Chapter Text
Batu wiped his forehead fearfully, as each dial tone from the receiver pressed to his head brought him closer to his impending doom.
Over 60 generations in my family, and we're the ones to screw it up! How did I let this happen to us, now we're going to be-
The young man heard a click on the other end of the line, followed by a voice as harmonious as sandpaper.
"State your name, parasito "
Batu quivered, but he knew what he had to do.
"My lord, my God, ruler of all things abysmal-"
"Get to the point"
"Ah- my name is Batu, of the Kharuuluud clan, your loyal servants, and we… have some bad news"
From across the room, Batu locked eyes with his older sister Khulgana, who stared at him nervously. She knew just how dire the situation was, and was wringing her small hands in her worry. She wished her little brother didn’t have to go through this. She almost wished their parents were still alive, but she knew deep down that they couldn't have done much.
Maybe they would have kept this from happening in the first place. What have we done?
"What the hell do you mean, ' bad news '?" Black Hat growled through the phone.
"Well the treasure… it's been stolen, but we've-"
"You filthy squirming pile of waste !" Black Hat screeched as he materialized directly behind Batu, digging his cold talons into his shoulder and drawing copious amounts of blood from the poor boy. Batu yelped as he was forced to face the monster, but was unable to do anything else. Khulgana felt ice grip her soul as she listened to her baby brother suffer, her heart screaming at her to save him while her body froze.
"For more than 6,000 years I have allowed your ancestors to live as they wanted, only for you pathetic, miserable children to put their work to waste!"
"Please, my Lord-" Batu squeaked out, but only cried out in more pain as he felt his shoulder leave its socket with a sickening crunch.
"Do not plead with me! You have broken the millenia old promise your forefathers made to me, how dare you ask me for anything less than the torment you deserve!"
"My Lord Black Hat!" Khulgana finally piped up, cowering when the creature's gaze fell on her, "It wasn't our fault! It was our cousin!"
Black Hat's eye twitched the slightest bit, before he was instantly inches away from the poor woman, his form slipping further and further from what would look humanoid. Teeth stretched further outward as his eye sockets deepened and his torso caved in on itself.
" Cousin? " he growled.
"Yes, he sold it to someone, we don't know who, but he’s locked in the temple. He was raised here like us, he knew how to get in- please, it wasn’t my brother’s fault!"
Black Hat glared with the intensity and rage that could only be earned through a long life of knowing it, then leaned away from the creature as he somewhat recomposed his body.
"If I can get some information out of that ungrateful little worm, I may just forget your incompetence,” he growled before slithering towards the temple, “but do not count on my benevolence"
Khulgana ran to Batu's side, trying to gingerly fix his arm, though she wasn't able to do anything without hurting him, so she pressed him to her chest, rocking him gently back and forth to try and calm his pain.
"Should we have told him about Chono?" Batu asked through tears.
"We had to, he broke our family's vow, remember?" the girl replied, looking towards where the eldritch had disappeared, "We can only hope he complies with Lord Black Hat's wishes, for his own sake and ours…"
Black Hat reemerged from within the temple after several minutes of total silence, straightening his glove and looking less explosive than before. The siblings didn't dare speak, they didn’t dare move, they just stayed on the ground to await their orders. Or death.
"I have what I need from that pig" Black Hat hissed as he passed by, "Get him checked into an institution. He'll have violent outbursts you won't be able to prevent or control"
"My Lord,” Khulgana called hesitantly, “what about the artifact?"
"You two are lucky the curse's line is already upon us, I won't desperately need it after tomorrow. I want you to tell the future generations of your family what happened to your dear cousin today, tell them what happens when you break your promises to me. This will never happen again, do I make myself clear?"
Batu and Khulgana nodded rapidly, holding each other closer as they feared the worst was yet to come, but just as quickly as he'd arrived Black Hat simply vanished, leaving the slight smell of sulfur behind in the air.
The night was now cool and silent, so quiet that the siblings could now hear their cousin, or what once was their cousin, howling and whimpering from whatever the demon had done to him. Khulgana began to cry along with her little brother, grateful that they and their family legacy, although shaken, had survived at least another day.
It had been five years since Black Hat had visited China, and if the snow outside was cold, indoors it was freezing. Normally it would be at least a tolerable temperature in the mansion, if a little chilly at times, but that came with working in close contact with an ungodly creature such as Black Hat, however lately Flug had to put his coat on the moment he rolled out of bed. Even Demencia had wrapped her tattered old blanket around her as she walked around. Everyone within a kilometer knew that it wasn't the weather making it so bitter cold in the manor. The air felt wrong, like something was about to explode. Black Hat was furious about something, but no one could possibly know what it was, so there was no hope of stopping the impending rampage.
Flug allowed Demencia in the lab since it had gotten so freezing, and she stayed curled up next to the large space heater Flug had thrown together.
"Is it working?" Flug asked, pressing closer to 5.0.5 as he shivered.
"Yeah, but it isn't making much difference," Demencia grumbled, pulling her hair tighter around her body, "whoever pissed the boss off this much is in for Hell"
"That's what's concerning me," Flug said as he tried unsuccessfully to focus on the blueprints in his lap, "he's hardly ever this angry, and he never just keeps it to himself. He should be- I don't know, throwing things or causing natural disasters, or something"
Demencia didn't agree with Flug often, but as the temperature in the lab seemed to drop more, she nodded.
"Don't worry Flug, I'm sure it'll be our problem soon" she said with a laugh.
Flug didn't have time to chuckle before a voice sounded through all of their minds at the same moment.
Get to my office immediately .
Flug shivered as he and 5.0.5 rose from their position, and Demencia looked around her, shocked.
"I'm… sure Lord Black Hat will want to kiss me when we get up there!" she sang, skittering towards the door.
"Fat chance, he's probably going to murder us"
"Meh, close enough!"
Walking in a line down the hall, the dread built inside all three villains as they drew closer to Black Hat. As silent as telepathy is, their boss sounded mad .
No, it's something worse than mad, something far worse , Flug reasoned as the grand doors came into sight, and he elected Demencia to go first.
"Sure, I'm not scared!" Demencia lied through her teeth as she swung the door back.
"Hiya beautiful!" she called enthusiastically.
"All of you, be silent"
That was the last sound uttered as the other two filed sheepishly into the office and stood in front of their leader. All was silent for a minute, maybe even two, before the black horror stood from his chair with a sigh of annoyance.
"There has been an issue"
"Did we do something wrong, jefecito?" Flug squeaked before he got a hearty glare for his question.
“For once, no. This occurred on a private property of mine, there is no client for you this time”
Flug and Demencia looked at each other in confusion.
“So it’s a private mission? What for?” Demencia questioned.
“Recently, a temple of mine was infiltrated, and a priceless artifact was stolen from me”
In the blink of an eye and a whirl of his hand, Black Hat conjured a replica of the relic in question. It was a rectangular jade box with intricate carvings and pearls inlaid around its edges, with a sparkling sapphire that served as the centerpiece of the lid. The little chest was firmly locked with a golden lock that matched it little golden clawed feet. Although it was clearly hundreds of years old (Flug would date it at “Ming Dynasty- around 1400s. I could be more accurate with some carbon dating”), it was in incredible shape, as if it had been cared for every day since it had been made. 5.0.5 cooed at the sight of the jewelry, Demencia and Flug looking at it in surprise.
“This is your target. I have had it preserved for the past 500 years, it was made in the Tianshan mountains during the Ming dynasty,” Black Hat said quietly, “I want it back, as soon as possible”
“Jefecito, forgive me for asking,” Flug started, “but why is this relic so important?”
“Are you questioning my reasoning?” Black Hat growled.
