Part 4 - Resurgence

Chapter 68 - Possession

Gwen felt utterly useless at this point. She and Miles were sitting on top of the skyscraper, it being a Friday. They were watching as civilians charged towards a police blockade. Miles wondered if he should intervene, but the police officers lowered their shields and joined in the rioting, taking point as they pushed towards the back-up line of military personnel.

"It scares me to see just how fragile peace and justice are." Gwen breathed.

"The Empire was always unstable; people just needed a push."

"This is just the start. The worst is yet to come."

"Lucifer's power isn't infinite. The Scarlet King can take him on."

"Lucifer has the Crucible. Miles, this is all just humans fighting humans. When the last of our kind turn against him he'll resort to his own army. An army of the dead."

"He can resurrect them?"

"It's the army that started the Empire, but was retired when enough dimensions were brought round. And they're mindless drones, not people."

"Remember how Helltreader could raise the dead? Is it like that?"

"I think they're more susceptible to dying a second time. Helltreader never really used his."

"He didn't really have a need for an indestructible army. After we flattened his citadel he was just running."

"What will we do about it?"

"We'll keep fighting until the devil is dead and the Empire is wiped from the map."

There was silence for a few moments before Gwen took her leave, claiming she could feel the Plate welling up. Miles was left wondering about splitting her from the pPate. The last time, the operation was performed by the Quintari; but the Quintari were gone. Since it was a Plate, only someone worthy could touch it. Did that mean he would have to do it? No, Stanley and Lisa would probably find some wacky way of performing the operation...but what if they couldn't? The Quintari were the only people who could do it; Miles just needed a way to get them all back. Was the Animator capable of rebuilding an entire star system? Gwen had said its powers were beyond bringing back a single human. He sighed, taking a leap off the building and swinging past the riot. Suddenly, his spidey sense alerted him to a scream down an alley somewhere nearby. He landed at the entrance, readying himself for a fight. The alley was quite dark in the dying light. A pair of rats scurried away as he came closer. The alley opened up into a small area where the buildings met in the centre of the block. Miles looked down each of the four directions: nothing. Although, he must have missed something as a few seconds later he couldn't move. There was a quiet laughing from the shadows. Miles tried to turn his head, but couldn't.

"Mr Morales, I expected so much more from you. Gwen would be so disappointed to see you like this."

The person came into his field of view: Lucifer, the Emperor himself. He felt something sharp touch his throat and suddenly he was able to move again. He wanted to fight, but his spidey sense told him not to. However, he decided to ignore it, kicking the person behind him and trying to fire a web up to escape. The web snapped, the blade came to his throat again and two people held his arms out, pulling them so hard he wondered if they would be ripped off.

"I wouldn't try that again, if I were you. We both know what I can do and I'd hate to have to hand you back to your dear wife in a hundred pieces. Of course, that's if my demons don't get you first. That's a demon dagger against your throat, and they nip quite a bit."

"What do you want with me?"

"With you? What makes you think I want something with you and not just you?"

"What?"

"Oh come on, Morales. You don't think I'd come this close to a bunch of rioters just for a little chat, do you? I want your body."

"Err..."

"Not in that way; I'll leave that to your dear wife or that Chelsea girl. Now I have a question for you: what do you truly desire?"

Miles felt as if someone was pulling his brain apart, looking for a needle in a hay stack. He tried to fight it, but Lucifer's power was far beyond his mental capacity and his defences broke.

"I want...Gwen...back. I want to have a family with her, grow old together, live in peace."

"A reasonable demand. But do you think she'll want you again after this?"

He was kicked in the the back of the knees and fell over. Lucifer stood over him, as did a man holding a dark, curved blade. He guessed the blade was the demon dagger the devil had mentioned a moment ago. Lucifer's eyes glowed red; Miles felt fear flooding him as the other man knelt down and placed a hand on his forehead, seemingly trying to crush his skull from how hard he squeezed. The spider cried out in pain and thrashed around. Suddenly, the man collapsed. For a moment, Miles thought he was being rescued, but then he blacked out.

Nobody had seen Miles for over a day, so it was quite the shock when he walked into the council meeting. Gwen had been invited to this one, since trying to find him had been on the agenda. She frowned; something wasn't quite right but she didn't know what.

