"Aaaaacccceee! I said I'm sorry!" Israfiel whines, somehow tangled in a cocoon of loose ropes.

"Kid, I'm not punishing you…" Ace deadpanned, passing a glance to Scout and the other operators part of their respective teams. All of whom were in a similar situation to the young Sankta, though obviously they were already out of their bindings. "This is supposed to be a simple escape exercise… How'd you even manage to tie yourself up like this?"

"I, don't, know! It just happened! I tried breaking out, and poof! Now I'm all tied up!" His whining continued, getting a laugh from the operators present.

Placing a hand on his face Ace shakes his head. "Well kid, if you can't make it out of that, we're gonna have to leave you behind on our search and destroy exercise."

Instantly, Israfiel casts his Arts to create a sword of light that falls onto his ropes and frees him from his bindings. "Why didn't you say so?! I would've taken this way more seriously if we were gonna be doing that!" His tone changes at the mention of destroying something, leaving Ace exasperated and getting a chuckle from Scout.

"Kid, I know you're wanting to be an Elite, but you gotta show serious interest in these sorts of situations. Even if that situation is something as boring as training. Look, how about this? After today's exercise go see the Doctor and help them with their research. And tomorrow, you tell me what you learned under them, and if I feel like you actually learned something there, we'll do your favorite exercises more often. Deal?"

Ace didn't even need to bargain, Israfiel was already nodding his head at the speed of light at the promise of more destructive exercises. The veteran just sighed, he was used to young people, but none as energetic and rebellious as this one.


The Doctor was in the middle of his research, he had no reason to wear his mask today since the lab was sterile and he wasn't conducting any experiments with Originium. He was actually looking into the large metal box Ace, Scout, and Israfiel had recovered. It was exactly what he thought it was, a mini sarcophagus, meant to preserve old technologies from civilizations' past. Or well, their-

"Doctor~! I'm here to be your assistant today~!" Israfiel burst into the room despite the Doctor's laboratory having a sliding metal door. Luckily the door wasn't destroyed, just forcibly pushed aside.

"Oh? Not wearing your mask today, Doctor?" The Sankta inquired, taking large steps to analyze the Doctor's unmasked face. The Doctor wasn't scared, not one bit, but having Israfiel, who was infamously known to be energetic and unpredictable, was in his laboratory, where he was conducting fairly important research, and that was very worrying.

The Doctor sighed, pulling his face away from the slowly encroaching face of Israfiel who was beginning to forget what personal space was. "Hello Israfiel, I didn't know you were coming. If I had known I would've prepared some refreshments." Nonetheless, he tried to be kind and considerate to his guest. "Would you like any drinks or snacks?"

Israfiel shook his head, "Nope! I just wanna hurry up and help you with whatever research you're doing today."

The Doctor slightly raised an eyebrow at the Sankta, he knew Israfiel never liked to learn anything, but perhaps today was a slightly different day.

"Alright then. Do you remember the black box I had you pick up yesterday?" The Doctor paused to see if Israfiel remembered, which it appeared he did, nodding his head once. "Well today I'm trying to get it open and figure out what's inside of it." The Doctor decided to lie about the contents of the box, he already knew what was inside it but with Israfiel here, he would have to pretend to be ignorant.

The Sankta eagerly nodded his head, making the Doctor question what the true intent of helping them was. Regardless, he was now in charge of Israfiel for the time being and began putting him to work.

"Israfiel, I need you to grab some cables from the cabinet with the black sticker on it. After that I need you to connect them to the exposed wiring, just unfold the wires and wrap them around the exposed ones-" The Doctor began listing off what Israfiel needed to do, though a lot of it went over the Sankta's head.

This will be a long day…


Israfiel had never felt so bored before in the entirety of his life. Everytime he asked the Doctor what a simple cable or button did, he received all this dumb nerd stuff that went over his head. Not to say he didn't put in the effort to learn whatever the Doctor explained, he truly did. But having no prior knowledge of whatever he was helping with hampered his mood and made him feel inadequate for this task. Though he did think he finally understood what the machine was.

"So, if I'm getting this right, then this machine acts like a life preserver by freezing whoever's inside to intensely cold temperatures while also keeping it just barely warm enough to allow the body to continue to circulate blood and function at the bare minimum? And you've encountered a few of these before, since you had us go out and grab one. Then they're supposedly from another time period that was lost to history because this technology came from when Catastrophes were beginning to appear."

Finishing his thoughts, Israfiel looked towards the Doctor for confirmation of his theory, but all he got was this surprised look from them. The atmosphere around them slowly became awkward and got the young Sankta to question whether or not he was completely wrong in his assumption.

Thankfully the Doctor had recovered from their initial shock, "I-uh… Wow, Israfiel… That's…that's amazing. You got every detail right, I'm not even sure how you did either. I hadn't even explained everything about it to you." These words got Israfiel to give a wide smirk and strike an over dramatic pose with a hand on his chest and the other outstretched into the air.

"But of course! If I truly wanted, I could solve any mystery there is on Terra, even the cure to Oripathy!" That last part made the Doctor look at him with a deadpan, causing him to cough awkwardly and drop his pose. "Though I suppose I shall leave such matters to you, Doctor. Since you're the leading expert on Oripathy, starting from scratch would take too long for me. You know…?"

