Pentagram City, many years ago...
"Papa?"
Charlie's small figure appeared from behind the red and white door leading into Lucifer's laboratory. Her white face and enormous eyes seemed to softly shine in the darkness. She wore a red tunic with a white heart on her chest; on her sleeves there were lines of music, a chain of little red musical notes. On her head she had the cutest little tiara. pitch black with three shiny red jewels.
"Oh, it's you sweetie..." her father said, who had clearly been deep in thought before hearing her, "You can't sleep again?"
She nodded. Lucifer was in her usual circus attire, almost completely white with thin red edges. Before him were some ancient books and a holographic projector.
"Me neither, Charlie... I've had so much on my mind lately... In fact, I've got something to show you!"
Her little face brightened, "Really?"
"Sure, come here!"
He lifted her in his arms and she could see the open books on the table: scores of glyphs and graphs, constellations, maps of distant planets and star systems.
"I had been going through some of my old books, you see. Some of this tomes, like this one, are older than Heaven."
"Wow!" She listened breathlessly, "What were the Angels even doing back then?"
"Good question, my little pumpkin!" she giggled, "We were searching for a new home across the stars, a place that the Authority would claim for us, a place we would defend from the incursions of the Great Old Ones."
"Like Heaven?" Charlie asked.
"Yes, but before we could build Heaven, we needed to settle a planet in this sector of the Galaxy..." Lucifer said, showing a star chart.
"...some of us, like me and Xephaniah, were of the idea that, if we could not find a planet with a suitable biosphere, we could make one."
"Really?"
"Yes, we were tasked with devising terraforming projects, and conduct tests on new planets we were discovering..."
"What's terraforming, Dad?"
"Well, how to explain it, let's see... Oh, it's like gardening, only there is nothing alive before you start, so geoengineers study how to create the conditions that will allow living things to grow on a given planet, what we call a biosphere!"
"Wow!" Charlie was so confused right now!
"One day, our search took us to Deneb, a great blue star about 2600 light years from here- I mean, from Earth- and there we found a promising moon. We started to conduct our experiments..."
With an elegant flicker of his hand, Lucifer activated the holographic projector. Bright images flashed before Charlie's eyes. A star system, an array of planets and moons, and a vast ocean under a sapphire sky.
"We had such lofty dreams for that place, and we went such a long way in making them a reality! We devised oceanic ecosystems, we guided the adaptive leap from the sea to the dry land... And the leap to the sky..."
A bird caught Charlie's attention. The holographic recording of a long-necked acquatic bird, moving with the swan-like elegance of a golden vessel on the surface of a calm alien sea.
"You see, on that world gravity was on the weak side, as far as habitable planets go, and that makes the development of flight much easier! So we imagined greater and greater flying critters, majestic denizens of the sky..."
The bird unfolded its wings and tail in all their splendor and flew, its glittering feathers sparkling like the stars in the sky.
The magnificence of its six wings...
...Charlie's little heart skipped a beat. It was so beautiful!
...
"What happened to them, Papa? What happened to that world?"
Lucifer sighed, "We had to leave, sweetie. Another planet had been found and the Authority assembled there all the Angels that were scattered across the sector. I left for my new home and, after many travels, I settled down in the Authority's court on planet Earth. And, well, you know the rest..."
"I do?"
"Of course you do, silly! It's the story of how I met your mother."
"Wow!"
Charlie looked pensive though. "But... You had to leave your dream! What do you do then?"
"Well, that's the good part, I guess. You get to go find a new dream."
"You found a new dream?"
"Yes, sweetie. It was the very day I arrived on Earth. I remember it like it was yesterday. In that moment I saw our enterprise of settling this New World, our new home, as an opportunity! After many Aeons, this was our chance of reforming the very foundations of our civilization! Of making a new life for ourselves, a world what would no longer need the tyrannical rule of the Authority!
I dreamed of a new society, one built on unshakable foundations of Justice and Freedom...
...a Republic of Heaven."
And then he started to sing:
I close my eyes and I can see
A world that's waiting up for me
That I call my own
Through the dark, through the door
Through where no one's been before
But it feels like home
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I've lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy
WE CAN LIVE IN A WORLD THAT WE DESIGN
'Cause every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
Oh a million dreams for the world we are gonna make
There's a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from worlds away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say we've lost our minds
I don't care, I don't care if they call us crazy
Runaway to a world that we design
'Cause every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
Oh a million dreams for the world we are gonna make
Charlie joined the song with her little, angelic voice:
However big, however small
Let me be part of it all
Share your dreams with me
You may be right, you may be wrong
But say that you'll bring me along
To the world you see
To the world I close my eyes to see
I close my eyes to see
Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
A million dreams, a million dreams
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
A million dreams for the world we are gonna make
...For the world we are gonna make
Imp City, December 29, 1922
Rumors were spreading rapidly in the cities of Pride, rumors that Exorcist spaceships had been spotted two days in advance, that the coming Extermination was going to happen sooner than planned.
