For Love Of The Sun [7/8]
Title: For Love Of The Sun [Part 7 of 8]
Rating: PG 13 (brief suggestive content and voilence)
Pairings: Ryden, Ryan/Keltie (yes, I started this fic back when Ryan was still with Keltie. God help me.)
Summary: (AU, Chaptered, 3rd person POV) Brendon was an angel. Exiled from the heavens, his wings were cut from his back and he fell to Earth, losing all his memories in the process. On his casual way home from work one day, Ryan Ross finds him on the street, homeless and helpless. Immediately enchanted by the boy, Ryan brings Brendon home with him and promises to take care of him. But Ryan gets much more than he bargained for. Danger and mystery lurk around every corner as Brendon struggles to unravel his memories and Ryan tries to protect him from a group of dangerous people who take a sudden interest in the strange boy. And as time and tribulation bring them closer together, Ryan finds everything he knows - including himself - changing.
Word count for this chapter: 3,560
Ryan had been nothing but restless since Brendon had been taken. Several days had passed, and Ryan hadn’t had a moment’s rest. He could barely sleep a wink at night, and spent almost every waking moment with concerned thoughts of Brendon tumbling around in his mind.
Calling it stressful and distracting would be an understatement. Ryan found himself hardly able to do any work at all. His days didn’t get any better when he got home from the office. Most of the time, whether he made a conscious decision to or not, he would end up in Brendon’s room, just sitting on either the floor or the bed, and thinking.
Thinking about Brendon and where he was right now, how he was being treated, what those winged monsters could have wanted with him. He prayed it was nothing bad. He couldn’t even cope with the possibility of Brendon being hurt, wherever he was.
What also could have been holding Ryan’s attention captive was the strange feeling he’d had ever since Brendon had gone. The best way he could describe the strange sensation would be a pull. In the back of his mind, he felt that there was some kind of invisible force pulling him somewhere, trying to instruct him to go somewhere. It was almost like something was silently calling to him. It was utterly bizarre, to say the least.
Ryan tried to ignore it when it didn’t go away after a few days, but it seemed to just get stronger, and it made getting his mind off of Brendon impossible. In a way completely impossible to explain, the pull felt somehow connected to Brendon. Every time Ryan felt that little prickle, that little pull, he would see Brendon’s face in the forefront of his mind, and the urge to go after him pulsated in his chest.
The winged creatures had flown off into the sky, so obviously there was no way for Ryan to gauge the direction they had taken Brendon in. But still, Ryan wanted to search for him. That incessant tugging at him made it impossible to leave the idea alone. Made it impossible for Ryan to just sit back and accept that Brendon was gone from his life forever.
It was almost like Brendon was still there, flashing Ryan that wide, honest smile and twinkling brown eyes, and like he still had a tight hold on Ryan’s heart.
As the fog of darkness began to lift as Brendon came to, the first and only thing he noticed was the pain in his wrists. A tiny whimper escaped from his mouth.
A voice, “Hm? It appears he’s waking up.”
Brendon’s eyes opened to slits, and darted right to his wrist to see what was causing the discomfort. A cold, heavy chain was strapped tightly over his wrist, pinning his whole arm down. He tossed his head side to side, looking at his other arm, and then at his surroundings. The chains were not only pinning his arms down, but they were also holding him up, keeping his body pressed tight to and hanging from a slab of what was either rock or metal. Brendon couldn’t tell. All he knew was that it was hard and cold, and he didn’t like it one bit.
His arms wouldn’t budge even the tiniest bit when he tried his hardest to move them. He was held fast. His feet weren’t even close to the ground, and he shut his eyes again for a moment against the fear.
When he forced them back open, he looked around. One of the scary winged people was standing right at his feet. Brendon flinched a little bit and hurriedly looked away.
The other things he saw weren’t any better. There were several winged people scattered throughout the large area Brendon found himself looking upon. His eyes were first drawn to a large vat in the center of the giant room. The container had no lid, and seemed to be full of a translucent, bubbling liquid. Brendon didn’t know what it was, and didn’t waste his time guessing. When he looked up, he could see the sky. The place they were in was like a deep bowl, with circular walls curving inwards as they reached up towards the sky. Brendon wasn’t even sure they could be called walls. The place looked like a natural structure, and the ‘wall’s looked like rock. The place was fairly dirty, but there were countless machines there nonetheless. Some had wires of different colors and immeasurable quantity running to and from them. Some flashed with blinding lights in an array of colors. Some had screens with scrolling text in some language Brendon couldn’t decipher.
