“I’m going to get that song stuck in my head,” stated Sara as the credits rolled, “Hey, you watched Dirty Dancing before?” Her legs were tucked underneath her on Timothy's bed, as she stared at him, “You were right, that movie, so good. The music, even better.”

“Yeah, I have, but we can watch it if you want,” Timothy offered.

Just as Sara grabbed the remote to search for another movie, the bedroom door opened. Kate put her hands on her hips and frowned, “I have been looking all over for you. Both of you. Didn’t you get my texts?”

Sara looked down at the phone that was next to her, “I was too busy watching a movie.”

Kate sighed exasperatedly, “Well, Michael wants you guys’ asses in the office. Now.”

Sara groaned as she clicked the television off, “Why can’t there be any breaks here?” she muttered and unfolded her legs, stretching out and hopping off the bed. Timothy was already headed out the door and they followed Kate, Nathan, and Andrew down to the first floor.

Nathan glared up at Timothy’s figure, “You are tall. Like taller than Michael.”

Timothy shrugged, “Not my fault.”

They came inside the office, filled with some angels, Daniel and John standing by Michael on each side, and Ashley, Demetrius, and Ricky were near a corner.

Michael rose from his chair, pressing his hands on his desk. He gave a stern look as the doors closed, “Good, you guys all are here now.” He walked in front of his desk and leaned in the middle of it, “Sara, happy birthday. I completely forgot this morning, so sorry sweetie. I have a present for you, but let’s discuss first.”

Sara stood there awkwardly as eyes went on her and she flustered, bowing her head to the floor, “It’s fine, Dad.”

Michael started, “As you all heard, Pitch had escaped once again.” He looked at everyone in their eyes to catch each individual’s attention, “I need all of you to have your A-game on this. I already warned the other headquarters and angels and heroes about Pitch’s escape. And no, I haven’t contacted Lucifer about this. If he wants to help, he can come to me. But, I would prefer this be left to the hands of the heroes. Each of you has a part to play.” He saw the gazes on him and continued, “Before I get to my main point, if you find Pitch, kill him on the spot. Each of you is warranted to kill Pitch.” He glanced at Nathan, Timothy, and Sara, “Nathan, if you can help it, I would you prefer to get someone else if you find Pitch, but if you have no choice, you can kill him.” Michael’s eyes turned to Timothy, “You can kill him. You have my command on that.” He saw Nathan give a bitter glare at Timothy for it seemed Michael trusted Timothy more than him, which was true. He knew Timothy way longer and the young warlock had helped him on many tasks beforehand. “Sara,” he sighed softly, “The reason you haven’t been inducted as my sidekick and assassin.” He paused for a second to look at her beautiful awestruck look as she heard what was to come next, “You are sixteen and by the rules, too young.” He bit down on his lips, “I will make an exception and you will be inducted today. That is my birthday present to you. Congratulation.”

Kate’s mouth flung open, “What! If all due respect, sir, she is only sixteen and your daughter. And do you think she is capable of handling such a title right now?”

Sara snapped a silent deadly glare at her friend.

Kate scoffed and defended, “You’re still a child basically.”

Sara gave a blank stare, “And you aren’t?”

“Girls,” Michael warned. He saw the disapproval looks from each of his sidekicks, besides his daughter who gave a stunned look, and Timothy who seemed he could care less. “As the leader of this Heroes’ Headquarters, and the commander of the imperial angelic army of Heaven, I will make an excessive decision to bend the law and have Sara, my daughter, become an assassin underage.”

A daze of stillness spread in the office as all eyes locked on Michael.

He went on, “Sara if you accept this position, we can do the induction in an hour.”

Sara blinked at her father with a horrified face, “Dad. Are you sure?” She rubbed at her neck and grabbed a few strands of her hair, twisted the strands around her finger in nervousness, “You aren’t making Timothy or Nathan your sidekick so they can kill someone.”

Michael said with a placidity response, “Sara, darling. I have been training you personally for this day to come. I know you are young, but I know not only as your leader but as your father, that you are ready for this title. For this achievement. Don’t you want to be my assassin and sidekick?”

“But I’m your daughter,” muttered Sara, “Isn’t that enough?”

Some of the angels and others sucked in a breath, as their eyes switched back and forth at the reaction. Michael answered serenity, “I thought you wanted this.”

“I do!” Sara exclaimed quickly, “I’m just caught off guard.”

Michael frowned, awaiting her declared reply, “So yes or no?”

Sara watched all eyes on her as she put her hands down and overlapped them in front of her. She nodded with a timid smile, “Yes, father.” She held her head as if she was confident, but a strange new emotion...was that excitement she felt bobbling inside her?

