Christmas went on all day and well into the night. Minerva managed to stay awake until a little after ten, but by then she's running on fumes and half asleep, camped out on the foot of the stairs next to Hitch. The dog is as tired as she is, curled up with his nose tucked under his tail, eyes shut and breathing deeply. Minerva puts her chin on her hands and tries not to nod off. It's hard though, even with the sporadic bursts of argument coming from the others.

Minerva hasn't been paying any particular attention to the details- as far as she can tell, most of it is because Haytham and Rebecca are married now, but that sounds like a good thing to her. They obviously like each other a lot, and Minerva can't figure out what the downside is. And, just to shake it up, occasionally Desmond and his father will start shooting insults at each other. None of it (...hardly any of it...) is mean spirited, not really. Just tense. Minerva's pretty sure it'll all work itself out in the end, it's just taking an awfully long time to get there.

By this point, it's started to blur together and Minerva is tired enough to drop off despite the ongoing noise. In fact, it's only the silence that wakes her up- she's gotten used to the dull roar of conversation and argument, so when it stops she comes awake with a start.

And freaks out, just a little bit, because the entire world has stopped moving.

She stands, trembling a little, sick with the fear and confusion of the sight in front of her. Everything has just stopped, like the world is on pause, and there's a dull golden glow in the air that's so thick Minerva imagines she can taste it in her mouth when she breathes, feel it all the way down to her lungs.

But before she can even start to think of what to do or say, something seems to suck the heavy light out of the air and then the world jolts forward and starts moving again. Minerva lets out a terrified little scream that dissolves into sobs, and runs toward Ezio (who happens to be closer than Shaun) so fast she trips and falls flat on her face.

The room goes quiet for a second time, but this time it's from surprise rather than anything supernatural. Ezio holds her tight, obviously unsure what else to do. "What's wrong?" he asks, when Minerva is back on her feet and a little calmer. Only she doesn't understand what she's just seen, and she doesn't have the words to describe the way it had felt to see everything just… stop. Her mind is buzzing, and it makes Minerva tremble almost uncontrollably.

In the end, Ezio carries her upstairs to Desmond's room, empty for the moment, and lies her down on the unmade bed. Minerva covers her face with her arms and rolls over to face the wall. After maybe half a minute, she hears Shaun come up the stairs and Ezio go into the hallway to meet him. Their voices are quiet, but when Minerva closes her eyes and listens hard, she can just about hear them.

"What's wrong with her?" Shaun asks. "Did she say anything?"

"Nothing," Ezio says. "I have no idea."

Shaun makes a thoughtful noise. "It could be mental, I guess. I'm still not sure what went wrong when we brought her back, this could be a delayed side effect of that."

"I hope not," Ezio says. And there's more after that, but Minerva drifts into an uncomfortable sleep, just because it's easier than staying up and thinking right now.

-/-

She has a nightmare almost as soon as she falls asleep. They're intense and vivid and terrifying, although it's more of a feeling than anything solid. She's falling- she's being stabbed, over and over- she's-

A hand grabs her by the forearm and pulls her away, out of the nightmares and into… somewhere else. It's hard to say exactly where that somewhere is, because it's nothing but a perfectly flat ground, ground she can feel but not see because there's a thick fog all around her. It covers the ground, the distant walls, anything else that might have been there.

It also echoes, Minerva quickly realizes. There are footsteps coming from… somewhere, but the fog and the echo make it seem like it's coming from every direction at once. Minerva stands her ground, hands curled into fists as though she expects to be able to fight off whomever (or whatever, her traitorous mind suggests) is coming.

But the figure that finally emerges from the fog is a woman, apparently unremarkable in every way. Except for her eyes. Those are dark and mean and they know something. The woman watches Minerva with a smug kind of expression that Minerva doesn't like. She's never seen this woman before, she knows she hasn't because she would have remembered a malice as strong as this one.

But she still knows her. Somehow, in some part of Minerva's mind, she knows this woman. Maybe not who she is, exactly, but Minerva knows that she is an enemy. She takes a few hurried steps backward, but it's not enough. There's nowhere to hide, and nowhere to run, and the woman only follows Minerva as she backs up farther and farther. Finally she stops, far too close for comfort, and smiles.

