The flight to Chicago had been delayed for about an hour so the Dante family was beyond tired as the plane finally put it's wheels on the runway at O'Hare two of the three members of the family breathed a sigh of relief. The third member was asleep in her mother's lap and clearly busy dreaming at the moment.

Jason and Selenia Dante made their way out of the plane and towards the terminal to get their passports checked and getting their luggage. Now for two people who were known to be deeply in love with one another, they were awfully quiet.

Selenia felt trepidation, almost a sense of fear for the man she loved. This fear poisoned the love she felt for Jason and made her feel slightly paranoid about their relationship, at first she had been glad to be able to reject Lillith, she felt elated that she had broken free from a passionate but abusive relationship. But at the same time she felt a growing feeling of paranoia, because just as she knew that Jason felt guilt about the few things he hadn't shared with her, she felt paranoid...no fearful to reveal that she had had a...She paused, ever since Jason had brought her back from the land of shadows, she had never felt this way.

“Does he even know that I am...he...he has to!” She thought to herself.

Slowly she calmed herself down.

“He had to know, she was a former succubus after all and it was...” She thought to herself.

The thing wasn't so much that she had been with a woman...it was which woman she had been with.

Inwardly she cursed as the anxiety returned.

She couldn't even let the damned name cross her mind, she felt afraid that as soon as the thought drifted across her mind, Jason would know...and him knowing that it had been ...

“Dammit!” she thought to herself.

She simply feared that Jason knowing would be the end of their relationship. She let her shoulders slump as they walked through customs, the paranoia had marked her and she wondered how long it would take for Jason to notice. She loved him...at least she used to, he had trusted her enough to show her his weak sides, his vulnerability and at the same time how much of a golden heart that had been hidden behind the granite wall. He had let her in and showed her, what she had thought was kindness, warmth and love...now she wasn't sure any more. Jason had taken the ring from Freya, albeit indirectly but he had still taken it and not given it back. With the energy the ring gave him, Dante had showed what Selenia feared and more or less knew to be his true colours, the greed, the ego and the drive to think only of himself and his glory had returned as it it had never gone away in the first place. She of course knew that it had never gone away at all, it was part of him just like the parts of him she loved. Now, she was afraid that the old Jason Dante had taken over again, the Jason Dante that made her fear for her safety and for the safety of Meagan.

She slowly grew irritated, sure should should have told Jason about her affair with Lillith, but he wasn't even born when she and Lillith had been lovers, suddenly the angst turned to anger...Sure, she should have told him about her “thing” with Lillith, but that was BEFORE they ever met. In the light of this righteous anger, she seemed to see things clearly. She heard Jason's arrogant and mastering words as he was in the grip of his own power-trip, She saw him standing there after he hurled a ball of lame at Darkness, she saw him as he laughing with power-fuelled madness threw fire at Ecks. Slowly she started to see where the blame lay, slowly she began to see her husband in a different light.

As Jason waved down a cab to take them home, Selenia knew what to do, she knew what SHE needed. As the cab sped onwards, She pressed Meagan to her chest as if she wanted to protect her baby girl from her husband and her girl's father.

The cab came to a halt and as Jason carried their bags up the stairs, she looked at him. He smiled at her, but she didn't return the smile. Instead she said “Jason, we have to talk.” in a tone that tolerated no disagreement.

*****
William Shamrock felt ill at home, he had been travelling for so long that he had simply and nearly lost the scent and feel of his home country. Now hoe ever he felt as if he was rediscovering his home and the windy city as he strolled down the street in the Christmas busy second city. He walked past hordes of kids to whom the 25th couldn't come quickly enough, past parents who with desperation in their eyes rushed past trying to buy the perfects gifts for their kids. He walked past men dressed as Santa trying to get the holiday stressed to give a few bucks to charity. As he strolled down the street he came to a large, wooden gate. A gate bearing the sign of the cross. As he stood in front a house of the lord, he felt warmth flow into him despite the cold wind of the windy city. He smiled and entered.

Inside the church looked like you would imagine a church would look like if it had stood for at least say, 50 or 60 years. It had wooden benches that were stained in a dark brown colour, the walls were covered in stones that gave the whole church the feeling of being an English church from the middle ages. The entire building breathed peace, calm and reflectiveness. Even the crucified Christ seemed to feel at home in this church of the people.

