As the video ended, the room was filled with absolute silence.
I faced Zepherina and Eva, both were staring at the video as it ended in dismay. Zepherina more so than Eva.
Tim broke the silence, his voice was serious, measured, and even. “I received word from Fatima late last night. Ragna’s seized control of Rachel’s nation of Penthesil, and the Valkyrie army.”
Zepherina stared at Tim, her expression of shock worsening, “That’s not possible! My mother would never allow it! She’d die first!”
Eva placed her hand on Zepherina’s shoulder, concern crossing her face, “Zeph-”
“No!” Zepherina shouted, casting Eva’s hand off her shoulder, “Penthesil’s always been an ally of the United States! She’d never turn her back on them, they’ve given her too much! The weapons, the training, the research and development!” Zepherina paced, “This makes little sense!”
Tim tried to speak next, “Zeph, Sister Fatima informed me of what she saw. Ragna and Rachel are cooperating with one another.”
“No!” Zepherina shouted, her foot slamming down onto the ground hard enough to make the floor shudder. “Ragna’s done something to her!”
“How can you be so sure?” I ask.
Zepherina glared at me, “Because my mother left the Throne of Penthesil open to anyone who could defeat her in combat. Anyone that tried to fight her for the throne died at her hand.” She turned to Tim, “She killed those traitors to keep her throne. Mother would never relinquish it without a fight!”
Eva moved herself to block Zepherina’s pacing, “Zeph, calm down and look at what’s happening. That was our mother, she wasn’t reading from a script, you and I both know that. We know her better than anyone.”
Zepherina’s face turned into a full pout, “Then why would she surrender to Ragna?”
Tim walked over to the sisters, placing his hand on their arms, “There is something else.”
“What now?” Zepherina whimpered.
“The strange weakness we all experienced yesterday? I know the cause.” Tim explained.
Eva scrutinized Tim with great concern, “the dark energy?”
“Yesterday, Ragna summoned a demoness from hell, a creature named Esmeralda. I informed Father Thomas, he said he thought he caught that name before, he’s researching at the Vatican.” Tim’s face fell, “But to summon her forth from Hell, Ragna used some of Rachel’s blood to create a stone of Sanguine Amber.”
Zepherina shook her head, “No that’s a lie!”
“During the ritual, we all suffered the effects of the spell, it leveraged all of us through her blood,” Tim explained.
Zepherina was beside herself, “Then Ragna’s just using her!”
Tim heaves a heavy sigh, “According to Fatima, Ragna said she would never use the ritual again because it hurt Rachel so much. She…” Tim steadied himself as he spoke, “She claims to be in love with Rachel.”
Zepherina’s energy shifts, forcing me to step back. Wrath consumed Zepherina, and I notice as her wings shift from white to a pitch black. Her fists clenched, she shouts, “She’s seduced my mother!” she shouts, in a voice that shakes the room and knocks me to the ground. Her eyes darken to a jet black, her iris breaking apart until the remains turn to smoke swirling in twin pools of black ink. “I’ll tear her apart! I’ll rip Ragna apart limb from limb! I will kill her!”
Eva shouts over Zepherina, “Zeph! Calm down!”
Zepherina looks to her wings and blinked, her eyes returning to normal in an instant, her wings turning white again. She fell to her knees, looking winded. “W-what…” she shook her head. “What was that?”
Eva rushes to Zepherina’s side, “Sis… you… I can’t explain it but… you scared the shit out of me.”
Tim was staring at Zeph wide-eyed, his face pale.
Zepherina’s aura was pulsing like a wild storm, confusion, fear, anger, all of it swirls around her. Her hands were shaking as she examined one of her now white wings. “Why did they change?”
Demond walks over, giving Zeph an odd stare, “... when that happened, your heart stopped.”
Zepherina looks up to Demond in shock, “What?”
“You had no pulse. It didn’t seem to exist as far as I could tell. I couldn’t even smell you, I couldn’t see your breath, I couldn’t hear your heartbeat.” he sinks to his haunches examining Zepherina, “It’s like you stopped living when your anger took you.”
Zepherina hugs herself, looking to the floor, “That’s never happened.” she peered at Demond, “Is my heart beating now?”
