And so the lion stepped from the darkness...

And saw that there was light.

And that light said unto him...

Go forth and conquer your fear.
For our enemies are but fear incarnate,
and only through their smiting might we be free.

The first sensation that returned to his body was a sense of weight, starting with his head and flowing down until the shape of a body was laid out to his mind. Arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, and toes. Followed by a sense of warmth permeating along his new found weight and with that a sense of coldness pressed against his body from the outside.

The next thing was breathing the sharp reflexive intake of air burned his dry throat and mouth with it's touch and instinctively he rolled over on his stomach retching uncontrollably at the irritating sensation each inhale was followed by more hacking. He didn't know how long he laid there held up by only his forearms until it finally subsided his breaths now were consistent but shaky. Next he tried opening his eyes but they were being held shut. He brought his hands up to find his eyes caked shut frantically he wiped and pulled it and a great many eyelashes until finally his eyes opened to see the ground he was laying on. Slowly and shakily he rose to his feet he almost collapsed taking his first step but luckily there was a wall to support him. Looking around he could tell he was in some sort of ally right beside a dumpster to his right it went down until it ended at the sidewalk and street but to the left there was nothing but darkness, something wasn't right.

Why couldn't he see through it?

His enhanced physiology should allow him to see through the darkness but he couldn't, looking into it though he felt a tightness grip his chest and a feeling of unease came over him.

He looked down at his body and was at a lost for words at what he saw, he was...

small

And lanky, his arms looked like twigs in comparison to what they should have been and in place of armor he was covered in tattered green rags, his hair was longer then than it should and was well beyond what he would have allowed it to be.

A sense of panic started over taking him, he was...

Scared?

Before it became overwhelming the sound of crashing metal tore him away from his self observation he quickly turned his gaze back to the dark end of the alley.

"Who is there?" he said quickly disgusted at what he heard where he expected the boom of his commanding voice there was in its place shrill meek sound that he would associate with an aspirant. His rage grew and he called out again but this time he put all the anger and authority his small body could muster.

"WHO IS THERE!?"

three shapes resolved themselves out of the dark the middle one was obviously the leader they way he was dressed and the way he carried himself left no doubts as to it, as he came closer he looked down on him and smirked.

"well well well boys it looks like we were just in time" he said to his goons before turning his attention back on the boy

"you know kid this part of town can get real dangerous at night, good thing my boys and i found you on patrol and for a generous sum we can see you safely home like the good Samaritans we are, you got a name kid?" he said leaning forward on his cane.

straightening up he replied with as much confidence as he could "I am Azrael, supreme grand master of the dark angels, and i do not need anything from you wretch"

The man in the bowler hat looked confused but then shrugged "well boys you heard the SUPREME GRAND MASTER"he said in an exaggerated and condescending tone "he won't pay up" their poses took on a more threatening demeanor they obviously meant him harm.

If he had lion's wrath he could have have mowed them down in a hail of bolter and plasma fire, if he had the sword of secrets he could have cleaved through them all with a single swing. But he had nether and he was not as he once was.

The man lashed out with his cane, Azrael had enough sense to duck and acting on instinct rushed forward and into his gut hoping to send him to the ground.

He only managed to push him back a few paces and razing his cane in both hands he drove the crook of the weapon down onto azrael's back and then a knee to the head sent him down to the ground.

He gestured to one of his henchmen who picked azrael up and held him from behind as his leader readied to strike again.

His vision and awareness returning azrael knew what was coming and once again his training kicked in and as hard as he could he drove his head back into the guy holding him who immediately let him go but before he could react the leader lashed with the can again and sent him once again onto the ground.

"Looks like Mr angel here has some fight in him" he said before he began striking the downed boy, first with the cane and then with his foot the other two joined in and all azrael could do was to curl up and cover his head.

This went on for a while when at the end of the ally he heard someone scream.

A crowd of people had gathered one of the group, a women was on some communication device

"Hello police i need help i'm at-" as the women was busy talking some of the group began approaching

"Roman we should go"

He nodded "alright" and with that the three criminals took off down the alley some of the mob giving chance while a few ran to check on the beaten boy

"Hey kid can you hear me" said one placing a hand on his shoulder

"He looks bad" said another.

Another called out to the women "HEY TELL THEM TO BRING AN AMBULANCE!"

"Lets get him out of the ally" said one man has he scooped azrael up in his arms losing consciousness as they stepped out of the darkness.

