Salvation

by Chessa Kaye

The weight of his isolation and his own failures smothering him, Michael has given free rein to his rage. Furiad sets into motion events that mean the end of man and angel kind. Can Michael survive to undo the unimaginable? Will love alter destiny? In the turmoil of heaven's families in their war for dominion of earth, can there be salvation for anyone?

20. Chapter 20

Salvation

Chapter 20

Legacy

Alex looked baffled as they approached western Nevada. He strained to see the massive buildings and the walls of his home city. Vega had stood before he was taken forcibly to Mallory by Lucifer…and Noma. Raphael was with Alex and explained that Jillian had to smite the city. There had been too many of Lucifer's forces entrenched to avoid it. He'd known that was a possibility, but the reality of it was hard to process.

He was exhausted by the long night and day's events. He'd made it back to his home place via private Angel Air… his own wing power. That was fairly awesome, he had to admit. Raphael had completed a first round of her work and returned to Mallory to escort him home. She had accompanied him to give pointers on flight. He was glad for her help and her company as he witnessed the devastation of Armageddon.

Alex stared at the rubble on the Plains of Nevada. There was no Vega left, save the tunnels. People had already cleared some of them out and set up housekeeping in them. Most people camped in the surrounding ruins in the area. Angels, ordered by Michael and Jillian brought food in from parts far and wide to feed everyone.

Raphael was presented as her feminine self, as it seemed was the case most of the time now, and had left Alex to his thoughts. Alex had noted that she was now busy healing the most critically wounded surrounding what was Vega. He was exhausted beyond tired and so retired to his cavern. He left the former residents of Vega and those who had met Armageddon on these plains to their meals and ponderings and stories and healing.

Thoughts of Noma were foremost in his mind. She was not herself and she was with child. His child. Was that true or had Lucifer made that up to entice him? His head swam with all that filled it. As he mindlessly situated himself in his little cave's comforts, he tried to think where she would go. He had no idea. It made him wonder at how little he really knew her, that he wouldn't know her safe place. He was dinged up from the ordeals of battle and dabbed at a few cuts with cotton balls soaked in alcohol…Scotch whisky kind of alcohol.

Finally, he threw down the cotton ball in exasperation and just drank from the bottle, wanting to get the whole of himself numb. 'God' had been in the room with him chatting …called him his son. God. …and Mrs. God. Alex sneered and shook his head in disbelief at the recollection. Was God actually his Father? How did that add up? His head hurt. He drank more whisky. There was a small voice at the door he'd made to the room sized cavern and a knock of sorts against it. "Who is it?" Alex went to high alert. "Alex , it's Pete." Alex hurried to the entrance. "Pete, man, how did you find me? Alex asked excited to see his friend.

Alex had saved him from possession once before and they'd become friends that day but he'd been re-inhabited when Julian used him as a vessel for another of his army of the possessed in New Delphi. You made friends….and enemies… fast in this world. Alex briefly wondered if New Delphi still stood. Pete began to kneel before Alex as he explained that, "Everyone knew where the Chosen One sheltered." Alex stopped his act of honor and bade him stand by shaking his head in a 'don't you dare' kind of way.

Pete caught the meaning and instead of kneeling, the two laughed and embraced their greeting. "Alex, dude, thank you. Word of what you did has spread everywhere. There are makeshift shrines to you in every camp site out there. They're singing songs about you…it's kind of… weird, actually…now that I think about it."

"Tell me about it," Alex said. I didn't do what happened out there alone, Pete. Michael was the driving force in every way and the key to ….more than you know," Alex said as he remembered who and what Michael had become . Alex just let it go at that. He wasn't about to try to explain the earlier happenings. Then he remembered, somewhat amazed and out loud, "Michael has a wife….a….a mate! The Golden One, Jillian. Huh." Pete just stared as Alex spoke. Then he said, "Well, why shouldn't he? He's a pretty amazing kind of guy, from what I keep hearing out there."

"Yeah." Alex wanted to say, 'you have NO idea' as he recalled that he'd witnessed Michael's rebirth as son and heir of the Almighties, but he just said, "He really is and yeah, why not?!" Alex went from amazed and dazed at the idea to being really happy for Michael. He thought the Golden One was extraordinary enough to be a good match for his mentor.

Alex decided he would remember to congratulate them when next they met. Did you do that among angels...or whatever Jillian was… some kind of child of Gods'? It was all very confusing. Where was that whisky? He didn't know what proper acknowledgment for angel pair bonding was. But you did honor that joyful union among those who were family. That's what Michael was… family. He left his thoughts of Michael to focus on Pete. He was genuinely happy to see him.

He slapped Pete on the shoulder and poured him a splash of whisky. "Here's to making it to the other side," Alex said raising his glass. "Cheers to the other side," Pete said, making a face as he said it because it was not the same meaning. Both young men just shook their heads and laughed. "Sit, Pete. Stay a while," Alex invited.

Just then the radio squawked. "Alex?" It squawked again…they could hear Gabriel mumble, "Wretched piece of electro- mechanical crap…. " Then through the ensuing static and tapping as Gabriel shook and cracked the defenseless radio against a table seeking to render it as useless as he already thought it, they heard him say something about Michael… and a meeting now…campsite #3.

"Let's make it another time," Pete said, understanding Alex had to go. You did go, when archangels called a meeting. Pete was pretty certain of that. "For sure, Pete," Alex agreed. Pete set his glass down and as he left, Alex called after him, "Be careful out there, buddy." Pete turned to face Alex, with a serious expression. "Thanks again, for everything, Alex. You saved us all." Alex just stood opposite his friend and for the first time really felt the true gravity of what he'd accomplished. With a humble acceptance of Pete's gratitude, Alex just smiled weakly and nodded. Pete turned and left the presence of the Savior.

xxxx

Two hours later, the meeting having ended, Alex returned to his…home. That is what the cavern was now. He was glad it was a favorite place already. It comforted him to be here. His mind was spinning again from all that had been done…from all that had to be done judging from what the meeting had covered. He'd just tromped through the wasteland outside that used to be Vega. He'd hated the place and had often wished its demise, but never like this.

He was immersed in troubled thoughts. The sheer number of lives this day had cost weighed on him. The supernatural phenomena he'd been part of…was mind boggling. What did all of it mean? He reached for the Scotch whisky again. That was something he understood. Alex flopped onto his bed with the bottle of the only answers he was going to get tonight. He proceeded to resume his earlier numbing project.

Suddenly he heard wings flutter. He reached for a weapon but before he dove to the floor to fire at the door, he saw that it was Raphael. She stood at the cave entrance with the door open. She held up what she hoped would be her pass to enter… a bottle of 30 year old whisky. Well, she had good taste. He signaled her to enter with a half wave of his hand. Alex sat back onto the edge of his bed. Raphael did not take the chair beside it, but sat next to Alex and seeing his wounds and bruises touched his cheek. Her light of healing flashed and took away all of his dings. "Thanks," Alex said with a little smile as he stared at the floor.

He didn't quite look at Raphael. She was… difficult for him. She stirred feelings in him that were confusing. Her delicate, feminine classical features were arranged in a beauty that was incomparably perfect, and unsettling because of their perfection. And…well… it was damned unsettling that she shimmered and was sometimes not…her.

But her golden complexion, long black hair and liquid silvery eyes so full of every emotion, her compassionate touch that healed and soothed were so inviting. When she was, she, her intoxicating musical voice was captivating to him. He was glad they had not had cause for her to speak. He didn't want to be captivated. He just wanted to be numb.

He did so need comfort and to not think about anything. He was just glad to be… alive. He was too emotionally wrecked to want beyond that. His mind drifted to Noma, their child. His concern shown in his face. Raphael sensed she was not who he wished was here, in spite of Alex's obvious fascination for her and so she stood to leave, having never spoken.

She set the bottle down beside him, as it was a gift and smiled at the face of his distraction. As she turned to go, Alex recovered from his distracted state and reached out to take her exquisite hand. His voice was thick with his desire…a desire he was not even aware existed until he spoke… "Stay," he said. His expression was so honest in its need, so pure in his wish for her to remain, that she did.

Alex stood and reached for the golden buckles of her leather armor. He asked with his eyes if she wished him to proceed. She loosed the armor for him and Alex undressed her, slowly revealing all of her perfection. In the candle light of his cavern, her softly golden skin glistened like the precious creature she was . Even the rock of the walls around her which glinted in the candlelight with flecks of every kind of crystalline beauty seemed to fire to greater brilliance, refracting in compliment to her glisten and making Raphael all the more radiant.

