Hello again to all my lovely Archangel fans! Who wants to bet that I finish this story by the end of the year?

We'll see.

Enjoy and R&R(:

MPOV

Fang pulled away as a pleasant sigh expelled from my lips. My lids fluttered, warmth spreading around me despite the chill that was out in the forest that day. When I opened my eyes, I suddenly understood. I was no longer lying on a soft bed of moss—I was in a memory.

The soft plushness of the Persian rug beneath me kissed my skin. Replacing the trees of the forest were solid wood walls. A fire mere feet away from where I lay was whispering, each crackle from the flames sounding like a musical note.

I kicked a bit at the fur blanket tangled in my bare calves. The sheer material of my silk underskirt was surprisingly warm beneath the calloused hand resting limply on my thigh.

My eyes widened considerably as they traveled the length of the hand all the way to the sleeping form beside me. Struggling up on my elbows, I leaned forward to get a closer inspection of the man in the dying firelight. Despite the dirty blond mop splayed about his chiseled face, I instantly knew who it was—Fang. I could tell just by the expression on his face, the one that couldn't be described because it was just inexplicably, purely Fang.

My heart gave a little pang as every pore in my body ached for him. Without thinking about it, I reached out, fingertips tracing lovingly along his strong jawline. The tiniest of sighs escaped his lips, and for a second I thought he had woken up. But then he slipped into a boyish smile, remaining silent. I bit my lip to stifle the giggles threatening to take over and wondered what he was dreaming about.

Flopping back against the assortment of down pillows resting on the oak floor, a grin spread itself across my face as a delicious feeling bubbled up inside me. My eyes flitted to Fang again of their own accord— and this time…I froze, my heart giving a stutter. I realized something then that I failed to see before: Fang was shirtless. Each and every one of his defined muscles tightened ever-so-slowly with the steady rise and fall of his chest. The massive fur blanket we were sharing stopped just below his waist, and I was scared to check what Fang was wearing beneath it—if anything.

Heart hammering in my chest, I glanced down at what I was wearing. Besides the silky slip Fang had trapped beneath his hand, the only other article I was wearing was a white corset; a sliver of my pale stomach showed from the slight gap between the two undergarments.

As the sudden realization of what Fang and I had been doing on the floor just a few moments earlier came to me, a wildfire of heat crept up my cheeks. Shocks of electricity were exploding through me, swirling around in one great motion to animate butterflies in my stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, limp, delicate curls flouncing about my bare shoulders.

I had slept with Fang.

This time when I opened my eyes, I was back on the chilling forest floor, Fang's curious face hovering over mine. He arched one fine eyebrow up at me, the wind playing with his chocolate locks.

"Did you go into another memory?" he asked.

I bobbed my head a little, but didn't meet his yes. Heat spread from the crown of my head down to my toes as I tried to push my revelation to the back of my mind.

"Well, what did you remember?"

I started to fidget, fingers running absent designs in the snow around me. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," he replied.

"Did we—I mean have we—in the past—" I blushed as I tumbled over the words. God, I was making such a fool of myself.

"Yes?" Fang prompted.

"Did we ever have sex?" My breath caught; no taking it back now.

There was a long pause, and then suddenly Fang was laughing. Brows coming together, I finally looked back to his face. His warm brown eyes were lit up with amusement.

"So that's what you remembered," he remarked.

I flushed again, dreading the reality of his question. As pleasant as the erratic teen pheromones raging through my body made me feel, I hardly wanted to hear about me losing my virginity before I lost it within a time period I could actually remember. "We did do it." I said it as a bland statement, unable to place the emotions racing through me.

Still grinning, he shook his head back and forth, fingertips lightly grazing the shape of my lips. "No, my Gabrielle, we have not made love to each other yet."

A flare of something wildly delightful lit up inside me at the sound of my Archangel name coming from Fang's lips. "Then what did I see?"

Fang got a far-away look in his eyes as he flashed back to that night. An unfamiliar emotion poured into his features.

"That night," he murmured, "we were very close to sleeping together, but decided it would be better to wait instead." A haunted look shadowed his face, all color draining from his skin. "You died the next morning, the sound of your screams waking me up."

