{Between this world and the Next}

**Angel could hear the voices from the infirmary as the medical staff worked hard to save her. Yet, she didn't feel frightened anymore, she felt at peace. It were if her mind was now floating, and her connections to the real world were forcefully taken from her.

Looking down at herself, she was a transparent version of herself, surrounded by a plane of white mist. Was this it? Angel wondered, as she looked around, and then down at herself. She was not in chain armor anymore, her clothes were a white and crisp silk cloth, drapped loosely around her shoulders, a gold band of rope tied neatly about her waist. Angel's blonde and straight hair was now perfectly curled and it loosely framed her face. A gold bracelet was heavy against her left wrist.

She felt better than she ever had. No pain...no stress. Her blue eyes were bright and innocent, instead of hard and cold. Giving herself a little twirl, she laughed a little. There was something about this place that made her happy. Yet, in her heart, there was a strong tug...there was something..not right..about all this..something was missing..what was it?**

(( I will be using multiple NPCs here, I will denote each speaker by typing their name ahead of each one's speaking and actions to avoid confusion.))

{{ Ahead of Angel in the mists is a wall of white light. It generates a feeling of calm and warmth, much like one would describe a mother's embrace. As she twirls and dances in her new-fond health a large figure emerges from the brilliance, his armor gleaming silver, a distinctly familliar blade rests point down in front of him, his hands crossed over the hilt}}

ANGELFIRE: " My daughter, before you lies a choice. The wraith lord bids me keep you in his realm, but it is not his decision to make. The gods call for your soul and offer you the peace granted to the righteous. You have but to accept and I will stand aside, your soul at peace for eternity as is your ordained reward."

{{ Even as he speaks the realm behind her darkens, A second figure emerges from the deeper shadows, for puproses the dark twin of the shining angel in front of her. The air around him swirls shadows and carries the smell of death and pain}}

SOULREAVER: " Oh come now brother, we know the real choice she has here. She is going to die one way or the other. The choice you offer her is to die and goto rest, or forever be cast into oblivion for refusing your 'gracious' offer. However, dear child, I have a better deal for you...{{the light before her swirls and colors, showwing her rising from her deathbed whole and healthy, reunited with Jaric once more}}....pledge yourself to me, and I will give you back what you have lost. Your soul for your life. Of course, you can refuse me...I will enjoy seeing your beloved husband fall to his dark nature without you. I may even claim him for my own before it is over...I leave it in your hands.

*Angel's body paused as she saw the figure that was her father. It was the first time that she had ever set eyes on him and it caused a quiet gasp, even though she wasn't even breathing. Her eyes widened and her hand came up to her heart to steady herself.

"Father?" Angel lowered her head out of respect and kneeled upon one knee before him, listening carefully to his advice. This was not what she had always invisioned of their first meeting. She frowned, the Gods called for her soul? She was..dead? The wraith lord...her husband..Jaric..the memories of what had happened with the Ursine came flooding back, her heart sinking fast.

Angel shook her head, her eyes casting back up to Angelfire. She rose from her knee. Her tone was cold and harsh. "You already stood aside, father. You didn't save me from my fate...you let this happen." She knew when she had retaliated on the beast, that something had gone wrong with Angelfire-it had not worked.

Inhaling she spoke with all seriousness. "If it were my time to pass onto the next world...then I would go peacefully. But it is NOT my time, I cannot walk to the otherside. I refuse to leave Jaric, or my people. My heart and duty are with them."

She paused from what she was saying at the appearance of SoulReaver. Her body tensed as she stared at him with seething hatred for who and what he was. However, Angel couldn't deny his offer was more appealing. Of course it would be. Yet to make a deal with him? Unacceptable. "If I pledge myself and soul to you, Uncle, it would be treason against all I stand for. My loyalty is with Jaric..and my fate is with the Gods alone. He and Aurora are my family now.."*

{{ Angelfire nods a sigh of sadness heard even as he turns and heads back into the light}}

ANGELFIRE: " You refuse the gods' gift. The decision is your's to make and I can not act to change it. May you find what you seek in oblivion daughter, for the gates to paradise are forever closed to you now."

SOULREAVER: {{ listens to Angel as she tells him in a rather polite manner to go to hell and laughs at her outright}} " Well now child, it seems then that in order to save and protect the ones you love, you must comit treason. I mean, seriously, what good are you to them here trapped in the twilight forever? You are going to die out there. The fact is, you are only here now because the Blackrose wills it, and he is nothing if not stubborn. Eventually though, he will have to let go. Even he can not fight a war while trying to keep you in your dead shell.

