Kat looked around. Her eyes flickered around the barn house around her. "This isn't my first lifetime," she said to Eremiel.
"I am aware," the Angel said. "Why waste time and Grace when we could just go step by step into your past? We shall find out where your Wings were injured from the nearest point. Look-" The Angel pointed. "There you are." A teenage girl came around the corner. She had curly brown hair and pale, freckled skin. She was wearing an old-fashioned dress. Her aquamarine eyes searched the room for something.
"Can she- I- see us?" Kat asked, crouching down as if trying to hide. The younger Kathryn grabbed a ball of yarn and went back into the other room.
"No," Eremiel said. "We are invisible to all. Come, little one." He followed the young Nephilim through the doorway and into the living room. The young Kathryn was sitting at the feet of an elderly woman knitting.
"Do you see, my child?" she asked, showing the young Nephilim something. Kathryn nodded.
"Grandmother… can I try?" she asked hesitantly, aquamarine eyes shining. The old woman chuckled and handed it to her. Kathryn's fingers worked slowly in recreating what the woman had done. "Like that?"
"Yes, my child," the grandmother praised. "Well done." She watched for a moment more before pulling a quilt up over her lap and leaning back, humming a soft tune. Kathryn joined slowly. Kat looked at the old woman.
"That's the tune," she said softly. "That's the tune I keep humming to myself. I never knew what it was before, but now I do."
"I was never much involved with your life before this lifetime," Eremiel said, touching the older Kathryn's shoulder. "-but I do know that your grandmother here made up that song for you." There was a soft knock at the door.
The young Kathryn stood up and went to answer it. Someone with bright blue eyes stood in the doorway. "Hello?" she greeted him. "May I ask who you are?"
"My name is Castiel," he answered. "I am with the local police. You are Kathryn Jones, yes?"
"Yes, I am," Kathryn said nervously. "Why do you ask?"
"I am here to speak with you alone." The young woman turned around and let him in, going back into the living room. Castiel stopped in the entryway, staring ahead. Kat looked at her father's past vessel. He was an older man with sandy hair and suntanned skin.
"Grandmother," Kathryn said, kneeling beside the old woman. "This man is named Castiel. He is from the police. He wants to speak to me alone. Is that alright with you?"
"Yes, child, go ahead," the grandmother said. Kathryn turned to Castiel.
"Would you like a drink to take with you?" she asked politely.
"No, thank you," the blue-eyed Angel said. The young Nephilim nodded and led the way out onto the porch. Eremiel and Kat followed them.
"This is around the middle 1800's," Eremiel said quietly. The sun was shining brightly, pounding bright heat onto the surroundings. The dry grass crunched under their feet and a dog panted beneath the wooden porch. There was a wooden plank held up by rope for a swing on the withering tree in the yard. Its leaves were crumpled and browned around the edges. Castiel and Kathryn sat down on the wooden bench in the tree's shadow. Kat and Eremiel stood in front of them. Kat paced back and forth before her other self, biting a thumb nail.
"What is this about?" Kathryn asked. "Has there been a murder?" Castiel shook his head.
"I am not really from the police," he announced. Kathryn tensed. "I am an Angel of the Lord."
The past Nephilim chuckled nervously. "Now listen, Mister, I'm no unbeliever, but I know Angels don't just come down to Earth. Whatever you wanted, you go on and leave here without it." Castiel grabbed her arm as she stood up. Terror filled her eyes, but she didn't scream. The Angel looked up.
"This has been a hard summer," he mused at the empty blue sky.
"Hot and dry the whole time," Kathryn said.
"Seems like this land needs rain."
"We won't get any anytime soon," Kathryn whimpered, trying to pry her wrist from his hand.
Kat stopped pacing and looked up at a sudden darkness. Thunder resounded in the boiling clouds and lightning flickered. A cool breeze leapt at her face, peeling her blonde hair away from her cheeks. The previous version stood up in wonder, her brown hair flowing. Both sets of aquamarine eyes were staring in fascination at the sudden storm clouds. Slowly, pattering began around the yard. Puffs of dust rose from the places the grass had been roasted away from the earth by the summer heat. The rain pelted down everywhere, huge droplets spilling like a waterfall from the sky. Kat looked down at her hand, seeing the rain splatter against her skin, but not feeling it. Kathryn leapt away from the Angel on the bench, finally wrenching her hand free of his grip.
