Heather’s legs went offline in a single second. One moment, she could feel her legs, and the next… There was nothing. A total cessation of sensation where once there had been boundless strength and fortitude. The ground rushed up to meet her, her face meeting the cold, wet pavement. Astra stepped over her, dashing over to Patrick grabbing him by the lapel, slamming him against his front door. 

“How about now, Pat?! Intimidated yet?!” Astra cackled. 

A rush of purple light ran past Heather’s side, and Debbi tackled Astra, knocking her to the ground and dragging her face over the street. 

“YES!” Heather said, pushing off the ground with her hands and dragging herself over towards Patrick. He was winded, pupils dilated. But at least he could stand. “Come on, time to evacuate.”

Patrick nodded, scrambling to his feet and grabbing Heather, supporting her weight over his shoulder as she dragged her useless legs over the ground and into the house. 

Inside, everyone was scrambling, grabbing emergency supply bags and heading for the back door. “Did someone send out the emergency text to the group chat yet?” Heather asked. 

“Already done,” Dick said. 

“Good,” Heather said. She had to stay focus. She wouldn’t be useful in the fight until Nicole was back, not really anyway. Best to focus on getting the Donahue’s to safety. 

Astra would pay for this. And she knew Debbi would make her pay. 

Heather summoned her broom, and Patrick and Victoria helped her position herself onto it. She could still fly, even if she couldn’t run or walk. She could still move, still fend for herself, even if her hands were trembling and hadn’t stopped since she’d lost feeling in her legs. Her eyes kept watering, but she choked down the tears and made herself move forward. The desire to fall over, to drift into an everlasting sleep, was immense, but she had to resist. Forward was the way, forward, forward. Stagnation was death, especially in combat. 

Right now, she had to move, and she had to breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe, and maybe the room would stop spinning. 

“Heather?” Jason said, snapping his fingers in front of her face. 

“Hm?” she said. 

“You spaced out there- you still with us?” 

Heather gulped, then nodded as rapidly as she could. “Yeah. Now c’mon, let’s get moving.”

***

Debbi screamed as she pulled Astra off the ground, hands resplendent with White Light as she burned Astra’s face and neck as much as she could. “I told you! To stay! AWAY!”

Astra kneed her in the gut, the breath ripped out of Debbi as she stumbled back over the asphalt. Astra readied hands of Hellfire, and Debbi reached deep within her and expelled blinding rays of golden light. Astra screamed, and Debbi groped for breath as she stumbled onto her broomstick and slammed into Astra, dragging her across the ground and burning her with Holy Light. 

“I told you not to come near my family again!” Debbi said. “We had an agreement! Do promises mean nothing to you?!”

Astra began to slip away, fading with purple smoke. 

“No, you don’t!” Debbi growled, channeling more and more light before they crossed over onto an empty beach buffeted by massive waves. They shot out over the water, but Astra slipped away as smoke. 

Debbi’s chest heaved up and down as she struggled for breath. Where was she- where did Astra go. She had to find her, and she had to stop her. Permanently, if need be. 

… No, no, she couldn’t think like that. Could she? Was that okay? No, no it wasn’t okay, it was never okay- not something like that. 

She had to be better. She was supposed to be better. 

She had to be better for her family. That was who needed her right now. 

***

Cass tracked the sight of the dragon across the skyline. An exhilarating buzz rang through her body as she soared as fast as she could, an inappropriate smile encroaching her face. She needed to stop enjoying this. She wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this. This was serious shit. People were in danger, people she loved, and she couldn’t afford to lose track of the stakes of all this. 

Gabriel was a golden streak in the distance, while the dragon gradually came closer and closer into view. Matt clung to her, the weapon in his hands shifting back and forth between chainsaw and claymore. 

“You ready, Pendejo?” Cass asked as they gradually closed in on the dragon. A wall of wind slammed into them as its wings cracked against the sky, and Matt came loose and nearly fell, but Cass reached out a hand with her telekinesis and stopped his fall, carrying him through the air using only the power of her mind. Her forearms arched, and her skull throbbed, and she couldn’t keep that damn grin from infecting her face… 

But neither could Matt. 

