"And that's how I ended up in Vale." Jaune finished his tale and waited for the others to respond. He recounted his escapades in Remnant up until this point, and he didn't know what his peers would think. Well, peer at least. Raguel had already judged him and saw his memories first hand, though she hadn't made any comments yet. Both angels just watched carefully before Sariel's eyes narrowed.
"Bullshit." She growled.
"He's not lying. That lines up with everything I saw." The other argued.
"We're still talking about the Great Deceiver, right? Because last time I checked he specializes in manipulation and lies."
"I'm not sure why this is such a shock to you. You were more of a rebel rouser then I ever was." Jaune pointed out. "I was merely a tempter. It's not like I've ever indulged myself. Unlike another angel in this room."
"How dare you classify yourself as one of us!" Sariel snarled. Her red eyes glinted in sheer rage and she looked about ready to strangle him.
"Wait? Are you angry that you can't go impregnating girls right now?"
"Listen here you shit!" She summoned several spikes around his face ready to turn his body into Swiss cheese. "I don't care what my orders are! Keep this up and I-"
"Would you calm down already. We aren't here to argue." Raguel sighed flicking the other girl's forehead. Sariel begrudgingly complied, mumbling curses under her breath while still plotting his imminent death.
"Right. You still haven't answered my question." Jaune continued narrowing his eyes at the two. "If you apprehend me, will Uriel cease her plans?"
"We can't really answer that one." Sariel replied angrily while playing with a black feathers in her hair. "Uriel stopped working with us a few years back. She and Azrael sort of disappeared for a while before showing up again in Vale last month. She hasn't even stopped by to say hello."
"So whatever she's planning might not even be related to me?" Jaune questioned a bit bewildered.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps not." Sariel shrugged. "The point is she won't communicate, and neither of us come close to her power wise. With everyone else spread thin across Remnant it's hard to get a force together to confront her." Jaune looked to the small shot glass in his hand, swirling the dark liquid absently. So there were definitely more angels in Remnant then he cared for, but not all were in Vale. But that could also mean...
"Oh God, please tell me Michael isn't here." Jaune rubbed his forehead trying not to imagine how much worse this could be.
"He's actually back on what's left of Earth last I knew." Jaune raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"He's trying to do your job right now. Nobody else was quiet strong enough to keep all those demons of yours in check, or track down the missing ones." Sariel answered while examining her manicured nails. "Not that he's very good at it. You've always had a special way about you when it came to damned souls and monstrosities."
Jaune couldn't help but chuckle. "I hope that prick is having fun then. I'm not planning on going back to it."
"Though I can't really blame you, he did give us a time limit. Michael gave us fifty years of Earth time to figure this out, and if we can't by then he'll come to finish you off." Raguel stated.
"Or drag you back to watch over the damned again." Sariel added while grabbing a martini. "Those are really the only two options you have." Jaune looked over to Raguel suspiciously.
"Are you of all celestials honestly going to destroy a fellow angel trying to make up for their own sins?" He and Raguel stared each other down seeing who would cave first, only for the latter to burst out laughing.
"I wouldn't be a very good Angel of Justice then would I?" She flipped the hair from her face and sighed. "Neither of us can really help you, but we won't stop you either. No, I sense you are genuinely trying to change, and for that I can only support you. Though I don't understand how. I've never seen you so mellow before, or agreeable." Jaune looked to the side seeing that damn snake watching him from the shadows. Raguel followed his line of sight only for her eyes to widen. "Huh? What is this?"
"That wasn't here before." Sariel growled. "And it has you written all over it!" She aimed her claws at Jaune's neck ready to strike. Realization suddenly dawned on him, a fresh hope welling in his chest.
"You can see it?!" Jaune questioned startled.
"Of course we can. Though I take it humans cannot, correct?" Raguel said looking at the snake cautiously. Jaune just nodded dumbly. In all honestly the fact someone else could see it was comforting at least. He wasn't going completely crazy. "It feels like you Lucifer."
'Because I am him.' The snake answered before disappearing. It materialized on his shoulder, looking at the girls rather annoyed.
"Fascinating." Raguel mussed after a moment's pause. "And do you hang around often?"
'I am always here. Holding my knowledge close. The idiot just refuses to take it back-' Jaune grabbed the serpent's throat and crushed it into a ploom of black smoke.
