As Lena filled a backpack filled with things that she could possibly need on her short saunter across the ocean, she could feel Peter in the back of her conscious begging her not to, but she kept going. Her suit in hand, she felt a pull at her bicep from him, who was sitting on her bed. She let him pull her close, her forehead falling onto his. With a short, sweet kiss, she pulled away knowing exactly what he was about to say.
"You don't have to."
"Yes I do, Peter."
"Let me come with you."
"Do you want to die? I have to go alone," she stopped what she was doing, smiling at him with so much care and pity, wishing he would just understand in the way that she needed him to, "Tony set an autopilot path. There is not even going to be a pilot."
"I don't want you to do this alone."
It was as if every day people were underestimating her. They still saw her as the tiny, helpless sea creature that they had first found instead of the strong woman she was now growing into. Sure, the height did not help, but she figured if Tony trusted her enough, the person most important to her would as well.
"Peter," she swung the bag over her shoulder, "I have made my decision. You are just making me angry now."
Pulling her bedroom door open, she took off down the hallway, placing the nanotech at the base of her neck to let it pull her hair on top of her head.
The truth was that she was significantly more nervous than all of the people around her, and she knew that for certain. She could read their anxiety as if they had projected it in front of her and were frantically pointing at it with a yardstick, and for their sake, she hid the fact that she had never felt anything more overwhelmingly nerve-wracking in her entire life. She had been alive for 63 years, she had been kidnapped, she fought her way out of a crazy man's secret lair, she had gone to high school, but this was the biggest feat she would be accomplishing. Confronting her sisters was not only something she needed to do for the sake of the lives that had been lost for centuries, but she needed to do it for the lives she could prevent from losing, and then her own life as well.
Living in deep, prodigious fear was no longer what she desired. The nightmares were never going to go away, the guilt was never going to dissipate, but the fear of placing one of her feet in the ocean terrified that she would be dragged back in and never return to Earth was unacceptable. It had to change. She was not going to allow them to micromanage every move she made regarding the place that was now and had been her home.
"Lena wait up!" she had almost reached the door to the elevator when Peter requested to catch up with her. She did not say anything as they waited together and stepped onto the moving box. She tapped the button to go to the landing pad where a jet and Tony was waiting for her, feeling Peter's eyes on her hand as it moved.
"What is it?" she asked, not sternly, just now wondering.
He decompressed, "I just want to see you off. I know that everything is going to be fine, you just ah-" she could feel the reluctance in what he wanted to say. "Listen I'm not very good at this, you know? The um...lovey-dovey stuff, you know? But I just needed to tell you that you mean a lot to me, and I just want you to come home safe."
The elevator dinged and opened while Lena's lips parted and she faced Peter, "I understand."
Standing on her toes and pressing a soft kiss on his lips, she let her hand linger on his cheek for a second longer, a habit she had found herself falling into. She liked the way the side of his face was soft, yet worn, a welcoming place that her fingers knew so well. Allowing her hand to slide off, she took one last look at those chocolate brown eyes and turned her back, facing what unknown and ahead.
"Lena," another pull at her arm, another longing feeling. This time Tony was standing on the base of the ramp, and for a moment he had briefly shown her a little bit of what he was feeling. He never did that for her, but it was possible he was learning to open up to her. "Are you sure that this is safe?"
She looked up the ramp to where a seat was waiting for her, sighing, she said, "I will not lie to you, I have no idea what is going to happen. I will let you know when I get there and when I am headed back."
It was quite an impressive amount of change that this all had exemplified for her. She had people who cared about her well-being. There was a high possibility that she would show up in front of the creatures that she used to call family, and they would have forgotten who she was entirely. The chances were slim, but they were still there. A part of her hoped that it was not the case, while another part of her hoped that them not having the recollection could be used to her advantage.
"Thanks, kid. Be safe and good luck," he slowly released her forearm, where he had been holding her, almost with a similar tenderness as a long, warm hug. That was Tony, though.
The sound of her shoes echoed off the metal ramp, and as it closed, she waved to both Tony and Peter, forcing herself to smile more for their sake than her own. There was a bit of a lump in her throat. While Peter was worried, he was also certain that she would be returning. Lena had no precise idea of what to expect, and for all she knew this would be the last time she saw either of them.
She was taking a risk larger than she had initially comprehended. Going back to speak with her sisters was putting everything she had on the line, but that was what being a superhero was all about, was it not?
A deep rumble vibrated on the jet, and her stomach dropped as the metal bird lifted off the ground. There was no turning back.
If a bird were to look inside of the long, horizontal window that was on the side of the particular jet that Tony had provided for Lena, it would find a set of silver eyes curiously peering out of it. With her blonde eyebrows forced together, she stared at the wonder of clouds, flabbergasted by the way that they looked completely solid, yet upon walking across them would follow with her falling straight through to the ground.
