Alexander, Samantha, and Celine were waiting for the arrival of Azrael, who could be pulled into the dimension by Franklin at any moment. When she appeared, she had wide eyes and a panicked look on her face. He only had to look at her for a split second to see that she was in big trouble. Like Celine, she seemed to be of Asian descent. Only she was much smaller and more petite. The dirty old cloak she was wearing just made the whole picture sad. Alex held his hands up a little to show that they were completely empty and spoke in a soft voice with a smile:
"Welcome Azrael, you are perfectly safe here, no one will hurt you, and your father can't hurt you nor see you."
Due to her fear, she had not been paying much attention, Alex's words had partly escaped her, so she replied in a hurry:
"I have to leave here, I have to go back, he will notice if I am gone too long."
"Godfry won't notice anything Azrael, time works differently here."
Alex said quietly. He had understood very quickly that he would have to handle this Angel with silk gloves to put her at ease. A little humor wouldn't hurt, he thought. Not understanding, she asked:
"Godfry?"
Laughing, he replied:
"That is what I call your father because I find him unworthy of the title of Dei."
He repeated slowly:
"Azrael, you are perfectly safe and hidden from his gaze here. As I said, time works differently here. No matter how long you are here, the moment you return, barely a minute will have passed. And you will reappear in the no-man's-land of Hell, so he will notice absolutely nothing."
"Does that mean I can rest here for an hour?"
She asked in a small voice, afraid of being rejected. Samantha and Celine suddenly noticed that Alex had a very short fuse, it was the first time they could physically feel it. Another new thing that seemed to have broken through with him, Celine thought. She seriously wondered how powerful this thirteen-year-old boy would become. Azrael felt it, too, and became even smaller than she already was. He quickly reassured her:
"I'm sorry, Azrael, I didn't mean to scare you. The more I learn about your father, the angrier I get. I am not angry with you at all."
"Rae Rae..."
She said barely audible.
"What is Rae Rae?"
He asked, not understanding.
"It's the pet name my two favorite big brothers gave me, but no one but Michael uses it anymore, the few times we see each other that is."
"May we use it then?"
Samantha asked with a bright smile, Azrael nodded.
"Rae Rae, is it okay if we sit down for a while? Have a drink and get to know each other. I promise you can get some sleep after that because I think you could use it."
Alex asked, feeling that this poor Angel was more than dead tired.
"Sleep?"
She asked with tears in her eyes. He replied airily, hoping to improve her mood:
"Yes, Rae Rae really sleep. In a real bed with real Egyptian cotton sheets."
He pointed with his thumb towards Celine and said with a sneaky smile:
"This one is a bit of a snob, does not want to sleep in any bed unless it is covered by sheets made of the finest Egyptian cotton. I'm afraid it has rub of on me a bit as I got used to it. I have a room made just for you with a view of my beautiful ocean. At least I think it's beautiful, but maybe I'm biased because I sort of designed it with Samantha."
Her eyes opened wide. Forgetting the need for sleep for a moment, she took it all in. She had never known anyone who could create anything except her father.
"Come, Rae Rae, let's sit down because I think you really need to get off your feet."
She took a deep breath and could only nod.
A moment later they were sitting at the table Alexander had manifested for this meeting on the beach near the beach house.
"What would you like to drink, Rae Rae?"
She had to think for a moment and said:
"I've heard good things from a friend about something called tequila. I would like to try that."
"But Miss Rae Rae, that's a bold and adventurous choice..."
Alexander said playfully and for the first time, they saw a small smile on the Angel's face. He manifested everyone's favorite drink. Rae Rae took her glass, smelled it, and took a small sip. Her eyes got wide and she knocked the glass back in one gulp. Alexander had a grin on his face and immediately manifested a larger glass and a full bottle. After she finished a second glass in one go, he said:
"Let's get acquainted, okay?"
She nodded vigorously.
"Wonderful, you are Rae Rae, Angel of Death."
"The only..."
The Angel said sadly.
"We're very sorry Rae Rae, we can't imagine how difficult and hard that must be for you."
Samantha replied sincerely and placed a comforting hand on the Angel's hand. It was a small gesture, but it was enough to make two big tears run down Rae Rae's cheeks. Alexander let it happen for a moment and continued:
"Rae Rae, we are from another universe. This place is a safe place between your universe and ours. As I said, your father cannot see you here and time does not matter."
That was enough to make her head snap back into place.
"The redhead next to you is Samantha, the Crown Princess and future Goddess of that universe."
To everyone's surprise, Rae Rae jumped up from her chair and then fell to all fours in the sand in front of Samantha.
"Forgive me, MyLady, I did not know....Forgive me."
Sam and Alex had jumped up at the same time and got down on their knees beside the frightened Angel. Samantha said quietly:
"No Rae Rae, there is nothing to forgive because you have done nothing wrong. My parents, the God and Goddess, are not like your father. We don't want our Angels to throw themselves into the dust like that. We find it unworthy and humiliating. That's why I don't want it from you either, ever."
