Okay, so there are two version of this story, and I'm wanting feedback to know which version is better. They're both about a little over 5 thousand words. SO I'll post as much as I can in each post, but still after I finish the first I'll post the second version in a new post. I hope that's allowed, sometimes I get confused, but I think it is, since it's not the same story. Not the same plot, anyways.

Also, I'm not sure how many posts to put this in. It said 1 page in word is good for a post but then this would be 13 posts, and that might be considered spam...So if I need to separate it feel free to comment or message me and I'll be sure to change it.

Legacy of the Angels: Azrael's Legacy

The box hums with energy, whispering to me, as if pleading for me to keep it, to protect its secrets and memories, to have faith in human beings. It whispers softly, no words distinct, but the impression clear. ‘Protect me’, it says. ‘Carry your burden awhile longer. Remember that God had a plan, and you and I are a part of it’. I ignore the whispers, as I have for the last two hundred years. It doesn’t matter anymore. I am here, at the edge of the planet. I am alone.

There were seven of us in the beginning. Seven Arch-Angels; if that’s what could be called, now. There was Michael, “The Likeness of God”; Gabriel “The Strength of God”; Raphael, “The Medicine of God”; Anael, “The Love of God”; Sariel, “The Command of God”; Uriel, “The Fire of God”; and of course myself, Azrael, “The Help of God”. Each of us was given a special mission from our Lord and father, a mission based on the meaning of our names. I wonder now if he had known what would become of us, of the world.

It has been nearly five centuries since I last saw the other Angels. If that’s what we could be called, now. It is at the auction house that the largest groups of humans can be seen. The schools have long since been deemed too dangerous to attend, and churches fell to ruin when humans lost hope for any possibility of salvation. There is no point in prayer, and kneeling would only get you shot in the back. They come here, though.

Even when the planet is mostly desert and the continents either drowned or fused together, even when the wars of the Old World look like peace offerings; there is still the desire for material items, wealth, and luxury. Even when the other Angels and I were certain that humans would pull together and help one another; there was little but greed, theft, rape, and murder. Nor did the seven deadly sins diminish or fade away, but rather, they grew.

As the human populace shrank and one needed more than anything else to rely on their neighbor, their neighbor came over to rape them, steal their belongings, sell their children, and slit their throats. These have been dark times, and no one is to be trusted. The laws have changed, and though the enforcers are small in number, they are feared by all. Guns and blades are common weapons, and not even children are left untrained. Still, they gather here.

I sit amongst the sellers, not looking for any rare treasure, but rather, hoping to pass off my duty so that I might finally rest. I am Azrael, Archangel, Angel of Death, and my mission to humankind was to be the “Help of God”. I was sent to Earth, along with my brethren, to evaluate humankind and help them transition from the beaten path they were on to the enlightened path of eternal love. That was before God vanished.

Now, the plan has changed. For all of us. Each of the seven Archangels was given a different mission when we were sent down to Earth, each one meant to help humankind through these difficult times in different ways. But God said that to truly help humankind, we had to understand them first, and to understand them, we must be like them.

He told us to live as humans for a minimum of five hundred years, completely bereft of our powers. We would retain our original looks and we would not age or die, but also, we would not be able to summon our wings or any of our heavenly attributes. What we did with these lives was up to us, for we would be unable to hear God’s voice on Earth, just as the humans could not.

So I lived my life, going to college with a false identity and becoming a psychologist. As the help of God I knew the human mind very well, and soon I had become famous for ‘curing’ phobias, panic disorders, depression, and even schizophrenia. I was careful to never allow my photo to be taken, but I had published several books to help humans help themselves, and after a mere twenty years I had to move and choose a different path, less it be seen that I did not age.

Raphael lived near me then, as he was becoming a famous doctor. It suited him, as he is the medicine of God. I pursued a career as a minister at the time, and it wasn’t long before I found Anael, the love of God. He was also a minister, and he loved humankind as much as our Lord and Father did. Anael and I grew close in our travels, and one night we truly became like humans. I still don’t know if God intended it that way; if he forgave us before he vanished. It does not matter. Anael and I were in love, and though we were both men we knew that God valued all love on Earth. Except that loving each other was not part of our orders, and we were not the human children that he loved so dearly and forgave so easily.

Anael and I were together for three centuries, and during those lives we discovered that Gabriel, the strength of God, and Michael, the likeness of God, had also come to truly understand humans, or at least the human types of love. They spent thirty years with us, before deciding to search for the others. We also met Sariel, the command of God, on our travels, and he was with a beautiful young woman and had two children. He understood humans perhaps even better than I did then.

But through these years Anael and I also learned of hardships and hunger, of discrimination and hatred. I think that affected Anael very deeply, for he loved each and every human as he would his own child, and to be hated by so many of them… it was during one of those times that he learned to cry. During a tour in Egypt where we were ministering to the crowds, we witnessed the first firing in what would be called World War III.

We managed to see Raphael during that war, and he looked so pale and frightened that it shook me to the core. He told us that he had seen Uriel, the fire of God, and that Uriel had the flame of hatred in his eyes that we had only seen in humans. It seemed that he had come to understand them as well. We left Raphael then, to tend the wounded as only he could. If I had known it was the last time I would see him, I might have done more for him.

Anael and I found Uriel after two years of searching. He was in America, building a political life in the hopes of getting high up the chain so that he could punish those that caused the war, and all of the unnecessary suffering that went with it. His eyes were filled with an eerie light, and when he saw us holding hands he spouted that God would never forgive us, that we were only playing the part of his children and as Angels we did not have the same rights as the humans we protected. Anael cried then, and I think I did as well. Uriel was a brother to us, and it hurt to see him so. Anael fled to our hotel then, and I went after Uriel. I tried to speak with him, but he cursed me to the depths of hell before pulling out a pistol and hitting me in the head with the butt.