“He has awoken….”
Brendon traced the source of the deep voice. It came from a winged man that was approaching Brendon from the other side of the room. He did not wear a helmet, and Brendon thought his attire looked more casual than the uniforms all the other winged people wore. His clothes were white, more loose-fitting, and covered his whole upper body unlike the strap-shirts the ones that all the others wore. But, of course, there were wide slits in the back of his shirt where his wings pierced through.
Brendon’s eyes first stayed glued to the giant, flapping, intimidating things. His eyes finally darted down to the man’s face. He had stepped closer to Brendon, and was leaning in, examining Brendon with wide, jet-black eyes. Brendon made a small frightened noise and shrunk back the little bit he could against the rock/metal slab holding him.
“He is truly frightened. Remarkable,” the man muttered to himself, still peering closely at Brendon. When he finally stepped back, he crossed his arms and looked Brendon over casually, from head to toe. Brendon peeked a look up, and saw the half a dozen winged creatures all looking over at him. He swallowed hard, closing his eyes.
“It was reported that his memories were indeed erased?” Brendon heard the same one ask. One of the others responded an affirmative in a gruff voice. There were a few seconds of silence, and then the sound of feet moving over the floor and back towards Brendon. A hand suddenly took hold of Brendon’s chin, tugging his face up roughly.
Brendon cried out softly and opened his eyes. It was the same man who’d been staring him down a minute ago. Brendon gulped, his wide, frightened eyes blinking rapidly.
“Tell me what the first thing you can remember is.”
The fingers around Brendon’s chin tightened and pinched him, and Brendon yelped out, “R-Ryan finding me! On the street…”
The man’s eyes narrowed into slits, and he peered closely into Brendon’s face. He abruptly let go of the boy’s chin and instead spread Brendon’s right eye open wide with his first two fingers pressing above and below his eye.
“…No dilation or irregularities….Lying isn’t a possibility.”
The man stepped back, letting go of Brendon. He paced away, rubbing at his own chin thoughtfully. “No memory of the banishment or the reason for it....then there can be no repentance….no possibility of salvation…” After a few moments of silent pacing, he whirled around to face Brendon. “I’ll have to restore all the memories you’ve lost. Look at me, boy, and make sure you’re paying attention to each and every word. A lot is resting on your shoulders.”
Brendon looked up at the man slowly, timidly. He didn’t have the foggiest idea what the man could be talking about. But his black eyes were biting into Brendon again, so he nodded a little bit and paid as close attention as he could in his current situation.
“Brendon, you used to be one of us. An angel. And a perfectly law-abiding one too, imagine that.
“Each one of us is created with a predestined Partner. Most are created in pairs, with the two’s Partners being each other. This way, once one meets their Partner, their love is guaranteed to be returned, as the two were created expressly for each other. Gender, age, or the like mean nothing. Two Partners love each other unwaveringly and ever-faithfully.
“However, a long while ago - several thousand years past - things were not that simple for us. Only a percentage of us had our predestined pairs. As for the rest, poor souls,…their Partners were humans. It’s a very unfortunate thing for your Partner to be human, because there is no guarantee. Humans are not born with any single Partner, they could love anyone, and any amount of different people. For an angel to be united with their human partner, they must descend to Earth and court the human in attempt to win their affection and love.
“In order to walk among humans, angels have two choices. One is to inhabit a temporary human version of their own bodies, which conceals their wings. In these bodies they could meet and attempt to win over their human. But these bodies are not long-lasting, and the angel will soon have to find a different body. The second option is to give up their existence as an angel. They choose to turn their bodies completely human for good. This means no wings, no immortality, no nothing. One dies just as quickly as a human would. This is permanent, and only those whose human’s love has already been captured would take this path.
“But,….what of the angels who cannot win their human’s love? Living without one’s Partner is nigh unbearable. It has been the only fatal thing known to our kind. Angels whose human partners did not love them in return often found ways to end their own lives.
“We angels are immortal. The only thing that could drive us to seek death is the prospect of spending eternity alone.
