The Morningstar Brigade

Chapter 71

XXXXXXXI

URIEL

Solstice

Earth

Uriel's shoulder slammed into Daken's cheek as they tumbled out of the portal together. "You idiot! What were you thinking?" Uriel yelled as they tumbled to the ground. "You're putting everything our friends are fighting for, everything the entire Brigade is fighting for, into jeopardy!" The angel took a swing at the wayward Apostle.

Daken dodged a punch, grabbing Uriel's arm as the frustrated strike sailed past. "Stop yelling and think for one second!" he said, standing up. "Faustus ate the Fruit of Life. Jonathan gave his life for a blast of Dawn more powerful than anything we've seen, and he still couldn't destroy him. What's your plan, huh? How are you going to beat someone who can't be killed?"

"In case you haven't put two and two together yet, the wings aren't part of a costume," Uriel retorted, yanking his arm out from his unwelcome guest's grip. "I'm an angel, Daken. Even I don't know my upper limits. I'll figure something out."

Daken grabbed Uriel's wrist, but then lost his balance as his foot slipped on some slick patch of terrain and the pair tumbled back into a pile of white powder. "An angel. Ha! You want to talk about putting the mission in jeopardy? You're running in to trade punches with an enemy that knit his own organs back together!" He looked over at Uriel, both of them covered in cold, brittle flakes. "I know you've gotten everywhere on dumb luck and miracles, but even you've got to recognize that just wandering up to an invincible enemy that can absorb your power and winging it isn't going to work!"

"Why? Why wait until now to say all of this?" Uriel asked, wiping wet, white dust off of his back as he stood up. "We could have talked about this."

Daken brushed the foreign, fluffy white substance off of his coat. "Because I didn't have time to have the argument we're having right now! I didn't want to waste it while everyone is fighting to stay alive. But if you're more interested in hashing this out now instead of just working together, let's just hang here and talk it out."

"So what are you possibly going to do to Faust?" Uriel asked. "What can you do that I can't to an immortal?"

Daken's veins pulsed, as if challenging Uriel. "A lot of things, actually. But most importantly, I can use Bloodmoon."

"So, what? You can get angry again and try to kill me?" Uriel countered.

"Ok, sure, I deserve that," Daken relented. "But Bloodmoon is more than just something you can use to enhance combat performance; it's the raw human power of creation. With the proper amount of strength and control, it can allow you to rewrite the makeup of any organic substance," Daken explained. "Without training, Bloodmoon can temporarily take the limiters off of a body's physical performance. But that's kid stuff. With my training, I could erase Faustus' immortality. Take it right out of his system."

"Even if we decide we're all right with destroying the transporter by bringing two people back, we can't bring enough back to Eden once we've got Eli," Uriel argued. "So how do we solve that problem?"

Daken cast his gaze to the ground. "We don't solve it. I stay here, on Earth."

"What?"

"I created this problem, so I suffer the punishment. That was always the plan," Daken answered.

Uriel rubbed his temples. "I must be going crazy, because this all actually doesn't seem completely insane." He kicked a pile of the white powder he had landed in into the air in irritation. "I'm just sick of things going wrong and people getting hurt. I'm sick of this weird, wet stuff that keeps falling on me and I'm especially sick of whatever light up there is blinding me!" he growled, pointing up at the flaming orange ball in the sky.