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The Devil May Care

Prologue 3: Holy Malevolence

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

The deed was done. Jesus was brought back to Heaven, and the angels were happy again. The Archangels, on the other hand, were divided.

Gabriel, as ever, was the happy little puppy that went around all but humping at God's heels, eager to do whatever the lord of Heaven said. The little lamb was always pushing himself forward, always trying to get the attention of those that were higher up. Considering that was just Mercy and her father for the immediate future, that meant that there was little that he could do without flattering them into oblivion.

Michaela, on the other hand, was more conflicted.

The puma had been the one to drag Jesus to his cell, and she had been the one that had ended up sealing the door shut before handing the key over to Gabriel. When she looked in on him, she expected to see someone that had been all but lost to the powers of the mortal world, someone that had been tempted and, while sad, still aware that they had been rescued.

What she saw was a man that was all but broken, someone that wailed as if they had lost everything.

This isn't right...

The puma shook her head, turning from the cell door and making her way down the various cloud paths that ran from the inside of God's dungeons all the way to the upper floors. She joined the other angels, her white robe blending with theirs, her darker fur making her stand out. Some of them turned to stare, their eyes wide after what they had seen through the clouds of the world below. All it took was a flex of her wings and a reminder that she was a she, and they realized that it wasn't Lucifer, after all.

Once the panther had been banished, she had been asked if she was willing to be something different to what she had once been. Michaela had, of course, been more than willing to follow the commands of the Most High. She had allowed her body to be changed, to be given the darker fur to stand out as a different beauty. While Lucifer had taken it to defy the lord, she had taken it to watch the darkness, to be hidden in it until the demons were willing to show themselves.

She believed that they had done the right thing, rescued Jesus Christ from his temptations. That was the whole point, was it not? To remove him from the mortal world before he could become a danger to himself and others?

At least, that had been what she believed. She was no longer so sure.

The puma followed the swell of angels towards the courtyard. They were all starting to practice the hymns, some of which had been written by Lucifer himself before he had been banished to Hell. She had to remind herself that some of the angels were too young to remember that, having been brought into being in their own way after the fall, after a third of their number had been taken away.

They didn't know who had crafted their songs, and who they owed their musical talent to.

She was halfway to the courtyard, just coming down the stairs from the palace itself, when she realized that neither God nor Mercy were at the usual observation box where they would hear the songs. They were...elsewhere. She could feel the shifts in the palace, could feel the pulses of their power as they moved through it. It was something that only the Archangels were aware of, and she, as one of the guardian soldiers of the realm of Heaven, was more aware of it than most.

Something was wrong.

She flexed her wings, taking to the sky. Sandaled feet left the clouds and tucked under her as her wings beat again and again, carrying her into the blue heights above the clouds. A finger twitched towards her blade, half-expecting to see someone, or something, coming in invasion. Was there logic behind that? No, but with the movement and shifting feeling that she was getting, it felt like something had gone wrong.

But there was nothing, nothing to explain God and Mercy moving around and changing things the way that they were.

Gabriel had already moved on, too. The lamb must have delivered his news and then rushed to the courtyard to take his place as conductor. An artist, he was, and he did his job well, but he wouldn't have noticed if something was wrong if he was already done. That meant that it was up to her to find out.

She glided down, pulling herself up short in the hall above the feeling of shifting space. Michaela shook her head as she alighted on white stone, took a step forward -

The shifting feeling rose, and then spiked. She lunged forward, throwing herself into a forward roll, and just in time. The stone floor under her feet shot up where she had been standing, and if she hadn't moved, she would have been crushed against the ceiling. She got to her feet again, panting for breath.

But it didn't stop there.

She felt the earth shift again, and she kept running, faster, harder than she ever should have save for in a fight. The puma outdistanced three more walls, and then ducked beneath a sudden drop of the ceiling, sliding along the floor until she was more than a hundred feet away from where she had been. Still catching her breath, she felt the air shift, getting wet, muggy -

The warrior puma threw herself upwards, cutting the roof in one fell swoop. Just in time, too, as the room she had been in filled with water, becoming a dense pool. A rain room of eternal fall.

What is going on?!

Michaela could feel God and Mercy still talking below her, moving and shifting the palace as they went. They had sealed off who knew how many rooms, and the feeling was all over the place, cutting off different locations of the great palace. Something was worse than wrong.

She shook her head, flying forward a few hundred paces before cutting through the clouds and dropping down. She did the same to the floor below, and finally, she could hear what God and his daughter were talking about.

"That will keep the other angels from him," God said, shaking his head as he walked beside her. "At least, for now."

