Sunday Part 1

Jon had slipped out of bed, covering Elise with a soft growl of desire as she simply drove him crazy. Silently he crept downstairs. To his surprise, he wasn't the first one up that day. Coffee was ready. He poured himself a mug and went out into the garden. Next to the pool, he saw Domino sitting cross-legged. He sensed that she was trying to meditate but couldn't really shut herself off. Silently, he approached and sat down beside her, making just enough noise not to startle her. Without opening her eyes, she asked:

"How crazy is it going to get? How much time does humanity have left?"

He took a sip of his coffee and said quietly:

"Very crazy... Damn, little time if we compare it to the time-line of history. For humans, fifty years might be a long time, an eternity. If you look at it from a more personal perspective, you will find that it is actually not that much time. Your baby will be born in what, five or six months? But your child will never reach retirement age, because by then the viable modern civilization as we know it today will be gone."

Two tears ran down her cheeks at these words:

"We humans have really messed up, haven't we?"

He put an arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Yep..."

"If we are lost, why are you helping us? My child, Brandon, your daughters will never grow old."

"Domino, look at me please?"

With tears in her eyes, she did as he asked.

"It will indeed be fucked up and the first results will definitely start to show in twenty years or so. Things will start to get a little crazy by then. If I had been a full-fledged Angel and not a Nefilim, I would have had a truckload of popcorn delivered to heaven and enjoyed the show from the front row. Just waiting for my grandfather to come up with his next brilliant idea to replace humanity. I am half-human, though; I love Earth. Although humans can be incredible jerks and assholes, I am still attached to humanity as a whole. The potential for growth they hold is unimaginable. Humanity will not die out, Domino; your child will grow up and have the opportunity to become very old. Before you know it, you will be a great-grandmother."

"But how, Jon?"

"Dry your tears girl, I can't stand to see a girl or a woman crying, it makes me panic. As soon as... Oh Jeez..., there are only women in this house. The only other male occupant is Max, and he takes pleasure in annoying the crap out of me!"

He shook his head for a moment and continued:

"What I wanted to say before I got that scare is that you should have a little patience. Later, when everyone is awake, I will explain what is going to happen and how I am going to do it."

She looked straight into his green eyes and said quietly:

"You have a way. You will try to save humanity..."

He just nodded and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. As he stood up, she said with a thoughtful frown:

"You forgot one male resident, Jon. Brandon."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Domino, I have not forgotten anything. I deliberately put things out of my mind. Like a very handsome, smart, polite young man who likes to spend time around my two youngest girls. Sooner or later, I'm going to expose that little brat..."

With these words, he turned and walked towards the sitting area where Elise was already waiting for him with a soft smile on her lips. Every time she saw how he treated those in need with love and gentleness, she got butterflies in her stomach. She was on top of the world because this was the father of her children, her future husband, and he was going to do great things. After he sat down on a comfortable seat, she also took her favorite place, on his lap. She planted a kiss on his lips that made him wish he could go back in time and disappear into the bedroom for an hour or so.

An hour later, after breakfast, everyone was seated in the sitting area as he had requested. He poured himself another cup and began to talk:

"OK, I want to make it clear to everyone what is happening, what is going to happen, and what I am going to do about it. And absolutely emphasize that none of this is to go outside this family. This is information for us and no one else! So definitely not to be used for a school assignment, ladies."

Everyone sat and looked at him tensely. Even Max, who was lying on Jules' lap, had his eyes squeezed.

"We have two problems. By 'we' I mean not just us here in this garden, but everyone on Earth. The first problem is climate change, which I'm sure you've all heard about. This problem is out of control and it is going to be felt step by step. Because the rich and the various governments of this world seem to have no desire to solve this problem. The point at which this catastrophe could have been prevented is long past. They consider political power and the almighty dollar more important than human survival. Or they play ostrich politics in the hope that someone else will solve the problem so they don't have to do anything or put pressure on their own economy. Pretty stupid, but most politicians are stupid that way because they don't think beyond the next election. The days when a country's political leaders made plans for long periods of time are long gone. One could say that that way of thinking died out when the last real empire on this planet, the English empire, came to an end. China and its leaders may pretend to do long-term thinking but that is a mask because everything is centered on the Chinese economy. If that collapses then the Chinese Communist Party automatically comes to an end. To the outside world they act as if their empire will last forever, internally they are like everyone else waiting for the economic figures that are published every six months. Probably even in more excitement than the rest of the world because their lives may literally depend on it.

