Hyoyeon and Sooyoung surveyed the landscape with semi-disinterested intent.  There was still no new activity here, and Yuri and Sunny had been away for about half an hour now.  Nothing seemed to be exciting them, except for the construction of a steel frame that Hyoyeon had noticed in the distance.  She couldn’t tell what was happening from where she stood, but there looked to be a substantial amount of activity.  It didn’t seem to be of any cause for concern, so the pair left it to develop as it would naturally.

“Omega Control to Omega Three,” Taeyeon’s voice echoed through the headsets.  “Come in Hyoyeon.”

“Omega Three,” Hyoyeon answered.  “Still nothing to report.”

“No word from the other two?”

“Nothing.  Anything from you?”

“Not a thing.  We picked up that they arrived at the drop zone, but we have nothing new now.”

Hyoyeon sighed.  “False alarm?” she asked.

“Definitely not,” Taeyeon answered despondently.  “We’re getting reports of Fallen forces leaving their designated time zones.  Could be they’re heading your way.”

“And we still don’t know why?” Sooyoung asked.

“Negative,” Taeyeon answered.  “As soon as we hear anything though, we’ll let you know.”

“Thanks,” Hyoyeon scowled.  “Omega Three out.”  With that, she tapped the earpiece, disconnecting their leader.

“Come on, Hyo,” Sooyoung stood next to her fellow cadet.  “This isn’t so bad.  It looks quite pretty here.”

“But what about those two?” Hyoyeon complained.  “They’re off on a mission of their own, whilst we’re stuck here doing nothing!”

“Sunny sensed something.  That isn’t her fault.  We’re needed here.”

Hyoyeon shook her head and gazed at the construction site, wondering what was being built.  She couldn’t quite pick out what it was.  There must have been ten, maybe fifteen people working on this structure.  As the minutes passed, Hyoyeon watched.  She saw tall pillars being built across the ground, with six or seven articulated lorries, each completely black and attached to a very long trailer, parked close by.  Suddenly, it dawned on her.

“Omega Three to Omega Control, can you check what this concert is about?”

-----

“Concert?” Helix queried.

“Yes sir,” Hyoyeon confirmed.  “They’re building the stage in front of us.”

Helix gazed at the screen, over Raphael’s right shoulder.  Optimus stood on his left.

“It’s a concert,” Optimus stated, sarcastically.  “It’s when a small group of humans gather together and perform music for a larger group of humans.”

Helix glared at his subordinate.

“Yes sir,” Hyoyeon replied, keeping her cool, “but why is one being held here?”

“Is it important?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Then …”

“We don’t know, Cadet,” Helix stepped in.  “Do you think it’s worth checking out?”

“I’m not sure, sir.  It just seems strange that a concert stage is being erected in the middle of a field near a monument that people regard as some sort of spiritual node.”

“Hyoyeon, you are in the 21^st Century,” Optimus replied.  “Ritualistic sacrifice was pretty much done with many centuries ago.”

“Optimus, check on your own unit,” Helix ordered quietly.  Obediently, the Commander left, rolling his eyes and muttering about clueless cadets.  “We’ll look in to it,” Helix comforted her.  “Can you pick anything up there?  It looks more than close enough to sense.”

“No sir, nothing,” Hyoyeon confirmed.  “Should we scout the area?”

Helix paused as Taeyeon and Pegasus joined in the group.  “Yes,” he answered.  “It’s close to the site of Stonehenge, so you should be able to pick up any distress calls.  But I’m with you; a concert in a field near such a spiritual site is suspect.  Especially today.  You two take a closer look.”

“Thank you sir,” Hyoyeon nodded.  “Omega Three out.”  With that, the connection was cut once more.

“Sir,” Yoona called from her station.  “Delta have Ancient Greece neutralised.  No casualties, three Fallen agents contained.”

“Thank you, Cadet,” he called back.  “Are they returning?”

“No, sir.  Final preparations are being carried out.”

“Very good,” Helix mused as he walked towards the table where Seohyun was still hunched over the documents.  “Anything on the concert?” he asked.

Seohyun furrowed her brow.  “There was mention of a festival taking place, but very little about it,” she reported.  “‘The Revival Festival’.  Could be that?”

“‘Revival’?”

“Yes sir.”

“Of what?”

“The codex didn’t say.”

“Any other events that take place there?”

“I … I haven’t checked, sir.”

“Have a look,” Helix ordered gently.  “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

-----

The Fallen are not typical angels.  They are angels that are trapped outside of Heaven, in a sense of purgatory.  Their minds and souls have been corrupted by their leader, one who is hell-bent on overthrowing Helix and the Academy forces in revenge for his own banishment.  They have learned the ways of what some might call “The Dark Side”, practicing ways to corrupt humans before they even arrive at the gates in the afterlife, looking to take over their souls and have them pledge to join them before they even enrol at the Academy.  They use abilities that other angels are forbidden to use, one of them being the ability to possess a human being; forcing the human’s soul to submit and allow its course to be overruled and controlled by an external force.  The people they possess are specifically targeted for the greater evil, oftentimes seemingly inconsequential.  Sometimes, the further away from the field they are, the better.  To make things worse, humans, with their reduced senses, often cannot tell anything more than that their friend has “changed”.

Gary walked back through the double doors at the entrance of the pub, his companion following.  Yuri and Sunny stood near the bar, watching them.  At 6ft tall, slightly tanned, wavy ebony hair, flat stomach, tight jeans, boots, Guns ‘N’ Roses t-shirt and a leather jacket, Sebastian looked like he was auditioning for a role in the remake of Grease.  He was ruggedly handsome, not your typical “pretty boy”; one would expect for swarms of young girls to be swooning around him.  His deep eyes provided a sense of mystery to those that spoke to him, asking his conversational partners to question what lurked behind the deep, wallowing pools that were circled by the deepest brown.  The answer was simple.

