Yushamin shook her head. “No, I totally thought God was the one beaten by the fae as he was the one I last saw stalking around our labs mere minutes before the fae came to me and told me they had beaten an angel. I didn’t know of any other angel in Hell, so I assume God was the one. My mistake, I’m sorry.”

Kate looked at Apollyon by her side. “She’s telling the truth.”

Yushamin had met the two librarians in a library conference room, mainly to report back about the progress she and Yaldebaoth made on figuring out the full extent of the sabotage but also to answer any new questions Kate and Apollyon had.

“I didn’t mean to mislead you. But from all that you have told me right now, there is stuff that doesn’t make sense, right?”

“There is a lot that is wobbly and impenetrable. Let’s get to that once we know what you found out.”

“Sure, maybe that will help you explain to me what is even going on. So, we have access to one male-born demon. A trans demon as humans would say now? Someone like Azazel, only Atlantean. She gave us access to her genetics as well. Most of the sabotage is on that male chromosome. It was modified to cause the unborn child to essentially self-destruct.”

“Just like Abatur and Ptahil wanted.”

“Yes.”

“You said most of the sabotage.”

“And that’s where our fae friend comes in. They said Gabriel wanted to put some form of control mechanism into humans, right?”

“They said Gabriel was in the lab to do something that would grant the angels control of humanity.”

“We programmed certain responses to specific magical ailments into the human genes. That’s how your vampire friend became what she is now. One of those had to have slipped past us last time and nearly did so again. It is subtle but distinct. The now extinct mind sear virus used to force its victim into a trance-like state for about a week after two days of intense burning pain in the skull. Without the template changes, the virus would cause permanent brain damage if the victim didn’t die before they regained their faculties. Our solution, the only one we found worked, was to allow for a degree of suggestibility during that phase. While the victim had no mind of their own, they could still be directed to drink and eat and stay where they were without bumbling into their doom. The implemented version of that, the ‘sabotaged’ or, more correctly, expanded version, forced the victim to obey commands from a magical source, demons and angels, even after the virus was gone. Once commanded, their mind would sort of lock on to the source of the command and obey everything but only from them.”

Kate sighed. “So, the angels could release that virus in a population centre, wait for a week, then enslave the entire city.”

“Precisely.”

“Fuck…”

“Fuck indeed. But that poses a question. Why go through all that trouble to create a mind control mechanism if the other part of the template alteration was designed to wipe out humanity or at least drive them closer to us?”

“Because God didn’t know about the mind control and Gabriel didn’t know about the male eradication. Polly?”

Apollyon looked at Kate. “Yes?”

“Get Abatur, Ptahil, Lilith and Azazel. I think I got this, but I need one more answer directly from them.”

“Of course.” Apollyon teleported away.

“This might get a little heated, so I will thank you now before we all part in anger. Thank you.”

“No, young head librarian. Thank you for unraveling this. I suppose we never tried because we feared what we might find.”

“I’m scared too. I have two theories and I very much prefer only one of them. The other implies things I don’t want to entertain.”

“Such as?”

“Well, someone had to implement Gabriel’s sabotage. That means either Gabriel did so himself, which I don’t even consider possible, one of our traitors betrayed the other, or we have a third.”

“I see. No, I don’t like that either.”

Apollyon returned with the four requested demons at her side. “Sit.” The old devil sounded quite commanding. “Kate, I would like to take this one.”

Kate nodded. “Sure.”

“Abatur, Ptahil, with High Inquisitor Azazel as my witness, I hereby accuse you of conspiracy to sabotage the human template project and endangering the survival of an entire species. We have records of your conversations with God to those ends. As this falls into the jurisdiction of the inquisitorium, I will ask you, Azazel, for permission to interrogate the accused on several points.”

Azazel nodded. “As you are not accusing as the harmed party, the judicial guidelines give you that right. Go ahead.”

“Thank you. Were you aware of Gabriel’s attempt to modify the template without God’s knowledge?”

Abatur shook her head. Ptahil didn’t. She spoke. “It was my plan in the first place.”

Her co-conspirator slowly turned her head. “What?”

“He was so easily manipulated. And you, Abatur, never truly paid attention. Yes, our shared plan would have driven humans into our arms but nothing would have stopped them from leaving again. The angels long murmured about control of the border world. We could have taken it with ease.”

Apollyon interjected. “We know how that change to the template worked. What was your plan after implementation?”

