He kissed my forehead again. “In a while.” He said something else, but I only heard sounds, not words, as I followed the kids’ lead and fell asleep.
Wasn’t sure if I was instantly dreaming or not, but somewhere after I zonked out I heard someone calling my name. Wasn’t coming from anywhere in particular that I could tell and, as per usual, I couldn’t recognize the voice.
ACE? ACE is that you? No answer. Considered options. Algar never bothered with my dreams. I mean, maybe he helped facilitate them, but he didn’t bother to show up to add to the weird, for which I was most appreciative.
Naomi? Asked probably far more hopefully than was good for me. Nada again. Though now was pretty sure that I could see things around me. Looked like what we’d seen out the window, meaning a lot of blur and not much else. Oh well, I’d had worse, and weirder, dream locales.
Considered who else liked to hang out and chat with me in my sleep. Michael? Fuzzball? Gladys? A big fat nothing.
Oh, duh. Maybe this was the DreamScape. Ixtha?
Less than nothing. Was stumped for a moment. Who the heck else could this be?
My tired brain nudged and I heaved a sleep sigh. Sadly, by process of elimination and the reality of how my luck went, had a really good guess as to who I needed to be asking for. Just hoped this dream would be odor free.
CHAPTER 51
“MEPHS?”
“Always nice to be thought of. Dead last, but at least thought of.”
Sniffed. Happily, no Smell-O-Rama happening. So, I had that going for me, which was nice. “You’re the fugly of my dreams, if that helps any.” Well, nightmares were dreams, right?
“It does, somewhat.” He came into view, sitting next to me. Hadn’t realized I was sitting until just now, so that was interesting. Just me and a giant red monster faun with claws for fingers and curling horns and, of course, batwings. Hellboy was a supermodel compared to Mephistopheles.
“So, why are we just hangin’ out in the middle of nowhere? Are you actually here to be helpful? Or is it just that the cosmos never wants me to forget about Operation Fugly? As if I ever could.”
“I’m choosing to ignore the likely insults. I’m the most helpful of those who visit you in your sleep, if you’d care to recall.”
“This is true. So, I’ve gotten more of the Mephistopheles Biography. I’d make a comment about what a jerk you were, but having had the whole story of how the Superiors came to be, I don’t really want to and I’m sure you know.”
“I do. Mistakes were made. Mistakes are always made.”
“Are we making mistakes right now?”
“No. The preservation of the galaxy is vital. When I chose to destroy my solar system, I did so because I knew my race would survive and begin again. I’d thought that my followers would find me and we would create our new world.”
“You were booking along with that plan just fine until I showed up, I guess.”
“True enough. However, death—the true death that I experienced due to you—is a great teacher.”
“So, seriously, death is not the end? It’s really the beginning like we’ve been told?”
“It depends on the individual. For me, death means I have to watch what I created. Until the galaxy is destroyed or the damage I caused is fixed.”
Pondered this. “So, why are you helping me, then? I’d kind of think you would be pro Operation Good-bye Milky Way.”
“No. Death is a great . . . clarifier. I can see what went wrong, the great mistakes I made. The mistakes made before I was even born.”
“Were you born or were you created?”
“Born.” He tapped my nose gently with his foreclaw. “Just like you.” His expression was fond and, for him, kindly, and he looked like a super strange version of Santa. There was a lot of that going around.
“Our relationship is weird.”
He laughed. “It is. You are special to me.”
“I killed you, if you want to recall.”
“You did, with help from your mother and friends. But mostly you. However, to be bested by a worthy adversary is a good death. You will always matter to me because of that.”
“The old saying that having a good enemy is as important as having someone to love?”
“Yes. It’s true. You are without an enemy on this journey.”
“Seriously? I feel like everything’s against us.”
“Everything is. But ‘everything’ is not a person, an individual. You cannot fight ‘everything.’”
“Um, so . . . what are we supposed to do, then?”
“Continue to right my wrongs.”
“Hold up there. You’re saying that my whole job in life is to fix the mess you made?”
Mephistopheles patted my hand. “Isn’t it?” he asked gently.
Did some more pondering. “I guess it kind of feels that way. But you were created, in that sense, by the Z’porrah. Shouldn’t I be trying to right their wrongs, too?”
“That falls to another.”
“John Wruck?”
Mephistopheles smiled. As always, it was gross, scary, and kind of sweet. The description of our relationship in a nutshell. “You are insightful.”
“Dude, it was an easy guess. But there’s more going on.”
“There always is.”
“What’s the situation with Ixtha and her people?”
“As grave as you understand it to be. The survival of her solar system is vital to this galaxy.”
“Why is the galaxy in so much danger right now? And please don’t give me some flip reply. I’m asking because it just seems too coincidental that we have all these bad things going on at once.”
“As your good friend says, don’t believe too much in coincidence.”
“Chuckie says they’re rarer than a camera-shy Kardashian, but that’s beside the point. Can I get a little less obscurity and a little more clarity?”
Mephistopheles heaved a sigh. “I can answer, because this particular visit is under the protection of more than one entity, so I can break the obscurity rules. Just a bit.”
“Wow. That’s both cool and weird. And cooler and weirder that it’s you who gets the extra chatting protection.”
“You and I are perceived to be the greatest of enemies by . . . some. That I have a deep fondness for you, and you for me, even if you choose to pretend that you don’t, is beyond their understanding. The entities helping me speak to you, however, understand and are using this weakness to all of our advantage.”
“Go team.”
“Truly. And it is a team effort. Never think that it is not. But to answer your question, these events are not accidental and they are not random. They are a concerted effort to cause this galaxy to, essentially, self-destruct.”
“Why? And who’s behind it? Because what you just said sure sounds like we have an enemy.”