A/N: I'm sorry to say that we're in the endgame now, folks. This is the first of three more chapters before we conclude Best Beloved… but I have a surprise at the very very end! Stay tuned : )
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Chapter 16: In The End
Roselle and Sivah stood in the empty graces of the isolated room. It was cold from the harsh winter absorbed by the concrete floors and steel walls with no insulation. The owl did not shiver, and Roselle was warmed by their partners strangely cool warm embrace. It was almost as if Sivah adapted just for his comfort, and Roselle smiled. A certain imp was tied up in a chair, head sulking down as they snored. Styx was nowhere to be seen.
"Perhaps we should extort them." Roselle said as they ran a hand through their partner's feathers, recieving a grateful coo in response. It would be great to see what that old bartender has other than some facade about a gun."
"What else he has?" Sivah asked. "My dear Rose, he's a fucking bartender who pulls stories out of his arse. I highly doubt he would be concerned about a lost cause when he has so many others to neglect."
"What about the green haired one you always mentioned?" Roselle asked. "Surely they'd be drunk enough to consider a perilous rescue operation. That could get us more souls, and I know you prefer to scavenge."
"Oh, I love the idea!" Sivah clapped excitedly. "However, it seems so… primitive at the moment. We are talking about being one monumental step closer to becoming true gods!.. Though I suppose a little bit of primitive nature never got anyone in trouble~"
"I suppose not, my dear." Roselle said softly, recieving hands from the owl locking behind their neck in a display of affection.
"Oh, my Rose." The owl whispered with hints of venom and passion. "My beautiful Rose. How did I ever exist without you?"
"I often wonder the same, my Sivah."
"This affection - It brings me so much joy. Our confidence will bring us the powers we crave before you know it!"
A sudden and unfortunately familiar voice rang throughout the room. "Fuck me, I've seen less public display from a naked clown trying to show single men his balloon animal, and that was an actual fucking thing I had to watch. I mean, I didn't, but I did, y'know. You can't really not look away."
"Must you cause so much annoyance, imp?!" Sivah snapped before departing his partner's embrace and rapidly approaching the imp in question.
"I dunno." Blitz said. "You kidnapped me and my bitch, fucked while you were us, and expect that I'm not gonna blow your fuckin brains out the moment I get a hold on my shit." A toothy grin returned. "On the other hand, I could just gouge your eyes out."
Sivah shuttered before their voice contorted into a rough whisper. "I'd absolutely love your feeble attempts at hurting me. I'm a fucking god, you festering horny toad."
"Halfway don't count for your man or for you, sharp tits. Killable is still killable."
"Then allow me to explain your situation: My partner's failed attempts at careening your soul have made you immune to anything short of possession, no thanks to your seemingly large member somehow breaking the fabrics of reality itself. That's what I assumed happened."
"Not gonna argue." Blitz said.
"Nonetheless, you would make a wonderful vessel of which to sacrifice your lover." Sivah smiled manically, standing up and almost appearing bubbly with a bounce to their step. "A little bit of intimidation here, a small amount of letting you watch, and then maybe use your body to go after that green haired girl with no restraints whatsoever. So nice for you, Blitz, you get to commit an unwilling homicide!"
The captured imp raised an eyebrow. "I'm gonna stop you right there and guess that you're full of shit, Goldiclucks, because I've never heard of you and you have no fuckin ass. How am I supposed to believe you got what takes to kill all of this when you don't even have an ass?"
"Ass will not save you from extermination!" Sivah shouted. "I will enjoy this night for a very long time, and this purge will be preceded by the greatest show of strength ever by a disgraced demigod. I'm not surprised you've never heard of me, friend, as I'm way too much to handle emotionally, and sexually."
"An owl who's too much to handle emotionally and sexually." Blitz sighed. "How original. Figured you were supposed to be royalty."
"I never was though traditional means, though I was given the appearance of royalty as a punishment for my greed." Sivah said quietly, pacing around the cold room. "My rebirth is... confusing, at best. I was reforged in the heart of Hell itself as a servant, and thus I am one of the few not of here capable of traveling wherever the fuck I wish. I'm older than dirt and stronger than any fictitious superhero... or heroine. I don't judge gender, I just torture people, but I still am trapped in my current power."
Blitz nodded at the dramatic tirade, shifting to a comfortable position in the ropes. "Gotta admit, never heard of a fuck boy riding so much dick that he gets reborn. Respect for the last bit, but also fuck your sudden exposition and untie me."