The end result; in about fifty to sixty years the climate of this planet will be so polluted that humanity will no longer be able to survive here. The second problem, and it is much more urgent to solve, is my heavenly family. Heaven wants to go to war with Hell, and Hell can do nothing but go to war as well because if it comes to that, the Demons just want to survive. The main instigator is Michael. You may have read, heard, or seen things on TV or You Tube about Saint Michael. Believe me, he is anything but what people think about him. It seems like his only purpose in existence is war, and his focus is completely on killing my father. He has hated my father for ages and will never settle for anything less than killing my Dad. He does not care if he destroys all of humanity in the process. Ever since I was born, he has seen me as nothing more than the starting gun for his war. Michael is an idiot every day of the week, but twice as bad on Sunday. What makes him so dangerous is that he believes in the Antichrist as described in the Bible, and therefore he believes that he can destroy me. He doesn't think for a second that this is just a story written by a half-wit who lived in a cave surrounded by unknown fumes and lived on a diet of mushrooms that grew in those caves. This guy was so high that even Snoop Dogg would say it's too damn high even for him. Revelations, written by John, is actually based on Grandpa's words. However, the guy was so stoned out of his mind that all the fantasy stuff about beasts with seven heads and seven crowns and all the rest of that nonsense crept into the text. That stuff was inspired by Rome and Nero at the time. Had he been alive today, he could have made a fortune in Hollywood. But because some of Grandpa's words are woven into it, Michael and his zealots take it as absolute truth and are convinced that 'events' will unfold exactly as described in the Bible. Grandpa in his eternally mysterious ways never bothered to correct that misunderstanding either."

He could tell by Domino's slight wiggle that she wanted to ask something. He got his smirk on his face and said:

"Miss Domino, we're not in class, so you really shouldn't wait your turn or raise your hand. Just say it."

"This is all still so strange to me Jon. But if you are the Antichrist, how can it be that you don't want this war and will even do everything to save mankind?"

"Good question. This is what I meant by firmly believing what is written instead of thinking about the possible interpretations of the words. Most of these misconceptions about me and my father come from people preferring to believe in a legend and forgetting to look at the words. A simple example: when people think of the devil, they see a kind of cross between a man and a goat; cloven hooves, a goat's beard, a pointed tail, horns, and a trident. Believe me, my father is anything but the image of the legend, and he hates that image with a passion. Rather, he prefers Prada, and oh my, if he misses his weekly pedicure and manicure."

He got his all-too-familiar smirk on his face and said with undisguised glee:

"When I was little, and I must say my mother was the instigator, it was a favorite pastime of mine to hide pictures or figurines of the classic Devil According to Man in his private quarters. It was just fantastic to hear him explode from a distance when he found one. Man, did I learn some unique ways to use the language."

Everyone else laughed as this was yet another example of Jon's naughty but innocent sense of humor. He continued:

"The Antichrist is the opposite of Christ. Does this mean that instead of wanting to bring peace like my Uncle J, I want war at all costs? Is there no other way to explain what this anti-thesis could be?"

Liz had jumped all the way to the front of her seat and asked him, almost salivating:

"Wait, Jesus is your uncle?"

He looked at her strangely for a moment:

"Liz, if J is my grandfather's son and Lucifer is my grandfather's son, then they are brothers. My father's brother is my uncle. That's how the family tree still works, right?"

She sat nodding vigorously and asked:

"Would you like to tell us about him later? I always found him to be an example of forgiveness and compassion."

He shook his head gently:

"Tell you what, why don't you keep those questions to yourself and ask him yourself. If all goes as it should, you'll meet him soon enough. It will please him to know that he still has groupies after two thousand years. Besides, I have some eggs to fry with that donkey-riding dad joke!"

With that, Elise burst out laughing. He felt another whole swarm of butterflies in his stomach, and it was the best feeling he had ever had.