“Good,” Michael said with a pleasing smile. “We can move on now.” He said, “I have made many assumptions of what Pitch will do, but he is unpredictable. We are all on bated breath for what he will do next, so we need to be careful how we plan this out. Once we figure out roughly his location, we will be on the move quickly. I will expect he will flaunt what we want from him. This may now be turning into a game for him.”

Ricky raised his hand feeling as if he was in a class session, “Um, question, what if he doesn’t have the sword with him when we find him?”

“Beat the living shit out of him,” responded Nathan with a clutched fist raised to the air. Eyes went to him and blood rushed to his cheeks, “Oh sorry. Got excited.”

“I do not do the torture method, that is inhumane,” replied Michael flatly.

“But letting him kill others isn’t?” snapped John.

Daniel muttered, “Both of you, respect him. Even his daughter is giving him respect.”

Nathan lowered his head sullenly.

John looked away in almost a disgusted tone.

Michael said placing his hands on his raised knee, his back still against the desk, “We need to be on the same page here. Ricky, you make a good point. I thought over that also. If he doesn’t have the sword and he dies, we will have to continue the search where he was beforehand, retrace his footsteps figuratively speaking.”

Demetrius said unsure, “So...hunt Pitch down, try to find the sword, kill Pitch after we find the sword, and then end. We saved Michael and the world.”

Michael gave a firm nod to Demetrius, “Basically yes. Anymore questions?”

John grumbled, “Do we have to make Sara your assassin now? That doesn’t seem like an urgent thing considering what seems more urgent now, and that would be capturing Pitch.”

“She isn’t a licensed assassin now and we only let the heroes who are licensed to do the killing, John,” answered Michael with a little bit of an aggravated tone and face, “We do that to be safe and careful. I don’t want to set the wrong example by letting any angel or hero kill someone without having my clarified permission. And having the license means I trust them without sending a grant every time I need them to. Not all heroes and angels should be killing monsters without being clarified, because I don’t want them to go on a rampage, and I trust the people I pick out when I give them their license.”

Sara lifted her hand up, “Do I actually get a certificate of a license or something?”

Michael chuckled, “No, it’s not like a driving license, it’s a metaphorically saying. Everyone will know you are my personal assassin. But yes, you will get a certificate you can keep when I induct you into the ceremony.”

“Oh, okay, cool,” said Sara.

Kate couldn’t help but feel a little twig of jealously creeping inside of her.

Sara turned to Kate, “I remember Dad giving you the personal sidekick certificate and bodyguard. Isn’t those two certificated hung in your room?”

“Yeah,” Kate said.

“Wait,” scoffed Nathan to Kate, “You’re Michael’s bodyguard? He doesn’t need one.”

Michael did a passive grin, “I might now with Pitch having the sword.”

Kate expended a huge smile on her face, “Yes.”

Michael added, “Sara, you also get a certificate of becoming Katerina’s personal bodyguard today too. You have been since you were fourteen. I just never gave you a certificate for it because you are too young, but I'll give it to you now.”

Sara clapped her hand excitedly.

John hissed, “We are getting off track. And if Nathan and Timothy—mostly Timothy are allowed to kill Thomas Pitch without a special ‘license’, why does Sara need one?”

Daniel answered this one, “Nathan and Timothy don’t live here. Michael doesn’t need to set an example for them as their individual. Sara is part of us. And I agree with our leader, it’s time for her to get some experience.”

“Anyway,” began Michael, inclined his head to Daniel in approval. He then went back to everyone, “What is talked about in this room, stays in this room, meaning, keep this conversation confidential, understand?”

Everyone nodded.

Michael glanced at Ashley, “Ashley, can you sum up my explanation to everyone?” He said this to make sure that everyone here knew what he meant.

“Sure,” Ashley replied, “You stated that no matter what we speak about, it is kept between everyone in this room and no information gets leaked out. You are suggesting when Pitch gives his whereabouts to flaunt what he has—the sword—we will be immediately dispatched to the place where he was and try to find him. We need to find the sword before we kill Pitch, and hopefully, when we do find it, we can…” She stopped not sure how to say what she wanted to, “End Pitch once and for all.”

“And then go eat ice cream afterward,” added Timothy.

Michael chuckled, “Good.” He stood up straighter, “Tonight the Seers will be here. There have been some suspicions that Sara had evidently helped Pitch in escaping, but doesn’t remember a thing since he might’ve erased her memories. This not a fact but an observation.”

The room turned cold as the eyes peeled to Sara once more. Sara sulked as she muttered, “If I did, I was such a stupid idiot.”

