To be an Angel, part 1

It was pleasantly warm in the Hatchery, like the whole chamber was tucked underneath a soft, thick layer of feathers. Technically, the place was not called the Hatchery, not officially, since there were no actual eggs to be hatched, yet the name was somewhat appropriate so no one bothered to change it.

The Hatchery was in a perpetual state of dawn, as if it was to symbolize the welcoming of something new, as if the reign of cold nothingness was coming to an end and the gradual heat was affectionately tugging at life to just be.

All across the chamber, thousands of dimly glowing orbs were scattered and lying patiently. Each orb held a new angel inside, waiting to be fully formed and released into Heaven. These were to be the last – or perhaps one of the last – generation of angels. Lucifer had been told that God might make one final batch after this, but the matter remained uncertain.

Looking at the orbs, Lucifer noted that it would be almost time, that Heaven would rejoice in the arrival of the newest angels. He had lately been monitoring the conditions of the orbs, and by his calculations, they would be bursting fairly soon.

At this point, Lucifer had already passed by every orb at least three times. There had been moments when he attempted to decipher a few orbs, like if he studied the light and contours long enough he might be able to have an idea of what and how some of his siblings might turn out to be, such as their name, the structure of their Grace, and their wings. However, all the orbs appeared the same to him, no matter how hard he scrutinized them and no matter what angle he viewed them from. It was as if God designed their outer casing to be a blank slate, purely uninteresting and exactly like the rest, so that they can make their own unique marks,and that their individual traits will be revealed overtime, slowly but surely, in a manner similar to an artist's deliberately precise strokes that would eventually show something magnificent.

Nonetheless, Lucifer was excited. He was looking at Heaven's future guardians, God's latest masterpieces, the most recent additions to his family.

Then he felt it; a fissure no bigger than a grain of salt. Barely a second later, that tiny crack spread, spider-webbing all throughout the Hatchery until every orb seemed more brittle than eggshells made from dandelion seeds. If Lucifer required to breathe, he would be holding his breath right about now in fear of accidentally ruining the process happening before him.

What came next took place at such an incredibly great speed that it was more fleeting than the beat of a hummingbird's wings. But through Lucifer's eyes, he can perceive every detail as if the Hatchery had been plunged into an intricate slow motion.

From each orb, a tiny dot of light burst out and shot upward like a jet of fire eagerly and proudly erupting from the surface of the sun. Every dot shone in a different color and radiated in its own unique frequency of light; these were the angels in their purest, most basic form. The dots, for the most part, were featureless.

They had no wings yet since the whole of Heaven was lending its blessing to them, infusing them with the strength of floating and soaring. Their wings would become apparent as soon as they had harnessed enough energy, much like a baby animal being able to feed on solid food after it had bolstered itself from its mother's milk.

Their faces were also not visible as they had yet to adjust and develop in their new surroundings. They did not know what to expect, what they had to do, how they should act, so they remained blank for now. In due time, they will evolve, like how some creatures evolved on Earth to better suit their environment. The face – or oftentimes faces – of an angel would be dependent on their personality and behavior, so that will be a very careful process.

What was more, their release into Heaven was silent; no roar of joy, no whoosh of purpose, no tinkling of little voices murmuring their first words. The spectacle occurred in absolute quiet, for the angels had no knowledge of sound yet; they had not heard anything during their first few moments of existence.

In spite of that fact, the brilliance of the Hatchery at this very instant rivaled that of the universe and all its vastly twinkling stars. For Lucifer, witnessing the creation of his siblings was far more grandiose than staring at the wonders of the galaxy, because unlike the stars and the planets, the lights here were truly alive.

His newest siblings rose higher and higher in an instinctive urge to remove themselves from the Hatchery, see Heaven, and accustom themselves to their home. They will fly along the ether of Heaven for a while, exploring and learning and growing, until they deem themselves ready to officially join their older siblings.

With pride swelling in his Grace, Lucifer watched as his brothers and sisters whizzed out of the Hatchery. He prayed they would serve God well and bring righteous honor to the cause.

He was about to depart when he noticed something at the corner of his vision. Lucifer turned and was surprised to see that there was a dot of light on the floor, struggling to get into the air. As he approached it, he realized that it was one of the newly-created angels, a sibling left behind by the rest. The dot of light was blue, although instead of being cool and shining like the reflection of the sky on a still ocean, it was pale and wavering.

Its light was flickering erratically, as if it had trouble keeping itself bright. It made no noise but it sent out waves of sorrow and fear at being alone. The blue light shifted to a certain angle, and Lucifer had to guess that it was looking up at where the rest of its kind was zooming in freedom.

