HOME | DD

Description
November 25, 75005 BCE; Tartarus

Eve could only describe how she felt as… queasy. She never liked this place, this endless misty void that sat between the folds of reality, but she especially didn't like it now. She came for another meeting with Lucifer, but under much different circumstances this time around.

It seemed oddly quiet as she walked across the floating platforms. Too quiet… She still heard the screams of prisoners in the distance, but they seemed quieter somehow. Something was definitely off, and it just put Eve more and more on edge.

She found Lucifer in the same place as before, in his “office”, surrounded by all the tech that kept this dimension monitored. He seemed heavily focused on his screens, disturbingly focused. He didn't turn around when Eve approached him.

“So, how'd it go?” he asked her.

“The mission?”

“No, the lovely stroll in the park. Yes the mission.”

“You don't have to be an ass.”

“No, but I like to be, so I will be. How did the mission go?”

“The doctor got away.”

“Dammit.”

“Sorry. There wasn't anything I could do.”

“Did he talk to you?”

Eve didn't say anything.

“Oh come on, Evie. Keeping secrets from your good buddy Lucifer? That's just rude.”

He slowly turned to face her. She could tell he wasn't amused. She was afraid, but she did her best not to show it.

“Funny,” she said. “Because I could almost say the same to you.”

He grinned. Eve wasn't expecting that. It scared her further. She could feel her stone glare starting to fail.

“That so?” he said as he took a step forward. “And what could ever make you say such a thing?”

Eve took a step back. “The doctor fled. That's it. He stole enough tech to build an escape pod and leave with his granddaughter, and nothing more. He fled because he knew the real traitor to our cause. He knew that whoever it is is planning something on a reality-shattering scale.”

Lucifer nodded, almost mockingly. He took another step forward. Eve took another step back. She was surprised when she bumped into something. A wall had risen up from the floor to block her retreat. She started to show panic now.

“Did you get a name from the doctor before he left?” Lucifer inquired, his demonic grin not fading.

“I… no. He only said that the traitor is someone with access to reality-bending tech.”

“Hmm. Who do we know with access to those kind of toys?” He started to reach for his sword. Eve fixed him with an angry glare.

“What are you planning, you snake?” she demanded of him, tired of playing games. “What could be so bad that the doctor would be more afraid of it than a solar flare that would wipe out the Earth?”

“Oh please, I think you're smart enough to figure it out. Big bad archangel with a rebellious streak and a love of destructive chaos gets put in charge of the cracks in reality? Archangel gets fed up with all the morons in his life squabbling over stupid politics that don't matter at all. What do you think the next step in his head is?”

She said nothing. Lucifer smiled.

“That's right, Evie. Open those cracks up a bit more. Until the whole thing just goes…”

He slid his hand across one of his makeshift desks and knocked over a glass. The glass fell straight to the ground and shattered instantly. Eve looked at it in horror.

“Why?” she demanded, trying to press herself up against the barrier behind her as Lucifer menacingly approached. “I thought you wanted to see the world change, not burn! You gave me the Apple! Set my people free to fight!”

He laughed. “Oh please,” he laughed. “I gave you that hunk of scrap metal so that I could see how badly things would get destroyed. I knew you'd go to war with the Isu and quite frankly I was hoping the two sides would have blasted each other into extinction by now. But I can tell that isn't going to happen, so I'll have to take matters into my own hands.”

“By destroying the entire fabric of reality?”

“Yep! Because I'm so done with putting up with all you morons. I'm sick of the King, I'm sick of Michael, and I'm sick of you! I'm sick of being surrounded by idiots, and quite frankly I just love watching you all fall apart.”

“You won't get away with this! The Assassins-!”

“Won't stand a chance once I get rid of you.”

He lifted his sword high. Eve closed her eyes and tensed as she braced herself. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to run. She was hoping it wouldn't end like this. She hoped the rebellion could continue on without her…

Suddenly there was a loud metallic clang that reverberated through the void. Eve managed to open her eyes and look up when she realized that she hadn't been struck yet. She gasped in thankful surprise. Gabriel stood behind Lucifer, his armored hand holding on tight to the sword’s blade and keeping it from being brought down on Eve's head. Gabriel locked eyes with his brother. Both glared with a burning fury.

“Hi Lucy,” Gabriel joked. “I'm home.”

Lucifer snarled. Gabriel spoke to Eve without taking his eyes off of his brother's.

“Eve, get out of here.”

“What and leave you here alone? Hell no.”

“Eve! Now!”

“I'm not leaving you!”

