First Demonic Dragon

Abaddon had obviously had his own brief bouts with insanity before.

Hearing voices, fits of irritability, seeing shadows, you name it. But he'd never seen dead people before.

'What? Not going to say hello after all this time?'

Abaddon just closed his eyes.

Out of curiosity, he opened them again a few seconds later. The figure had disappeared.

Maybe he wasn't losing his mind just yet. Courtney's comments about finding a nursing home to stick him in were going to have to remain jests for now.

'You seem to be in a bit of a downer mood. It's not marital troubles, I hope?'

Abaddon righted himself in space.

Barely turning his head to glance over his shoulder, he found the ghost of his past sitting across from him and waving.

"...You're dead." Even in space, Abaddon's voice traveled to reach one's eardrums. It was like a deep, ominous reverberation.

Lucifer leaned back along a meteorite and smiled while dismissing Abaddon's obvious realization.

'So it seems… Never thought that I would be the one to bite the dust over family. Or at least, not family I didn't even recognize.'

Lucifer held out his hand and a lit cigarette appeared between his fingertips.

He took a deep drag from the toxic substance and swiftly changed the subject. 'But enough about me and what I've been doing in my sudden abundance of spare time. What seems to be eating you?'

"I'm not interested in playing these games, Lucifer. My patience is terribly thin today."

'Yes, and I just asked you why that was. Would your mind have conjured me up if you didn't want to talk to anyone?'

Suddenly, every asteroid within a nearby radius was pulled towards the one Lucifer sat on.

They all smashed against each other to grind whatever had been in Abaddon's head to paste.

After a moment of prolonged silence, Abaddon had convinced himself that the apparition had vanished.

How agitated he was when he witnessed the very same figure phase out of a mountain of asteroids as if he weren't even remotely harmed.

'I sense you're having some issues opening up. Do you think this could relate to potential issues with your mother perhaps?'

Abaddon's eyes narrowed. His skin bristled against the cold nothing of space as his flesh turned a deeper red color than even his hair.

His mouth became sealed. His horns even more pronounced and wicked. Those burning eyes became nothing but pits of smoldering light.

"I am... beyond unamused. What. Is. This..?"

Lucifer shrugged as if he didn't get why his distant relative was so easily agitated for seemingly no reason.

'You just conjured me up, cousin. Your mind was in such a state of dysfunction that you've even begun seeing ghosts. Including this very handsome on-'

"Do. Not. Joke."

Abaddon was somehow growing even larger in size as the minutes went by. "Do you know how many eons I have been removed from the madness? Do you think I am so weak-willed that I will fall back to it at the slightest inconvenience?"

"I.." Lucifer started to speak but just hung his mouth open instead. He scratched the back of his head in a 'well what do I do now' sort of fashion. "Well... The kid did. I told him you probably wouldn't."

Abaddon's glowing eyes narrowed. "Your child has dominion over your soul..?"

"Well, in fairness, don't all children exert a parasitic level of control over their parents?"

Abaddon said nothing and just kept staring. Prompting Lucifer to wave his hand to dismiss his calculating look. "Oh, it's not that bad... Anymore. At least now I know that I can come out sometimes when the kid is in the mood to play some 'Impractical Jokers'."

"And you're here in front of me because?"

"Ah, you know. Ghostly face appears, makes you think you're spiraling into madness, soon you no longer trust friend or foe alike and become an incorrigible monster that all of creation must band together against your tyrannical evil, that sort of thing."

"Your son is a feeble-minded fool."

"He heard that, you know."

"I would have carved it into his chest if he were courageous enough to appear before me again."

Lucifer paused like he was listening to something. "Uh-huh.... Ah... Got it." He turned back to Abaddon.

"He has something to say?"

"I dunno, I was hardly listening."

Lucifer suddenly doubled over in pain as he clutched the right side of his head. He grits his teeth in agitation as he suffered a unique agony unlike any other.

"I jest... He says that the day will come when he stands over your corpse soon enough. Contrary to your belief, he says that there are ways to get around your inheritance. She has told him all about it."

