Fledge

Fledge - 3

I woke up to a world of whiteness, ones and zeros.

10100011001101101010101011110100010101

It wasn't oppressing, like I'd always imagined an endless whiteness to be. Streams of numbers flowed in lines overhead, and I watched them. It was peaceful. I stood there for a while, breathing in and out.

"Rio." I turned around and there was Chuck.

I stared. "Chuck? Where are we?"

"We're in your heaven." Chuck replied. He was wearing a white suit and when I looked down, I had a grey one.

"Heaven?" I thought backwards, and remembered a sharp pain and so much cold. I shivered slightly. "I'm dead?"

"Not exactly." Chuck took a few steps closer, and reached out a hand. "Come with me."

I took the hand and the streams of binary dissolved. "Gabriel wanted to come along to this, you know." He commented as we started walking. I kept my hand in his as the floor began to change colour.

"To what?"

"Your... Induction, I suppose." I looked at him and he smiled at me sympathetically, but didn't say anything else.

I frowned, but kept walking. The ground became roughly hewn stone, and walls and a roof formed around us. The tunnel walls were lit by some kind of golden internal light, and I caught Chuck watching it happily.

He saw me looking and gestured at the walls. "My children's bond to the earth." He said, and then we reached the staircase.

It spiralled upwards, and I couldn't tell if it was only a corner, or if it went up forever.

"It's called the Axis Mundi."

Axis Mundi - the mythical pillar between Heaven and earth. The centre point of the world. "Wait - If your children are connected to earth through the axis mundi, does that mean- are you- are they - Angels? Dead people? What." I said helplessly as he started up the stairs, with myself half a step behind.

"Close." Chuck said, squeezing my hand. His grip was comfortingly strong. "Do you want to work it out yourself, or do you want it right now?"

"I think - hang on - Gabriel," I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Angels. No way. No. Bloody. Way."

Oh my God.

Chuck laughed. "Literally."

I poked him with the arm I wasn't using to hold his hand. "Not cool, Dude." I then realised that this was God. "Chuck." I said as we kept climbing slowly. "Two questions."

"Ask away."

"Wait - three." I tilted my head and kept climbing while I spoke. "One - are you God?"

I AM THE LORD ALMIGHTY. Chuck said with a power in his tone that I'd never heard before.

I shivered, and decided to think of him as Chuck. "Okay, that's cool. Two - what's happening now? Induction? Induction to what?"

"I'm going to tell you a story," Chuck said. "And if you don't understand by the end, I'll tell you."

"Okay." My legs were burning slightly because of the stairs, but Chuck hadn't slowed at all and didn't seem to be tired. I kept going as he started to talk.

"When I Created the first angels after the archangels, Leviathan ate one, Mariel." He paused for a moment. "And so I locked Leviathan away. My angels were not immortal - they could die. My mistake." He stopped walking for a moment, and I caught my breath. "So I conceived a plan to replenish the Host should they need it. Within every human resides a score, a number of Faith. Whenever an angel dies, the human alive with the highest Faith number is selected for Ascension. I have to approve it all, of course, and normally they don't die so soon." He gestured vaguely towards me, then started climbing again. "To Ascend, the human soul will be joined by the LORD Himself, and they must literally ascend the Axis Mundi. When they reach the Host, the human will be so much more."

It was quiet for a little bit. "So, I'm turning into an angel? My friends at home would find that really amusing." In England, I had often used the names Satan and Lucifer, just for kicks.

"I am well aware of your blasphemy." Chuck said sternly. "I don't approve, but seeing as you were so good at it, that is the position I am offering you."

"What? Ha Satan? You mean it?" Wow. "Won't Lucifer be annoyed?" I really, really didn't want to get on the bad side of the Devil.

"He was never the Adversary. He was the Visionary." Chuck explained. "And, as an Ascended human, you will most likely be extraordinarily well fit to the job. He would most likely congratulate you. He is only following his script now because all other paths are blocked."

New connections were forming in my mind. Things I hadn't had the answer to were being named. "Wait, all those deaths and diseases - the apocalypse?" I asked, aghast. "He's bringing about the apocalypse because he feels he has no other choice?"

"He accepted the inevitability centuries ago." Chuck replied. "That is where you come in." We kept going in silence for a moment, and I noticed his hand tightening on mine.

"No. No way. Please?" I asked as I realised what he was asking me to do. "I'll be killed!"

Chuck stopped and turned to face me, then bent down to press a kiss on my forehead. I felt it like a burn, and yelped, jerking backwards.

He caught me before I fell, luckily. "What was that?" I asked quietly. The spot felt warm, and I put a hand up and felt it. My skin was still flat and smooth, but that area was warmer that the rest.

"My protection." He said, still not climbing. "Gabriel has one also. It's a contract, a promise of sanctuary. I swear to protect you. As long as you bear that mark, no angel, fallen or otherwise, will harm you."

Chuck put an arm around my shoulders. "Even Lucifer himself wouldn't dream of it, unless he wants to be locked in an eternal Cage, this one with no key except my will." He pulled me into a hug. I tucked my face into his shoulder and we stayed there for over a minute. "No-one will harm you, for I say that you are precious, Rio."

We walked on, in silence.

After about ten minutes, I realised that I was being 'upgraded' as we walked. My legs weren't protesting. I could do this all day.

"What colour feathers would you like?" Chuck asked, glancing at me. "For your wings, I mean."

"Wings?" About a third of my mind began panicking, and another third was turning the whole situation over, so the rest of my mind ran through colours.

"I was thinking maybe TARDIS Blue?" He suggested. "You're going to have about a hundred and fifty pairs. Maybe all the different shades the TARDIS has ever been?"

The third that was freaking out had suddenly vanished, and so I took a moment to think. "Maybe. Or the yellow-orange of a London taxi light?"

Chuck laughed. "My newest angel is a Patriot! Finally, someone to argue for the Europeans!" I giggled too.

"What do you recommend," I paused. "Father?"

He glanced over, then his eyes settled on mine, softening. "Blue." He said simply.