Chapter 3: The Faithful Encounter

He remembers.

The Divine Beauty, molded by God.

Every conversation, every word, every moment that they spent together.

The sweet innocent smile of ruby succulent lips.

The meaningless massacres and suffering. The comforting embrace that held him.

Violet hair, splayed on silken sheets.

The shimmering illusion dissolved to show the harsh reality.

The Dark Seductress, reveling in her triumph.

Sapphire eyes, damp with tears.

Betrayal.

The jealousy that brought her pain.

Even now he can feel her presence. So close yet he couldn't reach her even if he held out his hands.

Time has dulled the pain, the memories of her voice, her actions misty with time. Yet in his heart, he knows…He Loves Her.

This is the path he chose. Yet he takes no pride in it.

The both floated there, the air tense in anticipation.

His pained and resigned expression a foil to her triumphant smirk.

Slowly his hand dropped back to his sides, the raw Holy Light just waiting to be shaped, dissipating back into the atmosphere. "No it's not…Dear." He said through gritted teeth.

She clucked her tongue in annoyance, flying closer to him so that she cupped his cheek in a velvet soft hand. "Why do you resist me so?" She asked, pain in her voice, hurting from his rejection. "After all our time together, you should know that I always get what I want. And what I wasn't most of all is you."

"That's a lie." He countered. "What you want most is to be better than your sister. To finally get your Father's approval." Her grip suddenly tightened, and became vise like. "Oh did I hit a nerve?"

"Take care what you say, dearest husband." She threatened. "Lest you forget who it is that holds the power here."

"Oh?" He asked mockingly, raising a single eyebrow at her display of bravado. "Well that would be intimidating if you were actually…well intimidating." At that, a new sun blossomed on the horizon as his power flared to life. She responded with her own release, the void like shadows clashing violently with the radiant aura he exuded. "Do not forget that it was I that won our last confrontation."

"Oh really?" She asked. "Then why is it that you are still here? That you still follow me and never stray far from my side?" Teasingly she added, "is it possible that you secretly pine for me? To once again experience that searing pleasure of our bodies entwined? That moment of pure ecstasy as the illusion dropped and you filled me with your seed. Or was it the fact that at that moment that my sister walked in on us?"

She gave a startled choke as a hand reached out and gripped her throat tightly. "Take care what you say wretch." Her words brought memories to the surface that he'd rather forget but was unable to. "I follow you not out of love or lust, but a duty that I was tricked into." Releasing her throat she glided just out of reach, running a dainty hand along her neck.

"Yes well you're doing a terrible job at it." She commented. He grimaced as another memory assaulted him.

Marble Halls and Golden Arches.

A raised dais with a wondrous Throne, fitting for only for his Lord.

A human, his Lord's favored child, standing amongst His Messengers.

The stout doors to the Throne Room open, revealing a beauty clad in white, His Lord's favored daughter, tears in her eye as she walks to the dais.

In front of the Throne they exchange their vows.

To be each other's wedded. To have and to Hold, from that day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till Death do them part. In accordance to her Father's Holy Ordinance, and his Lord's Divine Command, they pledged themselves to each other and to no other.

A flash of Golden Light, as divine chains bind the two together.

The pledge accepted, they retire for the night to consummate their marriage.

The fleeting touches turned possessive, as they explored the other's body.

Passion and love, pent up from hundreds of years of skirting the issue, unleashed as they ravaged one another.

What was once hesitant turned fierce and powerful as they reveled in the feelings, the woman whom he loved was in his arms. Together they lay, the bond between them solidifying and becoming impossible to break.

It was during that night that he was shown the truth. The golden doors to their room were thrown open, as a twin to the woman he held appeared.

Golden Blonde hair flowed down her back as her voluptuous figure froze in the doorway. She caught sight of the two of them, and immediately her eyes went wide in shock as tears began to flow.

A hand went to her mouth as she broke down and fell to the floor crying.

Never before had he heard the sounds of sadness come from such a being. Angels were never meant to cry, to have their hearts broken, and her wailing reflected this.

His heart instinctively wrenched at the sound, as he looked confused, his mind unable to comprehend the fact that there were two of the women that he loved, one crying on the marble floors, the other grinning triumphantly as she felt his warmth flooding her womb

She swung a leg over, dismounting him, as 12 wings burst from her back. "I win, Sister." She smirked.

12 wings unfurled from the angel on the ground, as she stared at her sister in disbelief. "Penemue?" She asked hesitantly,

"Who else would it be?" The angel said placing a single hand on her hip, as her form shimmered. Long violet hair splayed across the silken sheets, a stunning figure that easily rivaled her sisters, and beautiful eyes that once sparkled, now held a cruel and triumphant glint.

"Why?" She stammered.

"Because, dearest Gabriel." Penemue said getting off the bed, indifferent to the seed that pooled from her womanhood and ran down her leg. "You refused to act on your feelings, and I refused to let you have another thing that I desired."

