~Sadness and satisfaction...what a mix.~

Regret and Happiness

"My parents.... they.... it just can't be happening..." My voice quivered, almost shattering by the force of despair.

"Why did I choose the choices that I made? I took it for the greater good - but I lost the ones dear to me!" No words could now describe the pain. Michael's eyes darted between the tearing being that was me and the gang that was once Fallen.

"Shouldn't we be thinking of saving your parents rather than sitting here whining? These zombies ain't gonna back away either!" Shane was kicking away the unwilling hand of a zombie that aimed for his ankle.

"Uhm, I really would very much want to be excused from this narrative right now, Elise! Tell me it's not real!" Mira chimed in.

"I don't think they woke up at the right time, babe," Michael set another zombie on fire, and continued, "but why not ask them to try to recover their power?"

"Okay." I nodded, hoping his solution was to work out. Mira, Shane and Joshua were all staring again at me now, and the aura was back.

The aura that consumed them once.

"Oh yay, hold still..." My gaze seemed to freeze them. Entering their minds, I found the source of the dark presence threatening their existence. It wasn't difficult, but the fact that it got into their heads...

Coughing, the three found themselves with dark energy pulsating from their palms, but they were normal.

"What in the world is this?"

"The powers you owned before you regained control of yourselves. We fought you with the powers you had... it wasn't easy to not kill you, for you all had the potential to commit suicide almost immediately, goddammit! I had to beat around the bush trying to bloody save the three of you!" I was getting annoyed and tired of people getting clueless; all I wanted was people to understand the urgency!

"Please tell me that you actually have memories of how to use them... unless I wiped it off your brains... possibly?" They all shook their heads furiously while the zombies continued creeping up on us.

"Bad news... some students have been infected. We might as well have an internal war now because we have no idea who could be the next zombie." Varus came back, blood stains on his hands.

"The seed has sprouted..." Michael gasped.

"Like I have time to grumble about this, why am I having so much responsibility on my hands?! I... forget my parents for now. I trust that they can handle it. Where's the best safe house around here? Definitely NOT my house." I am just so fed up with this...

"Oh, the safe house is just here, everyone. You're trapped." Wayne?!

"We're still in business, halfbreed. We'll take care of you very nicely." His eye gleamed in the moonlight, his arm outstretched revealing a grotesque infected hand.

"It seems he decided to replace my injured arm with this. But everyone here definitely doesn't deserve that transmigration... why not make them immortal?"

"You... Wayne, you scumbag! This goes against the laws of Heaven!" Michael and Varus were about to send their fists flying towards him, ready to leap.

"I still command authority, Seventh Division. You do not match me." Wayne threw his cloak away, the shining armour underneath a mix of gold and black instead of silver.

"Bow before me!" Seemingly under control, Michael and Varus had no choice but to kneel, as it was true. He was, after all, still Heaven's leader, not fired by the board of directors... if any of them were still alive.

"What are you doing to them?!"

"Bringing them back, of course. Heaven is not dead. It only just formed an alliance with the Fallen to bring greater peace."

"This... THIS WORLD IS WRONG!" Michael rejected his post, seemingly. He punched Wayne in the face, only the be caught by the infected arm. Michael let out a cry; his arm was changing... his nails grew into black, long claws, and the infection seemed to work its way up and throughout.

"Elise... g...RRAAARGHHH!" Michael bared his newfound fangs and claws and lunged for me. Catching his arms in time and holding him, I could only work out Sylvian Arrow once again knocking back the rest of them. Varus was definitely gone. Standing alongside Wayne, I lost yet another comrade to the force of Darkness.

"Till we meet again, Varus. In a better place... All gather - we'll escape!" Forget the SUVs. The students pushed and shoved, bodies falling to the floor, the desperation to be alive evident from the scene playing before my eyes.

"Get out of the way!"

"I ain't gonna die here!"

"Save me!!!"

Seeing that the escape route's area of effect covers the last person, I summoned an escape cube that teleported us.

To where? I could only pray. This time, I didn't have the clearest state of mind to tell it where to go, for everything was on my hero-turned-infected, Michael.

"It's an underground bunker!" Nikki, one of my classmates exclaimed.

"Wait, underground bunker?" Another perked up, hearing the news.

"WHAT?"

"I thought we were enclosed by a... gigantic cube."

"Anyway, it saved us!"

"EEEEKKKK!" Hailey's screams drowned out everyone's enthusiasm, for Michael was almost setting his hands on her.

"ARGH, Michael, are you actually giving up to that? Do you think you can be beaten by a mere infection like that? Man up!" I punched him in the stomach repeatedly.

"Grrr...." His growls were intimidating, taunting me to fight him.

