Gabriel stares at the door to the room Sera had said was relegated to the three visitors from Hell, and tries to muster up his nerves - the last time he did anything like this, it was when he'd been tasked to find Lucifer and bring him back to Heaven regarding the strange new space that had been discovered, the giant, ominous, glowing crack in the ground that appeared after a mysterious quake that was felt all the way up to Heaven itself. The sky darkened, the clouds turned black, Heaven itself shook, and nobody knew what the heck was happening.
The biggest change that had been found afterwards was the giant crevice in the mountains nobody had explored up until then...the original gateway to Hell.
The next biggest change was that Eve had suddenly left Adam, after Lucifer gave her an apple. Everybody put two and two together, and it wasn't hard to come up with an answer.
And now, here he is, about to knock on Calliope Peverell's door once more to summon someone to meet with Sera once more...
Gabriel gasps in utter shock as he finally finds the cottage Lucifer said Calliope Peverell lives in, specifically because of the wave of power that hits him as soon as he lands on the ground. This all-encompassing buzzing, tingling warmth…is this her power?
Or something else?
Shaking his head to try and rid himself of the feeling, Gabriel makes his way across the grass and moves to knock on the door. Before he can do as much, though, the door opens and he sees the red-headed woman with glowing green eyes staring at him in a mix of surprise and wariness. "Gabriel? What are you doing here?"
Gabriel glances over Calliope's head - not a hard feat, considering she's only Lucifer's height - and sees his youngest brother sitting at a table with a blonde woman that can only be Lilith next to him, both of them digging into a bowl of…diced fruit?
Lucifer's expression lights up at once, even as Lilith stiffens and stares at him in undisguised alarm, and he says "Gabby!"
Forcing himself out of the memory before it can go any further, Gabriel grits his teeth and knocks on the door before he can either lose his nerve or get lost in his own memories and knocks.
Maybe harder than he should've, maybe it leaves a dent in the door, but he doesn't care right now. He can't care - if he cares about the dent in the door, then he'll start caring that everything feels like it's on repeat from Lucifer's Fall, and that's a slope he can't go down right now.
He just can't, not right now. Not before the meeting...and certainly not if he wants Calliope to believe this.
Calli, Charlie, and Vaggie all stare at the door in surprise when they hear a knock - who would be looking for them? Emily said they would be called for the meeting, but that it's at 3 and it's currently…12:30. Charlie asks "Could Emily have forgotten something?"
Calli narrows her eyes at the door, saying "Doubtful. She told us everything down to where the closest bathroom is, Charlie." Heaven's changed quite a bit since she was last here…but places change, not people.
From Vaggie's stories about Adam, for instance, he's still the same as ever - not that she ever had much to do with the moron, as she didn't come back to the Garden after Stunning him and taking Lilith to her cottage. Not a big loss or hardship, Adam was a mannerless asshole, and she wasn't wanted anywhere near the Garden to begin with.
Heaven's gotten bigger, but Sera's still the same - and she doesn't doubt Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and all the others haven't changed a bit either.
Opening the door up, Calli sees none other than Gabriel standing there, hand raised like he was about to knock again - deep blue robes replaced with a business suit of the same color, but undeniably the Archangel that showed up at her cottage out of the blue saying Lucifer had been summoned to Heaven ten thousand years ago while refusing to say why they wanted to meet with him suddenly.
Calli glances towards the door as she, Lucifer, and Lilith dig into a fruit salad she made for everyone, saying "Someone just crossed the Wards."
Lilith frowns, asking "Who would be here? You said the Garden is ten miles away…"
Calli nods, saying "It wouldn't be Eve, Adam doesn't even know I exist…and nobody else from Heaven likes me enough to visit." Probably don't even know where the cottage is, to be honest.
Seeing as the presence is getting closer to her home, Calli says "I'll get the door, see who it is."
To her utter surprise, it's none other than Gabriel standing at the door, hand raised like he's going to knock.
Suspicion instantly blooms in Calli's chest, why would Gabriel be here? Why now? It's barely been a week since Lucifer snuck Eve that fruit she Enchanted to free the poor girl from whatever had happened to her to make her Adam's willing slave.
Aside from all that, nobody from Heaven bar Lucifer has ever even wanted to visit her before now. Michael always scowls at her whenever Lucifer brings her up to Heaven, while Raphael obviously checks him over as Gabriel makes really bad small talk in an obvious attempt to distract her from the detail that they think she'd do something to her best friend.
"Gabriel? What are you doing here?"
Lucifer gasps in utter delight, exclaiming "Gabby!"
