chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Marcus emerged from the teleportation relay holding two golden Lightspears. The inside of the Vatican was pure chaos. He could hear the sounds of fighting and gunfire coming from every single nearby hallway. He could also feel the foul taint of Demonic Energy all around him. He had never sensed so many Stray Devils in one place before! An army of them successfully reaching the Vatican shouldn't have even been possible!

"I need to make sure Isaiah and Irina are alright first!" He sensed for the distinct magical signature of Isaiah's Sacred Gear. Since Sword Birth technically summoned "evil" swords, it was easy to locate.

Marcus felt a ping on his senses. "There he is." He turned left and bolted down the hallway, heading towards Isaiah.

"Die, exorcist scum!"

"Never, you filthy hellspawn!" 

"For the church!"

"Go back to hell!"

On the way to regroup with Isaiah, he stumbled upon multiple battles. The Exorcists were doing their best to hold off the army of Stray Devils, despite the fact that they were heavily outnumbered. 

Marcus hurled his Lightspears left and right. Both struck true, directly impaling two Strays. They let out shrieks of agony before the Light purged them from existence and they turned to ash!

"M–Master Marcus…? You've returned! Thank God!" One exorcist he saved cheered. "These monsters came out of nowhere. Somehow they were able to bypass all of our wards and defenses and teleport directly into the heart of the Vatican," he said solemnly with tears in his eyes. "Many of our brothers and sisters have perished fighting them. A–And…His Holiness has also fallen." 

Marcus's eyes widened in shock. "We lost the pope as well!? We need to contact Heaven immediately!" he exclaimed. This was an absolute disaster! 

"W–We tried that! We don't know how they did it, but somehow the Strays managed to cut off all forms of magical communication!" the exorcist explained dejectedly. "I don't even think our prayers are getting through…"

'Not even prayers could get through?' Marcus didn't even think that was possible. Just who was behind this attack!? He immediately regretted crushing my cell phone in anger a few moments ago. That was a special device that could send a signal all the way to Heaven! 

And he foolishly destroyed it. He felt like kicking himself, he should have known better than to let his emotions get the better of him in such a dangerous situation.

Marcus shook his head. He would have to live with that mistake. Marcus could still sense dozens of Stray Devil's in the vicinity. "Isaiah was still able to call me on my cell phone. Human methods of communication are still working. Try to contact the other exorcists on the other side of the city. Get them back here immediately!" he ordered the exorcist who rapidly nodded at him. "The rest of you, spread out and search for Asia Argento! The Devil's might be after her! I'm heading out to meet up with Isaiah and Irina," he informed them. "Reinforcements are also following right behind me. Don't attack them." Marcus gave a quick description of the three heroines who shouldn't be far behind. It was no surprise that everyone here knew Supergirl. Despite not being on Earth very long, she was one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.

"Yes, Sir!" The other exorcists snapped to attention and took off in multiple directions. 

He took off back down the hallways. Unfortunately, Marcus saw the corpses of numerous exorcists and nuns littering the hallways. The pristine walls and floors had been stained crimson red. 

The sight filled him with rage. This was his home, he had spent most of his life growing up in these halls. Everyone here was basically family…

"Whoever is behind this attack will pay…" Marcus said while gnashing his teeth.

He finally arrived at Isaiah and Irina's location. Both of them were still fighting. 

"Sword Birth!" Isaiah slammed a black blade into the floor. Dozens of other razor sharp swords sprouted up from the floor and impaled a handful of Stray Devil's. Two of them died instantly, the third one was severely injured, but too distracted to notice Irina sneak up behind him.

"Heeyah!" Irina swung her Excalibur fragment and lopped the Stray's head clean off. "Finally…" she muttered to herself with a tired sigh. There were dozens of Stray Devil corpses scattered around them. They had been fighting hard for over a half hour already!

"You both put up one hell of a fight. I'm proud of you both," Marcus said to Isaiah and Irina. Neither of them had noticed his arrival.

Irina startled, she whipped her head around! "Marcus, you're back!?" She ran over and jumped on him. There were tears in her eyes as she hugged him in relief. "The Devil's came out of nowhere! So many people died fighting them off," she said on the verge of crying.

"Whoever is behind this attack will pay," he said for a second time while patting her back gently. "The fight isn't over yet though. We need to find Asia and clear out the rest of the Strays," he explained to them. "Can you keep being strong for everyone, Irina?" he asked her and she nodded while wiping her eyes.

