13/XIII. 'Til The Storm Passes Over (Remastered)

“You have got to be kidding! This is ridiculous! What part of my letter told you that I wanted to go back?” Emily screamed at the top of her lungs as Edward stepped closer the front door of her apartment.

Using his government access, Edward located Emily within 24 hours. Still jet lagged from the 6 hours flight from Los Angeles to New York, Emily dragged her ass out of that door to face Edward, her husband.

“Please, the kids, they missed you and… I want you to move with us to London, I’ll be at home every day there, and-“ Edward patiently and calmly retorted to any objections he faced from his wife.

He tried to convince Emily to come with them to London, but she has had enough of the attempts on her life.

“No!” She quickly subdued the conversation. “I can’t live in fear anymore. I’m tired. I don’t want to go back with you because even though you are with us every day on that new place, I’m sure there are still people who will try to get you, and I don’t want to live my life in fear that one day… they may be successful in doing so.” Emily pleaded her case.

Her transformed demeanor showed Edward how she had been living for the past eight years - under fear, from those people trying to invade her home, trying to kidnap them, trying to kill them to get to him.

The bags under her eyes told him that she had not been sleeping well, for eight years, he supposed, the crow’s feet at the side of her eyes, and the wrinkles on the top of her forehead were not something a nearing thirty year old lady should have, too young to be looking like forty.

Her saggy skin around her arms told him that his wife has been stress eating and then exercising too hard to get the fat off of her body or live healthy under paranoia.

“Then… what kind of life are you living now?” He stared blankly down at the floor ashamed for being her husband who were absent for those eight years in agony.

Edward’s statement went from convincing to shaming to the point that everything he said frustrated Emily at the other side of the door.

“I already changed my name, you don’t have to file for anything for divorce or separation if you don’t want to, I just… I just want to be left alone.” She replied, coldly, to his pleads.

He remained silent for about a minute or two contemplating about their children. “What about Arthur and Johnny? I know you’re not that fond of Art, but…” He tried the last chain that could tie her back to the family – the children.

“I leave them to your hands. They turned out to be kind-hearted and fine kids without me, and they’ll do good growing up even without me at their side.”

The last straw was pulled out, he no longer have the power on the negotiating table, and he doesn’t want to drag her out too, and for the first time on his life, he accepted failure, just as his father had familial failure.

He left her at that New York apartment, defeated to convince his wife to come back home.

He flew back home empty-handed and disappointed from what has become of the two of them as a couple and as a parent to the twins.

-------------------- // --------------------

That same morning, Matthew ordered ten pizzas for the Special Crimes Division, and a celebratory cake, all order went in the Chief’s office, as the whole team wondered what celebration is in tow secretly in the team.

Matthew and the two kids soon followed and the blinds were shut for the whole department as they entered the Chief’s office.

“What are all these, kids?” Paul gestured and pointed at the food laid out on the coffee table in his office.

The twins stayed silent and their frowns told the adults that there was something bothering the children.

“The kids wanted to say goodbye.” Matthew filled in the silence as the twins appeared to be gloomy and timid, “We are moving to London by tomorrow, and…” He continued, paused, and looked at Arthur.

“Unfortunately, we would need to cut off communication for now.” Arthur looked up, directly and eye to eye with Paul, but diverted his gaze down again.

“I can call and help from time to time if you’re stumped, but, you calling me, is not a possibility right now, especially in London. I’ll call you.” He continued as he raised his head as he leveled with Paul about the current situation.

“I can send you the details of the crime, through email or something similar, you’ve worked and solved these cases only through photos and statements.” He continued, and he wanted to bury the impossibility of working with the twins.

The chief suggested sending information through other means.

“Our new home will be heavily monitored, and I cannot have you revealing this partnership to any of the government officials, nor my father. I will call you, whenever you’re pushed through the wall. I’ll make sure I will.” Arthur presented again the possibility of cutting the contact, but maintaining the secrecy.

