Disclaimer: Angel Sanctuary is owned solely by Kaori Yuki.

This is the second arc in the 'Coming of the Seraph' series. Its highly recommended that the first arc is read to avoid confusion~

Coming of the Seraph
Assiah

Chapter 1

†

A sharp and wicked peal of thunder broke the silence in the darkened bedroom. It shook the black walnut furnishing, rattled the windows, and tore the Devil out of his sleep.

His first thought- as tired grey eyes adjusted to the dark and he rolled onto his back, was that it didn't rain in Sheol. The air was too heavy and dry to ever accumulate enough moisture for a storm like the one raging outside; but as Lucifer sat up in his bed, twisted up in pitch black silk sheets the first hard slap of rain smacked the wall of criss-cross paned windows on the far side of the room.

The hypnotic sound of pouring rain shivered through the room as he stood, slow and cautious. It didn't rain in Sheol, Lucifer told himself again as he moved towards the windows. Each step felt like lead, each breath came out short, and the other side of the room had never seemed so far away

Intermittent flashes of silver white light flickered through the cloud choked sky, and the aftershock of each bolt of lightning burned a path through his muscles, veins, and nerves; running through every inch of him before shaking out of his limbs in long unsteady breaths that left traces of fog on the windows.

He pressed a hand to glass, exhaling a shudder as the pitter-patter of raindrops across his palm reminded him of a heartbeat. Too fast to be his own, he could have convinced himself that it belonged to the ghost brushing its hand along the hollow of his spine.

Every delicate sweep of those icy fingers changed the wind's direction, taking the rain with it one moment only to throw it back against the windows with sharp snap the next. Lucifer straightened his back as Azreal's shade whispered something into his ear, every syllable woven into the din of the rain and lost to him. He responded, though whatever he wanted to say had been too sleep heavy and garbled to make any sense.

Still she laughed, the sound charged with raw electricity, and he was certain that Azreal had never laughed for him that way. She pressed a smile into his shoulder blade, her body warmer than her touch, but she'd always run cooler than most. He saw no reason for that to change even years after her death.

Lightning streaked white hot across the sky as her hand traveled up to his shoulder. Grey eyes, watched the familiar torture of her fingers grazing down the arm that had remained pressed against the window. Slow and deliberate, as if her ghost needed to commit each sinew of lean muscle to memory. He tried to beg for mercy, to stop her intimate torture, but his lips didn't move and when she spoke again it was the crack of nearby thunder that escaped her lips.

The path she left down his arm made his skin hum for actual contact, and when she reached his wrist the thunderstorm outside grew even more restless and violent. The air changed, buzzed with a positive charge that flared each time lightning tore into the sky.

Her hand slid over his, caressing his knuckles and the backs of his fingers before settling on top of his, cool and smaller than his. Lucifer removed his hand from the window, turning it over to that her thin fingers could slid in between his.

The rain stopped, leaving ringing silence in its wake as lightning continued to flicker silently outside. Azreal squeezed their fingers together tightly, outside of his dream Lucifer's fingers curled around his sheets. He felt her as much as he wanted to, wanting to scream for her to never release him.

Lightning struck just outside, forking between two castle spires with terrible brilliance. There was no thunder to follow the display though, only her lips pressed against his ear and an unobstructed, painfully affectionate voice.

"Wake up, Lucifer…"

†

Five days. He hadn't allowed himself to sleep, he hadn't even really allowed himself near his bedroom, preferring to pour himself into distractions and work. Avoiding sleep to avoid dreams, because the only thing waiting for him now was the nightmare of that benevolent lie of a voice. Too kind, too loving, too much like the apparition that had attached itself to him after the fall of Etemenanki. An illusion that had tainted the actual memory of the Azreal that had died well over a decade ago.

So he wore himself into exhaustion, and was eventually rewarded with dreamless sleep that really only lasted a few weeks before she'd start to fester again. Slipping herself into his mind with a rain that was never as gentle as she pretended to be. It was as hard and cold as the thunder and lightning that followed so close and loud that sometimes it woke him up on its own. Azreal drifted in sometime after that, touching and gently smiling her torment. Only until that voice boiled up from his subconscious, and ruined the illusion of the woman that had taken his heart with her to the grave.

The knock at the door to his office was soft and reluctant, but enough to jar Lucifer into realizing that he'd been reading the same paragraph over and over for the last ten minutes. The door cracked open without waiting or his permission, and the Mad Hatter slipped in; it hid its anxiety beneath crystal clear blue eyes that hungrily devoured the master it hadn't seen in days.

"Lucifer-sa-"

"What?" Belial swallowed hard as that one word struck cold fear into the Satan of Pride; bothering him had been expressly forbidden and asking about the ever increasing length of his insomnia had never crossed the jester's mind.

"Michael is here… This One did inform him that you did not wish to be disturbed, and One believes his words were 'tell that motherfucker I'm here'..." Lucifer set his papers down with a sigh that was more tired than annoyed. He didn't bother to turn his gaze to the Hatter, who wrung its gloved hands anxiously as it waited for some scathing cruel fleck of attention from its King.

