When I arrived back in Heaven, I told them everything I had seen. Cain, after the fratricide of Abel, had vanished the moment we made eye contact. I can never erase the image of Cain's eyes- demon's eyes- from my head, even after the numerous mind wipes that Naomi inflicted on me. It was one out of many things that I can still recall, as clear as I had seen it.

The news spread quickly to the Arches, who turned to Father for guidance. But there was no reply. It shocked them, really, and gave them a taste of what was to come. So they didn't inform us of Father's silence, and instead directly ordered us on their own judgment. We were sent to look for Cain, and we scoured the Earth for months, to little avail. I was also sent along to question Abel, whose soul now rested in the eternal bliss of his own making. Since we rebuilt Heaven from the dust, it was accommodated to fit the souls of humans that soon flooded in, each one glowing with raw power. Only one soul would be enough to destroy half of the tiny planet that the humans called Earth. It was basically a condensed atomic bomb.

It took a while to find Abel through the maze-like passages that we angels weaved between the realms of souls. When we did, it took even longer to get him to speak. He finally did, and he admitted the one thing that we all feared: Lucifer was still active. He had told Abel many dark things; things that nearly brought him over the edge. It also became painfully obvious to us that Abel didn't have the slightest clue of Lucifer's intent to turn him into his pet. He wanted to know why Cain had killed him, but we didn't have time to sit down and explain. We left before he finished his sentence, hurrying in a thunder of wings back to the Archangels.

Raphael wanted to lay siege to the still-young Hell and double the reinforcements around Lucifer's cage. Michael wanted to seek Father's guidance first, but finally decided to try an attack on Hell. The reinforcements would be trickier, since the location of Lucifer's cage was unknown even to Michael.

And so we fought, and beat upon the weak spots of Hell until we came through. Many angels were killed, but many more demons died. It was during these battles that my Garrison grew tighter, and Balthazar and Bartholomew particularly, demonstrated themselves as worthy soldiers.

But we still could not find Cain, even after we searched every dark corner, every filthy dungeon and pit. In that aspect, we didn't win the war. But we beat down Hell until there was nearly nothing left of it, enough so that it would stay down for a long time. When we emerged from the Pit, bloody and broken, Earth was in ruin. Sin and immorality ran amok in appalling numbers, and most of the humans had turned to pagan worship. None of us could decide what to do.

But God could. He gave us no warning, unleashing Death onto Earth to bring divine judgment down on mankind. The floodgates of Heaven were opened with a great, grinding roar, and rain gushed forth from the clouds in a thundering torrent.

The Earth was flooded for one hundred and fifty days. I could only watch on with my Garrison, hovering over the waves that reached as high as the mountains. Once, in the distance, I made out the shape of what I thought looked like the peak of a mountain. When I came closer, though, it turned out to be a ship. It was bigger than any boat I'd ever seen, or will see through the history of Earth. Its hull groaned from the weight of countless tons of cargo, and when I looked in I beheld every single species of animal created by God. So this was His plan- save all but one human family and a pair of each species to repopulate the Earth. I didn't see the point in this; why destroy Earth, and then put Man back to destroy it again?

When the waters finally receded, and Noah came out of the ark, Man was pure for a short period of time.

But as I predicted, it was not long before humans, once again, became full of sin. They naturally gravitate towards it like moths to a flame, no matter how hard they try to pull away.

Back then, the tallest thing made by man was a one-story hut of dried clay and dung. And so, to get "closer to the gods", the Tower of Babel was built to reach to the sky. It measured an impressive 37 feet, but unfortunately they still had some 31 miles to go before they even could touch the stratosphere.

Father wasn't happy about this puny act of defiance, and He was becoming slightly more active after the Flood purged most of the sin off the face of the Earth. He ignored Michael and Raphael almost completely, taking matters into His own hands. Well, more like his little finger. With a flick, the Tower of Babel came crashing down, scaring the humans out of their wits. They returned again to God for pardon, but then angered Father again after a short period of time. It became a sort of game- if humans were good, Father was content. If they were bad, Father punished.

Now here comes one of most obscure parts of my memory. I have nearly no recollection of the events associated with Moses and the Ten Plagues, but I will try my best to put together what I learned from Naomi and the others.

God's favored people, the Israelites, were to be freed from bondage under the Egyptians. I agreed with this decision, as every day I saw and heard the anguished prayers they sent up to us. But what I didn't know was how Father planned to go through with this. You could imagine my horror when He began to bring about plague after plague upon the Egyptians, channeling His power through a simple little staff that he gave to a man named Moses. After the 9th plague, we were all tired of the punishments. I began to question if the Israelites really were going to be freed, or if they were to be stuck for all eternity watching as Egyptians around them dropped dead from locusts bursting from their heads.

Finally, God called all angels to assemble before him in preparation for the final plague. Exactly what He told us, I have forgotten. But I do know from Naomi that I did not agree at all with His plan. According to Naomi, I even had to be restrained and forced to comply with the orders.

The orders to kill every firstborn child in Egypt.

I also do not remember how many innocent lives I took that night, nor the feeling of an infant's soul as it was wrenched from its body. Perhaps that is for the best. If I could dream, that would have been one of the many nightmares that would terrorize me.

It would not be the last time, either, that there would be a blank space in my memories.

Note: I was doing great with this chapter and nearly finished it yesterday when I found…A Chronology of Supernatural. So of course my OCD side would go absolutely nuts and retype more than half the chapter in an attempt to make everything chronologically accurate. xD *cries* My hands are dying…

Reviews/faves always appreciated! (AKA give me some motivation to kill my hands typing the next chapter)