[Story] Ballad of the Fallen

Prologue: The Crossing.
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"Ugh," Ami grunted as she tripped over her cat and glared down at it. "Frisky! Don't get in my way like that!"

The cat looked at her in the way that only cats could; with utter disdain, before slinking away to some calm resting spot where she could rest in peace. Ami, in the meantime, started getting her books ready for college. A tall girl at around 5,10, with long brown hair tied into a ponytail, she still found it easy to trip over things.

It took some time, but she still managed to make it with a little time to spare, and slammed the door shut behind her, well groomed and well dressed in a pair of black, neat trousers, a white shirt and a brown jacket.

A tall boy awaited her outside, with short brown hair, glasses on his nose, and wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. Clearly he was taking advantage of the summer weather while it lasted into September. He had a phone to his ear as he paced up and down the pavement.

"Yeah, Jess. OK. Yeah it was good. Oh, remember when Kelly fell in the puddle? What was it she tripped over? Oh that's right. She tripped over her own feet. Yeah, yeah. I'll talk to you later. See ya."

Damon flipped the phone shut and put it back in his pocket, then looked at Ami. "Oh. You ready to go?"

"I was ready ten minutes ago." Ami didn't look too pleased. "I'm gonna be late for college, Damon. Come on, come on."
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Jess drank her coffee quite fast, her hands shaking from nerves. Her first day of college had come, and she didn't want it one bit. She had selected some crappy geography course she hated, under immense pressure from her family.

When where she really wanted to be was back in England with Damon and the others. The week she had spent there she had felt more at home than she did in her own home back in Wisconsin. She so desperately wanted to go back there. After she came back from England, her dad and grandmother had practically put her under house arrest.

Standing up from her now empty coffee cup, she decided to leave with a sad sigh.

As she stepped outside, a cold feeling touched the back of her neck. She clenched her shoulder muscles and looked up.

Snow?! There was snow falling from the sky! Proper thick stuff too. A small layer had already built up on the ground. Snow in September? The weather forecast sure hadn't seen this coming.

Shouldering her bag, she walked on.

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Tia sighed as she sipped her second cup of coffee that morning. It would be time for work in a few hours. Joy. More people with nothing better to do in their lives but complain about something she couldn't change.

She brushed her dark hair back from her face as she glanced at a book on the table that she couldn't be bothered to read. She would have been online, but her computer was broken. And the people she had called to fix it hadn't been able to help.

There was a bitter irony in that.

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Kelly fell over a shoe and fell spread eagled on the ground. "Fuck's sake!" she raged brutally, standing up and kicking the offending shoe into a corner with all the vigor she could muster.

Why was it again that Jess, Tia, Mark, Damon and Ami had had to stay here again? There was a perfectly good hostel down the road they could park their asses in but muggins had had to offer them a place in her house like a good little hostess.

Then the beer had gone and the lot of them with it. Ignorant bastards had left a mess and a hangover in their wake and Velcro certainly wasn't gonna clean it up.

Kelly looked outside. What on earth?! It was snowing. Thanks a lot, Mother Nature.

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Jess looked outside. The snow was growing stronger, and a howling wind was picking up and whipping the blanket of powdery snow around the gates and the school grounds. It was almost like a blizzard had started to form. And it was getting stronger by the minute.

Jess looked back to her teacher, who was lecturing about tectonic plates or something like that. Whatever it was, Jess didn't care. She was enraptured by the unseasonable snowstorm.
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Vikki glanced around Wisconsin as she stepped through the rift in space. Her eyes were emotionless as she pushed her dark red hair out of her eyes. Her short form was a deceptive shell for her incredible power within

"Spare no one."
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Sonny glanced around the streets of Manchester, before looking at a fallen angel who was shivering with nerves. Of average height and with his dark red hair, he looked weak in comparison to the frightened six foot tall angel, but he had earned his second in command rank and wore it with pride.

"Look, just stay strong, alright. This won't take long, and human weapons can't harm you. Let's hurry up and get this done."
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Mandi smelled the pollution of Dallas, Texas as she stepped through the rift and turned away from the smell. These poor creatures didn't even know what they were doing to themselves, and now this was to be brought upon them.

