Lilith stood silently in the centre of the elevator as it gradually dropped down into the lowest chambers of the Undercroft, feeling sick right to her stomach. Being so far from Cobalt, she already felt weak enough, but shortly after kicking the elevator into gear, she felt a sudden jolt of pain coursing through her entire body, followed by intense nausea.
They got him, didn’t they?
Fuck.
She didn’t have much time, then.
The only issue was that in all his fervour, Cobalt had forgotten to tell her just what the Hell she was supposed to be doing.
“Dammit, kid…” she sighed, rubbing her eye.
She glanced over at the syringe case lying just next to her feet. The Incubus had lobbed it at her right before he dropped the shutter. Clearly, he had some kind of plan in mind.
“Best figure this all out before they start torturing him…” she murmured, picking the case up.
Lilith frowned. She had a hard time imagining how exactly a cabal of Succubi would go about punishing wrongdoers. All of her guesses involved practices that most would probably find enjoyable, but then again, she didn’t look forward to the prospect of Cobalt becoming a father anymore than he did, so regardless, it would be in her best interest to-
“Gah, fuck! Get yourself in the fucking game!” the Devil suddenly yelled, slapping the side of her face.
The contract combined with the distance between them was putting a mighty drain on her strength, and she had a bad feeling that it was only going to get worse the deeper she went. Not to mention the immense pressure she felt from being so far underground. The walls were warm to the touch, and even though she was mostly just a projection of her own body that had been transformed into metaphysical matter, she was still sweating like a pig.
Was it the heat? Or was it the prospect of descending deep into the place with the highest concentration of Incubi in all of Hell?
The elevator stopped at the very bottom of the shaft. Taking a deep breath, Lilith conjured her pistol into her hand and turned the crank on the wall, raising the metal shutter before her.
The upper floors of the Undercroft were beautiful. The middle floors were pleasantly comfortable. But down here, at the very bottom… it was like it was all a façade that just crumbled away. Lilith found herself gazing into the entrance chamber of a prison. The walls and floors were tiled with stone, just like Cobalt’s Deepest Refuge, and everything was a bleak shade of grey. Thick steel doors lined the walls, each leading to different sections of the underground facility, all the while a lone Succubus guard sat behind a desk in an observation room, protected by thick reinforced glass. She glanced up from the book she was reading at the sight of the elevator arriving unprompted, forcing Lilith to duck into cover. She squinted through the window before leaning over and pressing a button on her control panel.
“Control, this is Sublevel Three, Station One. Are there any unscheduled arrivals today?” the guard spoke into a microphone.
She received a garbled response, but Lilith was too far away to hear.
“Mm. Elevator door opened by itself. Must be on the fritz. What?”
She frowned and turned away, granting Lilith the opportunity to slip out of the elevator. While the guard was distracted with adjusting her radio, the Devil quickly darted across the floor, pressing her back up against the wall next to the window. The entrance to the observation room appeared to be locked from the inside, but to a woman like Lilith, opening it would be no big task.
“… Understood. Yes ma’am.”
Turning a few dials on the radio, the guard cleared her throat and leaned in close to the microphone.
“Attention all Sublevel Three personnel. There has been a minor security breach in Sublevels One and Two. Chief has instated a Level Yellow preparation warning. Return all guests to their cells and await further instructions,” her voice boomed over the P.A. system, startling the Devil somewhat.
With a sigh, she leaned back and picked up her book again.
“Fessers and Trayers. Ugh, what a mess,” the guard murmured to herself, licking her fingers as she turned the page.
She was distracted. Now or never.
Approaching the door, Lilith raised her foot and unceremoniously booted it open, snapping the lock clean off and heavily denting the metal. The guard cried out and reached for the baton by her side, but the Devil was on her in a flash. She grabbed her throat and pinned her against the window, knocking everything askew as she pressed the barrel of her pistol against the underside of the woman’s jaw.
Lilith frowned. She felt weak. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Keep your mouth shut and nod,” she hissed, narrowing her eye.
The Succubus did as she was told.
“The systems in this place; once for electronic, twice for analogue.”
She nodded twice. That made sense. The composition of the Undercroft and the effect it had on devices would warrant that. If Lilith had to guess, the ‘radio’ system was likely more primitive than she thought. A series of amplifying tubes, maybe? In that case, the scope would be limited. Communication would only be possible through certain specific stations. As for the locks in this place, it simplified matters greatly.