Somewhat motivated, or distressed, the blue light tried to fly, yet all it ever managed to achieve was to shakily hover a short distance from the floor and then fall back down. This continued for a few times, and with every desperate attempt, Lucifer found himself pitying it. The first moments of an angel's life should be a momentous, happy occasion; it should not be spent in frailty and despair.

The blue light gave a couple of more attempts, with each weaker and more pathetic than the last, until what little strength it had to begin with ran out. The blue light tilted itself upward as its siblings finally disappeared from view, and for a minute, the blue light became motionless, like it registered that it had been forgotten and was at a loss at what to do. It emitted more waves of distress, as if in an effort to call out to them, to come back so it would not be alone anymore, but its pleas went unnoticed by them.

Though now exhausted, the blue light endeavored to crawl, dragging itself across the floor with as much determination as a sick newborn catching up to the herd. It did not take long for it to deplete its energy and stop moving. Its glow sputtered alarmingly, nearly going out, and it would seem that the little thing was close to dying. Despite its feeble state, the blue light tried to call out one last time, still holding onto the hope that it would be heard. When no one returned, the blue light started to fade and become dimmer…

Without thinking, Lucifer snatched the blue light off the floor and held it near his Grace so that it may sustain itself from a fraction of his energy. This was going against a number of rules. Older angels should not interfere with their newly-created brothers and sisters on their first days;they needed to develop on their own without being influenced by others. Regardless, Lucifer cannot bring himself to simply watch as his sibling slowly perished in front of him.

The blue light was so small in Lucifer's hand that even a slight fold might crush it. As he studied his sibling, Lucifer wondered why it had been brought into existence in such a miserable condition. In all his millennia of watching his family, this was the first time he had ever encountered a situation that involved a straggler. Was this blue light, in some obscure purpose or another,God's first fledgling death? Or was this blue light simply a late bloomer? For his sibling's sake, Lucifer hoped it was the latter.

With the blue light in his hand, Lucifer could feel it tremble since it was still reeling from an overwhelming amount of emotions:terror, confusion, sadness, anguish.

He thought about putting it back on the floor and leaving it; if it was God's will that this angel would die prematurely, then Lucifer had no right to contradict that. Besides, he had broken enough rules by simply approaching this newly-created sibling. As an archangel, he had to set an example to the other angels, teach them the value of following orders and –

Lucifer almost laughed. He was starting to sound like Michael.

Obviously, he was going to do the right thing, and the right thing just so happened to be breaking another rule.

He took off to his private chambers, carrying the blue light with him.

O_x

In the far reaches of the archangels' domain was Lucifer's territory, which glowed so brightly it was as if every inch of his abode had been constructed from a million stars clustered tightly together. And yet everything was dull in comparison to the Morningstar himself, who shone more intensely than any other light source God created. Here, light was under Lucifer's command, for no matter what form it manifested into, his sheer radiance cannot be matched.

Lucifer placed the blue light – whom he had nicknamed Blue, for the meantime – in a sort of nest that was assembled from the warmest, most tender rays of sunshine and the beautifully amusing glitter of fireflies. Thankfully, Blue had stopped flickering like it was about to go out. Nevertheless, Blue appeared a long way off from fine; its glow was weak and it no longer possessed the will to move, which worried Lucifer greatly.

He tried to carefully nudge it using his Grace, copying a tactic he had seen some animals do when their young was unresponsive. Lucifer did this for a few times until Blue's apparent fragility finally concerned him enough to stop provoking his new sibling too much, lest he accidentally damaged him… or her.

Afterward, Lucifer took the barest smidgeon of his Grace from his form and put it in the 'nest' in case Blue required energy, nourishment of some kind. But despite the fact that the bit of Grace was right next to it, Blue did not so much as shy away or twitch in surprise.

Anxiety filling him up, Lucifer plucked a feather from his wings and placed it in the 'nest' as well, in the chance that Blue might view the foreign object with curiosity and be interested to examine it. Again, Blue did not react.

To make matters worse, he heard the telltale wings of Gabriel as he approached Lucifer's chambers, unpronounced and without permission as always.

"Hey, Luci! I've been practicing that duplication thing and I think – " Gabriel stopped talking immediately when he registered that Lucifer was up to something.

Gabriel grinned impishly. "What'cha got there?" he asked, and every syllable implied that he wanted nothing more than to bother his older brother to the point where he would snap.

While Gabriel was by no means renowned for his rational thinking or extraordinary intelligence, Lucifer was well aware that his brother could pick out a message from the smallest details. The slightest movement might as well have been an entire narrative for him since God had imbued him with a keen sense of discernment – perhaps too keen.