“Oh come on, Gabriel,” Lucifer mocked as he turned to face the other angel, never letting go of his sword. “If the lady wants to die along with you, just let her.”

“Lucifer, you're my brother and I love you. Please, I don't want to hurt you.’

“You always were the sappy one.”

Lucifer yanked his sword out of Gabriel's hand and swung it at his head. Gabriel thrust his arm up and activated his hidden blade to counter. The two started swinging at each other, neither holding back since they knew if they did, they'd be dead instantly.

“Eve!” Gabriel begged as he fought. “Please! Go! Aaahhh-!”

The next swing from Lucifer sent Gabriel falling over the edge of the platform. Right as the Assassin fell, he grabbed his brother by the collar and dragged him right along.

“Gabriel!” Eve shouted. She sprinted over to the edge and looked down, trying to spot her friend. She didn't see him. She began to panic, but suddenly the floor shook violently as the two angels came crashing through it, their wings ejected out and putting them in full flight. Eve couldn't do anything but watch as the isu took off into the sky and dished it out on one another.

“Gabriel,” Lucifer said as they swung their blades, “I have to say, as much as I hate Michael’s guts, he was right about one thing, little brother: you're an idiot for being willing to sacrifice yourself for a bunch of cockroaches!”

“It's not my fault you can't see them the way dad wanted us to! He wanted us to see them as equals, as companions to share the world with! But all you ever did was spit on that dream!”

“Hey! I gave them knowledge! I gave that little rat down there the secrets of the Apple!”

“Only because you wanted the world to burn from the chaos! You wanted war! And you got your wish. Are you happy now, Lucifer? Are you? Was watching all these innocent lives die in this war satisfying enough for you?”

“No! Because I want it all to burn. Here's the thing, Gabriel, here’s the big difference between me and Michael: He thinks the humans are nothing but cockroaches to deal with. I think you're all pests. Everyone! The Isu, the humans, all of you! None of you deserve to keep living!”

“So what, you're just better than us all? Is that it?”

“Pretty much, little brother.”

The two of them locked blades, pushing hard as sparks of energy flew off the weapons. They leaned in close to each other's faces. Lucifer grinned, Gabriel scowled.

“I've always been better. Than you, than dad, than the humans, than Michael, than everyone!”

“And that mentality is exactly why you're not better than anyone,” Gabriel shot back. He thrust his arm forward with a shout and kicked Lucifer back with his boot. Lucifer immediately recovered and dashed forward for another attack. He was interrupted by a sudden laser blast from below, however, and another, and another, each trying to land a hit on him. Both angels looked down and saw Eve firing her pistol up at Lucifer, trying desperately to help her friend.

Lucifer snarled and aimed his sword downwards. It started glowing and crackling with electric bolts before suddenly a massive surge of lightning came scorching out of the blade. Eve gasped and dodged just in time. She sprinted over to take cover behind Lucifer's tech and kept firing.

Gabriel dashed forward and tackled Lucifer back to the ground level and wrestled with him.

“I'm getting sick of this!” Lucifer declared, and with a vicious shout, he put his hands on Gabriel's chest and blasted him backwards with the energy blasters on his palms. He ejected his wings again and hovered above them, extending his arms out wide. The machines around him creaked and moaned as bolts of energy came surging out of them and into the circuits of Lucifer's armor. The world around them started to rumble and the platforms began crumble. Eve noticed the little circle on his chest plate glowing brighter and brighter the more energy he drew. She took a risk, and she brought up her gun. She let off a blast of energy that, to her gratitude, hit Lucifer right in the chest. The traitor shouted in pain and the circle shattered. The bolts withered away in midair and the world stopped falling apart around them. Lucifer fell back to the ground with a painful thud. A little triangular chunk of his armor fell out of his chest plate, and it fell into Eve's hands. She thought it almost looked like a string instrument’s plectrum.

Lucifer tried to lift his hand up to reconnect to his machines, but it wouldn't work. He swore violently. He looked over to Eve “You're gonna pay for that!” he barked. As he struggled to stand back up, Gabriel dashed over to Eve and picked her up, and the two took off towards the exit.

“You can run all you want!” Lucifer shouted, “but It won't do you any good! There's plenty of other machines that can take the place of my armor! I'll gather them all up and destroy you all!”

The Assassins rushed away until they plowed out of the exit portal and blasted off back into the cloudy night sky. Gabriel didn't land until they were far far away.

“Dammit…” Eve said, running her hands through her hair and pacing out of stress. “Dammit dammit dammit… what are we going to do?”

