Chapter Text
Eons ago, everything was empty. There were no stars, no celestial bodies. No realms to exist in, no one to exist in them. There was nothing aside from the light itself, illuminating a place devoid of anything at all.
Aside from that light, the very first thing to come into existence was an idea. A hope. A carefully pieced together plan that would change the infinite nothing into a brand new something.
Existence’s first idea would eventually go on to become that brand new something. Physically embodying the universe’s light, it contained a mixture of intelligence, emotion, and free will. And while it held an infinitely small amount of power in comparison to what had designed it, it was still capable of creating things of its own.
An angel. The very first of its kind.
Soon, more angels were created to live alongside the first. They were independent creatures, going about their tasks with the kind of individuality that could only be found within something that was truly alive. Without even being given the instruction to do so, they went on to conjure entire worlds with just the sparks of light that dwelled within their souls.
But there was one small problem when it came to these first beings, and that was the time it took to create them. They took eons to make from scratch, and they weren’t capable of replicating themselves. The amount of energy that it took to create an angel was just too much to contain within one soul.
As it turned out, the solution to this problem was as simple as breaking the power into more manageable pieces. Each angel was assigned either the Alpha trait or the Omega trait, complete with an instinctual desire to find a creation partner that held the missing piece.
Alpha angels spent much of their time competing with each other, showing off qualities that displayed their ability to protect and serve their future mate. Meanwhile, omegas practiced skills such as nest-making to prove to potential partners that they were capable of creating something worthy of protection. It seemed like a perfect system on paper. One half of the angel-making power finds the other half, they reproduce, and then there’s more angels.
Unfortunately, nothing involving free will was ever that easy.
Some alphas and omegas paired up because they met their true other half, falling into each other’s arms as though they’d always been destined to do so. Those pairs always created the best angels. If things had worked that way all the time, the system would be perfect.
But as it turned out, genuine connections didn’t always lead to successful pairings. It was far more common for bigger, stronger alphas to violently chase away potential competition, leaving their chosen omega with little choice but to accept their final suitor. And how was that any fair to them, spending eternity creating new life with someone they only chose by default?
It wasn’t fair, not to the omegas that were forced to accept the biggest and boldest of alphas, and not to the other alphas that did find genuine connection but couldn’t manage to overtake the competition. But why would anyone change the way things were when the results were the same either way? It didn't matter how it happened, as long as alphas were paired with omegas, Heaven was guaranteed fresh, new angels.
That was the purpose for it all, to create life. To bring a new soul into existence, to protect and raise it, and then to send it out to the rest of the realm to repeat the process over again. That was just how it worked in Heaven. And while some young angels took their time before choosing a mate and settling down, they all eventually did as they were intended to.
All except one.
Lucifer was, from the very beginning, a near-perfect omega. He was the pride and joy of his parents, both of whom were among the very first angels created. He loved turning ideas into creations and spent hours building beautifully intricate nests, just as he was supposed to. As such, he’d long been expected to do his duty and fill the realm with brand new souls.
As the prized omega he was, Lucifer had no shortage of suitors. Alphas across the realm would show up to challenge one another in an attempt to catch his attention, but none managed to gain his favor.
While some angels were satisfied with any partner that could prove themselves capable of raising their eventual offspring, Lucifer had little interest in whether potential mates were the most powerful of the group. He spent eons watching the way paired angels had their relationships sour over time, and it always led to poor parenting and unhappy young souls.
Lucifer had no desire to spend his existence bound to someone that had no respect for his thoughts and opinions, he felt no need to accept the biggest and strongest brutes that showed up at his door. Until the day came in which he found an alpha he had a true connection with, Lucifer had no intentions of settling down.
Despite higher angels’ demands that he accept one of the many alphas that tried to earn his approval, Lucifer refused each and every potential suitor. He saw what happy omegas looked like when they found love and he would not entertain anything less.
