Disclaimer: I do not own Dominion, its locations, characters, plot, etc. I do own this crazy idea and a love for angels, and a few characters thrown in...
Summary: Six weeks post 1x04 The Flood, AU. Ever since Michal returned to Vega after being stabbed, some of the Corps soldiers noticed he wasn't always the stoic, aloof archangel Vega's known for years. And Alex is about to find out why. Also...William Whele has a secret to tell about a night that went normally to everyone else but was actually something much bigger.
To thegreatstoryteller, Cerca39, chrysolyne, Willow D'Forest, Lindgren, Biabara, Lutschino, revliesel, DeanCasLover22, XxXLuvTheOriginalsXxX: Thank for the faves and follows!
To Verity Knight (Guest): I know! EEEP! I almost cried! Then him bursting out of the ground like that! And leaving to go to Alex after warning that jerk guy in Mallory! The Archangel is back! Here's the next chapter! Thank you!
Part Two Verity Knight: I'm sorry! Got caught up in gishwhes that I lost a week of writing time, there's the next one, hope you didn't go crazy waiting! Thank you so much!
To T (Guest): Fun fact: half the humor is accidental...just kind of happens. Thank you!
To Megan (Guest): Michael would be a great father huh? Thank you so much! Addicted? Wow...whoops I apologize for the long gaps lol. Here it is! Enjoy!
To Guest: Here it is! Sorry!
To DominionFan2778 (Guest): Answer: Yes, it's easier with Noma as a human. Yeah...I kind of have a thing for Michael!whump, here's a lighter, nicer chapter, but sadly in the long run things get worse before they get better. Thank you so much for your review! The AAC guys are so much fun to write!
To Guest #2: This is not the end, sorry got super busy...are you reviewing more than once? If so pick an anonymous name so I know it's you! Thank you!
Chapter Twenty-Five
Xxx
General Riesen understood the female need to socialize, his late wife had been a butterfly amongst the political and friendly flowers that were the people around her. He also understood Claire had inherited this trait and was always one to speak with others no matter what her own moods were, being compassionate to all.
There was a difference between compassionate and understanding.
Currently, the general's daughter was entertaining the women of Vega's Government, Thorn, Julien, Romero, and Graywell. Riesen was trying to decide if he should step in as in the conversation dipped into more maternal topics, wondering if their talking would lead to an argument or drive someone to the Stratosphere with their thoughts.
"It's like nothing you will ever be able to understand until it happens to you Claire," Romero's tone was pleasant and reminiscent, an touch of grief leaving the lines on her face that had softened as she spoke, "Having children is something that is completely different from one person to the next."
Graywell laughed, "Or from one baby to the next, none of my pregnancies were anything alike. Not counting one was twins."
The conversation drifted away from babies, then somehow found its way back to it, Consul Thorn scoffing a little at something as she swigged from her glass, "I just find it ridiculous that some people will insist on keeping a pregnancy when the outcome is no better or even worse than the beginning. Logically it doesn't fit."
It didn't take a genius to know who exactly Becca was talking about. Not that she would outright say it, but the underlying meaning was as obvious as an elephant in a room.
Riesen sighed softly as he leaned against the wall outside the sitting area where the women had gathered for the morning, listening to the conversation drift into the one topic he'd hoped they would avoid.
Michael…
It didn't take long for Thorn's attitude to turn bitter, while Graywell and Romero were attempting to defend the archangel, their words were weak, especially with Julien and Claire backing the Consul in her thoughts. The general huffed out a breath angrily, rubbing at his forehead as his mind went back to another night in Vega, one where while the conversation had been entirely different, the situation was rather similar...one choice to affect it all…
Xxx
2016
Xxx
General Edward Riesen had only been acquainted with the Archangel Michael (yes the actual archangel) for roughly six months now. Between the retired military officer and defected warrior of heaven, they rallied those left in the area and fought back against Michael's own brother Gabriel, trying their damnedest to make a home for all those needing one.