"Sorry about that." He sighed. "That things been showing up a lot recently. I think it's because I've been so… preoccupied with Uriel."
"I'm curious about this knowledge it spoke of. Why won't you accept it?" Jaune grimaced at her question and looked away. He wasn't going to say it. She knew enough to figure it out herself. It would mean taking back the part of him that hates humans. The zealous part that goes out of his way to be cruel. He didn't want to be that again, whatever knowledge it held be damned.
"You must be so weak, being split in two." Sariel smirked. "How did that happen? Was it self inflicted, or did something else go wrong?" Jaune stood up briefly heading to the cart of alcohol a mobster left behind a little earlier. He grabbed an Everclear bottle and sat back down gruffly. Jaune wasn't going to entertain that damn question. Raguel ignored his glares and instead looked to the dark band poking through his shirt collar. She stood up and made her way over, stretching the shirt a bit to get a better look.
"Mind explaining how this happened instead?" Raguel looked to him inquisitively. "Nothing about this was in your memories."
"... That's because I don't know how it happened." Jaune breathed swirling the large bottle slightly and watching the whirlpool it made. He didn't want to look at either one currently, especially if they were playing this stupid game.
"Stop with the lying already. How could you forget something like that?" Sariel snorted.
"I told you, I don't remember." He growled. "Can we move onto something else now? Like maybe why the Angel Of Justice is currently working for mobsters?" Raguel just smiled with a small shrug.
"What can I say? Sariel has quite the rebellious streak, and I'm obligated to keep an eye on her."
"Somehow I doubt that's the only reason." Jaune deadpanned before tensing when a foot rubbed up against his leg. Sariel was giving him a wicked grin, pushing her breast together accentuating her cleavage.
"What's the matter? Don't tell me your jealous? I mean, if you want to try getting with the best information brokers in town you've come to the right place, though I don't think they're looking for male staff currently."
"Oh stop teasing him." Raguel stated before squeezing his shoulders sensually. He tensed immediately, throwing her a threatening glare that was met with heavy laughter. He shrugged her off before slouching with guarded movements.
"Did all of you take the form of women when you came here?" Jaune growled thinking back to the other two angels in Beacon.
"Gabriel didn't." Raguel smirked.
"Just how many of you came here anyway?"
"It might be easier to tell you who isn't here right now." Raguel replied. "You'd be surprised how many angels have grudges against you."
"For some reason I don't think I would be." Jaune scoffed while popping the cork off his Everclear. He was ready to start chugging when the girl in white stopped him.
"I am curious though." Raguel stated before grabbing a fresh martini from the cart. "What happened after the battle? Michael struck you and suddenly your form vanished in a flash of light." His mind briefly went to the sporadic images Uriel had shown him, but they ultimately amounted to nothing useful without context. He needed more to work with, and the angels before him might actually answer.
"What battle?" Jaune questioned trying to sound clueless. The two angels just chuckled.
"Oh Lucifer. I never knew you were one for jokes. This must be a new development." Raguel waved him off. "Seriously though, what happened after Michael struck you?" Jaune just blinked and shrugged his shoulders, honestly not having an answer for either of them. Sariel just rolled her eyes.
"You're still joking right? Seriously it's not funny anymore." Jaune just stared at her blankly. The girl in red waited for him to say something, until she realized he was being serious. "Wait. You really don't remember?!"
"No." Jaune shook his head with that simple answer. Sariel just glared, her eye twitching slightly in frustration.
"The Rapture happened! You were in the middle of it dumbass!" Jaune blinked, the word not springing any memories. Why would it though? The Rapture wasn't scheduled for a long time and he was quite positive of that.
"Seriously though, what really happened?" Jaune asked again only to be met with a frustrated growl. Sariel began summoning glowing spikes above her shoulders ready to nail him before Raguel put a stop to it. The girl in white eyed him for any possible deceptions, though she already knew he couldn't lie about what wasn't in his memory to begin with. She instead started with her own question.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"Doing my job watching over Hell."
"She means the last human event you remember." Sariel rolled her eyes. "What were the humans up to?"
Jaune rubbed his temples trying his best to think of the past. There was a sizable gap, and he knew it had to be big since the jump between him performing his normal duties then waking up in Remnant was a drastic transition.
