13Chapter One: Duality
It was like a baby shower, but not the kind you're thinking of. This was no group of women fawning over another, heavy with child... Instead, this baby shower was a literal one.
One night, the heavens above opened up, and the children fell to earth. Thousands of tiny bodies, raining down from above, leaving impact craters as well as crimson smears upon landing. Very few survived their descent, even fewer the life afterwards. These children held a certain... something about them, a feature which set them apart from all others, and because of it, they were called 'Angels'.
"What the Fuck!"
"Th-they're... they're... Babies!"
"This can't be..."
"It's impossible!"
"They're not..."
"They... They have to die!"
"What are you doing?"
Out of all those present, only one man did a thing regarding this phenomenon. He was tall and lean, with a posture and demeanor best described as noble. He was considered one of the bravest in the village, but now... He was acting like a coward.
Catching these children in mid-descent, he did his best to ensure their deaths. A child in rapid plummet, saved momentarily by a man driven mad with fear, only to be stricken down an instant later. No one knew what to make of this. Was he insane? Or did he know something that nobody else did? Most were frozen in their tracks, watching this lone warrior combat the oncoming horde of fetuses.
"Stop!" It took a woman to break the silence. She was middle-aged, with no actual children of her own, so she saw this 'Great Birth' as it would later be called, as her last chance. In her arms, she held a cluster of these 'Angels', and she rushed forward to stop the madman's assault. "These are babies. Pure, innocent children! Why are you-"
"Children? They aren't..." He replied, catching yet another, before callously crushing its skull. "They're..."
"Angels."
"Angels?"
"Yes, Angels, sent from above. Angels, pure as the freshest snowfall, and you're killing them unprovokedly." The woman stood firm, despite her small frame. She was unyielding to this man who continued to crush these 'Angels' as she referred to them, providing the greatest affront to her demeanor. "You don't know a thing about them, but you still threaten them... you are the devil"
"Me? The devil? " Both people caught a child almost simultaneously. "And what does that make you, the messiah?" He crushed another innocent life beneath his foot, while she passed the same safely to the ground.
"You know what?" The woman took up a belligerent tone. "Maybe I am..." She clutched a single child in her embrace, and rushed towards the man. Her whole body was a weapon, it lunged into his, and cushioned another plummeting child, all in the same motion. More fell, and she knew it was futile to try to save them all, but she would do the best she could to save as many as possible. The man held one child in his arms, preparing to kill it, as he did all the others, but It was saved when the woman brought the man to the ground.
The 'Angel' made no sound, almost as though it were locked deep within slumber. His hair was as black as the night which fell all around him. His skin was white, much paler than the woman which held him, or that of the man she saved him from. He was naked, as all the other babies, but this one was somehow different. Both the man and the lady realised this, too. Somehow, this 'Angel' was special.
"Bitch, let go!" He yelled, desperately trying to wrench the poor child from her grasp. "It has to die... It has to die... It has to die..." Something within him had changed. The madness had taken its toll.
"No!" She yelled back, loud enough for the entire village to hear. "Yo will not have this one!"
Her head rammed into his abdomen, a knee into her gut. Her mouth latched around his arm, his fist bruised her fine, mahogany cheek. She wouldn't let go. Deep down, she knew that if this child were to die here, something would happen... Something... bad. She had to save him.
A fire burned in this Messiah's eyes, one arm clutched the child, while her free arm rushed for the man's face, and a hard slap lay across it. All of the other children didn't matter. The ones falling to their deaths around her, the ones she had saved previously, not even the ones he had killed earlier. Only this one mattered, but she did not know why.
"Fuck you!" He was no longer a man but a demon. A lock of golden hair was clenched tightly in his fist as her teeth finally broke his skin. His knee rammed into her abdomen, but she wrenched the child from his grip. "You're not getting away!"
An ebony overcast began to take hold of the sky. The shower had slowed to a mere trickle of fetuses splattering about the village. Thunder boomed above, and the slightest crackle of lightning could be seen. The baby within the Messiah's arms was beginning to stir; he was the first of these 'Angels' to do so. A hefty drizzle began to take hold, joining the babies in their descent, making some appear to glow. The man, this... devil as it were, was awestruck before returning to his task. His goal was no longer a complete genocide, no... only the death of the Messiah's child. It consumed him, his only desire was the death of that one... He had to kill that baby, then the world would be saved.
She leaped to her feet, she had to escape. He followed soon after. The village was in chaos from the 'Great Birth,' nobody knew what to make of this. A man, alabaster in flesh tone with madness blazing within him, chasing after a much darker woman carrying a nude child. All around, 'Angels' descended, narrowly missing 'The Devil' and 'The Messiah.' Dodge to the left, a child falls just to the right. With each step forward, a splat followed behind. The two of them became blurs; one white, the other brown. One destroyer, one savior. No one knew which was which.
"Hey!"
"What the -"
"Who are you people...?"
The chase had moved into a local residence, a fact which the inhabitants were not very happy about. She leaped over a couch, but the man was not impaired in the slightest by this obstacle. He leaped it as well, chasing her into the kitchen, where a hearty dinner was being prepared by the matriarch of the household. A boiling pot was thrown at the woman, carrying a child, but it missed, injuring part of the household instead. The man grabbed a butcher's knife. The woman remained unarmed. When she fled the house, he was still on her trail, maybe even closer than before.
She could feel his breath, cold and full of malice, hitting the nape of her neck. She felt a blade narrowly miss her backside several times. The rain was falling harder, while the falling 'Angels' seemed to be coming to a stop. Thunder roared and lightning crackled. It was pitch-dark out, but she kept on running. She had to save this baby. It was the only way to save the world.
He was practically on top of her, but she somehow maintained her ability to evade capture. He lunged, but missed the blade, and caught her arm on her spine. The ground was slippery from the rainfall, as well as dead fetuses, so the blow was more than enough to knock the woman off-balance. The baby was now fully alert, because she fell, despite twisting at the last moment to protect the child from being crushed, his slumber was interrupted. The man had the perfect positioning. This night, it would seem that victory goes to 'The Devil.' But a miracle occurred.
Angered cries from the awakened child startled 'The Devil,' and the heavens opened up, releasing their fury. His knife was held high, the perfect conductor in a muddy clearing. Lightning struck, and 'The Devil' was no more. This child was saved by a blessing from above. And from that moment on, the child was known as Gideon to all, but to her, he was the first 'Angel.'
A/N: Don't get used to the disney-style happy endings... It's nowherer near over yet...