Young Writers Society

You awake in a church. Depending on where you're from, the interior of the church might look unfamiliar and foreign, but all it takes is a quick look around for you to realize that you're in a religious place. But before you can figure out how you got here - or even where here actually is - you realize that you're not alone. There are other people present in this building.

And not a single one of them is human.

Some are angelic. Their backs are shielded by soft, white wings. Their hair, too, appears to be soft and beautiful, cascading down in gentle waves, or left short in a youthful cut. Their clothing are all light shades, and they seem to radiate with a peaceful, calm glow.

Some are demonic. They are dressed in dark clothing and shades of black, and each share common traits. A pair of horns protrude out of their foreheads. They have horned tails. The few that have opened their mouths have revealed a sharp set of incisors. While the sight of angels is comforting, the demons seem dangerous. Just staring at them sends shivers running up and down your spine.

At some point, you come to realize that something about your body feels odd. You decide to see what that feeling originated from, and are horrified to realize that you have become just like the others present in the church.

And you have no idea who you can trust.

When he opened his eyes, Grim knew that something was wrong.

This originated from the fact that he had opened his eyes in the first place - he didn't have any eyelids. To make things even more disturbing, he felt like he was dressed in layer upon layer of clothing, but it didn't feel like fabric brushing up against his bones. It felt different. It was almost suffocating to be stuck like this, and getting to his feet was difficult when he tried to move his legs and arms.

He looked around at the place he was in. It looked like some sort of church, but he couldn't remember being remotely close to one before he had awoken here. Just as he started to process that he had been brought somewhere against his will and that something was horribly wrong with his body, he caught a glimpse of his arm.

And how it was covered in skin.

He let out a startled cry and went stumbling back into the person that had been trying to get up behind him. The two went crashing to the ground in the center aisle of the church, a tangled mess of limbs and wings-

Wait, wings?

The man unsteadily trying to get to his feet - though the action was frantic - had a pair of large white wings coming out of his back. The rest of his features added to the angelic appearance. He was dressed in a white tunic akin to the ones worn in ancient Greece, with sandals to match. A pair of terrified brown eyes peered out from a dark face, and the man's dark hair went down to his chest.

Grim, who hadn't had the best experience with angels, let out another startled cry and went backing up in the other direction. It was only as he instinctively went to shield himself with his newly flesh-covered arms that he realized the man before him wasn't the only one with wings. Wings that should have never existed went to cover his face and raised arms, and this only sent Grim crashing to the ground for a second time as he tried to hurry back even further.

Cornyx Blackthorne's ebony wings unfurled and frost raced across the barren earth as he raised himself up in the face of the white-winged angel that stood opposing to him with a golden shield on his arm. His normally-black eyes were gleaming a metallic silver in the fading sunlight and his once-gray suit had been replaced with a black one, giving him the look of a movie villain once paired with his extreme height of 6' 5" and his shoulder-length ebony locks.

He charged forward with a feral roar as the dragon in him rose, charging the armor-clad angel whose face was hidden under a helmet, the only part of him visible aside from a stray dark bang being his amber-gold eyes. He raised his shield to defend against the draconian demon's advance and Cornyx's talons raked across the metal with the ear-splitting screech of metal being scraped.

On a nearby rooftop, a figure clad in yet more dark attire watched the combat, his face hidden by an intricate silver mask in the design of a fox's face. A sniper rifle rested on his back and his knives were at his hips. A part of him thought about helping or breaking up the fight, but the other told him that Melkyael could handle it and he didn't want to betray Boomslang again anyways. There'd be Hell to pay - literally.

As he watched, however, he began to recognize one very simple fact: this fight wasn't going to end, and time was of the essence. He shrugged his rifle off his shoulder and leveled it before scoping in on them. All it'd take was a single, well-placed shot to put them out and bring them to his mistress to deal with. She'd be pissed if he killed them, however.

Making up his mind, the masked man pulled tranqs from his belt pouch and loaded them in before adjusting his scope to compensate for the different arcing. Once this was done, he laid down on his belly and aimed. His lung stilled and his heartbeat slowed in acute concentration as he followed the moving figures. Ever so carefully, he pulled the trigger, moving with speed but also an evenness that would keep the rifle from being jerked.

One short moment later and both demon and angel were unconscious heaps on the ground. He smiled to himself; such youth, so strong, yet so hopelessly unpracticed. He hopped down off the roof and slung his weapon over his shoulder as he sauntered over to the sleeping men.

