Coming of the Seraph
Chapter 6
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It had been ages since Michael had felt such overwhelming panic, he felt his muscles tighten and compact the bones in his body until he could hear them grind together with each rattled breath.
"LUCIFER!" Fire howled and he heaved in great breaths in a desperate attempt to loosen the constriction in his lungs. He swallowed the bile that burned his esophagus and slammed his head against the back of his chair. Michael cursed, kicked, and screamed his lungs out until the Angel of War was left emotionally abated.
"Lucifer." Michael had already known. From the second that loathsome pulse of energy snaked its way through him, but like an idiot he needed to see for himself and his burning teal eyes had found more than just the answer to his question.
"That fucking bitch!" Michael growled at the woman enveloped in his arms. He needed Ezekiel to see her and it was a small comfort to know that someone else needed the news as badly as he did. The Fire Angel snatched up his cell, and he hesitated for a long minute before dialing out to the angel.
"Michael?" Ezekiel's voice came over the line quicker than Michael had expected and for just a second the redhead stumbled over his thoughts. "What happened earlier?"
"I..I SENT YOU SOMETHING! CHECK YOUR DAMN MESSAGES!" Michael cut to the chase and barked the order loud enough that even with the phone held at arms length Ezekiel could hear him clearly. The man snorted, Michael rarely took advantage of modern technology, he had always preferred to communicate in person and while that usually resulted in explosions; the Fire angel never complained.
"What have you been doing?" Ezekiel sat down at his desk and flipped the slim black laptop open. "What were you saying earlier about- you know?" The angel caught himself, he didn't want to risk setting off another one of the Chief Powers' fits.
"Just check your fucking messages." Michael darkened and he held his breath as the sound of keyboard strokes and mouse clicks came in from the other end. Ezekiel found Michael's aptly named 'God Fucking Damn-it' message and found three images attached. He opened the first and felt terror rush through him.
"Lucifer..." The Angel of Logic inhaled sharply and he observed that the Demon Lord had not been oblivious to the photo being taken, those empty eyes were focused too well to be accidental and the smile he wore betrayed everything.
"There's two more." Michael reminded with a frown and he felt dread prickle down his back; he knew what Ezekiel was going to say and the angel had no idea how to explain himself. A chain of loud crashes indicated that he'd loaded the second image.
"You said she was dead...!" Ezekiel reeled and felt the throbbing of his heartbeat deafen his hearing. Her windswept ocean-blue hair had reached a considerable length and those caustic silver eyes locked him in place. The Cherub was minutely aware that the last rays of sunlight had sank and Paradise had been plunged into darkness for the night. He hovered over the final image, he stomached the fear of seeing exactly what he expected and loaded the last photo.
"She's with him..." It wasn't a question or a simple statement about her present location; it was a reality that made his vision shake with irreconcilable fury. He was surprised, but not as much as he should have been. They had always been together; studies, work, and they seemed to preferred each others company over anything else. Michael remained silent on the other end, his eyes switching periodically between the same three images.
"Michael." Ezekiel's tone attempted indifference. "You said she was dead."
"...I spent three goddamn days in Hell, almost got caught breaking the peace treaty by those fucking Evil's. Three days and I didn't find shit! There wasn't any evidence suggesting she was alive! SO I MADE THE FUCKING CALL!" Michael felt his chest constrict as his temper soared. The young man on the other end fell silent, waiting for Fire's heavy breathing to subside.
"Where are you going now?" The Cherub finally asked, slipping into his uniform's jacket.
"Raphael's" Michael grunted, and forced himself to minimize the image of his brother and his whore from the monitors. "You coming?"
"No, I need to find Uriel-sama." They ended the call almost simultaneously, the panic of the unknown was over, and the rising fear of a confrontation was slowly easing its way inside both young men. Aquamarine eyes lingered on his sister's image and he shook his head as the tide wave of memories resurfaced. He exited his private quarters and headed straight to the haven of the Zodiac Angels. He slipped through the door and made his presence know with a cough
"Ezekiel. Was there something you needed from us?" Aries turned his attention to the angel far below his perch; the others followed suit in eerie unison.
