Part 8: The Fight, part 2

Three years before war's end

"The coast is clear." The one-eyed demon reaper said to his fellow runaways.

A handless teenage girl appeared out from behind the rocks, a small soul head following her.

"Is it really safe here, Junior?" Jeff asked as he floated over.

"Relax, Jeff. This is the Chasm of the Heylin. No one's passed through here since those monks destroyed Wu-Ya, too much of her dark magic is etched into these cliffs. Besides, we're not staying. We're just trying to cross through and get to the temple. We'll be safe there."

Mimi gave him the look.

"Ok, safer."

"I still don't like the idea of becoming a monk." Junior's nergal symbiote said to him.

"We're not becoming monks." Junior clarified to him for the hundredth time. "We're only going to them because their temples are one of the few neutral grounds Him and my mother haven't felt the need to attack, so we'll probably find more allies to keep us safe there."

"I just don't want them fast talking us into taking vows of chastity and enlightenment. Mimi would look terrible with a shaved head!" The symbiote explained.

Mimi grasped her hair and glared at him.

"Just sayin…"

"I think you're confusing Shaolin monks with cults, dude." Junior said to the tentacle speaking to him.

"Besides, not all monks are into celibacy." The spirit of Nergal Senior said to them. "I once knew a monk who seemed convinced it was his duty to personally restart his entire culture. Tough time for his wife, it was."

"That makes me feel a little better." The symbiote sighed in relief.

"Anyway, I think it'd be too late for some of you to take that vow." Nergal added. "Jeff, didn't you lay a bunch of eggs years ago?"

"They can't hear you, remember?"

"Oh right. Junior, ask Jeff about all those eggs he laid years ago."

"I am not going to ask my only male friend about his eggs."

"Hey!" The symbiote cried.

"Male and not attached to me."

Jeff and Mimi, having grown accustomed to Junior talking to himself, paid him no mind as the group continued to walk through the chasm. Noticing that Mimi was still clutching her hair, Jeff tried to comfort her.

"I think you'd look beautiful with a shaved head." He said to her.

Never knowing Jeff to be a very good liar, Mimi smiled at him and held his soul between her arms, a change from her childhood that had become common since Junior reunited them.

Mimi walked closer to Junior, asking him a question through her head movements.

"Oh course I'm staying with you guys when we get there." Junior said. "I made a promise to you that I'd protect you and Jeff once I got stronger and I'm not going back on it. Him and my mother can send whoever they want after us. I'll keep you safe."

Mimi relaxed slightly and was about to joke with him more about the becoming monks idea when suddenly the group heard a voice out of nowhere.

"If I recall correctly from our days long past, thee once made a similar vow to me."

The three stopped dead in their tracks, searching for the source of the female's words.

"…A vow so strong that thee would oppose Heaven itself to keep me, for mine soul belonged to thee and thee alone."

Junior recognized the voice and saw the female shape hidden in the darkness ahead of them.

"Minnie?" He asked, fearful yet hopeful at the same time. He attempted to take a step forward towards her but Mimi grabbed him by the back of his robe and signaled that they needed to run.

"Mimi, what're you-?"

"Thine pet is doing as all valorous dogs should and is warning her master of the danger he approaches."

Minnie stepped out of the darkness and Junior barely recognized the woman before him. Though the stiches remained his sister was not the child she'd been when Junior had last seen her seven years ago. Her body was that of a teenager, which was fitting to her age but impossible, as afterbirth bodies do not grow. But even her change of stature was not the most noticeable of her appearance. Her once bright blond hair had not only grown longer but darker by a few shades. The pink skin similar to their aunt's had taken a more reddish hue. And her single remaining eye burned just fiercely as Junior remembered their mother's.

"Minnie, what did you do?" Junior asked, taken aback by her appearance.

"What? Thee didn't expect me to stay in that inferior body forever, didst thee?" Minnie asked him. "Or perhaps thee desired that would beest the case. To have thine rival and little sister forever stuck in her place."

Still stunned by her sudden appearance before him Junior ignored Mimi's warning tugs on his robe that they needed to run. Now.

"Mine grown form is a gift from Father Death." Minnie continued. "Twas a dangerous procedure, to move mine soul from one afterbirth to another, more suitable form. But tis rare that any true conquest is made without risk, such as mine red color is proof of."

Mimi really tugged on Junior now, her fear causing Minnie to almost smirk.