When I woke I was in a dark, damp, place, and I was alone. My feet were shackled, and I could hear screams from above me. I touched my head and found blood, and realized that though God had said we could not die, he had said nothing of being injured. I waited for my captor to come, or for Anael to return with the other Angels. Days passed and not a soul came, not even with food. I grew weak, and though my mind knew I could not die, my heart experienced terror. For all I felt, I was human, and it was in that moment that I was freed.
A bomb had been dropped, and a gaping hole appeared in the side of the castle that housed my dungeon. The shockwave that caused the damage shook the iron links of the shackles apart as the ceiling tumbled down. I escaped with barely a moment to spare, and after I’d had a chance to get my bearings I came to the conclusion that I was in Russia. Without the ability to locate my brethren, I knew only that I must get as far away as I was able. Without my wings I was forced to walk, and as I walked I prayed.

Eventually I found myself on a small Island in what was known as the Bermuda Triangle, with no recollection of how I had gotten there, and no way to get off. After all, only Jesus could walk on water. So I stayed there, and ate off of the land as Adam and Eve had been taught to do so very long ago. I wanted to help the humans, but with no way to contact anyone and nothing to build a raft with, I did not know what to do.

A long time passed, I lost count after eighty years, when an earthquake shook the island and the waters boiled at the sand. After a few days fish floated onto the shores, and after a few more the sand had turned to glass. The world was shifting, and as the ocean boiled it evaporated, until another century went by and I could walk on a bed of sand for miles. I explored this new world timidly, afraid of what I might find.

After a year of wandering, of finding only the crumpled remains of cities I had once known, I found civilization. It seemed that humans had predicted the change, and had prepared for it well. Technology was more advanced than it had been when I had last seen Uriel, but there were no flying cars or anything of the sort. No regular cars either, though there were maps of the new world. The ocean now took up only one fourth of the planet, and the desert took up half. The last fourth was filled with grassy areas and forests, though no mountains were to be seen.

I learned that books and television and electricity and even internet had been restored after only two years of waiting. Books were saved because many had digital copies which were stored where the humans had hid as the world changed. Even the most famous artworks had been saved, and I wondered if Michael and Gabriel had had to disguise themselves. I wondered many things. It had been two centuries since I had seen the others, and I missed Anael more and more with every day that passed. I prayed that he was alright.

Not fifty years passed when two major events occurred. First was the invention of the air ship, which is essentially a cruise ship that can fly at relatively low altitudes, and the second was yet another war. As many innocent bystanders were slaughtered and bombed; children in schools were killing one another and stealing their belongings, having sex in hallways with those who were willing, and raping those who were not. Schools were declared unsafe, and libraries became places of gathering. I preached to those who would listen, and continued praying to see one of my brethren, even Uriel, for I was sure he could no longer be consumed with human hatred.

After the libraries became unsafe and the auction houses had grown, I found myself drawn to them. Here the new laws had been posted, and those who enforced them stood guard. They had weapons that in the last three centuries humans had not dreamed of, and the pain the guards could cause left those breaking the law wishing for death. There was no judge or jury; the guards were the first, last, and final decision makers on the fate of anyone who was caught committing a crime. The crimes were mostly the same as they always had been, the only laws that had changed were the ones regarding punishment.

I wondered from city to city, always visiting the auction houses and watching for any sign of God. I still haven't seen any. That was two hundred and fifty years ago, five hundred and fifty years after we had been sent to Earth. So it was as I was wandering into a rather large city fondly named Babylon that I realized I should have my Angelic powers back. It had been over the five centuries God had required, but I was afraid. I did not know what I would find, if God was still with us after all that the world had suffered.

I looked deep inside, and grasped, and there it was. Not eight miles from Babylon my six wings sprouted from my back, my hunger and weariness disappeared, my lance appeared in the air to my right, and my Legacy Box appeared to my left. For a moment, I could only stare. Then I reached out and grabbed the box, all the memories of the last five and a half centuries flooding my mind and seeming tiny compared to the value of this box. This is my mission.

The Legacy Box contains all the memories of the human race, from Adam’s first day until the current millisecond. It records every memory from every mind of every human being on the planet. It also records the memories of the Arch Angels, and though I cannot access the memories, I was never meant to. I was ecstatic to have it, for the Legacy Box has the ability to recognize other Angels. I would have to be close to them, but if I was the box would tell me.

My mission with the box is to find the purest human that I can, and to give them the box, along with instructions on how to open it. When the Legacy Box is opened, the Legacy of mankind will be revealed to all. It can only be opened by a human, but if a cruel human were to open it then mankind’s darkest legacy would be revealed and all of the memories of war and strife and pain and fear, of desperation and anger and hopelessness and hatred, all dark memories of all humans since the dawn of their race would flood out, and every current human would now remember every dark deed every member of their race ever committed. On the other hand, if a truly pure human were to open it, then every happy memory of peace and prosperity, of love and laughter, would flood out, and the current humans would remember every moment of love and happiness since the dawn of their race.

If the latter were to occur as my mission intended, then humans would cease war, and begin re-building their broken world. They would join together so that the world might survive, rather than come to an end. Thus all of Gods children would have a second chance, and their lives could continue as God meant them to do, for they were created in his image, and he wanted them on the path of love and light for always.

