• From The Ashes

Posted: **Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:11 am**

Hello everyone,

You may have seen posts about me. With a hijacked account, I've even posted here before myself. Though mostly I just changed a post where my true name was rather rudely revealed.

That led to rather a lot of fuss which has more or less been sorted out.

I am most often referred to as 'Maddie' though my drivers license says Madelyne Wynters. On this board I have chosen the handle of Phoenix. That is because who I was has been burned away leaving who I am now.

There may be posts or rumors floating around suggesting that I have an infernal allegiance. I want certain people reading this to think long and hard about those rumors.

I am also a mother. My life and that of my child have been threatened. I can run, easily. So far that no hound will ever catch my scent.

Screw that.

I'm an information broker. Out of habit I've kept anything I learned a secret until maximum payoff can be achieved. And if you've been reading this forum then you've seen that I can strip mine a man's mind for EVERYTHING THEY KNOW. And I've been doing it for longer than the tribes have existed.

Here's some relatively recent incidents that I know that have been investigated but remain mysteries.

1992, Washington D.C. Harish Dalmia. Found with his throat cut and his tongue pulled through the opening. The so called Colombian neck tie.

1995, Bucharest. The Regaldo twins go missing. Their corpses were found in a room that was locked from the inside and there were no signs or known way to get in or out of the room because it was also locked on the outside.

1998, Tokyo. Kenshin Saotome goes missing. They'll find his bones in Egypt in a compartment that has supposedly been sealed for thousands of years. When they actually discover it, that is. By the way, he was in the middle of negotiating a contract for his tribe with the local Yakuza. Harish's associates have long been suspected of his disappearance but they are actually innocent on this one.

1999, Vancouver. Micheal Saunders and Emeka Turay are found. Emeka appears to have stabbed herself with a silver blade. Micheal Saunders is found decapitated. They were looking for Rene Tremblay who still hasn't been located (and never will be).

These are just a few off the top of my head from one decade.

I can also drop names.

Eclipse.

Shall I keep dropping names?

Posted: **Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:37 pm**

Well Maddie I'm glad you took my advice and got an account here. Still, I wish you'd consulted with me about the content of your first post. I'm in the middle of some rather tense negotiations at the moment.

Posted: **Fri Jul 05, 2013 11:35 pm**

Child, you know not the forces you deal with. Drop your act before you yourself are dropped .... off of a steep cliff!

You think you scare someone? I shall show you true fear!

Posted: **Sat Jul 06, 2013 12:36 am**

Actually I do know what I'm dealing with. That's the point. You'll find I don't frighten.

Posted: **Sat Jul 06, 2013 1:59 am**

We all know who and what you are, Maddie. ;)

In any case, I think recent events and arrangements has rendered this thread obsolete already. At least for it's original purpose. It could still be salvaged if you'd be so good as to share with us what happened to you on June 1st. It might settle some fears and over active imaginations.

I keep going like this and I'm going to wind up becoming a diplomat or maybe a herald of some sort.

Posted: **Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:11 am**

Cute kid.

Fine, I'll start telling the story tomorrow. I'll never hear the end of it from the lot of you if I don't. But for now I just got the baby down to bed and need some sleep myself.

Posted: **Sat Jul 06, 2013 3:57 pm**

I suppose before I get into talking about what happened on the first of June, I need to provide some background leading up to that day. A lot of it starts in 1969 with a trio of demon hunters. Two were a married couple and the third used to post here under the handle of Cessiel.

Now, I don't remember these events but I was there. You see, I was the devil they were hunting. Apparently they were successful too. Mr. Wynters was able to trap and contain me while his wife finished the kill.

Of course all they succeeded in doing was destroy a mortal shell. When a Devil is slain here on the mortal plane, they do not die. They are forcibly exiled back to hell for a period of five hundred years. There is an exception to that rule however.

The spirit of a devil can possess an unborn baby, tearing it's soul from it and then being born in its place. Usually when this happens, the devil is and grows into its natural form quite fast.

Mrs Wynters was pregnant. I don't remember my thoughts at my time but the irony must have seen far too delicious to pass up.

Months later, I was born.

But things didn't go as they normally do.

That is because Mrs Wynters had been unfaithful to her husband, having had an affair with Cessiel. So the child was not an ordinary human embryo. It was a hybrid. So while I possessed it, the nature of the child could not be fully subverted. Instead of destroying the soul, I merged with it.

