Rifts (21 page)

"I didn't want to hurt her. I held back. I guess I didn't expect her to attack me. How did I become such a mess? Things were just fine."

"Okay, Drew. Who are you? What have you done with the robot that I know and adore?"

He looked at me with misery etched in his eyes. "I just don't know."

"Could it be some kind of spell? Weird things are happening around here and everyone is a bit off kilter. Maybe it's just a spell." I rubbed his back to offer what comfort I could, and ran across a patch of sticky wetness. "Jesus Christ, Drew! She stabbed you?!"

He glanced over his should down his back and shrugged. "Yeah, that's not the only place. There's a reason I'm on the ground. I don't think I can stand up."

"Oh my God. I can't teleport yet! Can you teleport? We need to get you to a Healer." I was frantic and couldn't think. Why in the Hell couldn't I teleport yet?

"It will heal in a bit." He sighed and leaned into me, so I wrapped my arm around his shoulder.

"It’s going to be okay." I said it more for me than for him. "We just have to figure out what's going on. From everything I've read and heard, she shouldn't be this powerful. How did she get so strong? Do your abilities increase as you get older?"

"They do, but not to this extent. It's like someone's messed with her."

"Do you think that it's the person behind all of these disasters? I've been trying to wrap my mind around who it could be, but I'm coming up with nothing."

"Honestly? I have no idea. It could be. I've scanned everyone, though, and nobody back in Olympus is doing this."

"She can Rift in, do you think she brought something - or someone - back with her?"

"It's a possibility."

"I don't even know where to start looking. If it's an Interdimensional we won't have a clue. Our best bet is to capture Hope and get her to talk."

"Yes, we've had such good luck with that so far. Let's talk about something else. Tell me about Greenland."

"What's there to tell? I was there. I cried. I froze. I think I accessed my mojo."

"Your mojo?"

"Yeah, I went into this meditative state and saw these strands of color. Kinda looks like my rubber band ball."

His eyes widened as he tried not to smile. "That's a pretty colorful bag of mojo then."

I scowled in return. "I'm serious. The thing is, I have some power lines that haven't gotten bold yet."

"Well, that doesn't sound right. We both know you're a bold lady." An eyebrow cocked at me and I had to smile.

This was the Drew I remembered. The Before-I-Found-Out Drew. The Drew that I adored. I wanted to fix this, but I didn’t know where to start.

"You're so funny." I threw an exasperated smile at him. "Do you think you can ‘port?"

He shook his head at me and hunched over with a groan. "I've already watched you die once. It's not an experience that I'd like to repeat. I kinda missed you when you were gone."

"I missed you too."

"I meant when you were dead," I replied dryly. But inside a small little bubble escaped and settled in my chest. It wasn't logical to be so enamored with this man, but I was.

"Oh, right. Yes. I missed you when I was dead, too."

"Scooter!" He should be able to get us back to Olympus or at least get a Healer back here. "Can you ‘port us back home?"

He cocked a doggy eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes in return. "Of course you can't. Bring Zeus back here. Someone,
anyone
that can heal Drew."

He scrunched his nose and disappeared. "Welp," I breathed. "We have a 50/50 chance of him bringing back someone worthwhile. How about we get you into the house? I'm sure the neighbors have seen enough action in our front yard lately to last a lifetime."

I reached under his arms, whispered that I was sorry and pulled him into standing position. He groaned but didn't pass out. I probably could have carried him in but it would've been awkward and I didn't want to exacerbate his injuries further.

We’d made it to the front steps when Scooter popped back in with Athena right behind him.

"I always knew I was the better fighter," she drawled.

"Not the time," I warned.

Drew perked up and scowled at her. "It’s only because my guard was down."

"Riiiiight." She replied. "So
did you get the warp signature of the spaceship that just ran you over?
"

"It was Hope," I said softly.

"Oh," was her short reply.

"Yeah."

"So does she look as bad, Brother?"

"Don't want to talk about it 'Thena," He growled.

"He let her kick his ass like some complete idiot." I interjected.

"Figures. He was always stupid for her. You're lucky she didn't kill you for good this time, you dumbass," she scolded. But it was too late. He'd passed out from blood loss and pain.

"He's stupid for her," I started.

"Yeah, he always has been."

"How can I compete with that?" It was a ridiculous question but I couldn't help but ask. Someone had to have some answers. At least one fucking thing in my life had to simplify.