"It won't be a problem. I do believe that my brother's given up on all thoughts of rebellion, for now."

"For now. But that doesn't mean that he'll help us, or that he won't become another Lucifer."

Mercy highly doubted that. Jesus loved her and God too much for that to be a danger. Yes, true, he had fallen for the worst of the Archangels, and yes, he had done something unnatural. That was something that had been forgiven on Jesus's part, though, and she had little doubt that her brother would return to the fold, eventually.

For that matter, she had little doubt that he was finding his love again. He was the heart of the family, the one that cared. And that was the problem. He cared too much.

She walked beside her father, looking back the way that they'd come. The hallways had been filled with cloud, stone, and water, different obstacles for different types of angels. She doubted that any of them would be able to cut through that. Even Michaela, powerful as she was, would be deterred by the barriers. The sheer number of them would exhaust the Archangel well before she came to any point of contact.

There, however, she agreed with her father. Jesus was broken, and while he might be molded to be better, there was no way that he would be safe for the other angels to see, no matter how much they would like to see their favored child. He would speak too much of sorrow, and that would spread through heaven like fire through dry wood.

"I hope he understands that we did this for him."

"He will not. Not for many years," God said. "I can see that."

"You should have let me bring him back when we first found out he was gone."

"That would have served little purpose."

"He would have been back before he got up much hope."

"That hope is what will break him."

"You mean to leave him there until there is nothing left of Lucifer, then?" Mercy asked, cocking her head to the side. "I thought that you'd want to bring him out as soon as possible."

"My daughter, it will not be so simple."

It could have been, if he'd let her do what she needed to do, what she had seen was a possibility right from the start. Kill Lucifer, then let her have a little time alone with Jesus. It would have shown him what the family could do, what they should do for one another. It would have reminded him that he was loved, even if he was a little clueless as to how everything worked in the world.

"Mercy."

God's voice pulled her back out of her reverie. She blinked.

"Sorry. Yes?"

"I need you to return to earth."

"...Why?" she asked. "I was going to go back, but it sounds like you have specific plans."

"I want you to ensure that a proper message goes out through the world."

"...You're sending me back to his apostles, aren't you?"

"I am, yes."

"Those dirty old men?"

"Jesus made them that way, but that is besides the point."

Mercy shook her head. She had had plans of going through the world, seeing the powerful men that had risen in the last few hundred years. Pilate had been...entertaining, though not particularly engaging. She had proven that she still had the Virtue to pull someone from their mortal lovers, their wives, their concubines. That had been easy to do, and she enjoyed the process of it.

The idea of taking it further, though, showing every great king and Emperor that their power and will quailed before the daughter of God...

That had been a great fantasy, and one that she had been planning on testing. She had not been meaning to go back to the nasty old men that her brother had cultivated.

"They miss him," God said.

"They were all planning on rutting him like a bitch the moment that they had the chance. You know it."

"They were, and therein lies our opportunity."

"...You are NOT suggesting what I think you're suggesting."

"You will go to them, Mercy."

"Father -"

"This is not up for debate."

That much she could hear. She never heard her father get this tight and tense without there being a good reason for it. The last time that he had sounded like this, it had been just before Lucifer had gone down to Eden and caused trouble. She had known that he would, and so had God, but neither of them had realized that the Archangel had been so far gone as he was. They should have taken steps earlier, but that was neither here nor there.

God continued.

"You will appear to them as Jesus."

"I'm supposed to look like him. Impersonate my brother."

"It's the only way for them to believe this story."

"Then what is the story?"

"You rose from the dead, and you bring with you the secrets of eternal life, life unending for those faithful to me."

"..." Slowly, the tigress's cheeks started to turn up in a grin, her eyes glittering in a forming smirk. "Oh, I see where this is going."

"Yes. It will secure our power for the next few hundred years."

"A living god that came back from the dead."

"A son of God," he said, and she nodded. "Do not make a mistake of pride, daughter."

"I hardly have to worry about that. I am your daughter, after all."

"You think that protects you? Look what happened to Jesus."

She gritted her teeth. Her brother's foolishness was...unfortunate, and not what either of them would have wanted. However, that did not mean that she would suffer from the same fate. She had come through just as much as Jesus had, and she was still the devoted daughter that she had always been, still focused on the plan.

But she was not happy about this.

That said, she would still do it. She took a deep breath, wiggling her fingers. Looking as if she was her brother wouldn't be that difficult, and she could explain away some of the changes as having come back from the dead and being changed by that fact. The difficult part would be knowing how to keep them all interested in her when she barely knew their names.