Vega was slowly forming, hopefully by the end of the year it would be truly defendable, and just maybe the human race could begin to recover…
That is if the general could figure out just where in the blue blazes Michael had gotten to after missing several meetings in a row, at all of which he had been desperately needed.
The Stratosphere hotel was eerily quiet as Riesen trekked up the last two flights of stairs, the elevator currently only ran halfway up the tower, electricity was seriously lacking in the once brightly lit city of Las Vegas. The occupied penthouse suite should have been shut tight and silent.
Not filled with the sounds of breaking glass coming from the broken door tipped sideways on the remaining attached hinge.
Riesen pulled his pistol from its hip holster, clicking off the safety as he carefully eased around the door frame enough to see just what the hell was going on inside the suite, expecting eight ball angels to be attacking the archangel…
He didn't expect to find Michael hunched over and sitting on what was left of the bed in the center of the room, a half empty bottle of scotch or whiskey clutched tightly in one fist as the other was balled in his messy hair. The suite was just trashed, one of the panel windows was shattered, another cracked in several places, broken bottles of all manners of alcohol littered the floor among the remaining dregs of the strong liquids, the silk curtains that had hung about the room were in shambles, two of the rods bent and one ripped from the ceiling completely. Michael's bed was broken in half, caved in partially and ripped to shreds . Then there was the archangel himself, still healing scratches on both bare arms, faded bruises on his neck and hands...since the last time Riesen had seen Michael, the archangel had been completely fine three days ago, whatever caused these marks had left pretty nasty wounds if they were still healing.
Michael barely noticed as the general slowly stepped into the room after putting his gun away, doing everything to appear nonthreatening in case the archangel lashed out. Instead Michael tipped his head back and chugged the last of the bottle, throwing it casually to the side and not even reacting as it shattered against the wall.
He did however notice the general as he shifted to pick up another bottle, this one of aged red wine, the archangel jerked the bottle in his direction as if toasting the human's presence before he wrenched the cork out with his teeth, knocking back a third of the alcohol before letting his arm drop again, staring out at the fading sunset in front of him.
"Archangel…"
Michael snorted, the noise abrupt and harsh, head turning now so Riesen could truly see his face. The calculated and aged eyes were swollen and bloodshot, red rimmed from the tears still sitting beneath the surface and the ones that had stained the dirt covered face already. Michael was filthy, mud ground into his torn clothes, and blood soaked into his jeans and lower half of his shirt, Riesen prayed it wasn't his own...then again he didn't dare ask who it belonged to if it wasn't Michael's.
"Archangel...Michael...what happened…?"
"Eight ball attack." The archangel sounded as terrible as he looked, voice hoarse from the tears and likely screaming judging by how heavily he was breathing.
"Where?"
"Out...outside the city limits...threat's gone...nothin' left…"
"Are you sure? You seem pretty drunk to be making that affirmation."
The archangel growled, knocking back another handful of heavy swallows from his latest bottle, almost draining it this time, "Not drunk...can't feel the alcohol...doesn't work...just don't care…"
Riesen ignored the bitter tone in his voice, forgoing formality, "Michael, what the hell happened?"
Michael growled, draining the bottle and making to throw it like he apparently had done to all the others, Riesen grabbed his wrist, prying the bottle form his fingers before letting the archangel pull away from him in anger. The archangel moved to a table against the wall, scrounging through what was left of the bottles for anymore alcohol.
"Michael...talk to me, what happened?"
Again he was ignored, sighing the general stalked to the archangel's side, grabbing Michael's shoulder to get his attention and having to duck when a chaotic punch was flung around.
"Dammit! Answer me! What happened?! Whose blood is on your shirt?"
Michael paused, staring at Riesen before glancing down at his ruined shirt, fingers rubbing the dried blood staining the fabric. He pulled the shirt over his head, lean torso rippling with the action as he stared at the blood.
"Whose blood is that?"
The archangel swallowed heavily, eyes never leaning the shirt in his hands.
"Michael-"
"It's hers…"
"Who?"
"Hers…" Michael trailed off a bit, rubbing at his face with a hand.
"Hers who?"