"Okay, back to class. Where was I? Oh, yes, I am the son of an angel, Lucifer, and a human, Francesca, my mother. This means that I have all the characteristics of an angel, immortality, supernatural powers, and so on. However, it also means that I inherited certain traits from my mother and have full free will through my human side. Angels and Demons also have free will but to a lesser degree than humans. It is inconceivable that an Angel like Michael could simply choose to refuse to become the literal Antichrist and not unleash the apocalypse. But free will goes further. Instead of choosing war and destruction, I choose peace and creation. I must honestly confess that before I met Elise and Jules. Before you all came into my life, I had never thought about it. I am not looking for excuses, but it is an honest statement. I had no one in my life to whom I could give the best of myself. The only ones I cared about were the Celestials, and they can't die. All I had to do was prevent the apocalypse from dragging them onto the battlefield. With you in my existence, my life has become so much more meaningful and my purpose so much greater. J, as everyone knows, also chose peace. The anti-thesis does not mean that I have to be diametrically opposed to him in my actions and want to achieve the opposite. It simply means that I will pursue the same goal but by different means. You can compare it a little bit with Edison and Tesla. Both looked for a way to bring electricity to the masses. Edison lost out and today we use Tesla's way to distribute electricity. J tried to teach people to forgive their enemies. I, as his opposite, say that you should not forgive someone who has intentionally hurt or harmed you if that person has not made an honest attempt to seek your forgiveness. J says you should turn the other cheek when someone strikes you. I tell you that the person who hits you deserves a serious slapping. J said that he who is without sin may cast the first stone. I say that it is okay to have sinned and still cast the stone if it is to save or protect the innocent. People forget that thesis and anti-thesis can perfectly coexist and even perfectly pursue the same goal, they do not have to be diametrically opposed. They just do it in different ways."

He filled his mug again.

"Well, those were the two problems coming at us that we can't do anything about. We cannot stop or slow down climate change. We can't change Michael's mind. There is nothing left to do but to do something that neither humans nor Michael expects. For the sake of humanity, I want to launch Project Eden today. The Garden of Eden is real, and it still exists. The Garden cannot be entered by humans unless I open the door, so to speak. So this is what I am going to do. We are going to select people on Earth and bring them to Eden. Deflin House will be the starting point. As I said yesterday. Michael, I can clamp down before he unleashes his whole war, but it will be a delicate balancing act."

He took a sip of coffee:

"I have asked Maggie to prepare the ceremonial room for a special ceremony in the presence of the Prince of Light. Fay, Hope..."

He looked at the twins:

"I can release your powers, but only if you truly want them of your own free will."

The girls looked at him emotionally and Hope asked:

"Really Daddy, our powers will be released?"

He smiled:

"Yes, girls, your powers will be released. But you still have a lot to learn. But that's your mom's department, way too boooooooring for me!"

He was met with a playful pat from Elise. He looked at their youngest twin:

"Jules, Samantha, if you want, I can unlock your first power, comfort. You could use it to help your classmates at school because there are always kids who could use some extra comfort."

They didn't know what they were hearing and could only nod enthusiastically. Finally, he looked into Red's eyes. His eyes turned bright gold again and he asked:

"My dear little Red, do you trust me, the Prince of Hell, the Antichrist?"

She knew instinctively that this was very important, and so she replied:

"Yes, My Lord, always and everywhere!"

"Tell me, Elise, what do you desire most on this Earth, Heaven or Hell, for I can truly grant it to you."

"I have nothing more to desire, My Lord. What I wanted most was a family with Jules and you, and now you have given me a family with not one, but four beautiful daughters."

"Your light never ceases to amaze me, Elise. You really could have had it all, all the power there is to give."

"What good is power, My Lord, when all I want is the girls and you?"

He nodded and said:

"Elise, what I am offering you has never been given to a witch, white or black. The last time a white witch was elevated to High Priestess of Light was centuries ago and it was by an angel with the Light of Heaven. I'm offering you the opportunity to become the new High Priestess of Light but with the light of the Lightbringer himself given to you by the Prince of Light. This is so much more powerful than anything ever given to a human, are you willing to accept the Lightbringer's light during the ceremony and assume your role as High Priestess of Light?"

