Chapter 31
White Fire
Dante opens the backseat door. Red Hood, looking like he lost a fight with a batch of fireworks, lifts his helmeted head.
“Hi, angel. I wasn’t sure you’d still be here when I got home.”
“You found the mirror.”
“I did. It was in Gotham this whole time! Wild, I know. Can you help me out of the car?”
Dante does so, but with reluctance.
“You’re not alright, Red Hood.”
“What else is new?” He groans a little, then makes himself walk confidently to the church doors.
“Got something in the sanctuary I wanna show you. You might hate it. The good news is, there’s central heating in this place now. It won’t freeze in here anymore.”
He unlocks the church. Upon opening the door, the robins swarm ahead as he leads Dante inside. Dante, compelled to venture into the sanctuary, trails behind the robins. Red Hood follows them to the alter, to Robin’s ruined uniform.
Displayed behind a life-size capsule of thick glass, the Nephilim’s jacket a shroud on the dress form, as though it’s keeping the broken sidekick warm somehow. This hits Dante hard, overwhelming him. Through tears, he turns to Red Hood.
“Okay Jason, what is this? Why’d you do this?”
Red Hood pulls back, certain he’s done something terribly wrong. Prepared for rejection far worse than Batman replacing him, he glances at the wooden floor.
“I thought, if I keep working on this space, that, that we had together, then maybe you, maybe you might come home to me. I had this idea in my head, that you might wanna stay here, with me, in Gotham. We can live here in the church. We can go protect the weak and the forgotten. I’ll keep this place nice for you, I promise. I want you to stay with me.”
He raises his palms, bracing himself, for the most important person to decline everything he ever wanted for them.
"But if you don’t want to, or if you can’t, I completely understand.”
“You think you’re putting me off?”
“I dunno. I just know this was our home. So I tried to make it nice for you. I want you here with me. That’s how I feel and I can’t make it stop. I’m sorry.”
Dante, worried his friend might jet right out the door, is quick to hug him.
“We’ll figure it out! Don’t be sorry, you didn’t do anything wrong! Oh man, Jason, can I take you to a hospital? Please? I dunno if you remember but you threw a bomb back at the museum and I think you’re hurt. Now that we’re in the church, can you take this mask off so I can see your face?”
Jason nods then steps back and begins to remove his cracked helmet when-swoop!
Darkness seeps up over the crossing in a funnel, and forms into the stubborn Watcher that elusively followed them home!
Red Hood arms himself with Ebony and Ivory. Dante summons his sword, finding himself out of his element when Devil Sword Dante appears in his hands instead of Rebellion. The Watcher threatens him.
“You’re mine to return to the King, Nephilim!”
BANG BANG! Red Hood fires with a grunt.
“No demons allowed in our house, Watcher!”
“Your beloved’s weapons won’t undo me-”
“Shut up and die already!”
“Not the way Killer-Red’s magic used to devour lesser Watchers, Red Hood. That part of you is dead!”
Dante swings his new sword but it goes through the Watcher. It’s like trying to cut through black smoke!
“Whoa, how do you start this thing?!"
“Red Hood, Hell still has a place for you. Once I pull the both of you through this rift, you’ll go right back to the Wood of Suicides where you belong!”
The Watcher makes a grab for Dante with one of it’s newly grown arms, it’s claws are bigger, sharper than before. From the many crevices of the vaulted ceiling, the flock of robins comes together and swarms Red Hood. It occurs to him…
“Oh damn, it’s the helmet. You can’t return to me because my face is covered.”
He holsters Dante’s pistols then swiftly removes the busted helmet and tosses it aside. The Watcher, repulsed by the robins, floats down the nave in pursuit of Dante, who’s still trying to work out the best way to ward off the monster with the Devil Sword.
“Stop resisting, Dante, you foolish rabble rouser! Obey your King!”
With Jason’s face revealed, the flock soars inside of him like it once did in Limbo City. His eyes glow green, he has an epiphany.
“This Watcher looks like a tree!”