She chuckled. She supposed she would have to cheat. After all, some of them were tolerable, even if they were, as a whole, an unwashed, dirty group of older men that just wanted some young ass.

"I will do it, my father."

"See to it that you do it well. This is how we maintain our power, and how we will save the world."

"Heaven will always triumph over Hell."

"There is little doubt of that. But there are others..."

Mercy didn't bother asking further questions. She was already planning her disguise, keeping the image of her brother in her mind as she started imagining herself fitting to his body. It was a message of Charity, a great Virtue, and that meant that she could be charitable to her body, to allow it to change and embody that which would best deliver the message. The gift of her brother's lesser body would do.

She shimmered as she walked, and with each step, she slowly began to transform. Her muscles grew a little rougher, a little stronger. Her face lost some of the soft femininity to it, taking on more of an angle along the chin. A few steps further, and her breasts started to sink into her chest. Inch by inch, little by little they faded away, leaving her with a different sense of balance, a different center to her body.

She took another step, something coming in between her legs. She studiously ignored that, knowing that the apostles would do more than enough to take care of that when she went back down to the world below. Her fur changed slightly, the patterns shifting around to those of her brother's rather than her own.

As her whiskers started to grow out further, becoming something a bit more rugged, she reached up to rub her ears a bit. They were a bit itchy, slightly out of place compared to usual, and she was slightly taller.

All in all, it wasn't much of a transformation, but it still left her feeling a bit off compared to her normal self. She stopped, turning for her father to see.

"How did I do?"

"Almost perfect."

"What did I miss?"

"Two inches shorter on the tail."

"Ah, right."

She pulled it in with further application of her power over the Virtues, her aura stretching through her new body and adjusting it to fit with what it was supposed to be. In short order, she had perfectly imitated Jesus's body. It would be a bit trickier to imitate his natural impulses, the way that he looked at men the way that he should look at women, but that was something that she could figure out in time.

"And the message. That belief in you, and following your edicts, will lead to a better way of life, an eternal life?" Mercy asked.

"Exactly. They may be just dumb enough to fall for it."

"They loved Jesus. They followed him."

"And hopefully, they will still love you."

Mercy flinched slightly at that, but said nothing.

"You'll go to them after the angels finish their singing."

"Is there anything else you expect from me down there?" she asked.

"Nothing more than this. Do this, and you will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who I should have loved more."

That was enough for her. She smiled, and followed her father.

Michaela stared at the departing pair, her mouth hanging open. With each successive word, they had pushed themselves further from what she and the others knew of them, and made themselves more the horrors that the angels and Heaven itself was there to fight against.

Lying to the mortals was bad enough. The power of Heaven came from the goodness, the light and life that filled it. They had been gifted the great heights of the world, and from there, they were supposed to be just and kind, good and gentle to the world below. They were supposed to guide the mortals to understand that just because they knew of good and evil that they shouldn't feel like the other needed to be a choice. They could do good, and only good, and their lives would be fine.

And if they were not, then perhaps the mortals would meet them sooner than they thought.

To spread that righteousness, they had always needed to be an example to the mortals, to show them how they could be better, be greater than they currently were. The moment that an angel lied, or cheated, or did anything out of line, the whole system started breaking down.

And she had just heard, from God's own lips, that they planned to lie. They wanted to lie to the whole world, to tell them that they could gain eternal life merely from following him. That...that....

And the fact that Mercy was going along with it? Not just somewhat, but enthusiastically? That she wanted to see the world deceived just for the sake of some short-term gain?

Why?

What happened to you?

There was no clear answer to that, and she knew better than to expect one. They were at war, and God and Mercy would treat it as such, even when they didn't have to. She expected to be on their side, but this time, she wasn't.

They weren't lying to their enemies, weren't fighting them or taking away their supplies. If anything, they were planning on making the lives of the people down on the world below demonstrably worse. They were planning on taking it from 'live a good life and you can get into heaven' and turning it into 'follow me, and only me, and you can get eternal life.' A lie, and one that would start all kinds of chaos.

Michaela was the soldier of Heaven, the general under Mercy and God, and she knew how this would go. The mortals would see this, and those that were determined to believe in it would twist that compassion that had come from Jesus and force it on the others that lived around them. They would push that belief outwards, making it so that there was none that could escape it, none that would be allowed to believe otherwise.

And that? That would encourage further fighting, with other people digging in on what they believed, fighting back to survive.

She could see it now. Fire, death, and more spreading throughout the world every year, with every person learning as they grew that there was a way to live through it, but only if they fought for the lord.

What have you done...

Something that would have been worthy of Lucifer himself, as far as she was concerned, and made worse with what else they had planned.

