"No one dicks with Michael but me!"
And that was their whole relationship in a nutshell.
Michael was the first angel, the oldest. As such, he was already fully grown when Samael was just entering his existence. Michael already had a whole host of siblings, and undoubtedly there would be more created by his Father as time went on, but none adored him so much as this one that his Father called Samael. The little fledgeling angel had raven-black wings and wide, innocent brown eyes, but other than that he had very little definite shape about him. Angels took on different forms when they were born depending on the class they were created for: seraphs looked remarkably human (except that their grace glowed so bright by the time they reached adulthood that they had to always shield themselves with their six wings), cherubs were born with four heads (one of which was a lion!) and four wings. Archangels, though, like Michael and now little Samael, were born without definite shape, and they would choose to settle their form in adulthood whenever they wished.
When God created Samael, he called the other angels over to introduce them to their new brother, just as he had for all the others. "This one will be called Samael," He said, "and he will love you all very much."
The little ball of light with black wings and brown eyes looked directly at Michael, and he found himself whispering, "Don't worry Sammy, I love you too."
God had assigned Michael the job of enforcing His rules and teaching his fledgeling brothers and sisters how to do the jobs they would be assigned when they were grown. He taught the little seraphs how to cover themselves before they found vessels, and trained them to be the patient observers they would need to be, and taught them the songs of praise for their Father that they, in turn, would teach the living creatures on Earth. He left the Seraphs in the care of his sister Naomi when she was old and wise enough to take over the instruction by herself.
He taught the Cherubs swordplay and how to divide their attention amongst their four heads so that they would never be unaware of what was happening behind them, and explained that their mission was to guard and protect their Father and all his creations, no matter how insignificant or even blasphemous they might seem. "All of My creations are important, and they all do as I command, even when what I command is not clear to you," God had been very explicit when he instructed Michael Himself, "Especially when what I command is unclear to you. There will be tests for them, as there will be tests for you along the way." Michael passed the message onto the Cherubs and left them in the care of Zachariah when he proved to be up to the task.
Archangels, however, were different. There were only four of them: Gabriel, Raphael, Samael, and Michael himself. God delivered his instruction to them personally. Together, they learned the patient observation of Seraphs, and the swordplay of the Cherubs, but most importantly they were trained to be the leaders of Heaven. One day, God took the Archangels down to Earth to watch the dinosaurs. "What do you think of these creatures," He asked his children.
"They're wonderful. Marvelous. Certainly no other creations could ever match these splendors of Yours," Gabriel answered, reaching up to pet a brontosaurus.
"They are awesome and powerful. I love them as much as I love all Your work," Raphael said as he watched a velociraptor deliver a killing slice to a triceratops.
Samael watched the velociraptor as well, "They are wonderful, Father. And I do love them very much… But why do you allow them to die so much?"
The other Archangels turned in surprise when they heard their brother question their Father – not even Michael had ever done such a thing. But God only smiled at His son and said, "Death is not a thing to be feared, Samael. It is the great unifier, and one day all of these creatures and the creatures that come after them and even you and I and all your brothers and sisters will die. These creature's lives are short, yes, but the length of one's life matters to Me far less than the things they accomplish during it. Do you understand?"
Samael looked at his Father, and looked at his brothers, and looked at the dinosaurs, and looked down at the dried leaves and grass on the ground at his feet. "I do not yet, but one day I hope I will."
"Gabriel, Michael, watch this!" Samael walked over to a tree, but then burst through a bush over to the right of his brothers and tackled Michael to the ground. Michael smiled as Gabriel's laughter rang through the still air of Earth and resonated within his grace. He and Samael laughed as well, and helped each other up.
"Can you teach me how to do that?" Gabriel asked eagerly, and Samael nodded.
By the end of the afternoon, Gabriel had mastered the trick.
"I don't understand," Samael confided in Michael a few years later, "why our Father allows these creatures to live when they destroy so much around them."
The Archangels halted to let a pack of hunting Leviathans chase a boar past them. It was true, the Leviathan's appetite was insatiable, and since their creation much of Earth had been laid to ruin. But their Father simply watched His new creation from above as He had with all His others.
"He knows what He is doing, Sam. Remember how He said He would test all of His work? Some day, their time will come and He will make His plans clear to us."
"But why does He test His creations if He already made them exactly how He wants them to be?"
Michael frowned, "I do not know. But I imagine that one day I will be tested myself, and then I'll understand. One day, so will you."
Samael seethed as he watched the Leviathan finish the kill, then use the energy from victory to uproot a tree. "I hope it's soon. Earth is such a beautiful thing. I don't want it to be destroyed."