“Keys. Point them out with your eyes and blink twice.”
Her eyes flitted over to a locker by the other wall, before focusing back on Lilith. She didn’t blink, but that was all the Devil needed to know.
“Hmph. Fine. Be like that.”
She unceremoniously slammed the guard’s head against the desk, knocking her out cold. As she crumpled to the ground, Lilith trained her sights on her head, but froze up before she could pull the trigger.
There was no sense in executing a disabled enemy. Besides, she had a feeling that Cobalt would be pissed if she seriously hurt anyone.
Damn it, that kid was starting to rub off on her.
Throwing the unconscious guard over her shoulder, Lilith opened the locker and stuffed her inside. A quick scan revealed a ring of heavy metal keys. She was confident in her ability to open doors unassisted, but with her strength as sapped as it was, it would be more expedient to just open them normally. Before she left, her eye wandered over to a map on the wall.
“Let’s see…” the Devil murmured, narrowing her eye in an effort to memorise it.
The deepest levels of the Undercroft were expansive. Though she hated to give credit to the Fesserites, they certainly knew how to build an airtight base of operations. The tunnels went on for miles in some places, and there were enough containment cells to house the entire population of Brimstone and then some. Moreover there were other chambers with dedicated purposes like feeding, bathing, medical checks, as well as multiple guard stations dotted all around the facility. As she scanned the map, her gaze was drawn to another elevator shaft that went all the way to the very bottom of the Undercroft. A lump formed in Lilith’s throat as she read the words inscribed above them.
DEEP ISOLATION
“Better get a move on. I’ll figure it out as I go.”
Unlocking the doors leading deeper into the prisoner wings, Lilith dispelled her pistol and stuck to the shadows, aiming to remain hidden rather than try to take on the entire facility at once. She had a feeling that the guards down here were no shrinking violets; if they could deal with dozens of Incubi every day, then they could probably put up a decent fight against a single Devil.
Besides, she didn’t have much time. Who knew what was happening to Cobalt back upstairs?
Pressing deeper in, Lilith found herself faced with huge atriums and lengthy halls, all tiled with the same bleak stonework from the Deepest Refuge. Heavy steel doors lined the walls at regular intervals, each bearing a nameplate and a serial number.
DAVID RAYAS – 7295
JULIO CELD – 4821
TROY GRANT – 8374
“Fuck…” she breathed beneath her breath, leaning in close to read them.
As she squinted at the door, something suddenly slammed against it from the inside, spurring her to take a step back. Animalistic snuffling and growling echoed from within as nails were raked against the steel with a horrific screeching noise. The hairs on the back of Lilith’s neck pricked up.
There was no mistaking it. That door was the only thing between her and a feral Incubus.
“Well, at least the names are on the doors. That simplifies things…”
The Undercroft was expansive, but Lilith was swift on her feet. In her mind, this was just another search and destroy mission; heavier on the searching, with hopefully a lot less destroying. A long time ago she had to root out and kill Death himself. It took her days of nonstop searching to sniff him out, and even though she didn’t manage to put him down, she took him out of the fight enough to save her comrades. Compared to that, this was child’s play.
Each door she passed bore the name of a life cut short by Incupsychosis, and as she travelled, occasionally she would be forced to hide from patrolling guards. Unlike the guard they met at Phrodival’s entrance, the armour they were was not just for show; layers of padded leather and reinforced with metal studs, designed to bear the full brunt of an Incubus’ strength. Most were just doing the rounds, but occasionally she would see teams of guards transporting Incubi from one part of the facility to another. Sometimes they were sedated and strapped to wheelchairs, other times they were wide away and held at arms’ length with catchpoles, but every time Lilith caught sight of one of them, the melancholy unease in her gut grew worse.
They were barely people anymore. Bloodshot-eyes, matted hair, torn jumpsuits… they screamed and snapped at their handlers, blood flecking their mouths from where they would bite into their own skin out of pure, mindless frustration. At one point Lilith stopped and watched from a small alcove as an Incubus man was forced into a tiled room, shackled to the wall and stripped down, whereupon he was blasted with water hoses and scrubbed with long-handled brushes.
To think that he was once someone’s son. Maybe even a brother or a lover.
If it weren’t for his Everlast Syndrome, Cobalt would have been…
“Hello? Anyone on duty?”
