The wooden bench is situated on the hill as ever, right in the shade of a giant magnolia. The tree has been here for God knows how long, thriving with multiple big-sized white flowers and healthy branches.

It is spring or it must be. Blooming wildflowers attract all kinds of creatures. Butterflies, bees, hummingbirds...all fly around, celebrating life. The curving river not too far down is as clear as crystal, reflecting the blue sky with some fluffy white clouds in it

The man sits in silence, watching the bustling lives around him, his mind is full of wonder.

Who is he? Why is he sitting here? Is he waiting for something or someone?

He feels this deep longing and impatience in his heart, wanting more, but he doesn't know what or whom. He just stays here getting lost. Nothing to do and nowhere to go.

It is beautiful and warm. This must be how a mother's womb feels like. How does he know what it feels like? He doesn't know.

His head hurts so he stops thinking after a while. This is better, no need to think.

But isn't someone talking to him? Calling him? Who is this person? Does he know him, or her? He feels like he does, but he is not sure. The voice is just comforting, so he sits here day by day under this tree and waits for it.

Today, as usual, he waits here. He sits on the bench, waiting for a long time, but nothing happens.

Where is that person? Why is he or she not talking to him?

He is getting impatient and upset, but the voice is not here. No one talks, no matter what he does or how long he waits. There is just silence.

Then he realizes.

This beautiful, calm world that he is in, never has a sound.

***

Kye hangs up the phone and looks out the glass windows. The city is being rebuilt every day. Its center is still a pile of rubble, but life has started creeping back. Eastwick, as well as other poor neighborhoods, will completely transform. New houses will replace the container apartments where Kye grew up and the best part? People who used to live there such as her family won't have to pay a thing.

Kye needs to find her mom and Nick. She has been trying for the past four months or so. Ruby and Gadreel help, but finding two people in a sea of thousands of displaced souls is never easy. The identification system became useless when Raphael stuffed everyone in concentration camps like cattle. There are many missing pieces and discrepancies. Many people simply disappeared. Lost in transition.

The horrendous conditions of these camps worry Kye the most. Michael cured her mom's asthma, but the poor woman's health was never the same after Kye's dad died. A concentration camp filled with sickness, no clean water, and no food in the middle of the winter is as good as a death sentence for someone like Kye's mom. Nick would be no better. With an explosive temper and a not-taking-anyone's-shit attitude, the boy would get in so much trouble. Humans are one thing, Nick could easily fend for himself, but angels are a different story.

Kye doesn't want to imagine the hardship her family faces. With the number of people shuffling through the camps, it may take at least the rest of this year to find them.

Kye has called the temporary processing center every day, sometimes twice or thrice a day, in the hope of some leads. She also drives down to the camps every single day, but like a needle in a haystack, her mom and Nick are nowhere to be found.

Lately, the city has transferred all calls from families of missing people to an automatic answering system, so Kye hits a dead end there. She only knows that whoever is alive is likely to stay in or near the camps due to the city being quite hellish. Naomi set up many shelters there so that's where Kye goes.

Neither Mom nor Nick has called or come looking for her. Kye tries not to think about what that can mean, but it's not easy.

Kye combs her fingers through her hair. Each day passed ties another knot in her heart. She has been here the whole afternoon without realizing it. This morning, she came down to the camps again but that was fruitless as usual.

Kye hasn't been back to the master bedroom once since she returned to the loft.

The angels who stood guard for the day left after Naomi made sure Kye had everything that she needed. "I'm only a prayer away," Naomi said. The two of them have grown quite close since Michael fell unconscious. Besides the angel-healer Hannah, Kye can't think of anyone who acts as 'human' or 'normal' as Naomi. Sometimes, she even forgets that Naomi is an angel.

Michael has her heart, but there's always something so distinctively different about him. He can be so stiff or awkward at times. His attempts at jokes were horrendous. To his credit, however, Michael never stopped trying to get better. The thought of him filled Kye with warmth. She chuckles while continuing to watch the sunset complete its descent.

It's 7 pm. Time to check on Michael.

Kye opens the door and tiptoes into the bedroom. It is a habit. Sometimes, she forgets that no matter how loud she is, Michael will not wake up. Not much has changed with the archangel at all. Kye never gets tired of watching him every day but, sometimes, she wishes she could hear his voice. She misses it. It gets lonely in the loft with no TV, only the books and her phone to keep her company, but when Kye puts her head on Michael's chest at the end of the day and listens to his heartbeats, all her pain melts away, little by little.

