• “H-hello…,” said Grey.
    “Um… Hi,” said Ashe.
    Grey and Ashe were angels that lived in heaven. They had both secretly had a crush on each other, and this was the first time they had confronted each other about it. They were aptly named for the color of their wings, Grey had grey colored wings, obviously, and Ashe had wings the color of volcanic ash.

    “I… I have a crush on you, Grey…,” Ashe said, blushing.
    Grey stood still in shock, he was about to say the same thing to the other angel!!

    “It’s ok if you don’t feel the same way, but I thought I should tell you… y’know, before I regret it…,” Ashe said misreading Grey’s look of shock.
    “Ashe… I feel the same way.” Grey said to Ashe, blushing crimson.
    They didn’t say anything more, and they kissed.

    ~Two years later~
    Grey and Ashe had been seeing each other in secret so that the rest of the angels wouldn’t find out about them. Eventually though, Ashe had gotten fed up with the lie and wanted to tell everyone else about their relationship.
    “Damn it, Grey! I’m tired of this!” Ashe whispered angrily to his lover, “I don’t want to live like this anymore!”
    “Ashe, I know how you feel about this, but what choice do we have?” Grey asked softly, “You know that we’d be thrown out for this!”

    “Yes, I know… but I’m tired of living like this…”Ashe said quietly.
    “Alright... we’ll go to God tomorrow and tell him about us…”Grey relented.
    “Thank you, Grey… I love you.” Ashe said as he kissed Grey.
    “I love you too, Ashe.” Grey said as he responded to the kiss with obvious enthusiasm.

    ~The next day~
    Grey and Ashe flew to where God was for that day in Heaven. They knelt before Him in honor of God.
    “Grey, Ashe, how wonderful it is to see you!” God said in His majestic voice. It was enough to cause the earth to shatter and be rebuilt exactly as it was when it happened.
    “Almighty…” Grey said as he raised himself to his feet.
    “Jehovah…”Ashe said as he stood up.
    “It seems that there is something on your minds; tell me, what it is?” God said as he looked at the two angels.
    Grey and Ashe looked at each other for a long moment before Grey finally spoke.

    “Jehovah, we’re in love,” Grey said simply.

    God looked surprised at this news. And he didn’t surprise easily.
    “Is this true, Ashe?!” God asked in a calm rage that would make Lucifer himself proud.

    Ashe looked up at the deity with a look of fierce determination and love on his face.
    “Yes, it is true, Jehovah, we are in love. And I won’t give this up for anything. He makes me happy and I am willing to do anything for Grey!!” Ashe said defiantly to God, as if daring him to do anything about this situation.

    Not once, in all the millennia that God had ruled over heaven, had God ever been challenged like that. Not even when Lucifer had tried to take the place of the Humans had he been challenged like this. “How dare you… No one has ever challenged my authority like this, not since Lucifer. There can only be one punishment for such blasphemy..,” God said with a quiet anger, “I shall banish one of you to Earth, never to return to heaven, while the other shall remain here in Heaven. If either of you try to leave your punishment, you shall be thrown into Hell for all of eternity.”

    Grey and Ashe looked at each other with a sad smile. They knew that something like this would happen, but they had spoken their minds anyway.

    ~later that night~
    Grey was sent to his area of Heaven. He was chosen to stay in Heaven while Ashe would be banished. When Grey asked Ashe why he’d choose that, Ashe replied, “You still have family here… most of my family was banished along with Lucifer….”
    God looked at Ashe with a most curious look on his face and then ordered angels to take them both away. Ashe was taken to a Sacred Grotto for the night while Grey was sent back to his little area.
    Grey lay down on a cloud for a long time, thinking about what was going to happen in the next few days. Ashe was set to be banished the day after the Sabbath; this left Grey with a few days to think.

    ~the next day~
    As the sun rose above the clouds the next day, Grey went to see Ashe in the grotto. Ashe looked up to see his love walking towards him and smiled for the first time since they had heard the news.
    Grey went to Ashe and hugged him for a ling time, as he whispered in his lover’s ear, “I’ll find a way to get us out of this. I promise…” Ashe looked up only to see Grey walking away with a grim determination on his face. Ashe couldn’t help but wonder what the grey winged angel had planned for the banishment…

    ~Sabbath~
    The day of the Sabbath, Grey was hard at work forging something that would help him keep his promise to Ashe. Grey worked long and hard at the forge, preparing the swords that would break his and Ashe’s bonds of fate. As Grey laboured, Ashe sat, waiting for his punishment. God had approached him, asking if he felt any remorse for what he had done.
    “I would do it again in a heartbeat, Jehovah, now please… leave me in peace…,” Ashe said, resigned to his fate.