"Though thee may not recall the Devil's essence from the single time thee ever saw it, thy pet forsooth does. Tis a power the lady doest not wish to risk infecting her again."

Junior's eye went wide. He may have only ever seen it once, but he knew exactly what it was. The pure evil that Him shattered Mimi's innocence with as a child. The power his mother had ripped out of her when she broke into their home.

"Minnie, are you crazy?! You've seen what that stuff has done to people! Why would you ever infect yourself with that?!"

Minnie glared at him. "Thou has't been blissfully unaware of the change in mine feelings towards thee. Seven years ago thee left our home with thy tramp to escape involvement with our mother's war, leaving me behind, even though thee promised to stayeth by mine side as well. When I wasn't in search for thee myself, I sat waiting for thee to returneth to me, as thee once had before in mine most desperate hour. But thee nev'r didst. Thee abandoned me, as I nev'r should has't doubted thee would when I used up mine purpose to thee."

Guilt filled the eye and eye-socket of the young Reaper. He walked slowly towards her. "Minnie, that's not true. I didn't want to leave you behind, I just-"

His speech was interrupted by the slash across his midsection. Though not deep enough to go all the way through him the gash stunned him and brought springs of bright green Nergal blood to the surface and along Minnie's rapier.

Minnie continued her glare at her brother as his knees hit the ground. "I tooketh this cursed power for the same reason that many grab power: I wish to has't vengeance upon the one who hath wronged me so greatly. You, dearest kin."

Before she could slash Junior again, Mimi grabbed him and threw him behind her and Jeff. Minnie then disappeared for a second before appearing under Mimi and kicking upwards into her jaw, sending her flying.

Seeing his friend in danger Junior finally acted, spawning forth an arm cannon and fired warning shots at the ground before his sister.

"I don't want to fight you, Minnie!"

"Then falleth down and accept the suffering thee art so deserving of for thy lies!" She exclaimed as she dove at him, nearly impaling his shoulder. Junior couldn't bring himself to shoot her at such a close range, so instead attempted to restrain her with the tentacles that burst from his back. But Minnie spoke Nergalese and the tentacles turned against him instead.

"Dude, what are you doing?!"

"It's not me, bro!" The symbiote defended. "She's controlling me!"

"Has't our years apart truly wasted thy mind? Has't thee truly forgotten whose power thee flaunt so oft belongs to?" Minnie asked as Junior fought off the attack from his own body.

"Nergal, do something!" He said.

"Sorry kiddo." The black spirit said, quite in shock over his granddaughter's actions. "I only helped create the Nergal species, I don't control them."

Jeff flew over to her. "Minnie, please stop! You're brother and sister, you shouldn't be fighting like this!"

Minnie glared at the soul and Jeff suddenly went flying into the chasm walls. "Thee truly art a valorous soul. So much so that with no body to shield thee, thee cannot stomach to beest around evil so pure."

Mimi ran up behind Minnie and grabbed her in a Full Nelson style lock. Such a move wasn't much use with only her being available to fight, but Minnie realized instantly what she was trying to do.

"Thee seek to calleth the Devil's essence back into yourself and end mine wrath against mine brother." She said calmly. "Such a noble sacrifice one would not tend to expect from the spawn of a Devil and a whore. However, thou has't madeth a small miscalculation."

Mimi's grip started to slip and found herself suddenly thrown at the wall.

"It doest not want thee anymore!"

Her one eye instantly caught the movement as Junior dove at her, his Nergal scythe being caught by her demonic rapier. The two locked eyes for just a second before pushing each other back.

Junior blasted his arm cannon at her but Minnie danced out of the way, running along the walls to attack him. The Devil's essence made her much faster than the already speedy Demon Reaper and it took everything he had just to dodge her rapid attacks.

When there was finally an opening Junior dove behind her and grabbed Mimi and Jeff, spawning wings and shooting straight up to get out of the chasm.

Minnie would have none of this. Grasping the blood-red bow that appeared before her, she took aim and fired perfectly, tearing through his left wing.

There wasn't enough time to spawn a new one before they'd hit the ground, so Junior commanded his remaining wing to separate from him and place itself under Mimi. When both hit the ground, the wing softened the blow that would have otherwise crippled her. Junior hit the ground with full force, but that was of little consequence to the Demon Reaper.

Tilting his head up from the ground, Junior found Minnie standing over him, the point of her rapier between his eye-sockets.

