Wings and Tears: Part 19

 

            “I’m still the Devil. I still have dominion over evil souls.” Luc explained.

            They were all in the living room, even Quatre had come down. He was now sitting on a big chair, Hanna resting on his lap. Trowa didn’t look at him, instead, the taller man stood in the back of the room, leaning on the far wall. His arms were folded over his chest and he stared silently at the ground. Luc was standing, hugging himself as he spoke to everyone in the room. It quiet for a moment.

            “Thank-you,” Quatre said softly, his voice sad and distant, he stroked Hanna’s blonde hair. She slept with her small head laying on one of the chair’s arms.

            Luc smiled weakly, “No problem.”

            Quatre and Luc looked directly at each other, after a silent moment Quatre spoke again, “Explain everything, please?” His voice was pleading.

            Luc nodded, his arms went tighter around his body. He sighed, “I suppose I should. You all should know…I just hope Michael will forgive me for breaking my promise to him…” He sighed again and took a seat as well. He closed his eyes and relaxed into the cushioned chair. “I was the first angel created by God.” Solo sat up, his head leaving Heero’s shoulder, and looked at the Fallen Angel; this was the history he was never allowed to hear. “Then He created Solo’s Grandmother. He gave us both names. Hers was Amanda.” He smiled with memories. “I’m sorry you never got to meet her, Solo. You would have loved her. She had spirit and great love. And she was beautiful.”

            “She could bake too.” Duo added, smiling himself.

            Lucifer laughed, “Yes, that she could. She made the best cookies ever, in fact, she invented the cookie.” Duo laughed and Luc smiled. “God then created Michael. Amanda and I were supposed to be the Adam and Eve of angels. We were supposed to give birth to all angels. That was God’s plan for us. He said we had forever to fall in love, but the plan failed.” His smile disappeared, his eyes hadn’t opened. “Michael…was different. He…was supposed to be the Concubine of God.” There was a collective gasp around the room.

            “That’s the secret. The big one he shielded so well.” Solo commented.

            Luc nodded, tears came from his closed eyes. “But God wasn’t with us always. He left us in the angelic realm and went to what He called ‘the court’. I don’t know what it was, don’t ask, but when he left we would only have each other. Now, understand this, he would leave for thousands of years at a time. He would appear and stay for hundreds and then leave again for a million. We spent more time without Him, then with Him. And one day He got angry at Michael when He appeared. He beat him and then left again. Cuts were all around his body, blood was everywhere, bruises marked his entire body and he cried and cried. Mandy and I cleaned his entire body and he sobbed into my chest.

            ‘Why would He do such a thing?’ Mandy asked, as she carefully bandaged his wounds.

            Michael laughed. He actually laughed. He put a hand on my face, looked me dead in the eyes and said, ‘I love you.’

            I was shocked. My eyes narrowed, I didn’t understand. I couldn’t understand. He was God’s. He belonged to the Father, he couldn’t love me, couldn’t love anyone but Him. He looked at me, and smiled, rested back, eyes closed.

            ‘I love you too’, I found myself saying. I hadn’t realized it until that moment. I hadn’t realized how much I cared about him. Mandy looked at us both, mouth slightly open, shocked, not believing her ears.

            ‘He knows it,’ she said, ‘That’s why He hurt you isn’t it?’ she asked Michael. Michael nodded softly and I started crying.

            We tried so hard to do what He told us. I tried to stop loving Michael and he tried to stop loving me. I tried so hard to love Mandy. I tried so hard to follow the plan, but every time He left us alone, every time that He would go to the courts Michael and I would fall deeper and deeper into each other’s arms. Then God would come back, know we still loved each other, and then punish Michael. Mandy and I had always known that we shouldn’t interfere with them. Even when God locked Michael up in a small room, without food or water and came out to see how our, ‘progress’ was doing. He still wanted us to be the parents of all angels, and even when Michael screamed from pain or fear, Mandy and I had to pretend to he couldn’t hear him. If either of us tried to save him it would be worse for him. And every time God left she and I would go into their bedroom and have to clean up the mess. It became routine. When God was gone Michael would craw into my bed, he couldn’t stand the one that God ruined him in.

