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rainbowfic2016-04-26 07:57 pm
shadowsong26) wrote in rainbowfic2016-04-26 07:57 pm
Plant Party #19, Fluorite #13, Liver #20
Name: shadowsong26
Story: The Guardian
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Plant Party #19. Bleeding Heart, Fluorite #13. Family/Friends, Liver #20. bones
Supplies and Materials: graffiti (Taxation With Representation challenge; my poll here), portrait, canvas (the first three), oils
Word Count: 5019
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Guardian Sanchez, Laura Sanchez, Gabriel, Michaela, Simon (here referred to primarily as David and/or his actual/original name)
Warnings: References to amnesia, war, the fire; someone gets strangled; someone gets kidnapped.
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. So, I'm not sure I've actually explicitly identified Simon in the text yet, but he's identified here!
One
It wasn’t an easy thing, deciding how much about the Family to tell a partner, or a friend. Alejandro’s parents, and quite a few of his peers, had avoided the question by marrying within the family--after nearly eight centuries, inbreeding wasn’t really a concern anymore. Al had more or less planned to do the same thing, assuming he met someone he liked, especially since he planned to keep his career in-house, so to speak; he’d working in the family from the moment he was old enough and Guardian Keller had a position he could fill, and had planned to stay there for the rest of his life. He had ambitions to achieve a high rank, hopefully becoming Guardian himself one day, but even if he couldn’t manage that, he knew that this was where he wanted--where he needed to be.
That had been his plan, anyway. But then he’d met Laura.
Laura was not connected to the Family in any way. She was the daughter of a former CSP Ambassador, back on Earth for college, studying journalism. Al had been completely in love with her within ten minutes of meeting, and about six months after that had finally worked up the courage to ask her out.
That had been seven years ago, and they’d been together ever since. He had, with some advice from Guardian Keller and his parents, carefully sprinkled bits and pieces of Family lore her way. She knew, of course, that he had an enormous extended family, one that kept track of everyone related to a common ancestor back in the twenty-second century. She knew of most of the principal leaders and officials it took to keep an organization the size of the Family…well, organized. She’d met Keller, along with his parents. She knew Al’s plans for his future.
But she didn’t know about the first David, not in any meaningful way. She didn’t know why the Family had stayed together all this time, why they kept track of each other, why they built what amounted to a secret shadow-nation in the Human population.
And, since Al was planning on proposing to her in the very near future, he couldn’t put off telling her everything any longer. It wouldn’t be fair to her otherwise.
He’d decided, in the end, to just tell her everything, straight out. He’d gotten permission from Keller to bring her to the Family’s island compound on Earth, where he could show her what proof they had of their story.
“So, what is this big secret you’re planning to show me?” Laura asked, once they got into the tree room and he started cuing it up. “The massive illegal fortune your Family has amassed over the centuries?”
He knew she was teasing, but he pretended he didn’t. “Our fortune is completely legal,” he said, deadpan.
She rolled her eyes.
“I wanted to show you the tree, and explain a little more about why we do the things we do.”
Laura arched an eyebrow. “All right.”
“Here we go,” he said, putting in the final code sequence, and the tree spread itself over the entire room.
“Oh, wow,” she breathed, taking in the whole thing as much as she could. “You really weren’t kidding.”
“No,” he said. “I wasn’t. This is my Family, everyone we know of, tracked back almost eight hundred years.”
“Damn,” she said. “So, where are you?”
“Uh, hang on a second.” He fiddled with a few more keys, and the tree swirled around them before landing on his immediate family.
She studied that for a long moment. “It all seems…real, here.” She looked up at him. “So, why do you track everyone like this?”
He called up the core of the tree, David and Ruth and their son and grandchildren. “The common ancestors we all come from. The reason we keep track is because of the first David.” He hesitated, all his planned speeches to explain flying out of his head. Because, really, how the hell did you tell your girlfriend about your probably-immortal great-great-great-whatever-grandfather without sounding completely nuts?
“Okay, so…what did he do? Why was he special?”
Start with the paintings, he told himself. Digital copies of everything were stored in the tree room, and they had discreetly bought most of the originals over the years. “Because of this.” He shut down the tree and displayed all the art across the walls.
Laura stared at it for a long moment, in silence. Al shifted nervously at the controls, watching her walk from one painting to the next.
Finally, she turned back to face him. “And all of this…all of this is real.”
“Yeah,” he said. “We have the original paintings, too. Some of them, anyway.” He felt a little more optimistic. She was taking this a lot better than he’d expected.
“Huh.” She turned back to the paintings. “So…if all of these are real, and all of these are your first David…”
“Yeah?”
“Is he still around?”
A lot better than he’d expected. “Um, yeah. I think the last reported sighting was two weeks ago, on Io. Or maybe Europa? One of the Jupiter moons.”
“All right,” she said. “Call him.”
“What?”
She turned back and smiled a little at him. “Look, I’ll admit, I’ve seen weirder things in the universe than an apparently-immortal person. But if this is real, you should be able to call him, right?”
“Right,” he said. “I mean, in theory, yes. But he can be hard to find. Unless Keller has a way to get in touch with him, but that’s not information I have access to yet. David moves around a lot, though. I can try sending a message to the last person who saw him, but…”
Laura nodded. “Fair enough.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “But I can’t promise I’ll actually get ahold of him. Or if he’ll…” No, stop there, this is enough revelation for one night. “If he’ll be willing to talk. Especially since I’ve never been in touch with him before.”
She grinned, then came over and kissed the tip of his nose. “The fact that you’re willing to try at all means a lot, Al. Or at least I’m pretty sure you’re not screwing with me.”
“I’m not,” he promised her. “I wouldn’t ever.”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Two
Despite his best efforts, it was another fifteen years before Al and Laura got a chance to meet the first David. Just as he’d suspected, the two-week-old trail he and Laura had tried to follow had gone cold. And, when he tried to follow up on similar sightings later, he always seemed to be just a day or two behind--or David was without his memories, and attempting to reach out to him was forbidden. Not to mention cruel.