Raising an eyebrow, Lilith turned her head to the open door at the end of the hallway. It didn’t bear any locks or additional reinforcement; a guard station, at a guess.
“This is Sublevel Three, Station Null. Requesting assistance immediately,” a scratchy voice stated.
The intercom system. Someone was in trouble and everyone on this wing was too busy with bathtime. Lucky.
Slinking into the guard station, the Devil passed through a small sleeping area into an office, where a wall-mounted transceiver was crackling. Quickly scanning the name of the station printed on the door, Lilith pushed down the call button.
“This is Sublevel Three, Station Eight. Coming in loud and clear,” she said, doing her best to approximate the lilt most Phrodival Succubi seemed to have.
“…Kerry? Is that you? You sound kinda sick.”
“What’s the issue, Station Null? We’ve got our hands full up here,” Lilith snapped, quickly glancing at the door.
“Uh, right. Bit of an issue transferring 7272. He’s broken his bonds and we’ve had to lock down the whole wing. Me and the girls got cut up pretty bad, but we’re stable for now.”
Whatever that was, it sounded bad. Probably something worth avoiding.
“Right… Stay put, I’ll put in a call for assistance,” Lilith responded.
“That’s not gonna cut it, Station Eight. Sublevel Two has their hands full, and you’re the closest to the elevator. If we don’t get help soon then 7272 is gonna overrun the entire Deep Isolation wing.”
Deep Isolation. Huh.
“Fuck. Alright, be out directly. This 7272… Can I get a description?”
“Uh, yeah. Male, I’d say early-forties, burn scarring on cheek and right arm. Big back tat, too.”
She heard the voice suddenly go quiet.
“…Wait a second, he was housed in your wing! Why don’t you-? Hey! Who is this?! What have you done with Kerry-!”
Lilith shut the transceiver off, smashing the device with her elbow for good measure. Whatever this Deep Isolation ward was, it sounded like bad news.
And yet, her gut was pushing her towards it. Swallowing hard, she reached into the pocket of her spectral coat and ran a finger along the syringe case.
“This better be worth the fucking trouble…”
Stepping out of the guard station, it only took a few sharp turns to find what she was looking for; the heavily-locked elevator to the Deep Isolation wing. With the keys to the Undercroft in hand, she opened the shutters and stepped inside, staring hard at the descent lever as her balled fists tightened.
She’d have to fight him, wouldn’t she?
Fuck.
Fuck!
“Son of a… Fuck!”
Lilith kicked the lever. The shutter slammed shut behind her, and the lift plunged into darkness.
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When all of this was over with, Lilith swore she was never going to use an elevator again. As she plummeted to the deepest, darkest pits of the Undercroft, she could feel the pressure grow to an overwhelming degree. She felt about two steps away from throwing up, and with Cobalt so far, she was having trouble keeping her nerve. She took a deep breath of the hot, clammy air, steeling herself as the lift ground to a halt.
The door opened, revealing the Deep Isolation wing.
No carved walls. No worked stone. No tiles. Just rough, unworked metal. The walls were close, and on the ground lay fragments of old shackles and broken chains. As Lilith took a step forward, she noticed a door to another guard station to her left, alongside a reinforced window. A quick peek inside revealed a dozen or so Succubi, each in various states of injury. Their armour was torn apart, and medical supplies were lying everywhere as the less-injured guards struggled to triage their unconscious sisters. One woman – a dour-looking guard with her arm in a sling – sat by the intercom microphone, but upon noticing Lilith, she pointed and cried out.
Ah. She ought to deal with this lot first.
“Orref,” Lilith murmured, waving her hand over the door handle.
A miasma of grey magic circled it, causing the door to heat up and melt slightly, sealing the guards inside.
“D- D- Devil!” the guard cried, raising a cry of alarm amongst her sister-in-arms.
Clucking her tongue, Lilith folded her arms and gave her an annoyed glare.
“Unknot yourself, I’m not here to hurt you,” she sighed.
Despite that, a few of the Succubi tried the door, only to nearly burn their hands on the still-cooling metal.
“The Incubus down here, the one you called 7272; where is he?”
“I’m not telling you anything!” the guard snapped, balling her uninjured fist.
Rolling her eye, Lilith looked around. It was dark, and even though she was in a straight hallway, she had a hard time getting her bearings.
