God Loves All His Children

~ Uriel gazes into the paths that will be, could be, should be and he shivers. He sees the Twins, glorious and beautiful. Black and white with identical golden crowns on their heads. He hears the Legions of Hell squeal in glee, the human souls screaming in their agony. He sees Samael in all his bright glory, leading an army of half angels to break down the gates of Heaven. He sees the destruction wrought by war and anger. A babe whose light will be extinguished in the bowels of Hell. A father who will crack watching his daughter get used. The Twins tearing Creation apart between them. So much blood, so much darkness. Every path leading to destruction."
"Uriel, my son. What do you see?"
"Conquest, war… death." God nods and leaves his son to his thoughts.
Uriel sighs, Samael's path is governed by Choice and brilliantly lit. Michael's path though is dark and murky, commanded by Chance, rather than Choice. Still, at the end of the darkest path seems to be the most dazzling ray of hope. Heaven has become too bright, Hell too deep. What has been split in two, should be recast and remade. A new God, a new future.
"I am sorry brother, but I see no other way." He weaves his patterns and watches his brother fall apart. "I'm so, so sorry." ~

"Self-actualization." She says it like it's the answer to all his questions. He turns towards Dr Linda, puzzled. "That means you can heal, Michael."
Michael scoffs in derision, the scar pulling on his face. Lucifer had seen what self-actualization had done to him. There is no healing to be had. Darkness swirls around him like a disease and he can no longer outrun it. He looks down at baby Charlie sitting in his bouncer. The child doesn't cry but looks up at him in wonder. Michael tickles his tiny foot and smiles when the child giggles in delight. Such a stark contrast between this moment and the fear he had felt from the little boy before. He wonders what changed.

He had woken up in Lucifer's bed, naked and alone. It seemed like a dream. The dinner, his brother taking care of him, falling asleep in his arms like when they were young… He tried to move, but a sharp pain lanced up his arm and side. Oh, the wings are still out. He rubbed his hand over the freshly preened new feathers on the insides of his wings. They seem darker than before, their edges smoother. He itched to pull them out again, but he got distracted from his goal by ticked off voices in the living area. Chloé… Ah, it seemed like he had outstayed his welcome then. He stumbled out of the ridiculously comfortable bed and furled his wings. Michael winced at how loud the sound is now he's no longer missing feathers. He snatched his only pair of trousers from the chair in the corner and he started hunting for the turtleneck. Which was in the living room… because of course, it was. He stepped out into view, not making eye contact with anyone. And most certainly not Lucifer's Miracle. He knew what she thought of him and he didn't know if he could stay civil that early in the morning. At Lucifer's glance, he felt compelled to say something, anything, but the words got stuck in his throat. He just prayed that Sam would let him leave to lick his wounds in peace. He grabbed the turtleneck, inadvertently exposing his entire back to the detective and heard her gasp. He yanked on the offending piece of fabric and quickly unfurled his wings again.
"Michael!"
With a whoosh, he shifted through the planes and he found himself in front of Linda's home.

Talking to Linda, even as Lucifer had felt nice. His brother may be on to something after all. He offers Charlie his rattler, watching him stuff it in his mouth, drooling all over it. He is filled with equal measures of revulsion and warmth at the sight.
"I didn't get to keep mine." He says after a while and he notices Linda's body language change. He had been right about her fears then. Maybe that's why he came here in the first place. He is starting to feel really bad about tapping into her fears like he had. She knows the pain of losing a child and he should have kept away from it. Yet, his own pain overshadowed everything else and took his common sense with it. "I'm sorry." Linda looks mildly surprised, but she hides it by pushing her glasses further up her nose. An apology apparently hadn't been on her list of things Michael would say and it shows. It should make him angry, but all he can manage is an exhausted sigh. Michael thinks about his own child. Would she have had toys like these? The same kind of glittering dark eyes and little chubby cheeks? Would she have had wings? The daughter he has never gotten to know. Who was taken from him, before he could save her? The doctor takes on a calculating expression. He would have missed it if not for the nervous gestures her hands make in her lap.

