by Jaz Johnson
“Because although we will kill you all if we have to, we do not have the desire to. But I have given you your last warning.”
“What shivery … Even after all your precious kingdom has faced? What it’s lost? How is it doing without its king, I wonder. Vida must be feeling weak herself without the presence of her beloved,” Tebias jabbed. Hydra’s eyes narrowed.
“Watch yourself, Tebias. You have no right-“
“I have every right!” Tebias bellowed with sudden rage, his hands tightly wound into fists. Hydra was taken aback by his swift change in speech.
“At one time, perhaps. But your mother brought her misfortune on herself. The right is no longer yours. Nor will it ever be.”
Tebias scowled, his hands igniting as his eyes squinted in fury. He’d be darned if he was hearing the truth. They were all keeping him from his truth. His salvation.
“Even if it’s from the pits of hell, I’ll see that you all burn.”
********
Through the dark halls of the stone temple, lit by burning torches along either sides of the walls, Delilah went rushing through in search of Hades, with Corvina following close behind her. Delilah had just seen something that she knew she had to share with Hades. Tebias was in danger, and as a result, so was their plan. Ares would not be pleased.
“Are you sure, Delilah?” Corvina asked, doing her best to keep up with her.
“Sure as the waters she calls home.”
“But why Hydra? Why not Mizuko?”
“I don’t know, dammit. But she’s there. And Tebias is not strong enough to face her again.” Delilah pushed open the double doors in front of her, to find Hades sitting on one of his sofas, reading a book. Upon hearing the doors open, Hades lifted his head to see his fiancé’s stressed expression. He closed the book, setting it aside before standing up.
“Delilah? What is it?” he asked, his gaze shifting from Delilah to Corvina multiple times. Corvina shook her head in silence as Delilah spoke.
“Tebias is going to fail,” she exclaimed, stepping further into the room. Hades furrowed his brows skeptically, as his head tilted downwards.
“Fail? What are you talking about?” Hades insisted with a dismissive hand, turning around to pick his book back up. Delilah shook her head.
“Vida has sent Hydra to Earth.” Hades paused, his eyes darkening as he slowly turned back around. There was a moment of silence that lingered, creating a dense, dark atmosphere in the otherwise peaceful study.
“When?”
“They’ve already fought. Tebias had no choice but to flee. But he’s sustained injuries from the encounter,” Delilah explained, coming closer to Hades. Hades had his eyes fixed on the floor as he listened. “Hades, if he were to engage in another attempt to slay Saphora he would not only fail, but he could fall.” Hades eyes raised to level with hers. He scoffed and turned away from Delilah. But as he did, he thought about her words. What if Tebias did fail? What if his brother fell? He grimaced, his jaw clenching at the thought of him falling to the hands of a woman.
“Hades,” Delilah said, grasping his attention once more. “We must tell Ares.”
Chapter 9
Pacing around the wooden floor of his one bedroom apartment, Maverick’s sense of reality was falling to shambles. He had just witnessed what looked like a battle from a well-rendered movie. He had run off with a severely injured woman. Not to a hospital, but to his apartment. And said woman, if even a woman at all, was now hovering over his bed in some sort of unresponsive meditative trace. His fingers scratched at the sides of his skull constantly as he contemplated his next move.
Why is this happening? he thought. All he wanted to do was enjoy Saphora’s company. How is this even happening? he thought. This didn’t happen in real life. Assassins, death matches, ambushes. Okay, maybe they did. But superpowers? He was pretty sure that crossed the line into the unfathomable. He had nearly broken through the skin on his skull when his hands finally left his head. He walked back into his room to check on Saphora, but wasn’t sure if he was relieved or worried to find her as he had left her.
Her eyes half open, revealing the dim glow of wide eyes. The same trace of colour emitting from the intricate markings on her back. Her hair idly swaying about her head and face. Her body more or less still, other than the gentle movements to stay afloat.
