The wind seemed to rustle through the trees as all living things in the area began to flee, this was a warning, the sun fell down and the sky turned black but there were no stars or moon to light the forest floor. The wind went still, silent, the area thick with electricity, the ground began to shake, the sky rumbling with thunder before a meteor tore through the sky with a violent flash striking down onto the forest floor leaving a deep scar, torched with flame. At least meteor is what it appeared to be, a meteor is what the weather channel would report it as, as what humans would go onto to tell their children caused the unexplainable scar in the ground but this was anything but a meteor.
The sky cleared and stars, thousands of stars lit the sky burning bright casting a pool of light down onto the scar and there lying in the perfect center of the scar was a young woman, waist long brown hair wet and matted clinging to her neck, back and arms, anywhere it made contact. Her skin smothered in the sticky brown of drying blood and the sleek silky red of fresh; forest debris had quickly worked its way in every open wound that decorated her flesh. Her arms and legs were off set indicating brakes, her breathing shallow and gurgled from the blood that filled her lungs, for all intensive purposes she should have been dead but there she lay breathing, heart pumping, barely alive but alive all the same. Her eyes fluttered open taking in nothing but dirt and the inescapable cold, sapphire eyes flecked with silver gazed around they were glazed and disorientated. Slowly she managed to roll onto her back, her mind slowly began ticking over, forcing pieces of the puzzle together. Her name came first, Ana, then the image of her prison but the sky burned with thousands of stars too many, this told her she was no longer trapped, the air here felt different, flashes of the attack came back and she could feel every scratch, stab, tear and broken bone now, the pain was everything and yet nothing, there was weight crushing her chest, no pushing on it from the inside wanting to break free of its confines. The force pushed and pushed until it eclipsed all other pain until there was nothing but the force left. Her back arched upwards as if the action would help, would stop whatever the force was but all it did was increase the pressure so much so Ana was sure she would black out, the force, the pressure wasn't quite pain but it wasn't desirable it was new, unnatural but beneath it an edge of familiarity and that scared Ana more than anything. The pressure seemed to peak and Ana found her body being slammed into the ground, her breathing was heavy labored, and raspy with the sounds of the blood lingering in her lungs.
Energy flowed all around her, it flowed around her body in sync with her blood, pumping from her heart out to every part of her body, bones healed and wounds closed, organs that had once been failing now sprang into to life as the power healed her. The energy lulled Ana into a sleep, allowing the power to heal her as she slept. She lay there healing herself from near death but that was not the strangest thing. Later as young boys tore through the woods in search of the meteor they would come across Ana's body and her naked form was not what fascinated them the most, but instead it was the badly burnt pair of wings that sprouted from her back. The boys would go on to describe the girl as a fallen angel. What they didn't know is just how right they were.
-x-
Beep, beep, beep, a steady even rhythm resounded across the room. Ana lay in the bed barely conscious as she began to groan trying and failing to roll over. Blinking blurry eyes open, Ana tried again to move but found her wrists bound by plastic to metal poles that ran parallel to the bed. Her body ached and burned as if she had been set on fire, she could still feel the flames on her skin. Had they encased her in an inferno? Was that what happened last night? Though confused as to details of the previous night, confused as to her location, there was one thing that did not surprise Ana. That was that she was bound. She had been on locked down now for so long she had lost count. But this, tying her up and leaving her dazed and confused had to be their most passive aggressive method of torture yet. Ana was used to cool enochican steel carving her up, until she was nothing but pearly white bones. Being hung, drawn and quartered like livestock, these were all things Ana was used too. With her eyes finally focusing Ana braced herself, but it was for nothing. Instead of her eyes being assaulted with the brilliant white that she was used to, where everything shone with perfection. No detail damaged, dirty, or out of place. She was instead greeted by everything being grey, dulled, all the colours in the room washed out. There were water marks all along the walls where stains had been repeatedly washed off, everything covered in a fine layer of dust and the smell, it was new and so old at the same time. Everything about this place was dark, dank and disgusting. Her mind began to fill in the gaps, what did she remember last?
Bartholomew standing over her with a blade pressing it to her throat desperately making the same promise that he made himself everyday; that today would be the day he made her scream in pain, beg for mercy and wish for death. But as ever Ana had remained silent. Then there was chaos everywhere, people dropping to the ground and screaming, running away trying to escape something Ana could not hear nor see. Bartholomew dropped the floor screaming, and Ana smiled, she was happy so very very happy, that's when the fire started. Angels, every Angel felt it. The fire that clipped their wings and forced them out. It did not spread from room to room like a flame but from Angel to Angel like a contagion. Ana remembered running, someone had burst her out of her cell, they helped her up, helped her run. Everywhere they turned Angels were falling, falling hard and fast. There was no control in anything. Voices so many voices screamed out for her to help to stop it, as if Ana had any control, as if Ana held the key. Ana could remember collapsing on the ground and a voice calling out telling her to fight it, she was the only one who could, to let herself fall but to hold on and then she was pushed. Ana quickly found herself falling through the sky, the light of dying stars streaked past her as she fell, the wind tore at her skin, the fire becoming an inferno but she held on. Her eyes trying desperately to take in her surroundings, this place was not the same, everything on it had changed since she had last been here. Earth.