It seemed that the Leviathans did not pass God's test. Before long, the Archangels were summoned and told they would be leading a host of Cherubs to drive the abominations into Purgatory. Michael led the charge, but Samael's grace burned so bright with his divine purpose that he outshone Michael's and everyone else's. At the sight of him, many of the Leviathan simply turned and ran and were herded into Purgatory like sheep. "Did I do good?" he asked Michael when it was over.
"You did, and I'm sure our Father would agree."
And did He ever.
"You burned so bright I felt it from Heaven!" God praised when the host returned. "My son, I will admit now that this was a test, to see if you would be able to destroy what is unfit when asked. Now that you have passed and exceeded My expectations, I will honor you with a new name. Kneel, Samael."
Samael bowed and knelt at his Father's feet, and God put His hand on his head. "Now rise, Lucifer Morningstar."
The whole of Heaven resonated with the applause of his brothers, and Lucifer never forgot how proud he felt at that moment.
As they grew, the Archangels were each assigned specialized tasks: Michael was already the teacher, Gabriel became the messenger, Raphael became the enforcer of their Father's rule. Lucifer, however, took longer to be assigned his position than his brothers. One day, Michael found him wandering Earth dejectedly.
"Why so troubled, Morningstar?"
"You and Raphael and Gabriel all have your duties, but Father hasn't seen fit to charge me with anything. Does he feel that I am unworthy to serve him?" Michael saw the tears in Lucifer's eyes and led his brother to a rock to sit down.
"You know our Father has favored you ever since the Leviathan. He renamed you. He has you sit next to Him. How can you doubt His love for you?"
"But what if He's only mocking me?"
"Our Father is all-knowing, brother. If there was ever a time when you would be unworthy of the name Lucifer Morningstar, He would have seen it and you would have remained Samael. Do not despair – Father is likely taking greater care in giving you your task because He loves you and wants to make sure that the job He gives you is worthy of your time. You'll see when He gives it to you."
Lucifer looked up at his brother. "Do you think this is another test?"
Michael shrugged and smiled a little, "Maybe."
"Lucifer, I know you have been eager to receive your responsibilities," God said as He walked the Earth with His son some time later.
"I know you will assign me when you feel I am ready, Father."
"You love Me very much, don't you?"
"More than anything," Lucifer replied without hesitation.
"And you believe in the things that I do, right?"
This time the answer came slower. "I do believe You know what's best, though I do not always understand."
"That is just as I intended, and that is good."
"Will I understand someday, Father?"
God smiled at His favorite son, "I believe you will before anyone else. And this is why it has taken me so long to give you your assignment even when you've been ready for quite some time. I wanted to make sure that you could handle the responsibility that I'm about to give you."
Lucifer's eyes widened, "So it was a test?"
"Yes it was, which you passed, and now you will receive your task. I want you to be My agent in testing My other creations. It is not an easy task, and you will receive very little love for it from anyone but Me, but I see that you can do this better than all my other children."
"But Your tests are the things I understand the least. My brothers were given tasks they were skilled at. You really think I can do this?" Lucifer spoke out before he could think better.
"The thing you are most skilled at is learning, My son. Charging you with testing My creations will allow you to learn the most about them, and about Me. Do you understand?"
Lucifer nodded. "I understand completely."
Michael and Lucifer went back to Earth so that Michael could teach the otters while Lucifer tested the catfish. Everything was going well, and the brothers were laughing and splashing each other as they performed their duties when a shark nearby got a craving for sea otter and attacked the one that Michael had been using as a vessel. Before Michael could even blink, Lucifer's catfish, glowing with holy grace and with the faint impression of wings coming from its back, slammed into the shark in an explosion of the archangel's power that stopped the shark's heart. Lucifer was still seething when he swam back over to Michael to make sure he wasn't injured.
"I'm fine, it barely scratched the otter. It couldn't have gotten to me anyway. Why are you so angry?" Michael tried to get his brother to calm down.
"It shouldn't have even tried. No one and nothing has the right to mess with you, Michael."
"You mess with me all the time though!" Michael remembered all the times they wrestled and played tricks on each other through the ages.
"Okay, no one has the right to mess with you but me," Lucifer clarified. "We should get out of here. I bet that glowing winged catfish freaked some fish out!"
Michael laughed with his brother and they went back to Heaven, both fondly recalling the antics of the past.