Two of a kind. Heh. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be!” Matt answered. 

“Alright, let’s do this!” Cass hollered. 

She let her arm hand back, winding it up like she was throwing a baseball, and threw Matt as hard as she could at the dragon. His weapon shifted back into a chainsaw, and he dragged it across the beast’s back and drew a river of black blood. The dragon howled, shooting a jet of fire into the air as Matt carved off one of its wings. 

The golden streak reversed direction, and within seconds Gabriel had plunged his saber into the dragon’s chest and dragged it across its side. 

The dragon tumbled to its right and began to fall into the sea. Cass reached out for Matt, her headache and muscle cramps exploding with bright pain as she pulled him safely and securely back onto her broom. 

“C’mon,” Cass said. “We need to reconvene with the others. I don’t think they’re having a much better day than any of us are.”

“Sounds good,” Matt said as he pressed against her back, resting his chin on her shoulder. 

The smile crept back onto her face, and this time, she let it stay. 

***

Nicole charged her hands with Healing Light, spreading the wealth over to Iris and Amy as they charged. It created a closed circuit of recharging power, and together the three of them produced a massive column of White Holy Light. 

The cyclops barreled towards them. It was trying to kill them, he was trying to kill them, trying to kill the people she loved. 

She remembered the rabid coyote that had nearly killed Iris all those years ago. 

She held the image in her mind’s eye. 

She didn’t hesitate. 

She was the fastest flier, so she reached the cyclops first. 

She threw the punch. 

She didn’t hesitate. 

She felt it connect, felt the ceaseless flow of Holy Light funnel out of her and into her target. 

And when it was done, she felt empty. Her witch’s uniform fell away, and she collapsed onto the ground, heaving and clawing for breath as the white light shimmered in the fog and gradually faded away. 

And when it had, the cyclops was still there, standing tall and proud, not a scratch on him. 

Amy flanked Nicole, charging her Hellfire spear with black flames and jabbing it at the cyclops. The cyclops grabbed her wrist and snapped it with a sickening crunch, then took the spear and broke it in half. It faded away like ashes in the wind. Amy fell to the ground, clutching her wrist and moaning with pain. 

Nicole grinded her teeth together, tried to find the wellspring of her power inside her soul. There were only droplets left, only enough for a small burst. She’d be lucky if she woke up again if she tried to exert herself too hard now. But-

But Iris had grabbed a stone from the ground and was flying towards the cyclops’ face. Her sister was… Doing something foolish, something that wouldn’t work, simply because someone had to try. 

Iris wasn’t hesitating anymore. 

And a beam of pride sang through Nicole as a tiny spark of Healing Light ran through her, as Holy Light radiated from her hands, she pushed herself off the ground and charged. Just like that day with the shark-woman. Just like that day with the coyote. Sometimes, the only thing you could do was get up and fight for the people you loved. 

Iris was swatted from the air, and Nicole caught her, healed both Iris and Amy, and ran for the cyclops, screaming her head off. The cyclops smirked as she charged, readying a hand to swat her down. 

The light from her hands grew brighter, and brighter, and brighter. She knew what she had to do. She had to stop this. Stop him. She couldn’t hesitate. 

The cyclops hesitated as it saw the song of light. 

Nicole’s fist connected with the cyclops’ chest. 

A massive wave of radiance shone over everything. Through, Nicole heard echoes of eternity: the horns when the walls of Jericho fell, the crashing of mighty waves against the whole world during the Great Flood, the lions tearing apart Bathsheba’s husband in the pits, the sobs of the crucified criminals who hung next to Christ on Good Friday. Everything poured into her, world without end, God’s Creation like a tapestry of light and sound stretching out into infinity before her eyes. 

She let out a quiet, desperate sob, and when it faded, she saw that the cyclops was still there. His wounds sizzled and crackled, boiling flesh with smoke pouring out of it; his one eye an angry sphere of fire; his claws cracking and his bones snapping as he popped his limbs back into place. 

Nicole whimpered. She hadn’t hesitated- she’d nearly… Nearly forsaken herself, and it still wasn’t enough.

