[6:19PM, January 4, UTC +02:00]
PAULA hissed at the friction burn from pulling on the laces of her boots and blew on her fingers. She reached down to tie them but then stopped and hissed again, this time out of frustration, as she remembered that her change of location was going to affect both time zone and climate. She was irritated, which made it harder to think, which in turn made her sloppy. Adam was exercising his full power as head honcho by ordering her go to Perth immediately, in spite of all her warnings that her cousin Walter likely wasn't going to change his mind about moving the kids in. And even if she somehow managed to coerce him by using the ultimate 'you'll be responsible if anything happens' line, he sure as hell wasn't going to wake everyone to start packing in the middle of the night.
Also on her list of annoyances: Damilare. Sure, he was probably just being influenced by one of the many instincts he had romping around in his brain, but he needed to get it together and understand that she wasn't going to oblige him by entering whatever version of committed relationship he thought they deserved. And now he was acting like some depressive wounded dog that had been kicked one too many times, which was creating a shitload of unnecessary tension between them. She tried to ignore him – which should have been easy, given the many other things they all had to worry about – but it was getting harder by the day, and she was still doing her best to silence the part of her brain that was trying to generate feelings for him. She groaned.
Why can't good sex just be good sex?
Then the icing on the cake: Adrianna. After dropping orders, Adam had gone on to berate Paula about treating Adrianna with respect. Paula had been very clear about her feelings towards the other woman from day one, and as far as she was concerned, the team had worked just fine before Adrianna came. For almost four months after the death of Eugene – the previous Air mage – Paula and Kojiro filled in whenever air magic was needed, without any issues. But then talks began about finding a proper replacement, and ignoring hundreds of well-trained and knowledgeable mages with Air magic as their primary ability, Adam brought in Adrianna. Paula had openly protested, but much to her chagrin, Adrianna was still put up for the numerical vote – which, as was the norm, needed to be more than half the existing members for an acceptance. Ecru sided with Adam, and Kojiro voted her in too, probably because he was old and wanted to be relieved of the extra duty. The only other person who voted against was Damilare – because he 'got a weird vibe' – but in the end, three votes beat two and now they were stuck with an inexperienced ignoramus who couldn't tell the difference between a kelpie and a hippocampus.
Paula was kind of hoping Adrianna got killed during that solo mission, but somehow all the woman had managed to do was anger an entire pantheon of century-old gods and possible bring down their wrath on millions of unsuspecting Japanese people.
Paula rolled her eyes as she kicked her shoes off and walked back to the closet to find something more appropriate for a warm summer night. She huffed at her choices. Of course, all the good clothes were in her other apartment. She considered porting there to get what she'd like, but thought better of it. Despite how casual and easy she made it seem, bending the fabric of space took a lot of energy, especially when the space between was that distant. Plus it didn't make sense to put in that much effort just to look fashionable for someone she was going to be visiting around 1AM. She changed into a loose burgundy cotton shirt with metallic stud details and a pair of leather jeans, and just as she closed the closet door, she was hit by a tortuous tightness in her chest, like the air had become thicker and heavier, like curdled milk. She was finding it hard to breathe, and her eyes widened as she spun around.
Holy shit.
Something incredibly powerful had appeared. Somewhere below her, if her senses were correct. She moved quickly to get out of the path of the radiating power and ran into the corridor. She bumped into someone. Damilare stumbled back, his eyes feline and yellow with pupils dilated, and he looked disoriented for a moment before he blinked and looked at her.
"You feel it too?"
She nodded, trying to figure out how something so powerful could have breached the barrier of the building. The only logical conclusion she could arrive at was that whatever it was, it was so powerful that even Adam couldn't stop it. And if there was something that Adam couldn't stop...
"How the hell are we supposed to fight it?"
