Authoress Notes: Language Lesson – Appa: (Korean) Dad.
Adul: (Korean) Son.
Layers
Chapter Twenty One
By: Brenli and Jael
"I'm sorry it came to this, appa."
A soft scoffing sound came through the phone and into Jinho's ear. "For all your manners, we always knew you would be trouble." So like his father, to tease him even in the face of the so-called treason he was committing. But then he added with a heartfelt smile his son could hear in his voice, "You're going to become a father, adul. You have to do what is best for your family, and after what we've seen from that Council, I can't blame you for feeling like this is best. For your child, and for the mother of your child."
Tentative words, carefully chosen. If nothing else, Jinho was glad his father respected that he just couldn't be sure what it was that he had with Lilith. That nothing of their situation was clear and easy... "How is she?"
"She's resting, now. It took a lot of sleeping tea to get her there, though. She's worried. She wants you here."
Of course she was worried, and yet hearing Jinsang say such made Jinho smile, despite all the danger coming at him from every side... There was a very real possibility that he might not return. But he had to make things right. He had to. "I'll be home as soon as I can. I promise."
"She'll be waiting for you."
Most times, Jinho's father didn't seem like the most intuitive man, ever. And yet he knew that Lilith would be the one to strike inside of him the hardest. That the mental picture of the runaway Princess of Gehenna, waiting for him, would stay with him the longest.
That was the point, Jinho was sure. To keep him reminded of what he still had in his life, even as he moved up the steps of the London mansion in order to retrieve what had been taken from him. But not just him. From Michael, and Isobelle, and Jibril... Setsuna... and everyone.
He had to do this. He had to get Nema and Nathan back, even though that meant risking all that he had left. Though it may not have seemed like much to some, when he slipped through the wood of that front door, he knew it was his everything. That the mess of a Princess and their mess of a situation had become a vital part of him, in what felt like such a short time.
He didn't want Uriel to be the first one he came across. He had no idea how he would break the news to him, the news that Serissa was in league with Azrael, and that Serissa and Celestiel were one in the same. The last thing he wanted to be was the one who dropped that hefty bomb into Uriel's overburdened lap. But what choice did he have?
When he found Uriel, the speech he had prepared and the courage he had gathered crumbled. The Earth Angel was sitting at the dining room table, with nothing but a glass of water sitting in front of him. He looked tired, worn, and defeated, as they all did, struck to the core by the news of Nema and Nathan's deaths.
"Uriel...?" Jinho approached the man and spoke with a soft and tentative voice.
Uriel's green eyes shifted to meet Jinho's dark ones. "Jinho... What are you doing here?"
"Where's Serissa?"
The question left Uriel silent for several moments. "I don't know." He finally said. "She disappeared after she gave me the video of Azrael." Sliding his water glass away from him, Uriel stood. He was wearing a set of clothing that made him seem much like the Uriel everybody used to know: a black jacket with a dark gray cravat. "Jinho..." Uriel asked his next question with a broken sort of sound in his false voice. "She has something to do with Azrael... doesn't she?"
"Yes." Jinho answered, his own voice tight with sadness and pity. "We need to find her. Right away."
Uriel nodded in agreement, and he couldn't quite look Jinho in the eye. "I told you she was too good to be true... I told you."
The pain was tangible, hitting hard like a fist to an already-deep bruise. But the Vampire couldn't deny anything. He wouldn't. All he could offer was a soft and hurting, "I wanted to believe she was better than all this... I'm sorry."
"Are you two looking for Serissa?"
A new, small voice interrupted Jinho's thoughts, and both men turned to see the little girl standing in the doorway.
"Chiyo..." Uriel said softly. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard you talking." Chiyo's pale face was set with a firm and quivering frown. "Serissa is on Azrael's team?"
"I'm afraid so." Jinho said gently. "Look, Chiyo, it's-"
"Good." Chiyo interrupted, swiping a tear off her cheek with the back of her hand. "I'm glad... Azrael is a hero."
Uriel and Jinho were both brought to silence with that simple statement from Chiyo. "A hero...?" Jinho said with a tone of disbelief. "Chiyo, he's a murderer!"
"So's Michael!" Chiyo snapped right back at Jinho. "So was your precious Nema...! They both murdered people! Michael especially! Who are you to choose who's right and who's wrong? No... Azrael is a hero. He's the only one who's really fighting for us. For Rabbits. Nemaelle was a joke, and I'm glad she's gone. Her and that bratty son of hers deserved what they got...!"