“Fine. Guess I’ll leave you here like a packed lunch for him. Can’t imagine this would stand up under scrutiny,” the Devil said, knocking against the window.
“Wait, wait, wait!” she cried, almost toppling out of her chair.
Lilith raised an eyebrow and waited for her to get back up.
“J- Just straight down the hall, that was where we were trying to contain him. He’s the only pris-”
She cleared her throat.
“- he’s the only guest down here, but…”
“That’s all I need. Hang tight, and don’t die.”
“Who are you? What do you want from us?”
The Devil didn’t answer. She just left the guards to lick their wounds and pressed on down the hall.
Deep Isolation… It was clear that this was where the put away the Incubi too dangerous even for the cells up above. The broken bindings everywhere, the old bloodstains on the floor, the deep gashes in the walls…
“Why the Hell did I agree to this…?” Lilith murmured, pushing a wheelchair out of the way.
It was made from coarse wood and rough metal, fitted with leather straps that looked none too comfortable.
Up ahead, the hall branched off into three different dark corridors, but Lilith stayed the path, continuing on down a hallway that had been completely wrecked by conflict. Torn scraps of armour, broken batons, numerous puddles of fresh blood… it was everywhere.
Up ahead, she could see a heavy-duty door that would look right at home in a bank vault, covered in gashes and lying on its side, ripped clean off its hinges. Beyond it was the Deep Isolation cell; a miserable chamber bearing padded walls and little else. The padding had been torn and stained, and in the very centre, hunkering with his back to the Devil…
Her eye widened.
An Incubus, dressed in a coarse white jumpsuit bearing all manner of broken buckles and torn straps. He had completely torn the top half clean off, exposing his back to Lilith. It was faded, but there – inked right into his back around the base of his wings – was a massive tattoo of a pair of entwined hellhound heads. One was red, and the other was blue.
Just like the memorial graffiti on the wall.
Lilith felt… it couldn’t be fear, could it? She… She had faced worse than Incubi. But this one… there was no mistaking it, was there?
Taking a deep breath, Lilith conjured her pistols into her hands. No doubt he could already smell her standing there.
She cleared her throat, prompting the Incubus to cock his head.
“… Brass?”
The Incubus snarled and stood up, clenching his bloodied fists and stretching his extremities. His wings were torn, and his scarred tail cracked like a whip as it struck the ground.
“Nngh…” he rasped, flexing his hands.
He slowly turned to face her, the light from the single chemical lamp above him playing off his weathered horns.
His navy hair was long and wild, and his face was covered in a scraggly beard that was thick and matted with blood. Scars riddled his arms; but the most notable ones were the brawling wounds on his knuckles and the old burns on his right side. Glancing down, she noticed a thick scar bisecting his abdomen. This man was a seasoned fighter, even before his Incupsychosis.
Lilith swallowed hard and took a step back, surprising even herself. It was like he was exuding some kind of raw, terrifying pressure.
Brass cocked his head and grinned, exposing a maw of sharp red teeth. He flexed his hands, exposing bony claws, thick with coagulated blood.
His eyes… Bright amber.
There was no doubt in Lilith’s mind that this was Cobalt’s father.
“Heard a lot about you, old man,” the Devil said, tightening her grip on her pistols.
He lowered his stance, like an animal preparing to pounce.
“Don’t suppose you’ll make this easy on me, huh?”
He gnashed his teeth in response.
“Didn’t think so.”
Brass leaped, hands outstretched and ready to grapple. Lilith quickly swerved out of the way and unloaded her pistols into him, scattering bullet casings all over the floor as the Incubus skidded to a halt behind her. As she ejected the magazines and the gunsmoke cleared, however, she saw that he was still standing. Iron bullets were lodged firmly in his back, stuck fast in his skin. He snorted and flexed, harmlessly spitting them all to the floor.
“Fuck…” she murmured, dispelling the guns.
Before she could conjure something stronger, however, he wheeled around and took a swing at her, fixing to rip her throat clean out of her neck. Lilith was forced back, but Brass kept coming, wildly swinging his arms as he backed her into the cell.
“You son of a…!”
As he let loose with another wide swing, she ducked beneath the blow and grabbed his wrist, fixing to fling him over her shoulder. But the Incubus just clenched his fist, causing a host of sharp teeth to burst through his flesh, stabbing through Lilith’s hand.