Calliope narrows her eyes at Gabriel, shaking off the ten-thousand year-old memory, asking "What are you doing here?" Bright green starts arcing off her in her sheer fury, as she quietly adds "Come to throw her back down to Hell? Just like last time?" She's going to personally start Armageddon if Gabriel tries anything - much less Michael.
Gabriel flinches, shaking his head even as a worried voice drifts over - a voice calling 'Aunt Calli?' no less, a voice that sounds similar to Lilith's back in that cottage that was more like an attempt at a mansion - and when he happens to see over Calliope's head…fuck, Michael was right. She really does look almost identical to Lucifer! There's a few obvious differences, such as the whites of her eyes actually being a glowing yellow, and her irises being red instead of blue, and she's got Lilith's nose and cheekbones. Other than that…she could pass as Lucifer's younger sister if he didn't know any better.
After a moment, Gabriel manages to collect himself and says "Not at all. High Seraphim Sera has requested to speak with you before the official meeting. She wishes to go over some details about it with you." Calliope narrows her eyes at him, and he's half-expecting her to call him out on his almost-lie - Sera agreed to the request, saying perhaps they could talk the princess out of her misguided ideas. They don't even really know just what those ideas are, not having gotten a lot of details in Sera's three-day-panic spree, but neither he nor Raphael asked - gift horses, and all. After a long moment, Calliope suspiciously asks "All of us?"
Gabriel shakes his head, saying "Just you. I don't know the specifics of what she wishes to discuss, however."
"Where's Michael? He was always the big, blonde, scowling sentry trying to look scary over your shoulder. Finally decided he wasn't as intimidating as he thought?"
Gabriel frowns at her, then says "Not here. And not going to be at the meeting with Sera."
Calliope purses her lips, then says "Fine. Give me a minute." Calli turns to Charlie, who's right behind her now, and a crystal pendant of some kind appears in her hand. And then the crystal seems to light up bright green from within - when Gabriel focuses on the crystal for a moment, he sees the small fractures and imperfections in the crystal are…strangely uniform. Not crystalline at all, actually - Runes of some kind?
Did she just make a fully-functional magical device of some kind out of thin air?!
"Charlie, wear this, don't take it off until we're back home. Understand?"
Charlie nods, putting the pendant on without hesitation, and it starts glowing bright green.
"I should be back before the meeting, don't leave this room, alright?"
Gabriel frowns when Calliope shuts the door behind the two of them, and says "It's as though you don't trust us."
Calliope lets out a derisive snort, and flatly asks "Why should I? Aside from the last time we met, you certainly never did."
Gabriel looks at her sharply, asking "What do you mean?"
Calli spears him with a sharp look, and practically hisses "I have eyes, Gabriel, and they work just as well now as they did way back then. You seriously think I didn't know all the times you tried to make small talk with me while Michael was scowling at me were just to try and distract me from the detail that Raphael was checking Lucifer over behind him? You all thought I'd done something to him, always did. And, let me tell you, you weren't subtle about it." Gabriel opens his mouth to deny the accusations, say they were worried about their younger brother when he regularly vanished for several days at a time and then just showed up with her at Heaven out of the blue, but Calliope cuts him off, adding "And, yet, I'm not the one that stood back and did nothing when it mattered most."
Gabriel full-body flinches at that, and doesn't say another word for the rest of the trip to Sera's office.
Before opening the door, Calli levels one last icy look at Gabriel and says "Don't you fucking dare go anywhere near her, any of you. You two gave up any claim to Charlotte you had ten thousand years ago - and Michael tore it up with his bare hands."
Charlie and Vaggie are sitting on the bed in the room they've been given, with Charlie examining the crystal pendant her aunt made for her. About ten minutes after Calli left with Gabriel, though, there's a rapid-fire knocking the door to their room.
Vaggie frowns, asking "What now…?" Glancing at Charlie in confusion, the Fallen Angel opens the door…only to see none other than Raphael himself standing there, the most excited look on his face as his wings buzz behind him at hummingbird-speed. "H-"
Vaggie quickly slams the door shut, staring at Charlie in undisguised shock and horror. Opening the door back up, she sees Raphael's still there, saying "-i…?"
She quickly slams the door in his half-surprised, half confused face once more, breathing out "Oh, shit…" Calli's gonna flip her lid, and Vaggie can't even blame her for it. They split them up to ambush all of them, didn't they? Next thing she knows, Lute and Adam are going to be showing up with spears and threats!
Charlie asks "Vaggie? What is it?"
