Everything was falling into place.  Seohyun was right; the events weren’t connected.  In fact, the academy, the cadets, the Elite forces, Optimus, Pegasus, even Helix had been completely blindsided, and Lemley’s realisation of the play on words in Lucy Foresraine’s name sealed it.  Stonehenge wasn’t the central nexus point of the events; it was the final battleground.  It was where the greatest fight in their history would take place, and it was a battle that none were prepared for.  All of the cadets in Stonehenge had been called back instantly, as had the Beta Unit.  Every Angel of every rank and troupe fell into line in the Hall.

The Hall was huge, easily dwarfing every stadium imaginable.  Hundreds of thousands of angels were sitting or standing in their seats, some towering over the platform in the middle.  Large monitors were placed around the higher echelons, displaying a currently empty stage, round in shape, possibly ten meters long and three meters in depth.  Behind the stage stood another set of tiered seats, three tiers high, upon which sat the members of the Angelic Council.  Murmuring went around the room, gossip and debate as to their presence being the sole topic of conversation.

At the front of the crowd stood the four teams of cadets and the two commanding officers.  Pegasus stood between Beta and Delta, Optimus in the middle of Alpha and Omega.  His usual pride was replaced with fear.  His cocky attitude was gone, his egotistical discomforts about being shown up by a cadet lost to the wind.  Now, he was grateful to Seohyun, her insight coming not a moment too soon.  Helix had been fully briefed, and the story of the Saurians had been told to the cadets.  The Council members were agitated at the prospect of the release of such beasts, but this was the scene they were to face.

The Saurians, as Optimus had concisely explained, were bloodthirsty, violent hunters.  They embodied every horrific trait of the Titans and much more, but their bodies were apparently nothing like the legends told.  They were indeed real; coming from a planet far outside the Milky Way.  The Council knew nothing of their origins, only of their arrival to Earth.  It was millennia before the Greek Empire was even a thought, centuries before the ancestors of Mayan roamed the planet, aeons before the planet itself even heard her given name.  The human race of the time ruled the lands, primitive beings sharing the world with the beasts in a natural balance.  There was no harmony at this time, but no era in the planet’s history proved harmonious for any species.  The Palaeolithic tribes that had formed would camp under the stars, in caves or in wooden huts to protect themselves from elements that as yet had no name.  They hunted and farmed to survive, eventually learning the myriad of uses of fire.  This was life at its most primitive.

Containers, made in a form that had not been considered and from metals that would not be natively found on the planet fell from the skies.  The newly religious tribespeople were convinced that these things were sent from the Gods as a sign of their dissatisfaction with the people and were fearful.  The metal caskets stood, much in the fashion that the pillars of Stonehenge stood; six tall pillars standing upright in a circular form.  The circle was not very wide, perhaps a quarter of a mile in diameter, and the caskets stood, seven meters in width, four meters in depth, and thirty or forty meters above the ground, with a few meters embedded into the earth.  An entrance graced the inside-facing side of the casket, the six crates closed from the outside world.  There they stood, a faint humming the only sound coming from them.  The tribespeople investigated these objects, which appeared to be ice cold to the touch.  They attacked the caskets with rocks and sticks, even small boulders, but they did not move or crack.  The doors remained closed as the tribes fought to break them or open them.  Neither were accomplished and, after a few days, the tribes ignored the caskets and left them standing, where they would lay in wait for many months.

It took a young tribal girl and her friends to be playing near the caskets before that changed.  They were playing a game that would be referred to in the modern era as “Hide and Seek”.  The girl hid around the back of one of the pods, far out of the seeker’s line of sight.  The presence of the pods was now common place, and they had caused no damage, so the community disregarded them as a threat.  Besides, the large creatures that roamed the planet alongside them were more of an imminent threat than six large, inanimate metallic caskets.  The faint humming and buzzing coming from the pod she hid behind seemed to become rather hypnotic, and the girl became drawn to the front of the pod, entranced by the noises.  She seemed to forget her game of “Hide and Seek” and walked to the front of the pod, to the clear panes that adorned the bottom of the pod.  From her perspective, they formed a smile, which stood four meters tall.  Each individual pane of glass was less than one meter tall and became thinner as they curved up to the edges.  She started to smile at the sight in hypnotic satisfaction and walked around to the side of the pod.  She saw something that hadn’t been noticed before: a red button, less than an inch in diameter.  It should be noted that neither the practice of not pressing red buttons or the belief of red signifying “danger” were commonplace in this era.  It should also be noted that the concept of “mind control” would never be considered for many aeons.  The young girl walked to the casket, to the red button, and did what any modern human being would no doubt do when presented with such a device.

She pressed the button.