“No no no! I’m just wondering why you have the time constraint- are we selling it to a client-”
“That, I will tell you in time, but for now it is imperative that you retrieve it, and that you handle it with the utmost care. It’s currently in the hands of a filthy aristocrat by the name of Francois Laurei DuBonitelle”
“Oh I’ve heard of him!” Demencia exclaimed, “He’s like if Indiana Jones was an Ipad kid”
“A French archeologist and collector,” Flug said to himself, “a relic of that age and condition would be quite the prize, especially if he knows how much you want it, sir-”
“Gamble with him, torture him, kill him if you wish,” Black Hat lashed, retreating to his chair once again, “just bring the box back to me unharmed, immediately”
“But hey, you didn’t answer Flug’s question! And I’m curious too!” Demencia whined, much to Flug’s chagrin, “What’s so important about the pretty little decoration? Is it really magic or-”
“ Get on the ship ,” Black Hat snarled in the girl’s face, making her skitter away, “and get on your way, because if you spend another second wasting time -”
“No, no sir- I mean- yes sir! We’re on our way sir!” Flug stammered, grabbing Demencia and 5.0.5 and pushing them out the door.
Black Hat straightened his lapels and tie as he walked back to his desk to sit, glancing out of his window as the sun rose higher into the smog infested sky. Why hadn't they shown up? He'd given it five extra years, he'd been searching endlessly for a sign- for anything. In over 6000 years nothing had ever gone wrong- he wasn't going to let that change now.
Should I tell them all? They don't deserve an explanation from me, I owe them nothing, but they're going to find out either way. If the idiots are going to treat this like a regular mission… I need them to take this seriously.
“It's probably got like- the world's sharpest axe in there or like- maybe the fountain of youth!”
“Demencia, you saw how small that box was. It could be a keepsake of his- you know how sentimental he gets about his career”
“Maybe it's the first ever molecule of the Black Plague!”
Flug gave a shake of his head, before realizing that Demencia's theory could very well be possible. Black Hat was unpredictable at the best of times, and his behavior as of late was so sudden, any guesses as to his reasoning were a shot in the dark.
“I'm still keeping my hopes up for an axe”
“Well you do that, we should be at the target's location in just a few minutes”
“Do I have permission to… snack? ”
“Ugh… fine,” Flug shuddered in abject disgust, “but you have to wait until I'm finished extracting information from him”
Demencia whined in frustration, but that was as close to a “Yes” as Flug would get from her, so he let the subject drop as the ship began her descent into the countryside of Southern France.
A large manor came into view, stark and imposing against the vast landscape that surrounded it for miles. Statues decorated the large front garden, along with elaborate hedge trimmings and enormous fountains, Flug could only assume that the indoors were designed just as lavishly.
“August 30th, 2033,” Flug noted into his watch, “6pm Central Europe Time, we arrived on location on time to rendezvous with our contact-”
“Oh those windows look like they're made out of that old glass,” Demencia squealed loudly, jarring Flug out of his train of thought, “the kind that really shatter”
“Well that isn't our entry point. We've got an in with a cleaner, she'll let us in the service corridors”
Demencia looked off to the right, seeing a very unassuming shed nearby, and Flug walked right up to it.
After three short knocks, the door swung open, a buff woman in dressy work clothes standing behind it.
“You guys got the cash?” she grumbled.
“Yes ma'am” Flug said in a chipper voice, Demencia and 5.0.5 following him into the dark shed that actually had a small staircase leading underground.
“Good. If DuBonitelle finds out I let you in before I'm able to get out of here, I'm vineyard fertilizer”
“Don't worry toots, if we do our job right, there won't be anything left to hire a hit on you” Demencia sniggered, her fangs catching the dim light. The servant actually seemed to take her seriously, leading the team down the hall.
“Everyone is going to be preparing dinner right about now, DuBonitelle should just be in his pool- down that hallway and all the way up the stairs- he should be all alone for the next 40 minutes, but I can buy some extra time if you-”
“No need to worry about that madame,” Flug said, passing her an envelope full of cash- Five million dollars, to be exact- “this should take about 20. Demencia, follow his scent, make us an entrance”
Her grin twisting up the sides of her face, Demencia set off in the direction where the scent of a spoiled rich man was the strongest, Flug and 5.0.5 following close behind. Flug watched the creature skitter up the stairs and out of sight, the sound of loud splashing and commotion following right on cue. Flug entered the room to see that Demencia had jumped into the pool to retrieve the target, and had already thrown him out of the water onto the stone floor. The old man was fat, bloated, and his long grey mustache hung heavy as it dripped with water. He coughed and sputtered, and as he tried to get his bearings, Flug was only grateful that this interrogation would be easy.
Rich guy who only cares about himself- should be a cakewalk.
“Think he's warmed up?” Demencia questioned with a mocking laugh, but Flug kept his attention on the man in front of him.
“Monsieur DuBonitelle, it's a pleasure to meet you,” Flug announced over the man's blubbering, pulling his gloves taught, “I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but we're under a bit of a time crunch!”
“What in God's name- who are you people!”
“You-” Flug said, pressing the man by the throat down to the floor and ignoring his questions, “have recently purchased a very important item- a decorative box if you recall?”
“You're hurting me, you maniac!”
“ Yes , I am . Now, our boss- he really wants that box back, and we aren't allowed to come home until we get it, understand so far?”
“That box- I bought that from a trusted source, you must be mistaken!”
Demencia locked eyes with Flug, as if sensing the nod of affirmation he gave her before he did it. She snarled with glee as she leapt forward, out of the water, stopping just at DuBonitelle's feet. The sudden feel of her presence alone made the man jump in fright, Demencia's grin only widening- she loved to be a predator. Flug had to focus to keep from getting the chills himself as Demencia inched up the frightened man's legs.
“Okay- okay, I didn't know it was yours, I didn't look into where it came from, I just bought it!”
“We really aren't interested in your intentions Monsieur, we came for the box. Lead the way.”
The old man, shaking, scrambled up from the dripping puddle and staggered back down the stairs. Demencia took a moment to snap out of her more animalistic traits, getting up and shaking herself dry before following DuBonitelle and Flug down to a corridors ridden with antiques and rarities.
“Why do you keep saying ‘Monsieur’?” she whispered to Flug as she caught up.
“W-well- I mean he's French, and we're in France and I just thought that-”
“It makes you sound like a geek”
“What- that- shut up, no it doesn't!”
“We've erm- arrived” DuBonitelle weakly announced, snapping the two back to the present.
Amongst the vast collection, inside a small glass case, there was the exact same box as they'd been shown, jewels and all. Demencia grabbed a hold of the casing, delicately lifting it over the box before letting it crash to the floor.
“Tada!” she said, snatching the box up, “We win, we win!”
Flug reached hurriedly for the box, “Demencia- be careful with that! That's very important!”
“Relax Flug, there's not even anything inside it!”
“What- what? How do you know, it has a lock on it!”
Upon closer inspection however (and to Flug's absolute horror), the lock that had once adorned the box was gone, a slightly scratched area where it should have been.
“What is it Doctor?”
“Sir! U-u-um- you sound… really uh… pleased right now?”
“Do not presume to know me, Flug”
“Of course not sir um-”
“However, I am in a bit of a… chipper mood. You see, I know that the only reason you would be calling me right now, is because you have the job done and you are holding my artifact in your hands as we speak. Am I. Correct?”
Flug quivered, the little box sitting heavily, emptily in his hand.
“W-well- well yes-! And… no?”
Silence from the other line scared Flug more than screaming ever could.
“Well uh- the box- it's um… it doesn't have its lock on it. Is it… supposed to be empty?”
Black Hat had grabbed Flug by the arm and forced him up onto his tiptoes before Flug could even realize he'd arrived.
