We're getting on to the last part folks, hang on to your socks, this one's a doozy... I'm starting to get more sarcastic, so this part will be a bit strange... if characters seem way OOC for this fic... then I apologize. ^_^;
~blah~ = Telepathy.
blah = Thoughts (I like italics... ^_^)
WARNINGS: There is some sex, violence, strong language and it has the shounen ai pairings of Duo+Heero, and Quatre+Trowa, and the shoujo ai pairings of Dorothy+Relena and Catherine+Iria. So if you don't like shounen ai/yaoi or shoujo ai/yuri pairings, then don't read this! This also has a completely new and original character, so don't take him, he's mine! ^_~
I woke up on a soft, fluffy bed in a black room. The sheets were black, the pillows were black, the walls were painted black, the furniture was black, and the few books that were lying on the black table were also black. Hell, the room was even dark; I could barely see the sun setting under the black drapes over the window to my far right. I'd have to say, this person has some serious problems.
Then I remembered where I was. Dark lord of Hell had captured me. Whoopee. I scanned the room for anything that could be potentially harmful to me. There didn't seem to be any sharp things or blunt objects in the room that could seriously hurt me. There were two maps on the wall closest to me on my left, but I couldn't really make out what they were in the dark. I tried to sit up, but I failed and I fell back. Then I noticed the handcuffs.
Now I was scared. I tried an experimental tug, but that was a bad idea. I could feel my energy drain into the metal cuffs with each movement I made. My heart started racing, the adreneline pumping like nobody's business. I was in ass deep in alligators now. Hell, scratch that, I was neck deep in alligators.
Energy sapping handcuffs were the least of my troubles when Satan walked in. He snapped and a light appearing above my head made me flinch. As he walked towards me, I calmed down and decided on the friendly approach to greeting him, because quite frankly, the cuffs were making me light-headed and being panicked wouldn't help the situation.
"Yo, Satan."
"I am not that heathenish demon. Don't confuse the truth with your damn beliefs."
"So Lucifer and Satan are different?"
"Yes. He's an actual demon. I'm an angel."
"Right. And I'm Anita Blake."
He looked at me strangely then. Apparently he doesn't read books. [1]
"No matter." He fixed me with a dark glare. "Do you want to know why you're here?"
"Not particularly." I was beginning to feel like I was really drunk.
"Too bad, you're going to hear it anyway. Do you know how long I've waited for this? You damn brown noser, always standing there next to the pillar of God and receiving his good will. They called you closest to God, you received gifts from the people for your service, and what did you do? You ran away, you good-for-nothing sonuvabitch. With so little effort you became His favorite, while I worked my ass off trying to please Him, and He just ignored me. Well, he can't ignore me anymore. I'm sick of this. His 'experiment' with your world needs to be eliminated. I can't stand those humans, those made in His image and all that bullshit. It's been thousands of years since he gave those damn monkeys sentient thought and for what? They're all just a waste of energy, a waste of perfectly good materials that could be made into MY image. And so I shall, with your death."
That woke me up. "My death? I won't be dying any time soon, thank you very much."
"Oh yes, you will," he said while chuckling. "Do the words 'when the angel awakens, a disaster shall befall the world, to those who sustain life through death' sound familiar?"
I remained silent.
"They should, because those are the words I spoke to you in your dream. You are the reincarnation of that damn snob, Raziel!"
My eyes widened. Raziel? Rasial? Are they the same? They had to be, no doubt. Why else would they have the same name? Well, that could be coincidence, but the immense power and that sword he wields aren't. Not to mention those astral wings I saw before we came to this world. Then why does he think that I'M Raziel reborn?
"Surprised? You should be. I never thought he would be reborn as a female. You see, when you ran away to the Earth, you forgot that your powers work differently in that world. Your immortality drained away, and you died soon afterward. And then you were reborn into a different body. I lost track of your soul then, because apparently your human body shields the soul enough that I can't detect it without a lot of effort. Not to mention that you sealed yourself in that dimension, you creep."
I just swallowed and tried to take in all the information with open ears and an open mind. This was too mind boggling, even for me.
He walked up to the bed and slapped me in the face. "Of course, when we finally managed to burst through a crack in your damn seal, I started sending people to destroy your focal points."
