Chapter Text
Simeon hummed a cheerful tune, fully aware of his charge’s unhappiness but decidedly ignoring it.
Luke sat before him, legs pulled up to his chest and a firm scowl on his face. A prank gone wrong had left Luke’s hair mostly purple and pink, courtesy of one of Solomon’s many failed dishes.
“Are you alright, Luke?” Simeon asked, watching the young angel deflate further.
“No. I’m not!” He whined, shooting Simeon an upset look. “They ruined my clothes and my hair! A-And they messed things up!”
Simeon held back a fond smile. In the past, this would have certainly been something Luke just accepted, forcing himself to move past it without much time to feel unhappy.
“It was an accident, wasn’t it? They all apologized as well.”
Though, it was only an accident in the sense that the victim had been Luke instead of Solomon. The brothers were off cleaning the mess they had created, meaning at least Luke didn’t have to face them until he’d calmed down more.
On the bed, Solomon watched quietly, though clearly amused. For once, not trying to defend his own cursed creations.
“I… I just don’t like it!” Luke sighed, “You say they’re good people, but they’re just big jerks!”
Simeon paused in cleaning out Luke’s hair. With a light sigh, he nodded. “I don’t deny that they can be mean sometimes, but they’re certainly not evil.”
“They’re demons! Demons are evil,” Luke said. “I don’t get why demons have fun being evil and mean! Why can’t they be nice and polite like everyone back home?”
“A little dramatic today, aren’t you?” Simeon chuckled. “I promise, I understand your feelings, but I promise you that they’re far happier here than anywhere else.”
Luke turned around, frowning at Simeon. “What? But why? I mean, Devildom isn’t all bad, but the Celestial Realm is their home!” Simeon didn’t answer right away, leading Luke to continue urgently. “Wouldn’t it have been good for them to stay angels? You always told me stories about how amazing they were back then!”
“This and that are not the same thing, Luke.” Simeon bristled, a tremor running down his spine as though his wings had prepared to lift off.
In a way, Simeon couldn’t deny Luke was right.
“That gives me an idea!” Solomon spoke up. He stood, a familiar expression on his face. The kind that warned everyone to run away as quickly as they could, lest be caught in an inane experiment.
“Wouldn’t it be fun if you could see what it would have been like?” Solomon stood up, grinning brightly as he approached them. “You can put this debate to an end and have some fun!”
Simeon frowned at the wizard. “I don’t trust that.”
“What does that mean?” Luke asked.
“The pulse of life, the flow of death, from the darkness itself, I call upon thee, Lord of Time. Barbatos!”
In a burst of green and blue mist, Barbatos appeared. He sighed the moment he laid eyes on Solomon.
“What do you want, Solomon?”He asked dryly.
“I’ve thought of a way to grant Luke's wish!” Solomon grinned, intently ignoring the spite in the time demon’s voice. “It’ll be an excellent test of my magical prowess and rather fun!”
“I’d appreciate a more detailed explanation,” Barbatos said, glancing at Simeon. The angel could only return an equally confused look.
“Of course,” Solomon nodded, “They were discussing whether or not it would have been better for the brothers to remain angels. So, I thought, ‘why not let them see?’”
“And how do you think that would work?” Barbatos asked. “We’ve discussed this many times before, we’re so far down the path of this timeline that it wouldn’t be possibly to even consider one so radically different.”
“Well, that’s what I thought,” Solomon said, “but, I’ve been experimenting with delayed arcane activation, which is rather finicky if you attempt to apply the theorem beyond the scope of what Crowley’s initial field of sorcery entailed. However, it is not impossible! As you mentioned before, your magic only extends to…”
“What would be the equivalent of the total number of active routes currently possible divided by the number of currently existing threads that cross over at any given point in time.”
“Right! So it’s limited to only a few changes, however with a delay, we can extend your reach! And if my theory is correct, those timelines would be considered null to us, meaning while the time spent there is limited-”
“It guarantees their safe return in a reasonable amount of time with heavily reduced chances of risk or injury from such a strenous use of mana and time manipulation,” Barbatos finished, placing a hand to his chin in thought. “I suppose that is reasonably well-thought out.”
“Simeon…” Luke looked up at him, frowning lightly. “Did that make any sense to you?”
“Not at all.”
Barbatos chuckled. “Simply put, Luke, it would be a false timeline from our perspective. Closer to a dream based upon a reality we would never see.”
Solomon looked back to Luke and Simeon. “So? What do you say? Want to see into another world?”
“Yes!” Luke agreed immediately. “I want to see what it would be like.” He turned to Simeon. “You do too, right? Even just for fun?”
“Well, I’m worried you’d go off and do it even if I said no,” Simeon sighed before nodding. “Alright, I can’t deny that I’m a little curious what this would entail anyways.”
“Then, I’ll begin weaving the time delays!” There was a dangerous sparkle in Solomon’s eyes. “By tomorrow morning, you’ll surely be seeing an entirely new world.”
“If anything goes wrong, there should be a few ways to contact that reality’s version of me,” Barbatos added, “I should be able to undo the spell easily and bring you home.”