Sixpence

[maderr]

Chapter Nine
Azza

Four heads looked up as Rabdos knocked at the door. Marut let him in, shoulders sinking at the look on the Fallen's face. He looked as tense and unhappy as the rest of them.

Rabdos collapsed on the couch next to Azza, and sighed tiredly. "So what's been going on with you lot?"

"Harut and Marut tangled with Nakir and Munkar...then again with Israfel." Azza said.

"How did you survive either encounter?" Rabdos raised a brow at Harut, who was staring blackly at whatever thoughts occupied his head.

Marut answered, "We managed to escape the twins, and Harut actually got the upper hand on Israfel...but then Baalbeith got him."

"And where were you in all of this?"

"Speaking with Baalbeith," Marut shifted uncomfortably. "If he'd wanted, he could have killed us both." He looked at Rabdos, "But you know that better than I."

Rabdos snorted, "I'm impressed Baalbeith got his hands dirty. Or that he had to - he's got a way with words that usually means he doesn't have to fight."

"Yes, he does..." Marut looked at his brother, still staring angrily into space, then down at his hands. He looked back up at Rabdos after a moment, "So what do we do now?"

"Let me go before things get worse?" Gabriel asked pleadingly from his corner. "If Luc and his closest companions are involved now, things are only going to get worse."

Rabdos shook his head, "We're not done for yet. And letting you go in that condition," he glared at the brothers, "Guarantees we all die."

"No angel will let anyone die."

"So you say," Rabdos looked at him impatiently. "But you're his lover, not one of his followers. My death is already assured, I promise you. And I doubt even you will keep him from killing or nearly killing those two."

Gabriel fell silent.

Marut broke it, voice hesitant. "Is it possible we're in over our heads? It's...getting to be too much," he looked cautiously at Rabdos. "Don't you think? I didn't think things would get this bad."

"How can you say that!" Harut exploded. He looked at his brother in disgust, face still a mess from where Baalbeith had hit him. "Are you saying we should quit?"

"No! I just...I just think maybe we should lay low or something." Marut looked down at his hands. "Everything is going wrong, and while we can be reasonably certain our brothers won't kill us, we can't say the same for the demons." He looked at Harut, "Plus we're still Falling."

"Which means we can't turn into cowards now!" Harut's eyes blazed as he surged to his feet, towering over his brother. Rabdos and Azza exchanged glances, remaining quiet. "I don't know what that demon put into your head but--"

Marut surged to his feet, his own anger flaring. "Baalbeith didn't put anything into my head! How dare you suggest that I let a demon sway my thinking!"

"Don't think I didn't notice you two were getting awfully chummy!"

"You don't know anything!" Marut clenched his fists at his side, "Would you just quit it? We didn't break free just to see everything spiral out of control like this! We're doing more harm than good, why can't we just stop for a bit!"

Harut sneered, "I think all that time upside down addled your brain."

"I don't think I'm the one we should be worried about. Do you really care about freedom, Harut? Or are you just more interested in getting revenge? You act more like a Demon than a Righteous!"

"How dare you!" Beyond reason now, Harut launched himself at his brother. "If you'd helped me instead of talking with Baalbeith--"

Marut deflected the blows as best he could, warning off Rabdos and Azza with a glance. "Stop it! Harut, stop!"

Ignoring Marut's glance, Rabdos joined the fray and hauled Harut away from his brother, pinning him down. "Are you okay, Mar?"

"I'm fine," Marut said, though he looked far from it. Without a long, sad glance at his brother, he left the room.

Rabdos tightened his grip on Harut, until the Punished hissed with pain. "Proud of yourself? For being so set on your goals you'd hurt your own brother?" He looked over at Azza, "Go after him. We don't want to risk him being found by anyone - especially all alone."

"I'm gone," Azza replied.

*~*~*~*

He found Marut after an hour of searching - the other Punished had gone just far enough away that anyone who did find him would not inadvertently stumble across the deconsecrated church where they were hiding. "Are you okay?"

Marut shrugged, fingering the bruises slowly healing on his face. His lip was still cracked and bleeding, but in another hour or so that too would be gone. "I'll survive. It's not the first time we disagreed about something."

