In the blink of an eye Sera's sword was at hand. Cautiously the archangel made his way to the door. Hesitating for just a moment, he threw open the door, not knowing what to expect. All of his muscles were taught, ready to attack. However, no attack would be needed; who greeted Sera's gaze shocked him.

A short woman stood before him. She was voluptuous, built like the ancient Grecian paintings of Aphrodite. She was completely naked, save for a long flowing shawl that covered her shoulders and wrapped around her arms. The shawl was an opaque black, and when the material shifted it glimmered and twinkled like starlight. Jet black ringlets poured down her back past her buttocks. She was pale, skin a milky white, and her eyes were black, the pupils circles of white. Her nails were perfectly trimmed, made from shining black onyx.

Immediately, Sera went on one knee and bowed his head, sword disappearing into thin air. "Lady Nyx."

The Goddess entered, bending at the waist and taking Sera's hand. Sera looked up and she took his other hand, helping him to his feet. She smiled, revealing sparkling white, perfect teeth.

"Good evening, Seraphin. I do hope I am not intruding?"

"Not at all," Sera replied, moving to the side so Nyx could enter his house fully. He shut the door behind her. "To what do I owe this greatest of pleasures to?"

Lady Nyx looked at Sera evenly. "Let's boil right to it and skip formalities. I have come to ask you to spare my husband's life. I will veritably beg if I have to."

Sera narrowed his eyes and his nostrils flared. "You heard?"

Nyx looked slightly offended. "Of course."

"From?"

Nyx stood straighter, thrusting her large breasts forward. "Come now Sera, don't be so dumb. You know I am omnipotent."

Sera's lips pursed into a thin line. "Then you too should not be so dumb, Lady Nyx. Your husband took a very large city with millions of people in it and wiped it off the face of The Surface. He is trying to prematurely cause Armageddon."

"You don't know that," she replied testily. Her will seemed to falter a bit, and she clasped her hands. "Can't you—I don't know. Talk to him?

Sera outright laughed at her. "Talk to The Morningstar? You're just as crazy as he is! There's no talking to him. He only speaks in lies—if he's having a lucid day." Sera sneered. "Why don't you talk to him? You're his wife."

It seemed as though any willpower evaporated out of Nyx, and her shoulders slumped. She looked at her bare feet, a long curl falling into her face. "I have not spoken to him in years. I lost track, it's been so long. He's a sick man, Sera."

"Not my problem."

Lady Nyx's head shot up. She strode over to Sera, taking his forearm in desperation.

"Please," she said, black eyes pools of need, "try to see it from my perspective. You weren't there. You don't know what it was like when I found him. He was in a crater, alone, afraid. He had gone mad, screaming and ripping all his newly blackened feathers off."

Sera turned his head, glaring at the wall. "I don't want to hear this..."

"He was in pain, Sera! He was in utter anguish!" she spoke desperately. "By the time he fell all the way from Heaven, it was night. It was my time of day. And here was a broken, confused, petrified being in my realm."

Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. "I didn't know what to do so I gathered him up in my arms and calmed him down. I created a place for him to live. Dug it out with my own two hands, I did. Deep within the ground because seeing the open sky reminded him too much of the Heaven he could never return to."

She brought a shaking hand to her own cheek. "Every time he thought of Heaven he'd start tearing at his wings again. When there weren't any feathers left he'd obsessively pick at the scabs."

"You created Hell?" Sera was finally able to gasp out.

Nyx blinked profusely, rousing herself out of the painful memory of her husband and focusing back on Sera. "I created the space for him, yes. He developed a literal God complex, filling it with his own creations. But they always came out wrong and twisted."

"Creations—demons? Devils? Things like that?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"And he used that damned pendant he stole to do that, didn't he?"

Her eyes fell to the ground. When she spoke it was quiet. "Yes."

Sera sucked in a hiss of breath, trying to calm himself.

"He wasn't always like that."

Sera laughed bitterly and crossed his arms. "Ah yes, well, you see, that was long before my time, Nyx. I understand at some point he wasn't the psychopathic, deranged, remorseless hindrance he is now, but like I said; let's have bygones be bygones, yes? That's what he is now."

"Please," Nyx said, rushing forward and taking Sera by the arm again. "He was–he was beautiful."

Sera rolled his eyes heavily. "So I've heard."

Nyx shook her head, ringlets flying about. "No, you don't understand. He was pure, he was innocent."

Sera stepped away out of her grasp once more. "See, you keep using that one word–was."

The Woman of Night ignored the angel. "He was like a curious scientist. Lucifer told me when he was in Heaven, before he Fell, he moved around Heaven just running about, seeing what he could do with the innocence of a child."

Sera glared off to the side, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"He would contort his body into many different things," Nyx continued fondly. Her eyes unfocused, a small smile appearing with the memory. "His first form was a serpent, and he gave himself horns, with the feet of an alligator, front arms human, covered in scales, the hands had the talons on eagles."

