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Gacha God: Devilish Delights (ch. 41)
🕑 Added 2023-11-18 16:05:38 +0000 UTCI was being interrogated. I'm sure that the Avengers would call it a more polite word, but I was essentially in an interrogation room as my butt was planted on a couch with the Avengers all around me. Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Iron Man, and War Machine. The full team, and, if nothing else, that told me they were taking this seriously. I didn't see Peter anywhere, but I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. We were back in the penthouse where I had beaten up Loki. It was a swanky place when it wasn't all exploded with a whole alien invasion going on.
Captain America sat across from me, sitting on a coffee table while Tony stood behind him with his arms crossed. "How about we take this from the very start. What's your name, kid?" he asked, a friendly disarming smile on his face. I'm guessing he was the Good Cop.
"Still older than you by about nine hundred years," I felt compelled to point out. And I knew why. I felt… vulnerable. I couldn't remember the last time I had been in a situation like this. I never had a problem that I didn't have an item to solve. Honestly, I thought I saw it all, but this was a first for me. This was the first time a Future/Past Me wasn't working with me, even if killing me was on the table to advance towards that goal. I was deflecting. "The name is Sebastian."
"Well, Sebastian, we've heard a little about the situation, but Peter didn't seem to have a lot of the answers. And the next thing we know, you're fighting…" Captain America trailed off, prompting me to answer.
"A Spirit of Vengeance, from hell," I replied, making Captain America's expression pinch a bit.
He offered a slow nod, "That. So, what do we need to know?"
"Peter mentioned time travel," Natasha spoke up, regarding me cooly with her arms crossed over her chest. Oh, I think she was mad. Probably for that whole 'Faking my death' thing. But she was a spy, so she had to at least understand the need for it, right?
I scratched at my cheek, glancing at all of them for a moment. They were here to help. Real, genuinely good people that were selflessly offering a hand to someone they perceived to be in need. And, I suppose I did fit that description at the moment. "Okay. I suppose I should start at the very beginning, genuinely, because… well, it's going to become relevant in a bit one way or the other. But first, is anyone here religious?" I asked, leaning forward, making everyone exchange glances.
Captain America raised his hand, as did Thor. Not really sure that counted when you were a god of the religion in question, but that was neither here nor there.
"You're going to want to plug your ears for this bit," I told Captain America. He just cocked an eyebrow, so I continued. "Hell is a real place -- well, it's a lot of real places. Its more of a cluster of dimensions of fucking awful, and each slice of hell is ruled by Archdemons and Devils. Now, most of Christianity is wrong. I wanna say a good… sixty to seventy percent. The most relevant parts that it got wrong is the Devil, capital D. Lucifer is a real fallen angel, but he's mostly just a blowhard and doesn't care one way or the other about humans -- that whole rebellion against God thing wasn't about humanity at all. I'm not sure if he even allows humans in his slice of hell."
I heard Captain America suck in a slow breath, as if he was bracing himself. The other reactions were more scattered -- disbelief, curiosity, even some relief. Interesting. Looks like someone just realized they dodged a bullet called enter all torment. "Most of what the Bible attributes to Lucifer is the work of other Devils. A lot of them. But, humans tend to have difficulty differentiating between higher beings. The important bit, however… is that there is one Devil in particular that is interested in humanity and he has been for the odd fifty thousand years. His name is Mephisto."
I could see that the name didn't really mean a damn thing to most of them. It was honestly pretty weird how humanity just… decided that Lucifer was Satan and attributed every bad thing to him. Thor, however, had a reaction. An expression of alarm flickered over his face as he considered me with far more wariness. "It is he, then? Your father?" He asked for the sake of clarification.
I didn't expect him to be the one that figured it out. I nodded while the others looked to Thor for an explanation. "Mephisto is an ancient being, as he has said. One of the few that are capable of facing my father at the height of his power." That got a bit more of a reaction, and Thor continued, "He is a destroyer of worlds, and if left unchecked, he would lay waste to everything within the universe. Precious few could hope to stop him if he tried."
I pointed at Thor, "Pretty much that." Competition got fierce when you were that high up on the food chain.
"And you're a devil boy?" Tony prompted, tilting his head.
"Devil man, but… yeah, basically," I confirmed with a nod.
Natasha stepped forward, "Before we watched… you die, you said something about a prophecy." Holy shit, Past Me. Tell them everything, why don't you? I mean, at least I had a reason to. I wasn't spilling secrets just to let a Future Me deal with the consequences. What a dick. Natasha must have seen the surprise that flickered across my face, "You don't recall?"
"I don't. I don't get my memories when I murder a Past or Future Me, but that's more or less right. Dad started a grand game with me and my siblings to create someone that would fit the framework of a prophecy. You've had a bunch of names for it over the years, but the most common name now… is the Antichrist,"I answered and Tony immediately threw up a T with his hands and shook his head.