“You fight well,” the cyclops said. “With heart. With honor. With love. But sometimes that isn’t enough.”

“Why are you doing this?!” Amy screamed, picking up a stone and chucking it. The cyclops caught it in his hand and crushed it, blowing the gravel away like snowflakes. “What does my mother even want?!”

 The cyclops… Blinked. 

“Your mother,” he repeated. “Your mother is Astaroth, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Amy spat. 

The world spun around Nicole, and the words were long and drawn out and distant as her legs started to fall away. She fell over, and Iris and Amy flanked and held her up. 

“Your mother sent me here to kill you,” the cyclops said, bile and contempt dripping from his words. “Her own daughter… And she had the gall to send someone else to do it.”

“Apparently,” Amy said. 

Stars danced in front of Nicole’s eyes as she begged for breath. 

The cyclops stood there, a monolith of hate and power. “We will meet again. Know that you, all three of you, are worthy of my Wrath. And live to fight another day.”

He vanished in a gust of red wind, fading into the fog and leaving only the scent of sulfur and ash behind him. 

Finally, everything faded, and Nicole lost consciousness. 

***

Astra tapped her foot impatiently in the bowels of Hell. She stood in the center of a wide, spacious, round room in the palace of Pandemonium, the blue stone that comprised the castle pulsing with veins of red magma, everything dusted over with volcanic ash. She leaned against the wall, gears in her head spinning. Debbi should not have been able to pull that on her. Heather shouldn’t have been able to land a single blow. None of this was supposed to be happening. Why wouldn’t those brats just do what they were supposed to do already, dammit?! Why did they have to make this so difficult?!!

“Ma’am,” Belial as he leaped into the room through a window at the very top-center of the room, landing on all fours and rolling into the fall. He hopped to his feet and gave a flourish of his hand as he did an exaggerated bow. 

“Lyle,” Astra said in a dull tone. He was the only one who’d done what he was supposed to do- infiltrate the military prison to gather intelligence. At least this moron was a useful one. 

 Beelzebub rushed in through the door on Astra’s left, a rush of black light signalling the arrival of the lanky, effeminate Manifested Demon. He carried Mephistopheles, the child-like ArchDevil of Gluttony, on his shoulders. “How was that, Phoebe?” Beelzebub asked his young charge. Well, young in a relative sense anyway. 

“AGAIN!” Mephistopheles said, clapping her hands as she held them over Beelezebub’s head. “Let’s go again, Bob! Can we? Can we can we can we pleeeeeeaaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeee?!”

“Maybe later, squirt,” Beelzebub said, wrangling the girl down from his shoulders and mussing her hair before setting her on the ground. “Right now, we’re on the clock.”

“Okay, but do you pinky-swear we can go for another ride later?”

“I pinky-swear,” Beelzebub said, offering up the necessary digit by breaking off his own pinkies like carrots and handing them to Mephistopheles. She gobbled them up like candy, while within seconds Beelzebub’s snapped fingers had grown back. 

“Where’s Asmodeus?” Astra said, hands on her hips. 

“She done defected to t’other side,” Belial said in a cordial tone. 

“What?” Beelzebub said. 

“Said she wanted to work on herself,” Belial said. “Ah reckin that mostly means sleeping and getting her three squares a day, but that’s neither here nor there, ah do declare.”

Astra rolled her eyes. This man just wouldn’t dial it back for even half a second. Unbelievable. “Did you three at least take the Sin-Eater off the board?”

“Yuppy yup yup!” Mephistopheles said, running around in circles. “I ate her heart! It was super yummy! It tasted just like Kansas City barbecue! Ya know, those people from Kansas City I ate smothered in BBQ sauce!”

“Careful not to run around while your stomach is full, Phoebe,” Beelzebub called after her. “You’ll upset your tummy.”

“Aww, shucks,” Mephistopheles said, grinding to a halt. 

“And the Nephilim and the Cambion?” Astra asked. 

“Cambion is still behind bars with Sloth,” Beelzebub said, checking his teeth in the reflection of his Katanas. “Winona slipped out when you called us away. You really shouldn’t have done that, boss- we had her twenty dragons to one Angelic kamikaze attack. We could’ve brought her with us.”

