Enid walked up the temple steps and looked back at the massive meteor that was literally kilometers across and pondered why she’d been ordered to stop it. What purpose this temple’s existence served. She sighed and continued inside the temple. It was crowded today, with both Sauroids and humans. Some were dressed in the habit of the Church of the Dark Mother; Others were just in their normal clothes. Some looked like obvious tourists in the neon clothes of 29th century Earth culture. The art was different the stones were older, but it reminded her of the Vatican, with less security.

She looked to the newly erected statue of her human form which stood in the shadow of her angelic form. She shook her head and walked down the side passage that would lead to the staff room. This room was deserted save for the old mystic who’d removed her own eyes so that she may see. Enid still didn’t comprehend that but maybe that was why there was part of her she still couldn’t see? The old Sauroid’s tail started to twitch then motioned her hand.

“Come Seraph, this is your temple after all.”

“Sorry to bother you. Guess I’m a needy angel.”

“You accept the truth.”

“I am who you said I was. I was… shown the truth. I need guidance.”

“I will do what I can, but I sense you need someone else. Somewhere else.”

“There is a piece of me I know is there, that I feel is preventing me from completing my task.”

“You know where you need to go. Why do you linger here? Perhaps the same reason you resist the truth still?”

Enid frowned.

“I have no idea how to get there.”

“How do you get anywhere?”

Enid sighed and let her hands fall to her side. The old woman as always hit the core of Enid’s problems. Which once she accepted certain truths told her exactly what she needed to know, and they always involved her looking within herself for an actual answer.

“I know why you annoy me.”

“Why is that Seraph?”

“Because you make me think about who I am.”

“I only tell you that you have the answers you seek you just need to open your eyes so to speak.”

Enid sighed and let her form expand into that of Seraph. The old sauroid mystic kneeled.

“Thank you, Seraph.”

“I don’t know what I did.”

“Your true form brings peace to all those around you. I feel in my heart finally. The peace that we guardians have longed for since you first saved our world.”

Enid reached out her hand.

“I can restore your eyes. I don’t think the temple needs a guardian any longer.”

The old mystic bowed her head. Enid touched her forehead with her palm and the stitching feel out and the old woman’s eyes were restored. She looked up at Enid. Enid smiled.

“Where do you want to go?”

“Home.”

Enid nodded and she slid her hand along the woman’s shoulder, and she vanished. Enid looked to the wall paintings. The last one showed the guardian’s eyes being restored by her Seraph form then a rising sun. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she was standing in a restaurant she knew well from the early eighties. It was Allegro’s. It was Italian of course. She was in her human shape and dressed in street clothes of the decade, her pack was still over her shoulders. Things looked different. The sun was shining, it was never shining when she’d been here. It also seemed crisper and brighter than it should have been. The colors were far more vivid. She shook her head; This was most definitely not where she wanted to be. New York City. The restaurant was crowded. She rolled her eyes when she saw the man at the back, slicked back black hair, tailored suit. He noticed her and waved her forward. He called out with his Brooklyn accent.

“Red, join me.”

He motioned to a waitress.

“Hey Mona, get Red here some lasagna. Bottle of wine too.”

He put his cigar down in an ashtray.

“How’d you get in here Red? The kind of work you do…I assumed you were going to the other place.”

“How the fuck did you get here? You’re the one who paid me.”

“Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“My mother tried to drown me when I was born. So, no. No, I don’t.”

“I’m not sure the big guy appreciates that kind of language.”

“My father accepts people for who they are, which is why I assume you’re here. You got a lot of red in your ledger.”

He shrugged.

“I turned my life around after those days. And hey, never kids, never the ladies, and never drugs.”

“Which is the only reason I did any work for you at all. I’m just not sure why I’m here of all places. Of all the people I could find here, why it sent me here.”

He shrugged.

“How should I know? I’m just a mook here.”

The waitress appeared with a plate of lasagna and poured a glass of red wine. Enid raised an eyebrow at her dining partner.

“When’s the last time you saw me eat food?”

“Well, you’re here, aren’t yea? Swear to the big guy, best lasagna in existence. Grandmother makes it, she’s in the back if you want to meet her.”

“You make her cook? In Heaven?”

He waved his hand dismissively after taking another drag from his cigar.

