HEY! NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE! GO check out my profile AFTER you read this chapter, and vote in the poll there, okay? Instead of having you review for your vote on the gender, I just put it in a poll in my profile.

Nick flexed his hands, admiring the ivory claws he'd acquired.

He'd found something to appreciate from Ahriman: knowledge. This was a forbidden art, the stealing of power from another ghoul's eyes. They weren't the direct power source, the heart was. But obtaining the true power source was a difficult, and damn near impossible task. It usually ended with the heart being destroyed, and the powers drained.

Nick's eyes were under a constant, color-shifting glow from the mutt-mix of powers. It was a dangerous, indirect way to power himself up. As was the idiotic thing he was about to do.

But he had to. For his Lydia. His little midnight angel. That poltergeist had to be doing something to control her. What the hell else could explain it? There was nothing redeeming about the ghost. He was old, and filthy, and lewd, and evil.

Nick shook his head to clear it, and pressed his hand against the rock archway.

The natural archway was rough and misshapen, but the arch shape remained all the same.

The arch stood alone, and it should have framed the landscape from either side.

It did not. Whichever side you stood on, looking into the arch, you saw a great expanse of lightless abyss, stretching on forever. And if you stood, absolutely silent, you could hear the cries of the Lost Souls.

Few knew of this second doorway. In fact… Nick wondered if Juno even knew of this door. Anansi had extracted its location from an archivist before they burned down the library.

The second, natural door to the Lost Souls Room.

Nick smiled, and knocked three times against the ancient stone.

Thunder crackled as the skies overhead turned dark, filling with clouds as the souls trapped inside set up a howl of rage and agony, appearing from the darkness. Their claws swiped uselessly at Nick, trying to grab the fresh soul, but Nick held up both hands in surrender. "Brothers! Sisters! Friends!" Nick grinned, flexing his claws as he gestured at them. "Are you ready to be free of this wretched hole?"

Ahriman's roar echoed around the chamber as he flung the third throne against the wall. It shattered on contact, but this destruction did nothing to sate him. He was already on the fourth throne, setting the fifth ablaze as Eris and Coyote watched on helplessly.

"DAMN THEM!"

Coyote winced, wringing his hands as he took a step forward. "Big Brother… we… we know where the portal is now, and where the filth's lair is." He tried. "We could have Geuse and his woman. If we had the woman, we could have Nic-AAAAAAHHHH!" Coyote dove out of the way as the still flaming fifth throne smashed into the wall just above his head.

Eris flashed to the raging god's side, wrapping her arms firmly around his waist. "Love… easy. Loki will be fine once we have Nick back. Maui is finally mended… And Coyote is right." She soothed as Ahriman panted in her arms. "These are just minor setbacks. Look at what we've accomplished so far." Her lips found the side of his neck, petal soft as they soothed him. "We know how to get to Lydia. We can find a substitute for Loki's powers.

Lydia sneezed, rubbing her nose with a frown.

"Someone must be talkin' 'bout ya Babes."

"Please. I hardly believe in that nonsense."

Betel cackled. "But ya hang around with dead people."

Lydia rolled her eyes, jotting down the final few answers for her sociology class. "Blah blah blah. Can you toss me another soda please?"

Betel cocked a brow, digging into the box for another orange can. "Ya know ya've gone through like, nine of those in the past two hours?"

"I'm on a roll, hotstuff." She murmured, flipping her book closed and tossing it onto her pillow. "I'm actually ahead in my classes. Can you believe that? Insanity." Lydia popped the top on the can, gulping down half the fizzing drink in one go.

Betel snapped his fingers and a toothpick appeared out of thin air between his lips. He was bored, yes. Very. Lydia just insisted on fulfilling her 'mortal responsibilities' though.

Lydia leaned back on the mattress, crossing her legs at the ankle as she sipped her soda. "I… um… may have found something on Nathoniel DePaul."

Betel blinked, gesturing with his beer. "Well, go on."

"He and his wife had a baby named Benjamin, right?"

Betel nodded. "Yeah…"

"Well in the early thirteen seventies, around the time you would have been in your late thirties, I found a record of a Benjamin DePaul who died under suspicious circumstances. I was looking through the history of a few of churches around the border of France, and one of them had a timeline attached with the names of those who died during that year. Apparently Benjamin was found floating face-down in the river."

"Suicide?"

"Not unless he shot himself in the back of the head."

"Ouch." Betel twisted the pick in his teeth, frowning hard. "Be a sucky way ta die."

"Yeah… that's all I could find though."

"Nothin' on Tobias or Nathon? Sucks. Wonder if maybe information on that would be in the unburned part of the library…"

Lydia's eyes lit up and she jumped off the bed, throwing her arms around his neck. "Then lets go! I need my Neitherworld fix."

Betel grimaced, lifting his hands to grip her forearms. "I dunno Babes…"

Lydia's eyes widened in shock. "Why not?"