“I am going to ask you this one time Flug,” Black Hat seethed, his low volume doing nothing to conceal the acid in his words, “which one of you degenerates damaged my priceless artifact?”
Demencia perked up as DuBonitelle cowered away from the thing.
“We- we found it here! Like that!” Flug exclaimed in a panic as his toes barely even scraped the ground, “my Lord, it was already broken when we-”
“Names!” Black Hat snarled, forgetting himself and revealing one too many teeth in his uninviting smile, “Give me a name Doctor Flug!”
“M-Monsieur DuBonitelle!” Flug squeaked, trying to hold himself up by his single arm, “He was the target, he had the-”
In an instant Black Hat released Flug's arm, sending him tumbling down to the floor. Flug didn't dare move, he could only grovel, it was the only possible defense left. Even Demencia was silent, choosing to stand by the exit with her attention on the target, in case he attempted to run.
This put her in the perfect position for her to watch Black Hat's hand forcefully cup the back of DuBonitelle's head, forcing their eyes to lock.
“You already know what I want you to tell me,” Black Hat purred with acid on his teeth, “so, let's not delay this any further”
“Oh- oh mon Dieu-”
“N'invoque pas ton Dieu, je suis ton Dieu!” Black Hat's smile fractured a bit more, “What happened to the contents of this box?”
“I-I don't know! It's true- I bought it, and it was already empty, there was never a lock on it!”
“Well then,” Black Hat growled viciously, moving to the side while maintaining his grip on the back of the man's head, “it seems then that the next piece of information I want is who you bought it from?”
The man didn't speak, only sobbed and sniffed, and as a fat tear rolled down his cheek, Black Hat watched it as one would an hourglass, slowly ticking down. The tear reached his black, satin glove, wetting it just at the tip of his thumb.
The fingers of Black Hat's gloves burst as sharp dagger-like claws suddenly dug into DuBonitelle's scalp. The man yelped and tried to squirm away, but it only deepened the cuts on his head, and he eventually stopped struggling at all, he was likely too woozy and agonized to move.
“I can help you!” Flug piped up meekly, looking only at DuBonitelle, “Right now you are losing mass amounts of blood. I can save you, you just have to tell us who you bought this from”
DuBonitelle didn't need further consideration.
“It was a private auction hosted by a friend in the Rockies, I don't know where he got it from- he said it was new- but it was empty when he showed it to us-”
“It's likely they broke the box open and sold its contents as a separate item” Flug muttered, immediately regretting his words.
Black Hat pulled his hand back roughly, leaving deep gashes down DuBonitelle's head, blood now gushing from his scalp. Released, the man fell to the floor, his trembling hands hovering to protect his wounded head. Flug rushed to his side immediately, pulling his disinfectant and bandages out, he even applied a bit of topical anesthetic. He was a doctor at heart after all. Black Hat didn't protest, but turned to Demencia and 5.0.5. Demencia flipped her damp hair over her shoulder, making a kiss at him as she did, and 5.0.5 waved his big paw and scrunched up his nose happily.
“You two, get back to the ship. Flug, finish quickly with him, then you'll find this auctioneer”
Flug nodded quickly, focusing on his wrappings, “If we can interrogate the man who auctioned off the box, we can figure out where he sold- whatever it was”
“Yeah, what is it anyway?” Demencia asked loudly.
Flug wished he could put his hand over her mouth, but it was already too late. Black Hat snarled harshly as the girl.
“We will talk about this later!”
Demencia needed no further encouragement, and she ushered 5.0.5 out of her way before they were both scurrying back down the hall.
“Now,” Flug pardoned himself to the patched up man, “about that friend in the Rockies monsieur?”
Black Hat had been silent when Flug returned to the ship, the scientist checking shakily over his shoulder as he made his way down the hall. Reaching the ship was an odd comfort, Demencia and 5.0.5 sitting in the chilled, sterile air. Reaching for the control panel with a rarely ungloved hand, he typed in the coordinates that were still fresh in his mind. After all, after he and Black Hat had finished, DuBonitelle had been screaming them from the top of his lungs.
“Cool scar alert!” Demencia called out as Flug shuddered.
“Do you have to call it out every time you see my hands?”
“It's an occasion! I never see your hands!”
“There's a reason for that,” Flug spat, reaching into one of his many bags for a replacement glove, “and… the other glove was contaminated ”
“Fun interrogation huh?”
“ Messy ,” Flug sighed, chuckling as 5.0.5 gently pushed his water bottle into his hands, “you're a sweet boy mi hijo”
The ship rumbled as it began to lift itself into the air, flying east as ordered. 5.0.5 buckled himself in as he'd been taught, Demencia did not.
“So, what happened? Did you figure out what was in the box?”
Flug gulped down his water as he snapped on a new glove.
“No, I only know where we're going next. The boss didn't mention anything about what we're looking for”
“Come on, it's got to be an axe in there, right?”
“Ugh- would you shush? We have no way of knowing, all we can do is go to the next location and ask the man we- oh stars !”
A flash of red on the big screen cut him off with a loud whine as Black Hat interrupted its frequencies, glaring down from the projected image with distaste.
“Did you think I wouldn't be giving you another briefing, Doctor? ” he chuckled mockingly as Flug struggled to steady his shaking legs.
“Ooh- can we know what's inside the box now?” Demencia asked eagerly.
“Of course I'm going to tell you what you are looking for, I want you to find the damned thing!” the villain hissed, giving his finger a twirl as another conjured image appeared.
This time, it was a simple leather bound journal. It looked old, very old, worn and even singed in some places, but the pages themselves appeared to be completely intact. A thick strap sealed it shut, though it was only a simple buckle.
“A book?” Demencia whined, slumping and earning a disapproving glare from both Black Hat and Flug, “I thought it was something fun!”
“This was never about fun,” the eldritch seethed, “your only purpose for being here- for being alive at this moment- is to get me that book!”
Flug, Demencia and 5.0.5 took another look at the book before agreeing with a nod of their heads.
“We won't let you down sir!” Flug confirmed.
“Don't make promises you never manage to keep. Go”
With that, the screen cleared and the image of the journal vanished. The three waited in silence for a few beats, making sure Black Hat was gone, and that they could speak freely.
“What's so important about a creepy old book that's got him so riled up?” Demencia asked finally, her tone less enamored than it usually would be, and Flug could see the genuine curiosity- and maybe even concern in her face.
“I have no idea… but what I do know is that we are very close to finding out!” Flug stated, his grin somehow visible through his bag.
“What are you talking about?”
“Even if Black Hat won't tell us why it's so important- he never said we couldn't read it. Whatever is in there, it'll have to at least give us a clue!”
“Ooh, we're gonna do a bit of sleuthing, huh?” Demencia smiled, mischief in her eyes, “and maybe it gives us the location of some secret axe!”
“What is with you and axes today?”
“I haven't gotten to use one in a while!”
“Well our next target just needs to tell us where the book is, depending on how hard it is to get him to talk… maybe”
Demencia looked over at her haphazardly stacked collection of weapons, eyeing the axe at the bottom of the pile with malicious excitement.
“That’s good enough for now”
“Please- please stop !”
Demencia giddily twirled her large battle axe on her arms, the heel of her shoe digging into the back of his hand. The man was scrawny, but very well prepared for attacks, Flug had to disarm him seven different times before Demencia finally got him on the ground.
“We will stop Mr. Durante,” Flug called, his ray gun still smoking from their target’s last attempt to run, “all you have to do is tell us who you sold that book to”
“You must understand,” the little man pleaded, watching as Demencia’s gaze flicked maliciously between her axe and the joint at his wrist, “I guarantee my buyers complete confidentiality-”
“Oh I understand completely,” Flug assured him genuinely, “we offer the same respect to our clients, it’s pretty much unspoken law that villains keep things between hush hush and all- but I want it to be very clear that we don’t care about your company policy”
“Layman’s terms, either start talking, or no more hands!” Demencia snarled with glee.
