Mama Mathers' Interlude
Christine was many things.
She was strong, having faced many hardships yet always finding the courage to keep fighting.
She was humble, having accepted her shortcoming and recognizing the powers that were greater than her.
She was a mother, always looking after the well-being of her children.
But above all else, she was a woman of faith.
The world was a broken, ugly place. Greed and fear ruled supreme, chaining down the lesser men and turning them into mindless slaves. Humanity had surrendered itself to its primal hunger, turning into an all-consuming cannibalistic machine that had started devouring itself just to stuff it's already bloated belly.
Humanity had become a sinful, ugly thing, and in response, the heavens had sent its punishers.
The Endbringers, as they were called, were the mechanisms of divine intervention. Those who refused to give up their greed and let go of their material possessions were swept away, but those who humbly accepted their will were spared and saw the truth.
The world may have been broken but it wasn't beyond salvation!
That was the purpose of the three. Humanity had believed itself beyond fault, akin to gods capable of reshaping and controlling the world at will, and just like it had happened to the architects of the Tower of Babel, they had been punished for their pride.
Christine saw this, and in her faith she found refuge. By joining her voice to their choir, by placing her trust in them, she was no longer a victim to be forgotten or a brick to be used by those who believed themselves better than her for building their monuments to sin. She had become a soldier of light in a war where the soul of humanity was at stake!
And so she sang and preached the word of the Endbringers!
The end was coming but there wasn't anything wrong with that. That was the gods' decree, and it should be received with joy, not dread. The destruction that the Three brought wasn't a tragedy but a liberation from earthly chains! There wasn't anything shameful about surrendering to divine will, that was simply the natural order of things, and because of that those who opposed them had to be stopped.
That was why their great enemy was the corrupt Protectorate and its sinful leaders that rallied the faithless masses against their true saviors.
But few had the strength of will to vanquish their selfishness and take the blindfold off their eyes. It made her rage in impotence knowing that she wasn't strong enough to save them all, and that uncountable souls would end up burning in hell led astray because of the lies of those in power.
The Three were stronger and wiser than any human would ever be. They had proved that time and time again when the best warriors that humanity had to offer had failed to stop them. So why weren't they allowed to do as they saw fit?
It was a tragedy that so many would need to die for the rest to accept that resistance against fate was futile.
Christine had helped wherever she could. She had dedicated her life to reaching out to those who remained lost, trying to lead them to the light. She had done so without asking anything in return because it was simply the right thing to do. That made it all the more painful when those she tried to help slapped her caring hand away.
"Mama!" One of her children -Matthew- called for her as he entered her abode. He was dressed in white and kept his hair long as all good soldiers did. "We found them!"
The announcement brought a smile to her face. "How wonderful, my dear! Well, what are you waiting for? Bring them to me!"
Ever since that tragic day more than two weeks ago when the sinful men and women of the Protectorate announced the defeat of Leviathan, many of her children started growing restless. They became disobedient. Without the structure and discipline of the family, they allowed selfishness to creep back into their bodies.
Some had tried to betray the family, but a good punishment had been enough to bring most of them back into the fold. Those who insisted on fighting back had tried to escape the camp but didn't get far before Mathew and his brothers had found them.
Now they were being brought back before Christine.
Didn't these children see how much their actions hurt their mother? She showered them with love and they bit her hand in response, even knowing all she did, she did it for the sake of their immortal souls.
She'd teach them manners.
The door opened, and in came two of Mathew's brothers, dragging among them a girl who was only 16 years of age. Her hair was a mess and there were dry tears scaring her cute face. Surely crocodile tears she had tried to use against her brothers, make them have pity on her and make them do as she pleased, but they were stronger than that.
"Oh, my dear Sophy, welcome back." Christine walked towards her rebellious daughter, running her fingers down her face.
The ungrateful child flinched and tried to recoil away from her mother's touch, but her brothers kept her in place. In response, Christine reached for her shoulder and dug her nails into Sophy's skin, forcing a muffled groan of pain out of her.
It was such a pity that Sophy had forced her to act like this, but a firm hand was needed if one wanted to raise her children properly.
That was when she noticed that the door hadn't opened again and that no one else had come inside. "What is this? Where's Luke?" She asked.
Two children had escaped, and she was expecting both of them to be returned to her. Where was the boy?
