Damien floated in darkness. The Fates were gone. Josanna was gone. For now, Damien was going to do whatever he wanted. He would deal with the consequences later as they came, but there was nothing they could do that hadn't already been done to him. Josanna was shot as he lay sleeping. Death said The Beastie was a weapon forged by Fate. Death had lied. It had been forged by him.
Maybe Alec had been right. Maybe the old regime had to go. Maybe they all had to go, because sitting alone here in the dark didn't make him feel better like he thought it would. Alone. Away from people and all their lies and their shit. Instead, the darkness made him feel just like he had felt back in Tartarus. Helpless. The piercing despair had washed over him.
He left his black void and took himself to Death's aura.
Damien found himself in a train station.
Alec had a gun brandished at Death.
"Alec, you're not going to pull the trigger," Death said, unimpressed.
Alec was shaking with fear or excitement. Damien couldn't tell which. "I've already pulled it twice."
The aim of Damien's despair and rage changed direction. Alec killed Josanna with that gun he was holding now. He had been aiming it at Damien, but Josanna rushed to save him, and Alec, the coward he was, ran away, vampire-speed out of the house before Damien could make heads or tails of what had happened.
Alec was going to kill Death. Damien was tired of losing people. Everyone. Every time. His mental flipbook started turning in his head. Memories, photographs, and ghosts whipped across Damien's mind. Thanatos had said, I'd destroy the universe for you. He had said, It's called worry, Damien. I'm the one who tried to keep you safe. He remembered Eros saying, I know he's rubbish at showing it, but he does care about you.
The teddy bear.
Having scotch with his dad by the fireplace.
The gun shot. That god awful sound.
Josanna dying on the floor in his arms, turning to ash.
That bullet in his pocket. A bullet that could kill anything.
Death was looking down the barrel of The Beastie.
Eros came out of a service door nearby and looked briefly at the same scene Damien was seeing. "Thanatos!" Eros called, desperately out of breath.
"Not now, Eros." Thanatos did not avert his gaze. "Can't you see I'm busy? Alec, put down the gun." Thanatos wasn't scared. He was bored. He didn't believe Alec would do it.
Eros growled out, "Thanatos! Damien killed the Fates!"
Thanatos's now horrified eyes turned towards Eros for just a second, and when Death's cold blue eyes flickered away from the loaded barrel, Alec was ready to pull the trigger.
From the shadows, Damien saw Alec reflexively tensing up, preparing himself, anticipating the-
BANG!
The gun flew from Alec's hand right as he pulled the trigger.
Death flinched at the sound, but the bullet ricocheted off the concrete wall up to his left.
Damien's eyes were zeroed in on Alec, who hadn't seen him yet. Alec was too busy looking off at the gun, which had clattered to the ground several yards away. Damien stormed up to him before anyone even noticed he was there.
Damien grabbed onto Alec's blond ponytail, ripping Alec's head back and then slammed it forward onto his raised knee. There was a crack and a spring of blood. Alec tried to vampire-speed away, still quite unsure of what was happening, but Damien still had hold of his hair. When he tried to run away at supernatural speed, there came a wet tearing sound from his scalp as it was partially torn off his skull. Alec screamed and fell back. He fell back right into Damien.
Now, Alec understood what was happening. His eyes registered Damien, and Damien gave him a smile and a wink. Alec opened his mouth, but Damien pivoted to shove Alec face-first onto the concrete floor. Alec tried to bring himself up to his knees, but he was wavering and there were spots of blood all over his vision.
Somewhere, off in the distance, Damien thought he heard his name, but he ignored it. He heard nothing besides the ringing and pounding in his ears. He saw nothing but red and Alec.
Damien held out his hand, and the old tarnished revolver flew off the floor to him like a magickal boomerang. Damien stood over the vampire, one boot on each side of the new King's body. He bent and grabbed the velvet shoulder of Alec's embroidered coat. Damien flipped Alec onto his back, and he fell down on his knees on top of the vampire. With the gun in his hand, he spun the revolver around like Doc Holiday, and he slammed the butt of the gun into Alec's face. Once. Twice. Thrice. Harder. Harder. Crack. Harder. And it became an endless, repetitive movement with pound per pound force behind it.
Alec tried to shield his freshly-concaved face to no avail. His hands just got smashed in the process. He clawed to get Damien off, or to get away, but there was no reprieve. Regardless, after just a few hits, Alec couldn't see to escape anyway.
All the pain Damien had ever endured was being funneled into Alec's face, even as Death and Eros came to understand what was happening and were calling to him to stop. Damien heard nothing but the crunching of Alec's nasal cavity and his own metacarpals.
"Damien! That's enough!" His father's voice finally came through to him. His ears were now clearing up from the ringing of Alec's missed shot. He became hyper-aware of the ebb and flow of his own labored breathing, then Damien remembered the gun in his hand. He aimed it at Alec. Again, he heard his name somewhere behind the crashing waves of his breath.
"Damien! Do not kill him. I need him alive," said Thanatos.
Tears now streamed down Damien's blood-splattered face. "He killed Anna!" Inside he was trembling, but on the outside he did not shake.
"I know." Death's voice was firm, yet soothing.
Damien sighted down the barrel at Alec. He choked. "He was going to kill you!"
"I know."
Alec was moaning and writhing and sputtering, but Damien didn't think the vampire was conscious of what was happening around him.
"Do not kill him, please," Death said again. "Put down the gun. Give me the gun, Damien."
Damien knew this gun could kill anything. This gun could kill him. He could turn the barrel to his own head, and Damien became filled with the overwhelming desire to put the gun in Death's outstretched hand, so he did. When he looked up, he saw both Death and Desire hovering over him. Damien was surprised to see Eros, let alone to see Eros's face was more stern than his father's.
