A/N: Hello dear readers! Yes, an update from the writer that never updates! We finally get to see all of Kari! Yes, a shock, I know, but things happen. More to come, Enjoy! And don't forget to hit the little green button that says "Review." I've got close to a thousand hits (Super Yay!) and about five reviews ( ?). So. Think about it. . . Now read on!

Chapter 5-

I jumped to my feet, my eyes wide. The kids! I hadn't sent them to the New York location before I left! Alex was eighteen; she and her sixteen year old brother, Tommy, could handle Eve and James. Knowing that they were in the other half of the house, I sprinted, cursing myself for the size of the structure.

"Alex!" I screamed. "Tommy? Where are you? Are Eve and James okay?" I got to the kids' wing of the house as another explosion rocked my home. I called for Arin several times to ask him to help me look for my kids. Of course, like the coward he is, he left—

"I'm right here, Kari. Can you sense them?" Shocking me, my ex-husband looked at me sternly. I shook my head and focused on the emotions in the house. I could sense three that were frantic and terrified. A fourth, I took to be little Eve, was out cold and in pain. I ran towards them, throwing debris out of my way as waves of explosives shook walls around us. Bits of plaster and dust fell from the ceiling while glass objects fell of walls and shattered. I called out their names again and listened desperately for some sort of reply.

I found a small hand and knew I'd found Eve. I ripped the ceiling boards away from her and nearly cried in happiness. She'd hidden between two couches and had only been slapped on the head by some debris. I picked Eve up carefully and handed her to Arin.

"Mom? Mom!" My head snapped around towards Tommy's voice. "Mom, where are you?" He sounded terrified. I wrenched the fallen boards away from his voice and saw Tommy crouched over James. Before they could blink I was there, hugging them and assessing the damage. They looked none too worse for the wear. James clung to me, crying hysterically. I tried to soothe him as best I could. Tommy's eyes betrayed their real fear and I pulled him into me, trying to convince both of us that it would be alright. He tried to act so tough, but in the face of this kind of danger, even grown men might break down. I could not have been more proud of him.

"I know it's scary, but we'll be okay. I promise, Tommy," I cupped his cheek and looked him in the eye. "Okay, sweetie?" After a nervous gulp, Tommy nodded vigorously. I picked up James and ordered the other boy to keep a vice grip on my belt. Arin brought up the rear; his firm, caring hold on Eve sent a shocked thrill through my system. With a determined shake of my head, I strode away from Tommy and James' hiding spot.

I called for Alex, my voice getting hoarse as I moved through doorways. Unfeeling, bloodthirsty entities were moving through my home toward us as more explosions shook my home. The darker, unnatural part of my nature began to boil to the surface over the continued threat to my adoptive children. The longer Alex didn't answer, the harder it became to keep control over that part of me and my panic.

"Alexandra! Where are you? Answer me!" I listened hard for her, and began flinging rubble back the way we came. This served several purposes: it halted our pursuers' progress; cleared a path to an exit; and it provided a visual search for my oldest girl.

"Carebear? Mommy? Mom, I'm over here! What's going on?" She hadn't called me Carebear since she was five and heard Dev Peltier call me Kari. My maternal instincts overtook all remnants of sanity left in my brain. I went to her, all the while cursing my mother for depriving me of my Ria once again. Had she not, I would have one more preternatural being to help me find and protect my current children. One day, that woman was going to eat it.

Debris burst away from the voice. Alex came into view, bloody, bruised, and with her leg bent at an unusual direction. Taking Tommy's hand, we rushed to his sister. She checked him over and looked up at me with relief and an obvious accusation in her eyes. My heart broke for what had to be the millionth time that decade. I projected thoughts into her head: I know. I've made your life hell, but if I knew I had pissed someone off this bad, believe me, I would have sent you away. Her face softened, if only by a degree. I glided my hand over her leg, not touching it, but assessing it for damage. It was broken in two places, but they were clean breaks. It made me breathe a sigh of relief. I relieved Ilmarinen of Eve. He picked Alex up carefully. Voices and loud crashes accompanied the cracking of timber. I knew exactly where we had to go. I projected the destination to Arin a split second before I flashed myself, Tommy, James, and Eve there.

I breathed a sigh of relief once we were in Sanctuary. With their sanctuary status reinstated, whoever it was that was after me, Arin, or my kids couldn't follow unless they wanted the Omegrion and Savitar to come down on their heads.

