It was around ten in the morning when Heidi rolled off the couch and onto the floor like the life had been sapped right out of her.
One could never know the true feeling of boredom until you spend days upon days in a metal box that was on wheels.
The goddess jumped up and began rummaging through her stuff. Part of her wanted to work on her music while the other part just wanted to lay on the floor in pure boredom.
She stole a glance at her arm that had the "paint problem" as she was dubbing it and her eyes bugged out when she saw that it had tripled in size. Now, if she was smarter in magic she might have had an answer to the shocking sight. But, she was not.
"Have I been cursed again?" She muttered as she poked the spot in curiosity.
Cursed with a gray patch of skin? Hm, unlikely. That's too boring for most gods except for the ones who relish the tiny annoyances in life.
Heidi whipped around and grabbed her computer. "Maybe it's...Overuse?" She blinked as she tilted her head. "Now that I think about it, I've never been able to cast spells on my own."
Sure she could just be late in the department of magic use, but decades late?
The blonde shook her head. "This is strange...I have no idea what the hell is going on and I have no magic user out there smart enough to tell me. I mean, there's always Fairy G, but why would she tell me anything?"
The woman flopped back onto the couch and opened up the computer. "Let's see here...Magic Exhaustion, Magic Overuse, Magic Poisoning...Dang. Use too much and your good as dead." She said with halved eyes as she looked at the pictures of each.
None of them resembled her problem.
Heidi felt like facepalming as she sat up and floated the computer away. "Knowing my luck it's probably some sort of ancient curse." She mumbled as she stared at the wall in front of her. "That always seems to be the case with me."
"Stress ball to the rescue!" Deuce says as he hops on her lap. He rolls over and says, "Now, poor all of your tension into my fur. Every last bit." He smiles.
Heidi's eyebrows flew up in surprise at this before she began petting him, the confusion still evident on her face as she continued to ponder her situation.
He signed while she petted him and looked at her with a relaxed expression. "What are you worried about now?"
Heidi lifted up her hand and showed him the arm with the large gray blob. "Gray blob. Don't know where it came from or what it is." She said as she continued to pet him with her other hand.
His ears dropped while looking at the grey skin. He blinked. "Wow. Never seen that kind of rash before…"
She tilted her head at the word "rash". "If that's a rash I'll give someone an incredibly large diamond. It's not that, it's not magic-related, it's not Underworld related, and I know it's definitely not God stuff. It's...the other." She finished in confusion as she rubbed her chin.
He looked at her in confusion. "By "other", you mean other world, right? Weird stuff happens when you are not in your own world." He says and begins to lick his paw.
"Oh, when I say "the other", I mean what is unknown. We don't like to say that we don't know something so we simply say the other. It's horrible news to hear." Heidi's voice went quiet at the end.
He sat up and rubbed his furry body against her own. "Hey, it's alright. I heard downstairs that we only have two days to go and we will meet the wall! No need to worry." He says cheerfully.
The blonde managed to force a smile onto her face as she closed her eyes. "That's good."
"Yep." He agreed as his ear twitches. He curled up and went back to laying on her lap. "So, you are going to chill up here all day or…"
Heidi shrugged as she slowly opened her eyes. "Haven't decided yet." She said before examining her nails.
He closed his eyes and said, "Whenever you decide, let me know. I have gotten pretty comfortable here." He slowly begins to make a purring sound.
She silently nodded as she laid back and sunk into the couch. I'd hate to tell them how big of a problem an "other" problem is. Last time there was one of those was when they shipped dad off to the Isle. Leaving Hell to be without a leader.
888888888
"No, Harold. I have got to go…" Hazel says to the agitated deer male that is running with her other boot.
Hazel chased after him the best she could with one boot. "Harold! Bad deer!" She calls sternly. "Give me that!"
Harold looked to her innocently before stepping closer to her.
"Okay, now give me the boot." She holds out her hand for it.
Harold blinks before handing the boot over to the girl.
"See? It wasn't that h-" She is interrupted by Harold once again.
He uses his lengthy antlers to snag her tunic. She dangles from his antlers in shock before he tosses her to the ground and lays on her. He wanted to be sure she would not escape.
