Chapter Text
Dagon leads Belphagor into his office, a really big and dark room, with the only light being the lamp from his big aquarium striking down on the water and covering the entire room in blue lightning. The walls were covered in colorful ink, almost like a paintball arena. Some even had posters from Dagon's interests on them.
— So... what did you want to talk with me about?
Belphagor walks over to his rotating chair and sits down, comfortable like it's their own office.
— A dead demon. How surprising, isn't it? Any idea of who could have done that? — Belphagor takes a drag of their cigarette.
— It has been some time since an angel came to Hell — Dagon kneels down in front of them and lays his head on their lap.
— And when they do, they kill a demon? How outrageous.
Dagon looks around, thinking. — I...
— Do you remember what they did last time? How they hurt us, Dagon? — Belphagor grabs his chin.
— I-i...
— They are our people, right? Do you want them to hurt us again?
Dagon's eyes widen. He feels pain crawling over his back, going directly to his arms. He hears cries and screams for afar. A sound snaps on his ear, making him come back to reality.
— No... i'm sorry i... i wanna help... — He hugs Belphagor's legs, who instantly starts to caress his head.
— I know... do you understand? I need you to show them we are here, you are unique, you have such ability that no other demon has. Show them that they can't just come here and hurt us. — Belphagor leans Dagon's head into a protective embrace. — I'm doing this for us, my dear. They'll never hurt us again.
Dagon allows silent tears to run down his face, not wanting to be seen like this by Belphagor. He frowns as he internally accepts the mission.
— ...Do you want that pill? I got a new one this week, it has been really popular in my ring.
Dagon looks up at them and smiles.
— ...Yeah.
In Heaven, Michael walks around their office, thinking about their next move to their success. There's a knock on the door.
— Yes?
Uriel opens the door and barely steps inside, they looked a bit worried.
— We had a terrorist attack this morning, thought you should know. Four angelic guards found dead.
Michael takes strong steps towards Uriel, their expression changed into concern, anger and indignation.
— You thought? Isn't it obvious i should know!? We were just attacked!
Michael bumps into Uriel when passing through the door, making Uriel release a sigh before following behind them. They go to the main room, seeing everyone reunited there, including Aziraphale and Jesus. They were looking out of the window quietly, still processing the sudden "attack".
— What is this? What is happening here?
Michael swallows their words when they look out of the window as well. Down there, the Heaven Kingdom was absolute chaos, some buildings were absolutely destroyed, murals vandalized with blue ink, which were also splashed everywhere on the houses.
— What the actual f...
Before Michael ends the swearing, the sound of heels on the ground is loud behind them. They all look behind and keep a respectful silence to God's divine soul. She was really tall, her entire appearence was just in black and white tones. Her extremely long hair is fusing with the floor, like her and the atoms composing the entire building were the same thing.
— They have been really quiet right? It surprises me they took too long.
— Mother... what should we do? — Jesus's voice is low and even a bit insecure, like he's afraid to be heard by others.
— Let's go take a look closely, shall we?
Everyone moves to the elevator, she just goes into the floor, but before disappearing completely she looks up again.
— Not you. — She points to Jesus.
He stops and looks at her, disappointed but not surprised.
— Mom, please, what if someone got hurt? The buildings... they are...
— I will take care of that, you go back to your work, got it?
Her voice doesn't leave any space for discussion. She disappears on the floor and the other angels go into the elevator. Jesus looks at them and Aziraphale gives an awkward smile to him. After the elevator door closes, Jesus leans against a pillar and hits his head on it, groaning in annoyance. He sits down against the pillar, looking towards the horizon out of the window. Down there in the kingdom, Michael walks around the painted and destroyed areas, analyzing the ink, the patterns, the messages written on the walls... "We are still here" ; "No more". Michael knows exactly who did it. They walk back to where the other angels are, together with God's dominant figure. Aziraphale is checking if anyone got hurt. Muriel is curled against God's legs, looking around nervously. Uriel is collecting the dead angelic guards' bodies.
— So, this is it? They come here, make a mess and we're gonna let them? Since when did we...
God turns to Michael and gives them a glare, her voice immediately echoes on Michael's head.
You are so annoying, could you relax atleast once?
Michael retreats without any further discussion. Uriel pants as they stack the last body. A young human soul of a woman comes to God's feet, cautiously kneeling down before her. She was dressed in simple village clothing.
— M-Mother... the Almighty Lord, we heard bombing during the night, we were all so scared we couldn't even sleep, please tell us we'll be safe.
God leans down to look at her with a kind expression filled with "empathy"
— Don't worry my dear, Mother would never let anything happen to any of you. I'll take care of that, it will not happen again.
— We're so scared Mother...
God gently passes her things over the woman's face.
— Don't be, there's nothing to fear, you're on Heaven remember?
Michael walks up to Uriel, increasing rage circulating on their body like blood, from the tip of their toes to the top of their head.
— Seriously, if Aziraphale let that slide he's going to prove he's not great to be a leader.
— God said we don't start wars.
— Yeah, but we win all the ones that Hell starts, this is clearly a threat.
— Convince God of that and then talk to me.
— They killed our guards...!
— I'm sure it was an accident, they don't have direct violence marks on their body, bullets neither.
— It doesn't matter.
Uriel looks at Michael with a hidden annoyance.
— What do you want me to do? Aren't you the second instance archangel? I have no power over this, if we have a war or not... it doesn't matter to me. Don't try to convince me you're right because i seriously don't care, you're desperate for a war and i can see it, go on, create one if that's the case. I just wanna do my job.
Uriel sighs and walks away back to the others while Michael stands there, thoughtful and slightly angry. After analizing the damaged areas, they sit in a wide table for a reunion.