She looked at the group of fallen angels behind her. This was the part she hated the most. The part she had been dreading since the plans had been made.

"Kill them quickly. Torture will not be tolerated."
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Jess yelled as the window shattered and snow flurried in rapidly. Two... three figures came flying in! Two on white angel's wings and another on pink tinted wings! The fuck was going on?!

One of them.. the woman with pink tinted wings looked at Jess with an emotionless stare, then turned to look at the others and drew a pair of wickedly sharp zai, before looking at the tacher, a middle aged man, with the barest flicker of a smile, before sending a sai spinning at him.

The man didn't even have time to duck as the pronged blade flew forward and impaled him through the throat with startling dexterity. The man thrashed for a moment as his blood spilled, but The winged woman stood up straight and smiled as she brushed a strand of dark red hair from her eyes and smiled again, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply.

"First blood," she whispered.

Then the screaming started and the students began piling out the door, becoming crushed together in their terrified efforts to escape.

The woman walked calmly over to the dead professor pinned to the wall, and ripped out the bloody sai, letting him slump to the ground, leaving a trail of blood on the wall as she turned to the students, some of whom were still crammed in the doorway, screaming and crying as the three winged figures mercilessly exterminated them.

Jess felt an agonising pain in her head and grunted as she fell back against the wall. Oh god she couldn't faint now. No no, she would die. Every ounce of instinct told her to resist the weakness... until a voice entered her head.

"It's not time for you to die yet..."

Everything fell into oblivion as she lost all sense of consciousness.
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Carefully stepping over patches of snow as the rest of the class milled around them, Ami and Damon left college.

"I'm so tired..." yawned Damon.

"Get used to it," Ami remarked with a shrug. "You'll be here a lot."

"Comforting as ever, Ami," sighed Damon, rolling his eyes. Ami responded with another shrug and they continued on.

Just then Ami's phone rang, and, sitting down on a snowy bench with her jacket as a blanket, she answered it.

"Hello, Ami speaking. Oh hey Mark? Huh? Calm down. What?! Look... c-calm down alright? I don't understand you. Are you saying that there are- Mark you're scaring me now."

A heart-rending scream ended the conversation. Ami looked up, and saw Damon standing utterly still and silent, which was unusual for him. She followed his gaze and stilled, her eyes widening in horror as she saw a boy... with his katana through a girl's chest. Ami opened and closed her mouth as the boy wrenched the sword out, letting her crumple to the ground like a paper doll.

"Sorry," he murmured as he drew a second katana and advanced towards a second student. Ami watched in morbid fascination as a campus security guard ran towards the boy. The boy suddenly... spread huge angel's wings of startling gold, and raised a hand. Suddenly the air began to crackle with an unknown energy and Ami felt her fingers tingle.

Sparks began to dance aroundthe winged boy's hand as his deep red hair stood up on end, his face utterly expressionless as blue sparks began to dance from finger to finger, before an immense bolt of electric blue energy flew from his hand and struck the security guard point blank on the chest.

His body rose into the air as the bolt vanished into him, his body the conductor for the fatal charge of energy. He jerked and writhed in the air as his skin blackened and turned dry. His mouth opened in a scream that would never come as he slammed down upon the ground, lifeless.

"Sorry," the boy said again, as he furled his wings back.

"Ami. Ami!" yelled Damon. Ami snapped out of her trance and looked at Damon for a moment, before a crippling pain struck her skull. She cried out and dropped to her knees.

"What's wrong?!" yelled Damon, before shouting in pain and stumbling, before falling.

"You want that charge, do you not?" The strange voice sounded in Ami's head as her vision blurred and faded to black.
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Kelly kicked out as a winged figure tried to get into her house, wielding a vicious axe. The man fell onto the step, hitting his head with an almighty crack and knocking himself out.

"Get the fuck out of my house birdboy!" roared Kelly, picking up the bundle of clothes and Velcro, somehow managing to carry both, despite the cat's hissing protests.

She then ran out the door with a cry as her shoe came off. Growling angrily, she kicked it off, and it flew off into the distance.