He pointed at two maps on the wall. "We broke the seal in this pathetic city with the sacrifice of a wandering soul, and then we moved on to the others. Humans are very fragile creatures, I realize. A small chunk of concrete falls on one of them and they go splat."
I remembered the girl and her puppy, I remembered Meiran's screams, and I seethed. But I slowly dulled the edge on my anger in an effort to save myself the energy so that I could get revenge later.
"Why did you kill your own companions?" I asked.
"They were the original guardians of those focal points, and because they can't truly be turned to evil, I confused them, made them think that I was the true Lord, which I should be. But in order to truly take over my world, I had to dispose of them, because killing them would rip open a larger hole to all the dimensions. Which is why I killed them all."
"You sick—"
"But enough about how we got to your world. The words I said are part of my plan. When your angelic powers awaken I shall kill you, taking out the life in your miserable dimension, the beings that sustain life through death."
I rolled that over in my mind for a bit. But I still didn't know why life on Earth was the target, not the Shadow Lands. And why would my death cause the death of the entire world?
"You look confused. Think about it. A cow eats living grass, killing the blade as it chews it up for sustenance. A human will eat the dead cow. Grass will live on the nutrients of the dead human. It's all a circle of sustaining life through death. It's hideous and it must be stopped."
I'll admit, it sounded depressing even to me, but I couldn't agree with stopping it. "You can't just stop life just because you don't like it. Things die, and we all have to accept that. We give and we take, it's all fair. Haven't you ever heard the term 'circle of life'?"
"No, I haven't. But no matter. I will recreate the world in MY image, a superior one that will take over all the dimensions we find."
I didn't say anything. He seemed like a power-crazy guy trying to play God. Actually, he WAS a power-crazy guy trying to play God. I really, really needed to get out of this place.
Lucifer's blood red eyes were boring through me. "And you, you are the key to this; He has said that Raziel's soul shall never perish. But I want to make that statement false... and when one of His statements is made false, the world's power will reverse on itself, and existence as we know it will change.
"And your sacrifice, my dear," he said, grasping my chin and forcing me to look at him, "will bring about the end and the new beginning. Your death will ring in the final judgement..." He trailed off there, his eyes trailing down, down, too far down.
"It's too bad, really. You'd make a lovely treat to nibble on..." He leaned in and nipped at my neck. I drew as far away from him as I could. He just laughed, a deep sound that made parts of me shiver.
Then he turned and walked out.
I stared after him for a few moments, mulling over what I should do. Escaping seemed improbable given the fact that I was still handcuffed and every little movement I made drained me of energy. I decided to sit tight and hope someone would at least release me from the cuffs. Then I could try and make a break for it.
But all hopes aside, the current situation felt, well, hopeless. I viciously pushed down the fear I felt welling up inside of me. I closed my eyes and kept my tears to myself.
Unbeknownst to me, I had fallen into a deep sleep. When I awoke, I was right-side up. There was a large altar that looked vaguely like Stonehenge in front of me. My arms were sore for some reason, and my lungs were oxygen-starved. I finally began to realize what position I was in.
I was crucified.
There weren't any nails in my hands or feet, thank goodness, but I was tied up rather tightly, and I was beginning to not feel my toes and my fingers. I struggled a bit more, and felt my energy flow over to the altar below. This was NOT good. I decided to sit still and perhaps the oppotunity for escape would fall into my lap. But I was really hard pressed to stay calm with Lucifer looking like some neo-Hitler wannabe in front of his soldiers, preaching to them.
"My disciples, we will reach the tower of heaven and take control! Together we will rule the worlds and become master of their domains! WE are the chosen people and WE shall be victorious!"
The crowd cheered. I glared.
"And when those inferior people come to rescue their precious woman," he said with a tone of disgust while pointing at me, "we shall entrap them! Yes! We will destroy the last of the stragglers who refused to join with us!"
A trap. This is not a good thing. I closed my eyes and tried to contact somebody, anybody, but I felt a large metaphysical hand smack me upside the head.
"Ah ah ah, little girl. No one can watch you die if you warn them."
I struggled in my restraints. I wanted to get free, and time was ticking away. I had to warn them. I opened my mouth to scream...
... but no sound would come out.
"Aw, did you lose your voice? Or maybe there's a sound barrier?"
