4.

It is approaching midday on the sixth day of September 2018 and Raphael, an Angel from Heaven, has come to stand on an old dirt road in an out of the way place. He was able to track Gabriel's glow to this very spot. The glow is almost gone with the fact that Gabriel's transition is almost complete.

It, the glow, had moved at a steady pace before pausing momentarily to then go on and move at a much faster pace, an untraceable pace and this tells Raphael that something occurred in this very spot and this brings a certain concern.

There are tire tracks that head slightly off road and go no further. A road vehicle stopped suddenly here. Someone picked up Gabriel. Raphael is too late. Michael has got to Gabriel; Raphael is sure of this especially with the fact there are no other signs of life in the immediate vicinity other than a number of sheep that are quickly gathering all around him ... this in itself is Michael's way of telling Raphael that he is sheep like and not Sheppard like, Michael obviously believing himself to be the Sheppard.

As far as Raphael sees it, this is abuse on many levels and the very fact that Raphael is where he is along with the fact that Michaels seems to be playing hide and go seek goes a long way in suggesting that the roles are the other way round. Raphael is pro-active, he is not willing to sit around any longer and do nothing while Darkness lays down an almighty attack. Gabriel agrees or at least he did, he acted first instead of waiting on a plan of action and apparently, he is paying for his actions now.

Is this to be Raphael's fate too ... to make a stand against Darkness only to become mortal, losing all that it is to be an Angel as well as so much more? No, Raphael is not having this, he will not have it no matter the power that Michael has. Before he will interject himself into battle, Raphael is going to free Gabriel and restore his glory to what it should be. Just how he will do that is another thing.

'Em ... what is going on?' asks a seriously confused young lady by the name of Emily. She is no longer smiling like she had been back at the shopping center reception area though by the tone of her voice Raphael recons she still has pleasantness about her, just for how long that may be ... well that might be somewhat of an unknown. Most anyone else would be freaking out already. The fact that Emily is relatively calm is a good thing ... or so he hopes.

'Move' he speaks to those sheep who have come to surround not only him but Emily too since she is standing with him and move, they do as if they understand both his need and urgency.

One moment she was behind the counter in a recently acquired job and the next she is out on a dirt road in the middle of probably nowhere with the strangest of guys she has ever come into contact with and at that too they are surrounded by sheep or at least were surrounded by sheep for when that fellow told those sheep to move, they have done just that, they are all moving away in the same direction. This is only the beginning of her extreme displacement, just wait until she is filled in a little more on just what it is that is happening.

He moves by foot off in one direction for a moment or two then moves back to stand in the spot he had been before he took any steps and he done this to gather as much an idea as possible as to where Michael may have taken Gabriel. Michael may be the most powerful Angel of all, and he may have the advantage of having gotten to Gabriel first though as it is, Raphael has an advantage or two of his own.

'Em ... I don't mean to be a bit of a prune here, but I think I may be about to lose my shit ... what is happening.'

Emily's voice trembles as if she were on the verge of crying and it is only right at this point that Raphael begins to consider just how she may feel. It really is going to take him some time to completely learn how to interact fully and properly with people though at that he does get the sense that term shit is not something Emily uses all too frequently.

'All will be revealed my dear, right now I just need you to accompany me ...'

As crazy as things are, Emily just has to take it as it is for there does not seem to be any immediate danger coming her way, to ensure such she quietly recites a prayer and of course this does not go unnoticed with Raphael being who or rather what he is.

As things are, Gabriel is more or less Human at this point in time so he cannot simply be taken back to heaven nor can he be zapped anywhere like he had been while at the hospital. When Gabriel came to Majella and Florence, he was still one hundred percent Angel. The very moment of his vanishing is the very beginning of his fall and the very beginning of his change. If Gabriel is to be moved anywhere then he can only be transported either on foot or within any kind of vehicle Humankind has to offer.

And also working in Raphael's favour ... In his own rush to come to Earth, Michael had to take a vessel, in essence he had to possess a person and in doing so he hinders his own angelic abilities. Raphael had time; he has come to Earth without restriction. He is free to be as much an Angel on Earth as what he had been in Heaven. Time for the fun and games to rightly start. It is just unfortunate that he has to do battle with one of his own kind before he can join the war against Darkness such is the level of a lacking with seeing eye to eye.

Perhaps now too, something is providing aid Raphael's way, for the sheep that had come to surround him have opened up, moving to either side of the dirt road and in doing this they have begun moving in unison in the same direction. They are also moving in the same direction Gabriel had been moving in up to the point where Raphael currently is.

Raphael can take this as his opportunity to find Gabriel. These animals can lead him to where he needs to be and in this some consideration can be made. Is Michael trying to trick Raphael ... to lead Raphael into a doom like scenario akin to a lamb being led to slaughter, or the angel's equivalent?

This is not a time to start guessing and second guessing. It is a time to act. For the moment, let the sheep lead the way. To get to where he wants to go Raphael has to start somewhere, and this right here is as good a thing to do as any.

'Lead the way sheep ...' he says. 'Lead the way.'

They do lead the way, a whole three miles of it, three miles within which Raphael does not see another soul, apart from Emily of course. She feels oddly calm, if she didn't there would be nowhere to go. She could run but to where? And this fellow she is with, angel or not he does have some sort of ... power and he could have her right back with him in an instant.

Anyhow, these sheep must belong to someone, they must belong somewhere but indeed there is not a soul, not a beggar, no one out on this road at all. Indeed, three miles have been walked and Raphael, and his companion, have come to farmland, active farmland at that and as it is ... there is someone here out close to that dirt road ... a man in his late forties.

'Excuse me good sir, do you own this land?'

'I do, are you broke down?'

'What's that?'

'Do you and your wife have car trouble? It is a heck of a long way to come by foot ...' this stranger says pointing down the road Raphael came from.

'Oh, we aren't ... married ...' Emily points out then thinks better of saying anything else. Raphael has thrown her a look, one she is sure means he would rather her not say anything. Now there was nothing menacing in his look though if there had been there is still nothing she could do about it.

Raphael looks down towards from where he and Emily came and considers his response to the man before him. 'No, no ... nothing wrong with my mode of transport ... can I ask you ... have you come across any kind of odd activity within the last day or so?'

'What would you call odd activity ...?'

'Coming across things that do not belong ... that sort of thing.'

'No, can't say that I have.'

'No other gentleman walking out this way ...?'

'Not that I noticed, no.'

There is a barn a couple hundred yards away from where this conversation is taking place, a barn with its doors open. A sudden flash briefly lights the interior of this barn up. Seeing this, Raphael becomes suspicious.

'Sir, do you have any guests staying with you right now?'

'That would be none of your business ...'

'I'd have to disagree ... I need to have a look at that barn ...'

Raphael begins to move towards that barn but only manages to take three steps in that direction for something has grabbed him, some kind of power preventing his movement.

'I'm afraid I cannot let you do that ...'

Raphael has got himself at least one answer.

'You're the vessel ... you're Michael ... aren't you?'

'The one and only.'

'Then you know who ...'

'Yes Raphael ...

Emily is even more at a loss now than she had already been. 'Em, excuse me ...'