We all know Sadie is my insanely lovable neighbor and beta. However, in the middle of writing this chapter, she decided to go off on a one shot of Etoile if she were to be on Larry King Live. Oh Gods, I am never going to stop laughing…
((short cut:
LK: I heard you're…errr…an angel?
Etoile: DAMN STRAIGHT I AM! (kicks Camera Man 1's ass)
End cut.))
NOTE: Cielle was the previous angel of water, before Xiaka. Just to clear things up. And that I don't own Cyborg 009.
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Riprendere
Chapter Seven: Largo
Movement Two: Beginning of the End-&-&-&-&-
"Come with me." A girl's voice said. "Come with me, unless you'd like to meet me elsewhere. Come with me, I can help you. If you do not, you will not be able to return to Earth, or to Heaven or any of its suburbs. Not even with pardon. So come with me, into the darkness, where I can help you. Come with me…and Oblivion will save you. Come with me, and Fear will not harm but help you. Come with me, and your emotions will be helpful. Come with me, and I will save you. Come here, do not fear me. I cannot hurt you now. They are with you. Come with me, because with me, I will save you from myself."
Joe stepped ahead and Chang followed after, blowing a large flame.
"Hello, Master Prometheus." A strange girl said. She stepped out from the gates. "Come along, I will not harm any of you."
"…Death?" Mirllyne asked. The girl nodded and fully stepped into view.
Death was not human, but an angel with black wings. She had bright pink eyes and black hair that was crudely cut at her shoulders. All she wore was a threadbare black tank top and a short pleated black skirt. Her feet were bare. In her hands she carried a long scythe, with a silver blade about three feet long with a sole swirling blue line along it.
"The others are waiting." Death said, turning around and holding her scythe above her head. It illuminated the ruins of Lunapolis. "Come."
Joe took a step ahead and Francoise was right next to him. D.S. and Polaris were behind them, and soon after followed the remainder of the non-cyborgs. Death was silent as she led them on. Her wings fluttered every once in a while, but other than that, she said or did nothing but walk.
"Here we are." She said finally, stopping. "You would have just walked through the village, but since they destroyed it, you did not. Welcome, though, to the city of Lunapolis." She waved her scythe in an arc, and as she did, it was as if the rest of the city had magically appeared.
Lunapolis must have been something even better than this, and this was hard to beat. Below them lay a huge silver temple, surrounded by smaller ones. Many of the smaller buildings had stained glass windows, and ones that didn't had designs in gemstones. It had been appropriately named. The moon hung above the huge building and caused all the smaller ones to shimmer in its light. However, around all this was ruin. Heaps of tarnished metal and broken gems lay about. All but one building far, far west of them, that was made of black stone inlaid by silver.
"It's…not like the end of the world…right?" OV asked. Death shook her head.
"What you see is real." Death said. "Come, this is not our focus."
"Where are the gardens?" Joe asked. Death stopped and blinked in surprise. "I've seen it before, somehow…but it had gardens with white flowers."
Fate tapped him on the shoulder. "You saw it…didn't you. You saw where I lived."
Joe's heart froze. Dreams…everything he'd seen…it had been real? He grasped his head as he began to feel woozy. As he did, he fell to the ground in a useless heap.
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"How the hell did this happen?" Zaffiel asked Tsukasa. "We set up the place in nothing flat, that we did. No one had any time to be able to do this."
Tsukasa gave her negative from her desk.
"Tsukasa…" Zaffiel said, sitting down on the desk and picking Tsukasa's head up. "What happened? Are you just worn out from resurrecting Albireo? Please tell me, Tsukasa, I need to know."
The girl looked up into clouded blue eyes. Tsukasa wanted to look there forever, but she couldn't. "Yes…and no. I'm scared, Zaffiel. If he finds out…"
"Both of us are as good as dead." Zaffiel concluded darkly. Tsukasa nodded miserably and lost her contact with Zaffiel's eyes. "Don't cry. Lock the door, and at least we can give him an honest reply. I'll clean the ceiling later."
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"That's not possible. There is not another Prometheus alive right now." Another one of the dark angels said. "No…no, all the records are here in the city. There are two Pandoras, though…"
This angel was different. She had black hair with silvery purple ends that was unrestrained and fell to the middle of her back, all except for a thin braid that touched the ground, and it as well was purple. Her eyes were stormy purple. She wore a purple tank top and a full black skirt, and like Death, her feet were bare. But the strangest part was her wings. They were gray.
