8-1: The Devil In Me, Part One

Radiance #8: It's only forever...not long at all.

Radiance is (was?) a lighthearted fiction serial about one of Earth’s darker timelines. It takes place around 2014 in a world where atypical abilities have become increasingly common, with the storyline following a group of minor-league superheroes based in Washington, DC. Our protagonist is Lady Radiance, former teen sensation, aka Christabel Jones, professional ray of sunshine—or, at least, she's trying her best.

Previously, Christabel convinced Liam to talk, and it was going well—until Archangel overpowered him and used Lord Hades to abduct her. This time, she awakens in the underworld…

<#7 // To #7.5 || Directory || #8, Part Two>

The room where Christabel regained consciousness was small and very unpleasantly lit, with a low ceiling that curved down to meet the floor on one side. It had no windows, and something about the bone-cold heaviness of the atmosphere suggested an underground bunker. There was no way to tell what time or day it was now. She reminded her racing heart that she wouldn’t have woken up if the oxygen was too low, and gently strengthened her aura until its glow overcame the eerie flickering from the fluorescent strip above.

As she looked around, she saw the room had been prepared with what seemed almost a parody of a welcome. There was the overhead light, a rug, a small table, the bed she was now sitting up on; but the light was soulless and slightly unreal, the rug an out-of-place pastel pink, and the bed something more like an old-fashioned hospital cot. The room’s white paint was flaking away in spots to show rusted metal, while a shallow bowl rested on the bedside table, brimming with small red apples so waxy and cheerful-looking that Christa couldn’t be sure they were real. She reached out to touch one, just to be sure, but hesitated an inch away. Despite her awareness of a keen, hollow hunger, it seemed somehow unwise. Instead, she returned her hand to her lap and pushed her sleeve back to examine the catch she’d felt upon reaching. There was a bandage stuck to the inside of her forearm, where the veins subsided beneath the layers of flesh. From the removal of an IV port? She shuddered and looked away, towards the door in the room’s only square wall.

She had intended to get up and see if it were locked, but it opened seemingly under her gaze. She jumped up and then held still, breaking off her cry of surprise as she watched what she hoped was Liam enter the room. He looked much the same as when she’d last seen him, still wearing his street clothes and maybe a bit more ruffled. His shoulders slanted in dejection, but his movements weren’t quite as steady as she would have liked.

“Christabel, it’s just me,” he said quietly as he closed the door behind himself. “Really, it is. If he wanted to talk to you here, he’d come in person.”

“What? How?”

“I’m sure you’ll see.” Liam stepped closer, stopping when he saw her shrink back. “Please…don’t. I’m sorry. I only wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Christa straightened up some, stepping forward hesitantly until she was sure she didn’t feel Archangel’s power coming from him. Then she ran closer and threw herself into him, hugging him tightly as he pulled her closer. “Help me, then,” she said, turning her face up to rest her chin against his chest. “Take me away from here. I’ll bring you to Leila, and we’ll find a way to keep you safe.”

He shook his head even as he raised a hand to straighten out some of her hair. “We’re both safer here than we could be anywhere else, and at least we can be together. It’s not what I wanted, but the Master has a plan. I’m sure it’s for the best.”

“It’s not!” she said, tensing in apprehension. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. “How can you say we’re safe here? You can’t trust him.”

“He’s always taken care of me,” Liam said firmly. “I can’t leave him.”

“Is that what you call taking care of you, forcing his way past your defenses back there?”

He stroked her cheek gently, a look of soft awe on his face like he couldn’t even see the growing hurt on hers. Any sense of bitter ambivalence about his Master that she’d felt from him before was simply gone. “There was no other way. I wasn’t listening, and I was wrong for that.”

“No,” she choked, squeezing her arms between them so that she could push her way free and step away. “Liam, please. He’s messing with your mind, like he always does.”

“You don’t understand at all.” They were both silent for a minute, Christa fighting tears, Liam’s tentative happiness slowly crumbling into sad concern. Then he said, “You will understand. He wants to see us.”