Damilare looked blank. From the amount of power she could feel wafting through the air, she knew approaching this thing – whatever it was – wouldn't do them any good. Maybe this was the enigmatic entity they'd been waiting for; the one who had sent Ivan and his men to find Nathan, or those men who attacked Erwith. Or maybe it was just another supernatural being with its own personal vendetta. Whatever the case, its aura was as unfriendly as its magnitude, and she was already leaning towards the idea of tearing a portal to Australia when the door at the end of the corridor slammed open and Adam rushed out in his night robe, with Ecru right on his heels.
"Are the children still down there?!" Adam bellowed.
Paula blinked, confused for a moment, before she realised what he was talking about.
Shit.
If this thing had appeared where she felt it had, then it would very likely have come in contact with Adrianna and Kojiro's grandchildren. She didn't want to imagine the implications. Adam rushed past without a word, heading towards the spiral staircase. Ecru grit his teeth and dashed ahead with superhuman speed as Damilare's wings flapped open and he shot forward after them. Paula stood still, trying to wrap her mind around what was going on, or why the men were headed in the direction of whatever had appeared downstairs.
Her hands were trembling.
This felt too familiar, just like a year ago, when they fought a corrupted and enraged Valkyrie who had stolen Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor. She had been overly enthusiastic and overconfident in her abilities. Adam had voiced the danger of the mission several times and even asked for Reynolds, a powerful Axis mage and his brother-in-law, to accompany them, but she thought it all unnecessary. Then she watched everything go to hell within minutes. Reynolds was ripped to shreds, Eugene was squished like an insect, Ecru had been battered to within an inch of life and it took at least half of the blood in Adam's body to save him, and Damilare would have been nothing but a severed head if it wasn't for his altered physical form and incredible regenerative powers. Kojiro was unconscious for the three weeks that followed, even with his healing accelerated by magic. She could still remember Maureen's face when they had to break the news of her husband's death to her.
Paula learned then that there were powers that defied her understanding.
Also, sometimes it was better to run than attempt to be a hero.
She turned and walked hesitantly towards the stairs. Even as she followed the steps down, she questioned what she was doing, and tried to convince herself that this was more out of curiosity than anything else. She extruded her magic into the air and readied her mind. First sign of danger, and she'd be in Australia faster than a blink. She reached the basement level and walked cautiously down the short poorly-heated corridor, rounded the corner and stopped when she met Damilare standing at the doorway of the training room. He looked like he was struggling to keep himself composed, and she immediately rushed forward.
"What happened?"
He subtly repositioned himself to block her path, and she frowned. She made an attempt to go around him, and his wings flapped open to cover both sides of the corridor.
"What's going on?" she asked, unable to stop her suspicious tone.
"You don't want to go in, trust me."
"What? Why?"
"Just...trust me. It's best if you don't go."
"At least tell me what's inside. I just want to know."
"I can't. Adam's orders."
Adam's orders?
She scowled and clenched her teeth. Typical. Adam probably thought it was more than she could handle, which wasn't so surprising given her reaction after that previous disaster. She knew his concerns were in the right place, but she couldn't help her annoyance at being treated like she was too fragile to be allowed to see what was going on. She straightened herself and tried to make her expression as placid as possible.
"It's okay," she said, taking few steps back. "I understand."
Damilare looked relieved for a moment, before he jerked with alertness as he realised what she was doing.
"Paula, don't-"
She smiled as a portal opened behind her and she stepped back into it, feeling the change in consistency as her foot landed on the coarse stone floor of the training room. She shut off her magic as soon as she had gone through, and the black smoke-like edges of the exit portal wavered and disappeared in front of her. She was immediately hit by the weight of the power, now even greater because of how close she was to the source, so potent that it was difficult to locate exactly where it was coming from. She coughed as dust irritated the back of her throat, and she covered her nose as she looked around.