More of those winged bastards coming. Running on, she kicked off the other shoe and began running in her socks and pyjamas. She must look like a proper idiot, running around like that. Wasn't too fond of the stones jabbing into her foot either.

Then a piece of clothing flew out of the bundle and blew away in the wind. It was a little black- THE DRESS OF DOOM! She had fucking dieted for ages to get that thing and now it was blowing away?!

Leaving it behind, she ran on, when a pulsing agony in her head made her stumble and fall. Oh come on! Not now! The other clothes blew away as her grip loosened and Velcro leapt from her arms and dashed away from her rapidly. The idiot! She was a housecat!

Then a voice sounded in her ears, and she felt her conciousness fading.

"Let's see how tough you are..."

"Oh... fuck off..." whispered Kelly as her mind went blank.
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Mandi strode down the corridor of the apartment, flanked by two other fallen angels. She looked away as each of the fallen angels walked into doors on the corridor, and the brief thud of bodies hitting the floor was heard. It was quick, but Mandi didn't condone it for one second.

She would take the last room.
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Tia heard a click and the sound of the apartment door opening. Who the hell could this be at this time in the morning?

She set her coffee mug down on the table. If it was the creepy guy from the apartment she'd call the landlord.

But it wasn't. It was a short woman with long blond hair that reached down to her upper back. Dressed in a pair of skin tight black trousers and a black t-shirt, Tia immediately saw that the t-shirt had slits for... "glimmering turquoise wings?! They were like a clear blue sea on a sunny day, resplendant and unbelievable... but undoubtedly there.

Before Tia could even speak, the woman extended her hands, and ripples began to form in the sky. From it snaked blue ropes that appeared to be made from water itself, cold and damp as they lashed around Tia and bound her on her feet.

Tia cried out and they burned! They were wrapped so tightly she could only just breathe.

The woman looked apologetic as she looked at Tia. "I'm so sorry. I really am. We had no other choice..." She seemed truly sincere, but then she drew a loaded handgun from her pocket with a little sigh and pointed it at Tia.
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Mandi suddenly felt something. Her eyes widened and her gun fell to her side. As her concentration broke, the ropes binding the woman in front of her gave way and fell to the ground, where they liquified into water and sank into the carpet.

Without another word, Mandi ran out the door towards the corridor. The other two were already waiting there.

"We have to get out of here!" she gasped, and, raising her hands into the air, clicked the fingers of both hands. There was a single ripple in the air, and Mandi and the other fallen angels vanished into it.
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Tia tried to rise to her feet, but before she could, a headache struck her back down. And now... her whole body was on fire! It felt as though she was burning in the white hot fires of Hell. She couldn't scream, she couldn't move. She could only lie there in agony as the voice came into her head.

"Ah, yes. You will be my ultimate weapon."
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All of the fallen angels were gathered outside when the windows blew out, each floor's windows blasting out in a neat line and unleashing a shower of glass just before the next. Gold fire and black smoke erupted from the holes as Mandi and the others stood and stared at the carnage.

Noone ould have survived the blast.

That was the power of Uriel, the Fire of God. Any who had survived that would have to have been blessed by God itself.

Chapter One: Passing
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Jess did not know it, but she had been wandering for three months now. Ever since she had woken up in the smoking ruins of her school, surrounded by the corpses of her fellow students and teachers, she had been moving aimlessly through Wisconsin, sleeping and eating when and where she could.

Her house had been burnt to the ground, and her family were missing. Oddly, not seeing their bodies made her happy. they might still be alive somewhere. This was what gave Jess hope. It was what stopped her from going insane. She often went days or weeks without any social cpntact. It was imagining the faces of her father and grandmother that kept her going.

She had set up camp here for the night. No town in sight. She settled down on a spongy, relatively dry moss patch and nibbled on a little cold chicken her last hosts had prepared for her. People were strangely helpful in the wake of the Apocalypse.

The silence was what got to Jess most. Here she was, surrounded by navy night, and she couldn't even hear the crickets chirp. Had they left? Knowing that they would be eradicated if they stayed, had they fled? The thought was a chilling one.
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Ami sat huddled in her apartment, a worn grey blanket wrapped around her, her brown hair matted and chaotic. She had not bothered to try to wash or comb it since the winged beings had broken the heating system that powered Manchester. The electricity had quickly followed, and so the TV had remained blackened ever since. As well as light switches and any source of light. Part of the torture was psychological. Night after night, they were plunged into darkness.

