The next morning came too soon. It wasn't like the rest of the afternoon or that night had been special, but the next morning came to the present with a determined speed.

I didn't know what made Michael so certain Pinesalt would try to attack him at all, let alone today. I didn't know what exactly had driven him and Mannie back into the troves of shaky friendship. And I didn't know, for certain, if he had changed or was simply wearing another face.

I do know this:

Surrender was formalized. The rebels had simply given up, the cold hand of cruel government once again besting the underdog. Remains were gathered from where the rebels had been keeping them. Bodies were rummaged from everywhere they could be hidden.

There were piles of belongings out in the square, great stacks of clothes, watches, phones, and jewels. The bodies were all politely stored, but there were books you could leaf through, photos and documents to help point you in the right direction.

I didn't look for Micky, merely weaving my way through the crowds. The mood was thick and heavy, still grey, but now there was a humidity there too.

I guess, if someone was dead, you'd have known they were missing for a few days now. Still, people couldn't help but cry. Gritty, flash-laded photos of dead loved ones could do that to you.

There was a bin on a small wooden coffee table in the middle of the street filled with phones. Many of them had little dabs of blood on them, or broken screens.

I swallowed, I breathed, and I told myself to not be such a fucking pussy. My fingers hovered over the call button.

You know, I really disliked it when Micky called me a pussy, or used it as an insult. It was a lot like bitch, one of those words he was too casual about, that subtly offended me even without applying to my gender. It wasn't a good insult. I would never use it out loud.

But God. I needed to stop being such a pussy.

I called, and Micky's phone, deep in the pile, began to ring.

Right.

Michael was standing on the stage at the end of the square, hands on his hips, grinning wildly. He was dressed in some odd mishmash of culture and fashion, a blue fade tank top failing to compliment his golden angelic shawl. Red skinny jeans completed the look.

"The best way to heal is to stop hurting." Michael said boldly, choking on his laughing in a way that reminded me of cackling. "So this is my grand goodbye." He raised his arms in the air like he was fishing for audience approval.

Most of us in the square were not paying much mind to him. He had betrayed the angels, and the demons weren't too hot on him either. I actually understood him for feeling like now was an appropriate time to leave: no one wanted him.

He kept talking for a while, making some grand speech about unity and resilience. Kept calling himself 'blessed'. Praising his actions above all else.

I think he wanted people to hate him. A couple of angels were looking up at him, rapt, but I noticed one of them had the tiniest signs of a frown.

Eventually through the crowd of mourners and thieves came a pair of angels. Being led by rope, shackled and beat, was Pinesalt.

That settled things. He was pushed forward, his guard- though wearing a mask- identifiable as the every loyal Cassiel. She pushed him forward, onto his knees, and Michael jumped off the stage.

"We will all grow up." Michael said, moving forward, drawing his blade from the air.

Pinesalt's dark eyes showed no fear, just rage and pride, perhaps satisfied that his death would surely boost him to martyrdom and prove Michael to truly be a monster.

As the archangel drew close, he put away his blade, and raised his hands in the air again like this circular square was a colosseum and the flickering, glitchy sky was the god he had to appease.

"We will all finally face the consequences."

Something crazy happened. Michael jumped forward and fell to the ground. A beast was left.

What the fuck.

He was white and gold and like a fine dinner plate, covered in scratches and bruises. His fur seemed realer than other hellhounds', in many areas it was thin, exposing pale gold skin.

His teeth were black, and he burst Pinesalt like a paint-filled balloon. With giant steps- he must have been eleven feet tall- the pale hound pace the crowd once, head whipping back and forth as he stared his angels down with golden eyes, blood still dripping from his mouth and dribbling onto his crystalline fur.

He turned back to the stage. Someone nearby whimpered. With a great leap, he got onto the stage and posed properly, head turned behind him, paw in the air, large tail wrapped around his side. Like some sort of statue.

He waited like this for a moment, likely ensuring he was captured on camera. Then with a flick of movement, Michael was back.

A bit of blood was on his lips. He licked it off and smiled. He looked in my direction and waved, then mouthed something, I think along the lines of 'well, that takes care of that'. He turned around on the heels of his feet and went offstage.

An angel nearby me was muttering quickly in angelic. Another one was praying. I figured the only thing left to do was head back to the apartment. Move back into my own. Start looking for a new job.

Enroll the girls in school. Plan my eulogy. Buy groceries. Wish Mannie goodbye.

A laundry list of responsibilities, all of them optional. But I was getting better. I'd find something that made me feel worthwhile.

It was cheesy, every time I read it in books or saw it in movies- It was cheesy, but it was my now: I'd do it for Micky. Because he would've wanted me to amount to something. And god knows I wouldn't change without someone else, even a ghost, willing me forward.