Jesus was supposed to have been rescued, given a chance to recover before joining with Heaven's people again. Now, he was a prisoner, and not even in a home of his choosing. He was walled off, all the other angels, and even the Archangels, prevented from seeing him. God and Mercy had decided that he didn't need to be part of things until he was completely on their side again.

He was not rescued. He was stolen.

Michaela clenched her hand around the hilt of her sword. She had been given that in the event of Armageddon, so that she could lead the heavenly host against the world below. It had been the weapon that God himself had made for the task, something that would give her the power to meet Lucifer on equal ground if Mercy was occupied elsewhere, which she was supposed to be. The plan, the plan had always been that the Archangels would handle Lucifer, while the Christ siblings would handle the mortals and give them the safety that they needed.

The warriors waged war. The lovers brought protection. That. Was. The. Plan.

And now, not only was God changing the plan, but he was changing it beyond recognition and not telling her. And from the sound of it, he had no intention of telling her.

This won't be the end of it, she thought with disgust. When he gets away with it, he'll know that he can do this whenever he wants. He'll be able to go through history, go through the rest of his time as king of Heaven, and do anything that he likes because nobody will stop him when things change. Not Mercy. Not Jesus. Not even me.

The moment she tried, she'd either be discorporated or banished. Either way, her strength would be useless against Mercy or God. The two of them together would be impossible to defeat, and she dared not try.

Not when she could be of use doing something else.

She slowly stood up, looking back the way that she'd come. The various obstacles between her and Jesus would be too much to break without catching the attention of someone else. God, Mercy, even Gabriel would be problematic, though she might just be able to take care of the lamb if it came down to that. The main thing was, there was no way that she would be able to break through the barriers without attracting attention, and without access to these halls, there was no way to Jesus's cell without going through the private quarters of God and his family.

That was impossible...at least, while they were all in Heaven. From the sound of it, though, Mercy would be making regular trips down to the planet, and that meant that there was a chance that God would eventually go, as well. The minute that happened, she would have a chance.

The minute that happened, she would get Jesus out.

And the minute she did that, they would need to run.

I'll be ready, she thought, sheathing her sword. I'll be ready when the time comes. For once, this sword will save a life rather than take it.

As she flew away, making her way around the courtyard on a patrol that she hoped she'd be able to justify later, she hoped that Jesus would eventually be able to forgive her for what she had done. She hadn't known, but that was no excuse.

Mercy left Heaven to the fanfare of the various angels, assuming the body of her brother once more as she returned to the world below. She had already figured out how she was going to present herself the various apostles when she reached the mortal world again, and she was eager to get it over with. As enticing as it might be to bring mortals to the proper path, as well as to show them where they actually belonged, it was going to be difficult to bring herself to enjoy it when they started.

She didn't know what it was. There was just something about mortals, how they were so...dirty, and so proud of how eager they were to be together. They had a hunger that pushed them all the time, and it defied her knowledge of the Virtue of Chastity. It felt like they never stopped feeling the urge.

It hadn't been like that in the past. When Eden had first started, when it was just Adam and Eve, they had been proper, good and right in the eyes of her father. They'd not been going at it, even when they were almost naked, or completely naked. It was only after Lucifer had come around that they'd needed to be startled with thunder and lightning to listen to a word that her father said.

And it had only gotten worse as the years went on.

She sighed as she sat up in the grave, feeling the blankets and wraps that had been laid around her fall to the wayside. As she sat up, the tigress - no, tiger, now - shifted her head from side to side, feeling it crack. The stiffness of a dead body coming to life, she supposed, even though she had only been 'dead' for a few seconds. She looked at the big rock that was in the way of the tomb.

One thought had been getting an angel to come down and roll it away while the apostles were coming to protest at the tomb again, but she had kicked that plan to the side. If they wanted to show off a 'son of God' that was powerful, then it was not worth having a servant do the work that she could do herself.

She listened for a time, waiting in the darkness for the sound of speech outside. When it eventually came, Mercy was nearly ready to die of boredom.

Standing up, she held out her hand, and with the Virtue of Kindness, she battered the stone of the way. After all, it was hardly kind to keep someone locked away forever, was it?

The hypocrisy of her father was forgotten in seconds as the stone bounced away, revealing two very confused guards and the group of her brother's apostles. They were staring wide-eyed at her, and she knew why. After all, why wouldn't they stare at a body as lovely as her current one was, particularly as the burial wraps and shrouds had come free and left her completely in the nude?

She smiled as she walked out of the opening, the guards running off and dropping their spears in the process. Her apostles stared at her, some of them popping boners in their robes and scraps of cloth. Peter, the one that was first before her, shivered as he looked her up and down, the eyes of the small-ish wolf fixed on her bare shaft.