Mathew looked away in shame, and a feeling of dread crept up Christine's back. "I'm sorry, mother. He took his own life."
Sophy's moans of pain turned into a scream when her mother tightened her grip, enough for her nails to cut her skin and draw blood.
That boy, that beautiful boy with his rosy cheeks and curly blonde hair, dead?
The Mathers Clan rarely acted overly, but when they did their main targets were always the Wards' centers of training. Those places of filth only existed to twist the minds of children. There they were brainwashed into mindless machines willing to throw their lives away in battle against the gods, an act that was as useless as it was blasphemous.
Whenever they saw the chance, Christine and her family rescued them and brought them to the light.
It was in one of their most recent raids where they found Luke.
He had been a tough case, the programming of the Protectorate having taken deep roots in his mind, but after months of hard work they had managed to break him free. He had fully embraced the cause, and had quickly become one of Christine's favorites.
"It's all your fault, you foolish child!" She screamed at Sophy. "What lie did you tell him?! What disgusting promise did you make to have him follow your lead?!"
It was the poison of wicked women which always led good boys down the path of damnation.
"But it wasn't me!" The girl answered between fake sobs. Would she truly go as far as to lie to her own mother? "It was his ide--"
Her words were quickly silenced with a slap across her face. "Don't you dare! Luke was a good and faithful boy before you corrupted him with your lies. And look at what you did, you lead him to his death!" Christine composed herself, it wasn't proper of her to lose her calm. "Now what should I do with you?"
Christine didn't enjoy doing this. She didn't want to see her children suffer, but misdeeds had to be punished. Because of the actions of one disobedient child, a life had been lost, and now a life would have to be paid back.
Yes, the joy of motherhood would temper her irrational behavior.
"Shave her head," she ordered after a moment of deep thought. "A soldier who refuses to fight can still help her family bearing its children."
Sophy's eyes sunk, and after realization dawned on her she started screaming. "N-no-- No!" She thrashed around, but it was all for nothing. Her stronger brothers overpowered her and dragged her away to the nursery where they would teach her what her new role would be.
Poor dear, she still didn't understand, but one day she'd learn that everything Mama Mathers did was for her children's own good. One day Sophy would look back at this moment and thank her mother for this second chance once her soul was saved.
"What a disappointing sight," a new voice spoke up. It was Elijah, dressed in that corset he had taken a liking to recently, the one that clung to his body and surrounded him in white and silver feathers.
Christine didn't like it. A boy like him should be dressed in something more masculine than that, but she knew that the reason that he did it was that he had been trying to craft his own identity. Establish his own clan, even.
If any of her other children had come up with such an idea she'd have quickly dissuaded them of those wild fantasies. Unity was their strength and anything that threatened it was to be destroyed.
But Elijah was different.
Unlike his other siblings, he came from the blood and flesh of Christine herself, and if anyone else had a destiny as glorious as hers, it was him. That's why she'd humor him as long as his actions didn't put the rest of the family at risk.
Who knew, maybe this was yet another test sent by her Lady.
"Let this be a lesson, my dear boy," she told him, caressing him just like she had attempted to do with Sophy. "Women who haven't embraced our faith desire us nothing but ill-will, and will try to corrupt and destroy you. Be always vigilant around them."
"Of course, mama," he said, pressing his cheek more firmly against her palm. "You know that I always listen to your wisdom."
He was such a nice boy, a good servant of the gods…
"Good. Now go and assemble the family. I want to address them."
With a sharp nod, he walked away, closing the door at his back.
Now alone, Christine allowed a pained sigh to escape her thin lips.
The loss of another child had been a tragedy, but it was just one of many her family had been suffering. And would continue to suffer. Ever since the loss of the great Leviathan, whispers of discontent had started spreading amongst her clan. Fear had taken roots, and lesser minds were allowing it to kill them from the inside like an insidious poison. They had started doubting the strength of their cause, and even the wisdom of their Lady Simurgh.
So little faith.
Couldn't they see that this was yet another test?
The Crowleys, Leviathan's clan, had never been true believers like the Mathers who worshiped the Simurgh or the McVeays who honored Behemoth.
She had heard how Jake, the younger Crowley, spent more time drunk or drugged than fighting for their cause. How most of them were common criminals that acted just like the same pigs that Christine spoke so much against.