"Ok. I'll be strong."

He let go of Irina as Isaiah walked over. They both clasped hands and grinned at each other. They were basically brothers after all the years they'd spent together. "Thanks for coming so quickly, Marcus. The last time I saw Asia, she was hiding in a panic room that way. She should still be there," Isaiah said while pointing down another hallway. 

Marcus frowned as he spread out my senses in that direction. He couldn't sense Asia's Sacred Gear for some reason. What he did sense, though, was the arrival of his two–maybe three girlfriends. That was a relief, Supergirl and Megan were both heavy hitters that were desperately needed. Annie had also received a minor blessing from Gabriel, despite not being aware of it. The blessing transformed Annie's light based attacks into Light attacks. She would be immensely helpful as well in clearly out the remaining Strays.

"My girlfriends just arrived in the teleportation room. Can you meet up with them and start clearing out the rest of the Strays?" Marcus asked Isaiah. He would have liked for them to have more time to catch up, but they simply didn't have the luxury. 

"Of course." Isaiah took off back in the direction Marcus came from.

Once Isaiah disappeared around the corner, Marcus turned back to Irina. "Come on, let's go find Asia. She's in the most danger."

"Of course!" Irina was right behind him as he took off again.

…

"Bless us, oh Lord and deliver us from all that is evil…" Asia was on her knees, praying in the panic room. The room was protected on all sides by 20 cm of thick enchanted steel. No being under Ultimate Class would be able to break through and get inside.

"Don't worry Asia, we will protect you," one of her bodyguards told her reassuringly. Asia was an official Holy Maiden and a recognized Saintess of the Church. She always had one or two bodyguards assigned to her who would be happy to lay down their lives for her. 

"We'll die before we let any of the monsters take you. Whether it's the Devil's or the American Supervillans," the other guard added.

Of course, Asia would never want anyone to sacrifice themselves for herself. "Why is this happening…?" Asia asked soberly. "So many are dead…" She had witnessed so many Priests and Nuns fall before they reached the panic room and locked themselves inside.

Both of her bodyguards grimaced at her question. It was growing increasingly obvious that the perpetrators were after Asia for her Sacred Gear. Asia Argento was the most proficient user of Twilight Healing ever. No one ever came close to being able to heal the kinds of wounds and illnesses she could cure almost as easily as breathing. Her two guards tried to explain this to Asia in a delicate manner, they didn't want her to believe this attack on the Vatican was her fault. 

"T–They're after me!?" Asia asked in shock. "T–They want to turn me into a Devil? To go against everything I believe in?" 

Her guards nodded at her sadly. "We won't let that happen!" they both said, determined to fight til the end. 

"Thank you," Asia told them both. She was sincerely hoping that it wouldn't come to that. Her hopes were dashed by what happened next.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The three of them jumped when someone started pounding on the other side of the steel door.

"Asia Argento! We know you are in there! Open up and come out! If you don't, then we're going to blow this woman's head off…" a voice called out from the other side of the thick steel door. The panic room had camera's and a microphone installed on the outside so the occupants could know when it was safe to come out. 

They turned on the screen to see who was on the other side of the door.

Asia gasped when she saw a man in a red and black costume holding up a gun to a captured Nun's head. "Sister Marie!" Asia cried her name.

"I'm going to count to ten. If this door doesn't open up, then Sister Marie takes a bullet," Deadshot announced. "One, two, three…"

Asia immediately ran forwards to unlatch the door. In her mind, no life was worth her own! 

One of her guards grabbed her and stopped her! "No, Asia, we can't let you give yourself up. We gave an oath to keep you safe above all else!" he said while holding her back.

Asia had tears running down her face. "No! Let me go, I'll be fine!" she yelled, fearful for Marie's life. "We can't let them hurt her! So many have already died!"

"Ten!" Deadpool called out from the other side of the door. "Huh…I'm surprised she didn't open up. The psych profile we had on her made it seem like she would." he said to the other villains with him.

"Num nums?" King Shark stared at the terrified Nun Deadshot was holding hungrily.

"Yeah, try that. If the girl doesn't open the door, then we feed this nun to the sharks!" Blackguard said with a laugh.