“Many angels passed on in this manner, an immeasurable number. But after many, many years of suffering, the plight began to lessen, and then disappear entirely. There were no more angels looking down towards Earth for their Partners. All were in a pair with other angels, and all were happy. The Golden Age of our kind dawned and we prospered for thousands of years. Then, however, our endless happiness and achievement was all thrown into jeopardy. With you.”
The man’s voice all of a sudden turned cold, hard, and unforgiving. Brendon flinched slightly when he saw the glare coming from those unrelenting black eyes. The narrator turned away from Brendon, beginning to pace slightly as he continued.
“We were certain that the plight of human Partners was past. But then, you were noticed. You, your obsession with watching Earth below,…and especially your interest in a human boy named Ryan. The High Council watched you for a while, until they were certain that yes, this boy was indeed your Partner.”
Brendon had lifted his head at the mention of Ryan’s name. He was surprised, yet he believed it. It made sense; why he had been quick to trust Ryan when he had found him on the street, that day that now seemed so long ago. Brendon had felt a connection with Ryan almost instantly - something strong and undeniable. He was at least glad that now he could put a label on all the curious, powerful things he felt for the man who had rescued him and taken him in.
The winged man continued, oblivious and apathetic to Brendon’s revelations.
“You were called to come before the Council. You did so without a fight. The danger of your human Partner was explained and you were commanded to stop watching Ryan, to stop paying attention to him. You promised to heed what the Council ordered, but as soon as you thought you were out of their sight, you disobeyed.
“Before the Council had intervened, you had been watching Ryan every day, almost everything he did. You did cut back a considerable amount once the Council forbade it, and I suppose you tried as well as you could to stop watching Ryan. I can imagine it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but that was no excuse to disobey the Council’s orders. Forbidding you from watching or courting Ryan was to keep all of our kind safe, hoping that humans for Partners would not reemerge for any of us other than you. Human Partners would once again bring the possibility of death for our kind, and the Council would do whatever necessary to stop it, including forbidding you from ever being with Ryan.
“You were given several warnings when you did not stop looking down at Ryan. Once the Council could see that you were never going to turn away from the boy, you were summoned again. This time, you had to be tracked down, and dragged there. You fought. I think you knew what was coming. Your Partner endangered you and possibly all of our kind. Something had to be done.
“So, you were banished. You were cast down to Earth, your memories and wings taken from you as you fell.” He stopped pacing, and turned to fix his gaze on Brendon. “And that’s how you’re here today. On Earth, with this body and no memories.”
Brendon was silent as he tried to digest all of this. He had unavoidably known that he was….different from Ryan and Keltie. He had never been anywhere near any idea of why, or what made him different, just that there was something. He supposed that the very existence of the winged people mulling about this place was proof enough of the story.
So Ryan was his….destined Partner? Brendon found himself feeling a little bit heart-warmed by the thought. He couldn’t help smiling a little bit, even considering the grim place he was currently trapped. But then…the smile shriveled up and disappeared as Brendon thought back to just before he had been taken by the winged people. Back to when Ryan had been holding him in his lap, trying to comfort him and ease his fears. He had asked Ryan if he loved him. He couldn’t deal with the idea of those cruel winged men from before being right about the reason Ryan had taken him in. Brendon remembered all to well what Ryan had been about to answer. Hurt licked at Brendon’s heart and everything in him as he remembered Ryan choking out the words “I don’t…..”. The sentence didn’t need to be finished. Brendon preferred it wasn’t. Then, maybe this awful heartache that was spreading and growing from inside him wouldn’t take him over and break him completely.
His thoughts were interrupted when the winged man spoke again. “You don’t just have to take my word for it.”
Brendon looked up at him again, fearful of the dark tone that had appeared in his voice. The man nodded at two of the more muscular, bare-chested men. They were the same ones who had taken Brendon, and Brendon was getting the idea that they were some kind of soldiers. The two burly ones came forward towards Brendon, and the boy shrank back a little bit against the cold, hard slab at his back. The non-soldier one, the one who had explained Brendon’s past to him, walked over to one of the machines lining the walls and pressed a large red, flashing button. The chains that had been binding Brendon’s wrists suddenly gave away, and Brendon slipped to the ground, too surprised by the sudden fall to catch himself on his feet. The two large, scary men were at his side almost immediately, hauling him up to his feet.
They dragged Brendon’s much smaller body towards the giant tank of bubbling, opaque liquid. Brendon whimpered softly, and tried to pull away.
