Alaska
The whisky was smooth as I took a deep sip of the amber coloured liquid. Yet when the woman entered the bar, her scent overwhelmed the woody smell of my drink.
"Of all the places…" I heard her murmured to herself, and though I wasn't facing her I could hear the soft smile on her face.
"Hello Luv." I said in a low hoarsed voice.
"Ro-Ro."
I let out a disgusted groan at the pet name she refuses to let go, but I'm sure she does it because of how much it bugs me. No matter the mood except for righteous anger or guilt, she'd love to poke and tease at me.
"Jo." I swirled around on the bar stool and gave her a flat look, Johanna Constantine, human, necromancer, occult adventuress, and my sort of ex.
I woke up to a universe I was very familiar with, all those years back when I was two, and yet also not, because not only I was an agent of Hellsing, and a bastard son of the Phenex clan. Bad enough Constantine was a notorious up and comer in the supernatural world, because her presence meant that well, the DC universe was a thing here… Fucking A.
It was a cavalcade of different fictional universes that somehow blended well together. Lucifer Morningstar was in LA as he gave up his throne centuries back, instead of dead. Asgard was like the Marvel version as opposed to the waterdowned DC one. And I swear I almost was tempted to plunge my fragment of Excalibur into my skull and be done with it, when I heard that the Big Bad Wolf was an old drinking pal with Alucard, something about a monster squad back in WW2.
"Its good to see you." I said honestly. I'm older than the twenty-six this body is, mentally at least. It was a bit fucky with being a half-devil and a Phenex by blood, my age was pretty much irrelevant, but still I felt that I should be above something like a shitty break up. And I was for the most part, what we had was nice, but it wasn't the time for it, for us.
Her hazel eyes drank me in.
An expression of regret, was hidden under her pleased smirk and an iota of lust, perhaps a hint of longing, "Handsome as ever." I was no stranger to compliments, yet when whenever Jo said such things looking deeply in my eyes I couldn't help but think she was actually seeing the real me and still mean what she said.
"Still a flirt, I see." I teased back, when I got my mental footing back into place.
The woman beside her cleared her throat to draw the attention of the two sort off-ex's and their longing stares.
"Jo?" I looked around to confirm that the bar hadn't suddenly gained an influx of patrons, and while it was as desolate as ever, the few regulars took a quick glance the two woman before returning to drinking their sorrows away, "Why are you hanging out with Wonder Woman?"
The woman was wearing form fitting jeans and a black coat with her red crisp shirt underneath it, and while her raven black hair was tied in a ponytail, I could still tell it was the demi-goddess, by peering into her unearthly blue eyes.
"Not much escapes his eyes." Jo uttered to the supe next to her.
"This is not going to end well, is it?" I intoned with mild amusement.
She let out an uncertain chuckle, "Probably not, no… and I probably shouldn't be bothering you about it, I heard you retired, but… Do you know what? This is stupid. Rowan forget it. I don't know-"
"Johanna Constantine, a pain in my arse since the moment I met you." She stopped talking, "You gave Hellsing trouble, and when I pulled you out of the mess you made, you kept on wrecking havoc in my life." Her face scrunched up as she winced, her mind most likely going back to the days when she kept cocking up her spells and unleashing all manner of beasties and demons, "What the hell makes you think me being retired would ever mean I stop helping you?"
She blinked owlishly as she processed my words, before giving me a wry smile, "You don't even know what the situation is."
"That's cause you started rambling before you explained how and why Wonder Woman is here."
"Rowan Clarent. The Immortal Phoenix." The demi-goddess spoke for the first time as she rattled my damned moniker that I thought I had retired alongside my career, "I need your help." It sounded like she was pained to say those words, "I need your help dealing with an old foe of yours."
Ah.
My eyes flickered to Jo, and she sheepishly smiled at me, as if she was excepting me to throw some ire at her for this.
"So who is it?" I let out a sigh, my stint with Hellsing made me plenty of adversary, "Enrico Maxwell? Carmilla?" I let out a sigh at the thought, "…Riser?" My half brother, I liked the tit but he was a wanker of the highest degree. You can't chose your family.
"Felix Faust."
The back of my teeth grinded at the name.
Wonder Woman took a step back from me, her firm body tensing as warrior of old gearing up for a fight.
Jo's hand landed on my chest, her blackened fingernails clutched at my heart, "Easy Ro-Ro. You're going to burn this place to the ground." She hissed out with a pained voice but her hand stayed in place.
