Sapphire’s Savior

December, 15th 2034

Raleigh, North Carolina

It was snowing heavily as I sat, huddled up in a frayed tarpaulin trying to protect the last of my troop from harm.

Sapphire, my sister, lay unconscious in my lap as I cradled her bleeding head in my hands, stroking her emerald hair.

As I leaned against the dilapidated building, my long and disheveled sea green hair cascaded over us as if it were a waterfall. My scarlet, gold flecked eyes were squeezed shut as tears streamed down my reddened face.

I’m not trained for this. I cannot stop a war! I am a peacekeeper, not a soldier, I thought, as pain seared through me.

“Sometimes, I hate being half human,” I murmured to myself as crimson seeped from a gash in my stomach, my free hand was pressed against to stem the blood.

I mentally shook myself. Zerenity, you need to get a hold of yourself. You have to protect your sister– you are her Savior! Protect her!
I could hear the sounds of the enemy troops, the Ragarians, but I knew they weren’t near us. I was safe, for now. The sight of my comrades strewn across the fissured ground made my skin crawl as more tears streamed down my wind-stricken face. I knew the closest escape routes were out of reach.

I tried to reach into my backpack to get my walkie-talkie, but each time I jostled my broken arm, excruciating pain shot through it.
I knew I needed help. I knew, Sapphire was nearing death and she was and is the only one who can end this insufferable war.

Finally, I got hold of the walkie-talkie, a scream escaping my lips as I got it to my mouth, but only to find out that it was dead.
“With all the advanced technology in this world, why must I be left with this outdated rubbish?” I grumbled, as I dropped the useless device to the ground.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of footsteps nearing us. I looked up and saw the outline of a man in the moonlight as he drew closer I thought he looked familiar. Hope flickered in my eyes, but when I saw his face horror replaced any and all emotion. I tried to crawl away from him, but I couldn’t; not without further injuring my sister. I glimpsed a flash of something metallic as I fumbled to get the hunting knife that I spotted just inches away from me. I felt a sharp blow to my side as he kicked me.

“D-don’t make me hurt you!” I wished I sounded braver.

His ochre eyes skewered me as a devilish laugh escaped him.

I shuddered, but my eyes were drawn toward his lush lips. The same lips, I’d tasted just nights before…

***

It’s December, 12th 2034 and the war of wars is raging on, the war between the Luminaries and the Earthlings.

Years ago, in 2027, we were at peace with one another. Luminaries are what the humans call the beings of light from the planet, Lumaris.
I, Zerenity Lumina Allegretto, am known as a Halflight. My mother is a Lumarian and my father is an Earthling. This simply means that unlike full bred Lumarians I am half Lumarian and half human so I am not as immortal as that of the Lumarians. But I am not just a mere mortal I have my Goddess given gifts.

It all changed when my father, Alejandro Allegretto, was possessed by an alien parasite, we know to be the last of the same parasites that destroyed and killed billions of Lumarians and Lumaris itself. Lumarians called the parasite, Raga Tosca, meaning Death Bringer. My father is now the leader of what my Mother calls Ragarians, which simply means people of Death.

So, my mother and the scarce unaffected humans and the few Lumarians (who aren’t warring against what they think are humans, but are actually Ragarians) are trying to heal Earth and its inhabitants.

It was the day we were going to actuate Mission Peace Bringer. The day we, the Peacekeepers were going to awaken Sapphire Pureza Allegretto, my thirteen-year-old sister’s affinities.

She, like me is also a Halflight, but she was born different. She is what we call the Ambrae Tosca, Peace Bringer. She is, and will be, the cure for humanity for both the Lumarians and humans alike– so my mother, Diamina Ambrosia Allegretto, empress of Gaeisis, Lumaris tells me. I am what my people call a Guaria, meaning Guardian or Savior.

I am Sapphire’s Savior, her sister and the day she needed me the most was the day, Castiel, the love of my life, came home.

I was on my way to Warehouse Ambrae to see to guarding Sapphire. Tonight was the night that her affinities would be awakened and it was my job to see to it that my gifts are there to help began the ceremony, to lead Sapphire to her destiny.

As the daughter of the Cantara Lumini, a clan of chosen Lumarians, Gaeisis, my Goddess, gifted me with the affinity to be a Guaria. Most Guaria are men, but I was the first female Guaria. It is my purpose to protect the one that is my Charia, Charge. When, Sapphire was born my Purpose was awakened and my sister became my Charia.

As I walked I looked up at the moon it was full and stunning, but I wished I could see the twin moons of Lumaris. How I wish, I could have seen them before Raga Tosca destroyed them and the planet I never got to call home.

Suddenly, I heard the crunch of ice behind me. I turned and saw him– Castiel was the son of Priestess Athenia and Prophet Cereus legendary Lumarians of Lumaris’ past.

