Update 4 of 4

The longest, most rambly, non-main-plot-driven-mildly-my-plot-driven chapter in this update session!

Seriously though I'm sorry to anyone who doesn't like rambling. I give extra chapters just to make up for this kind of nonsense.

Enjoy? :)

First Person: Emily

Training under Famine was exhausting, to say the least.

Rei and Kaze had been willing to open up very little about their time in the Wards, but it wasn't hard for me to discern the general terribleness and abuse that the training entailed.

Only a few days of this. I only had to endure a few days of this before the world was either destroyed or we somehow managed to pull everyone together to manage a victory. A part of me started to want Gaea to end the world already to get out of this training.

Of course the universe wouldn't be that nice to me.

"What time is it, anyway?" I sighed. My entire body was aching from Famine's physical training regimen, and my mind was aching from her sticking a weird cordycep in my ear that allowed her to read my thoughts to try and train my mental prowess. As if emotional powers couldn't get exhausting enough without the professional, planty training regimen.

"Asking how long until you get out of training?" Famine hissed. She was a drill sergeant more terrifying than any monsters I'd faced during this war with giants and Primordials. At the moment, I couldn't tell if I was more afraid of her than even when I'd witnessed the very heart of the Primordials themselves.

Escaping that encounter had been a miracle itself. But our team had all changed from such a trial. There was no avoiding the scars of facing down the very deities (deity?) that was connected to every part of this world - this universe. There wasn't a way to put it into words. It was just a feeling, one that easily tore our humanity apart.

In the end, we woke up again, but it's hard to say we're lucky for it.

But I could still feel terror at the look Famine was giving me right now, so I guess that means my humanity is fine for now. I'm…relieved?

"Just asking how long we have for me to get this right. A ticking clock always helps motivate!" I said, hoping my voice wasn't shaking too badly. Who was I kidding? Hiding things from Famine was impossible, so I might as well just accept that she knew I was terrified of her and at a disadvantage. I was basically at her mercy, and there was no denying nor hiding it.

"We have as long as we need," Famine said simply. "We can have an eternity if we need it."

"E…ternity? You're kidding, right?"

Famine dropped to the grass beneath her. The last trace of daylight light was on the horizon; the sun had already dropped beneath the ocean and all that remained was the dim shades of light blue that were fading into the darkness of the night sky. The stars had begun to appear, ever so slightly.

Tomorrow was the final day we had. I hoped the others had made it to Athens all right. I wondered if Reyna, Nico, Ane, and Hedge were closing in on Camp Half-Blood soon.

I wondered how the Primordials were doing. It gave me anxiety not knowing what they were doing. Though I suppose in the back of my mind, I knew where they were. At the very least, I could sense that they weren't trying another mass destruction event, but that wasn't really a good place for the bar to be.

"Are you aware of my origins? I told you about it before."

"Oh? How you're technically just a ward of Demeter?"

"I was born from a tear of Kronos and given life and sentience by Demeter. Thanks to that, I have the ability to siphon energies."

"Yeah, I think I remember reading that on Pain's report about you guys…"

"I am able to siphon energies from other living things, but I can also manipulate time energies. In essence, I can give us as much time as we need."

"So you have time dilation powers, like Kaze and Azrael?"

"It is less dilation and more actual control over the flow of time itself. It gets exponentially more difficult the more time that I am attempting to control. Even the greatest of deities can only manage a few minutes' time at once. Holding time within your very palm is not an easy feat, and in fact, it can be used as a weapon."

"What? You mean you can…give time some kind of physical form or something?"

"Yes." Famine looked at me with interest, more interest than I'd seen from her during our time together. It seemed that just like everyone else, Famine had her passions that inspired her to lose herself in her thoughts. "In minute quantities, time can be affected just as any physical matter can be. Though, of course, this only applies to those who are capable of manipulating it, but we who can touch and mold time follow physics similar to that of the matter you yourselves can interact with."

