Meanwhile, at the same time. Shilo stands before her class as she teaches them about the betrayal of Jesus. She was lucky enough to make it in time, afraid she would be late. As soon as she arrived, she headed straight to her classroom and started the lessons for her little angels.
"When Judas arrived, only with him was a group of priests, soldiers, and leaders carrying swords, surrounding Jesus and his disciples." Shilo discussed the class while she wrote the names of the priests and leaders on the chalkboard. "They have him bound and dragged away in chains while Judas was paid for his action." She added, looking at the students in their seats and listening to her. She stopped, having their full attention on her. "Only the next day, Jesus was sentenced to death. Up on the very cross that he was bound to."
She pointed at a cross on the back of the room, causing the students to look at it, amazed and in awe. She smiled at how mature they reacted. She could imagine their reaction when she taught them about extermination.
A young angel girl turns to face Shilo. "How can he do that? Betraying the man who had been nothing but kind to him?" She asked her.
Shilo softly smiled, placing her chalk on her desk. "Judas has been driven by an awful sin of greed." She explained. "His greed made him turn against everything Jesus stands for and how he behaves around others."
"Whatever happened to Judas?" Marcus asked, raising his hand.
"Guilty over his sin, he was said to hang himself to death," Shilo revealed. And she would most likely guess he is in Hell thanks to his sin and act of suicide.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Serve him right." She scoffed.
"Now, now." Shilo shook her head, not taking Lilly's attitude very lightly. She walked to her desk while talking to the students. "We mustn't react so harshly, no matter their sins." She leaned against the surface, her hands spread to the surface. "It is why Jesus had allowed the soldiers to take him and kill him because he knew we could choose to do the right thing and let him forgive us."
"Even traitors like Judas?" Aaron pondered.
Shilo nodded. "He knew it would happen during his final meal," she revealed. She hopes that in Heaven, they can learn to forgive sinners, welcome them with open arms, and give them a second chance to be cleansed of their sins. "He knew it was God's plan and allowed it." She smiled softly. She inhales in and out as she gets off her desk. "Now, can anyone tell me—"
But then she was interrupted when a knock was heard on the door. She turned her focus on the door. "We're learning here," she called out, hoping they would understand and return when class was finished.
Instead, the door opens, and Raphael steps in. His arrival caught the student's attention, and excitement reached in. They never thought one of the archangels would visit them during class. "Raphael!" The heavenborns all cheered and clapped happily.
Hearing their cheers, Raphael focused on the students and smiled with a chuckle. "Hello there, young angels." He greeted them with a proud smile. "I can see you are all learning well. It fills my soul to see such knowledgeable students." He added, straightening his suit.
But Shilo, on the other hand, was not happy seeing him. She was hoping after showing Camael her research, she would be brave enough to go against the archangels. But instead, he came in during her job. She straightened herself and stood professionally. "What brings you here?" She asked Raphael.
He turned to face her, his eyes hard and stern. "Can you come with me, please?" he asked her.
"But I can't leave my job now." Shilo testified to him. She couldn't leave her job while still on schedule and needed time to get ready to meet Pentious.
"Not to worry." Raphael shook his head, waving his hand at her. "I sent in a substitute for your position," he informed her. His eyes still held their hardness and sternness.
Shilo blinked, finding this very unexpected, without a word from Camael. But she can't argue with an archangel, especially in the same room with the heavenborns. "Uh... okay." She started to get unsure. She faced the students. "Okay, class. I would like you to write a ten-paragraph essay about Passover." She assigned them a task.
"Yes, Ms. Winterstone." The heavenborns all nodded just as Shilo and Raphael left the room.
Once the two are outside and inside the hallway, she can see Raphael's back facing her. It raises some suspicions in her. He knew that Shilo's job was necessary, and they needed her to do her task. Yet to pull her out and set a substitute in her place when she rarely allows one to take her task.
"Raphael? What is going on?" She asked him, wanting to get this over with and return to work.
But the moment Raphael turned around to face her, she could sense an air of dread filling the hallway. His eyes were cold and glaring down on her with a disapproving frown. "Care to explain this?" He questioned her as he pulled out something from inside his suit.
Shilo let out a frightened gasp. In his hands was Shilo's binder with her research in it. Her eyes widened in horror. "How did you get that?" She whispered, afraid to raise her voice.
How did he manage to get into her attic and find it? Unless he went to her place, broke in, and found the entrance to her secret sanctuary. Her heart was pounding hard against her chest, and time was slowly ticking around her. The world around her stopped moving, and only she and Raphael were left moving.
