Karen, Lynne, Melanie, and a pair of demons.
Karen ran to the door of the private reading room, and found it locked. Taking a moment to check that there was no easy to view window, she did a rapid half turn back to the door, and threw the full weight of her shoulder against it. There was a wrenching sound as metal comes free from wood, and the lock to the room remained attached to its socket, but the rest of the door swung wildly inwards and slammed against the wall with a sharp <BANG> (and an accompanying symphonic retort).
She rushed into the room, headstrong.
Lynne arrives in time to watch Karen face off against a figure dressed in a track suit. Or at least he may have once been dressed in a track suit. His middle eastern features were stretched to open his mouth into a terrible gaunt grin, and his hands and feet had become bundles of thorns and brambles, and the expansion of the ends of his limbs had ripped and torn his clothing into shreds.
Behind the two figures, was a beautiful woman in traditional Japanese costume. She seemed to almost hover in the air on the other side of the room, gliding without touching anything, as though her divinity were such that she could not bear the contact of the sodden earth.
She was smiling, so warmly and beatifically at the tableau before her. Words came from somewhere, without the movement of the perfect, sculptured lips. Even Jason, outside, who has stabilized the woman, could hear them.
"hE wHO iS lEADER oF tHE jIHAD, mASTER oF tHE rITEOUS aRMIES iN tHE wAR aGAINST tHE fOOLHARDY aND dECEIVED, mY mASTER aND iNSTRUCTOR, bAAL, hAS dEPARTED wITH tHE oNE yOU eRRANT aND wEAK aMONG tHE hOLY cALL lEADER, rAPHAEL. hE hAS bEEN aPPROPRIATELY bROKEN. yOU aLSO sHOULD yIELD! fAR bETTER tO lEARN tHE tRUTH aND jOIN tHE rITEOUS tHAN fALL fOR tHE uNJUST! I, kENEDIEL, aNGEL oF tHE hABBALAH bAND, sWEAR tHAT yOUR rE-eDUCATION wILL bE aS sWIFT, aND gENTLE aS pOSSIBLE..."
Karen said something indecent.
"wHY dO yOU rESIST? oNE nEVER uNDERSTANDS yOUR kIND." sad sigh. "bENEDISIEKRA! sHOW hER tHE tRUTH." The spiny man in torn clothes grinned horribly, and took a step closer.
Lynne skidded to a halt behind the Cherub and her pretty face twisted into an unfriendly scowl, directed at the Habbalah. "Truth?" she said, as much to let Karen know she wasn't alone as to bait the demon, "Truth is you don't have much time, Kenediel; we're just the vanguard -- your master made so much noise you can expect a lot of other arrivals very shortly.... Did he tell you he was leaving you here to die?"
She didn't seem about to get into any fighting herself, but stood aside to give Melanie a clear shot at the demons when the mortal arrived with gun in hand.
The floating form tilted its head towards Lynne and then shook it from side to side in an eerie fashion. "nO, iT iS yOU wHO aRE dECEIVED, oRLI. dOMENIC, yOUR eRRANT mASTER, hAS wITHDRAWN iN cONTEMTLATION oF tHE tRUTH. lAURENCE aND tHE aRMIES oF lIGHT aRE nOT aT tHEIR pOSTS. nONE cOME tO yOUR aID. yOUR hEARTS aRE hERE. yOU cANNOT aSCEND. iT iS jUST yOU aND uS. bLASPHEMY aND tRUTH. tHAT iS aLL." pause.
"oNE gIVES yOU a lAST cHANCE, oRLI. rEPENT! yIELD! oNE dOES nOT wISH tO dOOM yOU tO oBLIVION."
While the Habbalah spoke, Karen and Benedisiekra had not been idle.
The movements flashed with trained speed. A low swing here, a retreat and riposte there. Karen, too intent upon not losing position, had had no time to draw any weapon, and fought bare handed.
Finally, in a rapid flurry of blows, she landed a solid punch to the Djinn's shoulder, and received a grunt of pain from him. But, even as the attack landed, the Demon's left hand flashed towards Karen's head. She managed to dodge back, but several of the thorny vines lashed across Karen's attacking arm. She grin / grimaced in the sudden agony, and took a step or two backwards. Her wound was more severe than his.
"I Will Kill You." said the Djinn, speaking for the first time in a low growl, face flat and determined.
Melanie at first tried to get a bead on the opponent of her angel, but then realized the risk involved, and, as Lynn got out of the way, nodded briefly to her from just behind the doorway, and aimed further into the room.
"This is for Raphael." She muttered, and squeezed the trigger. The retort was acute in the confined space.
The hovering form's porcelain features contorted more with surprise than pain. It recoiled from the impact but then straightened itself in the air. There was a wound and blood oozing from the stomach area of the floating form. As Melanie took aim again, it stared her in the eye with a sudden look of malice.
�rAPHAEL... pOOR rAPHAEL... pOOR bROKEN rAPHAEL..."
Lynne sensed something faintly happen... And Melanie crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, dropping her weapon. She curled into the foetal position and rocked from side to side, eyes overflowing with tears, moaning.
Karen gasped as she felt the harm come to Melanie and was somewhat distracted from the combat. However, she realized that she couldn't do much about that now, and so doves back into the combat whole heartedly and with determination lashes out at the Djinn, ignoring her wounds.
