Chapter 21: Red Wedding
In which promises are made and vows are exchanged.
The mansion was an ugly, gaudy mess, created by some rich asshole with too much money and no taste whatsoever. Not that Frances particularly cared: all she wanted was to find some clothes that were not prison rags and clean the crusted blood that was making her skin itch.
Cletus blasted through the roof and descended inside the building. Frances scowled, looking around. Antique furniture, statues, paintings… It looked more like a museum than a place to live.
When no one reacted to their explosive entrance, she scowled even more. "So much space and no one around. Who the hell buys a huge house like this and then doesn't even bother living there?"
Cletus shrugged, landing on the bright gaudy carpet that started to smoke under his feet. "Idiots with more money than common sense? Ah, who cares! Makes things easier for us."
They had flown far from the now-destroyed prison and chose this place completely at random, so no one should be able to track them here. Granted, this mansion probably had alarms inside, but it wasn't like the two of them wouldn't be able to deal with regular security.
"Come on, let's find something decent to wear," Frances said. "Then we'll see what kind of a bathroom rich assholes have in their homes. I need a damn shower."
"And here I hoped you would stay beautiful red," Cletus sighed. "It suits you so well…"
Frances smirked and teasingly pulled up the edge of her shirt, "Are you telling me that you don't want to help me clean up?"
Cletus laughed and kissed her deeply, "Well, when you put it like that… How could I ever say no to such invitation?"
After having some fun in the shower and swapping prison rags for proper clothing, they went rummaging through the mansion, looking for anything interesting. Cletus had melted through a safe or two, and Frances quickly busied herself stuffing her pockets with money and jewelry.
However, their exploration was soon interrupted by the sound of the front doors slamming open.
"Well-well-well… So there is security here," Cletus commented quietly as they watched the approaching guards from behind the corner.
There were two of them, both carrying guns, but it wasn't anything to worry about. Not with their powers.
"Do you want to take a shot at them?" Cletus asked.
Frances wrinkled her nose. "I just washed the blood off myself."
"More playtime for me then!" Cletus giggled, rubbing his hands in glee.
He transformed in an explosion of flames and flew towards the guards. They started to shoot the moment they saw him, but once again, regular guns were completely useless against him.
Cletus pointed at one guard, then the other, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe… Which of you shall I let go?" Then he laughed, "Trick question! Both of you will die! The only question is how."
The guards backed away in fear. One kept shooting him, while the other grabbed a radio, no doubt intending to call for backup.
He didn't manage to get a single word out before Cletus burned him alive.
"Well, this decides it!" Cletus commented cheerfully. He doused out his flames and pounced on the second guard, wrenching the gun out of his hands and clamping one hand around his throat. "Congratulations! You have just been promoted to guinea pig!"
While he did tell Dormammu that he wouldn't do anything until tomorrow, Cletus was curious about those life-drain powers the demon had granted him. This seemed like a nice opportunity to test them.
He had felt it when those powers had settled inside him, like an empty void, a black hole in his stomach. And while he could easily ignore the feeling, now Cletus reached towards it deliberately.
The void shivered, flexed, and then began to pull.
The guard let out a choked cry and thrashed in his grip. He wasn't even trying to escape: it was more like a seizure, an out-of-control flailing of limbs. His skin paled rapidly, turning ashen-grey with darkened veins standing starkly against it.
Cletus felt energy – warm, almost electric – travel down his arm, filling that emptiness inside him. It felt so good, sating a hunger he didn't even realize he had–
A sudden explosion of pain wrenched a scream out of his throat. Fire ignited in his chest, bursting out from between his ribs. It rushed down his arm, eating away flesh and skin, and engulfed the guard's body, burning him to death in mere seconds.
Cletus could feel the stolen energy dissipate, leaving a hollow void inside him. Only then did the pain subside, and the flames retreated back into the gem.
He dropped the charred corpse, staring at it in mute horror. He– he didn't want to do that! He didn't! The gem had done it completely on its own!
"Cletus? Are you alright?" Frances called out from behind.
He flinched and stumbled away, pressing his hands to his chest, as if that could prevent the magic crystal from activating on its own again. "Stay back! Don't come closer!"
He could only hope that the distance between them would be enough to keep her safe from another flare.
