Disclaimer: All characters depicted in this story are eighteen years of age or older. Any sexual content involves only consenting adults. This is a work of fiction.
A Marvelous Devil.
Chapter 58: A Cosmic Vacation.
Dante Andromalius.
The Dark Force retreated into my body as I stepped into a place I hadn’t visited in a very, very long time.
Yao remained behind on Earth with Jean to start her magical education, but I had an urge to be somewhere else.
I didn’t know how to name it. But I knew exactly what was causing it.
The Phoenix and I had met before. It could be said that we were on good terms for beings like us even if a very long time had passed since we spoke with each other.
She was a cosmic being, and I was a demon. Friendship was a nebulous concept for our kind.
Seeing a primordial force of the universe act so humanly impacted me in a way I couldn’t name. I used to be on my best behavior around her, even at my absolute best because of how dangerous she was.
But what I just saw? That could have been me.
If something had gone wrong when Red warped my soul during my reincarnation, something like what happened to the Phoenix could have happened to me. Or worse.
In fact, the most surprising part was that it hadn't ended that way. Red didn’t have much of an idea about what he was doing. He said it himself without an ounce of shame. The bastard.
He was completely ignorant about souls before starting with mine. The only reason it hadn’t happened was probably because mine was too old and too strong for him to change something essential about me.
Obviously, the Phoenix’s situation wasn’t exactly the same, but the core issue was.
Seeing someone I knew back then, someone I respected, turned into... that.
I didn’t like it. Not one bit.
And I couldn’t even entirely fault the mortals for it. They were pathetically weak to understand what they had facilitated.
No, the Phoenix did it to herself. They just tilted the pieces enough for her to push them over the edge.
I found myself drifting through the Darkforce dimension for a very long while, only to realize that I didn’t have anyone I could talk to about this. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to.
But somehow… I ended up here.
“You still plan to act as if I can’t feel your presence?” I sighed, dropping onto the dusty ground and looking down at Earth from the blue side of the moon. “That mysterious act only works for those who don’t know your history, Uatu.”
“You’ll have to forgive me, Fair One,” Uatu chuckled as he stepped through reality to stand next to me. “It’s not often I find myself with visitors. This timeline has been relatively peaceful as a whole after your death. You have no idea how many things you changed with that last stunt of yours.”
We peered down at Earth, bypassing the defenses around my house and looking right into the mirror dimension. Uatu’s sight was a lot different than Dormammu’s connection with Yao, and I was the damn creator.
It wouldn’t make sense to build something I couldn’t breach.
“Did you know something like this happened?” I asked quietly.
Then I chuckled. “Forget I asked. You obviously did.”
“You’re conflicted, Fair One,” Uatu shook his head. “Is it much of a surprise?”
“Is it fucking not?!” I stood up, glaring at the bald fuck who didn’t look the least bit surprised at my outburst. “And shrink to a fucking size where I can glare at you normally, you voyeuristic fuck.”
The bastard just chuckled; the sound caught somewhere between genuine surprise and amusement. But his size changed accordingly as we locked eyes a moment later.
“Mortality is truly changing you,” he said softly. Then a curious glint entered his oversized eyes. “Is it as memorable as I envision it?”
“Wanna trade it?” I scoffed.
He sat next to me, looking at nothing and at the same time watching more than I ever could. “I doubt you would truly make the change back even if you could, Dante. You prefer that name at this point, no?”
I decided not to answer.
“You keep peeping over the other timelines?”
“I don’t usually divulge what I see,” he shook his head. “But I know you well enough to understand you wouldn’t ask if you didn’t need it.”
“What happened to the other Seeres?” I asked after a moment of silence. “Did they succeed where I failed?”
“And what do you consider successful?” he lifted an eyebrow. “Defeating Mephisto and taking his place? Many of them managed to do that... by breaking the very rule that separated you from the rest of your kind. Is that success?”
“No, it is not,” my lips thinned just imagining the versions of myself that broke what made us different just to survive. “At that point they don’t deserve to be called Seere.”
“They, in fact, don’t call themselves Seere,” Uatu smiled just a bit. “Others found different ways. Some hid, some fought to the last breath. The multiverse is endless, and you know that.”
“And the mortal ones?”
“There is one, and I have the pleasure to see it firsthand,” Uatu chuckled. “Across every timeline I have observed, no matter what branch or variant,” he paused for a moment to look at me like I was the most fascinating thing there was, “you are the first and only one.”