The glass smiles on each of the six posts illuminated in the brightest of white lights before the tribe’s eyes.  The ground rumbled and a sharp hiss of gas pushed out of the chambers.  The front panel moved upwards, bringing into sight a creature of magnificent proportions.  The girl stood in front of the being and admired it, still in her trance.  Almost as tall as the casket, and equally as broad, it stood immediately upright.  Its head was sunken into its shoulders, its long furry arms coming to its knees.  Hands covered in pristine claws, each about two meters in length, and seven claws on each hand.  It looked to be a mixture of ape, rat and stoat, with grey-ish white fur covering its body, except for its head.  Its teeth were many and sharp, and it looked almost comatose in its holding.  In a moment, it drooped into a hunch, as did the remaining five almost identical creatures, equal in size and stature, differing mainly in fur colour.  The tribespeople came closer as the creatures awoke.  Standing in front of the grey creature was the girl.  She looked up and smiled, as the creature looked down at her.  It gingerly reached out a claw, gently moving its hand towards her.  The sharp tip stopped and softly tickled against the girl.  The creature studied her, its eyes sitting far apart, at the front of its head, sunken deeply.  The tribes looked at the beasts in awe and approached the pods, each pod seeing its own smaller audience of two or three tribespeople, some as young as three, some as old as forty.  The creatures all reacted the same: gingerly, with trepidation.  Only the grey beast had a solo audience, the little girl, only a meter tall, standing in front of a creature that reached twenty meters in height with its stoop, its arms now almost dragging on the floor.  The claw gently touched the girl’s stomach.  It was the most majestic sight she had ever seen.

It also became her last.

Screams echoed from a select number of onlookers, as the Saurians killed their individual audiences.  The grey beast lifted his hand, with the lifeless body of the young girl between its claws, towards its dark, soulless eyes.  She and every other onlooker that did not escape the reaches of the beasts faced possibly the most gruesome ending possible, one that could not be described in any language, written or visual.

Angels were already in existence at this time and fought for decades to destroy the beasts, seeking to keep the tribes safe from harm.  Dozens of angels were lost from creation, none were able to defeat the goliaths that they were facing.  It took the belated arrival of the Chulathi, a race of alien beings that were tracking the escaped Saurians and looking to destroy them, before the odds of battle were even close to equal.  Eventually, one Saurian was killed, and three fled.  Two were left and were imprisoned in the core of the earth, their presence lost to time, memories of them forgotten.

The truth of what happened to her and those others that approached the beasts was never fully resolved amongst the remaining humans, and many different versions of the stories were passed between the survivors and their descendants.  These stories then evolved further into fables, which then became the stories of the Titans, slain by the Greek Gods.  The truth of the events were never revealed, and probably never would be.

The Angel Council had seen it all.  Each of them had fought in the Great War, and each of them had lost a great many angels in their troops.  Today they knew they would face the same fate.  Helix took to the stage as the Hall fell silent.

“Angels,” he called out, his voice reaching even the highest echelons of the room.  “For millennia, we have battled the forces of the Fallen, sought to protect Heaven from the terrors they seek to bring to our world.  Now, they have found a weapon that we ourselves may struggle to contain.  As we are here, hundreds, thousands of Fallen forces are gathering to revive our greatest threat.  We cannot allow this to happen.”  He paced along the stage.  “I will not promise you this will be winnable.  It will be difficult.  Some of you … some won’t make it back.  But losing this battle means none of us will remain.  Not us as angels, not the human race, not any creature on the planet.  Not the Fallen.  No living force is safe from these creatures that are about to be unleashed.  And we need to do everything we can to stop this from happening.”  He bowed his head.  “I am asking, of each and every one of you, more than I have ever asked before.  More than your powers.  More than your might.  More than your skills.  Your loyalty.  I …” he paused, swallowing hard, “I am asking … I am asking for your soul.  It is a sacrifice that I wish I would never ask of you, but it is one I need to.”

Sunny clenched her fists behind her back in defiance.  She knew the battle would be tough, but she knew she could do it.  She knew she was loyal to Helix, to Pegasus, to Taeyeon.  Nothing would change that.  If Helix wanted her to sacrifice herself in battle, he didn’t even need to ask.

“I … I am sorry, Angels,” Helix apologised.  “I am sorry it has come to this.  We didn’t watch for the right things.  I failed you.  Those that won’t fight, please leave the Hall now.  You will not be judged by me, or the Council.  This is an immense task and I do not ask it of you lightly.  Please, the doors are open.  You are free to leave.”

The Hall fell silent as Helix looked around.  Not a soul moved.  No Angel left their spot.  No cadet left for their barracks.  All remained in position, all focussed on their Admiral.  They remained there as he waited for the first to admit they didn’t want to fight.  None did.

“Thank you.  Thank you all,” he smiled, before he stood up straighter than he had since he started.  His chest puffed out proudly.  “Alright then.  Angels, please see your Force leaders for directives.  Dismissed!”  As the Angels left and chatter washed across the room, Helix descended the stage to the awaiting four teams of cadets he had sent on their respective missions earlier.  “I cannot thank you enough,” he started.

“Nonsense, Sir,” Optimus interrupted.  “None of us were prepared for this.  Now we need to be.”

Taeyeon stood, looking at her Admiral.  “Sir, we are all with you.  Just give the order, and we’re there.”

Helix looked at the seemingly fearless cadet leader and smiled.  He knew he had chosen right.  “Shiny,” he smiled.  “Time for some thrilling heroics.”