Apotheosis

Caius arrived in Bethlehem and set off to work immediately. No one stared at the strange man in robes actively seeking to visit the Church of the Nativity. Many residents of the city had seen far worse, far far worse during the conflict in the region which had raged on for almost half a century.

Bethlehem was deadly quiet. Unlike the rest of the world, which was being ravaged by natural disasters of biblical proportions, Bethlehem stood untouched. This struck some mortals as strange, but no one really paid too much attention to it.

Caius took out any and all mortals within a half mile radius of the Church. No need for any mortals to see what his was doing. A well-created sphere of power was all Caius needed to kill all the mortals. It radiated outward and soon disipated.

Caius grinned. Such power. Such absolote, destructive power lay within him. And soon, even more would be in his very hands. With one powerful blast, he destroyed the building that was built around the area that was long believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Caius knew that he didn’t need shelter. What he did need was room.

He took out a bloodfruit from his napsack and squeezed it in his fist. It oozed red and thick. As the blood dripped, Caius began to mark a straight line around the birthplace. When one fruit gave out all of its supply of blood, Caius reached into his knapsack for another, and another.

Finally, when he had run out of fruit, be began to add the blood which lay dripping down his hand.

When he was finished, there was a large, dark red pentagram in the middle of what used to be the church.

Caius sighed, then began the next stage of the ritual. The summoning would be lengthy, but neccessary.

The beast would soon slouch towards Bethlehem.

***

Despite being underneath a large desert, Harry starts to shiver from cold. Everything around him feels damp, the walls, the ceiling, even the very air. It all feels like Harry could squeeze out the area and get water.

It is dark, and Harry feels around with his fingers. It is a small cave or tunnel. The ceiling is low, the tunnel’s sides are craggy and rouch to the touch. Harry hears nothing except the soft, distant dripping of water.

“So, we meet at last, Harry Potter,” a voice in the darkness says.

Harry is silent, trying to find out where the voice is coming from.

“No greeting for me? Very well,” the voice ekes closer towards Harry. “You don’t know me personally. Pleased to meet you. Hope you guessted my name.” The voice chuckles. “Ah, the Stones. Wonderful band. Gave me a song, and a great surge of Theo power as well.”

“You..” Harry says, scowling in the dark.

“Indeed,” the voice says.

A small sphere of fire suddenly illuminates the tunnel. Harry has to close his eyes to keep from hurting them with the fire’s brilliance. Harry finally glares around the tunnel.

Lucifer stands close to him.

“Hello, Harry,” Lucifer says. He has to fold his stained wings flat against his back to fit into the tunnel. However, the tips of his wings still brush against the sides of the cave.

“It was you all along, wasn’t it?” Harry says darkly. “You were just using the infamous to get what you want.”

“And what, pray tell, would I want?” Lucius says innocently.

“To destroy the universe,” Harry replies. “To...to end your existence rather than spend another day as the Prince of Darkness. Selfish to the last, aren’t you?”

Lucifer grins. “You’re quite observant, Harry. I applaud your creator. And not just because she gave you quite a bit of cloverness and bravery. I applaud your creator because she gave you that scar of yours.” Lucifer gets closer to Harry.

Harry backs away. “Don’t touch me, or else I’ll bring the tunnel down!” The glow of his Theo power suddenly emenates from the palms of his hands.

“Fool, you destroy this tunnel and both of us will be buried underneath the Land of Nod. No one will be able to find us!” Lucifer growls.

“Small price to pay so that you’ll be trapped,” Harry says.

Lucifer shakes his head. “Such a valiant effort. You are a truly amazing character, Harry. But only for one thing.”

“And what is that thing?” Harry asks slowly.

“I told you before,” Lucifer says. “Your scar!”

Solid coils of rock suddenly spring out from the sides of the tunnel and wrap themselves2 around Harry. Harry struggles, trying his hardest to break free.

“Oh, Harry, I wouldn’t struggle, if I were you,” Luficer says. “That only makes them squeeze tighter.”

Harry’s hands are bound behind his back, and he can’t control his power.

“Hold still, this will be very painful,” Lucifer says. “Your creator was very clever when she gave you that scar. All of the worst evil contained within the body of the purest soul, a baby. It was kept in check by your heart as you grew. There were some side effects of course. Your ability to speak parseltongue. Your eyes are a bright green, the same color as the Kiling Curse. The Sorting Hat almost placed you in Slytherin because of that scar. Wouldn’t you be glad to get rid of it?” Lucifer suddenly plunges the fingers of his right hand directly into Harry’s forehead.

Harry screams in torturous pain and tries to struggle. As promised, the coils wrap tighter and tighter around his body.

