Title: Abyss Call
Fandom: Devil Maker: Tokyo (DMT)
Rating: PG
Length: 530 Words
Content Notes: Yes, Lancelot is genderswapped in this game.
Author Notes: In honor of DMT closing its doors on October 1.
Summary: As the darkness recedes, the hour arrives for farewells.

* * * *

"All of the Devils are starting to disappear, returning home to the Origin," Lancelot said, looking up at the night sky and the Gate that occupied it, her eyes following the motes of light that represented other Devils like her as they entered the Gate and swirled briefly around its edge before vanishing into its depths. "I must soon do the same." She bowed her head. "And yet it feels like I still have unfinished business here. Nothing from the past, I imagine. Arthur and Guinevere have already made their return." And she turned to look at me. "Is there anything you wish to say to me, Contractor?"

I thought back to the night I first summoned her, back in Harajuku, back at the beginning of my career as a Contractor. In those days, I needed her strength, and ... I still did. I had not yet come to accept that I needed to let her go home, needed to let all my Devils go back to the places that spawned them. Being a Contractor defined me. What was I without my Devils? Perhaps Lancelot could see that indecision in my eyes. Before that day, she had never smiled – always the Knight of the Round Table, always business. But she smiled in that instant, though she seemed tired, world-weary.

"Humans cannot exist in either Abyss or Paradise," she said, taking my hands in hers, "for nothing mortal can go there without being changed. Look at me, after all." But her dark eyes had no humor in them. "Once you leave Tokyo, there is no returning to it unless there is another crisis. And, if you do return, you will no longer be yourself. You will be a Devil, too, capable of being summoned and contracted like the rest of us. If that is a risk you are willing to take, if you truly have no attachment to anything left in the mortal world, then –" She hesitated, averting her gaze. "– you may accompany me."

"I –" Important to choose my words carefully, as they represented a final revision to the contract between us. "– wish to go with you ... as your squire. I wish to learn from you in the realms beyond." A gleam in her eye, a hint of a smile still on her lips. I had answered correctly. "There is no longer a place for me here as a human, but that does not mean I am done learning from you. I need more time than a single lifetime can give." And it was the truth. I needed to be more than a Contractor. I had done everything I could do as a human, and I needed to continue the journey I had started.

"Then ... do not let go of my hand, Squire," Lancelot said, the two of us already lifting up into the air, towards the Gate, the light inside me already changing into something more than what it already was. "Hold on to it, and you will be safe by my side." I could hear a note of relief in her voice. Had she expected me to make any other choice?

END.