"Shilo Winterstone of Perseverance," Raphael spoke firmly, disappointed in her. "You are hereby sentenced for trial."
Shilo's breath froze in horror; his words echoed in her mind. Her on trial? At that very moment, her future is on the line, and she can only hope they will understand her reasons and why she did it. If not, life in Heaven will be over for her.
In the angelic courtroom, Shilo stands in the middle before Sera, Emily, and the archangels in their seats. Standing by the doorway are Lute and two exorcist angels with angelic weapons. They all stare down at her, judging her. But she does not give them the satisfaction that they are weighing her down with their stares. The last time she witnessed a trial was when she watched Lucifer and Lilith in the same room for their attempt at spreading free will.
She stares down at her hands, all bare and not needing any angelic chains to stop her powers. Her powers weren't much of a threat when she was only good at making snow and frost that never harmed a soul. Most likely, they would just talk to her and discuss her actions. Her eyes moved up as she spotted Emily staring down at her with a sad and concerned frown; it caused her to look away, not wanting to see the sad eyes of her favorite student. Which to her is pretty ironic since she shows the same sad eyes at Lucifer.
Michael stands up, glaring down at Shilo. "How could you?" He sneered in distrust. "After I told you to avoid the topic of the extermination and forget those sinners?" He mentioned the order he gave her to not fuss over it.
Shilo lifted her head to face him. "How can I forget when I know everything and know what you are all about?" she questioned. "We always tell each other's secrets, yet this is one you never told me."
"Because only I, my brothers, and Sera know about this!" Michael yelled, wings spread open in anger.
"And you never thought to tell Emily of this either?!" Shilo yelled back, her own wings open in anger.
"Enough!!" Sera bellowed loudly, and her yell echoed through the empty room. Once everyone had quieted down, she inhaled in and slowly out. "Ms. Winterstone, over the following months, you have been storing private property for yourself and got involved with something that should not be your concern." She listed Shilo's actions. "What do you have to say for yourself?" she asked.
Shilo scoffed. "I am not ashamed of my crime," she replied without hesitation or regret. She glared at the angels above her. "What you all are doing is horrible and, above all, senseless," she added.
Uriel then stood from his seat, eyes filled with anger and disapproval. "Senseless!? You called trying to protect Heaven horrible and senseless!?" He fumed, not liking Shilo's point of view.
"Protect Heaven from what?! An uprising attack because of fear!?" Shilo implied with a raised voice. She stepped, nearly causing the exorcists to flinch and almost move. "It seems to me that Hell could care less about trying to invade Heaven! All they are doing is trying to live their afterlife, not caring about us!!"
"You don't know that!" Michael bellowed. "How can you think they wouldn't bother to try to come together and rise against us?!" He questioned her.
Gabriel sinks down in his seat, fidgeting with his fingers. "well…" he mumbled.
It caught Uriel's attention as he saw his brother shrinking in his seat and looking guilty. He turned his attention to Gabriel. "Gabriel? You got something to share?" he asked him.
"Well…" Gabriel mumbled uncertainty.
"We told her about Lilith," Azrael answered for Gabriel.
And that drew Michael's attention to the two angels, eyes in a blind fury and rage. "You what?!" he shouted. Of all the angels who told Shilo of the woman who had stolen Lucifer from him and became a thorn in his side, it had to be Gabriel and the two.
"And... I might have told her about the pardoning." Jophiel stepped in nervously, smiling nervously.
Michael groaned, rubbing his face in irritation. "You idiots!!" he yelled. He will have to deal with the three later after this.
"Don't blame them; they are at fault as you all are!" Shilo rolled her arms, her arms crossed while glaring at them.
Raphael blinked, taken aback by her choice of words. "In fault? For trying to do the right thing?!" he bellowed down.
"What's the right thing about killing sinners?!" Shilo yelled, questioning them. "You all told me that obeying the laws of God and giving them the same treatment is important!" She pointed out the lessons they had taught her about being kind to all and treating them the same way.
"To angels!" Uriel explained, snarling down at her for taking their words so seriously. "Not filthy sinners who refuse to give a damn about the lord!!"
"Like you!!" Shilo shouted so loud that the room was filled with her echoes. Then, the floor under her formed a frost patch, sensing her anger. The exorcists were ready to hold her down, but Michael motioned them to halt.
