We are the Lost Ones, in the company of Bright Angels.

"We convoke the Nephilim and they come to us, strangers with the eyes of men..."

Fields of the Nephilim

1999, Outside Damascus.

The crashing sounds grew louder, almost overwhelming the screaming of the heavily pregnant woman in the room. Sweat gleamed on her brow and tears ran from her eyes but her look was one of intense concentration. An old woman, her arms coated with blood to her elbows crouched between her knees. "Push, Maria, you must push!"

A man leaned over her, tall, slender and beautiful. Long, golden hair fell down his shoulders and bright, blue eyes gazed at the woman. He held her hands and whispered soft words of encouragement.

"They will not have our child, my love, for she is almost here."

The woman began to speak but her words were consumed by another scream and another explosion from without.

Two men and one woman stood around the room, the men with guns in hand and the woman with a sword which seemed to gleam with an inner light.

"They are almost upon us, my lord. We should augment our forces in the halls before they breach this room."

The golden-haired man looked up at the woman who spoke and there were ages and infinite sadness in his eyes. "I need the three of you here, Helena. Once our daughter is born you are all she will have to defend and teach her."

He looked down at the woman in her labours. "My wife will not survive the birth and I will be chained beneath the ground once more."

The woman in the bed reached out and touched the man's cheek. "Do...not feel...guilt, my love. I knew...the price and pay...willingly." Her hand dropped and another scream was wrenched from her already raw throat.

The man sighed and touched her brow. "Of everything we taught mankind, the one thing I could use here and now would be something to dull your pain, my love."

"Pain is life. We shall meet again, in a new Heaven." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Our daughter will throw him down and remake Creation."

Gunfire sounded now, too close for the men and women in the room but it was eclipsed by one final scream from the woman. There was a tearing sound and then the lusty cry of a newborn. For a moment the room fell into silence, the gunfire halted. "She is come, our daughter: Sophia."

The old woman looked up at the man as he watched his beloved take one final, shuddering breath, her eyes locked with his. "Hold your daughter, Bright One."

"I fear this will be the only time." He said, as he straightened and closed sightless eyes. He took the bloodied infant into his arms and there was the sound of thunder from outside. The lights in the room dimmed. "You have failed. Whatever happens to me now is unimportant for my daughter is come and the prophecy is nigh. He spoke six words in a language that had not been heard since The Flood and the light in his eyes increased. "Yaldabaoth, your doom is upon you."

The thunder roared again and the gunfire resumed. Explosions and screams grew closer as the tall man handed the infant over to the woman with the sword. "Guard her, teach her. You are all that she has now."

The three bowed to the tall man, their own eyes glistening with unshed tears. The woman reached up and gave him a brief, fierce hug.

"Go now, and do not look back. Go!"

They fled the room through a small door which the tall man covered with a dresser. He looked at the old woman who had guided his daughter into the world. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "I've always wanted to see. I'm old and this is as good a time to die as any."

The man looked at her and sighed. "Would that all men remembered as you have."

With that the angel Shemhazai shed his human seeming and spread golden wings. The old woman gasped once and turned to dust before him.

"Come then and chain me, servants of the Demiurge but know that you have failed for my daughter is born!" The walls of the ancient keep shook with the thunder in his voice.

Outside, the three fled into the desert, the infant child in the arms of the woman. None of them looked back as the night air turned to golden fire behind them.