Summary: AU. God has managed to stop and rewind time to just when Setsuna was conceived and watched over his life. He, in a way, effectively stopped the Messiah from ever taking arms against him. With the rewind in time, however, everything has reset to that moment and no one has any memory of the events save God. The deity has no plans to disclose what happened, and thus shall another life of the Organic Angel Alexiel end in a young and violent death.
However, Modou Setsuna was born and was raised with love. His mother didn't think him an abomination and his father didn't see any other women save his wife. But there was a secret about Setsuna that no one knew of, not even Setsuna himself. A woman—it seemed that it was a woman—had gifted him with an extraordinary ability when he was still in the womb: the ability to shapeshift. Unfortunately, he doesn't know of this ability, it being controlled by his subconscious. Subsequently, he was raised not as a boy but rather a girl. And Alexiel found that the child was, as before, the one that would be the Messiah. And so, everything began anew.
Author's note: A suggestion would be to have read Angel Sanctuary before reading this fic (but it's that a given, right?). Also, I don't own Angel Sanctuary.
Chapter 1
The debugging of the program took much of his energy, but it was worth it. To have it so that Alexiel would never attempt her rebellion a third time. Alexiel would endure her punishment, and he would not have to set eyes on the child—his child—ever again.
No other being could have been more wrong.
"Setsuna you stupid fuck!"
The person the gang of boys were referring to turned. A blond wearing the uniform of an all-boys school, he had a bruise on his cheek and a split lip. There was a kick to his stomach and Setsuna hit the wall. For some reason the pain was dull, not really there.
The blond coughed before glaring up at the boys. For the corner of his eye, he could see Kira leaning against the wall, doing absolutely nothing. Lots of help he gave, acting like an observer. A hand wrapped around a stick of wood and he retaliated with it against the closest attacker. It worked in stopping the attacker but at the sight of blood Setsuna felt drowsy, paralysed. And that's when the gang attacked all at once, kicking and punching his body.
"Alright, that's enough… You'll end up breaking him." Even with the body paralysis, Setsuna couldn't help but grin crookedly. Kira.
"Shut up! I haven't finished teaching him a lesson yet! And if you got anything against it, then you'll be ne…!"
There was the sound of a book falling to the floor, but Setsuna wasn't sure what was going on, what with him lying face down on the ground. The next thing he was aware of was Kira gently kicking him. "Hey! Setsuna! You hearing me! …Are you dead!"
"I want…I want to fucking kill those guys…"
Kira helped Setsuna up, supporting the blond as the pair headed to Kira's apartment, the closer of the two. "That was a bit close, wasn't it, Setsuna? There were pretty close at finding out your little secret."
"Shut up."
"You were too easy on them. You were beating the crap out of them and suddenly…"
"It's the blood. I can't stand it for some reason. Neither it's sight nor it's smell… Man, it sucks!"
"That's a bit girlish, don't you think?"
"It didn't happen until some time after I met you, you know!"
"Ah, so I've made you a bit feminine? Didn't you say that it was impossible for you to be feminine, not matter how much you tried? You're shirt's opening up."
Setsuna glared up at Kira, tugging the shirt back together to hide the torso, with the telltale bulge of breasts, even if they were near nonexistant. "KIRA! Don't look. Ugh, I have a perv for my best friend."
"Your own fault, Setsuna."
"Shut up."
Kira, unfortunately, was right. How many girls accidentally got accepted into an all-boys high school, with a full scholarship to boot? And, since she'd managed to convince her parents to let her live on her own, they didn't have to know about it. Besides, she didn't want them to worry about her too much. They had enough tro…
Smack!
Setsuna fell back onto her butt, holding the slapped cheek. "Sara! Why the hell did you do that?"
Her younger sister, Sara glared at her. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop picking fights? But no! You'd rather get beaten up than spend time with me…! Why do you always refuse to go on a date with me?"
Setsuna glared at Sara. "Stop making me out to be a masochist! I'm not!"
"Hi Sara. You know, you're kind of hot in that uniform."
Sara growled at Kira and immediately wheeled her anger at Setsuna on him. "You, shut your mouth! If you want to lead Setsuna astray like you, you'll have to deal with me first!"
Kira instead pulled Sara close. "What did you say? You want to take a look at my room? …Of course you can!"
Setsuna grabbed Kira's wrist, twisting it slowly and glared up at the older boy darkly. "Hey! Calm down there."
"Setsuna!"
Sara's companion, Saiki Ruri had been watching quietly and decided this was the best moment to intervene. "Euh…hi!"
