AN: A quick shout out to everyone who's reviewed, fav'd, or followed this! You guys are my worlds man! Special shout out to Robin0203 and cutecookielove who had commented on EVERY CHAPTER you guys are the true inspiration that keeps me going here! You guys are amazing! thank you so much!
AAN: All of these drabbles are separate though some of them are lightly tied together. There might be some referenced in the future but for the most part they are stand alone save for certain ones, and you'll know those ones when you see them!
AAAN: Again, thanks guys! You are all amazing peoples!
"You can't tell anyone."
The fledgling stared at him with uninterested eyes and set the flower she'd been depetalling in her leisurely pace, giving him her full attention, the warrior in training looked as serious as someone their age could be."
"Can't tell anyone that you used to lure people to the mind-breaker?"
"Especially Nisroc!"
She stood, brushing the flakes of flower petals off of her robes, and she crossed her arms tightly. A glare had fallen over her eyes as she continued to listen to the one trainee that she detested with nearly all her being, no all of it though, that was more effort then she was willing to give to this particular sibling. Paul stared at her intensely, not willing to break eye contact until he got her word that she wouldn't say a thing, the fledgling was hard to read though and there was not a single sign to prove that she was being pushed over.
"What makes you think he doesn't already know?", she tilted her head to the side, "He's not dumb."
"I just know he doesn't! He knows she was my guardian but not what she had me do to the others!"
Akeelah looked him over, as if sizing him up, and deciding just how much of a threat he could be if she refused to promise to his request. It was something she could tell them just out of spite, the others may have seemingly forgiven him, but she was under the impression that he didn't deserve.
Not after the things he had done.
It was personal between the two of them.
"Afraid that he'll turn disown you if he knew?", she smiled in what was an attempt to be a sweet smile, but it came out slightly twisted, "You would be outcasted if anyone of them knew what you did?"
"Akeelah, I know you don't like me, but I'm begging you. Do you hear me?", he stepped forward, "Begging you. Please don't tell anyone. If you keep my secret, then I'll keep yours."
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she resisted the urge to push him back, the fledgling was learning to not resort to such things when angered by those she didn't like. But he wasn't going to hold things over her head, they had all done things that they regretted amidst the fighting of the war, even those as young as the fledgling flocks.
"Only because of what you did. You can't hold that over me."
"They'll never forgive you if they knew what you did!"
"They'd never forgive you if they knew what you did!"
Both young angels glared at one another, their history was long and rugged, but it was something they lived with. They weren't friends and would probably never be, but they did have dirt on the other, dirt that the intended victim would never want people to know.
She huffed deeply and nodded, holding out her hand, "Deal.", her fingers were crossed behind her back.
…
The promise came into play during the afternoon of a humid day of training, it was going to rain later that evening, that they all knew due to the heat and stickiness to the air. They were in the middle of midday break, resting from the intense morning of hand to hand combat training, sprawled around in various positions in the cool grass, the only thing cool about that day.
It could be blamed on the heat of the day, heating tempers to their boiling points, there had been a number of warriors who had gotten a bit too zealous through the combat training that needed to take a break sooner than the others and had been relieved to cool down before real damage was done.
None of them would be able to defend should an attack come if they were injured because of boiling tempers being lost.
Akeelah had stepped over a large warrior, one of the archers, sprawled out on his back amidst the cool grace, hand draped over his eyes to block out the shining sun, stumbling when her foot caught on his sleeve. He was quick in sitting up to apologize, but she had already moved on, stumbling forward, and spilled the vat of water, she had been carrying over to the others to have some cool water to help them cool off, all over the nearest trainee.
They jumped to their feet in the shock of being soaked by the frigid cold water, hands held out as they stared down at themselves in shock, she immediately glared right back. If they were pups their hackles would have been raised, baby fangs bared at one another, and they stood off right in the midst of the gathered warriors.
The others knew of their relationship, they knew of how volatile it was, and some ways down the line of the front liners training today the Powers stood from their various positions with the intention of separating them before words and hits could fly.
"Watch where you're going!"
"Watch where you're sitting!"
They both made the first move at the same time, perhaps the heat forcing their boiling animosity boil over on them, their tempers lost as the trainee rushed forward with a hard push and she swung the bucket around to hit him in the side of the head with it. Vaguely they heard their names being called but the voice went ignored, as she stumbled back from the harsh shove and he fell to the side from the violent swing of the bucket, they both fell into the dirt in various precarious sprawling positions.
He touched a hand to his head as it throbbed, and she curled her little fingers around her ankle as it ached.
The others around them stood, circling around, slowing the nearing approach of the Powers; their names still on their lips.
