Wings and Tears: Part 20
Michael looked back at him. “Luc…” his voice was thick with joy and sorrow. “How did you escape?” Michael wanted to gather Luc in his arms, and kiss his face and body, but he could tell by the way his thin husband was holding himself that Luc had meant what he had screamed; he did not want to be touched, not even by Michael.
Quatre rushed into the basement. “Luc! Are you ok?”
Luc looked to the door, stood from the bed. “I’m fine Quatre. I’m fine.” He opened the door and looked down to the considerably shorter man.
“You woke up everyone.” Quatre hugged himself. “Were you having a nightmare?”
Luc’s voice was soft, “I was, but that’s not why I screamed.”
“Hello Quatre.” Michael called.
Quatre’s face darkened, “Oh, hello Michael,” his voice matched his face. Luc looked back at Michael.
“We should go upstairs.” Luc said.
The three moved to the main level of the house. Quatre called up the stairs for the others to come down. Solo was the first down, he paused when he saw Michael. His father stopped right behind him, followed closely by Heero then Trowa. The Maquancs and Hanna had decided that sleep was more interesting.
The four on the stairs stared at Michael. He wore thick brown boots, blue jeans and a leather jacket. His dark hair was pulled back at his nape. His sword and the Knife of God were hooked to his belt. “Hello Little One.” Michael greeted Solo. Solo nodded hostilely towards him and the four slowly walked to take seats around the room.
Luc sighed, “I met a Goddess Michael.”
“A Goddess?”
Luc nodded, “She was so calming and beautiful. She said She was everything good that God was bad.”
Michael nodded, “The courts. I never told you, but when he talked about them he meant a realm filled with deities. He is one, Christ is one and this Goddess of yours must be one.”
Luc nodded, “She told me to give this to you.” He took the paper from a pocket and handed it to Michael. Michael took it, careful to avoid touching Luc, which was against everything his body was screaming. He opened the paper and read it, quickly. He sighed when he was done, refolded the paper.
“Spirit!” he called. With a strong wind the Spirit appeared in front of him. Wufei’s friends stood.
“Wufei!” Quatre said in shock.
The Spirit’s white eyes looked at him, then to Michael, “What do you want of us?”
“Read this,” he handed the Spirit the note. The Spirit took it and read it. He looked to Michael. “Now destroy it.” The note burst into flames and became ashes in the Spirits hands, which he threw to the ground. Michael looked at Luc, thought for a moment and took off his jacket.
“Well?” the Spirit asked.
Michael nodded, and, after throwing the jacket over the chair, sighed. He rubbed his face with his hands. “I challenge you to a duel,” he told the Spirit and the room dissolved into a white polished room, with no decoration. The humans stood, and Solo looked around him.
“Where are we?” he asked, and then stood as well. The furniture disappeared as he did.
“This is a room in the angelic realm, you have not seen because you haven’t cared to look.” The Spirit answered.
“It’s underground, Little One.” Michael said.
“It’s like the one that you taught me to fight in,” Luc commented.
“It’s exactly like that one. Now if you six don’t mind, could you please step back? We have to duel.”
“If we win, we gain freedom,” the Spirit said to him.
“If you lose, you’re my tool forever, with no hope of ever being Wufei again,” Michael finished the terms.
The others moved to the walls. Quatre hugged himself. The Spirits eyes narrowed. “Wait,” he said.
Michael paused. “What?”
The Spirit looked to Quatre titled his head, his eyes gained color and his voice gained singularity. “Let it go. Like you tell him, it was somebody else’s sickness.”
Quatre looked at Wufei and smiled. “I guess I never realized how foolish those words were.”
“The truth can sometimes seem that way, but it’s still the truth.”
Quatre sighed. “You better win this.”
Wufei smiled, looked at Michael, “I will.” He looked back to Quatre, “Promise me you’ll let it go.”
Quatre looked at Trowa, “I will.” He smiled again. Wufei nodded, became the Spirit again, and as he and Michael drew their weapons, Quatre grabbed Trowa’s arm and hid his face from the fight. Trowa moved to hold him.
Michael’s weapon wasn’t actually a flaming sword, but that was the best description old prophets could give of it. It was a red, hand-held weapon much like the one Heero had used with his Gundam. To protect the iron of his sword, the Spirit made the blade glow the same white of his eyes. Michael lunged first. The Spirit easily blocked.
The duel began. Michael was largely the aggressor, trusting his weapon to Wufei’s body, hoping for a mark. Wufei blocked easily. Michael continued attacking, until suddenly, with one movement the Spirit charged, knocking the weapon away from the archangel he stepped close to Michael and took out the Knife of God, pressed it to Michael’s thick throat, but didn’t cut. Michael even stopped breathing.
“NO!” called Luc, taking a step closer to them. Michael held out his hand and Luc stopped.
“You win.” Michael told the Spirit, who instantly melted back into Wufei.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now!” Wufei yelled in anger, his teeth clenched.
“I can’t. You have every reason to want to destroy me.” Michael tilted back his head, to give Wufei an easier way to cut. Luc made a sound of protest, but did nothing else.
Wufei
looked at the archangel awhile longer. His face melted and he grabbed the
sheath for the knife and hooked the weapon to his own belt. Michael
straightened his body. “We have to follow
Michael smiled, “I guess not.”
Wufei looked at his friends, “Hi guys.”