"I agree, it makes no sense whatsoever, Oblivion." D.S. said. "I saw Joe before he found everything out. He is Prometheus…but…hey!"
"Why are…your wings…" Joe asked, just beginning to wake up. Oblivion, the angel with gray wings, locked eyes with him.
"Without a doubt, he's Kage's." Oblivion declared. "My wings are gray because I am the angel of oblivion. I can be a good thing or a bad one, depending on your predicament. No one could decide, so I have gray wings. I am neither dark nor light; I am the only gray area that exists and I chose to come with the dark."
Joe struggled to sit up, and once he did, he saw Death. She had her back turned to him, with her scythe held in front of her by both hands. Something was different, Joe realized; she had tattoos like the other angels now. As if she had read his mind, she turned and faced him.
"You've seen my work before, haven't you?" Death asked. "Only those who have seen death as it takes over are able to see my bindings to the angelic duty. I have never had a human designation, but I have been alive for over…no, since before Chaos came into being, I have existed. Always changing."
Joe sat still for a second, then nodded. "That makes sense."
"As do you. There was another angel like your mother, but she was killed in battle, and we never found her. Her daughter was meant to be Pandora." Death said mysteriously, playing with the tip of the scythe. "But enough of that for now. Reinforcements are needed if we are to go through with this."
"What are we going through with?" Joe asked, puzzled. He stood up and began to follow Death as she walked.
"Come on, we have to go find a few others before we even try to go there." Oblivion said, fiddling with her braid.
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Nirine usually kept her temper fairly well. However, today was not her day. She had been sent to Heliopolis to see if the children of the shrines were there, and not even with another angel. Etoile was too busy reaping the rewards of her victory, and Albireo was not about to show weakness. Thus she set foot into the end of the world, hoping that she'd be slightly less bored as she searched the ruined city.
"If you're there, say 'I SMELL LIKE DOG CRAP!'" Nirine shouted into the golden wreckage. "Okay, annoying OOCness done for the day."
She continued to walk along, but after a while, grew tired of having to jump to get over some random golden thing that had been broken. So automatically she began to fly. It felt quite nice to fly again.
"Nirine? Is that you?" A nervous voice asked. "Come out or I'll shoot you!"
Nirine flew over a huge golden pillar to find Fiella, decked out in her usual Valentine's motif. The headstrong angel was trembling in fear, but straightened as soon as she saw Nirine. Nirine landed next to the other, still feeling a deep sense of hatred for her.
"I thought I was the only one here." Nirine stated simply. Fiella shook her head.
"I was sent only a while ago. It wasn't even Tsukasa or Zaffiel who sent me." Fiella replied. "How strange…you don't seem to be worshipping Albireo."
"Oh, no, I despise him." Nirine said, never making eye contact. "When my sister asked why she didn't make it to become a classified angel, he simply killed her. No questions asked."
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"So. We have all the answers, now you need the questions to satisfy them." Oblivion said. "You'll have to meet more angels to understand. But for now, some of us are hiding things of our own. You, for starters, Alpha."
"There's no Alpha here," Riko said, puzzled. "There's Omega."
"She is Alpha." Oblivion pointed to Epona, whose face became unreadable in an instant. She sighed and bit her lip, then did something really strange. She opened her eye wider, as if to take out a contact lens. She repeated the process with the other eye, then closed both and threw something to her feet. When she looked up, blood red eyes were staring back at the entire group.
"My name is indeed Alpha, and Omega is my twin sister." Epona said. "Could someone undo my hair; I just redyed it."
Panthos raised a hand, and in seconds, her rich brown hair was the same shade of red as her eyes. Omega laid a hand on her shoulder and smiled warmly.
"You've done the right thing this time. We all did." Omega said. "And now, for most of us, it's time to change back to our original forms. Who's with me?"
"I was wondering how long that was going to take you." Mirllyne noted dryly, smirking at Omega. "Are you going to do it, Dal and Polaris?"
"I won't, not until I meet Etoile." Polaris said. "I know that you have. I'll bet that you'll stay that way, and that D.S. won't change either."