"You know, Amenadiel told me that Charlie was the first." Michael laughs disbelievingly.
"He told you that, has he? Of course, there have been children! Nephilim were once quite common as a lot of fallen angels took human mates."
"So, what happened to them?" she asks, genuinely curious.
"They all died in the Great Flood." Linda winces at the dead tone of his voice. Like it's an inevitability. God won't allow Nephilim to exist.
"Which your father caused."
"Well actually Mother caused that one, but Father never deigned to save them. Like he didn't save her…" Michael leans back into the sofa heavily.

"You said that fallen angels took human mates and children. You consider yourself to be fallen?" Linda looks at him in question her head cocked to one side.
"Do you?" He shoots back.
"I don't believe in fallen angels Michael. Your brother did some questionable things, but he found his way back. I think you are just lost in the darkness." He laughs scathingly, startling his little nephew. Her statement hits close to home, far too close and he does the thing that comes naturally to him. He pulls on the very last vestiges of his famed temper and goes for the kill.
"Doctor Martin, I am darkness." He spreads his hands mockingly "Just how my father made me." Linda feels the fear coiling in her stomach, but she fights it down. She looks into Michael's eyes. So dark, so like his Twin and yet so lost.

She sighs and shakes her head. "You know, I just don't believe that. And I know you don't believe that either." Linda glances at her son, dangerously close to the unstable archangel and he can feel an inkling of fear coming from her. Michael can understand where she's coming from but come on! He has never laid a hand on a child in anger, and yet everyone seems to think he would? Michael knows he's made wrong. If he isn't then he did wrong. Chose wrong and it would all be his own fault. His own fault that he couldn't save her. That he gave in to his addiction. That he was too out of it to save her and her mother. That he deserved everything single thing that happened to him…

She reaches for his hand and he sucks in a shaky breath. And just like that, the bubble of his anger pops, leaving him feeling hollow. The effects of his gift leave her immediately when he pulls it all inside himself instead of letting it naturally dissipate. He hears her sigh in relief.
"I would never hurt him." He looks at her, desperately trying to make her believe him.
"I know." She squeezes his fingers gently, allowing him to continue.
"I didn't know. I didn't know I had fallen. How's that for self-actualization."
"I promise you; we'll get through this Michael." He shakes his head in denial.

"My Creation sparked countless of demons including Mazikeen. Children, not born of my seed, but from my Grace." He continues, seemingly not hearing a word she said. He laughs a high reedy sound that sends shivers down her spine. "I created hundreds of them, maybe even thousands and I didn't even know." He rips up his right sleeve, showing off his mottled skin and he ignores Linda's gasp. "There is no healing." He exhales shakily. "There's only the end." And he will never see her again… and maybe… that's for the best…
"You don't have to go it alone." Linda is on her feet now, reaching for him despite trying to keep a professional front. She knows where this is heading and she doesn't know if she can stop it.
"You shouldn't be so nice to me, doctor." He asked his brother and the Devil agreed.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm unlovable." Linda's heart breaks at the saddest, most beautiful smile she has ever seen on someone's face and she's left without words.

Michael opens the door to leave, preferring to walk rather than fly.
"Wait…" Linda calls out after him and he turns his head to indicate he's listening. "What was her name?" Michael turns to look at Linda who is gently bouncing little Charlie in her arms. He smiles at the inner vision of his big brother being brought to heel by such a tiny woman. He's one lucky angel.
"Elaine, her name was Elaine." He walks away into a warm and sunny afternoon closing the door behind him. Linda lunges for her phone the moment the door locks and neither human nor angel notice the demon lurking by the open window.

"Does it hurt?"
Michael is torn from his thoughts by the voice of a male child. He had been wandering around LA aimlessly and had found a nice sunny spot to rest his weary body. He had felt someone staring at him for a while now, but he had brushed it off. Michael is about to tell the boy off for being rude when he gets a proper look at him. Old burns stretch from the side of his neck down under the batman shirt he is wearing, but what catches his attention the most is the prosthetic arm peaking from the boy's sleeve. He opens and closes his mouth several times, struggling for an answer. He could lie to the boy, tell him that it will all go away someday, but he knows, they know it isn't true. So, he settles for a truth instead.
"Yes…"
The boy looks at him with a frown on his little face before scanning the air around him.
"Is that why you are so sad?" A small smile flits over Michael's face, gone before anyone noticed it. Children always see more than they should.
"Yeah, I guess I am."
"That's ok, you will get there." The boy pats his knee with his one functioning arm. It twists something in his heart and without thinking he reaches forward, places his left hand on the boy's head and blesses the child. He doesn't know what his blessings are still worth, but he feels lighter for it.
"Thank you." The boy runs to his mother and they leave the park and the angel behind. He knows he's doing the right thing.