As I started on my way, someone ran up behind me, hoodie pulled over his face. I recognized the dirty grey thing immediately, with its printed slogan of 'big brother is always watching you' under an illustrated eye.

"Michael, you could have picked a better disguise. I'm surprised no one noticed you." I glanced back just to double check we were alone in walking.

"They saw me, but they can't care anymore." Michael lifted his head, and I saw he was crying. "I looked my poor babies right in the eyes... God. They think I'm weak now. It comes with age."

"You doing okay?" I asked. "What was that back there? You're...?" I decided not to finish the thought with any sort of assumption.

"Everyone has to lose their innocence, y'know? Many of them lost it when they first came down here. Unlearned all the lies I'd been telling them. But now they've seen me cry. And that's the moment any child, of any age, changes."

"I didn't ask for philosophy, Michael. What was that back there?"

"The end of my life. I mean, I kept them locked up like that ages, made them worship me, deprived them of so much... but it's still going to hurt. I just hope God can forgive me."

He had this dreamy look on his face, and my irritation for his need to monologue faded as I saw how out of it he looked. "You believe?"

He didn't snap out of his hazy expression for a few moments. Then he suddenly was normal again, tears gone, grin back "Nah. But I do believe in angels."

"Well, you're clearly not one." I said dryly.

"Ha. Yes. Years ago, Alexander did a real number of me when I was out on the town. We've scuffled a few times, but that time he... Well, he ended up taking my Grace! All of it, if you can believe! Right up felled me. Didn't even think it was possible- me and my brothers are from a different batch of Grace than the others, you know? But he did it!"

"And you... became a hellhound?"

"Demons came from the same tubes angels did. I snuck down here and started rifling. Found some shifty looking liquid and put it inside me. And what do think happened! My perseverance was rewarded with... that. A hellhound, corrupted by former Grace."

"I wouldn't think it'd be so easy to switch over like that. Could a demon become an angel in the same way?"

"It'd... probably be easier. But no, I'm pretty sure the Grace has all been cleared out of this place. Besides, it isn't perfect- the transition did a real bang up job on my body. Turns out a human body can't take decades of abuse easily. I have to keep consuming Grace or else I decay and die."

"Whoa, like permanent death?"

"Of course not. I'd just get all exhausted looking and probably explode from all these old scares. Then come back and die again by the end of the week. It's a pain. I've gotten used to the taste of copper."

I reflexively gagged.

"Relax, kiddo. It's not your life, yeah?" Michael grabbed my shoulder, and I pushed his hand away. "We're having your child sister fix everything today anyways, so all that nasty deceit is in the past. Tomorrow, I'll be... out of here."

"What happened between you and Mannie, by the way?"

"In the past? I think you've heard that one." He raised an eyebrow. "Or do you want to hear my side?"

"I don't think I care enough, sorry. I meant after I left. How are you traveling the world together now?"

"Nothing like walking, talking, and long bus rides to find out how much you like someone." Michael shrugged. "She likes you too much to blow up at you again, but believe me, she's not perfect. I'm really not perfect. I guess we've made up, and if not, hey. We're still going places together."

"I guess that's good to hear. She doesn't really talk to me, and I'm not sure if I should be offended or not. I guess lately I'm trying not to care."

"I'll tell her that, yeah?" Michael looked away from me again, getting that dreamy look back. "We were close back there, you know. It just made sense to see if we still made sense. I guess we've both changed so much since we were young, but back in the day... we were normal. We were good." Michael said. "I hope we still are."

"I don't know man. I don't think I can help you there."

Michael let out a small, weak laugh. "There's nothing else to believe in, is there? Nothing but the children."

"The... children?" I said, really unsure of where he was going with this. Most conversations with him felt that way.

"They're our future, after all." He paused. "They have to be. They really, literally, have to be."

"Good luck with that."

"I'm not going to be around to see it." Michael said. "But you know what? If me, Ella, and Phinny all get together and adopt a baby into our toxic polyplatonic amalgamate, I'll make sure to bring them down to visit some day."

"Looking forward to it." I mumbled.

Michael laughed, painfully, awkwardly, into the silence of the streets.

"Do you think there'll be some sort of nasty side effect if I stumble over a word? Because I don't think I know half these words."

Ria sat at the end of the table, Adeline and an incubus standing patiently beside her, staring at the several pages long document Alexander had written for her to read. We were at Kell's apartment- it was the largest of those available, besides Michael's, and no one wanted to sit in Michael's trash.

There was a lack of chairs. Ria, Michael, Mannie, Alexander, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, and Christina sat at the dining room table. I leaned against the wall.

Our audience had turned the sofa and armchairs around to face us. I'm not sure what sort of show they were expecting; with what I hope was sarcasm, Amy had prepared several bags of popcorn. Her friends, safe and fine, looked like a bunch of street punks taking up all the room on the subway. The Few, or at least the remains of it, were scattered between leaning against the back wall or else sitting on kitchen stools.