Officer flowers was having a slow night before the call about a beating taking place in the industrial district of the city came in. From the description of the assailants it must have been that roman torchwick and his goons again, he dropped out of school a year ago and already he was a hardened criminal. And so far a hard on to nab to, grabbing his hat he left his office for his car and made his way to scene of the crime.

Arriving on scene he saw a crowd had gathered around and officers had formed a cordon so paramedics and other officers could do their jobs he made his way through the crowd and pass the police line he was joined by another officer.

"Alright what do we got"

"mugging, victim is young probably 12-14 years old"

They made it to the ambulance as the paramedics were getting ready to haul the unconscious boy into the back of the ambulance. judging by how he looked he must have been a street orphan or a runaway. already he was making plans to contact orphanages and also to look through reports on runaway kids.

"Anything to identify?"

"Nothing no ID no scroll, we're running his face through city records but so far nothing's coming up"

"Keep me posted" he said walking over to the ally as a photographer was finished taking the last shots of the crime scene but all he could find was the ground was the boys blood and bloody footprints from the fleeing assailants this kind of thing was definitely torchwick's current MO he had his officers through up a cordon a couple blocks wide and started patrolling but he knew it no good at this point. Torchwick was already long gone and the only clues were bloody shoe prints.

Sighing he turned back and walked back to his car not looking forward to the reports he was going to have to fill out.

Azrael stirred from unconsciousness and without even thinking he tried to sit up only for a hand to push him back down, he tried again three times and each time he was pushed back down on a metal table his vision was blurry.

"he's walking up"

"keep him down"

"hey kid stay down it's almost over

"he's not staying down put him under"

He heard none of it his hearing as fuzzy as his vision, he felt some kind of mask being placed over his mouth and nose followed by an audible hissing soon everything faded back into darkness.

After interviewing the witness officer flowers had a better idea of the situation.

"Attempted mugging, victim fought back, overwhelmed and beaten within an inch of his life before bystanders drove off the assailants"

It wasn't much and the current john doe was going through surgery for broken bones and internal bleeding. All in all it was a pretty light report.

Finally finishing his paperwork officer flowers went home for the evening to his wife and two daughters it was about twelve o'clock when he finally crawled into bed with his wife

"getting home late, something come up at the station?"

" yeah" he said flipping through TV stations.

"you want to talk about it?" she asked

He was quiet for a few moments before finally speaking. "Got a call about a mugging in the industrial district, some kid can't be any older than fourteen probably got jumped by Torchwick, poor kid tried to fight back but got hospitalized for his effort." His wife looked mortified at the news but he continued.

"But the craziest part of it all is that he's a complete John doe, no ID, no scroll, and no records in the city whatsoever, and no reports of any runaways, and every orphanage I've talked to hasn't listed any runaways it's like the kid doesn't even exist, doctors told me it might be a week before he's well enough for questioning lots of broken bones and some internal bleeding they say. Now it's a matter of trying to find out who he is"

"Sounds like you got a busy week ahead of you." she leaned over and gave him a kiss "better get to bed then dear"

Pulling the covers over him officer butch drifted off to sleep wondering just what tomorrow would bring.

Azrael woke in what looked to be a medicae room the whole room was bleach white and smelled of sterilizer he's head hurt groggily he began to observe when he noticed an orderly standing next to his bed looking over a machine and placing a bag of fluids that had a cord running into his arm onto it she looked down to see him looking at her.

"Oh your awake already" she said sounding surprised.

"w- where am i?" he voice shaking as he asked. A look of sympathy came upon her face and she kneeled down and gently took his hand.

"Your in the hospital, you were brought here after the attack, you've been here for three days."

"Is everything alright with me?" he asked

She got up and walked to the end of his bed and retrieved a folder "your wounds were severe but thankfully not permanent, you are expected to make a full recovery." She said holding one of his X-rays in front of him to see, something she learned was that all kids enjoyed see their X-rays but this time she saw shock and horror on the boy's face

"I-is something wrong?" she said growing concerned does he see something they missed?

"N-nothing it's all perfectly normal"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

Placing the X-rays back in the folder she set them back at the end of the bed she made to leave. "try and get some rest"

"Wait" she turned and looked back at the boy

"Yes?" she asked

"Does the word..." he paused as if trying to think of the right word "emperor hold any significance to you?"

She thought for a moment then spoke "no not at all, why?"

He looked away "no reason just had a hunch about something, it's not important"

She wasn't convinced but it was clear she wouldn't get anything else out of him if she tried to prod him so she turned and left the room and once she was a good way down the hall she pulled out her scroll.