— I'm sick of these little pests! There is no space for terrorists in Heaven, for sure it was someone from Hell! — Michael exclaims, hitting their fist on the table.
— Michael is overreacting. — Uriel interferes.
— You're underreacting!
— Ok! Ok, stop fighting everyone, we'll deal with that calmly and profissionally... — Aziraphale is panicking inside.
— Ugh, no big deal. Send some angels down there to search for a suspect.
Michael hits their fist on the table.
— This is what we're gonna do? Get a suspect, execute them for being a threat and then move on? No, this is not enough. They need to feel fear, that means war.
— No! No war, how about we just... — Aziraphale is once again interrupted by God.
— Children, this is enough, and i don't remember asking for any discussion.
The room goes completely silent. Michael hates not being in control of the situation and Uriel is worried they might take action with their own hands. Later that day, Uriel and Michael are having a conversation in Michael's office. Michael is sitting down on their desk and observing the kingdom through the window while Uriel walks up to them slowly, the sound of their shoes louder than it actually is because of the constant silence.
— Michael, please don't do something stupid. You know the consequences are rough.
— It's not stupid if it will make everything works better. I'm the only one who can do this. You all are so... stupid.
— Calling me, the person that stayed by your side every single time, in every decision, stupid?
— Yes, i think you're being stupid now!
Michael gets up from the desk to turn around and look at Uriel.
— We can finally live in the eternal happiness after those idiots are gone, and Mother will finally...
— Michael, stop. You're...
— No, no more. I don't wanna hear you.
Uriel sighs and turns to leave the room. Michael doesn't try to stop them, just avoids looking at them for a while, they were too focused in their own goal to care about what others might think about it, even if Uriel wasn't just "others".
Meanwhile, Dagon is in his workshop, listening to music that is almost inaudible over the sound of the tools he uses. The workshop is large, and most of its walls have huge paint stains. Many ribbons of various colors hang from the ceiling, along with some poorly made puppets. His ears are sensitive to the music but not to Lucifer's voice calling him.
— Dagon!
Lucifer punches the record player, knocking it to the floor and almost breaking the record.
— Hey!! Did you call me?
Lucifer's steps are heavy as he walks to the table where Dagon was sitting.
— I know this was your work.
He throws some photos of the damage done to Heaven.
— Oh... yeah, it was me.
Dagon laughs and goes back to work. Lucifer seemed indignant at the answer.
— Are you kidding me? I know it was you, it's not about that!
Lucifer notices that Dagon isn't paying attention, so he grabs him by the arm.
— Do you have any idea what you've done?!
— Uhm... yes?
— Buildings went up in flames, ink everywhere, four angelic guards dead. Did you hear? Dead! That's practically asking for a war to happen, why did you do that?!
— Ha! Why not? They asked for it to happen.
— What...
— Lucifer, I think your time is up.
Belphegor appears from the darkness in the corner of the workshop, walking elegantly towards them with a glass of whiskey in one hand.
— You have no right to say that to me. My time is up because I don't want a war with Heaven? I'm protecting everyone, including all of you. We fell to escape problems, not to create more of them.
Belphegor approaches Lucifer with a threatening and manipulative energy, which luckily doesn't work on him.
— If you don't want to work, there are people who do, and among those people is Dagon. We are demons.
— We are not saints, but we are not monsters either.
— Monsters for destroying those who threw us away like trash? Isn't that what the church did to those who denied it?
Lucifer turns and slaps Belphegor across the face.
— We must reject them, not become like them.
— Hey! — Dagon grabs Lucifer's wrist, who stares intently into his one eye.
— I guarantee you don't want to lay a finger on me, Dagon.
Dagon slowly releases him, feeling his heart race and nausea. But it had nothing to do with Lucifer.
— I have a meeting with Heaven now because of your madness, if they ask for someone, I'll hand you over.
Lucifer turns to walk towards the exit of the workshop. He knew what he said was just talk. He would never betray his family, not for anything. Dagon feels dazed and almost falls, but is held by Belfegor.
— Calm down, I'll give you something.
— It's a risk you can choose to take, Lucifer.
— What the hell is this?! Do you really think I would betray someone? It's my family, you should remember that!
Lucifer slams his fist on Metatron's table.
— You can't ask me to give you someone, you've already made us suffer enough.
— I say the same, little angel.
Metatron takes a sip of his coffee.
— Stop calling me an angel, I'm not the one you knew anymore. That Morningstar is gone.
— Say what you want, if you don't give us a name, I'll have to send many angels down there and things will get difficult for you and for us.
— You can't just kill demons, you need authorization for that.
— From whom, from you?
Metatron gives a hearty laugh.
— Remember where you came from and who's in control.
Lucifer feels a huge urge to kill him right there, but that would only make things worse. He gets up and throws the papers from Metatron's desk on the floor, then leaves without looking back, much less saying anything. After he leaves, Metatron calls an angelic assistant.
— Send troops down there. Tell them to kill anyone who looks suspicious and only stop when someone admits guilt.
Jesus was walking down the corridors when he turned a corner and saw Lucifer at the end of the hallway. He automatically turned back and held his breath. Lucifer, here? Why? He looked again and she had already disappeared. His mind filled with memories and conversations in the middle of the night.
— ...Shut up.
— Who?
Uriel appeared behind him out of nowhere.
— Ah... nobody, just... the voices in my head.
— It's more common than you think to find people who also hear those voices. You seem tired, you should go get some coffee or water.
Jesus turned and looked at Uriel with a serious expression.
— Why was Lucifer here?
— To talk about the attack, of course. Metatron wants to send angels down there to investigate.
Jesus seemed worried but not surprised.
— Do you think they'll find anyone?
— The culprit? No. But they'll find someone to blame.