If looks could kill, Lucifer would have been vaporized. Michael stared mutinously at his Fallen brother, mentally trying to decide if it would be worth it to end the creature's life now or wait until they were alone. "None of this is getting us any closer to determining what has happened to change this reality" the angel growled.

"No but it makes for an interesting back story" Khan commented, snatching his flask back from Jones. "And there is always the chance that somewhere in your little soap opera we might find a clue as to what is actually going on. So - let's talk about lust shall we?"

Lucifer smiled happily down at the young monk. "Yes - by all means let's talk about lust - and hypocrisy. Let's talk about Mickey here telling his pretty hell cat student that angels and humans could never be intimate and then turning right around and creating a harem for himself in the remnants of the city of Vegas."

"I did NOT..." Michael protested, then threw his hands in the air. "Our Father took Miry from me after Alex, the child I was sworn to protect, was born. Gabriel had injured her accidently. We were fighting and she was trying to pull him off me before he could kill me since without my wings I had nothing to protect me from my angelic twin's power. She got in the way of a blow meant for me. I can only assume Father sent her back to her realm to recover. He gave me my wings back but no word of my student. His silence to me in that regard spoke volumes. I thought it was my punishment for allowing her to defy the Throne with me."

"So let's get back to this whole harem issue" Khan said, a wicked grin (similar to Lucifer's) on his handsome face. "Isn't there some story in one of the religious tomes Flynn's got piled on the table here about what happened the last time angels and humans hooked up?"

Flynn reached across and opened one of the volumes, sliding it across the table to Baird. "It's in Enoch - the story of the Watchers who fell from Grace. The story goes that the Sons of Heaven beheld the Daughters of Man and found them fair. They decided to go to Earth and take them as wives, teaching mankind skills that God had not been inclined to give to humans and creating progeny that eventually became the giants of legend."

"Daddy dearest proceeded to condemn all those wankers to my custody in Hell and had my "good" brothers destroy all their progeny. Now there's a story for a winter's night." Lucifer shifted in his seat, staring grimly at his archangel sibling. "Two hundred of our brethern sent on the express elevator to Hell. But not you Mickey. I guess all things are possible if your daddy's favorite sword."

"Oh lovely, this gets better and better" Rowan muttered. "Glad Arthur isn't here to hear this. I can only imagine his reaction."

Baird could feel her sympathies start to slide away from the angel in front of them. "So, knowing what had happened before you still made out with human women in this alternate reality? For someone who supposed to be a tactician that wasn't really very smart."

"Neither Gabriel nor I would back down to one another, both of us sure of our position in this conflagration. The war dragged on and on for over twenty years. We were both barred from Heaven until this could be resolved, barred from the reality where our young ones resided. My brother could not reach his son, whom he loved more than life, the child he had undertaken this war to protect. Uriel was in Vega under another facade and died at the hands of mortal men trying to protect themselves from Gabriel - a guilt we both shouldered. Rafael, our gentle healer and the only one of us who might have been able to talk us down from our inflexible positions, was not allowed to intervene. I was alone for the first time in millennium, without my twin or my younger brothers at my side. I... sinned against my Father, against my brothers, against my lady" Michael whispered softly.

"You were lonely" Rowan whispered. "Even archangels can be lonely."

"Lonely my ass" Lucifer snorted. "He had quite the rotation of pretty woman and men warming his bed. I'm surprised you didn't scalp him when you found out about it."

Rowan blinked. "I found out about it?" She looked back at the angel, noticing his complexion growing paler as they spoke.

Lucifer leaned back with a self-satisfied smirk. "Oh yes, you most certainly did. Heard this story from you - or at least the you that existed before whatever happened to this reality happened." He waved a hand dismissively. "Too complicated - let's just say I heard the story from someone who doesn't exist right now. That blow-hard scribe Metatron sent you to Vega to find out what was taking these two so long to finish what they had started. As I understand it, you walked in right after one of my brother's marathon orgies. All this time, he'd told you he loved you but couldn't touch you, was jealous when someone else offered you some physical affection and then, the minute you weren't in the room..."

"This has NOTHING to do with what has happened" Michael exploded. "You only speak of these event to rub salt in the wounds and keep us apart."

"New flash" Rowan purred. "We aren't together. And if I was so stupid in that reality to put up with your two-faced, sliding scale of morality then maybe it would be best if we didn't try to fix whatever has happened."

"Wait - so you almost let the Dogs of Heaven kill her and Gabriel, another archangel, hurt her in a fight after this "savior" was born. On top of that you screwed around behind her back with humans after telling her you couldn't be with her because she WAS human." Stone looked from Rowan to the angel thoughtfully. "I wouldn't be surprised if the answer to this puzzle is that she did something to erase you out of her life."

"Problem is" Rowan drawled, "if we were responsible either Arthur or I would remember what we had done. And neither of us do - neither of us is that talented. So unless we were really careless I'd say neither of us is responsible." She jumped up off the table and stood looking down at Lucifer. "Any more little bomb shells you would like to share with us?"

Lucifer smiled up at her. "Only that the leader of the Watchers, Azazel, the First Fallen as the pretentious sod likes to call himself, was in Vega trying to create an avatar of me to bring his siblings up from the pits of Hell to rule that reality. I'm betting whatever changed things here started with you and your team and my brothers trying to send him back to his cage."

Rowan and Baird exchanged glances. Flynn also rose to stand beside his Guardian. "So..." Flynn asked, trying to sound nonchalant. "How did Azazel get out of his prison in the first place? I'm mean - he was in Hell wasn't he?"

The smile left Lucifer's face. "I have no idea" he snarled, staring at the trio looking down at him.

"You left your throne unguarded" Michael said softly, moving to stand behind Rowan. "You took your most senior demon torturer Mazakin with you. That along with the escape of the Goddess and the war between Gabriel and myself created a weakness in walls of Hell - a weakness Azazel exploited to his own advantage. By the time Gabriel and I realized what was happening he had already risen and was forming an army of demons and human turncoats to send against us. That is when we made the plan - to use our young ones as a distraction while my brothers and I took on the Fallen and sent him back to his prison."

"Wait" Jones said, jumping up from his perch beside Khan. "Let me get this scenario straight. You take your "student" into a war zone knowing God is going to be pissed then turn your back on her to protect some unborn kid who may or may not be the savior of his world. Then you screw around on her after stringing her along while you were her teacher. And THEN you put her and her brothers out on the battle field where the possibilities of death or dismemberment by a demon are high just to save some "Chosen" mortal." Jones looked at Rowan and Baird, incredulous. "Have I got it right?"

"Pretty close to it, kid" Arthur's voice sounded from the entrance to the library. He stepped through in the main area with Jenkins close behind. "Which makes me ask one pertinent question. Are you wanting to correct these inconsistencies in the timeline for our sakes or because you need us to protect this Vega environment again?"

NOTES - Some of the events Lucifer and Michael detail come from the movie "Legion" and from the series "Dominion". Some come from my and my co-author's other fanfiction "Different Stories".