"Oh, that sounds delightful," Sera said sardonically. "Simply the stuff of nightmares!"

Nyx blinked and then hesitated. "Well, I mean, yes, at first. But then he started putting pieces together, things that, you know, made sense. Were cohesive. The serpent body joined with the alligator parts–I mean, what were to become a serpent and alligator, with time."

Sera slowly turned his head to Nyx. "Wait a minute." He looked horrified, screwing up his face. "Are you seriously trying to tell me that–that it was Lucifer–who created animals?"

Nyx laughed, a hint of bitterness to it. "Yes, Sera; why is that so hard to believe? He was the First Angel. He was the first thing God ever created. Like I said–he was beautiful. So he could do beautiful things."

Sera didn't know how to rightly reply to that, so he didn't.

Nyx smiled again. "Once he got animals and body parts all figured out, do you know what Lucifer's favorite thing to shape-shift into was?"

Sera shot her a mocking look. "No, I don't."

"A cat. A black cat, specifically."

He shot a look of disbelief at her.

"What? Where do you think superstitions about black cats come from? Sayings like, 'Cat got your tongue'?" She tisked, wrapping her shawl around herself tightly, giving the angel a reproachful stare. "'Curiosity killed the cat?'"

Now Sera looked mildly intrigued, though he tried to hide it. The Goddess felt his shift in demeanor, even though it was just a flicker. Smiling, she released her shawl and strode across the room to Sera, the cape billowing behind her and shimmering spectacularly.

"That saying comes from that day, you know. The day he was smote. It's why cats are so curious. How do you think Lucifer got the Pendant of Being in the first place?"

Sera pursed his lips and looked away. To his surprise, Nyx reached out and grabbed his face with one hand, forcing him to look at her. "He turned into a black cat, snuck in, took the pendant, and left."

Sera wretched his face away and glared, taking a few steps back. "And then he Fell, right?"

Nyx laughed. "Oh no, Sera. Then he began creating things. By that point, Adam and Eve were already made. Lucifer felt–" she hesitated. "Sorry, for them."

Sera looked confused. "How so?"

"Well," Nyx said delicately, wringing her hands. "You see, God made them, and then He–well, He left."

Sera narrowed his eyes.

"Sera, Adam and Eve were bored."

Sera raised both his eyebrows and nodded in mocking enthusiasm. "Oh, were they now?"

"Yes. I mean, Adam and Eve had each other, and they had their garden but–well...What else was there?"

Sera tried not to, but once again he could not hide his true feelings from the Goddess. She smiled briefly, plunging onward.

"It was just them, so Lucifer made them pets."

"Pets? You mean, animals?"

Nyx laughed. "Yes."

"And he did that using the Pendant?"

Nyx nodded.

"And God didn't notice his Garden was being overrun with animals?"

Nyx almost laughed, but the smile was replaced with brevity. "Oh, he noticed...He knew what Lucifer had done. He warned Lucifer to stop making creatures."

Sera was genuinely shocked. "Well, for God's sake, why didn't he?"

Nyx once more looked desperate. "Because God made him to be curious. That would be like–like–like–" Nyx looked around herself as though searching for words. She looked at Sera. "That would be like if God told you to not protect humans!"

Sera snorted. "That's absurd."

"Yes, it is absurd! It's ingrained in you practically, almost like a sort of DNA."

Sera frowned.

Nyx sighed exasperatedly and threw up her hands. "Do you see what I mean?"

Sera then took a menacing step forward, glaring down at the voluptuous woman. "No, I don't. What I see is a spoiled little brat of a child who stole something and didn't have sense enough to give it back."

Nyx wrapped her arms around herself. "Please Sera. Have some compassion."

Sera laughed again. "Compassion? How dare you come strutting in here and lecture me about compassion! I do have compassion--I have compassion for all those innocent souls that your husband slaughtered today."

Nyx glared at him then and waved a hand. "They're like roaches. They'll rebound, and there's plenty more where they came from." When Sera's face turned red in anger, she rushed on before he could say anything. "Besides, all those humans are bound to self-destruct at any moment now, anyway."

For a second Sera's mouth dropped open. He could not believe what he was hearing. "They have souls for God's sake! They're God's children!"

"No," Lady Nyx snapped, pointing a finger at Sera's face. Her face twisted in anger. "Lucifer is God's child. Jesus is God's child. I, to an extent, am God's child. You are God's child."

She pointed her finger at the door. "Those—those—things down there on The Surface are nothing more than a science experiment gone horribly wrong, and The Surface is little more than a Petri dish with too many spores growing in it!"

"Get out."

"Sera, please--"

"I said," Sera replied, his eyes turning white. "Get. Out."

"For God's sake, think of our children! Do you really want them to be fatherless?"

"Ah yes," Sera said, barely containing his anger, flickers of snapping lightning rising from his wings, "the Erinyes. How are your deformed, repulsive daughters doing these days?"