I was really starting to get sick of this bastard. I poked around with my power, and sure enough, there was a strange kekkai around me. [2] This guy had thought of everything. Hope began to sink. Because of me, the others would be pulled into a trap. Especially Rasial. Oh no, Rasial... No, don't come, please don't...
"CHAAAAAAAAARGE!"
Crap. A scream sounding like it came from Israfil rang through the air. Hundreds of white-winged angels swooped down from the skies, raining fiery death upon the masses. The seraphim scattered.
I watched like some kind of third-party observer as the chaos ensued. The trap was set, the bait was laid, and now the angels were being overwhelmed by the sheer number of the seraphim. I couldn't do anything, one, because of the chains, and two, because of the kekkai. I watched Azrael, Israfil, and Rasial destroy mobs of them, heads flying, blood spilling... I know they're kind of busy and all, but why weren't they coming to save me?
"They can't see you."
I looked down to see Lucifer preparing the altar. He seemed so calm with the chaos going around them.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"The barrier that blocks your voice also blocks the area around you. As far as they know, the pillar you're tied to is an empty pillar. They could cut it in half with you on it."
Well crap.
I watched, waiting for someone, a stray sword, an unlucky hit, to strike me down while I was stuck here like a sitting duck. But for some strange reason, none of the seraphim came even close to the altar. Well, I suppose it wasn't that strange. I mean, THEY knew I was here. One of the others must have figured it out by now. But what will happen then? If they decide to attack the altar, then I'm as good as screwed.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
I had no time to wallow in my own misery; a blood curdling scream came from the battlefield. I searched for the source, squinting my eyes against the glare of the desert.
The splatter of blood into the sky wasn't a good sign. As I watched helplessly, I saw the seraphim crowd around Israfil, their mass drowning out any glimpse I had of him. I saw Azrael fly towards him, only to be bashed to the side by another horde of the enemy. And I saw Rasial get knocked down to the ground right outside of the altar. He didn't get up.
Everything happened as if it was in slow motion. I couldn't think. I couldn't feel. My mind went to a dark, static filled place, and I just watched, horrfied, but I couldn't turn away. I saw Israfil's white wings get ripped from his body, the blood spilling the ground, and I saw him fall.
"ISRAFIL!"
Azrael yelled, cutting off heads and limbs left and right, all to get to his comrade. I could feel the pain in his scream as he stood above Israfil, defending his lax body like a madman. I felt so helpless, so lost, and I knew Azrael felt the same.
"Ugh..."
I looked over at Rasial, and watched him watch the scene. He looked crippled, and I couldn't help him. I couldn't do anything. I was helpless.
But then, a flash of white caught my eye.
Two white wings exploded from Rasial's backside. He screamed loud enough to distract even Lucifer from his preparations.
"What?! HE was the one?!" Lucifer looked shocked, as if he had never been wrong before. "How could he have been the one? HOW?! He showed no sign of the holy power!"
Holy power? Then what did I have within me that he considered holy? Was it Shinigami's power?
Rasial burst through the crowds of black winged seraphim, flying into the sky on his wings of light. They were the color of bright sunshine and his iridescent feathers flew all over the place like sparks of light against the darkness of the night. He summoned his sword, and it glowed with a brilliant holiness, like how crosses glow when in the presence of a vampire, a bright bluish-white flame. He flew towards Lucifer, and drove the sword through his heart. He didn't even have time to defend himself; the shock of having a vengeful archangel flying towards him would shock any major villain. Dark red blood splattered all over the altar like a bucket of paint was thrown on it. A sacrifice was made, and thankfully, it wasn't me.
The power from Lucifer rippled over all of us. His death meant more than I thought it would. The seraphim around me collapsed, their wings shuddering around them. The black melted away, revealing the white feathers of their true forms. The curse was broken; the people could come back.
Back to:Part 9
[1]: Yes, I know, Anita Blake was a guest character in Eternity of Blood... but let's just say that she has her own line of books, shall we?
[2]: Kekkai = Japanese word for barrier... they use it a lot in X and probably other supernatural animes.
Ooh, look, PLOT! Yeah, I had to reveal a lot there. But don't worry, not everything is revealed. I'll put up my writing notes when I finish with the epilogue, and you all can read what I'm thinking as I'm writing this... it may reveal some minor details that you may have thought I had forgotten about...
Anyways, feel free to e-mail me your rants and raves, just don't cuss me out, okay?
Copyright reserved 2003 Top Ace