Authors: Darcy Town
“What else could it do?”
“Gabriel thinks it might restore my powers, maybe, or restore yours.
Michael has been too afraid of the possibility of your restoration to allow its use.”
Lucifer scowled.
“Michael ever the coward.”
Dahlia leaned into Lucifer, and he wrapped both arms around her.
She kissed his chin.
“I believe Michael will use it now out of fear.”
“What does He say?”
“He has not spoken since the Fall, not to them at least.”
“He has not?”
Dahlia shuddered.
“He speaks to me only.”
“He knows where you are?”
“No, not now, but He seeks me out.”
She shivered.
“He wants me back.”
Lucifer held her tighter.
“I will not let them have you for the prison.”
Dahlia shook her head.
“I would rather the prison than what He wants.”
Lucifer frowned.
“He wants something other than that?”
“Same deal as before, memories wiped and back in Hell at His beck and call.”
She made a face.
“It is what He always wanted.
He could not force me to obey as He could to you.
He could not make me return to Him.
Consequently, He thought He could drive me back through the pain.”
“You could stand it.”
Dahlia shook her head.
“No, no I really could not stand it.
It was not my pain that held my resolve, it was yours.
That He punished
you
.”
Her eyes neared black.
“He hurt you and you did nothing to Him.
He sought to punish you endlessly.
Even if I had taken the deal, you would have been left to suffer.”
She gnashed her teeth.
“That is deplorable.”
Lucifer stared as her face changed with anger.
He rubbed her shoulders.
“What He did to you is unforgivable.”
Dahlia looked up and her eyes returned to their normal red.
“We are not talking about forgiveness.
We are talking about giving in to what He wants.
I never could have if it had meant your continued torture.”
“Then you would have if He had let me go.”
Dahlia stared at her feet.
“Perhaps.
But the war made that null and void.
You freed yourself and in doing that I had no reason to give into Him.”
“How did you know of the Fall?”
“I was not as cut off as you might have thought.
Blinded by pain yes, but nothing in Heaven is truly apart from the rest.
The feelings, sounds, all of these things seeped in over time and I learned of what had happened to you and the rest.
I did not know of what went on outside of Heaven, I had no idea what your status was, but the Archangels would speak of you from time to time, so I knew that somewhere, somehow you lived on.”
She shook her head.
“That kept my hope alive and after a time, the part of me sheltered away from the pain devised my way out.”
“How
did
you get out?”
Dahlia gave him a wry grin.
“Before you locked me in I saw a possible escape route in the prison.
I memorized it and took the memory with me into the darkness.”
Lucifer eyed her.
“What do you mean?
How could there have been a flaw?
It went straight from Him to Andrealphus, Paimon, and Berith.”
“True, but does that mean He has no flaws?
No, there was a way.”
Lucifer frowned.
“I was there.
I did not see a defect.”
“And you were highly distraught, so was He when He designed it.”
Lucifer considered the point and nodded.
“What part had the failing?”
“The physical components pulled from this planet.”
“Then why did you not escape immediately?”
Dahlia blushed.
“I could not remember once I was locked in, I forgot.
I could not think, I could not remember, I was just the agony.”
She shook her head to rid herself of the memory.
“The physical pieces used to create the prison meant they were a part of my plane as much as of yours.
There is a link in them, a way into my realm.”
“Hell.
But He said it no longer existed.”
“He lied.
I found my escape eventually and slipped out.”
“Did He see you?”
Dahlia frowned.
“Was He watching me?”
“Yes.”
Lucifer looked away.
“At least He was in there with you when we were tossed from Heaven.”
Dahlia shuddered.
“If He was, I was not aware, but I would think that if He was, He would have stopped me.”
Lucifer held her.
“What happened to your body?”
“In Hell everything is matter.
I became everything and in that nothing physical was left.
I had just my consciousness again and that is all that I had when I fled to here.”
Lucifer kissed her forehead.
“Do you know how to get your wings back?”
“No, but I know who does.”
“Who?”
She looked up at him.
“Raphael.”
Lucifer snarled.
“That useless piece of shit?!”
Dahlia shrugged.
“Useless except for that I think.”
She pushed Lucifer back to the ground.
“Try and think of a way to capture him alive.
We do need him regardless of what you might think about his capabilities.”
“Why are you not thinking of it too?”
Dahlia kissed down his stomach.
“I have other things to reflect on at the moment.”
***
The island of the first generation Lilliam was surrounded by large waves and fast winds.
Night obscured half the island, while the other glowed with bright afternoon sunlight.
