"I have a deal for you. I could bring the End of Days for you but I'm going to do you a favor instead."
"Oh really?"
"You don't really believe that the End of Days will be worth it, do you?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. We would rather fight Him then be miserable here."
"That's just a lie you tell yourselves to justify your plan. But you are so foolish, he'll just destroy you all, out of hand, and probably humans too, and just start over."
"And why do you think that?"
"It's what I would do," Malachi responded with a shrug, but something about this made sense to Lucifer.
"What do you suggest?"
"I have the ability to help angels keep their human form and I intend to help my father's followers to integrate in to humanity by finding them a purpose that will make them comfortable. Some of yours I could also help. There are others who I could only help for brief periods and then they would need to return here. The Wheels in particular will be difficult but I think we can manage some sort of vacation for them. Now, you…are another matter," he looked at Lucifer sadly, "I cannot return your glory to you."
Lucifer changed from furious to slightly embarrassed.
"You were light and fire and love and power…and you could not be contained or fulfilled on Earth, you know that."
Cassie, who was still standing next to Lucifer, looked up to his face and saw longing and regret. He glanced down at her and, despite the fact that he was now black and twisted by his anger at his loss, her sympathy touched him.
Malachi continued, "But I will help you as much as I can and I really believe that the End of Days will bring destruction to us all. Besides, if this does not end up working, I can always bring the End of Days later," he added with another shrug.
Lucifer actually laughed at this, "I like the way you think, but I don't get much out of all this, now do I?."
"Lucifer," Cassie interjected, "please give it a chance. Have you even tried anything else but hate and corruption?"
He looked at her sadly and said, "It's the only thing that comes close…"
"Well, it's not the corruption of humanity that we are most concern about at this point so much as it's total destruction," Malachi broke in, "Let's just leave things as they are. You can corrupt to your heart's content, but neither you nor yours will do so with my help."
"Fine!" he said suddenly, looking up from Cassie. He gestured to angel waiting with the whip to leave and after a quick nod to Malachi he left them.
As Cassie began to untie Azazeal, he kept his head down and did not react. He disbelieved what was happening, because only a little while ago he had resolved himself to spending the rest of his existence in torment. Even as he had been suffering, he had been sure that he would not break, but now watching Cassie's hands untie him, he wasn't so sure. What if he'd begun to think of her, to miss her?
She finished releasing him and gently pulled him away from the post, but he immediately faltered and needed leaned against her for support. Malachi grabbed onto him to help and with his last strength, Azazeal lowered them down through the mist back home, with Malachi helping far more than he realized.
Once they touched down, Azazeal's feelings rushed in on him as he began to feel the significance of what they had done for him. Because of what he had just gone through, he was in an emotional state that did not allow him to hide anything, even from himself. He was assaulted with thoughts of all the things he had done to Cassie: killing her best friend, tricking her in to having his child, and stealing the child from her. In his arrogance, he had believed that the fact that he had grown to love her should be enough to deserve forgiveness, but he no longer believed that. As Cassie and Malachi guided him to the bed, he stopped, lifted face, still wet with tears to Cassie, and uttered such a heartfelt, "I'm sorry," that Cassie was shaken.
"Whatever for?" she asked. But he was losing consciousness and only managed to whisper, "I'm sorry," again before passing out.
They got him on the bed and Cassie was starting to take care of his wounds when she suddenly asked Malachi, "What did he mean?"
Malachi did not respond and continued to work on Azazeal.
"Don't tell me know don't know. What is it that he is so sorry for?"
Malachi looked uncomfortable and avoided her gaze.
"You're angry with me," she said confused.
"Between you and Lucifer, you've both got him so confused," he said with disgust. "He's sorry for everything: Thelma, me, things he did to you, and some things he had nothing to do with. He'd apologize for anything at this point!"
"I…," Cassie started.
"You've rejected him and held him at arms length since the beginning, but now that you know how much he loves you I hope…," Malachi paused, "He will go on like this if you ask him to, without you letting him in, he's made his decision, but I hope you will find it in you to love him back," and Malachi stormed out.
But she did love him, she thought to herself, not understanding.
