I'm so sorry for the 6 month wait on this chapter X( I've had such massive writer's block for I don't even know how long anymore. At first it was just me putting it off and waiting for inspiration to hit and then life got hectic and then I got inspiration... for the wrong stories. I've been writing a sentence here, a paragraph there on every story but this one it seems. I'm so deeply sorry for that :( But about a month ago I realized just how long it had been since the last chapter and I hunkered down and MADE myself work on this one. However, my computer has been a butt lately and I was having problems actually typing it out. I may have it solved now, but until then, enjoy chapter 30!

"Pitch!" I was teed off. Ticked. Pissed. Downright mad. Yeah, Pitch may be the obvious choice and he could be the scapegoat, but he probably knew about the disappearing immortals long before I had - hell probably before the Guardians had - and his tactful avoidance of me basically told me that he did know something. "You've got some explaining to do!" There were Fearlings and Nightmares wandering around. They were still a little unnerving to be near, but for the most part they left me alone. I guess you could say they were used to me. My second time in the Lair they basically tackled me in an almost feral manner the moment I stepped out of the tunnel. I had to fight them off while Pitch stood watching the whole thing with a smug look on his face. I ended up smacking one of the Nightmares on the side of it's face with the palm of my hand, which had startled it enough that it had backed away. After staring them down they had more or less kept their distance for the rest of that visit.

Now I wouldn't say that smacking them would work for everybody. I'm not even sure why it worked with me. All I do know is that I wasn't afraid of them until they were biting at my face - which I would assume is a normal response. So I guess my lack of fear kept me off their radar. Lucky me. Regardless of that, Pitch was still nowhere to be found. After Jack had laid everything out and he and Sam debated over possible reasons Pitch may be behind this, I managed to excuse myself by saying that I was heading home. I felt bad for lying about where I was going - especially with just having freaked Jack out - but no way was I about to tell those two that I'd been visiting Pitch for the past decade.

"What have I done now?" His voice came from a little ways away - or at least that's how it sounded. In the Lair sound could bounce and voices were thrown. I looked around and I saw him standing on a bridge type thing with his hands clasped behind his back. His usual stance. However, the look on his face was a slight variation of the one he usually wore when I was around. As opposed to the usual mix of disdain and aggravation, there was a more careful undertone - like he was actually trying to watch his step.

"Oh, nothing." I know that he picked up on my sarcasm, however subtle it may have been. However, his eyes narrowed not in annoyance like usual, but more like suspicion. "But I would love to know just how long immortals have been disappearing." I pinned him with a glare. Usually, I would leave whenever he got too ticked off, or outright told me to in a way that let me know he was dead serious, but this time I wasn't going anywhere until I got some answers. And I could tell that he knew it too.

Because of that, he didn't bullshit around the subject like he usually would. Surprisingly, he actually told it to me straight. "I am not sure myself." He stepped into a nearby shadow and popped up a few feet away from me. "I assume you've only just found out."

"Yeah. Apparently it's been going on for a while and recently started happening more often. Do you have anything to do with it?"

He laughed. "Why do you care?"

"Damn it, Pitch! If you're not a part of it I don't want them using you as their scapegoat!" I just stared at him for a minute. Needless to say, my response shocked him. "You know what everyone else thinks of you. The second anything starts smelling fishy they automatically think it's you. Their assumptions have good reason, but they won't give you a trial, Pitch. It's not 'innocent until proven guilty' with them. Not when it comes to you."

He was silent for a few moments after that. "What if I am a part of the disappearances? Or even the ring leader?"

"Then I'll kick your ass myself. But I will not let the Guardians condemn you for something you didn't do. Stuff you did? Yeah, sure. But not things that you have no part of."

The silence following that statement stretched out. I could hear the various creatures of darkness shifting in the shadows - and some in the light. I could hear the air moving around, making echoes bounce around the cavernous room. I could hear my own voice faintly echoing. Well, that was mostly because I was a loud person in general, but also because I'd been shouting. Pitch didn't make a sound, he didn't even move. "Pitch, I need to know. Are you associated with what's happening in any way? Honestly."

"Why?"

"Because lying won't help you any! Look, if they're looking for you and you're not the person they're looking for then not only are you going to get blamed for things that you have no hand in, but whoever is the mastermind is going to keep kidnapping immortals." Or whatever they are doing. All we really knew was that they had vanished off the face of the planet. No why, no how, and definitely no reason. "If they're chasing you, then all they'll be doing is wasting their time. And all you're gonna get is a major headache from it accompanied by continued distain from the rest of the immortal community."

