A short drabble written with nephilimhalfangel on the subject of fleshing backstories.
Ace glances up, watching the other angels circle above the garden. It's a quiet day, just like yesterday, and the day before. A perfect day. She readjusts her stance, six sapphire wings shuffling with her. In the tree above her, a ruby-feathered angel perches, grinning.
"You gonna go or just sit there a while longer?" The angel fans her wings out as she watches Ace from above.
Shaking her helmeted head, Ace responds, "I'm on guard, Vega. You know I can't slack off."
However, Ace smiles, amused. She cranes her head back to meet Vega's eyes above her.
"Or are you offering to trade places?" She jokes to her sibling.
"Absolutely not." The angel stretches her four wings out, primaries brushing the verdant leaves around her.
"That's your poison. Not mine."
Ace pouts up at her sister, uppermost wings stretching out a tad. "Aw, you don't wish to do service for our Father?"
A roguish grin plays at Vega's lips in contrast to the pout.
"Not yours."
She flits down from the branch a moment later, wings slowing her fall like sails. Ace shakes her head in mock disdain and rolls her eyes. "Then leave me be for an hour more. I'll rotate shifts then."
"And what am I supposed to do for an hour?" Vega's left wing comes around to clip the elder's head. "I'll be bored to death!"
She shrugs, a wing flipping up to block Vega's attack. "You could stand guard with me if you can stay still and quiet long enough."
An incredulous look flits across Vega's face. "You know, sometimes I think you don't know me at all." The feathers on all four wings ruffle irritably. "That sounds absolutely horrible. Worse than healing sessions with Avi."
The pondering expression fades from Ace's face and is replaced by one of mirth.
"And since when did you ever take what I say seriously?"
"Since you started being all work-crazy, that's when." The taller of the two (Vega's pride being insufferable to Ace) pokes her tongue out at her armoured sister, barely resisting the urge to cross her arms over her chest.
"You mean 'work-crazy' in the sense that I don't want to be put in the tank*."
Vega sighs. "You know it's been a while since they did that."
Ace's expression becomes stony in an instant. Her jaw clenches in a vaguely hidden anger. "They threatened me with the tank not even a week ago."
Vega's eyes widen. "They-" Her voice takes on a sharper and more accusing tone. "You didn't tell me about that."
Ace's jaw tightens even more.
"I said nothing. Forget it."
She turns to face outwards. Frowning, the younger brings a wing around to rub at the arch of one of Ace's. "Hey. Come on, don't shut me out again." Their feathers catch slightly. "What happened?"
"I--Nothing. I'm not getting you in trouble too."
"Well it's a little late for that." Something hot and angry sparks in the onyx depths of Vega's eyes. "What the heck happened?"
Ace's anger boils over. "Vega, we are not discussing this!"
By the end of her sentence, Ace is yelling and the birds roosting in the tree above her take off in startled bursts of flight. The flapping of smaller wings does nothing to diffuse the tension between the sisters, especially since Vega is not one to back down from a fight.
Vega raises her volume enough to match her sister's rage. "Oh, just because you say so, we aren't going to talk about something? Really? Why does that sound familiar?"
The feathers nearest her back fluff up like those of an irritated pigeon. "You always do this, you say something and then when I ask about it you freeze me out!"
Ace opens her mouth to argue again, but a sharp cracking noise makes her spin around wildly. It repeats again and again until both angels are able to place the sound: wing bones being snapped.
"Vega, j-just go see what's going on." Ace's wings press flat against her back, primary feathers ruffled just so as she bricks over her expressions.
In contrast, every one of Vega's feathers seems to stand on end, as though she thinks by making herself seem bigger she can eliminate any threat.
"I'm not leaving you behind." Vega's voice shakes slightly, but it's firm. She's a warrior first and foremost. And nothing can take that from her.
"Go." Ace is quiet now; the eye of the storm personified. "I'm on guard. See who is being punished."
She turns from Vega, facing outwards. Almost as an afterthought, Ace gently cuffs Vega in the head with her left middle wing. "I-I'll tell you later, okay?"
A small noise, something akin to a whimper or a whine, builds in Vega's throat. She disappears into the foliage a moment later, ears pricked and listening for the sound of bones breaking.
A loud and resounding crack echoes through the air, quickly followed by raucous angels screaming in anger. Pure golden feathers stream down from above, and the Morningstar is with them.
Ace watches Lucifer fall, eyes widening as she realises his trajectory is going to go directly though her and the garden she guards. "No, no, n-!!"
The tree is burning now, and it singes her wings and heats her armour to a glow. Lucifer howls in pain and the very ground shudders. Ace loses her balance, whimpering as her palms are skinned and burned raw. Cracks flood the dirt, and before she knows it, she is in the open air. Everything goes black, and Ace, for the first time in her creation, is terrified.
