Angel's Tale by Oriel
Rated: PG-13 for language, partial nudity and violence
Disclaimer: Refer to first chapter since it's still unchanged. Of course, Bashia is my OC.
Random comments: Waaa! It's been so long since I updated this! Gomen ne. Blame the writer's block of d00m I've been experiencing since June. -_-; I just wanted this chapter to be perfect since some of the information revealed here will act as a pillar, sustaining the entire structure of this story. I added a comic relief so that it wouldn't be too boring. *shrugs* Dare I still ask you to review this chapter? *puppy dog eyes*
" ": dialogue
/ /: thoughts
* *: flashbacks
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Chapter 7 - The Concealed Angel
Mikael's face instantly twisted into a disgusted frown as a slender finger gently brushed against his lips, imposing silence. He remained stunned by the feathery touch for a few seconds, amber eyes silently conveying the deep ire rising within himself. He finally stepped back in a quick, jerky motion and repeated his last sentence with indignation, though more quietly this time.
"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were with that other traitor, Rafael."
Alexiel rolled her eyes subtly as she pushed a strand of mahogany hair behind her ear. Her stance clearly showed that she was annoyed by Mikael's harsh behaviour and that she had no intention of allowing his belligerence to continue much longer.
"I only came here to help you."
Mikael snorted and folded his arms over his chest in a casual gesture.
"Tch, a few hours ago you said I was crazy to believe my brother and now you say you want to help! What's the big ol' deal?"
"I simply changed my mind. And so did Rafael."
"Why?"
By the tone of Mikael's voice, Alexiel could tell that he wasn't buying it at all. Of course it sounded suspicious but she just couldn't tell him that she and Rafael had decided to help him so that they could keep an eye on him, thus hopefully preventing him from eventually getting into trouble. She observed the red-head carefully. He stood silently, piercing her with his glare, impatiently awaiting some kind of plausible explanation to satisfy his curiosity.
"Well you know, they say only fools don't change their minds," she blurted out with a shrug. "Just let us help, alright?"
Before Mikael could add a word to this, she pulled herself a chair beside his so she could have a better view at the computer's interface.
"Let's see what you've got here... anything concluding so far?"
The guardian of Fire sighed. It seemed as though she was clearly determined to impose himself on her, whatever her reasons were to want to help him. He knew it was simply useless to argue with her, since she was about as stubborn as he was. And besides, he didn't have any time to waste now with such trivial matters. It could wait. Defeated without even pulling a fight - a first for him-, he sat back down onto his chair, half-reluctantly, and pointed to the screen with a shake of the head.
"I thought Bashia might have been listed in the Great Angelic Database, so I searched for the greatest sources of power on Assiah. But I came up with nearly two million matches."
As he explained his problem to her, he typed up the same exact request as earlier for her to see. Alexiel leaned over in her seat and narrowed her eyes. She examined the impressive list of data for a long moment, frowning and mumbling under her breath. Mikael, beside her, simply frowned and sporadically glanced from the screen to the woman, growling in a mix of impatience and despair. Then without a word, Alexiel took a hold of the keyboard and pressed a few buttons.
"Look, notice they all have one thing in common? The amount of astral powers they possess, which is also abnormally high, is always the same, and the source is always unknown. It could only be a coincidence. But it could also mean that they are in fact the reincarnations of the very same angel. And since, still to this day, Lucifer and the Creator were the only ones to know about the existence of Bashia, I guess it would be more than normal that the High Council couldn't think of her as the origins of these astral powers."
As she exposed her reasoning, a grin of utter satisfaction and excitement dawned upon Mikael's face. He felt they had just finally put their fingers onto the truth, that he was getting closer to his goal with each word that she uttered.
"Yeah! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"
Alexiel couldn't help but smile too, even though something, maybe the possibility that Lucifer might have told them the truth, still bothered her. She was just glad she had been useful to Mikael.
"If the mere thought of my lips touching yours didn't make me so sick... I would probably kiss you!" the short angel added as he stood up and started an impromptu victory dance.
/ Oh well, that's probably as close of a 'thank you' as I'll ever get with him... / Alexiel furrowed her brows at the dancing archangel and pasted a sheepish smile upon her face. It soon faded into a perplexed frown as she scrolled to the bottom of the list. The red-head froze as he noticed this sudden change in her attitude. He peered down into her eyes, his eyes prying her not to announce a bad news.
