功过 随人是非 我无愧"Merit or fault, let it be, I have no regret"
Will dropped the children, and they landed on a loud thud, but he only towered over Tessa, doing nothing. Tessa thought hard, it was impossible to outrun Will and get reinforcement from other Institutes. The only way was to strike first, so without further ado, she delivered the hardest punch she could to Will's chest, then with a kick to Will's midriff. Will did not fight back, but he did not stagger at all, just standing there as firmly as a statue, with a grimace. Tessa stopped, then with a running start, tried to tackle Will with all her weight.
That did not seem to affect Will in the least, but rather only served to aggravate him. In a desperate attempt, Tessa grabbed for his neck, but that was only like strangling a stone, useless and pitiful.
With a feral growl, Will grabbed Tessa by her waist and hoisted her onto his brawly shoulders. Tessa struggled in his arms, but to no avail. She started to sob, from the shock of death of Lottie, and from her motherly calling to her children.
"Please leave me be, I was fine before you two returned. Will, you can't bring back the dead!"
As answer, Will only sped up tying her wrangling legs. As her last attempt at saviour, she pulled up her clockwork angel and whispered, "Help me! For I am without hope"
The clockwork angel slowly glowed whit hot, and excruciating to touch. Then, before Will could feed her any poison to push her to transform, she temporarily transformed into an angel. The sarim angel Ithuriel, the angel of sacrifice, radiated light and utmost righteousness for the briefest moment, even less than a second, but he sent light blazing through Will, who went unconscious, and dropped Tessa hard onto the front yard ground.
Tessa was shaken, but when she was able to make sense of her surroundings again, she climbed up. She checked on Will, who was only rendered unconscious. Jem, on the other hand, for some reason, the angel did not strike down on him, but left him be. Jem looked as much like Jem had in life, only still resemble a picture through mist, but had bloomed in colour as compared to moments ago. He was speechless, and only looked mortified, as if first discovering what they had done, or rather, what they had planned on doing. And Tessa spoke.
"What happened to you?" Tessa's voice came a lot softer than she expected.
"I… I was trapped in the underworld for god knows how many centuries, hiding and running from demons, until I discovered that I had some power in words, and was able to convince demons to do my bidding. I did not have to run anymore, so I seek the way out of that hell," Jem said lowly, like telling someone else story. "I found an opening from the pit of hell to the jungles in Java, and there I waited till Will came looking for me. Then we looked for ways to bring me back to life."
"I. Forgive you." Tessa replied, slowly. But how could she not, Jem was one of the love of her life. Though he was contorted by his experiences, but he was still Jem. Then gradually, as a gust of wind blew away Jem's essence, he was sucked in by the power of the clockwork angel. Now Tessa's pendant had a grey tint, instead of bronze colour she was used to, and it was warm to touch.
