Reignite (Extinguish #2) (21 page)

The Mark of Satan
.

Lucifer pulled the blade
away, his eyes burning red.
So, so red.
It made
Michael's spine prickle as his blade of fire ignited in response to the scene,
when Lucifer kicked Abaddon hard, sending the angel skidding a few feet away on
his back. Dropping the knife, Lucifer raised his hands defensively and turned
to Michael before he could react. The smile was back on his lips, the red
dulling as the reapers descended from the sky, Abaddon's wailing escalating as
he was attacked by the black masses.

"Sorry,
brother," Lucifer said, the blue once more reappearing in his eyes.
"Old habits die hard."

Michael was silent,
pointing his sword at Lucifer, as he watched Abaddon be carried away. The sky
cleared when the reapers disappeared, leaving the world around them in silence
again.

Slowly, Michael lowered
the blade. "He's gone."

"For now,"
Lucifer said, "but not forever."

"How do you
know?"

"Because I'm
here," Lucifer said. "I know what being in the pit does to you. Give
him a few thousand years to get adequately pissed off and he'll find his way
out of there."

"Then why did you
send him there? Why not end him now?"

"Because when I
take him out, brother, I don't want him to be on his knees," Lucifer said,
picking up his knife and twirling it for a moment. Michael watched with
fascination as Lucifer sliced his own hand with the blade. There was no blood,
simply a line of glowing light as some Grace trickled out before the wound
sealed. Lucifer stared down at it, smiling, before meeting Michael's eyes.
"When I take him out, I want him to learn a lesson he was too dense to
learn today."

"What's that?"

Lucifer stepped toward
Michael, and he tensed, gripping the handle of his blade tighter, but he didn't
move. Lucifer's smile grew when he caught it, though, his eyes flickering down
to the sword briefly as he said, "Nobody fucks with an Archangel.
Nobody
."

Michael shook his head
as Lucifer laughed, the pop of static cutting off the amused sound as the
Archangel disappeared.  Michael stood there for a moment as something swam
inside of him, something he tried to push back, but it got the best of him
eventually: curiosity.

He
apparated from the area and popped up in front of the small house in Chorizon.
Serah was inside, fast asleep. Michael stood in
the street for a moment, glancing around. All was how it had been the day
before, the slate wiped clean, removing the fight between angels from all
mortal memory. Michael remembered, though. He always would. Just like his
brother, he remembered everything. He remembered how it felt the day he spared
Serah not far away in the street, the grief he'd felt for the first time in his
existence.

He'd felt it again, not
long ago, right in this spot when he couldn't spare her again. Orders were
orders, and his Father had expressly stated it when he'd been sent to help
Lucifer.

Whatever comes of the one called Serah, you're not
to intervene
.

The grief of leaving her
to die wasn't because of her lost life. It was because him and Lucifer were
still connected, and he felt it inside of his brother, grief like he'd never known
before.

Michael took a last look at the
house before turning away. There was nothing left to make him want to stay.
She'd left him long before today. Now it was time for him to let go.

Colors.

Mortals have thousands
of names for them, different shades of different colors, only subtly altered
from the one before it. They hold colors in high regard, mixing and matching,
coordinating their clothing and painting their cars and even going so far as to
alter the shade of their lawns. Colors, to them, are symbolic… they grow red
with anger, they feel green with envy, or they catch the blues when they're
feeling down.

It puzzled Lucifer.

Colors, technically
speaking, are wavelengths of light. The eyes merely detect what light the item
reflects most. There's nothing metaphorical about it. The shade the grass grows
doesn't make it more or less useful. Pink tulips don't smell better than purple
ones. If they put stock in reflected light, they should cherish white, as it
reflects the most, whereas black simply absorbs it.

It's why angels are
usually seen in white, especially the Archangels. Light surrounds them. They're
pure. It's also why Lucifer stood in the middle of a the vast white space he'd
once again come to think of as 'home', wearing his usual get-up of black from
head to toe.

