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[img]https://i.imgur.com/5tNCUSO.png[/img]
[color=9e0039][img]http://i.imgur.com/3R5vYYi.png?2[/img][hr][color=silver]𝕊𝕦𝕟: 𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟚𝟘, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝔹𝕒𝕝𝕕 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕀𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕   / /   ℤ𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕘'𝕤 𝔼𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕖   / /  ~𝟚𝟚𝟘𝟘[/color][hr][/color]
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[i]Finally… darkness…[/i]

Shortly after the ‘USARILN Special Evacuation Unit’  was brought away inside the trucks, Angélique faded into unconsciousness, her body and mind no longer able to repel the insidious call to sleep. Now that she was no longer needed, or rather felt the need to make herself useful and redeem herself from her mistakes, she submitted herself to this loss. Her body and soul would be able to recover now that stopped overexerting herself.

Despite being administered Christmas’ blood and healed from her blood loss, it still didn’t cure the raven-haired Aberration from the magical exhaustion she had been pushing herself throughout the afternoon. She simply laid there, unresponsive, although jerking around and muttering apologetic words in her sleep a few times, as she was gripped by the usual nightmares that haunted her slumber. For the entire trip, she was oblivious to the road that led them to the Zhang’s personal estate.

When she woke up, Angélique was in an infirmary of sorts. God, this scenery became the more frequent, and this downright displeased the fallen idol. When she tried to grogilly stand up, a nurse nearby attended to her waking. What first struck Angel was the tone of the maid’s voice. It wasn’t dripping with hate, like what she had been used to in her previous hospital visits. Then, what surprised her the most was the mark on the young woman’s face, barely as old as Angel was.

[i]An Arbiter?[/i]

The maid was courteous enough to lead the Aberration back to her assigned room after making sure she was good enough to stand on her own. Again, the young raven-haired woman was stricken by surprise to see her name so neatly engraved into a plaque, indicating what would be her room. Who had put effort into doing so much for Unit B? When she entered the room, it’s a if she had entered a traditional version of her room. As a matter of fact, the architecture looked a lot like the ones she used to see in the more sophisticated parts of a rural district. 

[i]As a matter of fact, it looks a lot like Grandma’s home[/i]

Angel took some time to familiarize with her surroundings. The maid instructed her the same directives that were given to the others earlier today, before leaving the Aberration to her things. 

It was surprising to see almost all of her stuff in this room. Clothes from Washington and the Institute, it’s as if it was already predetermined they were going to live here. Curiosity had stricken Angel, and she had the whole night to figure it out. 

She spent the whole night browsing on her phone. She looked at maps, locating where exactly they were. She took in what was going on in Washington, which eventually led her to link and notifications from her phone about the recent updates about USARILN’s new prodigies. And she was at the middle of this storm, along the others. There was some strange sense of relief to no longer be referred to ‘Banshee’, but there was some sort of irritation to be called ‘Siren’, not for the mythic creature’s enticing songs, but for the loud blaring sound police sirens made. IT was sort of humiliating to be compared to such, really. 

But what Angel found the most terrifying were the footages. It all displayed her classmates, herself included, in acts of selfless heroism. There wasn’t a single trace of the tragedy that costed more than a few dozens life, orchestrated by the evacuation unit. This whole thing looked like an advertisement campaign to benefit the new USARIL kids. Whoever leaked these videos clearly wanted to show the world that these new emerging Subnaturals were heroes.

And that’s what made Angélique falter. She had resolved herself so much to be seen as a new monster, the ‘Banshee’ that everyone would be so afraid of. A monster that would outright terrify anyone sane enough to steer clear of her and her teammates if situation where fear would be the most efficient tool to get people moving, like in Washington. 

But everything was for naught with these footages. People all over the internet now at mitigated opinions about her. Of course, there were the usual comments that she was a Subnatural and thus unworthy of trust, but there also the mentions of her that had killed people in the past and now some people even saying that she was redeeming herself by saving who she could. 

So in reality, her reputation only grew for the better thanks to all that was leaked. She wasn’t regarded as solely a murderer now, she was starting to be perceived as a redeeming criminal. What does it all meant? Did mean that she was given a second chance, as undeserving as she was? Was it a door that would allow her to clear some of that mud over her name?

Angel was at a loss of what to do. She wanted to be strong, to stand up for her friends, to take the blame and do things that they couldn’t do, couldn’t afford to soil their reputation with. She needed to become the monster so that her other teammates would shine brighter. But on the opposite spectrum, she was given a second chance to make things right, even after what she did.  Should she grab onto that buoy and try to wrench herself out from the abyss that was trying to claim her.

Doubts plagued the fallen Banshee-turning Siren. Her mind kept asking these questions as she navigated through the web and found more footage of her team, more gossips, more rumors. 

Spending the entire night awake getting herself familiarized with her new surroundings and getting herself acquainted with the news about everything that happened while she was unconscious, sleep eventually tried to claim her once more.

But the insistent ringing of notifications coupled with the buzzing vibrations of her phone against the night table kept her awake as a tired Angel went to look at who could’ve texted her at five in the morning.