Her thick black hair cascaded to her mid back and the locks waved softly forward of her shoulders covering her breasts from sight. Alex reached for her and as if unwrapping a longed for gift, brushed the thick silky opacity aside. He looked at her perfect round nipples crowning the mount of her firm breasts. His face wore an expression similar to one witnessing a wonder as he looked down past the smoothly muscled abdomen with its gently curving waist to the curve of her hips, to the full, soft hair announcing the seat of her body's passion. He looked along her sleek, long legs . She was the image of everything beautiful, the embodiment of everything gentle. He was lost in the sight of her.

Raphael's compassionate warmth was everything Alex needed, her beauty distanced him entirely from the ugliness he had experienced outside and settled him from the incomprehensible he'd witnessed earlier. He was free …free of doubt, free of the confines of a world gone mad. Free of being Savior. He loosed his clothing and together they slipped them from him. Raphael regarded the markings of his body, not as most did… not as the hallowed writings of her Father. She saw them as part of a completely stunning man. She saw a script of the strength of Alex's mind, soul and body.

She touched Alex for the first time as a woman, not a supernatural, not as a healer, not as a comrade in arms. She reached for, not a marking, not the evidence of his arousal… this would not be an act of lustful escape for her. Her hand to chest, over his pure heart, she felt the raised marking there and studied its beauty with her fingertips, never looking away from his crystal blue eyes. Then she lightly pressed her lips to his. It was a respectful, loving act of hopeful passion, of a woman's devotion to a man.

Alex was shocked to stillness by her kiss. He felt it meant something…something more than 'let's hook up and bang our minds to numbness'. But he just couldn't think. He couldn't move. His mind felt scrambled. He'd even forgotten to breathe, so he kind of just gasped a breath. Raphael smiled softly, almost shyly. She knew he'd felt more than a kiss, but she didn't know what his reaction meant, exactly. Raphael guided him to step away from his shed clothing toward her…free of the soldier's uniform and of their duty, as well.

Alex and Raphael fell together onto the bed. Alex thought it would be a delicious, hot distraction. The way it so often was with Noma. The way it had been, even with Claire and their forbidden fruit kind of excitement. That was what he wanted…what he thought he needed. He thought they would drink too much and laugh and grope at one another hungrily until passions rose enough, just long enough to forget the day's troubles and fall asleep… unalone.

He found he craved Raphael's gentle power. She poured it into him with her every kiss and caress. And Alex found instead of just steamy, lusty sex, he wished to lavish her in his own pure heart. And so he loved her with a depth he had not expected. In a way he had not known before. He caressed her with hands of wonder, kissed her lips with a revelation of devotion, became one with her in a divine passion of sharing, giving, complete…love.

Raphael loved him. From the moment she saw him, she loved him. Yes, she was drawn to his wavy blond hair and athletic strength of body and stunning crystal blue eyes … but she saw how he fought with a power only intense purity could feed… to reach Michael ,to help him…she saw that and was his. In that moment of his act of selfless love for his guardian, she was captured by the inner beauty of him which fired his depth of caring devotion.

He'd even gotten Michael to be more openly expressive of affection…no small thing. Lucifer had coveted Alex's purity of heart for its power and all it could give him. In Alex, she found a kindred spirit and was drawn to him, like a moth to flame. She knew she was drawn to him. She found evidence in that she tended to stay female the majority of time around him. It was an autonomic response of her being's desire to meet his preference.

If all she was to him now was a moment of comfort, she would be grateful for the sharing. She had lusted before in many ways with many people and angels, many men and women. She understood lust. She thought she understood love. She had thought she loved truly a few times, but realized now, there was always something she wanted from the others or that they wanted of her beyond their passion and devotion.

Not with Alex. She wanted only to be who she was with him. She loved him with a wish to give to him what he required. She loved him enough to bear the pain of her heart if to walk away was all that was left of them at the end of this night. Alex felt her love in a very different way from Noma or Claire. He felt the purity of it and yes, the intensity of it was there, but there was a lack of things that seemed to make all the difference. There was no duty involved, no expectation, no other personal requirement.

It was the freedom of equals giving and taking on an equal plane. He was amazed at how they…flowed effortlessly. He wanted to give her all she desired, what she needed, and it made him, not just gratified but… happy, joyful. Even now. What he had approached as merely raw desire was, in fact, much more. They shared their passion long after the candle's flame failed. Then they fell asleep holding one another as newly found treasure…each cradled in love.

Neither of them were aware that Noma had watched them from the shadows of the cave's slightly ajar door. She watched as the candle flickered out, seething with a jealous obsession fed by "The Darkness". Noma slipped away before daybreak. That morning Alex woke first and made coffee. The fragrant beverage awakened Raphael. She smiled at him from under the covers looking for all the world like a mischievous kitten.

Alex joined her in the bed. She turned to him and they kissed, nestled together. "What do you suppose this day holds," Alex asked as he embraced her. "All that Father requires, " Raphael responded. "Does He tell you…everything?" Alex asked. "No, she said laughingly. Only what is required of me. Usually, it is a generality that I fulfill as I see fit in his behalf and according to the best of my ability."

"So you have some leeway?" Alex asked. "Not as much as humanity, but, in my case, much more than most angels," Raphael explained. "I think much will change now that He has returned." She added. "How?" Alex asked. "Oh, there will be much more guidance, more order, more duty, more accountability, more accomplishment," Raphael finished. "Ah,'the Boss is in', kind of thing, huh?" Alex observed. "In effect, yes," Raphael smiled but there was some worry to her expression. She knew better than he what it could mean.

Alex's radio squawked to life. It was Michael. "Alex, where may I find you?" Alex lied, "I'm on my way to Campsite #3 Michael. I'll be there in 15 minutes." Michael called him on his falsification, "I don't see your vehicle, Alex nor are you on wing." Alex grimaced, "I hate when he does that." Raphael teased, "Sounds like your 'boss is in'." Alex nodded, "Yeah." He kissed her, dressed and left hurriedly. "Meet me here tonight , if you can, Raphael." He said as he left her while she dressed. He had not left so soon that Michael wasn't prompting him again, though. "Alex, are you en route to Campsite #3…yet." Alex's annoyed response followed and trailed off as he left hearing range,"Yesss, Michael, I am on the way…"

Jillian had her arms around Michael's waist from behind and turned him toward her to kiss him. Through her kiss she spoke, "You are a tyrant, my love." Michael kissed her lips softly and responded shaking his head as he left Jillian's arms and returned to the door to look again for Alex, "The boy requires discipline."

"Dearest, 'The boy' helped save the world and bring Father and Mother home. Discipline is his to command as he sees fit at this stage." Jillian counseled her stern mate.

"Shall I allow him to develop conceit, then?" Michael asked seriously as he wheeled away from his scan of the plain below. Jillian sighed, "Oh, heaven forbid he should have a moment to bask in glory," she teased. She folded her arms and gave him a condescending look as she repeated her previous assessment, "Tyrant".

Michael offered his reserved version of an eye roll at his mate's criticism. He smiled at being reminded of his own stuffiness, took Jillian in a loving, decidedly unstuffy, purposeful and passionate kiss. The kiss and subsequent caress to her cheek were meant to temper his desire, their desire, until he could kiss her again, and again. He stared deeply into her eyes for a moment punctuating his complete devotion to her. Then he stepped away, walked to the cliff edge and in a perfect swan dive from the precipice, flew from their comfortable cavern/ tent high in the inaccessible- by- any- means- but- flight nearby hills west of Vega. Jillian watched his flight from their cavern's entry. He was beautiful and his beauty in her heart shown in the light of her eyes as she watched him go.

As he flew to his duties, Michael thought of Jillian standing regal and splendid within their cavern as she chastised him lovingly. Michael had formed their cavern by etching the space out of the stone, carving it easily with his wings. It was spacious enough to serve but not so spacious as to be a threat to the landscape's stability. Jillian had appointed the interior in a pleasing way with remnants from the debris that was Vega. He would be glad to return to their privacy there. He planned to add considerably to his parting kiss' promise.

Michael made his way to Campsite #3 to meet Alex. He waited until his frustration with Alex turned to concern. The boy never arrived. Michael searched for him but there was no trace. Michael looked tirelessly until duties and his attention were demanded elsewhere. When he could not search, Raphael or Jillian searched. Even Gabriel searched for Alex to no avail.

xxxx

Noma had been lying in wait for Alex. She overpowered him with the strength of her Darkness fed intent. She held a vial Lucifer had given her secretly the day he poisoned her, saying "Payment for your service, Noma. Gift this to whomever you choose." All that was left of Noma as she had been was that she wanted to be with Alex. She was consumed with that mission. She wanted them to be the same and so she gave him 'the gift'. She would save him from what he was…free him from his miserable Chosen One concerns. She would give him even more power than he already held.