The training room was wrecked. Granted, it hadn't exactly been spotless, with its rocky ground that Adam said was supposed to mimic outdoor conditions, but now it was entirely trashed. The air was heavy with dust, and the ground was covered in cracks, jutting rocks and crevices, like it had been pummelled repeatedly by an army of sumo wrestlers with jackhammers. The cracks extended even to the far walls, which she found even more surprising, as the space altering magic in the room was supposed to prevent anything from ever reaching those walls. Something on the ground caught her eye and she strained to see it properly through the dusty haze.
"They deserved what they got."
She turned at the sound of the voice and looked up, and only then did she realise that something was floating in the air above. There was a sudden gust of wind and she had to shield her eyes as the dust blew back, and once it stopped, she looked up again through teary eyes.
Bitch, what?
Anything would have been less surprising. A mutated water nymph that had grown wings. Cerberus the three headed dog on a flying carpet. The goddess Kali with her debatable number of hands. Adolf Hitler riding on Pegasus.
Anything.
Not Adrianna.
Paula felt dazed. The volume of power bathing her and the evidence before her were clashing so strongly with her own preconceived notions that she stood there gaping for what felt like an infinite length of time before reality crashed back into her brain.
Wait...if Adrianna is...then who is...?
Her gaze flicked down to the previously unrecognizable shapes on the ground. Sakaki, Kojiro's grandson, was lying on his back, his half-lidded eyes glassy, mouth open, clothes stained with blood. The other child, Yuriko, was half buried in a rather large crevice, her dust-covered body barely visible under the pile of rubble.
"They're still alive," Adrianna said in a clipped and impersonal voice. "They merely required discipline, which I was glad to deliver. Much like you, I suppose."
"Paula!"
She turned sharply. Adam was standing a few feet away, with Ecru by his side, watching Adrianna closely. Damilare had come into the room and was trying to extract the unconscious teenagers from the debris. Paula looked between Adam and Ecru, and noticed that neither looked particularly surprised at the situation.
"What the fuck is going on?"
"You weren't supposed to be here, Paula." Adam said slowly. "You shouldn't have come..."
"She is here now," Adrianna said. "Do not interfere."
There was a slicing sound as a wall of bright yellow light encircled both women, cutting them off. Paula could see Adam and the rest exclaiming dramatically, but their voices were muted. She reached out her own powers, but the pressure of the counteracting magic was constricting her efforts and she realised that she couldn't feel anything beyond the barrier. Which meant it was impossible to create a portal to safety.
Fuck.
"Remind me again, why I should not kill you where you stand."
Paula looked back up and swallowed thickly. This had to be some sort of celestial joke, and she probably would have laughed if it didn't feel as though the air had thickened even further, infused with so much magic that she almost choked. This was supposed to be Adrianna for crying out loud. Adrianna with the pretty face and the clueless expressions and the dumb suggestions. But every good sense in her body told her that this person, this...being whose leer was sending shivers down her spine was not to be trifled with. She backed away instinctively and looked out at the men again, intending to call for help, but then she noticed that they seemed to have withdrawn. Ecru was folding his arms over his chest, while Adam stood with hands in pockets, leaning against him. Paula narrowed her eyes.
Is he... smiling?
"I rather enjoy this look on you," Adrianna said, "I had started to think your face was only capable of a sneer."
The power pulsing off the woman seemed even more pungent as she floated down. Her eyes glowed gold, like the orbs had been replaced by little suns, and her hair flowed upwards wispily in slow undulating waves, as though she were underwater. She raised her hand, palm facing outwards, pulling and agitating the air molecules wildly, compressing them into a twisting spinning sphere which hissed loudly like a raging storm. Her feet touched the floor, and as she stepped forward, cracks shot out wildly in every direction, as if the ground was too weak to hold her barely sixty-five kilogram frame. Paula backed away even further until searing heat burned her back and she yelped as she recoiled forwards. The barrier of light, it felt like it was made of forged electricity, and while she still wasn't sure how it was cutting her off from the space she could see just beyond it, she knew she was trapped. Her heart thumped wildly, like galloping horses in her ears. She leaned back as Adrianna came closer, and had to close her eyes as the sphere of wind within Adrianna's hand twisted the air around, creating a small cyclone that blew harshly against her face.