Mr Durante seemed to almost give in, before his hand flew for the tiny blade hidden in his boot. Demencia’s other foot came down hard on his arm, the handle still clutched in his hand as she pressed down.
“Please Mr Durante, nobody here wants you to lose your hand, make this easy for all of us”
“I can’t tell you- m-my client was incredibly clear that they didn’t want anyone to know-”
Flug had stopped listening at the word “can’t”, and simply looked to Demencia with a quirk of his brow.
The girl winked at him, steadying her weapon in her hands.
“Look buddy, Flug kind of said it the wrong way-”
“Excuse me?” Flug looked offended.
“ He doesn’t want you to lose your hand. I have been missing the sound of gushing arteries and the smell of broken bones! So you can either tell me where to find your guy, or you can tell me which hand you’d rather lose!”
“Please-”
“That sounds like ‘Take the left one’ to me!” Demencia chuckled, raising the axe over her head and taking not-so careful aim.
“Wait- wait I can give you the address!”
Flug smiled, pleased, “Well there you are Mr Durante, was that so- Demencia stop it he gave us our answers! ”
Demencia, who had still been preparing to slam the axe down on Mr Durante’s wrist, groaned in frustration as she lowered her weapon once again.
“Oh come on- he took too long!”
“That wasn’t the deal, and we’re all villains here- we need to at least have honor among ourselves”
Demencia begrudgingly took her foot off of his arm, grumbling angrily as she stepped away from the target. Flug took her place, a notepad in hand as he looked at Durante expectantly.
“J-just-” the man whimpered, looking shaken at the sight of his hand, still attached to him, “let me check my books”
“Good, you do that” Demencia snarked mockingly, looking at the blade of her axe with longing in her eyes.
The man scampered sheepishly over to his desk, pulling out a well kept log of his clients.
“Take your time Mr Durante, we have all afternoon, but the moment we get our information, the moment we leave”
Mr Durante nodded quickly, flipping hastily through the pages and scanning for-
“Something within the last nine months- yes here, the location is 9.101-”
Mr Durante was cut off by his own scream of horror as Demencia’s axe slammed into his foot. The end of his shoe rolled to its side, revealing the bloody mess inside. Mr Durante continued to panic and scream in agony as the exposed meat gushed blood. His screaming too, was cut off, this time by a swift, and accurate injection of valium to his bicep. Within a few moments, Mr Durante was on the floor, fast asleep.
“Demencia!” Flug shouted at the girl, as he began to tend to the man’s wound, “he was going to give us the information, why did you-”
“Because he was just gonna give us a lousy coordinate!” Demencia interrupted, pulling her axe from the floorboards, “Now we can look at the whole book!”
“You’re lucky I’m a doctor, or you could have lost us a future business proposition!”
Flug removed a special salve from his pocket, throwing the syringe he’d used into a different pocket. Demencia held her hand out and Flug, after taking a finger’s scoop of the medicine, passed it to her. He’d made this salve especially for these kinds of situations- he’d used his own research of white blood cell composition to create a salve that could heal cuts without scarring in a matter of hours.
Demencia dropped herself into the cozy desk chair and applied some of the salve to a few cuts she’d sustained over the fight with Durante, the slight stinging feeling completely familiar to her. In her other hand, she snatched up the logbook and looked through it.
“Items, uhhhh… wow this guy sells a lot of stuff! The Shpinx’s lost nose, the first brick from the Great Wall of China, Nixon’s pacifier… this guy’s had it all!”
“Well, if he’s successful enough to locate one of Black Hat’s most hidden properties and bribe one of his most devoted followers, these things would be child’s play” Flug acknowledged, gingerly pushing the dismembered half of Mr Durante’s foot back into what was left of his shoe. It’d be mostly reattached by the time that he woke up, he’d be fine.
“I’d hate to be one of those poor rubes,” Demencia cackled, “bet that traitor is more than six feet under!”
The girl’s eyes skimmed down the ‘Items’ column.
Scroll from the Library of Alexandria, the tip of Mount Everest, Madame LaLaurie’s personal thumbs screws-
“Hey look, I think I found it!” she exclaimed sitting up, “‘Exploratory Journal of Mirena de La Tientera, sold nine months ago to ‘Luiz Alamilla’, at -9.101 -75.662”
“That’s somewhere in the Amazon Jungle!” Flug sighed exasperatedly, standing up and looking at the logbook with her, “It feels like we’ve been flying all over the world today”
“We have been!” Demencia laughed, “First France, now Canada, and we’ll finish off our mission in Brazil somewhere”
“Peru actually,” Flug corrected her, more interested in the title he was reading, “Mirena de La Tientera… it must be full of the things she’s discovered”
“But what does the boss care?” Demencia asked, standing and following Flug as he walked back towards the elevator that they had entered from, “He’s been everywhere in the world, and his memory is like a bear trap, what’s so special about this old book full of things he already knows?”
“I told you, you know how sentimental he can get. She probably discovered something of his and jotted down something he liked”
Trying to land the Hatship with the dense canopy of the Amazon jungle blocking all view of the ground was Hell, so Flug eventually let Demencia out to use her axe on the unsuspecting trees in their way.
Demencia watched the ship lower itself onto the stumps she’d left behind and took a deep breath in. The closer she was to the equator, the better. She smiled when she felt a mosquito land on her arm, and she dug her hand into the mud at her feet. She slapped the bug and spread the muddy mess all over her arm. It would keep her cool, and keep more mosquitoes from attacking her there, just like mother had taught her.
“Demencia, could you try not to ruin your clothes for one day?” Flug called with disgust, making his way gingerly through the underbrush.
“It’s healthy!” Demencia said proudly, smearing the remaining mud ans bug guts across her left cheek, Flug rolling his eyes and pulling out his GPS device.
“ Okay , I landed us about one hundred meters away, so it shouldn’t be too bad of a walk to the entrance” he said quietly, gesturing after a moment for Demencia to lead the way.
The lizard woman looked at the thick underbrush, then decided to prop her axe up against a tree. She reached into the rip in her tights at her knee, pulling out and unsheathing a large hunting knife.
“Bear!” she yelled suddenly, Flug flinching to cover his ears, “Don’t let anybody steal my axe while we’re gone!”
“Demencia, we’re in the middle of the Amazon Jungle, miles away from even the nearest uncontacted tribes, no one is going to steal your-”
“What else is he gonna do, scrub the floor a fourth time?”
Demencia slashed at the bush in front of her, slicing branches out of her way as she led Flug through the jungle.
“Demencia,” Flug started, his realization slowly coming to him, “get ready for a quiz”
“A- a quiz? Now ?!” Demencia questioned with a whine, taking her frustration out on a nearby sapling.
“I haven’t been good about continuing your education lately and-”
“I was having such a good time on our mission, and you just had to bring up your stupid ‘curriculum’-”
“Come on, please? It’ll be fun! I’ll make it easy for you- oh, what animal made that sound?”
Demencia furrowed her brow. She’d grown up in the Amazon, of course she knew what that call was, the answer was simple.
Howler monkey, hard to catch, but makes for a pretty decent meal if you can manage it.
Still, she hated being quizzed.
“Sounds like a broken engine to me”
“Demencia, I know that you know this” Flug sighed in exasperation.
“Then why quiz me at all?” Demencia asked distantly, as she spotted a tiny structure up ahead. It was a cement block, and as Demencia approached, she saw a large metal trapdoor on the top of it. She didn't think much of it, reaching into her hood for one of the sticks of dynamite.