At least he is still here.

Kye kisses Michael on his forehead and sweeps the dark brown hair out of his face. She then combs it the way Michael would like.

"Still can turn some heads here, old man," Kye chuckles before getting up and tiptoeing out of the bedroom again. She needs some books.

Heading to the library, Kye suddenly feels out of it. Maybe it's the weather, she muses, or maybe the fact that you didn't eat or sleep. She decides on something easy to read. Today's reading session with Michael will have to be short.

Kye stops in the middle of the indoor balcony on her way back to the bedroom. She looks down at the empty living room below and then the construction outside the glass windows. The loft's advantageous height gives Kye the full view of Ayham's gleaming skyline.

Kye will never get tired of this view. Ayham has not been heaven, and Aax County is somewhere she never imagined she would step foot in, much less find love and happiness here, but now, Kye can't think of leaving it. This is where she's meant to be.

Something creaks in the shadow, making Kye jump. She curses at herself for getting startled so easily. Kye regrets not turning on all the lights, but it's another unfortunate habit. She doesn't like feeling trapped alone in this big, bright castle of glass and steel. It just seems much bigger and emptier now when Kye is the only one moving around.

"Good job on the jump scare," Kye half-heartedly jokes, trying to keep her voice even.

The angels used to drop in unannounced all the time, but after one complaint to Naomi, now they have a schedule and even ring the bell to announce themselves. Kye's brain goes in a million directions at once. She waits and listens in anticipation, but there is no more noise. After a long minute, the creaking continues. They approach Kye, closer and heavier.

Kye dashes downstairs as fast as she can. She needs to get to her old room and find the duffle bag on the bed that Ruby left her "just in case."

Kye thought weapons were highly unnecessary at the loft, but turns out, her sister is right after all, and Kye has never been more thankful for Ruby's stubbornness in her life.

Pulling out the gun from the duffle bag, Kye checks its magazine while praying to Naomi. As much as she dislikes to bother the angel when she has already been up to her neck with Ayham's business, Kye has to think about Michael. He is helpless, and so is she. Kye can't fight or shoot as well as Ruby, and whoever or whatever making the noise upstairs may be way beyond human ability to handle. Naomi said some angels on Raphael's side are still on the loose, so she wanted Kye to let her know as soon as something is out of the ordinary.

This is qualified as "out of the ordinary".

Naomi, please get here now. There's someone in the loft.

Kye's whole body shakes with tension, but she forces herself to focus. Pushing on her knees, she stands up and turns around. She needs to get back to Michael. The speed of Kye's movement makes her dizzy. Her head feels as if it is a pot filled with liquid.

Something hits Kye so hard that she falls backward on the bed. She sees stars. Whatever that is feels like a wall. It was not there just a second ago.

Kye points the gun up and pulls the trigger with her shaking fingers. The loud shot and its blinding glare throw out every last bit of her perception. Struggling to sit up, Kye fires the second time.

"Stop shooting."

A familiar calm voice echoes in the pitch darkness of the room as the gun is snatched out of Kye's hands. It must have flown across the room and crashed into the opposite wall according to the sound. Kye's mind can't seem to focus on a single thing besides an absurd beam of white light right in front of her. Kye covers her eyes. Her head is throbbing.

"What is that?" She whispers.

The light dims and Kye's body is pressed under something heavy.

Heavy and cool. Familiar.

The air smells like rain and freshly cut grass. Soft fibers brush Kye's face and, in that moment, her body is covered in goosebumps.

"Michael?" She asks, not believing in her own voice.

Soft lips crash on hers as the answer, silencing all her broken thoughts.

"Always make a fuss..." He mumbles. Affection spills from his sleepy voice. "I can't leave you alone for one day, Kye."

She taps on his shoulders, lightly at first as if to check if he is real. Then she slaps them, harder and harder, until her palms burn. Kye buries her face in Michael's chest to muffle her cries.

She can't muster a word. Nothing makes sense. Kye feels empty and stuffed full of emotions all at once. What is this? Pain? Happiness? Kye doesn't know. She doesn't need to know.

Michael is here. He's awake. Finally.

Kye feels his warm lips. First on her face, and then her neck, before they find their way down to where her little pendant is. A soft humming and light blue glow emit from it, brightening the room just a little.

"I have waited for you...For such a long time, but you didn't come." Michael caresses Kye's body. His tone is almost nostalgic.

