It's about Time
Chapter4
Kate had no idea where she was. It was hot but not overly so and all she saw was a lot of beige-colored land. It wasn't exactly sand since she was presently standing on some of it. It was more rock than sand. She could see green in the distance that she took to be trees but most of them were scattered. At the moment she was on an elevated area. She also didn't see anyone.
Though that wasn't completely correct, she saw something but it was white, besides looking really large as far as she could tell. First she had to get to it since it was down there.
It took her over an hour she estimated based on the movement of the sun. But she was finally reaching it. "WOW!" Now that she was here it really was big, like really big.
There was a head that was several times her size that just happened to be filled with teeth. Massive leg bones for all four limbs. Huge ribs but there was something that didn't make sense to her. "Are these wings?" They looked to be enormous based on her size. "This thing could fly?" It had to be hundreds of feet long easily. Then she found the tail. It only made it that much bigger.
"What the hell is this thing?" She was impressed with its size even if it did look like it had been dead for a very long time.
"Appropriate chose of words," a new voice called out. Immediately on guard, she turned to look and was ready to defend herself. It was a man. Maybe six feet tall if that. He wasn't bald but his hair was cut really close. He wasn't even remotely handsome though not totally ugly. He was dressed simply.
"Who are you?" She didn't recognize him and she remembered everyone she had ever met.
He chose to ignore her question for now. "It's a dragon. A red dragon to be precise. This one has been dead for thousands of years." He patted one of the bones as if he knew personally who it had been.
"Dragons don't exist, have never existed," Kate stated flatly. Dragons were only in movies and fantasy books.
"So certain of that, are you? What little you know, young one, so very little." He was going to fix that because he had plans for her. She just might be the one so he was going to test her first.
"Who are you again?" He hadn't yet answered her question.
"Your Master, young one."
Kate snorted in derision. "I have no master. I'm not your slut, now go away before you get hurt." She was sure she could take him if she had to, if he gave her cause to show him.
He moved so fast that she never actually saw him twitch so much as a muscle. Suddenly he had a very firm hold on one of her arms. Then right after blinking a couple times to make sure it was him that hold of her she felt the air rushing against her as the background blurred badly.
Then they stopped. They were next to a river, only this river was bubbling and was a dirty green color. "I most definitely am your Master, young one. My real name is known by only a few and most of those are dead. Permanently dead. You know me as Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, or just plain The Devil. I rule this land that you now reside in and you will do as I command.
"That or you can cross that river and stay on the island in Limbo until the end of time itself. Your choice." This was her only out that he was going to offer. If she didn't cross she belonged to him.
Kate looked at him closely. He didn't look anything like she imagined he would, if indeed he was who he said he was. Still how she had gotten here or even here here was something she couldn't explain.
"Say I believe you, which I don't, what do you want of me? I'm not overly important. I'm a nobody." She wasn't famous and if she was actually in Hell it meant she'd died which also meant she had failed.
"Oh, Katherine Houghton Beckett, I think you are capable of much. So long as you serve me. You served your German masters before but now you will serve me. Or you can go across the river." He left off the word decide and he meant to, but Kate heard it loud and clear.
Still she needed information. "And if I reject both those choices?" She knew she wasn't crossing the river if what he had told her was the truth. It was well known that the Devil could lie very convincingly, after all.
"Then you can spend the rest of time suffering ever increasing pain until your mind finally snaps long before you body gives up."
"Swell." Serve the Devil himself, go into Limbo until time itself came to an end, or let him torture her until her mind snapped. Hell of a choice. But then if she was in Hell, that was kind of the point, wasn't it?
"This doesn't look like Hell to me." It should be incredibly hot. Like suffering hot that should melt her body in an instant. A place with volcanoes and rivers of lava. Filled with demons that want to rip her apart and eat her alive.
Lucifer began to truly believe that she just might be the one. Any stupid evil person like some of those idiot mass murderers had instantly believed that he was indeed the Devil. Kate was still questioning him even though she knew what he could do to her.
He grabbed hold of her arm and he took her to Hell so she could see for herself.
Kate felt air hitting her and the background was totally blurred. When they stopped she could barely breathe. Every breath burned her throat and her lungs. After just one breath she held her breath and tried desperately not to breathe again. She also saw exactly what she expected Hell to look like.
There were numerous volcanoes spewing out smoke and lava balls that landed everywhere. She saw at least two rivers of lava and she saw creatures she'd never seen before running, hopping, and even flying.
Then suddenly she felt air rushing against her body and the background blurred yet again until she was right back where she'd been, standing next to the bones of what she had been told was a dragon.
Lucifer was again satisfied with her. She had clearly taken in a breath and found that it was not a hospitable place for her. …YET! She had also stopped breathing as she took in everything and processed it.
He didn't say a thing and simply looked at her, biding his time.
She was obviously dead, she had worked out that much. She really couldn't explain how he'd done what he had done. She had no idea where she even was or when in time she was located.