"Not for that reason. I'm just tired after having to separate my soul so many times from so many different places. I'll wait until we at least meet the sins." D.S. answered, grinning. "Besides, what fun is there in showing them right now? It'd make things much more interesting."
"What was with that dragon, Panthos?" Omega asked.
"Oh, you liked her? It's Omega!" Panthos replied, laughing. Omega fumed silently, then swirled around and kicked him.
"Honestly, you two." Fate said, tossing her long hair over one of her wings. "There's more to worry about than the name of Panthos' illusions. Although, he seems to have picked a good name for her."
"This means we're all waiting?" Poseidon asked. Alpha nodded in return. "Okay, then, let's go off to the hall. If it's still standing."
"My hall is still standing. We shall not wake up all the angels, rather, only the ones we are in need of." Death said, slipping her scythe over her back into some type of sling and brushing something off her skirt. "Etoile, Kage, Yami, Hikari, and Etaf should do it, don't you think?"
Mirllyne gave a somewhat choked laugh. "Etoile would be enough alone once she's seen what they've made her into. And Kage…well, she'll have her own reasons to attempt murder on Tsukasa."
This last comment brought a dry laugh all around.
"Oblivion…Death…I have heard that you would like my presence." The entire group turned as one to face the speaker.
She was somewhat on the short side, and to prove this, her black skirt dragged behind her on the ground and her black wings looked larger than any other angel's. Her hair was long and was colored like an ocean during a storm, but in sharp contrast, her eyes were sparkling gold. The shirt she wore was cut up so it tied behind her neck and was colored a brutal shade of gray-purple-blue. Small slippers clung to her feet, and overall, she gave the appearance of a young child.
"Oh, Fear. Do you know where the other emotion angels are?" Oblivion asked. Fear shook her head.
"I am sorry. I am called Fear, for I am the angel of fear. This is not my natural eye color, so I do apologize if it alarms you. They will shift color depending on how much fear you have." Fear said, flashing them a tiny smile. "I do not know where any of the others are, Oblivion."
Oblivion shrugged. "We'll just have to get them up without emotion, I suppose. The sins will be a different matter since we have so much already."
"Death! Death!" Another angel sprinted to join them, frantically waving his arms. He tripped and fell over a fallen piece of silver. "I came running once I heard…and this must be them."
It seemed strange to imagine a male angel, but here he was, with rumpled carrot-orange hair and twinkling gold eyes. His wings were black, and he wore a pair of shorts that had been cut up to his knees and a black shirt, also cut to his figure. He laughed at the shocked expressions he received.
"It's only Energy, calm down." Alpha said, smiling and hugging the boy. He laughed once more. He bowed to Joe, then turned to Francoise and kissed her hand softly while in another bow.
"All of you fall into the roles perfectly. If I do say so myself, I find this Pandora to be more gorgeous than the last." Energy said.
"He has forgotten to introduce himself. He is Energy, the angel of energy. One of the three males in the angels of emotion." Fear said, her eyes slightly shifting to a more orange hue.
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"For the last time. Tsukasa is not feeling well, that she is not." Zaffiel said. Nirine blew a stray strand of hair up out of pure annoyance.
"But it's urgent!" Nirine protested, stamping her foot to emphasize her point. Zaffiel sighed and began to walk Nirine away.
"I am seco…no, third now, in command here. I will be able to help you." Zaffiel said. "There is no need to wake Tsukasa. She's tired from the move."
Nirine smiled slightly. "That's just the problem. There have already been several explosions occurring near the Forbidden Church and the worlds beneath Yggdrasil have shut themselves off. Even Olympus and Western Heaven are shut up and won't let anyone through."
"And the temples? Chaos' and the Elementals'?" Zaffiel asked. Nirine shook her head. It was no longer a problem of occupation, rather it was one of getting people to allow them to be friendly. I have no idea what I just wrote, so you may ignore it. Now skip ahead to the next paragraph…yeah, NOW!
"We can't get in without showing one of the necklaces, everyone knows that." Nirine said. "It's possible we could force entry into the worlds below Yggdrasil by getting Kummi to light things up, but I don't think she would."
Something hit home in Zaffiel's mind. Xiaka's necklace was still outside the gates. Kummi still had hers, but water was more important. You could make a storm from fire, but the bad ones were from water. The pendant was lying on the chain at the gates. They could get it and unlock a temple. It was a long shot, but worth it.
