At the moment, the Council Chambers resembled nothing so much as a wartime Field HQ: fair enough, because it was. The assembled Superiors and their most trusted aides were armed, armored and extremely tense. Messengers flitted in and out, their forms flickering as they dropped off the latest intelligence on the corporeal plane.

It was The Day.

Specifically, it was Three Minutes After Midnight On The Day.

Every Archangel's face showed a complex mix of resolution and distraction as they simultaneously reviewed, oversaw and directed the nigh-infinite details needed to move the Host into position for the battle. All disputes were forgotten and all conflicts shelved for the duration for the sake of unity. The Host was united as never before, with all the pieces finally coming into position ... save, of course, for one glaring absence.

Then, quietly, that absence was filled.

"Morning, everyone," casually remarked Eli, no-longer-AWOL Archangel of Creation. "Anyone want a donut?"

The first to react was Dominic. The Archangel of Judgement straightened from his so far futile attempts to dislodge a small kitten from his cloak - Justinian had shown considerable reluctance in being placed into his specially reinforced, adamantine-armored traveling box - and pointed one finger at Eli. Moving around one of the six Malakim of Judgement who stood face outward from said box (flaming swords already out), Dominic intoned, "Eli, Archangel of Creation, be advised that you are under arrest for the crimes of..."

Eli reached out with one hand and said, "Sock, please."

The Symphony briefly trilled as a blue and purple sock materialized out of nothing. Eli nodded.

"Thank you. Here, Nikki." The response was sufficiently unusual that the Archangel of Judgement stopped for a moment, bemused. The air grew slightly colder as he deciphered the reference, but by then the kitten had gotten his claws into the sock.

In the slightly strained silence, Eli beamed brightly as he moved to the table. "Right. Long story why I was gone, and we're short on time, so I'll summarize. I had a good reason for popping off, I was in my right mind all the time, and you all should have trusted me in the first place. Besides, I'm back, so let's move on." The Archangel of Creation looked up slightly. "Dossiers, if you could."

Another set of trills as several dozen sets of papers appeared before the assembled Archangels and their immediate aides.

"Much obliged. Now, a picture's worth a thousand words, so, if you would, dear" - the Symphony's trill seemed almost a feminine chuckle as a shimmering globe appeared in midair - "Great. Now, if you'll look here, you can see the results of my research." Red dots appeared on the globe. "Steady lights indicate Infernal Tethers that we already knew about, blinking ones indicate ones that I was able to confirm. The yellow dots" - which flickered into existence as he spoke - "show Ethereal Tethers controlled by Hell. Lots of the buggers, huh?"

Laurence spoke at this point, the frustration in his voice admirably under control. "Wonderful ... except that the Enemy is already using them. By the time that we can strike, they will have already gotten their forces through. For the Love of Christ, Eli, you were supposed to get this information back to us in time for us to do something with it!"

Eli half smiled at the sudden shock in the room from the implications of Laurence's outburst (and the rare profanity that had accompanied it), but his expression became more somber as he turned to the Commander of the Host. "My apologies, sir. In the end, they moved faster than either you or I might have thought. I'm not sure - the demons that were supposed to be, ah, 'converting' me weren't precisely conversant with their Princes' machinations - but I suspect that this attack was thrown together at short notice. They've certainly not shown much efficiency in shipping through their first wave."

The Archangel of the Sword nodded, his face becoming less stormy. "Which will cost them, dearly - and knowing where they're likely to try a flanking movement will certainly be useful. My apologies for the outburst, Archangel Eli: you did all that I asked, and more."

Eli smiled. No, it was an unabashed grin, which made his expression look as out of place as a Shedite of Death at the Eighth Virtue. "That's putting it mildly, my boy. That's putting it mildly."

Laurence blinked. "Excuse me?"

The Archangel of Creation leaned against a pillar that hadn't been there a minute before. "You're so good to me... Right." He looked back at Laurence. "Sir, remember that conversation we had before I started my reconnaissance-in-apparent-aimlessness? About how knowing where Hell was likely to stage its attacks would allow to project overwhelming force there, thus defeating them in detail?"

Laurence nodded. "Of course."

"Well, while I was 'wandering' around, it occurred to me: why am I just looking for the Damned things?" Laurence's eyes slightly widened as Eli went on, "I mean, here I am, spending my whole time tracking down boils on the fundament of Creation: it seemed wrong to not voice my opinion on the matter, as it were. Fairly forcefully. The rest was implementation. And a knowledge of corporeal physics, of course." The Archangel of Creation looked up. "Might I have a dramatic symbol?" Another trill as a black box appeared, complete with antenna and blinking red button. "Perfect." The Archangel pointed the antenna at the globe and smoothly pressed the button. Red and yellow dots brightened, expanded and winked out. A second later, the dim throbbing of disturbance could be heard.

Most of the celestials present winced: you weren't supposed to hear disturbance in Heaven, when it had originated in the corporeal plane.

Eli had staggered a little, but was bravely stroking the apparently empty air. "There, there, dear. It's over, and you were very brave. We'll need you to be brave, again, but once it's over, it'll be over, forever. Can you be brave again, one more time?" The trill from the Symphony was tremulous, this time, but clearly affirmative. "I knew it."

Eli looked around at his colleagues. "Antimatter. Not one of my favorite things, but tolerable in very, very small doses, provided that you spin the magnetic fields just right. Amazing what a molecule or two in the right place will do, nu?" The Archangel of Creation looked around again. Laurence and Michael had already begun relaying new deployment orders: the rest just looked ... bemused. Eli shrugged a bit.

"Everyone's sure that they don't want donuts?"