"Oh!" Hazel cries in frustration and the feeling of being squished by a large buck. "Harold!" She wheezes. "Get off! You weigh a thousand pounds!"
The buck stubbornly shakes his head. Then, he goes back to watching the rebuilt forest with a vibe of calm...and humor.
Hazel coughs. "I swear I will visit. I promise, but humans don't belong in the forest."
The buck rises and looks to her sadly.
Hazel takes as many breaths as she can and stands. She relishes in her freedom. She also stretches and cracks the bones that were piled into each other a few seconds ago.
That is when she takes note of the expression Harold was wearing. "Oh, Harold. I promise that I will be back in a couple days. Now, the bunnies and squirrels are waiting for you in the garden. Tell them what I told you."
Harold cheers up and bows his head at her. He takes one last look before leaping deeper into the forest.
Hazel sighs as she looks at him roam. "It was fun while it lasted. I will have to make sure I keep tabs on Harold. That buck is too clumsy." She thought, referring to how she first met Harold.
His antlers where wedged in between a thin gap between tree branch and tree. Thankfully, Hazel was there to talk him through it, or he would have been fast food for the bears. Believe it or not the bears are very nice, but hungry…
Hazel inhaled before teleporting to the entrance of Auradon prep in a bright light.
Other than the weird personality changes, being able to use her magic to the fullest was pretty cool. Well, excluding what happened at the forest. That was…anyway…
Hazel walked inside and looked around. It was odd. It feels like she had missed a lot, but everything looked the same. It was most likely her imagination. So, she began to walk to her familiar dorm room in pleasant silence.
Unknown to her, she had been seen by a familiar face.
He looked at her in shock before blinking a couple times; rubbed his eyes. When he did this, she was gone.
Jay scratched his head in worry before grabbing the cellular device out of his back pocket. He texted, "Hey, Mal. It might just be me, but I think I saw Hazel walking down the hallway…"
…
When Mal received that text she couldn't help the strange look she shot her phone. Why would she be back so soon?
Or Jay has lost too much sleep and is beginning to see things. She thought in mild amusement as she pocketed the phone.
At the moment, she was nose deep in records looking for when the mystery student joined the school. If she could find proof then the girl would be off her list of suspicious people. So far she had found absolutely nothing.
No one had ever had such an accident in class like the one she described and the teachers all reported that there never was a student walking around like that.
The purplette closed her eyes as she stood up and gazed at the door. Maybe I should go check it out. If she was back I'd have a lot of questions to ask.
She stole a glance at a few of the records before shaking her head and making her way to the door. "I swear, if I go out and find nothing he's gonna have to help me with this." Mal muttered to herself, thinking about how much trouble she had to go through to get the records in the first place.
The girl pushed the door open and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She'll be in her dorm. Probably. The purplette looked around the hallway out of habit before heading towards the exit.
When she had obtained the records, they told her that she could only look at them if she was in a "proper room". Basically, she had taken over Ben's office for the day because her room was on the ban list of "improper rooms". Mal would like to say she was surprised when she heard that but it was Fairy Godmother who had said it. That alone made everything seem much more normal than it actually was.
Mal squinted at the sudden light as her eyes got adjusted to the sunlight. She hadn't left the office all day and it was a rather dim room, so getting hit with the sun's rays were the worst.
She paid little to no attention to what most of the people were doing as she continued on to the building.
I will be shocked if she's actually there. I know if I was heading for the wall I wouldn't return early. Mal thought as she contemplated why Hazel would return.
Everything near the wall was vacation and tourism hot spots, everyone wanted to go there. Not many people would halt their trip and head back home on a whim.
Her green eyes flickered up as she entered the building and quickly went down the hallway. It doesn't make any sense. Her eyes narrowed as she approached the door. Nobody would want to come back here when they could be there.
Mal tucked away her thoughts and knocked on the door while her face went neutral.
The door seemed to open by itself. The gears inside the doorknob twisted and popped open as if someone had picked the lock.
Mal blinked in confusion as she looked at the door. Okay...How did that do...that? She was at a lost for words and peered at the doorknob.
"Do you plan on coming in, or did you come for the doorknob?" Says a calm voice from the inside. Hazel sits on her floor playing with a butterfly made of white flames. It was something she learned to do while in the forest.
