“This race has to be saved, Gabriel!” “No, Michael it doesn’t. It’s merely an illusion that you have conjured up surrounding this pathetic whim!” Gabriel turned to face Michael, his feathers dropping like stones to the ground. “You see what humanity has done to us, Michael? Can you not see the naked truth?” Silence remained. “We are dropping, dropping like flies, and it’s all because of their actions, and we suffer the consequences! And, you still persist on saving these pathetic creatures?” Michael’s eyes flashed, “Have you forgotten your purpose here? This is what we do, Gabriel. We take the burden onto ourselves. It’s our reason for existing.” “Then why does this reason make us fall? Our comrades fall, one by one. Do you hold nothing for them, brother?” “Enough! Gabriel! You know nothing of my actions, and none of the reasons behind them. It’s all beyond you, Gabriel. Beyond you thinking, and even, even if I told you, what difference would it make? You’ll never listen, your hatred runs too deep.” “Their time is gone, let go of them.” Michael’s lips curled into a menacing snarl. His silver-tipped wings encircled him protectively, the feathers radiating in the harsh sunlight. “It was God’s will, Michael.” “You know nothing of God’s will, Gabriel. Nothing.”

Looking down, even though the Earth promised sliver lining, beneath it sheltered the remnants of broken hopes and dreams. The wind suddenly stopped its murmuring, and the world fell into an hushed silence. “Look at me, look at me Michael. My wings, they’re suffocating.” Tears fell like blood onto the cold stone from Gabriel’s face. “Brother, I’m dying.” His wings quivered and limped lifelessly on the floor, becoming nothing but dirty rags. Michael turned away, unable to bear the loss of purity. “No, brother. You aren’t dying, you have just lost your way.” Those whispered words hung in the air; suspended. Being his last words, Michael spreads his unearthly wings and ascended into the azure sky, his armor illuminating. And without a second glance, Michael continued his descent toward Earth.