"Goddess... Er... Does that mean... Some people will create a new universe?" - Asked Lucas - "What happens to this one?"
"It remains alive, Lucas, much like a mother ordinarily does not die when giving birth. You will not lose it, if it means anything to you by then. However, you may be missing one thing from the picture. Analyze the discourse, translator..." - Neruite chided gently.
"Huh?" - Asked Lucas. Then it hit her. Much like the path I have taken...
"WHAT!!!???" - Lucas asked when she noticed - "N-Neruite, are you telling me I'm... Er... Did I become..."
Neruite giggled to herself.
"Hold your horses. You are not about to become a deity to humans. And even becoming one to those beings, after they evolve beyond their current stage, will take a long time, and it is possible for you yourself to have decided to do something else entirely. Understand this. All humans have the potential to be deities to them. I just helped you realize yours. Whether or not to become a deity later, individually or merging with another deity that is close to your nature, is your decision, one not to be made for a very long time."
Lucas blushed. "Good. So I can still make a decision on this and so on, and I have time... Whew. Neruite, you have got to give me these kinds of news in another way. For a moment there I thought I had become a deity right now..."
Neruite smirked. "Even though I am a being that is aeons old, I still derive much pleasure from the look on your face. Maybe some of your nature is rubbing off on me."
"So... That means I will make that decision one day as well?" - Asked Cass.
"Yes, now that you know it. You and those of this age may be a bit too early to the party, but since it is not known how long you will live, especially with your new plots of land here..."
Cass and Lucas nodded. It was food for thought, but they both decided to, for the sake of their sanity (such as it was), cross that bridge when they got to it.
"On another subject, Lucas... Related to those you called the Enemy..." - Said Selene - "I will let you have one thing. I will make some adjustments to your area for a quick healing..." - Said Neruite.
"I did two today, thought that were my limit?" - Said Lucas.
"Sorry, you saw me do my two as well..." - Said Cass.
"It is the limit, usually, but, given some thirty minutes, I can make sure you are allowed a third one, just for today. There is someone rather specific that suffered due to this fight. Those you call the Enemy implanted a seed on her mother. And her mother... mistreated her due to it." - Said Neruite.
"These things had a woman commit child abuse?" - Asked Lucas - "Goddess. I don't need to destroy them utterly, you just said they become individuals upon dealing with humans. For after I heal the girl, tell me. Where can I find them?" - Lucas asked, this time calmly. And, paradoxically, in utter rage.
Neruite took a step back once more. This time, the fury was cold, clinical. The anger of one who would take their time with whatever aroused said anger. However, she did have an answer.
"They were destroyed already, Lucas." - Said Neruite - "However, though I can't interfere directly, you can. So, while you don't get to exercise the more depraved parts of your creativity on the creatures, you do get to heal the youth in question. I will just need a half hour."
Lucas blushed a bit, her anger abated.
"Okay. Er, who is the girl?"
"Her name is Kenya Crawford..." - Said Neruite.
"Wait. That's the daughter of... Oh..." - Said Cass, a look of comprehension dawning on her - "Lucas, Emily Crawford, this girl's mother, is my co-worker."
Neruite nodded. "Yes, she is. And she is also aware of the ones you call the Enemy now. Whether or not to talk to her about this, Cass, is your decision. But I figure it will do you, Lucas, and Emily and Kenya themselves, a world of good to heal them..."
Lucas blushed. "Thanks... Wait. Kenya? Huh." - She smirked a bit. "I'll be back in less than a half-hour, Neruite. I gotta go prepare a few things, myself..." - Lucas smiled, gave Cass a peck on the cheek, and left.
Cass sweatdropped.
"Please tell me she's not gonna..."
Neruite smiled lightly.
"She's been through a lot today, Cass. She'll also have to have a talk about her own identity with one of her friends, and she will greatly help someone. Let her have this."
"Hello, pumpkin... A-are you any better?" - Said Emily. The memories of what she had done... How her daughter had suffered... Still fresh, and every look at her daughter's scars only reminded her of how she had hurt her daughter.
Kenya nodded, gently. "Yes, mother, I am..." - She mentally sighed to herself. No matter how many times she tried to tell her mother it was all forgiven, her mother seemed to remember what was done whenever she laid eyes on her.
