...What You Make Of It

by Elizabeth "Archangel Beth" McCoy (arcangel@prismnet.com)

Based on Redneck Gaijin's Dark Victory universe. (He says it's "not quite right," but I'm vain.)

Lilith stands on a high point, wind whipping around her. She has been standing there since the first sparks fell from the sky, and before, she was singing,

"Risk the fire in the midnight sky
And the rain of Hell when the ashes fly
Just so long as the generals die!
Bring it down, bring it down!
Bring it down, bring it down!"

But the earth-bound suns have faded now. And she can see not just the masterless claiming their birthrights of Freedom, but Saminga walking the Earth. And Saminga is taking them, eating the souls of the survivors, the ones who would have made the world to what they wanted, free of the tyrants of creation. Saminga is killing them, destroying them utterly, and Lilith was promised that she would be the avatar of Freedom.

There is no Freedom in Death.

Lucifer has not kept his promise. Lilith's Word has become useless. *Lilith* has become useless. She saw the handwriting on the wall long ago, and she sees it now.

There is no Freedom in Death.

She watches Saminga's swath of destruction, and for the first time in centuries, in millennia, tears stream down her cheeks. She knows that her Word is in flux, and Death has always been more powerful -- though stupid enough to be manipulated, before. But he has found his focus, and could even Lucifer destroy him now?

There is no Freedom in Death.

Her fists clench, slowly rising as her jaw tightens. "No," she whispers as she sees what should have been her greatest victory, turned to glassy ash.

And she screams her rejection of this Truth to the empty skies, to the winds, to the butchered Earth and beyond, to the wreckage of Heaven itself. "*NO*! THIS SHALL NOT BE! IT WILL NOT END LIKE THIS!"

She sees what must be done, to save humanity, to save Freedom, to save herself. The first thing is to save the humans, and if there is pain and weariness on that road, so be it. She has lived her entire life for free will, and this is what she chooses to do with that free will.

And then the high point is empty but for the wind, sweeping away the footprints of the Woman that God created.

Freedom Road
Is a long haul.
Freedom Road
Is a long haul.
But it's worth the ride
Even if
You never get there at all.

--Leslie Fish, Freedom Road

("Bring it Down" is also by Leslie Fish, "Infamous Anarchist" and filker)

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