I fell to my knees and hugged my two youngest. Tommy stood off to the side looking awkward. I pulled him in as well, knowing he needed it. Arin appeared with Alex. The familiar sight of the dim room of Sanctuary was a beautiful contrast to the burning rubble my house now was. And then it came to me.

My brother and sister. They had to be the ones to send people after me. I had been cursing our mother since she told me she ordered the removal of my Ria. Artemis's name had been thrown in their a few times as well. If they hadn't been the ones to send goons for me, I would be astounded. There was only one question left to me: how do I kill them and get back my daughter without destroying the universe. . .

I'd have to figure that out and soon. I wouldn't use Ash to do it; he was a good person, even if he didn't think so. If I was to bring about the apocalypse, I could not attempt tricking him and keep a clear conscious. On the other hand, I could always find someone to drain their powers. My niece, Katra wasn't in the running for that; she would never agree to it. But there was one person I knew who might do it. . . I only had to contact her. Once Artemis and Apollo were powerless, I could let them attempt to live out human lives on Earth. The most likely outcome of that would be them getting landed in a mental hospital.

I would enjoy that very much. Perhaps too much, I worried. . . Then I decided that I didn't care for once.

Knowing that Aimee was working, I projected my thoughts. I explained to her what had happened and she told me to meet her in their house next door. I flashed us just behind the door that led to the Peltier house from Sanctuary's kitchen. She raised her eyebrows. "Kari," she said, "They're human? I thought you were a god."

I dropped my gaze, inhaled deeply, and then swung my eyes back to her face. "I am. My daughter was kidnapped by Artemis and made one of her koris. These are my adopted children, Aimee." The profession barely fazed her. She efficiently nodded and then called for Carter. The bearswan asked that I flash upstairs. I obeyed immediately, teleporting into their clinic.

Carter, their doctor and a werehawk, looked up, only half surprised to see a bunch of desperate, dusty humans and gods. He merely closed up his paperwork, set it on the metal desk behind him, and sighed. Shaking his head, Carter gestured at the gurney to his left. "Who's first?"

Arin set Alex down on the makeshift bed ever so gently. My brow knit at her hissed intake of breath. Her eyes blurred and she clenched her jaw, trying not to cry out. I immediately went to her side and took her hand in mine. Tommy held Eve and James looked around the room in shock. His tiny mouth made a small O. I turned back to my, currently, oldest child. Carter honed in on her leg and set to work finding the breaks.

The Native American doctor warned Alex that he was about to set the first one and she nodded bravely. She squeezed my hand tightly. Arin stepped away and stood by staring at me. Alex grunted in pain and buried her face in my shoulder to muffle a cry. I held her head there and petted her hair. In thirty minutes, Carter was finished and Alex was wiping her eyes and pretending that she hadn't been crying like she used to when she was five.

"Don't walk on it for a month and a half or two months," Carter ordered. "It's going to be tender, so I'll give you some pain medication to use. Follow the bottle's instructions, don't overdose, and I suggest that you get your mom to take you back in here to see me so I can take the cast off." In the span of another ten to fifteen minutes, Carter had checked out my other three kids and found them fine. Eve was awake and complaining that her head hurt which made me smile ruefully. Good news, she didn't have a concussion. The bad news was that she wasn't going to stop complaining until she got too tired to make her mouth keep moving.

I thanked Carter profusely, offering him anything that I could do for him. "Kari, stop. You've done a lot for the Peltiers over the years, and that means me by extension. If I need a favor, I'll let you know, but don't expect one anytime soon."

My head nodded. I turned at a touch on my shoulder. Ilmarinen was looking for a chance to talk in private. I wasn't sure what to do. Alex saw the look on my face and exchanged a glance with Tommy. "Go, Mom. Tommy and I can take care of Jimmy and Eve." She smiled half-heartedly and gestured toward the door. At the sight of my hesitation, Tommy stepped forward and shoved me toward the door with his free hand.

"Go! Have a social life for once, Ma." I rolled my eyes and stepped out the door behind my ex husband. The hall was open to the air, but completely deserted.

I avoided looking at my ex.; little distractions such as my finger nails or biting my lower lip kept my focus while I meekly thanked him. "Arin, thank you. I am not sure that I would have been able to save my children had you not helped me."

