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Omega woke from his nap with a start. Something was wrong. His chest was pounding, his brow damp with sweat and unable to catch his breath.
“Papa,” he gasps.
He feels the poison running through Terzo’s veins as he leaps over the couch of the lounge. Narrowly avoiding kicking Aether in the face.
“Oi! What’s gotten into you?!” Aether yells after the older ghoul.
Omega ignores him. There’ll be time for apologies later. Right now his papa needs him. His Terzo needs him.
Think. Think, dammit. He needs to think! Where did Terzo say he would be?
His pulse is quickening and he knows he’s running out of time. The panic is clouding his mind. He needs to calm down.
He can’t lose him. He starts running down every hallway screaming Terzo’s name. He doesn't care about the siblings staring at him like he’s lost his mind. He’s about to lose something much more important if he doesn’t find Terzo in time.
He passes by Sister and Nihil turning from a hallway with storage closets he knows are big enough for clandestine card games. Then it clicks.
He freezes. His blood turns to ice and everything turns into a blur. He runs to every door banging on the wood so hard it splinters until he comes to one door cracked open. He stumbles inside body moving on its own. Unable to process what he’s seeing. He only barely catches a glimpse of a ghoul slinking away out the window but he’s too shocked to do anything but stare at the three bodies strewn across the floor and table. He sees Terzo face down on the table and hesitantly reaches out a hand gently shaking his Papa’s shoulder.
“T-Terzo…please,” he says as he watches the lifeless body slump to the side.
His shaking becomes more insistent as he grabs both of Terzo’s shoulders so he’s sitting up and continues shaking him back and forth.
“No, no no no NO!” He yells. He leans Terzo back in the chair and gives his cheeks a few slaps desperately yelling in his face to wake the fuck up.
“Please! I can’t lose you not like this please please wake UP!” He’s sobbing fully now, breaths coming in deep uncontrollable gasps. Tears falling heavy as he holds his Papa close and continues screaming.
He doesn't know how long he sits there holding Terzo’s limp body but after a while the tears stop coming even though his breath refuses to stay in his lungs.
Then something flips a switch in his brain.
The image of Sister Imperator walking away from this very door.
The ice in his veins turns to magma as shock gives way to rage. The smile he saw on Sister Imperator’s face was too knowing, too cunning. The old man couldn’t have been a part of this. Nihil was far too oblivious and self absorbed to be concerned with the fate of his sons.
Sister would pay for what she had taken from Omega.
--------------------------------------ONE WEEK LATER-------------------------------------
“IMPERATOR!” Omega roars as he walks towards her office busting through the double doors as a handful of siblings of sin attempt to reign him in unsuccessfully.
She keeps her composure as she watches the unglamoured ghoul stride into her office with a determination she can only liken to her own purposeful stride.
“Ah, Omega. What can I help you with?” she smiles.
He stomps over to her desk and slams his hands down sending stray papers flying. Imperator doesn't flinch but Omega doesn't miss the way her eye twitches ever so slightly at the sudden loud noise.
“I know what you did. I just want to know why?”
“Oh I'm sure I don't know what you mean,” she says, folding her hands under her chin. The image makes Omega sick.
The two are stuck in a stare down, each one willing the other to break first. Omega feels the fire within his infernal core reach a peak and then wills it to simmer down.
He sighs clutching his fists at his sides.
“Bring him back,” he says barely above a whisper. Hoping to Satan that Imperator doesn't catch the quivering in his voice
Sister Imperator stands from her desk and beckons one of her personal ghouls to her side. They hand her a glass of water and stand obediently by her side.
“Thank you, Special. Now, Omega. I know we are all deeply saddened by the loss of all three of our beloved previous Papas. But we are ushering in a new age of The Ghost Pro-”
Omega isn't listening to a single word she’s saying. All he’s focussed on is the ghoul in front of him. Something about them seems familiar and Omega bristles when he recognises this ghoul as the one he saw jumping out of the window as he entered the room and all judgement goes out the window.
His claws come out and he sees red. He grabs the other ghoul by the neck digging his claws in enough to draw blood. Special is grasping at Omega’s arm but is unable to do anything against the larger ghoul. Special’s back hits a wall and Omega keeps pushing on his throat, lifting him off his feet to meet his own eye level.
“You did this! How COULD YOU?? We ALL served them! Took an OATH TO PROTECT THEM! YOU BROKE THAT OATH!”
Special is still struggling but only barely hanging on. Omega looks into Special’s eyes and sees Terzo’s lifeless body next to his brothers. He feels the tears come back and his grip loosens slightly. The smaller ghoul drops to their feet and gasps for air sputtering and coughing as they go to move. Omega catches one of their horns in his hand before they can escape, kneeling down in front of them. He stares into their eyes a moment relishing a bit in the fear he finds there before roughly ripping the mask off of them. Their face shows real fear. Good, omega thinks to himself.
“You are not fit to wear this mask,” He says, discarding the mask to the floor.
“Get out of my sight before I send you back to the pit.”
Special looks at Sister Imperator and she nods her permission for them to leave.
They scramble away and Omega stands, crushing their mask under his boot clad foot.