Demond nods, “You’re normal now.” he faces Tim, “I may need to with her, Major. That kind of power, if she lost control….” he alludes.
Zepherina shakes her head, “No, I won’t lose it.” she gazed up at us from the floor. “I can control it, I promise.”
I hug her, not knowing what else to do, “We know you’d never hurt us, Zeph. Demond is just asking you to have him help you get a hold of your full strength…”
Zeph picks her head up, desperate watery eyes staring back at me.
I grin at her, “So you can kick Ragna’s ass, and free your mother, okay?”
Zeph chokes back a sob and nods, going back to hiding her face, “Y-yeah. Okay.”
Tim is silent for a few moments before he speaks, “I think… Zeph… if anyone could defeat Ragna, it would be you. If so you must hit her full force, without giving her a chance to react.” Tim’s face shows a great deal worry as he finishes, “It would be the only chance we had to defeat her head-to-head.”
Demond nods, “Regardless… I don’t think we can send Zeph or Eva in to handle this situation, Sir.”
“For now, yes. Sergeant, I think you and your brother should take point on this.” Tim looks to Jason, “And if you could, Jason, I would appreciate if you back them up if you have time.”
Jason looks to Tim in agreement, “I’d say I can’t, but given the circumstances, I’d be more than happy to help. Fight fire with fire, right?”
Turning to Tim I suggest, “I’ll get Josh back home in the meantime, and meet up with you once I’m done,” I lie, I have no intention of sitting this out. I would get to Fort Hamilton, take command of the situation on the ground, and do my best to help with the mission. Tim wouldn’t let me go though, so the decoy mission seemed my best ploy.
“Captain that sounds like a good idea, I would rather not have to keep your friend here much longer.” Tim agreed.
I give him a salute, “Major.”
He salutes back, grinning, “My Captain.”
I grin back to him, turn and head out.
Eva stands up, “I’ll help Sofia get her friend out of the temple.” she explains as she follows me.
As we leave the training room, I make out Zepherina speaking to Tim and the others, “Demond, Jason, when you confront my mother, please don’t kill her? She’s not in control of herself.”
As we headed down the hallway toward the medical wing, Eva caught my attention.
“My mother is not brainwashed,” Eva explains.
“How can you be so sure?” I ask as we cross the main foyer.
“My mother’s a monster, this is what I have come to expect from her.” Eva stops just outside the medical wing with me. She stares at me with a faraway expression, “Zepherina has a rose-colored picture of our mother. She considers those who put forth challenges to the throne traitors, but she was not present whenever a challenge like that arose.” Eva clenched a fist as she explained.
“I stood by once, off to the side with no one noticing, and witnessed how one of those challenges transpired. My mother did not offer mercy upon victory, and she relished the chance to fight in the first place.” Eva shuddered, “She also relished killing the poor soul who she defeated… and dishonoring them. One woman, one of my mother’s generals by the name of ‘Cole’, demanded an end to the pact between the United States and our people.” Eva shook her head, “My mother is helping them to develop weapons that are violations of United Nations sanctions. When my mother defeated her, she stripped General Cole of all titles, land, legal holdings, and ordered her remains burned and dumped into a river with no marker.”
“Don’t fuck with the Queen, then?” I ask.
Eva nods, “The act didn’t just dishonor the general, it left her family destitute and homeless. They fled the city later that day for fear of further persecution. When my mother found out about their flight…” Eva heaved a sigh, “she ordered that if they ever were to return, the whole family was to face execution.”
I grimaced, “So… she’s kind of-”
“My mother is a despot,” Eva explained. “As the heir, I was planning to relinquish the throne and establish a new more powerful Senate and strip myself of most executive powers.” Eva’s face fell even more so, “Seems with Ragna as the new ruler, that’s no longer an option.” she faces me, “defeating Ragna means freeing my people not just from her but my mother.”
“Eva, what are you asking of me?”
“I’m well aware that you aren’t just going to stand by while my mother attacks your commanding officer.” Eva explains, “You will head to the fort as soon as you can.”
I’m shocked Eva had me figured out already, “Don’t tell Tim, please?” I plea.
Eva nods, “I won’t.” she fixes me with a stern gaze, “But should you have the chance, I implore you to please,” she hesitates for a moment, her fist shaking, “kill my mother.”