Unfortunately, with paired angels often occupied and unpaired omegas eternally viewing him as competition, Lucifer didn’t keep many close friends. There were plenty of souls whose company he enjoyed, but none seemed to understand his insistence with finding the perfect mate.
As a result, most of Lucifer’s interaction with other angels was as a mentor. He was experienced in all of the things that young omegas were meant to learn to attract a proper partner, and with no offspring of his own to teach, he found plenty of enjoyment in helping the busier pairs with their young ones. It was with them that the angel found his most genuine connections, sometimes gaining so much satisfaction during his time with the younger omegas that he could almost consider accepting a subpar alpha just so he could finally have his own.
But the loneliness he suffered was consistently overshadowed by his pride, and there had yet to be an alpha that he was willing to invite into his exceptionally beautiful nests. None had met his very high standards, and so none would claim him as their own. Until a proper partner came along, Lucifer had no qualms about spending his time teaching other angels the skills he spent millennia practicing.
Catching Lucifer’s constantly wandering attention, the young omega he’d been mentoring asked, “Hey, have you heard about what’s going on with the elder angels’ new project?”
Not bothering to look up from the pile of assorted objects he was sorting through, Lucifer responded, “Nah, you know I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to what they’re up to anymore.”
As she flitted around the edges of a large nest, tucking flowers of various types into the edges, the angel said, “So… You haven’t heard about the humans then?”
“Nope,” Lucifer answered, fluffing up a pillow-sized cloud to toss over to the nest. “What is it this time, a new collection of stars or something?”
Flapping her six wings just hard enough to reach the cloud before it landed on the floor, the young omega said, “No, they’re some kind of new creation… Smart ones that can talk and do things like us but aren’t angels.”
Absent-mindedly, Lucifer responded, “That’s nice.” He wasn’t interested in whatever it was the rulers of Heaven were getting up to, he was far more invested in sorting through the collection of items in front of him. Having set aside a handful of things that he’d taken from the larger pile, he added, “Here, this stuff is gonna make your nest look amazing.”
Fluttering over to where Lucifer was sitting, the younger angel looked over the items he’d chosen and nervously asked, “You think it’ll be enough? I shouldn’t add a bunch more clouds to fill it up?”
Smiling at the anxious omega, Lucifer answered “Emily, come on. Just look at it, if you add much more there isn’t going to be space for you, let alone this alpha you’re after.” Scooping up the collection of items he’d chosen from her belongings, he continued, “If you want some more soft things, use these. They’ve already got your scent all over and the extra color is gonna look great.”
Taking the plushes and pillows Lucifer had set aside, the seraphim nodded and began to distribute them evenly around the nest she’d built. Sounding as though she was trying to convince herself of her success, Emily said, “You’re right. Yeah. This is… It’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be fine!”
“It is gonna be fine,” Lucifer assured her with a chuckle. “I’m telling you, she’s gonna love it."
“I hope so…” Emily mumbled, sounding unsure of her work. It was an unfounded worry, the nest she’d put together was amazing. Much like Lucifer, Emily was a great omega. Alphas absolutely flocked around her in the hopes of catching her eye, and she was going to be a wonderful partner for whoever she chose.
Unlike Lucifer, it wasn’t terribly long after going out on her own that Emily’s affections landed on one soul in particular. While the alpha in question certainly wasn’t one that Lucifer would have considered as a potential mate, he couldn’t deny that she and Emily seemed like a great match.
After setting up the decorations that Lucifer recommended, Emily nervously stared at the nest she’d built as though she was considering tearing it apart and starting from scratch. Again. Hoping he could discourage the anxious thoughts going through the young omega’s mind, Lucifer asked, “So what was it you were saying before? About the… Uh… What did you call them? Smart but not angels?”
With widened eyes, Emily gasped as though she’d forgotten something extremely important and flapped her wings to rejoin Lucifer. “Oh!! That’s right, I almost forgot!!!”