"This is so wrong. I can feel that we are all damned for this…" El Diablo said.

"Kiteman is a staunch atheist. He is not damned," he said in third person.

Colonel Flag sighed. Miss Waller was literally screaming in his ear to get the girl and get out as soon as possible. This was already a full blown international incident. They wouldn't allow it to all be for nothing! "We don't have a lot of time here. Reed Sister Marie here to the shark," he ordered Deadshot.

"E–Even if my death is gruesome, my soul will remain pure and untainted. Do your worst, h–heathens," she tried to put up a strong front, but she was trembling in Deadshot's grasp. She did not want to be eaten alive by the walking shark monster that kept eyeing her hungrily.

Asia and her guards had been listening to all of that. She had a horrified look on her face. She couldn't allow one of the women who'd practically raised her here to die like that. She slipped out of her guard's hold and ran to the door. Before they could stop her, she slammed her fist down on the "open" button. The door's to her panic room slowly opened, and allowed the team of villains to lay eyes on her.

"Alright, It worked!" Blackguard cheered.

"Don't kill her please! I'll go with you," Asia said while trembling.

Bang! Bang!

She let out a yelp of fright as two bullets whizzed by her face. Two thumps sounded out behind her. Asia turned her head and a strangled cry escaped her lips when she saw that both of her guards had just been killed.

Bang!

A third gunshot rang out and sister Marie's lifeless body fell to the ground. Asia slumped to her knees in absolute shock. "W–Why…" she asked them.

"No witnesses," Deadshot told her coldly. "Grab the girl and let's go," he said.

"You're not in charge here, Deadshot," Colonel Flag reminded the hired killer as he walked over and picked up the near comatose Asia. "Let's move out." Task Force X had their prize and started making their way towards the designated extraction point.

One of their members paused and stopped the rest of them. "I cannot let this go on. My soul will not allow this travesty to continue." El Diablo said to the rest of them.

"Are you seriously growing a conscious now of all times?" Blackguard asked the Latino villain. "You've burned dozens of people alive before, why does kidnapping one girl upset you?"

El Diablo took a few steps towards Colonel Flag. Smoke started to pour off of him. A fireball formed in his palm. "Deja ir la chich," he told the Colonel.

"We don't have time for this. Do it Waller," Colonel Flag spoke into his earpiece.

"I won't let you–"

BOOM!

Blood and brain matter exploded across the walls and floor. El Diablo's headless body flopped to the ground. The other villains grimaced and shivered involuntarily. 

"Wow…there really are bombs in our necks," Kiteman gulped.

"Damn right there are! Now move out before the boss lady decides to pop a few more heads. We've wasted enough time as it is," the Colonel told the remaining members of Task Force X.

…

A few minutes later, Marcus and Irina arrived at the scene. Irina gasped as she saw the three bodies on the ground. "Oh no, these two were Asia's guards," she told Marcus. "And…Oh no! Sister Marie!" Irina exclaimed.

"Dammit, we're too late! We have to hurry!" Marcus told her. They couldn't stop to mourn the dead when they were still behind Asia's captors. 

…

"This girl's a real beauty. Too bad Javelin didn't get to lay eyes on her before he had his head cut off," Blackguard commented as they made their way out of the building. 

A stealth chopper was inbound and ready to give them an emergency extraction.

"Keep your eyes to yourself, Blackguard. Asia is a valuable asset and now property of the United States government." Colonel Flag slapped Blackguard's hand away before he could touch the sleeping Asia. They had given her a tranquilizer shot to knock her out. She had started screaming after El Diablo died trying to free her.

"Cheh… Spoilsport." Blackguard clicked his tongue in annoyance. He was annoyed that he didn't even get to have any fun on this mission.

"I would appreciate it if you took your filthy human hands off of my peerage member," a voice called out from directly behind the group. None of them had noticed someone sneak up on them!

Deadshot spun around and immediately opened fire. All of his shots struck true, but didn't do any damage to the young man smiling at them all faintly.

"That was rude…" a green haired young man said while brushing some of the bullets off of his clothing. "You ruined my brand new silk suit. I was trying to look nice for Asia too…" he said with a sigh. "Don't you know how important first impressions can be?"

"Who the hell are you!?" Colonel Flag exclaimed. 