“GAH!”
Her pained scream gave him enough of an opening to rake his claws through her front, ripping the spectral coat and knocking her back from the sheer force of impact. Were it not for the padded walls, Lilith’s skull would have been split clean open.
As she forced herself back to her feet, Brass greedily slurped at the blood coating his hands, hunkering down in order to lick a few stray drops off the floor. Lilith could see his veins flash and pulse beneath his skin, just like Cobalt.
But Cobalt had a young body. This was a full-grown man.
“E- Eyes on the prize, old-timer!” Lilith snapped, holding out her hand.
A sawed-off shotgun formed in her hand right as Brass charged at her, screeching like an animal. She fired both shells right into his chest before rushing in close, slamming her elbow right into his throat and bowling him over. The pellets did little but bruise the skin, and as he fell, the Incubus coiled his tail around her throat and dragged her down with him.
He wrapped his legs around her and began to swipe manically at Lilith, forcing her to protect her face as her forearms were shredded by his claws. If she weren’t a Devil, she wouldn’t have lasted this long, but the fact that her distance from Cobalt had weakened her definitely wasn’t helping me.
“Get off me!” the Devil barked, slamming her forehead into Brass’ eyes.
He howled in pain and roughly grabbed her by the throat. In an impressive display of strength, the Incubus hurled her out the door with a single arm, all while replanting himself back on two feet. Lilith struck the floor painfully, but managed to recover before she collided with an errant wheelchair.
“Fuck…!” she breathed, conjuring a lengthy revolver into her hand.
As he charged, she took aim and fired, hitting her mark each time. But the Incubus’ hide was too thick; he just shrugged off the bullets as he approached, forcing her to flatten herself the wall at the last second to prevent getting trampled. He smashed through the wheelchair and got tangled up in his own tail, sending Brass sprawling to the floor.
A ranged assault wasn’t going to work. Lilith had to get close to deliver the dose anyway, but she didn’t much fancy her prospects. She was already bleeding all over, and every drop she lost only served to invigorate the Incubus.
“Shit… here goes nothing…” the Devil murmured to herself, dispelling her weapon.
Standing in the centre of the hall, she cleared her throat as Brass arduously hauled himself to his feet.
Opening her arms, Lilith invoked her original Iron Arsenal, summoning a pair of iron knuckledusters into her hands. Gripping them tight, she clashed them together, hoping to goad the Incubus into charging recklessly.
“Come get me,” she taunted, narrowing her eye.
Brass stared at her. He didn’t move. He didn’t even twitch.
A moment of tense silence passed as something seemed to click in the Incubus. Rather than attack, he turned and picked up a pair of broken shackles off the floor, grunting and growling as he began to beat them into shape. After a few moment of manic metalworking, he turned back to face Lilith.
He had shaped the busted shackles into makeshift knuckledusters of his own. Not only that, but he was holding himself differently. His back was straight, his deranged grin was gone, and his eyes were sharp and focused, even through the haze of Incupsychosis. Slowly, he raised his fists into a practiced defensive stance.
“Ngh… bring it…” he rasped, his voice rough and cracked from years of relentless growling.
Her eye widened.
Did Brass… remember who he once was…?
“Nice moves, old-timer. Let’s see if they hold up…!”
She rushed forward, fists at the ready as he prepared himself to intercept. Lilith steeled herself. She wasn’t fighting an animal anymore.
She was fighting a bona fide hero.
Lashing out at the Incubus, he skillfully blocked her first few blows and countered with a quick few jabs of his own, always ensuring he was keeping at least one hand guarding his face. Lilith backed up and tried to break through his defence, but not even her strongest haymaker could break through the impregnable defence his right arm offered. It was only after a few failed attacks that she noticed his left hand hovering by his side, clenched tight and shaking.
Oh shit. He was a southpaw.
“Jawbreaker,” the Incubus uttered suddenly, eyes flashing in tandem with his veins.
As quick as a lightning strike, Brass struck Lilith with a devastating uppercut, knocking her all the way back into the Deep Isolation cell. She felt her jaw dislocate with discerning crack as she struck the ground.
“Augh… fuck…” she guttered, forcing it back into place.
She looked up to find that Brass was already in front of her, his veins burning like a wildfire.
“Mother’s Day Gift,” he grunted inexplicably, hissing red steam from the corners of his mouth.