The wind whistled around us, flirting with the skin I had exposed. A chilling shiver raced down my back, raising gooseflesh on my skin. Fang remained stonily silent, reliving the horror of my death all over again.

I placed my hands on either side of his face, forcing him to wrench from his thoughts and meet my eyes.

"Hey." My voice was gentle, a secret lullaby. "I'm here with you now, and that's all that matters."

Instantly, his features softened and he leaned down to bounce his lips off the tip of my nose. "And I don't intend to ever let you go."

That afternoon was the first time in a long time that Fang and I both showed up to musical practice. Mrs. Bray was so shocked, I swear she nearly had a heart-attack.

Everything from there was running smoothly. We were all running through our lines without so much as the slightest hiccup in our memorization. Even Fang and I had our lines down, and we had hardly been practicing. I could already tell the musical was going to be amazing once it was performed.

And despite everything else currently going on in my life at that moment, I was inexplicably happy just being up there, acting out a whole new life with Fang and our new friends. It was as if none of us had problems; we were all so care-free. The only thing that irked me the whole first half of practice was the blond girl hanging all over Fang like nobody's business. I narrowed my eyes, keeping a careful watch on her, but knew deep down that nothing would ever happen between the two.

Around four-thirty, the cast was given a quick break to regroup. Iggy, Angel, Nudge, Gazzy, Fang, and I all clustered ourselves in a group of seats in the auditorium. As we sat, making mindless chit-chat, it suddenly occurred time just how tired I had gotten. My lids were dropping shut, and Fang's hand rubbing absent circles in my back certainly wasn't helping to keep the sleeping spell at bay.

Clucking my tongue on the roof of my mouth, I turned slightly and slapped Fang's hand away. A look of confusion flashing in his eyes, he quirked an eyebrow at me in question.

"You're making me fall asleep," I snapped a bit harsher than necessary.

The corners of his mouth tugged in a frown. "I'm sorry. If you're feeling tired, maybe you should go home and rest."

My eyes narrowed to slits. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

The rest of the group stirred uncomfortably in their seats, gazes shifting between each other. They knew a storm was brewing between us, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew too. But at the moment, I just didn't care, quite frankly. There was a tiny thread stringing across my mind, and it was slowly fraying away with each passing second.

Fang's eyes widened as he leaned back to get a better look at me. "Max, what are you talking about?"

"I bet you're seeing another woman, aren't you?"

Snap. One thread was gone. My voice was becoming shrill with irritation, each word that came from Fang's mouth rubbing at me the wrong way.

He shook his head back and forth vigorously, but I could tell he was watching me carefully. "There's only you, Max."

I rocketed up from my seat in a jerky, clumsy motion. It almost sent me toppling over the row in front of me, and I knew it was drawing attention. Nearly everyone in the theatre was watching us now, heads cocked to the side with interest.

"Then explain her," I spat, shoving a quavering finger towards the direction of the blond girl I had noticed earlier. Shock flashed through her eyes as she glanced back and forth between me and her curiously confused friends.

Fang's expression didn't change; his eyes never wavered from mine. "Brigid?"

Snap. I knew there wasn't much time left before the connection between the thread broke.

"You know her name?" I screeched, sending a trademark death glare towards Fang.

He gradually began to stand, palms out as if to say he meant no harm. I whammed my back up against the seats behind me, trying to put as much space between the two of us.

"A lot of people know Brigid," he drawled, eyes following me warily. The web must have been letting him on to the fact that I was close to losing it.

"Oh, of course!" I said sarcastically, throwing my hands in the air.

Fang took a step closer, lowering his voice so that only I could hear him. "Max, you're going to bloom here in a second if you don't calm down."

Biting the inside of my cheek, I pushed hard against his chest, forcing him to stumble back. "Don't tell me what to do!"

"Max—"

"Ms. Ride, Mr. Xavier, are we having a problem over there, or are you two just penciling in an impromptu practice session?"

I whipped around and saw Mrs. Bray paying careful attention to us from across the auditorium. Her mass of curly black hair was escaping from the tight bun she had put it in that morning, but she still held an air of authority as she stared me down. The rational part of me told me to back down then and there; tell Mrs. Bray that it was all okay, take Fang into my arms, and apologize.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Bray, I wasn't feeling very rational that day.