“I am sure you figured it out by now, General. Drive humanity to seek our aid then turn them into obedient puppets thus denying the angels their source of souls. The plan was simple.”

Kate spoke up. “It was, yes. You speak with bravado now, but it is hollow. You don’t mean the words and tone. You changed, but why keep that façade?”

“Because I’m a traitor to my own kind. Clinging to the belief that what I did was what I want is the only thing I have left.”

“You changed your mind. You’re scared of the consequences of your actions but you changed your mind. We are creatures of mercy and empathy. There is forgiveness to be had.”

“I don’t want forgiveness.”

“If you want to face the full consequences, you need to convince Azazel, not me. I only care about unravelling this ancient tangle of shit and nudging everything towards a good path for everyone. So, tell us how you changed your mind.”

Ptahil shook her head. “I watched the wrong humans die. Males were supposed to be eradicated but women died. I didn’t want them to suffer, so I provided part of the treatment. Yushamin, I know you pulled away from the project before the treatment team was formed but I couldn’t leave. I need to fix my mistake and then the template was scrapped. My work, even my attempt at redemption… for nothing. What did you tell me, Abatur, my very sister? ‘Oh, it’s fine, at least now they won’t find out what we did.’ I should have just lobbed your stupid head off back then!”

“Ptahil…” Abatur was taken aback by what her sister nearly screamed at her. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Because you were always so proud of what we had done. How could I trust you to understand me or even just not to rat me out to God. I guess that’s the problem you are a traitor dealing with another traitor, you can’t even trust each other. So, General, we conspired to sabotage the template with God and trusted him to implement it during rollout. I met with Gabriel in secret and implemented his changes to the template.”

Apollyon nodded. “Do you know why Gabriel entered the laboratories and broke into Yushamin’s secret section?”

“No. I didn’t even know there was a secret section until now. I only know that he was wounded when we met. He told me that he had a sparing accident. I had no reason to question that. I need you and the High Inquisitor to know that Abatur did not conspire with Gabriel. Please remember that when sentencing her.”

“Of course. Azazel, I will leave the two to you now. I have my answers unless Kate needs to know anything else.”

Kate nodded. “One last question. Why did you two hate men so much? Was it their similarity to angels? Why work with angels then?”

Abatur looked at Ptahil and decided to answer before her sister could. “Exactly because of their similarities to angels. We both agreed that angels were, maybe even still are, disgusting. Filth. Not worthy of being considered civilized beings. The idea that half of a species we would care for would be like them was horrid. That they were needed for reproduction was even more revolting, nausea inducing. The moment God voiced the slightest doubt in the project, we jumped at that chance. He agreed almost instantly. You have read that conversation. Why work with him? Simple. He was the perfect idiot to take the fall for us if the sabotage had been discovered back then. He actually tampered with the template, suspicion would fall on him instantly.”

“Uhm, Nightmares exist.”

“Yes, they do. And a voluntary incision into our minds by one would make us forget about the sabotage with no chance of anyone else recovering those memories.”

“You didn’t have one to that, did you? That’s where your plan fails.”

“Sadly, yes. But thankfully it took until God was dead and all this had been left behind for thousands of border world years for things to be figured out.”

“That’s all then. Azazel, they’re yours.”

Azazel nodded and wordless teleported herself and the two conspirators away.

Silence fell over the conference room in the library. After many minutes, a sniffle broke through the stillness.

Kate turned to Lilith, who had said nothing during the entire questioning of Abatur and Ptahil. “Are you okay?”

Lilith shook her head. Tears were welling up in her eyes. “No… I’m an idiot.”

“You are not. What even makes you think that?”

“I led the efforts to administer the treatment to pregnant women back then. I worked with Ptahil. I trusted her. She nearly killed them all. I loved them so much…”

Before Kate could answer, Yushamin got up and stepped over to Lilith, wrapping her arms around the succubus tightly. “She was part of the template project as much as I was. I trusted her too. Her and Abatur. But humans are still here, you can still love them, still cherish their stupid naïve antics, their creativity, their curiosity. Should we go out there and see what they managed to do? See how they flourished?”

Lilith simply nodded, letting the tears flow. Yushamin nodded a thankful goodbye at the two librarians before guiding Lilith out of the conference room.

Kate silently looked at Apollyon, who took a few moments before getting up and hugging her friend as well. There were no words that needed to be said now.