Her parents named her Brook. It was the name she had gone by for all my mundane years before she knew monsters were real. It is not the name the hunters, the fiends, and the monsters of her world would know her as. She may not have the black eyes anymore, but any who saw her face will see only the demon Ruby.
She had a rather unremarkable life before Ruby. She grew up in a small town in Wyoming. She went to church, and she went to school. She didn't even escape the state for college and headed only as far away as Cheyenne. For a small town girl, it may as well been a sprawling metropolis. She felt the big city fear, but she found no real danger there. The danger or more accurately the darkness found her when she went back home.
Brook only came back for the weekend. Visiting with parents, siblings, and the many friends that didn't escape the dreary town left her drained. The first chance Brook got she slipped out to the back patio. Sitting there with a cold beer Brook looked up at the stars like she did countless times as a kid. She sat there looking up at the sky. For a brief moment, Brook felt completely at ease. That ease evaporated when the sky turned black.
It wasn't the darkness of night but demon black. At first it appeared only as a dark wave, and she took it as a figment of her imagination. She looked at it with tired eyes hazed with alcohol, but on an instinctive level she knew it wasn't right. She cautiously stood up as she made out the form of the tendrils. It wasn't a wave but a swarm of countless black missiles streaking through the sky. Fear gripped her even before a single tendril broke away and shot down. Brook couldn't see through the darkness coming at her and with it came pain.
A haze followed. Brook never completely went away, but she wasn't alone nor was she at all in control. Ruby was now with her. She controlled Brook's body. She talked with her voice. At times, Brook found blissful sleep but at others she had a clear perception of all that was happening. She could see everything Ruby saw, and feel all she felt. Occasionally she could even sense Ruby's thoughts. Brook always felt the pain. When Ruby fought with the hunters or other demons, Brook always felt the pain they inflicted. She felt every slash, stab, and tear to her body. She felt her bones cracking and breaking. It never affected Ruby. She was a demon, and Brook was just a meat suit.
It all gave Brook a sense of the creature controlling her. She knew what a monster Ruby was and what a monster Ruby made her. She felt the moment Ruby left her, but before she could claim even the smallest freedom an even more foul, and vicious creature entered her. Brook's time with this demon lasted only minutes, but the darkness she felt in that brief time would haunt her more so than all those months with Ruby.
With the departure of Lilith she died, and she should have stayed dead. She would have if something else didn't find her.
Brook awoke in a barren field. She felt stiff and sore all over. Her innards felt knotted, and head scrambled. She tried to gain her bearing and focus some sense of what happened. That is when she realized that she was alone and in control. Ruby remained gone, and no other demon took her place. She forced herself up to her knees. It still hurt when she moved, but it was something she did of her own free will.
She stood up, but couldn't make out much of her surroundings. She stood in the middle of a valley ringed by shadowy hills. The sky radiated a gray hue over the land, and as she looked up she could make out silver streaks occasionally breaking through the dullness.
She broke away from the sky as she felt a chill spread across her back. She turned around alert. Before she could see or even hear them, she knew something approached. Three figures emerged from the shadowy darkness. As she looked at them, her attention fell to something else, a glint of silver on the ground just a couple of feet in front of her.
She cautiously crouched back down eyeing the approaching danger as she did. She cast a glance to the object. Laying there before her was a long triple blade dagger forged of silver. She quickly picked the blade up.
The scent of the trio hit her. She could smell it in their blood, and as she looked straight at them, she could see a black nimbus pulsing from them. She knew well what caused such darkness.
Brook also sensed their hesitation. They stood side by side, and the center demon looked to her with clear confusion. "Ruby? No, it can't be. You're her meat suit, but you are dead?" His eyes widened as his thoughts aligned. He cast around at his surroundings. "Where is this place? How did we come to be here?" His eyes turned black with the question, and he took a single step forward.
