That's it. That’s all I see. I'm shocked out of my vision. I can hear and feel both Heimdall and Loki as they whisper my name, shaking me awake.
Cold sweat sticks to my flesh. "I'm okay," I say.
I can't tell them what I saw.
"What the hell happened to you?" Loki asks.
I look at both of them, and I can tell that Heimdall knows. He eyes me in a way that causes me great shame.
"He used me," I say. "He used us all. We shouldn't be here."
Panic.
"You son of a bitch," he growls. "You brought us here knowing you are connected to him. How could you?"
Loki socks me right in the jaw. I deserve it, but it doesn't make it hurt any less.
How can I explain to them what I just saw?
"He coerced me. He made me think I was on the right side," I say.
They both stand. Heimdall shakes his head. "You're out of your mind."
"Fight your own war. I'm out," Loki says.
Heimdall gives me one more betrayed look before following him out.
Fallen from grace, I am alone and back in my natural state. I can't stop my mind from racing.
Lucifer had access to my thoughts and memories, erasing what he needed in order to take power. I was chosen by Odin to fight in the resistance against evil, but I unknowingly helped that same evil to spread.
Everything I've experienced flows back into him.
I step outside of that closet and walk up to Jackson's desk. I lean against it and sigh. My brain is telling me to give up.
A set of heavy footsteps stops at the door. It's Jackson, but as soon as he reaches the entrance, a gunshot cracks through the silence.
Am I dead?
No. But someone else is.
Jackson's jaw drops open. Blood spills onto the carpet, and a figure of darkness rises from behind his corpse.
"Hello, old friend," he says.
He's holding the gemstones, and they're glowing.
I lunge at him, but immediately hit an invisible wall. A force field of energy holds me back.
"You didn't listen. You let her live," he says.
"Where is she?" I growl.
His smirk seems to punish me. "Don't tell me you've fallen in love," he says. "Shadow, do you really think a devil can fall in love?"
"Stop calling me that," I mutter. "I am no devil."
He marches forward. "We are one in the same. Born of chaos, we precede this universe and the next. We bow our heads to no one," he says.