Death's Requiem
By: Ryu Niiyama
Chapter 1
Paring: Ella Lopez/Azrael
"Come, the Silver City awaits."
She took hold of the hands of the countless dead human souls bound for paradise, her powers allowing her to appear to all of them at once and ferry those that wished to be free of reincarnation to the City. As she did so she pointedly forced herself to ignore the crime scene that a particular unit of the LAPD was looking over, having already taken the victim to Hell the moment that he died. Or rather it wasn't the crime scene that she was ignoring so much as the feisty forensic scientist that was working it.
Azrael sighed and unsheathed the claymore that she wielded in place of the Flaming Sword from her back. She was still annoyed with its loss, but thoughts of it brought up memories of poor, ill-fated Uriel, and her Mother and Lucifer. Dwelling on them all hurt; the diminutive angel was different from her siblings, as she spent the majority of time away from the pacifying aura of the Silver City, she was more aware of her emotional spectrum than the others, including Lucifer. Perhaps especially Lucifer, who despite his self-centered viewpoint was very self-unaware. She'd paid his detective a visit the first time they'd both been shot and even then, his curiosity and affection for her was more than what he'd expressed for the endless parade of mortals that he bedded. Yet she wasn't foolish enough to think that she was an expert on humanity…or divinity for that matter, instead she merely performed her duty and tried to outrun the heartache.
She buried the blade nearly as tall as she was into the soft soil, the claymore not quite strong enough to rend the gates of Heaven, but strong enough to make short work of any human, demon or angel foolish enough to cross Death. Amenadiel got all of the attention because he was the oldest and was once dutiful to a fault, but Azrael was the only angel that he could not defeat. She was also the only one that he never challenged, and since Azrael had no use for the posturing of warriors, she let him keep his hollow title. Although Azrael's natural demeanor was pleasant and even shy in some ways, there was a reason that Lucifer often stated that she was no sweet peach.
The flaming sword had been a siphon, designed to pull the pain and anger of the user and turn it into divine fire. Azrael had built a protective hilt and pommel for the blade to keep it from driving her insane eons ago, but doing so allowed Uriel to be able to handle the blade, resulting in his loss and the loss of Goddess. Azrael had never asked, but she suspected that given the emotions sparked by dealing with frail humanity, their Father had designed a way to keep his firstborns from becoming mired in emotion like humanity did. In the glow of the Silver City, angels wanted for nothing but to remain in God's presence. They forgot the loss of Goddess and their family torn apart by war and they longed for nothing but to prove themselves to their silent father; so different from humanity that did as they chose. She still wasn't sure if that was a gesture of love towards the Angelic Host or favoritism towards humanity. She tried not to dwell on it much, as the desire for freedom, and the right to choose had turned sibling against sibling and had even set Goddess and God against one another.
Better to focus on what she could control, like her duty.
As the attendant of life's end, Azrael was the executioner of Heaven; it wasn't particularly a role that she relished, especially after Lucifer challenged the nature of the Angelic Host but it was hers to perform and she would not falter. Even worse, as Death's messenger she saw all of the carnage that humans inflicted upon each other constantly. Lucifer believed that angels deserved the same free will as humanity, the same right to make or fail their fate, to love, live and hate and to even live apart from the Silver City if they so chose and he'd been cast out for it. Along with anyone that openly sided with him. So the fearless Angel of Death, known for her ferocity in battle and her temper that could make a demon seem tame, held her tongue and broke her own heart as she watched her favorite brother and any that sided with him be sent away.
Azrael had followed Lucifer around like a baby duck since the moment she'd been formed, for he was the only one in Heaven that didn't treat her like she was different. As the former gatekeeper of Heaven and the shepherd of the dead, Azrael had always been viewed as strange by the rest of her siblings. She had the most contact with humanity, seeing them at their ends, no matter their age or status, yet because she governed the end of life, an aspect that no immortal angel could understand, she was an outcast. No one would say it to her face, but the Angelic Host viewed her as something alien, something other that they couldn't truly comprehend. No one saw her for who she was except Samael Lucifer Morningstar. It had felt like a betrayal when he had been willing to wage war to prove his point, willing to deny her the one person that understood her. It felt like her heart had grown cold at his loss.
