Sell you a Bridge chapter 108

Hell October 30th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

It  was time. Three months of constant growth and accruing power. Three  months of training and fighting and combat against monsters and demons. I  had a plan for killing Annabel, as much as I wished I didn't have to.  It had taken us hours today to clear our way to the pentagram leading to  Annabel's chamber, but we'd done it, and I felt my final level click  into place after hundreds of monsters killed, bringing me up to fifty.  My last five stats were dropped into points bringing my point generation  to four hundred even and I sighed as that last goal was accomplished.

I  couldn't take my eyes off the portal to the last level of hell. All  this work, all this trouble, and this was the end of it. If we walked in  their I would walk out of it having murdered someone I might have loved  or I wouldn't walk out at all. I turned to look at the others. Their  auras burned with conviction. Oddly even Kit seemed focused and  determined. Her aura had undercurrents of shame and guilt I didn't  really understand, but maybe she was as sick over the thought of  murdering another person like this as I was.

It  was strange, I'd killed thousands of monsters by this point, some of  them humanoid, but I didn't feel like a murderer. I knew that would  change after tonight. I gave a heavy sigh. "Everyone ready?" We had a  basic plan, but we would have to adapt on the fly. Annabel would have  her own mind most likely, though judging by how thematic this place was  Diablo would still be in there. Everyone gave their assents and it was  time. We all stepped forward into the portal, appearing in the empty  halls of the last level of hell.

Finding  the room she was in wasn't hard. It was right around the corner and it  glowed in my aura vision like the sun. I pushed open the doors of bone  and stepped into the last room of this pit of nightmares. Annabel was  waiting of course, she was sitting on a throne of bone sipping from a  golden goblet, and when she saw me she smiled brightly. "Morgan! You  made it! I was beginning to think you would make me wait forever." He  voice was playful and happy, and she sounded so much like the girl I'd  been with all those months ago, even while looking so different.

Her  skin was red, of course, and shiny, though more of a latex sort of  shine than plating. Her breasts were larger and she seemed taller, and  her horns curled back around her head, sweeping her blonde hair back to  expose the red spike of crystal in her forehead. Her eyes were blazing  yellow, but they still glowed with that manic intensity I'd managed to  ignore from them when we were together. I swallowed at the sight of her.  I'd been hoping she would attack me, would call me a traitor or  something. I cleared my through. "Annabel. Good to see you. You know why  I'm here?"

She  giggled girlishly, a sound so at odds with her new regal appearance.  "Of course silly, you're her to join me. Well, you don't know that yet,  but I'm sure I can convince you. We belong together Morgan, I've been  watching you down here, I've seen those wings of yours. You're every bit  the demon I am now, you just hide it better." She flicked her eyes to  Zatanna with a sneer. "I was planning to kill the whore, but you've  impressed me, and she isn't...useless. If you like watching her shake  that fat ass for you so much we can work something out. She's pretty  enough I suppose, she'd make a decent succubus."

I  winced internally. This...this was worse than I expected. She  legitimately didn't understand why I couldn't take her side. I didn't  think I could do this if she didn't attack me first. Even her insults to  Zee had clearly been made as a peace offering in their own twisted way.  "Anna. I can't just leave you down here. If you finish your ascension  you're going to kill A LOT of people. Or am I wrong about that?" Maybe I  was wrong, maybe this could end peacefully, maybe we could get her to  give some kind of magical oath not to abuse her power.

That  hope turned to ash in my mouth as she giggled again. "Silly, of course I  will. The Court is outdated, that's why we couldn't be together before.  The old ideas about purity and superiority are out of useless, you've  shown me that down here. You've gotten more powerful than I could have  imagined. But Gotham is twisted by their ideals, they're baked into it's  bedrock." She shrugged. "Easier to just flip the board and reset the  pieces. No one will miss it anyway, this place is a shithole." She  smiled placatingly. "Not everyone needs to die, your mother and even  your friends can be spared. Think of how much good we can do for the  world by cleaning this place up?"

That  seemed...ambitious for her. She hadn't struck me as a messiah before.  But maybe being down here with access to all this power had changed  things. I sighed sadly. "I can't do that Anna. Give up the power. I  don't care too much about the dungeon, as long as you remove the  soulstone you can even leave it here. We're just here to stop you from  becoming a goddess and making the world a hellscape." I knew when I said  that there was no hope, but I had no idea what to offer her, no idea  what to give up to get her to abandon this.

