ArcAngel, Chapter 1
Eons ago, when the Brothers of Light and Dark created life, the Grimm, and Humanity, the Light Brother accidentally infused humanity with his positive energy, giving them abilities beyond humans, making them the true antithesis of the Grimm. But it has been hundreds of years since an Angel has graced Remnant. Would the world be prepared for the newest one?
In the very beginning, two brothers existed on Remnant, filling it with both creation, and destruction. The older brother, God of Light, golden and muscular, with horns of a deer on his head, created water, plants, and wildlife during the day, while the younger brother, God of Darkness, lean, purple and slender, head adorned with horns of the ram, saw his brothers creations and became disgusted.
In retaliation, he created drought, fire, and famine in an attempt to rid Remnant of its life. However, life was persistent and resilient, having a strong ability to endure even the worst hardships. This made the younger, more angry, God of Darkness to create the Creatures of Grimm, twisted versions of his older brother’s wildlife, designing them so they would have an innate desire to destroy anything and everything.
Weary of feuding, and rightfully upset at his brother’s creation, the older God of Light proposed they make one final creation together; a masterpiece, something that both could be proud of making. The younger brother agreed, and working together, they created a creature capable of creation and destruction, of knowledge and of choice. These creatures were to become known as Humanity.
However, what neither brother knew was that part of the Brother of Light’s power clung to them, allowing a very rare child to be born as the antithesis of the Grimm, a protector of Light and Life, wielding the Brother of Light’s powers, hovering with Wings of White and Gold. These rare beings would become known as Angels.
While the “Tale of Two Brothers” is widely seen as a myth, history has many accounts of Angels being seen and using their powers for the good of all, however sparingly they show up. -Bartholomew Oobleck, History Professor, Beacon Academy
The sun slowly rose over the hill, its warm light bathing the walled settlement of Doremy, lighting the many homes up in a warm orange glow. Birds began to sing as the air warmed lightly, the sun glinting off the snow, reflecting the first sunrise of the new year.
Inside the largest home, in the middle of the settlement, a family of nine began to rise for their morning, filling the house with chatter, laughter, and the smell of home cooking as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky.
The sounds of stomping feet and a chorus of voices filled the morning air, laughter, chatter, and movement as seven girls moved into the dining room, where their parents were setting breakfast on the table.
The seven girls were very similar, yet entirely different. The eldest daughter was dressed in a bright red top and white shorts, showing off her well curved body. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail that flowed down to her mid back. Her name was Crimson Arc.
Following her was a younger girl, clad in an orange pajama set. She was just reaching her teens, her body beginning to go through the change from girl to young woman, her curves beginning to form. Her blonde hair was wild and free, but there was an order to the chaos. Her name was Saphron Arc.
Behind her was a slim ten year old, wearing a green top and shorts, a mischievous smile on her face. Her hair was flyaway and wild, unbrushed. This was Verde Arc, future adventurer, as she so often put it.
Next to her was a smaller girl with soft features, her bright blue eyes shadowed by large round glasses. Her long straight blonde hair fell to her shoulders, held in place by a light blue headband. Her name was Bleu Arc.
Following were two small blonde, identical to the last freckle, wearing dark purple tops and white shorts. The only way to tell them apart was the fact that they had side ponytails tied on opposite sides of their heads. These were Indaco and Injigo Arc.
Finally, the smallest of them, not older than five, walked in wearing a small violet nightgown, her wide blue eyes taking in her mother’s swollen belly with a look of wonder. Her name was Violette Arc.
“Mommy, when is our little sister going to be able to come out and play?” a small blonde girl wearing a light purple sleeping gown asked, looking at her mother’s bulging belly. She pouted hard as her mother laughed lightly, reaching out and stroking her hair.
“She’s due to come out any day now, Violette...but unfortunately, she’ll be too small to play with for a while.” The older woman chuckled at her daughter’s pout. “Oh, I’m not laughing at you, sweetie! It’s just...Indaco and Injigo asked me the exact same thing when you were days away from joining us!” She began to pile the smallest girl’s plate with a few pancakes and some bacon.
As the girls tucked into their breakfasts, the tallest woman, Juniper Arc, was blonde haired, blue eyed, fair skinned, surveyed her eating daughters with a smile on her face. Feeling a hand over her swollen belly, she turned to her husband and smiled softly at him.
Vermilion Arc was a bear of a man, over seven feet tall and solid muscle, but was the epitome of a ‘gentle giant’. He was one of Doremy’s best Huntsmen, and his family had been living there for three generations...and in fact been one of the founding families of the settlement and the reason that the walls had stood strong over a hundred years. He too had blonde hair and blue eyes, and the occasional scar on his body from fighting Grimm.
