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The Devil May Care

Part 50

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

Dusk settled into his chambers in Lord Jarrah's estate, resting his legs after the long walk across Wrath - there'd been little hope of getting a ride that wouldn't blow up part-way there, so walking had been the only option - and leaned his head against the plush cushions that made up the back of the chair. It was large, red, and regal, like a throne in miniature, and it was so soft that he felt like he could disappear into it if he let himself relax enough to actually do that.

He couldn't, of course. There were too many things that were going wrong at the moment, and too many things that he needed to think about going forward. The black cat pressed his hand to his forehead, grumbling under his breath.

How the hell did this get so wrong...

Simple stupidity was not enough of an answer, as much as he wanted to blame it on that, nor was malevolence on the part of those that were against him. It was something deeper than that, and he couldn't quite pick it out.

But it made him angry. Very angry. And this realm wasn't helping with that.

"Mmmph..."

Like a petulant kitten, he ground himself further into the cushions of the chair, closing his eyes to try and shut out some of the anger for the moment. After all, the last time that he had allowed his rage to run away with him, he had come within measurable distance of triggering Armageddon. He didn't know if he could do that from Hell rather than on earth, but he didn't want to risk it. Not when he was this close to settling things. Not when he had put in this much effort to finally get this whole thing un-fucked.

You could take care of this, settle this, if you just took the Dark Throne...

Dusk growled, clicking his teeth as he imagined biting the neuron that reminded him of that little solution. It would solve a number of problems, yes, but it would also kickstart a whole set of new ones. Right now, he was a free agent, able to play off those that wanted him to take the Dark Throne while not quite setting off a civil war with those that wanted it for themselves. He was giving nobody the excuse to start something against him. Hell was fragile enough as it was, and while he enjoyed the power that he'd gained from taking Lucifer's soul, he knew better than to think that he could just rule it all and keep everything that he had already taken.

If I took it, I could say goodbye to the Hellspire, goodbye to all the things I have on Earth, goodbye to having slaves that were more than demons...

Hell was not something so beloved to him that he would sign away his 'mortal' life for that. Not for anything in the world.

And certainly not for the sake of those demons that seemed determined to live a life that was so much worse than it had to be.

The black cat sunk further into the cushions, feeling them pressing against the sides of his head, sucking at his arms, all but restraining him. He could remove himself from them anytime that he liked, but the cushions were actually rather soothing, something that surprised him in this realm of tension. Perhaps even the demons of Wrath had needed something to take them back from that edge of utter anger from time to time.

He smiled...then he heard it.

Thrum, thrum.

Thrum, thrum.

It was a deep, thudding rumble, coming in the pulses of a ringing phone. Dusk's eyes went wide as he sat up again, looking over the edge of the chair. Rising from the floor were familiar black-green tentacles, waiting for a response.

#

_They'd won the court case, though Dusk felt that the 'reparations' were going a little far. He wanted this over and done with, not punitive, not driving for another conflict further down the line.

"Tell them they can have those back," the black cat said as they entered his lawyer's law offices. "Let's keep the peace."

"I hate to tell you, Dusk, but that isn't happening."

"I'll make it happen."

"You beat God in Eldritch Court. You're not beating him in this. Not unless you listen to what I have to say."

"I -"

"Don't go ruining my good opinion of you by being an arrogant asshole now."

Dusk gritted his teeth, but he kept himself from saying what he really felt at the insult. Instead, he slowly turned towards his lawyer, reminding himself just whose representation had saved his ass.

Cthulhu himself looked down at him. Not from a great height, not from the heights of the Great Ones, but from a goodly height nonetheless. The tentacle-faced semi-deity was one of those that you did not insult, that you did not beg from, but you bartered with. And when they were feeling generous enough to offer you something without cost, you listened carefully, and you did not reject it out of hand._

"...Fine. What do you have to say?"

"You're on the cusp of Armageddon, and you aren't going to win."

The black cat bit off the immediate roll of his eyes that wanted to happen, forcing himself to listen, instead. He gestured for Cthulhu to continue, and the Great One did.

"You managed to fend off Mercy Christ in court. That's good. That's a start. But you also managed to get her father's attention."

"Is he better or worse than her?"

"Better in that he doesn't lose his mind to stalker problems. Worse in that he is more intelligent, and carries a grudge for a very, very long time."

"...Hmm."

"He is not a reasonable man," Cthulhu said, walking past the cat and sitting down at his desk, rooting through drawers as he spoke. "The best that you will ever, ever get out of him is the promise that he will not do anything specifically against you for the next year or so. He will find every loophole that you put in front of him. The minute that he was stuck being represented by Gabriel, the case was ours, but if he'd managed a motion to represent his daughter himself..."

