Marie’s entire body was shaking as she stood silently in the Labyrinth. She was in a special room, built especially for her by Satan himself, using a lot of his innate energy and abilities.

The room was a large monitoring room, filled with wall-to-wall supercomputers and hundreds of monitors, used for monitoring the situation on Earth and plenty of other locations, such as the Moon and Mars, all at once. Dozens of imps moved around here and there, the smartest of their tiny brethren, but not much smarter than a very dull human.

Marie, however, was trembling noticeably as she held the datapad in her hands that would seal the fate of humanity. A command was sitting onscreen, prompting her to activate the doomsday device that would surely kill billions of people. She shook in fear of what was to come next, not because she feared humanity’s response, or because she feared the demons if they were left to rule, but because she feared the unknown.

Humans, of course, always fear that which they do not understand. But nothing is less predictable and understandable than a tentative future turned into total chaos by one massive act of random destruction. Once she activated this prompt, everything would change. The balance of power would shift tremendously. Alliances would crumble and reform.

Marie, though, was even more fearful of the unknown. Her entire life rested on science, manipulation, and the act of reading and interpreting data. As a young girl, she had dreamed of total world domination, though she quickly grew out of that childhood farce. Growing older, she had discovered the existence of the demons by chance, and grew jealous of their awesome power as she learned more and more about them. Once again though, she realized attaining the power the demons possessed was physically impossible for her weak human body.

Still, she matured and her ambitions shifted goals again, now aimed towards her current goal, which was the advancement of science. No science in particular was her goal, though her body always quivered when it came to weapons of war. As a young girl, she had loved playing ‘war’ with her brothers, even if it wasn’t a girly thing to do, and even as she aged, war was a fascinating topic for her.

And in the end, it was always men that died at war, not women. So if she were to stoke a major war somehow, it wouldn’t affect her.

In the end, her brothers had died, along with the rest of her family, in a tragic house fire. The whole of her life had hardened her, leading her to the conclusion that life was unfair. There was no justice in this world. The only way to win at life was to make herself as untouchable as possible. She would become so powerful that even the Creator would not be able to stop her.

…

Still, this act was unlike anything she had done in the past. One might even have, for a while, called her an ally of humanity. The anti-energy weapons she had taken from the Nazi research facilities had been used to create weapons that could eliminate the angels… or the demons. If they should turn against humanity, or herself, they would be driven back.

But now here she was, about to kill off billions of people. And she trembled… for nothing she would ever do for the rest of her life could possibly redeem her for this heinous act.

She felt a presence behind herself, a familiar overwhelming and intimidating aura that made her feel like a small, weak mortal every time she felt it.

"Having doubts? Second thoughts?" Satan spoke from behind her, his voice filled with amusement at the internal struggle even she must be madly coping with.

"I should think so." Keeping her voice even, Marie swallowed carefully. "Even the Jews that collaborated with the Nazis must have been filled with regrets. However, they were simply trying to save their own skin. As for myself…"

Satan snickered as he stared at the back of the tiny human in front of himself. "Yes, as for you, you’re just a greedy soul looking out for number one. But I can understand the sentiment. The demons have become greedy, as have the gods and angels. I can’t say I respect it, but I understand it."

Satan paced forwards a step or two until he was standing directly beside her. Her heart was pounding rapidly as his eyes flicked down to the screen. His tiny smile turned into a full bore grin as he saw her trembling hand hovering over the prompt onscreen. "Would you like for me to do it? I won’t hold it against you if you want to back out now, but I’m going to do it one way or another."

"No. I’ll do it. I just need a moment." Marie bit off each sentence harshly as she gritted her teeth. It wasn’t easy, making a choice like this.

Her finger twitched as she lowered it down slowly, hesitantly. Finally, it was a hair’s length above the screen.

She swallowed again, her dry throat giving her one last warning about the regrets she would be living with for the rest of her existence. "Well… here we go."

In the blink of an eye, she pressed her finger down the rest of the way, as ‘YES’ lit up on her screen.

An instant later, she exhaled deeply, realizing she had been holding her breath. It was over now. She wouldn’t even know anything had happened, if it weren’t for the monitoring room showing images of the world around her.

Turning to look at a monitor showing a local city in Kansas, tears filled her eyes as the camera began to shake.

