Into Heaven We Go~

The Ke'rahxi

Not yet, he said. That was reassuring... I started to write again.

"My human name doesn't seem fitting anymore. I don't really care what you call me." The statement was sort of untrue, but it was for the sake of simplicity. I continued writing. "If I may, why is my death necessary? What have I done that warrants the death penalty? Is existing a crime? Forgive me if I'm being forward, but are angels, beings supposedly holy and perfect, truly going to allow prejudice to stand in the way of justice and fairness for all? Or does heaven have no solid legal system?"

I honestly hoped it did, or a lot of my argument would've been broken. ...What did I care? This whole damn system was broken. I still didn't think they would be able to kill me, but it was the principle of the thing. I had rights.

Or did I?

Lyla
Zav took the paper again, but Jon took it away from him, reading it aloud.

"Well," Jon started, "We do have rules that are set up. You see, we have a procedure-"

"Can't we skip this?" Zav asked impatiently.

"No," John said, "Back to what I was saying. We kill a demon or demon spawn if it attacks. Lyla, here did not follow that rule. I'm guessing it was the nerves and she's been attacked many times, so she forgot about that detail. If the creature does not die it is taken here, it's fate usually determined by Zav. Of course, this is a special situation. You did not do anything wrong and I believe you should be given some kind of chance. But we've never had to deal with this kind of situation before. So, we have no set of rules to follow for this."

"We should just kill it and get this over with, which is what I've been saying for awhile now," Zav said, sounding annoyed.

"We have to figure out what we are to do, Zav. ANy suggestions besides killing might be helpful."

The Ke'rahxi

Oh, sure. Her getting attacked a bunch of times is complete justification for her assaulting and then abducting me. Because clearly, if you see a guy walking down the street and you've had a bad run-in with similar guys, you just stab him on sight repeatedly, and then shove him in a bag and bring him with you if he doesn't die right away. Because that makes sense.

I kept that to myself.

"You could let me go like I mentioned before. I do have friends to get back to as well as important duties to perform. Duties like leading a team of people through various missions to, with the help of a greater force, slowly take down an organization that has destroyed and will continue to destroy billions of innocent lives unless we stop them. You read that right; that's billions, not millions. The organization we fight against eliminates entire universes.

"Yes, Elder Zav. I fight to protect lives. I'm not the wicked and depraved being you apparently think I am."

Okay, I was probably being pretty forward now and perhaps unnecessarily snarky, but I didn't care.

Lyla
I watched as Elder Jon took the paper and read it over, his eyes widening slightly. He turned to the creature, handing the paper to Zav.

"What is this organization?" He asked, though I knew nothing about what he was talking about. This time he had read it to himself. I felt confused, and I looked to Jared. But he shrugged in return.

Zav looked up from the paper, done reading it, and looked to the creature. He seemed to be thinking of something. Jon looked over at us and mumbled something to Zav. I couldn't hear what they were saying from over here, but I stayed in my place, not wanting to get myself in trouble.

The Ke'rahxi

"They're called the Sybek. Sort of an organization, sort of a cult. Their goal is to destroy every universe that isn't theirs. But the fight isn't really your concern, and if you can't see souls, use elemental and/or energy powers, and transcend the dimensions like I can, I'd stay out of it. Also, if you guys are immortal, that's even more of a reason. The Sybek use life energy for fuel; I don't even want to think about what would happen if they could get their hands on someone who couldn't die. It's different in my case--it's hard, but I'm still capable of death. But this other immortal friend of mine...she'd be an everlasting fuel source if she were captured.

"Basically, don't focus on this issue. The fight hasn't come to this universe anyway. As for the other universes, the Soulbonder Organization (SO)--the one I work for--will take care of it. We already are."

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the fight in the first place; we'd gotten pretty off-topic now. I hoped I'd steered them away from that direction, though.

Jared
Jon read the paper, handed it to Zav, Zav gave it back(his lips in a tight line), and Jon thought for a moment. I waited, hoping they would catch us up on the situation. We were being left out. I half expected Zav to suggest they kill it again, but he didn't. He just stood there, watching the spawn with an annoyed face. Jon walked over to us.

"Here. Read these, and tell me what you think," He said. He handed me the papers, and Lyla walked over. We both looked over the last one and the one he had just wrote. I was surprised. It must have been human, it couldn't be lying. If it was, then it was a really good liar. After I was done with the papers and Lyla had finished reading, I handed them back to Jon.

"Tell me your thoughts first so mine do not influence you," He spoke with a straight face. I could tell that what I said was serious.