Elise understood immediately what he was offering. With his offer, he was making her the de facto new goddess. With a lump in her throat, she replied:

"Yes, My Lord, I accept. Of my own free will and choice, I accept to be at your side to serve Heaven, Hell, and Earth who so desperately need your help, our help."

Instead of saying anything, Jon kissed her softly on the lips. Everyone except Domino, who was not at home in this scene, gasped when they heard Jonathan's words. He wanted to make Elise the supreme authority among the white witches, with a power only second to that of the Goddess. Liz asked:

"So how is this going to work in general, Jon? And what does Eden look like?"

And again Elise burst out laughing. He got a smirk on his face and answered:

"In very broad terms, we are going to buy the Deflin House and renovate it. A larger ceremony room for the coven, official offices for Elise, Liz, and myself, but also for others in the future, because there is a huge mountain of work waiting for us. Living units on the second and third floors. Building a kind of village in the backyard with trailers, because the space in the building itself will definitely not be enough. Some of the people we will shelter and help get back on their feet will be transferred to Eden where they can begin to build a new society under supervision. Others we will employ here on Earth to help with our projects. Eden itself is an island about the size of Cuba. It was once created by grandma and grandpa together, so it is incredibly fertile. Science calculated some time ago that there needs to be a pool of about ten thousand people for humanity to have a healthy base to survive. A diversity of DNA is needed, otherwise humanity will still die out. Less than ten thousand and healthy reproduction begins to be compromised. Long and complicated scientific story short, there would be unwanted genetic consequences similar to inbreeding. Therefore, the target minimum should be ten thousand adults from all races. The higher the number, the better, of course."

Domino pointed at Elise:

"And why did you laugh so much when Eden was mentioned?"

She replied with a wide smile:

"Well, it could be that the people we are going to transfer to Eden will have to share this island."

"With whom then?"

Liz asked to which Elise replied with a very wide, mischievous smile:

"Not with whom, with what. This Antichrist here was a little monster as a child, somehow Dennis the Menace was nothing compared to him. Apparently, there's a bunch of dodos and mammoths running around Eden now, and I don't know what else."

Everyone in the sitting area stared at them with wide eyes. Domino seemed to stare into space for a moment and then asked softly:

"Jon, the dodos and the mammoths are extinct. You brought them back to life. How can that be?"

"The building blocks of everything in this universe are contained in Grandpa and Grandma's thrones. Balanced distribution. Grandfather, the universes, and the building blocks of life. Grandmother nature, fauna and flora, and together sentient life, which is humanity. Think of it as a 3D puzzle. You take out the basic package for a dodo and the rest happens as I imagine it."

Jon let her think for a moment because he knew exactly what she was thinking about and what she was going to ask. But he had also felt Elise stiffen in his lap at his last words. He was sure that she had noticed something again that he had never thought of before. She would tell him later when she was ready.

"If you can create a completely normal and healthy living being from scratch, does that mean you can also change an existing living being on the DNA level?"

He just nodded.

"Can you change a person's DNA to make them more or less immortal?"

Again he nodded:

"Aging, the extension of human life span to the point of becoming more or less infinite, happens at the DNA level. Simply put, all the DNA strands in your body are stored in chromosomes. The ends of your chromosomes are called telomeres. Compare this to the ends of your shoelaces, that piece of plastic at the end. Over time, that piece of plastic becomes so worn out that your shoelace is no longer usable. By divine intervention, the lifespan of that piece of plastic can be greatly extended, thus extending the lifespan of the shoelace. Unfortunately, this is a very delicate balancing act. Overpopulation is already an incredible problem. Can you imagine how catastrophic that problem would become if everyone suddenly lived to be a thousand years old and humanity kept the same reproductive cycle?"

"But immortality is not the limit of what you can do?"

"No, I can indeed make certain people completely immortal. But I don't want to offer it to everyone for a very simple reason. Immortality for all people would lead to insurmountable stagnation, and the urgency to progress would disappear. The will to learn, to discover, to change, to improve things, that curve would be flattened almost overnight. Why must it be done now, when it can wait a few years or centuries? If everyone sits on their hands, the population will continue to grow, but no attempt will be made to explore and colonize the universe. The end result is the same misery as now, but instead of climate, it is overpopulation that causes the problems."