…
I walked into the medical bay, seeing Josh laying in his bed, asleep. Irfan is sitting at his desk, mixing a few things in a large white mortar with a pestle. As I listen to some harder objects grinding together in the mortar, I cannot help but flinch.
“Hey, Irfan?” I ask trying to get his attention.
Irfan looks up from his desk, grinning wide “Ah, Ms. Sofia. How can I help?”
“Josh, how’s he doing?” I ask, looking to Josh in his hospital bed.
Irfan keeps his near constant smile as he speaks “Recovering. He’s a lucky man. He can head home soon. Right now I have given him some medication to help him rest.”
I sit down on a chair across from Irfan’s desk, “How long is he going to rest?”
Irfan thinks, “I would estimate another few hours.”
“I’m going on a mission, I wanted to make sure Josh is okay while I’m out,” I explain.
Irfan nods, “He will be just fine.”
I stand up, “perfect, Thanks Irfan!” I dash out of the medical wing, just in time for me to see Tim opening the doors to the temple. I hang back in the doorway, eavesdropping.
“This shouldn’t put you far off from Fort Hamilton, it’ll be on lockdown, so assure the MPs there that you’re under Colonel Anderson’s direct command to assist with the situation,” Tim instructs. “Do not mention my name, understood?”
“Sir, yes sir.” Elon and Demond confirm.
Jason just nods while Demond and Elon salute, and head out of the opened doorway along with the other two.
Tim walks away from the doors, I swear I see a second aura near him, it’s faint and cloaked but it looks like a small woman near his right ear. I’ll question him later on about it.
Once Tim leaves, I head into the main foyer and place my hand on the doorway.
My eyes strain as I see hundreds of locations where the doors have opened, and even more where they can potentially open. My hands fall from the doors and the visions stop. I check my surroundings to ensure no one sees me about to leave. I grab the doors once more, I focus on Fort Hamilton, seeing the location where it opened last.
As I swing the doors open, I step through and shut them behind me. There is a rather confused Demond looking back at me.
I assess where we are as I approach them, we aren’t far outside the Fort. “Sergeant, wait up,” I shout.
Jason and Elon are also glancing back at me as I cried out after them.
“Captain, Ma’am, I thought you’d be supporting us offsite, Ma’am,” Demond questioned.
“I thought I would be a better asset in the field,” I explain.
Elon raised an eyebrow, “Is the Major aware?”
I fixed Elon with a glare, “I’m your superior, am I not Sergeant?”
Elon flinches, “Sorry, Captain.”
Demond nudges him in the rib.
“Sorry, Ma’am!” Elon corrects.
Jason rolls his eyes, “While you’re busy pulling rank on the boys here we are running low on time.” he taps a non-existent wrist-watch. “The goal is to get to Rachel before she goes ‘biblical’ on someone else, remember?”
I nod to him, “Right. We must rescue the hostages inside first.” I head towards the gate where a pair of Military Police are standing, weapons out, gates down.
The first MP faces me, “Sorry Ma’am, no admittance, there’s a situation.”
I show him my Military Identification, “I’m Captain Sofia Vázquez, United States Army. I work under Colonel Anderson, we’re here to negotiate with the terrorist.”
The MP checks my Identification before waving over a jeep, “I’ll take you to the location.”
We all climb into the jeep, as we drive I face the MP, “What do you know so far?”
The MP takes a few turns here and there before we arrive at the administrative building, where Colonel Anderson’s office is. He points to a broken window, “The trouble started there, someone broke the window from the inside before we knew it there was gunfire coming from that room. Afterward, the broadcast happened. We’re sure there are nine hostages, one casualty at the moment, a single civilian.”
As the jeep stops I notice the entryway of the building, turning to Elon, “Elon, you need a perch I assume?”
Elon nods, looking up at the building, “Yeah, I’ll need something higher, I’m not hitting a fourth story window from the ground with any kind of decent shots, Ma’am.”
I turn to Jason, “Jason, can you help Elon scout out a good location?”
Jason faces me, “You don’t think you’d need me down here?”
“Elon needs to be in a supportive position.” I explain to Jason, turning to Elon, “If you have a shot, take it.”