Sitting cross legged on the ground in front of him, the young omega said, “The humans! Something really weird happened with one of them.”
Feigning interest in the topic, Lucifer raised an eyebrow and asked, “Yeah? What happened to it?”
“Okay, so when they were made, they were supposed to be like us in a whole bunch of ways,” Emily began, clearly excited about whatever the others had been getting up to. “And the first one came out just the way they wanted, so they went on to make a second one.”
Putting the items he’d previously pushed aside into a neat pile, Lucifer responded, “Mhm… And what happened to the second one?”
Emily didn’t immediately answer, so Lucifer paused his item-gathering and looked up to see what the big deal was. She had a wide smile on her face, clearly thrilled to share whatever it was that’d happened to this new creation. Once she saw that she’d gotten the older angel’s attention, Emily exclaimed, “She’s like you!! Well, kinda.”
Not knowing what in Heaven’s name that could mean, Lucifer asked, “Uh… Like me?”
“Yeah!! The first human came out as an alpha, just like he was supposed to,” Emily explained. “But the second one didn’t want anything to do with him!!”
With a shrug, Lucifer responded, “So their first omega just… Didn’t like the alpha they made? That isn’t that weird…”
Shaking her head, Emily said, “No, that’s the thing! From what it sounds like, she isn’t an omega. But she isn’t an alpha either. They’re calling her a beta.”
Lucifer paused for a short moment to consider this, but eventually waved a dismissive hand and responded, “Nah, there’s no way. Maybe the new creations just have different omegas than we do.”
Still smiling, the younger angel argued, “Nuh uh!! They made a third one to replace her and she came out just the way they wanted. So now they have an alpha and an omega like they planned, but they’ve also got… Well, whatever a beta is supposed to be. And she doesn’t seem to want to be with either of the others.”
Listening a bit more intently to Emily’s story, the older angel’s curiosity was beginning to outweigh his skepticism. Could there genuinely be a new soul that didn’t fit within the boundaries that they’d always assumed were universal?
Perhaps he’d have to see for himself…
That thought only existed for a few short seconds before Emily said, “Wait, I know what you’re thinking, and it’s a bad idea.”
Of course it was a bad idea. When it came to the expectations that had been laid out for the realm to obey, a lot of Lucifer’s ideas were bad ones. But that fact had rarely ever stopped him from following through, even when it landed him in trouble with the angels in charge. And it very often did.
Knowing that the gears in his head were turning in this very direction, Emily started frantically waving her hands in front of her and continued, “No! Nuh uh, no way! I mean it, you can not go there!”
“Ah, come on!” Lucifer laughed, rolling his eyes at the nervous angel in front of him. “I mean really, what’s gonna happen? I only wanna take a quick look!”
Letting out a groan, Emily put her face in her hands and said, “Luuuuuu… You know our moms are gonna be furious if you do!! And once they find out I’m the one that told you-”
“Oh hush,” Lucifer interrupted, stifling a laugh. “They’re not gonna get mad at you. Come on, we all know you’re Sera’s favorite.”
Lifting her head just enough to peek through her fingers, Emily mumbled, “Coming from our other mom’s favorite…”
Unable to conceal his amusement, Lucifer laughed, “And that is why I’ll be fine! If Sera finds out, she’ll be upset, sure. But Dub’s gonna calm her down, give me a slap on the wing, and tell me to behave, just like she always does.”
Giving up on trying to hide her smile, Emily let out a giggle and said, “You know Sera hates it when you call her that, right?”
“Of course I know,” Lucifer responded. “But I’m not gonna stop. I mean, I don’t call Sera ‘The Head Seraphim,’ I’m not gonna call our other mom ‘The Speaker of God.’ It’s such a mouthful. Besides, if Dub had a problem with it, she’d say so.”
“That’s true…” Emily commented, her smile falling slightly. “It’s not like she’s real subtle about her opinions…”
The tone in the young seraphim’s voice as she trailed off gave the clear implication that she was referencing something in particular. It didn’t take much thought to guess what it might’ve been.
