Y-3

Julia watched the clear solution crawl steadily up the syringe. She carefully measured out the dose, a recreational hit of med-x. Nothing that would completely kill her nerves but it would certainly take the edge off. A little bit of fun.

Julia always stayed sober on assignment, but whenever she returned she couldn't help but indulge a little, even though she still had her responsibilities in Ouroboros. She pushed the needle into the soft flesh of her underarm and pressed the plunger, letting the med-x and saline flow into her bloodstream. It took a moment to let the feeling wash over her body, that slightly tingly feeling of floating, of being and not being.

She didn't quite know what she was supposed to do today, so she was ducking the Goddess and avoiding new assignments. She had hid in a small tin shack near the edge of Ouroboros to shoot up, her private room where she couldn't be disturbed because no-one cared about a rotting scrap shack. She retreated to the shack but she never slept there, instead whenever she spent time back among the flock she'd find empty beds wherever they were to be found and kept her personal belongings in a locker at the armory. She kept nothing in her private space because it couldn't be locked and she had no way of knowing whether she was sharing the space with anyone else. But it was a good place to shoot up, to sit and think.

But then again, thinking was overrated, Julia decided. She lit out for the Maenad bar, a half-sunk one story building nestled cozily between the Daughter's barracks and the school. Julia wound her way through the smoky tables to the back corner booth, her favorite spot and furthest from the door. She got a glass of water and sat among the low murmur of the other Maenads relaxing in their downtime.

Outside, Athena had been watching. She knew it was only a matter of time before Arama visited the Maenad bar. She staked out a good vantage point and waited, waited until she could catch the person she hated and feared most. She followed Julia in.

Julia didn't even notice Athena follow her, didn't notice Athena search the dark room for her. She was content to stew in her opiate haze, in one of the few places she felt comfortable enough to not watch her surroundings like a hawk. She was taken by surprise when Athena sat across from her but she was not perturbed. They looked at each other for a moment, Julia searching the woman in front of her for clues to her identity, Athena seething with hatred and steeling herself to speak. Eventually Julia recognized her.

"Athena, right?" Julia asked languidly. She remembered Athena from the Twisted Hairs, but had never known her enough to know anything else about her. If she had been more present Julia may have asked Athena how she survived the Legion's betrayal, or how she had also come to follow Hecate, but as she was Julia simply wondered why Athena was bothering her at all. She got her answer soon enough.

"I don't know what you think you're doing here," Athena hissed, "The Goddess must not know what you did or otherwise She'd cast you out, curse you with the plague you deserve. You make me sick, playing Her loyal servant when all you are is a traitor. You should be ashamed, you should be ashamed Arama. I don't even know how you can live with yourself, live with the choices you have made. I'm going to give you the opportunity to tell Her yourself, let Her know what you did to us, let Her know what kind of vile serpent She's invited into Her Daughters. I'm going to let you tell Her because I cannot hurt Her like you do every day you claim to love Her. But if you don't tell Her, Arama, you can be assured that I will tell Her, I will let Her know because you cannot do this, I cannot let you get away with this you nodriza de la maii!-"

With one serpentine motion Julia slipped an errant finger into Athena's collar and used it to slam her head down on the table. In her other hand she seemingly conjured a revolver from nowhere, actually from under the table, and pressed it to Athena's temple. She smiled.

"Do you know why this bar is Maenad-only, Athena? It's because when the Goddess founded Ouroboros she discovered this building had a separate water system. Because she could never find its source, the taps only pour dirty water. But Maenads have a purifier installed, standard," she ran the iron sight of the gun barrel up and down her throat, while clutching Athena's collar tightly with her other hand and pulling it back, so that it bit into Athena's neck and choked her a little, "so unlike the Sibyls, or," she spit the word, "Harpies, we don't have to worry about whether the water is clean or not."

"If you can, from your disadvantaged viewpoint, look around us," Julia gestured at the rest of the bar with the revolver, its other patrons ignoring the loud drama of the back corner booth, "Do you see if anyone cares? Do you think they'd start if I blew your brains all over this table?"

Julia angrily shook Athena's collar as she pronounced each word, "Let's get this clear. I am operating on a completely different plain, and I don't play games with my inferiors. By all means, if you can even get an audience with the Goddess, tell her. Maybe she'll even believe you, just a little, if I don't deny it," she released Athena's collar.

"I'm glad we had this chat," Athena felt the cold steel of the gun lift off her temple as Julia got up to leave, "If you ever bother me again I'll kill you."

She sashayed out of the room, her long skirt flowing behind her. Athena waited a bit longer, resting her head on the flat, indifferent surface of the table.