With that declaration her 12 white wings began to slowly darken, and rather than fight against it as many other Angels would, she instead embraced the change. Her wings became the color of darkest night, and rather than lose her Halo as all other Fallen did, it instead became corrupted, a twisting shadowy effigy of its former self. She shivered in pleasure as her wings spread proudly. "Now this is power."

"What have you done?" Gabriel asked horrified.

"I've simply embraced what I was meant to be." Penemue responded cockily. "After all what you and I wanted most of all couldn't be done easily as Angels."

She jerked her hand back and the man that both of them loved flew into her grasp, a chain connecting the two of them. "You were always Father's favorite!" She sneered. "Daddy doted on you constantly, leaving poor, little Penemue to fend for herself. And now when we both fell in love with the same man, I refuse to play second fiddle to you anymore."

She grabbed him by the back of his head drawing him down for a soul searing kiss. His struggles were in vain as he didn't want to hurt her at the moment, preventing him from truly pushing her away. She pulled him away, the two of them out of breath, her tongue hanging out as she panted. A thin rope of saliva connected them, before she dove back in, licking and sucking him with a passion, his attempts to escape growing weaker and weaker as he began to enjoy himself.

Once again she pulled away, this time turning towards her sister. "You see, Gabriel, this is something only I can indulge in. Something that only my husband will get to experience."

"Your husband?" Gabriel whispered, before power literally exploded out of her, incinerating most of the room's decorations and furniture. "Dearest sister, I think it's time for me to remind you exactly which one of us is older and stronger." She said her once teary voice now held steel, as she rose to her full height and spread her white wings.

Both sisters ignited their weapons, Gabriel's being a golden spear while Penemue summoned a shadowy kite shield and arming sword.

""HE IS MINE!"" Both sisters screamed in defiance of the other, as they charged, weapons held high ready to smite each other. He watched in rapt attention as Gabriel's wings flickered black like her sister's. He tried to intervene, but before he could launch his own attack in an attempt to stop them his entire body froze and was restrained.

"Oh dear Husband, you weren't thinking about breaking your vows now were you?" Penemue asked with a hurt look in her eyes as she nimbly dodged her sister's assault. "You see the two of us are bound to one another, and nothing you or anyone does can possibly break that bond. Now sit back and let me take care of this hindrance."

Just as the fight was about to heat up and a translucent barrier sprang into existence around Gabriel, trapping her. Her wings flashed back to white and stayed like that no matter how much she screamed and slashed at the barrier.

"What's going on here?!" A voice asked. A handsome man with long blonde hair and emerald eyes came sprinting from the hallway. Almost instinctively he unfurled his own golden wings and wrapped them around him to deflect a blast of Light. "Penemue!" He asked in disbelief at seeing her black wings.

"Oh yes dear brother?" She asked sweetly. "I must thank you for activating the Lockout system of Father. Trapping Gabriel in a separate dimension was a fortunate side effect of preventing her from Falling." Both men were shocked at the situation still, and Michael was completely unprepared for the spinning heel kick that took him in the jaw and sent him hurtling from the room. "But you see my time here has come to an end. Now if you need me, I'll be on my honeymoon with my husband."

She grinned at the last word, rolling it along her tongue, savoring the taste of it, shivering at the look of hatred that Gabriel sent her way.

If it wasn't for the shield he was sure that Gabriel would've smote her sister without a second's hesitation.

"Come along Dear." Penemue commanded, jerking the chain that connected them, drawing it taut. He stumbled forward landing in her bosom, as she giggled, petting his head. "Oh, there'll be plenty of time for that later." She shot one last triumphant look at her sister before wrapping her wings around the two of them and vanishing in a flurry of feathers.

"All the time we spent together, the battle we fought, the lives we saved and took." He said sorrowfully. "Did none of that matter to you?"

"Oh my dear husband." She said gliding back to him and resting her head against his chest. She enjoyed the heat that he radiated as well as the beating of his heart. "It's because of that, that I didn't want to lose you."

"My sister, is caring and loving, I fault you not for falling in love with her. Everyone loved dear, sweet, Gabriel, but everyone forgot me, Penemue, Gabriel's opposite. Where she was sweet and kind, I was harsh and unforgiving, an angel of Vengeance and Punishment. Like you I smote Father's enemies with zealous devotion. When Father told us to slaughter the Amalekites, I lead the charge. I slaughtered 50,000 of God's chosen people just for daring to peek at the Ark of the Covenant, and before that massacred 14,000 Israelites just for complaining that Father was killing too many of them."

She embraced him tighter, her hold growing desperate. "Only you could understand me, you who followed just as zealously, stained your hands with just as much blood. Only you can look at me and not be disgusted by what I've done. Only you can hold me like this and not be sickened at the stench of blood."

Anyone with a trace of empathy could feel the fear in her voice. Fear of rejection, abandonment, like she had suffered at her Father's hands. No matter what she tried she could not be the good daughter that Gabriel was.

Almost subconsciously his hands tightened around her, holding her closer as his own feelings took over.