Layers
Chapter One
By: Brenli and Jael
Dust. So much dust...
Doll was no longer a maid, and yet the dust that clung to her finger still made her cringe.
After she and Katou had moved out of Hades, she knew that Uriel's mansion would suffer this kind of neglect. Uriel himself had never been much of a housekeeper, so layers of dust on flat surfaces was only the inevitable result of her leaving.
She still hated it, though.
"Uriel-sama?" Her voice echoed louder than the clacking of her stilettos.
"I'm in the den."
So much time had passed since she had left Hades, hearing his voice inside her mind made her jump. And the first thing she noticed when she entered the den was the faint, biting smell of whiskey. She frowned... she had a feeling she would stumble upon him like this.
The Uriel she had once known had tragically died long ago... an inevitable result of having his heart broken one too many times. She had hoped, with all her soul, that he would have snapped out of it. That he would have found somebody to ease the sting of his loneliness... but her prayers had fallen on deaf ears.
And the pain... the pain had changed him.
She noticed him sitting in a dingy brown leather armchair, his black shirt wrinkled and the top few buttons undone. Doll's lips pinched together to hide another unhappy frown. The Uriel she remembered would never have looked so sloppy. The old Uriel wore only pressed shirts and high collared jackets...
There was a distinct pinkness to his bleary eyes, and he swirled a glass of amber liquid in one hand, his other hand resting on the knee of his loose grey pants.
"Uriel-sama, are you drunk?"
"No. But I'm working on it."Uriel's unmoving lips formed a dry and subtle smirk as he raised the glass to his lips. He smirked as a way to hide the strange stab of pain in his chest...
Doll was one of the only people in the world that Uriel truly cared about. He always HAD cared for her, and he missed her terribly. It hurt him to see her doing so well without him. To see her standing in front of him wearing a simple and beautiful strapless dress, her hair pinned up and her bangs expertly trimmed. She had always had such a glow about her since she had gotten together with Katou. The glow she had was what had wounded Uriel deeply every single day... and became the reason why they had left Hades.
It hurt him because he wished he could have stood before her as a clean and polished man. But how could he?
No. He was tainted. Dirty... He didn't even deserve to be in her presence.
Doll heaved a dramatic sigh, feeling anger bubble inside of her. She marched over to him and took the drink from his hand. "You haven't been answering your phone."
"I check my messages."
"And you don't return them."
"I assumed that if it was important, somebody would come."
"Well, here I am." Doll spun on her stiletto heel and dumped the amber colored whiskey into the soil of a nearby house plant. "I'm hoping I can convince you to leave Hades for a while."
Uriel rolled his eyes and chewed the inside of his cheek. "Why would I want to leave Hades? I like it here."
"Because you're ALONE." Doll sighed and gave Uriel a piteous look, her eyes pleading. "Look, Uriel-sama... I talk to the others. I know what you did after Nema's wedding..."
A muscle ticked in Uriel's jaw and he looked away, mouth pressed in a thin line. "I don't want to talk about it, anymore."No, he certainly did not. He didn't even want to THINK about it.
"I know." Doll replied gently. "But it isn't healthy to keep yourself locked up down here, like this. We all make mistakes and... fortunately, we live in a time where... those kind of mistakes are forgivable now, Uriel-sama!"
Uriel suddenly rose to his feet, tension binding in his shoulders and face. Doll didn't flinch. She didn't need to. She knew that he would never, ever hurt her. Despite his temper... "Why are you really here, Doll?" He couldn't look at her.
"Because I need you to go to Assiah. Well.. the other Elementals need you to go there."
"Ah. So that's what Nema's seven messages have been about..."
Doll nodded once. "They couldn't really give me details, but... I know it's important. They need you."
Uriel's frown deepened.
"... Hopefully it won't take long?" Doll gave him a small little smile. "With everything going on up in Heaven right now, they could use your help. Because you know about the Uprising... don't you?"
How could he not know? He still picked up a newspaper, once in a while. The rebel Azrael seemed to have been giving everyone up in Heaven problems. Especially Nema. "I'm not sure what I can do to help."
"You're still the Angel of Judgement. She could use someone like you on her side."
"I don't choose sides, anymore."
"Maybe that's your problem." Doll mumbled.
Uriel gave her a dark look.
"I'm not asking you to join her TEAM or anything, Uriel-sama. But you should at least see them. See what they want. Then you can crawl back into your cave and forget all of us ever even existed, until you just rot away."
The bitterness and pain in Doll's voice made him frown and feel a stab of unwelcome guilt. "Doll."
