13: and also

~~Mauraline~~

I laid quietly on my mom's old bed and just let my eyes rest. Dad had told me that something happened to the barriers blocking heaven and hell from each other and that he needed to investigate.

Some part of me had been feeling more and more empty as the days went by. I was in this room whenever my dad wasn't around, trying to piece my mom's life together. Trying to understand why she left, to understand what was going through her mind when she left the last time.

I held one picture over my head. It was of her staring out the window of a huge house towards the woods surrounding it. There was a cliff under the window and it looked to be a major drop towards the ground. Her eyes were silver and dull. Her hair had lost its normal color and she just looked. . .depressed.

A loud crash sounded outside the castle and I felt tremors shake the ground. I heard the yells and the screams in the hall, but tucked myself smaller into the room where no one knew to look for me.

"Where is Mauraline?" I heard Dad yell from the hallway.

I stood up and peeked out the window and almost collapsed. The angels, they were attacking us.

Fear coursed through my veins, but it was foreign to me. It was like someone else's fear was invading me and taking over. I couldn't separate my emotions from the other amounts of fear that seemed to want me to feel it for them.

It invaded me easily and I couldn't make it stop. Voices began to but into my head, whispering their final wishes. Warning bells and sirens began to sound in my head and all around me.

I backed away from the window and dropped to the ground with a scream. Pain began as more voices and more emotions hit me and I tried to block them out. The blackness began and I started to see the last moments of lives.

"Someone... please help me..." I cried into the images. I was scared. Alone. I want my dad.

I want my mom.

I squeezed my eyes shut and let myself collapse.

"Maura, baby, can you hear me?" someone began to call me from the abyss. "Mauraline, sweetheart, I'm here. Mommy's here. You need to breathe, can you do that for me?"

"Mom?" I asked, my pain starting to subside at her voice. Some part of me longed for her.

"Yes, baby. Listen, you need to breathe for me, okay? Do not give into the pain and fear you're feeling. I promise it will be okay, my darling. I'll find a way to make it okay."

As I listened to her calming voice, something inside me relaxed. The visions and the pain started to wash away.

"That's it, baby! I have you, your mommy is here, and I will always be here for you."

The voices started to fade until it was only her voice left with me.

"Can you show me what caused this, babydoll?" Her voice asked me and I opened my eyes into the abyss to see her. Her hair was shorter than it was in the pictures I had seen, but it was still the same brown and silver mix that was in her most recent images. It fell to her waist and her wings were a bright white with some grey and black feathers running through them. She wore a long white robe-like dress and her eyes were the same colors I had always imagined them to be.

"Mommy," I cried and ran right into her. She let out a small "oof" before wrapping her arms and wings around me.

"I know, baby. I'm here," she said resting her right hand on the top of my head. I pulled away after a while and opened my mouth to ask all my questions before she shushed me.

"I know you must have a million questions, but you need to tell me what I need to do to help you. Show me what happened and I will make it better."

The images came easily this time, detailing the day starting from when I went wandering into her old room to when I walked to the window.

"Of course he did this." she almost growled under her breath. "Baby, I need you to wake up now, okay?"

"No!" I cried, fear coursing through my veins. "You'll leave then I'll never see you again!"

Her laugh rang out in my head before she spoke. "You can see me anytime you want, baby. You did it this time, anytime you want to see me," she started and walked over to me and bent down to meet my gaze. "Just ask for me into your head. I'll always hear you and I will always come to you. Okay?"

"Okay!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Rose~~

I jolted awake after that and marched myself into the council chambers I had left not too long before.

"Archangel Rosalina," Gabriel greeted, turning towards me. His face was red as if he'd been doing a lot of yelling or arguing.

"Who gave the order?" I asked the rest of the council. They all averted my gaze as I scanned their faces. The powers Michael gave me couldn't force their loyalty, but it could force something else in them all.

Submission.

The only person who I did not force into submission for me was Gabriel. I had his loyalty, and he was slowly becoming my right-hand. He was one of the only ones against this new war that the others had spun.

"Did you not hear me?" I asked, stepping behind Razael, putting more authority and force behind my words. "Who gave the order!" I almost screamed at them.

"Raphael did, Archangel Rosalina," Razael finally spoke up. I released my submission on him.

"Did the rest of you endorse it?" I asked, anger lacing my every word.

"Yes, Archangel Rosalina."

I slammed my fist on the table in front of the new voice. It split the table clean in half.

"Raphael." I commanded. He immediately stood up and faced me. His face lacked the one thing the others all had.

It lacked fear.

"Call back the troops." I commanded and prepared to turn out of the room.

"No."

I paused and slowly turned to him. "No?" I asked.

I blinked out and reappeared right in front of him. I let my demon magic start slipping through the surface. Shadows surrounded me as their master, all pointing right at him.

The fear finally hit him.

"I'm sorry, Raphael, I don't think I heard you correctly. Want to try again?"

He gulped and looked towards the others for help. They all turned their gazes away from him and slightly bowed their heads at the display of how much more power I had than them. To them, it proved how easily I could break each and every one in half if I wished.

"Archangel Rosalina, you should c-control yourself," he tried, but nothing could hide the stutter to his words. It made the demon just at my surface hungrier.

The shadows edged a bit closer until they were pressing into his skin.

"One more chance, Raphael."

He seemed to be trying to escape my submission control. He knew I could just make him do it, or I could do it myself, but I needed to make an example here of what would happen if they defied me again.

"Razael, call back the army."

With his words, I dropped the shadows and felt Lilith slip back into tranquility with Evangeline.

I turned to the door and was about to step into the hall when Raphael called after me.

"You damn demon lover."

A shot of hurt and pain hit me, breaking my mask. For a moment, I let myself wonder if this is what my father felt and faced after ending the war with Hell. I wonder how many people called him a demon lover, how many people tried to turn against him just like they were doing for me.

But it was only for a moment before I let my mask slip back into place and let the cold words out.

"At least I can love something."