and what was right is wrong

Michael comes to rest on the ground, glory fading beneath a dull shell that will not blind the creatures of the Garden. The Father is occupied elsewhere, planning something he has not shared with his angels. Not even Michael. He has resisted his curiosity about The Father's latest creation, but he had sensed Lucifer's presence in the Garden, on the Earth, and had not been able to resist following.

He has never been able to resist that.

Walking through the trees, he approaches the sound of water striking sand. Glints of light catch his eyes and he smiles. Even dimmed, Lucifer is a shining star – bright and achingly beautiful.

He is standing on the white sand, blue water swirling about his ankles, his perfect face staring into the sun as it hangs low on the horizon. Michael joins him and wonders what the water feels like to those blessed with such perception.

They stand, shoulder to shoulder, as the sun descends, until only a sliver of gold hovers above the endless expanse of water, reflecting off the matching gold in Lucifer's eyes. Michael raises a hand, trailing it across the sharp edge of Lucifer's cheekbone, and waits for him to speak.

"The Father has never created such a place before," Lucifer says, his ringing voice reduced to a silver whisper as he turns his face into Michael's caress. "He has never entered this realm."

Michael nods, but does not speak. He knows better than to say that it is not their place to question The Father's will. Nor is he sure he wishes to say such a thing, however true it is. Lucifer's words are also truth. The realm of mortals has always been beyond their concern, and The Father's. Until now.

"Has He spoken to you of His plans?" Lucifer asks, sparks flickering on the surfaces of his eyes as he finally meets Michael's gaze.

Michael shakes his head, weighing his words. "No, He keeps His own counsel. Although I would not care to say that none of The Others have guessed His intent."

Lucifer hums and nods slowly, his generous mouth slanting upwards into a wry smirk. "They will certainly not confide in us." Michael smiles agreement and Lucifer sighs, his gaze drifting back to the sky, now studded with the light of a thousand stars, none as beautiful as the one looking up at them. "I worry," he confesses, the shadow of his wings drawing tight around him.

Michael stretches his own wings around both of them and steps closer, until the sparks swirling around Lucifer's fingers begin to dance around his own. "What do you See?"

There is a breath of silence and then Lucifer's hand is burning against his arm, his eyes black and fathomless. "Death."

x

x

x

Eve walks through the Garden, savoring the rich, soft earth squishing between her toes. Adam is slumbering but she is restless. Their day, the same as all their other days, was peaceful and pleasant. She has no cares, no wants that are not met, but sleep evades her. The quiet rustlings of the creatures who share their home do not soothe her the way they normally do and her feet wander off their usual paths, toward the great sea that borders the westernmost side of the Garden.

Before she reaches the edge of the trees, she catches a glimpse of movement and stops. She does not wish to disturb whatever animals have sought the coolness of the waves and carefully steps forward, peering through the foliage with curiosity she cannot quell.

Her hand rises to her mouth unbidden as the fragmented images before her resolve into one dazzling whole. Stunned, she feels a wave of dizziness wash over her. She and Adam are the only ones of their kind. The Father made this clear when He created her. But the two beings standing on the beach look like them. Only so much more. They are beautiful in a way she can hardly comprehend, their heads tilted toward each other in a moment of quiet intimacy, and her chest aches with emotions she does not have names for.

Who are they?

She shifts unconsciously forward and a leaf crackles beneath her feet. Before she can even see if they noticed she is turning to flee, afraid for the first time in her life. Not of the beautiful strangers, but of the things the sight of them has awakened within her.

Adam is still sleeping when she returns to his side and she curls up on the grass beside him, watching his chest rise and fall, until dawn breaks. When his eyes flutter open and he smiles at her, she forces herself to smile back and lets him pull her in for a kiss before they begin their peaceful and pleasant day.

She ignores her restlessness that night and matches her breathing to Adam's until she falls asleep. Until the dreams come.

The Garden no longer seems quite so peaceful and pleasant and she does not know what it means.