"I suppose that makes sense. Though it may not be a dimension we can access, to other creatures what we call 'time' could probably have its own set of rules just like we are balls of atoms and stuff that make contact by repelling electrons. Like a fourth dimension to our third dimension being as complex as our three dimensions are to a two-dimensional being."

Famine nodded. "Exactly. When broken down, the concepts of science and magic are intertwined. Think of time as…well, think of it like the physical matter we interact with each day. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, merely manipulated to change form." She held her hand up and a paste that resembled silly-putty or Play-Doh appeared in - or rather from - her palm. "Time can be compressed and manipulated in small amounts." She pinched the Play-Doh into a teardrop shape. "This is an advanced technique I've worked to perfect - er, in visual format, of course. Basically, I can compress two instances in time so that this bit of time here is taken out. Depending on how I use the power, I can jump slightly forward in time or extend a part of time to last longer. But this remaining time right here that we skipped-" She pulled out the teardrop from the putty and rolled it between her fingers. "This time doesn't just disappear."

"Because like matter, it can't be created or destroyed. So you can store it?"

Famine nodded. One of her prehensile hair limbs reached down and grabbed another small ball of the Play-Doh. Then a few more joined in. Famine had a dozen white hair tentacles holding up the putty, but the glob in her palm hadn't lost a lot in the long run.

"I can only hold so much time at once, but I can put it together into a single mass and then release it into the timeline all at once for however much time I stored adds up to. It creates a massively disruptive vacuum, and it equates to the decompression process to be turned into an attack."

"Time as a weapon…" I shrugged. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, given all that I've already seen."

Famine sucked up the putty and absorbed it back into her body. I pondered how she herself wasn't just made out of plants; she was made out of a sort of living putty herself, able to mold into whatever form she needed. She probably chose her appearance, as most gods did. Famine herself admitted that she shouldn't be called a full god, not in the same league as the Olympians or anything, but that meant if I couldn't find a way to control her, then I'd have no chance with any of the other gods she intended for me to be able to control.

"I've always grown up with time as a moldable aspect. I don't know what it's like to not be able to control time. Though what I intend at the moment is time dilation, similar to Ventus and Death."

"Why do you guys call Kaze and Azrael 'Ventus' and 'Death?'"

Famine shrugged. "That's what Boss has them labeled as. We all have code names. Or rather, new names. It's a cultish indoctrination thing, though to a lesser extent."

"Indoctrination?"

"With both Lab Kids and Freebies, there is a constant risk of us gaining our own moral compasses and deciding that we will not follow orders because we do not believe it is right. However, it is free will that allows us to be dangerous; they cannot take our free will away from us if they hope for us to fight at our best. Free will means we can decide what we find right and wrong, and there is always a possibility that we will not concur with their methods nor their ideals. Aligning our goals is the easiest way to get what they want from us, and so they follow basic methods of manipulation. Sometimes it can get a little more intense for others, like Seven, but for others like Pain, it's hardly needed at all. One of the techniques essentially renames us, or at the very least gives us a code name in an attempt to separate our personal feelings from our orders. The intent is to make us feel special, and to draw a line."

"But Kaze and Azrael have never joined your group before. I'm pretty sure they've probably never even heard of you all before. Well, I mean Kaze knew you as Winter, but-"

"That was a long time ago," she snapped.

She exhaled, as though releasing the tension that had built up upon hearing her old name. Maybe it was because she was a god-like being, but it almost felt like I could see the emotions in the air being expelled by her. She could keep very strong control over her emotions, which made it hard for me to understand her and almost frustrating when I got no readings from her in terms of my power.

It had taken me time to get used to feeling the emotions and feelings of everyone around me, and it had gotten scary when that power had started to grow stronger and stronger to the point that I worried I'd forget what it felt like to…well to feel things for myself. But with Famine (and honestly a few more people on Boss's team, but I'd spent the most time with Famine), I no longer connected with her just by being around her like with everyone else. And it was utterly empty. Utterly terrifying.