"You're saying you would have lost?"

"I'm saying our chances would have gone down dramatically." Cthulhu shook his head. "You don't go head-to-head with God and expect to come out on top."

"So why are you trying to get something else out of him? Trying to use this win as a way to prove you're the best or something?" Dusk asked, taking the other chair in the room for his own.

"Not in the slightest. This is just...insurance."

"..."

"Dusk. I'm going to level with you. This is a serious issue. God has been waiting for millennia to trigger Armageddon. Mercy might have been pushing it to happen faster, but that tiger's been wanting it ever since his son came down and got killed. He wants to remove everything from the world and start over, with just the stupidest of his faithful left to keep the world going. That's the long and short of it.

"Now, he's patient. He's very, very patient, and he's been waiting for everything to line up so that it can happen perfectly. But now, there's you."

"A wrench in the plans?" Dusk asked, unable to keep himself from smirking.

Cthulhu shook his head.

"More like a little sand in the gears."

"...Ouch."

"But it's irritating enough that he's going to take a personal hand in the whole thing. Out of spite, if nothing else, he's going to take steps to see to it that this humiliation never happens again. And he's going to be cruel about it. He always is. So, this is your insurance."

Dusk slowly nodded. That much he could understand. There had always been the need to keep an eye on things when he had been working through black magic and other eldritch pursuits. Sometimes, the magic alone wasn't enough. You needed to take power from other creatures and use them as ways of controlling the more powerful entities. This seemed to be no different.

"Alright...so what are we getting?"

"I'll explain that in a moment. For now, you're not getting anything." Cthulhu held up a hand. "For now. It needs to stay out of your hands, just in case. God will do anything that he can to get these back from you, and so, we'll keep our 'claim' from triggering until the moment it's most needed."

"...Is Armageddon that close?"

"Right now, there's an uprising going on in Heaven."

The black cat stared, his eyes wider than ever before. Of all the things that his lawyer could have told him, that was one that he never would have guessed.

"How? When?"

"Differences of opinion between the Archangels, as well as God keeping his son penned up ever since the crucifixion. There's not enough time to explain, but there's a snag. The uprising has already freed Jesus from God's prison, but the whole thing - look. Suffice to say, the scrolls and the seals are already being loosened. They're a hair away from being triggered. Even if God doesn't pull it himself, something of sufficient explosive cosmic power could.. Understand?"

Dusk slowly nodded. For all that he had won, it seemed that the war between Heaven and Hell was far from over. Not necessarily at an all-out conflict anymore, but definitely not over, and definitely not settled. He could imagine that this would keep going into perpetuity, even if he pushed his lawyer into dropping the whole 'reparations' part of the argument here.

And if God was going to start fucking with him, then he was all for fucking with God in return. He supposed that was just part of being the second Satan, though he was still trying to dodge the throne.

As he nodded, Cthulhu leaned in.

"I want you to remember this. When the time comes, I'll have a call go through to you. It'll come through at the moment when you'll most need these items. And you need to remember what to ask for."

"I can do that."

"First, ask for the Fourth Seal. Specifically, the Fourth."

Dusk nodded. That would be one of the Horsemen, though he didn't remember just which one that was. He supposed that it would be better to have one of them on his side, though he couldn't imagine that being a willing servant in the grand scheme of things. Then again, depending on which one it was, it would be easier to have it work for someone that had the reputation for dark and deadly things rather than for the side of goodness and light.

"And the other?"

"You need to ask for..."

Dusk snapped out of it as the thrum-thrum continued, realizing that he was losing time to pick up the phone. The black cat leaned over, pulling on one of the tentacles and dragging it up to his head. It slithered along the side of his face, coiled into his ear, and delivered that same squelching, nasty, disturbing feeling that he remembered from when he first called up Cthulhu for the case all those weeks ago.

There was a crackling sound on the other end, like ice shattering, followed by a globby, bubbling sort of sound. A Shoggoth, he imagined, bubbling itself back to life after a deep freeze.

"This is...the law offices...of the Great Cthulhu," the Shoggoth said. "Is this...Dusk Von Doom?"

"This is he."

"You know...what the call is for, then?"

"I do."

"Then make your claim, please."

"...The Fourth Seal..."

It was really happening, he realized. They were right on the verge of something horrible, which meant that things here in Hell were about to go so far off the beam that there would be scarcely any coming back. Was God getting ready to intervene personally, all the way down here? Or was he going to take steps on earth to make it worse, or was something else entirely going to happen?

