March 17, 2007

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sorry I took so long, guys. I had injured my neck recently, so…

Without further ado…

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

by Pearl of the Dark Age

The Angels

"I can't believe you thought the angel was an alien!" Amelda said suddenly, disturbing the tranquil silence as they waited.

"A being not from Earth qualifies as an alien by definition," Seto defended. "I am not that far off, am I?"

The gatekeeper could be heard whistling as the sun slowly sank into the horizon. The garden seemed to take on a whole new appearance with the sunset. Different flowers bloomed as others closed, entrancing them with exotic new fragrances. The colors of the picturesque landscape seemed to change hues from deep red to ambient blue. The creatures had all disappeared except for a lazy lone dragonfly that went about making ripples in the pond.

"I wonder what Heaven is like," Seto muttered after a pregnant pause.

Amelda became pensive. "Well, it might be a while before we see it, remember? We've got to do some stuff before we can get in."

"That's putting it vaguely. I wonder what this 'next adventure' really entails." He leaned back and rested his arms around the redhead's shoulders. If Amelda did not know him better, he would have assumed Seto was putting a move on him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," a familiar voice behind them spoke. "I had a few other incoming souls to guide."

"Are you an alien or an angel?" Seto inquired without hesitation.

Amelda covered his glowing face with his hand. The gatekeeper chuckled heartily, but the androgynous being only smiled. "You could say that I am both," it answered slowly.

"See!" Seto prompted, poking Amelda in the side. "I wasn't wrong!"

The pacifist gave a soft hiss but otherwise ignored him. He turned to the angelic alien and mustered his most polite tone of voice, "We would kindly accept any information you have regarding the penance we face."

"You will be reincarnated as new beings," the angel replied. "Listen carefully. First, you will meet your guardian angels; they will share their departing words, for their jobs are finished. They will now return to Heaven to rest in peace."

"We had guardian angels?" Amelda queried in disbelief.

The brunette gave him a sideways look and commented to their mutual guide, "Yeah, I think Amelda's guardian angel failed."

The angel made no comment. The facial expression turned even more indiscernible than the CEO's could be. The remark went unanswered, and their guide continued on, "There are four types of angels. There are messenger angels, guardian angels, warrior angels, and true angels. So, what you said was true earlier, Seto Kaiba; I am an alien. I am a corporeal being, after all. I am a messenger angel. We don't have wings, nor do we emit light. The different angels not only have different powers and functions, but they are also made differently. Guardian angels are not corporeal, but they were at one time. Warrior angels are quite corporeal, for they are the only one of the four who are also mortal. Only a true angel is incorporeal for the Eternity. It is unlikely you will meet one of them before you enter Heaven."

"Really?" Amelda commented, not having much else to say. He mulled it over in his brain slowly.

Seto's brain attempted to even accept the concepts. His tendency to refuse belief in the supernatural returned. He preferred to have control of his life and the afterlife. "What about our assignment?" he asked, steering the conversation back to familiar territory.

The androgynous humanoid grinned knowingly. "There are some things about you that won't ever change, is there? You were this way in all your previous lives, and I guess it's foolish to expect such a 'drastic' change even after a few millennia."

"You're pretty sarcastic for an angel," Seto noted. It was his own way of showing respect, and they all knew it. He received another knowing grin in reply.

"Now to meet your guardian angels," the messenger angel announced. An elegant hand extended forth from the robes, beckoning the two souls to turn around. They faced two translucent beings seemingly composed of light. Their facial features and outlines were all that was visible.

Amelda was surprised, but Seto was in shock. "I know you!" he exclaimed, addressing his guardian angel. "We've met before!"

Amelda blinked. His guardian angel was unrecognizable to him. She approached him with a kind, warm smile. Her companion, a young lady with long white hair and blue eyes, embraced Seto with rapture.

Amelda felt his eyes grow green for a moment, and then he turned to face the spirit responsible for his life. She was middle aged looking with medium brown hair. Her features were plain, and she did not remind him of anyone. "Do I know you?"

