This is all they seem to need, a lot of them start filing out, without offering anything more. Even Stunner, who seemed to oppose keeping me alive the most just leaves. I kinda expected more out of it than what actually happened, though I’m not disappointed, things worked out far better than I expected.
The only ones who remain in the room are Mattie, Oracle, and Tagert. Mattie stands by my side and taps me on the shoulder, I turn to look at him. “Now how are you feeling?” I shrug and then shake my head. “Confused?” This elicits a short nod from me. “Right. I guess that makes sense. Ah, so you look different- though I don’t want to go through guessing what looks different.”
I feel my face heat up. Every time we discuss the change, it sounds almost like an embarrassing subject. As if it’s taboo. I move my right hand behind my back while holding Valor in my off hand, then I sweep my tail out so it’s clearly visible. “Well- My tail finished growing- or I think it did. It’s a bit long, so if it grows more it could be a problem.”
“You mean, stepping on it?”
I nod. “Also, my horns and skin.”
“I feel like the change in your horns is something we should come to expect by now.” He looks back at Tagert and Oracle who are standing together. They aren’t talking, just standing. Tagert has a smirk glued to his face and he’s tapping his foot impatiently. “I’ll let you- finish business then. We can talk afterward.”
He steps away, moving over to the raised platform and then sitting down on it. Tagert and Oracle approach together and Tagert sneaks her a look. She rolls her eyes and steps away, allowing him to talk first. He stops in front of me, his forehead creasing, as if he’s planning to yell, except his voice doesn’t come out like that. “You alright? Not hurt?”
I widen my eyes, surprise clearly showing on my face. “I’m fine, though I do want to speak to Diane to see if there're any lasting effects from the fight. I- I-”
“Didn’t expect me to actually give a damn. You’re mostly right, ‘cept you haven’t really pissed me off. Sure, wish you had actually told me the truth, but I can sympathize. I give a damn about my people, what keeps them safe, what keeps everyone safe. And you’re both part of my people and part of what keeps others safe.”
“I’m honored you think that way, but I don’t think it’s all that accurate. I’m protecting myself.”
“And by extension others. Either way, you’ll be doing much more now. You’ll be taking an auxiliary position back at the CPO, that means you’ll be substituting in positions where you’re needed. This will not be up to discussion as it will be payment for both the vote I gave you and the assistance the CPO provides to you.”
I lower my head, nodding it slowly. “I understand. I’ll do it, it’s better than any other choice I have to make.”
He turns away, walking down the length of the room before stopping. He turns around. “After you’ve spoken to your friends, I want to see you in my office. I need to give you something and you need to fill out some paperwork.” Once again, I nod, all the answer he needs. I then watch him leave the room and Oracle approaches. She has something in her hands, a circular band that she didn’t have before.
She stops next to me. “Hold out your right leg and roll up the pants leg.” I look at her, bewilderment clouding my face. She holds up the band. “This is so we can monitor you when we’re not around to watch you with our eyes. Do not remove it, if you do, I will know. Do not try escape, if you do, I will know. Do not go to the Demon Plane. If you do, I will know. If you do any of these things, the result will be one of the people in this room coming after you. And while Stunner might be an asshole, when it comes to one on one, he’s pretty much the best there is. He can cause the worst pain you can imagine, or just kill you while you experience pleasure you can never even begin to imagine.”
“You aren’t exactly making me want to have that thing on my leg.”
“And ultimately you have very little choice. Now, if you please.” I sigh to myself and lift my right leg up, balancing haphazardly on my left leg. I roll up my pants leg, revealing my ankle, and she opens the band and locks it around my ankle. Part of it lights up red, a small circle in the center of the band and then she releases it, allowing me to return my foot to the ground. It all feels odd, but I figure I’ll get used to it in the future. “There. I haven’t anything more to say to you. All that I’ve needed to do has been done so I’ll return home for the night. As for whether we’ll talk again, I don’t doubt it. So I’ll trust that you won’t be foolish with your opportunities and we’ll speak again another time.” She starts striding away, without allowing me to respond, or even saying anything else more relevant, like the weather’s great for a winter’s day.