“I don't know…”

“He's gonna try again, you know!”

“I know…”

“We can't let him, Gabriel. We can't!”

“I know, Eve, I know.”

“I just… we need to find a why to beat him. We barely managed to survive that mess. We won't be able to do this alone.”

“We're not gonna be able to do it with just the Assassins’ resources. He's too strong, too crafty. He's got the arsenal of the archangel garrison behind him.”

Eve put an anxious finger on her chin and searched her brain desperately for ideas.

She managed to find one, but oh how she didn't like it. She looked over at Gabriel.

“What if we cut him off from the garrison?” she suggested. “What if… what if we go to Asgard and try to plead our case?”

Gabriel looked at her like she lost her mind. “What are you nuts? They'll blast us into powder before we ever get the chance to get near them! Michael and Odin aren't exactly friendly towards us and our allies.”

“We have to try, Gabriel.”

“It will never work. Even if we do manage to get into the palace, they'll never agree to help us!”

“Lucifer is a threat to human and isu alike. They have just as much reason to take him down as we do. They have to at least see the reason in that.”

“Eve…”

“Do you have any better ideas? Because I sure as hell don't. I'd love to hear some!”

“I… no… I don't…”

She walked over and put her hands on his shoulders. “We’ve got to try… If we don't, no one is going to survive this war. At all.”

Gabriel hung his head and sighed. “Fine…” he reluctantly said. “But we gotta make sure we plan this out perfectly. One wrong move, and we're screwed.”

Eve nodded. She sat down next to him and put her head in her hands. Neither said anything. They just sat there, dreading the future as the world around them began to disassemble back into the void. The eerie silence was soon broken by the icy echoes of the cave. The blinding light dissipated, and Arktalaki found herself back in her own mind and body once again. She shook her head to anchor herself back to reality, and put the disk back in her satchel with the others. She took a moment to reflect on Eve's memories before standing back up and going to help her tribe prepare for the journey through the caves. Her mind wandered to this great ocean that they'd eventually have to cross. She hoped they'd be able to handle such a dangerous route.

As she thought, she felt her mind warping and twisting as her own history faded away into yet another void. The Animus warped her body and mind back to the original state. Before she knew it, the machine spat her back out onto Animus Island.

Description
November 25, 75005 BCE; Tartarus

Eve could only describe how she felt as… queasy. She never liked this place, this endless misty void that sat between the folds of reality, but she especially didn't like it now. She came for another meeting with Lucifer, but under much different circumstances this time around.

It seemed oddly quiet as she walked across the floating platforms. Too quiet… She still heard the screams of prisoners in the distance, but they seemed quieter somehow. Something was definitely off, and it just put Eve more and more on edge.

She found Lucifer in the same place as before, in his “office”, surrounded by all the tech that kept this dimension monitored. He seemed heavily focused on his screens, disturbingly focused. He didn't turn around when Eve approached him.

“So, how'd it go?” he asked her.

“The mission?”

“No, the lovely stroll in the park. Yes the mission.”

“You don't have to be an ass.”

“No, but I like to be, so I will be. How did the mission go?”

“The doctor got away.”

“Dammit.”

“Sorry. There wasn't anything I could do.”

“Did he talk to you?”

Eve didn't say anything.

“Oh come on, Evie. Keeping secrets from your good buddy Lucifer? That's just rude.”

He slowly turned to face her. She could tell he wasn't amused. She was afraid, but she did her best not to show it.

“Funny,” she said. “Because I could almost say the same to you.”

He grinned. Eve wasn't expecting that. It scared her further. She could feel her stone glare starting to fail.

“That so?” he said as he took a step forward. “And what could ever make you say such a thing?”

Eve took a step back. “The doctor fled. That's it. He stole enough tech to build an escape pod and leave with his granddaughter, and nothing more. He fled because he knew the real traitor to our cause. He knew that whoever it is is planning something on a reality-shattering scale.”

Lucifer nodded, almost mockingly. He took another step forward. Eve took another step back. She was surprised when she bumped into something. A wall had risen up from the floor to block her retreat. She started to show panic now.

“Did you get a name from the doctor before he left?” Lucifer inquired, his demonic grin not fading.

“I… no. He only said that the traitor is someone with access to reality-bending tech.”

“Hmm. Who do we know with access to those kind of toys?” He started to reach for his sword. Eve fixed him with an angry glare.

“What are you planning, you snake?” she demanded of him, tired of playing games. “What could be so bad that the doctor would be more afraid of it than a solar flare that would wipe out the Earth?”