Arin nodded brusquely. I steeled myself. Assuming that my ex husband hadn't changed much in the past two thousand years. He was staring holes into my forehead while I avoided looking at him. As far as I was concerned, I had fulfilled my obligation, thanked him, and was free to go. But being the person that I am, being the goddess that I am, I was compelled to stay and hear whatever it was that he had to say. Secretly, a small, traitorous part of me hoped that he had finally come to his senses and realized what a mistake he'd made in leaving me. In his adultery. I knew that this was a completely unrealistic hope and that it could never happen.

But alas, I was right. Again.

Arin straightened and cleared his throat. "Kharissa, I need our daughter back."

I frowned deeply, causing my brows to knit together. "What do you mean, you need her, Ilmarinen?"

"I have found a suitor for her. I believe it is far past time that she should be wed." He stared at me expectantly, his back straight and barrel chest puffed out. I couldn't fathom the audacity the blacksmith had to even broach such a topic. An all consuming rage swept my body. I saw red, and I felt my eyes changing color, my nails elongating and sharpening, fangs drew down into my mouth, and my hair bleached itself white within the space of a few seconds. My brother and sister had nothing on me when I was like this. If they did not have my Ria, I would have killed them long ago. They're vampiric natures were cheap Hollywood fantasies in comparison.

I shook with the force of my anger, becoming the darker side of human nature, the unnatural part that should not exist, and yet was all too prevalent. The darker humans became, the more I was corrupted. Now was one of the moments I feared, the moments when I lost control over myself and rage was my only motivator. I was terrified of the moments when Man's own inhumanity manifested itself in me and I was bereft of self-control.

I became an animal. A monster of the worst kind. There was no limit to what I could do, what I was capable of because there was no limit to mankind except those it places upon itself. And that sheer force of nature that I embodied, that utterly sinister power, was directed at Ilmarinen.

"I've been lamenting her for thousands of years. Sought your help to get her back. I scoured the earth, sea, sky, and heavens for some way to take our daughter back, and now, suddenly after thousands of years of ignoring my pleas, not even caring that my sister had taken her from me, from us. . . You come to me saying you have a suitor for her?"

Currently, I was at a loss for whether the Finnish smith god was smart or extremely stupid for his gambit. He merely stood his ground knowing what he faced: the complete unpredictability of my anger. Arin nodded and the atmosphere became charged with his power as he tried to cow me. He coolly, if gruffly, replied, "I do. I did not come today to aid your human children. I came to take back my girl and finish the marriage rites, as is my duty as her father."

The last shreds of my restraint began to evaporate beneath his sheer stupidity. There was no doubt in my mind, however corrupted it was with anger and bloodlust, that my mother had chosen a complete and utter moron when she'd picked Arin for my husband. All the power I'd been keeping hidden, the power of an Atlantean woman scorned, overlaid Arin's and closed around him like a great iron fist.

"Leave. Never come back, Ilmarinen. You had two thousand years to ask for her, two millenia to come and help me, but instead you flaunted your mistresses while I mourned the loss of child and husband. You failed as a man, and even more so as a god. No true deity would be forced to stoop so low as to need their daughter's hand as payment for their debts. You are unworthy of the title."

His face registered surprise. He had forgotten how much I knew of his habits. "Leave," I thundered. "We have no business, smith. Get out of my sight." When he hesitated, I drew back a clawed hand meaning to sink my nails into his throat but as I slashed a strong, warm hand caught my wrist. On instinct, I spun with the other set of talons, aiming for whomever held me, but froze. I looked up into the face of my half brother, knowing that mercurial eyes sat behind the sunglasses that masked them.

"Kharissa, let it go." Acheron's voice was soft, commanding. I blinked and shook my head, attempting to clear the red haze from my vision and thoughts. A wave of exhaustion swept me when I returned to normal, bereft of the rush that my darker half provided. All the torments of my past became fresh in my mind. I relived losing Sotiria; my horrible marriage to Arin; watching Ash from afar and unable to go and comfort him; the children I'd watch die or be slaughtered; thousands of people being killed before my eyes for trivial things like borderlines, dirt, and currency; my brother's and sisters' scorn; and the most recent wound, my mother's treachery. That crushing knowledge tore me apart even while a voice whispered in the back of my mind that I still had yet to act on my agreement with my mistress, Apollymi. Breaking down cost me the solidity of my legs and I began to fall to my knees. Ash caught me easily and lowered me carefully to the floor.

I didn't even ask my half-brother why things stood as they did. I couldn't hope to expect an answer that would satisfy the large part of me that screamed for some sort of justice be it through bloodshed or merely a tipping of the scales in favor of the downtrodden. I could only hope that I wouldn't be destroyed by it.

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