iCarly: iMeet the Relatives: Chapter 27: Decisions

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I don't own iCarly.

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Chapter 27: Decisions

Spencer's bedroom: The pair on the bed lay face up, on opposite sides of the bed, as far away from each other as they could get. "That…didn't happen," said Jillian.

"Exactly."

"No way it could have happened."

"I completely agree."

She turned her head to look at him, her dark hair fanning out on the pillow. She was once again nude, but this condition did not seem to be apparent to either of them. "What in Grief's name are you even talking about?"

"I…have no earthly idea."

"What are we doing in bed together? And why are we naked?"

"I…don't know." There was puzzlement in his voice.

She thought for a minute. "Well, for Grief's sake, let's not waste it." And she rolled over onto him, hungrily.

….

Grif reached the hurtling missile first, flying in front of it. As though they'd practiced the maneuver, he and Devlin moved on either side of the nuclear warhead. Devlin grabbed hold of the missile forward fins, bending them in flight. The missile's directional system attempted to correct its course, and Grif moved to strike.

He might not know exactly how to disarm such a missile, but he did know one sure way of disarming it, one that only an Immortal like himself could do: while Devlin steadied it, he reached in through the shielded walls, through the lead sheathing, grabbed the plutonium core and hauled it bodily out of the warhead. Then he headed skyward.

Two hundred fifty miles above the Earth: he shot passed the International Space Station faster the Station's sensors could detect him, and, as if throwing a baseball, wound up for the pitch, and hurled the radioactive core into deep space. Then, aiming his sword at the core, he spoke one word, a word that no human should ever hear, and no human ever would, hear in the silent emptiness of space.

The core lit up like a star.

….

Spencer's bedroom: "I'm a lousy excuse for a demon." They were once again side by side, nude, but this time, they were much closer, and the fingers of her left hand were intertwined with the fingers of his right.

Spencer sighed and closed his eyes. They'd already had this discussion. It looked like they were about to have it again. "You are not." He closed his grip, tightening up on her hand.

"How would you know? Whaddayou know about demons?"

"I know a few things about one."

"You don't know what you're talking about. Here I am, after all this time, an' I still haven't collected my first soul. I'm a laughingstock back home."

"So why go home?"

She looked up at him. "What?"

"Why go home? If you don't like it there…"

She sighed, and lay back. How to explain this to him? "It's complicated, Spensie. Like I told you, I'm really not like any life form you've ever even imagined. My kind actually live outside of what you'd call normal time. My natural environment is…well, let's just say it's very different from here."

He rolled over towards her. "You could," he suggested, "move. Relocate. Couldn't you?"

She thought. "I…I guess. I mean, there's nothing that says I have to go back to….oh, no." Her eyes widened as her senses informed of what he was feeling at that moment. "Spencer…you can't possibly be feeling what I sense you feeling."

He ran his fingers lightly across her belly. Demon or not, she felt a thrill at his touch. "Why can't I?"

"Because. Because I'm a demon from Hell, Spencer! You can't be falling in love with me!"

"And again I say, why can't I?"

She looked away. "That's just the sex talking. You don't really feel that way. You can't."

"We guys aren't quite that simple. Yeah, sex is great, but it can be a gateway to something bigger. Some men never go through that gateway, but just stop outside and admire the scenery.

"But I wanna go through. With you."

She threw an arm over her head. "You don't what you're letting yourself in for." She moaned softly. In all her Earthly centuries of life, she'd never really felt this way, about anybody. What was going on here? "I'm an Immortal spiritual predator that collects souls. I get…I guess the best word is 'nourishment' from the feelings of others. It's not a have-to kind of thing, but it makes me…stronger.

"Happier, even."

He moved up close to her. "Then be happy with me." He moved his face towards hers.

"I….Oh, Grief." His lips closed on hers in a kiss.

Demons are not very good at resisting temptation.

"So it's not from Brittney's world?" Devlin asked. Grif repressed a smile at the barely-heard undercurrent of relief in the ninth circle demon's voice. Devlin was doing his best to resist a superior force. Any lesser being would have already caved.

"No. We've haven't identified which world it's from, but it's safe to say it's not from any human-occupied planet. Neither was that crystalline creature." The monster over Lake Superior had finally succumbed to the combined attack from the three angels, but, like the creature Grif and Devlin had fought, it had taken way too much power to subdue it. More so than it should have. The lake itself had finally been purged; the contamination hadn't been as widespread as they'd feared, and the two human scientists were busy gathering their samples. The question both the demons and the angels were asking themselves was: were these monsters somehow being deliberately created to fight supernatural beings such as Grif and Devlin? If so, it bespoke of a bigger problem than mere "leakage" from the Darkness.