A sharp pain erupted from his shoulder and he spun around as he grabbed at it, coming up with a dart. Gunther. It had to be him...

That was his last thought before it all faded into oblivion.

~**~

Cornyx growled as he pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, flapping his wings a little as he regained his balance and shook off the sedative. Silberfuchs. Damn assassin - he'd have to mention this to Boomslang. He glanced down to reach for his pocketwatch and see what time it was, only to find himself wearing a suit that was all white, with a silver tie and pale shoes. What...?!

He looked around to catch sight of two more individuals dressed similarly to him, in white attire, both with large, feathery wings the same hue as their clothing. As his clothing. Startled, he glanced back at his own shoulders, to see that his once-ebony, reptilian wings had been replaced with ones similar to Melkyael's. The King of Hell let out a startled yelp and stumbled forward, beating his new wings as he nearly fell...on top of a black-winged angel.

Melkyael himself was wearing exactly what he had been before, though now his armour was the same color as stygian iron instead of the gold-washed adamantium, and a tail similar to the one Cornyx had before he'd been knocked out. He stumbled to his feet as the world spun around him, confused and disoriented.

As this was happening, the man who'd initially gotten them all in this fix began to rise, shaking himself off and frowning under his mask. The Hell...? Cornyx was nearly tripping over a semi-conscious, black-winged Melkyael, and the son of Sathanus had wings that looked like they belonged on an angel, not the King of Hell. Two more unfamiliar figures were tripping over themselves nearby. The large building he was in appeared to be a church - but not a familiar one.

He hopped over the pews and into the more open area in the front of the church, surveying his surroundings and folding his wings.

His what?!

The masked man spun around to catch sight of the bright white flights of a pair of wings that sprouted from his shoulders and his eyes widened in shock. He jumped back and fell over himself in a spectacular display of grace, soon finding himself on the ground in a tangled heap of white jacket and white wings.

White jacket? What the Hell?! This was not how things were supposed to go!

Rose groaned and put a hand to her head as she sat up. Shaking her head to clear away the blackness, she realized she was in a church, and there were two other people. She felt something on her back. She gasped as she saw white wings, and realized she was dressed in a long white dress. What in the world??

((Rose is 17, 5'7" tall, long black hair that isn't exactly curly, more wavy, Dark blue eyes, and is though thin, she is strong.))

When he opened his eyes a familiar feeling of dread began to wash over him. Oh no. God no. It was happening again. Some twisted fates of the universe had brought him to some foreign land and he would have to find his way back home.

So naturally, the first thing muttered out of his mouth was a string of expletives, though hardly above a whisper.

He sat up in one of the pews, looking around the building with an ever-increasing annoyance. Though the building was foreign, the way it was set up along with the grandiose decor was enough for him to come to the conclusion that he was in some sort of religious institution or meeting place. It was a beautiful building, in truth, but he didn't spend much time observing it before he realized two things:

One, he was not alone, and two, something was wrong. With him.

All around the room, there were people who almost resembled harpies, having large, beautiful wings sprouting from their backs. But there was one that stuck out as one with horns and a tail - nothing like the ogres or anything he'd ever seen before. And that was the moment when he felt something different about his head. He looked down at himself, taking in the dark black suit with suspicion. The last time he awoke in clothes that were not his own, it was Kartiel and Rendra's doing, but this didn't feel quite like that.

With a hesitant hand he reached up to his forehead where he felt a different balance of weight than was ever natural to him before, and when he felt two large horns coming out of his skull, somehow through his skin, his heart skipped a beat. In a panicked motion, he reached for his lower back, only to feel a long tail poking out.

Sheer horror fell over him and his face grew pale. He looked down at his hands. His nails were sharp like claws, and when he curled his fingers into anxious fists, he found himself deeply unsettled when it almost felt natural. He took in a deep breath, deliberately slowing down his breath to keep from hyperventilating, and finally stood up from his seat. He looked around at the others, realizing quickly that they were just as confused as he was.

Somehow, they all had to have been transformed.

Maahes was used to looking different. He could change his guise just by thinking about, and, though he typically used human guises, he had used other ones when necessary. But this wasn't the same as all of those other times. That had been a conscious decision.

This hadn't been.

His terror only grew when more horrifying realizations slammed into him. He felt trapped. He couldn't feel his essence swirling through his guise, an he couldn't even change his guise when he wanted to. He had woken up, despite not being able to sleep in the first place. And, most horrifyingly of all, he looked like he was an angel - he'd never be able to do anything on Earth or on off world missions if he looked like this!