Nothing.

The Fallen had no “soul”, so to speak.  Not of the variety that gives humans what we would refer to as “life”.  Their souls were destroyed, broken, almost obliterated beyond all recognition.  The light that a human held in their eyes brightened when they ascended to Heaven, yet died quickly with the Afterworld.  Their eyes held emptiness, nothingness, a void created by the harrows of time.

“I can’t wait to get to the gig, Seb,” Gary remarked, returning to the bar with one more box.  Sebastian followed behind him, carrying two guitars, one in each hand.  “It’s going to be a riot.”

“You’ve got that right,” Sebastian answered cockily, the bile almost dripping onto the cadets’ eardrums.  Yuri and Sunny looked at each other, confused, as they watched the young men talking about the concert, learning more about the night’s proceedings.  Yuri brushed her hair behind her ear, running her fingers across the top of her earpiece, surreptitiously activating the microphone’s feed.  Control needed to hear this.  By all descriptions, it was nothing more than a rock concert, playing all variety of rock from heavy metal to pop rock and back again.  But that did nothing to explain why an agent of the Fallen would be in attendance.  To the cadet’s recollection, Fallen angels had very little appreciation for music, and even less for concerts.  The conversation seemed dull, with topics ranging from acts that would be performing to the girls that would be there to how Gary wished he was performing with Sebastian.  “Titan Call”, the band fronted by Sebastian, would be performing their set close to the opening act.  Yuri furrowed her brow, watching the pair from their distant vantage point, picking up everything the two talked about.  The conversation seemed to be coming to a close when Gary stood up from his seat.

“We’d better get going,” he declared.  “This stuff won’t get set up by itself.”

“Yeah,” Sebastian followed suit and stood.  “One sec though, mate.  Need the ‘john’.”

“Thanks for sharing,” Gary laughed as he walked out.  The cadets watched as he walked towards the door, slowing as though time itself was slowing down.  A classic Fallen trick; slowing time for mortals allowed for the agent to reveal himself to the Angels.  As Sebastian walked towards the bathrooms, his Fallen soul emerged from his body.  He was equally tall, thin as a beanpole, a long, pointed nose and pointed chin, a firm bald head, save for the band of grey hair covering the back and sides.  He wore the Fallen uniform; black suit with black shirt and tie.  He looked remarkably like the Childcatcher from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, only much more sinister.  His eyes were pure black, making the very vacuum of space seem like the brightest light in existence.  Repulsion flowed through the Cadet’s bodies, although they did well to hide it.

“Well well well,” Sebastian chuckled.  “The Academy sending rookies to do an Elite job.  Not enough agents?”

“We’re just as capable,” Yuri defended herself.

Sebastian shook his head and cackled.  “You’re out of your depth here, sweetheart.  Tonight, we will take back what is rightfully ours.  Our place with the Gods.”

“Didn’t you try that before?  You know, just a few times?” Sunny smirked.  “I think the score’s something like fifteen thousand, seven hundred and one to The Academy and … remind me how many you’ve won now?”

“It only takes the one time, my dear.”

“So … zero so far then.”

Another eerie chuckle echoed around the room.  “You humour me greatly, child,” he leered.  “But I can assure you, no one from the Academy will be able to stop us tonight.  For tonight is a very special night.”

“How so?” Yuri asked.

“You don’t know?  Surely even you should have realised our plot by now.  I know the Academy never send cadets down without supervision.  Surely your Commander should be able to shed some light on tonight’s festivities.”

“Oh, of course!” Sunny gasped, sarcastically.  “How could we forget?  It was in core training!  You’re about to be made Creepiest Agent of the Month!  Congratulations!”

“Droll, child,” he glowered, “very droll.”  Sunny met his eyes with her own steely gaze.  “If you must know, we’re … inducting some … ‘new recruits’ to our cause.”  The sentence was crafted so expertly that it revealed everything and nothing all at the same time.  The corner of his mouth turned up, his sneer sending chills through their spines.

“New recruits?” Sunny questioned.

Another chuckle.  “I’m disappointed in Helix,” Sebastian gloated.  “I thought he would have done more to educate his mindless students.”  Yuri took half a step forward, whilst Sunny maintained her disinterested smile and ice cold stare.

“And I’m disappointed in you too, Stimpy,” Sunny retorted.

“‘Stimpy’?” he spat, both insulted at the name and confused at its origin.

“Yeah.  I thought you would have been able to clarify a simple question, but it turns out you know even less than us ‘mindless students’.  Funny, too, especially since you were once one of us.”

“We are all one and the same still,” he smirked, walking closer to Sunny.  “The only difference is that we know the truth, we know the secrets that Helix keeps from you, keeps because he cares so little for his angels.  He cares solely for himself.”  Sebastian leaned forwards, bringing his face inches from Sunny’s.  “That’s why he sends you out to fight his battles, ones that he caused.”

Sunny kept her smug, empty smile on her face; the one she wore when she was either at her most sarcastic or most ignorant.  “So enlighten me, ‘Seb’,” she pushed out the contracted name.  “Why would Helix force us to come to earth now?  What battle are we mindless sheep about to be slaughtered at?”

“Slaughtered?” Sebastian stood tall, towering over the diminutive cadet.  He stared down at her, grinning.  “I like it.  Tonight, child,” he announced, emphasising his title for her, “we celebrate, as the true ruler of Heaven is crowned, and all that should have been will come to be.  The prophecy shall finally be fulfilled, the reign of the Academy will cease and Helix and his followers will be no more.”