"Whatever. Do you what you want." Doll set a slip of paper down on the surface of his dusty desk. "But if you actually decide to do the right thing, here's Lilith's phone number. The Dragonmaster. She's the one who needs to talk to you."
Uriel felt the words to stop her burn in his mind, but he stayed silent. He watched as she turned and left, leaving just as soon as she had come.
He swept a hand through his messy hair, sweeping it back out of his face. He reached out to grab his canter of whiskey and filled another crystal glass. He took a single sip and slowly paced his study, letting Doll's words seep into his heart and sear into his mind.
How long had it been since he had left Hades? How long had it been since he had seen Nema or the others? He knew Nema had two children, now... he still haven't even seen the second one. A daughter, wasn't it...?
He pinched the bridge of his nose, set his glass down... and picked up the slip of paper Doll had left behind.
A strange feeling of foreboding pounded in the back of his mind as he picked up his phone and dialed Lilith's number. Somehow, he just knew... that this wasn't going to be as simple as seeing the others. It never was...
xXxXxXx
"God, it's killing me that I won't get to meet little Lilliel, yet, Nyssa!"
"Well, if your hubby hadn't been so insistent on dragging you down to the UK for some crap prophecy...!"
"Hey, hey..." Nema spoke into her white cell phone, brushing a few strands of snowy hair over her equally snowy shoulder. "You don't know if it's a 'crap prophecy', Nyssa."
"It's a crap prophecy if it involves everyone meeting up in Assiah, when nearly of you except that little Dragonmaster reside in Heaven."
Nema winced, though Nyssa couldn't see her actions. "Okay, I guess I won't be letting you talk to Michael about any of this. You'll both eat up my battery ranting about this 'crap prophecy.'"
"Aw, come on."
"Be reasonable, Nyssa. She's a little Evil girl and she's..."
"A bitch?"
"... Or just obviously selfish, anyway. I just don't see a girl like Lilith coming all the way up to Heaven, considering Gehenna's shaky relations with us, for something that isn't big in some way."
"I just figure you have enough to worry about already. I mean... they tore down your monument, Nema."
"It's just a statue."
"It wasn't just a statue. It's a statement. And if Azrael and his stupid Uprising find out that you're not even in Heaven, anymore..."
Nema sighed, bright red eyes rolling. "They're not going to find out. Michael and I packed up the kids and left in the early morning - Oh my God." Nema stood on her knee-high boots, high heels clacking against the pavement. "Nathan...! Nathaniel!"
"What did the boy do, this time?" Nyssa laughed through the phone, expecting to be ignored.
"Yeah, Ma?" A five-year-old Rabbit boy looked over his shoulder, his grin as bright as his red eyes.
"Get that knife out of that tree!" Nema cried, her own set of red eyes wide as she saw all the little gouges her son had pierced into the bark with only a simple steak knife. "Where did you even get this?"
"... From the kitchen?"
"What did I say, Nathan? No knives on this trip!"
A wide frown, so much like his fiery father's, curled on his snowy lips. "I know, I know... Sorry." He pulled the knife out of the trunk of the abused tree with a small grunt and held it out for his mother to take.
The Rabbit Queen took the knife with and a shake of her head and a smile. She ruffled his soft, white hair and nodded over to her mother, Jibril, who bounced a two-year-old Rabbit girl in her lap and gave her little Eskimo kisses on her button nose. "Go to your sister. We'll see about working out target practice for you later, okay?"
The idea was enough to put an equally wide smile back on the boy's face, and he saluted his own mother before hurrying off to his Grandmother, who still looked every bit as young as any Angel did.
Nema laughed into the phone, "I gave birth to a ninja, obviously."
Nyssa only grinned. "I don't know why that's shocking, to you. Look at who you married."
"Yeah, yeah." Nema blew raspberry into the phone. "I should let you go. Looks like Raphael just got in. Glad the delivery went well! Now rest. Why are you even the one calling me to tell me the news? That should be Rujiel's job!"
"Ruji's got all his military buddies patting him on the back; he can't call anyone." Nyssa's laugh melted into a yawn. "I'll call you later...?"
"Get some rest; you need it...! Then you can call me. Later, Nyssa...!" Nema slid her white cell phone shut and moved over to the Wind Angel, who was in the middle of talking with her Fiery Angel.
"... It's shit, Raphael. This whole thing is shit!"
"Then why are you here, Michael?" Raphael countered, hands in his pockets as he nodded to Nema. "Nema, nice knife."
"Ha ha." She pointed at Michael with the blade and asked him, "Did you know our son packed this up?"
