Trixie leaned back for leverage as she pulled the sliding door open, and walked out onto the deck.
She looked up, at the two figures far, far, far above, glowing in the rising light of the day.
"Ewww."
Looking down again, at the sun peeking over the horizon, she released a forced breath.
"I have to go back to Hell," she said, to nobody in particular.
She rolled her eyes and slumped her shoulders. "Again."
This was not going to go well.
Walking back into the house, she headed for the refrigerator. She needed supplies. Something bracing for the journey and trials ahead.
She pulled out a six-pack of Coconut Water and a chocolate milk box. Freeing the straw, she rammed it into the hole, and so armed, stepped backwards.
Into Hell.
Ash rained over her softly. The smell was bitter, the air baking.
The ground shuddered under her every step, clearly unhappy with her presence.
Little surprise.
She stepped up to the first damned soul she found - a man who'd killed his wife over a broken bowl, who was trying to teach his demon friend how to play cards. They were seated together on some rocks, before a boulder of a table.
The cards were made of old leather.
The human skin kind.
The man's eyes widened.
"Little miss," the man said in German, "you shouldn't be here."
The demon grinned. "Haven't seen a wee one for ages. What fun!"
Raising his hand against his demonic friend's chest, the man shook his head. "No, we don't hurt people anymore, remember?"
"Oh," the demon muttered. "Right. What's your story then?"
Trixie looked past them to where the throne used to stand. When she spoke it was without much care.
"I'm God. I'm trying to find my best friend so I can take her home."
The demon's mouth spread in a bigger grin, filled with sharp teeth. "You're God, huh?"
Smiling, she looked back at him. "Yes, Trajeer, I am."
The grin fell, and the Lilim stared at her, slack jawed. "How'd you know my name?"
"Didn't she say, you idiot?" the man next to him said, tugging his clawed hand for his attention. "Now, stop poking the bear, get back to your hand."
Trixie smirked. "You're cheating, Nicholas. Put the ace back in the deck."
The man's face paled dramatically and his gaze swung to the demon in alarm. Quickly he tugged the stiff leather rectangle - a black 'A' scribbled on its grainy surface - out of his sleeve and shoved it into Trajeer's hand.
"There you go, friend. I was holding it for you."
A small bead of sweat fell down his temple.
Trixie smirked and walked away as the demon roared, knocking the leather cards from the stone, and launched himself at the damned soul.
"Imma kill you five times over now!"
"Scheisse!"
Wet noises followed.
And screaming.
Trixie walked on, blowing the ash out of her hair when it got too thick, and sipping occasionally on her chocolate milk.
She met a few more damned souls, relaxing and chatting amongst themselves, as demons played some kind of sport before them.
Looked like a weird take on baseball, except that the ball was a rock the size of a basketball and the bat the thick trunk of old tree.
She sat with the souls for a minute to watch, and clapped when one of the demons hit the stone too far to track.
Then she turned to the souls enjoying themselves.
Anna had poisoned her roommate so she could claim the girl's grieving boyfriend, Musaf had torched a dog for fun, and Peter had driven his car through a crowd while drunk.
Trixie smiled, and they smiled uncertainly back.
"You're really young," Anna said. "What did you do to get stuck here?"
"I made a mistake," Trixie said. "Like you all did. Only I didn't make it on purpose. Like you all did."
Peter smirked. "Well, aren't you all judgy. Scat, kid. Go find someone else to bother."
"Okay," she said agreeably, taking another sip of her chocolate milk as she stood.
She walked over to the batsman. "Hurde?"
Hurde turned, and looked down at her with both of his scaly heads.
"Yes, young one?" his thin mouths said in unison.
Trixie pointed at the group watching them.
"They'd like to be punished. They really miss it."
The demon's mouths pulled back in a reptilian grin. His golden eyes flicked to the group and back, widening in excitement at the thought. "Really?"
Sipping from her chocolate milk, Trixie nodded. "Yup."
"Oh, thank Lilith," he sighed, holding up a hand to wave the other players in. "We've been so bored."
"I know," she said with a smile, and she walked on as the sound of screaming and crushing bone filled the air behind her.