“Don’t struggle now,” said the non-soldier, and smirked wickedly at Brendon. “Don’t you think you should know the reason we’re here? Why we were sent by the Council? It became apparent that not even banishing you and erasing your memories would keep you away from Ryan. But that has to change, and this human Partnership cannot be allowed to spread. We’re to keep you here, away from Ryan. And to determine whether or not the reason could be physical or biological for your Partnership with a human. We’re to test and experiment on you, and find out what makes you different.”
Brendon didn’t like the sound of that. Didn’t like it at all, and the cold tone in the man’s voice was the worst part.
One of the winged men ripped Brendon’s shirt off of him with one splitting tug. Then the two of them began to lift Brendon up off the ground and into the air. Brendon kicked and struggled when he saw that he was headed for the vat of the strange, bubbling, dangerous-looking liquid.
“Calm down,” said the scientist-type in a patronizing voice. “We have to return you now to your normal form. That human body is only a temporary one.”
By this point, Brendon was crying out and shouting, kicking desperately out at the men who were now about to lower him into the fluid.
“No, no! Don’t put me in there!” Brendon’s shouts were abruptly silenced as his whole body was forced under the strange water. Despite his thrashing, he was held all the way under for several long seconds. Brendon’s lungs seared and ached for oxygen. The liquid was both scalding and frigid at the same time. It felt numbingly cold against his skin, yet heat seemed to be penetrating its way through his whole body. The feeling was indescribable.
When the steel hands that had been holding him under finally hoisted him out, he was suddenly consumed by a searing pain tearing at his back. Brendon cried out as he was lifted from the water, his eyes squeezed shut in pain. He could have sworn his back was burning.
It only got worse. The pain sharpened into two points in the middle of his back, splitting their way down the length of his whole back. He felt hot blood trickling down his skin, and then he let out a sharp cry as it felt as if his spine was splitting in two. Suddenly it felt like something was piercing sharp through his skin, but instead of into him from the outside, it was bursting out from inside him.
Two long gashes had appeared down his back, and a pair of giant, perfect white wings were cutting their way out through the gashes. As his pain heightened to its sharpest, most unbearable point, his wings unfurled themselves, fully free of his body. His eyes remained shut as he gasped in pain, so he couldn’t take in the other changes his body had undergone. He had grown taller and larger, his arms muscled and toned rather than thin like they had been, and strong muscles were visibly stretched taut over his chest. He wasn’t nearly as big or burly as the two men holding him up by his arms, but his size had notably grown. The fluttering, quivering wings certainly helped him appear like he had grown larger.
While all this was happening, he could feel all of his lost memories rushing back, flooding through his brain so quickly it felt like his head was swelling and could very well explode.
Brendon was still screaming from the residual pain when the scientist-type mused with a smile. “Welcome back to your true body. It’s missed you.”
Ryan was at work when it happened. The constant, slight pulling at the back of his mind suddenly sharpened and coalesced into a siren. He gasped from his seat in his chair as the pained, desperate cry tugged at him. It was Brendon. Ryan knew it was Brendon, he could feel it was Brendon. Brendon was in desperate need of help. He was in pain, and he needed Ryan to find him. Ryan knew he would never be able to say why, but all of a sudden he was certain beyond a doubt that this overwhelming force now pulling at every limb in his body was from Brendon, and would lead Ryan to him. He thought back to the way Brendon’s body had always been unusually warm, the long twin scars running down his back, and the way he could cook expertly with no experience. It was far from outlandish for Ryan to think this thing in his mind was Brendon’s doing.
Ryan was out of his office in seconds flat. He didn’t wonder anymore about where to go, didn’t fret over the fact that he had no leads and no hints as to where those awful winged creatures had taken Brendon. The pull was better than a map. It led him, yanked him on relentlessly, and Ryan let it. Ryan threw himself into it, not even caring or looking where exactly it was taking him. He trusted it. He knew it would either bring him to Brendon, or to a place where he could help save Brendon from whatever it was that was hurting him.
Ryan soon found himself near the shore. The little bit of coast that ran close to Ryan’s town was undeveloped and empty of tourists or vacationers. Most of the beach was covered by rocky crags anyway. When his gaze landed on one, the pull jumped. Ryan trusted its strange intensity. He was positive without a doubt - Brendon was there.
