It was two days since I’d woken up under Lisa’s care, and in that time I’d healed a great deal though I still had further to go. As an angel, I could heal from injuries much faster than any normal person, yet I had pushed those healing abilities to their very limits.

I had healed enough that I was no longer stuck in my bed, though I was currently sitting in a wheelchair instead. One of my legs was still wrapped up and supported with a splint, while my arm hung in a sling. Both of those limbs had suffered multiple fractures, including compound fractures, and were among the slowest to recover. Even so, it would probably be safe to remove the bandages and start walking again in the next day or two.

“What color do you see?” Lisa asked me as she moved a blue stick back and forth in front of me.

“Blue,” I answered, having a hand over my good eye as I watched it. “Everything is still a little blurry, but at least I can see out of that eye again.”

“The blurriness should go away by tonight,” she assured me with a grin. Then she handed me a glass and said, “Time for another snack.”

I cautiously sniffed the contents of the glass before letting out a sigh and then drinking it. It was basically the same thing that Rebecca had been making me drink when I’d been going through my changes, a protein shake with lots of extra vitamins and supplements mixed in. It didn’t taste all that pleasant, but at least it helped provide the raw materials for my body needed to repair itself.

“Would you be interested in another game of chess?” Lisa asked me hopefully.

“Why not,” I responded with a sigh, though I didn’t have a lot of hope of winning.

Over the last two days, Lisa had been teaching me how to play the game, though it was obvious that I didn’t stand a chance against her. In fact, playing chess against her was nearly as bad as playing ping-pong against Dani before I’d finished changing.

“You’ll get better with practice,” Lisa assured me as she paused to take a sip from her cup of tea.

While we played, Lisa didn’t talk much beyond commenting on my moves and offering advice. I’d already noticed that she was a bit more introverted than the other angels, though she did respond well to questions. Unfortunately, she refused to answer any questions about how she was still alive or why she hadn’t contacted the others.

Still, in spite of Lisa’s reluctance to answer some of my questions, I was almost certain I could trust her. I’d only met her a couple days ago, but our first meeting had been with her saving my life. I didn’t know her well, yet I still felt as though I did. A lot of that could be due to the stories the others had told me about her, but I suspected it was more than that. Regardless of all the questions I still had, she was my sister.

I continued prodding Lisa with questions, finding that she would happily talk about our sisters. After pushing her a little, she’d told me about their training and their first official fight as Angel Squad. The others didn’t talk about it too much, but Lisa was happy to spill the beans.

“And then this ridiculously fat demon actually sat on Nicole,” Lisa told me with a giggle. “We were all trying to push him and pull him off but he wouldn’t budge. All he’d do was snarl and belch while trying to bite us. None of us had been fighters before our change so we didn’t think to just shoot him…at least not at first. Afterwards, we were all so embarrassed about it, especially Nicole…”

“I’d imagine,” I responded with a shudder.

“We’re just lucky he was relatively harmless as far as demons go,” Lisa added. “I mean, he actually took a bite out of Dani’s arm, but he was pretty slow moving and clumsy. Just…big.”

I nodded at that and sighed, “If you want to see big, you should have seen the demon queen…”

“I…I heard a little about her,” Lisa said carefully, surprising me since I hadn’t told her anything about that fight. Then again, she always seemed to know more than she should, though she refused to answer my questions about this. “I always suspected that Yavich had escaped the quarantine measures, but I never would have guessed he’d evolve into something like that. I’d always kind of thought he’d just be one of those random demons we got called in to kill and that we’d never even realize it was him.”

We were both silent for a moment, making several moves on the chess board before I said, “About Hell Town…” My voice choked at that as I remembered what had happened there, and the pain of the aftermath. “So many demons…”

“They’re gone now,” Lisa responded, giving me a weak smile. After making another move and taking my knight, she admitted, “I’ve used binoculars to look the ruins over a couple times. I didn’t see a single sign of a demon.” Then she paused again before adding, “I didn’t want to get any closer though. They’ve actually got drones flying overhead, just in case more demons did survive.”

“I doubt it,” I muttered. “Not unless they were well away from that town.”

“Always a possibility,” she reluctantly admitted.

Just then, I suddenly heard the Star Wars theme music playing from the other side of the room. Lisa jumped up and ran to the corner where she picked up a satellite phone. She stepped out of the room before talking, then came back just a minute later with a grim look on her face.

I watched Lisa for a moment, scowling as I did so. My eyes went to the phone in her hands before I asked, “Can I borrow that to call Rebecca and let her know I’m alive?”

“You can’t call them,” Lisa responded quietly.

“Why not?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice calm. “You’ve obviously been able to call out the entire time.”

Lisa grimaced, then blurted out, “Because they can’t answer.”

“What?” I asked in surprise. “Why not?”

“I was waiting to tell you this until you finished healing,” she answered quietly. “You already have enough to worry about…”

“Now you’re just making me worry more,” I insisted. “What the hell is going on?”

Lisa was silent for a moment, then said, “While you were on your last mission, they…modified the ban on retrovirus research.”

“About time,” I started, but Lisa shook her head.

“It isn’t good news,” she stated. “The helicopters were diverted to another base. When they landed, they were met with the third DSU who took them into custody. Angel Squad was locked up in quarantine.”

