Chapter Text
The chaos after Lucifer and Lilith's fall had been nearly suffocating; it had been a mess, the kind that leaves one with a migraine. Sera's eyes flicked down to the small child with blonde hair that had lighter blonde streaks running through it. The sclera of her eyes was a bright yellow, and her eyes were red, like her father's, but large and oval-shaped, like her mother's. Sera tried to ignore the guilt clawing in her stomach; the elders of Heaven must not be questioned. The child had fangs like her mother. Her cheeks were rosy red, like her father's, and she had thick eyelashes, much like her mother did. Again, Sera tried to ignore the guilt that grew within her; no, she must not question she wouldn't question. If she questioned, who would look after her sister, and who would make sure this child had a good life? Sera's eyes fell towards the small child, who held onto her hand tightly once more. The child had a nose that was like a dog's and hooves, as Sera discovered, and she honestly had no idea where those features came from.
Sera bit her lip; she and Lucifer had never been close; they weren't even related, as Lucifer had been created after her, but somehow, Sera had always been the one tasked to clean up his messes. But Sera had never hated Lucifer, and even though he had deserved the consequences he had received for his actions, this child, though she was his child, didn't. She had done nothing except be born into this world. She didn't deserve hell, and she didn't deserve to be alone either. That's why Sera fought for the child and the right for her to stay in Heaven. This child wasn't Lucifer; she deserved a chance to be good. Sera knew this child, Charlie, could be if just given the chance. So she was giving her that chance.
Sera bit her lip once more, wondering if it was good to introduce her to Emily. Emily, sweet Emily, Sera adorned and loved her little sister and thought Sera would not admit it to anyone else doted on her quite a bit. Emily was the light in Sera's life that helped her get through the hard days. She was sure that Emily would love Charlie but wasn't so sure Charlie would be up for meeting her because Emily was very excited and might be a bit much for Charlie, who had only just been released from the elders' care and was still reeling from the loss of her parents. But Sera hoped that was not the case; she hoped that having a friend would do Charlie some good. She really thought it would help Charlie heal and, most importantly, forget.
Sera's face tightened. It was a sad thought knowing that Charlie would most likely, in a millennia or so, not even be able to recall her parents much at all. It was so sad because it was clear to Sera that Charlie loved her parents dearly. It meant that Lucifer and Lilith must have been good parents. So it was really just better in this case if Charlie forgot. Because, in this case, it would just be cruel for Charlie to remember.
Finally, Sera properly looked down at the girl she had been glancing at as she stopped walking. Charlie stopped walking, too, "Charlie," Sera spoke, keeping her voice soft and warm, not wanting to frighten the small child.
Charlie looked up at her, and Sera sighed, "I'm going to introduce you to someone; she's my little sister, and she's the same age as you. She's probably going to be very excited to meet you. I want you to try your best to get along with her, okay?" Sera watched Charlie carefully to see what the girl's reaction would be. Charlie's eyes shimmered with uncertainty, and Sera was worried for a moment until Charlie nodded her head and spoke,
"Okay," It was just one word, but Charlie hadn't spoken at all for the entire time she had been with her. So, it was a bit of a relief to hear her speak. Sera smiled,
"Alright, thank you, Charlie," Sera spoke before she slowly started walking again, and she looked down to make sure Charlie had to. Sera looked away, guilt clawing at her again when she remembered when she first came across Charlie, scared and alone.
_______
It had taken a while, but Sera had finally figured out where exactly in this wretched forest Lucifer and Lilith had been hiding. Here, deep within it, in the middle of a maze of large trees and tangled vines, was a clearing. In the clearing was a small cottage clearly hand-built, but it was also impressively two stories despite its small size, though it appeared from the outside that the second story must be considerably smaller than the first. To the side of the house, some flowers had been clearly planted in a wide variety of types and colors.
Sera had to imagine it was Lilith who had planted them, as she couldn't imagine Lucifer gardening. No, that man was much more content creating the things of his dreams, which were usually some variety of those loud yellow birds he created, uh, what were they called—ducks? She thought they were very unsightly and loud, but they did very much fit the an—no, not an angel anymore. Lucifer had fallen now.
Next to flowers was a variety of plants, mainly consisting of fruits and vegetables; it makes sense because Lilith needed food to survive, after all. Even if she had become a demon, she imagined Lilith still needed to eat. Well, angels did not need to eat to survive; they did it quite often, so she imagined Lucifer would be eating as well. So, it seemed there was nothing unusual outside the cottage, so she better go inside and check it out. Sera sighed; the sooner she did that, the sooner it'd be over it. Once it was over it, she'd never have to clean up Lucifer's messes again.
