As discreetly as I could, I walked over to Lucifer, eyeing the open but empty gates.
"What do we do now?" I asked him.
"We have to be careful," he said. "We cannot just storm in and look around for the Lord everywhere, or the imposter, or whatever he is. Maybe it is better if you, our brother here and I go first while the rest waits here, then we won't be with such a big group. We need to find a way to convince the angels that we pose no threat to them. Our brother here will lead us."
I nodded. "His name is Pravuil by the way. He is an archangel who keeps all the records of heaven. Don't you know him?" He should know him, I thought. The Lucifer I remembered from heaven knew everyone.
"Oh yes, alright. And no, I don't remember him," Lucifer said. He chuckled softly. "But I recognize his name." He turned to Pravuil.
"Alright, this is the plan. You will lead us to all the other angels. If we arrive accompanied by you, we won't pose as much of a threat and we might have a chance.
Pravuil nodded slowly. "And the rest of these... Traitors," he said. "They will stay here?" The contempt in his voice was evident.
"Yes, your brothers and sisters will wait here until the coast is clear for us all to go further," Lucifer replied.
"Alright." It wasn't like he had much of a choice, but I felt weary. How would we know we could trust them? Lucifer was so naive sometimes...
***
GABRIEL
After we had reached the white building the angels had left us in a white room. And when I said white, I meant really white. The walls were completely seemless too, and after walking around for a few times while trying to find an exit I had completely lost the wall which the angels had used to put us in here. The angels had left us and we were still being held here without any sense of time. Jessica was sobbing and talking to herself. She tried to understand what had just happened and what this meant for her. We still hadn't been visited by an angel to interrogate us about what we knew, and I was wondering what was going on. Did they find Lucifer already? Were they sentencing him? What would be his sentence? I never heard of an angel dying, but I also haven't heard that it wasn't possible.
Suddenly I felt a huge wave of guilt go trough me. It would be my fault if Luke were to die. That wasn't what I wanted to accomplish with going to heaven. I needed to get out of this interrogation room and try to find Luke. If I could warn him and maybe bring him with me to heaven I would be able to negotiate with the angels not to harm him. I wanted him to be sentenced for what he did to us, but he was still my best friend and I didn't wish him to die!
Okay, okay Gabe, breathe. It will all be okay. They're not killing him... But what if they would put him in heaven's prison? That would be the equivalent of him being killed! I had to get out of here, right now.
I started studying the walls again, walking past them while touching them, hoping to find a door. Suddenly Jessica spoke up. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to find the exit. I want to get to Luke before they harm him."
Just as I said that, I stumbled and felt myself going cold. I took a step forward and tried to use the wall as a support, but instead of feeling something solid I fell right through it.
"What the... No fucking way." I was so done right now. Seriously? The exit had been the fucking wall itself all this time?!
The exit led to a long hallway. I remembered walking through here to the interrogation room, but I didn't remember where we had come from. The whole hallway was white and had doors and some pillars on both sides, but no other remarkable points to remember. The only way to get out here was to start looking, but we couldn't afford to be caught. At least not both of us.
"Which way do we go?" Jessica murmured, startling me. I took a step back and looked from her to the wall back to her again.
"I have no clue to be honest. Let's split up. You take the right side, I take the left and we meet here again if we find the exit. Be careful." To clarify what our meeting spot was I counted the doors till the next pillar. "Door eight. Don't forget."
After wandering for what seemed like ages I still didn't see another angel. I knew something was wrong. I kept going but on a faster pace, quietly opening different doors and peaking, but still not finding an exit.
Suddenly a group of angels came around the corner.
I rushed to the nearest door and stumbled inside, suddenly finding myself in a library-like room where a bunch of files and parchment roles were all piled on top of each other. Of course, it was my luck that the angels who rounded the corner had to be in this room, so I quickly hid myself behind a shelf of parchment roles and tried to be as quiet as possible.
"Lucifer came with a whole army up to heaven to see if Father was real. They are on the brink of war," one angel said grimly.
"To see if Father is real? Honestly?" another one said astounded.
"Don't worry about that. All the angels on heaven's side believe that Lucifer is evil and disrupted the order of Good and Evil. They won't listen to him. This will definitely mound out in a war though, and that will cause a great deal of trouble on Earth," a third angel said.
A fourth one took a file from the shelf in front of me. I held my breath and tried not to move. Luckily, the angels didn't seem to notice me and they went out the door without as much as another glance.
When they left, I looked around. There were dates on the parchments; I found some of them to be a thousand years old. In there were all events that happened on that day, in all places on Earth and in heaven. On another shelf, I found files with different names. My name was one of them. The file included reports of all my lives I had lived since I had fallen from heaven. There were more lives in the first three pages of the report than I could remember.
