Disclaimer: I don't own Herc or anything related to the movie or show. I do own Lysandra, Adelphos, and (The-One-That-Dubbed-Himself) Apollo.
Thanks everyone for the reviews! You all rock!
Part Nine
The room was very dark, lit only by the warm glow of fire light. Thick, cushioned furniture lined the tall walls, giving the room a small, narrow feel. However, with all the furnishings in the room, only two people occupied it, waiting with rigid backs and pale faces.
Cassandra turned her head slightly, glancing at Hercules's slumped form. An assorted amount of healers had taken them all in at the late hour. They had only briefly looked at her and they spent little time on Herc. After finding nothing broken or fatal, they let him go as well. Cassandra had seen Herc more clearly now that they were here and was quietly shocked at the bruised and battered condition he was in. Just minutes before, they had both been informed that Meg was fine, save severe bruising and a broken wrist, which was currently being mended. Neither one had heard a word about Lysandra or Icarus.
"So . . . what got you?" Cassandra asked quietly.
Herc raised his head, his face dark. "Some sort of dragon like creature. I probably could have taken him easily, but I didn't find him first. He found me,"
"I see." muttered Cassandra, not sure of the tone in his voice. Just by the look on his face, she wasn't going to prod farther.
Silence.
Then Herc finally spoke. "We've been friends for a long time Cassandra,"
"Yep."
"Survived school together,"
"Amazingly enough."
"Are still tackling the real world together."
"What are you getting at Herc?"
"What's been going on with you? And don't say nothing I need to worry about, I know better than that."
She sighed, raising her eyebrows as he looked at her expectantly. Her tired and tried mind was willing to crash and give in and as a final note of reluctance she turned her eyes away and stared straight ahead, holding her head in her hands. Hercules was about to speak before she bluntly cut him off. "You really want to know? Fine. You would have found out anyway when the time came."
She stood up then, her back to him. She didn't want to see his face, didn't want to see the look he gave her. She knew already how worried he would be and could already hear what he might be saying . . .
"I haven't had a vision since you started going on your heroic missions. Instead, I get massive headaches. I always thought the two might be related. However, Lysandra and many other seers never thought so, simply because nothing like that has ever happened before. So, I blew it off and dealt with it. Just this morning, Lysandra came to me with a vision . . ." she sighed heavily and lowered her voice, somewhat amazed at all that had happened today. "She saw me dead,"
She let the silence drag on, feeling the heaviness of his stare against her back. For a moment, she struggled with what to say next and then, leapt straight into more recent events. "She thought it might be the headaches and even dragged me to a doctor. Then, she had another vision and I was murdered. I was at your house and you weren't there, and Meg and I . . . well, you know it from there."
The silence dragged on, seemingly endless. Cassandra didn't move and she heard a distinct stop of breath behind her. She didn't want to know what was going through his head.
"So . . . so, I mean, that's passed now, right?" Herc stammered after a long moment, his voice weak. "We stopped that vision from happening . . . you're safe now?"
She sighed, bowing her head. "No Herc, not necessarily. Lysandra's visions can take place anywhere from one to two, perhaps three days. Sometimes four."
She heard him moving behind her; probably some sort of nervous movement of his. "This is my fault . . ."
She turned sharply, her eyes catching his fiercely and she lunged forward, pressing a finger into his chest, surprising Hercules with the sudden motion. "Don't you ever say that again . . . you are in no way at fault in this. How can you blame yourself? If anything, the blame should be put on my shoulders, not yours!"
She drew away and he stood up. "No, I should . . . I should have went after him. What if he comes back?"
"There were lives at stake, Herc! Meg and I couldn't have taken everyone done here by ourselves. Come on, you know that. And Phil and Pegasus stayed at the house, don't beat yourself up about it."
"But Cassandra . . . he hurt all of you! That's . . ."
"That's my fault," she muttered deeply, in a tone that cut Hercules off. She turned away from him again. "He was going for me. And everyone intervened and ultimately, they all got hurt and I didn't. This is all wrong! Don't you see? If I would have-"
"Cass, don't . . ."