“Nah, she likes to cook. I don’t make anyone do anything these days.”

Enid took a bite, and it was the best lasagna she’d ever tasted she almost melted.

“This is amazing.”

“I told you.”

Enid didn’t say anything as she quickly finished the lasagna. Her companion let her finish.

“So Red, why are you here?”

“I’m here for answers but you’re a mafia who I killed people for, of all the people I was expecting to meet you are the last I would have guessed.”

“Well, I always kind of thought of you as a kid. I mean, when we met you looked younger than my daughter.”

“Fun fact, when we met, I was almost two thousand years old.”

“I can see that. You did good work. Sorry about that.”

“Knowing that is how I made my living and seeing as I was almost two thousand years old, what I did for you was barely a blip.”

His lips formed an o and he took a long drag of his cigar.

“So, you found religion and suddenly poof you’re in heaven?”

“I helped kids get out of the life. Like I should have helped you.”

“Tony, I was born in a time where killing someone was just a way of life.”

“Well, I’d say I helped several thousand kids out of the life, maybe I learned something. You want some more lasagna.”

“No, no, I shouldn’t.”

“Okay, lets go with the truth, yes?”

“Shoot. But not literally. But swords were more your thing, right?”

“Not so much now. I like guns fine. Military service changed that.”

“Oh, you served, huh? I thought you were allergic to the sun.”

“Got better, was a Navy pilot. Got a medal of honor.”

He snapped his fingers a few times.

“You’re that pilot that one a medal of honor for Korea!”

“Yes.”

“Alright, alright, now, why are you here?”

“I’ve been killing demons who have escaped Hell. They aren’t stopping and I’m missing something I can feel it. Like some solution that is at the edge of my perception.”

“I see, I see.”

“That’s it? No words of wisdom?”

“I’m thinking here. Its not like there’s a rush. Demons are getting here?”

“No. In the living world.”

“Shit, you can go back?”

“I created Heaven, Hell and the universe I can go anywhere I damn well please.”

“Thought that was the big guy.”

“No, he created me I built the foundation and the framework of creation.”

“So, you can get back to Earth then… any time, any place?”

Enid sighed.

“Yes. What do you want?”

“Well see, my youngest. He was in the service too. He died. You could save him.”

Enid facepalmed.

“I’m trying to save the timeline and creation, not break it more.”

“No, no, wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Or so the big guy told me.”

“Demon?”

“I don’t know, big guy just apologized said it wasn’t in the plan.”

Enid pointed a pale finger at Tony and frowned.

“You better have an answer when I get back. What am I walking into?”

“Don’t know the details.”

“Going in blind. It was military action though?”

Tony shrugged.

“You probably don’t even have an answer this is just his way of showing me the cost of inaction again. Asshole.”

“Red, have some respect for the big guy, if not for him, for me, my roof, hmm?”

He pointed his cigar butt at her.

“What you never spoke ill of your father?”

Tony crossed himself then kissed his crucifix.

“God’s honest truth, I never spoke out of turn about my father.”

“You’re a perfect Saint Tony.”

“If only.”

Enid stood up.

“Thank your grandmother for the lasagna. I’ll go see about your son.”

Enid turned and walked to the door. She fell face first into knee deep sea water. She could hear gunfire in the distance. She noticed several things quickly. The first being she was mortal because when she was under water, she realized she couldn’t breathe. The second was she was in her Atlantean armor. The third was she was in her Sarah shape. She pushed her soaking wet mass of blonde hair out of her face. And saw a pair of flashlights coming towards her in the darkness. She formed her wrist plates into punching blades and sunk back into the water when she felt the disturbance of the flashlight owners passing, she popped up. They were shocked and started yelling her in Arabic. They didn’t get a chance to shoot her as they both ended up with the Atlantean steel in their throats. She grabbed a knife and an AK-47 from one of them and gathered up all their extra clips. Each had a pistol, she grabbed both of those.