There was so much to fix here. Nothing was working right. She met more carefree souls and distracted Lilim, and quickly set them to the tasks of suffering and punishing again.
It was soothing to set things straight.
Finally, she reached the new throne, and walked up the stone path to the throne chamber, and its beautiful seat.
Where Michael sat unclothed, sprawled and snoring.
SON
Michael jerked up, spluttering. He swiftly stood to his feet, his wings snapping out wide.
He looked down at her.
Father!?
His eyes widened.
I remember now... This is the form you wore when you first sent me to rule Hell!
Trixie nodded. Her eyes grew dark.
"How did you let this happen?"
When he opened his mouth to answer, she shook her head. "Nevermind. I already know now."
Michael hung his head. "I am sorry, Father, I made a gesture I did not expect to stand. Soulless Lilim cannot rule Hell - I do not understand how she took the throne."
"It's not your fault, Michael," she said with a sigh. "It's mine. I'm glad you've slept well."
Smiling widely, he nodded enthusiastically. "It is a wonderful thing, Father!"
Nodding, she gave him a small smile. "It's time for you to go, Michael. You don't have to be here anymore."
He stared at her, clearly uncertain. "Are you sure? Mazikeen seems to enjoy this appendage," he gestured down at himself. "And our interactions have been most stimulating, and the sleep fantastic, so perhaps-"
Trixie shook her head. "No, son. You are done here. I wish you to go somewhere new."
Michael raised a perfect eyebrow at her. "Oh?"
Taking a sip of chocolate milk, she nodded. "Yeah. You're missing something."
Both brows raised. "And what is that?"
"Empathy."
Michael snorted.
"And what use is that? To feel what another feels when they are not your feelings? Why twine yourself with another so?"
"You'll see. Bye bye!"
He vanished.
Trixie smirked.
She should probably stop doing that to her kids.
Her heart grew heavy.
It was time.
She oriented in space, turning to where Mazikeen had gone, and took a step forward, crossing leagues in a moment.
Mazikeen stood at the edge of a bluff, looking out over the Plain of the Buried. Damned souls had been planted in this great stretch of land, and disturbing things had grown from the soil. Writhing eyes, branching limbs, leaves of skin. When the ash storms stirred the ground in a frenzy the land screamed and moaned and sobbed.
Something was happening below.
Trixie frowned.
The flora was sinking back into the soil, and human limbs, properly attached to human torsos, topped with human heads, were clawing their way free of the dirt, gasping.
"You're screwing everything up," Trixie muttered, crossing her small arms.
Mazikeen turned to her, eyes wide.
"TRIXIE?!" her friend cried, sweeping forward to gather her in a hug.
God smiled softly and hugged her back, wishing the moment wouldn't turn, but knowing it would.
The demon stiffened.
And slowly pulled back.
"No..." Mazikeen whispered, her eyes wide. "You're..."
"Yeah," Trixie said softly, holding up a six-pack of Coconut Water. "Here. I brought you this."
Mazikeen stepped back further, her body rigid. Her hands closed to fists at her sides. Her wide eyes were terribly spooked.
Trixie frowned and lowered the six-pack slowly.
"I'm sorry. You don't have to be afraid of me."
"Why... why are you here," Mazikeen whispered.
Trixie smiled hopefully. "To bring you back home!"
Her best friend's brow furrowed.
"Why do you look like Trixie? Like my friend?"
Trixie's smile grew lopsided. She could feel the slight gap between her two front teeth as she spoke.
"Because I am Trixie?"
Mazikeen shook her head slowly.
"No, you're not. You're the Maker."
Trixie smiled gently. It'd been a long while since she'd been called that.
She nodded brightly. "Yup. I'm also Trixie. It's really me, Maze, I promise."
Mazikeen shook her head and took another step back. "No. That can't be."
Trixie frowned. She knew where this was going to go.
But she didn't want to go there.
"Please come home, Maze," she said, her throat growing thick. She knew this wouldn't fix anything, but she had to say it. She needed Maze to hear it. "I miss you."
The words brought tears to her friend's eyes.
"Why are you doing this? This manipulation? Why are you pretending to be my friend?"
Trixie looked down at her shoes, caked in ash.