I blinked away the heat coursing through my body, "Sorry Gus." I said to the man behind the bar who let out a breath of relief.
"Don't sweat it kid. Was just worried it would've been a repeat of the Kodiak event."
I hummed and passed the man a few extra bills due to the added blood pressure, before turning to the duo.
"Come on, tell me what you've got on the dirtbag."
Johanna Constantine POV
Run-ins with your ex's were supposed to be an awkward affair.
All the anger, angst, resentment, and sexual tension. Yet with Rowan there was none of that, well 'cept for the latter. Because somehow some way, Rowan aged like a fine whisky, something starting great when bottled up for the first time and yet only improved with age. She was starting to resent him a little now.
She was twenty-one when she ballsed up the speak to the dead ritual, and ended up reviving the head of an occult splinter group of the Nazi's. That got her Majesty's own supernatural defence, Hellsing, on her tail.
Though now she was beyond thankful that instead of No Life King or The Wild Card being sent out to her to deal with her as they saw fit, she instead got the youngest ace of Hellsing.
He was seventeen, but his body was refined by years of bone breaking training, his dour and unyielding personality irritated her to no degree, he was simply all work and no play, though she couldn't fault him now when she thought about the monster she was the cause to summoning to the world of the living.
But back then she hated him, and he her. Yet the refined killer spared her, protected her from his commanding officer even as he spoke in her defence.
And then the next thing Johanna knew a couple years had passed and she had numerous run-ins with the half-devil, all of which accumulated with the two shacking up like a couple of dogs in heat, and they kept up at it for another two years.
Despite the unneeded pressure it put on Rowan's career with Hellsing.
Yet when the ball was in her court and it got tough for her, she bounced on their relationship, when she needed him the most. She was scared, she was in love and it terrified her.
However she did keep track on her former love despite the guilt and pain she felt, even when the tough of it settled and the roguish half-devil retired at a young age, before moving to the states.
And while he was retired from the secret sect, that didn't mean he was playing the role of a typical retiree. Dealing with supernatural threats in the northern parts of the states while somehow not garnering much attention.
Or so she thought.
"The Immortal Phoenix." Batman intoned, his cowl narrowing at the former Hellsing agent. Of course Batman of all people knew about Hellsing, not much escapes the 'World's Greatest Detective.' "Royal Order of Protestant Knights greatest agent, bar none."
"Bar one." I corrected which caused Rowan to give me a cheeky grin and Batman to bleed confusion for a bare moment that many wouldn't catch.
"Bar one." Rowan agreed, no one stood a chance against the No-Life King, 'cept for maybe Rowan perhaps, he'd be the best shot at it for sure, but rare if push can to shove Rowan would ever let loose to match his former master's destruction, but no, what I doubted if Rowan could ever muster himself to kill his former master, because that is what would be required to stop such a fight, if they ever fought that is.
A man like Alucard could not be stopped by anything 'cept for death, and Rowan, well Rowan couldn't ever muster the raw iron to kill the man who made him what he is today, for even if he was raised as a soldier by his mother and then by Hellsing, for even if half of him was a malevolent race, Rowan was kind. Kind for a broken man like he could be. Kind and stupid were synonyms to Johanna when she thought of Rowan.
"The Batman," Ro-Ro greeted with an easy smile, "big fan." Rowan lightly tapped Batman on the shoulder as he walked past the Cape. Batman looked as he always did, about one moment away from snapping.
"Johanna said you've had dealings with Felix Faust." Batman dove straight into the point, and it was one of the things I liked about the bloke, but right now all I could do was glare at him, I said I would handle this, Rowan was mine, mine to deal with of course, and I didn't need Batman needlessly being Batman and hurt Rowan.
"He murdered my mother." Rowan said flatly as he stared out of the space station that JL have holed themselves up at. It was a sight to behold, but right now I wasn't paying attention to the vastness of space and I was focused on the form of the still half-devil.
Astrid Clarent, the Bloody Bitch of Hellsing, she was a infamous as they could come, she wasn't renowned with that name with being the likes… well being the likes of Rowan, Astrid was a monster barely leashed by Hellsing, but just because she had a soul as black as a devil, didn't mean she wasn't capable of being a loving mother.
The woman had a rep in the supernatural world, a rep that lived on well after she did, but of course the woman's son knew her better than most.
