Erick’s visits to The People started after he and Nomad had arrived in Purge City. It followed that their headquarters were nearby. Nomad returned to the city and began his search. It was dark by the time he arrived and as expected, Sunrise Park sat empty. Across the street, police tape cordoned off the ruined apartment building. They’d removed the main wall and the glass crater to cover up the evidence of the battle. There was no telling what they’d said to the neighbors, but seeing as those were few and far between maybe it didn’t matter. Nomad crossed the caution tape and searched the remains. Not surprising, it yielded nothing and Nomad decided to wait until morning to continue his search. A large pine tree in the park provided perfect cover and he curled up under its bows. An uneasy sleep settled on him after a while.

“Come out.” A voice called out after an unknown amount of time.

Nomad opened his eyes and a bright figure stood outside the branches.

“Seraph.” Nomad said.

He crawled out of the tree to face him. Instinctually, Nomad’s wings unfurled to block out the intense light but they were ragged now and less effective.

“What’s happened to my wings?” he asked Seraph. “And why can I move and speak this time?”

Seraph stood silent for a moment.

“You have taken upon yourself my name,” he said at last, “And therefore you have begun to assimilate my being into your being. This is the reason for you freedom in my presence and for the damage to your wings.”

“Shouldn’t I be more powerful, then? Why can’t I fly? Di I get my, your memories?”

“You were not ready for it and the energy overpowered your single set of wings. As for the memories, those will be the final piece.”

Nomad’s knees quivered as Seraph’s presence sapped away his strength and he couldn’t help but worry that The People might find him in this weakened state.

“Seraph—

“You have taken that name for yourself now, I can no longer be that person.” He made no attempt to hide the sadness from his voice.

“How long will it take for my wings to heal?”

The entity formerly known as Seraph pierced him with his eyes.

“It is not a matter of time,” he said, “but a matter of self.”

He began to fade and his wings withered. His body shrank until a ten-year-old boy stood in his place.

“I’m going now,” He said. “Remember what Dad told us.”

His body became transparent until nothing but his slight silhouette remained.

“Are we theirs or are we his?” He said and vanished.

Nomad, now Seraph, fell to his knees and fought to remain conscious. He couldn’t be sure but he thought he heard voices. Pine needles jabbed his skin as he dragged himself back under the tree and waited. Drained of energy, he hoped any scanners wouldn’t be able to track him. Flashlights sparked to life and soldiers tromped around but no one approached Seraph’s tree.

“He was right here.” Someone said.

“What about his energy signature?” Another man asked.

“It faded out with that light.” The first man said.

They rummaged around the area some more but still no one thought to check under the tree.

“He can’t teleport, can he?” A new voice asked.

The men stopped searching and their devices hummed as they swept the area one last time.

“He’s gone.” Someone said and they marched away. Seraph was struck with an idea, and having had a few minutes to rest he wasn’t on the verge of collapsing any more. He waited until the soldiers were well out of earshot and then started after them. If they had arrived so quickly, that meant they were stationed somewhere nearby, and if he followed them he’d be that much closer to finding out where they were coming from. At the far end of the park they got into a series of unmarked vans and drove away. Seraph followed on foot as best he could, thankful for the many stoplights that kept them from getting too far ahead. They reached the library and parked the cars on the street. Rather than going up the stairs and into the main building, they turned and walked along the side to an employee only entrance. They swiped a keycard and the door unlocked. One by one they filed inside and Seraph was left outside alone.

He waited outside for several minutes.

They can’t detect me if I don’t have any energy. He thought. But without energy I can’t break in.

There were security cameras all over the outside of the library, which Seraph had never figured out how to hide from. Erick had clearly done it, though, but how?

I can hide from people. He thought. Why not electronics?

By this time he had recharged somewhat and it was only a matter of time before The People detected him. Seraph focused on the camera much in the same way he would a person’s mind. Electric signals in the camera buzzed in his brain. It took a few minutes but gradually he became aware of what each signal meant and was able to create a digital blind spot around himself.

Easier than I thought it would be.

