"You're … you're a Revenant?" Waverly said, sitting bolt upright, the covers falling from her naked shoulders.

"No! No, I'm not," Nicole reassured her hastily, also sitting up but tugging the covers over her breasts, her wild hair in disarray. "I'm not a Revenant, Waves, I swear."

"Then who … what … are you?"

"I'm ..." Waverly could tell Nicole was struggling internally. The redhead searched her girlfriend's face for a long moment; then looked away down at her hands and breathed an angry, frustrated sigh.

"I can't tell you," she said eventually. "I won't put you in that kind of danger. Not for me."

"I can handle danger," Waverly said, a little more testily than she intended. She backtracked, laying an empathetic hand on Nicole's bare arm. "I mean, where you go I go, right?" she added more softly.

Nicole chewed her lip, placing her own hand over Waverly's and tensing her fingers, as if scared Waverly would retract her support. "It's important that nothing changes between us," she said. "Who I am, my family, none of it changes my feelings for you. I love you with all my heart, I always will.

"Baby, you're scaring me," Waverly said, feeling tears well behind her eyes. Nicole was already crying.

"I don't mean to, I just don't know what to do!" Nicole sobbed.

"Oh, honey," Waverly said, pulling her soulmate close and hugging her tight. "You don't need to tell me anything if it makes you feel like this. Just know that I love you, no matter who you are."

"Oh Waves ..." Nicole said, openly weeping against Waverly's chest. She snaked an arm around and held herself to Waverly, who felt physically ill at the distress she'd caused. She'd never seen Nicole this cut up about anything before, not even during their big fight.

"You know what? No matter what you are you're my girlfriend, okay? You're a deputy sheriff, and … and a cute drunk, and super cool -"

"Waves," Nicole interrupted her in a flat voice. Waverly looked down to the wild red hair beneath her chin, her heart leapt into her mouth.

"Yeah?" she rasped.

Nicole sat up and looked Waverly right in the eyes. "What do you know about ancient Sumerian and Babylonian mythology?"

The younger Earp made a dismissive noise through her nose and shrugged a little self-consciously. "What don't I know?"

"What do you know about … Ishtar?" Nicole breathed, closing her eyes for a second as she spoke the name.

"Ishtar? Uhm … well … I know she was the goddess of war and love, also known as Inanna in Sumerian folk lore."

"And?" Nicole pressed.

"And," Waverly added, unnerved by the intensity in Nicole's brown eyes. "She descended into Irkalla, the Underworld, and attempted to usurp the throne of the Goddess Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal punished her mercilessly."

"And?"

"Ereshkigal's brother Enki saved her from the Goddess. But-but then she … she stole the knowledge of everything from Enki, the Sumerians called them the mes. Ishtar took the mes and Enki was never able to retrieve them. He searched for centuries."

Nicole abruptly left the bed then, throwing herself to her feet and beginning to pace erratically.

"Nicole, what does this have to do wit -"

"I am Ishtar," Nicole confessed aloud. The wind seemed to drop at that instant. A deafening silence filled the room as Waverly gaped in disbelief. "I'm her. Or, rather, she's me. I – we ..." Nicole rounded on Waverly, a pleading look burning in her eyes. "I stole the knowledge. I angered Ereshkigal and Enki, and now ..." Madness suddenly took over Nicole's face, a sight made even more alarming by her stark nudity and the unruly hair that surrounded her flawless face like a halo of flame.

"I can't be here," she whispered. "I have to go." She began scrabbling about the floor for her police uniform, tugging each item on with some force.

"W-wait, Nicole -" Waverly said, getting to her knees on the bed.

"No, Waverly, you're … you're in danger now. You're in danger because of me. If Ereshkigal ever finds out about you, she'll -" Nicole stopped her frenzied dressing and came over to the bed, placing her hands on Waverly's shoulders and fixing her with an intense look. "She sent my cousin Namtar to infect me with every vicious disease in his arsenal. It was agony, I can't let that happen to you."

"I'm not defenseless, Nicole," Waverly snapped, as the apparent goddess-in-disguise tugged her sports bra on over her head. "In case you haven't noticed we've been battling Revenants and all kinds of other demons for months."

"I know, I know, baby," Nicole ammended, pressing a distracted kiss to Waverly's forehead as she turned her uniform shirt the right way out. "I'll call you from the road."

"Hey! No, wait!" Waverly said, leaping from bed and grabbing Nicole by the arm as her girlfriend reached for the door handle. "No, you're not leaving me. We're in this together."

"Waverly, you can't," Nicole pleaded, attempting to yank free from the death grip Waves had on her wrist.

"No!" Waverly shouted, turning Nicole back to her and slamming her up against the door. The old wood cracked with the force. "You can't leave me in the dark like this! I love y -"

"They killed my parents!" Nicole yelled. Waverly stopped dead, chest heaving, eyes searching Nicole's face which was a mask of misery. "They murdered them … because of me. And I will not lose you, too."