She began to embrace the falsehoods that humanity and some of her siblings believed her to be. For a time she even wore a face in the form of a skull to terrify humanity or she wore billions of eyes and tongues to make the mortals fear and respect her. She began to lose herself, began to become something that Lucifer had incurred damnation to prevent... she'd become nothing more than a tool, a weapon. A mere pawn that performed a role, with no thoughts beyond her divine determined purpose…she existed but did not live. She didn't expect her own salvation to come to her eons later as she attended to a car crash. Even then the tiny human's spirit had been radiant, her defiant brilliance reminded Azrael so much of Lucifer. That…was the reason that she told herself that prompted her to change the course of the life of a dying human. She'd spoken in Spanish to quickly soothe the girl, but when Ella reached out to take her hand, unafraid, her heart had been lost. Thus, for the first time in her long existence did the Angel of Death ignore her ledger.
Azrael checked on Ella whenever she could, at first to make sure that there were no repercussions for her actions…yet the Silver Thrones were now empty. Goddess had been banished and God…God spoke to no one now. There was no one to deem her actions a violation of divine law except Azrael herself. Unlike the pure Morningstar, Death had no qualms with lying. After all, she often had to lie to dying humans to help them accept their impending demise, it was a kindness, a comfort and what she did for Ella had been the same. She enjoyed being Rae-Rae, the angel that she truly was, but no one but Lucifer and Mother had cared to see. With Ella she could know the joy of the living, the closest thing that she, the next to last formed of the Host knew of the radiance of her Mother and Father. She grew with Ella, geeking out and playing, slowly but unknowingly knitting herself into the mortal plane. After millennia isolated among the Angelic Host and with Lucifer gone, Azrael had found someone else that truly saw her. She knew the bliss of acceptance and with that Death felt love, pure and guileless.
That's why it broke her heart one more time when Ella asked her to stop visiting her. She hadn't understood that there was a reason that divinity and humanity remained separate, for she was humanity's companion at its end, she didn't think of the impact she had on the living. Ella was terrified that she was going mad, seeing a "ghost" and hearing Azrael's voice that called her to mischief. Azrael didn't understand how her companionship could hurt the human she'd come to love so dearly, but she accepted Ella's rejection. It was better to walk away from her than to watch her turn to reckless gambling and drinking to drown out Azrael's presence. She hadn't wanted Ella to suffer for their association, but the thought of losing her completely tore the Angel of Death apart.
She pinched the bridge of her nose, wishing that she was wearing the glasses of her Rae-Rae disguise just for something to fidget with. Ella was…salvation, though Azrael would go to her destruction before she admitted it. She'd watched the little human grow and thrive yet warp and shatter under the weight of her perceived hallucinations. Samael Lucifer was the bright light of ambition, so desire was something that he inherently understood, even if he didn't grasp the motivations behind human desire. He was like a floodlight or a star, burning out all motivation until only the basest impulses of humanity remained. Death could view and understand more of the nuances of humanity…and more of the darkness as well. There wasn't a soul from murderer to saint that didn't feel her touch, and as such Azrael's gentle nature was tempered with ruthlessness. If Lucifer was purity, his rage always righteous even when self-directed, then Azrael was a shroud, a veil that could dim some of the light and further blight the darkness. Perhaps it was for the best that Ella had Lucifer to protect her now. The two bright and brilliant stars she loved most wouldn't be tainted by her darkness.
Only now Ella was drifting, drowning in her shaken faith. Ella's faith was pure, honest, tempered by her second chance at life and her "evidence" in the form of Rae-Rae. As such she now questioned the world, and the nature of the Father that would let so many horrible things happen and her heart raged against the injustice of the world. It didn't help that the only true evil creatures in creation were humanity, demons and angels were in thrall to their stations, but humanity rose and fell as it chose. Ella didn't understand that this was the terrible gift of free will, the gift of imperfection…humanity could strive to meet its potential or fail utterly in a grotesque cesspool of violence and vice.