"Minnie…I never wanted to hurt you by leaving…" He tried to tell her. "I didn't take you with me because I didn't want you be a target like I made myself. I thought you'd be safer back home."

Minnie glared at him still, her sword not moving an inch. "Junior… while thy abandonment filled me with most wondrous hatred and emptiness, it is not the only sin I seek to punish thee for this night."

The point pressed slightly further into Junior's skull. "I wish destroy thee because thee hath broken mine heart."

Junior was about to talk when Minnie then grabbed him by the head and tossed him around, smacking him against the ground and the walls violently, before releasing him and causing him to tumble against the rocks.

Minnie walked unnaturally calmly over to the huddled mess that was her brother. And as he struggled to get up, Minnie slashed him in the back.

"All I ever wanted wast for thee to love me, just as greatly as I loved thee. For a time, I thought thee didst. But that wast just a lie. Thee hath used mine weakness to destroy me. Thee truly art our mother's child."

"Minnie, that's not-"

Junior was silenced by another slice to the back.

"Our entire childhood thee envied the praise given to me. That envy turned to hatred as mine power grew while yours wast still unrealized. And thee wast finally able to maketh me pay the night I died."

"Minnie…" Junior begged as his back throbbed with pain and blood. Minnie cut him again.

"In mine last moments of life I gaveth the power thee so greatly wanted, not only to save thy life, but peradventure allow thee to finally understandeth mine feelings in death. And thee didst... all too well."

Minnie took a step back to admire her handiwork on her sibling before continuing.

"Mine heart soared at which hour thee cameth to rescue me from the claws of Him. I thought you'd accepted mine feelings, that the new form thee hadst placed me in and thy promise to protect me forevermore, meanteth that perhaps thee wast starting to develop the same love in thy heart... But that wast all a lie."

Seeing Junior starting to heal back up Minnie swiftly kicked him in the stomach. Again and again, until he fell back down.

"The realization of what you'd done to me hit as soon as you left home!" Minnie said, her skin growing more reddish and her usual very formal language taking the back seat to her rage. "I was alone and powerless, my soul locked away in a frail body that would never grow, cursing me as a child for the rest of my days! My skills would only take me so far and the one bit of actual power I had was stolen from me by the very man who put me in that position!"

Junior groaned as he clutched his stomach, trying to speak to her. But she would have done of it. Her rapier grasped tightly in hand, she sliced again and again at the Reaper, not to kill him, but to make him suffer.

"All I ever wanted was for you to love me! And you used that to take everything you could from me until I wasn't even worth your time anymore!"

As she hacked away the symbiote spoke to him. "Junior, you gotta fight back, bro! I'm not able to protect you because of her control!"

But Junior wasn't listening. All he could hear were his sister accusations echoing through his skull. He never meant to hurt her. He never meant to take so much from her.

But he did.

"I hate you!" She screamed as she drove the weapon through him, causing it took burst through his chest.

Blood spurted out from the Reaper's mouth. His body was racked with pain and he barely thought of it. He turned his head to see the face of the one whom had once sworn her soul to him out of love and lust, now twisted by unimaginable hate for him. By what he did to her.

Tears streamed down from his single eye.

"Minnie…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

Her face broke, just for a second, and her eye became that of the sister he'd once know. The one who felt sorrow over the suffering she was putting him through.

But the second was over and the rage overtook her again.

"Get up!" She yelled as she drew out her weapon from his body. "Get up so I can knock you back down!" Her voice deeper and became more demonic as she spoke. Her skin grew darker and red sparks fell from her body.

Junior didn't get back up. He'd hurt her enough.

Infuriated by his refusal to fight back, Minnie prepared to hack away at his head this time. But then Mimi grabbed her again, just as she had before, biting her on the shoulder this time to boot.

Minnie didn't even register the pain. All she noticed was her attempt to take back the Devil's Essence again.

"Get it through your head, you little tramp, it doesn't want you anymore!" Minnie struggled to get Mimi off her back, but she wouldn't budge, her grip strong enough to keep her from being thrown like last time. She would not release herself until she received the essence.

And there was something she knew about the essence that would allow her to.

The essence was attracted to sin. That's what caused it to be so infatuated with Minnie the first time it saw her in Mandy's vault. Her rage and envy towards Junior showing affection to another woman, it was irresistible and only grew as time went on.

If Mimi was to draw the essence back to her, she had to fill herself with greater sin, and she did. Wrath.

