Chapter 12
Spiraling Downwards
Earlier that day (around the afternoon)…
Heaven was its usual perpetually peaceful and calm self. The sky was a bright blue with moderate fluffy, white clouds. The golden streets were gleaming, casting yellow hues on the buildings that lined the individual streets. The plants that were plotted along the sides were particularly vibrant with color, and the grass that was always green was extra shade of healthy green.
However, the streets were quiet.
But this was for a good reason. All of the angels who weren't currently working or in a meeting were at the Choir's Auditorium, the main and biggest symphony hall in all of Heaven. Once the word had gotten out that Israfel was hosting a concert with a select group, the other angels flocked to the massive open stadium. It wasn't often that the angel of song took to the stage – especially with her smaller choir, the famed a cappella one.
"I wonder what they're singing this time," whispered an excited voice.
"I don't care what they sing. Izzy's voice is bae."
The first voice let out a gasp. "Zeke's beats are to fall for."
Someone further in the back hushed them (this angel preferred Hashmal's tenor and visual effects over their favored highlights of the small choir). Nevertheless, all of the angels in the auditorium were ecstatic about this surprise performance.
The soft chatter that filled the air quickly quieted as Ramiel stepped onto the stage and began to hum. Ezekiel was heard next, a soft but steady rhythm coming from his mouth. The acoustics in the room were perfect (of course), making the deep and resonant bass of the angel of thunder's humming and the almost percussive beats coming from the angel of transformation travel further and louder than it would have in even the greatest of auditoriums on Earth.
When the auditorium suddenly darkened (only the faint outlines of Ezekiel and Ramiel being the sources of light in the massive room), a distinct buzzing and vibrating silence pushed the angels in the audience closer to the stage. A spotlight snapped on, illuminating Hashmal who now stood just to the left of center stage. As the first few lines of the song flowed from his vocal chords, a dazzling display of images depicted two star-crossed lovers.
A low murmuring shot through the audience when another spotlight showed Israfel and outlined Vasiariah joining Ramiel and Hashmal. Standing opposite of Hashmal, Israfel went straight into the female part of the duet, her words rebuffing the optimistic calling of the male lover. The two colorful images above singers danced as the two angels' voices weaved in and out of sync as their assigned lyrics deigned, the supporting hum and rhythm from the other three filling the background.
After the end of the duet, a loud cheer went up despite the open yet tragic end of the song. The next couple songs started picking up, and Vasiariah was able to show off her voice along side Israfel and Hashmal's. Even Ramiel and Hashmal got their solo moments to shine. But all too soon, the concert was wrapping up.
"Okay, guys! Just one more, and then we'll go right into requests. Encore, yeah?" Israfel called out to her enthusiastic sibling fans. (One more apparently meant a special solo piece that drawled a few sniffles from the especially emotional angels in the crowd.) Israfel and her four choir members were more than happy to sing several of the requests that were shouted out, ending with a variation of "Lean on Me" that practically everyone in the auditorium joined in on singing.
"Ain't that a real kicker," someone muttered, sounding faintly surprised at the massive collection of singing voices.
It was mostly directed to himself, but that didn't keep another from overhearing, turning and giving the other angel a questioning look. "Never heard this one? She always sings this one. It's like… our song."
The first angel cracked a smile. "I'm never really around, but I do love this whole set up. You kids are doin' great," he told the angel with an honest grin.
The angel's jaw dropped as soon as she realized whom she was talking to. "G—" she started before getting cut off.
"Ah-ah-ah, you're not busting my cover, missy. Later!" he exclaimed and then abruptly took off with a quick flick of his golden wings.
Fortunately (unfortunately for some), Zadkiel had taken notice of the exchange, and he rushed over to his shell-shocked little sister, waving off any concerned onlookers. He escorted Illyasviel out of the seated sections and away from prying eyes. Leliel joined them a minute later.
"It's okay, Illya," Zadkiel was telling the young angel. "You don't have to tell us whoever he was. It doesn't matter as long as you're fine."
But she was shaking her head. The angel with the golden wings was important, so important. She had to tell them. But she just couldn't. "I—"
Leliel cut in before the angel could stress herself out any further, taking shaking hands into her steady ones. "Shhh… Take a deep breath. There you go," she said, soothing her frazzled sister. "Now, what was that all about?"
"She was talking to someone who flew off before I could recognize him," Zadkiel informed her.