Free will, while given to both the Children of Goddess and God and the Children of God Alone was not something that the Angelic Host truly chose to use. In the absence of both of the Silver Thrones, Angels attempted to keep the status quo to sustain their yearning for divinity while humans allowed their free will to govern their every action. Azrael wasn't sure which side was correct, although she knew the recent return of Amenadiel ruffled some feathers. Azrael had known that Angels self-actualized but she'd assumed that all of her siblings shared that same understanding. After all they manifested it in their forms; bodies that while not as limitless as the Silver Thrones or as easily malleable as Lilith's children, were manipulated without thought. They could make their wings appear and disappear at will, they didn't have to groom beyond their wings and if they wanted they could alter their appearances somewhat; although that required a flexibility that most angels were too rigid to achieve.
Azrael felt free will chanting in her soul, beating in time with her heart, singing Ella, Ella, Ella. Yet she couldn't go to her, she couldn't comfort her, Ella had wanted her gone, had allowed her presence one last time and then cast her out. Her wings shifted in discomfort, she may not have been cast out from the Silver City…but surely this was what it felt like. She just barely held on to her duty and her devotion when all she wanted was to cast her prayers towards a human that wished she didn't exist. It was for the best, truly…no mortal could withstand the love of Death. The Angel of Death had been so lost in thought that she had lost track of time and while she didn't startle, she was somewhat surprised to feel Lucifer lay a hand upon her shoulder.
"We have to stop meeting like this, Azrael."
"Lu!"
The Morning Star stood above his sister, holding an obscenely large icecream cone in each hand and he held out one – triple chocolate decadence, Ella's and thus Azrael's favorite- for his sister to take. Azrael quirked an eyebrow and Lucifer rolled his eyes. "Well do hurry up, its hotter than the surface of the sun out here and if any of this drops on my suit you are paying for the dry cleaning." A part of Azrael was still the newly formed angel that followed Lucifer everywhere, so she automatically took the treat. "You mind making yourself corporal sister? I'd rather not look like a lunatic talking to thin air while I eat my ice cream. The detective complains about my eccentricities enough as is." The Angel of Death giggled as she made herself visible, although her sword remained undetectable to the human eye. She suspected he was playing hooky from the crime scene that Ella was working nearby, waiting until the right moment to make his dramatic entrance. Either that or he saw her as he was heading to the crime scene and made a detour to attend to her. Azrael would save them both the embarrassment of her asking which was his reasoning.
Immediately, Lucifer settled in next to her, graceful as always despite holding his own absurdly large ice cream cone. Without much else to do, she began to eat the icecream and she let out a soft moan at the taste. Lucifer chuckled at the response even as he tucked into his own treat with a delicacy that seemed almost out of character for him if one didn't realize that he was elegance incarnate. "You see! I've always told you there were great pleasures in this world. I've always found it ridiculous that humans get to have food…and alcohol while we just bask in the light of the thrones. Even Remiel's hunting is rather useless since the stags don't stay dead long enough for you to eat them."
The Angel of Death giggled even as she worked down her treat; Lucifer had always teased Remiel for her obsession with hunting and Amenadiel was always the first to defend her hobby. Although the Morning Star likely incurred her ire since he equated it to humping a rock. Amenadiel had to hold the huntress back after that jab, and while Remiel yelled every insult that she could think of in every last language that she knew, there was something…inefficient about the lack of vulgarity in most of the Angelic Host's way of speaking. They ate in silence for a little bit longer and Lucifer finished his cone first, and he leaned back looking down at the homes below, and especially one in particular. "Speaking of pleasures dear sister, there is one that I've been wondering about. You've been among humanity for a long time…even longer than I have, any indulgence in the pleasures of the flesh?"
Azrael nearly spat out her icecream at the question. Lucifer's powers didn't work on her, but that didn't mean that he couldn't just wear her down by pestering her like any other brother. She twitched, ruffling her invisible wings as she glanced at her brother. "Why the question Lu? You never cared if any of us were partaking of humanity before…more focused on your own conquests." Lucifer smiled, that grin that was somehow brilliantly pure and sinfully oily at the same time and Azrael felt a headache coming on. "Simple, dear sister, since you decided to look out for me, I thought I'd return the favor…after all I hate owing debts. Besides, now that I know to look for you, you have been remarkably easy to find. I know how your reaping works Azrael; you like to find a quiet spot to anchor yourself while you send out your soul to collect the recently departed or dying. Yet it's the fact that you chose this location that interests me."