“Steady,” Lucifer whispers as his fingers probe the area around Harry’s scar. “Yes, there is evil here. Darkness. It runs deep within you, Harry.”

“You...liar...” Harry spits.

Lucifer says nothing as he continues to probe Harry’s scar. “Ah, got it!” He slowly pulls his hand out of Harry’s head, dragging the scar out. When Lucifer opens his right hand, he sees that the scar is now lying in the middle of his palm. “Excellent. Such power! That’s exactly what I needed.”

The ropes of rock release Harry from their clutches and disappear back into the sides of the tunnel. Harry slumps over, exhausted. His eyes are shut, but he is still consecious.

“What...what are you going to do now?” Harry coughs.

“Now, I must wait. The ritual for my rebirth has barely begun.”

“The...Slouchers...?”

“Them?” Lucifer lets out a bark of laughter. “Oh, they’ll never get out of infamy. I just promised that they would. I needed their collective power, that’s all. Although, that Hitler sure is impatient. He did some things on his own that seemed so tedious. There’s nothing worse than an idiotic megalomaniac.”

“We’ll...stop you,” Harry manages to say.

“I very much doubt that,” Lucifer sighs.

Harry lifts a shaky hand and tries to aim it at Lucifer. The fallen angel quickly rushes over to Harry and stomps down on the boy’s hand, crushing it.

“Don’t forget, Harry,” Lucifer says. “I’m not evil. I was just imagined this way.”

Harry is suddenly thrown upwords by an unseen force. Up and out and back into the Land of Nod.

Harry hears voices, soft and familiar. “Here!” he chokes. “I’m here!” He spits out a mouthful of sand.

“Harry!” Hermione’s voice exclaims. “Where have you been?”

“It’s happening, it’s happening now!” Harry says. “Why did everything get so dark all of a sudden?”

Ron frowns. “What are you talking about, Harry? It’s a bloody desert, and it’s as bright a day as any.”

“Harry, your scar’s gone,” Hermione says, staring at Harry’s face.

Harry stares blankly ahead.

“Woah, it IS gone,” Ron says. “What happened?”

“Lucifer took it. He wanted the evil that was hidden away in it. Are you sure it hasn’t gone dark out here?” Harry asks, his eyes glancing around.

Hermione waves her hands in front of Harry’s face. Harry’s non-reaction m9akes Hermione frown. “You didn’t see that, did you?” Hermione asks softly.

“No,” Harry says. “Um, I think I’ve gone blind.”

***

Watson and Becca are still sitting in the middle of the Land of Nod, wondering what exactly to do.

“They’re taking their own sweet time in trying to rescue us,” Bacca sighs as she leans back. “It’s weird to look up outside and not see clouds or the sun or anything.”

Watson hmmms in agreement and leans back as well. “You know, in all my years with Holmes, I don’t think I’ve ever just looked up in the sky just for the sake of admiring its beauty.”

“Where’s the light coming from if there’s no sun?” Becca asks.

“Everything in the Land of Nod is powered by mortals’ dreams. There are dark and light patches all over the place. We’ve just not run into any of the darker sections of the human mind.”

Becca sighs and begins to idly dig away at the sand with her hand. As she gets deeper and deeper, the sand begins to get cooler and cooler to the touch. She smiles as she uncovers a small brown root. “Hey, John, look. Even in a desert, some sort of life pops up.”

A horrified look immediately marks Watson’s face. “Becca, stand up and step slowly away from that hole you just dug.”

“What? Why?”

“Because, you’ve just uncovered a nightmare,” Watson says slowly.

As if on cue, something large and scaly reaches up out of the hole and tries to snatch Becca. Luckily, she dodges it just in time.

“What the hell is that?” Becca says, glaring at the hole.

“A nightmare,” Watson repeats. “And it looks like a child’s one, at that. Children mostly dream of monsters. Adults dream of darker things within their own minds. In any case, we should flee.”

“Couldn’t you, like, blast it with your power?” Becca asks.

“I”m not about to take on the nightmare of a six year old boy. They’re too powerful for one Theo to battle.” Watson grabs Becca’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”

They begin to run, but something bursts out of the sand in front of them. It is, as Watson suggested, a nightmare of epic proportions. It is a monster with gray scales and many many legs.

“Oh, my God...” mutters Becca.

Watson concentrates most of his power into his right hand and throws it at the beast, but this attack doesn’t even faze the monster. Its roars shake the very sand Watson and Becca stand on.

“I think you just made him mad,” Becca says.

“I think you’re right,” Watson says.

The monster makes another attempt to grab Becca. It wraps one ratty paw around her and manages to lift her from the ground.

“Let me go!” Becca exclaims, beating on the monster’s leg and kicking its body over and over.

