Fate and the Defiant Angel (COMPLETED)

Part 7- Enjoy the little things

Ariel opened her eyes, in her own body, for the first time in centuries. She let out a small gasp as she felt herself settle into the body. It had been instantaneous the transference process, only requiring a brief touch for her soul knew its body. She had worried she would need to slice deep within and retrieve her soul again.

She glanced around and adjusted to her new eyes. Her face grimaced as she saw the heaps of the dead. Hundreds of thousands. All because of her failure.

She took a brief moment to catalogue her body. Ariel's wings had repaired fully, her lost limb had regrown, and the wounds inflicted had healed. She thought they would have, but still worried. The thirteen couldn't have destroyed her body, just like she couldn't destroy theirs. They were eternal beings and their forms were extraordinarily powerful. Without a soul she was hollow. There wasn't any capability of life, not like the new angels they had created. However, her body was capable of healing itself over time. All those years ago she wouldn't have been so close to death if she was only allowed to heal.

Things could have been so very different.

With a small tug she ripped the chains free from the ceiling and fell softly to the ground. She landed next to Zara's body. Or perhaps it was better to say, her temporary body. It was small and fragile. Bland and lifeless. No colour or individuality present within.

Ariel shook her head and stared up at the ceiling. The light billowed down from a square hole in the ceiling. They didn't need to block it up or hide it. There was no one left with curiosity and below were only the dead.

Ariel shook her wings and took a second to appreciate the feeling of unfurling them. With the briefest movement she was aloft. It was a breathtaking moment as she soared to the light and made her way out of the graveyard. She tucked them in and soared through the hole, flying up into a white room.

She landed softly on the outside, with white walls and floors greeting her. It took her a few seconds to adjust to what she was seeing and attempting to understand how they had changed the realm. Everything was different. The paintings had been ripped down. Elaborate floorings replaced with hard, white tile. The walls had been stripped of murals and etchings, replaced by shining eggshell white.

Of course, they had changed everything. Typical siblings just couldn't leave her things alone.

Ariel found the door, a little translucent thing, and strode out the door and found herself in a never-ending hallway. The white almost burnt her eyes from intensity. It was an annoying design.

Ariel made her way through the halls, vaguely getting a sense of where she was and how to control the hallways like she once had. To move throughout the realm required force and willpower, it bowed to your orders. Well, it bowed to the thirteen's orders. She had been the one to create this place. She was here when they'd designed it. This was her home and it had been obliterated.

Everything in her burned to go to her siblings. She would slit their throats herself. She would obliterate their souls. She would end their miserable little lives. However, she had priorities. Earth needed some cleaning up. That was why Dahlia and Fate had been pestering her, getting her to wake from her slumber.

She knew the gates to the underworld were a bad idea. It wasn't what she wanted. She wanted the realms completely separate, but she had compromised with her siblings to other certain connecting junctions. That had of course been a mistake. She had no doubt that Regulus would somehow be apart of this. She should have removed him from the council at its creation.

The mistakes and could have beens were adding up. She should never have let her siblings discuss things alone. She should never have let them bully her into compromises. She should have removed them when they began such foolish talk. She should have told the other angels about fate. She should have been better.

Being locked away for so many years had given her plenty of time to reflect upon her many mistakes.

Her emotions broiling at the surface, it was hard to concentrate on restructuring the walls around her. Finally, she found the door she wanted.

The Watchers.

She entered easily enough, finding a few angels milling around to stare at large swirling sphere. She saw brief flashes of lives down on earth, all of which was carefully noted by the Watchers. They stood so still as they watched and took dutiful notes. They did not speak to each other. They did not look at anything but their work. Ariel eyed them with pity.

The further she walked in the more eyes drifted over to her. They were puzzled. They knew she was much too colourful for this realm in its current state. Yet, they didn't understand what to do. They needed orders from their masters.

Ariel offered them a smile, which turned out to be a bad idea as it only seemed to confused them further. "Don't worry, I have been directed here on the behest of Fate."

They widened their eyes before bowing their heads. One female looking one spoke up, "what do you need of us."

"Nothing my dear, keep up with your work."

It was true. She needed no one's help, she never had. She had been the mediator between realms. Ariel knew how to go through the portals with ease, she had done it hundreds of times. She was designed to go through. It was a gift her siblings had hated.

"It hurts."

The first in the back of her skull made Ariel flinch. She tried to ignore Zara. The girl just needed to be smothered away. There was no time for her to sit beneath the surface like Ariel had for centuries. Instead, it was time for her to fade away and let Ariel have control.

However, Zara was right. It did hurt the last time they'd gone through. It had hurt when Zara went through because she had fallen. Ariel could vaguely remember gripping control and forcing the girl to remember what to do it. It had saved her life, but her body and Ariel's weakness had meant she'd been stripped of her wings. That would not happen this time.

Ariel turned to the swirling gateway and smiled. This would be fun.