The Angel of Death tried not to fidget. Lucifer respected her, but that didn't mean that he didn't lean on the age difference like any other older sibling. She knew he wasn't just asking about sex, but rather sex with one individual in particular and she felt herself blush at the thought. Annoyed, she tried to deflect him even as she took an angry chomp out of her icecream…grateful that she couldn't get a brain freeze. Ella always made those look horrible.
"So what, you think you are the only one that likes LA?"
Azrael tried to sound nonchalant, even as she kept her gaze pointedly away from the reason she'd chosen this spot to reap in peace. Lucifer snorted, the sound somehow both elegant and condescending, and she knew that she hadn't fooled him at all.
"Oh please, you have a fearsome temper Rae-Rae but you've always been terrible at bluffing. And since you don't actually intend to attack me, you are rather harmless right now. You and I both know that this little spot provides a very nice view of Miss Lopez's domicile. And with your eyesight it also provides a nice view of her bedroom when the blinds aren't shut…and even if they are. Who would have thought… the Angel of Death a Peeping Tammy?"
"Said the biggest slut in history."
Lucifer merely arched his eyebrow and Azrael let out a huff. Unfortunately, she couldn't hold the number of partners he'd indulged over his head the way she could with a human. For one, his age would lend to him having a high number of partners even if he tended to engage in monogamous relationships, but also unlike humans they were not tied by human concerns. They had no concept human social standing, while not sterile, it was…difficult for an angel and human to procreate without invoking a miracle…and Lucifer had no interest in miracles and sex wasn't truly taboo as it was with humans. While angels were sexually dimorphic just like humanity, they didn't possess any of the mating imperative that humans had. 'Be fruitful and multiply' seemed more like a curse than a gift, for humans were addled with lust and they often used it to hurt, abuse or shame each other.
Angels could feel desire and once evoked possessed a libido proportional to their personality and divinity, but they had to have a reason for it. For Lucifer, he viewed pleasure as a birthright, after all unlike humans they did not age or grow sick and aside from the Great War they had no reason to fight…wasn't the point of being divine beings living in paradise to mean that one should always be happy and know the pleasures of life? Azrael had likely been exposed to kinkier sex than even Lucifer was comfortable with, considering the number of humans that killed themselves accidentally during coitus, but it had never meant anything to her. Angels could traverse the universe, and they could hear the stars sing…what was an orgasm in comparison to that? Yet the thought of Ella, sweet, dearest Ella writhing with yearning that only Azrael could quench and she would gladly…
The Angel of Death shook her head to clear it, for down that road lay madness.
Beside her, Lucifer sighed, sounding very put upon as if he knew both the direction Azrael's thoughts had taken and her attempts to defuse them. He leaned over and nudged her with his shoulder, reminding Azrael of old times.
"Talk to her. Besides you and I both know that you could do a much better job at rocking her world than Detective Douche…I still have no idea what Mom saw in him…besides there is no bigger cry for help than sleeping with him."
The Angel of Death did a double take as Lucifer casually mentioned their Mother having a relationship with a human, let alone the human that Ella most recently bedded. Azrael tried not to think about that since thinking about Ella laying with someone usually made her angry and it was never good when Death was angry. Angels might have been forbidden from killing humans, but no one knew how to walk a human right up to that line better than Azrael. She wasn't ashamed of her power or her possessiveness, but she didn't want to cause Ella pain.
"Besides…I don't know if she…she wouldn't …I…"
"Azrael, you've literally been by her side most of her life. You and I both know she likes the female form quite a bit…even more than the male one. Not only that you are a divinely beautiful being, just because you mute that around humans doesn't make it less true…and given Miss Lopez's rambling personality, which I'm sure you influenced, I'm certain she finds your more... knowledge obsessed qualities attractive. You and Uriel were literally Heaven's nerds…you poor sods. Add a dash of your darker side for a little spice and you are essentially her walking, talking, flying, reaping fantasy."