Oh, and there were other people like him there.

The one that had caught his eye was an angel currently hiding behind a pair of enormous white wings. He was trembling so badly that Maahes could see it, and he let out an audible whimper before Maahes was even standing beside him. When Maahes finally did reach his side, the angel yelped and scooted a little farther back. "Please-please don't hurt me," the angel begged.

"I-I'm not going to," Maahes managed to get out, bewildered. He was still freaking out over what was going on, but he had to calm this angel down before he could really fret about how he had ended up here and what had happened to him.

(At least his voice matched the Scarlet Lord's. He could solace in the fact that he wouldn't have to be stuck with an unfamiliar voice for however long he was like this.)

"Oh," the angel quietly said, hesitantly moving his wings out from in front of his face. He rose to his feet and looked up at Maahes. "D-Do you know where we are, Mr. Ang-I mean, fellow angel. Uh, brother? That's how angels work, right..." He continued to mutter under his breath, his voice dropping too low for even Maahes to pick up on it.

"I'm not an angel," Maahes hurriedly informed him, sensing that this was the reason for the man's fear.

The man took a deep breath. "Then we're in the same boat?"

"I think so," Maahes agreed. He went to say more, but was drawn to the sound of someone getting up from nearby. He turned to see a demon getting up from one of the stands. This happened nearly simultaneously with the not-angel near him noticing another demon hesitantly getting to his feet, his eyes wide with terror and fear written across his face.

This was bad.

This was really bad. He was an angel now. He didn't even know that angels existed before this moment, but if actual demons were present here, too, didn't that mean that the whole conflict between the two was real as well? And he was an angel. An angel. He didn't even know how to use whatever angelic powers he must have had, if he even had them to begin with!

He backed right into the not-angel behind him, causing both to give terrified cries right up until the moment they realized that they hadn't been attacked by a demon.

But before he could figure out what to do next, the demon on the not-angel's side started to sob as he tried to back down the aisle - only to be stopped by the divide between benches. "I-I don't want to die!" the demon cried out, clawed hands shooting up to cover his pale face as he continued to sob.

He shared a look with the not-angel, then glanced around the church. Could it be that everyone present was like him and the man he was standing back-to-back to? Everyone did seemed to be confused from the way they were investigating their demonic and angelic features, but then why had this change happened to all of them? And why had they been taken here?

"I'll go talk with that demon," the not-angel quietly said, then started to head over to the sobbing demon in question. Maahes took it as a sign to start heading towards the demon who had just stood up.

He opened his mouth to say something to him, but was cut off by the sound of a scream coming from the direction of the not-angel and the other demon.

James warily watched as one of the winged men started to come his way. As if to meet him, he walked to the edge of the pew, making eye contact as the stranger drew near. It was almost a familiar occurence, now, for him to expect the mutual confused introductions that came wth these cruel reality games. That, and he found that there would be no reason to lie in such a circumstance since it only led to confusion further down the line and break trust. If they were all victims of similar fates, he could at least be honest about his name when asked.

“I see you too found yourself with a modified form. You’re fortunate that you recieved wings and not horns,” he spoke plainly to the stranger. “That is, unless I overheard wrong, and you really are a harpy - or an angel. Not that I know what the latter is.”

Rose looked at everyone else in the room, and decided to stay were she was.

Maahes came to a sudden stop.

"James?" he asked in disbelief.

He stared at the demon's face. It was hard to tell with the more demonic features and the sudden change in hairstyle, but he could see the resemblance between the man in front of him and one of his closest friends. He would have panicked when he realized he had uttered James's name without his friend having mentioned it - which happened far too often when they randomly met up - but this time he had a couple of things in his favor: his voice sounded the same as it did in the guise James was most familiar with, and, though his hair was down and a different color now, his actual face had to match the Scarlet Lord's.

"James, it's me!" he eagerly exclaimed, thankful that he wasn't going to have to go through this on his own. He pressed his fingers up against his lips in the symbol that he and James had decided on the last time he was on Nye.



A short distance away, Grim was trying his best to approach the demon without further frightening him. He hadn't expected such a loud scream to erupt for the other man's mouth when he initially tried to head towards him, but his surprise was quickly overtaken by acceptance. People had always been afraid of him. Even if it was because he was now an angel and the man was a demon, the basic idea of being feared was something that he was used to.

