Prologue:

        His term had only just begun when the war started.

Fredrick Marshe, the fifty-third president of the United States of America, had been elected because of his twenty-nine years of experience in diplomatic relations. His sole purpose was to prevent a world war following the attacks of an army of demons sealed within the moon’s core. Now, he was only two years into his term and for the past few months there were talks on whether citizens should be evacuated onto other planetary colonies or if they should remain on Earth and stay inside nuclear missile shelters. While the White House called for its citizens to remain cautious and hopeful of a positive outcome, the entire building itself had been modified to protect against nuclear missiles or biochemical weaponry.

The world stood on the brink of destruction and it was only a matter of time before it ended. And as long as he was the current president, Marshe was in charge of containing and preventing the destruction for as long as he could.  Or at least find a way to help calm the masses.

“Are the Elves still helping us?” Marshe asked, as his aides were frantically running around the Oval Offices making phone calls.

“Yes sir. They’re doing all they can to help calm citizens with their...er...magic. They’ve managed to stop over thirty revolts across the country,” said one of the aides.

“That’s pleasant. At least some of us will have some peace before we all blow up,” sighing, the president looked outside his window. “Or whatever it is that crazy Russian scientist has intended for us.” He began to laugh as he saw snow falling. Filters and domes created to regulate temperature and climate obviously weren’t working due to the war; it was late summer and already there was snow collecting on the grounds of the White House.

“Mr. President,” an aide said next to him. Half-heartedly, Marshe turned towards the aide.

Jesus, he thought they’ve been working for me for all this time, but I don’t even know half of their names.

“We’re getting reports that the snow you see is actually soot. Mt. Helena is erupting an-”

“So the world ends in fire after all,” Marshe said mostly to himself.

“Sir…?”

“You and the others should leave now, everyone else has already left. Heck, I think even Congress agreed that they should all stop fighting and go home now.”

“I’m sorry Mr. President. Everyone here decided to stay here with you.”

“Thank you…”

The widespread panic caused by the impending nuclear crisis had caused many of the nation’s security agents to jump ship, leaving the country vulnerable to attack. President Marshe took small comfort knowing that his enemy’s personnel had already abandoned him.

        

Dycer Khan was once a no-name Russian scientist who became ruler of the entire Eastern Hemisphere in a matter of days. Many years ago, he was passed over for moon colonization plans in favor of an American colleague, Doctor Richard Adams. Khan claimed that his plans were stolen and went off the grid for years. Years after the failed moon colonization plans and the subsequent demon invasion that occurred because of it, he reemerged claiming that he had created geothermal bombs throughout the world using money he made building nuclear bombs for countries. No one took him seriously until he set off the bombs under China and destroyed the entire country in a day. Khan had demonstrated his power by neatly blowing up an entire country without harming small neighboring countries around it. His possession of this technology found him many allies and forced the remainder of the East to side with him in fear that their country would be next. Now, minutes before the world ended, those allies had abandoned Khan and demanded he stop his plans.

        

A large rumble shook the entire White House from underneath. It ended within seconds and nothing was really damaged or shaken up by the tremor. However it had a greater impact on every person in the office. Shaking, Marshe quickly sat in his chair in the oval office. He rummaged through the papers sprawled out on his desk, sweating, trying to find an answer. Eventually he gave up. Angry and tired, he stood up quickly and turned to look out the large, now soot-covered windows behind him. It felt that there was no way that he’d live long enough to carry out his term, or if he did he doubted that there would even be a country to preside over. Immediately after the small temor, his aides had been reporting over twenty attacks in numerous states. From his window, he could see some smoke rising from the results of those attacks. Exhausted, he sat back down and placed his head in his hands.

“Mr. President.”

Mark Caster, the current Chief of the Secret Service, ran into the room holding a pile of papers under his arm. As he approached the President’s desk he stopped, adjusted his suit, and briskly walked past his president. Marshe, still with his head in his hands, did not notice Caster walk by him to look out the window. Nor did he look up when Caster began to rustle through his pile of papers.

        

“Ahem… President Marshe,” he asked, his voice raspy as though he had been shouting the entire day. At this Marshe looked up toward him. "Mr. President, I’m afraid the situation grows worse by the second. I don’t mean to make your life harder but I have more bad news..." Caster continued, looking down at the president. A slight pang of guilt went through Caster as he saw Marshe. It seemed as though in the last two hours since he saw the president, Marshe had aged another thirty years.