Betel let out a low sigh. "Juno."

"Juno? She gave me the clothes and the chant."

"Yeah…" Betel shrugged. "But she didn't realize how often I took ya there. Think she meant it ta be like… as little as possible. She thinks it's bad fer yer health."

Lydia's expression was incredulous as she stared open-mouthed up at him. "You're actually listening to Juno?" She asked. Betel only shrugged in response. "Who are you, and what have you done with my poltergeist?"

Betel chuckled, reaching out to ruffle her hair. "Fine, but if I get chewed out I'm throwin' ya ta the wolves."

Lydia glared up at him. "I finally have sex with you and yet you'll still throw me to the wolves?"

Betel leered down at her. "Oh yeah. You'd do the same."

Lydia thought about that for a moment. "Fair enough. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetejuice."

Lydia yelped in pain as they moved through the void, clutching wildly at Betel as the darkness consumed them. She felt him dig his claws into her arm and try to pull her towards him but Lydia slipped from his grasp and yanked out into Oblivion.

Lydia swallowed as she moved through the freezing void, spinning around on the invisible floor as she tried to find her bearings.

The flying feeling suddenly stopped, and Lydia felt the floor beneath her become more substantial.

In the next second, a small dot of light appeared at the edge of the darkness, and Lydia thought for a horrible minute that she had died.

Then the floor was zooming forward, carrying her towards the light and she could hear voices.

"Brothers! Sisters! Friends! Are you ready to be free of this wretched hole?"

Lydia gasped, recognizing the voice at the same time that his face entered her vision. All around her, pale, ragged green forms danced and clawed, trying to free themselves.

She was in the Lost Souls Room.

Lydia reached out a hand, trying to call for Nick but her voice caught in her throat. As she began to panic she felt another sharp tug in her gut and was sent flying backwards.

Lydia arrived in the Waiting Room in a tornado of papers, and was pulled instantly forward through the doors and up the stairs to Juno's office.

"Lydia, what have you done?!" The old woman screech before Lydia could even drop into the dusty chair.

The Goth glared at Juno, planting her fists on her hips. "I have no idea. I was trying to come here with Beej, but we… were separated I guess. And then I saw Nick outside the Lost Souls Room and now here I am."

Juno blinked. "You saw Nick?"

"Yeah, why?"

Juno waved her hand. "Not important. What you're here now to discuss is the bonehead move you made last month!" The caseworker smacked her palm against her desktop, biting down savagely on the end of her smoke. "What did you say to him on the Lost Souls Highway when the worm attacked? I need to know exactly."

Lydia shrugged. "I couldn't tell you exactly. Um… I told him to stop fighting with Nick… Um… I told him the worm was after me, and he tried to lure the worm towards us. Then when Nick tried to stop him, he, Betelgeuse, asked me if I trusted him, and I said I did-"

"You said: 'I do'."

Lydia frowned thoughtfully. "I suppose I did."

Juno slumped in her chair, shaking her head as she grimaced at the Goth. "Of course. Lydia… you realized you completed another part of the marriage ceremony by pledging to him in that way?"

Lydia frowned. "Elaborate Juno, please. Because I have no idea why you are freaking about this."

Juno sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Lydia... Do you know who Nathoniel and Tobias are?"

Lydia held up a hand and wiggled it palm-down. "Sort of. Beej and I have had a few dreams of them I guess."

"Figures… Well, Nathoniel and Tobias lived before the peak of the Black Plague, in the early thirteen hundreds. Nathoniel was an officer of the law, one of the last left alive in the isolated little French village. The plague came to the city by a merchant that had rats in his fruit. Anyway, Tobias was a powerful witch, or warlock if you prefer, that used the devastation of the plague to practice more freely. He raped, tortured and killed. Finally, he let himself be exposed, though no one understood why: he raped a young woman by the name of Marie Bouvier, carved a curse of his own making into her belly, and impregnated her." Juno sighed, rubbing her temple as she tried to remember the story. "Nathoniel DePaul arrested and hung Tobias, but before the lever was pulled, Tobias cursed Nathon. Tobias told Nathon that he would bring a monster unlike the world had ever seen into the world with his bare hands. A few months later, Nathon delivered his own son when his wife went into labour prematurely. The child was born with the exact same eyes as Tobias: a shocking, unnatural blue."

Lydia's eyes widened and she shifted slightly in her seat as she flashed back to seeing Betel's eyes change all that time ago.

Juno snubbed out her spent cigarette and pulled a fresh one from her pocket. "A priest was called, and the child was blessed." Juno stared hard at Lydia. "The priest prayed that the evil inside the child would be locked away, and that goodness give him a second chance. He prayed that a good soul would be sent to tame the wild soul of the baby." Juno fell silent, still staring hard at Lydia.