"Is he always that violent?"

Shrugging again, Marut sighed softly up at the sky. "He was always quick to anger - but he didn’t start getting violent until about the time he decided he could do humanity better than the humans." A wry smile, "I don't think he ever realized that at the time, he was already doing everything wrong."

"…Why did you go with him, Mar? You would still be Righteous, and no one would have thought the worse of you, just because for once you left your brother to his own foolish impulses."

"I would have thought the worse of me," Marut said quietly. "I couldn't let him try it all alone, even if I knew we were doomed to failure."

"So why do all this? If you were expecting to be punished, why act against it now?"

Marut was still looking at the sky, "Because I was getting tired of it. We've been punished long enough. I just wanted to be free of that infernal well, to be right side up again…And I thought we were punished more harshly than was necessary. I think that whole experience lost me my taste for Heaven." he smiled sympathetically at Azza, "Though really I think you had it much worse than we did."

Azza grinned, "Well I did protest the presence of the Metatron and Sandalphon. Really, I wasn't very nice at all. I think Harut and I could both stand to learn to keep our tempers in check."

"I think maybe you have learned." Marut looked sad, "It's just Harut that seems to have gotten worse rather than better."

Shadows fell across them, and the two Punished jerked their heads up. Azza swore, "Nakir! Munkar!" He looked at Marut, "Run!" The two exchanged a long look. Azza spoke again, voice low. "Find somewhere new…because I'm not sure I'll be able to not tell them."

Marut nodded, and fled.

Nakir veered off to stop him, but found himself blocked by a stubbornly determined Azza. "I think you and I have business. Leave Marut out of it."

"On the contrary," Nakir said with an overly friendly smile. "Munkar and I don't plan on doing anything to you."

Munkar landed beside his brother. "Ruman made us promise we wouldn't hurt you, as much as we'd like to."

Azza opened his mouth to respond but was cut off as a searing, burning pain latched onto his throat. His words turned into a hoarse cry, increasing as he burned his hands reaching up to see what was choking him.

He was jerked back against a hard body, a voice of glee and violence speaking in his ear, "We, however, made no such promise." Azza was thrown to the ground, coughing and sputtering, a seared hand held to his burned and bleeding throat. He looked at his attackers. "Af, Hemah."

"In the flesh," Af said with a grin. In his hand was a chain made from black and red fire, uncoiled from where it had been tattooed into his skin. Just behind him stood his brother, chains scorching the grass they touched.

Azza rose slowly to his feet, still grimacing from pain. "I didn't mean to hurt him that badly. He scared the living shit out of me."

"We're not interested in your excuses, Punished." Hemah said, "And clearly you're not as badly wounded as he was, so I don't buy that anyway."

"I guess saying I'm sorry isn't good enough?" Azza said, resigned. He brandished his twin daggers - two long, serrated blades that shone dully in the cloudy sunlight.

"No!" Hemah said with the same glee as his twin before tossing a burning chain.

It wrapped around Azza's wrist, making the angel cry out in pain before he managed to break free. He dashed toward Af, the closer of the two, managing a gash across one arm before chains once more wrapped around his arms and waist.

"Any requests, Nakir, Munkar?" Af asked, looking over at the dark twins with exaggerated politeness. Between him and his brother, Azza struggled to break free of the burning chains. Blood hissed as it poured from his wounds and connected with the fiery chains.

"Nah," Nakir said.

"Okay," with a flourish the twins released Azza and sent him tumbling away and to the ground again.

Barely had he stood, knives in hand, before they renewed their attack, wrapping their chains around his arms, legs, torso just long enough to burn through his skin before letting go - then doing it all over again. Azza fought back as best he could but against the twins of Wrath and their far-reaching chains, he did not stand much of a chance.

Af's chain once more wrapped around his partially healed throat, and he pulled it tight as he drew close to Azza, who had collapsed to his knees, daggers on the grass beside him. "Are you sorry now?"

"I was already sorry," Azza said, eyes hazy with pain. "You two just never list--" his words were choked off as the chain tightened even more around his throat. His vision began to dim.

