Chapter Text
The sounds of combat echoed through the barracks, although, seven year old Vaggie the sounds—and the fact she was in the infirmary—proved her own weakness. Her whole body ached with each breath. The welts and bruises left behind by a training staff throbbing angrily as her mind echoed with the words of her lieutenant.
Pathetic.
Weak.
Half wit.
Her mind whirled with those thoughts as she lay there, not caring if the feathers on her wings were being ruffled and bent by the fact that she was lying on them. No. Nothing mattered because no matter what she wouldn't be good enough.
Why wasn't she good enough? She trained hard. She practiced exercises that would make her wings stronger so she might fly straight instead of bowling through her sisters during arial training. But nothing seemed to help.
No. She was always too clumsy. Always tripping over her own feet or tripping up her sisters with her oversized wings. Why had the energies of heaven that formed all exorcists been so lacking when forming her?
Had she done something wrong? Was there such things as past lives and if so had she messed up that badly? So badly that even the horrors of hell sounded like what she faced in heaven?
“Cadet!” the Lieutenant’s voice bellowed from the doorway, prompting Vaggie to almost fall off the bed in an attempt to jump to attention quickly.
“Ma’am!” Vaggie managed to get out, hoping she didn't sound as nervous as she felt as her commander’s amber eyes seemed to trace over her wings.
“Adam decided to give you another chance to prove yourself. Meet me in the arena in ten.” The lieutenant announced “and don't disappoint us this time. Your failure reflects on me as I am the one training you.”
Vaggie could only nod as every muscle in her body ached in response. Hadn't she already fought enough that day? The secondary deltoid and triceps of her wings aching as she stretched them out before following the older exorcist.
“Okay you are going to have to tell me who in Lucifer's name is ‘ Luv’ in your contact list and why have I not met them?” Clara asked, scrolling through her sister, Odette’s phone. Only to have the device snatched from her hands in an instant.
“None of your damn business and I swear to Satan if you tell Mom I’ll tell her about your slacking off with inventory!” Odette retorted, earning an eye roll from Clara.
“What are we? Six? It was one time!” Clara retorted, just as a ring of golden light suddenly popped into existence above Pentagram City, drawing both of the young women’s attention to the falu colored sky. Odette stomped the breaks hard, jolting both of them before rummaging around beneath the seat
“Holy shit is that…” Clara began, glancing over as her twin pulled a rifle from a hidden compartment.
“Yeah, it's a portal and about two hundred and fifty days too early for an extermination.” Odette replied, throwing her phone back to Clara as she added “call Mom…We might need backup.”
While Clara made the call, Odette kept her eyes trained on the portal that was looming in the sky, which slowly shrank til nothing was left behind, although something that shimmered like a comet across the sky of Earth would have although besides streaking across the sky it was falling toward the grounds of hell.
“Tell Mom I'm going to check it out. This is usual but if anything it may be something we need to report to Lucifer.” Odette said, not waiting on any response from either Clara or their mother before shouldering her gun and walking toward the alleyway she calculated the object would land. What she hadn't accounted for was to find glowing golden blood across the pavement and a small winged figure laying bleeding and unconscious in a pool of the iridescent ichor.
Its black and white wings were bent at odd angles, obviously broken and the tiny figure’s left eye was missing. The sight caused Odette to flinch. Kneeling down she placed a hand against the jugular of the small angel, taking notice of a racing heart rate.
“Odette! What the hell! You can't just…” Clara’s voice broke her attention on the multitude of injuries the angel had, although her twin had trailed off as she saw the broken angel.
“What the actual…” Clara began but trailed off before speaking into the phone again “Mom…We found something. Get here as soon as you can.”
Pathetic! You couldn't even dodge that? I wasn't even moving that fast! Now you really are useless!
The memory burned in Vaggie’s mind as she became aware of voices around her. Female in nature.
“She's an exorcist…but why would one be here at this time of year?” she heard one of the voices say followed by a deeper, more regal voice saying
“She has fallen, obviously and is so young too. I think it's best if we bring her with us.”
Vaggie managed to open her eye then, her blood running cold as she saw three sets of glowing red eyes in the dark burgundy of hellish night.
She moved to grab the training spear that had landed beside her, only to see the taller of the three demons arch a brow at her.
“An unsharpened spear. Do you think you could actually fight anything with that thing?” It spoke simply, tone slightly amused as an oversized hand moved to take the weapon from her weak grip.
“Careful Mom, her wings…” another of the demons, the one with darker skin stated earning a glance.
“I am well aware. You two go get the van and bring me a first aid kit. I am not moving her anywhere until I stabilize those wings.” the tall one spoke again and this time Vaggie found her voice.
“I'm not going anywhere with you demon scum!” She shouted, earning an arch of a brow from the tall woman.
“I don't think you're in the position to argue with someone who is trying to assist you. Especially given what you are and where you are.”
Vaggie chose that moment to bring up her spear, only to have it removed from her grip a second later. She tried to form a counter to her defense only to yelp in pain as her punch was blocked by a forearm.
Drawing her hand back, the small angel felt the familiar burning behind her eyes although she tried not to show this weakness in front of an enemy.
“You done?” The demoness retorted, arching a brow as her eyes glowed a dim crimson. “Before you add a broken wrist to your long list of injuries?”
She could hear the other two snickering although no additional pain came when a large hand touched her right wing.
“Let's get your wings stabilized before you end up losing them. We can deal with your eye and the burns back at the compound.”
Vaggie tried not to scream as she felt the bones in her wings being pushed into their original placement, although she ultimately failed when she felt hot ichor spill across her feathers. She wasn't even aware that she was crying until she heard the strangled sound tearing from inside her chest.
“Lo siento mucho.” the taller of the three mumbled, motioning for one of the other girls to come over.
Vaggie felt a familiar panic set in as she was restrained, however, soon the pain dimmed to a dull throb and the pair of demons pulled away.
The world whirled around her as her stomach lurched and it felt as though the ground was falling out from beneath her. She would have lost her balance had it not been for a hand gingerly catching her arm.
“Let's get you somewhere safe. We can discuss everything then.”