Leliel glanced at him before returning her attention back to Illyasviel. "Did he hurt you?" she asked seriously.
Ever since… well, Mom, the Council's number one priority in any emergency was their younger siblings' safety and health. What happened to Camael would never happen again. They would die first.
Illyasviel shook her head adamantly. "N-no… but he slipped this into my hands right before he left."
Zadkiel took the sealed scroll that was being handed to him. No one used scrolls anymore. It was by regular paper mail or the now-trending texting by phone. Personally, he preferred paper, but the texting was technically faster – if one wasn't including just flying to go talk in person (that technically trumped the other methods). But it would seem that this other angel was being anonymous. Not particularly odd, per se, but still out of the ordinary these days.
Leliel took the time to dismiss Illya at that point, sending her to Tzaphkiel. He would know how to help her, and if she needed a bit more assistance, then he would take her to the Healing Halls to see Raphael or another of their medically-oriented siblings. Keeping an eye on the young angel as she shuffled back to a quieter area of the auditorium where Tzaphkiel would meet her, Leliel looked back to her older brother, who was blankly staring down at the scroll.
Suddenly, Zadkiel frowned, reading aloud the tag attached to the end of the scroll. "'To whomever the hell is currently in charge of the Silver City'… Okay, what?"
Leliel rolled her eyes, snatching the scroll. "Obviously this is meant for Kemuel, since no one else happens to be around these days."
"It's not like she's here either," the male angel muttered somewhat bitterly.
"Then you read it."
Zadkiel gave her an affronted look. "Why?"
"You just said that Kem's not here. Therefore, being the oldest, you should read it," the angel of night clarified, justifying her opinion rather flawlessly. "Duh."
Zadkiel bit his bottom lip in a rare show of a nervous habit. "Maybe I should wait…" he mumbled indecisively.
"But what if it's important," Leliel insisted.
"And if it's not," Zadkiel shot back.
Leliel waved the tag in his face. "It's addressed to who's in charge. That would be you right now. Read it."
"Pushy," he muttered, already in the process of breaking the seal and rolling the scroll open. After a moment of reviewing the letter, his earlier frown returned in full force. "It says 'When the Trifecta becomes One, the Heart of Heaven will still, and the Fallen will Rise again'."
"That sounds even more cryptic than what Kem says about the things Dad tells her," Leliel commented, shifting to look over Zadkiel's shoulder. "Azra's waving us down. I think she wants us to be with her when she gives Israfel the talk."
Zadkiel snorted. "Don't say it like that. And Israfel already knows what it's like to go down to Earth. She goes every other month for the songs."
"I know, but this is different. She'll be interacting with our dear fallen older brother. That deserves a whole talk in and of itself," Leliel pointed out, using her hands to wave back a response to her twin.
Not really understanding the complex message that passed between the twins, Zadkiel shrugged. "I think Israfel will be fine. At the very most, she'll fangirl really hard, which might actually help her cover—"
"She has a cover? I thought she was just going to straight up distract Lucifer for like an hour so you could gently deliver the good news."
Zadkiel sent a glare her way. "I'm not Gabriel, and he didn't deliver so much as smacked that poor girl in the face with the fact that Dad had metaphysically her knocked up." He rolled his eyes. "If anything, I might be able to do my part without getting Los Angeles destroyed in one of Luci's infamous bouts of rage."
"Look on the bright side, if it all epically fails, it literally can't be worse than what would have happened. Like, even Kem was surprised that we were on board to let her go back to make sure that Chloe would be okay," Leliel assured him, even though it only partially worked. "It's all part of the master plan."
"Yes, this great and ultimate plan that will solve everything," he drawled.
Leliel gave him a slight shove, which did nothing but push her the opposite direction. "You're just annoyed that Kemuel just got back only to have to go to Earth yet again." When only silence met her in response, she rolled her eyes. "Come on, it was her or Cassie, and if something happens, then she's far more suited to deal with it than he is."
Zadkiel let out a long sigh, starting on the trek to join Azrael and Israfel. "I know that… I just don't like it."
"Most of us don't," Leliel agreed.
—o~O~o—
"And you're sure he'll take the bait? This song you've picked won't cause any suspicions?"
"Yeah, yeah— I got it."