Then abruptly the burning pressure was gone, and through his uncertain vision he saw Af go flying backwards, crashing hard into a tree. His chains coiled back around his arms and chest, once more a harmless tattoo.

Uriel stood between the Wraths and badly wounded Azza. "How dare you," she roared in a voice fierce enough it made the Wraths wince. She rounded on the dark twins, "And don't think I don't know why this was occurring. All four of you are in more trouble than you can possibly imagine."

"But he hurt Rabdos," Nakir protested.

"I don't care," Uriel said loudly enough the ground seemed to tremble. "That doesn't give you the right to nearly kill a fellow angel - Punished or not."

Behind her landed Sandalphon, Azrael, Belial, and Lucifer. The Morningstar looked at Azza, then at the two pairs of twins. "A trifle excessive?"

"Che," the Wraths said, then all but cowered as Uriel launched into a long string of reprimands and curses, interspersing them with blows of her fists. They weren't dumb enough to try and block them.

Azrael merely looked at Nakir and Munkar, who bowed their heads, shamefaced.

As Uriel continued her reprimand, Sandalphon approached Azza and knelt before him on the ground. "Are you going to be all right, Azza?"

"Most likely," Azza said slowly. "I'm surprised you care, Sandalphon."

"Forgiven and forgotten, Azza. And we never had a grudge against you."

"I know," Azza managed a weak smile. "I was the one being a brat. I'm sorry."

Sandalphon smiled back, "Why are you doing all this, Azza? Rebellion doesn't suit you at all."

"I was tired of falling but never landing," Azza said, shuddering slightly at the memory of his Punishment - hung between Heaven and Earth, forever falling. "And it didn't seem like anyone was ever going to let me out." He tried to shrug, wincing. "So I just went with Harut and Marut."

"Come home?"

"Yeah," Azza's smile brightened, as Sandalphon leaned forward to embrace him. He sighed softly, relaxing against the angel and closing his eyes. "That would nice."

And slowly, as Sandalphon held him, the dull gray faded from his hair and wings. Even Lucifer had to smile, ever so faintly, as the Punished angel's sentence came to an end.

Comments

[twilight-angel.livejournal.com]

Aw, the ending! Just...aw!

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

You called Ruman 'Rabdos' somewhere up there. I think when one of the twins is talking. Thought you'd like to know.

Certainly a great treat to come back to after my battle with the cleaning list this morning. [heart] Cool stuff all around. Thanks for it.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Heh, I am forever cojangling those names. Thanks for the heads up.

*hearts back* Glad to brighten your day some, jeez I'dve killed one.

My format is a bit sporadic... don't mind, please? I'm typing from school, so am a bit distracted.

[kiyoshi-chan.livejournal.com]

"Without a long, sad glance at his brother, he left the room."

Without??

"Rabdos tightened his grip on Harut, until the Punished hissed with pain."

The comma seems a bit excessive.

"He found Marut after an hour of searching - the other Punished had gone just far enough away that anyone who did find him would not inadvertently stumble across the deconsecrated church where they were hiding. "Are you okay?""

"had gone just far enough", without the "away" seems to work as well... and "anyone who /found/ him" maybe? Unless you want to put emphasis on the "did"...

"But he hurt Rabdos," Nakir protested.

I think rykaine pointed this out already, but it should be Ruman right?

"I don't care," Uriel said loudly enough [that] the ground seemed to tremble. "That doesn't give you the right to nearly kill a fellow angel - Punished or not."

I think you missed a "that". [ ]'s. but I'm not sure about this one.

And, as I said last night... EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

*melts*

[mailechan.livejournal.com]

Oh wow...much love for making a bright spot in a long and exhausting weekend.

This is the reason why I am not an angel. I would have forgiven, perhaps forgotten, but I would not have accepted him back so readily. *hangs head*

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Hee - glad it helped.

You and me both sister. Which makes you wonder why, in the traditional stories, humans are supposed to be *better* than angels.

[nepenth.livejournal.com]

::sighs:: so wonderful!! ::snoggles::

[nepenth.livejournal.com]

::sighs:: so wonderful!! ::snoggles::