The door suddenly opened, and Ami withdrew a baseball bat she had got from... somewhere. The oily creak made Ami's head spin with all sorts of paranoid thoughts. God, if it was one of those winged angel things, she would probably freeze in fear and stand there like a lamb as they slaughtered her. Sometimes she wished she could just defend herself... with something like the sizzling control the boy angel had over the power of lightning. It had been sinister, but oh so powerful. And then she had woken up in the blazing remnant of her college with Damon just in the next room.

Creeping down the stairs, as silently as she could manage, holding the baseball bat in both hands, she felt her breath catch in her throat as she saw a tall silhouette moving below. In that instant she decided actions would speak louder than words, and resolved to move.

With a powerful war cry, Ami hurled herself forward and swiped the bat at the figure, who cried out and flung itself to one side. That yell... it was familiar.

"Damon?!" she roared indignantly. "What the hell? We set up a password system! You're supposed to knock on the door and SAY the password!"

"Or get beat to death?!" yelled Damon, glaring at her. He seemed really annoyed, and massaged his head where he had hit it as he fell. "Fucking hell, Ami. This isn't some kind of spy drama!"

"And it isn't a damn adventure, or a game either!" retorted Ami. "For fuck's sake Damon; the security is there for a reason and you keep undermining it!"

"I don't wanna hear this," sighed Damon, then flicked out his phone and began dialling keys with a sigh.

"What are you doing?" demanded Ami, annoyed. "Why are you playing around with that phone when those things could be outside?"

"Calling Jess," muttered Damon in reply, even though he had heard the disconnected tone for months now when he had tried to call her, he wouldn't give up. He refused to believe the possibility that Jess could be dead, and still tried to call her every day. But the battery was dying. And the phone kept switching off. Goddamit!

"Get a grip!" yelled Ami, glaring at him. "You know what? Forget about Jess right now, cause we have to survive! She's probably not answering you because those bastards got her! This might not be what you wanna hear, but you need to get a grip now or we'll die!"

Damon froze, then glared angrily at Ami. Well, it was more a mix of anger and shock. Ami immediately knew that she had said the wrong thing. "Damon..." she murmured, but he turned away from her coldly. He seemed infuriated. His hands were shaking with barely suppressed rage and his knuckles were white with fury. He stormed towards the door.

"Damon! Damon, don't go back out there!" yelled Ami. "It's not safe out there. Come back!" She felt fear climbing up her throat as he left the safety of the house, but couldn't make herself step over the threshhold. How? How could she be so powerless?... How could she just stand there and watch as her friend left her home?

There was nothing she could do but watch as the door slammed shut before her.
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3 Months Later

Jess stumbled and gasped as she heard a thrumming, engine-like noise. She began to feel an odd fear. It was the first mechanical thing she had heard in half a year. It was almost as if she'd become accustomed to the sounds of nature.

Still hadn't become accustomed to the lack of coffee though.

Looking down, she saw that at the bottom of the road was some kind of base. Like an army base or something. Moving down tentatively and keepingan eye out for anything with wings, Jess sighed in relief when she saw there was none.

"Freeze!"

Two men were pointing guns at her. Long barrelled, monstrous black tubes with lethal force in their metal carcasses. Jess' eyes widened as she looked at the two men, but their grip on the shotguns didn't falter.

"Hands up! Now!"

Jess decided it would be best if she obeyed them and raised her hands into the air. They approached, their faces eeming to be made of stone or porcelin, dressed in khaki camo clothes from top to bottom. They took a quick look ather, then one said to the other, "She's not an angel."

The other man nodded and put his shotgun away, then jerked his head at Jess. "Come on. Get your ass in gear."

Jess, her head spinning, stood up, looking confused to say the least. These men had gone from pointing their guns at her to... giving her a guided tour? The fuck was going on?

"We have a plane taking off from here in thirty minutes. It's going to Britain. England in particular. We have to ask you to get on that plane, Miss. The angels didn't populate Britain and mainland Europe to the extent they have populated the States."

