'And all the kids they say
We'll live to fight another day
Life to fight again'
'Stevie', Kasbain

***

     I slipped in and out of slumber for the next few days. Occasionally I'd wake up and see the various wires and liquids pouring slowly into my body, then my eyelids would protest heavily and settle back down firmly again.

     When I finally woke up for real, all I could think about was the gnawing ache of my stomach and the dryness of my wiling throat. "Water," I croaked, so quietly that nobody heard me. In fact, a glimpse around the white hospital ward told me there was nobody there to hear me. The only other noise in the room was the beeping machines hooked up to me and about six others.

     I slipped my pale, bare feet out of the itchy bedcovers and felt a flood of coolness overwhelm me as they made contact with the floor. I hauled myself unsteadily to my feet, scantily clad in a dreadful ballooning hospital nightie. I glanced in the mirror across the way and acknowledged how terrible I really looked. The dark purple bags underling my eyes were prominent, and I still looked like Rosie as my messy pile of fluffy blonde hair suggested. Now that I had begun to think about proper things, the terrible pain in my left arm struck me and  memories of a few days before pounded my head incessantly. I sat down again shakily, my hand twitching like mad.

     I was responsible for three people's deaths. It all came back to me at once, their last words echoing in my head  as the image of the blood splattered room refused to leave my mind.

     Daphne, Brona and Finn. Three completely innocent people. They did not deserve to die because of Lily's insanity towards me. But even though I knew Lily was the one who sliced their heads so calmly off, I was the one that gave the order to do it. It could have been three completely different people haunting my mind at that moment.

     I should have just refused to pick. I should have tested Lily. When my brother got bullied back in kindergarten, my mother told him to hide the pain and laugh it off because if they didn't realise he was being bothered by it, they would soon get bored and find a new victim. Maybe if I hadn't chosen either she would have come up with a less devastating plan. On the other hand, my refusal to cooperate could just have led to even more deaths.

     Unfortunately, I was not a Harry Potter character. I had no way of turning back time. All these situations that fled through my mind frequently would forever be a maybe. I would never know exactly what would have happened if I'd acted differently. I would never know if I could have saved them.

     I glanced back over at the machines. I had caused so much trouble, yet I was slowly being saved. I must have lost a lot of blood. I had been preparing to sever my heart, so I would have hit my arm with quite a considerable force. It was probably going to look very ugly, but they would change my appearance anyway so I guessed they wouldn't care.

     WA must have won, I knew at least that much. If Lily and the other government workers had overpowered them, I would be lying in a grave instead of here. Lily had seemed extremely shocked when the alarm went off, so it would have been easy for us to win. Well, maybe not easy, but certainly a great deal less troublesome.

      I sat in that bed reflecting over past events for nearly an hour before a nurse came to see me. I told her I was feeling far better, and she agreed to let me get changed and go to speak to someone. She smiled as I went to leave the ward dressed in some plain clothes I'd borrowed. "They've been waiting for you." She said happily as she shooed me into WA.

     As I stepped out of the ward, everyone's eyes turned up to look at me. Juliet stepped forward almost immediately as I glanced around the room. The people there seemed to be doing nothing but lazing around and enjoying some time off work. My eyebrows furrowed together. What was going on?

     "Come on, Rosie. Goodness knows we've had to postpone this meeting long enough for you," she snapped, yet she couldn't help a smile breaking through. She seemed uncharacteristically excited for whatever was going to happen, which only made me feel faint.

     She pulled me into a conference room with a large oval table in the centre. Mae, Kelly and the real version of Harriet sat patiently waiting, as well as a girl I didn't recognise and a strange woman in the corner. They looked up when they saw me enter.

     "Take a seat," Mae gestured to one of the remaining chairs, and I sat uncertainly next to Juliet. Across the table, the unknown girl smiled brightly, and to my surprise Juliet returned it with an excited grin.

     "You're probably wondering why I've gathered the seven of us here." Mae announced, as a general hush fell over the room. She looked at us steadily. "Me and Kelly have talked a lot about WA, and all the things that have happened in the past two months. In this short space of time, we have nearly crumbled and love has nearly been destroyed. In fact, if Rosie hadn't have told Juliet about the hidden room in the train station, none of us might be here."

     "Both of us have agreed that some changes need to be made as we enter a more technologically advanced age." Kelly continued smoothly with complete seriousness, as she raised a gravel. "So I hereby call the first meeting of the WA representatives to order." She banged the gravel as Juliet took out some paper and a pen, eager to write down exactly what was happening.

     "The record shows that Kelly, head of the Cupid Department, Mae, head of the Cupid Research Department and overall head of WA, Juliet, head of Cupid Training Department, Lea, representative of out side in the recent government happenings, Betty, representative of the government's side, Ally, representative of the the staff and Rosie, representative of... something, are all present for the first meeting." Juliet said as I glanced around for Lea, Betty and Ally. One of them must be the girl in front of me, and the other the woman sitting in the corner, but there were no other strange girls here.