His bright blue-green eyes had slipped into blue upon Nema's arrival, glancing down at the gleaming blade of the steak knife and back up at her. "This is why I'm getting him actual throwing knives." He grabbed her knife-holding hand by her pale wrist and pulled her closer, their lips meeting for one, two, three kisses.
"You didn't answer my question..." Nema murmured to Michael's mouth.
"Did he hurt anything?" Michael deflected with another kiss, ignoring the cough that left Raphael's throat.
"Just a tree..."
"Fuck the tree. It's a tree."
"You knew about the knife." Nema tapped his face with the handle. "This better be the only one..."
Michael merely deflected with a barrage of kisses, in some strange, unspoken, Michael-like way, also serving as a confession.
Raphael coughed loudly, and the Rabbit Queen laughed as she peeled herself away from her husband. "Oh, Raphy, are you sick?" She teased with a grin.
"Sick of you two, yes." He teased back, allowing Nema to prod his chest with the handle of the steak knife in her hand. "Is everyone here?" His ice blue eyes scanned the area, and he waved to Jibril as she smiled at him and handed Nema's daughter off to Setsuna. Nathan waved back and yelled out, asking about Raphael's own son. "Sorry, Nathan! Abel's back home!"
"Dammit!"
Nema had to scold him all over again. "Language!"
"Sorry, Ma...!"
"Setsuna's here, too..." Raphael mused, nodding to the Angel he spoke of.
"He insisted on staying with Mom." Nema replied, watching a subtle frown curl his handsome features.
"It's just one big fat Bullshit Prophecy party, Raphael...!" Michael snorted in annoyance, even as he cracked jokes.
Raphael didn't find that funny in the slightest... When the tiny little Evil had shown up in his office, he'd known immediately that something must have been wrong... horribly wrong. Lilith spoke to him of the Apocalypse... a concept everyone in Heaven was inherently familiar with. A concept that left Heaven safe... this, though. This strange threat that Lilith had grumbled about while leaning back in a chair and planting her sneakers on his desk... nothing was safe. Everything would be wiped clean... outright deleted from existence.
Lilith had claimed to need the Elemental Angels and some aid from... of all people, Judas. King Judas, of the Assiahbound Revenants... So seemingly random that it was no wonder Michael kept writing this off as some big farce...
But even so. Lilith didn't need Setsuna, or Nema, and especially not Nema's children...
"Wow. Somebody didn't find that funny." Nema arched her snowy brows up at the Wind Angel.
"Feh! He thinks this whole prophecy is a real deal. Worse than even you, Nema." Michael grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Look, if... If Setsuna wants to be in on this, that's his choice. But Nema, you have way too much to take care of without this prophecy... And you brought your children?"
Nema nodded at Michael. "He won't get involved unless we're here."
Raphael turned incredulous eyes at the Fire Angel, and Michael's blue eyes momentarily became angry and green. "What the fuck are you lookin' at me like that, for?"
"Some things don't change..."
"What the fuck does that even mean?"
"Raphael, don't worry about it." Nema stepped in between the Fire Angel and the Wind Angel. "I have a feeling this might have something to do with the Uprising..."
"The Uprising isn't going to change anything going on here in Assiah or down in Hell." Raphael countered.
"There are factions in Hell that support the Uprising. As for Assiah? This poor place is always getting caught in middle of things, because it is in the middle." Nema hadn't realized the tenseness in her pale shoulders until Michael wrapped his arms around her. "It's not the greatest theory ever, I know... but it's the only one I have, and I think it makes sense. And if I'm right... then not only should I be a part of this, but I know Nathan and Isobelle will be fine. They've been well-protected, so far..."
Raphael let Nema's theory settle in his brain like a heavy, unwelcome blanket. "... You think factions in Hell might get involved in the Uprising."
Nema shrugged helplessly, Michael trying to kiss away a small frown curving her mouth. "Stranger things have happened..."
"You think the Uprising could become another... Holy War." Oh God... as if Heaven was in any shape for a Holy War? Seven years had passed since Nema's restoration from a ghoul to her healthy, Rabbit self, since she'd begun collaborating with Prime Minister Raziel on amendments in the law... Long enough for her to marry Michael and bring two healthy children into the world, but... not nearly enough time for Heaven to get its bearings after all the repercussions of the Revolution and all the reformation going on this very moment...
"I'm trying to do everything I can to compromise with the Uprising, but there's only so much I can do at a time, legally...! And Azrael's even been talking about making you pay, all of you who are Pure, and -"
"Nema, I know. It's okay." Raphael shushed her, a tiny bit of guilt wedging itself inside his worried heart. He knew full well that Nema had enough on her plate... potential Holy War aside. "I'm not pinning any of this on you, it's just..." He sighed, running a hand through his golden locks. "Feels like it's just one impending war after another, doesn't it...?"