This was all going through Jess' tired brain too quicckly. Brushing a hand through her frazzled dark hair, she massaged her scalp, but then a familiar word reached her ears.

England. That was where he lived. Damon. Damon lived in England!

She allowed the men to lead her off.
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Tia clutched her head with pain as she felt consciousness return to her. The coppery taste of blood danced across her tongue, and she realized she had bitten it.

"Ugh." She stood up and realized she was covered in muck and grass. Where had she landed?... It only took her a second to find out. In a field full of cows! And it was wet! Tia made an expression of disgust. She would have to find some new clothes before-

A gasp left her throat as she realized where she was. She had been here last month. In August. To meet some friends of her's. England!

And in front of her, Manchester was burning.
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Kelly grunted with exertion as she dragged her clothes behind her, in a suitcase she had stolen from a nearby New Look. It had been a pleasant deep pink but was now a dusty beige pink from being dragged through ash and dust. She had been taking refuge in shops for a while now, and was now ready to leave this hellhole. Did she feel guilty about leaving her home town? Did she HELL!
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Jess heard the plane's engines start up and grabbed onto her seat tightly. She was sitting with a number of people, mostly army soldiers, but a few civilians were thrown in.

She couldn't relax. The soldiers all had various guns as weapons. They were tense, at various levels of experience, from shivering boys and girls to grizzled old men who had fought in Vietnam. Surrounded by these weapons, Jess couldn't relax. There were other planes taking off now too. They were small, but high speed. They would get to England quickly.

Jess felt her body jolt as the plane took off and gritted her teeth, breathing deep. She had been on a plane before. Why the hell was she so nervous now? Oh yeah, because there were things here that wanted to bring her life to a violent end.

After a sleep and when they had been in the air for eight hours, Jess began to calm down. She glanced out of the window and saw the planes outside, soaring alongi n almost perfect sync to her plane. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. She felt a strange sense of relief.

An explosion rocked her and made her almost fall off her seat. "Agh!" she screamed. What the hell was going on?!

Looking outside, she saw the plane to her right begin to emit sparks and flare up. Smoke began to billow from the wngine and into the sky. Jess' eyes widened as cracks began to run down the structure of the giant, amber fire exploding forth as the plane exploded. The agonised screams of the dying could clearly be heard through the huge rumble as shards of plane fell towards the earth.

In the air, on emerald green wings, a boy floated, wiping soot from his chin with a sigh as charred corpses fell around him. He had a brief glimpse at Jess, nodded silently to her, and took off towards the horizon.

Panic was extending to the plane Jess was on now as people began to scream hysterically. They were standing up on their seats and yelling.

Outside the plane, Jess saw... a woman. She too was flying on turquoise blue wings, her brown hair, laced with blond flowing behind her. She glanced in at Jess with a stony expression on her face. Then she closed her eyes and inhaled as her body began to shift and fade... into clear water, which sank into the surface of the plane!

Jess jumped up and back, trying to escape from whatever this woman was doing.

"Alpha, come in! Do you read me?! This is Squadron Virgo! Requesting permission to land! Requesting permission to-"

The pilot was cut off and a gargling choking noise and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Jess jumped back again, breathing heavily.

A short, redhaired figure stepped out of the cockpit with a small smile on her face. Jess glanced at her for a second, then recognised her.

It was her! That woman who had attacked her school six months ago!
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Tia was walking a country road now. The sun was shining, and she was relatively comfortable after getting the worst of the muck off her face and clothes. She didn't think about why she was here and why now or she would go mad. It had been hours, though it had seemed like days had passed. She had somehow been transported here in what seemed like a mere blink.

As she walked on, the sky began to darken and fill with black clouds. No... it wasn't clouds. It was something else. And it was descending out of the sky towards her. Twisting and forming into something else. What the hell was it?...

It was becoming vaguely human shaped. Man shaped. Tia stepped back as a tall redhead erupted from the smoke and soared at her on white wings. She dodged and lashed out with her fist. The man's momentum sent him flying through a fence and into a field. Tia, panting, ran on.

