First Demonic Dragon

"Give it back, old man!"

"Old? Who do you think you're talking to, shrimp?!"

"You, geezer!"

"I'll show you a geezer! Come here you little brat!"

"L-Let me go or I'm telling mom!!"

Courtney was sitting at a small table in her bedroom; perfecting the time tested tradition of arts & crafts.

Her brother and father were supposed to be helping, but... it seemed like they had somehow devolved into practicing warfare instead.

On the floor, Abaddon had Straga locked in an arm bar that he couldn't have hoped to get out of even with divine interference.

"Cheater! You're too damn big for this!" Straga yelled.

"Stop all that damn cursing in front of your baby sister!"

"Damn!" Courtney giggled as she threw both hands in the air.

"See what you did??" Abaddon tightened his grip on Straga's arm even further.

"Argh, okay, okay , I'm sorry! Just give me my phone back, I want to text Monica! I promise I won't talk to her about the exam or your decision at all!"

"You texted her twice twenty minutes ago."

"T-Then I want to call her and hear her voice!"

"She's been awake for almost three weeks straight, son. You have to let her rest."

Straga couldn't refute the truth of that statement no matter how hard he tried.

"...Okay, y-you're right... Can I have my arm and phone back now?!"

"No. Suffer the consequences of badmouthing your father."

"Dad!"

"Don't 'dad' me."

While the boys were fighting, Courtney was still working on her paper skulls with Picasso-like focus.

Her masterpieces were almost complete, but there was still one final item missing that was holding back her work from perfection.

"Big Brother, can you make me some glitter??" She held out her hand.

"I-"

"Of course he can, little miss." Abaddon answered.

The dragon released his son for less than half a second before he picked him up by the ankle and held him up overhead.

He brought Straga over to the table where Courtney was sitting and gave him a light shake like he was searching for spare change in a pair of pants.

"Come on, make your sister some glitter." he smirked.

But Straga wasn't amused.

"I just want you to know that when you are senile, I'm going to make sure we stick you in the worst retirement home in the lamest backwater reality we can find."

"I have nothing to worry about then, kiddo. Being married to your mothers keeps me sharper than any blade." Abaddon said proudly.

"Gross..."

Straga held out his hand and a full bottle of shiny silver glitter appeared on the table.

"Don't make a mess now, alright?" Abaddon urged gently. " And what do you say to your brother?"

"Thank you!" Courtney beamed in appreciation.

'So cute..' Straga thought. 'I wonder if the child Monica and I have will be-'

"What did I just hear you think??" Abaddon nearly fell over onto his back. "You're too young for that!"

"G-Get out of my head, old man!" Straga's face became beet red.

"I am not old!"

At the moment that it seemed like Abaddon was going to chuck his precious son out of the window, the door to Courtney's room opened and a young Mira poked her head inside.

"Hey guys... What's going on in here?"

"""We're bonding.""" All three said at once.

"Oh... You guys sure?" Mira glanced at her brother who was still hanging upside down in the grasp of their father.

"""Yea."""

Mira thought back to past interactions with her family and she realized that maybe this wasn't all that uncommon for any of them.

"W-Well never mind that! Aunt Kanami told me about the meeting today!" Mira said excitedly.

'Blabbermouth...' Abaddon thought as he rolled his eyes.

He finally put Straga down and sat on Courtney's bed and gestured for Mira to sit beside him.

Even though she was physically almost fifteen now, Mira still ran and sat on her father's thigh like she did when she was a young girl.

"She said we're going on a mission after the new recruits get trained! Is that true!? Is it!? IS IT!?!"

Abaddon covered his daughter's mouth so that he may enjoy some fleeting silence.

"Yes it's true, snowball."

Mira raised her arms in the air. "MHMMM!!" (YIPEE!!)

"Easy now." Abaddon patted her head. "Don't be too overzealous, since this next mission won't be a simple one.

We'll be leaving Tehom for this without meeting the conditions, so you and everyone else in the squad will have to leave more than half of your power behind."

Mira looked undeterred by that fact and raised her nearly nonexistent biceps proudly. "I'm not worried about that! I'll be just like you and knock down gods by the hundreds, with or without all of my powers!"

Abaddon chuckled and tried to ignore just how bashful he suddenly felt. "Well, I won't be doing that any more since I'll be weaker when I leave home now than I was before. So if I have to be careful, then you have to be extra-extra careful, my dear."

Mira's energy suddenly left her body as she heard something that she didn't quite like. "What? Why will you be weaker??"

