Thinking about the truth was quite obviously not going to help the current situation. The current situation being D.C., to be exact. The nation's capitol, Washington, D.C. How civilized.
Lilly, Calvin, Lisa, Azlyn, and Tom were walking down the National Mall, which wasn't quite a mall, but a street of shops. It was quite underwhelming, but the only one who was underwhelmed was Lisa. Lilly was young, Tom and Calvin didn't care, and Azlyn had been there multiple times as a child.
"Where are all the arch-humans?" Azlyn asked.
"Azlyn." Tom ignored the question. "I need to tell you something."
Azlyn flashed back to her hallucination. Was it coming true?
"I can help you control your perceptions. I watched your parents train Kael when I first met them. I don't know everything, but I believe I know enough," said Tom.
He told the others to go on and look through the shops to find food and supplies, then he turned to Azlyn.
"Well, since it's your first time, you should probably calm down and sit. It'll be easier," Tom said.
Tom's eyes were calm, and his body was relaxed. It didn't seem as if he was about to do any harm, so Azlyn followed through.
Azlyn tilted her foot to sit, but the weight on her swollen, red ankle caused a crunching sound. Pain rocketed from her ankle to her side, as if her leg bone was splitting clean in half. Grabbing her throbbing ankle only made things worse, but Azlyn continued to sit down in fear that Tom would make fun of her.
Tom decided to ridicule her anyway. "You dumb child. Whatever, just try to calm down and focus, or whatever."
In spite of the tearing pain in her broken ankle, Azlyn attempted to calm herself. Breathing slowly and steadily, she reached for her ankle, and started rubbing it to soothe the pain. It did more than that. She had cringed at the thought of the cracking noise the ankle had made earlier, but she stopped, for relief had pushed away the pain. The broken bones in her ankle mended themselves, so that it felt as if it had never been broken. The flesh shrunk to a normal size, and the redness dissolved, turning the ankle's flesh into a color identical to that of the rest of the foot.
Azlyn was immensely confused by this lack of pain, so she pulled off her shoe and sock hastily.
"Hey! I said relax!" Tom yelled.
Azlyn replied with,"What the f---?"
"What?" Tom asked.
"Look at my ankle."
"What the f---?"
"I know."
"How did you do that?" Tom had clearly never seen that before.
"I just, you know, touched it."
Tom didn't allow this to hinder his "training session", "Whatever, just calm down, and focus on who you want to perceive through. Let the energy flow through you, and focus on being that person."
Azlyn closed her eyes lightly, breathed slowly, and imagined little green arrows of energy flowing from her heart out to her limbs. She could've perceived through anyone she chose, even Tom, but who did she choose? Haddix. It was quite involuntary and unwanted, but her mind quickly flew through Haddix. That idiot of a child.
The soul of Azlyn stuck itself with ease into Haddix's body. It was cold, horrible, and thick with black vegetation. The tendrils, to be exact. Azlyn hated it. But what was this? Warmth? Where was it coming from? The heart. Definitely the heart. It was small though.
It felt terrible in his body, as if his was awaiting inexorable danger, but had accepted it. His heart was a lone survivor, hidden behind the rubble and ruins of a broken city. His mind, along with the black tendrils, was doing a sweep for survivors. The heart would be found out soon enough.
What's funny, is that Azlyn noticed what was going on internally, before what was going on outside.
Mr. Haddix was a corpse lying on the dirt, surrounded by trees of various sizes. Arch-humans, at least twenty of them, formed a double ring around Haddix and his father's body. They hissed, licking their lips, poised like a snake getting ready to strike (how they act with a "snake charmer," which is complete bull.) Haddix had no weapons around him, he was going to die.
Azlyn tried not to care, because who could care about a boy who had broken a child? Regardless, she did care, and she secretly hoped that in some miracle, Oliver would make it out alive.