Whenever emotion did flare up, Famine could almost manipulate it like it was a physical object, moving it from her chest to her arm and flicking it out her finger or, like just now, exhaling it through her breath. Emotion was just an object to her, like a weed. There was obviously no stopping emotion from happening, but it was easy for her to merely pull the weed the moment it appeared before it could corrupt any other part of her garden.

Everything she could manipulate - plants, life energy, time, emotions - even the intangible things were just objects to her.

It was easy for me to see the godhood when stuff like that happened with Famine. It wasn't like she fooled me into believing she was human, though it wasn't like she fooled me into believing she was a god, either. She was in this weird zone of being in between, which I guess is an accurate description of her entire existence.

But maybe this was why she stayed with the Wards at all, why she could tolerate being where she was, serving a team of people who destroyed everything that had once been important to her. She threw away any emotion that would force her to remember such times, whether she was doing it intentionally or not. As such, she was preventing herself from remembering, from feeling. Maybe because it hurt too much, because she was scared.

"Kaze and Azrael, as you call them, were to be our next members. Boss started this team with just her and Quake, long ago. Slowly, she was assigned more and more of us, and Ventus and Death were next. Thanks to you, Death escaped the Wards before he could be brought to us."

"Oh, you mean when Kaze had to sacrifice himself to become a Reanimation in order for Tsuchi and Kandai to bail us out…"

"In a normal situation, Death would not have been able to escape us. He was being transferred to Boss's location from the Facility he had been training in for some time now. Death supposedly had the ability to instantly destroy even a god's very essence. It wasn't just about sending them to Tartarus; he could literally crush our very existence in the palm of his hand. Little did they realize how special Death truly was. With power even stronger than the gods, he was able to overpower the Celestial-Breaker technology."

"You mean how they were able to use those helmets to resist my powers?"

Famine nodded. "Celestial-Breaker technology was designed and refined by humans ever since the Renaissance era. It improved especially once Forge became a part of the development team."

"How did Forge join? I'm guessing he was bribed with the idea that he'd get to create stuff."

"Like I said, he's lived his life in servitude, and so when he was captured and given orders, he just followed them. In fact, most of the Celestial-Breaker success comes from Forge's upgrades. There's only so much meddling humans can do even if they do have the grit, determination, and enchanted metals."

"If he's so important to their R&D, why is he roaming about with this team?"

"Because Boss's team is meant to be the best of the best. Sandman, though he may not look it, is the most powerful creation of Somnous the Wards have been able to create. Quake is the top of his class in terms of his Earthshaker abilities. Pain is the only one the Wards have ever found capable of controlling not only pain but inflicting actual sounds onto her targets. Hatter is the most powerful recreation of the more ancient forms of Dionysus's power. Mirage is…well, Mirage. Enough said."

"You said Mirage was a creation of the Mist, right, but they're not actually that old?"

Famine nodded. "Only recently have they managed to make Mirage out of the very Mist itself, and they were lucky that Mirage plays along with their schemes. But Mirage could easily destroy the entire Ward system if they got so inclined. Even Celestial-Breaker technology can't combat the Mist if it's dense enough, and if it has an actual will behind it. Especially if that will gets violently strong."

"Has Mirage ever gotten mad before?"

"They've gotten upset. And that is more than enough reason to fear when they actually take things seriously. Ever since meeting Lust, Mirage had settled down. The two of them get sent on missions that allow them to kill and manipulate and torture, and that sates their sadistic tendencies enough for the Wards. But I personally think they were sent to Boss because they were truly beginning to fear they wouldn't be able to control those two."

"Lust is special too, then?"

Famine nodded. "She was built to harness the power of Primordial Nyx, and among the other creations that were built in the same context, Lust got the powers of the Kharities. It's easy to forget that among the many children of Nyx that live in Tartarus, she also gave birth to concepts of Day and jovial pursuits. Such concepts are allowed to exist in this realm, unlike the more destructive ones trapped down in Tartarus. I believe one of them even married Hypnos and became a goddess of hallucinatory happiness and such."

