Chapter 38: But the Second Follows Quick

Michael frowned at the lifeless body that lay on his desk, knowing in an instant that this was one of his brother's tricks because otherwise his wings would also be imprinted onto the wood and floor.

"Did you really have to dump him on my desk? Now all the paperwork has bloodstains on it," he complained with a frown.

"I think this is the least of your problems," a voice behind Zachariah said making said angel whip around. "Zach...Zach...Zach...has no one ever told you that if you try to pull such a stunt on a trickster god, you should make sure that it really is him?" he chuckled lowly when he saw the angel's shocked face.

"Hellooo," Loki piped in a singsong voice waiving jovially, taunting the angel. "Trickster god, don't look so surprised, one might think that angels are complete idiots. Oh, wait…angels ARE complete idiots. Or dicks with wings if one can believe a certain someone. Oh, and another word to the wise...make sure that when you attack someone, said someone doesn't have an angel blade himself."

To Zachariah's shock, Loki not only stood right in front of him well and alive but was also pointing an angel blade at him. When the angel reached out with his grace to validate its authenticity, he sucked in a breath.

"Where did you get Lucifer's blade from?" Zachariah questioned, his eyes wide from fear, while blades from angels' lower ranking than him would only hurt like a bitch when stabbed with them, the sword of an archangel could literally kill everything, even another archangel not to mention someone like him.

"I have my methods," Loki replied with a broad grin. "You see I'm very resourceful. Anyway, I suggest you leave and go play with your petty little apocalypse and leave us alone."

"You think that hiding behind a pagan god will help you Dumbledore? Mark my words, you will rue the day you crossed me," Zachariah raged before he vanished into thin air in a manner that clearly told the two archangels that he was pissed off.

Loki, on the other hand, looked at the dead body on the desk with a grin before said body began to waver and shimmer away including the blood his brother had whined about, not that Michael would admit to having whined.

"I have to admit that I'm impressed, you've gotten extremely good with illusions. Were it not for me knowing who you are and the missing imprint of wings, I would have thought that he got you," Michael said with a bit of awe and a frown.

"Frigga is a good teacher, she taught me quite a lot about illusions," Loki shrugged.

Michael chuckled lowly. "However, do you think it wise to antagonise Zachariah in that way? No offence but he will take this personally, and heaven knows what he will do if he thinks that he won't get his way."

"True," Loki said with a sneer.

"But maybe it is better that way," he continued in a musing tone. "I never have been good at keeping up a ruse for long that had always been Lucifer's and your virtue. At least now he thinks my change in attitude is because of you."

Loki snickered. "Never would have dreamed of the day where you dear brother would hide behind me," he said amusedly.

"Ha, ha, very funny. Where did you get Lucifer's blade from anyway?" Michael inquired curiously.

"You remember that one time when Lucy suddenly needed a new one?" Loki replied amused.

Michael nodded. Loki in the way of explaining things waved the blade.

Michael couldn't help himself, but he snorted. "Lucifer bitched for several centuries about how he never loses anything, and you had it all that time," he shook his head in fond amusement. "Is there anything else that suddenly changed its owner?"

Loki only looked at Michael innocently, but Michael didn't buy his act for one second.

"Anyway, I have to return. Harry woke up some time ago and seems to be confused and quite worried. I better go check up on him," Loki said when he suddenly frowned. "That's strange…he's moving…rapidly. Tokyo, Sydney, Malibu…Stockholm?! What?"

Harry was restlessly pacing the hotel room. Loki obviously left while he slept to hell knows where and had yet to return. Then there was the feeling that something might have happened to the pagan god and Harry wondered what he would do should that be true. Sure lately his life took a turn for the better and he even got his parents back, but he knew that nothing of that would have happened had it not been for Loki and for that he was eternally grateful. So should have anything happened to his first and best friend…well, he would go ballistic on the one who hurt him.

