Amenadiel and the remaining zealots were brought in silence and under the steely gaze of those present. Restrained by Michael's people who felt absolutely no pity for them at all and simply dragged them not too gently inside the throne room. They looked battered, especially Amenadiel who really did not look well and was badly bloodied, one eye shut. several spots in his clothing showed holes where spots of dried blood could be seen. Alex knew immediately what those wounds were. Celine had a razor-sharp thin dagger hidden in her boot. A vicious weapon that she could slide agonizingly slowly into her victim's body without being lethal but painful as fuck. This was the result of the little conversation a pissed of Celine had had with them earlier that day.
Everyone stared at them, and no one cared one bit that they had been taken to task by a bloodthirsty Demon. But Alexander's gaze was downright vengeful:
"I am the new Dei, and your father can do absolutely nothing to save you even if he wanted to. He is no longer in this universe and can never come back. I have actually already decided not to wipe you out of existence but that can still change. That depends on the answers to my questions. If they do not please me or I suspect that the answer is not the full truth then I will simply chop off your heads and put them on spikes in front of the palace so that everyone can see your heads and spit in your faces. Believe me there are many who would like to do exactly that. Understood!"
The prisoners nodded meekly. If Alexander squeezed his jaws any tighter his teeth would shatter. He addressed Celine:
"Celine dear, may I have my sword for a moment?"
The Demon did as she was asked. She knew that if Alexander asked this and did not do it himself that it was all part of a psychological lay with those who stood now in front of them. She manifested Alex's everyday sword since the flaming sword was now part of the rotunda in the garden and gave it to him. The latter placed his sword with the green scabbard slowly and with extreme care in front of him on the table. Amenadiel and his zealots watched the display of power and swallowed for a moment at its implication.
"Amenadiel, you are the leader of this bunch of retarded followers, so I am going to ask you my questions because the other eleven are not worth wasting my time on. You knew about the children, and you knew about that experiment of your father. What was it that he wanted to accomplish?"
God's favorite son knew since the moment he was brought back to Heaven and thrown into a cell that all was lost. His father was no longer there to protect him, a multitude of angels he had wronged over the millennia were after him, and there was a new God who clearly could stand him as much as the plague. His powers as an Angel had been stripped of him and so he was no more than a human in the presence of supernatural creatures who could crush him under their boot just for the pleasure it would give them. The only chance he had was to answer truthfully because he did not doubt that this new God would keep his word.
"Father wanted a new kind of Angel, completely loyal to him, who would not ask questions. Be Stronger, quicker with more stamina."
"In other words, he wanted robots without their own thoughts, their own feelings, and their own desires. A new sort of slave. And that was fine with you?"
"Father wanted it, I never questioned Father."
Alexander sat back in his chair. Those who had known him longer knew that this seemingly nonchalant attitude meant he was at his most dangerous. His right hand remained on the green scabbard of the sword and his fingers seemed to tap casually on that scabbard.
"So that makes you a robot too? How about the fact that he killed over twenty thousand of your brothers and sisters? How about the fact that before we arrived here, he had one hundred and thirty innocent children killed because they were not compliant? That on the day we arrived another eleven children were killed? How about the fact that those children were malnourished, and treated like lab rats? Do you think it's normal to wash a child by pouring buckets of cold water over them? And please come up with an answer that doesn't make me expose you directly to my sword. In other words, the full truth and don't obfuscate your part or thoughts, your life depends on it."
Amenadiel thought about his answer for a moment and decided to confess the full truth about his feelings. With Alexander, he knew he couldn't hide them anyway and he was already furious enough. He really had no desire to be completely swept out of existence:
"In the beginning, it was only Angels who I didn't think were useful. I didn't see what we could gain from sculptors and painters or drama and music. He had the children treated so that they would become hardened warriors, but he never seemed to succeed. They were not faster, stronger, or had more stamina. Maybe even less, certainly not the hard warriors he wanted. Father was furious at times because it seemed that his new creation was going to produce exactly what he would rather have lost. Angels like Jophiel or Ariel."
At the council table, Angels could be heard gasping for breath. Nariel and Ariel were so furious and would have preferred to attack Amenadiel. Jo could scratch his eyes out at his total lack of compassion for the children. And beside him, he felt Samantha's anger almost palpable. Alex raised his hand and calm returned somewhat and then he made a hand motion towards Amenadiel to continue speaking.
"Father explained to me later that he could absorb the grace of the Angels he killed and thus become more powerful."
"You just said two things that remind me of my least favorite people ever. Namely, the Nazis. First, they were also developing a superhuman. Other than perhaps the desired look they did not succeed. Yes here and there an exception they could call a successful creation of a Übermensch to give their so-called project a label of success. But those so-called successful types were men who were already destined to become what they eventually became. Types like Heydrich and Eichman. The second thing that comes to mind is you. Does that not make you the Heavenly equivalent of Adolf Eichmann."
