PHOCT 6: Redemption, 2

    Izanami was holed up in a FLEET apartment. Despite the lackluster setting, she was dining in style—a tea service was set up in front of her, which she contemplated in silence. Jesse glanced at Rin and was surprised to see her look of concentration had returned. “Rin—”

    “Shh,” said Rin, squaring her shoulders. “Let me—let me handle this.”

    Jesse was trying to figure out how to say that he didn’t think violence was the right solution to this problem when Rin walked forward. When she entered the room, she put her hands flat on her thighs and bowed to Izanami. “Lady Izanami. May I serve you?”

    Izanami looked up, raising her eyebrows. Rin bit her lip. Then, shoulders set, she walked forward and knelt in front of the bamboo mat on the floor. She picked up a brick of tea leaves and the kettle, placing a bit of the tea leaves in an ornate bone cup and pouring the water. Then she beat it into a light froth with a weird little whisk. Bowing her head, she offered it to Izanami.

    Lips twitching, the goddess took it. “Well.” She sipped the tea. “Serviceable.”

    “May I speak now, lady?”

    Izanami set down her cup. “I will certainly listen to someone who acquits herself so politely, even if I can tell it is a struggle for you. Please, speak.”

    Rin lifted her head. She let out a slow breath, her hands clenching into fists on her lap. Jesse could see the toll it took for her to speak slowly, but she managed it. “We need your help—or, really, Ron does. We’ve come here on his behalf.”

    Izanami took another sip of the tea; the cup hid her expression. “I know you, yes. You are his companions. But he has never sent me delegates before. Why begin now?”

    Rin swallowed. “He’s… he’s in a bad place right now.” She opened her mouth and closed it again, a storm of feeling moving over her face.

    Jesse stepped forward. He bowed as Rin had, which made Izanami’s lips twitch again, then hurried to kneel beside Rin. “He’s… he’s made some mistakes, Lady Izanami. He—” Jesse lowered his head, unable to bear the lady’s gaze as he talked about this. But hadn’t this been why he had to leave Ron? Jesse had made mistakes, too. He’d just stopped himself before they could get as bad as Ron’s. “He feels powerless. Like everything has spiraled beyond his control. And he knows it’s all his fault, and that everyone will be looking to him for answers, for a way to right his wrongs, but… but he cannot see one, and it’s… it’s making him do stupid things. But… he’s not beyond saving.” Jesse squeezed his knees. “If there’s one thing he taught me, it’s that no one is—you just have to give them the chance to save themselves.”

    He was very aware of the way Rin was staring, but he kept his eyes down. He’d rather she not hear that part of him, but perhaps it was better to be honest. He valued her friendship, after all.

    Izanami considered their words. “The two of you are certainly committed to him,” she said at last. “It’s touching. But I wonder what you expect me to do.”

    Rin bit her lip. “I think… I think that if we could do something for his daughter—Paige—Ron would realize that he still can do something. But he thinks she’s lost to the Benefactor. That’s the problem.” She slammed her fists on her knees, her eyes filling with tears. “He thinks he can’t stop the Benefactor from hurting his daughter, and nothing else matters to him—not really.” She wiped at her eyes, furiously.

    “I see.” Izanami frowned. “And that could pose a problem for me, because if Ron does not right the greater wrongs in Hades, I will never be able to leave, and it will not matter that he has found me a weapon. If he continues acting only in his own self-interest, things could get very chaotic indeed.” She rose, slowly, tucking her hands into her sleeves. “It seems we must find him and tell him we shall deal with this Benefactor.” She tipped her head back, so that the light shone on her face, revealing it for the death mask it was. Jesse bit back a shudder. “I don’t like others to play with my toys, after all.”

    Rin bowed again to the goddess; Jesse copied her a beat late. 

***

    Ron watched the gods on his tablet, drumming his fingers on his leg. He was currently holed up in the remnants of the FLEET armory, since he figured no one would come looking for him there and that it would be relatively easy to escape if they caught him.

