"This isn't exactly the change in the world you envisioned, is it, brother?"
Michael placed his hand on Araqiel's shoulder and looked out over the Earth. Earthquakes scarred the planet; the gashes in the surface filled by the never-ending downpour, along with every river, lake, bank and sea. Meteorologists and atmospheric scientists across the globe were confounded, not one among them could explain the twenty-four/seven, worldwide, torrential rain. No-one had any answers. No-one, except the two figures, who should not have been there: one standing stoically, the other kneeling, cradling the body of a woman, his eyes glued to her face.
"He really is going Old Testament." Araqiel looked up from the woman's face. Michael looked at his brother with exasperation at Araqiel's colloquial tone.
"The Almighty is employing a biblical technique in order to punish his mortal children, yes. But this time there is no ark, no messenger and no saviour." Araqiel looked out at the death and destruction, defeated.
"You did everything you could, you gave them every chance to change, to seek redemption." Michael tried to reassure his brother, "You risked everything for them. You sacrificed everything to save them." Both looked down at the mortal woman's face - she looked almost angelic.
"You cannot ever return to Heaven, Araqiel." Michael said softly, but with conviction. "Our Lord has decreed it,"
"Brother?" Araqiel's face shot up, his eyes meeting those of his brother's with a look of disbelief mixed with pleading.
"You interfered; you favoured one mortal over all other; you broke commandments; you renounced The Lord, claimed you did not believe. Araqiel, you broke more sacred and holy rules than can be forgiven. You are eternally banished." As Michael spoke, Araqiel's face became distorted by anger.
"Everything I did, I did to save HIS children!" Araqiel's anger was echoed by the Earth shaking and splitting.
"Araqiel, some of what you did was not for loyalty to Him or in service of all his children; but in for love of one of His children." Michael looked at the woman cradled, lifeless, in his brother's arms, knowing that his brother was experiencing love, loss and grief but unable to comprehend such mortal feelings and, therefore, knowing that he could not truly comfort him.
"He made me mortal, Michael, in all His infinite wisdom. He gave me the capacity for mortal, human feelings. How can I be blamed for feeling them, for acting on them?"
"You loved her more than the Lord, Araqiel. You may have been made mortal, but you are...were an Angel of the Lord. Our core, our centre is loving and being loyal to none more than the Lord. He shall be loved above all else."
Araqiel was silent, contemplating the features of the woman's face.
"Loving a mortal more than the Lord, our God, is but one stage removed from what led the human race to this; loving oneself more than the Lord and fellow man."
Michael looked up from Araqiel, at the wasteland that the Earth had become. The landscape unrecognisable. The air had become so polluted that one breath would kill a mortal; except those protected by angelic presence. Michael thought back to Eden, the paradise the Father had built, that His children had betrayed and been banished from. Millenniums later and they had learned nothing.
When Michael again looked at his brother, Araqiel was fixated on the pale, feminine face framed by matted and dirty hair.
"Please tell me she has a place in our Father's house."
"Yes, She has been welcomed by her Lord and Saviour. She served him well." Araqiel's body relaxed slightly at his brother's words. Then he stood, still cradling his love's mortal shell.
The two figures, an arch angel and his fallen brother, stood looking over the graveyard that was once the thriving planet Earth. Buildings had been flattened; continents turned into mosaics and whole countries had been flooded. Both knew that everything that was once living was now dead and facing the Lord's judgement.
"Why did He not save the animals?" Araqiel wondered out loud.
"There were minimal species and numbers left to save and they would have not survived, let alone thrived, in the environment left behind. It is another consequence of human greed and selfishness."
They stood in silence for a moment, before Arch Angel Michael ascended and his brother fell to the ground and joined his mortal brothers and sisters who were found wanting; those in purgatory.
The Angel Araqiel, the human race's last saviour, was dead.
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