I think.

In any case, I was born and seemed to be an ordinary human child in every way. I grew up in a loving family and had a fairly normal childhood. My mother retired from demon hunting and my father only did it part time. Still, they didn't keep the family past time a secret from me. As soon as I was old enough to understand, they started teaching me about the hidden world.

And then I hit puberty.

It was... hell. I had my first menses, which I had been expecting thanks to a forward thinking mother. What I did not expect was the goat legs at sun up. They lasted for only a few minutes but it seemed like a horrific eternity before my own natural legs returned.

I cried for an hour before I convinced myself it was all just a horrible nightmare or hallucination. It made a sort of sense. My body was going through all sorts of changes and there was a subconscious fear that I would in some way disappoint my parents. What could be more disappointing then becoming the very thing they had dedicated their lives to destroying?

Then the sun went down and again I was forced into my true form. A cruel change that would happen with the dawning and setting of the sun every day until only very recently. I could never run or hide from what I really was.

There was no one I could turn to about this, either. How could I possibly tell my parents that I was a Devil? I felt I owed it to them to hide what I was from them. I felt I owed it to them to pretend to be the best person I possibly could be, despite what I now knew to be my own dark and twisted nature.

For years I hid my true nature from them and from those around me. It wasn't always easy and there were many close calls but I managed. I couldn't hide that I was exceptional however. I was stronger, faster and tougher than all the other kids, boys included. I showed amazing potential for both psychic and magical abilities. Both of my parents thought this meant that I would be some sort of once in a millennia hero and were proud of the manifestations of my secret shame.

Posted: **Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:22 pm**

So my life went on and my teen years were more or less normal though obviously I avoided sleep overs or anything that might risk my exposure. Then, shortly after my 18th birthday, I was approached by a man who identified himself as Cessiel. He also claimed that he was my true biological father and that I had probably been experiencing some unusual changes that set me apart from other humans.

Of course he was right about the changes so I agreed to go someplace private with him to show him my natural form. It wasn't what he was expecting. He was expecting less the furry goat legs and more the feathered wings, I think. You see, he was a fallen Gregorian, cursed to walk the earth until eventually meeting his own end.

He understood exactly what had happened and explained it to me. My possession of the hybrid embryo was only partially successful. What may have happened to the soul of that unborn person is impossible to know. But the hybrid nature of the physical embryo interfered with its transformation. So I grew up as a normal human until I started adolescence, with no memory of my infernal past. When my body started to change, my true nature started to show through.

After he explained all of this to me, he attacked me. I defended myself of course and I wasn't without my own power, but he was more powerful still. He beat me to within an inch of my life and seemed ready to deliver the final blow. Then he paused and announced that this must be part of his penance and left.

Even with my powers of regeneration, I was still quite obviously in a bad way by the time I got home again. Father wasn't home but mother was. She asked me what had happened, and I told her everything. I even showed her what I was.

My worse fears were then realized when she tried to finish the job that Cessiel had started. She very nearly succeeded and showed none of the hesitation he did. It was only the fact that my father returned home just then that stopped her.

Tearfully, holding a sacred dagger over my heart she explained to him what I was and about the sin that had brought me about. She told him that she had to end me, that I was an abomination that would continue to corrupt, hurt and kill. That they had to finish what they had started 18 years ago.

He killed her and then kicked me out of the house.

My father was arrested for murder and would serve 25 years behind bars before being released just a few months ago.

Posted: **Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:51 pm**

I wasn't idle over that 25 years. I set out exploring the world and learning how to use my powers. The lore my parents taught me gave me an idea of what I should be able to do. Their journals actually taught me some specifics of what I used to be able to do. The rest I figured out from trial and error.

It only took a couple of years for certain sorts of people to notice me. Eventually I was contacted by one of my own kind. The 'higher' ups had some jobs for me now that I had been located again. Most of these jobs were local but some took me to other worlds. I learned a great deal.

Those who knew me from before started to contact me. I started finding my old haunts, bolt holes and caches. And meticulous records of my activities dating back hundreds of years.

I wasn't a very nice person. So I started living the way everyone expected me to. From my parents to business contacts, everyone seemed to know me better to me and I didn't see any point in arguing.