    If he was going to do this, he needed a way to get rid of as many of the conspirators at once as possible. If he could get them all in one place—

    Well, he had enough C4 to level a small mountain. He’d figure it out. The only question was where to lay his trap…

    His eyes flicked over the tablet again, looking for Apollo and Persephone. They had disappeared off the map, which Ron found rather suspicious—especially since they had met together a while ago. What were they up to?

    Persephone reappeared all of a sudden—by the apartment where Hel and Loki were staying. Now that was interesting…

    Apollo’s dot reappeared as well, only for a moment, in the throne room of Hades’ palace. Then it disappeared once more.

    Ron’s eyes narrowed. An interesting possibility…

    It wouldn’t hurt to case the area. He didn’t want to commit to anything yet, mostly because he realized he was in a bad state of mind, but at least going there would chase away the memories for a few minutes longer. 

    And how better to draw out the leader of a gods’ conspiracy than by threatening another god?

***

    AJ flexed her bad hand, wincing at the ache that ran up her whole arm. Drac frowned at her, but she waved him away. “Don’t mind me, Thane. We’ve got some cranky gods to talk to, so you better get yourself on point.”

    “If you insist.”

    She snorted and raised her hand to knock on the door of Hel’s apartment. It was surprisingly easy to find Norse gods when they were listed in the FLEET phone book. Loki answered the door. “Oh. It’s you two.”

    AJ put her hands on her hips. “Where’s the wheelchair bitch? We found her boyfriend."

    Loki paused. “Ah. About that.” He stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. AJ lunged for the door handle, but Loki snapped his fingers, and the door handle transformed into a hissing snake. It probably wasn’t real, but AJ didn’t feel like taking that risk. “Now, now, young lady. I’m not here to cause any problems. I just… feel the need to unburden myself.”

    AJ wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know what that means.”

    Loki put his hands together. “Well, you see… I want to spend more time with my daughter. Getting your eyes burned out for an eternity will do that to a god. But Hel wants to find Baldur. The problem is that if she finds him—well, she might remember that I was the one who killed him in the first place.” He made a face. “He really wasn’t good enough for her—but try telling her that. Anyway, I wasn’t that worried about her actually finding him until she recruited you two. You’re professionals.”

    AJ exchanged a look with Drac. “Is there a point to this?” she asked, putting her good hand on her hip.

    Loki slipped off his sunglasses, revealing the burned ruin that was his eyes. “The point is that you haven’t found Baldur at all. The moment I realized you two could actually cause serious trouble, I decided to, ah… delay you. Illusion magic. What can you do.”

    AJ drew in a sharp breath. “Wait, you mean—” She flexed her hand. “You mean I hurt my fucking hand on some kind of trick?”

    Loki shrugged. “What can I say? Mortals and my illusions don’t mix.” He sighed. “I feel bad, really. The two of you have gotten up to some interesting things. But you were too close to tracking down Baldur, and I couldn’t have that.”

    AJ honestly felt like locking herself somewhere dark and small and never coming out. Or maybe having Drac stab Loki about a billion times. She pressed her good hand to his forehead. “So… what you’re saying is that we did all this shit for—for nothing. It wasn’t real.”

    Loki laughed. “No, not for nothing! Look at all the fantastic character development you got out of it! The two of you have gotten so close. It’s quite sweet.”

    AJ turned away, clutching her head. “I can’t deal with this right now,” she muttered.

    “I don’t really know what you were expecting,” said Loki, shrugging. “I’m a trickster god, after all. It’s my modus operandi.”

    AJ let out a slow breath. “Okay, so… there goes that plan.” She turned back to Loki. “If Baldur’s not the one fucking up Hades, then who is?”

    Loki shrugged. “Search me. If I knew, I’d have pointed you in that direction. Much as I like this vacation, I miss my own underworld. The smell of sulfur here just isn’t quite the same.”