Sixty years.

He'd stayed up here for
the past sixty years, not stepping foot down below, and merely watched as the
Earth continued to turn. It spun round and round, reflecting light, sustaining
life, still the magnificent creation his Father dreamed it would be.

"Feels like just
yesterday, doesn't it?"

Lucifer turned his head
at the sound of the familiar voice, seeing Michael standing behind him. He saw
his brother occasionally, once a month or so. Michael still spent most of his
time in the throne room at their Father's side. Lucifer hadn't stepped foot in
there since arriving, not because he wasn't invited… mostly because he felt
like he didn't quite belong.

Maybe
in another sixty years.

Only God knows…

"Feels like just
yesterday you and I sat here," Michael continued, "watching the first
human take their first breath."

"It practically was
just yesterday," Luce responded, turning away as Michael took a few
steps forward, pausing at his side.

Michael nodded, looking
straight ahead at the image projected, the same image that had been playing in
this spot for decades. Serah lay in a bed, just as she had last time Lucifer
saw her in the flesh, only much older now.

"It won't be
long," Michael said.

Lucifer whispered,
"I know."

Her heart had beat
almost two billion times since he'd left her. He'd counted every single one.
And he knew she had only a hundred left before it wouldn't beat anymore.

Ninety-nine…

Ninety-eight…

Ninety-seven…

"You shouldn't be
worried," Michael said. "What's mean to be—"

"Will be,"
Lucifer grumbled. "To everything there is a season,
blah
blah
fucking
blah
, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning. You're wasting your
breath, brother. I've heard it all before."

Instead of being
annoyed, Michael smiled. The sight of it made Lucifer roll his eyes. He wanted
to knock that grin right off of his
holier
than thou
face.

Seventy-four…

Seventy-three…

Seventy-two…

"It's the
truth," Michael said.

"It's
bullshit," Lucifer countered, motioning with his head in the general direction
of the throne room. "He knows what will happen, but the rest of us are in
the dark."

"I don't think He
knows."

"Again,"
Lucifer said, "Bullshit."

"I'm serious,"
Michael said. "Heaven is an idea. He doesn't create it. They create it.
They spend eternity wherever they're happiest, wherever their souls are at
ease. She was once like us, brother, but she has free will now. She will go
where her soul chooses to be."

Forty-six…

Forty-five…

Forty-four…

Lucifer stared at the
image, watching as her heartbeat slowed, growing weaker, inconsistent. He knew
she wouldn't feel it when the end came. She'd go peacefully in her sleep.
She never
married,
never had children, but she found a
family in her friends. She became a teacher, led Sunday
School
at a local church, and volunteered her time to help others. She was the
definition of pure, her soul untainted and marked straight for Heaven.

But he had no idea where
she'd go once she got here.

No idea
who
she'd be, or what she would see.

No
idea
if she would even remember
him.

Twenty…

Nineteen…

Eighteen…

"Love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,"
Michael said. "Love never ends."

Lucifer normally mocked
his brother for quoting scripture, but he didn't have it in him at the moment.
He found solace in those words, even if he wasn't sure what to make of them.
"Do you think she loves me? I know I love her, but…"

But she'd never said it
to him.

Had he done anything to
really deserve her love?

He didn't think so.

"I suppose we'll
find out," Michael said, once more giving him a smile before disappearing.

Lucifer stared at the
image of her once he was alone before closing his eyes, focusing solely on the
sound of her heart.

Three…

Two…

One…

The silence that met him
then was deafening. His chest tightened. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter,
feeling for her essence around him. He sensed it appearing, not far away, and
channeled himself to that space.

To her
Heaven.

Slowly, he opened his
eyes.

A playground.