They used people's faith as a mechanism to gain money and power. How utterly disgusting! And the result, sadly predictable. Their conviction proved to be a lie and because of that one of their champions abandoned them.
And to make it even worse, their failure had spread amongst the other clans.
But Christine would make it right!
The spirits of her children may waver, but her voice carried the message of their Lady Simurgh!
She waited a moment for Elijah to finish the assigned task, and with renewed vigor, she walked out of her home.
The place her clan had been calling home for the last couple of weeks was a ravine in the depths of Utah, away from any of those so-called 'centers of civilization'.
It was to places like these to where the faithless masses had pushed her family into, all because they lacked the intelligence to comprehend the world for what it truly was.
Having been forced to live like nomads, the clans were always on the run in their motorhomes, searching for safe havens where to settle for a season before moving on once again. Many had suggested just abandoning the corrupted country for a place they could call their own, but Christine had silenced those voices. They had a mission. They were shepherds. That was why they had to remain close to the blinded masses, saving the sheep they could while avoiding the wolves.
It wasn't the kind of lifestyle she wanted for her family, but their effort would be rewarded once the culling started and they were rewarded.
That was one of the many things she had to remind her family about, to keep their heads high and their determination strong.
The church they had set -where she was going- was at the back of the camp. It was a small, humble thing. Worthy of humble and honest people. It consisted of a single platform from where Christine delivered her sermons and rows of foldable chairs for her flock to listen.
On the way there she was surprised by the lack of voices.
Whenever she walked out of her home there were always children there offering to escort her, or just begging for her attention. And now, nothing.
It was a surprise but not an unwelcome one. That silent deference was just a sign of respect for the sacred act they were going to partake in.
Soon enough she reached her destination where her family had assembled, all 73 of them. They were all dressed in pure white, most of them with long hairs flowing from their heads, while others were completely bald. These last ones were what the nursery was made of, and consisted of the girls whose spirits had proved to be lacking. They all either carried a child in their arms or had their bellies full with a child waiting to be born.
They were considered 'lessers' by their more competent siblings, but Christine loved them all the same. They all had a purpose to fulfill, and that was why she'd deliver her sermon to them all the same.
But as she got closer to them, she realized that something was wrong.
They were perfectly still, unnaturally so.
Even worse, their unblinking eyes were staring into the void.
"Children?" She asked out loud, rushing to them.
Their faces were pale, and their veins were bulging like black tendrils trying to strangle them.
An attack!
How had they been found? Stealth and subtlety were their greatest weapon! It was what allowed them to triumph against a world that hated them, and refused to accept their message.
Whoever was responsible for this, she'd find them, and bring destruction to them!
"Oh, I'm sorry," a voice said. "Is this a bad time?"
Christine snapped at it, searching for its source.
When she did, her blood boiled.
He was a man dressed in civilian clothes, his shirt opened to reveal his toned upper torso. His hair was trimmed back, and his beard and mustache were neatly styled into a goatee.
There wasn't a single person alive in the country of America who didn't know that face.
And if that wasn't enough, the person next to him would have given his identity away.
She was a naked woman, her skin striped in black and white, with an arm crossing over the man's shoulder in an obscene display of affection.
"Jack Slash," Christine spat.
There were those who dared to compare her to him. Said that both were criminals, artificers of destruction and disorder.
There were few things that she found more insulting than that.
Her clan were holy warriors. They fought for a cause greater than themselves, and their great mission was to save the world from itself!
Jack Slash, though? He was nothing more than a rabid animal. A child who destroyed without rhyme or reason other than his own amusement.
But to underestimate him was a mistake.
The '9' that he had recruited were amongst the most powerful capes that this cursed earth had birthed. The one at his side, the Siberian, had been the only cape to ever hurt the mighty Alexandria. There was no known force that could damage her, and she could transfer that invulnerability to those she touched. Like she was surely doing with Jack Slash.
And if these two were here, then the rest were surely somewhere around her camp too, waiting for the right moment to strike.
What was their objective? Were they trying to recruit the Mathers? To use them? Were they trying to break Christine's spirit by using her children as hostages?
Her clan would not be turned into pawns in the sick games of a mortal man!
The Siberian may have an indestructible body, but Christine's strength was in the realm of the mind.
Her power was as simple yet deadly: any sense that detected her was put under her control. Sight, smell, hearing, or even the more exotic ones granted by powers. Once she left an imprint on them, she could twist them or take them over.
