Four men stood in the middle of an empty cornfield, the crop having already been harvested before the oncoming frost. They seemed normal enough, other than the fact that they weren't human at all. The first indicator of that would be the gigantic wings that stretched behind each of them. White, red, grey, and gold. They seemed to fill the sky as they beat slowly, the only thing that moved in the desolate field.

The second sign was the way that they had appeared in the barren land. A blinding white light had flared up, leaving the four men in its wake. The light had slowly retreated into their bodies. It had seemed to sink below their skin, giving each of them a god-like appearance for a few seconds. Luckily, no humans had been near. Any person within a mile would have been killed instantly, burned to ash from the holy light.

The angelic men stood taut, none daring to move for fear they'd be killed by the others.

The archangel with white wings was the first to shift, breaking the calm to rush towards his red winged counterpart.

"Lucifer!" Michael roared, his true voice shaking the Earth, shattering the windows of the farmhouse that sat over a mile away. It carried even further, rumbling the ground was reported in a city fifteen miles away from where they stood. "What have you done?" He grabbed the younger angel by the throat, lifting him off of the ground. This, of course, didn't hurt the angel; he didn't need to breathe, but it did worry him. If Michael pulled his blade out now, he could kill him without any trouble.

"Michael, leave him be. This couldn't be his fault." The grey winged angel said quietly to the furious warrior of God, his voice, even speaking softly, still thunderous to a human's ear. Michael whirled around, releasing Lucifer as he stormed closer to his brother who had sat in Heaven, leaving him to rot in the devil's cage. Lucifer drew in a deep breath, watching his brother storm away. Watching a sword drop into his brother's hand, ready to kill Raphael.

Michael grabbed Raphael by the front of his shirt, pulling him closer until they were chest to chest, his blade the only thing between them, separating them with a deadly edge. "Are you taking the blame then, Raphael?" He growled, letting his voice ring through the noiseless expanse. The younger angel said nothing, he simply stared at Michael, his eyes wide with shock. Lucifer was having trouble paying attention. The sensations were overwhelming him.

He had been trapped in Hell for eons, freed, and then stuck right back in after only a few months. Suddenly he was surrounded by wind, grass, fresh air. Raphael's scream of pain brought him back to the present. Michael had drawn his sword and sliced at the youngest archangel's cheek.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you here and now." Somehow, Raphael's eyes widened even further. Gabriel walked up to Michael, his hands held open to show he didn't mean to harm him. Michael growled, unconcerned with the trickster's sudden interest in peacekeeping. He held his sword to the grey winged archangel's throat, pressing a little so that Raphael knew he was not joking.

"Stop, Michael." Gabriel said. "We're never going to get anything done if you keep on fighting." He'd stopped speaking in his true voice in the hope that it would help calm his brothers from their righteous rage. Lucifer released the tense breath he hadn't known he'd been holding as Michael grace wrapped tightly around itself, separating himself from his siblings. He released his tight grip on Raphael, and the angel slumped to the ground, desperately drawing in breaths.

"I don't know about you yahoos," he continued, "but I'd like to survive a little longer, so could we stop the bickering for five minutes?" His voice rose steadily until he was almost screaming, his wings beating fiercely down in frustration. The golden winged archangel was trying to conceal his confusion. The last thing he remembered was Lucifer spearing him with his own sword, and his vision being engulfed by bright light. Then he'd woken up here.

Raphael slowly stood up, rubbing his throat. "How are we all here? I recall that Gabriel died, and you two were thrown into the cage by Lucifer's vessel, and I… I died as well."

"Could our Father have done this?" Michael questioned, still not looking his brothers in the eye. "Only He can bring an angel back to life, and I know of no spells that can deplete an archangel's grace." Gabriel frowned.

"Why are there so many angels on Earth? It feels like every angel is here." His grace stretched across as much land as he could cover, which was around a quarter of the Earth. "And Heaven… Heaven is closed."

Michael finally looked up, meeting Gabriel's eyes. "What do you mean, Heaven is closed? How can Heaven be closed?" The eldest angel reached his grace towards Heaven, probing the gates that regulated which souls entered the holiest land. "We have to reopen it." He declared.

Raphael cleared his throat, alerting the other archangels.

"Our grace has been weakened to the point where it will be difficult to hide our wings from humans, never mind trying to fix this." The grey winged angel told his brothers. "Only our Father could have done it. We can't access Heaven to ask Him, and I doubt any angels will want to assist us." He bit his lip, not wanting to admit their predicament.

"We need help."

Soon:

And that lead them to where they were now, too exhausted to fly, too weak to smite all the demons, and not powerful enough to continuously heal themselves while they physically killed each and every demon.