Seven Archangels: Annihilation (43 page)

Gabriel's brow furrowed. "You haven't made a compelling enough argument for me to return the favor."

Beelzebub squared his shoulders. "Simple revenge. We killed you, so you should kill us."

"I would never," and Gabriel smiled slowly, "take you out of Hell."

Mephistopheles got to his feet and stepped closer to Gabriel, touching his cloak. "How are you here? Is this a new transitory state, or were you re-created?"

"I'm still the same angel." Gabriel lowered his light a little. "You failed. I'm alive."

Mephistopheles cocked his eyebrows. "Do you attribute your survival to a faulty technique? Did the pieces regenerate as we suggested they might?"

Gabriel said, "Actually—"

"Actually," Saraquael interrupted, "two Cherubim in a debate here and now would be a terrible thing, so let's just leave it as a mystery to further torment you during eternity in Hell."

Gabriel glared at Saraquael, who shrugged.

"They need to calm the lower order demons," Remiel said. "We're having a hard time keeping them chained thinking there's something returned from the other side of annihilation powerful enough to make Satan scream like a school-girl."

Beelzebub's eyes flashed. "There's no way you'll get as much mileage out of that as I will."

"I intend to try."

As Saraquael chained Mephistopheles and Remiel led Beelzebub away, Gabriel said, "Wait." He looked Mephistopheles in the eyes. "Do you want to be chained together or separately?"

Mephistopheles looked over his shoulder at the Seraph, who looked at him and met his eyes.

"Together," said Beelzebub.

"Then cooperate." Gabriel flashed Mephistopheles and himself across the room.

Mephistopheles muttered, "Two Cherubim debating would not be a terrible thing," looking at his cuffed hands. Then his head picked up. "You do look different. Was that an undocumented effect?"

"It will be gone soon," Gabriel said. "There won't be any lasting changes."

Mephistopheles let off a cloud of frustration.

"Did you really think God would permit it?"

Staring at his feet, Mephistopheles said, "We had to at least try."

Cherub-to-Cherub they regarded one another momentarily.

"The idea was," said Mephistopheles, "that I could solve the problem—the logistics of the thing—and I never considered facing the consequences. Like with the hydrogen bomb—like J. Robert Oppenheimer, for crying out loud—I said, this is the way you do it, but I didn't think we would."

Gabriel folded his arms. "You never believed they wouldn't."

Mephistopheles couldn't look him in the face. "I got so engaged in solving the problem that I never considered the practice which would come after the theory."

Gabriel kept his voice low. "These things have to go to completion."

Mephistopheles' wings dropped. "I wouldn't do it again."

Gabriel opened his hand.

Mephistopheles tried to take a step back, but Gabriel's will held him.

"No!" He shivered, his blond curls getting in his eyes. "But I just promised not to use it."

"Satan will beat it out of you," Gabriel said. "He'll engage you and give you everything you ever wanted. Consider me as saving you the trouble of being beaten or seduced."

Swallowing, Mephistopheles concentrated until his eyes glowed. He arched his neck and sparkled all over, and then fine tendrils of light extended from his eyes, from his skull. His arms flexed from his sides, and his fingers spread.

Gabriel opened both hands and called all the light filaments together. "All of it," he murmured, then gathered them together into an orb.

Mephistopheles opened his eyes, shaking. He was crying.

Gabriel ignited the orb on his palms, and it crackled as it flared. When the flame exhausted itself, nothing remained.

Chalky pale, Mephistopheles wrapped his arms around his stomach.

Gabriel resisted the urge to put his arms around the other Cherub, but with a soft voice, instead he said, "I have a question for you, something our own Cherubim never managed to answer."

Mephistopheles dragged up his gaze, a spark in his eyes.

Gabriel took a step closer and whispered, "Can't? Or won't?"

Mephistopheles drew a short breath, first looked at the ground, then up and over Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel could follow the trajectory of his gaze without turning his head: he'd just looked toward Beelzebub. Gabriel didn't pivot to see if Mephistopheles' bonded Seraph was looking at him with anger or with concern or perhaps even with fear, or if he wasn't looking at him at all.

