Chapter Four: The Angel

Emily was dragged through the jelly for a few more seconds – or what felt like minutes, her perception of time seemed off in the archway-jelly – but they eventually came out on the other side. Cancer, obviously, came to a graceful landing with nary a hair out of place. But Emily stumbled through, the sudden restraint on her moving gone, so her body lurched forward and it was only because Cancer still had hold of her hand that she was able to stop a full-on face plant into the ground.

“So….where are we?” Emily asked, smoothing her hair down and trying to regain as much dignity as possible.

“Court of the Celestial Council. The grand hub for all galactic justice. It is quite the awe-inspiring place really” Cancer explained, the reverence clear in her voice. So, Emily just had to turn around and observe it for herself.

The architecture was certainly grand. White marble pillars seemed to grow from the ground, till they reached hundreds of meters in the area, and supported the exquisitely decorated roof. It all put her in mind of the Pantheon. Through the spaces between the pillars Emily could see dozens of people milling around inside. And as she looked, she was noticed they were not all human. This revelation should have surprised her, but it didn’t, and she didn’t know why.

“Well, I’ll agree with you there. It’s certainly impressive” Emily commented, looking to the hand that still held hers, jealously. She didn’t say anything though, there was nothing to say. “And look, your friends are coming” she commented, gesturing to the men moving from the building onto the small plain outside of it. Cancer oddly said nothing, until they had arrived and surrounded them in a semi-circle. Maybe it was the ominous visors, of the rifles they had in their hands, or many the soft snarl that the guy at the head had chiselled onto his visage, but Emily got the feeling they weren’t exactly friends. A worry she decided to voice.

“Umm, Cancer? They don’t seem like friends.” She announced generally, Cancer didn’t seem like direct comments would get through right now.

“Identify yourself” The man at the front demanded, and then, finally, Cancer spoke.

“Well, I would, but this darling has kind of done that for me” Cancer commented capaciously. The head man didn't seem impressed, however.

“Identify yourself” he demanded again, in the exact same tone of voice as he had the first time.

“Are you deaf? I have a great little thing for deafness if you do. A lot of guys like you go deaf, guns and explosions are loud after all” Cancer replied, but the only change on the man’s face was a deepening of his snarl.

“Identify yourself” he once again demanded, to which Cancer let out a sigh.

“where are the regular guys?” She muttered under her breath, before smiling. “Fine, if it means so much to you. I am Cancer, first of the seat of Cancer. Celestial Construct, and creator of the dimension you are standing in currently” Cancer proclaimed in a grand and regal voice, much like when she had told Emily her name. The Head Man still did not seem at all impressed.

“Madam Cancer is currently in session with the rest of the Council. Identify yourself, truthfully” he ordered. Cancer, who was growing rather impatient now, rolled her eyes.

“Where did they find you? The second-hand shop for brainless henchmen?” Cancer asked, as if believing such a place existed. The comment, or how long it had taken Cancer to identify herself ‘properly’ seemed to irritate the head man, and at some subtle signal, the men surrounding them all pointed their rifles at Cancer and Emily. Emily had never really thought she’d be staring down the barrel of a gun, but here she was, staring down the barrel of a gun.

“Identify yourself, or be eliminated” the man told them, and he seemed to have a slight tone of mirth about him when he got to the eliminated part.

“Ohh, eliminated? You lot couldn’t eliminate a gnat with them pea-shooters” Cancer retorted. Then, before Emily knew what was happening, the air filled with the sharp, loud noise of automatic fire. That didn’t bother her either, even though she knew it should have. Bullets hurt, as Emily knew, and she had already been killed once before by them.

However, the bullets that flew from the visored men where deflected by some unseen force before they reached either Emily or Cancer, and by the time the clips had run dry, not a single round had gotten within a foot of either of them.

“Well now, that was just rude” Cancer commented, before then men surrounding them began to die. Gruesomely, but with unnerving efficiency, the assailants where sliced in half by their torso, or their heads where cleanly cut off, and a few had their hearts punched out of their chest. Emily didn’t see whatever was mowing the men down like grass, but it didn’t bother her. This, she thought absently, was something to be bothered about. But her brain couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to be bothered. The head man was shocked at the sudden, violent slaughter of his squad, but quickly drew the pistol by his side, only to have the drawing arm snapped at a terrible angle, and then ripped out of its socket and flung to the floor; none of the lethal grace that massacred the other men was present. This was brutal, almost primal. The man screamed in pain as the hole that used to be his arm bled profusely, but before he could get more than a few seconds of screaming out, his eyes were torn from their sockets and discarded near the arm.