So it was no wonder that Harry was currently working himself up when suddenly a man he didn't know showed up in the room making him jump slightly. Said man was older with a nearly bald head and only hair at the back of it. He wore a black suit much like Crowley though with a white shirt instead of a black one. What instantly worried Harry though was the man's aura because it was a blinding white, it was an angel.

"Hello Harry Potter," the angel said in a soft tone and with a warm smile. "I've heard a lot about you, and it's nice to finally meet you in person."

"Who are you and what do you want?" Harry bluntly asked.

"My name's Zachariah. I'm an angel of the Lord and have a task for you. If you complete it to everyone's satisfaction, you'll be greatly rewarded. I'm here to offer you my help," he answered even if a bit peeved that he'd been interrupted, however when he saw Harry's blank look he frowned. "You don't seem to be very impressed that your God has a task for you."

"There is only one god in this universe that I'd gladly follow and that isn't yours, so no I'm not impressed at all. Moreover, if you want Riddle's soul get it yourself," Harry retorted.

"Ah, so you know about it," Zachariah said with a smile that for some reason reminded Harry of Dumbledore, the old Dumbledore, and consequently set him on edge.

"It would be hard to fulfil a task without knowing about what you have to do after all," Harry sneered in a way that would have made Severus proud. "However, you're out of luck…because I won't do it, not now, not ever!"

"You should be careful whom you antagonise," Zachariah snapped, at the end of his patience, he'd played nice in hopes of convincing the boy to play along, but it seemed that it was a hopeless endeavour. "I have methods to get you to comply, so you better play along."

"You have methods? But for that you'd have to catch me first," Harry told the angel with a broad smile before vanishing into thin air.

Zachariah for a moment stared at the spot the boy had been only moments ago before he also vanished following the boy. When he reappeared, he saw that he was on the roof somewhere in a major city. Harry was standing a few feet away from him grinning like a loon, before vanishing again. Zachariah began to swear quite colourfully while following the boy.

The next time he reappeared at a beach though what infuriated Zachariah was that the boy now had the gall to sing.

"I've got to hand it to you

You've played by all the same rules

It takes the truth to fool me

And now you've made me angry,"

(I can't decide – Scissor Sisters)

Harry sang before pulling his vanishing act again.

Zachariah roared in anger drawing quite some attention from other visitors to the beach. How could one boy be so infuriating? Nonetheless, he quickly followed him only to be greeted with another verse of the song.

"I can't decide

Whether you should live or die

Oh, you'll probably go to heaven

Please don't hang your head and cry,"

Harry continued as soon as he saw Zachariah landing in front of him before vanishing again.

"You know for a feather brain you're quite slow. Even a ninety-year-old granny could outrun you," he said with a laugh when Zachariah appeared before him.

That was the last straw for Zachariah. He lurched forward to grab the boy and beat some much-needed sense into him only to fall flat on his face because Harry had again vanished. The angel in his anger and frustration punched a massive hole in the pavement beneath him before getting up and following Harry.

However, in his rage, he didn't pay attention to where exactly he teleported and therefore was not prepared for the fact that he did not land on solid ground again but in the air and even less for the fact that Harry had teleported above a lake of fire hovering above it on a broom. That was the reason for why Zachariah instantly plunged into said lake of fire not able to prevent it in his shock and surprise and because he was too close to the surface.

"Oh I could throw you in the lake

Or feed you poisoned birthday cake

I won't deny I'm gonna miss you when you're gone

Oh I could bury you alive

But you might crawl out with a knife

And kill me when I'm sleeping

That's why

I can't decide

Whether you should live or die

Oh, you'll probably go to heaven

Please don't hang your head and cry,"

Harry laughed while watching Zachariah leave as a ball of bright light once his vessel was destroyed. Though when Harry remembered what Loki had told him about the vessels he instantly felt extremely bad for what he'd done. But then again it was much like it had been with Ruby, kill or be killed. Well, not exactly killed but he doubted that anything Zachariah would have done to him would have been pleasant. Nonetheless, it weighed heavy on him that he again had no other choice than killing someone…this was becoming too often an occurrence for his liking.

