Back to Lux

"Well, well" Lucifer snarled. "Good to see you brother. Makes this so much easier." He barreled straight at his archangel brother, aiming a right-hook at his face as he did so. Michael, surprised, responded in kind then, grabbing is fallen sibbling, fell backwards into a table, rolling with his brother as they both hit the ground. The two wrestled for a moment for control, each pummeling the other as they tried to get the upper hand before Michael's dark wings were able to open freely, slashing at the well-dressed devil. To everyone's surprise, Lucifer suddenly produced blindingly white wings which also slashed at his battered sibling, striking at the archangel's dark wings as they fought.

"What the..." Amenadiel stood, stunned, watching Lucifer and Michael engage in winged combat. "Damn it Luci, now is not the time for this!" He glared back at the demon beside him, who shrugged.

"When do you think would be a good time?" Maze snarled, moving sideways and circling the combatants, looking for a chance to slash at the archangel with her hell-forged blades. "Before or after your brother makes sushi out of Lucifer?"

"Maybe that's how he was able to open a door to the Great Library" Stone muttered, trying to maneuver towards the bar to get a safer view of the fight. He frowned as Lucifer head-butted his brother, trying to keep him off balance and unable to draw his weapon. Michael, annoyed, proceeded to return the favor, staggering his sibling. "We never did get a clear answer from him on how he did that."

"Now is NOT the best time to discuss this" Baird snarled, ducking as a chair was kicked in her direction. She slid across the floor towards Stone, ducking as yet another piece of the dance floor came flying towards them. "So much for getting cooperation from Lucifer!"

Stone frowned back at her. "He came in here looking for a fight. He was pissed off in the library but now... What the hell changed after he left us?"

Flynn, Cassandra and Ezekiel now huddled behind the piano, listened intently to the conversations floating their way. "So... Anyone have a clue why Lucifer picked this moment to unfurl his wings and not in the Library?" the thief asked, curiously. "Not that I mind much. After all, if he wants to get the crap beat out of him then more power to him - but why pick now?"

"Maybe he didn't need to" Flynn replied grimly. "Or maybe he thought Arthur would try to carve them off his back since it seemed like those two were not exactly on the best of terms."

"Seems pretty happy to have them now" Ezekiel quipped, watching Lucifer try to sweep Michael's legs out from under him then dive sideways as his brother did the same to him. He winced in sympathy as the Devil slid into a pillar, one of his brother's dark feathers still clutched in his hand. "Fight's not going his way – maybe someone should…" He stopped, pretending not to see the appalled looks from his companions. "Never mind – forget I said that."

"Luci, what are you doing?" Amenadiel shouted, finally able to grab his brother by the arms and pry him loose from the now thoroughly enraged Archangel. Michael aimed a backhanded slap at the dark-skinned angel, who fell backwards with Lucifer still firmly in his grasp.

"Trying to teach our brother a lesson in manners" Lucifer snarled, trying to get loose from his sibling's grasp. "And get a little of my own back. Now let me GO!"

"Yes – let the Fallen go" Michael growled, rising up with wings fully extended and hand on his sword. "I should have done this millennia ago when he was first defeated."

"If you end Lucifer's life you will be going against Father's will!" Amenadiel shouted, trying to drag the still angry Devil with him.

"Father has not spoken to me, not acknowledged me since the start of the war in Vega" Michael whispered coldly. "I seriously doubt this will make things any worse than they already are."

Stone looked back at the door Lucifer had stepped through. "Hey guys" he whispered, moving backwards to stay out of the way of the brawl happening on the dance floor. "Look at the entrance to the club. Notice something?"

Flynn, who with Cassandra and the young thief had skittered from under the piano to join Baird, stared intently at the door with a puzzled frown. "Why does the light coming from it look green?"

In the Library

"Come on, come ON!" Khan muttered, staring at the crystals with a frown. "Get a move on Uncle! We haven't got all day!"

"Technically we do" Arthur remarked, leaning on the far wall. "But he is taking his own sweet time about moving Michael through the door."

Jenkins sighed in frustration. "They HATE one another. Did you really think that sending Lucifer to force Michael back to a place he clearly wasn't happy in was going to be easy?"

"Galahad has a point" Rowan said, looking up from her spot on the floor. She had sat down, cross-legged, near her brother where she could see the door (and everyone in the room) with the least obstructions. "Maybe one of us should have gone with him."

"Oh yeah – that would have worked" snorted Khan. "Dude already hated both Arthur and I so only one that could have gone was you. Then Galais and I would have had to deal with big brother over there having a nervous breakdown until you came back."

"I would not…" Arthur protested.

"Yes you would" Rowan sighed. She patted his leg affectionately, a wry smile on her face.

"Besides which" Khan continued, staring intently as the globe. "She would have had to muscle that sucker through a door he didn't want to go into. She maybe strong and fast but if he didn't want to be moved I highly doubt she could have made him. Hell - not even sure we could have made him move short of picking him up and throwing him through."

"Oh darling" Rowan purred. "I wouldn't have used anything as primitive as brute force."

"No, she would have cheated" Arthur laughed. "Probably kissed him, startling him so much he wouldn't have had time to brace himself before she pushed his feathery ass through the doorway." The brothers laughed as Rowan blinked her eyes in faux seduction and smiled.

"As disrespectful as that sounds" Jenkins growled, "it might have been a better idea then sending Lucifer after the brother who threw him out of Paradise."

"Too late to think about that now" Arthur drawled. "One thing I have been thinking about though is that exorcism Master Christoph taught us. Seems an awful lot of work just to push out a couple of stray lower angels. Isn't there some way we could spread the pain?"

Rowan smiled at her brother. "You really enjoy doing that don't you? Such a mean creature – one of the many things I love about you."

Khan glanced back at his siblings, a wolfish grin on his face. "Actually I had been thinking about that. If this place is a burnt out representation of Las Vegas then somewhere in the city there should be something like a radio or television station with some of its hardware still standing. Doesn't actually need it to be working – all I'll need is the machines to act as representations of the communication devices they were. Then, with a little luck, we get the rules of magic to kick in. Power, focus and effect. The power is in our voices singing the exorcism, the focus is the communication equipment and their receivers out in the city. The effect… a whole lot of things, broken or not, strung together to carry the message our voices are giving off. And a whole lot of lower angels getting their asses kicked to the curb at the same time. All I need is one functional unit and I can send this song all around the watchtower – or the city if you prefer."

Arthur laughed softly. "For someone who spends most of his time in a temple you are quite the techno geek. You and Galais would have made quite the team. He's quite the inquisitive beast as well. "

"I really wish you would start taking this seriously" Jenkins huffed, glaring at the still green-tinged door.

"I wish you would stop worrying so much" Arthur snapped, his easy smile vanishing. "I've been to hell before, little brother. Worrying about how I'm getting there and what I'll do when I land won't make things any easier."

"Enough, both of you" Rowan admonished. "This is taking far too long. One of us is going to have to go through to Lux and get that idiot Devil to move things along."

"That won't be easy." Khan glanced back down at the crystals in the globe with a frown. "These little suckers are programmed in a precise order. We'd have to interrupt the flow to get one of us into the club and then back out in time to recon the battlefield."

"So – that's a no then" Arthur murmured.

Rowan sighed. "You are so tech clueless. Even Father is better at technology than you are – and he's old enough to have screwed elder goddesses."

"Hold up" Khan said quickly, eyes darting from the crystals to the door. "Looks like we may have movement on the door to Vega front."

All eyes turned towards the shimmering portal – which was now an inky black.

Arthur straightened, hauling his sister up from the ground. "Time to go."