She started to creep through the cave. She walked towards the gunfire. The men she saw leaning around the edges of a natural passageway were not in professional soldier kit. The fact they were speaking Arabic to each other also was a good clue these were not the ones she was trying to save. She crept up behind their ammo man. He wasn’t firing but was passing clips forward. She stopped behind him and wrapped her hand around his mouth. Two quick back hand thrusts with the knife and he was no longer among the living. She pulled him back into the water. The next she grabbed from behind and pulled out the pistol and fired off three rounds before his fellows could react. Two fell the other shot him with their assault rifle. The bullets passed through him and impacted her Atlantean armor. She barely felt them they had lost much of their stopping power. Her next shot hit him in the head. She bent her fingers and brutally ripped out the throat of the one she was holding. He had still been struggling even with the through and throughs. She heard further gunfire. Apparently, this side had tried to flank their targets. She pressed herself against a wall as she heard water sloshing. Whoever it was knelt by the last one she killed. He spoke.

“Hostiles are down. Zia, Zia can you hear me.”

Enid grabbed the man and pinned him against the wall using the Atlantean armor’s strength to press his arms up against his assault rifle.

“Engaged, engaged!”

Enid spoke quietly using her North American English accent

“Shh. I’m American, I’m your back up.”

She released him and pointed back in the direction she’d come from.

“That way is clear. The Op has gone sideways, we should evac.”

“We have a friendly. She cleared a path.”

She saw six men carrying five more. The one she had tussled with grabbed her arm.

“Did you see our other man?”

Enid shook her head. One of the men shook his head.

“We aren’t leaving without Zia.”

“You’re at half strength and you’re outgunned and outmanned, you’re going to be lucky to get out of here alive, let alone track down your missing man. Get the fuck out while you can.”

“Ma’am, who are you?”

“I’m Navy. Go. I’ll look for your man and distract their other squad.”

Enid switched clips in the pistol tossing the old one aside. It still had rounds but she wasn’t about to mess around. She sighed and started slipping around the wall. The other squad had realized their targets had evacuated the room by the time she reached them. She put the pistol into the holster her armor formed for her. She tapped her wrist and hit the night vision on her HUD. The contacts switched to low light enhanced mode. The squad was preparing to enter the room. She didn’t give them a chance. She slammed one of their heads into the natural rock of the cave hard enough his skull cracked open. She was able to kill another with a stab through the back under his arm pit and into his heart. The last four opened fire but it was too late. She was inside the group and their panicked shots took out one of their own. She pulled the gun out and shot one. Spun around avoiding a full burst from one of their AK’s and shot another. She threw the knife and hit one in the forehead. The enhanced strength of the armor providing more then enough energy to pierce his skull. That left one remaining one. She took a full burst from the AK in the chest, but he took three rounds to his heart. She groaned. The armor was good but not perfect. She would be bruised at best.

She tapped her wrist and switched on her life signs detection. She was easily able to pick out the missing man. He was still alive but unconscious. She ran towards him. While he was her current main concern, she also noticed that there was a large group of humans at the cave entrance. She threw him over her shoulders in a fireman’s carry and rushed towards the smaller group of life signs. She put him down once she reached the platoon. The one who had demanded she find Zia grabbed her arm and gave her a thumbs up. Their squad corpsman was checking Zia over. She motioned at head of them and made the sign for targets then did a thirty count. He motioned to her his ear and gave her a channel via sign language. She tapped her wrist and tuned into the channel. Her holo-phone’s quantum processor her had no trouble blowing through the encryption.

She motioned to Zia’s assault rifle. One of the men handed it to her along with several clips which she slipped into newly formed pockets on her armor. She motioned to herself and did circular motion with her hand and pointed to a flank. She tugged a couple of flashbangs out of Zia’s pouches and two frags. She motioned to the platoon leader and pointed forward. He shook his head. She shook her head. Touched her ear and moved around the tunnel to another side passage her automapping software had detected. She moved around it and opened up on the group of men gathered near the entrance with both assault rifles. She wasn’t really planning on hitting anything. She’d already revealed her position so she spoke into comms.

“Go! Go! Go!”

She dropped a frag grenade as she ran away. The group of hostiles left a squad at the entrance. The rest started chasing her. They were shooting wild as she ran. Several went down when the frag she’d dropped went off. She wasn’t sure how well it would go fighting twenty plus people at once without any powers whatsoever but at least she’d bought whomever she was here to save time to escape. She fired around the corner of a bend in the cave trying to keep her fish on the hook. She threw a flashbang. She turned away and slipped into a natural nook in the cave. It stunned several of her pursuers she opened up on full auto, several went down. She started to run again, dropping her magazine and replacing it with a fresh one. She steadily looped around to the exit firing every so often. The men she was here to save were already outside the cave and had taken up positions. She spoke through comms.

