Phantom Pain (trilogy)

Powerful People

Chapter 4: Powerful People

The first thing I realized, sitting in Penemue's room, after it was all done, was how royally stuck I was.

The second thing I realized was that I had to start getting used to it.

No more angsting. No more watching the friends I'd left behind, crashing back into their lives to cause more damage than I already had. I had a new role now, a new identity, and it was time I embraced it.

I'd been dragged into the throne room, fear heavy in my stomach, only to see that I hadn't been the only one summoned. Sallos had been there, in her demon form. Though she didn't look like much of a her anymore. Somehow, still, I'd managed to imagine her human face, grinning. Because we were to be partners, like some buddy cop film. We were an elite team, and we answered to the devil himself. I'd been moping around so long it looked like he was finally going to put me to use.

I'd made my bed, there was no going back now.

He had all the leverage. Sure, I had the pendant, hanging around my neck, though I no longer felt it. It was like it had deemed me worthy, or given up. Despite myself I could not shake the feeling that it was intelligent. Maybe it stayed with me because it knew the alternative was worse. Yes, I had the key to the arc, but Lucifer knew how to play me.

"I never thought Penemue would be so troublesome," Lucifer had said, Sallos smirking beside him. "Though, I guess that was short sighted on my part, knowing him. No gratitude at all... Did you know it's my light that keeps him alive? I only have the power to reanimate one body, and Kera has been so awfully insistent. The poor woman."

I'd begged. Any pride I'd feigned at having crumbled to dust. And, as if he was granting me some great favour, Lucifer had presented me with my task. Sallos and I were going to Paris. We were... what did humans call it? The muscle. In the city of love we were tasked with shaking loose some of Lucifer's more influential human assets.

"We can't give up," said Penemue, from where he had been sitting silently at his desk.

He had been letting me brood, but the time of my departure was fast approaching.

"I'm going to ask him what would be so wrong with freeing Barachiel and Uriel. It's more angels on his side after all."

"Don't." I got up from where I had been sitting, walking over to him. "He's what's keeping you alive. Don't be stupid."

Penemue shook his head. "We can't give up, Ramiel. You came here to save our brothers, remember that. Let's start with the two we may be able to reach. Do his work, as much as I know you hate it. And if there is an opportunity, we must take the sword and free them. We must."

"I can't let you die."

"You already did, brother, and that's the cold, hard truth. I have a theory, of why he is able to resurrect Raphael and me without the power of the arc. Do you want to hear it?"

I nodded, still shaken by his first statement. He was right, of course. He was always right.

"There are two forces that we do not understand or control. Relics from our father, such as the arc, and the layer of hell in which Lucifer was trapped. Raphael and I were used to pry open the door to that place, and I believe we are trapped down here instead of wherever it is that angels go when they die, even if that place is oblivion. I know there are still a lot of questions, but it's a start, a start towards understanding."