Michael had never made a habit out of visiting his brother, much less coming all the way down to Sheol. He'd always preferred to keep his excursions into Hell to the upper circles; where there was still resistance against Heaven, where he could get his hands on something that neither side would miss. It was usually desperately important if he felt the need to come all the way to the center of his brother's empire.

"Five minutes." Lucifer said simply, without any inflection of how he actually felt about Michael's disruption. Belial nodded and as quietly as it had made its entrance it was gone, off to inform the Fire Angel that its King had agreed to see him.

Less than five minutes later, Michael helped himself through the double doors, throwing them open and waiting until they swung shut before moving further into the room. He was in a suit, or at least as much of one as he could ever hope to see himself into; black slacks and a white shirt that was half undone. The dragon on his chest peeked out every other step, and he'd rolled the sleeves up over his lean forearms; if there had been a tie and jacket to accompany the ensemble it probably hadn't made it farther than the Merkaba.. Suspicious teal eyes swept over the room in a habitual need to familiarize himself with his surroundings.

"Good afternoon, Michael." Lucifer nodded his pleasantry as Michael glowered, noting silently that almost nothing in the office had changed; it was still an expensive mix of dark woods and quilted leather. The kind of thing his brother had always been partial to, the only change was that there was no longer a painting behind the large polished desk. Michael had only known there had been one because he'd brought Lucifer the item now hanging in its place.

It was a half-foot shorter than its original owner, all hard straight lines with a slanted tip of immutable ether. Tenkahane had been a tool in the patricide of God and had seen the fall of the Tower of Etemenanki. Michael had been charged with melting it down, but he'd chosen to hide it for several years before returning it to who he felt deserved it. Despite the fact that Lucifer really had no claim to it, but it was better than the alternatives.

"I've got something to need to see." They might have no longer been pitted against one another in a cosmic game their Father had called 'Balance', but making small talk had never quite made it into Michael's repertoire. The angel seated himself, tossing a banded manila folder across the desk, he kept his gaze hard as he watched Lucifer open the folder and reach for the stack of photos. Photos not normally included in the files that Heaven kept on humans.

Lucifer picked up the first with idle curiosity. It was of a newborn, swaddled in white with a pink cap on her head that had a small jeweled bow attached. The baby was mid-yawn, eyes squeezed shut with a little bandaged fist tugging at the little beanie

"Her name is Miharu Fujiwara." Michael supplied as Lucifer picked up the second photo in the stack. The baby girl was several months older now, dressed in creamy yellow tulle and lace. She was smiling beside a woman that could have only been her mother. Like the photo before it there was evidence of age and sticky tape on the back, they had undoubtedly been taken from an album.

"Seventeen years old." Lucifer was only distantly listening to his brother now. The third photo must have been taken years after that, a little girl in a pink yukata with a pastry in one hand and a pinwheel in the other, she was grinning ear to ear. The one after that was of a ten year old in the blues and whites of a typical Japanese uniform; she was flashing a silly 'V' with her fingers while her dark hair was strung up in pigtails.

"I didn't know you'd taken to stalking humans, brother." The next photo was of a teenager alongside dozens of other people in a crosswalk on her phone, she was looking in the other direction, completely unaware of the photographer.

"Fuck you! Like I've got time for shit like that." Michael snapped, flipping through to another photo of the girl sorting through a clothing rack; like the one before it had been taken in secret.

"Is there a reason I'm looking at this?" Lucifer slid the photo from the bottom of the stack out. She looked to be her current age, in a charcoal grey blazer and a plaid uniform skirt with her brown hair pulled into a knot above her head. He found himself smirking at the furious look on her face, whoever had been taking her picture had been caught; and he could guess that whatever she was yelling about was in relation to the manicured middle finger waving in the direction of the camera.

"She was born three weeks after time on Assiah restarted. Look at her chart." Michael nodded with his chin, prompting Lucifer to scan the information. It was all fairly normal, with the exception of her spirit chart; it normalized higher than most mortals, peaking once into dangerous territory during her fetal development.

"A spiritual fucking powerhouse, and thats not even counting that anomaly while she was still in the womb." The Fire Angel tapped his heel against the ground, waiting for some kind of response from his twin.

"Where did you get this?" Michael grinned briefly, he still knew his brother well enough to recognize his curiosity, the fact that he was asking at least meant that Lucifer had taken an interest.

"Ezekiel…" Teal eyes met grey, and Michael watched his brother digest the name. "He's got it in his fucking head that-"

"Michael." With a huff the Chief Powers sat back into his chair, it had been seventeen years and Lucifer still refused to allow the subject of that woman to be broached. When Michael had brought him Tenkahane he'd asked, demanded maybe; but Lucifer had thanked him for the gesture and said nothing of what had happened to her.

"You look like shit." The redhead pointed out eventually, crossing his arms as he wondered how his brother was going to explain away the exhaustion worn deep into his features. Lucifer set to reorganizing the photos, skimming the numerous files for something other than that one abnormality. It wasn't enough, not if Michael, or Ezekiel for that matter, were implying something about this girl's identity.

