Epilogue: The Denouement

"Where's Lois?"

Clark Kent's voice betrayed his worry. The Daily Planet's greatest reporter hadn't been in the office for days; her output to the paper restricted to small pieces sent in by email.

"Taking some personal time," Perry White said, the editor hunched over the layout table and chewing on an unlit cigar. "Said she's had some health issues come up. Don't worry Kent, I'm sure she'll be back here busting your balls before you know it."

A shiver went up the Demon Mother's spine as she stepped across the threshold. The ceiling arched up into darkness, the wooden pews in disarray. Rust ran down the stone walls from ancient fixtures, and the altar and cross were long gone, leaving a hole...and absence.

"Structurally sound," the realtor said. An unimaginative pear-shaped woman in red heels and a brown skirt and jacket, with a dazzling smile and elegantly cropped afro. "Electrical wiring needs to be completely redone, however, and there are the tax liens..."

"Deconsecrated," Lois Lane observed. One hand rested on the slight swell of her stomach. To the mortal's gaze, she appeared to be elegantly attired in a high-waisted black dress. She did not see the horns that curled back from the Demon Mother's head, the blood-red skin, the dark stains that ran down from glowing eyes.

"Yes...about ten years ago. There is a small cemetery in the back. There are legal restrictions to removing them...and some requirements for upkeep of the graves...that go with the property,"

"I'll take it," Lois Lane said as she stepped into the center of that former holiness. The void where the light should be...and the realtor beamed as she thought of the commission she would make on this sale, not seeing the Demon Mother's shadow stretching out to touch the hovering darkness and become a part of it.

With Blaze's power came memories. Bank accounts. Hidden stores of gold. Invisible levers of influence. Enough to buy Lois the space she needed.

After all, the babies would need a home.

"Miss Lane," Black Adam stood stiff, shoulders thrown back. "Welcome to Kahndaq. I look forward to our interview."

"Thank you for having me," Lois Lane smiled...and then nodded at Isis, who stood next to her husband in the pure white robe and golden accoutrements of her office. "Although I fear you are mistaken. This isn't an interview, exactly. More like a...parley."

One exquisitely shaped eyebrow rose...and the Demon Mother let her glamour drop. Isis gasped as she saw the reporter's true form...and at the protuberant belly.

Black Adam's eyes narrow. His nostrils flared.

"Your magic...is familiar," he said.

"As it should be. You know it well," the Demon Mother said. Her hand slid down to the bottom of her swell, emphasizing the curve of her stomach. "Allow me to explain..."

So Lois did. She explained the whole of her night out, leaving no detail out. Observed with amusement the way Isis' nipples stiffened, obvious beneath her shift, and how Black Adam's crotch bulge with desire. Embers that the Demon Mother could have stirred to a flame...but there would be time for threesomes later. She needed the Black Adam Family as allies.

"So," Black Adam said. "You have taken her power, and her nature."

"No. I remain myself," the Demon Mother said, meeting his haughty gaze. "But motherhood shifts my perspective. I need to see to the safety of my children. Which is why I propose an alliance. Non-aggression and mutual defense. Do not attack me, and I will not attack you. And if ever Kahndaq is in need, I will aid you...and if any attack me, you will aid me."

Adam's mouth twisted into a frown. "Kahndaq does not need your aid."

Then Isis was by his side, a hand on one mighty bicep.

"Hear her out, husband. This is a purely defensive alliance, after all. If you attack anyone, we are under no obligation?" Isis said.

"Correct," the Demon Mother said.

"And you have no plans of aggression?" Isis insisted. "No efforts to take over the world, bring on the apocalypse, anything like that?"

"None," the demoness said. "I wish to have my babies in peace. That is all."

Black Adam chewed it over. "There are others less...amenable...than we are."

The reporter's scarlet face broke into a disarming smile, as she brought out a small black envelope from the pocket of her dress. "Yes. I've arranged a meeting. I hope you both will attend."

