The two men were lying on the slanted roof of the Victorian manor at Burnson Grove. They had been having a conversation when both of their eyes turned to the sky.
“Something’s really wrong out there,” Thornton said. “They’ve been gone for a week.”
“It’s really intense, whatever they’re fighting about,” Asher commented.
Thornton concentrated, his brow creasing. “You would almost think they’re actually trying to kill each other.”
“Are they?” Asher asked, his muscles tensing up. He looked to his friend anxiously, getting ready to spring into action.
“I don’t know. My mom’s been worrying about my dad and she keeps asking me to go find him. I don’t know how to explain to her that I can’t just pop over to one of Jupiter’s moons—I can’t tell her where he is or she’ll freak out and try to go after him herself.”
Asher shook his head. “Your mom is nuts.”
“Yeah, but she’s not the only crazy woman I’m worried about right now. Pax has a tendency to overreact, but somehow I don’t think this is one of her usual temper tantrums.”
“Really? Why not? You brought another girl home for dinner—maybe she found out about that and got really jealous,” Asher suggested.
“I don’t think so, man.” Thornton gazed up at the sky thoughtfully. “Maybe if they’d been fighting for a few hours, or for a whole day—but a whole week? This is something serious.”
“I’m just saying that it probably doesn’t help that you’re gallivanting around with Medea.”
“Gallivanting? Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“Sure. She’s convenient for you.”
“Listen, Ash. Maybe it started that way, but it’s not like that anymore. I’m not trying to piss Pax off, I’m really not.”
“Then what is it about?”
“I think... I might actually try to be with Medea.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.” Thornton turned to fix his friend with a serious look. “I still love Paxie, and I could never love anyone more. But I really betrayed her trust, and that’s not easily forgiven—or ever forgotten. Not in many years, maybe not ever. I think I have to accept that I may have permanently ruined my chances with her.”
“So... you’re moving on?”
“Yeah, I’m trying to. It does sometimes feel wrong when I’m trying to force these feelings with Medea. But it also feels natural. Like she’s helping me to slowly heal. And maybe someday I could... begin to love her, even a small amount. She really has remarkable strength of character.”
Asher was rendered speechless for several minutes, but then he carefully nodded. “Wow, man. I’m surprised. That actually sounded mature. As much as I wish you could be my nephew, I’m glad to hear this. I don't want to see you and Pax so unhappy anymore.”
“Thanks, Ash.” Thornton exhaled, grateful for his friend’s approval. “Sure, it began as a farce, but I really do see something special in that girl. I feel like every time I'm around her I learn something new. It’s stupid, but I do see a lot of Pax in her. Not just because of their similar careers, but because she’s genuinely tough and recklessly stubborn.”
The younger man smiled. “I actually know what you mean. After training with Medea a couple times, I’m growing attached to her too. She’s so easy to be around, and she feels like one of us.”
“That’s a good point. She does. Sometimes a human is worthy of being brought into our circle—we haven’t really added anyone new to the group since Layla.”
“Yeah, and Layla’s awesome. We never regretted that.” Asher reached over to punch his friend in the shoulder. “This is great, buddy. I wouldn’t have liked to see you trample Medea in a ploy to get to Pax.”
“I hate myself for thinking of using her like that to begin with. There’s just something novel and special about a nice, normal girl, isn’t there?”
“There sure is,” agreed Asher. Images of Para’s body in motion during their last training session came into his mind. If she was what was considered normal then the word had just become much more appealing to him.
“Holy crap, Ash!” Thornton suddenly shouted, jerking his head up to the sky. His eyes squinted and his nostrils flared at what he sensed. “What is my dad doing? He’s going to kill Pax at this rate. Can you sense her? Is she still alive?”
After a few minutes of focusing on the powers, Asher shook his head. “I don’t know, man. I can’t detect Pax’s energy anymore. I can’t find a trace of it. Do you think she’s…”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Thornton said, but his tone betrayed the fact that he had been anxiously wondering the same thing. “Maybe she just got knocked unconscious.”
“If she’s unconscious, she won’t be able to teleport your dad home,” Asher reminded him.
Thornton nodded. He fixed his eyes on the sky, trying desperately to search for any sign of Pax. Even his father’s prana levels were vastly plummeting. A deep frown creased his eyebrows as he interpreted what he sensed. Over the past day, it had not only been the dwindling magnitude of their power which troubled him, but the underlying emotions he could feel in their energy patterns.