Several years later, God sent Michael and Lucifer back to Earth for a joint mission: they were to meet with a Titan called Prometheus and teach a group of large monkeys how to make fire. Michael and Prometheus would do the teaching, and Lucifer would test to see how they used the fire afterwards. The monkeys were remarkably adept, and learned to make and control the fire easily. But when it came time for Lucifer to see how they'd use it, he was dismayed. The apes ravaged the forests for wood to fuel the inferno; they destroyed ancient groves to move his Father's trees out of the way so they could plant their own; they used it to hurt each other and other animals, and to char the meat of their kills. Lucifer feared that these monkeys would be worse than the Leviathan – that their appetites would drive them to ruin the world.
"Father, I don't think the Australopithecines passed Your test. They use the fire to kill the things You created." Lucifer reported back to his Father when they returned to Heaven.
"The test is not done yet, Morningstar. Wait to see how the fire changes them. I told you once that Death is the great unifier, and he is not to be feared or hated. The trees and forests die because I willed that it was time for them to die. If it had not been by the hands of the Australopithecines, the forests would become deserts. If the planet becomes something else, the apes have passed the test. Do you understand?"
"I will try," Lucifer hung his head in thought.
"In time, I know you will."
"He has His plans, you know." Michael caught up to Lucifer later. He knew his brother was still upset with the monkeys' destruction.
"And He always says that some day I'll understand, but I never do!" Lucifer answered. "Everything is always a test within a test within a test, and we always pass, but then there's always another one! How can destroying the planet possibly equate to passing the test?"
"I don't like it either, but perhaps it isn't the apes that are being tested, but us? Like the Leviathan were."
Lucifer shook his head. "Father's never tested us, or anything else, with the same thing twice. This won't be like the Leviathan, I can feel it."
Eventually, God and His archangels went back to Earth to see how the fire apes turned out.
"Children, what do you see?"
"I see animals that talk in a complex tongue like we do," answered Gabriel.
"I see a tiered society with rules enforced with warriors like we have," answered Raphael.
"I see a species that has learned much and more than any species has since the Leviathan," answered Michael.
"I see… I see a species that makes things," Lucifer answered.
God smiled at His four Archangels. "And what do they look like?"
"Father… They look like You!" Gabriel noticed for the first time.
Lucifer snorted. "They look like mocking imitations of Him! I've watched as they lost their fur because they were too stupid to bathe. I've watched as they've mutilated the animals they hunted for food and wore their pelts because they don't have fur to keep them warm. They look like You, Father, but they do not even come close. You create things out of love, but everything those apes make, they've had to destroy something else to get it. Why do they create things, Father? None of Your other creatures have ever done this before."
"I shaped these creatures to be in My image, moreso than all your brothers and sisters in Heaven. They create because I've given them the ability to choose their own will, and they chose to create. In order to create, they must destroy because I haven't given them the abilities of particle generation, but just look at all the things they've done! Do you understand, Morningstar?"
"You've done WHAT?" Lucifer was incredulous. "Everything in Heaven and Earth follows Your will, and now You've made something that can act against it? What good could that possibly do? They've cut down Your forests, they've hunted some of Your creatures into extinction, they dig Your minerals and metals from the ground and make them into tools for more killing! Can't You see it?"
God was calm. "It is okay that you do not understand yet, Lucifer. I know you will, in time. Now if you'll excuse Me, that one there is called Enoch, and I must have a word with him."
"I don't understand why He loves them so." Lucifer kicked at a rock as he and Michael walked the Earth. "And I know you don't either."
Michael startled, "I… I trust Him enough not to care. So should you, if you know what's good for you."
"I love our Father," Lucifer glared, "And I love all His work. What I don't understand is why he favors these things that destroy it. Even when He instructs me to test them and they fail, He says they pass. He's been wrong before about the Leviathan, why can't he be wrong now?"
"He made the Leviathan to test us. These humans serve a purpose, Lucifer. I cannot claim to know what it is, and you loudly proclaim no knowledge, but I trust that Father knows what he is doing. Do you?"
Lucifer remained silent, and resumed walking.
"Morningstar, how fare My humans?"
Lucifer bowed low. "They cut down the forests to build dwellings of their own design. They pull metals from the earth to make tools. They take clay from riverbeds to make figures and paintings. They carve the bones of the dead to make instruments of music. They kill each other in sport."
"And do you love them?"
Lucifer couldn't help the smirk that came to him. "I love all Your creations, Father, but You know I love You best."
"No, My son, that is not good."
"How is it not good? What have I done wrong?"
"You must love the humans best. Better than the plants. Better than the animals. Better than the particles of air and water and rock. And certainly better than Me. If you love them for what they are, you will understand their flaws, and your own, and My own as well. And then you will be ready. Do you understand, Lucifer?"
"Father… I can't. These human beings are flawed! Murderous!"
"You would disobey Me?" God's voice thundered through the halls of Heaven. "I do all I do for your benefit, and you would have it otherwise?"
