642 AD - The library

The gutted and ruined building still stood, but it was just so much blackened husk without a roof. He saw the dying flames from a mile away and hoped he was wrong. The library had recovered from other attacks and other fires, but this time, not so much.

He'd waited until it was dark, sneaking past sentries easily. While he learned the draw of his glamour hooked mortals within shouting distance, he could also make them ignore him, if he concentrated on deflecting their attention away from himself.

He didn't bother changing out his clothing this time, wearing black robes of Hell. Those usually drew eyes, as black was a difficult hue to bring out in any fabric. Tonight, they worked perfectly.

He came up when the souls arrived in Hell, fresh from the blaze that started as arson and burned for over a day, allowing him plenty of time to flit topside and bear witness to the dying embers and ashen deaths of people and priceless artifacts alike.

Over the years, since finding the Library of Alexandria, he found he could skip up, grab something and skip back before Amenadiel noticed, or perhaps, cared. His personal protected library in Hell started to become packed with human art, books and the occasional gold chalice lifted from a church sanctuary.

Those thefts were absolutely his fault.

This disaster was not.

The souls arriving in Hell, and no doubt any of the ones arriving in Heaven at the same time, blamed him for this. It's the Devil's fire, they were saying, the invaders brought him to wreak destruction and misery, to rape and pillage and destroy.

The dead invaders, naturally, believed they were doing Dad's work in the destruction.

Both attackers and defenders alike arrived side by side in Hell. Presumably Heaven too. Under normal circumstances, Luci took particular glee in lining them all up together at the gates - usually, but not always, in equal numbers. Today was not one of those days to stop and smell the roses.

On earth, Lucifer looked up and howled at the sky, startling everyone within range, which mostly was the Arabic invaders. He screamed in their language, spreading his wings and bringing fire to his eyes, "I DID NOT DO THIS."

People around him fled in the dark, in pissing-themselves levels of terror. Horses broke their ties, rearing and racing off into the black night.

Amenadiel appeared immediately, his wings shining in the darkness, softly, but the most visible things anywhere for miles. "Luci? What did you do?"

Lucifer's stars glittered overhead, weeping with him, he imagined.

"I? Nothing. What, you don't believe those dearly departed, do you? I had nothing to do with this. This place was-"

Luckily Amenadiel missed his cut off sentence. "You had nothing to do with this? Not some sort of act of spite for humans accumulating knowledge, for proving themselves they can grow and learn, become better?"

"BETTER? That's what you call this? There were scripts in there older than any human alive."

Amenadiel caught his breath. "You...cared?"

"Not for the humans, of course." Fine. There were a few things he could admit to. "This place provided me a few hours of relief from time to time."

He looked back at his brother, thoughtful. "I sensed you coming to earth briefly and leaving again. It was here?"

Lucifer gritted his teeth and didn't respond. "This isn't fair. Why do they even bother trying?"

"It's in their nature. They'll rebuild. They're finite creatures, Luci, they're not like us."

"What if they don't?"

"Dad made them to want to build. To keep trying."

"Did He? Did He make them to be monsters too?"

"Of course not. Dad has a plan."

"I'm tired of hearing about this plan that no one seems to know the details of. I'm tired of being blamed when it goes awry."

"It's not for us to know the whole picture, Luci."

"Especially not me. And if you tell me to have faith, I'm going to kick you in the balls. Actually, I might do that anyway if you're here to bring me back."

"And what will you do if I don't bring you back?"

Lucifer thought about it. "I have some souls in Hell to torture over this. As much as I'm looking forward to that, they can wait a few days, tormenting themselves in the meantime."

"And in the meantime, what?"

Without warning, Lucifer launched himself into the sky, headed no real direction. The invading humans had all scattered and just maybe this time he could fly fast enough or far enough from Amenadiel to get a little breathing space. From the sky, it all vanished into blackness, the ruins of the library vanishing into the rest of the dark and cold landscape. Below him was nothing but blackness and above him, nothing but stars and a new moon.

It has been a long time since he'd flown like this, at night. His starlight caressed his wings, lovingly, singing to him in the songs of their fire. His throat clenched. He had no friends, save them, and they were far away. But he could see them tonight, and they remembered him, they thought of him.

The cold night air cut into his wings, his face, his stinging eyes, seeking a target for his anger. He took it out on the only one available. He stopped in mid-flight, fluffing and spreading his wings fully open to expose cutting edges and waited for Amenadiel to get within range. He knew better than to allow an opening and he had no other weapon but his wings.

He would not go quietly back to that place of despair.

Angelic blood rained on the ground below from flashes of light and the crashing of bodies. Amenadiel was older, but he was also slower and didn't really expect his brother to hurt him. Lucifer, deep down, didn't really want to. But he was angry.

Red eyes and white and grey wings glowed in the dark sky.

The brothers slashed at each other, Amenadiel getting more frustrated and Lucifer bleeding raw anger and blood in equal amounts.

Lucifer folded his wings and dove, narrowing his profile and trying to make himself harder to be seen. Amenadiel was able to follow his burning eyes and intercept him, clasping his wrists and dragging him below.