We Dream of Hope

The Effect

“WE LOST!” Raphiel’s voice carried as a rumble of thunder through the hall, “Michael had his chance to fix things, and Lucifer struck him down. What now?”

“We fight.” Ramiel stood fists clenched, “It’s what Michael would have wanted.”

Raphiel cracked a smile and a chuckle fell against the walls, “A hundred years has seen you age and wisen, but you’re still the youngest of us my sister. Gabriel, what do you see?”

Gabriel closed his eyes and opened them with defeat, “My previous vision of these events has yet to play to fruition. On this matter, nothing new will happen.”

“Is that why we were not permitted to bring our war beasts then?” Uriel hung his arm against the throne and his head fell low. “You still think I’ll turn on you then?”

“I do not think any such thing BROTHER.” He took a step closer to Uriel but maintained a distance, “I am merely pointing out that things I saw before are still possible.”

“Then what of Lucifer? What do you see about him now?” Ramiel rested her hands against Gabriel’s chest, “Please brother, look just for him. No one walked away from the battle, we don’t know anything but the victor.”

Gabriel shook his head, but closed his eyes and searched the expansive net of knowledge his eyes had access to. After a few moments his face lost all expression and his voice turned hollow as words spewed from his mouth, “Lucifer is lost to the source of power we have. It seems Michael did not have a total defeat. Secondly, something has awakened in the earth, she’s coming.” His eyes opened to see a woman with skin running like caramel walking into the hall. 

“Who in the name of the heavens is this?” Uriel looked her up and down but her head held high. A crown of vines ran across her head flowing down her back with flowers entangling her hair. Her skin though dark draped off into a red clay at her fingertips and she wore a dress that fell like molten rock giving her the appearance of a mountain gliding over the ground when she moved. 

“That brother is what was woken.” Gabriel bowed to the woman, “Please my lady what power brings you to our summit?”

“Diane, my name is Diane, and I come with my gift against these demons. I felt the battle between your kind for too long, and I cannot allow such a feat to take place again.” 

The council reconvened and Diane told the group of her plans with a sense of dignity the angels were well accustomed to, “My plan is to join together, my Medjay are built to fight these demons and with your war beasts we will not be defeated. I’ve spent the last hundred years perfecting my warriors and they will be a valuable asset to your cause.”

“Medjay you say?” Azrael spoke with a stomp on the ground, “I’ve encountered these so-called warriors, they fight like mindless husks of flesh. You can’t expect them to be any use against-”

“-Against powerful creatures that control emotions turning your soldiers into terrorized wrecks?” Diane took a slide toward Azrael, her mountain making her grow to tower over the ironclad general, “Trust me, angel I have seen your people. They are powerless when the demons use their emotional manipulations. Have any of you realized that a demon was created by Lucifer recently? Not just the usual way either, he and one of those monsters gave birth to the abomination!”

“What do you mean?” Ramiel looked at her in disbelief, “He couldn’t have.”

“No no, my dear he certainly did. She is a youngling currently but if she grows your kind will fall into an emotional aura of depression unable to act.”

“If what you’re saying is true,” Uriel finally stopped resting on the throne and stepped toward the group, “Lucifer is creating-”

“Power cells.” Gabriel looked up with a gloss over his eyes, “His children will fester and grow the power for the demons. With each sin implanted in their hearts, born strength will grow, farther away will be our victory. Should the power die, every demon of their type will fall powerless as well. The one of sloth is first to grace our presence, and from that we are grateful, the moment pride comes to our world we will have no chance until hope arrives for our future to progress.”

“We fight!” Uriel and Azrael drew their weapons ready to rush to battle with a fury in their eyes. 

Camael walked over to Ramiel draping a hand over her shoulder, “If we do this we must do it together, Michael was wrong to go without us. We will need everyone.”

Tears pooled in her eyes and her voice cracked, “Gabriel, please. We are strongest together.”

Gabriel’s emotions remained lost as he struggled to gather more knowledge from the beyond, “We can’t-can’t fight. Not as one. I-” his head shook and his eyes returned to him, “I’m sorry Ramiel the fates of time will provide me with nothing until the rest plays out.”

“Then give him a prophecy, write one he must follow and toss it to the winds. Please brother, we need a chance.” Ramiel’s face swelled with the tears and her cheeks flushed red.

He turned and looked at everyone, “If you are all in agreement I can search, but it will take time and no action can be committed on our part until it is done. When it is done you may not like what you hear, and the winds will carry but who knows what else the fates will tie in.”

