God once again sat with all his children gathered around a conference table. He decided to waste no time after his son had given him permission to tell the others. It wasn't a conversation he looked forward to, but he decided it was best to get it over with. "Thank you all for coming. I apologize for having to take you from your duties once again. I know you all have had questions regarding recent events, and I thank you for your patience. Now, I must prepare you before we begin. What you will hear today will be very difficult. It will make most, if not all of you, very angry. Believe me when I say I can relate to that."
God looked at his children and saw that they all looked really worried. Well, with the exception of Michael and Amenadiel, both of whom looked very somber, having already known what he planned to discuss with them today. God would like to assure his children that things weren't as bad as they feared, but he couldn't. They were in fact worse. "I know you all felt my rage when I learned about what I'm about to tell you, and I know it worried you. I apologize, but I could not share this information without permission from Samael."
"Is this about why you allowed him to come home?" Raphael asked.
"Yes and no. It encouraged me to ask sooner, but I had already seen my mistake in banishing Samael, and had plans to end it," God explained.
"Mistake? He rebelled," his son, Hariel, said, to which many of the others nodded in agreement.
"We are not here to discuss Samael's rebellion," God said sternly.
"Aren't we?" Michael asked without thinking. "I apologize, Father. I just meant that it's certainly connected to what you're about to say.
"There's no need to apologize, son. You make a good point. I'll rephrase. We are not here for any of you to judge your brother. I will have none of that. I suppose we're getting off subject a bit. A lot has been brought to my attention recently. It seems that I have made many misjudgments lately, both regarding humanity and Samael," God said.
"This is about the souls too then. You said last time that it had to do with your anger," Gabriel said.
"Yes. As I said before, I learned of souls here that should've gone straight to Hell. They did not because they had no remorse for their actions. I became aware of this by discovering that Adam and Eve should never have been able to enter after death," he said.
There were gasps all around the room. "The first souls? Destined for Hell?" Raphael asked in disbelief.
"What does that say about the rest?" Yael, a young looking woman with shoulder length brown hair and pale skin, said from next to Michael.
"Humans have always been terrible creatures," Remiel agreed.
"What have they done, Father? It can't just by the fact that they've sinned that upsets you so much. And what does it have to do with Samael? It's not about the Garden, is it?" Gabriel asked. Surely that wasn't enough of a sin to get the first two souls sent to Hell. Yes, they'd gone against God's instructions, but even if that was enough to get them into Hell, it wasn't really their fault. They were tempted by Samael.
"It is, but not in the way you're thinking, son. The events in the Garden of Eden was not how any of us perceived them. The truth is a lot darker, and it will be hard for all of you to hear. When Samael went into the Garden, defiance was the furthest thing from his mind. I believe he was merely curious. That is my fault. I should've been more open about my project. If I had, I may have been able to prevent what happened to him," God said somberly. He would never forgive himself for what happened to his son. Not only had he created Adam and Eve, but he'd kept them so secret in the beginning that they were bound to attract his son's attention.
God took a deep breath before continuing. "When I found out the manner of the interaction that was taking place in the Garden with Samael, I jumped to the wrong conclusion. Humanity had barely begun. I didn't realize the things that they would be capable of doing because of Free Will. What actually occurred in the Garden had never happened before. Adam was the first human to ever do something so depraved."
Azrael began to feel sick to her stomach. Out of all her siblings, she'd been around humans and Earth the most. She knew what they were capable of. Well, her siblings probably did too, but she'd actually seen the result of it. She'd seen what it did to humans who survived what she believed her father was alluding to, and the result of those who didn't survive it, as many didn't survive the encounter. She did not want to imagine that happening to her favorite big brother, but the more her father spoke, the more she got that feeling.
God decided it was best to just say it this point. He'd delayed actually saying it long enough. "Samael did not tempt anyone in the Garden. He was assaulted, first by Adam, and later by Eve as well. They forced themselves on him.
Azrael started crying, as her suspicions were confirmed. Her big brother was the victim of rape. It was worse than that though. He wasn't just Adam and Eve's victim. He was all of Heaven's too. They'd all judged him for tempting Eve. Well, Azrael didn't because she'd been too young at the time to understand, but everyone else had.
