Drummer Boy: Bat Out of Hell II: Back to Hell
Hello, gents and ladies! Back on my BS with another Lady D joint! Yeah, boyyyyyyy! (This concludes my state-mandated Flavor Flav reference for the year. Texas has some weird laws.)
We're almost done with this field trip to good old Tarterus. Two parts remain, but I'm taking the rest of the month off to do a project for NaNoWriMo. This project has nothing to do with writing a novel. (Like ah said, Texas has some weird laws.)
Trigger Warning: I take a dig at EDM in this part. Couldn't be helped. Enjoy!
* * * * *
Jason paused. "You been quiet for a while," he said. "You know Granny didn't die, right? I mean, she's right over there in-"
"Of course I know that you damn doofus!" Leanne said, and then sighed. "Just tryin' ta process, is all. That bit with the Three... it's a bit much."
"You don't believe me?" Jason said.
"Nah, it ain't that," Leanne said. "Fact o' the matter is, it makes sense. Always seemed to me that something was wrong with Tarterus. Way we always seemed to be fightin' and gettin' nowhere, without nothing ever changin'. I thought it was just me, but..."
"Oh no," Jason said. "It goes right to the top. Trust me, I got it straight from the horse's mouth..."
-
Jason looked down at Granny again, searching for movement, or any flicker of life in the broken, cum-covered form on the floor. But there was no motion, no breath, nothing.
Jason whirled on Electra. "Why?!" he said. "Why did you make me do that to her?"
Electra peered down at him, one eyebrow raised. "Because I wished it," she said, "and your love for me compelled you to obey."
"Love?" Jason said. "Lady, there's a long list of what I'm feeling right now, and 'love' ain't on it!"
Electra's brow furrowed in confusion, and Jason was struck again by how similar she was, in face and expression, to his wife, Ellie.
"And what
are
you feeling, human?" Electra said.
But she wasn't his wife. Somehow, he knew that now. He'd never been married, never won a Grammy. Never raised children or been to Australia. Never been anything but the ex-drummer of a third-rate band, with a string of failed relationships behind him. Electra had done something deeply wrong and horribly personal to him, and that made him angry.
"How about we start with, 'you're an asshole'," Jason said, "and go from there?"
"Oh, come now," Electra said, presenting him with a confident smile. "Feel the Presence, and know love again."
She looked like Ellie, true. But whatever spell had been on him before was broken.
"You're not Ellie," Jason said. "There never was an Ellie."
Electra cocked her head to the side, as if listening. "Nothing," she said. "Your mind is closed to me. It appears that my rebellious little Wing Mother managed one final deception before departing."
"So?" Jason said. "I swear to god, if you don't do something-"
"No matter," Electra said, "her magics will fade. And you will come to love me, in time."
"All this bullshit going on, and your big concern is whether I love you?" Jason said. "You're out of your fucking mind."
Electra smiled at him. It was a smile so warm and beautiful that Jason wasn't sure if it was supposed to be reassuring or patronizing.
"Do you think me so hard to love?" Electra said.
Jason was taken aback. "Well, aside from the fact that you're a giant, immortal demon," he said, "you're letting my friends get killed while you diddle your dollies, you made
me
kill Granny, you put a whole fake life into my brain, and for what? So you and your sisters can preserve this fucked-up world where you murder each other and treat human beings like animals?" Jason threw his hands up, and, remembering that he was still eight feet tall with horns poking out of his head, said, "Oh yeah, and you turned me into
this
!"
"That," Electra said, "I cannot take credit for. The physical forms of cambions are uniquely malleable. Your body merely responded to the soul of the world, and, as my sister stated, your heritage is of Palladia's line."
"Whatever," Jason said. "All I know is that you get off on fucking people over, and I don't want anything to do with you. You're a monster."
Electra knelt down in front of Jason, and placed her hands on her thighs. The tops of her kneecaps were even with the horns growing from his head, and were now only a few feet away from him, an effective reminder of the severe size difference between the two of them. She gave a subtle gesture with her wings, and her Maidens stepped back, giving her and Jason some space.
"You thought similarly of Purleen and Garanetta once, did you not?" Electra said.
"Well, yeah, but-"
"They have done monstrous things," Electra said, "yet you came to love them."
"It's different though!" Jason said. "They had good reasons."
"Then perhaps you should understand mine," Electra said. "Would you like to know why we live as we do? Why we have fought for thousands of years?"
Jason didn't want to know where this was going, but as he didn't have much choice, he simply shrugged.
"When the Bright Lady abandoned us," Electra said, "We were left on this world to fend for ourselves. Tarterus is harsh, but we are strong. And through our congress with Earth, we were still capable of maintaining a comfortable, albeit delicate, existence."
"Then why'd you break it off?" Jason said. "Granny said-"
"It was not our decision," Electra said. "Long ago, before any now living apart from the Three had been hatched, a Guardian appeared between the worlds."
"Oh," Jason said. "
Him.
"
Electra raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "You know of the Guardian?"
"The Thing in the Way, yeah," Jason said. "Into tacos and weed. He stopped me earlier. And I got the feeling that if he doesn't like you, you're not going anywhere."
"Just so," Electra said. "The Guardian made it very clear that further traffic between Earth and Tarterus would not be tolerated."
"You musta really pissed him off," Jason said. "Why does
that
not surprise me?"
"We tried, of course," Electra said. "But no matter how much magical essence, or how many diaboli, or how many of our sisters we sacrificed, we found all of our portals, to Earth and elsewhere, blocked."
"I don't blame him!" Jason said. "Thing knows what's up."
Undeterred, Electra went on. "Trapped on this world, we despaired. Inevitably, that despair became hatred, and we turned upon each other. The fighting in those early days was terrible. Conflicts were disorganized, and goals poorly-defined. Tribally mixed groups squabbled constantly, out of misguided notions of autonomy. They vied over arable land, over the remaining humans, or over slights, real and imagined.
"We Regents struggled to quell the chaos. We tried to uphold the Bright Lady's principles." Electra shook her head sadly. "Strength, Intelligence and Love... they were not enough to keep our willful daughters in line. Our numbers dwindled, and our descent into barbarism foretold our extinction. We needed a way to manage our conflicts, and thus, our world. What we needed, was unity."
"So you started a war?" Jason said. "You just... made it up?"
"It is a very effective method of control," Electra said. "Accentuate the similarities of your group, and vilify all others. There will be conflict, of course, but that conflict is manageable."
"So you did all this," Jason said, waving his arms in the air, "you made this whole hellish world, just to what... keep busy?! That's stupid!"
"Nonetheless, it has worked for thousands of years," Electra said. "The Spines against the Wings, eternal agonists, unified in their hatred of each other. Aurica's Tails, always lesser in number, are called upon to provide assistance in situations where one side gains an unexpected advantage. In this way, we have maintained a nearly perfect, sustainable balance."
"Yeah, but I bet you didn't count on someone like Pearl coming along, did you?" Jason said. "Knockin' over your happy little apple cart."
"But of course we did, human," Electra said. "We knew some of our daughters would be flawed. Disobedient, or with ideas beyond their station. Troublemakers," Electra sneered as she said the word, "we could not abide. Simply destroying them without cause would be disruptive, and wasteful besides. So we found another way."
Jason looked around at the Maidens. Their faces were blank, but their devotion, he knew, was absolute.
"So anyone who gave you problems," Jason said, "you turned into brainless zombies?"