"You're a devil!" she cried. "You're a witch!"
"Kathryn, if you do not listen to me, your grandmother will die." Above him, lightning flickered menacingly. The younger version froze. Castiel came forward to her. "My name is Castiel, I am an Angel of the Lord, and I am your father. If you come with me, your grandmother will no longer remember you and she will be safe. If you do not come with me, demons will come for you and her, killing her to try and kill you."
"What are you talking about?" she cried, but she didn't run. She stepped closer to him. Somehow, the rain couldn't touch them. "To kill me?"
Castiel tilted his head. "He knows something is wrong," Eremiel explained. "Nephilim are supposed to remember everything after meeting an Angel who tells them what they are. You haven't done it before. This may be the very first time you couldn't remember."
"You are called a Nephilim," Castiel carried on, unaware of the other Angel and his future daughter. "Most Nephilim are born through sin. If an Angel falls to the earth and mates with a human, it can be killed with an Angel blade. You were born through purity. Thousands of years ago, I came into contact with a human, and several months later, that human had a child. You. You can only be killed by a bronze blade covered in the blood of the one you love the most. If you do not die that way, you are reborn in a new body. Demons have been searching for you since the beginning, trying to find the one you love the most so they can kill you for good."
"Why?" Kathryn asked.
"Because you are to be a soldier in a war against hell," the Angel answered.
The young Nephilim looked frightened. "A war?" she cried. "Me, fight? Never! I couldn't lift a hand if I were being attacked, let alone fight in a demon war!"
"You must fight," Castiel said bluntly.
"Why must I fight?" Kathryn asked. "Surely there are more Nephilim?" Castiel opened his mouth to reply. Eremiel put a hand on Kat's shoulder. The memory paused.
"That is enough," he said quietly. "We must-"
"No, wait!" Kat interrupted. "I need to know this."
"Why?"
"Because you don't want me to know," she answered stoutly. The three-Winged Angel sighed and released her.
"Very well," he allowed.
The memory resumed. "There are many colors of Wings for each Nephilim," Castiel continued. "In order to win the war, we must take one feather from each color and use the power to close off the gates of hell. Without every color, it is not possible." Kat gaped at her father.
"What?" she whispered. She turned swiftly to Eremiel. "Is that why there is only one color of every Wing in the Faction?"
"Do you not have any other of my color?" Kathryn asked.
"The last blue-Winged Nephilim died several hundred years ago."
"Yes. Your Faction contains what is left of three colors. You are our last hope, Kathryn," Eremiel said, dipping his head to her. "Your Faction contains the last Red, Taylor, the last White, Jocelyn, and the last Green, Anna." Kat turned her attention back to what Castiel was saying.
"If you come with me, the demons will have no reason to go after your grandmother," he said. "If you choose to stay, she will never be safe again."
Kathryn lowered her eyes and took a few steps in a circle around her father. "This is all so much," she whispered.
"You are the last hope of this world. You must help us. You must come with me."
Kathryn looked up and at her future self for a moment, as if she could actually see her, but then she turned back to Castiel. "No," she answered. "No, I can't go with you. This is all too sudden. If I am meant to fight in a war, then surely defending Grandmother will be instinctual. I cannot go with you. I am sorry." Castiel dipped his head.
"Very well," he murmured. "You have been warned." He disappeared with a fluttering of Wings.
Eremiel laid his hand on Kat's shoulder. Everything shifted and the view changed. Kathryn, now in a cream and blue dress, was arriving on a saddled horse. "This is the scene of your death in this life," he announced. Nausea leapt to life in Kat's belly. Sunlight streamed down from the clear blue sky. Heat waves and steam rose from the greening grass. The horse's hooves splashed through the thin remnants of mud on the path. The younger version of the Nephilim looked down at muddy footprints on the ground. Kat smelled sulfur. She spun to face her past self.
"Leave! They won't hurt her if you leave! Get out of here!" Her shrieks of protest were left unheeded as Kathryn dismounted and sprinted into the house. Kat followed quickly. She appeared just in time to see the grandmother gasp in agony, an arm wrapped tightly around her throat. A man with black eyes retracted the blade from the old woman's side.
"Get her!" he cried. There was a flash and Kat saw Kathryn get overtaken by two more demons. The old woman hit the floor, now dead, and the first demon leapt forward. The blade sunk into Kathryn's ribs. Kat's aquamarine eyes stared in horror at her dying form. The younger version's Wings spread, shadows lighting on the wall behind her. They were bright cerulean blue, only slightly misshapen.