"Please don't hurt me!" the man said. His voice sounded somewhat familiar, but Grim couldn't put his finger on why. He pushed the recognition to the side. He needed to focus on calming down the demon, even though he was just as scared of the demon as the demon was of him.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Grim promised.

The demon let out a heavy sob. "But L-Liz said angels fight demons!"

The recognition stealthily slipped back into his mind. He knew the name Liz from somewhere; if he figured out from where, would he be able to explain how he knew the demon cowering before him? "I'm not normally an angel," he said, crouching down in front of the familiar man. "...I don't know what happened to me, but I woke up here looking like this. Did the same thing happen to you?"

The demon nodded. "I-I don't feel like me," he miserably said, sitting down and pulling his legs close to his chest. "I look like a demon, can't use my magic and can't talk to L-Liz! This is just like the mansion all over again..."

Mansion?

"...Aquarius?" Grim uncertainly asked. He appeared to be older now, and his hair was an entirely different color, but he could see the resemblance when he looked hard enough.

Aquarius stared at him with wide eyes. "How did you know my name?" he asked, his voice quiet and tense with fear. But before Grim had an opportunity to answer, Aquarius's face lit up as realization dawned on him. He found himself being embraced several seconds by the demigod. "You're Gri-"

Grim impulsively muffled Aquarius's voice by wrapping his wings around the front of his body and the demigod in his arms. "Please don't call me that," he begged, hoping that no one had overheard that part of their conversation. "I-I usually go by Griffith when I'm pretending to not be...you know...." He awkwardly trailed off.

Aquarius nodded. "Okay," he promised, giving him a small, hesitant smile. "I'll make sure to call you Griffith."

James. That was a name the Silver Gox knew well. He spun around to see the speaker - an angel who was achingly familiar but who he couldn't quite place. He started to make his way towards them before he caught sight of Cornyx who was beelinig straight for him. The temperature of the entire church dropped noticeably and he began to back off, hand going for his knife.

"What the hell are you playing at, Silberfuchs?" he demanded as he advanced. Frost covered the ground at his feet and ice had already begun forming on the angelic demon's hands.

"You zink zis is me?" the assassin scoffed, German accent harsh. "I don't vant to be here any more zan you?"

"You've been known to pull worse stunts," he answered, now looming over the much shorter mercenary with a cold look in his metallic eyes.

The Silver Fox stood his ground despite the impending danger that was obvious to any onlookers in addition to the individuals involved. Mellyael was getting back to his feet behind Cornyx, trying to orient himself.

Rose listened and watched, everyone was panicking, and while she wanted to, she kept it back. She remained in her corner, wary, but not hostile.

James's eyebrows shot up as the man uttered his name, but as soon he saw the hand motion, his mouth upturned into a wide smile.

"Maahes," he said quietly. His eyes shone with happiness, and his voice spoke of relief. He could never bet on Maahes being thrown into situations like this with him, but every time he was there, it was like a weight lifted. He rushed forward and hugged Maahes tightly, taking just an extra second to maneuver his arms around Maahes's newly acquired wings.

But as his smile faded, he felt something off inside of his mouth. He ran his tongue over his teeth, and let out a quiet breath of surprise when he found that they were sharp, almost like a goblin's. Giving Maahes one last squeeze, he pulled away with some hesitance, looking over to two of the others. One of the angel-harpies looked like it was hostile, while two others were talking in understandably panicked tones.

"I wonder what mess we've found ourselves in this time," he muttered before his gaze fell on a young girl watching all of them from the side of the room. Hm. Smart. He gave the girl a nod of recognition and a small wave.

Sevy jolted awake in a cramped position. Carefully, he stretched his limbs, and in a moment of confused disorientation, wondered where exactly he had fallen asleep to put him in a position like this. It wasn't until he blinked and rubbed his eyes a few times before he realized that he was sitting in a pew, or more broadly, some sort of church.

It wasn't long before he tore his gaze away from the elaborate architecture and noticed the other people in the building- plenty of which had their wings on full display. He opened his mouth, frowned, and closed it again, not sure exactly how to phrase his questions.

He stood slowly, stretching his arms up above his head. As his spine stretched accordingly, he felt a dull smack on the backs of his calves and startled. With a small glance behind him, his heart skipped a beat. A tail- a pointed tail, at that, was swishing slowly between his legs. Was that attached to him??

A voice close by startled him before he could adequately freak out. He turned and looked over at the person who had spoken.

