Young Writers Society

Lucifer was having mixed feeling about his counterpart and Apophis's, but he felt a jolt of curiosity when he heard what the other Lucifer said. His eyes started to sparkle with the twinkle they always got whenever he was discussing anything remotely magical.

"What does your true form look like?" he asked, eager to compare it to his own.


"Yup," God confirmed. He did another little stretch. "Just left his place, actually. I was trying to make him see common sense, but common sense is a thing he just don't have anymore. Which is a shame...He was a pretty good kid, the last time that we met."


Runi watched him sharpen his blade for a good minute before finally getting too impatient. She just had to talk to him, even if Cornyx said she wasn't supposed to! She scooted on over towards the vampire. "So," she said, giving him a smile, "what's your name? I'm Runi - it's short for Darunia Vain."

"I can show you, but it's unwise to shift here. You know how humans are," Luci chuckled.



Mikael leaned back against the building and sighed. "Yeah...yeah he was."



The masked figure looked up. "Kratzer. Engel Jäger. Silberfuchs. Take your pick. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Herrin Vain."

He gave a sorrowful nod in agreement, and Apophis wanted to groan in response. Lucifer very well knew what it was like; he was one of the few gods that wasn't blessed with a completely human appearance, and, to make matters worse, he was very clearly the figure from religion that everyone despised and mistrusted. Lucifer's entire life had been spent hiding his true appearance. Any time he walked among humans, he had to play the part of one of them. And when he went through Heaven with God, he always had to play the part of an angel instead of himself - they all knew something wasn't quite right with God's companion, but they weren't going to object to God's word.


"Do you know what happened to him?" God asked. "He kept going off about finally embracing who he was, but there must have been something to trigger that...right?"


She gave an impressed whistle after he finished introducing himself. "You have some nice names," she said. She didn't understand what pretty much any of them meant, but she wasn't going to question that. It would probably be on the rude side, and she definitely didn't want to offend him. "How long have you, uh, worked here?"

"I don't look the typical devil, though," Lucifer continued. "Sathanus does - he's kind of played the face of this whole thing for a long time. He's the one out there; I just plan and pull strings."



"He wanted vengeance. He always did, but then he got a rather rare opportunity, and he let his instinct get the better of him. He thought once he took it it would give him some sense of peace or completion - instead, it just awoke the rest of the demon," Mikael sighed. "I should've been there to stop him, but I'd left him with Gabriel, falsely assuming that he'd be able to recognize something like that before it happened. Unfortunately, by the time I got involved in the situation, it was too late and Boomslang had gotten there first."



"Danke." He paused, looking at her through his mask at her second question. She said 'worked here' as though he was some kind of employee. "I started serving Boomslang halfway through the second world war, came back into the game last year," he finally said.

"Oh," Lucifer quietly said in response to his counterpart's comment, eyes dropping down to the table. He couldn't begin to imagine what he really looked like, but it had to be better than his own appearance. He couldn't even walk into his brother's afterlife without people getting upset; the only time that almost worked was when he used a spell to change his appearance, but even then they never believed him when he tried coming up with the lie that he was an angel like God did sometimes.


God took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. "I should have guessed it was something like that, but I never realized he was looking for vengeance in the first place," he commented, an almost regretful look flickering across his face. "The first - and last - time we met, he was still getting over a hangover, and he kept calling me 'Sir' and 'Mr. Dean' - that was the alias I was using then. I think I terrified him a bit, but I didn't mean to. Hell, I even tried getting him to stop calling me that, but he was stubborn and kept doing it...I just never would have thought he was capable of changing so much after that."


"I'm going to sound like I've lived under a rock," Runi said, "but I was stuck in a town that kind of stays on the very edge of reality, and I only recently got out of that place thanks to Cornyx. Or, er, King Cornyx, I guess? Should I use honorifics? I'm going to use them."

When she realized she was rambling, her cheeks momentarily blushed and she hurriedly cleared her throat.

"So, uh, like I was saying, I don't really know much about the modern world right now. So who is Boomslang? And, um, there was a world war? Or two of them, since you called it the second?"

The table fell into a somewhat awkward silence.



"He did the same thing with me, at first," Mikael said. "He had a rather abusive childhood and later was in and out of prison and jail a lot so he learned pretty quickly how to avoid getting hurt. He was always a small kid and he was afraid of what he knew he could do so that was how he avoided getting into fights - doing exactly what he was told, when he was told to do it. That must've been a few years ago when you met him, though. He's been sober for a long time."



"You're not from this Earth, if any." It wasn't a question. It was a realization. He didn't know what reality Runi was from but he did know that she wasn't from here - simply because the rules of the edge of reality were different here. There wasn't quite an 'edge' in the way she spoke of it. Even if she was from the same reality she definitely wasn't from this world. That much was obvious. It would also explain her strange scent.