"I'm Diodora Astaroth, human, and you are currently in possession of my property," he said while pointing at the sleeping Asia. "Do you know how many resources I had to expend to create an actual army of Stray Devils to attack the Vatican with?" He spread his arms wide dramatically.

"I'm guessing it was a lot?" Blackguard said questioningly.

Diodora nodded his head. "It was a lot! In fact, I now owe quite a few powerful Devils multiple favors. It'll all be worth it though. Tomorrow is my birthday after all, and I felt like getting myself a nice present. All of my party guests will be so jealous when I show off my latest peerage member!" He smirked to himself.

No one on Task Force X knew what Diodora was talking about of course. 

"Why are you telling us all this?" Kiteman asked him.

Diodora grinned. "Obviously, because you're all going to die here." Diodora snapped his fingers. There was a flash of light as 14 girls appeared directly behind him. Each of the girls was gazing at him in reverence. Diodora had quite the colorful group of girls in his peerage. As a child, he had been obsessed with Holy Maidens and he had originally desired an entire peerage of them. Unfortunately, the church took the security of its Holy Maidens incredibly seriously. He found it was near impossible to get near one of them, let alone abscond with them for his peerage. 

That's why he settled for the next best thing. He decided that his peerage would consist of a sacred maiden from different factions across the world. From Japan, he had taken one of Amaterasui's most devoted shrine maiden. From Asgard, he had absconded with one of their most beautiful Valkyrie. From Egypt, he had stolen away a beautiful priestess of Ra. And so on and so forth. Now his peerage was almost completed. All he needed to complete his set was the girl he desired above all. Asia Argento, Saintess of the church and one of the greatest healers in the world!

"Ladies…kill these disgusting humans for me," Diodora told them giddily. Asia was finally right in front of him, and nothing would stop him from acquiring her!

"Oh shit…" Kiteman nervously as the girls spread out and surrounded them. 

"You've got to be shitting me," Deadshot said. "This silkpants asshole is trying to kill us with his harem?"

"Raaah!" King Shark roared and charged at the group of bloodthirsty women. 

…

"Dammit!" Amanda Waller screamed in frustration as she watched the camera feed that was attached to Colonel Flag. They had been so close to succeeding only to fail at the very end!

She watched as the inhumanly beautiful girls systematically took down her elite task force. The first to perish was of course Kiteman. He was decapitated by a Katana wielding girl wearing a Japanese shrine maiden outfit. Next to perish was Blackguard. A girl who looked like a female viking bashed his head in with a large mace. 

Colonel Flag put up a decent fight, but unfortunately his ammunition didn't manage to penetrate the skin of any of the girls. Amanda seethed at the fact that most of the demons she'd seen today appeared to be bulletproof. 'How were human soldiers supposed to battle against creatures they couldn't injure with their most powerful weapons?'

Colonel Flag ended up impaled by a greek looking woman carrying a long spear. The feed became much harder to follow after that since he died on his back with the camera facing the open sky. 

"Capture the last two," she heard the green haired brat say over the microphone. "I recognize King Shark and Deadshot from human TV. Im have some friends who would pay me a fair price to have them in their peerages."

"W-What is a peerage?" she heard Deadshot ask. He was breathing heavily and sounded injured.

The demonic brat chuckled. "It is a Devil's servant, or slave, I suppose you could say. From now, until the end of time, your whole being will be devoted to your new master or mistress. Depending on who purchases you from me of course."

"I'm not going to be anyone's slave," Deadshot replied coldly. "I don't serve anyone but myself!"

"We'll see about that," the brat replied with a laugh.

"Master give me num nums?" King Shark asked.

The brat laughed again. "Yes, King Shark. Your new master will give you as many num nums as you like. All you can eat, in fact." 

"I go with master!" King Shark said. He sounded almost happy. 

Amanda glared down at the console in front of her. Most of her team was dead, and the last two were about to become Demon slaves. She knew that she should immediately execute Deadshot and King Shark by the bombs in their necks. This mission had become a disaster and her Task Force X had turned out to be a failure. By all rights, she could execute them both and flee the country before she's thrown in jail for the rest of her life. She decided on whether or not she should go through with it.

'However…' Amanda was not the type of woman who turned and ran from a single failure! She would have never gotten where she was in life if she had been.