"Every family has an oddball or two."

"Seven had to work hard to make it to where she is. Pestilence and War were Freebies who had to train and build their way up to being the best in their respective classes; after all, there are many children born for fighting and medical killing. But Pestilence managed to develop her powers over disease and made it her strong-suit rather than doing what most of her kin did and become healers or try using music and light as weapons. War wasn't special at first. She was just one of many destructively violent fighters with the powers of war within her. Her Berserker ability seemed, at first, as trivial as any chaotic power that could make one lose their wits with a lust for blood and battle."

"But?"

"But then War proved that she was more determined to be special than even her violent peers, and so she figured out that her Berserker ability could be used in a smarter fashion. Studying the Athena children, she vowed that she could do smart warfare better than they could. And so her Berserker ability actually mutated after its development. Most abilities don't actually mutate. They can be pushed to be utilized in creative ways, but the very foundations of one's powers usually don't actually change at the base level. But out of sheer stubbornness and many, many hours of testing, War managed to transform her Berserker ability into something that could psychologically transform someone into a psychopath and sociopath. War could use her powers not only to simply turn her victims mad, but she could transform them into political weapons as well. She could turn her victims into smart, cunning, and manipulative monsters. Basically, she could turn other people into Lust but without the magical abilities."

"Sounds…scary."

"Though we have someone like Lust on our team, the mere fact that War managed to mutate her power and the fact that she's so physically strong, destructive, and she's got a wide range to her powers were enough to get her on this team. Even if having strong abilities was common among children - especially Freebies - of Ares or Mars or other war gods, War could potentially mutate not only her abilities, but that of others around her. Boss was given instructions to test War in that regard. For Seven, it wasn't as easy to prove herself."

"But can't Seven literally control odds and fate itself? I'd say that's pretty impressive."

"Yes, but Seven was born among many who were specifically designed for that purpose. She has many siblings who can do things that are far superior to what she can do, and there was physically no way for her to get any better than them because they were created the way they were. Her siblings can manipulate odds, they can predict all events, they can tug at the strands of the Fates in numerous ways. One of her siblings can change people and events using tarot cards. All of them have to go through a test where they must force lightning to strike a location five times in succession, where they are shot at by snipers without warning and must deflect the bullets to specific targets, stuff like that."

I wanted to say 'That sounds horrible,' but I knew that it would just be redundant. All of them knew already how tough the Ward program was better than probably even their fellow Ward kids. Who was I to give my opinion when Famine's training had likely been merciful by comparison?

"Seven struggled at first. Coins appeared to help her focus, same way her sibling had tarot cards. But her true ability is to be able to feel and sense the strands of the Fates and tug at them. Essentially, it's a boost to the power she and her siblings already have to manipulate odds and fate. But overall, it's not that special. She can play the strands of fate like a harp, but apparently that's not good enough."

"She can ruin the delicate fabric of reality if she were to just play with fate like she's rocking out on a banjo."

Famine gave a sideways smirk. I could sense a small hint of amusement flare up within her. "While that is an amusing analogy, it's not akin to what she does. Seven underestimates herself. Her self-doubt results in the failing of her performance. The consequences of failure further dishearten her. She hates the Wards. She hates Freebies for the life they had outside of the Wards that they gave up just to join the Wards. Though she can pull at the very fabric of this reality, Seven ended up trapped in her own web of pain. In the end, she still believes she is inferior to the rest of us. But there was a reason for each of us being put on this team. There is no such thing as a straggler being allowed to join just for the hell of it."

"So what did she do? You said that War wasn't special, but she managed to mutate her powers and demonstrated a unique skill. What did Seven do?"