I look at Mattie who shrugs. “I read their minds, but not really much to add to that.”
“I don’t think Oracle is going to take my back to the CPO building,” I mutter.
He grins. “No way, what gave you that idea? I guess that means you need a ride. Want to drop by anywhere. Something to eat or drink after coming out of the VCF?”
“I’d prefer to get back to the CPO and change out of these clothes.
He looks me up and down a moment, then his eyes settle on where the logo is located and he nods agreeing with my thoughts. “Alright, let’s go. Don’t think I want to stick in here anyway. Might run into someone I know… Or worse… Someone who thinks I look good.”
“Huh?”
He grimaces. “Well, let’s just say that women… And some men are not veiled with some of their thoughts when they see someone they like. They tend to get very in-depth with what they would do to me.” With that he starts walking, leading me up the set of stairs.
“What do-” It suddenly hits me and I feel my face heat up, just thinking of something like that is embarrassing and considering Mattie is quite attractive, I can just begin to imagine how often that can be, though I still want to ask the question. “Does that happen often?”
He shrugs. “Often enough. I’d prefer not to divulge that much, though.”
“A secret?”
He looks back at me, a small grin forming on his face. “Is that a problem?” I quickly shake my head. His grin widens and I feel like he’s misunderstood. We head through the main hall and out into the open, where Mattie looks around for just a moment before continuing onward toward the car park. “Do the looks bother you?”
“Mhm. I mean, it’s not like I shouldn’t expect it, I just wish there weren’t so many double takes and there weren’t so many who feel ashamed at me just- you know, existing near to them.” He sweeps his eyes over everyone, especially those who are looking my way.
“Most of them are curious. The rest aren’t really sure about what to think of you. You’re thankfully in the area of cursory curiosity, nothing more. They haven’t formed any dangerous opinion of you yet.”
“Are you just saying that to make me feel better?”
We near the car. It’s the same car he usually drives, though it’s been awhile since I last saw it. I step around to my side, while he moves to his side. “Well, I’d want you to feel better, but you can at least observe that they don’t want to harm you.”
“If they wanted to, they would have likely already attacked me. Just like in the training course not too long ago. But if they did, what would I do? I’m not exactly allowed to defend myself, they would then treat me as a threat.” Mattie steps into the car, and I join him, buckling my seatbelt as he does the same. He shrugs at my statement, he agrees with my sentiment, but he doesn’t have any solution for it.
He turns around, to move the car back and we move toward the main street, through the bar gate. He turns off, heading in the direction I imagine the CPO building is. I see him looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Are they all okay?” I ask. I’m pretty sure Gabbie was injured last time I saw her. I’m just hopeful that right now she’s fine.
“Who?”
“Kai, Gabbie, and Walter.”
“Mm. Gabbie just needed a bit of sleep. Diane made sure she was healed up from any other problems. The explosion gave her a concussion which resulted in a migraine which she had to sleep off.” I look out the window at the road. I feel regret tugging at my chest. I should’ve told them, at least they could have prepared, they could’ve kept away from me and they wouldn’t have had to risk their lives for someone they only just met. “She doesn’t blame you for anything.”
I roll my eyes at the window. Whether he says that or not doesn’t stop me from feeling bad for getting them involved. It’s not their fight, it’s no-one’s fault. It’s kinda ironic, I wanted to use Humans to protect me and now I don’t want a group of them to be harmed to protect me. I feel incredibly guilty about all that has happened and I really don’t know how to talk to them when I get back. As much as Mattie says they don’t blame me, I have to say something about it at least. That is if I want to feel better about everything.
The CPO building comes up on our left side, even with the few times I’ve been out, it’s become pretty simple to notice it. It seems to always be busy and it towers over everything else. There’s also the familiar scene of greenery which I can see poking out from behind the building. The car makes its way around the side of the building then down a road into the underground parking area.
Once we come to a stop, I unbuckle my seatbelt and exit the car, turning to face Mattie as he exits. “Eager, are we?” He grins at me. “Eager, or nervous?” His thoughts change, likely because he gets a chance to read my emotions. I just want to get it done and it feels like delaying it all will just make me happier just to avoid it all. That’s pretty much been my life, avoiding it all. I’m a coward and until I had people to protect, that was all I was. When I think about it- when I think about what kind of sin I might be, cowardice tends to be at the forefront of my mind. It’s different now, I’m kinda glad about that, cowardice is not exactly a very flattering sin.