Uriel and Jinho both stood in stunned silence, struck stupid by the amount of sheer hatred spewing from the mouth of a twelve year old girl. "Chiyo, you-"
"Save it." Chiyo wiped another tear away from her cheek. "If you want to find Serissa... she probably went to see Maya."
Uriel felt his heart skip a beat. Maya... That name. Once, his finger that traced that name, etched in black ink between Serissa's shoulder blades.
"Who's Maya...?"
"Somebody I'm trying to put behind me."
"Chiyo?" Uriel took two steps towards the girl. "Who is Maya?"
"Maya is her daughter. Her real daughter." Chiyo said. "Born before Serissa became a Vampire."
Jinho was the next to speak, stepping up beside Uriel to place a hand on the Angel's shoulder, holding him back. "Where does Maya live?"
"... In the cemetery outside the city. You'll probably find Serissa there."
"Thank you, Chiyo." Jinho gave Chiyo a deep and respectful bow. "We'll talk again, soon."
"Don't you dare hurt Serissa." Chiyo said darkly. "Or I'll find a way to kill you both."
Neither the Earth Angel nor the Gehenna Vampire could think of a single thing to say in response to such a bold and... believable threat. So they both left, feeling rattled, though leaving the dining room brought them face to face with the Fire Angel, still mourning, dark circles under his eyes. He immediately turned on his heel to avoid them. The pink, heart-shaped diamond ring sang against his dog tags as he tugged on it in a new, nervous habit, but he froze in place when Jinho spoke.
"Michael." Jinho said. "Where is Isobelle?"
"With Jibril and Setsuna." Michael said moodily. "What the Hell are you doing here?"
"Come with us... and bring your sword."
"Sword?" Uriel said, alarmed. "What for?"
"Just trust me... We might need it."
xXxXxXx
Her hair still hadn't completely dried, and Serissa wished she had cut most of the dark waves away while she still had the chance. She tried to blame the moisture in her hair, coupled with the cold northern wind, for the chill settling in her bones. But she knew that many other things were giving her that chill. The cold wind in her hair, the memories in her head, and growing dread in her belly.
The only part of her that wasn't trembling was her steady hand, as it placed a single white calla lily at the base of a headstone. A headstone that only held a single word: "Maya". Nothing else. No dates, no quotes. Honestly, Serissa couldn't remember the exact date Maya died, even though the events leading up to her death were burned into her brain in excruciating, vivid detail. The stone was crumbling around the edges, again.
"It's time to change your stone again, baby..." Serissa murmured, trailing an index finger through the indents of Maya's name. "I'm sorry I haven't been visiting. Things have been pretty crazy. Stressful, and... just sad, I guess." She forced a smile onto her trembling lips and continued to speak to the stone as though it could hear her. "I do have some good news, I guess. I met someone. He reminds me of your father... At least of how he used to be before everything went so wrong. You would have really liked him. I know I do." Serissa's dark waves shielded her face as she bent her head forward. "I know what you're probably thinking, and you don't need to worry. I know that good things don't last. Good things sour and spoil or are just plain stolen. Whenever I start to forget that, I remember you... I remember what they did to you." Serissa transferred a kiss from her lips to the stone with her fingers. "I'll be seeing you soon enough..."
She wanted to spend more time talking to the headstone. In some strange way, it comforted her. But she could hear the sound of approaching footsteps, and she didn't know how she knew... but she did know who those footsteps belonged to. Who else would have tracked her down in this cemetery? Who would even want to?
"You brought company, Jinho." Serissa said, slowly rising from her kneel. "What does that mean?"
Jinho came to a stop several feet behind Serissa. A huge part of him wanted to close the gap between them, grab her by the arm and shake her with all of the anger he held inside. "I just want to talk." He would have congratulated himself on managing to say that much with the usual cool water over stones kind of tone, if he didn't feel the strain within himself...
"Then why the backup?" Serissa pushed her hands into the pockets of her long jacket and turned to face her visitors. She expected to see Michael standing by Jinho's side. But Uriel... she didn't expect to see him, and the sight of him made her falter, slightly.
"Because they both need to know what I know." Jinho said with a frown on his stony face, ink-black eyes reading her. The cool water of his voice grew colder still, the very moment he took note of her uneasiness. He couldn't help but be proud in the cruelty of it all... but dear Shinryu help him, the Gehenna Vampire was glad she wasn't entirely unshakable in all of her own cruelty. That he could somehow strike at her, even if only in subtle ways. "They need to know who you really are. They both deserve to know."