"My real name's Ally." Harriet said, noticing my confusion. "Harriet was just all part of the show." She smiled at me, almost sadly.

"I'm Lea." The final girl chimed in cheerily. "The whole reason this happened was because I screwed up and the government captured me."

"Lea," Juliet said warningly in a low tone. "If anything, it was my fault. I should have warned you about keeping the call short like I always do."

"Enough." Mae interrupted. "Let's not argue. Instead, let's get the facts. There's quite a few issues we need to clear up, so let's start with what everyone's dying to know. Juliet, please take an official statement to be released to the staff in explanation. Lea, inform us of what happened to make the government take you."

Lea's glanced never once wavered from Juliet. "I was working a job getting a punk and a nice, normal guy together. Things were going well, and I checked in each night with Juliet as usual. I've been doing some work on the side for her a while now, and I finally located him. I found him, and I just couldn't believe my luck. Through sheer excitement I stayed on the phone too long, and I got caught."

"Hang on a second. Please state who this person is you found." Mar commanded.

"Shakespeare got my story a little mixed up." Juliet broke in softly. "Me and Romeo... we had a child. Back in those days, that was something scandalous. My family couldn't wait to cover it up, so as soon as I'd had the baby they sent it away. Then, they forced poison down our throats, effectively silencing us on the matter once and for all. They then spread the stupid story people have been repeating for centuries after. I've often fretted about my child, wondering if she had died. Life was tough for children with unmarried parents, not least when they were orphans too. I've been investigating it for years, but a fresh mind on the case helped a lot. I purposely sent Lea on that job my hijacking your emails - which I'm so sorry about, Kelly. She was able to get into contact with someone, and found out where my relatives were. My daughter didn't die; she gave life to more children, who in turn continued to reproduce. I have lots of great-great-great-great-great-great grandsons and granddaughters. When Lea confirmed it... we were walking on air. We didn't realise how long the call had went on for."

Kelly nodded. "It's okay, just don't do it again or I'll be forced to downgrade you. I can't have people looking through private emails."

"I won't." She whispered. "I'm so sorry for invading your privacy, and I will never repeat that behaviour."

"Both your statements are going to be issued after this meeting then, because a lot of people have been wondering exactly how you got taken." Mae brought the focus back to official business. "That's problem one cleared. Now, Betty, I have a question to ask you. Why did you try and bring us down, and why did you turn traitor at the last minute?"

Betty hung her head. "I didn't know." She admitted, a little ashamed. "I obviously didn't agree with the torture methods used on Lea, but that was just the way things were. I didn't realise you were Cupids, or I never would have cooked up the great ring scheme. I mean, people being able to change their appearances through magical rings; Cupids don't exactly spring to mind. Instead, my initial thought was you were terrorists that had acquired some kind of unusual equipment. It was the magic in the rings that made us investigate, terrorism is another government department's job. When I did find out all you wanted to do was spread love, I got on the phone with you and revealed everything. I know I can't be forgiven for my earlier actions, but I hope you won't put me in prison or wipe my memory like you did with the others."

Kelly smiled. "Don't worry, we're very much in your debt. Issue two of our meeting is deciding what to do with you, but a poll has shown you're not much of a threat to us anymore. We won't imprison you or wipe your memory if the others agree. Raise your hand if you'd like to see Betty walk free."

I was still a bit confused as to what was going on, but I raised my hand anyway. Betty had switched to our side, and I didn't think she should be punished for that. Everyone raised their hand except for Harriet, but the majority ruled.

"Okay. Betty, you know well enough by now not to breathe a word of what went on here to anyone else." Mae warned, to which Betty promised she wouldn't. "I'd very much like to hire you for my department as your technological skills are much admired. However, there's a bit of a dead only policy up here. I'll keep an eye out for you on the system, and if when you die I should like to recruit you."

"Thank you very much." Betty beamed. "It means a lot to know you think so highly of me after all my past disgraces."

"I look forward to meeting you again." Mae stood up to offer Betty a friendly handshake as she made her way towards the door. "First door on the left will take you back to Earth." She held the door open as Betty left, looking slightly disappointed at having to wait possibly years to return to the best place she'd ever been. But I saw her fake grin, as she walked away determined to bear it.

"Now, let's move onto issue three now it's down to the six of us." Mae smiled, gesturing towards Harriet. "Make sure to catch every word of this, Juliet. It's a very good proposal that everyone will need to know about."

Harriet cleared her throat, looking slightly nervous for the first time I'd ever seen her. "I was monitoring Rosie's behaviour as my last job, because as you know new trainees need full watch on their very first mission. It was then that I began to develop feelings for someone there. I know Cupids aren't supposed to fall in love, but it wasn't as if I was going to break the rules and act on it so I just let it unfold. But the thing was, it was the first time I'd felt love since my death, and it wasn't for the correct person. It was for another girl.