"I understand that. I'm not an imbecile. What I want to know, is why do you feel the need to know of my association - or lack thereof - to what is happening."

"Because then I can try and protect you!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm your friend, damn it! I don't care if you don't count me in the same regards. But I consider myself your friend whether you like it or not, and I will not let my friends be crucified for crimes they didn't commit. How many times do I have to have this conversation with you before you believe me?"

"Forgive me if I don't put my trust in others. In my experience, it has rarely been reciprocated."

"Pitch I'm not asking you for your trust. I'm not asking you for friendship. Hell, I'm not even asking for you to be nice to me. All I want is for you to fucking realize that I'm not going to turn my back on you. Yeah, I may not start conversations with the phrase 'I'm friends with the boogeyman', but whenever anyone finds out I'll proudly and without guilt state that I have been coming to see you every year, that I am your friend, and that I genuinely enjoy your company. And today, I'm not even asking you for any of that. Today, all I'm asking is that you tell me whether or not I have to defend you... I just want to know if you need me to be your reinforcements."

Silence. Stoic silence. No answer, no movement. No response, at all, whatsoever. Eventually, I got fed up. I usually didn't let him beat me, I stayed until he was at the breaking point, but today I wasn't in the mood to play his games. I'm done. "Fine, you know what? When Jack and the rest of the Guardians come breaking down your door, don't come crying to me. I offered my help." I turned to leave. Over my shoulder I said, "And don't bother showing me to the door, I know the way." As I neared the end of the bridge thing a Nightmare came towards me. I don't know why and I don't care. However, it did piss me off. I pointed at it and turned a good portion of my fury on it. "Get out of my face!" I didn't even break stride as I kept on towards the entrance. For whatever reason, the demon horse didn't follow me. Good.

It wasn't until I was about to call the winds for help that I heard Pitch respond. His voice didn't echo like usual. More like it drifted out of the shadows, like it wasn't him who said it but the other creatures that lurked there. Sort of. "I am not responsible." Nothing more, nothing less. No elaboration on the subject but an answer nonetheless. And I was happy to hear at least some response, specifically that one.

-

Though I was able to breathe a sigh of relief because of Pitch's confession, I was still too worked up to go home. If I was being honest, the idea that immortals were just up and disappearing had me on edge. Not much makes me nervous but this, this did. I mean, 'immortality' in an of itself is generally a promise that you're going to be around for eternity. Yeah as time goes on some of us fade away from lack of avid believers, but we didn't just disappear into thin air. Or at least, we hadn't. The idea that any one of my friends could just up and vanish without a trace had me worried. So there was that, and regardless of his answer, I was still worked up from my argument with Pitch. So going home to my quiet and peaceful Treehouse honestly sounded like a snore-fest at the moment.

I couldn't go back to Sam's place. I'd just left, so if I showed up again only a few hours later, he'd wonder where I'd gone, and I didn't think I'd be able to lie convincingly enough in my current state. Which was the same reason I couldn't head for the South Pole in case Jack had gone home and he was there. He'd wonder where I'd run off to and he knew when I was lying blatantly, which was why I made sure to never bring up any subject that I'd need to lie about. And I wasn't in the mood to hang out with any of my believers. It wouldn't be any fun for them with me distracted as I was.

I wanted - no, I needed to get my mind off of this. There was obviously nothing I could do about it at the moment and in the meantime worrying about it was only gonna stress me out - and I don't do stress. However, I didn't just want to fly off somewhere and distract myself because knowing me, if I did it that way, as soon as whatever activity I'd chosen was over with, my mind would go right back to the problem at hand. So I needed a real distraction. One that would get me thinking about other things entirely.

You're going to have to face everyone sooner or later... why not now? I winced at the notion. It hadn't even been a week since I'd made a fool of myself to prove a point. Better a fool than a boring nobody. That's not how the quote goes. So? It still works. Oh, shut up, Inner Voice. However, I had to admit that it was right. After all, I never was afraid to own up to things I did on purpose. Besides, I needed to see if my foolishness paid off, didn't I? Alright, Legends it is.

