A/N: I hate to upset you all, but you asked for drama and I figured you know what, I'll give you drama. Please don't hate me.
Aphrodite awoke once more in her bed and rolled over in hopes of enfolding herself in Zoey's long, loving arms. When she rolled over, she didn't feel the familiar warmth of her lover but the cool of something wet and sticky. She jolted into full awareness and switched on the light on her nightstand. She saw something that shook her in horror and fear. Blood, fresh and cool. Not much that she felt that her lover had bled out and was now dead, but enough to pool and not soak all the way into her expensive, Egyptian cotton sheets.
She couldn't find her voice. Her eyes welled with tears, tears of uncertainty; tears of shear disbelief and hatred. Where could her lover be? Where was Zoey? There was only one thing of which she was most definitively certain: Neferet was involved. But how had it happened this way? How? She had a vision and those never foretold anything false unless they changed the path they were headed down. They hadn't had time… If only they had started immediately with their plans… Maybe Zoey would still be with her now.
Aphrodite jumped out of bed. She headed toward the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. When her vision fully focused she noticed that in the center of her pale forehead, the exact place where her Mark once sat, a pair of horns… Those of a bull had been carved there…
She screamed with gusto, reached quickly for the hand soap set at the sink. She scrubbed and clawed at the symbol, hoping that it would be washed away. When she splashed the cool water on her face that ran from the tap, she felt a sting that surpassed all others. It was almost as if the purity of the water was repelled by the terrible symbol.
She raised her head to look at it once more in the mirror only to find the carved flowing and ebbing fresh blood. This made it seem all the more evil. Darkness had been used against her in her sleep… Neferet had been inches from her and had taken Zoey from her, but not before hurting the one she held most dear. She hurt Zoey. She hurt her right beside her.
She began to sob and sunk into the floor of her posh bathroom.
"Why?! Why didn't I wake up?!" Aphrodite was screaming this at the ceiling. She had slept through the pain, the kidnapping of her girlfriend, and the torture of her just before…
She crawled into the shower, the sudden need to scrub herself all over consuming her every thought. Neferet was breathing the same air as her. Watched over her and had drawn her and her lover's blood in the bed that they shared. She had to wash that off, the blood and the fear… The film that seemed to cascade over every inch of her, the film of Darkness and evil, Aphrodite needed to cleanse.
Aphrodite lay on the tile inside of her shower as she tore off her clothes and turn on the water as hot as it would go. If germs were killed with heat she hoped that Darkness could be, too. She knew it was irrational, but her mind was elsewhere. She wondered why her vision was wrong. Why she hadn't been warned correctly.
As the water fell all over her body, her tears fell silently. She gasped and hiccupped every now and then, but stayed quiet for the most part as she scrubbed at her skin. Her only thought was to get clean.
She spent hours inside that shower, the water running cold just an hour in. A had subsequently rubbed her skin raw and in places her skin was weeping blood. She finally turned off the water and slunk out on her hands and knees and lay in the floor.
She had no hope left. She didn't feel clean and knew within hours, if not already, her lover would be dead.
She could barely move, but knew she had one last thing she had to do. If she couldn't become clean and couldn't be with Zoey, maybe she could be with her in Nyx's Realm.
Aphrodite crawled into her room and rifled through her drawers until she found her box cutter. She had used it so many times to open the things she ordered so frivolously, now it would be the closing of her life.
She had no purpose without Zoey. None. She clutched it to her heart, rose, and walked with conviction to her bed to lay next to the place she last saw Zoey.
She slid the blade up and ran it first in a pentagram shape over the two horns, that symbol would not define her in death. She then dug the blade beneath a beautiful cerulean vein on her wrist and sweeping it up and severing it. The blood flowed red and free. She smiled as she watched her blood as it mingled with that of her missing girlfriend. Her eyes slowly shut as she sunk deeply into the waves of death that were sweeping her out to sea. She was free of it all and would soon be with Zoey again. All was right with Aphrodite as her heart finally stalled and she passed into the Otherworld.
~~~~~ In a Dungeon within Tulsa~~~~~
Zoey awoke to the sound of a loud and unnerving laugh. She felt her body aching and throbbing with pain. As her mind cleared she realized she was no longer next to her lover in bed, but in a dungeon separated from every comfort she'd ever known.
Grey cobble stones surrounded her creating the barrier between herself and the rest of the world, more importantly, her and Aphrodite. She felt wetness at her forehead and moved her hand to wipe it away. She brought it down to eye level to find blood smeared over her fingers. She heard the laughter again and looked up to find Neferet standing before her.
"Well, well if it isn't the little bitch whelp. Where's your Prophetess now?"
