Alexander has a temperament. Aside from giving someone brown pants, that temperament can have very positive consequences if it erupts at just the right time and place. Even though he hadn't counted on such a thing as finding a teenager in a completely unexpected place.
Everyone at the table, except Alexander, wanted to cry out but they were cut off by the girl's scream. Alex raised one finger and hissed at them and they immediately understood that this was one of those moments when they better kept quiet before those green eyes of his drilled a hole in their heads.
"Beatrice, come here please."
While sobbing, she approached Alexander who lifted her up and put her on his lap. She sniveled:
"You are God Alexander you must do something. My Daddy is in Hell, and I miss him so much. I'm never going to see him again..."
"Beatrice child look at me and listen carefully."
With difficulty, she lifted her head but she continued to sob.
"Can you stop crying for me Sunflower so you can hear what I'm saying properly?"
She nodded and after a few deep breaths, she began to calm down.
"Very good. Now you must listen carefully. Yes, this universe is imploding and will cease to exist."
She wanted to say something again, but he put a finger on her lips.
"But such a thing is slow and so we have time to find a solution. If you think hard enough and try hard enough you will find out that there is always a solution, always an option. Nothing is impossible, nothing. Understood?"
She nodded softly.
"I promised you that your Dad would be the first one I'd get out of Hell and that's exactly what I'm going to do! Yes?"
Repeating his promise and the resolute way he had said it made Trixie feel a whole lot calmer and cheered her up a little bit.
"Oh, yes one last point. Eavesdropping is not nice so please never do it again. The same rules apply to you as to David. As long as you can't go back to your daddy, Samantha, and I will consider you four as siblings so everyone is equal. Even if you can go back to your daddy soon, in our house you will always be siblings. And if David can get a can of whoop-ass if he colors outside the lines then so can you! Clear?"
"I won't do it again Alex."
She promised softly.
"I'm glad to hear that."
He turned to the rest of the table:
"It is now 06.30, Gabriel postpones the general meeting until 10.00. Everybody take a half-hour break. Go get some air, let this sink in, and screw your heads back on. Not a word about this outside this room. Anthony, get in touch with your people on Earth. We are not going to make it to our meeting with the LAPD today. Give us some way out of it that has a wide range, that includes Ella. I need some time to think. See you later."
With that, he stood up and stepped resolutely toward his office with Trixie on his arm. Once there, he set her down on the floor and said:
"Hop off, back to the other rug-rats."
When she was through the door to the playroom, he made sure the children couldn't hear anything. He went to his window and looked for his cigarettes, but he had left them in the throne room. A long stretched and shouted:
"FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
Escaped his mouth. Samantha, however, had anticipated that he would want to light a cigarette and had brought his pack. Gave him one after which she lit it for him. He nodded his thanks and turned his gaze back to the garden. The immediate family members had followed him to his office. Lucifer, Ella, Samael, Salome, Robert, Aisha, Franklin, Gabriel, Michael and Celine. They sat in silence at the smaller conference table waiting. Sam wrapped her hands around Alex's waist and laid her head on his back. He placed his free hand on her hands and continued smoking, inhaling deeply. When he finished, he turned and joined Samantha with the others. Since this was not going to be a regular work meeting, she took a seat next to him. He sat at the head of the table with a steely look in his eyes and was seething. Aisha looked at him with a sad expression:
"I am so sorry Alexander."
"No need to be sorry Mom, you are not responsible for the destruction of this universe. Or actually, you are because you lit the fuse a good 14 billion years ago. But yes, hindsight is always 20/20, and Godfry and that snake of his, their behavior cannot be blamed on you."
He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment:
"Dad?"
Two voices echoed, Lucifer's and Franklin's. Alex face palmed and groaned softly as Samantha giggled for a moment. He said:
"Should I now consider myself damn lucky I never started calling Robert dad? Okay, some clarification. From now on when I say Paps I mean Franklin and Dad is Lucifer, okay?"