She dropped not a single drop of the vial's contents into Alex's eye but half of the vial. She carried him away to a place she'd found in the Rocky Mountains in the instant of a dimensional jump. She set him down on a bed in the abandoned magnificent residence's master bedroom. She watched Alex as the overdose of The Darkness took hold of his pure heart and made of it a thing of living horror. She made him like her. But Alex was not like her…

Xxxx

EIGHT MONTHS LATER

Michael and Gabriel, flew with purpose, glad to be sharing this time together. Their duty done for the day, they were applied to personal pleasures. Life had never shown them a more blissful time. Father and Mother were making a beautiful difference in the world as it healed. The Archangels' effort devoted to the Almighties' purpose made them content. The brothers laughed sharing stories of past escapades. They quieted as they approached the state in which stood the home Michael and Jillian shared. It was a home Gabriel knew delighted his brother and would soon be filled with the sounds and bustle of new life brought forth.

"Well Michael, you are moments from fatherhood, how do you feel about that?" Gabriel asked, knowing full well there may not be words for his brother to express his thoughts on the beautiful matter. Michael stopped midflight. Gabriel had to fly back to him.

"Brother?" Gabriel queried. He watched compassionately as Michael searched to find a way to express himself. "I have never known, such a …joyful honor." He managed to say. Then shook his head, exasperated, scoffing, "Words are inadequate."

"But you are happy, then?" Gabriel asked, smiling at what he knew the answer would be. "Yes. So much more than happy, Brother." Michael admitted. "Do you recall my first word the day we were made?" Michael asked his brother. "Yes, it was a question. I have not heard you ask it of Father since then, now that I think of it. You looked at Father, so confused, you were." Gabriel paused remembering the precious moment of his brother's awakening, a moment they shared, the presence of each easing one another's fears. "You asked Father, 'Why?' He finished. They smiled knowingly at one another. Michael looked intently at his brother and said, "This is why."

Michael was satisfied with that and seeing his brother's thoughts completed, Gabriel effused, "Then let us hurry! We don't want to miss the arrival of your answer to the greatest of all questions and your newest joy." They laughed and slapped each other's shoulders once in a mutual, arm's length congratulatory manner. They resumed their progress toward Michael and Jillian's home again.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, they were not alone. Michael turned first, sensing the new presence. Gabriel turned, then, also. Michael's defenses dropped completely as he recognized the newcomer who had dimensionally jumped to their location and responded by wearing an expression of appropriate surprised, even awed, delight. Gabriel wore a similar response.

Michael was about to address the arrival. Before he could speak, a great thunderous flash issued from the visitor enveloping the brothers. It stunned and, fractured their bodies and they fell to earth, broken, helpless against the surprise attack by one they clearly knew. Feather, dust particulates that had been their clothing and misting blood rained momentarily as the devastated brothers lay to ground.

Gabriel came to first. He had fallen to earth face down, looking out and down over the cliff he had narrowly met. His left wind hung limp over the edge. His right wing had been shredded and broken. It folded backward over his back, sketchily blanketing him.

He could not move at all. He could not speak. He could see across from him and below him where Michael had fallen. He was face up, draped across a slender, purest white stone . Michael's broken body was lightly dressed by severed flight feathers and awash in escaping blood. His head hung slightly free of the stone and his wings and arms fell away at the sides toward the abyss below, still and useless, his great strength stolen… by bitter betrayal.

xxxx

Jillian stood with her attendants and her sister, Raphael, prepared to deliver the child who would be born of a great love; a child who would be a new race of Father's children. She was well into labor and had entered the birthing pool. She would wait for Michael. He had just sent her an image of how close he was to home and how utterly enraptured with joy he was for her to be delivered and that he was to participate in the birth.

He would walk through the door of the serene room, enter the pool with her and receive their child as he or she was born. There would be no higher joy for either of them. It was in this moment that Jillian was stricken with an encompassing agony. She could not restrain the all-consuming scream. Her child was born in that scream of anguish fed to her via his father's pain. The attendants hurried to gather the swimming child and swaddled him. Raphael shimmered to male and gathered the collapsed mother.

xxxxx

Michael began to come to, a disadvantage of having a powerful body. It allowed one to receive the most extreme savagery to one's person and to remain living to experience , to know the emotional and physical anguish of it. As his own life and his brother's spilled forth, Gabriel saw Michael's awakening.

Michael looked up to the higher cliff, into Gabriel's eyes. Gabriel heard the strain of Michael's pain and despair at the sight of his brother in Michael's ragged whisper, "Gabriel." Gabriel watched as Michael looked to the luminous one who stood behind his dying brother. Gabriel had seen this moment months ago and thought he'd subverted its occurrence. He'd thought he was to have been the cause of this. He believed when he and Michael joined forces to fight Lucifer, that moment he'd seen as a vision when he was wounded in Vega was avoided. Yet there was Michael. And here was he. How could this be?

Michael's breath came in raking gasps and through the deep moans of one forced by violence to the limits of life. He lifted his head to see their attacker better then he used all of his strength to speak. Gabriel slipped from life as he heard his brother reprise the first question he had ever asked as the last of this immortal life, "Why?"

The luminous Alex watched with his blackened eyes flashing, the poison of The Darkness dancing there. He stood over the now deceased Gabriel and folded his great white wings to their sheaths to watch as Michael endured the last struggles of his extraordinary body. Michael saw Noma descend to be at Alex's side. He saw her spit on Gabriel's still body. In the despair of his grief he looked away at which point his face pressed to a cradling out cropping of the stone and he rested his head there.

Michael had seen that Noma was heavily with child. .. a child who, if it were Alex's, he recalled , would be the mate of his own soon to be born child. He found some comfort even now, knowing his legacy would carry on. Alex responded to the question Michael had posed, as Noma sneered down at Michael, admiring the devastation Alex's power had inflicted.

"Why? You and Gabriel took everything from us. You two started the Extermination Wars. Then Gabriel branded Noma as a traitor because she sided with YOU and spread that lie among all the angels. If there wasn't enough insult to that, you forced her into a life that deprived her of every angelic trapping, tied her to a miserable human life where she had to tag after me, making her brand as traitor in service to you fly like a flag for all to see and eventually causing her to sacrifice her wings for my sake! Yes, and you took more than anyone has a right to take from me: my world, my father, my mother, my childhood, any chance for a normal life!

And if all of THAT wasn't enough destruction, your feud with Lucifer brought on Armageddon. Lucifer was the only one of any of you who gave us anything. He offered freedom and power and he gave Noma back her wings; gave me wings. All you two and your Gods ever did was take and use. So we thought we should take from you. You always said you would die for me, Michael. It's time for that… and also… naturally, because it's better to rule, than to serve. I intend to rule …I am the Chosen One. I have earned my rightful and divine place not a holding place between places. I am chosen to stand as heir to these two Gods…not you. When I have killed you and them…I will inherit my destiny as the Chosen Almighty."

Even through his shock and anguish, Michael was reminded of something that made a difference to him as Alex spoke. He acted on it quickly…there was little time. On the side out of sight of his attacker, using his bloodied finger, he scratched something upon the stone. Then, spent, Michael's head rolled from the cradling shelf, eased back against the leading edge of the white stone and fell toward the abyss as he had originally fallen from the sky.

Noma and Alex flew down to Michael. They would not let him pass in peace. They laughed as they planned more torment. Noma held Michael's head with one hand and opened his left eye widely with the other as Alex leaned forward to release a drop from the vial of The Darkness. Michael's breath, rasping, reluctant, began to abandon him as the drop of Darkness fell to capture and subvert the power of the dying true Heir to Gods and turn it to the final pain of this young, Almighty.

Michael closed his eyes and tensed as the drop of Darkness Alex released took hold of his mind. His broken body trembled from the power of the force burrowing a foothold into his psyche. He groaned from the added unpleasant sensation. He knew he may only have seconds in his present state of mind. He had experienced what The Darkness had driven Gabriel to. It had made him desire to murder his dearest family. Michael did not resent Alex or Noma for their actions in the grips of the power of The Darkness. He forgave them just as he had Gabriel's madness. Michael understood the depth of the darkness at his own core. If this unleashed all he was capable of it would make Lucifer seem a gentle and kind child by comparison.

Alex and Noma watched his struggle, pleased with their despicable undertaking's progress. They were victims of the same madness they now inflicted. They were anxious to see its effects on their new victim. Unexpectedly, Michael fell silent and still. His head fell limp over the edge of the white stone's edge. Was he dead? Was that all there would be to their attempt to infect Michael? Noma and Alex looked puzzled. Were they too late? Had they not given him enough? Suddenly Michael gasped as The Darkness found its seat within him. He screamed the anguish of its grasp on him.

Alex and Noma became pleased again. Their pleasure gave way to surprise when Michael opened his eyes. They were briefly black, as Michael's eyes would become when he was in touch with his own darkness. Then, Michael's eyes fired and flashed red with the effects of The Darkness infusion. The two tormentors were blown back by the force of power that emanated from Michael's body. Michael, feeling this surge of renewed strength, directed his right hand toward Gabriel's body as he dropped his left hand to the symbol he'd made on that side of the stone.