His father seemed afraid of something; and when had Vincent ever been afraid?
* * *
A sun was rising in the east. Another was rising from the west. Two more were rising in the south. Pax blinked, realizing that these were not suns, but moons. Wincing, she tried to lift her face from the frozen ground, clear away her dizziness and get her bearings. She was not sure how long she had blacked out for, but it felt like a really long time. It was difficult to move, but she groaned, reaching down to feel for her limbs to make sure she was still in one piece. She felt that both arms and legs were still connected to her torso, even though she was incredibly numb. She had not yet become a paraplegic, and this was reassuring. Further examination revealed to her that her somewhat-small (albeit lovely, in her opinion) breasts were unharmed, and her long hair had somehow not been completely singed off by the countless explosions she had suffered.
Her chest shook with a victorious chuckle that quickly assuaged into a cough. She was not merely alive. She was alive and almost as beautiful as she had been before—whatever that amounted to. Not much to Vincent, apparently. Nevertheless, it was not time to rest.
Pax pulled herself painfully off the ground and placed her hands on her hips. Her clothes were tattered. She flew up towards Vincent’s life force, and smirked at him with all the confidence and bravado she didn’t feel. “That tickled,” she announced, forcing a performed laugh. Even that tiny display of humor made her body ache. She imagined that she could feel blood dripping down her stomach from places where the skin had been burned off. The bones of her ribcage were probably visible, but she continued to boast. “You didn’t manage to injure me much, but at least you ruined my outfit! Amara would thank you; she says this color is out of fashion.”
Vincent snarled at her flippant manner. “Your face is out of fashion. Don’t worry, I’m about to pound you a new one.”
As the most intense combat of her life wore on, Pax found herself falling victim to various techniques that she had never seen Vincent use before. She tried to pay close attention to his maneuvers so that she could emulate them later, but she was so dazed that staying upright required great effort. Were there more moons in the sky now than the last time she looked? She very much missed sparring with Amara and almost always winning. This was just too much.
Every minute was exhausting to the point she could have collapsed. However she continued to struggle to avoid showing the slightest sign of pain, mainly because of who she was with.
“Girl, you can’t keep this up for much longer,” Vincent said pityingly. “Besides, I was kind of hoping to get back to my wife tonight.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, extending a hand to launch a barrage of fireballs in his direction. She winced as the energy to create these projectiles left her body; energy she very much needed. “Our enemies aren’t going to pause the fight so you can have a cuddle-break.”
The man roared and flew at her on the offense, dodging the fireballs and planting his knee into her already bleeding and broken nose before phasing behind her and jabbing his elbow into her spine at the back of her neck. He felt the bones yield a bit beneath his blow and heard her accompanying scream. He laughed.
“Don’t be jealous, girl. It doesn't suit you. You should spend less time lamenting your own loneliness, pathetically pining for my son to warm your bed, and more time studying ancient magicks and improving your control over your prana.”
Pax pulled herself upright, flying away from him and flexing her neck and shoulders. She almost expected every blow he landed to permanently damage her body, and was surprised when she was able to still move the body parts he assaulted. Although she felt fragile, she knew that those were only emotions and fears clouding her judgment. Her body had been designed for this; made to take the abuse of a full-blooded god. It was her heritage—she just had to dig into herself to find where the strength was buried, and pull it to the surface. She let out a battle cry and dove at him again.
Vincent expertly dodged her advances and suggested, “Or maybe I'm wrong.”
She growled and continued trying to hit him. “What?”
“Maybe you should give up on this Pax. Your blood is diluted—you only have an eighth of the deva genes in you. Maybe less. Why don’t you just give up on trying to prove something futile? You’ll never be worthy of fighting alongside me.”
“How can you say that?” Pax asked in disbelief, momentarily getting distracted from the fight. “That’s not fair, Vin—”
The booted foot connecting with her jaw caused her teeth to smash against each other and interrupted her speech.
“Focus, Pax!”
He hadn’t meant it. He was just toying with her—playing on her insecurities. “I’m focused enough!” she said, rubbing her jaw and narrowing her eyes. She pivoted abruptly and managed to mirror his kick precisely, slamming her own foot into his face. She smirked proudly as he spat blood. “I seem to be defending myself perfectly fine. Maybe you should worry about yourself, old man.”