Malachi wasn't really angry with her so much as frustrated. He had known for a while that their relationship was a strange one but he just shook his head at them and figured that they'd get it right eventually. Now that he had seen his father fall deeper and deeper in love with her, deify Lucifer for her, and ultimately sacrifice himself for them both, he really felt his mother needed to wake up. He knew that she thought she loved him enough, and he wanted to explain to her what she was doing wrong, but like Azazeal he knew that she must find it on her own. How could he explain to her that the feeling of her loving him would fill the empty place that God's love used to fill?
Azazeal awoke feeling cold and realized that he was lying shirtless on his stomach without any covers. He moved to get up and felt the sting of the strips on his back. He paused but then push out of bed onto his feet. He walked haltingly in to the front room and upon seeing Cassie, immediately walked over to her and kissed her passionately, not letting her go for some time. When he finally let her go, he could not look at her, but saw Malachi out of the corner of his eye, turn his head to him and said, "I am proud of you. I…," and paused.
"It's okay, dad." After another pause he said, "I'm seeing to your friends. They will be okay." And Azazeal nodded to him but remained silent.
"Not many are dead actually," Malachi added, wanting to fill the silence, "it seems neither side was especially interested in killing so despite the dramatics most were just thrown deeper down into the abyss to claw their way back up again."
Azazeal nodded again this time with a small smile, but he was still not himself.
Later Cassie asked him, "You knew you couldn't stop Lucifer, didn't you?"
"I suspected," was his quiet reply.
"But you fought him anyway?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Sometimes you can't give up on something even when it seems hopeless."
She gave him a searching look but he would not elaborate further.
They were both tired so she rolled over to turn out the light when Azazeal said, "What is that?" and touched a small part of the lash mark that was peeking out of the top of the tank top she was wearing.
She winced but said, "It's nothing."
He ignored her and pulled the fabric down to expose more of the mark.
"You…," he gave her a confused look.
She had thought he would be mad when he saw it but he looked sad, so in order to change his mood, she joked, "Well, admittedly it was ill advised but I moved without thinking and this is what I have to show for it. Don't worry it's fine." In fact it hurt like the dickens but she felt in no position to complain.
"I didn't know…" he started. He had not taken the time to consider why exactly the whip had cracked but not hit him, but if he had, the idea that it would have hit her or even Malachi instead would never have crossed his mind.
He became distracted and she could see that he was struggling with something so she waited and eventually asked, "What is it?"
He finally raised his face to her and pleaded, "Tell me I am yours. Tell me I can stay with you. Tell me I can deserve…," but he stopped, for he lost all words. He had been waiting for so long for her to turn to him, and had at times given up hope, but he had no strength left to wait or to hide what he most desired from her.
Cassie felt something tugging at her heart and began to realize what Malachi had been telling her. She loved him but she had not allowed herself to truly fall in love with and accept him. She had been so afraid, first of him and then this situation. Who wouldn't have been careful with their heart given the circumstances? People put themselves half into relationships all the time and it doesn't generally make much difference, but Azazeal was a different creature.
Cassie reached for him and took him in her arms and as she did, her heart opened and she let him in.
Both Cassie and Azazeal healed well, and eventually, Azazeal would return, more or less, to normal. When all they had to be concerned about was each other, Azazeal became a kind of personal guardian angel. He became extremely devoted to her, but of course, that did not mean that they would not get into some of the most spectacular fights you've ever seen. It was just that it was in his nature to love and protect and he would find a kind of peace in this that he had not found since before the fall. The same would hopefully be true of the others as well, so that they kept themselves out of trouble. Malachi was to see to that, as well as keep his promise to Lucifer.
It wasn't long before Cassie discovered one of Azazeal's gifts, or weaknesses, depending on how you looked at it. It seemed that he had the uncanny ability to become whatever kind of lover she wanted at that moment. But what made this even more intriguing was that he really didn't appear to know or acknowledge that this was happening. No matter what happened in the bedroom he always acted like it happened all the time.
If she wanted the familiar skillful lover who always made sure she came more than once and in increasingly interesting ways, he was there. Or if she felt like it, she could torture him for hours, and he would only come when she asked him to, either begging for release or resigning himself to his fate, as she saw fit. She could have it slow and soft or quick and dirty or maybe both in one day. She could playfully resist and be lured in or just taken. No matter what she in the mood for, he already was.
What interested her most was that he did anything she wanted naturally without a hint of self-consciousness, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. And, of course there was nothing exceedingly strange about it, except that he was an arrogant fallen angel, who had duped her into having his baby, had inexplicably fallen in love with her, and had started a war with Lucifer, but other than that…