“Sara,” said Michael, “You aren’t stupid. If you did, you wanted to do what was right. Nothing wrong with that.”

John mocked, “Of course, your daughter gets another slide when she messes it up.”

Michael gazed up coldly at John, “If you are going to keep up with this attitude, Johnathan, I will have you removed out of my office.”

Sara squeezed her arms around her, looking down uncomfortably.

Michael smiled spread across his dazzling face, “It’s like we will go on a trip all of us together when we are looking for Pitch.”

Ricky slammed his fists together, “Hunting down Pitch.”

“And find that damn sword,” added Kate. “A vacation! Expect messed up!”

Timothy stepped forward cautiously, asking with his soft voice, “Is there I can do anything for you?”

Michael did a quick bob of his head in acknowledgment, with a forbidden grin expression, “Help us get Pitch.”

Timothy nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Am I like cold turkey or something?” spurted out Nathan. “You know I’m the only Nephilim in this room.”

“Well actually,” Kate started, but Michael gave her jagged eyes.

“And I have seven powers beyond regular Nephilim, I can be useful. You need my powers to keep your sidekicks safe, Michael,” Nathan said.

Michael muttered, “I’m pretty sure my sidekicks can keep themselves safe, but you are correct. You would be a useful hand.” He said, “I know when I leave to go somewhere, which when I am hunting down Pitch, I will need some of you to stay back. Sorry, you won’t be part of this trip, which is mostly a mission, but I need all my trusted people's hands on deck.” He motioned his hands to Ricky, Demetrius, and Ashley, “I want you three to stay back and make sure everything runs smoothly at the Heroes’ Headquarters. I am counting on you doing all my documentation each day for the heroes’ deaths, make executive decisions on what gets passed or not—”

Nathan scoffed, “This place is like the new democracy? You are passing out bills and laws for this place like Congress? Isn’t that too much?”

Michael frowned at the fact Nathan interpreted, but answered anyway, “The documentations I pass, as we talked before heroes needing permission to kill, does that, also, I oversee how many heroes had died throughout the world each day, which new ones come in, which angels left Heaven to help us here on Earth, and make sure all our magical people are in check daily. We can’t have them go rogue. We make sure those people are in a place they feel comfortable. Not only that,” said the Archangel, “We pass on agreements of what to do with Lucifer’s villains and see what the damage they did and see what our next step is to make this world a better world.”

Nathan buffed, folding his arms across his chest, “If this world was normal, and you with your angels and heroes didn’t try to stop the demons and monsters creating chaos...I don’t think you passing out documentation of what to do next is working much...and the world wouldn’t be different without your help.”

“Every single help is better than none,” replied Michael. “And, if it was a normal world, there would be no such things as demons crawling around this forsaken world.”

Nathan smacked his lips together, feeling Kate’s eyes baring down on him like a judgmental cat, “So, you will trust these humans to look after your important work then?”

“I trust them more than I would with you,” said Michael, flatly. “Anyhow, Andrew, I trust you to be the urgent carer if something happens to Ashley, Demetrius, or Ricky. Take their place until they come back.”

“Maybe have Katerina be in charge of the Heroes’ Headquarters rather than us?” suggested Ricky, looking at his sister’s timid face.

“I need Katerina on this mission with me,” said Michael, “I have a feeling she will be more helpful with me than here at the headquarters.”

Nathan inquired with a thoughtful look, “What if Lucifer wants to help us?”

Michael sighed deeply, clearly getting annoyed with Nathan. Even being the angelic himself, even the Archangel can be annoyed by certain people, “We get there when we cross the bridge.” He folded his arms, “Is there any other questions?”

“Well,” Ashley began, “What if Pitch just disappears and never makes his notice apparent anymore?”

Michael replied, “If he does that, the angels will always continuously hunt him down. They are doing that as we speak, and I doubt that it’s in his personality to lay low.”

Kate retorted, “He did when he escaped.” She mustered out a confused scoff, “Where the hell did he hide all these years?”

“That’s another good question if we catch him,” said Demetrius.

Michael pressed his lips, “When we catch him, we will kill him. No hesitation. I can’t risk anymore of this nonsense.” No matter how hard it was to say that, he needed Pitch out of the way. He couldn’t afford people to get killed from his own grave mistakes. “Anything else?”

All his sidekicks turned to each other as if there were anymore questions to spurt out, but all of them seemed to understand the situation.

The Archangel motioned his hands to the door, “Inauguration in one hour. Sara, meet me in forty-five minutes from now.”

His daughter nodded nervously and went to the door. Kate started to follow her best friend but glanced at Michael’s austere face as his thoughts went over what they discussed and planned, waiting for them to leave him alone with John and Daniel, and possibly the angels.