    AJ bit her thumbnail, turning away. She felt like her thoughts were slamming against a wall. Drac touched the small of her back. “Calm down. We’ll make it work.”

    AJ turned to him, her eyes flashing. “No, we won’t. Don’t you get it? We are completely back to square one. We don’t know who to hunt down to make the bad things stop. And all that—all that feeling shit…” She swallowed, looking away. “It was all for nothing.”

    “Not all of it,” said Drac, keeping his hand where it was.

    Before AJ could tell him exactly how wrong he was, another god appeared beside them. AJ jumped; Drac’s hand went to his knife. Loki made a noise of surprise. “Persephone! What brings a lady like you to our neck of the woods?”

    She ignored him, looking to Drac. “Are you Drac Thane?”

    AJ frowned. “Who’s asking?”

    Persephone ignored AJ, too, which was really annoying. “I have need of you. You must come with me.”

    Drac drew back. “You have the wrong person.”

    “No, I don’t.” She took a step toward him, her eyes narrowing. “I can feel your power—you have a connection with death. I need you. Come with me.”

    AJ stepped between them, her eyes narrowed. “Look. Lady. We have been fucked over so many ways from Sunday that it’s not even funny. I am not in a good mood. Give me one good reason we shouldn’t flip you the bird and ride off into the sunset.”

    Persephone swallowed. “You said you were looking for answers.” AJ let out a squawk of indignation at the eavesdropping, but Persephone paid it no mind. “Well, I can provide them. I have just come from the truth, and it is more awful than you can imagine.”

    AJ scowled. “No cryptic jibber-jabber, please. We’ve been having a bad day.”

    Persephone closed her eyes for a moment. Then she said, “My husband. Hades. He has been enslaving other gods, just as Minos once did to us, and using them to restore his own power. I don’t know what he’ll do once he’s fine again, but I fear it. And I need you, Drac Thane. Your powers give you a connection to death, and that connection means I can give you Hades’s strength. You could stop him.”

    Drac drew back, his eyes narrowing. AJ kept close to him, glaring. “Hey. Lady. Back off.” She almost said it wasn’t something Drac would want to do, but then she looked to him, because she knew better. She swallowed her words and chose different ones. “That’s something we gotta talk about. You can’t just tell us what to do.”

    Persephone glared at them. “There is no time.”

    AJ turned to Loki. “Can you do something about her? Since you fucked with us and everything?”

    Loki considered it for a moment, then shrugged. “Why not.” He snapped his fingers. A wall of white light appeared between Persephone and the others. “Just for as long as it takes her to figure out to break it, of course. I’m gonna go make some pancakes. Have a good time, you two.”

    AJ turned to Drac. He had his thinking face on. For a moment, AJ experienced that blind panic, like her mind slamming into closed doors again and again and again. Then she shook herself and put her hand on Drac’s arm. “Okay. Hades is the Big Bad. Where do we go from here?"

    “You’re asking me?” Drac whispered.

    “Like it or not, looks like the ball’s in your court.” She hesitated. “And I’ll… I’ll back you up, kid. Whatever you want to do.” She said it with much more confidence than she felt. She'd been so--sure before. Hope's fate had given her a purpose. And now... now it was all just some sick joke. She was dead, but life still fucked with her.

    Drac looked at his feet. “…We need to see this for ourselves.”

    He moved toward the light screen and Persephone, but AJ grabbed his upper arm. “Just remember,” she said, holding his eyes. “We’re doing the right thing now, but we sure as hell aren’t martyrs. Don’t do anything stupid.”

    “When have I ever done anything stupid?” Drac asked, raising his eyebrows.

    AJ looked at him in shock. “Oh, yeah, I see how it is,” she said, shoving him. “We go through all this shit, and now that we have no idea what we’re doing, you pick up a sense of humor. You little shit.” But she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. At least she still had that idiot.