"Ah! Let me present you guys to Saiki Ruri…"
Death… She was dreaming of death again. Fighting, corpses piling up at her feet. Blood splattering everywhere, driving an insane need to see more split. The sword she carried was the one driving this insane bloodbath, crying out for more blood. And she was quite willing to allow it to go on. She loved it, revelling in how it boiled her blood. Then there was laughter; insane, insane laughter. What was this that was happening to her? Why her? Why, why, why?
And a voice spoke. It was soft, calm and, in a way, musical but not hers. "Tell me Nanatsusaya…what do you wish for?"
Setsuna bolted upright in bed before hiding her face in her hands. These dreams again, why did they plague her so? And there was always a voice whispering softly, beneath all the noise, but she could never hear it clearly. It was the same today, but she had managed to hang onto one word, 'we'. Who did this we refer to? Who was speaking, whispering these words to her?
She sighed and flopped back in bed, staring at the ceiling. It was quite the impossible question to answer. She onto her side and closed her eyes. She'd talk to Kira-sempai tomorrow.
…Kira-sempai…
"Kira-sempai!"
Kira, who was, up till that moment, in a daze of half-sleep and half-awake, gave Setsuna a groggy look. The pair were at school, by an open window. Setsuna, of course, just looked at Kira smiled, or smirked, at the boy. This irritated Kira to no end. "What?"
"Kira-sempai, do you know what Nanatsusaya means?"
"No."
"But…Kira-sempai!"
"Stop whining Setsuna, else you'll be found out."
She glared at him, and looked away and out the school window. "Tch, fine."
"Give me back my disc!"
The pair looked down the hall, where a teacher and a student were arguing. Setsuna watched with wide-eyed innocence at the proceedings for a while. Then she lost interest in that to babbling with her friends.
Ruri was heading home. Nothing of much interest had happened at school. Only the usual, verbal bullying took place, but Ruri was too used to it to notice, besides the fact that Sara stopped the girls before it got too bad. The young girl was too caught up in her own thoughts when a voice spoke to her.
"Do you believe in God?"
It was a beautiful foreigner who stood before her, reaching and grabbing her arm. She immediately jerked away, or tried to. "I…I'm in a hurry! Let me g…"
His stare made her feel eerie for some reason, as though he could see into the depths of her soul. "I'm glad that I could finally meet someone like you. Now I no longer need to sacrifice anymore poor lambs. You revere God from the bottom of your heart and hold a power in that small body like a Pandora's box. You are special…someone who was chosen.
"To give you this…all for him… The one that had radiated the most in heaven, equal to God…" He placed his hands on her shoulders. "For Rosiel…"
The foreigner's hands let go of her when he was attacked from behind.
"What the hell are you saying, you foreigner?" The attacker was a woman with long black hair and vibrant, golden eyes, but there was something about the woman that made Ruri think of Sara and her brother, Setsuna.
The woman grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the foreigner. "Don't stand just there! Let's go!"
The last she saw of the foreigner, he was rubbing his head and staring after the woman in shock. His lips formed the name that he had mentioned before. "Rosiel…Rosiel-sama!" There was a pause, and then. "Alexiel!"
That was the last Ruri heard from the stranger. They had run a fair ways away when they stopped. Her glasses fell off her face and they cracked when they fell on the ground. "Oh!"
The woman sighed, pushing her long black—almost blue—locks out of her face. "Don't worry, you can buy those again. Nothing of good will come from associating with someone that's dangerous like that." She smiled at her. "Ruri, right? You look cuter without glasses."
Ruri suddenly blushed, not used to such a remark. The woman, on the other hand, continued to smile. "I'm…a friend of Setsuna's. I saw you running away from him and his sister a few days ago. You know, he would say the same thing… So, what did you get from that religious foreigner?"
"Oh…! This." Ruri stared as the woman took the disk she held out, staring at it. It was so like what Setsuna had said the other day. Both spoke without thinking. So transparent and honest…like a baby… No…like an angel…! And their auras are just like wings, great wings…The aura doesn't seem like an illusion...
"A disk? Angel Sanctuary… I think I heard about that somewhere… Well here." The woman handed it back to Ruri, who looked up at her.
"Thanks… You…you and Setsuna, you seem alike…"
The woman blushed lightly, surprisingly. "Ah… R-really? Well…if I cut my hair I guess I would look like his twin…heh…" She studied Ruri for a moment. "You like Setsuna, don't you?"
Ruri was shocked by the woman's words. The woman patted her shoulders and walked away, into the crowd. Ruri stared after her before turning and leaving.
"Well, that was interesting…" Kira walked up from behind the woman, slinging and arm around one of her shoulders.
"She said that I reminded her of Setsuna." The woman sounded perturbed as she she reached up and pulled on one of her long locks. The long locks came off, revealing shorter ones.