“Oh please, I think you're smart enough to figure it out. Big bad archangel with a rebellious streak and a love of destructive chaos gets put in charge of the cracks in reality? Archangel gets fed up with all the morons in his life squabbling over stupid politics that don't matter at all. What do you think the next step in his head is?”

She said nothing. Lucifer smiled.

“That's right, Evie. Open those cracks up a bit more. Until the whole thing just goes…”

He slid his hand across one of his makeshift desks and knocked over a glass. The glass fell straight to the ground and shattered instantly. Eve looked at it in horror.

“Why?” she demanded, trying to press herself up against the barrier behind her as Lucifer menacingly approached. “I thought you wanted to see the world change, not burn! You gave me the Apple! Set my people free to fight!”

He laughed. “Oh please,” he laughed. “I gave you that hunk of scrap metal so that I could see how badly things would get destroyed. I knew you'd go to war with the Isu and quite frankly I was hoping the two sides would have blasted each other into extinction by now. But I can tell that isn't going to happen, so I'll have to take matters into my own hands.”

“By destroying the entire fabric of reality?”

“Yep! Because I'm so done with putting up with all you morons. I'm sick of the King, I'm sick of Michael, and I'm sick of you! I'm sick of being surrounded by idiots, and quite frankly I just love watching you all fall apart.”

“You won't get away with this! The Assassins-!”

“Won't stand a chance once I get rid of you.”

He lifted his sword high. Eve closed her eyes and tensed as she braced herself. She had nowhere to go, nowhere to run. She was hoping it wouldn't end like this. She hoped the rebellion could continue on without her…

Suddenly there was a loud metallic clang that reverberated through the void. Eve managed to open her eyes and look up when she realized that she hadn't been struck yet. She gasped in thankful surprise. Gabriel stood behind Lucifer, his armored hand holding on tight to the sword’s blade and keeping it from being brought down on Eve's head. Gabriel locked eyes with his brother. Both glared with a burning fury.

“Hi Lucy,” Gabriel joked. “I'm home.”

Lucifer snarled. Gabriel spoke to Eve without taking his eyes off of his brother's.

“Eve, get out of here.”

“What and leave you here alone? Hell no.”

“Eve! Now!”

“I'm not leaving you!”

“Oh come on, Gabriel,” Lucifer mocked as he turned to face the other angel, never letting go of his sword. “If the lady wants to die along with you, just let her.”

“Lucifer, you're my brother and I love you. Please, I don't want to hurt you.’

“You always were the sappy one.”

Lucifer yanked his sword out of Gabriel's hand and swung it at his head. Gabriel thrust his arm up and activated his hidden blade to counter. The two started swinging at each other, neither holding back since they knew if they did, they'd be dead instantly.

“Eve!” Gabriel begged as he fought. “Please! Go! Aaahhh-!”

The next swing from Lucifer sent Gabriel falling over the edge of the platform. Right as the Assassin fell, he grabbed his brother by the collar and dragged him right along.

“Gabriel!” Eve shouted. She sprinted over to the edge and looked down, trying to spot her friend. She didn't see him. She began to panic, but suddenly the floor shook violently as the two angels came crashing through it, their wings ejected out and putting them in full flight. Eve couldn't do anything but watch as the isu took off into the sky and dished it out on one another.

“Gabriel,” Lucifer said as they swung their blades, “I have to say, as much as I hate Michael’s guts, he was right about one thing, little brother: you're an idiot for being willing to sacrifice yourself for a bunch of cockroaches!”

“It's not my fault you can't see them the way dad wanted us to! He wanted us to see them as equals, as companions to share the world with! But all you ever did was spit on that dream!”

“Hey! I gave them knowledge! I gave that little rat down there the secrets of the Apple!”

“Only because you wanted the world to burn from the chaos! You wanted war! And you got your wish. Are you happy now, Lucifer? Are you? Was watching all these innocent lives die in this war satisfying enough for you?”

“No! Because I want it all to burn. Here's the thing, Gabriel, here’s the big difference between me and Michael: He thinks the humans are nothing but cockroaches to deal with. I think you're all pests. Everyone! The Isu, the humans, all of you! None of you deserve to keep living!”

“So what, you're just better than us all? Is that it?”

“Pretty much, little brother.”

The two of them locked blades, pushing hard as sparks of energy flew off the weapons. They leaned in close to each other's faces. Lucifer grinned, Gabriel scowled.

“I've always been better. Than you, than dad, than the humans, than Michael, than everyone!”