Serissa nearly broke down when she saw Uriel give Jinho a confused look. So... he hadn't filled either Michael or Uriel in on anything before confronting her, like this... "I suppose you're right." Serissa said with a bitter smile. "But I guess this means you're not quite so concerned with Lilith's safety, anymore."
"I don't think you'll hurt her." Jinho's words came through sure and sharp and cold as the blade hiding within his cane, tapping just once, firm against the ground. But in saying it, he knew it was the truth. Serissa wouldn't hurt Lilith; she had no real reason to do so. She had been all talk, preying on his weaknesses. A trick Lucifer had taught him to be well-versed in, but the heaviness of his heart blinded him to it. "I don't think I ever thought that; I was just too scared to take that risk. Maybe if I had just listened to my gut, then-"
"Then what?" Serissa cut him off. "Things would have been different? You're so naive, Jinho."
"Jinho, what the fuck is going on, here?" Michael interrupted. He felt the bite of the ball chain against the back of his neck, the edges of that heart-shaped diamond pressing into the inside of his fist as he clutched onto his dog tags. He didn't have the patience for this... of course, he never had much patience at all. But now? He could hardly get his head in the right space. Talk of backup, and hurting or not-really-hurting Lilith. He knew it had to have been important. Nema would have told him it was important; that her best friend wouldn't have dragged him just outside of the city for something inconsequential... but just thinking that much sent tears to his eyes, and he blinked them back. He was in no shape for this, no matter how important it was. He wanted to go back. To put his daughter in his arms so that the weight of the Fire Sword strapped to his back melted away. Isobelle kept the need to hack into everything locked tightly away. Isobelle saved him, and in doing so, kept everyone else safe. He wanted to go back... "Get to the damn point; some of us have a family to tend to! Something you should start fucking keeping in mind!" When the Vampire sent him a dark and chilly glare, he only met it with a fiery hot green one of his own. Did he strike a chord? Did he hurt the damn Vamp's feelings? Good, as long as it got the fucking point across...!
"Michael. Uriel." Jinho took a deep breath, hands clenched hard to the head of his cane, and never took his gaze away from Serissa's hard blue eyes. "Meet Celestiel."
Serissa could swear that the very Earth had stopped breathing in that very moment. That even the birds in the trees had stopped their chirping to wait and see what would happen next. She couldn't look at Uriel in those frozen moments... She knew she wouldn't like what she saw.
Of course the Angel of Fire was the one to break the silence, with two words that cracked through the air like a whip. "Bull shit."
"I didn't want to believe it either," Jinho said quietly, his eyes contrasting that quietness with a sharp disdain. "But it's true."
Uriel stood beside Jinho and processed this new information... until he realized that it wasn't really all that new. "Yes... it is true." He said slowly, staring at Serissa's face and finding his confirmation. She wouldn't look at him, she kept her eyes down and her mouth curled into a frown. "Somehow, I think I suspected it, all along... I just didn't want to believe it."
"It's over, Celestiel." Jinho said. "Tell us where Azrael is."
"You'll find him in Heaven... in the auditorium commonly referred to as the 'Soap Box Room'. He'll be waiting for you."
Jinho blinked, taken aback by how easily she gave away his location. "That's it...?" He heard the crunch of boots on the ground, and was quick to turn on his heel, to cut off the Fire Angel's warpath with a white-gloved hand upon his shoulder. Even so, he turned wary and wide ink-black eyes to Serissa.
"Were you expecting a fight? Is that why Michael is here with his sword and his anger?" Serissa said calmly... coolly.
Uriel, however, was not surprised by her telling them so easily. He remembered how everything about the Uprising just seemed so off, to him. He remembered exactly what he had been suspicious of, all along.
Misdirection...
"She wants us to go to him." He said, his green eyes narrowing as he regarded Serissa with suspicion. "Isn't that right...? The Uprising... all of it was just smoke and mirrors, wasn't it?"
"I've always hated how you dug so deep into my past, Uriel." Serissa said. "I knew that if anyone stood a chance of exposing me, it was you."
"So then I'm right?" Uriel said, his voice shaking when he took one step closer. "There's something else going on... the Prophecy the Shinryu spoke of?"
"Yes. The Shinryu predicted an event that would be the end of everything. And all of you only bothered yourselves with the petty squabbles of a bunch of whining Rabbits. It was all quite predictable. It gave me all the time I needed."
