All I saw was darkness, but then again, my eyes were shut. I was afraid to open them. I felt a tug on my shorts. I wasn’t wearing shorts when we left Sora, I thought.

“James, open your eyes. We’re back!”

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I was standing in my apartment in front of the TV. On the screen was the final episode of War of the Stones. Sora had just been taken by Magus Ronaldo to the other side to be with his adoptive father. His time was over. Rebekah and her husband, Yukon and his kids, all of Sora’s kids and grandkids were there. The final battle was over and all of their lives would return to normal. As the screen faded to black, I walked over to turn it off when I heard, “Goodbye James. We’ll miss you.” My hand froze.

“Did you hear that,” I asked.

Jason nodded.

I walked back to Jason and he wrapped me in his big strong arms. Well, they weren’t as big as they were in Sora’s world, but they would do.

He hugged me and then pinched me. I slapped him on the arm and he laughed.

We were definitely back. I left Jason to go and find a clock. I went into the kitchen to look at the microwave readout and it said 3:45 p.m. I wanted to say that only an hour had passed, mostly because the light outside hadn’t shifted much. However, whole days could have passed for all I knew. I turned the TV back on and flipped channels until I found a news outlet. It was still Saturday, so only an hour had passed.

Jason was grinning from ear to ear. I arched an eyebrow and asked, “What is it?”

Just like before we left the other world, Jason picked me up and spun me around. “We’re finally home! I can’t believe it! After 63 years, we’re finally back!”

“I was only there for 59 years. I’m not as old as you are, remember?”

“Bitch please! You’re much older than I am,” he quipped.

I laughed. He had gotten in the habit of using my phrases lately and it made him so cute.

“And look, we’re back in our original bodies.” Jason did a little twirl so I could check him out, and check him out I did. There was that firm and shapely ass I remembered, the strong back that I loved to lay on at night and also the lightly tanned and worked out arms that always held me so tight with such love. I was happy to see that again. We both had gotten so muscular in the other world that we looked like body builders. I wasn’t a fan of big muscles. I got completely turned off by them. I was so happy that I was able to see the Jason I had originally fallen in love with again. However, there was a noticeable change in him, but not his appearance. He was so much stronger than when we left. It was like the two Jason’s merged into a cuter package. Speaking of packages….

I walked behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist and then went lower. He backed into me and started grinding. He then turned around and embraced me. I laid my head on his chest and began to cry. That was definitely a mood killer. And I had just been turned on to see him. I was crying mostly out of happiness, but there was a hint of sadness too. It was hard. Well, that was hard too, but I was referring to leaving my other family behind.

Jason put his hand on my hand and tried to comfort me. It was soothing.

“Thanks Jason, I needed that,” I said.

“No problem babe. I feel the same way.”

He walked me over to the couch and we sat down. “Do you feel that?” he asked.

“Are you referring to the power boost we both got or your penis? Yes, I feel it too. It’s quite amazing, as always” I said as I wiped away my tears. Jason gave me another peck on the cheek and a slap on the arm and I smiled.

“So, it worked then? We got stronger and we didn’t die like you thought we would.”

“There were a lot of close calls you know. And you nearly died several more times than I did. I was at least semi-immortal, unlike you Mr. Danger.”

Jason gave me an appreciative punch on my arm. “Whatever James; we still survived and we have something to show for it. I have all of the power I gained in the other world plus the power I had before we left. The only difference is…” He stood up and spun around his hand and conjured a mini fireball. “I have much better control and I have my mystic powers back.”

I held out my own arm to confirm something. I concentrated a little and it changed into a dragon’s clawed arm. “I guess I came back with more than I bargained for. That means my power will go through the roof!”

We both laughed at our new strength.

While we talked it out, I felt the room shake.

“Is it an earthquake?” Jason asked.

I thought the same thing but I sensed the ground below and it was just fine. However, the building itself was shaking and I realized what was causing it. “Take your power down Jason.”

“What are you…?”

I held up a finger to silence him. “We are so used to being at full power that we forgot what it would do to our surroundings. Go down to about 10% of your max.”