I  expected anger, but instead I got a sad smile of acceptance. "I'm sorry  to hear that Morgan. But it's alright. My first plan will work fine.  Once I kill you and bring you back you'll understand why I've done what  I've done. With your demonic powers I'm sure the demon form I can create  from your body will be a thing of glory. Then we can be together  forever. You can be my King down here, and once my ascension is done I  can manifest our armies in reality and send them forth from this place  to cleanse our city."

Without  a second thought she flicked a finger, and the form of Annabel on the  throne split into thirteen identical copies. I growled as they appeared  and ported to the throne, drawing my blade and driving it into the chest  of the figure sitting atop the bone seat. All my hesitation drained  away at the threat, and though I still felt a low ache in my chest as I  drove my sword through her heart I knew it had to be done. The emotional  impact of that decision however, was somewhat undercut when the form of  Annabel shattered like sugar glass as I hit it, dissolving into  nothingness as the obvious simulacra was destroyed.

I  cursed and spun to find the rest of my team already engaged with the  others. Zee had summoned about a dozen golems and had dispatched them in  teams of three to pin down four while she held off another herself.  Reggie and Kit were teaming up against one and Artemis had dropped one  at the start of the fight with an arrow and was engaged with a second  and third leaving me to handle two of my own. I ported out to meat the  two on the far side of the room before they could fall on my friends and  engaged them both.

From  the aura I could tell that one of mine was the real Annabel, something I  hadn't noticed until the last second but was grateful for as I  shattered the other one with a single perfectly placed blow of my  chainsword of Haste and turned on the real one. I went after her with  every ounce of power and skill I'd learned from my time in the dungeon  and my hours of repetitive practice in my Outer Body trance, fully  expecting to take her apart or to at least be able to wear her down  through attrition with my superior skills trumping her enhanced stats.

As  she met my blade with her claws, perfectly deflecting and slash at her  throat, it occurred to me all my lamenting and guilt had overlooked  something pretty obvious. Annabel had grown up as a princess under the  Court with easy access to Talons she obviously abused. I'd had some good  training lately, but judging by her skills she'd been training since  fucking childhood. Combined with her absurd stats this fight was going  to be harder than I had expected. Sparks flew from my blade as we  clashed, and her pretty face was set into a wide manic grin. "You're  doing so well Morgan! The harder you make me work the more worthy it  proves you to be mine!"

I  danced out of the way of a strike, starting to get her rhythm down as  we battled, and slowly things began to turn. Contrary to what one might  expect however, I didn't slowly overpower her as I learned her weak  spots. I made sure to keep myself at the most basic level of self  defense, making it look like I was being worn down, as I set up my final  blow. I needed a perfect shot to manage this last part. She was a  demigoddess right now at least I needed to make sure it stuck when I  killed her.

I  merged my powers again, hole and portal, shadow and space, and opened a  huge beach ball sized hole right behind her with out her noticing as I  drew my holiday gun. She saw it and reacted instantly, darting back to  make space but it didn't matter at this point. I'd been saving this  because it cost hundreds of points, but it would finish her. I opened a  portal right in the barrel of my gun, at the exit of the barrel where  all that muzzle velocity would be kept. As the bullet fired, a massive  round of metal the size of a fucking cannon shell rocketed out of the  portal behind Annabel.

The  shot turned her into paste, and I was lucky to have dodged it before it  went off because that massive death aspected cannon shell smashed into  the bone wall and turned it to powder, proceeding further into the  dungeon. I stared in horror at what was left of my ex as the other  copies dissolved, and I fell to my knees, vomiting violently on the  floor as I saw what the bullet had done to her. Her whole torso was just  gone, and her head had rolled away across the room. The only sound was  my retching as Zee ran over to try to comfort me, Artemis walking up to  clasp my shoulder. I sat there like that for a minute, just...empty. But  at least I had my friends with me, at least I wasn't alone. I had my  best friend and my girl.

I  could see Reggie too, coming to stand by my side, but I didn't see Kit  anywhere. My eyes widened in alarm as my instincts screamed something  was wrong and I staggered to my feet, whirling around to look for her.  When I saw her my stomach dropped. Kit was standing next to the bone  throne, holding Annabel's head in one hand and the red crystal of the  soulstone in the other. She gave me a sad smile as she met my eyes.  "Sorry cousin. I wish it hadn't come to this. Don't worry, I won't cause  you any trouble." She called across the room.  The last thing I saw as  she drove the red stone into her forehead was a flash of red light as we  were all thrown forcibly from the dungeon.