Jealously wanted to spark up inside her like a firework, but she defused the light and pushed the intensity deep inside her. She was happy for her friend and it was her birthday. She would appreciate that Sara was getting a title and moving to the next stage of her life, “You need help getting ready?”

“Nah,” said Sara with a slavish grin crossing her excited face. “I got it.”

Ten more minutes until she needed to meet her father in his office, Sara looked at herself in the mirror, almost not recognizing the pale face girl she was before. Her gaunt eyes were sparkling like the night sky and she looked more alive than ever with a rose color blushing on her cheeks as her heart thumped for the ceremony.

Ever since she left her friends, a grin passed her face as she walked to her room. This was possibly the best and worst birthday present ever. Why the best? For the first time, she could prove herself to the angels and heroes that she was indeed Michael’s assassin and a daughter for the angels to be proud of. Yes, she was Michael’s personal daughter, but she belonged to all the angels—that was what her father had said—and the weight of her crushing down to be the perfect daughter of all the angel race was unbearable. But becoming the Archangel’s assassin, maybe they would appreciate her more. She was doing more work and giving the angels to look into her, not as some reckless girl that Michael wanted for no reason, but someone willing to sacrifice her life to protect the humans as she killed evil with her own hands.

Why the worst? She gazed down at emptiness, as being titled an assassin all of a sudden didn’t come easily over her as she wanted to. Her whole life was preparing herself for this moment and on. She would have to give the demons and monsters a new whole reputation that she was not a girl to be mocked or laughed at but to be feared when she came to them down the alleys or approached them as they knew that was it. They were done.

Lucifer knows I’m Michael’s daughter because of my recklessness. Will the villains hate me more because of that? Will they hate me more than Katerina? The only reason why she would want the villains to hate her more than Katerina, was because their attention would be on her and her best friend might be a little safer.

Many at the Heroes’ Headquarters, such as most angels and heroes thought she didn’t care much about her people, she did. She just didn’t make big announcements like Kate that she loved them and wanted to protect them.

Now it’s time not to be a child, but the grown woman that you are expected to be now. No more being childish. “Agh,” Sara grunted, “How the fuck am I supposed to mature in less than seven minutes.”

She went to her bed and collapsed on it, feeling more crushing weight heavy down on her. She felt her combed her fan out as she gazed in wonder. Guess I’m going to have to fake being mature until I learn how to. Even thinking of such made her giggle in stupidity.

The bed dented a little as Sal sat down with a chuckle, “Mature less than seven minutes? Tsk tsk tsk. That’s going to be fun to see.” He picked up some of her hair, playing with it.

“Sal?” Sara groaned with dread, “How can I mature? Tell me the secrets!”

Sal laughed as he heard her begging inquiry, “Sara, you don’t mature overnight. It takes years and years to find your maturity, and immortals, it can take centuries.”

Sara turned to Sal, “Do you think I should leave my hair naturally or curl it?”

“If you were going to have your hair naturally...you know what I mean.” A hairbrush appeared in his hand as he started to comb it. “I think that dress is a good idea.”

“It’s my angelic outfit,” muttered Sara.

Sal sighed as her hair ran through his fingers, “It’s a pity that you are to become Michael’s assassin.”

Sara sat up, making Sal frown as her hair slipped from his fingertips, “Why?”

Sal moved closer to her and started to brush her hair again, “Why? Sara, you are destined far greater than to be Michael’s assassin. It’s a pity he wastes your talent on that.”

Sara scoffed as she batted his hand away, “I think being the Archangel's assassin is privileged.”

Sal rolled his eyes as he pushed Sara down on the bed not gently, combing her hair once again, “Now that’s immaturity right there.” Sara struggled to get up, but he slammed his hand on her chest, “Stay, I wasn't finished with your hair.”

Sara grunted a frown as he pulled away his hand to finish the brushing, “Why? Lucifer told me I was mature for my age—Ouch! What the fuck was that for?"

Sal combed her hair a little rough as he mused, “You had a tangle. Lucifer is right on that I guess. And Sara, you were only raised to think of such of being privileged of working with the highest being in Heaven besides God Himself.”

“Maybe I should put on some makeup before I go?” Sara yanked herself up, prying away from Sal as she stumbled back into her bathroom, checking over herself in the mirror. She grabbed some mascara, but Sal snatched it away from her, “Sal!”

Sal shook his head, “No, wear only your face. You’re stunning enough without make up. Now,” he pushed her out of the bathroom door, straightening the rest of her hair quickly, “Go on, don’t want to be late to your father.”