However, Lucifer dared to step forward, thereby blocking Blue from Gabriel's sight but informing him anyway that he was concealing something. Knowing Gabriel's brash personality, it was for the best that he knew he was being kept away rather than having him wreck the whole place because he wanted to find out what was going on. At least with this tactic, Gabriel might be a bit more cautious, and for the sake of the weak sibling under Lucifer's protection, he better be cautious.

"None of your business, Gabriel." said Lucifer.

The words came out as a threat, yet to Gabriel it sounded like an invitation. He snickered and zoomed forward, right at Lucifer, seemingly with the intention to knock him over.

Lucifer fired a mighty blast of energy at him, and if he had been aiming at anyone lower than the rank of an archangel, they would surely be immensely wounded, or even killed. For Gabriel, the most severe effect on him would be a very, very painful stun that should immobilize him for a few Earth hours, maybe a complete Earth day if Raphael was getting annoyed with him again.

Quicker than a bolt of lightning, Gabriel dodged the first blast quite easily. Lucifer hurled another blast at him, then another, and another, and another… yet his brother proved too elusive to hit. Gabriel made sharp turns as he flew sideways, rose in complex circles only to dive back down when least expected, zigzagged so rapidly that he would be a blur to a common angel's eyes. And all throughout the chase, Gabriel's mischievous laughter was there to taunt him.

Despite the chaos, Lucifer refused to leave his spot. If he did, Gabriel might be able to snatch Blue away and do God-knows-what with it.

"I'm not leaving 'til you tell me what you're hiding!" said Gabriel. He was flying in a complex, haphazard spiral and not a single one of Lucifer's blasts had even grazed the edges of his wings. Of course, Lucifer had to hold back somewhat; he had no wish to frighten the sibling he was guarding. He was by no means getting sloppy with his aim.

"If you don't get out right now – " Lucifer did not manage to finish his sentence as Gabriel unexpectedly rushed up at him, inciting such a forceful gust of wind that got his wings in a ruffle. It caused him to be distracted for a split-second, but that was enough for Gabriel to get right in front of him. Acting quickly, Lucifer projected a huge globe of energy and sent it at Gabriel.

The globe of energy passed through him and the form of his brother wavered, before eventually disappearing with a wink.

He did mention he had been practicing his duplication trick.

Lucifer wanted to kick himself. Then punch Gabriel so hard that he would cause a tear in the fabric of this dimension.

Just as expected, when Lucifer had recovered, Gabriel – the real one – had reached Blue's 'nest.' "Ooohh, Michael's gonna be so pissed when he finds out you're keeping a newborn here." he said, grinning in delight at the prospect of Michael yelling at Lucifer with the force of a supernova.

"Don't you dare!" Lucifer made a move to grab Gabriel but his brother whooshed out of his reach, taking the 'nest' with Blue in it with him.

"Were you actually jealous of all the animals getting busy on Earth?" he mocked.

Hurling more energy blasts at Gabriel was not an option since he had Blue in such close proximity. The sole course of action Lucifer had was to lunge at him, which resulted in a very awkward, very terrifying chase. It was terrifying because the velocity they were both exerting showed just how much power they can casually discharge. And it was awkward, even degrading, because two archangels – Heaven's most admirable warriors and God's fiercest creations – were basically engaged in a game of catch.

"I've always said you've got feminine tendencies, but now you're really such a girl!" Gabriel teased.

Lucifer stretched toward Gabriel; Gabriel plunged downward and navigated his way near the floor like a deranged tuna. Lucifer swerved to the right and descended, planning to collide; Gabriel laughed and darted out of Lucifer's range just barely in the nick of time. He bounced the 'nest' from one hand to another while flying as if he was holding nothing more than a play thing. Lucifer swooped down on him but Gabriel rolled elegantly away and got more altitude in between them.

His younger brother cackled in amusement as he flew farther. "Is Mommy Luci getting slow in her age? Aww, did Mommy Luci want to have her own bundle of – ?"

All of a sudden, with his attention fixed on what was behind him, he crashed into Lucifer, and as the 'nest' slipped away from him upon impact, Gabriel realized that Lucifer had tricked him using the illusion he had invented. Apparently, a fake-Lucifer had been tailing him for quite some time, herding him toward a trap.

Lucifer smirked as he caught the 'nest' and watched Gabriel crumble before him, moaning and coming up with what he called 'curse words.' The fake-Lucifer vanished just as when the real Lucifer crouched down to Gabriel's level.

"Am I interrupting family-bonding time?" he said, cracking a smile despite the blow he had obtained.