A/N: Only one more part to go, guys! And I have good news for you. : ) I'm going to save you guys the wait and post the final chapter tomorrow. Keep your heads up! <3
Rating: PG 13 (brief suggestive content and voilence)
Pairings: Ryden, Ryan/Keltie (yes, I started this fic back when Ryan was still with Keltie. God help me.)
Summary: (AU, Chaptered, 3rd person POV) Brendon was an angel. Exiled from the heavens, his wings were cut from his back and he fell to Earth, losing all his memories in the process. On his casual way home from work one day, Ryan Ross finds him on the street, homeless and helpless. Immediately enchanted by the boy, Ryan brings Brendon home with him and promises to take care of him. But Ryan gets much more than he bargained for. Danger and mystery lurk around every corner as Brendon struggles to unravel his memories and Ryan tries to protect him from a group of dangerous people who take a sudden interest in the strange boy. And as time and tribulation bring them closer together, Ryan finds everything he knows - including himself - changing.
Word count for this chapter: 3,560
Ryan had been nothing but restless since Brendon had been taken. Several days had passed, and Ryan hadn’t had a moment’s rest. He could barely sleep a wink at night, and spent almost every waking moment with concerned thoughts of Brendon tumbling around in his mind.
Calling it stressful and distracting would be an understatement. Ryan found himself hardly able to do any work at all. His days didn’t get any better when he got home from the office. Most of the time, whether he made a conscious decision to or not, he would end up in Brendon’s room, just sitting on either the floor or the bed, and thinking.
Thinking about Brendon and where he was right now, how he was being treated, what those winged monsters could have wanted with him. He prayed it was nothing bad. He couldn’t even cope with the possibility of Brendon being hurt, wherever he was.
What also could have been holding Ryan’s attention captive was the strange feeling he’d had ever since Brendon had gone. The best way he could describe the strange sensation would be a pull. In the back of his mind, he felt that there was some kind of invisible force pulling him somewhere, trying to instruct him to go somewhere. It was almost like something was silently calling to him. It was utterly bizarre, to say the least.
Ryan tried to ignore it when it didn’t go away after a few days, but it seemed to just get stronger, and it made getting his mind off of Brendon impossible. In a way completely impossible to explain, the pull felt somehow connected to Brendon. Every time Ryan felt that little prickle, that little pull, he would see Brendon’s face in the forefront of his mind, and the urge to go after him pulsated in his chest.
The winged creatures had flown off into the sky, so obviously there was no way for Ryan to gauge the direction they had taken Brendon in. But still, Ryan wanted to search for him. That incessant tugging at him made it impossible to leave the idea alone. Made it impossible for Ryan to just sit back and accept that Brendon was gone from his life forever.
It was almost like Brendon was still there, flashing Ryan that wide, honest smile and twinkling brown eyes, and like he still had a tight hold on Ryan’s heart.
As the fog of darkness began to lift as Brendon came to, the first and only thing he noticed was the pain in his wrists. A tiny whimper escaped from his mouth.
A voice, “Hm? It appears he’s waking up.”
Brendon’s eyes opened to slits, and darted right to his wrist to see what was causing the discomfort. A cold, heavy chain was strapped tightly over his wrist, pinning his whole arm down. He tossed his head side to side, looking at his other arm, and then at his surroundings. The chains were not only pinning his arms down, but they were also holding him up, keeping his body pressed tight to and hanging from a slab of what was either rock or metal. Brendon couldn’t tell. All he knew was that it was hard and cold, and he didn’t like it one bit.
His arms wouldn’t budge even the tiniest bit when he tried his hardest to move them. He was held fast. His feet weren’t even close to the ground, and he shut his eyes again for a moment against the fear.
When he forced them back open, he looked around. One of the scary winged people was standing right at his feet. Brendon flinched a little bit and hurriedly looked away.
The other things he saw weren’t any better. There were several winged people scattered throughout the large area Brendon found himself looking upon. His eyes were first drawn to a large vat in the center of the giant room. The container had no lid, and seemed to be full of a translucent, bubbling liquid. Brendon didn’t know what it was, and didn’t waste his time guessing. When he looked up, he could see the sky. The place they were in was like a deep bowl, with circular walls curving inwards as they reached up towards the sky. Brendon wasn’t even sure they could be called walls. The place looked like a natural structure, and the ‘wall’s looked like rock. The place was fairly dirty, but there were countless machines there nonetheless. Some had wires of different colors and immeasurable quantity running to and from them. Some flashed with blinding lights in an array of colors. Some had screens with scrolling text in some language Brendon couldn’t decipher.
