Shun

I went up on the roof after everyone had fallen asleep. Alice had decided to stay here and cleared it up with Runo. I was sitting on the brick edge of the roof, and looking out over the city at night. Thatch had finally gotten up here at some point and cleared the snow off the roof so it wouldn't cave in.

I sighed, and saw my breath rise in a wispy cloud. The cold air nipped at my bare arms and made me let out a small shiver. The wind wasn't strong, but the cold temperature was enough to make it seem below zero. The thought of Specks telling me that he couldn't find anything on Lord Michael's children, came back to my mind. When he showed us a picture of him, everyone agreed that we looked alike. And with his missing descendents gone from all the history texts, it only made it seem more likely that he was related to me.

I wanted to know more about my family and its past, but getting that information wasn't going to be easy. For one, Specks couldn't find anything on my family or any of Lord Michael's descendents. And two, I wasn't about to go to Kiba. I looked down below me on the sidewalk and saw a dog trotting down the street. It took off when it looked down an alley, letting out and yelp as it ran.

I leaned forward, trying to see what startled the animal. Odds were it was probably a larger dog or maybe a cat that scared him off. I saw a shadowy figure step into the light, and took in a quick breath. Mason was standing there. I hadn't seen Mason in nearly over a week, and something seemed different about him. I got lower behind the brick edge in case he saw me, but peered over it just enough to see him. Mason turned and looked around the streets, as if he were being followed or searching for anyone who might see him.

The way he walked looked as if he had done something that was worth acting suspicious. Instead of walking towards the tenement building like I expecting him to, he started the other way. I wanted to follow him. See where he was going and what he was up to. If I knew whether or not my wing was fully healed, and didn't have the gall to try and find out that very minute. It probably was, but I didn't want to reveal myself by falling to the sidewalk.

I made a mental note to see in the morning how my wing had been holding up. With all of the crazy things happening, it had completely slipped my mind in all honesty. Mason stopped walking, and was still just in my field of vision. He turned around and looked down the sidewalk, and I suppressed a gasp and ducked down below the brick edge. His eyes were the glowing red from the Angel of Omen that kept invading my dreams.

I felt my body shivering from not only the cold, but the sheer shock. Was my mind just tricking me? Were Mason's eyes really red, or was the streetlight reflecting from them? I slowly peered over the edge again, and saw Mason shrug his shoulders and walk off out of my sight. I no longer had the urge to follow him now as fear gripped me that he could be the creature tormenting me and Alice in my dreams.

I stood up and stared at where Mason was standing. The memory of Specks telling me that Angels of Omen couldn't leave the earth, but if somebody found them they could become one themselves. But they had to have some serious darkness in their hearts and mind. Had Mason found them and asked to become one? When I thought about it, all of the dreams and everything else started happening after our argument and about the time he went missing. No longer feeling very secure on the roof and in the wide open, and jumped back down the hatch and locked it shut. The main heater must have been off a few minutes, because the hall and main rooms felt cool.

The heater would end up turning on again soon, so there was no point in flipping it back on again. I walked my way to my room, and opened the door to check in on Alice. The memory of that thing standing over her had returned to my mind after seeing Mason's eyes. She was sound asleep and still on the side of the bed I had left her in when I snuck up to the roof. And there were no intruders in the room with her. Sighing, I shut the door quietly and walked down the stairs.

I was unable to sleep now, and spending an hour or so of going through the building to tire myself out would be the best remedy for my insomnia. A faint ringing sounded from the kitchen, and I recognized it as the calling tone on Ebony's laptop. I found it sitting on the table, and saw it had Specks as the caller. I reached over and flipped the lights on to the kitchen and hit the call accept button. He was sipping on a milkshake and reading a newspaper when he saw somebody had taken his call. He took the straw from his mouth and folded up the paper. "Oh, sorry. I really wasn't expecting anyone to pick up being this late at night. But it's a good thing it was you cause you're the one I needed to speak to."

I pulled the chair out from under the table and sat down. "I'm listening." My first thought was that he found more on Lord Michael's descendents or something along that line. Specks took another drink from the milkshake and I wondered how he could tolerate something cold like that in this weather when he was just a city over. He wiped his mouth on his shirt sleeve and said, "After countless hours of searching, I may of found something of use. You've heard at least something of the rebellion, right?" I nodded my head and said, "Yeah. It's the reason I'm down here on Earth and my parents are dead."

It stung me inside every time somebody brought up that rebellion. I couldn't blame my parents for fighting for something they believed in, whatever it may have been. I had no knowledge of the reason for the rebellion other than a small group of Holy angels went up against the Higher Powers. Specks pushed up his glasses and said, "Yeah, sorry about that. But anyway, I found records of what happened that day. It turns out that the rebellion was led by the second generation descendent of Lord Michael."

I raised an eyebrow and said, "Who was it?" Maybe if he had found a name, then it could clear some of my jumbled thoughts up. Specks fixed his glasses again. "I don't have a definite name sadly, but I do know what they were fighting for. The Higher Powers had gotten so out of control with making angels Fall for simple matters, that he got tired of it all. This was when the second generation of the Seven Lords were in power. He knew he was a descendent of Lord Michael, and decided to follow in the same steps as he and the Seven Lords had in keeping order straight in the Realm. He should have been in the Higher Powers at the time, but never joined them because of his disagreement with their views."