"Right then..." Muttered Edward, trying to look professional as he handed everyone a sheet of paper with things to be discussed, crossing out item one with a pen.

"First things first, the riots are going really fucking well." Said Miles, looking down the sheet with an expression resembling disgust.

"They are, but that can wait for AOB."

"Well then, what about this fleet? Where do we plan to get the crews and things?"

"I was thinking former SGC crew. Many work with the home fleet."

"They'd probably be happy to serve under you again." Added Miguel.

"That's the hope."

"The ships need designed first. We could set Stanley and Lisa on it?" Gwen suggested.

"They can probably come up with something."

"Maybe we shouldn't use Reaper metal. That stuff is shit; it's heavy and expensive." Said Miles.

"It's also what we have the most of."

"Ah, fuck it. What's the next thing?"

"The next..."

Teresa butted in.

"I think that's everything, unless anyone has any other business?"

Edward shrugged, confused as to why she was stopping things.

"Nothing? OK, that's us done I guess."

Miles stood up and yawned.

"Good. That lasted far too long anyway. So Gwen, wanna go have some fun?"

Gwen hesitated for a split second then nodded.

"You go ahead; I'll meet you."

He winked and left, screwing up his copy of the agenda and throwing it on the ground. When he was gone, Edward gave Teresa a questioning look to which she responded:

"Something isn't right with him."

"What makes you so sure?" Asked Miguel, equally confused.

Gwen stood up to explain before the commander could.

"Four things. First: Miles would have apologised for not keeping in touch. Second: Miles has nowhere near that amount of confidence. He's confident, definitely, but not that much. Third: Miles doesn't swear like that. He says 'crap' sometimes, and I've heard him say 'shit' on two occasions at most, but never casually. Finally: Miles would not openly imply he wanted to do the thing with me."

"And what makes you so sure of that? Had experience?" Teased Teresa.

"We had a kid, you idiot."

"Then the question is what happened to him?" Said Edward.

"I think he's been possessed by a demon."

Miguel frowned.

"If that's the case, what do we do about it? I don't know about you but I'm not an exorcist."

"If the demon takes over someone else then Miles is dead. A normal exorcism means the same. As far as I'm aware there's only a couple of records of people having demons driven out and surviving."

"How did the person do it?"

"It's not so much how, but who. I've worked with literal Satan, I think it's time to work with the other end of the stick."

"You're gonna say Jesus." Teresa concluded.

"Exactly."

"How do you plan on getting Jesus to fly down, and cast out a demon?" Enquired Edward.

"I don't. Hopefully we can find a way into Heaven."

"Try becoming an angel and dying." Teresa suggested, pulling a pistol out of her pocket and starting to clean the barrel. "Of course, whether you somehow become an angel or not, we still need to incapacitate him."

She flicked the safety to off. Gwen narrowed her eyes, wondering what the commander was planning.

"I think a taser would be better than that."

"It's loaded with tranq bullets."

"You better not hit him anywhere important. In fact, give me it; I'll do it."

"No you won't. You'll probably end up telling him all our plans and kissing him cos he won't do it otherwise. I'll take the shot."

"Your history of being able to take a shot isn't exactly great, either."

Edward coughed a little.

"I'm pretty good at taking shots. But that was vodka so...yeah..." He said with a grin.

The pair ignored him, waiting for the other to make a move. Gwen went to snatch the firearm, but Teresa grabbed her arm and twisted it. Miguel stood up to intervene, but wasn't fast enough. Gwen grabbed Teresa by the throat and slammed her against the wall, punching her in the gut hard enough to make her double over and drop the pistol. The Ethereal spider grabbed it, but Miguel grabbed her and pulled it from her hand.

"Enough. Edward, whether it's vodka or firearms, you can take this shot. These two can't get over their own self-pity enough to do it themselves."

Edward took the gun and sighed.

"Alright then."

Gwen struggled to get free as Edward left. Realising Miguel was just as strong as her, she gave up and shouted:

"Just don't kill him!"

Edward tapped the panel beside Miles' door. A second later, it hissed open. Miles grinned, thinking it was Gwen for a second, then frowned.

"This isn't personal, demon."

The ex-admiral pulled the trigger; a bullet, decorated with a cyan ring, burst from the barrel and struck the spider's leg. The wound didn't bleed, but Miles collapsed, unconscious. Instead of burying itself in his flesh, the bullet had turned into a cyan disc stuck to his skin. Edward knelt down and tapped his com badge.