The man erupted from the wooden wreckage with a feral look on his face. "Come back, little Rift-child," he hissed. "We want you..." He zoomed after Tia as she ran down the country road as fast as her legs could carry her.
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Jess backed away from Vikki as she advanced, sai drawn. Mandi only watched with her hands by her side, face emotionless, as Vikki approached.

"Your face is familiar," the redhead said softly, cupping Jess' face in her hand. "Stand down."

The punch brought Jess to her knees before Vikki, who smiled softly. The pain was intense and the side of her face was bleeding. "You don't like this pain?" asked Vikki, putting the flats of one of her sai to her throat and pushing upwards. "Don't worry. It'll all be over soon. Stand."

Jess, dazed, obeyed, and stumbled over to the far side of the plane, where everyone had been gathered. Vikki looked at Mandi, who drew two short, double barelled pistols and pointed them at the group.

"Sorry about this." Mandi looked genuinely remorseful. "You will attain heaven in a moment."

She fired twice and the bullets whizzed out of the barrels, straight at Jess.

A vibrant golden wall formed, glittering with a silvery glow. The bullets slammed into the wall, which then dropped tothe ground. The wall was translucent, and protected the entire group.

Mandi fired again with an intrigued look on her face. Again the wall blocked it and the bullets clattered to the plane floor.

"Is magic our only option?" Vikki looked coldly at Jess. "It seems we have a gifted one among us. The water will take her. Make it so."

Mandi clenched her fist, then sighed. "Sorry."

The air began to distort, and something was forming. A ripple? A distortion of some sort? Whatever it was, water was pouring from it at incredible pressure straight at the group. The wall flashed white and faded as the torrent struck it and continued all. Jess was immediately engulfed by thick, choking azure water.

Would she drown here? Die on her own with all these others?... Be engulfed forever by an abyss of blue.

A muffled crack reached her ears as she felt the water drin, and she was falling, falling... Unable to stop. She tried to grab onto something, but there was nothing there, and lifeless and alive alike tumbled to the earth waiting hundreds of feet below, as shrapnel from the destroyed plane rained around them. Jess saw earth rapidly approaching, and sighed, as her vision went black.
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Tia cried out as the fallen angel grabbed her hair and yanked backwards. She tried to swing for him, but she was held in a position in which she could not. Oh God her heart wouldn't stop pounding. It was beginning to hurt and there was nothing she could do! Why the hell was this happening, and why couldn't she do anything to defend herself.

Suddenly the grip on her loosened and the fallen angel flew backwards as she fell to the tarmac. Looking around as she scrambled to her feet, she saw that the fallen angel seemed to be pinned to a tree trunk by some unknown force. As though an invisible hand was keeping him there.

A tall figure stepped forward and looked at Tia. "You OK, Tia?" he asked her quietly. He had brown hair, was dressed casually, and held a rapier at one side.

"Y-yeah. I'm OK... MARK?! " she yelled.

Mark looked away from Tia and at the fallen angel. "Sorry, but I can't have you leaking information to your leader." He looked a little squeamish. Mark made a beckoning motion with his left hand.

The fallen angel flew off the tree and towards Mark, who held his rapier up. Tia gasped as the fallen angel's eyes widened. Mark's face remained utterly composed as the fallen angel was impaled on the blade. He let out a single grunt as blood trickled from his lips, then Mark slid him off the blade, and he fell, lifeless, to the tarmac.

"Come on." Mark sheathed his sword. "I'll explain everything."
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Jess woke up in a dry, grassy field. Her head throbbed from where she had been struck, but aside from that, she seemed to be fine.

That was... impossible. Considering her fall, she should have been an imprint in the field. Standing up, she saw that she was surrounded by bloodied grass, bodies, and shrapnel.

Pulling herself together, Jess started walking, ignoring the death around her.
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Mandi looked at Vikki as they hovered in the air.

"That wasn't right," whispered Mandi. "I feel so tainted."

"You have no right to comment." Vikki's voice was cold. "After how you denied him, you deserve eternal damnation. Deal with it, or die." Vikki turned away and left, drifting through the air.