"I would give them another test," Lucifer chose his words carefully, "to see that they are not corruptible."
"My son, everything I make is corruptible."
"Well then let me prove that these humans are not any more corruptible than Your other creations. I need to understand why You favor them so much that You gave them free will."
"And if you do not find what you are looking for?"
Lucifer squared his shoulders. "Then I will not stop searching until I find it."
"What do you mean to do, brother?"
"I need to show Him that He's made a mistake. I need to show Him how flawed those men truly are."
Michael stepped closer, "I don't understand the strength of your resentment. You say you are angry because they destroy our Father's work and create their own. Yet all the other animals Father has created destroy His work but do nothing with it except to eat it. Father finds humanity's creations endearing, so why does this offend you so?"
When Lucifer looked up, there were tears in his eyes. "He gave them free will. It never occurred to Him that we, who can conjure form from air, might be worthy of it?"
Michael wanted to comfort his brother, maybe tell him that free will was a burden and would only damn humanity in the end, maybe tell him that following their Father's Will was the greatest gift He could have given them, but what came out was, "Thou shall not covet, Morningstar. You're better than that."
It didn't dry his tears, but Lucifer gave his brother a solemn nod before descending down to Earth.
He searched for weeks to find the right human.
He watched old men and women as they watched their villages.
He observed the mothers as they tended to their houses and food and children.
He followed the fathers as they hunted to provide for their families.
He sat in on councils and listened to what the humans offered as wisdom.
When he saw the children at their play, Lucifer knew he'd found the purest possible human specimen. He took the body of a child on the other side of the world as a vessel, and then flew back to her.
"Hello, would you like to play a game with me? My name is Lucifer Morningstar, and I'm an angel of the Lord."
The girl smiled and Lucifer saw her front teeth were missing. She couldn't be older than seven. "My name is Lilith. I love to play games!"
The rules of the game were:
1) Do not keep false gods
2) Do not worship idols
3) Do not say the Lord's name in vain
4) Keep the Sabbath holy as a day of rest
5) Follow the rules of your parents
6) Do not murder
7) Do not commit adultery
8) Do not steal
9) Do not lie
10) Do not covet the lives and belongings of others
For Lilith, these rules tickled her conscious with a sense of familiarity that she couldn't quite place, even though she didn't know what all of them meant. Lucifer knew that these rules were codified deep in every human's subconscious, along with an eleventh rule not found in other species: do what you will. It was this eleventh rule that he despised, and he intended to prove that it would be the ruin of man and Earth.
"Now Lilith, what if I told you that I had this ball," Lucifer said, and extended his grace to conjure it in his hands behind his back. When he held it up for the child to see, Lilith gasped in awe – the ball seemed to ripple with every color of the rainbow, and it nearly glowed, and as she looked, she thought she saw the shapes of different animals appear and disappear and move along the surface. It was immaterial but solid; it was opaque and transparent; it was unlike anything Lilith had ever seen.
"Do you want it?" the archangel asked kindly. Lilith nodded with so much vigor it seemed her head would pop off. "You can't have it. This is mine."
She was crestfallen. "Can we share it?"
"No. It's mine."
"Where did you get it?"
"I made it."
"Can you make me one?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't want to."
"Can you show me how to make one?"
"No. I made it with magic. You can't do magic, only I can."
"But why can't I do magic?"
"Because you are not an angel."
"But I want to be an angel!"
Lucifer made a tsk sound. "Now you've broken the rule about coveting, see? You want my things, and you want my job. There's no rule that says I have to share this ball with you."
Lilith pouted, "Fine. I don't want your stupid ball anyway."
"Now you're lying."
She stamped her foot. "I don't want to take it from you, I want to share it! You can keep it when we're done!"
"I'm not going to share this with you; you've already broken two of the rules! I'm going to find someone else, someone who follows the rules."
"Fine!" Lilith stomped all the way home.
The next day, Lilith went outside to play and found her friend Damien playing with Lucifer – with the magic ball!
"Can I play too?" Lilith asked with some trepidation. Lucifer might still be mad at her.
Damien cast her an apologetic glance, "Lucifer says you break the rules." He threw the ball to Lucifer, who said nothing.
"I only broke two of them!" Lilith thought better of it for a minute before softening her voice and expression, "But I'm really sorry. I won't do it again, I promise."
This time Lucifer spoke. "Don't make promises you can't keep. Once you break one rule, there's nothing to stop you from breaking all the others. You're damaged goods, sweetie."
"Fine," Lilith glared at them as Lucifer got ready to toss the ball back to Damien. Just before the boy caught it, Lilith intercepted. "Now you have to let me play," she said gleefully.