Mephistopheles said, "Won't."

Gabriel's hands unclenched. He hadn't realized he'd tightened them.

Michael appeared alongside Gabriel. "If you're done with him, I'll take over."

Gabriel handed over control. "Chain him together with Beelzebub."

Michael huffed.

"I gave him my word."

Michael waved to Saraquael to bring over Beelzebub, and they chained the pair to one another.

"There will be no further annihilations," Michael said. "You will not re-perform the research."

Beelzebub held his head up in defiance even as Mephistopheles slumped.

"What will you do to us if we don't comply?" Beelzebub said while Mephistopheles murmured, "Will you just shut up?"

"Well, what is he going to do?" Beelzebub shrugged. "More pain? We've been in Hell for so long that pain is redundant. We'll cope."

Michael explained in exceedingly simple terms what it might feel like to exist as an awareness and a will stripped of one's faculties, self-aware but unable to affect the world around oneself in any way.

Mephistopheles said, "Your unsubtle implication being that compliance prevents this scenario."

Michael shrugged.

The demon pair stood without speaking for a moment, but Mephistopheles had his wings against Beelzebub's. Finally the Seraph said, "If that's all—"

Michael grabbed Mephistopheles by the wrist. "It's not."

Beelzebub tried to lunge between them, but Saraquael tightened him up so he couldn't move.

"This one's personal. Open your hand," Michael said.

Mephistopheles did, revealing the sigil ring.

Michael touched it so it returned to himself.

Then he looked at Saraquael. "Take them through the ranks of the prisoners and have them calm everyone. Let the prisoners know it will only be for a while longer, until we have everyone accounted for."

Saraquael flashed them away.

Michael looked around to find only Remiel. "Where's Gabriel?"

- + -

Gabriel stood less than a wingspan from Satan in the deep dark. If Satan could detect his presence, he hadn't reacted.

When Gabriel adjusted his cloak, Satan turned toward the sound.

"It's just us." Gabriel filled the cavern with a red light. Satan was chained to a rock wall, but not so tight he couldn't stand freely.

Satan's eyes bored into Gabriel, measuring and re-measuring the power confronting him. "You want some sort of concession?"

"I'm not expecting a sincere one." Gabriel let Satan's study proceed. "You make promises only to break them and then call us fools to agree. You could swear anything and I wouldn't believe you."

"Then why return?"

"You didn't kill me." With folded arms, Gabriel stared icily. "You missed the mark again. Are you prepared to finish the job?"

Satan smirked. "What makes you think I'll try again? One of the Almighty's mouthpieces already issued a string of impressive-sounding threats."

"Because you're stubborn, and you'll agree to the system in the short term if it meets your wants over the long term. Michael promised vengeance if you try again. I don't want you even to try."

Satan met Gabriel's gaze, his eyes glistening, his smile calculated. "How do you propose to do that? I have my own free will."

Gabriel reached out in a nonverbal expression of what could not be said. As only a Cherub can, he educated Satan about the brilliance of a single soul: the uniqueness of an individual's memories and perceptions, the unique fit of a soul into the matrix of creation, the love only that specific soul could give and the unique way in which only that soul could reflect the light of God, an individual sculpted and endowed with life by the Father.

"Why should that change my mind?" Satan shuddered. "I knew all this. The worth of a soul is the reason I tried to destroy one."

Gabriel's black eyes burnished the rest of his face. "God can re-create anyone."

"He won't. He'll remain non-involved that far. Eventually I'll succeed, and you'll have lost one of your brilliant and unique lights."

Gabriel looked down. "You're set on trying again."

Satan's eyes glinted garnet in Gabriel's distorted light. "When I have nothing left whose loss would affect me, why not? I've burned too long to be afraid of more pain. Someday the returns will diminish enough for me to try again to annihilate you. Or Michael. Or Raphael."

Gabriel breathed deeply, and his eyes softened. Relaxing first his wings and then his shoulders, he hummed out a long breath with his eyes half-closed.

The presence in the room changed as Gabriel diminished and Another took over.

Satan looked right at him and said, "I hate You."

