The Plan - Part 2

Nigel scurried along the hallway, not wanting to be seen by the Gossip Gals as they exited their daily meeting in the Demon Lounge. As he hustled around a corner, he ran face first into Roger. Nigel, not expecting to find Roger here, bounced off him and fell to the floor, landing on his backside.

"Roger! You scared the Beelzebub out of me!" Nigel exclaimed, as he rubbed his bottom gingerly.

"Hi Nigel, I thought I might find you here. Have you seen Abaddon?" Roger asked, extending a hand to help Nigel up off the floor. Nigel glanced at it for a moment before reaching up to take the hand.

"Thanks, buddy. I haven't seen him, but I can help you find him. Nigel can find anyone, I can. That's my specialty. Ol' Nigel can locate anyone, anywhere, anytime—"

"Nigel, shut up." Roger snapped, losing his patience.

"Sorry, bud, was I doing it again?" Nigel looked sheepishly at Roger.

"It doesn't matter. I will take your help though, if you're offering. I need to find Abaddon now."

"You got it! Follow me, we'll track him down." 

As the pair reached Nigel's security office, they found the door ajar. 

"Well, that can't be good." Roger said as he pushed the door the rest of the way open. Inside, Nigel's office was a mess. It appeared as though someone had ransacked the whole place.

"Oh, geez, this isn't good." Nigel scratched his head under his ball cap, as he gazed at all the damages. His desk drawers were all pulled from their tracks, and left upside down on the floor. Papers were scattered around the room. Roger looked up at the wall of CRT monitors, noticing that several of them were cracked or completely broken.

"Man, someone has it out for you." Roger said, a bit more nonchalant than he meant to.

"You can say that again!" Nigel whined as he noticed his special shrine to Veronica had been dismantled. The large picture of her had it's eyes scratched out and a mustache drawn above her lip.

"Who would do this?" Nigel cried as he caressed the photo of his One True Love, a tear ran down the side of his face.

Roger's eyes scanned the screens that were still working, looking for any signs of Abaddon. in the last row of working screens, he spotted the hooded figure. 

"There he is, heading toward the dungeon. Come on, Nigel, let's go." Roger turned to see that Nigel was still fully engrossed in the wreckage of his shrine to Vee. A scowl crossed his face as he grabbed Nigel by the back of his shirt and drug him out into the hallway.

"Listen, Nigel, I need you to focus. You can rebuild your creepy alter later. Right now we need to find Abaddon, and he's down in the dungeons, so let's go." Roger was rapidly losing what little patience he had, not that he had much to begin with.

"C'mon, Roge, you don't need me for this part, do you? You found Abaddon. You can go get him, I'll stay here." Nigel sniveled as he wiped his nose on the back of his scaled arm. "And it's not creepy." His eyes narrowed as he shot daggers at Roger.

"No, I need you for this next part too. You have to come with me." Roger grabbed Nigel's arm and began jogging toward the dungeon, dragging a protesting Nigel behind him. 

They approached the dungeon together, Nigel still making excuses to go back to his office and deal with the disaster. Roger had completely tuned him out at this point. He thought about how much easier this next part would be if he was alone, but in the end, it would be worth it to bring him along. What's that thing people that are top-side always say? Something about stoning two birds?

They ran into Abaddon outside of Cerberus' room. The sound of triplet puppy snores drifted from the other side of the door.

"Abaddon, just the man I was looking for." Roger clapped his hand over Abaddon's shoulder.

"Yes, I am Abaddon. And who, pray tell, might you be?" Abaddon raised an eyebrow at Roger.

"Really? You can't be serious. We've met so many times, and you still don't remember my name. I ran against you for the position of Boss's Right Hand. We debated each other. Twice!" Roger's face was beginning to turn red. 

Abaddon cocked his head to the side, squinting at Roger. "No, I don't recall." A snide smile crept across his lips.

"Well, perhaps you'll remember me after this." Roger reached into his pocket and withdrew a large black skeleton key, holding it up. Abaddon's mouth fell open, his eyes widened with shock.

"Where did you get that?" Abaddon demanded, backing away from Roger.

"What is it, Big Guy? Looks like a key, is it important? Where does—" 

"NIGEL, SHUT UP!" Abaddon and Roger yelled in unison.

Roger took a few steps forward as Abaddon continued to back up. He began to tremble, knowing now what Roger was intending to do. Perhaps he should have been a bit nicer to Roger. 

Roger suddenly took off in a sprint across the dungeon hall. He thrust the key into a small inconspicuous door with a tiny peeling label on the front that read "Abyss". 

"Roger NO—" Abaddon began, but it was too late. The door to the Abyss had been opened. Immediately, Abaddon was sucked by an invisible vortex of swirling energy. He was pulled closer and closer to the door as he grabbed and clung to anything he could wrap his bony fingers around. 

Nigel had no idea what was happening. He stood, watching the two demons square off, and suddenly he was being dragged across the floor into a swirling vortex of lightning and thunder. Poor Nigel tried to claw his way out, but there was nothing that gave him enough purchase. He let out a harrowing scream as his lizard body was sucked into the void, where he vanished.

Roger hid himself behind the door to the Abyss, using it as protection from the powerful energy vortex. He peeked around the edge just in time to see Nigel sucked inside. "Excellent" he muttered to himself. "One down, one more to go."

He peeked out once more, locating Abaddon across the hall, holding onto a bench that was bolted to the floor. Roger knew Abaddon wouldn't be able to keep that up for much longer, and then his plan would be complete. Once a demon enters the Abyss, their souls are yanked from their bodies, and they will remain there for eternity. There is no escape from The Abyss. 

Abaddon's fingers were slowly losing their grip on the leg of the bench where he had been  desperately clinging. His body was flapping in the vortex like a flag on a windy day. He looked over his shoulder at the open door, when he spotted her. It was Kitty. She appeared to be completely unaffected by the vortex from the Abyss.  She crept up behind Roger, who was still using the door as a shield from the powerful tornado. 

"Kitty!" She shouted as she grabbed Roger by the shirt and flung him out in front of the door.

"Wha—" Roger was taken aback, his brain not comprehending what his eyes were seeing. Why was she here? Did she just sacrifice him to the Abyss? But what about Veronica? So many thoughts raced through Roger's head as he clawed at the air. His body disappeared into the void, and his screams fell silent.

Abaddon, seeing Roger get his comeuppance, began to laugh. He laughed so hard, his fingers finally let go of the bench. He drifted through the doorway of the Abyss, still cackling psychotically.

She watched him disappear into the swirling energy storm, waving briefly before slamming the door shut. Her small robotic hand reached up and removed the skeleton key from the door, putting it in the pocket of her dress. She turned opened the door to Cerberus' room, grabbing the red squeaky ball from the floor as she entered.