Damien gaped at her. "You just stole the ball! You broke another rule!"
"Well you wouldn't let me play!"
"Well you should have listened to Lucifer!"
"Well you're just a big baby! How come he let you play with the ball but not me?" Lilith held up the coveted toy, but reeled in surprise – the ball was gone! "Oh no, I lost it!" She crouched down to the ground to find it again, but Lucifer's voice stopped her.
"You didn't lose it, Lilith. I told you, you can't have it. The ball only belongs to people who follow the rules. When you stole it, it disappeared."
"That's not true!" Lilith felt her eyes water. "You're lying! Now you broke a rule, too!"
"Great, now none of us can play with it. Thanks, Lilith." Damien trudged home, kicking at the dirt as he went along. Lilith continued crying, and stayed where she was.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"I know you are," Lucifer put an arm around the girl, "but that ball is gone."
"Can't you make another? I won't break any of the rules this time, and you and me and Damien can all play together."
"No," Lucifer said, and Lilith started to cry harder, "but I can make a different one." He extended his grace again behind his back, and showed Lilith the new ball. This one looked heavy, dull grey, and where the other one had glowed this one seemed to suck light away. "This one is just for you, Lilith. This ball goes to people who break the rules."
She took the ball. "It's not as nice as the other one."
"Nothing would ever be as nice as the other one. But this one is yours, and it's the one you deserve. Do you like it?"
Lilith considered the ball. "I'd like it better if you played with me with it."
Lucifer smiled, "Okay, let's play!"
When Lilith got home for dinner, she knew right from looking at her mother's face that she was in trouble.
"Damien's mother told me you stole his toy. Is this true?"
She bit her lip, "I just wanted to play with him. He wouldn't let me."
"So you stole his toy and wouldn't give it back?"
"No! I lost it, but it was an accident! Look, Lucifer gave me a new one!" She held up the dull grey ball.
"Don't lie, Lilith. Go give Damien back his ball. Now."
"I'm not lying! This one's mine!"
"Lilith!"
"Fine," she slumped her shoulders in defeat, "I'll go."
She did not give Damien the ball. She hid it under a tree near where she had played with Lucifer. She could have sworn the ball glowed red when she buried it.
"I see you did not honor your mother," Lucifer said in way of greeting the next morning.
"How did you know about that?" Lilith was taken aback.
"Angel of the Lord, remember? I know everything that happens."
"Did you know I would steal the ball?"
The angel grinned, but didn't answer. Lilith finished digging the ball out from under the tree. It was now the color of burnished copper.
"You have to earn the rainbow, Lilith. That ball is for sinners. The more rules you break, the more colors it gets."
"But it's still so heavy, like metal."
"That's because a sinner's soul is heavy with all the rules they break. The first ball was the saint's ball, and that was light with the honor of God."
"So if I break more rules, this ball will become a rainbow just like the other one?"
"Not just like it. It will become it's own kind of rainbow, with deeper colors and features that will amuse you just as much as the other. Now, shall we play?"
Lilith looked from the ball to Lucifer and back to the ball, then to a point beyond Lucifer. "I'm going to ask Damien to play with us. He can break the rules too if he wants, and we can all play together."
Damien sulked and turned away from Lilith as she approached. "Lucifer gave me another ball. You can play with us if you want."
"You'll just break the rules again."
"This ball is only for people who do break the rules. You'll get to break them too! Please play with us, I don't want to fight." She kissed Damien on the cheek.
He considered it for a moment. "How do I know you're not lying about wanting me to play?"
"You'll have to try to find out," she teased, and Damien kissed her full on the mouth. They liked to play kissing games together when other kids weren't around to tease them.
Lilith and Damien ran back to Lucifer together, and the three of them threw the ball around and told lies and stole the ball from each other and talked about things they wished they had. Damien went home that day and didn't listen to his father when he said to eat his vegetables, and the next morning the three children played again.
"I think it's time we broke another rule," Lucifer said.
"Okay, the sky is green and fish fly in the clouds!" Damien answered, and he and Lilith giggled. Telling lies was fun.
Lucifer was not amused, though. "I mean a different rule. We've told lots of lies already, and we've stolen the ball from each other, and we've done things our parents said not to do, and we've been jealous of each other and of other people. That's four rules. There's six more."
"Well tomorrow is the Sabbath, we can break that one!" Lilith said. The ball glowed blue – it had gone from red to orange to yellow and finally to green as they broke more rules. It had also gotten shinier. Lucifer acquiesced, and the children snuck out of their houses the next day to play again. The ball continued to shine a metallic blue. Damien was feeling ill, though, so he went home early.