"Ummm… Babylon and Nineveh were pretty important. They made that tiered garden in one of the cities…" Jaune trailed off. The feats of human architecture were one of the few things he liked about the species, ever since those island people built the first massive structures. What were the islands called? Malta and Gozo? He couldn't really remember, but those stone buildings were something he believed humans incapable of. Even more impressive was how quickly humans could tear these structures apart, whether it be during war or scrapping for parts. Still, nothing could quite rival a massive thriving garden in the middle of a desert.
"Those gardens stood for a very long time." Raguel commented thoughtfully. "It still isn't the best reference point. What were they actively doing? Was a particular city in any wars that you remember? Any stand out humans that had been sent to Hell? Other buildings that were recently constructed?" Jaune thought for a long moment. Wars… he remembered plenty of those. But what was the most recent?
"… that upstarting country in the north was just beginning to invade the southern lands. It was the something Empire." He rubbed his forehead pulling at every straw he could. "They were all riled up by this one fellow. Al-what's his nuts? It's a bit foggy."
"Roman Empire? Do you mean THE Roman Empire?!" Raguel leaned in wide eyed. "And… Alexander the Conqueror? The one that took over much of the Holy Lands?"
"Those sound right." Jaune looked between the two girls now eyeing each other warily.
"Do you recall… the lord incarnating as a human?" She finally asked.
"Wait, The Lord incarnated already?!" He made to stand up but was quickly forced back by two separate hands.
"You'll want to be seated for this one." Sariel sighed with a hint of pity in her voice.
"What?" He finally questioned when neither of them made to speak.
"Sorry, but your memory is missing several thousand years of human progress." Jaune just stared at the two not comprehending the words. She said several thousand years of progress. That's a lot of time, far more than he could understand missing. He felt his stomach clench as her words sank in. That couldn't be right. How could he be missing that much of his memory?!
"How did it come to this?" He mumbled slumping back in his seat.
'Because you're a fool that refuses the truth.' That familiar snake had materialized again and was currently wrapping around his ankle. The girl in white seemed to roll something around in her head before giving a defeated sigh. "I think I understand what happened."
"What is it?" Jaune asked getting annoyed.
"Your shattered halo, the snake and those missing memories. I can only think of one thing that might cause it." She leaned over and flicked the broken band of metal hanging around his neck. "Michael's final strike hit you so hard, it literally split you in half along with your halo." There was a brief pause before Sariel started chuckling. It began with small giggles,only to erupt into full blown cackling. The fallen angel tried to ignore her, but he couldn't stop the slight blush of embarrassment across his cheeks.
"That isn't possible." Jaune shook his head instead. It had to be. No way in Hell would he suffer a loss that humiliating to Michael of all angels.
"Are you positive?" Raguel added also ignoring Sariel's fit. "This is the first time I've ever heard of a halo being broken into pieces. Who's to say it's not the cause?" Jaune went quiet after that. No, he honestly had no idea if it was possible or not. When he awoke in this world and the thought of humanity didn't disgust him, he believed something fundamental had changed. He was a new angel so to speak. Emotions had affected him far differently and his whole thought process had shifted. Contrary to what he believed though, this wasn't really a sign that he was meant to seek redemption at all. Just some huge mistake he thought way too hard about. And Sariel's laughter wasn't helping...
"Do you mind?!" Jaune growled. Sariel took several deep breaths before trying to speak.
"I-it's just- you're such a fecking failure!" She went back into her cackling while Jaune just groaned in response.
"Cheer up brother." Raguel tried giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "It's not all bad. You've managed to make friends for the first time in your life. That's something to be proud of."
"Until he screws that one up too- OWW!" Raguel delivered a swift kick to Sariel's gut sending her tumbling from her seat. She shot her superior a death glare, though the Archangel wasn't amused.
"I think coming to this realm was a great change of pace for all of us. Wouldn't you agree Sariel?" The latter just responded by flipping her the bird. Jaune hummed not really sure what to say. Sariel had a point a he really hated that fact. Chances are he was going to ruin the relationships he'd built AND fail to confront Uriel. The reassurance of failure was only making this far harder and he wanted an out. He decided to grab the large bottle of Everclear instead, downing three fourths of the container before dropping his forehead to the table. He waited for that weird sensation to come and go, shivering a bit when the airy feeling in his head returned with a bit of warmth.
"Are you seriously trying that again?" Sariel rolled her eyes having finally gotten back in her seat. "Angels can't get drunk idiot." Jaune just shrugged not bothering to look up.
