Stronger Together chapter 227 (Patreon)

Standing up was weirdly easy. In fact even the damage from the fall  wasn't nearly what I expected. I felt stronger just from my time in  hell, but more than that the vortex seemed to have refined me even  further. Fifty percent. I was officially half angel. I could feel  without trying that I could even reach the eleventh form of klurkor for a  second if I pushed. I'd become markedly stronger from my journey, and  from what I could see Yang was much more powerful herself. She had  popped to her feet without any trouble once we landed and was spinning  around gleefully inhaling the air.

Which  was fair, because it wasn't toxic smog that smelled of brimstone of  disgusting city filth. More than that though, the sun shining down on my  skin felt...pure. Not purifying, not like the air in hell had been, but  genuinely pure. A beautiful life giving shine that enriched everything  it touched. I imagine this must be what Kara felt, minus all the crazy  powers it gave her. Speaking of crazy powers, I wasn't sure how to take  being half angel. Granted the vortex had only accelerated things, along  with using my first form in the battle with Rakiel it had been enough to  push me to the halfway point.

But  the vortex HAD pushed me further, and Lucifer had done it on purpose.  Regardless of his claims about brotherhood and chaos I didn't like the  fact that the Devil obviously wanted me to get stronger. It implied that  what was coming was even worse than I'd expected. I needed my armor. I  was tempted to put the lorica on and never take it off. Yang stopped  spinning and fell on her ass in the grass, laughing uncontrollably. "Oh  gods, I can't believe we're back. I can't wait to see the girls. Half of  me wants to rush over and meet up with them now and the other half just  wants to fuck in the woods."

I  laughed and pulled her up. "As fun as that sounds we're on a bit of a  clock here. We should get back to the castle, I doubt the darklings will  appreciate us leaving so soon after we showed up but at the very least I  can summon Odin and tell him what's going on. It's not like I'll be  much use calling the banners or whatever anyway." I had responsibilities  here for the moment, helping the darklings and controlling Drakul's  wayward children. At the very least Quincy would be heading here soon  and I wasn't leaving the others for him to kick around.

Still  a rush in the grand scheme didn't mean a rush in the short term, it had  been a few hours from what Lucifer said so we could afford taking our  time walking back to the castle. I put my arm around Yang and we just  generally enjoyed ourselves as we strolled back the way we came. Luckily  seeing a big ass castle in the distance wasn't a problem with a bit of  height and we'd just been catapulted out of a lake. The walk back to the  castle was leisurely, but when I finally caught sight of the place I  noticed Rave, Cinder, and Barb standing on the path waiting for us.

Right,  a few hours with no word. Raven walked up to us, checking that were  were ok, and then pulled us both into a hug.Yang laughed and squeezed  her back. My first girlfriend pulled away with a relieved smile. "We got  worried. Cinder and I sensed powerful magic near here and then you  vanished. We spent most of the day combing the woods, but when I felt  the same energy and you reappeared I gathered them up to meet you here.  Figured you would be heading this way." She sounded so grateful and  relieved I felt like an absolute asshole for making her worry.

I  pulled her back into my arms, squeezing her tight. "We're fine. It was a  bit of a mess but I'll catch you up on it later. I'm just happy to be  home. Why don't we head inside, I imagine the others must have been  worried sick too. Is Kara inside or still out looking?" Knowing my  kryptonian I was betting on the latter. She wasn't the type to sit  around and do nothing when someone she cared about was in danger. I bet  she'd combed the whole forest for a hundred miles at least a dozen times  in the hours we'd been gone.

Raven  chuckled. "She's on her way back now. I can sense her coming. She was  feeling a bit agitated so she's flying back slow to try to calm down."  She gave me a once over, holding my shoulders and taking in my  appearance. "You seem...different. Not just physically, though there's  plenty of that from both of you. You seem more confident, less worried  about what might come." Paradoxically I realized she was right. Knowing  for sure that something bad was on the way made me feel much better. She  pulled away, stepping back as she tried to hide a slight twinkle in her  eye when she looked behind me.

It  made no sense but being aware that something bad was coming made me  feel more in control. Ever since I'd gotten here I spent most of my time  reacting instead of acting. Forewarned was forearmed and now I had an  idea what I should do. Not to mention my time in hell had exposed me to  some serious darkness and despair and I'd made it out the other side  right as ran. After you've literally been to the Devil's backyard it's  hard to muster much worry for normal earth problems. My perspective had  totally changed.