Rifling through her bag, she pulled out her goggles to gauge how much longer she had left in the flight towards the center of the Atlantic.
Hello, Lena.
"Hi PET, how much longer until I reach my destination?"
Syncing with the jet. One moment, please.
She waited.
We have reached maximum altitude for this trip. Approximately 20 minutes until we reach your destination.
"Okay. Okay."
She took off the straps that she had fastened across her chest and opened the bag to put on the remainder of the navy blue suit, ignoring the way that her chest pounded and the pits of her arms were growing damper with each pulse. Natural human reactions to anxiety had always been displeasing to her, they made an uncomfortable feeling worse, somehow.
Arrived.
She felt herself inhale quickly, her head bouncing to look out the window. It was time, and she was not sure if she was ready.
She did not get to decide if she was ready or not.
"Open the ramp on the side of the jet, please."
The jet did as it was told, the sound of metal moving catching her attention. She was no longer sitting amongst the clouds, but hovering just above the misty water, just as Peter had done all those months ago.
"PET, tell Tony that I have reached the coordinates."
All right, Lena. Message sent.
Each step was taken slowly, each step was the act of shoving every anxious feeling down the back of her throat.
She heard the voices as soon as the wind graced her face. The smooth, alluring voices that she had never noticed she had grown used to until they had stopped. Somewhere high, some were low, but they all harmonized together effortlessly as many voices to a single being. They were the beating heart of the ocean.
She was the cancerous cell. She needed to be removed. She had to be removed. They had to understand.
"It is I, the human-seiren hybrid. Show yourselves."
Her feet were adhered to the metal ramp; there was no way she would be touching the water.
It was not as strong as it had been, but she felt them as they swam to the surface, she heard their cautious whispers and their inquiries to each other on if they should attempt to kill her. It was all faint as if it was being spoken on the other side of her bedroom door.
The longer she listened, though, she heard their singing more clearly. It was not clouding her brain in the way that she had expected it to. She had thought that her new home on land amongst human beings would force her to be susceptible to their forces, but it was not the case. She wanted to smile to herself for the revelation, enjoying the idea of learning more about herself. She was not half of one thing and half the other, but she was fully human and fully seiren.
Traitor. Mutt. Child of Sin.
It was none of these names that bothered her. It was the one they least expected that fueled her anger.
Sister.
"I implore you not to call me that. We are all aware that I am not and never was one of you."
There were three of them who were surfaced, staring at her in their pure forms. Gray skin, silver eyes, black hair. One was the matriarch, the mother of all seiren, marked by the streak of gray that fell through the pitch black of her hair. While immortal, seiren could choose the age they wished to look, and the matriarch was the sole creature with the telltale sign of old age. The rest looked practically identical, not by force but by choice. There was no desire for individuality amongst them.
You also implore something else of us, crossbreed.
"Yes."
Speak.
"I am here on behalf of myself with the request that you cease all murder of human beings."
Her words were followed with immediate negative feedback from all of them, including those beneath the surface. It was a mutual disgust. It was what Lena had expected.
You are aware, hybrid, that it is not out of pleasure that we kill the human beings, it is only out of necessity-
"It is not," she spoke with intention. "I may not have been alive for the ancient times where our kind was sought out by pirates, but I am alive now, during the time where humans fear us rather than challenge us."
Selfish child. You have been up there for too long. Fallen in love with your peirasmos. Shameful, shameful-
"Your words no longer touch me. I am free from you, but you are no longer free from me," she knew she had to pull a tactic that Tony had taught her. It was a word that the seiren did not have in their vocabulary. It was time for her to bluff.
"See this large, metal bird? This is one of the deadliest weapons made by human beings. It can kill every one of you in a matter of seconds."
Lena would never kill them. She hated these heartless beings, but she did not have the capability of killing anyone. They did not know that. She was free from them. They could only pull from her mind what she wanted them to, and she was now manipulating them into believing every word she said, and Lena knew better than anyone else that there was only one thing that the seiren valued, and it was why they had started killing humans in the first place.
This treasure that they held so close to themselves was the survival of their own species.
"I have orders from my human allies to eliminate all of you if we do not come to an agreement."
The response she got had Lena pleased. The fear, the overwhelming conflict that bounced across their mutual channel was thick. It was glorious.
Leave us at once, and never return. Remain on the edges of the ocean, never in the deep. You have the word of the matriarch that no human being shall be murdered in the name of the Seiren people.
The word of the matriarch was unbreakable, but Lena had to be absolutely certain that they were telling the truth.
"If I hear word of any vessels going missing, I will return."
They collectively nodded in understanding.
As the ramp closed, and the plane lifted back into the sky, Lena could not help herself. She leaped, she ran, she skidded across the main cabin area like...what would her peirasmos say...like a child on Christmas morning. She could only recall one time where she had felt happier. Freedom had never felt so incredibly sweet.