Sighing deeply he looked around seeing lakes of fire but also some ruins in the distance to his right as well as something akin to a village to his left.

"So this is hell? Interesting if a bit hot," he muttered but at the moment he wasn't in the mood to explore it more thoroughly not to mention that Loki probably would begin to worry if he didn't return soon.

With a last sad look at the lake of fire he was currently hovering above, he vanished for probably the last time that day and reappeared in the by now well-known office of the headmaster of Hogwarts using his wish to be with Loki for guidance.

Lucifer was sitting in his cage musing about what heaven and hell were up to lately. He knew very well that quite a few of both camps were currently breaking seals left, right and centre on his cage so that he might finally be free to fight with his brother again. Though what neither camp knew was that he didn't want to be out, he actually voluntarily went into the cage in the hope of giving heaven and earth peace again.

However, now everything was endangered once again only because that prick Zachariah thought it an excellent idea to reignite the apocalypse. Well, if that idiot thought that he would play along, he would have another thing coming. Lucifer had no damned reason to fight his brother for a second time because of some petty squabble.

No, he would leave the cage and then go into hiding somewhere neither Zachariah nor his brother Michael would ever expect him to. He was Lucifer after all, and it shan't be said that he wasn't a crafty and sneaky bastard that could be found easily.

What made him wonder though was what he had witnessed lately. Not only had Dean Winchester, who was destined to become his brother's vessel in this fight, willingly come to hell to break the first seal but he also became a demon. That had surprised Lucifer a lot because he would never have expected that, not to mention the relationship he had with Alastair. What he had assumed was that Dean would fight his little trip with tooth and nail which would have been to no avail and then when the seal was broken some little foot soldier from heaven would come and get him out so that he could say yes to his brother.

Sure enough, said angel came after a few hell-decades to get Winchester out but missed him about a few years since the man had already left together with Alastair. He wondered what happened to that little angel. Alas, he would probably never find out.

What it confirmed though, was that something was definitely amiss in this entire scheme and from what he could hear from his cage a certain pagan god called Loki had his hands in it. If what Crowley had let drop was correct then said pagan god not only was the one who convinced Dean that it was a good idea to go to hell willingly, but he also supported breaking the seals, or at least those he deemed safe enough to break, together with the Winchesters.

Loki, this was another unknown factor that had shown up without any reason. The only things he knew about the pagan god was that he was a trickster and foretold to bring Ragnarök to the Norse pantheon which was their apocalypse. Did this Loki think that getting him out would do the trick? If that was true then he was as much a fool as Zachariah, he was no one's puppet. How Loki thought that he could survive a full out war between him and Michael was anyone's guess.

Lucifer was in the middle of imagining how he would show that Loki guy that he would never dance to his fife when suddenly a wave of magic washed through hell. This made Lucifer instantly perk up because it was something that had never happened before in the entire time he had stayed in his prison.

Carefully reaching out with his grace through the bars of his cage and scanning the layers of hell he tried to track down whatever the source of the strange magic had been. What confused him was that it looked like he was the only one who even felt the wave of magic. Not letting himself deter from his search by that conundrum he finally found what he was searching for.

Three levels above him a human living boy was floating above a lake of fire on what seemed to be a magical broom. Lucifer was so surprised by it that he nearly missed how an angel rose from the fiery lake and fled hell.

Had that boy really teleported into hell to dump an angel in one of the lakes of fire? But then there was the soul of the boy that he could clearly feel was not evil, quite the contrary actually. Would he have to categorise it he would say the boy was neutral leaning towards the light. But then there was also a certain randomness to it that somehow reminded him of his youngest brother Gabriel. At last, there was something else. It was faint, and he couldn't quite grasp it, but it made him curious.