Rolling his eyes at their parents’ meddling, Lucifer groaned, “Ugh, tell me she’s not on you about trying to ‘talk to me’ again.”
“I could say that… But you know I don’t like to lie,” Emily responded with an awkward smile. Sounding as though she wanted to backtrack but didn’t know how, she quickly added, “They’re just worried about you, I think.”
Shaking his head, Lucifer said, “Let ‘em worry, it’s not like they’re ever gonna stop.” But he wasn’t really in the mood to think about how his parents thought he was a failure for having the audacity to value himself. He had a brand new set of creations to catch his attention instead.
Immediately picking up on Lucifer’s wandering thoughts, Emily warned, “I’m telling you, going down there is a bad idea. They said the humans are fragile and shouldn’t be bothered.”
“Well thankfully, I’m not going to bother them,” the older angel countered, giving his wings a solid flap to put him on his feet. “I’m just going to look, that’s all.”
Jumping up from where she’d been sitting, Emily said, “You better not tell our moms that I’m the one that told you!!”
Laughing, Lucifer threw one arm around her shoulders and responded, “And you better finish cleaning if you’re gonna be ready for your soon-to-be alpha’s visit!”
With widened eyes, the seraphim exclaimed, “Oh stars!! You’re right, there isn’t much time before she’s supposed to come over!! I need to tidy this place up!”
“Alright, well… Have fun!” Lucifer shouted, launching himself into the air with a hard flap of his wings. “Be sure to let me know how it goes!!”
Looking up as he began to fly away, Emily called out, “Don’t do anything stupid!!!”
Though the younger angel was too far to hear his response, Lucifer chuckled and said, “Yeah… We’ll see.”
As it turned out, Lucifer was incapable of not doing stupid things. Things like abandoning his plan to just watch the humans and flying down to the lush green grass in their bubble of paradise. Things like approaching the not-alpha not-omega. Things like forming a connection with her that transcended anything he’d ever felt when it came to his fellow angels.
Just as Emily had said, the lonely human- Lilith was her name- didn’t fit into either of the dynamics that angels followed. She showed no intent to seek out a compatible mate, no instinctual urge to hunt down that missing piece of angelic energy that was meant to compliment her own. Even her smell was odd, something entirely different from the other two humans in the garden.
As she was not an alpha, Lilith didn’t feel any need to display all of her notable skills in an attempt to gain Lucifer’s favor. And as she was not an omega, she had no reason to spend her time learning from Heaven’s self-appointed omega mentor. And yet, even with no biological imperative guiding her, she enjoyed Lucifer’s company just as much as he enjoyed hers.
After spending some time learning more about the three humans, Lucifer began to recognize all of the amazing things that made Lilith the unique individual she was. Not only did she fit in fine with the paired humans despite her single status, she was often the voice of reason between them when conflict arose.
Soon enough, Lucifer realized that this was what’d been missing from Heaven. Betas were amazing- a wonderful middle ground between alphas and omegas that could change the outlook of everything.
If betas entered the mix, omegas would no longer be forced to accept subpar mates to avoid the crippling loneliness of being unpaired. Less powerful alphas would have friends to turn to for companionship, too. Sure, souls may reproduce a bit slower with betas around, but the connections between alphas and omegas would be so much more real.
If Lucifer had been a smarter and less generous soul, he’d have kept this all to himself. He’d have accepted that Lilith might be his only true friend and he’d have kept his affections for her and her dynamic a secret from the rest of Heaven. But as everyone knew, Lucifer was not one to stop and think about the consequences of his actions. Over and over again for years he’d ignored Sera’s warnings, consistently dismissing the possibility that someday he would make a mistake he was unable to take back.
Standing in front of his parents as he tried and failed to make his case, Lucifer was slowly coming to realize that Sera had been right all along. He truly had broken something that he had no way of fixing.
