FFF Crisis II: Goddess of Death - Page 6

September 5, 2008, 3:52 PM

Ok, I'm back with another chapter and there's something strange going on. The being inside of Faith is finally revealed and the mystery surrounding Frisk's baby deepens even more. In the meantime, Riku defies FFF! What the hell? Time to get reading, peeps.

Chapter Six

Crossing The Line

Faith opened her eyes instantly, having remembering what had happened in the past year. She rubbed the back of her head, where Hera had hit her with the baseball bat. These Americans need to learn to use something less harmful, she thought and sat up on her bed. She was still in the Red Rose Movement base underground in Cardiff, where she last remembered being. Now coming around properly, Faith yawned just as Mercurial entered the room, closing the door behind him.

“Good morning,” he smiled and spoke in a pleasant manner that he hadn’t used for a long time. “I see you decided that sleeping through the whole day was convenient enough.” Contra appeared a few moments later carrying a tray of food and some pure orange juice. “Well, I figured that you were hungry, anyway, so Contra offered to be the chef today. You know how delicious her food is.”

“And you know it!” added Contra, smiling warmly at Faith. “If you need anything else, then don’t hesitate to ask. It’s not like our vampire friends are rampaging through the city, are they?” She forced herself to laugh out loud. “Anyway, you know where to find me …” She left, leaving them both with a feeling of eeriness.

But Faith turned away from Mercurial. Tears were streaming down her face. For a year now, she kept disappearing. Now she knew what was going on. Then there were the dreams – of death itself. Was it her? It couldn’t have been her causing all these deaths, right? Was there ever any turning back? As Mercurial was about to tell to her to eat, Faith felt herself losing control again. She collapsed on to the floor out of exhaustion and screamed out in pain. Mercurial pressed the emergency button for assistance. It would only be a matter of time now before Contra, Hera and Rydia would get to there to help him out.

The new and dark Faith rose to her feet. But something deep inside was happening. A prisoner in her own head now that she found out the truth, Faith screamed out in her mind. She was forced to watch through her own eyes, as the darkness inside of her threw Mercurial into the wall, thus, smashing it. Since when did she possess this kind of strength? A feeling of confusion overwhelmed her inside her mind, but the being inside of Faith continued to walk out of the door and back into the main part of the base, where Contra, Hera and Rydia were already standing their ground.

“That’s not Faith anymore, guys! So remember that!” yelled Hera.

“And how would you know that?” Rydia raised an eyebrow.

“Because he happened to have knocked her out before it could cause damage,” answered Contra.

“Inflecto tenus mihi!” she yelled, speaking in a darker tone of voice than Faith could ever do. “Aspicio Angelus of Obscurum!” She was speaking in another language, which none of them could decipher. “Ego must attero Dea of Nex! Si bos sto in mihi via, ego iuguolo vos totus!”

“This is unreal,” whispered Rydia. “She’s speaking in Latin, although I can’t really decipher what the hell it is that she’s even saying.” The others didn’t reply. She saw Mercurial in the distance, his unconscious body slumped against the wall. Out of all of them, Rydia was the one who could speak up to ten languages. “Latin was never my favourite language at all. There’s something about her, she calls herself the Angel of Darkness and wants us to bow down to her.”

“She can think again if I’m bowing down to that thing,” growled Hera, who looked ready to smash Faith’s face in again with the baseball bat. “She calls herself the Angel of Darkness? Well, that’s hardly original, isn’t it? I’ll tell you one thing, however, she couldn’t stop Frisk as Faith before. But what if the Angel of Darkness could? You know something? Does she even have a name?”

“What else did she say?” asked Contra, who was smart enough to dismiss Hera’s smart remarks.

“A goddess or something? I couldn’t make out the other word, perhaps a goddess of light?” suggested Rydia, shrugging her shoulders. “But she said that if we stand in her way, then she’ll kill us all.” She chuckled quietly. “Some way to go out with a bang, isn’t it? After all this time when we chased her nearly a year ago, this is what happens.” She observed Faith’s new appearance, which had turned dark since the Angel of Darkness had emerged. “Darkness is killing her on the inside. We seriously need a darkness expert in here!”