"It would take merely an instant to obliterate you," Adrianna said coldly, "but it seems the man out there still considers you to be of some use. So I will let you off with a warning. If you persist in your attempts to antagonize me..."
She let the threat hang as she smiled sweetly, holding eye contact for an uncomfortable number of seconds. Suddenly the lights in her eyes went off and she fell forward. Paula stood stiffly and flinched as the woman slumped against her chest. She was too scared to move, and considering the wall of energy behind her, she really didn't have a choice as to where to go. There was a sharp drop in the air pressure and she sucked in a breath as the dense magical aura dissipated, and soon all she could feel was the cold of the frigid basement.
"Are you okay?"
She startled as she turned to see Ecru. A crunching sound from her other side made her whirl around as Adam appeared beside her, and she realised then that the barrier was gone. She quickly threw Adrianna off and stumbled back, looking at both of them accusingly. Ecru caught Adrianna before she hit the ground, but continued to give her a concerned look.
"Paula..."
She tore a portal open and quickly retreated into it, taking in a deep calming breath as she entered her room. She fisted her hands involuntarily as her mind spun from trying to reel in and make sense of her emotions. First, there was the shock. She still couldn't believe what just happened. She wanted to push it to the back of her head like some weird nightmare, but she was too close to deny what she had just seen. Then the humiliation. She should have done something. Anything. But all she did...all she could do was stand there and look like a pathetic weakling. She also recognised the betrayal at the fact that Adam knew, and anger because he knew, and he let her carry on thinking that Adrianna was less than she really was. And what the hell was he smiling about? Finally, the inadequacy. She couldn't count the number of times she had imagined putting the other woman in her place, and now she had to come to terms with the reality of their massive gap in power. It was too much to deal with at once. She suddenly felt an urge to lie down.
But first, she needed to change her underwear.
->-<-
"A what?"
"Psychically. Segmented. Demigoddess," Adam repeated, as though separating each word somehow explained everything.
"Sorry, what?"
He huffed and looked at the ceiling, his eyes tired and bloodshot. But Paula was determined to understand what her latest near-death experience was, even if it meant camping in Adam's room and staying up all night and pretending not to notice Ecru glaring daggers at her.
"What you see as Adrianna is merely a fraction of who she is. The first time it happened, I was just as surprised, and it took me a while to understand exactly how she became what she is. You know anything about demigods?"
"Yeah, children of gods and humans," Paula replied, folding her arms. "Or gods and some other creature. Basically, there is one god parent."
"That's the simple way to see it. The actual formation of the child is the complicated bit. Don't forget, gods don't have the same physical composition as humans, so for there to be a conception in the first place, the god has to...basically compress his or her godhood into a something that agrees with the human form. Sometimes the compression goes awry, like you know, all those legendary Greek monsters that were supposed to be half-gods?"
"Yeah," Paula replied. "But that's not the problem here, is it? Adrianna looks pretty normal. Better than normal, in fact."
"Yes, she does. But, before I go on explaining, you need to understand that a lot of what I'm about to tell you is highly sensitive information, and the only reason I'm telling you is because you don't look like you're going to let this drop otherwise. This isn't fodder for you to create even more strife. Believe me when I say that I won't lift a finger to help you if you use this to provoke her and get yourself killed."
Paula knew she was prying into stuff she would probably regret in the next ten minutes or so, but she really needed to understand what happened. It was like getting closure, almost.