“Are you quite finished?” Imperator’s shrill voice rings from behind him. Not a single ounce of fear in her words.
“Did you get it all out of your system?”
Omega turns to stare daggers at her, his chest heaving with anger still.
“I swe-”
“Good, good,” she interrupts him, walking over to place a hand on his shoulder. A gesture that would normally be a comfort, were it coming from anyone but her.
He flinches as soon as her hand lands on him. An involuntary reaction he silently curses himself for as he stares at the offending hand.
“Now, listen very carefully, my dear,” her words are venom in his ears and in that moment he wishes it was the kind of venom that would take him away and end this suffering.
“You and the rest of the ghouls are to be in the chapel at midnight tonight for a special ceremony. No excuses.”
Omega hung his head and stared at the hardwood floor they stood on.
“Understood?” she says through a smile that looks like it was ripped from a mannequin and plastered onto her. He feels her fingers digging into his shoulder. A show of power that they both know holds no physical pain, but her commandeering nature is enough to make even him yield, though no one but Imperator knows why.
“Yes. Sister,” Omega growls out through gritted teeth.
He rips his shoulder out of her grip and stalks out of her office. He knows what the “special ceremony” is to be. A ceremony of death. But not for the Papas. Imperators words were coming back to him. In his blind rage he didn't catch them.
“A new age for The Ghost Project”
“Out with the Old in with the New”
“Retire the previous members of the project”
The ghouls who had been in the Ghost Project before the current lineup would be “retired” - in other words sent back to the pit - to make room for the new ones who had been summoned.
He thought about convincing the other ghouls to just steal away with him into the night to run away and never look back. But if he and the other ghouls did not attend, they would most certainly be killed anyway.
He spent the next few hours trying to think of a plan. How to stop the ceremony, how to disrupt it.
He came up with nothing.
He had a decision to make and it came time to tell the rest of the ghouls that they were expected.
Would he warn them?
Send them to their doom knowing where they were headed?
He came into the lounge and found Zephyr, Cow and Alpha laughing and playing a game - he thought it looked like hangman - and leaned against the door frame taking in the scene. Zephyr was in the recliner, leaned back with his knees wrapped in heating pads and propped up on pillows - he must have been having a flare up, poor guy. Hopefully whatever Imperator had planned wouldn't involve too much kneeling.
Cow and Alpha were arguing about the spelling of whatever word was being played.
“No hold on! HOLD ON!!”
“NO I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU THAT'S NOT HOW ITS SPELLED!”
“YOU'RE GONNA LOOK AT ME AND YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME THAT I'M WRONG?”
Cow smacks Alpha on the back of his head and Alpha quickly grabs Cow by the back of the neck rendering him almost frozen.
Omega chuckles causing the three ghouls to look in his direction.
“Omega! There you are!” Cow says, his body limp in Alpha’s grasp.
“Yea sorry to have disappeared. I had to speak with Sister Imperator about something,” he says, still standing in the doorway.
“You wanna play with us? We can play whatever you like?” Alpha letting go of Cow and gesturing to a spot next to him on the couch.
“Thanks, but I've still got some things to take care of around the abbey. I just came by to tell you that Sister Imperator expects us in the chapel at midnight for some Special Ceremony and she said not to be late.”
Zephyr pointed to Cow accusingly.
“That means you, bellboy,” He said with a chuckle.
“It's not MY fault I need maximum allotment of sleep!” Cow says standing on the couch.
Alpha pulls him back down by the back of his shirt. “Sit down, milky white.”
“Into the woods reference! Nice!” Zephyr chimes in.
“Aaanyway,” Alpha says, cutting off the other two. “Midnight tonight. Chapel. Do we need to tell the others?” Alpha confirms with Omega.
“No, I’ll handle telling the others. Not everyone is needed, just us and a few others who aren’t active band members anymore,” He looks at Alpha and hopes his face conveys that something is wrong. He didn't want to know if Alpha understood or not but he needed his best friend to get through this.
“And remember, don't be late. Sister said that there would be consequences if we’re late.”
He says as he walks away.
At least he would get his wish. His own suffering would end. He just wishes it didnt mean the end of the others’ lives as well.
—--------------------------------SOME YEARS IN THE FUTURE-----------------------------
The first thing Terzo does when he realises he’s fully resurrected and not just a spectre, is to look for his ghouls. Or rather, his Ghoul. Omega.
“Fratellino, what became of my ghouls? Alpha, Zephyr, Om-” Copia’s hand lands softly on Terzo’s shoulder, cutting his question short. His face displayed what Terzo feared, but ultimately knew to be true - they were gone.
“Mi dispiace, Terzo. Sister…she had them sent back to the pit.”
Terzo’s vision becomes blurred and his eyes sting with the angry tears threatening to spill over.
“Omega?” he mutters through barely withheld gasps.
Copia only nods, his face sympathetic.
Terzo’s mind races, his heart pounding with a thousand different emotions ranging from sadness and loss to anger and fury. His vision starts to go dark and his limbs go numb.
Copia catches Terzo in his arms and kneels down with him. Simply holding his brother not knowing what else to do in this moment, he just holds him close as he sobs.