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I stumbled upward. Recalibrating.
My mission was simple.
Find Lucifer.
Find The Vessel.
Find out what Lucifer was up to using The Vessel.
Do whatever it takes to stop him.
I had these eyes locked onto the figure in front of me, he reeked of absolute malice.
I scanned the surrounding environment swiftly using these eyes, before I instinctively put the hand over them. Mild pain, not serious. I moved the eyes too quickly around and it irritated this vessel.
“Well, look who stooped to my level.” I heard him speaking through the mouth of his own tailored body.
I looked up at him fiercely. I felt blood warmly dripping down from this mouth of mine, I wiped it off using the hand provided. I fixed my posture and stood straight up, I had these hands clenched into fists.
We met eyes, I stared at him for a moment.
“God himself banished you from here, you know.” I spoke, breaking the tense silence.
“Physically, but nobody said anything about mortals.” He said, giving me a fake smile of sorts.
“You’re disgusting.”
“So are you.”
“Continue doing whatever you’re up to, and I will have to strike you down.” I felt these teeth grit.
“You’re the only man I know who can never choose for himself. I don’t care what you try to do, I’m comfortable, and this time I will win.” He chuckled.
“You’ve always lost when God chooses to unsheath me.”
“What I’m doing is above the likes of God, and you’ll all be nothing but phantoms.” He grinned unnaturally at me, clearly pushing the boundaries of that body.
“And like always, you never change.”
“Can say the same, brother, but oh mighty well. Father wants us both dead, I’ll kill you when the time comes, but I’m not dying. You’re gonna go back to living in my shadow like you always have, Michael. I hope you’re excited, because I am!” He stumbled backwards cackling, the vessel of his falling backwards before suddenly going limp.
I peered over, looking at the seemingly lifeless body, before sensing a soul appearing back inside of it. Mortal, but artificial. This is no Virtuous, but also no Sinner. It was… nothing.
The body gasped, waking in a quick shock, before sitting upwards to look at me. I've taken note that Lucifer, in possession, makes this body’s pupils constrict into almost pinholes. The current occupant of this body has regular shaped pupils. I looked at the mortal before me with subtle curiosity.
“...Mikey? Why are you staring at me?” He finally said, confused.
I blinked this body’s eyes a few times, looking around. I simply left, letting this vessel take me to whatever area of this building was the most natural, entering a room.
I released control, letting the primary soul tethered to this vessel back to the forefront, simply seceding myself to spectating. He gasped, looking around, his heartbeat thudding in his chest hard. He looked around with panicked shock. I was surprised. Was he… aware? No, surely not.
“What the fuck. What the actual fuck was that. I just fuckin. I fuckin died now I’m not dead what- what the fuck??” He panicked out loud, pacing around the room with boiled nerves, clearly stressed beyond my overall comprehension. His feelings were something that I felt only eons ago, so it’s unnatural to me these days.
I suddenly felt eyes on me. I was confused, before identifying it was his. He, somehow, recognized I was here… what? How? That isn’t typical at all. In fact it's entirely unheard of.
Angels co-inhabiting a vessel, while extremely rare, always ensure that the soul and body remain entirely ignorant. Memories are often replaced, and the soul is unbothered. They have absolutely no way of knowing an angelic presence was there. Not a single iota could be identified by the soul.
And then there was this being.
I took a look at his soul, and immediately recognized something highly unusual. That’s no mortal soul, not at all. That’s not a Sinner. That’s not a Virtuous. That’s not a Husk. It was familiar, but foreign to me. It was that of a bionic device, with reddish orange cores within it. Like fire. I was mesmerized, it was technological. Which meant only one thing.
It was angelic.
I was broken from my confusion and shock from the entity before me trying to get my attention, clearly panicked and simultaneously incredibly angry, most likely due to the panic.
“Calm down.” I said.
“CALM DOWN?!” He erupted at me, “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN CALM DOWN? I JUST WATCHED MYSELF FUCKIN DIE!”
