The bolt's impact blew Jonah and As to the opposite sides of the building. The children screamed, but thankfully the altar had protected them from the surge of destruction. Jonah hit the back wall behind the altar hard, having the wind knocked out of his lungs. He struggled, but managed to get back on his feet.
As, on the other hand, had a lot further to fly. He had been blasted almost to the front doors, he was conscious, but barely. He moaned softly in pain. Seraphiel had been knocked over in the blast, but she was very much conscious, and very much angry.
Jonah got to his feet and tapped each of the children on the back. The children screamed when they saw him, now uncloaked, but he pointed towards a hole that the lightning had blown in the side of the church. "Run!" he directed, his voice hoarse. He noticed that the children no longer bore Maria's face... but rather that of himself twelve years ago. The face of a child whose parent had just been taken from them. They were afraid, confused, and crying... the resemblance was uncanny. A man they didn't know was offering them help. The look in their eyes reflected their emotions back into Jonah's: cautious fear. Jonah knelt down to their level, "Please, Go." He said, more stern than authoritative. This gentler tone worked as the children began to run for the makeshift exit. Sera was so blinded by rage that she hadn't noticed the children slip out.
'Well... I did it...' Jonah thought, 'I saved them....' Jonah examined himself, his ginger hair was coated in powdery ash from the lightning's debris. His copper armor was still intact, though a little dented and not as polished as it was beforehand. He reached for his sword, It was just a training blade but he feared he may need it. "As?" he yelled, scanning the smoke and debris for his friend. He brushed off his hair with his hand as he kept looking.
Just then, Jonah spotted As, his eyes looked frightened, not unlike the children he had just saved from Sera. "As!" he exclaimed, relieved his outburst hadn't accidentally injured him. As was laying on his stomach by the doors, his neck wrenched up to see Jonah, his hands trying to pull himself up.
Just as Jonah began to reach his hand out to help As, the downed cadet's eyes grew even wider, "Wait, don't!" he yelled. Jonah leapt over him and landed in a defensive stance. He had lost his training shield somewhere in the rubble, his sword would have to do. Jonah saw through the ash what As had had yelled about: Sera's sword had just sliced right where Jonah had been standing. Jonah's face grew pale, he couldn't even hope to best Sera in combat... but he had to at least try.
"You're under arrest!" Sera commanded, her voice wavering. Her perfectly braided blonde hair had been disheveled, like Jonah's it was covered in dust. Some strands lay on her face. Her bronze sword shone through the smoke, she had raised it for another attack.
"I couldn't let you hurt anyone else!" He retorted, not sure why he was arguing with her, maybe trying to cement the reasons for his own actions to himself. Sera didn't reply. Jonah raised his copper sword into a fighting stance. 'I'm going to die...' Jonah thought, he gulped and steadied his stance, waiting for her to strike.
Sera wordlessly began to charge at Jonah, her footfalls deliberate. She leapt over As just as Jonah had done, her sword raised above her head. Jonah's eyes widened, he dodged to his left, narrowly avoiding the falling bronze blade. Jonah thrust his dull sword at Sera's right side. The strike connected not to Sera, but with her blade, she parried the stab and swung for Jonah's throat.
"Shit!" Jonah yelped as he dodged her slice. Sera didn't stop, she sliced for his head once more. Jonah dropped down and ducked under her second strike. Sera saw the opportunity and with her bronze plated boot, kicked Jonah square in the face! Jonah grunted in pain as he fell backwards. Jonah felt with his tongue, Sera had knocked two of his teeth loose. Jonah spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth. This time Jonah had to make the first move. He ran at Sera, his sword to his right side. Sera's posture adjusted to defend. He faked to his left, then when he saw Sera's sword twitch to defend it, he undercut his swing and managed to graze the front of her breastplate! She leapt back, now on the defensive.
"You're dead!" Sera hissed, her sword raised again. She thrust towards Jonah, who moved to parry her strike, but as their blades connected, her superior bronze blade sliced clean through Jonah's training blade. 'Oh, fuck!' Jonah thought. The sharp end of his blade clanged to the floor, Jomah looked meekly at Sera as she kicked him in the chest, knocking him backwards. He managed not to fall completely to the ground, instead recovering his stance... unarmed. Jonah wasn't going to surrender, he steeled himself for his probable fate.
'I'm so sorry, As...' he thought to himself, Sera and her empath had made As a monster... and he couldn't save him – somehow – if he was dead. 'My father says that falling in combat in the name of God is the most noble thing you can do...' Jonah didn't want to end up like his father, didn't want to be the ending of a story you tell to an orphan. "I'm sorry, As!" He yelled out as he saw Sera start to approach him.