“It is important to keep your mind fresh,” Flug protested, watching her use an old, chewed on lighter to light the wick, “and since you don't do it yourself, I have to!”
Demencia rolled her eyes as she and Flug jogged to the cover of the treeline.
“No you don't, I am just-” Demencia paused to cover her ears and duck behind a large root as the explosive went off, and she waited until the bits of concrete and metal had stopped whizzing past her, “fine the way I am!”
“If you are so ‘fine’, then you could answer the question with no trouble”
Demencia’s eye twitched. She didn't like quizzes, but what really peeved her was someone suggesting that she was stupid. Specifically Flug suggesting that she was stupid.
Instead of responding, she merely used his head as her leverage to push herself off the ground, and made her way straight to the door. The concrete had busted out more than the door had, and Demencia managed to pry the metal out of her way enough to make it inside. Inside it smelled old, as if this place had been mostly inactive for decades, a steep concrete staircase leading down into darkness ahead of her. Flug fit through the gap with no trouble, following her down the steps, turning his belt light on, and illuminating the entire area around them as they descended.
“You know, quizzes aren't supposed to be so upsetting,” Flug said in a whisper, seeming to not hear Demencia's groan of annoyance, “maybe if we just call it ‘trivia practice’-”
Demencia made a loud buzzer sound. “That's just a quiz that you take for no reason”
“Demencia be quiet, we don't know if we're alone down here!” Flug whispered harshly.
“Well then stop talking to me about your stupid quizzes!” Demencia hissed back.
Demencia's foot hit something different, tile perhaps, and she noticed the stairs had stopped, and there was a very large and very dark room ahead of them. Flug turned up the brightness on his lamp, it still didn't illuminate the entire place, but it did reveal a stand in front of them. It held a metal helmet, slightly rusted, with a large fin stretching from the front to the back and brims that came together into a sharp point at the ends. In front of it was an equally worn sword, a rapier with a beautiful iron handle and pommel.
“Hey, it's one of those old conqueror things!” Demencia said, tapping it with her finger.
“It's a morion,” Flug clarified, “but yes, it was widely used by the Spanish conquistadors while taking over the South Americas”
The scientist looked down and saw a tiny card behind a small slide of glass.
“Iron helmet and personal rapier of- wait what?!” Flug suddenly shouted, excitedly shoving Demencia out of the way to read the label closer.
“I thought we were supposed to be quiet!” Demencia snapped, angrily catching her balance.
“But Demencia- this is the original helmet and sword of Hernan Cortez ! The rapier is pretty easy to know about, but this helmet- as far as the historian community was concerned, his helmet was lost to time!”
“So we've got a real enthusiast” Demencia noted with a chuckle, her interest minimal.
A spot on the wall caught her eye, and she went straight for it. Flug jumped in fright as the room was suddenly bright, and he scrambled for his own light.
The giant room, now entirely visible, was filled with similar artifacts. Lances, suits of armor, crucifixes, jewelry, gold coins, all neatly displayed and well protected. The walls were decorated with old Spanish Flags, some barely even threads anymore. There were woven baskets, blankets, shackles, and even several wooden, clay, and stone burro figures.
The room was circular and continued down several stories, a wide spiral staircase visible going along the wall to their left.
“Well, looks like someone found their niche” Demencia remarked, looking around.
“God… rich people are so weird ,” Flug said with a grimace, he couldn't decide whether to respect the collector's ambition, or be disgusted by their obsession, “this is just so- so odd to be so interested with just the Conquistadors”
“Hey, don't bash rich people. We work for a rich people”
“He's not people Demencia”
“Yeah, he's weirder”
Flug rolled his eyes, scanning over the room before Demencia pointed off towards the back.
“Hey, there's a bunch of bookshelves down there!”
Demencia was pointing down two levels behind a few old chests of drawers at a few bookshelves that looked full to bursting. Flug followed the excitable girl at a walk as she scurried down the staircase, quickly getting out of his sight. Demencia reached her destination with a loud “YES!”, and Flug finally caught sight of her going over the books slowly but surely. To be frank, it wasn't that many books, if Flug were to guess, there were maybe 250, but they were all 300 year old, leather bound books. Demencia looked over the tags sticking out of each one, but was so far having no luck.
“Ugh, Columbus’ journal, Cortez's journal, blah blah blah…” she groaned.
“Demencia, don't you know how to navigate a library?”
“Ask me that again”
“... fine . You're supposed to go alphabetically by last name”
Demencia looked at him blankly, so Flug gave up, instead going straight down the shelf of books.
“Her last name could have been categorized with the D from ‘de la’, or T from ‘Tiantera’. I'll check the D section, and you-”
“Pfft, you would want the ‘D’ section-”
“And you go check the T section!”
Demencia walked away cackling, as Flug started frustratedly looking through the book collection.
“You know I thought we were going to have a lot more fun on this adventure!” Demencia called from the other side of the shelf, “we're wasting our day in a combo museum-library”
“This is certainly not a waste,” Flug called back, finding a book with author's last name being ‘de la Alma’, “well, libraries and museums are fun for one thing-”
“HA! Aren’t you like- 37? Shouldn’t you have like, a hobby-”
“I- I have plenty of hobbies, and I just turned 30 thank you very much-”
“Or a girlfriend ?-”
“ Also if this will make the boss happy and put things back to normal, it is 100% worth combing through a weird guy's journal collection”
Demencia actually seemed to relent at that, and Flug congratulated himself on this small victory.
“Ohhh, alouatta seniculus!” Demencia exclaimed triumphantly, catching Flug off guard.
“See- I knew you knew the answer, why wouldn't you just say it earlier?” he questioned, coming around to her side of the shelf. The girl was looking inside the cover.
“‘Hallazgos Exploratorios de Mirena De La Tientera’, yup, this is it!” she grinned, passing the book to Flug, who looked at the rest of the inside of the book.
“The first entry is marked at 1725… good lord Demencia, do you have any idea how amazing it is that it's in such good condition?” Flug asked with excitement.
“Nope!” Demencia shrugged, “But we can read it when we get back to the ship”
“What are you doing here?”
Flug yelped and flung himself around. Standing in a doorway at the other end of the room, was a man nearing his 90s. He was frail, his tan skin withered with time, but his eyes held no malice. He only looked… worried.
“Uhh… it seems you have purchased something that belongs to us,” Flug chuckled nervously, “sorry to bother you, we were just going to take our book and be on our way”
“We blew up your door”
“ Demencia ”
“I don't care about the door,” the man spoke with a thick, Spanish accent, “but that book- it is my property by right”
“There's no way you should even know this stupid book exists, it's been locked up for two hundred and something years!”
The old man chuckled, leaning himself on a wooden cane, never coming closer. “You do not know me. My name is Luiz Alamilla. The writer of that book, Mirena, she was my great grandmother, eight generations back”
Demencia and Flug looked at each other as the man continued to speak.
“Abuela Mirena, she was married and had two children, one of which was my Abuelo Ernesto. One night, she ran away from her family, took their money, and bought a charter to the Spanish colony New Granada. She had always had wild fantasies- exploring the new world in its entirety. Once Ernesto grew up, he went to New Granada looking for his mother, but when he arrived, he learned that Mirena had become something of local terror. The locals saw her entering and exiting the jungle as she pleased, the animals of the forest wouldn't touch her, she had no house that anyone knew of, misfortune followed her everywhere she went”
“Let me guess,” Flug started, “she was making a contract with Black Hat”
“She became one of his servants! She cast blood on our family's hands, supporting a creature so vile. All my abuelo Ernesto could do was try to undo the evils she caused- as well as the evils of all the other explorers like her”
Demencia looked over the frail man with skepticism.
