Chapter 37: Adapt

The desert was quiet as a breeze rippled through and stirred the sand. Time seemed to stand still as everyone focused on the fallen Chosen One. Raphael landed near Azrael who kept her eye on the wardens. Hunched over the blonde man, Noma sobbed silently as she pressed down on Alex's wound. Ethan was immediately there, pressing his uniform shirt onto the bloody mess. He kept repeating, "You're going to be okay, Alex. You're going to be okay."

Raphael looked down at the dying man and hesitated.

Michael turned on his heels with a frustrated cry and finally faced what was happening. From across the sand, he dashed over. "Do something already!" he yelled, shoving his brother closer to Alex.

"Are you sure, brother?" Raphael growled back, grabbing Michael's jacket. "Are you sure he should live?"

"What are you talking about?" Noma yelled, looking up from the bloodied man. "Heal him! Now!"

Raphael ignored her, staring up at Michael who was gripping his jacket. "Think about it. If he dies, the possibility ends."

Michael hissed, "The possibility of any future ends, brother. Heal him, Raphael!" He glared at him as they stood in a deadlock.

And then someone clapped behind them.

"Bravo! Bravo!"

They turned their focus to the city gate, only to find Gabriel swaggering through the sea of black-clad wardens. Evelyn shrank backwards, stepping out of the way of the archangel. His wings were out but folded neatly against his back. He had a grin on his face and the energy of a cat that ate the canary.

Above the city, the clouds grew darker as if a storm was forming, rapidly moving over the city and dimming the sunlight. "So dramatic, such a show!" his deep voice rumbled as he stopped moving, halting not far from them.

Michael released his grip on Raphael and faced him. "You! You did this!"

"Astute as always, brother." Gabriel smirked. "He learned a valuable lesson. He failed to join. The Chosen One is no longer."

"Join or fall?"

Gabriel looked at the lineup of trucks and soldiers. "More specifically: join or die."

Evelyn stepped backwards, slipping through the gate and disappearing altogether. David had already vanished around some corner; rushing to whatever safety he could manage.

Only Ethan remained. He stayed for his love for Alex. Sitting on his knees, he was covered in blood. "He's dying, can't you do something?" he yelled at Noma. She stared at him mournfully. If only she could.

"Oh tsk tsk, silly human." A fake pouty concern appeared on Gabriel's face. "Don't you know? He's already dead."

Ethan ignored the angel and continued to shakily check Alex's pulse. Noma knew that Alex's heartbeat had been slowing down, but Ethan couldn't tell. She couldn't bring herself to stop him from attempting to revive him.

The sky above dimmed further with every passing moment, seemingly reflecting the somber mood.

Michael stared at the body in Noma's arms. His own eyes started to blur from the ache in his chest. But it was the anger that was boiling up through him. That was the emotion that overwhelmed him.

Azrael laid a hand on his shoulder and he glared at her in response. She didn't move, not entirely surprised by his reaction. "The cycle will not end this way, Michael," she said, as if she knew what he was going to do next.

"It will," he said under his breath as he focused on his smug brother.

Gabriel smiled at Raphael who had pulled his swords out. "Thank you for disarming the turrets. It makes Vega much more…inviting."

Azrael unsheathed her own swords, readying herself for what was to come. "This ends now, Gabriel."

The archangel grinned at her. "Oh, Azrael. You of all should understand that this is necessary. I never thought you would choose Michael's side." He paced to the left, nonchalantly, pausing for a moment. "I guess I should have known though." He winked at her and then grinned at all of them. "Don't you think I would come prepared? For all of you? Do you think that I would not have my own army?"

As if on cue, the darkness above suddenly spilled down onto Vega. Eightballs came out of the woodwork, dropping from the sky like locusts. Winged ones latched onto the city walls, while an entire cloud of them hovered just above the settlement. Waiting, poised.

Michael stared at the swarm. "Call them off!"

Gabriel remained motionless, grinning at him. His teeth glinted in the light for a moment as he savored the look on Michael's face. His grin got bigger as he responded, "Never."

Michael's eyes narrowed, a low rumble escaped his throat.

And then several things happened at once…

Immediately, Raphael took to the air, yelling into his comms, "BETA CLEAR!" He released a command to his undercover Beta teams, which were already stationed inside the city. Within seconds, all three of the remaining sealed gates of Vega simultaneously blew outward. "Go go go!" he yelled as he flew back to this own truck and nodded at Raguel who immediately took to the sky to join the Wing Battalion. They flew into the city, disappearing into the fray.

Above Vega, the rest of the eightballs descended onto the city buildings. They attacked anything and anyone that was still unlucky enough to be outside. Meanwhile, one particular team of lower angels flew towards a very specific destination.