“If you think you can remove the darkness within this child, then you’re quite mistaken,” the Angel of Darkness said, now speaking English, which surprised everyone. However, it didn’t put them off their guard. “Translation? I want you to move out of my way, so that I can finally destroy the Goddess of Death.” The very mention of that name sent chills down their spines for some odd reason. “Humans, mortals such as yourself could never understand people like this girl and I.”

“What do you mean, Faith and you? Faith’s very much human as possible!” yelled Contra.

“She doesn’t know where she came from or why she’s even here on this planet,” she whispered, ignoring Contra’s comment and dismissing it. “But they only have one name for a being such as myself.” She punched the wall, which instantly smashed through and almost hit Mercurial. Hera was about to dash forward to protect his friend, but was stopped by Rydia in the end. “For now, you can call me Vindex.”

“Vindex? What kind of name is that?” spat Hera.

“It means Avenger in Latin,” explained Rydia, unable to take her eyes off the Angel of Darkness. “So you claim to be the Angel of Darkness?” Vindex nodded, unable to take her eyes off Rydia either. It seemed that they shared some common interests at the moment. “But why call yourself Avenger at all? You’re not avenging for anyone, right? You, Angel of Darkness, shouldn’t even exist in this plane. You should be trapped in the realm of darkness, keeping everything in order! Why did you take our friend? Why are you controlling her?”

Vindex laughed loudly, hardly able to control her laughter. “It gives me pleasure and she was the perfect host at the time of her arrival,” she hissed. “But know this, Red Rose Movement. Nex est coming quod vos cannot subsisto is!” They looked confused, even Rydia couldn’t decide what she had said. But Vindex continued to take pleasure in their confusion. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a goddess to destroy.” And with that, her entire body disappeared in dark flames.

*

Frisk slowly rose to her feet, as she glared coldly into the eyes of the newcomer. Cherri had introduced herself, but only by her first name. So how on earth was Frisk able to know her surname at all then? She had been knocked down a few times, but each knock caused her to get back up on to her feet and fight again. Somehow, she sensed Cherri was different than most people who had dared to face her. The spawn of Satan was still inside of her and he or she kept her alive. Come to think of it … she didn’t even know the gender of the baby now, did she?

“Do you realise what you’re doing here?” she shouted at Cherri. “I am way overdue for my child to be born and you’re knocking me around as if I’m a football! Have some respect, will you?”

“Your child is the exact reason why I came here,” Cherri cut her off, glaring coldly at her as well. She aimed the gun at her stomach. “I came here to kill you both because I know if I do, then I’ll remember what the hell I’m doing here and why I’m still alive after almost being blown to pieces.”

At this point, Frisk was quiet. An energy ball appeared in her hand, however, against her will. She threw it in the opposite direction, looking shocked that her child would even dare to attack this woman. Then again, it did have a point – Cherri had attacked her many times. So here they were on the beach, where their stories both took a turn. Frisk had ended up here after the portal from the other world had sucked her inside. All that Cherri could remember was waking up here. Why was it that this beach was so significant?

“Why do you want to kill me? What did I ever do to you?” asked Frisk calmly.

“I don’t know you, but I know I have to kill your child at least and that means killing you as well, Frisk Valentine,” replied Cherri, preparing her gun. “Now … if you’d like to stand there quietly and calmly, we can get this over and done with quickly. You won’t even feel death coming your way because after all, your child is one heck of a monster.”

“You really think I’m going to stand here and let you kill me? Not a chance!” she exclaimed, another energy ball forming in her hand. “Forget not hurting you! You want to kill me? Bring it on, bitch.”