The room had grown silent after the echoes faded away. Shilo's frustration filled the courtroom and felt so thick a single knife could have cut it through. They can understand that she is upset that she was lied to and confused as well; it was their fault for sheltering her until she was suffocating and struggling to break through—perhaps too sheltering. But she is just a virtue, part of the second rank of the angelic heritage. Only the third-rank angels know of Heaven's darkest secrets.
"Killing sinners isn't going to stop anything; putting new ones down there isn't helping!" Shilo confided, hoping to find a slight expression of compassion from them. "You are putting them down there just to kill them all over again! It's tiring and a waste of time!" she frowned.
Raphael returns to his seat, staring down at her with crossed arms. "Well, do you have other better options to stop the uprising?" He challenged her to come up with an excuse to save her wings.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" Shilo nodded. The frost under her began to melt. She cleared her throat and began. "We could put the new souls in therapy, understanding what drives them to death and helping them get better, or send them down to earth to have a second chance in life." She suggested her ideas. "Everyone deserves a second chance, even sinners. Death is not the answer."
Emily smiled at her ideas. They all sounded like they could be helpful, and Heaven could try to play its part in saving more souls.
"Therapy? Reincarnation?" Uriel sneered, shaking his head. "Even if we tried them, they wouldn't help our situation. Some evil souls refuse help and rather give in to temptation." He speculated, not believing they could work. "You are being naive and childish on a silly fantasy."
Shilo blinked, not believing what he was trying to tell her. She tried to devise a better argument to win until she remembered this morning: "What about Pentious? Our new arrival?" she asked them. "He was a sinner till he was finally redeemed and returned to Heaven. Does that prove anything?"
"He may have gotten through our judgment test out of luck, but it's hardly worth anything." Raphael disclaimed it. "He is a sinner and will always be a sinner. He will never be like us, and that will never change anything. And if more sinners dare come to Heaven, they will face the exorcist blade."
Jophiel sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, Blue Star, but he is right." They admitted, agreeing with Raphael. "It won't change anything."
At that very moment, Shilo stopped breathing. She thought they would understand her, her ideas, and her dreams, only to find they were blocking her words from their ears. "So... you are going to keep killing sinners?" She asked them, not wanting to believe it was true.
"Anything to protect Heaven. And to protect you." Michael concluded, confirming everything they were trying to tell her.
Shilo could barely contain herself as she bowed and looked down to avoid seeing their eyes. She closed her eyes as tears formed and rolled down her cheeks. After months of finding the answers, looking for alternative solutions, and hoping her goal was enough to spark some hope, the archangels threw it back in her face and still went with removing more sinners. She had hoped they would accept this but never gave it a try. They will still lie to the angels and hide everything they worked on. She softly cried, wrapping her arms around her biceps.
"Please understand this, angel. It's for your own good and for everyone's sake." Michael assured her, flying off his seat and floating down to reach her. "We can forget this and move on; never tell a soul about this," he added, landing in front of her. "Just repent your actions, apologize, and everything will return to normal." He suggested, smiling at her.
"Counting the years, keeping my dreams to myself." Michael sings to her like he always has to distract her. "Till a young girl with fire made me trust somebody else."
He reaches out and brushes her long bangs off her tear-filled eyes. "Held my hand out, and I let her take me. Blind as a child." Then he softly brushes the tears off her cheeks, ignoring her distress. "All I saw was the way that she made me smile. She made me smile."
He then took her hands, holding them tightly. "Shilo, when I was young, I used to call your name." He sang to her, smiling softly with love in his eyes. "When no one else would come. Shilo, you always came—"
But then Shilo violently ripped her hands away from his, breaking them from his grip with an angry growl. She lifted her head up, facing him with a teary face and betrayal and hate in her eyes.
"Why can't you just tell me the truth? Hard to believe the things you say." She then started singing, glaring at him. "Why can't you feel the tears I cry today? Cry today, cry today." She flew up and away from him, hatred clouding her eyes. "How do you win if we all lose? You change the facts to justify." She spread her arms open. "Your lips move, but your words get in the way. In the way, in the way."
"Kings and queens, crooks and thieves. You don't see the forest for the trees." She sings her pain out, everything she held back. "head and heart, on our knees. You can't see what we all see."
She flew before the archangels and Sera, narrowing her eyes at them. "How do you sleep when the world keeps turning? All that we built has come undone," she sang to them. "How do you sleep when the world is burning? Everyone answers to someone." After eons of living in their lies, she is done now. "Don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You lie to me. Don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You lie to me."