Her family had only been there since she was a child, but she had quickly fallen for the tall boy and it...well, one could call it a whirlwind romance, but the pair of them just...well, clicked, like how you heard in those cheesy, smutty romances, like Ninjas of Love. It had led to them being wed by the age of seventeen, and their first daughter, the now sixteen year old Crimson, was born less than a year later.
And despite what older couples said, their sexual life hadn’t waned a bit, as shown by the seven wonderful children that they had, soon to be either. Feeling her unborn child kick inside her and against her father’s hand, she smiled softly, feeling almost overwhelmed. She didn’t know why. She had felt deeply with each of her babies as she carried them, but for some reason, she felt so much more with their newest child. Not like she loved them more than the others...but like she could feel the emotions of her baby. But that was crazy talk, right? She had never heard of that happening before…she was pulled out of her thoughts as her husband of seventeen years spoke.
“Come love, you and the little one need to eat, too…” Vermilion led his wife to the table and helped her sit down. She smiled, but as she sat down, she felt a sharp feeling and felt liquid gush into her pants, soaking through.
Hearing her, Vermilion turned from filling her plate up, only to see the crotch of her stretchy pajama pants darkly stained. “Oh...didn’t make it?” he asked, no condemnation in his voice. After all, the bladder was the baby’s first squeeze toy.
Licking her lips, Juniper slowly shook her head as she felt the familiar pangs and tension forming in her belly. “No, I think little Joan wants to come and see us all.” Crimson and Saphron’s eyes widened, as did her husband’s. The younger girls were just confused.
Vermilion was swift. “Crimson, Saphron, watch over your sisters; I’m going to lay your mother down and call the midwife.” leaning over, he gently scooped his wife up and tucked her against his chest, heading to their bedroom on the first floor.
Watching their dad carry their mom away, Violette looked at her oldest sisters in confusion. “What’s going on? Why did daddy take mommy away?”
Crimson fixed a smile on her face as she turned towards the youngest. “You know how you asked earlier when Joan was coming out to play? Well, Joan apparently heard you and decided it was time to come into the world to see us...granted, like mom said, she won’t be able to play yet.”
Verde, Bleu, Indaco, Injigo, and Violette gasped, each of them beginning to get animated. “Now, calm down girls! Mom is currently bringing her into the world. We have to keep calm for her because its stressful. So eat your breakfasts, girls, we don’t know how long it will take for Joan to join us. This trip to come to us is on her terms, not on ours.”
Juniper groaned as another contraction hit, a rough internal squeezing that came unexpectedly, rubbing her belly as her husband spoke on his scroll. “-have been about seven minutes apart for now. When can you be here?” she couldn’t help but smile at the worry on her husband’s face. He looked more frightened than she felt!
She paused, rubbing her belly. It was slightly odd, usually she felt much more unnerved about childbirth, the twins’ birth being a difficult one, and almost losing Violette. But she...she had a feeling about Joan’s birth. That everything would be okay.
“...okay, thanks, Adrianne.” Vermilion closed his scroll and turned. “She’ll be here within fifteen minutes, love.” he sighed, rubbing a hand through his short blonde hair, worry creasing his brow, remembering how difficult the last two pregnancies and births were on his wife.
Smiling softly, Juniper reached out and gently patted her massive bear of a husband on the arm, before slipping her hand into his and squeezing it, lacing her fingers through his loosely afterwards. “It will be okay, Vermilion…” seeing her husband’s look, she smiled, squeezing his hand again. “It will be okay...something is telling me so...and don’t give me that look! You have your ‘Huntsman’s Instinct’, so let me have my ‘Mother’s Instinct’.” she chided lightly, giving her husband a smile.
Vermilion sighed, before smiling softly at his wife. “Okay, June...I’ll trust you.” he wouldn’t admit it, but he was somewhat soothed by how calm his wife felt about this. With Violette she had been terrified that they would lose her. He had been terrified that he would lose both. For her to be this calm was reassuring. “Do you need anything?” he asked, for lack of anything but waiting to do.
Juniper smiled at her husband, even as another contraction hit, her stomach and lower regions cramping, “It’s going to be okay, Vermilion...just watch. In a few hours, we’re going to have our eighth daughter to love and raise…” she knew that he hated feeling useless, and always did during labor and childbirth.
Vermilion could only nod, trusting his wife’s words, and settled down next to her, knowing he could do nothing but wait until Adrianne Nox, the settlement’s head midwife, and the one who had delivered all of his daughters, arrived. Settling down in the chair next to the bed, he held his wife’s hand and allowed her to use it as a stress toy for when contractions hit.
Adrianne Nox liked to think herself a calm, sensible woman, but when hearing that an old friend’s wife was going into labor, when she had been warned that this birth could be worse than the last ones, and the last birth was complicated enough that it almost cost the life of mother and newborn, you could be forgiven for running through town as fast as possible carrying her medical bag.