        "Caster, how can there be more bad news? We sent the last of our strongest fleet to kill any country still allied with Khan. Those that we killed were supposed to have enough explosives to wipe out whatever Khan’s geothermal bombs did not. I just read the report that they succeeded, but they’ve all died in the process. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re about to be blown up by a crazy scientist with a stupid fake name," he picked up a pen from his desk and began to fiddle with it as he turned his chair around to look out at the windows behind him. "What can be worse than this?"

        

"We have word that most of what used to be Europe and the Middle East has been completely wiped out but some countries seem to have escaped the blast.  We’ve sent some troops to the last known locations of Khan to look for remains, but none have been found yet. We think that he may have relocated underground, but it’s hard to tell how deep he may have gone. However, the true threat lies within our own country. We’ve located drones all around the United States. We were only able to catch one by mistake and from there, we’ve triangulated coordinates of other drones and put them on a radar. Turns out, our entire country is surrounded by drones that aren’t even Dycer Khan’s. It looks like they’re not doing anything for now since we took out their countries and hopefully whoever’s been controlling them." Caster paused for a long moment. When he began again, he seemed defeated as though the thought of vocalizing whatever it was that was on his mind made it more real. “The worse news is that Dycer developed a way to cloak an entire underground lab beneath the world. A passageway was found a couple of hours ago in the U.S and apparently it seems to connect to other labs spread out across the U.S. and the East. We sent a squad in to investigate... They found geothermal bombs. The first bomb set off wiped out Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and a large part of Texas. That earthquake we felt earlier was the second geothermal explosion, it blew apart all of California and Nevada, as well as some of Arizona. We are getting reports though saying that the bombs went off prematurely because of the bomb squad trying to deactivate it. We’ve sent word to other squads telling them to leave the bombs alone until our scientists can neutralize the geothermal energy the bombs use and the tech crew can hack the security protecting it.”

        "Tell me." All hope had been lost and Marshe was at his wits end trying to find any possible alternative to the inevitable. "We’ve lost everything, haven’t we? Even the Elves can’t stop this with their magic?"

        Mark Caster replied in a somber tone, "The Elves depleted most of their magic sealing the demons. No one could have expected any of this to have escalated this far. We have known for a long time that he’s been working on geothermal technology, but no one took him seriously after Doctor Adams said he was harmless. It would appear he was a threat this entire time and he used our lack of concern towards him to plan this while we were battling those demons from the moon. The geothermal bombs that were set off may not be the last of them either.  Based on the initial reports concerning the underground labs, there may be more bombs, ready to bring down the entire world." At this, Marshe stood up. The last President of the United States placed his hands on the glass window before him and began to sob. Caster fought back tears as well. "It’s all over, sir."

        The President lifted his head and began to speak, but a large explosion outside interrupted him. The window he was staring out exploded and the impact sent him flying back. Pieces of glass decorated the oval office and everyone in it. Some of them fought to get to their feet, but another explosion knocked them back down. By the last explosion, everyone was already dead and the modified walls built to protect them had toppled around them like a sick joke.

        By comparison, the White House was intact after the barrage of explosives. Elsewhere volcanoes, tsunamis and hurricanes, and earthquakes wrecked and destroyed whatever little land remained. The survivors who lasted through the entire day of destruction would later remark that it was only through divine intervention that they were allowed to live. They saw their homes and buildings destroyed or disappear in a matter of seconds. All it took was a small rumble and then it was all gone.

 It was early the next day when the chaos finally ended. The few drones that remained flew haphazardly around before finally crashing down.

All was quiet. The silence hiding the fact that just mere hours before was the most brutal slaughter of mankind in recorded history.  Two golden figures flew across the landscape, their pure white wings stark against the muddy fog surrounding the world. Their piercing eyes scanned across the wasteland, penetrating deep beneath the rubble. They slowly descended as soon as they found what they were looking for.