I began my search immediately. Years crept by, but I did not give up hope. Churches which had been empty began to crumble and were not restored. I was upset, but I retained my faith. I prayed every night to find this human, or one of the others, so that I might at least be rid of this loneliness I had only learned on Earth. I saw neither Angels, nor innocent humans.

I thought I found a pure soul, once. I watched her for several years. I wanted to watch the human I planned to give the box to for at least a 5 year period before making my final judgment. It was in her last year of observation that I found her fatal flaw. When I thought she had been innocently feeding the orphans on her block, she was actually poisoning them. I woke one evening to a sense of danger, and I made myself invisible to the human eye just as I heard someone coming around the corner.

It was the girl, and she was dragging the corpse of one of the orphans. I watched her all night, and after she buried the nine bodies in shallow graves she went into the hut where they had stayed and collected their few belongings. The next night the dogs came, drawn to the smell even as faint as it was. She killed them with a slingshot and skinned them, roasting the meat for herself and preparing their furs for auction.

It was that night that I committed the greatest of sins, in the name of my Lord. I killed the girl, and buried her next to the orphans. It may sound like vengeance, but I did it out of love, so that her soul would have no more chances to commit further sins. She would be judged for the murders, but not for any future crimes she may have committed. She was almost pure, and for that, I loved her, and as any father might wish to save his daughter from eternal pain and torment, so I wished to save her. It was also on that night that my faith dimmed, and over the next forty years it faded and winked out all together. How could the only way to save someone in this world be to kill them? The question still haunts my mind.

That was two hundred years ago, and now I am here, prepared to end it all. In all this time I have not seen one human even close to pure. I am tired, and with no answer to my prayers I have to believe that God has given up on us. It has been eight hundred years since he sent us to Earth, and though I did as I was told and lived as a human, I have committed many sins and broken nearly all of the commandments. As punishment for this I have not seen my brethren in 500 years, and I have missed my beloved Anael for just as long.

I found myself unable to decide whom to pass the box on to; and maybe it’s old habit, or maybe I just want so desperately to believe that I have not been abandoned, but I chose to give God, if he’s still there, a hand in choosing the next owner of the box. So I am here, and the highest bidder will win what appears to be a small box, so black that it’s blue, with a small white crescent moon on the front that appears to be a candle. The wick is actually the key to opening it, and I plan on passing along the instructions to the winner. Then the fate of humankind can be decided, and if the others are still out there, I hope that they can forgive me.

The Legacy Box sits on the table with many other items, lot number 88, and now it’s 86. But as I watch the faces of those around me a see at least one that holds more interest than it should. I do not recognize him, but he seems to recognize me. I pick up the box, for a seller can change their mind as long as bidding has yet to begin, and I head towards the edge of the airship on which this particular auction house is held.

I sense him follow me, and I pause. There is a stirring within me, and I feel a sense of déjà vu. The box shivers in my hands, as I shiver when he speaks.

“Azrael. It’s been a long time.”

I turn, and the box reacts immediately. Long black tendrils fly out and wrap around him, just as he rushes at me, knocking the air from my lungs. We both go over the edge, and as I bring forth my wings I scream out to myself, “He’s an Angel!” even as I watch him fly forth as well. He gives me a dark bitter smile before the glamour he wears fades.

“Gabriel! What are you doing here? Why are you running?” I shout over the wind as I pursue my long lost brother.

“Tch. Tell me, Azrael, what has living the life of a human done to your mission?”

“My mission? God is gone, Gabriel, but I will pass on the Legacy Box!”

“Then we are enemies, brother. I am the Strength of God, and all my strength has gone into the support of this war. The humans are weak, and I will cast them out. They were made in God’s image, and I have judged them unfit to continue. After they have been annihilated the Angels will walk the Earth, restoring it to the Eden it once was. There will be no more pain, no more weak and easily corrupted humans. There will only be us!”

“And Michael? What of him?”I shout, panic lacing through me. With the auction I had planned to give God one last chance to intervene, to affect the outcome of his precious children. And here is a brother I have not seen in five hundred years. It cannot be coincidence, God must be present, must want his children safe, or else my box would have been opened by some random human and unleashed all the negative memories to lead them to hell. I cannot allow Gabriel to go against our Lord’s wishes.

“Ha! Michael, who is like God, feels as our Lord did when he flooded the planet. The humans do not deserve to live, their taint is too deep, and there is nothing left that can bring them back to the light that we the Angels deserve!”

“Gabriel, wait!”

“Goodbye, Azrael.”

I attempt to follow him, but as I do I turn and begin to fly as fast as I can the way I came. It was a trap; Michael led me to the firing place of what appear to be thousands of bombs. I out fly them, barely, but what I see sickens me to the core. There are many cities already destroyed, corpses littering the streets. I fly low, then head towards Gabriel again. I see a hole in the sand, and beneath I see an underground base with an airship inside. I am flooded with dismay and sorrow at what I see.

“You too, Anael?” I can feel my hope drain, and as I watch six Arch Angels preparing to bomb the planet I know that I am beaten.

“Azrael…I thought you had abandoned your mission?”

“Only last month did I make that decision. Anael…How could you?” I whisper it, aching with betrayal, but he hears me easily.

“I am the love of God, Azrael. I love them as if they were my own children, you know that. And I cannot allow my children to further condemn themselves. I lived as a human, and the only love I felt was yours. In the beginning there were others that felt love, but since the world changed I have neither seen nor felt any love. I want them to regain the light, but as Gabriel and Michael have told me, there is no salvation left to be had for them. I want to end it before they incur more suffering than they already have. Surely you understand?”

I think back to the girl I killed, and I can only grimace.