I called my wings and took off, soaring through the trees that made up the woods near Burgess. From above, the entrance to Pitch's lair was indiscernible. You couldn't see it until you were right on top of it, literally. I only knew where it was from the many times I'd dropped in. I'm not even sure that Jack would be able to find it without a bit of searching. However, one other clearing was always visible. The one that held Jack's pond. The flash of blue amidst the sea of green always gave me conflicted emotions. On one hand this was where my best friend died. But on the other... it was more famous than Burgess itself - you know, to the fandom anyway. I never told Jack about this of course, I wasn't about to take him down that memory lane again. No thank you.

But I will say this much, It was a good thing that it was the middle of the night because if Jamie saw me flying away from Burgess when Jack wasn't around and without having stopped to either tell my believers a story or having a chat with him, Jack would find out and I'd have a hard time explaining myself. Luckily for me, sunset had been hours ago and it was now past midnight, which meant that anyone who could see me was already asleep.

It didn't take me long to get to New York. Not with the power of flight on my side. But if the city was impressive during the day, it was spectacular at night. That might be the tourist in me speaking, but it was and I won't apologize for thinking that way. Though, it did smell faintly of garbage, and their winters were worse than the ones I'd grown up with. I was quite happy with my Californian home, thank you very much. But not long after entering the airspace above the city, I swooped down into the alley that Legend's front door was located in. Neither Goliath nor Shady were guarding the door tonight. I'd never caught the name of the immortal who was there, though he was around from time to time. If his coloring said anything, he was northern European, possibly Scandinavian. In layman's terms blond hair and blue eyes. And hot. Don't forget hot. And ripped, don't forget that either.

He smiled at me when I got to the door. "Just you tonight?" His faint Viking sounding accent made me think that he was probably either a Norse deity or a something similar. Or, you know, he could have been more recent than that era and was just from that area of the world.

I shot him a smirk. "Yeah, I left my boys back home." He chuckled as he held the door open for me, sweeping his arm inwards. I smiled back as I brushed past him into the cacophony of Legends. Even on a Sunday night, it was still busy. Or, Monday morning. It wasn't near as busy as it was on 'holidays' but it wasn't slow by any means. Legends, being the only immortal hangout in basically the entire world, always had a crowd for that reason alone.

Instead of trying to force my way through the mass of tables, chairs, and bodies, I made my way along the wall. From what I could see, Shady and Goliath were behind the bar tonight. A brief glance revealed that Dollie, Artie and Aremis were out waiting tables. Plus two other waitresses who's names I didn't know. I may be friends with the staff but I don't know all of them. When I was about ten feet brom the bar, Goliath spotted me. "Quick, hide the booze!

I glared at him. "Ha. Ha. Ha." Shady glanced up at me and snorted once in laughter before winking at me and making the gesture that she'd zip her lip, though she did look like she was still trying to not laugh. I didn't take a seat, though I did step up to the bar, amidst a cloud of laughter from those who'd heard about how I'd spent my Friday night. "You're all hilarious. Anyone know where I can find Sunny?"

"What? Are you looking to beat his ass for whatever it was on Friday that made you want to try and beat Mors' record for wildest drunk immortal?" Goliath didn't look up from the drink he was pouring.

I shrugged, trying to not look as embarrassed as the phrasing of that comment made me feel. "Something like that." There'd be no ass kicking but it was about the drinking - or at least the reason behind it.

"Well," He passed the drink to the immortal who ordered it. "If you promise not to start a fight," He squinted slightly and glanced around. "He's over by the jukebox. Just look for the crowd of dryads." He gestured in the direction before going back to work, shaking his head and mumbling under his breath about how Sunny's night was bound to go if those dryads kept hanging around him. Not that I disagreed.

"Thanks." I shot him a smile before turning to force my way through the masses. The good news was, it seemed like everyone was content to stay seated tonight, more or less. Though the music was blaring like always most of the patrons weren't dancing - and those that were, were actually on the dance floor. So it was actually easier than I thought it was going to be to make my way over to what looked like a copse of trees. Moving trees. That were giggling.

When I got close enough to see Sunny through the dryads, there was a moment where I was dumbstruck - and I really shouldn't have been. Sunny noticed me through the girls, somehow, and grinned at me - which, by the way, made me roll my eyes. "Story! You're up and about I see!" He stitched his eyebrows together, having noticed my response to how he was acting. "What's wrong?"