Possessed by God, Gabriel embraced Satan, who pressed back against the wall and the chains. Gabriel's fingers came up to touch Satan's head, and then with closed eyes he departed.

The Guard came down, the lab became solidly dark, and the knowledge of annihilation went from Satan.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gabriel crouched by Israfel's bedside as she awoke.

Ophaniel threw himself over her, tangling his wings in hers, hugging her with an unCherubic desperation as she sighed. Gabriel could feel her drawing strength from Ophaniel, so he offered his own even as Zophiel offered hers.

She raised her head, taking in the wide windows, the bead-curtains, the bird-filled trees and the crystalline sky, and finally the bare wooden walls and floors. "I'm home?"

Ophaniel only held her tighter.

They were in Uriel's bungalow again, a place Gabriel would gladly avoid for the rest of eternity if it meant everyone remained intact. While Israfel sat with Ophaniel, Gabriel probed into her heart, avoiding direct contact with her frayed heartstrings. "Stay still a moment." Without fanfare, he hooked the healed pressure points back together so quickly that Israfel didn't get a chance to do more than rattle the windows.

"Thank you." She looked at all three Cherubim, then took Gabriel's hand. "I was so scared he was going to take down both of us."

Gabriel squeezed her fingers. "It was a near thing, but we're both safe."

She shook her head. "You look awful."

"Thanks." He grinned. "It's not real. Remiel has dibs on the cape, though."

Israfel frowned. "Surely she can't wear it all the time."

Ophaniel made room for Gabriel to shift closer to the bedside.

"There's one more thing." Gabriel felt his cheeks go hot. "If you can try to hold still, I'm not sure if this is going to hurt, but it should be quick."

She recoiled. "What are you doing?"

"We re-bonded." His gaze dropped. "I needed your energy to defeat Satan, but I can break it for you now."

Israfel's spirit armored against him.

Gabriel felt Ophaniel brush his wingtips against his legs where Israfel couldn't see.

Gabriel forced himself to look into her eyes, into a blueness he wouldn't be able to plumb a few minutes from now. "God's going to require the knowledge back soon. I won't get another chance. You'll be stuck with me again."

She squeezed his hand so tight it hurt. "Then we'll just have to try harder to be present to one another, won't we?"

Gabriel trembled. "Breaking it now wouldn't preclude re-bonding at a later time, when you're more sure."

"I'm sure."

A flash of silver crossed his eyes. "Do you think you'll be up for trick-or-treating in a couple of weeks?"

She snickered. "Only if I get to wear that cape."

Releasing her hand, Gabriel unfastened the neck only to realize there were too many clasps to do this gracefully. Instead he flashed himself out of it, catching the cloth before it rippled to the floor. "Deal. Remiel can wait."

Raphael flashed into the room, beaming broadly. "It's checkup time. Everyone out but Israfel."

The three Cherubim flashed away to their choir loft, the third ring back from the throne after the Seven and the Seraphim.

Ophaniel said, "You're aware that if you hurt her again, I'll happily beat you half to death?"

"Please do." Gabriel bit his lip. "She deserves better."

Zophiel said, "Are you really going to surrender the knowledge?"

"I'm not sure I have a choice."

Ophaniel said, "Only Satan will have it? Is that really in our best interests?"

"The details blur after a certain point," Gabriel said, "but I think God stepped in and took it from him."

"This stinks," Ophaniel said. "I don't like a mystery."

"Mephistopheles figured it out." Gabriel's eyes glowed black. "Surely he's not
that
much smarter than you."

Ophaniel and Zophiel snickered. "Plus, we can cooperate."

"Maybe after the fifteenth time God removes the knowledge from us, he'll get tired of doing it," Zophiel said, and they all laughed.

An Angel appeared before them, then turned to Gabriel.

"It's my turn?"

The other two Cherubim projected reassurance and condolences. Gabriel went with the Angel.

Together they flashed to the throne, and the Angel departed with a bow.

Gabriel knelt. "My Lord. My God."

"My strength," said God.

Gabriel prostrated himself and presented himself properly, and God gave his approval.

He stood again, regarding God face to Face. "May I ask a few questions?"

"Certainly."

"Will Israfel recover fully?"

"She will."