He knew the place. He'd
been there before a few times, and he'd watched Serah go there nearly every day
over the years.
Chorizon Elementary School.
All was
quiet, only a soft breeze wafting through the playground. After a moment a
squeak echoed through the air, the grinding of a rusty metal chain. Lucifer
turned toward the swing set and froze when he saw her. She was so much younger
than she'd been in recent years, utterly beautiful, wearing a peach dress, her
long brown hair cascading around her shoulders. Bare feet drug the ground as
she swung back and forth slightly, toes digging into the dirt. Her left hand
clutched the chain, while in her right she held a familiar plant stalk.

Spider flower.

"You were
right." Her voice was soft as she spoke, glancing away from the plant,
looking toward him. "These flowers really do stink."

The pressure in
Lucifer's chest lessened.

After a moment, she held
it out, silently offering it to him.

He shook his head.
"I can't smell anymore."

"I figured,"
she said. "That means there's nobody more perfect than you to give it
to."

Lucifer laughed lightly,
stepping toward her, carefully taking the flower from her hand. He stared down
at it for a moment before meeting her eyes again. Neither said anything.
Lucifer wasn't sure what to say. He'd survived six thousand years in Hell, but
the past sixty without her were the most torturous of his existence.

"I didn't
think…" he started. "I didn't expect…"

"Didn't expect
what?"

"You to remember
me," he admitted. "I did you wrong, Serah. I stole everything from
you. I hurt you. I thought I'd show up here, and you wouldn't see me, because I
wouldn't exist in your eternity… that Heaven, to you, would be somewhere I
couldn't be."

She stared at him for a
moment before her expression softened. She swung for a second longer before
standing up and stepping toward him. "I never forgot you, Luce. Even when
I didn't know you, you haunted my dreams. My first thought, when I opened my
eyes and found myself sitting on this swing, when I remembered every second I'd
ever existed, was that someone had gotten it wrong, because this wasn't where I
wanted to be."

"It wasn't?"

"No."

The air was disturbed
around them before she could elaborate, loud pops as others apparated into the
area. Serah turned away from him in just enough time for Hannah to descend upon
her, grabbing her friend in an excited hug as Michael's voice cut through the
air.

"Serah," he
said, sounding about as nervous as he'd told Lucifer not to feel.

Serah pulled away from
Hannah to look at him, smiling kindly. "Michael."

Before either could say
anymore, another loud pop rocked the area. They all turned, and Lucifer froze
when Samuel appeared in all his angelic glory. His mortal body had died months
ago, appearing in Heaven back in his true form. Lucifer had avoided him, and
Samuel hadn't sought him out. It was the first time they'd come face to face
since the day he'd visited him at the gate so many years ago.

Serah gasped, rushing
right at her brother. He picked her up, swinging her around in a circle as he
hugged her tightly. "Told you," he whispered to her, just loud enough
for Lucifer to hear. "I knew we'd have so many wonderful moments to
come."

Serah smiled, clinging
to him, before Hannah pulled her away again. Samuel greeted Michael casually
with a slap on the back and turned to Lucifer, nodding, before once more
stealing his sister back away. They vied for her attention, and Lucifer backed
away, quietly giving them space. He turned to leave when arms suddenly wrapped
around him from behind, stalling him. Sighing, he closed his eyes, taking a
moment to savor her touch. "Angel."

"Luce."

He pulled her into his
arms as he whispered, "I love you."

"I love you,
too," Serah said, clinging to him. "When I opened my eyes, I didn't
want to be here, because I didn't think you'd be here. I thought you'd be down
there again, back in the pit, and I'd take an eternity in your Hell before I
took a single second in my Heaven without you."

Those words wiped away
all his worry, all his doubt, leaving him with a warm glow beneath his skin.
She loved him. She did.

He pulled back some,
opening his eyes to stare down at her. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her eyes
sparkling brown with specks of a greenish hue. Shades of peach and tan coated
her, pale in places, freckled in others. Her lips were naturally cherry red.

Leaning down, he softly
kissed her.

He'd never appreciated
color so much before...