We both lowered our power and the building stopped shaking. “That did it.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you remember how many times we had to rebuild parts of our house?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, you’re right. We had to get Master Chow to reinforce everything with magic.”

“We have to be careful here. Virtually no one on this planet has spiritual powers. It’s not like it was on the show, but I don’t need to remind you of that. Until I can devise a way for us to be at full power all the time without affecting our surroundings, we’ll need to constantly suppress them.”

Jason nodded.

“Now that we have that bit of business out of the way, let’s go outside. I’ve missed seeing this messed up world of ours,” I said.

Jason grabbed my hand and led me to the door. “You said it. I miss the smog most of all.”

We both laughed as we walked outside.

When we emerged into the dazzling sunlight outside, I noticed the car horns blaring, the people shouting at one another, the horrid quality of the air and so much more. It was terrible and I loved every bit of it. This was my world and good or ill, I was home. I didn’t feel like an outsider here, at least not anymore.

The two of us walked hand in hand down the block. As we hit the corner, a car passed by and honked at us. The driver rolled down his window and called out, “Faggots!”

“Hey, fuck you asshole!” Jason shouted.

“Yep, we are definitely back,” I said while trying to hold back laughter. One thing I would miss from that world, other than Sora and the others would be the love everyone on the planet seemed to share towards one another. Acclimating would be so much fun!

We continued on and got to Sunset Boulevard and turned left headed toward West Hollywood. Jason had let go of my hand several blocks earlier. My guess was he didn’t want a repeat of that last performance. The other reason that I didn’t want to think of was that he wasn’t out in the acting world and he was pretty famous. If someone recognized him and saw him holding hands with a guy, it would be in the tabloids so fast. Though he considered himself bisexual, I didn’t think anyone would like that he sleeps with guys even if he also has slept with girls.

Jason took me to Sunset Strip and we shopped, or rather I shopped. Before we went to Sora’s world, I wasn’t much of a shopper. I would buy only what I needed and call it a day. I never browsed. However, in that world I was super rich and didn’t have to worry about where the next paycheck was coming from so I threw caution to the wind and loosened up the reins on my finances. I didn’t have money here, but Jason did so he said he would buy everything and he let me get whatever I wanted. I declined the offer since I had just received my $10,000 signing bonus from the label.

“James, I am happy to buy you anything you want. We are married after all,” Jason said.

“No we are not. It still isn’t legal in this country to get married. I think Vermont does Civil Unions but they are the only state right now that does anything,” I said. “Though, I had a vision before we left that by 2014 at least 17 states will have it where gay marriage is legal.” Little did I know but it would end up being the whole country.

Jason looked hurt.

“I know that on the other side we were married for over forty years, but here we’ve only been together for seven months. We haven’t even told our friends that we are engaged.”

He looked angry, but it wasn’t directed at me. There was a sudden drop in the air pressure and static energy was building up.

“Jason, calm down.”

“I am calm!” he shouted. There was a flash of lightning in the clouds.

I grabbed his arm and syphoned off some of his anger. It hurt a lot since he was so angry. “Jason, you need to get yourself under control. Our powers can sometimes be linked to our emotions and if you lose control, you could cause irreparable harm to the planet.”

“I didn’t come back here just so I couldn’t be with you. This is fucked up!”

I closed my eyes and said an incantation under my breath. The sky cleared up. There was a rise of fear from all around so I took that away too. I didn’t want there to be a panic just because my boyfriend was having a temper tantrum.

Once all of that was done, I said to Jason, “I think it sucks too. But you’re not even out in public or do you think I didn’t notice you let go of my hand before we got to Sunset?”

“I…”

“Exactly; this is a slow process but it is still happening and we will get married even if it isn’t yet legal,” I said. “Also, on the subject of you paying for everything, I am sure my record will sell millions of copies and I will become a big star. I already have money coming in so stop trying to be my hero and coming to my rescue. You already are my hero. You don’t have to try so hard.”

He looked away.

“If we want to be the change we see in other people, then we need to step up and out of the closet; the two of us. Unlike me, you’re already famous and once I get there too, between the both of us, we can change things to what we had with Sora and the others. Plus, we’re super powered beings. Who could stop us?”

