The Rejoining, Part III

"Look into my eyes, Bloodwing."

So spake the ruler of he Underworld, and I obeyed. I had not cast eyes upon my Father for thousands of years..my last banishment was straight to the glacier. But I was struck by what I saw..or rather did not see. It was like staring at a silhouette. I made out the outline of his bald head from where it contrasted with his opulent golden crown. I could gauge from his shape where his features were. I was struck by how much my Dwarven brother Steelwolf's demon form resembled our Father..only ten times as large.

"You have trapped yourself in yet another conceit, I see."

He rose from his throne with the gentle rush of his dark velvet robes. I looked down as his massive sandal rolled the Doctor over a couple times to face upwards again.

"What brings you here. And know you cannot lie to me."

"I..I repent."

Long moments of silence. Even the screams of the damned souls outside died down to eavesdrop.

"Repentance, my deluded son, must be done with whole spirit. You cannot possibly remember all that you must atone to me when you are split like this. Which I shall rectify."

It felt as if a boulder had wrapped itself around my head and slammed me into the Doctor's body. This evil deity ripped apart souls and consumed them for sustenance. But now he was crushing two halves together with no attempt at subtlety.

The Doctor's psyche poured into my soul, inexorably mingling our essences. As we..I..was overwhelmed from both sides, more facets poured in. The Elizabethan explorer. The Roman legionnaire turned Senator. The buccaneer. These and many more masks dissolved into mine..every incarnation I had ever assumed among men was now as immediate to me as the Doctor and the Demon at my core.

"I have a chore for you, Prodigal."

With that the rattling of chains echoes in the chamber as some sort of metal box lowered to the bare chamber floor, clattering at my feet where the Doctor's body had once lay. The last thing I expected to see inside was an infant, eyes crimson and fangs bared in primal vampiric hunger.

"You shall raise this child as your daughter, and raise her as I raised you. She shall be a more worthy heir than you or your stunted brother or the trace of succubus in your machine you call a daughter. Indeed, she was born of a Baroness, was she not?"

My eyes widened as I gazed down at her features. Even through the mask of Undeath I could tell this was Baroness Palowakski's kidnapped daughter!