The war raged on for a decade. My brother and father both served and both died in battle, just a casualty to be written off in the history books, if the printing presses even survived this.
Soon the government we knew had crumbled into oblivion. There was no order. It was chaos.
I returned after the war, me at the age of 26. And I found him under a tree with my face on a wanted poster nailed to it, a cigarette between his teeth and dirt on his face.
"It's been ten years since you left," Dan said quietly as he raked the grass with his dirty fingers and blew smoke rings at me in defiance.
"I know. I wasn't allowed to return."
"Rules never stopped you before. Should you even be here now?"
"No." If anyone saw me I'd be arrested faster than I could speak a testimony.
Dan looked up at the sky, as if it held all the answers to the questions he had been asking since that day ten years ago. He sighed. "You gotta save this place, Phil. Tyler's in charge. He's putting angels and anyone he sees fit under his slave power. It's World War III here. You would know that if you would've maned up all those years ago."
"I thought PJ made you human again or whatever it's called. Why should this concern you?" I asked, ignoring the jab.
"A lot can happen in 10 years," Dan said softly, not meeting my eyes.
"No..."
"Yeah. I'm sorry, but the times they are a-changin."
Dan Howell wasn't human.
"You're... an angel?"
He took another drag of his cigarette, nodding. "Besides. It's not just angels. Humans are feeling the war too. Put into slavery, locked away or just plain murdered. It's anarchy. It's genocide."
"I don't care-"
"Well, you should," Dan snapped, finally staring darkly into my eyes. "It's your friends and family and everyone you ever knew to go through this shit, Phil. And you're public enemy number one."
"Why did you become a angel?" I pleaded.
Dan chuckled. "War is hell."
"So we gotta be heroes now," I asked, looking at his torn military uniform.
"We? That's a good one. I have my own troops to look after-"
"C'mon Dan-"
"Don't Phil. It's been ten years. We just can't go back to the good old days."
"Okay."
"That's it? The Phil Lester I knew would've put up a fight at least."
I shrugged. "The times they are a-changin."
ВЫ ЧИТАЕТЕ
Dan Howell is Alive * sequel to HIAKDH
ФанфикWar is hell as they say, and they're not wrong. Phil returns to find that a lot has changed over the course of ten years, especially the young Dan Howell. Will the two be able to rekindle what little relationship they had and stop the tyrant Tyler...