The injuries, including larges gashes, severe burns, and bruises, were slowly but surely vanishing from her body. He watched her carefully. He wasn’t sure about the emotion he was feeling. On one hand, there was fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that Jared and Liz had been right about her. That he was mad for pursuing her. But on the other hand, there was guilt. Guilt that he couldn’t help her – defend her from Tebias. Even though he had seen the horrors that were involved with this girl’s life, he still felt drawn to her. And all he could do to cope was keep moving.
And move he did, when he heard a knocking on his door. He nearly fell to the ground in anticipation. His eyes shifted around his room, almost immediately fixing on Saphora. She had not moved.
He reached over to his right, and grabbed a baseball bat that was leaning against his dresser. Gripping its handle tightly, he carefully stood, and started towards his front door. Whoever was at his door, they weren’t getting in. And they weren’t getting away. With a held breath, he unlocked and jerked the door open with his left hand, raising his right simultaneously. He went to swing without a considerable thought, and the bat was caught. Slender fingers wrapped around the end of the bat and applied pressure. It took Maverick hearing the beginning of the wood cracking for him to actually see who he was attacking. It was Hydra. Maverick instantly let go of the bat, stumbling for words to justify an apology.
Hydra met his widened gaze with a skeptical one. The first thing Maverick noticed now that he was standing face to face with the woman was that she had no pupils. The bat was flung back into the apartment as Maverick forced himself to produce a sentence.
“M-Ma’am!” stammered the shocked Maverick. “I am so-“
“Saphora’s here?” she asked, walking into the apartment. He didn’t make a move to stop her, thinking that maybe she was some sort of guardian of hers. And if that was the case, he had no right to keep her from checking in on her, regardless of their unknown species. Maverick nodded, closing the door as she turned for his response.
“Y-Yeah, she’s uh, in the bedroom. Over there,” Maverick gestured. Hydra made her way to the room he indicated and slowly peaked around the open door. Saphora was still in her meditative state of regeneration, eliciting a sigh of relief from Hydra.
“At least she’s got that mastered. Or her subconscious does, at the most,” she mumbled to herself during her observation. As Maverick walked up to her, he stopped when she gave him her attention. As if on a tightrope, Maverick kept his feet perfectly still, while his arms twitched to keep their position.
“Thank you,” Hydra offered genuinely. Maverick blinked. “Without you distracting Tebias, I may not have gotten there in time.”
“Oh, that …” Maverick sighed. Being labelled as a distraction rather than actual help was a little rough, but as least he had been acknowledged for contributing. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”
“And without you there to get Saphora out, the situation could have been a lot worse.”
Maverick couldn’t help but grin at the compliment.
“How long has she been like this?” she asked, turning her attention back to Saphora as she began to step into the bedroom. Maverick followed cautiously.
“Like twenty minutes after I brought her in. Maybe for about two hours?”
“Good. She’s almost healed. She should be waking up soon,” she said, moving closer to the bed to get a better look at her. Maverick chewed on the inside of his lip as he contemplated revealing his questions to the woman. Starting with her name.
“Excuse me,” he began. Hydra granted him her attention. “I don’t mean to interrupt whatever’s going on, but who ar
e you? Who was that man? Who is she?” he asked, gesturing towards Saphora lastly. Hydra arched a brow.
“Are you not an acquaintance of Saphora’s?” she asked, turning her body towards Maverick. Maverick hurried a nod.
“Oh, yes. Yes, I –“
“Then why do you ask who she is?”
“I didn’t mean-“
“You meant what. You want to know what she is. What I am. What he is.”
Maverick grimaced in shame. It was as if he was being accused of some kind of prejudice. Like the early settlers to the Americas asking ‘what’ instead of ‘who’.
“It’s fine. It’s only natural for a human to have such questions.”
“Are you not human?” asked Maverick, catching the emphasis on the word.
“Did you honestly think we were? After that?” Hydra asked. Maverick gave a nervous chuckle with a shrug of his shoulders.
“I thought maybe toxic waste, or-“
“Don’t be foolish. We are not of Earth. Or even this galaxy. We are Athenians. And I am a guardian.”