“I understand your thoughts Anael, my love, but that doesn't make it right! We were each sent with a mission to help them!”

“And I am helping! We are giving them a chance to start over! Sariel and Raphael have decedents that are of our heavenly blood, and Uriel’s mistress is pregnant! We can repopulate the world with divine blood, and the humans shall be redeemed through these children's actions! But first we must clean the world for them, less the humans negative influence spread!”

“Anael...please…Sariel, you are the command of God, reason with him!”

“Azrael…my mission was to ensure that God’s commands were followed. The churches all lie in ruin and his commands are long forgotten. All that remains of his commands are laws that humans disobey and the mission given to the Arch Angels of Heaven. I am merely helping our brethren complete their missions based on the judgments we were all to make.”

“Raphael?” I ask in a pleading voice.

“Azrael, I am the medicine of God. I was unable to cure the human race of their darkest desires, but I will heal the planet that our Lord created. This planet has been warped and nearly destroyed by pollution, while its resources have been stripped away. Humans are a disease to the planet and since I was unable to find a cure I have chosen to destroy the damaged tissue on which the disease feeds. These bombs will kill humans, but they have no radiation and will not poison the land. It is out of mercy that I destroy them, before they destroy Earth along with themselves. ”

“Uriel? I had hoped that five centuries would erase the hatred in your eyes. I forgive you for taking me from Anael, and even for making him cry. But this…destroying what we were meant to save is unforgivable.” Anael looks shocked, and the others seem to ruffle their wings in unease. Perhaps they have heard differently.

“Hn. How naïve you are Azrael. I am the fire of God, and it is my mission to punish those that we are unable to save. I am full of our Lord’s righteous anger, and in a world where none are able to be saved, I will wipe clean those deserving of divine justice.”

“What was your mission, Azrael? We have not asked you that.” Michael, who is like God in nearly every way. Of course he would try to be fair.

“My mission was to help humankind find the right path, and once I had my powers back to find a human pure of soul to whom I could give the Legacy Box.”

The others look at me in shock, and I know that they are surprised I have it. In Heaven this box was a legend, an old wives tale as the humans would call it.

“Is it true? Does it hold all the memories?”

“Yes, Anael. With this box and the right person humankind can be saved. I lost faith, and just as I was about to give up, Gabriel appeared. God is still with us, and he would want us to find this human and save his children.”

“No. As the fire of God I cannot allow them to go unpunished! Sariel, Gabriel, fire the weapons!”

“No! Wait!” Raphael shouts as I dive for Uriel, but we are too late.

The bombs fly off in another wave, these larger and deadlier than the last. I grab Anael and kiss him, shouting as I fly off. I’ve always been the fastest flier.

“I love you Anael, always!”

And I am gone, weaving through missiles as I see a fleet of airships, all firing their weapons across the Earth. I fly far passed the weapons, searching for a living human, anyone I can warn and rescue so that this is not the end. Finally, I see someone.

She is an older woman, maybe 45, unusual in these dark times, and she is giving children candy before putting them on a bus. The tears glisten on her face as she tells her daughter to swallow the candy. I can see razors inside. Her lips are wet as she smiles and leads her daughter onto the bus. She tells the girl that the other children are sleeping, and asks her to blow her a kiss, like she always used to.

For a moment I am the girl, and as I make the face I can feel the razor in my throat, cutting my vocal cords. I am surprised because it hurts, but I trust my momma, and make the blowing face. I try to smile through the pain as I feel the modern razor cut through my neck, and as I black out I know that I will die by my momma’s side. I am confused, but happy.

I come back to myself, unsure of why I glimpsed the child’s mind, when it hits me. She was my pure soul. I cry out, reaching for her, but I know that she has passed. The woman smiles at me through her own tears, and I have to speak.

“Why?” It’s a choked sob, for the child’s emotion was very strong.

“I saw the planes. And the bombs. The world is about to go up in flames, and I didn’t want them to burn.” She sounds regretful, and she throws a candy into her mouth before I can say anything.

“Wait!”

She looks at me, and does not swallow the candy in her throat. I have precious little time.

“I am Azrael, Arch Angel sent to save humanity.” I release my wings as I speak, so that she doesn’t think I am insane and swallow.

“Listen closely child of God, for you may yet be able to save all of humankind.”

She nods slowly, and I feel hope swell in my chest.

“Your desire to protect these children, and the love I felt between you and your daughter makes me believe that your soul may be pure. If I am right, you can open this Box and all the good memories any human has ever had will be shared among you all. All you have to do is twist the wick and push it in at the same time. Once the memories are released any desire to do wrong will vanish, and those dying even now will be judged with that in their hearts.”

The woman nods carefully, now more aware of the razor than ever, as she twists the wick and opens the box. She collapses, and I quickly pray for Raphael to not be far behind. She may yet be saved since she never swallowed. A warm blanket settles over my shaking shoulders, and Anael smiles at me. Sariel and his youngest daughter land as well, and from the half-human half-angel's face it is obvious that I found the right human, at last.

Perhaps living out another few lives on Earth would be a good thing, and as I voice my thoughts Raphael lands and begins treating the woman. Michael arrives next, and we agree to help rebuild the world for future generations. Uriel and Gabriel will likely be forced to remain here as well, and I can only hope that they will learn something from it. And with our memories now recorded in the box, the legacy of the Angels will live on, here to find those who are lost, just as we found all of God’s children.