That earned a growl, Michael almost snarling as he bit out the words. "Hers! The woman Jeep Hanson won't leave, who lives outside of Vega's limits to the East, the one who made Jeep get here to help when he could...the blood...it's all hers…"
"Michael you're not making any sense...what woman? Jeep? Isn't that the guy with the tattoos you told me about? The Chosen one-"
Michael didn't let him go on, practically vibrating in rage as he growled outright, the deep rumbling sounding so alien to Riesen the general had to take a step back, "Charlie's! It's her blood! It's all my fault…"
The archangel slumped to the floor, leaning on his knees as he clutched the shirt tightly and dropped his head to his hands in defeat.
Riesen moved to sit beside Michael, brushing aside glass pieces littering the floor before taking a seat. "Michael...talk to me...what is your fault? Why is Charlie's blood on your hands?"
"She's...She's dead…"
"How? The eight balls?"
Michael mumbled incoherently into his hands, jerking away from the general when Riesen reached for him.
"Michael…was it the eight balls?" Riesen repeated, voice firm as the archangel stepped away, breathing heavily as he tried to calm down. Instead Michael spun around angrily, nearly lashing out in rage as he roared out an answer finally.
"I killed her!"
Xxx
It took Riesen another day to get Jeep into Vega, having donned military clothing so the tattoo covered man could easily traverse Vega's streets and get to the Stratosphere without drawing attention to himself or the fact that Michael was still technically missing.
The first thing the general and prophet saw as they stepped into the archangel's suite was the added glass on the floor, the second thing was Michael himself, slumped sideways on his broken bed, barely hanging on to yet another empty bottle as he looked to have passed out. Riesen shifted Jeep's son in his arms, watching as the prophet removed his jacket and tossed it onto a table as he grabbed a pitcher of water and stepped over to the bed.
Michael didn't even twitch at his approach, either firmly ignoring his intruders or was actually unconscious. The archangel did however jerk up and start spluttering as Jeep dumped the water over his head, soaking the archangel thoroughly.
"Get up."
That earned a groan as Michael refused to meet Jeep's gaze, moving over enough to not be lying completely on the soaked part of the mattress before he slumped down again, grimacing as he tried to ignore Jeep's sigh.
Jeep threw the plastic pitcher as the archangel, the container bouncing of Michael's head with a resounding smack, "For the love of...get up Michael! Make something of yourself!"
Again the archangel tried to ignore him, covering his head with an arm as he remained lying face down on the ruined mattress, growling softly.
"General," Jeep glanced up, "I suggest you come back in an hour, I'll get his dumb ass up and ready by then. Take Alex with you please."
Riesen nodded, holding on to the squirming toddler a bit better before leaving, he did glance over his shoulder once at the doorway, watching Jeep grab hold of Michael's ankle and fully yank him off the bed, dropping the archangel to the floor amidst growls and cursing in another language.
"Oh shut up! On your feet you idiot...what the hell is wrong with you?"
Xxx
Riesen returned to the penthouse level of the Stratosphere just over an hour later, having taken Alex to get food from the lower kitchens. Once he reached the top floor he knew it had been an hour well spent, the door to Michael's suite had been removed and set aside for maintenance to fix later, the glass and alcohol dregs had been swept and mopped up as well as the shredded curtains taken down. Michael's bed was still broken but the pieces were neatly arranged to be fixed later. Jeep was finishing up dumping the last of the alcohol down the sink in the kitchenette area of the suite when Riesen stepped into the room, passing off the grumbling Alex to Jeep for a moment when the toddler reached for a more familiar person.
Michael was leaning against the wall next to the windows, cleaned up, in fresh clothes, and looking a thousand times better than when the general had left him. There was still a look of being utterly lost in his grey eyes, a look Riesen didn't think would ever go away but how low Michael seemed to have sunk into himself.
"He's not as bad as he looks general." Jeep kept his voice low, Michael could still hear them perfectly fine, but was too distracted to care anymore, standing with his arms crossed over his toned chest to keep himself still.
