when shadows crawl {andy biersack}

your last goodbye {in the end}

the underground tunnels were full of a still, tense quiet, as if they, too, were waiting and preparing for the battle to come. not even the rats made a sound, for they had already made a mad dash for the sewers as soon as they felt the immense power building in the air around them. nobody and nothing wanted to be there for the destruction that was about to occur underneath the streets of the city of angels by the very same creatures it was named after.

andy wanted to think of the woman he just left behind to run—alone in a world with angels who wanted to hunt her down. hopefully, he had bought her some time, and they would be too distracted with him to go after her. he couldn't protect her if they did, and no matter how strong her will was, she was no match for a full-fledged, centuries-trained angel—but he didn't. he couldn't, because, if he did, he would become distracted. distractions made you weak, and he was weak enough.

"lucifer, dear," the voice of his brother purred out, echoing through the enclosed space. "i can smell you. you can't run or hide for much longer. you know we will find you. and when we do... i will end you, and then i will send you to the very hell you used to rule. you remember that, don't you brother?"

his nostrils flared, both angered and disgusted by the lack of empathy, or any feeling at all, in the heavenly angel's voice. but then...

then, andy wondered, like he usually would for the past ten years, about his father, and why, if gabriel's words rang true, hadn't he killed him, after all? he certainly had the means to, as he had seen that ill-fated day, so why didn't he?

everything gabriel did over the millennia, everything he was and who he sometimes pretended to be, came back to him as if it were his own life flashing before his eyes, and not his brother's. every word he had spat out in hatred towards andy, all the beatings and the cruel games he liked to play. nobody could be that cruel, not without a reason.

and that was when he started to figure it out, the twists and turns in the mazes of gabriel's consciousness coming to make sense to his own as he stood in that dim tunnel. he may not have had as much power as the rest of them, but he had knowledge, and boy, had the king of hell become wickedly cunning in the years he reigned over his kingdom.

he was the king, and kings do not bend the knee for anything but their crown. today, he refused to bend his.

"if you want to kill me, gabriel, then do it," andy spat, stalking further towards the creature hell-bent on revenge. "father will be so proud, won't he? tell me, does he know what you have been planning? or did you go behind his back again and hope he won't find out what you intend to do to me?"

"i am a millennium old, brother," he snarled, so close now that the devil could hear his footsteps clacking on the dirty floor, "i don't need anyone's permission to end the life of fallen scum."

the beast within him stirred, anxiously awaiting for the moment it got to sink its claws into him. there was no way for it to escape its cage on earth, but if he killed the men who were intent on killing him, the power released could be enough to return him to the place he had always belonged. not in the whitest of clouds, closed within the gates of a peaceful kingdom watched over by a god who was never there, nor in a tower of steel, tyrannically ruling over an endless pit of hell-fire, but with his home, his heart, his beloved. his emelia.

then, and only then, could they return to hell to unleash the beast inside on everyone who had dared to wrong him. the dark, hellish being inside him promised that the souls of his brethren would suffer in immense agony for the rest of eternity, pictures of their ravaged souls flashing in the two creatures whose minds were one.

that was enough to spur him on, to rally the strength he begged would be enough combined with his newfound wits. there was a weakness in everyone, an ocean of water that could destroy the fire in his enemy's bones, leaving a mark that would be etched in their minds for the rest of their immortal lives, heaven, earth, or hell.