"Thats very kind of you to notice." Lucifer didn't fight the little bit of smugness that a few years ago would have torn Michael to shreds in a fit.

"Don't be an asshole." Michael sat up, kicking the desk just enough to shake up the files and get his attention. "When was the last fucking time you slept?"

Lucifer considered his answer for a long moment, fingers drumming against the wood surface of his desk. Part of him wanted to be dramatic, admit that really he hadn't slept properly in seventeen years, but that kind of melodrama seemed childish now.

"A few days." Vague and uncomplicated, a much easier answer.

"What the fuck keeps the big bad King of Hell up at night?" The question was out before Michael could stop it and he dug his fingers into the dark arm of the chair, regretting the question instantly. He braced himself for a completely indecipherable answer, as per his brother's wont.

"Ghosts." He was given a clipped response that put an end to the conversation, even if he pried, Lucifer would never reveal more than that. They sat in silence again, Michael stared back out the window at the sallow white star that bathed Sheol in something like daylight.

Lucifer continued sorting through the photo's of Miharu. She was, like all humans just a collection of imperfections, though they came together in a way that made her pretty. There was nothing of Azreal in her face though, no underlying resemblance like Setsuna Mudou had to Alexiel; the evidence against Ezekiel's claim was almost enough to suggest otherwise.

"You know that we never found her body… and if Ezekiel-" Michael stood, slamming his hands on the desk as Lucifer began a protest. "God dammit! Listen to me! Ezekiel is pretty fucking convinced about it, and if you give half a fuck about that bitch still you won't let him get to her first!"

The twins glared at one another, and Michael tensed, waiting for the argument that would never come. When Lucifer said nothing the angel let himself sit back down, puffing out his chest as he sank into the armchair.

"You liked that bitch…" Michael planted his heels on the desk, teal eyes narrow, just angry enough about that fact to let it burn a little bit. "Everyone fucking knew that much. And I don't just mean when you were fucking her, and before you say something yes, everyone heard all the fucking rumors about you two."

"Just like all those rumors about you and your soldiers, hmm?" Lucifer raised a single brow, a smirk growing on his lips as Michael's eyes flashed murderous.

"Haha, fuck you! Besides its one thing to think that thats how you get a soldier's loyalty, its a whole different story when you watch the goddamn Morningstar promote a woman eight or nine chairs down just cause she's got some hold over your dick." The Great Powers met his brother's gaze, and again there was no fight from Lucifer. There never was, and Michael sometimes wondered why he got his hopes up.

"If, and that is a very skeptical if on my part, that this is somehow Azreal's… reincarnation, then the question is who did it and why? I can't imagine a mentally unstable fallen angel being high on the list of anyone's priorities." Hell's King tapped a single finger against the wood, digging his nail into the grain. He already knew who had done it, but why?

"There's only one person who knows reincarnation magic." Michael said matter of factly, surprised that he needed to even answer that.

"Breaking into Hades isn't exactly easy." Lucifer had no wish to expend that much power sneaking into the domain of the Elemental Angel of Earth, who had become infamous for sealing the few entrances into Hades.

"Well lucky for you that asshole is in Heaven. Council is still in session for two more days." Michael slung back immediately, his smile was all fangs.

"Why are you so hell bent on being right about this Michael?" Lucifer narrowed his eyes, none of this seemed coincidental anymore.

"I know three fucking things about this whole fucking mess." Michael stood, pushing up the sleeve that had come loose when he'd nearly split Lucifer's desk in two. "Azreal meant something to you, I'm not gonna assume that I know what, but she always fucking did whether you like it or not. If Ezekiel is right, wanting to kill her is going to drive him crazy, and the same fucking thing is going to happen if he's wrong."

"That would be two things."

"Let me fucking finish! Jesus fuck!" Michael yelled, frowning at his brother's ever growing smirk. "We've got enough shit on our plate as it is, there isn't any time for a proper investigation into the possibility that Uriel of all fucking people reincarnated one of the Godkillers. Besides, aren't you fucking curious?" As his answer Lucifer stood, buttoning the jacket of his steel grey suit.

"Give me a minute." Lucifer handed the folder back and absently waved his twin through the door.

Michael rolled his eyes as he shut the door behind himself, leaning against the far wall as he tore into the fact that somehow he'd convinced his brother to investigate the human girl. There was a loud crash behind the door that made Michael jump, a moment after that Lucifer emerged from his office. The angel caught a glimpse of the room in the second before the door shut, and his eyes widened just a fraction. The desk had been overturned, papers scattered, and the steel and glass lamp that had been on the desk was shattered and flickering.

"Shall we?" Lucifer made no attempt to stop, keeping his brother a step behind him. Michael silently stared at his brother's back, letting out a soft curse.

Afterthoughts

Here we are again friends.
I'm very excited to continue this project, and I very much hope you are excited to see it unfold.