Mandi spat, watching it fall. She wouldn't be treated this way for much longer. She wouldn't let God's chosen creatures be harmed. She had sinned, but she would repent. For herself just as much as God.
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Jess reached the road when a car pulled up in front of her. It was a long, sleek black vehicle, and as the door opened,a woman stepped out. She was short and slender, with shoulder length, dark brown hair. Glasses rested on her face and she looked at Jess expressionlessly.

"W-who are you?" asked Jess, fear welling up inside her.

"My name is Amanda. I'll have to ask you to come with me."

"No!" Jess yelled, terrified. She didn't want to be taken. Not again. Not again. Please not again! She turned to run, but now Amanda... had defied the laws of physics and was behind her.

"No!" screamed Jess again. "NO!" Amanda put her hands on Jess' arms and shoved her roughly backwards into the car as Jess screamed on. Entering the car itself, she said simply: "Drive," and shut the door behind her.

The car pulled out, with Jess' cries for help ringing in the air.

Chapter Two: The Hive
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Tia watched Mark as he put his rapier in a container on the wall and hung up his coat. He now wore a white t-shirt, a pair of thin jeans and white trainers. He and Tia were the only ones in the place, it seemed. It was quite a bright room, with small golden lights adorning the room and the walls painted a pleasant homely brown. A mahogany desk sat at the centre of the sea blue floor, with matching chairs. This was were Mark took his seat, and Tia, after a few moments, joined him.

"Mark." Tia looked away. "I don't know what's going on, but, can you tell me? I need to know what happened. And who was that man that attacked me?" She felt so confused. What the hell was going on?...

"That man that attacked you, was a Fallen Angel. Basically a man with eagle wings on his back and the ability to do magic and shit." He brushed his hair out of his eyes. "They're pretty dangerous. They see anyone without wings... Boom, you're dead like a Christmas turkey."

"Nice analogy," Tia said softly, as she ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the table. But she wasn't really in the mood for jokes. She felt too serious. Too scared. How had she ended up here?

"I don't get this," said Tia softly. "Yesterday I was at my house... everything was fine, and now-"

"Woah woah woah," Mark stared at her piercingly. "You... didn't hit your head in that fight, did you?" He looked a little sceptical. "Everything wasn't fine yesterday." He put his hand on his chin. "Tia... do you know what date it is?"

"September 2nd." Tia rose a brow. "Why are you asking me this, Mark?"

Mark blinked disbelevingly. "Are you serious?" He turned around, and seemed to be talking to himself. "Did she get affected by the outflux?" Then he shook his head and looked at Tia. "Tia, it's March 2nd, 2011."

Tia gasped, her mouth opening like a fish. Then it closed as her face went calm. "Mark?"

"Yeah?" Mark looked at Tia understandingly.

"Do you have any coffee?"

A few minutes later, as Tia sipped a cup of hot coffee, she was asking questions shooting them at Mark like the Spanish Inquisition.

"So where am I?"

"A aafehouse in Manchester."

"And why am I here?"

"We're Human Resistance. We protect survivors from the Fallen Angels."

"Human Resistance?"

"Hey, I didn't come up with the name. That was Ami. It was too damn cheesy for my liking."

"Ami?! Where is she?"

"She's out on a mission, said Mark evasively.

Tia wanted to ask more, but knew Mark would say no more. So she sipped her coffee in silence, deep in thought about this Human Resistance.
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Amanda looked at Jess as she sat down on a sofa, hand on her head. "Are you OK?" she asked compassionately.

"No I'm not fucking alright." Jess glared at Amanda. "Where the hell am I?"

"Southern London. A government safehouse. We're staying here for the night, then moving on to our next destination. It's not gonna be too long, so you should try and get some rest."

"I'm gonna get some rest alright," Jess said sarcastically, then calmed down, relaxing a little. "Geez Amanda. Did you have to kidnap me like that?"

Amanda smiled a little. "I'll organise dinner. Sit down. We don't have TV or any of that anymore, but you'll be glad for a decent place to rest I betcha."
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Outside the safehouse, a tall girl stood straight, staring directly at the neat little two floored house with a calm collected expression.

Before the composure gave way to a small smile as she raised her right hand in front of her face, electricity ancing between her fingertips.