The Plan was actually quite simple: Israfel would provide a distraction to get Lucifer away from Mom and Mazikeen (preferably, she would get him to the relative safety of Lux), and once she was gone (away, safely back in the Silver City) Zadkiel would make his entrance, making sure that Lucifer understood Chloe was still Chloe even if their Father had put them in each others' paths. All the while, Kemuel would be in charge of keeping Chloe calm and escorting her to the hospital.
The aftermath would be closely monitored by the angels of the Seer's Setting. It was Remiel who was the most concerned about the possible (bad) consequences. They were all affecting the definite future, and it didn't help that they were flirting with the line of interference clauses. Because what they really needed right now was a major slap on the wrist for breaking the rules.
Of course, as the universe (fate) hates pretty much everyone in existence, something was bound to go wrong. However, what went wrong wasn't what most were expecting to go wrong. In fact, it actually worked out in their favor. Not that they knew this at the time.
Israfel had successfully gotten Lucifer to take her to Lux – stroking his ego just the right way could get you a lot of things apparently. Plus she'd unwittingly gotten on his good side with her perfectly timed entrance, and her being a fan wasn't making her lose any brownie points.
To be fair, it hadn't been her fault. She had played the role rather well, not even having to pretend all that much. It was when she accidentally let a mention of her choir slip out that things started to go sideways. Neither Israfel nor Lucifer thought about the minor mistake when it was said, but a thought was planted in the back of Lucifer's mind.
And it itched whenever there was there barest hint that Israfel wasn't human. Like when she referred to more of her 'friends' with an intimacy that implied closer relations – more familial than romantic. Or how she shied around where she lived or how she would be getting home. Or simply the club lights giving her eyes an ethereal glow whenever they hit at just the right angle.
It was kind of sad that Lucifer didn't figure it out a bit faster, but it wasn't like he was actively looking for all the right signs. His attention was far more focused on making this girl's day – night, whatever. He found her rather likeable, especially since she had a passion for song and good music. The song she'd written wasn't half bad either. It reminded him a bit of himself and Chloe (and in a good way too), which was a bit coincidental, but nevertheless he took it all in full stride.
He couldn't, however, ignore the creeping sensation that something wasn't what it seemed. At first he'd simply pinned the feeling to the fact that his mother and Maze were conspiring together, but when it was still there while he was singing for Izzy (that was the name the girl had given him), he sought out what was making his hair stand on end – not necessarily in the scared sense, but more like wary.
Lucifer wasn't quite sure what gave it away, nor was he sure about when exactly he finally placed what 'Izzy' was. He just knew that one moment he was perfectly fine with the young woman's presence, standing beside him as he played at the piano on the main floor, and the next she was giving him this smile, and he knew— he knew that she was an angel.
"Is something wrong?"
Oh, everything was wrong about the way her head was tilted even if she was looking at him with a concerned expression. That was a very angel-typical head tilt. Even he did it sometimes when he wasn't really thinking about it. (He didn't do the thoughtful/stunned/confused blinking thing, though. Not nearly as much as the angels did.)
Lucifer let the chord finish its resonate hum that filled the air. His fingers rested on the piano keys even as he closed his eyes, letting out a sigh. "Why the bloody Hell are you here?"
She actually looked somewhat offended. "What? I can't get the best singer originally from Heaven to approve of a song that's not supposed to come out for like two years?" she asked, dropping the charade.
"It's not that I don't approve," Lucifer started before he paused, taking a moment to focus and keep himself from getting distracted. "Are they letting all of you cloud hoppers down here now?"
"Yes and no," the angel answered unhelpfully.
Lucifer was about five seconds away from throttling her (even if he would feel a bit bad afterwards – he did kind of like her after all) when yet another angel appeared dramatically in the darkened space atop the main stairs. What was it with all of the angels showing up? As much as Lucifer was all for living in the city of angels, that did not mean that everyone else could just take over. He was supposed to be on permanent vacation!
"Go on home, Israfel," the older angel softly commanded his sibling.
She – Israfel – glanced over at Lucifer before nodding, spreading her wings and leaving. Which left Lucifer and his new guest alone to themselves. And even though Lucifer couldn't quite make out the other angel's features, he was willing to bet that the other was a ginger and had green eyes – a meddlesome angel who was known for colluding with a certain violet eyed sister of theirs. In other words, Zadkiel.
"Not even a hello, big brother?" came the droll greeting.
"Not for devious leprechauns like yourself," Lucifer snapped, standing up.