Her body fell and everything went dark. 'It was my fault,' a voice whispered. 'I didn't go with my father and now Grandmother is dead. She's dead. Who's dead? Dead? Nobody died. What's going on?' Eremiel took Kat's arm.
"This is the time between births, when your mind resets," the Angel said. He tilted his head. "I have never seen someone's thoughts reset this way. Usually your past lives stay with you, like a dream from when you were very little. They do not with you. In your mind, it is like it never happened at all." His gray eyes looked to her. "Some of your memory may be coming back. Do you remember anything else?"
Kat nodded, eyes unfocused. "It's like a thousand blank faces covered in blood. This isn't the first time I refused, and it was certainly not the last." She looked up, eyes shining with tears. "It was my fault. I thought I could protect her, but I couldn't. It was my fault she died." A great hole had opened inside of her. It felt like she was being drained of happiness and filled with pain. But it wasn't over yet. What other secrets were hidden in her dark past?
She felt a tug on her Wings. If the Angel sensed her discomfort, he didn't show it as he brought her further back. Around them was the hustle and bustle of a little village. Kat found herself easily, coming around a corner and following the pull on her feathers. Her younger self was saying something to a younger Castiel.
"I am sorry, Castiel," she said, British accent playing with her words. "But I can't. With my mother killed by the Plague, I have to take care of my father and my baby brother. I can't go with you." Castiel looked down.
"You have been warned," he murmured. Kathryn's eyes softened.
"I vaguely remember what happened last time," she said. "Now that I know what they're going to do, I can fight it. I won't lose my family again. And though you say you're my father, nobody could ever replace Papa. He has been there for me. Where have you been." The Angel left without a goodbye in a flutter of feathers. Kathryn turned and walked into a small house nearby. There was a man inside with a baby on his knee. He was humming to it as it cried fitfully in his arms. She smiled at her father and took the baby. She spun in a slow circle, singing softly to it. The child immediately quieted down and stared at her with wide, bright eyes.
Kat chuckled. "Music has been a part of my life for a long time, I guess," she said quietly, as if afraid the child would hear her and start crying again.
"Since the beginning," Eremiel said. The baby was slowly quieting down more and more until it was finally asleep. Kathryn laid him down in a little cloth bed nearby. She walked over and sat down beside her father.
"What did that man want?" the father asked.
"He said he wanted help at the church," the girl lied. "I told him I couldn't because I must take care of you and William."
He spat and looked away angrily. "You should have gone," the man snapped. "Get away from this place, this town so filled with death. You deserve a life better than what I can give."
"How could I ever leave you, Papa?" Kathryn asked incredulously. "I love you." She leaned in and hugged him. He wrapped his thick arms around her, his tough exterior deteriorating.
"Kathryn, ever since your mother died, you have been such a great help around here," he said quietly. He reached up and laid a hand on the back of her bright blonde head. "I'm so proud of you, and I thank God for you every day. I'm sorry I snapped, but I do believe that you deserve such a better life than you have here." Eremiel touched her arm and the view changed again. Suddenly flames were licking at the house, tearing at the wooden walls. The father was screaming for his daughter. William, the baby, was wailing. There was a thud and Kathryn was cast through the door. She landed heavily on the ground with a grunt.
Standing up, she faced down four men. Their eyes flashed black in the bright fire light. One of them leapt forward and sunk a knife into her father, then slashed at her. Seeing that the blood and knife didn't burn her, they went for the child. Her father knelt on the ground, covering the baby boy with his body. He was dragged off by two demons and thrown backwards. The child was dead with a flick of the knife, and Kathryn was run through in the gut. Darkness took the vision.
"Oh my God, what have I done? It's my fault. It's my fault!" Fiery pain laced through her. Kat fell forward, clutching her chest. She felt a thousand hurts striking her chest, a thousand heartbreaks bursting all at once. She opened her mouth and let out a soft gasp, all she could muster, as something in her Wings snapped. Every death of a loved one replayed in her head, whether by demons or not. She remembered her first family and her last family.
"No!" she whispered. She remembered what had happened now. She remembered everything. Her aquamarine eyes shut tight against the tears rising up.
