Authoress Notes: Language lesson - Oppa: A Korean term of familiarity used by a younger female toward an older male she is on good, friendly terms with. Literally meaning 'older brother.'

Layers

Chapter Two

By: Brenli and Jael

"Uri...! Long time, no see." Nema greeted him warmly, her smile small, but pleasant on her pale face.

Uriel could only weakly mirror the small smile. "Very true..." His green eyes looked beyond her pale shoulder to see the War Angel wearing a strange half-frown... the bundle of white skin and hair held in his arms, staring up at him with the widest pair of bright red orbs. The last time he'd seen a face like that, it had belonged to their son, who was now old enough to stand beside his father and wear his own strange half-frown.

But he deserved those half-frowns and Nema's weak, though pleasant, greeting. What could he expect after the years he spent locking himself away... and knowing he would have locked himself away for several more, if he could?

Nema looked over her shoulder to see what the Earth Angel was staring at, and suddenly laughed. "Oh, Uri, this is Iso-"

"He can meet the baby later; right now we got work to do!"

The Rabbit Queen wore a moody pout as she brought her attention to the little girl standing just in front of Uriel, her tan arms crossed over her flat chest, thick, champagne blonde bangs falling heavily over her face. Nema couldn't help herself. "Oh, yes, Master Lilith."

The cat-eye pupils in Lilith's maroon eyes narrowed into thin slits as the angry Evil snapped, "You can lay off the fucking slave jokes, thanks! I'm serious, we got shit to figure out!"

"Isn't that why you dragged all our asses here to begin with, Princess?" Michael took the half-step needed to be beside his pale wife, his eyes bright green, his frown deepening into an outright scowl.

Lilith opened her mouth to snarl back, but Uriel spoke for her, his voice heavy and even as it came from the strange collar that enabled him to speak. Years of development had changed the once bulky, clunky metal ring into little more than a pendant resting at the base of his throat, secured by a simple chain. Everyone had almost forgotten he even needed that collar-turned-necklace... "What she means to say is that there needs to be a new plan."

"Already?" Several voices echoed, but Michael added with a scoff, "She failed already? Not surprising. May as well go back home."

"Fuck you, all right?" Lilith whined angrily. "Not my fucking fault that mighty King Judas has some stupid issues with non-Assiah types!" The little Evil wasn't expecting the strange moment of silence that followed, especially not from the Fire Angel, himself. The very moment she first met him, their conversation had become little more than a damn screaming match. She expected him to snap back. She prepared herself for it, but even he didn't make so much as a peep, choosing to try and burn her alive with his angry green eyes, alone. "... What?"

Raphael tried hard to keep his expression even, cool and icy. "... Wow."

Lilith glared at him. "What?"

Jibril only shared a troubled, exasperated look with her husband, their daughter crossing her arms over her pale chest.

Uriel looked down at the pale blonde crown of Lilith's head. "I told you this news wouldn't play out, well."

"Shut the fuck up, Earth Boy!" Lilith nearly roared at him.

"Game over. Did I fucking call it or what?" Michael rolled his eyes, shook his head, turned on his heel. "Come on, Nathan. We're gonna find a shooting range."

"No! No, no, no!" Lilith's ratty, faded canvas sneakers scraped against the ground as she shoved past Nema and cut Michael off. "You can't just fucking waltz off! You just fucking got here!"

The Fire Angel's face was beginning to go red, but Lilith glared up at him challengingly. Like clockwork, Nema was beside him, reaching for her little daughter. Michael was careful while handing her off, though his face became moodier and moodier...

Handing Isobelle to her mother was Michael's go button. He grabbed Lilith by the front of her baggy, torn-up shirt. "You're a fucking idiot, you know that, little girl? You! Are a fucking! Idiot! You round up a bunch of Angels to come down here for some drug-induced bullshit prophecy, only to find out Vampire King Judas has a stick up his ass when it comes to non-Assiah types? Really, bitch? So what's there to figure out? He wouldn't listen to your Demonic little ass and you're the closest thing to Damned, here! So you know what, Lilith? Listen closely 'cause I fucking hate repeating myself!" Green eyes burned into maroon ones. "It's over. Your bullshit prophecy and the game that comes with it is over. Thanks for nothing, Princess; you've wasted my damn time!" He roughly released her, her ratty sneakers hit the pavement in a stumble. Michael motioned down the street with a jerk of his head, "Let's go..."

