Reason to Love

My Demons

So they took down the door to the grand hall in which Avangeline was in. I had found an alternate way in, sneaking around by the ceiling. The ledges and architecture was amazing and fairly easy to walk along. She had Apollo up in a cage hanging from the ceiling. Luckily for me I was closer to him. I just had to make sure I didn't drop my bag or loose my footing. 

"Apollo..." I quietly said to myself looking  at him. He stood in the cage now as he saw the others below. He was scared for them. He hadn't noticed me yet. So I kept along quietly as I made sure I still had both of the bracelets on. I couldn't loose them. I needed them. 

Meanwhile below Nuwa looked like me. She held onto what appeared like Apollo's spell book, but instead it was just a fake. I couldn't let her have the real thing.

"Len! Look out! It's a trap! You need to fly!" Apollo shouted down there. He was scared.

Nuwa summer-salted out of the way as the others move too. A cage went down where they once stood.

"That was way too close," Lilac sighed.

Apollo wasn't the Apollo in the cage that they saw. He was in the center of the ceiling between two other empty cages. It was an illusion. I saw right through it. They didn't. But I couldn't warn then. I'd be blowing my cover.

And that's the one thing I couldn't do.

"Very good very good. The once a feather can actually move." The Apollo in the cage in front of them stated as he transformed into Avangeline. She threw open the cage door and dropped down to the ground.

The real Apollo was still ahead of me. He stood up in the cage, but he was too afraid to speak. He saw the way the fake me tumbled out of the way and sat down. He knew she wasn't me.

"You're starting to sound like my gym teacher." Nuwa, "and I just love gym." She was wearing the shorts over the leggings with boots and the cami and plad shirt. I looked similiar, except instead of heels I was wearing combat boots and fishlace, and instead of a plad shirt I had a green fishing vest holding some tools of mine. I had to get to Apollo, fast.

A beam of light was fired at Nuwa. She rolled out of the way and got to her feet. I didn't know she was that athletic. 

"My my you're fast. I was right for seeking you out. You are a one-of-a-kind. Natural-born Feather."

"I prefer to be known as the Angel with the Silver Lining." Nuwa clenched onto the fake spell book, "and I live by that every day. I'm unstoppable." A circle of a silver light appears below her feet. Vines of the same light draw out and circle and illuminate under the other feathers and handlers. "I've never been in for perfection, nor this 'save the world' gig, but it seems like I have to do this my own way." Silver wings grew on her back. Nuwa glared at Avangeline, "Let's see: who do you think Apollo wants to be with now? Someone who fooled him, or someone who had his back the whole time and didn't hide anything from him?"

Avangeline sneered. All the other feathers got ready to move. She then summoned a horde of suns for the others to take on while she jumped back. They began to battle. I sighed and wished them luck as I pressed on my mission.

That, until I had to dive behind a creepy gargoyle thing. Avangeline came up onto Apollo's cage. All I did was hide. There wasn't anything I could do. Not yet at least.

"Look at that. There she is not helping you but fighting along side the others. Isn't that sad. You can't win. You can't ever win. She doesn't love you at all. She just is getting you back because it's her job. That way she can become Queen. All she wants is power. Nothing else from you.

"No...that's not it at all..." I cried softly to myself from behind the gargoyle thing. I didn't care about power.  I just wanted Apollo to be alright...not like this...

"No...that's not true..." Apollo cried to her. She must've been breaking him. There wasn't much I could do. I didn't have a good angle from here and if I moved, Avangeline would see me for sure and I'd be done for. There wasn't anything I could do but sit and cry.

"The Lenneth you thought you know is a lie. How cute is that. She doesn't care. You were alone the whole time! She left you because she didn't like you. No one likes you. That is correct, right?"

I didn't hear anything back from Apollo so I poked my head out just enough so I could see. Something was happening. Was he...no...

I really was too late.

Apollo was broken. He was turning into a sun.

"No...no no no no." I cried to myself. How did I let this happen?

"That's right. You're too late to be helped. Thanks for becoming my servant. I always knew you'd listen to me and follow me. So predictable." She laughed as she  jumped off the cage. But before she could safely get away, the cage snapped and the new sun, Apollo, swatted her away and hit her into a wall. He still hated her.

Avangeline hit the wall then fell to the ground right at the feet of Nuwa holding the book. She quickly snatched the book from her and stood up, "Yes! Yes I finally have it!" She started to run back to her throne.

"Hold up!" Nuwa shouted, "did you even open that thing yet?" They didn't know about the sun up here yet that was still sitting in the cage, starting to transform even more. I'd have to stop it. Apollo told me what to do if he starts turning into a sun. But I didn't think it'd really happen to him. To me, yeah probably. But to him?!

Avangeline opened the book. "WHAT?! IT'S BLANK!"

"Uh huh. See that's where we're different Avangeline, if that's even your real name." Nuwa walked right up to her. She started to change back, "You never really were able to tell when I transformed. You seemed to buy it every time. Especially if you didn't know the person really well." Nuwa slammed the book up in Avangeline's face as the rest of the feathers and handlers took her out. They couldn't deliver enough light for the final shot. I'd need to do that. 

"Lenneth! You can do it now!" Nuwa shouted.

Avangeline laughed from where she was pinned down permanently by the rest of the feather and handler's powers, "you're just a bit too late I'm afraid."

I had made my way along the ledge into the base of the cage where Apollo was transforming. "Apollo!" I shouted at him, "It's me, Lenneth. Lenneth Parker, your feather, your angel, Len... Apollo listen to me I'm here now. That was all just a distraction. You don't have to do this. I'm here for you, everyone's here for you. We all came for you." Instead of my words being reassuring he just snarled at me and roared or whatever really loudly. The cage snapped and fell towards the ground. I barely had enough time to leap out and create my wings. I was on borrowed light so to say. I only had so much before it was gone.

The cage crashed to the ground in front of all the feathers and handlers. I landed in front of Avangeline, who was in front of them. 

"So this is the real Lenneth. Sneaky. She had the books all along on her wrists..." She laughed, "too bad you didn't make your appearance soon enough."

"Shut up. I never did like you anyway."

"But 'you don't even know me.'" She was mimicking Apollo."

I didn't even turn around to face her, "I don't need to know you to know what you did. Your ego surpasses you. Too bad it's not a good ego, seeing that you're an egotistical sun." Apollo finally finished transforming and went after his next target: me.

"Lenneth look out!" Lilac shouted as she grabbed me and tackled me out of the way. "It's too late! He's done for Lenneth! We have to take him out!"

"No!" I cried, "No we can't!"