"Please!" As yelled out from behind Sera, still on the floor. She paid him no mind, with the backside of her right hand, she clubbed Jonah across the face, this time knocking him to his back.
"You're pathetic!" Sera scorned, "Just like your goddamned father!" The words she spat from her mouth hurt Jonah as if they were more punches. Jonah clutched his cheek, spitting out some more blood.
"Fuck you." Jonah replied, stone-faced. Sera looked down at the bloody cadet at her feet. Her gaze filled with disdain and disgust.
"Please! Lieutenant, stop!" As called out, this time Sera paused, "arrest him, please! Don't kill him!" He begged.
Jonah felt his heart swell with bitter happiness. 'She hasn't broken you, not totally...' Jonah reached out his hand. "As!" he yelled, he couldn't see his friend behind the pews. Sera turned her attention back to Jonah, she sheathed her sword... Jonah and As sighed in relief.
"You'll get what a traitor deserves... what your father deserved!" Sera reached her hand out at Jonah, her fingers flexed as a ripple of bright white flame manifested in her palm! The blaze raged towards Jonah, turning shades of blue, red, orange, and yellow. Jonah exclaimed as he held his hands out in front of him and closed his eyes. 'As...' was all he could think.
He felt the heat encircle him, but not burn him... he opened an eye cautiously and saw that he was parting the jet of flame down the center with his outstretched hand! He knew what to do, he thought more of his friend, the will to keep him fighting. "As!" he yelled, this time not as a final goodbye, but as a rallying cry. Sera's fire buckled more, Jonah rose to his feet. Sera was growing angrier and angrier, and anger gave her all the willpower she needed to sustain the fiery barrage. Jonah could feel the heat begin to blister his hands, but he didn't care. He took a step towards Sera, fanning the flames out further from their target.
While Sera and Jonah were locked in their fight for dominance, the church had become set alight by Sera's attack. The holy fire spread quickly across the ceiling and the walls of the deteriorating church. As coughed in the rubble as the smoke from the blaze joined the dust from the lightning strike. The cadet and the Lieutenant were separated by only a few feet, Jonah closing the gap with each step towards her.
Sera screamed in anger as she willed the flames hotter and hotter. The closer Jonah stepped, the brighter white the blaze became, he could feel his flesh begin to bubble and singe, but he had no choice but to keep advancing now.
He thought about how As was there for him twelve years ago, how he had comforted him when his father died... he had been the only one to do so who truly cared. He remembered Michael and him sparring all those years ago with wooden swords, him always letting Jonah win out of pity or kindness for his junior. He remembered Metatron, who forgave him for stealing from him, who had imparted so much knowledge, who had risked so much to get a secret message to Jonah in prison... 'You should be grateful to have such... loyal friends...' Sera's words had been intended as mockery, but Jonah realized that she was right. That's what gave him the willpower to do what he was doing, what gave him the courage to defect from this role. He refused to let Michael's death be for nothing, and he vowed to himself to fix As. He took one last step closer to Sera, at this point both were screaming in exertion.
Sera's eyes widened as the blaze she had begun started to spark. Showers of golden embers lit up between their ever-nearing palms. Jonah let out one more scream as he pushed with all his will towards Sera. The jet of fire burst backwards, this time coming from Jonah's hands. The surge blasted Sera directly in the face! Her robes and her hair ignited as she screamed in shock and pain. Jonah knew he had to leave now. He had created a window of opportunity that only afforded himself with an escape, not As too... He promised. He would help As no matter what, he wouldn't let him fall victim to the empath's barriers and Sera's ambitions. Jonah took one look back at As, now getting to his feet, and ran.
"I'll fucking kill you!" Sera screamed out amidst her pain as Jonah ran as fast as he could through the crumbling wooden wall and into the snow. The cold Christmas air scalded his burnt hands, but feeling anything at this moment was an invigorating relief to Jonah. His pace didn't slow for what felt like miles. He looked back when he heard a loud boom of thunder, he turned in time to see the flash of lightning go back up into the sky... Sera and As had gone back to Beulah. And first thing at tomorrow's ninth hour, they would be back. Jonah was sure they would be back, to hunt him down and kill him. The smoldering remains of the church collapsed into themselves with a sound almost equal to the thunder. Jonah could hear sirens rushing towards the church, humans attempting to put out the blaze. He walked until he felt as if his legs would give out, then he sat backwards in the snow.
"Jonah!" the voice almost gave him a heart attack.