When It Becomes Dark

With Satan gone, Morrigan must now fight; but she will not be entering the fray alone. She has corrupted the very essence of Heimdall, transforming him into a darker Rig and proving how much power she has as the Queen of the Phantoms. The company must fight for their very souls, as well as defend Venus and her child. But, is the path to the Safety of Immortals more complicated than it seems? The Gods may be surprised to find who's all on their side...

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Two of the shadow's at Thanatos' feet shot out as quickly as they could. One shot up directly behind Dionysus, taking form and shedding its black coating, becoming an obese monster, its face deformed and flat, with blunt teeth and claws. Its fat belly took a good amount of the force behind Dionysus' impact, and it snagged the god from the air like a seagull would grab food.

Jesus drew in breath at the sight of the slobbering monster. "What is that?" he asked.

"Famine," the monster gurgled, setting Dionysus down and shrinking until it came up to about the god's waist.

The second shadow crept up behind Morrigan. A bleached bone skull of some unknown creature emerged, touching the goddess on her shoulder. "Pain," a voice said, sounding like air whistling through a cavern.

where the creature contacted, a strange, second shadow shot out, though clearly not of the same substance Morrigan had been controlling. Immediately, it began to take form as another being, emerging from her back. The Goddess began to lower herself to her knees, obviously suffering.

Rig sprung immediately into action, knocking the creature off of Morrigan with his sword.

As soon as the creature was no longer in contact with Morrigan, the figure that had been growing from her back began to flail, and diminished entirely when the Goddess fabricated a miniature shield around herself, letting it explode. She rose to her feet, drained only momentarily. "Nice pet." said the Goddess to Thanatos, making her way towards him, Rig in tow.

The head of Pain fell to the ground, bounced once, and disappeared into the shadows. It reemerged in front of Thanatos, fully formed once again. It looked like a complete skeleton of some mix of horse and cat.

Beside Pain, another being rose. Its body was composed of a pile of rags that seemed to form a cloak around a lump. Its head was scruffy and dark green, with teeth sticking out in a haphazard fashion. Pale yellow eyes without pupils stared at the two. "Fear," it hissed, air escaping from the being. Shadows flowed from the bottom of it, forming a semi-circle around both the Rig and Morrigan, steam escaping from it and drifting up around them.

Meanwhile, Thanatos was walking briskly towards Jesus and Venus. On the way, it passed Famine and Dionysus. "Go to your comrades," he commanded the gluttonous beast, who sucked up a spit wad and squelched over to the others. Thanatos grabbed Dionysus by the arm and proceeded to raise him to his feet, dragging him to his friends. "I have every intention of just leaving this place," Thanatos muttered to Dionysus, who would know of Thanatos' ability to disappear through shadows.

Meanwhile, Venus pushed Jesus towards where the baby was. "She's almost out!" the girl gasped, gritting her teeth and giving one last push the second after Jesus grabbed one of the clean towels Dionysus had conjured to grab the baby in.

"I think not." said a booming voice, its owner nearly forgotten on the outskirts. With the sound of Hades' voice, the steam Fear had hissed out seemed to blow over an invisible bubble, just above the heads of Rig and Morrigan. "You are in my domain, and I already have laid claim to your souls. The only way out is in soulless vessels. Every last one of you." He made a point of looking at Venus.

Morrigan looked up curiously at the creatures looming before her. She did not seem afraid, just interested. Turning her head, she shouted at Hades, "Don't interfere with things you can do nothing about."

And with that being said, Rig thrust his blade upwards, shattering the protection, and into the head of Fear. "Do you forget, Thannie that Fear does nothing for me?"

Morrigan, unsure of the effects of Fear, as well as Famine on her, materialized into shadow form, reforming a few yards away from the group of monsters, and closer to Venus, Dionysus and Jesus.

Fear jerks back, his head split from the sword, and falls into shadows. He reemerges near Thanatos, shadows still filling in its wounds, having seen his master in possible trouble. Famine is right there, moving faster than anyone might have thought, grinning greedily and weaving a web of horrible, distracting hunger and thirst. Pain also weaves closer, its effects going ahead of him towards the Rig.

A slew of shadows shoots up in front of shadow-Morrigan, forming into feathers that show wings outspread, larger than a man. A raven appears in mid-flight, its own shadow eyes focusing directly on Morrigan's. It is so black it's hard to tell where its connection to the shadows begins. "Disease," it shrieks.