“Okay- and just how are you gonna stop us from taking it?” she mocked.
The old man's face deepened, and his frail hand lifted from his cane as he reached for the wall. With the simple button press, the door he'd come from slammed shut. Demencia tried ramming her body through it, but she quickly realized that the wood paneling was reinforced with some kind of metal, and she wouldn't be able to get through it herself.
“Shit” she hissed, turning to look at Flug just before they were suddenly hit by a deafening explosion from above them.
“Do you have to taunt every target?” Flug asked in exasperation as they ran back to their entry point, confirming both of their fears. Luiz had rigged his own explosives in the staircase, and with that one button press, he had blown them completely, leaving only rubble.
“Oh God” Flug groaned in anxiety, examining the rock pile and dialing something into his wrist watch.
“Uh- hello? Oh there you are mijo- how is my precious baby boy doing? Ohh , you have such a cute little nose-”
“Bear!” Demencia screamed, grabbing Flug's watch and bringing the microphone to her face, “We're trapped, walk in the direction we went in and bring the big dynamite!”
“You don't have to yell at him!” Flug scolded her, though 5.0.5 only gave a dutiful affirmative in response.
“You were taking too long!”
Flug groaned aloud, slamming his back into the wall next to him and sliding down. Demencia did the same right next to him after a moment, knowing they were going to be stuck there until 5.0.5 figured out how to blow the exit open without killing himself.
“Hey!” Demencia suddenly sat up to look at Flug, “Since we're not doing anything, this is the PERFECT time to read that book!”
Flug blinked, as if he'd forgotten entirely what was in his hand, before he realized.
“Oh- right, of course, okay”
Flug opened the back cover and immediately noticed the insignia on the inside. It was old, he'd never seen it like this before, but the top hat would always give it away.
“Well that solves that mystery,” Demencia laughed, “so this is our great great great great great great great great great grand coworker!”
Flug looked at the last few pages, ignoring her rambling.
“This thing is full to the brim,” he muttered, “I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the original binding it came with, the author clearly added so many more pages to this thing…”
Flug opened back to the first entry, May 12th, of 1725. The entire journal was written in Spanish, but Flug, being very well versed in Spanish, had no trouble reading it. Demencia, who had learned Spanish as her first language, was able to understand him perfectly well as he read it aloud.
“Twelfth of May, 1725.
“Whether my life becomes something greater than itself, or ends up as small as all others, this moment will live on in infamy in at least this mind. To begin a summary of my circumstances I have, for my whole life, been plagued with the knowledge of my own ignorance. I have known nothing of life outside of Spain, outside of marriage, or child rearing. I learn so much from my family and children, they teach me what nothing else can, but at the same time they restrict my mind tighter than any chain could restrict my hands. I know them, so I must know nothing else.
“Tonite I have said ‘Chains be damned’! I have left my family, my beautiful sons, to aid in our pursuit to make the unknown, known. We are two weeks into the course, weather is holding well, has been all season long. I have never seen such vastness of ocean- or fish as plenty! I fear I may grow tired of fish by the end of our journey, and I will never eat it again”
“Ugh, you and me both sister,” Flug shuddered mostly to himself, “cooked fish is truly disgusting”
“Yeah, I prefer them live too” Demencia nodded.
“No- just- I don't want live fish”
“Fine, then you aren't getting any of mine!”
“I find a strange peace in writing my thoughts down in this notebook. The pages of recipes, grocery lists, measurements, I ripped them all from this very book and left them to my sons. They are strong boys, they and their father will do well, but they will need my recipes’ help, bless them. I have changed the purpose of this journal as I have changed the purpose of myself, and with hope both will fill with adventure and life”
“So she abandoned her family for the life of a researcher!” Demencia said, genuinely interested as Flug skimmed over the next few entries, “well, there's worse things to leave your kids for”
“She probably wouldn't have made a good mother anyways,” Flug said nonchalantly, “if she didn't like how she was living, she couldn't have really loved those kids, it would have made her miserable. She keeps writing about them though”
Demencia nodded along. “Maybe she did join up with Black Hat back then, and she just became a weird jungle witch”
“It would make sense that he'd want to keep around some of her old research, if not for his nostalgia then for something she likely researched for him,” Flug said, closing the journal and placing it securely in Demencia's hair, “I'll go over it more on the ship. Heck, maybe this is what the boss wanted it for, some research or project of hers he wants me to pick back up again”
“Well, that sounds like so much fun, but the sooner that bear blows us out of here the better” Demencia said with a stretch.
“Where are you 5.0.5?” Flug muttered anxiously.
Demencia lifted herself off the ground and strode straight for the pile of rubble at the staircase.
“Come on bear, bust us out all-”
Demencia was cut off by a loud explosion just feet from her, 5.0.5 detonating the charges to blow open the opening. The rock blasted past her as she barely shielded her eyes in time. She coughed and glared at the now larger hole in the entrance, the bear smiling happily back at her.
“A little warning next time, huh?” she snapped.
5.0.5 lowered his ears guiltily, trying his best to help her out of the ground. Flug was about to follow, but he paused. If this man was so determined to keep this book from Black Hat, who knew what lengths he'd go to next to stop them. Plus, there was a strange pull to know more about the descendant they'd just robbed, and...
“Demencia-” Flug called, drawing one of his rays from his coat pocket, “I'm going to stay behind and finish out the job- just to make sure”
“Can I come?”
“No, the boss is really antsy for that book back, just take it now and I'll call a charter later”
Demencia huffed, but ultimately turned to leave. She'd get to read more of the book on the way back on her own, and Flug wouldn't pester her to buckle up or to stop rocking the ship the whole way.
“Come on fluffs, he's just tying up loose ends,” she responded to 5.0.5's pointing at the hole in the ground where his papa had yet to emerge, “he'll be home with us later, we have to reap the rewards for a mission well done!”
“Ha, not likely!” Flug called from within, Demencia gritting her teeth. It's like he knew when she was about to start daydreaming, and he always had to pop her bubble.
“Hope you get lost down there nerd!” she called, 5.0.5 calling his own version of “I love you, be safe!”, before he toddled behind Demencia back to the ship.
“Say bear,” Demencia started, smacking the button to have the ship's autopilot set course for home, “you know how you've always wanted Flug to let you watch the ship drive? Well I think you're ready, make sure we don't crash into anything”
5.0.5 was delighted, getting out of his carseat and cheerfully looking out of the front window. The sky was clear, no danger possible, so Demencia plopped herself down on the soft cushion of the seats, pulled the book out from her hair, and flipped it closer to the middle.
“ Sixteenth of August, 1725.
“My hostel has, once again, been most welcoming. After 14 hours of trekking through jungles that know no king or queen, I come back in the evenings to curiosity and, at the very least, a sympathetic ear.
“Yesterday was the hottest so far, but the Lord, who has blessed me with a love of exploration, has blessed the forests with shade and rain storms.
“Natives are proving to be far less of a problem than the colonists make them out to be, their way of speaking and behaving does take time to understand and emulate, but when translated correctly, their intentions tend to be kinder than any Spaniard I've ever known.
“The strange things I continue to hear in the jungle also continue to elude me. I know from them, however, that I am supposed to be here. I will continue my research, I don't know my destination, but I have my direction.”
“Ooh, hallucinations!” Demencia squealed, “I've always wanted one of those”
“Hope you get lost down there nerd!”
5.0.5 called out something garbled, but it sounded worried and genuine, and after a moment, Flug scoffed at Demencia's playground level insult, then made his way quietly back down into the storage hall.
