Circle7 Ch. 03

Luke dug deep, summoning all the strength he had to wrench his way out of his brother's terrible grip and turned, standing in front of the people on the street to face Michael.

"This isn't a test, Michael! Not to them! This isn't some game they play to measure an outcome, these are their lives! Their petty, small, wonderful lives! Don't you see? Can your limited, restricted mind not go outside what Father tells you for one second to look around you? These people are afraid of you, Michael! So what if they don't follow every single rule put down thousands of years ago? That's why Father gave them FREE. FUCKING. WILL!! That's what you're scared of, isn't it Michael? You're afraid Father's Grand Design might all fall apart if these mortals figure out that they don't need Him to lead fulfilling lives, and they certainly don't need you. Of course they can bow down if they want to. You're afraid of what happens when they find out that they don't have to. They have free will, Michael. That's what makes them different from angels. They don't have to bow down anymore!"

Michael glowered, his wings unfurling to their full length.

"Yes. They. Do."

Lucifer knew he couldn't win. Not against Michael. The very rules of the Design worked against him. But still, he knew for them...for her, he had to try. Squaring off, Lucifer unfurled his own wings, tattered and featherbare from the Fall.

"Not while I draw breath."

A surge ran through the Earth. Michael didn't seem to notice, but it was as if the entire world had packed into Circle7. Luke could hear them all, feel them all. Every man, woman, and child on Earth, a cacophony of sound and emotion was welling up inside as Luke was overwhelmed. His mind was coming apart when he felt a hand take his own. Luke looked up to see Britney, eyes shining blue with power as she shared the burden.

"You don't have to be alone. Not anymore."

With Britney's help Luke stood to face Michael once again, the storm swirling around them.

"A Nephilim cannot save you, Lucifer."

"Maybe not, Brother. But they can."

Without knowing if he could, Lucifer reached out to every human being on the planet, and drew on their strength. Power flooded through him, and even being shared with Britney's near limitless reserves, it nearly tore Luke apart. The power of 7 billion souls coalesced in Luke's hands, pulsing with power as Luke strode towards Michael, intent on stopping his brother's madness once and for all.

Then he froze. Luke couldn't move from the neck down. He craned his head back to see Britney frozen completely, eyes unmoving. The humans behind her were in the same state. Luke looked back around to see Michael held as he was, immobile but conscious. There was exactly one force on the planet that could do what was being done, and Lucifer felt his paralyzed extremities go cold.

Apparently, Dad had had enough.

*********

Light enveloped the space where the club had once stood. It was pure, soft and shining as it blazed higher and higher until Luke could see nothing but a man-sized shape standing off to the right of Michael. The light faded, and Luke found himself on a park bench next to a man feeding pigeons from a small bag of birdseed.

"Where are we?"

The man answered casually as he continued feeding the birds, not even looking up as he did so.

"Central Park. You're not supposed to feed the birds, but they always seem so very happy."

Luke snorted. "You're not usually one for breaking rules, Dad."

"No, my son, you're right. But as you've seen, sometimes rules need to be broken for us to truly understand."

"As I've seen? What do you mean?"

The man stood up, bowed with age but still agile as he began walking along the path.

"Do you remember why you were made to Fall in the first place, Sammael?"

Luke winced at the use of his angelic name but answered dutifully.

"I challenged you for control of Heaven."

"Yes, my son, but why?"

Here the wizened man stopped to throw some more seed at a landing full of ducks. Luke looked on, confused.

"I was angry at you for putting humans before the choirs of angels. I despised the favor you showed them, even though they constantly disobeyed you. Ignored you. They even denied your existence, and still you loved them!"

The man smiled.

"Yes. For all their flaws, for all their failures, they still lead petty, small, wonderful lives, don't they?"

Luke recoiled as his words to Michael came back to haunt him.

Then it dawned.

Like the first sunrise ever witnessed by mankind, like the spark of the first fire banishing the dark, Luke understood. He fell to his knees, mouth open, eyes staring into eternity as his Father laid a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, Luke gazed into a pair of eyes that mirrored his own.

"I think you've finally learned your lesson, my son."

Luke couldn't process it. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be.

"You planned this."

Luke felt the man ruffle his hair paternally.

"Everything has its place in the Design. Your road has been a difficult one, Sammael. Far more so than most. But your role has also been the most vital. You have served the thankless job of 'cautionary tale' for millennia, and it is time for your reward."

Luke felt a tingling on his back, then an ache as muscles long thought destroyed flourished and grew. Luke winced as his skin split, only to show brilliant white feathers, symbolic of the Archangels, grow from the wounds into a majestic set of wings.

"It's time to come home, my son."

Luke was beside himself. Everything he had wanted for so long, in his grasp. At his fingertips. The Gates of Heaven were open to him again.

"No."

Luke saw the old man's eyebrows shoot up.

"What?"

Luke smiled faintly. "I mean, no thank you. I am grateful for the chance, Father, I am, but...I want to stay on Earth. With them. With...with her."

The soft, warming light began to envelop him again, and Luke panicked. His Father hadn't said yes. Was he taking him back to Heaven anyway? Luke yelled into the light.

"That is my choice, isn't it?!?"

The light around them began to recede, and as it did, Luke saw that he was back in the club, and that Michael had vanished. Moreover, as the light faded, Luke realized it had restored the damage caused by the cataclysmic confrontation. He saw the club, intact and untouched, its patrons still looking terrified.

He saw Britney, smiling brightly with outstretched arms.

The next words Luke heard were the last he heard from his Father for a long time, and they were simple, but as he heard them Luke knew everything was about to change.

"Yes. It is."

********

THE END.

*If the finale is well received, I've got an epilogue in store that fills in the holes your imagination doesn't want to. Remember to feed the author and rate!*