Athena

Chapter 2

Three years is a long time to be free. Three years running a facility that I've turned into a safe place for aeteri to reside. Three years of being a leader. . .

It's a long time to stay strong, to be someone that everyone looks to for support, but it's also a long time to develop the courage and the will to announce even the hardest of information to my people.

I completed my duties with a heavy heart for the day, sitting in my office, missing the mass wave of voices I'd usually hear, but ever since I gave the news two days ago of the four teens that have died, there hasn't been much talking. Here, death has rarely occurred. Over the last few years, we've lost two people, both of their deaths months apart but we've never lost so many at one time.

Erin soon called me, telling me that my expected visitor has arrived and I told her to send him up. Every once in awhile, he comes here to see how I'm holding up or occasionally stays for a few days to recharge before continuing on wherever it is that he goes to. I don't mind though, he's helped me turn this place around even though I've tried to rid myself of him at first, telling him that I could do it on my own which I know now was very stupid.

Starting this place up wasn't going to be easy. I needed to renovate, invest, figure out the financials behind keeping such a large place up and running. I needed to change the appearance from the outside-in and I needed help doing it. Thankfully, he showed up right when I needed him. He helped me keep this place on the down-low from the humans and has done so much more for us.

I felt him before he even made it to my office door and when I pulled it open, I couldn't hide the smile that took over my expression.

"Xavier."

He pulled me in for a long, much-needed hug and he ruffled my hair a bit, moving past me into the room. "It's been a while, Athena."

"I know. How was your trip here? Was everything, okay?" I asked eagerly, hoping he didn't run into any RA's.

"It was fine. Tiring, but fine." He said, playing with a few trinkets I had on my desk. He seemed too quiet, less playful and happy, meaning he knew.

"You heard, didn't you?" I asked him.

His shoulders slumped and he turned to me with his eyebrows drawn in. "Yeah I heard and I'm sorry."

I kept my emotions where they belong in their bottomless pit, giving Xavier a small shrug. "It's okay. It happened and the others and I have learned from it. We've changed the route already and my techs are taking the necessary precautions."

"I understand that, but how are you, um, emotionally?" He asked slowly, giving me a knowing look, making me sigh.

Xavier found out about my ability by using his own. He didn't know that by entering my mind while I slept, that he would end up receiving the rudest awakening of his life. One should never try and mess with an empath. Our abilities range and sometimes, the effects are lifelong or even deadly.

"I'm fine." The words left my lips quickly and Xavier's expression clearly stated he didn't believe me.

I didn't need this right now. I didn't need him breaking me to try and get me to express myself and release my emotions. He'll only trigger my ability which neither of us wants to experience.

Empathic Inundation, that's my ability. There are many different versions of what I can do, but I think I have the extent of it. My body takes in the emotions of others that harbor within their unconscious mind.

When I was a subject, how it would work is that I'd take in my opponent's emotions they sometimes didn't even know they were harboring and then I'd project the emotions back into them full force to alter their mental status. The emotions would hit them as hard as a linebacker, usually rendering them unconscious or even killing them. If I want, I can be more gentle about it by only making someone feel a certain emotion to weaken them, it's still intense but not as deadly.