Both men nodded while Robert had a very mischievous smile around his mouth:
"Paps, what I wanted to ask, how long does this universe have?"
"About ten years could be a little less those things are never quite predictable."
"And how long before it's going to start becoming visible to the people on Earth?"
"Maybe a year depends on their attention."
Alexander lit another cigarette and Samantha decided not to comment for a moment that he was smoking too close to the children. Salome spoke up:
"Alex, we are willing to give all the Angels asylum but for the Demons, except the ones you bring to Heaven, and for the people on Earth, unfortunately, I can't do anything."
He shook his head and said:
"Well, this may well be the shortest reign of any God. That monster seems to have won after all pfff."
He said exasperated.
"Mom?"
And again he heard two voices those of Aisha and Salome. He dropped his head on the table for a moment and said:
"Ah come on..."
Now Samantha was laughing openly.
"Okay just to clarify again. Ella, I don't care what you are going to do with that Devil of yours when you three are together in one room I am NEVER going to call you MAM or I am going to go crazy! When I say Mams, I mean Aisha, and Mom is Salome, fine."
There was a sound of agreement from the two women.
"Mams, I assume it was some kind of Deadman's switch?"
She merely nodded.
"Spin it or turn it but he would always have destroyed everything. Or he did it himself and would stay as long as possible to enjoy his work. Or he did it like he planned before we knocked him off the throne in a flash. Or he left for another universe and the implosion started immediately after his departure. No wonder he put up so little resistance and was so eager to be able to leave for another universe. Mams, Paps, any idea what universe he's in?"
Franklin replied:
"No idea, the moment he left here he seems to have gone up in smoke. Wherever he is hanging out it is not a universe we created so it must be a new but empty universe."
"Something like the universe Dad sent his mother to?"
"Yes a flaming sword can create an empty universe and then he himself could cause another big bang."
Alexander spoke more to himself than to the others present:
"Why do I feel bad now that I gave him an empty universe? My sword is here, Rae Rae has hers. What does he want to accomplish in that empty universe? I have a feeling we are far from rid of that bastard."
Michael asked:
"Sorry Alex but I just want to know. Why did you let him go and not deal with him permanently right away?"
Alexander nodded:
"Good question, one I also ask myself every time we discover yet another bunch of misery involving him. It comes down to the numbers you gave me. He had a thousand zealots at his disposal. Yes, we won the battle, our majority was just too big. But if I had let him stay and kept him in captivity, for example, it would have meant that we had a thousand Angels running around who we couldn't trust for a second or we would have had to provide them all with cells as well. His departure with the vast majority of his zealots was the best outcome I could think of. Executing him in the throne room would have had just the same outcome as what we are facing now. As has been said he booby-trapped this universe. Whether he left the universe or died here the implosion was inevitable. And what should I have done with his thousand zealots? Execute them too? Would I simply not have been a younger version of him then? Destroy all opposition?"
Michael and the rest pondered his words for a moment and quickly concluded that whatever solution Alex had chosen their universe was lost anyway. His solution had been an attempt at as little violence and bloodshed as possible. The total opposite of the old God who had no doubt chosen brutality and violence, if necessary until everything was wiped out of the way.
Alex, meanwhile, was already continuing to speak to the other Gods present:
"Can he make a new sword in an empty universe?"
Aisha replied:
"Yes but not that fast. First, he has to make the big bang happen so there is matter but that takes a huge amount of energy and then time to stabilize things. Why?"
"No idea yet Mams. And you have not felt a new Big Bang?"
"Not so far no."
"Keep me informed if it does happen. I don't trust him one bit."
He then turned to Samantha's parents:
"I thank you for your offer Mom. When I make this shit known I will present the offer to the Angels. That way they know that at least there is a solution for them and that I won't put anything in anyone's way if they want to leave. Could you let me know as soon as possible what the logistics should look like? I find it hard to imagine that you could bring over nine thousand Angels all at once."
