14: to bear.

~~Mauraline~~

"Focus, baby. You need to be able to control this," Mom's voice rang in my head. Her words always reminded me when I couldn't block them back anymore.

It was happening again, but this time was stronger than any other.

Dad was screaming at Auntie Liz for what she told me. His anger and fury were suffocating and drowning.

"What I did was wrong, Xaphan. You know that, but Mauraline deserves to know about her mother!"

"So she can what? Go running off in her search to prove that Rose forgives you? Tire herself to the brink of her own pain realizing Rose isn't coming home?"

Auntie Liz went silent and I heard Dad panting hard. Did he truly believe that Mom wasn't coming home?

"Week-"

"No, Elizabeth. Get it through your head, Rose is never coming back! Don't you get it?" Dad's voice was shaky, and his anger slowly fading into despair.

"Week," she called, walking over to her brother and hugging him. I stood up, tears brimming in my own eyes. "She's going to come back, I know her. You do too. She's probably wherever she is trying to fight her way back to us all."

This was the first time my dad ever let his emotions drown him in front of me. He sobbed into Auntie as she held him.

"Come here, dearest," Auntie called, waving me over, "Come love on your dad and make him feel better."

Auntie Liz pulled away from my dad and I leapt into his arms, my own tears mirroring his own.

"My girl," he said, pulling back from me to stare at me. I wiped my tears before wiping away his. He chuckled at me and one last tear slipped down his cheek.

I kissed his forehead and there was a flash of light before my world dissolved into something new.

The room was like a huge concert hall. People were crowded inside the space, making it feel even smaller.

"It's time for what you all came here for!" A female voice called through the speakers as the lights dimmed down.

"Are you sure they're ready for us?" A male voice called. The voices seemed so familiar to me, but I couldn't tell why.

"It's hard to tell, are you all ready?" Another female yelled, their question gaining cheers and applause.

My eyes traveled to the stage where five figures stood, them all walking towards the edge.

"I can't hear you!" Another male yelled, they stopped in a spotlight along with three of the others, and I instantly recognized him. It was Uncle Kai.

Auntie Angel was on his left while to his right was a space. On the other side of the space was Uncle Levi with Auntie Liz right next to him.

"Let's go!" the final voice yelled and out walked a younger version of my mom.

The song blared through the speakers and many people were singing along with my family on stage. I felt my body start to grove along with the song, yet I had no control over it.

As my mom sang the last chord, she met my eyes, her searing silver met mine and one thought popped into my head.

'Rosie girl?'

This wasn't just some fever dream, this was a memory. My dad's memory of my mom.

Other memories went past my eyes from him taking her from her home, to returning her, to seeing her die, to finding her alive, to taking her away from there, to finding out about my birth father, to her giving me to him.

"Are you sure you can't come back, Rose?" I looked into a vision of a dream I get with my mom, but she was different here. She was without her wings.

"I don't know yet, but I can fix this mess, I just need time," she said back, holding her fists to her chest.

"Rosie girl-"

"I know, Week," she sighed. "Maura will be safe, she's with you. You can protect her from there and me from here."

"Rose, she needs you, Angel needs you," he paused and looked directly into her eyes, "I need you."

"Week, this is the only way I can make her future bright-"

"To give up yours?" he almost yelled at her.

"When the war is over, I'll come for you both. I promise," with that she kissed his forehead and I woke up sweating in my dad's arms.

"Maura, are you okay, baby?"

"Dad, how could you?"

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

~~Rose~~

Gabriel and Razael had both worked tirelessly to get me as much information about the Angel Dust ring as they could without eliciting suspicion.

Whoever was running it was good, and knew how to remain hidden.

What confused me is when I read about Angel Dust and its effects on people.

Normally a gold ring would go around the iris, yet I couldn't recall one on Zayn's eyes. It could have been that I never looked for it, yet I could remember it on my father's eyes.

Thinking back, it was also on Week's eyes when he first took me from my home.

So why couldn't I remember it on Zayn's?

"Archangel Rosalina," a voice interrupted my thoughts and I snapped back into reality.

I was in a meeting discussing the future of a war that shouldn't even exist.

"As I was saying," Raphael continued, standing up at the new table that had been replaced after my last explosion of anger. "This war is trying to decide how to deal with children like you."

"Like me?"

"Half-breeds who have no place in this world."

Anger settled in my gut.

"Archangel Raphael, if I may?" Razael stood, his gaze scanning over the other angels. "Archangel Rosalina, your permission?"

"As you were."

"These children have no control over whether or not they were born or to which world they were," his eyes met mine and held for a brief time before he continued. "All they can do is choose which world they wish to join once they reach maturity, our own Archangel Rosalina for an example."

The others turned to face me with disgust in their gazes.

"Did any of you know that she's the mother of my own granddaughter?" Razael spoke out, coming behind me and placing his hands on my shoulder as support.

"That is true." They all went from disgusted to awed. At this moment, they all knew that Zayn was dead and they had placed blame on the demons. They didn't suspect it could be one of us.

"My bloodline shall not end with my son, but his daughter is also our leader's," he emphasized the word, "daughter. She has carried on my bloodline. How it happened was. . .in a word despicable, and yet she chose the world of the very people who hurt her the worst. What does that go to show you of these children?"

Silence developed in the room as they all contemplated his words. He squeezed my shoulder before sitting.

"Preposterous!"

Raphael jumped up and slammed his hands on the table.

"These children are dangerous! We have each seen the extent of Rosalina's anger, what's to say these other kids don't have that same problem?"

Wait a second.

Raphael's eyes were ringed with gold. He was high, on phencyclidine. Angel dust.

As his argument continued, I checked the eyes of the other angels, and the only two who didn't have it were Razael and Gabriel.

It meant that the others were being controlled, just like father.

Meaning the culprit behind the drug ring is either Razael or Gabriel.