Frances raised her hands, "Okay, I won't, but you have to tell me what's going on. Are you hurt? Is there something happening to your powers? How can I help?"
"I– I don't know," Cletus admitted. "I don't know what's happening to me. This power… I have no idea how it really works."
Because he never asked. Because he hadn't cared.
And now he was putting Frances in danger.
"Then we'll figure it," Frances promised, her voice calm and steady. "Together."
Cletus had told her everything: about Mordo, about Dormammu, and about the deal they had struck. Then he had broken open his ribcage and showed her the orange gem burning in his heart.
"This is what gives me these powers."
He brushed the crystal's surface with charred fingertips, making it glow brighter. And then Cletus wrapped his hand around it and tried to pull it out of his chest.
The crystal flared so brightly, for a second Frances feared that she had gone blind. And when her vision finally returned, Frances saw to her horror that Cletus had lost his entire arm, and the magic crystal was still glowing malevolently in his chest.
"I don't think it's going to let me remove it, my angel," Cletus laughed bitterly. His arm was slowly growing back, but the threat was clear. "I guess I should've read the fine print before making deals with demons…"
"They took advantage of you!" Frances snarled. She could barely keep her voice in the human range, the anger and fear she felt on behalf of her love giving it a sharp, distorted edge. "So you owe them nothing! You're saying that Dormammu is trapped in another dimension? Great! Let him stay trapped! If it's those life-drain powers that made the crystal hurt you, then you can just not use them!"
"I doubt it will be that easy, songbird," Cletus whispered.
Frances scoffed. "Why not? What's he gonna do if you just refuse to work for him? Send Mordo after you? That pompous asshole won't stand a chance against us!"
"The crystal–"
"And if the crystal wants you to kill, we've got eight million people for you to burn in this city alone!" Frances tried to soften her voice as she slowly approached him. "It will be alright, Cletus. We'll figure something out."
Cletus rarely felt fear: it was just another thing on the long list of everything that was wrong with him. (He was self-aware enough to know that he was a textbook definition of a psychopath, he just didn't care about the various shrinks' attempts to fix him. Frances loved him the way he was, so why should he give a damn what the rest of the world thought?)
But now, as Frances slowly walked towards him with her hands outstretched, he was terrified.
"Frances, don't," he whispered, backing away from her until his back hit the wall. "Don't come closer. What if I hurt you?"
"You won't hurt me, Cletus, and you won't let the crystal do it either," Frances replied with utter certainty in her voice.
Cletus wished he had her confidence, but he could still feel the phantom pain of the fire flaring up outside his control. The sight of the guard's charred corpse and the stench of his burnt flesh – something Cletus would've usually delighted in – made him sick.
He couldn't let this happen to Frances. He couldn't. He'd rather kill himself than put her in danger.
Frances stopped right in front of him, only a step away, and held her hand towards him. "Don't run from me, Cletus, please."
…He could never say no to her.
Slowly, hesitantly, Cletus reached out and brushed his fingertips against hers. He was ready to jerk his hand away at the first flicker of flames, but to his relief, he only felt a slight twinge of pain from the magic gem as it shifted back and forth inside him.
Frances smiled and brushed his knuckles with her thumb. "See? Everything is fine."
Cletus pressed one hand to his chest where the gem pulsed behind his ribs, then slid it down to the hungry void in his stomach. "It's calmer now. I guess it really was reacting to that life-energy I took."
Frances nodded decisively. "That settles it. Dormammu can go to hell: I'm not letting you get hurt for the sake of some deal. Just forget about him!"
Cletus had to admit, it was a tempting thought. But could it really be that easy…?
"Reneging on our deal already?" a familiar and wholly unpleasant voice suddenly said. "Tsk-tsk-tsk… How rude of you. Especially after I have already fulfilled my end of the bargain."
Frances flinched and whirled around at the sound of an unknown voice.
What she saw behind her was a translucent vaguely human head floating in the air with no body attached to it. The strange apparition had flames instead of hair, red skin, and an equally red flared collar around its neck, though it was hard to tell whether it was clothing or a part of its body.
"Dormammu…" Cletus hissed. "Were you spying on us?"
So this was the fabled demon? Frances scoffed inwardly. Impressive this thing wasn't.