Kira smiled, one hand reaching up to brush the short locks. "Don't worry Setsuna. No one will find out your secret."
Setsuna sighed. "I hope your right. There was something about that foreigner too… Something he said. I couldn't hear it clearly…"
"Don't worry, it was probably nothing." Setsuna nodded. She didn't notice Kira glaring back the in the direction of the foreigner.
Ruri showed up at school the next day without her glasses and full of self-confidence. "Sara, I fell in love with Setsuna. Won't you help me so it'll work out?"
Sara spat out what she was drinking. She looked a little frazzled. "What? What? What do you see in…him…?"
"What, are you not going to help me? Sara, are you jealous!"
"N…no…!"
"I mean…even if you guys do get along, that's strange between a real brother and sister."
"N… No, it's alright! I understand. If you want something like that, I'll give it to you all wrapped up!"
"Then it's decided. If you break the promise…I won't forgive you."
"Ruri…?"
Ruri blinked, tilting her head at Sara. "Something wrong?"
Sara looked a little troubled. She couldn't tell Ruri that Setsuna was really a girl: that would get her sister into a lot of trouble. "You should understand, Setsuna's never really went out with anyone before. He's always distanced himself from girls."
Ruri smirked. "Don't worry, I'm sure it'll work out."
"And what do you want, asking you brother to the chapel of your school?" Setsuna wasn't paying attention to Sara and Ruri though, concentrating more on the inside of the chapel. It looked beautiful but it gave her a very bad feeling. "Aren't you guys forbidden to come in here?"
Ruri leaned in close to Setsuna. "It's open for public mass once a month."
Setsuna blinked down at Ruri, stepping away from the girl. She didn't like how close the young girl was to her. "I see…"
There was the sound of shattering glasses and everything seemed to slow down. Setsuna turned in time to see one of the windows shattering. She moved to protect the closest person to her. "Sara! Ruri, get down!"
Ruri didn't move, shocked at Setsuna's actions. Setsuna didn't have time to yell at the girl again. Someone was speaking inside her head, just like her dream. She squeezed her eyes closed. "Stop…stop it! Stop talking in my head!"
And then it was over. Setsuna opened his eyes and looked around, blinking. "Wh… What happened? Why am I the only one who isn't covered with glass! What the hell…"
Her mind was suddenly assaulted by memories that were not hers. At least, she didn't think that they were hers. It was mother talking about her, but mother never said those things to her and she was a girl, not a boy. A girl!
"U…un…"
Setsuna quickly moved to look down at her sister. "Sara!"
"Oh!"
"Are you hurt anywhere? Sara!"
"Yeah…Look, I'm alright. You protected me so…"
Setsuna sighed in relief. "…That's right…" Just then a shadow was cast over her. She blinked, turning her head slowly. "Um?"
"A…Alexiel!"
She was very suddenly glomped by what looked like a kid, a boy. "Eh!"
"Finding you this quickly… The power of love is great! It's me…Kurai! I wanted to see you—!"
A tall woman with long, silver hair appeared behind the boy, Kurai. "Hey, hey, Kurai. Look closely. That's a guy…the ones you don't like…"
The boy, Kurai pulled away and looked down Setsuna's shirt to see the binding that Setsuna used to hide her little…secret… The boy stared in shock at the binding. "Uhh…"
The woman blinked. Obviously, the smaller of the pair had never done something like this before. "Kurai, is something wrong?"
"Arakune, she's a girl!"
Arakune stared, wide-eyed. "WHAT!"
Kurai pulled Setsuna's shirt down a little more. "Look, she's a girl."
Setsuna wrested her shirt away from Kurai, pulling it up to her chest. "Yeah, I'm a girl. Is there a problem!"
"Alexiel!"
"Kurai, people are coming!"
"No! Alexiel! Don't take me away from Alexiel!"
Setsuna blinked several times as Arakune dragged Kurai off the scene. "That…was odd."
"Oh, Ruri!"
Setsuna turned as Sara dashed towards her fallen friend, staring at the motionless, dark-haired girl. The people who had arrived called the ambulance and there was a lot of hustle around her, but Setsuna just stared at the spot where Ruri had fallen, feeling something sink in her stomach. Something felt very bad.
While Ruri lay in bed, lamenting the loss of her eyes, and was promised vengeance by the mysterious being she called 'Angel', and while Kurai and Arakune discussed the young being that looked so like Alexiel, Setsuna sat in the tub, water caressing her skin and thinking on what happened today. She sighed as she pulled her knees to her chest. "Damn…it was confusing."The understatement of the millennium.