"Jesus...you've come back," Peter whispered.

"I have, Peter, I have," she said with a small nod. "And I will be here for a time, before my father calls me back to Heaven."

"You...you're related...to God?" another - Simon - asked.

"I am. There are many things that I have yet to tell you, and many things that you have yet to learn. That is why I've come back, to show you what I really am, and to tell you the secrets that you must know after I leave again."

The apostles continued to stare at her, but no longer in so much shock. Lust had started to take over, and she could tell that they were thinking of everything but what she was saying. It was different to what it was like with Pilate. There, there was a goal, something for her to work towards, something to tease him over and make sure that he did what he was told. She could hold back, give him something, but less than what he really wanted. That was the game, that was the pleasure of the chase.

But this was something different. This was twelve older men that all wanted to fuck, that had become friends with Jesus and had been hoping for benefits for who knew how many years before her brother died. They were useful, and were needed for her father's plan, but at the same time, she knew that they were going to need more than she was willing to give Pilate.

Disguising an inner sigh, Mercy walked toward the group and between the men, running her hands across their crotches. She could feel their excitement to her, and her aura pulsed, the Virtue of Chastity reaching out and gently encouraging them to bend to her control. Oh, they were horny, they were needy, but they were going to do this as she demanded. They were going to be good for her, rather than the randy beasts that their lower nature demanded that they act like.

She could feel them all staring at her new ass, or rather, at her brother's ass. They were obsessed, now, eager to feel that striped rump spread out for them, stretched and on offer. She shook her head, hiding her disdain for them behind the slight pleasure that came from having this sort of power. On some small level, she could see how the mortals and the demons were willing to enjoy this so much. There was power here, and that power...well, it was intoxicating, to put it mildly.

Mercy felt her satisfaction rising as the men followed her from the tomb, their eyes fixed completely on her ass. They were helpless to their own urges at this point, obsessed with her. And why wouldn't they be? They were less than her, and she was better than them. The feeling of power that it gave her was intoxicating.

Ah, but was it pride?

She considered it as she walked, her bare paws carrying her across the road and into a forest, with the men following after her. She wondered if, perhaps, there was a hint of pride to it. Not enough to damn her, of course - the Christ children could not be damned from something so small - but rather fact that became pleasure.

After all, was there any denying that she was better than them? Not in the slightest. She was immortal, and they were mortal. She was related to God, and they were mere men. She had power, and they had nothing.

All they had were their desires, and they bent them to obey her in ways that even her powers could not do on their own.

Eventually, however, there was no more delaying. Peter approached her from behind, giving her a hug around her hips. His bulge slid between her ass cheeks, grinding slowly against her. This was a sin against God, to have men doing this, but she could find a way to turn them around. They cared so much about Jesus, after all. They would listen when he told them the difference between the pleasure of the flesh and the pleasure of the soul, and how the latter could be endangered with the wrong couplings.

For now, though, she would deal with the indignity...in her own way.

"Ah ah..."

She smiled, reaching down and pulling his hands free, her tail sliding along his shaft. Oh, he was eager, yes, beyond eager. Her male body felt like it was going to enjoy it, too, but she had every plan to have it remain on her terms. There was no way that these dirty old men would have it their way. If that happened, she would be a mess of seed, sweat, and possibly worse, depending on just how foul they were.

Instead, she had them line up behind her, and she took the chance to lean against one of the bigger, stronger trees in the area. She spread her legs slightly, lifting her tail. Her sack fell further down, and she swayed her hips from side to side, showing off the muscle back there that her brother had earned with his hard work in the world, and more, what he had between his cheeks.

She ran her fingers between the cheeks, gently prodding at her pucker. In some ways, she was thankful that Jesus had the tastes that he did. This was going to be easier than she thought with all the effort that her brother had put into keeping loose.

Peter reached for her again, but she shook her head.

"No, no," she said, nodding down to the ground. "Earn it, Peter. I am the son of God...and you will worship me."

"Heh...I could worship that ass all day long..."

"Then you just might."

She waited for him to get down on his knees, then slowly pushed back. The feeling of his tongue back there, just under her tail, was surprisingly lovely. The other men were all grinning, obviously looking forward to their turn.

She looked forward to teaching them their places.

The End

Summary: Mercy and God come up with a plan to boost their power on the world below. Michaela, the third Archangel, overhears their plan.

Tags: M/M, M/F, transformation, angel, puma, tigress, tiger, God, archangel, fantasy, prequel, prologue, prison, series, magic, rimming, worship, nudity,