The Fallen

Frank:

Maybe it was all a dream, some sick, twisted nightmare that had burned holes through my heart, some dream I could wake up from. Maybe I'd wake and everything would be okay, he and Mikey and I would all be together again, Mikey would be normal and alive. He wouldn't be... he wouldn't be... dead...

I blinked open my eyes. Everything, down to the backs of my eyelids, was washed in blood. It hadn't been a dream. I was curled in the same position, half-against Mikey, who was reclining against a broken tree. On the ground a foot away from me was Gerard. Dead. The Archangel who had killed him only meters away from him. I blinked back the tears that were forcing their way forward.

Something came to me. I remembered the voice, that smooth, soft, comforting voice coming to me and telling me that Gerard could come back. He could be brought back... The voice had told me they would offer their decision to me when I woke. I was awake now. Awake and waiting, my heart racing like never before.

"H-Hello...?" I called softly, hoping I'd get a non-hostile response.

Hello, small one. I'm sure you'd like the status of your mate?

My breath caught in my throat, I turned to look around, but saw nothing. I nodded quickly, saying, "I j-just want you to... want you to know if... if you decide to take him, please tell him I love him. Please tell him he is my world, and living without him isn't living at all. I just want to s-say goodbye, I guess."

This is not necessary, my child. If we planned to take him, you'd have your chance to bid him farewell. We assure you this.

"I-If...?"

Yes. 'If'. We do not plan to take your love from you, child. He will be returned to Earth in a matter of hours, once his body has been restored to a state of health. It is clear to us you two need each other, and your love is pure and true. It has been a long time since we have encountered two souls so bound as yours. Your futures align so perfectly, it seems a power even greater than ours has pushed you together.

I felt the most amazing sensation in the world coarse through me, heated happiness and a glow of something... something breathtaking, something incredible, "Thank you so much, Fates. You don't even know how much it means to me that you're letting him come back to me. But... may I ask what you meant by 'a power greater than yours'? I thought you were the highest power? After all, you can restore life to those who have died..."

True, we can, but by no means are we the greatest power. There is a being, one who has come into contact with Gerard once before. She is nameless, but she spoke to your lover when he was rescuing you from the Demon Prison. She aided him in his escape and in finding you. She approves of love as deep as yours, she approves of Gerard's blind faith to you, his utter devotion. She thinks more creatures should be like that, there would be less anger and hate and more happiness and love. That is one of the reasons, we believe, she chose to present herself to Gerard when she hasn't done so to any living being in many millennia.

"Oh..." I whispered, pondering what the Fates had just told me, " I see. Thank you, Fates, and thank you to the other being, the one who's helped us, who brought us together."

The message will be passed along. In the mean time, it's very important that you bring his body somewhere safe so we can heal it and return his wandering soul to it's rightful place.

"Thank you. Thank you so much..."

I woke Mikey, relaying the message to him. His eyes lit up when he heard it, a wide smile crossing his face. Mikey and I set about bringing Gerard's body as far away from the battlefield as we could, searching for a good place to rest.

After walking for ten or so minutes, his body cradled between us, before we found a small cave in the side of a rocky slope, thick pine trees surrounding us on all sides. We lay Gerard on the ground before Mikey flitted out to find firewood, telling me he'd find me something to eat and it could warm me up.

As soon as he was gone, I started to stroke Gerard's arm lightly. Curiously, I kept my eyes on him, pulling my tattered shirt from my body and laying it across his chest. I wondered how the Fates would heal him, they had told me to give his body a few hours to mend, so I would wait patiently, but I wondered if I'd be able to watch him being reconstructed.

I found out an hour or so later. Mikey had returned with armfuls of dried wood, putting it down and setting it aflame, and we struck up some quiet conversation. He knew the quiet unsettled me, especially in the presence of Gerard's dead body. Mikey, who had been asking me how I was feeling at this point, broke off mid-sentence and stared off to my left.

I turned to look at whatever it was he was fixated with, my jaw dropping when I realized what he'd seen. The wound in Gerard's neck was slowly piecing together, little webs of flesh reattaching the detached muscle like little spiders making webs. Mikey and I watched as the whole of his neck was slowly repaired, and then the smaller wounds on the rest of his body, until he was completely fine apart from the dried blood and dirt on his skin.

There was a snap as his shattered wing was mended, an another crack as some miscellaneous bone in his left leg was repaired. I closed my mouth slowly, but it opened once more in surprise as strange light began to eminant from his pale skin, illuminating the small cave. I crawled hesitantly towards him, stretching out an arm and laying my hand against his skin. I quickly withdrew it; his skin was burning.

Dead silence surrounded us, Mikey and I waited on edge for him to give us some sign that he was back and alive. His chest began to rise and fall. I couldn't say if he had a pulse or not, I wasn't close enough to tell, and I didn't want to get burned again. More silence. And his eyes opened slowly.