“But are you dead?”
“NO BUT I’M CLEARLY SUPPOSED TO BE!! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!! WHAT IS GOIN ON!!”
“I can’t fucking help you unless you calm down. Do you need help with that or can you do it yourself?” I sighed, this is going to be a difficult mission between this entity and Lucifer.
“What the hell do you mean help?!” He growled, confused.
Alright, clearly he wasn’t aware. I opened up a console in front of me, locating the overall functions and boosted the endorphin release until I sensed our vessel become significantly calmer.
“What the hell…? I don’t. I’m feeling.. Good all uva sudden.” He sounded creeped out, but certainly relieved.
“It’s strange you don’t know how to do that yourself.”
“Do what?? Calm down on command? Nobody knows how to fuckin do that.”
“... Do you curse like this all the time.”
“Uh.. no.” He paused for a while, looking off to the side. “Okay, kinda.”
I sighed.
“What are you sighing for? Not used to cursin? Wait, fuck, who even are you?? You still haven’t answered that God damnit- you’re. You don’t sound like any stupid hallucinations I’ve ever had.” He used this body to hold the sleeves of his jacket, while hunching over a bit, still clearly panicking internally.
“Michael.”
“How do you know my name??”
“No, my name is Michael. Is your name also Michael?”
“Yeah my name’s Michael. I usually go by Mikey, though.”
“Well, I’m simply just Michael. As in The Archangel.”
He stood in silence for a while, going through shock, to mild acceptance, before back to pure confusion and shock.
“... Yeah. I need sleep. Fuck this.” He immediately started to undress, tossing his clothing to the side before remaining just in briefs. He climbed into his unmade bed and, somehow, immediately went out cold like a light.
______________________________________________________________________________
I waited patiently for him to wake up, I could sense the sun rise and other larger lifeforms around awake, including eventually Lucifer’s Vessel in one of the other rooms. I heard him going about in the other rooms and sensed casual ignorance in him, before even he left. I eventually became impatient, and turned our body around, opening the eyes to take a peek at the time, it was 1PM.
I then sensed Mikey jolt awake immediately due to my disturbance.
“What the fuck was that–” He said, his heartrate spiking as he flung himself upwards into a sitting up position.
“Morning, big guy.”
He paused, I felt him slowly go into panic, which I quickly combated thanks to the console.
“You aren’t real.” He sighed, grabbing his phone and unlocking it.
“Not real? Excuse me? I’m more real than anything else here.” I took offense to his pitiful attempt to shove me off.
He ignored me.
I released a groan, I opened the console again and ran a command on his heart to stop beating just long enough for him to feel it and quit ignoring me.
He seemingly lost his breath, gripping the sheets, panting in absolute panic, holding our chest and dropping his phone, before gasping, tears brought to our eyes and drool slightly coming out our mouth.
He started cursing loudly, and I audibly groaned.
“How hard is it to accept that I exist?”
“There’s no such thing as God! No fuckin angels either! Who the fuck- I just- what the HELL is going ON in my LIFE!” He loudly vented his frustrations, bringing our knees to our chest and crossing our arms on top of them, before laying our head face down.
“There is a God, and there are angels. I’m one. I don’t know how you couldn’t know that, and I know for a fact you do believe, you just don’t want to.”
“I don’t believe in any of that shit anymore.” He growled.
“Then explain Lucifer. I know you’ve seen him.”
He paused, I could feel our body go pale as he was forced to acknowledge reality.
“You can’t be serious.” He finally said in devastated shock.
“Serious as it can get, kid.” I sighed, I felt a bit bad for him. I was unsure how he couldn’t have been aware of any of this given the state of his soul, but interacting with Lucifer… that’s a certain type of Hell nobody should ever have to deal with.
“Please. Just. Just tell me what’s going on.” He pleaded in defeat.
“Well, the creature inside that body you live with hosts Lucifer Morningstar, one of the most powerful entities in The Universe, and I, Michael, was sent down here to figure out what he’s up to and deal with him.”