A blue energy ignited at the symbol, passed through Michael and fired toward Gabriel via the fingertips of Michael's right hand. The red plasma of the energy surrounded Gabriel and Michael. The power of the effort necessary forced the last of Michael's breath to depart him in a deep forced exhalation. As his exhausted life escaped, he fell limp and stilled. Noma and Alex saw the blue glow of the burst of plasma and the red of the energy that surrounded the brothers as they flew returning from where the blast had thrown them, back toward Michael. When they reached the stone where Michael had lain, he was gone. So was the body of Gabriel.

The disappointed couple blamed each other for the failure of their Darkness plot. Noma lashed at Alex with her wings but Alex seized her before her attack on him could do harm. He was far more powerful than she now. He reasoned that they had done their job and calmed the enraged Noma whispering to her, "It doesn't matter, they are gone. That was the ultimate goal, to rid this world of their interference. Now, we will come to power. Patience, love."

Noma was calmed by his reference to her as his love. She liked that. She felt it gave her power over him. She was fired to passion by the excitement of their undertakings. She grabbed Alex with her hand behind his head and pulled him to her by his hair pressing a savagely passionately kiss, drawing blood from his lip with a bite. Alex pushed her away, angry from the pain she caused him.

Noma stood apart from Alex with a crooked smile acknowledging her satisfaction at having drawn his blood. Alex flew at her and wrapped his hands in her long dark hair. He pulled her to him by it, intending to draw her blood in retaliation, but their anger bent more to passion. They flashed dimensionally intending to reach their home but didn't quite make it there. They materialized in a nearby forest. They didn't wait to get home. Need overtook them.

They ripped the clothes from one another. Alex pushed Noma against a large tree and lifted her to allow himself entry to her. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him to her, deepening his penetration and her pleasure. He kissed her, pressing as closely as he could then thrusting again and again wanting to quickly achieve his satisfaction. Noma pushed him away from her before he could. Alex seethed at the apparent rejection. Noma flew at him, throwing him to the ground.

Prone in the soft undergrowth, Noma atop Alex, she guided him within her again. She sought to take her pleasure from Alex. Just before she reached her goal, Alex aggressively turned to place himself on top of Noma. He pressed her to the ground with his weight and his strength. She pushed him back. Their encounter was not loving. They each took what they wanted in a wrestling match of passions - neither giving - until each took their required pleasure...violently if necessary. The Darkness did not allow tenderness. It made of its victim a thing driven by base need alone or whatever madness it generated...their genuine affection was soundly buried in the vileness of The Darkness.

xxxx

Jillian awoke in her bed. Raphael was standing bedside, still male, ready to protect. Jillian immediately flashed to where she had received the last message from Michael. Raphael followed her dimensional jump signature. The sky was cloudless and empty where they materialized, yet there was the faintest scent of ozone. Something had happened here so traumatic as to transform the air itself.

Jillian and Raphael scanned the ground below, flying in an ever increasing spiral of circles. Jillian found what she hoped to never see again: Her love's blood; too much blood. Raphael saw it too, shimmering to feminine as she spoke, "Even an Archangel would not survive that". She had said what they both knew. "But Michael is more, Raphael. There is a chance," Jillian said, giving them hope. Raphael nodded and they continued to search.

Nearby, a cliff edge covered in the blood of Gabriel met Raphael's gaze. Then Jillian's as well. Again, there was too much blood loss to have survived. The two looked at one another with shock and growing concern.

Jillian did not despair, but went to work. She searched high and low for Michael…his body…for any other trace of him… there was none. She felt his absence from her soul. The emptiness of his lack of presence there was unlike anything she had ever experienced. This was inexplicable by any but one conclusion. The two searchers could still not accept it and continued to investigate the area. Raphael scoured the landscape and the heavens above for Gabriel and Michael. Her brothers were not here. Only blood and feathers were here.

Raphael was standing next to Jillian in the place where Gabriel had fallen when she finally allowed the unthinkable to become fact. Her brothers were….gone…ended. She dropped her head in resignation. "No." Jillian said under her breath. "Yes, sister," Raphael confirmed. She quietly endured her own despair and stood sentinel and witness to an inconsolable grief without measure. Jillian flew to the place where Michael had lain. She called to Michael with her mind and her voice. She beseeched creation for him from the depths of her soul.

"It is I, Michael, she who with her being and life would have you here; would have your warm, tender touch upon her…have your lips caress hers….have the fire of you burn within. Are you here? Can you feel me, beloved? I am with you. I am for you. I am… you. Come to me and let us be our best selves and play in the winds and dance upon the seas and become creation… in plain sight…so that all who witness weep for want of what we share!"

Tears streaming, she fell to her knees on the still moist, sticky blood that pooled and covered the unique white stone where Michael had lain. Out of deepest grief, she screamed the name of the one she longed for, whom she knew had departed. She screamed a scream that should have resurrected the one whom she summoned where ever in the universes he was: "Michael!" She sobbed onto the cold, bloody rock. Her grief opened the skies. Lightening flashed, thunder boomed and the rain fell in a torrent, washing away the cherished one's blood. She was awash in a pool of blood-rain.

Jillian stopped crying as soon as she could manage when she realized the rain borne of her grief was taking away the blood. She tried without success to hold some of it in place. It was all there was of him. But it, all that he was, his passion, his strength , his promise, their time together… slipped through her fingers. She knelt there, frozen, abandoned by all sensibility and her great powers…helpless… as the pool of his life blood quickly flowed away into the abyss.

Not all trace had been removed. In this land of granite walls, the rock on which she knelt was unique. It was formed of a white porous sandstone dropped there by some glacier's release eons ago. Michael's blood had soaked into the stone to match his form as he had lain upon it. It showed how he had been draped over the stone exactly.

There were even markings by his arms, his hands and wings were imprinted along the sides. The right side of his face was visible in imprint on the small shelf outcropping of the stone . She gasped at the realism of the impression of him. If she could not have his body, she would have this as memorial, at least. There was more there than her grief would let her see but the stone, in its entirety, and all it held was going to be preserved.

xxxx

THREE YEARS LATER

Michael-Gabriel played with his friends, Diamond and Adonis, in the greening pasture of a new spring morning. At the moment, the child was rapt by the story Adonis and Diamond were recounting of play with his father…of how they would fly together. The child's physical beauty was a perfect blending of his father and his mother. He had only one mark on his person. It was not a blemish. It was a beautiful marking of unusual character in place on his left breast above his heart. Father called it a Legacy Mark. He called it so when He and Jillian's Mother named the child and her Father imparted the marking there.

Father had chosen Gabriel, her Mother had wished him called Michael. They had smiled joyfully at her solution of naming him both. Typical of her Father, He did not give details regarding the marking. Just that it was his gift to Michael-Gabriel.

Michael-Gabriel was powerful of his being and of his form, even now. He could speak every language; comprehend every complexity he was taught within minutes of introduction and explanation. He was insatiable for knowledge. He breathed curiosity. Jillian could not feel more blessed by her offspring.

The only anguish was that he so resembled his father at times that it caused her to weep without any defense to the pouring of her emotions' manifestation. She would tell Michael-Gabriel she wept for joy. It was not untrue. It gave her great joy to see Michael in his son. The way he moved was his father's way. Even at this young age he moved like a great cat, with supple, powerful, grace. There was none of the clumsiness of childhood.

There was wonder to Michael-Gabriel's heart and he always found joy in the wonder. It was beautiful to watch him discover. His uniquely colored eyes, sometimes hazel sometimes blue, would flash all of its colors in a fiery light when he realized the answer he sought. He did so with assured , gentle seeking and compassionate sharing with the object of his attention. It was mutual discovery because never in the history of creation was there ever such a one as this child. If only his father could share in this vision of his making, the joy of his legacy.

The sweetness of spring's profusion kissed the breezes…sweet olive, honeysuckle, wisteria, clover, jasmine, the ever present rich scent of the evergreen forest. Earth was healing from the strife of her occupants. Angels and humanity were living in peace in heaven and on earth. Great coalitions worked terra forming Earth's ravaged face under command of Raphael, restoring her as an Eden. Life proliferated everywhere. It was a glorious time to exist.

Jillian served Heaven as a member of its most elite council as befit her birthright. She served Earth as a liaison with Heaven and a Senator in the Pacific Alliance Colonial Congress. As such, she was also seated on the American Hemispheric Coalition which included all of the former Central American, Mexican, United States and Canadian territories as well as what was left of the Arctic and all of what was left of South America. Rio de janeiro was the end of the continent of South America now. Everything south of that had been destroyed by the Earth- eater h'or s 'amin's destructive consumption of the lands.