By the time the contact they wanted finally did happen, Al and Laura were married with two kids. They lived in the island compound; Al was Keller’s right hand and slated to take over for her when she retired. Laura traveled a lot, for work, but was just as much at home here as he was now.
She knew as much about the Family and their history as any ordinary member did--more than some, even, since she had access to the full texts of the documents referring to the Broken Branch, along with other details that the Guardians had kept locked away for centuries, including David’s original name. She also knew about his periodic memory wipes, and at least in principle about the angels. Neither of them had ever met one, for which Al was profoundly grateful.
Still, despite the potentially earth-shattering secrets and history he was sitting on, Al’s daily life wasn’t all that much different than a corporate officer for any large company. Laura, in fact, interacted more with what most people would call ‘weird,’ since most of the news she reported on was related to offworld diplomacy.
Maybe that was why, despite the fact that he knew it was always a possibility, when they finally did meet David, it took Al completely by surprise.
Al was working late. Laura was due to pick him up that evening; they had tickets to a ballet, a touring company from Australia. So, when the knock came at his door, he assumed it was his wife, running a little early, and buzzed her in.
“Sorry, I need a few more minutes,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting--”
He looked up, and stopped abruptly.
His ancestor was smaller than he’d expected, after being inculcated with dozens upon dozens of stories about this immortal, this possible nephil, this…
When you grow up hearing that you descend from one of the most notorious people in history, you don’t expect him to be small.
He smiled a little, wryly. “Expecting someone else?”
Al shook it off. “Uh. No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. My wife was supposed to pick me up and…I’m sorry. I’m Alejandro Sanchez.”
“I know who you are,” he said. “Irene told me to come talk to you. She said she’s probably retiring in the next four or five years, and we should properly meet, while I’m me.” He pulled a data stick from his pocket. “I made another message for myself, too.”
Al felt on a little more solid ground here. There was a specific procedure for moments like this, when David--if he has all his memories, I should use his real name--when Judas contacted them openly, officially, and with full possession of his memories. Especially when he had a message for them to pass on to his next identity, whenever he was shoved into it.
“Of course,” Al said, relaxing a little. “I can take that. Is there anything else you need?”
Judas shook his head. “No, not right now. I--”
Laura poked her head into the still-open office door, and took in the situation with a glance and with much more grace than Al had managed. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said.
Judas jumped a little, then half-turned to greet her. “I’m guessing you’re Mrs. Sanchez?”
“Yes,” she said, smiling and offering her hand to shake. “It’s a privilege to finally meet you. Please, call me Laura.”
He relaxed visibly, and took her hand. “Of course.”
“I’m sorry if Al was rude,” she said, taking complete charge of the situation and offering Judas a seat.
Judas smiled at that. “No, I think I surprised him.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t recover faster,” Al said, a little ruefully. “I should have known better.”
He was definitely much more relaxed now, and set the data stick on the table for Al to lock away in the appropriate drawer. “Don’t worry about it,” he assured him. “I’m not very good at approaching people anyway.”
Now that Al had more or less recovered from his surprise, he started taking mental notes. Judas seemed to like Laura, quite a bit. She certainly put him at ease; or maybe it was just watching the two of them interact. There was almost a layer of nostalgic sadness to him, and he was known to have deeply loved Ruth. Seeing a happily married couple might have more of an impact on Judas than Al had thought.
Al wasn’t sure he could use that to help Judas much, but it might make the immortal a little less hesitant to come for help, if he felt some sort of connection with his Guardian. Especially since, as he’d pointed out, he didn’t approach people easily. He never had, at least not in the time the Family had been keeping records. It was almost as if, each time his memories came back, his ability to trust himself and other people got reset to its lowest point, battered to bits on his grief and guilt.
“Is it all right to ask you where you’ve been travelling lately?” Laura asked, sitting on the edge of Al’s desk.
“People usually do,” Judas said. “But I haven’t been anywhere interesting since the last time I checked in with Irene, I’m afraid.”
Al nodded. “Will you be staying here for a while?”
Judas started to answer, and then stiffened.
“Is something wrong?” Laura asked.
Al touched her arm lightly. He couldn’t see anything yet, but there was a subtle change in the air, one he’d been taught to look out for. A sharp tension, like the split second before lightning hit, a barely-perceptible breeze where the air had been still moments before, a sudden, fractional drop in temperature.
An angel was coming.
He had barely had time to figure that out when the angel appeared, framed in the doorway, white-gold and utterly opaque.
Michaela, the part of his mind still noting everything down realized. This one is Michaela.
Michaela hadn’t seemed to notice him or Laura, and Al was profoundly grateful for that.
Judas glanced over at them once, and there was such a weight of weary resignation in his eyes that Al felt guilty, horribly guilty, like he should do something, like he should live up to the name he didn’t have yet and guard him.
But Laura’s hand was tight on his, and Judas shook his head slightly, before getting up and following Michaela out of the room.
The whole thing was over in less than a second.
Laura hadn’t let go of his hand. “Angels are real,” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
“God.”
“I should have done something.”
She looked up at him. “If only we could.”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Three
Laura had found Judas while she was travelling, reporting on elections on some planet whose name Al had completely forgotten. Somehow, she had convinced him to come with her to the island. How she had managed that was completely beyond Al; Judas was in a complete blank slate state, fresh from what must have been a second wipe after the one Michaela had abducted him for when they’d first met.
But maybe, deep down, somewhere even Michaela’s power couldn’t touch, some part of him remembered her, remembered liking her; or maybe she’d just worked the same persuasive magic she used to get professional politicians to give her secrets to report. Either way, she turned up in the middle of the night, having cut her trip short by almost a week, with a confused and frightened Judas in tow.
Once past the initial shock of seeing them under these circumstances, there was, fortunately, an established procedure for Al to fall back on here. Reassure his ancestor as best he could, get him settled in one of the guest suites on the compound--normally used for visiting Family members bringing their children to be introduced to the tree and the basic lore.
And then, once he had Judas calmed, Al had to give him the most current pre-recorded message, and retreat to monitor the security feeds in case he needed help. The general rule of thumb was that Judas knew best how to inform himself of his history, and the Guardian--and Al was the Guardian now; he had been for nearly three years--should just observe and protect.
