FSE

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It was the echoing of the dripping sound that grabbed her from sleep and yanked her into the waking world. The young woman startled awake, and glanced around trying to see through the darkness of her cell into the far corners of the room. She couldn't ever remember there being that sound before. It had always been deathly silent in her cell. She swore she had forgotten what it even sounded like to hear anything besides her own voice.

It was odd, after a while silence became normality. She had only been in the compound for what she thought to be a few months this time, and yet she had forgotten what it was like on the outside already. Though she assumed that didn't matter. The Earth was already probably much different than she remembered if the demons had any say in the matter.

Even the biting cold in her cell had become familiar; she no longer noticed the shivering that seemed to be a constant bodily function now. She ran a trembling hand through her closely cropped black hair, as her sapphire eyes stared toward the dripping sound.

Azure... that was her name; she mustn't forget it, remembering that one word was the only thing that kept her sane in this silence. She would repeat it over and over as if it were a mantra when she felt the edge of insanity or anxiety get too close for comfort.

She stared into the darkness with her almond-shaped eyes, then something opened where she was looking, a pale and soft blue light poured in the opening. It was harsh to her eyes though, her pupils dilated, trying to push out the offending light, something which she hadn't seen in such a large amount in months.

Her humanity shrank away from the light, she could tell from the bluish glow on its edge that it was magical. She didn't want anything to do with it. Magic put her here and she was tired of being near it. But she knew eventually she would be sold once again as a slave and she was ready as she'd ever be to fight all the way against her supposed new 'master'.

Azure refused to make it easy on whoever sold her and whoever bought her. She was usually gotten rid of because of her wild nature. She was impossible to break as many demons and supernatural's had learned. But she worked hard to be that way, there were moments where she thought she couldn't keep fighting, couldn't keep going, and yet she always ended up surviving.

She realized the bluish glow was coming from the open door of her cell. Azure watched it with suspicion until it dimmed and winked out of existence. The normal torch-light of faerie fire replaced it.

Wanting to go towards the door, Azure went against her desires and waited, something was still there, and she knew it. Some sixth sense told her it was there and to wait it out. Then a harsh screech sounded ending in a hissing gurgle, the air was stained with the smell of acidic blood. Someone out there had killed a demon.

Confusion began to pop up in Azure's mind, she took a step toward the open door, and yet just as she did that a shadow appeared in the doorway. As the shadowy figure stepped closer she was able to make out a masculine form.

He was older and yet somehow strength poured from him in waves of magic. She could see the shadowy wrinkles on his face, unearthly golden eyes. A smile curved his lips and his bloodstained clothes showed that it had been him who had attacked the demon, as its blood had started to eat through the cloth.

He stepped toward her with a gentle smile and an outstretched hand, "Don't be afraid, young one, I am here to help you escape. Take my hand..."

Azure stared at his hand with distrust, she didn't even know this super's name. Why should she trust a supernatural anyway? They had made her life hell for her whole short twenty-five years. Why would it make sense to trust this one?

"Why should I trust you? I have heard that line or something like it plenty of times, what makes you so different?" Azure asked coldly, her voice hoarse from disuse.

"Because I know your potential, something not even you can fathom. You have no idea your path, nor do you understand the strength beneath your frail skin. Let me show you, let me help you get away from here," he said, and though it was all very cryptic whatever he was talking about, she realized he spoke of something he believed in strongly.

A bright light suddenly erupted from his back and as it cleared two beautiful pale grey wings appeared. They weren't like demonic wings, which were either skeletal or bat-like; these were covered with plush feathers and fell from his shoulders to touch the ground elegantly.

He stood before her like a beacon of hope; he wasn't a normal supernatural creature she realized. He was an angel. But it was weird, all the angels she had ever heard of were beings of energy, so their wings though they looked like his did, were always described as pure light in the shape of feathered wings but his were actually corporeal. She didn't understand it; but the hope and strength she felt pouring from him was enough to convince her, though the logical part of her said she shouldn't, to take his hand.

Her instincts had never been wrong, once she had started listening to them. She could only hope this time they would be correct again.

Placing her hand in his, Azure allowed her body to be swept up into his arms and then to be taken from the place that had been her tortured existence the last few months. The angel pushed down with his wings and a huge gust lifted them into the air. She gripped him tightly, and Azure clenched her eyes shut as anxious butterflies filled her stomach.

Her heartbeat fluttered into an erratic beat, as she felt the world swoop away from her as they flew through the rather large hole he had made in the ceiling, strong arms tightened around her and the steady thump of his heart sounded in her ear.

He looked down at her and whispered, "Look at the scene below; you need to see what they have done."

Azure glanced down, and saw the destruction that demonic influence had brought. Necrotic earth was eating away at the land below. Trees were turning black and grasses disappearing; in their place were veins of bright, glowing purple lava. Beautiful but obviously dangerous, and black dead looking dirt surrounded it.

