Heaven Sent

Written by Rjjt456 :: [Sunday, 08 November 2020 00:00] Last updated by :: [Sunday, 08 November 2020 08:51]

Note: I want to thank Hikerangel, JonX, Larafan and Woodclaw for feedback, help and inspiration. Without your help and support, I’m not sure I could have completed this story! Especially thank you to Hiker for helping out with a proper name to the story.


It felt like she was floating, swaying in a current.

Like water…

Bright. It was definitely bright, but it wasn't painful. Not anymore at least. Quite the opposite in fact. It was soothing. Gentle, relaxing and invigorating at the same time.

She couldn’t tell how long she stayed that way. Minutes, hours or days… Time was floating.

A human form appeared with golden wings gently swaying behind it.

“Hello, Alexandra.”

Its voice had the same gentleness to it as the light and yet it had a contrast, something that made it stand out.

Things were clearing up…

****

“But why me?! I’m no one! Just a simple student that can’t keep a paying job if her life depended on it!” she asked, her voice trembling, barely able to believe what she had just heard; why she was given another chance.

The angel descended closer and moved its hand through her brown-ish hair.

“Would a simple student have gone out of their way to volunteer at animal shelters, visiting clinics where people beg for intimacy…” The angel’s hand stopped at her cheek, and gazed into her green-blue eyes. “Would a less righteous person have tried to save that old couple despite knowing what could happen to themselves?”

Alex swallowed, remembering her last moments. She could see what the angel was saying and, looking into its golden eyes, she was sure the angel was being sincere, but still, she couldn’t make herself accept it. The angel continued as it removed its hand.

“Believe it or not, Alex, but you are unique, and I have been allowed to offer you a gift… and the responsibility that follows it.”

That shocked Alex. Not knowing what to say she defaulted to snark.

“What kind of responsibility?”

The angel merely smiled at her.

“No, it isn’t that. Seeing as you have the potential to be a beacon of hope, I have been allowed to invest you with a portion of the divine,” the angel spoke as a shimmering ball of gold and white coalesced in its cupped hands. “That is the gift.”

Alex gulped as the angel continued.

“The responsibility is the power itself and…”

“…with great power comes great responsibility?” Alex blurted..

The angel beamed.

“Yes, something like that! We want you to be a force of positive change in the world. You see, we aren't allowed to do it ourselves. Not directly, that is.”

Alex's expression changed to a confused one.

“Who do you mean by we?”

The angel sighed as it began to explain.

“We are the guardians of this plane. This earth. Our job is keeping the balance and ensuring that life will always have the possibility to continue.”

The angel, seeing Alex’s continued confusion, kept on its explanation as it peered into the golden sphere in its hands.

“Due to how free will works, we cannot directly intervene on the mortal plane. We can guide and nudge people in a given direction, but that is it.”

The angel looked up to Alex again. “But we are allowed to give someone a slight portion of our powers, letting them intervene in our place.”

“Wait, why can’t you intervene? Doesn't this mean that God, the devil and everything else is real!?”

The angel merely looked amused. “Due to the nature of things, I’m not allowed to answer those questions one way or another. Because of free will… People need to have a choice. IF God existed and made his presence known, would there then even be a choice whether to believe in them or not?”

Alex wasn’t amused by the answers. She asked:

“So I'm to be some kind of angel on earth? Doing your work?”

The angel shook its head, “No, or rather, not exactly.” A smile grew on the angel’s face. ”We want you to be a force of inspiration. A beacon of hope…” Its face was practically lighting up the whole place. ”…Like those superheroes you like to read about.” The angel said as it stretched its hands out, inviting Alex to take the sphere.

****

It had been a long day at the shelter. While there usually weren’t that many people that would arrive with strays that needed care and a new home, today they had just. Kept. Coming.

Stray after stray, one more scared and full of fear than the last. The straw that finally broke the camel's back was when Alex saw a labrador with signs of it having been bitten and neglected.

Alex was used to the misery that the work entailed but after seeing that? She couldn’t continue for that day.

Alex excused herself and ran to the bathroom, crying.

It had become a recurring thing in her life lately: she saw misery everywhere, and yet… She still went out and tried to help. Tried to comfort the old lady whom’s children couldn’t make time for her. The dogs and cats that needed food, shelter and love so they could learn to trust again.

----

She had barely held herself together as she left the shelter for the day. They had made some progress on the lap but it would take time before it would truly trust anyone of them.

Shaking the vision of the dog out of her head, Alex walked toward the park that neighbored the bridge.

It was dark at this time but that had the benefit of meaning that the park was empty. That was good, that meant that Alex could think without having to pay attention to who could be watching her.

The air was cold, blowing slowly, making the trees slightly sway. Alex closed her jacket a bit more as the cold made its presence felt.

Looking at the trees, she couldn’t help but let her eyes wander across the skyline, ending at the bridge that pointed towards the starry sky.

Looking up, Alex began to fantasize about how the city would look from above. What would it be like to fly like one of the superheroes she knew from her old comic books?

