Heather rested against her girlfriend’s back as they flew through the sky. Her legs dangled off the bottom of the broomstick, utterly numb. Just massive timbers of flesh flapping about in the wind tunnel as they soared past the state line. Debbi had a tight grip on Heather’s arms- not that Heather could feel her hands on her- keeping her in place as they flew. They needed to get to Nicole as quickly as possible- until then Heather was worthless. The only thing she felt right now was frustration and fury, burning inside her numb chest.

They’d left Cass, Matt, and Gabe to keep watch over the homestead, and rushed to get to Nicole as quickly as possible. The news was also talking about dragon sightings in Manchester, which meant that in all likelihood, Nicole, Amy, and Iris were in the thick of it. 

Debbi had agreed to everything with almost total silence, however. 

That was definitely adding to the frustration. 

The gray ceiling of clouds blocked out the sun as they flew over barren trees and wet roads. “Are you okay?” Heather finally asked.

“...”

“Debbi. Please talk to me,” Heather said. 

Finally, her girlfriend spoke: “This is all my fault.”

“... I’m sorry, what?” Heather said with a forced laugh. Okay, Catholic girl, the martyrdom is a little much right now, she thought.

“I’d been… Having secret meetings with Astra.”

“I’M SORRY, WHAT?!” Heather balked. 

“God, that was right in my ear!” 

“Okay, no- you don’t get to drop a bombshell like that and get annoyed at my lack of volume control!” Heather said. “What the fuck do you mean you’ve been having secret meetings with Astra?”

“Only two of them, if that helps,” Debbi said. 

“I mean, a little bit, sure,” Heather said. “But what I’d like to know is why you were having them in the first place.”

Debbi breathed in deep, and Heather desperately wished she could feel her girlfriend’s heartbeat through her back. “I was hoping for information. The first time it happened was a couple days after Halloween- I was walking back to my dorm and Astra just… Appeared. She said she was interested in me, wanted to help me come into my own as a leader. I played along because I wanted to figure out what her game was. I only met with her once of my own volition, after she started harassing Amy, telling her to back off. Obviously, she didn’t listen.”

“Yeah, I’d say she took it pretty personally,” Heather said, trying not to clench her jaw too tightly. “I just… Why didn’t you tell anyone about this?”

“Because I didn’t want Amy to freak out,” Debbi said. “She… Does not do well where the subject of Astra is concerned-”

“No, that part I understand,” Heather said. “I mean the rest of us- why not tell the team?”

“Because Nicole and Cass wouldn’t be willing to keep it a secret, Matt physically can’t keep a secret, Iris is still a child and hasn’t even fully transformed yet, and we’ve only known Gabriel a week- frankly, I don’t know if I trust the guy that much yet.”

“And what about me?”

“...”

“Debbi, please,” Heather said. “Astra just crippled me. I need an explanation.”

“Because I thought if you knew you might… You might try to jump into the fight too quickly and get hurt.”

“But I did that anyway, and I got hurt anyway,” Heather pointed out.

“YES! Exactly,” Debbi said. “You jump into fights, constantly! I know I’ve done a lot of that myself, but that was when the stakes were much lower. We’re not fighting rando monsters with no goals or plans anymore- we’re at war!”

“... I see your point,” Heather said. “But you still should have told me. If we’d had an actual conversation about this like partners are supposed to do, I might not have done something blatantly fucking idiotic like that!”

Debbi breathed out, long and loud. “I’m sorry. I should have told you. I should have told everyone.”

Heather heaved her own sigh. “Look. I know you were freaked out about becoming a leader. I know that are gonna be times where you have to play your cards close to your chest-”

“There shouldn’t be,” Debbi said. “Not with you. That isn’t fair to you- you’re… You’re everything to me, Heather. I shouldn’t be keeping any secrets from you.”

A little part of the frigid ball of rage in Heather’s chest melted. “Th… Thank you. I feel the same way. And… And I… I shouldn’t be so reckless. I’m lucky we have a healer on our team, otherwise I’d be looking at spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair and wouldn’t be able to help you save the world.”

“Okay,” Debbi said. “Are we okay?”

Heather smiled, in spite of herself, in spite of Debbi, in spite of everything. The warm bliss of talking it out with the girl she was lucky enough to call her own was, for that moment at least, enough. “Yeah. We’re okay. But you do need to tell the rest of the team about this. Including Amy.”

“Oh God,” Debbi said, sounding like she was almost choking on the words. 

“I’ll, uh, be there with you when you do,” Heather said. 

“Oh God, she’s gonna be so pissed,” Debbi whispered. “Have you seen her when she’s really pissed off at someone besides herself? She’s fucking terrifying.”

“Uh, Debbi?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s that ahead of us?”