“Both, I think,” I mutter as we start approaching the elevator. We call it and climb into it together. Mattie leans forward to press the button to start the elevator’s rapid ascent. I lean against one of the bars, putting my weight on it for a moment. “I had a dream during my time in the VCF.”
“A nightmare?”
“Not quite-. Before Lucifer brought his clutch of Demons, I had a dream similar to this, but this time, it’s Sathanus who is planning to attack.” Mattie looks at me, he has an incredibly somber look on his face, and he remains silent. I know that he’s just as worried as I might be. Sathanus won’t make this easy for us. He’s not like Lucifer in the slightest. “At least he’s still got three months before he can come.” It’s a lame attempt to alleviate the pressure of my statement, but all it does is sound like I’m readying myself for some inevitability.
“You sound like you aren’t willing to fight him.”
I let off a mirthless laugh. “I’m thinking of how hard it will be to win. I am willing to fight, but it won’t be like when we fought Lucifer. He’ll be willing to come after us without first sending his Demons and he won’t hold back. He’ll take his weapons and cut everyone to shreds with gusto. He’ll be delighted to release his unimaginable rage upon anyone who stands in his way.”
“We can win,” Mattie grumbles. His eyes seem to move from side to side as if he doesn’t believe it.
“That’s Lucifer talking. The most logical reaction would be that we can’t but that we’ll try. Don’t delude yourself otherwise. You can’t be reckless.”
“Reckless,” he repeats. His somber expression seems to change. “I can’t help but think it’s ironic that you’re warning me about recklessness.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” The elevator dings, interrupting my question, but he gives me an infuriating grin before stepping out of the elevator and walking backward down the corridor. I chase after him, transferring Valor to my other hand. "Mattie," I hiss.
“Come on, you were practically the front line for the entirety of your brother’s invasion.”
“It’s not an invasion, and I let Hercules and Walter take the front a lot.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“They didn’t take the front. They took the flanks. It doesn’t matter, I doubt you’ll cede the point.” He stops in front of the door to the apartment. “Anyway, we can talk about it another time. It’s probably less important than you realize.” I don’t like it, but considering we’re right outside my apartment, I’m forced to swallow my curiosity and to turn to the more worrying subject of my friends. I withdraw my keys from my pocket and raise them to the lock, my hands shaking as it draws close. I exhale and manage to push it in. I’m not sure what their reaction will be, but I won’t know unless I enter the room. Mattie takes a step back. “I’ll leave this all to you. Something tells me I won’t help if I stick around. Good luck.”
He waltzes off, leaving me alone. I’m honestly not sure whether I’d prefer him to stick around. He can tell me what to say, but I don’t really want him to. I want this all to be figured out through my efforts alone. These guys are my friends and they’re a result of my team as a Human. They’re proof that I, a Demon Lord can live in a world that’s infested with Humans. That I have a place here that’s better than anywhere in the Demon Plane.
I turn the key and push my way into the room, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. I’m not sure what I’m going to encounter, but my body is treating it like I’m going to walk into a battle once again, even though that’s incredibly unlikely. I open my eyes, I clearly must look stupid, because Walter and Gabbie are sitting by the TV with remotes in their hands, eyes wide almost like they got caught doing something horrible. The only one who seems composed is Kaiden, who is actually looking in my direction with a single eyebrow raised.
Gabbie moves slowly, lowering her remote to the ground before standing up. She seems shaky on her feet as if she can scarcely believe what’s going on. “Elmira?” She asks, her voice is shaking. I nod, not being able to speak. “You alright?” I nod again. “Janus said that they would-” She trails off.
Walter picks up where she left off. “That they were doing your trial today. We didn’t exactly know we would see you again and- well, he told us not to hold our collective breaths. Even though he said that-” Walter shakes his head. “We couldn’t exactly… Not think about it. Even when we tried to distract ourselves, we weren’t on top of our game- no pun intended.”