“If you had worked faster and more effectively you would have already subdued her by then! But of course, you didn’t, Pride, you had to stop and admire your work, and Gluttony had to play with her food. Now the entire plan is in jeopardy! That is not a loose end I am happy about,” Astra said. “We needed that Nephilim’s Grace to raise Pandemonium into the skies above the Earth. The Cambion we can live without- we have access to another one of those-”

“And who’s fault is that, Astaroth?” a familiar, feminine timbre echoed across the dome-like ceiling. 

“Lilith?” Astra said, leaning forward and looking around. “Where are you?”

That was when a wall caved in to her left, and Moloch barreled through. The ArchDevil of Wrath glared at her with his singular eye, clenching and unclenching his fists. 

“Moloch,” Astra said. “Was your mission a success? Did you kill the abominations with Amanda-”

“Your daughter,” Moloch said. “That girl Amanda is your spawn.”

Astra clenched her fists. Shit. Shit shit shit they weren’t supposed to know this yet-

“It’s become clear to me as well that our fearless leader is more interested in putting square pegs into round holes than actually accomplishing our mission,” Lilith said, her voice untraceable to a single source. 

“You sent me to kill your child,” Moloch growled. 

“I’m sorry, what now?” Beelzebub said. 

“I didn’t,” Astra said, grinding her teeth. These stupid ingrates- couldn’t they just fall into line already? They weren’t supposed to question her like this. They never questioned Lucifer like this! “I sent you to break her, to bring her to our side. We need to isolate her from her friends and family to make that happen-”

“And why not just take her by force?” Lilith said. 

“Because it has to be her choice!”

“But that isn’t her choice- you just want to trick her into thinking that it is!” Moloch screamed. “Disgusting- absolutely disgusting!”

“What’s even more disgusting is you having us run personal errands for you while you make a house-call to your ex-husband,” Beelzebub said. “Why did you do that, anyhow? You definitely don’t need him.”

Because I miss him. “Because the plan is easier if we have the leader of the Magical Girls on our side as well. Amanda and Deborah both would prove vital allies-”

“For you to pretend to be a mother to?” Lilith’s voice echoed sharply across the wide room.

“That isn’t-”

“You are an affront to the very concept of motherhood, Astaroth,” Lilith spoke. 

“To parenthood itself,” Moloch raged. 

“How dare you?!” Astra screamed, summoning bales of Hellfire to her side. “I am the ArchDemon of Lust- I am a greater sinner than any of you. I am filth and disgust and slavery to a body! I am the burden of parenthood personified! You would dare deny my suffering by trying to deny me my child?! Deny me the obedience that I am owed from my children!?”

“Children are not meant to blindly obey their parents, Astaroth,” Lilith spoke. “If they did, Lucifer never would have rebelled. I never would have left the Garden of Eden. You preach the dogma of the Commandments without understanding the Words.”

“And now we find out you have crossed a sacred line,” Moloch said, cracking his knuckles. 

“That you pull us away from our mission just as we’re about to succeed because you were too clever by half and it nearly caught up to you,” Beelzebub said, drawing his katanas. 

Astra looked around her, taking a step back, then another, then another. The screams of the damned reached in from outside, and she heard her fate amongst them. 

Fuck that. She’d go down swinging. 

Astra charged. 

Moloch charged back. 

They met fists, two titans of power striking each other’s chests and sending each other flying back, crashing through walls. Moloch fell into the fiery abyss of Hell, while Astra landed in a hallway within the Bone Cages. White skeletons formed a prison at the center of Pandemonium, and Lilith, ArchDevil of Envy, leaned against the wall of one of them. 

She was a tall woman, with olive skin and long, flowing black hair threaded with silver. She had wide, child-bearing hips and a heart-shaped face and gray eyes, and she wore a silver gown sparkling with obsidian crystals. 