"Sir?"

Dusk leaned in, whispering the second item. Cthulhu had been explicit about this one, and had been all the more insistent that he didn't say it where anyone could hear. Even though he was speaking in a room in the back of a manor in Hell, he had little doubt that there were snoops around, others that were trying to find out what he was doing. He wasn't going to make that easier.

"Thank you, sir."

The line disconnected, physically as well as mentally. He groaned as it felt like something had just been sheared off from his mind, rubbing his head as the tentacles withdrew. The portal remained open for a moment or two, and a box came through, a package slightly larger than the size of his head.

It was done. His 'reparations' had arrived.

And that meant that things were about to get so much worse.

Dusk leaned forward, his head in his hands. He did not cry, nor did he shake in terror. If anything, he felt almost...resolved. Better, in some ways, than he had before. At least now, he knew just how fucked up things actually were. With that knowledge, he could start doing something about it. After all, even if things were about to go tits up, he could at least take steps to ensure that the worst of the damage didn't hit those that didn't deserve it.

He called for one of Lord Jarrah's servants. A Tasmanian Devil that was all but vibrating with indignant outrage at having to be a servant in the first place came to his room, bowing at the waist.

"Yes, sir?" the demon growled.

"Send a message through the house. Have my people meet me here."

"All of them?"

"All of them."

"Even the Killer?"

"If you mean Arnis, yes."

The servant demon nodded, heading out to fulfill his bidding. Dusk had a moment of curiosity as to why they'd called Arnis 'the Killer', as surely all of them had done some serious murder in the past, but he let the question slide. It was something for another time.

For now, he needed to get his affairs in order.

It didn't take long for the various demons and the one fallen angel to meet him in the bedroom, though all of them were rather confused as they entered. After all, this was the first time since they had entered Hell that he had commanded their presence like this, and he probably looked a little more woebegone than he normally did. He had reason, he supposed.

"Thanks for coming so quickly," he said as Arnis and Bitch entered the room last of all. They sprawled out, with Selene and Arnis standing near the door, Ornar and Seraph beside him, and the rest spread out where they would. He leaned into his hands, taking a deep breath before letting it out. "I wanted to make sure that you heard this from me. I'm splitting us up tonight."

There was a raised eyebrow on every face in the room, but no questions yet. Good. That was very good.

"I want to make sure that everything is handled in case the worst happens. Can't say why, but suffice to say that things could take a very bad turn, very quickly. And if it does, I want everything to keep running smoothly. Arnis?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"You got family down here, yes?"

"...Some. Not many I like."

"Find the ones that you do, and stay there. Take Bitch with you; he needs training, and there might be some connections that he can pull off if you really need it."

"Boss, what's going on?"

"I already told you, can't say."

And that was going to be a sticking point, he could already tell. Most of them were rather involved with him, wanted to be sure that things were okay. Those that weren't, like Selene, were also tied to him politically, and were not going to be so willing to just let their questions wait. He doubted that he'd be able to get much rest tonight with dodging what they wanted to know.

But it had to be this way. It wasn't necessarily sentimentality that had him doing this, but also ensuring that as many of his current successes remained after whatever happened between him and God. The more that he prepared, the more of his people were in place, the better chance there was for his work to continue.

"Take him with you, and stay there until I call for you again."

If I can...

The important thing was to keep Arnis and the others out of the firing lines when God started doing whatever it was that he had planned. For now, that meant making sure that they weren't anywhere near him. He turned his attention to the bull at his side.

"Seraph?"

"Yes, Master?"

"You're going back to the Hellspire."

"...If that is your command, Master."

"I need someone to make sure that the various mortal affairs are taken care of, and you're probably the closest person to me that can do it. Administer all the different things that we've gotten set up, take care of the guys that we've moved into the Spire, and for fuck's sake, don't let anyone pig out on the ice cream."

That got a small smile. It was better than nothing. Seraph bowed.

"As you wish, Master."

Opening a portal, he sent the fallen angel off with no further ado. There was little to be said, but the whole room still flinched as he closed the portal behind the bull. There was a feeling of something shattering, like the little unity that they had all built up was coming to a close. Dusk did his best to push past that, turning to Balthus. The wide-hipped rabbit looked at him with his head cocked to the side and his eyebrows raised.

"You sending me off, too?"

"I am."

"Just when I was starting to get into this."

"You'll have plenty of clients to get into you up there."

"Yeah, but it's not the same."

"And I admit that I have grown fond of him," Selene admitted.