“WHAT?” I demanded, feeling both stunned and angry.

“Senator Dolenz and General Lawrence ordered every angel to be quarantined,” Lisa spat out bitterly. The she gave me a sad smile and continued, “That includes our new sister Julie…”

I blinked at that, asking, “But why…?” But I already suspected the answer. It was something that Rebecca and the others had been afraid might happen.

“The official reason is so that they can study the angel strain and look for a cure to the harkon virus,” Lisa answered with a snort. She adjusted her glasses and let out a sigh. “Of course, the real reason is that they’re planning on researching a new super soldier strain at the same time.”

“But Colonel Roberts would never allow that,” I protested, already realizing that he wouldn’t have a choice.

“None of the first would have cooperated,” Lisa told me sadly. “Which is why they sent the third.” Then she spat out, “They’re being drugged too so they can’t resist or escape. They’re being treated like they’re demons.”

“We have to get them out,” I blurted out.

I expected Lisa to argue, but instead she responded, “Once you’re healed up.” Then she shook her head and spat out, “Damn Dolenz…” Lisa turned to me and held her thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart. “Do you know I was about this close to putting a drop of demon blood on his door handle?”

“What?” I gasped in surprise.

“Him and those other jerks,” Lisa continued, her voice lowering in volume. “They ignored Doctor Vaughn’s warnings and insisted on a more powerful harkon strain. And then when things exploded, every one of them escaped responsibility. Instead, they blamed the whole thing on scientists who ignored safety protocols…when of course none of those scientists were around to defend themselves.” Then she shook her head again and gave me a wry smile. “I really wanted to infect them with the demon strain…especially Dolenz and Lawrence. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. No one deserves that…not even them.” She paused again, then admitted, “But mostly, I couldn’t risk any innocents getting infected or killed because of me.”

“Is that why you left?” I asked, trying to understand. “To try getting revenge on them?”

Lisa sat down, suddenly looking deflated and sad. “I didn’t plan it,” she said quietly. “We were fighting some demons and I got separated from the others. I got hurt…badly. I lost my arm.” She held up her arm and wiggled her fingers, all of which seemed perfectly normal. “There were demons and that fire... I ran and jumped into a river to escape the demons. I floated down the river a bit before coming to shore and passing out. When I came to, I discovered that they’d found my arm and thought I was dead. I wanted to come back and tell them I was alive, but then I realized this was an opportunity…”

“So you just let them think you were dead?” I demanded, knowing how much my other sisters missed her. Her death had really hurt them, so to find out that she’d intentionally let them think she was dead…

“Leaving them like that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Lisa tried explaining as tears ran down her cheeks. “It was even harder than telling the woman I loved that I wasn’t attracted to her anymore. But I couldn’t let them know… If Rebecca, Nicole, and Dani knew, they’d leave with me and that would give everything away. I had something I needed to do and that was the price I had to pay to do it.”

I tried standing up at that, though I couldn’t quite make it so settled back into my seat. “And what did you have to do so much that you’d hurt them like that?”

Lisa stared at me for a moment, then quietly asked, “You want to know why I left? Why I let them think I was dead?” She let out a sigh and said, “Follow me…”

Lisa led me out the door and down the hall to another room. The room had obviously once been a break room as it had a vending machine sitting in the corner, though I wouldn’t dare touch anything that had been left there for eight years. A microwave had been pulled out and the full counter and table were covered with equipment that must have come from a lab. There were microscopes, bottles of weird liquid, and a few small machines I couldn’t quite identify.

Lisa handed me a glass cylinder that was about the size of a coffee thermos and which had a biohazard symbol clearly visible on the side. “This is why I left,” she stated.

“What is this?” I asked, having a bad feeling about it. Then I saw a that there was a label on the cylinder which said ‘HARKON VIRUS: OMEGA STRAIN’. My eyes widened in horror and I blurted out, “What the hell?”

“Everyone knows that all the scientists working on the virus were killed during the outbreak,” Lisa said with a scowl. “But everyone seems to have forgotten that I was one of those scientists.” She paused to give me a faint smile before adding, “Of course, I was just a lab assistant, but I was helping with the project.”

“And what does that have to do with THIS?” I demanded, holding up the cylinder.

“Do you know how I felt?” Lisa demanded of me. “Knowing that I had a hand in creating that plague? Do you know how infuriating it was to know that the politicians and bureaucrats wouldn’t even let anyone look for a cure? I fought demons for years, knowing we were fighting a losing battle. So when I saw an opportunity to get out from under their eyes and do something about it, I took it.”

Lisa paused for a moment and took several deep breaths. She removed her glasses and wiped at the tears, then put her glasses back on.

“I started with a sample of my own virus,” Lisa continued quietly, “and reverse engineered it. I stripped Rebecca’s DNA as well as the parts that alter DNA and biological processes. Then I took a lesson from the demon strain and made it more contagious…a lot more contagious. Once it infects someone, it causes mild cold symptoms and then latches to their DNA and receptors, permanently blocking any viral alterations.”

“Holy shit,” I blurted out, staring at the sample of the omega strain in my hand. “You created a vaccine.”