There weren't so many inhabitants that people and angels didn't have to double or triple their service posts to make everything work. It was not taxing for her. She loved helping and none of it kept her from this beautiful service…raising her family.

A beautiful girl-child, only two months younger than Michael-Gabriel, ran up to the trio bringing her friends, a great golden eagle who called herself by a name…Asencha… and the alpha mare…Adonis' primary…Atheleta. They were greeted with welcoming joy. The girl squealed the name of the boy as he tousled her hair, "Mich-iel!"

She abbreviated the names in such a way that it pronounced as Michael but she explained how she included both namesakes. Jillian approved and often did the same only resorting to both names in formal situations or when Michael-Gabriel had done something that required stern reproach. The girl insisted to the boy, "Stop, silly!". The children giggled after she tousled him back. Jillian smiled warmly to see the love of her family.

The girl child was Jillian's adoptive daughter, L'ann-on Omna Michelle. The phrase meant 'love & honor of Michael. They called her L'ann in daily life. Jillian thought back on the day L'ann had been brought to her by Raphael, who told her a bit of history that shocked her but made her love the child all the more.

"I cannot raise her has my own, Jilli-an. Father has given me great duties…many that will take me far and away very often. I wish her to know the life she can have here, with you and Michael-Gabriel. Will you take my child, whom I love more than my own life, to raise in the light of your love?" Raphael had said pleadingly.

"Have you named the child?" Jillian asked. "Yes, I've spoken to Father, he approves of the name to honor love. I've called her L'ann-on Omna Michelle." Jillian lowered her eyes with a light gasp of an "Ah". Her eyes filled with emotion at the honor paid her beloved by Raphael's naming. How could she resist a child named for honor of Michael? Jillian recovered then thought of Raphael's impending sacrifice.

"Father … asks you to part from your child?" Jillian asked a bit surprised. "He has …asked it." Raphael said with the strain of emotion as a tear fell down her exquisite cheek."

"Oh, my dear sister, I am sorry." Jillian said as she embraced Raphael to comfort her. " You must nurture all of creation and not your own." Taking both of Raphael's hands in hers, Jillian assured her sister. "I welcome L'ann and I will love and raise your child for you. If you cannot mother her, then you will be as much in her life as is permitted. You will be here as much as you can. This is your home now, Raphael, whenever and as much as ever you wish. May you say who is your child's father?"

"No, no, she said lowering her head then realizing that may be construed as admission of an unwelcome parentage and she added, " It is not a shameful, unloving or unexalted parentage I bring you, Jilli-an. Quite the opposite." Raphael looked away having received instruction in that moment. "That is all I may say."

"Come, now and let us establish your suite of rooms when you are in residence. You have preference for the wing adjacent to the conservatory, I know. That was a favorite place for Michael as well."

"No. I thank you sister for your boundless generosity. But, no. I will remain in celestial residence…I do not think I could…" The great archangel began to tremble with emotion…her heart was breaking. Jillian went to hold her for comfort, but Raphael made a dimensional jump and was gone. Jillian spoke to God, "Oh, Father…sometimes you ask too much of your archangels. I pray you ease Raphael's trial. Your will be done."

Jillian looked out to the pasture now and called to the assembly there, "Ho, friends!" Diamond and Adonis' heads popped up attentively from Michael-Gabriel and L'ann's newest project. " Keep an eye or eight on the children, my friends." Diamond sneezed his response and the stallion tossed his head…Jillian heard "Naturally" from Diamond, and "Of course" from Adonis, "Done, winged friend" from Ascencha and from Atheleta, "My highest priority" .

She smiled at their devotion and sashayed into the residence. The rich fabric of her gown made a shushing sound as she moved…her grace of motion made her passage almost an insinuation of having been present. Indeed, in many ways, she was just insinuated here.

She grieved Michael's absence so and still searched with her mind, her spirit, her essence. She searched everywhere for trace of him. The absence of trace vexed her….it was not natural…it was not correct…and that meant something. What it meant she still had not divined. So she searched creation every way she knew for answers. Her progress through her home was interrupted by an assistant who hurried her way calling, "Ma 'dam Jilli -an?"

"Yes, Rae." Jillian allowed the conversation to continue by halting. Rae caught up and reported, " General Dianna Vincent of the Pacific Alliance wishes to stop by this afternoon with her daughter, Alexa Vincent for a visit with Michael- Gabriel and L'ann- on Omna Michelle."

"Will her wife be joining us?" Jillian asked.

"No Ma'dam. The General indicated her wife, Dr. Ladienne , was meeting with the World Counsel on Climate in Melbourne this week."

"I see. That's a shame. Very well, Rae-an. I would enjoy her company. Please accept General Vincent's gracious request at once, my dear."

Alexa Vincent was important to Jillian and for Michael-Gabriel. She was the child of Alex Lannon and Noma Banks, the child of the Savior. Both parents had died the week of Michael's disappearance. Only Jillian knew this. After months of their untraceable absence, Jillian had received a message from Alex that Noma needed her. He'd said in the message that Noma was about to give birth to their child and they enticed Jillian further to come to their aid by saying they had found out something about Michael and Gabriel's disappearance.

Jillian was amazed that they were contacting her . No one had heard from Noma or seen her since the day she was turned to Lucifer's service. Alex had vanished from the Vega camps the next day. Michael had searched for him in every spare moment he could manage.

There was no sign of foul play to Alex's disappearance, so Michael finally had to focus on pressing matters of rebuilding this dominion and his impending fatherhood, thinking Alex wished to remain unfound. Statues and portraits of Alex were raised worldwide to honor the Savior. The world accepted that he sought seclusion now that his duty was done. Jillian knew Alex Lannon's child had a destiny bound to her and Michael's child and despite misgivings, to learn something of Michael, for honor of Michael's love for the boy, for honor the boy deserved as Savior, she hurried to their aid.

Alex and Noma had planned to torment Jillian with their revelation of killing Michael and Gabriel and while she was in shock, they planned to kill Jillian. She was too powerful to allow her to live. They needed her gone if they were to establish Alex's reign as Chosen Almighty. Jillian never knew of their plans for her or their plans to reign here in place of her parents.

She responded to their plea, flying to their residence in the Rocky Mountains. She had found Noma and Alex in the last throes of a madness which she recognized as infection with "The Darkness". Lucifer's handiwork she imagined, though since he was dead, consigned to oblivion, she could not be certain how.

She had seen the eyes of the higher angel and The Chosen One had flashed black as they strangled each other in aDarkness driven rage over some news they had received about someone Alex had apparently cared for at one time. She heard Alex say through the strain of his throat's constriction that he was, going to do what he wished and that Noma could not interfere. Noma proved that she would and could. Jillian, hurrying toward the two embroiled people could not reach them before they simultaneously snapped one another's neck. They were dead before Jillian was close enough to act.

Jillian had taken the child from Noma by Caesarian Section post mortem and had buried the parents together southeast of Vega in deep unmarked graves near the home Alex knew as a child. Michael had told her of it. She buried them next to the grave of Alex's mother, Charlie. If they'd remained on the surface or were otherwise prepared for burial, "The Darkness" within Noma and Alex would have been released to roam free and wreak havoc. She alone handled the remains.

There was a way to cure infection by "The Darkness" but only in the living. There was a way to heal death, but not for one deceased in the grips of The Darkness infection. She mourned their passing, but thought it best no one knew anything of it. They would remain disappeared and live on as legend. She alone would bear the burden of this tragic knowledge.

As she had stood by their graves, Jillian considered that they had paid a high cost for their part in this Armageddon's solution. They both deserved better. She had thought all of The Darkness destroyed after they removed the remaining vial Lucifer had secreted away within the chamber beneath the church in Mallory. Somehow enough remained to foster this horror. She hoped it was all gone now. Buried . How ironic that the last of Lucifer's twisted acts played out in his absence to destroy the Savior whose service defeated him.

Jillian brought the child of Alex Lannon and Noma Banks to a trusted friend, General Dianna Vincent of Helena who had just married her long-time love, Dr. Ladienne Patricia. They both wanted children, but neither she nor Ladienne were able to bear children. They planned to adopt.

They both had brilliant minds and were willing to take on a challenge. Jillian provided false papers for the birth and adoption. The two women never knew they raised the Chosen One and the Higher Angel Noma's child. Jillian told them the child was of mixed blood, an angel was involved so they should watch for exceptional traits and to let her know if and when they appeared and she would guide the parents through.

They were so happy to have a child they agreed to the possible problems and said they'd be watching. When Alexa began to demonstrate superior intelligence, Jillian provided angelic teachers and a nanny to help the couple. They were grateful and enjoyed the process of rearing their extraordinary child. They were up to the task and truly friends with Jillian, helping her through the process of grieving Michael.