Jason thought about it for a minute and then smiled. He pulled me in for a great big hug and said, “That’s why I love you James Taylor, because you are so smart.”

“I thought it was because I suck your dick better than your first girlfriend,” I joked.

A girl passed by as I said that and she smirked as she walked on. Jason burst out laughing. “Yeah, there is that too. There are many reasons, but I still love you and I like your idea. Let’s make it work my love.”

“Okay, don’t get cheesy on me.”

Jason gave his own little smirk, picked me and then threw me into the air like a little baby. I let out a little squeal of embarrassment and delight. There were several onlookers and they all had comments about our little show. One of the comments was how one grown man could even lift another grown man so easily. So as not to have to answer said questions, I begged Jason to leave. Shopping could wait another day.

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Jason went back home and I went back to my apartment because I had a lot of stuff to get done. Since I had technically only been gone for an hour, I had planned on running errands that day which I obviously never got around to doing.

The Friday before we left, or yesterday as it was, the record label gave me my first official check. Well, it was the second if you counted the signing bonus. This most recent check was what I made from the sales of my single that hit number one on the charts. It wasn’t exactly going to break the bank; it was only $5000, but that was more money than I’d ever made in a single paycheck. After the bank I was going to get an oil change and then do some grocery shopping. Obviously I could have changed the oil with the snap of a finger and the groceries with the flick of a wrist, but I liked to do stuff by hand every once in a while. It grounded me.

I did the oil change and shopping first because they were farther from the apartment. The bank was only a few blocks from the apartment so I saved it for last. My branch was closing in an hour so I was definitely rushing to get it done in time.

I went to the teller with my signed check and deposit slip.

“Would you like a receipt of the transaction?” she asked.

“Yes please. I haven’t checked my balance in a while.”

A few bills were set to come out that day and I wanted know how much would be left.

She printed it out and handed it to me through the window. She had given me a bottle of water to drink while I waited. I nearly spit out what I was drinking when I saw the balance.

Now, I was very meticulous when it came to my money. I always made sure that I had enough money for bills before I spent a dime. I had only used $1000 of the bonus and maybe another $800 for incidentals and bills. Jason had been paying for everything in the last month and half, so given that I just put $5000 in, I should have had something like $18,000. Imagine my surprise to have seen $33 million dollars in my checking account and $413,715,022 in a savings account I never opened.

It was clearly some sort of clerical error. I went back to the teller. “Umm, excuse me. I’m sorry to bother you again, but I think you all made a mistake. There is too much money in my account and there is also an account here I didn’t open,” I said.

The girl smiled and said, “I will be happy to check for you. Just give me a second.” Then she was on the computer pecking away. It was the fastest typing I had ever seen. She could have won a world record. When she was done, she looked back up at me said, “No, this is right Mr. Taylor. It shows that you deposited $446,700,000 a week ago last Friday and put the bulk of it into this new account.”

That number sounded familiar and then I realized why. It was the exact amount I had in the other dimension. But how did it get here?

The teller continued. “With that amount of money we do require an ID and everything checked out. Did you not mean to put that amount in? I can bring the branch manager over if you like.”

“If you could, that would be very helpful.” I stepped off to the side and waited. I didn’t have to wait for long.

The bank manager came up to me and he was very ecstatic. “Welcome back Mr. Taylor! We were so honored you decided to bring your inheritance to this institution. You have been with us since college and have always been very good with your account. I know because I’ve checked. And you clearly are a man of your word. You said you would be back to talk about your finance options and here you are,” he beamed.

Only one being could have been responsible for this. This was my Father’s handiwork.

The manager was holding documents and I looked at the pages that needed my signature using my enhanced vision. Sure enough, I saw my signature on every single one. Not that I didn’t want the money; it would make things easier for sure, but it was just moving faster than I could handle. I just got back and this was thrown in my face.

To throw off any suspicion of my intentions, I went ahead as if nothing had happened. “Yes, I would like to talk about my options,” and so we did.

I ended up with a money market account and I managed to get some mutual funds and some CD’s. The rest of my investing would need to be handled by my financial advisor, when I got one.