"Deadshot, I know you can hear me," she pressed the communicator button on the console. "Don't speak, just listen! I don't know where the Demon brat is taking you, maybe it's really Hell for all we know. That doesn't matter! These beings are powerful, very powerful! The United States government needs that kind of power! Your new mission is to convince your future 'master' to get in contact with me as soon as possible. I'm sure we can all work out some kind of deal. If you succeed, all charges will be dropped and your criminal record will be expunged. I'll even throw in a full scholarship for your daughter to attend any Ivy league school that she wants," Amanda explained the plan she had just come up with on the spot to try and save her own ass. "Grunt if you agree before destroying the communicator in your ear."

There was a pause of a few seconds before Amanda heard Deadshot grunt. 

The anger she was feeling lessened and she let out a long sigh. Maybe she would be able to turn this failure into an amazing opportunity after all…

…

Marcus and Irina arrived in the courtyard a minute later. "No no no! We can't be too late!" Irina yelled in panic. She ran forwards and crouched down next to a badly mangled body. "This was one of the human Villains that attacked us," she explained to Marcus. "I don't know why he's dead or what happened to Asia!"

Marcus took a calming breath. He couldn't afford to make another mistake in anger. "That's Blackguard," he said, identifying the body. "Next to him is the head of Kiteman? Along with some kind of soldier? That's a weird team…" he trailed off before a look of recognition dawned on him. 

The Suicide Squad! They were attacked by them, of all groups? 

"Was there anyone else with them?" Marcus asked Irina.

She nodded at him after muttering a couple prayers over the bodies of the deceased. They might have been evil villains who will all end up in Hell, but Irina hoped they would one day find redemption. "There was a giant guy who looked like a Shark. I almost thought he was a Stray Devil except he didn't have any Demonic Energy. There was also a man dressed in red and black who carried like a bajillion guns on him! His aim was also really good and annoying. Isaiah and I almost got hit by a lot of his bullets."

"Deadshot," Marcus said the villain's name. That pretty much confirmed it for him. It was the Suicide Squad that attacked at the same time as the Devils! "I feel traces of left over Demonic Energy all over this courtyard. The Suicide Squad had a battle against Devils here. It doesn't feel like these were Stray Devils though."

"Did this Suicide Squad take Asia?" Irina asked him. "Or was it the Devils?"

Marcus shook his head in confusion. "I don't know. I don't even know who these Devils were," he said.

"It had to have been the mastermind," Irina spoke up. "The Devil that planned out the entire attack! Darn it, we just missed him! Now we'll never know who was behind this attack…" she trailed off while looking around for any clues to help them find out who was behind the attack. Irina didn't spot anything incriminating. Thankfully, Marcus did.

"I'm not so sure about that," Marcus told her. "All hope isn't lost just yet." On the soldier's body, he spotted an obvious recording device. It looked like it was completely intact as well. He reached down and yanked it off of the corpse. He pulled the memory card out of the camera and examined it carefully. "Hopefully the footage on this card will tell us who has Asia."

"The Great War is going to restart because of this…" she said dejectedly. Irina was one of the kinder exorcists of the church. She was one of the few that didn't want to go to war, but wanted to try and make peace with the "nicer" Devils. After this attack though, that was hardly going to be possible. The Pope had been slain and the church had taken numerous losses on top of losing Asia. 

"I hope not..." Marcus sighed but he really didn't know if it would or not. This attack was unprecedented. Whatever happened next, the Underworld wasn't going to be getting away scot-free after such a brazen attack. Regardless of whether or not they once again tried to claim the attack as perpetrated by "rogue" Stray Devils. 

…

Marcus and Irina made it back inside the Vatican main building. Everyone left standing regrouped in the former Pope's chambers. 

Megan and Kara ran forwards and hugged Marcus as soon as they spotted him walk in. Both of their costumes were covered in flecks of Devil blood but he didn't care and hugged them both back tightly. Today had started out amazing for him, but it had quickly gone to shit…

"I'm so sorry this happened, Marcus," Megan told him. "What happens now?"

"I'm not sure," he said.

"We made sure to kill all of the Stray Devils. I swept the whole area multiple times with my super speed. It's clear," Kara told him next.

Marcus thanked her. Everyone sighed in relief upon knowing the area was clear. A bunch of exhausted exorcists slumped to the ground to finally catch a few breaths. 

