The Retrieved Soul

Secrets

The safety sirens finally turned off about an hour after her fight. She crawled out of her hiding spot behind a dumpster. Luckily, no other dark angels found her since. After about 5 minutes, she found where they had parked Aryana's car, thankfully, with Ary in the driver's seat.

"Ary! I'm so glad you're okay! We gotta get home." Genn said relieved, jumping into the car.

Ary smiled and gave her a huge hug from the side, that surprised Genevieve.

"I thought you were a gonner! And Gen, it was amazing the way that you fought him back, and..." She gave her a confused, yet surprised face, almost in amazement.

"You had... you're a..."

"I know Ary. It's hard to understand... but you really weren't supposed to see that." Genevieve said flushed and embarrassed. In the back of her head she thought about what Ary would think of her now. If she'd even want to still be friends with her.

"God, you're not going to have to kill me now, are you?" Ary gasped, terrified.

"No! No, of course not!" she giggled, "We're the good guys, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I was only joking." She said, almost unsure of herself as she started the car.

"So... were one of your parent's angels? Is it a mutation? Is it transferrable?" Ary shot out, question after question.

"Woah, slow down!" she laughed, "I can't tell you much... but I guess I can explain a little." She started.

"I don't remember much about how the angels came to be... but I know that our generation was chosen. The best fitting in mind. Our physical form didn't matter, so long as we trained. Ever since I was about seven years old, I've been training in combat. I've barely used my wings, and we haven't even started on our powers. We weren't supposed to until we were 18."

After a short pause of taking in the information, Ary spoke, "You keep saying we. Are there others like you? How many?"

"Well, there's five of us. To fill in for the Heroes once they retired but... that's not supposed to be for years. I'm scared Ary. I want them to come back. I need them to. I don't want to start early, I can't." Genevieve said shrinking into her seat.

"I'm sure they will Genn. Plus, they couldn't possibly let a bunch of kids fight against the dark angels, right?" She said, a bit of a scoff at the end.

"That's what I'm afraid of Ary... and the worst part is... they know who I am. My identity. They knew where to find me."

Ary sat silent, now scared. Genevieve almost wished she hadn't told her that. That she knew they could take her at any moment and hurt her friend. She didn't want Ary to worry about her.

"Well, don't worry Ary. You saw me fighting back there, right?" She smirked.

"Yeah, you kicked ass Genn." she laughed, "You'll teach me some of those moves, right?"

***

"So, do you know them?" Ary asked while filling out her Chemistry homework.

"Know who?" Genn asked mindlessly while swinging her legs behind her.

"You know," Ary hushed her voice, "The other Angels in training." she said with a smile.

"Oh, um..." Genn got up from the rug, and shut her bedroom door quietly.

"Be more careful talking about this," she giggled, sitting back down, "But I guess I could take a break from chemistry to tell you."

"Oh... do your parents not know?" Ary asked, looking from Genevieve to the door.

"They do... but I don't know how happy they'd be about you knowing. Especially in the crisis of the Heroes being gone and giving people false hope." She said sadly, looking down.

"Who said it's false?" She said with a twinkle in her eye. It almost made Genn hopeful, thinking that maybe she could be one of the heroes that they were looking for. As soon as that thought came, she forcefully brushed it away. She knew she wasn't ready.

"Anyway... about the others." She started, desperately changing the subject.

Aryana jumped up, sitting on her legs, excited to hear the stories. Everyone at school always wonders about the heroes, their backgrounds, their origins. Wanting to know how they came to be, and where they come from. How they form their bond.

"Well, I've only met them about two or three times face to face." She said blushing.

"You, what?" Ary exclaimed, disappointed. "Why?"

"Well, I train about 3-4 times every week after school with 'The Academy's' trainers. How to defend myself, how to attack, how to deceive enemies with my movements. It was really exciting at first, then really hard and frustrating. Now it's just... old, I guess? Anyway, we weren't supposed to train together until we were 18. Right now, it's just making ourselves ready I suppose."

"Wait, but don't you have piano lessons after school?" She asked confused.

Slow realization hit her as Genn looked at her with a cheeky smile.

"Where do you think all these random bruises come from?" She said, rubbing a fading bruise on her forearm.

"So... you can't play the piano?"