Minerva is surprised not to see fangs.

But the woman has very nice teeth, clean and straight, and on anyone else it would have seemed friendly. The look in this woman's eyes manage to make it seem hungry instead.

"Who are you?" Minerva asks.

The woman doesn't answer, but her smile turns meaner. Instead of addressing Minerva's question, she takes a long look, cold eyes studying every inch of Minerva's body. She shivers and crosses her arms, feeling strangely naked under the woman's gaze- but the woman only tuts and grabs Minerva's arms, uncovering her to better see her. The woman's fingers are long and slender, and burn like ice where they: rest on Minerva's wrist.

"Unbelievable," she says at last, without loosening her grip at all. "Once upon a time, you were one of the great ones. A particularly obnoxious one that I would personally love to take my revenge on…" she trails off, and Minerva has to force herself not to cower away at the tone in her voice when she says revenge. Suddenly, she wishes very much that she could remember what her life had been before Shaun and Ezio brought her back. She wants to know who this woman is, and what had happened between them to make her want Minerva dead so badly. Or maybe she doesn't- she has a bad feeling it would only make her feel worse.

"And then," the woman goes on, "You leave all that behind. Willingly." She lets go of Minerva and shoves her backward. "You turned yourself into a fucking human. I may kill you just for that."

"You're as human as I am!" Minerva protests, and flinches as the woman snarls at her.

"No," she says. "I wear a human skin until the day comes when I can resume my true form. But you… you chose this life. It's despicable, it's filthy. You're nothing but a grimy little human, an ant to be stepped on like every other member of your species, except that you've committed the added crime of betraying my people."

"You're crazy," Minerva says.

The woman shakes her head. "To you, I'm sure it looks that way," she says. "Because your primitive mind can't comprehend who I am or what I'm doing."

"At least I'm not-"

"I really wouldn't finish that thought, if I were you," the woman snarls, so abruptly that Minerva feels her next comment freeze in her throat. "Because I imagine that right now, you think you're safe. That I can't find you because I'm far away. But that's not at all true, you see… because whether or not you want to admit it, you were once one of us, and certain things effect you in ways that don't apply to humans."

"This afternoon…" Minerva starts, then stops because she's not sure if the woman is going to yell at her again for saying something. But the woman seems pleased.

"So you did notice," she says. "Time stopped."

"It- that's what- why?"

"All a part of the plan," the woman says.

Minerva doesn't ask what the plan is- she doesn't want to know. Instead, she focuses on making herself seem as small as possible, and trying to wake up. But the woman only shakes her head.

"There is nowhere you can run where I won't find you," she says. "Awake or asleep, alive or dead, I will find you, and I will make you suffer for what you've done."

For being human, Minerva translates in the privacy of her own head. Because this woman- Juno- thinks she's so much better than everyone else on the planet even though she's just some bully trying to bring back a past that sounds terrible. At least it does if the others had been anything like her (and Minerva wonders what exactly that says about her, and who she used to be. She doesn't remember choosing to become human, but she's glad at that moment that she did). And suddenly, Minerva is angry.

"No way," she says. "Whatever you're planning, you won't get away with it."

Juno laughs. "Little brat," she says. "I suppose it won't be any fun if you don't put up a fight. You can't possibly stop me."

"That's okay," Minerva says. "I don't need to do anything by myself. That's what family's for."

And Juno is so close at that moment, it's easy for Minerva to leap to her feet and slap her across the face. A very large part of her mind is shouting that this is a terrible idea and she should stop, now. But she doesn't listen. It's probably too late anyway, because Juno looks pissed as she shoves Minerva backward.

And then-

Minerva wakes up. She takes a second to get everything straight in her head- seeing Juno, the hints of a bigger plan, the mention of time travel, and Juno's reference to getting her own body back someday. None of that makes any sense to Minerva, but maybe it will to someone else. She half climbs, half falls out of bed, and goes looking for someone to tell her story to.