“Athen … Guardian? Are you Saphora’s guardian? I thought Fran was.” Hydra giggled.
“A very different type of guardian. Though I suppose in purpose, not so much. But no, I am not her guardian. I am Hydra, guardian of Mizuko, master of water.”
Maverick nodded slowly, trying to force himself to accept the information. But all he could seem to salvage was her name.
“Hydra … Okay, so why are you here? Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad you showed up. But why?”
“This isn’t Saphora’s first encounter with Tebias.”
“And who’s Tebias?” Maverick asked with some anger. Hydra paused.
“I can only answer one question at a time, Maverick.” Maverick nodded, raising his hands.
“Sorry. There’s just a lot of questions.”
“And you’re entitled to answers. As is Saphora when she awakes. Tebias was sent to this planet to assassinate Saphora.”
“Assassinate? Why – Who?”
“His mother. Because she is a vital part of our kingdom’s survival of an approaching war.”
“War?”
As he opened his mouth to speak again, Saphora dropped from her meditative hover onto the springy mattress of Maverick’s bed. Both Hydra and Maverick looked over with alarm. Especially Maverick. Seeing her fall out of such a fragile state shook him, and he hurried to step forward, his hands jutting in front of him. Hydra leaned over Saphora slightly, visually checking her vital signs.
“What happened? What’s wrong with her?” Maverick asked, watching Hydra’s actions with a hard stare. Hydra waved her hand slowly over Saphora’s body, checking for any areas that emitted excess heat, which would indicate a problem with minimal observation. No immediate areas were noticed, but before Hydra could get to her chest, Saphora’s hand sprang up to grip her wrist. With a gasping breath, her white eyes shot open, wide and alert, before dimming to the ruby colour. They shifted in Hydra’s direction, following her hand up to her figure. Hydra’s body had stiffened when her wrist was seized. Saphora’s breathing was ragged and uneven, as her eyes trailed from Hydra to Maverick, staying there. Their expressions almost mirrored each other.
“Maverick?” Saphora breathed.
“Saphora,” said Hydra. Saphora’s eyes snapped to the unknown face and immediately narrowed. Her grip on Hydra’s wrist tightened more than she was aware of, causing Hydra to lean forward in pain.
“Who are you? Where are we?” Saphora practically hissed. Hydra groaned in discomfort as she tried to remember not to respond with self-defense. Hydra thought carefully on what to say to succeed in getting Saphora to calm down, but Maverick beat her to the punch.
“Saphora, stop! She helped us!” Maverick urged, stepping forward. Saphora’s head snapped in Maverick’s direction, and her anger slowly subsided. The grip on Hydra’s wrist loosened.
“Helped?” she questioned, letting Hydra’s wrist go. She sat up in the bed, her expression quickly swaying from anger to guilt.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“
“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have been hovering over you like that,” Hydra smiled. Saphora’s focus stayed on Hydra’s wrist for a moment longer before she started looking around the unfamiliar room. It was very … boyish. There were posters of women from video games, game consoles and controls, along with game cartridges stacked and piled beside a desk against the far end of the wall to her left. There was a guitar leaning against the other side of the desk, which was a shiny raven black. The floor, which was covered with a dark mustard rug was surprisingly clean, aside from a jacket, which she recognized to be hers, tossed beside the bed.
“Are we …”
“My room – err, my apartment. Yes. I’m sorry, but I didn’t think to bring you to a hospital.”
“No, it’s good that you didn’t. Your human technology may have ended up hurting her. Or worse, disrupted her regeneration.”
Saphora looked down at her body through her torn and singed clothing. Through patches of holes she could see her once burned skin. It was completely healed, and even seeming to glow with radiance, as if brand new. Saphora exhaled in disbelief, blinking rapidly. She couldn’t believe it.
And then she thought of how they got there. That face off with Tebias. She looked up at Maverick, who was still watching her. He had seen everything. She frowned, knowing that he would probably resent her for putting him in such danger. And she couldn’t blame him if he did, though it was not her intention. She sighed, not being able to help feeling responsible.
