Once and for All- Part Three Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Seven

Jason's POV:

I explain the whole thing to her.

Her, Setràkus Ra, Hecate, the mysterious deep void, the three images in the doorways, Setràkus Ra's choices, the extremely powerful and dangerous weapon Setràkus Ra got ahold of, and finally, what it cost- Setràkus Ra betraying and killing her for the weapon. Giving up what he loved and cared for the most.

"You have to make sure he doesn't start caring for you, Max." I tell her, staring her straight in the eye. After the recap, she automatically turned...darker. Her features shifted from concern and slight humor to anger and coldness within seconds. Even her bright green eyes lost that cheerful, mischievous glint and seemed to turn a darker shade of emerald.

"If he stops caring for me, he won't want me as his daughter, so he'll bring me back here and continue on with the invasion." Max replies, her voice ice cold, as if Khione were turning her words to ice.

"What should we do?" I ask her. She shakes her head, looking down at the floor.

"One thing I'm certain of is that we can't let him get that weapon. He can defeat the gods themselves and none of us will stand a chance against him." She responds.

"And I'm not letting you die, either." I add in. She looks back up at me and some of the coldness on her face melts away for a moment before turning right back to stone cold.

"What if you make him love you so much he'll never be able to give you up?" I try. Max thinks for a moment before sighing in annoyance.

"I have to make the psycho Mogadorian leader care for me so much he won't be able to give me up to a giant hole in the ground for a dangerous weapon." She looks up at me and raises an eyebrow. "This sounds fun."

I shrug my shoulders and Max sighs again, looking around the room. It's the same bedroom we were in when we spoke in my dream. I want more dreams like that- dreams where I can actually see and talk to Max instead of seeing her get thrown into a giant black abyss by a crazy, deadly psychopath who wants her as his daughter but would kill her for a sword. This freaking world. (My friend asked me what I was writing so I showed her this paragraph and I've never seen anyone look so confused and terrified at the same time.)

But that gets me wondering. Why am I having these visions in the first place? Why am I the only one having these visions? Well, maybe the only one. Unless someone else is having a bunch of 'Max-is-going-to-die-brace-yourselves' visions but isn't saying anything.

"So, why am I having these visions? Where are they coming from?" I ask Max, who thinks for a moment before answering me.

"It might be a legacy. The same legacy that Eight, John, Nine and Ella have- Precognition." Max answers, chewing her bottom lip nervously.

"And what is it exactly?" I question.

"You can see glimpses of the future, or different possibilities." Max replies simply. I nod my head, and that's when it hits me. I'm not a Loric Garde. But I have a legacy. I have a legacy.

"How do I have it?" I ask and Max shakes her head, her dark eyes concentrated.

"The entity of Lorien said that we won't be alone in the war. Maybe it finally decided to give humans legacies, too. But only the ones who need it and will use it well." She explains and I can automatically hear the difference in her voice when she says 'use it well'. Her voice turns so bitter it's actually startling. She only sounds like that when she's talking about Octavian, Bryce, Curtis, Michael or Remo.

"Did it make a mistake before?"

Max looks back up at me and her eyes have such a swirl of emotions in them, it's hard to keep track of exactly what she's feeling. If each emotion in her eyes had a different color, Max's eyes would be a full-out rainbow and more.

"Yeah, it did. With Remo. It saw that Remo was going to care for me, so it gave him the resurrection legacy. It hoped that he'd help us." Max explains and I just want to wrap her in a huge bear hug. But I can't. She doesn't have anyone there except for Finn, and I'm pretty sure that he doesn't know about any of this. Max is alone on this one, like Annabeth following the Mark of Athena to find the Athena Parthenos and fighting Arachne all by herself. Except it comes with a lot more mental pain.

"Remo...actually cares for you?" I ask. Max nods her head, a spiteful look in her eyes. "And that's part of the reason why you're so wary of making Setràkus Ra care for you? You're afraid he'll be like Remo?" I guess, praying that Max doesn't telekinetically throw me right out the window of the one hundredth floor all the way from space for asking such a personal question. I'm sorry for doing so, I just want to help her, but I can't do that if I don't have all the information. But she doesn't do anything.

"Yeah, it is." She answers simply and when I look closely at her, I can see the change in her after living with the Mogadorians for two months. She seems drained- her skin is paler and her eyes are slightly sunken, her lips are chapped and cracked and she looks thinner. She looks like someone who hasn't eaten in awhile. She definitely looks tired, too. There are bags forming under her eyes and she looks a bit sick.

"Max, don't even try to correct me right now, you are not doing okay." I tell her, my eyebrows raised at her. She stares me in the eye for a few seconds before looking down and slowly nodding her head. I bite my lip and she looks back up at me.

"Well, what can I do?" Max asks, shrugging her shoulders.

"Eat, sleep, actually do stuff that keeps you alive." I reply and Max chuckles.

"What about you? What have you been up to? Anything new with Ivan?" She asks me and I can tell that she's just trying to change the subject. I'm kind of relived, though. I don't really like talking about this stuff. Let's save that for later.

Wait. She wants to talk about me and Ivan. Last night...

"Well, we may have cuddled last night..." I trail off, looking back up at Max expectantly. She raises an eyebrow at me and a small smirk appears on her lips.

"How the Hades did that happen?" She questions. I shrug my shoulders.

"I guess I have you and my little vision to thank." I reply and Max chuckles.

"Thank the gods for possible futures where the deadly psychopath gets a super dangerous weapon." Max goes over. I chuckle and she smiles down at me, but I can tell that it's forced. I know Max hates when anyone thinks this, but I actually pity her. There's no one there to help her with anything and if she needs help, she can't do anything about it. She can't exactly make a rainbow while orbiting space and she doesn't have a phone with her. She's completely on her own and I hate that, but there's nothing I can do about it.

But I'll find a way. I'll find something.

And if I can't, then I'll make sure she's not alone for any longer.