"No, Michael. I won't let you. The rest of you, go settle down quickly!" I dragged Michael, blocking all blood circulation to the arm pulling so I could drop the risk of infection. Finally pulling him to a room where no one seems to know about, I dropped him there, made a hibernation capsule appear, and dropped him inside to force him to sleep.

Slamming the lid shut, Michael's red bloodshot eyes that seemed to be blazing just a while ago, slowly closed.

"I... I'm sorry, Michael... I have no idea how else to save you from not being a killer or to save you from this harm that currently haunts you. Give me a sign, please, that I can help you out! Anything... just anything... please..." I leaned against the wall, beside his hibernation capsule, staring into the empty space, the wall opposite.

How long will this temporary shelter last? Not forever, for sure, but thinking about it myself, the effects of exhaustion definitely did come to me, from all the running, all the courage, all that mental willpower to keep me sane. My world slowly faded into black, the warm feeling of sleep embracing me.

Michael

"Elise...g...RAARGH!" The infection had begun to control me. Pushed back by invisible forces, within myself, I no longer had any control over my body.

What was happening to me? I could only start to begin the internal war within me for control, but my body was slowly dying... enough for me to lose knowledge of how to restore myself.

I could see Elise holding me tight, my claws still reaching for her, threatening to infect her. It's when a voice talked to me, and brought me the horrible realisation...

"It's awfully nice to see you, Michael." A dark-hooded figure, cape flowing, taking big strides towards me, and he just used only a single hand to bring me to my knees.

"It's you she protects, but it should be the other way around. You're nothing but my pawn now, Jackson." Cold, barbaric, scheming. It's so scary.

"You... this zombie apocalypse means nothing, if at all."

"It's only the beginning, Michael. There's an even bigger storm coming when my new apprentice comes to me."

"New apprentice, huh? Hilarious. Xandor, you do realise you already have control of all of us here? Leave the children alone. Leave my girl alone."

"It has not ended... until she becomes mine, Michael. You know very well the abilities of the halfbreed. She will be mine for the taking. Know your place, you are the only one left of your race... The rest have defected. You saw it. The power of the Fallen is what one will never resist."

"I don't care. Whether I'm doing this solo or not, I will make sure she doesn't fall."

"She will come to me, no matter what. But first, since we have met, be good and take good care of her, I want to see her in good condition when I receive her." A low laugh escaped Xandor's lips, although distorted by the mask he wore. Raising his hand again, I for once, wanted so much to stay alive. Elise cannot be without me. He will twist her into the pawn he wants her to be.

"What are you doing to me?!" Thinking he was making me turn into an even worse being, I was ready to fight back.

"I'm reversing your transformation, Protector. Can't you see?" The invisible force making me weak was dying, and my body seemed all but a touch away.

"You..."

"We'll meet again... Michael." His eyes remind me of someone... as the dark figure disappeared, and my eyes opened to bright lights.

Elise

"Elise?"

"Elise, wake up. C'mon." I rose from my short sleep, to find out that Michael had, almost miraculously, became himself.

"Oh, Michael... whatever happened to you? I thought you were lost forever, from that infection..."

"Oh, Elise... I will only be lost forever if I lost you." We held ourselves into the longest embrace we ever had.

"I... Michael, after all these trials and tribulations, my love for you, it's nothing but real. I used to be so over you, obsessed with your talent when you were human... but this... that has never affected, this was a whole new feeling altogether. It was no longer a fan's obsession, it was a girl finding her Mr. Right."

"I... I have to say, ever since I saved you from Lex... the issues we've been through together... just made me always, just always, have you in my mind. You're the one I swore to protect, and it became more than just a job to me... I love you, Elise, for you have brought meaning to my life, no matter how in dire states the world may be."

"I love you, so, so much..." We both uttered, breaking into a kiss.

With that, all was just simply forgotten. It was only a world, where seemingly, only Michael and I existed.

It was definitely more than pure heaven.

Author's Note

okay, i gotta apologise for that so-called intermittent updating, no matter how many times that may be.

i've been looking for inspiration all over, and it's just getting haywire - where all the ideas go into your head, expects to be scanned through and come out a brand new one, but instead, gets stuck in the head, stays in it, and haunts you for life.

except that its not haunting me, but its giving me a headache... but anyway, the author, me, is perfectly fine. no sarcasm, no jokes, its in all seriousness.

our characters do find love after all. i thought i could drag it down further, but man, its just the right time.

i ended my previous edition at 51 chapters. i intend to end this at 30, but i believe it'll be 25... or shorter. the sequels are guaranteed to be better, but possibly the same length.

after all, this book is the beginning... isn't it?