Epilogue: Infertile

"This is why you can't have children," Doctor Midnite solemnly explained.

Lois Lane and Blaze sat quietly as the old superhero pointed at a diagram of a woman's reproductive system. She heard about defects in fallopian tubes, about sterile hybrids, chromosome mismatches. His tone was not unkindly, sometimes almost apologetic, but as he went on, Lois's heart sank deeper and deeper until it felt like there was a hole in her chest, and she reached out blindly toward Blaze, who was in her human form, and the demonic dickgirl took her hand and gripped it tight.

"So...there's no possibility of me getting pregnant?" She heard her own voice say, after he had finished.

"The odds of natural conception are minimal. Even given the amount of ejaculate, the chances of genetic compatability are vanishingly small...and your body is not suited to carry a normal pregnancy to term. Your family has a history of entropic pregnancies, stillbirths, miscarriages..."

All true, now that Lois thought of it. She gripped Blaze's hand tighter.

"...we can try some medication to increase your chances of ovulation, and improve your chances of conception 'taking.' That involves a number of painful shots, at regular intervals, for months...sometimes years. We can also try in vitro fertilization—take a few of your eggs, and some of your partner's sperm, and attempt artificial conception, and place them in your womb—but that too is not guaranteed."

They sat in silence for a moment. Then Blaze spoke.

"What if I just fucked her really, really hard?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think you quite understand the difficulties that you are facing." Dr. Midnite said at last. "You can enjoy sex as much as you want—frequent copulation certainly won't lower your chances of conception—but the odds of the right sperm meeting the right egg, and then attaching to the uterine wall, and the embryo lasting through the full term of pregnancy—"

The old man gave an eloquent shrug. "I'm sorry, but the chances are vanishingly small."

He gave a cough. One gloved hand delved into a pouch, and brought forth a small card. "However, considering the magical nature of Miss Blaze—you might wish to get a second opinion."

Lois took a deep breath and accepted the card. "Thank you doctor. We'll be in touch, if we want to pursue the fertility treatments."

"This is why you cannot bear children," Doctor Fate said, his voice echoing hollowly within his golden helmet. Blaze had taken on her demon form, and Lois saw their reflections twisted eerily in the mirror-like sheen of the metallic face-mask.

In terms of bedside manner, Lois preferred Doctor Midnite.

Blaze was more attentive, or at least so it seemed to Lois. The sorcerer spoke of incompatible auras, of the infertility that sometimes struck half-demons like Blaze, of the unreliability of fertility magic. The demon asked several very pointed questions, and Lois Lane's mind drifted off as they talked about chaos magick, probability manipulation, invocations of various goddesses and the sacrifices they demanded for certain boons.

None of which sounded like it was coming any closer to fixing their problem. To the reporter's mind, it seemed like in his own way Fate was saying the same thing that Midnite was. Her body wasn't made for having babies, and she and Blaze were just of two different kinds. It was terrible to think that after spending half her life afraid of getting pregnant if a single drop of sperm touched her pussy, only to find out that she was practically infertile... Lois felt a certain despondency settle over her.

"I wish we were the same," Lois said, half to herself, eyes staring at the floor, during a lull in the conversation. "Then at least one of those problems would be out of the way."

Doctor Fate and Blaze paused...and Lois raised her head curiously.

"If that is what you truly desire," the sorcerer said, voice still echoing strangely within that helmet. "It might be possible...to render Blaze fully human. That could resolve at least one issue...if combined with traditional fertility treatments."

The sorcerer steepled their fingers. "I do not wish to give you false hope. I do not know if we can overcome all of the issues that face you...and I fear that such a step could be irrevocable. Do you truly wish to take such a step?"

"We should sleep on it," Lois said, grabbing the scarlet succubus's hand. "We don't have to answer right now."

"We don't need to sleep on it," Blaze raised Lois Lane's hand and kissed the reporter's knuckles. "What must I do to...become human?"

With those words, events were set in motion that could not be undone.