Gabriella

One slept for a month, and during all of that time, Gabriella watched over her and brought her food. One awoke in the safety of a cave, and Gabriella engaged her in conversation again. One’s desire to grow stronger and eventually overcome Zero touched Gabriella, and she decided she would give the intoner a lift. One asked her for her name, and Gabriella, prideful, chastised her for her question. Dragons do not readily give their names. In the same breath, however, she let her name slip. Eventually all of the Intoners would come to know her name.

Gabriella, officially a part of the Intoners’ group, flew the five girls and their “ally” Partition to Cathedral City. One believed they would find great power beyond the Mercurius Gate, a large seal that locked away a mysterious being called the Black Flower. The Intoners arrived only to discover three lords guarding the entrance. They had already killed one lord, whose abhorrent behavior disgusted the five girls, but these lords would not be so easily caught. Gabriella was crushed beneath the abandoned city’s rubble as the lords proceeded to slaughter sisters Two, Three, Four and Five. One, struggling to stay alive, unleashed her power of song, and opened the gate.
When Gabriella finally emerged, she discovered that the four sisters were in the hands of the Black Flower, and in pieces. She swiftly moved to One’s side and yelled at her to snap out of it, but the Black Flower surrounded One in its dark magic. In an effort to free her, Gabriella began striking at the black mass with her claws. Meanwhile, the Black Flower healed the previously deceased Intoners. Following this, the girls released their songs and summoned forth monsters to destroy the lords. All three lords died.

The Black Flower’s magic around One eventually blossomed into a small flower, revealing her. The flower’s petals suddenly latched onto Gabriella and began pulling her toward the center. Simultaneously, swords of light pierced her throughout her body. A dragon through and through, she continued to yell and berate One for letting this happen, and letting her sisters down. One last roar at One to wake up roused the intoner, and they were both freed from the Black Flower’s control. The Black Flower, with its continued control over the other Intoners, gathered up its power and bloomed completely into a large flower in the sky. Zero, upon the dragon Michael, swooped in and obliterated the flower, but the four sisters survived.

Gabriella took to the sky to face Michael while One and Zero traded blows on the ground. Michael, whose power outclassed Gabriella’s, easily fended her off. The sudden appearance of an old enemy interrupted their fight, prompting the two dragons to observe and eventually join the fight. The enemy, Bartas, overpowered both dragons and Intoners, but One never succumbed. Bartas cornered her, but before he could strike, Gabriella rushed him. Bartas proved to be too quick for her, and hacked off one of her wings with no strain.

Faced with an enemy too strong to beat, Gabriella threw caution to the wind and summoned dark power of her own. She began to transform from a dragon into a daemon, a monster that only knows destruction and death. In her partially transformed state, she blew Bartas away, then turned her attacks on the survivors. In her mindlessness, she trapped One beneath one of her feet and readied the final blow. But One had a plan of her own; in tears, One summoned her soul and combined it with Gabriella’s, forming a pact that then reversed her daemon transformation. The pair then collapsed.

When they next woke up, they were greeted by Two, Three, Four and Five. The four Intoners, with Gabriella by their sides, take up disciples that were created during the Black Flower debacle. Unlike her sisters, One was left with no disciple. Instead she took one of her ribs and created her brother, also named One, without anyone knowing. She sprung this on Gabriella suddenly, but only because the dragon was waiting to escort them through the Land of Forests. The five sisters became rulers of their own lands. One made Cathedral City her capitol, and took it upon herself to help her sisters by sending Gabriella out to aid each sister. Begrudgingly, Gabriella helped each one before returning to Cathedral City.

Despite their best efforts, Zero and Michael still proved too powerful for the Intoners. Gabriella again attempted the daemon transformation, and this time One allowed it. Gabriella then became Gabriel, a mindless beast with loyalty only to One. With his incomprehensible power, Gabriel killed Michael and gravely wounded Zero, who fled. From that point forward, Gabriel lived the rest of his days waiting for One’s summons. No matter what the ending, Gabriel always dies; as her pact beast, he would die when she died. For the sake of a canon point, Gabriella will be from the third branch, where One summons him to attack Zero and Mikhail. Gabriel and Mikhail die from each other’s attacks, and afterward, One falls to Zero. Without a dragon to kill her, Zero stumbles away from the scene, vomiting.

Her confidence could get the better of her; in her first face-off with Bartas, he easily grabbed her foot and threw her into the ground. She thought she could overcome any obstacle and this resulted in a myriad of wounds in several separate occasions. Despite how easily she was goaded into a fight, Gabriella could tell mid-fight when she had no hope of winning. She understood the importance of a tactical retreat. Her self-awareness was what ultimately saved One the first time, though she ignored her flight response when One refused to leave her sisters to the Black Flower.

Along with her confidence came a snappy and demanding personality. Gabriella hated to be kept waiting; she made her discontent known when One showed up later than the dragon had anticipated. Brother One's quiet exuberance led him to repeat himself to her multiple times, and after the fourth time, Gabriella snapped and asked sister One if she could yell at him or hit him to make him stop. She couldn't stand forced emotions which is why she didn't enjoy Four's company, and she disliked the naïve, emotional reactions of Two. She preferred to avoid creepy people like Three, and was disgusted by outwardly perverted behaviors a la Five. She seemed to best like well-rounded people like One, though One's gradual evolution into a straight-laced person rubbed her the wrong way too.

