"The Wrath of Byleth"
Purgatory: an intermediate state after death for expiatory purification; specifically, a place or state of punishment wherein according to Roman Catholic doctrine the souls of those who die in God's grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit for heaven. (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. This was as close a definition as I could come up with for the place on the other side of the portal.)
With his eyes closed, Courage felt a stinging sensation race through his body, as if millions of ants were crawling over him, inside and out. Once the feeling was gone, Courage opened his eyes and gasped.
Professor Leonard Q. Stromwell was right. The place was difficult to explain.
From Courage's vantage point, the first thing he saw was a lot of white. The sky, or at least, where there should be a sky, was all white and kind of cloudy. The ground was a marble white and was level. A considerable distance to the right, the ground slanted upwards into a blinding white light. To the left, the ground slowly slanted downwards until it dipped down into a fog of black. In fact, a fog hid the horizon line and altered one's sense of distance.
Directly in front of Courage and Stromwell was a set of curved confines. Inside, spirits were walking around, sitting on the floor, and not doing much in particular. Stromwell knew that Abigail was inside one of those cages.
Courage suddenly realized that he wasn't breathing, yet he felt perfectly fine! He wasn't hungry or tired or hot or anything. He was just…comfortable! But then, a horrifying thought came to his mind. If the living Stromwell became a slow, dimwitted person when he left this place, would Courage become impaired once he left too?
Stromwell's voice snapped him out of his worries. "Come on. Let's go find her."
They made their way to the confines. Courage's rope kept him connected to his friends on the other side. When they reached them, Stromwell said, "Wait here," and disappeared to go check on each and every cell. As he waited, Courage looked around. There were not too many ghosts flying around here at that time. Most of them usually went directly "up" or "down" instead of going here. Still, a portal or two opened up here and there, letting a ghost in. Some ghosts stood by the rope and observed it curiously as well as Courage. The pink dog hoped with all his heart that they would all leave him alone. The moment he thought that, all the ghosts looked at Courage and slowly floated off.
Courage was rather creeped out by what just happened. Maybe they only read your thoughts when you concentrated really hard or…
"She's not here!" said Stromwell suddenly. Courage shouted with surprise and whirled around. Stromwell looked worried. "I looked in all the cells, but she wasn't there. Where could she be?" Stromwell's ghost wavered with anxiety and aggravation. Courage was beginning to feel sorry for the guy. "I must let the others know that we need more time."
With that, Stromwell flew back to the portal and stood before everyone in laboratory. "I need more time. Let out some more rope and keep those machines running as long as possible!"
"Right-o!" shouted Agent Barsby. Everyone else agreed as the Duck Brothers carefully allowed more rope to enter the portal.
Stromwell jumped back through the portal. He had to be careful he wasn't halfway between the two worlds for very long. Being caught between both realms, whether living or dead, was not a good idea. Stromwell tried when he first entered the portal for the first time with his wife. Just like Courage, a stinging sensation had raced through him, only it was more painful the longer it was kept there.
Stromwell followed the rope back to Courage. "I just don't understand," muttered Stromwell sadly. "Where could she be?"
Before Courage could answer, a booming voice interrupted them. The deep, bass voice sounded like a giant talking whale. It was so deep and sounded so sinister, almost like a whisper, that Courage could feel his insides quivering as his heart sunk into his stomach.
"Have you considered looking behind you?"
Stromwell and Courage spun around. When Courage laid eyes on the entity behind him, he let out a scream that made every ghost within earshot turn and stare.
The creature with the big, booming voice was about thirty feet tall, which was enormous compared to Courage's height. The being's skin was dark red and his body was bulging with muscles. Its feet and hands were equipped with curved claws, and it had a long, winding tail that looked like it belonged on a dinosaur. Its face was rather ugly, with large fangs, bat-like ears, and yellow eyes. The creature wore no clothing, which didn't really didn't matter since the gender was impossible to determine.
"Well, well, well," said the entity. It glared down at the two startled onlookers. "Just what I need to start my day. A familiar face and another living creature. I had a feeling you'd return, Leonard."
"Alright, Byleth," said Leonard Stromwell angrily. "What have you done with Abigail?"
"Calm down, little man," laughed Byleth. "I'm actually a little surprised to see you after all this time. Where have you been, you little sneak?"
"Oh, I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?" said Stromwell with a frown.
"Indeed," said Byleth. "Your precious Abigail is still here. I'm sure you'd like to know where she is, wouldn't you?" Stromwell crossed his arms and glared at Byleth. Courage could almost feel the anger emanating the ghost. "But maybe I should inform your little canine friend about who he's facing right now."