If I can protect him, he thought, remembering how he’d completely frozen when faced with Michaela, all those years before.
Laura joined him, and he could feel the quiet anger coming off her in waves.
“Don’t ask me why,” he said, shifting his chair so she could pull one up and join his vigil.
“I know.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “It’s cruel. Angels aren’t supposed to be cruel.”
“I know.”
This was, without a doubt, the hardest part of his job. Everything else--managing the family, maintaining the tree, keeping everything running smoothly--for all its challenges, for all the difficult problems he had to solve, was nothing compared to watching, helpless, while unspeakable things happened to someone he was supposed to protect.
The Guardian was responsible for gathering and analyzing information about the angels and their war, about the Family and their role in it. The Guardian was responsible for building and maintaining a safety net for Judas, and for all of his descendants. The Guardian was supposed to provide a safe haven for his ancestor, should he ever need one.
Both times Judas had been brought to the island--to his haven--on Al’s watch had resulted in a spectacular failure to provide anything even remotely resembling safety.
This time, when the air changed subtly, Al had no intentions of failing.
He gently disentangled himself from Laura. “Keep an eye on things,” he said.
“You think an angel’s coming,” she replied. She must have felt it, too.
He nodded.
“Don’t.”
“I have to.”
“Don’t.”
“I can’t do nothing.”
“Al--”
He didn’t let her finish. He stood up and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
The angel was waiting for him out in the hall. It wasn’t Michaela this time, thank God; this angel was dark-haired, and somehow warm, where the other had been cold.
The Family only had one or two references for this angel, but that was plenty to help Al identify him.
“Gabriel.”
The angel inclined his head. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not here to cause any harm.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To make sure he’s all right.”
That was a surprise. None of Al’s research had ever given any indication that any of the angels actually cared.
“Why should we believe you?” Laura asked sharply--she’d followed him. Why had she--
He started to ask her, but she glared at him, and he shut up.
Gabriel looked a little confused by the question. “He is…he is precious. And sometimes Michaela doesn’t understand, I know, but we…we all mean well.”
He was so earnest, and so bewildered and hurt, that Al couldn’t help but buy into what he was saying. Or at least that Gabriel genuinely believed what he was saying.
“I believe you,” Al said, after a few seconds. “But you should leave.”
“But I--”
“Let us take care of our own,” Laura said.
Gabriel blinked, then smiled a little. “I always forget, what you humans are capable of building,” he mused. “Very well. I will leave. I will trust you to…” He glanced down the hall, towards where Judas was. “I don’t want to make things worse. But if you need me, please call. And don’t forget--don’t forget, he is my family, too.”
The angel vanished.
“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Laura said.
“I need to read more on Gabriel encounters,” Al said.
“You do that,” she said, starting to pull him back inside, to monitor Judas and his memories. “But don’t ever do that again, okay? Go up against an angel by yourself.”
“I won’t,” he said, and hoped he would be able to keep his promise.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Four
It began like an ordinary day.
Al started, as he always did, by checking in with Laura and the children--the kids were now grown, off living their own lives; and Laura was off planet again, leaving him alone in the house. From there, he moved on to reading the reports of the various messengers and other wandering working Family members. It was mid-morning, and he was just starting to input this month’s Mercury/Venus tree data, when the air shifted, humming with all the signs of an incoming angel.
But this wasn’t a subtle shift, not like most angelic visitations were--not like all visitations in Al’s experience had been. This time, it was swift, and dramatic, and brutal.
The air grew needle-sharp and icy-cold, and crackled around him, smelling like ozone and driving his hair to stand on end and making it hard, almost painful, to even breathe.
He had hardly processed it was happening when he found himself sprawled across his desk, an impossibly slender and strong hand gripping tight around his throat, Michaela’s icy eyes boring into his.
“What was your involvement?” the angel said, soft and monotone and utterly terrifying.
He croaked out something that might have been ‘what,’ but the hand around his throat made speech impossible.
“You and your kin--your destinies are irrevocably involved in this, you are implicated, you could not have stood aside, you are at every step, what did you do? Tell me!”
“Michaela!”
With as little warning as it had started, the hand was gone from his throat and the air had warmed around him. Coughing and seeing stars, Al caught a dim glimpse of Gabriel in front of him, warm and bright, shielding him from Michaela’s wrath.
What the hell is going on?
They were speaking, arguing, he thought, in their native language; it rang like bells around him. Or maybe that was just his head ringing, a reaction to being thrown around and near-strangled. He just barely had the presence of mind to activate the recorder in his desk. Not that any Family members understood the angelic tongue, not that he knew of, but just in case.
After a few seconds of argument, Michaela vanished, and the hair-trigger tension in the air eased.
Gabriel slumped a little, then turned to Al, looking visibly worried. “Are you all right? Did my sibling harm you? I’m sure Michaela didn’t mean to, but--”
“I’m fine,” Al said. “What…what was that all about? What’s going on?”
The angel closed his eyes. “If you don’t already know, then you couldn’t have been involved--of course you weren’t, I told the others you weren’t, I know you, I have watched you for so long, I knew you would never—knew you could never…”
“Gabriel?”
The angel flushed a little. “I…I apologize, I have…a terrible thing has happened, Guardian.”
Al took a deep breath, wincing a little when it hurt his raw throat. “Tell me?”
He hesitated. “You must not tell anyone what I am going to share with you--not anyone, not even Laura.”
“What’s going on?” he said, without making any promises.
Gabriel was distressed enough not to call him on it, which worried Al all the more.
“My sister has been freed.”
There was only one sister he could mean.
“So…so does that…does that mean…?”
“It may not,” the angel hastily assured him. “There is time yet. If we can find her quickly, if we can contain her quickly, we may yet be able to avert the war. That’s why Michaela was so upset, you see. But I told my sibling you weren’t involved. I told Michaela so.”
Al wasn’t convinced, but he almost was. And he desperately, desperately wanted to be. “What can I do to help?” he asked.