Sera sighed, and her eyes flicked around the inside of the cottage; it was rather plain. But then again, they had been hiding away; they only needed a place to live while they hid; there was no reason for it to be anything special. Sera stopped momentarily when she noticed there were three chairs at the table, not two.
Sera stared, confused, at the slightly smaller and third chair at the table. Why were there three chairs? No one else should be living here but Lilith and Lucifer…unless— no, that was stupid Lilith and Lucifer were allies and nothing more. So Sera kept walking and reached the stairs in the cottage and placed her foot on the first step, and the wood creaked under the weight of her foot. Sera ignored it and walked up the stairs.
It seems her previous assumption she had made outside the cottage was correct; the second floor was indeed much smaller than the first, only a narrow hallway with two rooms at the end of it. She assumed one must be Lilith's and the other Lucifer's; well, as soon as she checked them over, she could be done. All she'd have to do was report her findings to the elders, and then she could return home and see Emily. Sera had been unable to see her precious little sister in the past few weeks because she was cleaning up the mess Lucifer and Lilith's fall had left. So Sera was rather eager to return and see Emily, dote on her, and indulge whatever juvenile requests her sister asked her.
So Sera quickly swept down the small hallway and stopped before the first room. She turned expecting to see a plain bedroom, but she didn't, and she froze, her heart stopping. What she saw was indeed a bedroom, but it was littered with toys, and the bed was small and ornately decorated. Sera wasn't stupid; she knew that this was a child's room; of course, it was; how would she not know that when she had a little sister of her own whose toys always found their way back to being littered across the floor no matter how many times Sera went and picked them back up.
Sera's mind raced back to the third chair at the table she had brushed off. The chair had been small and child-sized. But she brushed it off, thinking it couldn't have actually been. Oh, what had they done? That meant there had to be a child in this house somewhere—a child, an innocent child, alone in this cottage. Naive and unaware, she had just lost her parents because of them.
A tug, Sera felt a tug on her skirt and slowly looked down to see a child with blonde hair and red oval-shaped eyes; her mouth was open so she could see she had small little fangs in her mouth, but other than that, her teeth were straight; like Liltih's: white skin, and rosy cheeks like Lucifer. Sera could only stare. "Do you know when my mama and papa will be back?" The child asked, her voice trembling and tears in her eyes.
Sera's throat was dry, and guilt was clawing at her, threatening to consume her whole; finally, Sera found the will to speak, "I… I'm so sorry." Was all Sera could bring herself to say now burdened by the knowledge of what they had done.
The knowledge they had taken away from this little girl's parents, and there was nothing to do about it because Lucifer and Lilith had already fallen.
_______
Emily furiously scribbled with crayons on a piece of paper, humming to herself a tune that was going to become a song she would burst out into at some point. Emily finally, after a few more minutes, put down the crayon. Before standing up, picking up the paper, and looking proudly at her masterpiece—yep, it was definitely a masterpiece. She had drawn her playing with someone. Emily didn't know who because she didn't have any friends, but that was okay because she had her big sister! Sera was the best! She was going to show this to Sera when she got home; actually, she was going to show Sera all the drawings she had drawn since Sera had left. Sera had been gone a few weeks, and Emily missed her very much. It was no far that Sera had to leave for work for so long! It's not like she was alone; another angel always took care of Emily while she was gone, but Emily didn't like her that much because she wasn't Sera! She wanted to see Sera because, as previously mentioned, Sera was the best! The bestest! Yeah! The bestest big sister in the world! Emily hugged her, drawing close to her chest, and carefully stepped over her toy that was lying on the floor, and walked over to a small table, and placed the drawing on the messy stack of her already completed drawings, which were also amazing masterpieces, by the way.
Emily grabbed another piece of paper but stopped when she looked around the room and noted how her toys were littered everywhere all over the floor. Oh, Emily didn't think Sera would like that. Sera always went through the trouble of picking up Emily's toys and always kept telling Emily to pick them up when she was done with them.
Emil thought for a moment and put the blank piece of paper down, and thought for a moment. Very carefully, too; Emily was thinking like super carefully. She could clean up her toys now, and then maybe Sera would be super happy and proud of her when she got back. But…cleaning her toys was so boring, though. "Emily." Suddenly, any train of thought that was going through Emily's head disappeared as she heard Sera's voice, and she looked up and saw Sera standing in the doorway. Emily quickly made her way to the doorway excitedly, stood before her sister, and craned her head to look up at her because Sera was so tall.
"Sera! You're back! I missed you lots!" Emily exclaimed and, for a minute, thought she saw a wisp of blonde hair behind her sister but ignored it.
"Mmhm…I know, though. I see you made a mess with your toys again."
Emily stuck her lip out in a pout at her sister's words. "I was about to clean them up, really!"