Mal tore her gaze away from the door and stepped in. "Sorry, I've never seen a door just open like that." She said as she shook off her surprise. "I didn't know you had returned. I thought you were on a trip." The purplette looked at her in curiosity, having found both the girl's return and what she was doing to be quite interesting.
Hazel looked to her for a moment before returning her focus on the flaming insect. The butterfly lands on the singed sleeve of her tunic and she says, "I think I will spare you the explanation about the door. We can talk about that at a later date. As for my trip, yes, I was on a trip." She looked up at Mal with pink irises.
Mal raised an eyebrow at several things as she gave her a slow nod. "Okay. Did you not like it or something? I know the stuff near the wall isn't for everybody."
She looked to the ground and said, "No, I just have people problems. Nothing out of the ordinary with me."
Mal continued to look at her with a puzzled expression. Something is...off here. "Ah. Got it. Just wanted to know." The purplette said as she rubbed the back of her neck.
Hazel's eyes changed from pink to orange as she nodded. She brought her attention back to the perched butterfly on her burned sleeve. "No problem." She said absentmindedly.
Mal looked away and bit her lip. "I guess that means the others are still out there?" She asked as she frowned. Okay. Something is definitely wrong, but what is it?
She inhaled for a moment before replying. "Yeah." She did not take her attention away from the butterfly yet. She seemed focused on something, or maybe in deep thought.
Mal didn't want to disrupt whatever was whirling around in the girl's head, not until she figured out the problem at least, so she forced her frown to disappear. "I'll be sure to tell everyone that. That way they won't charge in here to find out from you." Mal said, looking at the butterfly in interest.
Hazel, then, looked toward Mal with a smirk. "We were missed that much? I thought we were all a pain in the neck."
Mal chuckled and smirked back. "You have no idea how much you were missed."
Hazel gave her a small smile. "Glad to hear that. I guess that means we aren't that hated after all." She says giving Mal her full attention.
Mal leaned against the wall and shook her head. "Nope." If she knew the means we used to find out what happened she would be shocked.
The butterfly flies off of it's temporary perch on Hazel's wrist and flies in Mal's direction. It repeatedly flies around Mal's head.
Mal looked up and blinked before tilting her head. "What's it doing?" She asked, looking at it in curiosity.
Hazel's questioning look turns into one of humor. "It looks like he's trying to find another perching spot. Unfortunately for you, You are now a part of his territory…" Hazel says as she watches the butterfly land on Mal's shoulder.
Mal looked at it in amusement before smiling softly. "I guess I am now." She said with a quiet chuckle before turning her gaze back to Hazel.
Hazel stood and observed her clothing. Some parts of her outfit where scorched or covered in dirt. Maybe it was sut, but it did not look in order. She could only imagine how wild her hair was after spending a day with wildlife.
This causes her to feel a bit embarrassed. She meets Mal's gaze and said, "Sorry. I am kind of rough looking today." She looks to the side thinking about the mess she caused yesterday.
Mal looked her over before turning her attention back to the girl. "It's okay. I've heard how some areas of the Summerlands are particularly…" She let out a chuckle while smiling. "...More wild than the others or so I've been told. I thought you just went into one of those areas." She explained as she folded her arms.
"Yeah...let's go with that." Hazel nodded and said, "Yeah. I actually befriended a deer in one of those places. His name is Harold. I promised to visit every now and then."
Mal raised an eyebrow at the name. "Harold? That's an interesting name for a deer. Well, at least you'll be prepared for that area." She said while chuckling. "Hopefully the Summerlands won't have it out for you again."
She chuckled. "Yeah, big time." She smiled shyly before saying, "Is there anything else you wanted to know?"
Mal looked thoughtful before shaking her head. "That's all for now. I may swing by again later. I have to return to do something. I'll tell the others, so if they come by that's why." She said as she straightened up and looked at the door.
Hazel nodded and her eyes glowed silver as she commanded the locks to repeat the opening process. "Bye, Mal." Her eyes returned to their natural royal blue shade as she smiled.
Mal looked at the butterfly on her shoulder before looking at her. "It'll get off my shoulder, right?" Mal asked while smiling as she tried to get out the door.