She then tossed the energy ball in Cherri’s direction. Cherri was quicker than she’d anticipated, however. Cherri dived to her right and got back to her feet, now shooting the bullets from the gun in Frisk’s direction. A dark barrier appeared, however, when the child intervened. Frisk had her hand raised against her will. Perhaps Cherri was making some sense, apart from the whole monster thing. Her child was special, but not a monster. That had been the insult that restarted the fight, the whole reason Frisk decided to trigger it off again.

When Frisk destroyed the machete gun with another powerful form of energy ball – more powerful than the ones she’d sent before – Cherri growled. Hand to hand combat was the only to go from here. She cracked her fingers and then ran towards Frisk in such an anger. Frisk herself was also running towards her. Their fight was becoming so heated, it was so close that –

“AAAAHHH!”

Darkness appeared out of nowhere and the two combatants were separated. Whilst Cherri was thrown into the sea, Frisk was blasted into the wall. She held her stomach when she came around only a few moments later and looked up in horror by who she now saw.

“What’s happened to you?” she whispered fearfully. “Who are you?”

“Vestri parvulus must intereo!” yelled Vindex, as she unfolded her new dark wings that had emerged on her back. “Angelus of Obscurum mos iacio suus in oblivio!” Frisk now looked terrified. She continued to hold her stomach and actual tears flowed down her face. Just as Vindex was nearing Frisk and her silver claws were about to slash her stomach, she suddenly stopped and cried out in pain. “Faith! Quis es vos effectus? Is must intereo! SUBSISTO BELLATOR FATUM!”

She fell on her back and went unconscious. Frisk looked curiously at Vindex, whose appearance was now changing. Her dark angel wings sprouted back into her back, her yellow eyes began to change back to ocean blue and her claws were now replaced with fingers. Faith Crest had returned and was now coming back around to consciousness.

“Frisk … F – Frisk!” she stuttered, unable to gather her words together. “I know what’s been happening to me over the past year! I know why I haven’t been able to remember some things. Like before when I released you, for instance. You have to stay away from me, I’m – I’m the Angel of Darkness’s host. She’s trying to kill your child.”

“Well, isn’t that something, huh?” scowled Frisk. “All of a sudden, everyone just happens to want to kill my child! Well, I’m not going to let anyone kill my baby. And you need to seriously stop screwing around, Faith! Something big is happening here and you seem to be the cause of it! Just what happened to us a year ago? I hardly remember anything … you told me to run and –”

“I told you once before to run, now I’m telling you again to run,” Faith ordered, rising to her feet, despite feeling so weak from her transformation. “The Angel of Darkness wants your child dead for some reason. She calls herself Vindex, which means Avenger in Latin. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the monster inside of me is an old Latin being that finally got released when I found it.”

“When you found it? Did you go looking for it, Faith?”

“Now’s not the best time for questions and answers, Frisk. It looks like your friend – or shall I say, nuisance is waking up.” She turned to face Frisk, her friend. “Whatever your child is, Vindex and this assassin woman know more about it than we do. I’ll take care of your friend, you just need to run as far away as possible and remain low for a while.”

“But what about you? You’re in the same position as me! You have to help me!”

Faith turned to face Frisk. So much had happened in such a short space of time. As much as she wanted to join Frisk and run away, she couldn’t. She had her allegiance to the Red Rose Movement to think about – and the Angel of Darkness was slowly beginning to get a full grip on her. She shook her head. “I can’t do that, Frisk. The Red Rose Movement is very suspicious right now! They are monitoring my movements as we speak.” She thought about where she could meet Frisk. “Listen to me, Frisk. There’s a small cavern just below the cliff near where Mercurial captured you. Meet me there, though I don’t know how long I’m going to be exactly …” Faith had raised her fists when Cherri moaned and rose to her feet. Frisk sighed, but knew that she was in no state to fight at all.

