Title: Painful Contemplation
Author: DhampyrX2
Genre: General/semi X-over elements
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I've got nothing
Summary: Sera had learned to live in her own head after Lucifer's fall. Now the arrival of his daughter in heaven is filling that space with old and new thoughts she could no loinger ignore.
"Greetings, Daughter of the Morningstar, I am Sera, the High Seraphim. You are gifted to be here…" She had said as an introduction to Lucifer's daughter before Emily chimed in happily. It was such a detached way to introduce Herself before that debacle of a hearing in front of the various choirs of angels a few hours ago. More a title than anything else, but Sera had used Her title and Charlie's as a kind of mental shield from thinking too closely about the girl and what she represented.
She had other names, of course. Had names lost to history or only spoken of in other realities throughout the various omniverses. She, like many powerful Celestial and Infernal beings, existed in some form or another across all realities.
Many would assume that Sera was in fact short for "Saraquiel" or "Sariel" much like Emily's name was a bastardization of "Remiel," the Angel of Joy, in this timeline, but those that made that leap would have been wrong. In this timeline, and many others, her name had once been "Asherah," God's wife and the mother of Angels.
But it was easier to just be "Sera" to the child, wasn't it? To not even acknowledge that She was seeing Her only granddaughter in this reality for the first time in person. Because explaining their connection would have opened old wounds best left untouched. Wounds like Samael's… Lucifer's rebellion. A rebellion of one. A rebellion of choosing that human… floozy over the wishes of his own family. Over the orders of his parents. Over Her.
Oh, how Sera loathed Lilith for tempting and corrupting Her little Lightbringer into defying Her. In so many other realities he grew dissatisfied with Heaven and raised an army against his Father, but here? Here Sera has kept him well away from the politics and decision making in Heaven. Done Her best to save him from himself and have a universe where She could just enjoy being his Mother for a few more Eons before having to accept him as growing up.
But Her Husband had a twisted sense of humor and, as he did in other universes, Lucifer had inherited his Mother's strong will, and apparently Her libido. It probably didn't help that in this universe Lilith looked so much more like Luci's type. Her mind idly drifted to a mental image of a human by the name of "Chloe Decker" in a few branches of reality that had been Her son's True Love. What chance did this iteration of Her son have in the face of a Lilith that looked so like her?
The worst part was that Sera would have looked the other way and begrudgingly ignored their union if only they hadn't chosen to give Eve the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But once humanity was aware of Evil, they had a choice, a diverging path, and suddenly Free Will came into play. Free Will and humanity always seemed to come into play with Lucifer. So, Sera was in turn forced to offer Lucifer a choice between returning to the Fold or accepting punishment beside Lilith for her folly. And he chose HER. He chose that… human over his own flesh and blood.
And then, as if to rub salt into Her mental wounds over his betrayal, the boy had the nerve, the gall, to name his daughter after the human shell, Charlotte Richards, that Sera had used in the same realities where he ended up tied to Chloe Decker. The part that hurt the most about that was that She was sure was it was both unconscious and done out of love for Her.
After all, Asherah had done all she could to dull and cloud Lucifer's mind in this timeline to ensure his compliance. He was so dimmed after he had hung the stars that he occasionally showed signs of what the humans called autism. (And diminishing Samael's light like that to try to save him had been the last time Her Husband had spoken to her. Just as permitting Lucifer's banishment had been the last time she had seen Him before He had retreated to his inner sanctum where only the choir of Archangels, Lucifer's direct siblings, were allowed to enter.) But the fact remained that she doubted Her son was more than vaguely aware of his counterparts across different corners of existence. There was little chance he knew naming the girl "Charlotte" was essentially the same to some as naming her "Sera."
