"Abe, you'll take these ones."
She watched her older brother take the files from the Captain. There was an elephant in the room that none of them had wanted to address, one that most certainly needed addressed at some point, but they were all presently avoiding at the moment.
Another sorting, another training class to divide up among them, another set of students being taken under their tutelage.
She slowly stills her kicking feet, curling her fingers around the edge of his desk she's taken as her seat, looking down quietly as the change truly shows itself to them all. Time had stopped for her, the moment she was cast out, stripped of her title and position, torn from her brothers sides, but it hadn't stopped for them. Of course, it wouldn't. It was business as usual for them; fighting, training, teaching, nothing stopped in their worlds. Life had continued on.
There were so many in the ranks now that she didn't know, names she had never learned, faces she hadn't gotten to commit to memory. Friendships she'd missed out on. Lives she hadn't gotten to be a part of.
None of them knew her. They didn't know her name. Know that she used to be a Power, the only female Power, the first and last (for now). They knew nothing about her. They looked to her in confusion, wondering as to why she stood by their sides, why she talked to them as though they had some familial relationship, how she knew the Captain so well to be able to converse with him so freely.
And all because of one poor decision. A judgement well made. But a poor decision made at poor timing, none the less.
She was back now. Back home. Back at her brothers side. Back in their fold, their family. But she was still an outcast, ostracized, isolated from the others.
Time hadn't started again.
It was still on pause.
A clock with dead batteries.
She had no place in this world. Not anymore. She wasn't even a warrior anymore, not technically, having refused to come back to his flock. She was flockless. She couldn't follow anyone, not a single order, not after they had sat back and watched her be cast from her family and her home. She only stayed with them because she had no where else to go. She didn't even have a place among them, not technically, they could kick her out at any time, any moment they desired to have the extra space that was her room.
It was theirs for the taking.
Hurt bubbled inside her, pulling at her like waves pulled at the sand of a beach, sadness settled on her heart. Anger boiled in her blood.
Gripping the edge of the desk, she hoped down lightly, her head bowed as she stepped between two of her tall brothers and turned out the door, the silence trailing behind her.
It was the elephant in the room that no one wanted to address.
They watched her go, as silent as the night, head bowed away from them. Silence folded over them, as they exchanged concerned glances, wanting to follow after her but not knowing if they should. Abraxos stared at the door, the hand with the files slowly lowering, staring at the spot she had disappeared from. He turned to his Captain, Nisroc was concerned, his eyebrows scrunched together, she had been as silent as a church mouse for the better part of the week.
"Nis….?"
"Follow her."
More then one of them moved, she was closest to Abe, but they all adored her. She was their baby sister, she always would be, no matter time nor distance.
Abraxos lead them out of their Captains office, Puriel and Haniel close behind him, Titus and Nisroc at their heels.
It didn't take them long to find her.
They just had to follow her voice.
…
Her appearance so suddenly in the door way of his office startled him, her silence was unnerving in a certain way, and he sets his quill down to address her sudden appearance.
"Abra—"
"You ruined my life."
She cuts him off softly, fists curling at her sides, as she takes a deep breath and finally manages to lift her head to look him in the eyes.
"You took everything from me."
He stares at her.
"You ruined my life!" Her voice slowly began to rise. "You took my brothers from me, my family, you took everything from me!"
She stalks into his office.
"No one knows me, they don't know who I am, none of them know my name!"
Standing before his desk, he scoots back as she bends, swiping her arm over the top of his desk and knocks everything over. The parchments he'd been filling out ruined by the spilled ink, ceramic knick knacks shattered on the floor around them, and she breaths in deeply to steady her overturned temper.
"You took everything! My place! My title! My position! Everything!"
The Archangel is speechless, stunned by this sudden display, by the sudden outburst.
"I hope it haunts you!" She points a finger at him from over the other side of his desk. "I hope it all haunts you!" Looking down at the ruined parchments, she reaches for them, thrusting them into his face. "I wish they all knew you, know who you really were, what you're really capable of!" And she throws them at him. "My world crumbled when you cast me out. I can only hope your world crumbled just as horribly as mine did. My world can never be rebuilt, and I hope, I pray that yours is irreparable."
"Aba!"
Abraxas jumps in surprise, the Archangel jolts at their sudden appearance behind her, as his arms curl around her waist and pull her back. Familiar arms, arms that used to hold her through everything, arms that she was yanked from as she was cast out. As she was banished. Exiled. Forgotten.
She struggled against his grip as he pulls her back from their archangel. "You took everything from me! You ruined my life! You took everything!" Her hair whips around as she struggled to pull herself free, as she kicks and squirms, lifted from her feet. "No one knows me! They don't know me! And it's all your fault!"
"Abraxos. Get her out of here."
The Captain's voice is firm, stern even, spitting out the order to remove her from the premises in the wake of her verbal attack. He nods, lifting her cleanly from her feet, leaning back slightly to hold her up, and he turns quickly to retreat from the room with Puriel and Haniel behind him.
…
"Put me down! Abe! Put me down!" She struggles in his grip, squirming and kicking and scratching, but he holds fast. "Let me go! Put me down! Let go, Abe!"
"You need to calm down."
"You need to put me down!"
"Fine." He drops her, and she yelps, landing in a sprawled heap on the rug covered floor under them. "I'll put you down."
Abraxas glares up at him from her heap on the floor. "Ow, you imbecile!"
"Watch your mouth when you speak to me."
Steadily climbing back to her feet, the small angel shoves him as hard as she can, being so much shorter then he is, it barely makes him take a step back. "Why'd you take me!"
"Because you needed to calm down." He raises his hands placatingly. "Aba, why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't tell you everything!"
"Yes, you do!"
She huffs, looking between her three brothers, but her eyes ultimately fall on his. "Because...! Because you're not my brother, anymore!"
Abraxos frowns lightly, stepping forward towards her, hands still raised in a gesture for peace. "I'm always going to be your brother."
"But you're not!" She throws her hands up. "You moved on! Your world kept going!"
"You are my world." He takes another step forward, curling his fingers around the undercurve of her jaw lightly, tilting her head back. "You've been my world since you were that tiny little thing following me everywhere like a little duckling."
"But—"
"We'll introduce you to everyone."
"But—"
"Aba." He bows his head lightly. "I know you have a hard time believing in anyone else, but, please, believe in me."
Abraxas nods silently, tears pooling in her eyes, nodding again. He leans forward and kisses her forehead. "Come here, my little duckling." She folds herself against him, clutching at his tunic, and he feels the warmth of little tears. "I'm not going anywhere."
"We're not going anywhere." Nisroc had returned, curling his hand around the back of her head, and shares a nod with the others. "Your home is with us. We are here. You are home."