As Shamrock stood in the middle of the aisle and let the peace of the place seep into him a man wearing the clothes of a priest walked up to him. It wasn't until he stood maybe three feet from Shamrock that he noticed him.

“How may I help you, my son?”

Shamrock looked at the cleric, he was about his height but had that skinny, scrawny look to him that made him look older then he was. Shamrock guessed that he wasn't even as old as the man he had just called “son”.

“Oh, nothing really father. I just happened to walk by and your church felt as if it was asking me to step in from the cold and get some peace.”

The Priest smiled.

“I actually felt the same way too when I first walked by here, this place is pretty much what lead me onto then road to serve my lord.”

Shamrock nodded.

The Priest, who had yet to introduce himself looked at Shamrock in a strange way for a few seconds before his face lit up.

“Say, you wouldn't happen to be the wrestler...” the priest paused and looked as if he was trying to remember a name. “...Shamrock...yes, Shamrock.”

William Shamrock smiled and actually seemed a bit embarrassed to have been recognised.

“Do you watch wrestling, father...”

“Leary...and yes, one has to find some way to spend the nights, hasn't one?” the priest said with a smile.

Shamrock nodded and shook the hand the priest extended.

“I tried to get tickets for your show here, but they were sadly sold out...I will watch the show on TV though, I want to lend my support to you against that...fiend!”

“Dante?”

“Yes.”

“A fiend?”

“Haven't you heard? People say he is the reason you have been abroad for so long, as the good people grow in strength, his kind fear the righteousness of the servants of my lord!”

“His kind?”

“Haven't you heard? They say he is a...Satanist, rumours speak of him and his...coven...” The Priest made the sign on the cross as he said the last word. “...has been holding sabbats in the name of Satan!”

Shamrock stared at the priest.

“No I haven't...”

“Either way, my son...me and many others who follow the lead of my lord have you in our prayers, we want to to defeat the blasphemer! We want to see you victorious.”

“I...That...I appreciate that, father...”

The Priest walked up to him and put his hands on his shoulders.

“You, William Shamrock are our hope....you are our champion...defeat him and the path is clear for my lord to re-conquer the hearts of the people of this world, you are the gallant champion of light!”

Dumbstruck, Shamrock nodded as then priest said a brief prayer for him and made the sign of the cross on his forehead.

“Go in peace, my son.” Father Leary said as Shamrock left the homely church feeling confused, but also like a million bucks.

*****

Jay Ecks was just about to turn in for the night, the bungalow Dante and Selenia had given him on the estate of their mansion was warm and felt like home to the former linebacker. He was about to pull the shirt of when there was a knock on the door. He cursed as he was damned tired from the flight, but non-the less he walked over to answer the door.

Outside stood the man he saw as a friend once, now a few burns later, he wasn't so sure any more.

“Hello, Jason...” Ecks said, avoiding calling him “Jas” as that would in some way show that he had forgiven him.

“Hi, Jay.” came the reply.

Normally Dante greeted him and people he considered friends with an almost bombastic tone in his voice, but this time the voice was hollow, empty and...sad.

“What's the matter?” Ecks asked letting his show of non-forgiveness melt away for a few seconds.

“Can I come in...it's...damn cold out here.”

“Ok, sure.” Ecks replied with the coldness returning to his voice.

Meekly, Dante nodded and walked in. He sat down on Ecks couch and just sat there for a few minutes. As he sat there he massaged the place where his ring-finger had once been, the stump didn't even have a scar but it seemed as if it gave Dante some kind of pain non-the less.

“I take it there is a point to this...unless it's one of your fucking jokes!” Ecks said a little harsher then he had intended.

“There...there is...I...eh...when we...when we got home, Selenia said that we needed to talk...and I agreed that we did, I said that we had to plan the time we would spend abroad...but she cut me off...”

“Yes?”

“She...eh...she said that “we” wouldn't spend time abroad...I would...she...”

For the first time in years, Dante let go of his exterior shield and began to cry, openly weep. When he calmed down. He wiped tears that replaced themselves directly and looked at the man who had at one point been his only friend in the world, he didn't look to him for anything but support, he didn't want pity or anything...he just felt that he needed to know if he had a friend.

