Ambellina

Ambellina was a Prise who belonged to the sisterhood of their fellowship. She was always outspoken, blunt, and passionate, even among the Prise. She was chosen from the sisterhood to watch over and guide The Crowing.

Appearance
As a Prise, Ambellina has the typical, uniformed appearance of one: pointed ears, blue skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Unlike a usual Prise, she does not have white wings, but rather messy stubs where her wings would be. She wears clothes, as well, since she is operating in the company of humans. She is slender.

Early History
Since Prise live long lives and are formed in sudden, fully formed manners, its difficult to say exactly when Ambellina came into existence in Bendelesh on Star IV. What we do know is that, at the time the Black Rainbow created a huge ominous sense among the Prise, Ambellina spoke, as she often did, bluntly to Paranoia about the direction they should take. She believed that it was a sign from God that he was angry with them for the way they'd stood by and let Wilhelm Ryan take control of Heaven's Fence. Many of the Prise due to the prophecy outlined in the Ghansgraad, believed God would punish them if they made the wrong move, so they deduced that the right move was to do nothing at all. Ambellina challenged this train of thought, even confronting the current Guardian of Prise, Paranoia, to get her to do something at this event. She even hit Paranoia, though she instantly felt horrible for doing so and apologized.

Paranoia forgave her, and relented that something did have to done. Though Ambellina believed this command would be the beginning of a big battle, but much to her chagrin, Paranoia decided instead to grant Dr. Leonard Hohenberger a creative spark to allow him to create a weapon that would take on Ryan for humanity. The Prise watched the events unfold, and ultimately two of the three KBI members (which were the weapons Hohenberger created) was actually captured by Ryan. The third member attempted to rescue them, and they even managed to blow up portions of Ryan's stronghold, House Atlantic. Ambellina decided, presumably on her own, to lead an outfit of Prise warriors to help with this destruction, disappearing when the stronghold crumbled down.

As The Watcher
As Ryan proceeded with his plans, the Prise and Ambellina remained watchful. Ultimately, they recognized that The Crowing was awakening and would need to be found and protected. It is, of course, Ambellina who is chosen for the task. In order to interfere in the affairs of man, she must fall—she mentally expelled her energy to burn her wings (and her hair as a result). Knowing she would be among man, she donned clothing and her sisters used their power to surround her in the light of the Keywork and transport her to the last big energy signature The Crowing gave off—The Kilgannon house in Valley Hills on Hetricus.

The Crowing was long gone, but a girl that was there seemed to have a connection to him, so she followed her. It was a good thing she did as sure enough, the girl was attacked by a monster. She defeated the beast after a tough battle and found a letter The Crowing had left the girl. Knowing his name was Claudio Kilgannon and that he wasn't coming back from the letter, she had also decided from the contents that she was going to have to track him some other way.

Finding The Crowing
She eventually tracked him down to Godder Damm on Shylos X through the use of his powers. She didn't immediately confront him, but watched over him from the shadows, fighting off more Onstantine Priests that Ryan sent to track him down and kill him. Finally in ripping one persistent one apart, their paths naturally crossed and she finally, properly introduced herself as his, The Crowing 's protector and guide. He immediately recoiled from this vision, but she continued to confront him, telling him how she gave up her sisters for him and demanding he show her respect for that alone.

She also immediately began training him in her own way. Choking him at one point, she reminded him that he could become insubstantial and remarked that he was rusty and had become distracted by human emotion. He retorted that she should excuse him for being human, to which she replied that he made it very hard to. Kilgannon attempted to convince her that his role was unnecessary since Ryan was captured already. Ambellina rolled her eyes and said, "The greatest threats never look like they present any; that's what makes them great." They made their way to Kilgannon's "home"—a little, cramped hovel underground. Ambellina told him that while her sisters have believed Ryan's threat was over, in being amongst the people of the Fence, her eyes had been opened to the truth of the world.