“Coming in hot.”

When she arrived at the cave entrance she dove into the sand and stone. The remaining members of the platoon ambushed the men chasing her. She crawled slowly behind the rocks that they were using for cover. The moon was full and was casting a white glow over the beach. She set up with her borrowed assault rifle. Between them they took out most of their attackers. One came out hands up. She didn’t give him a chance to say anything she put a bullet in his head. He exploded shortly afterwards. Her contacts had shown her an armed grenade. She heard a helicopter in the distance. The platoon leader looked at her.

“Ma’am, I wasn’t aware of any women in the teams.”

Enid shook her head.

“Not the teams, Naval Intelligence.”

One of the SEALS elbowed his superior officer.

“That’s Commander Sarah O’Connor, North Korea?”

“Sorry ma’am did not recognize you.”

The stealth Blackhawk landed on the beach behind them, and Rangers started rushing towards them. The injured were pulled on board first. Enid climbed on last. She was going to need some US military intelligence to find out who had pulled the SEALS into this so she could start to hunt the demon. She couldn’t just leave it here and she knew one was here. How she was going to deal with two of her being in this time she was not sure. Commander, it meant it was at least a year after North Korea. She looked to around her HUD and focused on the satellite uplink option. Her holo-phone found the Starlink Network. Local time and date were updated instantly afterwards. She sighed with relief. She was currently off the grid in the middle east working on an asset. Her showing up randomly and saving the SEALS wouldn’t be out of turn based on her current assignment.

By the time they landed the sun was rising they were all rushed to medical for a checkup. She peeled her armor’s top off and the doctor checked her bruises. They would heal in a couple hours even as a mortal the pain was already mostly gone until her doctor poked them.

“Is this tender?”

Enid tried her best to not swear at the doctor.

“Yes, it is.”

“We should get some x-rays, make sure your ribs aren’t fractured.”

“I’m fine. I’m having no trouble breathing it is just sore.”

Enid slipped her arms back into her sleeves. She was thankful she had some of her old uniforms in her pack. She jumped off the bed. The doctor frowned.

“You’re as bad as the SEALS.”

“I’m probably worse. Thanks doc.”

“You’re welcome, ma’am.”

Enid made her way to the ops tent. She needed to find out why the SEALs were in that cave. It was fitting the usual demon MO, someone somewhere attached to this was supposed to do something huge and it would have changed the future. It couldn’t be a fallen angel; It didn’t feel that bad. Of course, Port Royal hadn’t felt bad either. She ran her hand through her hair. She realized it was crusty from salt water and sighed. No time to worry about it now. She had no trouble getting to a secure terminal. She entered her username and password. She heard bootsteps and her eyes met a duplicate of Tony’s. She hadn’t noticed before but the Lieutenant Commander who was CO of the platoon she’d just rescued was apparently Tony’s son.

“Commander, I just wanted to say thank you again. We thought help was at least an hour away. I assume you had to interrupt your own mission. I’m sorry.”

“If you want to make it up to me, tell me what your op was and what it was supposed to accomplish. It may be linked to my current mission.”

“Do you have clearance?”

“You don’t have to tell me anything beyond the op name.”

“Lance-Alpha.”

Enid typed the name into the search and pulled up the record.

“I do. Pretty standard if I’m operating in the same theater. Why were you there?”

He pulled up a chair and sat down. He rubbed his face.

“We had intel come in. Target of opportunity. We had to plan and go, six hours.”

“The intel was obviously bad, where did it come from?”

“Don’t know. Came down the chain. Intel good. You’re a go.”

Enid frowned.

“Someone set up a trap for you. That someone is my target.”

“Do you have a name? A description?”

“No, just hints of someone having an inside man on our side. I am trying to chase down leads build assets up. You know.”

“Shit, we pulled you away.”

“Better twelve men alive then twelve men dead right? Getting back will be no trouble. Didn’t blow any covers or anything. It’s all good. But, if you could minimize my presence on your after action, it would be good. Officially I’m not supposed to be over there.”

“Officially none of us are.”