"It's working for me… I think." That made Sariel tense a bit, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him to her eye level. "What do you mean 'you think?' I told you it's impossible!" Jaune sighed when the feeling started to evaporate, all senses returning to normal. It lasted under a minute that time…
"Things start to feel really weird for a short period. My head gets all fluffy and things won't stay upright. I've never felt anything like it." The two girls looked to each other suspiciously.
"That's not how humans describe drunkenness. You're lying."
"Maybe clip your wings off and try for yourself? Your body won't recover as quickly." Jaune suggested. It's the only thing he could think of at least. "Unless I've failed in that regard to. You seem to think that's all I'm good for." Raguel decided she'd had enough, grabbing Sariel and forcing her to drop him back in his chair.
"Perhaps we've spoken enough for today." Raguel sighed before shoving the other through the door and slamming it shut. "Sorry. She's a difficult one to handle." Jaune just barked out a laugh.
"You're not wrong that's for sure." He made to stand up not expecting a folded piece of paper to be shoved in his hand.
"Call me if you ever want to talk. I can't do much to help you, but the two of us are always here if you need to vent." Jaune just looked between her and the note.
"Why are you doing this?" He finally asked. "We never got along well in the past. What is your reasoning for all this?" Raguel took a moment trying to choose her words.
"I already told you. I wouldn't be a good Angel of Justice if I didn't give you a chance to try." She winked before turning to leave, pulling Jaune by the arm down a side hallway. They passed a few more monsters along the way, all of them eyeing him suspiciously though not daring to insult Raguel. They soon made it to a door with a red exit sign above it. She opened the door ushering him into a back alley. "Take a right and you'll end up on South Main Street. You should be able to figure it out from there."
"Thanks, Rag-"
"We're in public stupid." She interrupted. "Call me Melanie."
"Right. Thank you Melanie."
He gave her a small bow before turning to leave, rounding several dumpsters before taking a right. There was South Main as expected, people crowding the streets doing their Saturday business. He fit seamlessly with the crowd.
Jaune walked with a bit more pep in his steps then earlier that morning. He finally had some answers at least, and was happy to know he wasn't losing his mind. Granted he wasn't any closer to figuring out what Uriel was planning, or finding the best course when confronting his teammates later. Part of him couldn't stop thinking of Earth either. If the Rapture truly happened that meant a lot of damned souls were probably strutting around like they owned the place. Would Michael be able to keep them all in check? That is, if he hadn't abandoned the post already. It was odd, hearing that some of the demons had gone missing from Earth too. There weren't many places they could be either. It was either Earth, Hell or they'd been completely obliterated. Unless they somehow-
No, that was a stupid thought. He wasn't even sure how the other angels managed to get in this dimension, much less himself. How could a demon accomplish such a feat without assistance? Then again, the fact that he wasn't sure how made the possibility more likely, who's to say he wasn't followed by a few loyal demons?
He checked the time on his scroll. The screen said it was only half past ten, along with twenty-three unread text messages from Pyrrha in his inbox…
Jaune shuddered to think what that could mean, and the thought of reading them now only made him feel sick. His thumb shakily hovered over the notification, strongly debating whether he should look or not. On the one hand it could be important. On the other the shear volume of text was never a good sign. What if she was explaining why they hated him and wanted him gone. He didn't know if he was mentally prepared for that possibility.
Ultimately his hands closed the scroll before sliding it back in his pocket. He still had plenty of time to perform the ritual he was planning and read Pyrrha's messages. No one ever said he had to read a text message right away, and it had only been a few hours since he left Beacon. They probably wanted more time alone.
Turning his thoughts to the task at hand Jaune started making a mental checklist. Hopefully his summons would work in this realm, though he half prayed his suspicions were wrong. If demons made it to Remnant who knew what sort of trouble they'd cause? Then again if they still fell under his command there was a small chance they could assist in taking Uriel down. Or they would completely disregard him. He was not at his full strength anymore, so that was a very likely possibility.
First things first though. He needed to find an abandoned building to work in, some candles and a full pig's head. The latter would be at a butcher's shop, right? Surely humans still killed their food in house and would be willing to sell one. That would be his first stop then.
XxxxxxxxxxX
thanks again to Maldevinine for beta reading this chapter.
At least Lucifer has found allies-ish? Well, one of them doesn't want to constantly rip his throat out. I wonder how the rest of NPR is doing?
Enjoy!