Who was this boy that had so suddenly appeared in hell as if he was on a field trip, dumped an angel in the fires of hell and was more of a conundrum than anyone else he had met so far?

Making a moments decision, it became clear for him that he wanted to know more and that would mean that he had things to plan. Suddenly his impending freedom couldn't come soon enough for his liking. Knowing that he couldn't get any information alone while he was in his cage, he called a few demons to him so that they could listen around and gather some needed intel for him.

Lucifer needed to know who that boy was.

As soon as Harry landed, he let his broom fall to the floor, ran up to Loki and embraced him in a tight hug, ignoring Michael completely.

Loki on the other hand first was too stunned to react but quickly recovered from the surprise and gently laid his arms around Harry.

"What happened?" Loki carefully asked when he became aware that Harry was crying against his chest. He carefully picked him up, walked over to a chair and sat down with Harry in his lap.

At first, Harry didn't answer and just held Loki close as if he feared that the pagan god might suddenly vanish. It took him a few minutes to be able to tell them what happened and that was what he did. Harry told them how he woke up with the feeling that something might have happened to Loki and how worried he was. Following that was how Zachariah suddenly had shown up, and the chase around the world before Harry had ended it with dumping Zachariah in a pool of fire in hell.

"You teleported into hell without guidance?" Loki asked in disbelief.

Harry nodded tentatively. "You told us so much about it and even showed us images of certain places…I just thought that if I couldn't at least get rid of him by surprise, at least the demons might occupy him for long enough for me to escape," Harry muttered.

"Do you have any idea how foolish an idea that was?" Michael asked sternly. "The demons wouldn't only be interested in Zachariah but also in you. They would have done things…."

To the surprise of both archangels, Harry snorted. "If I could escape Zachariah, I could have escaped them," he said with conviction. In the worst case he would have ported into heaven and let the angels deal with any demons following him, not that it was hard to get in there if you knew the cracks to slip through, and thanks to Loki he did.

"Harry, Michael is right, the demons wouldn't have been fooled as easily as that dick Zach," Loki told him while stroking a strand of hair out of Harry's face.

"The world is coming to an end…you agree with me," Michael deadpanned.

"Oi! I can be reasonable," Loki countered.

"Only when you're sleeping, and even that is questionable," Michael shot back.

"As if you're so much better."

"As a matter of fact, yes I am!"

"I remember a certain event where you locked me out for a decade only because I changed your office into neon colours."

"It was irritating as hell, and you refused to turn it back," Michael now glared at his brother. "Not to mention that you used the time to convince my entire garrison that wearing nothing but those ridiculous hats was a good idea."

"Hey, you have to admit that they looked good with them," Loki grinned.

That did it for Harry and he started to laugh.

"I…that image…," he said gasping for air because he laughed so hard. "Zach…and then wearing…no that…."

"Zachariah actually belongs to Raphael's garrison but I have to say the image has some merit to it," Michael said amusedly while Loki smiled fondly at Harry, at least they managed to get his thoughts away from what he had done.

"Harry, I want you to stay with me from now on, or in case I cannot be there with someone I know will be able to protect you from Zachariah," Loki suddenly said seriously. "He will be pissed enough with you managing to outwit him, and I don't want you in danger okay? I already failed to protect you twice, and I don't want it to happen for a third time."

Harry nodded solemnly, he knew that he had once again escaped a fate worse than death by a hair's breadth and he wasn't eager to do it again any time soon so yes he would gladly stay with Loki.

"What about our vacation?" he tentatively asked, it was something he had looked forward to and didn't want to be cancelled only because of one idiotic angel.

That made Loki laugh. "Nothing short of the apocalypse would be able to keep me from giving you the vacation you deserve."

"Stay safe you two," Michael told them. "And be careful, I have a feeling that this isn't the last we see of Zachariah."

Loki nodded before summoning Harry's broom that he had left lying carelessly on the floor and vanished together with the boy back to Japan, they had a vacation waiting for them.

A/N: 'til next chapter!