Gabriella had something smart to say to everyone when they were being, in her mind, ridiculously. Even when they weren't, she still had something smart to say. She liked to make jokes, and spoke in a way not unlike today's younger generations. In one canon setting she cracked a joke, then followed it up with, "Zing!" In another, she saidto One, "Girl, you are crazy. Just sayin'." She was blunt in her speech and at times very insulting. Dito even once called her a sassy grandma. While she had a big mouth and routinely used it to complain and berate others, the one thing she would never willingly share is her name. One only knew it because Gabriella stupidly spilled the beans, and the Intoners knew because One told them. If this annoyed Gabriella, it was never mentioned. She most likely realized their knowledge was her fault.

One was the most important person in Gabriella's life. Not only had they fought together, but Gabriella was willing to throw away her mind to protect One. In turn, One stopped her first transformation. Where her sisters were foolish, crazy and at times completely appalling, to Gabriella, One is the opposite. She enjoyed and also preferred One's company to the other girls', but did help them when One ordered it. Above all else, what Gabriella wanted to see most was One's smile. She missed when they were happy together, and constantly worried for her safety. She was One's confidante and loyal friend, and in death she will remain the same.

Dragons are able to breathe fire, but also launch fireballs. Gabriella can do these things both in the air and on the ground. She is just as dangerous in close combat, taking advantage of her size and strength to crush enemies flat, and whip them with her tail. She routinely takes to the air then dives, driving her foes into the ground. Intoners can actually bolster her strength through their power of song. By unleashing their power while on her back, Gabriella glows bright and experiences an increase in strength and speed. She is already strong on her own, but the Intoners' powers beef her up.

As Gabriel, her powers were much stronger and much more deadly. His much larger size meant he could take many more hits. He lost his ability to breathe fire in exchange for control of dark energy. He could shoot small blasts, and large, decimating ones. In exchange for brute strength, though, Gabriel lost his mind. Only his pact with One kept him in line. It’s unlikely that Gabriella will ever become a daemon again in Monad though.

Gabriel’s place of rest, when he was not called to battle, was unknown. A mindless monster, he cared little, if at all. He had only one desire: to destroy, to kill, until he was the last one standing. It was a need that settled itself into his otherwise empty mind at his point of creation. Gabriella, a mouthy and insulting dragon, had thrown herself away to become a daemon. She, a proud dragon, should have never come to this point. Michael berated her for trying it once, but he was dead now. All that remained of that day was Gabriella, now Gabriel, One and Zero.

He felt a sort of pull, a tug, a demand, before he answered the call, leaving everything and nothing behind to face a familiar foe.

The cathedral filled with bright lights, white, pink and red shining in midair as a summoning circle comes into view. The center blossomed into a flower, the symbol of the Intoners’ power, as One brought forth her daemon alone. Quickly Gabriel came into view, his head the first part of his body to emerge from the circle. His jaws parted, baring his large, sharp teeth at Zero and her companion, Mikhail. His head thrust forward, pulling out from the summoning circle his long throat, and then his pink-tipped, glowing wings. He pushed himself through the circle at an even pace, forcing Zero to step back toward Mikhail.

This was, after all, the daemon that took her arm and killed Michael. Large, sturdy and powerful, he again would not hesitate to blast the pair away. Energy gathered in Gabriel’s jaws, the light as bright as the circle he emerged from. Though eyeless, plate-like armor protecting his skull, he could still follow Zero’s every move. At such close range, his attack would certainly kill them.

Swearing, Zero hesitated. How could she defeat such an omnipotent being? Mikhail, typically a coward, called out to her. With one word, she ordered an attack on Gabriel, and Mikhail complied.

His energy fully charged, Gabriel unleashed a fatal breath at the same time that Mikhail blasted him with a powerful burst of fire. Mikhail’s hit was a killing blow. Gabriel, in his dying moments, again extended his neck and let go the most blood-curdling shriek. As a daemon, he had lost all thought and reason, but he still knew pain. His body, a dense powerhouse of skin and flesh, succumbed to the flames. His death was swift; he disintegrated, bits and pieces floating through the air until they faded out of existence. If he had still had a mind, what might have been his last thought? A crumbling lust to see Zero and Mikhail die? A roaring reflection on the pain bursting through his body? Maybe he thought of someone? Someone important?

One?

Whatever his last thought might have been, there was no need to worry. He was dead! Now Zero and Mikhail could—

Gabriel, even dead, had won.

His attack had cut the dragon nearly in half, fileting some of his skull and throat, and completely obliterating his wing. Mikhail stood, his mind and body stunned as he gushed blood. In the blink of an eye, he succumbed to his wounds and fell to the cathedral floor. Gabriel had succeeded in protecting his Intoner. He had grown strong, fought for One, and now, he had won. He had killed Mikhail.

Now, it was just Zero and One.

That being said, the Flower that gave One her powers is the dragons' enemy. One reason might be because the dragons chose to divert from their natural path of destruction, and the Flower's ultimate goal is total annihilation, the dragons naturally want to destroy it. Whatever the reason, Gabriella's past interaction with the Black Flower, and her relationship with One and her Flower-gifted powers, will certainly color her glitches. Along these same lines, she would be alarmed if she came under the control of another being, instead of making her own decisions.