Eileen, Lif and Aurelia stood at the front of the crowd, mostly blocking the mouth of the mountain pass with only an iridescent golden barrier between them and the Starrians…. And the elf? Eileen stared flatly, calm. Lif's eyes were narrowed, lips twisted around into a scowl. Aurelia just stared, rifle across her chest, eyes tired.
Several minutes prior, a soldier had detached himself from the others- not the angel, strangely, but a human running toward them as fast as his feet could carry him. Finally, he was approaching the barrier.
"I come… with a message…!" The human cried out, panting raggedly, falling with his hands on his knees, trying- and failing, it seemed- to steady himself.
"Speak your message, little man," Lif stated, though not unkindly.
"Please let us through- war has begun!" The human trembled as he spoke, though there was conviction somewhere in his eyes. "We- We'll kill you all!"
"No, little man," Lif spoke and stepped through the barrier, heedless of the way that Aurelia narrowed her eyes and tightened her grip on her weapon. The barrier did not expand to meet him- Lif left himself vulnerable, staring down at the shorter man. "We will kill you. All of you- but we offer mercy. Leave."
For a moment, they stared at eachother… and then Lif staggered back, blood exploding from his shoulder as a bullet tore through him- Eileen held the barrier, unmoving, but something glinted in her eyes as Ica rushed over, catching Lif as he fell, inspecting the wound.
"I'm fine," Lif muttered, wincing and peeling his sleeve away.
"Yeah you are, it was a clean shot," Ica nodded, sighing. "You'll heal fast. Let's do this."
The messenger had, until then, been standing there, quivering nervously, and Aurelia shrugged, raising her rifle.
"Listen," Aurelia spoke softly. "I'm trying to learn to be better. If you lay down your weapons and get in here, and lay on your stomach, I'll let you live. You don't have long to choose."
"They're recording me," The scout shook his head. "They can hear-"
"We can protect you!" Cecil snapped, beckoning. "We're not going to kill anyone who surrenders, get in here!"
"O-Okay fuck I don't want to do-" The scout surged forward, toward the barrier, and his head exploded into bloody ribbons. The body hit the barrier, Eileen keeping it back, but not before Aurelia was splashed with burning, irony blood, her eyes widening- his head had been punctured from behind, even from here that was obvious. Lif was back on his feet now, beginning to crack his knuckles as Aurelia took aim from the mouth of the pass, swallowing.
"We're doing this," Cecil winced as an explosion hit the barrier before Aurelia could fire- the resulting cloud of smoke made visibility painful, and then… the angel was there.
Cloaked and masked, punched Cecil in the chest and sent him flying back before anyone could react; the jet-haired man hit the rocky wall and cried out, falling, but the angel had moved again, punching Ica's nose with a sickening crack, then punching again, again; Ica fell back, half dead as Lif roared, grabbing the angel and hurling him with everything he had, it seemed- the angel flew backward into Mirian territory, and Lif followed; but the angel had gone, and Aurelia managed to duck a blow from him, slamming the butt of her gun against his crotch before trying to shoot- the stranger did grunt in pain, but he was behind her, and Aurelia staggered, yelping.
"Starrians catching up," Ica groaned on the ground, barely lucid, trying to sit up. "Fast- speed- gotta…"
"Lif, take care of the Starrians when they arrive! Cecil, cover him!" Aurelia shouted as the angel, ironically, slowed, walking toward Ica with a dry laugh; and she, Aurelia, flew forward, throwing her arms around his neck and cinching back as hard as she could.
"You're not getting away from me!!" She screamed as the angel bolted skyward, knocking the breath from her lungs.
-
Cecil tucked his head and landed in the middle of the Starrian soldiers, wincing as the snipers shot his wings; the metallic feathers held, and then Lif was there; snapping one of their guns and using the pieces to stab the next two snipers, roaring and flinging their corpses into their allies.
"Come on, we got this!" Cecil laughed, throwing up his wing to block a staccato of bullets and slamming his other one down to cover his feet when bullets peppered the dirt there. "Get my back, Lif!!"
"Got you!" Lif agreed, and leapt back into the fray, wielding his hammer which was, in fact, just a skewered soldier on half a marksman rifle.
-
Aurelia's world spun as the angel rammed her into the wall of the cave, drawing a knife and slitting her arm; again, and again, the angel slammed her back with bone breaking force, and she barely managed to hold on, now slamming her knife into the angel's chest for balance. With her other arm, she ripped his mask down and grabbed his nose, holding tight; the angel realized her plan, as blood splattered onto his lips and chin, trying not to breathe, slamming her back again. Her world spun, and everything hurt, but Aurelia grabbed on tighter with her grip on the knife, wrapping her legs around the angel, squeezing his legs with her tail.
"Open, you bastard…!!" She screamed as the angel gasped, her blood spilling down into his mouth; roaring, the angel spun forward, turning and slammed her into the opposite wall with force enough to knock her loose, and Aurelia fell, vision blurring; she hit the ground after her world went dark.
In another world, Aurelia screamed a grand monologue about how she wouldn't fail her people again- but there was only this world, and a bleeding, broken fairy crumpled pathetically on the ground.
The angel, for his part, landed, gagging, and bent over, throwing up; he wasn't even aware of what happened; one second he was there, and the next he wasn't. Eileen finally had a clear shot, and magic ripped through every cell of his body, leaving just a pair of dripping, melting feet in their charred boots.
