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The bell above the door chiming drew the attention of the black-haired woman sitting at a booth off along a far wall, noting the new arrival. The immediate chill down her spine at being in the same room as the newcomer was all she needed to know it was precisely who she’d been waiting on. Even for someone like her, who had come face-to-face with a plethora of impossible beings who’d drive any normal person mad from terror, being in the same building as a being meant to utterly decimate anything considered a Threat to Humanity grated on her instincts to no end. But that, at least, was drowned out by an intense need to decipher just what this being was at her core. What information Angela’s office had gathered on Saeehiah was so impossibly fragmented and contradictory to itself that she’d simply decided the best course of action was to confront the anomaly in person. And whatever happened in the process of collecting more direct data, at least this time she was prepared, a Bounded Field surrounding the Denny’s where she’d directed the Semhamaphore to meet with her.
“Ms. Saeehiah, correct?” Angela inquired, rising to her feet and approaching the other woman.
“That must make you the Angelika who made the request for a meeting with me,” Saeehiah replied, neither her tone nor expression belying even the slightest hint as to her opinion of that. “Speaking of which, that request was rather vague. Just what is it someone like you could want from me?”
Angela turned on her heel, motioning for Saeehiah to follow her back to her booth and making it a few steps before the chime of the bell above the door froze her in her tracks. Impossible. No one else should be able to set foot in here.
The rapid sounds of a crossbow being cocked and fired happened before Angela even had a chance to fully turn around, her gun partially drawn and remaining so as she took in the sight of what had just happened behind her.
Saeehiah stood facing the doorway, the massive crossbow she carried raised and two of the three strings cocked back with bolts ready to fire, while the center one must obviously have been the one Angela had heard - the only one not set to fire. Angela’s gaze traced along the length of the weapon to see who or what it was aimed at. The first thing that caught her attention was the glass pieces that she presumed to be wings, although vastly different in comparison to the silver-and-black thread-woven ones of Saeehiah. The next thing she noticed was the gleaming silver bolt the man held in one hand - a bolt that perfectly matched the two still loaded on the crossbow wielded by the other angel.
What felt like an eternity (really less than a minute) passed before the man in the doorway let out a laugh, followed by a long sigh from Saeehiah and the sound of metal making contact with the wooden floor when she lowered the crossbow. “Remiel. Why are you here?”
“Do you really care why?” Remiel countered, a wry smirk forming as the other angel shook her head and switched her attention instead to removing the remaining two bolts from her weapon.
“Couldn’t care less,” eventually came the answer after she’d uncocked the final two strings of the crossbow and detached it from the mount on her arm, leaning the bow back against her shoulder and plucking the fired bolt from Remiel’s hand when he held it out for her to retrieve. “But since you’re here, I suppose that means you’ll be joining us.”
It wasn’t a question but rather an observation she’d made aloud, not even waiting for any sort of response before turning her back on him to look at Angela, nonchalantly raising an eyebrow at the half-raised gun in the girl’s hand. At the look, Angela snapped out of her shocked stupor, tucking the gun away and clearing her throat, leading the way to the booth she’d been occupying before the angels’ arrival. Sure, things weren’t even remotely going to plan, and if she’d been uneasy with Saeehiah alone before, she was even more wary with Remiel added into the mix. A wild card she had no way of predicting when she was already dealing with one anomaly…
She slid into her side of the booth, expecting Saeehiah to take the space beside her after the display only a moment before when Remiel took a seat across from Angela. Instead, Saeehiah took the spot beside Remiel after setting the crossbow on its end by the booth, surprising Angela when she adjusted herself to lean back against Remiel’s shoulder and kicked her feet up to rest on top of the crossbow, all without protest from Remiel. Though… No, it hadn’t gone totally ignored, Angela realized, noticing the brief glance Remiel sent in Saeehiah’s direction, akin to an older sibling resigning themselves to simply accepting the nonsense of a younger one.
