Ex-Doctor Of Rhodes Island

Familiar Stranger

Hey.

A shorter chapter than usual, but I took a considerable risk with this plot development and will stick to my guns.

A little surprise further down! 

Let us get back to it.

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The city of Laterano, a once beautiful and bright beacon for the Sankta, lay in a state of ruin, with collapsed buildings, fires, craters and every wall sprayed with bullet holes indicating heavy gun fights.

The continuous sounds of gunfire and explosions echoed across the beaten and bruised city. All signs of fighting were drowned out by the deafening sounds of the megaphones across the city, demanding hostility to end.

The city's inhabitants, who were not trying to fight, desperately attempted to avoid both warring parties as they made refuge in whatever available shelter they could find. 

During the initial break out of conflict, the Pope ordered all residents to remain and wait out the fighting until the Pontifica Cohors Lateran and Laterano Gun-Knights secured the city. The order from the Pope was weeks old and was still blaring over the Megaphones. No new message from the Pope or Govermantel Lateran Curia has been heard since, worrying the civilians incredibly as they are stuck in a never-ending curfew.

In the battle-damaged street, a young Sankta girl no older than twelve and messy, dishevelled white hair, her halo and wings not as bright as they should be, was kneeling on a mound of rubble, desperately searching for food. 

The Sankta girl is Gabby. (A.N Gabby from Chapter 'Sleepyhead')

With the conflict continuing for as long as it has, the Curia military checkpoints controlled basic food provisions. Going out to Curia checkpoints for food rations was just as deadly as they were constantly attacked.

Gabby still didn't understand why everyone was fighting and killing each other but had spent weeks seeing it all happen before her eyes; she was almost numb to it. Her mother hugged her every night and whispered she was sorry. Gabby didn't understand why her mother kept apologizing, but she didn't know her mother could see the innocence and energy leaving her daughter's eyes.

Gabby may have gotten used to the sight of people dying, but that didn't mean she wasn't terrified because she was terrified, very much so. She just wanted it all to end, and for them to return home, if her home was still standing, that is.

"Stupid Curia... Stupid rebels..." Gabby mumbled irritably as she moved broken bricks and splintered wood in search of food for her and her family. The young Sankta whimpered as her stomach rumbled. Her father was shot in the leg, and her mother had a concussion after being slammed into a wall by an explosion, leaving her to search the area for anything of value.

"Hey! You!" A stern voice shouted behind the girl.

Gabby turned and saw a Pontifica officer storm towards her with a sneer on his face, tightly holding a pistol in one hand. Panicked, she attempted to run, but the larger man quickly caught up to her on the unsteady ground and lifted her by the back of her dirty top.

"Let me go!" Gabby shouted as she struggled in the man's grasp.

"Curfew is in effect, and looting is forbidden!" The man shouted in the frightened girl's face.

"W-Well, give us food then!" Gabby bemoaned her situation. 

"Are you a rebel spy?" 

"What!?" Gabby's eyes widened in panic at the man's sudden accusation.