She remembered sitting on the tailgate of her only grandfather's truck as he worked on barbed-wire fences at the farm. She remembered eating cookie dough with her grandmother and laying beside her mother crying when she lost a pet for the first time. She remembered playing video games with her younger brother and singing in the car with her older brother one day's road trip. She remembered her grandfather the mechanic helping her fix up her father's old Mustang and watching her turn into the car Kathryn loved so much even now. The pocket knife Sam had asked about, the initials were her grandfather's. It was a gift from the time when she had wanted to start carving.
Memories of fishing with her father flooded her vision. She felt the soft touch of grass and smelled the familiar smell of her dog as they slept in the midday spring sun. She remembered laying on the carpet playing with her puppy while the bustle of life went on around her. Laughter filled her ears and she heard her mother's beloved voice again. She remembered Thanksgivings and Christmases filled with food and family and music, being together just for the sake of being together.
She remembered Castiel appearing at her doorstep in that dirty trenchcoat and telling her she needed to come now. Refusing had been so easy. She had been so sure she could protect them. But the feeling of her father's blood soaking her shirt overcame her and she vomited onto the darkness around her. She smelled the sulfur again and felt the blade slashing at her belly. She heard her little brother scream her name. She saw her older brother stand between her and the demon again. He fell, the breath knocked from him by a knife in his chest. Her vocal chords strained again. "Robert!" she screamed. "David! Mom! Dad!"
But they were gone and a demon was approaching her with a bronze blade. Castiel grabbed the demon by the throat and threw him backwards, dragging him away from his daughter. Kathryn screamed again, trapped in the memory. She felt the thrill of horror and the ache in her legs from running, even away from Phoenix when Castiel brought her there for the first time.
Strongest of all, she remembered why it had happened. She had said no. She hadn't gone with Castiel. It was her fault. All her fault. "No!" She let her knees hit the ground and crouched forward, clutching her chest and heaving. Every little movement, every little gasp for what little air she could get, it all hurt. It ached. Her Wing tattoos started bleeding, soaking through her shirt and dripping down her jeans and into the dark beneath her feet. Eremiel knelt next to her, though his presence didn't register to her broken-hearted body. "I remember everything. Everything. I know what this is. I know why my Wings hurt so much. I know what's wrong with me. This is my form of self harm. This me punishing myself. And I know where it started." The Angel laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Let us go back to Phoenix," he said quietly. "You remember what happened. We can go back now."
"No," she said quietly, her eyes dark and fixed on the dark beneath her hands. "I know where we have to go next. I have to see. I have to see it myself. I went through theirs again." She looked up, eyes shining with tears. "I have to go through hers too. I owe her that."
It was her Wings that carried them now. She landed perfectly in the midst of the battle, reliving it heartbeat by heartbeat in Jocelyn's mind.
A ball of white light slammed into the ground beside her. An explosion went off nearby, scattering earth. Jocelyn's ears rang as she tucked an Angel blade beneath her arm to grab a vial of holy water from her belt. Two men dropped over the side of the trench. Her dark brown eyes flickered between their abysmal black eyes. A voice above her yowled words in Enochian and a figure dressed in silver and blue fell on the demons. The newcomer slashed open their throats in one slash and stabbed one of them in the chest with another flick. Light flashed in their eyes and beneath their skin. They fell face down, dead. The figure pushed their gray-blue hood back, revealing a pale face framed in straight, black hair. Aquamarine eyes gazed out from beneath a cut on her forehead.
"Kathryn," Jocelyn said, clasping arms with her comrade. Kathryn helped her to her feet and glanced over her shoulder at another spattering of dirt. "I'm almost out of holy water and my blade is worn." She was handed more holy water in a flask. Kathryn leapt up to the top of the trench as Jocelyn loaded her belt again. Her black hair flowed behind her, joining her roiling blue-gray cloak in the breeze. Castiel's Nephilim seal was stitched into it. Her silver chain mail and breastplate shone in the sunlight flitting fitfully through the clouds of dust and smoke. Streaks of blue and white Grace swirled smoothly across the solid armor. Her blade appeared in her hand, which hung beside a skirt the same color as her hooded cloak. Her leather-gloved hands adjusted their grip on her weapon.
The blue-eyed Nephilim leapt back down and spat in the dirt. "Earth," she sneered. "God's greatest gift to his creations. What does Lucifer do with his beloved father's gift? Hacks. Burns. Destroys." She kicked a clod of scorched earth. "He might as well have just blown it up. It will be nothing but dust by the time this war is over."