Instead of waiting for her to react or explain, however, he simply launched into a short history lesson. "The year, now, is 2018. The first world war occurred between 1914 and 1918. Germany - the country where I am from - and two empires that after the war were broken up into many countries fought with neighboring countries. It ended in brutal forms of warfare using chemical weapons that are now illegal internationally, and ultimately, the victory of the Allies over Germany and said empires. Short version is that this humiliated Germany and in 1939 the second world war began thanks to the German man known as Hitler. He was a facist leader who considered certain individuals of a supreme race and led the Nazis to victory over its own country before attacking neighboring areas with the goal of domination and extermination of certain ethnic groups and religions. Eventually, he and the other forces beside him, known as the Axis, were defeated by the Allies, but only after horrific acts and many, many, many deaths. Mistress Boomslang orchestrated both wars with the sole goal of getting as many people dead as she possibly could, or so I've come to gather. However, it's not as though people really give me details. I'm a glorified henchman more than anything else. I fought the Nazis - and thus, Hitler and Boomslang - in the beginning of World War II but wound up getting captured and ultimately working for them. After that, I left to Canada and only recently found myself under her...employ again."

"I'm guessing we're all done with our meals?" Apophis hesitantly interrupted, grabbing his trash and making a beeline for the nearest trashcan. It didn't seem like anyone was in the mood for talking right now, and there was no need to prolong the awkward silence.

Lucifer gave a small nod and quickly threw out his meal.


His face fell.

"Cornyx was abused?" he quietly asked. How had he been so oblivious to the signs? Cornyx had been so cautious around because he was worried about getting hurt - and there he had been, waving his bat around and talk about how he was ready to fight people if they tried hurting anyone. It had never been because he was shy or polite; he had been absolutely terrified, and he had been too stupid to realize that it was because of how he was acting.

Nice job, God. You really failed this time.

Cornyx had never really seen the gentler side of him. It hadn't seemed like the best move at the time, since he didn't really know what was going on and had threats to face off. But if only it had been a calmer setting! Then he could have seen him as the "angel" that ghosts saw him as when he tried to help them pass on, and when he showed up in Hell, Cornyx would have actually listened to the words of a concerned friend.


Her face fell.

"That sounds horrible," she softly said, looking him over. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that, and are still going through it."

It was weird. Cornyx and her had hit it off pretty quickly back when they first met, but now she found herself relating more to the man in front of her than the person she considered her friend. What he was talking reminded her of her, and just the thought of her made Runi feel deeply uncomfortable.

"I hope...I hope you can get out of her control again," Runi hesitantly added. "It's not fun being stuck like that..."

The others followed suit. Apophis glanced around nervously - they were still being tracked and the Hellhounds couldn't be far by now.



"Yes," Mikael nodded. "He was an orphan and the orphanage he wound up at was a rather unlucky one. Prison certainly didn't treat him well either, and once he managed to get out of that, he only went out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak. That's part of the reason his Wrath runs so strong, which, in turn, is part of the reason why he was so afraid - every once and a while he'd let his demon out on accident and it always ended badly. And there's nothing like being afraid of yourself."



Kratzer shrugged. "That's life, unfortunately, though I do appreciate the sentiment."

It was that moment when the door opened and Cornyx came striding into the room. His eyes were silver and there was a bit of blood dripping out of his nose. It looked like he'd already wiped it off but hadn't realized he'd missed a spot due to the somewhat smeared shape of it.

The room's temperature dropped instantly upon his arrival. "Your turn, Silberfuchs," Cornyx said shortly, and the assassin dipped his head.

"Das Lebewohl, Herrin Vain," Kratzer said, then slipped out the door to go face the music.

"Where should we go now?" Apophis asked, making sure to stick to Lucifer's side as their counterparts took care of their trash. His friend's moods kept swinging all over the place thanks to the frequent changes in their conversation's topics, and he wanted to make sure he was there for him if any comfort was suddenly needed.


God's eyes widened in horror.

"Jesus Christ," he managed to get out. He was so stupid! He wished he could turn back the clock even more desperately before--if only he had been kinder to Cornyx back then. If only he had read the signs. If only he had stopped worrying about pretending to be a human hunter/angel-in-disguise and actually been truthful with him. He was supposed to be there for those who were hurting, Christian or not. That was his job. It always had been.

So why had he let himself fail at it when it was needed the most?

He wanted to go storming back into Hell now. Not to beat the living daylights out of Cornyx, though he certainly should have been considering it after what he did to the angel right in front of him. He just wanted to give the poor guy a hug--tell him that things were alright, that he was there for him, and that he didn't have to pretend to be something that he wasn't. Because, Jesus, people like Cornyx didn't suddenly become monsters. He was just scared, and he should have been able to pick up on that. Was he doing some horrible things? Yes. But God was starting to see that it was because he was just as scared as he was the last time they had met--he had just found the seemingly perfect way of hiding that fear.


The moment Cornyx stepped into the room, Runi's eyes widened. She waited until Kratzer left before darting over to her friend's side; once there, she decided that she wasn't going to let him out of her sight until she was certain he was alright. "Cornyx, what happened?" she asked. She dug around in her pockets for the handkerchief she had found a few days ago. It was definitely on the dirtier side, but she still eagerly pulled it out of her pocket and held it out to him.

