I just learned that Seraphim is plural for Seraph... whoops...
WARNINGS: There is some violence, strong language and it has the yaoi pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the yuri pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like yaoi or yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~
We reached Duo's house just as the sun was setting again. Heero opened the door for us. We walked in to an empty living room. The girls had left. Quatre and Trowa's energy couldn't be felt. It was just the two of them once more.
"Hey Hilde," Duo said as he walked in from the kitchen. "The others left, but they promised to keep a look out for those three angels that appeared the other night."
I remembered something; an image flashed through my mind: a third wing.
"I don't think we should call them 'angels'," I said. "I think we should call them... seraphim."
Duo gave me a strange look. "Seraphim?"
"Yeah, you know, the highest order of angels. They were called seraphim, and they had three wings."
Duo shruged. "Sure, okay. seraphim. So these 'seraphim' have practically disappeared from sight and we don't know where they are or how to track them."
"We felt a rumble down in the Shadow Lands," I said.
"Really?" Duo looked at me with a questioning look. "We didn't feel anything up here."
Rasial and I looked at each other.
"You think it was coming from the Shadow Lands?", Rasial asked.
"I don't know; maybe it was just an aftershock," I suggested.
"But what if it wasn't?"
"We shouldn't worry about it; most of the people down there can take better care of themselves than the humans up here."
"Ah."
"Besides, I think the seraphim aren't out to hurt anyone personally."
"Bullshit!" Duo looked at us like were were out of our minds. Well, he looked at ME like I was out of my mind. "Not out to hurt anyone? What the hell did you think they did to us?"
"But that's just the thing," I argued, "We were in the way; it's not like they came here just to hunt us down. I think they're here to destroy certain places, like the Bay Bridge. Didn't you see on the news? Very few casualities."
"So?" Duo still wasn't impressed. "Look, either way we have to stop them. They said they wanted to destroy us; might as well protect what we got."
I just nodded. I didn't even know what we were arguing about anymore. Heero and Rasial were sitting on the couch the entire time, watching us argue. They both looked like two beautiful statues, not moving, just observing. Duo and I were the only live things in the room. And even then, I wasn't really alive either; I was like Heero and Rasial; I was undead. Then why do I still feel like I'm alive?
Didn't matter. A shaking rocked the house, and we all knew the source; they had come back.
Rasial and I rushed out of the house and started leaping through trees and on buildings to the center of the commotion. Duo and Heero stayed back to call everyone to the scene. Rasial said that the power was coming from Golden Gate Park, so we headed there first, and we were to hide until the others got there. At least, that was Heero's initial plan.
Of course, he didn't take into account that there were civilians walking around in the middle of the night in the park.
So when we got there, we watched in horror as a poor little girl and her puppy got smashed by a rather large piece of concrete. What a little girl was doing out so late walking her dog we'll never know, but I was certain about one thing: these bastards had to go down, and hard.
I leaped out to the top of a few rock structures. They saw me immediately and threw some fireballs at me. It was strange; all three of them were back to back, their robes flowing together so closely that you couldn't tell that they were three separate pieces of cloth. They looked like some strange three-faced machine.
I shed my overcoat and threw it to the ground. I summoned up my power fists again, and leapt into the fray, my hands aglow with energy. One of them, Remiel, swung at me with his sword. A flying boomerang of energy came at me, and I dodged out of the way. I took a deep breath and summoned the true power within; the power which had been given to me by Duo from his father, Shinigami. I could feel it bubbling at the surface of my skin, and I gave myself an extra push before blasting a few power-bombs into his face.
He blocked the attack, but a cloud of smoke appeared around him, giving me time to rush in to throw an energy ball into his chest. Remiel fell back towards the other two seraphim. They split up, and let him fall to the ground. I thought it was quite rude of them to let their comrade fall, but it only meant a higher chance of victory for our side.
Too preoccupied with watching Remiel fall, I barely got out of the way of Saraqael's spear. The blade cut through some of my hair. Damn, and I had just gotten it trimmed nice and even too.
Saraqael stared at me with his dark brown eyes, and reflected in them I saw someone coming from behind me. But it was too late. He was already within striking distance behind me. I braced myself for the impact.
A loud clanging sound brought my attention behind me. I looked behind me, and a shining power circle was glowing, blocking Raguel's attack.
A quick glance downwards told me who had arrived. Dorothy had her staff out, a power circle surrounding her, her hair wafting around in all directions, swirling around her like a cloak. Relena wasn't anywhere to be seen, so I assumed she stayed behind.
"HEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAH!"
