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Beelzebub had been invited to the garden by their boss; well, ‘boss’ implied a hierarchy that hadn’t quite been set in place in Hell yet. It was still pretty close to the Fall, or a long time, there wasn’t really a way to tell as time did not exist yet. The demon Crawley, who Beelzebub had been following around because fewer demons messed with him, had been chosen to tempt the humans to eat a piece of fruit by Satan himself. The fly demon was resigning themselves to have to fend for themselves while the stronger demon was gone when they received the invitation to go to Earth along with the snake demon. Although, he did not phrase it like a request, more like an order; Beelzebub was glad to accept regardless. They had changed their form to that of a single fly to remain unnoticed by any of the guard angels of the garden and they watched their fellow demon tempt the humans to eat of the forbidden fruit.
Crawley had slithered off after the act was complete and Beelzebub had not been watching, too distracted by watching the humans. Unsure what to do now they continued to watch the humans and once they realized what was going to happen to the humans they knew they had to act.
The feeling of being forced out of a perfect home was one that the demon was all too familiar with. And it seemed the angels were going to force them into the unknown with no means of defending themselves, another feeling that the Beelzebub knew all too well.
To actually do anything the demon had to take the risk of shifting to a human form, but they felt this was something they had to do. Next, they had to find a mark; the perfect one landed in their lap as they skirted the edge of the garden. An angel was pacing around and talking to themselves; Beelzebub made sure of this before approaching. Even more fortunately for the demon, unfortunate for the angel, he had left his weapon leaning against a nearby tree. As Beelzebub got close enough to grab the sword they could hear a bit of what the angel was muttering to himself.
“I mean it was one rule. How hard is it to follow one rule?”
It seemed he was repeating this line of thought with different words over and over again. It didn’t matter, Beelzebub had what they were after. The sword felt very dangerous in their hand, definitely a blessed weapon, one slip and it could do some real damage to the demon. They were glad to be rid of it as soon as possible.
Approaching the humans was risky, Beelzebub had no doubt that soon someone would usher them out of the garden, so they had to act quickly. Maybe, they thought, the other angels are just as distracted as that one was. Using this to gain the confidence they needed the demon strode towards the humans.
“Take thiz.” The demon had never really spoken before, and definitely not in this language, and they were as shocked as it seemed the humans were by the buzzing in their voice.
Or maybe, Beelzebub thought, they were shocked that this figure they had never met before was holding a sword out to them. It was a weird grip the demon had as they didn’t dare touch the blade, which left to hold the hilt in a way that left room for the humans to grab it as well. When the humans made no move to grab the weapon the demon added, “To defend yourselvez. The unknown iz more dangerous than thiz garden ever waz.”
The male human moved now to take the sword from Beelzebub’s hand, although he looked more uncomfortable holding it than the demon had. The humans looked between the weapon and each other before turning back to look at the demon.
“Thank you.” The female human said.
The words made the demon feel weird but they were glad the humans had taken the weapon nonetheless. They were about to leave without another word when they thought of a warning they should pass along.
“Don’t let the angelz see it. They would probably take it from you.”
The humans again exchanged a look with each other before both nodding towards Beelzebub. With that the demon walked out of sight of them before shifting back into a fly.
Still unsure what to do they hung around watching, with horror, as the angel that they had stolen the sword from was the one to come banish the humans from Eden. The demon thought that they would find the sword for sure and take back what was theirs; but that didn’t happen. The humans left the garden with the sword and the angel seemed none the wiser. This interested the demon so they followed the angel when he moved to the top of the garden wall.
As the angel seemed distracted watching the humans go, and knowing he was unarmed, Beelzebub shifted to a more human form to match the angel. This was not a quiet process as they went from one fly to a growing buzzing swarm before consolidating into a human shape; this noise drew the surprised attention of the angel. When the angel did not immediately smite the demon, Beelzebub took the opportunity to speak.
“I wonder if it waz worth it?”
“What disobeying God? That’s always an unworthy endeavor.”
Beelzebub was unsure at this point if the angel was aware that he was speaking to a demon, but his words hurt regardless. Still Beelzebub continued the conversation.
“No, the fruit. Like did it at least tazte good?”
“I wouldn’t know, I never ate any.”
The demon was a bit shocked that the angel was still talking to them but since they weren’t sure how long the angel's kindness would go on for they responded.
“But the tree was only forbidden for humanz to eat from, there was no such rule for angelz.”
“That kind of thinking is probably why you fell.” The angel replied almost too quickly.
The statement made the demon actually take a step back. It confirmed that the angel they were talking to knew they were fallen, they guessed their appearance gave them away, but they had also so casually mentioned the Fall. It was still a sore subject, quite literally, for every demon Beelzebub knew, including Crawley who would always try to play it off when the fly demon tried to talk with him about it. The pain and burning of the Fall paled in comparison to the emptiness of losing their Heavenly grace. All of which flashed through the demon's mind when the angel so callously said those words.
“I should strike you down for entering this garden. It’s a holy place, bad enough we had to let one demon in, but no one said anything about a second one.” As the angel spoke he took an aggressive step toward Beelzebub.