And then the ground failed them.
Kenya fell through... something. She was in a sort of transparent tube, seeing her own mother in another one, along with an angel woman smiling like an idiot, wearing a mask that covered her eyes and holding a sign reading:
"COOL! IT'S MY FIRST TIME HEALING AN ENTIRE COUNTRY!"
Behind the strange woman, the girl could see a mast painted green, red, white and black. On the mast, the flag of the Republic of Kenya flew. Kenya would have groaned if it weren't for the utter surprise of the situation.
And then, as quickly as it had began, it was over. Kenya and her mother were both back in their house, on the couch.
The first thing Kenya noticed was that her mother was wearing a T-shirt reading "I (heart) Nairobi" over her own dress. Other such things covered her mother; she was holding two cups with the same Kenyan theme, keychains with it as well, a cap with the flag of Kenya and a Maasai shield not unlike the one in the flag itself.
"Pumpkin, your... Your scars..." - Said Emily.
Kenya, currently sitting on a Kenyan flag spread over the sofa, looked down. She was wearing a T-shirt over her own shirt; the T-shirt seemed to be that of the Kenyan national soccer team. She felt she had a hat on (she would later see it had "Mombasa" on it).
She could see her arms, however.
Aside from the tupperware with Mahamri fried breads, labeled as such and with a recipe on the side, and the plethora of other souvenirs of the country that shared her name, Kenya also could see something else.
A conspicuous absence of scars.
She healed me... That woman healed me... - Thought Kenya.
Mother and daughter, looking as if a Kenyan gift shop had thrown up on them, embraced in utter glee, their tears being ones of joy for the first time in a long while.
"Ahh, yes. THAT'S the ticket." - Lucas said, smiling, as she made the mast and flag vanish. - "So worth the cash I spent in Nairobi and Mombasa... By the way, Cass, passed by a GREAT place in Nairobi, named Carnivore. All-you-can-eat with all kinds of interesting meat..."
"Good to know you enjoyed it..." - Said Cass, both smirking and sweatdropping - "But that leaves me with the problem of if and how to explain to Emily that I know about the so-called Enemy... And that my lover saw fit to joke about her daughter's name while healing them both..."
"Pretty sure the 'while healing them both' part will count for more than the joke." - Said Lucas
"Incidentally... why did you bring Emily along if you didn't do anything for her?" - Said Cass.
"Well, I figured it would be better than for her mother to wonder where the girl went and if the un-scarred girl was REALLY the girl, y'know. Less panic and angst that way." - Said Lucas.
"You wanted one more person to fill with souvenir crap, didn't you?" - Smirked Cass.
"Yep." - Said Lucas - "Anyways, I gotta go. I still have to see Maxwell about my... er... species."
Cass nodded, walked up to Lucas and kissed her.
"If it turns out you are some kind of oddity among angels, what will you do?"
Lucas smiled. "I'll keep doing what I do. It's not gonna make a difference, but I sorta wanna know anyways... Plus... I... I don't know if I should even have this power. To decide fates like that. I'm not gonna get rid of it or anything, and I do intend to use it to save those girls, it's just... I need to... I don't know."
Cass nodded and hugged her lover gently.
"I'm here for you. And you're here for me. And, seemingly, Selene-slash-Neruite is here for us both." - She smiled - "You looked so cute when she hugged you like that."
Lucas blushed, remembering Neruite's embrace. It was by no means that of a lover, yet it felt as intimate, and so peaceful. So ancient and special.
Cass smirked, as if reading Lucas's mind. "You're one lucky girl that I'm not jealous. Plus it wasn't that kind of hug."
Lucas giggled and kissed Cass once more. "Good. Anyways, I gotta go."
"Laters." - Said Cass, smiling.
Neruite recalled a few moments of the day with Lucas. The embrace, how she could feel it. She knew how Lucas felt. The calming embrace of a force of nature. She could feel the angel grasped what was in that embrace. Millions and millions of years. Aeons. To be sure, that embrace also reassured Neruite/Selene herself of one thing. It confirmed that she could trust Lucas, no matter what. She did before, of course, but with the sheer power she had felt when Lucas was truly furious...