Salome looked at Samael who thought for a moment:
"I think we could complete the entire operation in less than a week, but I'll get back to you on the exact details."
"Thank you, Samael. Oh yes, with the first group Samantha and the kids."
Alex heard two voices at the same time:
"Absolutely!"
From Samuel and from Samantha:
"Oh, forget it, Alexander. That's so not how we're going to do it!"
"Red, this universe is a powder keg. You've heard paps that nothing is set in stone in the event of an implosion."
"I have ears Alexander Morningstar! My answer is that I will stay. I refuse to be separated from you ever again! The children will stay as well because we need you and we will stay united as a family until it becomes clear that it would be too dangerous to stay any longer and at that time we will leave as a family! Because that is what those kids of ours need most now, a family! And with that, everything has been said on the subject!"
She looked at him rather furiously during her argument and he wisely decided to leave that topic of conversation for a while. With the fingers of one hand, he drummed on the table while his other hand played with his fountain pen. Suddenly he threw his pen down and stood up with a jerk.
"That goddamn throne! It will communicate with me normally or I'll smash it to smithereens!"
He growled to no one in particular as he made a sledgehammer appear in his hand. With great strides, he left his office.
The rest followed closely behind him tense at what was to come. In the throne room, the other councilors were still present busily discussing the terrible news they had just heard. They fell silent when they saw Alexander enter determinedly with the hammer. He plopped down on the throne and his eyes flamed again with the red glow of Hellfire. Less than thirty seconds later, he shouted:
"Shut the fuck up! I'm Alexander Marcus Fucking Morningstar and you will answer me! You try to show ten images and tell ten different things in ten different languages all at the same fucking time. It's gibberish, my brain can't process it! So, take a few deep fucking breaths and answer my questions! Don't show images and don't try to tell me anything! Just simply answer my questions and use little words as if I were very, very stupid!"
The storm of images and the soup of words had ceased in his mind. In a calmer voice, Alex asked:
"Calmed down a bit?"
And for the first time, he clearly heard the voice from the throne:
"Yes, I am Alexander. I'm so sorry, I was so excited to have a new God. I tried for so long to sabotage Godfry, as you call him, by making what he wanted to know as unclear as possible. I forgot to communicate normally."
On the throne, Alex sighed deeply. No one could hear what the throne had said but the disappearance of the sledgehammer was taken as a good sign. Alex's next words were met with a hodgepodge of emotions:
"Ah come on! You're a damn teenager, no bloody wonder..."
Some were surprised, others shocked, and a few others were amused that Alex was dealing with a teenager.
"Okay, let's start from the beginning. You know my name, may I please know yours?"
He heard the voice of a girl, clearly a teenager of about fourteen saying sadly:"
"I don't have a name..."
"Are you what we have come to call Lot? Responsible for my existence and that of the other Nefilim who came before me?"
"I am yes, and I am sorry for the others. I still had much to learn and sometimes things did not end well. But I'm glad you're here Alex."
He thought for a moment and then said:
"How about the name Jasmine, reminds me of a beautiful flower."
He projected the image of a Jasmine to the throne and the girl replied excitedly:
"Oh yes, I would like that. Thank you for my name, Alexander! Godfry never bothered to give me a name."
"I'm not like Godfry Jasmine. Where are you from? It is clear to me that Godfry did not create you. And how did you end up in the throne?"
She hesitated to answer for a moment as if organizing her thoughts:
"I don't know where I came from. When the universe was created, I was suddenly there. I can sort of communicate with any essence. Sentients, however, have trouble hearing and understanding me; only the God or Goddess can do that. The primary throne. It's pretty much my own fault for being here. I was too excited and too curious, so I made myself known to the gods. Godfry must have immediately caught on to what I was, what I was capable of, and bound me here in his throne."
Alex let the glow in his eyes disappear, rubbed through his curls, and mumbled:
"Yet another victim of Godfry and yet another problem to be solved quickly."
He thought for a moment and then said:
"Jasmine let me think for a few minutes please."