"So…you remember that guy in the golden armor we ran into earlier?" At Charlie's nod, Vaggie says "Well…his brother's on the other side of the door. His...other brother. The first one took Calli away ten minutes ago."
Charlie blinks, asking "What's he doing here?"
Vaggie shrugs.
"What's he want?"
Another shrug.
And then, a sad-sounding voice asks "Can I come in? Or at least talk through the door?"
Vaggie sighs near-inaudibly as Charlie shoots her a puppy-eye look, and moves away from the door. Charlie opens it, and sees the saddest, most despairing look she's ever seen on anyone's face settled over Archangel Raphael's face, complete with a wobbling lip and tears gathering in his eyes. Even the wings that were just moving too fast to see have fallen completely still. "Um, hi? Raphael, right?"
His expression perks right up, though, at seeing Charlie. "OhmygoshtheywererightyoulookexactlylikeLucifer!" Raphael's in the room before Charlie can even invite him in, sending Charlie back a few steps in her surprise.
Vaggie pulls her back behind her, saying "Charlie, really, I'd stay a good few feet away from him…"
Charlie doesn't protest as Vaggie steps in front of her, and asks "You know my Dad?"
Raphael nods his head rapidly, smiling brightly for a moment before it suddenly dims, and he says "Yeah, I…it's a long story."
Vaggie deadpans "You were there when he Fell. At the trial."
Charlie sucks in a short breath through her teeth, gaze going from curious to horrified, and says "Oh…" She doesn't know anything about her Dad's Fall, or a trial, but...from how neither he nor Calli will talk about it, how twitchy Calli's been this whole time, and the way her Dad very nearly couldn't get the meeting set up...she doesn't have any illusions about it being good.
Raphael waves his hands, saying "Look, I swear I just want to talk. Really! I don't know what Calliope told you about us, but-"
Charlie frowns, saying "Aunt Calli doesn't mention you at all. Or Dad's Fall, or…anything about Heaven, really. Nothing specific. You…know my Aunt?"
Vaggie shifts nervously, saying "Trust me, Charlie, it's not something to listen to on a weak stomach. You really don't want the details."
"Look," Raphael says nervously, "I…we all miss him, really. And when we heard about you…"
Vaggie disbelievingly asks "You seriously expect us to believe you just wanted to meet Charlie? Daughter of Lucifer, the publicly Fallen Archangel? And lets not forget who it was that Fell him, personally."
Raphael's breath hitches for a moment, and he says "None of us wanted it! We couldn't go against Heaven's Will, but none of us wanted what happened to our little brother, alright?"
Charlie swears her heart just stops beating for a moment, and she asks "What?!"
Raphael nods, saying "Yeah…Gabriel, Michael, and I…we're Lucifer's brothers. Your uncles, Charlotte."
Charlie stares in absolute shock at Raphael, even as he flutters a little closer, brain finding all of zero responses to that revelation.
Raphael reaches out to take Charlie's hand…only to suddenly yank it back with a pained yelp as an arc of bright green erupts from the crystal pendant and strikes the Archangel's hand.
And then, suddenly, a bright green dome appears around Charlie and Vaggie, moments before Calliope suddenly appears in a crack of Apparition. One hand goes to cover her mouth like she's about to puke, the other thrusts out and sends Raphael flying into the far wall - the Archangel immediately notices the distinct green tinge to her skin that indicates she really is about to be sick, even as she seems to collapse into the shield that still isn't so much as wavering, black wings splayed out over it and blocking almost all sight of Charlie and Vaggie.
Raphael waits until Calliope's swallowed a few times, her hand lowering towards the dome, and says "Calliope, I just-"
Calliope cuts him off, saying "I don't give a flying fuck why you're here, Raphael - get out! You don't have any damn right to be anywhere near-"
"She's our niece to! You can't just keep her away from us-"
The room starts to darken ominously, as Calli yells "Likefuck she is! You two gave that up when you held me back just outside that damned courtroom! Do you remember that? Do you remember what you said as he screamed, cried, begged for a mercy that wasn't coming, begged for help that wouldn't be offered?" Raphael's breathing hitches, tears gathering in his eyes, but Calli snaps "'I'm sorry,' you said. 'This is Heaven's Will, there's nothing we can do.'"
Raphael shakes his head, the tears starting to run down his face, and says "We-"
"Had a choice between Heaven and your brother - and you chose Heaven. All three of you made your choice ten thousand years ago - NOW FUCKING LIVE WITH IT!"
