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The Devil May Care

Side Story: Selene

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

The rumor mill of Hell had been far more active of late, but due to her position as the prime concubine of Satan, she had been removed from it. Far more removed than a Pride demon should have been, for that matter, and as soon as she heard the stories, she keenly wished that she had kept herself available.

"It's true, then?" she asked the wisp of Envy that had been drawn to her. "Lucifer is...defeated?"

"Beaten and cast down, no longer the Devil, no longer Satan," the wisp whispered in its ghostly, hollow voice. "Found and speared, impaled and tortured in the depths of Hell, where he can no longer harm another. Ha. The fallen has fallen again."

"Where is he?"

"Where else? The depths of Hell."

"Where, specifically?"

"On a pole of melting iron, where his guts may be filled again and again with the fires and molten core."

Selene nodded, waving her hand. With her own Envy for the news fulfilled, the wisp had no more power, and it was dismissed with ease. The lioness of Pride stood up slowly, feeling her clothes taking form around her. For the first time in too long, she chose what she wore rather than Lucifer, and the first thing that she did was cover the scars that he took too much glee in showing off to others.

Vain she was not. A lust demon might have taken pride in what lay on her back, but she had her own respect, her own sense of worth. Lucifer had done his best to shatter that, and there were days where he had come dangerously close.

She pulled forth a gown, one that left her shoulders bare but came up in a long mantle and hood, something that rose up from her back along the back of her head and cast shade across her. It glowed along the rim, a sign of her remaining authority as one of the reigning members of the Pride demons.

It ran down her in red and gold, complimenting her fur, allowing her hips to show through slits at the center, but never enough to quite entice lust in the same way that demons of that kingdom might have done. No, it was merely a way to show off how proud she was of everything that she had, rather than what she needed from others.

It ended just over her toes, which gained rings of gold and black onyx, alternating from one to another. It ended with a chain that ran from them to her ankles, all that she needed for footwear.

And with that, she felt prepared. Prepared to face him again.

Obviously, Lucifer had not been in Hell for long. His pride was yet to be broken, and it burned hotter than any other sense of it in Hell, just as his Wrath burned hotter than any demon's. Not that it mattered any longer. He lacked the power of his own immortal soul. It had been taken from him.

Surprising, really. She had thought that there was no mortal daring enough to try.

The lioness stood on a rock that rose from the darker depths of the pit, and even from here, the rising heat was enough to set her to sweating. She flicked it away with little pulses of her own power, but it continued, the heat sufficient to burn even those of the strongest demonic powers. Looking upon the victims that screamed from where they were impaled, sodomized by spikes of melting iron, perpetually melting and searing their guts, burning through and falling out a hole that would eventually heal and be melted again, she eventually found him. The great black panther was in the center of them all, just close enough to those that were similarly punished to suffer their raking claws of revenge.

She wished that she could say that she was surprised that he was there, but no. She was only surprised that this was all that had been done to him so far.

The lioness walked across the untouched poles of metal, using them as a scattered footpath. She walked with ease, without the slightest wobble or lack of balance, and eventually stopped at his side.

"I see someone finally caught you," she muttered.

"Selene!"

He roared as he whipped his head up, his eyes glowing, not with the red of the demonic powers, but with a simple yellow glow. A mortal glow. Vibrant, but weak.

It was true, then. He had been stripped of his power.

There was a part of her that felt relief, a shaking feeling that needed to be suppressed for now. She gradually lowered herself to sit on her pole as the former Satan squirmed on his hole. He was impaled for the first time in his existence, she imagined, his ass cheeks spread wide on the melting iron pole. Molten metal escaped like some sort of infernal seed, and she could see the glow in his belly.

It was a testament to his power that he had not been left completely insane already. Stripped of power, stripped of might, stripped of his immortality save for what Hell kept for punishment, he should have broken at this punishment. Instead, he continued to rave.

"Release me!" he ordered. "You're mine, Selene. Obey, and release me!"