Elon nods, “Ma’am, yes Ma’am!”
I point to Demond, “You’re coming in with me.” I narrow my eyes, “I hope I can trust you to have my back.”
Demond nods, “10-4 Captain.”
Jason looks on with disapproval, “Sofia, as much as I agree that Elon needs a lift…” he clears his throat, “This isn’t a place to uh, spread my wings, you know?”
I walk up to him, getting chest to chest and looking straight up at him, “Rachel’s already shown she’s an angel, I don’t think you will cause any additional hysterics if you’re seen flying by a few folks.”
Elon points to an adjacent building, “If I can get onto that roof, I should have a clear view of the Colonel’s office. I doubt anyone is going to spot us if we scale the east side of the building.”
Jason nods, “Fair enough.” he and Elon run off towards the adjacent building.
Without waiting much longer I run towards the administration building, “Sergeant, on my six.” I don’t check if Demond is behind me, instead, I’m just expecting him to follow orders.
As we run in and head up the stairs, however, Demond taps my shoulder, offering me an earpiece.
He clears his throat, “It’s the Major.”
I continue up the steps, my face flushed now as I put the earpiece in. “Yes, Major, Sir?”
“Sofia?” I listen to Tim as I get to the fourth floor. “What are you doing? I thought you were transporting Josh?” he shouts.
“I couldn’t stand on the sidelines while the Colonel’s in danger. It’s better to have me on the ground, sir.” I whisper as we make our way to Colonel Anderson’s office. My pistol out, I check on Demond, who is removing his boots, following tight behind me.
“I can’t lose you Sofia! I-” I cut Tim off.
“Major, I have this, you don’t have to coddle me.” I smile, “I’m a big girl, sir.”
There’s a moment of silence where I can feel Tim cursing under his breath. When he states, “10-4 Captain, guard your six.”
“Sergeant Winter’s got that, sir,” I explain.
“Which one?”
“Both, Sir.” I near the door, “We’ve found the hostages Major, I’ll see you on the other side.” I face Demond
Demond’s eyes are yellow now, his ears are long, pointed and twitching. He faces me, pointing and motioning that she’s inside.
I reach up to the office door, opening it, careful not to make any noise. Demond and I peek inside, I spot Rachel arguing with Colonel Anderson, who has his hands tied behind his back.
“When I offered to send you my daughter, Singular, mind you, I didn’t expect it to be such a damned hassle to get them back!” Rachel spat at him.
I’m surprised as I appraise Rachel.
While I’d seen energy around everyone I met, the angels having the most pronounced, I had seen nothing like Rachel’s.
It is pitch black and drips off of her like tar. The energy around her hands is a dark ooze of sorts. The rest of her aura pulsed and rose off of her like thin black smoke. When she got agitated, her energy rises up in large dark plumes.
“So are you more agitated that we also took Zepherina or we won’t give either back?” Colonel Anderson retorts. He’s silenced as Rachel slides the bayonet end of her rifle against his neck.
I recognize the design of the bayonet. It has three blades, all twisting around toward the tip, with several holes bored into the blade, I’ve seen that design before. It’s an Integral Tri-dagger, the United Nations banned those from mass production a while ago.
“I expected Eva to go, she damn near volunteered. Hell, they both did, but I forbade Zepherina from going. One heir to the throne risking her life is one thing, but I won’t lose two, most of all Zepherina.” Rachel growled.
I clenched my fist. This woman didn’t give a shit about Eva or Tim, she loved Zepherina only. I wondered if it even was love, or if she wanted Zepherina because she was stronger.
Demond’s hand moved to mine, and he gave me a serious expression, then moved his gaze to Rachel.
I nodded, I was getting distracted, it wasn’t smart. I did my best to sneak into the office, Demond at my back as we made our way inside.
Elon chirped in on the earpiece, “I’m in position. Jason’s en route to you.”
I took a deep breath and trained my weapon on Rachel, waiting for her to lower her guard. So far, she didn’t seem to detect either of us.
Demond crouched down low, to an inhuman level, his hands low on the floor as he crawled to my left, trying to get a good angle on Rachel.