"Sevius! It's so good to see you! You look so young. And... different. Did you do something with your wings?" A tall, broad man with a large smile stood in front of him- one with light, wavy hair and large brown eyes. And, Sevy noticed with another's pang of unease, huge white wings sprouting from his back, nearly as long across as Sevy was tall.

"No, I'm not- my name is Sevy." He frowned and peered closer at the man. "Do I know you?" Something about the way this man was mispronouncing his name was familiar, though his appearance was definitely unfamiliar.

"Oh, that's right. My name is Damascus. Or uh... Gordon." The man ran a hand through his hair and mumbled quietly. "I'm not sure exactly how far along in the timeline you are. You, um... you might not even know me, yet."

Everything Damascus had said past his name hardly registered to Sevy. A smile broke out on his face. Of course! Damscus could shape-shift. It made sense that he didn't recognize him. Though the wings were a surprise- he hadn't been aware that Damscus could shift into sub-species as precise as his.

"Of course I know you! I just didn't recognize you. Damascus, buddy, how've you been? Put it here." Sevy held out a fist, and with an awkward moment of hesitation, his old friend pounded it with his own.

"It's lovely to see you, Sevy, and I'd like to catch up, but firstly I should ask... ah- however did you grow horns? And a tail?"

Right. The tail. He still had to figure that one out. But did Damascus say...

"Hold on. Horns?"

"Whatever it is, I don't think it's a good thing," Maahes said, awkwardly trying to fold up his wings - it had been a very long time since he had given a more human guise wings like this. The last time he could remember doing for more than a handful of seconds was when he was a child; more recently, he had been showing his abilities to the SGC and had been taking requests, but that had only lasted for a handful of seconds.

After a few tries, he finally managed to close up his wings. He could feel them pressing up against his back, and didn't like the feeling of it in the slightest. Being stuck in a body like this was weird. The sensations he had been used to when his body had consisted solely of essence were vastly different than what he was experiencing right now, and he kept involuntarily shuddering every time he bumped into something.

And then his stomach started to hurt.

Maahes automatically covered his stomach with his hands - something he had seen humans do when that particular area hurt - and tried to figure out what could have possibly happened to make his stomach feel so miserable. But there wasn't anything harmful nearby, and he definitely wasn't injured. He didn't see any blood.

So why was it hurting so badly?

"James," he said, his voice quiet and worried, "my stomach hurts, but I don't see any injuries. There's no blood, r-right? I've tried figuring out why, but I can't understand why it's suddenly hurting!"

Then he realized that James would have no idea why he was suddenly asking him for advice on his biology.

He took a deep breath, giving an involuntary shudder at the feeling of all the air rushing to his lungs - no wonder people liked doing that to calm themselves down. "This isn't a guise," he weakly said. "I-I can't feel my essence anymore, James, and my true form...it's gone. I...I feel human."


As Grim and Aquarius got to their feet, Grim glanced over in the direction of the not-angel and the unnamed demon; the man looked a little terrifying, but it appeared that their conversation had gone just as well as his had with Aquarius. He was about to start heading over to where the two were standing when he felt Aquarius tap him on his shoulder.

He had been in forms beside his own before - his mind immediately returned to the mansion - but it was still disconcerting when he felt Aquarius's hand brush against his own as he raised it to point in the direction of another angel and demon pair. More specifically, he was pointing at the demon of the two. It didn't take long for him to realize why.

His eyes widened.

"That's Sevy," Grim realized. Aquarius nodded beside him. The two exchanged a look before deciding to head over to the boy, though both began to tremble at the thought of having to deal with the angel that he was with. By the time they reached Sevy's side, Aquarius had managed to somehow get behind him - a sight that Grim guessed would have been fairly comical to an onlooker because Aquarius was far taller than him right now.

Grim took a deep breath, then froze a little when he felt the air go rushing into his lungs. Nope, he did not like the feeling of having organs attached to his body. "Hi, Sevy," he managed to get out, trying his best to ignore the sensation he had just experienced.

Aquarius peeked over his shoulder and gave Sevy a little wave.

Maahes was in a human body? Perhaps this was the work of Kartiel after all, though it was too soon to call. He looked down at Maahes's stomach, briefly inspecting said area to confirm what Maahes had already told him. He wasn't wounded or anything, but if Maahes had never truly been in a human form and was unfamiliar with human bodily sensations, it was possible it was something very mundane. He put a hand on Maahes's shoulder.

"Maahes. I think you're just hungry. The moment we find food we can fix that."