Abaddon's eyes widened, as he connected the dots in his mind almost instantly. "Chaos is working with your son..."

"That bit's my fault, I'm afraid. Who would have thought that my attempt to summon her all those years ago would have resulted in a mess such as this?"

Abaddon felt like his ears needed to be cleaned and re-opened. There was no way that he'd heard what Lucifer just said correctly.

"You summoned her? For what possible purpose? How did you even gain the knowledge??"

The higher up you are in Creation's hierarchy, the more the term 'forbidden knowledge' doesn't really apply to you.

The only real barrier to knowing everything is how much you actually want to know it.

Abaddon had heard and known a lot in all of his years of life. He was completely unaware that there existed a way to summon Chaos before now.

And Lucifer seemed to be completely cavalier about his reasons for doing so.

"Oh, you know... Rebellious youth sort of thing. Needed a place to duck and hide with the brother, yada-yada-yada."

Abaddon could only shake his head in disappointment.

"You summoned your father's greatest enemy behind his back... All to spite him. His Lightbringer. His joy of joys. And yet you would scorn him so?"

"He scorned me when he saw me cast down for an honest vision!" Lucifer snapped.

"You rebelled." Abaddon reminded.

"No one else had the stones to see humanity for what they really were, no one else was going to call out his mistake! But a perfect being couldn't handle the thought of making an imperfect thing, and so what! I am to pay the price for his delusion!?"

"...Perfection is subjective. You should be aware of that by now as old as you are."

Lucifer was becoming increasingly more unstable. "Don't give me that sanctimonious nonsense, Abaddon! You can't sit up on your high horse with me! All of the other deities might fall for it, but I won't! You think the same as I, I saw the regret on your face that day! I know your mind is the same as mine!"

Abaddon did remember the scene on the day of Lucifer's rebellion. As long ago as it might have happened.

The bodies of angels were littered around on the streets like stones. Their golden white blood slicked the streets like rainfall.

Lucifer battled against the seven fiercely, all on his own. In a determined effort to reach his father.

Somehow, he broke past their encirclement and burst into his father's throne room.

The next thing one knew, he was covered in burns and lacerations. And he was falling through the clouds of heaven to the fiery depths below.

Many hadn't seen the conflict between Abaddon and Yesh play out. Even fewer could actually recall what happened.

But Abaddon did.

Lucifer never even came close to reaching his father.

At the very moment he entered the throne room with hostile intent, the four stone guardians that sat beside the throne of god activated.

They beat Lucifer in nano-seconds.

Yesh never even stood up.

Abaddon doubted that Lucifer could even properly recall the events of that day. If he did, it probably would have made him even worse than he already was.

He would have seen it as Yesh's inability to be bothered to do it himself. But Abaddon, who watched it all without raising a hand, saw differently.

Yesh couldn't actually bring himself to harm his first son. The Creator God even shed tears at the thought.

That was probably the first, and only time that Abaddon could ever recall seeing the old man cry. It had stayed with him for his entire life.

Over and over again the same scene replays in different fonts and viewpoints all throughout creation. And yet, Yesh weeps at the climax of every one as if he hadn't seen it before.

The wound remains fresh. Yesh never stops agonizing over it.

Abaddon remembered locking eye contact with Lucifer on that day as the angel fell.

He did send him a look of pity. Because he knew that things shouldn't have been like this.

Maybe Lucifer had mistaken their camaraderie beforehand as a shared dislike of humanity as a whole.

But contrary to popular belief, Abaddon had never hated humanity; he was just...

'Indifferent...' He realized.

Abaddon's form shrank.

He turned his back on Lucifer and began floating away.

When he spoke again, his voice was much quieter, almost pitying.

"I see... You're certainly entitled to your opinion, Lucifer. I hope it brings you some comfort."

Lucifer couldn't explain where Abaddon's change in tone had come from.

Nor could he say exactly why it irked him so. "And where do you think you're going?"

Abaddon didn't even look back. "To better myself. Hopefully…"

He had nearly left when a familiar red blur whizzed past his head. He stopped in his tracks.

"I don't think so. You didn't really think the kid was just going to allow me to let you leave, did you?"