At the Bellagio fountains
Khan skidded to a stop, taking in the sight of the once lovely water works now cracked and dry. He remembered the place from one of his frequent hikes into other realities, stopping to watch the show before opening a door back to his monastery. It had been a wonderful performance, artificially colorful yet still stirring. "Not as pretty as the waterfalls of the Fae realm" he thought, walking around the edge of the fountain. "But not bad." He glanced up, noticing the large form of Rafael circling close by. "Hell. Guess we're going to have an audience after all."
"Well, well - look who's here boys" a voice called out from the rubble near the hotel. A group of maybe eight ragged men, each holding automatic weapons, stumbled out from behind the cover of wrecked cars and upturned concrete. The group formed around one man in particular, a squat, compact man with cruel eyes and a scarred face. "If it isn't Gabriel's whelp. What is it he calls you - his Little Dragon? Now what would you be doing out here all alone without Daddy to protect you."
Khan frowned. Gabriel hadn't addressed him as "little dragon" since he'd arrived in Vega - and none of these men should have a memory of his previous existence. Unless..."Let me guess - you lot are some of Alex's outriders? Mercenaries for hire he's been trying to integrate into what passes for his army?"
The man snorted. "Alex - the Savior of Vega? That boy couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. But he does like to talk to those he thinks he can trust. And when he came back to check on his so-called army, sputtering and complaining about Gabriel's son returning to Vega... well that was something I just couldn't resist knowing more about."
Khan sighed. "Thanks a lot big brother" he muttered under his breath. "Your damn memory spell has just put a target on my back." The young abbot shifted his stance so that if necessary he could see and react towards all the group at once. "So - now you know who I am. Who the bloody hell are you?"
"Names Aubrey" the leader of the group growled. "Came from Mallory. A good town until your daddy decided to rain down eight-balls on the world. Would still be good but his bloody brother destroyed our only source of protection - the fire that kept those freaks away from us. Now we're stuck here, in Vega, praying for crumbs to feed our families. Or what's left of them. So I think it's only fair that Gabriel finally get a taste of what he's forced on all of us. I think it's time he got to grieve for the loss of his family - his child - like many of us have."
Khan raised on eyebrow in mock surprise. "Wow - looks like the old man was right about ending you lot. Get a second chance to protect your world and all you can think about is revenge. Maybe we should just let the Fallen raze the city - not like there's anything worth saving here."
The men behind Aubrey muttered in anger at the young fighter's acid tongue. Aubrey smiled cruelly. "Big words for someone about to meet the "old man". Let's see how brave you are with your entrails bleeding out on the ground." He stepped aside and nodded to the group behind him. "Take him down."
Rafael landed just short of the group, just in time to hear the command to fire. He charged forward, determined to protect his brother's child, the faux nephew he had watched grow into a good and decent man. But from the sound of it, he was probably already too late.
Automatic weapons, aimed squarely at Khan were racked and fired with a sound like multiple cars backfiring all at once. Smoke obscured their vision for a moment leaving them blinded to the fate of their target. But when the smoke cleared...
"What the ...?" one of the men gasped.
Blocks away, Rowan and Seraphiel were facing off, the Seraphim glaring at the girl who bore his student's face but was not her. "So" he snarled. "Who are you and what have you done with my girl?"
"As strange as this is going to sound - Miry no longer exists. And yet she does - I AM Miry. Things have changed and not by any action of mine but by the command of the All Father." Rowan rubbed her arms, trying to bring some warmth back to her skin. The desert night had turned chilly and without Michael (or her jacket) she was starting to get cold. She remembered ruefully the old soldier chastizing her about always forgetting her jacket and then complaining about the cold. "Probably best not to bring that up right now" she thought to herself.
Seraphiel frowned. "I don't understand what you are saying girl. How can my student not exist and yet I still remember her? What do you mean that Father...?"
"Long story and one I'd rather tell with my brothers to add in detail I'm likely to forget" she replied, turning to look in the direction of the fountains. "I'm supposed to meet them both at the Bellagio fountains."
"Where you first threw your ring at the Firebird and abdicated your throne?" Seraphiel asked solemnly.
"Yes, well, about that" she replied, holding out her left hand. There, on her ring finger with the Claddagh, the symbol of her place at her brother's side as Queen of the Fae. A ring Seraphiel knew had been in his pocket since she had launched it at her brother's face. He slowly reached in and pull it out, holding it out to her. The rings were almost identical except that the crown on Rowan's ring was in the design of the high Fae coronets that both she and Arthur wore, not the basic design of the traditional Irish rings. "It's a bit different, isn't it?" she commented, examining both rings carefully. "Arthur made this one for me himself when we took the throne. And I made his - it bound us together as rulers of the Fae. And frankly, it meant more to us that we had both put some effort into our tokens instead of just having some elvish jeweler take a whack at reproducing something in a drawing."
