Let It Slip

Part X

Part X

Taking a shaky breath, Zelda winced as she forced her arm through the bars made of flame, searing her skin as she reached out and grabbed Lilith's hand, gripping it tightly as the pain of the fire made her shake and sweat began to slide down her face. Still she held on. Her wide eyes keeping Lilith's attention, "I have always been incredibly self-centered, my own ambition and my familial relationships have been my first priority...." whimpering, Zelda thrust her other hand between the bars, her chest searing against the flames as she grabbed Lilith's hand in both of hers, "....forgive me Lilith. I was arrogant and clueless. Had I realized the depth of your misery and the seriousness of your actions, I would have acted differently."

Taking another pained breath, Zelda closed her eyes for a moment and whispered, "I never knew what happened to Adam."

Lilith curled her fingers around Zelda's and squeezed, opening her mouth to respond just as a large fire tornado appeared in the middle of the room, disappearing to reveal an army of witches with Hilda Spellman at the forefront with a shackled, red-eyed Dr. Cee growling and spitting beside her. Shocked, Lilith yanked her hands back from Zelda who fell back into the center of the cage gasping from pain, barely able to register what was happening in front of her. Lilith leapt to her feet, in the process of raising her hands when the crowd of witches thrust their hands out before them and began to chant, freezing her in place.

As the group of witches continued their chant, Hilda ran forward, leaving her husband in Winnie's hands, the damascus steel cuffs keeping him mostly contained. Falling to her knees in front of Zelda's cage, Hilda tried to find a way to destroy it, "Zelds! Zelds?! Are you okay?? Did she hurt you?"

"Get. me. Out of here. Hildy." Zelda gasped in between each word, struggling with the pain she'd inflicted upon herself.

Unable to discern a way to destroy the cage, Hilda spun around in a fury and moved to Lilith who, unmoving, glared at her; "Release my sister, witch."

"I'll do nothing of the sort." Lilith growled through gritted teeth. "How dare you barge into my Kingdom and make demands of me, the Sovereign. You are nothing in Hell, Hilda Spellman. NOTHING." In that moment, Lilith exploded, becoming a ball of flame shooting out at her attackers. A massive flaming wall grew as a barrier between the witches and Zelda, with Lilith stepping in between the two sisters.

Holding her palms out in front of her, flames grew from them and she held Hilda's furious stare with her own, "You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, kitchen witch. What a naive little witch you've turned out to be. Stomping your way down here like a child having a tantrum, but you must know what I do to children who won't stop whining...." Lilith advanced on Hilda, holding the flames out before her and growling as her eyes flashed, fueled by her anger and the memories of the past, "...I serve them up for dinner!"

Lilith made to throw the flames at Hilda but Zelda cried out, "LILITH STOP!"

"And why should I?" Lilith continued to advance on Hilda who backed up slowly, "Didn't you just tell me that for all of these years you've been wishing to die? Where was your sister then?" Her icy blue eyes flashed with the rage she felt inside as she addressed the younger Spellman sister, "Where were you then?"

"I..." Stunned at Lilith's words, Hilda turned towards Zelda, "...I was right there. Zelds. I was there, the entire time."

"Of course you were Hildy. Always. I was simply too lost to see it and too angry to accept it." Frustrated by her cage, her mortal flesh aching from the burns, her heart slowing to process the damage she'd done to herself, her mind whirling. "Lilith, please...."

Zelda's voice trailed off as her body gave up and she fell, unconscious, onto the floor within her bounds, her crimson tresses dangerously close to catching on fire. Watching her sister collapse, HIlda gasped and ran towards the cage, not caring about what Lilith might choose to do; "ZELDS!"

Lilith spun around, holding one hand up to maintain the wall of flames between her and the group of fifty, seeing Zelda on the floor tugged hard at her heart and she took a long moment to consider what she was feeling - heartache. Lowering her hands, suddenly exhausted, the cage around Zelda disappeared along with the wall of flames and she watched as Hilda fell to her knees, cradling Zelda's head and desperately feeling for a pulse. Feelings Lilith had never felt before crashed into her, leaving her breathless, she recognized it as fear - she was afraid for Zelda.

