Bartleby was about to turn back to Loki when the dying angel whispered, "Kneel, Bartleby."

            Bartleby knew the sign of respect to God, but his fear of losing Loki was too great.  However, when his friend told him too, he turned away and kowtowed before God.

            "Don't worry, Bartleby.  Everything will be fine." Metatron spoke for God.

            She knelt at Loki's side.  A white glow built around Her hands as She held them above Loki.  The light flared around Her and the angel.  When it died away, Loki lay there, completely healed.  His wings were fully fledged, his wounds gone.  God held Her hands in Bartleby's direction.  Light spread from Her hands to his and surrounded his wings, healing him.  Then She held out Her hands to Loki.  He took them gratefully and embraced God. 

            God pulled away after a moment and nodded.  Metatron snapped his fingers and turned to the surrounding human crowd. 

            "Nothing has happened here.  Go away."

            The crowd nodded as if in agreement and left, some looking dazed.  Metatron smiled. "Works every time."

            God spoke then, for no humans were around. "You have done well."

            Those four simple words of praise warmed Loki and Bartleby more than the most gratitude-filled human speech could have ever done. 

            "Thank you." Loki replied softly.

            God smiled, waved to Bartleby and ran into the flames, disappearing with Metatron at her side. As they left, Metatron winked to the angels.

            "Goodbye." he mouthed to them as the flames encircled him and God.

            Bartleby helped Loki to stand and saw that his friend did so a little unsteadily.

            "I never want to go through that again.  Dying is like Hell, only worse." Loki said.

            "To an angel, yes." Bartleby replied.

            Loki laughed mirthlessly. "To anyone, I bet."

            The angel of Death sighed, reached for his sword and grimaced at the blood on it. "Demon-blood.  Wonderful."

            "Come on, Loki.  Let's go," Bartleby lifted his wings and flapped into the air slowly.  Loki sighed again, and followed Bartleby into the sky.  No one seemed to notice two very large bird-like figures winging their way through the air.

THE END

It's a short chapter, mostly because I wanted to finish this story.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this!