Learning Mercy
Chapter 1 ─ The Crash
(Disclaimer: I do not own Legion. I am making no profit from this. All charters belong to their respectful owners.)
"Get off of her!" Audrey cried, circling her arms up around the brute's neck and squeezing as hard as she could ─ he merely grunted, tightened his hold on Jeep's neck, and continued reaching for the baby shielded in Charlie's arms.
Tires squealed, Charlie sobbed hysterically, and Jeep struggled to remove the hand crushing his windpipe while holding his foot to the gas.
Audrey knew that they were done for if something didn't happen soon ─ the human race included - she just didn't understand what Jeep was...
Then it clicked, and Audrey realized that Jeep planned to hit the brakes to eject the brute from the car, but was hesitating... because of her.
Both terrified at the revelation and sure of her sudden resolve, Audrey made a decision. "Jeep! Do it!" Audrey shouted at him, trying to hide the waver in her voice, "Do it!"
Then the brakes slammed, and there was a brief instant where Audrey felt weightless, before intense gravity took hold and she hurled through the windshield on the back of the angel.
Time seemed to slow in Audrey's mind in that brief instant, and she felt fear mingle with grim satisfaction as the angel and her slipped further and further away from the vehicle.
But fear won out in the end, and Audrey squeezed her eyes shut, desperately trying to think of a time when things were simple: when none of this mattered.
Their bodies were mere inches from impact with the pavement when the angel suddenly twisted around and grabbed her, pulling her hard against his cold metal breastplate and tucking his wings around them in a sort of cage. They hit the ground with a jarring impact and Audrey shrieked, but he held her firmly in place.
They rolled ─ once, twice, more; faster and faster until Audrey couldn't tell which way was up anymore.
Gradually the spinning began to slow, the impacts becoming fewer and further between, and Audrey felt the grip on her loosen slightly; frightened, her arms shot around his waist to secure herself against him. She felt his muscles become lax and the feathered cage around them go limp.
Then the first real impact hit, and Audrey's right arm became pinned between the angel and the pavement before it bent with a sickening crack─ her body stiffened and she barely had enough time to cry out before the second impact hit, and the angel slammed into her, knocking her head back against the pavement with the brunt of his weight.
Darkness blanketed her vision as Audrey lost consciousness.
Two limp bodies hit the pavement twice more before disentangling and rolling to a stop a few feet from each other.
Neither so much as twitched as the silence of the desert night set in around them.
Down the road and past a steep incline, Charlie carefully removed herself and her baby from the overturned police cruiser before checking him over for wounds ─ he was shaken up and whimpering, but otherwise unharmed, and she sighed a breath of relief before bringing him up to cradle under her chin.
Charlie thought back to Audrey's flight through the windshield with growing pity.
Poor girl, there wasn't a chance in hell that she could've survived being thrown out a windshield at that speed. Charlie closed her eyes and moved her palm to rest possessively over the back of the baby's head.
She'd grown attached to the young girl over the past few hellish days and felt saddened by her death, but if it weren't for Audrey's sacrifice they would all be dead, and for that she was grateful.
Charlie opened her eyes and carefully set her whimpering bundle down next to her before crawling back into the overturned car to rouse Jeep.
It was nearing sunrise when Gabriel opened his eyes to stare at the stirring clouds above him. He lay motionless for a moment, before remembering his mission and slowly pushing himself up to stand.
He spotted his dagger a few paces away and walked to it before picking it up and slipping it back into the sheath strapped to his calf.
He had to find the baby. His father would be disappointed if him if he couldn't carry out in killing a simple infant. After all, he had laid waste to countless enemies at his father's command, and had always done so with an unwavering intensity that had sometimes even frightened his brothers ─ Michael in particular.
Gabriel flinched and turned his eyes downward. Michael ─ his dear brother, his companion, his friend; he was dead now, having been killed off by none other than Gabriel himself.
But no, Gabriel reminded himself, Michael had known the consequences of his actions long before his decision to defy their father. He had chosen his own death. Besides, Gabriel had rather it be his hand that killed his brother rather than it be any other.
And there would have been another if Gabriel had refused. And yet knowing this didn't make the crushing weight on his heart lessen.
Gabriel closed his eyes and buried the feelings ─ they could be sorted out later; he must finish out his father's will and kill the child at any cost.
There was no other option. There never had been.
Gabriel unfurled his dark wings, readying himself to take flight, but paused when he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to look over his shoulder.
Not far from where he had woken was a girl.
Gabriel stood in stunned silence for a moment before he remembered: during the crash, just before the impact, he had felt something from the mind of the girl ─ flashes from her memory; of an innocent child laughing with her mother, of her father tickling her. He had felt the warmth of the memory ─ of how desperately she longed for it. It had spurred something inside him, and before he had the time to consider his actions, he had her in his arms, shielding her from becoming a wet smear on the pavement.
Gabriel stared at her for another few seconds before turning back toward his destination.
He had done it on nothing more than a whim ─ but this is where his mercy ended, and what happened to her now was up to the girl to decide.
Unfurling his dark wings once more, he took to the sky with a single powerful thrust.
He didn't look back.
