Chapter Text
It had been a week since Extermination Day, and everything in Heaven was finally returning to normal. The population of Heaven was unaware of the Exterminations being done in Hell yearly or what had happened the week before that had thinned the Exorcists' ranks quite significantly. Hence, Sera decided upon a new course of action to prevent such slaughter from happening again in the future.
Angel was leaning against the wall in the main lobby of the Courthouse with both sets of his wings open, waiting to be called in. Sera had summoned him to meet with her, but the purpose of their meeting remained a mystery. He was fully aware that he hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary leading up to being summoned, so all he could do was wait and see.
It only took about twenty minutes before a little Heavenborn sheep opened the double doors leading into the courtroom. The door clicking caused his doe ears to twitch on the top of his head, turning slightly towards the sound.
“Angel, Sera will see you now.” Mary smiles at Angel, holding the doors open for him to enter.
Angel pushes off from the wall, fluttering his wings and tail to stretch out any muscles that were beginning to grow stiff from waiting. He smiles as he walks past the sheep into the other room, “Thank you, Sweetie.”
The doors closed behind him as he looked around the courtroom. Every balcony was empty except for the topmost one, which stood a tall Angel with three sets of wings, Sera, head of the Seraphim and the one that initiated the Exterminations in fear of an uprising from the Sinners in Hell. In Angel’s century of being in Heaven and a part of the Exorcists, there have never been any signs of any Demon trying to find a way to attack Heaven, only attacking them when they felt threatened on their own turf.
Angel does a slight bow towards Sera as he always does to anyone Heaven deems of higher importance, except for Adam. Angel always refused to bow to that sexist man, especially for things he has done. Angel rises when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He straightens up to see Sera right in front of him.
“Angel, it's good to see you survived the recent massacre that erased so many of your Exorcist sisters,” Sera said, pained.
Angel nods, remembering how many squads fell in the last Extermination, the most in recent history. “It was a miracle to survive such carnage. The demons are growing stronger, but how, I am unsure.”
Sera steps away and turns her back to Angel, “That is the reason for summoning you here; we need information on the Sinners, especially the ones they call Overlords. You are being sent down to Hell for a year starting tomorrow to observe them and gather information that would benefit us. We must know how to protect ourselves from them and the best method to eradicate them for good.”
Angel raises an eyebrow, “Why are you sending me? Lute would love to go on this kind of mission.”
Angel sees the eyes forming in Sera’s hair, meaning she is growing angry from not being obeyed without question. Any other angel would feel fear from her display of power, but that never causes any reaction in Angel. There’s no one alive or dead that he fears anymore, especially after all the torture he endured in life.
Sera turns to him, visibly angry: “If we send Lute down, we will not accomplish anything except bring more bloodshed to our gates. She hates Sinners too much, especially after what happened at the last Extermination.” By the end, her tone saddens, and the eyes fade from her hair.
Seeing no point arguing with someone of her authority as it won't get him anywhere with a positive outcome, Angel bows to her once more. “As you wish, Sera, I will be at the gates at first light tomorrow to start the mission.”
He straightens up, turns and leaves the courtroom without hearing any other comment about what is to come the following day, but before Angel can get a couple of feet to the door of the courthouse to leave, he is pushed into a wall with a spearhead pointed at his throat.
“I should be the one going on that mission, not you, a pathetic whor*! You won’t even make it a week down there!” Lute yells, pushing the blade closer to his throat, making it evident that she was listening in on what was being discussed.
Angel rolled his eyes, growing tired of her insults and superiority complex; he knew she enjoyed calling him a whor* just because there were times Adam paid more attention to him than her, claiming he slept with the First Man, which he’d rather die again before doing something like that. Even with him pushed against the wall, he still had some mobility in his wings. He flaps both sets quickly but not with a considerable amount of strength, only pushing Lute a foot away from him.
“Lute, You’re just pissed because some Overlord Demon slaughtered your boy toy, and you had to watch it. Even Sera knew you couldn’t be trusted anywhere near demons without wanting to kill them all on sight and ending up as a blood splat on one of Hell’s brimstone streets.” Angel sighed, knowing there was never a point in arguing with that bullheaded woman. She kind of reminded him of a different Exorcist angel, but Lute killed her a long time ago, from what he was told with all the other Exorcists.