Alex snorted over the thought. It was funny in a way, since it was her comic book idols that had inspired her to do all these things: volunteering at shelter, staying with elders that needed company. She wanted to make a difference, to do the right thing… She just never knew it would get so hard to bear at times…

Without thinking about it, she began to walk across the bridge. Cars were passing by now and then but Alex didn’t really pay them any attention. Though she did notice the old couple that was about to cross the road. She was about to turn away when she noticed the lights. The lights of a big truck closing in on the couple.

Alex’s mind whirled. She didn’t know what to do and yet… She dashed as fast as she could, her heart hammering.

She managed to reach them in time. She pushed. She didn’t have time to be gentle… Too late did she realize that she also didn’t have time to get away as the light entered her vision.

The impact hurt. The cold water hurt even more.

The feeling of trying to claw for air? She didn’t remember that as she slowly sank deeper into the river beneath.

****

I broke through the water, quickly rising further into the air until I was high above the river that should have served as my grave. Above the city I have called home.

I looked down upon myself: A white and gold suit, clinging close to my now-enhanced body. My new wings quickly changed into a proper cape.

A smile formed on my lips as I thought back to my transformation…

----

Alex hesitantly reached for the sphere in the angel's hands. She could feel the power emanating from it, making her momentarily stop. This kind of power wasn’t meant for everyone. Could she truly live up to the angels expectations? They certainly thought soo…

Steading herself, she sighed and grabbed the sphere.

Warmth. Light. Hope.

It enveloped her. Became a part of her. It changed her.

The fire licked its way up her body, enhancing it, developing it.

It was like the touch of an intimate lover, one who knows all the small delicate spots.

Alex’s muscles swelled as they became toned and defined. Her waist thinned as her hips expanded, granting her an hourglass figure many would envy.

Her breasts, which had been modest in size, expanded, filling out her clothes to the point of tearing them. The fire continued caressing her, making her tense again and again as she felt herself needing release.

Her clothes were slowly burning away as her body was transformed, only to be replaced by something else. A white form fitting suit, which did nothing to hide all her new curves.

While she was musing on her costume, she could feel something… From her back she could feel a building pressure that kept rising as her transformation progressed.

As she thought that she couldn’t contain it anymore, it was released in an explosion of light:

Wings: Bright white wings sprouted from her back, glorious and majestic in nature.

“Those wings will be proof that you are one among us,” the angel said, having watched the whole transformation unfurling.

Floating slightly above the ground, Alex admired herself: she was sexy beyond compare. Long, slender legs, an impossibly tiny waist and gravity-defying breasts. She quickly focused back on her wings. Despite only having them for a few moments, they already felt so natural to use. She felt a strange sensation that she gently tucked on in her mind and in a moment her wings changed into a long white cape.

Alex looked at the angel with a look that conveyed ‘are you serious’ as she took hold of the cape, studying its intricate white and gold design.

“As I said, we wanted you to be a beacon of hope for humanity and we thought that the best way to achieve that is through a ‘superhero’’ instead of an army of divine angels showing the way,” the angel explained, though Alex was still quite distracted by her new self.

“I… I can hardly believe it! I’m a freaking superhero now!” Alex shouted, flying around, stretching her now-unfolded wings. Loops, dives and everything in between. It was easy to do all the maneuvers, it was like she had been born to fly!

“Alexandra…” the angel began. “We bestow upon you this gift; a small piece of the divine which bears with it a responsibility.”

Alex floated down to the ground, folding her wings behind her, as she listened to the angel.

“You will be a guardian of this earth, a beacon of hope…” the angel winked, “… An angel for those in need.”

Alex groaned slightly at the angel's attempt at being funny.

“We give you the name Aurora. As the dawn rises, you will be the beacon that will guide mankind to a better future.”

The angel lighted up for a moment, blinding Alex for a single moment as reality began to sink in: She had agreed to this. To be a savior. To be a hero…

“I… I will try not to fail you. All of you” she said, slowly looking around her, seeing all the angels that had gathered around her. “I will try to do my best and show that I’m worthy of your trust!”

“We know you will… Aurora.” A choir of voices returned to Alex, now Aurora.

“Now, shouldn’t you hurry a bit?” the angel said from its fading position behind Alex.

“The sunrise is approaching, and last we checked, you were lying on the bottom of the river” the angel said as it faded away, leaving Alex alone.

Flapping her wings, Alex set off with an incredible speed upwards, breaking through the ceiling in seconds as she left the river behind her…

----

Rocketing through the surface, Aurora was suddenly dry and floating above the city. Alex could see the sun about to rise. Her smile hadn’t faded during her reminiscing but looking out over the ocean as the horizon slowly changed its dark, cold colors for the warm and hopeful red and golden colors of the sun.

“I suppose it is fitting… A rebirth” Alex mused, surveying the vast city below that she knew was now hers to protect, its skyscrapers reaching towards the heavens that had sent her, glittering in the emerging light from the sunrise. She might still be the young woman that was born Alexandra. “But now?” she thought as she rotated in the air and began to fly closer to the city.

Alex smiled in quiet satisfaction as she felt the wind ripple through her wings as she unfurled them, the warmth of the sun tingling her body, filling her with a sense of confidence. The world would soon meet it’s new heroine: Aurora.