The second I open my eyes, I instantly feel my mood sour.

I lay there in my bed, debating to actually get up or just spend my day off sleeping the day away. Where I don't want to put up with anything, or anyone. Especially the Gods.

It was because of them, or mainly, Scorpio that has me in such a bad mood. I left the mansion yesterday, frustrated with the events that happened, with how Scorpio spoke to me. I couldn't let it go, I couldn't stop thinking about it which ended up me going to sleep angry.

However, the grumbling of my stomach forces me to drag my body out of bed and make something to eat. Just simple toast and jam, that I munch on while, with a fluffy blanket wrapped around me, I curl up on the couch and flick on the T.V. The second the T.V comes to life, a news program comes on and talks about that politician, nearly killed….or 'punished' yesterday.

I read the ticker at the bottom of the screen. "…Corrupt politician's embezzled money revealed in accident."

Then the reporter on the screen speaks. "I never thought what he had been up to would be revealed like that."

The pundit speaks next. "I bet he can't believe it either. This must be what people mean when they talk about 'divine punishment'."

"Oh, shut up." I turn down the volume on the T.V. Feeling disgusted as the words 'divine punishment' was brought up.

"So, all that stuff Scorpio said was true…" I sigh as I look up at my ceiling. "Not that I doubted him in the first place Tilting my head to look at the T.V, I see the politician man being arrested and the bleak expression he wears. "I bet he thinks his life is over, now he's just a sad pitiful man. It's his own fault." I coldly say. "But it seems unfair to allow a god to have that much power over humans, to which he hates so much, to dole out a divine punishment."

I slowly close my eyes and Scorpio appears. The moment from yesterday when we stood at the reflecting pool, the look on his face…

I open my eyes again. "None of us have even been anything more than nameless goldfish to the gods…what a goddamn joke." I say angrily as I throw the blanket off of me.

"The Gods don't understand us anymore than we humans understand them." I chuckle to myself. "So those are the type of God's people have been praying to all this time…. if only they knew."

Looking back at the T.V out of curiosity, the news report has ended and the weather forecast comes on. I sit back up and turn up the volume a bit.

The weather forecaster woman, comes on to the screen. "With tonight's weather we have clear skies even our city residents should be able to view the meteor shower. Events like this only happen once a year. Keep your eyes on the stars and don't forget to make a wish!"

"Ugh. give me a break." I say in repulsion, as I switch off the T.V and get up, picking up the blanket and wearing it like a cloak.

As I go to try and return to my room to hibernate someone appears in front of me.

"Lady Abbey!" Altair shouts excitedly.

"Whoa!" I jump back. "How…when…did you…?" I point at me, then looking at my locked front door.

He laughs. "I came in through your balcony."

I look at my opened door balcony. "What?! That's dangerous! I live on the sixth floor?"

"It's okay, I can fly." He smiles kindly.

I smile back at the adorable min-god. "All right."

Talking to this little kid perks up my mood, until he says something that gets me depressed again.

"Lady Abbey! Scorpio wants to see you!" Altair cheers, with a can-do attitude.

"Hmm…no." I walk away, heading straight into my room.

"W-wait! Please!" Altair cries out as he pulls on the blanket.

"I'm not going. Too bad so sad." I speak coldly.

Altair appears in front of me, blocking me from going into my room. "Scorpio will get mad at me! Please!" He looks up at me with puppy-dog like eyes, and I find it impossible to look away.

Later…

Unenthusiastically, I enter the God's mansion, dragging my feet through the foyer and the gods from the Department of Punishments are there to greet me."

"Morning, Abbey." Dui softly greets me.

I give a half-hearted wave as I have no enticement to be here. "Good morning, Dui"

"Hellooo Goddess!" Ichthys calls out excitedly.

"Hi…Ichthys."

I can't help but be a little happy when I see these two since I find them so easy to get along with and nice to talk to, even if they're stuck with that jerk, Scorpio.

Then Ichthys drops the bomb. "Did Scorpio summon you again?"

I groan, rubbing the back of my neck. "Yeah…apparently."

Dui looks concerned. "I hope everything is okay."

"What's that suppose to mean?" I ask, suddenly curious.

"Well…" Ichthys pauses for a moment, looking at Dui before continuing. "Scorpio is NOT a morning person.