She blinked. "When he gets bored. Whenever that may be…" She shrugs.
Mal nodded with an 'oh' before exiting the room. "Bye." She said with a smile before beginning to walk away.
Hazel watches her leave and motions her hand for the door to close. "I know I made the right decision. They are better off doing it without me. Now, all I have to do is stay here, and let them take care of it. Even when I should be the one who is doing it."
She thinks to herself. She looks around before looking at her outfit once again. "Too bad. I really liked this one." She says. "I might as well get cleaned up if the others are going to visit soon."
With that she gathers her new clothes and heads to the bathroom.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Heidi looked at her arm in silent curiosity as she upped the volume on her headphones. She wasn't sure why, but she felt as if someone had put her in slow-motion. It felt...weird. She couldn't stop staring at the blot of deathly gray skin that appeared to be creeping up her arm.
She wasn't sure if it was fascination or horror that kept her from looking away and while she knew she had been doing this for well over a couple hours it had only felt like ten minutes at most. Am I in a trance? Is that what this is? The blonde tilted her head and closed her eyes.
Then there was the music she was listening to, it was nothing she would ever consider putting on and it was lulling her into a hypnotic state.
Heidi bit her lip as she abruptly smacked herself across the face. "Come on, stop staring at the arm." She told herself as she got off the couch and began heading for the door.
She needed a distraction big time before she wasted an entire day in a trance.
Her eyes flickered to her arm and she let out a growl. "Quit it." She muttered and jerked her head away before exiting the room.
It was if she had no control over her body. She supposed it would be a good idea to ask Hestia, but the goddess had to stay in Olympus for a day. Apparently, she had been neglecting her duties as peacekeeper during the daily arguments to "keep her fire safe". So, Hestia was out of the picture.
Heidi began humming to the music as she went down the stairs.
The lyrics seemed to become even more hypnotic as she unconsciously turned up the volume. Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination…
Pure imagination? Eh...That sounds...Heidi didn't even realize she had reached the bottom of the stairs without incident. Her eyes closed as she tilted her head.
Why is this so...enticing? Heidi wanted to ask the part of her mind that seemed to be rebelling but at the same time she wanted to stay like this forever. Peacefully calm, bliss…
That was before something fabricated into existence before her. In a puff of electric blue smoke Chester greeted, "Greetings, Heidi!" He smiles widely as he floats.
The trance was shattered instantly and Heidi's eyes flew wide open. "Holy!" She cried in surprise before grabbing her headphones off her head and throwing them across the room.
Chester tilted his head in confusion. He stood on the air as if it were solid ground as he looks at the surprised woman. "My apologies…"
Heidi shook her head. "It's fine. I was in a...trance, and you destroyed it. No big deal." She said as she rubbed her forehead.
Chester looked to the side nonverbally displaying his concern. "O-kay. Sorry if I ruined your good...trance." He says as he adjusts his hat. "I just wanted to greet you. It has been a while since you have been down here."
"Trust me, ruining it was a good thing." She muttered quietly before looking at him. "I needed a distraction, I was losing my mind up there." She said offhandedly as she relaxed slightly.
George says from the driver's seat, "Heidi? Your down here? I am surprised you hadn't gone mad long ago! You've spent most of the trip in that room."
Heidi shrugged as she looked around the area. "I'm used to solitary confinement, I'm surprised it happened so soon." She commented while folding her arms.
Deuce, who was making a tuna sandwich, says, "What about solitaire?"
George, now has halved eyes while driving. Chester face-palms in aggravation.
Heidi raised an eyebrow as she found a place to sit. She unfolded her arms, unknowingly showing her blotchy arm, and leaned back before closing her eyes.
That immediately caught Chester's marble-like eyes. He stared at her arm with shock and confusion. "What's that…" He points toward her arm.
Heidi, who still had her eyes closed, looked confused. "What's what?"
"That." He repeats his actions gaining Deuce's attention.
The blonde opened her eyes while frowning. "What do you-" She looked down and looked at the arm. "Oh...that." She muttered as her eyes widened as if she was captivated by it.
Deuce chuckled and said, "Yeah, it looks like you came back from a black and white movie."
