Janice/Tabra looked at their sisters and felt a twinge of regret. They should have had the opportunity to fly before they had to go into battle. Janice was about to say 'Damn you Jasim for forcing this' but before she could Tabra said 'Don't do that Janice. You would actually be damning Jasim since we are an angel. Humans normally don't have the power to do that but angels do. Do you really want to damn him knowing that?'
'I guess I don't' Janice replied.
'For what it's worth I share your sentiments' Tabra said.
"Are you going to do this or not?" Jasmine asked.
"We are ready" Janice/Tabra said.
"You may want to hold off on merging for just a bit longer" a feminine voice rang out.
"Who's there?" Janice/Tabra asked.
"Show yourself coward!" Jasmine commanded.
"If you really want me to show myself I will" the voice rang out again. In one corner of the room the figure of a girl faded into view. She had long platinum blond hair down to her waist and ice blue eyes. She was wearing a white short sleeve v-neck, a white denim skirt, and white sandals. She couldn't have been more than thirteen yet she had the air of someone older as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.
"How did you find this place?" Tabra asked in a threatening tone.
"I just sensed that something was happening so I teleported to here" the girl said. "That and I've also heard through the grapevine that an army of ten thousand djinn would be attacking a magical city in a day and an angel needed a new body."
"Leave this place demon!" Jasmine said. "Go back to hell where you belong!"
"It's not that easy to get rid of me" the girl said while laughing. "I'm only half demon so the whole 'Demon be gone' thing doesn't work with me."
"That doesn't explain how you were able to violate the sanctity of this place" Tabra said.
"I guess Jehovah wants me to help you" the girl said.
"Why are we waisting our time talking?" Jasmine asked. "There are six angels here. We can combine our powers and cast this hell spawn back to hell."
"You won't do that though" the girl said. "If you do you'll lose the help I could give you."
"Such as?" Jasmine asked.
"Such as this" the girl said pointing to a spot on the floor. A young woman faded into view right where the girl pointed. She had short brown hair and looked to be about twenty-three. The only problem was that she was dead judging by the amount of blood staining her green dress and the bullet wound through her heart. "I came across her just minutes after she died" the girl continued. "She had her whole life ahead of her and someone had to take it away." The girl's voice had grown dark during this last part.
"You probably killed her yourself" Jasmine said coldly.
The air grew thick with palpable power as the girl said "I do not kill innocent people. Just because I'm half demon people expect me to be evil. Well I have news for you, I'm not evil. If you don't believe me then trust your instincts. You know evil when you see it."
It was at this time that Julio brought down the barrier that had been created to protect him and he came running out to see what was going on. He took one look at the girl and said "A demon! But how?"
Jasmine seemed to grow furious as she asked "What is this Nazarene? You bring me here to listen to this puppet and then a demon shows up in a secure place. Now I find out that the abomination is here as well. I will give you one chance to explain before I go back and have my djinn wipe out that accursed city."
"Julio has been here helping me train the new angels" Tabra said. "We thought it would be best to hide him seeing as you two get along so well. As to the demon I would like to know what she's truly doing here."
"I've told you that I'm here to help" the girl said. "I have no ulterior motive. Even though I am a half demon and can use demonic powers I was, thankfully, not brought up as a demon."
"I trust her" Alexandra said.
"Of course the puppet trusts her" Jasmine said. "For all we know Tamthis and the opposite number have an agreement and your here to either stall us or to lead us into a trap."
The girl didn't say anything but instead walked over to Jasmine and grabbed her Koran. Jasmine's eyes went wide with shock as nothing happened to the girl. "Satisfied now?" the girl asked. "If I was who you think I am I would not have been able to grab your Koran."
"Well I'm satisfied" Tabra said. "Though you will forgive me if I don't quite trust you yet."
"I understand your misgivings" the girl said as set let go of Jasmine's Koran.
"I'll be keeping a close eye on you" Jasmine said. "Give me any reason and I will use all my power to send you back to hell."
"And risk a world ending cataclysm?" the girl asked. "I don't think you would do that. Anyway are you going to use that body?"
Janice/Tabra looked at the body. Here was the solution to their problem. Neither one wanted to die after all. 'What do you think ?' Janice asked.
'I'm going to trust her on this and accept that body as my own' Tabra said.
To those without the spiritual sight it would seem that Janice/Tabra's wings glowed white and sent out light to the body. Upon the light touching the body it glowed and when it faded the body was whole and alive.