Sera laughed, "I'm sure you were…listen, Emily, I need to introduce you to someone." Sera spoke, and Emily grew curious at that but also grew super excited because she loved meeting new people. Sera seemed to recognize the excitement in Emily's eyes and stepped to the side a bit, revealing a blonde girl about her age with white skin, red cheeks, and a puppy dog nose, and she also had red eyes. "This is Charlie; she's going to be staying with us from now on. I need you to be her friend, okay, Emily?"
Emily nodded and squealed a bit. A friend! Emily always wanted one of those! Plus, she was Emily's age too! So even better!
"Hi, I'm Emily! But you can call me anything you want! It's nice to meet you!" Emily spoke really excitedly, holding out her hand for Charlie to shake, which Charlie did, giving Emily's hand a slow, nervous shake. "So, Charlie! I was drawing! You wanna come draw with me!"
Charlie was about to respond to Charlie's question, and Emily could see a soft spark in her eyes, but Sera quickly interjected, "Yes, why don't you do that and get to know each other a bit? There are some arrangements I have to make so I'll be back soon, okay? Emily, please be good." Emily listened to her sister's words absentmindedly because she was too enthralled with the fact that she finally had a friend to pay any more attention to her sister’s words.
"Of course, I'll be good, Sera!" Emily spoke quickly as Sera left the room; she didn't want Sera to think she was ignoring her after all.
Emily carefully took Charlie's hand and led her over to the table with her drawings and blank papers on it. She took a paper and held it out for Charlie to take, which the girl did. Emily then quickly and very excitedly took one for herself before turning back to face Charlie.
"So, Charlie! What do you like to do for fun? Do you like rainbows—oh wait, what about singing? I love singing; please tell me about you!"
_______
Charlie was drawing a duck because her Papa liked ducks, but she also gave it feathery wings, kinda like Emily's, because she thought they were pretty. Charlie looked toward Emily, who seemed to be focused on her own drawing. Charlie and Emily had talked for a while before they had actually started drawing, and Emily had asked her so many questions about herself at a very rapid pace. It had been a bit hard to keep up with because she was asking so fast, but Charlie didn't mind because she thought it was silly like her Papa had been. Charlie had decided she liked Emily and enjoyed being around her, though she still missed Papa and Mama though, but she thought that Mama and Papa would want her to be happy.
Emily was sweet and excitable, funny like Charlie thought she was great, and Charlie was sure Papa would love Emily. They had lots in common, too, like they both liked rainbows, singing, and fuzzy animals. Emily said that there was this place here that had real fluffy and fuzzy animals! Charlie didn't know, but she hadn't seen anything like that before, but she thought it sounded amazing!
However, Charlie wondered if it was okay to like Emily because Emily was an angel, and her Papa and Mama had warned her about angels. But Emily was so nice, and not anything like those mean angels who looked at her meanly before and kept telling her that Papa and Mama were gone and weren't coming back. So Charlie thought she could like Emily, and Sera, uh, Emily's sister, said she wanted her and Emily to be friends, and Charlie found that she'd like to be friends with Emily!
Cause Emily liked singing and rainbows! If that wasn't a sign telling Charlie that she should be friends with Emily. Then, there probably were no people who could be a friend.
Charlie liked Emily; she didn't know what she thought of Sera yet, and she didn't like the mean angels. But she really missed Mama and Papa and wondered if they were doing okay.
They had to be okay, right? Yeah, yeah, they just had to be. So Charlie went back to drawing. "Oh! Is that a duck with angel wings? That's so cool!" Emily commented, and Charlie looked to see Emily looking at her drawing excitedly.
Yeah, Charlie really liked Emily.
_______
In hell, a man sat still a woman, his wife, crying into his shoulder. The man was angry and just as distraught, but he could not do anything but rub his wife's back. "It's alright; we'll see her again one day." The man managed to say, but he didn't believe it himself. All he knew was that his little girl was still there, hiding in her room like he had instructed her to, and she was waiting for them. They were never going to be able to come back for her. Oh, god, he hoped she was found, but not by one of the elders who knew what they'd do to her. Please let someone find his precious daughter and care for her. His wife continued to cry, and he could only continue to rub her back, "It's okay, it's okay. I know we will see her again one day. We just have to." The man spoke, and his voice cracked.
He wished he had never left the cabin alongside Lilith to go confront the elders that morning, and he wished he hadn't let Lilith come with him. But he did, and now his daughter, Charlie, was all alone. He kept rubbing his wife's back until finally she spoke, "I don't think we'll ever see her again, Lucy. I don't think we will."
He could say nothing to that because he knew it was true. Despite how much he didn't want it to be, it was true. There was nothing he could do.
He hoped that Charlie was safe because that's all he could do was hope.