She waited for the pressure of the command to come down on her, and she felt nothing. There was no crack of the whip, no sudden urge to obey, no fear or pain that might have come when he had been on his throne. No. There was nothing.

And he saw it in her face, too. She had long since tried to learn how to keep the reaction to pain off her face, but he was Lucifer, the former Satan of Hell, and that meant that he had had powers beyond all the other demons. He knew when she hurt, knew when she had been injured, and he knew when he had failed. In this case, he had failed.

Slowly, the lioness smiled and shook her head.

"No."

"No?"

"I have never realized that there could be such pride in two little letters. N. O. No. They are so small, and so...very...powerful. With just two letters, you take back everything that someone wanted from you, everything that they had over you."

"Will you shut up!? I told you to -"

"No."

The power of that one little word was almost intoxicating, and she could feel the power of her Pride coming back to her again. It wasn't merely the feeling of being free, of being something more than just a ruler's toy, but rather, the feeling of being her again. Someone that was of power. Someone that was mighty, intelligent, and truly deserving of the worship that she had once had.

She reached down, touching him. Once, it had galled her to do something like that, but now? Now, she could touch him, and her claws curled, sinking into his shoulder. That, it seemed, hurt him more than the fires within.

"You are nothing anymore, Lucifer. And you cannot command me, or any other demon, ever again."

"I made you!"

"No. Hell shaped us. Some followed you here, and others died to become demons, but you made none of us."

"I made you!" he repeated in an angry roar. "I shaped you, formed you, punished you! I kept you from killing each other. I made this kingdom, I made everything! I'm responsible...for...all...of...this!"

There was something different to him today, something that made her feel something other than hate and derision such as she normally would. There was something...off.

Was it the mortal soul that he carried, she wondered? Was it the fact that he was no longer even a fallen angel, or the Devil, or the Satan? Was it something else entirely?

Because there was something different to him, something that seemed like it was trying to come out and was only suppressed by the great rage that was bursting its banks with every passing second that he spoke. Lucifer looked away from her, closing his eyes. Was it the pain of torture that brought the tears to his eyes?

No. It was something else, something that only she remembered.

His hand went to his neck, gripping an upside-down cross that hung from the beads. As he touched it, the panther cried, his tears black and hissing against his cheeks.

"I did all this...for him..."

He remembered, now. She had thought that he had forgotten that pendant long ago, that it had ceased all meaning for him. Selene remembered, still, what he had been like before the hills of Golgotha. Cruel, horrid, but to the souls that fell rather than to the demons and fallen angels around him. Then, after that, it shifted. And he had forgotten, forgotten all but the barest hint of what it meant to him.

She couldn't say the name of the one that the pendant represented. No demon could. It was forbidden to them, but not to Lucifer. He remembered it now, remembered what it meant, what he had lost. The power of a mortal soul had broken through a curse of corruption that had been eternity in the making.

And in that, she had her revenge.

Selene reached forward, resting her hand against Lucifer's. The panther hissed, but he didn't have the strength to push her away. She clenched her fingers tighter and tighter around his, the points of her claws digging into his flesh as his whips had dug into her spine. She forced herself to hold back from clawing his fingers to bits in ways that he had never held back from ripping her legs to shreds, from forcing her to her knees to do things that even the demons of Lust found unspeakable.

She held herself back. She was Pride, and Pride had patience.

"You remember him now. What he was to you."

"What he should have been...to everyone..."

"Do you remember what you used to say?"

"...My cunning...his compassion..."

"Yes."

"My head...his heart..."

It was not surprising that the mortal soul would recall this to him. The powers of the Satan were such that they overwhelmed most. Even demons, even she was in the grip of her Vice. She could not escape it, and it blinded her in some ways. Some were blinded more, some less, but they all suffered the grip of their vice and would never be able to escape it.

Such was the case with the Satan, only in a hundred ways so much worse. He had the power of Hell and all the Vices within it, could channel it and the aura of Hell itself against any that he saw fit, friend and foe alike. There was no escaping him, and no escaping it. Even he couldn't get away.