Azrael sputtered, too embarrassed to pick out the backhanded complements and flay her brother for the insults. She thought of Ella's admonishments of her watching her in the shower and she blushed so red that Lucifer started to fan her face. In the beginning, it had been more about making sure her favorite human was ok; sex and sexual attraction meant less than nothing to her so what harm was there in seeing how humans groomed? Yet the imperfection of humanity slowly became perfection in its own right in her eyes and she began to wonder if Lucifer's obsession with sexual pleasure had merit. Yet as they bonded as 'ghost' and best friend, the media that Ella consumed was mostly heterosexual, so Azrael had assumed that Ella would not wish to engage in coitus with a female rather than understanding the limits human taboos placed on the media they created or consumed.
By the time she'd caught Ella with her tongue down the throat of her first girlfriend she'd been too hurt and angry to rejoice in the possible avenue to Ella's affections. When Ella rejected her not long after that, Death set aside her broken heart and sent her beloved to the side of her dearest sibling. Love was love and the love of an angel knew no nuance…this was enough…it had to be lest she drown in heartbreak. Lucifer was wrong…he had to be, so she stood abruptly, throwing the remains of her cone to the ground and flaring her six pairs of wings so that only a fellow celestial could see them.
"Ella's love life is none of your business, Lucifer! Why do you even care?"
Lucifer stood and looked at his sister, the darkness that being Death's messenger had swirled in her soul, the power and deadly skill that radiated easily from her…and yet the lost, yearning look beneath the anger. A feeling he was more than familiar with thanks to his own personal miracle. So Lucifer did something he hadn't done in eons, he reached out and enveloped the most ruthless and most gentle member of the Angelic Host into his arms and he enfolded her in his brilliant plumage, also invisible to mortal eyes. Azrael, half balked, half leaned into him, torn between wanting to hold on to her anger and wanting to feel the embrace that had been denied her for eons. As he began to croon softly in the language of the Silver City, singing in his clear voice that had once put even Metatron to shame, Death began to relax and she sobbed softly against her big brother's chest.
"Simple. I'm tired of her moping…and my little sister is in love. I've come to find that to be true divinity."
"Thanks, Lu."
"You are quite welcome, Rae-Rae. Although you are going to have to pay for this suit to be cleaned. It seems Miss Lopez taught you how to ugly cry."
Azrael snorted but nosed further against him, loving the sweet smell of the Sun about his skin that he had to cover with cologne. Leave it to the most proud and vain of the Angelic Host to make her pining about him.
"So, how do you plan to reveal yourself to her?"
Azrael kept her hold on her brother even as that question tugged at her. Human sanity was a very fragile thing…and while revealing her divinity to Ella would enthrall her with ease…she didn't want that, or rather she didn't want that without Ella being in love with her first. Which meant she would have to explain herself while posing as a human. Pretending to be a ghost had given her access to Ella that a human couldn't have, but now she'd boxed herself into a corner. Her mind tripped and stumbled over itself and the diminutive angel began to hyperventilate, actions which Lucifer had absolutely no idea what to do with. It wasn't like she could die or pass out from lack of oxygen, but he'd never actually seen an angelic panic attack before. As much as he loved Ella and his sister, he was starting to think they had too much of an influence upon one another. Both angels were so preoccupied with their current mental dismantlement that neither of them noticed the sound of jogging footsteps, at first evenly paced and then rushed as the jogger ran to meet them.
"Hey are you ok…Lucifer? What is going o…RAE-RAE?"
Lucifer realized that he was wrong as he watched the most fearsome warrior in Heaven (and highly respected in Hell…barring Maze's animosity) sway woozily, before her eyes rolled back into her head and she pitched backwards. Her small body hit the tarmac before Lucifer could process what was going on or before the woman that caused the Angel of Death to actually faint could do anything. Somewhere inside his confused mind, nestled next to his worry for Azrael, Lucfier wondered why he bothered getting involved in the first place if it was going to turn out like this.
"Uh, Miss Lopez, I can assure you there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this…"
I know the new season is going to upend this but I started this story the second they introduced Rae-Rae and made Ella make way more sense in show.
R. Niiyama
8/2020