“He has awoken….”
Brendon traced the source of the deep voice. It came from a winged man that was approaching Brendon from the other side of the room. He did not wear a helmet, and Brendon thought his attire looked more casual than the uniforms all the other winged people wore. His clothes were white, more loose-fitting, and covered his whole upper body unlike the strap-shirts the ones that all the others wore. But, of course, there were wide slits in the back of his shirt where his wings pierced through.
Brendon’s eyes first stayed glued to the giant, flapping, intimidating things. His eyes finally darted down to the man’s face. He had stepped closer to Brendon, and was leaning in, examining Brendon with wide, jet-black eyes. Brendon made a small frightened noise and shrunk back the little bit he could against the rock/metal slab holding him.
“He is truly frightened. Remarkable,” the man muttered to himself, still peering closely at Brendon. When he finally stepped back, he crossed his arms and looked Brendon over casually, from head to toe. Brendon peeked a look up, and saw the half a dozen winged creatures all looking over at him. He swallowed hard, closing his eyes.
“It was reported that his memories were indeed erased?” Brendon heard the same one ask. One of the others responded an affirmative in a gruff voice. There were a few seconds of silence, and then the sound of feet moving over the floor and back towards Brendon. A hand suddenly took hold of Brendon’s chin, tugging his face up roughly.
Brendon cried out softly and opened his eyes. It was the same man who’d been staring him down a minute ago. Brendon gulped, his wide, frightened eyes blinking rapidly.
“Tell me what the first thing you can remember is.”
The fingers around Brendon’s chin tightened and pinched him, and Brendon yelped out, “R-Ryan finding me! On the street…”
The man’s eyes narrowed into slits, and he peered closely into Brendon’s face. He abruptly let go of the boy’s chin and instead spread Brendon’s right eye open wide with his first two fingers pressing above and below his eye.
“…No dilation or irregularities….Lying isn’t a possibility.”
The man stepped back, letting go of Brendon. He paced away, rubbing at his own chin thoughtfully. “No memory of the banishment or the reason for it....then there can be no repentance….no possibility of salvation…” After a few moments of silent pacing, he whirled around to face Brendon. “I’ll have to restore all the memories you’ve lost. Look at me, boy, and make sure you’re paying attention to each and every word. A lot is resting on your shoulders.”
Brendon looked up at the man slowly, timidly. He didn’t have the foggiest idea what the man could be talking about. But his black eyes were biting into Brendon again, so he nodded a little bit and paid as close attention as he could in his current situation.
“Brendon, you used to be one of us. An angel. And a perfectly law-abiding one too, imagine that.
“Each one of us is created with a predestined Partner. Most are created in pairs, with the two’s Partners being each other. This way, once one meets their Partner, their love is guaranteed to be returned, as the two were created expressly for each other. Gender, age, or the like mean nothing. Two Partners love each other unwaveringly and ever-faithfully.
“However, a long while ago - several thousand years past - things were not that simple for us. Only a percentage of us had our predestined pairs. As for the rest, poor souls,…their Partners were humans. It’s a very unfortunate thing for your Partner to be human, because there is no guarantee. Humans are not born with any single Partner, they could love anyone, and any amount of different people. For an angel to be united with their human partner, they must descend to Earth and court the human in attempt to win their affection and love.
“In order to walk among humans, angels have two choices. One is to inhabit a temporary human version of their own bodies, which conceals their wings. In these bodies they could meet and attempt to win over their human. But these bodies are not long-lasting, and the angel will soon have to find a different body. The second option is to give up their existence as an angel. They choose to turn their bodies completely human for good. This means no wings, no immortality, no nothing. One dies just as quickly as a human would. This is permanent, and only those whose human’s love has already been captured would take this path.
“But,….what of the angels who cannot win their human’s love? Living without one’s Partner is nigh unbearable. It has been the only fatal thing known to our kind. Angels whose human partners did not love them in return often found ways to end their own lives.
“We angels are immortal. The only thing that could drive us to seek death is the prospect of spending eternity alone.
“Many angels passed on in this manner, an immeasurable number. But after many, many years of suffering, the plight began to lessen, and then disappear entirely. There were no more angels looking down towards Earth for their Partners. All were in a pair with other angels, and all were happy. The Golden Age of our kind dawned and we prospered for thousands of years. Then, however, our endless happiness and achievement was all thrown into jeopardy. With you.”