"When demigods are born," Adam continued, "They start off mostly as normal humans. But with time, the compressed god aspects slowly decompress, and as they mature, their awareness of their god-like nature has to be interwoven with their human nature. Because of this, they face a peculiar mental challenge, and this is made even worse as they cannot seek guidance from either parent. They're too low to be gods, but too great to be human, and accepting this dichotomy is supposed to be part of their maturation process. But if for any reason their basal mental state is unstable, the slowly unfolding god nature is harder to accommodate within the human consciousness, and we end up with a psychic segmentation."
Paula frowned. She didn't understand all of what Adam had said, but she also didn't like where this was going.
"Are you saying...Adrianna is mentally unstable?"
Adam sighed slowly. "Sort of. It's complicated. She doesn't recall most of her childhood, but I was able to pick up some things when I did my background check. Her appearance, for one, always caused problems, since her allure is part of the manifestations of her god nature. And as a teenage girl raised by a single parent who already had abandonment issues, she also had to deal with being bullied and despised by her peers and having men old enough to be her grandfather throwing themselves at her feet. She was blamed for breaking up marriages and driving several men to ruin. I gathered that she was sexually assaulted at some point. The men who did it were never found and they were suspected to be murdered, but even without adequate evidence to hold her, she became something of a fugitive before she was even fifteen. By the time I found her, she was a highly sought-after escort in Bogota, juggling drug lords and multiple high-profile clients."
Paula suddenly felt small. She wanted to blame herself, but at the same time she knew that she couldn't. She didn't know. Adrianna always just looked like a timid agreeable person, and now that she thought about it, she could see that a lot of the spite she felt for the woman may simply have stemmed from envy of her physical appearance. Adrianna was drop-dead gorgeous. Like the physical embodiment of perfection. She had flawless skin, silky wavy auburn hair, long eyelashes fanning over hazel eyes, crystal white teeth, lips forming an effortlessly sexy pout, a mouth-watering figure with perfect proportions...just thinking about it made Paula shiver, though she wasn't sure whether it was from arousal or irritation.
"So," she said, rubbing her arms and trying to get her mind out of that rut, "She had a rough life. How does that end up giving her some crazy super-powered goddess alter-ego?"
"I didn't tell you her life story hoping for a pity party. While all this was happening, her powers were growing. But she managed to seal off most of it, along with a good amount of her memories. She was probably just trying to run from her problems. I theorized that because of her experiences and possibly from constantly denying the truth of who she is, the 'god' ended up forming separately from the 'human'. So what seems like an 'alter-ego' is really just the all parts of her she refused to accept."
"Can she just randomly switch to god mode whenever? I need to know, so I can reorganize my living arrangements. Because there's no way in hell I'm staying here knowing that she's possibly out to get me."
"For now, the 'god mode' – as you put it – is like a co-pilot in the vessel she's flying. It seems to be aware of her human side, but the human side isn't very aware of it. I gathered this from the way she acts whenever her god half is in charge; all her memories are intact, but not so much when she reverts. Also, it seems the god half only takes control when the human half relinquishes it, hence why I described it as a co-pilot. On the plus side, it commands most of her power and basically acts as her back-up. But the strain it puts on her mind from constantly separating these two parts of herself isn't making her any better at magic."
Paula scowled. "Then why the hell did you bring her here?"
"Beyond the fact that she's been interesting to study, I didn't want to imagine what she would've become if she ended up in the wrong company. But make no mistake; I don't plan to leave her as she is. I'm hoping that her training sessions with Kojiro will her unravel her abilities, and this would act as a bridge between both her personalities and lead her towards acknowledging all her capabilities. It's just an idea, but we won't know how effective it will be until we try."
Paula sighed and got up. She didn't see the need for any more questions; she'd gotten more than she bargained for already. As she made her way towards the door, she noticed that Adam was still staring at her.
"What?"she said tiredly.
"You were supposed to go talk some sense into Walter."
"Come on," she moaned. "It's 2AM."
"So it's bright and sunny in Perth. Perfect timing."
She groaned.
Slave driver.
"Oh, and Paula?"
"Yeah?"
"It's never just good sex."