Still she knew she had no real choice, for now at least. "What do you want of me and why me?" Before she agreed she needed to know what he wanted.
Lucifer tilted his head, studying her, and said, "Why you? You are here because you are willing to kill. An act of evil by the way. Your last act resulted in the death of six people, one of which you killed by hand, and injured seven children and one adult who will never walk again. One of the dead was a five-year-old child that you didn't even blink about risking his life for your own."
Kate really only knew of the one death and none of the others. Regardless, their deaths meant very little to her. Her life was far more important than theirs.
"As for what I want we'll get to that. First I want you to meet someone." He grabbed her arm again and Kate felt the rush of air against her body. The background blurred so badly that she couldn't make out anything yet again. Until they stopped.
He moved his arm in a flourish, pointing at…something. "This is the last person that tried to be what she could be. She failed miserably. You may succeed, but first I need to make sure you are worthy so I have a test for you."
Kate looked at what she saw. It was definitely a person, or at least it used to be. There were no longer any bones. All she saw was the dust of what used to be a person. It looked like the body was actually burnt into the rock. Or maybe it was a ghost of a person embedded into the rock.
It told Kate that if she failed his test this was what was going to happen to her. Still she was already dead and it sounded like her future was even worse than death no matter what she did. She was doomed, unless she succeeded. It really only left her one choice whether she liked it or not.
"What do you want of me? What do you want me to do?" Kate would do it.
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The wind hit her body and the background blurred then it suddenly all stopped.
"In that house are two people, well three really but you only care about two of them. First there is Professor Tim McClellan. He works in a laboratory that is working with anthrax. You are to make sure he has an accident with the anthrax while working in his lab so that it exposes everyone in the building to it," Lucifer commanded.
Kate's brow furrowed as she thought. She really didn't know what anthrax was but knowing him it was deadly dangerous. Meaning when it was released it would be best if she wasn't in the building at the time. She had already died once.
"The other person is Amanda McClellan. She's twenty-six now, however when she was twenty-one she was captured and sold to a man in Thailand. When she was there he became her master and she was his slut. Then along came one of God's Angels to rescue her. Your job is to reintroduce her to the life of being a slut again. Now get to work." Lucifer vanished in a cloud reeking of brimstone.
"Angels?" Then she answered her own question. Of course there were Angels. If there was a Lucifer it only stood to reason that there was a God who had Angels. Now she had her first problem. She didn't know where his lab was and she didn't know where either of them were now. So she stayed hidden and watched.
The first to come out was the girl. She was about average height, short blonde hair that was cut really short in back, a nice body, and rather pretty. She went to the mailbox, took out the mail, and went back inside again.
Since she knew where one of them was she left to go implement her plan for the girl that she had created while she had been waiting.
She didn't know how but she knew just where to go to find them. It was a house that in this case needed a fair amount of help. Nothing like the house the girl and the man lived in. Still she was betting they would go for it so she knocked.
"Gentlemen, I have a proposition for you." She knew they would like it but first she had to get them to listen.
"We've got a proposition for you, too, bitch." Their response was all Kate needed to hear. It took a few minutes but she was the only one standing while the four guys that were in the house were lying on the floor moaning. They didn't have any broken bones but more than one was going to be talking soprano for a few hours.
Kate arched an eyebrow. "Are you gentlemen willing to listen now? Or should I explain the facts of life to you yet again?"
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They had a car but Kate wanted them to walk so there they all were outside of the house.
"Inside is a lovely, white, twenty-six year old woman who a few years ago used to be a slut that served her master faithfully. She did everything he ordered her to do. Fucked everyone she was told to. Then she was rescued and hasn't been very happy ever since. Your task is to go inside when she's all alone and make her your slut at your place.
"You BOYS think you can handle that? Or should I find a different gang? And if one of you BOYS even thinks I should join her I'm going to explain the facts of life to you yet again then find another gang that could really use a slut of their own." Kate glared at the four of them.
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Kate had left the four of them to plan when they should pick up their very own slut for their gang. She tried to ignore overhearing who was going to be first and whether her pussy or her ass was first. "Both at the same time, BOYS!" Kate called over her shoulder and kept walking.
While she liked sex as much as any woman, well maybe not as much as Amanda possibly, she preferred men to have sex with not BOYS who thought they were the best thing since sliced bread.
She had actually thought it was going to be harder to convince these lowlifes that they needed a slut for their gang and that she knew just the girl for them. Apparently explaining things to BOYS was easier than she'd thought. A REAL man would have been much harder. Though even all the supposed men she had met so far acted more like BOYS. Flash a little tit and they would all stumble all over themselves.
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The girl was still home she noticed as she staked out the house to watch the man come and go and work out where exactly he worked and when. His routine was like clockwork. Always left at the same time, got on his bicycle and rode for a few short miles, then took his bike inside. Day after day he never changed. What she never saw, though, was a wife. It was just him and his daughter. It told her that for him to be all alone and convince his young daughter that she wasn't a slut, when she clearly was, meant he was a real force.