But the apology would have to wait. She turned her attention to the woman beside the bed. Maverick said she helped them, but how? She didn’t know this woman. And she certainly didn’t know why she would help them when faced with a terror like Tebias.
“Who are you?” Saphora finally asked again, now that she had calmed down enough not to focus on fighting. Hydra didn’t answer the question as they shared gazes.
“We have much to discuss, Saphora.”
It was now late in the evening, and Maverick was driving Saphora home after a long day of traumatic, confusing, and enlightening events. Maverick was more or less in a state of indifferent shock, while Saphora was suffering from a migraine large enough to take down a fully grown elephant. She had just been fed enough information to overload every government database in the United States. Hydra had given her a brief rundown of who she was, and why she had shown up to help her.
She had found out that she was the daughter of a very powerful, and very worried queen. Queen of the Kiran kingdom – making her a princess. She had been sent away during a war, landing her on Earth for her survival. Tebias, who she had already grown to know in one way, had been sent from the enemy to kill her, thereby getting rid of the heir to the throne, and their possible victory of the war. Though the learning of the war and her assassin’s motives were capturing, Saphora’s attention was engulfed in the discovery of her mother. She searched, and searched for some trace of memory, but her brain was bent on keeping her memories from her. Kiran … she thought to herself. Her last name sounded so foreign to her. She had gone her entire known life without a last name, having refused to take Fran’s.
Hydra had also informed Saphora that she was sent by her mother to protect and train Saphora. To prepare her for the trip back home. Saphora, at first, out of an instinct not to leave Fran, refused to leave. But she immediately rethought her answer. She wanted more than anything to see her mother. Her father. Any family that she’d be able to see. Hydra had told her that she did not know exactly the powers Saphora had, nor the ones she would be able to possess in the future, but that she was there to do her best to help her learn to control and develop them. Saphora was understandably hesitant about showing her powers to anyone. She had almost hurt a few people, and she was a little more reluctant to do anything with them that didn’t involve protecting herself or someone else. But seeing as though Hydra knew her mother, it made h
er a little more willing to at least consider her help.
And at the same time, her mind was in turmoil. She concluded that the point of this training was not only to defend against Tebias or anyone and anything else for that matter, but also to fight in a war on Athena. Saphora may have had some gifts uncommon to humans, but she was by no means war-savvy. She didn’t know the first thing about it. And she sure as hell wasn’t fit to go into battle. Especially not with people that could share, or even surpass her own “powers”. She didn’t want to fight in a war she knew nothing about. But she also didn’t want to abandon her mother like she had thought she had begun to think she had done her. Knowing that her mother was still out there, worried for her, enough to send someone to be with her, made her scold her insecurities. She couldn’t just leave her mother to face hell on her own. But what help could she be? A chunk of nerves were knotting up in her stomach as her thoughts went back and forth.
She was more or less silent during the car ride, aside from a groan here and there. But after a while, Maverick’s hesitance gave way, and he finally spoke up as they pulled up to a red light in town.
“So uh … Is she really going to be staying with me?” Maverick asked, referring to the silent Hydra that was sitting in the back seat of the Camaro. Saphora’s thoughts were interrupted, and she glanced back at Hydra, who was watching the road in slight fascination. Before Saphora could speak, Hydra answered.
“You have to be watched.” Maverick scoffed.
“Right, because I’m the alien race that has super powers. Yeah, me, the human with no powers. I’m the one that needs to be watched.” Maverick shook his head, his thumb thumping on the steering wheel. Hydra leaned forward, directing her attention to Maverick.
“Are you saying I am not trustworthy?”
“No, I’m saying I don’t understand why you need to be watching me so closely. I mean, what could I possibly-“
“You could expose Saphora,” Hydra accused. The car grew silent, and Saphora’s attention was drawn back in. Her eyes somewhat fearful, and very skeptical. And now again, since meeting him, she was questioning whether or not she could trust him.