Looking down on him with too many eyes to count, Sera’s furious voice echoed through Lucifer’s skull, “Humans were never supposed to have access to the knowledge of good and evil! How could you be so careless?”
“I gave them knowledge, but you gave them free will!” Desperately trying to get his point across, he argued, “Why would you do that if you didn’t intend for them to grow? To evolve into something better?”
A frustrated scowl landed on Sera’s face as she snapped, “They didn’t need to evolve into anything better. They weren’t created from light the way we were, they’re too frail to handle the knowledge of evil. They aren’t like us, they were never supposed to be!”
Lucifer opened his mouth to speak again, but Sera held up a hand to stop him. Taking a deep, shaky breath that sent a wave of anxiety through the disobedient angel’s soul, Heaven’s Head Seraphim closed her many angelic eyes and straightened her posture in a poorly disguised attempt to compose herself.
Suddenly fearing that his actions would result in harm coming to the humans that he’d come to value as friends- maybe more than friends- Lucifer took a small step forward and put his hands up in front of him in surrender. “Wait, Sera, please. Look, I made a mistake, okay? But it was my mistake. Please don’t punish them for what I did. Maybe we can fix them if we just-”
“Enough.” Glaring down upon the very first of her offspring, the seraphim said, “I won’t be punishing Adam and Eve for anything. They did nothing wrong aside from trusting your poor judgement.”
Feeling a cold sense of dread seep into his soul, Lucifer barely managed to croak out, “What about Lilith? She… It wasn’t her fault either. If I’d left her alone none of this would’ve happened. I deserve the punishment, not her!”
Turning away from the defiant angel, Sera put one hand on her forehead just as she always did when she was too frustrated with him to form words. After a long moment of nothing but Lucifer’s heart pounding in his chest, the seraphim quietly said, “I have to punish you both. I’m sorry, but the decision’s already been made.”
Looking up towards Heaven’s eternally lit sky, Sera let out a sigh and continued, “You broke more than just Eden, Lucifer. Your actions led to the creation of a new realm, one untouched by angelic light. A prison for humans that use their newfound knowledge to do harm rather than good.”
A new realm? How was that even possible? Since when was that an option?
When Sera looked back over her shoulder, Lucifer expected a glare that held enough fury to melt him where he stood. But that wasn’t at all what he saw in the Head Seraphim’s eyes, as they were instead filled with an agony unlike any that he had ever witnessed in his mother’s expression.
Clearly struggling to maintain her composure, Sera turned back towards where Lucifer stood and knelt down, lowering herself to a height closer to his own. Putting her hands on his shoulders, the elder angel looked into his eyes and said, “We’ve spent your entire life trying to mold you into the soul you were meant to be. But it seems that no matter what we do, you will always refuse to fall into line as your fellow angels have.”
Not giving any opportunity for arguments, Sera went on, “Until now, your disobedience was something we chose to tolerate out of love. But your actions in Eden cannot be excused. Not when innocent souls have been damaged beyond repair and a new realm has come into being.”
Experiencing a level of terror that he’d never before been forced to acknowledge, Lucifer’s eyes darted towards his other parent in the hope that she could say something, literally anything, to stop this.
Standing by in silence, the golden angel looked significantly less livid than her partner. Instead of anger, her expression held a sorrow so deep that Lucifer’s own eyes nearly spilled over with tears. With only the slow shake of her head, the troublesome omega’s much more merciful mother answered his unspoken question without a word- No, not even The Speaker of God could get him out of this.
Panic rushed through Lucifer’s soul as he realized just how bad this truly was, barely managing to spit out, “Dub? You don’t- You’re not- You can’t-”
“No, Lucifer,” Sera said, pulling his attention back with a shoulder squeeze. “I’m sorry. We both are. But you’ve left us with no other choice.”