"So what is the superlative of immortality, Jon?"

He spoke one word:

"Angels..."

Liz almost cried out:

"You can turn people into Angels?"

"Yes, and for this project to succeed, I will have to. If I am right, I will only have 47 Angels and 47 Demons at my direct disposal. That is just way too few. So the pool that I potentially have now needs to be expanded. Therefore, I would like to offer all of you here to become Angels in the future."

The adult's head was slowly spinning because Elise had not heard this information either. It was Fay who asked from a teenager's point of view:

"Daddy, Hope, and I dream of getting an education at LSU. Hope wanted to study climatology, specifically climate change. I wanted to be a psychologist. Would that still be possible?"

"No need to worry about that girl. There is time enough for you to graduate, even more than time enough for your sisters and Brandon if they want to go to college. It will be another twenty years or so before things get a little crazy on Earth. Nature will take a few centuries to fully recover. An angel like Hope could help your mother keep an eye on the climate and give it a boost when needed. That would be invaluable to your mother. And an angel like you, Fay, would be of incredible value to many of the white witches we are trying to bring to Eden. This group is already under immense pressure, and it will only get more intense, so psychological help will be so incredibly welcome. Together with Raffa, you could achieve as much as your sister."

Jon had just thrown a grenade into the hen-house. He had offered them all immortality and even offered to become Angels. In the end, it was Liz who could speak:

"My head is spinning like I was just put in a centrifuge. Jon, you're not just talking about preventing the apocalypse and saving humanity. The foundation of everything. The absolute foundation for your plans you have not even touched or articulated."

He got his smirk back on his face and you could just see the fireworks in his eyes:

"What do you mean, dear Liz? What have I forgotten to say?"

She had gotten an equally playful look in her eyes:

"Oh no, you sneaky little Antichrist. You said it, but you didn't use the words! The plans you make, the things you want to set in motion. Nothing shows that you are considering what the God and Goddess might think of it. The reason is simple. You don't care what they might think because it is not important to you or your plans. You are becoming the new God and Elise is becoming our new Mother Nature, which is why you have offered her to become the High Priestess of Light."

"Somebody give Miss Liz a cookie..."

It sounded from his lap:

" Hmmm, Jon?"

"What's up, Red?"

"Before we go on about future plans to be made. Just a question about the past. How did you come up with the idea of releasing dodos in Eden?"

He had to think deeply for a moment before he said:

"My biggest problem was and still is that I don't think or think too little about things. Rae Rae and Grandma already told you that. It was really meant to be a prank, well kind of. I was a kid, and like a lot of kids, I was fascinated by animals. I really liked the Dodos. On Earth, it would be very problematic to reintroduce dodos and mammoths, but on Eden, it couldn't hurt. I just kind of played with their biological makeup. I changed their reproduction rate so that Eden would not be overrun because there were no natural enemies. That way the herds stay more or less the same size. And once I had those two, well, others followed, just curiosity, nothing more."

"I didn't mean that, love. I meant how did you know where and what puzzle pieces you needed to recreate these animals?"

Again he had to think for a moment:

"I have no idea, at least there was no logical thinking involved. When I was very young, I often sat on Grandpa or Grandma's lap in the throne room. Somewhere along the way, they must have told me that all the building blocks were stored in the thrones. Then I knew what I had to do to build my little petting zoo in Eden."

She made a face and muttered:

"Jonathan Drago... may your grandmother have mercy on me..."

He looked at her in incomprehension, after which she asked in a rather tired tone:

"You get the idea to build your petting zoo, as you call it. You go to your grandparents' thrones and those show you all the information you need to do it, right?"

"Euch...yes..."

"Jon, when the girls have homework, you will never, ever check it because you are a complete idiot when it comes to certain things! You do not need to connect to your grandparents' thrones because you are already bounded to those thrones! No binding, no information. Both thrones gave you what you needed for your petting zoo. From what I understand from your story, your grandparents have to work together to create something. You, idiot, can do it on your own!"