A shadow passed over Nyx's face. "I pray you never have children of your own, Seraphin."

"You have the audacity," Sera said, his voice flat and quiet, "to come in here and try to humanize Lucifer? Try to convince me to spare him?"

Lady Nyx opened her mouth to speak, but Sera's hand shot up to silence her. She slammed her mouth shut, a brief look of fear fluttering over her perfect face.

"You know what else Lucifer has made, besides your hideous, abominable triplets that you were stupid enough to carry to term?"

Nyx blinked, looking highly offended.

"Nightmares," Sera continued. "Did you forget that he projects his own dreams to The Surface so that they plague the human race? And do you know why he did that?" When the Goddess didn't respond, Sera snapped at her, bellowing. "Answer me!"

Lady Nyx winced. "It was just another way to make humans suffer."

"And do you know why your husband wants humans to suffer?"

Nyx looked at her feet again. "Of course I do. He's jealous that God loves them more than him."

"Need I remind you also that he created sin, created pain and suffering? He did it to try and turn God's creations against him—a truly selfish and petty move, might I point out? And he's done it multiple times? Jealousy is a wicked thing, Nyx."

"But—"

"And what about my dear friend Michael?" For a moment Sera paused, grinding his teeth audibly. "Or did you forget about the debacle in which Lucifer stormed Heaven on Christmas?"

"Sera—"

"Don't make me drag Fate into this," Sera snarled, "who is on my side by the way. Because I will. He is at my beck and call these days, as I am to him."

Sera took a menacing step forward. "So while yes, you are a primordial God—one of many—Fate is the primordial deity. There are rumors he might have even created God, or God sprung from Fate somehow. God and Fate are so intertwined no one knows for sure who came first. Which is why literally everyone fears him. Including you, Lady of the Evening.

"So. I will only ask you nicely once more." Sera's sword was in his hand again, giving Nyx a look that would have wilted a flower. Lightening snapped off his large white wings. "Get. Out."

The woman heaved a sigh. Gathering her black shawl about herself, she inclined her head. Sera bowed, staring her down. Pursing her lips she turned, opened the door and slammed it behind herself. Sera stood a moment, staring at the shut door. He then sighed heavily.

"Who was that?"

Sera turned. Rosalyn stood with her hands on Jeanette's shoulders. Jeanette held a very large chocolate chip cookie, her purple eyes equally large. Sera blinked a few times, his wings relaxing, his white eyes shifting back to their ever-changing rainbow iris'.

"That was Lady Nyx." He scowled. "She is The Night, one of the primordial Goddess' that God created when He created everything. She and her sister Dawn rule over the sky on The Surface."

Sera pursed his lips into a thin line. "She's also Lucifer's wife, and together they had the Erinyes, the deities of Vengeance. They're the infernal Goddesses who help bring corrupted souls to Death in the Underworld, since Fate has no power over the corrupted ones. The Ferryman then takes them and brings them across the River Styx into Hell."

Rosalyn rose her eyebrows. "I thought that was all Grecian mythos? I didn't think any of that was real?"

"Most religions have some sort of truth to them," Sera said, his expression looking sour. "Humans bicker over one God or many--the truth is, both are correct. The One God created many Gods. No one religion is correct, and what's worse is most humans corrupt religion with their own stupid, repressive believes to try and control each other."

Rosalyn started. "Sera—do we have to be worried? Is she going to go and warn Lucifer we're coming?"

Sera frowned. "While she technically outranks me, she knows better than to mess with Fate, who outranks everyone but God. As soon as he entered the picture, no one except God Himself should really meddle in this."

Jeanette looked worried, bringing her cookie close to her chest. "And if they do?"

Sera strode over and knelt in front of her. He smiled disarmingly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "There would be dire consequences then, and there are few deities out there that are stupid enough to do that, I assure you."

Jeanette bit her lip and looked at the ground for a moment. She then rose her head, tears standing in her eyes. "Is God going to be angry at us Sera, for what we're doing?"

Sera's smile fell. He gave the child a brief hug. "He shouldn't be. And if He is, I'll deal with it. I'll say I strong-armed you into all this; I'll take the blame for everything." When a tear fell from her eye, he wiped it away and smiled again. "I promise I won't let you fall out of good favor with Him."

"I don't want you to get in trouble either, Sera."

That statement genuinely caught Sera off-guard. He was mystified that even in this dire situation, she was worried for his well-being. Still not allowing his emotions to get the best of him, the archangel stood, sighing. "It has to be done."

"Speaking of..." Rosalyn said, training off.

"Yes, you are right. We should go."

Jeanette looked at her cookie. "Could I finish my cookie first, please?"

Rosalyn and Sera gave each other crushed looks, not even attempting to hide the look.

"Please?" Jeanette said, bursting into tears again. "It might be my last."

Sera went to the child and hugged her, wrapping them both in his wings. He kissed the top of her head as he heard Rosalyn sniff. Sera shut his eyes.

"Of course, Jeanette, of course."