sir,” Hana answered. “None of them have left the Castle grounds in months.”
“Demon or Hound sightings?”
“Minimal,” Hana reported. “I contacted Alistair and he’s been keeping an eye out on police reports. There have been a couple but the activity hasn’t picked up again yet.”
Michael gave a small little nod and settled back into his chair.
“I assumed as much.” Rivers told her. “If the pattern is right? It will pick back up shortly.”
“How?” The hissing voice of the man behind him at the window asked as it turned away from the window. “You thought he was using the Hell he built as a power source and the forest cannot sustain it.”
“He doesn’t need it.” Danika’s voice sounded as she walked into the room, the sundress she wore flowing around her legs. Hana dropped into another elegant bow and Danielle touched the side of her head lovingly before turning her attention to Michael. “He has the Sarcophagus now.”
“So, in the end, it was all pointless?” Michael asked.
“Of course not,” Danielle answered with a little dismissive wave of her hand. “Whatever damage wrought by Lucifer can be undone but you were right, you needed information.”
There was more to it than that and it was obvious. Danielle was hiding something, even from them. Michael placed his hands on the table and interlocked his fingers as he looked across the room at her.
“What are you doing out there every morning, Danika?”
Danielle just smiled a placating little mysterious smile and answered.
“Listening.”
“Listening to what?”
“.....Just listening.”
Michael paused as if he expected her to continue, but she just smiled and stood with her hands folded over her lap. After a few moments, he let out an aggravated snort and moved on.
“I thought that moving out into the open like we did would push them into coming after us,” Michael told her. “I didn’t exactly make appearing in that company subtle.”
“Why should he?” Danika asked. “He was you, Michael. He knows every move you are going to make before you make it. I guarantee you there have been Demons at every show watching you.”
“So why not take me?” The Sins growled. “There is no way this company's security could be able to stop them.”
Danielle pursed her lips in thought and brought one of her hands up to tap a finger off her slender lips. After pondering a moment she opened her fingers in a shrug.
“If I had to give an educated guess?” She asked. “The general population getting proof of any celestial being is expressly forbidden and whatever remains of who Lucifer was back then? It’s still inside there and is holding to it.”
“Why hold to that but not the Pact?” Michael asked and then snapped his fingers suddenly. “And what in the actual hell is the Pact exactly? I can remember enough to know it exists but the details are…a little foggy.”
“The Pact….” Danielle takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly through her nose. “It’s…complicated. To put it simply? When Lucifer was placed on this world to shepherd humanity it was known that some souls would be beyond saving and would need a place to be contained. Call it Hell, call it purgatory, call it whatever you wish.”
“A containment system.”
Hana offered and Danielle nodded.
“More or less. A place where they could be housed upon death until they have come to terms with the life they lived. Some take longer than others. The Pact states that these souls, once they leave this plain of existence cannot be returned to it. The damage they could do would be catastrophic.”
“So it may not even be broken.” The masked man growled. When all eyes turned to him he shrugged. “You said you couldn’t be sure what happens to the people placed into the sarcophagus if they are alive. It may simply be that the soul is being corrupted.”
“It could.” Danika agreed. “But it’s not. Not in this case.”
“And you know this for sure…how?” Another voice called from behind them.
They all turned to find Shadow, Silk, Maiko, and Ashley crossing the threshold. The voice came from the busty Tattooed Kenyon who walked in the lead with Maiko.
“I just do,” Danika told her with an indifferent shrug.
“Part of this ‘listening’ you are doing?” Michael asked.
Danielle just smiled that mysterious smile and inclined her head.
“Something like that. As for why?”
Again she shrugged.
“I don’t know why he would hold to that and not the Pact itself.”
“There is a bigger question,” Ashley stated. “How long are we going to hide here? You tried to goad them into coming out into the open and they gave you the middle finger Rivers. How much longer are we going to follow this plan that isn’t working?”
Michael’s face darkened and his eyes narrowed.
“You of all people should know I know what I am doing, Kenyon.” Michael snapped. “Or do you want to walk these people into something like you did at the Maguire house all over again!?”
The implication floated in the air for a moment. That she was to blame for the death of one of her best friends. Everyone in the room tensed as Ashley’s eyes widened in rage.
“FUCK YOU!”
She screamed and her hand dropped to the holster on her side. She pulled the Glock without hesitation and brought it up with murder in her eyes. It was only the timely action of Maiko that stopped Michael from being shot point-blank in the face. The painted woman took Ashley’s wrist and pulled her arm to the side just as she pulled the trigger, the bullet slamming into the woodwork of the window beside Michael’s head.
“WHOA!” The masked man growled.
“THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” Hana screamed, her eyes afire with rage.
“ASH!” Silk shouted in shock.
Ashley’s arm was shaking as she allowed Maiko to pull the gun from her hand slowly. A single tear touched the corner of her right eye as Ashley leveled a finger at Michael and she hissed softly.
“Fuck you, Rivers.”
She then turned and stormed out of the room. Maiko looked over at Michael and shook her head.
“That was uncalled for, Michael.” She whispered. “You know it wasn’t her fault….”
Maiko then turned and followed Ashley out to try and calm her down. Michael closed his hand into a fist and opened it again to stop his arm from shaking and blew out a deep breath.
“Maybe that was….”
“Too far?” The masked man growled. “Yeah, a bit. You're lucky to be alive Rivers. I could literally feel the wrath radiating from her.”
“Leave me.”
Michael told the group and sank into the chair. They all piled out one by one leaving Michael alone sitting at the desk, he pinched the bridge of his nose and blew out a deep breath. He knew he had crossed a line with Ashley and needed to make that right.
He remembered the events that took the life of the Maguires well. Ashley hadn’t been the one to send them out for some R&R….Michael was.
Ashley wasn’t the one who had underestimated Valdemar…..Michael was.
Ashley wasn’t the one who had not foreseen the possible use of leashes….Michael was.
Ashley wasn’t to blame for the death of Aerynn and Shonn Maguire.
Michael was.
And he knew it.
“You see your heaven doesn’t want me and your hell won’t let me in. It’s like I’m holding all the aces….but I know I’ll never win.”
