I keep forgetting to upload in , sorry. The story is also in archiveofourown under Raphael0s

Why?

He was flying. It was the only thing his mind fully registered at the moment, it was too scared to do anything else. In the back of his mind, he knew he was being followed by fifteen to twenty angels, angels he had begged- asked to follow him. It was for their own safety, he knew they were aware of that. They would have followed him willingly, for this reason or another, but they all knew the situation was dire.

Speeding through the air, faster than he had thought possible for him. Either flying this much had made him stronger or he always was this powerful.

Wouldn't Mother tell him that though?

No! Not again, he would not question her, questions were bad. It would only make her sad, and he did not want that.

He does not want to be compared to his brother, not anymore. Was it even right to compare your children with each other? Raphael could not help but question it, he had always had a certain dislike when being compared with others, even with simpler things.

Pushing that thought aside, he made a quick hand motion, signaling to the younger angels behind him to change direction.

Flying like a flock was not usually his favorite thing to do, but right now he was more than happy to do it and lead it.

They were close, they just had to fly a little bit more.

Suddenly he heard a cacophony of screams. The others were getting closer.

FASTER.

He quickly looked behind him, trying to assess how many were after them and how many of them were armed. It was harder than he thought it would be - one thing he did see was that they were coming and they were coming fast.

Panic and fear gradually began building up inside of him. He did not know what to do, but he was positive some of the angels following him would not make it.

Mulling over who it could be made his panic build up faster. Feeling the tears craving to be let free, he numbly refused their requests. Almost as quickly as the panic and fear had come, it disappeared, a numb feeling swiftly overtaking him, all the emotions he had felt before were suddenly at the back of his mind and out of reach.

He could not make an emotional decision on this anymore. The idea of what to do suddenly struck him.

He looked at the angel closest to him and yelled 'duck!', realizing the angel did not understand him, he repeated the yell and made some ducking motions.

He recognized the angel. They were one of the Powers who were usually around the garden. He liked talking with them about the plants.

Seeing the realization appear in the angel's grey eyes would have been such a beautiful sight if Raphael didn't feel so numb. He made sure his plan would be repeated to the others flying further behind them.

The angels that were after them were not far behind, some of them had already begun grabbing the trailing angel's tails.

He hummed a tune, before he sharply changed direction, flying obliquely. He prayed that the others had done the same. He heard rather than saw the flaps of angel wings, followed by screams. There was no time to look back and see the damage, no matter how much his healing nature compelled him to.

They just had to get away. They were getting closer but it was still so far away.

Maybe they could take a shortcut through the crystal avalanches. It pretty much leads directly to the entrance of the healing wards, which he had made into a neutral zone: no one was allowed in if they had any weapons and means to attack.

It had gotten mixed reactions when he did it, but it was of no importance. As long as there was peace somewhere, there could be hope.

He searched for the crystal avalanches, spotting them not a moment too soon. He looked at the angel he had yelled at earlier and made the same gesture, just slightly different.

It was a dangerous choice, since the avalanche had a wild wind, and would easily throw you around if you weren't careful. But being careful here was not an option. It was usually fun to visit and has been something of a dare, but now, you just can't.

Admittedly, the easiest option to defend yourself in there and avoid injuries is to either be a flying bouncy ball with some kind of chosen armour, or in this case, to hold hands and become the flying bouncy ball.

Thankfully, just like last time the grey eyed angel unstood what he meant, and repeated it to the other angels who were flying with them. It was harder since some of them were fighting someone else or avoiding someone, he even saw a few fall with swords or lances stuck in them.

Gliding towards the crystal avalanches was easy enough for him until someone began yanking on one of his wings, dragging him down.

The angels, aware of the change continued, despite him slowing down.

They watched while he fought the other angel, narrowly avoiding the axe. The angels he flew with began grabbing each other's hands. The perpetrators seemed unaware of the change.

Good.

The red-winged cherub fighting him, had a dark glint in his eye, the cherub also didn't seem to care who he was fighting. The red-winged angel swung the axe madly, seemingly not caring about falling. Just as he was about to give up hope while fighting the mad angel, another suddenly came to his rescue.

He didn't immediately recognize him, but it was the same grey eyed angel that had helped him. Why was he not following the others?! The angel's blue wings flapped hard as he crashed into the cherub, the force of the collision throwing the cherub and him downwards. The Power was close and he reached out his hand, trying to grab the Power's.

The Power struck his hand up, brushing against Raphael's hand before he was yanked down with the sickening sound of something sharp carving through living flesh, and the pained scream that followed was something Raphael was not likely to forget soon.

The strong beats of wings was all he registered as he watched the two angels fall. Only one of the angels flew upwards again.

"Do you remember the war?"

"Yes," Lucifer replied quietly.

"I think it was the War that separated us-" Michael began, but Lucifer cut her off.

"-You think it was the War? Thinking may not be your strong suit, but that is purely stupidity. Of course it was the War!"

"-as I was saying. I think it is the war, but admittedly, it began before that."

Lucifer looked down. "I think you may be right."

"But when?"