My primary role was information broker although I also engaged in spying and sabotage. I didn't get my hands too dirty otherwise though. Was there blood on my hands? Sure. Some of it directly but most of it indirectly. There were some lines that I didn't cross and some jobs I liked less than others. Sometimes I'd feel a twinge of guilt but I always buried such emotions. For the most part, I kept everything just business. Strictly professional. It helped put some distance between me and the things I was helping to enable.

Then one day I was trolling through this site as I had many times looking for juicy tidbits when I found something I had never expected and scared me down to my bones. Cybermancer had publicly posted my true name, for no reason I could divine. I'd never interacted with this individual before, directly or otherwise. What cause did he have to go ahead and do that?

I had two immediate motivations. Revenge and self-preservation. Maybe I could have handled things differently but amongst infernals, there's just a certain way things are done.

I'm not going to retell that story nor shed light on the parts that he has chosen to leave out. I am going to fill in a few details from my perspective with regards to the resolution however.

It was Mel that came up with the idea of finding a way to change my true name. It's a rare thing but can be done. So a plan was made and many people here at Lazlo had a hand in seeing me on a path of change that would end with the change of my true name.

Along the way, I noticed things about myself that started to change. For one, at one point, I lost a significant amount of power. Abilities that I possessed that most of my kind don't normally. One morning I just woke up and they were gone. The changes didn't stop there however. I soon lost my ability to assume my natural form, or any other form. I was stuck in a single human form. No more changing every day at dusk and dawn.

I didn't know what to make of it, though I was concerned I might wind up losing all of my powers.

But when the process came to an end, I was still an infernal creature, just with less power than before. And a new true name. I started to breathe a little easier.

That was, until June first.

Posted: **Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:15 pm**

I was at home with Shang on the morning of the first. I remember that I had just put Shang down for a nap when the doorbell rang.

I was surprised to find my father... that is the man who raised me, standing there, his hat in his hand. He said that the years had given him time to reconsider a great many things and that he wanted to be a part of my life and the life of my son.

Cautiously, I let him in. None of the mystic defenses twigged to his presence so I thought it would be okay.

He asked to see my son. So I took him there and took Shang from his crib and handed him over.

That was when he drew out a hidden knife and took my son hostage, forcing me into his power by the threat of death to Shang.

He took us to a hotel where he had already prepared some circles. One would hide us from scrying. The other could be used to banish me back to hell. I had no choice but to comply with his demands to stand in it while he started his ritual.

All the while, he held my son and I could think of no way to save my baby. A year ago I would have had many options available to me. Now I just felt helpless.

Around me, I could feel the magic working. A connection was being made to hell. Not just that but a barrier was being established. I would be banished and unable to return for 500 years. I would never see my son grow up. I would likely never see him again. And I would have to face my former superiors and deal with their thoughts on my recent changes.

But mostly I was worried about what would become of my son.

As the door burst open, and Hannah and Blackie charged in, I already knew the ritual was complete and it was too late for me. I was grateful that she went right for Shang.

The magic energies enveloped me and tore at me. Tore me in half in fact. That which was infernal, the devil that I was, all the evil and corruption was pulled out of me and banished to hell.

I remained. A mere shadow of my former self. I was now nothing more than a mortal human woman.

Make no mistake. I'm not completely helpless or powerless. I can still work magic and I have some intuition left to me as well. But more importantly I still know what I know.

But at the time, all I could do was collapse, weak as I was.

Posted: **Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:35 pm**

I suppose I should say something about what went down.

Letting you, the person you had become, suffer the effects of whatever was going on was very hard for me to do. But I knew who I had to save first, and when you called out I knew you and I were on the same page.

Also, you did one more thing before you passed out. You got his attention. I needed that distraction to get Shang away from him. So you and I work well together.

I am glad we're on the same side now.

Hannah

Posted: **Sat Jul 20, 2013 5:22 pm**

I have to admit that I'm pleased with how you've turned out as well.

Posted: **Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:44 am**

Yeah, she's pretty awesome.

Hannah

Posted: **Thu Oct 03, 2013 8:56 am**

Ms. Wynters,

Some of the names you have mentioned are familiar to me. If I still had access to my data I would be most interested in updating the information that I have and discussing it with you.

Posted: **Thu Oct 03, 2013 11:26 am**

I'm always open to gaining new sources of information.

From The Ashes

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