SUMMARY;

Five years ago Angel made a decision. She flew away instead of saving the life of her only brother. And now, she and her Fledges are on their own. Evading Wizards and a group of religious fanatics who want to put her in a cage like a spectacle. The Eighth Wonder of the World...

But Angel has other plans. Plans that will keep the most people alive with the least effort.

"You can't save them all, so don't bother trying."

But, Angel WILL save those that she can, until one day, a ghost from her past comes back to haunt her and she finds herself in the last position she ever wanted to be... At the mercy of a five year old girl...

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PROLOGUE; Dream Dream Dream

It was dark... The last glowing sparks of a small campfire sizzled as a few stray drops of rain drizzled down upon them.

There was no movement... There was only the sound of night insects chattering in the small clearing.

The trees swayed gently in a breeze and overhead the full moon was emerging from behind a wall of large foreboding clouds that seemed to flicker like a fire fly with distant lightning.

Hush... The moon seemed to say to the storm.

And the clouds moved away...

This was a place no man knew... This was a place that was entirely wild. This place, small as it was isolated, was the epitome of the word wilderness...

The grass, tall and slender topped with fuzzy tufts of what in the darkness looked like fur, gently rippled like the surface of a lake.

And out of the grass appeared a set of ears... Tall and covered with grayish blonde fur... And slowly a head rose with them... Large red eyes pierced the darkness as the Wolf stalked forward...

The grass rustled and for a moment the Wolf disappered into it again... Sinking below the waves...

A deer raised its head a hundred meters away. Its ears twitching, eyes wide and dull looking as it scanned the night for what hunted it... But the deer was oblivious to the Wolf... The Wolf was down wind and therefore invisible to the deer as it munched complacently on the tall grass.

The Wolf waited patiently, gazing through the grass, mouth open lips rolling back from jagged teeth...

The deer lowered its head, and the Wolf rose again, stalking forward silently...

Closer... Coser...

So close he could smell the sweat on the deer's flanks...

His feet quickened, the grass hissed against his fur as it parted for him...

The deer remained oblivious, and then-

BANG!

Screams echoed in the stillness of the field. Screams that seemed more animal than man...

The deer didn't seem to run, but teleported itself across the field and into the forest it was gone so quickly.

And Visions flashed behind closed eyes...

Terrible visions...

Men, familiar men in blue scrubs and white paper smocks leading him gently by the hand down a long halway... Saying; 'Your daddy wants you to help him today... It's very important, only YOU can help him.'

And his chest had swelled with pride that only HE could help his daddy...

The familiar men led him into a small sterile room with hanging round lights over a table. They picked him up and sat him down on the table, smiling, saying 'Wait right here, your daddy'll be right back.'

And time, the vision itself seemed to jump forward and his daddy was back... Staring down at him reproachfully, 'Don't worry, daddy won't hurt you... Daddy would never hurt you.'

A needle pricked his arm and it felt like fire flowed from it...

He only wanted to make his daddy happy...

He'd eves dropped on the other doctors his daddy worked with, hearing them talk about how wonderful the new experiments were, how proud HE was of them... How HE was taking time off just to train them...

And something deep in his little chest had changed... He was jealous of them. His daddy never took time off to help him, never said he was proud of him...

Maybe if he was like the experiments his daddy would be proud of him too?

And when the syringe was empty he looked up at his daddy with tears in his eyes, 'Did I do good?'

And daddy didn't say anything, he just looked down at him coldly, emotionlessly, turned and walked away, letting the door swing shut with a loud BANG to answer him...

The Vision skipped again, skipped to anger... Pain, hatred... Fear and betrayal...

This is who I am... This is who I chose to be...

God, help me... I deserve this...

And he remembered brown eyes hovering above him, blood smeared on a pale face, pain and a sense of knowing as HER arms came around him... The one Daddy had loved more was, for some reason, holding him... Tenderly she cradled his slakening body to her chest... Lovingly she stared into his eyes... She mourned him...

Somebody loved me... Somewhere... for some reason... She loved me enough to forgive me... Even though I tried to kill her...

And the scream ended... The night was still again...

And the Wolf huddled shivering in the grass, panting for breath and knowing finally what nobody wanted him to know...

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