If she’d been able to use her arms, she would have pointed at the massive spire of pastel Pink Light shooting up into the sky ahead of them. They were only a few feet away, and it was coming towards them, expanding rapidly. 

“It… It must be Nicole,” Debbi said as the light washed over them. 

The feeling of Nicole’s healing was unmistakable- like gentle hands working through you, knitting broken pieces back together and cleaning out your insides, leaving everything in better shape than it had been before it was broken. Energy shot through Heather, and suddenly, where sensation had erstwhile been absent, everything came online. Her fingers twitched, and she could feel Debbi’s soft palms around them. Her toes wiggled, and the wind pushing her legs back through the air registered as the cold, blunt feeling it had been the last time she’d flown. Debbi’s heartbeat, panicked and frantic, resonated through her back and into Heather’s chest. 

Tears flowed down Heather’s face, hot with joy and gratitude as her body was repaired. She pulled her hands free of Debbi’s and let herself slide off the broom and fall into the air. “WAHOOOO!!!” she cried as she summoned her broomstick and soared.

The Pink Light faded, and Heather flew to the ground. She landed on an empty patch of road surrounded by trees on all sides and felt the ground beneath her feet. She spread her arms and twirled, her green minidress uniform spinning with her as she danced. She laughed and laughed as her girlfriend caught up to her, landed and rushed over and hugged her, buried her tongue inside Heather’s mouth. 

“Feeling better?” Debbi said. 

“I feel amazing!” Heather said. “I feel like I could solo an entire platoon of demons!”

“Well, that’s certainly nice to hear,” came a voice from out of the trees. 

Heather’s head snapped around to the left, her eyes zeroing in on source of the words. A young man with black eyes wreathed in Hellfire spoke. He was flanked on all sides by monsters- a snake the size of a motorcycle sliding forward and spraying Hellfire with its tongue; a flying trash can burning with black flames; a tangled mass of marionettes all flying about in a darkened halo as their strings tried to pull free of each other; a bipedal metal creature with a rifle for a face and pistols for hands; and countless others, all trailing behind and marching directly towards Heather and Debbi. 

***

The tension in the kitchen was so thick Nicole was practically suffocating. She wished Matt was here, both because his powers would make this all a lot easier and because he could probably cut through the tension with his chainsaw. 

Dad had gone out to the outside freezer, kept cold in a hollow in the back yard stuffed with dry ice, and brought back a case of Barrel House Z beer. He set seven beers on the table, handing them to each occupant- the first for Lilith, then Amy, then Mom, then Nicole, then himself. When he got to Iris and Mark, he said, “Here. You’ve earned it after the day you’ve had.”

“Thanks,” Iris said. 

“Don’t tell your father about this,” Dad said to Mark. 

“He doesn’t care,” Mark said with an errant wave of his hand. 

“I see,” Dad said, his brow furrowing. 

“Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Nygaard,” Lilith said, taking a sip of her beer. She crossed herself in an inverted crucifix pattern and took a long sip, then let out a satisfied, “Ahhhhh.” 

“It’s good, right?” Nicole said. 

“It is,” Lilith nodded. 

Monica stood in the archway between the kitchen in the living room, her arms folded across her chest. She still hadn’t spoken, even though her vocal chords should have been healed. Poor child… Nicole would need to keep her safe going forward. She’d been through so much because of a conflict she had nothing to do with… She didn’t deserve this. 

“So. First, I’d like to apologize,” Lilith said. “Both for showing up here uninvited- I should have written ahead of time, asking if it was alright that I paid you a visit.”

“You also could have called,” Mom said, swigging her beer. “We’re in the phonebook. We have a landline.”

“I must confess, I’ve never been entirely clear on the whole ‘phones’ thing,” Lilith said. “Do you use them to talk or to send written messages?”

“Uh… Both,” Amy said. 

“How odd,” Lilith said, putting a hand under her chin. “Alas, I was not actually intending to come to the Nygaard abode. I was looking for you, Amanda.”

“Amy,” she said automatically. Nicole squeezed her girlfriend’s hand underneath the table. “And I don’t have a landline. I don’t go handing out my address to people, so fair enough. What exactly is it that you want from me?”

“To bring you the good news.”

“That Christ has risen from the grave?” Amy said in monotone. Nicole shot her a perturbed look, and noticed Iris was giving her an identical one. 

“No, and please don’t mention the man who took my babies away from me,” Lilith said. 

“About that,” Nicole said, raising a finger.

“One moment, please,” Lilith said, holding up a hand to Nicole. Nicole flinched but let her continue. “Your mother will no longer be a problem.”

“Astra isn’t my mother, she just gave birth to me,” Amy said. 

“And is therefore your mother, yes,” Lilith said. “Regardless- the other ArchDevils and I have deposed her. Stripped her of her powers and locked her up in our dungeon.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Amy, Nicole, and Iris all said at once. Dad simply took a long swig of beer, and Mom wound up doing the same. Mark just looked confused. 

