She had taken on too much this time.

Take on too much evil and now she was out numbered and running wounded.

Panting heavily as she ran, the angel darted around obstacles as best she could. Her armour was covered in blood, not all of it was hers, but a lot of it was this time around. She blinked her left eye a few times to clear it from the blood that dripping into from a cut on her forehead that was still oozing blood. She stumbled but caught her balance and kept running, wishing at the moment that she didn’t have her armour on so that she could run faster. But it was the only thing that had saved her life, at the moment, so she wasn’t about to try and rip it off of her anyway.

Her right wing hung limp behind her, hence why she had taken off and away from this place and to safety. It was broken in two places and she had arrow lodged into the muscle as well, extremely painful, but would heal in time to allow her to fly again. Of course that meant she needed to get that time to heal and those that were after her weren’t making that much of option for the angel.

Legs and lungs burning Sirona stopped and bent over panting, leaning against a tree, she needed a breath, she had been running for a long time now. It was only minutes, yes, but that felt like a long time when running for your life. She winced as she placed a hand against her stomach, more blood from a deep puncture through her armour and into her side coated her hand. They had prepared for her to be armoured and brought the right weapons for it. Aside from the puncture wound on her side, gash on her forehead and the arrow, Sirona was sure she had a punctured lung from taking a heavy blow to the chest from a maul. Plus a few broken and cracked ribs, she would be covered in bruises if the bents in his armour were any kind of evidence. The chainmail parts had holes in it here and there from things poking through it, so Gods knew what she would look like under her armour, but she knew she was bleeding under it.

How had she gotten herself into this situation?

---

A couple days before Sirona had heard of a pack of bandits operating in the area. Up until then their base of operation had been hidden, but that had changed when she had flown high over the area and found it, just barely, hidden away. With that knowledge she had brought it back with her to the people of the Plains who wanted the bandits gone. With them Sirona had went out to eradicate the bandits and end their threat to the Plains and those that lived there and travelled through it.

That plan went sour, and fast, once she and the group had arrived at the camp. The bandits had had a spy in the regular people who had warned his friends. Sirona and those she was with had been ambushed, Sirona taking the arrow to her wing muscle from the onset denying her that advantage. It had been a deliberate targeting on the bandits’ part to aim that way, wanting to ground her before she could wing away and get more people.

The fight had been desperate, on both sides in the end, as the Plains people proved able fighters against the blood thirsty bandits. However the Plains people were out numbered and that had crippled them in the end. It came down to Sirona alone, her armour the one thing she had to rely on. Her shield had been knocked away from her hands long ago in the fight, and she held a sword that was not hers as well. How she managed to get away from them enough to make the run for it even she wasn’t sure, but she had.

---

Hearing the voices behind her getting closer Sirona takes off again. All they had to do was wear her out and wait for her to collapse, something that Sirona was acutely aware of herself. Running for a few minutes longer Sirona finally caught something with her foot and went tumbling to the ground, crying out as the arrow in her back was snapped and the head of the arrow rammed further into her flesh. Her ribs flashed with pain as she came to a stop, barely able to catch her breath. Covered in blood and grime she started to pick herself up when she saw through one eye that she was surrounded.

They had caught up to her while she had been rolling on the ground.

Males and females of varying races there were seven of them at her count, there were still more back at the camp cleaning things up there. When Sirona took off those best able to make chase had gone after her. Heaving for breath as she looked around at them, Sirona was as desperate as she ever had been in her life.

She willed herself to stay standing, if she was going to die she was going to take as many of them with her as she could.

As she called up what will she had left and what magic, she felt something she had felt before touch her mind. A presence, something familiar yet very far away, bolstering yet terrifying. Not sure what that was the angel latched onto it, grabbing it with her mind and pulling on it, using every ounce of strength she had left. She wasn’t going to go down easy!

