Lydia (Lydia (epilogue))

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The final fight had Amvira, and every ally she had, fighting against Malahidelle and her forces. Amvira gained godlike power as the embodiment of creation, but Malahidelle became the embodiment of destruction, and Amvira's godlike power was mostly split between suppressing Malahidelle so she cannot simply wipe the protagonists from existence, and trying to overwhelm Malahidelle's ability to completely negate all damage she takes. As the climax of the fight began, Malahidelle destroyed her own mind to gain a massively destructive new form, and when she delivered a mortal blow to Amvira, all hope seemed lost. But, Lydia had a backup plan: using the original demon pact she forged with Amvira, she forcibly called her soul into her body. Amvira's powers, both as a demon and as the embodiment of creation, now resided in Lydia.

This was an incredibly risky move: powerful demons have a tendency to kill weak humans they possess, entirely by accident. Lydia was by no means weak, but Amvira had godly powers without the practice needed to control them yet. Furthermore, demonic possession leads to the mutation of the hosts form. Mortals with these mutations are referred to as "hellmarked"

In the end, Amvira managed to not kill Lydia: she left Lydia in control of her body, supplying her with power and nothing else. Even this only offered Lydia a few short minutes to finish the fight, and return everyone home to Earth safely. Amvira left Lydias body the moment she could, stopping only with a promise to see everyone soon.

In the wake of the supernatural being revealed to the world at large (an event later referred to as The Unveiling) that occurred the day the apocalypse was narrowly averted, cultural shifts occurred that in time would bring new threats to civilization. But for now, there was cause to celebrate. It took Amvira a few days to return to life, just long enough for Bonita and Kevin to prepare for her re-summoning to Earth, and for Ed, Angela, Amin, Rezi, and Maria to plan the party of a lifetime. It was a beautiful event, during which Lydia finally severed her demonic contract with Amvira, and proposed marriage to Capricorn.

Following the event, Lydia would see what she could do about her hellmarked status: the mutations were extensive enough that even with the best surgery and magic money could buy (thanks to her newfound celebrity status as one of the world's saviours),  it could take years of therapy to fully reverse it and prevent it from growing back.

In the end, most changes were suppressed. Without Amvira possessing her, Lydia's left eye returned to normal on it's own. the length of her teeth and the consistency of her hair were reverted too, though her teeth did remain a little sharper than normal. Her legs were reverted but had a tendency to painfully morph back to their demonic shape for varying lengths of time, a condition that would consistently remain for the rest of her days. She elected to keep the extra arms, and recieved a way to magically hide them, but used them frequently around the house. Nothing was done about her elongated proportions: it would have taken more time, effort, and pain than would be worth it, but she lamented no longer being a head shorter than Capricorn, and it took a while for her to stop knocking cups over when reaching for them. And, of course, she kept the long tongue.

Less could be done about the mental effects this inflicted on her. The strain the possession put on her was traumatic, leaving her with bouts of panic whenever she's in pain, or at the sight of blood. This led to a painkiller addiction. She was no longer fit to see field work as an FBI agent, but a workplace promotion put her on equal status with her former boss, Raymond. Ultimately, she came to the conclusion that the desk job was just what she needed: she had enough adventure for one lifetime, and that change at least was purely welcome, as opposed to bittersweet like she thought it’d be. The mark also left her craving raw meat, but at the least, her demonic metabolism meant there was no longer a need for her to follow the Paleo diet… shed never tell anyone this, but she's more than willing to put up with raw ground beef cravings (something she used to make fun of Amvira for) in exchange for the ability to eat whatever her heart, guilt free.

About a year after the unveiling, a Darpa magicist approached her with the intent to revive an ancient Art of creating homunculi. Lydia and Capricorn, remembering aid they received from the version of their homunculus daughter from an alternate future, agreed. Later still Lydia conquered her painkiller addiction and learned to mentally brace herself for the sight of blood, and regained her  responsibilities healing the injured in the FBI. Her wife Capricorn stayed on the field, promoted to a mentorship position. The scars Lydia carried hardly seemed like burdens to her anymore. She was very satisfied, and happy to live each day to its fullest. She had no regrets; nothing she’d have done differently, other than trust Amvira and emotionally connect with Capricorn, much faster than it ended up taking her.

Previously, Lydia had her hair short to make her look older, but as she approached the middle of her life, she let it grow out, so she could look younger instead. By the time 10 years had passed, Lydia had moved past her goals of occupational ambition and fulfilling her hero complex, because in her eyes she’d accomplished both. Instead, she was focused on raising her family, and living out the rest of her days in a state of peace she definitely earned.