“She was a detriment to our plans,” Lilith said. “I don’t know if you noticed it, but Astaroth is, at her most fundamental level, a vicious idiot with poor impulse control. She constantly derailed her own plans, threatening our mission for the sake of settling old grudges and attempting to control that which cannot be controlled.”

“And what mission is that?” Amy said. 

“To raise the Castle Pandemonium from the frozen center of Hell and into the sky above the Earth,” Lilith said plainly. 

“… Why?” Iris said. 

“Because otherwise, it will be destroyed,” Lilith said. “Tell me- what do you and your comrades know of the War for the Throne of Hell?”

“Just the broad strokes,” Nicole said. “There are five factions- you guys, Winona and her team who we’ve already defeated, and three other groups: the Devil’s Coven, the Dark Prophet’s Army, and the Outcasts.” 

“The very basics, then,” Lilith said. “The Outcasts, quite simply, are the greatest threat of all- they wish to destroy Pandemonium, and with it, all of Hell itself. Without it, the balance of the cosmos will be annihilated- the demons and the damned will walk the Earth and destroy everything in sight, like they did in the days before the Flood. Chaos will reign.”

“And what happens if Pandemonium rises above the Earth?” Amy asks. “I’ll be honest- it doesn’t sound like anything good.”

“There would be… A greater Infernal presence on Earth, to be sure,” Lilith said, taking another short sip of beer. “But nothing you Magical Girls couldn’t handle. The destruction of Hell would, however, absolutely be too much. The Outcasts have been waging war from the outer layers of the Inferno for years now- and I don’t know how much longer our dragons can keep them at bay. Something needs to give.”

Dread lanced Nicole’s chest, as she tried desperately to keep her hands from trembling around the cold beer glass. She took another sip. This was… Not a great set of options either way by the sound of it. 

“And what about these other two groups?” Iris asked. “What exactly is their damage?”

“Little is known of the Devil’s Coven,” Lilith said. “They work from the shadows, preying on the weak and the wounded. Their numbers and identities are not known to anyone save for their ranks. All that is known is they consider themselves loyal to Lucifer, even still in this age where he has returned to the Heavenly Host. They feel that this is all a part of his mission to reignite the War in Heaven; they seek to conquer Hell and enslave its denizens to fuel their war machine.”

“I see,” Amy said. 

Nicole said, “And what about the Dark Prophet?”

“A counterpart to the Prophet of Light- the Dark Prophet seeks to become a new Devil entirely, conquer Hell and rule it as a tyrant.”

“You don’t know who it is, do you?” Nicole said. 

“That’s correct,” Lilith nodded.

“So, you guys are dealing with an army of psychotic fallen angels pulling a suicidal cosmic temper tantrum, as well as two shadow factions that you know barely anything about?” Iris said. “Holy Hannah.”

“That is the gist of it, yes,” Lilith said. She downed the remainder of her beer in one gulp, then let out another immensely satisfied mouth-noise. “This is excellent, Mr. Nygaard- where can I acquire more of this?”

“Uh… Weymouth, Massachusetts,” Dad said, leaning against the fridge, the look on his face one of out-of-depth discomfort. 

“Thank you. I consider myself a connoisseur of fermented grains, so I appreciate your help in expanding my repertoire,” Lilith said. Nicole balked at how sincere she sounded.  

“So, I get what you’re telling us right now,” Amy said. “Even if it’s basically the same thing Winona told us a month ago- you’re apparently the best of the bad options, and we should throw in with you for the sake of the greater good. But what I’m not hearing here is what, specifically, you want us to do?”

“We want you to help us round up the Devil’s Coven- they have a presence here on Earth. If we can find them and drain their energies, we’ll be able to use it to raise Pandemonium and save Hell from obliteration.”

“Drain their energies how? By killing them?” Nicole said, eyes wide.

“That would be the idea, yes,” Lilith said. “They are your enemies- sworn to the dark dream of Lucifer- they will not be missed.”

“We don’t kill,” Nicole said. 

“Are they human?” Amy asked. 

“Yes.”

“Then we won’t kill them,” Amy said. 

Nicole’s eyes went wide with shock as the implications of what Amy just said sank in. “Um. Babe-”

“You’re aware that you’re not human, right?” Lilith said. 

“I’m human,” Amy said. “I don’t care who my mom was; my father is human, and I was raised by humans. As far as I’m concerned, that makes me human. You will NOT convince me otherwise.”

Lilith sighed. “Very well. What about the Outcasts? If it’s possible, slaying even a single angel would be enough to accomplish our goals.”

“Still not crazy about that,” Nicole said. 

“Why?” Amy said. “They’re Fallen.”

Nicole blinked rapidly. She was learning all sorts of things about her girlfriend now, things that sat heavy in her stomach and burned her insides. 