"No you don't! No you fucking don't!" Lilith snapped and began following him. "I've worked too damn hard to end this here because you just wanted to stay home and bone your Rabbit wife!"

"Watch it!" Michael spun and snarled at her.

Behind them, Uriel pinched the bridge of his nose in a fruitless attempt to quell a building headache. He left Hades for this?

"You watch it!" Lilith shot back. "Bullshit or not, you all came! All of you! So you may as well shut your fucking mouths and work with me, here!"

"Yeah, and how? I guess he thinks Angels are better than Evils?"

"Look, I don't know, okay? But we gotta figure this out! Let's just get stupid fucking Judas to see reason, and then I can finally stop dealing with all you jerks for the night!"

"I think calling Judas 'stupid' is a bit naive," Uriel interrupted flatly. "He is a powerful man with a great amount of influence on Assiah."

"What do you know about him?" Jibril asked quietly.

"Just what I've read. He was, of course, the disciple to betray Jesus. When he did, he was not allowed into Heaven, or Hell. He was doomed to walk Assiah as an immortal... and became the first Assiah-bound Revenant... A Vampire. And it makes perfect sense as to why he would hate our kind. Here in Assiah, he is powerful and influential. A God to all the ones he made in his own image... seeing us would only remind him of his true place. It's going to take more than just some angry little girl to make him see reason."

"Michael." Nema risked his fiery rage, coming up to lay a snowy white hand on his shoulder... offering Isobelle to him, again. "I have an idea... take Bell Bell for me?"

"What idea?" His voice was still rough around the edges, even as he took his daughter from her.

Nema was already walking off, waving her little white cell phone at him. "I need to call someone..."

That reply wasn't enough for him. "What idea?" He trailed after her, even as Lilith swore in frustration and kicked at the ground... but Nema wouldn't reply to him until her boots had carried her all the way over to the tree their son had abused.

"I'm calling oppa." Already she was scrolling through her contacts.

She knew he'd scoff. "Yeah, that'll help."

"He's a Vampire, too..."

"And he's not bound here. That's the issue."

Nema motioned helplessly with her hands. "He's the only option I can think of...!"

"Nema, who cares about options? This is stupid!"

Nema hit the call button, but Michael kept on speaking as she listened to the dial tone, his eyes slipping into blue, his voice steadily dropping and losing its edge.

"Nema, let's forget this prophecy bullshit and go home. Let's go home... We can meet up with Rujiel and Nyssa and meet their kid and not get dragged around by some fucking child with a God complex."

"But she didn't do this for nothing, Michael..."

"She did this because she got high."

Nema laughed. "You don't even know if she got high at all...!" Michael tried to reason with her further, but she rested the handle of the steak knife she still held against his mouth and listened to him grumble. Her smile widened as her call was finally answered, "Oppa...? Hey...!"

xXxXxXx

A soft, gentle, silky kind of hum slowly slipped from between the tan lips of one of Lord Lucifer's several right hand men. White gloves rested on the mahogany vanity for the time being, as he brushed back the dark waves of his hair into a low ponytail, right at the nape of his neck. His nimble fingers adjusted the white cravat, neatly tucked into his black vest and coat. He worked to make himself presentable by candlelight, the golden flickering coming from two candleholders on each side of his mirror.

"Dear, dashing Jinho." A mischievous, honey-toned voice seeped through the wall as first a top hat, and then wild, curling red hair slipped through.

Jinho didn't move, the impossibly black irises of his eyes barely shifting to view the Satan of Pride. "Dear, dashing Hatter. You look marvelous." He replied with a smile that the Hatter reflected back widely on painted, black lips.

"What tasks shall you steal from me today, I wonder?"

Jinho kept the smile on his face, though he knew full well that the Satan was a touch bitter in the way the that only she could ever be. He hadn't been the first of Lucifer's so-called right hand men, but just like them, the Mad Hatter had accepted his presence with grace... even if it was no secret that more men meant less tasks and errands for her to perform for her love Lucifer. Less chances to please her Lord and end up outright disgusting him, to pointlessly express her love for him, though he had already taken a Queen...