“What the heck do you know about it!? you were nowhere in sight like the coward you are!” Lute ground her teeth and clenched her fists around the handle of her spear, trying to control the strength she used from her new mechanical arm, but got caught off guard by the Doe Exorcist’s chuckles.
Angel chuckles, “No, Lute, I wasn’t a coward. I was in the air when he fell, but there was nothing any of us could have done to save Adam without being killed ourselves; you tried and got your damn arm ripped off.” He said, eyes flickering magenta, and the whites of his wings were changing to silver, which only meant one thing.
A flicker of fear crosses Lute’s eyes for a second before returning to the raged facial expression she usually sports. She dematerializes her spear, and with a huff, she turns and storms off into the courtroom he just vacated from while Angel shrugs; he knew if she had such a problem, then she could take it up with Sera instead. He had better things to do than entertain a rage-filled angel like her, especially if he must leave Heaven for a while; he has one person who means a lot to him, and he needs to say his goodbyes before the following morning.
Angel was almost out the main doors when he heard slightly muffled yelling coming from the courtroom. He laughed and shook his head before returning to the street of Heaven.
“Good luck Lute…Hope Sera rips off the other arm so you can have a matching set of mechanical ones.” Angel thought to himself with a smirk as he opened his wings fully, taking off into the sky.
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“Sera! What is so special about that little bastard? Why send him on this mission to Hell instead of me!” Lute yells as she enters the courtroom, just as Sera is on her balcony, back to the room.
Sera turns and looks down at Lute, her wings flared out and eyes present on her hair and wings. Angry at how disrespectfully she was being addressed, she says, “Lute, I am doing what is required to protect our people and to never have any other fall at the hands of some demon like Adam did! “ Sera takes a deep breath, willing down her temper as her form returns to normal before continuing, “ Go train some new recruits. We have a year to have everyone ready, then all of Hell will fall.”
Lute curses under her breath before storming out of the courthouse to do as she was instructed.
Sera shakes her head, leaving to return to her quarters with a thought running through her head: “It has to be him to do this mission. Maybe this time, history won't repeat itself…he is just like her…hopefully he won’t fail where she did.”
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Angel lands in front of a fenced-in yard around a quaint little cabin just on the city's outskirts. He smiles as he sees the rich chocolate-skinned Doe angel sitting in a chair on the porch, enjoying a cup of tea; she has her curly brown hair with a few streaks of grey all up in a bun except for two strips of hair that frame around her face. Angel folds his wings in as he opens the gate quietly, not wanting to make a loud noise that would cause the Winner to jump; it still warmed his heart as he approaches the older woman; in all his years in Heaven, she was the only parental figure he had that cared about him. Although his mother and sister were in Heaven, he was informed against approaching them, also knowing that they wouldn’t be able to recognize him now; for some reason, at his time of death, he took the form of an intersex Doe while his family took the form of Spiders, even his bastard of a father and brother who both reside in Hell took the form of Spiders as well.
The shorter Doe lifted her eyes from her cup of tea to see Angel approaching. Her smile grew, deepening the smile lines on her face. She placed her cup on the small table beside her chair before rising from her seat and walking down the few steps leading off her porch to meet Angel at the bottom of the steps.
“Angel, what a pleasant surprise.” She wraps her arms around the taller Doe’s waist.
“Mama Mira, you look beautiful today,” Angel says, wrapping his arms around the shorter Doe.
Mira moves her arms and pushes away from Angel slightly, snorting as she looks up at him, “Fawn mwen, beauty does not have worry and smile line wrinkles. But you didn’t come all this way just to compliment me; what happened, Mezanmi?” She said, concerned.
Angel lets out a sigh. He should have known that she always knew when something was up with him, unlike his own mother in life. “You’re still as beautiful as the day we met almost a century ago, Mira, but yes, something did happen, and it's definitely bad news.”