Percial and Cassiel had both found their ways onto the sofa, sandwiching a rather uncomfortable looking Julie.

"It's more about intent than anything else." The incubus sounded very excited to be here, surrounded by what I understood to be every important historical figure from the last few months. Probably last few decades. "Just read the text and think sincere thoughts!"

"Do we shake on it? Is this the kind of thing where I need to split my palm or kiss you?"

"We can shake on it if that would make it feel more official. In truth, all I need if your words, intent, and soul." On second thought, he sounded fake, doing his best to please every single one of his bosses. Oh well. He was doing his job.

"Do we even know she has one?" Amy called out.

"No comments from the back of the room." I said, looking over. "Or... from you. And your friends. Everyone else I guess if free to do whatever."

"I didn't realize you were in charge here." Alexander said here.

"Alex, you do realize that your presence doesn't suddenly decree you in charge of anything you stumble into, right?" Kelsey said from the kitchen, drink in hand.

"I never said I was in charge." Alexander looked taken aback. "Did I?" He dramatically looked around the room for an answer.

"Shut up Phin." Mannie said.

"Don't tell my dad to shut up." Alex said defensively from his armchair.

"Shut up Phin's ungodly basted child."

"Hey, don't be mean." I interjected. "She doesn't mean it, Alex."

"Well, she wasn't exactly lying about the bastard part." Alexander said. "But there's nothing unholy about the poor kid! Besides him being a demon."

"Can we get back to the point?" Christina said.

"Hey, isn't it weird there's three people in this room named Alexander?" Amy said.

"The point, Amrael." Christina said, gritting her teeth.

"Right. Do we know for certain this girl has a soul? I mean, I'm a halfie too, and I don't feel particularly soulful."

Kelsey sighed loudly.

"If it's all in the head, do I even need to read this dumb contract?" Ria asked, standing up.

"There's nothing dumb about the legal system." Alexander chided. "We don't want anything to go wrong, so please do. Just remember: cycles broken, immortality fixed, angels aging."

"You don't have to heap the pressure on so much." I said. "Ria, don't worry about it. If something goes wrong, we got a whole world up there of souls to screw around with. We'll get this done."

"I'm not scared or anything." Ria declared. She was looking around the crowded room stone faced, but I could tell she was lying. When she caught my eye, she smiled slightly.

"Let's do this" Adeline said. "You can do this. If you can't, I can. That's what happens."

"Yeah. Let's get this over with." Ria cracked her knuckles on one hand. "I, uh-" She grabbed the contract off the table and held in a barely shaking hand. "My wish is- I wish to... I wish to undo what the phenomenon which will henceforth be called-" Ria stopped. "I just wish, to start over, that all that silly stuff with people not aging and the earth repeating itself, everything Alexander Scott- that guy there- accidentally made happen. Just fix it. Please." She grasped the incubus' hand and shook it once.

"Aw, you know I spent hours on that thing, right?" Alexander complained immediately. Still, he gazed at his body expectantly.

"Now that I think of it, we really don't have a way to tell if this worked until years from now." Gabriel said. "Maybe a year or two if we keep an eye out for Uriel's brave progress through puberty."

"Uh. Do we really want to wait that long?" Glenn said. "I'm not a fan of the idea, even if it doesn't mean a thing to me."

"Here." Adeline said suddenly. She grabbed the hand of the incubus and stared fiercely into his eyes. "If, and only if, the world is currently in the proper temporal state, and there are no more immortals residing that I am aware of- discounting any sort of unknown deities- if the angels are going to age again and Michael, and his ilk, are properly mortal- then I wish with my soul for a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with rainbow sprinkles."

The room was very quiet. I had to admit, I was stunned to. It'd been a while since I'd heard Adeline say so much at once.

"I guess she's soulless." Amy said, breaking the quiet.

"Maybe." Ria said. "Someone else want to give it a try?"

"Did it work?" Kelsey asked the incubus.

He blushed from the attention. "I don't know. Sometimes I can feel a contract, but... usually not until it's about time to collect."

Adeline calmly stood up and walked away from the table. All eyes were on her as she passed through the living room and turned into the kitchen. She opened the freezer and pulled over a neat bowl of ice cream in a blue plastic cup. Chocolate chip cookie dough with rainbow sprinkles.

She got a spoon out of the silverware drawer. "Of course, you have to keep it cold."

"We can't be certain the universe didn't just ignore the whole if slash then thing and give her some ice cream." Stacy said. For such a large man, I was startled to remember he was here too.

"You'll find out." Adeline said, taking her place next to her sister again and putting a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "People have sold their soul for worse."

"Yeah." I said.