Instantly, Azrael gave Michael a pained look and then also took to the sky. She had a mission and he wasn't going to deter her from it.

Lead by Dutch and Edward Riesen, the lineup of trucks started towards the blown gates, quickly closing in on the city. They moved fast, rounding up escaping citizens and infiltrating the city through its gaping holes. The Rebels and Oracle Corps swiftly dispatched as many eightballs as possible.

And then there was Michael. He lost all sense of self, his fury boiling over as he stared at Gabriel. Within seconds, he took the element of surprise and flew at his brother, barreling into him like a rocket. He flew him backwards into the city through the North Gate, and slammed him into a nearby pillar. It crashed down around them, but Gabriel immediately lashed out, knocking him backwards. Michael's wings snapped open, slowing his backwards trajectory. Jaw clenched, he held his swords out, ready for anything.

Gabriel faced him and slowly pulled his own sword from its sheath. A grin lit up his face as he delighted, "You haven't learned, brother."

Ignoring his words, Michael attacked but Gabriel moved fluidly to the side and sliced at him. He barely sidestepped out of the way, missing the blade and countered. Several eightballs flew through the clearing and took a swing at Michael, but he quickly dispatched them, slashing several across the chest and taking the head off of another.

Irritated by the distraction, Gabriel bellowed at several more stray eightballs as they flew into the mix. "HE IS MINE!"

The eightballs immediately withdrew, skittering away, and hovering nearby. Staring up at the swarm, Gabriel missed the moment that Michael refocused his attack on him. Flying straight at him, Michael slammed his sword into his face. They tumbled to the ground and traded punches. Within moments, their growling led to lost swords and old fashioned body blows.

~~~**D**~~~

Noma stared down at Alex's face. It was pale and unmoving as she finally let go of him, releasing him to the ground as she glanced up at Ethan. Her wings shielded them from the chaos that had started, but she knew they couldn't stay there long.

"You need to go, Ethan! Go! Go with Raguel. They will protect you," she yelled as another explosion rocked the ground. Her wings tightened around them.

Ethan's eyes were tearful and his hands were shaking. "I can't leave you two here."

She shook her head and slowly opened her wings up, letting him go. "He's gone, Ethan. This is it. You need to save yourself."

He stared at her. His old friend with her wings spanned out, her face tear-stained and her hands bloodied. It made him want to cry even more. "I never thought that this was..."

Her eyes widened for a moment as she glimpsed passed him. "No!" she yelled a second too late as Ethan's eyebrows raised in confusion. And then the pain crashed through him as he stared at her with lips parted, shock washing over his face.

An eightball stood behind him with a long slim sword that it she had shoved through Ethan's torso. The eightball had a big grin on her face as she pulled the sword out and wiped his blood on his own shoulder.

For a moment, Ethan gasped for air, his eyes pleading with Noma to help him somehow. And then the moment passed and his eyes glazed over as his heart stopped. Slowly, he slumped forward, over Alex's body, as if he were protecting his friend one last time.

Noma let out an anguished scream and took to the air, slamming into the eightball and yanking the long sword from her. Within two moves, she shoved the sword into her throat and yanked it upwards, decapitating the smirking eightball. Its body fell lifeless to the sand below.

Hovering in the air, she scanned her surroundings. The air was filled with lower angels doing battle with humans and the Wing Battalion. The city was on fire and all Noma could do was stare down at Alex's bloody body and his true friend draped over him. Tears streamed down her face as she lowered herself slowly, her hand gripping the sword she had acquired. She couldn't leave them there to rot in the midst of everything.

She landed and fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she picked up Alex's limp hand. Noma knew it would be suicide to stay. Her back was exposed and she wasn't concentrating on her own well being. Eventually, an eightball would decide to take her on. But did it matter anymore? Did anything really matter?

And then someone landed next to her. She braced for a blow, but nothing happened. After a moment, she slowly looked up.

Raguel stood by her, holding a long spear. She glanced down at Noma, nodded in acknowledgement, and then stood sentry, scanning the area around them. Occasionally, she spoke into her comms, most of which Noma could not hear, except for one clear command, "As soon as they are full, retreat."

Noma felt confused. Off in the distance, she could see trucks speeding off in droves, hastily leaving Vega's vicinity. As if they were aborting their onslaught.

"Beta team is still sweeping," Raguel said to someone on the other end.

A truck rumbled past at a clipped pace and then another one exited the North Gate. Noma stared at the open-sided truck filled with Vega citizens. "You're evacuating them," she said, dumbfounded.

She watched as several people stared back at her. Some she recognized. One in particular, David Whele. He was bloodied and pale, but he was alive. And sitting next to him was his son, dressed in Oracle Corp gear. Their blue eyes stared at her as they passed by. William put his arm around his father, holding him close as the truck disappeared down the road.

"This was never going to be the war that Gabriel wanted," Raguel said quietly as she looked down at Noma. "Not if we could help it."

"It was always going to be a rescue mission," Raphael said, quietly landing on the other side of her. He glanced over at the redheaded angel. "And it's going well."

Noma looked up at him. "Please Raphael… please." Her hand ran over Ethan's hair and over Alex's bloodied chest.

He crouched down and touched the young soldier. And then for good measure, placed his hand on Alex's. After a moment, he moved back and briefly touched her shoulder. With a sullen look, he straightened. "You know I can not heal them if they've already left this world."

Noma's eyes spilled over with tears once more as she lowered her face and then nodded. She knew but she had to ask.

"Azrael hasn't checked in yet," Raguel said with concern.

Raphael's jaw clenched. "Well, no one ever claimed this would be easy." He pushed the button on his comms. "Azrael, report!" Only static answered and a muffled voice. He hissed, "Something went wrong." Giving Raguel a look, he took to the air.

Clutching the dead men's hands, Noma watched as the archangel disappeared into the distance, heading straight into Vega.