Those eyes were all Brook needed to see. She tightened her grip on the silver dagger and sprang up. She landed solidly on her feet and rushed forward. The demon lunged to meet her. He swung out with a closed fist that should have leveled her with ease, but she ducked under it. She continued to lean to the side as she struck upward with the blade. The demons overextended stance forced him into a forward slump giving the blade open access to his chest. It pierced through entering his heart. She felt the heat and vibration from his pulsing body. A fiery red spark flashed around the blade and shined from his mouth. Brook could see the spark's reflection in his eyes as the demon died with his meat suit.
The other two demons came at her at once. The one to her right came down going for her legs. The other rammed forward banging into the side of her shoulder just as his fellow demon tackled her. Brook's legs came out from under her, and she came crashing down. She hit the ground with considerable force. The powerful assault of both demons should have broken her. She felt the intense pain from the blow, and the back of her head stung from hitting the ground. Still Brook struggled. She twisted and moved as the demon climbed over her. His tackle wasn't enough to force the blade from her hand, and she stabbed it right into his side splitting through his ribs. She pushed the blade right to the hilt, and this time she could feel the heat from the death spark of the demon's open mouth right on her face.
She pushed the dead demon off of her just as the other stomped down with a heavy boot aimed for her head. She quickly rolled to the side, and wildly swung back with the blade. It slashed across his abdomen. The demon screamed, and his open wound flared a pulsing red. The blade didn't do any vital damage, but it hurt him. Brook quickly jumped back up to her feet. He stepped back while striking out connecting his right fist with the left side of her face. The blow dazed Brook. The fearful demon didn't push his advantage. He feared this living meat suit and the blade it held. He turned away retreating the way he came, but she wouldn't let him get away.
Rage and adrenaline fueled her as did some unknown power. He had made it only a few yards before the blade entered his back. He tumbled forward, and Brook crouched over him. She stabbed him again and again, and even after she saw the spark of his death she jabbed the blade back into him one more time.
Brook couldn't further relish the kills for her clearly enhanced senses detected another presence behind her. She twirled around swinging the blade, but the figure side stepped with ease. She looked at the figure. He stood at six feet with a medium build, and he wore a dark duster. He had short dirty blond hair and an unshaven chin. He looked back at her with stoic gray eyes. She couldn't smell the demon stench in his blood or see the throbbing blackness over him. He wasn't a demon, but she could only perceive him as a threat.
Brook came at him swinging once more with the blade. Again he ducked and sidestepped her attacks with minimal movement. She jabbed forward aiming for his exposed heart. His hand shot out catching her wrist and holding it in a locked vise. She swung with her free hand, and he caught that wrist as well. He held her there firm, and she couldn't hope to break free.
"Who are you? What are you?" Brook yelled with mounting fear.
"I am Kohel," he responded in a cold, monotone voice. "I am an angel of the Lord." It took a moment the for the shock of his words to settle.
The angel released her and stepped back giving her space. "Come we must leave. The area is secluded, but I cannot be certain that nothing saw the opening of the vortex."
"The vortex?" Brook questioned.
"The vortex the demons came through. In this world, a vortex always brings scavengers."
Not responding to her clear confusion Kohel turned walking away from her. She quickly ran to catch up. He glanced at her but continued in a steady place. She paced him, but she remained vigilant of both him and her surroundings. They moved through the shadowed hills and out of the valley and into more open plains. She didn't realize they reached their destination until they were right on it.
He led her to a rocky ridge. As he approached, a large metallic doorway appeared in the rock face. He touched a panel, and the door opened. As she hesitated, he quickly ushered her inside.
She found herself in a large dome-shaped room with metallic walls. An armored land rover with a faded green paint job sat parked in the middle of the room. Other than that the room was barren though they were more panels along the wall and corridors leading to other chambers on the opposite side of the chamber.
"What is this place?"