Diane shook her head, “While we bicker over this pedantic fate twisting, the enemy grows stronger, he has fathered one already, why not fight when he’s weak. We can find him, we can fight him.”

The angels all turned to Diane and Ramiel spoke first, “We have to do this, this is our only chance to preserve what we have worked for lifetimes to achieve.”

Diane threw her arms in the air and turned away, “Fine, you angels mess with your fate, my army will find him and we will end this nightmare.” Her mountain carried her away and down the slopes below the cloud line until she was beyond everyone’s sight. 

“Gabriel, please begin.” Uriel nodded and everyone else followed, holding hands with Gabriel at the center standing directly below the cut in the ceiling a single beam of light shone down on him as his eyes went completely white. His back cracked and his wings flew from his back golden and glittering in the light. 

They stood waiting for Gabriel to find a compatible prophecy to strike down Lucifer. In the end Diane was alone on the battlefield, her Medjay though formidable were no match for Lucifer’s demons. They outnumbered her troops and she was captured. Many Medjay escaped, but they never would regain their whole numbers, and in the years to follow they would turn into hired hands protecting cities from the demons who washed over them like a plague. It seemed for the war beasts that they would also have to carry on without their commanders. Many of them still clung to the missions they were given before the angels departed, and over the years whispers grew that the angels weren’t gone forever. For a hundred years life fell into a circle. Demons attacked, they met opposition, demons won, opposition perished, and the demons moved on. Humans felt abandoned, but the war beasts all clung to the belief their time would return. 

As the light around Gabriel faded he felt a sense of defeat with the news he was about to bring, “The prophecy is set.”

“And?” Uriel pulled his hands free, “What is it?”

“Lucifer will have seven children, one of each sin. Death takes the child and the demons will all fall. He will lose his greatest treasure he did not know he was missing. In that moment his loss will have been complete. This comes with a sacrifice from our end, we must each lose our greatest treasures.” Gabriel held his mouth shut after the words, but it seemed to be enough for the others. 

“What are our treasures then? What if we do not lose them?” Camael spoke up as the one to show the most concern.

“If we do nothing by the time his seventh child is born then this was all for naught.”

Uriel took a step away from everyone and nodded to Azrael both held a silent exchange, “This council is over, I know what we must do.” With a flash, he disappeared taking Azrael with him leaving everyone else looking to the other for some form of an answer. 

Gabriel took hold of their hands, “This is meant to happen. It is too late to say goodbye for me, but you two hold your treasures in the future, please, don’t let them go recklessly.” A cry filled the halls as young children screaming in agony. Shrieks of terror went unanswered. 

“FATHER!”

“No please!”

“Don’t”

Gabriel closed his eyes pushing tears down his face as he crumbled to the floor. His knuckles grew white as his fingers dug into his knees. Camael and Ramiel each looked at his display and back to one another unsure what horrors were happening off the mountain of peace. Inhaling as each new scream erupted and echoed into the setting sun was all Gabriel could do to ease himself as much as possible but as the sounds grew his eyes squinted tighter and his inhales grew sharper. Nothing could stop the screams of young children. 

“Show mercy!”

“NO!”

 As he tried to suppress his screams showing any further agony whimpers escaped his lips as they quivered at everything he was losing. All the abandoned little ones who grew to trust him with their lives now betrayed and all for a prophecy he was reluctant to draw out. What was worse for Gabriel wasn’t that he couldn’t act, but that he knew who was causing his treasures pain and he would have to live each day afterward unable to retaliate. At that moment everyone knew the horrors of dying rabbits, and Gabriel knew he would be powerless to stop the wheel from spinning in the current direction of damnation. His fingers released his knees and clenched into fists so tight blood was starting to trickle into his palms and the tears started to dry up. His ears hardened to the sound of the screams as they continued through the night and by morning, he was once again standing with eyes looking off to the world below. 

“I’m done.” He whispered as the final screams died down, “Do not come to me, do not try to find me.”

Camael and Ramiel each dried their tears and looked at the back of their eldest brother’s head.

“Goodbye.” was the last thing the two of them ever heard and Gabriel felt it was still too much, even though this was meant to happen he still didn’t think it was right. He took a seat, legs dangling off the edge of the mountain. He thought of the first time he held one of those abandoned vessels of innocence. They were scarred by their world and he gave them a path of purpose, using those scars as their guidelines. He offered them a chance to make the world a better place. He turned as he heard the sound alerting him he was finally all alone. He turned his head up to the sky and sighed, “I had a dream for you all my sweet bundles of wonder. I am so sorry.” His head fell forward into his hands, “I am so sorry.”