"Nirine. Kindly tell Albireo that I will be back shortly. I just remember something that could greatly benefit us, that it would." Zaffiel said, wings already fluttering anxiously.
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"Do calm down." Polaris said, laying a hand gently to Joe's shoulder. He looked at her mismatched eyes. "This won't hurt you. The only way it will is if you stress yourself too far, and then you have the possibility of slowing everything down."
She smiled brightly, then ran ahead to catch up to Enx and Ra. He thought about it for a second, before receiving another tap, this time on his forearm from Fear. Her eyes stared into his, changed to a fantastic purple.
"You are most afraid. I will second Polaris on her opinion: do not stress yourself too far. It could, and most likely will be, hazardous at this stage." She said. Her eye color shifted slightly to a darker hue of purple. "Fear is a dangerous thing."
At this, she flapped her wings and flew close to the ground. Joe did a double take. Angels could use their wings to fly? Whoa. When did that happen?
"Since forever, and since Mika decided to remember." Mirllyne explained serenely, beaming at him. "Joe, you should know something…else. Aside from being…"
"OY! WE NEED CLEARANCE!" Ra shouted. "Anyone that would like to help, get yer ass front and center NOW!"
"So much for deep moments." Mirllyne muttered, dashing off toward Ra's rather loud curses. Joe continued to ponder what all this really meant. Mirllyne had even more hidden? How was that even possible after the whole angel affair?
"Oh, nothing's impossible." Tirzah commented, gazing off into the night sky. "After spending two years living with Jet, you find out that a lot can be proven wrong."
"Can you guys read minds now too?" Joe remarked sarcastically, eliciting a scowl from the slightly petite woman.
"One word: Jet." She answered curtly, stalking away from him. He heard loud shouts ahead and hit his accelerator to see what was going on in front of him. As it would so happen, the little fire pixies had returned. Mirllyne, along with Chang and Tie, had blasted the blockade down. Again, he left mach three behind and returned to a normal speed.
"And so he's back," Mirllyne said with a shrug, flapping her wings a few times. "I have the desperate need to fly. Do you mind?"
"We'll meet you at the Hall." Death replied, waving. Mirllyne cheered and launched herself into the night sky, white wings flapping to get her higher. Her loud whoops of joy resounded high above them.
"Amazing, how therapeutic simple pleasures like flying are." Oblivion said, grinning. "You don't know how it feels. After being…no…well, after being stuck on Earth for so long, it feels good to spread your wings."
"The Hall, if you wouldn't mind." Death mentioned.
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"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!" Fiella exclaimed, bouncing eagerly as she sat. Her sister, on the other hand, shook her head in regret. Zaffiel had recovered Xiaka's necklace, but her proposition was absurd. Igniting three elements would invoke something.
"Kummi, are you in?" Zaffiel asked. The other angel nodded, but then noticed something strange. Usually she only wore the one earring shaped as an X, but today…both were on as she tugged them as a routine. She shrieked.
"THAT FUCKING BITCH! I'LL SEE TO IT PERSONALLY THAT HER INNARDS ARE SMEARED ALL OVER THE FUCKING GATES!" Kummi roared, punching the wall. Huge indents appeared where her fists struck, as well as scorch marks. Bitter tears dripped from her red cheeks.
"What happened?" Enala asked, holding Kummi's fists. Kummi pointed to her ears. There hung two X marks; the sign that only meant that she had been expelled. Enala gasped, then turned to Zaffiel.
"You see? You see what this will do to all of us? She's already gotten it, and she hasn't even agreed to anything yet!" Enala shouted. Kummi, trembling, dug into her shirt to look for something. She pulled out a pendant, much like Xiaka's. Hers had an orange glow to it, but it was slowly dying.
"It only means we need to hurry." Zaffiel argued. "Let us depart now. We'll get it all done sooner, that we will."
"I don't believe you." Kummi mumbled, clenching her fists. "Right now, I'm legally DEAD! Like Xiaka and Cielle before her! I'm not going to do that before I kill the bitch!"
"I wouldn't try that, but that's just me." Out of pure nowhere, Umbra appeared. Her bright eyes twinkled and her glossy black hair shone. "Mirllyne got that for a reason, Kummi. Who knows, they could be setting her up, like Kage did with us."
