'It was a dark and stormy night', the story I was reading started. I paused and thought 'really ?'

I know I had been away for a while but please Originality had apparently gone away or this book should have been cheaper than what I paid for it. I flipped it over to look at the cover again, only the cover was blank. I looked up and the world was blank and I sighed. Dreaming Right. Ok, why am I dreaming about reading a book full of bad writing in a blank waiting room feeling place.

Let's see, memories. What were my last clear Awake memories. I can do this, taken Years of training, not only to Remember most of my dreams but to recall my waking life while dreaming. Tends to wake me up, well most of the time, not always.

Hm, well truthfully my life prior to this dream was more fantastic than my dreams. So maybe my subconscious decided to give me boring cause of that.

My life, fallen through a hole in reality, crashing on the Bifrost Rainbow Bridge then rolling down said bridge at over 100 mph as my brakes failed only to end up in a world that was a mix of Hollywood fantasy movie and Dungeons and Dragons … oh right.

I died, made some deal with a set of Gods and Entities who I think because they are normally in conflict tend to butt into my life more often than they do with Anyone else. Not that I mind really. It's kind of fun when the Goddess of Love and the God of War make it a contest of who can set me up with the most awesome of women. Though War does tend to pick ones who would make bad wives or good punching bags. He is, I think, more interested in studding me out like a prize race horse due to the enhanced genetics they used in the creation of my new body than in me being happy with whomever I end up with. While the Love goddess and her little sister - Goddess of Fertility and Sexual Perversion, seem more interested in at least including good looks and sexual compatibility in to the mix. Too bad for War the girl I am most attracted to at present is a vampire. She is no supermodel (thank god) or even bodaciously hot. She is pretty and has an ok figure but we mesh on a personality type level.

Interestingly neither god set me up with her. I rescued her on impulse from a Necropolis she was trapped in. Turned out we had a lot in common, both mentally and emotionally. We are both from 'Other Realities' and at first thought the same one. But her history and mine are not the same. Different presidents in our realities though a few things do match. Similar world histories and all. Physically we do well together and we make a good team. I know allot about her kind of vampire, things she did not know because till she became one she never really gave much thought to beyond they were fun to watch in the movies.

Thinking about her and her little group of ghoul playmates distracts me for a few minutes. I slowly recall why I was recalling all this. Trying to remember my last memory.

War. Seems I accidently started a chain of events, while trying to unseat the present Goddess of Destiny. A one-time mortal who found her way in to the halls of Destiny, took them over somehow and now is trying to force this world in to one where everyone no matter race, creed or anything are pretty much exactly the same. A cookie cutter world. The Balance (Fate, Order, Chaos) and the Gods (War, Love, Probability) take great offense at this and were trying everything in their collective powers to stop or at least let monkey's with type writers and wrenches loose in to her plans. Enter me, Ape with Wrench and Type Writer. I pretty much proved that when I freed a vampire from a totally different reality In to This reality and she accidently turned 2 adventurers in to vampires whom we have to take care of. And SOMEHOW this event triggered another set of events that are only related to us in the way that a butterfly's wing beat is somehow related to a hurricane. I think Chaos is going a little Sane or something while Order goes mad.

It turned out that Destiny Soule the mad woman at the center of all this insanity is in one of the most impossible to escape Prisons on the whole world (as in anyone who goes in never comes out - no guards no exits as there is something down there that Eats these people to power itself and make the King Immortal and keep the prison in use. That Something was Destiny (the original one) and now it's the New One because somehow she took the old ones place.

Now War has all his armies … or has that already happened ? Went to temple, met a fellow with a better intelligence network than anyone in the world (Temples, who knew … ok the catholic church and many others I am sure, but I am still impressed.)

I remember I fell asleep in a nice bed. Woke up had a Nice bath (with some good 'clean' bath fun with the girls), a good meal and went down to the casino while outside the invasion was underway (they left the temple and pretty much the city alone, only a few places were damaged and that only happened in places where there was resistance to the assault, which was on the Deep Prison not really the city itself. Though I heard later the king died (they cut off his head and stuffed it inside one of those cursed suits of War armor so his soul could be consumed by the armor before being shit in to hell.)

I Felt when Destiny's hold on the world was broken. It was like a huge psychic shockwave. So to celebrate I spent a platinum coin on a wheel of chance (.01% chance to win 1 Million Gold, there were several lesser prizes to).

I Won, but because of a second shockwave, this one physical though minor (distant explosion type thing) caused the wheel needle to land right on that tiny chance pin and set off a series of bells (Sort of sounded like Halleluiah or such). I felt the smile before any other reaction. The priest on duty started blubbering that the spin was invalid because of the shockwave. This brought a Lot of angry patrons down on him and his fellows who were trying to invalidate my lucky spin.