Legacy of the Angels: Azrael's Legacy

The box hums with energy, whispering to me, as if pleading for me to keep it, to protect its secrets and memories, to have faith in human beings. It whispers softly, no words distinct, but the impression clear. ‘Protect me’, it says. ‘Carry your burden awhile longer. Remember that God had a plan, and you and I are a part of it’. I ignore the whispers, as I have for the last two hundred years. It doesn’t matter anymore. I am here, at the edge of the planet. I am alone.

There were seven of us in the beginning. Seven Archangels; if that’s what could be called, now. There was Michael, “The Likeness of God”; Gabriel “The Strength of God”; Raphael, “The Medicine of God”; Anael, “The Love of God”; Sariel, “The Command of God”; Uriel, “The Fire of God”; and of course myself, Azrael, “The Help of God”. Each of us was given a special mission from our Lord and father, a mission based on the meaning of our names.

I wonder now if he had known what would become of us, and of the world. Not that it matters anymore. It was before God vanished. Now, the plan has changed. For all of us. The world has changed so very much in the last eight hundred years.
The schools have long since been deemed too dangerous to attend, and churches fell to ruin when humans lost hope for any possibility of salvation. There is no point in prayer, and kneeling would only get you shot in the back. Now the planet is mostly desert, the continents having either drowned or fused together, and the wars of the Old World look like peace offerings.

When the other Angels and I were certain that humans would pull together and help one another; there was little but greed, theft, rape, and murder. The seven deadly sins did not diminish or fade away as we had once hoped, but rather, they grew. As the human populace shrank and one needed more than anything else to rely on their neighbor, their neighbor came over to rape them, steal their belongings, sell their children, and slit their throats.

These have been dark times, and no one is to be trusted. The laws have changed, and though the enforcers are small in number, they are feared by all. Guns and blades are common weapons, and not even children are left untrained. But this is what we were sent here to prevent. God would tell us that’s it’s never too late. He would be wrong. I am Azrael, Archangel, Angel of Death, and my mission to humankind was to be the “Help of God”.

For when God looked upon his children and saw war, hunger, pain, and hatred, he looked away. That was when we were called. I was sent to Earth, along with my brethren, to evaluate humankind and help them transition from the beaten path they were on, to the enlightened path of eternal love.

Each of the seven Archangels was given a different mission when we were sent down to Earth, each one meant to help humankind through these difficult times in different ways, and only by working together and completing our missions would we be able to save those that our father loved above all else. As Angels we knew nothing of the jealousy that the request would later inspire.

But God said that to truly help humankind, we had to understand them first, and to understand them, we must be like them. He told us to live as humans for a minimum of five hundred years, completely bereft of our powers. We would retain our original looks and we would not age or die, but also, we would not be able to summon our wings or any of our heavenly attributes. What we did with these lives was up to us, for we would be unable to hear God’s voice on Earth, just as the humans could not. We were all sent to different locations, for during our lives as human we would have to have faith in God and each other in order to find one another.

So I lived my life, going to college with a false identity and becoming a psychologist. As the help of God I knew the human mind very well, and soon I had become famous for ‘curing’ phobias, panic disorders, depression, and even schizophrenia. I was careful to never allow my photo to be taken, but I had published several books to help humans help themselves, and after a mere twenty years I had to move and choose a different path, less it be seen that I did not age.

Raphael lived near me then, as he was becoming a famous doctor. It suited him, as he is the medicine of God. I pursued a career as a minister at the time, and it was only a century after we arrived on Earth that I found Anael, the love of God. He was also a minister, and he loved humankind as much as our Lord and Father did. Anael and I grew close in our travels, and one night we truly became like humans.

I still don’t know if God intended it that way; if he forgave us before he vanished. It does not matter. Anael and I were in love, and though we were both men we knew that God valued all love on Earth. Except that loving each other was not part of our orders, and we were not the human children that he loved so dearly and forgave so easily.

Anael and I have been together for seven centuries, and during the many lives we have lived we discovered that Gabriel, the strength of God, and Michael, the likeness of God, have also come to truly understand humans, or at least the human types of love. They spent thirty years with us, before deciding to search for the others. We also met Sariel, the command of God, on our travels, and he was with a beautiful young woman and had two children. He understood humans perhaps even better than I did then. Anael and I were married not long after.

But through these years Anael and I also learned of hardships and hunger, of discrimination and hatred. I think that affected Anael very deeply, for he loved each and every human as he would his own child, and to be hated by so many of them… it was during one of those times that he learned to cry. During a tour in Egypt where we were ministering we witnessed the first firing in what would be called World War III.

We managed to see Raphael during that war, and he looked so pale and frightened that it shook me to the core. He told us that he had seen Uriel, the fire of God, and that Uriel had the flame of hatred in his eyes that we had only seen in humans. It seemed that he had come to understand them as well. We left Raphael then, to tend the wounded as only he could. If I had known it was the last time I would see him, I might have done more for him.

Anael and I found Uriel after two years of searching. He was in America, building a political life in the hopes of getting high up the chain so that he could bring God’s wrath down on those that caused the war, and all of the unnecessary suffering that went with it. His eyes were filled with an eerie light, and when he saw us holding hands he spouted that God would never forgive us, that we were only playing the part of his children and as Angels we did not have the same rights as the humans we protected.

Anael cried then, and I think I did as well. Uriel was a brother to us, and it hurt to see him so. Anael fled to our hotel afterwards, and I went after Uriel. I tried to speak with him, but he cursed me to the depths of hell before pulling out a pistol and hitting me in the head with the butt.

When I woke I was in a dark, damp, place, and I was alone. My feet were shackled, and I could hear screams from above me. I touched my head and found blood, and realized that though God had said we could not die, he had said nothing of being injured. I waited for my captor to come, or for Anael to return with the other Angels. Days passed and not a soul came, not even with food. I grew weak, and though my mind knew I could not die, my heart experienced terror. For all I felt, I was human, and it was in that moment that I was freed.