A blinding light flashed beside the panicking angel for a short moment before disappearing, and his heart sank when he saw the soul that’d been summoned. Swinging her head back and forth in an attempt to figure out where she was, Lilith’s wide, frightened eyes landed on Lucifer.
Despite trying to wiggle free of Sera’s grip, the elder angel kept Lucifer in place as he shouted, “No! Please, Sera. Please. Let me take the punishment for her. This isn’t her fault!”
Sera only shook her head in response. In all of his time, Lucifer had never seen her so unsettled. How could he have messed up this bad? How did he manage to do something so terrible that it brought Heaven’s first alpha to her breaking point?
Without any further warning, shackles formed on Lucifer’s wrists and ankles, connected to chains that emerged from the clouds that they stood on. The restrictions held him in place as a glowing collar appeared on his neck, squeezing so tight he wouldn’t have been able to get his fingers under the cold metal even if he'd been able to reach towards it.
The sound of Lilith’s panicked cries filled the angel with a terror that overtook all other thoughts, but the chains connected to his shackles were already pulled taut. He had no way of reaching his beloved human, not even to comfort her as she was punished for mistakes that she bore no responsibility for.
“Sera! Dub! Please, please don’t do this,” Lucifer begged, warm tears blurring the image of the angels before him. “I can change! I- I’ll find a mate! Any that you pick! I’ll create as many angels as you want, I’ll behave! Please, just give me a chance to prove that I can fix this!”
Heaven’s Head Seraphim, still knelt down with her hands on Lucifer’s shoulders, closed her eyes for a long moment. But when she opened them again, forgiveness was nowhere to be seen in her expression. It was over. There was nothing more that he could do.
The sound of Lilith’s sobbing was just about all Lucifer could focus on, even as The Speaker of God stepped forward and knelt down next to her chosen mate. If he thought about it hard enough, Lucifer could sometimes recall the feeling of her thumbs gently wiping his tears away. If he really tried, he could almost see the final smile his mother would ever be willing to offer her failure of a creation.
The last thing Lucifer heard before exiting Heaven was, ironically, the same as the first. His mother, Heaven’s first omega angel, had been smiling down at him when he opened his eyes for the first time, just as she was now. And, with a voice so sweet that it soothed the fresh burden of sentience that had landed in his brand new soul, she spoke the very first words that had ever graced his angelic ears- and the last.
“Our darling Lucifer… May you bring light to every soul you touch.”
That was how he entered the realm, and that was how he left. He was still looking into his mother’s golden eyes when a dark hole opened beneath his feet and the chains connected to his wrists dragged him down, pulling him into a pit of flames as he struggled to flap his burning wings.
Everything after that was clouded by the pain of damnation. As Heaven’s light faded away, all Lucifer could do was reach out towards the fragile, innocent soul he’d dragged into darkness. Grabbing her hand, the falling angel pulled Lilith into his arms, praying that he could take the worst of the impact when they crashed into the hard ground of the prison they’d been banished to.
Sitting in a calm, peaceful place, Lucifer reached up to run his fingers through messy, knotted hair. Shackles on his wrists shifted as he did, the sound of rattling chains grating on his eardrums with every movement.
Lucifer had always despised the weight of Heaven’s expectations bearing down on him. He was convinced that freedom meant living as the soul he wanted to be rather than the soul he was intended to be, and in that way, Heaven had been imprisoning him from the moment he came into existence.
Once he’d fallen from grace, it became increasingly clear that the realm of the damned was no different. Hell lacked the light and comfort that he’d always known, yet it still held just as many expectations. At no point in his life had Lucifer ever truly been free.
Still, he couldn’t help but be amused by the irony of his situation. After eons of fighting against the binds holding his soul in stagnation, Lucifer had finally won. He found what he’d been searching for, his life-long dream had been right there in his hands. And, much like the apple that offered the truth of evil to humanity, all it did was lead him back to a place where he would be forever shackled.
To be fair, it wasn’t like he had room to complain. Just like his fall from Heaven, this wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own.