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<p>I don't remember being born. I remember being made. Made to look up at the sky, see the hawks floating lazily, and know that I am their equal. I remember looking around me, seeing the grass and trees, and I remember my caretaker, Ana, looking at me kindly... and her in the background, smiling at me; happy that I was here. She was blonde and intense, looked like a true Valkyrie, and even then I knew I wanted to be like her.
As a Valkyrie, my training started immediately. I took a liking to the spear, and practiced. After five years, I moved on to the next step, the next bout of training and met her again. Her name is Angela Ziegler, and she was still in training too, to become a Healer, not a Figher... though I could not believe otherwise when I first saw her.
I remember our first meeting. I was in the battle-field, I held my spear and shield, ready to attack my teacher, then she stepped through, "I need to watch over you. Are any of you hurt?" She sounded worried, concerned for our health, even in training. I remember wondering how she would react in battle, to real danger.. Someone was hurt, they sprained their wrist using their sword. I remember taking a few steps back as she turned around to fix the teacher with an icy glare.
I was terrified of her in that moment, her eyes shot fire and her body was tense. I wanted to hide from this righteous flame of fire, I didn't want to hear her voice... She backed down. She took the trainee off the battle-field and I didn't see her again for a week.
But I remembered.
Two weeks or so after that, Angela decided to oversee my classes, stating that the teachers "we" had were not careful enough, and she wanted to ensure that we were in top-condition for our graduations. I got myself hurt many times trying to learn a sword, an axe, a knife, my spear... each and every time she made sure I was comfortable, made sure that I knew what she was going to do. Once, during practicing, I somehow managed to slice my arm open with a knife. From my wrist to my elbow, a deep wound. She ran over to me, pushed the teacher back, and told me repeatedly "You will be okay", and unlike myself... I believed her. I knew right then that I wanted her to be with me, to be a fellow Valkyrie, a fellow warrior, having each other's backs in combat, never be struck down, and always invincible.. But it was not to be. We grew up together, made it to the second training-grounds at what humans call "16". I had grown in height, weight, muscle, and self-assurance that what I will do someday will matter.
How young and foolish I was.
Our first mission? Travel to Earth, be among the humans for a year, learn how they act, why they act, and learn how to defend oneself with whatever you could find.
We were buddied up in duos, and somehow Angela got to be mine. We got there, and I was horror-struck. Nothing was done properly. No one knew courtesy or rules, things were done sloppily, lazily, with excuses and lies.
I wanted to leave, but she did not. Somehow she was spellbound. She dragged me to bazaars, open-air markets, excited about gazebos and kittens, somehow happy about everything she met. Except for bandits, apparently she couldn't even like those.
I remember she jumped towards them, startling the horses and making the men fall to the ground. I had my spear out, but they had already surrendered, terrified of this athletic, blonde woman attempting to stab them. When they left, I laughed. I managed to explain to her that they were terrified. Easily scared, just like a horse, and that amused me to no end. I think she was trying to decide if she was offended or amused. Either way, we finished our year with no other incidents.
Our trainers were proud of us, and we finally started being treated like true Valkyries, something that never ceased to make me proud. Something that never ceased to make her wary.
After our graduation, we received our true weapons. I have a throwing spear, still tucked away somewhere, with my name and date carved upon the blade tip. Blue and black. Her's were small throwing knives, as she claimed she didn't like any of the other weapons... I remember her saying; "too poky" with a pout on her face. The teacher's expression was priceless, but somehow he kept quiet and just handed her the knives.
That was when the trouble started.
Another Valkyrie, Sirah, I remember, took a disliking to us first day. I somehow annoyed her with my rituals, and she let me know of her annoyance "forcefully". Angela screamed herself hoarse at Sirah, who suddenly figured out that Angela was not someone to be pushed around... and she figured out that I was no pansy either, after I got up and punched her into a wall, rendering her unconscious.
I looked over at Angela for her reaction, but what I saw scared me. She looked happy. Mad happy. I couldn't believe that my Angela had the lunatic eyes, regardless if it was for a few seconds, or, as I was going to find out, for a few centuries.
After Sirah's drama, the other Valkyries stayed away from us. Whispered that "the blonde one is insane, and the black-haired one is stiffer than wood". I remember liking the comparison, and giving them a few choice gestures about it while Angela quietly giggled at my side.
I remember our first battle.
I chose someone named Jesse McCree, he was my first. A cowboy in the land of vikings. He died trying to find cover so he could shoot. I had watched him, certain that he would kill his enemies, but he fell to an arrow, it pierced his throat. I took him up, explained his shooting skills, explained his courage, but to a technicality, he fell short.
The other Valkyries had always hated me after Sirah's attempt, and were looking for something that would trip me. Apparently a technicality was all they could find, but they grasped it and said they'd find a way to strip me of my wings, strip me of my status, and "see how you can act like a queen in the land of dirt-boys". Yet Angela stepped up to my defense. Her choice was the archer that had slain Jesse.
