STOP! DO NOT READ THIS!

Unless you have already read Serafine

THIS IS A SEQUEL!

It might be confusing if you start here.

The Virtue

Part One

People always assume Canada is a frozen wasteland in the winter, but anyone who’s lived in southern Canada would tell you otherwise. Winter comes unbearably slow in places like Toronto, where at the height of Christmas shopping people rush around in light clothes and wonder if it’s going to snow anytime soon so they can have a white Christmas.

Christmas and winter were two different times in Toronto.

Marshall stood outside the Eaton’s Centre mall watching the Salvation Army Santa Claus ringing his bell and sighed. He wished it were snowing, because snow made his job so much easier. When it snowed people wouldn’t get a good look at him, wouldn’t notice right away what he was doing.

On days like this he just had to be a little faster than usual.

“Just a little longer…” He whispered to himself, getting ready to sprint.

Santa turned to call out to someone and Marshall smiled. It was his opening. He took off running and as he passed Santa he unhooked the pot off money and made off with it like nothing happened.

“Thanks Santa!” Marshall yelled back to him.

“HEY! COME BACK HERE!” Santa yelled, but Marshall was already too far away and turning down Dundas Street to victory.

From a building-top across the way a lone figure watched on, waiting for their perfect moment to strike as well.

“There you are…” They smiled.

Marshall turned down an alley to catch his breath, looking at his pot of money. He laughed; it was just too easy.

The bucket jerked in his hand. He looked at it for a moment in confusion, watching it gently sway.

Suddenly it was pulled away and landed on the other side of the alley. Marshall backed up against the wall.

“Who-?” He looked around in fear, one moment the alley was empty and the next a beautiful young girl was standing in front of him glaring. Above her five shuriken hovered in the air.

“What kind of a jerk steals from he poor?” Arella demanded.

“Get out of my way!” The man had regained his composure, blaming a trick of the light for her sudden appearance.

“Not a chance,” Arella calmly said.

Marshall smirked.

“You’re going to stop me little girl?”

The anger left her face and she smiled.

“Absolutely,” she said, and suddenly disappeared.

Marshall stared at the empty alley in complete shock, trying to remember if he might have accidentally taken drugs this morning.

Arella still stood in front of him, her wings out and her fist winding up to punch the man. Her fist impacted with his jaw, knocking his head against the brick wall. She had been practicing fighting a lot in the two months she had been an Angel.

Marshall fell to the ground unconscious and Arella stood over him, once more the victor and purveyor of justice.

“Nice punch.”

Arella turned around to find a familiar looking Angel standing on a rooftop. His dark messy hair, his intense blood red eyes, his handsome face, she remembered it well from the one time she saw him in the Tower. He looked down at her, a calm and slightly amused look on his face. He wore black jeans, cowboy boots and a grey duster that came down to his knees.

“An Italian Cowboy Angel,” Arella thought to herself. “Just missing the hat and some guns.”

“I remember you,” she almost smiled at him, but he still made her uneasy. When she had first met him they had only spoken for a moment and he had still managed to make her feel nervous. “You’re, uh… well… Ha… I can’t seem to remember what you said your name was.”

He jumped down, his wings slowing his descent and giving him a graceful landing in front of her.

“Chael Angelo,” he introduced himself.

“It’s nice to properly meet you, my name is Arella Serafine,” she held out her hand for him to take.

“I know,” he left her hand hanging there.

Arella looked down at her hand.

“Well he’s friendly…”

“You’re improving,” Chael nodded towards the unconscious man.

“Yeah, well, my missions haven’t exactly been challenging,” Arella explained. “This guy’s been robbing Salvation Army Santa’s for a week now. He’s no murderer like…”

She could still remember Mal’s crazed eyes staring into hers.

“Well… It’s been almost two months and all my missions have been a cakewalk compared to that first one.”

Chael smirked.

“Because you failed.”

“Failed…?” She looked at him in shock. The word hurt. ‘Failed.’ “But everyone was fine, everyone lived. How did I fail?”

“It was a test.”

“A test? But lives were on the line. If I had failed Eddy could have died!” She briefly wondered if he remembered that she had been staring at a picture of Eddy when they had met. Would Chael recognize Eddy’s name?”

“The first mission is the hardest mission the Seraphim can think of,” Chael explained in his soft voice. “They learn all they need to from one test.”

Arella thought about it for a moment, how every mission since had been small things, like this robbery, none of them difficult. So the Seraphim didn’t think she was ready to take a dangerous mission on again? Would they ever think she was?

“So all that was a mind game… and I failed,” she frowned to herself. “Trust my luck… I bet everyone else passes, huh?”

“Most fail.”

“Oh?” That made her feel slightly better. “Did you pass or fail?”

Chael just smirked, a look that asked what she thought. Then with a flutter if his wings he took off flying.

“You know, you really have to work on answering questions!!” Arella yelled after him, but he ignored her and just kept on flying.