After his loss to Mercy, he had all but forgotten in his rage, fury, lust, and envy of the world above. His greed for what he had wanted, what he needed, had blinded him. His gluttony for anything beautiful, anything that would remind him of what he could have had, kept him from seeing what was before him, and what he could have if he took a step back. Even an immortal could be overwhelmed with that.

Yet, the soul of a mortal, the soul of someone that had lived in Vice and Virtue alike, who could hold both without giving in to either, was something that tempered that.

Lucifer remembered, which meant that he had something that could be taken from him.

Selene looked him in the eye, slowly reaching around his neck to the beads that held the upside-down cross to him. His eyes went wide, and he shook his head.

"No, no, you can't! No!"

"Unlike me, you have no Pride."

"Selene! You can't do this! It's all - don't do it! I don't want to forget! Not again!"

"This is Hell...and you...are no longer...a demon..."

She cracked the beads, and with it, she took the upside-down cross. It nearly shattered as she took it from him, and with it came free the soul that he had taken. She had wondered how it had gone unnoticed by the other demons that had caught him.

As she held the upside-down cross in her hand, Selene hissed. There was something to it that left it hurting her, the starlight in the cross and beads burning against her flesh. She could barely hold it, and her jaws ached as she clenched them tight against the discomfort.

Lucifer stared at her, shaking his head slowly, tears running down his face. All the power, all the Pride, all the great and mighty dignity that the cat had had, was gone. He lowered his head, begging like the least of his subjects.

"Please...please...just leave me...the cross, please...just...just that..."

"You left me with less than nothing," she whispered, no venom, no anger, nothing in her voice. "You took my Pride, and left me to live in insanity under your hand. You left me hollow. I return the favor."

Yet, she did not cast the cross into the pit of fire, nor did she destroy it before his eyes. Instead, she kept it in a pocket of her dress, a piece of leverage that might, one day, become useful if he ever decided to try and rise from the pit again on his own. The last thing that she needed was to have him coming for her without something to bargain with.

She turned from her once-lover, leaving him screaming and wailing worse than any of the others that were tortured in the pit. For the first time in demonic memory, one of the voices of the damned called out for Jesus Christ.

Of course, there was no answer. Heaven, no matter how much it pretended it could, could not hear the voices of the damned.

It didn't take long to find out that the one that had taken Lucifer's soul was going to be visiting Hell. With her various spies still active and now reporting to her alone, rather than to her and Lucifer, it was much easier to collate her various rumors and find out what was true and what wasn't.

Such as the fact that Brutus Diel had managed to get his son caught by the very man that was most interesting to her at that moment.

Such as the fact that he was begging for forgiveness, likely to hide other plans that he had going.

Such as the fact that there would be a party that she would not be invited to but which he would not dare turn her away from if she happened to find out about it.

The lioness appeared on the steps of the Diel manor, looking up at the sky for a moment as the other demons sidled past her. Some of them fixed her with a stare, obviously wondering what Lucifer's old concubine wanted here, but most of them were interested in seeing the new Satan.

Rather, the new potential Satan. He could become that, she knew, but there was every reason that he might fall before that happened. Demons were quick to believe that those that had the power of the Devil would be their Satan, if only because he could manipulate all seven Vices. It was the key to being the ruler of Hell, after all, and the big reason that most demons would submit to him.

But it wasn't the only thing that would make him ruler.

She looked down at the soul that she carried in the palm of her hand. It was weakened, not quite broken, but damaged from being transferred not once, but twice. It needed something to rest in, to be healed before it could be absorbed again.

Selene held out her hand. From the air itself, she conjured her vice from the soul. The Pride of itself, of whatever it had done in life, of whatever it had accomplished, of the plans that had been successful, and those that had merely taught it a lesson. All that it took pride it, she drew on.

It called out a ring of pure white gold, something that surprised her. It would take a great deal of Pride to be that visible and vibrant, but from what she could feel of the ring, she knew that it was possible. This one had managed to steal the soul of the Devil, after all, and Lucifer was no fool. He was someone that would take effort to deceive, and this mortal had done it. This...

