Overly Familiar Pt. 02 Ch. 11

"So, what you're saying is... just as I chose my familiars, Death chose me as hers?" Matt asked suspiciously.

"I would not phrase it as Death... choosing you. She did not technically choose. Nor are you her familiar. The connection between you two is much stronger than that. You were hers from the moment you were born."

"So... what? Destiny chose me? Or was it 'Bob'?"

"Father set the board, as he likes to put it. He sets things in motion and lets them play out. And when they do, it tends to be in his favor, to an extent. Similar to Death's dislike for Lynette directly leading to her death at Mara's teeth. While quite a few deities can lay claim to the name of Destiny, none of them can orchestrate things on a level that it would affect you. If there is a Destiny like there is a Death in the form of one being to encapsulate the entire concept for all existence, I am not aware of them. Destiny is more of an... abstract force carrying will to its inevitable end."

"Well, I think destiny can fuck right off in whatever form it takes." Matt sighed. "Okay, let's get back to the point. So, you're saying that you knew Death would protect me, so you didn't warn me that I had a fairy in my head torturing me every night. Because there are some flaws in your logic here."

"She was a shadow of the fairy. Not the fairy herself."

"I am not debating semantics with you right now, Norah." Matt snapped. "You know what I meant."

"Fair enough. I shall make my point brief. I did not warn you, because I know you better than anyone in this room. I may not know what lies ahead but I do know that regardless of what I say, your decision for my fate has already been made."

"So, you let her torture me as a punishment for what you assumed I was about to do?"

"No." Norah said definitively. "It was not a punishment. It was a lesson. I may have known that the shadow was there, but your familiars did not. However, they would have been able to put it together if you had only told them about your dreams any of the multiple times that they asked. If you had not shut them out in your hubris, this would never have happened.

"Your familiars serve your will, but they also serve to protect you. And they cannot do that if you try to do everything yourself. I understand that the entirety of existence is on your shoulders, but your familiars are there for a reason. You chose them for a reason. You need to allow them to lessen the load for you."

Matt paused with his mouth open for a few moments not unlike a fish, before he could form words, finally asking, "And you couldn't have just... said this?"

"Yes, I could have. The problem is that when you believe you are in the right, you do not listen."

Laila snickered before catching herself.

Norah finally turned from Matt to look at the angel. "You may find that humorous, but you are partially responsible for him thinking this way."

"And I stand by what I said. You just happen to also be right in that statement. Master does have a listening problem when he feels he's in the right. Lord knows I have experience with that." Laila's eyes then narrowed to a glare, as the humor quickly left. "That said, I do think you could have taught him this particular lesson without setting him up to be tortured, so you're not out of the woods here."

Norah turned back to Matt. "You were beginning to feel that your power made you invincible. This would have only gotten worse once you realized that Death will not allow you to die. I needed to make it very, very clear that while you do have unlimited potential, you are not there yet. You can be hurt. And you might have noticed that Death only intervened because you were about to die. There are other fates than death. Most are worse. And you needed to understand your vulnerability to them. And as I said before... you do not always listen to mere words. You needed to experience it."

Matt pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay... okay, I get what you're saying but-"

"I am not sorry." Norah interrupted in an uncharacteristic curtness. "I stand by what I did and I would do it again. I made a judgement call for your own good and you are now wiser because of it. And that is all I wanted. That is why I allowed myself to be yours. I wanted you to learn to think before you act and be cognizant of both your power and influence as well as your weakness, especially since I would not be here to protect you."

Matt sighed again, his lips slowly curling into a smile. "I haven't made that decision yet..."

"Yes, you have, Master. Whether you acknowledge the title or not. It is the four horsemen. Not the six. Not even the five."

Lilith, who'd been making a point of saying nothing this entire time suddenly shot up. "What?! What did I do?"

"Nothing, Lilith." Matt stated. "At least that I know of, it's just..."

"Beings such as Matt do not get to exist within a conventional morality." Norah quoted.

Lilith's face fell as she realized what that meant. "You're not picking sides anymore..."