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard a voice, every day, and it was the only thing that comforted me. Today, however, it didn't speak to me, so I went looking for it..."

It doesn't make any sense, but, somehow, Kye understands.

With every mistake she has made, refusing to leave when the angels pressured her to at one point, staying with Michael, reading, and talking to him every day even when she didn't know if he ever wake up again in her lifetime were the things Kye has done right. They brought him back. To her.

Once again, Fate is on her side.

"Even if the voice didn't stop today, I would've gone looking for it. I would've gone looking for you, Kye. I wanted to see you." Michael says.

"So if it was not me but someone else, some angel or human who stayed and talked to you, you would have woken up anyway." Kye chuckled, "You must have missed Earth."

"There is no 'If'. You would be here. I know. You would fight to stay even if my siblings said 'No'. You did, didn't you?"

"Right, the first person you see when you open your eyes must be me. It must be that way. Only death can stop me."

Michael's hand strokes her hair gently. "Death wouldn't stop you either."

"Nope."

Kye can feel his blue eyes drilling into her through the veil of darkness, and she smiles in their direction. Unlike her, Michael can see everything well. He can see all the emotions on her face. He may not fully understand some of them, but he surely never misses any. Kye breathes in his presence. He is here.

"How do you feel?" Kye finally clears her throat.

"Like myself. Whatever damage my grace suffered is gone."

To demonstrate what he means, Michael's eyes lit up like two small headlights.

"Ok... If you say so..." Kye shut her eyes.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No, it's fine, really. I miss it... " Kye chuckles. "I just wonder what holds Naomi back. She's usually here in a heartbeat when I pray to her."

"What do you think?"

Kye chuckles again. She touches Michael's face with the back of her hand, feeling the outline and rough stubble. Tiredness comes to her like a freight train when the first thread of excitement settles down.

She tries to fight it. If she can just stay awake a little longer...

Michael will be here in the morning. Most certainly.

But what if something happens again?

Nothing will happen. I promise. I'm right here. I will hold you all night and be here when you wake up. Sleep.

Michael touches her forehead before Kye can oppose. He knows she hates it, but he senses weakness in her soul and body. Old wounds that are barely covered by layers of scars. Her armors. He can and will heal her, but she needs to rest for now. They have so much time.

Michael wants to spend the rest of the night holding Kye in his arms, watching her dreams like the old days.

Laying his head down on the pillow, Michael puts his arm under Kye's neck and adjusts his body to cradle her. He pulls her to his chest and lightly squeezes her body as he would a favorite thing.

She is, indeed, his most favorite thing in this mortal world.

Michael has not realized how much he missed the smell of Kye's hair and the way she snuggles up to him until now. He cannot describe it with words.

Thank you, Father. For saving her. For saving me.

Michael prays and falls into his own trance with a smile. He is home.

***

Two floors under the sparkling marble tiles of the Council lobby is an opposite world. Dark and damp endless hallways with old pipes constantly leaking make the air reeked of death and indecipherable stenches. The floor is old and peeling everywhere. Some parts are stained with questionable dry liquids. In these maze-like corridors, blood-curdling screams often break out, adding to an overall hopeless atmosphere.

Michael walks past all the cells in the dim light of the yellow bulbs hanging on the ceiling. His face is a mask of absolutely no emotions. With his hands in the pants pockets, he walks all the way to the end of the hallway and stops in front of one single isolated cell.

The cell door is red like a warning to anyone who intends to come closer. The archangel stops and stares at it for a long time. No one knows what is going through his mind. A faint humming from inside the cell welcomes him.

It is a joyous melody that seems especially out of place, but Michael's face changes listening to it. A long time ago, two archangels were sitting on a cliff watching the happy tribal people dance and sang from one day to the next with a lot of questions in their minds. They wanted to understand, to know the new world their Father had created, but no one seems able to help them with that.

It is such an ancient memory that has been stuffed down some dusty corner. Nonetheless, here he is, and here they are, once again facing each other. The person inside the cell seems to also know it. He coughs, then with confidence, speaks up.

"Hello, brother. Long time no see."

"Long time..."

Michael replies with his fists clenched in his pockets. It is still hard to see the other man behind the door after all the pains they have caused each other throughout the millennia. It is just too much that no heart can endure.

"So you finally decide to come... Why? What made you change your mind to grace me with this visit? You want to see how low I've fallen? Well, look to your heart's content, brother."

