35. Hestia Part III The Return of the Old Gods

"I'm soglad that you saw the error of your ways and have returned to supplicate yourselves to the infinite wisdom and mercy of Bartie," Charon twittered.

The machine hadn't shut up since they'd entered the temple.

The inside was vast—and all made out of the stone hewn by the enslaved synths. The Greco-Roman columns and expansive, empty interior were beyond unsettling. It was the most human structure Lupo could imagine, and yet the manner in which it had gotten here and the way in which it had been built were anything but.

And that glow. That sickly red glow that came from nowhere but grew harsher and more blinding with each step…

The heat of it seared him as they went on.

"Almost there!" Charon informed them.

"This… sucks," Fengári grumbled. Lupo realized that for him the discomfort was even worse. The young man was shielding his face against whatever the red glow was.

"Skotádi," Ophion hissed.

"Ah, so you've met them!" Charon glibbed. "That will save me the necessity of making introductions. Ah, here we are. Just ahead is the Oracle. I'm sure Bartie will be simply delighted to see you."

And with that, Charon floated off into the shadows.

"This is where we decide we know better than to go in there and go back to the ship and get takeout instead, right?" Fengári griped.

But none of them were listening. They were all staring, mute, into the glowing red horror of an enormous red doorway. Within, a portal had been carved out of a glittering black stone that looked nothing like anything Lupo had seen on the planet up until now. It had been forged into a fanged, horned demon, many dozens of feet tall. It was horrifying. A part of Lupo resisted the idea that any creature could be so hideous. By comparison, Ophion was the most beautiful animal he'd ever laid eyes on.

Lupo felt the intrusion of Bartie's synthetic fingers as he grasped to freeze him once more—but Lupo had long ago safeguarded himself against such things. He learned from his mistakes. Slowly, but surely.

"Like I said, Lupo, you've always been clever. But you were an idiot for coming here." Bartie emerged in the doorway.

All around them, Lupos were appearing from behind pillars and from deep within the shadows. There were hundreds. More. On either side of Bartie, the nearest two held the commandeered Keth rifles from their previous encounter. They were pointed straight at them. One of the Lupos' eyeballs had been carved out of his head, and gaping wounds covered his body, evidently where he'd been recently tortured.

"But in the end, I suppose it's rather more poetic to have an audience. After all, these clones get terribly boring after a while. No… spirit.Ah, and you brought back your little friend. How quaint."

Bartie was still in a kimono. He gently took the alien gun from one of the Lupos, tracing his hand along the naked man's torso as he stood there, entombed by Bartie's command over his code.

"You know, I've done this so many times by now that I really don't know if the real thing will matter as much as I hoped it might."

Bartie blew a hole through the clone's skull. He scoffed as the body fell to the floor.

"Still, I'm looking forward to it. Now, come along. You heard Charon. There's not much time," Bartie said with a smile.

He tossed the rifle he'd taken from the now-dead Lupo to a replacement like a hot turd he hadn't wanted to touch in the first place.

"By the stars, I could shoot him right now," Auren growled.

"Easy. We need to set the others free if we can, the other me's included," Lupo warned.

Watching himself die hadn't gotten easier. He stepped uncomfortably past the now-deceased version of himself as copy after copy continued to crowd all around them.

"You guys were right. This guy sucks." Fengári sneered.

As crazy as it was, Auren's chuckle at his brother's latest jab allowed Lupo a chuckle, too—and even Ophion seemed to rattle quietly at the snark.

"If he does anything remotely off, let me be the one to end him," Lupo said quietly.

They entered the temple, and the cold air within immediately signaled that something was wrong.

"Are you going to tell us what all this fucking bullshit is?" Auren spat at their host.

"Oh my! The little weasel speaks. I would have thought you would have learned to keep your mouth shut when I separated it from your body." Bartie laughed. He let out a long, loud sigh and then sat on the steps in front of the portal.

"You have two minutes to say whatever you're going to say, and then I'm going to blow your brains out," Lupo said.

"Hah!" Bartie cried. "Do it. See if I care. But I think you'll want to hear what I have to say…"

"I doubt that," Lupo said, raising his gun more eagerly than he'd intended.

"Like I said: do it. You don't even know if I'm the real Bartie. There could be a hundred more lined up to take my place. And I know you're under the impression that your story matters—that you matter—but trust me. You don't. You never did. Like all of these ‘people,' you were only ever a means to an end. And now you can watch while I ascend."

Bartie rose and withdrew a sphere from his pocket. He tossed it on the ground, and it rolled toward the four men. At first, Lupo feared it was a grenade. But then, to his relief, he realized it was a portable holo-display. Bartie snapped his fingers and it powered on, projecting the livestream into the space above it.

The battle for the Keth homeworld was raging once more. New Keth fleets had emerged from the void since they'd last watched, returning in defense of their home system—and the human fleet that had just laid waste to their world was locked in combat with a force that seemed much closer to its equal now. Ships were exploding left and right. The scale and chaos were like nothing Lupo had ever seen. So much waste. So much death.

Bartie was laughing. He'd doubled over on the stairs and had his head in his hands as he shook violently.