The door that Luiz had come from was secure, yes, but not impenetrable. Flug took one good shot at the knob and it popped right open for him. Inside it was- small. Cozy even, though it was claustrophobic compared to the giant collection outside. It was a little patio, as if he'd just stepped back in from a garden. Shaking off the initial confusion, he ran into the next room. It was a well furnished living room, spacious, and Flug could only wonder how long Alamilla had been sustaining himself down here. He continued deeper into the house, straining to hear anything, which he did. A gasping sound from somewhere distant, like an old man at the end of his rope.
Flug made his way quickly but cautiously towards the sound, finding a large office room, filled with books. Luiz was there, sitting in a chair, his hand on his chest, weak from running.
“What now?” Luiz asked, his voice low as he glared at Flug with defiance, “Kill the rest of my family bloodline that your benefactor cursed three hundred years ago?”
“No,” Flug said thoughtfully, “not yet. I want to know what else you know about Mirena. Did she ever have a moniker or pseudonym or villain name-”
“No!” Luiz said firmly, coughing a bit, “Everyone knew who she was, everyone . They connected my abuelo Ernesto to her and it ruined his life, he never returned to España, worried that the rumors would spread. His granddaughter- my grandmother told this story to me, and I carried this tradition on”
“Family life isn't for everyone,” Flug said coldly, “abuelo should never have gone looking for her. He should have let her memory die for your family, but now you're here”
“Was it foolish to miss his mother?” Luiz exclaimed hoarsely.
“Of course not, but it was foolish to act on it. What did he think would happen- that the woman who abandoned his family would be a saint? That she'd have a change of heart? His hint was her leaving, he tangled himself and you it seems into this mess”
“What will that… monster do with my book?” the old man asked after a moment of strained silence.
“No clue,” Flug said nonchalantly, “whatever it is, I'm not supposed to ask questions”
At that, Luiz chuckled.
“I've lived like this my whole life- dirty money, going above the law, and with all my years… I can think of nothing else I would have preferred more than to have a family. A home to go to”
“Then you should have been more like Mirena ,” Flug said, trading his ray for a canister, “and done what you wanted with your life”
Flug tossed the gas canister into the room, briskly walking back out of the house as the coughs got louder. He'd die of a heart attack in a few minutes, he honestly would have pretty soon after, even if Flug hadn't thrown the gas. He shut the door gently behind him, and left the poor old fool to his death.
As far as Demencia could tell, Mirena had likely stumbled into one of Black Hat's rituals, or was at very least the subject of one. A few more entries in, she had started seeing things- blurs in the corners of her eyes. Black Hat had that effect on some people.
“More ravens today. What do they mean? I prefer notes passed, ink written down, not being stalked by birds of all things. Why is it that I am so confrontational with just the thought of what's responsible? I am beginning to think I should move into the forest permanently, the townspeople are beginning to whisper about me. The less they see of me, the better. I feel greater fulfillment, and even greater companionship with whatever lives in those wild trees than I ever have from any of mankind.
“I have mapped over 30 leagues of previously unexplored jungle. I never devoted myself this much for my children, my husband. My inability to stop thinking about my family is worrying me- it may be as difficult for them as it is for me to move on, or perhaps even more”
“Flug has no clue what he's talking about!” Demencia remarked out loud, ignoring 5.0.5's response, “She thinks about her kids all the time, she didn't just not love them”
5.0.5 nodded, a bit confused, but supportive. He garbled something else too, but Demencia hadn't really been listening in the first place.
“Nineteenth of February, 1729,
“I have returned in one piece, and once again the villagers have raided my things in the hostel. Of course, nothing of any true importance is kept in my room at the hostel, I wouldn't be surprised if I came back to all these things sold, and another person in this room. I don't feel that I would be too hurt by it either. I am not one of them, though they tried to welcome me, I never tried to join their settlement. I belong in the jungle- I still hear those calls.
“Whatever I've found, it's been waiting for me, Black Hat told me himself.
“He makes me feel strange, like I'm meeting an old friend, but still I am no closer to knowing him. He is strange to me, he speaks in languages I've never heard, but I always understand his words. He looks at me, and in one eye I find more life than I ever saw in either eye of my husband.
“I must know him deeper. I must commit myself to this as far as needed to get my answers. If not to know why I feel these strange things, then to put my own heart at rest. I must let him show me that he is a beast too monstrous to love, then I can run from him”
Demencia blinked, her senses telling her something completely different from what she could consider to be true. This girl- she wasn't falling in love with Black Hat, was she? Somewhere, Flug was likely scolding her, saying “That's what happens when you skip ahead in a book!”
Impatient, she ignored the instructions she knew Flug would give her and flipped straight to the back of the book, finding a handwritten letter, delicately tucked into the last back of the book. It was different paper, less aged, and the ink wasn't as smudged, but it was still clearly Mirena's handwriting. The only problem was that it seemed to be covered in blood.
“December 19th, 1805,” -
“Wow, time jump!”
“We have said all this before, and we will say it again for an eternity to come. I don't want to go, I know it will hurt you, and if I could choose it, I would never leave. All I can do, darling, is say we will see each other again, as I have before. I will never ask you to wait for me, but my love, I know you will regardless, you have given me your loyalty freely, as I have given you mine.
“This book contains my explorations, my studies, a lifetime of my treasures, but most importantly, it offers a unique insight into a state of mind I can no longer understand. Who I was before I found you- how small and empty I seemed! I look back at myself like one would look at a sickly child with pity (and yes, I know you would look with humor)! I have given my life to you, and while I couldn't be more grateful for the years I gave you, I can only wish I had found you sooner than I did, and that I had stayed long enough to say goodbye.
“You could never be too monstrous for me to love,
“Mirena, as of now”
Demencia read that letter over and over until she felt the jarring landing of the autopilot. Flug would have landed it much smoother than that. She was still staring at the journal as she was deboarding the craft into the hangar. She and 5.0.5 were both prepared to walk all the way to Black Hat's office from there, but they were suddenly gripped in what felt like icy black water, blinded for a moment until they arrived in Black Hat's office, chilled and disoriented.
“Give me,” Black Hat sounded simultaneously angry and giddy as he growled and extended his talons, “that book”
Demencia didn't need any further convincing. Whether Black Hat would know that she'd read it or not, her best bet was getting it into his hands and out of hers. Black Hat's demeanor almost changed as he took the book into his claws, there was a moment of -contentment?‐ in his manner, before his gaze returned to Demencia and 5.0.5.
“You two…” he said with a long pause, clearly debating something to himself, “where is Doctor Flug?”
“He stayed back to murder the old guy, now who was the girl who wrote this book-”
“Silence!” the demon hissed, clutching the journal close, and Demencia's question was dropped then and there.
Black Hat laid the book on his desk, flipping through its pages with a face that Demencia couldn't quite read. He paused on that last page, reading it as if it were the first time- and maybe it was. He delicately ripped a blank piece of a page, taking the fragment and inspecting it for a moment before approaching a large wardrobe, and inside were several objects that Demencia guessed had been used in hundreds of seances and rituals. Black Hat lifted an ancient looking oil burner from the shelf, placing it delicately on his desk. With a flourish of his quill, he pierced his own arm, using his own blood to write the name Mirena de la Tiantera on the scrap. He laid the paper ink-side down in the oil and lit the flame beneath it, watching the deep crimson liquid begin to swallow the paper.
“There are going to be changes around this manor” he grumbled, his eye locking onto his two present employees, “and for the sake of hoping you buffoons can adjust smoothly with some warning, I will tell you what your mission was about”
Flug strode out confidently, a rare occurrence, but since he was blessedly alone, he had no one to be nervous about. The chirping of wild birds and distant animal calls were relaxing, and he took a moment to breathe in the calm. He had greatly exaggerated the difficulty of his task, knowing that it might buy him a little peace and quiet for the afternoon before he had to go home. He pushed a button on his watch, the nearest helicopter charter that the organization had partnered with beginning to veer towards him. He'd be out of the jungle in about an hour or so, which maybe gave him an hour for lunch at some quiet cafe somewhere.