The guy chuckles lowly. His voice reeks of sarcasm. Michael misses his brother's wits sometimes, but can't understand or forgive his deeds.

"You know very well why I'm here, Luc. Why did you try to kill her?"

"Her? Who?"

Luc acts innocent then drags out his word, laughing at the obvious that Michael refuses to see.

"Ohhhh...She is nothing. No one. A human. A piece of dust in the flow of time. I do it because I can."

"Not because you want to get back at me? Take away something I love the way yours is taken from you...Lucifer?"

"DON'T. TALK. ABOUT. ME. BROTHER! We're not here to talk about me."

Luc screams each word maniacally, then cackles at the end as if he has just found something hilarious.

"I don't care about you or your whore, brother, so stop rubbing ancient history in my face. It means nothing. Yes,... Maybe I want you to taste just a little bit of your own medicine, but no deeper reason behind it."

"You expect me to believe you siphon the last drops of Raphael's grace, break through all the barriers to get to Kye "just for fun", just because you "like it"?"

"Believe what you want, brother. I do what I like and I am done. I don't have to talk to you anymore."

"Oh, you will talk to me, alright?"

With that last sentence, Michael's voice changes. It morphs into something else deeper, more powerful. The voice holds the power of millions of worlds, crushing Luc's soul under it.

"No...No...No. It's impossible..."

Luc whispers in utter disbelief, feeling the transformation outside his cell. The glowing light melts the door and part of the front wall away. Standing before him is a 5 feet something humanoid figure with light brown hair, nothing out of ordinary. Luc is sure that face can blend easily in any crowd, but what, or who behind it is not.

He doesn't dare to look directly at the person, feeling incredible pressure. No matter how mad he was before, it all deflates. All he feels now is wronged, hurt, and abandoned. Why does He appear now after all that time? Just to lecture him? Punish him some more? How much more does he have to be punished?

That is where you're wrong, my son. You are not punished. Not for a long time now, but you didn't realize it because you couldn't let go. You are the one who has punished yourself.

Reading his mind is nothing new, but in this situation, it drives Luc mad. He knows, so why did He even ask all of those questions? To humiliate him more? He knows why this son had to do it. One more human death is nothing. Father has done it a gazillion times over.

Son, I cannot say how disappointed and angered I am by your actions. The way you treated your siblings is unacceptable. You can try to justify it, but you know, deep in your heart because I believe you still have one, you did an unforgivable act. Now, with the human girl,...

God leans backward and a chair appears out of thin air for Him to sit on. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and points it to Luc.

"No, thanks," His son grumbles.

"...I can see why you want to eliminate her, but I assure you, son, there is no need."

He speaks in his human voice, looking up at the broken bulb on the ceiling as if he suddenly finds it extremely fascinating.

"What do you mean? You know what I've got, right? The premonition!"

"Premonitions are just that," God breaths out a long trail of smoke, his eyes float around the cell, half-closed. "Premonitions. They don't mean much unless you give them the meanings. You can interpret them any way you want."

"No way! I've been having them for centuries. I should know how to interpret them right."

Luc spits out venomously. His pride is hurt. He has just been told that the only power that was left is also useless. A total sham. How could he not feel hurt?

"Lucifer, my son, you really need to let it go! I'm serious. Learn to live a little. Enjoy life. That's what I have given you. Life. A chance to restart, to make something for yourself. Learn from your past mistakes to be better, but look what you've done."

God stands up abruptly and the chair disappears. He fixes the lapel of his pristine white suit and looks down at Luc with the sternest expression.

"There is not one road, one solution, son. Your existence could be fun, sweet, meaningful... Your pick, but you always have to ruin it yourself. The girl is never a threat. I would have not sent her to Michael if she was, and if Fate decides that it is time for me, who am I to say no?"

"Father, you know what a new God can do to the old one. To the world. Your creations! You should understand why I need to stop it!"

"...But you didn't and you can't."

God sighs and turns His back to Luc. His son jumps up, trying to grab a corner of His suit jacket but He is already outside of the cell. The wall and door close up behind him.

Luc screams and throws himself at the door, again and again, until he is exhausted and his shoulder is almost broken. God's voice still echoes throughout the hallway.

"You can't..."

"No, no...I can! I can do it! I can save you! Why don't you listen to me?"

Luc screams like a rabid animal, punching and kicking the door, but no one replies to him. Only the tortured creatures in other cells join in his cries and every sound blends into a chaotic, broken song.

A new world

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