She could drive people mad that way. She had done so many times in the past.
She didn't use it on her children, even when she knew that it could serve her to keep them in check. True faith could only come from within, and that was why she didn't force anyone to believe through the use of the powers bestowed upon her.
It was the same reason why she had forbidden Elijah from using his to gain new recruits.
But against an outsider? An invader? There would be no mercy. She would tear down their senses one at a time. Leave them blind, deaf, and as clumsy as a baby, and turn them into a grim reminder to all those who threatened her family.
She reached out with her mind, and that was when the pain started.
It was like a knife of ice being forced into her brain.
She didn't scream because she refused to show weakness, but she did stumble, her power having been rendered useless.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Jack said in a mocking tone. "It wasn't my intention for you to get hurt." He approached her, and as he did Christine heard that infernal sound.
It was like a hundred needles digging under her skin.
She tried to pull back, but she lost control of her legs and fell to the ground completely still.
"Do you like it?" Jack asked her, waving a device in front of her face. It was a black plastic box with a red light on one end. "It's a-- what did she call it? Oh, yes, a sonic taser. My dear Bonesaw has been broadening her horizons lately, making me so proud."
So that was how he had neutralized her family in one simple move, exactly during one of their moments of weakness when they were all together for a mass.
And all because of that blasted child!
It was one of Christine's greatest regrets that she had never been able to recruit a healer for her ranks. She had searched amongst Wards that she could rescue, and even asked the other clans if they had one they were willing to trade, but that was something that had remained beyond her grip.
Even then, she doubted that she'd have tried to recruit that little devil even if the opportunity had presented itself.
Tinkers were tumors that fed on the society that the gods wanted to destroy. They couldn't exist without technology, and the dependency to that drug made them weak.
A good power was like faith, perfect and natural. Like hers was.
"But I'm not here to fight," Jack continued. "So allow me to help you."
He kneeled at her side and forced something into her ears.
The sound suddenly stopped, and Christine found herself in control of her body once again.
She looked up and realized that the Siberian wasn't at Jack Slash's side anymore. He was open, vulnerable.
Seizing the chance, she reached for a knife that she kept hidden amongst her robes, pulled it out, and aimed it at his neck.
Less than an inch from her target, she stopped.
Not once had he flinched, nor had his smile abandoned his face. Even the presence of the knife failed to phase him, as he kept his eyes firmly on hers.
What was she doing? It was known that Bonesaw had tinkered on the rest of her team, making them stronger and faster than any human should be. A slit throat would never be enough to kill Jack Slash.
And besides, was this how she wanted to die? On the ground, dirty, and with her family taken from her?
No.
She was a matriarch and would behave like one.
Putting the knife away, she climbed back to her feet. "What do you want here?" She needed to keep him distracted until she found an opening to destroy the device that kept her family imprisoned. If she did, they could fight back.
"I told you," Jack replied with a soft chuckle. "I'm just here to talk. And as a show of goodwill, I'll tell you that nothing that I did was responsible for your powers failing. It was this." From a pocket, he pulled out a glass tube, the size of a thumb, that he hurled in her direction.
Christine caught it and brought it to her eyes.
It was cold to the touch, almost as if it was made of ice, and Inside the tube, there was blue crystal glowing with an unnatural aura. The more she stared at it, the more a sensation of wrongness within her grew. It was like a veil of shadows was cast over her mind, making her powers difficult to reach.
"What is this?" She asked in disgust.
"Poison," was Jack Slash's quick reply. "That seed of chaos that you hold in your hands was brought to our world to blind thinkers and kill your gods."
Christine ground her teeth as she processed what she had just been told.
Kill the Gods? Many had tried, and they all had been killed in turn.
And yet, wasn't this the right time for something like this to emerge? After the failure of the Crowleys the world had been tossed in disharmony. The voice of the faithful had dimmed and that of the heathens had become louder.
Her vendetta against the 9 would have to wait. First, there was a bigger sinner to punish.
"Who?" She asked through clenched teeth. "Who was responsible for creating this?"
"Oh, Mama Mathers, if you believe in angels then you have to believe in demons too! And in their false prophets."
A memory quickly surged in her mind.
A name.
That of one of those who had been falsely credited with the destruction of the Great Leviathan, and who dared use religious symbology for his sinful practices.
