The sky was dark and cold. A storm was brewing on the horizon, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Hello Lucifer" His brother turned, and Michael came face to face with Lucifer for the first time since he had cast him down to hell.
"Hello, Michael." Lucifer smiled at him, a weary expression that did not carry any real happiness. "You're looking…well"
And Michael did look far better than Lucifer, whose grace was bursting through his insufficient vessel, coving the skin in cuts and lesions. He hardly looked battle ready, as opposed to Michael whose vessel was strengthened by spells that kept his grace and the multitude of souls contained.
They began to circle each other, both hesitant to begin the long-awaited fight. "It's good to see you" Michael finally said
Lucifer nodded. "You too" Another brief pause "Can you believe it's finally here."
Michael sighed "Not really" He admitted.
"Are you ready?"
The honest answer was no, he was not ready to kill his favorite little brother and he suspected that Lucifer wasn't really ready for this fight either. "As I'll ever be"
More circling and silence and then: "You know, a part of me wishes we didn't have to do this"
"Me neither" Michael admitted
"Than why are we?" Lucifer stepped forward, hope in his eyes. "Michael-"
"No," Michael said firmly. Lucifer opened his mouth to speak, but Michael cut him off again. "No Lucifer, this fight…. this will happen."
Lucifer's expression hardened. "So" He sneered. "Still following our father's orders like a good little soldier. Never mind that he abandoned you-"
"He abandoned everyone" Michael growled
"-and his 'perfect plan' has crumbled to pieces, leaving you to desecrate his most prized creation, in a pitiful attempt to overpower me."
Michael's eyes flashed. "How dare-"
"How do you think Father feels about your soul consumption, Brother. Or your Demon deal. You blamed me for dividing Heaven but you've managed to drive away half of the host that still remains. Do you think he's proud of you?"
Michael let out a roar of fury and lunged forward grabbing Lucifer by his vessels throat and plunged his lance into his gut. Lucifer let out a cry of pain, his face contorted with shock and pain.
"You listen to me, Brother," Michael said harshly. "This is not for our Father. I forsook him and his grand plan long ago, perhaps the minute I chose to 'desecrate his most prized creation'"
"Then why" Lucifer whispered as his Vessel and Grace decayed. "We could've been family again, Michael"
"No," Michael said, his anger ebbing away, replaced by grief. "No Lucifer, we couldn't. You betrayed us and our father, you tore our family apart. I lost you to darkness and Gabriel left, and I had to kill so many of our siblings and…" Michael voice caught "and you drove our father away."
The admission so often thought but never spoken aloud till now, hung in the air.
"That was not my fault." Lucifer whispered desperately "That wasn't…I wouldn't-Michael I loved him"
"You broke our Father's heart and he left." Michael said bitterly "He abandoned me and Raphael and all of Heaven and left me with nothing but a plan that failed before it started."
Lucifer collapsed to the ground, as his light dimmed. Michael knelt beside him.
"I believed for so long." Michael whispered "That this was a test. A way for me and Heaven to prove our loyalty. I had faith that our father would come home once you were gone, but he isn't. I've made my peace with that. He's not coming back, but that means that I am all that Heaven and Earth have left, and I will not allow rebellion" Lucifer shuddered, grace almost gone. "I will reunite Heaven" Michael whispered forcefully "No matter what it takes, I will bring our family back together. I will be a better God then our father was."
The Morningstar's light went out, and for a moment the universe itself seemed to stop. Rain began to fall. Michael shut his eyes and for the first time since his father had left, he wept.
End of Act One