"Jeep...what happened? All Michael would tell me was he had Charlie's blood on his hands...that an eight ball attack happened outside the walls."
Jeep winced, "Yeah...a couple dozen ambushed our-my house...couldn't even make it the ten more feet to the basement bunker by the time they reached the walls, had to hide in the bathroom...I didn't have enough bullets...if Michael hadn't reached us when he did I wouldn't be standing here right now...nor would Alex be alive if the eight balls hadn't taken him to Gabriel."
Riesen sighed, "I am sorry...Jeep, Michael also said that...that he killed Charlie himself…"
That earned a bone deep groan from the other human, the man rubbing at his face as tears formed in his eyes for probably not the first time in the last few days. Jeep held Alex a little tighter to his chest, reassuring himself the prophesized baby Riesen was slowly learning about was still alive and well.
"That's...not entirely true…"
"But you're saying there is some fact to it? Jeep I have to know if Michael had a hand in her death, for Vega's safety and those looking to him for protection-"
Jeep snapped, never one for listening to political crap or hear his close friend get torn apart by those who didn't understand, "And what would you say if I told you I had a hand in it as well huh? Michael did what she begged him to do ok? The eight balls had pierced her stomach and lungs and she was bleeding to death...I was holding on to Alex as Charlie almost dropped him, Michael finished off the eight balls before finding us. She begged him to end the pain...begged him to make it warm again...Michael...he-he did something with his wings, wrapped her up in them so she wouldn't feel the cold from the blood loss...I know he ended her pain, I don't know how or what just that she was at peace when he finally let her go...I took her body outside while Michael stayed with Alex...I thought he was going to stay with us the night but by morning he was gone…"
Jeep almost broke down as he spoke, only keeping his composure because Alex had taken to patting his scruffy face and shoulders, babbling baby gibberish as he stared at his father.
Riesen sighed heavily, nodding in understanding and condolences as speaking would likely make the man in front of him lose it completely, the fussy baby didn't need to see that.
"I should have gotten there in time."
Michael suddenly speaking made both men jump, Alex cooing at the archangel's voice as Michael turned enough to glance at them, otherwise he remained staring out over Vega.
"You did all you could Michael, and you know that, you were shaking as you landed, I could hear your breathing through the walls, what you do try to beat the fighter jet record for how fast you could fly?"
The archangel shook his head a little, "I could sense the eight balls a dozen miles or so away, could feel their intent in my bones, I did everything I could to get to you and Charlie in time and it wasn't enough...her death is my fault."
Jeep sighed heavily against, sounding exhausted with the conversation before it had really begun, he'd most likely already had it at least once or twice with Michael earlier.
"Will you just shut up?! For the last time it is not your fault...if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all."
Michael turned long enough to glare at him, jaw tightening in defiance before his gaze drifted away again, a low growl sliding from his throat.
With an even deeper sigh Jeep passed Riesen his son again, moving to stand next to Michael and rest a hand on the archangel's stiff shoulder, speaking too low for the general to hear. Michael responded just as softly, voice wavering a bit as he spoke.
Both of them looked miserable, Jeep for losing the woman he loved and the mother of his son, and Michael...looked like half his world had just been ripped from his very hands. He'd lost Charlie...the woman he'd loved in an entirely different way than Jeep, but the pain was enough to leave him shaken to the core.
"...Lost her...what's the point of fighting my brother when I can't even keep those I care about alive…"
"Michael...you told me there's always a reason to fight, death...is inevitable...losing Charlie…"
Jeep's voice softened again and Riesen lost the rest of his words, but they made Michael slump further against the wall in grief. Riesen sighed heavily, bouncing Alex in his arms for a minute to soothe the grumbling baby who could sense the tension in the room. The general finally got a good look at Jeep's son, and that made him smile…
"Jeep...Michael…"
"Hmm?"
Michael didn't even respond, letting Jeep answer the general.
"Charlie may be dead...but you haven't lost her…"
"What?" Michael's voice was bordering on being caught between confused grief and angered passion as he turned to face the general.