"We never knew each other in the mortal world," she replied. "I had died a long time before you were even born. I chose this assignment because you reminded me of my son, who had died from cholera before me."

"Oh," the redhead murmured somberly. "I'm sorry to hear that." He had no idea what he was supposed to say.

She reached up and touched his face, gently caressing it. "No," she said sadly, "it is I who is sorry. I wished I could have done more for you." She sighed heavily. "There are times my powers are limited, and those are times when your soul is strong. It doesn't make sense how you could have been so resolute in your decision to end your life that I couldn't save you."

Something in Amelda's skull clicked, and he understood. "Then it wasn't your failure," he whispered kindly. "Don't blame yourself, please." Here was a soul he had never met before, but he felt a strong bond of attachment already. A question suddenly popped into his mind, "Say… How does one become a guardian angel?" He had a sudden desire to become one himself.

She smiled and turned to the other translucent angel with a bluish hue. Amelda followed her gaze, feeling the prickles of jealousy return. "Kisara and I both sacrificed our life for a stranger when we were mortal beings. That is why we were granted the honor of being guardian angels. You won't be able to chose which kind of angel you become."

Amelda stopped trying to eavesdrop on Seto's conversation with Kisara. His head snapped back to her and then faced the messenger angel who stood there, watching everything in silence. "W-we…" Amelda gulped, "we are to become angels?"

Upon hearing him, Seto turned to face the messenger angel for answers, too. "It won't be easy," the angel said. "I'm giving you both a difficult task to do. Didn't I mention that you're going to be reincarnated, which means that you will be mortal again?"

"Which means that we will be…" Amelda trailed off, his voice in utter disbelief.

"Warrior angels?" Seto finished.

After their guardian angels had expressed their love and well wishes, they said goodbye; Amelda and Seto were taken to a new location to be reincarnated. The messenger angel warned them before departing that the transformation back into corporeal, mortal beings was going to be extremely painful. So, they were alone again. The place was the least bit imaginative so far, in the CEO's opinion. It's nothing but a bare, white room! he thought.

Amelda, on the other hand, appeared to be really impressed. His silver eyes were rounded, his mouth slightly agape, and he revolved slowly, to take in all the bareness and lack of any decorations whatsoever. "Wow!"

Seto nearly went cross-eyed in disgust. "What's so special about this place?" he asked. "It looks like a room that hasn't even been painted!"

"Exactly!" Amelda exclaimed. "It is the place of possibilities. You can create anything you want here!"

"We are the ones being 'created,'" Seto pointed out. "And according to that person, it's not going to be fun."

Amelda opened his mouth to respond, but he doubled over in agony. Only a low moan issued forth. Seto barely had time to register that his newfound love was crumpled upon the floor when he, too, collapsed from overwhelming pain. His spirit self, which had only appeared to be opaque, showed its true presence: He was invisible. Flesh began to form where he had previously thought it had been.

His ontogenesis began with the skeletal framework. The bones were not human, but so human-like in appearance it shocked him. Blood vessels, connective tissues, nerves, muscles, and fat all followed as he stared at his newly forming arm. He groaned in pain, which felt like a trillion, icy needles. He had never been a fan of acupuncture.

His newly formed eyes watered as he gazed without focus on Amelda, who violently convulsed upon the floor. The cries of pain diminished as their ontogenesis completed itself. Seto could smell – truly smell! The sweet, sickly smell of sweat was the first thing he registered with his new brain. His face had been pressed into the solid, white floor, gasping for breath. It was painful, but nowhere near as agonizing as it had been momentarily ago. He licked his dry lips with his moist tongue, relishing in all the sensations that now assaulted his newly born body. Blood pumped through his veins, his heart thudded in his chest, cold air filled his lungs, and wings brushed up against his cheek. Wings? Cognition returned slowly. None of the other angels had wings…

He groaned one last time. As he gingerly brought himself to his knees, he felt a heavy sadness press upon his soul. It had been so close to Heaven! It was painful to be torn apart from it! Now he was a being of flesh, living in a corporeal time-space continuum. It was horrible! His whole body screamed to be reunited with the higher realms of existence!