"I don't think I can." Matt groaned. "There's something Bob said that still bothers me. I think I need to step back and learn how to use my power or I'll just keep... setting unexpected things into motion. I think acting instinctively is... playing into his plans. Which means, along with everything else, I need to find out what damage I've already done..."

"But I could help you with that!" Lilith urged. "I promise, I'm not connected to Hell any longer! I'm only connected to you! I'll tell everyone I'm only connected to you!"

"Would they believe you?" Matt raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Be honest."

Lilith crossed her arms in frustration. "Well, no... I lie. A lot... It's kinda my thing... I'm an amazing fuck and I lie."

"For what it is worth, he is more likely to come to you if he does needs help in the future than he is to come to me." Norah reassured her sister.

"What? Why?" Lilith asked, genuinely confused. "Despite my best efforts, you clearly like her more than me."

"I-" Matt's eyes bulged as he tried to figure out how to word his reply.

"Because if he wanted information from me, I would just give it to him. Meanwhile, after this rejection, you would not help him for free."

"This is very accurate." Lilith grumbled.

"There is more balance working with you." Norah continued. "I care nothing of balance. If Master needs my help, I will simply give it to him. I am so easy that it would tempt him to use me all the time, which he would prefer to avoid since that would be picking a side."

Matt glared down at Norah. "I don't think I like you verbalizing thoughts that even I haven't put together yet."

Norah smirked up at him. "Then it is rather advantageous that you will not have to deal with that for much longer, is it not?"

As Matt shot Norah another look, Lilith was clearly unimpressed. "So, what are you going to do about your deities since you're cutting us all off? They represent both good deeds as well as punishing evil. That's also picking a side."

Matt sighed with a thoughtful expression. "I promised I'd protect them. I can't... take that back. If something bites me in the ass with that, I'll just have to deal with it. But I won't be freeing any more..." Despite the words, you could hear the regret in his voice.

"You could always hire me to do it." Lilith smiled, baring her teeth at him. "It would be a business transaction. Nothing more."

"Nice try." Matt grunted. "If I'm going to be neutral... I need to be neutral."

"On this, we agree. With your decision finally being made both internally and externally I suppose I should say goodbye, Master. I do not do so happily. Especially since I do not think we shall see each other for... a very long time..." Norah said, her tone almost solemn.

Matt flashed Norah a smirk. "Friends?"

"You named me. We are not friends." Norah said bluntly. "But you are always free to visit me if you feel it does not break your self-imposed rules. You found me before and you will have no trouble finding me again."

Matt couldn't help but to chuckle. "I'm not sure I could do that without fucking you."

"I know. My offer stands. As does my virginity." And with that she was gone.

"Yeah... I can't give you my virginity." Lilith grumbled.

"Lilith... I'm sorry about the whole..."

"The whole fucking every single part of my body and soul so thoroughly that it eclipses any sex that I'll ever have and then just throwing me out like trash after you're done with me, thing? Yeah... Kind of a dick move on your part."

Matt sighed. She wasn't entirely wrong. "What can I do to make it up to you? Besides an alliance or keeping you or anything like that."

"Let me have your baby." Lilith immediately said, flashing Matt a predatory grin as she lewdly ran her fingers along her belly.

Matt's eyes bulged in surprise as he had completely forgotten about Lilith's fertility situation. In fact, if she hadn't mentioned it, she probably would have been in the clear until baby incubus Matt popped up somewhere. So, for that reason alone, he did think about it for a moment. But just a moment. "I think having a child with you would be the exact unexpected kind of thing that I'm trying to avoid..."

"I figured. It was worth a shot though." Lilith sighed loudly and cast a familiar spell on herself to take care of the situation. "Anyway... I am more sore than I have ever been in the entirely of my existence and that is not hyperbole. I think you fucked me so hard that you bruised my soul."

Lilith paused a moment for effect, causing Matt to give her a look before she continued. "That said... if you are willing to do so, at a time of my choosing, I want you to fuck me with your wings out again."

Matt chuckled softly. Of course she'd want that. "Within reason."

"Within reason." Lilith agreed. When Matt nodded, her normal grin returned. "I guess we have a deal. You're sure you don't want me to stay? It's your last chance to keep me and have my help and... other things... for free. If you come back to me after this, I can guarantee you the price will be steep. I hold grudges."