Lilith tried to prepare to intercept another lefthand attack, but this time Brass switched to his right, delivering a flurry of wild blows that threatened to break the Devil’s rips and knock her right out. Blood sprayed from her mouth with every strike, but the Incubus was undeterred; his face creased with determination as he laid into her.
Knocking her off-balance, he slipped behind her and wrapped her in a headlock, gripping her face with his other hand as he began to twist. Her spine shrieked in pain at this attempt to break her neck, forcing Izzbelle to ram both elbows into his stomach in order to wind him and create some distance.
Fuck the knuckles. Fuck trying to keep Brass in once piece. This just became an insult.
Reforming the knuckledusters into a pair of combat knives, Lilith dropped down low and began to slash this way and that. She had seen Cobalt shrug off worse than a few gashes; surely she could cut Brass up just enough to get close with the syringe.
Ducking beneath a heavy punch, she swung both of the knives in a cross shape.
He blocked them both, clashing the blades off the metal of the shackles.
“AGH! FUCK YOU, OLD MAN!”
In a fit of frustrated rage, she dropped the knives mid-swing and resummoned her pistols, wildly firing into him at point-blank range, tossing and resummoning them as they ran out of ammunition. Brass staggered back from the onslaught, keeping his fists raised as the repeated shots began to break skin, spraying red steam from the open wounds.
Lilith furrowed her brow.
This would probably be her only chance.
In a desperate bid to gain an opening, Lilith lobbed both of her pistols at Brass’ eyes, forcing him to cover his face to protect himself. As quick as she could, she wrenched the case from her pocket and produced the syringe.
“C’mon…!”
Diving for Brass’ throat, she managed to wrap her fingers around it, only for the Incubus to swiftly grab her with both of his hands. His thumbs were strong; they crushed her windpipe, cutting her oxygen off almost immediately. Though her eyes watered and her head throbbed, the Devil fought on through the pain and forced the needle through the side of Brass’ neck. The Incubus cried out and threw her back, but before she hit the floor, Lilith twisted around and kicked the syringe with the heel of her boot, depressing the plunger and delivering its payload into Brass’ bloodstream.
“Gotcha…” choked the Devil as she crumpled to the floor.
She could feel her heart pounding in her ears, her vision swimming with every breath she struggled to take. Lilith had faced hundreds of Devils in the sparring rings. She had killed angels by the hundred. Archangels too. She beat War in a contest of arms. She survived Death. She looked Conquest right in the eyes. She had weathered all of that and survived by the virtue of her strength alone.
But for one Incubus to put her down like this….
It took a few moments for Lilith to compose herself, massaging her throat in order to reopen her airways. Once her vision refocused, she propped herself up on her elbow to face Brass.
He was right where she left him, stranding upright as he twitched and shook. Blood dripped from his nose as his eyes rolled back into his skull.
“What the…?” Lilith breathed, staggering back to her feet.
As if on command, he keeled right over, twitching and shuddering as whatever was in that syringe worked its alchemical havoc on Brass’ systems. For a few horrible moments, Lilith wondered whether she had accidentally killed him. If that was the case…
Rushing over to Brass, the Devil flipped him onto his back and pulled the syringe from his neck.
“Come on old-timer, don’t you dare die on me now,” she rasped, pressed her ear to his bare chest.
His heart was fluttering. That wasn’t good.
Placing her hands upon his chest, she began compressions, counting beneath her breath with her teeth clenched. His pulse was weak and erratic, and his tail was thrashing violently.
“You hear me?! You’re not dying! That’s an order!” Lilith spat, intensifying her compressions.
He fell still, but she kept going.
“Open your eyes! You got a son waiting for you, for fucks sake!”
With a frustrated cry, Lilith slammed both of her fists down upon Brass’ chest as everything went silent bar the pounding of her own heart.
She hung her head in shame.
“Dammit, kid… I’m sorry…”
How the Hell was she going to explain this to him…?
With a heavy sigh, Lilith reached up and shut Brass’ eyelids. With nothing left for her down in the Undercroft, she got her feet and made to head back to the elevator, only to find herself faced by a quartet of Succubus guards, each dressed in full protective gear. They bore their batons at her, but she could see them shaking with fear.
“D- Devil! Don’t you dare move another step!” one of them cried, her voice cracking at an unfortunate moment.