"Time..." Jinho said, soft in dismay, his hand gripping harder onto Michael's shaking shoulder. "Time to do what?"
Serissa smiled, a shaking, crooked smile that radiated a bit of her tired madness. "Well. There isn't anything you can do to stop me, now. So I guess I can give you that comic book villain speech, after all." Serissa pulled a small piece of gold plastic out of her pocket. A thumb drive. "Years ago, I heard the news that Setsuna Mudou and his trusted friends had successfully deleted God from the system. Imagine my delight when I heard later that Raziel had reactivated Him... in a way. Imagine my delight when I heard that this new God Computer could be found... and reprogrammed."
"Reprogrammed...?" Uriel repeated, his false voice coming out with a quiet dread.
No… no no no. Perhaps in Heaven the decision to build and awaken Raziel's so-called 'judgement machine' had been received with mixed to positive feelings, but everywhere else the very idea had been repulsive. Jinho remembered Lord Lucifer's reaction upon hearing the news… it was one of the few times he'd seen the King of Hell tap into a harsh and loud kind of wrath. Because the freedom fighter elected to comfort the scared majority with a return to the old. Because the freedom fighter had done so in a way that was even less stable than before…
The shaking pressure of Michael's shoulder against the Vampire's hand disappeared, because he had turned and began marching for Serissa. "Reprogrammed." He spat the word at her feet. "How? Why? You want to be God, Serissa or Celestiel or whatever the fuck we're supposed to call you, now?" His eyes zeroed in on the piece of plastic. "It's gonna take more than whatever fucking coding you have in that stupid thing to get you there. But you'll be dead before you can even try!" In his rage, he hadn't realized his hand reached out to grab for the little gold piece until he felt Jinho pull him back.
"Michael, don't." His words were cold as the blade of a knife.
It only made Michael's anger feel all the more hot. "No! I'm tired of humoring this bitch! You're telling me this woman who barely allowed us under her roof is the woman who attacked my wife, scrambled up her guts with a touch of her hand? I can't even fucking swallow that! And now she's waving some piece of code at us and talking about reprogramming, like she can even fathom what could happen! Don't fucking tell me, 'don't'!"
"Oh, I know exactly what's going to happen, Michael." Serissa said lowly. "This... 'piece of code', as you call it, is my life's work." She held up the plastic thumb drive, letting the cheap gold colored plating flash in the fading sunlight. "Everything that has ever happened to me, everything that has ever happened to this entire damn world, for the last five thousand years has been leading up to this 'piece of code'. You say I want to be God? Michael, think back on all the things I have done. I am a God, already. The only reason you and your friends are still alive is because I have allowed it."
Michael's rage made him surge forward once more, but this time, Uriel's hand on his other arm stopped it. "Serissa..." Uriel said, suddenly feeling like that name was a nasty curse as he uttered it. "What is it?"
"It's a virus, Uriel." Serissa's bleary blue eyes looked at the little, unassuming thumb drive in her hand. "A virus designed to alter one little line of code in God's Creation program." She pocketed the drive and let a brief silence follow. She knew that what she was about to say carried such an enormous weight. "It will turn oxygen into a flammable compound."
"... What?" Jinho's single word came quiet and strained around the edges, the very beginnings of a kind of panic setting in. He didn't have the heart or the energy to try and hide it...
"Call it Armageddon, call it Ragnarok... call it whatever you want. It will be the end of everything. All it will take is one spark, anywhere in Assiah, Heaven or Hell, and the resulting blast will burn so hot and for so long that nothing will survive... not even microorganisms."
"I don't understand." Michael said flatly, so angry that her words only partly sank in.
Serissa wasn't the one to make the explanation simple... it was Uriel. He said the words slowly, barely able to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster that code would cause. "It's going to turn air into fire."
"Exactly." Serissa said with a short nod and a grim smile. "And with God's consciousness erased, there will be nothing left to rebuild this terrible world we live in."
The Vampire couldn't have even begun to foresee this, and it showed in the way the tension of his face released, the way his eyes widened instead. "You…" She wanted to delete everything. Everyone? Including herself? "You're insane…"
"She's selfish and a fucking coward." Michael tried to shrug off the hold on each of his arms. Jinho's slipped away. Uriel's held steady. "You hate this world so fucking much? You hate it enough to want out of it? Fine! But leave the rest of us out of it! There are people who actually want to try and do something that's actually productive with this damn world! Like Nema, up until the man you're working with fucking…!" He couldn't finish the sentence, the thought. It still hurt far too much.