"Arthur?" Seraphiel asked, confused. "You mean the Firebird?"
"Yes - I think his previous incarnation was called Damien. I like Arthur better - doesn't remind me so much of the Omen."
Seraphiel cocked one eyebrow at her. "Do I want to know what the Omen is?"
She laughed softly. "No - but if we make it out of this clusterfuck alive I'll get the DVD and play it for you. You might actually find it amusing."
Suddenly, the rapid fire sound of guns echoed down the road, coming from the area of the dry fountains. Rowan's eyes grew wide with surprise. "No! My brothers!" she gasped, sprinting past the older angel towards the sound. Seraphiel snarled and charged after her. Above them, coming from the opposite direction, a streak of light shaped like a large hawk was headed in the same direction. All converging at the fountains.
In the Library
"That's so horrible!" Cassandra said breathlessly. "Those terrible men shooting at Khan just because..."
"Because they had lost all of their loved ones to Gabriel and Michael's war" Rafael replied quietly. "Yes - it wasn't fair to blame the young dragon for his father's acts but these men had lost everything. They wanted something to make the pain go away - and that something was inflecting the same horror on my brother."
"But Khan was here when Arthur appeared" Jenkins protested. "So obviously it didn't happen! The boy didn't die."
"No - but what his brother did to those men was almost more horrible." Rafael stared down at the floor, hands clenching. "I had never seen the Triad use Fae magic in the way they did that night. And I hope I never do again."
"What happened?" Baird asked quietly.
In Vega
Seraphiel and Rafael exchanged amazed glances at the scene in front of them. A group of humans, weapons clattering to the ground, were staring in shock at Gabriel's son who stood with his back to the fountains. Between the young abbot and the men was a hail of bullets, suspended in time and space like angry, metallic bees. buzzing angrily for release. Khan stood with one hand outstretched, a mystic symbol glowing in front of him as he carefully corralled all that had been fired at him into one nice, neat little package. His dark eyes were almost black with the intensity of his concentration. And climbing up his back was the shadowy figure of a dragon, talons extended in the same mystical sign.
Seraphiel glanced back at Rowan. "What the hell is he doing?"
"Keeping himself alive" Rowan snarled. She glanced up as the shimmering figure of a fiery bird joined them. "He won't have to for long. Arthur is here."
Rafael's eyes widened at the sight of the Phoenix figure retreating to allow the human form of Uriel's Chosen to walk up to his brother. The young king absently patted the dragon figure as he moved into position behind his sibling.
"I'll take it now, little brother" Arthur's gravely voice rang in Khan's ear. "Go stand with our sister. On my mark, ready, steady - NOW!" The two men exchanged places quickly with the younger fighter pivoting sideways to allow his elder brother to stand in his place, the sigil holding the bullets in place now under Arthur's command. "Now then, let's have a little fun shall we?" He rolled a finger over the symbol in front of him, changing it slightly. The bullets went from angry bees to maddened, flaming hornets howling for blood. He smiled coldly as he proclaimed "Fiat meum super inimicos meos interierint et visitaverit eos ignis" - Let my fire be visited on my enemies."
Rafael watched in horror as the bullets turned in midair, streaming fire back towards the men who had launched them. Some of the humans were lucky - their ammunition found a vital organ, killing them on the spot. Others were not so fortunate. The archangel gasped as the projectiles hit their marks, turning the men's bodies into human torches, burning them from the inside out. His ears rang with the screams of pain as they hit the ground, his lungs filled with the odor of burning flesh. Soon, all that was left were ashes and the echoes of their screams. But as horrible as the sight was, what shattered the burly angel most was the look of total indifference on the face of the young man he had loved since he was an infant. Gabriel's son looked down at his sister with a half-smile, shrugging as the last of the attackers was consumed by the flames. "One way of dealing with it" Khan said calmly.
"The only way to deal with it when you're a Phoenix" Arthur called over to the duo, calmly brushing the ashes of the fires off his jacket.
Aubrey, the leader of the attackers stood to one side and watched his compatriots gruesome death. He fumbled to pull his own weapon out of his belt - only to feel the pressure of fingers squeezing his windpipe shut as the girl across from him held out her closed fist and magically lifted him off his feet. "Going somewhere?" she purred.
Arthur shook his head at the sight. "No, I need your other talents, my queen. Little brother - take her place as I took yours."
Khan nodded, reaching out and replacing Rowan's mental grip on the man's throat with his own. "Got it" he growled, lifting the man slightly off the ground. "Live or die?"
Rowan shrugged. "Probably easier if he's dead. The dead can't lie to me but the living... well that's another story isn't it?"
"Whatever you say, sis" Khan rumbled. "Whatever you say."