Apparently the archer killed three others defending his leader, then died to an axe. There were no technicalities with her choice, so they couldn't touch her... and after her defense, they couldn't touch me.
But after that... the best way to describe it is that I drifted away from them, away from Jesse. I had let myself, other Valkyries, and Angela down by choosing this outlaw. Angela disagreed, saying that I had good instincts and that I shouldn't be ashamed, but I was. I wanted them away from me, wanted nothing to do with humans, but I continued on choosing, continued on saving. The hypocrisy wasn't noticeable, yet Angela picked up on it. She tried to help at first, but I refused any help and kept going.
I wanted to focus on the Valkyries, wanted to focus on my dream of leading, but she felt that I wasn't caring enough, that I was forgetting that humans had souls too.
I disagreed and refused to talk about it further, and thus I drifted away from her and started drifting to the other Valkyries.
Angela drifted away from me after that, I think she was frustrated that she couldn't do what she had always dreamed to do: heal, help. She certainly didn't want to take care of Sirah, and she was starting to not want to be around me as well. She cared more about the humans than any other Valkyrie, and gradually replaced me with a human called "Genji" who had been murdered by his own brother. She took to caring for him on Earth, visiting him daily, against all warnings and punishments.
Our first fight. The tension had risen to the point where she was endangering herself more than helping. I tried warning her, and she yelled that I was too harsh, too unforgiving to those in need and pain. Out of fury, I replied back that she felt too much. That she was too caring, and that would kill her and everyone else around her someday.
I remember she was crying, too angry to say what she wanted to say. I remember feeling stiff and cold; stiffer than wood, colder than ice. Truly, at that moment, our paths diverged.
Our days descended into fights, arguments, all the other Valkyries pointed and whispered, too amused to report our fights to someone. They started hiding our weapons, actually scared that we'd turn on each other and hurt ourselves. After a week of this hell, she left. I don't know how she did it, but she left. She took her weapons, but left behind her wings. Eventually she was presumed dead, or a traitor to us Valkyries. I remember being told to give up on her and forget about her. I remember replying that I would do neither of these things, but I would still climb among the ranks, regardless of my emotions; and that was good enough for them.
I pushed down the hurt, the pain, the rage, and turned it into energy for my fighting. After years of fighting, choosing, slaying, I was in charge. I was in charge of the Valkyries, more powerful than any of them, and they knew it. So they banded together, forced me to leave, forced me to drop my wings and fall down to the Earth with the humans that I so despised.
I remember the pain of it, how they tore off my wings gleefully, throwing them in a fire before my eyes. Ana tried standing up for me, but she was cast out too. I remember falling, eventually landing in a tree and falling to the ground. My legs were unsalvageable. My immortality was gone. Ana was given a more gentle landing, and so she tended to me.
This was around the human's 22nd century. Ana went straight to a band called Overwatch. I.... I rested. Trying to forget the feeling of my wings being ripped from my spine, trying to forget Angela, the lot of it. My skin darkened, my eyes went from blue to gold, and I somehow became shorter. Immortality apparently granted a few physical perks, and now those perks were gone. I went along with Ana a few times, posing as her teenaged daughter.
I remember seeing a blonde-haired doctor with the same name and being terrified. Ana claimed she was human through and through, but I knew better. Her mannerisms, her speech, everything about it screamed of the friend who left me, so I left as soon as it was plausible, and I went to Egypt. I made up my background, and thus joined Helix. They gave me my wings back, and even fixed my legs, making them a part of the suit.
I remember my first flight after a long time, how it felt on my face and body, feeling myself superior to the clouds and to the desert eagles below me. I loved the feeling, and I started loving the humans too. Not all of them were graceless pigs who rooted around in their own filth, and I tried to remember that my squad weren't the Valkyries who would readily kill me at the first sign of opportunity. It worked. I climbed and I climbed, eventually garnering a reputation for my rigidness and success in battle. Rockets were so much more fun than spears, and I revelled in defending my squad with them. I even joined Overwatch, the same group Ana was in.
I had to interact with Angela, and so I treated her with icey formality, the same way I treated everyone at Overwatch, except Ana and an endearing, chivalrous man named Reinhardt. With them, and them alone I dropped my barriers and laughed, showed them my flaws.
I felt safe for the first time in my life, and I loved it so. Even the UN's hate-speeches didn't put me down, I trusted Overwatch too much to believe it all, and for that short period of time, I had everything I ever wanted.
But it was not to last.
Overwatch had been disbanded, and the "rebound" as Winston so delicately put it, was going to Hel in a handbasket with a pretty pink bow. Country after country disowned us and put up posters.
The Junkers were more loved than Overwatch, that fact alone should say how much trouble we were in.