I hummed.
He didn’t fill the silence. I appreciated that, because I was still feeling confused about how I should feel.
“You’ve been keeping an eye on me when I’m on Earth, right?” I asked.
“Do you think there are many interesting things going on?” His lip quirked in amusement. “There are still some years of peace to come.”
“What do you think of the Phoenix situation? How close are we to a Dark Phoenix?”
“Closer than ever, but farther than usual,” he replied cryptically.
“Has it ever happened? This way?”
He shook his head and projected a vision of Jean and her training.
Heh. Yao was a petty teacher. I knew I liked her for a reason.
Jean’s and Rogue’s teeth clattered together because of the temperature in the Himalayas. She even blocked Jean’s mutant power to avoid the Phoenix helping her host, despite their complicated relationship.
They would succeed in making the portal soon. Rogue faster than Jean.
“She acted like I was her salvation,” I shook my head in disbelief. “Instead of making me giddy at having someone like her owing me, it only worried me. Back then, I would have jumped like a mortal child from joy just from having the Phoenix acting that way for me.”
“I know. I saw you pining for her back then. It was amusing how oblivious she was,” he snorted. “Then her avatar went and gifted the world with the God of Thunder.”
I shoved the urge to throttle the voyeur back into the recesses of my mind.
“Can you help her?” he asked after a moment.
“I’ll teach Jean to the best of my ability. They will stabilize...” I shook my head. “Eventually.”
“That’s not exactly what she asked for.”
No. It wasn’t.
What the Phoenix had asked was not something I could give her. Not as I was, or even the previous me.
I could teach Jean to work with her. I couldn’t reach into a primordial force and extract the last decade of accumulated humanity from something that had absorbed it into its core.
Not when she herself was the one who enforced the change.
The very first hint of humanity she felt was the broken mind of a mortal child who had seen her best friend die in front of her.
She was changed. Permanently, unless she herself decided to discard those changes. That was something she was not capable of doing as she currently was, if ever.
There were just two options left. First, I guide her through her new feelings and desires in a way that keeps her under control until she grew enough to return to what she once was. Or second... she becomes the Dark Phoenix and has to be killed to return to the White-Hot Room for a complete revival, depriving the universe for years before her return.
And despite everything, after seeing her small form clutching onto my legs as she cried for help, I couldn’t bring myself to kill her as she was.
Not when I saw how much she went through.
“She’ll learn and adapt,” I sighed. “She doesn’t have a choice.”
“And that’s why she made a good choice in trusting you,” Uatu smiled. “That girl... your ‘light’. She’s changing you faster than you know. Even if you haven’t realized exactly how much yourself.”
“She’s something special,” I laughed softly, remembering Tandy’s smile. Or her warmth.
“And the rest will be, too,” he chuckled knowingly. “Show me, Dante Andromalius. Show me the life I can’t have.”
He was gone between one moment and the next.
I stayed on the moon a while longer, looking down on Earth as I thought of everything Uatu had said.
Change.
The Dark Force rose around me eventually, and I let it take me back.
Two days later.
Anne Marie.
When you had a curse like mine for years, with no end in sight, you learned how to watch people. It was horrible, and I was thankful for everything Dante and Tandy did for me.
They did more than anyone else. But what I learned over all those years didn’t disappear just because I now had an off-switch.
I hated my power, but Dante and the sorcerers showed me that I wasn’t using it to its best potential. Just touching Wong for a bit, letting Tandy heal him while I absorbed his memories, made the basics of Kamar-Taj sorcery almost a breeze.
At least I didn’t have to suffer for as long as Jean did in the damn cold.
The Ancient One was one scary bitch. And she took way too much amusement in our suffering.
Dante was supposedly even worse, right? Maybe it was a prerequisite for being strong.
But I didn’t have to be a genius to see that things in the penthouse had been tense. Tense in a way they never had been before.
Dante disappeared on us, and Tandy's usual sunshine was nowhere to be seen. I obviously didn’t ask if this happened often. I didn’t want to open fresh wounds.
Jean had been silent; Tandy had been brooding. The Ancient One just told Wong to help us until Dante returned before disappearing herself, leaving us in one of the coldest places on Earth.
At least it helped that Wong was a slavedriver. His classes made the uncomfortable silence a bit more manageable.
If only Tandy would stop pacing around the room every time she wasn’t checking on their café.
