Chapter 23

Five minutesafter Edovard joins the avatars, Annette and Bellamy drop like their strings have been cut at the same time. I freeze in indecision, not sure who to go to, but Edovard drops to his knees next to Annette, so I check on Bellamy.

"Oh," Sterling exclaims, wobbling a little.

Jethro steadies Sterling as I watch Fox check Bellamy's pulse.

"They're ok," Edovard says, and I turn to see that he's holding Annette in his arms. "Their auras are fine," he explains.

Santanos wobbles but stabilizes with his hand on Edovard's shoulder.

Gwendolyn appears completely normal, but I don't know her well enough to know how well she hides her fatigue. "The Avatar of Neutrality has been invested," she announces.

"No kidding!" Sterling agrees, looking around with a manic smile.

Jethro looks at Sterling like he's hung the moon. "You're going to make an excellent minion," he tells the cutie.

Sterling beams at him. "I totally am!"

What is happening right now?

I think that at Fox, who points at me and repeats the question.

Jethro replies. "We're no longer aligned with good. I'm no longer the werewolf pack leader for good. We are now aligned with Neutrality, which makes a hell of a lot more sense, because non-corporeals aren't morally good or evil most of the time."

"That's why we needed to be here," Sterling explains. He shuffles toward the prison, touches it, and a doorway folds up like you see in sci-fi movies when the effects people are all like, Look at this door fold away like magic! It's like that, but, you know, more realistic.

As soon as the door is open, Sterling pokes his head in. "Alright, this is a mummy. I mean, it's breathing, I think, but it's a mummy. Who's going to do something about this?"

Jethro steps in, there's a significant crack like he just broke a dry branch over a rock, and then he steps out. "The mummy isn't breathing," he explains with a look of disgust. "I broke the preservation spell keeping that poor soul trapped in a dead body and set the soul free."

Sterling looks up at him like… well, probably like I look at Fox, and movement under my fingers brings my gaze back down to my son.

Bellamy's eyes pop open. He stares blankly for a long minute and then his face pales. His freckles lose color.

Annette moans at the same time, sitting up woozily. "Fuck me. I did not expect that."

Fox points at me. "What happened?"

Annette pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. "I've been divested."

I snap to attention at that. Does she mean…?

Bellamy pushes us back enough to sit up, and I fret over his paleness and the fact that he went down when Annette did. I let my face ask him what's happening and even mouth the words as best I can.

Bellamy leans over and rests his forehead on my shoulder, reaching out and taking Fox's hand. "I've been invested."

I turn wide, shocked eyes on Fox. Bellamy is the Avatar of Neutrality?

Fox shakes his head, also slightly more wide-eyed than usual. "You're the Avatar of Good, aren't you?"

Bellamy groans miserably. "Yesss."

My assassin son who has no qualms killing people, and who worked for the Avatar of Evil for his entire adult life, is now the Avatar of Good? I can't say I expected that. Anyone else? No? Didn't think so.

I pat Bellamy's head and look over to Annette, who's still cuddling Edovard. She gives me a wan little smile. "Bonnie's going to be pleased," she tells me. "I've been the Avatar of Good our entire marriage, and now I get to be Bonnie's wife. I'm not upset, if that's what you're thinking, and you're still my sugar baby. I'm not giving up daddy status just because the universal force of good needed someone else to work with the new Avatar of Neutrality. Apparently Bellamy's the most qualified candidate for that."

"This is bullshit," Bellamy whines, face still buried in my shoulder.

"Make it stop," Akile whimpers, shifting into view and falling to his knees.

His face is scrunched up, eyes closed, and he's rubbing his temples.

"Make what stop?" Fox asks.

"There are people in my head," Akile whimpers. "Shut up! No, stop talking! Dakota? What. The. Fuck?"

He stops suddenly, and goes completely blank. His face loses the defining twinkle and mischievous smile that lives in his expression. He looks like the essence of him disappeared, leaving nothing but a breathing husk. It doesn't last long, only thirty seconds, maybe, and then he's back, waking up like he fell into a deep coma.

He blinks, confused, and then his eyes widen at me. "You're never going to believe this. The council? You know, the one that has been running our government for thousands of years? They weren't even supposed to be good or evil. The council was supposed to be neutral this whole fucking time. And invested with power. Guess who's been elected the leader of the council? Guess who's now telepathically linked to twelve other people?"