Jillian was happy the child had a loving home and knowing the child's future as Michael - Gabriel's mate, Jillian was glad to contribute in any way to her upbringing. Even as infants, Michael-Gabriel and Alexa demonstrated a strong affinity for one another's company. Jillian would do nothing to stand in the way of their future. In fact, she had come to love Alexa.

It was a great concern to her that so many unfortunate things had happened to Alexa and around her. Jillian's thoughts wandered to more recent events. Lately it seemed Alexa was not able to keep a pet. They all died horribly or were lost, never to be found. She hoped the child would not be scarred by the losses.

Jillian called out to Rae as she was departing, "Rae, please have the kitchen prepare suitable snacks for the children and refreshment for General Vincent and myself. She did dislike the constant interference that was the necessity of being a stateswoman but this would be a happy personal visit and she was glad of the extra staff help to manage matters.

A wing had been added to the gracious house for the live-in staff . The nanny, Sandriel and household head of staff, Mason-ra ran the house affairs and her personal assistant, Rae-an gifted with diplomatic and organizational skills as well as fighting skills, lived there. All were Higher Angels with a preference to live on Earth. Homes outside the main property were provided for the other required staff, including away residences for her personal live-in staff to have as sanctuary in their off- time.

Jillian had also added a wing for her offices of state. She managed all of her official duties from there. The staff called it Claire Mount because in the jumble of the current government, they considered it and her the high point, a pinnacle or mountain of clarity. She laughed to herself at the very idea that there was clarity to any of the current muddled proceedings. But they had made good progress. The world was healing. If only she could.

xxxx

Jillian did not know that Raphael had seen her bury Alex. Jillian had dropped the note from Alex requesting her presence as she had hurried to meet him and Noma. Raphael had found it a short time later. She followed the trace of Jillian's dimensional jump from the home in the Rockies to the site where Jillian had made Alex and Noma's graves. Raphael could barely contain her grief. She wanted to scream for Jillian to stop, but then she would know Raphael loved the Savior. For some reason she did not want anyone to know.

Raphael held her place and watched Jillian bury the two lovers with reverence. She watched her weep for them and finally leave. Raphael hurriedly exhumed Alex. "I will restore your life, my love, I swear it," she pledged to his still warm body. She was about to proceed with the cure for recent death when she looked at his eyes. Their blackness told her of the presence of a horror…The Darkness. She could not restore his life, it was contaminated.

To die in the grips of the infection of Darkness made the soul inaccessible. She was aware that Holy Fire could purge The Darkness if he lived. If Holy Fire could not be created, the blood of a sacrifice of love could cleanse The Darkness as well. She would gladly give her life for his. But again, it would only save a living person. "No, no this can't be!" Raphael wept bitterly that so pure a heart should have been taken this way. It was cruel and senseless and despicable. She wept without reserve for her lost love.

Bound by Darkness, he could never be again. His soul could never even reach the Outer Sphere much less heaven. There could be no rebirth. She did not know a way to undo this, but there must be a way. She would spend her existence trying to find a way to free him; to restore him. She had, after all pledged it. Raphael preserved Alex in amber so that he might be restored in time. Not wanting him to experience the grief of loss, she also preserved Noma in amber. She returned them both to the graves Jillian had made for them. They would be safe. Raphael had no way to know that Father would, in his great love for his son, labor to save all of Alex that could be salvaged from The Darkness infection.

Father did do so and finally, He had extracted the purity of Alex's heart. Alex could never again live as Alex, but his goodness would persist. Father had given it as a gift so that part of Alex could carry on. It was the least he could do for love of his children…for love of Michael.

xxxx

Years ago, 26 years ago, Father had requested a great service of Michael. Knowing Michael's unique genetics could impart his codes into a life, and requiring a human vessel for future work and deeds of great purpose, Father had asked Michael to lay with the woman, Charlie. "I have prepared and purified her to receive your genetics my son. She will conceive a child of purest heart and godly nature but still as one of humanity," Father informed Michael.

Knowing the extent of his genetics' inheritance, Michael asked, "Will the joining create the child who will be your heir, Father?"

"Not my heir, Michael. There will not be transfer of enough of what you carry to create that but a new savior…one with your gift for protection and battle… will be given life, for my children shall have need of such a one." Michael was obviously unsettled by the request but he replied, "Your will be done, Father."

Father had seen Michael's upset and knew Michael would always feel terrible guilt if he fathered a child and did not nurture the mother and child. Michael's nature would instill in him an undying responsibility to and for the child he fathered. He did not require Michael to be so burdened. It would not undo his plan, so in an act of compassion, for Michael's peace of mind and freedom, Michael's Father erased the memory of the encounter and of his command.

But Father had underestimated Michael again. Michael was still drawn to the child, as the child exuded divinity, which Michael was created to protect. Even unborn, the bond was made. Father was pleased with Michael's capacity for devotion but realized the great risk to Michael were it ever known that he could safely impart Godliness. Michael's obsession for the Chosen child could raise questions. Father thought to subvert this plan in order to make Michael and what he carried within him safe.

Father ordered the child to remain unrealized. After doing so, rare circumstances presented making this time critical. Father required to make other great strides in his creation plan and to make amends with his mate. So He left gifts and suggestions and contingencies to his foremost archangels. He had given each a gift and duty. To Michael he gifted holy markings. It was intended that , when the time was right, Michael would be able to read them and wield their instruction and power.

Father had told Michael as he stood before him wearing the gift, that "The markings are the means to bring mankind and angel kind into a new age. When they can be interpreted, the markings and the choices of the Chosen Savior will save or destroy. They shall open the way for my return. Give them to serve man and angel kind, my son, so that The Chosen as Savior may light my way and bring the Advent of Salvation."

Father intended that Michael be both the Chosen and the Advent of Salvation. With the chosen child in play, Michael would have only had to serve as the Advent of Salvation. His duty was doubled, but Father knew Michael was capable and other necessary events would still present as required. Another vessel was planned and would emerge eventually.

Gifts and instruction of a sort given similarly to all, Father let his archangels' nature and human nature make the course to serve his plan. Father left. He went beyond The Veil to attend matters there and allow his plan to unfold here. His plan would take much longer to be affected without this child of Michael and Charlie. So be it. Michael must be safe to go on.

Father had asked Gabriel to be certain that a specific child remained undiscovered. He was told the child's power must never grow to maturity. Father did not give details. Gabriel had made mistakes in pursuing his goals…some grave…but he had still done his utmost.

He'd pulled out all of the stops to serve Father's request but even Gabriel's masterful genius and skills couldn't stop his brother's instinct to protect godly presence, especially in the form of Michael's own child. Gabriel had no way to know that was what he'd been asked to come between. Unbeknownst to even Father, the draw was more than protective and Michael's devotion would grow into love for his child and cement an unbreakable bond and a joined destiny.

xxxx

When Father returned from beyond The Veil, He found He was glad that Alex had persisted and that his unique purity had destroyed the Amphora of Darkness. Michael's child was enormously gifted and, like Michael, he was gifted in unexpected ways. However, Father, seeing the risk to future requirements, had made an adjustment to Alex's power at the same time He and his Beloved had restored and altered Michael after their return that day in Mallory. No one else would ever be taken by the monstrous force of that Amphora of Darkness, but Father could not allow Alex to carry that power to annihilate Amphorae…or that particular Darkness.

The adjustment to prevent that ability also reduced Alex's immunity to The Darkness. Since it was destroyed, Father determined there would be no great loss by this imperceptible change. Lucifer's madness and separation from Father had shielded the fact that he possessed the vials of Darkness. That was part of the great hazard Lucifer always was. His thoughts and intents had always been concealed until they became a completed consequence.

The poisoning of Noma and of Alex by Noma was not intended. It was a great sadness that this possibility had manifested. Alex would always be loved and honored as a Savior. His name and deeds would live forever…and more would live, his offspring…and more than that. Father sought a way to ease his own sense of loss at Alex's ending but primarily, He sought to honor Michael.

Father placed his salvaged gift, the purity of Alex's soul, along with additional gifts, within Jillian and Michael's child. Its presence would be sensed in such a way that the emptiness caused by Alex's absence would be eased. And Father did this in order that both of Michael's children would always be loved, even though no one would ever know that Alex Lannon, the Savior, had been Michael's first child.

The Legacy Mark, a flame within an oval, the mark worn by Alex upon his chest, now on Michael-Gabriel's chest, made note that Michael and Jillian's child was one of godly power, one of destiny, one of purity of heart and also fury and the seat of great deeds…his would always be a remarkable life of great purpose and duty and accomplishment and …great love. The child of Michael and Jillian already possessed greatness by genetics, but this was more. It was not a genetic gift; it was an essence gift, essence powers to Michael and Jillian's child. The Legacy Mark on his chest was evidence of the gift; the gift of all that was good in Alex.

xxxx

Jillian continued her meander along the house-brook and entered the central garden bursting with the life it contained in its space. No one ever disturbed her there. No one dared. No one wished to trouble her visits. This was their act of compassionate honor for her.