Straga looked interested as well, as he hadn't heard anything about this either.

"Oh, well... Yesh and I re-established the contract that binds my power yesterday. After the damage done in Asgard, he urged that-"

"W-Why would you agree to that?! You can't let him take your powers away, it's dangerous!"

Abaddon's face darkened as he looked away."I am dangerous, Mira."

"S-So is Miss Night Lady, but she still gets to keep all of her powers!" (Nyx)

Mira suddenly stood up and began pacing about the room. "It's not fair! He can't just do this to you because you're a little bit stronger than everyone else!"

"Mira, Yesh and I have our issues but the man has no malicious intent. He didn't do this to hurt me." Abaddon said sincerely.

"He doesn't have to, other people want to hurt you, dad! I can't believe you agreed to this!"

Mira hardly ever got mad about anything that didn't concern sugar, or her own training, but she seemed genuinely upset with her father's decision making.

She stormed out of the room and left Abaddon and his other two children behind- no matter how many times he called out to her.

"Ugh..."Abaddon flopped back onto Courtney's bed and covered his face with a pillow.

'I have eight daughters, and three sons... I can honestly say that I have done this to myself.' he grumbled.

He felt motion on the bed and a small frame crawled just above his head.

Two small hands plucked the pillow from his grasp and uncovered his face.

"Why did you let the old man take your powers away, dad?"

Before Abaddon could answer, Straga sat beside him with a question of his own.

"I have to admit, dad, this isn't really like you. No matter how much you trust a person, I've never really known you to just voluntarily let your power be sealed by them."

Abaddon remained silent as he lay back on the bed.

If he were honest, he also knew that perhaps he should have pushed back against the newly proposed conditions.

And it is likely that he would have, were it not for one critical event taking place.

His accidental creation of a new timeline.

Abaddon's divinities, though extremely powerful, are easily controlled by him and kept contained.

Conquest? All he has to do is not fight and keep his malicious aura in check.

The Cosmos? Space, like a human body, basically functions on it's own with no real interference necessary on his part. (Unless he wishes to prevent or cause a disaster.)

Sexuality just requires that he make himself oblivious to the attraction others feel for him, as well as holding in his inner nature to make slaves of lust.

The hardest part of controlling the supernatural is just making sure that he doesn't create a new branch of lycanthrope in his sleep.

And heaven requires the least effort of all because it is synonymous with him.

But oblivion is so very different from the rest.

Abaddon doesn't understand this power, and thus doesn't possess a good grasp on it.

He erased an entire reality on accident, and he still had only barely scratched the surface of what he was capable of.

In the first morning where he woke up with Thrudd as his daughter, he felt like he had dodged a massive bullet.

Reality manipulation is tricky and uncertain thing even when you know what you are doing- Nevermind doing it in your sleep.

Things could have gone horribly wrong.

If he'd woken up to even one member of his family erased, missing, or dead, he would never forgive himself.

And if he were to accidentally harm his wives… the guilt would quite literally destroy him.

That small fear was enough to make Abaddon consider binding his own power.

So when Yesh came to him asking to renegotiate his restrictions, he didn't hesitate.

To him, it seemed like a decent solution to his persistent worry.

He'd even convinced his ever vigilant Lailah of such.

But seeing the reactions of his kids suddenly made him feel like he had been too hasty.

Perhaps this decision of his was a bit like placing a band-aid over an injury that needed surgical intervention.

'I should return Nyx's calls after all… maybe she can help me sort all of this out.' He thought.

-

In Gabbrielle's room, the family's loveable all-knowing princess was currently in bed like most everyone else.

A slender, white dragon the size of a Burmese python was curled up among a mass of stuffed animals while watching old sitcom reruns.

Suddenly, she lifted her head up from the pile of plushy companions and stared at her door with a dry gaze.

She couldn't explain why, but for some reason she felt like her calm, peaceful night was about to be disturbed…

'Better safe than sorry.'

She started to lock the door with her mind, but at that moment Mira came barging in while in the midst of a frenzied tantrum.

"Sister!"

'Curses…'

Mira threw herself right into Gabbrielle's bed and made it so that the two of them were staring eye to eye.

"You know how to get in contact with the old couple, right? Call them for me!" She demanded.

"What..?"

Mira suddenly held up a dagger made from ice and filed her own nails with it.

"That old man took dad's power and I'm going to make him give it back! And if he won't give it nicely, he's going to lose every finger he's got!"