Famine laid back and stared up at the sky frozen in time. Now that I properly looked, I could see the light distortions forming something of a dome around us, like we were looking through very clear glass and it was difficult to tell there was a barrier, but it was definitely there when the light caught it at the right angle. That was Famine trapping us in a bubble of time.

"Well, what do you think?"

"Hmm…well the most obvious guess would be that she did something really strong that none of her peers were capable of, maybe something that she herself isn't even aware of. I suppose the easiest assumption would be that she broke past the Celestial-Breaker tech?"

Famine nodded. "Good start, but go on."

I honestly didn't know whether this was a test or not, and I didn't know what else there was to guess. I tried to think back to when I'd met Seven earlier. When she released me from my prison, Famine had warned me that half the team had ways to counter my abilities or were outright immune, so I shouldn't get any ideas now that I had my powers unrestrained. Not that I really had anything planned anyway. I had no doubt that if I tried running, they'd be able to catch me one way or another before I even made it over the hill to Camp Half-Blood.

I focused on Seven's readings, trying to imagine having bookmarked her within my mind.

Resentment laid strewn within her soul, both inside and out. And fear, not living up to expectations. But she was happy where she was, with this team, and regardless of whether she died or not, she would go into the coming battles doing what she always had: as she was told.

But playing the strands of fate like an instrument, an instrument that no one else could see, not even when she was manipulating them?

What if it was like what Rei did, falling into a state of meditation when she got her mother's power-up boost? She was still very aware of her actions, but at the same time she was on auto-pilot. Her ultimate goal was to eliminate the threat that had killed her and put her in that state in the first place, and to that end she became a hyper-focused killing machine, even if she could still resemble a regular human simply because she was so used to that state and because of her Primordial boost making things easier.

"Maybe she used that skill of seeing the strands of the Fates and played an actual song? Songs have a way of manipulating us, don't they? That trance you can get into when the emotions of the composer manage to pass through to you properly."

"Yes. Though I likened her ability to playing a harp, that is just the analogy that is commonly used when describing that power that she and her siblings have. But Seven was the only one who thought to play the strands of Fate as a true melody, allowing them to guide her as much as she guided them. It's one thing to take advantage of the fact that they can manipulate fate, it's another for them to actually work with fate and get it to cooperate."

"She won over fate with compassion, huh?"

Famine shrugged. "Who can say? Seven herself isn't aware of this power nor how to actually command it. At the moment, she can merely work with the strands of fate to make a melody, but in doing so she gains more control than her siblings can ever manage. She just can't direct the melody herself yet. But the Wards had hope for her, so here she is."

"The Three Fates must really not like her - or her siblings for that matter."

"Oh, they are constantly at odds. Many of Seven's siblings die upon creation. It takes the current generations protecting them while they are young for them even to survive birth and then protect them until they are strong enough to protect themselves. After all, the Fates hold the strings that can end any lives that are mortal. The Wards fear this and have taken many precautions in case the Fates attack."

"I thought that the Fates cut the strings of peoples' lives wasn't actually them deciding who lived and who died; I thought it was the other way around, and they merely cut the strings as a result of someone's death. Like, to make a visual cue."

"Correlation and causation," Famine shrugged. "In any case, the point is that everyone on Boss's team is special. All of us have roles to play. I wonder, though. Seven gets affected when Boss uses her powers, and Seven is incapable of tugging at any strings surrounding Boss. I suppose that's the reason that Boss is in charge; none of us are capable of harming her."

"Is Boss mean? N-Not to offend anyone! I just wanted to know what kind of leader she is."

"She is a good leader. As I told you before, we all follow her because we want to. And what path she follows, so too will we."

"What path does she follow now? Do you know?"

"Precisely? That is impossible to know."

"You said that I have a chance of swaying the decision of this team, that I could make them help my friends rather than hinder them! Did you lie to me?!"

"No. I am confident that you can sway the hearts of this team even in the short time you have with us."

"Infinite time, technically."