"You can use it to wipe your nose," she said.

"Good question," Lucifer said. "We are currently being pursued so I think it'd be best if at least the two of us - Apo and I - got moving."



Mikael simply nodded. "That would be why I went into Hell even after he killed Luci and Sath to get the throne. I was hoping that he might listen to me, after everything. As you can tell, that didn't go down well."



He accepted it with a mumbled 'thank-you' and did so before answering her question. "Boomslang wasn't particularly pleased. I need to go to Earth myself. A couple rather powerful enemies and an important asset escaped, and they're evading the Hellhounds. She's dispatching me to deal with the problem."

Apophis nodded at what the other Lucifer suggested. God would likely being using a charm that went to a person and not a place; it was too difficult for him to guess if they would stay in the same place or not, and hard to know if it would be changed thanks to being in a different reality.

"We'll come with you," he said. He might have had his qualms about his counterpart and Lucifer's, but they were the only allies they had here. "Do you have a specific place in mind?"


"Yeah," God said, looking the angel over. "I could tell."

He let out another heavy sigh and hopped back to his feet, adding in a stretch for good measure. "So, where to now? I left my brother and his best friend with your Apophis and Lucifer, but I'm guessing those two probably aren't the first two people you were thinking of going to."


"Do you want me to go with you?" she asked, watching as he took care of his bloody nose. "You know I'm good in a fight."

"Yes, actually, but it's a bit tricky to get there. My elder brother - Mikael - made the path a bit more treacherous than it used to be," Lucifer said.



"Actually," Mikael said, "I think it might be our best bet. Returning to Heaven is too obvious - I'm sure there will be demons waiting for us and I don't have my sword nor most of my power. My brother and I aren't on the best of terms but for now...the enemy of my enemy is my friend, isn't that right?"



He hesitated. He didn't want to put Runi in danger, but he didn't think leaving her alone in the castle in the middle of Hell with as little information as she had was a good idea. Besides, she had a point; you could say a lot of things about Runi but when all was said and done she was a fine combatant.

"Alright," he agreed, extending his hand to her. "I'll spoof us."

Apophis and Lucifer exchanged a look.

"...Where are we going?" Lucifer hesitantly asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.


God grinned.

"Perfect," he said. He went to use the transportation charm, but paused when he remembered that he had just used it. It would take some time to recharge. Hopefully it wouldn't be long, but he had no idea what distance they had covered going from Hell to here. "We just need to wait for this to recharge, and then I should be able to bring us right to them."


She grinned and eagerly grabbed onto his hand. "I didn't realize you could spoof people," she said, itching for a fight. It had been awhile since she had gotten to really use her powers; this would be a nice change of pace, and she'd be able to help Cornyx out.

"I can take us there," Mikael said, extending his hand to God. "I'm not at my strongest but it's simple when we're on the same plane."



He smiled and closed his eyes. His fingers were cold as ice, as though he'd been out in a winter storm without gloves for hours immediately before taking her hand. He held the image in his mind - the image of Lucifer's dark-eyed face and arrogant, sharp-toothed smile. The countenance that should've been dead already if Cornyx's father hadn't intervened to protect his sibling against his son.

It felt like one of those moments where one suddenly falls, and they don't land where they expect to. Cornyx stumbled a little as they appeared on a street corner, directly down the road from the four demons walked.

"Just H- er, up...stairs..." his voice softened as he saw the King of Hell standing beside Runi with a cruel, wolfish grin on his features.

"Lucifer," Cornyx drawled, walking towards the group. Frost crawled out from under his feet and his smile was unmistakably malicious. "So we meet again, and this time, there's no Sathanus to protect you."

"Cornyx, boy, you're making a mistake," Lucifer said, stepping back even as he advanced. "You don't want this."

"You have exactly three seconds to surrender before I kill you, your daughter, and these randos you picked up," he snarled, unfurling his wings and talons forming over his hands.

"Great," God said with a smile, reaching a hand out and grabbing onto the one extended to him. "It's always useful being near someone who can teleport. Is there anything I should know about before you work your magic?"


Lucifer's eyes widened in horror when the words registered.

He looked between his counterpart and the duo that had just appeared. One of them didn't look that intimidating; she admittedly looked a bit out of place compared to everyone from this world. But the other looked downright intimidating, and something told him even before his counterpart uttered the man's name that this was Cornyx Blackthorne.

But God was supposed to have been talking with him. Maybe Cornyx had somehow won him over to his side? They didn't know a lot of what was going on, and maybe, just maybe, Cornyx was actually good even though he had just threatened to kill the four of them-

No.

He couldn't be. Lucifer's heart was telling him that the situation was bad, and he couldn't shake the feeling that something must have happened to his brother.

Darkness began to appear at his best friend's feet; Apophis was rearing up for a fight. In turn, the woman made fire appear at her fingertips - though she made no move to actually attack them and use it.

"My-My brother was talking with you," Lucifer said. He was terrified of what was going on, but he was also worried sick about God. What could he have possibly done to him? "Where...where is he? Did you hurt him?"