“I don’t get it.”
“What... How could. How could you not get it?” I said, a little surprised.
“First off, Heaven and Hell are real, I gotta just sit and process that shit later because already that’s fuckin insane. Second of all, Lucifer. The DEVIL. It is inside of my BROTHER.”
“That’s correct, yeah.”
“Damien is one of the most devoted motherfuckers to God ever, and even if he wasn’t what the Hell does he want with Damien?? What do you want with me?”
“That’s what I’m here to find out, but to answer your question… I just need you so I can investigate Lucifer, and stop him.”
“Why me.”
“You were assigned to me, that’s it. You’re nothing but a means to an end for me.”
He stood there silently, shaking, before eventually piping up.
“I’ll only help you if Damien makes it out okay. He can’t die.” He lightly growled.
I chuckled. “He’s going to die eventually, your life currently is just a trial from my understanding.”
“I don’t give a shit, let him have a long trial. This is all him and I know, and I need him to live. I need him to be okay.”
I sat quietly for a little bit.
“Well?” He growled.
“... Fine. I’ll do whatever I can to keep him from death as long as you put in the effort too. It’s the least I can offer considering you’re going to have to die.” I sighed.
“I’m sorry what.” I felt his heart stop.
“You can’t live when I leave, obviously.”
“Why the Hell not?! Why am I not allowed to fuckin live??!” Our eyes were wide, he shook even more violently.
“Simple policy, if the mortal soul is disturbed by an angel, it has to be taken by the angel to Heaven as an apology, since that’s our own fault, except that’s never happened before… until now.” I sighed.
I felt him become incredibly angry, boiling over with rage.
“So you’re gonna fuckin kill me when this is done. I won’t even get to see Damien be happy.” He choked back tears.
“I mean, you will, just… not like this.” For some reason, I felt sorry for him. He was getting into Heaven automatically thanks to me, the perfect ending to mortality, and yet… he seemed so simple. A simple desire to exist alongside another. I felt mild relatability in this. Like some deep, deep longing for something similar was being pulled ever so slightly, but I shoved it away.
He sighed shakily, his voice cracking. “Fine. As long as he makes it out unscathed. I wasn’t meant for a long life anyway.”
______________________________________________________________________________
It was a bit later in the evening, we were both pretty quiet since then. I watched him feed us, hydrate us, take some sort of medications, he had a habit of standing around doing absolutely nothing for long periods of time, when he was supposed to be doing something or was actively in the middle of a task, it was strange. I watched him do work on a laptop, before heading to sleep.
I watched him for quite some time without saying much of anything, his life wasn’t all too interesting. I wanted to understand him better, I wasn’t sure why. It had nothing to do with my mission, but to cling so hard onto life, but ultimately be alright sacrificing for a sibling… I couldn’t understand. He wanted to cling onto this? Is all of this somehow is important to him? And, even more confusingly, if it's so important… his brother matters even more? What?
They don’t speak, not at all. His brother seemed to actively avoid him, in fact. It annoyed me. What a selfish creature.
Although, I’m not intended to understand any of this. I’m but a machine. I’m meant to be as far away from mortals as possible, their vessels are just shells to their true forms, which they have no knowledge or true access to until they shed off their shells. So I guess it’s a useless endeavor to bother with trying to understand this situation.
“Do you expect me to do all the work?” He growled, though nobody was in the room.
“Hello?? Michael??” Wait, he’s speaking to me?
“What?”
“Dumbass, you told me you’re down here to figure out what that Lucifer asshole is up to. Do you expect me to do everything?”
“No, I thought you wanted space.”
“I did, but I’ve been workin on figurin this shit out for a while. I thought angels were all seein or whatever.” He pinched the bridge of our nose.
“I stopped paying attention after a while, admittedly, so what is it you’re doing?”
He released a sigh. “Been researchin this dickwad, tryna figure out what he wants with Damien and stuff. Not goin much anywhere, though.”
