A single soul, but yet so many others linked to him that would never even see his face. The God of Many will not have this. He knows of Sherah's fate and also knows that Raphael would come across people that he could not save with regular healing magic. So to make sure that Raphael and June could have the possibility to save Sherah and save those that are past the threshold, he granted both of them the ability to preform exorcisms, along with another ability that they would both need, but with the ability to use it once, one use for each of them.
June watches as Raphael falls to the ground, his wounds too much to bare. She weeps as she knows the inexplicable truth. She has just lost the most important person in her life. She cares little for what has happened to Sherah at this point, the Guardian's dilemma trumps her cares for the person who had just killed the protector that the God of Many had just given her days in the past.
As she begins to regain some of her basic motor functions, she is suddenly hit with a massive headache. She wants to hold her head in pain, but she still does not have any control over her arms, or her hands for that matter.
She does, however, have control of her head. She digs her head into the moon's dust as pain ripples through her mind.
Suddenly, a vision is sent through her mind. What she sees gives her hope for the future of both her and the Guardian. After the vision, her headache fades away, leaving her to regain her bodily functions.
Once she has regained the ability to use her upper body, she proceeds to crawl in a prone position to where Raphael had fallen.
Raphael opens his eyes to see himself drifting in a sea of clouds. Off in the distance, he can make out standing golden structures. He wants to look around, but his entire body is completely limp, he can't move a single one of his muscles.
He looks back and forth using only his eyes and can make out winged creatures flying throughout the realm.
He lets out a small breath as he floats through the sky. “Am I... dead...?” he thinks as he drifts.
As he stares toward the open air above him, he sees a winged creature float down toward him, blotting out the sun.
It moves down in front of him and stares in his face from a few feet above. The creature is obviously one of the other creatures that are within this realm, but it is much different. It has long black hair and nearly it's entire body is covered in darkness. The one key feature that really strikes Raphael is the fact that it's eyes are two beaming blue lights that poke out from the darkness that is set on the creatures entire face.
“What... are you...?” Raphael asks, the words barely able to escape his motionless lips.
When the creature speaks, it becomes obvious to Raphael who this creature is and where he is right now. The creature that is in front of him is Raphael's other self, his angelic counterpart that lives in the plane of heaven.
“Raphael, you know exactly who I am, and you also know exactly where you're at.” the being says to him.
“But... I can't die... I have to save Sentient Society, and... I need to protect June-” Raphael says before getting cut off by his angelic self.
“You don't understand, do you? You're dead, Raphael, and nothing can be done unless June's abilities awaken.” Raphael's angelic self interjects.
“Abilities... what abilities...?” Raphael asks his angelic self.
By the time June is halfway to Raphael's location, she has started to regain the feeling in her legs. In a hurry, she attempts to pull herself to her feet, but she stumbles back down to the ground. She lands with a huff, but gets up on all fours a second later and crawls herself over to Raphael.
“Oh God, this better work....” She pulls herself over top of Raphael and lifts herself onto her knees.
Using what she can remember from her vision, she presses her hands together in a prayer-like symbol and starts rubbing them in a quick motion while saying mystic words. Electricity starts shooting off of her palms and into the space around her.
Her eyes flash and she pulls her palms away from one another. Thick streams of electricity shoot back and forth in between her palms as she pulls her hand's back and then slams them into Raphael's chest.
Raphael's entire body jolts up from the force of the electrical surge. June stares at his lifeless face as she waits helplessly for Raphael to regain consciousness. But he does not wake back up.
With tears now streaming down her face, June attempts another revive spell, but halfway through the preparations, she notices Raphael's wounds begin to close. “Oh thank God!” she says in hopeful relief “I've already lost too much without losing you too....”
June's relief is cut short when she notices the irrefutable fact that even though Raphael's body is recovering, his soul is not returning to his body, he isn't waking back up.
“Oh God... Oh God, No!” she screams before grabbing Raphael's head and holding him close to her chest “Please Raphael! Please don't leave me! I can't take losing another person in my life, especially you! You and Sherah are the only family I have left!”
June hears a noise behind her and turns her head to see the rest of the JB looking at the battlefield through a newly opened portal. Miyra steps through the portal in a trance. “Oh no, is Raphael....”
She snaps out of her trance moments after stepping through the portal. She spins around to the rest of the JB's forces and says. “Quick, get some medical gurneys in her and get Raphael and Sherah back to the base as fast as possible!”
As Quib calls in Chiot and the medical team back at the bunker, Urt and the others walk through the portal onto the moon's surface. “Little Danteo is gone, it seems....”
“No!” June screams, her voice echoing across the moon's field “Raphael isn't gone! He can't be gone! I won't let him leave me! I don't want to be left alone again...!”
Miyra walks over to June and lays a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Don't worry June, we'll do everything in our power to bring him back.” Miyra turns her attention away from June over to Teruin and yells out “Teruin, go check on Sherah and see if she's alive and if she has reverted back to her normal self!” Teruin, although having a bit of a quiver on her lip over the loss of her commander, gives Miyra a slight nod and walks over to Sherah. She stoops down and starts looking Sherah over. “Did she revert?” Miyra asks.