Sitting in the armchair, I rubbed my hands together, wondering if I should approach the increasingly unhinged blonde. We were close enough that it wouldn't be weird, right?
I sighed and shared a look with Jean. She was reading one of the books Wong left today about the mind arts. She hesitated for a moment but nodded, sending a sad smile the blonde’s way.
My arms snuck around Tandy.
“He’s fine. You trust him, don’t you? He doesn’t look like the kind of man who would be gone for long.” I hugged her tighter, ignoring the thrill I still felt lately whenever I had skin contact with anyone. It wasn’t the time.
“You don’t get it,” Tandy sighed, looking almost pained.
I tightened the hug even more.
“Of course I don’t,” I shook my head. “I don’t know him as you do, but you do know better, right?”
I pulled her into the chair and sat next to her. “Is he really that good in bed that you’ll mope around if he disappears for two days?”
Usually, a joke like that wouldn’t land well, but Tandy showed she was a real pervert by chuckling.
“We have a connection thanks to our powers,” Tandy said after a moment. “It’s deep. Unlike anything I’ve read in the books he grabbed from Yao’s library. I can feel everything he feels, just like he can with me. I have never felt something like this. Whatever he saw inside Jean truly affected him.”
“And it’s not like I can explain what it was, exactly.” Jean stepped behind our chair without me noticing, putting her hand on Tandy’s shoulder. “Not even Yao understands what was wrong with Dante at the end, despite what we saw.”
“How’s the Phoenix?” Tandy asked, sending an understanding nod her way.
I found myself curious about that, too.
“Making me reconsider how thankful I should be to my mother for all she did as I grew up,” Jean snorted in disbelief.
That brought a giggle out of Tandy and a chuckle from me.
“I swear,” Jean raised her hands in exasperation. “It might sound egotistical, but she’s adorable one moment, then incredibly stressful the next. I’ve been visiting before going to sleep, you know? Just to get to know the cosmic force residing inside of me.”
We stayed silent, letting her unwind.
“It’s something else, alright. I don’t even know how to explain having a consciousness so similar to your own inside of you. It only gets weirder when she does or says something I wouldn’t. It’s like she’s me, but different.”
“Right,” I deadpanned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, sugah.”
But at least the interlude stopped Tandy from spiraling even more.
Before I could even worry about how to keep Tandy entertained, darkness enveloped the room, and Dante stepped out.
He seemed like usual, absurdly composed and unnaturally good-looking, but Tandy must have recognized something because she jumped out of the chair and launched herself at the demon.
“Tandy, girls,” he smiled softly. “I’m back.”
Jean searched his eyes. They didn’t speak, but that single glance looked like it held a complete conversation. As if they hadn’t just met each other a few days ago.
They shared a silent nod as he continued caressing his girlfriend’s hair.
I barely avoided frowning. Here I was, finally able to be closer to anyone I wanted for the first time in a decade, and I was still the loneliest of the group.
“You scared me, idiot,” Tandy mumbled into his shirt. Her hands clenched so tightly that I feared the fabric would give in. “I could feel you, but I couldn’t reach you. Did you hide from me, Dante?!”
It started with cute worry. Then the fire I knew Tandy had exploded with a vengeance.
She began to shake his body with a bit more force than necessary, glaring up at him with those bright, big eyes.
She was so fucking adorable and hilarious at the same time.
Something that Dante also thought, because he chuckled and held her tighter for a moment before kissing her lips.
I forced myself to look away because this pair had no knowledge of the appropriate levels of PDA.
Why were their tongues so long?!
Jean didn’t look away. She just stood there with a blush as the pair of demons tried to eat each other out.
She had been corrupted faster than me. I was right, they were dangerous.
Not being able to help myself, I tilted my head just enough to see.
Only to receive two smirks as their eyes filled with amusement.
“Ugh,” I rolled my eyes, feeling a heat on my cheeks that wasn’t there before. “Good to know you’re still the same asshole, Dante,” I drawled.
He smirked, shaking his head. “You just make it too easy, Rogue.”
Then he looked at Tandy once more. “Anyways, you all have my apologies for disappearing. I just needed some time to decide what to do exactly.”
“And what did the Oh Great Dante decide?” Jean smirked.
“Careful, Jean,” Dante rolled his eyes, smirking. “Don’t play with fire if you don’t want to get burned.”