So he only responded to the Hatter's sweet-sounding, slightly-vulnerable question with honesty. "None. Today I am taking my monthly leave..."

"Ah, yes...!" The Satan gave Jinho a happy grin. "It is time to visit the six, isn't it? Won't that be nice?"

Of course the Hatter found it nice. Jinho found it nice, as well... albeit not in the same way. "Yes, it will be nice..." He was quiet, now, gently slipping on his white gloves.

"But first...!" The Mad Hatter was beside him in a flash, a nimble wiggle of her fingers conjuring the ornate ear and mouth piece of an antique phone. "You have a call."

Jinho's impossibly dark eyes blinked in a rare moment of surprise. "I hadn't heard the ring."

"You were still showering. I took the liberty of putting the caller on hold for you."

"How kind of you..." Jinho didn't bother to address the fact that this meant the Hatter had been in his room before announcing herself... She was notorious for flitting in and out of rooms as if she owned all of them. He simply lifted the phone from her hand and held it to his ear, watching as the Satan perched herself on his vanity and conjured the rest of the phone into her hands, pressing a button. "Hello?"

"Oppa...? Hey...!"

Jinho couldn't keep the smile from his face, and saw the Mad Hatter mimic it sweetly, her head tilting to the side. "Nemaelle...! This is a surprise! I haven't heard from you in so long...!"

"You could have called." His pale friend suggested.

"Very true." Jinho agreed heartily, not wishing to start an argument. "How have you been...? How are the children? Is Nathan still throwing things?"

"Knives, now."

"Knives!" Jinho's laugh was warm honey, seeping through the phone and into Nema's ear. "I thought you didn't want to encourage such activity?"

"Michael jumped at the chance to start teaching him. I couldn't say no." Nema admitted with a sheepish smile. "But listen, um... hopefully we can continue this chat in person?"

"In person? Are you coming here?"

"No, I... I need you to come here. Not to Heaven, but... London."

Jinho was rarely the type to pause, but this time he was truly stumped. "... Assiah is a strange place for you to be, given current events, Nemaelle."

"I know, but...!" Nema sighed into the phone. "It's really complicated, oppa..."

"What has happened...?"

"... You know Lilith."

Jinho was regularly boasted to be witty and quick to reply, gifted with his tongue, but... Nema was successfully striking him silent left and right, today. Lilith... Little, angry Dragonmaster Lilith, his betrothed... Oh yes. He knew Lilith. "... I don't understand, Nemaelle. How has she come into contact with you?"

"She has a prophecy, oppa. Of apocalyptic proportions... times three."

"... You mean the three worlds."

"Yes." Nema said quietly. "And the prophecy calls for the aid of the Elemental Angels, as well as Judas..."

"The Revenant King..." Jinho murmured, seeing where this was going. "I assume you've already tried to speak with him."

"Lilith has."

Despite himself, Jinho smiled. "I cannot see that panning out well... But Nemaelle, I'm not Assiah-bound."

"But you are a Vampire."

"Yes, but it's really not the same-"

"A Vampire with a gift for persuasion. Lucifer is always using you for diplomacy purposes..." Nema listened to the silence on the other end of the line with a small frown on her face. "... I know you and Lilith don't... talk."

"... No, we don't."

"But we just really need this favor. Your parents are from Gehenna. I figured that if anyone really knew the weight of a Dragonmaster's prophecy, it'd be you, oppa..."

That soft pleading in her voice... He wanted so badly to just decline, but... "... I am too kind, aren't I?" He sighed, and the Hatter only tilted her head again.

"You'll come help?"

"I will be there shortly."

Nema grinned and laughed triumphantly. "Thank you, oppa! We'll see you, soon!"

When the dialtone began in Jinho's ear, he placed the phone back on the receiver, pinching the bridge of his nose, a soft and rare Korean curse word slipping from his mouth.

"Endlessly a sweetheart..." The Satan smiled. "I will never be quite sure why that little Dragonmaster won't simply take you."

Jinho chose not to reply, reaching out to take his top hat from the nearby coat rack. He froze when the Mad Hatter reached it first, grabbing and placing it on his head, for him.

"Then you will be away for longer than expected?" She asked with that same smile.

"I'm unsure when I'll be able to return..." He tried to smile back, to make a joke. "Please, take care of things while I'm away?"