Two sets of dark eyes watch the exchange from the shadows. The light filtering through the leaves gives them both an ethereal glow, but they go unnoticed by Michael.
"You have some explaining to do Azrael." The Devil glances at his sister, his jaw tight in anger. She flinches away from him, looking down at her sneaker-clad feet.
"Lu, I…" She looks at Michael with tears in her eyes. Lucifer plays with Uriel's letter. Folding it open and closed, not missing the way her eyes follow the white paper and the words written within.
"I've never seen you lost for words dear sister. Tell me," he looks her in the eye, catching her in his spell. There's so escape from his gift and he forces all he has into his gaze "Who took her?" He watches her squirm and fight with devilish glee. "So, it was you. Sister, I didn't know you had in you to destroy your own brother."
"It wasn't like that Lu!

"What was it like then Azrael? What could possibly have prompted you to do such a thing?" Lucifer is seething, but he keeps his face carefully blank. It wouldn't do to scare his sister off. He wouldn't be able to follow her into her own realm and the time for answers has long passed. So, she tells him. About Elaine, about Uriel's visions. About Lilith aiming her conniving arrows at Michael's unborn daughter. About armies of half angels all borne from one girl. All for Lucifer to command. How she kept her tiny soul safe until she was ready to be born again. Tears are streaming down her face and she hugs herself tightly.
"Uriel said it was the only way and Dad…"
"And you never thought to ask me?!" he interrupts her monologue. "You believed the boring sap and Dad?!"
"But you fell, Lu!"
Lucifer chuckles unbelievingly. "You didn't come to see me even once. I never fell Rae-Rae. I chose to go to Hell." 'Better to rule in Hell for eternity, than to serve in Heaven for another moment.' Azrael remembers it vividly. The destruction, the blood.
"Don't lie! You never lie Lucifer." Azrael gasps, trying to make sense of it all. Lucifer nods wearily.
"The only lie I ever allow myself to tell. The only lie I allowed myself to believe."

"So, the rebellion…?"
"All in Dad's grand plan." He takes a long swig from his flask before offering it to her. They watch in silence as Michael hides his face in his hand. He sits unmoving like a statue. He knows it hurts. He's been a necessary evil, the only one strong enough to do what he had to do. He had once believed it to be his own choice, but he knows better now. He should have pulled Michael down with him as he planned, but in the end, his brother's fear caused him to reconsider. 'I don't want to lose you. Don't make me face this alone…' And for the first time he hadn't thought about what Michael desired, but about protecting him from it. He prayed to his father to save his Twin, only to burn once Michael was ripped from his hands. He indirectly forced Michael back into the bright light of Heaven, into his father's plans. It had been a mistake.

"He asked me to end him, and I agreed."
"No!" Azrael looks appalled at his admission. "You can't!"
"Yes, I can, and I will!" He hides his shaking hands in his pockets.
"Lucifer you can't! It's wrong and…"
"You should have thought about that before you did this to him!" he hisses at her, his voice pained. "He is my Twin, Rae-Rae. My other half." He knows she can't see the way Creation warps around his brother. How his own closeness may slow the inevitable end, but inevitable it still is. It's time to face the consequences of his choices. To give his brother the peace he deserves. They watch as Ella enters the park and spots Michael on his bench. She quickly puts away her phone and edges closer, obviously trying not to spook him.

"But they only just met each other!" Azrael exclaims in a last bid to stop whatever Lucifer is going to do to his brother.
Lucifer looks at her in surprise. His mouth forms a 'what' that doesn't materialize. Azrael nods at the park bench where Michael finally noticed Ella.
"No…" They see the way Michael slowly gravitates towards her. How he accepts her hug and even returns it. "You got to be kidding me."