I
The tie was just too snug.
Connor fought with the knot, pulling and tugging at the uneven tie before finally giving up and tossing it aside. It was more fashionable to leave them off anyway, right?
Of course, it didn’t look very good on the church pew…the stark black tie, lying haphazardly across the soft pink covering of the row of pews. Connor sat alone in the very back, Lea’s necklace clasped in his hands. It had been 2 weeks since the defeat of Vilnias.
Two weeks since he had been The Paladin.
Not by choice, mind you. Something was wrong. Different. Since the transformation of Vilnias, Connor had not been able to tap into the energies that allowed him to become Paladin. He had tried for a time, before ultimately just letting it be for the time, deciding it would work when it was ready. He just kept going about his business, helping the city rebuild the damage and helping Gabriel get back to health.
But today was different, he was very solemnly reminded, as he was shook from his thoughts by the casket wandering by him. The battered remains of Lea Riece, the last person to prove that Connor was once human, lay inside the casket that is being slowly walked out of the church to the small cemetery beside the church, where a fresh plot is dug and what few family and friends are left have gathered to pay their last respects. Across the church, Victor sat. Victor had come to an understanding of who his friend was, but Connor had kept his distance. After all that had gone on, it was understandable that Connor would want to be alone, right?
As the casket fell into the ground, Connor felt a twinge of guilt as the memories he had somehow leeched off of Vilnias came to mind, of Stefan’s own father being dropped into his grave.
The priest, a man who looked far younger than he truly was, spoke a few words, but Connor did not hear them. He followed through the motions, leaving with everyone else, wandering off, paying his last respects. But it just didn’t make him feel better…she was still gone. Connor wandered off into the distance, heading back towards the city.
He never did go back for the tie.
II
Gabriel lifted up the concrete blocks quietly, assisting people who had no clue of the heritage of the man beside them. He had healed up remarkably fast, his powers returning to him quite rapidly. And now, holding himself partially responsible for his failure of Vilnias, for the destruction of the city, Gabriel helped these people just as Connor had months before in atonement, putting their city back together one piece at a time.
Gabriel reflected on the events prior to this as he rebuilt the city. Even he had not seen that a catalyst for Connor’s powers was placed within the human Lea, her emotional tie to Connor meant to serve as a bond to humanity, to insure that what happened with Vilnias would never happen again. And what now? Lea is gone, no chance of returning her to this realm. And with her death and the psychological strain of fighting his own father, it seemed that Connor would have a long road ahead of him.
Children run down the streets, laughing and playing. For the first time in these weeks, the dust has settled enough for the sun to shine through. Droplets of rain bless the land, a sign of better times coming.
In the second before the rain fell, Gabriel spied a rainbow, and recalled a promise made to him long ago, when he first descended to Earth.
With a smile on his face, Gabriel went back to work. This sign was all he needed to know that Connor was going to be ok. And perhaps, Gabriel thinks, he will stay on Earth as well. He does so enjoy his time with these people.
III
Victor paid his final respects alone at the simple grave marker chosen for Lea, placed beside her parents, in a spot ironically next to where Connor’s parents were buried, next to a plot reserved for Connor one day.
Of course, were Connor’s parents really dead? He wasn’t even sure anymore. Connor Sharpe, the most normal guy he’d met, the nicest human he knew (next to Lea, of course) was some sort of warrior angel? Was Connor even human? He recounted superheroes and comic lore of his childhood and wondered if there were others that were true. But for now, Victor decided he should see if his friend needed him, and worry about his friends lineage later.
The steps seemed longer, the hallway more narrow, the world darker since Lea’s death. As if something bright in his own life was gone. He had harbored feelings for her for some time, but kept them inside. It was far too obvious that Connor had feelings for her himself.
Victor opened the door and walked in, opening his mouth to speak. The books that usually decorated the floor were gone, the door to Connor’s wide open to reveal an empty room. Everything in this place felt empty, and alone. Victor looked around once more and noticed tacked to the fridge a simple note, a check for Connor’s half of the rent attached.
The note simply read “I’m sorry I couldn’t save her.”
IV
Connor spent hours scrubbing, but to no avail. The coat still showed stains of her blood, and always would.
It was, in a way, fitting. After all, he was going to wear her necklace, wasn’t he? Why not wear her blood as well. A sign of the one human life he truly cared about, and the one soul he had wholly failed.
His bag slung over his shoulder, Connor took off into the distance. With his powers gone, not even Gabriel would be able to track him. And so long as he managed to keep all his assets in cash, it would stay that way.
The Paladin was dead, the last of his energies apparently expanded to transform the demon Vilnias into a human. Vilnias was powerless now, a weak and scrawny human forced to walk the Earth as a mortal. Eventually, Vilnias would even die of old age, just as his father did. Just as Connor’s father should have.
The wind blew softly through the autumn shades of a lonely tree on the street, as Connor pressed his hand into the bark and remembered a better time. Connor took his hand off the tree and gazed far into the horizon, his eyes glimpsing a setting sun.
This time, there would be no one to find him.
THE END