Before Stromwell could protest, the egotistical Byleth gave a brief description about himself. "I used to work for the big guy down there." He pointed down to the dark fog. "To make a long story short, I got kicked out for being 'too nice'. I tried going up there," and he pointed to the blinding light, "but they took one look at me and threw me here. Given my already mighty powers, I took control of this 'in-between-land' and kept it free of troublemakers. So far, no one has topped you and your wife for that honor." Byleth grinned an evil, nasty grin.
"Just tell me where she is," growled Stromwell.
"Oooh, touchy," mocked Byleth. "Very well. Follow me. I hope you have enough rope there, dog." Byleth laughed.
Worrying about if there was enough rope for Courage, Stromwell asked, "How far away is she?"
"Oh, not far," said Byleth. "It's just that, after a while, I decided to move her to some more…comfortable surroundings."
"What do you mean?" asked Stromwell.
"See for yourself," said Byleth, and he stepped aside to let Stromwell and Courage see.
Far away, Stromwell could see a tall stone tower that looked similar to Dr. Zalost's tower before it was destroyed. The difference was that it looked rather plain, had no giant steel legs or bulldozer wheels, and the only window was at the very top. Courage knew that Abigail must be up there.
"Byleth, you let her go this minute!" shouted Stromwell furiously.
"You fool," said Byleth. "Can't you see that would be breaking the whole 'damsel in distress' deal? Call me a sucker for clichés." Byleth laughed evilly.
Without a word, Stromwell began running quickly towards the tower.
"Better hurry!" shouted Byleth as Stromwell floated through the door. Byleth stared at Courage staring up at him with big frightened eyes. "What that fool is doing is pointless. When Abigail sees her husband is a ghost, she'll never accept him again, especially after he since he waited a whole century to finally save her. I wouldn't come back to him if I were her, which is a good thing, now that I think of it."
Byleth laughed again. Courage didn't know whether to believe him or not. A whine escaped his throat.
"Awww, are you bored?" asked Byleth is a fake sympathetic voice. "Well, here, let me get things rolling for you. All of you! Attack!"
Every ghost who heard that command suddenly stopped what they were doing and, as if in a trance, starting floating towards Courage. Courage screamed and began running away from them in terror.
"Bet you didn't think I had that much power, did you?" laughed Byleth.
Courage didn't get very far before he was yanked off his feet. He landed on his rear and suddenly realized he had run out of rope! He gasped as the ghosts continued to advance towards him. Their eyes glowed as their arms reached out to grab him.
Courage gulped and looked all around. He was horrified to learn that he was surrounded.
Inside the tower, Leonard Stromwell flew up the long flight of stairs until he came to a door. For a moment he wondered how he was going to open it. Then he remembered he could just float right through it. He entered the room and was shocked by what he saw.
Sitting in the middle of the room was a gray-haired old woman sitting cross-legged on a rug. She was surrounded by stone walls and a stone ceiling. Her brown-eyes glanced up and she gasped, not because she was seeing a ghost (she was used to seeing them by now), but because she recognized the face.
"Leo!" she cried.
"Abby!" responded Leonard.
In a rush of excitement, Abigail threw her arms around Leonard and landed flat on her face. She turned around and both of them realized that Leonard was a ghost.
"Leo, what happened?" she slowly placed a hand on her husband's cheek. It went right through him.
"A car hit me, Abby," said Stromwell sadly. "It's been a century back on Earth, but you don't look a day over eighty!"
Abigail smiled for the first time in a long time. "I guess time really does travel slower here." A tear trickled down her cheek.
"You're still alive," said Stromwell. "That means you can come back with me through the portal!"
"The portal?" asked Abigail with a shock.
"Yes!" said Stromwell excitedly. "It's a long story, but I managed to get our portal operational again! Come on, we need to get out of here. It won't stay open for very long."
"I can't" said Abigail.
"You can't?" repeated Stromwell. "Why not?"
"Because you're a ghost and I'm still alive. If we both go through that portal, you and I won't be able to live our lives the way we used to. Those agents might still be after the money. I know I wanted to give the money to them, but I don't care anymore, now that we're together again. They haven't found it, have they?"
"No, it's still safe," reassured Stromwell. He felt it was wise not to mention that four agents had helped him find his wife.
"That's good," said Abigail. "But if we did go back through, and I were to die, I would go straight to heaven, and you would still be stuck between worlds."
"You don't know that for sure. Even I don't know for sure."
"I only know that our lives would be miserable if we went back through that portal."
"But what are we going to do?" asked Stromwell to his wife. "I can't become a living being again."
