Daughter of Zeus ✔

4.7

She spun to meet eyes with the clerk. His hand was ready-steady with the revolver.

"You killed my friend." Then he shouted, "And where's Mono?"

Ada flexed her jaw before answering. "I didn't kill that idiot, and who the hell is Mono?"

The two stared each other down. Kressick reached slowly inside of his jacket, but the clerk was keen to his movements.

"The only gun out should be mine, ya limey bastard." Spit left his mouth in small spurts.

Kressick put his hands in the air. "No need for insults, or guns for that matter. We'd simply like to leave."

"Not happening."

A small smile floated on Kressick's mouth, but quickly disappeared.

The clerk glared before speaking into his interface. "Mono, this is Oscar, where're you? Mono?" Unexpectedly, the screen on the device fizzled out, leaving angry red marks on his wrist. "What the fuck?" He threw the offending tech to the ground.

"Who's Mono?" she repeated.

She no longer felt as tired as she had a minute ago.

"He's my boss." He swallowed the ball of spit stuck in his throat. "And he'll be pissed at what went down tonight."

"You called someone." Ada put the pieces together quickly. Oscar shook his head. She stepped closer to him. "No guards, two unassuming Tramps, and you called someone to what, rob us?"

In answer, he bit his lip and cocked the weapon.

"Put your gun down," she demanded.

A crackling trailed after each of her words. With the crackling, she sensed a connection with the clerk at an intangible level. He was her, and she was him. Nerve endings fired, nerves that weren't Ada's, but through the exertions, she experienced the control that came with what followed.

She repeated her command, but the clerk froze. She nudged harder at his insides, and finally, Oscar put the gun down. Joined with the man as she was, she felt his will, heard his thoughts. With a few flicks of his switches, she turned his ideas into hers.

When his hand jerked up to bring the gun to his head, that felt like his idea too.

"What's happening?"

He was near to crying.

"The idea of suicide has struck you as appealing. In lieu of killing my friend, please continue." Kressick waved a conciliatory hand.

Ada squinted, concentrating on keeping the clerk's mind in check. In her head, the presence of another mind nearly drove her insane. She had heard August and Gemina speaking to her before, but that was different. Now, an invader shared her brain, and it didn't want to. The internal battle hurt, and yet, she maintained control.

"But I don't... Uh." Oscar's fingers cocked the weapon. "I don't know what I'm doin'!"

"Next time you'll remember that first, before trying to hurt people," Ada said through clenched teeth.

His finger tightened on the trigger. The gun stalled. The three of them stood, waiting for the big bang. Everything was quiet, but for Oscar's heavy breathing and a car passing by. If the driver saw anything, they weren't too moved to pull over and join the scene.

An eternity later, Oscar's finger lifted off the trigger.

Enough now, August cautioned.

She wasn't ready to kill, not yet. Dirty emotions like guilt only blotted out the clarity of her mission, and so should be avoided if and when possible. However, the clerk deserved to learn his lesson, and she planned to leave him with a parting gift to remember his A, B, and C's about humane behavior.

~*~

Oscar closed his eyes and sighed. When he opened them again, the Easies were walking toward the station wagon.

Get out of here, he heard the woman say. Or was that in his head? She was in his head, and he held back, but she overrode his attempt at a block. Where was Mono?

Oscar's wonderings stopped as he forced himself to crash into the glass window of the convenience store, not once, not twice, but three times. On the second collision, he hit the surface hard, breaking his nose. The third hit chipped his front tooth.

Darkness built walls in his mind, eclipsing his thoughts, eclipsing the woman with the blue eyes. When woke up with two strangers standing over him, he couldn't explain why he wanted to hurt himself.