I left the bank and immediately called Jason. “So, I will be gone for a little bit.”

“Where are you going?”

“To speak with God,” I told him.

“What? Why are you going to speak to God? We just got back.”

“You should check your bank account. You might be surprised at what you find there. I’ll talk to you soon babe,” and then I hung up.

I drove home and went upstairs to my apartment. I put away all of the groceries and then went back into the living room. With a slight pause, I teleported to heaven so I could confront my maker.

Interlude

Janus was in the observatory. He altered an asteroid’s course and manipulated the stardust to a form a new star. Sonja appeared before him. She looked dismayed.

“What’s wrong darling?”

“Don’t act like you haven’t already seen this.”

“I like to pretend I don’t know what’s happening and you really shouldn’t be so upset.”

“But Father, you have changed everything! How will the universe be saved after everything that you’ve done? And you did something you said you would never do; you took away his choice…his freedom!” Sonja shouted.

Janus said nothing for what seemed like an eternity.

“Are you just going to stand there and---!”

“Tell me something; are you God?” Janus asked.

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you God?”

“Of course I’m not; you are!” Sonja shouted.

“If that’s the case, then never question me again,” and then he left in a puff of smoke.

Sonja stood there speechless. Janus had never spoken to her like that; ever. Not once in over 13 billion years had he been that glib. She sensed something deeper behind it, but was left to ponder it alone.

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I was standing in front of the palace doors which were wide open. I stormed in.

Raphael and Michael were in the entrance hall talking amongst themselves. Michael saw me and waved, but I just walked past him as if he weren’t there. Michael was about to call out to me, but Raphael grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. He understood the situation.

I walked up and down every hall, looked through every room and it seemed all for naught. I couldn’t find Janus anywhere which was weird, because I could feel that he was around. I finally found him in one of the many atriums. He wasn’t alone. Gabriel and some angels from Floor 27 the death and reanimation department, were there as well. I didn’t really have time to deal with all of them. “Everybody out! I need to speak to Father alone!” I shouted.

“Who are you to command us?” Gabriel demanded. He walked towards me in agitation.

I couldn’t hold back my rage any longer. I threw my hand into the air and sent out a torrent of cascading energy. It sent all of the angels, including the arch-angels, flying and completely obliterated the atrium.

Janus looked at me, tilted his head back and let out a boisterous laugh that shook the room. He of course didn’t even flinch from my display of power. “That was quite impressive James. You destroyed a room that normally only the gods could have destroyed. You’ve come a long way in just sixty years. I can’t wait to see what you accomplish in another century.” Janus snapped his fingers and the atrium was back to normal. The angels I had cast out were also back where they had been before I arrived.

That’s when I totally lost it. For him to just snap his fingers and return everything to the way it was felt like a slap in the face. First being sent to Sora’s universe, then getting that extra money and then this… I couldn’t take it any longer. I flew at Janus. I moved so fast that no one saw me. Not even Gabriel was able to follow my movement. But one person did see me. Janus saw it coming before I could even act.

An instant before I attacked, I saw the smile fall from his face. I threw a punch with all of my might. He caught my fist mid punch. The force of the blow demolished half of the palace.

Janus pulled me in and then punched me in the stomach. I barely saw the punch, but boy did I feel it. It felt as if He had turned my insides to jelly, which He basically did, because every bone in my body had shattered. The punch sent me flying. Actually, it would be more apt to say He sent me into orbit. I flew out of the palace at something just past light speed and then I blacked out.

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I opened my eyes and looked around. Strange light was cycling on and off all around me. I was floating in the pseudo-space that surrounded Heaven. I tried moving and winced. I was still in the middle of healing. He did more damage than I thought if I hadn’t yet fully healed.

It would take me days to get back to Heaven. The space that held Heaven was so far away from Heaven itself. Heaven was about half the size of the universe, so Janus had punched me really far. I was afraid to teleport since I was still in the midst of healing, but what choice did I have? Teleportation hurt when you weren’t in peak condition. My form of it tore your body down to the smallest particle and sent you hurtling through a breach in time. It wasn’t pleasant when your bones were still on the mend.

