The mergeverse

Familiar faces?

The mall was surprisingly pretty big, most that I had been in were only ever one floor, occasionally two. I had never been in one over that. We all kinda of ended up taking a few things, one thing that stood out a bit to me was Tavnora grabbing a blue hat. I figured it held some memory to her, specifically one to her dad.

After a little while, Tavnora spoke. "Hey Lucifer? I have a question." I looked over at her. "Hm? What is it?" She seemed a bit nervous to ask, but I figured it was more of just her getting used to me rather than something to do with the actual question.

"So, you can see ghosts, correct? How come you don't use that ability to talk to your loved ones again?" I knew that question would pop up eventually, it usually does. And yet somehow, it still always makes me go quiet for a few moments. "It's.. more complicated than that. The ghosts I see have to be ones to chose to stay in the living world. Most don't though, they usually decide to pass onto their afterlives. That's why I'm able to see Alora as well, her soul is connected to you in a way, keeping her stuck here. Plus a whole bunch of logic I still don't fully understand." I sighed. "But I understand why you'd be curious about that. It's an interesting ability, but it does still have its ups and downs."

She nodded in understanding. "That makes sense I suppose. But uhm, won't the others get worried with you being gone?" I shook my head no, chuckling a bit. "No, they likely won't. They're all dealing with their own things right now, me being there isn't gonna change anything."

We continued to walk in silence for a bit, until we heard voices. I recognized them, but knew the others wouldn't. "Shit.." I muttered. "Stay here. I'll go check who that is." Tavnora nodded, despite clearly not wanting to listen.

I turned the corner to where we heard the voices, my guess correct on who it had been. They both spotted me, clearly surprised I was well, alive. I was honestly just as surprised to see them. "Lucifer? Is.. that really you?" The younger of the two, who I recognized as my younger brother Axel, said, running over and hugging me. "You're alive!"

I gently pat his head, I was never really the type of person to like hugs, but coming from him, I didn't mind too much. "Could say the same to you as well, I thought you guys all died during well, y'know."

"We had a bit of help from a vessel of some kind. Got us out of there and then just.. left." I watched as Ian, my older brother, walked over. I shot a glare at him as he did, but let him come over. "Aw, what, don't you miss me lil' bro?"

"You know exactly why I didn't miss you, asshole." I snapped at him. God this asshole really brought the anger out of me. "Just come on, there's someone waiting for me to get back." Axel let go of me, and I lead them back over to where Tavnora was. "I'm back, sorry about that. Thought I recognized who it was and wanted to double check." Tavnora looked a bit skeptical of the two at first, and I didn't blame her.

"Lemme explain, these two are some.. family of mine, who I thought were dead, but turns out they aren't. Axel, my younger brother and, Ian, who I have the misfortune to call my older brother." Tavnora seemed to calm down a bit as I introduced them, but looked at Ian a bit skeptically. God I am so gonna regret letting him stay. Why am I even doing this? He's far from being a good person, he doesn't deserve this. I just sighed, trying to calm down a bit. I hadn't been this genuinely mad in a hot minute, so I figured the best thing to do was just try to calm down a bit.

"Hey uh, do you mind if we stay with you guys for a bit? We're a bit lost right now so.." I thought it over, but ultimately had to say no. "Look, I'd love for you to, but I don't want to have him in my life again. Not after what he did. I'm surprised you're still even fine being around him. You know what he did too." Ian was just looking at me with a smug look on his face. I knew he didn't regret anything.

"I know, but.. he's kinda been the only family I've had. And I know, I shouldn't still consider him family anymore, he did.. some messed up shit. But it's hard, y'know?" I nodded. "I know, just, try to keep in touch at least." He nodded and the two began to leave.

Tavnora was definitely curious as to what we had been talking about. "What was that about? What did he even do that's made you.. this mad. Like from the bit of time I've known you, I've never seen you get genuinely mad at something. Is he really that bad of a person?" I just nod with a sigh. "Yes, he is. But, it's better to not get into it right now."

As we continued walking around the mall, my mind kept wondering if I had made the right choice by letting Axel stay with Ian. It wasn't a smart move, but it was honestly too late now. They had both already left, only time could tell if I'd regret that or not.