The arch-humans weren't stupid, they attacked all at once, without giving poor Oliver a chance. Unarmed, and attacked by twenty super-humans, the odds were against him. The nails of the beasts scraped his skin, and bled him. Teeth were gnashed, but none came in contact with Oliver's skin. He used that to his advantage, and fled. The arch-humans were fast, so Oliver ducked behind trees, rocks, and whatever would throw them off. His face stung from the nails that had pierced themselves into his face and drawn lines of fury, moments before.
A patch of leaves tapered off at the side. What was that? A ledge? God was on lucky Oliver's side.
Oliver jumped over the ledge, and pressed his back against the natural wall. This was a stupid and cliché plan; the arch-humans would be able to pick up his scent quite easily. Listening to his tiny heart thumping like an elephant's tromping, and the sound of gnashing teeth, hissing, and running was like spinning a wheel. A wheel with five parts labeled "dead" and a single part labeled "alive--for now." The wheel spun around and around, getting slower with time.
It landed on...
...alive...
...--for now.
They were gone, and Oliver had nothing to do, because his father was gone as well. So what did he do? He took out the black book from his coat, and opened it to the section he had left off on.
Legends
The most doubted legend by perceptors and Fighters alike, is the legend of the angel.
Fighters and perceptors have Fought arch-humans since the beginning of man-kind, therefore one may assume that they have always been Fighting, nothing more, nothing less. This legend attempts to prove this assumption wrong.
The legend of the angel tells a story that occurs in the medieval era. Queen Bella ruled a nation in Europe, and was the very first queen to marry non-royalty. Queen Bella was a perceptor, but a terrible one. She was very young, and was never properly trained to control her perceptions, so she did not Fight. One day, as she rode her horse in the woods, she was attacked by arch-humans. Queen Bella was nearly dead, when one of her loyal knights rode in to save her. The beasts were slain, and the knight was a hero. Naturally, Queen Bella fell for her savior, Sir Josep. They were married, and soon after, Bella gave birth to a baby girl, their princess. As Princess Azlyn...
Azlyn? Azlyn thought.
"Azlyn?" Oliver whispered.
They both assumed it was a coincidence. Idiots.
...grew older, she found she had strange powers. She could heal most wounds, small or fatal, and could even bring the dead to life if they had died quite recently. (The princess discovered this when she held her mother when her mother had just died of an illness. Her mother was soon breathing happily, and healthily, with no signs of a sickness.) Not only could she heal, but she could destroy as well. Azlyn was once with her father on a hunt, when bandits appeared. She laid a single finger on the bandits, and they were blind. She had many characteristics of an angel, for she even claimed to speak to God.
The princess was happy for many years, but when she reached her seventeenth year, she was too powerful. Princess Azlyn began to speak and listen to not only God, but the king of the arch-humans. (The king, as you have read in an early part of the legends section, is thought to be the father of the sisters, Lillia and Winona.) By this time, the princess was now developing feathers, not wings, but feathers. Her feathers were shaped like angel wings, but they were not white. They were the color of peacock feathers. She was not an angel of God, but an angel of two creatures of God. She was not pure angel, and God did not want her, for she was leaning too far towards the evil.
Princess Azlyn was being tormented by the opposing voices of God and the arch-human king in her mind. It got so tormenting, that she killed all her knights in a rage, when the beast king commanded her to. Her parents fled the castle in fear that their daughter would turn against them as well. Azlyn began to follow all the commands of the beast king, wiping out entire kingdoms and servants of God. She even turned her kingdom from a Christian nation, to a Satanic nation. These acts were too much for God, and He destroyed Azlyn, breaking her body into millions of pieces that disintegrated in seconds. It is said that this feathered angel could only be killed by The Lord. Many had tried to kill her beforehand, but had failed at everything they tried.
After the evil princess was killed, the former king and queen came out of hiding as refugees in another kingdom. They regained their own kingdom, only to lose it again--or rather for the kingdom to lose them. King Josep confessed to Queen Bella that he was an arch-human. Some believe that this is the reason why the feathered angel was created. They believe a feathered angel is made from an arch-human and a perceptor. Josep thought he would continue to live happily with his queen, for their love was strong, but this was not so, for the queen was so distraught with this news, that she killed King Josep in his sleep. The next day, Queen Bella realized she had killed her savior and true love, so she killed herself.