Ana pulled herself up on the bed as upright as she could with the bindings on her wrists and took in the foreign objects that littered the room, some she could put a name too and others she was lost. Electricity had not been a thing when she was last here, any and everything she knew about humanity she had learnt from other angels or when she stole into the heavenly dreams of the deceased. Ana didn't know what was going on, words began to swim to the front of her mind, hospital, police, but one word stood out amongst the rubble, danger. Ana knew very few things right now but here is what she was sure of, she was sure that someone had cast the angels from heaven, she had landed on earth, that she was now in a hospital but above all else she knew if she didn't get out now she would be in grave danger. Ana tugged with a moderate amount of strength at the restraints and they quickly fell away from her wrists as if they were made of nothing more than paper. Rubbing at the red marks on either side left from her efforts Ana sat fully up in the bed. On the far side of the room was a door, she could see the tops of heads gathered outside it, shifting her hair to one side Ana concentrated listening in. They were police officers, nurses, they wanted to take her in, take her away to somewhere else. Strange was a the word they repeated over and over, Ana to them was strange and needed to be investigated. A nurse spoke now of how she had tried to relieve Ana's pain when she had arrived by giving Ana an injection, she described in detailed how the needle had snapped clean in half as the nurse tried to pierce Ana's skin. Ana shook her head, shaking off the voices of those outside her door, it was clear that was no longer an option. Next to the bed lay a window. Inspecting it from her position on the bed revealed that she was quite high up, if a human was to jump at this height they would severely injure themselves, but Ana wasn't human, was she? What had happened when she fell? Did she still have her grace? Her wings?
Moving from the bed to stand upright Ana swayed as she stood on shaking legs, regaining her balance Ana knew she was weak. Much weaker than she had expected, she closed her eyes and began to search in her own mind, body and soul until she felt it. Flicking like the light of a dying candle. Her grace. It was weak, as weak as Ana but still there. Relief flooded Ana, though as fragile as a human in her current state given time and rest she would soon be back to full strength and no longer defenseless. Staggering over to the window Ana looked out, but as she took a step too far away from the bed she felt a slight tear at her skin as a wire she hadn't noticed was ripped from her and the steady beeping rhythm of the machine began to wail.
Everything again flew into chaos, the nurses at the door began to race for the door, Ana knew she had only seconds as she tried to figure out how to open the window, her eyes flicking back and fourth between the door and the window, her heart began to race wildly. It was beating so hard, so fast, Ana feared it would tear free independent of her chest. As the door handle turned downwards to let someone in Ana reflexively closed her eyes, waiting for the rush, the panic, the danger. But instead there was nothing, a gentle breeze engulfed her. The ground beneath her feet shifted and Ana was flung to the floor. Opening her eyes Ana found herself staring at grass beneath her hands as she moved backwards onto her knees, she was outside. Looking around she could see the building she had previously been in, the one her mind labeled hospital. Without a second thought or glance, Ana's instincts kicked in, she was up on her feet and running as fast as she could away.
- x -
Ana gulped in deep lungful's of air, she could still feel the residue of the fire on her skin but now her lungs burned with exhaustion, the muscles in her leg ached from lack of use , but something in her kept her going. With no direction, or idea of where she was, Ana kept running because the sense of imminent danger lingered all around her. Her brain was on hyperdrive analyzing and putting names to things Ana couldn't remember or had never seen, there was some part of her that recognized everything and strived for her to understand. The only goal Ana had was to escape and for the time being nothing else mattered. It didn't matter that her bare feet were being torn to shreds by pointed rock , sticks and shards of glass. Nor did it matter that her shoulders ached from where she stumbled into trees and buildings. Ana had never been more lost in her life and yet her arms and legs continued to pump carrying her off in an unknown direction.
Damon groaned in frustration as he walked towards the hospital, despite being young and healthy this new vessel was as slow as every other human being, with his wings clipped this is what he had been reduced too. Walking. All of a sudden a young woman burst free from a trail of woods, she was covered in dirt, twigs, dressed only in a hospital gown and her eyes bright and wild. Her bronze and golden hair rolled down to her waist in soft gentle waves and Damon grinned wickedly. Her eyes snapped to his they were brilliant sapphire with silver slashing through them, they were filled with determination and confusion. The woman paused briefly before taking off across the road into the woods that waited at the other side. Damon chuckled darkly to himself, of all the places to find her sprinting away from a hospital was not high on his list but then again she was always surprising him. He took off after her eager to catch up, after all this is what , or should he say who, he was searching for. Ana. He would recognize those eyes anywhere and it was clear he had been right. She hadn't been forced from her vessel like the others, like he had, Ana remained in the same vessel she had always been in, ever since they had met all those years ago. She was quick too, dipping and diving through the trees, not caring about the pain. Damon knew all the well just how well acquainted Ana was with pain. He tried desperately the catch up but she was moving inhumanly fast he had no hope of catching her unless something or someone intervened. Ana pushed harder and broke through the tree line, Damon could hear the truck as he caught up, Ana was paused in the middle of the road staring confused at the truck as it sped towards her the driver ignorant to the half naked young woman stood in his path, Damon acted quickly tackling Ana out of the way they hit the ground with a thud. Ana could feel the weight of a body on her, the strange metal beast had sped passed without care, she began to thrash out as her mind registered her lack of power and resorted to human fighting skills. Her attacker was quick, gripping her skillfully and holding her to the ground. Damon wrestled Ana, calling her name out at her but she couldn't hear him, so he tried a different tack, he tried reaching for her mind. A rare angelic talent, one Ana had never given second thought too for her it was breathing but it had taken Damon years to be able to learn and even know he could only reach Ana's mind or the minds of lesser angels.
'ANA!' the voice was sharp and clear it cut through the confusion, it was commanding, and suddenly the panic subsided.
"Damon?" the name fell from her mouth as she froze, he loosened his grip allowing her to right herself on the ground.
"You going to stop hitting me now?" he teased his eyes alight. Ana took in Damon, it would forever be strange to her when Angels changed their vessels. After decades of looking at the Damon she knew it was strange to see him in this new vessel, this time he had jet black hair and wicked green eyes but he felt the same. His soul, his grace, all the same. Relief flooded Ana as she threw her arms around him. Damon reluctantly put his arms around Ana, embracing the hug.