"Charlie's still here," Riesen said, stepping closer and passing Michael Alex when the baby reached for the archangel, the sudden contact making Michael flinch but he held the baby protectively to his chest. Alex relaxed in his arms, humming softly as he tucked his head against Michael's throat, the archangel's chin resting on the soft blonde hair. Michael relaxed the longer he held the baby, stance easing from military straight to comforting as he calmed down.
"Michael...you're holding what's left of Charlie, look at Alex and tell me you don't see her."
The archangel winced, eyes squeezing shut even tighter as he tucked his head further as if to hide Alex from the world as he clung to the baby. Alex squirmed, leaning back from Michael when the archangel relaxed a little, staring at the gray eyes. The baby babbled happily, patting at Michael's shoulder before whining softly when he didn't find what he was looking for.
"General…"
"His eyes Michael...Alex has his mother's eyes…"
He was right, the crystalline blue was bright and full of life, the same eyes Michael had done everything to protect on the woman he'd died for at the hands of his own brother. Michael bit back a soft noise in his throat, gasping a little for air as his shoulders automatically rolled when Alex whined again, this time actually hitting the archangel with all his strength.
The obsidian wings stretched out behind the archangel, flapping a little to loosen up before curling just enough for Alex to see properly and reach for, the baby giggling in delight.
Riesen smiled, "You can look at Alex and see Charlie, can look at him and see hope."
Michael choked a little as he smiled as well, tears finally spilling over as he stared at the chosen one's eyes. Sighing finally in defeat the archangel lost the slight relaxed state he'd managed to achieve, beginning to stiffen up again.
"He...he can't stay in the city…"
"What?"
"Michael?"
The archangel shook his head, adjusting his hold so Alex was comfortable and still able to bat at Michael's wings happily, "Alex is not safe within the city, not yet...my brother is likely to try and come after him now that Gabriel knows his mother...that his mother is dead…" Michael's voice was shaking but a lot stronger that it had been even minutes prior.
"Are you saying the house is safer than here? Closer to you?"
Michael sighed but nodded, "For now yes...Gabriel can not find you directly unless he sees me with you, the best would be to stay away from me as much as possible."
Riesen cleared his throat, "The house, it's in line with one of the outposts, supplies can be delivered easily and discreetly."
Jeep nodded in agreement, "Michael?"
A low sigh slid from the archangel's throat as he rolled his shoulders again and hid his wings, passing Alex back to Jeep before the baby could start fussing at the loss of his feathered play things.
"It is not safe for Alex to be near me...not anymore...He...he will be better off staying away until Gabriel is dead."
The tattooed prophet sighed heavily, but didn't press further, as lost and saddened Michael sound, he was firm in his decision.
Alex was safer as far away from Michael as possible, still within reach but not close enough for Gabriel to associate the two together.
"Yeah...ok...we'll head out in an hour, there's a convoy heading towards Los Angeles then and we can hitch a ride."
Michael nodded, fingers reaching out as if to brush against Alex's cheek in parting when the baby reached.
Riesen didn't know Michael too well, heck he barely knew him at all besides minimal biblical knowledge and what he'd observed in passing the last few months.
But he'd never forget the look of heart breaking pain in the archangel's eyes as he balled his hand into a fist before he could touch Alex again, pulling away both physically and emotionally...having to let go of the one thing that had been keeping him going in this war…
Xxx
2040
Xxx
Riesen sighed heavily, rubbing at his face in exhaustion from all the stress. Hearing in the sitting room now that the conversation had drifted from arguing to almost screaming the ladies were so tense made the general groan a little in frustration. He straightened up and brushed down his suit, stepping around the corner and nodding to his guards standing in wait for his departure.
"So tell me Julien," Thorn sneered, knocking back the last of her glass of wine, "Tell me why you think of Michael deciding to keep...this...thing!"
Before Julien could respond to Becca's snide request Riesen stepped in, effectively ending the conversation with not only his presence but a single sentence.
"Because Consul Thorn, at least with this baby Michael will finally have someone that won't turn its back on him or have to be pulled away from him, will finally be able to hold on and not have to let go."
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