"No!" she turned on him sharply again, her eyes flaring. "If it wasn't for me, Meg would not be hurt right now. You wouldn't have been so distracted that you were unprepared and you wouldn't have gotten hurt like you did. If it wasn't for me, Lysandra wouldn't be hanging on a thin life thread right now. If it wasn't for me . . ." she paused, in mid gesticulation and relaxed her arms, regarding him almost uncertainly. "If it wasn't for me, Icarus would not be . . . hurt. That annoying louse . . ."
He put a hand on her shoulder but she drew away from him, if a little meekly. She sat back down with her back to him, her knees drawn up to her chin. Hercules could only gaze at her sadly and was left without anything to say. Still locked in some sort of tension, he, to, sat again, drawing his eyes to the floor, wishing for something to happen, to just break the silence. . .
Cassandra, meanwhile, was wrapped up in her own thoughts. He, whoever "he" was, had come after her. Had intentionally come there for her. How ironic was it that she was the only one not to be hurt? The picture of Lysandra's unconscious form was carved deeply into her memory, the sound of Meg's wrist cracking forever replayed through her thoughts. And she couldn't bear to bring herself to remember the sound of Icarus's cry, the sight of him struggling . . . for her . . .
All for her. It wasn't right.
Anger boiled inside her now as she quietly reflected on what had happened. What was it about her that made someone want to kill her? What had she done? Now that she thought about it, it made sense to go after those around her, harming those close to her. It didn't matter why anymore, she frankly didn't care. No one hurt her friends; no one dared get close enough to use them even. And now Hercules knew what was going on and, like she guessed he might, had blamed himself. The legendary hero that couldn't save his friends.
Her murderer would pay for that, to.
Funny, she thought for a moment, that she think of this person as her murderer. Other people might be afraid, might go directly to authority. They might come to Hercules. But not her- she wanted to face this by herself. She had relied so much on Lysandra in the past, had listened to her today. And now she was paying for being there for her. Cassandra wasn't about to let this go any farther.
If it was her he wanted, it was her he would get.
And he would regret it.
"Meg!"
She came out of her thoughts to the sound of Herc's tired voice and turned her head around to see Meg coming out of a doorway on the far right, her wrist and arm bandaged. Hercules was quickly on his feet to meet her, a squat woman clothed in white waddling close after. The couple embraced and Cassandra joined them as the nurse looked about to explain something.
"I'm sorry to say that nothing can be said right now about your other two friends."
"What does that mean?" Cassandra interjected hastily.
The woman looked up at her through pudgy eyes, her thin lips tightening. "They are in bad condition, the woman more so than the other, I'm afraid."
"But they are going to be all right? Both of them?" Cassandra prompted.
"It's too early to tell hon," whispered the nurse.
Cassandra shook her head angrily and didn't retort. She was deaf as Herc and Meg asked the nurse a few questions and fell back into her thoughts again. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense to leave soon but she was reluctant to leave without knowing how Lysandra and Icarus were doing. If something happened . . . which it wouldn't . . . she wanted to be here. But since it wasn't, and she didn't want Lysandra knowing what she was doing, perhaps now was even the best time to track down her new enemy. But what if something did happen? She rubbed her head, agitated with herself. And this time, there was no way she could let Herc know or Meg for that matter. He would stop her, or go with her, or talk her out of it. She was adamant on this one.
"Cass, are you alright?"
She looked up at Herc and nodded. "Yeah, just fine. Say, what are two going to do tonight?"
"Well," Herc looked at Meg then back at Cass. "I think I'll check how Phil's doing and I'll probably come back here."
Meg nodded. "Sounds good to me,"
Cassandra sighed. "Okay. Yeah, I was going to stay here for the night to."
"There are some empty rooms upstairs," said the nurse in a motherly like way. "You three just go on and make yourselves as comfortable as you can. If anything changes, we'll let you know."
Herc and Meg said their thanks and retreated from the room. Cassandra stood back, contemplating. Funny, wasn't it, how they said "if anything changes." They don't say something like "if they are getting any better." They were going to be alright, she was sure of it. Nothing bad was going to happen.
Nothing bad could happen, because Cassandra was leaving now to avenge them.