"So I have a question," Lilith started, throwing the ball to Lucifer, "How do you say the Lord's name in vain anyhow?"
"I'm not sure. Why don't you try it?"
Lilith puzzled for a moment. "But if I say 'Oh my God', it's like I was saying a short prayer – " She cut herself off as the ball turned indigo, dark as the night sky.
"I think you broke the rule," Lucifer put an arm around her shoulders.
"Oh my God?"
"No, it was saying His name as part of the rest of your sentence. You're right, it is a prayer, but using it as an example for a bigger argument made it in vain." He kissed her full on the lips. "If you kiss me back, that's adultery."
She kissed him back, longer and deeper than she'd ever kissed Damien – and she liked it better than with Damien as well. She didn't even notice the ball turned violet until she went home.
For the rest of the next week, Lilith, Damien, and Lucifer continued to meet every day. They played with the ball, they told lies, they talked about their jealousies and the ways they disobeyed their parents. They talked about God and swore conversationally. Damien made a model of a bunny out of mud and clay, and they bowed down to it as their pretend god, laughing all the while. The ball became a wondrously shifting metallic rainbow similar to the first one.
Lilith and Damien still played kissing games. Secretly, so did Lilith and Lucifer – until Damien caught them.
"What the hell are you doing?" he yelled and stomped over to them. "She's my girlfriend. That means I can kiss her. Not you."
Lucifer pulled Damien up to meet his face, "Relax, it's just part of the game."
"Then how come you kept it secret?"
"Because we wanted to." Lucifer smirked and shoved Damien into the ground. Damien snarled in jealous fury and tacked Lucifer to the ground. As the two fought, Lilith backed away, pressing herself against a tree. She wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't sure whose side she was on. She wasn't sure who she liked more.
"I'm gonna kill you!" Damien shouted, snapping Lilith out of her reverie. She picked up a large rock at the base of the tree, ran over to the squabbling boys, and brought it down on Damien's head as hard as she could. They heard the crack of bone, and Damien slumped to the ground, no longer breathing.
"Lilith… Why did you do that?"
She looked at Lucifer with big, wet eyes. "He was going to kill you. I couldn't let him."
"Would praying to the Bunny God make you feel better?"
"No. Damien made the Bunny God. I don't want to the Bunny God anymore. I want… I want you to be my god, Lucifer. I want you to be my god, and forgive me." The ball, lying forgotten a little ways away on the ground, burned to ash, and Lilith's eyes turned obsidian. Lucifer beamed, and kissed her on the forehead.
"You are everything I ever hoped you would be. If you wish, you may worship me as your god. You may even persuade others to join you. Now I have to leave, and I don't think I'll be coming back. But you've done everything you were supposed to do." A flash of lightning, a boom of thunder, and Lucifer ascended back to Heaven, leaving Lilith to cry alone.
"What have you done?" God's horror-struck voice boomed throughout Heaven's halls.
"I have shown You that which You refuse to see. You've taught me that one's deeds matter more than the length of their life. You've taught me that some things are not worthy of the gift of life that You bestow upon them. Now You insist that we love these humans more than we love You, and I have proven that they are not worthy!" Lucifer was defiant, unapologetic. "You assigned me the tests so that I would learn the nature of Your creations. What I have learned about these humans, Father, is that when they choose to exercise that free will which You gave them, they become monsters."
"You've destroyed the soul of a child!"
"I've exposed that child for what she truly is! She and her kind are not worthy of the pedestal that You would have us put them on, can't You see it?"
"No, Lucifer. What I see is that you are the driving force behind the girl's damnation. You are as unworthy as you have made her." God was melancholy, but resolute.
Lucifer was not. "Father, I did this because I love You! How can You reject me like this?"
"On the contrary, you rejected Me when you rejected My creation. You have left me no choice but to cast you out of Heaven."
The angels of Heaven stood in shocked silence. Gabriel was crying. Michael could no longer meet the eyes of anyone in the room. Lucifer was trembling. "This is my home. Where would You have me go?"
"As far away as I can possibly send you."
"You would send me to Hell?"
"I would send you deeper than even the ninth circle goes. Hell would be too kind."
Lucifer looked down, willing the tears not to fall. "Well I will not go quietly." And he turned and fled from the throne room, from his Father's damning gaze.
Lucifer ran all over Heaven, telling every cherub and seraph he saw that "human nature is monstrous." Some ignored him. Some agreed with him, but when he asked them to join him in fighting God's forces to save the Earth, they refused. They could not abandon their Father, they said, and Lucifer continued on his way.
