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Trinity
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I saw that the three gods were giving each other looks that said that they didn't know what to do about this situation. If these men, literal gods that had been around for millennia, had no idea what to do about this situation, then I didn't know how I was expected to handle it. I mean, this information, what we learned recently, it was all a little too much.
“Look, gentlemen, I know that there is a lot going on. Stuff that we are all working to process and understand about this situation, but we need to figure this out. We need to know where to go from here. My people are dying. An old enemy of yours has resurfaced. And the threats are still looming on the horizon.” I did my best to bring the situation back to the matter at hand. “We need to figure out what we are going to do. We need to understand what it is that we are going to do from here on out. Nothing will get better on its own. We need to finish this. We need to stop the Jaegan and the Ancient Ones. We need to end this.” I didn't know if I was giving the room a pep talk that was supposed to spur them into battle, or if I was warning them about things to come, but I knew that I was speaking from my heart and could feel the truth of what I was saying reverberating through my entire system. This was a serious and tense situation that we all needed to focus on. Not just me. Not even just me and Reece, but all of us. Every person in this room, including Talia and the gods, we all needed to figure this out. We all needed to work on this problem, or I might lose more of my people.
“Trinity?” Hades rose and came walking closer to me. “I know how you must feel. I have personally battled with the Ancients. I have been there when they have worked to destroy the people of the world, and I know how hard that can be. I want you to know though, you are not alone. I will help you. We will all help you.” He looked back over his shoulder at Lucifer and Satan.
“He is right, Trinity.” Lucifer came over toward me next, placing a hand on my shoulder when he was within reach. “We have come to trust you and your family over the years, we have a commonality between us after all. And if we do not help to protect you and your people, we will lose that link that binds us. We cannot afford to lose Talia. We cannot afford to let these monsters continue to wreak havoc on the world. We will help you to end this war. We will help you to save your people.”
.....
“And not just us.” Satan was walking closer now, but he stopped next to Hades as he looked at me. “We will call the others as well. We will make sure that there is more than enough power to fend off these fiends. We will help you, Trinity.” Satan was not smiling as he spoke. He was solemn and serious. I knew that this meant that this was his way of showing that he meant business. I had already seen it before.
“Yeah, what's the worst that could happen if we have gods on our side, Trinity.” Shane laughed. “I mean, if we all die, they can just set us all up in a parallel version of the world in the afterlife. We can just keep on living there for all of eternity.” I glared at him for his stupid joke. “Geez. I was just joking.” He shuddered from the look that I was giving him.
“Alas, dear boy, the same response is usually given to me for my humorous quips.” Satan grinned at him. “These old fuddies just don't know how to take a joke anymore.” He was eyeing Shane with a knowing look. “You and I are the rare breed, I see.”
“Finally! Someone gets me. I feel so vindicated. These assholes never like my jokes. Not even when they include pie.” Shane started to laugh.
“That was not even funny!” Shawn snapped at his brother! I knew what he was referring to. It was the incident from about nineteen years ago when he and Dietrich were planning their wedding. Shane, being his usual self, made a joke at the dessert shop. Shawn ended up throwing a pie in his face as he used his magic and the shadows to accomplish it.
“Hey, I don't care, it was funny to me, and that pie was still delicious, even though you threw it in my face.”
“A pie to the face? How crudely primitive. I love it.” Satan was beaming as he and Shane started to laugh and joke about various topics. I let it go on for a few minutes, we all needed a break from the seriousness for a moment, and no one really seemed inclined to make them stop. Also, we were all so tired that we were slow to respond and react. We all definitely needed some sleep.
“Oh, I have some stories I can tell you.” Shane looked over at Shawn as he spoke. “My brother and I have a whole treasure trove of them.”
“Shut up.” Shawn snapped at him while shaking his head, the good humor coming to an end for him.
“Oh, come on, Shawn, we love these stories, remember?”
“You love them. I hate them.” I swear I could see Shawn shiver as he thought about whatever it was that the two of them were talking about.
“Oh you remember though, that time you told me about Dietrich's-.”
“SHUT UP!” Shawn snapped at him. “And go to hell, asshole.” He was mortified, whatever the story was about.
“Ooh, please do.” Satan grinned. “I can show you the sites. And don't worry, Shane my boy, you won't be tortured. Unless you want to be.” They started to laugh then, they were big cackling gales of laughter too, ones that made everyone else in the room laugh. Well, everyone except for Shawn. He was a little grumpy and mad at his brother.
I was hoping to get this situation figured out soon. We needed to be done with this plan before the day got started. There was so much work that we needed to do. We needed to call in reinforcements, gods and super naturals alike. We needed to be ready for a battle that may or may not be coming to the castle. And we needed to be able to protect our people, and our families, when the fighting started.
“I can see that you are trying to work out a plan, Trinity.” Hades spoke through the joking spirit that Shane and Satan had going. “I will call the others here to help us. I will call in Hel, Yama, Mictlantecuhtli, Erlik, Mot, Supay, Ereshkigal, Batara Kala and Susanoo to help us. With all of us working with you, I am sure that you will have no problem at all with those beings. We will help you to end this before it gets too bad.” I wanted to tell him that it was already too bad. That losing close to a hundred members of my community was horribly devastating, but I knew that he wouldn't understand that. He most likely didn't view their deaths in the same way that I did. Not to mention, he was most likely giving them a peaceful afterlife, so in his mind, he was making this situation better on his end. Yeah, he just wouldn't get it at all. I knew he wouldn't.
“Thank you, Hades.” I decided to just thank him and let it slide. We were different people from different worlds, I didn't have to worry about us seeing eye to eye here. I could just appreciate the fact that he was willing to help me out with this.
“Of course.” He smiled before stepping away. “I will send them a message right away. I think that the sooner we do this the better.”
“Yeah, I agree.” I didn't even have to think about that. I knew that we needed to get this ball rolling. “The next step for us right now, is to call in backup. And we need to send someone to scout the mountains. We need to know where the Jaegan, and possibly the Ancient Ones, are staying. If we find them before they find us, then we can take the fight to them instead of them bringing it to us.”
“Yeah, that would be a good idea. Let's not bring it into the city at all.” Reece was nodding in agreement. “We don't need humans seeing what is happening in the world beyond the veil.” He reminded me then that there was so much that was happening in the world and that the humans were bound to find out about it all, no matter what we did to stop it. I didn't want them to find out now, not with a battle on the horizon, but I knew that it was coming soon, no matter what I did.
“Who are we going to send out on the scouting mission?” Vincent asked as he tried to move the conversation along. “Will it be one of us?”
“No.” I shook my head and thought about who would be best. “We all need to get some more sleep. I think we should send someone else. How about Javier and Kiernan. The two of them are good trackers, and I am sure that they will manage to take care of things quickly. They can speak to Gustav about where he thinks that they might be.”
“Alright. I will let them know.” Vincent nodded. “Anything else?”
“Yes. Call in everyone that we can. I don't know when this battle will be, but I know that we can't leave things up to chance.”
Whenever Talia had had a vision in the past, it had been three days before the event had occurred. However, I wasn't going to rely on that as a universal constant. I knew that it was possible that the battle could start sooner than that, or it could be further into the future. We just never knew for certain. And, frankly, I would prefer to err on the side of caution.
“We all need to be at the top of our game and ready to go when the time comes. We need to make sure that there are no surprises to come.” I looked up into several pairs of determined eyes. My entire crew as well as the gods were prepared for this situation. We all knew what it was that was likely to be coming our way.