“You heard her. Let her go!” shouts Watson. He gathers up another round of his power and throws it at the beast.

“Um, you’re trying to rescue me, not kill me!” Becca shouts.

“It would be nice if you weren’t flailing around so!”

“Well, maybe you should have told me that before I was taken by a HUGE SCALY MONSTER!” Becca yells at the top of her lungs.

Watson sighs and rushes at the beast. He is tiny, no more than the length of one of the monster’s many feet. Nevertheless, he begins to pound on one foot. “Let her go! Let her go and take me instead, you dolt!”

The monster lifts its foot up sharply, flinging Watson fifty feet away. He lands in the sand, so sore that he can’t move.

The monster is about to burrow back into the sand when...

“Left, left!”

Three large lightning bolts come shooting from the horizon.

“That was a bit off! Try aiming a bit up!”

The lightning appears from the horizon again. THis time, they hit the beast. It screams in agony and drops Becca before scurrying into the sand.

“We got it, Harry!” Ron exclaims.

“I’ll go check on Watson,” Hermione says. “Ron, take Harry and see if Becca’s all right.

“Yeah, okay,” Ron grabs Harry’s arm and leads his blind friend towards Becca.

“Becca! Are you hurt?” Harry asks.

“I’m a little sore, and my throat hurts from screaming so much,” Becca says. “But other than that, I think I’m okay. Hey, Ron Weasley.”

“Harry, you weren’t kidding about us being famous,” Ron says, grinning slightly.

Becca manages to sit up with Ron’s help. Harry stands motionless, staring blankly somewhere to the left of Becca.

“Hey, Harry, are you sick or something?” Becca asks, concerned. “Oh my God, your eyes.”

Ron follows Becca’s stare and looks closely at Harry’s eyes. They lack any sort of their previous green color and are now a uniformly dull shade of grey.

“Yeah, Lucifer stole his scar and made him blind,” Ron frowns.

“So, he’s behind all this? The end of the world?” Becca says.

Harry nods. “He needed a bit more power to complete the ritual, so he stole the evil that’s in my scar.”

“But that evil, it’s made up. A fiction,” Becca says.

“Everything else in the After is a fiction, but still, we’re here, now. And you almost got kidnapped by a boy’s nightmare.” Harry sits in the sand. “Ron? Are you still next to me?”

“Always,” Ron replies.

Harry smiles slightly and then suddenly turns in the direction of upcoming footfalls in the sand. “Hermione, is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me,” Hermione replies. “Watson’s here as well. He’s a bit shaken, but otherwise he’s all right.”

“Watson?”

“Yes, Harry. I’m here,” Watson says.

“It’s begun. We’re too late. We can’t stop the Apocalypse from happening,” Harry says glumly. “We’ve failed.”

“Harry, don’t say things like that. In the After, it’s never too late. Where’s Claudius?” Watson asks.

“He was banished into infamy by Eve,” Hermione replies.

“Infamy?” Watson exclaims. “For what?”

“We abandoned a nephilim on Earth,” Harry says.

“Oh, I see. She thinks of all those giants as her grandchildren, you know. Very protective.” Watson begins to reach down towards his chest. “We don’t have much time. You three,” Watson says, addressing the Trio, “Take care of Becca. Something’s after her, and I don’t quite know what it is. It must have controlled the nightmare didn’t give a whit about me. Stay here, keep an eye for nightmares. Fend them off like you did before.”

“Wait, where are you going?” Becca asks.

“I need to find Claudius. Even if he’s in infamy, he still has a tenuous link to us. Ah, found it. I need to follow this link. It will lead me right to him.” Watson tugs on the invisible piece of wire which is actually the link between he and Claudius. He starts to follow it. Suddenly, he is speeding off on his own. Claudius is calling Watson to him. “Remember, it’s never too late in the After!” he exclaims before disappearing into the sky.

“Well, what do we do now?” Ron asks.

Everyone else turns to Ron and says, “We wait,” in unison.

“I knew that,” Ron says. “Was just testing you.” He sits down on the hot sand.

“Do you think, if Watson gets in touch with Claudius, he might figure out a way to make Harry see again?” Hermione asks.

“I don’t know,” Ron replies. “Harry, couldn’t you, you know, create new eyes with your power?”

“I’ve tried forcing myself to see,” Harry sighs. “But it hasn’t worked.”

“I think, maybe because that scar is such a part of who you are, and how the author created you. Once it left you, an essential part of YOU left with it,” Becca suggests.

“That means, Harry will stay blind forever unless he gets his scar back,” Hermione says.

Everyone falls quiet and then nothing is heard in the Land of Nod except for the occassional roar of a far-off nightmare.

Posted by Michelle at November 26, 2002 10:00 AM