He vanished from where he was, appearing right behind Jean and whispering the last word against her ear.
Jean, instead of the nervousness or anger I expected, just looked competitively at him.
A sharp spike of irritation flared up in the back of my head.
I was fucking jealous.
Not romantically. Even if I couldn’t deny that Tandy was one lucky woman, and Dante pushed all my buttons and then some, it wasn’t like that.
I was feeling left behind by them.
As if he knew what I was thinking… and hell, he probably did, he disappeared once more after swatting Jean’s hair with a mocking laugh and appeared right in front of me.
“I apologize to you, too, Rogue.” His hand grabbed mine before I could make him work for it. His lips ghosted over my skin in a way that sent tingles down my spine. “It was rude of me to abandon my interns just as we were about to start.”
“We managed,” I turned to look at the wall once more.
But Dante was already in my line of sight with a punchable smile on his face.
“At least we got the time to unpack as we should have,” Jean snorted, sending a commiserating grin my way.
“Good, good. Perfect, in fact,” Dante clapped his hands, his grin growing even wider. “Assuming our dear little firebird agrees, I believe I have decided how to train you to get the best results.”
“Will we be gone for long?” Jean asked, as if she already knew what he was talking about.
She probably did.
“If she agrees, you mean? I don’t know what she’ll think at this point, and I’m not planning on finding out what she will do if I take her without her approval,” Dante snorted.
“She will,” she replied, sounding completely sure. “I’ll make sure of it. I’m also curious about your home.”
My eyes widened at that. Was he planning on taking us to hell?!
And why, instead of fear, did I just feel excitement? God, there was really something wrong with me.
Destiny was right. Liking the occult would only bring me problems.
I sighed, looking around at the eager grins from Jean and Tandy.
“Oh, you’ll love it there,” Tandy hugged me from behind. “I can’t wait to show you off to my friends! And I’ll show you all the photos Celestine took of Dante as a baby, he’s adorable!”
It was Destiny’s fault. She shouldn’t have taken me to that circus when I was younger.
“Just before you start packing, I need your help with something. All of you,” Dante spoke after a moment of enjoying Tandy returning to her cheerful self. “Do any of you know how to drive? I don’t know if you can survive Tandy’s way.”
That didn’t surprise me as much as it should have.
“I can,” I found myself replying before Tandy could use her puppy eyes against us.
“Perfect,” Dante nodded, snapping his fingers. A set of keys found themselves in my palm.
“Pick whichever you want. The flashiest, the better,” he said simply, taking his black card out of his wallet and throwing it Jean’s way.
Tandy pouted, almost huffing as she glared at her boyfriend.
“Go wild. Act like girls your age with more money than they should have,” his lips twitched. “Get everything you think you need or want. Attract everyone's attention, then drive to where I’ll text you. I have a spider to interrogate before leaving.”
I couldn’t even start to question his plan as Tandy squealed with the force of a thousand girls and started pulling us toward her room.
I glared at Dante, who just laughed unrepentantly.
Being a millionaire was supposed to change my life, but I didn’t plan to touch my own money. He deserved to bleed after unleashing Tandy against us.
Dante Andromalius.
Later that night.
I wanted to say I was a bit surprised about how fast the Phoenix agreed to my plan, but I couldn’t.
They had both seen my soul.
That meant they knew everything about me. They knew about the deal I made with Red and how, technically, I wasn’t a native to this universe anymore.
Yao saw it too. She hadn’t said a word about it yet, but I knew that conversation was coming eventually.
But they were all curious about my home dimension. Well, at least Jean was. The Phoenix was downright eager to see something new.
The imprinting had given the cosmic force a very mortal sense of curiosity. It was something she usually didn’t feel because of the shackles that came with the nature of such beings.
But there was another reason for taking her away for a bit.
By removing her from this multiverse, she would be completely cut off from the background noise that was currently overwhelming her. It was a place where she wouldn’t feel the constant reminder of what she used to be.
It would bring some attention, but I was willing to risk that over keeping her here. Those who cared wouldn’t be able to track us easily for the same reasons the Phoenix couldn’t leave whenever she wanted. And those that truly cared about her in their own cosmic ways would know I was doing her a favor when they couldn’t.
I was giving her a blank slate, a place where she could unwind and calm down enough to figure out who she was now.