The same one who had paraded around like a whore, revealing himself to be an inhuman monstrosity to a cheering crowd.
"The Tech-Priest," she muttered. "That thing?! That monster is the one responsible for it?!"
It was a corruptive force that led people astray. Christine hadn't cared much about that thing at first, secure in her knowledge that Simurgh would punish its pride, but if Jack Slash spoke the truth then the corruption was more dangerous than she had assumed.
"Indeed he is!" Jack laughed as if finding the situation humorous for some ungodly reason. "But that's not even the half of it!" He gestured at the Siberian, and the woman walked to them with a piece of paper in her hands.
Christine's insides arched in revulsion at the woman's naked form, but she steeled her conviction and pushed all emotions away from her face.
Jeck received the paper, and turned it around to show it to Christine. It was a photo of a young boy, probably around 11.
"Who is he?"
Her question made Jack Slash's grin grow wider, putting his white teeth in full display.
"His name is Peter Brown, Mama Mathers. This is what he used to look like before he turned himself into the Tech-Priest."
Christine's mouth hung loose, her utter disgust harder and harder to keep under check.
What Jack Slash was implying was… wrong. An utter travesty, a blasphemy against nature, against the humble origins that the gods wanted humanity to return to! The deviant's body had been gifted to him by the gods, and in an act of hubris and pride he had tossed it away believing that he could create something better than them!
But humans couldn't create anything, they could only corrupt what was already there.
Christine's hands started shaking and she recoiled back as if the face she was seeing in the photo was that of the maggots-infested carcass of a rotten animal.
"He did that to himself?!" Those words left an aftertaste of vomit in her mouth.
Jack nodded. "And from what I heard, he intends to do the same to others."
The so-called 'Case 53s' were yet another symptom of a dying world. Broken people with broken bodies and broken minds cast down into the dirt to suffer for their sins. What other reason could there be for such a blighted existence? The fact that the corrupted PRT tried to elevate them as noble heroes only cemented their existence as creatures of darkness.
Were people so blind that they couldn't see them for the monsters that they were?
The McVeays hunted them down wherever they went to purify the land, but the Mathers had left them largely ignored. Their Lady had her plans, and so they had put their trust in her to punish them once the time was right.
But now Christine saw that she and her family no longer had the luxury of patience. Far too many souls, far too many good men and women would be forever lost to damnation if they didn't do something about it.
And wasn't inaction what condemned the Crowleys to failure?
Their enemies were mobilizing against everything they believed in, and it was their sacred duty to fight back against that darkness.
Her determination crystallized in her mind. "I'll not allow that to happen."
"That's what I wanted to hear!" Jack announced, clapping his hands together as if praying. "Our objectives align, and that's why I came to you, knowing that you'd have the vision to realize the gravity of this threat!"
He spoke boldly, with a voice that was difficult to ignore.
Maybe she had been wrong about him.
Jack and his 9 were engines of blind destruction, yes, but wasn't that just what the gods wanted? To destroy the world so a new one could be born? Jack Slash was a present reminder of the incoming end, and therefore he, too, was just another part of her Lady's great plan.
And yet, Christine wasn't so foolish as to think that an unenlightened person would do anything out of altruism alone.
"Do you wish to recruit him?"
That was how the 9 acted, after all. They reached a new place, sought the strongest fighters they would find, and recruited them into their little group. Through torture or worse if needed.
That wasn't a method that she approved of, but she found little reason to object to it being used against the lowly being that had dared to stand against the gods' plans. The Tech-Priest was barely human, to begin with.
"Naturally!" Jack said with a shameless smile. "My Bonesaw already claimed him as her candidate, after all."
Just as she expected. But as he himself had said, as long as their objectives aligned they could work together.
"Do as you wish, but first my family and I will straighten him up."
It would be a challenge, but one that didn't frightened her.
And she wouldn't do it alone.
The magnitude of this menace was something that concerned all the clans, not just the Mathers.
The McVeays would be eager to join once the intentions of the enemy got revealed, and the Crowleys would find in this war the atonement that they so desperately needed.
Maybe this was the reason why her Lady had put her in this world, and gifted her with such wonderful powers and such a wonderful family.
For the first time since their birth, all the Fallen Clans would join as one and march out in crusade.
They'd bath the world in fire, and become the pyre where all sins would be burned away.
…
Next Chapter: An interlude where two foxes put some plans of their own in motion.