"I think we should release it...I mean...him," I said, Zav gave me a look. "If he was human first, then he shouldn't be killed. He was forced to become like this, and shouldn't be punished."

Jon turned to Lyla, "And you, Dear?"

Lyla glanced at me nervously. She hated it when people stared at her, especially when she had to speak. "I agree with Jared. We should give him back to the human world."

I thought for a minute and raised my hand hesitantly, not really knowing if I should speak or not.

"Yes, Jared?" Jon asked.

"I was going to say...if they're turning humans into spawns...then we have something to worry about. I think we should start investigating." I said. Jon nodded.

"We do have something to worry about. I also say we release him. Zav?" Jon asked as he turned to him.

"Well..." Zav began, "I will say yes to releasing the creature. If and only if I am able to put some kind of tracking device on it. That way, if we need to ask it anything else, we can find it."

"That's not gonna be easy...." I mumbled under my breath, thinking about when I tried to grab him, he would easily get his way out of my grip. And even if he did compromise, he might just get rid of it later. He was smart.

The Ke'rahxi

Tracking? I had two syllables for that: "bull" and "shit," respectively. I grabbed another paper.

"It's not like humans are being made into spawns all over the place; the one who seeded me only did it to a few others and has no plans to do it to anyone else. Also, one of the others actually asked and got the cord taken out before he could also turn into this. So, as it's a contained issue, there's really nothing to worry about. Considering that, I'd rather not have any sort of tracking mechanism placed on me."

It was hardly fair. Aside from that, I'd also made sure not to mention Karson's "gender" anywhere in my words. Seeing as I'd already let it slip that someone was purposefully doing this, I didn't want to do anything to narrow their search.

Jared
Zav took the paper this time, reading and sighing.

"Fine. No chip no freedom." he stood there, angry looking.

"The decision is not only yours, Zav. Majority rul-"

"I don't care about the majority. What is it? Two earthbounds and one elder? They should not even be in this room right now. I am the head of this department and I say we kill it. No tracking device, no deal."

Jon gaped at Zav. "Excuse me, but these two do belong here. I am treating them as equals because they /are/ my equals. And I am the head of the angel world. I am technically higher up than you, and my decision can easily overrule yours."

"Fine," Zav said, "Go ahead and give IT back. Leave it in the human world to hurt the mortals. Don't listen to me." he walked past Jon and opened the door, walking through and leaving.

That was...unexpected.

The Ke'rahxi

For a moment I just sort of sat there, unsure of what to say. Then I started writing again.

"Really, if he tried to place any sort of foreign object in me, my body would just naturally reject it. Not to mention that every single one of my appendages is entirely composed of a tiny black threads that are all connected, which I can disassociate and reassociate at will.

"Oh, by the way, and I hope I'm not asking too much or speaking out of my place or anything, but...would anyone around here possibly have any magic that could be used to restore my human body? A lot of this would be so much easier if I had it."

I definitely still had to be on the lookout for Zav, too. If he was anything like...someone else...which he'd so far proven himself to be, then he would very likely make his own decisions about what would be done with me. Behind the backs of any of my advocates. And he'd go through with his decisions. I figured I should start planning for anything.

Jared
Jon picked up the paper again and read it. He put it down, thinking for a moment. "Yes. I can bring it here. May take a bit of power, since I don't know where it is, but I can."

I looked to Lyla but she shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about either.

Jon brought up his hands, closing his eyes and murmuring something underneath his breath. His hands seem to glow slightly, and each passing second it seemed to get brighter. He kept mumbling, like he was saying something fast and quiet. As his hands grew brighter, his voice got louder. After about a minute, his hands were emitting light and nearly surrounding him. There was something materializing on the ground in front of him, but I couldn't make out the shape. The light now filled the room, his voice loud enough for me to hear now. He was saying something in the ancient language of the immortals. My ears picked up a few words, and translated them in my head. Body something about a body.... Bring back the body. My eyes shut as the light blinded me, and quickly died down. He had stopped speaking. I opened my eyes to see a body on the floor.

A body...on the floor....

"Since when can angels make bodies appear out of nowhere?" I whispered to Lyla. She was too busy staring at it to answer. My eyes were wide with surprise.

Jon took a deep breathe and sat down. "Well...I think that's enough magic for me for the next century," He laughed and looked up at the spawn.

The Ke'rahxi

I got over to my former body as quickly as I could, parted the mouth with a few tendrils, and started to slip inside. I slid all the way in, my tendrils and threads already getting to work connecting everything and replacing body systems. I could feel myself extending throughout my old body, though I wasn't consciously directing anything; it was all instinct.

