After a meal that all seven of them had enjoyed. Not only from Jonathan's cooking but also from the company they were in, they plopped down on the couches in the living room. The four girls followed, still trembling on their little legs. Jon asked:
"What would you ladies like to drink? Elise Chardonnay? Rae Rae Tequila?"
Elise leaned back against him and nodded enthusiastically. Azrael, watching the scene, felt a stone fall from her heart. She said:
"No, I'll be nice and civilized like Elise. We can't all be vodka barbarians."
He hooted:
"Who was it again who put twelve bottles of liquor in front of me when I turned twelve and told me to pick my favorite?"
She shrugged:
"So? You're a Celestial, you can't get drunk."
"No, but I got a hell of a buzz for an hour or so."
Jules asked suddenly and a little too loudly due to her enthusiasm:
"Daddy, Mommy, how can we play these games?"
He said with his typical smirk:
"I have no idea, maybe like this."
He snapped his fingers and all the things that were scattered on the floor suddenly disappeared. The girls sat and watched, not understanding. It was Rae Rae who said with a twinkle in her eye:
"Maybe you ladies should check your rooms."
They got wide-eyed and sprinted upstairs like they were in a race. Rae Rae watched them with a mischievous look. Jon, seeing this, said with a sigh:
"Oh, for fuck's sake Rae Rae, you're going to put them in tight leather and drag them to the dojo."
"But brother, what do you think of your little sister? I'll just be the fun aunt and everything else I wouldn't dare."
Elise and Jon could clearly hear that she didn't mean a word of it, which was even more obvious from her sly smile. Elise pointed at her and said:
"I may be a small human compared to you Celestials, but if you hurt my girls in that dojo, I will hurt you."
With that, the Angel's eyes lit up completely:
"Miaow... I think Mama Bear is in the house. Be careful big brother, before you know it you'll get a frying pan over your head. Does your beautiful Elise already know what shenanigans you have been up to?"
"Oh no Rae Rae, leave me out of this. No sense in stirring up a hornet's nest."
Elise, who now also had a rather obvious mischievous smile around her mouth, said:
"I think we are going to be very good friends, Rae Rae because I really want to hear from you what this Greek god has been up to."
With that, the angel laughed out loud:
"How much time do you have, honey, because this is going to take a very long time."
He had his smirk back on his face:
"Then be sure not to forget to mention that you were mostly an accomplice or even the instigator yourself."
Rae Rae silently refilled Elise's glass and her own and suddenly looked at him straight in the eye:
"Okay brother, why did you summon me?"
"I did not summon you, Rae Rae, I kindly asked Raffa to tell you that I would like to talk to you."
The angel snorted:
"Jon, the way you summoned Raffa this morning, he saw that look in your eyes and your black. It was not a friendly invitation. The prince spoke but asked nothing, so yes, you summoned me."
"It doesn't matter, patato, potato. Raffa said something to me this morning that I wanted to talk to you about. Moments later your good friend Maggie turned on a light for me."
Elise remained silent, watching intently. The moment Rae Rae turned serious from one second to the next told her that this conversation was between the leader and his right hand. That they were both in that role was clear from the way they locked their eyes.
"Okay, what did Raffa say then?"
"When I called him, I told him not to worry about Michael. If he was difficult, I would go up and finish the job. He replied that that would be the stupidest thing I could do right now. Michael is expecting me to come up and wreak havoc in Heaven, and to him, that would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
The angel nodded:
"Yep, that's the fib our little group got."
"Michael and his weasels do not have the patience to plan anything long-term and among the three of them, they have two brain cells. So who stands in the shadows and whispers in their ears a strategy to follow? Someone smart enough to be able to get them to do whatever he wants while being convinced that the genius ideas are coming from Michael himself. Someone cold and calculated enough to be the wild card no one considers until it's too late? Gabriel?"
"She has been absent lately, not noticeable enough to raise questions. What is noticeable to those of us who spend more time in the throne room is that she has become quiet and there seems to be a distance between father and her."
He tossed back his glass and immediately refilled it.