            So many years passed, so much pain. And finally God gave up on the Plan.

            He threw Michael into the room, He had bond Michael’s strong hands with a black wire. Blood stained his tan body.

            ‘I give up!’ God yelled. ‘I give up with you both! Nothing I do works! My Plan is ruined, and it is the fault of you both!’ Mandy put a hand on my arm, to stop me from doing anything rash, like attacking God or putting a weeping Michael into my arms. ‘Understand one thing, Lucifer, Michael is still mine!’ I looked at him, finally showing my seething hatred on my face, but said nothing. ‘However, I can see my plan has failed. Even Amanda loves Michael and not you!’ I knew this, Michael didn’t. He looked at her, shocked, tears still streaming down his face. ‘So…’ God put His hands together, a pose I stole when I acted as the Dealer, ‘I will allow you to marry him.’ All three of us looked at him, dumbstruck, unable to believe what we were hearing.

            ‘My Lord?’ Michael asked, his voice mirrored our emotions.

            ‘You heard me, Michael. I’ll allow you to marry him, to love him, but Lucifer…’ I looked from Michael back to God. ‘Michael is still mine,’ God continued, ‘When I come to are to act as such!’ and then He disappeared, and I rushed to Michael, quickly unbound his hands. He reached out to hold me and he kissed me. All three of us were crying.

            And so we were allowed to marry and God abandoned the Original Plan to a New one. He started to create angels, in surplus. All of us had white wings, all of us were a fragile as humans. And life continued like that for a while. Whenever God came I would allow Him to have his way with Michael. I would never fight or call out. I would sit in a chair and pretend I couldn’t hear them. Sometimes Mandy would come over when she felt God’s appearance, and she would sit with me. Allow me to cry on her shoulder. Then God would leave and I would clean up the mess. I tried to be happy with that, and when God was gone I was happy. We were happy. His absence was bliss.

            Then one night I had enough. I fought against it. God fought back, and won. Michael was still His concubine and He proved it. The next night He presented the plan for humans.

            The war wasn’t started because I didn’t want to come in second to humans, it wasn’t about Glory, it wasn’t about mortals at all. I started the struggle under those pretenses, yes, because I needed followers, but it was always about Michael. Then Michael fought against me. The last battle was the first time I fought Michael, face to face. I couldn’t hurt him. I could never hurt him. I never would. He overcame me easily, angry, the false memories had already been planted in his head, and he was also the one who taught me to fight with a sword, I was never better than him. God had told him not to kill me, and so he didn’t. They killed my entire army, which had surpassed that of theirs. Not to mention all the deaths on their side. By the end of the war the only survivors were the white-winged legions of today, and Amanda. Those deaths, those essences entering us, made angels what they are today, virtually indestructible.

            God’s punishment was to trap my body in the palace of Hell. My mind, however, could still reach out into His worlds. Then God created Adam and Eve, and I influenced the Serpent to taint them.

            God’s anger forced my mind to be trapped in Hell; the only thing I could influence was the tortured souls of humans.

            I became the Devil he made me. I would punish dead humans with glee, making the gay bashers of Christianity and rapists of before that, perform sexual tricks on me. I caused souls to feel the pain they made and more. I loved pain. I loved it when people spoke out against the God that had treated Michael like that.

            Every once and awhile God would come to me, give me a task and say. ‘Lucifer, if you can but do this, I will grant you freedom.’ Some of these tasks were Job and Sodom and Gomorra…but he would always find ways to beat me, sending Daniel Webster to plead a case and such.”

            “All those things really happened?” Rasid asked.

            Luc nodded, “Only some things humans have seriously changed and warped. Like with Job, for instance, I was never flying around Heaven, God never asked me where I had been. Those lines were actually reversed. God came to Hell and I asked Him where He had been. And He said He had another task for me. I knew I couldn’t win these games by then, but I couldn’t pass up the chance for freedom as well. I would play his games and be thankful for the temporary release from Hell. When I failed to make Job speak against God, even after I took everything away from him, God pulled me back to Hell smiled and said, ‘Did you actually think you could do that, Lucifer? You couldn’t even make someone who supposedly loved you turn against me, let alone someone who never really knew you.’