It implied the Darkness was actively and intelligently working to defeat its primary foes. It implied a Mind.

And there was no word on where the missile had come from. Even Jemiah's contacts with the Air Force had revealed nothing. It was like the missile had come out of nowhere.

….

Near the border of California and Nevada, something very strange was happening. Something strange, but also, to those who knew, something very familiar. Frighteningly so, in fact.

Nearby residents saw a spot of unnatural darkness form over Death Valley. It was not a tornado, as many thought, but a spot of darkness that formed out of a clear sky. Several farmers and ranchers saw it from a distance, and thought it a tornado, although they couldn't account for its appearance from nothing. Concerned but not truly worried, they reported the matter to the National Weather Service…

…..

Seattle: the Columbia Building: "It's happening again," said Jemiah grimly. Both Grif and Devlin looked up in alarm.

Once again, the three-dimension image sprang into being, this time showing the manifestation on dry land. "We need to be more proactive. We can't have these things materializing over populated areas. I can only imagine the body count if one of those crystalline monstrosities had hit a city. And we certainly don't need any more unknown missile attacks. Our own reinforcements are en route. Devlin, what about your people?"

"I'll contact Uncle Darian. I'm sure we can spare some troops."

Carly and her group looked on, almost incredulously. Something was happening, something of such an urgent nature than even the forces of Heaven and Hell, natural enemies, were actually working together to stop it.

Grif turned to Carly. "Carly, there is something you can do. You have that web show; it's got a lot of viewers. They need to be informed about what to do should they see one of these things. Our own people have their own communications, but sometimes reports emanating from government circles don't get believed. Also, even for us, there's a certain amount of resistance. Plus we still don't know who fired that missile. But people need to know what's happening. Can you alert them to the danger, and what to do about it?"

"Of course! We'll get back to…"

"There's no time for that, and no need. We can set up everything you need here, and faster that you could make it home. Devlin and I have to go check out this latest intrusion." Adriel, Samael, and Remiel were still guarding the Lake Superior manifestation. So far, nobody had any good ideas as to how to vanquish the portals, if that's what they were. "We may have to go back into the Darkness to stop this thing." She saw Devlin squirm slightly, restlessly. Returning to the Darkness was nobody's idea of fun.

Shortly, Carly's warning went out over the web. The warning was simple: if you saw something like this; get away. Do not stick around for an Instagram pic. Emergency numbers, not limited to 9-1-1, were given, to alert the angels directly, though Carly deliberately did not specify "angels," preferring instead, to say "specialist authorities." "After all," she explained to Sam and Freddie, after the 'cast, "You can, I guess, only ask people to believe only so many impossible things before breakfast. And speaking of which, where's Brittney? I'm starving." Brittney had offered to prepare something for the others.

Carly happened to see Sam, standing by the door. She seemed troubled about something. "Sam?"

"Ah, it's nothing."

"I know you better than that, Sam. C'mon. Level."

"Uhm." Then, "Do…do you really think they'll have to go back into the Darkness?"

"Hey, Carly…." Freddie's voice caught their attention, and prevented Carly's response. "Take a look at this."

Both Carly and Sam crowded around the laptop he was using. It was a different model than anything they were used to, but it was multi-format, so he had his choice of operating systems. He'd wondered, to himself, if "Crystal" could have been among them, given the angels' ability to traverse world-lines. But he'd seen no sign of that in the start-up menu. Even though he knew it was of no importance at the moment, he still wished he could find a copy of it somewhere. His natural technologically-oriented self was twitching at the thought of trying it out. "Look. See this graph?"

"Yeah. What am I looking at?" At that moment, Brittney entered the room, carrying a tray with assorted breakfast goodies on it. Carly noted that, for once, Sam didn't fall on the tray like a starving person. In fact, she seemed to approach the tray almost reluctantly, finally snagging a sausage-biscuit combination. And only one. Carly raised an eyebrow at her best friend, but Sam either pretended not to notice or truly didn't notice, one of the two. "So what does this graph show?"