"I have no need to spy on anyone, for I already see everything," the demon said. Its voice was faint, as if echoing from a great distance, and its image was flickering like a broken TV. "However, I cannot say that I am happy with what I see. I have freed you from prison, Cletus Kasady, gave you power beyond your wildest dreams, and reunited you with the love of your life. And this is how you repay me?! By turning your back on me and refusing to fulfill the terms of our agreement?! I have been beyond lenient, but I will not tolerate betrayal."
"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" Frances challenged. "You're stuck in another dimension! You can't do shit!"
"I admit, right now, my ability to affect your world is quite limited," Dormammu conceded. Then his expression darkened. "But make no mistake: I am far from powerless and there is nowhere you can hide from me."
Frances narrowed her eyes. "I call bullshit. If you were so powerful, you wouldn't have needed any help to steal that device."
Dormammu slowly smirked. "Ah, yes… The teleporter. Iron Man and War Machine are quite unhappy with it being stolen, and I'm sure they would quite appreciate it if I told them where to find the thief."
"I took War Machine down once, I can do it again," Cletus said dismissively.
"Plus, why the hell would they even listen to you?" Frances added. "You're their enemy too!"
Dormammu laughed, "But I am trapped in another dimension, am I not? I am a far lesser threat compared to you."
"Yeah, right… There are plenty of superpowered criminals around, so we ain't that special," Frances countered. "A demon from another dimension though? I bet they'll be all over this shit. We can just kick back, relax, and wait until they send you back to hell – and then kill whoever survives."
"But you cannot lay low anymore, can you?" Dormammu purred. His smirk widened suddenly, "Oh, I can see your confusion, Frances Barrison. How naughty of you, Mr. Kasady… Have you not told her anything?"
Frances wanted to snap at the arrogant demon for daring to assume he knew anything about them…
And then she noticed the tense expression on Cletus' face and the way he kept one hand pressed to his chest, fingers digging into blistered skin.
"…Cletus? What is he talking about?"
Dormammu knew.
Of course, he did.
Cletus wasn't even surprised: the demon had probably set him up on purpose. He just wished that Frances hadn't heard this. Cletus didn't want to tell her, didn't want to worry her with something she couldn't fix…
But, of course, the demon gave him no choice.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Dormammu said contemplatively. "Holding back all that energy, keeping the fire caged, when all it wants is to rage free… How long do you think you will be able to control it? How long will it be before it burns you from the inside?"
Cletus could feel the gem start to shift inside him once again, as if it was reacting to the demon's words. His skin cracked open, peeling off his chest and stomach. Boiling blood mixed with flickers of fire dripped out of the wound.
It stung, radiating a feeling of wrongness that was somehow worse than mere pain, but Cletus forced himself not to react. Frances already looked worried, and he didn't want to add to her concerns.
He shrugged with fake nonchalance. "All I need is to let it out to play once in a while. I like killing people, so really, it's not much of a problem to me."
"Is it not?" Dormammu asked with an infuriatingly smug smirk. "How many lives will you have to take to keep it sated? Hundreds? Thousands? And it will just keep demanding more and more, until you have to burn entire cities to the ground. Do you really think you will be able to keep killing indiscriminately and remain unopposed? Heroes and villains alike will stand against you, and if you keep refusing to work for me, I will make sure that they always find you and hunt you down like rats!"
Dormammu paused for a moment, then continued in a softer tone. "Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. It was not my intention to give you this gem originally, but my hand had been forced. Mordo had failed to ally with the symbiote, and thus I had to work with what subpar tools I had available. Right now, those life-drain powers are the limit of what I am capable of granting you by myself, but if I am freed… Then I will be able to remove the gem without any harm and, perhaps, arrange for a different powerset for you. Not to mention, at my full strength, I will be able to shield you from any foe that attempts to take you down."
"And why would you ever do that for me?" Cletus asked suspiciously.
"Good help is hard to come by. I grow weary of Mordo's endless mistakes, but you have proven yourself to be a strong and resourceful ally. Is it really so hard to believe that I wish to arrange for a mutually beneficial relationship between us?"
Cletus frowned slightly. In all fairness, Dormammu did keep his end of the deal. And unlike that arrogant windbag Mordo, he was willing to negotiate, instead of just ordering him around. So could the demon actually be telling the truth…?
"I understand that you will need some time to think it over," Dormammu said as his image slowly started to dissolve. "You have stated before that you needed time until tomorrow, so I will await your decision at dawn break."
