"What?" Fate and Sera said together. Old Man Time moaned grievously.
"It's Lucifer," Rosalyn said, pointing a shaking hand at the first Time Frame when everything exploded.
Sera and Fate walked over. Old Man Time stayed on the ground, crying softly.
"I recognize him from when we first came in," she said. "I saw the Time Frame when he was ejected from Heaven."
Fate and Sera leaned in, their faces nearly touching the Time Frame. They both squinted.
"Where?"
"There, above that building. See?"
It took a few times of the Frame replaying before Fate pointed suddenly. "There!"
"Yes; see?!"
"I still don't see it," Sera said.
"Right before the flash of light. You have to watch closely. He appears for just a second and then is gone."
When it replayed, Sera crinkled his nose. "That black speck? That tiny, tiny, little black speck? You're honestly trying to tell me you recognize that as Lucifer?"
"I've never seen him before today," Rosalyn admitted, biting her bottom lip, "I mean, aside from the old statues and paintings that are left up in Heaven of him. But I'm sure; I'd recognize that silver hair anywhere."
Sera shook his head, rubbing his eyes. "Your eye sight must be much better than mine. Between how quickly he, or whatever that is, comes and goes, and how small it is in the frame, I can't make out any distinguishing features at all."
"You are sure that is him?" Fate questioned.
"I'm sure," Rosalyn replied. "I—I felt bad for him. When he Fell."
Sera frowned at her and gave her a harsh look. Rosalyn looked at him defiantly.
"That doesn't mean I'm going to Turn. I wouldn't risk the chance of Falling. I like my wings white, thank you very much."
Regretfully, she glanced back at the Time Frame. "All I know is that I connected with him in that brief moment when I watched the Frame, and I'd recognize him anywhere now."
Suddenly, Sera reached down and roughly grabbed Old Man Time by the arm. "Well, if anyone is going to recognize Lucifer, it's you. Come on, get up, quit your crying now. It's time for work."
Old Man Time stared vacantly at the Time Frame. Sera pointed.
"Is that indeed Lucifer?"
Sniffing, Time reached out his hand. Gently he touched the Frame and closed his eyes. When the spec appeared and then disappeared, Time quickly removed his hand before the explosion. To everyone's surprise he stumbled, and Sera caught him.
He was no longer crying but panting heavily as though he had just ran a marathon. Sweat immediately sprung from his pores, running in rivulets down his heavily-wrinkled face. It dripped into his massive beard like dew in grass.
"Rage," the old man croaked. He definitely sounded in desperate need of water. "So much rage. So much undiluted, insane rage."
Slowly, he opened his vacant eyes, staring directly at Sera. "Yes—that was Lucifer."
Fate came around and gently took Time by the shoulders. A wooden folding chair suddenly appeared, and he gently guided the old man to sit. He then looked at Sera and Rosalyn, whispering to them.
"He can feel whatever happens in the Frame. I am happy he took his hand away in time for the explosion.I think it would have killed him, all those lives suddenly gone—"
Fate's hands flew to his mouth, his green eyes wide. "Oh no—all those people. All those people are just wandering around. I have to—I have to go guide them—"
Sera grabbed Fate's arm before he took off running. "Wait."
"But—"
"No but's, Fate. We have to figure out what to do."
"But—but those people—"
"Fate."
Fate grew still and Sera let go of his arm. Sera looked between Fate and Rosalyn. "We need a plan."
"What can we do?" Fate asked. "The damage is already done."
"Can't we stop Lucifer?" Rosalyn asked. "I mean, he's right here." She pointed to the exploding Frame. "He's right here in this Frame. Can't we just enter the Frame and stop him?"
Sera pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, trying to be patient.
"While that is how it works, it's not exactly how it works. Once you enter a Frame you can't exit it as easily as you entered it. You have to leave Time from a different point; you can't come and go as you please.
