Corrine stood back, the shadows cloying around her as she rested against the wall of the dark laboratory, her gaze fixed intently ahead at the shattered form of Elohim as the technicians went about their tasks, moving like worker ants, each mindful of their own charge… and each scrutinised by her.  The room flared with arcing energy generated by the pulsating orb that hovered above her body… the air crackled at its touch as the energy fed directly through her.<br/><br/>She couldn’t take her eyes from that of Elohim…. She knew pain, she knew it in all its forms…and although there was no sound coming from the maiden, she ‘recognised’ the ‘look’ of her… she, almost, desperately reached out with her mind, searching out the glittering void that resided within the frame of metal … hoping, unrealistically, to be able to draw her pain and feed it into herself… her eyes pooled with wetness and flickered shut…<br/><br/><em> She opened her eyes…The vision of the ancient flickered in her minds eye… the shackles that bound her at the top of the Ziggurat hung limply from her wrists… Corrine said nothing for a moment, her eyes fixed against the alter that sat on top of the ziggurat.  The skies were wreathed in biblical flame and the world beneath her feet seared and steamed, the air crackled as the ancient walked towards her…<br/><br/>“She will return… she is too important….”<br/><br/>The ancient sneered delicately at her… “Important? To the cause of purging the wretched dregs of this world… or to you?” <br/><br/>Corrine’s eyes flicked toward the Mayan… the answer clear by their look…</em><br/><br/>Her finger rose to her cheek and softly brushed across the line, tracing the same delicate pattern that Elohim had in those last lingering moments… her finger moved across to her lips, they still tingled from the delicate touch of the mechanical angel’s own.  This image kept turning over in her mind; that these could be the last actions that burnt into her mind, the thoughts kept turning over and over… crushing any sense of perspective from her...<br/><br/>Of course she knew that at the very worst her body could be rebuilt, and that ‘Elohim’ could be restored by use of the gift that she had bestowed on Corrine, and that she kept hidden beyond reach… but… it didn’t make the pain any easier to bear as she stood and watched the black coated technicians hurry about their work.  There words having transcended into deep ritual…<br/><br/><em>“…and if she doesn’t?  What then Corrine… what awaits you but the touch of fate.  It has already started child… take a look” the ancient motioned with her head to a carved stone trough, it was filled with a thick rich red soup of blood.  <br/><br/>Corrine walked across to it and peered within… at first she was unsure what she was supposed to see, all that lay before her was her reflection, but that was it, her reflection… on each cheek lay the feathered touch of quicksilver, but it was her eyes that drew her gaze… the piercing blue of her eyes had cracked, beneath it lay faint streams of red that pulsed slowly… with a gasp she lifted her gaze to the ancient.</em><br/><br/>She was shaken from her daze by the resounding voice of the technician as he spoke….“Just in time too, This body will survive...” she was struck with a feeling that lurched her stomach and set her senses blazing.  Corrine stepped forward, her arm brushing one of the tec’s from her path, she looked down on the maiden… a soft smile played upon her face as her eyes drew solace from the rich gaze that fell across her… their dark arts had restored the dark angel to her glory...and more.<br/><br/>Set upon a tray sat the metal slug that they had extracted from her head, she picked it up and held it to her eyes, she felt a flicker run through her, but she was unable to understand or place it, but she silently<em>swore that her act of vengeance against who ever perpetrated this act would become a ‘dark legend’ </em>.  Quickly she slipped it into her pocket, that was something for another time, more important matters lay at hand.  A smile coursed across her face and she reached out with her fingers and gently brushed a few glittering golden strands from her cheek…<br/><br/>“Hello…. My love…”<br/>