As Schmendrick said in The Last Unicorn: "There are no happy endings, because nothing ends..." But, this particular story must wrap up here, with Azazel's Epilogue. Azzy may have given up on corrupting Kurt, but that doesn't mean he's no longer out to get him, or to claim the fealty he wanted from him - in the cruelest way possible.
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Epilogue
In a realm out of time, in a dimension as isolated as it was barren, Azazel lounged on his stony throne.
A flickering image wavered gently before him: a wall of light projected down from the high, craggy ceiling. From the side, the holographic projection seemed little more than a thin white line of glowing energy, barely a centimeter thick. But, viewed from the front, the image was as clear and encompassing as a window.
A window that looked out into another world...
"You are still here, Master?"
Ydrazil's slow, surprised voice rumbled from the room's arched doorway, his hulking figure nearly invisible in the relative darkness behind bright projection.
"Mephistopheles is waiting for you to cross with him into Your Earth."
Azazel lifted his head, but kept his golden eyes fixed on the 'screen'.
"Oh, Ydrazil," he said. "Come here, my boy. I wish to show you something."
Ydrazil cringed, but did as he was bidden, lumbering silently across the room to lurk behind his master's throne.
Azazel nodded toward the projection, a small, surprisingly tender smile stretching his dark goatee.
"I'm planning to visit them tonight," he said. "A singularly handsome-looking pair, don't you think?"
Ydrazil leaned closer, squinting at the images in confusion.
The scene in front of them looked like footage shot by a hand-held camera, somewhat shaky and unprofessional. Whoever held the camera had it aimed up at the lower branches of a large tree, where two small children were happily climbing and swinging.
A slender, female hand came into the shot, beckoning the children down, and they leaped to the ground with astonishing agility, their dark skin, long tails, and pointed ears appearing bright blue in the sunlight. Still, so many in Azazel's realm sported those same features, if they had any special significance here, Ydrazil missed it.
Azazel grinned proudly, his glowing eyes following the boys as they joined a laughing man with similar features setting plates out on a red-and-white checked picnic cloth. Only, his blue skin appeared fuzzy, and his hands had just three fingers each.
"The boys are twins, you know," said the ancient mutant, his red tail swaying. "A fortunate happenstance, I would say, considering their parents aren't getting any younger..."
Ydrazil frowned, wondering if he should risk asking why they were watching this, when the camera seemed to zoom in until the laughing man's face filled nearly the entire screen.
"M-Master," the hulking mutant gasped in recognition. "Isn't-Isn't that—?"
"The one who got away?"
Azazel chuckled, his eyes bright with surprising good humor.
"Or, so he thinks... The feed from the microchip I implanted in my daughter-in-law's temple is working perfectly, wouldn't you say? Even after seven years. I must admit, I'm impressed. I really should commend those boys and girls in the lab."
"But, Master," Ydrazil said, "why would you go to visit him? He hates you!"
Azazel laughed.
"Ah, my thick, foolish Ydrazil, you see the world in such stark tones. No, my Kurt doesn't hate me. He distrusts me, he despises me, he resents me, and he rebels against all I stand for, but he certainly doesn't hate me."
He leaned forward in his throne, his gleaming eyes calculating as they followed the roughhousing twins.
"But, I am not traveling to my Earth to visit him. And, I don't intend for him to see me."
"Huh?" Ydrazil scratched his head. "But...?"
"I am going to meet my grandchildren. Tonight, after their loving parents have tucked them safely into their beds."
Azazel smiled broadly, clearly reveling in the anticipation.
Ydrazil's confusion only deepened.
"But why, my lord - if I may be so bold," he stammered. "Of what use could two children be to you?"
"Children don't stay children forever, Ydrazil," Azazel chided him. "These happy youngsters will one day grow into restless teenagers: naïve, impressionable, pigheaded, and most of all, desperate to assert their independence from overprotective parents too old and world weary to fully appreciate their frustrations. But, I will show them understanding; offer them the freedoms they desire. And they will come to me. They will choose me, of their own free will, and when they do..." He rubbed his taloned hands together. "Oh, my boy, when they do, I will have revenged myself upon my insolent son once and for all."
The demon tilted his head back and began to laugh, a cold triumphant cackle.
Ydrazil hesitated, but joined in, still not quite sure he understood his master's plan.
"Then...why go now?" he inquired cautiously. "Why not wait until they are teenagers?"
"And have them shy away like sheep from a wolf?" Azazel barked another derisive laugh and shook his head. "No, I must approach them now, and in disguise, while they are still too young to understand my position. After all, what self-respecting parents would believe their children's tales of the boogieman in the closet?"
"Boogieman?" Ydrazil snorted.
Azazel shot him a look.
"Yes, I will have to play the clown for a while," he admitted with some distaste. "Fairy tales and shows of magic - that's the best way to earn a child's trust...without raising the suspicions of their parents. But, I will build on that foundation, nurturing it as they grow. And, when I do reveal my true self, my true power...my grandchildren will be all the more eager to join me."
He smirked darkly, then sighed.
"That is where I went wrong with my Kurt, I know," he said. "I allowed him to remain in the care of Margali, thinking a sorceress such as she would be too concerned with keeping her place on the Winding Way to nurture a fuzzy, blue child. But, to my surprise, she left the Way in favor of raising her children, completely ruining my son with notions of 'forgiveness' and 'love'. By the time I finally returned to claim him, he had already found acceptance with his team of deluded do-gooders and it was too late to undo the damage."
Azazel bared his fangs, and slammed his fist on the arm of his throne.
"I will not make the same mistake with my grandchildren. Their potential is far too great to be lost to the forces of good."
Ydrazil nodded, but before he could say anything, a tall, dapper man in a tailored business suit approached from the shadows behind the screen.
"Father," the man said in Mephisto's voice, "the doorway to your Earth closes in three minutes. What is the hold up?"
"There is no hold up," Azazel told him sharply. "You simply have no patience. Are you prepared for your mission?"
"Fully," Mephisto assured him stiffly. "But, with respect, we must leave now if I am to be on time for the meeting to get that videogame we designed on the shelves."
Azazel hit a camouflaged button on the side of his throne, then stood, striding through the holographic projection as it flickered and faded away. He activated the image inducer at his belt and held an arm of his elegant suit jacket out to his similarly disguised son, indicating the arched doorway.
"After you," he said.
Glancing back at the cringing Ydrazil, he snapped, "You are not to discuss what we talked about with anyone, is that understood?"
"Yes, Master," the hulking mutant assured him quickly. "I wouldn't dream of it."
"Good," Azazel said, and smiled, turning to follow his son from the room.
Ydrazil watched them go, then sat heavily on the stone step in front of his master's throne, staring at the empty space where the images of the happy family had flickered only a minute before.
A shared picnic under the trees, out in the sunlight...
It had seemed a scene out of paradise to the scarred, brutalized demon and, for a moment...a brief moment...Ydrazil felt something... A strange stab of pity for those smiling children, that laughing man...
A confused burst of panic quickly pushed the unfamiliar feeling aside, but Ydrazil was still left shaking, and very, very frightened.
It was wrong to question Azazel in anything, especially in matters of family. If Azazel thought it best to lure those children from their parents, it was best and that was all there was to it.
Feeling slightly calmer, Ydrazil strode to the corner and picked up his mop and bucket, washing away his doubts as he scrubbed at the stones of his master's throne room.
Before long, his conversation with Azazel had faded away...along with his memory of the two smiling boys...
~fin~
And that's it! Stay tuned now for the concluding chapters of An Unsung Hero, coming soon! :D