It didn't work. They all left the base. Angela did not show up, and Ana struggled with helping in the battle, as age started affecting her aim and steadiness. Eventually, I too left the base, left Reinhardt and Ana behind, and went back to Helix. I worked with Vishkar, helping defend their bases and creations, and eventually worked with Satya Vaswani; a kindred spirit who also despised imperfection. But her blind loyalty eventually disgusted me and I quit working for Vishkar, and I took a leave of absence from Helix.
I went to Eichenwalde, wanting to see the place where Reinhardt had made himself known, and explored the woods, explored the ruins. The locals were kind and helpful in giving me food and directions, they weren't even put-off by my metal legs, so like an omnic's.
I remember the first approach.
The first deal.
I was sitting on a log, eating a piece of nut-bread the locals had given me, when I heard a few noises, unlike any animal I've heard. I stood up, holding my Valkyrie spear, assumed a defensive position, and a character stepped in. She had a long, black cloack, she looked deformed, judging by how clumped the cloack looked around her shoulders and back.
She laughed, the noise harsh and playful, "What, you don't remember me, Fareeha?" The cloack slid back to reveal *her* face, but not her's at all. Her eyes were a dirty-yellow, her hair black as night, and her outfit... I remember thinking how horrified *my* Angela would be at this appearence, so clearly made to inspire fear and anxiety. She had a *tail*, she had *horns*, and she still had her wings: instead of a regal gold/silver, they were a harsh red/yellow, the tips sharp enough to impale; she looked like the female equivalent of the Devil himself from Christianity, and she was nothing like my friend.
I narrowed my eyes, tried to make a threatening move, but she whipped forward, clutched my face in her hand, and just stared at me. I remember being too shocked to move, too terrified of this monster to try and do anything, my training deserted. Angela laughed at my expressions, "Now now Faree, I have a proposition for you!" She pouted, almost like when she was offered a sword instead of a knife. "You give me your soul, and I'll ensure you do things that are... somewhat good! They'll kill the bad people, I can assure you of that." Her voice was smooth as honey, and ten times more poisonous. I wanted to stab her just for using my nickname.
I had narrowed my eyes, feeling pissed off. "Go back to Hel where you belong, serpent." I hissed, I felt power flood back into my joints again along with the anger. I grabbed my spear and made a thrusting motion towards...
Nothing.
She had gone. I was shocked out of my senses, I just stayed right where I was standing, staring at the place where my Angela had been.. It was several hours before I started moving. Little motions at first, rolling my eyes, twitching my fingers, trying to ignore how painful it felt, until I felt safe enough to finally start walking back to the town.
That wouldn't be the first time she visited me.
I remember, throughout the last year of my life, going through the motions, waiting for *something* to happen out of the ordinary so I could get out of this numbness. I went back to Helix, I visited Ana and Reinhardt, and rebuffed that she-serpent whenever she popped up.
I denied her three times.
Each time the paralysis lasting longer and longer, until it'd be over a day and I couldn't muster the will to move.
The fourth time was the last.
The fourth time marked the end of my life.
I was sitting in my chair, idly turning the spear over and over again in my hands, revelling in the comfort of cold steel, when I felt her presence again. She walked towards the chair, and put her hands on my shoulders. Her hands, instead of red/black, were purple/white. I shuddered, dreading the paralysis that was to come. "Faree, why resist it? You must realize there's nothing truly here for you... except moi." She kissed the top of my head. "I have friend, y'know. An Oni, a Butcherer, a Dragon... you wouldn't be alone. You can help me collect a Vampire, a Cult-leader... I especially want my Grim Reaper to complete the set... but I need your help." She cooed, idly playing with my hair as I stared straight ahead, feeling trapped.
I sighed, looking down at the spear in my lap, staring at the words that held my name, the date of my graduation, the promise I made to myself that I would always do something to help others... now I can't. I can't move without her, I can't seem to exist without her. Everything seems hopeless. Who else would help, would understand? Who would even care? I threw the spear into the wall, the head travelling through the layers until it stopped, unable to travel anymore, just like myself. I turned around, glaring at the Devil. "I consent to your terms. I will help people. I will have nothing more of this paralysi-"
She kissed me.
She *kissed* me.
After a moment, she pulled back, grinning madly. "The deal is done! You are my Possessed. You are mine now." Her hand trailed down my face, then down to my heart.
Then I felt nothing more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Valkyrie and a traitor sat across from each other. The traitor had purple armor, light purple running through it. Her skin was pale grey, her eyes milky white.
Valkyrie leaned forward, "....interesting story, traitor. But why would you do this? Kill all those people just for an Imp? A traitor? You were one of us-"
Possessed slammed the table with her head and glared at the Valkyrie. "And you all tried to kill me. I had nothing left when you tore my wings, tore my team away, tore me apart. Nothing would've helped and nobody would've helped."
Possessed smiled, her teeth pearly white against the tombstone-grey of her skin. "She will come for me. They will come for me. And when they do, you will all be torn apart. All will die, all will fall."</p>