"Kinda' took him as NOT being any type of person." I joke.

"He's usually so perfect and invincible. You'd never guess he had a weakness, right?"

"Huh…you don't say." I smirk at the thought of that callous jerk having a weakness.

Ichthys points in the direction of the stairs. "Go up those stairs. Scorpio's room is the third door on the right. You'd better hurry and wake him up. If not, you'll be waiting for hours."

"Hm…" I go over my choices and is tempted to not bother and go back home but a worrisome Altair stands next to me. "All, right."

I thank the gods and unwillingly walk towards Scorpio's room.

I stand at the third door on the right, also known as being Scorpio's room. I take in a sharp breath and knock twice.

"Scorpio…" I call out. "It's me…Abbey. Better known to you as your handy-dandy tool."

"Mm-hm…"

I hear the response of an unfriendly voice from inside, and it makes me think that he has just woken up, but unfortunately, he's woken up on the wrong side of the bed.

I grip the door handle. "I would leave, but Altair made a big deal out of it…so I'm coming in."

I open the door and walk into the room. Right as I enter and shut the door behind me, on the other side of the room, near the window, I see a shirtless Scorpio there.

"Ooooh, my god!" In surprise, I shout as try to avert my eyes.

"You keep me waiting, and now you scream at me instead of saying hello. It's too early in the morning for this crap, woman." Scorpio says, seeming pretty annoyed.

He stands there glaring at me.

"Sorry…its…er…" I'm stumbling over my words, unsure of what to say, as my mind draws a blank but only gives me images of Scorpio's body. To which I can't help but steal glances at.

From when he wears his clothes he just looks slender, but now he's got a tight, toned masculine build.

Then when he gets a good look at me, as he walks towards me, tousling his hair.

"Do you mind putting a shirt on now?" I say nervously. "No shirt, no shoes, no service, buddy." I come back with a smart-ass comment.

"You're looking at my body an awful lot…for someone who just told at me to put a shirt on. Quit staring pervert."

"I'm not! Besides, you shouldn't have let me in your room if you weren't decent! Geez. Altair brought me here by your orders, so I did, okay?"

When I avert my eyes, I happen to notice something on his shoulder. There, like a tattoo is an ominous design printed there.

"Cool…tattoo." I say, trying to make things a little more lighthearted.

"Hm? Oh…" Scorpio realizes what I'm talking about as he glances at his shoulder. "This is the mark the king branded me with. It's because of this pain in the ass that I can't use my powers. And I won't be able to return until this mark is gone…"

"Oh…um…" I stop myself. What the hell do I say to that?

Suddenly, Scorpio sits down in a chair and scowls at me. "If you can absolve me of my sin, I can return to the heavens. I want to get the hell off this filthy lower plane as soon as possible."

Even though his words are harsh, I get a sense there's something more that he's not letting on. Feeling like there's a reason why he despises earth so much.

I sigh. "Listen, I know we got off on the wrong foot, and like I said before, I have no freakin' clue how to help you…"

Scorpio looks disappointed as he casts his eyes away. "Stupid woman…Well, I'm not expecting anything out of you anymore!"

I curl my hands into fists. "Then what was the point of bringing me here then?"

"Work."

"Perfect. Just what I was hoping to do on my day off."

"Today's job had to be done in person."

I raise an eyebrow, confused. "We're not using the reflecting pool this time?"

"Pollutants from Earth screwed with the pool and clouded the water. Ichthys and Dui are fixing it now."

"Ah…so your not only gods, but your plumbers too." I nod my head.

Scorpio ignores my joke. "This is so goddamn annoying…I can't believe I have to go all the way out there, just to punish some rotten to the core, piece of shit human."

"And I thought I cursed to much, Please, continue, tell me how much you hate humans even more than you've already let on."

"How else should I describe shitty humans?"

"Try using different vocabulary?" I shrug.

Muttering complaint to himself, Scorpio starts to get dressed.

I wonder what kind of punishments I'll see today. Will someone get beat up? Murdered? Attacked by a bear that escaped the zoo?

As scenarios play through my head, I just know that Scorpio's punishments will be brutal.

"Time to go." Scorpio says, walking quickly out of the room.

AS I feel like my feet are stuck in cement, I watch as he walks away,.

"What are you standing around for?" He asks turning around to face me.