A very sudden smashing of hands against the table near the imp by Sivah was met with surprise by all. "Bitch, you are the very bane of my existence and yet you suggest I undo all that I have done? Motherfucker? Are you fucking stupid?"
"Partially." Blitz said. "I've snorted a lot of shit that shouldn't been snot."
"That's not the past tense of... ugh, you will be so rewarding to leech off of."
"Rewarding to- huh? Leech?" The imp's attention suddenly focused. "Like, not killing but making me be alive and shit?"
"Yes and no." Sivah said. "It's dark magic, it doesn't need a fucking reason."
"Okay, fair enough, and that deserves the second 'fuck you' of the night."
"Blitz, please." Roselle suddenly chimed up before making his staff vanish as it drifted out of his hands. You're making this difficult."
"Right, and you not admitting to your husband that you're clearly uncomfortable with reaping innocent imps." Blitz retaliated.
"You are anything BUT innocent." Sivah snapped.
"We've been doing this for years. I don't understand how I could be uncomfortable." Roselle returned with spite.
"You can be if you always were uncomfortable and didn't realize it." The imp said.
Roselle paused, only giving a brief grunt in response. "...Hm."
"Thought so." Blitz said confidently.
"Roselle, do we need to have a discussion?" Sivah suddenly snapped to their partner, eyes shifting between magical realities.
"Again?" The Dream Weaver sighed for the hundredth time that day due to their plans requiring intermissions about himself on anyone else's behalf but his."
"I will literally put our tirade on hold if you are uncomfortable, my dear." Sivah said.
"Not out of kindness, I sense." Roselle said in response, tilting his head.
"Seriously?" Sivah exclaimed, meeting a hand to their face. "Ugh, put the fucking imp in the cellar with the other one and meet me outside for conversation."
"Why do I have to do it?" Roselle asked, however the owl next to them has already begun to depart the room for the waning moon and setting sun of the outside world. Sivah?"
"Yikes." Blitz said as the two were isolated. "Got some marriage counseling to do there, Roses. Tell me, dream dick, you good with this shit going down? Because I know what a fucking murderer looks like and... yeah, ya ain't it."
"Is that why my powers were so ineffective?" Roselle asked surprised. "The darkness noticed my hesitation and allowed you to escape?"
"It was kinda nice, honestly. Like a long nap." Blitz said.
"I was alright with it for millennium." Roselle said. "Why are my feelings changing now? I have no quarrel with you, my friend, but it must be done."
"It has to be done because your fucking bird bimbo - Heh. Bimbird. Seriously, though, he knows you'll do it if he strokes you a few times a week. Highly doubt the darkness shit wouldn't see the advantage in that."
"This is our only way to become gods!" The Dream Weaver suddenly shouted. "This is how it's been done forever. Why are you saying it can't be done by me?"
"It can't be done." Blitz shifted, taking on a more serious tone while maintaining eye contact with Roselle. "There's your goddamn answer. It just can't be. You'll eat my ass, your bitch with fuck around and YOU will be the one finding out that..." The imp paused for himself to reflect on his words. "...That nothing ever works out."
"Speaking from experience, I see." Roselle descended, his staff now shifting into existence once again. Well, I greatly respect your honesty no matter what happens. I don't think it's a good idea to entirely entrust the fate of my existence into one night with an imp, though."
"Can't say I really care." Blitz said. "I'm a dead man either way, Thorny Honey."
"Mmngh." Is all the imp received in response before the vessel of conflicting emotions known as Roselle manifested in a flash outside the building and next to Sivah, who was dragging a joint with tired eyes, like a husband waiting outside the store for his wife. Roselle was the wife.
"Please tell me that you're not actually considering what he's saying." Sivah complained through a strained exhale.
"Of course not." Roselle assured their partner. "He's trying to divide us, you understand that."
"I understood it before I even had to, my dear. It's part of my job."
"Then what is this discussion for?" Roselle asked irritability.
"I needed to breathe." Sivah said disapprovingly. "It was getting stuffy in there and you were not helping."
"What do you mean?"
Sivah stamped out the ends of their joint with a disgruntled final surge of smoke. "What do you mean what do I mean? Bitch, you were starting to agree with Blitzo! That's his name, right?"
"Correct. The O is silent."
"How is an O silent?" The owl asked, displeased. "That's like putting unnecessary dialogue in a story - Who cares about the specifics?"
"If you're going to kill your enemy, the least you can do is remember their name properly." Roselle said.
"I'll remember that when he breaks out of his restraints and goes feral, like his kind tend to do." Sivah said.
They both turned to look at Blitz. He was still in the chair, eyes looking in opposite directions, but still alive. Sivah closed the door to the outside world.