Why am I not surprised? "You look like a pimp." To be honest, I hadn't said it like a witty insult, I just blurted what he legit looked like. And he did. He was reclined on a leather chair, his arms draped around one girl each, with the rest of the dryads draped over him. About half of the girls shot me dirty looks. Probably because I'd basically just called them hookers unintentionally.

One of them decided to voice her objection. "Why don't you just run along and leave us alone?"

I looked at her. From the way she looked, it seemed like she was the spirit of a pine tree. Actually, a few of them must have been, because the smell of pine was very pungent. "Bitch please." I ignored hers - and the other's - shocked looks and pressed on. "I just got over a massive hangover and I am not in the mood to deal with petty shit like fighting over Sunny. Especially when I don't want to sleep with him." I grinned snarkily at them, hearing Sunny chuckle in the background. "Now I do believe it'd be in all of your best interests to leave while most of you still know the different between left and right. And if you still intend to drink, then please, do it somewhere else, because I have business with the man you're all hanging off of like a life raft."

Almost as one, they stood up in a huff and stomped away. The one who spoke to me flipped her hair in my face as she did. It hurt more then you'd think, there were pine needles strewn through her mane. Once the group had left I noticed Sunny laughing at me as I pulled a needle out of my mouth. I took a seat in one of the chairs that the dryads had vacated. "Oh, shut up."

He sat forward in the armchair, which looked like a chaise lounge and a lazyboy had a kid. "You know, I'm not nearly as much of a player as I seem."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just here to bitch and moan."

He chuckled, smiling a knowing - and joking - smile. "Oh yeah, how'd that go anyway?"

"You tell me." I stared him down. "Are you gonna tell me why you don't do no or what?"

Just like that, his good-natured demeanor slipped away. The smile dropped from his face and he tensed up a little, instantly radiating annoyance and slight anger. He sat forward and pointed at me in warning. "First of all, you still have no right to ask that. Second, I said that once you drank I'd listen to you complain and criticize me for the way I act, not my choices. Thirdly, if that's what you were after, then I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you're going to be leaving empty handed." With that, he stood up and huffed away, much like the dryads before him. Before I lost sight of him I saw him swipe a shot off of a tray and down it without breaking stride. One look at his face and Aremis didn't even mention that he was supposed to be dry tonight. The latter shot me a look that read 'What the hell did you say to him?'

I watched the glow that Sunny radiated drift farther and farther away. Well, that answers Sam's question. No it was not worth it. I mean, I wasn't gonna regret it either way, that's just not something I do, but it would have been nice to know why Sunny let himself be such a drunk, you know? He really was a pretty nice guy when he was sober, enough so that I was actually starting to like him. But how horrid he was once he had a few drinks in him was enough to make me wanna pull my hair out. I wasn't delusional enough to think that I could make him all of a sudden start saying no, I just wanted to know why he was so adamant about the whole thing. I needed to know that he had a good reason, otherwise I had to fix it. Even if he was a chauvinistic, egotistical jerk most of the time, I was still starting to think of him as a friend because of the man that I'd seen when he was sober. And it was a damn shame that he allowed himself to be anything else. So unless he had a damn good reason, I wasn't gonna stand for it. It was about time for an intervention.

A few minutes passed before a small-statured shadow appeared in my vision. I looked up to see Gaia standing next to my chair, her expression a cross between annoyed, distraught, and sympathetic. "Story."

Just by the way she said my name, I knew she was gonna reiterate the spiel that Sunny just didn't do no. So I cut her off, because I didn't want to hear it for the thousandth time. "No. Gaia, I wanna know. You're his granddaughter for Pete's sake! I know you care about him more than anyone else." She winced and looked down. "Why do you let him do that to himself? It's enabling him and it's hurting him. Half of the immortals hate him because of how much of a jerk he is when he's drunk and the rest are his fangirls who fawn all over him because they know they're gonna get some." I sighed because of how frustrating it was, face-palming as I shook my head. "I just don't understand why he does it." I said the last sentence to myself more so than to Gaia.

The immortal in question sat down on the arm of the chair I was occupying, resting her hand on my shoulder as she did. I looked up at her to see her start to say something only to close her mouth once more. She sighed. "I want to tell you. But I swore to him that I wouldn't share it without his permission. He told it to me in confidence and I can't - Story, you have to understand." She looked at me pleadingly. "You can't fix everything. Sunny chose to live this way, why can't you respect that?"

