A/N: Hey guys it's finally the start of the new semester ^_^ Hope you all enjoy reading this, it explains some things a little. Thanx again to Batsu Simisu-chan for being my Beta!!!
We pulled up to an apartment building and got out of the old van. The girls walked up to the button panel next to the door. I hesitated on the sidewalk. Did I really want to know all this? Did I want to be a part of it?
"Are you coming?" Catty asked, looking back at me expectantly.
"Yeah," I said, joining the rest of them.
"Hello," The voice on the intercom spoke.
"Maggie, it's us." Serena said.
The buzzer sounded as the magnetic lock opened. Tianna opened the door for us, and we all walked in. Instead of taking the elevator, Jimena headed for the stairs. Vanessa quietly complained, but everyone followed suit. Once we got up a couple floors, they turned off of the stairs and walked over to a door.
Before anyone could knock, the door opened for us. A woman stood there with very light blonde hair. She smiled and stepped aside, motioning for us to come in. The girls all walked inside, but again I hesitated. Last chance to run, I thought dryly.
"Hello, Kylie," this woman greeted me, giving me a kind smile.
I smiled politely in return before taking a slow step into the apartment. There were no lights on. All the light came from windows and candles spread throughout each room. Tianna, Catty, and Jimena were all sitting on one couch. Vanessa and Serena were each sitting in a couch chair. I sat down on the empty couch across from the other one.
Jimena glanced at me and then looked away. That girl obviously had a problem with me, and it was starting to really get on my nerves.
Maggie sat down next to me. Her face lit up in surprise, and strangely, a hint of anger flashed in her eyes as well.
"Does anyone else feel that?" Maggie inquired as she looked around.
"Feel what?" Catty asked, looking at Maggie curiously.
"The anger," Serena answered for her. "Is that coming from Kylie?"
"I think so," Maggie answered, smiling at me with approval now.
"I'm not doing anything." I replied as I put my hands up in a gesture of innocence.
"She doesn't even realize it; that's amazing," Maggie said with awe in her voice. "Are you angry about anything right now?"
"Not really, just someone with a chip on their shoulder, getting on my nerves is all," I said with a glance at Jimena.
"Hmmm, it can't be," Maggie quietly murmured to herself.
"What?" Vanessa questioned, giving Maggie the identical look everyone else seem to share as they stared at the woman.
"When do you feel at your weakest? Which phase of the Moon gives you the most comfort?" Maggie decided to ask me instead of answering Vanessa.
"Umm, I'm not sure. I guess I feel weaker during the full moon," I replied as honestly as I could as I gave some thought to the few times when I had felt too tired to do much of anything during the full moons. My mother took me to a doctor once, and he said it had nothing to do with my health because I was perfectly healthy.
"I think I've figured it out, but I'm still not convinced yet, so bear with me here," Maggie spoke before falling silent, thinking for a moment. "This is the only way I can think of to explain it," she said finally.
"What is it?" Tianna asked impatiently.
"You are just like these girls," She said solemnly. "And yet completely different. It's the perfect explanation."
"Well that's about as clear as mud," I responded with obvious sarcasm, rolling my eyes. Who was this loon? Still... Something in me told me she was right. About something, anyway.
"You mean she's a Daughter?" Catty asked excitedly.
Maggie thought for a moment before answering. "Yes, she is a Daughter…but not of Selene."
The other girls looked very confused, and I was sure I did too. Stanton had covered the basics of this for me before. The girls had powers because they were daughters of the moon goddess Selene. If I wasn't a Daughter of Selene…who could I be a Daughter of?
"Is she the daughter of the Atrox?" Jimena asked, giving me a black look that told me she hoped I was so that she could fight me.
"No," Maggie said simply. "I think she is a Daughter of…" Her voice trailed off.
"What is it?" Serena asked politely.
Maggie looked at Serena and then at me. "Serena…" She started slowly. "Do you remember when you found out you were also the daughter of Hekate?"
"Of course, why?" Serena asked suspiciously.
"You are only half a daughter of Hekate, the other half of you is a daughter of Selene. There are legends that Hekate had a full daughter, but there was never any proof…" She trailed off again, and realization dawned on Serena's face.
I was completely lost by now. Being a Daughter of Hekate – whoever she was – was obviously something mainly about Serena, and so Stanton hadn't told me anything about it. That was one of the things he said wasn't his place to tell.
"What about Pandora?" Vanessa asked nervously. "Did she have a full daughter, too?"
"You are the only Daughter of Pandora in this generation; there is no need to fear," Maggie to the worried girl encouragingly, giving her a smile. "There is no need for you to fear either, Serena, or any of you girls for that matter. At least not about this…not about you," She said to me, giving me a confident smile.
Well, that made me felt... Not any less confused about what was going on around me, but a bit more reassured.
"What about what Jimena saw?" Serena asked sadly.
Maggie looked at Serena with sympathy in her eyes. It seemed as if they were having their own conversation because after only a moment, Serena nodded her head, looked at me quickly, and then looked away. Her expression was one of slight melancholy. I wondered what had been said between them.
"Um, who is Hekate?" I asked uncertainly.
The other girls stared at me as if I had asked a question that was so obvious; of course, I guess to them it kind of was.
"Hekate," Maggie began in an explanatory voice, "Is the goddess of the dark moon, the goddess of the night. She watches over the world during its dark times of the moon's cycle."
"In other words," Serena jumped in, noticing my perpetually confused expression. "She's the goddess of the new moon. Unlike Selene, who is most powerful when then moon is full, Hekate is most powerful when there is a new moon."