The Doctor's deadpan stare remained for a short while longer before sighing and shaking his head. "I'm glad you feel that way Israfiel, but maybe you should tone down your showboating. I understand you get excited easily, but if you're trying to become a team leader you need to understand how to keep a calm mind and not get prideful at the tiniest compliment."

Israfiel's shoulders slumped, rubbing the side of his neck with a sheepish smile. "Right, sorry Doctor. Shall we get back to work?" The Doctor nodded and the two resumed their work on opening the sarcophagus.

Thankfully for Israfiel, the remaining work was short as within the next fifteen minutes a loud hiss erupted from the machine, garnering both of their attention. When they looked over at the small Sarcophagus the top cover had retracted, revealing a pane of glass beneath and a keypad in the corner. Behind the glass was a white cloth that covered the base of the Sarcophagus, a small metallic object that looked like a phone in the center of the cloth.

The Doctor walked up to the glass, his fingers swiftly entering a long passcode into the keypad and with another hiss the glass retracted as well. Gently scooping the device into his hands the Doctor analyzed it, turning it over and looking for any dents or cracks in the frame.

"So what was that, Doctor?"

"Technology from the far past…" The Doctor turned to his companion, "This will help us in the future, and with what Kal'tsit's planning to retrieve from Rim Billiton it'll speed up our operational progress a hundredfold."

"So it's like some sort of super computer? But if that's the case, then why was it placed in such a large box? Wouldn't that mean that there's more than one machine like this?" Placing a hand on his chin and tilting his head, Israfiel stared at the small Sarcophagus. He was unable to see the Doctor's eyes widening with panic.

Israfiel sighed and headed for the exit. "Well, since we've accomplished our goal, I'll be taking my leave, Doctor." He got no response from the Doctor as he left, too tired from exhaustion to even notice their silence.

Now alone, the Doctor's mind quickly began running simulations for the possibility of someone else having taken anything from the small Sarcophagus. Hundreds of calculations passed and the only definitive answer he had were miniscule and coincidental at best. The only possible outcome he thought of was that there were others like him, Priestess, and Kal'tsit from the far past. After all, only a select few knew how to properly open the Sarcophagus'. But what was their goal? Kal'tsit had been entrusted with safeguarding humanity and Priestess and him were fighting to cure Oripathy, but what was this new variable planning? Especially so close to Kazdel where political tensions were beginning to rise.

Perhaps he was looking too far into it, perhaps there truly was only one device in this Sarcophagus… But what if he was wrong?

Now lost in thought, the Doctor would spend the remainder of their day contemplating and creating plans for the future. Plans that he hoped never would have to be used.


In an unknown location sat a lone figure who faced numerous computer screens, their long black jacket hid their physical features as the hood had been raised over their head, the chair reclined as they stretched. The sound of a door opening behind them along with heavy footsteps signaled that someone had entered. Turning in their chair to meet the visitor they saw a pink haired Sarkaz with red eyes, adorned in metal armor with a long cape on their right shoulder.

"Ah, your grace. I didn't expect you to be here so soon, had I known I would've prepared some refreshments." The hooded figure spoke in a mocking tone.

"Spare me your mockery, Precursor. Why have you summoned me?" The Sarkaz curtly responds.

Precursor fakes a cry of pain, "Oh how you wound me, Theresis. And here I thought we were beginning to become close friends."

"I will not ask again." Theresis threatens, though even he knows it's a hollow threat.

"Fine, fine, ruin my fun, why don't you." He waves off the threat, "Well for starters, you'll be glad to know that The Damazti Cluster will reluctantly agree to your plans. Next we have your sister, she's planning something big, big enough to warrant sending Dr. Kal'tsit to Rim Biliton to retrieve something." Precursor pauses to allow Theresis to absorb the current information.

The Sarkaz nods for him to continue after a short contemplation, "Then we have the Doctor, and this one is just a little bit more important than anything else I've told you." He pauses to let the importance of this information settle in, "He's gotten his hands on advanced technology, a super computer that's been compacted into the form of a PDA, capable of running thousands of combat simulations and choosing the best outcome, not to mention it is constantly learning and adapting to its surroundings."

"Where did the Doctor get his hands on this device?" Theresis questions, already having a suspicion as to what the answer is.

"Aha, that's the thing… Remember where we got my PDA? Yeah, I forgot to mention-"

"Mention that there was a second device that was subsequently taken due to your inability to account for future possibilities." His tone was harsh and held some frustration in it.

Precursor chuckled awkwardly and tried to defend himself. "Hey now, I made sure to grab the superior model, okay? It would take years for the model they grabbed to even be as close to the one we have. So don't worry about-"

Precursor was silenced by Theresis' sword cleaving his head from his shoulders, taking the chair's headrest as well. A small fountain of blood poured from his neck, staining the chair and the ground beneath his corpse.

"Perhaps this regrowth will allow you to understand the consequences of your negligence." Theresis swiftly turned and exited the darkened room, leaving the limp corpse of Precursor in the chair.


And that's a wrap for this chapter of Gone Were Angels, I hope you enjoyed reading this.

It was a bit hard trying to find a villain for pre-cannon, but hopefully this works out.

So, now that Reed Alter (Reelter?) is out, have you pulled for her? And how about the new wave of English VAs? I like all of them so far except for Franka's, to me it feels a bit off, but maybe it'll grow on me like Flametail's.

Anyways, if you see something in my writing that could be corrected or improved, please let me know.