There was a moment of silence as all the room turned to her in shock, and the lioness chuckled, spreading her arms in a shrug.

"It seems that Balthus is just that good."

"Apparently," Ornar said, blinking. The orc chuckled. "I guess he needs a raise."

"Speaking of which."

Dusk reached into his coat pockets. There was a small portal in them, something that led to the personal treasury that he had been building up of the Soulari that had been taxed from the various trips to Purgatory. It was quite full, and considering that he might not win this fight coming up, he might as well start spending his spoils. He pulled out a large-ish bag of the coins, and then tossed them to the rabbit. The naked incubus blinked, pulling it open and looking inside as his jaw dropped.

"Unholy shit..."

"That's for all your service of late, and everything that you have done for our cause," Dusk said. "Now, I'm going to send you back to the Hellspire for safe-keeping. I want you to keep helping Seraph as much as you helped me."

"...Does he pay this well?" Balthus joked.

"He will."

"...Sir, you're gonna be okay, right?"

"I'll try to be."

That was as much as he could promise. Dusk flicked his hand, opening another portal, and the rabbit leaped through. Apparently, Balthus knew to get while the getting was good.

That left Ornar and Selene. Arnis and Bitch had done the smart thing, turning around and leaving the room while they could. It unfortunately also left him alone with the most canny of the bunch, and the ones that were most willing to push him on things that he didn't really want to be pushed on. The lioness and the orc loomed over him, the former approaching him to stand at one side of the chair, while Ornar loomed over the side that he already stood at.

Dusk sighed to himself, rubbing his forehead. What the hell was he supposed to tell them, really? That Armageddon was coming knocking, again? That they were being sent off because there was no clear way to stop this? That he was clueless, and he didn't want to admit it?

Not a chance in hell was he going to admit any of that.

"You two..." Dusk sighed. "Look. I'm going to be clear with you."

"Clearer than you were with the rest, I hope," Selene said.

"You're a danger."

"...I believe that I've proven myself time and again, Dusk."

"Not a willing one, but a possible one. Your father -"

"Can't break me."

"But he has allies that might."

God can break anyone, he thought. Maybe even me.

And if God was involved, and if Darith Sertus was working with that asshole of a tiger, then there was a possibility that Selene might be handed over to him. After all, the lion had handed his daughter over to Lucifer for the chance of greater status. It was entirely possible that he'd hand his daughter off to God to break him if there was any chance in Hell that it would give their coup a better chance.

Ugh. So many variables...so many unknowns...

If he could just pin down if God was working through the Sertus family, or if the Sertus family was working on their own, or if there was a one or two-way influence going on, or - ugh. There was just so much that he didn't know, and it paralyzed him in making his own decisions. He had to wait to find out just what they were going to do, and it pissed him off more than he could actually express.

But one thing was for sure. The more they knew, the more danger they were in.

"I can't tell you what's happening. If I do, and your father - or anyone else - finds out that you know something, then they will take you to someone that can break you."

"You underestimate me."

Dusk had a flash of remembrance. The scars on her back, the marks that Lucifer had left behind. She had survived that...

But survival was not the same as being unbroken. He didn't know what she used to be like, but he doubted that it was quite this cold woman that stood before him now. The black cat shook his head.

"I stand by this decision. I'm not risking this. There's barely any chance for success as it is, and if I'm going to keep that, then you have to trust me."

The lioness shook her head, but didn't push it. For all her Pride, she at least understood the need for secrecy. He hoped that it came from places other than her time under Lucifer, and all that had entailed.

He looked between them, slowly getting to his feet and pacing around the room. The package that had come in from Cthulhu was hidden under the big armchair, kept out of sight so that they didn't see it, didn't realize just what he had gained from the arsenal of God himself. Even Dusk didn't entirely know what use they would be when it came to surviving what was coming next, but he had to hope for the best. It was all he really had left.

"The two of you..." No, not like that. He took a deep breath and started again. "The two of you are going to be targets, and soon. If things go wrong -"

"Is this the part where we point out that you're planning for defeat, instead of trying to win?" Ornar asked.

"..."

"Look at you. You're acting like you're already beaten. It's not like you're fighting God. He's not coming down to Hell."

If only you knew...

Dusk shook his head. As much as he wanted to plan a way forward that involved him winning, the most that he could do right at that moment was try and survive. If he had more information, if he understood just what he had asked for, then perhaps he might have a better idea of how to win this whole thing. But lacking that...well, he needed to work on damage control.

"For now, just trust me."

"You're making that really hard right now," the orc said.

"I know."