As soon as the words leave his mouth, the Watcher begins to transform into a stationary arbor devil, right in the center of the nave. In the middle of the aisle among the pews, it’s roots begin to rip up the floor and decimate the foundation. The walls shudder. Enforcing himself, Jason comes closer, down the steps to the shrieking Watcher.
Dante’s back to the narthex, Jason’s back to the pulpit, the Watcher in the middle, rows of pews in the way, there’s nowhere to escape! One of the Watcher’s limbs becomes a branch.
“Wait! Jason, put your helmet back on!” Dante begs, but Jason is in a trance, his bizarre new ability to root devils into the earth is using up all his concentration, all his energy, all his power.
Flailing, the devil thrashes and BAM!
“FUCK!!! NOOOO!!!” Dante cries when the Watcher bludgeons Jason in the temple! He watches him collapse, his body sprawling out like a discarded doll on the church floor.
Enraged, Dante instinctively flings his new sword, boomerangs it through the smoky top-half of the Watcher. The flying Devil Sword hacks the branch away. Then, upon returning to him, it pierces Dante right in the chest and comes out the other end!
“GRAH, Spardaaaaaa!” the Watcher screams in terror.
The sensation of a Sin Devil Trigger floods Dante’s body! Horrifically, this phenomenon, once belonging to his adopted father, goes nightmarishly array, inverting his flesh!
In a flash, he exposes his entire musculature to the interior of the church, splattering bodily redness every which way, including through the demon, and all over his fallen Killer-Red. The Watcher screams again!
“Your body won’t Sin Devil Trigger! You’re wasting all your etherial blood!”
Before pain more excruciating than that caused by the Icarus Bomb can engulf him, Dante encounters a magnificent spirit, slowing down time itself to connect with him.
“Why do you wish to Sin Devil Trigger, angel? Such power is the polar opposite of who and what you are, surely you know this.”
“I’m trying to Angel Trigger!”
“My son’s Rebellion Sword merged with my own to create Devil Sword Dante, and now it’s impaling you?! After Dante gave up his magnificent Devil Arms to restore your life, why do you choose to turn your healed body inside out?”
“I didn’t mean to! But if I can’t Angel Trigger at least my blood might save my human!”
The Watcher interjects, “Forget that slaughtered faggot and focus on your purpose! The Demon King needs your blood!”
Scoff, “Watchers are such hissy insects. Dante, I can see that you care deeply for mankind-“
“Can’t talk-“
“This intrigues me.”
“Hurts too much-”
“Watchers are aerial devils, attracted to ritualisms. Without the Divine Harpies and the Wood of Suicides to guard this church, it becomes a target. Your human’s silver lining lies in a pit of suicidal despair. Overcoming such darkness means his Lazarus magic might have completely caged this Watcher in bark and sap, had he not invited a brutal blow to the head.”
“He never wanted to be attacked by Joker, Batman, demons, or nature itself!”
“Most robins are vulnerable to falling among the trees. Even in death, your Robin’s magic can still protect you.”
“No, he can’t die, that’s so unfair!”
“Do you not take comfort in his prophetic demise? Red Hood removed his helmet for you. Doesn’t that make you feel special and important?”
“Yeah!”
“And you have your new sword. Isn’t that enough?”
“No!”
“As a weeping willow, his sullen gaze will safeguard your home from the inside-out, right here in the sanctuary!”
“He’s a person! He’s not a goddamn tree!”
“Only for a few more breaths. Do you love this person?”
“What do you think?!”
“Ah, you two remind me of myself and my dearest Eva.”
“My guts are gonna spill out!”
“Remain calm, my new kin, while I reconstruct my son’s sword for you and repair your catastrophically inverted body.”
The sword turns itself inside out to be compatible with its new owner.
Brightness! Dante Holy Angel Triggers!
The Devil Sword becomes fulgurite-encrusted. Where lava-like fire smoldered from within the fuller, a smooth starry-light glows blindingly from top to bottom of the blade. The hilt takes on a swirling form, similar to the hilt of his Rebellion Sword, which was lost when his life ended in the Batcave. Sparda’s voice calls out once more.
“Behold, my anarchic grandson, have your Angel Trigger with your grotesque spillage of restorative blood, all over your beloved Killer-Red!”