When he'd asked every angel in Heaven to join him, but was still without followers, Lucifer sought out angels stationed on Earth. Like their brothers and sisters, the guardians of Earth were divided over their opinions of mankind. But like the angels of Heaven, they refused to rebel with Lucifer.
It was in the fields of Meggido that Michael caught up to him.
"I suppose you're going to drag me to Hell now," Lucifer's attempt at levity fell flat.
"You know what I have to do."
"But you don't want to."
Michael couldn't stand up to Lucifer's piercing gaze. "Of course I don't want to. You're my brother, and I love you. But I also love our Father, and I don't want there to be any more fighting. Maybe if you apologize – "
"I will not apologize for seeking the truth," Lucifer waved the peace offering away. "But what if you joined me, and we fight Father together? With Raph and Gabe and all our brothers and sisters – they'll join if you do, I know it! We can make Father see reason, we can save the world – "
Michael shook his head, "I will not rebel, Lucifer. Father taught me that all living creatures follow His command, especially when His will is unclear. Father wants me to cast you down, and I shall do it. No matter how much I wish things could be different."
"You're going to have to fight me."
"I've always been able to kick your ass, Morningstar." The brothers almost smiled, but they felt sick to their stomachs. Lucifer was the first to assume a fighting stance, but Michael was the first to attack. They punched and kicked and tackled and slashed at each other with angel blades, as thunder boomed overhead and wind threatened to rip trees up by their roots, and rain poured down in colossal buckets until finally Michael had Lucifer pinned with one foot on his head. Michael pulled from a pouch at his waist a key of four loops of metal, threw it on the ground, and chanted in Latin. Lucifer's eyes bulged as he took in the gaping chasm that would be his prison.
"That's not Hell," he gasped, as Michael hauled him to his feet and brought them to the edge.
"Father called it a cage. You knew you were never going to Hell."
"Michael, please – " But Michael cut him off as he pushed his brother, screaming, into the hole in the ground.
The Cage door shut, the hole filled in, and Michael said the spells to lock the seals in place. When he knelt to pick up the key, he was crying. "I'm sorry, Sammy," he whispered, and hoped his Father would never know, "I love you, little brother."
The fallout from Lucifer's rebellion was devastating. A platoon of elite Seraphs, the Grigori, decided that Lucifer was right after all, so they ran to Earth and took wives among mortal women. They spread corruption, stole praise from their Father, taught women how to hide their faces with makeup and paint, and taught men to lie. Their children became Nephilim – some of which became great heroes, others were terrible, but they all had powers beyond that of normal men.
Lilith, meanwhile, had amassed legions of followers, corrupting them as Lucifer had done to her. Each of her disciples were driven to breaking all ten commandments – although more through threat and use of violence than Lucifer's persuasion – and each sin tainted their soul just a little more until, when the disciple worshiped Lucifer as a god, the taint was irreversible.
Between the Grigori and Lilith, much of the rest of mankind ceased to pay attention to their sins, and soon nearly all of their souls carried the taint to some extent. The stench of it offended the angels and they cried out in dismay until God could take it no longer. In the end, He had to drown the Earth in a great flood, only managing to save one human family out of thousands, and two animals of every species. Michael saw how it pained his Father to wipe out so much of His creation, that He'd loved so dearly that He cast out His own son to protect them. He was unprepared, however, for his Father to announce that He was leaving Heaven.
"But who will lead us?" asked Michael.
"What will we tell the seraphs and cherubs?" asked Gabriel.
"What can we do to make You stay?" asked Raphael.
"Michael will lead you," answered God, "because I know he is up to the task. You can tell the other angels whatever you wish, because I am leaving that decision to you. It's time for me to go, and nothing can change that. One day, your fallen brother will come back, and Michael will have to fight him again. When he does, I hope you are all ready – that will be the day on which I judge you for the last time."
And so God left Heaven, and the Archangels decided to keep it to themselves. If word got out that their Father was gone, there might be an all-out civil war.
Time passed, and mankind again flourished in Mesopotamia.
Time passed, and a system of writing spread from Phonecia to Greece.
Time passed, and a Semitic tribe of eleven brothers wandered into Egypt seeking relief from a famine.
Time passed, and Michael sent ten plagues to Egypt until they released the bonds of their slaves.
Time passed, and a prophet named Mohammed preached a new religion.
Time passed, and Lucifer's rage did not quell. It multiplied.
Time passed, and Socrates took on Plato as his pupil.
Time passed, and the Romans adapted the Greek gods.
Time passed, and the Romans conquered all the land around the Mediterranean.
Time passed, and Michael sent Joshua down to Earth to reteach mankind the ways of peace and tolerance. He sent Gabriel down, too, as a messenger to announce the imminent arrival of a son of God.