It took everything I had not to attack him right there. Gerard sat up slowly, making a quiet whining sound before mumbling, "Shit, you forget how achy you get in reality when you're off-"

I cut him off, launching myself at him and kissing him abruptly. He didn't object, immediately bringing his arms up to encircle me. He pulled away after a moment, letting his head rest in the crook of my neck,

"You have no idea how badly I missed you," he whispered.

I smiled, "And I, you."

Mikey awkwardly said hello to his brother, quickly muttering something about going to get food, before evacuating the cave. Sighing, I curled up against Gerard, holding on to him tightly. I was so happy to have him back, there weren't even words to describe it. It was bliss, only sharper, more real, because my mind was still all-too-aware of the ever present danger we were in when we stayed here.

"Gee? I don't know how strong you are, but I think we should leave as soon as we can. There's no way in hell I'm going to last much longer here, and you... you already got killed once..." I said timidly.

"Oh yeah," Gerard responded, as if he'd only just remembered we were in the angel's realm, "speaking of my being killed, where's the Archangel? Stupid bitch got me before I could get her..."

I shuddered lightly, "I... sort of killed her."

"You did!?" He exclaimed excitedly, "Frankie, baby, that's fucking awesome! I'm so proud of you! I didn't think you could get any more appealing to me, but... maybe I should stop freaking out. You okay, love?"

I nodded, pulling away from him before snuggling into his bare chest, "Now, I think I am. The initial shock of killing her and of you... dying... was a little... bad. But they brought you back to me, and that's all that matters."

"I love you, Frankie."

"I love you too, Gee."

~

After another hour or so of building Gerard's strength up, (I certainly didn't want him to be too weak to fly himself, let alone the both of us, back home) we were all ready to depart, anxious to get our asses back home where we belonged. I clung to Gerard like some kind of lost puppy, but I don't think he minded. Not one bit.

He had taken to his beast form, out of preference and because he wanted to be able to carry me as well, as we were trekking along the outskirts of the village, the bodies of angels and demons littering the ground. When we passed the small patch of grass where the broken body of the Archangel lay, Gerard was very tempted to snap her head off, claiming, "Brain juice gives me ener-gies!" but Mikey and I convinced him to stay on track.

Even the massive front gates were abandoned. When we reached them, Gerard knelt down so I could climb up onto his back, positioning my feet in the crook of his wings and holding onto his great black horns. He and Mikey shook out their wings, his massive in size, a mottle of deep grays and midnight blacks, Mikeys, soft, snowy white, with tawny tips. Mikey started first, crouching low and leaping powerfully into the air, casting his wings down forcefully, gaining several meters of altitude with each downward thrust.

Gerard followed, the hard muscles of his demon form rippling beneath layers of scale as he leaped. His leap carried him much farther, his wings thrusting downward once and sending him soaring. I tightened my grip on him as our altitude climbed and we fell away from the place where I had very nearly lost my lover.

Mikey. Frank and I have all of our things in a hotel. We left... we left Donna a note telling her we were leaving, and that's what we did.

Gerard supplied Mikey with the coordination to the hotel we'd stayed at, and Gerard made a snap decision to duck back in to collect clothing for himself and shower, then take me to dinner. I rolled my eyes. Only Gerard would participate in launching a war between the angels and demons, be killed, restored to life, and then think about taking me to dinner.

It was so incredibly sweet.

When we reached out hotel room, Mikey and I ran in, gathering clothes for Gee and quickly brought them back to him. He proceeded to change in a bush and drag me back inside the hotel again, telling Mikey to go entertain himself the rest of the night.

"Entertain myself?" Mikey asked, confused, "Why?"

"Because! You won't want to be in the hotel while we're doing what we're going to be doing!" Gerard called slyly, making me flush strongly and Mikey shiver, mumbling about being scarred for life.

When we reached the hotel room a second time, just Gerard and I this time, he quickly engaged me in deep kissing, pushing me back lightly onto the bed and straddling me. I certainly didn't object, winding a hand in his hair and the other entwining out fingers. For a while, that was all we did, snuggle and kiss like the teenage romance we were. But Gerard told me I had to shower so we could actually go to dinner, like he'd wanted, so he waited out on the bed for me to finish, and when I had (after the exchange of several more kisses) he did, too.

I could see the pain in his eyes when he looked at me. I had forgotten about the jagged cuts covering my body, for a while, at least, but the sorrow in his eyes was like receiving them all over again. It hurt me to see him hurt. Maybe I shouldn't take my shirt off around him, even though both of us knew he enjoyed my body.

I pushed the thought away. After all, I was going on my first real date with Gerard.