When I continued searching I suddenly found another file with Lucifer's name on it. With trembling fingers I took it from the shelve and opened it. Inside was a big parchment with a lot of different lives described in great detail, just as had been in mine, but there was an extra page which hadn't been in my map. I read it with my eyes wide open. This... Could this be? This changed everything! This could prevent the war from happening! I had to get it to the war side. I knew I had to. Right now.
***
LUCIFER
Just as I wanted to speak to my brothers and sisters to tell them our plan, a lonely figure came out, nearing us. I wasn't sure whose soul it was. Although the sudden force of the portal had brought most of my memory back, I couldn't recall everything. I shook the annoying feeling of almost-remembering-something-but-not-quite-yet off and tried to focus on the task ahead. To stop this battle from happening.
"Lucifer," the angel spoke. The voice was directed at all angels by my side as well. "You came back." I hummed in agreement, and I noticed Amy was slowly backing away, hiding behind the other angels. She was probably afraid the angel would recognize her.
"As you can see, I did."
"And you brought... Others." The voiced seemed bored, mocking even. "You think you will be able to overthrow heaven with this petty army?"
"I am not one of them!" Pravuil suddenly exclaimed and he rushed towards the other angel. "Peter, you know me. I only went there to lure him in, I didn't know he would take them..."
Peter merely looked at Pravuil, his face drooping with disgust. Pravuil fell silent.
"I have not come to overthrow heaven, and this is not my army. Father called upon me, and these brothers and sisters wanted to come. Tell me, brother, can I meet Him now?" The annoyance was evident in my voice as I spoke, such as my nervousness. Because I was nervous. Hell, who wouldn't be? We were on the verge of a war between angels themselves, and basically it all depended on me to stop it! Who had been mad enough to trust such a thing upon me?
"Father has no wish to meet you after what you said about him. He heard you," Peter said impatiently.
I shook my head firmly. "Nevertheless, I still wish to speak to him. I have some questions and he owes me the answers." Peter gasped for breath.
"Owes you? Owes you? Owes you?"
I sighed, annoyed. Really? He had to repeat that three times just to emphasize those words?
"God owes you nothing!"
"God owes me everything. He owes it to me to give me my full memory back; there are still bits and pieces missing, and some things don't add up. For example," I immediately stated, not giving him room to overlook me. "This all feels way too familiar. I have been here before. We have all been here before." Peter seemed taken aback at that.
"Don't be foolish. Of course we haven't been. This is the now." As he was speaking, I saw more angels coming out of the gates behind him.
"Yes. This is the now, but this is also the past and this is also the future. I feel what I believe the humans call a déjà vu, only it's much stronger... It's like I'm reliving a memory. For example, a sister will join you shortly, bearing direct orders from Himself. And shortly after that, a disturbance will be caused somewhere in the gates, and you will get annoyed by it, because it's distracting you from what is happening here."
"And there is more. I know what is going to happen an hour from now. I know..." I took a deep breath. "But after that everything is blank. Why is everything blank after that? Why does the memory stop there?" The angels beside me shuffled uncomfortably. Peter seemed to become nervous as well.
"I haven't seen any sister here nor is there a disturbance inside the gates. Therefore, I see no reason for you to have a meeting with our Father. You will immediately call your army back, or there will be severe consequences," he stated.
"Such as, brother?"
"Such as these."
I heard a scream from behind me, then a scream to my left. The angels at my side started to scream in pain one by one, as if lightning had struck them. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Stop that! They have done you no harm!"
"They will do! They will..." Suddenly all of the screaming stopped, and the angels were all gasping for breath. I saw a sister whispering something in Peter's ear, something which seemed to make the both of them quite nervous.
It was just like I remembered.
***
AMITIEL
During the conversation Lucifer had with Peter I had backed away into the crowd. I could feel the tension around me, the threatening sight of the growing group of angels opposite of us, and I could see Peter standing in front of them talking to Lucifer. I knew Peter well. He had been my friend when I was still in heaven, and I also knew the way he thought about the fallen ones. He must think of me as a traitor now. I just couldn't stand it anymore, to just stand there in front of the crowd next to Lucifer, while all my brothers and sisters were watching me, with Peter watching me, thinking of me as a disgusting thing, a traitor, like I had disappointed them. It felt like an enormous weight on my shoulders, because they had always cared for me and loved me, and now I had turned my back on them, just like that. They looked at me as if I didn't belong here anymore, in my beloved home, and that hurt me a lot. How could I actually have made this stupid decision? Maybe I had chosen the wrong side after all. I mean, I belonged to my family right?