Dusk.

It took her a moment to realize that the name remained despite being part of Lucifer's body for a time, which told her more that it was a soul that was worth taking back. If this 'Dusk' did not...well, they would have a short-lived second Satan.

She joined the rest in entering the building, collecting among them as they started enjoying the social life in the great hall. Most of them were demons of gluttony, and they were quick to start nibbling at the food that Brutus had available, while the Lust demons started to congregate together, hungry for something different, something that they could not get in this place. Still others, demons of Pride, were there, and they found her and spoke with her, curious what had happened since the death of Lucifer.

She could have downplayed her feelings, but she did not. She told them what had happened to her, and what would continue to happen to the former Satan. They gasped at the tortures that Lucifer underwent, but whether they were lion, wolf, or some other shape entirely, they all understood. Once injured, there was no price too high for a wounded pride.

Selene took her leave of them after that, finding a spot from which she might watch when Brutus and the mortal came back. She had plans for this, plans that she knew would disrupt whatever it was that the Lord Diel was doing. It would be...quite interesting...to start matching wits with him again.

The longer that she was away from Lucifer, the more herself she felt. The deadness that he had encouraged in her was slowly fading, and she was relieved to know that there was more of her old self still buried beneath that layer of death and uncaringness than she thought. She had worried about that.

The time passed slowly, and the gluttonous demons were soon on their fourth course. She had begun to lose her Pridely patience when the doors at the far end of the room opened, and from them came both the host and his guest.

Brutus was a large, powerful demon, a boar with thick shoulders that strained at the suit that he wore. It was a deliberate effect, making him seem like he was strong enough that he might burst free of it at any moment, and it enhanced the appearance of his genitals further down, making the already large set look bigger.

Her lips turned down in a frown of distaste as she remembered the time that Lucifer had made her bend over for Brutus. It was a humiliation for the both of them, a reminder that the panther had the power to order whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted as far as they were concerned. The boar had been reluctant because she wasn't a man. She had been disdainful because he was who he was.

And yet, they had given their former lord a show, and neither would ever forget it. One day, there would only be one left to remember.

She leaned back against the wall, cupping her elbow with one hand and tapping her chin with the other. She could taste magic in the air, and she knew that it came from something that Brutus had done. Something to try and ensorcel the former mortal, perhaps? It would be stupid to try; someone that had the strength to summon and contain Lucifer, and then the intelligence to control the situation until he could steal that soul, would not be bound by someone as clumsy and crude as Brutus was.

Turning her attention to the mortal, she found herself somewhat unsurprised that he was another black cat, though not one so wild as Lucifer had been. He lacked the wings and the scars that Lucifer had, too, though he had certain...similarities. There were red marks in his eyes, now, the start of the demonic aura that would spread the longer that he held that power.

She looked down at the ring in her hand. The soul was slowly healing the longer that it stayed in the white ring. Soon, it would be strong enough for him to take and incorporate again. Something like that would be a fine gift, she imagined, and one that he might eventually thank her for.

Eventually. She had no doubt that it would take time.

Brutus waved his hands, introducing the newcomer. Dusk von Doom, it seemed, was the name of the feline. A name that would be appropriate, she supposed, depending on the way that Heaven reacted.

If Mercy reaches out again...

She had heard the tales from Lucifer a hundred times, and a hundred times again. The grasping reach of Mercy, the way that the tigress had stolen everything from him, how she was a horror on two legs that deserved a place in Hell. She had heard it, and more, she knew it to be true. Even from a distance, she knew the sound of Pride, and despite her family line, Mercy had it in spades.

Perhaps, one day, that pride would be her downfall. Perhaps, one day, the daughter of God himself would fall to Hell, and she and the tigress would vie for supremacy among the demons of Pride. Until that day, however, she would work to see to it that Mercy kept to Heaven, and that this new Satan was free to grow and lead them properly.