"I'm sure you do." Matt smiled. "Goodbye Lilith."

Lilith frowned, but accepted her fate. She began to teleport but paused as she suddenly remembered something. "One last thing before I go..."

Matt gave Lilith a skeptical look. "Uh huh..."

"Teriana is too good for you and she deserves another day."

And then there were four.

After Matt got over the shock of Lilith's parting words, he grinned over to the goddess, who was blushing profusely at the sudden attention. "I do owe you a day, don't I?"

Teriana bit her bottom lip and fidgeted awkwardly. "Only if Master wishes it so."

As Matt smiled at her, Mara sauntered to his side and draped herself over his shoulder. "I still stand by the fact that we could scrap the days thing and just go back to me being the Queen Bitch."

"No." Matt chuckled, suddenly pulling the demon into his lap, much to her glee. "I'll give you this consolation gift, however." Matt leaned in to kiss Mara's shoulder and just like that, her soul scars were gone.

"W-...what?! How... how did you just-?"

"Death taught me." Matt flashed Mara a wide smile, while she remained frozen in shock, clearly still trying to comprehend what he'd so casually just done. He then turned to Laila. "I expect you to teach me a lot as well. I promise I'll listen."

Laila smiled back, trying to hide her blushing cheeks and failing miserably. "Of course, Master..."

"I also promise... to all of you... that I'll confide in you if I'm having problems next time. I love you. You're all special to me and I won't jeopardize that again." No one said anything for a while after that. They didn't need to.

All was well.

***

EPILOGUE

Ishara laid back in her lounge chair and soaked up the Sun. Matt hadn't been wrong. Rio was a very nice place. She still had that gnawing in the depths of her heart that she'd rather be with him, but life was about compromise, even for goddesses.

Besides, he promised she could stay with him as long as she gave humanity a shot and tried to find herself. He was a rather peculiar Master. Even more so when you know that he is the avatar of the apocalypse. But she was still more than happy to be his. When she missed him, she would just think on his mark.

Of course, if she thought too much on this, she would begin picturing his lips branding her with it. The warm, glowing pleasure she felt when it happened. The possessive power of their connection being formed. And then her hands would begin to wander into naughty places. Though the benefit of being a goddess was that if she didn't want to be seen while she took care of business then she wouldn't be. It took beings of extraordinary magic to find a goddess who didn't want to be found.

Though if her past had taught her anything it was that there were those who could find her regardless. The idea that those who hurt her had been punished specifically from the horseman of War was a soothing thought. The only thing that would be better would be if those who had used her in the past could get the same treatment. But alas, time travel was not one of her abilities. Though having her scorpions "use" her abusers was a common fantasy of hers. It was more cathartic than to linger too much on the still painful memories.

Ishara was broken out of her thoughts when she realized she was being stalked. She could feel their power and her first instinct was fear. That this glorious hopeful reprieve was over, and she was about to be chained again. But that thought process quickly turned her fear to anger. She would not be imprisoned again. She would die first. She would kill first.

And then she remembered who she belonged to and relaxed. Moving her head to the side, Ishara thought of her Master again. His symbol on her neck immediately began to glow ominously. A warning to her would-be attackers. A warning that carried even more weight with Death's very... definitive declaration.

"We know to whom you belong, great scorpion goddess."

Ishara was surprised to find the group was predominantly fallen angels. Fallen angels can be tricky. Their allegiance could be bought under certain circumstances, as with any being with nothing truly to lose. She also noticed that there were some demons in the back. Interesting.

But as the group showed themselves, they all fell to a knee, one by one. Ishara gave them a skeptical look. She hadn't been worshipped in quite some time and she wasn't going to lie and say that having such beings do so didn't give her a thrill. "Okay, you have my attention."

"Thank you, great goddess." The same fallen angel spoke again.

"What do you want with me?"

"Your help." The fallen angel lifted his head. "We wish to be of service to your Master."

Ishara frowned, almost immediately losing interest, and laid back in her seat. "Then talk to him. He's much more reasonable than you think."