“What? You?” Cherri stared. “I knew it! You were in league with that girl all along, weren’t you?” Faith looked confused. “Faith Crest, wasn’t it? You’re the local psychic here, who works for that damn Red Rose Movement. Ohhh, you thought I don’t know about that, did you? Well, I sure do! And you don’t know what I’m truly capable of …”

But instead of rushing forward like anyone would, Faith simply crossed her arms. “You’ve much to tell me, I know that. Why would you want to hurt her child? What did the child ever do to you? It’s not like it’s been born yet.” However, Cherri unleashed her katana and went rushing towards Faith with such a violent temper. “So she has a katana and I have no weapon? A little unfair, I’d have to say, but I was always one for breaking the rules …”

*

For many weeks now, Aerith’s health had been deteriorating. She still suffered from dark visions of the future. The only person who could not bear to see her anymore was Rene. Whilst he was with his best friend Filden to figure out a plan to get to the parallel world, Riku found himself in as much pain as Aerith was. He did his best to mask this pain well. However, there was one day when he almost collapsed in the corridors. A few worried monks passed him and asked if he was fine, but he continued to ignore them and got to his office as soon as he could.

“How could she learn to let go of us?” whimpered Riku, as he finally fell to the floor. Even though she was in the parallel world, he could sense something had changed about Faith. She had turned dark. She had something dark inside of her – and she wasn’t even fighting it. Although he couldn’t see it now, he could sense that she was in a fight with someone else, someone whose intention it was to kill Frisk for some unknown reason. “Faith, you have to fight it … don’t make the same mistake that I made …”

When he had recovered from his sudden premonition he felt, Riku hurried to Aerith’s chamber. He wanted to know if she was suffering from this vision at this precise time. When he did reach there, his suspicions were correct. Aerith was weak and unable to hardly move. She only spoke of what she saw when her mind was trapped in the visions. Lord Golbez was there and stared suspiciously at Riku when he entered – the sweat on his forehead gave it away.

“What happened?” asked Julius, who had been sat by Aerith’s bedside for many days now, unable to leave her side. He was like the older sister that he never had. “And as for your situation update, Riku, she just had the worst one so far. She foretells of someone wanting to kill Faith’s friend, who was known as Frisk if I recall.” He looked up at Riku, who couldn’t hold back his expression of guilt on his face. “Is there something we need to know, Riku?”

“Yes,” Riku choked out, unable to keep the pain going on for much longer. “I … it’s Faith. Something in the parallel world has taken over her body – and she’s not even fighting back.” Mitsuki, curious as she was, rose to her feet and her jaw literally dropped. No one else was in the room. “I’m afraid to say that, no … the Angel of Darkness has taken over her!” Lord Golbez rose to his feet angrily. “Avenger, its name is Avenger. But the creature, as we know, is Latin. So it prefers to call itself Vindex.”

“And what has this got to do with Frisk then?” asked Mitsuki, crossing her arms.

“Frisk …” murmured Aerith, who caught everyone’s attention immediately. “She is carrying such a heavy burden. A child, I see a child, yes … she is pregnant with … no, it can’t be! Saix!” Everyone, even Riku, was shocked. No one had expected this. “It is inside of her … one of them will die. Frisk or Faith, one of them will die.” The vision ended and Aerith burst into tears. “I’m so sorry!”

“You were great as always,” Julius offered her a sympathetic smile. He kissed her forehead and continued to stroke her long light brown hair. Then he looked up at Lord Golbez. “So then, we know that the Angel of Darkness has taken over Faith Crest. We need to know how and why, but we also need to know the same with Frisk.”

“Julius, we already know how the child got inside of Frisk!” exclaimed Mitsuki, rolling her eyes and feeling embarrassed already. “Do we have to explain it to you?”

“I don’t mean that,” he growled and rose to his feet. “We need to know if it really was out of love or if Saix manipulated her to do it, so that he’d have an heir if anything went wrong last year.”

And before they knew it, Aerith had slipped back into her vision state.

“Darkness … death … devastation … coming …”

“There must be another way! We can’t let it rampage within her for much longer!” shouted Lord Golbez, now concerned for Faith’s well being.