I heard Anael scream my name, and his dirty blood-smeared face was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. A bomb had been dropped, and a gaping hole smoldered not far from the castle that housed my dungeon. The shockwave from the bomb caused the iron links of the shackles to fall apart, and I ran for Anael as the ceiling tumbled down. We escaped with barely a moment to spare, and after I’d had a chance to get my bearings I came to the conclusion that we were in Russia. Without the ability to locate our brethren, we knew only that we must get as far away as we were able. Without our wings we were forced to walk, and as we walked we prayed.

Eventually we found ourselves on a small Island in what was known as the Bermuda Triangle, with no recollection of how we had gotten there, and no way to get off. After all, only Jesus could walk on water. So we stayed there, eating off the land as Adam and Eve had been taught to do so very long ago. We wanted to help the humans, but with no way to contact anyone and nothing to build a raft with, neither of us knew what to do.

A long time passed, I lost count after eighty years, when an earthquake shook the island and the waters boiled at the sand. After a few days fish floated onto the shores, and after a few more the sand had turned to glass. The world was shifting, and as the ocean boiled it evaporated, until another century went by and we could walk on a bed of sand for miles. We explored this new world timidly, afraid of what we might find, but taking comfort in each other.

After a year of wandering, of finding only the crumpled remains of cities we had once known, we found civilization. It seemed that humans had predicted the change, and had prepared for it well. Technology was more advanced than it had been when I had last seen Uriel, but there were no flying cars or anything of the sort. No regular cars either, though there were maps of the new world. The ocean now took up only one fourth of the planet, and the desert took up half. The last fourth was filled with grassy areas and forests, though no mountains were to be seen.

We learned that books and television and electricity and even internet had been restored after only two years of waiting. Books were saved because many had digital copies which were stored where the humans had hid as the world changed. Even the most famous artworks had been saved, and I wondered if Michael and Gabriel had had to disguise themselves. I wondered many things. It had been two centuries since we had seen the others, and we prayed that they were alright.

Not fifty years passed before God’s children were at war again. As many innocent bystanders were slaughtered and bombed; children in schools were killing one another and stealing their belongings, having sex in hallways with those who were willing, and raping those who were not. Schools were declared unsafe, and libraries became places of gathering. Anael and I preached to those who would listen, and continued praying to see more of our brethren, even Uriel, for we was sure he could no longer be consumed with human hatred.

After the libraries became unsafe the Arenas became places of gathering. Here children and adults of all ages could compete in different forms of weaponry, and everyone fought to prove that they were to be the most-feared warrior. I found myself drawn to them. Here the new laws had been posted, and those who enforced them stood guard. They had weapons that in the last three centuries humans had not dreamed of, and the pain the guards could cause left those breaking the law wishing for death. There was no judge or jury; the guards were the first, last, and final decision makers on the fate of anyone who was caught committing a crime.

Anael and I wondered from city to city, always visiting the Arenas and watching for any sign of God. I still haven’t seen any. That was two hundred and fifty years ago, five hundred and fifty years after we had been sent to Earth. So it was as we were wandering into a rather large city fondly named Babylon that I realized we should have our Angelic powers back. It had been over the five centuries God had required, but I was afraid. We did not know what we would find, if God was even still with us after all that the world had suffered.

Anael and I looked at each other, nodded, and closed our eyes. I looked deep inside, searching, reaching, and there it was. Not eight miles from Babylon my six wings sprouted from my back, my hunger and weariness disappeared, my lance appeared in the air to my right, and my Legacy Box appeared to my left. Anael sprouted his wings as well, and for a moment, I could only stare. Then I reached out and grabbed the box, all the memories of the last five and a half centuries flooding my mind and seeming tiny compared to the value of this box. This is my mission.

The Legacy Box contains all the memories of the human race, from Adam’s first day until the current millisecond. It records every memory from every mind of every human being on the planet. It also records the memories of the Archangels, and though I cannot access the memories, I was never meant to. I was ecstatic to have it, for the Legacy Box has the ability to recognize other Angels. I would have to be close to them, but if I was the box would tell me. As it was doing in response to my beloved Anael.

My mission with the box is to find the purest human that I can, and to give them the box, along with instructions on how to open it. When the Legacy Box is opened, the legacy of mankind will be revealed to all. It can only be opened by a human, but if a cruel human were to open it then mankind’s darkest legacy would be revealed and all of the memories of war and strife and pain and fear, of desperation and anger and hopelessness and hatred, all dark memories of all humans since the dawn of their race would flood out, and every current human would now remember every dark deed every member of their race ever committed.

On the other hand, if a truly pure human were to open it, then every happy memory of peace and prosperity, of love and laughter, would flood out, and the current humans would remember every moment of love and happiness since the dawn of their race.

If the latter were to occur as my mission intended, then humans would cease war, and begin re-building their broken world. They would join together so that the world might survive, rather than come to an end. Thus all of Gods children would have a second chance, and their lives could continue as God meant them to do, for they were created in his image, and he wanted them on the path of love and light for always.

We began the search immediately. Years crept by, but I did not give up hope. Churches which had been empty began to crumble and were not restored. Anael and I were upset, but we retained our faith. We prayed every night to find this human, or one of the others, so that we might at least be rid of this loneliness we had only learned on Earth. We saw neither Angels, nor innocent humans.