Saeehiah slid one of the menus across the table toward herself, flipping it open and glancing over its contents disinterestedly, reaching up with her other hand to pull the mask down away from her face. “So, Angelika -”
“Just Angela, please,” the other woman corrected, causing Saeehiah to glance up toward her face briefly.
With a shrug, Saeehiah once more looked back down toward the menu. “Sure. Trivialities aside, you never did answer my question earlier. Of course, that isn’t entirely your fault…” She trailed off, sending a pointed look over her shoulder toward Remiel.
Angela’s eyes flicked to follow Saeehiah’s glassy red gaze before returning to Saeehiah herself again, her expression not belying any of her own thoughts on the uninvited guest. “I’ll put it simply, then. Just who, or rather - what, exactly, are you?”
Ah. So, the million-dollar question. It’s always that, isn’t it? Saeehiah mused to herself as she closed her eyes, holding off on answering as one of the waiters approached the table at last. A soft shake of her head served as answer enough as she barely acknowledged being asked if she wanted anything, only to tune out the world further when Remiel rattled off not just a few items but the entire menu itself. At least it gave her time to formulate her answer. Not that it was anything complicated, nor was the question an unfamiliar one. Still, it was one that was always a struggle to have others understand the answer to - something so improbably simple couldn’t possibly be the answer to a myriad of complexities.
“An angel, for one,” she stated once she heard the waiter’s footsteps moving away from the group, her eyes still closed. “To most, that’s the end of it. Frankly, I’d wholeheartedly disagree with such a label. Or, rather, its implications. I personally prefer to explain it as me being a Living Concept, which is exactly as it sounds. Specifically, I am the concept of ‘binding’ given a living form.”
For a moment, Angela found herself stunned, left reeling in the face of such an obvious, simple answer to her question. Too obvious. Too simple. Too impossible. “What are you really ?”
Saeehiah sighed, only opening her eyes enough to see Angela and give her a miffed look before closing them again. “Exactly as I told you. It’s not my fault if you choose not to believe the truth, and I have no reason to lie about what I am. Humanity saw the emergent creation of new beings being created and existing ones linked together as some sort of miracle only an angel of God could perform, and so that became me. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
“There has to be!” Angela argued. “I’ve known Outer Gods who are strange enough to drive any mere human mad, and yet they make exponentially more sense than you!”
“What do I gain from lying about my origins and nature? Especially to a girl who denies her own?”
Angela’s next words died on her tongue. She’d never seen either of these people in her life, so how… How the hell did she know?! No, judging by the knowing smirk, the one called Remiel knew, too. But that shouldn’t be possible -
Before she could come up with a retort, the waiter returned with plates of food, beginning to set them out until there was no room left on the table. With a dismissive wave to the server, Saeehiah sat up a bit, using one arm on Remiel’s shoulder to balance herself while she leaned over to pluck a fry from one of the trays. She paused as she caught Remiel’s look, cocking an eyebrow at him.
“What?”
“You’re acting like a child,” Remiel responded, the sulky look he earned only furthering his point. “Playing games, clinging to me.”
“To throw your own words back at you, Remiel, do you really care?”
“No. None of this matters, so if that’s the persona you’ve chosen here, so be it.”
Saeehiah rolled her eyes, taking a bite of the fry held between her fingers. “Such an optimist. Anyway.” She fixed Angela with her gaze, although it felt more as if she was looking through her than at her. “Struck a nerve, didn’t I?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Angela lied, shrugging. “Moving on, though, let’s say I believe your claim that you’re some sort of angel. As someone who dispatches the likes of Heroic Spirits across timelines in need, someone with your abilities, based on my research, would be a great help for more troublesome missions. Of course, I’d like to extend the same offer to you, Rem-“
“Pass,” the two angels spoke at the same time, not even giving her the opportunity to finish making her proposal.
“If these timelines are in so much trouble, then there’s a reason for it,” Saeehiah clarified for her part, shrugging. “Why should I be bothered to pull them out of their own mess?”
“And what is the point of saving a meaningless, dying world?” Remiel added, shaking his head. “You’re asking the wrong angels if you truly thought that we would say yes. Surely someone like you could understand our position on this.”
