Code Red

Hera essentially dragged Adriel back to their house. She asked Sammy to call everyone back, worried about Reynara's reaction. The Empress wasn't entirely sure, but she felt like the huntress would do something bad. It was just a voice in the back of her mind telling her that. It was possible that this was the curse messing with her. Ever since the fight with Kadhan, the curse was more present in her mind, even being able to make her feel some things that she wouldn't feel normally. However, it was extremely hard to know for sure when an emotion or a feeling was coming from the Empress herself or from a less-than-reputable source. Either way, this time, she decided not to doubt her instincts. If she decided against it and something happened, she could never forgive herself.

Alex was the first to arrive at the home, getting there before anyone, and she saw Hera dragging Adriel by the hand, "What is going on?"

"I'm trying to ask Hera the same thing, but she just keeps dragging me and telling me to shut up," Adriel said while still struggling to keep up.

"And since when telling you to shut up worked?"

"She has two bodyguards that can pick me up and carry me around. I'm not messing with her," Adriel explained as Hera pushed him through the door.

"Go inside and check if there are any spots someone could use to sneak in," Hera turned to Alex, "Where are the others?"

"Bonnie and Lena were helping get some food for dinner. Blue is fixing a part of the wall that was broken yesterday because of a monster. Shane and Mylo are on watch, a few guards had to do something, and they were missing a few people."

"Crap. Sammy, call everyone now! We need to be together," Hera said before the turtle even appeared.

"Hera, I told everyone what you said already. 'Reynara got a legacy, and she is weird. You all should be together from now on.' However, each of them is doing something, and they said they would only come when they were done."

"Shit, I'll go get them then," Hera stepped back but was stopped by Sammy and Alex.

"Hera, what is going on?" the assassin asked.

"I told you. Reynara is weird. She got blood-crazed when she got the legacy, and I think she's lying when she said she got the skill that stopped her from craving blood," Hera explained.

"That still doesn't explain the intensity of your actions," Sammy added.

"It's just a feeling. I'm positive she is going to do something bad."

"So we are all dealing with a hunch here?" Adriel asked from inside the house.

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that?"

"A little bit. I mean, you almost broke my wrist by dragging me here. And we need to have more information to accept something like that. Going this hard on something because of a hunch is really overboard. Come, let's sit down and talk before we do anything stupid."

Hera frowned while staring at Adriel. She couldn't understand why they were pushing back on that. All she wanted was to protect all of her friends, and now this man wanted to stop her from doing that. "Sure, let's talk. How about we discuss what actually brought us here individually."

Adriel's face turned serious, "We agreed not to talk about this now."

"Then help me get everyone, or we, the three of us, can talk about our origins," Hera stepped forward, getting closer to Adriel.

"What are you talking about?" Alex had a confused expression.

"Nothing!" Adriel replied quickly, clearly frazzled by her question.

"Addy, what is going on? What is she talking about?"

"It's… Nothing."

"Oh no, it is something. And unless you want me to be the one to tell her, you are going after Lena, Blue, and the others and drag them back here if you have to," Hera said.

"What is it?" Alex yelled, frustrated from being left out of the conversation like that.

Adriel stared at the Empress with an angry expression, "Dammit, Hera!" he turned back to Alex, "Look. We need to have a conversation, just the two of us. But please, can we have that later? I don't think going into it right now is a good idea. Let's just get back to our time; then we talk about it."

"Is it that bad?"

"No."

"Yes." Hera and Adriel spoke at the same time, glancing at each other when they heard the other's answer.

"Look, it's something that might change how you see me. I don't know how you are going to react, and it might affect our trust. Right now, I prefer that you are suspicious about me and still have some trust instead of risking you being completely against me."

Alex kept looking at the elf but turned to Hera instead, "What is he talking about?"

"I'm sorry, it's not my secret to tell. I'm not involved with all that."

"I do agree that it's not your secret, but you are involved at least a little," Adriel said.

"Much less than you are making out to be," Hera turned back to the elf.

"You know what. Fuck you both. You keep running off to Reynara's or who the fuck knows, and now you are all keeping secrets from me," Alex stormed off.

"Alex! Where are you going?" Hera called.

"To find the others and drag them here. I need more people to be mad at you two," Alex replied before vanishing from sight, using one of her hiding abilities.

"Fine, let's just go get the others," Hera started moving, but Adriel grabbed her hand.

"No, you don't. You are way too intense right now. Stay here and beef up the defenses or something. I'll go get them. If you run around like that, you will make the entire Vanguard freak the fuck out, and I think you've done enough damage for today."

"Sure, but if they are not here in half an hour, I'm going after them. Also, figure out where Alex went," Hera replied, walking inside the house and calling out her court.

She was used to not having them out while moving around the village, but this time, she needed all the safety precautions she had in place. Her next step was reinforcing the walls and closing any large gaps in the construction of their house. Following that, she used her little knowledge of traps to make a few but had yet to install them. It would be better for everyone in her party to return before they hunker down.