“Lucifer’s been banished from the mortal plane since humanity essentially started, I’d know, I banished him myself.”
He was quiet for a bit.
“What?” I said.
“Still just… tryna get used to Michael The Archangel being inside of me. Keep goin.”
“... So the fact he has a body at all is extremely concerning,” I continued, watching Mikey lean us back in his chair. “It must mean he had his damned goons help do something to allow him a vessel. His soul is caged, and his body is unmoving, so whatever he’s up to he’s been planning for a while. Which means he has to be something huge, and awful.”
“Soul’s caged? Unmoving body? What?” He said, confused.
I groaned a little. “When he was cast out of Heaven, his initial body was burnt into nothing, leaving nothing left but his soul. His soul plummeted into the abyss alongside his followers’, and his rage was so great it caused his entire body to regenerate from the soul, creating the third dimension. Hell.”
“His body’s in Hell?”
“No, it IS Hell. The entire place. The entire dimension is alive, and its him. That’s his body. Get it?” I sighed.
“How the fuck- y’know what, no, nevermind not questionin it. Just. Continue.” He said with a tired groan.
“Best not to question these things, else we break your little mind.” I chuckled.
“Very funny.” He said with obvious sarcasm.
“Well, anyway. He was content down there for some time as the dimension started creating a Godless culture, he actually tried to repent for whatever stupid reason, I mean, can you believe that? Disobey the order of God Himself and then try to repent? Rehabilitate the Sinners, a species you made?” I weakly chuckled to myself.
“Can you just get on with it?” He growled.
“Anyway, once he inevitably failed his little rehab scheme, he hatched another one. It was some stupid revenge plan, but he managed far enough where I was sent to strike him down, and I won of course. With that, I caged his soul, and his soul remains trapped below Hell to this very day.”
“Fuckin Hell.”
“Yeah, he’s something.”
“That sounds awful.” He said with… pity? He was pitying him??
“Awful? Well of course it's awful, he’s awful.”
“Being trapped in pitch black for thousands of years doesn’t really sound fair.”
The nerve of this guy.
“You wouldn’t get it. Besides, don’t talk like that when you get out of the second dimension. Everyone’s going to think you’re some kind of heretic.”
“The Hell? No free speech in Heaven?”
“You can say whatever you’d like, it's just that Lucifer isn’t a welcome topic. His real name is even banned.” I sighed.
“You sound sad sayin that, thought he was your enemy.”
…
“The worst enemies always come from the people who know how to hurt you best.”
“Yeesh, alright fine. I won’t talk about it, clearly a sore subject.” He used our arm to scratch his back.
It was silent for a while, tense even, before I heard him pipe up again.
“So, how are we s’posed to figure any of this shit out? Your story was cool n’ all but it doesn’t really explain much to me.”
“Well, for starters we need to figure out what he does within your brother’s-”
“Hold on, gettin a call.” He interrupted me. The fucking nerve.
He used our hand to pick up his phone, looking at it, it said “Unknown Caller.” He sat and stared at it for a while, before answering it.
“Hey, is this Mikey Rivers? Damien Rivers’ brother?” Said the voice from the other end, they seemed to be a woman.
“Uhhh, yeah. What’s up?” Mikey said, we were both very confused.
“I need to speak to you about Damien, I’m a friend of his. It’s extremely important, can we meet up over coffee or something as soon as possible?” She asked.
“Uh. Sure.” Mikey said, he clearly hasn’t received calls like this before.
“Alright, how about this Thursday? 12PM?”
“Yeah. Works for me.”
“Cool, see you then, and thank you. Uhm, I’ll text you the location and stuff, unless you need a pickup.”
“I can drive myself, it’s cool.”
“Alrighty, uh, see you then?” She said awkwardly, hanging up the phone.
He sat around in silence alongside me, spinning in the chair, confused as ever.
“Maybe we’re not the only ones who noticed Lucifer.” He said.
“Sounds like it.”
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