He taunted her, and she attacked him. It turned out to be a training exercise as she remarked that she didn't have to remind him this time to go insubstantial. Still annoyed, Kilgannon left to see what the cheering sound outside was about. Ambellina watched from the shadows, but they saw through the viewscreen that Ryan was executed. They left, Ambellina suddenly joining him, as he made his way to the garbage dump of a Red Army Interrogation Unit. He explained to her that no one survives their interrogation and he goes through the remains to find valuables. There, they found a figure that Ambellina called an IRO-bot. Kilgannon, amazed, claimed he'd never seen anything like it, but Ambellina corrects him; revealing that his parents were IRO-bots and that this being must also be connected to him. It was a sign, she claimed.

They argued, of course, and in the process of trying to get away from her but also becoming insubstantial, he became substantial, for even just a moment, with his arm still through her chest—instantly, she dropped to the ground. Afraid he'd killed her, he attempted to use his powers to bring her back, screaming a nickname for her—Lina. She suddenly clasped his month shut and warned him that if he didn't stop call her "Lina" she'd rip his lungs out. Sure enough his power brought her back and she went to work collecting all the parts of the IRO-bot in the dump. He finally agrees to embrace his powers if he can call her "Bell" to which she reluctantly agrees.

Escaping Shylos X
Sure enough, Ryan had returned from death and announced he was going to punish Shylos X, to which Ambellina muses that it must be because Ryan has heard from the Priests that the Crowing is there. She goes to inform Kilgannon as he works on the IRO-bot. He thinks she might be joking at first, but hears the cry of people trying to run from Narrows who have instantly invaded the planet. Ambellina left him to finish his project as she attempted to protect him. She was intercepted by Narrows unexpectedly though and saved by Al the Killer. Just as the pair was facing a whole hoard of more, a giant red entity came through to crush a bunch of them with Kilgannon right behind him. When he reached Ambellina and Al, he generated a shield and shared that the giant red entity was the IRO-bot whose name was Sizer. Al offered to get them off planet in his ship, but Kilgannon requested they make a pitstop to collect his old friend.

The boarded the Camper Velourium and made their way to Camp Si-Revody. Ambellina had a terrible feeling while being on board and Al explained that his ship used to be a slaver ship which is why it was so cheap. They descended on the Camp to see it was entirely empty. When they flew higher they saw that they had rounded up all the Stars to feed them to the Keywork. A Red Army aircraft attacked the Camper, so Sizer jumped out of the ship and onto the enemy ship. As he derailed the attack, Kilgannon phased out the side of the ship and began to climb the tower the Stars were being thrown off of. Throwing power around, Kilgannon bounced plasma shots back, blasted enemies, and phased through soldiers. Ambellina followed his lead and also joined the fight. Unfortunately, Ambellina was a bit too late in warning Kilgannon about where he's directing his attacks.

Kilgannon accidently blasted a group of soldiers in his friend's direction, accidentally pushing him off and into the Keywork. Ambellina saw him dive after the Star, which she knew would cause an explosion, so she ran to safety. Sure enough, the structure exploded. While the dust settled she found Sizer, now back to his human form though covered in blisters. She witnessed Kilgannon, covered in a shield and completely unharmed slowly make his way out of the rubble, lamenting the loss of Cecil. She reminds him that ultimately, Cecil's death should be blamed on Wilhelm Ryan, to which he resolves to get revenge. Back on the Camper Velourium and headed to House Atlantic to get said revenge, Ambellina explores the ship a bit, still feeling uneasy by the "bad energy" they discussed before. She stopped in front of a set of cold doors with a particularly strange feeling, and prying them open, discovered Al's truth: a dozen bodies in various stages of decomposition and mutilation, all white, fair haired women, on meat hooks. Al was immediately behind her and clasped the back of her neck, stinging her with a paralytic.