'I can show you a way to defend against anything. A way to use powers beyond anything. Beyond anyone. Enough power to protect your friends from anything, everything.'

Hera heard the curse dangling that promise of power again. However, this time, her fear was too strong. She was worried that Reynara would go into a frenzy and start killing everyone inside the village.

"How long will that take?" Hera asked out loud.

"Who are you talking to?" Nimbus asked. Ever since Hera ordered her court not to interact with the curse, they couldn't hear it even if the curse was talking to her.

'It's up to you. Maybe a day, maybe a week. But if you ask for my help for more than showing, you can do much more.'

"What do I have to do?" Hera asked.

'Meditate. I'll help you see that power again when you open your mind.'

"Open my mind to you?"

'I will be there.'

Hera frowned, thinking that this might be a bad idea. She walked to the door and glanced in the direction of Reynara's house.

"Shit," she mumbled to herself and walked to her bedroom.

"Hera? What is going on?" Nimbus asked.

"Mum, are you talking to the curse?" Daskka added.

"I am. I have to do one thing. I just need to see how I can use that power again," Hera replied.

"Hera… I don't like that idea," Lurize looked the Empress in her eyes.

"Me neither, but I'm worried about Reynara. Too much to be able to make any sensible choice. If I stay here and just wait, I think I'll end up doing something even worse."

"Do you think the curse is manipulating you?" Nimbus asked.

"Probably, but we are going to get rid of it soon. So let it; I doubt it can eat me up faster than we can kill it," Hera sighed, "Please, just look out for me, and don't disturb me when I'm doing this. Unless you think it's an emergency."

"Ok, mum. Just… be careful," Daskka reached out to Hera's cheek before flying towards Lurize, staying around his neck as she did with the Empress.

"Thank you, guys. And I'm sorry for making you all worry," Hera smiled and then closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing. She had tried meditating before, but it was never something she liked doing. But this time, it was surprisingly quick for her to reach a trance.

Suddenly, even with her eyes closed, she could see some light. And not just a small amount of it but enough to be compared with sunlight. Hera opened her eyes to see what was going on, only to be met with a completely different sight from the one she had before starting to meditate. She was no longer in their house, inside her room. Instead, she was now in front of the Cherry Mantis nest, which she had already destroyed some time ago, and that wasn't all. Nothing was moving; the leaves falling from the trees, the monsters jumping from the nest, and even raindrops were stopped in time. Looking up, she realized she was under her Elemental Poison Rain spell. She could also see Dao preparing to use his Chain Lightning skill. Core was swinging to toss a sediment that would result in something similar to a volcanic eruption, and Daskka was starting to grow, covering everything in mist.

"What is this?" Hera asked no one in particular, but she got an answer nonetheless.

"This is what happened. The moment of power you experienced," the voice of the curse crept inside her mind once more, but it wasn't coming from nowhere this time. Instead, she could understand the direction those words came from. Taking a moment to steel herself, Hera slowly turned to the spot where she was supposed to be during this scenario.

In her place was a formless shape. An odd mixture of a dark purple mist surrounding what could only be described as a hole in reality. A place where nothing seemed to be present, not darkness, not light, not time, not space, not even nothingness was there. When focusing, Hera could see some semblance of her silhouette in that area, but doing so gave her such a strong migraine that it felt like someone had just hit her in the back of the head with a garbage truck while blowing up a stick of dynamite inside her brain at the same time.

The Empress fell to the floor and looked away, which instantly made her feel better, but the memory of that pain still made it linger, "What the hell is that."

"That is you."

"What?" Hera glanced up, this time not focusing on the silhouette, which seemed to stop her from feeling that pain, but it still made her feel uncomfortable.

"To see this, you must use my eyes. While doing so, you see you as I do," the curse continued.

"You see me like that?"

"Yes. That is you. But also everything. That is how the world exists to me," the curse's voice almost sounded joyful. Like a kid sharing something they were excited about.

Hera shook her head. A part of her wanted to see if the curse was ok, but she stopped herself. She was too nice, but even someone like her refused to be nice to something that was trying to eat her from the inside.

"Ok, and you can control this? Is it like a video where you can go forward or back?" Hera asked, looking around again.

"Yes."

"And you said this is how I can figure out what happened here?"

"Yes. I can help if you ask."

Hera refused to look back at that hole in reality, "And if I ask for help, you will try to spread even more through me, right?"

"To spread is my nature. That will happen eventually," the curse replied.

"But it will be faster if I ask."

There was a long pause before the answer finally came, "Yes."

"Forget it then. Just keep things like that. I'm sure I can figure this out on my own," Hera replied as she started walking around. She could already tell that things were different, that the spells and skills had something about them. Now, all she had to do was to figure out what. That should take little time, and then she could forget about the curse until it was time to get rid of it.