The throne cried out and it almost gave him a headache:
"You want to get me out of here? But then you won't have any power over me anymore!"
Wearily, he said:
"Honey, I don't want power over any sentient so not even you!"
He stood up, walked to the table, and dropped into his desk chair. He manifested his cigarettes and lighter, an ashtray, and a large glass of his favorite mix ice cold."
"I know alcohol is not allowed at this table according to our agreed-upon protocol but right now I don't give a shit about protocol so go ahead if you want."
It pleased him that immediately after he said it an expensive bottle of wine appeared among his two idiots. He took a few large sips and lit a cigarette before speaking:
"As you've probably noticed..."
He said somewhat sarcastically:
"The throne is sentient. Or rather there is a sentient trapped in that damn throne. Godfry's first victim one might say. Although she must be older than you Angels, her essence comes across to me as being a girl of about fourteen. She says that she was suddenly there when this universe was created and that she made herself known out of curiosity after which Godfry immediately locked her in the throne. This must have happened quite shortly after the Big Bang of this universe I think because she did not evolve beyond her teenage state. She simply remained a young girl in thoughts and feelings."
At the table, heads were shaking. Yet another crime from the old God. Slowly they grew tired of finding new misery at every step. However, Alex had also picked up that his parents had looked at each other in surprise, he asked:
"Mams, paps, any idea? Does this happen in every universe?"
His mother replied:
"Absolutely not. At least not that we know of. The universe itself is barely semi-sentient to some extent. We suspect this takes care of fate, but we are not sure of that. But a fully sentient being besides the pair of gods at the beginning of the creation of a universe is unheard of. However, I must point out that we do not know everything either. Is this something the creator of the omniverse wove into the multiverse, in this universe with a certain intention? No idea at all."
He thought for a moment and then asked Samantha's parents:
"Mom, Robert I already have a very strong suspicion myself but still need assurance. Is it true when you began to create that Robert provided the form and you Mom as the Goddess/Mother of your universe breathed life into that form?"
Both nodded yes, not quite understanding where Alexander wanted to go. The latter turned to Samantha, and she in turn looked deep into his green eyes:
"We must free her love and I think I know how."
"How do we do it and how fast can we do it?"
She said without hesitation and full of enthusiasm.
"If I am right then I can make a body for her, an empty vessel so to speak that you can breathe life into. Instead of breathing new life into it you will take the essence of Jasmine from the throne and transfer it to that body. Mind you you have to think about it for a while and consult with your parents because there is a chance it could cause problems in your universe."
"I don't have to think or consult. We're doing it!"
"I would agree with you for anything immediately Samantha but not here. I need to talk to Jasmine anyway. I want you to use that time, to think and talk!"
The last sentence he had spoken with the authority of God, and she understood that he did not want any contradiction, so it had to be very important. She squeezed her eyes slightly shut:
"So what kind of trouble could it cause?"
"I think that in order to free Jasmine and give her a body you must be bound to the secondary throne after which you can use the full powers of that throne. And I have no idea whether that and what problems that might cause if you want to take the primary throne in your universe. But on the other hand, this universe is doomed anyway, and after it goes into destruction that problem will solve itself in ten years if both thrones are destroyed like everything else."
She nodded:
"Fine, you go talk to Jasmine and I'll go talk to Mom and Dad."
Before they could do that Celine asked:
"MyLord, should you do that?"
The use of his title in this situation where there was no protocol told him she was in her consigliere role. He looked at her and said:
"Talk."
"If she was so important to Godfry then that means she has certain gifts and powers. Freeing her from the throne could mean the loss of those powers and gifts. Right now, we can use all the help we can get."
He thought about this for a moment and then said:
"She is sentient so there is no chance that I am going to keep her trapped in that throne. However, I am pretty sure that Jasmine does not know or that she is not the solution to our little problem. As it stands, this universe is doomed. Jasmine is part of this universe and her knowledge will be limited to this universe."
