As she slipped away skimming just above the surface of the putrid river, Lixi couldn't help but shake the feeling that things had been much more than they'd appeared. Cries and Screams of old men filled the air in what seemed to be a deadly brawl from down one street that she'd passed, and the faint hint of brimstone on the air was an all to clear sign of the turmoil she feared was coming. The half helled had long known the day would come when the next great war would give them the chance to again choose a side. Many of her kind now sought to bring this about, hoping to gain repentance or revenge. Lixi on the other hand, had always been content to step aside. "Not my battle" she thought to herself as she continued stealthily away from the city. "Who'm I kidding. Everyone keeps making it my fight anyway. But how do you choose a side when you think they're both wrong..."

Suddenly a faint thread of energy caught her attention, causing her to stop mid flight. She arched her back bringing her form back around toward the shore, and hit the side embankment of the river lightly, grasping the edge of a river walks hand rail with one hand. That had been an all to familiar presence... but why?

She hung there for a long moment trying to catch it again, but found nothing but the foreboding quiver of the two sides beginning to ready themselves for war. Why they'd all seemed drawn to this city was beyond her, but hey, she'd felt the need to be here a few weeks ago herself, so who was she to question why this forgotten steel workers pitt in the mid-eastern sea board of the US was so important suddenly. Two competing compulsions now tore at her judgment. Her reason and logic told her that far from here was where she needed to be, and fast, but her intuition seemed to be pulling her back to the city. Perhaps it was the curiosity of who that familiar essence was, or the fact that it felt like one of her own kind, someone she'd known, perhaps someone she'd been near in the centuries since the fall, or perhaps it was nothing but a trick. She was confident that there was no one close enough by to get to her very quickly, so she decided to test the waters, and let herself be known, which was something she never did.

"Oh well, seems like this place is about to become a clusterfck for all of us anyway, may as well open things up a little, try to catch a glimpse of anybody's hand" With a quick flutter she shot up into the air. She held her breath, feeling the growing tension of the next lightening strike. Her deep red hair began to float out around her body as she did her best to draw the energy in from the gathering strike, pooling as much of it as she could. In the instant before the burst of lightening came down through her she turned to face the heavens. "Do you even still remember us down here?" she pondered "Do you remember when you used to love us, and call us your children along side these pathetic mortals? Or have we truly become nothing more than vermin to be hunted for sport by your children and damned alike?" As though answering her the burst of energy coursed down through her, time slowed for Lixi as she felt every particle of the weekend form reverberating from the sheer energy of the heavens. She did her best to direct it to the roof tops of the highest buildings, though in this stripped down state the control was barely capable. She felt the stream of energy make contact with the 4 tallest, then braced herself for the backlash as the flash bounced back up to the clouds. The flash tore through her body, and caused her black wings to coarse white with its energy, lighting her up like a beacon in the sky for a brief second even after the flash had dissipated into the clouds. Her wings now fluttered limply along her sides as she plummeted head first toward the putrid river. In the brief moment before her body broke the surface of the disgusting water, she pondered how shocked she was that she'd retained any consciousness at all after that... then drifted into the thought of how, much though she hated to admit it, she'd always enjoyed falling.