The Angel looked confused at both Samantha and Alex as they helped her up and put her back in her chair. There she tried to refill her glass, but she trembled too much. Samantha took the bottle out of her hands and did it for her. It was almost enough to break the poor Angel. A future goddess serving an Angel, impossible. Alexander had taken her free hand firmly in his and smiled encouragingly:
"Things are different in our universe than in yours, Rae Rae. We are going to tell you things that will sound absolutely incredible to you but are absolutely true. And I, I need your help so badly. Okay?"
She nodded very weak, not understanding why the boy would need her help. Alexander continued:
"Okay and don't get in the sand again Rae Rae, just don't, just stay in your seat."
He said with a playful smile.
"Like I said, this is Samantha, the Crown Princess, and she is my girlfriend. Does that mean I will be the God when she becomes the Goddess? Yes, but not in the way you are thinking now. I'll come back to that later."
He pointed at Celine:
"That bored-looking lady over there is a Demon, as you have already sensed, and her name is Celine. This big bad Demon's main job for the last thirteen years? To be Samantha's nanny and bodyguard."
Rae Rae almost choked on the swig of tequila she had just taken.
"Now you're kidding me..."
He looked at her with a smug smile and said:
"No, not at all Rae Rae. I told you, our universe works very differently than yours."
He gave the Angel a moment to absorb this information before dropping his next bomb:
"And that brings us to my little person. My name is Alexander Markus."
He deliberately omitted his newly adopted last name for a moment.
"And I'm doing my best to knock your father off the throne and become the new Dei in your universe."
Rae Rae had narrowed her eyes to slits and said quietly:
"Impossible, no one can knock Father off the throne, no one is powerful enough.
Samantha and Celine laughed softly, and the Angel looked at them, not understanding. Sam said:
"Rae Rae, when someone tells Alexander that something is impossible, the next thing that happens is easy, he makes it possible."
"But my father is God, no one is as powerful as he is!"
"Rae Rae look at me and tell me what you see, please?"
She did as she was asked.
"You are a beautiful boy, but you are still a child."
He nodded and held out his hand:
"You won't recognize me after all these years, but please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste..."
Rae Rae looked at him in bewilderment, as if he really didn't have it all together. There was something with the word and the tone he had spoken them into that made her pause. Her eyes suddenly began to blink as the pieces of the puzzle slowly fell into place.
"You... you... You're Lu's son?"
"Yes, Aunt Rae Rae, and it is a real pleasure to finally meet you."
He stood up and she didn't know how fast she had to be in his open arms. The taps had really opened now, and it took a good ten minutes for her to calm down. Once back in her chair, she asked:
"But how did you find your way back to us?"
"Through my mother, Aisha."
"Your mother's name wasn't Aisha, it was Elise."
"True. I suppose it was you, as Angel of Death, who took my soul from her baby's body when Raphael had determined that she would die at my birth? And immediately gave that soul to Gabriel so he could transfer me to another universe?"
She just nodded, not quite understanding where this was going.
"When my mother died, did you happen to see her soul leave?"
She shook her head and said:
"No. It's not unusual for souls to find their way. I only see the souls that get stuck."
"But you were in the room, shouldn't you have seen her soul leave?"
"No idea, as I said, I only do the souls that are stuck, so I am never there when a soul leaves when that soul finds its own way. But I wasn't paying attention either, I was a little busy with your soul and Gabriel. He has no experience in transporting souls and was more than a little nervous at the time."
"You didn't see a soul leave Rae Rae because there was nothing to see."
"I don't understand."
"Don't worry Rae Rae, for my mission to succeed I cannot and must not reveal certain things. And certain things that I am going to tell you are absolutely not to be repeated to anyone until after the coup. The only people you can share it with are Michael and Gabriel, but not at this time. You must wait another five years, and even then you are not allowed to share this information with anyone else. And then only when you are absolutely alone with Michael or Gabriel. This whole business with your father is so delicate that its success depends on the smallest detail and on the ironclad discipline of each individual who participates in it. Do you understand?"
She nodded:
"Yes, I understand Alexander. But we never thought you would come back. Especially not that you would take on Father. Not one Nefilim has survived. You shouldn't be here; you shouldn't be contacting us."
He frowned:
"Then why did you do it?"
"You have the Lightbringer's light in you. We couldn't let that go out, it had to be saved. If that light could shine in another universe and that universe could shine just a little more, then at least we could have saved something, not all would have been lost."
"How did Gabriel find the universe he wanted to take me to?"
She thought for a moment and said:
"It was actually something strange, as he told us later. It wasn't the universe he imagined. He was sort of pulled into it, then your soul was pulled into the body of a baby that was going to be stillborn, and Gabriel was pushed back into our universe. We never thought about it because we had never visited another universe, we thought it was normal and you were safe."
He said softly:
"I wasn't safe at all, Rae Rae, but that doesn't matter..."
He rubbed his curls for a moment:
"Now that we have the introduction behind us, dear auntie, I think you could use some sleep. Sleep as long as you want, time doesn't matter here. Afterwards, we must get to work, because I need mountains of information."
Samantha walked arm in arm with Azrael towards the house. He stayed behind with Celine and manifested his cigarettes.
"What's going on Alex? I know that look by now."
"Let's wait for Sam because I have to sort this out too."