“What you always do,” Gabriel said, with a smile that almost looked unforced. “Protect your kin. Protect Judas, if you see him. We will handle the rest.”
He nodded.
“Don’t worry, my friend,” the angel urged. “Just…don’t worry. And I’m sorry for Michaela.”
Al nodded, and slumped a little when the angel left him there.
Lucifer was free, and unless the angels got their act together quickly…
He shivered a little, and stopped his recording, trying not to think too hard about how unlikely it was. But if they were so surprised, so disorganized in the face of this threat that Michaela had come to him, enraged…
Al would hope for the best, hope that Gabriel’s optimism played out. But he would prepare for the worst.
Just in case the Apocalypse finally came.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Five
Two years later, there was a devastating fire on the CSP station, lightyears away.
When Al first heard about it, it didn’t even register that it might be somehow connected to the Family or the Apocalypse. And why should it have? After all, he hadn’t heard from Gabriel or Michaela--or even Judas--since that morning in his office when Michaela had tried to kill him. Everything had, so far as the Family could tell, been business as usual since then. He’d of course told Laura, and she’d kept an eye out for trouble as well, but come up just as dry as he had. He hadn’t forgotten what was on the horizon, of course, but it had been moved somewhat to the back burner of his thoughts, sidelined in favor of more pressing concerns. True, there was a blood-member of the Family on the Station, which ordinarily would have been his primary focus, but Mariko Anders was from the Broken Branch.
And, far more importantly, the first thing he thought of when the fire hit the news, was that Laura had been there, reporting on some sort of negotiations involving an insectoid ambassador who had died in the fire.
After that had come hours--nearly days of abject terror and tightly-controlled panic, endless calls between him and his children and anyone in the UN or the Family who might know anything. He couldn’t call Laura or anyone else on site directly, of course; all communications with the Station were restricted, and all circuits that weren’t restricted were busy. He hadn’t been able to get through to her, or to anyone else who could even tell him whether or not his wife was alive.
So, when she finally called, nearly thirty-six hours after the fire, he couldn’t find the words to express how he felt just to see her face, to hear her voice again. Even if it was on a viewscreen, even if it was over speakers, even if she was still lightyears and lightyears away. She was alive, and unhurt, and alive.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t call sooner,” she said, after they’d gotten through the immediate greetings and relief and half-frantic babbling, talking over one another in their joy. “I’m in transit now. They evacuated non-essential personnel right after the fire and locked all com frequencies until we were three lightyears away. Safety, or security--something, I didn’t really ask too closely.”
“I’m just…you’re safe, that’s all that matters,” he said, wishing he could reach through the viewscreen to touch her. “It’s so good to hear your voice again.
She smiled softly, resting her fingers against the image of his, then her face turned serious again. “Al, before I call the kids, there’s something you need to know. There was an angel on the station.”
It took a few seconds for his brain to catch up, and snapped back into Guardian mode, rather than terrified-and-relieved-husband mode. “An…an angel? You’re sure?” They weren’t members of the Consortium of Sentient Peoples, he knew that for sure. “Was it Gabriel, or…?” Gabriel was supposed to be the messenger, after all. If the angels had business with the rest of the known universe, he would be a logical choice to send.
She shook her head. “I didn’t recognize her, but I took a picture. I’m sending it to you now. Anyone like her in your files?” Her tone was carefully casual, carefully avoiding giving voice to the possible worst-case scenario an unknown angel might mean.
The picture showed up in a side window on his viewscreen. The angel was pale, but with dark hair; something about the way she carried herself reminded him eerily of Michaela.
My sister has been freed.
“This…this could be bad,” he said quietly.
“That recording you weren’t supposed to show me?” Laura asked, just as quietly.
He nodded once. “Maybe. I don’t know. I…she does look like…”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” She was quiet for a minute. “What are you going to do?”
He hesitated. “Try to make contact. With Gabriel, or with…with David, even. Maybe one of them will know something.”
She nodded. “Wait ‘til I get there, please? You promised me, you wouldn’t deal with angels by yourself again.”
And he’d kept that promise, except when Michaela had broken it for him. But now… “I don’t think I can,” he said. “Believe me, I would if I could, but…if we’re right, if this is who…if this is Gabriel’s sister, they need to know now.”
Laura didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “All right. Just…just be careful, okay?”
“You, too,” he said, though it sounded hollow even to him. She was going away from danger, after all. Or as much as any of them could, if Gabriel’s sister really was in play.
“I always am,” she said, with a ghost of a smile. She sighed. “I should…I should let you go. You have…you have to deal with all of this, and I should call the kids, before the circuits get overloaded, okay?”
“Okay.” He didn’t want to hang up. God, he wanted to just stay on the line and stare at her face for the rest of his life. But she was right, on all counts. Just like he was, to try calling the angels without her. “I love you,” he said, hoping that was enough to cover everything he meant.
“I love you, too,” she replied, and it was enough for him to know what she couldn’t say.
Al cut the connection before he could change his mind, and stared at the angel’s picture for another minute. I hope we’re wrong. Please, God, if you exist, if you have any care for us at all, let us be wrong.
He took a deep breath, and started to make his calls.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Coda
Laura watched the security footage for the fifth time that morning.
Rubika Kesilen entered the tree room. Two minutes later, Al joined her. They remained inside for several minutes. Exactly what had happened in there, she didn’t know. There were no cameras in the tree room. The two of them left together, Al stopping to punch in the sky-is-falling emergency code on the way out.
She paused when Rubika’s eyes flashed on camera, bone-white and empty.
Laura took a deep breath, then shut off the feed. It hadn’t told her anything new this time, and continuing to go through it was only making it hurt worse. She needed to do something.
She turned to Al’s contact list, searching meticulously for one she never thought she’d use.
Gabriel’s face appeared on the screen right away. “Laura?”
“The Horsemen have kidnapped my husband,” she said quietly. “I need your help.”
A moment’s hesitation flickered across the angel’s eyes, then he released a long, slow breath. “I’m on my way.”
