*Third Person Perspective*

“I’m feeling pretty thirsty too. Umm, some unicorn blood, please. With a dash of uh…” Raelin blushed, as she continued in her mind “Seraphim Essence.” A rainbow colored sparkling liquid appeared in a crystal mug in front of her. 

As she picked it up, Iris asked “Can I try some of that shit?” Without waiting for permission, she use both of her tiny hands to grab the glass and poured half of the beverage onto her face in the process of taking a sip. However, after a brief moment of satisfaction, the tiny body tensed up and then two large flaming orange wings appeared behind her back. It was only for a moment, but there were two burnt marks on the back of her white dress as evidence that it happened. After a few seconds, she sighed and said “Damn, that’s one hell of a kick. Not bad though. Not bad at all.”

“Okay, that’s enough of that Iris.” Raelin took the mug and started slowly drinking the viscous liquid at her leisure. She also handed the baby tiger girl across the table, to the relatively huge man that was her adoptive son.

Michael smiled, holding Teresa with his pale and white left hand. The orange kitten grinned at him, exposing her barely exposed little canines. He snickered and looked over at Abby, the snowy white-furred cat who was being held in his right, pitch-black, carapace covered arm. After a while, he sighed and whispered “Hmm, Conjoined Souls. That brings back memories…” Then he suddenly glared at the ceiling, while speaking in a voice that no one in the room could hear.

“Luna, I know you’re watching and listening. But you know me as well as I know you. If you do something that might harm my children, you will die. If you try to turn my friends and family against me for some stupid scheme, I’ll find out, and kill you regardless of why. Even if you’re suicidal, which you aren’t, don’t think for a moment that death would ever be an escape from my fury. We’re both part of the same Soul. You will never escape from that, and neither can I… If you fuck up everything I’ve built so far… I love you, but you love me too. Let’s just agree to not become enemies, okay?”

A soft and feminine voice whispered into his mind: “We are one. Now and always. I’m not like Iris and Abaddon. I never will be. Everything I do is for us. I have existed in this body for millions of years. A few millennia are nothing to me… Perhaps a short nap at most.  When the time comes, you will be strong enough to assist in my plans. Until then, you can do what you want. Build your nation, fight your wars, execute your enemies, raise your family. You’re still too young to worry about what is to come. I wish I didn’t have to think about it either. Feel free to visit me whenever you need to, Michael. Even if you wanted to have an orgy with dozens of my other avatars, you only need to ask.”

Michael started laughing to himself, as he ordered “How ‘bout something simple. A plate of spaghetti and tomato sauce. Made personally by Luna Prime. Can you do that?”

“I already finished making it as we were talking.” The plate of food appeared in front of him, along with a mithril fork. He noticed the white grated cheese that was sprinkled on top and sighed, realizing the likely origins of the meal. Yet he still ate it happily, though half-way through, Amber started stealing some from him.

After the meal, he said “Thank you Luna. It was delicious.” Then he telepathically asked, “That was made from your own milk, wasn’t it?”

“You are providing sustenance for two hungry leeches now. I thought you would need the extra energy. Besides that, who do you think breastfed you as an infant?” That eerie voice giggled a bit, then vanished.

Michael yawned and looked down at his chest, noticing that his cubs had already gone to sleep. However, instead of leaving, he gazed up at the unmasked crimson-skinned Goblin across from him. Ethir’s golden eyes blinked a few times, before he whispered “This world… I never noticed before… How beautiful it was. Beyond the fear, the pain and doubt. Life is good. Better than I ever thought it could be. Thank you, for giving me this gift.”

“I’m not God, Kid.” The naked horned man smiled, opening his third, vertical eye for a moment. That golden eye had a round pupil, unlike his other two, serpentine red eyes. Michael yawned again, glancing over at the drowsy tigress and explaining: “Karma makes shit like this happen all the time. Puts you through Hell. Gives you a piece of Heaven. Makes you wish you were dead, before reminding you how good it is to be alive. She does this, because it’s what we programmed her for… Long ass time ago. Souls, they… Don’t break easily. I won’t get into the why in the fuck we would make a Soul destroying machine, but the how… It’s all about life. We live, die, repeat. We gain knowledge and other immaterial things, but we lose everything else. But that doesn’t mean this is some elaborate trap. We aren’t being tricked into a false sense of happiness for some devious purpose. Karma rewards and punishes, occasionally at the same time or out of chronological order, heh~, that’s how it goes. Just enjoy what you have, while you have it, because you usually can’t control the crazy shit that happens in your life. No matter how strong you get or how rich.”

“Oh, and never be ashamed or afraid to tell your family and friends that you love ‘em.” Michael smirked, staring at the couple across from him, before saying “I love you both. You’re good kids. I’m glad we came into each others lives, regardless of the horrible shit that had to happen in the process. And Rae… You don’t have to look for your daughters anymore. Karma, she fucks with you, but in the end, everything comes full circle. Hmmm~, heh…”

“They…” Raelin gasped, with tears in her eyes as she gazed over at the two adorable babies in her son’s arms. Then she asked “How do you know? How could you possibly know? You never met my daughters…”

“Hmmm~, no I haven’t.” Michael chuckled, then glared at the ‘innocent’ little girl who was sipping Lunar orange juice out of a large glass. Then he grumbled, “But that evil brat definitely would recognize them. Considering she was a damn time-traveling ghost back then.”

Lucy giggled, drinking the last of her beverage before shrugging her shoulders. After looking at the kittens for a moment and squinting her eyes a bit, she nodded and gave a thumbs up: “Like a ninety-nine percent match. Maybe a little different chronologically, but pretty much the same Souls… Give or take a few lifetimes.”

As Raelin was giving her a death-glare, Lucy frowned. She shrugged her shoulders and said “Listen, it was nothing personal Kid. Just the way things needed to happen. A couple hundred thousand lives or so were destroyed. Casualties of a better future. If your daughters didn’t die, or more specifically, if you didn’t ‘survive’, you wouldn’t be here right now. Belial is a cunt. A really evil whore. She was going to destroy your village no matter what. Just like that dragon was going to trash Black Mithril. All I did was time things a little differently than before. Tweak events here and there so that Michael could intervene. Given how much of a kiss-ass Karma is towards her Daddy, I figured that something like this might happen. Not that I would have cared either way. Everything worked out for the best. No need to think too much about morality and ethics when you’re dealing with temporal manipulation.”