Frowning, Lilith raised her hands in surrender.
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
They looked past her at the still Incubus on the floor.
“Y- You killed him?!”
“Not intentionally.”
She swallowed hard.
“We’re taking you in,” she concluded after a moment’s hesitation.
“Where do we take her?” a second guard asked below her breath.
“I- I don’t know. To the Punishment Chamber for now; that’s where the Matriarch is.”
They slowly approached Lilith, who kept her hands raised. She had a hollow, sinking feeling in her gut, like she had just betrayed Cobalt’s trust. She knew that she never had much faith in Cordelia Fesser’s potential cure – Hell, she said as much from day one – but she still felt awful. That his father was now dead, and at her hands no less. He wasn’t-”
“… J- Jezzy…?”
Her eye snapping wide, Lilith whipped around, prompting the Succubi to yelp and stumble back. There, lying weakly on the ground, Brass Trayer was mumbling incoherently.
“… Jezzy… darlin’, it… it ain’t red no more…” he murmured, his voice bearing a thick West Country twang.
Bolting back towards the cell, Lilith knelt by his side and grabbed his shoulders. Despite the apprehension she felt towards his kind, she was determined to keep this Incubus alive.
“Eyes open, old-timer… c’mon…” Lilith told him in a low voice, struggling to keep herself composed.
His eyelids fluttered.
“I don’t… where are the guys…?”
“Focus on my voice, Brass. You go it.”
Up ahead, she heard the Succubi growing closer.
“You all stay the fuck back! I’m warning you!” the Devil yelled, halting them in their tracks.
Slowly, he began to open his eyes. The bloodshot mania was gone, replaced by bleary confusion.
“What… Where…?”
Brass’ eyes gradually focused on the face in front of him.
“Devil…?!”
He pushed her back and tried to scramble away, but all the Incubus could do was flop onto his side.
“Wh- What the fuck did you do to me?! Why do I…? Fuck, why does everythin’ hurt…?!” he gasped, trying and failing to stand up.
“Easy. Your nerves have been shot to shit. Just be happy you’re back.”
“The fuck do you mean, I’m back?! I’m…!”
As the realisation dawned on him, Brass slowly rolled onto his back, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open.
“I’m back… I’m really… I’m really back…” the Incubus breathed, raising his shaking hands in front of his face.
“Yeah, you can thank-“
“What year is it?”
Lilith raised an eyebrow.
“Huh?”
“I asked what fuckin’ year is it?!”
“… 2018.”
“Wh... What…?”
Taking a deep breath, the Devil folded her arms and glared at the Succubi.
“It’s been around twenty-three years, old-timer,” she told him, silently warning the guards away.
The Incubus took a deep breath.
“… Shit. That’s… shit. Jezzy, she was-”
“You got a kid, Brass.”
“Wh- What?”
“Yeah. You got a son, and right now he’s up there getting his ass beat or who knows what, so questions can come later.”
“A son… that doesn’t make-”
“One in a billion chance, yeah, I know. Now come on; can you walk?”
Swallowing hard, the Incubus shook his head.
“Can’t feel my legs properly,” he rasped, wincing in pain.
“Fine. We’ll make do.”
Without warning, she lifted the Incubus into her arms. Despite his emaciated appearance, Brass was heavier than she anticipated.
“Why are you helpin’ me?” he asked, warily looking her up and down.
“Times have changed. Call me Lilith; I’m a friend of your son’s.”
“Lilith… Well… in that case, thank you kindly.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Still got this lot to deal with.”
As she approached the crowd of Succubi, they all stared at her through the slits in their faceguards, completely dumbfounded.
“Alright ladies, this can go one of two ways. Either you lot help me reunite this man with his son upstairs, or I fill you all full of holes and do that anyway. Make your choice, and be quick,” she threatened, narrowing her eye.
They stared for a moment, glanced at each other, then dropped their batons and shuffled to the edges of the corridor, allowing Lilith to pass. Pressing on down the hall, she located another wheelchair sitting by the wall and gently set Brass into it, giving him a moment to adjust himself before grabbing the handles.
“You ready, old-timer?” she asked him.
Brass took a deep breath before nodding his shaggy head.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Lilith snorted.
“Heh. You two are more alike than I’d have thought.”
She began to push.
“Let’s go see your son, shall we?”