"No. No, no, no -- you aren't just going to loredump on us and pretend you didn't just say what you just said," Tony said, his voice as dry as the Sahara. "Steve can deal with his religious crisis later. What's this about killing yourself." And, despite the wording, it very much wasn't a question. Steve shot Tony a dirty look, but said nothing.
Hesitantly, I took out my Time Turner. "Long story short, my power gives me items. Not really sure where it pulls them from, but one of them was this little guy. It's a Time Turner. Normally, I can wind back the clock by about five hours or so, and in doing so, I become Future Me to a Past Me. It's supposed to just create time loops as a fancy way of being in two places at once, but I found a way to jailbreak it when I was a kid." I was pretty sure I had been… six or seven when I found the trick out. "But time really hates it when you don't have a complete loop, so to avoid the consequences… I either offer myself up as bait for time to erase, or I kill Past Me to take his place in the timeline."
Tony leveled a look at me that I had trouble describing. "Okay- no. I understand you're speaking English right now, but there are so many problems with what you just said, I'm the closest thing to speechless as I've ever been." Which, apparently, wasn't that speechless.
Natasha, on the other hand, seemed to understand perfectly. "The one we spoke to was a Past You, who you murdered to throw us off your trail." I shot her a thumbs up, and her eyebrows rose, "Useful."
I'm glad someone at least saw it that way. Tony seemed to disagree, though, based on the glare. However, it was Steve that spoke up next. "You- You're the Antichrist?" He questioned, and I suppose he was still hung up on that.
"No. I mean, I could have been. I was one of the finalists," I answered with a small shrug of my shoulders. I could see them visibly regretting asking me these questions. "You're guess was kind of close, but instead of clones, it was my siblings. Each got a bit of Devil DNA thrown into the mix so as to make us a little more than human, and between lessons… we murdered each other. Challenges. Betrayal. Good old fashion murders too. All to claim the crown -- the metaphorical crown," I added because Steve was becoming increasingly distressed.
Thor, however, seemed rather clueless even if he did sense his friend's distress. "Who is this… Antichrist?" He questioned, making Steve heave a sigh.
"For Christianity -- again, mostly wrong about everything it's religion is based on -- it's basically the guy that will try to destroy the world on behalf of Satan. Who, by the way, doesn't actually exist. The closer translation would be… the bringer of the end." I answered, and despite my flippant tone, I couldn't keep the graveness out of my voice. "The one that draws the final curtain on the universe and turns off the lights for good."
There was a small pause before Hawkeye held up his hands, "I'm not getting through this without a drink. Anyone?" He offered, going to the stacked bar. And, for the briefest of moments, I could see Steve wishing he could get drunk. Learned that little tidbit from Google.
"Then you are a danger to us all," Thor ventured, but Tony was swift to interject.
"Hey, none of that. We've both fought the kid -- does he really strike you as ender of the universe material?" Tony asked, then he snapped at me. "Don't look all affronted," he all but pleaded when I scowled. "He's just a kid. A dumb one. Now, Sebastian, can we get you to solemnly swear to not snuff out all life in the universe, please?"
I scoffed, "I don't make those kinds of commitments." Oh, I think I was about to induce an aneurysm. "Biologically speaking, I'm still like seventeen years old. I'm in my rebellious phase. In my midlife crisis a couple hundred thousand years from now, I might change my mind about this whole 'existence' thing."
Tony rolled his eyes to the ceiling, seeing that I was being a pain in the ass for the sake of being a pain in the ass. "Hear that, then? We have a couple hundred thousand years." That did seem to mollify Thor at the very least.
"Your mother," Steve suddenly spoke up, catching my attention. "You've mentioned your father, but your mother…?"
To that, I could only shrug my shoulders. "No clue," I answered honestly. "Dad has a type, and it's those that trade their kids for power." I elaborated, and I wasn't at all comfortable with the sudden pity in Captain America's eyes. "All I know is that technically speaking, I was born some ten thousand years ago, so mom probably isn't relevant."
"I'm sorry," Steve said, making me shift uncomfortably.
What a weird thing to say. "I'm not," I dismissed his concern with a shrug.
"You expect for your siblings to become relevant in the future, then?" Natasha asked, and I would give her this -- her eye was on the ball. Steve and Tony were… I'm not sure if the word emotional was the right one, but they were biting into the context of what I was telling them. Natasha, on the other hand, was focusing on the facts and sequence of events.
"Sibling," I corrected. "It took me about a hundred tries, but I escaped the game… As you might imagine, my dad is kind of an asshole, so he's definitely not going to let it end until either me or my sister kicks it. And I have it on good authority from an ancient wizard that I'm in the top five." I had to stop my foot from bouncing as I delivered the news. That was a looming issue I really didn't want to think about.
