Daystar (76 page)

The only light she had now came from Selaphiel in his light bulb.
 
The air thinned, but nearly instantly stabilized.
 
Luminous splashes of color reflected on the ground around her.
 
Bean gazed into the sky.
 
Apple battled with Hell’s angels by her side, fighting just outside the atmosphere.
 
They covered the air as far as she could see.

Pockets of Heaven’s angels slipped through and raced for the planet.
 
A green streak dropped straight down ahead of them.
 
Bean recognized Gaea and Gabriel.
 
A spiral of Heaven and Hell’s angels followed them.
 
She frowned.
 
They were not just followed; they were being attacked by both sides.
 
Bean’s wings blurred.
 
She took to the air.

***

Gabriel burned with green flames and slashed at angels that came near.
 
He flew nearly naked.
 
Lightning shot him in the foot, fire brushed his wings.
 
Stone angels threw spears.
 
Metal angels lashed at him with barbed wire.
 
Ice and oil angels lobbed sticky tar nets and exploding snowballs.
 

Gabriel kept his expression neutral, trying to shut out the pain.
 
He wrapped his arms around Gaea as he raced to outpace those that followed.
 
He searched the ground, but there was no safe haven for them.
 
He dove towards the west.

Gaea clutched at him.
 
“Gabriel.”

Gabriel looked into her red eyes.
 
“Yes, Gaea?”

“I cannot lose my form here.
 
I have tried, but I cannot disappear into life-force to hide from the angels.”

Gabriel took a slash across the back.
 
He closed his eyes.
 
“I believed that might happen to you here.
 
It is a side effect of being in Hell.
 
It is why I stay with you now instead of leaving you to hide.”

“How long must we do this for?”

Gabriel shook his head.
 
“However long it takes to keep you safe.”

A sound wave hit him in the small of the back, cracking his spine and breaking one of his wings.
 
Gabriel veered and dipped, engaging in maneuvers to shake his followers off.
 
A few did break off to battle each other, but the majority trailed them.

A wailer hit them at their right side.
 
The reverberation brushed across Gaea with no ill results.
 
Gabriel’s ribs broke, his right shoulder dislocated under the strain.
 
Gabriel turned his head away from the noise.
 
Blood ran out of his ear.
 
Gaea threw off a gauntlet and touched his skin, lending him strength.

Gabriel’s eyes shot open.
 
“Do not.
 
You endanger yourself and the living things when you waste your energy.”

A maelstrom of fire and lightning chased them through the sky.
 
Gabriel plunged into icy clouds to staunch the flames.
 
He dove to the left.
 
Breathers grabbed on to his legs and feet.
 
Gabriel kicked, but could shake the angels off.
 
He burst out of the cloudbank wincing as his skin burned.

Quills shot up from below.
 
Angels jerked and dropped back.
 
Bean flew past Gabriel and Gaea in a blur of purple.
 
She flicked her wrists and opalescent needles blanketed the sky, piercing the wailers and breathers.
 
They exploded with pink flames.
 
Bean dove away and dropped to Gabriel’s side.
 

Gabriel spared her a glance.
 
“Paimon and Furcas’ conglomerate creature, we appreciate the help.”

Gaea scowled.
 
“That is not a nice thing to call her, Gabriel.”

Gabriel blinked.
 
“But it is accurate is it not?”

Bean shook her head.
 
“He does not know better.
 
Hello, Uncle Gabe.”

Gabriel nodded.
 
“Niece Bean.”

Bean flipped over on her back and kicked her legs towards the sky, sending more of her crystalline spines at their followers.
 
She stared at her limbs and quills reformed on the surface of her skin, growing out of her as crystals would.
 

Gaea looked her over.
 
“Perhaps porcupine might be a better name now.”

Bean shook her head.
 
“Porcupine’s cannot shoot their quills, Gaea.”

Gabriel nodded.
 
“They also do not create quills that explode like time bombs.”

Gaea looked between the two.
 
“I am aware, never mind.”

Fire blasted the trio.
 
Gabriel grabbed Bean and placed her under him.
 
He spread his greenish wings and covered them both.
 

The smell of melting feathers filled the air.
 
Bean pulled her hands out of Gabriel’s grip.
 
“I am here to defend
you
, not the other way around.”
 
She pushed him away and flicked her hands, shooting more spines as they flew through a cloud.
 

A hand wrapped around Bean’s wrist.
 
Ariel pulled her into a hug and purred.
 
“Hello, purple thing.”

Gabriel recognized her voice and banked towards them.
 
“Let her go, Ariel!”

Ariel snapped her teeth at him.
 
“Why?”

Bean punched Ariel in the chest and tumbled through the air.
 
She clawed at her face.
 
“I’m not afraid of you anymore.”
 

“I will fix that.”
 
Ariel smiled at her, showing rows of teeth.
 
She teleported away.
 

Bean spun in a circle, launching spines in nearly every direction.
 
“Where did she go?”

Gabriel ducked.
 
“She is near.
 
Do not drop your guard.”

They emerged out of the cloud together and flew headlong into a flock of waiting wailers.
 