He didn't always talk fondly of the woman, she did after all raise him to be a soldier, but Rowan loved the woman, Rowan and poor judgement went hand in hand, his ability to love monsters and piss poor excuse of people would always be something she cherished and loathed about him.
Batman had the decency to back away a bit, and if I didn't know any better he wilted for a moment under my gaze.
"I'm sorry," Diana said and she bowed her head.
Rowan stared straight through her, his gaze far off, "In truth there were not many who mourned her passing." He said with a soft voice before clearing his throat, "But still, part of my career with Hellsing was about hunting him down."
"And yet…" Diana said and I was forced to look away from Rowan.
"I confronted him once, scared the piss out of him. Enough so, that he went underground." He shrugged as he refused to go further into the whole story. How I was high off my head and how he chose me over his vengeance, long awaited that it was.
"Still, perhaps I should've been more relentless, and you wouldn't be dealing with this." He gestured to the pieces Wonder Woman was blackmailed into collecting.
"I'm not sure what it is. There are many tales about it in my peoples history but…" Diana let out a deep sigh, "I cannot say for certain other than that it spells nothing good."
"Its a key, a runic one." Rowan's hand trailed against the inscription and he gently pieces together three of the four key pieces the JL had collected, "This runic language is not the ancient Greek one as one would know, nor is it something I've ever seen before,"
"So how can you tell it's a runic key?" I gave him a lopsided grin, and my heart skipped a beat when he returned.
"Well that would ruin all the fun, gorgeous."
"Ro-ro."
He rolled his eyes, "Think about it, runes that get cracked in four pieces cease to function, if were anything else other than a key. Just because you can't read it wholly doesn't mean you can't put one and one together."
"As interesting as runic languages of different cultures are." Batman said and I was sure he was being honest that he found it interesting, "What could required to be locked away behind such a door, and the key be separated into pieces?"
"If I had to guess, a Titan." He said simply as if he was talking about the weather.
"Malaka." I'm guessing Wonder Woman cursed.
"You could ask the gods for help, could you not?" Rowan said something in ancient Greek going by the briefly shocked expression on Wonder Woman's face.
"If only it were so easy." She sighed, "The gods cannot interfere in-"
"Really?" Rowan cut her off with a huff, "Be right back." With that Rowan disappeared with a fiery teleportation spell.
"So," Black Canary said as she slid next to me, "that's your ex?"
"Please don't…" I sighed.
Canary shrugged her shoulders, "Just going to say he's smokin'"
"Yeah, devil kind are ridiculously attractive." Male or female, devils was sinfully attractive, and Rowan's half and half nature only made him more hot, the whole perfect in imperfection thing.
"Devil!?"
"The Immortal Phoenix, is a half devil." Wonder Woman said simply.
"Woah, woah, woah, woah." Canary waved her hands around, "Devils are real. Wait, is he the son of satan?"
"He's the son of a devil. A. As in one of many. And Rowan is human as much as he's a devil." I defended my ex, hells he was more human than most people I know, "And he's-"
He appeared back, though not in a the fiery teleportation of the Phenex clan, not he appeared alongside a blonde woman who's beauty was on par with Diana, garbed in a toga, with and owl perched on her shoulder.
"You tell me." Rowan said with a huff as he motioned for the key pieces on the table.
"Athena." Diana said with an awed voice.
"Okay, fair." The woman named Athena said ignoring Wonder Woman, "This spells nothing good."
"You think?" The woman's stormy grey eyes glared at Rowan, not that the man paid it any mind, "If its Titan, I really think you should be dealing with it."
"Whatever is behind that door, has not yet been released. Right now the issues is mortal dealings." The woman in turned ignored the furious gaze of Rowan.
"We gods are bound to laws also." Rowan gave the woman a flat look, it was look that called out bullshit for what it was, BS, "Rowan." The woman sighed, "If its released the gods of Olympus will deal with it."
"And the lives that will die inbetween?"
The woman turned to Diana who was staring at her with reverence, "Make a deal with the devil. This one is a dear friend."
Well that was not a statement I liked at all. Looks like Rowan's been busy. I was just going to ignore the fact I had no leg to stand on for now.
"Wait… did she say gods?" Owl, Wonder Woman's awe, Athena. How the fuck is Rowan friends with a virgin goddess?
