Blood of Angels

Six months later. Marcus visits memorial weekly. Chen shows residual patterns. Commission working imperfectly. Michael cooperating strategically. Rossetti publishing theological innovation. Reeves filing with 17-color binder system. Victoria now permanent advisory.

First IOC meeting. Heaven acknowledges disproportionate force. Rossetti declares shared culpability. Triage system for 47,000 applications. Maya Hargrove pilot program approved unanimously. Sandra Petrova denied for failing identity articulation.

72-hour institutional build of the Integration Oversight Commission. Victoria and Brimstone develop consent protocols. Mirael negotiates Heavens participation.

Marcus visits fathers grave, recalls childhood confession about the Bridge. Victoria arrives with Heavens 5-day ultimatum. Michael sends Fathers journal - final entry reveals permission to burn. Marcus reflects on the inheritance. Victoria challenges Marcus to build what makes bridges unnecessary.

Marcus confronts Michaels press conference turning Temple Tragedy into political momentum. Takes the podium to announce oversight framework. Parking lot confrontation with Michael deepens brother dynamic through shared father memories and wooden-sword callback. Chen announces integration choice.

The burnout cascade kills 1,047 people. Marcus manages triage through the night, confronts Michael, holds dying strangers. In the parking lot, a mother gives him her dead sons photograph. In Holy Redeemers basement, he drinks his fathers bourbon and processes the grief body by body.

Morning after Raphael: Marcus watches volunteers arrive. Michael reveals pre-dated Phase Two documents. Fourteen thousand attend service. Eight thousand take temporary Divinity. Individual stories: ALS patient touches wife's face, veteran finds silence, MS teenager runs. Elderly couple dances.

Full Raphael confrontation at Temple lawn. Rebecca Torres killed. Marcus wounds Archangel with sanctified kukri—acting on Father's training and faith, not algorithmic certainty. Convergence leverage forces withdrawal. Five casualties.

Saturday night faction meeting at Brimstone's 75th floor office. Seraphiel, Rossetti, Brimstone reveal reasons to stop Michael. Seraphiel's eyes blaze white—Raphael deployed, 17 minutes out. Marcus races to Temple at 97mph. Michael mobilizes 3,000 manifesting volunteers for convergence leverage.