Uriel's grip on Michael's arm tightened to something that could have crushed bones. Even in the light of this new information, even knowing that after everything he had been through with Serissa and all he felt for her... Suicide wasn't an option, nor was it an appropriate one for Michael to encourage. But how could he say anything to disagree with Michael in that moment? How could he choose to take her side after knowing who she really was...?
"In all my years in this wretched world, I have seen my fair share of Nemaelle Mudous, Michael. You can try and trick yourself into believing that she was something special, but I have seen a thousand of them try and fail in a hundred different ways. No... there is only one cure for this ugliness. And it's the complete and total erasure of existence, as we know it." Serissa stuffed her hands back into the pockets of her jacket. "Don't worry, Michael... This pain that you feel? I'm going to take it all away. You should be thanking me on bended knee."
"This is my fucking 'thank you'...!" He could hardly believe he'd humored her for this long. She didn't deserve it, as far as he was concerned, and he showed it when he broke from Uriel's rock-hard grip and burst forward, a white-knuckled fist swinging right for her damn face, the other ready to connect with her gut. He was done. He has through listening to her; he could take no more!
"Michael!" Uriel cried, reaching out a hand to stop him. But it proved needless.
Michael's fist only connected with air, his wild blow missing Serissa entirely when she dodged it.
"I don't have time for this." Serissa said moodily, her heel digging into the ground when she skidded to a halt in the grass. "I'm not the one you want, remember? It's Azrael. He knows where your family is. This is goodbye..." Her eyes connected with Uriel's, and he knew that her goodbye wasn't meant for the three of them. It was meant specifically for him. "I'm sorry..." She continued. "For everything."
Uriel didn't know why, but he gave her a single slow nod. Wordlessly saying what he already knew he felt. 'I forgive you.'
Those soundless words made tears pool in Serissa's tired eyes, and a heartbeat later, she was gone, fleeing at a speed that made her little more than a blur across the cemetery.
Though Michael had only thrown one hit, and a hit that had utterly missed it's mark, the moment that Serissa ran off became the moment that his mind fractured into different needs. He needed to go back to his room. He needed to find that terrible man. He needed his daughter in his arms. He needed to force that damn cult leader to give him his family back. He needed to end this fucked up, two-faced bitch and her equally fucked up plan. He needed to slaughter Azrael!
"Michael...!"
But the name came through muffled in his ears. How many times had he told Nema that Azrael needed to be cut down, pure and simple? And of course, Nema had rejected the notion over and over. In his mind, the disagreements were suddenly vivid – her pale face smiling, head tilted, treating it like it was a joke, and he was always frustrated about it but he always loved her for being more pragmatic than he could ever hope to be. But she was wrong. She was wrong and she had her own death as the proof of it; Azrael should've been cut down, Azrael needed to be cut down! A hand latched onto his arm. He shook it off. "Don't touch me." He felt himself grabbed onto, pulled backward, and Michael felt the anger burst out of him in the form of a rough shove and a torn-up yell. "Get the fuck off of me, Demon!"
But Jinho was persistent, his cane swinging out like a bar to hold Michael in place as he hurried to block his warpath. "I didn't tell you this so that you could start your manhunt."
"Yeah? Is that why you told me to strap my sword onto my back? Because this wasn't about killing a killer?"
"Your sword was meant for self-defense, but she's gone, Michael. She's gone." Ink-black eyes pleaded with ireful green ones.
"Then I don't need to be here, either! Perfect!" Michael pressed forward, but the Gehenna Vampire pushed him back with his cane, still held out like an impromptu barricade.
"Why are you trying to branch off after what Celestiel has told us? How do you think you can get what you're looking for if she essentially deletes everything?"
His voice became a heated bellow. "Don't talk to me like I don't know she just threatened us with a God damn Apocalypse! This isn't the first fucking time I've had to deal with something as insane as her, and you can ask Setsuna, and you can ask Uriel! Go ahead! Run off after his ass and ask him about the time we had to, you know, fucking take out YHWH!" Michael's arm swung out in the direction of where the Earth Angel left. "And shit, if that's not enough, fucking take your ass down to Sheol to ask the man you happen to be working for! I'm sure he'd be happy to tell you all about it!"
"Nema wouldn't want this...!" And Jinho felt guilty for speaking her name. For using it as a weapon to subdue the Fire Angel...
Michael's eyes suddenly shot wide and enraged. "I suppose you think she wouldn't want justice for the way Azrael killed her son, too! I suppose you fucking think that! Now get out of my way before I fucking set you on fire!"