Unaware Sirona was building her magic up into one large spell within herself, manifesting outwardly as her blue eyes glowed brighter and brighter with the charging magic. Static filled the air and the bandits hesitated for a few moments, thinking that the angel was out of options and magic this unexpected reaction was making them think for a few moments.

Something clicked in Sirona’s mind and she started to chat in a language that none of the bandits recognized. An angelic language perhaps was their only guess. They stepped forward to try and stop Sirona but a blast of blinding holy light exploded from her glowing eyes as she placed her hands together before her before slowly drawing them apart. A sphere of power formed between her hands as she did before she whipped her arms out either side of her and released all of the magic in one massive spell.

Below her feet the ground glowed in angelic patterns and symbols as the spell continued on.

The spell complete and in motion, Sirona collapsed to the ground heaving for breath again, confused and with a massive head ache now. She wanted to pass out, wanted to get away, but she was out of strength now. Wings limp around her all the black haired angel could do was watch as her spell did… whatever it was supposed to do.

With Sammael finally out of the picture the last rogue element of their family had been dealt with… with the obvious exception of Lucifer but Gabriel had long since given up the hope that his Father would ever listen to him when it came to recommendations for dealing with his oldest brother; Lucifer had always been the favourite out of the three eldest brothers as he had technically been the first created by their Father - but at least he was still trapped in Hell and couldn't do much damage from there. How long had it taken him to persuade their Father to banish Michael and Sammael from their world? The pair had caused nothing but trouble for centuries; though Gabriel was more disappointed in Michael - to think that his brother would be persuaded by their younger siblings rebellious ways… Michael had always the rock; he had been their Father's right hand since their creation, the loyal advisor, the one God turned to to get things done and then he had listened to their insane little brother, the one who had dared to cut off his own wings because he decided he no longer wished to do his duty. 
Even thinking about their disobedience caused the Archangel to clench his fists in anger. Michael had been forgiven too often for Gabriel's liking; the fact that their Father hadn't immediately sent himself and Michael to Earth to retrieve Sammael and discipline him had never made much sense to him and as far as he was concerned was the reason for Michael's betrayal - had they dealt with him immediately there wouldn't have been an opportunity to corrupt Michael as well. It was up to Gabriel now; to be whatever God required him to be - it was his duty to lead the Armies of Heaven, to be God's right hand when it was asked of him. He would be the loyal son, he would prove his worth just as he had always done and God would finally, finally realise that Gabriel was the one he should listen to… maybe after that he would be able to persuade his Father to finally rid them of Lucifer. 

Gabriel had been tending to his duties as leader of the Army when thoughts of his brothers had begun to plague his mind - it had started with a pull at his heart; something familiar poking at the back of his mind that had brought up memories of when they had been a family and all of the events that had led to the end of their relationships. It could all have been perfect if only they had listened to their Father and followed their orders like good soldiers were meant to. Gabriel shook his head; his hand tightening around the shaft of his halberd as once again felt something pull in his chest in a similar fashion to when his Father would call for him. Scowling Gabriel shook his head; it almost felt like one of his siblings was in trouble but they felt too far away - he knew for a fact that he had not sent any of the Army of Heaven far enough away to not be able to distinguish who was calling upon him and he knew (since he had taken a roster only a few moments ago) that none of the Army were missing, so who would be calling on him? Who was in such dire need that they had caught the heart of an Archangel and not just any Archangel but the Archangel Gabriel?
Shaking his head once more Gabriel put his free hand to his chest as he felt that pull again; the grip was tighter now and growing more desperate. Wincing he leant heavily against Justice Bringer; the halberd bearing his weight with ease as he doubled over slightly, he began to push back against the feeling - trying to feel out who was calling on him and trying to tear away their hold in the process. Suddenly he heard the Enochian chant deep within his mind; deafening as light began to shroud his body. "NO!" He roared as he felt the pull become too strong and his duty as leader and protector overruled his desire and ability to stop the summons, roaring with rage Gabriel kept a tight hold of Justice Bringer as he was pulled away from Heaven to God only knew where. 

