Opera in Underland

16. Second Chances

The seconds ticked by on a wall clock as the two beings looked at each other, unsure what to say or how to start. Opera had so many questions, waiting to be posed. Nergal waited in slight dread of what she might ask.

Part of him wanted to urge her to speak. They were losing valuable time as it was, and every second of their now twenty one hours remaining until the trial resumed was invaluable. But he said nothing. He had learned the hard way that this was a girl who could not be pressured or forced into an opinion of someone. If he wanted her trust, he would have to earn it.

In the end, the girl cleared her throat and started the conversation. "I... that is my sister and I... we think the records are real. If that's the case then... it was you?"

Nergal nodded, sensing a larger question and therefore staying silent.

"So did you know? Did you remember me?"

Okay. Not too difficult a start. "No. That was years ago... you looked completely different then." He started fidgeting his suit jacket sleeve. "Truth be told I didn't even know that sort of thing could happen to someone."

"What? You mean me being part human and part... well..." Opera crinkled her nose, unsure. "I don't mean to sound rude, but what are you exactly?"

That made him chuckle. Come to think of it, he had never really mentioned. "Technically speaking, my dear, I was a god. That was thousands of years ago. I have since fallen from grace. There was a whole trial fiasco, I won't bore you with the details. Most people believe me to now be some sort of demon. And I suppose on some level, they are correct."

The girl blinked, and opened and closed her mouth in a rather stupefied expression. "Right... okay. That's not exactly what I was expecting."

He simply shrugged. "Most people don't. But I would have suspected you had an inkling. After all, you're not most people."

Opera scoffed. "Being a hybrid doesn't exactly make me special, it just makes me a hybrid. That's my biology, not my personality."

"I wasn't referring to that fact."

Ophelia quirked an eyebrow at his statement, and he continued. "You have an uncanny ability to sense the truth in things. You see what others do not. I noticed it when we officially met."

"Officially? And unofficially?"

He knew what she was referring to. The monitor system. He had been waiting for this issue to arise, and now that it had, he was getting less comfortable by the moment. His confidence levels in explaining himself on this matter were somewhere on the same level as the Titanic shipwreck. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath and began his attempt.

"It's... sort of a habit, really. One that is difficult to break. I believe the common term for it is 'people watching'. I never mean any harm by it. I simply wish to observe."

"Is there some reason you can't just talk to people?"

It was his turn to give Opera a look now. "When was the last time you befriended - strike that, had a civil conversation with - an ex-god and demon who has retractable electric tentacles in his back, green fangs in his mouth, and claws on his hands, and lives in the Earth's core in a magma-proof house?"

Opera gave a concessional shrug. Well, his point had been made. He sighed and finished his thought in a more polite tone.

"I'm not exactly good in social situations. Family trait, I suppose. Usually those screens are the closest I get to having actual friends. Sis was... a rare exception. One I am very thankful for."

Something in Opera's face changed then. Had it softened slightly? Pity wasn't his goal, and if the conversation had drifted in that direction, he needed to change courses.

But no, on second thought, it wasn't precisely pity in her eyes. It was something else. Some thread of sympathy had worked its way into those pools of indigo blue that so closely resembled the color of his own irises. Maybe that's where she got it from, come to think of it...

"So... why me?"

He'd asked himself that question so many times already. Now that he was looking right at her, he still didn't know that he could quite say. She looked like she could be Junior's twin. And she was more like him and his son than he cared to admit. Even in his short time with her, he had managed to learn that much. So how to answer?

He made a gesture again, running his hand along his head where a man's hair would be, but where his skin curved back and tapered to a point. "I suppose... because I thought you needed me."

She was staying silent. He quickly tried to backtrack. "Not that you couldn't take care of yourself, that's not what I meant, it's just... well, how to say, I -"

Opera put up a hand, cutting off his increasingly stumbling speech. She validated his idea in her next words. "I know. At least I think I do."

She moved and sat on the edge of a small sofa in the room, clasping her hands together and looking off somewhere into empty space.

"You're right in thinking we're alike, you know. I saw it too. Maybe that was the Nergal part of me talking, but I did."

Tentatively, he sat on the sofa as well, careful to give her enough personal space so that she was still comfortable. There she had gone again, sensing that which went unsaid. Her mind was more in tune with his than even he knew.

Opera stiffened slightly, as if having an internal argument, before deciding to speak. "I'm a foster child. I've never had a real home. All the parents and siblings from my past were only ever temporary. They knew it, I knew it, and no one really pretended anything else. I was just an extended-stay visitor. Rosalind is the closest thing to a real sister I've ever had. But... when I sat down to dinner yesterday, with you and Sis and Junior. It felt... I don't know. Natural. Different."

She looked up at him. "I don't know why you changed all those kids back after the carnival. I don't know why you came looking for me or why you want my sister to take me back. But I know that you wouldn't do any of that if you wanted to see me hurt. You had plenty of chances to do that on your own. And... well, I forgive you. And I'm sorry. I want to start over."

She was giving him a gift almost no one ever had. Another chance to be friends, to be like family even, to stay beside each other and help one another.

It was all he'd ever wanted to do for her. In everything he hadn't been sure how to express, this was his one hope that he had doubted above all others. And now here it was.

"I... I accept. And I thank you. I... I will try to do better in the future."

Dammit man, now is not the time to get emotional. He could feel the tears boiling in his eyes again. His moods really were volatile lately.

Opera looked on the verge of tears too. She was biting her lip and looking away. Suddenly the small girl launched herself at him and gave him a hug, burying her face in his jacket, clinging to him like Junior so often had on the days when he needed comfort.

The toothy grin that split Nergal's face had a mind of its own. He wiped his tears away with one hand and gave the girl a reassuring pat with the other.

"I guess this is a good thing then?"

Opera gave a nod as she sat up again, wiping her own tears away and smiling back at him. "I'm not too good at this whole family thing. But I want to try. Once the trial is over, that is."

Ah yes, the trial. In the emotional moment he had nearly forgotten. "On that subject, my dear, I want to show you a few things that may help. I cannot avoid you having to fight, but I can hope to train you in such a way to keep you relatively safe."

Opera gave him a nod. "I'll go get Rose. We probably should start right away." She trotted to the door, going to fetch the older girl.

Nergal watched after her with his smile still intact. That girl and her infectious attitude was going to be the downfall of him yet. But somehow, in the face of his family getting just that much bigger, he was strangely okay with it.

..........