An explosive soundwave from the other side of the room pulsed through Christa’s body and knocked her back onto the bed. When she looked up, she had to shield her eyes from the immense light, and then quickly to look away altogether before it blinded her. Whatever was in there with her now was unbearable to even superhuman eyes.

“I trust you’ve both recovered,” a voice rumbled from somewhere within that light. It wasn’t quite a voice, but she had no other words for something that manipulated air into the sound of speech. “Are you feeling more cooperative, Liam?”

From the corner of her eye, she could see Liam hanging his head. “Yes, sir.”

“Are you sure? I can easily remind you…”

He flinched, bringing a sudden flare of rage to boil in Christa’s throat. “I couldn’t forget it that easily.”

“Good. I imagine it’s fairly painful, trying to handle those powers without my help.” Liam nodded, his face a lengthening grimace. What had she missed between them? “Don’t fight me again. I doubt you’ll survive it. Besides, you know this has thrown off my whole timeline.”

“And why should he care about that?” Christa said, furious. Liam glanced toward her with some surprise, as if he’d already forgotten that she was there.

There was a tone of amusement in the voice now. “Ah, my Lady. This arrangement isn’t to your satisfaction?”

“Hardly.”

“Ah, well. As I said, I meant to have more time to prepare. But explanations, after all, remain in order.” The light dimmed somewhat, allowing her to look at Liam more directly, but remained strong enough to prevent her turning her head any further. “I’m not surprised to see you’re confused; we ‘evil genius’ types have a reputation for failing to learn from our mistakes. As a stereotype, of course, it’s understandable enough. But I’m better than that.”

Christa looked at Liam, hoping for clarification but seeing no understanding in his expression either. “I don’t follow.”

“Siren,” Archangel said, the word a disgruntled hiss cutting through her body. “I’m sure she told you the whole story—how she betrayed us for some do-gooder’s passing fancy. I couldn’t let the same thing happen to her brother. The only solution was to find him someone safe, who wouldn’t turn his head too far. If I was to make him Lord Hades, he needed a Lady Persephone.”

Heat shot through Christa from her feet upwards. She thought she saw what he meant, but she didn’t dare think it through far enough to be sure. “So you planned…”

“Most of this, yes. I already knew who you were, of course, and I’d kept a close enough eye on you to feel confident you’d at least give each other a chance.” As she looked back at Liam in horror, the light flickered almost conversationally behind them. “I think it’s turned out very well. If I hadn’t taken such care in selecting his nemesis and pushing you two together, who knows what foolishness he might have gotten into?…But, no, you’ve proven to be a marvelous choice. I believe you’ll make quite a formidable Queen of the Dead.”

“Never,” Christa snapped.

“Child, please. You’ll hurt his feelings.”

Liam did seem hurt—certainly more hurt than disturbed—but she couldn’t tell whom it was directed at. She supposed it was possible that, being so close to Lord Hades, Archangel had already succeeded in convincing him that this insane plan had been a good idea.

Was it really so insane, though? It certainly had worked until now. As the events of the last eight months passed through her mind, Christabel could see the strings being tugged. This was why Archangel had used his influence on Jacob to provoke her into re-launching Lady Radiance. This was why he’d gone to such troubles to keep her guard down, and everyone else’s, by making Lord Hades a mere distraction. Why he’d arranged for them to spend so much time alone together. Maybe even why he’d pushed Lady Radiance to become a stronger hero. All along, he’d never wanted them to be enemies; he’d wanted them to fall in love. And they had. At least, she had.

“You could have told me what you were up to,” Liam said, turning his head over his shoulder with downcast eyes. “You didn’t have to erase so much of my memory. I would have helped.”

“You would not have,” Archangel said, more brusquely. “Have I ever been able to force you into something you didn’t want to do? I know well enough how you feel about my methods. Your Lady, here, is the only motivation I’ve found that gets you even halfway to a decent level of villainy. Consider her company as an upgrade to your incentive structure.”

