Daystar (80 page)

Paimon grinned and rolled his sun down the lines of angels Berith had created with Azrael.
 

Azrael zipped around his head.
 
“I wanna play!
 
I wanna play!”

Paimon shooed him away.
 
“You’re not old enough to drive!”
 
He saw Belial.
 
“No little brother?”

Belial shook her head.
 
“He is near dead.
 
Gaea has him.”

Paimon gaped.
 
“Near dead,
how?
”

Belial shrugged.
 
“I do not know the details, but he looked terrible.”

Paimon frowned.
 
Furcas looked at him with concern.
 
Belial kissed Andy.
 
“I have to go.
 
May I tell Dahlia anything?”

Paimon pushed his Pac-Man and rolled into more angels.
 
The sun flashed and took on mass.
 
He nodded.
 
“You can tell her that we might actually be able to do this on our own.
 
Don’t suppose you can track some more angels out here?
 
I never realized the potential energy they had.
 
They’re like little batteries.”

Belial nodded.
 
“Will do.
 
Give me an ETA soon.”
 
She disappeared.

Paimon frowned and flicked his wrists, sending the sun down another lane that Berith constructed from stunned angels.
 
He grimaced.
 
“Why is he almost
dead?
”

Andy blurred to his side.
 
“Maybe he did something brave?”

Paimon snorted.
 
“He’s
my
brother Andy, not Furcas’.”

***

Belial jumped into Hell.
 
She turned and shouted, “Paimon is doing well on the sun; he wants more angels to feed to it.
 
Apple, help me.
 
Dahlia, I do not have an ETA yet!”
 
She took a breath.
 
Shockers dove for her.
 
Belial wrapped them in a metal net and teleported back to space.
 
She threw them at Berith then teleported back to Hell.

Apple caught Belial on her return.
 
“You continue defense, I do not need to leave to make them go.”
 
She flicked her wrists and took control of wailers.
 
She forced them to teleport themselves.
 
“You’re sure they want more?”

Belial nodded.
 
“They are feeding them to the sun!
 
The little Berith is stunning them.”

Apple grinned.
 
“All right, well we can certainly give them more of ours.”
 
Her child moved inside her.
 
Apple smiled and held her abdomen.
 
“Do I look rounder to you?”

Belial looked her up and down.
 
“Yes, but I did not think it was polite to say.”

***

The remnants of the supernova expanded in an ever-increasing shockwave.
 
Towards the center, energy swirled and jostled.
 
Lucifer was bound up in it, captured by the lights and colors, the heat and energy.
 
He swam, searching for nothing, content to remain.

He threw out a hand to catch light, to mold and form it.
 
He noticed he had a hand, a curious thing.
 
He saw he had a body to go with it.
 
He flew in circles.
 
He noticed his wings, then the halos around his wrists and ankles.
 
He sensed a vague familiarity, but beyond that nothing.

He was born in this star, this explosion.
 
He smiled and went back to creating smaller stars, forms pulled together from the resources around him.
 
He had no thoughts, nothing to interrupt the sound of creation.
 
He let the notes fill him.

He hummed, a hum turned into a song, his voice sure and strong.
 
He stared with blue eyes as his voice affected the light around him; forms took shape, creations in the light, mirrors of him.
 
Darkness moved between them, interrupting the light.

He closed his mouth and the song went silent.
 
The pre-angelic forms faded, but the darkness remained.
 
It flitted and fluttered getting closer until the moth found him.
 
Coal black it landed on his finger and looked up at him.

He bought the creature up to his face and stared.
 
Its red eyes drew him in, called to him.
 
The moth flew away.
 
He could not help but follow the dark spot in the light around him.
 
He did not know why he was compelled, but this thing, this creature; he had to be near to it.

He soared quickly, silently.
 
No song joined him.
 
He concentrated on the moth.
 
He flew through the light until it thinned; he began to see other things through the light.
 
He saw other beings that looked like him.
 
They laughed and flew together.
 
He cocked his head.
 
The moth disappeared as he emerged into empty space.

Paimon, Furcas, Berith, and Andy gaped.
 
Berith grinned.
 
“Lucifer!”

He held his head.
 
That name.
 
He stared at his light.
 
“Lucifer?”

The memories came back in a rush, working from the most recent back.
 
He remembered his friends, his Dahlia, the time on Earth, his children, Ladriam, his time in Heaven.
 
The memories expanded still until he witnessed his creation, then the time before, when he was another, an equal.
 
He looked back on a time when he was a god.
 
He realized what he had lost, what he had gained.
 
He realized what he was, who he was.

Lucifer erupted into flame.
 
“That fucking, shit-eating, jealous, insecure, conniving, motherfucking bastard!
 
I will rend his soul to pieces!
 
I will burn the pieces to ash!
 
The ash I will leave in a black hole!
 
I will obliterate him from the memory of all things for all time!”

As one, the Archangels moved back.
 
Azrael jumped forward all smiles.
 