The demon's instincts took over as they prepared to counter how they did in Hell and, recalling all of the information they had about the angel, they struck.
“Strike me with what? I don’t see a weapon on you.”
Beelzebub, unlike a lot of demons, chose words as their weapon. If you could make a demon feel inferior they would often leave to find an easier target, they hoped the same held true for angels. It had at least stalled the angel who now had slightly dropped his threatening stance as if he had forgotten he was without a weapon. This didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat to Beelzebub, but it had thrown him off nonetheless.
“So maybe I misplaced my weapon, I’m still an angel and you are still a demon, pretty sure I win every time.”
This wasn’t great, the angel was still confident and seemed now more determined to be rid of the demon. Beelzebub tried another trick, distraction.
“What’z that the humanz have?”
Fortunately, this worked, and the angel turned to look at the humans. The demon had also now turned to look at the humans though, equally as distracted as they saw they had come across their first danger outside the garden. The way the male human had gripped the sword had not filled Beelzebub with confidence that he would be able to use it but that doubt was extinguished when the man struck down the beast threatening him.
“Lookz a lot like a sword an angel would have to me.” The demon taunted.
This was probably a mistake as the angel now turned his attention back on Beelzebub, rage clear on his face. The demon braced for an attack but the angel spoke instead.
“Well, it’s not like I gave it to them.”
The angel was defending himself, Beelzebub’s tactic had worked.
“So you’re saying the humanz managed to steal it from you?”
They of course already knew that was not the answer but they also knew further undermining of the angel would be very effective.
“What?! No, I would never be bested by a human like that.” The attack had hit its mark as the angel was now going red in the face while trying to preserve his reputation. “It had to be one of your kind who did it.”
This was a dangerous spot to be in as if the angry angel found out Beelzebub had been the one to steal his sword they were pretty sure the angel would discorporate them. The demon waited for further words from the angel to figure out their next course of action.
“I figured it was that snake demon that did it. We were told not to do anything against him so when I saw the humans with the sword I thought there was nothing I could do about it.”
This seemed to be working out for Beelzebub, all they had to do was give their boss credit for their actions and they were in the clear. The angel continued before the demon could get a word in however.
“But then you showed up on this wall,” Beelzebub felt that this situation was getting away from them again, “a second demon no one had told us about. And you acted very confident in the fact that I had no weapon. If you took my sword and gave it to the humans that means I should have taken it back. Tell me honestly, were you the one who took my sword?”
There was still a way for the demon to remain safe in this interaction, all they had to do was lie. A simple feat for any demon, especially one as skilled with words as Beelzebub.
“I waz.”
Why had they said that? They knew what would happen now, the angel would smite them, they would be sent painfully back to Hell and have to explain to their boss what had happened. Beelzebub closed their eyes and braced for the pain.
When none came they cracked an eye open to see what was happening. Apparently the angel had started angrily pacing the wall mumbling to himself again and looking to the sky. The demon could guess the general line of thought without listening to the angel. ‘What am I supposed to do?’ ‘Are the humans supposed to have the weapon?’ ‘Should I go get it back or would that be weird now?’ Beelzebub assumed there would be no answer from above for these questions. She was never one for entertaining questions. Once the angel’s pace slowed the demon dared to speak.
“Beelzebub.”
“What?” The angel stopped pacing altogether and looked at the demon.
“That’z my name, Beelzebub.” The demon followed this statement with a small smile.
“Gabriel.” The angel returned confused.
“Interesting to meet you, Gabriel.”
“Likewise?”
“Can I just say Gabriel, I’m glad you let the humanz keep your sword.” The demon knew the sentence was pressing their luck, but they wanted the angel to feel like they had done a good thing.
“Well, I thought I had to.” Gabriel’s confusion wore off as he continued. “If I fall for this the first thing I’m doing is discorporating you.”
The threat had no effect as the angel had once again casually mentioned Falling, like it wasn’t the worst pain beyond imagination.
“You won’t Fall for something az good az giving thoz humanz a way to defend themselvez. And I would know.”
Gabriel paused, considering the words the demon had said.
“I suppose you’re right, it was a good thing they had a weapon against that beast. But, I don’t know how I’ll explain upstairs when I return without my sword.” The angel seemed now to be trying to think up said explanation.
“Just don’t tell them. I mean, how often are they checking that you have a weapon, we are going to be in a time of peaz for a while.” The demon offered.
“You might be right. Thanks.”
Beelzebub got that weird pain again at that last word.
“Don’t mention it, actually.”
The angel seemed not to have noticed the shiver of pain that had gone through the demon’s body. Although another alien sensation had filled their body while talking with this angel, gentle emotions the demon thought they had lost in the fall. Weirdly enough, love was one of them. Despite how hostile most of the conversation had been. Sensing the end of the conversation they both turned towards where the humans were and watched in silence for a while. Rain started to fall, Gabriel covered his head with his wing, but Beelzebub was content to let the rain fall on them. Even though they had only been here a short time, they were starting to enjoy all the odd experiences the Earth had to offer, especially if this angel was going to be a part of them.