She helped me place Drew on the couch and pulled me into her arms. "You can't," she said. "You can't fight his demons. You can only combat yours, Grace. You're a scary, intense force of nature when you get going. You have that in common with her. There's always going to be something within you that he remembers from her, and it's going to block any forward momentum. Your best option is to retreat."

"Yeah," I sighed. "I figured as much. Sometimes, it's just hard to forget that I love him."

"Believe it or not, I get it." She hugged me tight against her and I fought the tears. "Was this it? Was this what I needed to see before I could let it go? Rather than take care of that bitch, he was ready to let her kill him. What the
fuck
, Athena?!"

I started crying. I was so unbelievably tired of crying. It seemed that someone looked at me wrong and the tears started to fall. I had to wonder if my hormones were off, because the water-works never happened like this. The last time I got this emotional was when I was pregnant and well - you can't get pregnant if you're celibate. I snorted and brought my attention back to Athena.

"Grace, you will find someone who is perfect for you. They will be able to look at you and truly believe that you are the most wonderful thing that ever existed in this Universe. I promise you this. He isn't it, but someone will be. You have so long in this world. The time it will take won't seem so long, or so bad."

I nodded, because what could I say to that? "You should probably get us somewhere we can get him healed up. There's something big going on and we're going to need every single person we can get to fight it. Hope shouldn't have this kind of mojo. Someone's juiced her up, and while she scares me, someone who could do that to one of us scares me more."

Athena nodded and took hold of both of us before ‘porting us back home.

Funny, when did I start thinking of Olympus as home?

We landed right in the medical center. She gently laid Drew's prone body on a bed, and I left to talk to Zeus. It was time to get some council. I needed to talk about my suspicions with someone who might have a better clue than I did.

I found him in the Archives. When I thought of Archives, I imagined great tomes of books hundreds of years old…maybe some scrolls. Olympus' Archives would have put NASA to shame. Everything was digitalized, and had been for thousands of years.

Zeus sat in a comfortable chair with his legs crossed, holding a data pad. A frown settled on his face at what he'd recently read.

"What's up, chicken butt?" It wasn't the most respectful greeting, but it amused me to see him perplexed.

"I am certainly not a chicken's arse, Grace." I hid a grin, walked over to his chair and leaned forward to read over his shoulder. Sometimes it was hard to remember how old he was, considering how young he looked. He could have been my older brother instead of my father.

"That is still up for debate, sir. What are you reading that has you frowning so?"

"I've been investigating the happenings on Earth over the last few centuries. The number of natural disasters has increased greatly. I cannot decide if it's due to increased Rift activity or if someone is here orchestrating the entire mess. Earth is a relatively new planet, so some of this can be expected, but the frequency increase has me worried."

"I'm so glad you brought it up because that is
exactly
what I came by to talk to you about. I just brought Drew home after he was mortally wounded by Hope."

"What?" He exclaimed and jumped out of his seat, the data pad clattering to the floor.

"He's in the medical center right now. She stabbed him in multiple places and God only knows what else. He was in pretty bad shape. I need you to tell me if she can have the kind of power to take down one of our greatest warriors. It just doesn't seem logical to me that she can. I can't quite wrap my mind around it. So, I'm thinking that someone has juiced her up."

Zeus grabbed my wrist and pulled me along behind him. "Come, you can talk on the way."

I stumbled after him, quickening my pace to keep up. "I had this existential moment today regarding my powers and was on the verge of a breakthrough…until the dog found me and brought me to Drew. He never raised a hand to her. You have the kind of glamour that makes people stop in their tracks, but she shouldn't. It's just not genetically possible, right?"

He looked back at me and frowned. "It shouldn't be. Her father was a human. I've done extensive genetic testing on all of the Hunters to determine which powers, which specialties they'll have as they mature. She would have simply been a mediocre Hunter. She has your Mother's gift of Rifting and some healing, but her human blood was weak."

"So?"

"So, yes. I believe that someone may have tweaked her genetic code. But the only person who can do that is your Mother."

My jaw dropped open. "My mother can tweak genetic code?"

"She made you human for most of your life. What do you think?"

"Good point. However, I don't see Diana causing this havoc. So it has to be an Interdimensional."

"Yes. We've been so busy putting out fires; we haven't been monitoring Rift activity as closely as we should." He stopped abruptly and then reversed his course, still dragging me along.

"Hey, use your turn signals next time," I complained as I tripped.

"Yes. Yes," was his short reply.

"Where are we going? I thought you wanted to check on Drew?"

"He can wait. He's very difficult to kill. I need to check some readings in the Lab. I want you to see something. You gave me the idea of using the human satellites to correlate data and I want a second opinion."