Jade rounded the corner to spy the door to Eris' room ajar, Aria standing in the doorway. She had been delayed, having made a pit stop in the kitchen for an icepack for her knuckles. She slowed her pace as she approached; she could hear a commotion coming from within the goddess' room. Aria extended her hand as she neared to prevent her from entering. "She's understandably pissed. At you," she explained sternly as Jade sidled up next to her to peek inside.
"Oh, please," Jade scoffed, shouldering past the elder and pushing the door open wide. "Is the all-powerful goddess complaining about a sucker punch from a miserable hybrid?" Inside, Eris was perched on the edge of her bed. The knot on her cheek was swollen, angry and purple from her recent thrashing. She whipped her head in Jade's direction and narrowed her eyes dangerously. Jade smirked.
Tori stood, clearly frazzled and arms crossed, against the wall next to the door. Her was etched with concern, her gaze locked on the goddess possessing her sister. "Here's some ice, Adonis, it'll help the swelling." Jade tossed her the icepack, which she caught midair.
"So smug, Jade. I encourage you to cross this line again. I have no powers, but I have eons of experience torturing mortals the good old-fashioned way." She held the pack to her face and turned her smoldering glare to Tori. "I don't know what you see in her, really."
"Jade says you may have an idea of what we're dealing with, Eris," Aria interrupted from the doorway.
"No. Not you. Out," Eris commanded with a dismissive wave of her hand.
The elder threw her hands up in frustration and retreated back a few steps. "She said she won't speak if I'm in the room," she explained with a huff as Jade looked to her questioningly.
"It's excruciating enough to have to speak to these two, and you're even more intolerable. If it's possible." She shot a brief, withering glance in Tori's direction before refocusing her attention on Aria. "Make yourself useful. Go get me a Diet Coke."
"Maybe after you tell us something useful," Aria replied.
"If you want me to tell you anything at all I'll need a Diet Coke. I'm very parched after my assault." She rubbed her throat dramatically.
The elder sighed heavily and begrudgingly did as she was told. The three of them could hear her stomping down the hallway. "So dramatic," Eris smirked.
"You're one to talk," Jade commented.
"Says the girl who just violently attacked me," Eris snapped.
"I barely touched you!"
"Does this look like barely to you?" The goddess yanked the icepack from her face and jabbed at her cheek.
"Will you both calm down? You're both dramatic!" Tori barked.
Jade flinched at the anger in her voice; it was rare to hear it, even rarer to hear it directed at her. Eris seemed to take note. "Oh, please. You share your soul with a millennia-old demon. This pair of doe eyes has you whipped?" She could feel her cheeks darkening in humiliation as she was teased. She opened her mouth to reply only to be stopped by those doe eyes burning a hole through the side of her head.
"We're all over a century old. Could we please act like it?" The youngest hybrid chided. Jade sighed in agreement; Eris rolled her eyes to the ceiling but remained silent. "Thank you. Tr-Eris," she slipped, "how are you awake?"
"As effective as that sleeping charm was, it didn't quite block out all the telepathic screaming. 'We are coming. Apocalypse. Humanity's reign is over.' Blah, blah, blah. You know, being on the receiving end of it makes me realize how corny the whole 'the end is nigh' speech is. Noted. Won't put in the effort next time," Eris explained. She crossed her legs and reclined back on the bed.
"And you know who was speaking?" Tori pushed, disregarding her last comment.
Eris winked. "I have an idea. But I'm not giving up a bargaining chip this big without something in return."
"She's lying, Tori. It's Eris. You know she's lying," Jade argued with a slight shake of her head.
"Am I, though? Or am I your first and, lets be honest, only lead?" She smirked.
"We haven't gone through their things yet. Their spellbook," Tori countered.
"How long have they been here, exactly? Why haven't the elders buried their greasy noses in it yet? My guess is that they can't." She was met with both Tori and Jade's blank stare in response and released a frustrating groan. "You're too low on the totem pole to know and… gods, you're not on the totem pole at all. Is one of the greasy elders standing out in the hallway?" She called.
Aria appeared in the doorway, clearly having been eavesdropping. Her cheeks were pink and her hair disheveled; she'd clearly sprinted to the kitchen and back so she might catch more of the conversation. "Where's my soda?" She wordlessly stepped between Tori and Jade and offered the bottle to her. "Thank you," she singsonged as she cracked the seal and took a sip. "Now. I hear you have a spellbook. How's that going for you?"
