<div class="floatright">(http://www.horrorphile.net/images/succubus241.jpg)</div>The flaming sword pierced her flesh and made her cry out in pain. And yes in pleasure too! It seemed that the former angel had acquired a taste for being on the receiving end. Pain and pleasure to her were now one and the same.<br/><br/>But she felt herself falling, tumbling over and over, the light fading from her eyes and blackness washing over her.<br/><br/>Finally the falling sensation ceased, and Zarathel looked around. There was nothing. Absolute empty blackness. Well at least it wasn't hurting her eyes any more. "Let there be<strong>light!</strong>" She commanded. And there was, a very small amount. A dim red glow, that illuminated her immediate surroundings.<br/><br/>Surroundings that contained nothing whatever... And then, slowly, the demoness became aware of things that were here... Things that had yet to come to pass, and yet were already in place. "Time..." She muttered. She had passed through time. The physical world lay between the Light and the Darkness and she had passed through it and been affected by it. Suddenly she understood.<br/><br/>"So..." She muttered to herself, as she watched herself and a number of other fallen angels create the seven circles to surround Lucifer's dark throne, while her master laughed with delight and experimented with his powers. "... Things happen in sequence. In the physical world that ... the Nameless One ... created, things happen in a linear progression because of time. But... out here, and out there," She nodded towards the far far distant speck of white that was the realm of light "Things all happen at once, but still happen in sequence...?" She shook her head. It was too much for the succubus to think about. Maybe when Lucifer joined her she would be able to discuss it with him. But right now, she realised, she had something she needed to do.<br/><br/>She focused her eyes on the speck of light and discovered to her delight that she could see it clearly. There. Lucifer still sat on the Throne, his expression one of shock and disappointment, his wonderful cock still throbbing and emitting the odd weak spurt of molten lava. That bastard Michael had his sword pulled back for a second strike. She figured Lucifer would not allow that to happen.<br/><br/>She turned her attention closer. There, half way between, lay the physical world, the realm where time ruled. The realm where light and darkness met. The realm of fire. She saw how clean and unsullied it all was, and as she looked she saw.... Time split and divided itself, like the branches of a tree. Possibilities. She saw how, if she did nothing, the one single time line continued... but at this moment in her own reality, she had a chance - a single, one-off opportunity, to change everything.<br/><br/>She spread her wings, loving the feeling of pain as the scar tissue on them stretched and cracked and her blood oozed out. But she needed speed not distraction and with a thought, she healed herself. The flight from the deepest darkness to the physical realm took centuries and yet it was over in a flash. She saw herself coming and going many many times across the realm of dark. She saw it being peopled with the souls of the dead humans, but she also saw that these were not yet real. She had to make them real, by changing the time line.<br/><br/>She waved at herself a few times, but none of her other selves waved back. All except one, who stopped, grinned and said "That was fun, you'll enjoy it", before pirouetting away on her black wings.<br/><br/>Zarathel headed for the beginning of time. As she approached it, she felt herself grow heavy, in a way she could not quite work out. It was Time, pulling at her, in the same way that gravity pulls at an object entering it's influence. She fought the pull of Time and made it to the beginning. She looked up. Everyone was still as they had been in the Realm of light. Interesting, she thought. She had spent an eternity out there in the Dark, and another eternity flying in to the real world, and yet deep in the Realm of Light, no one had even moved! Her personal history was obviously divorced from everyone else's... Except...<br/><br/>Hah! Lucifer! He moved, he looked directly at her and he winked, then moved back into the exact place he had been.<br/><br/>Zarathel picked her time and place carefully, and stepped into the Garden of Eden.