Right next to her, Gabriel pulled Azrael into his arms. "Are… Are you sure, Father?"
"I'm afraid so, son," God said.
"No, he must be lying," Remiel said.
"Shut up, Remiel," Michael snarled.
Azrael pulled out of her brother's arms and glared at her sister. "Lucifer doesn't lie!"
"Remiel's right. This can't be true. The Devil is trying to deceive us," Raguel on the other side of Gabriel. To a human, he would appear to be in his late twenties. He had short red hair and blue eyes.
"That's enough!" God said in a slightly raised tone. "I have already made it clear that Samael will not be judged by any of you! He is not lying. As it happens, I did not come by this information from Samael. The information was brought to Amenadiel's attention by Eve herself. I confirmed it by viewing Adam's memories. Not that I needed that confirmation. Azrael is right. Samael doesn't lie."
"This is why a few of us saw him break down by the cells, isn't it," Raziel asked. He had dark, almost black, curly hair and blue eyes. He looked to be in his late teens to early twenties.
"But no human would be any match for us. Why would he not defend himself?" Remiel asked.
"We weren't allowed to hurt humans," Gabriel said sadly. He could only imagine that that was what his brother had been thinking. It was the only explanation that made sense.
"But surely he would not be punished for defending himself," Remiel said as she eyed her father.
"Of course not, but he was young, and I had not made that clear. I didn't think I needed to. I never imagined something like this would happen," God said sadly. Again, he was reminded of the ways he could've prevented this.
Everyone was quiet for a few moments, taking the information in. God watched the different emotions on his children's faces. They ranged from shock, to sorrow, to rage. Many seemed to have all of that on their faces at once.
"Is this why he rebelled?" Raziel asked in a shaky voice.
"Yes, it has much, if not all, to do with it," God said.
"They should die for this! No, they're already dead! They should be annihilated! They are filth!" Gabriel snarled.
"Yes! They have harmed one of us. They need to suffer!" Remiel added. She was not the emotional type, but she considered herself to be protective of celestials, and despite the fact that they were not close, it was still her brother that those people had harmed.
There were many nods and voices of agreement.
God was pleased to see that his children had seen past any anger they might have had for their brother and were instead seemed ready to stand behind him. "They will suffer. That I assure all of you. I understand your anger. I too wanted to destroy them. I nearly did, but it was brought to my intention that that would not be fair to Samael. He deserves Justice. He deserves to see them suffer. He will get that, but as I said, these monsters will suffer greatly.
"What about the rest of humanity. We've removed the unworthy souls from Heaven, but I don't think that's good enough. None of them are worthy of even existing, let along residing here," Gabriel said.
"Gabriel, that's not true," Amenadiel said.
"Yes, it is! Look at what they've done!" Gabriel yelled.
"Not all humans are bad!" Azrael protested.
"They all stem from Adam and Eve! How can we expect anything different of them than the first two!" Raguel asked.
"Lucifer does not want them killed!" Azrael yelled. No, he hadn't exactly said that to her, but she knew it was the truth. He chose to live among them, despite what happened to him.
"No, he doesn't," God said. "Listen, I won't deny that I'm struggling with the question of humanity's worth myself, but that is not what is important right now. Right now, your brother is needs to be the priority. As I'm sure you can all imagine, he's struggling right now, especially since realizing that everyone would learn about what happened to him."
"What can we do for him? How do we help him?" Raphael asked. He was usually the first one to speak up about how to help someone heal, but this was different. He didn't know how to heal emotional wounds.
"The first thing you do is refrain from pitying him. He doesn't want that. In fact, I think it's one of his fears. I think the best thing you can do is be there for him. Let him now that you're here to help him however he needs, but wait for him to seek you out. It may be a little while before he's ready to face anyone. Give him space. And I'm sure most of you are aware of this, but he prefers to be called Lucifer. I suggest you all try to use it. I will be trying as well," God said. Admittedly, he hadn't done so well with that thus far. It was hard to call his son something other than the name he'd used for eons.
They all nodded.
"If no one else has anything they want to say, you're all free to go. If you have nothing essential to do, you may take the day off from your duties. I know I've put a lot on you today," God said.
They all got up and began filing out of the room.