I sigh, my eyes casting to the side. "Nothing…"

Scorpio walks to my side, wrapping a forceful arm around my waist, then lifting his hand like he's going to stroke my hair.

huh? This is sudden, what is he doing?

But then I hear a snap next to my ear.

I feel dizzy as the scene before me changes. Scorpio and I are in the shadow of a tree in front of a store.

"I'm never going to get use to that." I say to myself as I look around. "Are we hiding? Is this what you call hiding?" I ask Scorpio.

Seeing other people walk by throwing disdainful looks our way, I find that me and Scorpio make for an odd pair. A ordinary 20-something year old girl, with him, a tall man wearing cosplay.

"Shut up. Don't open your mouth. Don't even breathe."

"What the hell? Don't breathe? Sure okay, I'll just hold my breath and die under this tree then." I say mockingly.

"That's him." Scorpio ignores me, once again, as he turns his eyes to a lone man.

The suspicious man looks around nervously both his hands in his pockets.

"What did this guy do?"

"He stole a knife from this store here. He has it in his pocket."

"Ah…a shoplifter. You could tell by looking at him?" I ask.

"Tch…who do you think I am?" Scorpio glares.

I break from Scorpio's intense gaze as I mumble. "I don't think you want me to answer that." I stare at the man along with Scorpio, trying to think what Scorpio may plan to do. "So, what are you going to do to stop him? Shoplifting is a common crime…so his punishment can't be that bad, right?"

Scorpio doesn't answer for a moment. "He's going to stat randomly attacking passersby"

I feel my blood run cold. "No way. Then we have to do something now."

"What should we do?" Scorpio asks me.

I'm caught off guard. Unsure if this is a trick or not.

"Umm…" I think.

Scorpio asks again but with more detail. "What would you do if you found someone who was about to commit a crime?"

"Well…for a crime like this…I would stop them. If I knew then there was no way I could just pretend like I didn't see it happening. I would call the cops, talk to the man, whatever it takes to stop him from hurting innocent civilians." I explain.

Scorpio clicks his tongue. "Tch…you are so freaking irritating."

"You asked." I snapped back.

I notice the man take the knife out of his pocket and walks forward, sneaking up on a middle-aged man.

"I'm n-not the one who is wrong…t-the world…it's wrong. I'm not wrong…there's no such thing as a god." The man mumbles to himself.

"Scorpio…." I cautiously call his name. "I think that man is sick…he doesn't know what he's doing."

Scorpio doesn't hear me as he's too focused on the situation and sighs in irritation. "The world is rotten. Always had been and always will be."

He then pulls me by the arm and snaps his fingers like he did yesterday.

"Aaah!" The instant Scorpio snaps, the man takes a dramatic fall and cuts himself with his own knife, He slumps over, shocked at the sigh of his blood. "M-my blood! Blood!"

"Holy shit…" I breath and give my head a shake. "What? Making the knife disappear wouldn't have worked?" I feel angered, as I grip the front of Scorpio's uniform, speaking to him directly.

"Are you giving a god orders? Now's your chance. Take a good look. He's still not planning on stopping."

I widen my eyes and look back at the man. Who has risen again, looking more confident with the knife in his hand he starts swinging it around.

A young woman with a young child walks in the man's direction, unaware of what's going on.

My adrenaline takes over as I sprint over, jumping in front of the woman and her child. "Watch out! Get out of here!"

The woman screams and picks up her child. "A knife! That man has a knife!"

The screams surprise the man but as mental ill as he is, he keeps swinging his knife, making his way closer to us.

"Who the hell told you to jump out there like that! Run!" Scorpio yells.

I ignore Scorpio as I'm relieved to see the woman and child run off, but that feelings fades as I'm left with the crazed man and his knife.

"M-my life is ruined and it's all your fault!" The man screams at me.

I take a deep breath and step forward showing confidence and not allowing fear to take over. "Sir, please. Put down the knife—"

The glint from the knife from the suns rays, blinds me for a instant, and everything around me goes black.

The next thing I see is dark hooded figures stand around me. Looking side to side I see I'm laying on a stone table, dressed in white, wrists chained. I try to break free but I can't, I try to scream but I'm out of breath, gasping for air. Just then one out of the large group of the hooded figures comes over with a branding iron, that's glowing red.

"Please…no." I whimper.