That  bit of introspection was cut off however as Kara came barreling into me  from the side, wrapping me in a hug. I'd sensed her coming of course  but given she flew in low and tried to hide in my blind spot I figured  I'd give her the surprise and just let her grab me. Even holding back  she drove me clean off my feet and tackled me to the ground. "I'm so  glad you're ok!" She had her face buried in my chest as she laid on top  of me and I just smiled and pulled her close. She breathed a sigh of  relief as she squeezed me back. "We couldn't find you two anywhere. I  don't know what I'd have done if I lost you guys. I've lost enough  family already in my life, I don't need to lose any more."

I  smiled and pulled her to her feet. "Well good news is that isn't likely  anymore. I'm kind of a beast at this point, you're stuck with me. Hell  you're stuck with all of us." At least assuming the Outsiders didn't eat  all of our faces off or something. I turned back toward the caste. "Now  let's head back inside, we can catch you up on what happened. It  was...a bust few hours." I saw Cinder wince with sympathy and knew she  understood. Cinder had spent months in deep faerie when she arrived,  which was where she met Sam and Morgan and Morgan's douchebag ex Jack.

We  filed into the dining room and I started filling everyone in. I told  them about our time in hell, and the tournament and meeting Lucifer.  Some of them didn't get why the circumstances were quite as dire as I  made them out to be, which made sense because Lucifer wasn't actually a  bad guy in DC and as a magic user Raven would know it, and Cinder, like  Yang hadn't really heard of him at all. Despite that, when I finished  the story with Yang chiming in helpfully to mention stupid choices I  made, no matter how much I glared at her, everyone was in shock.

Andi  was the first to express her shock. "Ok, I know I'm new here and all,  but is taking a several month long time skipped trip to hell and meeting  the Devil a normal thing for you guys? Because after the whole killing  the god wolf thing it's starting to see like you all just can't resist  getting involved with insanely powerful beings." She counded a bit  nervous, but not enough to actually bail on us which I appreciated.

Still  I didn't want her to get the wrong idea. "Nah, this wasn't about me."  Well not mostly, but I didn't want to talk about the power boost in  front of the group, I still didn't exactly trust the darklings so I'd  tell my girls later. "I just presented a convenient opportunity for him  to make moves to get himself in a position to profit. He couldn't have  arranged all this, he's scary but even God in this world couldn't swing  this level of coincidence, considering all the insane shit that had to  happen to get us here at this time I mean."

Well  theoretically he COULD'VE been. But it would have meant him taking  credit for everything we've done since before we got here, and taking  credit for everything we've done since. Considering the path we'd been  put on by the literal nails from the crucifixion and the things we  accomplished because of that path I doubted he'd ever been directly  involved until we stumbled into hell and left him an opening.

Raven  had been sitting across the table looking calm and reserved as we  spoke, but I knew her well enough to see her agitation. Her overly stiff  posture, her even blanker than usual expression, her white knuckles.  She might not have the context on Lucifer the others did but she felt  the despair and hopelessness as we told our story. She knew what we'd  been through and she was having trouble restraining herself. Restraining  from what I didn't know but she was definitely feeling some kind of  emotion strong enough that she wanted to lock down.

This  was another of the symptoms of her former connection to Trigon  manifesting. Since she'd gotten here Raven had gotten much better about  expressing happiness or joy, but letting her anger loose was much more  difficult for her. She was still terrified of what Trigon had been able  and willing to do through her if she gave into that side of herself. I  leaned forward and reached out with my godsteel hand, taking hers gently  and giving her something to squeeze. Which she did. Hard. Like hard  enough to actually hurt when my limb was made of metal.

Then  the weirdest thing happened. I felt her. Felt Raven's emotions flow  through my hand. I'd known Raven was an empath since I met her, but she  was only the receiving kind never the sending. She didn't leak emotion  or moods ever. I squeezed  back gently and let my own love and a feeling  of safety flow through my hand and I saw her relax a bit. I extended my  flesh hand to Barb who was next to her and reached across the table to  press my foot against Cinder's leg just to make her feel better. Just  some good old fashioned human contact.

While  Yang took over talking to the others my girls and I just sat there.  Sharing comfort and closeness and relief that I'd come home safe. Part  of me broke down, a tension I hadn't even noticed relaxing and the lack  of stress allowing me to fall to pieces. None of them notices, or at  least they pretended not to as Raven felt my pain and pulled me away,  leading me upstairs with Barb and Cinder following. When we finally got  to my room we all collapsed into a pile on the bed and I just let go,  crying nonstop for almost an hour as I finally let myself process all  that pain and fear. When I was done I fell asleep, and they just let me  rest. I decided to take the time. I could summon Odin tomorrow.