Still, Jinho persisted. "You're being reckless. Think of your daughter. Think of the family you still have left...!"
Strange, how Michael could feel as though he'd broken down utterly, and yet more things kept snapping in two inside of his head. His breath came out in a hiss, arms moving fast, stealing the cane blade, tearing the sheath away and pointing the oh-so-sharp tip of the blade right at the Vampire's throat. But how dare he...? How dare he say that to him? "Think of the family you have, Jinho! You want to talk about family?" He glared hard at the Vampire who held up his hands in a show of passiveness. "Huh? You want to talk about family? Think of your own! You got a pregnant woman waiting on you but here you are, dragging me and Uriel around! Or maybe that's not surprising, what with the way you disappeared on Lilith like some kind of fucking coward. Hmm." By the time he'd reached that point, he knew he was spitting more acid than truth, and yet he stood by his words. Even as he watched Jinho's face grow hard and cold, even as the Vampire simply snapped his fingers, causing the cane blade Michael had taken from him to disappear in a plume of smoke.
Jinho took two calm and confident steps to close the distance between them, ink-black eyes chilly and mean. "Lilith is safe with my family as we speak. I have every intention of returning to her as soon as this conversation is over. I know that you're hurting and uninformed, but I want to make it clear that I don't appreciate your implication that I am a deadbeat father, when I have taken immediate steps to ensure Lilith is protected and provided for, before taking care of an issue that does need to be addressed. Believe me, I have my priorities in order." His anger was cold in the face of all of Michael's heat, barely restrained, showing itself in every knife stroke of a word and the subtle beginnings of a sneer on his lips. "Do you?"
The Vampire knew the two added words were crossing a line, were practically an invitation to fight... and yet he didn't feel sorry for uttering them. Michael shifted, and he didn't flinch, even welcomed the possibility that he might get hit, because then he could strike back...
But his phone began buzzing in his pocket, and as he checked the caller, Michael only shoved his shoulder as he passed. Jinho held his ground as the Fire Angel growled lowly, "Get the fuck out of here and take care of that brat. You can send me a thank you card when we've put a fucking stopper on Celestiel's demented plans."
The caller kept Jinho from nearly snapping at the parting Angel, as he instead chose to greet the caller with a sigh. "Appa..."
"Wrong."
"Lilith...!" Jinho's dark eyes blinked as he picked up his cane from the ground, blade and sheath joined together. "Appa said you were resting."
"I was..." She mumbled. To be fair, she did seem sleepy. "For a little while. Are you finished over there?"
He glanced around to see if the Earth Angel was still anywhere around him… Uriel's towering form stood quietly, looking down at the gravestone they had witnessed Serissa paying attention to. "One moment," Jinho said softly, briefly muting his phone to call out to the Angel, "Uriel, I need to leave. We all need to leave." He waited. Uriel didn't respond… and yet he couldn't blame the man. He couldn't begin to imagine what he must have been thinking and feeling in the face of this discovery. "... Farewell." He saw Uriel barely turn his head to look at him, and he knew that was as good a reaction as anyone could expect to get from him.
So the Vampire gave Uriel and unseen nod, in parting, in sympathy, and began his return to the mansion. He unmuted his phone and continued speaking to the former Dragonmaster. "Not yet. Only Uriel and Michael know." Dare he tell her what Celestiel had revealed? How in doing so, she had set the countdown clock running just that much faster...? Somehow, despite the circumstances, despite the fear that he could lose all he had because of one woman with a plan... he smiled. Teased her. "Are you getting lonely, Princess? That won't do."
"If it won't do, then hurry!" Lilith responded in grumbles. "I figured you would be done by now! Just tell everyone and get as far away from Celestiel as possible!"
"I'm hurrying, Princess...!"
"Stop calling me that! It's like you don't think she could fucking kill you!"
Oh, Jinho knew that she could, oh so easily... and yet she'd turned and left. Left them unscathed. "Lilith. Lilith." He repeated her name until he heard her sigh a deep breath into the phone... His father wasn't kidding when he said the former Dragonmaster was worried for him. And yet that... really, truly touched him. "She doesn't seem interested in killing me." Only because she would kill everyone, absolutely everyone, in one fell swoop...
"You spoke to her?"