Now, at the center of her beautiful central indoor garden, was a white stone set in an oval swale so that, as you stood flush with the floor, you could see the image atop it painted there in hues of blood from deepest black to the coppery rust of its now oxidized iron. It was beautiful art to any casual observer…holy to any who knew its origin.

A gently graduated surrounding black marble stair brought you within the oval of its center where the last black marble step was the walk way. You could walk around the entirety of the great rock. Jillian kept it dressed in a garland of evergreen. Today she had a small collection of fragrant riches to place atop it. "A sweet kiss, beloved," she said as she set the delicate bouquet over the place Michael's heart would have been.

The bouquet wore a droplet that was her tear. She would never in all of her long existence not miss him. "We should have had eternity, Michael. I could bear it better, if I knew the answers. The not knowing robs me of my sanity at times."

She looked at her feet, ashamed she could not manage that better. The stone before her was more than imagery, more than a remains. With her extraordinary senses, she could still feel the slightest vibration that Michael's powerful life left lingering. It was the only place she'd ever found trace of him. She continued to speak to the absent force in her life with her hand on his image in the stone…feeling his life's song in its only remaining restrains.

"Father nor Mother will speak of your absence. I believe they grieve you as well…they will not say at all. Not even to give me peace. But you are here…" she touched the art of his form's making "and here" she touched the place where deep within her heart and soul the part of him he gave her lived, now as an ache of emptiness. "And here," she indicated the painting she had made of Michael-Gabriel and set next to this shrine where she communed with the physical remnants of he who made this life she lived so much…richer.

Then, overcome, Jillian, in a slow crumble she was powerless to avoid, slipped to the ground and pressed her tear streaked cheek to the impression of the hand whose touch she had cherished. She wept her longing. So deep was her grief that she fell to a semi-consciousness. She willed herself to remain alert there. She needed to deal with this once and for all in order to set it aside and live.

She still did not see the symbol etched, tiny, in blood, but she was in contact with it. Having smushed aside the evergreen garland that usually obstructed it, the moisture of her tears… her fluid genetics which because of her unique blending with Michael were also his… unlocked it.

She was in a state she had not achieved before. It fascinated her to be there. One foot was in alert and active thought of presence, one foot in the unconsciousness of her mind's grief play. Or so she thought. There she heard her name called in a familiar voice, with a sorrowful, longing whisper. She saw a shadowy form… a side silhouette of a standing familiar perfection.

It was someone male. He looked up from his occupation and then towards her. He spoke her name again, with amazed and hopeful surprise that filled her with a thrilling hope, "Jilli-an!" The voice was one whose sound shocked and shattered her state of being to dissolve. The form took a step toward her. As she left there she heard him call out as he continued toward her, "No, wait!" As he spoke he showed her something and realizing he would not reach her in time, he stopped and threw it toward her calling out an instruction, "Open the Emblem of Legacy!"

Jillian lifted her head and the broken contact with the symbol caused its lock to reinitiate permitting her to awaken from this trance-like state. Its affect allowed her to fully realize into this reality the voice's commander. " Michael! Oh! She exhaled breathily with stunned delight. She had to reach him again, but her joy did not permit the grief which had allowed her to get to that place… if that was even a factor…if that was even a place. Her mind raced to a hundred possibilities.

Michael stood frozen in the wake of this long awaited opportunity. He could catch the faintest fragrance of her presence. "Was it she, at last?" Drowsily asked the formerly sleeping Gabriel from the deeper shadows of their confines. Michael turned his head slightly toward the beautiful carved bed he had fashioned as a stress relieving project in times eons past. Gabriel now sat upright in the splendid furnishing. "Yes, brother," He answered. Michael's mind and his heart were reaching afar from the boundaries of this place, this sanctuary, now a prison without Jillian's actions to free him and his brother.

xxxx

Michael had taken them to his hide- a –way in the place between the place between places. He'd created both a passage and a lock sigil on their travel so that their attackers could not follow any trace of them. The lock he'd made was a Legacy lock, only one with his genetics and with his knowledge of multi-universal folding quantum physics would ever find them. He'd thought their remains, at least, would rest here peacefully undisturbed.

The power infusion the drop of The Darkness Alex had infected him with , combined with the legacy aspect of the sigil had given the energy for the movement of Michael and his directed capture of a genetic match to him. In this case, it was his twin brother. The power and the sigil combined with Michael's new god-matrix had not only transported them to this place. The sigil actually brought the place they traveled to them and seated it within the stone upon which Michael had lain. This made their transport a short journey. That fact had freed enough power to apply toward regenerating them.

For six months they had existed, each in an energy cocoon, protected within its power as they recovered held in a state of suspended animation. Michael's red glowing energy cocoon fell away once he was healed. He had awakened first from the restorative state as he god matrix healed him more quickly. He awoke lying on the travertine stone floor of this place.

When he awoke, Michael remembered what had transpired, how Alex had attacked. He recalled his pain. His body remembered it also. He reached for his chest which had been fractured . The force of the blast Alex had stricken him with had split open his body along its weakest points like a hairline volcanic fault. He was relieved to find himself knitted whole again. Then Michael became aware that he was desperately thirsty and shivered from cold.

He could see where he was by the bioluminescent lighting from the plants he'd brought indoors for that purpose the last time he'd visited this world. The plants fed on air alone and were ideal for indoor use. He was glad for them now. He rose with some difficulty, slowly and then wrapped himself toga style in a blanket that had draped a nearby chair. Then he stumbled to the graduated pools of fresh water that supplied his sanctuary, his home away from home.

He drank from the cool waters in the highest pool…waist high to Michael… fed by an up-flow filtering system of graduated pools and gravel material he'd made using a free flowing spring in this natural habitat he'd claimed. The method freed the pure ground water of any sand it may have carried with it from the subterranean river source that fed it.

Refreshed, Michael noticed the red glow of another cocoon. He smiled as he saw within it, his brother lived. He would be patient knowing his brother would accompany him soon. He busied himself in his customary pursuits as he awaited Gabriel's emergence. He also worked on a way to be released from the lock he'd made. There hadn't been time to make the exit markings on the sigil, furthermore, he'd not anticipated that they would survive to need an exit. Now, options were limited.

When Gabriel had regenerated, Michael helped his brother's revival to be more comfortable than his own. As the final vestige of Gabriel's energy cocoon crumbled away, Michael stood ready with a robe for warmth and the water he knew Gabriel would crave. Time given to acclimate Gabriel to this place…it took some adjustment to be comfortable in the disorienting effects of the gravity's density fluctuations and the more complex rich air in the world of this bend in space/time they occupied.

The brothers worked making this simple, natural home rather opulent. They practiced their meditations and martial arts together, as they had in their earlier lives. They challenged one another with mental tasks of philosophy, Warcraft and every other discipline. This world was rich in flora and fauna and moderate application of effort provided all they needed for sustenance.

Gabriel had made the meal this night as a gratitude for Michael's care of him during his recovery. The repast looked amazing as Michael sat down to table to enjoy their first real meal together. He scooped up a great fork full of the vegetable medley that looked so appealing. As soon as his taste buds registered the flavors, his mouth advised him to desist. He looked across the table at Gabriel who was beaming in happy expectation of Michael's reaction to the food. "Huh. Ahh…" Michael didn't want to hurt Gabriel's feelings. He forced a smiling nod of approval while attempting to hold the 'food' in his mouth as far as he could from any actual taste surfaces within. This politeness invited Gabriel to dive in to his creation.

As Michael sat frozen with his hand to his mouth to support it in its distress and prevent the desired expulsion, he watched his brother take a bite. Gabriel's reaction was not nearly so subtle. He spat the veggies across the room making a noise that approximated a bleating goat. Michael evacuated the food to his napkin on seeing Gabriel agreed with his assessment. Both rinsed their mouths with their wine. When he could talk, Michael said, "I'll make the meals here after, if you don't mind, Brother." Still coughing and sputtering the taste from his mouth, Gabriel nodded his acceptance of Michael's offer.

Michael took charge of meal preparation immediately. He'd become quite the chef during his time with Jillian and Gabriel, realizing his lack of know how, now would happily benefit from his brother's skill. When they'd recovered, Michael made an omelet of eggs he'd gathered and the remnants of the actually edible veggies..not the medicinal herb stash. Gabriel smiled his approval of the meal and ate heartily.

Michael gazed at his omelet remembering how Jillian had taught him to prepare the egg mixture and then cook it slowly on lower heat to get the best, fluffiest result from eggs. He missed her. He lingered in his thoughts with her in the beautiful kitchen of their home… with his beloved's face smudged in butter and flour and chocolate powder she was using to make a soufflé. Their culinary work that day was interrupted, as so often their projects were, by their passion for one another.