She still had no idea what anthrax was, however, if Lucifer was involved it was a good bet that it was deadly when encountered. He'd die from an accident along with anyone else in the building while his daughter would return to being a slut.
She didn't have a problem with that in the least. If it got her out of Hell, she was all for it.
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She had worked out that his building required a code to enter so each day she got a number until she had all of them. Then when the building was empty she entered it on her own using the numbers she'd learned.
Thankfully none of the interior doors had locks. Unfortunately where they stored all of the chemicals was locked and she still didn't have any of her tools to open them. Still she had a plan.
She rigged three things to fail. She really didn't know what he did in there though she was betting the anthrax would be inside some glass. So if someone accidentally broke the glass it would release it and fill the space. Except to get it out of the tiny enclosed space meant there had to be another accident.
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Now that she was done she needed to find another restaurant that was closed for the evening. For the days that she was there she had chosen a restaurant to break into and use their kitchen to make dinner with. Her mother had taught her how to cook and she thought she was pretty good at it, so she wasn't starving during this task.
"You can cook," Lucifer remarked when he appeared.
"You almost sound surprised. …I'm only cooking for one so if you want something you're going to have to do it yourself." Kate went back to finishing what she was making.
Lucifer flashed a moment of anger. No one, literally no one, talked to him like that. Then it hit him, she was testing him. It had him chuckling instead.
"You did well, Katherine Houghton Beckett. The lab is filled with anthrax that is going to take them a long time to figure out how to get inside of. The girl is relearning what it is to be a slut." He was happy. The men and women inside the lab were dead and the girl had already serviced every member of the gang at least once. What happened once she was pregnant wasn't his concern.
"Time to go home." The Lord of the Underworld had things to do.
"Right after I finish cooking and eating." She wanted to enjoy this before going back to Hell.
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Kate was back in the desert again. Like before there were hills, mountains in the distance, and trees, if you could call them trees. What she didn't see was water. She really had no idea how long she had been there. She wasn't hungry and she wasn't thirsty. But she was really, really bored.
"Katherine Houghton Beckett." Kate heard his voice, turned to look, and saw Lucifer standing there.
"Where the hell have you been?" She was bored and she was mad. "Let me rephrase that." They were both in Hell. "It's about time you showed up, I'm bored." Being in Hell was, well it was like being in Hell.
"Good since I have a task for you. However, this one is going to be a real challenge for you." Lucifer proceeded to explain everything. "There is an alien race on Earth and they are new, only just arrived. No one really knows quite where they came from, but they're as old as the universe or very nearly. And they have the perfect defense system ever evolved. Quantum locked. They don't exist when they are being observed. The moment they are seen by any other living creature they freeze into rock. It's a fact of their biology. Any living thing, they literally turn to stone and you can't kill a stone. Of course a stone can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away. Then you blink and yes it can. That's why they cover their eyes. They can't risk looking at each other. Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen.
"Your task is to assist them in destroying humans on Earth. Each human they touch gets sent back into the past. They then feed off of the energy of time that that life would have had. The more they feed the stronger they will get."
Kate thought she was following. "Live statues except for when someone, anyone, sees them. Then they turn to stone." Except she instantly saw a problem with his plan. "I'm human, they touch me and I go back in time to where they aren't." This task was impossible.
"If you were always human, I would agree but you won't be. Human, that is." Lucifer wound up, concentrated, then fired something at her that hit her solidly. Kate screamed from the pain. It was almost enough to render her unconscious, it was that bad.
The pain eventually subsided. "What the hell did you do?!" She was pissed at him and pointed at him. But when she did all she really saw was that her arm, hand, and fingers were all on fire. Lots of fire. Except that it didn't hurt. Then she looked at more of her and saw that all of her was on fire. She didn't have a mirror but she could just bet her hair was on fire, too.
"What did you do?" She was going to stand out like a sore thumb looking like this.
"Now you are one of my minions, Dark Phoenix. You are commanded to accomplish your task. Just remember: don't blink, don't even blink. Blink and you are dead. They are fast, faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away and DON'T BLINK!" Lucifer vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Don't blink? HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO GET THERE!?" He had just up and left her here. "MEN, TYPICAL!" It had her going back to looking at herself and all she saw was fire. The madder she got at him for leaving her here only caused the fire to increase in strength.
"What do you expect me to do? Fly there?" Then suddenly her peripheral vision she saw more fire. She did her best to twist around to see. "I have wings!?" They were totally fire but shaped like wings and they were big. "I HAVE WINGS!"
She decided to see how they worked and soon found herself flying all over the desert area. From slow to really fast. "WOO HOO!"
She landed and looked around. "What else can I do?" She was living flame but could she shoot fire? After a number of tries and tests she could shoot a line of fire. A fan of fire and even shoot balls of fire. "COOL, I'm a hot babe! …This still doesn't explain how I get there!" Kate growled. "MEN!" They were all the same.