"Feh..." Michael buried a moody scowl against his wife's snowy little neck, pressing kisses there to calm her before grumbling, "War never ends. It just gets quiet for a little while." His arms dropped away from Nema's shoulders, briefly slipping down her arms before resting on his slim, adolescent-looking hips. "It makes sense that the Uprising started up. Whatever. Impatient Rabbits are pissed. But this prophecy bullshit? No. I don't care that she's the Dragonmaster and she came all the way from fucking Gehenna. I don't fucking care! All she is, is some little kid who hit her little pipe too fucking hard, and then came all the way up to my house and called my wife and my kids slaves! And I'm supposed to go along with her pipe dream? Fucking stupid..."
Raphael blinked. "Lilith called you a slave, Nema?"
She shrugged, her head shaking helplessly. "I guess over the years some Rabbits made it into Gehenna and became slaves in order to get a roof over their heads... So she just kind of... made an assumption."
"Jesus..." He ran his hand down his face. As much as he'd rather go along with the prophecy to be safe, he had to wonder about the young girl who had gathered all of them together... It figured that Michael was pissed.
The War Angel sneered and continued, "The only reason I'm here is 'cause I could use the vacation. Because I can guarantee you, that's all this is gonna amount to. A vacation in fucking London."
"What about Jibril and Setsuna?" Raphael asked, motioning at them with a jerk of his head.
Nema's lips pursed together in an unsure face. "Mom's sort of in the same boat as me, I guess... she figures that it's better to give Lilith the benefit of the doubt. But Dad-"
"It's garbage." Setsuna said simply, bouncing little Isobelle in his arms as he approached them. "If this were a serious prophecy given to her by the Shinryu, you'd think she wouldn't be insulting the very people she needs for help."
"Exactly what I'm fucking saying, shit-" Michael's mouth was silenced by Nema's pale little fingertip, and he looked at her pouting face with questioning blue eyes.
"You've already got Nathan running around cussing his head off. Can we please make Isobelle the baby that doesn't swear? Please?" Nema begged him.
She smiled when Michael rolled his eyes and kissed her fingertip, and then promptly reached out to take Isobelle from her Grandfather. "Bell Bell...!" He couldn't help but greet her like a fatherly fool... but he likely would have set anyone on fire if they dared to mock him.
"Papa...!" Isobelle echoed back in the same singsong tone, a flurry of giggles following as she snuggled against his chest, slightly warmer than everyone else, but all the more comforting, because of it.
Setsuna couldn't help but smile at Michael. Try as he might, he was never, ever going to get used to Michael having these small, fatherly moments... but to be fair, Katou had often said the same of Setsuna himself, when Nema was but a baby. "I feel like this would go a lot smoother if it were Kurai doing this, and not her daughter..."
Nema gave her father a small frown. "She passed on, Dad."
"I know..."
An uneasy silence filtered through the group. Raphael and Michael had spent very little time with the current Dragonmaster's mother, and Nema herself could only recall birthday cards and jewelry from the woman who, back then, had been referred to as a distant Aunt... but Setsuna remembered her well. All her noble deeds and her not-so-noble ones... but Kurai had always, always had a good heart. He was sad when she died... childbirth, he'd been told. She'd died giving birth to her only child... a daughter. Lilith...
Nema cleared her throat and clapped her pale hands together, hoping to bring up everyone's mood. "I got a call from Nyssa today..."
That put the smile back on Setsuna's face. "Did she deliver?"
"It's a girl...! They've named her Lilliel."
"After Rujiel's sister." Michael said with a nod, bouncing Isobelle in his arms, seeing Nema nod back with a smile.
"He's here...!" The group suddenly heard Jibril call out, waving them over. Nathan pointed off down the street, toward the tall figure that practically seemed to loom over the much shorter girl stomping ahead of him. "Uriel's here...!"
A collective frown traveled through the group as they looked at the Earth Angel. It wasn't often that any of them saw him... living in Hades didn't help with that fact, but neither did his interest in drinking alone and his lack of interest in being with people. Why were they... disappointed? Perhaps it was the tired rings around his eyes, the fact that he had traded in his regal suits for blue jeans, of all things. Blue jeans and a wrinkled shirt that he didn't even care to button up enough to hide the scars on his throat. They couldn't have expected much better than his tall, brooding self.
And the girl, Lilith...? Her stomping and her scowl said everything. This wasn't going to be fun, was it...? "Okay, let's go." Nema forced herself to smile, tapping the handle of the steak knife against Michael's shoulder... trying not to feel like she was walking into the lion's den.