Angela blinked, taken aback by not only the sudden rebuff but also how mismatched their responses were compared to her expectations. “O-oh. Of course. I didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that, well…”
As she trailed off, searching for a way to explain herself, Remiel barked out a laugh. “Offend us? No, you’re taking it completely wrong!” he assured her. “C’mon, you’d have to try harder than that to get a rise out of us. Right, Saee?”
The younger angel lifted one shoulder in an indifferent shrug, picking up another fry to eat and making a face. “Humans consider this crap good?” she remarked, even as she picked up a small handful more and settled back into her earlier position leaning her back against Remiel. After a moment, she heaved a sigh, feeling the expectant looks fixed on her regarding the question hanging in the air. “I don’t care what anyone else thinks about me or the implications that may or may not have been behind the offer made. I declined because I have no interest in cleaning up humanity’s messes for them, that’s all. Though there is something I’m interested in here, come to think of it. Something you skirt around every time it’s even been hinted at.”
Angela felt a chill go down her spine from the intensity of the look Saeehiah settled on her, and that was only from the corner of her eye, as if the angel couldn’t even be bothered to address her directly. The records weren’t wrong at all. Something was impossibly alien about this one, and she was hopelessly outmatched. She almost wondered if she hadn’t been outmaneuvered in this game from the very moment the angel entered the building, and she only just now realized the tables had always been turned.
“Why bother pretending to be one of them?”
Angela wracked her brain for some sort of response, caught like a deer in the headlights. “I- Why wouldn’t I act human?” she answered, inwardly cringing as she heard the defensiveness in her own voice.
“Because you’re not any more than Remiel or I are,” the angel answered flippantly, tipping her head slightly to indicate the other who she leaned against. “Why limit yourself to the boundaries humankind imposes on everything?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not limiting myself to anything. I’m not lying to anyone about who I am.”
“We’re not judging you,” Remiel remarked. “In the end, what you do doesn’t affect us one way or another. Hide away in your office forever, stay here and pretend to be human, go mad, and destroy this world - if you can. Who cares? This is just one of countless versions. All we’re doing is satisfying our curiosity, just like you. So why not answer the question?”
“It’s none of your business,” Angela hissed.
Wait. Why am I acting like this? she suddenly asked herself. Something’s wrong here. Something is -
“Actually, I do think it’s my business.” Angela jerked at the voice, almost expecting some other newcomer, but realized that for the first time, Saeehiah had actually spoken with some modicum of emotion. However, she couldn’t make out what it was. She guessed amusement, but she had nothing to compare to - nothing reliable, at least.
“Well, no matter.” Saeehiah pulled her feet down from their rest on the crossbow, gracefully rising to her feet. “I can see I’m wasting my time on the issue but do think about it, Angelika. Eventually, you will have to choose a side. Those like us can only live in flux for so long.”
Angela scrambled to find some sort of response, blurting the first thing that came to mind. “Wait. You’re leaving just like that?”
“Yes,” the angel answered bluntly, leaning her weapon back against her shoulder while she made her way toward the door. “You and Remiel are welcome to stay as long as you’d like, of course. The humans won’t remember any of what happened here, so don’t worry about that, either.”
Without another word, she’d disappeared, and Angela felt a weight lift from her that she hadn’t even been aware of. Looking away from where Saeehiah had been, her focus turned to Remiel. “She’s always been like that, I’m guessing?” she inquired.
Remiel only shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’ve never met her before, so I wouldn’t have a clue!”
Mouth gaping, Angela stared at him as if he’d suddenly grown an extra head or some other oddity. “You’ve never met her before? But you two -!”
“Oh, that?” Remiel grinned, shaking his head. “Never meeting doesn’t equate to never hearing about one another. For right now, whether she and I get along with each other or not is trivial, haha! That’s all there is to it.”
An instant later, Angela found herself alone, exhaling sharply and closing her eyes. I’m never going to another Denny’s again...