[Tommy's POV]

"…And it is with this that we hereby strip you, Thomas, of your angelical being…"

The words ring through him like ice tumbling down on itself. Breaking and vibrating in the still of the air. The breath that was once locked in his chest dispels itself and he finds himself nearly gasping. But whether or not he's gasping for breath or for realization, he's not entirely sure.

"What?" He questions, stopping them in the middle of their sentence to stare up at them. His heart is racing in his chest and he wonders if this is a dream or not. Surely it has to be. He's done nothing wrong. Nothing to call for this drastic measure. Nothing except the nightfall and the… "You can't! Please, reconsider this, you can't!" He's not proud to beg, but he does it anyway.

"We can, Thomas. And we will. And you should know better than to question us when a decree has been reached…" They tell him, their halos burning in the near dark and he quivers, whimpering softly.

"No, please, you don't understand, I—" he begins.

"You knowingly advanced upon a human in your truest form, exposing yourself and our kind to not only him but that of a seven year old child, and you struck the human down! The exposure we might have been able to overlook, Thomas, but you slaughtered that human man." Their explanation means nothing to him. He knows what he did, and he knows why he did it. But he also knows they won't listen. Though, something within him demands that he try. He has to try.

"You don't understand! He was going to hurt her! I wanted to save her!" Thomas shouts back at them, his wings locked tight to his back. His halo hovers above his head, but he still feels the urge to reach up and clutch it in his fingers and never let go of it. He's fearful. And angels are not meant to be fearful.

"He did not present himself as an assailant, and therefore was of no harm to the girl at the time you attacked him," Thomas shakes his head, tears stinging his eyes. "For this offence, you are banished!"

"You weren't even… You didn't see what he was going to do! You didn't see it like I did!" He screams at them, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes like drops of dew on the lips of leaves.

Thomas has always been a little strange in comparison to other angels. Other angels have golden halos, Thomas has one with a bit of an orange hue to it. Angels have white wings. Thomas has cream-colored wings. Angels have blue or green eyes—eyes that are pure. Thomas has brown eyes—tarnished and full of sin, as they all say to him. They say he's an abomination. A poor, wasted excuse for an angel. The devil's mock of an angel…

He watches as their eyes narrow at him beneath the light of their halos. The flowing robes of pure, white silk and silver threading tumble like a waterfall down their thrones, disappearing into nothing before they touch the floor. Three pairs of ice blue judging him, scrutinizing him and his gifts. He can see the bad things humans are about to do before they even think it. He can shield his wings and halo and pretend to be human amongst those not of his own kind. He can shred like no angel has heard.

The devil's mock of an angel… Because he has what are called "tainted" talents.

"You willingly acknowledge before us that you have the taint of Sinner's Sight? And that you used such questionable powers before assaulting an innocent human?" For being considered strange in his own right, he's learned that he's self-aware and aware of the self. Perhaps he's the only one, for these angels before him aren't listening. But he knows that they know.

"He wasn't innocent! He was going to rape her!"

"Silence!" Their voices ring throughout and Thomas feels a chill grip his heart, clutching it in iron chains. The tears refuse to fall but they're beginning to burn. "Your tainted, vicious talents and your actions are more than accountable for your crime in harming a human individual. You are stripped, Thomas, and banished."

Clenching his jaw, Thomas stares with hard, cold eyes as their halos glow brighter. He feels a sharp tug and a sort of searing-of-the-soul as his own halo is forcefully burned out. The ring drops past his head and lands around his neck, tightening like a collar around his throat.

His wings unfurl against his will, the feather-y tips unraveling like balls of yarn, each soft, cream colored tip burning to ash as they fall away. The fires consume his wings before they finish unraveling, and Thomas howls as he feels the bones and tendons sizzle and scorch, leaving his shoulder blades and skin scarred and blackened by the Holy Fire.

A force that is both unseen and unknown forces Thomas to his knees, and he knows what's coming next. He's heard the stories of those who have been cast away for turning Dark. They become what are known as Fallen Angels or Devil's Children. He clenches his jaw tighter, pain surging from his throat and neck where the halo sits a little too tight into his skin. The once-glowing-light burns like hot metal and he howls, clawing at it and burning his fingers in the process.

For being angels, their methods of banishment are absolutely torturous. Tears pool thick like syrup in his eyes but they do not fall, whether by some magic of his own or his owl determined will. He will not give them the satisfaction of his grief for this damning process. Instead, he clutches the halo against his throat, shivering and groaning with pain as it cools before falling to pieces like broken glass.

He stares at the fragments, his fingers pressed to the seared scar in his throat before lifting his eyes to them. Their frozen eyes are piercing through him and he hopes within himself that his normal amber-like eyes look black now. Black like they've claimed his soul to be. Black like the Devil.

If they accuse him of it, he will live up to the name. He promises to himself, before the floors vanish from beneath his knees and cast him down to Earth as a scarred and damned Child, that he's going to find every Godforsaken angel and tear them from their place. He'll rip apart their wings, smash their halos in Devil's Fire and claw his way back up to this place for vengeance, for he has been wronged by the so-called Holiest of Creatures.

And he will make them pay.