"So this whole damn meeting was for nothing. If I had agreed to unleash the apocalypse, then Michael would have had his way. If I completely lost my temper and went upstairs to burn one of his weasels, he would see that as an attack, open the gates of heaven, and go on the attack to eliminate me and Dad and his morons. And now we have another new player on the board to help Michael and make him less predictable. If Michael attacks, Pap will in turn throw open the Gates of Hell and launch his counterattack..."
"It looks like that, yes."
Jon thought for a moment and then said rather quietly:
"Rae Rae, between the time we met and the time I collapsed, I must have dropped my shield a few times, making me visible to both Heaven and Hell. Uriel no doubt saw this. I'm sure he gave the girls' father a shove, with all the consequences. We both know that sooner or later that idiot would have done it anyway, and the outcome could have been incredibly worse."
Elise took his hand. She sensed that he felt very guilty, even though this event had been inevitable.
"Jon, Michael and his want this war at all costs. They hate your father and his demons. But that is nothing compared to the hatred that has been in him since you gave him that beating. His pride can't stand the fact that the great general needed his mommy to save his life."
They let him think for a moment until they suddenly saw his smirk appear. He asked:
"Rae Rae, have you ever heard of a game called UNO?"
The Angel sat and looked at him uncomprehendingly. Both women saw the sparkle in his green eyes as if there were fireworks in them.
"Well, Auntie, that's something you'll have to ask the girls to teach you. Because I'm going to play it with Michael."
Azrael did not understand. Elise looked at him with joy in her eyes and asked:
"Reverse UNO?"
"Yep!"
And with that, he planted a big kiss on her mouth. Rae Rae said with a cheeky smile:
"Okay, leave that stuff for later in the bedroom, and tell me what this UNO stuff is."
Elise replied in Jon's place:
"UNO is a card game. There is a card in the deck and when you use it, everything goes the other way. Think of it like this, you drive from here to the north and halfway there is someone with a card like that and because of that you have to immediately go back to where you came from."
"Okay, I understand that, but how does that apply to Michael?"
"Simple Rae Rae, I'm pulling rank. Michael may be the general, but I am still the Prince. My orders automatically supersede his. If he doesn't like it, he should ask Grandpa to override my orders."
"I understand that brother. But since that meeting where you said they could all fuck off, I'm not so sure that Father will side with you on this one. He has already completely removed his hands from humanity. Your father and grandfather have been at each other's throats for thousands of years. If you issue a new decree to override Michael's orders and Father refuses to recognize it? Then all bets are off. Michael will feel vindicated in everything he says and does from then on."
"We're already so deep in this shit that we can't even ask each other in a normal way what's going on. The longer this uncertainty lasts, the harder it will be to communicate. Until there is nothing left but brute force."
"Okay, and how are you going to do this reverse UNO?"
"That's why I have to think a lot more about this situation, sister. I'm still missing some puzzle pieces because I don't see the whole picture yet. There is something gnawing at the back of my mind and I can't put my damn finger on it. I'm going to need a third party or something unforeseen to shove my order down Michael's throat. In such a way that Grandpa can't do anything but back me up."
Azrael nodded:
"As for Lucifer, I'm not sure how he'll react to your orders or wishes. You are the gun, and you have refused to fire the starting shot, so they can forget about their slaughter unless they either throw out all the rules or find a loophole. Something like what Michael and his weasels have cooked up. No doubt with Gabriel's help."
Rae Rae stood up as a sign that she would leave.
"You'll figure it out, Jon. If there's anyone who can outwit and outthink both sides, it's you."
She made her wings appear and at that moment Jon asked quietly:
"How's Cas?"
She looked him in the eyes, but did not answer his question directly:
"You have to fix this mess as soon as possible Jon, you can't break again now. Absolutely not!"
With that, she disappeared and Elise felt that deep sadness in him again. She half crawled onto his lap and hugged him tightly, and he shed a few tears in silence. He had to and would clear his head, there was too much at stake. He felt the warmth of Elise's body against his own and knew that the time for his temper tantrums was over.