"If you ever mention this to Michael, I am trapping you under a burning sea of ice." threatened Lucifer as he hid Blue in the safety of his wings.

Gabriel's eyes widened and his posture became rigid. "There's no such thing!" he exclaimed.

"Father recently created a planet composed of seventy-eight burning seas." said Lucifer.

For a while, Gabriel stared Lucifer down, as if he could bring his brother's words to light and prove them to be a huge chunk of lies. Unfortunately for him, Lucifer showed no signs of cracking; in fact, he stared back at him with a look of pure, smug honesty.

Gabriel slumped in defeat and acceptance. "So… what's the deal?" he asked, gesturing at Lucifer's back where Blue was.

"The little one is having a tough time adjusting to life." Lucifer slowly replied, considering his words prudently.

"Sucks." muttered Gabriel. Then, he perked up. "It got a name yet?"

There was a second wherein Lucifer wanted to say 'Blue,' but he knew Gabriel would either laugh at him or judge him severely at the ridiculous simplicity of it (and he would certainly use that to annoy and tease him for the next decade or two) so he opted to say, "It's still not communicating."

In truth, angels named themselves, or at least the name God had given them was imprinted deep within their Grace. In order to access their name, a newly-created angel, like Blue, had to be conscious enough to grasp that it needed to form a sense of identity, conscious enough to understand that it was alive and it had to think. They would have to, literally and metaphorically, look inside themselves to learn who they were supposed to be. For Blue, that potential still seemed unlikely.

"Well, in case it can't come up with anything, let's go with Blinky McSparky-Doodle!" said Gabriel cheerfully.

Lucifer shot him an exasperated glare.

"What? I don't see you coming up with anything." reacted Gabriel.

"This is our brother, or sister; not a pet." reasoned Lucifer, and he wrapped his wings around Blue a little more as if that can shield it from Gabriel's misguided intentions.

"You ever considered that I might actually want a brother or sister named Blinky McSparky-Doodle?" commented Gabriel.

Sometimes Lucifer wondered why God had made Gabriel an archangel in the first place. "You are a horrible example of an older brother." he said.

"I'd make an awesome big brother!" Gabriel defended, wings flaring up in an attempt to make himself appear more remarkable.

"Blinky McSparky-Doodle is not only blasphemous, it's also guaranteed to doom him, or her, to eternal shame. Plus, he, or she, will hate you until the end of time." said Lucifer.

"What? I care about individuality! I think Dad pretty much used up all the names that end in –el, and if I ha– "

"Don't you have any duties to perform?" Lucifer cut in.

Gabriel was silent for a moment. "…no."

"Gabriel,"

"Aw, come on! Playing secretary to Dad is so boring!" he whined.

Lucifer got up and towered over his little brother. "You either flap out of here or I'm blasting you out… again." he said.

Groaning and unnecessarily dragging his wings on the floor, Gabriel lethargically exited Lucifer's chamber. "You're an ass." he grumbled.

"I love you, too." said Lucifer.

Before Gabriel fully ventured outside, Lucifer called after him, "Oh and remember, if you ever tell anyone about this, especially Michael, I am dunking you in the burning sea of ice, all seventy-eight of them!"

Gabriel forcefully turned around, his expression a mixture of outrage and incredulity. "Sheesh. Motherhood is making you cranky." he said.

Lucifer retaliated by sending a blast of energy at him, which Gabriel avoided.

"Ha! Missed!" he proclaimed.

Another energy blast. This time, it hit its target squarely on his face and propelled him a significant distance.

With Gabriel no longer in his chambers (but letting a stream of garbled obscenities spill from his mouth in frustration outside), Lucifer chuckled and finally allowed himself to relax. He took Blue out of the cover of his wings and was surprised to see that Blue's light was pulsating like a heartbeat. This was not like before, when Blue's light was dangerously flickering out; here, Blue was somewhat more vigorous, like it was motivated to live again.

What happened to cause Blue to act this way, not that Lucifer was complaining. He doubted that it was due to his wings since he had not felt Blue sip away the tiniest fraction of his power. He also doubted that Blue had gotten some rest while inside the 'nest' because Gabriel had tossed it around a number of times during the previous chase. No one could have possibly been well-rested after that.

Was it because of Gabriel, or his upbeat personality? Was it because he and Gabriel fought, made fun of one another, and had a slightly senseless conversation, which turned out to be the first words and sentences Blue had ever heard in its existence?

Or was it because Blue had been exposed to a slice of what brotherhood was like, what being a sibling and having a sibling was like?

Lucifer fondly studied Blue and became convinced that that had to be the answer.

Perhaps it was time to show his sibling what being an angel was like.

TBC