No, the fact of the matter is, only I can save you, because your father and his precious gos have already left you behind. To preserve the light, you muct embrace the dark, or trust in your dear Jaric to keep you here...I am afraid however that you are out of sacrificial children for him to use in his little spells, so the likelyhood of living through this is none.

{{ The warmth and light around Angelfire blinks out even as the demon speaks, like someone threw a switch, replaced by a cold, bleak landscape coverred in drifting plains of ice and snow, swirling in an eternal wind. Soulreaver seems unaware of the new landscape as he speaks.}}

So once again, pledge yourself to me and return to them, there is no one else to save you. No other choice.

**Angel stood there, she was in disbelief that Angelfire was willing to step back and desert her so easily. Her eyes blinked back tears. Paradise was lost to her? After everything she had done. "I believed in you!" She shouted at him, bitter at his lack of loyalty. She had wanted Angelfire to save her, make things better once again. "Your idea of salvation might be paradise, but mine belongs with the living. Don't you see?!" But he was already gone.

The world felt frozen and dark, the warmth and pleasent light from Angelfire was now distinguished. Her blonde hair danced in the wind and she looked to SoulReaver, her eyes cold and narrow as he spoke. She wanted to spit on him.

"You're wrong. There is a choice. There is ALWAYS a choice." Her own white energy sparkled from the palms of her hands as she held her arms out. "I should have finished you for good in F'tallian when I had the chance. Can't you stay dead? Now, Redeem yourself before me and send me back. Know that I could never forgive you, you killed my men. Know that I shall fight, even in my death, for Jaric."

Closing her eyes and directing her divine energy, Angel sent out a physical Mind Link to Jaric saying "Hold on to me..." not even sure if he'd even hear it. She just willed it, desperate for him.**

SOULREAVER: {{ The darks shape of the demon recoils back breifly}}

" Did you just try to redeem me? Here? In the realm between life and death you would waste what prescious little time you have to try and save my soul and convince me to send you back out of the kindness of my freshly saved heart?......I think I am insulted. How dare you? I mean really child, after all we have been through you would go and do something so blatatantly rude when I have offerred you everything you wanted?

Yo know,for that alone I should just destroy you where you stand and devour what's left."

{{ As he speaks a blade of dark energy appears in his hand and the light in the mist deepens to a dark shadow as he spproaches her}}

" No more games little Angel, I tried playing nice, you refused. Your father offerred you salvation, and you rejected him. Now I will claim what I want and use your soul to escape my prison for good. Rest assured, I will enjoy watching Margeurite destroy all you held dear before I take it all away, I may even let you watch from your new home."

*She spread her palms open, divine energy sparkling almost like electricity. "You leave me no choice..." she promised, knowing that it would get to this point, that she would have to fight him. Her death was an inevitablity at this point, Angel had nothing to lose.

Closing her eyes, Angel began to summon the Gods of winter. She would do a deal with them, they were her only ally left. White light shot out and began to flood up and down of her body as she summoned divine protection and healing. "You will not claim me, Darklord. My heart and soul...they belong to another. You cannot have me."

Putting all her energy into what she had, she was determined if nothing else to fight to the very end, but her heart reached out to Jaric, she didn't want to loose him and the realm. Her mind silently thought "I love you" to him, even though she was sure he probably couldn't hear. *

{{ The are around Angel swirls with ice and snow, the shards of frozen water lashing at the demon even as the indistinct figure of a woman appears amidst the whirling ice. As Angel calls up her divine energies, her wings unfolding as she calls on a heritage she holds for just such a moment, the feathers shift and change, the soft white glow of her healing magics and sheild replaced with an ice blue cold, her wings rimmed with frost as Winter herself answers her call.

At the appearance of the Auroran goddess of death and balance, the demon shrinks back, the shadows rapidly fading to nothing, replaced now by the constant swirl of ice and snow trapped in a whirl wind}}

WINTER: " YOU HAVE CALLED AND DEMANDED OUR AID, WE NOW DEMAND PAYMENT. YOU WILL SERVE US NOW. YOU ARE NOW OUR DAUGHTER, NO LONGER YOUR FATHER'S CHILD. WE CHARGE YOU WITH HER DESTRUCTION. YOU WILL SERVE US UNTIL WE DEEM IT TIME FOR YOU TO DEPART. FAILURE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. RETURN TO YOUR PEOPLE, TELL OUR SERVANT HIS DESIRE WAS GRANTED, BUT AT OUR DESIRED PRICE. HE WILL KNOW."

{{ The snow fades and the realm goes to darkness, the sounds of the infirmary coming to her ears, above it all, Kinsen's prayers can be heard as he maintains his place where Jaric commanded him}}