Time passed, and everyone acknowledged that the whole Jesus thing could have gone better. Joshua kept to himself in the Garden. Seraphs began to whisper that Joshua was talking to someone there.
Time passed, and Rome fell, Attilla united the Mongols, the Middle Ages took hold across Europe, and the nations of Islam thrived.
Time passed, and Gabriel ran away from Heaven. He couldn't stand to be there any more and be reminded of Lucifer's fall. Michael understood, but he couldn't do the same.
Time passed, and Christopher Columbus sailed to a new world.
Time passed, and the powers of Europe were racing to claim more colonies.
Time passed, and thirteen of Britain's colonies threw a successful revolution.
Time passed, and Italy and Germany became distinct countries.
Time passed, and the world nearly cannibalized itself in trench warfare.
Time passed, and they did it again – this time with atomic energy.
Time passed, and a man named John Winchester was born. None of the angels really noticed.
Time passed, and Michael missed his brother.
Time passed, and Dean Winchester was born. No one noticed.
Time passed, and Sam Winchester was born. No one noticed.
Time barely passed at all, and Mary Winchester died. Michael noticed.
Time passed, and Dean Winchester sold his soul to a crossroads demon. Michael summoned Castiel.
Time passed, and Sam Winchester gave consent to Lucifer in Detroit.
Lucifer may have been wearing a different vessel, but his expression was the same as Michael remembered: confident and sharp, but pensive and hungry for understanding – and yearning for love from his brother, which he hadn't felt in a long time. "It's good to see you, Michael."
"You too," Michael couldn't afford to let his emotions get control of him. "It's been too long."
"Can you believe it's finally here?"
"No, not really. Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be." Michael barely hesitated, but it was enough to prompt Lucifer. "Part of me wishes we didn't have to do this." Do you still love me, brother?
"Yeah. Me too." Of course I do, how could I not?
"Then why are we?"
"Oh you know why. I have no choice, after what you did – "
"What I did? What if it's not my fault?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Think about it. Dad made everything. Which means he made me who I am. God wanted the Devil!"
"So?"
"So why? And why make us fight?" That was Lucifer through and through – always looking for answers. "I just can't figure out the point." And never finding them.
But Michael saw the determination radiating off the brother he'd so missed, and as always, he couldn't deny him. "What's your point?"
"We're going to kill each other," Lucifer's face and voice mirrored the distress in Michael's own grace. "And for what? One of Dad's tests, and we don't even know the answer. We're brothers. Let's just walk off the chessboard."
It was tempting, it was so, very, tempting. To just go back to the way things were, to be brothers again, to redeem himself in the eyes of his kin that he'd betrayed millennia ago. But Heaven wouldn't accept Lucifer back, and it wouldn't bring their Father back… "I'm sorry, I can't do that," the heartbreak on Lucifer's face felt worse than any stab with an angel blade that Michael had encountered, but it gave him momentum to shatter him completely. "I'm a good son, and I have my orders."
But Lucifer never gave up. "You don't have to follow them."
"You think I'm gonna rebel? Now?" Years and centuries and millennia of frustration and anger were bubbling to the surface, and Michael couldn't keep a lid on it. It was Lucifer's fault that Dad had left, it was his fault that Michael was burdened with running Heaven, it was his fault that the world got as screwed up as it did! "I'm not like you."
"Please, Michael – "
"So you haven't changed a bit, little brother. Always blaming everybody but yourself. We were together, we were happy! But you betrayed us, all of us, and you made our Father leave!"
"No one makes Dad do anything! He is doing this to us!"
That was the last straw for Michael. "You're a monster, Lucifer. And I have to kill you."
"If that's the way it's gotta be," Lucifer swallowed thickly before hardening his face with determination, "then I'd like to see you try."
They were interrupted by Team Free Will. Michael was molotoved back to Heaven by his other fallen brother. Lucifer retaliated, just like he always had – until his vessel rebelled against him and prepared to jump back into the Cage. Michael tried to stop him – both because he had orders and because he couldn't stand to see Lucifer fall deeper than Hell a second time. But Sam had gravity and physics on his side, and he pulled Michael to join his brother with him in the Cage for eternity.
From His place on Earth, God watched as His two sons fell into the Cage together and sighed. His Archangels were made so they could go and become the gods of their own universes, and feel the joys of creation and love for the things they made for themselves. Clearly He hadn't prepared them as well as he should have – they denied their free will and still looked for His guiding hand – and maybe He left His children too soon. God watched His children from afar, and wondered if His own Father felt like this watching his children manage on their own.