Famine chuckled. "Yes, infinite time as I give it to you. The others on the outside, however, will come and go as they please. While within my bubble of time, I can still feel everything outside of it, but nothing happens out there because I can bring time to a halt."

"Like Kaze…yeah, I know how that feels because of Kaze."

"Time dilation is lonely, Emily Hezesto. That's why I don't use it often. If Boss needs something of me, she can break through the dilation, but it's unlikely that she'll need me within the few seconds that are passing while we spend our eternity in here."

"What's the longest amount of time you've ever condensed?"

She paused in thought. She genuinely seemed to be searching her memories for an answer. "Hm. Well I would have to say nearing…three years?"

"Three years?! That's insane! What would you be doing in that amount of time?"

"Three years is nothing compared to eternity, Emily Hezesto. I have only lived a few thousand years, but even that makes three years seem inconsequential."

"A lot can happen in three years. I know that you gods probably don't feel the passage of time the same as mortals do, but you do feel the passage of time through your interactions with others. Maybe you don't have to worry about your death, but you can still keep track of how long you have until your friend dies. Every life means something, even if it's not your own."

"You get used to losing people after it happens too many times. Eventually it grows too painful to continue focusing on the mortality of others."

"So have you reached that point yet?"

"I think so. Or at least, that's how I am at the moment. I don't remember very clearly, but I think once I was dedicated to protecting others - protecting good people from bad ones."

"So what changed, do you think?"

Famine shrugged. "I don't know. They did something to me in the Wards."

"The Wards…people who have managed to enslave demigods, resist and restrain our powers, and who plan to fight gods and monsters alike in the name of protecting humanity. What kind of people are they?"

Famine rose to her feet. "I've decided. I don't want to follow the Wards, nor the orders of those who they support."

"Whoa. That was sudden."

"It really wasn't." She turned to stare down at me like I was a rare flower she'd never seen before. "You've been influencing me ever since you were freed from your prison and your powers restored. No, even before that. You've been influencing me since we first met."

"But…I failed all your training exercises. All that mental meditating and then physical training-

"I didn't realize it either. Because that is how strong you are. It is one thing to overpower another's will intentionally, but it's another to do it so subtly that they not only don't fight back, but they come to accept your influence and make it their own will of their own volition."

"That's…scary." I averted my gaze to the grass. "I told you before, I don't…I don't like that kind of stuff."

Famine knelt in front of me and reached to push my glasses up. One of her hair-limbs reached up to sweep my hair out of my face so she could look me in the eye. "That's right. You have a good heart. Which is precisely why you were given this power in the first place: because you won't abuse it. Those with power use that power. I have never met anyone as pure-hearted as you, Emily Hezesto. And that is why perhaps even the Primordials were unaware of how much power they gave you. You were built in an effort to fix this situation they were put into."

"So I was built this way as some sort of tool?"

"In terms of such ancient and ineffable beings, we are all tools in the end, aren't we? Humanity itself is a means of amusement, like a child playing house or playing with their pets."

"Rei did say something about the Primordials putting their consciousnesses into hosts because they could interact with the world that way."

Famine nodded. "I've struggled since my conception with what I should be. My options were human or god, and after living with both for a certain period of time, I still wasn't willing to make my decision. Humanity is a cruel, cruel, lonely, sad place to be. But it is only sad because it can also make me happy in ways that being a deity cannot. There are things that I can do in this realm that I could never do if I lived in Olympus. I can only imagine the loneliness and apathy that can come of being something like those Primordials."

I snorted. "But what about Gaea? Seems to me like she isn't that disconnected from humanity and her urge to destroy everything, her frustration when we foil her plans, her…"

"Is it really frustration? Or is it mere irritation, and then she just moves onto her next plan?"

