“Now, there’s no need to be nervous…” Rixie muttered as she paced along the floor of the medical lab. “I’ve been told this is a largely painless process. Everything will be fine. Okay? No need to worry.”

Alex sat watching the pacing Titaness with an amused smile on his face. In contrast to the former soldier, he was sitting on the metal examination table comfortably. Well, almost comfortably. The surface underneath him was unbelievably cold.

It must be a universal law, Alex thought wryly, that doctors’ examination tables are always freezing.

“You tell me if you’re not comfortable with something and I will put a stop to it, you understand?”

“Yes Rixie.”

“I mean it Alex. The very second something you don’t like happens or you feel at all wrong about anything you just let me know, okay?”

“Got it Rixie.” Alex muttered, rolling his eyes in amusement.

A moment later the door to the lab opened and Brinn briskly walked in. She was wearing a white lab coat over a green sweater and a pair of black slacks. Her long red hair was done up in a simple ponytail.

“Hello Rixie, Alex.” She said cheerfully as she walked towards the examination table. “What can I do for you today?”

“I’d like to have a tracking chip installed.” Alex spoke up from his seat on the table.

Brinn stopped short, her eyebrows rose in surprise. Her gaze slid from Alex and up to Rixie.

“Don’t look at me,” Rixie sighed. “This was his idea, believe it or not. I argued against it.”

It didn’t seem possible, but Brinn’s eyes got even wider at that particular piece of information.

After a brief moment, she cleared her throat. “Well.” Her tone was professional. “No matter, that’s easy enough to accomplish.”

“Good” Alex nodded and rose to his feet.

Brinn set a data pad down on the table next to the human. “Now, Alex, if you’ll just do me a favor and strip off your clothes for me I-”

“Why does he need to do that?” Rixie asked accusatorily, “Because he’s a human and ‘proper’ humans don’t wear clothes?”

“Rixie!” Alex snapped. “Relax! She needs to examine me. It’s kind of hard to do that through clothing!”

The dark haired giantess blinked. A light blush of embarrassment appeared on her cheeks. “Oh, uh, right. Sorry.”

Brinn smiled, although she’d be lying if she said she enjoyed having the larger woman yelling at her. “Not a problem.”

Rixie stepped back from the examination table, crossing her arms over her chest with a sullen frown on her face. Watching intently as Alex stripped for any sign of anything improper.

“Alex, while I have you here, I’d like to do a full examination on you. Would that be okay?”

Rixie twitched but managed to bite her tongue. She kept reminding herself that this was Alex’s decision and that everything was okay.

“I think that would be a good idea, Doc.” Alex nodded

“Good.” Brinn reached across the examination table and dragged over a heavy looking machine made entirely out of black plastic with a series of blinking lights up the side of it. No doubt these lights indicated some sort of information about the operation of the machine itself, but Alex couldn’t fathom what that information might actually be.

“Alex I need you to lay down underneath this lens right here, okay? Face down, please.”

“No problem.” Alex walked over to the machine and slid underneath the massive glass lens

There was a loud whirring sound and a rapid blinking of red light across Alex’s body.

“Good.” Brinn muttered after a minute. “Everything looks to be in order.”

“Can I see?” Rixie asked. Brinn stepped aside and let her look into the machine.

“Brinn!” She yelled angrily after a moment. “Why were you staring at his ass?!”

“Oh for goodness sake Rixie!” Brinn snapped back testily. “I was checking the alignment of his spine!”

Rixie gaped for a moment, spluttering as she tried to think of some legitimate reason for her outburst. Unfortunately, her mind was betraying her and she drew a complete blank.

“Sorry.” She sighed, her posture deflating entirely and all anger drained from her voice. “I guess I overreacted.”

“Again…” Alex added from underneath the machine.

“Again.” Rixie amended.

Brinn sighed and rolled her eyes. “Rixie… I understand, really I do. But, please just relax. Alex has his reasons for wanting to do this, I’m sure. You have to trust him to know what he wants. And you have to trust that I’m going to be completely professional about this. Because I am.”

“Right. Right. Sorry.” Rixie ran a hand through her braids sheepishly.

Brinn arched an eyebrow and stared at the taller woman silently for a moment. Then, believing that she had finally made her point clear, she turned back to her little patient.

Brinn peered into the lens again and adjusted the machine until the injector was right over the proper area in Alex’s shoulder

Suddenly the young veterinarian felt a presence behind her.

“Rixie…” She spoke without looking up. “You’re hovering, and it’s very distracting. I want you at least one unit back from this examination table at all times. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Rixie sighed.

“Good.” Brinn made a few final adjustments to the instrument. “Okay Alex, just relax, the first thing I need to do is give you a couple vaccinations. This should only hurt for a second…”

Without any further warning she depressed the trigger mechanism. There was a slight puff of pressurized air as the invisibly small needle injected itself into Alex’s arm.

“Ow! Damn it!” Alex hissed.

“Brinn! What did you DO?!” Rixie roared, stomping back over to the exam table.

“Oh for the love-!” Brinn suddenly whirled on Rixie, irritated fury blazing in her ocean colored eyes. “That’s it! Rixie you’re driving me absolutely insane today. I can’t work with you in here, so out. OUT!”