"With what I know, I can't make myself agree with what he's doing. I'm nosy, I need to know the story behind everything. My curiosity is insatiable, don't you know that by now?" I smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "I can't just... stand by, and watch him destroy himself night after night. Not knowing who he is when he hasn't had a drop."

"It's not that simple, Story. Sunny - despite the whole no thing - is a private person. I was with him centuries before he told me. As far as I know, I'm the only one that knows."

"Gaia, I have to know -"

"Story, just let it go."

"Why?"

"Because barring a miracle, he's not going to tell you or anyone else. And I won't tell."

I stared at her for a minute after that. I was trying to figure out how to respond to that. I couldn't let this go... I'm too stubborn to do that. But, what she said had caught me off guard momentarily. She got up, I assumed to find Sunny. Before she got out of earshot - which was a short distance on a night like tonight - I said my piece. "I'm not giving up, Gaia."

She turned back to me. "I know you won't. But I will tell you now, you will have to wait a long while before Sunny tells you. You'll have to become far more important to him. And for that, you'll need a miracle."

"So, what constitutes as a miracle?"

Gaia smiled, shaking her head. "Good night, Story." With that she walked away into the crowd - presumably to find Sunny.

-

I hung around for a few more hours. Not because I held out any hope of getting Sunny to crack that night, but because I still didn't want to go home yet. I'd chosen a seat at the bar and camped there for the rest of the night. About an hour prior, the Scandinavian who'd been acting Bouncer had something come up, so the rest of the staff shuffled around a bit, with Shady taking his place and Artie taking hers. Though I was hit with snide comment after joke at my expense about my Friday night, I still had a fairly good time - and I stuck to my usual Diet Dr. Pepper, thank you very much. I had more or less sworn off alcohol for a good while by that point. That's not to say I wouldn't drink in the future, but I didn't plan on ever getting that drunk again.

The band had packed up about a half an hour ago, it being close to morning, and had migrated to their break table for the rest of the night. I eyed them from across the club. They were laughing, talking, looking like they were having a good time. Sunny wasn't that drunk tonight but still, I could tell he'd had a few. The jukebox played some song or another in the background as two female fauns waltzed up to Sunny and handed him a drink of some sort. He accepted it and the others didn't even bother to try and stop him. Well they didn't need to, they were done for the night. It still irked me though.

Just then the intro to Pompeii by Bastille poured out of the speakers. From the other side of the bar, Artie grimaced, swearing. At my questioning look, he gestured towards the band's table. I looked to see that alarm had crossed Gaia's face. The other band members immediately dropped their drinks and Sunny was attempting to comfort the increasingly more frantic spirit of spring. "What's the matter?"

Artie sighed resignedly next to me. "You ever notice that this song never plays when Gaia's here?" I nodded absently. Over at their table, Gaia was in tears. Shady, Dollie and Annie had all rushed over to them to try and calm her down. Sunny was angrily glaring around the club, looking for something. "This song reminds her of how she died. No one's cruel enough to put Gaia through that." I wanted to run over there too. Gaia was one of the nicest, sweetest people I knew, so I understood completely why no one would want to make her cry. "Well, there is one person..." Sunny's eyes locked on someone to my right.

He stood up so quick that his chair toppled over. Gaia looked up to see why he'd stood up, and then followed his eyes to whoever he was looking at. Her face went from tearstained grief, to enraged fury in less than a second. Mors and Shady had to go from patting her reassuringly to holding her down. I'd only ever seen her that mad once, and it was when I'd mentioned the spirit of summer... who's name I still didn't know. I followed their gaze to see a woman who looked to be in her mid thirties standing about twenty feet away from me. She had thick, curly black hair and a wide nose, she was wearing a patterned sarong and had scores of tribal tattoos. Is she the spirit of summer?

The entire club had quieted down. Seriously, the only thing you could hear was the music playing and a few shuffling feet that were trying to get a better look. Gaia broke free of the two immortals who held her down and tried to rush at the woman. Sunny caught her by the arm and the rage on her face disappeared long enough for her to glance up at him. He said something like, 'I'll take care of this.' I could see that she was still beyond pissed, but she stepped back without complaint.

