Chapter Text
The last thing she had remembered was a blinding light followed by the sensation of falling through the air. She remembered trying to flap her wings, trying so desperately to slow her descent or stop it entirely. But…her wings wouldn't flap. She couldn't feel anything at all, not a single muscle moving that should have moved. She could see the red landscape approaching faster and faster before…nothing.
She lay in a crater created by her own fall, her body resting in a pool of golden blood. Her eyes were barely open, seeing only blurry shapes and many different shades of red. Actually…all she could see was red. Why was there so much of it…? And…why was it so warm all of a sudden? Why could she only smell a burning scent? She tried moving her arm, the action causing a searing pain to suddenly fill her very being.
Her eyes crashed shut as she immediately stopped trying to move whatsoever. She couldn't see or feel what was wrong with her, much less get up and check . She could vaguely sense many nearby souls, a shred of her heavenly abilities still existing within her broken and battered body. These souls felt like…human souls. Some felt a little different, but still familiar at the same time. She could sense that they drew closer, most likely coming towards her.
The thought frightened her and made her eyes open again to the blurry redness of the area around her. What would these souls do to her? This…clearly was not Earth and it was most certainly not Heaven, meaning there could be only one other place where human souls resided.
Hell.
Her heart skipped a beat at the thought and she so desperately wished that her wings would work so she could wrap herself up in them. But every single time she tried and fought to move them…there was nothing. She didn't want to imagine that they were both broken…but it was becoming increasingly clear to her that something was horribly wrong with them.
As she tried to think up a way to escape, a different soul suddenly appeared nearby. It felt far different than any of the other souls she had previously sensed and this one felt…angelic? No, not entirely angelic. There was something dark…tainted about it. It felt particularly special and unique, one of a kind in every way. She hadn't felt such a strange soul in her short life and it felt like this soul was scaring off all the others.
First she felt a gentle touch on her shoulders followed by the sound of a soft gasp as those smooth hands touched a little too close to her back. She barely reacted, wondering why they made such a noise when her back didn't even hurt. It felt fine.
"You…oh…my…" She could hardly hear what they were saying before they touched something that actually hurt, drawing a hiss out of her. "Sorry…sorry." Their voice dropped to a quiet whisper before she felt the being slowly lifting her up.
Her foggy gaze tried to identify the being, seeing white, red…and blonde hair. He was wearing some kind of hat on his head, she could see that. If she squinted her eyes, she could see two red rosy cheeks that reminded her of a bird she had seen on Earth. 'What…was that bird…?' She thought, her barely opened eyes slowly meeting his gaze.
The man swallowed, (or was it a gulp?) , and looked her up and down. "You fell." It was more of a statement than a question, indicating he already knew more than she thought he would.
Her lips barely parted to let out a soft answer. "Y-Yes…" She whispered back, her throat feeling on fire just from that.
The rosy-cheeked man looked at her with what she could only describe as pity, his strange eyes softening at her for reasons she still did not know. He didn't say another word before he carefully picked her up. The action brought a quiet grunt out of her, her shaky hands gripping onto what she could.
She couldn't begin to understand how he was carrying her, not when he felt so much smaller and shorter than her. Surely she must weigh a lot, she knew her wings did add a bit of weight. But he didn't look affected or even strained as he carried her out of that crater. She blinked a few times, her eyes only changing in various degrees of blurriness. She turned her gaze up and again saw that bird-like face.
She was so focused on his face that she failed to notice that they had somehow gone from that street to the landing area and the front room of some sort of building. It was as red as the outside was with only slight variances in color. It was so similar to her impaired vision that it took for several voices sounding with alarm to actually alert her that she was somewhere else.
"Dad! Did you…" A feminine voice trailed off before it became soft. "That's a halo…"
'Of course I have a halo, why wouldn't I?' The injured woman thought, subconsciously taking note of the different reds on the walls.
"Where are her wings?"
That made the woman stop, her barely open eyes suddenly widening. What was that voice talking about? Her wings were right there! They were big, they were white-they should stand out-
The man holding her released a noise and winced, looking as though he was panicking a bit. "Her…her wings are… totally here. They're around, just like they should be ." He directed the last part towards someone else.
The female didn't answer, but another one did rather quickly. " Babe , you…you just didn't see them right away. They are… right there ." She smoothly said, though there was something else layered under her voice.
"Huh?" The first female sounded confused, but between the man and the other woman, she must have finally gotten it in her head. "O-Oh…oh, yeah…I see them now."
The injured woman seemed to calm back down at that as her eyes fell shut again. She exhaled and coughed a bit, subconsciously nudging her head against the man's. She couldn't tell, but her head was firmly nestled against his neck.
The man shifted a bit, reacting to her movements before he exhaled. "I will be back down soon, Charlie. I'll…try to explain everything." He mumbled a bit, hurrying off as he felt the female in his arms beginning to pass out.
Charlie watched with wide eyes as her father used a portal to get upstairs rather than the actual stairs. Once it closed, she turned to her girlfriend, looking at her with wide eyes. She had so many questions that she had wanted to ask all at the same time, but one came out first. "Was that a fallen angel?" She asked before another followed suit. "Why does she have a halo? Why is her back like…that? Did Heaven do this on purpose because of the meeting? Oh…did I make them cast an angel out?!" Her voice raised several octaves and her eyes immediately glossed with tears.
Vaggie didn't have the answers to several of those, but she knew she had to calm Charlie somehow. "Babe, calm down. Remember, deeeep breaths…" She instructed, taking deep breaths with the princess, something she found helped when Charlie got too buried into her emotions. "Okay… yes , that was a fallen. I don't know why her halo is still on her head." She paused, not entirely sure if she should sugarcoat the next part.
"And her back?" Charlie pressed, stepping a bit closer with concern in those big eyes Vaggie adored so much.
"They…used holy light to burn her wings off and did the same to her back." She began, rubbing her head before she reached for her girlfriend's hand. "It's not really common, but they did it thousands of years ago I think. The older exorcists saw it happen before and it's…it's bad, Charlie."
Again her eyes brimmed with tears, but for a whole new reason this time. "Why would they do that? Couldn't they have just cut them off or-or something else? That's even worse than…" She limply gestured to Vaggie, her eyes shaking a bit.
"...Than ripping them out." Vaggie finished for her and softly nodded. "Again, I wasn't there when they were still doing that, but it means that she did something unforgivable . She could have killed someone or tortured someone else or betrayed Heaven." Her hand tightened around Charlie's as her eye lowered, a new sense of worry filling her.
" Or they did it to show us what could happen to us. She could be innocent or just a minor rule breaker." Charlie caught the change of tone in her girlfriend's voice. "You heard what Adam said and how he looked . Maybe…that angel…was an example."
"What? No they wouldn't…" Vaggie faltered this time, actually being unable to properly reassure her this time. "I mean, I don't think they would have cast out an angel for that reason…erm…maybe…maybe we should just wait for your dad."
Charlie looked into her eyes before she softly nodded. "Okay."