The man’s voice all of a sudden turned cold, hard, and unforgiving. Brendon flinched slightly when he saw the glare coming from those unrelenting black eyes. The narrator turned away from Brendon, beginning to pace slightly as he continued.
“We were certain that the plight of human Partners was past. But then, you were noticed. You, your obsession with watching Earth below,…and especially your interest in a human boy named Ryan. The High Council watched you for a while, until they were certain that yes, this boy was indeed your Partner.”
Brendon had lifted his head at the mention of Ryan’s name. He was surprised, yet he believed it. It made sense; why he had been quick to trust Ryan when he had found him on the street, that day that now seemed so long ago. Brendon had felt a connection with Ryan almost instantly - something strong and undeniable. He was at least glad that now he could put a label on all the curious, powerful things he felt for the man who had rescued him and taken him in.
The winged man continued, oblivious and apathetic to Brendon’s revelations.
“You were called to come before the Council. You did so without a fight. The danger of your human Partner was explained and you were commanded to stop watching Ryan, to stop paying attention to him. You promised to heed what the Council ordered, but as soon as you thought you were out of their sight, you disobeyed.
“Before the Council had intervened, you had been watching Ryan every day, almost everything he did. You did cut back a considerable amount once the Council forbade it, and I suppose you tried as well as you could to stop watching Ryan. I can imagine it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but that was no excuse to disobey the Council’s orders. Forbidding you from watching or courting Ryan was to keep all of our kind safe, hoping that humans for Partners would not reemerge for any of us other than you. Human Partners would once again bring the possibility of death for our kind, and the Council would do whatever necessary to stop it, including forbidding you from ever being with Ryan.
“You were given several warnings when you did not stop looking down at Ryan. Once the Council could see that you were never going to turn away from the boy, you were summoned again. This time, you had to be tracked down, and dragged there. You fought. I think you knew what was coming. Your Partner endangered you and possibly all of our kind. Something had to be done.
“So, you were banished. You were cast down to Earth, your memories and wings taken from you as you fell.” He stopped pacing, and turned to fix his gaze on Brendon. “And that’s how you’re here today. On Earth, with this body and no memories.”
Brendon was silent as he tried to digest all of this. He had unavoidably known that he was….different from Ryan and Keltie. He had never been anywhere near any idea of why, or what made him different, just that there was something. He supposed that the very existence of the winged people mulling about this place was proof enough of the story.
So Ryan was his….destined Partner? Brendon found himself feeling a little bit heart-warmed by the thought. He couldn’t help smiling a little bit, even considering the grim place he was currently trapped. But then…the smile shriveled up and disappeared as Brendon thought back to just before he had been taken by the winged people. Back to when Ryan had been holding him in his lap, trying to comfort him and ease his fears. He had asked Ryan if he loved him. He couldn’t deal with the idea of those cruel winged men from before being right about the reason Ryan had taken him in. Brendon remembered all to well what Ryan had been about to answer. Hurt licked at Brendon’s heart and everything in him as he remembered Ryan choking out the words “I don’t…..”. The sentence didn’t need to be finished. Brendon preferred it wasn’t. Then, maybe this awful heartache that was spreading and growing from inside him wouldn’t take him over and break him completely.
His thoughts were interrupted when the winged man spoke again. “You don’t just have to take my word for it.”
Brendon looked up at him again, fearful of the dark tone that had appeared in his voice. The man nodded at two of the more muscular, bare-chested men. They were the same ones who had taken Brendon, and Brendon was getting the idea that they were some kind of soldiers. The two burly ones came forward towards Brendon, and the boy shrank back a little bit against the cold, hard slab at his back. The non-soldier one, the one who had explained Brendon’s past to him, walked over to one of the machines lining the walls and pressed a large red, flashing button. The chains that had been binding Brendon’s wrists suddenly gave away, and Brendon slipped to the ground, too surprised by the sudden fall to catch himself on his feet. The two large, scary men were at his side almost immediately, hauling him up to his feet.
They dragged Brendon’s much smaller body towards the giant tank of bubbling, opaque liquid. Brendon whimpered softly, and tried to pull away.