"Maybe to you. But... we fallen are seen as evil and... he's made his views very... clear on how he sees evil. We don't want to die. In fact, most of us were hoping if we served him well enough, he would bless us by returning our grace as he did his familiar. That he would grant a forgiveness we would not receive from Heaven."

"Once again, I don't see what this has to do with me." Ishara replied curtly.

"He has recently... stopped freeing the imprisoned deities that humans refer to as muses. We take this is a message. We want to free them in his stead."

Ishara's eyes shot wide, and she immediately sat up again. So that's why they came to her. She'd experienced his mental and spiritual healing firsthand. It was such a thorough magic that even though it had only been done to her once, she could do it for others now if she wanted. Her mind was almost swimming with possibilities. She couldn't go back in time and punish those that wronged her, but she could punish others who deserved her wrath just as much, help the oppressed, and help these fallen follow Matt's will all at the same time.

Matt had wanted her to find herself. As a grin spread across her lips, Ishara realized she'd hadn't felt more like herself since she'd been saved.

"Okay. Let's talk."

"There are in nature, neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences."

-Robert G. Ingersoll

(A/N: Hello again everyone! If you could not tell from that insightful little quote from above that in no way hints at the future of this series, this is the end of Book 2! I hope you all enjoyed it. I thought it was definitely a lot more fun to write more smaller chapters than the fewer larger chapters I did in part one. It was just easier to keep up with. As I said at the end of the first part, this is in no way the end of the story. Lots of threads still hanging around, especially the Alex, Daisy, and Jasmine shaped ones.

That said, for those of you who are only reading Overly Familiar and don't care much for Corrupted Desire, you will have to wait for a bit. The way the stories should have gone was Corrupted Desire part 1, then Overly Familiar part 1(which is what happened, mostly because I didn't even come up with the idea of OF until I mapped out the second part of CD in the first place), then CD part 2, then OF part 2 and so on.

But OF was more popular than I was expecting so I jumped the gun and went straight to the second one. And that was fine because Lilith is the only crossover character, but I literally can't do the third OF without doing the second CD. Some pieces need to be moved around and it wouldn't make sense without it. So I hope you guys can be patient with me. But for the CD fans, I will definitely be finishing up the Daisy Chronicles and doing the second part soonish.

That said, I am also tempted to do a bonus chapter here of Teriana's actual day. I say tempted because it would actually be what I've been accused of doing a few times in the form of gratuitous sex for the sake of gratuitous sex with very little plot. Teri is a simple creature and she would only want one thing on her day and there's currently no more plot to derail it for her. Though I do genuinely have a soft spot for Teri embracing her 'uselessness' and being happy about it, so I'll probably do it anyway. She's earned it, I think.

I will also be working on some other writing projects as well so I'm not sure how quickly things will be getting out but I will do my best. I appreciate all of your favorites and comments more than you know.

And speaking of comments, let's get to them. Funny fact, for those of you who noticed it. But I had a comment up for a few minutes in response to a comment that was left asking a variety of questions where I basically said I'd answer them here since I love writing these overlong explanations. But I deleted it when I realized every question they asked would be answered in the text. Death's allegiance? Bam! Right there! Norah's allegiance! Bam! To the windowwwwwww! To the wall! And the power scaling, I think I did a good job with that one too. Yes, Matt is arguably the third most powerful being but he doesn't know how to use his power yet, so... yeah, there are some chinks in his armor. I mean, if he went one on one with Norah, she'd own him unless he pulled out his wings and he literally just learned how to do that, so... yeah. Trust me. My brain overanalyzes these things constantly. I have no problem explaining them though if it isn't clear lol.

Let's see, what else, hm... soul scarring, check. Matt and Death's relationship, check... Oh! There's one all the way in chapter 3 of the first part! About Mara switching from neutral to a female gender without explanation. There are certain things I write in a way that... you might not get it unless you reread the story from the beginning after you know more information and that was one of them. It wasn't so much that Mara didn't have a gender, it was that Matt(and therefore the story) didn't know the gender until their souls touched. The moment they connect, he realizes she's a female and the story reflects that.