I'll explain more when we have a chance to be alone. It was still Serena's voice, but this time she whispered it across my mind. It didn't startle me as much as it had the first few times and not nearly as much as it had when Tymmie did it. His voice was malicious; Serena's voice was kind, understanding, and still a little sad.
Maggie seemed to notice Serena's private message to me and quickly spoke before anyone else could notice. "So let's go over your powers." She continued to smile at me, for reassurance of the many new and overwhelming things I was learning. "You'll need plenty of practice, although…your powers seem to have come without you even noticing them." She thought this over for a moment and then seemed to snap out of a trance. "No matter, you still need to practice like everyone else. Now, Serena and I have been talking, about how your mind is unreadable. It's interesting how someone can place a thought into your mind but cannot read or change your own thoughts."
"I guess," I said after a moment of silence, unsure.
"I think it ties in with your other power somehow." She was concentrating very hard on something.
"You mean the anger you all felt? How so?" I asked. I didn't see the connection between the two, and I wondered how she did when I couldn't.
"Well, when you can feel and manipulate peoples' emotions, that means you can also manipulate yours. Now, because you have so much power over your own emotions, that makes them yours and yours alone. Nobody else can change them. Since nobody else has the ability to manipulate your emotions, and nobody can manipulate or read your thoughts, the answer has made itself obvious." When everyone gave her confused looks—I was glad to not be the only one still lost in this—she explained it a bit more clearly, and a bit shorter as well. "Your emotions are tied to your thoughts."
I thought about this for a moment. "So... Instead of thinking logically like everyone else, I think through my emotions?"
"Exactly," Maggie answered.
"So what makes you think she's a Daughter of Hekate?" Vanessa wondered, this confused expression on her face. She did have a point; I wasn't even sure how they connected.
"Well," Maggie began. "There are of course the legends that influence the idea. The legend was that Hekate had one full blood daughter, but none of us have ever met one before. I guess Kylie is proof that they really have existed all along, we just never knew."
"That still doesn't explain how you made the connection," Tianna stated dryly. I glanced at her.
"Well, the legend goes that the daughter of Hekate was sent down to assist Selene's daughters during their weakest time. Hekate's daughter would have a power never heard of; she would be very different from everyone else. Her abilities would set her apart from any other normal person."
I didn't like the way Maggie used the word normal. It seemed like she were isolating me into a group of abnormal. Of course, in a way, I was abnormal, but it felt weird to classify myself under the name.
"So that's how you came up with the idea that Kylie is Hekate's daughter?" Catty asked. I guess it still sort of felt good to know that I wasn't the only one out of the loop on this topic. Of course, I was also the main subject of this certain topic that seemed to spread a genuine sense of being lost to everyone but Maggie.
"Well it gave me the idea, but there was also…" Maggie's voice trailed off, and as I looked around, I noticed the other girls were on the edges of their seats – in the literal sense.
"What is it?" Jimena asked impatiently. It was the first time she had even shown she was paying attention to the entire conversation.
"My resolve on the idea strengthened when she told me about feeling weaker during the full moon. It definitely told me she wasn't Selene's daughter. If she had been Selene's daughter, she would feel stronger during the full moon and weaker during the new moon. However, what really keeps the crazy idea in my head at all is that the more I think about it, the more it makes sense," she finished , smiling and nodding her head slightly.
"So... I'm a freak," I stated matter-of-factly for them to all hear.
"No, you are very special. We need to get you training right away to strengthen your powers," She said, her smile for me overwhelmingly brilliant—and somewhat nerve-wracking after awhile. "You will be the strongest person in this group during the new moon, and therefore, you must be able to help these girls during that time. Now, Serena is slightly more powerful during the new moon than the rest of them, but her power is only half as strong."
"Wait, all I can do is mess with people's feelings? How is that supposed to help them?" I didn't understand how making someone angry could make the situation any better. Seemed like if someone was enraged, it would just make things worse.
"What happened when you were with Tymmie?" Serena asked, attempting to give an example.
"You and Stanton came, and I don't know, scared him off, I guess," I responded plainly, my answer lackluster.
"No. I mean, what were you feeling?" She clarified.
"I guess I was scared and completely freaked, with the way he talked inside my head and all."
"Now," Maggie said, "If you could learn how to shift that emotion onto others, then they would be scared as well. If someone is scared, they're not as level-headed as they are when they are calm. You could learn how to make them feel less confident. If you can learn how to change their emotions enough, you can learn how to scare them off."
"And I could give the girls an ego boost." I offered. Not that some of them need one. I thought to myself, glancing at Jimena.
"Exactly," Maggie said giving me an approving smile for my answer.. "You are so much more powerful than you think. Not to mention that since the Followers can't read your mind or mess with your thoughts, you are less susceptible to their attacks of the mind. Just don't look them in the eyes because if they can plant their thoughts in your head they might be able to bring you into their mind as well."
"I could ask Stanton to test it," I mused. I felt a little flutter in my stomach at the thought of seeing Stanton again. "He's one of the bad guys on the good guy's side, right?"
"Something like that," Serena said quietly, but I could sense the distrust in her.
"I wouldn't go trusting him just yet," Jimena added; I could tell she didn't trust him at all. That emotion was a lot stronger than Serena's softer emotion.
"Okay, enough talk; now is the time for training," Maggie said in a serious tone, which ended the conversation for the time being.
As always tell me what you think, good or bad.