Part of him wanted to get back to the manor as soon as possible, his curiosity about the book getting the best of him, but as the hot sun hit him and he waited against a tree, he knew he needed some time to unwind, he'd earned it. He never thought that the sound of helicopter blades would be comforting, but as he heard them approach slowly, minute by minute, his shoulders lost some of their tension. He allowed himself to go over his mental lists, but more casually, as the helicopter descended into the previous clearing.
I need to check up on the bioluminescent gene sampling, then go over Demencia's requests for the grocery lists, check 5.0.5 for any tangles, but then again, depending on what the boss thinks of our mission, it's not all guaranteed…
Flug didn't pay attention as he took the hand of whomever was flying the- oh.
The woman was tall, with strong arms and legs, and she clearly did this all the time as she hoisted him up into the passenger seat with one arm, a bit too fast for Flug’s legs to keep up, and she offered him his headset with the other. Flug scrambled to fix his headset before his seatbelt, desperate to break the awkward, talkless minute they'd so far spent together.
“-ear me gringo?” a voice came in from the radio set.
“Ye- yes I can hear you” Flug said loudly, adjusting his seatbelt and preparing to co-pilot, if need be.
“Oh great- what in the world are you doing all the way out here?!”
“Uh- it's work related, I just need to get to the nearest city- preferably one with coffee”
“Well I know a good place, we'll be there in about forty five minutes!”
Flug nodded and watched the ground grow further away. He much preferred the Amazon at this distance, where he could watch everything that happened from a safe spot.
I'll take my time today, I’ll have time to think about all that when I get back to the lab. Maybe I could surprise the boss by transferring onto the computer so we wouldn’t lose the information again-
He was thrown out of his thoughts by the sudden jerking of the craft, a harsh sound of deforming metal causing him to yelp in fright.
“Que diantres?!” the pilot screamed, pulling hard on the yoke to regain control of the craft. Flug’s head whipped around to see flames had erupted from the side of the helicopter, the wind whipping harshly through a large gash in the side of the cockpit. He cursed himself for not expecting this, hurriedly trying to help the woman next to him get them to safety, but a second, larger burst of heat and force from the tail end sent them whirling towards the ground.
“We have to jump!” Flug shouted, frantically throwing his seatbelt off of him in an all too familiar fashion.
“No, we can still get ourselves back in the air-”
“This is an attack, we need to get out of here!”
With no other options and no hope of convincing the pilot to jump ship, Flug quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and threw the door next to him open, and within seconds he was falling through the air, the ground approaching rapidly as his fumbling hands finally managed to flip the proper lever on his belt, his own parachute deploying likely far too late for the fall to be painless, but he would survive.
Above him, he watched the helicopter split in half with another small explosion as the fire reached the gas tank, the heat painful even through his clothes and bag. He knew the pilot was most likely dead by now, and even if he had cared about her, he had no time to mourn before he crashed through the leaves of the canopy. Thankfully they slowed his descent even further, but the 150 foot drop from the tops of the trees still cracked a few of his ribs, his head spinning from the force he hit the forest floor. He heard the distant crashing and exploding when the helicopter hit the ground somewhere a few hundred yards away, the heat from it reaching him even here and doing nothing to help his violent nausea, likely he was concussed.
There were voices shouting something in Spanish, gradually making their way towards him, and though he could hope that they were a distress team responding to the crash, it was far more likely that they were the ones who had shot them down in the first place.
This is what I get for trying to take a few minutes for myself , he thought bitterly, giving up the losing battle with consciousness. It’d be better to save his energy to heal his injuries, if these people didn’t kill him immediately
Demencia and 5.0.5 nodded their heads in excitement, the former internally cackling at the fact that Flug was missing this. Black Hat took his time, staring at the journal a bit longer, before speaking plainly.
“This book was written by a cartographer and explorer. I found her wandering the jungles of South America entirely alone, mapping everything she saw, and she and I struck a deal. She was my employee, my associate, my confidant, and my wife”
Demencia had no clue if her jaw could have hit the floor any harder, doubting that 5.0.5 was handling this any better.
“You- you were married ?!” she shouted
“Yes. 19 times, actually, to the same person,” the villain confirmed, silently daring her to go on one of her tirades, “I met them first 6000 years ago, farming barley on the outskirts of Mesopotamia, he was named Mamit then. He was my first business partner, most trusted associate… and the only person I have ever married”
“But he was a human, wouldn’t he die?”
“Callate, until I have finished speaking,” Black Hat growled viciously, “of course I was aware that he would die- that is the first thing I thought of. Which is the reason that I used the most powerful magicks of my time to create a curse”
Demencia barely noticed the red oil bubbling and changing slowly to a deep ochre, her head still swimming with the news that had stunned her emotions for the time being. Black Hat, however, kept his eye on the oil at all times, waiting for- something. Then his demeanor shifted, and although no one could have told you exactly what about him had changed, as he looked at the paper his eye seemed to lose all its malice, a look Demencia had never seen from him before.
“I bound Mamit’s soul to his most precious possession -a wolf he’d carved from bone- to keep his soul from the afterlife, until he could take new life, but to repay the life he relives, his soul must be trapped in slumber for 200 years”
“The book-” Demencia realized, “Mirena's ghost is in that thing?”
“No, of course not, idiota, Mamit's soul- Mirena's soul- has been gone from these pages for 30 years. Which means they've been reborn somewhere on this Earth, and in a moment, I will have the name of the person Mirena became, and with their name, I can find them”
“But you’re supposed to love me !” the girl bellowed finally, the stinging feeling in her eyes foreign and strange to her, “I've been waiting- working to impress you, and you never said-”
“I owe you nothing !” Black Hat snarled, his teeth escaping his mouth and creeping down his neck, “I have never entertained your delusions, you have done this to yourself, despite the best efforts of everyone in this mansion to bring you to some sliver of sanity!”
“I love you!”
“What do you expect that to mean to me? Do you want me to pity you for your idiocy?! Your actions were permitted all this time because it wasn’t worth the trouble of putting it to an end- but when my wife returns, you will cease your ridiculous obsessing over me altogether ”
“I can’t! I still love -”
“Enough!” Black Hat roared, snatching her arm and dragging her up to his eye level, “I did not ask if you were capable! You will cease the behavior, one way or another, and if your death is the only option you leave me, just remember that the only way you are any different from the millions of other grunts who applied for your position, is that I thought you would be less trouble than you are ”
The throbbing pain in her arm was nothing compared to the horrible crushing feeling in her chest- crushed? Was that what she was feeling? Black Hat's eye flicked to the bowl of oil quickly, whatever it was in his chest that might be called a heart began to hammer as he saw the roiling liquid had turned a horrible lime green, and the scrap of paper had floated back to the top of the bowl. He dropped the girl without caring how she sobbed as she hit the floor, nor how 5.0.5 rushed to her side to attempt to comfort her, and he extended two of his clawed fingers to gently lift the paper from the liquid. The ink had rearranged itself accordingly, the handwriting no longer Mirena's, nor was the name there, but unlike the many times before, Black Hat did not feel his impatience replaced by relief- instead he stared in disbelief at the words in front of him.
Numbness, then shock, confusion, denial- then anger, but no, they were all here, all at once. It was far more than he’d felt in so long- far too much to handle without Mamit , without Mirena , without-
“ Where did you say Doctor Flug was?” Black Hat rumbled low in his throat.