Astoria was powerful on her own, but as one of the final two… she would have access to pretty much everything that I had to leave behind to escape the noose. And I had left behind some truly incredibly busted stuff.
So, I distracted myself with the more immediate problem. "That's an issue for another day, though. For now, we have to deal with the mind controlled Future Me," I said, and I could see in Natasha's eyes that she knew exactly what I did.
Tony dragged a hand over his face, "I miss ten minutes ago when that sounded like the biggest problem we would be dealing with." He sighed before leveling a stare at me, "Okay. I'll bite. This Future You. What's his goal?"
To that, I could only shrug my shoulders. "Not a clue. The fact that I can't use my Time Turner and he hasn't blown out the back of his skull tells me that he's been compromised. And he stole my stuff." I began, and I could see the immediate look of alarm appear on Tony's face.
"Meaning that he has the Scepter?" He ventured, and I could see his expression tighten.
I pursed my lips, "Among other things. Like, did you know, the Tesseract and the Scepter are part of these things called the Infinity Stones?" Based on the looks I was getting, they did not, but they knew exactly where this was going. "Blue for Space, yellow for Mind, red for Reality, and green for Time. There are six of them and I managed to get my hands on four."
"Which are in the hands of a sociopath that made a teenager murder his family for…?" Hawkeye ventured, and I could see that he was getting worked up.
"Because he could, as far as I'm aware," I answered, any trace of amusement vanishing from my voice. I couldn't see the purpose behind the decision. But, based on what I had seen of his past, Kilgrave didn't exactly need a reason to be cruel. "Honestly, I'm shocked he hasn't been on Shield's radar. He hasn't exactly been subtle with what he does." But, then again, maybe even expecting that much from Shield was simply too much. They seemed incapable of discovering anyone that made so much as a token effort to not being found.
"Now isn't the time to discuss mistakes," Steve decided, reasserting control over the conversation. And in doing so, he all but admitted that he thought Shield fucked up. "We need to find Kilgrave, and… your future self."
"I've been calling him Evil Me," I offered since he seemed to be struggling a bit. And I saw that the offer really didn't help things.
It was Thor, surprisingly, who stepped up. "In Asgard, there is Heimdall -- the Watcher. There are few things that can escape his gaze within the galaxy. If urgency is required, then it would be best to have him conduct the search." What I knew about Asgardians was rather sparse, but I did know the legends better. Heimdall had a set of peepers that let him peer through time and space, letting him look just about everywhere. And they used him as a glorified doorman. Probably the greatest one in history, but still, seemed a waste.
Everyone looked at me, and seeing as I was the expert on killing myself, I figured that made sense. "The Reality Stone might interfere, but it's worth a shot. It might not be necessary, though. I know Kilgrave inside and out by this point -- the Tesseract is out of his hands at the moment… and he'll go straight for it. At best, my little display with Zarathos bought us a little time, but Kilgrave hasn't been told no for most of his life." Meaning that there was little chance that Evil Me had managed to talk him out of a rather unwise course of action.
The worst case scenario was that Evil Me managed to rationalize disobeying an order if he thought it was for Kilgrave's good. Then… well, then we were kind of screwed.
However, Thor seemed puzzled. "You do not possess the Tesseract?" He questioned, and I opened my mouth to reply but chose to swallow the words down.
Oops. Please, believe me Tony, I didn't mean to snitch. I thought they knew.
Tony, however, decided to bite the bullet. "He doesn't. I do," Tony informed, being rather blaise about the suddenly thunderous looking Norse god. "I've been using it to build a bridge to Asgard, like I promised. I just… you know, didn't start from scratch." Tony elaborated lamely, taking a step behind Steve as Thor started to round on him. There was genuine anger in his eyes that really made me wish I had just lied about the Tesseract.
Natasha spoke up, "That means we know where he's going." She voiced, trying to forestall any argument. No such luck there as Thor pointed Mjolnir at Tony, looking like he was about willing to go through Steve to get to him.
"I have been stranded here while my people need me with the destruction of the Rainbow Bridge, and you prevented my return due to your petty greed," he accused, the anger starting to build. An expression of remorse flickered over Tony's face. I could see the guilt written all over it.
He opened his mouth to say something…
But whatever it was got cut off by things starting to get… weird. I felt a ripple pass through me, a flip in my gut before Avengers Tower started to shift. Not as if it were collapsing, but more as if it was made of rubber and it couldn't remain standing under its own weight, leaving the penthouse to start to bend over.
Instantly, I understood the implications.
Looks like I was going to get to see the Reality Stone in action.