"The interconnectivity of the web. Think of it like, like the circulatory system in a human body. This," he gestured at the screen, "is out of whack. See here?" He pointed at one dip in the graph. "These normally average out, but this decrease is markedly lower than it's ever been. See?" He brought up a comparison graph from last month. It showed a decrease in information flow, but nothing like what they had experienced this month.

"So what does that mean, Freddie?"

He chewed on a knuckle. "Not exactly sure. But there's a drop in information flow. It could be due to any number of reasons…but what worries me the most is, it all happened, it all started, just about the time you guys got drawn into the Darkness.

"I can't believe that's a mere coincidence."

Spencer's bedroom: "Spencer, you can't be serious!"

"As a heart attack. Which is probably a really good way of putting this." The two of them were still in bed, still nude, and currently locked in each other's embrace.

"But….but….we don't even have that custom!"

"So?"

She thought. Well, she had to admit, that wasn't really that big a deal; demons frequently adopted the customs of the people among whom they lived and worked. It just made sense.

But this….! "You don't know what you'd be letting yourself in for!"

"Haven't we had this discussion? Seems like we have."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. I'm a demon. Demons and humans just don't mix! Haven't you paid attention to your own mythology?"

"We mixed pretty well last night."

"That was just the sex. Which, I'll grant you, was the best I've ever had. But still, just the sex."

He curled a finger under her chin and raised her face to his. "It was more than just the sex. Yeah, that was great. But we both went through a whole roller coaster of feelings and emotions last night. I've never had that happen before. Have you?"

"No…."

"And didn't we get through it?"

"Yeah…" She remembered him comforting her when she was down. That had been a nice feeling. She'd never experienced anything like that before. He'd just held her, without any sexual element, just held her pressed up against him. It had been a completely new experience for her: somebody who actually seemed to genuinely care about her.

Being comforted was a new experience for her. And demons live for experience.

….

Death Valley: Grif and Devlin arrived just in time to see the swirl of dust emerge from the column of Darkness. It seemed almost without form, but as with the crystalline entity over Lake Superior, there was a tangible aura of malevolence, and what could only be called a kind of hunger emanating from the thing. They paused briefly, relaying the image they were seeing to their respective high commands—and, without another word, either spoken or 'pathed, attacked.

If this creature (if creature it was) was like the others, they'd have their work cut out for them.

Spencer's bedroom: Jillian was extraordinarily busy kissing an enthusiastic Spencer when she stiffened, suddenly. "What is it?" He asked, concerned.

She looked off. "Something's happening. Something's happening here." She got up, her uniform materializing around her. She gestured; her trident flew into her outstretched hand. "I've gotta go check it out."

"Alone? Hadn't you better call the others? Or have you already?"

She shook her head. He couldn't help but think how cute she looked, with her hair tousled like it was. Even as he watched, it rearranged itself, returning to its usual perfect state. I bet that saves a fortune on salon bills. "They're busy. This is happening now." She turned to him. "But you can help. Contact your sister; I think she's at the Columbia Building, right in the heart of angel territory. Tell 'em something's up. I, I gotta go." And with one last, longing look at him, shadowcloaked from his sight.

The wreckage of the parking garage which corresponded to Brittney's apartment complex had been cordoned off, but she 'cloaked in past the "do not cross" tape. Immediately, she spotted the anomaly: not another "tornado," but a shimmering in the air just above the rubble. As she watched, things began to emerge.

To human eyes, they would have looked like human troops from various ages past, clothed in all sorts of ancient and modern uniforms and armor. But to her senses, they were in no wise human. Something about them had been inextricably altered; they were no longer human in any sense of the word.

"Stop right there," she ordered, hefting her trident, charging it. She didn't for a moment believe they'd actually stop. They might not possess enough humanity left to understand the words.

But stop they did, the lead ones staring at her with unnerving intensity. C'mon, Spensie, let the others know we gotta situation here.

The foremost being looked at her unblinkingly. Then, who are you? And why do you oppose our righteous cause?

Demons don't sweat, but Jillian felt as if she could start right then and there. Who was she, anyway? Nobody. Not even a first-circle demon. Just a lava pit guard who'd failed at that, too.

But she knew you never let the enemy see your weakness, and indecisiveness is a weakness. And she was discovering something: people don't go to war to defend the ideals of their country. They go to war to defend their loved ones, the lives of those they care about. She thought about Roger. She thought about Spenser.

"I…I'm Earth's guardian demon," she said, finally, tightening her grip on her trident. "No one gets past me."

To be continued….