"Sorry," Eileen mumbled, walking forward and kneeling over Ica, starting to channel her magic to heal him. "I did not have an angle to stop him without stopping you."
"Hngh…" Ica shook his head, coughing. "I… I'll be fine… are the o-others okay…"
"Yeah, yeah," Eileen whispered, watching Ica's nose crack back into place with a wince from him, flesh mending. "I'll heal Aurelia next, she's breathing."
"That was messy… why the fuck did they have an angel with them…" Ica whispered, trying to sit up, but Eileen shoved him back.
"Not yet. You are not ready."
"Okay… why did they have an angel," Ica whispered, relaxing back, letting her work, mending the internal bleeding.
"I do not know. Starrians are more prepared than we expected, though. Why did Aurelia feed him her blood?"
"Did she…?" He laughed weakly. "Fairy blood is… parasitic… steals strenth, smart bitch…"
"Stop talking," Eileen whispered. "I am grateful for the explanation. Rest now."
"Bet. Don't let… them die, p-please…" Ica whispered, drifting off.
Standing, Eileen looked down; Aurelia was barely breathing, but Lif and Cecil were still fighting. When she glanced that way, at the ground outside, Cecil and Lif were ducking, twirling and dancing about the battlefield, systematically dismantling the soldiers; but they were bleeding, too.
"Hold on, Aurelia, don't die please." Eileen muttered flatly, walking toward the mouth of the pass and leaping forth; she landed between Lif and Cecil by a few paces, slamming her staff into the ground and throwing up another barrier, closing her eyes; the enemies could not pierce it, though already they were firing at it, as Cecil and Lif's wounds began to stitch themselves together again.
"Kinda unfair having you, huh?" Cecil laughed, breathless.
"No. I am still fragile like a human," Eileen disagreed flatly. "Now kill them. I have to heal Aurelia, too, and…" Eileen gritted her teeth, throwing up another barrier as a soldier tried to cleave through Lif's shoulder. "-I did not leave my home to save a life, so that I might watch my other new friends die instead."
"First time I've ever heard emotion from you!" Cecil laughed, disarming a starrian soldier and sending him reeling.
With Eileen's help, the fight ended swiftly, and the three of them were, suddenly, left panting amid a mess of bodies and gore, Lif tossing his makeshift weapon aside with darkness in his eyes. Eileen paused, steadying herself on her staff and looking around slowly; maybe sixty? Eighty? Dead soldiers.
"This," Her father had once told her. "-is the cost of leaving our forest. We elves stay here because the rest of the world is violent, chaotic and unpredictable. No matter how strong we feel, we are nothing out there if so much as a needle gets under our guard. Let the mortals fight their petty wars."
"Father," Eileen had argued, fire in her eyes. "If we do that, we could let the entire world die! Shouldn't we help them?!" She gasped, then, as his hand brutally slammed into her cheek; not a slap, but a punch.
"You do not question me, daughter. You stay here, because that is what is best. We do not concern ourselves with the squabbling of mortals."
Eileen had tried so hard to find fulfillment, feeling like a broken machine among her people; but practicing magic and archery and stealth, studying the arts… they never brought her joy.
Then, she found the letter;
'Please, I know that this is an insane request but if anyone finds this, Mir needs your help. Please meet us in the border woods; Starria is killing our people, and we just want to save them. We'll pay you anything, do anything, please, we NEED an advantage.'
Reading that letter, Eileen only felt one thing- a profound, desperate curiosity. She'd roused some of her friends, and together, they went in the dead of night while father slept- and at the first sign of danger, they'd fled, returning home. Eileen had a choice to make then; faced with home on one side and an exhausted god of pain on the other; but somehow, returning to father and telling him that he was right- that was scarier than anything she could have possibly seen out here, and she walked toward the threat.
Now… Now, she saw what he'd meant. All of these bodies dead- but Father was wrong about something. There was a purpose.
For these dead Starrians, how many innocent angels, demons, and allied humans would survive? If war must occur either way, should Eileen not protect the ones who'd done nothing wrong? Should she not put out her spells to defend the innocent- was that not the mark of a good person?
"I always wanted to be a good person," Eileen whispered, and Lif looked up, coughing.
"You are one- but please heal us, little lady?"
"Right, sorry," Eileen nodded absent-mindedly and planted her staff into the dirt, beginning to channel her spell. "I'll go to Aurelia in a moment…"
"You good?" Cecil asked, angling his head. "What are you thinking, Eileen?"
"That I was right to leave my home," The elf answered quietly, closing her eyes. "Please. Don't speak to me right now."
"I-I'm fine by the way!" A voice called, and Eileen's head snapped up, though the spell remained. Aurelia was leaning on Ica's shoulder, limping out of the pass's mouth and toward them, coughing. "Need me some of that healing juice, but I.." Aurelia paused, swaying, and Ica collapsed with her, both sitting in the bloody grass, chests heaving.
"Healing, juice…?" Eileen called, angling her head.
"Yeah, shoot me full of it," Aurelia mumbled, laughing and lying back. "Gods, I'm fine, just, everything hurts…"
"Demons heal faster, mending Ica first was the right call. Good job girl," Cecil praised, and Eileen nodded, closing her eyes once again.
"Be right there, Aurelia."