Attack on House Atlantic
He attempted to toy with her and threatened to rape her, but Kilgannon phased through the wall and attacked him. Al tried to use the stinging ring with the paralytic on Kilgannon, but the ring was only half as effective since it needed to recharge, and the fight continued out of the "meat locker." The must have made it to the control room because the flight path suddenly became erratic and she was thrown around. The ship crashed near House Atlantic before Ambellina had finally regain the majority of her functions again. She immediately joined the already ensuing battle, but kept an eye out for Al and fought off Onstantine Priests. She was eventually approached by Inferno Kilgannon followed by Sizer. They told her about the disappearance of the Prise and that they were retreating.

Shortly after, they met up with Kilgannon and Chase and subsequently retreated, just as Inferno ordered. She helped the exhausted Sizer to the Grail Arbor and told him that Inferno spoke well of him. The mobile House Atlantic nearly killed them all, but Kilgannon created a huge shield that absorbed and bounced the energy it threw at them back on it, destroying it. On the Arbor, Ambellina put Kilgannon through a bunch of training, trying to hone his powers and prepare him for the final confrontation against Ryan. Frustrated, Kilgannon stopped in the middle of one, and stormed out. She tried to reason with him, but he was he was too upset and trudged off to his room. Ambellina attempted to get council from Chase, the Vishual, in the mess hall but didn't come to any great conclusion. Their conversation was cut short short by a scream from Kilgannon that could be heard all the way where they were. Running to his room, they found him pinned to his wall with a screwdriver through his hand, his power blazing.

They got him down and his power receded, but when they questioned him, he couldn't be sure. Chase explained that it was his Crowing powers leaping forward. Kilgannon didn't really want to hear it, but she persisted. Ambellina tried to comfort him by appealing to his humanity, telling him he was the Fence's only hope. Kilgannon retorted that "hope" was the opposite of "ending life as we know it," to which Chase agreed, saying that the Ghansgraad is very clear. Ambellina poses the theory that perhaps the Main Prophecy didn't refer to the Prise in the line: "with you there to challenge me," but poses that perhaps it refers to the mages. She shares a piece of Prise lore that says it was the Prise who defeated the first Supreme Tri-Mage that tried to conquer the Fence and God didn't punish them. She explains that she believes in a time when the Prise were not afraid to act on their free will instead of paralyzed by the the riddle's warning. She reiterated that the Prise view the Crowing as a savior. Chase shot much of these sentiments down; saying none of them weren't entitled to reinterpret the Ghansgraad.

Visiting the Kilgannon House
Called to the bridge, Inferno shared that House Atlantic was already back up and running and that they were going to attack it immediately. It was obvious that the rebels weren't enthusiastic about this plan since they had just gotten their asses handed to them a few days ago. Kilgannon highlighted this truth and he and Inferno fought. Inferno ordered everyone off the bridge to speak with the younger man one-on-one. When their conversation had finished, the Arbor made a stop at Hetricus and Kilgannon asked Ambellina to come with him. They went to his childhood home, which had long since been boarded up and designated off limits by the Red Army. In the home, Kilgannon properly mourned the loss of his family and beat himself up for not doing more. Ambellina related to his situation with hers and the Prise and tried to assure him that what happened was Ryan's fault, not his.

Though he struggled to see why anyone would follow him when his track record for saving people was so bad, Ambellina reassured him that they could get justice for those affected by Ryan's tyranny and that Kilgannon was the closest thing Ambellina had left to family. She vowed to be by his side until the end. It had been a few hours, so Ambellina suggested they get going. Before he left the planet, Kilgannon asked her to go ahead so he could visit an old friend. She agreed and presumably went back on her own. When morning was almost breaking and he had still not returned, she went to find him, witnessing his powers again flair up, this time destroying a large portion of someone's fence. She quickly collected him and left before anyone found them.