I recall being shuffled down a long corridor and then they got stopped by two HUGE guys dressed in white and gold armor (Paladins of the Pantheon it turned out) and learned that these 'priest' were not really priest but the local equivalent of the Mob and that my prize was to 'fall out a window' or other 'tragic accident'. So they did not have to pay out the money.

The head of the Pantheon priest-hood turned out to be the land-lord for the Temple and he was there to put a stop to all this insanity.

I also recall a prick in my lower back, but when I looked behind me, no one was there and I saw no dart or anything, so I don't know.

There was some confusion, a very short fight (thugs of medium skill versus paladins in heavy armor wielding Holy Avengers). Messy short fight.

The Pantheon people took me to a side office while my prize was being collected and I sat down, happy and seeing a bright future for Luce's babies and my other girls. Then this pain in my back started to spread, I reached backwards, said something to the 2 priest in the room with me, got woozy and started to fall over … Ah I must be unconscious. Someone tried to poison me. Does not worry me much, I regenerate and am highly resistant to poisons. May be unconscious for a good while though. Though I think the prick came from someone using some kind of invisibility to help me have that accident.

I frown and look around. So now what. The book is now blank and pointless. I put it down and look around. Then I speak, "Hello, can anyone hear me ?"

Chapter Two: Death comes again, New Life or Unlife

I slowly turn around, "Hello ?" a touch of fear in my voice. Then there is a presence that forms in to a lovely angel.

She brought a background with her, which is nice, if a tad creepy.

"Hello rob. I am death, sorry but you failed your saving throw this time." great an Entity with a sense of humor.

"Ok. But why all the unending White ?" I ask. Being dead is more annoying to me right now.

The 'Angel' looks around then leans out of its painting and looks around my place, "Hm that is not right should be more here than that. Your in Hell after allllllllllllllllllllllaahhhh" The Angel screams and suddenly it and its image shatter and this older, overweight messy looking blond is there, she is covered in burns and blood and has a large flaming sword shoved through her back, I can't really 'see' what is wielding the sword, but I got a feeling it's my old pale, Senior Psychopath, aka War. He proceeds to stab, chop then stomp the woman in to a messy paste on the floor of my prison.

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Then It / He / looks at me, "Sorry about that. We destroyed her machines and cut her ties to the physical world. She was still connected to the spiritual world and was trying to send as many of our people in to one of her personal hells as she could. I think that should." I point to a 'slimy thing' trying to slide toward the side.

He sets it on fire, that does not work, I look, "Why not bottle it ?"

I Feel the look of surprise more than anything, then something pushes past him and from my perception it looks like the thing is shoved in to a mason jar, one of those ones with the metal clamps on it to help hold the lid in place. All of the slime is shoved in to that impossible jar. Then the mess is gone from the floor of my space.

The second woman who appears wears a helm that covers most of her face, has an aura that says 'Hi I am Fate' to me and is holding a wicked sword.

I look at her, "Nice avatar" I state. She smiles.

"Thank you Rob. Sorry for this mess. Destiny has been defeated, again. She is the 4th to hold that position and by far one of the worst."

I sigh, "I am about to be fired aren't I ?"

She nods, "Sort of. You did Exactly as we asked you to do. You never complained and never once did you say 'I wish'. We noticed that, we know you were tempted to but you never gave in to it. You went above and beyond a few times to. When giving up or focusing on 'getting rich' or other such things could easily have taken priority. You stayed the course we set for you. We had meant for you to live out your life in our world. But well your dying. You were hit with a parasite not a poison and it's eating away at your heart. With Destiny gone we have to use the Rules we set in place for those times where her post is vacant. That limits us on miracles and such.

Now Trisha she is not taking this lightly and is Begging us to lift the ban on you becoming a vampire. BUT if we do that, well you would not be allowed to live in our reality anymore Because you would be too powerful for it. The next problem is finding a reality where you could live. As you can imagine that is not an easy task. Even if we can find such a world there is no guarantee you would keep all your gifts, powers, or items from our world. I know you want to keep at least the magic items and some of the gold, or equivalent thereof.

Order is even now Looking. Um, are you dead set on being a man ?"

I consider, "Well I like my dick, not opposed to being a gorgeous hermaphrodite " Huge Smile.

She shakes her head, "That is your sex drive talking."

I nod, "Yes yes it is. It's the only part of me I was letting out that did not overly impede my mission."

