ANGEL'S LANDING | BL

CHAPTER 11 | THE FALLEN STAR

A/N: Lists of Teams R-10, R-11, and R-12 and their members have been added to the end of the chapter as well as the Intro for reference.

Rae had been conducting missions on Earth with his unit when the invasion happened. With the Transport Tower destroyed, he and his three teams were now stranded on the foreign planet. Rae's initial priority was to get his teams to a safe place and try to regroup with other heavenly forces that had also been stranded on Earth.

After finding an abandoned office building to use as a home base, Rae and his three teams would take turns scouting out the surrounding areas. Each team having five members totaled to sixteen angels in Rae's unit including him as the commanding officer. Rae's unit shared two healers and two ambassadors, had one guardian and one star, and the remaining were of the warrior class.

Sinjae, who was Team R-11's vice-captain, was explaining the situation to Axel while Rae had led Team R-10 on another scouting mission. "Kilo and Castyr lead R-10. Kilo is a guardian angel, and his job is to not only lead the team but also guard Star Castyr. When a star arrives in a star shower, a guardian angel is created, and their sole purpose is to protect and guard the star with their lives."

"The one with purple eyes is Kilo?" Axel asked in confirmation as he recalled the man who had remained beside the silver-haired and never left Castyr's side.

"Yes, and those two are inseparable. Wherever Castyr goes, Kilo goes."

"It's funny though, Azyr, who is the captain of R-11 by the way, used to be Castyr's team captain way back when." Kenji, the youngest member of R-12, added as he joined Axel and Sinjae's conversation.

"Mm," Sinjae confirmed. "And I was his vice-captain. Azyr and I were Castyr's first commanding officers when he joined the Division of Defense."

"Is it true that Castyr used to be way different to what he is now?" Kenji inquired of the lieutenant colonel.

"Ae," Sinjae answered. "When Castyr first joined, he was..." Sinjae trailed off as he recalled the young star that joined Heaven's defense system to save his guardian angel. "Brighter...he was brighter," he finally finished. "He changed when he became a fallen star."

"What is a fallen star?" Axel inquired. He was curious about everything that concerned the Heavens. Although his mother had descended from the Heavens, once she had passed, Axel's father locked up everything that was related to the Heavens. His father loathed the Heavens; he viewed that as the reason his wife had been kidnapped and killed.

So, now that he had the chance to learn about the place his mother had called home for much of her life, Axel was intrigued. He was learning things he never knew existed and events he never knew happened.

"A fallen star," Sinjae began, "is a star that has been touched by darkness."

Sinjae let that sink in momentarily before adding, "Castyr is no longer pure. His light is constantly fighting the darkness within him. This makes him extremely powerful but extremely dangerous. He and Kilo are always training and cultivating to control the darkness that is always threatening to overwhelm him."

"Woah..." That was all Axel could say. He had no idea that someone would have to constantly be fighting a force so strong that was trapped inside them and endlessly looking for a chance to break out and wreak havoc.

"What made him fall?" Axel asked after a moment. He wanted to know more about the star. Ever since he locked gaze with Castyr's void eyes, Axel knew there was special about him. Castyr felt familiar just like the name 'Aklys' had when he heard it and the colonel when he first saw him.

"That is a long story," Sinjae said as he placed his hands on his knees and rose to his feet. "And it is a story for another time."

The three had been resting on their sleeping bags in the common area when Rae returned with R-10. Gesturing to the soldiers entering the base, Sinjae said, "We don't have the time now. I shall relay the story sometime later. For now, let's hear their updates."