“Aright, there’s nothing I can do about it, right?” He asked, voicing his concerns about the possibility of needing the services of the two genius, but his tone suggested that he already put his faith in Arthur about the additional details.

“Yes, and thank you.” For understanding. But he doesn’t say.

“Shall I call them in now?” The chief wanted everyone to know what was happening behind the closed doors.

“Sure.” Johnny smiled and gave permission to the chief’s request.

Paul burst out the door and invited the whole Division to come in to his office for their going away party.

Greg poured the two kids soda, and picked up a piece of the four-cheese pizza, while Chase and Thirteen tried to get the autographs of the twins.

James walked straight to the beer canisters laid out on the other side of the table, and chugged down a bit before talking to the twins and Matthew, and Gale sat quietly at the end of the couch while observing the nice view of her team getting together.

As Greg handed over another glass of soda to Arthur, and their hands touched, God sent an Oracle to Michael involving Greg handing out his badge and gun five years later. “I’m sorry, I can’t catch him.”

When Arthur came back to reality and as he looked directly at Greg’s eyes, he told him, “Sergeant, no, Greg… I will be away, but I will still help, don’t disappoint me.”

Greg felt the pressure and reassured him, “I will not disappoint you.” He replied with a stern tone.

Knowing full well the future, Arthur can only glance sadly eye to eye with Greg.

“There were many who promised me, but I ended up disappointed in the end.” Arthur set down his glass at the coffee table and looked down.

Greg knelt on one knee and gently brushed Arthur’s cheek, they looked each other eye to eye, and he firmly spoke, “I will not promise, but I will do, I will not disappoint you.”

Arthur’s memories came rushing in, God creating him, Michael, Samael’s rebellion, Raguel’s betrayal, Eon’s murders, Cain’s murder, Emily’s abandonment, and many more, washed out into thin white.

His mere words and reassurance, gave him new hope, though he received an Oracle, the Oracle can be changed by the people involved, and doesn’t have to follow a certain path or pattern.

He smiled back, silently and reassured, hoping that the Oracle would change in the future, five years later.

After two hours of eating and drinking soda and beer, the three said their goodbyes to the whole team, but before they left, Arthur handed out a flip-phone to Greg.

“I want you to contact me personally when there’s imminent danger, or you need my help in solving a case. The only number there is my contact – that’s shock proof and water proof, always carry it with you.” Arthur firmly gripped Greg’s hands along with the flip-phone.

“I will.”

It was not long until the party died down and everyone needed to be at placed at a certain time.

“Until we meet again.” Arthur reached out his hand to the chief, for a hand-shake.

“Until we meet again.” The chief reached out his hand as well and shook the hand of the little detective.

With the help of the little detectives, within two years, SCD was able to close 25 cold cases and 10 exclusive or on-spot cases.

Enough to warrant the attention of the captains from other departments, the heads of the other teams became more wary of the SCD.

But the fad died down as soon as the twins moved from USA to UK.

-------------------- // --------------------

After his encounter with Cain, the disappointed angel, Michael took a step back from the humans, and the Fallen, and travelled across the Earth, walking.

He distanced himself from the humans, and tried to discover every crook and cranny of this physical world.

By the time he returned to the plains, thousand years passed and the plains became a bustling community.

He stopped at the top of the cave near the plains and observed the humans with his long-projectile perception or the Hawkeye.

Humans multiplied at the face of the Earth along with the Fallen.

Sin greatly immersed in these communities, murder, savagery, fornication, anything unholy went on every day, especially with the hybrids amidst the Earth.

Using Hawkeye, Michael can see the color of their souls, red for the humans who have committed murder, and blue for those who have a clear conscience, black for the Fallen, and the new ones, greyish, seeing these, he knew that the Fallen multiplied their race with the humans producing the new species of hybrids.

His unique features and physical appearance from thousand years ago is now common to the humans in the communities.