And then she understood with a gasp. "Betelgeuse was the baby…"

"And I've no doubt that you're the soul meant to 'tame' him. It's not possible thought Lydia." Juno held up her hand for silence as Lydia tried to protest. "Lydia. He was bad during his living years, though he kept it well hidden from his family, using many aliases and covering all of his tracks. He was an expert conman, and more than once a murderer."

Lydia sucked in a breath, biting the inside of her cheek.

"He was killed by his partner in crime when they busted a huge con. His partner… can't remember her name, shot him in the back of the head while he was sleeping, and shoved him off the bridge into the river."

Lydia's face fell. What a horrible way to die.

"He was stuck in the waiting room for a long time, but his powers, Tobias' powers, finally manifested. They went haywire. Caused quite a bit of damage too. Phoebe never quit forgave him, which is why those two are at each other's throats every time he gets in there. Anyway, he somehow managed to escape the Waiting Room, and found his way back to France. I think he was trying to find his parents, or something that he could remember. Tobias' powers wiped nearly all of his memories. He found a church where his father happened to be, and was trying to get past the holy barriers when a young man walked through his incorporeal body. Betel unintentionally possessed him, and once the boy crossed the threshold the holy barriers began to burn Betel. The priest realized the boy was possessed, so he and Nathoniel performed an exorcism. I arrived just in time to yank Betel's soul from the boy, and brought him right back here." Juno sighed, rubbing her forehead. "We sealed Tobias' powers away, but Betel was powerful to begin with. And then of course that stupid wedding…"

"Explain that, please." Lydia asked. "He said he wanted out, and that was the only way."

"He meant it was the only way to be free of us." Juno explained with a grimace. "He would get all of his power back, and would no longer be under the thumb of the powers that be. But he fucked up." Juno took a deep breath, and blew a ring of smoke from the slit in her throat. "He only started the ceremony. If the two of you had said 'I do' before he tried to get the ring on, the marriage would have gone through. As it was, the jackass had to show off and act stupid, so we breathed a sigh of relief. His powers were still locked away."

"So…"

Juno rolled her eyes. "So in May when you saved him I began to realize what had happened. You were his 'tamer'. You, of all people it had to be." Juno shook her head. "Ahriman was right, you do have power Lydia, but it's not flashy like Betel's. Your power seems to be the ability to cause me a whole fucking load of uneeded paperwork."

Lydia grimaced, holding up her hands in defeat. Her mind was reeling. She was supposed to 'tame' Betelgeuse? What the hell was that all about?! "I'm still lost Juno. Beej isn't exactly a saint, but he isn't a monster. And I don't get it- powers? Subtle powers?"

Juno growled. "My point exactly. You have the power to keep Betel the way he is, or turn him into a monster according to Tobias' wishes. In simple terms, you control him, powers and all. It was why you could bring him back from the Lost Souls room. It's why you can survive the transfer between the worlds without your soul being damaged." Now Juno's face clouded over, and her expression became almost fearful as her eyes fell to Lydia's stomach. "And it's why you're able to carry his baby."

Short, sorry, I know, but I felt it was an appropriate place to cut it off.

Bet you didn't see that coming, did you? =D.

Yeah, I'm a bitch like that.

Nick: WTF?!?!?! First you make me an evil fucking psychopath and now you make Lydia pregnant with that thing's baby?!?!

Me: You sir, signed up for the job of being evil. And yes I did make her preggers.

Betel: *speechless*

Lydia: Beej? Beej?

Me: Well, while I fend Nick off and write the next chapter, here are the replies to your reviews.

Nick: JORDASH! YOU MUST DIE!

Prats 'R' Us: I was thinking boy, but then I was thinking girl. I'm going to wait until this installment is over, then set up a poll with all the suggested names for everyone to vote on. And uh… *grins* no need for that to happen now. They have their own baby. But yeah, he/she will have fun growing up with a half-poltergeist niece/nephew.

RaversAnthem: Those are some good names… I was thinking Alexander because it sounds like an old master painter or something. And I did try, I wanted a more comedic chapter since actual apocalypse crap is about to go down.

LoliPear: I was thinking about bringing some whore in because Beej is weak, to add some drama. But I'm split, since there is already so much shit happening and Lydia has basically become nympho for him. =P. xD. Glad you enjoyed!

SeductressofDarkness: I thought that they would indeed have grown into something like that. Because if you pay attention in the movie, Delia is like, right there trying to protect Lydia and shield her from Betelgeuse. And I will see what I can do about the angstyness. I would love to read your paper, thank you!

BlackRose-FlowerofDeath: Did this sufficiently sate you? =D. Glad you enjoyed!

Ceysna: Yep, both of them are preggers, isn't that wild? =P. Lol, a mini Delia would indeed be scary, but instead of sculptures (Delia) or photography (Lydia) I thought I would either do fashion (if it was a girl) or like, those big crazy 'art' scenes where people throw paint on things or trash stuff and put it together and take pictures. Like, 'modern art'.