Lynn made a snap decision and moved to the fallen woman's side, grabbing the pistol in her left hand. A song awaited upon her lips.
As she straightened Lynne's face was smooth and serene, and the pistol dangled loosely from her hand. If the demoness's words had struck home in any way earlier, it wasn't evident now. She stepped around Melanie, towards the demons and as she did so, her lips parted in a song. It began quietly, with barely a ripple in the symphony, pulling at the edges of perception of those who could hear. A song of calming, of peace, of instinctive aversion to violence, an ethereal song of harmony...
The malice on the face of the Habbalah seemed to drain away. It was as though all the madness fails, all the intense eternal buildup of emotion drained away, and for that brief moment there was peace, and clarity. She remained, frozen in the air, calm.
The Djinn's intense look of pure hate and concentration eased to become a calm contemplation of the figure of Karen in front of him. It seemed as though the ennui within his soul had built up to be too much, and he could not bring himself to care enough to act out or even really defend himself anymore.
Lynne stopped singing, but the effects could still be heard as echoes. She walked up to the Habbalah, still with the same calm expression, until she was within point-blank range. Then, unaffected by her own song as if she were standing in the eye of the storm, she hefted the pistol lightly and brought it up to shoot the demon in the head. There was no expression in her eyes, beyond a certain brightness.
She continued to shoot until out of bullets.
Karen most certainly had no problems with Lynne's action. She in turn took full advantage of the other demon's placid state, and continued to pound the thing until it was no longer a problem. This took a remarkable short period of time. Lynne absently noticed that Karen's aura was slightly atonal, an element of dissonance had grown within her.
Karen did a quick scan around, looking for evidence of Raphael or Selindeal, and saw something peculiar in the posture of the fallen Habbalah. She points the demon's clenched fist out to Lynne...
...only moments before she rushed to Melanie's side and sang a song of ethereal healing to relieve the emotional trauma she was suffering. The growing dissonance in Karen's aura began to subside, and then, as though rising from a great distance, Melanie reached up her hand, and touched Karen's cheek. A faint whimper rose from her throat, but she seemed more rational.
"Karen... I saw Raphael... They have taken Him/Her to Hell... You told me the Habbalah don't lie... that they think they are angels... She wasn't lying, was she."
It was not a question.
Lynne looked into the hand grip of the fallen demon's vessel. Karen was right. There was something there. In the sudden silence, she made out the peculiar sound of Josh's changed voice in the distance, and the words it spoke, and their import.
Karen shook her head, and looked around the room, as if hoping to find Raphael huddled in a corner of the room. She held Melanie tightly and rocked her, as if rocking a young child. She murmured, �We'll find him ....wherever she is, we'll find him and bring her back safely."
At the sound of the song of healing, Lynne looked up at the other two, mouthing the words "Are you OK?" She focused on each in turn carefully, as if she were coming back to her senses after the violent outburst earlier. She caught Karen with a cautious smile, as if really seeing past the cherub's discord for the first time.
At Melanie's words, she glanced away and back to the demon's corpse, unwilling to add any comments herself. She began to prise the dead fingers open, pausing briefly when she heard Josh's voice filter through from the other room. Again she looked up at Karen, as if to ask 'Is that what I think it is?'
Karen also looked up as she heard Josh's altered voice, glancing at Lynne and then nodding almost imperceptibly at her question. She again slowly shook her head and mouthed to Lynne "Three hearts? But which was lost? If Raphael was taken, then where's Selindeal?"
Karen looked over the corpses from where she was, although she didn't for the moment let go of Melanie. She watched to see what Lynne held up from the hand of the demon.
Lynne breathed out a slow breath, even as the shocking words from the other room could be heard. There was an Angel's heart in the palm of her hand, like a tiny crystal shard, glowing with its own light. Within, a six winged flaming serpent was coiled, resting, whole.
Lynne didn't look back at the dead demons -- she didn't seem to much care for the sight of blood or the memory of violence. The gun was still in her hand, as she left the Cherub and her friend to themselves for the moment, heading out to the other room.
Karen sighed in relief as Selindeal was found whole and apparently unharmed. She watched Lynne leave and then turned her attention back to Melanie. In a soothing voice she began to talk - to explain to Melanie about what the demon did to her and why her emotions were only barely under control. Very slowly she backed off, first releasing Melanie from the embrace, then holding out her hands to help her to her feet, allowing Melanie to collect her thoughts and take control of her emotions.
"Are you going to be all right now Melanie? I'm going to have to go out there and see what happened with the others. I think perhaps you should come out there with me...rather than wait in here." She glanced around at the bodies in the room and added "I think I�d better have a closer look at these as well. See if they have anything else on them."
Melanie took several deep breaths, spared a quick look at the remnants of the diabolical vessels, and then nodded quickly. Slowly she stood, resting her strength on Karen, then leaned against a small table.
Karen then quickly, but carefully went over the bodies in here, searching to find out anything she could. She discovers a peculiar amulet on the body of the Demon that she herself fought, shaped in dull silver like a bundle of thorns and twined branches. It held a thorn of a plant within it, and dangled by a chain next to the skin. It appears to have penetrated the flesh underneath it, perhaps when Karen committed violence on the vessel. Karen sensed something peculiar about it, but for now merely carefully wrapped it in cloth and stores it in a pocket.
She then gently took Melanie's hand and lead her out to the other room to see what was happening out there.