Abigail sighed. Her head turned toward the window with no glass in it. "Then it looks like there's only one option left."
Stromwell knew what she was thinking. "Darling, don't…"
"I have to," she said sadly. "The only reason I haven't done it before is because there is an invisible barrier in the window."
"Hmmm, I wonder…" muttered Stromwell. He walked up to the window and put his transparent hand through it. "Now try."
Abigail stood beside her husband and placed her hand where she would normally feel a barrier blocking the opening. Now, she was startled to find that her hand went right through the window. She didn't feel any invisible barrier.
"I guess a ghost can turn off whatever barrier was blocking the window," said Stromwell.
Abigail looked down. It was about ten stories to the white ground below. She swung her leg over the side and looked at her husband. "I'm scared," she said softly.
Stromwell leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Don't be," he said.
Abigail swung her other leg over the side and tried to hold Stromwell's hand. Even though she didn't feel anything, she knew he was there. Her husband knew that everything was going to be alright.
She let go of Stromwell's hand.
Not far away, Byleth was laughing evilly as he watched the ghosts getting closer and closer to Courage. They were an arms length away now, and Courage was almost in tears with fright. He wanted to untie the rope, the one thing that was keeping him here, but then he'd never see home again. Courage closed his eyes, howled sorrowfully, and waited for the end.
Byleth was undaunted. "Good help is so hard to find these days." He then laughed and laughed as the ghosts finally reached Courage.
"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaa….huh???"
Courage opened an eye and realized that the ghosts were going straight through him! He wasn't in any danger at all! Courage was so surprised, he actually laughed and began dancing around the confused spirits.
"Curses," muttered Byleth. "I forgot these ghosts can't harm the living." He sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better check and see how Mrs. 'Dumb-well's husband is doing with…WHAT THE??!!"
Courage looked at the tower and was nearly as shocked as Byleth. The other ghosts also turned and stared.
There, at the bottom of the tower, lay the lifeless body of Abigail Stromwell. It lay face down on the marble white ground. Standing up from the body, was the startled ghost of Abigail Stromwell. She looked at her see-through hands as her husband floated down from the window to the ground.
"What have you done?!" yelled Byleth.
"It's over, Byleth," said Stromwell. "Abigail and I are together at last, so if you'd kindly step out of our way, we'll be on our way." He pointed behind Byleth to the bright light.
"HA! You think you can get away that easily?!" Byleth was furious now. His whole body glowed red and he seemed to grow bigger in size. "Need I remind you of what my powers can do?"
"Such as?" asked Stromwell.
"You may recall," said Byleth, "that I was absent when you escaped, Leonard. When I returned and saw you were gone, I was deeply angered by my lack of security. I went to San Francisco, but I couldn't find you. I grew so enraged, that I decided that if I couldn't find you, the entire city would suffer. Therefore, I forced the fault lines under the city to move and shake and quiver so mightily, that the entire city was virtually destroyed!"
Courage was almost as shocked as Mr. and Mrs. Stromwell. This creature was responsible for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake!
"It wasn't until several months later, during your death of course, that I knew you were dead. I couldn't wait to break the news to Abigail, but at the last minute, I decided not to tell her anything. I felt it would be more enjoyable to watch her suffer in her own worry.
And now, after all this time, I finally have both of you right where I want you." Byleth laughed deeply. Courage grabbed onto the rope for dear life as he slowly made his way toward the terrified couple.
"If it's one thing I hate, it's mortals who go mooching around in places they don't belong." He cast a death glare at Courage that stopped him in his tracks. "I was too late to have any fun with Leonard, but now I'm gonna have a little fun with you, dog."
Courage screamed as Byleth began playfully plucking at the rope. "It would be a shame if something was to happen to this lifeline, wouldn't it?"
"You leave Courage alone!" yelled Stromwell.
Byleth laughed. "Interesting name, I admit." With a wave of his hand, Mr. and Mrs. Stromwell were knocked to the ground. Byleth then walked up to Courage and stood at his full height. "You stupid dog," he said. "You think coming here alone with that ghost solves anything? Your whole involvement in this ordeal has been for nothing. After all this time, you won't have accomplished a thing." Byleth laughed as he cracked his knuckles. "Nothing can save you now!"
Courage would surely have passed out from fright and never wake up again if he hadn't seen something going on behind Byleth's back. Courage gasped as two green mists appeared in the air behind Byleth's shoulders. As the two familiar forms took shape, Courage couldn't help but smile.
"Nothing can save me, huh?" thought Courage.
Here comes the climax at last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!