I managed to teleport to the palace steps again with everything intact. Though, it felt like I had left my stomach back in pseudo-space.

As I walked back to the atrium, or rather limped back, I realized that all eyes were on me. There were a lot more angels around than when I left. That was a little funny. It wasn’t like I left voluntarily, but they must have heard what I did. Maybe they were afraid I would be just like my brother Lucifer. After all, he was my twin.

A few of them actually stopped me to talk. I was informed that Janus had moved to the throne room and requested my presence as soon as I returned. I had completely healed by the time I reached the throne room doors. The limping was over. I could face Him with my head held high, but I knew He wouldn’t be alone. I did not want to see dad number two, Jason, giving me a disapproving look.

God was seated upon His throne and Jason was standing to His left. They were deep in conversation, but stopped as soon as I walked in. I could only assume that I was the subject of conversation from the way they looked at me.

I stopped halfway. Jason had the look that I was most afraid of and he walked towards me. I hung my head in shame. So much for holding it high and proud. I was still angry, but I was not looking forward to my punishment. The last time I messed up they made me human. What would they do this time; turn me into a lawyer?

The look of disappointment never left Jason’s face until he reached me and then he burst out laughing. “That was awesome!” he shouted. He kept laughing. It took a lot of effort for him to calm down. “I’m so proud of you son. It takes a lot of guts to stand up to my husband. It takes even more to fight him knowing those very guts could be splattered on the walls.”

I stood there in shock.

“Don’t worry. Everything is fine.” He pulled me in for a big bear hug.

I really needed that. All of the tension left me.

Jason patted me on the back and then disappeared.

I was alone with Janus. He didn’t have the same carefree expression that He had on earlier. It still looked like I was in for a world of hurt. I still needed to stand my ground. I couldn’t forget why I came up there.

“You attacked me.” Straight and to the point as always.

“Yes Father, I did and I would do it again,” I said.

“Why?”

“You are constantly manipulating my life! You won’t let me choose my own fate! Everything that has happened has been on your terms. I don’t like it. You putting money into my account was the last straw!” I hoped I wasn’t being too forceful, but I didn’t want to be a pushover either.

God was silent for a while and all that while, He kept staring at me. He never moved a muscle. When He finally spoke, His whole demeanor changed. He was…happy. “You are right. I’m sorry.”

“What did you just say?” I asked. I was so confused.

“Don’t act like you didn’t hear me. I said I’m sorry, however, just like you said, I would also do it again.”

“I don’t get it. You know that I could have been killed several hundred times on that Earth. Had I at least been warned, then I could have---.”

“’Better prepared myself to have an easier time.’ That would not have worked. And if you recall, I did warn you. I said something would reveal itself that should help with our cause. I know you saw it. When you attempted to punch me and I caught it, that backlash of crazy energy scratched my face. To do that in your normal form means you’re half way there. Sonja could barely do what you just did and she’s wicked strong. If you had made preparations beforehand, you never would have gotten this far. It was necessary; trust me,” Janus said.

I thought about it. He was right, as usual. I had amassed a great deal of power in a short amount of time, but what Jason and I went through… And then there was the money. “Okay, I can accept that you changed the spell to take us to Sora’s universe, but what about the money? That was too much I think. Jason was already fairly rich and it would only have been a matter of time before I caught up. Why do it? Why give us the money?”

He smiled, and it literally lit up His whole face. “The money was a bonus for doing such an amazing job in the Santaroon Universe, (I don’t know why you insist on calling it Sora’s universe). Plus, it was your money to begin with. I just changed the currency to match that of the United States. It’s not like you’ll ever live there again.”

Once again, He was right. I finally knew why people got so upset with me. Was that how I sounded?

“Yes, that is how you sound and that is why they get upset, but they still love you for it,” He joked.

“Get out of my head Father!” I yelled.

He laughed. “Then put up a better defense if you don’t want me listening.”

“I can’t right now. My mental powers have been out of whack for a while.”

“Don’t worry about that. You’ll get better soon. But on a serious note,” He said. “About your future training…that apartment of yours is too small.”

“I know that, but I’ve only been there for two months. I signed a year lease.”