Mira shakes her head, disregarding Angel’s comment on her beauty. She moves out of Angel’s hold entirely, only to take his hand and lead him up the steps onto the porch. They both take a seat before she looks at Angel, giving him her undivided attention. “Now Fawn mwen tell mama what happened? Is it about the extermination last week?” She asked since she was one of the only non-Exorcists who knew about the yearly massacre.
Angel sighed again, knowing Mira would hit it right on the nose about what this was all about; “It somewhat has to do with the Extermination. Adam got killed in the last one due to his arrogance, as did countless other Exorcists. Now Sera is getting more anxious about Heaven’s safety and thinks it’s a good idea to send down an angel in disguise to collect information about the demons to eradicate them once and for all.”
The look of dread crosses Mira’s features, and tears fill her eyes, ready to fall, “That’s horrible news, not about Adam since he did have that coming after everything he tried to do to you, but for the poor dear, that will be sent down to Hell. Who was chosen?”
Angel looked down at his hands in his lap, and with his pointer fingers, he pointed up to himself, which only solidified Mira’s fear. This time, tears rolled down her cheeks. It took Mira a moment to choke out her next question in between sobs, “How long will you be gone?”
Angel could hear how upset that news made Mira, and it broke the young Doe’s heart when he looked up to see the tears rolling down her rich chocolate-coloured cheeks. He moves one hand to rest on top of hers on her lap, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I will be gone for a year until the next Extermination Day, but knowing Sera, I will have to report back monthly or something with anything new I learn. But I will come back to you, mama, that I can promise.”
Mira nods and wipes her tears with the back of her free hand. “Just make sure you return to me, Angel. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you too.” She sniffles.
“I will, mama. I can't leave you here in paradise alone without some laughter and a warm presence,” Angel said, smiling, trying to give Mira some reassurance.
They both sat in silence for a couple of minutes, looking out at the landscape of Heaven around the small cabin before the silence was broken when the older Doe spoke.
“Fawn mwen, have I ever told you about my son, Alastor?” Mira said with a sad smile, still looking out into Heaven instead of the other angel beside her.
Angel looks at Mira, confused, unsure how her son had anything to do with Hell or about him being sent down there for a year. “You haven’t told me much, Mama, except that he was a sweet southern gentleman who loved you to pieces, but what does he have to do with any of this?”
Mira’s smile warms at the thought of her sweet son, “Yes, he was such a sweet southern gentleman, and he loved me as I loved him. He was all I had after my husband was murdered up until the day I died. He was one of Louisiana's most respected and well-known Radio hosts in the mid to late 1920s.” Tears began to run, but she needed to continue, “My son was such a good kid, but he got into some things that should have died with my mother.”
“What do you mean by that, Mama? What did he get himself into that was so horrible?” Angel said. He had a bad feeling about where she was going with this since he had never seen Mira’s son around the cabin or in Heaven in general.
Mira takes Angel’s hand and holds it tight, needing some comfort from the young Doe to keep her from falling apart, “ My little boy found some old books on Voodoo, rituals and cannibalism that were hidden in our cellar when he was only ten years old; all the books were passed down for generations from my side of the family, all the women were voodoo priestesses except for me, he loved to read, and unfortunately he got himself so deep in it that it damned his soul for all eternity.” She begins to shake, looking down as more tears pour down her cheeks. “He murdered a lot of people and ate their flesh before I died, but I still loved him no matter what he became, even if he got worse after my death.”
Angel’s eyes widened at the new information, which explained why he never saw her son around Heaven. Those were some serious sins that no divine being could ever forgive. Although he had done some sinful things in life, he still ended up in Heaven. He moves without releasing her hand as he crouches down in front of her, looking up into her eyes.
“Please, Mira, why are you telling me all this?” Angel asked, having suspicions about why, but he wanted her to confirm it. He knew that if she made the request, he thought she would make, he wouldn’t be able to refuse her after all she’d done for him in the last century.
Mira places her free hand on Angel’s cheek, “Cheri faon dous mwen, I’m telling you all this because if by some miracle that my son is still alive down there, I ask that you help keep him safe, please.”