As the contractors refurnished her new home, the Demon Mother stepped from shadow to shadow. To every corner of this world, and beyond. Some promises were bought easier than others. Her domains in Hell went to Etrigan, in exchange for peace. The Swamp Thing was content with a flower plucked from Hell. John Constantine accepted a future favor, to be named. Zatanna was harder to win over, but Constantine's assurance eased her into a binding promise. The wizard Shazam accepted custody of an ancient artifact Blaze had long hidden from him, and with his promise, the Marvel Family also agreed to neutrality. Doctor Fate and the Phantom Stranger would swear no oaths...but she could see into their hearts. They would not strike her so long as she made no overt act of magical terrorism.

Now appearing as Lois Lane once more, outside the door of Clark Kent, holding the last black envelope...and for the first time since she had set out on this course, she hesitated. Everything left in her that was still human felt unease...but she could not simply abandon him. Getting down on one knee, one hand still protectively clutching her stomach, she moved to slip the envelope under the door...but it opened before she could.

"Oh..." she said, and looked up at him. Clark's broad shoulders filled the doorway, his blue eyes behind the black plastic frames filled with worry and concern. "Hey, Smallville."

"Lois! It's been weeks, where have you be—" he instinctively bent down to offer her a hand up...and his eyes fell to her swollen stomach.

"Sorry, Clark," she said, leaning on his arm to regain her feet. "I needed to sort some things out. I wasn't neglecting you. I...got pregnant a few weeks ago. Had to reassess my life, my priorities. Been making some preparations for the babies. That's...why I came here."

She handed him the black envelope. "I was hoping you'd come to my baby shower."

"Clever," The Phantom Stranger said. He watched as the Man of Steel invited the Demon Mother inside. She was careful to tell him only the truth; and whether she did this because Clark Kent was her friend, or because she knew Superman would detect any false note, even he could not say. "Playing for peace, sacrificing territories and powers she cannot defend in exchange for time and security."

"Foolish," the Specter bared his teeth. In the void between worlds, they stood beyond even the Demon Mother's senses, able to see and hear, but not to be seen or heard. "She has upset the balance between good and evil, Heaven and Hell. Her system of alliances is no more than a web of words. Once her children are born, the realms will fight for the heirs to her power."

"I spoke to Rama Kushna," Boston Brand, the Deadman, piped up. "The...Demon Mother...is neither Lois Lane nor Blaze, yet both. Her nature partakes of both. She is something new. Unbound by Order or Chaos."

They watched as the Demon Mother came to the end of her story. How she held his hands. Their auras were two seething storms of emotions as he opened his arms wide for a hug. Clark Kent, eternally accepting, understanding as she crushed herself to him, burying her face in his chest...and he closed his arms about her as though cradling the most delicate of Fabergé eggs.

The observers' eyes went wide as she raised her face to his. Their lips met once, chastely. Then again, with more passion.

"She cast no enchantment," The Phantom Stranger said. "At least, none more than any woman has cast on a man."

They tore at each other's clothes, pulling them off as they made their way toward the bedroom. Two consenting adults lost in a dance as old as life. With the last shoe that dropped off her foot, went as well the Demon Mother's glamour. The observers tensed, feeling that this was the moment when Superman might reject her totally...

...and instead, his hands reached forward to cradle her belly. Drawing her to him as he sat on the edge of the bed, his prick already hard. Lois Lane lowered herself down into his lap, her incumbent pregnancy pressed against his hard abs.

"I think," Deadman said. "That Superman has a pregnancy fetish."

The Specter sorted. "The children are not his. They will never be his. The core of Blaze's essence is still there, within her body. Pumping vile seed into that polluted womb. Lois Lane's eggs are already claimed. He is a cuckold already!"

The two figures moaned together, rocking back and forth. The Demon Mother's cries of pleasure reached their ears...not that any of those who watched had blushed in long years.

"I do not think," The Phantom Stranger said softly, "that he cares. And so she has secured her final ally...and I think her preparations are now complete. For now, this tenuous peace holds...and we may only wait, and watch."

In the mortal realm, Clark Kent crushed her to him. Cock plunged deep into her sopping slit. He could smell Blaze's jizz oozing out of Lois Lane's pussy, and the smell and feel of it excited him in ways he had never known. To have her in his arms, riding his cock, yet to be so powerless...well, even the Man of Steel has his kinks.