“No-one was hurt during the attack?” I try to change the subject away from the trial. Just wanting to figure out what happened after it all.
“A little, but nothing too bad. Kai only got a few bumps and bruises, I got a concussion and some inner-bleeding, but I was told that it wasn’t too bad. I got healed. Walt has a bullshit Vigor and I doubt he even knows what being hurt is,” Gabbie explains.
“Bullshit, I can still get hurt when I’m not using it. Anyway, what’s going on, Elmira? What did they decide in your trial?” Walter continues pressing me.
I exhale and rub the bridge of my nose. “I barely got let off, the other vote was to have me executed, but they don’t expect me to be let off and then simply sit around and do nothing. They want to press me to do more for the CPO and-” I stop and pull up the leg of my pants, revealing the band. “And they don’t want me running off.”
“Well, shit. I don’t suppose that means you can’t go out for a party or something.”
“They said they’d keep an eye on me, as long as I don’t leave the plane or destroy the band, I should be fine.” I pause. “In any case, what part of me even looks like I’d go to a party? I have no ambition of being picked out in a crowd. I’ve had enough of that in the few weeks I’ve been here.”
“You’ve been out like, what, twice- three times? You should at least get out more, not everyone will hate you.”
“Except now it looks like I have blood covering my tail and horns-” I exhale. “I never thought I’d ever be talking about a tail. I really hope I don’t have a tail when I go through metamorphosis.”
“Give it time. I’m sure things will work out as you help people. That’s kind of the job we all have and there’s a certain fame attached to it. You know, like actors and singers. You’ll be able to go out without being judged eventually. Or at least have people support you should things go wrong,” Gabbie says.
“Doesn’t really matter to me, probably won’t result in me heading outside anyway. I’m going to quickly change so I don’t look like an escapee from the VCF.” I start walking to my room, but I’m followed by Gabbie, who leaves Walter behind with the remotes. She chases me until my room, but I turn around to confront her. “Hm? Need something?”
“Just want to talk in private,” she mutters. I shrug my shoulders and push my door open, stepping into my room. She follows, then shuts the door behind her. Looking around, everything seems untouched, there’s even a musty smell in the room. Worse than when I left, though it’s not as if I knew how to open a window in this place. But it all seems the same, Thing is still by my computer, unmoving and the computer is silent. Someone could have come in here, but I doubt anything has been moved at all.
I walk over to my bed and slide Valor beneath before walking over to the wardrobe. I turn to face Gabbie. “Do you know how to open the window?” She nods and walks over to the set of controls that changes the window. She presses one of the buttons, a small button to the right of the other set that I dare not test and a few slots at the top of the window open inward.
I enter the wardrobe, sorting through a few of my clothes. I settle on a style of clothes that I’ve found comfortable. Something that isn’t quite as adventurous as the dresses and skirts that Gates has left me. It’s something I’ve tried before, though I’m sure that I should at least try the other clothes, in spite of my aversion to such things due to my time spent being told to hide my body. I pick jeans and a t-shirt and start pulling off the clothes from the VCF.
There’s a movement behind me, and I turn my head. “Can I have some privacy?” I ask.
“If you really want it. Though it’s not like you won’t have anything I haven’t seen before-”
“Except I do have something you haven’t seen before and it’s likely why you came to look-” I exhale, giving up. It doesn’t really matter, though it pushes into my feeling of security. But I’m being rude to someone here who I know and who has helped me, while I accepted the fact I was being watched for twenty-four hours every day who I didn’t even know. “Nevermind,” I grumble.
“No, if you really want-”
“Just, tell me what you want to talk about,” I interrupt, not wanting to be given the option. I should at least trust her more than strangers.
For a moment, she thinks, or at least I believe she thinks. I pull off my clothes, silently waiting for her to say something, but the next thing out of her mouth isn’t exactly what she wanted to talk about, but rather about my body. “Where does the tail start?”
I feel my face go red, blushing at the comment. It just so happens to be what I was concerned about. “I don’t know. It grows out of the base of my spine. It’s not like I know about the new growths I’m having. It’s not like I know exactly what growths I will have. Please, just focus on what you need to focus on.”