Alexs' fingers plucked the scabbard of his sword for a moment, and he said softly:
"It didn't end well with him either in the end... If I'm not mistaken, he was dangling from the end of a rope for quite a while... The Israeli executioner seems to have made a mistake in his calculation. His math was a bit of."
He looked at Celine with a twinkle in his eyes and said:
"Or was my math a bit of, I can not quit remember all that well, Oopsie..."
He looked back at Amenadiel:
"Your attention did go very much to those who were Lucifer's sympathizers. Why?"
"Those who were the first to side with Lucifer were all Angels of love, the arts, mercy."
"And that didn't make a light turn on in your chicken brain? If such gentle Angels chose Lucifer does that tell you nothing about Lucifer's character and the purpose behind his rebellion?"
"Yes, but Father said that in Heaven there was no place for weakness only for strong Angels capable of waging war."
"A war against whom Amenadiel? Against mankind? What can Humans do against Angels? If we wanted it today, then tomorrow humanity would be wiped off the map without a single loss. A war against Hell? Lucifer would never lift a finger to harm one of his siblings and the rest of the Demons without a leader who knows the Angels and their strategy inside out aren't much of a problem either. So, a war against whom?"
Amenadiel had to swallow for a moment and answered quietly:
"I don't know, Father never told me."
"Then I'm going to tell you, idiot!"
Snarled Alexander.
"A war against another universe! Not a war to defend this universe but a war of conquest against another universe. To exterminate even more Angels. To dominate humanity there as well with his moronic laws! And you knew that all too well. Even without him telling you so much, you knew!"
The Angel grew a little smaller with each bit of Alexander's statement.
"You knew it without having to be told by your father, and you were only too happy to participate in that bloodshed. Don't you have a shred of decency, not a shred of compassion in your bones? You participated in the killings of your siblings as if it were spring cleaning, supposedly to get rid of all the weak ones and leave the strong ones. And once your father realized that he had gone too far, that he had exterminated too many Angels but could not create new ones without your mother he began his little experiment to create a new kind of Angel. And if the children didn't live up to his expectations they were simply killed and their bodies dissolved into nothing as if they never existed, had never been of any value, as if they were a toy. And you, you hoped to become the commander of an army of robots and conquer other universes. You simply wanted to take Michael's place. Not just the favorite but also the general."
With a jerk, Alexander shot forward in his chair, Hellfire completely ignited in his eyes, and he yelled at him:
"I am sick of you Amenadiel, of your deepest being. I become sick of the zealots who stand beside you, and I am not going to waste any more time on you. This is the punishment I pronounce for all your sickening deeds."
Samantha squeezed his hands gently and he took a deeper breath. Amenadiel's answers had brought him to the limit, almost forcing them to their knees and rolling their heads:
"I sentence you to fall. No longer will you have your wings or anything of divine power or grace, you will be perfectly human. You will live like a human being and spend the rest of your lives among them. But Amenadiel if you thought I was going to send you near Linda hoping she would take pity on you and help you then you are wrong! Humanity was created in the image of the Angels and therefore humanity represents all races. You will be dumped on Earth with nothing, between those who have the least and suffer the most from poverty and oppression. That means for you Amenadiel, the poorest part of Africa! I will send you to the Congo where people have to slave in illegal mines for maybe a dollar a day. That is if they are lucky and not actually slaves! Maybe that could teach you something about pity and mercy, something I doubt you are capable of. Should you at the end of your existence as a human being manage against all odds to get back to Heaven then so be it but you will never get your wings back or be included in the ranks of the Angels and you will be denied access to the city forever. If you do not make it and your destination is Hell, then know that I have placed a marker on you and your place in Hell will be the deepest level. A marker giving the Demons free reign over your souls and to do whatever depraved shit they can come up with knowing they have my full blessing. And I am almost certain given your character that you are all destined for the deepest pits of Hell!"
Sick to his stomach at the sight of the zealots and Amenadiel, Alexander snapped his fingers and they disappeared to Earth to begin their existence as humans. With a trembling hand, he took out a cigarette and lit it with difficulty. It was Lucifer who said:
"That, that's going to be hard for them."
"Why do you think I did it?"
Alex replied bitterly, and again he felt Samantha's hand gently squeeze his.
"Sorry about that dad, I'm quite angry. In my existence, I have never come across anyone who could so easily, so ice coldly step over life of his brothers and sisters, even his own son, as if it were an inventory of a storage unit. And the idea that our children could have been next..."
"We don't blame you, Alex."
Said Ella:
"This must have been something like questioning hard Nazis after the war about their thinking and actions. It's just unimaginable that someone could think that way about someone else's life. I don't think anyone at this table could."
Everyone at the table grunted or nodded in agreement with Ella's words.
Alexander took a few deep breaths to regain himself and then said:
"Okay, you guys know what to do to get started so let's go improve Heaven. Senior Staff if you would follow me to my office and oh yes Mercury you too, please."