“Lord Golbez, I don’t think there is another way,” sighed Mitsuki, who was now close to tears.

Julius nodded. “I disagree that we let the beast rampage her soul, but I do agree that it is the only way to save all existence.”

Riku was now confused. What were they planning?

“What do you mean?” he shouted, making Aerith jump in her bed. “You’re going to stand back and let the Angel of Darkness continue to swallow Faith up?” Lord Golbez nodded. He was about to speak, but Riku continued to speak. “Don’t you realise what would happen to her if you let that continue happen? If she does get swallowed up by the darkness – the Angel of Darkness in particular – then there’s no going back. She’ll die and Vindex will fully take control of her body. Faith’s soul would be lost forever! She would surely crumble and cease to ever exist!” He couldn’t believe they were going through with this.

“It’s my decision to make, Riku,” said Lord Golbez. “She can handle the Angel of Darkness. She’s a strong-willed girl.”

“She’s not a girl anymore, Golbez!” yelled Riku, now daring to challenge the lord’s authority. “Who ever made you the lord of this organisation, anyway? All you’ve done since taking over is nothing! You ran when we needed you! You hid yourself to save your own sorry butt! So what if you reassembled FFF?”

“That’s no way to speak to Lord Golbez!” shouted Julius. “Riku, think about what you say!”

“No, I won’t!” the dark warrior continued expressing his true feelings. “I am leaving FFF because of your decision! And a little FYI to everyone! After you were getting on with your lives, I was the one to go and see Faith to say goodbye.” Julius, Mitsuki and Aerith gasped. Lord Golbez said nothing. “So I’m leaving. You can stuff your job until you change your mind!” And with that, he disappeared into a dark portal.

*

“So let me get this straight,” said Filden, as he and Rene were at the site, where the portal to the parallel world last opened. “We are standing on the roof of a ruined building – and you believe you’ll get into this parallel world right here? Rene, you are so on crack!”

“Do you want me to tell you’re on crack because you’ve shut yourself off from the world since you believed you had angel wings?” Rene raised an eyebrow, as he continued to find the exact spot where the portal had opened and closed. Filden gave up in the end. “All right, it has to be around here. Patricia’s invention is over there –” He pointed at the weathered machine. “So I must be standing where it opened, right?”

Filden shrugged his shoulders. However, a dark portal opened Rene. Filden yelled loudly, mainly out of panic. Moments later, Riku emerged from it and crashed right on to Rene. They both went crashing to the ground, which Filden could only laugh at.

“It’s not funny, Fil!” yelled Rene, as he rose to his feet. He was about to hit the person who crashed into him, but then noticed it was Riku. “Riku? What are you doing here?”

“Defying FFF,” replied Riku, rising to his feet after being helped by Rene. He jumped at the sight of Filden and then turned to face Rene again. “A friend of yours? Why didn’t you tell us that there’s more humans that are starting to evolve?”

“Well, I was going to tell you, but you’re not obviously helping us reach Faith by interrupting us,” scowled Rene. “Filden, this is a buddy of mine from FFF, Riku Walker. Riku, this is Filden Gurito, my angelic friend as you can see.” Filden scowled, but smiled at Riku. Riku did the same. “Now that all the introductions are out of the way, anyone mind helping me out here? I need to reopen the portal.”

“Portal? You’re trying to get in there?” asked Riku, who couldn’t believe that they were attempting this. “Count me in, I have my own personal reasons for doing this.”

*

In the midst of everything, a storm was brewing. Outside on the rooftop of the FFF headquarters, Saix smiled nastily. He looked down at Julius, who was bleeding to death. He looked down at his main rival and crossed his arms.

“I should have killed you a long time ago,” he said darkly.

“You don’t have the strength to do it. You could never do it!” yelled Julius.