"The rebellion was staged, but backfired horribly. All of the angels that were caught were killed for their betrayal to the Higher Powers. The descendent ran with his wife and child, but were caught and they were all locked away to wait their execution day. But he had an ally among the executioner, and asked him for one favor before they were killed; that they found a way to let their child live." I watched as Specks scrolled down on his mouse and continued to speak. "The executioner convinced the Higher Powers of sparing the child's life, but it wasn't easy for him."

"One of the Higher Powers, the descendent of Lord Zaire, told him, "We can't allow a betrayer's child to live. Especially one that might try and pull this same stunt in the future." The executioner pleaded to them, "But he is of the same background as yours. Would you kill one of your own? He had no roll in the rebellion and is innocent, but you are going to kill him anyway? The great-great grandson of Lord Michael? Is this how you want the Realm to see you as? As murderers?" The Higher Powers sat and thought about what actions to take. The executioner had a point. It would go against the laws they set up to kill a descendent of one of the Seven Lords. They would be hypocrites and may of caused another rebellion if they did so."

Specks paused for a moment and I asked, "Well, if they couldn't kill a descendent, then why did they kill the leader of the rebellion?" I was growing angry. If the leader of the rebellion was indeed my father, then he shouldn't of been killed. They should of spared him. "The leader asked to be killed. That automatically removed the whole fact of his background. But since the child was in a sense innocent, of the same background, and had no ability to say whether he wanted to live or die, the Higher Powers came to the decision to make him Fall." I felt my stomach drop, and tears start to pool in my eyes. I blinked them back, refusing to allow any to escape.

Specks then kept on and said, "They did that so the child would be able to live, and never return to the Realm to cause another rebellion because since he Fell on innocence, he couldn't do anything to redeem himself. And it didn't matter if he had any children, because they would be Half-breeds and unable to go to the Realm." It was me. I was the third generation to Lord Michael and all records of that had been exterminated. The Higher Powers had thought everything through on me, to where I couldn't get my second chance.

The story I had known for so long was only half right. I was right about Falling because my parents had something to do with the rebellion, and that I Fell on innocence. Now I knew everything, and for the first time I was angry with the Realm and the Higher Powers. I had never had any ill feeling towards them, but now that I knew everything on my past, I did. They uprooted my life, and would of killed me if I didn't share a background with one of the Seven Lords. Specks brought me out of my thoughts when he said, "That's all I had to say." I ran my hand through my hair and said, "You knew it was about me. Didn't you?"

Specks did a half smile with a sympathetic hint behind it. "I just thought it would be something of use to you that you should know." I nodded my head and cut the connection. My mind couldn't figure out if I had gotten lucky because I was still alive, or unlucky for that same reason. It seemed like a mix of the two. I was happy that I hadn't been killed, but I was also angry that this had to be my fate when I didn't deserve it. No matter what I did, I would never be able to go back to the Realm.

The Higher Powers had made sure of that. I said under my breath, "All of these years of trying to redeem myself….All for nothing….." I slammed the laptop screen shut and stood up from the table. A glass that was left from last night rattled when I did. When it stopped, I saw my distorted reflection in the glass. In the glass I saw a tear roll down my cheek, and I slapped it off of the table.

It hit the wall and shattered. Shimmering pieces of glass fell to the floor, and I looked at the back of my hand. Shards had stuck in me from where the glass shattered when my hand hit it. I walked over to the sink and turned the water on. I stuck my hand under the water and washed away the shards that were stuck in me and also washed away the blood. The wound would heal in no time though. I turned off the water and grabbed a paper towel and pressed it to my hand.

Before walking away from the sink, I looked out of the window above it. The sky was brightening up with coming dawn, but I wasn't looked up at that. I was looking at the barrier. I wondered how long the second generation Higher Powers sat up there and watched down on me as I floundered to redeem myself when they knew it was pointless. I started to think that if I was still up there, then I wouldn't of ever planned another rebellion. Even if it was to avenge my parent's death.

But if I ever had the opportunity to go up there now, I'd plan another rebellion to get back at them. And I would try everything in my power to not fail if I did. My whole look on the Higher Powers were different now. When I used to not blame them for what happened to me, I did now. I let out a shaky sigh and walked over to the broken glass. Bertha would kill me when she found out one her glasses were shattered. I reached under a cabinet and grabbed the hand broom and dust pan and started to clean it up.

hmmmmm. had to think on this one to make it all try and fit together and i almost lost my train of thought. o.o but i think it turned out fairly ok. again, still part of the master plan. -randomly sings pokemon theme- o.o i dont know where that came from. lol. omg. i nearly froze to death at the parade yesterday. good thing i wrote the day before because if i tried to write with my frozen fingers then it would of been impossible. o.o lol. well, i keep forgetting this but if you havent checked out the cover or poll for the addition story The Puppetmaster, then please do so. thanks. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~