"I think it began when Mother created the garden. We all knew it's creation was leading up to something bigger," Crowley suddenly spoke, having been quiet until that moment. "Maybe not consciously, but we all knew," he added the last part bitterly.

Uriel looked at him, shocked by hearing speak about it so bitterly.

It is strange how you learn more about how someone is really feeling when you deal with these kinds of confrontations, but is that not the point in the end? To learn what really happened.

...

There was an unsure air in the room. It had come in soon after a few unsuccessful attempts at starting the meeting in the right direction, and refused to leave them be.

It seemed as though all the room's occupants had given up on trying to figure out a way to start it.

"This… This sucks, none of us know how to do this. Honestly, it has no right to be this difficult as it currently is!"

Flying through the air had always been easy in itself. Feeling your wings spreading to their full length always gave some sort of excitement, but usually it was what would happen shortly afterwards that really had the excitement in it.

But today, today it held no excitement. The closest thing to it that it had would be stress, and stressful it was!

He was currently delivering a message (like he had been for a while now) to Sa- no! Not that. To Lucifer's army. Mostly to Lucifer himself though.

On his way there, he made sure that he had not been followed by anyone from either side.

It had not taken long to arrive at the meeting place, and he suspected that there was something giving the place a certain something, which subconsciously screamed 'come here, come to be' and also 'do not come near this place.'

"Hello, is anyone there?" he asked and the giant trees around him whistled softly, as if echoing his 'hello'. Maybe they were. It would not be surprising, he thought.

"Raphael," someone spoke, making him shriek in surprise before looking around, trying to find the person through the dense forest.

Turning around, he found Asbeel looking at him, a cynical glint in her eyes, her wings spread out in an almost threatening manner. It could have been threatening if it was not for the fact that they both knew she was no match for him, in rank and power.

Yet she still stood, her wings extended in a threatening manner, or at least she did until a figure quickly jumped on her, making her fall.

Asbeel looked at her attacker, drawing her weapon. "Who dares to attack me! Do you not know who I am?!"

"I do," Lucifer said, glancing at the fallen Asbeel, who still held her weapon, looking shocked at Lucifer.

"Bu- Bu-"

"No buts! Asbeel, no one attempts to attack my brother, do you understand?" Lucifer snapped and reached a hand down. Asbeel looked at the outstretched and before accepting it. "Besides… The healers are neutral in this chaos. I hope you remember the definition of that word."

Asbeel nodded, looking at Raphael with distrust.

Turning his attention away from Asbeel, Lucifer calmly looked at his brother. "Now, why are you here, dear brother? The healing grounds are neutral and this is not the healing grounds." Lucifer asked, squinting at him, making the hazel of his eyes seem almost black in the dark of the forest.

Suddenly feeling very small, he quickly looked away before reaching into the bag he had carried with him, ignoring the tensing looks it got.

"Are you still doing that? Transferring messages across the battlefield?" Lucifer looked at him with an expression he refused to name. Raphael did not want to admit what it might mean for the future.

Lucifer sighed, looking at him, he walked over and motioned for him to give him whatever new message the other side had written this time.

As he put his hand in the bag, (there were more than one scroll in it, excuse him if it did not take two seconds.) As he searched as quickly as he could, Sa- Lucifer apparently took that as his que to speak to him.

"You know I still do not get what you think you will accomplish with this 'back and forth' you are doing. What you are doing... It is not as heroic and brave as you think. Do you even believe what they write? They don't want this war to end."

"And you do?" Raphael snapped, he did not want any of the sides to win, each had downsides that looked unavoidable. He knew Lucifer would not stop until anyone who was not following him, were dead, meanwhile Michael wanted Lucifer gone. To be punished by God or killed. He was unsure of which was worse. They want him to choose sides, one or the other, or you are a traitor to both. Why was he only allowed to help one side? It should not matter to him, but it did, any grace and blood spilled in this war mattered. Not all personally, but they would always matter to something or someone.

He may have a weak stomach for anything war related and all that comes with it. You try giving a face and a personality to each and every victim that falls prey to this, this justified monstrosity.

Looking back at Asbeel, whom he knew had chosen her part in this, she would not change, only follow her belief.

Lucifer quickly read (skimmed over) the scroll, before rolling his eyes.

"Do you, uh, want me to deliver one to Michael?"

Lucifer looked annoyed at the mention of her name, seeming to think about what he just said. "No. We have no more to share with her and her naïve fellowship."

He did not stick around long after that, he only delayed his departure when he heard some of the words Asbeel said:

"Garden." "The last. " "Compromise." "Meant to fail." "Now."

Whatever it meant, he knew it was nothing good and that he probably had to ignore his third rule of never choosing sides or suspecting things before he knew enough. But this time he did.

He shortly began flying, feeling himself get lighter and lighter, until he was off the ground. He made a short amount of eye contact with Lucifer, he could see, even in those short seconds, that Lucifer knew what he was about to do. Hopefully he would not send someone to kill him. He did not need to see proof of the betrayal. And the disappointment in Lucifer's eyes? It was enough to kill him.

Well, a part of him anyway.