Gaea watched her brothers and sisters.
They were assembled on the island, each reverted back to their angelic form.
They ran up and down the beach as winged children, except for Ra.
Ra chose to look like a teenager, her body bedecked in shopping bags and jewelry, even her wings had gold chains attached to them.
She sat down next to Gaea and grinned.
“Have you gone
shopping
?”
Gaea looked her over.
“Shopping?”
“The humans took my gold so I went and got theirs, but I found these other things too!
These shoes and purses!
You
shop
for them.”
“What do you need purses for?”
Ra opened one and candy spilled out onto the ground.
She snapped up chocolate as it rolled away.
“They have these sweets now!
Like ambrosia!”
Phoenix blasted over their heads and landed in the sand.
Set followed her.
Ra grinned at her daughter.
“Phoenix was the one who showed me
shopping
.”
Phoenix sighed.
“More like shop
lifting
.”
Set bowed to Ra.
“Hello auntie.
Phoenix said you wanted an update.”
“Yes!”
Ra took a step towards him.
“Where are my pharaohs?”
Set shrugged.
“We have had our hands full with other things.
I could not watch all of your dirty convert corpses.”
Ra snapped in his face.
“They had my gold all over them!”
Set held up his hands.
“They’re just dead guys!”
Ra blasted him into the water.
Phoenix raced between them.
“Mom, calm down!”
Gaea laughed.
Chronos plopped down in the sand beside her.
“You have seen Mother?”
She nodded.
“She is doing well, not restored, but well.”
Chronos looked at the sky.
“Ouroboros says the Archangels have been watching from beyond the shield.
They have hosts of angel moving in as well.”
Gaea frowned at the sky.
“The shield is stronger than ever, they cannot hope to get through.
Do they just watch?”
Chronos nodded.
“So far that only, it is eerie.
They do not fear us seeing them.”
Ifrit sat down on Gaea’s other side, making the sand turn to glass.
“Perhaps they will turn the humans on all at once?”
Leviathan danced across the water.
“Then we will kill them all at once!
You know Daddy wants to!”
Ouroboros laughed.
“Look, the giant metal birds in the sky are back!”
Fighter jets tore through the sky overhead.
Ouroboros chased them; he flew alongside one, and waved at the pilot.
“They have humans inside!”
Leviathan nodded.
“They have similar creations on the water.”
Titan felt his materials at work in the machines.
“They are tools,
human
tools.”
Nix called down from her place in the trees.
“Should we destroy them?”
“Only if they attack us.”
Gaea shook her head.
“Perhaps we should go below ground to the City?”
Ra danced up, eating candy.
“Hey, we are Skittles!”
The others looked at her.
Chronos shook his head.
“What?”
She held out her hand.
“We’re rainbows!”
Ouroboros sucked the candy from her hand.
The candies swirled inside his semi-transparent form until they made a rainbow.
Ra laughed and dropped into their age group.
She dropped her purses and chased Ouroboros.
A jet fired a missile at them.
Nix flew from the tree to intercept it.
She enveloped it in night and the missile disappeared.
She looked back at her siblings.
“Perhaps going below would be a good idea.”
The Lilliam children winked out of existence.
***
Furcas pulled Paimon’s stitching out of the pink baby blanket.
“What did you do to it?”
Paimon pulled on his pants.
“Crochet.”
“That’s nice, but this is knitted.”
Furcas looked at the blanket sadly.
“Oh well, I do have a lot more.”
He tossed it to the side and rolled over, pulling his long hair in the process.
“Ow!
See, this is why I cut it to begin with.”
Paimon grabbed Furcas by his hair and pulled him over.
“And this is what I miss about it.
I think you should keep it like this.”
Furcas scowled.
He grabbed his hair and bound it back in a ponytail.
“I’m getting it cut when I find a stylist.”
“I can cut it.”
“No thanks, I’d rather have it shaved off.”
Paimon made a face.
“Okay, one-eye.”
Furcas scowled and adjusted his leaf skirt.
“Do not remind me.”
Paimon poked him.
“Sorry, stumpy.”
Furcas punched Paimon in the face.
“You’re an asshole.”
Paimon kicked him lightly.
“Still want me to try and knock you up?”
Furcas blushed.
“Shut up.”
The Sanctuary door opened and Lucifer and Dahlia stumbled out, she hung off Lucifer’s arm.
Paimon pointed and laughed.
Dahlia gave the pair a once over.
She shook her head.
“And I thought you two could not get stranger.”