“She...said that she needed some...you know...time...and I said that I would do anything to help her and I would take time off and...”

“Yes?”

“She said, that she...oh God...she said she needed some time alone...”

Ecks could feel his shoulders slump as the words registered. He knew what the result of this could be, he had seen it before with his own parents and it still pained him to this day that his parents couldn't stand each other any more.

“Jas...I...”

“You know what the worst part is, Jay? I want to understand her...I really do...but...why the fuck does she have to turn her back on me? I brought her back to fucking life! If I wasn't around she would be puke drying on the floor of my old office now! If it wasn't for me she would still be fucking people to keep herself a-fucking-live! If it wasn't for me...”

Ecks had heard enough, he walked up to his friend, grabbed him by the shirt and lifted home off the couch and pushed him towards the door.

“Shut the fuck up Jason, just shut the fuck up and get the hell out of my house! You have the audacity to not only try to fry me alive, you try to fucking kill Darkness and possibly Freya too, you took up the fucking ring yourself and you didn't give it back to Freya!”

“I did she...”

“SHUT UP! You took the ring and turned it into you god-damn toy! You tried to act like you were the king of the fucking world...What were you trying to do? Give God a run for his money?And then to top it all off you threw fucking fire at me!”

“I...”

“Call me old-fashioned, Jason but to me that feel a lot like “Our friendship is over”.”

“No...I didn't...I mean I wouldn't..:”

“But you did...”

“Yeah, I...Jay, bro I'm so sorry...”

“Sorry? SORRY! Do you think you being sorry heals burn wounds? Do you think you can pass your damn healing ability to be by feeling fucking sorry?!”

“No, I...I can't do anything but apologise.”

Ecks stared at his former friend with a deep loathing in his eyes.

“Jason...this time that is far from good enough. I didn't cause this, Selenia didn't cause this...Freya, Darkness, Lucifer, No one caused this but YOU you took the ring, you used it...YOU. I never wanted to see the Jason Dante that ran Dantecorp return but now he has.”

“No, he hasn't...I promise you...I', not him anymore...”

“Get out.”

“What, I...”

“Jason, get out of my house.”

“Jay, please I don't have...”

“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!”

With no further words, Ecks shifted his grip on Dante's shirt and in the same motion opened the door and threw the man who had hurled a ball of incandescent fire at him out the door into the cold of the December night in Illinois.

“Jay...” Dante pleaded.

“And stay the fuck out!”

Dante stood there, alone, abandoned and cold as the door slammed shut in front of his nose. After a few seconds of anguish, the rage took over ad a profanity laden tirade that ended with him kicking the house and almost breaking his toe in the process.

“FUCK!” he yelled out.

“Go to hell!” Ecks replied from within.

Angry, disappointed and lonely Dante began to walk away from the house. He didn't even want to try to talk Selenia to sense so he left his own home, dressed in Jeans and a black T-shit in December, he walked out the gate to his own estate and tried to find a cab to get to a hotel.

As he walked down the empty and dark road, a shadow seemed to flutter by and fire off a wicked grin at his back.

*****

The doors of the church had slammed shut a few minutes ago when Father Dennis Leary walked down the aisle whistling to himself as he approached the altar a shadowy figure emerged from a darkened corner.

“Strange tune for a man of the cloth to whistle...”

“I happen to like Maiden...”

“Yes, but “Number of the beast”?”

Father Leary grinned.

“Their best one...mate...” Leary said as his features seemed to turn to wax and slowly reformed themselves, slowly the thin figure of Father Leary was replaced with the worn and maddened face of Spike Mallory.

“'sides...I ain't no bleedin' priest.”

The shadow smiled.

“You play an excellent one though...”

“'f course I do...You should see me version of 'im!” he said and pointed to the crucified Christ.

“Did he believe you?”

“Who? The Irish arse? Yeah he swallowed it...'ook line an' sinka!”

“Good.”

“I know.” Spike replied with a smug grin. “One thin' though, whut 'appened to the real priest?”

The shadow smiled a murderous grin again and opened the door to the confessional.

The cold, pale and dead body of a man dressed in the frock of a clergyman fell out of the door.

Spike laughed.

“Bless ya' father for ya 'ave sinned!”