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

There was a loud boom and a flash of bright white light haloed in gold, knelt within the light with halberd held in one hand was the Archangel the spell had summoned to protect it's caster. Wings of burnished gold and red feathers were half furled against the muscled man's back as he slowly stood up; hood pulled over his face as he turned to assess the situation he found himself in. As he turned to look at who had called him he snarled and shot forward, grabbing the woman by the throat and lifting her up. "YOU!" He roared as he stared at the limp Angel in his hand, fingers tightening on her throat. "I thought I had got rid of you years ago Sirona; I thought I was done with your nonsense when I banished you but here you are summoning me like I'm at your every beck and call?!" He snapped, letting go of her and letting her crumple to the floor in a heap as he turned his attention to her attackers. 
"I assume that this is the reason you called me here little sister." He sighed in exasperation, his hand tightening on his halberd as he turned to face the bandits stood around them looking somewhat confused and afraid by the sudden appearance of this man. "My name is Gabriel; I am God's left hand, Leader of the Armies of Heaven and I am the one who doles out punishment. This is Justice Bringer; remember that name for it is the last one you shall ever learn." He said sternly as he took up a fighting stance, lowering his body and holding Justice Bringer behind his back. The bandits looked ready to fight back but he never gave them a chance, swinging the blade it was little more than blur of movement as he sliced into his sister's attackers. 
Once he had hit all of them he returned to his first stance; a small smile visible as his hood had pulled back from his handsome face - all at once the bandits collapsed around them, each one of them dead before they hit the floor. Snorting at their incompetence he stood up and turned back to Sirona. "What a mess you are sister - I taught you better than this and yet here you are; pathetic. Had you listened to me and stopped asking irrelevant questions you would not be in this mess; but as always it falls upon my shoulders to pick up the pieces and fix your mess. I assume that you're going to require my aid in healing yourself as well? Calling me to wherever this is will have drained you too much to do it yourself." He sighed, kneeling beside his sister's wounded form. "If this isn't enough of an 'I told you so' then I do not know what is."

The white light almost blinded even Sirona as she watched the figure appear from her spell. The large wings of burnished gold and red were what Sirona saw first as the tall male angel stood up, he was nearly a full two feet taller than Sirona was! He had a hood over his face as he started to turn around one word passed through Sirona’s mind; archangel. He had to be!

But her amazement was cut short when he spotted her and roared and charged her. What she had hoped would be her protector grabbed her by the throat and lifted her effortlessly from the ground. Sirona tried to struggle but it was useless with how exhausted and wounded she was, not to mention he was extremely strong. She tried to gasp for breath as he started to speak, his words confusing her. Banished? Little sister?! She was released and Sirona dropped back to the ground in a heap coughing for breath and spitting out blood while she winced in pain from her broken ribs and punctured lung.

Sirona watched through one eye as he easily wiped out her attackers before turning his attention back to her. His words before he attacked made Sirona’s head hurt that much more as if something inside of her recognized them. He continued to speak to her, again calling her sister, Sirona swayed for a moment but caught herself before she passed out while the archangel spoke on. He kneeled beside her as Sirona forced herself up enough that she was able to lean back against a stump and stared back at him through her one eye that wasn’t covered his drying blood from the wound on her forehead.

As he finished speaking, still his words made no sense to the shorter and younger angel. She stared at him for a long silent moment as if trying to recognize his face, as a tear rolled down her cheek and she shook her head. ”I, I don’t know you, archangel, yet you know me?” Was as she could muster to speak before starting to cough again and wince in pain as more blood spilled from her mouth. She wasn’t in any great danger of death, but the fact that she was still conscious was somewhat impressive with how much pain she was in. ”I summoned you but I know not how, I was desperate and the spell welled up in me on its own.” She explained leaning her head back as she took a wheezing breath, her armour, on its own whim, loosed itself around her chest a little so she wasn’t as constricted. ”You called me little sister, does that mean you’re…” She trailed off as she coughed again her open eye rolled back but she just managed to stop herself from passing out, head lolled to one side, but her eye was open and was watching him.