Thanatos kneels quickly down beside Venus and Jesus. He quietly uses the tip of his scythe to cut the umbilical cord, which just disintegrates at his touch. "Congrats," he whispers to Venus. "It's a girl."

The baby had red hair and Venus' blue eyes, with freckles across her cheeks already, a smile forming on small, cherub-like lips. She blinked up at Jesus, alert as he cleaned her off for what little she had on her, grabbing the towel and putting a corner in her mouth. Thanatos stares at the child just a moment more before standing to confront Morrigan.

"Disease." repeated Morrigan, tilting her head at the creature. "I like Ravens." She turns her head towards Thanatos, "They're my calling card, don't you know?" She used one of her shadow-engulfed fists to swipe at the raven.

It was obvious that hunger and thirst were on Rig's mind, but his focus was to rid himself of Pain. He pursued it, sword slashing violently.

Dionysus glances at the child, briefly wondering if it is his, but he can't tell. He then turns to Thanatos. "Getting out of here would be a great idea. Any suggestions?" He then glances at Jesus, and has a thought. "Wait... you fought with Satan, right? You hella kicked his ass. Can you do whatever that was to like... them?" He indicates Morrigan and Hades.

Jesus just hands the child to Venus after swaddling it in a clean towel, while at the same time Thanatos ignores them all. As Venus held her child for the first time, he looked at Dionysus. "I don't know what I can do against them," he said. "You heard what they keep saying: the rules of my faith don't necessarily apply." He attempts a weak grin in the direction of Heimdall. "Although that guy could use an exorcism."

Disease shrieks at the contact, a wail that does not sound very raven-like. It falls back into the shadows partially, part of it torn. However, the shadow-formed raven has accomplished something: Morrigan has touched it.

Pain keeps morphing into the shadows to avoid Heimdall's sword, gliding along the floor around his enemy as a dark pool. Whenever Heimdall's sword scores a hit, the piece struck falls into the shadows, forming back up with the original with minimal damage.

As Disease was out of her way, Morrigan moved on. After all, it was no use fighting the symptoms; you had to go to the source itself. She maneuvered herself oddly around Venus, Jesus and Dionysus, and glided straight towards Thanatos, then around him. She was making a screen around him.

As Rig fought, he drew closer to Morrigan. He was there for her protection, he needed to be closer. The God swooped in close to the group of deities, still keeping Thanatos's creatures relatively at bay: meaning, they weren't that close to Morrigan.

"I enjoy theatrics as much as the next God," Hades hissed, "Isn't time we get this finished?" He lifted his gray arm, the flesh paled like a corpse, and a small green light appeared in the midst of the action. It expanded, creating a small explosion.

Morrigan sneezed.

When the explosion ends, Thanatos lowers his hand from the opening in his hoodie. Smoke is coming off of the cloth, but look like it took the full force of the blast. He hurriedly looked over at Venus to see if she was alright.

Jesus was kneeling over Venus and Dionysus, shielding them.

Dionysus looks at Hades, who he'd sort of forgotten about in the midst of all the action. "You may not be able to play by their rules," he says to Jesus, "but we can certainly play by Hades'." He looks at Venus. "Let's see... Zeus is really the only one powerful enough to do any harm to Angry-Pants, but isn't he technically confined to the Underworld? If we could just get out of here..."

Morrigan had landed awkwardly on the ground. The mist that had been around her hands had extinguished, her focus preoccupied. She was twisted, but if she would have just fallen naturally, she could have even struck Thanatos, dealing a fairly good blow. And yet, she didn't... "Hades!" the Goddess roared. There was obviously more that she had wanted to add, but instead, she left it unsaid. Instead, she opted to get off the ground.

Heimdall fell backwards from the blast, tucking his sword in from flailing, and consequently suffered a few lacerations by his own hand. The god jumped to his feet, noticing that he was in the midst of Jesus, Venus and Dionysus. He looked down at the protective Jesus.

Dionysus looks at Heimdall, and then remembers something. "Dude... I can shapeshift!" he exclaims. "Wow, I totally forgot about that. Being sober is useful for something!" He closes his eyes and his body begins to glow a soft green color. Then, his head and legs stretch apart from each other, and his body forms into the shape of a giant serpent. He hisses at Heimdall, the only warning he'll give.

Jesus grunts at the pain lacing up his back and just tries to help Venus move away from Heimdall looming at his back. "Get away from scary man with sword get away from scary man with sword," Jesus repeated, hoping Dionysus would buy them some time. The baby laughed at the giant snake, outstretching her hands towards it as Venus stumbled to her feet, still feeling pretty shitty from the whole childbirth experience.