The lower districts of Imp City were already in the grip of chaos. From the windows of a certain office building one could spot the distant fires, as well as much closer scores of panicking demons. Clearly, I.M.P. had to close earlier than expected this year; why then was there so much activity in their office?
"This is not our fight, Moxxie, and my decision is final!"
"Sir, Theodore is our friend. How can we stay here, doing NOTHING while they are fighting for our homes!?"
Meanwhile, Loona was messaging someone on her magitech cellphone. Which had to be magitech because not even the most rudimentary non-magical electronics had been developed yet.
"AH YEAH! AH SAY LET'S CRUSH SOME ANGELIC SKULLS!"
"Those are EXORCISTS, the fucking super-warriors of Heaven! They have a fleet of motherfucking SPACESHIPS! We handle human suckers all the time, but this is leagues beyond that. What would Stolas think if I rushed into mortal danger like that!?"
"Well," Loona started, "I did send a text to Octie to see if she wants to come with..."
A glass broke somewhere. "You. Did. WHAT!?"
"Hey, Octavia has formidable magical powers, Dad! Stolas has been training her ever since L.A.!"
"I DON'T CARE!"
"Uhm, Sir..."
"WHAT NOW, MOXXIE!? STOLAS IS GOING TO KILL ME WHEN HE FINDS OUT-"
"I'm definitely not going to do that, Blitzy."
"STOLAS!?"
Blitz was so upset he had not noticed the two figures teleporting into the room. Two humanoid birds, with grey and white feathers, both much taller than the imps. One had purple-red eyes, the other's were purple-pink with shining white pupils.
Octavia immediately walked over to Loona and hugged her, almost violently, with a strength that surprised even Loona.
"You are not going anywhere without me, you hear me? We are in this together or not at all..."
Loona was speechless. She had not expected to make her friend upset like this. But then again, she should have known better.
"Octie, I..." whatever she was going to say died in her throat, "...Yes, I'm not leaving you."
A stunned Blitz felt Stolas' taloned hand on his shoulder.
"Blitz, this is something greater than any of us. But if we stand together, we have nothing to fear. The Exorcists will have to fear us."
"Besides," Octavia said, "Charlie is my friend. With everything I've been going through, I wasn't there when she needed friends most- but I won't fail her now!"
For the first time in his life Blitz knew that he was READY FOR THIS!
"None of us will, or we are not I. M. FUCKING P.! Moxxie, Millie, TO THE ARMORY!"
Soon they had to make space for some large boxes full of explosives.
"Time to put these babies to good use..."
Meanwhile, in Pentagram City...
The holographic projector stood once again on the table in Lucifer's laboratory- just like that night of many years ago.
"How long has it been," a sorrowful Lucifer said, "how many centuries since I last believed dreams were worth fighting for?"
Lucifer had been many things through the Aeons. But now that the very fate of the Rings of Hell hung in the balance, he knew there was one role- perhaps one last role- he was meant to play on the stage of the Universe.
The role of the hero with a promise to keep. For he had promised Charlie...
...that he'll shelter and adore her more than anything.
As he spread his six wings to take off into the dark red sky, he started to sing:
Maybe I made things a mess
And maybe you're right to have doubts in me
Maybe, but nevertheless
If you for once could just trust me
Just this once let me come through for you
The way that you want me to
Let me make you proud
Let me show you the best in me
Let me give you a reason
To believe that I will stand tall
And when I return
And I'm more that you dreamt I'd be
Maybe then you will realize
That you never actually knew me at all
Sure, I've made lots of mistakes
I know that I've disappointed you
Still, though, whatever it takes
I'm gonna fix it, just watch me
Just you wait, I'll make it up to you
If it's the last thing I ever do
I WILL MAKE YOU PROUD
I will make you have faith in me
I will prove that the way
I used to be is all in the past
I will save the day
And come back here TRIUMPHANTLY!
'Cause I long for that look of surprise
When you see your dad rising AT LAST!
The Pride in your eyes
When you see your dad rising
AT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!