A young woman laid sprawled over what was left of a stone wall from what used to be a home scattered around her. Her dirty blonde hair was littered with small rubble from the debris while her once pale face was dark with soot. Her arm had been cut right above her elbow from when the explosion had thrown her back into the wall, the blood from her wound slowly dripping all the way down towards her fingers. Despite her wounds, she looked peaceful. In another time and place, she could have probably just been asleep -- her haggard breathing, her disheveled appearance, and the murky wasteland was the only real indication that she was in the remains of a catastrophic event.

        Her eyelids fluttered before they finally opened. For a moment, her bright blue eyes stared at a sky that was unfamiliar and unwelcoming. A green haze was slowly creeping overhead, blocking the stark blue sky and the few remaining white clouds. She struggled to move herself upright, but her head began to spin and she fell back down. As the green haze passed over her, there was a sickening smell that made her throw up. It was a while after the haze had passed before she tried to move again. Using her remaining strength, she managed to pull herself into a sitting position, her legs sprawled out before her. Using her arms to drag herself to another rock she could rest her aching back on, she saw blood. It was a moment before she realized that the blood had come from her back and her arm. Instinctively, she let out a scream. Before she almost passed out from exhaustion, she heard a high pitched swoop and saw a small explosion further off in the distance.

        Shocked, she stared as the flames began to climb towards the sky. In a flash she began to remember the bombs, the attack, the battle of the West versus the East, and her family. Where was her husband?  Or the daughter that they had raised together? The woman began to cry, her tears washing the soot and ash from her face. Her heart grew heavy as she began to languish the fate of her daughter. Even without genetic modification that had become almost mandatory for every newborn, she was perfect in every sense of the word, inheriting her mother’s natural beauty and her father’s easy going attitude and intelligence. She would have smiled over the fond memory of her daughter’s birth if it weren’t for another swooping noise.        

        Tired, broken, and battered, she closed her eyes. Her family was missing, probably dead, and everyone and everything she had ever known was gone. She saw a bright light flash before her closed eyes and felt the ground tremor beneath her. In a few moments, it would be over and she would be able to escape the pain. At the very least she would spend her remaining moments reminiscing about her family.  “End this,” she muttered through her chapped and bleeding lips, “it is finally over.”  However, Death did not come to claim her.  

        "That is where you’re wrong child," a female voice answered, stern but gentle.

        Confused, the woman slowly opened her eyes again. Her eyes grew wider once she realized who had spoken. Before her stood two angels, one male and one female, both figures imposing with their golden armor and huge white wings as large as the woman lying on the ground. The female had a smooth and pensive face, the few strands of gray hair and the wrinkles around her eyes the only betrayal of her real age. The female angel’s sword and shield were as golden as the armor she wore and she carried them as confidently as she held herself.

        

Mesmerized by their appearance, she gathered the courage to ask them, "Have you come to take us all to Heaven?"

        

"Not quite," the male angel said quietly from behind the female angel. "We’ve come to save what’s left of your race."

The male angel silently loomed over the female angel. He was her opposite in every way imaginable. Where her long hair was black as night, his hair was short and golden like the sun. Where her presence demanded attention and commanded respect, his gave peace and offered serenity.

        "Save...?” She whispered, her voice fading. A sudden gust of wind passed by and the woman was left gasping for air.

        Suddenly alert, the female angel sheathed her weapons and brought her forearm up sideways. A small device popped out of her gauntlet that pointed itself directly at the woman, who began coughing up blood. "Simone Fair. Thirty-five years of age. Remaining relatives: husband and a daughter." The female angel looked around the woman, before finally looking at her male companion. "Heal her up. She is the one we were looking for."

        "We found her already?" The male angel said, shock betraying his professional attitude.  The female angel turned towards her companion with a displeased expression on her face. "The Imperator should be pleased, that took us a matter of minutes," he said as he quickly regained his composure.

        "The Imperator...?" Simone rasped before she began to cough up blood. The male Angel quickly knelt down beside her and put his hands around her neck. A golden light illuminated from his gentle touch and the blood blocking the passage of air in Simone’s throat vanished. Almost instantaneously, the pain that she had felt all over her body had disappeared and she began to feel rejuvenated as though she had just awoken from a long slumber.

        "You should be able to stand now," he said while offering a hand. Without hesitation, Simone gladly accepted it and got to her feet. With a renewed sense of vigor within her, Simone looked directly at the angels.

        "Who is this Imperator you keep talking about? And why were you looking for me?" The angels began to walk away from her into the wasteland. For angels, she thought as she began to jog after them, they’re not very patient.