"Hold your tongue," I growled, venom sinking into my tone. My voice began to grow considerably, the fullness of it swelling around everyone and forcing them to shrink back. I saw them now, scrunching down in their seats and beginning to avert their eyes.

Mrs. Bray seemed taken aback, her jaw slackening the slightest bit. Fang's arm snaked around my waist, trying to tug me away from the scene, but I jerked out of his grasp instantly.

"Young lady, I am your authority. You will treat me with some respect, or I will have you suspended from this school so fast it'll make your head spin."

A buzzing sound started up in my ears; my vision was fading in and out. "No," I roared. "You answer to me, you pathetic human." My skin was tingling with a new-found power I had never experienced before. "I am your authority now!"

"Max," Fang breathed in my ear. "Rein it in now."

Snap.

Suddenly, my vision turned black. Stars were exploding behind my vision, and somewhere in the back of my mind someone was letting out a gut-wrenching scream. By the raw feeling in my throat, I couldn't help but feel like I was the one emitting the awful sound.

A slow fire started up inside me, but no matter how much it blazed, it never hurt me. It grew and grew, lapping over every inch of my body until I was smothered with the warm glow. My skin tingled as my screams spiraled up higher and higher, reaching a pitch I never knew was humanly possible.

In one big surge, I felt my spine bend all the way back before jerking back up. My limbs felt like they were being twisted in all different directions, as if I had no control over them in any way. Splotches of vision were coming back to me just as the pain began to erupt.

At the back of my mind, I was slightly aware of watching Fang drag me out of the theatre, images spinning around of students clamping their hands down over their ears to shut out the shrieks still scraping themselves out from the base of my throat.

I choked slightly as I felt the first of my bones begin to break. One by one, starting from the tips of my fingers, my bones were breaking, only to be mended a second later. I gurgled through my screams, noting that Fang had deposited me in the back seat of his car.

"Don't worry, my Gabrielle. I'm going to help you through this."

Squeezing my eyes shut, the first tears slithered down my cheeks. They kept coming as my legs began to break, snapping as if they were nothing but twigs. I screamed louder and louder, even though it hurt like all heck, and pounded my fist into the upholstery. Finally, my ankles gave a sickening crack, and there was one huge wave that snapped all the miniscule bones in my feet.

Then it all stopped.

Heaving and gagging, I dug my nails into the seat, creating dimples in the leather. The pain was slowly receding, seeping out of me with the steady stream of tears coming down my cheeks. After a few more gasping breaths, I allowed for my eyes to fling open.

Fang was gazing at me through the rear-view mirror, looking nothing but worried out of his mind. For my sake, he tried to smile at me. Even though every part of me felt like I had been hit by a train, I had enough strength left inside to growl at him, the sound coming out feral.

Frowning, Fang looked back towards the road. He was thinking something, but I couldn't tell what it was exactly. At that moment, a cloud of thick fog began swirling around in my mind, smearing away all common sense. My nails sharpened to the point of mimicking a knife's sharp blade; they seared right through the tough beige leather, piercing into the plush stuffing.

The growl bloomed from the base of my neck, transforming itself into a snarl as I popped straight up. As the fog thickened around all coherent thoughts, I felt the first tickings of the time-bomb within me.

One. A bark shoved its way out of me.

Two. My teeth clamped down.

Three. My lips peeled back.

"Max…," Fang started slowly, sensing the turmoil inside me through the tight invisible web attached to both of us.

Four. The corners of my lips twisted up cruelly.

Five. A bitter-sweet gaze glazed over my usually hard brown eyes.

"We're here."

Six. Fang pulled the car into a parking space set adjacent to a long row of bright orange garages. Opening up his door, he launched out and raced towards the garage directly in front of us.

Seven. My muscles coiled up, ready to spring.

Eight. Fang popped in and out of the now-open garage, starting a strong gait towards me. My door was opened and I was being helped out of the car. A strong hand was wrapped tightly around mine, a familiar spark resting there that pulled me along towards the cement walls of the garage.

Nine. We entered the garage and I strutted forward to the center of the room, patiently waiting for the loud bang that would follow Fang closing the garage.

Ten. The bang reverberated through the floor, rumbling beneath my feet. I whirled around, a wild rage showing in my far-too-dilated pupils. The second Fang turned around, I pounced on him, latching on and tackling him to cold, hard ground beneath us.

