The Chosen One Ch. 01-03

"You...you're the strongest woman I know...would have liked to have known," he corrected himself. "Really known," he whispered hoarsely. "And if you're crying because of me, then..." He shook his head and made as if to sit up. She pushed him back down.

"Don't delude yourself. This isn't all because of you, you arrogant, patriarchal..."

"Lilith." And suddenly it was all there for her to see, past his bruised features and bloodshot eyes. Past the pain and longing twisting his lips. Everything he'd hidden. He tried to turn away but she grabbed his chin and held his face steady. He'd lied. An angel...an archangel...THE Archangel, if you believed the stories...had lied. It wasn't...only lust.

"Lucifer, most high..." she breathed.

Michael closed his eyes again in defeat. "I didn't reject you...or your plea for rescue because I didn't want you. I let you go because I did." He tried to sit up again and this time she let him, scooting back while he did the same, until his back was up against the tree he'd pinned her against before. Amelia came closer and when neither antagonist moved to stop her, sat closer to Lilith than Michael. When the former arched her brow in response the dark-skinned angel shrugged.

"This, I've gotta hear," she said.

"The Lord tasked us both, Lucifer and me, with designing a companion for...for Adam," Michael began. "I came up with Eve. Lucifer made you." Lilith rolled her eyes.

"This is all common knowledge, tell me what I DON'T know," she hissed.

"He saw value in you both, although He was leaning towards picking you. But, from the first moment I laid eyes on you I knew Lucifer had bested me. Eve had beauty, intelligence, and curiosity. And, a definite penchant to pursue her own mind. But you? You had all of that and the independence to not even need an Adam. Had you gone with him, the Earth and the mortals we know would be...so very different from what they are now. More. Far more." He paused as his look became more pained. "But by the time the Lord was to make his selection, I...I couldn't let you go. I'd become obsessed with you. Don't you remember how much time I spent with you?"

"You were my father's best friend. I thought you were MY friend, too." Lilith said sadly.

"I wanted to be much more, so much more to you, that I plotted to keep you near. Mortals don't know that both of you were sent to the Garden. The story of Adam's rib is just so much divine misdirection. Adam was to choose. That was supposed to be the mortal's first true choice. But I sabotaged the Lord's plan. I...I'm the one who gave Eve that apple, not Lucifer. It was easy enough to influence that poor python. And while that unwitting creature seduced Eve with words I knew she could not resist, I distracted you with dreams of what worlds lay beyond Paradise." Michael's head bowed with remorse and shame once more. He continued after a few moments.

"After that, things just spiraled out of control. Adam and Eve were banished, and even I could not believe that the Lord would be so unforgiving. I went to him and told him what I'd done, that the punishment should be mine...he just told me that what was done was done. Lucifer was there and we brawled." A wry look twisted Michael's mouth. Pointing to his face and leaning back against the tree, he continued, "This isn't the first beating I've has from a member of your family. He told me he would NEVER forgive me. As you know, he became unhinged and again I asked the Lord to intervene, and he...he just smiled. As though he could see all that was to happen. Then Lucifer started that damn war and... Let the Maker take me, I could see no way to..."

"I came to you. I pleaded with you to save me from his excesses. He was designing The Pit, for fuck's sake, Michael!" Lilith cried with pain that drove even more spears through his already sundered soul. "You turned me away like...like...so much fucking..." She pounded the ground next to her with her fist then raised it to point at him with an accusing finger. "Don't you dare try to tell me now that it was because you felt sooo much for me back then!"

"By then, it was too late, I had to. The War was at its peak. Your father had gained allies. You would not have been welcomed in Heaven and I would not have been able to protect you. I thought I would be able to rescue you after Lucifer and the rest of The Fallen were vanquished but by the time we'd driven them from Heaven, you had turned to evil also. As much as I sought to keep you, I lost you anyway."

"So, Adam did not make the first true choice," Amelia interjected. "You...made the first choice for them."

"I did. Everything hence has come to pass from that. With one gesture, I set off the avalanche. I have run before it all these millennia, trying to keep it from engulfing us all...and frankly, I no longer see the point. Perhaps The Balance MUST fall."

"Agreed," Lilith said flatly. "But I can see how you will not leave me alone unless I acquiesce to your cocked-up request. I will see what can be done about quickening another of the succubae. I control half of Hell, after all. I will get you your precious Chosen One. But you," she pointed an imperious finger at Michael as she stood, "I will not see, again. EVER."