"This is besides the point." Roselle added. "We're disagreeing on the method but not on the outcome."
"There's no disagreement, Roselle." Sivah corrected. "It was a hypothesis - I used the powers of nightmares and you -"
"We've had this exact discussion a million times." Roselle finished.
Sivah leaned close to the face of their partner. "Really makes you think, does it not?"
As the two bickered unceremoniously, Blitz looked around for anything he could use to cut the ropes and end the outside matrimony, but nothing sharp enough came to mind. Swearing fell about the imp before his tail curved in frustration. It was then, out of the corner of his eye, that he had an idea. However, he resented the idea as the tip of his tail touched the rough and prickly rope, before thrusting it through, causing the imp to gasp in pain and the rope to fall down. A drop of blood dripped from the pricked edge on the end of Blitz tail. He swore again and felt his own heart swell with hatred as the assessed the burn marks, and the two powerful gods outside were preoccupied with their discussion to hear or notice the imp skulking against the walls into what he assumed was the basement.
"Gonna show those postmodern cucks what happens when you poke the fucking asshole with a stick." rambled Blitz as he huffed down a hallway of dripping pipes and rotten doors. "Nobody takes my shit away from me... Especially not the ones I care about. Where the fuck am I?"
A vast forest laid before him, and a familiar surging fear charged through his damned soul. There were new trees, oozing with black amber waiting to be harvested by those trapped in their minds. A new wave of survival had crossed Blitz as a faceless chuckle echoed across the landscape.
"Is this familiar to you, imp?" An unwaveringly malicious tone called out sensually. "Do you understand my influence? Sivah is not a title, it is a reason, a chance, and a title of usurped admiration! I bring the trees meaning, the sky a glow of motivation, and you - A promise, finally. This will, very simply, be your last days knowing who you are."
The spikes on Blitz's stood up. A Shadow towered over his view, though he could not turn to witness his attacker, however he knew well who it was. He found courage to run, and the endless fog passed him by as did the trees became taller, all while demonic cackling could be heard maintaining the same distance no matter how far the imp ran. Before long, exhaustion took over and Blitz tripped as he began to slow to a stop, sending him to the ground and the jagged trail scratching his body to trailing blood from his arms.
"TURN YOURSELF IN, YOU FUCKING BANDIT!!!" Shouted the mad owl across the forest. "I AM SIVAH, BIG FUCKING DICK OF YOUR NIGHTMARES! I CAN MAKE YOUR NIGHTMARES ABOUT MY DICK! DO YOU WANT THAT? MY DICK NIGHTMARES?! SHOW YOURSELF YOU CALCIFIED TROUT!"
"That's new." Blitz groaned as a stream of darkness apprehended the imp and carried him to Sivah, who was carefully walking towards the imp with footsteps that burned the imprint into the ground. He smiled at Blitz before gracing a talon against the imp's neck, drawing blood and carefully allowing a drop to suspend itself from his claw. Sivah smiled and tasted the blood, feathers ruffling at the pleasurable taste of bittersweet demon blood rushed across his tongue.
"I yearn for this sort of hunting." Sivah sighed. "The scents, the corralling of my subjects, the quiet hymns I'm allowed to create because they're always too busy gasping for breath when they run away. It's wonderful. I should have taught my Rose how to use this place better. He never understood that the forest needed tending to. I asked him why and the reason was the same: He was too busy. I never truly believed it, but he was my partner and I was naive to my potential."
Sivah let out an exasperated breath before a chuckle. "I carried Roselle all around this place when I first shared it with him. We spent hours here, careening all of the wildlife through the blessed darkness I had gifted us. We burned the dead branches and cleared paths for new places that we never built. I wanted this place to become a safe haven for us - A home we could call our own and forge from dreams and nightmares! No kings, no gods, only Lord Sivah and Roselle, the true wielders of the stars which fell into your mind as you lay. What did he do, Blitz? What did my Rose do? Partake in excuses, like I said. He gave me bullshit about only needing me and being content with his... suburban lifestyle. I was fine with it, as well. I am no longer fine with it. Being contempt is not enough; You must desire more as you grow, and I am growing far more than you and Roselle's dicks ever could!"
Blitz looked on in horror as the upside down visage of his fate protruded a sharp-toothed grin farther across their face than the imp though possible. Black eyes with white pupils stared back alongside them. Time to die, he thought.
