Angels May Cry

In the Beginning There Were Three

Prologue: In the Beginning, There Were Three

4, April 2001

A brunette eleven-year-old girl ran through the streets in the pouring rain. Behind her, a large dog covered in shadowy whisps, mangy and drooling, thundered along with rage in its burning red eyes. The girl yelped as she tripped over a crate on the edge of the next alleyway. The beast behind her snarled as it came to a halt in front of its prey. Scrambling, the girl tried to get to her feet only to be held down by a large, clawed foot. The claws dug into her skin, making her wince. She struggled to shove the foot off her, reaching for anything she could find to use as a weapon, her hand grasped a splintered piece of wood, and she shoved it as deep as she could into the creature's left eye.

The beast howled in pain, lifting its paw to release the girl so that it could attempt to remove the splinter from its face. The girl scrambled to her feet and took off running down the street towards safety. The large catholic church came into view as she rounded the corner. The girl could feel the beast again, thundering after her, its rage pouring off it. She reached out for the gates, not daring to look back at the creature again. Her body slammed into the gates, the clasp jingling as she struggled to lift the heavy iron latch. The beasts' jaws snapped at her as she spun to face it, the fear in her eyes cascading in rivers down her cheeks, mixing with the rain as it soaked her from head to foot. A flash of white light lit up the street as the lamps burst nearby. The beast howled in pain as its blood splashed across the girl's features, covering the front of her soaked T-shirt and denim jacket.

A man stepped in front of the girl, broadsword drawn and dripping the blood of the beast. He glanced back at the girl before swinging the sword and decapitating the creature. It turned to ash in front of the man before he sheathed the great blade. With a swift shove, the latch gave way and the gates to the great church swung opened. He placed a hand on the girl's back and guided her inside, closing the door behind him. A priest stood in the entry of the church, startled, and clutching a bible and cross. He sighed in relief as he saw who it was. The man closed the doors behind the young girl before kneeling to check her over and wipe the blood and tears from her face.

"Well, you certainly know how to get yourself into a mess my dear little sister." The man said. He stood and faced the priest. "Good evening father. I am so sorry to disturb your night. My sister is in need of shelter for the night."

The priest nodded. "Of course. For you, my son, we will graciously assist. The guest room is up the stairs and to the left." He gave the girl a smile as she was sent that way.

When he looked back to the man, there were glorious white wings unfolding from his back. Not often did this man visit but he always had the girl with him when he did.

Gabriel stretched his wings and sighed. He watched until he was sure the girl had gone up to the room and he had heard the door shut. This was normal for the girl, ever since her father had passed away from an accident a few years prior. Her abilities were starting to show and getting stronger by the day. It was time to start her training, along with the other girls. He had gotten lucky that he was watching tonight. There had been a few other times when she had been injured due to him being occupied.

"I will be back in the morning, father. It is time my little sister started her training with the other girls. The Creator has deemed she is ready to learn, and I cannot keep coming to her rescue." Gabriel spoke, slight exasperation in his voice.

The priest nodded but could see the angel before him was already off in his thoughts.

Upstairs, the girl rinsed off in the sink before changing into her clothes that she had stashed here. It was normal that she spent at least one night a week at the church. She sighed, feeling the pulse of her own aura as it continued to grow. It had been getting stronger the past few weeks and she was getting concerned. Gabriel had yet to tell her what was going on. She had asked for him to speak with her almost every night in her dreams, but he had yet to actually answer, instead giving her vague responses. She only got him to tell her that she was his half-sister and that their mother was not, in fact, in heaven with him. She sat on the edge of the bed and before she knew it, she was thinking back to the days before she was on the streets.

The girl had never known her mother, a norm for those associated with the angels. Her father had been loving when he had the time. He had been forced to take long hours to make ends meet in the run-down flat he had rented. The landlords lived above them, their nanny being the girl's caretaker until she was old enough to see over the stove and boil water. Many times, debt collectors had come looking for her father. He would always pay them off, sometimes with money and others with receiving a beating. He did his best to keep any sign of her hidden from those visits, hoping to spare the girl from being sought after as payment. The last collection call had been more than he could handle.

Stress. It had ravaged her fathers' body, making him weak and unable to stand after the large men beat him. The girl had been at church with the landlord and his wife. They always took her to the big cathedral, where she was currently staying that night. They had wanted her to know God and hoped it would save her from the life on the streets that seemed to plague her father. She felt safe and calm at church. It was the place she had first starting to see the man with white wings that visited her in her dreams. Upon returning from a late Saturday mass, they had found an officer at the door. The girls' father had been caught off guard. He had been shot. The memory overwhelmed her, and she shook her head fast to clear it away, laying back on the bed as she shivered.