Thanatos glances at Dionysus the Snake and decides Heimdall might be preoccupied enough so that Thanatos could just deal with Morrigan. He rounds on her, making sure his hood is low enough to allow almost no opening for an attach. "Knock knock," he growls, a grin spreading across his face.

Rig had the perfect moment to strike Jesus as Dionysus was shapeshifting. He heard the hiss. The god kicked Jesus in the buttocks, then turned to his new foe.

Hades aimed another blast, this time for the fleeing Jesus, Venus and baby.

"I don't even think you know who's there." Morrigan snapped at Thanatos, then tossed up a shield of mist, covering Hade's prey. She gave Thanatos a meaningful look before facing Hades.

"What are you doing?" rasped Hades, fury across his pale face.

"Let's just say..." Morrigan cocked an eyebrow, "that you should never trust a shapeshifter." The goddess switched her palms to face Hades, and the blow he had delivered towards the shield was absorbed. She raised her hands, the power gathering before the shield, then released it back against the God, feeding him his own medicine.

Jesus fell after being kicked in the ass, hard, but at least had the common sense enough to release Venus. He looked up in time to see another blast from Hades get deflected, and Venus and the baby get covered with a mist, along with himself. "Okay, I have no fucking clue what's going on anymore," he said, getting up to once again help Venus along, heading for the door.

Thanatos didn't quite see where this was going, but an opening to one of his enemies was good enough. The god turned against his King in a flash of steel, appearing to attack the god a second after Hade's eats his own blast.

The God of the Underworld stumbled backwards from his own blast, then felt metal piercing his chest. "Morrigan!" He choked, pinned against the wall, "Have you lost your mind?"

Morrigan slowly approached Thanatos and Hades. "Me? No, no. I think you are the one who has lost their mind, Hades."

"Funny, I don't... see it that way." Hades raised a hand, that same, strange shadow began to rise from Morrigan's back. "You've gone soft for these fools."

Immediately, the goddess dropped to her knees. "You... actually think..." she struggled to breathe, her lungs already wheezing from her encounter with Disease, "I'd cooperate, with you...." She coughed, and the shadow began to take on more and more of a human shape, and Morrigan became more pale than usual, "when all of this could be mine?" Her fingers grasped at the stone floor.

Thanatos looked back at Morrigan for just a split second, frowning, then reached for Hades. And into his chest. He felt his fingers brush against the silver of Hades' soul and grabbed hold, pulling it towards him.

Meanwhile, Dionysus uses his new form to its advantage. He wraps his body around Heimdall', slowly tightening the grip and squeezing the god for all he's worth. He momentarily looks behind him to make sure Venus, Jesus and the baby are alright.

Heimdall was bound, his chest tightening from the pressure.

Hades thrashed as the silvery matter oozed from his body.

Thanatos yanked just a little harder, pulling what looked like a ghostly image of Hades from the body. However, the legs of the image were still in the body. "I would suggest letting my friends go before I yank your soul out of your body so hard it's not declared dead for a week," Thanatos snarled. As an afterthought, he added, "And then maybe let Morrigan go from... whatever you're doing to her." If I leave Heimdall behind, Venus would be so pissed., he thought. Plus, I think she's the only one with any sane answers.

"You can't kill me." Struggled Hades, "You said so yourself: you can't take any soul before it's ready." the God snarled.

"And how do...you know that your time is not up, Hades?" managed Morrigan. The shadow on her back was nearly a fully formed silhouette of a man, stepping from her crumpled body as if were just a pair of stubborn pants it were trying to take off. Morrigan writhed in pain, tears falling from her eyes. "I guess we'll find out..." she whispered as the shadow tried to shake a leg loose violently.

"I said I won't," Thanatos whispered into Hade's ghostly ear. The smell of death was nearby, and it was quickening his heart rate and dilating his pupils. "But I can. I've done it before. And I don't think my moral code will flinch much." His grip tightens on the soul and he pulls it closer. "You know what happens to souls reaped before their time? Of course you don't. You don't do any of the paperwork. But I know." A scary grin creeps across his face. "And I will enjoy watching you suffer that much."

Hades gasped for air, "You wouldn't..."

"I'd do it just to see if God's souls last longer than mortals in that condition," Thanatos said, his voice a low rumble, enjoying the feeling of the soul in his fist. "But I'll give you another chance to let us walk away from this. I could just take your soul, take my friends, and leave, but..." Thanatos sighed. "Alright, I can't think of a downside for me."