Story: The Guardian
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Plant Party #19. Bleeding Heart, Fluorite #13. Family/Friends, Liver #20. bones
Supplies and Materials: graffiti (Taxation With Representation challenge; my poll here), portrait, canvas (the first three), oils
Word Count: 5019
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Guardian Sanchez, Laura Sanchez, Gabriel, Michaela, Simon (here referred to primarily as David and/or his actual/original name)
Warnings: References to amnesia, war, the fire; someone gets strangled; someone gets kidnapped.
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. So, I'm not sure I've actually explicitly identified Simon in the text yet, but he's identified here!
One
It wasn’t an easy thing, deciding how much about the Family to tell a partner, or a friend. Alejandro’s parents, and quite a few of his peers, had avoided the question by marrying within the family--after nearly eight centuries, inbreeding wasn’t really a concern anymore. Al had more or less planned to do the same thing, assuming he met someone he liked, especially since he planned to keep his career in-house, so to speak; he’d working in the family from the moment he was old enough and Guardian Keller had a position he could fill, and had planned to stay there for the rest of his life. He had ambitions to achieve a high rank, hopefully becoming Guardian himself one day, but even if he couldn’t manage that, he knew that this was where he wanted--where he needed to be.
That had been his plan, anyway. But then he’d met Laura.
Laura was not connected to the Family in any way. She was the daughter of a former CSP Ambassador, back on Earth for college, studying journalism. Al had been completely in love with her within ten minutes of meeting, and about six months after that had finally worked up the courage to ask her out.
That had been seven years ago, and they’d been together ever since. He had, with some advice from Guardian Keller and his parents, carefully sprinkled bits and pieces of Family lore her way. She knew, of course, that he had an enormous extended family, one that kept track of everyone related to a common ancestor back in the twenty-second century. She knew of most of the principal leaders and officials it took to keep an organization the size of the Family…well, organized. She’d met Keller, along with his parents. She knew Al’s plans for his future.
But she didn’t know about the first David, not in any meaningful way. She didn’t know why the Family had stayed together all this time, why they kept track of each other, why they built what amounted to a secret shadow-nation in the Human population.
And, since Al was planning on proposing to her in the very near future, he couldn’t put off telling her everything any longer. It wouldn’t be fair to her otherwise.
He’d decided, in the end, to just tell her everything, straight out. He’d gotten permission from Keller to bring her to the Family’s island compound on Earth, where he could show her what proof they had of their story.
“So, what is this big secret you’re planning to show me?” Laura asked, once they got into the tree room and he started cuing it up. “The massive illegal fortune your Family has amassed over the centuries?”
He knew she was teasing, but he pretended he didn’t. “Our fortune is completely legal,” he said, deadpan.
She rolled her eyes.
“I wanted to show you the tree, and explain a little more about why we do the things we do.”
Laura arched an eyebrow. “All right.”
“Here we go,” he said, putting in the final code sequence, and the tree spread itself over the entire room.
“Oh, wow,” she breathed, taking in the whole thing as much as she could. “You really weren’t kidding.”
“No,” he said. “I wasn’t. This is my Family, everyone we know of, tracked back almost eight hundred years.”
“Damn,” she said. “So, where are you?”
“Uh, hang on a second.” He fiddled with a few more keys, and the tree swirled around them before landing on his immediate family.
She studied that for a long moment. “It all seems…real, here.” She looked up at him. “So, why do you track everyone like this?”
He called up the core of the tree, David and Ruth and their son and grandchildren. “The common ancestors we all come from. The reason we keep track is because of the first David.” He hesitated, all his planned speeches to explain flying out of his head. Because, really, how the hell did you tell your girlfriend about your probably-immortal great-great-great-whatever-grandfather without sounding completely nuts?
“Okay, so…what did he do? Why was he special?”
Start with the paintings, he told himself. Digital copies of everything were stored in the tree room, and they had discreetly bought most of the originals over the years. “Because of this.” He shut down the tree and displayed all the art across the walls.
Laura stared at it for a long moment, in silence. Al shifted nervously at the controls, watching her walk from one painting to the next.
Finally, she turned back to face him. “And all of this…all of this is real.”
“Yeah,” he said. “We have the original paintings, too. Some of them, anyway.” He felt a little more optimistic. She was taking this a lot better than he’d expected.
“Huh.” She turned back to the paintings. “So…if all of these are real, and all of these are your first David…”
“Yeah?”
“Is he still around?”
A lot better than he’d expected. “Um, yeah. I think the last reported sighting was two weeks ago, on Io. Or maybe Europa? One of the Jupiter moons.”
“All right,” she said. “Call him.”
“What?”
She turned back and smiled a little at him. “Look, I’ll admit, I’ve seen weirder things in the universe than an apparently-immortal person. But if this is real, you should be able to call him, right?”
“Right,” he said. “I mean, in theory, yes. But he can be hard to find. Unless Keller has a way to get in touch with him, but that’s not information I have access to yet. David moves around a lot, though. I can try sending a message to the last person who saw him, but…”
Laura nodded. “Fair enough.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “But I can’t promise I’ll actually get ahold of him. Or if he’ll…” No, stop there, this is enough revelation for one night. “If he’ll be willing to talk. Especially since I’ve never been in touch with him before.”
She grinned, then came over and kissed the tip of his nose. “The fact that you’re willing to try at all means a lot, Al. Or at least I’m pretty sure you’re not screwing with me.”
“I’m not,” he promised her. “I wouldn’t ever.”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Two
Despite his best efforts, it was another fifteen years before Al and Laura got a chance to meet the first David. Just as he’d suspected, the two-week-old trail he and Laura had tried to follow had gone cold. And, when he tried to follow up on similar sightings later, he always seemed to be just a day or two behind--or David was without his memories, and attempting to reach out to him was forbidden. Not to mention cruel.
By the time the contact they wanted finally did happen, Al and Laura were married with two kids. They lived in the island compound; Al was Keller’s right hand and slated to take over for her when she retired. Laura traveled a lot, for work, but was just as much at home here as he was now.