Gabriel comes speeding down the hallway just in time for Raphael to get literally blown out of Calliope, Charlie, and Vaggie's room, along with the wall before it quickly repairs itself - leaving a shaking, sobbing Raphael kneeling on the floor. Gabriel is at Raphael's side in an instant, trying to help his brother to his feet, asking "Raph, are you hurt? What'd she do? She was at the meeting with Sera, but just suddenly froze and vanished with a cracking sound, and-"
Michael comes running over, having been two hallways down the whole time, and asks "Did she hurt you? I swear, Lucifer wasn't enough for that-"
Raphael shakes his head, choking out "She…Calliope didn't lay a hand on me." Pinned him to a wall to keep him away from Charlotte, but didn't hurt him - and he's under no illusions that she couldn't have done so if she really wanted to. It took every ounce of concentration he and Gabriel had to fully suppress her magic, after all, and that only lasted until she broke his foot and Gabriel's nose to get to the portal Lucifer had gone through.
If she had really wanted to physically harm him, instead of just emotionally destroy him, she would've done so.
Michael scowls, saying "You can hardly stand!" Between Gabriel and Michael, they manage to get Raphael on his feet, only for the green-themed Healer to throw his arms around Gabriel and sob like he hasn't since Lucifer Fell.
Michael gets a furious look on his face, but before he can move to break down the door Gabriel shakes his head and says "We knew it was a bad idea when we went to Sera. Going back in there now may well destroy half of Heaven altogether." Call it a hunch, or call it the energy he can feel still coming out of the room - almost physically painful in how active it is, like Calliope's just waiting for one of them to show their faces so she can rip them to shreds.
"She s-s-said…" Gabriel and Michael both look down at Raphael, Gabriel running a hand down the younger Healer's back, and the messenger eventually asks "What'd she say, Raph?"
"We…we made our choice ten thousand years ago…now we have to live with it." It makes Raphael break out into a fresh round of sobbing, burying his face in Gabriel's neck - Lucifer's gone, she probably won't even tell them how he is...and now they're barred from getting to know their own niece.
Michael's expression goes an interesting combination of furious and guilty, and he says "She doesn't get to decide that!"
Gabriel sighs, taking them all back to their quarters via a portal, and says "She's…not wrong, though. We did make our choices back then. So did she. She just chose differently than us."
Michael indignantly says "Charlotte probably hates us, then!"
Raphael shakes his head, still not pulling away from Gabriel's neck, and says "She didn't even know she has Uncles. They didn't tell her about us at all…" Which, somehow, hurts even worse than being hated.
And the first impression she gets is Calliope screaming in his face about Lucifer's Fall.
Charlie waits until Calli sits down on the bed, head in her hands, and asks "You know who that was, Aunt Calli?" The shield disappeared as soon as Raphael was out of the room, so the pendant is obviously made to protect against Angels.
Or perhaps, more specifically, extremely powerful Angels.
Maybe just that Archangel and his brothers.
Calli nods, saying "Raphael, one of the Archangels. Yeah, I know who that was."
Biting her lip, Charlie asks "Did you know he's…"
Calli lets out a sigh, downs a Headache Potion, then says "Lucifer told me all about his brothers. The soldier, the messenger, and the healer... Despite his best efforts, though, they never really liked me. After we found out Lilith was pregnant with you, we debated for weeks about how much to tell you about Heaven. Why your parents are down there, how Heaven behaves, all of it." Running a hand down her face, Calli adds "Maybe we should've told you everything a long time ago. But we didn't want you to live in fear that someday they'd come down to finish what they started." If they'd told Charlie about Lucifer's brothers, she would've wanted to know why they weren't down in Hell, why they were down in Hell, what happened that they aren't speaking anymore, what her uncles are like, why she couldn't go visit them, etc.
It…just seemed safer for everyone if she never had any idea of them.
Running a shaking hand through her hair, Calli tiredly says "After this meeting is over, after we're back home in the Hotel, you, Lucifer, and I will sit down and tell you everything, Charlie. But, for right now, please just trust that I've got every reason to not let them near you."
Charlie nods, saying "Alright." And then, she sits down behind the shorter, trembling woman and wraps her arms around her - because, as she's slowly come to realize, her Aunt's really good at keeping her worries hidden. At least from her.
After a moment, Charlie says "Let's…let's just lay down for a while. We've got, like, two hours before we need to be there."
Calli nods, not resisting as Charlie pulls her to lay down on the bed with Vaggie on her other side, spreading her large black wings over the both of them in lieu of the covers. And, if either woman hears how Calli murmurs under her breath that she won't let anyone here lay a finger on them, neither mentions it.
Something tells everyone that meeting isn't going to go exactly as planned, though.