“Really. Eliminate me. Well, maybe the rest won’t be so stupid” Cancer muttered hotly to herself, before smiling at Emily who spoke before she got a chance to.

“Why did you rip his eyes out?” Emily asked, with a soft frown.

“Well, if he was going to be blind to who was in front of him, I thought I’d give him an excuse” she said, before casually sashaying through the gore and blood to the huge building in front of her. As Emily looked back, she saw the mess had been cleared away, and there was not even a speck of blood.

“That your trick?” Emily asked Cancer, who nodded, knowing exactly what Emily was talking about.

“Cancer. Your first visit since you left and you carved through a squad of men. Seems about right really.” A woman commented, with a strange voice. It seemed to hum in the air, and had the same divine ring as Cancer’s had when she first spoke – it had since degraded into a casual, but still lovely tone – which brought Cancer’s head around.

“Illumia. Finally, someone with brains enough to not wave a gun around” Cancer exclaimed, with slight exasperation in her tone. Emily followed Cancer’s gaze and saw an Angel. Quite literally in fact. Pure white robes hung from her, covering everything from neck to toe, and having her shining white hair tucked into the back of it. Just behind her, a pair of wings lay closed, but ready to spring open at any moment and take flight. The only thing missing was a halo. Really, meeting an angel should have surprised her as well, but against all of Emily’s logic, it didn’t. Only muted acceptance came from her brain.

“Brains come from years, and these new people are young.” Illumia commented sagely.

“Well, care to tell me why they are here in the first place?” Cancer asked, her hand still clamped onto Emily’s, and Emily still unable to find anything to say about it. Possessive, maybe?

“They are phasing us out, and adding in their own men. It was Aries’ decision and he is in charge of the security so…we can do naught but watch” Illumia explained, but it did not make Cancer very happy.

“But the current set-up worked well enough, plus it was a clear example of the Council’s neutrality, as well as their authority. What are people going to think if ill-tempered children replace you?” Cancer asked, feeling almost insulted at the fact that the people she had just effortlessly eviscerated where going to guard some of the most important beings in the universe. But, before Cancer could speak, Emily joined the conversation.

“So, Illumia. Angel. Going to introduce me further, or should I just keep shipping you two and imagining angry, hot le…” Emily started before Cancer cut her off.

“No need to imagine us doing anything” Cancer stated hotly, her cheeks blushing softly. This really was the first time Emily had seen Cancer react to anything. A half-finished sentence made more of an impact than the murder of a dozen people. “Illumia is a Seraphim from Celestial, here with several of her brothers and sisters to represent the Realm Above.” She introduced, but Emily picked out the least impressive part.

“So, Celestials from Celestial guard the Celestial Constructs in the Celestial Council? Don’t you think your secret world has kinda overused the word ‘Celestial’?” Emily asked, with a cheeky grin.

“Hmm…Now that you mention it, and factoring in that beings from Celestial are called Angels and not Celestials – Celestials are non-worshipped gods – I guess the term is rather stretched” Cancer admitted.

“Gods?” Emily asked incredulously, it was one thing to meet an Angel, but a different thing entirely to be told there was more than one living god out there.

“Ohh yes. Aside from the worshipped gods of the universe, there are hundreds of new gods trying to find a foothold, gather a following. Used to be millions of new gods out there, but that was before even my time. There are three classified types of ‘God’ but that is a complicated subject, so just forget about it for now” Cancer told Emily, who promptly did as she was told.

“So, you take this one so he can’t have her, hmm?” Illumia teased, with a cheeky grin. It was clear that Illumia and Cancer had known each other for a very long time.

“No. I am just trying to help her” Cancer replied in a snappish tone, which made Illumia’s face soften. She looked to Emily with sudden silver eyes, and her mouth opened in restrained surprise. The pupils then clearly changed from silver to white, and she looked back at Cancer.

“It hurt you didn’t it?” Illumia asked, in a softer, sadder tone, as if the silver eyes had told her something. It was heart-wrenching to hear such a beautiful voice turn sad. Like watching Mufasa die.

“Yes. More than he knew he would, more than he knows he did” Cancer replied, in the same sombre tone. But, much like Jane, she didn’t linger there for more than a few seconds. “Can you go tell them we have arrived? We might actually get in this side of the Millennium if you do” she joked, which brought back the divine, fittingly angelic voice to Illumia.

“I shall be right back” She said in reply, before gliding off, weaving through the crowd with practiced grace, her robe trailing softly behind her as she moved.

“Wish I could move like that” Emily commented.

“Stick with me, and you just might” Cancer replied with a wide grin