Colonel Anderson had spotted us but had given no major cues that there was someone at the door, “Their commander is out of comms right now. They’re on a mission. What do you want me to do? Endanger your daughters mid-mission?”
Rachel cocks her head and her hip, lowering her weapon to point to the floor, “Is that so Colonel? What if I told you, you were full of shit?”
Colonel Anderson spits in her face.
Rachel didn’t flinch, but ran her fingers over her face, looking Colonel Anderson up and down before placing her rifle on the desk and kneeing Colonel Anderson in the balls, sending him careening to the ground in pain.
I chose this moment to point my pistol at her, and shout, “Hands up, step away from the weapon.”
Rachel’s head whipped in my direction, her eyes narrowing, “Who the fuck are you?”
“Captain Sofia Vázquez,” I flicked the safety off my pistol, “And you just injured my senior officer.”
Rachel looked bemused, which wasn’t the normal reaction most have when I train my Desert Eagle on them. “Queen Rachel Hippolyte.” she glances to my weapon, “What do you plan on doing with that, little Hestie?”
I narrow my eyes at her, “I’m not sure what a ‘Hestie’ is, but it sounds insulting, now-”
Rachel interrupts me before I can finish, “It means ‘housewife’.”
Triggered, by popular definition, means getting filled with hate after seeing, hearing, or experiencing something you cannot stand. From the get-go, and I mean the exact moment my career choice became a military one, my mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles, and every other family member always told me I couldn’t be a soldier. Time and time again my family told me the real reason I was enlisting was to “Find a nice military man to settle down with.”
Anger consumes me and I have a lapse in judgment, and I fired at her. I fired a .50 caliber hand-cannon at the women who was my future mother-in-law.
The good news is the bullet rocketed out and struck her shoulder, bounced off her armor, and caused her no harm. The bad news was, also the bullet struck her shoulder, glanced off her like it was a peanut, and did her no harm.
It pisses her off, however.
“Oh, you little bitch!” She shouted, reaching for her rifle, “You want to compare firearms?” she grins, a hint of madness streaming into her eyes, their color draining to a near gray color. “Unless you’ve got some serious armor penetration there missy, you aren’t scratching my armor!”
I dive out of the way, hoping to dodge the ensuing bullets. Expecting a flurry of bullets, instead, I overhear a scream coming from one hostage. Demond is now in his werewolf form, a firm grip on both Rachel's wrists.
“Surrender, we don’t want this to get ugly,” he grunts, preventing Rachel from grabbing her weapon.
Rachel’s face contorts to a full grin as her wings spread wider, “Ugly? Oh, dear have you looked in the mirror?”
Demond growls.
I get to the hostages lined up on the wall while Demond distracts Rachel. They shuffle out of the room, I don’t bother to undo their restraints, focusing on getting them out of harm's way.
Rachel keeps her eyes on Demond’s, despite him being much larger than her, she shows no fear. “Rage, armor transition, anti-freak mode: Lycan.”
Rachel’s armor shifts, from her feet, rising to her neck and hands the material changes from the black and gray theme to that of shimmering silver. Her nails grow longer and I watch as her wings, and even her hair, change to a bright and pristine silver color.
My eyes go wide as I realize what Rachel’s plan was, “Sergeant! Disengage!”
Before he can both of Rachel’s wings whip forward, the tips of her massive feathers slicing across Demond’s cheeks.
He lets out a whimper and staggers back, bleeding from either side of his face.
Rachel doesn’t let up, taking her elongated fingernails and slashing at Demond.
He tries to defend, holding up his arms, only getting his forearms and biceps slashed opened as he does.
Rachel then leaps into the air, her wings unfurled, and flaps them hard, silver flakes flying from her wings.
Demond yipes, coughs, and closes his eyes as the flakes blind him.
Rachel lands in front of him, and jabs both of her hands into his sides, digging her long nails deep into his abdomen and then breaking them off inside.
Demond howls in pain.
Rachel then roundhouse kicks Demond to the floor, placing her foot on his throat. “Poor pup… looks like I need to put you down, sweety.”
At this point Jason rushes over, his eyes focus on Rachel, “Dare I ask ‘what the fuck is going on’?”
I whip around to him and see him still in his trench-coat, “Okay, Jason, we need some good angel vs bad angel action.”