Astra leapt to her feet and charged at Lilith, but a spike of metal pierced her ribcage, and a painful mouthful of blood hacked out of her in an angry cough. Beelzebub had appeared before her and plunged one of his katanas into her. He was smirking. “Always was a better fighter than you, Astra. Moloch was always stronger. And Lilith was always smarter. It just makes more sense to throw in with her. Honestly, the only thing you ever had going for you was that you produced the most demons when Lilith’s brood were all still trapped in the Floodwater.”

“Do you have to,” Astra coughed again, blood dribbling down her face, “Remind me of my shame?”

“That you see it as your shame, that you see motherhood and love as a cross to bear, is precisely your problem, Astaroth,” Lilith said, stroking her face, digging a canal into it with her sharpened fingernail. “The greatest gifts anyone could ask for- eternal youth, immense power, effortless carnal talent, an unlimited number of adoring lovers and children, and you were too busy hating yourself to appreciate any of it.”

“You don’t know what it’s like!” Astra sobbed. “To be trapped in one of these bodies! I’m not supposed to be like this!”

“And yet you are,” Lilith said. 

“And we all make do just fine,” Beelzebub said. 

“Here here!” Belial said from behind him, flanked by Mephistopheles and Moloch.    

Pain saturated her entire being. Tears of rage and sorrow leaked from her face, mixing with blood and watering it down as it all became a slop on the floor. “Then kill me. That’s clearly what you all want.”

“Gladly,” Moloch hissed. 

“No,” Lilith said, still cupping Astra’s face. “I have something far worse in mind for you.”

Astra’s eyes went wide. No, she couldn’t- she wouldn’t- not even Lilith would be so cruel as to do that!

Lilith pulled Astra’s squirming face towards her and kissed her, and bit down on her tongue, and drew blood from her mouth. With the blood came a column of purple smoke, and it all flooded out of Astra like a putrid, boiling stream. It was as if all the blood was drained from her body and replaced with cement. 

Finally, Lilith pulled away. Beelzebub removed the swords from Astra’s sides. 

Astra collapsed in a sobbing heap on the ground. All the foul scents and hideous noises and cruel sensations overwhelmed her. “I’m-”

“Human,” Lilith said. “Mortal. Enjoy damnation, Astra. Just remember that you did this to yourself. Everyone, I’m in charge now. Lock this woman up and throw away the key. We’ve got work to do.”

***

Cass flew towards the Donahue house over the water, Matt on her broomstick, Gabriel running close behind. There was a heavy scent of sulfur in the air, and an eerie quiet surrounding the house. She and the boys powered down, and to her surprise, she found the front door was opened. 

The Donahue’s were gathered in the living room, holding each other, shaking, crying. Debbi in particular held Heather as she laid flat on the couch, her legs immobile as stumps. 

Cass rushed over and embraced them both, Matt and Gabriel joining them, the whole family and all their loved ones coming together and holding each other up. 

A broadcast played on the tv, announcing that a group of dragons had swarmed the military prison. Thirty people were dead or injured, and at least two prisoners had escaped- namely noted terrorist Winona White.

Things were going to be different now.

It never stopped. 

***

Amy balanced her girlfriend on one shoulder while Iris propped up Nicole with the other as they limped back towards the school parking lot. The fire department had arrived, as had Mr. Nygaard. His arms were around his wife and Monica, and Iris and Amy carried Nicole over to them. They all wept when they saw the comatose Nicole, all huddled around her. 

Mrs. Nygaard held Amy, and said, “It’s okay. You did your best,” and wiped tears from her face. 

Amy hadn’t even realized she was weeping. 

“Mom, Dad,” Iris said. “What are we gonna do now?” She gestured to the burning school with a gaping hole in the roof. 

“I think we’re gonna need to move,” Mrs. Nygaard said. “One thing at a time, though: let’s get your sister home. She’ll have something to say about all this when she wakes up.”

***

Nicole bobbed her head above the swirling surface of the cold, filthy Floodwater, flailing in the dark. A hand reached out from the darkness for her, ripping her out of the water and tossing her onto a wooden raft. She gasped for breath, and when she looked up, she saw her demon, looking up at the empty sky and scowling. 

“Well, you’ve really done it now,” her demon said.