        "I believe that the angel we call the Imperator would be a familiar term to you. The word ‘imperator’ is Latin for commander, emperor, or general. Easily enough, the Imperator is our commander,” The female angel said without glancing back towards Simone.

They’re not very angelic for that matter either Simone thought.

“We were given direct orders from the Imperator to locate and protect you. You’re very important to the future of this planet and the human race," the female angel continued.

        Important? Me? Why?

        

        “Where are you going?” Simone asked.

        “Where ever we need to be,” the male angel said.

“There’s only a finite number of us angels and there are still many things to be done. We cannot simply wait for your answer all day,” continued the female angel.

The three of them continued walking in silence while Simone began to contemplate her situation. The angels seemed to have a purifying presence.. The green haze that caused Simone to throw up before disappeared once the angels walked through it. Even the hard, brown ground seemed to become softer and greener wherever they walked. Simone had always heard stories of angels when she was a child, but she never expected them to be so… warrior-like. The way the two angels in front of her carried themselves were as though they were more comfortable with fighting than a simple escort mission.  In spite of this, the male angel seemed more uncomfortable and uneasy, as though he had never seen such destruction. But no matter how hard Simone thought, she couldn’t conceive what it was the angels wanted from her. If these angels can find me half buried in some rubble and save me from the brink of death, they can probably find my family. They’re angels. Whatever favor they want from me must be something only I can do. As of now though… They are my best chance of finding my family and surviving this disaster.

“Uh… Excuse me?” Simone began.

Surprised, both angels stopped and turned. “Is something the matter?” The male angel said.

“I decided that I’ll do whatever your Imperator wants as long as you find my husband and daughter.”

        Simone saw that the tenseness in the male angel lifted. He began to gently smile. "We have already found your husband. He is currently located in one of the camps our brethren have created for you humans. As soon as they’ve healed him, they will debrief him about what the Imperator wants from him. As for your daughter, we are still looking for her. We have reason to believe that she is still alive at the current moment."

        "I see," Simone didn’t know what else to say.

        "It wasn’t easy finding you and your husband you know,” the female angel said with a look of disgust on her face. “Your kind has really pushed the Imperator over the edge. Look at this mess. How do you think we’re going to fix this?”

“What ar--”

“Look Simone, maybe one day I will explain to you what fully happened, but all you need to know right now is that we did our best to save most of the world. The world has drastically changed in a few short days from what you remember and it’ll only get worse from here. We are not entirely sure what transpired after the bombs went off, but what we do know is that it is our duty to salvage as much of the world as we can.  All the lands you once knew have been forcibly pushed together. Unfortunately, while we have the power to reorganize and rebuild your world, we cannot repopulate your numbers. This is where you come in. You were born special, Simone Fair."

Simone speechlessly stared at the female angel. “The only reason why anyone would think I was special was because I had a natural birth. I’m no superhuman. I don’t understand, how does that make me special?”

        The female angel rolled her eyes as though she was looking for a sign from her Imperator. "It’s not about your genes. It’s about your cells. Some freak chance of mutation caused your cells to regenerate and reproduce at an accelerated rate. To a normal human, this means that you would have terminal cancer and you would die. You’re special because, without getting too much into an explanation of this, your body is somehow predisposed to regulating the growth and production of your cells. We can refine your body’s natural predisposition and make it so that you have complete control over your cells."

        "What good will enhancing my cells do?" Simone had a sickening feeling that the Angels wanted more from her than just becoming the mother of the new human race.

        "What the Imperator wants from you is more than just revival of your species,” began the male angel, “I can’t promise you that you will have a happy reunion with your husband and your daughter if we find her. In fact, you might want your family to believe you’re dead in order to spare them the pain. By enhancing your cells, you will become almost immortal. Short of a fatal injury, nothing will harm or kill you. You will never grow old. The Imperator has asked us to spare you the pain of childbirth because you will become the mother of humanity. You will not need a man to father your children because you will carry a child, each with their own unique genetic code, every year until the population has stabilized. In time, you will be known as the mother of Earth and all of the people of the world will know and love you. Your husband and daughter cannot share the same fate however. They can choose to live with you, but they will grow old. In time, your husband and daughter will die before you.” The male angel gave Simone a sad smile, “If it is any consolation to you, both angels and humans alike will owe you a great debt. Whatever favor you want from us, we can grant it so long as it is within our range of power.”