“Um, look, can I say something?” Iris said. “I know I’m new to all this, but wouldn’t it just make more sense to pool our resources and beat back these Outcasts? Ya know, without raising a monument to destruction and black magic into the sky?”

Lilith fixed her gaze on Iris, and Nicole’s sister practically shriveled up in her seat. Mark put an arm around her and rubbed her back, and Iris kept her gaze steady. Lilith said, “To do that, you would have to come with me to Hell. To hear the screams of the damned, smell their burning flesh and taste their boiling tears in the air. And somehow, little Witchling, I don’t think you’re ready for that. Besides, even if you were… An army of angels, even Fallen ones, is not a fight that the addition of less than ten Magical Warriors will change the outcome of. My forces and I are losing the war. With Astaroth no longer in charge, our odds are better- she’s not wasting our time and resources any longer trying to torment her only remaining child- but victory is still an infinitesimally small likelihood. Don’t you see that this, what I’m offering you here and now, is the only viable course of action? The only version of events with minimal casualties?”

Iris’ lips trembled. “I… I…”

“Just get out,” came a harsh, high-pitched whisper. Nicole’s head whipped around to the source: Monica, standing in the archway, rubbing her folded arms together, glaring and grinding her teeth. “Just get out- leave, please just leave!”

“Monica,” Mom started.

“I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m telling you right now, child,” Lilith said. 

“I DON’T CARE!” Monica cried, her arms coming free of the fold. “JUST GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! LEAVE US ALONE! LEAVE!”

Silence sat heavily in the kitchen, and all eyes were on the sobbing girl. Mom and Dad rushed over to her, wrapping their arms around her, comforting her. 

Finally, Lilith spoke: “I can see I’ve upset you at what is already a difficult time in your life, young lady, and for that I am sorry. I will take my leave now and let you all think about what I have told you. When you need me, simply speak my name into a bushel of snapdragons, and I shall appear.”

Lilith stood up and left, and Nicole wanted nothing more than to go and join her parents in soothing Monica… But she knew there was something she had to do first. 

She chased Lilith out the door and called after her, “Wait! Wait a sec- I need to talk to you about your daughter-”

Nicole was stopped when she saw a massive pod of bipedal landshark monsters looming in her driveway, standing at the ready for battle. 

However, one dropped its clawed hands and said, “M-Mother?”

Nicole’s jaw dropped. Her demon hadn’t been kidding- but this would mean-

“Yes, my children,” Lilith said, and Nicole saw a tear dribble off her chin.

“Mother!” they all cried, joyous in their tones.

“Oh, my children,” Lilith said, choking on tears. “My children, how I’ve missed you. Come to Mother, all of you.”

And with that, they all dissolved into black smoke and flew towards Lilith, and she absorbed all of them into her person. With each one, Lilith’s shadow grew longer and longer and longer. Quadrupedal land-sharks the size of corgis appeared on the ground in the place of the shark monsters and scampered about, moaning in high-pitched squeals. 

Debbi and Heather flew towards the house, leading a flock of monsters behind them. One by one, all of the monsters left their possession-houses and returned home to their mother. By the time it was over, Lilith’s shadow engulfed the entirety of Nicole’s house. Errant shapes flitted about in the shadow, ebbing and flowing and shifting as they danced inside their home. 

Debbi and Heather landed next to Nicole, Amy and Iris running out the house and standing behind them. 

Lilith looked back to Nicole, pained joy and relieved sorrow plain to see on her face, even with her eyes a solid black. “Thank you, for bringing so many of my children back to me.”

“I… I can’t really take credit for this,” Nicole said. 

“Honestly, neither can I,” Debbi said. 

“Regardless, you’ve done a good thing for me, and I thank you,” Lilith said. “What was it you wanted to tell me about my daughter?”

Nicole told her, of her demon, her new form, her awoken consciousness and identity. When she was done, Lilith simply said, “Thank you for telling me this. I will search for her, and hopefully, I can bestow upon her a name now that she requires one. We will be in touch.”

And with that, she vanished into a puff of black and silver smoke. 

“Um… Did I miss something?” Iris asked. 

“Looks like we just reunited a family,” Nicole said. She turned to Debbi and asked, “How did that happen, exactly?”

“We ran into them on the way here,” Heather said. “They’re stragglers from Winona’s faction. They were looking for you, said they wanted to parley about something. I guess we gave them what they wanted, though.”

“Well, that’s good!” Nicole said, mustering up a smile. “This is good news!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Debbi said. “They claimed that they were acting on Winona’s orders. Apparently, their old boss broke out prison when the holding facility got attacked by Astra’s faction today. She’s on the loose, ladies.”

Nicole closed her eyes and breathed in a deep, heavy breath through her nose. It just never let up, not even for a second. “Oh, Blue Blazes.”