A/N: Sailor Donut , thank you for your kind feedback! pinkparis, I'm so sorry I took so long to update! You've been such a dedicated reader and I feel bad that this took such a long time to write. I do have some decent excuses, but let's just skip those and get on with the story:)
Milo was happy to have a break. His whole morning had been "King Thatch, what do we do about…" "King Thatch, what is the problem with…" "King Thatch, can we fix…" "King Thatch, did you know your daughter left a crab in the teacher's desk again?" He would have to have a stern word with Lucille about that. Even if Professor Ta' Kashi was an insufferable know-it-all, and condescending towards the younger children, there were some things that a princess just did not do. If she pulled any more pranks like that, Milo would threaten to get a private tutor. Lucille hated that idea. It would mean that she would not get to spend as much time with the other children. Milo knew, deep down, that he would never really do that to her. Making friends had been tough for him, and he was overjoyed that Lucille had her own little clique of pals. He wasn't about to do anything to damage her friendships.
"King, um, Milo, sir, would you like some lunch? I was just whipping up something for myself." Milo looked up to see Dean's smiling face poking out of the kitchen. The young man certainly felt at home anywhere he could do some kind of work or help someone. Atlantis's king suddenly realized he was hungry. The meetings had lasted past noon.
"Sure." Then as an afterthought, asked curiously, "Where's the cook?"
"Oh, he's been napping since right after breakfast, sir. I didn't want to wake him."
"Horribly inefficient, if you ask me," said a voice near Dean's feet. Both humans looked down at Austin. "You know, back in the old days, kings decapitated servants for pulling crap like that. I say, off with his head!"
"No," said Milo flatly.
"I suppose you know all about being inefficient," said Dean, as he mixed food in a bowl.
"What's that supposed to mean?" the cat asked.
"All you do is sleep and eat."
"I conserve and store energy for an emergency."
Dean sighed. You couldn't win an argument with a cat.
"Speaking of which," Austin continued, "I need to consume some energy."
"Yeah, yeah, calm down, Garfield. I'll get your lunch."
"I think," said Milo as he took a bowl and walked out of the kitchen with Dean and Austin behind him, "my life has reached its weirdness peak."
"No, Mr. Thatch," said an all too familiar voice behind him, causing him to drop the bowl, "your life is about to get a whole lot weirder."
Milo slowly turned around. "Jiminy Christmas! H-Helga? It's you! But I thought you were dead. Well, you are obviously, considering you're an ethereal being, but… Uh, how's death treating you?"
Claire looked around, checking for any unwanted spectators. "We should go someplace a little more private."
"Right," said Milo, who was trying very hard not to stare at Helga. "Um, the library." You could never go wrong with the library, in Milo's opinion. Glancing down at the spilled food on the floor, he said, "Wait just a moment so I can-"
"I'll get that, sir," said Dean.
"Thanks. Uh, just follow me." Milo grinned mischievously at Helga. "Don't drip ectoplasm on the Caravaggio." He led the group down the hall.
"Are you sure I can't hit people?" Helga asked Claire.
Once everyone, including Dean, was in the library, Milo asked with a frown, "Okay, Helga, what's your little scheme?"
Kida placed a hand on his arm. "Milo, Helga's sorry for what happened. I truly believe she wants to help us."
"Help us with what exactly?" asked Milo. "What did you find? Where's Helga been?"
"I've been haunting the cave where I died," said Helga. "But there's something in there other than me. Something evil." She narrowed her eyes.
"You've got a hole to Hell outside of your city," Claire said simply. "Now, normally, I can close these things up pretty easily, but-"
"I'm sorry," said Milo. "I could have sworn you said 'a hole to Hell'?"
"Yes," Claire answered.
"Oh, okay. I just wanted to make sure I was hearing right… Jiminy Christmas! And this is normal for you!"
"Yes. What I was saying is that I can usually just seal it up, but it's in this little grotto that's been sealed off. I don't think I have enough power to blast down the wall. Plus, there's something else in there, I'm sure of it. Before I can close the hole, I have to get rid of whatever that thing is. I think I saw some markings in the dirt, and that usually means one thing."
"You don't mean?" breathed Dean.
"That's right," said Claire. "We've got a demon on our hands. Hell's plotting something big to use that much energy to create a demon."
"I am sorry," said Kida, "but I feel rather ignorant on the subject. What exactly are Hell and these demons you speak of?"
Milo folded his hands nervously, unsure exactly how to tackle the subject. "Hell is a domain in the Christian religions. It's a place where bad people go when they die, and they are subjected to punishment for their sins." He looked up at Claire. "So, it really exists?"
"Yes," she said again. "And so does the Hall of Osiris and Mount Olympus."
"There's an interesting story about that," started Dean.
Claire looked at him sharply. "I said that you were to never mention that again!"
"What? About the Hall of Osiris or about Olympus?" he asked, grinning innocently.
"You know."
"Well, how can I know what not to mention if you won't tell me what I can't mention?"
"Oh," said Austin. "I know what she means. She means you shouldn't tell them about how Hera got pissed off at her and turned her into a plant."
"You lead an extremely interesting life," said Milo as he watched the Keeper lunge for the cat.
"From my experience," Dean said, "demons are these creatures Hell creates to do its dirty work."
"But," said Claire as she glared at Austin, who was sitting on a bookshelf licking his tail, too high to reach, "it seems like it might be trapped with the pit. That's not normal. Usually, they can teleport from place to place. Unless…unless it wasn't completely made out of Hell's energy. If something else was used to create it…" She furrowed her brow. "And I know there's something else I'm forgetting…"
Taking Claire's silence as an end to the topic, Helga jumped in. "I've been trying to warn you two about this," she said to Kida and Milo. "I didn't exactly know what it was, I just knew something bad was happening."
"How could you try to warn us, if you couldn't leave?" asked Kida.
Helga exhaled slowly. "I couldn't actually physically leave to cavern, but there was a way mentally that I could. I figured out that ghosts could travel along this…this plane as long as there was a path available."
"You went into someone's subconscious," said Austin.
Helga looked up at the cat and nodded. "Right. I could only do this while someone was dreaming."
Milo's jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide. "You went into Lucille's dreams!"
"Yes. I knew if I had gone into yours, you would brush it off as guilt or as just a nightmare. And Kida wouldn't listen to me. She hated me too much."
"No offense, but it was justifiably so," said the queen. She smiled in a way that let Helga know she was joking.
"I thought I could get a warning out to you through your daughter."
"My gosh," whispered Milo. "I guess I was wrong about you, Helga. I'm sorry."
"Don't get mushy on me, Mr. Thatch," Helga said with a smirk.
"Claire," began Austin, "you do realize what happens when a demon is created, right?"
"Yeah, I get a headache and a whole lot more work," snapped the Keeper. She rested her chin on her folded hands and put her elbows on her knees.
"No." He shook his furry head. "The balance must be kept."
Claire lifted her head. "Holy sh…" She stopped herself. "Holy crap."
"What now?" asked Milo and Kida at once.
"You know how with an algebra equation, what you do to one side must be done to the other?" She watched them nod. "Well, if that's the case with the metaphysical, what do you think needs to happen to keep the balance when Hell creates a demon?"
Milo hazarded a guess. "Heaven… creates an… angel?"
Claire nodded.
"Jiminy Christmas!"
Austin sniggered. "I love it when he says that."
A/N: Hera did, in fact, turn Claire into a plant in Summon the Keeper. Claire visited the Hall of Osiris in Long Hot Summoning.