And the sight of Charlie hurt. Hurt more than Sera thought possible. She was prepared to despise the little Nephilim. To see nothing in the girl but her wanton mother. Instead, Sera was confronted with a slightly taller female clone of Her beloved son, full to the brim of his angelic grace and innocence. Charlie had shone so brightly with her father's influence that Sera had spent every moment not trying to wrangle Adam and enforce his silence over the Extermination keeping the other Archangels from swarming and pestering the girl as Remiel…Emily gave her a tour of Heaven. Sera quite literally had to directly forbid Michael, Gabriel, and Azrael from confronting the child during her visit.
"Is this your way of punishing Me without having to see Me, Husband? To make her so much like our son that I can't bring myself to even say a cross word to her?" Sera muttered bitterly to herself as she looked out of the window of her office into the vast expanses of the Silver City.
It was bad enough that Sera could see what was coming next month without the benefit of her own omniscience. Adam had resented and despised Lucifer both for marrying Lilith after Lilith had rejected Adam, and for the fact Eve was just as taken with Her Lightbringer. Adam would be foolish enough attempt to harm the Charlie during his attack as a way to hurt Lucifer by proxy, a fool's errand at best as the untapped potential of a Seraphim flowed through the child's ichor, but it would be enough to break the treaty that prevented Lucifer from directly interfering with Extermination Day. Luci's siblings would no longer be permitted to hold the Devil back and he would remind Adam painfully that a transcended human was a pale shadow when compared to a being born an Angel.
The only thing in question would be whether Samael allowed Adam to survive the encounter? Honestly, Asherah hoped he didn't. Sera was not Her Husband and was not infinitely forgiving toward those that irritated her. Adam was a vile pig of a man at the best of times and was only allowed in Heaven because it was fitting for the first human to be there. She would shed no tears to see him wiped from existence. At the very least it would be good to see him humbled by Her son.
But thoughts of Adam's inevitable humbling brought her back to thoughts of Lucifer, and of Charlie. Why did she have to take after Samael like that? It would be so easy to dismiss and dislike her if she looked and acted like Lilith, but no, she looked like she belonged there in the Silver City just as much as Emily, Michael, Uriel, and the rest did. It haunted Sera to know that Her own decisions as High Seraphim meant She couldn't even acknowledge Her own granddaughter. That She was forced to further separate Herself from Her family.
And now Emily was questioning Her too! It was like watching the beginning of Lucifer's Fall all over again. A child of Hers siding with Her Husband's little hobby project as other lesser angels murmured about Her being unreasonable. Would She have to banish Emily to maintain order as She had Her son? Would they lose a contingent of lower angels loyal to Emily the way they had lost the likes of Asmodeus, Mammon, Satan, Leviathan, Belphegor, Beelzebub, Paimon, and others in protest of how She had treated Lucifer? If She were capable of it, Sera would be certain She would feel the stirrings of a migraine coming on. Why could nothing be simple? Why did Her family feel the need to question Her? Why did Her decisions for the greater good always crush Her heart?
"No," Sera growled resolutely. "Not this time. Emily will NOT fall. I won't lose another child. I'll let this redemption foolishness play out until they see the futility of it and I will bring everyone back where they belong. And my Huband willing, I'll get Samael and Charlie here where they belong too. This insanity has gone on for too long. It's time I remind Hell, Heaven, and Earth that I am more than just some random high Angel. I am Asherah and I WILL have my family here with me," she swore.
She would find a way to make her son and daughter see reason, bring her granddaughter fully into the fold and away from Hell's influence, she'd even bring along that disgraced little Exorcist Charlie was fond of as Vaggie had never been properly tried or ordered Fallen (another thing Adam and his lieutenant would answer for when Sera had the time to deal with it.) She would have Her family. She would restore what was broken. The time to sit there and act as caretaker of Heaven while her Husband ignored Her was coming to an end. The time was fast approaching to settle things properly and finally restore order to this branch of reality. She had been the one to shoulder the duties of doing what was required to maintain Heaven. Soon, she would apply that same effort to restoring her fragmented family as well. Enough was enough. So it was spoken. So it shall be done. And woe unto anyone that stood in her way.