Jocelyn felt a shiver. "This war hasn't even started yet," she murmured. Kathryn looked her dead in the eye.
"This is the beginning of the war," she said. "A war that will wage for thousands of years. This is where it starts."
Jocelyn tensed a little when a blond man rolled down into the trench. "They're advancing," he shouted over the explosion scattering earth above them. The three flinched away from the heat of the holy fire.
"Taylor, get the Youngers out of here," Kathryn ordered. "Jocelyn and I will draw them off!" She looked up. "Jacob! Alaina!" A man with peppered black hair and green eyes appeared with a black woman in her prime.
"We need to fall back," Jacob yelled. "There are fresh demons and hounds to the southwest. We lost the Elemental Faction to them."
"Jocelyn and I will draw them to the east. Get as many out as you can. We'll try to buy you some time." Kathryn looked over at Jocelyn. "You with me?" Jocelyn's dark brown eyes lit darkly.
"Always and forever," she said. "Let's go." Taylor, Jacob, and Alaina left to do what they were told. The sisters leapt up onto the battlefield, yelling. Jocelyn unsheathed her sword and Kathryn wielded her staff. Two Angels appeared beside them, one with a black cloak, and another with a light gray. The Grace was packed into huge suites of armor, white light shining through and blinding any creature without Grace. Eremiel's triplet Wings spread as they leapt through the line of demons. Black eyes flashed on every side of them. The earth shuddered and every movement stopped.
Deafening silence surrounded them and every soldier of heaven and hell turned to see what dark terror had risen. Two monstrous suits of armor rose above the battlefield. One shone silver and white in the light of the sun above dust and smoke. The other glowed red and black. The Angels beside Kathryn and Jocelyn threw their arms out, blocking their progress. The one with the black cloak shoved Kathryn backwards. "Go," he said in his angelic voice.
"Castiel, we must fight," she cried out. The Red and Silver Angels clashed with a thunderous, world-shaking bang.
"The Battle has begun!" Jocelyn cowered behind Eremiel's gray-cloaked shoulder. The earth quaked and shook everything but the other Angels to their knees. "Castiel, we cannot escape!"
Kathryn's aquamarine eyes were dark. "Then we must watch as this world burns or is saved," she prayed to them over the sound of the fight. "Fight, Michael." And he did. The Silver flung himself against the Red, knocking him backwards. Miles and miles of turf was flattened and ruined. The earth cracked and rose, spurting liquid rock thousands of feet into the sky. Clouds of bitter black ash coated the skies, blotting out the sun. The only light shining was the Angels lighting a sparse area around themselves and the red-orange light of the opened earth. With a scream like the world was ending, one fell into the abyss and the Red stood tall and proud against the blackened sky.
Kat watched from her sister's eyes as the demons cried out as a collective, black-eyed beast, rising against the remaining Angels and Nephilim, their leader having cast down his brother. Jocelyn fought for her life, knowing that if she died now, it would be forever. Blades of demons slashed at her from every side and black smoke choked out the air she gasped for. Her muscles screamed a protest as she strained against the tide of demonic soldiers. She heard a cry of grief and rage from an Angel as she blocked a blow from a yellow-eyed demon. Jocelyn's dark eyes flickered towards the sound. What she saw blocked the pain of the blade driving itself into her leg. Kathryn was leaned forward, gasping with her feet dangling as she hung on a pike protruding from her belly, blood dripping down her armor and legs. Rivulets of Grace flowed in the crimson explosion from her throat as a blade caught a vein. Another sword sliced between the plates of armor on her shoulder blades, pinning her into the ground.
The demons rushed away, chased by a furious and formidable Castiel, and Jocelyn stumbled to her sister. Jocelyn took off her helmet and pulled the sword from her sister's back. She rolled Kathryn into her lap, removing the pike's bronze head from the black haired Nephilim's belly. Tears coursed down the brunette Nephilim's face as she saw the Grace fading from the aquamarine eyes. She touched Kathryn's pale face, smearing the droplets of crimson resting there. Kathryn gasped for air with an excruciating gurgle. Blood flowed from her mouth and nose. She coughed and smirked a little.
"Remember when we were kids," she began, Grace now gone. "-and we used to see how far up we could get using our Wings?" Pure will was all that held her there.
Jocelyn laughed shortly, half sobbing. "You couldn't get down so we made a game of falling." The dying Nephilim snickered and coughed again.