"Lilith." He paused, long enough for her to get her bearings, for him to get his bearings. "I wanted to try and find out where Nema and Nathan are being kept. But she claims to not know. That only Azrael does... so tracking him down will come later. After I've gotten everyone else out of London. Off of Assiah entirely, preferably." Though he knew, oh he knew that it didn't matter where anyone was. But far better that everyone go back to their respective homes... whether to be with those they loved, or whether to get ready to try and put an end to Celestiel's plans. Far better to leave...
From the other end of the call, Lilith gave a short, breathy scoff. "Tracking Azrael down. I'd bet money that Michael will beat you to that."
Jinho could still feel the residual heat from Michael's green-eyed glare, and he didn't doubt that claim... and that was what worried him. Even in the face of an Apocalypse, all the hurting, mourning man could focus on was that which he had lost. "I'm not going to bet against you, on that notion. I need to end this call for now; I'm almost at the mansion. Get some rest, Lilith; don't worry about me..."
"I'll stop worrying when you're here."
Lilith was nothing if not oh-so-stubborn, and Shinryu help him, he hoped he would have many more moments of that stubbornness. That a masked woman wouldn't rob him of what he'd only begun to embrace. "Soon... Princess."
He listened to her groan in annoyance and hang up, and marveled that in spite of all the trouble everyone was in, all the pain, all the fear, somehow he could still have small moments like the one that just passed... But he couldn't marvel for long. He wasn't finished with what he set out to do... but soon. Soon he would be home, and he would cherish whatever time they had left, whether that time would be fortunate and long... or tragic and short…
xXxXxXx
When Uriel found himself alone in the cemetery, his gaze focused on the crumbling tombstone simply labelled "Maya". He remembered that Chiyo had said that Maya was her daughter in a time before she became a Vampire... and now Uriel knew that before she was a Vampire, she was an Angel.
"What happened to you...?" He asked the tombstone in a frail and fragile whisper. He stared at the letters of her name and remembered how they were etched into Serissa... Celestiel's skin between her shoulders. Someone she was trying to put behind her...
Somehow Uriel knew that whatever had happened to Maya was somehow at the heart of all Celestiel's heartbreak. And he wanted to know what it was. The idea of the world vanishing into a blast of fire made Uriel's heart fill with despair, in that moment. If he died, if they all died...?
But how could any of them stop a woman who was just so powerful?
... Did Uriel even want to?
He muttered a curse at his own confusion, and suddenly he remembered something that a mysterious voice over the phone had once said to him:
"Listen. I give you this wisdom, now: With pain and sorrow and endless toil did Serissa's sad story begin, and only with patience, understanding, and love… will it end."
Uriel grit his teeth with renewed determination.
"Only you can save her, now."
xXxXxXx
Did Michael have his priorities in order? Did he?
The Angel of War wouldn't have minded roasting the damn Vampire where he stood, when he dared to speak to him that way. But he had a daughter to return home, and a man who was little more than a deranged cult leader in his mind, who needed to be hunted down.
Because yeah. Oh yeah. Michael had his priorities in order, and if he was gonna fucking burn up a Vampire, it was going to have to wait until after he'd taken care of this problem that had gone on for far too long.
Yes, yes, and Serissa-turned-Celestiel, too, who'd found herself on his kill list the moment she'd even dared to attack Nema. Fucking plot to wipe out existence notwithstanding. She'd already earned a firm spot on his kill list; and he'd take care of her after taking care of Azrael, and before setting the Gehenna Vamp on fire.
… Then again, Nema wouldn't have forgiven him if he did incinerate Jinho. No matter how much she may have loved him... but especially not after how he'd... how he'd bellowed and screamed at her, told her to leave the room when in hindsight he could see clearly that all she needed was for him to listen and just fucking be there.
The soles of his boots crunched against cracked asphalt, and for the thousandth, no, the millionth time his hand closed around his dog tags and her wedding ring. He pulled hard enough for the ball chain to bite into the nape of his neck.
What a fucking selfish dick he was, pondering whether or not Nema would have forgiven him for this or for that. As if he ever, at any point of their time together, deserved her forgiveness. He had taken for granted how lucky he'd been...
But lucky or not, Michael had his priorities, and Nema deserved justice. Nathan, five years old and utterly innocent, deserved justice. And he'd make sure that justice was served before Celestiel even had the chance to perform her crazy plans.