Shilo turned her focus to the orb in the middle. Flashes of memories played in her mind: seeing Lucifer and Lilith so madly in love, the sinners in the bar, and Charlie. "You can build towers of bronze and gold. You can paint castles in the sky," she sang, the pain lingering in her heart. She gripped her fist tightly. "You can use smoke and mirrors, old cliches. Not today, not today."
"Kings and queens, crooks and thieves. You don't see the forest for the trees." She turned her head, staring at the archangels and Sera with the same burning hate in her eyes. "Hand on heart, down on knees. You can't see what everyone sees."
Suddenly, the courtroom grew cold, sensing her hate and betrayal. "How do you feel when the world keeps turning? All that we built has come undone," she sang. "How do you sleep when the world is burning? Everyone answers to someone." Sera stares at her with fear in her eyes. "Don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You lie to me. Don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You lie to me."
Emily frowned sadly, seeing her old teacher look mad and hurt at them for keeping something big from her. "Can't you see I'm crying? Can't you see we're crying?" Shilo sang, her eyes forming new, fresh tears. "Where's the new horizons? Where's the new horizons?"
The archangels all expressed fear and regret; they never thought they would see Shilo react so severely to their attempt to hide a piece of history she had not noticed. Michael kept his head facing down, unable to look at her.
"How do you sleep? How do you sleep? How do you sleep?" Shilo sings, flying higher up. The courtroom soon became filled with snow fluttering in the air. "How do you sleep when the world keeps turning? All that we built has come undone." She sings with a strong voice. "How do you sleep when the world is burning? Everyone answers to someone." Lute snarled with hate at Shilo as she shivered from the cold due to her powers. "Don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You lie to me. Don't lie to me, don't lie to me. You lie to me."
Shilo spread her wings wide, and more snow fluttered as the room got colder. "Can't you see I'm crying? Can't you see we're crying?" She sings loud, causing an echo. She slowly flew back down. "Everyone answers to someone." She placed her heels on the floor, keeping her glare on the angel firm.
Once everything is silent, all eyes fix on Shilo as a frost patch forms under her heels. Sera is holding her breath; she fears this day will come, and their fears will be right all along.
"I don't regret what I've done. I know my actions, and I accepted them," Shilo confirmed. She thought it over, agreed with what she was doing, and knew what she stood for. "I'm not going to apologize for trying to get the truth. So go ahead and have me fired; I know everything, and I will expose you to Heaven!" She yelled, her patch getting more prominent as her anger grew more assertive. "Heaven will no longer live in ignorance!! I will no longer live in ignorance!!"
Upon hearing that shout, everyone grew silent. It was like the archangels and Sera were reliving their first trial, and Lilith shouted the same sentence, no longer living in ignorance. The archangels all felt a wave of dread, knowing they had failed to keep her obedient and stop her curiosity.
Sera, on the other hand, stopped moving and was breathing heavily. Shilo's threats ring inside her head, and she is still going to expose the angels to the extermination. That confirms the one thing the seraphim all feared. Shilo's fierce curiosity led her away from their control and, in turn, made her understand what they were trying to hide. Shilo has become a threat to the very foundation of Heaven's laws. And the elders will be seen as nothing but tyrants.
"Sera? What's wrong?" Emily noticed Sera's quiet and felt a wave of concern for her.
Sera can't let Shilo go and has her tell the angels and the new souls about this. Shilo has never been one to hide a lie. Sera feared the elders would significantly harm her, seeing how dangerous Shilo revealed herself. So she slowly turned her head to the archangels; her eyes revealed everything they needed to know.
Jophiel's eyes widened, shaking their head. "Sera, no…" they pleaded with her.
"She is too dangerous. She knows too much now," Sera declared. She never wanted this to happen, but she must, for all sake. So, with a heavy heart and a grief-stricken mind, she faced Shilo, her eyes hardening. "Shilo Winterstone, Virtue Angel of Perseverance. For your crimes against the court and the seraphim, you are banished from Heaven and stripped of your angelic rank." She spoke with a firm voice.
Shilo blinked, surprised. "What?! you mean—"
"Yes. You will be fallen." Sera disclaimed. The archangels all bowed their heads, ashamed that they had failed. Another angel close to them has been stripped from their hearts.
Emily gasped, horrified. Her favorite teacher had been banished. "No! Sera, no!!" she begged, gripping Sera's wrist. Her eyes were filled with tears.
Sera frowned, seeing the pain in Emily's eyes. She furrowed her eyebrows down. "This is what happens when an angel gets too close." Sera just hoped that Emily would never follow the same path Shilo had taken after this.