Jason cracks his neck, “Well that is why I’m here…” he throws off his trench coat and pulls his fists up like an experienced boxer, “Hey, old lady!”
I watch Rachel’s eye twitch, “Who dares?” she turns to face him. “Oh, how desperate are they getting when someone like you can become an avatar of Saint Michael?”
Jason hurls a right hook at Rachel that knocks her off Demond.
Rachel wiggles her jaw, and turns to Jason, glaring, her aura shifts and somehow grows darker. “Time to stop fucking around.”
Elon chimes into my earpiece, “I can’t get a shot, she needs to be near the window.”
Demond has reverted to his human form as I rush to his aid. My heart races as I drag him into the hallway with much effort, I see Demond bleeding. “Sergeant? Are you all right?”
Demond shakes his head, groaning, “I-I’m not… healing… the fuck did she do?”
I frown, turning to the bout between Rachel and Jason.
Jason’s taken a few to the chin himself, and Rachel is now dodging most of his swings.
Rachel sweeps Jason’s legs out from under him, and pins him to the ground with her knee on his neck, “I will snap your foul-mouthed little windpipe, you little punk!”
Jason groans, his hands on her knee.
I get up, ready to fire a few shots at Rachel before Demond charges at her, tackling her into a desk, and wrapping his arms tight around her upper body. He shouts in pain the entire time but puts every ounce of strength into holding her back.
Demond blocks my shot, I run to Jason to check on him, “You okay?”
Jason sits up, “Yeah, but she’s not going down easy.” he looks to my gun, “... may I? I’ve been trying something… broke my service pistol at home but… it might work with that thing.”
I glare at him, “Break my baby and I’ll break you.” I hand him my gun.
Jason drops the magazine from the gun and clears the chamber.
I catch the ejected round, “Guns work better with bullets.” I remind Jason.
Jason’s eyes glow white and his wings do the same, light surrounding him and then channeling through his hand and into my gun, “Depends on what kind of bullet you’re using.”
I shout, “Demond, Let go!”
Demond lets go, falling to the ground in a heap.
Rachel stands up, glaring at Jason, “The Hestie tried that already bird boy!”
“In Nomeni Patri Et Fili,” grins knowingly to Rachel, “Spiritus Sancti!” Jason shouts and pulls the trigger.
A white light shoots from his arm and out of the pistol, then crashes into Rachel’s shoulder, shattering her armor and forcing her to stagger backward, tripping over Demond.
“Holy shit…” I exclaim.
“Man that felt good…” he looks to my desert eagle, “Guess I needed more iron.”
I snatch my gun from his hand, “then get your own.” I slide the magazine back into place.
Rachel gets to her feet, her left shoulder bearskin, the armor burned and torn, and her flesh singed. “Oh, that was a neat trick.”
In my earpiece I can hear Elon, “I have a shot: take it?”
Rachel cracks her neck, “I will kill you all now.”
“Take the shot,” I order.
Rachel runs past the window, as she does she tumbles to the ground, a hole in her side, the sound of the shot following after the bullet strikes her. She slides to the ground at my feet and coughs up blood on my boots.
I get down to the ground and pull her to a sitting position, the bullet entered her side and hit at least one lung.
Rachel gasps, “Damn you… Xyphiel… if I never had children… that would have bounced off me…”
Jason looks around, “Should I find some bandages or is she done for?”
I look down on at Rachel, trying to decide which daughter I should listen to.
I feel dizzy as Samael’s voice rings in my head. “Eva reaps a great boon if her mother is dead, as she will be queen after her. However, Zepherina’s love of Rachel is also selfish, so many are put in danger for a single daughter’s wants. What to do, what to do?”
I shake my head, “Jason, there should be a first aid kit in the hall. Rachel will be our prisoner until we decide what to do with her.”
Rachel spits blood at me, “Fuck you.”
Jason makes an odd squeaking noise of sorts from the doorway, I look up, my eyes wide as I see a massive arm wrapped around Jason’s neck. Someone points a knife to his chest.
Behind Jason is Ragna, holding him tight against her, a portal of some sort pulsating behind her.
Ragna growls, her teeth clenched as she speaks, “Release my angel or your angel dies.”