I had backed away so much that I ended up at the side of the crowd. I wasn't very tall, but if I stood on my toes I could see Lucifer still talking to Peter. Although I couldn't hear them well, I could make out some words.
"Nevertheless... Speak to him... Some questions."
But then I could hear Peter loud and clear.
"Owes you? Owes you? Owes you? God owes you nothing!" He sounded angry now and I could feel the tension in both crowds rising.
The group opposite of us was still growing bigger and bigger. All angels around me started to move uncomfortably from one foot to another, nervously listening to where this conversation was leading. If things continued the way they were going, this might as well end up in a battle. I was hoping Lucifer knew what he was doing.
What if this would end up in a battle? Would I be able to fight my own brothers and sisters? Apparently I belonged to the rebellion now, so that meant I would be their enemy if it came to fighting. I didn't know if I was capable of doing that, standing face to face like this was already hard enough, let alone fight them!
My train of thoughts was disturbed by the sudden sound of my name. I turned around and saw a figure approaching the crowd. I stared at him and heard him scream my name again.
"AMY! AMY!"
Then I recognized him, it was Gabriel, but what was he doing here? He closed in on me very fast, as if he seemed to be running as fast as he could. But why, what had happened?
When he reached me he was gasping for air.
"Amy," he said, still panting. "You need to listen, this is very, very important."
"What happened? What do you know?" I asked.
"It's a long story but you have to trust me. You need to bring this file to Lucifer right now."
"Why, what's in it?" I looked at the file. It wasn't thick or heavy, it only seemed to contain a couple of papers.
"I cannot explain it all to you but to be brief it could prevent a lot of bad things from happening."
"But why me?"
"You are the only one he will listen to right now," Gabriel said softly.
He was obviously thinking about Jessica. He knew that Luke knew about how he had 'killed' her to turn Lucifer in. I nodded.
I was startled by the sudden sound of screams coming from the front of the crowd. We both looked around and saw angels cringing in pain, their high-pitched screams sounding as if they were dying right on the spot, but nobody even touched them. It was a horrible sight. One by one they fell on the ground, right next to Lucifer. Oh no... This meant it had already started.
Gabe looked at me and seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.
"You have to be quick now, so RUN!" he said.
I didn't have to think twice about that. As fast as I could, I turned around and sprinted towards Lucifer.
***
LUCIFER
"Whatever you are planning, it won't work, Lucifer." He spat my name out like it was a dirty disease, something he didn't want to be associated with. "It won't work. We have been discussing long enough now. It's your choice; either call your army back, or face a defeat." I grimaced. We had been here for a long time now already, and the situation had obviously worsened; more angels had come to join the small group already standing at the gate. We were now two big groups opposing each other, and I saw grim faces on both sides. This wasn't going to be pretty if I didn't find a way to stop it. Soon.
I turned my back towards them, hoping none would raise arms against my exposed back, and raised my arms. "My dear brothers and sisters," I said. "You heard it. Heaven is not ready for such a confrontation yet."
Suddenly I saw some movement in the corner of my eye. It turned out to be an angel, nearing us as fast as she could. She was shouting something, but felt too far away to be heard. Suddenly, one of the angels cried out.
"Watch out! It's the traitor, she is going to give him inside information on how to attack!"
Before I could respond to this ludicrous statement, something hit me. Light and dark flashed before my eyes. I felt pain surging trough my whole body, and every limb of mine seemed to go numb. For a moment I felt nothing; no bliss, but no pain either. No happiness nor sadness, no remorse for what would surely happen and no regret. I felt no responsibility for the brothers and sisters that had been with me; I accepted fate as it was. I knew I was dying. It surely felt like it, and I had died more than enough times to know what it felt like. Strange. I never thought I would feel this while in angel form. Could angels even really die?
As my body fell to the ground my body turned slightly and I was now fully facing the direction of the newly arrived angel. For a short moment I recognized her.
Amy. When had she left us?
The last thing I saw was the horror spreading on her face.
Then, everything went black.
***
AMITIEL
For a moment there was utter silence, and I looked in horror at the situation in front of me. They had killed him... They really had. They had killed Lucifer, the leader of a rebellion that wasn't even there. They had killed an angel! Was that even possible at all? This was an absolute disaster. I fell on my knees next to his dead body, the file falling out of my hand. In shock, I watched him as his body suddenly went up in flames. I had to back away because it was too bright to look at, but when the brightness ceased his body had turned to dust, leaving nothing but a blackened spot on the grass. I was silent, just like everyone else. Not a sound could be heard. Everybody just looked shocked at the whole situation and disbelief in their eyes.