And then he was gone, leaving them alone at last.
At any other time, Frances would've been quite excited to drive around in the fancy red convertible she had found in the garage (Ford Mustang, her favorite car), but now this was the last thing on her mind. She stared straight ahead as she drove forward, but she could still see the fire in the rearview mirror: Cletus was flying close behind her and torching the houses on either side of the street.
Frances didn't know if these houses were just as empty as the one they had broken into had been or if there were any people inside. She hoped there were: killing them all would feed that crystal and stop it from hurting her love.
As they approached the end of the rich asshole suburbia, Cletus sped up and landed in the car right next to Frances. The flames around him dimmed and retreated under his regrowing skin.
"All done?" Frances asked.
Cletus tugged on the sleeves of his stolen crimson tux (it had changed with him, reforming from burnt rags into proper clothing) and drummed his fingers over his collarbone. "Should be enough to tide me over. At least until tomorrow."
"And what will happen tomorrow?" Frances snapped. "Are you seriously going to work for that demon?! You can't possibly trust that thing!"
"What other choice do I have?" Cletus asked bitterly. "I know you're angry–"
"Angry?" Frances repeated incredulously.
She hit the brakes and drove off the road, because she couldn't keep splitting her attention like this lest she crashed into something. Then she turned to face Cletus fully.
"I'm not angry, I'm terrified! How many times did we come close to dying, back in the day? How many times did we nearly get caught… until we did get caught and had to spend decades in prison? And back then, we only had regular cops to deal with! Now you managed to piss off demons and wizards and fucking aliens–"
Frances dug her nails into her palms and forced herself to stop speaking when she felt her voice starting to slip into the sharp, inhuman tones of her power.
"I'm so sorry, angel… If I had known–" Cletus paused and shook his head. "No, that's not true. I did know what I was getting into. Maybe not the exact details, but I knew that this crystal was dangerous and that Mordo couldn't be trusted. I simply… didn't care."
Cletus clasped her hands and looked at Frances beseechingly. "I thought you were dead. And I couldn't live without you. So I saw no reason to care about the consequences. But I never meant for you to be caught up in this mess too, songbird."
Frances leaned closer and rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh. "…I know, love. And I'm sorry too. It's not fair to blame you for trying to make the best of the choices you had." She smiled slightly. "And hey, your choices led to us being together again, so I think you did pretty well on that front. Besides, anything is better than being stuck in that fucking cage. So whatever you decide, I'm with you."
Cletus hummed thoughtfully. "Well, there is something I wanted to do. And since we still have time until Dormammu comes calling… Let's get married!"
Frances leaned back and stared at him incredulously, completely baffled by the sudden change of topic. "…The hell?"
"I'm serious!" Cletus insisted. "I wanna get hitched."
"What happened to the whole 'marriage is just another pointless construct of a society that delights in creating nonsensical laws'?" Frances asked.
To be fair, she had briefly thought about marrying her darling back in the day, but neither of them cared about following some arbitrary rules. They loved each other and it was all that mattered, so they never bothered to tie the knot. (Besides, with their criminal records, they would've never gotten everything in order without attracting trouble.)
"Back in prison, I've had a lot of time to think," Cletus started to explain. "Remembering the time we spent together was the only thing that made it bearable, but it also made me think of all the opportunities we missed, and I found myself dreaming of wedding bells more and more. So what do you say, songbird? Will you marry me?"
Now that she thought of it, Frances had to admit, there really was something appealing about a ceremony to declare their love to the world. And… she didn't want to have any regrets either.
She grinned. "You know what? Sure, let's do this!"
Cletus had never cared about architecture, but the dark gothic cathedral lit only by his own flames really brought back memories.
When they ran away from St. Estes, so many years ago, they had found an abandoned cathedral just like this one and took shelter in it on their first day of freedom. And then, when they returned to burn that terrible school to the ground years later, they came to that same cathedral afterwards, even though it was barely more than ruin at that point.
In a way, it had become a symbol of freedom to them. It felt fitting to hold their wedding in a similar building.
He smiled at Frances as she walked down the aisle with a bouquet of black roses in her hands. Her dress was equally black: Frances couldn't stand wearing white anymore (it reminded her too much of her prison uniform), and neither of them gave a damn about what society considered proper.