She recalled seeing Lucas's full anger twice in that day when informing Lucas of, to be sure, pretty infuriating things.
I stepped back. Twice. When infuriated, the sheer pressure of her anger... - Thought the goddess, realizing a slightly harrowing truth - There are things I myself don't know about her...
Though she knew it would not anger the angel, she also wondered how Lucas would react when she learned of the link created once a deity saved the life of a mortal like she had saved Lucas...
"Heya, Max. You up?"
"What troubles, you, child?" - Said Maxwell, kindly.
"Er... Identity issues. Also, how did you know I was troubled?" - Said Lucas.
"Your informality towards me. I hold a degree in theology and in psychology." - Maxwell chuckled, slowly and gently - "Given what I have seen of you, it seemed like a good guess. How may I help you?"
"With the theology part, I think." - Lucas sat by a tree - "I... I think I am not an angel of vengeance..."
"Well, child, there is no such thing as an angel of vengeance in Christian mythos. Even if you consider Camael, who is not mentioned in the Bible, angels do not attack humans. Angels in that symbolism do not hold swords to punish man. They hold swords to fight against sin or, well, against demons. Figuratively speaking, of course. The imagery of the angel of vengeance is created by the lay people, who look to something to dispense their justice..."
Lucas nodded. "Well, yeah. The problem is I think I'm not even an angel of vengeance under those, er, loose terms. Tell me something. Do you believe in destiny?"
"That is a rather complex question, child. I believe in both destiny and free will. Why?"
Lucas sighed. "First, you have to believe I am not crazy." - She then paused - "Well, about what I'm gonna tell you, at least."
Maxwell chuckled slightly. "Despite your best efforts, I do not believe you are crazy in any aspect. And considering that you have been interacting with entities way beyond our understanding, a point for which I have been given evidence, it would be pretty illogical for me to disbelieve whatever it is you are about to say."
Lucas proceeded to recount her experience in the Room of Destiny, omitting the parts that identified the people to be saved.
"You do not believe you have a role to fulfill based on your form." - Said Maxwell - "So why is this an issue?"
Lucas felt his question was meant to cast light on the problem, and answered.
"I... Want to know under what myth I fall... I mean..." - Said Lucas.
"Under what myth does Cassandra fall?" - Said Maxwell, calmly.
"Well, point. None..." - Said Lucas.
"Child. We do not live now as we lived two thousand years ago. Even assuming you believed God would have a plan for this and need angels, could He not need angels to help protect other things now, beyond those that needed protecting back then? And supposing God is not involved, if the Sun generates random changes based on imagery, or on a mix of imagery adapted to our day and age... Chaos, for instance, was not nearly as often spoken about as it is now."
"But fate and, to an extent, free will were concepts back then..." - Said Lucas.
"Yet, the rights you now hold so dear are concepts that came after the French Revolution. You said you were thinking about freedom and chaos when you considered this power your sword holds. Indeed, I can hardly imagine anything more linked to that concept than denying fate itself..." - Said Maxwell - "Chaos on fate. Freedom on governments." - He went on - "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes... You imposed order on governments, but you did so on those that impose order themselves, not to mention you did so with your own wits, not with your sword..."
"Well, the theory would then go that my sword is doing the same thing, only to... Well, fate. But I got these limitations, still, so..."
"So you will work around them, child, and you will then come here and tell me how you did so, in all your flamboyant, dare I say over-the-top, style. It would not be chaos if it could pound or order the systems into submission. It would not be freedom if it could force the systems to do its bidding." - Said Maxwell - "And it would not be you if it did not involve tricking your way through the much stronger problem at hand, especially when dealing with something with which no person should meddle..."
Lucas blushed.
"I'll do my best to earn that remark, Maxwell. However, I have no idea if I should call myself Angel of Chaos or what... 'Angel of Freedom' doesn't seem to focus on the power of my sword, really..."
Maxwell chuckled. "If you must have a name for your new 'species', you could do worse than 'Angel of Chaos', child..."
The angel of chaos smiled, satisfied.
"Thanks. I found what I was looking for. A name for what I am..."
She waved to a smiling Maxwell, opened a portal and stepped through.