Suddenly someone from the crowd screamed.
"They killed him! They killed our Lucifer, our brother!" It was Matthew, with tears gliding down his cheeks as he spoke.
"He meant no harm, he was innocent! And now you have killed him!" He turned to Peter and the angels standing behind him.
"How could you! He was your brother too, you know?!"
Someone else spoke up from the crowd.
"This crime cannot be without consequences!"
Agreement sounded from the crowd. They were all angry. Very angry.
The angels behind Peter backed away a little, feeling the threat of the rebellion. All angels around me took a few steps forward.
Suddenly people began screaming and everyone came into action. Angels around me started running forward, and I saw the angels opposite of us doing the same; The two groups collided with a loud bang. They were truly fighting each other! I saw angels hitting, kicking at one another, swinging arms at each other's heads. I couldn't hide my astonishment, we were all family! How could we fight each other like this, like humans? A couple of metres from where I sat three angels were on top of one other angel, trying to push him to the ground. They twisted his arms so he couldn't move. They all looked more like animals than the pure beings they truly were. I couldn't stand sitting here and doing nothing so I stood up and as quickly as I could, ran towards the four of them. With full speed I pushed the three angels away which caused them stumbling backwards and I turned to the angel laying on the ground, his face in agony, and tried to help him up.
It was chaos now, the screaming and the fighting causing deafening sounds, making it sound more like a thunderstorm than anything else.
Then all of a sudden, a weird feeling spread through my head, like long fingers reaching out throughout my brain. I pushed both of my hands against my head. What was...? What was happening to me? The feeling became stronger and stronger, it now felt like the fingers were pulling at my brain. I looked around me to all the other angels who had now stopped fighting, they all had confused looks on their faces as well.
Where was I? Oh yes, I was in heaven of course, my home. I saw the great gates of heaven, though I could not remember how I had ended up here...
Wait, what did I say? Fighting? Yes, my mind recalled, the war between the angels.
Why did I actually stand in the middle of this big crowd? I looked at some of the angels in particular. Their faces were familiar to me. Of course they were; these were my brothers and sisters.
Then I recognized Gabriel standing a couple of metres away from me, he stood still like a statue, just staring in front of him. Gabriel, my mind said as I ran to him.
"Gabriel," I said. "What is happening to us? Why are we here?"
He stared at me but said nothing.
"Gabriel?" I asked again.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"What? Don't you know who I am? It's me, Amitiel. We met at... We met...We, we know each other..." I stammered. "You know me..." But then I fell silent, because I didn't remember where we had met. How did I actually know him?
Then I realised that I couldn't even know him. He was a traitor wasn't he? He was evil, and I was an angel from heaven. We couldn't even know each other, but I remembered something... Something about him, I only couldn't say what it was, like the memory was tickling the edge of my mind, but I couldn't reach it.
I backed away from this angel, this... Disgusting traitor or whatever he was, and quickly turned around to walk away from him, through a crowd of confused looking angels, trying to get some clues about what was happening. Why were some of them bleeding? What had happened? It almost looked as if there had been a battle or something... But how could that be? Heaven was a peaceful place.
OUCH! I grabbed my head tightly with both of my hands. Now this headache became painful. I fell on my knees in the grass, in the middle of a blackened spot. Huh, how did that happen?
I was completely disorientated right now. I had to sort things out. Okay, let's start from the beginning. I was Amitiel, angel of truth and I had lived in heaven after I had lived my lives on Earth. I had to do something, something like a task, but I couldn't remember what... The harder I tried to remember, the more painful the headache became. Suddenly though, a tiny little sparkle of a memory popped up inside my head. The mission for Lucifer!
OUCH!! The pain was almost unbearable now. What did I remember again? Something I had to do? I just didn't know anything anymore, it felt as if my memory was being stripped away layer by layer. The only thing I knew for certain right now was that I was an angel from heaven, devoted to God and my family.
Out of nowhere a bright light appeared in the air. It grew bigger and brighter every second and eventually it became so big that it seemed as if the air was on fire. It felt like a threat, something dangerous coming closer and closer, like it was about to swallow us all up at any moment. I felt fear creeping up my body until it was the only thing that I could feel and I had to cover my eyes because the light had become too bright to look at. What was about to happen to us? Then the fire became even bigger. It was closing in on us and eventually it completely surrounded us. Light was the only thing I could see.
And then, everything went black and there was nothing at all.
------
[A/N]
So yeah.... Then that happened. The only thing following now will be the epilogue, so stay tuned! (:
And of course, don't forget to vote and comment!
Love Xx.~