"What's wrong?"
"I wanted to see where Bashia's reincarnation had last been located in the universe, but it seems as though there has been no data about her in the past fifteen years... as if she and all traces of her existence had completely vanished."
Mikael's head dropped down as his hopes were shattered once again. Unable to contain the rousing anger within himself any longer and much to Alexiel's dismay, he broke into yet another tantrum, shouting colorful strings of vicious curses while flailing his arms and stomping the floor with his feet. It only then took a few seconds for the old archive keeper to appear behind him, crippled hands on each side of her waist, a decrepitly menacing smile smothering the wrinkled features of her face.
"Silence in this establishment, please!"
Rule #2:
Never piss Mikael off when he's already infuriated. Or else fear his wrath.
"Shut up old grandma! We're fucking busy here can't you see? Don't you have some goddamn knitting to do or something? Leave us the hell alone! Don't you fucking know who I am, bitch?"
Even though Mikael was surrounded by a fiery, almost murderous aura, the austere archive keeper didn't even flinch. Instead her face took a deep crimson shade, to match Mikael's hair, and made her way over to the raging angel who was totally obnoxious to what was to come. Without hesitating, she grabbed him firmly by his left ear and started to escort him out of the Archives building while uttering a long and boring lecture on the importance of silence a public area such as this one. Alexiel casually closed the search window and followed closely behind them.
"... and I shall not tolerate any loud and dirty mouths in this library, young man."
At this point, Mikael's brain was completely overloaded and had stopped processing the information. He stared blankly at the lady, his eye twitching from time to time. Alexiel, fearing that her dumbfounded friend would explode in anger and confusion and destroy half of the place, wrapped her arm around the red-head's shoulder and started to walk away with him, addressing an apologetic smile to the lady.
"Sorry for the ruckus he caused. It won't happen again."
/ Were is Kamael when you need him? /
****
Mikael, who'd already recovered his normal brain functions, was now brooding in the shades of a large oak tree near the Archives, legs curled into his chest and chin resting on top of his knees. Alexiel stood up and glared down at him.
"Do you have any idea of the trouble you once again almost put us in?"
"Obviously... not at all."
He smirked but stopped as he noticed the disapproving look on her face. Unable to sustain her stare, he simply shut his eyes.
"Damn, how am I ever going to find Bashia now? She can't just have fucking disappeared like that..."Alexiel was able to notice in his voice the hint of hopelessness that he was fruitlessly trying to hide. She remained silent and plopped down beside him. She ran her fingers through silky blades of grass as the few sun rays that filtered through the thick foliage of the tree caressed her visage and embraced her with their warmth, and let her mind wander in desperate search of an answer to Mikael's question.
"Hm, I think I might know." she announced, all of a sudden, after a long moment of reflection. "I heard of a few planets in the universe where our astral powers are completely nulled because of strong magnetic fields. Perhaps Bashia's latest reincarnation could have ended up on one of those planets."
The sulky red-head took a few seconds to think this new piece of information through, and as he finally figured it made sense, a ray of hope flashed across his face.
"Oh great. Now I feel stupid. Why didn't I think of that before?"
Mikael pretended to be mad, though he knew very well that he would never have thought of that himself. In fact, he wouldn't have got anywhere by himself. He was thankful that Alexiel had helped him, but never in a thousand years would he ever admit that. He had his pride and reputation to maintain, after all. What would everybody else think if they knew that a mere woman had outsmarted him?
He snickered and raised, brushing a few blades of grass that stuck to his clothes with the back of his hand. The searches were now narrowed down to a dozen of small, half-deserted planets. He knew that it wouldn't be as easy as it first seemed to find Bashia's reincarnation there, even more so if he was to be stripped off all of his astral powers. But he was bound to give it a try, for his brother's sake. His mind was set: he'd leave as soon as possible.
"Alexiel?"
"Hm?"
"Did you help me because you're in love with Lucifer?"
Unconsciously, the serene expression on her face turned into total panic.
"No! Why..? Of course not!" she laughed nervously, choking with her words. / What kind of a question is that? Of course not. /
"Just wondering..." he shrugged as he stood up and walked away, leaving a troubled Alexiel behind him.