“Fuck, shit, damn…” she growled out, her temper flaring. She knew, she knew that this pregnancy was a bad idea, considering how traumatic the last two were on Juniper, but she knew better than to suggest abortion, even if she didn’t personally believe in it.
At least...in the beginning. It had been odd. Juniper’s pregnancy with the twins and Violette had been brutal, almost to the point of miscarriage a few times, but this one had been rather...calm? And she had noticed that Juniper had been getting healthier during it. As she rushed through the streets to the Arc home, something niggled at the back of her mind, she just couldn’t remember what it was. ‘Ah, well.’ she thought as she rushed down the street, seeing the Arc home not too far ahead, ‘Can’t be helped. It’ll come back to me if its that important.’ she thought.
Shaking her head to clear it as she reached the Arc home, she opened the gate and entered, preparing to help an old friend bring new life into the world once more.
Vermilion looked up as he heard his second daughter call out. “Dad! Doctor Nox is here!” he felt relief flood through him. He patted his wife’s hand and stood up, heading to the bedroom door and opening it to see the dark haired woman with eyes that matched her hair carrying a large medical bag with her. She looked frazzled. “How is Juniper?” she asked, forgoing the normal greetings and getting right to the point.
Far from being annoyed, Vermilion nodded, happy that her first thoughts were of his wife. “She’s doing surprisingly well, considering. Please come back. Thank you, Saphron, go back to your sisters for a bit. This is...going to be intense.” the blonde haired man winced as he remembered how painful it had been for Juniper during the birth of the twins and Violette. She had nearly broken his aura from squeezing so hard. But he never faulted her for it.
The pair entered the bedroom, to see Juniper leaning back and stroking her belly. Adrianne looked at her in slight shock, as she seemed to be in no apparent discomfort. Shaking herself, she moved forwards and set her bag on the bed. “How are you feeling, Juniper? On a scale of one through ten, how bad is the pain?” she asked, removing tools from her bag and placing them on a tray that she brought.
Rubbing her belly, feeling her baby moving inside it, gently kicking, Juniper hummed. “Very mild, actually. Two at the worst. It feels like my period, honestly.” she blinked, knowing that wasn’t normal. But she knew Joan was alright, after all, her baby girl was practically dancing in there! “Nothing’s wrong...she’s very eager to come out it seems!” she laughed a bit, before wincing as another powerful contraction hit her.
Adrianne’s brow furrowed. That...was odd. Again, that feeling from earlier, like she was forgetting something extremely important, hit her. Shaking her head, she smiled at her old friend (after taking care of six births and being the primary care doctor for seven girls, it only made sense to be an ‘Aunt’ to the kids) and held up her speculum, warming it on her palm. “You know the routine, June...I need to see how far you’re dilated.”
Juniper nodded, pulling her blanket off, revealing her naked lower half, having taken off her soaked panties and pajama bottoms. Raising her legs up, she spread them wide, revealing her core to her husband and midwife.
She couldn’t help but giggle as her husband glanced away. Really, he had been there and done practically everything there was to do with her womanly core, but he still blushed when she did things like these!
Ignoring the moment between husband and wife, Adrianne pulled on some gloves and gently spread apart Juniper’s lips, inserting the speculum and twisting it, using a small light to peer in at her cervix. Her eyes widened. “That can’t be right…you’re already nine centimeters...” she looked up at the pair. “How long again have you said its been since labor started?”
Juniper blinked, while Vermilion answered automatically. “Less than a half hour. I carried her here and immediately called you.” he replied, before both froze, realizing how odd that was. Adrianne nodded, her dark hair fluttering. “This...is an exceptionally odd birth, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth over how easy it’s being, considering the last two pregnancies you have experienced.”
Both winced, but understood where their friend was coming from. “But she’s already nine centimeters? So this should hopefully be over for her soon?” Vermilion asked. Adrianne shrugged. “Honestly? It’s mainly up to the little one. If she wants to work with us, it will be quick. If she’s like the twins...let’s not think about how long we could be here.”
Juniper shuddered at the sixteen hour labor she had endured with the twins. It had been one of the most uncomfortable experiences she had ever had. She worried her lip as she felt some more kicks in her belly, before gasping as another, harder contraction hit.
Adrianne immediately sprung into action, readying to help bring new life into the world.
Outside in the living room, Crimson and Saphron were quietly talking, seeing as all their sisters were kept amused by the television (Verde), a book (Bleu), scroll games (Indaco and Injigo), or napping (Violette).
“Do you think mom is going to be okay? I...I remember Violette’s birth…” Saphron murmured, glancing at her younger sisters out of the corner of her eyes, shivering as she remembered how close they had come to losing not only their mom, but Violette, before they even knew her. She didn’t want to go through that fear again.