“I have the strength, but I’m running out of patience,” assumed Saix, rolling his eyes. “Now you need to tell me all you know and include Lady Aerith’s visions while you’re at it, ok?”

September 5, 2008, 6:53 PM

Ooh did saix bust out?

Good chapter Faithy, prolly my favourite so far

September 5, 2008, 6:58 PM

I am going to die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least I will fall down by Saix's blade. Nice chapter there, I love the usage of "Latin" in it.

LOL, I imagine Saix saying to all of us "On your knees dogs!"

September 5, 2008, 8:43 PM

Awesome XD. I has machete gun and katana. =D

Wait...who's the Angel of Darkness again? =/

September 5, 2008, 9:04 PM

The REAL reply from Rene when Filden told him he was on crack "Why yes, yes I am on crack"

Lol loved the chappy Faith, brilliant as always

September 22, 2008, 8:58 PM

Now this chapter is less than impressive. I did half of it at one point, forgot about it and finished it up tonight. Frisk won't be featured here, but main characters that are will be Faith, Cherri, Rene, Filden, Riku, Saix, Julius and the parallel Red Rose Movement. It's a little bit slow, but the next chapter should be building up towards Frisk's unnatural birth to the baby. Can I hear a, "Ooh!" there?

Chapter Seven

Reunion, Meeting and Desertion

Julius lay there on the cold wet ground as a wounded man. He looked up into the eyes of his rival, Saix, who looked down at him with such satisfaction. A battle had been fought long and hard, but unfortunately for Julius, Saix had been the one who emerged triumphant. Now he lay on the floor, defeated and humiliated. As the storm continued, Saix looked up towards the sky and smiled evilly as well as nastily. His bid for freedom had worked. Fooling Angelus had been the step to ensure his survival. Now he wouldn’t have to stand trial, could regain his powers and perhaps be reunited with his love, Frisk Valentine. But Julius Argexis was unwilling to let these things happen.

He rose to his feet slowly after Saix stepped forward to the edge of the cliff, who was embracing the fresh air of Gaia. As Saix continued to say how he would be triumphant in the end, Julius took up his bloodstained blade and pointed it at his opponent. In reaction, Saix raised an eyebrow when he turned to face him. Remarking how pathetic he looked and was a weak excuse for a warrior, Saix was unable to defend himself when Julius’ true anger emerged. Julius slashed Saix’s chest, which only caused him to fall.

“Powerless and defenceless, where will you go now, vile monster?” hissed Julius, as he began to circle Saix, who was clutching his bleeding chest wound. “Your immortality keeps you alive, but you can still suffer from the wounds that I give to you. That only means one thing.” He pointed the edge of the blade to his neck. “I can finally get my revenge, Saix. You killed Shenorai and for that, I must do what I have to do … for her sake.”

“Dead Shenorai maybe, but have you even considered what she was thinking at the time when I killed her?” Saix remarked, unable to contain the laughter that had taken over. “Shenorai, oh, your precious Shenorai! You still haven’t moved on, have you? You’re unable to get back on to your feet and face life like a man!” In retaliation, Julius kicked Saix in the side. “Ha, ha … but you allow your anger to consume you, boy. Until you deal with your lover’s death, then you will never grow up and be the man that you thought you were destined to be.”

“I don’t have time for this,” growled Julius, as he kicked Saix again in the side. As Saix slipped into a slow and painful unconsciousness and no longer posed a threat, Julius began to think on about what he had said. “A boy, as he describes me so? He is the child here playing with my mind and thinking that Shenorai’s death has deeply affected me!” He paused for a moment before speaking again. “You, Saix, are the reason why everything is and will always be a mess. As long as you remain alive, there is bound to be crisis wherever you go.” Julius stared at his bloodstained blade. “But are you worthy enough to be killed? Your immortality saves you from dying of wounds, but it cannot save your body from being completely and utterly destroyed. Revenge this might be, but I have moved on from Shenorai’s death. I have had to move on because everyone else has.”