Angel’s suspicions were confirmed, but either way, he nodded, knowing it would be a complicated request to fill due to his duty as an Exorcist. But for Mira, he would do anything; “I will do my best, Mama, although if he is anything like his mother, then he won’t need my protection.”
Angel notices the sky changing from light blue to navy blue as night approaches; he straightens back up, happy to see Mira has stopped crying, and a smile returns to her face.
“It’s about time I head back, Mama. Tomorrow is a big day,” Angel says as he leans forward and kisses her forehead.
Angel turns to walk off the porch, only to have his hand grabbed by Mira, causing him to stop in his tracks and look back at the other Doe. Just as he is about to ask her why she grabbed his hand, she speaks first.
“Fawn mwen, I want you to have something to remind you of me; well, you’re in Hell,” Mira says, releasing Angel’s hand only so she can reach behind her neck and unfastening the clamp on her choker necklace and places it in the hand she let go of.
Angel’s eyes widened at the black choker with a teardrop ruby pendant hanging in the center of the band that was placed in his hand before he looked back at Mira. “Mama, I can't take this. You always said this is your most precious possession here in Heaven.”
Mira continues to smile, “It is fawn mwen. It was from my baby boy, but now I want you to have it as a reminder that I love you as my own child.”
A few tears run down Angel’s face. With a trembling smile, he turns entirely to embrace the older woman and kisses her cheek before moving away once more. He wraps the choker around his neck so it doesn’t get lost on his flight back. “Thank you, Mama, for everything you have done for me in the last Century. I will see you again in a year with all the stories you can imagine about your son.”
With that, Angel opens his two sets of wings, takes off into the sky, and heads back to where he has called home since the day he became an Exorcist.
Mira watches as Angel ascends into the sky to head back to the Exorcist compound where he lives. She places a hand over her heart, smiling as she thinks about something as she gets up from her seat. She takes her mug with her as she goes back into the cabin.
“If he’s still alive down there, you would make a perfect match for him, Angel, but only a mother can hope for the best for her son; neither of you had much desire for the fairer sex, after all.”
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Angel arrives back at a quiet Exorcist compound. The silence only means that all the remaining Exorcists are out for the evening, most likely at one of the many battlefields designated for the Exorcists to use for training purposes as per Lute’s order. Since she took on the role of Leader after Adam’s death, listening to Lute was something Angel definitely won't miss when he is down in Hell.
He looks around his small room and sighs, going to his closet to pick out some clothing, such as his pyjamas to wear to bed and an outfit he could wear the following day that won’t raise any suspicion of his angelic origins once he lands in Hell; he doesn’t want to draw too much attention to himself. He also knew he could only take with him whatever he could carry on his person, so there was no point pulling out too many items or weapons when he ultimately couldn’t bring them with him. However, it was good that he could summon his spear at will even if he couldn’t use it without raising concerns from Sinners, so he’d have to use that weapon sparingly and not in a public setting.
Once Angel had everything set out that he required for his remaining time in Heaven, he proceeded to do his regular nightly routine of showering and changing into his pyjamas before getting into bed for some rest. For tonight, he chose just to wear a pair of shorts that sat just below his tail so his various spots of fur could dry on their own while he slept. He takes one last look at himself in the mirror with a groan before moving to sit on the edge of his bed; despite the fact he has been in Heaven for the last century, he still hasn’t gotten used to the various changes to his body from the new appendages like a tail to the fur on his chest and lower legs to the dual genitalia and breasts. It was like Heaven was also a punishment for him, giving him new body parts that he couldn’t even use to experience pleasure like he wished he could have enjoyed more often in life.
Angel turns to lie down on his bed. He stares up at the ceiling with one final thought as his eyelids begin to droop. Exhaustion finally pulls him into unconsciousness.
“I wonder what awaits me these next several months…will I survive the year and give Sera the information she requires while still trying to protect Mira’s son from his second death? Or will I be erased like countless others, either by the hands of some Sinner or the Seraphim herself, if I prove useless to her and what she is trying to achieve?”