She knew as much about the Family and their history as any ordinary member did--more than some, even, since she had access to the full texts of the documents referring to the Broken Branch, along with other details that the Guardians had kept locked away for centuries, including David’s original name. She also knew about his periodic memory wipes, and at least in principle about the angels. Neither of them had ever met one, for which Al was profoundly grateful.
Still, despite the potentially earth-shattering secrets and history he was sitting on, Al’s daily life wasn’t all that much different than a corporate officer for any large company. Laura, in fact, interacted more with what most people would call ‘weird,’ since most of the news she reported on was related to offworld diplomacy.
Maybe that was why, despite the fact that he knew it was always a possibility, when they finally did meet David, it took Al completely by surprise.
Al was working late. Laura was due to pick him up that evening; they had tickets to a ballet, a touring company from Australia. So, when the knock came at his door, he assumed it was his wife, running a little early, and buzzed her in.
“Sorry, I need a few more minutes,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting--”
He looked up, and stopped abruptly.
His ancestor was smaller than he’d expected, after being inculcated with dozens upon dozens of stories about this immortal, this possible nephil, this…
When you grow up hearing that you descend from one of the most notorious people in history, you don’t expect him to be small.
He smiled a little, wryly. “Expecting someone else?”
Al shook it off. “Uh. No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. My wife was supposed to pick me up and…I’m sorry. I’m Alejandro Sanchez.”
“I know who you are,” he said. “Irene told me to come talk to you. She said she’s probably retiring in the next four or five years, and we should properly meet, while I’m me.” He pulled a data stick from his pocket. “I made another message for myself, too.”
Al felt on a little more solid ground here. There was a specific procedure for moments like this, when David--if he has all his memories, I should use his real name--when Judas contacted them openly, officially, and with full possession of his memories. Especially when he had a message for them to pass on to his next identity, whenever he was shoved into it.
“Of course,” Al said, relaxing a little. “I can take that. Is there anything else you need?”
Judas shook his head. “No, not right now. I--”
Laura poked her head into the still-open office door, and took in the situation with a glance and with much more grace than Al had managed. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said.
Judas jumped a little, then half-turned to greet her. “I’m guessing you’re Mrs. Sanchez?”
“Yes,” she said, smiling and offering her hand to shake. “It’s a privilege to finally meet you. Please, call me Laura.”
He relaxed visibly, and took her hand. “Of course.”
“I’m sorry if Al was rude,” she said, taking complete charge of the situation and offering Judas a seat.
Judas smiled at that. “No, I think I surprised him.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t recover faster,” Al said, a little ruefully. “I should have known better.”
He was definitely much more relaxed now, and set the data stick on the table for Al to lock away in the appropriate drawer. “Don’t worry about it,” he assured him. “I’m not very good at approaching people anyway.”
Now that Al had more or less recovered from his surprise, he started taking mental notes. Judas seemed to like Laura, quite a bit. She certainly put him at ease; or maybe it was just watching the two of them interact. There was almost a layer of nostalgic sadness to him, and he was known to have deeply loved Ruth. Seeing a happily married couple might have more of an impact on Judas than Al had thought.
Al wasn’t sure he could use that to help Judas much, but it might make the immortal a little less hesitant to come for help, if he felt some sort of connection with his Guardian. Especially since, as he’d pointed out, he didn’t approach people easily. He never had, at least not in the time the Family had been keeping records. It was almost as if, each time his memories came back, his ability to trust himself and other people got reset to its lowest point, battered to bits on his grief and guilt.
“Is it all right to ask you where you’ve been travelling lately?” Laura asked, sitting on the edge of Al’s desk.
“People usually do,” Judas said. “But I haven’t been anywhere interesting since the last time I checked in with Irene, I’m afraid.”
Al nodded. “Will you be staying here for a while?”
Judas started to answer, and then stiffened.
“Is something wrong?” Laura asked.
Al touched her arm lightly. He couldn’t see anything yet, but there was a subtle change in the air, one he’d been taught to look out for. A sharp tension, like the split second before lightning hit, a barely-perceptible breeze where the air had been still moments before, a sudden, fractional drop in temperature.
An angel was coming.
He had barely had time to figure that out when the angel appeared, framed in the doorway, white-gold and utterly opaque.
Michaela, the part of his mind still noting everything down realized. This one is Michaela.
Michaela hadn’t seemed to notice him or Laura, and Al was profoundly grateful for that.
Judas glanced over at them once, and there was such a weight of weary resignation in his eyes that Al felt guilty, horribly guilty, like he should do something, like he should live up to the name he didn’t have yet and guard him.
But Laura’s hand was tight on his, and Judas shook his head slightly, before getting up and following Michaela out of the room.
The whole thing was over in less than a second.
Laura hadn’t let go of his hand. “Angels are real,” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
“God.”
“I should have done something.”
She looked up at him. “If only we could.”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Three
Laura had found Judas while she was travelling, reporting on elections on some planet whose name Al had completely forgotten. Somehow, she had convinced him to come with her to the island. How she had managed that was completely beyond Al; Judas was in a complete blank slate state, fresh from what must have been a second wipe after the one Michaela had abducted him for when they’d first met.
But maybe, deep down, somewhere even Michaela’s power couldn’t touch, some part of him remembered her, remembered liking her; or maybe she’d just worked the same persuasive magic she used to get professional politicians to give her secrets to report. Either way, she turned up in the middle of the night, having cut her trip short by almost a week, with a confused and frightened Judas in tow.
Once past the initial shock of seeing them under these circumstances, there was, fortunately, an established procedure for Al to fall back on here. Reassure his ancestor as best he could, get him settled in one of the guest suites on the compound--normally used for visiting Family members bringing their children to be introduced to the tree and the basic lore.
And then, once he had Judas calmed, Al had to give him the most current pre-recorded message, and retreat to monitor the security feeds in case he needed help. The general rule of thumb was that Judas knew best how to inform himself of his history, and the Guardian--and Al was the Guardian now; he had been for nearly three years--should just observe and protect.
If I can protect him, he thought, remembering how he’d completely frozen when faced with Michaela, all those years before.
Laura joined him, and he could feel the quiet anger coming off her in waves.
