They just walked away. How could they just walk away after what they had done? Maria’s rage boiled like an underground ocean being pushed to the surface by a super volcano.

She wouldn’t accept this. She denied it. Denied it with every ounce of her being. Her entire life had been one long act of submission. She had to go with the flow of whatever her father said, do whatever it was society expected of her, be a polite little church girl who sat submissively in wait for permission to speak. Always weak. Always pathetic. Never able to stand up to men like Chad. Never able to help anyone or anything.

Never again.

These monsters would pay. She might not be able to restore Jacky to life, but by god could she extract some divine vengeance.

The ocean of rage erupted. It was tangible enough to coursing through her body. The rage and desire for power and vengeance flowed through in ways that made it feel it might literally burst forth from her skin. The pressure built until she could feel it with each heartbeat. It filled her chest until it was difficult to breathe. Her entire body shook as the pressure climaxed into a moment of clarity that cut through to her like an angel’s song. She found herself filled with a strength she was certain was not her own.

Long steady chants filled the alleyway. They sounded like they were coming from more than a dozen voices. They came from everywhere and nowhere at once. They were in a different language than what Jacky had spoken earlier, but had a similar effect. As the chants rose Maria felt infused with far greater power than she’d ever known. She felt somehow stronger and more resolute. For the first time in her life she felt in control.

Rickard and company turned back to her. Their faces filled with terror.

Maria took a step closer to them and watched them flinch. It served them right. They had taken something from her. She’d take everything from them.

One by one the group transformed into werewolves. They scattered like roaches before her light, leaving the murderer to face her alone. She thought they were afraid to face her judgment.

Rickard faced her. He didn’t smile as she approached. If anything, he looked sad. His body shook, but his face stayed calm. “I never thought I’d live to see a Templar in action.” He spat on her. “I’ll send Cernunnos your regards.”

Templar? Cernunnos? She had no idea what he was talking about. The voices, on the other hand, seemed to. They rose in volume and their tone became angry and forceful. Her own anger rose with theirs and settled into her belly. Something instinctive told her this rage was her weapon. Like the sword of Archangel Michael, it could sever her enemies’ limbs and leave their bodies for the crows to feast upon. The thought gave me a measure of comfort.

She charged Rickard. Rays of light shot from her body at random. They struck their targets like lightning. Random pieces of debris turned to smoldering ruins while concrete, brick, and steel blackened. Rickard opened his arms and raised his palms to the sky. The fool didn’t even try to dodge her. She closed the remaining gap and punched him in the stomach. “That was for Jacky, you monster!”

There was a thud of impact as her fist meekly drove into his gut. She looked down at her fist in shock. Why hadn’t her punch hurt him? She felt supercharged with power. Doubt played through her mind. Had she snapped and turned delusional?

One look at Rickard showed he was just as surprised as she was. That solidified it. She wasn’t crazy. Something should have happened. A bolt of light zipped past Rickard’s head, singeing his Rainbow hair. His eyes widened, and he stumbled back in fear.

The light. That was her key to success. She had to do something with the light. Maybe she could focus it? She tried to step back and focus her will on him hoping to coerce the light into striking him. It was taking too long though. Before she could get a clear handle on it, he had transformed back into a wolf and was bearing down on her. She jumped back in surprise as his first claw went for her face. He pressed. She tried to keep dodging him, but she wasn’t built for this. She wasn’t graceful like Jacky had been. Her feet tangled beneath her as she weaved backwards, and she fell onto her back.

Within moments, he was on top of her, ready to rip out her throat.

There was no time. If she didn’t get this right now she was done for. She abandoned hope of aiming a blast and just concentrated the entirety of the energy into a forward blast. The heat of his breath graced her neck. A pulse of energy pushed out from her chest, driving her uncomfortably into the concrete. Rickard’s teeth snapped in her face as he was blown away from her in a blinding flash of light. The scent of burned hair and flesh filled the air even before his body hit the ground.

She stood and walked toward the crumpled form of Rickard. He had landed on his back. A wicked part of Maria hoped he had broken it in his fall. A steady stream of smoke rose from his chest. She smiled. The wound looked painful. With a casual cruelty she placed her foot on the wound and ground her heel into it. The beast whimpered in pain.