"She's alive." Logic's gaze hardened as a miniscule smile danced across Malahidael's pointed features. "And you all knew."
"We were not certain." Cancer's governor, Manuel admitted he leaned forward and roused the gold wings that had taken the place of his arms."We had considered it though, Azreal's chances of surviving her punishment where fairly high. There were many things and creatures that could have saved her."
"Lucifer has made his appearance as well." Ezekiel ground his teeth, they had known all along regardless of what they said.
"That was only a matter of time." The conjoined twins that made up the governors of Scorpio and Pisces stated blandly. They shared a single pair of legs, a waist, and stomach; splitting off at the chest into two distinct angel's who went by a name Barchiel.
"They're together." Their keeper crossed his arms as several of the council members canted their heads in unison again.
"Now that, is surprising." Malahidael gave a husky chuckle, four gold clawed fingers tapped against the stone orb.
"Is it?" Ezekiel snapped, biting his tongue as the words turned to regret.
"It is, all things considered." Aries' ruling angel eluded. "For now, we prefer you stay here Ezekiel."
"I can't. I have to see her for myself." The Cherub stiffly turned away, leaving only the echo of his footsteps. Malahidael's smile sharpened, the various possibilities for the future were converging, thinning out into more reasonable options that they would keep to themselves.
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"KIRA-SEMPAI IS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" Ezekiel could hear the Messiah from down the corridor of the Anima Mundi's headquarters. "WHY WAS HE WITH ROSIEL!?" Setsuna clutched his head and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes to keep the sting of tears away.
"We shouldn't be surprised that Lucifer has resurfaced, or Azreal for that matter; and it seems that Rosiel has laid his claim over their souls." Uriel leaned back against the desk, his arms crossed and a serious expression in his eyes. As Setsuna peeked through his hands and silently urged him to continue.
"There are angels with immortal souls. The Elements, Rosiel and Alexiel, and the highest ranking angels of the First Sphere count among them. Our bodies can be destroyed, but under the right conditions we can be reincarnated." The Earth Angel sighed as the 4th Cherub entered the small office, and he was certain his demeanor was one of worry. "Ezekiel. I have some-"
"I already know." Ezekiel briefly nodded. "But do they know who they're dealing with now? The angel motioned towards Raziel and Setsuna as Uriel shook his head. The uniformed Cherub took to the keyboard of the nearby console and quickly found the data he'd sought after. The dozen screens on the wall flickered away from the exabytes of information being calculated for the war effort and instead filled with images and recordings of the two intruders at the White Mansion.
"This is the first Morningstar. The one you know as Lucifer." Ezekiel tapped the screen of Kira's double, his face devoid of any conceivable emotion; Setsuna felt the weight of his world shift. The man was no longer Kira and that itself was a huge relief, but now he was up against the Devil himself, the Great Adversary and Lord of Darkness.
"And this..." The brunette angel paused, his aquamarine eyes glued to the portrait of a proper looking woman, her dark hair was worn in a tight knot and her features wore as astringent frown of authority.
"This is Azreal, she worked directly beneath Lucifel as the 2nd Seraph. She was his adjutant and a short time after his fall she murdered countless angels in a single act of rebellion." Uriel's continued quickly, and he shuddered at the video of her branding, her silent screams rang clearly in his ears.
"They are brilliant, merciless, and exceptionally powerful." Ezekiel sucked in a breath, behind him ancient videos played out the silent story of the 1st and his 2nd.
"The fact that they are working together doesn't bode well for us, and if they are under Rosiel's command as you say; that only makes matters much worse." The Elemental Angel ran a hand over his mouth and found his confidence waning.
"Rosiel it seems has resurrected the Devil and his most crucial collaborator. All of that power and none of the memories. He's made monsters out of them." Uriel pondered out loud, and he jumped back when Setsuna flung himself off the desk with a smile.
"Then if Kira's lost his memories, all we have to do is make him remember! We'll have Kira-Sempai back in no time!" The young Messiah's smile wavered as his eyes shifted between the two angels.