He glanced down at Saix’s unconscious body, deliberating on what to do with him.

“If I had the choice between being a fool or a murderer, then I would be the fool. I would rather be the fool than the murderer. The murderer is haunted, yet the fool is at peace. This day, Saix, I will let you go. You may or may not hear me now, but know this; the day of reckoning is coming again. Another Doomsday will come from this – and you will have to make the ultimate decision. Join us and survive or be cut down if you stand in our way.”

He sat down on the snow that had just fallen down.

“The choice is yours to make.”

*

“You fight like an unearthly creature, yet you do not look like one!” hissed Cherri, as she had dropped her weapons, considering that she was getting nowhere. Faith seemed too quick for her. However, Cherri had already witnessed her almost becoming the Angel of Darkness. “It appears that not only is Frisk Valentine has a dark being inside of her. You have as well, Faith Crest!” She raised her fists. “You’re only another lamb to the slaughter. It’s no use trying to help your friend anymore, she can’t run from me for much longer!”

Faith, who wasn’t really in the mood for much hand to hand combat, shrugged her shoulders. So far, the fight had been too easy for her. Whether it was the fact that she was psychic or had the Angel of Darkness inside of her, she didn’t know. She really didn’t know. Ever since knowing that Vindex had resided in her body, Faith also began to notice a few more abilities had emerged. She discovered that she now possessed superhuman strength, spontaneous regeneration and darkness flowing through her veins. It was quite scary as exciting as it was at the same time. She put it down to the new powers she’d received.

Cherri, who was very annoyed when she was squaring up against these newfound abilities, went to kick Faith. However, she wasn’t surprised when she was blasted back with an even more powerful kick from her opponent. As she went flying back on the scorching sand, Cherri raised her head up again to notice her nose was now bleeding. But it didn’t mean that she’d give up. “You’re much more than the child. Tell me something – who am I exactly facing right now? Faith Crest? Or the Angel of Darkness?”

“Faith Crest,” she replied without hesitation. “I know who I am it’s not the Angel of Darkness. I will never be like that monster. Oh, and for the record –” She punched Cherri in the stomach, sending her flying up into the air and back on the sand again. “– I’m no child and you just got owned.” She punched Cherri again, thus, knocking her out.

Her own personal battle for self-control was beginning. Her own life was on the line here. The Angel of Darkness had chosen her as a host for some mysterious reason – which was what? She came to realise that the anger within her was the reason for her sudden switch to the dark side. As with her emotions, Faith had a great struggle battling for the heroine within. She looked up at the sky and noticed something up there – a shooting star perhaps?

“What is that?” she wondered aloud.

Eventually, the shooting star – if was what it really was – came into light. The shooting star now took the form of Riku, who was floating gracefully down from the heavens. He would’ve collided with the sea, had it not been for Faith, who flew faster than she had done so before, to catch him. She had no trouble bringing him to the shore, thanks to the Angel of Darkness’s powers.

“Riku? Is it really you?” whispered Faith, but noticed he was unconscious. “Riku!” She slapped him in the face. “Don’t you dare die on me now!” She felt his neck – and a pulse. “At least you’re still alive, anyway.” And then suddenly, Riku awoke coughing and nearly pushing Faith out of the way in the process. “Really, is that any way to greet one of your best friends, who’s been trapped on a parallel world for the past year?”

Riku glanced at Faith, a moment that he thought was never possible.

“Faith? Faith!” he laughed, as he wrapped his arms around her. “I really did it! Aye, I’m alive, girl! We did it! But where are Rene and Filden?”

“Did what? What about Rene and Filden?” jumped Faith when she heard the very mentions of their names. She wanted to know about Rene, but where was Filden’s role in all of this? They were friends, of course, but since regaining her memories, she remembered clouded memories of them in childhood – right before Rene ever met them. “And where does Filden fit in all of this? I thought –”

“Yes, Faith, you thought,” Riku said darkly. He rose to his feet and stepped away from her. “You have the source of darkness inside of you, have you not?” She nodded, confirming his suspicions. “Lassie, how the HELL have you managed that?”