I thought I found a pure soul, once. We watched her for several years. We had agreed to watch the human I planned to give the box to for at least a 5 year period before making our final judgment. It was in her last year of observation that we discovered her fatal flaw. She had been feeding the orphans on her block, and we thought it was done out of kindness, compassion, and a genuine desire to help her brethren. But one night we discovered that she was just as self-preserving as the rest of her race.

I woke one evening to a sense of danger, and I made myself invisible to the human eye just as I heard someone coming around the corner. It was the girl, and she was dragging the corpse of one of the orphans. I watched her all night, and after she buried the nine bodies in shallow graves she went into the hut where they had stayed and collected their few belongings. The next night the dogs came, drawn to the smell even as faint as it was. She killed them with a slingshot and skinned them, roasting the meat for herself and preparing their furs to sell.

She had been feeding them so that when the time came, she could poison them and eat the animals the stench would attract. It was that night that I committed the greatest of sins, in the name of my Lord. I killed the girl, and buried her next to the orphans. It may sound like vengeance, but I did it out of love, so that her soul would have no more chances to commit further sins. She would be judged for the murders, but not for any future crimes she may have committed.

She was almost pure, and for that, I loved her, and as any father might wish to save his daughter from eternal pain and torment, so I wished to save her. It was also on that night that my faith dimmed, and over the next forty years it faded and winked out all together. How could the only way to save someone in this world be to kill them? The question still haunts my mind, and I don’t think that Anael ever truly forgave me for that. For him, it was as if I had killed his child. He had slept through the night, and I think he blamed me for not stopping her sooner as much as for killing her.

That was two hundred years ago, and now I am here, prepared to end it all. In all this time I have not seen one human even close to pure. I am weary, and with no answer to my prayers I have to believe that God has given up on us. It has been eight hundred years since he sent us to Earth, and though I did as I was told and lived as a human, I have committed many sins and broken nearly all of the commandments. As punishment for this I have not seen my brethren in 500 years, and as of two months ago I have lost my beloved Anael.

We had fallen asleep together, as we did every night. The soft, almost sad, tone of his voice should have tipped me off, but the world had gone to hell and it did not. I awoke before the sun rose to an empty bed, and all I could find of my husband was a piece of paper bearing a single word. Goodbye.

Two months later and I am here, at the edge of the world, the place where the living world ends and the desert begins. If the others are still out there, I hope that they can forgive me. I enter the desert, now in search of the island where Anael and I once lived together, in harmony with the planet. It is there that I will die. Now that God has abandoned me I see no reason to respect him and the life he gave to me.

Time passes, I’m not sure how long. I find myself in a cave that echoes with memories of love and worship. I am as close to home as I can ever be. It doesn’t take long to end my life, my aim is flawless and my lance is one of the few weapons capable of killing an angel. My blood pools around me as I lean against the cool cavern wall. I could swear I feel a warm embrace…but I am alone, and it is cold.

I blink, and suddenly the cave is gone. Shadows reach out in every direction, and I see nothing but varying shades of grey. I can hear rain falling and thunder rumbles in the distance, but I see no lightning and feel no moisture. I walk for awhile, and when I grow tired I sit. My thoughts drift to my brothers, and I let out a startled gasp as the grey parts and I see Michael arguing with Gabriel. They heard that a great storm swept through the desert, and that in the center of that desolate land a hurricane of sand had formed, and there it remained.

Michael seems to think that one of the Angels is involved and wants to investigate, while Gabriel insists that it’s more likely a trap set by the anti-Christ, whom he had sensed being brought into this world in some form or other a few months ago. I focus my thoughts on this hurricane, and the image changes. The cave where I ended my life is in the eye, and the wind is strong enough to prevent anyone from viewing my perfectly preserved corpse, now encased in crystal grown out of the cave walls.

I find myself thinking of Anael, and wondering if he too will try to see the cause of this storm. Suddenly his image is before me, and I weep for the thought of never holding him again. I watch as he rocks in a chair on the porch of a house I have never seen. I sense that he is alone, yet not entirely. I smile as he rubs his stomach and speaks quietly to himself, and then it clicks.

As Angels we truly had no gender, and though we’ve always had the physical attributes of men, we have the ability to change that, so that if we are feeling more feminine we can take on the form of women. Anael has not done that entirely, yet he is definitely with child. I suppose at some point in our time together he must have decided to bring life and love to a world that has been dying for centuries. It would be like him to do such a thing.

I listen more intently now, and hear that Anael is six months pregnant with twins. I am saddened, for these will be my children as well, and now I shall never know them. Like all Angels they will be genderless, but in the world of their birth they will be able to choose their own genders at will. I wonder why Anael didn’t tell me, for I would have forgiven him and been glad of his decision, happy to raise our children together. But perhaps he kept the memory of my greatest sin in mind, and feared that I would not allow our children to live. He would be wrong, and never have I regretted anything so much as I regret killing her.

Months go by, and I watch my husband and our brethren while they’re awake, and I watch humanity as they sleep. Time has no meaning here, and it isn’t long before Anael uses his power as the love of God to reach out to Raphael. The other Angel senses his urgency, and I watch with joy and pride as Raphael sprouts his wings and follows his heart to my Anael. When he arrives I feel sad for Anael’s shame as he tells Raphael of what he has done, of how he has changed his internal organs to that of a woman and become pregnant with my children. Raphael takes it in stride and I recall that he must understand, as he watches after his own human descendants.

When he asks where I have gone to my husband flinches, and I feel his pain as he explains that he fled from me, and has been hiding all these months. He does not know where I am, but I can see in his eyes that he suspects the truth. Only he knows that in the center of the desert right where the hurricane formed, is a cavern where we made our home. I watch anxiously as Raphael helps deliver the babies, both currently male.