While Dude was talking, Chester was studying Heidi and that weird spot on her arm. He grabbed a strand of her hair and pulled it to regain her attention.
Heidi's eyes flickered up and narrowed in confusion before they slowly drifted back down. She seemed completely oblivious to the world around her as her head tilted to the side.
Deuce looked at her and said, "That ain't good." When he finally realized what was going on.
Chester shook his head. "No, it's not." He scratched his head. "Where is Hazel when we need her?" He paced for a minute looking around for things to use.
He grinned and flew into the kitchen. He grabbed the largest towel he could find and brought it back to the distracted goddess. He rubbed his paws together before lifting up her arm. "Deuce!" He struggles with the dead weight. "I need you to wrap it. Don't let any grey show." He gets out.
Deuce grins and nods. "Sure thing, Bro." He wraps a towel around her arm and ties it tight.
Chester puts her arm down with a sigh of relief. "Hopefully, that will help temporarily." He collapses on the table from exhaustion.
The goddess blinked and shook her head a few times before holding her hand to her temple. "What?" She muttered in confusion, looking around the room as if she was puzzled as to why she was down there.
Chester, still breathing heavily, says, "How the hell are you hypnotized by your own skin!?"
Deuce raised an eyebrow. "It might be more god stuff, brah." He shrugs.
Heidi shook her head as she looked at her hands. "It's not god stuff. The gods wouldn't know what this is. Not even Athena, and she's read practically every book in existence." She explained while her eyes shook. "I don't even know what this is…"
Deuce nodded, "Hmm, yep. Sounds like you got a case of Urgonnadieidis…"
Chester happily kicked him off of the table they were sitting on.
"Hey! Not cool!" He yells after he meets the tile floor.
Heidi looked up as she realized something. "Wait...Hades may know. Not many know this but...he wasn't exactly normal looking when he was ruling the Underworld. He was gray, like deathly gray. He only looks human because he was pulled into the sunlight." She frowned in thought as her eyes narrowed.
When Deuce floated back on the table, he mumbled to Chester, "I told you it was god stuff…"
Heidi heard him and shook her head. "It's not god stuff, it's related to my dad stuff. He's a depowered god at the moment, but trust me...This is not god stuff." She said as her frown deepened.
Chester raised an eyebrow quizzically. "So, why are we heading to Olympus if it's not going to help you? Is there any other reason we are risking our skins?" He asks the second part while glancing at Deuce and George, who both shrugged.
Heidi opened her hand and her ember appeared in it. "Broken ember. If this is broken I'm stuck and it's broken." She caused it to disappear and looked at them. "And the only person who will be harmed is me. They have no business with you, only with me."
Chester smirked. "Everyone knows that going passed the wall right now is dangerous. The only people who are going are reckless, stupid tourists and us." He put on a thoughtful look. "Assuming that whatever is on your arm is going to spread, we should hurry. We are almost to the drop off. After that you might want to stop by Hades' place, but you will be pressing for time." He says with a frown.
Heidi nodded and looked away. "Going to visit him might be a mistake, he is stable in my world but who knows if he is here. He held a massive grudge against Auradon for locking him up that I managed to get rid of over a couple decades. I was not here to do that to this Hades." She scratched the side of her head. "As for the arm, I am hoping it will stop if I am in the presence of all those knuckleheads. Curses don't exactly work when all of Olympus is staring you down, don't know why."
"For your sake, I hope you are right." Chester looks away. "We have got to get you home. I can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen if we don't." He shudders. "I can feel it in my whiskers…"
The goddess's eyes narrowed. "As long as I get thrown back into Hell, it'll be fine. I'll just have Hermes do it if something comes up." She commented as she rubbed her chin.
Deuce shrugs while Chester still looks worried. "If you say so." Deuce says. Deuce flies into the kitchen to continue his sandwich. "Great! Now my bread is stale!"
Heidi rubbed her forehead as she let out a tired sigh. I think Hestia may have had a point that this is the helmet...but how am I supposed to know if that's actually the problem? She thought as she remembered the day she had made the fateful choice to try something. Now she knew why Hermes had thrown her at the wall. I messed up. Badly.