"What have I done?"

Satan placed a hand on her shoulder, grinning evilly as he too watched the display.

"Exactly what you needed to do. With this, you have cemented yourself as a true ally of the demons."

………………………………………………………….

A man pounded furiously on the door of the large estate, slapping the doorbell over and over again as rage and anger filled his mind. The rain outside was scheduled to end at precisely 4:30 AM, and it was 4:17 now. If he had just woken up a bit later, he might not be drenched to his bones.

But he didn’t care. What was rain, compared to the lives of billions?

"Beatrix! Supreme commander Beatrix!!!" Kicking on the sturdy oak door, he pounded furiously until he finally heard a slow, hesitant unlocking of the door as a butler peeked out at the sopping wet man.

"Who are you? The lady of the house is sleeping right now. No visitors."

In a flash, the man shoved the door aside, pushing the butler out of the way as he stormed past. "To hell with sleep! Have you not seen the news yet?!"

The butler, Alonso, glared madly at the crazed fool who had barged his way into the house. "My word! If you don’t get off the premises immediately, I will call security! You deranged madman!"

The man turned and blasted a fiery hot glare of rage and annoyance at the butler. "You idiot! The world is under attack! Get Beatrix down here now!"

Alonso gazed at the man’s disheveled appearance, suddenly feeling a note of incredulity in his voice. "Ben Brown? You’re the one who…" Realizing suddenly who the man was, Alonso suddenly felt his heart slamming in his chest. If the great Benjamin Brown was this angry, it must be serious.

"I’ll wake her at once. Follow me."

………………………………………………………….

Beatrix stood stiffly in her room, watching the newscast scrolling over her screen, shock having overtaken her body and paralyzed her with a feeling of hopelessness, as the reports came in. North America was effectively gone. Canada, the States, and even half of South America too. The tremors and volcanoes had sprung up out of nowhere. Ash was rapidly filling the atmosphere.

Already reports were coming in on her private military data feed. The ash cloud was set to spread over the entire planet within a day or two. Only the weather control systems would be any use in slowing it down. The first volcano, at the epicenter of all these calamities, had exploded out of nowhere with the force of Krakatoa from the 1800’s. Its power was unrivaled and an incredible expression of the forces belonging to Mother Nature.

For sure, this was no mere weather phenomenon. This was not the result of plates shifting or random tectonic forces converging.

This was an attack.

Was it the Volgrim? Of course it was.

As she stared limply at the reports scrolling in, her bedroom door was suddenly thrown open, as her butler rushed in, followed by a familiar looking man she had not seen in a few years. His sopping wet body might have made it difficult to tell who he was, but his bulky and toned body, black skin, and trademark purple uniform gave him away at once.

"Beatrix! You’re awake?" Ben Brown breathed rapidly as he glanced first from her, to the holoscreen on the wall, then to the pad in her hands. She knew.

"Yes. I’m awake." Beatrix spoke haltingly. She was feeling a rush of emotions she had not felt in a long time as the realization of what had happened was setting in.

"It’s an attack by the Volgrim, doubtlessly." Ben calmed down as he took in Beatrix’s figure, standing there proudly, concealing her emotions so as to keep her subordinates calm in the face of danger. A true commander, of course.

"Yes. An attack." Beatrix felt her grip tightening on the datapad in her hands as she stared, not at Ben, but past him, far past him into an unseen void. "I was a fool."

Ben’s expression turned into confusion. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Peace. I wanted peace. I wanted peace with these aliens. I wanted peace with them, because I don’t like war." Beatrix turned her empty gaze towards the casualty reports on her screen. "And look what it got me."

Ben stared carefully at the commander’s face, as he took a few steps towards her. "Supreme commander, this isn’t your fault. We need you at the headquarters, it’s chaos down there."

"What would you know." Beatrix punctuated her question rhetorically, indicating it was a statement.

Ben froze as he stopped walking towards her. Something about her demeanor… "Commander, are you alri-"

"I SAID WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?!" Beatrix snapped, throwing her datapad to the ground and stomping in with her right foot as a flash of hot fury exploded inside of her. Ben and Alonso jumped back at the sight of the usually reserved woman exploded in rage. "I tried to negotiate with these fucking monsters for more than fifty years! LOOK WHAT IT GOT ME!"