She looked down at him in disgust. “Pathetic.” She stood over him to watch if he stirred. It seemed the attack had knocked him senseless, if not momentarily unconscious.

A sudden pressure filled the back of her head. It pulsed a few times. Slow and steady, like someone urging her to do something. Then a voice came with it. “Make him beg for the lord’s forgiveness. His death shall help swell our ranks.”

The voice startled Maria, but she found herself unable to react to it. She wanted to make Rickard watch as she incinerated his body piece by piece. She wanted him to die without redemption. Most of all she wanted to defy this stupid voice and found she couldn’t. She tried to will the light to strike her fallen foe. To burn him to ash and send him to an early grave alongside Jacky, but it wouldn’t obey.

The voice continued. “I admire the spirit of war and vengeance more than the other archangels, but we have a duty here, mistress Maria.”

“I don’t care about your duty,” Maria growled. “He killed my friend. He doesn’t deserve redemption.”

Rickard’s eyes snapped open. He stared at her with a look of horror and confusion, but didn’t move.

“He can’t hear me,” the archangel’s voice came again. “I imagine you look crazy to him right now.”

“Hell, I look crazy to me right now.” She tried to direct the light by flailing her limbs at Rickard, hoping it might fly from her limbs and hit him or something.

“That won’t work.” The voiced sounded amused.

“Fine. If that won’t work then..” She stomped on the chest wound. He let out a sharp yelp. “This will have to do.” She stomped again and again. Each attack caused him to let out a crazed pain induced howl, and with each blow dogs and wolves off in the distance rose in response. Maria wondered how many of those voices were his friends. His friends who had been too cowardly to face her. Those he’d sacrificed himself to protect.

Maria deflated. Rickard knew this would happen when he turned to fight her. He practically said as much. Who was she to take him from his friends like that? People he had known for years. She’d be worse than him. The light faded. She began to cry.

A sudden force exploded into Maria’s abdomen and drove the wind from her. She screamed in pain as something carried her up into the air away from Rickard. She grabbed it. It felt smooth and cool to the touch. Like thick vines tangled into a column the size of a small tree trunk. This should have left her in awe. It didn't. So many strange things had already happened that she was acclimating to the insanity. And maybe she had other priorities to worry about first, like not colliding with the wall she was fast approaching. She pushed herself away from the mass and fell to the ground.

A literal column of vines redirected itself and grew in her direction. It seemed to seek her out. She let out a panicked cry and tried to scramble away from it. The plants were growing at her faster than she could move. She braced for the second impact, hoping to use its momentum to knock herself away, but the impact never came. Instead, the vines opened like a maw and grabbed her. They constricted. She could feel her bones creak under the strain of the pressure.

This was it. This was how she would die. Hugged to death by a plant. Despite herself, she laughed at the idea. Laughed and screamed as the plant’s constriction grew tighter. She had given her all in an attempt at vengeance. Maria supposed that was enough. She had led a good life.

“Templar,” a familiar voice rang out from behind her.

“Raven.” Maria was surprised she could still speak.

“This is the only chance I’m giving you.” His voice was devoid of emotion. “Forget you ever met Jacky. Forget this Templar nonsense. Go home to your parents. Never say a word about this.”

“Or what?” Maria said.

The vines constricted. She gritted her teeth and tried not to scream. This inhuman freak wouldn’t see her weakness. She might be helpless, but that didn’t mean she had no pride.

“One by one your bones will break until there is nothing left but dust.”

“Fine. Kill me. I dare you.”

The pressure around her legs spiked. Both snapped like tinder twigs. She screamed. Agonizing white hot pain shot through her body. Moving up her body, each bone snapped in a slow procession. Her vision dimmed. She could feel the end coming, and after this pain she was ready to embrace it.

The vines opened around her face, and Raven faced her. “It didn't have to end this way. I wanted to spare you.” His eyes were mournful. Their normal icy shade of blue almost seemed to weep despite the fact he wasn’t.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She was ready to die.

He raised his fist to her eye level and clenched it tight. The last thing she remembered before fall unconscious from the pain was a flash of light and a feeling like she had fallen to the ground.