He nodded to Celine, it was her role to be his counselor and give him advice when it came to battle and the survival of the universe was a battle like no other.
"Thanks, Celine, I'll check just to be sure."
He and Samantha stood up and walked toward their interlocutors. After sitting back on the throne Alexander asked but this time without the entire throne room being able to hear:
"Jasmine, I take it you got everything?"
"Yes of course."
"Good because the only thing I can do for now, at least if I am right about my theory, is to give you a body of your own. Without a body, I cannot remove you from the throne without destroying the throne itself. Unfortunately, with everything that's going on right now, I need it for a while longer. When you are in a body, do you retain all your knowledge and your gift to sense and communicate with all essences?"
Jasmine thought for a moment and answered:
"No, that's not a problem. Feeling and communicating are in my essence. So, it does not matter whether I am in a body or not. However, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to help you find a solution to undo the implosion. That is totally uncharted territory for me. On the other hand, your theory that Samantha must be bound to the second throne is correct."
A little suspiciously, she asked:
"But why do you want to give me a body Alexander?"
"Because I don't feel like fucking freeing you and then would have to watch you get destroyed with the rest of this universe. In a body, I can evacuate you with me to Sam's universe if I really can't find any other solution. In your original form, you become part of this universe again and so it becomes impossible to transfer you. You are sentient and I'm going to be damned Jasmine if I don't go all out to save every sentient being under my care."
"I knew it, you are the one this universe has been waiting for so long. It has been my dream for so long to have a body of my own."
She exclaimed happily to which he said amusedly:
"Easy girl, my ego is already big enough that it needs no further encouragement. Okay just think about what body you want and then show it to me so I can make it for you and Sam can put you in it."
Samantha had moved in front of him and said with a twinkle in her eye:
"Looks like we're going to have to add another plate to the table. Mom and Dad have no problem sitting on the throne for another ten years or a hundred years."
He shook his head gently but amused. He knew Samael would have resisted. Leave it to Sam to push her will through.
"So it is said, so it will be done..."
Alex extended his hand as an invitation for her to take a seat on the secondary throne. She took a seat and almost immediately their eyes lit up silver. The golden glow made its appearance again, hiding them from view. The light became so bright that the rest of those present almost had to avert their gaze or close their eyes. This time, however, the golden ball of light imploded instead of exploding. The glow seemed to disappear into their bodies. In a voice that held divine power and could be heard in the entire Silver City, Alexander said:
"Behold this is your new Goddess, Lady Samantha!"
Both had to shake their heads for a moment as if coming out of a trance.
"Now that was one Hell of a ride!"
Samantha laughed out loud:
"AMEN!"
She quickly added. She looked at Alex and asked mischievously:
"Can we?"
"Of course dear..."
He stood up, took her by the hand, and asked:
"Shall we dance darling?"
"Always my love."
He took her in his arms, and she pressed herself close to him. They kissed each other with deep love. Their wings emerged and they wrapped them around each other like a kind of divine protective divine blanket. At the same moment they came off the ground and rose in a slow spiral a few yards into the air. The golden glow returned but this time much faster. Less than a minute later it exploded, and they sank back to the ground. When they opened their wings, those present saw not two but three people. The third was a teenage girl who had to be Jasmine, she seemed of African descent, but she had eyes as green as Alex's. Most of those present sat dumbfounded in their seats. The girl Blinked those incredible green eyes of her a few times, and it was as if she was seeing everything for the first time. Which in fact was true because she was looking with real eyes for the first time in her existence.
" I can see! I have a body! I am real! Thank you, thank you..."
But then she dropped to her knees and began to cry uncontrollably. Samantha sat down beside her and pulled Jasmine into her arms. She nodded to Alexander signaling that she was in control of the situation. He remained standing at the conference table:
" Okay, it's just about 09.00 I suggest we all adjourn to the garden."
Everyone stood up and followed Alexander except Salome and Aisha. No doubt to assist Samantha and to shower Jasmine with maternal love and if necessary to perform a miracle or two.