Darker Angels

Tazzy: Feel free to save it if you like. I’m very flattered that you’re enjoying it so much. BTW, Red Shaman takes place around a thousand years or so before this. It’s complete and I’m just trying to add a chapter a day to it otherwise I’ll get confused about what I’ve got where.

Miss Murder: Honestly, do you think I’d kill off Abel? Torture him, yes, deep six him, no. Hurray, your muse lives! Very happy about that.

DarkCrusnikMagician: Thanks for the review. I do love keeping an audience in suspense.

To everyone still reading and reviewing, thank you and I hope you enjoy.



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Hugue turned his head slightly, listening. He could have sworn he had heard someone speaking in French but it wasn’t quite the French he was used to. It seemed to be a much older and somewhat odd dialect though it seemed he had heard it once before yet couldn’t place where.



It sounded like Star on both the question and answer side of the conversation. He wondered if she had been talking to herself like that for long. He stuck his head out the door, intending to inform her that talking to one’s self was usually the first sign of insanity. He froze with his mouth hanging partially open.



Star *was* talking to herself after a fashion. The woman with her seemed to be identical down to the last eyelash. But where Star’s demeanor was light and full of fun the other woman’s bearing was serene and almost regal. He stared for another moment before closing the door and leaving them to their conversation.



“What was that about?” Skye asked, looking at the door Hughe had just closed.



“It’s Hugue, there’s no telling,” Star said. “I don’t think any of them have seen twins before because that was the general reaction to the boys.”



“Don’t we know him from somewhere?”



“Don’t we know *everyone* from somewhere.”



“As you say. Getting back to the task at hand. I wonder if we can convince the Methuselah negotiating party to detour here for a night or so.”



“I don’t know. Why?”



“Seth is with them and she loves her brother dearly so that would help tremendously. And as I understand it, the Viscountess of Odessa considers him her tovarish. You know emotional connections are the beginning of strong magick.”



“True,” Star said thoughtfully. “I think we’d have an easier time convincing them to participate than the members of AX.”



“Mmmhmm. It’s sad really, how everything changes and yet nothing does.”



“No kidding. Who’s Abel sitting right now?”



“Gun is with him. He seems to be less in pain and calmer when someone is with him.”



“Plus Gun is just silly over him,” Star said with a grin.



“I would never have imagined, considering he was hovering the entire time I was examining Abel.”



“Could always be worse. He could have a thing for the hot bot.”



“Do I *want* to know?”



“Probably not. Will Abel be okay after all of this?”



“I don’t know. None of his internal organs seem to be terribly damaged. Thank the Divine. But he’s exhausted and extremely weak just now. With the machines shut down he’s basically trying to heal a vast amount of damage as a human being. One of my main concerns is that after it’s done he could be thrown into full Crusnik for a while.”



“Sis, we have two archangels, a demi goddess and various shinigami. I don’t think we’ll have a problem with him.”



“That isn’t my point. Crusnik is only supposed to be a temporary form. If he holds it for too long it could do more harm than good.”



“Well, we’ll just have to take all the precautions we can.”



“Chance does favor the prepared mind.”





Gun sat on the bed next to Abel with his back against the headboard. He watched the other man toss and whimper in his sleep. Every once in awhile he caught oddly disconnected scenes of carnage that could only be Abel’s dreams. He had to wonder at the level of violence going on in the other man’s mind. He had known that Abel’s life before the Vatican and AX had been a bloody one but he hadn’t really considered the devastation Abel was capable of in Crusnik form.



At the moment, there was nothing to mark Abel as anything other than a man in great pain. He looked thoughtfully at the beautiful face and had to wonder about his life. He had been caught off guard by the wave of self loathing that came from him.



“No one should hate themselves that much,” Gun murmured. “Certainly not for so long.”



Gun sat for a moment reflecting on his own life. Like Abel he had not been born in any conventional sense and again like him, he had a support system in his siblings and Takara who had been created in similar situations. The people who’s combined genetics he had been created from had not initially known he existed and he was certain that Abel had never been aware of who’s DNA he possessed. But that was where the similarities ended between them. He had been fortunate in the fact that as soon as his parents knew he and his brother existed they had immediately taken them into the family along with their half brother and sister. There had been a vast support system for them in the Red Shaman group and the knowledge which existed in that collection of people spanned millennia. As a result, their abilities had been explained and encouraged to the fullest extent. Whereas Abel and his siblings had been left to their own devices with no encouragement or explanation as to why they had come to be. That ultimately had to take its toll on even the strongest of minds.



His attention was drawn back to Abel as he frowned and whimpered. His eyes flew open abruptly and went wide at the sight of Gun leaning over him.



“What is it?”



“Hurts,” Abel said weakly.



Gun stroked his hair gently. “I know it does. We’ll do everything we can to help you.”



Abel smiled tiredly and closed his eyes again. “My angel,” he said with a sigh.