Continuation/Prequel to Xellas's - Emily stays in Hell
Fall of Emily and transformation
Emily felt herself falling through the air. Tears sliding down her cheeks, despair present on her face... Why has this have to happen? They tried their best... And they failed. Filed to changed Heaven's mind. She was so lost in thoughts she forgot she was falling.
Suddenly aware of that fact she flapped her wings with all her might, but to no avail. That managed to make the situation even worse, making her fall faster. Seems like she is doomed completely. She slowly accepts her fate. At least Charlie is safe... Or so she thought.
"Emily!", a scream is heard through the air. Emily's eyes go wide. Shw menaged to turn her head and see's Charlie just above her. "Charlie...No. No, no, no, no..."
Then the pain came. She started to wriggle in the air, as she felt the it go through her body. It came in waves, hitting her like an instrumental beat and getting faster by the second. She screamed. This was too much.
Her back writted as her feathers started falling off leaving her wings making them bare. Ones in various shades of yellow and blueish silver started to replace them quickly. Some started to grow onto her chest as well, fluffing it up, making it itchy and uncomfortable. She felt her teeth pop out as the new ones came in their place, their sharpness cutting her lips a bit. She felt relief for a bit as pain mellowed down but...
That was just the beginning. It hit her sharply. Her screams becoming louder and deeper by the second. She felt the bones on her legs shift and change, attaining more animalistic look... Deer like. Bumps started to form on her head bursting out in one swift motion, and causing blood to drip onto her face. Beside each horn a fuzzy rounded ear appears, causing her to hear everything several times better, overwhelming her.
She doesn't even notice hands enveloping her and her aproach to the ground slowing down.
While the whole transformation was happening, Charlie started to panic. She doesn't know what is happening to Emily, but she needs to do something, anything. Her insticts are screaming at her to help. She let's them take over her.
She feels her magic gathering onto her back. Soft feathered wings break through her skin. It is painful and her back is bleeding, but she can afford to lose this advantage. She flies down and wraps arms around Emily. She is flying on pure instict and trying to slow down their fall.
Somehow, Charlie menages to do that, but barely. They still hit the ground hard, breaking at least few bones in the process. Recovery will be long for sure.
Unfortunately, Emily still feels the pain of transformation. Just near the end of her spine, new bones start to grow. Her skin streches with them as a long tail forms, with fuzzy hair on the end. Then her eyes start burning. She grabs at them trying to lessen the pain, but to no avail. She can only suffer through it all.
Charlie is watching it all. She knows transformation to a fallen is hard on a person. Dad told her of his own. She never imagined she would see it in real life... And on someone so dear to her.
Luckily, the transformation finishes. And Emily is laying doen on the ground.
"Emily... Are you..", as Charlie goes to speak, Emily sits down and her eyes open. Charlie is met with big black orbs, staring at her, shocking her a bit.
"I think I am....", she answered through her dry throat.
Charlie scrambles to her feet. She had managed to slow their descent, but she cries out in pain, holding her clawed hand to her ribs. Everything is tender there. She'll be surprised if she hasn't broken a rib or two, where Emily had partially landed on her, before she'd tumbled away. Her eyes are the inverse of their normal state, red sclera glowing in the dimming crimson of an early Hellish evening. Her tail and horns are out, too. And six ruffled, gossamer wings, that had just decided to choose this time of all times to manifest on her body.
"Can you stand?" Charlie asks Emily. She hopes that's not a silly question. She realizes it is a stupid question, however, when Emily tries to get up. She tries to stand, several times, but to Charlie's dismay, Emily's feet are now hooves. Hooves not unlike her own; Emily can't seem to get her balance on the new limbs.
Emily tries again, and cries out as the new joints and angles of her deer-like legs buckle beneath her again. She pounds her fists into the ground in frustration, letting her tears fall into the dry dirt.
"Damn it! Damn it!" she shrieks, closed fists with newly sprouted claws meeting dirt at each utterance of each curse. "Why did...Charlie, what's happened to me?! Why is my body doing this?!"
Charlie bends down. She picks Emily up in her arms, and winces when the other woman rests against her ribs. She has to fight through the pain...it appears like Emily might also have some broken bones, or at least they are heavily sprained. She hitches Emily further up to her shoulder, so the fallen angel can lean her head on it. Emily's still crying. Wet tears soak into Charlie's ripped clothing.
"I think...when they...when the elders pushed you, you became truly Fallen. Something about the rejection of Heaven itself causes a physical change. A new manifestation. It happened to my dad. But...he learned to control his new features over time. You will, too. You just...we just need to get out of here. You're hurt bad."
Charlie debates flying on her newly formed wings to get them home. She doesn't trust herself to know how to use them yet, let alone have the strength to carry herself and Emily all the way back to Pentagram City in the air. Emily's moans and raspy sighs indicate she's in enough pain as it is. Charlie can't risk hurting either of them again.
Charlie doesn't want to ask this of Emily, but holding the angel in her arms, she can't quite reach her phone in her pocket. She asks if Emily can grab it. Thankfully, it's within Emily's reach. She has Emily flip through her phone until she locates Vaggie's number, and then puts the phone on speaker so they can both hear her.
Vaggie picks up on the second ring, like she'd been waiting right next to her phone for their call.
"Charlie! Emily!" Vaggie shouts, her voice ringing unnaturally over the device's tiny speaker. It crackles a bit, a little muffled; that's when Charlie realizes she only has one bar. They are far outside the city. "Where are you two?! How did the meeting with the elders go?! What did they say about Emily?!"
Charlie has to actively fight against crying while she's on the phone with Vaggie. Emily has no such qualms, and cries into Charlie's comforting chest, trying her best to keep it muffled from Vaggie. Charlie clears her throat, barely managing to fight back tears.
"Vaggie, I--I'll tell you later, I promise. But please...I need my dad. Quickly!"
Charlie knows instinctively that Vaggie can probably hear the panic in her voice, but as usual, her girlfriend is smart enough not to ask for clarification. For her own sanity. Instead, Vaggie promptly says, "He's not here. He's in one of the other rings. Should I get him? Where are you?"
"Yes! Please! We're...we're in the desert beyond Pentagram City. Where...where my dad... Umm, just--just tell my dad where we are! I'm too far out to call him. He knows the spot! He'll be able to find us!"
"Okay," Vaggie says, the stiffness and hesitation in her voice no doubt due to her refraining from asking more questions. "Please, be careful! Tell Emily I'm--I love you both!”
Charlie smiles. "She's right here. She heard you. Thank you, Vaggie. We need to go now!"
"Okay. I'm hanging up. Hang tight!"
Vaggie abruptly hangs up. Almost as soon as she does, Charlie lets herself go, and cries into Emily's hair and horns. The two of them just stand there for a moment, with Emily in Charlie's arms, trying to figure out how to put themselves back together after what just happened.
Charlie starts walking. Her dad will find them eventually, but the closer they are to the city, the easier it will be for him. Charlie's not ready to face him yet...not anyone yet. She's not ready for any of the others to see her and Emily.
There will be so many questions. Questions she doesn't have the answers to. Questions she's not sure that she wants the answers to. So she keeps walking, doing her best to reassure Emily that everything will be okay. That they're together, and alive, and safe, and that's all that matters.
She's not certain if she believes her own words, but she has to try. For Emily.