Michael looked at the woman he'd loved for eons and knew that this had been her last straw. She finally knew the what and why of his folly. He shook his head sadly and rose also, wondering for the trillionth time, that while mortals knew redemption...and now, it seemed, denizens of the Hell he'd spawned, also...why was there no such salvation for him? He turned and stalked off, leaving Amelia to confer with Lilith on when, or more likely, if a new Chosen One would be delivered to Heaven to keep The Balance intact. He was sure that he was done, no matter if one was found or not. Amelia watched him go with troubled eyes, then turned to Lilith.

"I will get word to you either way," Lilith said tersely. "I may control half of The Pit, but rest assured the other Princes of Hell will not be pleased that I am aiding Heaven."

"I do not believe your...colleagues...wish a renewal of open warfare," Amelia replied. "I can tell you the Hosts do not relish any such resumption of hostilities, crazy angels, succubae, and mortals notwithstanding." She paused, a pensive frown upon her face. "May I speak freely?"

The Queen of The Pit nodded, surprised at the angel's courtesy.

"I have become Michael's partner in all things but the way I desire most. I had not known of the...futility...of that desire until recently. Today's revelations merely set that hopelessness in stone. No," she shook her head at Lilith's stare, "this does not mean you have become my rival. It means only that I never had a chance." She dared to take the hands of Satan's daughter.

"Michael loves you. I knew he loved another but I did not know who until the Lord revealed it. He has worked tirelessly to undo the harm he brought to this universe, the harm I had always laid at the feet of your father. I have seen it...and marveled at his dogged pursuit of that goal. And now, I know why. My point being," she said earnestly as she looked deeply into Lilith's violet eyes, "you could do much worse than him."

"He lied. He cheated. He made my existence literally a living hell. He cannot suffer enough for the pain I've endured..."

"You don't think he has endured just as much pain? He KNEW he was the cause of it all. Surely you can see what such a guilt would do to an angel of his..."

"He could have saved me! He chose not to!"

"Lilith. He is a man, angel or not. Their choices defy logic. You know this."

Lilith snorted. Then huffed, "Fuck."

"Our universe is changing, mortals have reached the point where they can delve into our realms and survive. Longstanding tenets fall nearly daily. There is not much left to hold on to in any of it...except love. Love shines more brightly now than at any other time that I can remember. A demon loves a mortal who loves her back and both love the angel who loves them. Another succubus is reunited with the love she knew for a mortal day...and lays thanks for that time when she can know him once more. The machinations of The Pit fail at every turn when pitted against...love. Not us." Amelia pointed towards herself. "Love."

"I'm not crawling..."

"There is no dimension so convoluted where you need chase after him," Amelia smiled ruefully. "But don't cut him off from seeking your forgiveness in this one."

Lilith narrowed her eyes. "You want him, yet you push me to forgive him. I cannot believe you have none but our interests at heart..."

"If I thought I could ever replace you in his heart you would have no fiercer enemy," Amelia admitted, as she let her own pain reveal itself to Lilith for a moment. "But recent circumstances have shown me the foolishness of standing in the way of love."

Chapter Three

Lilith skirted the lakes of fire in Baal's realm cursing herself for her promise to the two archangels. She did not know if the feat she'd promised them was even possible. Succubae spawned slowly in the lakes...there were entirely too many mortals willing to become one of the feminine demons of lust for there to ever be a great need for new succubae. Both Lydia and Lorelei themselves had not been spawned but created from mortals willing to sell their souls.

Typically, there was one new one birthed per each Earth year, but the last one had been spit like a roasted pig upon an angel's sword along with her lover, a proctor sent to reclaim her after she took flight from her fate.

"Stupid, willful girl!" Lilith fumed for the umpteenth time as she maneuvered around the roiling forms of nearly spawned demons. She wondered idly how many of these had fallen in hopeless pursuit of the Iron Crown of Baal that Lorelei had spurned yet ultimately been forced to reclaim.

She shrugged and picked up her pace as she headed for the small cove that was the birthplace of the succubae. She stopped at odd intervals, listening and extending her senses to pick up any pursuit or curious followers. What she was doing was not anything she wanted the remaining Dukes of Hell finding out about. To have conquered the realms of Baal, Azazel, and Belial, albeit with much assistance from Lorelei's single-minded campaign to rid herself of Hell's interference, was one thing...to be discovered actively aiding the snots of Heaven was another thing entirely.