Teruin sniffs before looking over to Miyra and saying “As far as I can tell, she's back to normal. June, do ya have any idea what Raphael did to bring her back?”
June doesn't answer Teruin, she simply cries into her palms and mutters to herself. “He's gone... my Guardian is gone... Sherah is all that I have left now....”
Miyra looks down at June and sighs. She realizes that the loss of the Guardian is going to be a severe wound on both the JB and June herself. She turns her attention away from June, allowing her time to grieve, and moves over to Urt.
“Urt,” she asks him “what are your thoughts on the current situation?”
“My thoughts, little one, are that the Guardian sacrificed everything to save the Key. He will go down in history for his efforts here today, but we have more pressing matters to attend with right now. The most important one is what we are going to do with Sherah and the empty leader role that the Guardian has left us with. Since I'm the second in command of his UHG squad, I believe that I should take up the mantle-”
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
“I know that gaining leadership of this group is incredibly important to you, but it would be best if we had a group vote on these types of decisions. Besides, if we allow Sherah to stay with us and the Guardian lore is correct, I think that Sherah would be a much better choice for who should lead our organization.”
As Miyra ends her sentence, a portal opens to the interior of the JB bunker. Medical personnel move through the portal almost as soon as it opens with two gurneys and medical equipment. The medics split off into two groups and move over to both Sherah and Raphael.
One of the members of the group overlooking Raphael checks his vitals and then lets out a sour face. He looks over to Miyra and shakes his head.
Miyra's expression turns cold at the medic's gesture. Despite her facial tone, she is in deep pain. The leader of the JB, and quite possibly her best friend since she joined the UMA, has now been slain on the field of battle. “He died a warrior's death, completing his one and only mission before he passed. He shall be remembered for his efforts here today. Medics, get him and Sherah back to the bunker! He will be given a proper funeral tomorrow. As for Sherah... we'll have a group discussion on what we are going to do with her once she wakes back up.”
Miyra motions to Teruin for her to pull June away from Raphael's corpse. She nods in conformation and gets behind June. She grabs June from under her arms and attempts to pull her away, but June struggles with her, not willing to leave Raphael's side. “No! I'm not going to leave him! I won't-”
“June!” Teruin screams before turning June around to face her. “I'm just as mad about his death as you are, but we have to let him go! There's nothin' left that either of us can do for him, he's gone now! He's! Freaking! Gone!” Teruin's eyes are filled with tears as she ends her sentence. She can barely contain her sadness for the Guardian's loss. “Come on, June,” she says through a quivering lip “let's leave so that the medic's can finish up here....”
Teruin and June walk away from Raphael's body and through the portal that the medic's had come through.
The rest of the JB remains on the moon for only a few more minutes. The medic's strap Raphael and Sherah onto their gurneys and walk them back through the portal to their base. Miyra and Urt have a small conversation before returning back to the bunker, leaving Quib alone on the moon's surface.
Quib stares down at the pool of blood where Raphael had previously been. Even though she hasn't said much throughout her time in the JB, she feels just as much sadness as everyone else. With her head tilt down, she says “Rest in peace, Guardian....” under her breath. She then turns around and slowly, ever so slowly, walks through the portal back home with a growing fear in her heart for the unknown future of the JB.
Raphael and his angelic self continue to float through the realm of heaven. Through the darkness encompassing his face, the angel says to Raphael “You do not know the history of the Guardian, do you?”
“The history? I thought they were known as myth, and I was the first.” Raphael asks in a weakened tone.
“No, Guardian, your role has been taken many times before. The people of the UMA must have kept it a secret from you, given your age. Many other Guardians have been told the same when they come here, if the Demu take them too early, but take them they do, fairly all the same.”
“... How many has their been before me...?”
“Hundreds, by the time I stopped counting. All died in the line of duty, trying to end the DuskWar.”
“June wasn't the first either, then?”
“No, she is not. Although, she was one of the first to be found by the UMA, the first to possibly be able to complete her purpose. Still, you both have been given an additional power from that of other Guardians and Keys. A single use to bring the dead back to life. To return a lost soul to the living. June has used hers already, it seems, to bring you back. You have one use of this yourself. How will you use it, I wonder. Either way, she for you, Guardian, you must simply reach out to the light.” before flying off and away out of sight as a great light begins to shine from above.
The key members of the JB stand around Raphael's death bed. Some of them are crying, mainly June and Teruin, while the rest are completely silent. After a long silence, Miyra sighs and says “Well shit, what do we do now?”
Chiot speaks next. “First off, we need to contact the UMA and tell them that the Guardian is dead. Who's going to call them?”
Yen, with her arms crossed, says “I'll do it, I'm the head communication officer here anyway.”