The Hatter grinned and beamed. "Absolutely! Lord Lucifer will receive the best of service! Now, then... London?" She snapped her thin, long fingers, opening a strange, swirling, dark void.

Jinho nodded and murmured, "My wives will have to wait..."

"They will be fine. All the dead can do is wait."

As much as those true words hurt, Jinho kept the smile on his face as he slipped through the void and stepped onto fresh, green grass.

"Oh-!" Nema had nearly walked right into him, her full, dark skirt brushing against the legs of his slacks. A grin crossed her snowy pale face, and she laughed. "You weren't kidding about being here shortly...!"

Jinho found it easier to smile as he took Nema's hand and pressed a delicate kiss onto the back of it. "Dark magic, you know..." He wasn't surprised when the Fire Angel reached out to take her hand, his thumb running over her skin as if to check for any Demonic mark left behind. Years and years hadn't changed that much about Michael, but Jinho didn't mind. "Your daughter is adorable, Michael-sama. You must be very proud of your family..."

As Isobelle nuzzled against her father's neck, a proud grin crossed his face, and a short, rough, happy laugh escaped his throat. "Fiercely proud."

Jinho felt a tap on his shoulder, and looked over it to see the Mad Hatter's hand sticking out of the swirling, dark void, his trusty cane in her hand. "Ah, thank you, Hatter..."

"Have fun...!" The Satan's voice chimed just before the void swirled shut.

"Nema, you look even more beautiful than before...!" Jinho carried on the conversation as Michael led them back toward the big group of Angels and the moody little Evil who huffed at them.

"I look exactly the same, oppa." Nema replied with a laugh, but any other words she might have wanted to add would drowned out by the sharp voice of the Dragonmaster.

"... Shit!" Lilith's pupils had narrowed into thin slits, again. Jinho. What was Jinho doing here? How did the Rabbit Queen even know him? "You brought the lecher here? What is wrong with you? Ugh!"

Nema's bright red eyes narrowed as she snapped, "I brought Jinho here because I figure he can help! You wanted help, so here you go!"

"Now, now...!" Already Jinho felt miserable, but he slipped between Nema and Lilith, trying hard to keep them from going for each others' throats. Not that he could blame Nema for her anger... Jinho removed his top hat and placed it over his heart, bowing with a flourish, "Lilith, you..." He felt horrible for finding it difficult to come up with a greeting compliment, but Lilith removed him from that burden with a sneer.

"Oh I'll bet I look fucking gorgeous, don't I?" She spat out the words, her tanned face turning red in all her frustration. Jinho... Fucking Jinho. It was just her luck that Nema knew him and called him in to help... "Do you even know what we're trying to do?"

Jinho fought the urge to sigh and placed his hat back on his head, leaning slightly against his cane. "From what I understand, you need help convincing King Judas to join your cause."

"The guy's impossible."

"Oh, nothing is impossible for Lord Lucifer's favorite diplomat..."

"Lord Lucifer's favorite liar, more like...!" Lilith snapped and began stomping her way back down the street she'd come from, toward the iron-wrought gate that was at once striking and ominous and strangely anonymous. "But you wanna help? Fine! Help." She pointed up at the gate, and the impressively-sized mansion just beyond it. "Get your ass in there and make Judas see reason."

Jinho finally allowed himself to sigh, though he directed it at the mansion. It had been years since he'd last seen Lilith... she hadn't changed, but then again, he hadn't expected her to change, either. He pressed the button for the intercom, and a pleasing female voice came through the speaker, asking who waited at the gate. "Please inform our King that a Revenant from Sheol seeks counsel with His Grace."

He knew those would be the choice words needed for the gate to automatically unlock, letting them in. Jinho stepped through the gate and looked at the others over his shoulder. "Give me fifteen minutes. You will have the Revenant King on your side. I swear it."

As he turned to let the gate swing shut behind him, Uriel slipped through behind him, to follow.

Surprised, Jinho looked up at the impossibly tall Angel of Earth. "You wish to accompany me?" That seemed strange... considering all the things he had heard about the Earth Angel's love of seclusion...

"I wish to get away from Lilith. I can only tolerate her for so long." Uriel said with a wry smile.

Jinho only mirrored his miserable smile. "If I succeed in swaying King Judas, we may possibly have to tolerate her for much longer than this..."