Prologue:

Alone.

That was the one word she repeated in her mind, over and over to herself.

How had it come to this?

She looked around the dingy apartment, not really seeing anything. Not seeing the cracked dishes piled up in the sink, the laundry strewn across the floor. Not seeing the peeling wallpaper and paint, the spotted rug, the cracked glass windows. Not seeing the sagging sofa, the breaking chairs…

No, she saw nothing. She could only feel the complete emptiness in everything around her.

She could only feel the pain.

She screamed as another wave crashed over her, losing her balance and falling to her knees while clutching at her stomach in terror. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. She could feel frantic movement, she knew she had to do something, but the pain had practically blinded her and rendered her helpless. And she was alone. Again.

Another wave hit her, stronger than before, barely thirty seconds after the previous one. She suddenly knew with complete certainty that if she didn't get to the hospital, she would die.

And so would the child.

"STOP!" she screamed in anguish, another contraction causing her to break out in terrible sobs. "Please, stop!"

She writhed on the floor, not having the strength to reach the fireplace and call for help.

As the next contraction hit, she felt something wet on her legs and looked down. There, like an omen of death, a crimson stain was forming on her skirt. Blood.

"No, please…" she cried softly, pleadingly, though she didn't know who she pleaded with. "Please," she cried, tears streaming down her face. "Please not him. Please save him…"

Another contraction hit and she collapsed completely, blacking out. However, before she lost complete consciousness, she heard the door crash open and a woman's shocked voice.

"Oh my God! Cho!"

Then- silence.

Somewhere, above the clouds, someone had been listening, helpless, to the screams and pleas for help, struggling against the grips of his colleagues, holding him back. Waiting for a chance, any chance to be allowed to Answer…

The restraints had been necessary; he'd been trying to go to her since the contractions had begun, since it had become obvious that something had gone terribly amiss, but the other Brilliants in his order wouldn't allow it. No matter how much he'd flailed, screamed, pleaded- nearly sobbing, to be allowed to go to her, they had kept him back.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew. He understood. This was one time he would not be allowed to intervene. But that knowledge didn't stop him from trying.

"Let me go!" he snarled at last, using all of his strength in a sudden attempt to break free. There had been four Whites holding him back and at his sudden outburst, another was forced to join in. Two of them were crying in silent compassion, all of them looked grim.

"Cedric, you can't do anything this time," said a wizened old man in flowing silver robes in a sad, yet gentle voice. His eyes twinkled softly in the dying light, full of understanding. He had been trying to reason with Cedric since he'd been summoned.

Cedric grimaced, still fighting. "Let me go!" he yelled again, unwilling to listen.

"Cedric-"

"If you don't let me go, I'll tear your wings off." Cedric's voice had gone dangerously low, an almost maniacal glint forming in his eyes.

The old man did not reply immediately, taking Cedric's threat in stride, as though he had expected it. Perhaps he had. Cedric was his grandson, after all.

"It will be more painful for you if you go to her. She is suffering."

There was a moment's silence before Cedric at last slumped against the arms holding him. Defeat crept into his voice as he spoke to his grandfather and mentor. "Do you think I don't know that? I know there's nothing I can do and it's tearing at my soul. But if I'm not there now, I'll never forgive myself." He paused, shoulders shaking with his grief. "Let me go. Please. I want to be the first one she sees on the other side. I want to be the one to guide her back." Cedric paused and took a deep breath. "And," he looked up with authority, "I've already accepted her Cry."

The elder shook his head. "I already told you, you can't-" Cedric cut him off.

"Not that Cry. I can't save her, I know. I'm going to save her child."

The room was silent, save for the 'beep' of the monitor as the doctor operated. The woman had arrived unconscious, and the doctor knew she would never awake again. Heavy internal bleeding and hemorrhaging, liver and kidney failure, the results of an undiagnosed auto-immune disease… But perhaps the worst was the lack of movement from the fetus. The ultrasound indicated that the chances the baby would be born alive were almost zero. Nonetheless, the caesarian was under-way, on the off-chance the baby would live.

Cedric stood a foot away, eyes dull, unfeeling as he watched. They had finally released him above, having been left with no choice. The cold penetrated every part of his soul, a deeper chill than any he had ever felt on his previous trips below. He didn't think he would ever be able to get warm again.

The silence pressed down all around Cedric and the presence of Death was near-tangible.

"Wait…" Cedric found himself pleading with the unseen presence, "Wait just a bit longer…"

He was sure he could hear Death laughing. He waited for no one.

Finally, the baby was extracted, and rushed immediately to a nearby table and placed under a heating lamp. It was blue. And it wasn't breathing.

The doctors massaged its chest and cleared its airway. They rubbed it, chafed it, moved its limbs up and down. On and on for two minutes before finally declaring the baby dead. A nurse came forward, shaking her had sadly and wrapped the baby in a blanket as the doctors dispersed.

Cedric came closer, peering tentatively over the nurse's shoulder at the babe in her arms. It was a boy and it was…

It was hers.

He could see it in the slightly slanted eyes, in the tuft of shiny black hair…

Cedric didn't even try to stop his tears as he spread his wings, their full magnificence filling the room, before wrapping them around himself and the nurse holding the baby. He began a desperate battle with Death, using every part of his soul he could to create a barrier between the life-ending presence and the life not yet begun. With children, Fate was never sealed. There was still a chance.

The nurse would later exclaim that she had never felt such a sense of security or warmth in her entire life, the way she had felt at that moment. As though a warm wind had cradled her, saying that everything would be all right. She had never been a believer, but in that moment, she was suddenly filled with a certainty that angels did exist. And the miracle which closely followed proved it to her.

Cho's monitor suddenly flat-lined.

A cry filled the air as the baby drew air into his lungs for the first time.

Cedric watched the nurse's eyes go wide in shock as she looked between the baby in her arms to his mother, who now lay dead on the operating table. Then she rushed the small child back under the heating lamp, as the doctors all crowded around him once again.

Cedric himself almost fell to the floor, weak from the energy he had exerted, but he couldn't help the soft smile that appeared on his face, even as the sound of Cho's monitor wailed in the background, the long ominous sound ringing throughout the room. He felt Death smirk. Perhaps he had lost the child, but he would not leave without having fulfilled his duty somehow.

Cedric shook his head. At least Cho's suffering was at an end. She was dead.

Slowly, the back of his neck prickling with the sense of another spirit in the room, he turned, meeting a pair of dark, almond shaped eyes, watching him intently. He held out his hand and a small slender one took it lovingly.

Now would begin the healing.