"I mean, maybe that's what it looks like. When you're as powerful as the very earth itself, a few little demigods like us making headway still feels like flies being upgraded to wasps. They were always buzzing around and annoying, maybe now you've realized they can sting you if you aren't cautious, but in the end they're still insects. You feel like you have many ways of dealing with them, someone else you can call to exterminate them at any time. You can destroy their nest, and they'll be angry, but in the end all you need is a little preparation to get rid of them all with ease…"

"Perhaps that's true. Perhaps it's a combination of such a superiority complex and a lack of truly understanding humanity that gives her the arrogance that she has. But one way or another, she is just like the other Primordials: she is bored and lonely and if she ever got what she wanted it would never produce an empire as beautiful as you flourishing humans can create."

"Which is why the most ancient of the Primordials, the one at the top who's smarter and wiser and also more uncaring than any of their creations - that's why Khaos needs to use a host. That's why Khaos split into Chaos and Order, and why they made that host system, and why they need-"

"An intermediary such as yourself. Khaos could never appreciate humanity and this world and any of their creations in their true state because no matter what they were, they would always be beneath Khaos. Khaos is simply incapable of sympathizing. But it's important for a leader to understand their people and their creations if they wish for the society to flourish."

"And there have been many failures in the past…"

Famine nodded. "Gaea and her husbands, the Titans, the gods, and humans. Not even just Greek and Roman religions either - all of them. Khaos has finally managed to create a somewhat stable society that keeps all the religions and all the humans stable, and in order to gather information and improve the world - or at the very least keep it growing to better heights - they take on the form of Chaos and Order who then in turn use hosts to properly experience human society."

"But once Gaea and Tartarus started meddling, Chaos became unstable and then so did Order and it all popped off into a downward spiral! And now, Khaos - er, the one with the K - has been restored! And I'm not there to keep them in check! I don't even know how I could even when I was with them!"

"It's not only that. The being that is possessing your friend, my…my old friend Rei Chikara…whatever is possessing them isn't Khaos."

"But…but it's a combination of Order and Chaos. That's what Khaos is, isn't it?"

Famine frowned. Her brow tightened only slightly when she was thinking, but I'd never seen her think about something so intensely. Maybe Famine was right; I was having an effect on her without even realizing it. "If everything you've told me is accurate, then I can't possibly see how Rei is hosting the real Khaos. Khaos had to split themself into Chaos and Order for a reason; Khaos themself couldn't form a human-like consciousness that was weak enough to be stored within a host."

"Yeah, I mean Rei was only able to hold them both because of her undying physics from her mother's power…"

"And those are just a fraction of Chaos and Order's true power. It's just the part they've dedicated to studying humanity. Khaos, the most ancient one, was incapable of creating a human-consciousness part of themself."

"So…whatever Rei has in her is like…a mutation? Order and Chaos together technically make Ancient Khaos, but the human-possessing fractions of them aren't fully Order and Chaos. So what we combined wasn't actually the full Chaos and Order into Ancient Khaos."

"Mortals would never be allowed such power," Famine affirmed. "And especially because of Gaea and Tartarus meddling, especially because of Rei and Veon failing their trials - or at least failing to pass them in the standard fashion - and because you were interfering with those trials switching them back and forth into hosts who had yet to prove their worthiness yet all while they were under threat…it all added up to some terrible mutation, like you said."

"But that means that what Rei has isn't the real Khaos…"

"Let us call them Magatsu."

"Magatsu?"

"It means something along the lines of evil, disaster, catastrophe, taint, and chaos. Appropriate, I would say. In any case, if this Magatsu is truly what we believe they are, then it means they are the most unrestrained, corruptible Primordial-like deity that has ever been capable of existing on this plane of reality."

"When we were down in Tartarus, Chaos and Order nearly decided to set off the end of the world, all the apocalypses that had ever been prophesied about, and probably even more than that."

"I would say that is the most genuine example of what the true Order and Chaos can do when combined in an unhealthy state."

"So if Magatsu is an imperfect and unstable version of Order and Chaos when brought together, that means that Magatsu is also looking to destroy the world?"