There were no governing bodies, like in Heaven, however, only one rule prevailed, “Survival of the Fittest”.

He can clearly see the giants in the near East cannibalizing other humans, who were clearly still alive.

He closed his eyes, and stopped the activation of the Haweye. “What happened?”

He talked to himself, and clearly, there’s almost no human left with a good conscience. He slowly sat on the ground he’s standing on, and muttered to himself again.

“I want to see what happened in this place in the thousand years I left.” He then touched the ground and activated Oracle, and the images that flowed through his brain and his eyes shook him to his very core.

He wanted to scratch his eyes out as he regretted activating Oracle, seeing what happened in the past and how the humans ‘progressed’ into such beings broke his heart further.

Cain rebranded himself as Canaan and took wives from the Fallen. Taking wives from the Fallen angels, they produced children that were half human and half angel.

The order of the Thrones or Gabriel labeled these halves as “Nephilims”.

Seth also took wives from the Fallen, same as with the siblings that Adam and Eve produced after Seth.

The Nephilims grew to be barbaric, murderous, and sinful.

From amongst and amidst those people, there was one that stood out.

“What’s this?” He had gone back to his memories, there was one exceptional man, his soul colour is close to beige, or yellow, but his colour was close to the sun’s.

“Noah… What an interesting fella…” He sighed and smiled, at least there was one good thing he saw from all of those horrible nightmares.

He roamed around the plains invisible to the human eye, to find where Noah was, but he could not locate the man, after an unfruitful search on the plains, he enlisted the help of the greenery-plants.

“My liege, what do you require of me?”

“I want to locate the man named Noah, I wish to see him.” He whispered to the vine. The vine stretched out its roots, and its hands, it touch another plan and another and another until, at dawn, finally, it located Noah.

“My lord, we have found him at the trenches of the Valley.”

“Thank you.”

Michael swiftly approached the Valley at the other side of the cave, never wanting the attention of the humans, as he stealthily passed through the crowd and into the trenches.

The humans in the trenches were a bit different from the ones on the plains. Their soul colour were light blueish to purple, and the purest of them all, Noah.

“Now, that I’m up close, I can see the brightness of his soul – a golden shine.” Scruffy, bearded, and muscular, Noah came from Adam’s direct bloodline.

He was one of the people that maintained righteousness and fear of God, the Creator.

His eyes shone in vitality, with greyish to white hair, his muscles protruding his clothes and his large build suggested that those muscles were from honing it through hard work.

Noah and his wife conceived three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japeth, and even after marriage, the three stayed with their father and mother, and lived in the trenches.

Since the sunlight was scarce on this part of the Valley, the only livelihood that supported the family were hunting and taking care of their cattle.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?” His quick remark of the stealthily Michael quite surprised the angel.

“Keen observer, I see.” Michael observed the man before further approaching.

“Who are you, and why are you looking at me?” He stopped chopping woods, stacked the axe on the dried wood and faced Michael, looked at him right in the eye.

“Nothing, I was just curious, interested.” Interested?

Insane. He thought, who would be interested in plain, old and boring Noah, except for his wife, the humans on the plains find him irritable and annoying, if not for his strong, muscular, and intimidating appearance, most humans would already kill him.

Michael stood firmly to where he was erected as he observed Noah. Noah, creeped out, had gone back to splitting the dry wood for the fire for dinner.

“Do you really want nothing?” He asked the stranger again.

“Nothing.”

“Then stay for dinner, eat with us.” He offered him food.

Noah took notice of the man’s attire, though he is covered with garment along with his head, it’s unmistakable that the bulky appearance outside the coat was something heavy and large.

“I don’t need to eat, but… I’ll be glad to sit with you in dinner.” Michael, amidst disappointment to humans, was still hopeful that he found Noah, a one in a million chance meeting, the only righteous man on Earth amidst the wickedness around.