True, there were only the less aggressive rulers, Adramalech, Beelzebub, Mammon, and Moloch left to challenge her domination of The Pit. Leviathan had not stirred. Abaddon was still licking her wounds. Lucifer...well, she could give fuck-all about her father.

She arrived at the headland that marked the cove and followed the narrow path hewn into the barely cooled igneous rock. Rounding the last outcropping she came upon the sight of incubae and succubae at play. Damned souls found themselves impaled upon two and three cocks...per orifice. It mattered not if they had been male or female. Others were forced to lick between the thighs of three or more succubae, then whipped unmercifully if they did not move quickly enough between the lewdly presented demons.

More unfortunates found that fucking forever did indeed constitute punishment; especially when the skin of one's genitals had worn away and all that was left was the screaming of untold numbers of rubbed-raw nerve endings.

A scarlet-haired demoness, who looked like a young Ann-Margaret turned, noticing Lilith from where she lounged upon a ledge that overlooked the fires that danced upon the surface of the cove. Her eyes rounded and she leapt to her feet as a siren shriek of warning left her throat and halted all the various punishment. Some, rather comically, mid-stroke.

"Calm yourself, little one," Lilith admonished. "I just need to see Aphrodite."

"A-as y-you wish, exalted one," the young succubus whose name was Aurora answered nervously. All the succubae had heard of the upheavals in Hell, and more importantly, just who was at the heart of all the havoc. They all feared that as a group they would be blamed and punished. They had heard of Lydia's humiliations at Belial's hands...and the price upon Lorelei's head.

As a whole, most of the succubae reveled in their "work." Who else amongst Hell's denizens stole the souls of mortals by plying them with pleasure until they died? They knew the rest of the demons envied their appearances, their appetites, and their relative freedom in the Earth realm. That the rulers of Hell kept them firmly under thumb through their heightened sexual responses did not seem to matter to the rest; the succubae and incubae alike were universally scorned as the whores and gigolos of Hell. To be confronted by the Daughter of Lucifer could not be a good thing.

"Lilith." The Greek Goddess of Love appeared at the mouth of the cave she inhabited. As one of the more famous succubae who'd gone "off the reservation," Aphrodite did not prey upon mortals any longer...to have ensnared a whole people made her legend. That she had been reclaimed by Hell once her pantheon had fallen into the ignominy of disbelief, was no mean feat, but concessions had still been made. She presided exclusively over the spawning of a new Chosen One each Earth year.

"Cassandra didn't work out," Lilith said without preamble. "They need another."

Aphrodite blinked. There was no other one ready, nor any substitute...unless...unless...she tapped at her lips thoughtfully, then held up her forefinger in the universal sign to "wait, one minute," as she turned and retreated into her cave. She could be heard conferring with someone and then came back out, leading a reluctant, dark brunette young woman. She wasn't especially pretty, at least not by succubus standards, looked faintly Middle-Eastern, and her figure leaned more towards lush than super-model.

"Who were you talking to," Lilith asked suspiciously.

"This one's caretaker. She agrees with me that, well..." Aphrodite paused, as though second-guessing her decision. "This is Lena. She has been in training for some time, but the lessons do not seem to be taking. She develops...inconvenient...attachments to her prey. Her first training assignment in Purgatory resulted in that man's soul being redeemed to Heaven. The others would condemn her to the birthing lake once more...but I have found uses for her. She is all that we have who might remotely fit the criteria. I am sorry."

Lilith stared at the once-goddess. Aphrodite kept her chin up and her eyes cool. Past and present power clashed in those gazes, but she who had become Venus broke the stalemate first.

"I no longer wield the power of love, nor can I direct my son, Eros, either. You have made a request, this is all I can give you. Do with me what you will, my Queen, but it isn't I who will be disappointing Michael."

"Bitch," muttered Lilith. "Fuck it, if she's all you've got, she's all Michael's getting." She stepped forward and took hold of Lena's wrist who yelped and tried to pull away. Lilith squeezed until Lena's mouth ovalled and tears appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Now is not the time to try my patience, girl," Lilith hissed at her. "You will become the Chosen One and you will fucking like it, do you hear me?"