"Because I am your friend. I'm not pretending. I'm not manipulating you. I've been Trixie my whole life. I made it so I'd remember I was her, and not be mostly God for a while."
"But... why?" Mazikeen asked, her voice cracking.
Trixie let out forced breath, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Because I wanted to be close to my son."
Mazikeen didn't answer for a long while, drawing Trixie's gaze.
"You mean Lucifer?" Mazikeen asked, her voice rising in disbelief.
God nodded.
And her best friend laughed at her - an abrupt sound without warmth or joy.
It hurt.
Mazikeen's words grew sharp with spite.
"The son you flung out of Heaven and exiled here? The son you refused to talk to for millennia?! That son?!"
Trixie frowned, her gaze dipping. "Yes."
Mazikeen took a step forward, her body shaking in a growing rage.
"The son you decided to remake into a perfectly obedient angel who beat me up, tore me from a home I was trying to make, and tossed me here like trash?"
Trixie looked at her through a sudden rush of tears.
"I never wanted that to happen, Mazikeen. And he's back now - he's okay and everything's better!"
Her friend said nothing.
And God continued the fruitless dance dictated by the form he wore.
"So I'm here to fix it now - I'm here to take you home!"
Mazikeen's eyes blazed in anger.
She stepped closer still.
"This IS my home now, Maker," she growled. "I was given the throne and I have accepted it. This is my realm now. And I will let none take it from me."
Trixie closed her eyes and let her tears fall.
That was it then.
She would not force her friend to follow. She would not change her friend's mind.
She done that too many times to count, to so many.
It was time to stop.
"And you, Maker, or Trixie, or whoever you present yourself to be - you are NOT welcome here."
The voice that spoke those words broke.
God opened a young girl's eyes and looked up into a demon's, wet with grief and pain.
"It doesn't have to be like this, Maze," Trixie said softly.
The ground under her feet began to rumble.
Cracks appeared, tearing through the baked land towards her - the sound of them split the air like gunfire.
Mazikeen looked about herself, her brow furrowed. Grimacing in effort, she flattened her hands towards the ground.
"Stop!" she cried, looking back at Trixie in something close to panic.
"It's okay," Trixie said softly, as the cracks widened beneath her feet. She stepped to one side where the land was still stable, but the cracks shifted to chase her. Jagged points of obsidian thrust up through the widening chasms towards her.
"I'm not doing this!" Maze cried, reaching out to Trixie, striving to take her hand as the ground pitched violently and shuddered.
Trixie nodded with a thin smile. "I know."
The ground gave way beneath her feet - she fell briefly, before rising back up to stand on nothing, her sparkly sneakers suspended over the dark depths below. She side-stepped the obsidian blades that followed her, then rolled her eyes with a little sigh.
"Lilith, stop it."
The quaking worsened. The ground groaned thunderously as it crumbled away beneath her. Mazikeen stood then, atop the only spire left of untouched earth, her eyes fixed on Trixie in shock.
"Lilith?" she whispered.
Beyond them, across the vista that was the plain and the jagged, distant peaks spewing pulsing waves of steaming red, the land continued to undulate and break.
And from that land rose a form, larger than all the far mountains combined - the form of a woman slowly sitting up, her head topped with cascading waves of brilliant lava, her eyes and mouth closed, defined by now vertical valleys and hills. Her shoulders rose, shedding tumbling boulders and great clouds of ash. Arms larger than cities lifted from the bedrock, followed by hands of earth ending in nails of sharply curved obsidian.
The woman's massive head rose, and the valley floors cracked where her eyelids would be.
And orbs of molten flame opened, and narrowed.
At Trixie.
So, this is tremendously AU now, but something I'd planned since Mazikeen began wielding Hell as a weapon. I knew just where Lilith was, and what she was, and how she'd come to be so. More of that is revealed in the next chapter.
I've got to say, without spoiling too much of the revelation in Season 5a, that I felt that the show's treatment/version of a certain someone came up short. Not all of it, just the end of it. That's all I'll say. :)
Thanks for reading, and for the comments! That was lovely! I've got the next chapter finished and there are a few more to go. It's lovely to be writing again. :) Take care.