He pushed himself forward, ever closer to the burnt up building. Memories flooded him, the Revolution in full swing and his soldiers and her fighters and him and her all mingled together. Busy and fierce and passionate. How was he to know things would turn out the way they did, or that Azrael would eventually take up residence in the building Nema had practically gift-wrapped, though not necessarily for him. But it had been Nema who had taken a beat-up building and turned it into a fortress. And it had been Nema who decided to vacate it when her fight became less war and more political. And it had been Nema who set the damn thing on fire... God, like she'd taken a page straight from his book. A cry for help, written in his own language... Falling on his deaf ears.
Michael wouldn't have imagined Azrael, or any Uprising member – even Celestiel, as fucking mental as she turned out to be – would be in the charred remains of the building. Yellow caution tape hugged it like a demented version of a present, full of unstable floorboards and an untrustworthy foundation. But Celestiel had said he would be there… waiting in the soap box room. Yet after beelining for that room, or beelining as well as he could around burnt up debris that had once been segments of walls and ceiling, he had found that room empty. More memories flooded him as he stood on that stage and tapped at the charred remains of a soap box set perfectly in the middle. Nema making speeches and plans to soldiers sitting and standing all around her, and all of them echoing her war cries, and bowing if they'd been with her from the start or saluting her if they'd been with him from the start. She was a natural, even though she often said she didn't feel like it. He'd never been so proud...
Michael shook his head to clear out the pain and keep himself sharp. Was he early? Or had Celestiel lied to him? He wouldn't put it past her, if she had. After all, she'd been lying and lying at a near constant rate for oh so long, now. In any case, Michael didn't have the damn time to stand there in a burnt up auditorium, battling with himself when he could be battling with a man who didn't deserve to be breathing, anymore. He kicked the ruined soap box right off of the stage, turned and stalked his way back out. He'd find him, he'd find Azrael. He was inside his crumbling headquarters; no doubt there would be information that would help him track that murderer down instead of waiting for him and inhaling ash and dust. It sure wouldn't have been the first time he'd scrambled around in burnt surroundings looking for something. Anything, really. Papers with addresses and phone numbers. Maps with locations marked out. Even the most inconsequential thing could be a tip to find some person who knew some person who had a phone number he could fucking trace and then tear Azrael's face off. The frustration it'd undoubtedly give him would be worth it, after all. Beat the man into giving him Nema and Nathan, and then slaughter him.
Or no, he supposed he could be used as a tool to take down Celestiel's crazy fucking self. And then he could slaughter both of them.
The frustration came to him in abundance, after he'd accidentally stomped two great big holes into weakened floors and found lighter, cleaner spots where desks and filing cabinets used to be. There had been a cleanup crew after all. People nuts enough to risk falling through floors and gouging themselves open on broken down wood and metal and concrete just to pull out documents... Not that he was any better, clearly.
On his way out with little more than a burnt up scrap of a printed out email – only part of an address, but damn if he wouldn't find some way to make that bit of information useful – he spotted a poster that, aside from some burns that had curled and stained the edges, somehow survived the fire. Nema... and God, he remembered when posters like those were being printed. When they were unmarked, morale boosters for the Revolution... now ruined, defaced, crosses over her eyes and a big line drawn across her-
Drawn across her-
Michael's hand shot out and covered the horrible mark, but the damage was done and all he could remember was that video. The gash in her throat. The gash in her throat. The gash in her throat. Covering it up was not enough; he could see the line extending from either side of his hand and it translated as a terrible line of blood from the fast slice of a blade, and somehow he felt like he was there. Holding a worthless hand over the gash in her throat. The gash in her throat.
He tore the image off of the wall, too late to stop the angry, hurting war cry from ripping its way out of his mouth. He'd seen more than enough. He needed to get out of here.
And then he realized that for all his pain, he still had some good fortune on his side.
It was clear that Azrael had taken note something was off the very moment that he could see the caution tape had been torn in two, at one open entryway. He watched as Michael, dusty with ash here and there across his tense body, emerged past the ripped yellow tape, green eyes burning a lethal glare through his skull. Holding up the burnt, torn, defaced poster of Nema, with the ugly line drawn across her throat.
Michael didn't say anything, because his eyes and the poster said it all. He released the image of his deceased wife so that he could pull the heavy, deadly-sharp Fire Sword from where it rested at his back, and continued walking toward him.
A/N from Jael: Guys. Guys, I am so, so sorry that it took so long to get this freaking chapter done. It's honestly my fault, entirely. I suffered a very tragic loss, last year, and it's been very difficult to recover from it. I'm still broken. I'm still healing. And part of that process is doing the things that make me happy. And finishing this darn project is one of them. Onward and upwards, Layers Fans!