Death had a sunkenness about the eyes that appeared to be empathy, but then Damien remembered. There were only so many types of people in the world, and Death was the guilty kind. It wasn't empathy. It was guilt. "You lied." Damien cleared his throat. "You and Hypnos. You made that gun. You told me the Fates made it."
Death was taken aback. He blinked. "I couldn't have been sure at the time that-"
Damien jumped to his feet. "Don't lie to me!"
Death averted his gaze, but he swallowed his guilt and made sure to don his usual aura of apathy. "Yes, the truth is... I lied. To protect you, right or wrong-"
"You did it to protect yourself," Damien interrupted.
Death took in a breath and conceded. "Maybe so, but now you have killed the Fates."
Damien looked confused for a moment, and then he remembered. He hadn't killed them, exactly, just... deleted them. There was a difference, right?
"They are gone. Josanna's gone. Victor is gone. Everything is a mess. We made the mess, and now we have to clean it up." Thanatos said.
Damien thought about Josanna's ashes. His watery eyes stared out into nothing, and a few more tears rolled down his face. Eros began to walk up to Damien, but Damien held out a hand. "No," Damien said. His eyes met Thanatos. He held his chin erect. "I never want to see you again... Ever."
Thanatos's heart broke, but he didn't make a sound as Damien turned and began to walk back the way he came.
Alec was starting to move. His face was beginning to heal, open wounds stitching themselves together. His nose painfully reconstructed itself, and he shakily brought himself up to his elbows.
Damien turned and made his way to Alec. "Let me help you up there, buddy." He grabbed Alec by the collar and hoisted him up. The vampire gurgled up blood as Damien slammed his back into the wall. "I might not be allowed to kill you," Damien said, "but I will fucking haunt you. Every move you make, everywhere you go, I'll keep turning up like a bad penny. I will stop you at every turn. I will fucking ruin you, you filthy piece of gluttonous trash. A wise man once told me, there are things worse than defeat, crueler than death. For you, Alec, that thing will always be me." Damien gave one final jab at Alec's throat before dropping him to the floor. Damien vanished into the shadows.
Thanatos stood frozen, scarcely breathing.
Eros pressed his lips together. He could see Death's pain, and could feel it in every fiber of his own being. He timidly reached his fingers out to comfort. "...Thanatos?"
Death jerked back while Eros's hand was still quite a distance away.
"Don't-" Thanatos held out a defensive finger. "Don't fucking touch me."
They both looked at each other, very hurt, very sad, but almost very lovingly for just a moment. Eros lowered his hand after it hovered in the air for those few seconds. Death walked away, materializing his hat, covering his downcast eyes with the brim as he went.
***
Loki and Eros shuffled and slumped through their front door. Loki was fussing and struggling to get the white suit-jacket off. Now that he was in his own form, it was a bit tight across the shoulders. Wordlessly, he flailed. Eros made hand gestures to calm the angry giant but also said nothing. Once Loki stopped flailing, Eros got behind him and pulled the jacket off.
Free from the tortuous jacket, Loki fell on the sofa, man-spreading. He loosened his tie even more and unbuttoned his shirt even further. Eros collapsed on the opposite sofa and produced a silver cigarette case and a lighter from his pant's pocket. Loki liked the idea and materialized his pipe. They sat wordlessly on opposite sofas, puffing on their tobacco for a quiet, peaceful minute.
"Well, that was a lot of drama!" Loki huffed.
"Yeah," Eros confirmed, half-asleep.
Loki chewed on the stem of his pipe. "What the bloody hell are we going to do now? The Fates are gone."
This prompted a small, "Hmmm," from Eros. "I don't know. I'd like to maybe try to be a little less self-destructive. Maybe now I could... let myself be happy for once."
Loki beamed at him, "I think that's a brilliant start, darling. Thanatos and I had been working towards this day for, well, a very long time. Now that it's come, maybe I could relax a bit. You know, retire. Re-tire." Loki said the word again to see how it felt rolling over his tongue. "No. No, I don't like that, but relax and settle down."
Eros nodded. "Settling down is good. Staying still instead of bouncing around from world to world, lover to lover... Would you ever think about actually getting married?"
Loki choked on his tobacco smoke. "Married?"
"Yes, to me. What do you think? I mean... Death did say he'd pay for it."
Loki leaned forward on his knees. "Did you just ask me to marry you? Again, I'm not in the right suit for this conversation!" He gestured to his all white apparel.
Eros deadpanned, "Would you like to go upstairs, change your suit, come back down, and I can ask it again?"
Loki stuttered and whined, "This isn't fair! I wanted to be the one to ask you this time."
"Too late. You should have done it before I did."
"But, I'm dressed like Thanatos! No. This is your fault that you have such rubbish timing."
There was silence.
Eros said, "But, you will marry me, won't you?"
Sincerity took over Loki's playful demeanor. "God, yes. You know I will. Are you kidding?"
Eros smiled.
Loki stood, and with one long leg, he stepped over the coffee table. He hovered over Eros. "On one condition," Loki said. He picked Eros up and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, while Eros protested and laughed.
Loki said, "I get to plan the wedding." He carried a struggling, laughing Eros to the stairs.
"Oh my god, stop it! Put me down! Yes, yes fine. You can plan the wedding!"
Loki continued to carry him up the stairs, "Good. Because you like boring, straight-lined things. Weddings should be romantic with frills, with petals and curves, and-"
"The railing! The railing! Oh dear god, put me down!"
"Are you even listening to me?"
Eros giggled, and they disappeared into the bedroom.