He smiled at the stranger’s answer. While he chopped off some of the wood, he tried to converse with the stranger. “My name’s Noah.” He muttered.

For a while, silence enveloped the conversation, tired of waiting, he stopped chopping the wood and faced the stranger, “You’re supposed to tell me your name after you’ve heard of mine.” He complained.

“Oh! Sorry, sure! I’m Michael.” Michael replied sheepishly. “Can I ask you some things, Michael?” Noah showed sudden interest at the stranger looking at him.

“Sure! Ask away!” He gladly replied, the enthusiastic tone of Michael did not stop Noah from asking questions.

“Where did you come from?” He began.

“From above.” Michael meant Heaven, but Noah interpreted it as the plains or on the surface.

“Why did you come here at the trenches?” He added.

“I came for you.” Michael replied quickly and straight to the point.

“For me? Why?” He bombarded him.

“Nothing, I just want to see you.” Noah looked at Michael’s smiling face, and the most interesting thing he found strange when he conversed and saw Michael was that he felt peace, compared to the humans that he interact at the plains, he never felt the same fear and alarming instinct with Michael.

“Anything else you want to ask?” Michael turned his head sideways as to mimic wondering about something.

“Nothing else.” He smiled back and resumed chopping the woods.

“Then, is it my turn to ask?” Michael removed his head covering and walked over to where Noah was facing.

“Sure! Ask away!”

“How do you stay so pure and innocent?” Michael’s playful tone turned into a much more serious, gentler tone, it’s as if he wanted to know the secret of Noah quite deeply.

“Pure?” He stroke the last wood and sat down the stool he had beside him. Michael’s eyes seem to follow his every move.

“I have travelled around the world, seen many people, and places, I have never found such a righteous man until now.” He articulated. “Look at me.” He added.

“I’m not a righteous man.” When the stranger asked him such a question, Noah knew that the man was not from the physical world but from the spiritual world.

It turned out Adam passed on his knowledge of the spiritual world to his descendants.

The Light, the angels, the demons, the Devil, about Mikhael - he passed everything to the next generations, and only two of them retained their innocence, Enoch, and Noah.

“I am but a sinful man as anyone here on Earth. Flee from me.” He wept as he knelt before the stranger.

“Stand up, Noah, you don’t have to worry about anything. I will be here now to protect you and your family.” Michael replied, his reassuring tone calmed Noah down as he stood up from the face of the Earth and wiped down his tears.

-------------------- // --------------------

“I’m a bit envious of Noah.” Johnny expressed his emotions after hearing the story of Noah.

“Why?” Arthur asked while they trekked the school’s hallways.

“Hmmmm… just because…” He simply answered and did not explain further.

Arthur only smiled back to Johnny and met Esther and Flora at their class.

“When will you come back?” Arthur and Johnny pulled Esther and Flora aside at their lunch time for goodbyes.

The two entered the black sedan that Matthew drove the twins to school every day.

“I don’t know, one day, maybe.” Arthur dismayingly answered Esther’s questions.

“But… how can we play if you’re away?” Her eight-year old mind was too pure, innocent, and ignorant of what may happen if you move to a new place.

“Maybe I can call you at times?” Arthur pulled out a gift box from underneath the car seat and gave it to Esther.

He opened it and a pulled out a flip-phone and handed it over to Esther. “The number’s there, my number and Johnny. Don’t worry about the bill, I’ll pay it.” He added.

“Is this really happening, Mister Pierce?” Flora felt sad for the twins, to be able to adjust to the school life only to shy away again to their new environment.

“Yes, it is for the best.” Matthew then handed a gift box from the twins to Miss Flora, their homeroom teacher on the first grade.

“Kids, I know that you have behaved perfectly most of your parents-depraved life, but I do hope you continue to be lovely kids even after moving away, don’t disappoint me, okay?” She tried to lift up the spirits of the three kids muttering at the back of the car.

“I don’t want you to go, I want you to stay-“