I point to Akile. My bestie, leader of the new world order. Damn, my life is crazy. Conspiracy theorists would be salivating over me if they knew.

Akile nods vigorously and speeds through the next information dump. "Oh yeah. By the way, the magic liked having Dakota on the council, so he's still there, and so is Jeff Gordon, if you can believe that. I need to get to the council building. We need to disband the current council and make sure everyone knows that there's a new council. We also have to replace seventy percent of the Arbiters. Fuck, there is so much to do."

He stands, wobbles a little, and then heads toward the tunnel that leads to the exit.

Fox and I help Bellamy up, and as a group we traipse back to the portal. I glance over my shoulder at the prison and the glowing worms climbing from the floor into the exposed prison cell. I feel sorry for the soul they trapped in there, but I'm glad we fixed it.

I type a text message to Darcy. You ok?

I don't get an immediate reply, but if I don't hear from him in a day or two, I will happily track his tiny ass down. I've got a whole minion army at Edovard's disposal; if I tell him Darcy is missing, Edovard will rally the troops to find him. I'm not worried.

I'm notsure how this keeps happening, but here we are again, marching into the council chamber again, to make sure the whole world knows now is not the time and we are not the people. Again.

This time we have a new Avatar of Good, a newly invested High Councilor, and ten new councilors, because as soon as we made it back to the cherubs, Akile got everyone onto the task of tracking down the new council and gathering them all in one place. We also have people in the audience who came to watch over us. There's a whole section of little cherubs in the audience, a section for Edovard and Co. plus a slew of Santanos's minions, and Jethro, Sterling, and their packmates—I'm not sure how many of them are actually werewolves, because apparently, werewolves lead packs, but they don't necessarily lead packs of other werewolves. Werewolves are a rare species.

Annette kissed us all goodbye and went home to celebrate her new freedom with her wife, and we discovered that Ace turned into a wolfman while we were gone. Why? Because the leaders of the werewolves are invested by the universal forces and the universal force of good decided he'd make a great leader of the good pack now that Jethro belongs to the neutral force. He hasn't actually shifted back to his cherub form because "it feels more natural" in his wolfman form, and he along with some of his new pack are also in the crowd.

Anyway, all that to say: we have a lot of supporters in the audience today.

Bellamy was right, by the way—werewolves genitals are out there in the open for all to see, and Ace has a very big dick to go with his new body hair, claws, and fangs.

So, yeah, there's been some rather abrupt and unexpected changes in the last few hours, and we're about to do it again, livestreaming the apocalypse. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it feels like an apocalypse.

Fox tells me that we need everyone in the supernatural community to know that the system of government is being changed by the universal forces that rule us, so I start the livestream before we're even in the council arena. I aim the camera at my face, and in short order our livestream viewing audience goes from zero to ten, then three hundred, then four thousand, and it keeps climbing. It's at over three million when I walk into the council chamber with the group, led by Dakota and Jeff Gordon. I turn the camera around and watch the number of viewers climb, because the supernatural community loves nothing more than the tea, and when they see Fox's tag on a livestream and my face, they know they're about to get all the tea.

The announcer calls out the council's names, leaving out the ones currently standing in the middle of the chamber facing the dais where the councilors get to sit in judgment over all.

"Sheeva Taylor. Killigan Buzzo. Homer Rivera. Zile Elliven. Falmer Jones. Balgur Plummer. Alexie Hirons."

We wait while the councilors take their seats, and then the announcer calls out the reason for this meeting. "Akile Aristide here to unseat the current roster of councilors and install a new council."

Who the fuck decided to lead with that?

The council arena erupts. Zile grabs the gavel and bangs it loudly, calling everyone to order. "Silence!"

The chamber falls into silence as Zile glares around the room, then they turn their attention to Akile, who's now standing in front with Dakota and Jeff flanking him. "What are you doing?"

Akile steps up and addresses everyone. "Three thousand years ago, my parents and all the living cherubs at that time executed a coup. They killed the Avatar of Neutrality, broke the system of governance that had guided all the realms and universes until then, and installed a binary system that relied solely on the universal force for good and the universal force for evil. I, along with the cherubs of my generation, became aware of the injustice committed by our parents last year, and today we unleashed the universal force of neutrality. As soon as we did that, the new Avatar of Neutrality was invested, a new Avatar of Good was invested, and I was invested with the leadership of the council. I've brought with me twelve councilors that have been invested with the right to lead and the magic to do so, and we've come to thank you for doing a job that you were not properly qualified for and to take our place."