"I know you helped us out a lot, and we're giving you some serious credit here, but -"

"But I did not survive this long believing that the worst would happen," Selene said. "And you know that you have options."

"Options that I don't want to take," Dusk pointed out.

"Options that you might not have a choice in. The longer that you wait, the longer that you make no choice, the more that someone else is going to make them for you. Trust me, I know."

"Was that how you got locked into a relationship with Lucifer?"

"..."

He wished that he could take back the question as soon as it left his lips. Her face twisted in the first expression of actual pain he'd seen since meeting her. He must have been under more stress than he thought if he'd imagined that as a fair question to ask.

Before he could say anything, however, she nodded.

"It was. There are many things that have happened to me since I was...born. Most of them were not of my choice, but they were things that I could have avoided if I was more the master of my own destiny. A lack of choice is still a choice, and the more that you choose to not do anything, the more that others will take that power from you. You've come to this point on your own, Dusk; for all that you have done for Hell, there is still the fact that you do not want to be here. You do not embrace it, no matter how much you draw on its power. And now, it seems, something has happened to push you somewhere that you don't want to go.

"I will not say I told you so. I will continue working for your ends, and I will keep an eye out for everything. But Dusk, you do have to do something. And soon. Otherwise, you might lose the chance to do anything at all."

And with that, the lioness turned to leave. He watched her go, shaking his head as she walked out, shutting the doors behind her with a slight gesture of his hand. That had gone...about as well as it could have, particularly after that moment of stupidity. What the hell had he been thinking?

Answer: he hadn't been. He hadn't been thinking much at all.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the big, dark-skinned orc still looming over him. To his credit, Ornar didn't have the look of someone that was getting ready to lecture him, nor did he look like he was going to say 'told you so.' Instead, the orc just looked like a slightly nervous businessman, someone that was waiting to hear what the fate of his job actually was. Dusk could work with that. That was much easier.

"If you're worried for your House, don't be. I've already established the link between your brothel and the Hellspire. You will maintain that even if the whole thing goes to, well, Hell," Dusk said.

"That's something."

"You won't have to worry about losing status."

"I'm not."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"Well, for one, whether the rest of the demons will be able to get BACK to Hell through the same portals."

"...They should. They're reinforced with black magic as well as the power of the seven Vices."

"You're sure about that?"

"Ninety percent."

That ten-percent difference, however, was one that needed to be addressed. Dusk thought about it. There were those demons that would likely be willing to let someone pass hither and yon through the different holes in reality, but first there was the difficulty of finding those holes. And considering that the main portals had been made using the power of Lucifer's soul in addition to his own practical knowledge, there was a possibility, however slight, that if something happened to him, the Hellspire would lose its connection to Hell as a whole.

And considering that House Onsen had gone through a meteoric rise of power in Lust, that meant that there were likely a number of people - like the demons that had been allied with Brutus Diel - who would be more than willing to keep them at bay for the sake of creating a power vacuum that they could then fill.

Goddamn politics...

He had taken Lucifer's soul because he wanted to have the power to do whatever he wanted, but ever since taking it, rather than short-circuiting the various games between Heaven and Hell and mortals, he had managed to find himself completely entangled in them. There was no apparent escape from what they had planned for the destiny of the world. The cycle kept drawing him closer and closer to this end-point, this spiraling path that led inevitably to Armageddon.

He tried to make things better in Hell, and it just pissed everyone off.

He saved an entire realm, and everyone else looked at it as favoritism.

He bombed out a tyrant, and Hell looked at him with nothing but fear.

"I'll do everything I can," Dusk promised. "I don't know how much that means to you now, but I'll do everything I can."

"Considering how much you already did, I think it means a lot."

"I'm glad someone does."

Rubbing his forehead, Dusk looked up at the ceiling. The world felt like it was starting to close in around him. For all that he had some comfort knowing that the end of this was coming, one way or another, it didn't exactly get rid of the stifling, claustrophobic feeling of having no space to breathe, no space to act.

He glanced back at Ornar again, slowly cocking his head to the side. There was one thing that he could do. One thing that would take both their minds off of the coming events. Dusk smiled.

"Ornar, tell me. How much free time do you have?"

"As much as you're willing to give me, I guess."

"Good. Let's talk...positions."

The End

Summary: Dusk realizes that things are coming to a head far sooner than originally anticipated, and has to take steps.

Tags: No sex, Nudity, Tentacles, Cat, Bull, Orc, Lioness, Rabbit, Bear, Various Species, Tying Up Loose Ends, Artifacts, Uh-Oh, Hell, Demon, Fallen Angel, Series, Modern Fantasy,