trans_9 | Be careful what you wish for

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Be careful what you wish for

When Daimon Hellstrom was finally released- or rather spat out- by GLaDOS, he took it rather well.

"Wretched harpy!"

Relatively speaking.

Daimon grabbed his trident, which had fallen a foot away from him. "After all you forced me to do, you still will not give me ca- aaugh." With no further warning he was overcome by a sharp pain in his heart- a pain so severe it caused the son of Satan to fall to his knees, clutching his chest. "Nnn..." He closed his eyes and tried unsuccessfully to steady his breathing. And then, just as quickly, the pain was gone.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his chest, as if that would somehow give him a clue to what had happened. His birthmark was gone, as was his darksoul. Had its departure taken a greater toll on his body than he realized? Or was it more of GLaDOS's machinations?

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So there was this man in the hallway, staring down at his own chest as if searching for some answers.

"Is everything all right?" Zouichi asked, approaching him to lend aid if needed.

Another patient affected by the deaging phenomenon, perhaps?

"What?" Daimon looked up. Ah, but he must look quite the fool right now. "Yes." He quickly stood up. "I have simply grown weary of that Artificial Intelligence's experiments."

"Ah, you had a run-in with GLaDOS. Sorry to hear it." He paused. "By the way, since you probably missed the announcement -- there's apparently a de-aging phenomenon affecting certain members of the crew. It's not contagious, but you might want to get checked out by Medical if your memories suddenly aren't making any sense."

"Deaging? What is the cause?" Daimon retraced his memories.

...No, everything still made sense. Depressing sense, but sense nonetheless.

"Well, apparently everyone who's experienced the phenomenon so far spent some time in the presence of an unusual-looking clock back on XaXing. As for the actual cause? No one's really figured it out enough to put together a solution. It seems we need to return and examine the clock in question."

That earned Zouichi a puzzled look. "...Xaxing? It seems I have missed more than I thought."

Zouichi frowned. "...How long have you been in testing?"

"We set down on a merchant planet called XaXing a little while ago, to restock on supplies. It was only after we left that some of the crew members began exhibiting symptoms."

"I do not know. Time is even harder to track in the mazes than it is here." He shook his head. "How many of the crew are affected? How severe is the deaging?"

"Unclear. Medical has asked that anyone who has seen the clock in question come forward so that an accurate count can be obtained. And the pace of the change seems to differ from person to person, but the youngest patient I've seen is approximately thirteen years old."

But if Daimon never saw the clock, then there's no problem, right?

Daimon frowned. "I see. Thank you for informing me." The son of Satan actually thanking someone- losing the darksoul did help him mellow out.

"I do not believe we have met before."

"Think nothing of it. And we probably haven't -- I only arrived here a few months ago. Kanoe Zouichi; pleased to meet you."

"Daimon Hellstrom." He nodded. "I have been here for many."

Daimon Hellstrom? Well, that sounded a little ominous.

"Well, glad you're still around, then. Oh -- if you know anyone in Starfighter Command, they had an engagement with the Ohm recently. Everyone got back alive, though, so no worries."

Actually, he supposed it was possible Daimon was in Starfighter Command.

Zouichi was fortunate Daimon was no longer introducing himself as the Son of Satan.

Daimon fought the urge to roll his eyes. Why hadn't he mentioned this earlier? This was much more important news. "They were victorious then? Did they acquire more intelligence regarding the Ohm?"

The Ohm mission was over and done with; the de-aging (possibly out of existence) was here and now. Priorities!

"Yes, we fended off the Ohm offensive. As for intelligence data... you might want to talk to the pilot of the Raiser about that. Or the General." He still wasn't sure exactly what had happened during the last few decisive seconds of the battle and he was hesitant to speculate to a total stranger.

"The- who?" Apparently there were disadvantages to keeping oneself sequestered in the Vatican: you rarely ran into other people.

"Setsuna, the pilot of the 00 Raiser, or General Trudy Chacon. I have my own set of tactical data that I gathered from the engagement, but I'm not sure how useful that will be -- at least not until I find out how best to extrapolate it into a format that would be useful to anyone other than myself."

"I do not require any details. It is enough merely to know whether the mission was successful or not." Daimon leaned against his trident.