"Remind me, who invited you?" Fiella interjected, casting a sharp look to the shadow girl. Umbra gave her a crooked smile in response.
"My sisters said I needed to stop you before you went very much further. You should try and consider what's happened to those who have tried to force entry into the temples years ago. They've received their doubles." Umbra explained calmly. "Cielle for example. Xiaka always broke things, so Cielle invaded the Water Temple before Xiaka had a fit and destroyed it too.
"Do what you want with that information. It can get you farther or closer from your goal." Umbra said, then vanished once more. Zaffiel shrugged it off.
"We should go now, before it completely fades." She said.
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"You're moving too slowly. Come on, we don't have forever!" Oblivion yelled behind herself. Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Omega, and OV went running up the silver steps to the black church. Pandora, whose braid was now at what seemed to be its longest, rode along on Poseidon's back.
Death stood at the top of the steps, idly playing with her scythe. As Zeus finally came to the step beneath her, she stopped and held it to her side.
"Before we enter, I would like to ask you all something. Are you safe with seeing death?" Death asked. It seemed like such an ironic question coming from her. However, there was a unanimous nod and she continued. "Good. All the angels inside have committed multiple sins. When we wake some of them up, which we will be doing, they may be violent."
"Etoile especially." Energy giggled. Mirllyne joined him in his giggles.
"Okay, enough. Can we all agree with Etaf, Yami, Hikari, Kage, and Etoile? They should be more than enough after we get into Heaven with the sins." Oblivion asked. Again, the round of nods.
"I would say that you have the right to proceed as soon as you feel ready." Fear concluded. "But they are terrified." Her eyes were hot, hot pink to prove her point. A half smile broke out on Death's face.
"You look like me." She noted, securing her scythe to her back. "You have asked for this, so I'll expect you to be ready for it."
"I asked you to wait for me," A male voice cut through the silence. "Death, what am I going to do with you?"
His hair was cut a bit shorter than hers was, and his eyes were blood red. He wore loose black pants, a black t-shirt; a red scarf tied behind his neck, and was barefoot. It seemed like he made no movement as he scaled the staircase. He stood next to Death, and almost took on a protective air.
"His name is Pain." Death said. She plunged her hands forward onto the handles to open the doors. Instead of pulling them, the doors sucked her in. Finally, they opened wide. Pain edged closer to Death, but she cared not and strode in the doors.
"Come along." Fear said, entering after them. Oblivion followed after with Polaris and D.S., and after them were Energy, Alpha, and Omega. And after that, we get the picture.
The hall had a huge, arched ceiling that reached up into the blackness. It was filled with stale air from centuries gone by and darkness perfumed it. In fact, were it not for the gently pulsating watery blue light on the ground, it would have been completely black. The light came from glass inprisonments. They were obviously there to be restrained, not shown off.
"Yes, they are angels. Some have committed only a few sins, and others have done them all in turn." Fear said, voice echoing. "You are all so very slow."
"I don't like this place," Lily said, unnerved. She muttered nervously under her breath.
Death stopped suddenly. "Etoile. There."
In her death, Etoile looked nothing like her duplicate. Her hair was much lighter and wild, and the headband attempting restrain did nothing much. Her clothes were tight, showing her off.
"Yami. Hikari." Death pointed with her scythe. "Etaf. I could go on and on. Cielle is next to Etaf, and…"
"Kage." Mirllyne said. She pressed her free hand to the glass.
"Allow me that." Death said. She laid both of her palms gently to the glass, and inside, Kage jerked. Seconds later, she fell out of the glass cage, right between Joe and Francoise. Joe caught her.
She couldn't have been very much taller than he was, but her silver hair reached down to her thighs. She wore only a pale blue ¾ length shirt and a black skirt with diamonds forming patterns all up and down it. The soft green wings coming out of her back let a few feathers fall loose.
Then she looked up out of his shoulder, and both saw the most stunning pair of ruby eyes they'd ever seen. Joe unleashed a strangled cry of shock as she blinked and continued to stare straight at him.
"Eighteen years ago I was an angel. Three hundred years ago, I was immensely feared by everything in Heaven and its suburbs." She said. "I knew what you were before you were born. They tried to stop it…but I couldn't.
"Do you know who I am?"
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