The battle cry came from the ground, and I watched Catherine leap up towards me, her translucent wings spreading out as she punched Raguel's lights out. He fell to the ground, where Trowa and Quatre proceeded to pound on him.
Saraqael was obviously annoyed by our presence. "Even if you have defeated my weaker comrades, you will not defeat me." He wielded his spear, and charged me.
"Watch out!" Rasial's voice came to me a split second before he pummeled into me, knocking me out of the way of Saraqael's sharp spear. We landed not far away on a rock outcroppings in the Japanese tea garden. We both watched as Iria cast a light screen, blinding Saraqael, and lighting up the area for a few miles. It was so bright that Rasial and I turned our backs on the light and shut our eyes tightly.
"Great, we didn't want to cause more commotion," I muttered.
"Well, after all this chaos, you'd think someone would notice, regardless."
"True... but did she have to light up the sky like that? I swear, it was daylight for a few moments."
Rasial just shrugged. We both turned back to look after the light subsided. A figure flew into the sky, sword in hand. Rasial and I leapt back towards the fray to help. The figure turned out to be Wufei, taking advantage of Saraqael's blindness. His silver sword gleamed in the light of the city skyscrapers in the background as it came down for a final blow to the forehead. It was a very dramatic scene. Wish I had my camera.
And then Saraqael gracefully twisted out of the way and shoved the butt of his spear into Wufei's stomach. Wufei didn't have a chance as the wind was knocked out of him. Then Saraqael twirled his spear around and did an overhead chop and sent Wufei spiraling towards the ground. I raced to catch him.
Suddenly he did a somersault and landed on his feet on the ground. I was relieved that I didn't have to save him and suffer one of his "I can take care of myself" glares.
The sound of tearing flesh caught my attention. Sally must have snuck up behind Saraqael while Wufei was charging and sliced into two of his wings with her laser sword. That sword was made of pure energy, created from Sally's power. Man, wish I could do that.
Saraqael fell to the ground, just as Remiel flew back up to slice at her. Sally turned around just in time to see Wufei slam into him.
"Nobody touches my onna except me!"
How... chivalrous. But I'm sure Sally is grateful.
I looked back towards where Raguel was. Or should I say, had been. Trowa and Quatre looked worse for wear, and they had a bunch of feathers in their hands. There was a dead corpse lying between them. Yes, I think they beat him.
As for Duo and Heero, they were no where to be found. I was slightly annoyed; I thought they would have been the first to arrive. I flew down to where Saraqael had fallen. He looked dead.
Then his arms moved. Of course he wouldn't be dead, he's a seraph. He stood up, and glared at me. I rushed in for a quick kill.
But before I could even get a shot in, two quick flashes of movement dashed before me, and Saraqael fell dead at my feet.
"Looks like we got here just in time," Duo said. Heero just nodded.
"Dammit Duo, that was going to be my kill," I complained.
"Well, you're too slow. You should've just shot him."
"Grrr... I was GETTING to that."
"Right."
I just sighed and walked away. Two of the seraphim were dead. And watching Wufei beat on Remiel, the score was probably going to be us three, seraphim zero.
Wufei made a few strange gestures with his hands, chanted something, and blew Remiel to the afterlife with a large blue blast of energy. Then he fell over.
"Wufei!" Sally flew over to him, and supported him as they left the area. "See you guys later," Sally called back over her shoulder as she flew him away. Catherine and Iria's shirts and jeans were torn, and blood stains gave their outfits brownish spots. They hobbled over to where Dorthy was kneeling, leaning against her staff for support. They all hopped into Dorothy's car and drove off, waving goodbye tiredly.
Trowa and Quatre supported each other as they walked over to us. We exchanged a few words of congratulations, and assured each other that we would be alright. Then they went to Quatre's car and Quatre waved goodbye as they drove off.
Duo and Heero looked at Rasial and I.
"You staying, or are you going back?", Duo asked.
"We're probably going back," I replied.
"Alright, but you know you're welcome at our house at any time... just call first. You probably don't want to walk in on us when we're... you know."
I laughed. "Yeah, I know."
Duo and Heero waved farewell, and hopped into Duo's jeep, driving off like a speed demon. I turned to Rasial. "Well, shall we go home then?"
We got home, and I did some paper work until I decided I was tired enough to go to bed. Which wasn't long, considering the battle I had just gone through.
A call in the middle of my nap woke me up. It wasn't really a phone call, it was actually a telepathic call.
~Hilde!~
"Relena?"