Crimson pat her younger sister on the shoulder. “I know, Saphron. Believe me, I know.” she had been the one to keep the house in running order when their father spent most of his time at the hospital with mom and Violette when he wasn’t working. She didn’t blame him, he made sure to call every couple hours and make sure they were checked up on by neighbors.
“But, mom didn’t seem to be in much pain this time...in fact, besides the water breaking, she didn’t really show symptoms?” Crimson was confused, but she had a feeling that things would be okay in the end. “So I think she and Joan will be okay. We’ll have another sister soon enough.”
Saphron pulled her legs up and tucked them into her chest. “I hope so...I don’t want to see mom or our new sister hurt…”
Crimson hugged her younger sister, unable to say anything since she didn’t want to make an empty promise.
“Okay, on three I want you to push, Juniper! One...Two...Three!” Adrianne could see the baby’s head crowing, almost ready to pop out.
“Hmmphhhnnnnneaaaahhhhgghhhh!” Juniper groaned, face flushed as her husband cradled her in his arms, allowing her to squeeze his hands tightly as she arched, eyes rolling back as she felt more than heard a loud ‘POP’ as her newest baby’s head exited the birth canal.
Loud cries, healthy cries, filled the air as she felt her baby squirm further inside her body (and wasn’t that the most peculiar feeling…), working their way out, making her sob with relief, remembering how Violette hadn’t been breathing when she had come out. Thankfully they had been able to get her breathing, but it had taken almost a month before the doctors felt safe enough to let her come home.
Her eyes squeezed shut as she pushed one final time with a cry, gasping and collapsing into her husband’s grasp, sobbing happily as her newborn’s cries filled the room. “You were right, love...she’s perfectly healthy…” Vermilion murmured, glancing at Adrianne for confirmation. His heart sunk when he saw her starting, wide-eyed and open mouthed at their newborn. “What’s wrong?”
Adrianne shook herself, mentally kicking herself for not recognizing the signs and symptoms, ones every healer was taught during their training. ‘How did I forget this?! What kind of healer am I??’ she asked herself, furious that she had forgotten something so basic.
The baby she held in her hands was something that hadn’t been seen in several hundred years. She looked like a perfectly normal baby, bar the golden wings attached to her back and wrapped around her body.
The newest member of the Arc family was an Angel. The first in at least three hundred years, going back to the war between human and faunus. But, panic filled her. This girl was as good as her niece, likely another goddaughter, but they would have to hide her, hide what she was.
After all, Angels were symbols of greatness, but also of immense change and upcoming strife. And once it was known that a new Angel was born...people would come to seek her out. Some friendly and willing to help, but most wanting to take the precious little Angel while it was vulnerable and twist her, bend her, break her until she used her powers for their benefit and no one else. It had happened before, after all.
Hearing Vermilion’s worried voice, she shook her head. “No, nothing’s wrong, Vermilion...as a matter of fact, there’s quite a bit wonderful...look.” carefully cleaning the squalling newborn off, she quickly cut and tied the umbilical cord, before raising the baby up to the parent’s sight levels.
Both Vermilion and Juniper stared in awe as Adrianne handed them their winged baby. Juniper wept as she cradled her sniffling newborn in her arms. She knew the legends. She knew that Angels were powerful, that their magic (the one being known to have it naturally, all others were just legends) was highly valued and sought after...they could change the world, and everyone wanted that ability. And they would stop at nothing to get it. She swore, there and then, that no one would hurt this precious angel she and her husband had brought into the world.
Vermilion knew. His family had had stories passed down generation to generation. Of Angels, and how one had been born in the family centuries prior. It seemed that history repeated itself, as she was the second to be born into the Arc family. Seeing the bright innocent blue eyes staring up at him and his wife, those tiny little wings flapping, he knew he would do anything to protect her, just like his other daughters. He would see to it that she could protect herself in this cruel world.
The seven daughters of the Arc family all looked up as they heard footsteps coming their way, each standing as one as they saw their doctor walking out with a smile on her face. “You’re able to see your parents and new little sister now.”
Indaco, Injigo, and Violette jumped up, bouncing on their heels, eager to meet their new little sister. “Now, girls, be calm...Mom needs her rest after that ordeal...and if our new little sister is asleep, we don’t want to wake her, either!” Crimson said with an indulgent smile, although she too was very eager to see her newest sibling, and see how her mother was feeling after that.
Carefully, the sisters filed into the bedroom to see their mother looking up at them sleepily, while holding a gold blanket holding a small baby. “Hey, girls...meet your baby sister, Joan Arc.”
As the family circled the bed, or climbed on, in the cases of the twins and Violette, and stared in awe at their newest member of the family, Juniper, Adrianne, and Vermilion shared looks. They knew that this was the start of a new chapter-not only for the Arc family, but a new chapter in history itself. Only time would tell if it was a good or bad chapter.