As he strutted up the old beaten path, he wasn’t in his corporeal form, which at this hour of the night wasn’t against the rules. I loved the way he looked in his natural form, his Lumarian form. Lumarians are ethereal beings of light and he in my eyes he was the most handsome of them all. I loved his beautifully chiseled chest and abdomen, more of an ectomorph verging on a mesomorph build that is the color of ivory-gold. His familiar eyes were like rays of sunshine, brilliant golden abysses that gleamed brighter than the sun itself. His iridescent wings were furled behind him as he drifted towards me. Chills run up and down my skin as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my nose.

He doesn’t speak; he just gazes into my eyes for a long time, and then he kisses me. It was as if time stopped as white-hot passion ignited between us his familiar lips against mine his tongue dances within me. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about him. I opened my eyes and glimpsed him his eyes are closed, but his ethereal light wasn’t of gold anymore. His aura was that of a dirty bronze.

He pulled away from me, worry etched across his handsome face. “What’s wrong, Renity?”

“Nothing,” I lied. “I just missed you.”

“I missed you too, love.”

I peered into his eyes and glimpsed something out of the ordinary. Castiel’s aura wasn’t the only thing that changed– he had hauntingly purple tinged eyes as opposed to his natural ochre eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t believe that it was happening to him too. The signs were too close to the same thing that happened to my father.

“Cas,” I say, nippily. “I am so glad to see you, but I must go.”

“Renity,” he pleads. “Don’t go. I have so much to tell you!”

“Can’t. Sapphire needs me.”

“’Bye ‘Renity.”

I kiss him quickly before dashing off into the darkness leaving my possessed boyfriend alone in the moonlight.


***


I mentally shook myself. Again. Taking a deep breath, I thought, Zerenity, you are a Guaria; you have the courage…

“I am a Guaria, I have the courage!” I said aloud absentmindedly.

“Renity, you got to be joking babe,” he said with satirical laughter. “Look around you! Over there is Erebus, your brother”—he pointed to the horrendous remains of my brother his limbs strewn in every direction—“And there is your best friend, Luciana. Poor dear it looked as if she’s been mauled by a bear…”

“Shut up, Castiel!” I shrieked tears stinging at my eyes.

“No, no, my love,” Castiel smiled wickedly. “’Renity, you are the one who led them here, you are the one who got them killed! You’re the one who tried to be a leader. Just because you are the daughter of the Peacekeeper’s leader does not make you any less of a piece of crap!”


Blinking back the tears, I didn’t notice that Sapphire’s eyes were fluttering open

…

“D-don’t cry…” she said hoarsely.

I tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace as I looked down to meet her crimson eyes.
“Saph, I thought I lo—”

“Hate to break up this sweet little reunion, but…” He trailed off as he pulled out a ray gun that shimmered maliciously in the moonlight.

“Cas,” wariness filled my voice. “What are you doing?”

“What I should have done a long time ago.” He cocked and loaded the gun, pointing it at
Sapphire’s head. “She is the Peacekeeper, the cure. The one that will heal the world and bring back hope, life– and she must perish!”

“This isn’t like you, Cas,” I try to reason.

“You aren’t a killer! Please fight it, fight the parasite for me please? I love you!”

He aims his ray gun toward us, an evil look in his mauve eyes. “I am not Castiel I am Raga Tosca! Castiel isn't here, dearie!”

I heard a bang. Everything happened so quickly. A faint scream escaped my lips and then I felt pain. It felt as if my chest was on fire. I heard him collapse as he looked at me through eyes wide open.

The ochre blood soaked into the snow as the now limp body sank to the ground while he stared in shock.

I looked at my hands, they were stained ochre, and then to him. I looked at the hunting knife plunged in his heart while he lay in a pool of gold; motionless and dead. I then noticed that I was on top of Sapphire, shielding her.

Sapphire looked up at me awestruck with fear and horror in her brilliant eyes.
“Noooo!” Tears gushed down my face. “Castiel!”

I run to his side and hugged his dying body as it morphed into light and began rising out of my grasp and into the heavens.

“Cas…” I say with a sob. “I’m sorry I’m so sorry! Don’t leave me, my love! I love you!”

I watched as the love of my life vanished into the starry night, joining our Goddess in her heavenly realm.

“Are you okay, sis?” Sapphire asked, wide-eyed.

“No, I’m not,” I said, getting up.

I took a few shaky steps before I fell to my knees and collapsed in a heap.

“Zerenity!” Sapphire sobbed as she knelt down beside me, tears streaming down her bruised face.

“Don’t cry…” I said gutturally, coughing up blood.

I watched as she wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her ivory jumpsuit, then grabbing hold of my hand she said in the calmest of voices, “I know I cannot keep you with me any longer, but I’ll smile for you, Sis…”she trailed off with a sob before adding. “Because, I know I’ll see you again. Good bye, ‘Renity. I love you…”

I felt my body start to morph back into its ethereal form, Death tugging me upwards.
“I love you, too, Saph…”