Immediately the far left councilor, Alexie Hirons, says, "That's what happened. I felt something had changed."

"As did I," Zile agrees, looking down the line of councilors on either side of them. They find all the councilors nodding and return their gaze to Akile. "We will need proof of the investment before we can transfer power, and you will need to produce the Avatar of Neutrality for the whole community. We can see that Bellamy Jones is the new Avatar of Good." They eye Bellamy skeptically. "I can't say this doesn't surprise me."

Bellamy steps forward, grimacing. "You and me both, Councilor Elliven."

The view count on our livestream is at a record high. After the last couple of times I livestreamed, word has gotten around that we always bring the best drama to the council arena. It's true.

"Does anyone know where the new Avatar is?" Falmer asks, curiously. "Or who it is?"

Akile shakes his head. "We have a theory, but it's unconfirmed yet. As for proof of our investment…" Akile gestures to Hassan. "Santanos, may I borrow your bodyguard?"

Santanos inclines his head. "You may, Councilor Aristide."

Ooh. Santanos knows how to make a statement, doesn't he?

Hassan steps into the fore, pulling a sword from the ether. Does everyone have special little realms where they store their swords? Everyone except Bellamy, obviously, who keeps his weapons in a safe in his room.

Swinging his sword in powerful arcs, Hassan practically dances down the line of the new councilors, proving that each of them has a ward to protect them from attack. He even swings at Bellamy, who also has a ward. Then he turns to the people sitting behind the council bench.

"Shall I test your wards?" Santanos asks as Hassan waits. "He is very talented with a sword. I can guarantee no blood as long as you don't flinch."

"How about a slap instead of a sword?" Sheeva suggests drolly.

I don't think she thinks that he'll be able to hit her.

"As you wish," Santanos agrees, and Hassan moves to the councilwoman and slaps her. Not too hard, but the slap connects and she gasps in shock.

Yeah, that was predictable, and predictably the room erupts again. It takes longer for Zile to bring the room back to order, but eventually the audience falls quiet again.

"As you can see, you are no longer protected by the council wards," Akile says, looking over all the councilors. "Please step down and allow me and my co-councilors to take our places."

The door at the back of the room bangs open. "This is an absolute farce!" A guy who looks a lot like my bestie rushes in with twelve other people. They push into the space where Team Neutral is waiting to take power, and the guy addresses not only the defunct council, but also the wider audience. "The cherubs object to what our offspring have done, and we formally request the council allow us to set the world back to order. We do not need the neutral force as long as good and evil work together. It's unnecessary to leave the governance of the universe in the hands of neutrality, and doing so causes good and evil to go to war. Without neutrality to weigh the scales, good and evil have to work together, and in the end the net effect is the perfect balance without the never ending contention between the two sides."

"Father," Akile sighs. "Don't pretend like trapping an entire universal force was done to stop the war between Good and Evil. Good and Evil are at odds because that is the nature of free will; you did it to force the governing body into one location, and you chose Earth because of your own biases. It was organizational convenience, not some noble cause to force Good and Evil to work together."

"You're joking," someone in the audience blurts.

Akile shakes his head. "I wish I was. Father, we're not going to allow you to disrupt the entire universe again. You're not even going to be in charge of the Arbiters anymore. You've already been replaced, and if you want me to prove it, I will."

"Giuseppe," Zile calls. "The new council has proven they've been invested. Sit down."

Well, would you look at that, Akile's dad was the leader of the depot.

Giuseppe's eyes narrow. "Councilor Elliven, investiture is unnecessary to rule with fairness, don't you think? The council has been doing it for millennia already."

Zile looks a little confused for a moment, and then their face clears. "That is true. There's no reason to change what has worked for so long."

Their thoughts are mirrored by all the councilors beside them as well, then Zile looks Akile in the eye. "We will not be giving up our seats and reorganizing the entire government because you took matters into your own hands."

Akile makes a noise of protest, interrupting the councilor. "They trapped an entire universal force because it was inconvenient for the cherubs. It's not what is right, it's not what is good for universal balance, it was terrible for Hell and for many other realms and planets. We are not going to allow you to continue this way. The magical forces have made it clear that we are the new government." He pauses, for a moment, gesturing to all the people backing him up. "We're the people who've been invested. We've proven it. Please step down."

