Quiescis 2.6
"So what now?" The question was directed at Uriel as I moved out onto the street, my wings wrapped around me, not caring much about the looks I was getting from pretty much everyone in my general point of view. Well, probably best to get used to it from now on. After everything that had happened in the last couple days, hiding myself was probably no longer possible.
Intellectus told me that people were already discussing my actions online, and Uriel healing hundreds would be on the local news at the very least, if I was lucky. If I was unlucky, the various criminals I had put down would also be mentioned. That… could color my general perception.
Not that I really cared. These people had wholly deserved it and my looks already ensured that PR was a lost cause for me.
"Now? Well, for now we'll need you to grow stronger." Uriel's answer was confident, as always. "You want to save this world from the downward spiral it is in? Villains. Endbringers. Scion. You will take care of all of them, once you are ready."
"Yeah I got that part already. But that's a very long term goal. What should we do next, short term?" I looked at a nearby bus station for a moment, contemplating using it to travel home, before dismissing the thought, instead stretching out my wings and leaping into the air, each flap catapulting me dozens of meters into the air.
"You only need eyes to find a short term goal." Uriel, or rather, the illusion of a young, tall man in his early twenties at most appeared in front of me, the archangel having no trouble in keeping up with me. "Look around you." He extended his arms, as if to embrace all of Brockton Bay.
The city almost looked nice from up here, unlike the gang- and corruption-infested shithole I knew it was. "Almost" being the key word. Even from up here, I could notice the different states the buildings were in, could see who controlled what, from how much the infrastructure had rotten.
The differences between the docks and the downtown. The areas held by the Empire 88, the merchants and the ABB. Even from up here, in the heavens, there was no escape from the madness that was my home city, was it? Even from up here, I could still see how sick things were, what was wrong.
"And we are going to fix it. All of it. This city, the world and then beyond that."
Again there was no doubt in Uriel's voice, he was stating things with the same conviction that one might say that the sky was blue or that one plus one was two. He wasn't making a promise, nor declaring a prediction or hope. No, he was affirming a fact, as immutable and inevitable as time itself. And for just this moment, this unshakeable statement about reality was enough to remove the doubt that still lingered inside me.
"The slavers that prey on those they claim to protect, the Merchants who ruin the lives of so many, the Nazis, we will take care of all of them." I felt a particular shiver run down my spine when he mentioned the Empire 88. A hatred the likes of which made the disdain I felt towards the trio look like a minor afternoon grudge. Well, I guess it made sense that an angel would have major disagreements with the butchers of God's chosen people.
Looking down I saw the hospital and – with a weary sigh – began to dive down to it, fighting the fear that was once again swelling up in my chest.
"He is okay." Uriel preempted my question, a hint of sympathy in his voice. "I removed all his injuries, restored his body and fixed any other damage he had suffered. It's just…" He stopped for a moment, as if trying to search for what to say. "One of Scion's parasites has latched itself into his brain. Removing it would require me to channel more of my strength than what you would currently survive. I'm sorry."
This stopped me outright both physically and mentally, leaving me to hover right above the hospital and scaring a couple of doves who had made their nest on its roof.
"So my Dad is a cape?" I asked out loud as much to myself as to Uriel, before immediately switching to Intellectus to check, not waiting for the Archangels answer. It only confirmed what he had said, Daniel Hebert was currently laying on a hospital bed, being checked on by half a dozen nurses while observing himself. None of the horrible injuries from before remained. And yes, he was indeed a cape, the needle that had broken against his skin alone said as much.
"At the moment, the power seems only to give him an extremely dense cell and body structure that looks to be able to absorb and repel almost any type of damage. The parasite has also already begun to infect his mind and soul, trying to warp it to its design. It's a slow process, but we still shouldn't waste time beginning your training, so we can reverse the corruption as soon as possible."
I could only nod to that, while continuing to observe my father over Intellectus.
The nurses and the head doc looked at their failed attempts at getting dad's blood before leaving, the doctor talking intensely with Danny before going too. He seemed remarkably unperturbed by all of this. It made sense, I guessed. A theory I had often read – and then confirmed myself through Intellectus – was that people undergoing high stress and trauma situations were most likely to trigger. Logically, the people at such a large hospital would have experience dealing with trigger events.
Still, I had trouble stopping myself from just rushing in through the thin glass of the room's windows, nevermind the hospital personnel and hugging my Dad. Only with an herculean amount of time of effort was I able to keep myself from doing exactly that.
Instead I waited, and waited, and waited as people went in and out of the room, informing him of various things and running some medical tests before finally leaving again.
"Can you move me again? One more time, over there?" This was the perfect time to move in and… just talk things out with my dad. He was alone, relatively calm and I was not currently in trouble with any particular group of persons. Still, I didn't look forward to either the pain of the teleportation or the actual talk itself.
No, this wasn't even a choice. I didn't want to keep my Dad waiting any longer and worry him even more.
"It's likely that he won't recognize you when you enter. The spell I laid on you is going to affect him like any other."
These words of warning stopped me in my tracks.
