The Justiceers
by Daphne Garrido
Part Three: The Will to Choose
Part Four: Prefinished Business
Part Six: Death Rides a Horse
6.9
Arthur and Miriam could feel it coming now.
The end of this was bearing upon them with a pressure of imminence coursing head to toe. He’d not been able to keep his eyes off those three nightmare-ships, nor The Artemis as its forces made landfall upon Grammaton, a most sweeping and expansive breadth of doom pervading the senses.
Life here was surely coming to an end, there was no other way to see the facts before him, how could anything survive such horror? What miracle could save these people from a terror of evil so completely unhinged? Those were the only question his mind could seem to ask in the face of it all.
Miriam’s faith in a brighter future felt ridiculous, yet, she carried a confidence about it all which told his gut otherwise. She knew, seeing so beyond, receiving the blessing of wisdom from her visages throughout time; this all was meant to be, and part of a plan to transform this system into harmony at last.
How though, was the thing that didn’t fit, it made his gut churn to ponder the matter. This threat was entirely unstoppable, at least, that was what he’d thought.
He also believed Miriam was joking when she’d told him the solution involved the two of them fucking.
Far from it. In fact, that was the exact thing they were supposed to do. This bitch was magic as fuck these days, and ritual was something she’d find herself incredibly apt at developing intuitively for all purposes. Guidance was speaking plainly.
Miriam set it all up before he even knew the plan, as was her way.
When Arthur came into the former Great Room of The Nebberath II, outfitted most completely with candles, crystals, mirrors, and every kind of burning incense they had aboard — to find Miriam sprawled out nude on a pentagram she’d drawn from lines of ground up Grammaton, totally ready-to-go — he’d not really cared about the whole ‘consent’ thing, that dude was down-as-fuck.
I’d warned him before he stepped forward to get what was coming to him, and either he hadn’t heard or cared, because we were about to do murder in this bitch.
Miriam had been casting her visages about the system, even aboard The Artemis itself, as well as planet-side, within the ruins of Oliath, witnessing the happenings of the force deploying there. She finally realized who it was they were fighting, the woman behind the wheel of this once divine machine turned mad, the Goddess who’d allowed herself to take every bit of laten evil into her body for a greatest sacrifice she’d not even understood.
This evil one, doing such terrible deeds, had become a sponge for every drop of the devil, and it was time for someone to end them for good.
She’d set the space quite thoroughly for success at the guidance of her twin guardians on high, a passion stoked by their touch within her heart, and Arthur could feel the power of its energy as he entered the circle.
Time had come for evil to die, and like always, Miriam was going to do it the only way she knew how, they were going fuck that bitch to death.
It hadn’t worked.
Still, it had been a really good time. Miriam was a little worried about bad vibes coming back on her from the intents of it all, now that they were through, realizing there might be something she missed.
That was, until it happened.
The Artemis exploded, no reason would ever be found other than what Miriam’s channel spoke, and Arthur’s gut confirmed, that an angel on the inside had remembered exactly who they were, an intelligent savior quite known throughout time, making the choice to end this woman’s greatest means of destruction and them self along with it.
Miriam could feel that she’d survived, that devil-woman, already off-board, though could only guess where she might be. That guess was correct. She’d retaken her place among The Furies before the destruction of their mothership which they were now scrambling in response to.
This evil woman, more a devil than any human being before her, and future-born visage of Miriam Halafax herself, having returned through time for purposes of greatest healing change, unknowing her fate had been written to end this way all along, would surely be coming their way.
There was a moment taken in the privacy of The Nebberath II, where Miriam and Arthur had made space to hold each other closely, the feeling of their breath upon each other in such gentle ways had not been known in this recent time of chaos.
They were reborn now, after all this transformation in system made through their becomings of burgeoning Godhood, and they were about to find themselves in control of the fate of this system quite directly.
Miriam kissed Arthur then, a smile on her face which told him she knew this would be okay, despite what had so recently come to pass. In time, this system would be healed anew alongside them, and they’d survive to see each other again. Nothing passed was beyond forgiveness for any soul in this system, and healing alchemy would be created by their doings, even perhaps, offering hope for this lost visage of herself.
She knew the plan then, all at once, a most complete notion, and Arthur had seemed to know it too. While a part of his mind lingered inside the systems of the Nebberath II, he was simultaneously more present with his Goddess than ever.
Still, he’d let her tell it. That was how he liked it best.