Rowan's POV
Athena, was kind enough to take Diana and I to Themyscira, Wonder Woman did have to convince the Justice League to stand down, explaining how she'd end up in a lot of trouble if she brought outsiders with her, especially men. Seeing how technically she wasn't bring me, but one of her patron goddess' was, there was a chance she wouldn't be faulted for it.
Felix Faust was hanging around the throne room of the paradise island, allowing us to spot the many Amazonians that were turned to stone. Athena let out a deep sigh as she avoided eye contact with me.
"It's not like you implemented the laws, Wise-Girl." She gave me a flat look at the nickname I borrowed for her, "Chill we've got this."
Athena gave me a bow of her head, and then disappeared from sight.
"May I ask, how are you so familiar with Lady Athena?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "I came about her when I had a mission in Greece, when I was hunting a gorgon that was trying to be the next Medusa,"
"And you earned her favour by slaying the beast?" She guessed.
I walked to a statue form of an Amazon, inspecting the mana that surrounded her.
"Nope, my emotions were high and I called out Athena for how she cursed Medusa and brought upon the blight of gorgons. Then we got into the debate of immortals and the lack of understanding of the actions in mortal lives. When she tried to justify her actions."
"You openly disrespected a goddess, and somehow that led to you getting into a debate with her, which struck up a friendship with her?"
I thought about it for a moment, "Yeah I guess so." I chuckled and I walked back and headed to the royal palace, "Looks like I can reverse this." I changed the subject.
Diana blinked and looked hopeful, "Truly?"
"Faust used an enchanted item. We got our hands on it, I can undo the spell."
Diana grabbed my forearm, looked deeply into my eyes, "If you can truly do that. I-"
I poked her in the forehead, "Chill Princess. Lets skip the cliche life debts, and promises of honour bound and whatnot."
Faust was sitting smugly on the throne, as he toyed with the last piece of the runic key. Diana insisted of going in first while I snuck in and reacted when the opportunity appeared.
The man looked the same as all those years ago. This cunt, killed my mother. Astrid was the furthest thing from a saint, but damned did I loved the demented bint. She was the mother I needed for this universe, and she didn't deserved to be killed by some no name wank-stain like Faust.
Faust yammered on about greatness and blah, blah, blah, I'm pretty sure even Diana would've tuned out if this were any other situation.
Faust released Diana's mother from the petrifaction as he pulled an ancient medallion from his robe and instantly Diana dropped her guard and rushed towards the Queen.
"Diana, you didn't?"
"But now that your usefulness has expired." Faust recalled the medallion and just as he was about to use it on the princess and the queen, I jumped in front of the sorcerer, a hand gripping onto his arm. And with little strength I snapped the appendage like a twig.
The shock of me appearing coupled with the brutal breakage of his arm, he stared at me with a gob-smacked expression before reeling back with a scream of agony, dropping the runic key and the medallion. I caught the medallion not wanting to risk it being damaged. And in a flash, Diana rushed forward and plunged a blade into Faust chest, killing the man.
And that was that, the man who I had made a mission of a good chunk of this life was dead. Honestly I wasn't all too fussed that I hadn't done the deed, I was just glad to see it happen.
It felt anticlimactic and yet fitting.
"I apologise, Rowan." Diana said drawing me back to the now, as I realised I was watching the prone body on the ground for a couple of minutes now, "I understand that you had wanted to deal with him for a while now, but I didn't want to risk any trickery."
My face scrunched up, "Its fine princess. It's not like I'm a stranger to death," No in fact we were good friends, her and I, "I don't relish it nor do I shy away from it."
Diana gazed at me with an unreadable expression, before nodding and turning her attention to the medallion, "Can you…"
"Oh yeah, let's wake up your sisters, shall we?"
As we made our way around the island releasing the Amazon's from their magical inclined prisons, I had to wonder what else was in store for this universe, and could I really stick my head in the sand as I had been doing with my retirement, and let the world burn.
I was an agent of Hellsing, I am a half-devil of the Phenex clan, and yet I never really fit in with either. Despite the bounds with both affiliations I still share, yet I had no right to shy away while the world had people wanting to burn it down.
Perhaps I wasn't ready for the Immortal Phoenix to return, but that doesn't mean Rowan Clarent couldn't chip in.
A/N - Published 2023/10/09
Yo, yet another story I'm publishing aimlessly, do I ever learn? Nope.
Damn story beat wouldn't leave me alone till I penned it down though.