Pax had hardly finished her last syllable before she found herself seeing stars and having her face forced into ice again and again. Vincent abused her like this constantly for about half an hour, and she found herself more and more unable to defend against him. When she thought she would suffocate or be caused permanent brain damage, she felt Vincent yank her bleeding head out of the ground by the hair.
Vincent held Pax up by a handful of her hair clutched in one of his hands and gave her a superior glance. “Do you want to know what I really think of her?”
“Who?” she asked, opening her swollen eyes and coughing crumbled pieces of rock out of her throat. Her scalp hurt from the strain on her hair, but she couldn’t even create any energy beneath her feet to hold her up by levitating.
“Thorn’s new girlfriend,” said Vincent coyly. “Want to know what I think of her?”
He rubbed the back of his free hand over his mouth, haphazardly wiping blood away as he grinned at his weary student.
“I don’t really care to know what you think,” said Pax, as she tried to calm her spinning head and get a handle on her confusion. She couldn’t feel most of her body. She certainly couldn’t fight if she couldn’t access channels of her own prana! She couldn’t fly, but maybe if she could hurt him a tiny bit she could use the seconds to recuperate. Taking three short, fast breaths (she was glad that there was plenty of oxygen in the atmosphere—although she wasn’t exactly sure where she was, she imagined it might be Europa or Rhea) Pax focused on gathering balls of energy into her hands to initiate one of her signature attacks. She had begun to do this as a very young child, and it was the simplest thing she could manage at the moment, as natural to her as walking. Her fingers began to tingle and twitch as she felt the warmth collecting.
Vincent gripped Pax’s hair tighter in his fist, and pulled her close so he could speak into her ear. “I think Medea is very... very nice.”
“What?” asked Pax in surprise. She dropped the energy she was gathering. If she could have read his thoughts she would have known he was lying, but she had no such skill.
“Yes, you heard me. I think she’s perfect for him.”
He’s making fun of me, she realized. He’s trying to use Thorn to make me angry—trying to use my anger to keep me alive. Little does he know! The fact that Vincent’s words still irritated her, and still made her slightly jealous of Medea/Para (regardless of the fact that she was Medea/Para) made her even more vexed. Get a grip, Pax. He’s right. You need to focus. Focus and fight at your maximum. I must be strong for the upcoming battle, whether it’s next week or next year.
I must remember why I’m doing this—we use the insults to push ourselves further, but we are on the same side in the end, she reminded herself. In truth, it was hard to forget. When she was this sensitive, and this far from home, the foreign energy of her enemy was very easy to sense. It made the strength of the Pure God before her, who held her suspended by the hair, seem like nothing. This was chilling. She could see in Vincent’s eyes that he knew it too. He could also feel that their distant opponent was continuing to grow in power.
Suja’s brother, Pax thought grimly. Before I had any idea of who he was, I thought there might be a chance he could be a good person. Someone who didn’t intend to harm us. But Suja herself is already basically invincible to us—how could we possibly deal with something worse than her? What do I do? I can’t beat Vincent. How can I beat someone even stronger? Even after everything we suffered in the Pseudosphere, it wasn’t enough.
“You’re not even worth my time, girl,” sneered the deva king, fully extending his arm and disdainfully twisting his wrist to yank on Pax’s hair even more painfully. “What little goddess blood runs through your veins was wasted on you. Raymond should have tried to conceive another.”
Pax winced at the pain in her scalp, violently beginning to cough. She reached up and saw that her fingers were coated in blood. She should let herself become angry. If she could become angry, it would help. She knew that Vincent was insulting her with her best interests in mind. She knew in her heart that Vincent didn’t mean the words he...
“It is a shame that the Fire Deva’s grandchild turned out to be such a wretched waif. Down on earth, your father must be shaking his head in disappointment at how quickly your energy faded. Thank Sakra, in his infinite wisdom, that you are no longer sleeping with my son! Any other female creature that Thornton could find would be more impressive. Let him cavort with hookers or sheep. I would sooner see him mate with a cow than the likes of you.”
“Ewww. Vincent!” Pax’s prana finally flared naturally, giving her a supernatural burst of inhuman power. “How can you say these things? I was the one who stopped the comet when you failed! Don’t forget about our last battle so easily. You gave up and I prevailed!” She sunk her fingernails into Vincent’s wrist causing him to lose his grip on her hair. She snarled, reaching for his neck with the same nails. “I’ve had enough! I don’t want to hear anything about your stupid son! Forget him and fight me!”