"This is our fight too!" Damian yelled, his voice shattering through Lucifer's soul. "Metatron's coup has threatened everything Grandfather created. He will never stop until all of creation is beneath his heel!"
"The things he's done to our family should be more than enough of a reason to fight," Lilith agreed, standing beside their son. "Everyone has to join. Heaven, Hell and the Mortal Realm. All of us must unite under this common cause."
Lucifer was afraid. He was scared of Metatron; who wasn't?
That thing was a caricature of what God had made. It was evil, even more so than the creature birthed from the eating of those dreaded apples.
He didn't want to fight. He didn't know how. None of them did. They never had to before.
"With Gadreel, we can win. I know it," Damian said, clutching his chest.
There's so much to lose. Agreeing to this would be a civil war - the first in the higher realms' history. There have been arguments, but this is the first time anything close to this was on the horizon.
Could they do it?
It felt so cold to be alone in his hesitation. He lacked Damian and Lilith's confidence; it was never his strong suit, even before he and his advocates fell.
Beelzebub, Satan, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Leviathan and Mammon would follow him if he asked. The only one with any spark for battle had been Satan, and even that was limited.
Would it ever be enough?
"I know what he can do," Adam said, his voice hoarse, throat still black and blue. "He shouldn't get to decide who's saved and who's damned - he can't pick and choose who his toys get to be. We end the game, or we're doomed to play."
Any of Metatron's games spelled doomed for its players.
A slow, torturous one...
He knew they would go on without him. They didn't have a choice. Even with Gadreel at their side, there was no guarantee of victory.
Lucifer was always a coward, but he feared leaving his family alone more than he was scared of Metatron. Slightly.
"We don't know how to fight," Lucifer said, his heart pounding. "Sure, we eradicate Roo's beasts, but this? This isn't some mindless animal - it's intelligent, cruel and cautious beings with more power than we can fathom."
"Then we'll learn," Damian stated, silvery green eyes smouldering with determination. "We adapt. We'll overcome this trial. Without God to watch over us, we must make the changes necessary - for all souls. Damned, saved and unjudged together to end a tyranny that threatens any hope of a future."
"Are you coming with us?" Lilith asked, extending her hand to Lucifer, her silver eyes pleading.
He couldn't turn her away. He never would.
"I promise, I'll follow you 'til the end of time," he said, taking it.
Lucifer failed that vow.
He failed so much. It was pathetic how useless he'd been.
What husband refuses to help his wife?
A cowardly one.
A useless, awful coward that proved to, once again, be the disappointment of Heaven and Hell combined.
Lucifer ran his blackened fingers through his hair, breathing heavily.
