"Where?! Where is he?!" Spectra tried to focus on the form buzzing around her head, "Where is Gabriolis?!"
Mondo and Rachna had dropped her off here, Doppelfanger's Mountain, as she had asked. Spectra wanted a few minutes to make sure her feelings were safely under control before she returned to the Upper Kingdom.
"Lucca? Is that you?"
"Yes! I need to find Gabriolis, right away! Where is he?!"
"He's...it's hard to explain. He's on the Earth now, but he's not..."
"Earth?! Oh...how am I gonna get there?!" Lucca popped all around the mountain top in frantic teleport jumps in his anxiety.
"Lucca! Calm down and tell me why it's so important you go to Gabriolis!" Spectra finally commanded.
"I need to get to Gabriolis, soon, or I will..."
"Yes?"
"Never mind! It can't matter to you!" Lucca lashed out.
"Lucca, I know you are a friend of my brother's. If you are in some sort of trouble, I will help you," Spectra promised, wondering as she did so if she could help a denizen of the Realm of Evil. "Why is it important that you find Gabriolis?"
"He...he's my Master," Lucca whispered.
"Master? Surely Gabriolis hasn't kept you in subjugation since he returned to the Light!" Spectra was appalled.
"No, nothing like that! Actually, he never did subjugate me, even when he was evil. Unlike others I could mention!" Lucca glared on general principles. "No...I mean, I am Gabriolis' Familiar. That is how he is my Master."
"Oh!" Spectra wondered at that. The Angels of Light didn't keep lesser creatures to do their bidding, but Spectra knew about Familiars anyway.
"So you need to find him and be near him or..."
"I will fade away. So please, Spectra, take me to where Gabriolis is! Unless...he doesn't want me around anymore..." Spectra wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a tear form in the imp's eye.
"Gabriolis is on the Earth, but he doesn't remember any of his life on Mon World right now. Seeing you would only disrupt...we are trying to free him from the last remnants of evil," Spectra finished.
"Oh. And I'm evil so that would include me. I understand..." Lucca turned as if he would go, then faltered out of the sky to land on the ground. "I can't return to the Realm of Evil though! As it is, I have to hide when I go there or they will kill me!"
"Why would they kill you? And why return at all if you don't want to?" Spectra asked, wondering that she felt such pity for the small evil creature. She reminded herself that he was Gabriolis' friend...and somehow that friendship had survived Gabriolis' return to good. There must be more to the imp than she realized.
"Oh...I had been one of Redda's army, but when he turned Gabriolis he wanted him watched. He commanded me to watch and report on Gabriolis' activity at all times, so I was forced to hang around with him."
Spectra smiled to hear the slight resentment in the imp's voice.
"Gabriolis wasn't exactly nice to me, but even though he threatened me a lot, he never did hurt me...unlike Redda. Since he was still more or less following Redda's orders, I didn't report it when he did things that weren't quite evil. Like letting Doppelfanger live, helping the Mon Colle Knights against that Eccentro guy or freeing a demon from a tar pit before he could sink..."
Spectra reflected that even though he had tried to become evil, Gabriolis' soul had never slipped entirely into Evil's clutches. It made her hopeful that he could somehow gain the peace they had sent him to Earth to find.
"How was I to know that by keeping Gabriolis' activities secret I bound myself to him as his Familiar?!" Lucca cried out. "But...I don't want to rejoin the Army of Evil either...so...they try to kill me whenever I return to the Realm of Evil."
"So why do you go to the Realm of Evil at all?"
"I can feel it as the days pass...I get weak, even if I am with Gabriolis. I have to return, for a few hours at least. I'm afraid if I don't...I'll fade away. Gabriolis isn't evil anymore, so staying by his side isn't enough...even though he is still my Master," Lucca explained. "If I stay away from Gabriolis for too long I get weak too. It was easier when he was still evil...but he is even nicer to me now than he was then, though I do miss being around him sometimes when he goes to the Upper Realm...since I can't go there..."
Spectra realized that her brother had partially pulled Lucca, evil imp though he was, from the thrall of Evil too.
"Come here," she commanded, opening her hand toward him.
Lucca looked up at her suspiciously.
"I won't hurt you!" she promised.
"No...you aren't going to do anything mushy, are you? Gabriolis was never mushy...even though I knew..."
Spectra smiled at the unfinished sentence, "Even though you knew he cares about you. How could I do less? He is my brother and you are his friend. I want to help you."
Spectra was surprised to see longing on the imp's face at her words, despite his protestations.
"Nothing mushy," she promised to make it easy for Lucca to accept her help. "In fact, it's not at all a nice thing I plan to do!"
"Really? But you are good..." as she had hoped, the lure of mischief brought Lucca to within her reach.
"Oh, it's still a good thing I'm planning, but nothing says I have to be nice about it!"
She lunged and grabbed Lucca from the air. "Poor little imp!" She couldn't quite cackle, but she did drop her voice, "Bound to evil and Gabriolis, caught in the middle of a tug-of-war! Let's loosen at least one of those bonds!"
Spectra brought her magic to bear on the imp. It wasn't hard at all to break his dependence upon the emanation of Evil, Lucca's desire to be Gabriolis' Familiar, despite his reluctant attitude, had almost broken it anyway. Of course, that didn't mean that being forcibly torn from that dependence didn't still hurt.
"There!" Spectra forced herself to behave as if Lucca's cries weren't tearing at her, knowing that Lucca would be mortified if she showed him the least token of sympathy. "But we can't have a rogue Familiar running free either!" she decided. She invoked a Spectral Field around the peak of Doppelfanger's Mountain. The new emanation supplanted the imp's dependence upon Evil, easing the pain that being ripped from Evil had caused. His sobs ceased.
"Until such time as Gabriolis comes to claim you, you are my creature now. You must remain here and watch over Doppelfanger. You may leave this field only with him and must remain with him when away from the peak at all times. If you try to escape, you will feel that familiar weakness until you return, for now you are dependent upon my Spectral Magic. Do you understand?"
Lucca, his eyes wide with shock, nodded. "You weren't nice at all!" he accused, then grinned, "I LIKE it!"
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