Air came out of Fang with a huff, and I saw the surprise flash in his eyes. Quickly rebounding, he locked out his arms, keeping me at a distance that was safe from my snapping teeth. A never-ending growl was rolling out of me, as if an animal had crawled inside me and took control.

Abruptly, Fang wrapped his strong arms around me in a vice-like grip, restricting all my movements in a bear hug. Lifting us up from the ground, he dragged me, kicking and screaming, across the room towards a cage fit for a small jungle cat. The black, wrought-iron door was already open, an invitation for anyone to walk on in.

I, on the other hand, was tossed in it.

My back slapped against the shockingly cold metal, a cry escaping me upon impact. Before I had any time to react, Fang slammed the cage shut, locked it, and staggered backwards. The look on his face told me that he hated seeing me like this, but I couldn't seem to bring myself to stop.

As Fang took a seat on the ground a good distance away from the cage, I started slamming myself against the bars trying to get them to budge. But no matter how hard I tried, there was no relief from their stony grip. I screamed and clawed and kicked and thrashed, all for nothing but a plethora of scrapes and bruises on my skin.

After what had to have been twenty minutes, the cloud in my head began to lift. My movements were gradually slowing as I regained control over my instincts. I mentally breathed a sigh of relief, momentarily glad that I no longer had to ram myself into the biting bars.

The key word in that sentence, dear readers, was 'momentarily.' Because seconds after I had calmed down, breathing heavily in one of the back corners of the cage, Fang got up from his position at the floor and started filling a bathtub with the gallons of water resting around it. I opened my mouth to ask him what exactly he was planning when the most gut-wrenching scream filled the room; and it just so happened to have come directly from me.

I dropped to my knees, mouth wide open, eyes squeezed shut, just as the sickening feeling of my skull being pried open tore through my head. My hands flew up to clutch at my head, as if to keep it from falling apart all together.

Inch by agonizing inch, my skin lit on fire. It felt like someone was holding scalding irons all over my body, refusing to let go. I was burning, smoldering, with no way to get it to stop. I was helpless, and there was not a doubt in my mind that I was going to burn to death from the inside out.

Someone was tugging on me then. The hot sparks that erupted when Fang touched me only intensified the bloody heat racing over my skin, causing tears to slip down my cheeks. I choked on my screams, drowning in the fire that consumed my body.

Abruptly, the heat faded to a dull hum in the background. It was a similar experience to when you're listening to music through a radio and you cover one of the speakers; the sound is instantly muffled. And just like the music, my heat was seemingly muffled.

The cool, icy embrace of water wrapped around me, kissed against my closed lids, and whispered against my lips. I was submerged in it, I realized, and even though I could feel my lungs bursting from the lack of oxygen, I couldn't seem to want to bring myself up. Everything was muted under the inky abyss of the water, the horror of what my life had been the past hour or so put on pause.

Fang had other plans, though. Placing his firm grip under my arms, he tugged me up towards the surface so that at least my nose stuck out. I was glad he wanted me to live more than I had a minute ago. The slight pressure of his lips bounced off the top of my head.

"Better?" His voice was the best remedy of all to my aching head, even if it was laced heavily with concern.

I bobbed my head in the water as my own way of saying yes. My throat was so raw, I didn't think I'd be able to speak again for a week. Fang's gentle fingers came up to massage a bit at my shoulders.

"It'll all end soon."

My heart pinched at those words, dreading what inhumane version of pain that would take form within me this time. But as soon as I cursed the world around me, I discovered that I was wrong. More wrong than I had ever been in my entire life.

The first of the kisses was what opened my eyes for the first time since I felt the crack in my skull. Eyes snapping wide, I saw that the garage was filled with a million little golden dots. They illuminated the dark room with a soft, supple glow. My lips parted in awe as I watched them all float towards me.

Every time a new one would land on me, it sucked a bit of the pain out of me, replacing it with the most delicious feeling in the world. I was filled with the sense of acceptance, of power, of just pure, effervescent goodness as the golden dots covered the expanse of my body. They even ducked beneath the still surface of the water to land on the whole of me that was submerged.

