[WP] Even monsters have stories. Tell me yours, wanderer, I wish no harm to you. [Link to post.]
"You wish me 'no harm'?" The pale, tall, dark haired woman said with a soft laugh and stared at the man who wanted to hear her story. He stood tall, protecting his wife behind him and showing no fear. The invading woman smiled when she noticed a tattoo of the Earth with the number 37 on the back of the man's left hand. "Ah, a Mundo, that explains the interest. I can tell you're stalling, but I'll humor you." The tall woman smiled at the couple whose house she stood in as she sat in a faded green wooden chair at their small dinner table. "You obviously haven't heard of me, but you should pass my name on to whomever you're expecting to come to your rescue. They might change their mind when you tell them Ballisea the Demon Queen is in your kitchen." Her eyes breathed a red glow.
"Ba- Ballisea?" The brave man's weight shifted backward at the name. He managed to continue acting brave, but beyond that point it was only an act. Ballisea's right eyebrow cocked upward.
"So you have heard of me? Congratulations, Mundo, you get to be the one to hear my story."
"My name is Arik Hansen." The blonde man said. He mustered his courage to sit down at the table across from Ballisea. She dismissed his reply with a wave.
"Oh please, you're just a Mundo. As far as Uniques go, your kind might as well be Zeroes. One on every Earth, but you can't leave it. No real powers, just knowledge." Ballisea said, then she turned her attention to the woman standing behind her seated husband. She gripped his shoulders with both hands and stood straight up staring at the small pair of bone-white spikes growing out of Ballisea's head. Ballisea brought her hand to the top of her head and touched the spikes. "You like my horns? They're just getting started, but they're going to be amazing."
"Liv, some tea please," Arik said. She squeezed his shoulder then moved away to putter around the kitchen. They both knew they were going to die, but Arik's request reassured Liv in a way. The Hansens would not die without dignity; they would face death with courtesy and bravery. While Liv filled the kettle Ballisea leaned forward and lowered the front of her black dress to show Arik her ample cleavage. He noted a golden sun tattooed on the upper portion of her left breast, over her heart, with the number 46 in the center of it in red numbers.
"A Sol? We all thought you were a Muerte." Arik said. Ballisea lifted the front of her dress back up and nodded.
"I don't remember when I was born, or even when I was Awakened. I wandered universes for a long long time, death and destruction came easy enough, but it was all a blur. My memory starts at the moment I met him and fell in love for the first, and only time." Her eyes softened as she thought about him. Liv placed a cup of tea in front of Ballisea, then moved the sugar closer to her.
"You fell in love?" Liv asked. Ballisea nodded, but did not move to touch the tea.
"His name was Allister. He was a Zero just like you," Ballisea looked at Liv. "But he was so brave and so handsome. I was living on a medieval Earth at the time, and he was sent to kill me. He didn't stand a chance, of course, but I thought it would be fun to tease him. I let him think he had the advantage and waited for him to strike the killing blow, just to mock him when he failed." One side of her mouth turned upward in a wistful half-smirk.
"He refused to kill me, said I was too beautiful. He wanted to help me reform." Ballisea chuckled. "Zeroes are deeply stupid, aren't they?" Ballisea asked Arik. He pulled his wife closer to him, but did not say anything. Ballisea shrugged. "I went along with it thinking it might be fun for a while, then I'd kill him the moment I got bored." She looked at the couple holding hands. "You guys know what love is, but I had no idea. The boredom never came. He made me smile, but beyond that I felt content with him. Just when I thought I couldn't love him more, he proved me wrong." Ballisea's body stiffened, Arik noticed her hands clenched.
"We'd started a life together, and as happy as I was I began to relax my guard. Then some loser Diablito got lucky and caught me by surprise and knocked me out. He probably could have killed me if he tried, but he just wanted to get his rocks off. Allister found me in the forest, but a couple of months later my pregnancy started to show. It wasn't Allister's." Ballisea reached forward to grab the white ceramic cup. She took a sip to give them time to process what she said.
"El Diablito," Arik said. Ballisea nodded and placed the cup down. "I needed to rid myself of it. I used a spell to purge my flesh, using my connection with Allister to keep me alive. Allister became known as a necromancer, since he always had a skeleton with him. I was literally just bones, and he still loved me. Eventually I managed to kill another Unique to get my flesh back." Ballisea brought her hand up in front of her and admired it for a second. She made a fist then opened and closed it several times. "But I was still pregnant."
"How can that be?" Liv asked. Ballisea shrugged. "We're Uniques. At that point the only thing left to do was to wait it out and kill the little bastard. So we did. Allister doted on me non-stop, then the time came. I took us to an empty Earth to give birth, but I moved too soon." Ballisea's head fell slightly as she admitted her part of the blame.
"Birth check." Arik said, he noticed a single tear traveling down Ballisea's cheek.
"I stabbed myself, not even waiting for him to come out. I thought he was ready to be born, close enough right? The energy he released in self defense was enough to crack the Earth we were on; enough to wound me, badly. Enough to kill Allister." Ballisea said. She rose from her seat in a hurry. Arik squeezed Liv's hand. "And that little bastard STILL had the gall to be born!" Ballisea threw the small table to the side in anger, then made a gesture at the air beside her to open a pitch black portal. Two skeletons walked out of it.
"I love you," Arik whispered in Liv's ear, and she nodded. Arik placed a hand over her eyes and pulsed golden energy through it to put her to sleep. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight as the skeletons approached them.
"He's out there somewhere right now having fun. I can't kill him yet, but once he matures enough I'm going to enjoy killing him."
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