I didn’t want to face Death until I helped the Phoenix a bit more. She always cared a bit too much about the firebird compared to the rest of the cosmic forces. It could go well, with me getting something out of it, or it could end badly with her erasing me and everything I loved if I irritated her enough.
That’s what made life fun, though. If nothing else, having the adorable little Phoenix vouch for me would probably ensure our safety.
Maybe.
She somehow learned how to weaponize those big eyes Jean had as a child, even while wearing Jean’s adult face. It killed Jean with embarrassment the first time she saw it, and it almost killed me, too. She had no right looking that adorable when she was a cosmic force who could burn the universe just because she felt like it.
Down below, a ridiculously bright Lamborghini tore through the streets of New York. I got that car as payment for a deal a few months ago. A bit too gaudy for my tastes, but at least it worked for something.
There was no way of ignoring that thing.
My lips twitched as I flew above them. Rogue was behind the wheel, and I could practically taste her satisfaction from up here.
Tandy had gone absolutely wild with my card, and Rogue didn't hesitate to encourage her just to get one over on me. They bought dresses, jewels, and everything that fit their fancy. It didn’t even fit in the car.
Considering the money they spent, most of the stores were happy to send the biggest items directly to the house.
The jewels stayed on their bodies, though.
Jean was less petty about the spending, but her amusement was downright obvious.
Our relationship was a lot different after the soul dive. We hadn’t spoken about it, but truthfully, there was no need.
That came from seeing the absolute truth of another being’s essence.
It was her way of having fun. She knew I didn’t care and just wanted them to unwind for a bit.
Three gorgeous girls dripping in fresh diamonds and other precious stones drove the sports car through the city. They were the perfect bait.
It was amusing how predictable mortals were.
I checked my phone as I floated above the skyline, scrolling through the internet for recent sightings of Spider-Man.
Mortals were incredibly weird with their fanaticism.
I had my fair share of cults over the eons, and even they were less obsessive than these fanboys.
I didn't miss the cults… they could be a lot to handle.
Honestly, I felt sorry for Peter. Demonic cults were at least funny.
His fans were just annoying. And the kid didn't even have the spine to take advantage of the fangirls throwing themselves at him.
He was quite a pure one. He beat out the other mortal who caught my attention when I first returned.
It was a shame I hadn’t seen him since then. What was his name again? Daredevil?
Maybe I should look for him when I have time.
Scrolling through social media, I found the most recent sighting and sent Tandy a message. Down below, Rogue took a sharp turn to the right.
I dropped lower, channeling my cosmic power into the pendant and merging its power with my clan trait.
It wouldn’t do to have him freeze up like the first time he saw me. That danger sense of his was interesting, but considering where his power originated, I wasn’t surprised about the precognitive edge it had.
Not that I planned to approach them.
Dealing with their fuck-ups was more irritating than anything else. They were absurdly important for being so... ugh.
I would ignore them as long as they didn’t seek me out. And I would rip them off if they ever asked for help.
Rogue parked the car in an empty alleyway. Less than a minute later, three black vans screeched to a halt and blocked the exit.
The Maggia. The local crime syndicate always had a good nose for easy money, especially after I grabbed their stash. They already gave up looking for it and blamed Peter for the theft.
Heh.
Twelve guys stepped out of the vans. They grinned, gripping some batons and firearms as they walked toward the car.
I actually felt bad for them.
Jean’s telekinesis was subtly stripping the firing pins from their guns.
But the one who stole the show was my light.
She threw herself onto the pavement, wailing like her life was over.
Real tears and snot ran down her face as she begged for her life in a display of what... terror? She was doing too much.
I was glad I wasn’t down there… I wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face. And not for laughing.
Rogue wasn't even pretending to be scared like she was supposed to. She was just staring down at Tandy with her mouth hanging open.
Jean dragged her hand down her face as she let out a breath.
I could feel her embarrassment from up here.
A blur swung down and attached itself to the brick wall above the vans.
"Hey guys, didn't your mothers teach you not to corner..."
Before the hero could even finish his quip, Jean rolled her eyes at Tandy, deciding it was better to end the show before she became dehydrated from her tears alone.
The thugs instantly collapsed with more force than strictly necessary.
Peter froze on the wall, just staring at the pile of bodies in disbelief as his eyes focused on Tandy.
It was a shame I couldn’t see his eyes turn into pinpricks when I dropped the effect muddling Tandy’s face from his perception.
I just wondered if he would anger me as much as Logan did.
Fucking mortals.