Humans and lower supernatural creatures were nursing the ground, as if they were tilling the lava, and growing something within it. She couldn't tell what it was, but the general feeling she got from it was evil.

Azure shuddered slightly, as they passed through a bank of clouds into the higher atmosphere and in doing so, thick moisture collected on her exposed limbs. The clouds these days weren't really clouds however, they were more like smog, thickening the air with that gritty feeling of humidity, and a disgusting touch of grim.

The smog made it hard to breathe, the heat from the rotting Earth's crust made it hard to move. It was a miserable existence for everyone who wasn't from the Lower Realms. Even the supernatural creatures who had sided with the demons could barely stand it.

Azure felt sick to her stomach, she couldn't remember a time when the Earth didn't have demons crawling all over it, but her soul, her humanity, knew that it shouldn't be this sickly. It shouldn't be this hard to merely breathe, and yet every few months as the purple scars in the dirt grew it became harder and harder to exist.

She closed her blue eyes against the pain she felt for the Earth, and also against the nausea she felt building up in her stomach from motion sickness. Maybe she wasn't meant to fly. The need to throw up was easily destroying the awesome feeling of elation and weightlessness that she had felt in the very beginning.

She must have had a sickly look about her, or her complexion must have paled, because the angel warned her, "Don't you dare throw up on me."

Groaning, she was about to bury her face in his chest, until she was reminded she barely knew him and so if she really did throw up on him in the process he was likely to drop her. Swallowing the rising bile in her throat, she focused on his face.

"Where are we going?" She asked, actually realizing that she had no idea where they were headed.

"To meet my friends, don't worry it's just outside the city, we are almost there," he smiled down her reassuringly.

Somehow she actually felt reassured too. It made no sense, she had just met this angel, and his strange and very pale grey wings should have put her off. Angels were just another supernatural creature, just one she had never seen before except in books. It had always been said they had abandoned the human race, but then why was this angel here. Carrying her to some place that she didn't know, the most disturbing thing about this entire situation though, was that she trusted him to do it.

She noticed they were descending now, toward a large castle she had never seen before (though admittedly she had never been outside her homes when she had been enslaved), it looked rather out of place next to the Victorian houses next to it on the San Franciscan streets.

A strange glow emanated around the castle, a light baby-blue that almost didn't exist. She noticed demons passing the castle below without even glancing at it. She would bet her sudden freedom that there was glamour placed upon on the building.

She glanced around the parapets and standing guard were several men and women, watching the movement below with scrutinizing eyes. On their hips or their backs were various types of weapons, ranging from halberds to scimitars.

As they flew over the roofs of the castle, and began to land in the gardens in the center there were several of the guards who glanced up and gave a nod of acceptance. A small group of people were there to greet us. Azure assumed they must have been somewhat late from the way everyone had been fidgeting and looked slightly relieved to see the two of them.

She swallowed nervously, as everyone looked over her closely, the gazes of about eight people swept up and down her body, as the angel who was carrying her placed her on the ground. She got the over all feeling no one was impressed with her and from the way she was being pushed forward she felt she was supposed to be impressing them.

Azure just stood there, confused at to what was going on behind looks between them and the angel who had ferried her there. Then the silence was broken as the scent of cigarette smoke wafted across the gardens and a man walked through the parting crowd with a smirk on his face.

Smoke curled out from his mouth as he blew out his recent drag, and as he talked his voice held a mocking tone to it, "This? _This,_pathetic creature is our salvation?"

He scoffed at her, his voice was taunting her. Azure immediately bristled at the comment, both for the reason that she could very _well_be someone's salvation if she deemed so necessary, and for the other fact that she had never agreed to anything of the sort.

Frowning in slight confusion, she looked the man up and down, taking in his swarthy skin, black hair, and lighter green eyes. He easily was at least six foot two inches, dwarfing her five foot seven inches without even trying. He was attractive, she wouldn't deny it at all, and there was no denying it. He also must have held some sort of status in the group before her because they seemed to back him up.

Yet as he looked down upon her, that smug smile was curving his lips, waiting for her to shy away. She didn't, she drew strength where it seemed impossible to have any. It seemed like it was always that way, she always had that ability even in the worst of times, to pull the energy from around her and make it into something she could harness for her own sake.

As she straightened and grew taller, his height on her suddenly seemed like nothing. It was as if she grew a couple feet and was much taller than him, which was of course physically impossible, but the pure energy emanating from her form made him almost shrink before her.

His cock-sure attitude disappeared, and the smirk changed into a smile of excitement. He nodded, as if in acceptance at the angel behind her, and then all at once all the people surrounding her knelt in front of her. She glanced around to find the angel behind her was also kneeling to her, she frowned so lost in confusion that the energy she held within her dissipated and she rubbed the back of her neck.

"What in the world are you all doing?" she asked.

The smoking man smiled up at her, a true smile this time, though it was slight, "Welcoming our new leader, and the last goddess of the elements."