The Seraphim stood above his younger sister with a dark look upon his face; he had despised Sirona for as long as he could remember - she had always had such potential… but she was too like her Father to be trusted and she had shown one too many indications of straying from the True Path just as he had… not that she had ever known of her true lineage - she had been thrust in the Nursery with the other Malakhim and taught by her elders so that she might learn and grow and become one of the Higher Order, she had been well on her way to joining the Second Sphere when she had asked one too many questions and Gabriel had been forced to banish her from Heaven before she rebelled. 
Losing Sammael had been bad enough and he had tired of his sister's incessant questions as to why their brother had Fallen and what had caused it. She had never learnt; he had beaten her to within an inch of her life time and time again but never did she learn from her punishments. Better to be rid of her entirely… and now she had pulled him to this place. As close to Hell as Gabriel could have ever imagined he already felt the void left in his heart where their Father no longer was - he was too far away to feel the True Grace of God and Sirona was to blame. 
Like Father like Daughter. 

Sighing heavily he rolled his eyes at her. "Apparently when I banished you from Heaven and Earth I put too much power into it. I banished your memories it would seem." Scowling slightly at her words he sighed and reached out with his right hand, touching the fingertips of his middle and index finger to her head. "Ol umd mirc elo ge Father adagita tarofe zomdv odo." He uttered softly in Enochian as a golden light began to glow around Sirona, healing her wounds entirely. "Apparently despite your memory loss your natural instinct to call upon me is still intact. Annoyingly." Gabriel snarled as he stood up, looking down at his sister. "And yes that means I am your brother; not that I would ever like to publically admit to that since you are little more than a disgrace to our family Sirona." He snapped once more, turning his gaze to the place he now found himself in. "Where are we? I do not recognise this place and it is too far from Father to even be Hell."

She frowned as she eyed the older and taller archangel. ”Banished?!” She questioned. Is that how she had come to these lands? Is that why she woke up in the Monastery with the monks? She wasn’t some angel from heaven in these lands, but a banished angel from another world?! Her head started to hurt at the idea of that even as he healed her wounds, speaking in a language that she in fact found she understood! She felt his magic wash over her and her body was healed, even the arrow lodged in her back was pushed out.

Dirty and still a little sore Sirona got her to feet while he spoke on, cracking a few joints and her knuckles as she did. He really didn’t like her it seemed, she must have done something really bad to deserve such ire from her older brother and banishment on top of that. ”If it’s any help, I am sorry for dragging you here against your will. By the way, what was your name again?” She questioned working a kink from her neck with a light crack.

”You are in a different world, brother.” She started. ”This world is called Revaliir, you are on the continent known as Canelux and we are out on the Plains of Bohar. I can’t compare it to where you came from, obviously, so ask whatever and I’ll answer as I can. I woke up on another continent to the West of here called Onenn in a Monastery of all places, that was nearly five years ago, long ago was it that you banished me? At least that way we’d have an idea how time flows between the worlds.” She wanted to ask more questions, but a thought occurred to her.

”These bandits, there are more of them back at their camp not too far from here. I was helping a group of local villagers try and clear the camp out, but it seemed we had a spy amongst the villagers and we ended up ambushed. I got away in the state that you saw me, but the rest of the villagers that I came with didn’t.” She explained, showing at the moment that she cared more for them than herself. ”Help me wipe out the rest of those at the camp, my sword and shield are there anyway, and I’ll answer any questions you have about these lands. And maybe you can tell me why I was banished in the first place?”