In the morning, Adam asks her what she wants to do and she demurs to his preference, words stuck in her throat. She does not know what she wants and she is still afraid.

But she is also desperately curious.

Curious enough to listen when an unexpected voice speaks to her with questions she has not dared to ask herself.

The serpent's words wash over her, white noise as she stares at the bright red fruit, gleaming with secrets in the afternoon sun. She was created for the pleasure of Adam, that is her purpose. Like the animals who live in the garden with them, her days are filled with delicious food, lovely sights, and the companionship of her mate, whose body provided the seed of her existence.

She should want for nothing, she has known nothing but perfection. But she does. However wrong it is, she finds herself wanting. Wanting what, she does not know, although she remembers strange but familiar beauty glimpsed in moonlight with a guilty flush. Perhaps these lush fruits, forbidden even to touch, will hold the answers to the emptiness of her existence.

As the sweet flesh of the fruit dissolves on her tongue, she knows. She knows that her daughters, for endless millennia, will be blamed for her choices, just as Adam will blame her. She knows they will suffer and know unimaginable pain; that they will be punished and killed for the simple crime of being her descendants, the great temptress who only wanted to know.

And she knows they will have choices. That many of her daughters will create lives for themselves, not for the pleasure of men or gods, and she knows it is worth it.

Before her eyes, the serpent becomes a shining figure of a man, one of the two she had spied upon, and his face is wrought with a pain and pleasure to match hers. "Do you See?" he asks.

She sees, many things, not least of them freedom, and nods. "I See."

x

x

x

Michael cuts through the air, fierce desperation consuming him. He must reach Lucifer first. The Father is furious, more furious than He has been in all the ages of Michael's existence, and he is deeply afraid of what that anger will mean for Lucifer.

Lucifer is standing at the edge of the water, his wings flared and his shoulders unbowed with the burden that has been weighing them down since The Father first revealed Adam to them. Even in the grips of terror, Michael cannot help but drink in the sight of his beauty and strength.

The thought of those things destroyed, struck down by their Creator, makes him falter, falling to the sand beside Lucifer as pain overwhelms him for the first time in centuries. Lucifer looms over him, eyes wide with concern as his graceful hands pull Michael to his feet.

"Why?" Michael asks, gripping Lucifer's shoulders as flames lick the surface of his skin, his control undone.

Lucifer pales, his skin shining as his own power rises to press against Michael's, a dance that has never been anything but pleasure, not until now. "It was wrong. What He did. You know it was. Mortals are not meant to be toys for the likes of us."

Michael sags in Lucifer's hold, unable to deny the truth of his words. "He will destroy you," he says with quiet, painful certainty. "You have taken away every measure of control He has over this world and for that He will take away your very existence."

Lucifer's wings wrap around him, his hands gentle against Michael's face. "It was worth it. You would have done the same, once your nobility overrode your loyalty."

Michael wants to shake his head, wants to deny he is capable of Lucifer's unflinching bravery, but presses their mouths together instead, feeling the burn of Lucifer's soul and wishing he could feel his skin as well.

The weight of The Father falls upon them before another word can be spoken and Michael screams as Lucifer is wrenched away from him, his glorious wings torn to shreds by the force of The Father's voice.

He lunges forward and places himself between Lucifer and The Father, glaring into the light even as it sears his flesh. "I will not let you destroy him!"

Laughter sends him to his knees, pain lancing through him as he continues to shelter Lucifer's broken body with his own. "You see what you have done, Lucifer? You have corrupted the Captain of my Host. You have taken my Sword along with my Earth."

"Not your Earth," Lucifer gasps out and Michael screams again as light pierces through them, incinerating their bodies until only their souls, scorched and battered, remain.

"You will live and die with your precious mortals, bear witness to every moment of suffering your interference will cause. You will not know peace, and neither will they." The Father's voice rings with truth and the touch of His regard is agony. "You should have paid more attention to your visions, Lucifer – you are the Bringer of Death."

The light grows until there is nothing else, not even Lucifer by his side, and Michael falls.

He does not feel it when he hits the ground.