In what seemed like a time far too short, the tiny little dots soaked themselves into my skin. Surprisingly, I wasn't afraid. It all felt vaguely familiar and so, so right.

The last dot, one right about my heart, ducked under my skin, and I was suddenly surged upward, feeling as light as a feather. I gasped in a quiet, shuddering breath, and then I was dropped back in the water—

And plunged into a sea of memories.

Fang twirling me around, a look of pure joy on my face. I can tell just by the shine in his eyes that he was biting back a gleeful laugh. There were people all around us, but I had never felt so close to him.

My heel caught on the cobblestone beneath us, sending me tumbling into Fang. Bursting out into laughter, we toppled to the ground in a pile of heavy skirts and precariously curled raven hair. A soft grin on his face, Fang brushed my curls away and leaned in for a kiss. My heart skipped a beat…

My ears were pounding with the staggering beat of my heart. As I stared into the black, lifeless eyes of the cast-down Michael, I couldn't help but feel afraid. The palms of my hands started to sweat as my eyes darted around the prairie I found myself in. Running was not an option though—I had not fledged yet, so he'd easily be able to catch me.

As the wheat plants swayed around my knees, I couldn't help but identify the scene with the second time I had died. It was the first memory to come back to me this time—I could still feel the pitchfork piercing into me.

Shuddering, I stumbled a step back, wishing Metatron was with me. As if reading my thoughts, Michael took a step towards me, lips curling up into a blasphemous smirk.

"Your precious Metatron has been detained. He won't be able to help you this time," he said cheerily. From inside his dark jacket, he produced a sword. It had the intricate hilt of our sacred Archangel swords.

My eyes widened. "You've managed to retain that? After all of these years?"

Winking, he held it out towards me for me to admire. "Astounding, no? It's even harder to hold on to it when you're a demon from Hell." At that very moment, his pearly-white fangs came down to dimple his bottom lip, eyes flashing dangerously.

I flinched as if he had slapped me. "I did what was required of me, Michael. You have only yourself to blame."

"You realize," he began thoughtfully, "that you say that every time I'm about to kill you."

Without another word, he lunged towards me, the sword plunging deep inside my stomach as a scream was ripped from the base of my throat…

I was huffing and puffing, fists clenching. My eyes were narrowed into slits as I tried to compose myself. I whirled around, trying to find my target, but he was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Raphael appeared in front of me, grinning manically.

Grunting, I kicked my leg out without warning, sweeping Raphael to the ground. He moaned upon impact, rolling around slightly and clutching at his blond mess of hair.

Trying hard to stifle my grin, I bent down beside him, tucking my sword back inside the belt attached to my armor. "Did you hit your head?"

He glared at my teasing tone. "Thanks to you."

I let my smile come through then. "Why, you're very welcome."

Batting his piercing green eyes at me with a mixture of hatred and respect, he held out his hand for me to help him up…

Dozens and dozens of memories flooded through me, some flashing by too fast for me to even register. So many faces, most of which I didn't recognize at all, and some I found vaguely familiar, though I couldn't place my finger on them.

Life after life. It was dizzying trying to grasp that this was me—I had lived all of those scenes; I had known all those people. I had loved and lost and died more times than you could count on both hands.

I wouldn't be able to tell you how long I sat there in the bathtub reliving memories for probably the hundredth time. Eventually, though, the pictures faded to black, and my eyes snapped open. Fang was still rubbing circles into my back behind me, and I was still resting under the water. Lifting my hands up, I saw my fingers resembled raisins.

A shaky sigh escaped me as I sat up fully in the water, revealing my mouth and neck. I turned around, water sloshing over the edges, and looked Fang in the eyes.

"We were two crazy kids," I said simply, never leaving his gaze.

The corners of his eyes worked into themselves into wrinkles as he smiled, the only sign of how much he had seen in his lifetime. He threaded his rough, calloused hands through my sopping, tangled hair, and brought our foreheads together. "I wouldn't have had it any other way."

"Neither would I." My mouth twitched violently at the corners as I struggled to stifle my grin.

Wooooah, this will definitely go down in history as one of the longest fanfic chapters I've written. Blah, it'd be a lie to say I didn't enjoy it, though.

R&R if you want me to finish this story by the new year ;)

*Shiver*