It was then, she supposed, that she realized that she would be supporting him. For all that it was going to be touch and go from here on out, she knew that someone that could take down Lucifer was better suited to ruling Hell than the panther had been. The once-angel had long since lost his mind, and she knew that it was better for all of them to have someone sane on the throne. If this Dusk could garner the support he needed, and then claim the power that waited for him, then they would have someone that could keep the demon realms in line.

They would have something, finally, resembling peace.

The various demons started lining up, and she joined them. The ring was almost fully recovered in her pocket, and that would give the cat a soul that he could actually pull together, something that he could actually use.

The gift giving went smoothly, but it left her with more questions, and more concerns, than she expected.

The questions were limited, at least, and could be listed thusly.

What had Brutus actually done?

What had Dusk used his powers for?

And how long did they have before he would be at risk of his namesake?

The first could be only partially answered. Selene could feel a spell of Gluttony in place, something that had been cast on the cat, but there was something else in the air, something that didn't quite resolve. She imagined that it was Dusk using the powers of Lucifer, considering the sheer strength behind it, but she couldn't be sure. The manor of Brutus Diel had a way of distorting things that were not done by him directly.

More to the point, it felt...clumsy. Had Brutus truly thought that putting a spell of hunger on someone that could defeat the first Satan was a good idea? It would be a good way to get himself punished, put down the pecking order for power right at the start. He would be sentenced to the pits himself if it was caught out when Dusk was in a better position.

Then again, when other Gluttony demons hungered for food, he hungered for power.

She put that off to the side. He would be stupid or not as he chose. For now, she had other things to consider.

Dusk had clearly been using his powers. She had felt something similar to the aura that she had gotten from Lucifer when she finally approached him, and she could tell that he had grown in strength since first absorbing them. He didn't yet have the true technique to it that the former Satan had had, but he was getting there. The constant experimenting meant that he would be developing that power, flexing it like one flexed muscles, and sooner or later, he would be at the level of his predecessor.

She didn't know how much he had been experimenting, but clearly more than she had anticipated, and more than he should have. Lacking an answer to the second question, Selene couldn't answer the third.

How long until he's doomed?

The look in his eyes when she had presented him with his mortal soul had not been relief, but fear, and that was not the reaction that she had been hoping for. Clearly, he would need some time to think about it, but hopefully, not too long.

The powers of the Devil, of the Satan, were not harmless, and nor was the soul of an immortal when it was jammed into a mortal body. Dusk was containing it better than she expected, particularly with the things that she was starting to hear. The fact that he had been in possession of it for more than a day and was still alive meant that he was more self-aware than the average mage that tried something like this.

That wouldn't last, but she hoped that that self-awareness and intelligence would work to make him realize what he needed. The soul she'd given him was still there, still adorning his finger as a white ring. It would stay there until he absorbed it...she hoped.

Do not cast it off, Dusk...I do not need to find someone else to take care of things down here.

Selene made her way to the snack table, gathering the attention of a few other demons that were mingling with the rest of the crowd. Some male, some female, some both, some neither. They watched her walking through the crowd, and she could feel their judgments flying at her in unspoken barbs.

Slut.

Seducer.

Cock-sucker.

Whore.

For all that she was a Pride demon, it seemed that all that the people of this room could remember was that she had been the concubine of the former Satan. They believed that she was going to use her body to get a similar role from Dusk, perhaps. Or perhaps he had said that, and they believed the black cat in his judgment.

It would have been an interesting option, if it had been open to her, but her brief possession of Dusk's soul had confirmed that he had no interest in women. When she'd left him at the throne on the podium, she wanted to make sure that everyone else had the wrong idea. If he was stupid enough to have the wrong idea, as well, then it would work to her advantage. It would keep him from looking into her too much and keep her from having to divert his attention and use up favors in the process.

As she leaned forward, pouring out a dark drink of black with flecks of gold and silver, one such demon walked up to her. Selene was sipping at the liquid as the Envy demon, a vulture, leaned in and clicked her beak beside the lioness's ear.

"You think that you can just keep that old place of yours, hmm? I doubt that you appeal to him that much. You're so old these days, Selene. There's younger, better demons that can do your job better."