When I hooked up to my old nervous system, I opened my old eyes. Ah...so that's what this place really looked like. And that's what those angels really looked like. I sat up, stretching my muscles and flexing my joints just to ensure that everything was connected properly. It was unnecessary, but I just wanted to be sure anyway. I stood up and turned to Jon.

"Thanks so much," I said. Ahh, it felt good to speak again! ...Honestly, it felt good to do everything again. "Really. It's great to be back."

Jared
...The heck?

So...the spawn just...entered the body...and it started speaking and it moved...that was normal....

Jon nodded, "Not a problem. I'm glad to see you human again."

So it was human. Alright then...ah...he, not it. But it like...slithered in...that must feel weird in the throat...really weird...like all slithery....

But hey! He was human again! Great! I started to walk over and Lyla followed behind me.

"Hello there! Ah, sorry for um...trying to uh...kill you...."

Peter

I shrugged.

"People try to kill me all the time," I said. "...No, seriously. All the time. That's the main reason I'm actually glad this happened to me. ...My hair and eyes used to be brown, though." I turned to Jon. "So about going back to Earth... Does that require magic, or could I just jump off some edge and land there? Does this place even have an edge? I just don't want anyone to use any more energy if there's a way around it."

...But man, it really felt good to be back. It's like they say, you don't know what you've got until it's gone. I didn't think I'd ever take my human form for granted again.

I was still a little upset about the hair and eyes, though. That color had the only tie I had left to my family. I wondered if I could instruct my threads not to go there. It might work for the hair, but I wasn't sure about the eyes. Did I still need my human brain to be rewired? My eyes would definitely stay black if that were the case. Still, though, one out of two wasn't bad. ...Oh gods, not that fifty percent joke.

Jared
"I can take you back. We would have to go the way we came. Want to go right now?" I asked. Lyla was already headed to the door.

"Oh, yes. Please do that, Jared," Jon said, smiling, "I'm too weak to walk all the way over there after using up so much energy. Thank you."

"No problem, Elder Jon." I said, walking to the door and holding it open for Lyla and the person, who I didn't know what to call.

Peter

"Er, yeah, sorry about that," I said to Jon. "And thanks again. Thanks for hearing me out, too."

I headed through the door after Lyla, thanking Jared as I passed. Lot of thanking going on here... Once I was in the hallway, I looked around. Throughout the whole place were the same three colors. Everywhere. Nothing but white, silver, and gold. Even the angels themselves had those colors; I hadn't really noticed until then.

"Looks like you have a motif going, huh?" Then, dryly, "Guess I'll be sticking out. Demon spawn in a sea of angels."

Jared
I followed them out and came up on the person's left side, Lyla on the right. "Yeah...but you're with us. I don't think you'll stick out too much."

I was probably wrong...but hey, always look to the bright side of the situation right? There might be a lot of people out today, but not many would be in that area. And it's not like they would attack him or anything....

We turned and walked through another door that led into the huge council room. The elders were still sitting up there, except two seats were empty. Zav's and Jon's. Where could Zav be?

"Where's Zav?" Lyla asked, searching the room.

"No idea. Probably working on something...." I said, shrugging. The elders paid us no mind as we walked out. We passed the desk where we had gotten paper the first time, and walked out the huge doors. As we stepped outside, the swords crossed our path again.

"Names?" Michael asked.

"Jared, Lyla, and-" I stopped and turned to the person, "What's your name?"

Peter

"Peter," I said. Admittedly, it felt more right to say that now that I was back in my original form. I supposed the pseudonym wasn't needed after all. Good thing. I had no idea of what could possibly work.

Zav was gone... I didn't like that. Since he was essentially the angel version of Herb, I figured he was off scheming something. Maybe planning something else with a few people he'd convinced. I hoped I was just being paranoid and there really was nothing to worry about, but something told me that wasn't the case. I'd have to watch my back.

Despite what they said, I still felt uncomfortable about going out in the open. Jet black hair, pitch black eyes...and I was even wearing black clothing from before I had either of those. Not to mention I clearly lacked a pair of feathery wings. The way I saw it, my appearance practically screamed "demon." This was going to be...interesting, to say the least.

Jared
"And Peter." I said. The angel statues moved their swords and let us through. I walked down the steps and up the street made of stones calmly. There were a few people out, walking around and going about their daily lives. Some of them saw Peter and stopped, staring at him. Well...this might be awkward for him...and this wasn't the busy side yet.

