It hadn't taken long for outright fear of Tina to permeate the halls. Clusters of students. now parted for her, giving her a wide berth along with some of the teachers. Hercules and Nemesis watched her and the dark aura that now clung to her.
"I know I can nail her butt to the wall and kick her out of my school on the violence policy alone," Nemesis said.
"No argument there, but is that what's going to be best long term?" he asked, playing devil's advocate.
She cast a scrutinizing eye on Hercules. "Do you think there's hope for her still?"
"There's always hope. You can see that from her first lifetime, and look at you. Ares thought he could bring back Olympus' former glory when he tricked you into eating the golden apple. He tried to manipulate you into taking back your godly title and failed at it."
A scowl crossed her face at the memory. By then they'd realized, Hercules had inherited immortality from his father barring he didn't get a life-threatening wound, so she'd decided not to seek out mortality despite having grown to like being a mortal.
Not that she and he had gotten together again in a romantic capacity, but having at least one good friend that was ageless made life more bearable.
"And you know the old saying. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer," he also pointed out.
"One of the reasons Ares is still a student here," she agreed. "Well, that and I don't think anybody's really looking forward to a World War 3 except for Ares." She glanced at the clock when the bell signaled that the students should be in their next class. "I've got a take care of a PTA situation. One of the parents thinks they saw our English teacher disappear before her eyes. You are the only staff member that doesn't give me any trouble. I think I'm going to promote you to the position of vice principal."
"From the sound of it, I think I'd rather stick to P.E.," he said with a chuckle.
She smiled wryly before going to handle the situation. With Nemesis gone, he turned his attention back to Tina.
She had been joined by Ares. They were carrying on an intense conversation that was private now with all conscientious students in their respective classrooms. They looked like typical American high school sweethearts even with their rough edges, but their relationship, a relationship that spanned thousands of years, was much more complicated than that.
Ares stroked a piece of her dark hair. "You know most of the members already see your leadership potential. They would follow you in a heartbeat. You just have to do something that warrants it, and that'd be taking out the Hydras' leader."
"By take out you mean kill." It was more of a statement than a question.
"This isn't an elementary playground; we're not playing dodgeball here. It's kill or be killed. How can they respect a leader that won't take a life? They can't."
"I see your point," she acknowledged. "And I've already got a plan in mind."
He pressed a kiss on her forehead. "I thought you might. I can't wait to see it unfold."
He left on that note and though Hercules hadn't heard the conversation, he could guess what it had been about from all the looks exchanged. With Ares gone, he went over to talk to her.
"I know I shouldn't say this about one of my students, but your friend, Aaron, is dangerous."
"So am I," she said, a look of challenge on her face.
"You're not the same yet. You don't want to kill anyone," Mr. Sorbo said. "There's no going back from that. You can't bring a person you've killed back to life. You serve most if not all of your life behind bars and when the day comes that you rethink your life, the burden of guilt you'll bear will make life a harder road to walk."
An image of her comatose brother came to mind. "You don't know what I want. You don't know me."
"I know you better than you think."
sss
Tina had shadowed the Hydra's leader for a week, learning his habits, his routines. Her gymnastics had not been a waste of time as it allowed her to keep out of sight, following on rooftops and leaping into trees.
He visited his girlfriend nightly, and it was the only time he didn't have his bodyguards with him; they stayed posted all around the house rather than going in with him. They weren't expecting someone to jump rooftop to rooftop and slip in right through the 2nd story bedroom window.
The couple didn't notice her at first as they were engaged in a kiss. It gave her time to launch a small but heavy statue sitting by the window at the girlfriend, knocking her cold just as she'd opened her mouth to let out a scream. It also allowed her to flip across the room and hold a pocketknife up to his throat.
"It's a little disappointing that it turned out to be this easy to put an end to you, but I suppose slashing your throat might make up for it," she said with a cold expression.
"Go ahead. It's the only way you'll beat me. You don't have the guts to face me in a hand to hand fight," he said mockingly.
"Fine, let's use our hands then," she said with a grin, putting the pocketknife back into her pocket.
The fighting began. The man was built, packing plenty of power, but he wasn't as fast as her. She got in more kicks and punches than he did.
It came to a halt when he smiled, his lip fat and bleeding from where she'd hit him. "You are weak and stupid. You should've finished me off when you had the chance instead of letting me play against your ego."
He had wrestled the pocket knife from her and pulled it out so she could see. It glinted in the lamp light and he thrust it toward intent on slicing whatever part he came in contact with, but she grabbed a hold of his wrist and jerked his arm across her shoulder so that the knife wasn't pointing toward her body. Then she broke his wrist. She used her elbow to the wind out of him, cutting short his cry of pain, and she didn't let up with the hits to his body until he was flat on the floor.
She crouched down next to him. He was too weak, bruised, and bloody to even struggle as her hands came around his neck, squeezing until his skin turned interesting shades of red and purple and blue.
"Mercy," he managed to rasp.
For a second or two after his plea, she continued to squeeze harder. Then loosening her grip slightly, she said, "You want mercy? I'll show you mercy; mercy you didn't show my brother."
His swollen eyes narrowed even further in confusion, but he knew better than to open his mouth. She was too angry to care whether truth or lies came from his lips. Whatever she believed was good enough for him as long as she was sparing his life. She took her hands off his neck and he coughed and wheezed as air returned to his passageway.
"As long as you promise to leave this town and never come back," she stipulated. "Because I swear to you I'll kill you if you do, and I never break a promise."
He had never come a cross a better fighter and his eyes showed genuine fear as he nodded. He moved as fast as his injuries allowed him, while she left the way she came, not trusting him to not set his goons on her despite their agreement.
She watched from a distance as the bodyguards surrounded their injured boss. She saw him mouth the word airport likely coming out garbled and hoarse. They seemed to understand well enough though as they opened the car door for him.
She went to the gang meeting that same night with her clothes and hands still stained in blood, his blood mostly.
They all gave her looks, but she said nothing. She took a seat beside Aaron and let the meeting get underway. She kept her silence until they brought up the Hydras and spoke about how the leader kept trying to push into their territories despite the beating they had received.
"He won't be a problem anymore," she told them.
"Oh, really," Mike said disbelievingly. "Got a seeing eye now, do you?"
"Let's just say you won't be seeing him anytime soon," she said darkly. Words that were true enough. It allowed them to think that she had killed him, and she didn't bother to correct their misinterpretation of her words.
"You've led this gang for a year, and Tina's singlehandedly gotten rid of their head when she hasn't even been with us for a month. I say she's better suited to a position of leadership than you are," Aaron said.
The others seemed to be in agreement with that sentiment as they pulled out their weapons. Guns trained on him, Mike had no choice but to agree to step down.
The gang had become hers without bloodshed, and she could tell Aaron knew and was impressed even if he looked a trifle disappointed. "You did it," he whispered to her, a smile on his face.
"Don't you mean we, Ares?" she asked, giving him a predatory smile in return.