Zoey looked at the Fallen Priestess in disbelief, why was she here? She wasn't supposed to end up here this way. They were supposed to take A, well, try at least, she'd never let that happen. Why had she been taken? When?
"I suppose you're still a tad groggy from your nap, so I'll help you put this together. Your play thing, Aphrodite is it? Well, she didn't quite have one of her prophetic visions from the Goddess, she had one from yours truly," Neferet gave a smirk that sent a chill down Zoey's spine.
"I manipulated her dreams by using Darkness and made it seem as though she were seeing the future."
"B-but her eyes… And she said it seemed so real." Zoey's mind was reeling; there was no way that Neferet could manipulate her that much.
"Oh, but Darkness has such immense and limitless powers, just like your Light." Neferet scoffed as she spoke the opposite of what she sided with, as though she didn't believe it held the power that it did.
"I intervened, thought if I sent you two down the wrong path, you'd be lulled into a false sense of security. Seems I was right. You two slept so soundly, even when I mutilated the both of you and swept away with you. Aphrodite barely stirred. I'm sure she's awakened to see all the blood you left behind. Pity really, that I couldn't mess with her more, but I have a feeling she's done a number on herself. More than I could ever do. The human mind does more destruction than anyone can hand down physically, immortal or otherwise."
Zoey felt tears spilling from her dark eyes as she listened to Neferet tell her how she'd sealed herself and Aphrodite's fate. She had them. Now they'd both die and there would be no hope for the rest of the world. If A had really killed herself, then Zoey had already lost and wouldn't try and fight… She couldn't without A…
"Did she kill herself?" Zoey whispered not wanting to ask and not wanting to know the answer. But she had to know. She needed to know if her fight was truly over. If it was time to give up and let the world be Neferet's problem.
Neferet looked down at Zoey with a crazed look in her eye, like the pain that Zoey felt at her core gave her more pleasure than the pain she would soon inflict. It was the death of her conviction that Neferet most wanted and it would soon happen. She wanted to savor it.
"As I have been so attentive to you and your lover, I can tell you that she awoke to find you gone. She found your blood and the Mark I gave her and proceeded to wash herself until she bled –"
Zoey gasped and felt her heart jump in her chest when she heard how broken A was… This couldn't end well. Neferet just smiled with more vigor.
"As I was saying, she washed herself until she bled. Then she retrieved a box cutter, carved a pentagram over the Mark I left and finally killed herself by way of exsanguination."
At that Zoey wailed in grief. She knew that A had given up as she was right this moment. A knew that she would die… That they would both be reunited in the Otherworld. They would be together again and that gave Zoey her reassurance until she was finally killed, where she would be at peace and with the one she truly loved.
Neferet saw all of these emotions flash across Zoey's face. She relished in the defeat that Zoey so openly displayed. Nothing paralleled the way it felt to watch the one she'd hated most for so long give in to her, allow her to extinguish her, end her.
"I guess this is how it ends. You lose everything and I gain the world. I gain the control. I gain the key to spreading Darkness!" With that she moaned with pleasure so unbounded. She smiled brightly, like the thought of spreading chaos was beautiful and glorious.
"You gain all of that except love is within everyone. Love will always be present. Love and chaos have forever kept a healthy balance and even when I'm gone and the war begins, love will still ring true in Nyx's follower's hearts. Love made Aphrodite and I possible and will keep us together in death. Love made my success possible, because Nyx helped her Chosen Daughter. You may have beaten me but only because my love guides me elsewhere, but you haven't beaten love. The love of a Goddess who allows these choices to be made and allowed you to choose Darkness. Without her, you'd be nothing, and without me you'll still have to fight and you'll still find strife. You may have power, but that doesn't guarantee victory. So kill me. Kill one person of many. But do not forget that love is alive in all." With that Zoey shed her final tear and lay down.
She was ready to be with the one she loved most and so done with dealing with the bitch who had fucked with her life for much too long. So many had died at her hand for no reason, too many.
Neferet frowned but rallied in that she had finally defeated Zoey. With all the power within herself and that of Darkness around her, she hurled it all at Zoey, ending the spark of life that had caused her so many troubles and had obstructed her tyranny for too Neferet saw of her enemy was a bloody body, but one thing was still visible: Her filled in Mark and her eyes full of an unending strength. Neferet kicked the body so she couldn't see its eyes and left, nothing left for her in the dungeon.
Zoey and Aphrodite were no more.
A/N: I told you guys that I had to do it. I hope you liked it. If you want one last chapter of them together in the Otherworld, I will oblige. If enough of you beg, I'll make it sensational. We'll see where you want this to go, if you want it to go further. I hope you liked it, I love you all!