He had just intended to playfully lick the chocolate away from her cheek, but she had turned just then and their lips met…and the world stopped. Jillian was in his arms and that was all the world he could want. Gabriel, seeing his brother hesitating to eat broke Michael's remembrance saying, "The omelet is marvelous, Michael. Eat, Brother!" He did. And so time passed…month after month.

Six months into their confinement here, one evening's after-meal conversation eventually fell to how Michael had reacted to The Darkness infection. "Brother, I can not fathom how it is that The Darkness infection affected you so differently." Gabriel posed the uncomfortable curiosity. Michael brushed the question aside, not wishing to explore the issue. He had a theory, but he didn't like it. "More wine, Gabriel?" Michael said, standing to serve his brother another glass of their uniquely light yet somehow at once, full bodied beverage made from a nameless fruit that grew here. Gabriel tried to speak again of it but Michael evaded him saying, " I have to clear the meal…"

As Gabriel's genius was one that was strong in the areas where Michael was less and he excelled where Gabriel was less, they together, made a formidable analytical force. Gabriel had also formed a theory about how The Darkness had affected Michael. He would not be put off. "Michael," he spoke to his brother as Michael walked to busy himself away from a discussion. Gabriel turned to face his brother's back again trying to engage him, "Michael, surely we can breech this subject, you and I?"

"Gabriel, I do not wish to," Michael said to the wall in front of him as he washed the dishes. Gabriel could see by the tension in Michael's back that his brother had steeled himself against the subject. He knew Michael's temper, but as there was not much else to do, he thought, why not tug on superman's cape? The prospect needed to be faced and better here, in this place where he would do less damage if the truth sent him over the edge than it would back…home. "Michael, you utilized the power of The Darkness instead of the pure form of it taking you over into its destructive madness. I have firsthand experience with how unfathomable that power is, you recall?"

"The Darkness of the Amphora affected me just as it did everyone except Alex," Michael retorted. "That is an anomaly," Gabriel said thoughtfully. Then he stated a possible cause for that ,"But you are in an altered state now, Michael. You took into yourself an irrepressible destructive force and created from it. You… created… with Darkness. That is unprecedented and it has implications."

"Gabriel, if you utter another word I shall end you!" Michael was seething. Gabriel could see as Michael turned to face him that his eyes were black and smoldering with fury. Gabriel ventured a comment, "You tap into that darkness within you as readily as you breathe." Michael, true to his word, flew at his brother with the cutlery he had been washing. Gabriel had been ready for the explosion and evaded him.

"Michael, this is not a condemnation. It is an attempt at discovery. What matter does it make? You are who you have ever been even if you are not what you were. Be at peace with this." Michael stopped, surrendering to hear what his brother would say, but first he said, "The darkness in me has been the source of great struggle and the cause of untold savagery."

"All for which you have been redeemed. Let that be past, Michael. Yet you know it is still there, I can see it…you can feel it."

"What are you implying? It is certainly not a point of pride, Gabriel."

"No brother, it is a point of strength, of power. And to your credit that you have such control of it. Now even the purest form of The… Darkness… bends to you." Gabriel paused. He had a revelation. He gasped at the thought now in his mind. He knew Michael felt where he was going now and he allowed Michael to brace for the next statements he would make. He advanced this as gently as he could. "Now, hear my theory. You are not now nor have you ever been imbued with a dusting of inner darkness by Father from some mysterious source of The Darkness. Michael, the source of The Darkness is… you."

Michael gasped at the words as though Gabriel had stricken him physically. Though he knew the truth of it, still his need was to deny it, "No." Michael whispered. He could not find the strength of his words or of his heart. Tears welled in his now softly blue eyes as the horror he did not want to face met his reality. His wings burst forth and he flew from the residence, wishing to flee this truth. Gabriel's heart broke to see Michael so devastated by his reality. He thought how to help him when he returned but Gabriel did not see Michael for the next year.

xxxx

One soft evening, as Gabriel read one of the books Michael had cherished, his eyes lifted to see his brother at the residence's door. He was tattered, with the wild look of a trapped animal, gaunt from his long self-neglect and emotional suffering. "Michael!" Gabriel breathed his brother's name with compassion and relieved joy. He rose and walked to Michael.

He reached him just as Michael collapsed into his arms sobbing. Gabriel wept with him and eased to his knees along with Michael's crumpling. Gabriel cradled his distraught sibling with the loving compassion he knew would be needed to heal his heart. Of all he had thought he would say on this day, Gabriel simply said with utter love, "Brother, welcome home."

There was no way to know what damage the tormented Michael left in his wake. He never spoke of his year of struggle. Gabriel never pressed him for details. It was enough that Michael knew and was finding a way to live with his truth, that he controlled the power he held. Gabriel secretly hoped the one drop of Darkness returned to its source by Alex was not a drop too much. Michael appeared to be in complete control of it but, it was also true that since his return from his year away, Gabriel noticed that sometimes , when Michael slept, there would present a red energy aura around him. His brother was changing.

It didn't help that Michael longed desperately for his beloved. Often it was as if he was not whole of himself. He would wander away in his mind for hours reaching with his thoughts for her, wondering about his child and the years he was missing of that cherished life. He had much to bear. Gabriel did not antagonize Michael, but did his best to bring him peace.

As the brothers returned to a happy routine, Michael eventually shared the specific scientific details of their dilemma. Gabriel was shocked at the complexity of the work Michael had accomplished and how he had applied it to save them. He found he was so fascinated by the weavings of sciences and Michael's power that he couldn't even be angry that Michael hadn't had the forethought to write the code for their exit. Well, not much angry.

Together the two extraordinary siblings worked tirelessly to solve the matter of their return to normal space/time. They found there was only one way. A genetic match to Michael would have to open the Legacy Emblem and hold it open. If they did, they would appear here, in the living room. They determined the possible candidates for finding them, for reaching them, were Father, Mother, Jillian and Michael's child.

The brothers altered their routine so that one was alert to any presence at all times. One slept, one was awake to stand vigil. This night, three years into their ordeal, Michael stood watch as Gabriel slept. Michael had prepared a message in anticipation of an appearance. Such a moment had just passed...

xxxx

Jillian had been here. Michael could still sense her complex and beautiful fragrance. He hoped upon hope Jillian would understand his instruction. He had sent her a mental message and a written one. It was their only chance to reenter traditional existence.

Gabriel, having been wakened, now stood beside and just behind Michael. The two stared at the empty space where Jillian had fallen into their world. Gabriel placed his hand on Michael's shoulder knowing the torrent of emotions that seeing Jillian likely stirred . A red aura emitted from Michael. Upon feeling Gabriel's hand, the aura expanded, encompassing them both as they gazed longingly, with hope toward their future salvation.

Jillian still stood breathless by the unique white stone bearing the image of her love trying to recover from her passage. She stared into the stone as if she could see Michael standing two steps away within. He was there. Two steps away…within…just beyond the Legacy Emblem. Jillian did not see the sealed cylinder Michael had thrown to her containing instructions. It emitted trace of him, but since she stood next to the stone which resonated of him still, she did not discern it. The crucial cylinder of hope hid now beneath the lowest boughs of a pair of paperbark birch trees just outside of the black marble surround of the stone shrine.

Possibilities for what had just happened were still streaking through Jillian's mind. She would find out in which possibility stood her love. Renewed joy danced in her previously stilled and broken heart. "I have found you, Michael!" She announced to the air around her hoping he could somehow hear her. " I will not let you go. I cannot let you go...ever." Then she saw the sigil. It triggered her to remember his instruction, "Open the Emblem of Legacy."

Her mind shuffled through her great knowledge stores but could recollect nothing of an "Emblem of Legacy". Only a 'Legacy Mark' was known to her and that only recently. Their child bore the mark on his chest. Could they be one and the same? How could that possibly relate to this? She did not recognize the language of the sigil. She could barely think through her excitement. She fell then in embrace of the stone as representative of Michael and said, " I will find you again…beloved… if it takes all that I am and the whole of time…no matter the cost."

****Author's Note: This writing experience was a first for me in every way, so it will always be special to me, as will be you who encouraged the writing. It has been my pleasure to share this fictional weaving of struggles, love, loss and salvation of every kind with all of you who have entered the play of these lives born of a blend of Vaun Wilmott's 'Dominion' and my ramblings. While the richness of this story is infinite, I think we would all like to see our dear characters again in the light of Vaun's vision.

I intentionally leave this tribute carried forward in its journey with mysteries, possibilities, new struggles and hope for our extraordinary characters in the ongoing adventure of their changing world. I wish you all happiness and adventure within your own dominions. They are yours, even in the darkest times. They are only a thought away, after all. ****