Invasion of Hilmgore
Back on the Arbor, Inferno informed the entire crew that, before going to House Atlantic, they were going to Hilmgore, the mythical, artic home planet of the Narrows. As House Atlantic was on lockdown, the plan was to use a mythical artifact called the Terrene of Anonymity that was powering Hilmgore's invisibility. She resumed training with Kilgannon who was doing much better and joined him and the rebels on the mission to Hilmgore. The planet was just as icy as it was described in legends. In addition to cloaking the planet and ships, they found out that the Terrene also had the power to cloak individuals. They were attacked by cloaked soldiers before their leader, Gibney arrived.

Gibney brought them to their citadel and went, one-by-one to each of them, introducing them to the rest of the Narrows; clearly he had information on each and every one of them, including the Crowing, to an extent. The only one he was unfamiliar with was Chase. Inferno lied and said they'd crashed on the planet by accident, claiming he just got lucky. Gibney brought out a meal for them to share, but it just turned out to be one of Inferno's men. He took all of them to cells, except Inferno. She shared a cell with Kilgannon and a few minutes after being locked up, Chase came to their cell and called out for him. Ambellina witnessed him disintegrate their cell door, and parts of the people beyond it. They met up with the rest of their group and raced Gibney's men back to the Arbor with the Terrene.

Death
Safe back on board and heading for House Atlantic, Ambellina found Kilgannon gazing out of a window. The two joked about the battle to come, and Kilgannon, more serious, tells her that he shared the vow she made to him at his parents' house—that he would stay by her side until the end, too. He even went as far as to say that he would do anything for her. They entered Omega airspace and found Narrow ships tailing them. It was all hands on a chaotic deck and ultimately, Inferno ordered Ambellina and Kilgannon to go right to Ryan via the LEO. They land close enough to run to the foot of the stronghold, immediately engaging in battle. Sure enough Ryan came down and presented a nightmare: Admiral Vielar Crom hooked up to giant, mobile legs that crushed even his own men. He taunted the two of them with riddles and names, calling Ambellina Kilgannon's "pet angel." He mentioned purpose of the dragonflies in the sky around them as having a purpose in the Afterlife, but this confuses Kilgannon.

Ryan mentioned how his parents were probably "floating" in the "purgatory" of it, which pissed Kilgannon off and caused him to summon an army of undead—the corpses of those Ryan "threw away" for his personal gain, but Ryan was unfazed. The battle began in full and Ambellina danced on the battlefield, dodging both friendly and foreign fire while doling out punishment herself. It was in the thick of battle that a the strange portal opened up behind her, Chase tumbled out to fall in front of her, and she was detained from behind to be dragged into it by an unknown figure. This figure turned out to be God and portal led to a kind of abstract space. Kilgannon and Chase entered the portal to find her, but the Creator kept her as removed from their presence as possible. He summoned her only to drag her to a winged guillotine and lock her into it to have her head chopped off. Kilgannon saved her just in the nick of time, even managing to expel them all from the space and back to their world.

The three of them now fought the Creator as he attempted to separate Kilgannon and Chase from Ambellina to kill her. Right when Kilgannon felt he'd distracted the Creator enough, his attention was drawn back to Ambellina to witness the last Onstantine Priest shove his hand through the middle of her chest. She gasped for breath and fell to the floor. Instantly, Kilgannon was by her side. Kilgannon cried that he couldn't do this without her, but she implored him to fight the destiny he'd been dealt. With her dying breath, she confessed that if she had been able to love him, she would have.

Powers & Abilities
As a Prise, Ambellina was an accomplished warrior, even leading an outfit herself. She has the power to amplify her voice in a controlled fashion to shatter human ear drums, and she can sense various things about a person if she has access to a personal item. When the Crowing uses his powers, she can sense it and hone in on where he is. She is able to make herself invisible at will, being seen by some and not seen by others. Her Prise physiology affords her some protection against pathogens that humans would be highly susceptible to like poison, and affords her a quicker recovery than a human would normally experience.

Trivia

 * Given that within the story, her design by Ryder was based off of Erica, it is possible that in real life, Sanchez based her off of his then girlfriend, Chondra Echert. This is entirely speculation, but they do share some similarities.

Gallery
To be added...