Isaiah stopped forward. He had a couple more cuts on his body, but he was still going strong all things considered. "What should we do now, Marcus? We still haven't found the device that's jamming our prayers from reaching Heaven." Isaiah informed him. He also explained that neither Griselda Quarta or Vasco Strada were answering their calls. Isaiah suspected they had also been attacked on their training trip across the city. 

Marcus looked around the room. There were about 100 people left standing on their feet and 50 people lying down on makeshift beds with heavy injuries. "We'll retreat across the portal to my mansion in Gotham," he told them. They didn't know how the Devil's managed to teleport a small army inside the Vatican, or if they were able to do it a second time. A temporary tactical retreat was the best move.

…

Only a few minutes after the large group arrived in Marcus's mansion, Heaven started receiving all of their collective prayers at once. Gabriel and Michael immediately rushed down to Gotham as fast as they could. They were both shocked when they saw how few of their people made it out of the Vatican. Only 150 out of hundreds.

Gabriel stayed behind with her son while Michael rushed off to Rome to check on the other group of exorcists.

"This…is not good, Marcus," Gabriel spoke to her son. This was one of the few times where she wasn't smiling and was completely serious. She had spent the past half an hour healing everyone of their injuries. 17 more people would have died from their wounds had she not arrived in time. "I just got word back from Michael, three unidentified Ultimate Class Devils attacked Father Strada's group out of nowhere. He was able to kill all three of them, but not before their surprise attack took even more lives," she said somberly. 

Her father could revive some of the people who had been slain, but he had not recovered to the point where he could revive hundreds of people at once. Even if he had, the amount of Divine Power required to pull off such a feat could draw some very unwanted attention from their ancient enemies. It was a callous decision, but he was probably only going to end up reviving the most powerful exorcists they had lost today. 

"I might be able to find out who was behind the attack," Marcus said while showing his mother the memory card. "That will help us get Asia back." Now that everyone was healed, Marcus called Megan over and asked her to call down her bioship. If the memory card was encrypted, the martian tech should be able to easily crack it. 

Megan called her ship down to the backyard and the three of them went inside. 

"I was hoping my first time in an actual spaceship would have been a bit more joyful," Marcus said while looking around. 

"I'm sorry, Marcus. I know you'll get your little sister back," Megan reassured him. She took the memory card from his hands. A pedestal of biotech emerged from the floor and Megan slotted the card into it. According to her, the memory card was heavily encrypted. Had they tried to insert it into any human computer, it would have fried itself and all the footage would have been lost. 

Thankfully, human encryptions were still no match for Martian Biotech. A screen formed on the wall in front of them as the footage stored on the card began to play. They proceeded to watch hours of footage from the perspective of Colonel Rick Flag. 

"Diodora Astaroth…" Marcus hissed the Devil's name. "I thought we dealt with him?" he asked his mother. Gabriel should have known all the memories of his past life after all.

Gabriel shook her head. "We put numerous protections on every single Holy Maiden just in case, but we couldn't actually punish him for crimes he didn't commit against us. He has never targeted a single one of our people until now." Gabriel lamented. Since it had never happened, she had been under the impression that he was a different young man than his 'canon' counterpart.

"He said he was having a birthday party tomorrow…I'm going to crash it," Marcus declared with no room for argument. "He's a supreme narcissist, so he'll probably want to turn Asia into a Devil with a whole crowd watching. He'll want everyone to see the moment he makes our Saintess his property." Marcus clenched his fists tightly. He wasn't going to allow that to happen. Diodora's birthday tomorrow was going to be his last if Marcus had anything to say about it.

Gabriel nodded at her son. "Sirzechs or Ajuka themselves could be at that party. I'll have to go with you to hold them all off while you rescue Asia. Michael will come with me. I'll also forward the footage to Azazel and see if he wants to join us as well. None of us want another Great War to take place, but this attack was too brazen for us to let pass with no repercussions from the Devil's," she explained. Tomorrow the Maou were going to get a taste of the true power of a Biblical Angel. Something they had never experienced, even during the Great War. She couldn't go all out of course, but that didn't mean she had to completely hold herself back either.

After thanking her and her Bioship, Marcus separated from Megan and left with his mother. They had to meet up with Michael and plan for tomorrow. Apparently, Marcus's grandfather had also commissioned some kind of gift from Azazel for Marcus. It was completed and Michael had been holding onto it until for his nephew. 

XXX