"Well enough," Aria replied stiffly.
"Liar. You can't translate it, can you?" Eris teased.
"We're…working on it."
"It'll be over by the time you butcher the first sentence. Bring it to me," she demanded.
Aria scoffed. "In what world would we permit you access to such delicate materials?"
"Uh, this one. If you want to keep it. Isn't that your whole agenda?" The elder crossed her arms stubbornly. "Hello? Ancient goddess? Saw the birth and death of civilizations and languages that didn't make the history books? This is me calling your bluff. Book. Now. Chop chop." She snapped her fingers impatiently.
All eyes were on Aria as the seconds passed with escalating gravity. "Fine," she finally sighed. Jade watched with mild amusement as she exited without another word. Eris was intolerable, but it did give her some joy to watch her treat the council like her errand boys.
"How many of those civilizations did you ruin personally?" Tori asked.
Jade studied her silently. She hadn't seen this Tori since the incident at Pandora. When she was around Eris, a conscious Eris, at least, she held herself in an entirely different manner. She treated the goddess like a dangerous disease; she never exposed herself to risk danger, never laid her usual compassion and understanding on the table as tools for negotiation. Cold, hard, sterile. Three words Jade had never been able to attribute to Tori embodied her entirely at this moment.
"Only a handful," Eris grinned.
"Why are you offering to help?" Jade finally spoke up. Amusement aside, it didn't escape her that Eris had no reason to assist them. No reason they could detect yet, anyway.
Eris' brows twitched. "For my love of humanity, of course."
"Eris," Tori snapped impatiently, "what do you want?"
"This world, obviously. Do you remember the whole apocalypse effort a few months ago?"
"You know that's not going to happen. If they can't exorcise you then you'll be down here until… gods, will you ever die?" Jade countered.
"I don't know," Eris replied truthfully, as if the idea hadn't yet occurred to her. She shrugged her shoulders. "And this is assuming that I won't escape at some point… which, I guarantee, I will. Maybe by killing a guard. Or seducing one," she winked again, this time in Jade's direction.
Jade, in response, stepped closer to the younger Latina, as if subconsciously reminding the three of them who was with whom. "Stop making my girlfriend uncomfortable," Tori ordered before throwing an appreciative glance in Jade's direction.
"Aw, but, Tori. We're sisters. We share everything," Eris pouted mischievously. "Can't we share her too?"
"Eris!" Tori snapped. "Jade's right. You're never leaving this room. Why are you offering to help save a world you'll never see again?"
"You're an idiot," Eris sighed and took another swig of her drink. "If you're going to keep looking this gift horse in the mouth I have no problem taking it back. Enjoy your apocalypse." She waved them away dismissively and reclined on a stack of pillows. "Piss off."
Aria appeared breathlessly in the door at that moment, book in hand. "Are you kidding me?" She puffed in frustration. "I was gone for two minutes and you pissed her off already?"
"They decided my input wasn't valuable enough. Good luck in your efforts, Guardians. And whatever you are, Jade," the goddess chided.
"Both of you. Out here. Now," Aria ordered, gesturing to the hallway.
"But—" Tori began.
"Now!"
Tori exited without another word and Jade followed, pulling the door closed behind her. "Wait!" Eris called. The pale girl looked back expectantly, hand on the knob. "Can I get some vodka for this soda?"
"I don't care if she is a goddess, I'm going to kill her." Jade seethed as they shut the door to their own (hopefully) temporary room.
"Jade," Tori muttered. Jade could hear the exhaustion in her voice as she lowered herself onto the loveseat.
"Yes, Jade," Aria reiterated.
"You both know she's up to something!" She countered defensively. "Eris doesn't help out of the goodness of her heart."
"The council will have no problem striking a reasonable bargain with her if it means she will help," admitted Aria.
"She's right, then. You can't read the text," Tori guessed.
The elder sighed and eased down onto the foot of the bed. "It doesn't match any of the languages in our codex. Even our Guardians in direct communication with their souls don't recognize it. It's seriously ancient. We need Eris' help."
"Why should we even trust her?" Jade argued.
"It's clear she wants something," Tori suggested. "Why else would she rescind her offer instead of just lying to our faces about what's in the text?"
"Because she's evil." Blue eyes stared dumbly at Tori.
"Some here would argue that about you as well, Jade," Aria reminded.
Her gaze shifted and hardened at the elder's comment. "Yeah, the stupid ones. She's actually evil. An evil goddess. Eris comma goddess of chaos. Look her up."