        Shocked, Simone collapsed onto the ground. Become the mother of the Earth? She sadly looked around her. The once bustling city where she used to live was nothing more than rubble and broken machinery. Animals that once seemed tame and docile now seemed more savage. She tried to find something -- anything -- that could be more than a remnant of the peaceful suburban life. Simone closed her eyes and tried to picture her old world. A world where her main concerns revolved around picking her daughter up from school and figuring out what to cook for dinner. For a moment, she almost believed in her imagination. Then she opened her eyes and saw a lizard eating what looked to be the remains of a human. Look at this. These are monsters. How can they expect me to be a part of this?  "The mother of Earth? There’s nothing left but despair and misery." Why would anyone want to be the mother of this?

        “Simone…” started the male angel, but Simone interrupted him.

        "As I promised, I will only do this if we find my family,” she said looking away from the angels.

        "That is where we are heading," the male angel smiled.

“I can’t guarantee anything, but I assure you that we have our best angels looking for your daughter.” The female angel continued.        

        "I understand... Thank you," Simone said.

        “No,” the female angel said with a grim expression on her face. “Do not thank us. Instead it should be us thanking you.”

        

        Without another word, the angels began to continue further into the wasteland, Simone slowly walking behind them. As they neared one of the refugee camps the other angels had made for the remaining humans, Simone began to regret her decision. Even if they did find her family, Simone was to become the savior and mother of humanity. I can’t possibly take care of an entire race. Even if they enhance my genes or whatever it is these angels plan on doing to me. I’m probably not even qualified for this. No. I know I’m not qualified for this. I’m not smart. I’ve never even been outside my hometown. These people are going to look up to me, and I can’t even teach them how to build a simple hologram transmission.

        

        “Look,” the male angel said pointing downwards onto a small camp illuminated by the wings of the angels inside the camp. Simone was so caught up in her thoughts she did not notice that they had climbed up a hill. “We’ve arrived.”

        “Hurry. They’re waiting for you,” the female angel said pointing towards another figure by the outskirts of the tents.

        Simone looked to where the male angel was pointing and saw two familiar figures. Her husband and her daughter were sitting together on the remains of a broken steel frame. For a brief moment, Simone felt comfort in knowing her family was safe and sound. Almost instantaneously, Simone realized why the Imperator had chosen her.  She quickly turned towards the angels. “Take me to your Imperator. I have to ask something of him.”

        

        

In the two years that followed since my rebirth as the Earth Mother, I’ve tried to create a new world order of peace. I’ve already birthed another daughter with another child on its way. With the help of the angels that saved me, I helped write laws for the remaining humans brought into the once small refugee camp, now a small village surrounded by a growing forest planted by the angels to protect us. Many of the survivors plan on leaving the village, but for the time being they’re stuck within the forest boundaries. Every night we hear the faint roars and howls of creatures. Most of us have come to ignore it while others have become fearful and begin to revere me as some sort of goddess because the monsters we hear never reach us. They never thank the angels because they are fearful of them. I am the only one who doesn’t fear them. I think it is because of the deal I made with the Imperator. Either way, it doesn’t help with my image because those that worship me as a goddess feel that I have control over the angels.  Hopefully, within another year or so those that want to leave can leave. There is some tension building between the people that see me as a god and the rest of the people. I can’t convince either party to stop their arguments and hopefully once the population begins to spread out, peace will return to our small village.

Hopefully.

The Angels are still slowly rebuilding the geography of the world, trying to heal most of the earth of any nuclear or geothermal energy that remained. It is strange, but they find no traces of geothermal energy in the ground. It was as if the scientist responsible for single handedly causing the destruction of the world didn’t actually have any physical means of causing it.

I wanted to bring back some of the technology that we once had, but almost all of the survivors refuse. They say that it was the technology that brought about the end of the world. I disagree. It was the people who wielded that technology that brought about the end of the world. I want to raise the children to use technology, not to become slaves of it. However it is in my best interest to go along with the whims of the people for now. After all, in a matter of years, they will die and I will continue living. Hopefully I will be able to teach these people.

Hopefully.