"Doctor? the patient is awake."

Azrael felt he had finally reached his lowest point he'd seen X-rays of his body before, and as supreme grand master was very familiar with the gene-seed inside every astartes, He saw none of the nineteen organs on those X-rays the emperor's gifts, the essence of the lion himself was gone as if they never existed. And with this revelation Azrael some what wished he'd died in that alley

4 days later

Azrael sat alone in the interrogation room of the arbites or police whatever the hell they were calling law enforcers suffice to say the last couple weeks had shaken Azrael to his core, bereft of the emperor's gifts and his sacred war gear he had been hospitalized by local gangers and now that he was well enough to move he'd been taken into the custody of the city's 'police'. Looking over to the 2 way mirror, he couldn't see through it but it was his own reflection that was the center of his attention hundreds of years of intense training and gene enhancing reduced to this.

funnily enough the more he scowled at his reflection it obviously scowled back at him as if it was disgusted he was still mopping about this and not accepting things as is, but then he thought if he was stuck on this world then he needed to try and do something while trying to find a way home but he would have to wait until after the interrogation to see what paths laid open to him.

An arbitrator stepped into the room shutting the door behind him and sat down at the table with some kind of data slate in his hand he looked at Azrael with a warm and kind smile obviously to instill some form of trust in the youth.

"My name is sergeant Butch flowers, you aren't in any trouble but we do need to ask you a few questions before we can send you on your way"

azrael breathed before answering trying his best to play up the confused child they thought he was "alright"

Flowers gave a curt nod as a sign of acknowledgement "now there is a problem of we have no idea who you are, can you give me your name please?"

he hesitated for only a brief moment before answering "Azrael" that was all he said

"Azrael" flowers repeated as if testing the word for himself "can you give me your full name please?"

This caught him off guard and had to seriously think for a moment, for as long as he could remember he had always been Supreme Grand master Azrael, Master Azrael, Brother Azrael, lord Azrael and in far more relaxed and unofficial settings just Azrael. but his titles now were completely meaningless to this world ignorant of what they would mean and he was unable to even back up what they entailed. He had long forgotten the name his birth parents gave him, and who they even were.

No, now he was Azrael, just Azrael.

"just Azrael" he said trying not to sound as humble as he was. flowers however could pick up on it though however faint it was.

"you don't remember?" and there it was, the opening he'd been waiting for, his key to complete denial and the squashing of any hope to pry information from him.

"no i don't remember anything from before the ally" he said in the most pathetic sounding tone he could do. It seemed to work

"I've had your face sent throughout the kingdom and no one has stepped forward to claim you and i'm sorry to say but we'll have to put you up in an orphanage until you become a legal adult or your family claims you"

Azrael processed this for a moment "there is... another option"

Flowers eyes were on his slate but upon hearing this he looked back up at the boy "and what would that be?"

Azrael sat forward and placed his hands together now was his chance to try his gambit "i want to enroll at beacon"

The officer laughed "son your a bit young to even think about going to beacon academy, have you even attended a combat school?"

That part caught Azrael off guard, he had only been able to research so much he'd covered huntsmen and the 4 academies but he'd been gambling that there wasn't much more to it then that, He had been wrong he quickly tried to reverse his slip up "of course, what i meant was i wanted to become a huntsman."

"Well the new year at signal starts next month, but there is an entrance exam you'll need to complete before you can start and applications close in a couple weeks."

Panicked Azrael sprang to his feet he couldn't miss his chance now or he'd have to spend an insufferable year in an orphanage before he could apply again "can you help me then?"

Flowers was taken aback by this sudden request "kid look i'm a cop, i got other things i got to do and i can't spend the time trying to teach some kid off the street."

"I'm a fast learner, all i need is a chance i swear"

He sighed, it was only a couple weeks and if the kid had literally nothing but the cloths on his back he wouldn't make it far without some help and if he didn't.. Could he be looking at the next Torchwick? It seemed he had few choices in the mater this kid obviously had the drive to go forward and he could also see his conviction. But something about the boy seemed off he was wearing a mask, as a cop he could see a front but he couldn't see what was on the other side of it though. He decided he would do it if for no other reason then he would be able to keep a close eye on the boy.

"Alright i'll help but if you do make it you're going to be on your own afterwards, and if not you can go to an orphanage and try again next year" Azrael extended his hand.

"Deal"

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