A/N: Uh oh, did someone forget to post a chapter last weekend? Yes. Yes I did. Anyway, is this one late for last weekend or early for next? Guess we'll find out end of Sunday!
Beth knocked on the door, taking a few steps back to lean against the opposite wall. After a few moments, the door swung open and Maea was standing in the doorframe, looking at her quizzically.
"I don't remember expecting you," Maea said after a long moment, keeping her voice and face neutral.
"Are you busy?" she asked, trying to get a peek indoors to see if Maea had any guests. The apartment looked empty—though that didn't mean there wasn't somebody in the back room. Somebodies?
"I happened to have a free night," Maea replied with a raised brow. "Who's inquiring?"
"I am," Beth told her. "C'mon." She jerked her head toward the stairwell at the end of the hall before looking back over at Maea, who eyed Beth suspiciously.
Letting out a sigh, she slumped against the wall. "Look, I'm not taking you out back to kill you or anything—"
"Like you could," Maea snorted, inclining her chin.
"I just thought you'd like to come patrolling with me," she continued on like Maea had never spoken. "Consider it an initiation of sorts."
"An initiation?" Maea repeated. "For what?"
She shrugged. "Dunno. Guess you're a bit like one of us. And hey, I like you more than the last guy." She paused, looking thoughtful. "You don't have some real or metaphorical maker you'd sell me out to in order to get revenge over a dead family member or close friend, right?"
"Oddly specific, but no," Maea replied. "But I suppose I'll go with you. I don't have anything better to do." She disappeared back into her apartment, leaving the door open, reappearing a minute later with her jacket and a pair of keys.
"What's the point of even locking your door?" Beth asked as Maea did just that. "The last guy who came in here uninvited just knocked the whole thing down."
"Wouldn't it be a bit odd to not?" Maea asked, pocketing her keys. "After all, locking homes is a very human thing to do."
She eyed Maea, following her down the hallway. "You're not human, but you're not a demon either." When Maea shot her a questioning look, she added, "I can sense a demon. Slayer, remember?"
"Oh, I remember," Maea promised. "You're not all as different as you'd probably like to think. And with more of you around at once, it's even more obvious."
"Well, I think I'm a lot like my mum," Beth told her thoughtfully. "Everyone says so, ev—wait, how many slayers have you known?"
Maea had a Mona Lisa look about her, offering up nothing in response. Beth could only huff before the doors to the outside world were thrown open and she was engulfed in a blast of chilly Seattle air. It wasn't snowing, but it might as well have been considering how cold it was. Beth shivered involuntarily, pulling her jacket closer around her. Maea seemed unperturbed, though she did frown at the thing layer of frost covering the sidewalk.
"You from the north?" Beth asked and Maea's head jerked up, looking like she'd just been pulled from deep thought.
"Hm?" she asked.
"You're good with cold," she explained and Maea shrugged.
"I guess it could be said that I generate my own heat," she responded and Beth had no reason to doubt it. She was half-vampire for Archaeus' sake; anything was possible. "Where do you usually patrol?"
"Everywhere," Beth answered. "We divide the area up and then we go through them and today was my turn in this division and I thought with you here, I could invite you an—"
"I appreciate the invite," Maea interrupted dryly. "You normally take along potential casualties?"
"I hardly consider a magician, an empath, and a girl who can swing swords violently and dangerously 'potential casualties.' And you told me you could take care of yourself."
"I can," Maea assured as they found themselves at an entrance to a park, perfect demon breeding grounds. "I've been taking care of myself longer than you've been alive. Longer than both of your parents combined."
Beth let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, sure, but I wouldn't put my money on that."
Maea turned on her heel to face her, a skeptical look upon her face. "Is your father one of advanced age?"
Beth snorted. "Like you wouldn't believe it," she replied.
They walked quietly for a while, Beth listening for sounds of scrabbling demons while Maea mostly seemed to mill around, looking somehow both bored and intrigued.
"So, you know quite a bit about slayers, right?" Beth asked, trying to keep her tone conversational.
Maea looked up from the ground, turning her bored-intrigued expression on her. "It depends on what you want to know."
"Well, you know what slayer dreams are right?" Beth asked and Maea nodded. "I had my first one, actually. The situation's gotten dire enough it seems. I guess the Powers That Be are tired of seeing us running around like chickens without heads."
Maea quirked a smile at that, but said nothing.
"Anyway, I had one and you were in it," she said.
"Really? Interesting," Maea murmured. "Anything of use?"
"Well, we've been trying to figure out what it all means, what with the metaphors and so on. All that stuff the higher powers love bestowing upon us. And I was hoping maybe you could shed some light on your part of the dream."
"I knew this wasn't just a normal house call," Maea sighed.
"Don't be cynical," Beth told her. "It's the two-birds-one-stone situation. I would have been here, dream or not."
"How can you be so sure?" Maea asked in a surly tone.
"Don't get like that," she said with a frown. "Please tell me that's not how I sound around other people, so sure no one likes me because I'm me."
"Anyway, this dream?"
"It was the apocalypse and we were in Seattle. You were there, in the battle, and you had a sword. A flaming one."