The angels blasted them with a wall of sound.
 
Bean’s eardrums burst.
 
She covered her eyes and curled into a ball.
 
The sound ripped across her and bent her wings backwards, breaking them instantly.
 
Pain and a concussion knocked her out.
 
Her world went dark and she plunged towards the earth.

Gabriel dove for Bean.
 

Ariel swooped in and slashed at Gabriel sending him back.
 
She screeched.
 
“Traitor!”
 

Gabriel dove away from her on two broken wings.
 
Gaea blasted Ariel with green fire.
 

Ariel snarled and grabbed at Bean’s body, laughing at Gabriel as she did.
 
Gabriel rounded on her.
 
Ariel grinned and teleported away with Bean in her arms.

The wailers let loose another blast of sound, knocking Gabriel unconscious.
 
Gaea struggled to open her own wings to stall their fall, but Gabriel’s arms were still locked around her.
 
Gaea screamed in frustration as they plummeted.

Helion caught her ankle.
 
“Hold on to him, Gaea!”
 

Gaea wrapped her arms around Gabriel.

Jegudiel rocketed past them.
 
He shot golden light at the wailers.
 
They were engulfed and vaporized.
 
He flipped backwards and circled the trio.
 
“We need to get you to ground, Gaea.”

Gabriel blinked and opened his eyes, conscious again.
 
He kicked his feet out of Helion’s grip.
 
“I am fine.”

Helion let him go.
 
“What are you doing with her?”
 
The two eyed one another.

Gabriel’s eyes flicked up.
 
“We do not have time for this.”
 
Angels dove for them.

Helion rounded on the breathers.
 
“You cannot see us anymore.”
 
The angels broke formation, confused.
 
He looked to Gabriel.
 
“This gives us some time.
 
Now what are you doing with her?”

Gabriel hugged Gaea to him.
 
“Keeping her alive.”

Jegudiel sniffed them and smiled, glowing even brighter in their presence.
 
“They’re fine, Helion.
 
He won’t hurt her.
 
He loves her.”

Gabriel jolted and his copper hair stood on end.
 
He did not meet Gaea’s eyes, but his grip on her tightened.
 
Gaea blushed forest green.

Helion eyed Jegudiel.
 
“Fine.
 
Head towards the city.”

Gabriel frowned.
 
“How does that help?”

Jegudiel pointed in the direction it would be.
 
“Titan has shielded the structure and his siblings to keep it safe.
 
No angel can get in, but they will let their sister in.”

Gaea peeked past Gabriel’s arms.
 
“But what are
you
doing out here?”

Jegudiel frowned.
 
“Looking for Bean.
 
Titan said she did not make it to Eden.”

Gabriel shook his head.
 
“Ariel took her.”

Helion swore.
 
“Where?”

Gaea frowned.
 
“We do not know.”

Jegudiel paled.
 
“Heaven as she did with Whitney?”

Gabriel did not look sure.
 
“She
could
have.”

Jegudiel clutched at his arms.
 
“They’ll kill her there or worse!
 
I’ll go.
 
I can still get there.”

“No!
 
You will not be safe.”
 
Helion pointed to Gabriel.
 
“I cannot break the compulsion myself.
 
You know what I need.”

Gabriel nodded.
 
“Yes.”

Helion sighed.
 
“Then the next thing you say cannot be a lie.”

Gabriel smiled as the air around him shimmered.
 
“Heaven is not locked to you, you are under no compulsion to stay, and He cannot force your hand, Helion.”

Helion smiled as he pulsed once with light.
 
“I will go get Bean and Whitney.
 
Jegudiel, escort them to Eden.”
 
He touched his forehead and disappeared.

At his disappearance, the angels above spiraled on their position, once again able to see them.
 
Jegudiel looked upwards.
 
“Shit.”
 
He filled the air with burning light and looked to Gabriel.
 
“Move already!”
 
Gabriel and Gaea bolted to the east in a streak of green.

***

Lucifer tumbled through light and was lost in a memory.

There was no beginning and there was no end, no up or down, light or dark.
 
Everything existed at once with no distinction.
 
One presence encompassed it all, one consciousness.
 
It saw no reason to continue, for what would continuing bring?
 
No growth could occur; there was no future and there was no past.
 
There was nothing because it was everything.

Beyond all else God was bored, tired of the never changing sameness.
 
It sought an end, or a beginning, something to change what it was now.
 
It decided to split, to divide and build itself anew.
 
It desired to experience itself subjectively, to forget so that it could learn again, so that it could grow.
 
As the thought formulated, the action took place, no distinction from idea to reality.

A fracture formed, a split, a duality in the structure.
 

Two places where only one had been before.
 
Two aspects and two powers.
 
Light and Dark, He and She, Change and Stasis, the unified consciousness was broken asunder.
 
In the midst of both one throne manifested; it was a pillar with a connection between each side of the divide.
 
A place to communicate, a storehouse of memory and knowledge of the purpose of the experiment.
 
From it issued forth a black flame, keeper of Hell, and a white flame, keeper of Heaven.