4.

Something has got a hold of Emily Healy. In as much of an instance she has become someone else, perhaps someone she has always meant to be. The shy, reserved, unsure, shopping center receptionist, who had only just begun her job before becoming removed from it, has become a confident motivational speaker who will rally the people she stands before.

Out of nowhere, somewhere, and all of which she has witnessed in such a short amount of time, she has become an agent of light, a living angelic soldier, a commander who will lead an army against the oncoming Darkness ... things have certainly become ... a lot less one-sided.

'I know why you ...' she speaks with both her hands in the air, palms out in a physical moment of asking those before her to calm so she can speak. She will answer what they want to know, or at least she will try to do this to the best of her ability but not before she speaks first.

'... what you all have come here for.' The place has quieted amazingly quick. Gatherers have come to flock together. 'I can assure you all that I am alive and well as you all can certainly see ...' a slight giggling murmur takes that moment for what it is. 'I had not been kidnapped and I had not been taken anywhere against my will ...'

A murmur resumes, 'as many of you know, a war has been declared and it has been declared against us. Yes, we are in danger, but it is up to each and every one of us to defend ourselves as best as we can and we can do this together, for people have been doing this since the beginning of time itself.'

'Are we alone ...?' a voice calls out and heard by all in attendance, a voice hoping that the heavens will shine a great light.

'We are never alone, and I can tell you we are not alone now. There is help among us ...'

'Where? ... Where is it?'

'Trust me, it is all around us ... it is not our fight alone ...'

From within the building behind the stage, Raphael watches Emily in action through the large window that parts them. A stranger approaches ...

'She is someone special, isn't she?'

'That she is ...' responds Raphael.

Raphael doesn't hang around much longer, he is off, vanishes to continue on his journey, which will include Gabriel, temporarily at least. Emily will have her own journey from here on in. None of this had been discussed, none of it had been arranged. It is just what it is, a purpose has been found and what it was that changed within her, is something that will never directly be discussed.

Before Raphael is completely ... gone, he appears in a place at the back of the crowd, a spot Emily can see clearly. He nods as she speaks. She finishes the sentence she is speaking, there is an ever so brief moment of quiet in which she inhales deeply and returns Raphael's nod. Someone walks in front of him blocking her view of him and when that person simply moves on, so has Raphael.

***

When Raphael reappears elsewhere along with Gabriel in tow, Gabriel is once again confused. It is the just the two of them. This is clear from the very moment they appear wherever the heck it is they have come to.

'So ... no Emily ...'

'No ... she has ... a new focus now ... as do we ...'

'We do? ... What would that be?'

'I don't know yet ...'

'Wow, that's nice.'

There is a different tone to how Gabriel speaks. It's not just the confusion, childlike or not, there is annoyance, where up to now there only had been playfulness. That prior playfulness he had has gone. Raphael does not like how this sounds though he can imagine this to be a very Human trait. Gabriel has been becoming Human, perhaps he is fully there now, perhaps the length of time his memory spans is long enough for him to be less ... childlike. Maybe there is an annoyance there, the ever so brief time he spent with Emily brought a connection and now that connection is gone. Is this change to be good or bad? Time will tell.

***

It's the ninth day of September 2018 when Samuel Fontaine gets his first opportunity to speak to Majella Smith since the evening of a Ball that was. He has plenty with which he has to tell her, she has plenty to say too, the time for most of that however is not here in this upcoming moment. She sees him before he sees her, relief is what hits her first, then grief and desperation.

Then a moment of not wanting to see him hits. What can she say to him? No apology could ever make up for what she done, no matter how genuine that apology is. Still, all is well or appears to be well, but for how long?

There really had been a moment, so much more than a moment, where she thought she had killed him, or at least put him in a condition so serious that it would determine what his life would be from that moment on out. As she can see, and had known before now, Sammy is alive and well, and is not suffering the effects of what came his way the night of a Ball.

It is a miracle, it really is. Sammy is not one to hold a grudge, it is not in his nature as it might be said though before reconnecting with his father and for a while afterwards too, along with how he feels about Darkness. Anyhow, he definitely could never hold one against Majella. He dispels any anxious thoughts she may be having by moving to greet her with a hug.

As he approaches, she does not know where to turn or where to look and when the hug does happen ... she bursts into tears with the full range of emotion one might expect from a moment such as this. Despite the anxiety he brings, not an anxiety of this moment, rather one brought to it, ... he gives Majella as long as she needs for ... he wholly understands it.

When the right moment comes ...

'Majella ... I was trapped ... my release comes with, came with ... a price. ... and that price, that cost needs to be brought down ... it is time for us to go to work ...'