The ex-Gundam pilots rushed to embrace their friend. Quatre was crying again, but now his tears were of joy.
Michael walked to Luc and looked at his husband a moment. “What happened?”
Luc looked away from the happy humans to gaze at Michael. His expression was sad, he looked to the ground. “God tried to teach me a lesson.”
“How?”
“The same way He tried to teach you, only…the room…it felt like I was there for billons and billons of years.”
Michael bit his lip, held back sad and angry tears. “I’m sorry.”
Luc looked up at Michael. “Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes it was.”
Luc shook his head, but was unable to ague. He looked back to the humans, Duo had just ushered Solo to join their embrace. “It was brilliant.”
“What?”
“A duel. It was brilliant.”
Michael
nodded, “I know. This
~~
They were back at the safe-house. Michael and Wufei entered the living room.
“It’s taken care of.” Wufei said, “The angels have returned to their homes.”
“And it seems that Christ has completed a temporary holding-cell of shorts, for the souls of Hell.” Michael said.
Quatre nodded, “The screaming has stopped.”
“But now there’s tears,” Lucifer said sadly. Michael, once again, had to resist the urge to gather Luc in his arms; instead he sighed and looked to the ground.
“What do we do now?” Quatre asked.
“We have to wait,” Wufei answered.
“For what?” Solo asked.
“For God to show up. He’s the next player in this game.”
“And what if He never shows?”
Michael sighed, “He will.” Michael hugged himself. Luc watched him, his green eyes sorrowful. Michael became uncomfortable. He realized with astonishment that the others knew. He looked up at Lucifer, “You told them didn’t you?”
Luc nodded miserably, “I had to.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed, “Had to?”
“They had a right to know why you’re so angry Michael. Why you decided they had to be hurt.”
“So you deiced to break a promise you made to me?”
Luc looked at him stunned.
“How dare you be mad at him?!” Quatre yelled, standing. “You have no right! After everything he went through, your mad because we know that you’re nothing but the sex toy of God?!”
Everyone looked at the Arabian, stunned.
“Quatre,” Luc said softly.
“I’m not mad at him,” Michael said, fiercely, his eyes had collected tears.
Quatre stood with his anger still shown in his stance, “You hurt my daughter.”
“I’m sorry.” Michael said miserably.
“As a result of your actions my family was in pain and my friends were attacked.”
“I’m sorry.”
“And what about the other people, who are right now mourning your massacre?! You’ve killed so many people! Hurt so many people! And you’re mad because God is an asshole? I don’t see why you have to take it out on us!”
“You’re the only way I could get his attention.”
“And look where it got you!”
“Quatre,” Wufei soothed. Quatre looked at his friend, and tears came to his eyes. Trowa stood and held him. Michael left the house and Luc quickly followed him.
“Michael!” Luc called.
Michael stopped walking away and turned to look at Luc. Luc was holding himself tightly and the Sun shined on both of them.
“He’s right,” Michael said, with tears coming from his eyes. “I’m so sorry Luc. I did this. I caused everything that happened to you.”
Luc shook his head, “No, no, it wasn’t you.”
“Yes it was!”
Luc stared crying.
Back in the house Wufei looked up sharply. “Great,” he muttered sarcastically under his breath and quickly left the house.
A wind swept around outside and it seemed to whisper Michael’s name. Luc tensed, and stared, terrified, behind Michael. God’s hands clasped Michael’s shoulders. Michael cried out and escaped them, turned to look God Incarnate in the face.
The deity wore a gloating smile that disgusted the angels. “Hello Lucifer,” he said evilly. “Michael,” He taunted, “What have you been doing?” He shook his head, “Very naughty things.”
Michael spat in His triumphant face.
Wufei ran out of the door of the house. God looked at the Chinese man, His face became terrified. Wufei stopped, his eyes became a bright white once more and the world around the angels exploded.
~~
“Lucifer…” said a soft female voice. Luc opened his eyes.
“
She smiled, “Yes.”
“What…what happened?”
She shook her head, “Wufei will tell you. That’s not why I’m here.”
“Why are you here?”
She put a hand on his face, “To tell you what Wufei told Quatre: Let it go. He cannot hurt you, ever again.”
Luc sat up on the bed, “But…I don’t understand.”
“Shh…” she cooed and laid him back into the bed, “It will be alright, my son.”
“Son?”
“That’s right. Jehovah needed someone to show Him how to create, so I created you. You are my creation, Luc, and I love you for it.”
Lucifer smiled, “I guess that means I can call you Mom.”
She laughed, “I guess.” There was a pause, “Promise me you will let it go.”
Luc nodded, closed his eyes and let it go.
~~
Michael awoke with a start, his face on the lawn of the safe-house. “LUC!” he called, and sat up.
“I’m here!” Luc said and sat up himself. Michael looked at him.
“You ok?”
Luc nodded and then smiled at Michael, “Better than ok.” They both stood and Luc reached out to Michael. They embraced for a moment.
“What happened?” Luc asked.
“I destroyed Him.”
The couple looked at the source of the voice. Wufei stood watching them.
“The effect knocked you both out.”
“He’s dead?”
Wufei shook his head, “Not dead, but existing in such a way that He will never regain any power. It’s too hard to explain for you to understand. But yes, he is gone for good.”
Michael and Luc looked at each other and laughed with relief. They kissed each other and Michael spun, holding Luc in his arms. They laughed together away. Finally they felt free.