“It possessed me,” explained Faith. “It made me do things that I didn’t want to do and made me forget what I did, until now.” She looked at Riku. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, Riku. I hurt people, but I never killed them. The Angel of Darkness can only hurt people, it can’t kill them because like it’s I’m now a part of it, it’s a part of me. It feels the goodness inside of me and I feel the badness inside of it as an after effect!”

“Ok then,” he nodded his head, sensing some kind of truth behind it all. “However! I could help you, Faith. Since I’m aligned to the darkness anyway, I could help you contain the Angel of Darkness for a little while until we can fully learn the extent of the damage that it’s caused to you as an individual. For now, however, we’re going to have to find Rene Skylar and Filden Gurito.”

“I thought Herrod was Rene’s surname?”

“It was his mother’s maiden name. He only recently discovered that she married prior to his birth.”

*

Rene opened his eyes and instantly remembered what happened. The portal had opened after combining the presence of his soul, Riku’s dark powers and Filden’s heavenly angel wings. They were allowed access into the other world, but had been separated in the process. The floor where he was lay upon was very cold – was he underground? He sat up, rubbed his eyes and focused his vision to discover where he was. His eyes widened when he realised the answer to that question.

He was in the Red Rose Movement’s underground base in Cardiff. Rene rose to his feet happily.

“I did it! I found the other world! I can tell Faith how I feel!” he jumped for joy.

However, everything changed when he noticed Mercurial, Hera, Contra and Rydia stood there, aiming their guns at him. He gulped; he’d never been at gunpoint before …

Mercurial was the first to speak, seeing as how he was the team leader. “You won’t be telling anyone how you feel until you identify yourself,” he said.

Rene gulped again. “Oh, does that mean I can’t tell you how it feels to be at gunpoint then?”

“He’s got a point, Merc,” Hera said, lowering his gun. “Contra could always detect anything suspicious.” He turned to the team leader as did all of them.

But Mercurial seemed like he was having none of it. “He seems suspicious as it is! So how do you know Faith Crest then? She’s with us now.”

Rene grinned, trying his hardest not to laugh. So they didn’t know the story of Faith Crest? This was going to be good. “Ohhh, it’s a long story,” he noted, crossing his arms and no longer feeling threatened, even if Mercurial had his gun pointed at him still. “I’ll tell you, that is, if you’ve got time.”

“We don’t have time right now!” shouted Rydia, as she was now on her computer checking the CCTV cameras. “It’s night time now and you know what that means, party people – we’re getting a visit from our vampiric friends.” Rene looked confused, so she explained it to him. “Vampires, we had some trouble a few nights ago. Faith ran into them, but she forgot what happened as soon as we went to assist her.”

“Wow, I have a story to tell and apparently, so do you,” said Rene. “Listen, I’d love to sit here all day and swap stories, but I need your help. I know this might sound strange when I say this, but has anyone seen an angel falling from the sky? A human with angel wings? Sound familiar?”

*

Filden opened his eyes and rubbed the back of his head. As soon as he sat up, he felt that the ground on which he had been lying upon was hard. He felt his back to find that his angel wings were gone! “That can’t be right!” he whispered fearfully. What should have been his greatest hope had now become his greatest fear. He rose to his feet and looked around. He was now on a deserted island and his angel wings suddenly taking a quick escape hadn’t exactly helped either. “What can I do?”

He rose to his feet and noticed the sea in front of him. Rene and Riku were surely ok, right? Whatever this island was, it didn’t look too good. It freaked him out just by looking at the jungle behind him. Filden felt scared for the first time in his life. He walked towards the sea and pretended that he was stretching his angel wings. Maybe they had gone back inside his skin? He didn’t know what the mystery was, but he knew one thing – or perhaps a few – he had to find Rene and Riku as well as meet Faith again.