Were all the Angels in Toronto just as annoying as him?

ooo

After calling the police Arella made her way to work at Angel’s Dinner. Angel was just a normal mortal human, but to Arella she really was an Angel. She gave her a job, asked no questioned, treated her like a mother might. Of all the people she had met since dying, Angel was the only one she really felt she could rely on, even if it was only for comfort.

However, Arella didn’t have a shift for another hour and Angel wasn’t around to talk to, so instead she went out to the back of the dinner where there was a payphone. It was dark and cold, but she didn’t even notice. She had spent several breaks staring at that payphone, thinking about calling Eddy.

What would she say?

How could she explain everything that had happened?

“Eddy, I love you.” She would say.

“Sorry, who is this?” He would reply.

He would be completely unaware of who she was, because her voice was different. Her face was different. Her body was different. She was different.

It didn’t matter how much she wanted to be with him, she couldn’t. They’d never be together again.

Still she held onto the hope, that no matter what, if she ever did meet Eddy again, he would see through all of that.

Love would prevail.

They could be together again.

ooo

She slept like a rock, curling up on her bed – the only piece of furniture in her room. She had managed to collect very little for her apartment. She had a few pieces of furniture in the main room, a table, a chair, just small things that made the apartment look a bit more like home.

When she woke up she felt completely alone.

It was hard to make an empty apartment feel like home.

This was the first Christmas that she would have to spend by herself.

She slowly got dressed and walked over to the window ledge where she had placed the two pictures she stole from her old room. She stared at Eddy in her photograph and felt the all too familiar ach in her heart.

She would have given anything just to be able to talk to him again.

Suddenly there was a puff of smoke and she felt a small body fall on her shoulders and embrace her.

“ARELLA!!” Lito exclaimed happily.

“AH!!” Arella jumped away in surprise. No matter how many times Lito appeared or disappeared, she never got used to it. “You’re allowed to knock, you know.”

“Oh, that takes too long!” He pulled an envelope out of his messenger’s bag. “Your new mission.”

“How is it you always know when I’ve just finished a mission?” Arella asked skeptically.

“I do work for God you know.”

“I guess you can’t keep something from someone all seeing,” she sighed, she knew this mission would be just like all the rest. Something safe, something to make her think she was being useful to the other Angels, when really she was nothing more than a failure.

“Well he doesn’t see everything…” Lito said thoughtfully.

“Oh?”

Lito looked at her seriously.

“He can’t see the Demons.”

Arella felt her heart skip a beat. Since all of this began she had never given any thought to Demons; but now that she thought about it, if Angels were real, then Demons must have been real as well. Lucifer, Satan, all real.

“You mean-“ Arella began but was cut off by the sound of the door being kicked wide open.

Both Lito and Arella ran to the main room to see a young black girl standing there in the open doorway with a red suitcase in each hand. She smiled brightly at them.

“Good morning Toronto!”

“Um, good morning…” Lito smiled, despite the look of confusion on his face. Clearly he didn’t know who she was.

“Hey!” Arella yelled. “Doesn’t anyone knock anymore!? And who are you!?”

The woman walked in and set her suitcases down. She appeared to be just a little older than Arella, and just a little taller too. Her hair had been straightened and went down to her shoulders, and the tips had been died bright silver. She looked like she had stolen her outfit off a mannequin in the nearest Guess store, and Arella couldn’t help but notice it matched her suitcases.

“Well, it’s no Harbourfront condo, but it will do,” she remarked, and her blue eyes sparkled. “Ooo! Nice kitchen!”

She walked over to the kitchen, the two Angels watching her completely stunned.

“No microwave!?” The stranger asked.

Arella finally snapped out of her shock and followed the stranger into the kitchen.

“I don’t know who you are, but you need to leave-”

The girl walked past Arella, not even looking at her.

“Be a dear and go get my luggage. I want to see my room.”

“Look…” Arella tried to find the right words. “Wait. Your room!?

The girl opened the door to Arella’s room.

“Hm, this one’s on the corner. I’ll take it.”

“That’s my room!” Arella protested as the girl disappeared into the room.

“Oh excellent, a walk in closet!”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?” Arella yelled, barging into her room and glaring at the girl as she stared into the closet.

She looked at Arella as though noticing her for the first time.

“Me? I’m your new roommate, Jera Patience.”

“My roommate?” Arella asked confused. “I don’t have a roommate.”

“I beg to differ. I was sent here straight from the Tower,” Jera smiled. She had an enchanting smile. “Now where are my bags?”

For the first time Arella realized she was an Angel, but that changed nothing.

“In the doorway. Where they will stay until I’ve spoken with Gabriel about this.”

“Gabriel? Why would you need to talk to him when all this information has been sent in the mail?” Jera walked past Arella back into the main room.

“I never got anything in the mail!” Arella yelled from the bedroom doorway after her.

“Must have been lost by an incompetent Angel,” Jera opened the bathroom door. “I love our bathroom! Spacious!”

“How dare you! A Messenger never loses something in the mail! Take it back!” Lito lunged at Jera, but Arella caught him in mid air.