All this turmoil because of a Feathered Angel.
Azlyn had enough of the reading, so she calmed herself, and thought of being in her own body.
When she was back, there were no headaches, she was sitting upright, and Tom was still there. Awesome, she hadn't been out for long, and she wasn't in pain.
"Wow, you learned fast. I heard it took your brother a year to get control of his," Tom said, surprised. "Where did you go?"
"Does that matter?" Azlyn was annoyed and embarrassed of where she had gone. "I learned, that's what's important."
"Yeah, whatever. Oh by the way, some perceptors can get stuck in their host body because they can't get back in their own body. Their soul is only freed when their real body dies off, but they're dead. So, uh, be careful," Tom said.
Azlyn gulped.
"Let's just get back to the others," Azlyn said. "Oh, and since there doesn't seem to be any monsters, I want to show you guys something, as a treat."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Azlyn and Tom found Calvin, Lisa, and Lilly shoving tubs of ice cream in their mouths, from a freezer that was miraculously working in a ice cream shop. Calvin looked up with a guilty countenance, ice cream dripping from his mouth.
"Ewww," Azlyn laughed. Although, she went over there and began shoveling ice cream into her mouth as well. It had been a while since she had been able to eat the delicious, sweet cream.
Tom only grumbled and leaned on the door.
Azlyn held on to Lilly's chubby hand, and called the others to head back into the car.
"Okay guys! I'm going to take you to an awesomesauce place! Tom, just listen to my directions!" Azlyn cheered.
"Hey! Awesomesauce is my word!" Calvin yelled, laughing.
Tom and Lisa sat up front, and Azlyn, Lilly, and Calvin sat in the back.
Azlyn stroked Lilly's strawberry blond hair, while shouting directions when needed. Calvin was peering over at Azlyn, but she noticed.
"Hey dude, that's under-aged. You're what, twenty-three?" Azlyn said.
"I wasn't looking at your boobs." Calvin laughed. "Your arm, what happened?"
Azlyn sighed, and gave him a look. It was that look that means "you know, the only thing that could happen." To be sure, she said, "I happened."
Azlyn expected Calvin to shut up and turn away, like everyone else did, but he did quite the opposite.
"I can't believe you, you idiot. I am not angry, I am upset. I am totally done with everything because my best friend is dead, and his little sister, who he loved so much, is doing this? Honestly, this is not totally cool tacos. Do you know the last thing Kael said to me before I never saw him again?" Calvin yelled. He chewed on the inside of his lip when he finished.
"W-what?" Azlyn said in a small voice.
"He said, 'I'm so happy little Azlyn didn't start training when I did, because her life would be a living hell. She's so perfect, and she always listens to Mom and Dad, and she loves me. I wish I could be an angel like her. I know she'll grow up just as perfect, and won't be like those other kids who do drugs, get depressed, cut, or whatever. She'll be a perfect angel, and she'll be my little sister. If anything ever happened to me in a Fight or something, I want you to tell her to stay perfect. Perfect like an angel.' I memorized that all, word for word, for six whole years," Calvin screamed at her.
The only thing Azlyn was thinking about, was how many times Kael had used the word angel.
Azlyn just kept giving Tom directions. They were almost there. Just a few more turns and--
"A library," Tom said with a flat voice. Not that it had ever been carbonated, but seriously.
"Not just a library, the Library of Congress!" Azlyn squealed. "Isn't it great? I used to read all the time! I can't wait to dive into books from this library!"
Calvin and Tom groaned. They wanted real live action, not books. Nonetheless, they got out. Azlyn was the last to leave, and when she turned around to shut the car, something caught her eye. On the seat that Azlyn had just inhabited, sat something green, with hints of different hues of blue and apricot. Azlyn went closer, and picked up something that tickled her fingers. It was rough, yet smooth at the same time. She held it closer to look at. There was no doubt about it. There, in her hand, rested a beautiful feather.
The feather of a peacock.