Wrath towards the one person who had hurt her more than any other. Her father, who had destroyed her life, who killed all her friends, who made her kill her own mother. For years, even within the emptiness of her soul, she'd thought about all the terrible things she'd put him through to make him pay and how she'd enjoy every last moment of it.

This pit of hatred was certainly enough to get the essence's attention, as it tried to spread to her, turning her skin its former red color. However, Minnie was certainly not lacking in hatred and the essence wanted to stay with her too. Normally sharing itself would be no problem, such as with Jack's sword, but this was different. The essence was being pulled two different directions, neither woman wanting the other to have a single drop left in them.

"I'm through letting you take things from me!" Minnie roared at her, to which Mimi responded by hitting her with an iron with "STFU" engraved on the side. It didn't help to lessen her rage.

Junior finally managed to get to his feet. The sight before him was of his best friend and his sister pulling the red power back and forth between them. Sparks flew violently from the battle as Junior could see the wear and tear forming on the two women's souls from their struggle.

"We've got to stop them."

"How?" The symbiote asked. "Unless you're willing to shish kabob your sister right now, I don't think we've got much of a say in this fight."

Junior thought hard about what to do and then struggled greatly with what he had to do.

With all her attention focused on Mimi, Minnie never saw the Reaper's spirit chains coming to impale her. Junior tugged, but Minnie's hatred made the essence quite territorial and refuse to give her up.

"Let go of me!" Minnie yelled as she fought off the attacks from both Mimi and Junior.

Junior held strong. "I'm sorry, Minnie. For everything. But I have to stop this.

Minnie rage grew even stronger and she grabbed the chained pulling on her soul and pulled on them instead, dragging her brother closer.

The sparks grew worse, causing red cracks to appear in the chains. Minnie was too strong. As the distance between them lessened to barely 3 feet, the battle for the essence pushed hard against the Reaper. He'd break eventually.

And that's when an idea struck Mimi. With the tail that had now returned to her form, she wacked Junior hard in the back, causing him to tumble straight into Minnie, and more importantly, his lips into hers.

The eyes of both siblings went wide and both thought back to the one time Junior had to kiss her before, back in Him's domain. And this brief flashback to the time of her love and the split-second absence of her hate had been enough, as the rest of the essence flew from Minnie and bonded back to its former master. The force of which shot her away from Minnie's back finally and caused the siblings to tumble away from each other.

However, things were not well for Mimi. In her time away apart from the essence she'd been able to rebuild the soul and humanity she once thought lost to her, and that soul didn't want the essence anywhere near it, as it tried to force it out. And as Mimi forced it to stay in, the backlash was taken out on her very being, as the power started to tear her apart.

"Mimi, you have to stop!" Junior called out to her over the red sparks. "Your body can't handle it anymore! You have to let it go before it's too late!"

Mimi shook her head in refusal, knowing that if she let the power out it would be drawn back to Minnie again.

Speaking of whom, the daughter of Death had regained her usual pink coloring and blond hair, though her teenage build had remained, as that was unconnected to the Devil's essence. She got up from where she'd been tossed, the rapier still in her hand. She didn't talk, she just had her eye locked onto Mimi. Mimi made the universal signal for "Bring it on, bitch" and Minnie attacked.

"No!" Junior cried as a final soul chain burst from his arm.

It impaled her at the same time she impaled Mimi.

And then Mimi smiled at her.

Minnie was about to question what was so funny when red energy of a different sort started to flow through her, the chain stuck through her back, and Junior as well. Mimi looked past her so that Junior could see her once last time.

She then spoke for the first time since Junior had known her.

"Take…care…"

"Mimi!" Junior yelled out before he and Minnie vanished in a flash of bright red light.

The rapier still stuck in her chest, Mimi sat down on the ground and bled out. Jeff dodged every spark that still flew from her to come to her side. He'd never felt more useless.

"Mimi…hold on…please…" The spider soul begged quietly to her. There was nothing else he could do. "If only I could have kept you away from Him…if only I'd been there more to protect you…if I…if I…"

Jeff, lost in his grief, was taken by surprise when Mimi grabbed him, hugging him tightly between her arms. Jeff had never wished more greatly than now that he had arms to hug back with.

Mimi kissed him on top of the forehead and the red energy started flowing through him.

"Mimi?" Jeff asked.

He then vanished in a flash of red light.