"Bitch, die!" Sivah screamed as a barrage of blackened knives shot out from the darkness behind him. Blitz closed his eyes but was immediately grabbed by the seething owl. "At last! My fucking obnoxious key to the door of eternal power!" Sivah shouted, and was immediately met with a blunt object striking the back of their head before crashing into the ground and releasing the imp. The dream faded, and a familiar looking sinner stood with a metal pipe.
Styx smiled. "Eternal my ass. It sounds like he just needs a good threesome."
Blitz brushed himself off before returning to his feet and smiling before greeting Styx with a kiss. "Yeah, I've been meaning to practice my double hand skills. It's difficult when you're not ambidextrous."
"I'll bet." Styx said. "So where's -"
A burst of light entered the room and sent the sinner back. Roselle unleashed a collection of tendrils with more sharp edges, each nicking the sinner as they released a strenuous tone before being entirely grabbed and pulled close to The Dream Weaver as Sivah rose and warped beside them, eyes glowing bright white as the dust settled in the wreckage.
"Kill him." Sivah declared, returning the gesture with a smack to the back of Styx's head with a tendril of darkness.
"We need them both alive to do this properly." Roselle responded, his grip subconsciously growing tighter on Styx's neck. "This gambit of cat and mouse has gone on long enough."
"Kill. Him." Sivah repeated, slowly and much more menacing with what sounded like a demonic tone of two voices. He glanced before returning their gaze to the sinner. "Now."
Roselle paused. His hand outstretched, sparks began to surround the tips of his fingers. Blitz watched on as his hands were suspended by Sivah. The assortment of sparks began to spin as it also grew in size. Before long the room grew brighter, and a flash of light revealed that the sinner and imp were now gone in a silent scream. This did not please Sivah, however, and the owl glared further daggers, figuratively and literally, at their partner. Roselle has just sent the two of their victims to safety.
"Great. Just great!" Sivah screamed, sending a fist into the wall. "For all of the work and time we've put into our future, you willingly give our rivals a chance at freedom. Does that sound like success to you?'
"I heard you speaking to Blitz in the dream realm." Roselle deadpanned, his staff dodging an angry bolt of darkness energy.
"Oh, you cretin!" Sivah exclaimed. "I'll have your voice paralyzed forever so you can't get a midlife crisis at every sob story that gets your emotions riled up, dear. I have shed myself of those foul things aside from our love."
"Nice save." Roselle said. "Are you sure that this will get us closer to becoming real gods, or am I just another victim to your circumstances?"
The owl looked on in bewildered, slowly walking closer, across from his dream assailant. "Seriously now, have you always been this distrusting of me? First you were tossing my arse around like a parade float, showing me off to any man who would listen to how much I was worth to you. Joyous to know that value has decreased, apparently."
"Are you sure this will work?" The Dream Weaver repeated."
"Yes, I'm fucking sure. What has gotten into you lately? My early magic had more consistency than this."
"You are the most important person in my life, Sivah." Roselle said. "If I hurt you, I would become trapped in one of your nightmares just to reach the deep recesses of your darkness and pull your broken heart out just to apologize a thousand times."
Sivah sighed. A buzz of power found it's way between their eyes. "Fucking Hell, Roselle, that was horribly poetic."
"This is too much for me." Roselle admitted. "I'm not a killer, I'm a dreamer. Literally. I can change people's minds, make them run through endless forests of conundrums and paranoia that will never leave, but straight up murder? This is why I hired mercenaries to do my dirty work for the past few decades - I was tired of having to rangle up victims for us. I'm fine with our plan, but it is our plan, and not just your plan. You understand that, I hope."
Silence covered the destroyed room that once housed the nightmares of their subjects, who were now free due to the decision making of Roselle out of arrogance and sympathy. Sivah contemplated. He narrowed his eyes.
"Vedi, Verdi, Paeniteo." the owl spoke.
"I beg your pardon, my dear?" Roselle asked.
"I came, I saw, I realized I made the biggest mistake of my life entrusting you with my heart, my Rose, and now I have to imprison you for all eternity."
In a flash, Roselle's eyes widened as his staff was suddenly grabbed by a whip of darkness. Sivah flicked his own wrist and more collections of blackened strings circled around the Dream Weaver, entombing his body into a dark liquid slowly gaining more viscosity as the doomed Dream Weaver screamed for mercy. The struggling ceased, the shouting turned quiet, and the black liquid containing Sivah's former partner was lifted through magic and absorbed into the gem across the owl's neck. He smiled, embracing the rush of dreams spiraling throughout the stars in the owl's eyes.
"Do not worry, my dear." Sivah said, hands cracking and glowing like hot brimstone as their powers grew. "I will release you when you learn to tolerate our... fateful antics."