While she let him think that over she checked on her armour, it would be ok, and it was slowly starting to repair itself anyway. She raised her left hand a bit and made a fist and the gem hidden in her gauntlet produced a glowing magic shield, good, that wasn’t damaged. Disspelling the shield she made a snapping motion with her right hand and a two foot blade SHINKED out from her gauntlet, perfect that wasn’t broken either. Sheathing the blade she looked back to Gabriel wanting an answer. ”So, will you help with this? After that, like I said, I’ll answer whatever questions you have and if you don’t want to see me again you don’t have to, these lands are huge.”

He really had hit her hard when he'd thrown her from Earth it seemed; not that he felt even the smallest amount of remorse for this fact. Healing her was his duty; Gabriel needed Sirona - she knew this world which meant she could be useful to him in the short term, possibly the long term depending on what he found out about this place. Standing up he looked around himself; ever alert to the potential ambush of further enemies. "You only did what was natural; you called to your Superior and your Better for aid, the fault lies with me, I should have killed you rather than banishing you." He stated in a matter-of-fact tone before shooting her an angry look, snarling at her. "Gabriel, and I swear by our Father that if you have the impudence to forget my name again Sirona I will not hesitate to reopen those wounds which I have been good enough to heal." 

"You've been gone from Earth far longer than five years. Though since I had forgotten that you were gone I cannot say how long exactly." He added coldly; not remotely attempting to hide his disdain. He raised an eyebrow as she spoke of the situation she had been in prior to her summoning him and he turned to look at her fully. "If you had shown such initiative and such selflessness in Heaven I would not have been forced to exile you from our home; maybe banishment has finally weeded out that rebellious streak of yours." Hand gripping the staff of his halberd he nodded to her. "Let us finish your task and I shall remind you of your indiscretions, maybe time will have allowed you the chance to grow enough so that you might listen and learn from your mistakes this time."

"Lead the way sister. For now you shall be my guide and I shall keep an eye on you to ensure that you will not stray from the path of Virtue once more." He stated simply as he motioned for her to lead the way back to the camp. "And the reason I banished you little sister is simple; you were told to stop asking questions and you refused. As part of the Army of Heaven your role was to follow orders from those above you, especially since you are little more than an Angel of the Third Sphere, you were being trained to be uplifted to the First Sphere, to become a Seraphim, to replace me as God's Left Hand… but you could not stop asking questions in regards to our rebellious siblings, you were too like Lucifer and Sammael and that traitorous Michael. Your problem was you did not know your place; rather than following my wisdom you were determined to pry into matters that would lead you down the same path as our siblings so I cut you off at the pass and banished you before you could betray our Father. It was as simple as that."

Oh he was aggravating! Every word he spoke made Sirona want to knock a few of his teeth out! She wasn’t one to be prone to such thoughts, but getting spoken to like he was, brother or not, was grating on her nerves, and she had had few left as it was thanks to the fighting. Longer than five years?! How long had she been asleep then? Or travelling between worlds? Or did time pass differently between the two worlds? Too many questions with answers that wouldn’t change any situations, so in the end they didn’t matter.

Sirona didn’t say anything, instead she let Gabriel speak as he pleased, at least this way she could get what she could out of him. They headed towards the bandit camp and Sirona stopped inside the tree line where they could the camp. Since the bandits weren’t expecting anyone to attack them, while waiting for their fellows that Gabriel had killed to come back, they had no guards out at the moment. Instead, by the odorous smoke in the air they were dealing with the dead that had been left at the camp.

”Bastards.” Sirona growled. ”To hell with subtly.” She walked straight out from their cover and walked brazenly at the camp. She took off at a run, leaving Gabriel to do what he wanted, and without the need to fight and defend the people had come here with, Sirona’s full attention could be on wiping this bandits out.

They had been so focused on their work that Sirona was able to get the jump on one bandit. He turned around in time, upon hearing her footfalls, to see her jump up, give one hard flap of her wings and drive both of her booted directly into his face. He went down hard and Sirona followed through with the action by using her wings to right herself, in the same motion she dropped to a low crouch to make sure she was balanced. This position allowed her to snap her blade from the gauntlet and open the bandit’s throat before he could recover from the kick to the face.