"Bartie, I know you're a sick fuck, but how the hell is this funny?" Lupo screamed.

"Because, you idiot, it's all a distraction. Now this." He gestured with a thumb back to the glowing red void pulsing and spiraling behind him. "This is the real show."

"Yo, get to the point, dude, you've used up your minutes," Fengári said.

"Who the fuck are you?" Bartie snapped.

But then a gash appeared in space, right over the Keth world. It was red, just like the portal. It cut and slivered open as if the fabric of reality itself had been ripped apart like flimsy paper.

"Holy shit. I mean, I knew it had to be real, but by the void, I had no idea it would be like this…" Bartie was staring at the holo along with the rest of them.

On-screen, the gash had widened and stretched until it was many times as long as the nearest reference point in the footage. The red light poured out and bathed the ships still locked in combat in a crimson that looked eerily like blood.

They began to burn. And Auren screamed, throwing himself to the ground, where Lupo quickly dropped to his side.

"Auren!" he cried.

Fengári was kneeling too, and Lupo barely heard the whirl of Ophion's missile launcher spooling up to ready as he took point and guarded them.

"Now, now. I think you'll find those weapons don't work in here. Charon, if you will."

The little drone had reappeared. To Lupo's dismay, his gun grew hot in his hand. So hot that it fell to the ground and lay hissing on the stone floor. The others had all dropped their weapons too. Save Ophion.

"Apologies for the inconvenience," Charon said, its voice as polite and diplomatic as ever. "But I must insist we prepare for a peaceful transition of power. I'm sorry to inform you that your time as stewards of this dimension is near its end. Congratulations on your participation. Now, let's all watch as our most esteemed and surreptitious Bartie gets what he deserves. Shall we?"

"Hey, Bartie, why don't you shut your little friend here up? Shocking that the only friend you've ever had is a fucking droid. You're completely unlovable," Lupo said hatefully.

"Oh, I think you have it wrong," Bartie replied.

The portal behind him was making some noise now—a whispering howl that pained Lupo to hear. The Keth system had become a hellscape. The ships and worlds within were all deforming like the universe had decided they weren't worth rendering anymore. The holo-screen flickered in and out.

"He found me," Bartie said. "He found me, and he helped me set the whole thing up. Isn't that right, Charon?"

The curiosity floated affectionately near him.

"That's correct, Bartie. And as in every dimension we've conquered, our most loyal servants are among the first to reap their reward."

"And tell them, Charon, tell them about my reward." Bartie sounded manic.

He had stripped out of his kimono as he spoke, and it disgusted Lupo to see that for some reason he was rock hard as he stood there, sweating in front of the portal.

"Why, you get to be a god—just as you wished," Charon stated simply.

There was nothing left in the Keth system anymore, not even a star. A ship. It was all gone. The void was all there was.

Bartie ejaculated all over the stairway. Lupo realized he'd never truly appreciated how mad he really was.

"Arggggggh!" Bartie cried.

There was a terrible boom, and the entire temple shuddered.

A red mist, darker and glittering, began to swirl around Bartie's body, eking out of the portal and wrapping itself around him. He started to giggle.

"I feel… amazing," he groaned.

He began to float as the mist attached to him, smearing like blood across his glistening body as he spun gently in midair before the portal.

"Amazing," he groaned again.

And Lupo watched in stunned disbelief as Bartie began to change.

He had already been a big man, and watching his limbs stretch and swell as he went from big to huge to obscene was the uncanniest thing he'd ever witnessed.

Bartie screamed in ecstasy as his body contorted on the plinth. He was at least a dozen feet tall by the end of it, and he crashed to the floor with a thud that shook the ground enough for Lupo to feel it.

Bartie was giggling again, his voice nearly unrecognizable. The sound was such a deep baritone that it caused Lupo's heart to race in fear.

Bartie stumbled to his feet and stared down at his new, freakish body. Lupo had never seen anything so graphic or wrong in his life.

"Your self-love is so beautiful," Charon sang. "Do you like what we've done to you?"

"I'm… incredible," Bartie said, flexing an arm that bulged so monstrously he couldn't help but laugh.

He'd been halfheartedly jerking off his foot-long member this entire time, and Lupo watched in disgust as he let loose a torrent of cum on the platform that dwarfed his prior emission.

"And I get to live forever?" he grunted, unable to keep his hands off of himself.

"Oh yes. Forever and ever and ever!" Charon agreed. "There's just one small and inconsequential catch…"

Bartie froze.

"Where you're going, Bartie, you don't need skin," Charon said.

The red glow that had draped across him was sucked back into the portal in a glittering whirl—and alongside it, Bartie's flesh. Lupo saw, incredulously, that his transformation had made him a flesh-and-bone man once more. The red light had changed him completely. And now the sight of the fleshless, giant terror dripping blood, raw and horrible, made Fengári vomit.

"Noooooo!" Bartie cried, stumbling about the platform in a frenzy of pain.

There was another boom, and the eyes of the tremendous demonic head began to glow.

"Oh yes," Charon disagreed.

And with that, the portal sucked Bartie, screaming, into whatever hell awaited him.