After World Chronicles: Angel Awakens

Epilogue: Three Months Later

DANTE:

I had no choice but to watch my princess walk away from me that day in Noma Point. Even a battle hardened warrior like me isn't skilled enough to win in a fight alone against the Red Woman and her guard. As they marched out, leaving the city, I cloaked myself in shadow to track her from a distance, much the same way I did when she was on the lam with her adoptive mother. I follow from a safe distance for many days to see where the Red Woman would take her.

Once I was certain they were settled into Sabra's fortress and unlikely to travel further, only then did I withdraw to search for allies, acquire reinforcements, and formulate a plan of rescue. Until my princess will permit me to explain, until she will try to understand why I kept my secrets, I fear she'll never allow me close. Her anger will prevent her from coming with me if I show up to take her away from Sabra. No, it will have to be someone else...someone who hasn't lost her trust. As painful as that thought is, she is still mine, and I will protect her, even if I must do so from a distance.

I'm not the only one tracks her. Someone besides me plots to take her. In the perimeter of the crowd that last day I'd spotted a Republic soldier watching everything with contained interest. He was not much older than me, solidly built and mostly bald. A fuzz of stubble growing over his head wasn't quite enough to hide the array of symbols tattooed in ancient Enochian. The angelic language on his scalp wasn't put there by human hands, and I filed away the information to consider at another time. Having caught my eye across the crowds the brute sneered at me. His aura pulsed with rivalry, a sign he considered me competition.

He and a small contingent of Enhanced have been tracking my princess as well. I wonder what his interest in Angel could be, other than capturing a hybrid for his superiors. It concerns me that he seems far more determined to succeed than mere dedication to duty can account for. I won't let her fall into his hands, but I won't hesitate to use his skills to my advantage in freeing her from the Red Woman if it suits my plan.

My princess is behind fortress walls in the fire city. A place of devastation left over from the end wars. It's a known hive for the affected...and now I consider the Red Woman's guard, all affected, but operating under her command. The closest settlement is Star Town, a star shaped outpost under the command of the Watcher Micah. It's rumored he has a trio of brothers he's transitioned, granting them angelic powers of speed, strength, senses and cunning. He's marked them as his own, and uses them as elite soldiers.

I will take my case to Micah and see if they can help me in my quest to free Angel.

For now, all I can do is watch and wait, and plan.