She bristled. “I’m not an incentive.”

“On the contrary, you’re a very good one—and I haven’t had to touch your mind once. I’ve thought for some time that with the proper perspective, you might be even more useful to me than Lord Hades is.” Christa scowled back against the light, the thought sickening even to her empty stomach. “Consider this, Lady Radiance. Isn’t it virtuous to console the unhappy dead? If I’m so monstrous, then if he stays here in the underworld, what other hint of joy and humanity will there be than yours? Who has ever loved him more than you have?”

Certainly not you, she wanted to say. Perhaps his sister did, but Leila wasn’t here. She was far away in New York, keeping her head down, thinking of her own safety. No, it was her exposing herself to a villain’s wrath for his sake. Not even Lady Radiance, despite his polite address—but Christabel. That other world of confident heroism seemed, suddenly, to be impossibly far away.

No. She couldn’t give in.

At the same time, what could she do? Leila had been right—she couldn’t fight Archangel directly. Maybe if she kept him talking, he’d say something that she could use to turn Liam against him, as they’d planned before. Christa tried boldly to turn her head into the light, squinting into the limits of what she could take. “I suppose I see your point,” she said. “I still don’t understand, though. Is that really all you wanted? It seems like a lot of trouble to go to, harassing my friends all this time just to cover for Hades’ pursuit of me.”

The light strengthened, forcing her to turn away again. “It’s not all about you, dear Lady. The first time—mostly it was, yes. I was taking care with your first meeting. But I found something very interesting in going through those files.”

“So we thought. The depowering formula.”

“The flawed depowering formula,” he said. “Lady Radiance, I don’t intend to be trapped in this unnatural form for all eternity. My own body’s been lost, and my various attempts at replacement have proved disappointingly unequal to the task. Ultima, that worm…! But I’ve worked it out myself. Decades of study and work, such as I could never have managed in life…it’s no small feat. I must have a physical vessel that is both stably produced and stably enhanced, and exceptionally powerfully so.”

What was she missing? “Dr. Marcos’ formula isn’t flawed,” she said. “It worked on my brother—or the next iteration did.”

“Of course it did. Your brother was one of my creations, just as you are,” Archangel said, dismissive. “Your friend’s missing the bigger picture. Scientists, always playing God, messing around with things they don’t understand.”

“You’ve got some nerve accusing anybody else of playing God,” Christa muttered.

However it was that an incorporeal being could hear, he heard her. “Ha! Well, perhaps so. Be that as it may, my point stands: that ‘treatment’ won’t work on anyone I didn’t enhance myself. A meaningful proportion of the super-population, to be sure, but nowhere near what they’re hoping for. What interested me was the potential interaction…ah, I can’t have your eyes glazing over during my grand monologue. That wouldn’t do at all. Let me spell this out for you in order, in smaller words, and, this time—” The voice dropped into a dangerous rumble, resonating in her own lungs. “Don’t interrupt.”

Christa made herself small and still, watching Liam’s dimmed eyes as they flickered around the room, landing everywhere but on her.

“I was alive once,” Archangel said. “I mean really alive—I could see, and taste, and touch for myself. Your friends recognized my One-Winged Army, so I think you’ll be familiar with some of the details. Before one of the original gang’s members got a bit too fast and loose with some equipment bought off Dr. Ultima’s going-out-of-business sale, I was Gabriel Maestri. Mostly.”

She did remember—because she had asked. Gabriel, the undercover officer working a mob beat in New York more than thirty years ago, blasted into oblivion as far as anyone knew. She’d felt deeply pained at the idea. Christa opened her mouth to ask what he meant by mostly before she recalled his warning and shut it quickly again.