"Y-yes," Lena stammered.

"Yes, what?"

"Y-yes, Mistress?" Lena managed, fearing for her life now.

"That'll do for now." Turning, she aimed at the former goddess, "I guess I owe you thanks."

Aphrodite bowed her head. "I live but to serve."

Lilith left with Lena, feeling like she was being mocked somehow, but in too much of a hurry to do anything about it once she'd secured her prize. There was little she could do to the Grecian goddess beyond killing her, and her death would be permanent, no endless rebirth in the lakes of fire...Zeus had wrung that concession from Lucifer himself. No matter, she would be free of her promise soon enough and then she could...what? She'd fought for the realms of Hell she now controlled but to what end? After the confrontation with Michael, her victories seemed so hollow. And what had the other angel said?

He loved her. Michael. He loved HER, Lilith. "Lucifer, most high," she whispered.

Lilith stopped suddenly and the young succubus she dragged along like some lost waif nearly ran into her. Lena's eyes went wide again, but the Queen of Hell did not notice as strange feelings bubbled up through her core. Could she...forgive him? No! That was entirely out of the question.

Spinning to the girl, she snarled savagely, "I will deliver you to Michael and I will go home to revel in my new realms. Further, I will wage war as this place has never seen, and I will soon be the new ruler of Hell!" Her eyes blazed violet and Lena shrank from the demon queen's wholly soul-stealing countenance. "Do you hear me! Do you fucking hear me!?"

"Y-yessss...M-M-Mistress!" Lena wailed, sure she would be slain long before she ever reached where Lilith was taking her. "I-I'll be good..." she managed, not realizing exactly what she was saying, much less referring to. Lilith jerked her closer.

"You will not be good," Lilith bit out menacingly. "You will be evil. You will tease. You will tempt. You will seduce. You will torment. You will do your very fucking best to steal that holier-than-thou bastard son's soul or I will personally come up there, rip your worthless heart out of your chest and eat it! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?!?"

"YES! YES!! YES!!" Lena shrieked, desperate to placate the fearsome First Daughter's rage. "I will seduce Him, lay with Him, render Him weak, love Him to his very death, anything you say, Mistress, just please, please don't kill me..."

Lilith picked up the distraught girl by her hair and held her face at eye level. Her rage seemed to disappear, her voice becoming even more deadly as she slowly and quietly asked the sobbing young succubus...

"What did you say?"

"I don't know! I don't know!! I'll be the Chosen One!! What more do you want?!?" Lena was on the verge of an overwhelming hysteria.

"You said, 'you would love him to his very death.' Not 'kill Him with his lust' nor even 'fuck Him to death,' you said, love him to death. Is that what you meant?"

"N-N-No! N-No, I meant those other..."

Lilith shook Lena until her teeth rattled. "Don't you dare fucking lie to me!"

"I-I-I'm n-n-o-o-o-t-t-t..." Lena wailed again, her sanity nearing the breaking point.

Lilith released the sobbing succubus and turned away as Lena crumpled into a heap, burying her tear-streaked face in her arms. Taking a deep breath, the demon-queen fought to regain her composure. Things were rapidly spiraling out of control but a niggling thought came back to her.

"...recent circumstances have shown me the foolishness of standing in the way of love."

Turning back to Lena, she bent down and hoisted the young succubus up, steadied her, then wiped her thumbs across her cheeks, drying the tear tracks that ran down the girl's face. Lena blinked in surprise.

"We can't show up with you looking like I beat you," Lilith admonished quietly. "You will either succeed or not. The tremble that those damned love-besotted sisters of yours have set into The Balance seems to have sown the seeds of its destruction. But at least it won't be said that I was more foolish than some goddamned love-lorn angel. Let's go."

Aphrodite and her shrouded visitor watched the Queen of Hell rail at their charge, then calm herself. Another piece fell into place. The once Grecian goddess turned to Mary with a pensive look.

"You risk much, Holy Mother, working in the shadows this way."

"It is long past the time when things should have been set aright in this universe. I have watched and waited long enough for my son to pull his head out of his ass and begin to believe in his own teachings. And please, do not think it a coincidence that it was THAT angel, THAT mortal, and THAT particular daughter of yours who brought us to this brink. Greater forces than me are in play here."