Sara whirled to Sal, her eyes frightened as she whispered, “Do you think I’ll make a good assassin, Sal?” Although she despised Sal with all of her heart, she didn’t know who else to ask before being whisked away into her future ahead. She was surprised how quickly being an assassin could easily come, but how scary such a big responsibility dangled at her face.

Sal sighed, looking her over and tossed her shoes at her, “Sara. You are the best assassin I know by far—and not saying that because I love you—but because you've always been a natural fighter.”

“Love me my ass,” spatted out Sara, slipping on her white ankle boots, zipping the boots up, “If you loved me, you would fucking leave me alone.”

“But you love me also,” commented Sal as Sara opened her door.

She turned to her in aghast, “Love you? In your dreams.”

“You would miss me if I disappeared.”

Sara was about to spite out that was also a lie, but something caught in her throat. Sal was the only friend who listened to her and spoke to her daily.

Kate, her brothers, Ashley, and a few angels, including her father, were her only friends also, but Sara felt, they didn’t know her inside out like Sal did. They didn’t lovingly look at her—Sara smacked Sal’s face. He stumbled back, “Stop it! You don’t love me like the rest of my people! You are a stupid, selfish bitch!”

She saw some heroes crossing the hallway take a few steps back. Sara ignored them as her mind grumbled at her: Those are irrational thoughts that you fucking bitch are giving to me. My father loves me more than anyone else besides God. Kate is my best friend who is like my sister, and I would give my life for her. I have heroes to support me and angels who have my back...kinda. She flung her white hood over, feeling the swoop of her white cloak swirl behind her as she hurried down the hallway. The cloak hemmed at the back of her dress. She saw eyes peel to her as some angels smile at her with a nod and heroes muttering among themselves.

Sara’s boots tapped gracefully against the ground as she rushed into her father’s office. She quickly closed the door behind her, grateful to be away from the prying eyes of others. Michael watched his daughter breathe a sigh of relief as she rested her head on the door to catch her breath. She was wearing a gorgeous gown that he had never seen her wear before. He had seen the same style of a gown on her before, but he has never seen this dress with beautiful designs as she looked up at him. She was much younger the last time she wore an angelic dress. If he was honest to himself, he liked the one she made and wore now more than the last one he gave her.

The dress was silvery and white with gold accents that followed the dress to where it hung just above the floor. She had really gone all out for her inauguration, but he expected as much from her. “Hello, Sara.” He added with a nod of liking, “You look lovely.”

“You do too, Dad,” Sara muttered under her breath, trying not to look uneasy in front of him. But when she finally gave her father notice, she had never seen her father look so nice before. Coincidentally they had both picked the same color pallet, his suit was a gorgeous white with golden accents trailing his cuffs. His suit was tailored nicely to him, and his dark curly hair sat rigorously combed on top of his head. Her dad truly looked like what you’d picture an Archangel of Heaven to be. Gorgeous and heavenly, “Thanks.” Sara walked over to him and tilted her head. “Are you sure about this? Are you sure about wanting to make me an assassin this early? Like Kate pointed out, I’m still basically a child.”

Michael gave out his hand with a beaming grin. Sara took his hand as he pulled her into him. He kissed her on her forehead and whispered, “Sara.” He looked at her fondly, but there was a harsh gaze to her as he said, “Child or not, I need you on this. Can I trust you?”

“Of course, father,” said Sara, looking at him with her befuddled eyes.

“Then I need you to become my assassin,” responded Michael sternly, his eyes cutting through Sara, “Why I am making you my assassin now?—there’s no time to question about it. Do you understand? Trust me on this one, sweetie.”

Sara placed her head on his chest, hearing their hearts beat in unison, “Yes father. I understand.”

She saw Sal leaning against the wall with a shake of his head, “Maybe there’s a reason besides you being Michael’s assassin just because you might need to kill Pitch?”

Father doesn't need a reason for me to become his assassin. Sara knew Sal had been watching everything, but never see him observing. She never comprehended how he heard of all this information. She always guessed what she heard, he heard without having to be seen by her.

Sal swayed his head slightly in almost disappointment, “Whatever, Sara.”

Sara felt Michael let go of her a little, looking down at her with all of his love, “Your ready, sweetie?”

Sara smiled back, but inside she wasn’t as happy as she thought she would be; she didn’t know why. She got what she wanted—but her mind kept repeating: This is just it? That’s how you feel? She had dreamt of this moment and always was eager for her father to announce when she would become his assassin...but the alive feeling that she felt minutes ago was diminishing faster than she expected. She anticipated more excitement to adrenaline her soul, but only felt sadness. She always hungered for this moment when she would be crowned Michael’s personal assassin—but for some reason, her heart hungered for something else. Something more.