~Yeah, it's me. You were hard to find. Anyways, I think there will be another seraph appearing near the I-280/US 101 junction sometime tonight. You and Rasial are closest to there, because the cave with the portal to your world is near there.~
"Oh, alright. Do you know exactly when this will happen?"
~Not exactly. Probably late night. At least, that's what my vision told me. Listen, I can't chat for long, it takes a lot of energy to keep up a link with someone in another dimension. So, are you going to fight it alone, or should I tell the others?~
"How many seraphim will there be?"
~Just one.~
"Alright, I'll go with Rasial. Don't bother contacting everyone else, they all have their problems to deal with."
~Okay. Goodbye.~
And with that I lost the connection. Sometime tonight... since it was always nighttime in the Shadow Lands, I had to figure out what time it was in the Upper Grounds. I got out of bed and booted up my laptop.
6:56 PM.
Goddammit. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and called for Rasial. We had some seraph exterminating to do.
We stood on a hill overlooking the I-280/US 101 junction. Rasial was dressed in black tight fitting t-shirt, black jeans, and a dark blue trenchcoat. He was going for the Matrix look today. As for me, I was wearing a dark green long-sleeved shirt with some slick dark blue slacks and a long, flowing black jacket. I can't really call it a trenchcoat, because it was really lightweighted. But that's what it looked like.
We watched the car lights drive to and fro in the junction, waiting for Relena's prediction to come true.
"Are you sure Relena's vision was any good?", Rasial asked me with an incredulous tone.
"As far as I know, she's never been wrong."
"Oh, great. Well, always a first time for everything."
I just glared at him for a few moments before staring back out at the red and white lights. For once, I hoped Relena was wrong about her prediction. If the junction gets smashed, a lot of people will die.
Then a light came from above, parting the sparse clouds. A single seraph came down, wielding a black sword of some kind. From here, it looked like a thick-bladed katana. He looked ethnically Japanese, and the fact that he was wearing a battle kimono and hakama kind of gave away that fact. [1] He was close enough that I could pick out the stylized black swan on the back of his kimono. Or a goose, but I'm pretty sure it was a swan. Geese just didn't have that sense of regality that a swan has. No offense against the geese of the world.
His back was to us and he obviously didn't notice us at first. That is, until I threw a powerball at his back. He glanced back, and pulled out his sword. He cut my attack into two, and they flew harmlessly past him into the night.
"Kuso," I said under my breath. Funny how the most memorable words of a foreign language are the cuss words. Now the seraph had his full attention on Rasial and me. This just wasn't my day.
"Who dares to attack me behind my back! That is dishonorable."
I decided to speak up, since Rasial sure as hell wasn't. "Tell us who you are first!"
"I am Uriel. I am here to finish what the three fools did not."
By fools I assumed he was talking about Raguel, Remiel and Saraqael. I wonder how he knew that they did not finish their mission.
"And now, I shall destroy this star point. Do not attempt to stop me again."
"Like hell I'm not!" I made a move to jump at him, but a sudden movement to my right distracted me. I felt a sharp blow to my neck and then all was black.
When I came to, I was alone. The first thing my mind registered was the throbbing pain at the back of my neck. Stupid Rasial, why the hell did he do that? It's not like he has the power to fight him single-handedly, he's only been a vampire for 40 years.
But the thing that happened next blew that thought into the sky.
Rasial's power came over me like a flood, nearly plowing me over. The sheer energy that was coming from the general direction of the junction was immense. I looked out towards the source of the power. Rasial had his glowing sword out, clashing against Uriel's black katana. I gathered my wits and power and flew out to the battle.
It would seem that I woke up a bit too late. I watched as Rasial lay a final blow to Uriel, striking him across the neck. I saw it from a little ways away, so I just saw him swing his sword, and moments later, the head of Uriel fell off and dropped to the ground below. I bet someone down there was in for a bloody surprise.
The body hung in the air for a few moments, held aloft by the sudden outburst of magical energy leaving his body. The energy spread out the moment his head had been chopped off. The stuff that spilled from his severed neck seemed too dark to be blood. Maybe it just seemed like that because it was too dark to see clearly. I got within smelling distance by the time Uriel's body had fallen to the ground. The air smelt slightly metallic, the smell of pints of blood spilling into the night sky.
As I approached Rasial, he made his sword dissipate and turned to face me. In the moonlight he seemed ominous looking, with the glistening wetness of Uriel's blood covering his clothes.
"You're way older than 40, aren't you?"
Rasial just gave me one of his mysterious smiles, which I couldn't decipher for the life of me.
Back to:Part 3
[1]: Hakama Picture: This is KINDA what I'm going for...
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