The Magician-Astra Logue

Miss Me, Kiss Me, Love Me...

"FEELS WEIRD TO BE BACK, DOESN'T IT, JOHNNY?"

"Certainly, love. Let's just get out of here as soon as we can, eh?"

"I'm not complaining."

XXX

"Ma'am, we caught them lurking outside." One of Astra's henchwomen brought us to her. She signaled for her to walk away which she did.

"It seems you two are having a hard time staying away from hell these days, John, Ciara." Her voice was tainted with disgust when she said my name.

"Well, what can we say? We're creatures of habit." I smiled at her sarcastically.

"You might as well get used to it. You'll both be living down here soon enough. What do you want?"

"A whiskey, neat, and a steak, well done." John said sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah, and all those souls you released. Call 'em back." I demanded. "Look, there is enough evil on Earth without you giving the damned a second chance."

"Those damned souls are making me rich, Sa-Her. Any humans corrupted or killed by them belong to me. And after years of being under the boot of the Triumvirate, it sure feels good to grind my heel on someone else." She snapped her fingers and Masher appeared bloody on the floor.

"Masher." I muttered.

"Sa-her." He muttered back. "Help me!"

"Sa-her is better at getting her friends in trouble than out of it. Something you should've known when you squealed on me." She pressed her heel to his neck. He groaned in pain.

"You don't have to do this, Astra." I told her.

"You didn't have to leave me in hell. Besides, I like doing this."

"No more, please?" Masher begged. She snapped again and his body disappeared.

"Astra, look, we came down here to have a friendly chat, all right? Now, we don't have to be enemies." John said.

"You're not my enemy, John. You're an important step in my evolution. I crawled my way up from the bottom and I finally have some real power around here. So if you want to stop me, and this goes for you too, Ciara, you'll have to kill me. But really, what's the point? I'll just end up down here anyway." The sigil completed and we were wooshed back to the waverider."

"John, Ciara." We both gasped for air.

"What happened down there?" Ava asked us.

"I need a drink." We chorused, walking past the two women.

XXX

"And that is the truth of it." I told the group, ending John and I's explanation on what happened and what we found out.

"Astra and this whole bloody mess is on us. And she can't be reasoned with."

"So we need a more permanent solution to stopping her or she could continue releasing souls indefinitely." I concluded.

"Surely Astra can change." My brother countered. "She's still human, right? I mean, even two masters of the dark arts must believe that there's some good left in her."

"Forget it, bro." I told him. "Astra's lust for power, it zapped the humanity out of her."

"Well, on the bright side, at least the encores aren't our fault this time." Sara said, and everyone besides Ava, John, and I high fived each other and hollered.

"Is there any point in sending these encores to hell?" Ava asked us. "It sounds like Astra would send them right back."

"Correct." John and I chorused.