She nods, "we noticed" she says softly. I shrug she grins, "You will have descendants here though. Luce will give birth to 7 children, 4 boys 3 girls. The others you impregnated will have triplets or quadruplets. All will be born healthy but as such things go, not all will have good lives. You are correct in your belief that Luce will make a wonderful mother. Even though she is evil she has a strong instinct and a good heart where her children are concerned. The money your leaving behind for them helps to as will Axe, Agatha that is. She loves Luce and will take good care of her since your gone." I nod and sigh, "I wish I could tell Luce … things. I don't know. You understand ?" Fate nods, "Yes we um, fudged a little and left a will in your name. Splitting your money between a few favorite peoples Luce included." I nod, "Thank you." she nods.

And we Wait. Small talk some. She answers a few questions (Temple of The Lady of Fortune has the Will, made up 'prior to my leaving'. I was included in their last message to the main temple in Dom-Torra. Or at least a copy of it, as mortals do love their paperwork.)

"How is it your still here, or is this one of those things with temporal anomalies and dream physics."

She smiles, "Yes." I frown and she shrugs, "You answered your own question correctly. Also I am not really Here. or there. Just a projection of myself as this is the inside of your mind where your consciousness sits when avoiding the agony that your in right now."

I consider, "Is it possible for me to regain consciousness to talk to Trisha and maybe explain a few things ?"

She considers then shrugs, "Yes but remember the stake in your back ? This will make that seem like a pleasant feeling." I nod.

Yep was not lying, I went from white oblivion to HELL with a few billion more pitchforks and lots of chewing.

Trisha is kneeling over me, praying. I focus my will, I don't have much time. I reach out a hand and grab hers. She jerks and then looks down at me, "Hi" I say with a smile. She gives me one of those 'oh my god looks'. "I would shrug but this is taking allot of focus and I don't have much time. There is some kind of parasite inside me eating me from the inside out. The gods are too busy with other things to help me directly."

I hear off to the side, "SO! that's why Cure Disease and Poison spells are not working."

Then I hear 4 people chanting a prayer in a language I don't know.

"Trisha, Fate told me what you're asking of them. But the cost of it is pretty high. I would not be able to exist in this world any more. Super Human with the kinds of powers you have would be a bit much it seems. Oh I left a will with the Temple of Fortune before starting out. That million will help with it. If I could I would add you and the girls to the list."

Tears streaming down her face I suddenly feel a huge chunk of the pain Stop. Not sure if that is because my spinal column finally went or the priest spell did something. Still hurt but not quite so bad. Then the 2cd priest finishes and the 3rd and the 4th. As each finishes the pain recedes till I hurt but not the same way. Still dying but not as fast.

I look at the priest, "Thank you. The pain is gone but it's too late, too much damage has been done."

I look back at Trisha, "No more miracle saves. Even being undead is not an option or you know, one of the light brigade." I squeeze her hand, "I love you Trisha, and Luce to. Please tell her for me."

And I am back in the white room again.

Fate is grinning, "Nice ending there. Had they known about the parasites 5 minutes sooner you may have survived that. Sorry." I shrug. "Not your fault really." she shrugs, "Light Brigade, that will confuse her for a little bit but she will get it."

The walls of my mind turn blood red and I look around. "She is trying to turn me isn't she ?"

Fate nods, "Yes. You passed at that moment and she asked to be alone with you. So they left. Now she is being desperate as she loves you. Does not want to lose you. I am not sure how badly she loves you to tell the truth, so many variations and possibilities. This is why we had a Destiny see, to help sort through all those possibilities and such. But the best one we ever had was murdered then eaten by that last one. Insane little woman." she sighs.

"Oh Dom is the Heir to the Throne of Dom-Torra. She Hates that, which is why she ran away and joined that circus of a guild. The Guild wanted to keep her, or at least a couple of her items so they could keep getting a healthy stipend from her father each month. They needed those items to keep up the ruse she was still among their number."

I am watching the blood ooze down my walls and toward me, "Um about the blood ?"

She looks at it, "Your choice, join her clan and lose our world or die and go in to one of our afterlives with a chance to be reborn in to our world. Though you won't recall this life if you do that."

"Yeah, how do I choose ?" I pause, "Or choose and try to keep as much that I identify as me with me ?"

She gives me 3 scenarios but does not really answer my question.

I think it over and take door number 4. I walk in to a long dark corridor full of blood and dark promises. I grab all the powers, memories and such as I can and don't let go. The burning that runs through my body and mind is impressive, the demon running up to devour me is the beast. I don't run to it, I let it come to me. Then I beat it in to submission, put it in a bondage harness and name it Beaten. Then I beat on it some more cause I am a bit pissed that I won't get to see my family ever again.