"Your husband is fine, Gwen."

For a moment there was no response, then Miguel spoke from the other end.

"She left; the Plate was working itself up."

"Probably for the best."

While the Plate had been trying its best to seize the moment and take control, Gwen had decided not to waste the time. She was trying to think of any way at all to get to Heaven. With Sovngarde, there had been the portal at Skuldafn. With Hell, there was the portal in the Italian cave. So there had to be some way...she had it, but it was suicide. In 9001, the SCP Foundation had a site keeping an eye on an anomaly believed to be guarding the gates to the Garden of Eden. The only thing was, whenever someone got within a certain distance, they were killed instantly. There had to be a way past the Gate Guardian.

"This is such a bad idea..." Gwen said to herself.

Technically, it was night time; at least back at base. However, she was carrying Miles' incapacitated body, staring up at a monster that was all too familiar to those aware of the project and the films inspiring it. Protozilla 2.0 stared back at her blankly. Miles had called the original 'Fakezilla', but Proto sounded a little cooler. Of course, once this thing was put up against the Gate Guardian, it would be torn apart in a matter of seconds. Gwen just hoped she could get through the gate before it was. She began pressing buttons and flicking switches. A klaxon sounded and lights flashed as the artificial kaiju came to life. It shook itself as if it were waking up from a long sleep, taking in its surroundings. Gwen set the oversized warping mechanism into motion, selecting the desired location in 9001. She climbed onto Protozilla's back, carrying Miles, and fired a web at the console. She felt as though she was being crushed by an entire planet for a brief second before she, her unconscious husband and the monster burst out of temporal warp in view of a flaming creature of similar height. Protozilla saw its target and roared, charging forwards. Gwen leapt off, carrying Miles, and spread her wings behind her to form a delta. As Protozilla entered range, the Gate Guardian seemed to lunge for it without moving an inch. Gwen barrelled towards the gate at five times the speed of sound. The Guardian had just finished dissecting Protozilla when she crossed through into the Garden of Eden. She slowed down, coming in for a graceful landing at the foot of a hill. She looked behind her to see the Gate Guardian down on one knee. Confident it wouldn't pursue, she took a moment to take in a sight no human had supposedly seen for thousands of years. At the top of the hill were two trees; one bore a fruit not too dissimilar from an apple, the other like a pear. She sat down, suddenly feeling a calm she had not felt in many years, and held Miles in her arms.

"Why are you sad, my child?"

Gwen looked up, wondering who was speaking. An old man was standing nearby, both watching her but not.

"I want to show him this place, but he's been possessed by a demon. I need to find Jesus or God or someone who can help."

The man approached with an outstretched hand.

"Leave him here, Gwendolyn; he will be safe. Let us walk."

She had learnt that beings which knew her name without her telling them usually ended up being quite powerful, so she figured they were probably right. This was the Garden of Eden, after all.

It was almost half-an-hour later when Gwen and the man returned to Miles. He was still lying exactly where she had left him. The man knelt down and placed a hand on Miles' forehead.

"In the name of God, I command you leave this man."

Miles' body began to shake violently; the man stepped back as some sort of haze drifted away. A few seconds later, his body went still again. Gwen knelt down next to him and tapped a button in the middle of the bullet. The ring fell away and a moment later he opened his eyes. He looked terrified for a second, but then the calm that seemed to dwell in the Garden took a hold and he relaxed. Gwen pulled him into a hug as he sat up. After a few seconds, she turned to thank the man, but he had disappeared. This was all very strange...had she just spoken to a saint? Jesus? Or God himself? Or maybe he was none of those?

"Gwen? Where are we?"

She turned back to Miles.

"The Garden of Eden."

"What? How? Why?"

"You were possessed by a demon."

"That makes sense. The last thing I remember was having my head almost crushed by Lucifer and some other guy. There must have been some other people too, or maybe Lucifer was just trying to pull my arms off."

"You spoke to Lucifer? What did he say?"

"He asked me what I truly desired, made some dirty jokes. I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"

"Not that we know of, but you did try and get me to sleep with you."

"Oh...OK then."

Gwen hugged him again.

"Let's get back to HQ."

Crossovers in this Chapter

- Lucifer
- Godzilla (sort of)
- SCP Foundation