"What? Can't you exempt him from that?"
The archangel just shook his head. "I'm afraid no. If I did that it would affect everyone. Your identity would be compromised." He raised his hands in a calming fashion as I began to panic. "There is a third option though, Taylor. Have you ever heard of a soulgaze?"
"A soulgaze? Do you mean looking into someone's soul?" The existence of souls was also something I had struggled with when this whole thing started. Uriel's explanation that humans (and many sentient lifeforms in general) were nothing but souls, with our current form being more or less a mere meat robot, had helped even if it was difficult to really see things in those terms, at first.
"Yes. A soulgaze occurs when someone with great magic talent looks directly into the eyes of someone else for a prolonged period of time, allowing both to really gaze into one another. It allows you to see the truth of a person, all their struggles."
"Really?" I blinked and looked at my many, many eyes. Was it even possible for me to not look into someone's eyes during a conversation?
"I have been preventing this from happening with you so far. A soulgaze on your partially angelic nature and on me in particular would drive ordinary men to madness, and even supremely resilient ones would be changed forever by the experience."
There was a cool undertone to his voice as he explained this. I guessed he had had bad experiences with such unintended harm, before. "Doesn't that mean we can't do that with my dad? I, uh, would like it if he remained sane."
"For a single person I can make an exception. I have used much of what your current body can take already, but to shield a single man from some of the more ruinous sights within you is still well within the realm of the possible. All with a single movement of your body."
The suggestion hung silently in the air.
I would get to see my father's soul. See his deepest and most intimate secrets. He'd see mine. Did I really want that? Did I even really have a choice? To do not so would mean I'd have to convince him that the thousand-eyed six-winged abomination, whom he couldn't mentally associate with his daughter, was in fact me.
Especially since the most he'd know of me would be the recent news on my actions which, well, were not all that flattering to be honest. A mix of the violence with which I dispatched the people I fought, and my looks reminding people of the Hopekiller, made for an absolute PR disaster.
It mattered not in the grand scale of things, my Mission before God was to help, no, to save Earth Bet from almost certain annihilation. Whether the average person approved of my appearance or not did little to change that. However, my Dad wasn't just some nobody. For too long had we drifted apart after mom had passed away. We had grown ever more distant and neither of us had the will or heart to change that, no matter how much I had wanted to.
I didn't think I could take it if he rejected me or looked at me with hate.
"Let's get this over with." I didn't have to tell the order out loud to Uriel but I still did so. It felt better this way. Hearing my own words made it more real than just having prolonged conversations within my own head.
My world disappeared as time once again – on Uriel´s authority – detached from my form, my body warping through the roof and stone below me right into the room where my father was in.
So far so good. What wasn't according to plan was the pain paralysing my every movement, forcing me onto my knees while a loud, almost animalistic cry left my lips.
Jesus, I had known that Uriel enacting his might through me again would hurt. I had not expected this. It felt as if every single nerve in my body was exploding, power frying my very innards. When I screamed I was surprised that no bit of myself came out with it.
Said agony ended when the eyes on my forehead and scalp made contact with those of Danny Hebert.
Even through the thrashes of pain I was in it was like an electric current went through me and I suddenly understood. Before my eyes had been like doors, closed shut by Uriel, all entry barred. Now these doors were thrown wide open and Danny could enter. As could I.
What I saw, what my consciousness was pulled into was a single room, with a single man in it. I did not need to see his face to instinctively understand that this man was Danny Hebert. He was a downtrodden man, an expression not of sadness or terror but of apathy on his face.
All around him were nothing but pictures. They showed him from his youth, his prime and then how he fell down to this.
Pictures of a beautiful woman without a face, a kind of glow surrounding her. Just like Danny she was changing in each picture, missing a face in each and every single one. In more and more of the pictures she was growing older and in more and more of them she was together with Danny. At least in those he looked happy.
I could see how they grew older together, how soon a third was added to their union, a little child whose face, while not missing like the woman, was vague though happy as well. More and more the child grew and the joy in her father's face went ever wider.
When the woman disappeared in the final pictures this harmony shattered and Danny's face changed. First to sadness but even that went over to apathy over time. And the child's face became ever more irrecognizable, ever more distant from the man her father had become.
Right until the final picture, the one my father was standing, no, the one he was cowering in front of. The one where he was all alone.
I tried to reach out for him, to do what, I did not know. Just touch him? Hug him? Try to comfort him? My fingers never reached the shell of a person that was Danny Hebert, instead, just as I was bout to touch him I felt how I was pulled back into the "real" world.
My whole body sacked down as I tried to work through what I had just seen, to understand what it meant. That was exactly when I felt Danny´s arms close around me.
I didn´t want to say that I squealed when my Dad pulled me into a bear hug, but I probably shouldn´t deny it either. My first instinct was to free me from whatever was constraining me and I almost instinctively lashed out, but that all stopped when I heard what my Dad was saying, what he was doing.
"I´m so sorry, Taylor, I´m sooo sorry." He was apologizing over and over to me, tears running over his face.