“And that mentality is exactly why you're not better than anyone,” Gabriel shot back. He thrust his arm forward with a shout and kicked Lucifer back with his boot. Lucifer immediately recovered and dashed forward for another attack. He was interrupted by a sudden laser blast from below, however, and another, and another, each trying to land a hit on him. Both angels looked down and saw Eve firing her pistol up at Lucifer, trying desperately to help her friend.

Lucifer snarled and aimed his sword downwards. It started glowing and crackling with electric bolts before suddenly a massive surge of lightning came scorching out of the blade. Eve gasped and dodged just in time. She sprinted over to take cover behind Lucifer's tech and kept firing.

Gabriel dashed forward and tackled Lucifer back to the ground level and wrestled with him.

“I'm getting sick of this!” Lucifer declared, and with a vicious shout, he put his hands on Gabriel's chest and blasted him backwards with the energy blasters on his palms. He ejected his wings again and hovered above them, extending his arms out wide. The machines around him creaked and moaned as bolts of energy came surging out of them and into the circuits of Lucifer's armor. The world around them started to rumble and the platforms began crumble. Eve noticed the little circle on his chest plate glowing brighter and brighter the more energy he drew. She took a risk, and she brought up her gun. She let off a blast of energy that, to her gratitude, hit Lucifer right in the chest. The traitor shouted in pain and the circle shattered. The bolts withered away in midair and the world stopped falling apart around them. Lucifer fell back to the ground with a painful thud. A little triangular chunk of his armor fell out of his chest plate, and it fell into Eve's hands. She thought it almost looked like a string instrument’s plectrum.

Lucifer tried to lift his hand up to reconnect to his machines, but it wouldn't work. He swore violently. He looked over to Eve “You're gonna pay for that!” he barked. As he struggled to stand back up, Gabriel dashed over to Eve and picked her up, and the two took off towards the exit.

“You can run all you want!” Lucifer shouted, “but It won't do you any good! There's plenty of other machines that can take the place of my armor! I'll gather them all up and destroy you all!”

The Assassins rushed away until they plowed out of the exit portal and blasted off back into the cloudy night sky. Gabriel didn't land until they were far far away.

“Dammit…” Eve said, running her hands through her hair and pacing out of stress. “Dammit dammit dammit… what are we going to do?”

“I don't know…”

“He's gonna try again, you know!”

“I know…”

“We can't let him, Gabriel. We can't!”

“I know, Eve, I know.”

“I just… we need to find a why to beat him. We barely managed to survive that mess. We won't be able to do this alone.”

“We're not gonna be able to do it with just the Assassins’ resources. He's too strong, too crafty. He's got the arsenal of the archangel garrison behind him.”

Eve put an anxious finger on her chin and searched her brain desperately for ideas.

She managed to find one, but oh how she didn't like it. She looked over at Gabriel.

“What if we cut him off from the garrison?” she suggested. “What if… what if we go to Asgard and try to plead our case?”

Gabriel looked at her like she lost her mind. “What are you nuts? They'll blast us into powder before we ever get the chance to get near them! Michael and Odin aren't exactly friendly towards us and our allies.”

“We have to try, Gabriel.”

“It will never work. Even if we do manage to get into the palace, they'll never agree to help us!”

“Lucifer is a threat to human and isu alike. They have just as much reason to take him down as we do. They have to at least see the reason in that.”

“Eve…”

“Do you have any better ideas? Because I sure as hell don't. I'd love to hear some!”

“I… no… I don't…”

She walked over and put her hands on his shoulders. “We’ve got to try… If we don't, no one is going to survive this war. At all.”

Gabriel hung his head and sighed. “Fine…” he reluctantly said. “But we gotta make sure we plan this out perfectly. One wrong move, and we're screwed.”

Eve nodded. She sat down next to him and put her head in her hands. Neither said anything. They just sat there, dreading the future as the world around them began to disassemble back into the void. The eerie silence was soon broken by the icy echoes of the cave. The blinding light dissipated, and Arktalaki found herself back in her own mind and body once again. She shook her head to anchor herself back to reality, and put the disk back in her satchel with the others. She took a moment to reflect on Eve's memories before standing back up and going to help her tribe prepare for the journey through the caves. Her mind wandered to this great ocean that they'd eventually have to cross. She hoped they'd be able to handle such a dangerous route.

As she thought, she felt her mind warping and twisting as her own history faded away into yet another void. The Animus warped her body and mind back to the original state. Before she knew it, the machine spat her back out onto Animus Island.