    Meanwhile, at the Heavenly Forge, Grey had just finished his weapons and was admiring his handy-work. The blades he had crafted had taken the majority of the day to complete, but they were finished. Both were in the shape of an overlarge key. One was jet black with a chain running the length of the blade and the hand guard was of a demon wing motif. Grey looked at this sword and put it aside muttering, “Oblivion” under his breath. He moved to the other sword and picked it up. He examined its delicate white frame under a trained eye. The blade was much stronger then it looked, being able to slice clean through diamond with hardly any effort at all. The motif of the hand guard was opposite that of the Oblivion, being angel wing based. Just above the hilt of the blade, there was a heart emblem, and the blade itself was long and thin with a space in between the two edges that was wide enough for someone to catch another sword in. “Oathkeeper...,” Grey said quietly. His work complete, Grey took his blades and went back to his area of the Heavens to wait for the morning.

    ~The Day of Punishment~
    God looked out over the Grotto where Ashe was to be banished. He had acquired the services of Azrael, the Angel of Death and a small host of demons to prevent Grey from getting into the area. He knew that the two loved each other very much and that Grey wouldn’t give up with out a fight of some sort. The demons and Azrael were stationed at the main entrance to the grotto, where Grey would be going in from.

    Grey had awoken very early that morning, so early in fact that the sun was still in its own bed and the moon was still wide awake. He went to where he had stored his swords and retrieved them. He held both in either hand as he flew to the grotto with the Dawning Sun.
    As he arrived, Grey saw the host of demons and their commander. He landed heavily a few feet before the army and started walking towards the gate. Azrael had ordered the demons not to kill Grey, but to keep him back long enough to prevent him from trying anything.
    The demons attacked; Grey retaliated with no mercy. As they got in his way, they were smitten to the ground in a hellish flurry of blows from the swords Grey carried.
    Eventually, Grey reached Azrael, unconscious demons littering the ground and astonished angels floating in the sky around the two.
    “Why do you go this far, Grey? Ashe is but one angel, why throw your eternal life away for him?” Azrael asked as he attacked Grey with his flaming sword.
    Grey parried the blow with Oblivion and responded with an attack of his own, bringing the Fallen Angel to his knees before he could do anything to stop him.
    “Without Ashe… this life is hardly worth living… I would risk everything to be with him… even if it meant defying the will of God…” Grey said in response to Azrael’s earlier question.
    Azrael, seeing how Grey had beaten his demons and himself bowed his head in submission and allowed Grey to pass through the Gates of the Grotto.

    ~In the Grotto~

    As Grey made his way through the Gates, he saw Ashe kneeling before God as if in defeat. Grey grew distraught and ran to put himself between Ashe and Jehovah, bellowing “STOP” at the top of his lungs.
    God turned slowly to see Grey running at him with a pained expression on his face and two swords drawn, ready to defend the one he loved. Grey stopped between Ashe and God, turning his back on the latter and kneeling to help Ashe. Ashe, whose head was bowed down to keep God from seeing his tears of sadness, looked up in wonder.
    “I told you I’d find a way to help you…” Grey said with a sad smile.
    “What about your family?” Ashe said with a confused look.
    “I’ve known my family for millennia… But I’ve been with you for far less…. Take this sword…,” Grey said as he offered Oblivion to Ashe, “We’ll do this together…”
    Ashe took the sword and stood up, facing God. God watched as this event unfolded before him, stirring up emotions that he didn’t even know that he had. God looked into the eyes of the angels facing him and saw a willingness to throw everything away, for the sake of their love.
    “Enough,” God said, “You have proven your worth to me…. No more fighting.”

    ~One month later~
    Grey and Ashe were set to be married, ironically, in the same Grotto where Ashe would have been banished if it hadn’t been for Grey’s reckless actions. They walked hand in hand through the gates, knowing nothing but the blissful happiness that accompanies being in love. They said their vows, and with Jehovah’s blessing, they kissed.