Gabriel would end up staying nearby for the night. He still hadn't figured out how the girl attracted so much demonic presence. For one so young, her aura had times that it went darker, and the brethren had not seen this before. It worried him but he hoped training would help her. He kept watch over the church until the sunrise. A soft knock echoed in the empty hall before he stepped into the room. The girl was sitting up on the bed, dressed in clean clothes, wrinkled as if she had slept in them, brushing her tangled brown hair. She looked up and frowned slightly. Gabriel closed the door, leaning against it with his arms crossed.

"Noelle." He started, gazing at the girl. "You know you are my little sister. I promised when your father passed that I would take care of you. It is time." He spoke. "We are going to go to the home of the Valkyries. An island where you will train just as your mother did. You will learn the ways of the angels and how to control your growing abilities."

"Am I to go alone?" Noelle asked, looking up at him.

"No. There are others there. Older girls who are graduating soon. And two more your age. Your mother was good friends with their mothers. You will be in the same group as they are and train with them. I will be bringing you there as soon as you have had something to eat." He explained.

Noelle simply nodded and continued to brush her hair.

Across the world, on an island shrouded in the middle of the sea, only accessible to those who had wings, stood a blonde preteen girl and a young red head. Both came from entirely different lives. While one grew up with devoted adoptive parents, who gave her the very best they could for her even when she needed to care for them in their failing health, the other was a renegade with a knack for getting out of troubling situations and had spent more time with her older half-brother than most did.

The blonde, Alexis, looked to her older half-brother Michael. He was the strongest and highest-ranking Archangel. He had come for her only a few days ago. She wasn't used to her brother checking in. In fact, he had barely been around except to check in on her for her birthday each year. She was well versed in angelic language as well as history thanks to his birthday gifts though. Alexis was exceptionally gifted in healing and would benefit from working with Raphael and Gabriel; she had been brought here because her adoptive parents had passed on, leaving her their fortune but no one to care for the twelve-year-old.

The redheaded girl held a staff in her hands, a gift from the cloaked man that greeted her. He was Death himself, the great Azrael. Sage had been trained as a reaper since she could walk. Being the only one of the girls whose mothers had survived giving birth to the next generation of Valkyries, her mother had begun teaching her everything. What makes a Valkyrie Reaper is the loss of a parent, and Sage was still reeling from losing both. Her father had overdose on drugs before Sage was born. Her mother had a car accident only a few weeks prior to her 8th birthday. Sages' grandparents had done what they could these past three years, but cancer and illnesses had caused them to be taken from her as well.

Sage wasn't startled when her brother had appeared, not only there for the souls, but for her. She had spent several years leading up to her mother's death training and visiting with the great Reaper on regular occasion. He had made it a point to teach her young and be involved in her life.

Gabriel was quick to fold his wings and set Noelle down nearby. They joined the others before Michael spoke. "Welcome to the Isle of Valkyrie. You three are the last to join this island. Here you will live for the next five years. You will need to master all your skills now, and a choice will be made upon your exit from this place. We will train you. But the choice will be yours."

The brothers looked at their three half-sisters. While they had always known their mothers would give their souls for these girls, they were not prepared for the task of raising and training the girls. The three Archangels looked at each other, and then to the sky for all the strength they could find. This would be one of their toughest tasks yet.

5, April 2006

Five years had passed from the day the girls arrived on the island. While Sage had been taken to her new station the day of graduation, save for one photo of all three girls, Alexis and Noelle had stayed together. Today they stood in a park, wings spread as their brothers stood before them. Michael held out a pair of twin katanas and Gabriel had a sword and a pair of pistols. The men had given the girls a choice. To stay and do the work they had been trained for or return to heaven and join the rest of the Angel Collective.

Noelle and Alexis were quiet. Both girls had grown into beautiful, lean teenagers. They had completed their training, and while Alexis had taken the path of a Healer, and learned everything she could to help the humans, Noelle had gone on a rebellious streak. She was quiet, donning darker clothing most of the time as she struggled to see the benefits her brother offered to fighting the war on demons.

"Alexis. Noelle. The choice is yours." Gabriel said.

A/N: Hello reader. If you have made it this far, then you have just finished the prologue to Angels May Cry. I wrote this after deciding to completely rewrite the whole series to better fit with the vision I have. Hopefully this makes things a little easier as we go through the rewrite. If you have been here since the beginning, please let me know what you think. If you are just joining us here, welcome to the adventure. I hope you stick around.

Shadow