"But because they are the more human version of such a Primordial entity, they've essentially decided to have fun with the destruction. Because if nothing else, humans incite curiosity and creativity. While a regular god might just do their job, humans inspire them to do it creatively - even to the point of defying logic."

"I can stop them, right?" I found myself snatching Famine's hands. "You can teach me. You said you'd teach me how to use my powers so that I can control the Primordials. I can stop Magatsu!"

Famine looked slightly startled. "Er, yes, that is what I said. However, we can't be sure your power will be useful." She carefully slipped her hands free of mine, but she, in turn, wrapped her fingers around mine in a sort of placating manner. "Your power was given to you with the intention of assisting Chaos and Order in their separate parts. Magatsu is a mutation, as we concluded. Meaning that unless your power grows to somehow match the mutation, you won't have as much effect."

"But if I have the power to possibly separate them back into their component parts, shouldn't I use it? Shouldn't I at least try? If I don't do this, not only could Gaea possibly destroy the world and the camps, but Magatsu could make it even worse! If they've become some kind of sadistic entity, then they could come up with even more creative and torturous ways of destroying the world that regular old Primordial Gaea could ever come up with! Forget Gaea and the monsters inheriting the world or whatever for their evil empire, Magatsu could destroy them too!"

"Calm yourself, Emily Hezesto." Somehow, after so many months of being the one to comfort the ones around me, I found myself being comforted by the calm and controlled Famine. Her hands pulsated with that odd warmth that came of a person whose body wasn't entirely human. It was oddly comforting, like if I leaned against her it'd resemble lying in one of those bean-bag chairs that could just mold to hold your body. "Your power is indeed strong, and it is restrained by your morality and self-doubt. Which is normally a good thing. But at the moment we need you to have faith in yourself and your decisions. If you can do that, I've no doubt you might just have the power you need to end this war single-handedly."

"I…you overestimate me." That was odd. Maybe I just wasn't used to Famine's stoic face giving a genuine compliment, but I felt flattered.

"I will do my best to teach you, Emily Hezesto, but in the end, it must be you who finds the courage to decide that your power bends to your will, and that your choices are the right ones to make."

"And what if I make the wrong choices? What if I screw up?"

She shrugged. "We'll all be doomed anyway, so might as well give it a shot. Even if you manage to stop this Magatsu imitation of the Primordial Khaos, Gaea's war still rages on. It might take everything you have to stop just Magatsu alone. If that is the case - and I think it will be - then your friends are still going to have to stop the giants and unite the gods."

Famine's words shouldn't have been comforting, but they made me relax. Knowing that everything wasn't all on me somehow made things easier; knowing that the others were fighting just as hard to win their own battles and that I had to live up to their expectations felt easier than thinking that I alone had the power to save everyone and just wasn't trying hard enough.

"All right then. Teach me. But, uh, can we do some less strenuous physical exercises?"

Famine laughed. It was a deep and warm and powerful laugh that made me wonder if Famine had truly laughed like this before - if it had been a long time, or if it had even been ever. Even Famine seemed surprised by it.

She fell back into the grass with her hands releasing mine to support her. Her head raised up to gaze at the frozen sky. "Life is hard, Emily Hezesto. A little extra training before the end of the world is necessary." She had an amused smile on her face.

I wanted to protest further, but instead I blurted, "You can just call me Emily. Or Em."

She tapped her lip as if in thought. "Maybe Boss can give you a code name too. Considering that I offered to make you part of our family and all. Being a part of this team means you're special, and you are certainly special, Emily Hezesto."

"My code name would be 'Emily,'" I insisted.

She laughed again. "I would go with something more like 'Hearth.'"

I frowned at her, but it was difficult for me to pull off a proper scowl. I must've looked like a pouting puppy at best.

"But Emily will do for now," she conceded.

Guys, scratch that, I went and looked while you were reading the chapter and the first of these four chapters, 'Introductions,' is 500 words longer than this one, but then again, that chapter wasn't one single 7,000 word POV so I mean victories?