"No way its gonna be that easy." A pained sneer came from the doorway, Katou stood against door frame, his chest bandaged and his arm locked in a sling.
"That bastard... He called me a corpse and he wasn't smiling. He knew everything but he was still going to kill us." The blonde shuffled forward, his weight supported on the ancient katana. Setsuna hurried to support his companion, frowning when his efforts were ignored.
"Those empty gray eyes. They recognized every single one of us! HE DIDN'T LOSE ANYTHING!" Katou shoved Setsuna away and doubled over as the stitches in his chest strained.
"What is this?!" Raziel had been rubbing his temples when the images on the screens were simultaneously replaced with the image of the Inorganic Angel."
"They're using an override signal of some kind." Ezekiel tried the keyboard and found himself locked out.
"This is going to be on every screen in Heaven!" Uriel furrowed his brows as Rosiel's image burned into the monitors. "With Sevotharte's demise, Rosiel now holds power over Heaven..."
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"My precious countrymen, I, the highest angel who has Adam Kadamon's blood in his veins must share a detestable truth with you. Please. I implore you to listen whole-heartedly." Rosiel announced in a dramatic tone, his voice emanating from every television screen in Heaven.
"Rosiel-sama!" A member of the press stood up, arm raised with an inquiry. "The reports coming in are saying that none of the Elemental Angels or the Messiah were among those apprehended. It is still considered suppression if they escaped?" The camera panned back and captured the Inorganic Angel's confidant smile.
"They've escaped for now. But, no matter. For the time being this man will do." Off camera a man was thrown roughly to the ground, a man who had already once given his life for the Anima Mundi. Rosiel's DNA had brought Vashiel back as nothing more than a sack of wires and meat, given preprogrammed words and actions to ensure his role was played well.
"I am..." The Thrones struggled, a vestige of his soul clung to the body that was no longer his. "The current commander of the Anima Mundi. It was the last wish of out founder Zaphkiel-sama to cleanse this world... We fought. Fought for the sake of Heaven... We fought to control all of Heaven." The handcuffs on his wrist weren't intended to keep him held down and the sword in his sleeve, like everything else had been a carefully planned farce to cement Rosiel's play for power.
"Heaven is our now! THERE IS NO ROOM FOR SUCH OLD BLOOD ANYMORE!" He charged forward, the wires running through his system expanded and contracted the correct muscles to send him to his doom. In a flash he was split in two, his body tumbled to the ground with all his initial momentum. Blood splattered the first few rows of onlookers and the man responsible for Vashiel's first and second deaths was left relatively clean.
"Sempai..." Setsuna reeled, unprepared for look at the man who wore his best friends face.
"Shoo. Shoo. Go check on her." Rosiel's voice caught faintly in the microphone and Lucifer silently took his leave.
"I promise you." The cheering in the crowd settled down into silence and the whole of Heaven was willing to eat the words out of his hand. "My beloved compatriots. No matter what calamity might have befallen us, I will lead you to the glory of my Paradise. I will chase away the evil infecting our Heaven!"
"That fucking asshole!" Katou sneered. "Even the dead aren't sacred. And now we look like the damn bad guys!"
"Why Vashiel!?" Raziel felt the color from his face drain. "I'm the true commander! Why did he have to-"
"Because you have no swaying power. Can you imagine a half developed teenage angel up there. Not even Rosiel could get away with that." Ezekiel interrupted and the others turned to him. "He needed someone with much more experience, both physically and mentally. Rosiel has made your group the enemy of Heaven, and he's made himself the hero..."
"He must have been waiting for a chance like that for a very long time." Uriel frowned, his brows furrowed in a nervous expression that inspired no confidence.
"I won't forgive this! How dare he soil Zaphkiel-sama's ideals!" Raziel gritted his teeth, briefly aware that Setsuna hadn't given any sort of reaction yet. The teen was lost in his thoughts; forced to settle in a reality where Kira was no longer Kira, and whatever Kira was now was defending Rosiel. He was now an enemy.