To those with spiritual sight however they could see Tabra's soul disentangling itself from Janice's and flowing into the body on the floor, repairing it so Tabra could inhabit it. They saw Tabra's soul settle into her new body.
Tabra sat up and said "She was right, she didn't kill her."
"How do you know?" Janice asked.
"The memory was so strong that it imprinted itself on the brain" Tabra said. "Of course being raped helped it to be imprinted."
"Give me a description of the guy or, better yet, the memory itself" the girl said. "I'll hunt him down and give him a lesson he will never forget."
"You definitely sound like a true demon" Jasmine said.
"For once we agree" Julio said.
"Shouldn't we get going?" Vicki asked.
"We'll have to change the plan a little" Tabra said.
"Well you'll need to look like vixens for it to work" Akira said.
"Just make sure that I can drop the transformation at a moments notice so I can assume my demonic form" the girl said.
"Why would you need to do that?" Janice asked.
"One reason is the shock factor of seeing a demon" the girl said. "Another is that I find it easier to tap into my demonic power in demonic form."
"Very well" Akira said. A couple leaves dropped on Tabra's and the girl's heads. There was a puff of smoke and two more vixens in traditional garb were standing where Tabra and the girl were.
"I don't like being covered like this" the girl complained. "I won't be able to fight in this."
"Don't worry about it" Akira said. "They'll disappear when we need to fight."
Jasmine looked at the girl and asked "So what's your name?"
"Since I assumed female form I've been going by Hanna" the girl said.
"What name did you go by before?" Jasmine asked.
"That part of my life doesn't matter now" Hanna said. "Besides, I didn't like being in that male body so I don't like to talk about it."
"So what's the new plan?" Janice asked.
"You, Julio, Keiko, and Hanna will be a separate family" Tabra said. "One large family might arouse suspicion but two separate families won't."
"The fox might want to become a wealthy Saudi since the men don't have this many wives around here" Jasmine said.
"Then Julio can be Akira's adviser" Tabra said. "That will explain why they are traveling together." A couple puffs of smoke later and everyone was ready to go. "It's time to go but I want to speak to Hanna alone for a minute." After everyone else had teleported out she turned to Hanna and said "I'm going to trust you with this. Watch Julio closely. His passion is collecting -the- knowledge and he may put this mission in jeopardy because of it."
"What is the mission?" Hanna asked.
"The mission is to free the people of Karthis City" Tabra said. "If we can do that hopefully Operation Return will be given a chance to go forward."
"So what if he does anything to endanger this mission?" Hanna asked.
"Do what you have to to ensure that the mission succeeds" Tabra said. After taking a deep breath she continued "Even if it means killing him."
Hanna was a little surprised by what Tabra had said. She was an angel after all. "I don't think I can do that" she said.
"If we fail there will be ten -thousand- djinn attacking the city" Tabra said. "There must be hundreds if not thousands of people enslaved there who will die if we fail. Those are innocent people that will die. Are you going to tell me that you would let those people die because you couldn't bring yourself to kill one person?"
"I know I know" Hanna said. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. I'll do what I have to up to the point of killing him. When it comes to that I don't know if I'll be able to. I couldn't even bring myself to kill the guy who shot my niece and killed a cop who came to help. I just sent him to hell for a few seconds."
Tabra giggled and said "I had heard rumors about that. It's nice to have them confirmed. That might be sufficient to stop Julio. Believe me, I have no desire to see him die. Though I know what's at stake here. If we fail a permanent solution will be doled out and it may affect even more people than we realize."
"Just don't expect me to enjoy it if I end up killing him" Hanna said.
"Well ordinarily I would expect a demon to enjoy killing someone" Tabra said. "You do seem to be different though."
"Well I hate to totally disappoint you so I have to admit something" Hanna said with a wicked grin on her face. "I do enjoy watching the punishments of those who deserve them."
Tabra laughed and said "Now that sounds more like a demon. The only difference is you like the suffering of the guilty instead of the innocent. We should join the rest outside so we can start this mission. Besides, I want to see how Julio and Jasmine are getting along without me."
Both of them teleported outside and saw that Julio and Jasmine were standing at opposite ends of the group. Upon seeing them Jasmine said "It's about time you came out. I'm anxious to see you fail. That's just one consolation to this. The other is knowing that the abomination will finally die as well. I just pray to Allah that I'll be able to see it."
"Well I don't want to keep you from seeing that so we should be off" Tabra said with a laugh.
With Akira and Julio leading them they set off for Karthis City.