Howling at the top of her lungs, Beatrix turned to her bedside dresser and overturned it, throwing it to the ground as she started smashing everything she could get her hands on. Tearing off a leg from a table sitting against the wall, she used the leg to start smashing everything in the room as tears of rage poured down her face.

Ben and Alonso stood back, not in fear, but out of sorrow. The pain she felt must have been…

After a minute or two of tearing around the room, destroying every damned thing in sight, Beatrix seemed to suddenly calm down as she slumped to the floor, tears pouring down her face as she wiped them away furiously with both hands. "Fuck! Shit! It’s not right! It’s just not right!"

Ben walked forwards but kept his distance from her as he knelt down to her level. "This isn’t your fault, commander. This is their fault."

"It’s not that! It’s… my family… they were visiting the East Coast of America for Christmas. They’re… they’re…" She bit off her sentence as rage and sorrow overtook her. "My mother, and my father, and both of my sisters…"

Ben shimmied closer to her as he wrapped both arms around her. "I’m… I’m sorry commander. I lost some family too, I think. I don’t know, I’m just not thinking about it right now. We all deal with it in different ways."

Beatrix slowly stopped babbling as she succumbed to grief for a minute or two. Finally, she furiously wiped away her tears as she stood up slowly, pulling herself up by the edge of the bed.

Rising to her full height, she stood only a few inches shorter than Ben Brown, who was a tall and sturdy 6’5". The both of them looked quite intimidating as the sadness slowly melted away.

"Those… bastards." Beatrix felt a snarl curl up on her face as she wiped at her puffed and swollen eyes. "This is the final straw. Chancellor Brown, we’re putting an end to all diplomacy. No more attempts at peace. No more idealistic notions or childhood fantasies. We’re going to crush these invaders."

She glanced over at the holoscreen, as reports were coming in of Volgrim entering Europe and attacking several major cities.

Ben lowered his gaze as he felt the sudden alteration of the Supreme Commander, at her most base level. She had always been one of the most peace loving people, and now…

"As you will, Supreme Commander. Let’s go, we can save the tears for later."

"Yes. Let’s."

………………………………………………………….

Marie stared with bewilderment at her screens. "Damn! The European device didn’t activate! If we don’t set it off, this will create one hell of a backlash!"

Satan felt emotions boiling through him as he stared at the small woman beside him. Was this intentional? Did she perhaps sabotage the second device? Nonsense, she wasn’t even in Europe and hadn’t inspected it. It couldn’t have been her.

Of course it couldn’t. This woman was ruthless. She was no friend of humanity.

Or was she?

Satan smoothed out his expression as she turned to look at him in bewilderment. Her confusion seemed genuine. It was probably just a glitch in the system. What else could have caused that device to misfire?

"It’s fine. We weakened humanity severely. The Volgrim are already attacking the key cities as planned. The ash cloud will eventually cover Earth, even if we didn’t take out the main technological centers in the other continents."

"It won’t happen quickly, though, Satan. The weather control systems will be able to hold the cloud off for several weeks, possibly months. Not just enough time for an evacuation, but enough time to figure out a solution to remove the cloud."

Marie bit harshly onto her fingernails as she watched the numbers coming in. Actually, it was worse than expected. The Americas were important for humanity to develop new technology, but doubtlessly there were still many well-fortified bunkers built underground that had taken little damage. For one thing, Marie’s own laboratory had likely survived just fine. What of the Type 3 Energy testing facilities? What about Jason Hiro’s own underground bases?

Marie snarled. This was a terrible outcome. Not the worst, but bad. Still, if humanity should survive and rebuild, then she’d simply have to switch sides. Playing both sides of the field, that was what she excelled at. Much like the bankers during WWII, she got along with leaders for both teams, and they in return would not begrudge her if she made a quick buck, or if she simply saved her own skin.

Yes, in the end, it didn’t matter who won. She would become one with the winner.

Still, who could have possibly sabotaged that device? It was protected by dozens of hundred digit codes. Simply unlocking the mainframe would take an ordinary person hours to get past the security. There was just no culprit, and it couldn’t have been a simple misfiring.

Marie continued to gnaw at her finger as that question weighed on her mind.