Sunny stalked towards the woman. To her credit, she didn't look even the slightest bit nervous, standing there holding a drink. Actually, she had a smug smile on her face that made me want to punch her. I had no doubt that she was the one who'd played the song. Sunny was still halfway across the room when the woman in red started yelling towards him. "What's the matter Sunny? Don't tell me Gaia's still upset? It's been over two thousand years!" Sunny, for once, wasn't smoldering. He wasn't even smiling. He was probably more intimidating now than he'd been that first night I'd met him. "And you're still her little guard dog. How cute." Gaia's anger flashed again at that comment, I could see it on her face. I glanced back Artie to see that both he and Goliath were grimacing, looking like they knew exactly what was going down.

Sunny got to her and stood, staring down at her, looking almost bloodthirsty. He opened his mouth to speak, but had to force the words through gritted teeth. "Out. Side." His voice came out low, quiet, and beyond ominous. His fists were balled and he was trembling. If I had to guess, I'd say he was trying to hold himself back. Albeit faintly.

The woman met his gaze without blinking. "Why? So you can fight me without getting kicked out of the club?" She smiled up at him in a snarky way. "I don't think so. You see, I just got here, and I want to enjoy my night. Getting hit by a pretty boy isn't on my list of fun things to do." I had to admit, if she wasn't such a bitch, I'd commend her for her boldness. However, she made Gaia cry, and for that, there is no forgiveness. So I was rooting for Sunny.

Mors looked over at Annie who was standing behind Sunny, and I could faintly hear their exchange of words. "I think the band's gonna be out for a week."

Annie nodded looking resigned. "I thought so."

At that moment, before anyone could move, Sunny hauled off and sucker-punched the woman in the face. She staggered back, a slightly stunned expression on her face. She stared at Sunny in a mix of outrage and amusement. "Well, then. If it's a fight you want..."

She pulled her arm back, fire appearing in her hand, but before she could do anything, Annie was there, between the two of them. One hand was on Sunny's chest, the other on the woman's wrist. "Both of you, out!"

Sunny took that statement as a go ahead to grab the woman by the arm and drag her out the back door into the empty lot behind the club. A good number of immortals followed them out the door to see the fight, though many stayed inside for fear of getting hit with any stray attacks. Gaia stayed where she was, caught between going to help, and not wanting to see the woman, I'm sure. The song hadn't even stopped playing through yet.

I turned to Artie, slightly dazed by what I'd just seen. "Um... who was that?" I gestured towards the back door where Sunny and the mystery woman had left through.

He sighed as he went back to wiping the bar as he'd been doing before all of that went down. "That, was Pele. The spirit of summer and one of the most hated immortals around."

"Pele?" He nodded. "Crap." Pele was the goddess of fire and volcanoes in Hawaiian mythology. In every single account she was shown to have a volatile temper and horrible anger management issues. It seems as if they definitely pegged her. "She's the spirit of summer?"

"Yep."

"Okay, I now like snow far more than warm weather."

Artie chuckled. "That's the most common response to seeing her. Well, except for how a lot of us aren't as fond of Jack Frost either, being the prankster that he is." He shrugged. "Most of us that frequent Legends prefer spring, simply because you can't hate Gaia."

"I'll second that." I looked at the immortal in question, immediately deciding to go and comfort her. I set my drink on the bar top and shot Artie one last glance, to which he shot an encouraging smile. I made my way through the notably more empty club and over to the spirit of spring. Up close I could see that she still had tearstreaks on her face, as well faint anger marred her usually pleasant demeanor. "Gaia?" She glanced at me, somewhat absently. "You okay?"

She wiped at her face. "Not really, no." I puled her into a hug, inciting a smile from the shorter woman, even if it was watery. "Thanks, Story." Still enveloped by my hug, she glanced towards the back door, frowning. "I should probably go and make sure he doesn't burn down half of the block."

I let her go. "You want some backup?" If the way those two had been glaring at each other earlier was any indication, the fight was going to be a knock-down drag-out.

She side-eyed me. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

She sighed – almost in a relieved way – and set her shoulders. "Alright," She looked at me again and I could see that, even though she was reluctant to walk out that door – though she knew she had to, she was happy that someone else was gonna help her. Eyes say a lot. "Let's go."

