[A/N]: Here's your Second bonus chapter for last week's Goal!
Jay felt something else break inside him.
The part of his soul that said "I can win" just... broke.
He'd thrown everything at this demon. Every power, every trick and every desperate gambit. And it had done nothing.
His legs trembled. His hands shook. His vision blurred. His throat closed. His chest felt like it was caving in.
This was it. This was the end. Not just death but Damnation.
Unless...
There was one thing. One last desperate, pathetic, humiliating thing. Something that made his pride scream and his ego recoil.
But pride didn't matter when the alternative was damnation.
So Jay made a choice. The only choice left.
His hand moved to the ring the Ancient One had given him.
But he couldn't just activate it quietly. Mephisto would notice and intercept.
He needed a distraction. Needed to confuse the demon and buy seconds for the portal to form.
So Jay did the unthinkable and tattled.
Jay raised the ring to his lips and took a deep breath. And then, in the loudest voice he could muster, with all the melodramatic desperation of a child who'd just been bullied, he shouted:
"Teacher! Teacher! There's a big scary demon here and he's being mean to me and I tried really hard but he's too strong and I don't know what to do and please come help because I'm scared and I don't want to die and he's going to take my soul and I can't beat him and please please please come help your student who's very sorry for getting into this mess and will definitely listen better next time I promise!"
The words tumbled out in a rush. Childish, pathetic and completely unbefitting someone who'd challenged gods.
Both Selene and Mephisto froze and turned to stare at him with identical confusion.
Then they began to laugh.
Mephisto's laugh was rich, full of genuine amusement. "Oh, that's precious! That's absolutely delicious! The mighty Power Broker, the man who defied Death herself, reduced to crying for his teacher like a schoolchild! I haven't been this entertained in centuries!"
Selene's laugh was more relieved. If Jay was resorting to this, truly begging his teacher like a child, then he was defeated and no longer a threat.
"Did you really think," Mephisto wiped tears from his eyes, "that calling your teacher would save you? That some 'Sadhu' could face me? Oh, Jay. This just makes it better. He'll arrive just in time to watch me claim you. The tragedy! The poetry!"
But Jay wasn't listening.
He was watching the air shimmer as reality part like curtains.
The Ancient One materialized as she stepped through a portal of her own making in her pristine yellow robes.
Her expression was long-suffering patience mixed with resigned acceptance. The look of a teacher interrupted from important work to deal with her problem student's latest crisis.
Her first act was to sigh. A long and deep sigh.
"Jay, my student." Her voice carried that tone. "Couldn't you have asked for my help in a more dignified way? Must you always resort to the most embarrassing methods? Could you not have simply activated the ring quietly?"
Jay, as his Muramasa form faded, leaving him bloodied and too exhausted for his Healing Aura to work, could only shrug.
"I needed them distracted, and it gave you time to come through without interference. And honestly, Teacher, dignity seemed less important than not having my soul claimed. Priorities and all that."
He met her eyes. And in his own, she saw the truth. Saw what this had cost him.
The Ancient One's expression softened fractionally.
"You did well, my student. Surviving always matters more than pride. Though we will be discussing your tendency to get into these situations later. Extensively."
Her gaze shifted. First to Selene.
"An External. Draped in demonic corruption like a cheap cloak. How far the mighty have fallen. Tell me, Selene, was eternal servitude truly worth a few more moments of life?"
Selene couldn't answer. The collar stole her voice.
Then the Ancient One saw Mephisto. And her expression changed completely. All trace of gentle exasperation vanished, replaced by something colder.
They pointed at each other simultaneously in perfect synchronization.
"You goat-legged infernal!"
"You bald bitch!"
The words came out in perfect unison, delivered with identical venom.
Then absolute silence followed.
They glared at each other with the intensity of old enemies who'd fought too many times to count.
Jay blinked. "Wait, you two know each other? Of course, you know each other."
"Know each other?" The Ancient One's voice could have frozen lava. "This creature has been attempting to claim my soul for the past four hundred and seventy-three years! Every decade like clockwork! Always with some new bargain!"
"Attempting?" Mephisto's tone was genuinely offended. "I've come very close, several times! That business in Calcutta was within a hair's breadth! And the incident in Paris was mere seconds from success!"
"Those were minor setbacks, carefully orchestrated to make you overconfident."
"You were on your knees! Begging!"
"I was buying time while my backup spell activated! Time you wasted gloating!"
They glared at each other. The air between them crackled with power, history and millenia of mutual hatred.
Jay felt hysteria bubbling up. Here he was, having just sacrificed his dignity, about to be claimed by hell, and his teacher was bickering with the devil like divorced spouses.
The whiplash was visceral. From absolute terror to absurdist comedy in seconds.
"So..." Jay ventured carefully. "You can handle this, right? Teacher? Because I'm completely out of tricks and he turned my best attack into a coat and I really, really don't want my soul claimed by hell."
The Ancient One turned her glare on him. And for a moment, he saw exasperation so profound it transcended mortal understanding.
"Handle? Handle?! Jay, my dear, foolish, impossibly reckless student. Do you have any idea what you've gotten into? Mephisto isn't just some demon you can outsmart. He's THE demon. Lord of Hell. Master of Bargains. The single most dangerous entity I've explicitly, repeatedly, with emphasis and visual aids, forbidden all Kamar-Taj from interacting with!"
"To be fair," Mephisto interjected pleasantly, "I was summoned. By that one." He gestured at Selene. "I didn't come here of my own volition. Young Jay here is technically innocent of breaking any rules. He's just an unfortunate victim. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong demon."
"Don't you dare defend him!"
"I'm merely stating facts. I am nothing but quite clear on summoning protocols."
They glared at each other again.
Jay watched the exchange with growing something. Not quite hope and not quite relief but something between.
The dimension groaned under the weight of two cosmic-level beings.
And Jay, exhausted, terrified, barely holding together, could only watch and hope his teacher was as good as he believed.
Because if she wasn't, then everything he'd sacrificed his pride for would be meaningless.
And he'd be damned anyway.
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