In This Life Or The Next
Disclaimer: I really wish that I could come up with something half as brilliant as Chrono Crusade, but I'm still in the planning stage.
Chapter Two: Lamentation
"Az?"
"Oh, h-h-h-hi R-r-r-rosette."
"Oh, Az, you fell! Steiner! Joshua! Beth! Someone get your ass down here!"
She rushed over to her fallen friend looking her over with a critical eye noting the numerous bruises, a few cutes, and the fingers twisted at sick angles.
"Hehehe." Azmari began nervously. "Kind of makes you miss the old days, huh?"
Rosette turned so sharply the former apostle jumped. "What?" A horror-stricken angel's eyes widened. Then, slowly, the blondes shoulders went down, hackles fell, and the mouth turned upward a bit. "Azmaria, we all miss Chrono and Satella. It's all right if you want...to talk about them."
"That's not it...I mean...of course...Chrno...and Satella..."
"Azmaria...spit it out..."
"I know that it's...wrong...So many people...killed...but I really do..."
"Azmaria..." Her warning tone seeped out, so rarely did she direct it at her 'little sister' that the girl looked more frightened than she had all those million times they had saved each other. Then, suddenly, Rosette understood. The balcony from which the girl, more a woman now, had fallen. The fence was five feet tall. It hadn't rained in weeks. Azmaria's clumsiness had intensified and then gone with puberty, though she was still far from graceful. The ground underneath it was soft and mossy. "Did you jump?"
She started to shake her head and then burst into tears. "Yes!"
"We agreed, Az. That no one was going to do anything stupid. We're all already grieving enough. Losing you...by your own hand...Oh, god damnit."
"Oh, I wouldn't ever...never...it's not that at all..."
Rosette gazed around distractedly. "Move it! Beth! Her hand's broken..."
"I miss my wings!"
"What?"
"Oh, you can't understand...in the old days...I wouldn't have fallen...I would have flown." Her tone was almost wistful.
WHAP. Azmaria reeled back from the slap.
"What do you call that?" Rosette pointed angrily at her form...
...surrounded by the shadows of snowy white feathers.