Berith enveloped his brother in a hug and pulled him away.
 
They watched Lucifer warily.

Lucifer eyed the new sun.
 
“What the
fuck
is
that
for?”

“Uh…”
 
Paimon cleared his throat.
 
“I have to make a new sun so that Dahlia can spit Earth out of Hell.”

“She is there?”
 
Lucifer’s eye ticked.
 
“She is in Hell?”

“Yes.”
 
Furcas nodded.
 
“She waits on the sun.”

Lucifer eyed the star.
 
He gestured and it moved away from them.
 
He glared at it and it returned to its previous size and position in the sky.
 
He swept his arm and dispersed the remnants of the supernova.
 
He stared at the stunned angels and they burst into lights.

Paimon looked sad.
 
“I was going to succeed on my own too.”

Furcas hugged him.
 
“Make one later.”

Lucifer flew with barely controlled rage.
 
“DAHLIA, YOUR SUN IS DONE!”

***

Friday

Dahlia heard Lucifer return.
 
She felt him as the small fraction of her consciousness that searched him out returned to her.
 
She held back her emotions, giving no indication to Heaven of the difference.
 
Dahlia focused and opened a portal into space.
 
She pushed the planet out.
 
She pushed Selaphiel out and all of the decorations Raphael had made with him.
 
She focused until Hell was empty except for the souls of the dead that had become woven into its fabric.

Dahlia addressed the golden flame through the throne, “I am coming for you soon.”

He looked through the portal and saw Hell empty.
 
YOU HAVE CONSUMED THEM THEN.
 
IT WAS INEVITABLE.

“I come for you.”

YOU CANNOT WHILE HELION AND WHITNEY REMAIN SEPARATE FROM YOU.

“Nevertheless, I come.”

***

Lucifer watched as the planet was expelled along with any angels, which had been with it.
 
He waved his hand, destroying the remnants.

Belial and Apple joined the others.
 
They smiled at Lucifer.
 

Furcas kissed Paimon goodbye.
 
“I will check on Bean.”

Paimon nodded and watched him go.
 
He turned to Lucifer.
 
“What now?”

Lucifer’s eyes searched the sky.
 
“Where is she?
 
Where is Dahlia?
 
Where?”
 
He spun.
 
“Where!”

A black flame took form before him, sending the others back.
 
Dahlia peered out of it.
 
“Lucifer.”

Lucifer calmed in her presence.
 
“Dahlia, why do you remain as this flame?”

“To do otherwise would give him notice of us.”

Lucifer leaned into the fire and let it caress him.
 
“I know now what I am, but I do not know how to fix what he did to me.”

The black flame washed his skin.
 
“Half of your battle was knowledge and that half you have won.
 
Power is not the true battle, Lucifer.
 
You must use what makes you different from him.
 
Being the same will only allow him to consume you, this is what he seeks.
 
You need to distinguish yourself, validate your right over his.
 
Prove that you have the right to be and you
will
win.”

Lucifer nodded.
 
“I remember.
 
I know what he fears, how he thinks, but without power I cannot defeat him.”

The flame swirled.
 
“Power you will get as a matter of course.
 
Go and call him out, Lucifer.
 
He has brought this duel upon himself.”

“How can I force him to fight me?”

“He cannot ignore you, his twin, and his equal.
 
He, over all others, cannot destroy you; he cannot make you no more.
 
He can only join with you.
 
He can erase your memories and make you his own, but he must fight you for this right, for you will not do that willingly.
 
He is not god, Lucifer.
 
He is not all-powerful.
 
Call him by his name and he must face you.”

Lucifer frowned.
 
“His name I do not remember.”

“He never shared it with you.
 
His name is Lucifel.”

A pulse rocked space and Hell.
 
Dahlia grinned from within the fire.
 
“He knows now, Lucifer.
 
He knows I have said it.”

Lucifer grinned.
 
“Good.”
 
He brushed his hand through the flame.
 
“I will come back to you.”

“I know, I love you, remember that and yourself.
 
I will be watching, but I cannot help you there.”

“I love you too.”
 
Lucifer closed his eyes and disappeared in a rush of heat and light.

***

Heaven stilled.

Helion, Whitney, and Michael felt the change.
 
They looked to the throne.
 
The golden flame twitched and pulsed.
 
Behind it, the black flame watched on from Hell, Dahlia remained.

Helion looked to Michael.
 
“Will you interfere?”

Michael set his jaw.
 
“This is a battle of brothers.”

Helion nodded.
 
“Then once again I ask, will you interfere?”

Michael stared into his eyes.
 
He looked from Helion to Whitney.
 
“I do not know.”

MICHAEL, COME TO ME BEFORE HE ARRIVES.
 
YOU ARE AS MUCH
MY
BROTHER AS YOU ARE HIS.
 
COME TO ME.

Michael closed his eyes.
 
“No.”

DO NOT DISOBEY ME!

“Why?
 
You will try and kill me again?”