"If we entered this Time Frame but missed our opportunity, we would have to go to Heaven, or Hell, or some place that isn't The Surface, then come back to The Realm of Time, and then re-enter the Time Frame. By then, who knows what other shenanigans Lucifer will have pulled."
Sera looked down the long line of repeating images. "It appears that the world isn't yet aware of the fact that Los Angelus was destroyed. Otherwise there would be a news report playing, or something."
"Maybe," Fate said. "I have never seen a repeating image like this on the Frames before. I do not even know what it means."
Old Man Time groaned in misery.
"Plus," Fate continued, "Lucifer is in the Frame for a fraction of a second; even if we met him, I am unsure if we would have any time to preemptively do anything to stop him."
"What's more," Sera said, "how would we stop him?"
"Attack him," Rosalyn replied assuredly.
Sera gave her a withering look. "You can't just attack Lucifer."
"Why not? I mean, that's what happened all those years ago when The Christmas War happened, when Lucifer and his minions tried to overtake Heaven, right?"
Sera put a hand on Rosalyn's shoulder. She looked at his hand, and then up at him.
"Rosalyn, dear. I know you were still just a scholar during the War, and I know you were probably off cowering somewhere with the other scholars while the rest of us were fighting for Heaven, but I'm telling you; you can't just physically attack Lucifer."
At his condescending tone Rosalyn glared, but he ignored it.
"Think about what you're saying. You're seriously trying to tell me we're going to just attack Morningstar Lucifer—the very first, purest angel God ever created? Do you know how many hundreds of years passed where there was just God and Lucifer, before God ever had the idea to create Adam and Eve on The Surface?"
"But you're Archangel Primus. That has to stand for something."
Finally, Sera removed his hand from her shoulder and looked at the ground. His face became a mask, hiding any sort of emotion.
"What do you think happened to Michael, Rosalyn?"
"He died. In the Christmas War. Everyone knows that. I found you after it happened. Everyone else was afraid to approach you, but I felt so bad I had to do something..."
"Doing what, though? What was Michael doing when he died?"
Sera knew that the details of Michael's death were hidden from the general angel populace, and those that had been witness' to the horrific act were sworn to secrecy. It was Sera's first order as Archangel Primus. He did it out of respect for Michael, telling everyone he had died honorably in battle.
"What was he doing when he died, Rosalyn?" Sera raised his head and to Rosalyn's surprise, tears stood stubbornly in his eyes. "Michael, God Bless his soul, thought he was strong enough to take on Lucifer. I loved Michael to death, I still do, but he was a cocky, arrogant son of a bitch, and honestly thought he could single-handedly take on Lucifer. He thought because he was Archangel Primus he had a fighting chance.
"In the heat of battle I tried to get him to wait for reinforcements. Honestly I begged him to. But he thought he could do it." Sera shook his head. "He wouldn't listen to me, and I was his best friend."
Sera took a deep breath and the tears were gone, and he stared angrily down at Rosalyn. "And now he's dead. So now I am Archangel Primus, and I am not going to make the same fool-hearted folly, and I'll be damned if I let you make the same moronic mistake."
Fate stared at his feet. Rosalyn looked up into Sera's face and he stared right back. Absolute silence fell over the group. They were so far within the depths of Time that not even the Satyr Guardians could be heard.
Rosalyn, for the first time, bore witness to absolute silence. It was disturbing. She would have even preferred Father Time's sobbing over this. It made her jumpy, and she nervously looked at the Time Frame, half-expecting Lucifer to jump out at them. With a shudder she wrapped her arms around her waist.
"So then what do we do?" Time's raspy voice sliced through the muteness finally. "Dealing with Lucifer is one thing; this new Lucifer is a whole other issue."
Everyone looked at him and Sera asked, "What do you mean, 'new Lucifer'?"
Time turned his white eyes to Sera. "It's one thing to try and stop an evil, meticulous, war-savvy, blood thirsty, depraved being. It's a whole other to deal with a stark-raving mad lunatic."