We continued to walk, ignoring the stares and came up to the earthbound angel school. There were a lot more people around here, children and adults. The kids were playing in the schoolyard and parents talking to each other. Most of them stopped and watched us with wide eyes. Kids stopped playing. Everything went silent.

...Awkward....

I kept walking, trying not to look at all the people. I heard a small gasp in front of me and looked down to see Isabelle standing a few feet in front of us. She looked up at Peter wide eyed.

"Jared? Is that a human?" She asked, not taking her eyes from Peter. She looked...amazed in a way.

"Yes...." I said, glancing around and looking back down.

"Whoa! I've never seen a human!" Everyone stared at him, the children looked amazed, and the parents looked confused.

Well...so much for not sticking out....

Peter

The stares when we first left the building I could sort of deal with; I just ignored them and kept walking. But the school...that was impossible to ignore. I was actually afraid of being embarrased--I had a nasty tendency to blush, the color ranging from faint to profuse. And since my blood was now black (though it wasn't actually blood), my cheeks turned black instead of red.

"Er...hello," I said kind of awkwardly. "Yeah. Human." Technically true. I was born human, and I was still human on the outside.

I recognized the little girl from before, back when I was still trapped in the trash bags. It was so weird actually seeing people and things rather than gaining a mental image based on vibrations.

Jared
"What are you doing here?" She asked, curious.

"We're taking him back to earth, Isabelle. When I get back i'll explain things to you, okay?" I said, hoping to get out of here already.

"...Are you sure you're gonna come back?" She asked, turning to me, "Last time you didn't." Her face was sad, like she was hurt.

"I promise," I said, and she smiled, hugging me.

"Okay let's go...." I said, after she let go. I smiled at her and waved as we walked away. People still stared at us, and once we got through the crowd of people, there were less of them. We were now coming up to the white wall of mist that we came in from.

"Here we are," I said. Lyla walked over and held her hand up, waving her arm. A door appeared.

"Ready?" She asked Peter.

Peter

"Yeah," I said. "Do I just walk through, or do I need an angel to do it? This isn't the sort of transdimensional travel I'm used to."

Actually, when I focused, I couldn't feel any of the planes around me. I wasn't even sure where this place's source of life was. Then again, it could be magic. ...I hated worlds where magic and science coexisted. Not that either were bad; it was just that you could never really be certain of the cause of anything. Proven scientific things like planar mechanics, sure, but where that failed, magic took over. You could explain anything with magic, after all. Heck, you could do anything with it.

Gah. I had to stop thinking about all this. I had to say, though, I was sort of glad that magic wasn't widespread. If everyone had it, we would never have actually progressed in the scientific fields, which means we may not have progressed much morally, either. After all, by human standards, magic (you know, not the real kind) "existed" in the Dark Ages. But science was and is driven by logic and reason, which open the way for clear thought and good morality.

...I had to wonder if a lack of science had anything to do with the bigotry present in what seemed like a majority of the angels. Probably.

Jared
"You have to go with one of us." I said. Lyla was already at the door, so I let her go.

Lyla
I held out my arm and motioned to the door at Peter. "Let's go!"

Peter

"Alright then," I said, walking over.

Going back to Earth...finally. If I had to see this place again, it would be too soon. Forget that--if I had to see a concentration of these same three colors again, it would be too soon. Seriously, did they ever get tired of it?

Lyla
I Stepped through and in the next moment, we were standing in the middle of a grassy field, a city could be seen in the distance.

"Well...I guess this is where I leave and you go to you're friends!" I said, "Nice to meet'ya." I started to walk back to the door that was still there, turning to wave goodbye. I then walked through the door and appeared back in Heaven. Jared was already waiting there. We both walked back silently to spend some time with his sister before we were forced to go back down to earth.

Peter

"You too," I said as she prepared to leave. "Bye."

And just like that, she was gone. Not that I wasn't used to people traveling to other dimensions just like that.

Okay...now to figure out where the hell I was. ...Hell. Heaven. Gah... I sat down in the grass, closing my eyes and trying to feel out for the planes around me. If I could locate an A-plane, I'd be all set. I certainly wasn't on one now... This was definitely a C-plane. No waypoints, either. Oh well, I'd have to deal with it. It was at least close to plane that did have a waypoint. I stood up and opened my eyes again, preparing to shift.

I didn't let myself think I was free of any danger, though, on account of another thing they say: "Famous last words." I'd rather not have any of those.