“Aside from that,” Urt says “We need to have a group discussion on who is going to be the new leader and whether we should allow Sherah to stay or not.”
Miyra speaks up, being the voice that answers most calls at this moment “We'll have a meeting tomorrow on who should fill in his role, but for now we need to get some rest, all of us. As for Sherah, her fate should be up to June, since I do believe that all major choices should be run by her. June, what do you think we should do about Sherah?”
Through blistering tears, June yelps out “I don't know! I don't know what to do anymore!”
“Don't pressure her, Miyra,” Quib says, having said barely a word since they had gotten back. “She is obviously in a lot of emotional distress, having seen her former protector and the Guardian fight it out to the death. She needs exactly what all of us need right now, and that's some rest. Although, in her current state, we should have somebody watching her. Any takers?”
“I'll take up that mantle.” Miyra says with her hand risen in the air. “Currently, since Sherah is out of action at the moment and Raphael's... ya know... I'm the best friend that June has right now. I'll watch her throughout the night, for whatever solace that might be for her.”
Miyra wraps her arm around June's back and says “Come on, June, we both need some sleep right now....” before pulling her along with her out of the infirmary. There is a slight sparkle of rebellion in June's eyes as she leaves. Although she wishes to stay with Raphael, she knows that there is nothing left that she can do.
Yen looks at Raphaek one last time and says “With June's exit, I think I will also take my leave. There is a lot that I need to report back to Lendlock at the moment, so I must go back to the C&I room. If there is a change in the Commander's condition, which I honestly doubt at this point, please alert me.” before leaving out of the infirmary section's sheets and making her way out of the infirmary.
“So where are we going to bury the kid at?” Chiot asks out of curiosity.
Henry thinks for a second and then speaks. “I can think of no other place to bury him then on either his home planet or bringing him to the ruins on June's home planet. Nonetheless, I think we should also leave that choice up to June herself.”
Chiot rubs his eyes and grunts. “Ugh, all of this shit is giving me a damn headache. I don't think we need to talk about this anymore, we all need to get some sleep and prepare for tomorrow. One last thing before we go, though. Since Sherah may wake up at any moment, we should have someone waiting for her to regain consciousness to explain to her everything that has happened up to now.”
“I would love to do that, but I'm in too much distress to talk to Raphael's murderer.” says Teruin, her tone now different due to her extreme emotions. “Since you seem the least broken up about this, I think you should watch Sherah, Chiot.”
Chiot sighs and shrugs his shoulders before saying “I mine-as-well. At least I'll be doing something other then medical work while I'm here.”
“And with that, I think it is about time for all of us to get some sleep. We will see you tomorrow, Ninkinine.” Urt says before motioning for his squad to follow him back to the bunker's barracks.
The rest of the JB exit out of Raphael's stall and go their separate ways, the UHG squad leaving for the barracks and Chiot taking a seat away from the rest of the stalls.
“I wish... that I could at least thank him one last time for saving my life.... If only he hadn't died on that moon, then maybe I could have thanked him....” he thinks as his eyes sink shut.
Time passes slowly on as Chiot awaits Sherah's recovery. He slumps lower and lower in his chair, eventually falling asleep in a slumped back position. He sleeps for about two or three hours, bringing him to about one twenty-five in the morning by the Numarus clock.
He wakes up and mumbles to himself as he rubs his eyes and tries to remember why he is still in the infirmary. His eyes flash as he remembers yesterday's events. “Oh yeah... the Guardian's dead and Sherah's unconscious....” His stomach growls and he rubs his belly before continuing to mumble to himself “I guess it wouldn't hurt if I went to get something to eat real fast....”
With a huff, Chiot lifts himself out of his chair and cracks his back before walking out of the infirmary to the cafeteria.
Raphael stares back at the blinding light shining down on him from above. Although he can barely see past the light, he is able to make out the shadow of some kind of creature coming closer and closer to him.
As the creature draws closer, he is able to make out a long, flowing dress and a pair of transparent, white wings adorning the creature.
Through the drifting air around him, Raphael can make out June's voice. She is calling out to him, saying his name over and over. “June....” he says wearily as he regains the ability to use his right arm.
He lifts his arm upward toward the creature as it draws closer to him. Through the shadow of the overhead light, Raphael can see a long flowing mane of sky-blue hair on the creature nearing closer to him.
Through the facial features of the person gaining closer to him, he is able to conclude that it is June who is coming to bring him back to the land of the living.
She lowers herself until her hand is only a few mere inches away from Raphael's. She says “I missed you, Raph....” before grabbing his hand.
“June...” Raphael says in a light voice. “thank you... for everything....”
June launches Raphael over her shoulder, sending him at an incredible velocity through the sky around him. He is sent at such a speed that he can't even begin to make an estimate at how fast he is being tossed. He screams out as he flies, the wind feeling as if it is tearing through his skin.
Suddenly the sky turns into dirt as his spirit flies through the ground. He screams in terror as his spirit literally is flung through heaven back to earth in a matter of a few seconds.