I am proud, and even though I know they cannot hear me I welcome them to this world and reach out to touch them through the grey. It is as if I am standing next to them, walking in this room one moment and on the porch with Raphael the next as my thoughts turn to him. He is preparing to build a home nearby, to help take care of Anael and the children. I flicker back to my husband’s side, and as I rest my hand against the child I cannot feel, I can’t help but to utter the name Raziel. The child opens his eyes, and it’s as if he can see me. Then Anael looks to him and calls him Raziel “Secret of God”, a name that seems to fit. I smile and glance at the other child, and as I whisper the name Haniel, "the Grace of God” Anael speaks it.

Time passes and I watch as our children grow, and eventually Michael and Gabriel find the two that I watch. As my children grow older they seem to lose the ability to see me that they were born with, and though I am saddened by that I am certain that they were able to hear me and learn from the words I spoke. Raziel still seems to see me sometimes, as now he and his sister are ten years of age. Haniel stopped showing signs of recognizing me when she was eight, but still I kiss her and pray with her each night before I whisper that I love her and leave the room.

I spend most nights watching Anael, as I fear for his health. He has not slept well since I first found him, and ever since the children were old enough to talk he has slept even more fitfully. It is as if he is waiting for something. Raziel once told him not to be sad because Daddy was watching over them all, and Anael cried himself to sleep that night. I think he’s always known what became of me. As I kiss Raziel goodnight he seems to see me briefly, as he still sometimes does. He whispers into the empty air that he loves me, and that he knows he will meet me one day. I smile sadly as I agree and leave to check on Anael.

I am horrified to discover my husband, sitting in a bed soaked with his own blood. I run for Raziel, and he senses urgency in the air even if he cannot hear my words just now. He runs for his Father, before immediately calling for Raphael with his Angelic powers. Yet Raphael is too late, and it is with a hollow soul that I watch my family fall apart. Before I can do more than cry out in denial, Anael is by my side. I blink, startled, before pulling him close with a mixture of relief and regret.

We talk for a long time, watching Michael and Gabriel raise our children as we explain our thoughts and feelings to each other. We know we are in purgatory, for neither of us was judged to be worthy of eternal damnation, yet with the sins of our lives and suicides we were also unable to rise to heaven, which I have now decided must still be there. How else could such beautiful children have been born into such a horrid world?

Now the twins are in their twenties, and though Raziel cannot hear us, he has never completely lost sight of us. Haniel has opened an orphanage and rescues what humans she can before they are killed. Their names suit them, but tonight we sense change. Haniel and Raziel are arguing. It seems that Raziel knows the secrets of my box, as well as its location. He wants to find it, to use it. Haniel insists that God must have other plans now, for it is her desire to bring them to grace by showing them how to be humble and loving.

Raziel insists that the humans should not be saved based on what his twin sister could teach them, but rather on what they learned on their own. He believes that the box should be left somewhere for someone to find, and that God should send the human who was meant to open it, thus ending the conflicted mission and allowing them all safe passage to heaven. Haniel asks him if the humans are not worth a few life spans here on Earth, and asks if their uncles should not have a say in it.

In the end they agree to let their uncles decide, but Anael and I watch Raziel suspiciously. Rightly so, because around two in the morning he sneaks out with the Legacy Box, and though he is back by sunrise the box has been left behind. Haniel continues to teach humans grace and humility by example, and one day the box is opened. We are fortunate, for the child that opened the box has heard of Saint Haniel and learned the lessons our daughter taught.

While she was not pure of soul, nor was she tainted, and the mix allowed both the most beautiful and the most tainted of memories to be freed. Over the next gap in time we watch as many humans follow Haniel to the path of light that God has always wanted for his children. Though the planet is also driven by war and hatred, the other angels and human enforcers of law keep Haniel’s followers safe from harm.

Raziel is among her protectors, and though he knows she knows about the box, he is not regretful. The good memories allowed for Haniel’s teachings to spread and grow, and the dark memories are causing the truly dark humans to kill one another before they have time to commit as many sins as they once had.

Time passes, centuries flow by, and a time comes when there is no more war and humans begin spending more time helping than destroying one another. The planet is still in ruin, and many souls were lost to Lucifer, but Anael and I are proud to watch our children complete the mission that we could not. We listen as they talk one day, debating whether or not to remain on Earth. They have long since revealed their true nature to God’s children, and now that all of the Angels are together many of them are ready to return home.

Raziel reveals that the Legacy Box was never destroyed, and that our memories are now recorded in the box, even Anael’s and mine. He tells the others that the legacy of the Angels will live on, here to find those who are lost, just as we found all of God’s children, and that in time of need a human of Angelic descent can re-open the box, and all of the work we did on Earth, all of the lessons that we taught, will be in the mind of every human being on the planet, whether they have Angelic blood within them or not.

Haniel agrees with her brother and the box is left in a newly built church, as Michael and Gabriel set out to tell their neighbors, our brothers, to head to the eye of the Hurricane, where Anael’s body appeared after Raphael was unable to revive him. There they surround our crystallized bodies, and as they all activate their dormant powers the desire to return to our Father’s side causes them to flash out of our sight.

Anael and I smile, for while we know that we shall not be returning to heaven anytime soon, we also know that we have each other and our love. We realize that to atone for our sins we must watch over and protect Haniel’s followers, and pass the box on if ever they lose faith as we once did. It is as we are watching that Raziel appears before us, smiling. He hugs us both and whispers that he knows we shall be freed one day, and as he tells us goodbye we cannot help but to look forward to the future, both for mankind, and for ourselves.