Hmm. A bit of a strange attitude to have. Zouichi glanced at Daimon's trident, curious.

"May I ask what that pitchfork is for?"

Tactics was all Greek to him. Except he knew Greek.

Daimon glared at him. "It is a trident not a pitchfork!"

"...What is the difference?" Weren't they both large pointy implements with tines? Next Daimon was going to be expounding on the characteristics of ladders versus stepladders.

"It is a weapon." Daimon brushed his hand across his trident almost as tenderly as one would usually touch a lover. "But much more than that. It is forged from netheranium- mind from the deepest abyss in Hell. Stolen from my father's own hand. And now servant to me. Through it I can refine my dark powers." He raised the trident, pointing it away from Zouichi and sending a blast of soulfire out through its points

Hm, still spectacular but not nearly as intimidating as it used to be. He had lost more of his demonic heritage than he thought.

Zouichi watched as Daimon summoned the blast of flame. He wasn't terribly familiar with Christian mythology, but...

"...Your father is Satan?"

Why were there so many weirdos on this ship?

Daimon smiled. At least there was one thing he had not lost- how creepy he could look. "Yes. I am the firstborn son of Satan."

What do you say to that?

"Oh. My condolences; I understand he's not very pleasant. But I suppose if he left you with a trident that shoots fire, it was not a complete loss."

"It does not shoot fire, merely enhances my own natural energy." He raised his hand and it was covered in the soulfire, yet he was unharmed. "Or perhaps I should say supernatural." He clenched his hand into a fist and the soulfire faded away. "Would that all of my father's 'gifts' to me were so useful."

Zouichi glanced at the soulfire, curious. Some form of magic? "So you have other gifts?"

Daimon didn't look like he had any wings. And he didn't seem particularly beautiful. What else did he know about Lucifer?

...yeah, not much.

Oh Zouichi, didn't you like his rock hard abs? Daimon's hurt.

"Yes. I can sense psychic vibrations and determine a great deal of information from them. I also have a healing touch- ironic considering my heritage."

Wait, the rock hard abs were genetic?

"Those do sound a little... unusual." He was fairly sure he'd never heard anything about fallen angels being psychic. But a healing touch sounded immensely useful in any case.

"So I take it you don't get along very well with your father?"

What with the trident-stealing and all.

Well when you never had to exercise to get them...

"That is an understatement. He has fought to force me to become the son he wanted and I have always resisted."

Hey! Non-exercise buddies!

"I understand that many humans have trouble dealing with parental expectations. But I'm guessing that in your case, the conflict was a little more heated than usual."

Satan, a helicopter dad?

"Both literally and figuratively." Daimon nodded.

More like a dad who would kidnap his son's love interest, convince everyone she was his sister, and duel his son in order to bring out his darksoul. Then keep said son in hell, trying to exterminate all trace of his human soul.

"Do you think that the two of you will ever be able to reconcile? Or is it too late for that?"

Jeez, Satan, what are you trying to do? Give your kid a complex?

Daimon stared at him for a moment. "Impossible- and even if it were, why would I want to reconcile with a being of pure evil?"

Zouichi shrugged. "In some versions of the story, Lucifer is not actually evil. I'm not actually familiar with your father, so I thought I'd ask."

A being of pure evil? Really? Someone hand Daimon (or his universe) a Large Ham.

"No, Satan and his ilk- with perhaps a few exceptions- are evil. I am aware of certain... creative departures in some works of fiction, and perhaps it is different in other worlds, but the reality of my world is that Satan is the greatest evil that exists."

Well, other than Mephisto, Chthon, Satannish, the list went on.

"Ah." He paused. "If it makes you feel any better, I do not think he exists in my reality. But in any case, I'm sorry you had such a difficult father."

But he got some cool soulfire out of it, didn't he? I mean, come on.

"Many have believed that only to find they were wrong." He paused. "I thank you for your sympathy."

His soulfire brings all the ~~Patsys~~ girls to the yard.

Zouichi nodded. "Well, in any case, I'm afraid I've kept you here longer than I should have -- and I should be getting back to patrol. It was a pleasure meeting you, Daimon Hellstrom."

Daimon nodded back. "And you as well, Kanoe Zouichi."

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Be careful what you wish for

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