"I would never surrender to you." said Hades, "I am the King."

"Oooh, that's another reason," Thanatos said, smiling a little more. "No more smug idiot thinking he knows everything going on in his little Underworld simply because he's the self-declared King." He pulled his scythe from the wall, letting the body drop, the soul connected by a thread. "You never really understood Death, Hades. I remember when you at least tried."

"I don't need to understand Death." breathed the God, "I only keep souls."

Thanatos did not say a thing, at first. Then, slowly, he raised his arm and moved the scythe in a fluid motion, calmly disconnecting the soul from the body. The soul contracted from the outline of Hades into a silvery mass that vaguely looked like a leech. Thanatos sighed, suddenly business-like, and placed the soul into a pocket, his favorite part done with. Of course, there could be more... He turned to eye Morrigan, the Rig, and whatever has been ejecting itself from Morrigan's body.

The shadow shuddered, its connection to the living realm interrupted. It still fought to separate, desperate like a wild animal. The dark features of the face twisted, an inaudible shout on its lips.

Morrigan clawed at the intangible thing, only making temporary slashes. "A little help?" Morrigan shouted, frustrated with the shadow.

Rig was still in Dionysus's grasp, thrashing as violently as he could.

"Maybe if you let Heimdall go," Thanatos said, looking a little bored as he approached the two. "Until then... Well, enemy of an enemy. You know how it goes."

"I save your asses..." Morrigan's head jerked to follow the movement of the shadow, "and this is how I am repaid. Remind me never to join the good side again."

"You see, I could have sworn you dragged us down here to take our souls after making a deal with Hades. And then you turned against Hades, but that still sort of just shows that you like backstabbing people. I don't see much ass-saving. From my point of view, our asses are relatively safe at this point mostly thanks to Dionysus and I." Thanatos looks at her expectantly, a sarcastic and cruel smirk on his lips. "So if you have an explanation? Go ahead. I'm absolutely ecstatic to hear it."

Jesus and Venus wander out of the miss hesitantly to see that Hades was gone. Venus holds her child close and sinks to her knees, still understandably weak, and watches the scene, confused.

"I had planned on betraying him the whole time." Morrigan cringed, and gritted her teeth. "But if I didn't lead you to believe that I was really on his side, I couldn't have gotten this far. Get it? If I had really planned on getting rid of you guys, wouldn't you think I'd try a bit harder to hurt you?"

"And why exactly was betraying Hades a big goal for you?" Thanatos asked, not in any particular hurry. The shadow-creature wasn't exactly going anywhere. "I'd really like to get the bigger picture here."

"Thannie, just..." Venus started. Thanatos whipped his head around, and his one look in her direction was enough to get her to stop talking immediately. Jesus even took an involuntary step back.

"I'm a Queen." snarled Morrigan, "And I wanted a kingdom, and this place is perfect, it comes with a throne and everything." She coughed, "As for Heimdall - he's fine. I can reverse it, but I can't do much of anything if you don't help."

Thanatos looked at her with something akin to shock, then snorted involuntarily, taking away a lot of the homicidal glint in his eyes. "Uh, sure," he said. "You can have the Underworld. Why the fuck not?" He goes over to the shadow, his own stretching out like it had with his pets, rising up to swallow the beast in a flash of bone and rag and feathers. "Long live the queen," Thanatos murmured to Morrigan, laughing a little more to himself, teeth flashing white against the darkness of the Underworld mansion.

Morrigan glared where the shadow once was. "Thanks." She neurotically brushed her shoulders, as if afraid that they were tainted by the contact.

Thanatos raised an eyebrow and pointedly glanced at Heimdall.

"Oh, you're no fun," whined Morrigan. She moved her arms dramatically, creating an illuminating seal. Then, suddenly, the seal had broken, and the shadows melted away from Rig, revealing Heimdall encased by Dionysus.

"Yo! Dionysus! Heimdall's back now!" Thanatos shouts up to his snakified-friend. He turns back to Morrigan. "Have fun trying to run things down here," he says, smirking again, then goes to his friends to get out of there.

Dionysus abruptly transforms back to his normal form, and is now hugging Heimdall rather tightly. But there is a large smile on his face, so he obviously doesn't mean any harm by it. "Heimdall! We missed you, buddy! Oh, and Venus had her baby, dude!"

"Thanks for the update, big guy." Heimdall struggled for air from the bear hug. He patted Dionysus's back, to show that he was finished hugging.