They both glared at the other, climbing back up to their feet despite their ailments, she grabbing a rock next to her hand and he reaching down for the knife kept in his bootstraps ignoring the harsher calls of their names as the Power's pushed their way through the crowd that had formed. They jumped right back into each other's faces. This time she rushed forward with a rock aimed for the other side of his face, and him trying slash at her with the small knife he kept hidden in his boot, their throws met their intended targets. Her rock knocked him back again, his knife sticking into her side, the rage that filled them backed by the shared history they had.
What most didn't know is that they had met before, when both were fledglings under the care of their guardians, living through the war time. Jeremiah had been a gentle guardian, and he had watched the two of them with jealousy, while Naomi had been a cruel guardian, to which she had watched in terror.
It was dark, twisted, and only something that they shared.
She whimpered as she gripped the hilt of the knife and pulled it out of her flesh, gasping at the stabbing pain that radiated up her side and through her arm. He shook his head to clear his vision, his head blurry and muffled, as though he was underwater.
A moment passed and they both climbed back to their feet, the rock curled in his fingers now, and his knife held securely in hers, squaring off against each other. Some feet away the Powers had managed to finally break through the line and were rushing the rest of the way to get to them before even more damage could be done, but soon everyone was forced into stilled silence as they were given visual into what it was the some of the younger generations has suffered through. Most assumed it was the warriors who suffered the greatest losses, and when it came to numbers that was truth, but there was so many left unaccounted for that was perhaps the greatest loss.
It was Paul who broke their shared promise of silence first, hand pressing to the bleeding right side of his temple, glaring right at the one who had been responsible for so much of his pain, "Do it! You know you want to! It wouldn't be the first time you killed someone!", when she reached up to point the knife at him.
Around them, a collective breath was sucked in, as eyes turned to look at the small fledgling in shock. They knew that the younger generations had lived through much horrors, but enough to actually kill someone, it was nearly unthinkable. To think that the witty, sarcastically adorable fledgling who they enjoyed having join them when they trained, was capable of taking another's life and actually had taken such a precious gift from someone was enough to shock anyone silent. The Powers stopped mid step, staring at her in horror, not at the aspect that she had killed another, but at the thought that she was put into the position to where she felt she had to.
She ignored their stares and glared right back at the older boy, thrusting her chin to the rock he had curled tightly in his hand, "Go ahead! Bash me in the head with it! Do as you were taught! It wouldn't be the first time you messed with others' minds, mindbreaker!", when he held it up in a threatening way.
"I didn't want to!"
"But you did!"
They squared off, stepping closer as they shouted at one another, the pent-up anger at the other that had been gained during the fighting of the war finally spilling over. No one moved this time, shocked into silence as they continued on, it broke some of them to know the horrors that the younger generations has faced at the hands of those who had taken advantage of the situation.
"I didn't take a life!"
"No! You did worse than that! A life worse than death!"
And stepped closer, they were in striking range, and still no one moved to stop them. Their eyes smoldering at the other as they glared.
"You took Ishariel! She was mine! She protected me!"
"You took Armers! He was little, he trusted you, and you tricked him!"
"You killed my sister!"
"You rewrote my brother!"
"You didn't even bat an eye when you shoved that blade into her chest!"
"You didn't blink as you drove the drill in his head!"
They were face to face now, and though he was taller then her, she didn't back down in the slightest.
"You have blood on your hands!"
"You have blood on your hands!"
"Killer!"
"Mindbreaker!"
Breaking out of their awed reverie, the Powers ran forward, separating the two younger angels before their weapons of choice could be thrown. Raguel easily snatched the knife from her little fingers as he tugged her away with an arm wrapped around her waist, Puriel followed suit with the young trainee, forcing him to drop the rock as he lifted him away from their Baby Power, and both of them grunted as the two of them struggled against their holds, reaching out for the other again.
"You're just scared that Nisroc will turn you away because you used to lure angels to their deaths! How many did you willingly drill into! How many screams did you ignore! How many of us did you watch thrash strapped to that table as your guardian broke them!"
"You're just scared that they'll all learn how many lives are on your hands! That they'll all shun you when they find out how many of us you've killed! How much blood is on your hands! Their stained with it! You're not innocent!"
"I did it because I had to!"
"I did it because I had to!"
"Enough."
The Power in question cut them both silent with a harsh, deep, command. He stepped in between them both, giving them the same dark and stern look, and they fell silent as their eyes widened. His eyes jumped between the two of them as he addressed the two at his sides.
"Haniel, go alert the Commander. Abraxos, go alert the Choir Master. We will meet in our Commander's office."
Their youngest members remained silent as he ordered the others gathered back to their training harshly, and they all dispersed quickly as to not ignite the mild tempered Chief's legendary temper. And they turned to march to the Commanders office to wait for the two master's arrival.