Maea's head jerked to hard, Beth half-expected it to (in a gorily fascinating sort of way) fly off. "A flaming sword?" she repeated, no, demanded. Beth was a bit taken aback by the sudden fierceness in the woman's eyes. She didn't think she'd ever seen Maea so animated. She had honestly begun to think it impossible. Maea stalked toward her and she jumped a few feet back to give herself some space. "How do you know about my sword?"
But before Beth could even get out "Your sword?", a large roar tore them from their conversation as a scaly beast rammed itself into them. Beth went flying backward, tumbling over a bench and falling to the grassy ground with an "oof!" She hadn't seen what used itself as a battering ram to hit them and she was cursing her stupid slayer tinglies for not doing the tingly thing. She should have felt that guy a mile off!
Pissed, with grass stains on her pants, she bolted up off the ground and over the bench to see Maea single-handedly holding back the scaly behemoth. It stood on two legs with some killer-looking claws, not to mention some jagged teeth in serious need of braces. And despite her lack of weaponry, Maea seemed to be holding her own. She effortlessly threw the beast back, scowling all the while.
Wasting no more time, Beth threw herself into the melee, delivering a hard kick to the demon's back and making him stumble forward to his knees. Maea took that opportunity to bash him over the head, sending him sprawling to his stomach. All in all, he was an easy opponent to beat, surprise attack none withstanding.
"I've fought bunnies that fight back harder than you," Beth growled, giving his head a good kick. When he stopped moving, she smiled smugly, using her boot to roll him over to get a good look at his features.
"I don't recognize this one," she commented before looking over at Maea. "Must be new to the area."
"They're native to Brazil," Maea commented, answering one of the many questions Beth could have asked her, namely "Have you ever been to Brazil?"
"He's a long way from home then," she murmured. "What do you think brought him up here?"
Maea shrugged, seemingly disinterested. "How should I know? They aren't very smart, so I can only imagine he got turned around."
Beth let out a snicker, which quickly morphed into a yelp as the demon woke up, slashing out around him. He nicked her left arm before quickly running off, likely to go deal with an easier meal.
"Run you coward!" she shouted after him, considering that maybe she should pursue. But he had longer legs and so off with him that idea went. She watched the demon leg it with just a hint of dissatisfaction, having let the enemy go and—more importantly—having been lulled into a false sense of security because he went down like a bag of rocks. Hands on her hips, she huffed, turning back to face Maea. "What a bore. I mean, he didn't even stick around for the r—" She stopped midsentence, her eyes widening as she saw the red stain blooming across Maea's shirt grow. She seemed uncomfortable, clutching at her stomach with an almost sour expression. She let out a small grunt before falling to her knees, Beth rushing beside her.
"Oh shit, oh shit," Beth hissed as she helped Maea lay down. Her eyes ran over the growing red stain, mind reeling. She wasn't an expert with wounds, but she guessed from the amount of blood that was coming out, there wasn't much time to do anything. She rode the bus over here for heaven's sake! And she'd certainly bleed out before the lousy ambulance could get here. "Oh shit, oh shit!"
Maea, to her credit, didn't say a word. It seemed like this was going to be a noble death, full of silence and "I have no regrets." Except everyone had regrets and just accepting death was stupid!
There was a beat before Maea went limp and another before Beth realized she was holding a dead body. A corpse. Boy, did her slayer training not prepare her for this, oddly enough. She was at a loss, but more currently, she was at a blank slate. There weren't even words flitting across her mind. The only thing she heard in her head was that ringing that started when everything got too silent.
"Oh fuck," she breathed out, slowly easing her arms out from under Maea and shakily getting to her feet. She had just gotten a girl killed. Killed. Yes, so went the side effects of being a slayer, but Maea wasn't a slayer! Hell, she wasn't human, but she wasn't a trained killer either!
With tremors wracking through her hands, she got her phone out, trying to maneuver her way to her favorites list. She eventually got to the right one, hitting dial and listening to the phone ring.
He picked up on the third ring. "'Lo, Beth?"
Before she could start the panicked babble, a groan emitted from behind her, making her shriek and drop her phone. She whipped around to see Maea, shirt still covered in blood, sitting up and rubbing her stomach.
"I hate how it aches afterward," she muttered, sounding incredibly displeased and alive for a dead girl.
Is this the next magical disaster? A zombie apocalypse?
Maea turned her head to see Beth gaping at her and she grimaced. The sound of a tinny voice coming from the phone in the grass reached her ears and she asked, "Are you going to do something about that?"
"What?" she got out, her brain still playing catch-up. When Maea motioned toward the phone, she let out a squeak and quickly picked it up.
"—s goin' on?" she heard her father say, sounding urgent and worried.
"Oh nothing, just a butt dial!" she quickly lied, laughing. "Bye now!" And before her father could respond, she ended the call, stuffing her phone into her pocket.
"What?" she repeated as Maea stood back up, her voice going up an octave. "What?" Maea shot her annoyed look, likely due to the tone. "You were dead! I—I felt you go! And now you're fine! And walking, what with all the blood and—and the blood!"
"It's a long story," Maea explained.