“And…”

“Oh yeah; I have all that money now. I could just buy out the lease or just start looking for a new home with Jason.”

“Exactly. You also need to create a special room in that house where you can train.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Way ahead of you Father. I was going to create a room using special energy. I was thinking of making it an open field so I would have room for whatever kind of training I wanted to do. Time would also be faster in there; about 100 times that of Earth. I was thinking 100 years in a single day.”

“Great minds think alike. Now who’s in whose head? One other thing…. You should do more of the mental training that you neglected when you were in the Santaroon Universe. I know that you have a mental training area. It will push you past that final threshold and get your telepathy back up to snuff. To show you what you really have to work towards, I will briefly show you my full power. I can only give you two seconds because I put the universe at risk by taking power away from maintaining its energy,” He said as He stood up. He walked down the steps in front of His throne.

In an instant, He changed into his true form. He was this blinding white being with several hundred pairs of wings and was as big as the room. He had no facial features save for a pair of glowing green eyes. His garment fluttered around Him from the force of His energy. And His energy…

He reverted back to normal exactly two seconds later. I doubled over and threw up. I felt weak all over. That was the most awesome and most terrifying experience I had ever gone through and I had just gone through one when He punched me. No words could ever describe the amount of energy I felt, or didn’t feel, coming from Him. If I had to compare; my 100% max power was about 5% of His max power. I think I’m being generous on His part. It was probably more like 0.5%. I had to surpass that in 100,000 years.

“Did I fail to mention that you actually have to surpass that in 100 years? I always leave stuff out,” He said.

“Wait, I thought you said that I had 100,000 years to save the universe. Did you take 99,900 years off by showing me your true power?”

“No, nothing like that. That is the time the universe has left. Well, it did lose some time because of my power display, but only 2,000 years. What I meant was you will be taking over for me in 100 years’ time, so you will need to be ready then. Also, you were wrong about the difference in our powers. Before you left, you could barely make a crack in the floor of this room and now you could destroy the entire palace without much effort. That puts you at about one-fifth of my power in this form. That’s quite impressive. However, the difference between our powers in our final forms puts you at about one-thousandth of what I have. I still have faith in you. I wasn’t even half as strong at your age, so you should feel proud.”

“Instead I feel lousy,” I said. “I have less time and a lot farther to go than I realized. This mental training better be all you said it was or the universe is doomed.”

And that was that. We talked for the next few hours about nothing in particular. I talked about my time in the Santaroon universe and He told me what had been happening here, even though only a few hours had passed on Earth. It was much needed Father and son time.

I left the throne room and made my way back to the entrance. As I passed, I apologized to all that I saw. They all seemed to accept my apology. The only hesitation came from Gabriel. We were never that close before and after the Lucifer rebellion he stopped trusting me all together. He thought I would one day do the same thing since Lucifer was my twin. Even though he knew that Lucifer always had a difference of opinion, he more or less told everyone "I told you so" when I decimated the eastern coast of South America. I guess you can’t win them all over.

Father number two was waiting for me at the door. “So…how did it go?” he asked.

“Like you don’t already know.”

With a wicked grin he said, “Of course I do, I just want to hear you say it.”

“The four of you always do that. You know the answers to the questions you ask and yet you ask them anyway. It’s like you’re bored or something.”

“Or something…,” he said laughing.

“Anyway, he wasn’t even mad at me. Why did you have to keep me in suspense? I almost had a heart attack!”

“Yeah right. We did it to see if you were anything like your original self. You are nothing like Adonael. I’m glad to see that. His arrogance was only matched by his contempt for humans at the end. You have learned humility. It took 200,000 years, but you did it. As your father, I’m really proud of you. I hope you know that.”

“You talk too much you know that, but yes, I know it now,” I said with a smile. “Thanks dad.” I put my hand out for a handshake and he gave me a high five instead. “You are so weird dad.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I know, but that’s why you love me,” he said.

I waved him off and said, “Yeah, whatever.”

Jason slapped the back of my head, I laughed and then teleported home.

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I landed in my hallway to the living room and walked past Jason before I even realized he was there.

“I teleported here as soon as you hung up,” he said.