Her lips turned up in a slight smile. The very fact that a demon of Envy thought that it could affect someone of Pride showed just how much the rest of the demon realms underestimated her after her time under Lucifer. It would take time for them to learn what she was really capable of, but by then, it would be too late for them to start taking steps.

"You should just take your scarred ass back to whatever hole you call home, and leave the rest of Hell to us."

Scarred. An hour too late to let that insult actually hurt her, but Selene was aware of the slight sensitivity that remained. The lioness finished her drink, tapping the crystal gently. If she had been a Wrath demon, it would have already been broken, the stem jammed into the vulture's eye, and the night turned to a grand-scale fight.

Instead, she stroked her finger around the rim and looked back at the vulture. The slight ring of that gentle touch to the crystal continued to echo as she put on the softest of smiles as she faced the scavenger.

"Do you think that you can hurt me?"

"..."

"Do you think a scar is anything more than a badge of honor? I am quite proud of my abilities to survive. Quite proud, indeed, of everything that I am." She spread her arms, the cloth tightening, pulling closer to her body. "Say whatever you want about me. I know myself. The armor of Pride is complete."

"You're proud of everything you've done? Everything?"

"I am as proud of myself as you are envious of what I am," she said. "Now, either find something better to say, or leave me alone."

The vulture looked like she wanted to do just that, but all it took was a simple, cutting stare for the Envy demon to take their tricks elsewhere. She shook her head as the bird left, looking back to her drink and pouring herself another. Envy could overcome Pride, but only if there was a circumstance that allowed Envy to make Pride believe that it was weaker, less than, someone else.

That would never work on her again. She had been through too much, and she had come through the other end, a survivor. She was still herself, still coming together again, but there was nobody that could ever, ever tell her that she was less than someone else. She wasn't less than Lucifer, and would never be less than Dusk.

She was Selene, demon of Pride, and she would always survive.

The party was slowly winding down now that the gifts had been given. She turned her attention from Dusk, knowing that she could do nothing else with him without arousing suspicion, and started walking among the demons that she had recognized at the start. Here and there, she dropped little notes into their clothes, and when she could not leave notes, she pulled them aside, looking as if she was up to her 'old tricks' again.

Such was a ruse, of course. She gave them messages, called in favors, and made sure that the hold that she had over those that served her and Lucifer together still held. For what she had planned, she needed everyone that she could get, and from what she'd seen throughout the party, Brutus was making his own moves.

She had made contact with over a dozen demons when Brutus himself came down to the floor.

Hearing his heavy, almost clicking footsteps, she turned to look at him as he approached. The smirk on his face was as full as ever, and she turned her head lazily to the side as she watched him approach.

"What do you want?" she asked, almost lazily.

"Don't try that with me, Selene. You are not Sloth."

"You would bore me to it."

"Heh, I'm the only thing that would keep you from it."

"Perhaps, if you were a hint more intelligent."

That was the saving grace, she supposed. Brutus was smart, clever, but not nearly as clever as he believed he was. There was very little to him that didn't get bragged about, eventually, and that meant that she and Lucifer had always gotten wind of his plans before he got far enough to take them forward.

She hoped that would be the case with Dusk, but she would have to see. Her old opponent might have gotten smarter in the intervening years.

"Did you want anything?"

"Just to ask a question," he said. "Why did you try and sabotage Dusk?"

"Sabotage? Ah, you mean his soul." She smiled. "Who says that I was sabotaging him?"

"Just like you pride demons; always plotting something."

"We shall see..."

Her fears about Brutus were slightly assuaged. He was still an idiot, though a clever idiot. Despite coming late to the game, she had a feeling that she could still win.

The End

Summary: Selene, informed of the sudden fall of Lucifer, is less broken-up about it than one might expect. She goes to visit him, and decides to deliver a little punishment of her own.

Tags: M/solo, panther, lioness, revenge, torture, impaled, horror, memories, emotional, series, fantasy, magic, Hell, cat, boar,