“Don’t ask me why,” he said, shifting his chair so she could pull one up and join his vigil.
“I know.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “It’s cruel. Angels aren’t supposed to be cruel.”
“I know.”
This was, without a doubt, the hardest part of his job. Everything else--managing the family, maintaining the tree, keeping everything running smoothly--for all its challenges, for all the difficult problems he had to solve, was nothing compared to watching, helpless, while unspeakable things happened to someone he was supposed to protect.
The Guardian was responsible for gathering and analyzing information about the angels and their war, about the Family and their role in it. The Guardian was responsible for building and maintaining a safety net for Judas, and for all of his descendants. The Guardian was supposed to provide a safe haven for his ancestor, should he ever need one.
Both times Judas had been brought to the island--to his haven--on Al’s watch had resulted in a spectacular failure to provide anything even remotely resembling safety.
This time, when the air changed subtly, Al had no intentions of failing.
He gently disentangled himself from Laura. “Keep an eye on things,” he said.
“You think an angel’s coming,” she replied. She must have felt it, too.
He nodded.
“Don’t.”
“I have to.”
“Don’t.”
“I can’t do nothing.”
“Al--”
He didn’t let her finish. He stood up and left the room, shutting the door behind him.
The angel was waiting for him out in the hall. It wasn’t Michaela this time, thank God; this angel was dark-haired, and somehow warm, where the other had been cold.
The Family only had one or two references for this angel, but that was plenty to help Al identify him.
“Gabriel.”
The angel inclined his head. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not here to cause any harm.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To make sure he’s all right.”
That was a surprise. None of Al’s research had ever given any indication that any of the angels actually cared.
“Why should we believe you?” Laura asked sharply--she’d followed him. Why had she--
He started to ask her, but she glared at him, and he shut up.
Gabriel looked a little confused by the question. “He is…he is precious. And sometimes Michaela doesn’t understand, I know, but we…we all mean well.”
He was so earnest, and so bewildered and hurt, that Al couldn’t help but buy into what he was saying. Or at least that Gabriel genuinely believed what he was saying.
“I believe you,” Al said, after a few seconds. “But you should leave.”
“But I--”
“Let us take care of our own,” Laura said.
Gabriel blinked, then smiled a little. “I always forget, what you humans are capable of building,” he mused. “Very well. I will leave. I will trust you to…” He glanced down the hall, towards where Judas was. “I don’t want to make things worse. But if you need me, please call. And don’t forget--don’t forget, he is my family, too.”
The angel vanished.
“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Laura said.
“I need to read more on Gabriel encounters,” Al said.
“You do that,” she said, starting to pull him back inside, to monitor Judas and his memories. “But don’t ever do that again, okay? Go up against an angel by yourself.”
“I won’t,” he said, and hoped he would be able to keep his promise.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Four
It began like an ordinary day.
Al started, as he always did, by checking in with Laura and the children--the kids were now grown, off living their own lives; and Laura was off planet again, leaving him alone in the house. From there, he moved on to reading the reports of the various messengers and other wandering working Family members. It was mid-morning, and he was just starting to input this month’s Mercury/Venus tree data, when the air shifted, humming with all the signs of an incoming angel.
But this wasn’t a subtle shift, not like most angelic visitations were--not like all visitations in Al’s experience had been. This time, it was swift, and dramatic, and brutal.
The air grew needle-sharp and icy-cold, and crackled around him, smelling like ozone and driving his hair to stand on end and making it hard, almost painful, to even breathe.
He had hardly processed it was happening when he found himself sprawled across his desk, an impossibly slender and strong hand gripping tight around his throat, Michaela’s icy eyes boring into his.
“What was your involvement?” the angel said, soft and monotone and utterly terrifying.
He croaked out something that might have been ‘what,’ but the hand around his throat made speech impossible.
“You and your kin--your destinies are irrevocably involved in this, you are implicated, you could not have stood aside, you are at every step, what did you do? Tell me!”
“Michaela!”
With as little warning as it had started, the hand was gone from his throat and the air had warmed around him. Coughing and seeing stars, Al caught a dim glimpse of Gabriel in front of him, warm and bright, shielding him from Michaela’s wrath.
What the hell is going on?
They were speaking, arguing, he thought, in their native language; it rang like bells around him. Or maybe that was just his head ringing, a reaction to being thrown around and near-strangled. He just barely had the presence of mind to activate the recorder in his desk. Not that any Family members understood the angelic tongue, not that he knew of, but just in case.
After a few seconds of argument, Michaela vanished, and the hair-trigger tension in the air eased.
Gabriel slumped a little, then turned to Al, looking visibly worried. “Are you all right? Did my sibling harm you? I’m sure Michaela didn’t mean to, but--”
“I’m fine,” Al said. “What…what was that all about? What’s going on?”
The angel closed his eyes. “If you don’t already know, then you couldn’t have been involved--of course you weren’t, I told the others you weren’t, I know you, I have watched you for so long, I knew you would never—knew you could never…”
“Gabriel?”
The angel flushed a little. “I…I apologize, I have…a terrible thing has happened, Guardian.”
Al took a deep breath, wincing a little when it hurt his raw throat. “Tell me?”
He hesitated. “You must not tell anyone what I am going to share with you--not anyone, not even Laura.”
“What’s going on?” he said, without making any promises.
Gabriel was distressed enough not to call him on it, which worried Al all the more.
“My sister has been freed.”
There was only one sister he could mean.
“So…so does that…does that mean…?”
“It may not,” the angel hastily assured him. “There is time yet. If we can find her quickly, if we can contain her quickly, we may yet be able to avert the war. That’s why Michaela was so upset, you see. But I told my sibling you weren’t involved. I told Michaela so.”
Al wasn’t convinced, but he almost was. And he desperately, desperately wanted to be. “What can I do to help?” he asked.
“What you always do,” Gabriel said, with a smile that almost looked unforced. “Protect your kin. Protect Judas, if you see him. We will handle the rest.”
He nodded.
“Don’t worry, my friend,” the angel urged. “Just…don’t worry. And I’m sorry for Michaela.”
