-Aimee, Earth-

“You have minutes. Maybe an hour, if you’re lucky.” I snarled, whipping my head around trying to see who would strike out first.

“But can you make it that long?” Michael said, with an evil smile.

“Enough!” Reven, Hope, and Father jumped over Michael’s head.

“Aimee, take us back! This is your last chance.” Father said, sadly.

“No!” I screamed. They wouldn’t fight me. They care about me too much.

In a flash of movement, Father grabbed me and pinned my arms to my sides. Hope held my legs together because she was stronger than any rope. Reven stood in front of me.

“Don’t make me do this.”

I wouldn’t look at him.

He punched me in the gut, over and over again. He punched my face and I cried harder than I ever have before. Each punch was a blow not only to my body, but to my emotions as well. I looked at Reven during the pause between fists, he was crying.

I had brought them all to this point. The love of my life, or lives, was trying to beat some sense into me, while my own father and best friend was holding me down. They were all desperate and broken.

“Now, you all know what it feels like to be human; to be at someone else’s mercy, with your miserable fate in their hands. You can’t do anything about it.”

“Was this all a game to you?”

“I know better.”

Reven stopped punching me and looked deep into my eyes. “Aimee Chevalier, I have loved you since the day I met you. Making you mine was selfish of me, but you were so innocent, so beautiful, so naive, so perfect that I had to. Even when you said you hated me and how you never wanted to see me again, I loved you with every fiber of my being. Even when you thought I was busy taking over the world, I watched you mature into the powerful, gorgeous, and complex woman you are today. And I know, most of this wouldn’t have happened if I had stayed out of your life. I am so sorry but I won’t ever quit loving you -- I can’t quit loving you. I love you right now, even though you’re crazy and trying to kill us all. I love you.”

Oh, my God. What have I done?

“I love you, Reven. I always have. I knew what God was going to do to me and how it would change me. I had a choice, and I chose this. I let him do this to me. I realize what I’ve just done is unspeakable. But I love you so much that it hurts.”

Reven kissed me so softly, so tenderly, that it made my heart melt.

“Take us back!”

“I -- I can’t.”

“What?” Most of the angels screeched.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“We’re fucked,” Sarah said, which shocked everyone, but also helped the gravity of our situation sink in.

Hope and Father let go of me.

We all accepted our fate and sat down in the alley. Reven wrapped his arm around me and I leaned on him. Everyone was silent because no words needed to be said. Something bad was about to happen to us and there was nothing we could do about it.

“I’m so sorry. I know it won’t do anything, but I mean it.”

Reven patted my hair and kissed me again. All of us watched the sky turn beautiful colors. Chicago turned busy again; honking horns, clogged streets, stressed humans. The alley stayed dark and quiet.

Any minute now…

“Do any of you regret coming to Earth?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“We learned things from being here, things we had to experience and not only watch.”

“Too bad this couldn’t be a storybook ending.”

“Shame.”

“Share good stories, not bloody ones. I want to go out at least knowing what makes everyone happy.” I murmured sleepily.

So they began sharing their stories and admitting secrets they had kept. Some of us even smiled. I barely heard any of it because I fell asleep in Reven’s strong arms. If we weren’t destroyed, if we were going to be tortured forever, I would always remember this moment with Reven and how much I loved him, after everything we’ve been through.

Truthfully, I was still the same scared teenager that I had been, but I was forced to grow up. No one knows what I’ve dealt with, and no one ever will. I am Aimee Chevalier, the only Nephilim girl that saved the world and turned into the thing I hated most.

The Damned Holies. I don’t know why I thought of that name, but it made sense. I had been an angel for a year. Some things I hated, some things I loved. I could second guess my choice to turn into this, but I would never regret it.

After all, he was the love of my life, and a whole extra year to see him was precious, regardless of me wasting most of it. Life couldn’t get any better when you loved someone with your whole heart and they loved you back just as much.

On the brink of destruction, I didn’t dream, but I smiled in my sleep because… I was at peace and I was happy.