"The structure is one of the last remanents of an ancient civilization that once spread across the surrounding solar systems. An advanced camouflage distortion field surrounds it. It was only with my angelic senses that I found and breached it. I didn't know what I would find. I only knew there was something amiss with the terrain. The structure is a bunker likely used in a long-ago war that saw this civilization's collapse. The centuries have only done minimal damage to the place, and it took little effort bringing its systems back online. This place has the potential to be fully self-sustaining. The bunker taps into an aquifer giving access to water. They are labs designed for indoor gardening and hydroponics. Along with the living quarters, there is also a weapons locker. Like the bunker itself with a little tweaking, much of the weaponry remains functional. This place has been your home for several months now."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I brought you here to revitalize fully. I came to you after your death. The demons fled from your body leaving what should have been a dead meat suit. If left alone you would have died completely. I reached within stirring the cells that were yet to die. It was enough of a spark, and slowly life spread back through you. I needed to keep you under allowing your body to heal fully and strengthen. Strengthen it did. As your body regenerated, it did so with all the muscle memory of the demons that possessed it. The telekinetic powers are likely gone, and so are the black eyes but all of Ruby's strength, stamina, and speed remain."
Brook shook her head trying to consume it all. In her jumbled mind, she could only think of the demons. "Who were the demons back there?"
"Remnants of the demonic horde that once rallied under Lilith," he answered. "I sensed their arrival on this plane. I needed to know that you were ready and strong enough to fight. They gave me the opportunity to do so."
"Is Ruby dead? That is what the demon said to me."
"Ruby is dead as is Lilith," he answered. "They are at least as dead as such things can be. No energy completely dies. Demons are, but energy like the soul and as such something always remains and winds up somewhere else. They are not important. Not now, and they may never be again. Lucifer has also returned to his cage. What has already happened on your world is of little importance. My angelic brothers and sisters are positioning themselves, but only a few among them understand all that is to come. The apocalypse will come in waves. Man, monsters, and angels alike across the worlds still look to the long ago fall of one angel and think he alone will bring forth the end. They don't realize his was, but the first of many falls and in a sense all my kind are still falling."
"What does this have to do with me? Why did you bring me back? Why did you bring me here?" Brook practically yelled at him.
"Because this is where the end of all worlds will begin. The great civilization that built this bunker fell when their world became locked in a war between dimensions. Beings from distant realms and fiends from great depths came to lay claim to this world. I know not if was caused by one of the invaders or the world's inhabitants but what has become known as the Sheen came up engulfing this world. The Sheen is not that difficult to get through, but now that I'm here not even I can escape from this world. We are not alone. Many have been dumped here from across time, space, and dimension.
"I have seen the eventual end of your world. I have seen the end of many worlds. This is where it begins. Somewhere on this world an ancient evil is as trapped as we are, but sometime soon it will get out and spread its plague across the multiverse."
He frowned a bit as he continued to look at her. "I long knew what was coming and I spent considerable time and effort preparing for it. I have already stepped well beyond the bounds my creator placed on me. I needed a soldier, and in a moment of impulse I picked you. I know not if you can stop what is to come, but for the sake of your world you must do all you can to do so."
Brook was full of questions for now she let the angel talk. She remained cautious of him and her surroundings but she could do little until she fully understood what was happening here to her and where she was.
"While you revitlized I continued to prepare. I gathered supplies and aquired you a vehicle. We will spend a few more days here so you can properly prepare yourself. You need to become familiar with your enhanced body. You no longer have a demon manipulating your moves. Your own moves are clumsy." Kohel raised up his hand as she now attempted to interrupt. "You need to learn skill and technique. You need to learn the tech and you need to learn to properly use the angel blade I entrusted you with. Soon you will go forth into this world. You will find other soldiers both among the indiginous inhadnitants and the other offworlders. When the time comes you must find and face the enemy."
He turned away from her and before retreating through the back corridor of the bunker he left her one last bit of knowledge. "This world is on the verge of another apocaylpse. Know this the end of this world will be the beginning of the many ends to come."