Al nodded, and slumped a little when the angel left him there.
Lucifer was free, and unless the angels got their act together quickly…
He shivered a little, and stopped his recording, trying not to think too hard about how unlikely it was. But if they were so surprised, so disorganized in the face of this threat that Michaela had come to him, enraged…
Al would hope for the best, hope that Gabriel’s optimism played out. But he would prepare for the worst.
Just in case the Apocalypse finally came.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Five
Two years later, there was a devastating fire on the CSP station, lightyears away.
When Al first heard about it, it didn’t even register that it might be somehow connected to the Family or the Apocalypse. And why should it have? After all, he hadn’t heard from Gabriel or Michaela--or even Judas--since that morning in his office when Michaela had tried to kill him. Everything had, so far as the Family could tell, been business as usual since then. He’d of course told Laura, and she’d kept an eye out for trouble as well, but come up just as dry as he had. He hadn’t forgotten what was on the horizon, of course, but it had been moved somewhat to the back burner of his thoughts, sidelined in favor of more pressing concerns. True, there was a blood-member of the Family on the Station, which ordinarily would have been his primary focus, but Mariko Anders was from the Broken Branch.
And, far more importantly, the first thing he thought of when the fire hit the news, was that Laura had been there, reporting on some sort of negotiations involving an insectoid ambassador who had died in the fire.
After that had come hours--nearly days of abject terror and tightly-controlled panic, endless calls between him and his children and anyone in the UN or the Family who might know anything. He couldn’t call Laura or anyone else on site directly, of course; all communications with the Station were restricted, and all circuits that weren’t restricted were busy. He hadn’t been able to get through to her, or to anyone else who could even tell him whether or not his wife was alive.
So, when she finally called, nearly thirty-six hours after the fire, he couldn’t find the words to express how he felt just to see her face, to hear her voice again. Even if it was on a viewscreen, even if it was over speakers, even if she was still lightyears and lightyears away. She was alive, and unhurt, and alive.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t call sooner,” she said, after they’d gotten through the immediate greetings and relief and half-frantic babbling, talking over one another in their joy. “I’m in transit now. They evacuated non-essential personnel right after the fire and locked all com frequencies until we were three lightyears away. Safety, or security--something, I didn’t really ask too closely.”
“I’m just…you’re safe, that’s all that matters,” he said, wishing he could reach through the viewscreen to touch her. “It’s so good to hear your voice again.
She smiled softly, resting her fingers against the image of his, then her face turned serious again. “Al, before I call the kids, there’s something you need to know. There was an angel on the station.”
It took a few seconds for his brain to catch up, and snapped back into Guardian mode, rather than terrified-and-relieved-husband mode. “An…an angel? You’re sure?” They weren’t members of the Consortium of Sentient Peoples, he knew that for sure. “Was it Gabriel, or…?” Gabriel was supposed to be the messenger, after all. If the angels had business with the rest of the known universe, he would be a logical choice to send.
She shook her head. “I didn’t recognize her, but I took a picture. I’m sending it to you now. Anyone like her in your files?” Her tone was carefully casual, carefully avoiding giving voice to the possible worst-case scenario an unknown angel might mean.
The picture showed up in a side window on his viewscreen. The angel was pale, but with dark hair; something about the way she carried herself reminded him eerily of Michaela.
My sister has been freed.
“This…this could be bad,” he said quietly.
“That recording you weren’t supposed to show me?” Laura asked, just as quietly.
He nodded once. “Maybe. I don’t know. I…she does look like…”
“That’s what I was afraid of.” She was quiet for a minute. “What are you going to do?”
He hesitated. “Try to make contact. With Gabriel, or with…with David, even. Maybe one of them will know something.”
She nodded. “Wait ‘til I get there, please? You promised me, you wouldn’t deal with angels by yourself again.”
And he’d kept that promise, except when Michaela had broken it for him. But now… “I don’t think I can,” he said. “Believe me, I would if I could, but…if we’re right, if this is who…if this is Gabriel’s sister, they need to know now.”
Laura didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “All right. Just…just be careful, okay?”
“You, too,” he said, though it sounded hollow even to him. She was going away from danger, after all. Or as much as any of them could, if Gabriel’s sister really was in play.
“I always am,” she said, with a ghost of a smile. She sighed. “I should…I should let you go. You have…you have to deal with all of this, and I should call the kids, before the circuits get overloaded, okay?”
“Okay.” He didn’t want to hang up. God, he wanted to just stay on the line and stare at her face for the rest of his life. But she was right, on all counts. Just like he was, to try calling the angels without her. “I love you,” he said, hoping that was enough to cover everything he meant.
“I love you, too,” she replied, and it was enough for him to know what she couldn’t say.
Al cut the connection before he could change his mind, and stared at the angel’s picture for another minute. I hope we’re wrong. Please, God, if you exist, if you have any care for us at all, let us be wrong.
He took a deep breath, and started to make his calls.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Coda
Laura watched the security footage for the fifth time that morning.
Rubika Kesilen entered the tree room. Two minutes later, Al joined her. They remained inside for several minutes. Exactly what had happened in there, she didn’t know. There were no cameras in the tree room. The two of them left together, Al stopping to punch in the sky-is-falling emergency code on the way out.
She paused when Rubika’s eyes flashed on camera, bone-white and empty.
Laura took a deep breath, then shut off the feed. It hadn’t told her anything new this time, and continuing to go through it was only making it hurt worse. She needed to do something.
She turned to Al’s contact list, searching meticulously for one she never thought she’d use.
Gabriel’s face appeared on the screen right away. “Laura?”
“The Horsemen have kidnapped my husband,” she said quietly. “I need your help.”
A moment’s hesitation flickered across the angel’s eyes, then he released a long, slow breath. “I’m on my way.”
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I'm glad you liked it! I sometimes get nervous about huge chunky expository pieces like this, so I'm glad it worked!
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They are super happy and cute, and I'm pretty sure she will get him back eventually. She'll definitely find him, I just don't know how involved Laura and Al will stay Involved once the thing happens...