Zile gestures to the guards. "We will not. We do not recognize your authority. Escort them out of the council chambers."

"We're not leaving," Akile announces, daring anyone to try to remove him.

The guards, of course, come to shuffle us away, but we have wards, and we're not moving until we decide to move. The first guard to try to use force falls onto his ass. There's a beat where everyone in the chamber processes that he's fallen, then something strange happens.

"You must leave. You must leave. You must leave…" The guard on his ass starts the chant, and as he stands, the other guards join him, their voices insistent, almost desperate.

All together the guards run at us, as if they think that they can overwhelm our wards through force of numbers. They bounce off and go flying into the crowd. The audience—the people here to stand with us—help them up and join them, running at us to beat against our wards. Every person in the room joins the chant, "You must leave. You must leave. You must leave."

I watch in horror as Edovard stands, catches my eye, and joins the crowd, running at me. What the fuck is he doing? What is happening?

I turn to Fox to find out what the hell is happening, but Fox, my Fox, is pounding on his father's ward with the sword he apparently snuck into the council chamber. I pan the camera around agog. Every person in the room without a council ward is trying to get us to leave, including the people in our own party. Except the old council is watching passively, and so are Giuseppe and the cherubs he brought with him.

Giuseppe…

Fuck me.

I move to Akile's side, shoving people out of the way with my ward, and I point to his father with one hand, gesturing to our friends and loved ones pounding on our wards with the other. Yes, I jostle the camera, but I feel like a steady camera view isn't the most important thing right now.

Akile confirms my suspicions with a nod. "Yes, he's a very powerful mind-control psychic."

I knew it. We're going to have to take him out. Well, eesh. I don't know how Akile feels about taking out a parent.

We have to stop this. They're going to hurt themselves if they haven't already.

I type that into the chat bar of the livestream and show Akile before turning to look around the fray.

I try to find Edovard, and yeah, his knuckles are bloody from punching Bellamy's ward. Bellamy is trying to talk to him, but there's nothing but the imperative to expel the new council in Edovard. I push down the immediate anger at seeing my pupper in such a state. I'm offended that anyone would mind control another person, but especially not my Fox and my pupper.

Akile shakes his hands out, looking around with a grim set to his usually smiling mouth. "Right. I don't have any way to stop them. We might be able to knock my father out, but that would negate our wards. We can't do that. We can't…" he stumbles and shakes his head. "I don't want to hurt my dad. I don't want to hurt my dad."

What—?

"I don't want to hurt my dad."

Oh no he did not.

He did. He's got his mind control hooks in his own son. That asshole.

I turn, finding Fox in a stupid fight with a council ward as if he has the power to negate one, and I march my ass straight to him. I don't know how I'm going to snap him out of this. Giuseppe is powerful. Powerful enough that I probably can't stop him. It's probably pointless, and we should surrender. Leave and let things be…

Whose voice is that talking such shit in my head, because I know that isn't mine. I don't talk like that to myself. Ever.

I turn toward the man with the mind control powers, seeing the shocked look on his face.

Do I look like the kind of person who would think I've been defeated before I even tried?

I think very fucking loudly at him. I don't know if he can hear me, but if he can get thoughts into my head, surely he can hear the ones that are already there.

I am Romily Butcher. This sunshine and sass was forged through adversity. I have faced down death around every corner of my life, and I survived because it was the choice between moxie and death. You don't have enough experience to get in my head and think thoughts for me. You can't even mimic my inner voice enough to try. Allow me to demonstrate how little power you have.

I turn to Fox, standing on my tiptoes to get in his face and holding the camera so the world can see this, I use that mental connection between us that exists beyond the reach of some mind-controlling cherub.

Love of my life. Soul mate. Fox. Future Husband. What the hell are you doing?

Fox's battering stutters with every word and finally stops. His eyes focus on me, and suddenly he's back with me. It barely took any effort at all.

His eyes narrow as he looks at me and takes in the rest of what is happening. He ducks a kiss to my lips. "Thank you."

As soon as the words leave his lips, he moves. So fast I can barely track him, but I get the camera up in time to see his sword arc as he comes to a stop in front of Giuseppe. Every person in the room comes to a dead stop, then Giuseppe's head falls off his shoulders and his body collapses.

I really hope Akile and Ace are the forgiving type.