That earned him a raised eyebrow. "Wow, real mature. Also inaccurate since I only look Irish in this form, and I'm pretty sure that you're the more devious out of the two of us," the angel pointed out.
"Me? Devious?" Lucifer gasped in mock horror. "What could you possibly mean?"
A scoff and roll of green eyes. "As in you really have no reason to not listen to me."
"I don't have to listen to you on the basis that you're a meddling prat."
"And if it's the kind of meddling that benefits you? Still willing to ignore me then?" Zadkiel inquired smugly.
Lucifer grit his teeth. Angels didn't come down to Earth for no reason. Israfel and Zadkiel had made this trip on purpose. There was something they were meant to do, and it had something to do with him. "What do you want?"
"There's something you have a right to know. Some of us argued that you'd react poorly and so we shouldn't tell you. I think you can guess how the vote went…"
Moving over to his bar, Lucifer motioned for the angel to continue.
Zadkiel took a deep breath. "Your dearest mother and your demon companion as well as the great majority of the Host decided that you should know… Chloe Decker is a miracle child. Father put her here on Earth."
If the tumbler that Lucifer filled with some liquor he picked at random hadn't been on the bar countertop, it would have broken when it hit the floor. It still shattered in his hand. Lucifer took some satisfaction in how Zadkiel barely hid a flinch at his red eyes.
—o~O~o—
"Chloe?"
Chloe knew that voice. That of an angel – a supposed angel. Part of Chloe (the part that wanted to believe) hoped that maybe Kemuel really was an angel (but then that would have made Lucifer the Devil, and that couldn't have been right). Still, if Chloe couldn't get the blood to stop pouring from her nose… maybe she would need a miracle.
"There you are. You had me worried."
Chloe was trying very hard not to question why or how Kemuel was in her house. It won't stop it won't stop it won't stop was overriding everything else for the most part. A rare type of panic welled in the pit of her stomach. Her nose was bleeding, and that could only mean—
"Here, tip your head back. No need to make this any messier than it already is."
Just like that, Chloe was reminded that Kemuel was related to Lucifer. They were so different, but it was the little things. There was this humor they shared – not the sexual innuendos that seemed to make up Lucifer's whole world, but the way they could make light of any situation. Kemuel was simply far more subtle about it than Lucifer usually was. Certain, vague mannerisms were there, too – the way they would look at you as if peering into your soul or the way they seemed impossibly older than they were. Their speech, the way they talked: always alluding (not so much alluding as just outright proclaiming in Lucifer's case) to something bigger.
That and their eyes.
"You're going to be just fine, Chloe. Trust me on that."
… And Chloe did. She did trust Kemuel, but not in the way the 'angel' was asking. Chloe trusted Kemuel with other things. She didn't necessarily trust in Kemuel. That was something Chloe couldn't do, no matter how much something was willing her to. Something that whispered sweet nothings into her mind's ear. Something that was luring her closer and closer to the edge of oblivion.
"Healing was never one of my strong suits, and I'm afraid to say I've never done this on non-relatives before. Relax, Chloe. This kind of strain isn't good for humans."
A brief though crossed Chloe's mind right before she fell over the edge. What would Lucifer think about this?
"He loves you, even if he doesn't quite realize it what that means yet. That is all you need to know."
A/N: I couldn't help it. I had to put in a Gabriel cameo. I mean, come on, he's my favorite archangel in Supernatural hands down.
Last edited: [1/15/2020]
Guest 1: While I'm sorely tempted to have them all come together at some point, I also said at the beginning that Michael, Raphael and Gabriel were only supposed to be mentioned (even if Gabriel managed to sneak in here), so... unfortunately, no. [But Raphael gets to be in an interlude and Michael does make a like five line appearance later too, so...]
Flash: For this fic, I'll say that Michael and Lucifer are equals in terms of power; however, Michael is technically more skilled/experienced at fighting than Luci is.
As for the Supernatural stuff... it gives me some basis of a hierarchy to work with along with some blocked out family dynamics - namely the separation between the archangels (plus Amenadiel) and the regular angels. Those dynamics include the discrimination the Mother has towards the regular angels. If you have a problem with how some of my Supernatural headanons are influencing this fic, I mentioned the influence at the bottom of the prologue; you're bringing this up a bit late.
Guest 2: Thanks, you'll be getting that chapter soon enough
Guest 3: And I love your reviews :D