Venus held up her child, who was gurgling a little and sucking in its fist, staring at everybody. "It's a girl!" she announced proudly. "I think I'll name her Arya."

Thanatos walked up to the door out of there and tested it; without Hades immediate influence, it swung open. "Here you guys go," he mentioned to the group. "You know the way, so go on ahead. I have something to take care of." Thanatos patted his pocket.

"Do you know the way?" Jesus muttered to Venus as he helped her walk. She nodded, but was still moving pretty slowly.

Dionysus lets go of Heimdall, and glances at the baby, not entirely sure what to do about it. "Um... so... it's not mine, is it?" he asks awkwardly.

"Do you have red hair or freckles?" Venus retorts, sticking out her tongue. "I don't think it's your's." She looks down at the girl, who was squirming to get a better look around. "I can't be sure, because I used to have red hair, but... Doesn't she look a little like Aries?" She looks up at Dionysus hopefully.

Dionysus lets out the breath he's been holding. "Yeah, Mars. She looks like Mars. Totally, you can see it in her... nose? Or something..." He really couldn't care less who fathered this child, so long as he doesn't get stuck with the blame for it. Again. "We should go find her daddy and tell him the good news."

Venus rolls her eyes at Dionysus. "Like you ever helped in raising the other ones," she mutters, spying his obvious relief. "And... I don't know what happened to Mars. I lost his book, even. The one I found in the library." She looked sad. "I must have dropped it on the way down here."

Thanatos shrugged. "I'm pretty sure he's not dead, if that makes you feel any better," he said. "It's just that the world is suddenly a much bigger place right now. You'll find each other eventually." He strips off his gloves, flexing the hand that was still injured by Heimdall's sword and grimacing. He placed his good hand into the pocket that held Hades. "I'll catch up with you guys later, alright?" Thanatos said, a touch of laughter in his voice as he steps into shadows.

"Sorry about that, man!" Heimdall called to Thanatos as he left out the door with the rest of the crowd.

Morrigan watched Thanatos shrewdly.

Thanatos waits until the door closes behind the group before even glancing at Morrigan. "If you'll excuse me, I have actual work to do," he said, turning to disappear.

Morrigan raised her eyebrows then turned away. Instead, she happily sat in her newly acquired throne.

"Wonder what Thannie's got going on?" Heimdall wondered aloud with the group.

"I dunno," Jesus said. "Hey, do you remember anything from when Morrigan... you know..."

"Made you her bitch?" Venus chimed in.

"Bifth!" the baby repeated.

"Oh, who's a smart baby? Who is?" Venus cooed, not really caring that her hour-old baby was learning to talk, or what words it was learning.

"Well..." began Heimdall, "it was like I saw everything, but had no control over the situation."

Venus shudders. "Well, at least she'll be out of our hair for a while," she said. "I just wish Zeus had banished her down there like Hades. At least she'd stop... Well. Scaring me." She hugged her child closely; not too long ago she had been almost blindly convinced she'd lose her. "I'm going to name her Arya," she announced suddenly.

Dionysus looks at Venus hopefully. "Um... so the baby was born today... that makes it her birthday, right? So that means we can... have a party?"

Venus acquired a frowning, thoughtful look. "Well..." she started. "Normally... You kind of have to wait until the baby's a year old..."

Dionysus makes an adorable pouty face.

"Since when do you need an excuse?" Venus asks.

"One that makes sense?" Jesus adds.

"I guess... I do want to show her off..." Venus says slowly. "I mean, she's just about the most adorable thing ever."

"Oh it is so ON!" Dionysus says before she can change her mind. "Everyone to my place!" he manifests himself away to his abode.

"T-tonight?" Jesus stammered, looking from a weary Venus to the space Dionysus had just been in.

"It's alright," Venus said, sighing. "I'm used to it. I need to take a nap, though. I might be a little late." She rolled her eyes and vanished like Dionysus, leaving behind the smell of expensive perfume.

Jesus glowers at where the two gods just stood. "That's not healthy," he said, more bitter at the lack of poofing abilities. "Heimdall, you have an idea of how to get out of here?"

"I'd be lying if I said 'yes.'" shrugged Heimdall. "But I'm sure we can figure something out." He put his arm around the holy man. "I mean, how hard could it be to get out of the Underworld, eh?"

"Easier than all that if they just put up a stupid 'you are here' sign once in a while," Jesus grumbled under his breath, following the larger man out one of the more promising doors, feeling engulfed by the arm and wondering about the party later.

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