"You all know in my past life I died aged twenty because of a homophobic attack while I was on a date with my girlfriend. All my life me and her had lived in the closet, believing the cruel things people said all around us about lesbians. We kept all our dates private, but she wanted to celebrate her twenty-first in style. It was the worst mistake we'd ever made.

"I thought that I was a disgrace. I thought that I did not deserve to live and I'd gotten what was coming to me. But as my tendencies once again began to surface, I saw things in the light of the twenty-first century. I started getting help, and I realised that being gay wasn't wrong. It was just part of who I was. And that was okay.

"Now, I want to help others to embrace their difference, and I want to do this by allowing Cupids to pair same sex couples up. No Cupid has ever got a gay or lesbian couple together, which is usually why the relationships tend not to work out. Please agree to support these people who deserve as much right to love as you do. This is something I'm truly passionate about and I hope others feel the same."

"Let's take a vote on it." Ma declared. "Those in favour raise you hand."

I thrust my had into the air with. I hesitation. Harriet's words had been truly inspiring and even with my prejudice against my mother, maybe if a Cupid had helped her she could have broken free of her marriage and embraced her true self. Not that I was blaming all her actions on WA because of course, she had been in the wrong too. But I didn't feel quite so angry towards her as I did before.

All of us seconded the idea, and Harriet seemed quite pleased. She couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"Our last issue is why we asked you here, Rosie." Mae said softly. "It's to discuss what happened in the aftermath of you being taken by Lily."

I knew I was not a representative of any group at this table, and I was not important enough to earn myself a seat the way Kelly had so it was no surprise to be here due to this. I took a deep breath. "What is it you need to know?"

"First off, I must offer by sincere thanks to you." Kelly smiled. "Without your phone call to Juliet we would never have found where all the Cupids have been taken. I'm not going to lie that some did perish, but we saved dozens more than we would have if you hadn't have thought to inform us." I blushed. "Due to that, we launched a surprise attack and released everyone. We used memory potion on most of the people to make them forget we ever existed, as we find killing too extreme. We even used it on the people who witnessed what Lily did to you; don't worry, they'll forget all about it. The three's deaths has been set up as a car crash, and their funerals were held while you passed out from blood loss.

"The only people we haven't done anything to is Zola, who betrayed us, and Lily. Zola's being death-long imprisoned for her betrayal, which is the penalty all department heads face. Lily seemed to have a personal grudge against you, and we learnt about all that happened. It's your call what happens to her. She's still alive, so we can't keep her here. We have evidence that she was the drunken driver that bailed after killing your three friends; we made sure of that when we conceited the story. We could send her to jail. Or, we could wipe her memory. But she's known you for too long to do a basic few month wipe we did on the other government workers, or the two day wipe we did on the friend's you chose not to kill. It would have to be a total wipe. She could start over with no recollection of anything but her name. They'd probably diagnose her for amnesia, but they'd never be able to retriever her old memories. It's your call, Rosie. Make her pay, or give her a chance."

"Lily used to be a good person." I said with conviction. "If you gave her another chance she could turn out better. Wipe her memory." I thought that I would have wanted to make her pay for the guilt she had piled on me and the deaths she had caused, but when it came down it again, it wasn't right for me to decide between saving someone and inflicting misery. Lily had taught me that much with her little game a few days ago. If she was supposed to pay, then she would have hardship in her new life. If she was to be forgiven, she would enjoy her new life. That was for the universe to decide.

"Okay. I guess that's the first official meeting over." Mae smiled. "This is going to be a monthly thing. The staff will elect two Cupids to represent them and two of my workers. The others can out their ideas through them. Their term of coming to these meetings will last a year before new representatives are elected. Me, Kelly and Juliet will remain to vote on the decisions. Did you get all that down?"

"Yes." Juliet smiled.

"I can't wait to continue doing my missions. Hopefully they'll be a bit less stressful next time." I joked.

"Same." Lea agreed. "As soon as this meeting ends, I'm going to put all of this behind me and enjoy me newly gained status of Cupid."

"And for my next mission I could be helping to set up LGBT's!" Harriet added excitedly.

"I'll continue running things for while because we're going to need a lot of new Cupids to replace those we've lost, but then I think I'll take a break and go visit the area in which my family lives." Juliet declared.

"The first WA meeting is officially over." Kelly struck the gravel.

Aaaand.... thus it ends. I know, two updates in one day?! Probably the strangest thing I've ever done! But I couldn't leave you with that short chapter. Besides, even though this is really long and took me about two hours the ideas fixed themselves firmly in place and I never once got hit with that stupid writer's block that says... what the hell do I do next? I kind of like the ending, so I'm not sure if I should do an epilogue. Comment what you think : epilogue or no epilogue? I'll save my final author's note for later, because I don't want to overwhelm you with floods of my own emotion right now.
Zoe xxx