It wasn’t long before Kol found his release, not nearly as grand as Jesse’s had been, but it was enough. Without catching his breath, he held Jesse close to him. He released the nipple clamps and her ankle restraints but not her wrists. So, she was still propped up. Kol looked at her and thought he would need to go to sickbay and get a polymer to heal her, there was no way he was allowing his doctor in his quarters with Jesse tied up like this and he had no intention of untying her anytime soon.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked moving her hands a little, indicating the restraints.
Kol looked at Jesse, naked. Her cream skin covered in welts, blood, and sex. Her pink nipples and labia still rigid and raw, then answered casually, “Not at all. I told you that you weren’t leaving my quarters, human.”
Salem meowed his agreement again.
3
Return from the Afterworld
Babette took a deep breath and picked up the ceremonial knife from the altar before her. The wind blew her blonde hair in her face and in her blue eyes. She pushed it back behind her ear annoyed the wind interrupted her. Then she opened her black maximum class cloak, revealing that she wore no dress underneath it, despite the cold. Her pierced breasts exposed to the frosty weather made her pink pierced nipples stand tall with elegant jewelry hanging from them. In the ferocious wind, all the spectators could catch a glimpse of her human sex as well, covered in darker blonde pubic hair, playing peekaboo with her cloak as it swung to and fro.
Babette’s hands were sweaty despite the chill as she held the dagger to her breast. She said the words and then made eye contact with Mir. My Mir, she thought and then plunged the dagger into her breast. The last thing she felt besides the extreme pain of what she had done to her body and the warmth of her blood flowing out onto her cold skin, was falling hard to the ground. Then she heard the crowd that had gathered gasp. Darkness followed.
It had been decided that Jesse would bring Babette back after the sacred seven minutes. Jesse mentally prepared herself and watched Mir for his signal, but all her preparation was in vain as she couldn’t help but feel powerless as she watched the red blood drain from Babette across the stone courtyard. Smoky steam was rising from her blood and Jesse wondered if all the heat from her body would be gone by the time she laid hands on her. She thought to herself, I will never understand Alliance people, you do not need to kill yourself to talk to the gods.
Mir looked at Jesse, he knew that they played a dangerous game with having her here, but it was the only way the plan would work.
It was bright. There was no more pain. No more cold or blood. Babette opened her eyes. She was in the Afterlife. She looked at her hands and they were still cream, the color of a human’s hands. “What is going on?” she demanded into the bright light, but saw no one and heard no one, only her echo.
Rising naked she looked at her body. She was just as she had been on Alliance Planet Four. Babette screamed out again, “I know you can hear me. I’ll repeat myself, what is going on?” She began to walk into the large stone temple before her looking for someone. It was square and held multiple stone thrones, one for each god.
Before she walked past the threshold the goddess of humanity stopped her. She had appeared from thin air, “Babette, wife of Mir, go no further. You are not welcome here.”
Babette stiffened and raised her head defiantly, “I am also Sif.”
“Not yet you aren’t,” replied the goddess of humanity. “In your next life.”
Babette not to be put off by the newest and lowest goddess replied, “My next life begins soon. I am Sif from now. Babette is technically dead. Sif is who I am here. Where is the goddess of home?” she asked looking past Jane further into the temple.
Jane slapped her to get her attention, “I’m the only one you will speak to today.”
Babette looked at Jane and spat out, “How dare you. You’re not a real goddess. You’re just a human who happened to be murdered by an important man. Slap me again and I will hit you back with the force of a real goddess.” Babette, who was Sif the unseen, the goddess of earth and peace, and she knew what was going on, and how confused Jane must be by everything that had happened, “Jane come back with me. You aren’t supposed to be here.”
Jane looked behind her and saw all the Alliance gods. Their loving faces calling her back, “No, I’m the goddess of humanity. My place is here.”
Babette slapped Jane across the face with some strength, “You are Jane Johnson. You were murdered by your lover. You have two daughters who need you in the living. You are not one of us. If you stay here, you put their lives and the lives of all the other human women in jeopardy.”
Jane touched her face and it felt flesh again, “I am Jane.” She spoke as if she was coming out of a dream. Blue eyes met blue, “But how can you be here? How can you know these things, Babette?”
She suddenly grabbed Jane’s wrist tightly and forced her to walk in front of her further into the temple. She whispered into Jane’s ear, “Sorry about this Jane, but some people here owe me, and I’ll have my due.” Then Babette began shouting into the empty temple as she used Jane’s spirit to grant her entry, “Come out you wretches. I have suffered enough as Babette. You tricked me and I’ll have my retribution.”
Jane saw the gods and goddesses around them but realized they were still unseen to Babette. Feeling odd again she said, “Babette, there’s no one here. You should proceed to the Afterlife and wait to be reborn as an Alliance woman and as Sif. Mir will follow shortly.”
Babette growing tired of this and knowing there was a time limit on how long she could be dead in her mortal body to return, she grabbed Jane’s hair, forcing her to remember who she was, “No Jane, I’m not leaving until I get my due as Sif as I know it is my due in this lifetime as Babette. However, the goddess of home has betrayed me. That’s why she hides now.” Then bellowing into the empty stone temple, “Or are you too much of a coward to come out and face me? Or will you wait until my power is complete? I would love to kill you. If you keep me here so that Babette’s body is irretrievable, I swear, I will kill you.”
The goddess of home made herself seen then and the other gods and goddess followed, one by one, by rank.
The goddess of home addressed Babette, “Will you not return Sif?
“I will return as Babette.”
“No, it’s unwise. It will only confuse the humans.”
Babette laughed, “Oh because making Jane Johnson a goddess wasn’t confusing? She took my place. That what was promised to me for being born in this form.”
“Things change,” the god of war said stepping forward. He nodded to the goddess of home, letting her know that his plan was to now keep Babette here. The more of her powers she regained as the goddess Sif, the less likely she would be able to claim her mortal form as Babette. Either way, they would win, this.
Babette turned her attention towards the god of war, “Oh you, shut up. You caused this whole problem with the humans to begin with because you wanted to see if Alliance people would develop differently if separated on Earth.”