            Those words made me cry.

            With Sodom I came so close, and then God sent his angels to destroy it. Actually the people in that city were lucky that there was one person who remained a follower of God. If they so much as touched one hair on one of the angel’s head, I would have tortured them more than any other human.”

            “Let me guess…” Quatre said.

            Luc nodded, he still hadn’t opened his eyes, “Michael.” He sighed. “I saw him once more before God dragged me back to my prison, he didn’t know it, but I did.

            Actually I was surprised when I learned what humans thought the sin of these cities were. Homosexuality? God’s as queer as some of us in this room…the sins were an abundance of premarital sex and…rape.” His voice cracked at the last word and silence took over the room again.

            Trowa broke it, “Can you help Quatre?” he asked.

            Luc finally opened his eyes to look at Trowa, who was still staring at the floor. Luc sighed, “I’m sorry, I have no feathers.”

            “What?” Heero asked.

            “He’s fallen. Fallen angels can’t heal metal wounds, right?” Quatre asked.

            Luc looked at him a long time and then nodded. He sighed. “I need your help with something, Quatre.” He stood.

            Quatre looked at him, “What?”

 

            They went outside. The Sun was gone and billions of stars shined down to the Earth. From the colonies and the cities of Earth, Luc and Quatre heard the screams of horrified humans, as angels massacred them.

            “I need to call Michael here. I need him to come to me and end this death.” Lucifer sighed. “But my voice isn’t loud enough to be heard over his anger. Solo is too young to do what is needed. I was hoping you would allow me to…short of use your Heart as a type of amplifier…”

            “What?” Quatre asked.

            “I know it sounds odd, but you are blessed with empathic abilities, and I need a Heart capable of that in order to call Michael.” Luc whispered.

            Quatre nodded, “It will stop the screaming?”

            Luc nodded softly, “It should.”

            “What do I have to do?”

            “Allow me to touch you, on the arms and on your chest, above your heart.”

            They looked at each other, both felt the same thing. Quatre bit his lower lip and nodded.

            After a pause Luc spoke, “Ok, look towards the sky, please.” Quatre gazed upward. “Close your eyes. I promise I won’t hurt you.” Quatre closed his eyes, his body was tense and, with shaking hands, Luc reached out to him. Both winced when Luc touched Quatre’s right arm. Carefully, Luc straightened the arm out, and then the left, muttering inaudible words under his breath. Then he placed both hands over Quatre’s heart, the right hand under the left. He whispered quietly to himself and both blondes began to radiate a white light. This light became a focused beam that shot into the sky and disappeared. Both sighed, Quatre’s arms dropped and Luc gratefully dropped his hands, quickly pulling them away from any type of contact.

            “Is that it?” Quatre asked, quietly.

            Luc nodded. “That’s it.” Quatre smiled weakly. He turned back towards the house, stopped to look directly at his husband. Trowa was visibly uncomfortable under his gaze.

            “It wasn’t your fault.” Quatre whispered softly. Trowa closed his eyes.

            “Yes it was.”

            Quatre bit his lip, shook his head, tears came to his eyes. “It wasn’t you.”

            Trowa refused to look at Quatre, he didn’t feel worthy enough. “I couldn’t stop him. I tried, but…”

            Quatre quickly put a finger on Trowa’s mouth, surprising the Latin man, who finally looked at his husband. Quatre looked directly in his eyes, serious and sad. “You tried. That’s all that matters.” Then without touching him further, he walked into the house.

 

            Lucifer took the bed in the basement, which had been cleaned thoroughly from the time Trowa’s body spent on it. He wanted to be far from anyone and the basement was the farthest he could get. He tossed his body with uneasy dreams. A hand touched his forehead. He recoiled, and woke with a scream, “DON’T TOUCH ME!” The person in the room drew back and Luc sat up, drawing his legs to him. He looked up, eyes frightened, to the person in the room. “Michael!” he exclaimed.