Chester snapped out of his own reverie. "Tuna sandwich?" He offered her.
Heidi shook her head. "No, but thanks for offering." She said in a distracted manner.
He nodded and went to join George as usual. George looks to him and smiles. Chester smiles back and gets back to work calculating their distance.
….
Ara watches the sun set from her spot atop of the RV. She did not know why she liked to sit on the tops of moving vehicles. She just did. There was something about the way the winds blew her hair. There was something about the danger. There was something about the high speeds.
Of course Ara could go faster than the speed of a recreational vehicle, but she also liked to relax. She liked to go at a fast speed without having to do all of the work. Call it laziness if you will, but that is what she preferred.
Other than the drops of water that began to fall on her head, a familiar tapping sound caught her attention.
She turned her head to see glowing blue eyes looking back at her. She raised an eyebrow. "What do you need, Chester." She says as she turns her attention back to the road ahead.
Chester makes sure his claws have a firm grip on the vehicle before getting comfortable in the slightest. "I wanted to bring something to your attention. It's pretty important."
Ara looked at him once more with amusement playing on her features. "Of course it is important. Why else would you join me up here? Surely not for a joy ride." Her face turns serious before asking, "What is it? The important...thing?"
Chester nods and mumbled to himself a little. He takes a deep breath and says, "Heidi is...well. How do I put this…" He tells her while scratching his head in thought.
Ara, in her current emotional state, feels her anger flare up in the slightest bit. She was able to catch it and turn it more into annoyance than serious anger. She releases a breath. "Chester. Please do both of us a favor and spit it out. If it is as important as you say, then it must be addressed immediately. Don't you agree?" She looked at him with halved eyes and folded arms.
Chester slowly nodded in understanding. He clasps his paws and rubs them together. "Well, it's about her arm…"
…..
Heidi was still in the lower levels, she did not dare trust herself to be alone, and found herself wishing she had a book to read or something. It was quite boring to say the least, everyone was busy and she had nothing better to do than sit and wait for something entertaining to happen that would involve her.
She would soon get her wish.
Heidi's eyes were about to shut when she heard somebody approaching her, prompting her to close them immediately and to fake sleep. It always worked for her dad, so why wouldn't it work for her?
A draft flew through the RV as she stood before Heidi. From the outside, someone could say that Ara was furious. They would not be judged heavily for making that assumption. The way she glared at the "sleeping" woman could be thought of as one of anger. The way her arms were folded and the concentrated frown on her face could be of the same conclusion.
Truth be told, she wasn't angry. Well, she was, but not in the way you would think. Her anger was driven by worry. It is closely related to a mother who found out that her child hasn't been as honest as one would hope. That is the kind of anger she was feeling.
"Heidi." Ara called her name in a strict tone. "I know you are not sleeping. I of all people should be able to tell." She folds her arms together as she looks at the goddess in anticipation.
Heidi slowly opened one eye before opening the other with a sigh. "I need to ask dad how he does that so well." She muttered before shaking her head in obvious disappointment at herself.
Getting straight to the point, she says, "You haven't been honest with me." She taps her fingers impatiently against her folded arm.
Heidi grimaced and looked at her. "Honest about what? I...I'm not honest about a lot of things, fatal flaw kind of crap." She admitted, her voice going quiet at the end.
Ara's face remains unchanged when Chester appears on her shoulder. Ara points to her wrapped arm for a moment. Then she takes a breath and says, "You haven't been honest. You haven't been honest about yourself. Heidi, if we are a team and going to go through all of this trouble to make sure we get you home, we need to know the truth. How are you feeling? Really." She says, her eyes boring into Heidi's.
Heidi felt a shiver go up her spine as she glanced at her arm. "It happened a long time ago, it's in the past." She said with shaky breath, turning her head away.
Some of Ara's anger melted away as she sat beside her. She looks at the table before trying to meet her eyes again. "What? You have to tell me. I need to know what we are working with here. You can trust me." Ara gives her a soft smile.
Heidi's terror-filled eyes slammed shut as her hands shook. "Only my aunt and Hermes know what happened. It was never reported to Zeus, if it had been my fate would have been far worse than two more years in the Underworld." She grabbed the wrapped arm and shook her head. "What I could have done...it would have destroyed everything. I cannot tell you."