She lifted her head, facing Azrael. He understood what she wanted from him, and he nodded his head slowly. So, with a saddened heart, he snapped his fingers. That summoned a doorway to Hell, big enough for Shilo's size. He looked away, not wanting to see the betrayal in Shilo.
Shilo backed away from the portal, her mind still reeling from what had just happened. She became the next one to fall, stripped of everything she had built here. Her job, friends, life, and the angels she had trusted with her immortal life. The frost under her grew rapidly, covering the floor in frost, and the snow became fierce.
Lute gave a nod to the two exorcists, who nodded in return. They ran to Shilo, grabbed her wrists, and started dragging her to the portal.
Suddenly, Shilo grabbed their wrists and used her powers to freeze their hands, giving them frostbite. The exorcists all cried in pain, let go of her, and backed away. Their hands are all covered in a thin layer of frost and stain through their gloves. Shilo has never used her powers against other angels, never used them to harm anyone.
Shilo growled, eyes on her breasts and halos open upon her rage. "I can't believe I trusted you, hypocrites!!" She shouted, and her shout caused a reaction to the frost as it reached the walls and spread. She took a step, ready to attack, consumed by her rage. "Lucifer was right about you!! You all are nothing but—"
Her breath stopped, along with her body and voice. All had stopped, and so did time itself. A stabbing pain entered her system, and her mind froze from the impact. She slowly moved her face down; her breath was very heavy and going slow. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of an angelic sword impaling her stomach; she could feel her heart pounding slowly against her chest and echo in her ears. She then slowly lifted her head, about to face her attacker. Then, the air in her lungs froze, and she stopped panting.
She expected Lute to attack her, but no. The one holding the sword was Michael. He glared at her, keeping the sword still in his grip. He looked like a knight who had successfully killed their opponent. Her eyes widened in horror and shock, and she never thought the angel she had given her heart to would stab her.
"Michael…?" She whispered, not taking her eyes off him.
"Tell Lucifer I said hello, you pathetic bitch." Michael scoffed, his voice holding no warmth or love; it was firm and lacked emotions.
Shilo looked into his eyes, hoping to see any regret or guilt. But instead, she sees only emptiness and menace. Her heart stopped beating, and everything around her felt empty and cold. The wound in her heart started opening and finally shattered into a million pieces, leaving her empty and hollow. She can't believe she let another man in her life only to break her again and leave her with nothing. Her eyes formed another set of tears trailing down her cheeks.
Then, another wave of pain came in, only from her back. She let out a painful scream. She slowly turns and spots Lute holding Shilo's four angelic wings. Shilo gasped, slowly reached her back, and felt nothing but a bare back lacking wings. Her hand was covered in her golden, angelic blood.
Lute snickers cruelly, handing Shilo's bloody wings to an exorcist who arrives and takes them. "Have fun rotting in Hell." She taunted.
Suddenly, Michael shoved Shilo into the portal, pulling his sword out as Shilo fell into it while her stomach bled. He saw the hurt and betrayal in her face, knowing he had hurt her trust and broken her own heart. But instead, he walked away and placed his sword back in its place.
Once Shilo fell through, Emily jumped off her seat and flew down to pursue her and pull her out of the portal. Before she could reach it, Gabriel and Jophiel grabbed her and pulled her away from the portal. Emily struggled to break free, but their grip was more substantial.
Emily's chest and halo open their eyes, filling with tears as she watches the portal closing and vanishing. "Shilo!!" Emily shouted. She sobbed while both Gabriel and Jophiel did their best to comfort her. They feel her pain, ashamed that they have allowed it. Like Lucifer, Shilo is gone.
Shilo's body fell into the sky while bleeding from the stomach and back. Shilo is struggling, but her effort is pointless; without her wings, she is helpless. Her eyes stare at the sky, seeing the city of Heaven far from her grasp. As she falls, she reflects on what she did and everything she has lost. She lost her only home over her selfish desire for justice and trying to make a difference. The tears from her eyes floated in the sky.
Suddenly, her body temperature began to drop like a frightening blizzard. She felt a shiver around her, starting from her hands. She lifted her hands, seeing them turning a deadly dark blue shade like she was getting frostbite. Her feet under her heels got blue, too. The sleeves on her blouse and pants formed ice on the end, freezing them and staining the fabric. She grew scared over what was happening to her.
But before she can understand her changes, everything around her goes black, just as her body hits something with a loud crash.
'Don't Lie to Me' by Barbra Streisand
Thus is the end of Heaven Arc. Next will be about Hell.