“I’m sure they thought it was a disintegration ray…probably it was supposed to be. I was trying to avoid being drawn too far into the fight, but these things happen fast. One minute, one of their men had a knife coming at my neck. The next…” The light flared sharply, forcing Christa to avert her face further. “I don’t know how much of him remains trapped in this spirit form with me. Maybe we’re fused together somehow; the commingled slop of our flesh can’t even be replicated properly. I know I’ve changed. My old life and self are like distant dreams now, unrecognizable, both them to me and me to them. I don’t see how I can reverse it. I’m only trying to go forward, to live in whatever way I can. If I have a body again…then maybe, at least, some of this agony will ease. Now you understand, don’t you?”

Christa didn’t understand, but she saw what he wanted and gave a subdued, jerky nod anyway. She had to hope that would be enough.

“Good. Now, when you first met with my army, I came away with a scan of Formula 84, as the document called it, and a surface read of your brother’s thoughts. Taken together, they suggested that the same mechanism that undid my own enhancements had the potential to take a different direction in other cases. Some very narrow conditions would have to be met, of course, but it seemed possible. I’m sure you wondered why I pulled Hades back after that? I didn’t have enough information yet. I wanted to give them space to work.”

Space to work, a different direction—she was missing something again, and the time Christa had the feeling that she should know it. But it was harder and harder now to think straight as her stomach churned on nothing and she became aware of the increasingly uncomfortable heat in the room.

“When I checked back in a few months ago, the results were very encouraging,” Archangel said. “Nowhere near where I need them yet, but I had proof that some version of the formulation worked, and—this was more important—I had a target. Power levels aren’t the only consideration, of course. If I’d ever tried to inhabit, say, you or your brother, you’d have resisted me too strongly. I’d have broken you trying. I need someone with practice shutting everything off to survive and get the job done…somebody like how I used to be. He does remind me of myself, somehow.”

The atmosphere was beyond stifling now; she wasn’t sure if her lungs could expand far enough to breathe. She was still trying to remember what had happened a few months ago. Was that Christmas? Before Christmas? He couldn’t possibly mean—

“Your Lord is very fortunate I was already able to obtain an updated copy of the experimental formulation, as well as the detailed subject records. The trigger for the interaction would seem to be nearly unrepeatable: nerve damage from exposure in utero to an unusual and obsolete gasoline additive, primed by a batch of anthrax vaccines contaminated with traces of rhodium-ninety-nine.” A disapproving wave of heat and pure presence pressed in on her, forcing her eyes closed as pain bloomed in the sinuses beneath her cheekbones.

“You’re hurting her,” Liam said, his voice distant.

“We’ve been over this, Hades. You’re hurting her. I may only get the one chance at this, and you…”

“I told you I’d trust you from now on. I don’t know what else you want from me.” A hand wrapped around one of hers, and slowly the pain ebbed. Christa realized as she regained the ability to open her eyes that Liam had come to stand between her and his fiery master. She half smiled in gratitude, but he had an intensely guilty look on his face that gave her pause.

A hot wind like an angry sigh ruffled them both. “To return at last to your question, Lady Radiance, while this very much is about you, there are other senses in which it never was about you at all,” Archangel said. “I may have brought you here to be Hades’ Queen, but my timeline was meant to be driven by what very good bait you also happen to make.”

In Liam’s shadow, freed for a moment from the awful burden of Archangel’s gaze, Christa was finally able to put the pieces together.

“Not Baz,” she said, watching Liam avoid her eyes again. He knew. He’d known. “No, it’ll never work. Who cares about me? Nobody’s going to come after me, let alone find me. Even if they did, you’ve never beaten us before.”

“My Lady, I don’t think you realize just how long we’ve kept you out for,” Archangel said, amused again. “I've already had Chained Lightning in my custody for two days.”

<#7 // To #7.5 || Directory || #8, Part Two>

Thanks so much for reading this surprise early chapter! I am still planning to get to everything else promised for this month, though it may not exactly be in order.

If you enjoyed this installment of Radiance, you can show it by leaving a like or comment, sharing this post, or just continuing to read. :) Everyone’s welcome in the fan club!