~~~**D**~~~

Evelyn knew it was time to leave as soon as those words fell out of Gabriel's mouth. She knew that they were all doomed. During her time in Vega, she hoped she wouldn't be right, that the other shoe never dropped. That Gabriel would hold true to his word. But it was all over and she wasn't waiting around to see what happened next. As soon as she could, she fled to the center of the city with her crew of elite wardens.

They had a truck waiting near the gate in case everything went sideways. The truck rapidly barreled through the city, barely screeching to a halt near the helicopter.

"Why is it not running?" she yelled, disappointed that the blades had stopped turning. She ran to the cockpit only to find a bloodied pilot. His lifeless eyes stared back at her. Several eightballs landed around the helicopter and her wardens immediately moved into action, dispatching them quickly. Many more of the wardens were still around the city, fighting off eightballs and anyone that opposed them. Ultimately, they would leave the settlement as soon as she made her escape.

Evelyn panicked as she looked around the helicopter. She needed to get out of Vega. Immediately, she shoved the pilot's body out of his seat. "Now!" she yelled at her remaining wardens, one of which climbed into the pilot's vacant seat. The warden nodded at her and started up the machine. The blades were whirling in minutes as Evelyn buckled herself in.

As soon as it was ready, they lifted into the air. The side doors were left open, allowing the other wardens to shoot anything that flew too close. They moved swiftly upwards, avoiding as many obstacles as possible. Her new pilot tilted the helicopter to avoid any skirmishes in the air, taking the scenic route over Vega. Below, the scene was terrifying. Evelyn stared out of the window with both fascination and horror.

Eightballs crawled and skittered over buildings and then flew about, lighting fires and throwing explosives at anything that moved. Several of them were destroying the grain silos and any of the important buildings that Vega once had. City Hall was already been blown to pieces. And she could see trucks leaving Vega behind while people streamed out of the blown gates.

She had no idea what was happening to the city, but she needed to get to Helena before Gabriel did. What happened below could just as easily happen to Helena. Evelyn held her breath as they banked to the left, passing by the nuclear plant. It was teeming with eightballs skittering down its sides and a mass of them breaking the front entrance. The helicopter banked again, this time to the right, quickly passing by the city walls and out of Vega's airspace.

Evelyn let go of the breath she was holding; only to grab onto her seat as the helicopter suddenly wobbled violently. Something had slammed into it.

Something blonde.

~~~**D**~~~

Azrael banked right to avoid the fleeing helicopter and then left to avoid another skirmish in mid air. She had already slain enough to fully coat both of her swords in eightball blood. Making her way to the nuclear plant took longer than she would have liked.

And then she found the swarm that she was looking for.

She had warned Raphael that Gabriel would do what she would do if she were planning on annihilating all of Vega. The nuclear plant would be the first thing to push into a meltdown. If the humans didn't die immediately, they would die eventually from the radiation poisoning. Gabriel would find it most efficient.

Sadly, she was right.

A large army of eightballs blocked the entrance to the main control center. They seemed to be waiting, or perhaps hesitating to enter the building. All they had to do was blow the main regulations board and keep the cooling rods from doing their job, and the whole thing would eventually go critical.

But the radiation alone would make them hesitate. Even a higher angel could easily be hurt by it.

Without hesitation, Azrael flew into the chaos and did what she did best. She taught the lower angels a lesson.