“Don’t struggle now,” said the non-soldier, and smirked wickedly at Brendon. “Don’t you think you should know the reason we’re here? Why we were sent by the Council? It became apparent that not even banishing you and erasing your memories would keep you away from Ryan. But that has to change, and this human Partnership cannot be allowed to spread. We’re to keep you here, away from Ryan. And to determine whether or not the reason could be physical or biological for your Partnership with a human. We’re to test and experiment on you, and find out what makes you different.”
Brendon didn’t like the sound of that. Didn’t like it at all, and the cold tone in the man’s voice was the worst part.
One of the winged men ripped Brendon’s shirt off of him with one splitting tug. Then the two of them began to lift Brendon up off the ground and into the air. Brendon kicked and struggled when he saw that he was headed for the vat of the strange, bubbling, dangerous-looking liquid.
“Calm down,” said the scientist-type in a patronizing voice. “We have to return you now to your normal form. That human body is only a temporary one.”
By this point, Brendon was crying out and shouting, kicking desperately out at the men who were now about to lower him into the fluid.
“No, no! Don’t put me in there!” Brendon’s shouts were abruptly silenced as his whole body was forced under the strange water. Despite his thrashing, he was held all the way under for several long seconds. Brendon’s lungs seared and ached for oxygen. The liquid was both scalding and frigid at the same time. It felt numbingly cold against his skin, yet heat seemed to be penetrating its way through his whole body. The feeling was indescribable.
When the steel hands that had been holding him under finally hoisted him out, he was suddenly consumed by a searing pain tearing at his back. Brendon cried out as he was lifted from the water, his eyes squeezed shut in pain. He could have sworn his back was burning.
It only got worse. The pain sharpened into two points in the middle of his back, splitting their way down the length of his whole back. He felt hot blood trickling down his skin, and then he let out a sharp cry as it felt as if his spine was splitting in two. Suddenly it felt like something was piercing sharp through his skin, but instead of into him from the outside, it was bursting out from inside him.
Two long gashes had appeared down his back, and a pair of giant, perfect white wings were cutting their way out through the gashes. As his pain heightened to its sharpest, most unbearable point, his wings unfurled themselves, fully free of his body. His eyes remained shut as he gasped in pain, so he couldn’t take in the other changes his body had undergone. He had grown taller and larger, his arms muscled and toned rather than thin like they had been, and strong muscles were visibly stretched taut over his chest. He wasn’t nearly as big or burly as the two men holding him up by his arms, but his size had notably grown. The fluttering, quivering wings certainly helped him appear like he had grown larger.
While all this was happening, he could feel all of his lost memories rushing back, flooding through his brain so quickly it felt like his head was swelling and could very well explode.
Brendon was still screaming from the residual pain when the scientist-type mused with a smile. “Welcome back to your true body. It’s missed you.”
Ryan was at work when it happened. The constant, slight pulling at the back of his mind suddenly sharpened and coalesced into a siren. He gasped from his seat in his chair as the pained, desperate cry tugged at him. It was Brendon. Ryan knew it was Brendon, he could feel it was Brendon. Brendon was in desperate need of help. He was in pain, and he needed Ryan to find him. Ryan knew he would never be able to say why, but all of a sudden he was certain beyond a doubt that this overwhelming force now pulling at every limb in his body was from Brendon, and would lead Ryan to him. He thought back to the way Brendon’s body had always been unusually warm, the long twin scars running down his back, and the way he could cook expertly with no experience. It was far from outlandish for Ryan to think this thing in his mind was Brendon’s doing.
Ryan was out of his office in seconds flat. He didn’t wonder anymore about where to go, didn’t fret over the fact that he had no leads and no hints as to where those awful winged creatures had taken Brendon. The pull was better than a map. It led him, yanked him on relentlessly, and Ryan let it. Ryan threw himself into it, not even caring or looking where exactly it was taking him. He trusted it. He knew it would either bring him to Brendon, or to a place where he could help save Brendon from whatever it was that was hurting him.
Ryan soon found himself near the shore. The little bit of coast that ran close to Ryan’s town was undeveloped and empty of tourists or vacationers. Most of the beach was covered by rocky crags anyway. When his gaze landed on one, the pull jumped. Ryan trusted its strange intensity. He was positive without a doubt - Brendon was there.
A/N: Only one more part to go, guys! And I have good news for you. : ) I'm going to save you guys the wait and post the final chapter tomorrow. Keep your heads up! <3