What she meant by that still didn't quite get through to him, so she said:

"Jon, love, you are already bound to both thrones, and that makes you the Crown Prince only in title for some time now. Probably since you were an infant. You are already the de facto new God. You have been that for years. This is also the answer to the mystery circulating in Heaven as to how you were able to give Casiel her gift without being God and without the help of the thrones. At least part of it can be answered, the part about not being God. The question is whether your grandparents and your father knew or suspected this. I don't think your grandmother and grandfather knew. When Rae Rae told me the story of how you gave Cas her gift and how your grandparents and the rest of the Angels reacted to that demonstration of your powers, I don't think they really knew before. I think, like your father, they suspect that something special is going on with you, but no one knows exactly what it is. Your grandfather still fills that role on a day-to-day basis, but the title already belongs to you!"

This last sentence hit like a bomb and everyone stared at Elise with open mouths, including Jonathan.

"I have heard the words Red; I understand what those words mean, but this is impossible. I cannot be bound to the Throne, let alone to both of them at the same time. The Throne binds only one person, never more than one person at a time. How can two people be bound to the Throne at the same time and have a contradictory view of something? The consequences for the whole creation could be disastrous!"

"As Rae Rae said, Jon, you have a habit of doing the impossible. However, it would explain why your grandparents have to be so extremely careful now that they know they are dealing with a spy."

"What do you mean?"

"Your grandparents must suspect that you are tied to their thrones, or you wouldn't have been able to build your petting zoo. That much they must know. But they also know that Michael believes he can kill you in this war because he believes in the biblical Antichrist. If Michael finds out that you are as much God as your grandfather..."

Jonathan squeezed his eyes shut and muttered:

"No, not Michael. He has even less imagination than the accountant of a convention for people with no imagination. It must be Gabriel! But what does she want? If what you just said is true, Red, and she is whispering this information into Michael's ear, then he will expand his straight thinking. He is convinced that he can kill me whether I am the Antichrist or God. So he will also believe that if he can kill me, he can kill Grandfather. If he doesn't get his war, he will believe that he can still make everything just cease to exist. He's such an unbelievable zealot that if he can't win, he's okay with it, as long as everyone loses, as long as all of creation goes down with him. He can't kill Grandpa, just like he can't kill me."

Elise looked him in the eyes with absolute seriousness:

"That's not the point, Jon. He can back your grandfather into a corner and more or less force him to break the rule that the Antichrist has to start the war. If your grandfather does not do that, then Michael can go to war against your grandfather in Heaven, convinced that he can kill you and therefore kill God. There may not be a war with Hell, but there will be a war in Heaven, and Casiel and the rest of your group are in the middle of it. Jon, you need to get the hell to work. We will help you where we can. Until this shit is behind us, you can't afford to waver. You need to stay focused on your end goal and not deviate from it for a second, and we need to stay focused on our role in supporting you and not deviate from that for a second. What we are going to do together in the near future is the difference between everything surviving and everything dissolving into nothing!"

Domino said:

"Where do we start Jon?"

He looked at her with a soft smile and asked:

"Have you decided to stay in this madhouse Domino?"

She laughed for a moment:

"Absolutely. It's not every day I'm a guest of God and the future Goddess. Hey, and if I play my cards right then maybe I can get the God and Goddess to become the godfather and godmother of my baby..."

This elicited a laugh from both Elise and Jon.

"Good, let's finish our cup and then get to work. I have divided the top floor into two. One side is a spacious new mini suite for Elise and me. What's the point of being God if you can't have a little luxury for yourself? The other half is now a workspace where we're going to put this whole Dali-like puzzle together."

He had watched Sam and Jules whispering to each other for some time and cursed himself and his curiosity when it came to his girls. The last few times he had asked the girls a question when he had been so curious, he hadn't liked the answer so much. Still, he couldn't resist and asked:

"Jules, Sam, why are you whispering like that?"

Before they had said a word, he regretted it. The puppy dog eyes came out in full force and Jules asked:

"Daddy, if you can make dodos, can you make us some unicorns?"

Elise burst out laughing so hard she almost slipped off his lap. It was just so much fun to watch him run up against the wall with his eyes wide open. The girls had twisted him around their little finger and he was paying the price.