*Don't forget to review occasionally. Let me know what you think.*

The next day, after allowing my body to get the rest and food it was being deprives of and making sure Sonja was alright, Daniel took me to the hospital. I could have done it myself but Daniel insisted. Mollie, Astrid, Erol, Desmond, Daydream, Kimmy and David also insisted on coming with me. Either to be there for me should I fail or to be there should I prevail. Either way, they were welcome. I walked into Gia's room, with its drab colors and terrible fluorescent lighting. I tried to control my breathing when my eyes landed on Gia. Her normally golden skin was so sickly. Of course, she'd been in a constant downward spiral for months now. She'd been brought back with a crash cart a few times lately. She was dying.

It was time.

I walked up to the side of Gia's bed, my heart in my throat. I knew I could do it, mostly, but I was still terrified of failing. This was my last hope. She didn't need her heart restarted like Sonja so I adjusted my hand placements. One remained in the center of her chest but I brought the other one up to her forehead. I closed my eyes and could see only the gray that was her energy at that moment. I breathed, putting all of my own energy forward until I saw a bit of yellow beginning to shine through. That was Gia. She was coming back. I continued pushing and pushing until there was no more gray. Only the bright, sunflower yellow of Gia's presence.

I opened my eyes to see Gia doing the same. Her eyes immediately found me. I smiled, my entire body bursting with excitement. "Hey," I chuckled, fighting back tears. Daniel quickly ran to get the doctor. "We missed you." Her eyebrows furrowed. She was confused but couldn't express anything with that damn tube down her throat.

"She doesn't understand why she isn't dead," Mollie informed us.

I smiled. "This is the off chance you saw, where you didn't die. Recovering from brain damage is probably why it looked so hazy." Gia's shoulders heaved as she gave what appeared to be a relieved sigh. Her eyes were welling with tears and she grabbed my hand. I stared down at her. "Don't you ever do that to me again," I threatened jokingly. "Do you know what your drama put poor Erol through? Seeing you shot and all."

Pretty soon the doctors had removed all unneeded equipment from her body. They left her hooked up to the monitors out of fear that she'd relapse. As soon as we could, we explained all of the happenings since she'd been in her coma. She clearly knew a lot of it, what with being psychic and all, but she allowed us to tell her anyway. I think she was interested in how we viewed the situations more than what had actually happened. She was a little shocked by what happened with Michael and even more so by what had happened between the gods and me.

"All this to get you to choose a side?" Gia sighed, shaking her head. "That's insane."

David scoffed. "Yeah, you're telling us."

Kimmy wrapped her arms around herself, nervously. "Now what? I mean, they're not going to stop."

Daniel gave the priestess a wide-eyed stare. "You don't think Mari almost killing them will put them off a little?"

"Gods are relentless," Astrid answered before Kimmy could. "I mean, they risk lives to try and win this game of power. Why should anything stop them?"

Mollie nodded. "They're right, Mari. The gods are just going to keep coming after you, keep pushing you, in hopes that they'll finally make you desperate."

"And that means coming after people you love," Astrid added.

David sighed, running his fingers through his auburn hair. "They're not wrong Mari. If you don't choose a side they'll just make you pay."

I sat up straight and glanced at Desmond, Daydream, Erol and Gia. They knew. I don't know how, but they knew. "I've already chosen a side," I informed everyone. I looked over at Daydream who smiled tentatively. "It was what Daydream said when I was crazy with grief and anger. She said that I was stronger than this. That I had the power and could stop it. And she was right." I looked around at everyone else. They seemed to need a little more exposition. "I've chosen a side. I choose humans. The side of human kind. For too long we've been pawns. We've been weapons to be used by one god or another to take out another pawn owned by another god. And that's wrong. We should have some sort of say. We shouldn't just kill one another arbitrarily if we can help it."

There was a moment of awed silence. Well, either it was in awe or concern was really a tossup but I preferred to think it was in awe. "That's going to be really tough," Daniel warned me.

I smiled. "Yeah, I know. It will be really hard to get people to ignore the orders of their gods, even if it means saving their lives. I mean…you guys are all such strong people," I gestured to everyone in the room. "But I know you'd all listen to your god and goddesses without question."

Mollie pulled her shoulders back. I'd rubbed her pride the wrong way. "Hey, I would not."

"Really," I chuckled, tilting my head to the side. "So why did you follow the Trickster to find me?" Mollie opened her mouth to argue but snapped it closed again. I was right. But that didn't matter. "I know it's going to be hard…but I think it's worth it to try."

Desmond nodded, smiling proudly at me. "And I think it's worth it to try to help you."

"Ditto," Mollie and Astrid sighed in unison. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Erol shrugged. "Well, I'm going to help you but that's more of a sickness and less of a conscious decision."

I laughed at my sweet, funny boy. "Good. I mean, you guys can quit whenever you want. Because I—"

"Mari," Gia chuckled, coughing a little. Her body was unused to using this much energy having been dormant for many months. "I think they're committed to this idea."

"Good," I repeated in relief. "Good, because…I'm really going to need you guys."

*Hey, if you guys want a story much lighter in terms of drama check out my story on fictionpress. I'm under the same username. It's a story about...well a bunch of fantasy type beings but staring a werewolf. I dunno. I like it and I'm kind of excited about the story I've got brewing for it.*