He received another shock as he stared at his legs. They were covered in scales, not bare, human skin - but only up to the knees. His thigh looked normal, if only slightly more muscular. The feet were birdlike, with four long grasping toes ending in sharp, curved golden talons. Three toes faced forward, and one faced back. There were a few feathers on the floor, the metallic color matching his feet. I'm a bird?

Confused, he looked to Amelda for confirmation. The redhead appeared human to him, with the exception of the large expanse of white-feathered wings draped across his back. Human-like hands pushed the naked, angelic body upright, and Amelda's familiar silver-eyed face gaped at Seto in return.

"Holy crap!" he shouted.

"Do I look normal?" Seto asked. "Does it look like me?"

"Yeah," Amelda confirmed. "It's you, alright. It's just that you've got golden wings and large raptor feet!" He stood up to see if he had them, too, for he had already noted the presence of his own wings. Like Seto's feet matched his wings, Amelda's feet matched his snow-white wings. They looked like the feet of a gigantic, albino bird-of-prey. "This will take some getting used to…" he commented dryly.

The redhead took a step forward and promptly fell flat on his face! "Ouch!" Seto cried, as he tried to catch him mid-fall, only to be squished. They were a tangle of appendages, and Amelda seized the moment to kiss a pinned Seto.

The brunette stopped struggling to gaze at him with deep, serene blue eyes. "I can see being your partner is going to have its perks."

"There will be much to do for you," the familiar voice returned. They both tried to scramble to their awkward feet, only to fall over onto their backsides. "It will take time to become accustomed to your angelic bodies. You still retain the memories of your last, human life, which also means that your cerebellum is going to have to adjust to the changes."

"I don't think we need to relearn how to tie shoes, do we?" Amelda muttered sarcastically.

"Quite right," the messenger angel answered matter-of-factly. "You won't even need to bother with shoes."

"Okay," Seto said, joining the conversation as he managed to finally right himself. "I'm ready to return to Earth."

"You're not returning to Earth," came the reply. "Earth does not need warrior angels at this moment. We've got other angels doing duty there. There is another planet engulfed in dark chaos that needs you right now. We're going to send you there. Your mission is to bring peace to that planet and the solar system in which it resides."

"We're going into Outer Space?" Amelda inquired, incredulous. He continued to sit upon the floor, giving up on trying to erect himself. His pearly talons had gouged out long ruts in the floor, which made him feel guilty.

"Not 'Outer Space,' per se," the angel informed him. "Because Outer Space implies that you are in the same space-time continuum as you were before. No, this is an alternate universe. The planets will be foreign to you, but you will find the inhabitants to be all too familiar."

"Are there dragons?" Seto asked eagerly.

"Uh, you'll see," the androgynous being answered. "I'm afraid that you are just going to have to go there to find out. I wish you the best of luck with your mission and Godspeed for your return." He gave them a short bow and vanished into nothingness.

The room around them dissolved away, to reveal a world they have never seen before. Even as strange as the multi-colored clouds swirling overhead seemed, the lightning of deafening crashes reaching the terrain below, the cityscape and its inhabitants solidified the surreal experience into reality.

To be continued in the sequel…

Author's Note: Thanks for all the R&R, everyone! I'm glad if you enjoyed this fic. I hope it turned out all right. I wanted to finish it while my neck wasn't giving me too much pain. (Although it may have distracted me at times, which I hope didn't tarnish the story.)

Story Alerts are no longer necessary for this fic, as it is complete. The sequel will be its own fic, and I won't be writing it until after I finish the first part to Quinquepertitus. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, please see my forum, Ink. There is a link on my profile. It is in this forum that I answer questions, discuss my fics, and give background information not found in author's notes.

Thank you, everyone! Keep striving towards your potential!