“So what was I supposed to have gotten in the mail?” Arella asked, not believing that anything had actually been sent.

“Let me at her!” Lito struggled in Arella’s arms. “She’s a liar!”

“Just that you’ve been graced with the presence of the most virtuous Jera Patience.”

Arella put Lito down in her chair.”

“Sit,” she looked up at Jera. “Don’t I have any say in this, Mrs. Patience?

“Miss. Angels don’t get married. And no, of course not. Say, where’s your TV?”

“I don’t have a TV.”

“No TV!?” Jera looked very dramatic. “How can you have no TV!? Even in the jungles of Africa I had a TV!”

“Then maybe you should go back to the jungles of Africa.”

“Hm…” Jera leaned towards Arella, “you look angry.”

“You are so perceptive.”

“Smile!” Jera yelled.

“Wha-?” Was all Arella managed to get out before Jera put her arm around Arella, pulled out a camera and took a picture of them. Jera looked at her camera screen happily. In the picture Jera was smiling, Arella looked shocked and Lito had managed to stick his head in the frame just in time to add his own big smile.

“There, now we’re friends,” Jera pocketed the camera.

“We are not friends!”

“I’ll be in my room,” Jera walked over to Arella’s room and closed the door.

Lito looked at Arella.

“Wow, that was really – OH MY GOD! I’M LATE!” Lito disappeared into another cloud of smoke.

Arella stared at her quiet apartment for a moment, trying to digest the past five minutes.

“… WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!?”

In the other room Arella could hear Jera clear her throat.

“Oh Ella darling, where’s my luggage??”

ooo

The door to the store Heaven was thrown open and Arella stormed in. From the back of the store Porter put down the bunch of umbrellas he was holding and smiled at his fellow Angel.

“Well hello Arella! I was wondering when you would visit… me… again…” He watched her briskly walk past him and head towards the door marked ‘Staff Only’. Porter watched her go through the door in an angry silence. “Okay! Um… see you later?”

ooo

“You never told me I was going to get a roommate!”

“You’re… not getting a roommate?” Gabriel stared up at her with a puzzled expression on his face. His hair was down to his shoulders; the bottom cut in zigzags, and dyed red and green streaks. He sat at a desk, piles of paperwork in front of him.

“Then who is she?” Arella asked.

Gabriel shook his head, still not understanding. “I don’t know. Who is she?”

“Can’t you just stare into, I don’t know, a crystal ball or something and find out?”

“I think you have me confused with the wicked witch of the west.”

“Tell me how to get rid of this Archangel!”

“She’s not an Archangel.”

“And how can you know that if you don’t even know who she is?”

Gabriel sighed, burying his head into his hands. “Despite what Uriel might like you to believe, I can do my job,” he looked up at Arella. “I know where all my Archangels are and none of them just tried to move in with you.”

“Then what is she? I thought only Archangels lived on Earth.”

“Well thank God you’re not in charge. There are lots of different types of Angels on Earth. I don’t suppose she gave you a name.”

“Uh…” Arella thought back to Jera’s entrance into her apartment. It had been so fast it was hard to remember what had been said, but Arella knew she mentioned a name. “Jera… something.”

“Something will not help me or any chief figure out who you’re talking about.”

“Uh, uh,” she hit her forehead, trying to think. “Uh… Patience! She said her name was Jera Patience!”

Arella smile triumphantly.

“Patience?” Gabriel leaned back in his chair with a coy smile on his face. “Jera Patience?”

“You know her?”

“Not in the least.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“Because, dear Arella, Patience is a Virtue.”

“Huh?” Arella looked puzzled, then she remembered the list of Choirs Uriel had given her. A Virtue was an Angel. “Oh, oh great! So now you can get rid of her?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t have any control over Virtues. Nobody does, really.”

“Don’t they have a chief?”

“Sure, but Virtues are… free spirited would be the best way to put it.”

“Are you telling me I can’t get rid of her even if I complain to her chief?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Well, you could ask her to leave. Did you try that one yet?”

Arella could feel her anger rising, but with nothing more she could do here, she just turned and stormed out of the Tower.

(Well, this was a lot harder to write than Serafine, but mostly because Serafine was already written. For The Virtue I had written half an issue before Kat threw in the towel, so I had that and a paragraph long outline. Quite readily I realized the outline wasn’t working and needed to focus on what Arella was going through rather than the missions. So I cut out the second mission (see Part Two for that), but then realized there was no momentum, so I had to put it back it, but then I had to rearranged a fuck-load of scenes. And – OHMYGOD it was frustrating. Still, I finally managed to get it to work and now we have Part One of The Virtue online. Victory is mine! This will only be two parts long and it’s really a transition story, because I really needed to go through the motions on how this would affect her psychologically. So yes, she’s a little emo here, but it will pass and the only emo person left will be Eddy (hm, maybe I should have let Mal kill him when I had the chance). Okay, I need to go get the second part up and edited for you.)