"Oh, I want to play that game of Terror one last time," she rasped.
"This isn't one last time," Jocelyn said desperately, bending further over her sister. She reached out her palm to one of her sister's wounds. Kathryn grabbed her wrist. "No, stop, let me heal you!" Kathryn smiled wanly.
"It's okay," she whispered. "I'm okay. Keep your Grace to heal yourself. It's over now. I'm okay. It's what I want." Jocelyn grabbed the edge of her sister's armor by her shoulder, dragging her closer into a one-armed hug. Her face contorted and she sobbed hard, pressing her forehead to her sister's shoulder. Her body shook and trembled.
"Mother hated that game," she sobbed, tears wiping a clear trail through the blood on the armor.
Kathryn laughed a tiny bit, wheezing and gurgling through the blood pooling in her lungs. "I loved it. I loved being with you." Jocelyn pulled back a little and smiled fitfully at her. Kathryn looked seriously at her sister, thinking. "It's really starting to hit me… that this is the end. We're in the final countdown, and I really don't want it to end. But, of course, it has been a journey well worth going on. If it is going to end, I am so glad to have gone on this journey with you, Jocelyn. Thank you, dear sister. Here's to the life we led." She smiled a little. "Come on, little sister. Let's play." Jocelyn hugged her tight. "When will I see you again?" Kathryn whispered, voice fading.
"When you wake," came the broken reply. By the time Jocelyn had carried them to the top of the atmosphere to play their game, Kathryn was gone. She wrapped her Wings around the dead Nephilim and the fall began, molding brilliant fire around them. The brunette Nephilim prayed to the Silver Angel. 'My sister is dead. There is one chance of bringing her back, and that is for my father to be defeated. Will you help me?'
The Archangel replied, 'Aim true and I will strike. For your sacrifice, I will bring her Grace back myself. The other Angels will bring her spirit back.' Jocelyn called Castiel to retrieve his daughter and he did so, taking her to the ground. Castiel, Eremiel, and Raziel put Kathryn's spirit back in her body, and Kat flew to attention.
Something felt different. She had no Grace. "Where's Jocelyn?" she asked, sitting up. She saw her sister's comet trail, burning through the sky. Lucifer looked up just as she came near him. The ball of fire hit him in the chest, knocking him off balance. The titan armor that was Michael rose and threw him down. Lucifer's red and black hand grabbed the ball of fire and dragged it down with him. Her heart twisted in her chest, knocking the wind out of her. Michael turned in her direction and held up a massive hand. She felt her Grace light inside her. For a moment, she felt the pristine blue glow of her hawk's wings. Then, everything shattered inside her. "Jocelyn died for me," she sobbed, falling forward onto her knees. "From this day on, I will never let any of my family go. I swear on her I will protect them."
Everything stopped around her. Spirals of thick black smoke froze. Castiel's Grace paused in its shimmering. Dirt clods from explosions stopped in midair. Kat slowly stood up, the hurt in her Wings numbing her. She looked aimlessly down at the ground, heart set and cold. She saw Eremiel move out of the corner of her eye. "So Castiel knew," she murmured.
"Yes," the Angel replied. "He had me travel to hell to sneak Jocelyn out of the Cage. She has been there all of these years. That's why she looks the same as she did here."
"Castiel knew all of this?" Kat asked quietly. "Everything that was wrong with me and why?"
Eremiel touched his black-cloaked brother. "Yes, he did."
"If I had known…" Kat turned her aquamarine eyes on the Angel. "Would it have gotten worse?"
Eremiel looked down and sighed a little. "No, it wouldn't have. You would have been able to stop."
Something yanked on Kathryn's Wings and the memory continued playing, but their attention was pulled beneath the ground. Jocelyn was falling through fire and rock, crashing against the walls of a tunnel twisting and curving down further into hell. She hit the bottom and stood up. Suddenly she was surrounded by demons and everything was dark. An Angel blade flashed in her hand and she fought hard against the onslaught. Kathryn's heart pounded.
"What is this?" she asked. "I know everything now, I remember everything now. I don't remember this!"
Eremiel stood taller, fear flitting in the gray depths of his eyes. "That is because this is not a memory!" he cried. "We must go!" He grabbed her arm roughly.
"What's going on?" Kat shrieked.
"There is an attack happening in the bunker at Phoenix!"