“That must have been after I got here and put my stuff away because I never saw you. How long have I been gone? It’s hard to tell time there,” I asked.

“Only ten minutes, so I didn’t have time to become too worried. Are you all right? What happened?”

So, I explained everything.

Jason listened patiently. He never asked a single question though I could tell he really wanted to. When he did ask a question, it wasn’t the one I was expecting.

“When do you want to start looking for a home and what part of town were you thinking of looking?”

“Hold on a second. I just told you that we now have just 100 years to become gods essentially and all you can ask is where do I want to live?”

Jason grabbed both of my hands and said, “It’s not like we haven’t already lived together for four decades. We were married over there and we’re engaged here. It just makes sense. Plus, if the training you talked about really works, we might be ready before 100 years.”

“I see your point.”

“Santaroon universe aside, (I won’t get used to calling it that), we’ve been together for seven months, it will take at least three months to find a house we both like and get all of the paper work out of the way. That will be long enough for people to think we finally got to know one another.”

I thought it over.

“Come on; just be happy for us!”

Seeing Jason so ecstatic caused me to get there too. He was right. It could be a really good thing. So what that we had less time. I still had Jason and he would make it easier. I decided to make the most of it.

The rest of that day we made plans for our future. He slept over that night, and all we did was sleep.

Before long, we went back to our normal lives.

It took a couple months more for us both to agree on a house, but we finally found the perfect one. It was a luxurious house by the beach we found in Malibu.

My first album was completed and a few more songs hit #1 on the charts. My tour was scheduled at the end of January of the next year. I was to start in San Francisco and then Seattle and then head east to all of the key major cities. If it worked out this time, the next time I would hit all major cities on the next tour.

Jason got a part in a major blockbuster. It was his first starring role in a movie and needless to say, he was excited. It was a crime drama slash martial arts picture where he had to go up against the mob that killed his wife and baby. The studio wanted him to train beforehand but when he showed them his skills, they slated for filming as soon as everyone was available. They were thrilled they didn’t have to pay extra for the training. He would even be able to do some of his own stunts.

As a side project, the two of us joined the People’s Rights Organization. They were thrilled to have us since we were both celebrities. We put millions of dollars into the organization so we could help the fight of gays, lesbians and transgendered. We wanted the world to be like the world we had left behind. A lot more happened after that, like…. Maybe I shouldn’t talk about that just yet. I still don’t know how this will be received. As the new God, I wanted to get my word out there. The universe needs to know why I did what I did. A lot of things have been done in my name and I wanted to set the record straight. The truth must be known. And again…I’m sorry.

The End

Epilogue

In the pit, otherwise known as Hell, Lucifer was in his throne room looking through an object that closely resembled a sextant. A demon burst through the throne room doors in a big hurry.

“My Lord, we just heard. Your brother has returned from another dimension and we have reports that he’s much stronger.”

Lucifer never looked up. He didn’t even move. He kept his focus on the object in his hands.

“Didn’t you hear me my Lord? We have a serious problem!”

Without turning his head, Lucifer shot a fireball at the speaker, and he exploded. “Of course I heard you.” He motioned to one of the other demons standing by. “Clean him off the rug. I just had it cleaned yesterday.”

“Yes, my Lord Lucifer.”

Lucifer put the object down and it began to glow. He called out, “Azazel, come!”

A beautiful blond man appeared before Lucifer. “You summoned me my Lord?”

“Apparently my brother has returned from somewhere stronger than ever. Do you think I should be worried by that?” he asked.

“Adonael…stronger? Stronger than what my Lord? He was never your equal so I don’t think he poses a threat now.”

Lucifer got up from the throne and walked towards his chief advisors. “There is much you don’t know of the universe Azazel and he goes by James now. He’s not the same weakling we once knew.”

“From what I remember of him my Lord, his mystical powers were second only to God Himself, but that isn’t enough to challenge you. You easily captured him once before. I don’t think he will ever be a threat to you,” Azazel said.

Lucifer walked around the former angel. He looked at nothing in particular. “You could be right old friend, but we should still be prepared. There’s no telling what this new version of my brother will do.”