“Right-” she murmurs. “Why didn’t you tell us you were a Demon?”
The question surprises me. At least I know one simple thing, it’s a question of trust and at the time, even now, I just have trouble trusting her. I have trouble trusting everyone. The only person I feel I can trust is Mattie, and that’s a very thin line anyway. I want to trust them all, but my subconscious is saying that, like my brothers, they would be willing to betray me at the drop of a pin. It’s hard to begin to trust others when my life was built on suspicion and fear. I shake my head. “I- It’s-” I start to stutter, attempting to come up with some excuse, but I hang my head in shame. “I don’t know. I- I thought I couldn’t trust you-. I thought that if I said something, the people who defended me would choose to go against me. My entire life has been a series of betrayals and I was brought up being taught not to trust anyone. People refused to be candid with me, so to preserve myself, I had to hide.”
“But we were always being honest with you, we will always trying to be your friend. We’d never betray you.” She sounds heartbroken, hurt that I would treat her and the others the way I did, in fact, it hurts just remembering that I held everything back from them.
I swallow past a lump in my throat. “I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t mean much now. I know after risking your lives for me it’s a poor attempt at reconciliation, but it’s all I’ve got, all I can say. There’s not a gift I can give that will magically turn back time or a set of words that I know that will make you feel better. If there’s anything I can do, let me do it and if you- If you think that because I couldn’t trust you then, then I won’t trust you in the future. If you feel that because of that I won’t be able to cooperate with you for these reasons, then you reserve the right to… To turn me away.”
She shakes her head, as if what I’m saying is absolutely preposterous. “No. But there is something you can do for me- no for us. Instead of making excuses about why you felt you couldn’t trust us, you could explain what lead up to this point, why you feel that everyone can’t be trusted.”
“I can do that.”
“Also, there is one more question. Why did you trust Sebastian and not us?”
I shrug. “I honestly didn’t trust him, I probably still don’t trust him, but letting him go- well, there’s unpredictability and he seemed to make it so everything worked out in any case. I managed to get Valor from him and he didn’t try to return me to my Father. He also fought with us. Maybe I should trust him now- but-” I stop talking and shrug.
“And where is he?”
“Still at the VCF, I think he’ll join us later, but I’m unsure, I’d have to ask Tagert.”
“Right-” She seems to pause for a while, spending a moment looking around, as if trying to find the right words to something. I finish getting dressed before she finally manages to conclude what she wanted to say. “I’m really glad you’re back- It was- It felt like there was a hole in our team. You’re a big part of it, even if you don’t think so.” The next part comes out in almost a whisper. “And I feel there’s already way too much masculinity in the living room. I think I was going to choke.”
“I’m not exactly the pinnacle of femininity,” I snort. “I was brought up in a Plane that only had males.”
She smirks. “That sounds terrible. Anyway, are you going to let us listen to your story? Now?”
I shake my head. “Not now. Tagert told me as soon as I’ve changed and spoken with you, I need to go see him. It just so happens, this is that time. When I come back, we can talk over dinner. I think we can let my story digest with the food.”
“Ha,” she says dryly. “Yeah, okay. Hopefully, Tagert doesn’t chew you out. Also, lemme know if there’s something you need help with. In fact anyone. We’re here to help, and I know you’re always nervous about asking for help, but I’ll be more annoyed if you keep hesitating.”
“Ah.” It’s the only word I manage. There’s not exactly more of an apt statement than an expression of surprise. I guess that’s just the situation. She grins in response and she turns around, walking out the wardrobe. I follow and we step out of the room, walking through past Walter on my way to the front door.
“Going out?” He asks.
“Up to Tagert.” Walter flinches and nods, it’s almost as if he’s had a pretty bad experience with Tagert. He raises a hand in farewell, and I step out of the front door. Alright, let’s see what Tagert wants to see me about.
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Author's Notes
Sorry for the delay, this was a pretty hard chapter for me, and I've found my mind wandering toward my other works. It doesn't mean I've even begun my other chapters for my stories and the plan is to start tomorrow while keeping up some work on this. I was thinking about continuing this chapter onward through the Tagert talk and the part afterward, but I figured it would go too long so I decided to split them up.