Ara rolled her eyes. "You have to." She said stubbornly as she planted her foot on the ground.
Heidi shook her head a second time. "No...If I tell you, it'll only make you see me as a monster." She said in a hushed voice.
That is when Ara's heart broke. She picked up Chester and placed him on the table. She took a deep breath before speaking. She also took this time to think of the proper words for this conversation. "Heidi… Have you seen yourself? There is no way I could think of you as a monster. You wouldn't hurt anyone on your own initiative." She says while looking deeply at her.
Heidi's eyes opened and she frowned. "No...but once upon a time it was all I desired."
"Tell me." Ara placed her hand on her arm. "Of all people in Auradon, I would be the one to talk to." She offers her another smile.
Heidi stayed silent for a few minutes before slowly nodding. "It was the fourth year of my sentence to restore the Underworld. By then I had fallen into a deep state of depression as all but Hermes failed to contact me. No one except him made an attempt to communicate with me and by the fourth year I had grown used to him and he did not have an effect on me. My depression spiraled into a deep hatred for my family, I wanted revenge for what they did to me. Summoning me after decades to sentence me to what could have been an eternity doing nothing as I could not control the Underworld. I...I created a plan to steal my father's most powerful object, his Helmet. With it I could have complete control over the shadows and strike fear into the heart of any being. I wanted to use it to…" She stopped and closed her eyes, almost if she was ashamed to say the very next word. "Destroy Olympus. I would be the only goddess left with my father and we'd be the ones to rule and create a new Olympus. One where they didn't abandon people in Hell. Before I could steal the Helmet, however, Hermes found out what I was doing and stopped me. He locked it up so tight only he could get back in it. That's when Hestia appeared and wiped my mind of my darkness. I...It was never the same after that, I could always feel something powerful lurking nearby in waiting yet none of the gods ever sensed it. This thing felt like darkness itself and it always scared me whenever I saw it." Heidi stopped and looked away, refusing to continue.
Ara nodded as she thought over what she heard. "So...that helmet. Does it have something to do with that patch on your arm? The one that Chess was talking about?"
Heidi glanced at it before reluctantly nodding. "The days after I made my attempt, Cerberus would report to me that the shadows seemed transfixed with me and attempted to engulf me countless time. Each time left a strange gray marking on my skin that would disappear after a couple of hours. It never happened again after I awoke and only Cerberus knows of this as she was guarding me."
Ara blinked for a small period of time. She looked at Heidi beside her. "Thank you for telling me. I still don't think of you as anything different, okay?" Ara gives her another smile. "I am stubborn like that." Her smile falls and she says, "Now that I know a little of what we are working with, I can better help with the situation."
Heidi brought her knees to her chest and closed her eyes, trying to calm down as she quietly nodded.
Ara brought her attention back to Heidi and smiled once again. Ara brought her into an unexpected embrace. "It's not all that. I know you are scared, but you've got us. We will help you get to the bottom of this." She said as she hugged her tighter.
Heidi just accepted the hug as her breathing began to settle back into a normal pace. The terror-filled expression on her face hadn't faded, however, and she continued to keep her eyes shut.
Ara continued to calm the woman while she called the cat smiling at the display of affection. "Chester." She says.
Chester gives her his full attention as he looks at her questionably.
"Tell George it's time to switch. After that, tell Triple G to not make any stops except for gas. We need to hurry to the wall." She tells him with all seriousness.
He nods and begins to head in that direction Before he heads off, he turns his head to her. "Are you coming over soon?"
Ara nods at him. "Yes, I will. For now, my place is here."
He nods once more before heading off to the other side of the vehicle to deliver the message.
Heidi's eyes flickered up and they latched onto the wall. The goddess knew no one else could see what she was seeing so she tried to hide the fear that was forming. She saw what appeared to be a humanoid figure stepping out of the wall, it's body made up of shadows and a small tiara upon its head. Heidi felt her breath stop as she involuntarily shivered. This made the being jerk away and sink back into the wall, almost as if the shiver had broken whatever trance the goddess had been in. The blonde blinked in slight confusion as she let out a quiet gasp, now feeling a bit more calm.