Using a similar technique to the cameras, Seraph convinced the door to unlock and he stepped inside. He found himself at the top of a long staircase leading down. The door at the bottom required a keycard as well but that was easily bypassed. Now that he was properly inside it looked like any other office building. The only things that stood out as unusual was the extra security and the lack of windows. There were also no elevators, just more stairs going deeper into the complex. Corridor after corridor yielded nothing but cubicles and office space. Guard stations and check points marked each level as he went deeper beneath the Library, but nothing with any useful information. At last Seraph came to a solid steel door with a sign: Contained Projects, Authorized Personnel Only.

The door opened into the one and only elevator here that took him down to the ninth level. The doors opened and let him out in a long, narrow hallway. Grey metal doors with small windows and slots for food trays lined the otherwise white walls, just like Erick’s memories. It wasn’t too dissimilar from a prison. Inside the rooms were people of all ages asleep on foldout cots. Stenciled plates beside each door told the name and project of each person. Some designed new weather monitoring systems. Others planned wars and the weaponry they’d be fought with. Others still were far worse. One name plate stopped Seraph dead in his tracks.

The God Child: Mental Manipulations.

He looked through the little window into his old room room. Dust covered everything. The door opened with a push and the lights clicked on. Depressions in the wall marked where powerful impacts or blasts had tested the armor plating in here. A miniature stasis field buzzed to life when Seraph folded out the cot. Even as a child they’d feared him. He walked over to the little desk and sat down. As soon as his hand touched its surface, words began to shine out of it.

Hello, my name is Seraph, and this is my room.

More lines began to form below the first.

“I’m like the angels from the Bible that my dad told me about when I first came here. He said that, some day, I’d be just like one and that I’d be able to leave this place.”

Seraph’s own private journal, in some way or another.

“I’ve been here for three years now. Dad says I can’t hurt the people any more. Even though he use to be their boss and they fired him and took me away he says he doesn’t want me being bad like them. I said I won’t hurt them again.”

The scrawling extended off the desk and onto the wall.

“They made Dad stop reading his Bible to me so now he has to memorize it and when he visits I have to read his mind. Dad says they don’t like the Bible because it gave me my wings and their machine can’t work if I use my wings.”

The words faded. Seraph looked for more but everywhere else had been scraped clean. With nothing else here to find, Seraph left his old room. Shadows of memory played in his mind and he followed the corridor to the last door. This one had no window or food slot. When Seraph unlocked the door and pushed it open, he found the first real signs of activity. The floor sloped downward to the large, dormant machine that produced the stasis field they used to control Seraph when he was younger. An old mechanic laid on his back beneath the machine and his young assistant handed him tools.

“We’ve got to have this thing working again as soon as possible. They figure they’ve found the boy and that he’s still just as powerful.” The older man said.

“I thought he lost his powers when they fried his brain.” The young man said. “Isn’t that why they dumped him?”

“Yeah,” the old man answered. “Guess they were wrong.”

Seraph sneaked around to the back of the machine and climbed into the cockpit where they couldn’t see him.

“You don’t think he remembers any of it, do you?” Asked the young man.

The old man stopped working. “No, but if he figures it out we’re all dead.”

“Unless we can get this machine working, right?” The young man asked.

The old man beneath the machine still didn’t resume his work.

“Right?” The young man asked again.

The old man climbed out of the service duct and rested against the metal siding.

“You ever stand in when they had him kill people?”

The young man shook his head. “But I heard what happened after he killed his mom and sister.”

The breath in Seraph’s lungs disappeared as he struggled with what was just said.

“That was nothing compared to when we had him kill his dad.”

“What?” Seraph cried and leaped from the cockpit.

The two men scrambled backward.

“Help! Help! He’s—

The young man never finished his call for help as his energy got sucked out of him. He screamed at first but went quiet in the end. His shell of a body dropped next to the old man and Seraph raised him up to face him. They both deserved to die.

“All you want to know is in the records room. Third floor, door marked ‘Observations’.” He blurted out.

“That won’t save your life.” Seraph told him.

“I know.” He said, “But at least you could make it quick.” He glanced over to his partner on the floor.

Seraph nodded.

The alarm had been raised. Soldiers flooded into the room even as it burned with black flames. It was too late. None of them could find him. The enemy was inside the walls.