Even though it had been decades since she'd thought of the Spellman sister, it never occurred to her that Zelda might one day not exist. Lilith had assumed they had eternity and that maybe, some day, their story would rekindle and take on a different ending. This was not the ending she expected and she bent slowly at the waist, gasping, a panic attack taking her by surprise. As Lilith struggled with unfamiliar emotions and her physical response, the Group of Fifty descended upon her menacingly.

"ZELDA." Hilda laid her hands on her sister, tracing the burns and wounds littered across her upper torso and hands, "How could Lilith have done this to you?" Closing her eyes, Hilda began to utter the words that would heal her sister but struggled, beginning to realize the depth of the damage to her sister's physical form; "This isn't just from the fire, what did Lilith do to you?!"

Chaos erupted behind Hilda as the Group of Fifty formed a tight circle around her, their hands clasped as they began to chant, holding her in place. Fear and rage combined within Lilith and she exploded into a tornado of flames, igniting and then disappearing entirely. The witches muttered amongst themselves in surprise, spinning around uneasily, looking for signs of Lilith's presence in the room. Moving to encircle Zelda and Hilda, the group formed a protective layer between the sisters and any potential danger.

Released from their cells at Lilith's command, the souls of Hell spilled into the throne room eager to fight for their freedom, coming at the witches with tooth and nail, desperate to prove their loyalty to the Queen. With screeches and cries, gnashing teeth, and clawing fingers the souls became a jumbled mass as the witches tried to fight them off, realizing magic was nothing against the undead.

Hilda continued her attempts to revive Zelda, seeking deeper to find the extent of the damage and slowly tracing it back to the poison the MemoryTech had leached into her bloodstream; "Poison? Lilith poisoned you....but why??" Shaking her head, a confused Hilda pushed harder but she was unable to clear the poison in Zelda's body even as the burn marks began to heal.

As the marks faded away to nothing and the trauma was erased, Zelda's eyelids fluttered and she groaned. Her heart throbbed and her body ached, she recognized her sister's voice and fought to understand what she was saying...something about Lilith poisoning her. Clearing her throat, Zelda whispered hoarsely, "It was me."

Hilda frowned, "What do you mean it was you?"

Zelda looked ashamed, "The poison....Lilith had nothing to do with it. It was the MemoryTech sister, it's been slowly killing me for years." Zelda shook off the shocked look her sister was giving her and moved quickly onto another piece of business to gloss over what she'd just revealed, "In fact...Lilith had nothing to do with any of this. Baron Samedi brought me here without her knowledge."

"She had you in a cage, sister." Hilda frowned, trying in vain to process everything Zelda was telling her.

"Yes...but that was to keep Baron from taking me with him...it's...." Zelda sighed heavily, "...complicated....but Lilith isn't at fault here. She's an innocent bystander."

The witches surrounding the sisters were getting tired, their bodies unused to physical combat, their magic useless, their skin covered in scratch and bite marks; "Hilda! We can't hold up much longer."

Hilda turned to see Winnie with a deep gash across her cheek and she winced, this wasn't their fight; "Come on Zelds, let's go home."

Zelda slowly turned to grab the hand Hilda offered, getting onto all fours and slowly rising from where she'd collapsed. Straightening, she grabbed onto her sister as the world spun dizzily, and when it stopped she looked around for Lilith. The Queen of Hell was nowhere to be seen, her damned souls doing their best to exhaust the Group of Fifty. Zelda let out a soft gasp as her gaze fell on a rabid Dr. Cee, chained in damascus steel, and straining against his cuffs, "Sister...."

Hilda followed Zelda's gaze and sighed heavily, "It was the only way we could get to Hell. We needed a demonic escort." Hilda linked arms with Zelda, "But now we can go home and hopefully, between the two of us, we can make things right again for my poor mister."

"Zelda won't be going anywhere." The Spellman sisters turned towards the cold voice that rang out across the throne room and gasped to see Baron Samedi walking towards them.