WARP! Dante recovers from his full body eversion, rips the sword out of his flesh with no injury, then leaps up and slices the monster down the middle, cutting it’s cursed trunk in two!
The sword’s edge ignites the half-transformed tree-demon in a blaze of white fire.
Reeeeeeee!!!!
“Jay-SON!”
He glides over the flames and covers his friend with his wings, shields him, the same way Red Hood did for him back at the museum.
FOOSH! The sword flashes out of sight, retreating into the pulsing symbol on Dante’s back, under his gifted coat, which also turned inside out, now appearing black with maroon accents.
Luminous particles expel from his wings and descend like delicate feathers, floating all around them, onto the vermillion-stained pews and floor.
“Hey! I love you like crazy. Hey listen-yes, we can stay here in Gotham.”
He strokes his friend’s hair away from the rapidly healing blow to his temple. Jason’s eyes, closed and dripping green, blink a few times, then shut again. His breathing deepens but he’s clearly stunned, only halfway conscious.
White fire all around them, Dante carefully props him up, into his arms, protectively places Jason’s hood over his head, and envelopes them both within his wings.
“That Watcher had no right to enter this beautiful sanctuary. We’ll fix it up again, together. Hey, I love you like crazy. Here, let’s put you on a pew so you can rest.”
Before he can follow through, the church, now in flames, caves in!
“No, not the church!”
Swoop! Crash!
He uses what’s left of his Angel Trigger to careen through a stained glass Garden of Eden mural to their right, bursting out of the cathedral before they both get crushed. His wings only fit through the frame for having folded them over Jason, spread wide as the entire church is reduced to rubble, burning in heavenly light behind them. He looks over his shoulder then sighs heavily.
“What have I done? No. Jason, forgive me.”
Jason begins to come around.
“Ugh, what are you talking about?”
“The church.”
He peaks over Dante’s shoulder.
“The church? Ah man, the church! Awe nah, come on! I didn’t even get to show you the bathroom! It was legit! Oh well, at least Harley got to use it.”
“Harley? Harley’s okay?”
“Yeah, she’s okay. She’s with Poison Ivy.”
“Who?”
“Did she ever mention someone named, Pam?”
“Yeah!”
“She’s with Pam.”
“Oh, okay. Good.”
“Man, Dante, I don’t wanna take you to the crappy apartment I got under a fake name, to hold me off.”
“It’s okay, my friend. It’s better this way.”
“How so?”
“I think I may have permanently closed a rift to the mirrored church in Hell.”
“Hmm, okay, well that’s definitely for the best. Honestly, I don’t care as long as you’re here. As long as you’re alright, then I’m all set.”
“How crappy is this apartment?”
“I mean, it’s actually kinda nice. It’s just small.”
“That’s fine. I don’t mind.”
“The bed is big though. It even has pillows and sheets"
“Pillows and sheets? That’s luxury living if ya ask me.”
“Crap, my helmet was in there.”
“We can get you another one.”
“I mean, I was kinda thinking about making a new uniform anyway.”
“I can help you if you want.”
“I’d love that and I love you.”
“I love you too! For real, what you did in there, the way you restored it and made it wonderful inside, that meant a lot to me. Thank you. Sorry my Angel Trigger burned it all down.”
“You’re welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. I loved that church but I can let it go. It was only a building. And it’s not your fault that it’s, wow, completely demolished."
“No, I know. It was that stupid Watcher.”
“What a fucker.”
A screech of tires interrupts them, a jet back vehicle skids to a halt at the curb.
It’s the Batmobile!
The sound of sirens tears through the early morning air. Fire engines! Police sirens!
They hear Batman’s stern voice over an intercom.
“Get in.”
Dante, his wings subsiding out of sight like soft clouds, looks to Jason before obeying.
“What do you think?”
“I think he wants to help. You take the passenger’s seat in the front, I’ll sit in the back.”
“I’ll sit with you.”
Dante stands, lends a hand to help Jason up, and quickly, the two do as they're told. Once they’re safe in the Batmobile, the car’s engines roar as they zoom away from the scene.
VROOM! They’re gone seconds before the Gotham City Fire Department arrives.