That was when the last seven bandits finally sprang into action, grabbing their weapons and rushing attack the angel. Her shield sparked to life from her left gauntlet as she spotted a bandit holding her own sword and moving to attack her! Tracking where the others were, at least the ones that didn’t break off to go after Gabriel when and if he made himself known, Sirona moved against the one with her sword first.

He glanced at his younger sister with a mixture of disdain and pride - her very existence irked him but he was glad to see that some of his teachings had remained with her; at least she would not take the slight against herself from these bandits lightly. He followed behind her at a distance; not because he was afraid of getting hurt (Gabriel honestly did not know what fear was) but because he was intrigued to see what Sirona could do with the anger growing within her. 
While she might be unaware of her true lineage he was not. She was the second daughter of his brother and sister but more than that she was the daughter of two of, arguably, the strongest Angels within the Heavenly Host… though he despised admitting that fact. Lucifer and Raegul's union had angered him for he had had eyes on Raegul himself; beautiful and strong she would have been far better suited to him than his treacherous brother but it seemed that despite her neutrality in most endeavors she was blind (literally and figuratively) to Lucifer's ways and seemed to forgive him for his rebellion… Gabriel had taken two of her wings for her loyalty to him, he had hated her for that. 

Stepping into the fray himself (with a little more subtlety than his sister of course) Gabriel swung his halberd over his head so that the blade 'sang' through the air, the metal creating a harmonic tone as he moved it with graceful ease. These fools stood no chance against two Angels of the Host  least of all when one of them was the Archangel Gabriel himself; they might not understand that definition because he was not native but they would soon learn…

He shield sparked as the blade the bandit was using, HER blade, struck the magical shield. She pushed back against the bandit and swung with her right gauntlet blade which caught him along his stomach. It didn’t stop him but it did slow him down which allowed Sirona to get in closer. She caught him with a back hand of her shield before she ran him through with her gauntlet blade. ”I’ll take that.” She pulled the gauntlet blade out and it snapped back in again as Sirona took her sword back from the bandit. Now, where was her actual shield? The back up magic gauntlet shield was good, but it could only take so much punishment before it fizzled.

Her sapphire blade hummed through the air leaving a trail of mist in its wake. She had three bandits left attacking her while the last three went after Gabriel. One of them was using her shield and that would be her primary target until she got her shield back. Sirona’s wings opened and she took into the air above the bandits and from there pelted them with blasts of sun light before throwing a ball that bursts when it impacted the ground. It flashed a blinding light and in that moment they were temporarily blinded Sirona swooped back down again, used her sword to open a throat and get her shield back again, her magic was fizzling out.

One of the last two run at her in desperation and Sirona met his charge shield first, allowing her armour to do its job by absorbing the sword slash aimed at her. Without the need to use her sword to block the blow Sirona caught him in the stomach with her shield that stopped him in his tracks before running him through with her blade.

The last bandit that had been planning on joining the fight dropped his sword and dropped to his knees with hands on his head. He had given up, he knew he couldn’t win. But in a vastly unusual move for Sirona, one that was totally out of character for anyone that knew her, with her blood hot with rage she didn’t look in a mood for forgiveness. She did sheath her sword and hooked her shield at her hip as she walked over to him, ignoring whatever Gabriel might be doing. When she was close to the now cowering bandit and she studied him for a moment as he looked up at her.

She gave in to the temptation in her mind, and accordingly one of her feathers turned black though she didn’t notice. ”No mercy for the wicked.” She spoke calmly and from somewhere in her armour she produced a dagger, which smoldered with heat and she slashed it across his throat. The blade cut deep but the heat of the blade nearly cauterized the opened wound. The bandit gasped for air and keeled over until he finally stopped moving and breathing, the whole time Sirona watched without reaction.

When he died Sirona sheathed the dagger back from where she had had it hidden and looked to see what Gabriel was doing if he wasn’t done already.