Beelzebub's heart, whatever ze had as a stand-in for a heart anyway, pounded as ze pressed zir back against the wall. Ze chided it, angrily. Ze was out of the Master's office, after all! Ze was in one piece! There was absolutely no reason to act like this when there were a million other things to do! Zir body's response was to point out that being out of the office was possibly accidental and almost definitely terrifyingly temporary. It would keep right on panicking as long as it wanted. The cloud of flies around zem zipped in agreement.

"Lord Beelzebub?"

Zir body, at least, also recognized that panicking in the open was exceedingly dangerous in Hell. It swallowed down the pounding heart and panting lungs and settled the flies back to their lazy circling. Almost immediately, Beelzebub was back to a proper brood.

Dagon had seen the whole display, but knew better than to comment. "What are your orders?"

"Tell the troopzzz," Ze said. Beelzebub tried to force zir voice to calm down, though the frantic buzz about zem did not allow for it, "To put down their weaponzzz."

"What?" She asked forcefully.

"It'zzz back to work," ze continued in their best authoritative tone. "Effective immediately."

"What happened to the war?" she demanded. Her body had been wound up tight in anticipation of a fight, and now she strained to hold herself back. "It... It was written!"

"And my orderzzzz have been zzzpoken," Beelzebub growled. Zir voice became larger and more menacing with every syllable.

Dagon shrunk down. "Yes, Lord Beelzebub..."

"Go tell zzzem. I have work to do." Ze turned on zir heel and strode off into zir own office without waiting for a reply.

Ze shut the door so quickly that the cloud of flies nearly lost a few members. After a couple deep breaths, Beelzebub crossed zir office and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"What'zzz going on," Ze demanded.

"Can't talk over the phone." There was a pause. "Let's meet."

"Let'zzz not," ze snapped. "I'm buzy and I don't have time for gamezzz."

"Can you really trust that nobody in Hell is listening?"

Ze glowered at the wall. "Where, then?"

Beelzebub had never liked being on Earth. It was too bright, too cold, too disorganized. In Hell you always knew what was what, but Humans were stupidly unpredictable.

Ze crossed zir legs and arms defensively and focused on the ducks in the pond. The birds gathered around, expecting something. Almost demanded it, actually. A glower sent them swimming off as fast as they could.

"Beelzebub!" Gabriel called. He spread his arms welcomingly. "Well don't you..." He looked zem up and down. "Clean up."

He couldn't bring himself to add a 'well', even if Beelzebub was quite proud of how ze had chosen zir clothing to look as modernly human as possible. Certainly, ze felt, zir attempt at copying casual pants and a shirt made zem blend in far more than his immaculately tailored suit.

"Shut it and zzzit," ze snapped, more than a bit offended he didn't appreciate the effort it took to hide facial wounds. "What did-" Ze paused and collected zirself, "What did She zay?"

Gabriel took a moment to sit and lace his fingers in his lap. "She said that the ineffable plan is... ineffable."

"And?" ze said, irritably. "What doez that mean for uz?"

"That it's back to business as usual, for the moment. That's how we interpret it, anyway. She... stopped talking after that," he explained. He turned indignant when he received an unimpressed look. "I don't like it any more than you do-"

"You can't pozzibly like thiz az little az I do." Ze slouched a bit deeper as ze hardened zir look. "I've had a knife with your name on it for zenturiez."

"And I was looking forward to watching you finally admit your surrender. Or locking the gates for good, either way," Gabriel said, with a particular emphasis on the word 'good'. "But, at least for now, that is not the plan."

Ze blew a strand of greasy hair out of zir face. "What part of thiz couldn't have been zaid over the phone?"

"The part where I propose an arrangement. Since we're both dealing with traitors and, I assume," he said, with a motion toward the demon, "That neither of us is interested in them sticking around and corrupting others."

Beelzebub ran zir tongue along the inside of zir mouth. "I'm liztening."

"See, and you're going to love this," Gabriel said with a barely restrained chuckle. "Since our man was playing with fire, we could use fire as his punishment!"

He was genuinely disappointed when Beelzebub did not laugh, much less as much as he had.

"I mean I want you to send up some hellfire."

"I got that. There'z not a lot to get," ze replied.

"There is a lot to get!" he insisted.

Beelzebub turned a bored eye back to the water and ran zir tongue along zir sharp teeth again.

"And in exchange, I'm sure there's something-"

"Holy water."

"What?"

"Enough to drown the znake." Ze looked over, "Hand delivered and no zzzplashing."

"I'll send it down with my best, and I expect you would do the same. The last thing we need is that stuff spreading." Gabriel shifted uncomfortably at the idea.

Ze clucked zir tongue. "Zame."

"So it's agreed, then?" he asked as he stuck a hand out to shake.

Beelzebub took another moment for emphasis before unwinding zir arms and taking his hand. "Agreed."

They pumped hands once and pulled them back. Gabriel pointedly cleaned his hand with a handkerchief while Beelzebub stuck zirs back where it'd been. They watched the pond for a while as the birdless water lapped at the shore.

"Did you ever think you'd work with an Angel? Again, I mean."

"Zeemz to be the trend," ze said, bitterly. "Ezpezially zince prophezy meanz nothing anymore."

"The Lord works in mysterious ways. It's not our place to question that," he stated. It was a sermon he'd repeated millions of times before and after the rebellion.

Somewhere, deep and dark and hidden, there was a tiny spark of doubt. And, as was zir job, Beelzebub read it loud and clear.

"There'z alwayz room for one more."

"Nobody is interested in sinking to your level," He replied, his veneer cracked bitterly.

Beelzebub smirked without turning zir head to him. "Juzt zaying." Zir voice dropped into a more serious tone, "Timez are changing. The propheziez are uzelezz, both zidez are angry. Not even at each other, nezzezarilly. Just angry."

Gabriel took a moment to breathe in and out through his nose. "Yes, that's a fair assessment."

"And if ineffable iz just going to ztay ineffable, then maybe we need to look for zomething elze to direct that anger to."

They sat in silence for a long time. People walked and drove, obliviously, all around them.

"I have to get back," Beelzebub finally said. "I'm zure it'z chaoz."

"On my side, too," He admitted with a frown. "Considering how... habitable everything still looks."

"Maybe too habitable."

There was another beat before Gabriel stood up and offered zem a hand. Beelzebub stood up without taking it.

"Well, for now I'll be in touch. Think it'd be best to take care of things at the same time."

"Juzt call, then," ze said, firmly.

He gave her a businesslike smile, "I'd prefer it."

Beelzebub gave him a once over and disappeared in a puff of smoke that reeked of sulfur. Gabriel followed soon after.

Neither one dwelled on how many more of these meetings it would take to eventually end everything, or what it'd look like when they finally got things in proper order. At the moment, there was too much work to do in the restored status-quo.