Frances had been unsure whether they should even bother finding her a wedding dress – she had insisted it was just a waste of time and effort – but Cletus was glad that he had convinced her otherwise. She looked so beautiful in it, and even hidden beneath a dark veil, her face was glowing with happiness.
Cletus held her hand and turned to the priest they had kidnapped for such an important occasion. "Well, Father? I believe you have a ceremony to conduct. And if you do it well, I might even let you live."
The priest only whimpered in terror, shaking from head to toe.
Cletus frowned slightly and lit a flame in his hand. "Of course, if you don't think you're capable, then we'll have a nice barbeque with you as the main dish and I'll go find someone a little more competent."
"No! I– I can do this!" the priest screamed.
Cletus clenched his fist, extinguishing the fire. "Then stop wasting our time, Father: I've been waiting for this for years."
The priest nodded frantically. "Yes, yes, I'll keep it short! D-d-dearly beloved… We are g-g-gathered here today t-t-to join Cletus Kasady and Frances Barrison in holy matrimony. Have you c-c-come here to enter into marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?"
Frances scoffed, "Of course! Why the hell would we be here otherwise?"
Cletus giggled, "Well, we are definitely here on our own free will. Can't say the same about you, Father, but two out of three isn't so bad, is it?"
The priest whimpered again, but continued the ceremony. "Are you p-p-prepared, as you follow the p-p-path of marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you b-b-both shall live?"
"We've already been through hell and back," Frances said, "and we never stopped loving each other. That won't change."
Cletus lit a small flame on his fingertips, burning them to the bone, and added contemplatively, "Agreed. Though I'm not sure I still qualify as living, so let's amend that to 'for as long as we both shall exist'."
The priest looked ready to faint. "R-right… As– as you wish… Now, p-p-please, exchange your vows."
"I have been thinking about this for so long, Frances…" Cletus whispered, turning to his love. "In those dark years, when we have been forced apart, you were the only one who held my heart. And long before that, in the cruel past we share, you were the only one who ever cared. You've always been there to shield me from danger, my dear Frances, my guardian angel. And so I ask, on this perfect day, the question I've waited for years to say. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. My dear, will you be my wife?"
Frances pressed one hand to her mouth, stifling a sob. "Oh, Cletus… I– I don't have your way with words, so I just want to say… When I think of family, of home, it's always you I imagine. Before I met you, I didn't know it was possible to love someone so much. I didn't know anyone could love me so much. You stayed by my side through thick and thin…" she lightly touched the scar crossing her left eye and smiled, "…in sickness and in health. We have been torn apart so suddenly… And it terrifies me to think that we might be separated again. I don't know what will happen tomorrow. I don't know how much time we will be able to spend together. What I do know is this: my life is empty without you and I want us to be together for as long as we can."
Cletus wanted to kiss her so much…
"Rings!" he demanded, gesturing imperiously at the priest.
"Here!" the priest squeaked, holding the rings in shaking hands.
They used to be gaudy, generic pieces of stolen jewelry, completely unbefitting such momentous occasion. So Cletus had improvised, heating up silver and gold with his flames and molding it into a different shape with his own hands.
Something more fitting for both of them.
He took one ring (a bird with outstretched wings that looped into a circle) and Frances took the other (a sharp jagged shape like the open teeth of a bear trap).
Cletus gently took her left hand in his and slid the ring on her finger. "I don't think there is anything left for me to say, angel. I love you. I will always love you, and nothing will ever change that."
"I love you too. I love you so much…" Frances whispered. She took his hand and put his own ring on with a brilliant smile. "This is the happiest day of my life."
"I now p-p-pronounce you husband and wife," the priest stuttered. "You may k-k-kiss the bride."
Cletus didn't need to be told twice. He leaned in and hungrily kissed Frances, his wife, and she kissed him back just as passionately.
And in that moment, nothing else mattered to him.
He knew that this was only a short respite. He knew that tomorrow he would have to uphold his end of the deal in the faint hope that Dormammu would keep his word. He would have to gather the promised life-force and try to keep the crystal from going out of control and incinerating him. He would have to face the so-called heroes once more and make sure that even if he burned, they burned with him, and Frances remained safe from them.
But all of these were worries for the future. Here and now, everything was perfect.