"I've got time for this one, promise," she growled.
"I'm, for all intents and purposes, immortal."
She crossed her arms. "That didn't take very long at all."
Maea rolled her eyes. "That's not the whole story, would you believe that? Come on, I'll explain it to you back at my apartment, once I've changed clothes. I hate how dried blood clotted on fabric sticks to your skin. I much prefer armor."
She willingly followed Maea back to her apartment, almost expecting the illusion to end and for Maea to collapse back on the ground, dead—and this time for real. But she didn't. If anything, she looked less uncomfortable the longer it went on, like she was gaining back her livelihood. It was odd. She knew too many people who had come back to life. She really needed to broaden her horizons and make one-time living friends. Those who didn't openly mock the circle of life.
Once back in the run-down apartment, Beth fell into a chair, watching as Maea flitted about the apartment, pulling off her jacket and shirt, wiping off the blood with water before drying and donning herself a new shirt.
"Thirsty?" Maea asked.
"No," she responded, never taking her eyes off on Maea.
Sighing, Maea gave up and sat down on the couch, looking unsure for once in her life, Beth was positive.
"I'm not from around here," Maea began and Beth refrained from letting out a coarse "well no shit" that was sitting so expectantly on the tip of her tongue. "I come from another dimension, Altxyrior."
Beth gave it a shot and mouthed the word, quickly giving up when she couldn't say it with the fluency the other woman could.
"It's a dimension similar to this one, except mortals aren't nearly as common and demons don't dare venture," Maea explained. "My true name is Maeaonis and I was a god."
"A god?" she choked, eyes wide. "You're kidding."
"Well, I'm what your kind would call a god," Maea corrected. "God of War, actually, like your Ares and Mars. I led armies of millions to victory and they were all loyal to me. I once had everything."
"And then?" she prompted.
Maea sighed, looking downward. "And then I was exiled here." She lifted her wrists and for a second, the bracelets on them shimmered and wavered before being replaced with metal cuffs. "Forced to live out my eternity on this planet. And while I'm stronger than a mere mortal, I'm hardly at the strength I was once. That sword you saw in your dream? It was mine. It was taken from me when I was forced into this dimension."
"And you can't get it back?" she asked. "Or get free?" she gestured toward the cuffs which glinted dully in the light coming from the fixture above.
Maea laughed. "I have tried. Many countless witches, wizards, warlocks, romany—they've all tried and they've all failed. The power if far beyond anyone here. Without the proper conduit, I'm trapped; stuck living this half-life forever. I wasn't lying when I said I've been around for a long time. It's been many millennia since I first came here. I saw both the rise and the fall of the Roman Empire. Even the Chinese dynasties have nothing on me. And I'm cursed to live on like that. There's very little that can kill me and none of it exists in this dimension."
"So you're stuck here, indefinitely," she reiterated and Maea nodded. Wringing her hands, there was one question that circled on Beth's mind: exactly why Maea had been exiled. When it came to gods, her family had a bit of mixed results with them, most of which leaned toward the "bad." Maea—or Maeaonis, she supposed—didn't seem to compare personality-wise to the likes of Glory or even Illyria. Maybe it was because Maea had, unlike the other two, lived among humans longer. According to Maea's recounting, she was beginning to wonder if Ares was based off of her. But Glory had gotten exiled as well, and not for the best of reasons.
"So, um, if you don't mind me asking, why were you exiled?" she inquired, a little twitchy. The last thing she wanted was Maea using some of her superhuman strength to throw her around. She may be a slayer, but that didn't mean she could take everybody (as much as it disappointed and rankled her to admit that).
Maea, at the voicing of the question, made quite the sour expression, and had the circumstances been different, Beth would have laughed. But now was not the time so she bit the inside of her cheek. "Jealousy, I guess it could be called," Maea responded—no, nearly spat. "I had power that others wanted. I was revered among my people, cherished for the victories I gave them. Those of mine who died, died in glory and I never forgot a loyal man. I was destined for greatness and others wished to remove that from me."
"So you were like God-King then?"
"No," Maea answered with a slight smile. "I was just his general."
"How come you don't have an army here? It's not like we don't fight wars," she inquired.
"I did, once," Maea admitted. "Before, when it was too hard to stay out of it, I was involved. But now, it's gone dull in my eyes." She looked up, catching Beth's eyes. "I won't lie, I've become hard over the years. Before I mourned for those who died in battle and felt their loss deeply. Now, recently, I've felt nothing but numbness. I disconnected from your world, unable to live in it. Without my true strength, I am little of what I was before. It sometimes feels like my arm has been cut off."
Beth's heart went out to Maea. So maybe there was the possibility that War-God Maeaonis was a murderous woman who if she had her true strength would not blink before smiting her, but at the moment, she was just as trapped as Beth had felt when James had gone and drugged her up. And while Maea was still strong, it wasn't near what she was used to. And that had to feel crippling.
"I'm sorry," she finally said after a moment. "Something like that happened to me last summer, but it wasn't permanent. I can only imagine what you feel like, always being like that—you know, half of yourself. It's a real bitch."
Maea looked up and smiled at her. "Yes, I suppose it is."