"Regardless," The Latina interrupted, "she's not stupid. She knows what's up and it's concerned her enough to make her consider working with us for now."
"At a cost she hasn't informed us of yet, though. What if there's some ancient spell in that book that'll turn us all into frogs? Are you really willing to put that into her hands? She could turn all the Guardians into frogs, escape, and get back on her merry way to world domination," Jade pressed.
"Frogs?" Aria perked her brow skeptically.
"Obviously not frogs. I was illustrating my point," Jade sighed. She followed Tori's suit and flopped down on the loveseat ungraciously and crossed her arms. "I don't think it's a good idea. Kill the necromancers. Call it a day. Problem solved."
"We're not killing anyone," Aria disagreed firmly. "I don't trust her either, Jade, none of us do. But Tori's got a point. She knows something. Maybe we could work out a bargain."
The three settled into an uncomfortable silence; Jade, defeated, watched the seconds tick by on the clock above Aria's head. "I should discuss this with the others. I'm going to round them all up again. I'll come for you when we've reached an agreement," the elder muttered after a moment. Tori nodded and Jade grunted in response, and Aria made her way from the room and pulled the door closed gently behind her.
Jade leaned her elbow on the armrest and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was getting a stress headache. "I can't believe you punched my sister in the face," she heard Tori sigh in exasperation.
"Yes, you can," Jade responded, closing her eyes. "I hit her in the face with a bat the last time I saw her." She felt the couch bounce as Tori repositioned herself, draping her legs across Jade's lap and laying her head on the opposite armrest. "I don't like this, Tor, she's not safe."
"I know. I'm sorry," the younger girl muttered softly. "I'm sorry I dragged you into more Guardian business," she added after a moment.
"Stop. You didn't." Jade looked at her to find her staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Aria's right, you know. If you stick with me this might happen again. We're always on apocalypse duty."
"Then I'll decide when I've had enough of it. Don't give yourself too much credit, Vega," Jade forced a smile to try and cheer her up. "I could have left you in New York hopelessly lost months ago and I could have dropped you off here and teleported to a beach somewhere. I stuck around because I part of me obviously wanted to," she promised.
"Well, you're not exactly acting like it," Tori countered.
"I didn't say a big part of me wanted to." She rubbed the younger girl's legs encouragingly. "Look. I hate this place. I hate bureaucracy. I hate secrets unless I'm the one keeping them. And I hate the whole team-spirit-all-for-one-one-for-all vibe they force on you while having no problem throwing you under a bus. That's why I left the Guardians. I didn't necessarily want to leave you."
"Yes, you did. You hated me," Tori argued. Jade could hear the tightness in her voice.
"Okay, yes. I hated you. But I hated everything back then except for like... Beck. That was part of it too, Tori. I don't have Tinkerbell in my head cheering me on. I've got the boogey man. Every day was a fight for my sanity, and it didn't help that the council didn't trust me at all. They treated me like a time bomb. If I'd stayed with the Guardians I know I would have gone feral." She reached for Tori's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "So, no," she continued. "I'm not ecstatic to be back here. But I know this isn't my gig. It's yours. I'm just along for the ride this time. It's fine."
Tori finally tore her gaze from the ceiling and settled it on Jade. She could see the reluctant hope in her eyes. "I just... I don't know. I don't want to come back from a mission one day and have you be gone again. Get too tired of the Guardian stuff and just take off."
"I don't think that's going to happen." The pair fell silent. They both already knew this about themselves; they were bonded. More than friends, more than lovers, they had created something all those years ago that night Jade had disappeared. They didn't vocalize it much—they didn't have to—but they both felt better when the other was near. Whole. Safe. Jade, as unreliably flighty as she could be at times, didn't want to experience that kind of hollow loneliness ever again.
"You like me," Tori smiled after a moment.
"Shut up," Jade huffed.
"You liiiiike me," she teased again.
"You're all right sometimes," she conceded.
"You miss me when I'm gone."
"Not really. I get the whole bed to myself," Jade dismissed casually.
"I've come in late before and seen you cuddling my pillow in your sleep," Tori revealed.
"Shut up," Jade ordered, pinching her calf through her jeans. The younger girl yelped and kicked her legs out of Jade's lap, hauling herself upright and planting a kiss on her pale cheek.
"I like you too," she whispered, leaning her head on Jade's shoulder.
Jade huffed and rolled her eyes before finding Tori's hand again and lacing their fingers together. "Good."