She took the lead, and I followed her to the backdoor. I'd actually never seen the back lot. Hey, I'd always used the front door. I was slightly interested in what it looked like, but I was more concerned with seeing how the fight was going… Don't judge me. An immortal fight was usually pretty epic by anyone's standards, and I'd never seen one in person before. Actually, I'd never seen a fight in person before period. I'd never been in one either. I'd seen arguments yeah, but no full-fledged fights. And sparring didn't count.

When Gaia opened the back door, I was hit with a wall of heat. I squinted through my now watering eyes to see a veritable inferno not ten feet from the club – in the middle of which were two immortals enveloped in flames.

My jaw dropped. Sunny and Pele were really going at it. Neither was letting up for a second and both were hurling fireballs at one another in rapid-fire succession. Seriously I was almost scared for my safety. A few immortals were running defense around the perimeter of the fight, trying to keep stray shots from hitting the neighboring buildings while Mors and Shady were trying to break up the fight to no avail.

Gaia paused for a second and I could see her anger rise up again. I bumped her shoulder with my own and she jerked a little, blinking. "Right." We shoved our way over to Mors and Shady. Gaia had to shout to be heard over the cheering immortal spectators as well as the noise of the fight itself. "I'm getting Sunny out of here!"

Shady shook her head, raising her arms in surrender. "Good luck!"

Gaia turned to the fight, raising her arms slightly. I saw the flowers and vines in her hair grow larger quite literally before my eyes. My eyebrows rose a little. I'd never seen Gaia's powers in action before… nor had I ever seen flowers grow so quickly. I looked back at the fight to see that vines were growing out of the ground around Pele.

The immortal in question noticed and searched the crowd for Gaia. Her eyes narrowed once they landed on us and I shivered. Remind me to never piss her off! Good god, she had genocide in her eyes, forget murder. She growled at us. "Ua make 'oe kali lolo!" I understood one word of that, 'lolo', which is stupid in Hawaiian. That word basically told me that Pele had just insulted Gaia.

Gaia, without missing a beat, retorted while catching the spirit of summer around the ankles. "Ánte gamí̱sou, o Pelé." Now it was in Greek so I didn't know what she said, but I'd assume it was a choice rebuttal. Her vines continued to wind themselves around the other woman as Gaia walked over to Sunny.

He staggered a bit, though whether from the fight or from the alcohol I didn't know. "I have this handled, Gaia."

"We're going home." She stepped inside of the vines growing around Sunny. It was a wider almost circle and these ones weren't trying to catch Sunny – at least that's what it looked like anyway. I'd followed her, feeling like I wasn't really providing as much 'back up' as I thought I would. I stepped into the ring of vines as well, noting that they were starting to form what looked like a cage.

"No! I'm not letting her get off this easy! Not after what she just pulled in there!" He stabbed his finger at Pele. I glanced over at her to see that she was torching the vines that held her to the ground. A cursory glance revealed that a significant portion of the spectating immortals had gone back inside, the rest following fairly quickly.

"I'm not letting you get hurt on my behalf!" The vines around us got a lot thicker real quick. I'd have been nervous, except that I knew Gaia wasn't about to hurt anyone – not even Pele.

From outside our little circle Pele screamed at us. "Don't you dare go running away like always, you little kali! Stay and fight for once in your life!"

Gaia's jaw clenched and, for the first time since meeting either of the immortals next to me, I saw a glimpse of a resemblance between the two of them. Gaia didn't deign to look at Pele, which only seemed to infuriate her more. However, she did grow a few vines out to hold Sunny back from leaping out to finish what he'd started. He shot her a look. "Gaia!"

While those two were death glaring each other I kept an eye on Pele. It was a good thing I did because I was the only one in our group who saw her pull her arm back and conjure a fireball. Even though a part of me cringed at what I was about to sacrifice, I pulled a wall of pages – praying that most were blank and unused. The fireball hit the wall instead of us and it almost immediately combusted in a fiery inferno. I cringed at the loss of the little bits of stories but I didn't have long to grieve because the vines completely enclosed us then.

Gaia turned around, blinking in surprise. "Story, did you… ?" I nodded. "I'm sorry."

I shrugged. "It bought us a few seconds." I looked around at the cocoon that the vines made. "So… is this supposed to protect us, or…" I trailed off as the vines looked like they were fusing with each other.

"No, it's how I get from one place to another in a timely fashion." My jaw was hanging as what used to be vines started looking like giant flower petals. I was rendered temporarily speechless as the walls started to fall away and our little transport cocoon opened up.