Rixie’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open, dumbstruck. “What?”

“I’m sorry Rixie, but I’m serious. This will go much faster without you constantly interrupting.” Brinn actually began to push the taller woman from the lab. Before Rixie even knew what had happened, she had been forcefully escorted from the room and into the hall.

“hey wait-!” She cried as the door hissed shut in her face and locked her out.

“See how you like it.” Brinn muttered her mouth up in a satisfied smirk.

“Sorry about that doc.” Alex called out with a long suffering sigh. “Rix… she means well but…”

“She cares about you.” Brinn smiled softly as she walked back to the metal table. “I understand. I’m sure I’d be twice as annoying in her place with Nick or Sophia. Still…”

“You’re trying to do your job. I know.”

“Right.” Brinn popped open a panel on her machine and replaced the injection cartridge. After closing the panel she peered into her lens again and adjusted it so that the injector was aimed at a spot between Alex’s shoulder blades where his neck and torso met.

“Okay this is the actual chip.” Brinn informed him. “It doesn’t usually hurt too badly, but I’m going to put a little bit of numbing agent on anyway.” Using a plastic applicator she dabbed a little bit of purple gel on Alex’s back and spread it over his shoulders.

“Wow, that’s cold.” Alex shivered.

“Actually, it’s not. That’s just numbness.”

“Oh.”

“Okay then…” Brinn double checked the apparatus. “Ready? Good.”

No further warning was given before she depressed the trigger again.

Alex twitched, expecting pain, but surprisingly the numbing gel was pretty effective.

“There we go!” Brinn cooed brightly, as she gently pulled Alex out from under the lens. Carefully she raised him to her eye level and examined his back. “You’ll probably have some bruising at the injection site, but that will clear up in a day or so.”

“Awesome. Thanks Doc.”

Brinn walked to the door and opened it to find Rixie sitting against the wall.

“Hi.” The soldier muttered sheepishly.

“Hi.” Brinn responded archly.

“…All done?”

“Yes.” Brinn leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Good.” With a sigh Rixie pulled herself to her feet. “So uh… I owe you an apology…”

Brinn rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No you don’t.”

Rixie stared back at the vet incredulously.

“Well okay.” Brinn smiled. “You do. But it’s fine. I understand, and I think it’s very cute.”

Rixie’s eye twitched slightly at being referred to as “cute” but she wisely chose not to say anything.

“Anyway, Alex is all finished so you can come on in.” Brinn smirked and stepped back from the door, allowing Rixie to re-enter. The dark haired Titaness immediately made a beeline for the examination table where she scooped Alex up into the palm of her hand.

Brinn handed her a data pad. “I just need you to sign this form and put your thumbprint here. And then date it here.”

Rixie hesitated for just a second before completing the forms with a sigh.

She now owned Alex. Officially.

The thought made her a little sick.

“And here.” Brinn handed her a plastic tube filled with blue gel. “Take a bit of this, rub it into his skin and bathe him in warm water.”

“What is it?” Rixie peered curiously at the tube but the only information she could glean from it was the formula name for the compound. Which told her basically nothing.

“It’s a nutrient cream that will help to rejuvenate him. He’ll feel great afterwards.” The young veterinarian winked. “In more ways than one.”

Rixie smiled. “Thanks Brinn.”

“Any time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I promised I’d help Zara with something.” She bid the two of them fair well and swept out of the lab.

Rixie stashed the tube of gel in her pocket and raised Alex to her shoulder.

“She called you cute, I heard her.” He teased.

Rixie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

“You realize you owe me one after this, right?”

“Yes.”

“And that I get to make fun of you for at least a day, right?”

“Yes.”

“And that that doesn’t count as you making it up to me, right?”

Rixie smiled ruefully and shook her head.

“Yes.”

“Good. Then let’s go home.”

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

“I’m sorry.”

Pryvani blinked in surprise at the words coming from Zhan’s lips.

“What was that?” She asked mildly, which caused a small smile to appear on the human’s face.

“You heard me, Pryvani. I’m sorry.” Zhan sighed and shook his head. “I thought about what you said, about what I would have done in your place and… the truth is I just don’t know. So, it would be hypocritical of me to be as furious with you as I was if I didn’t have a better alternative. So… I’m sorry.”

Pryvani smiled and knelt down until she was as close to eye level with the human as she could get. “I accept your apology. And… I want to officially apologize for lying Zhan. To you and the rest of the humans on this moon.”

“Pryvani, you don’t-” Zhan began before Pryvani held her hand up to silence him.

“I do. I really do. Whether it was the right choice or not, I lied, and I would gladly spend the rest of my life making up for that lie.”

Zhan shrugged. “Well, I can’t really speak for the rest of Avalon but… I forgive you, Pryvani… if you’ll forgive me for being an ass to someone who saved my life. Maybe you weren’t a goddess, but you’ve done plenty for us over the years. Things we never properly thanked you for… So thank you.”

He glanced up at her. The slight watering in her eyes was all the warning he got before her hand scooped him up and he was pressed into her full, soft lips.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Sophia was sitting on Zara’s bedside table, thinking quietly to herself while Zara lay in her bed, reading a sociological journal. So lost in thought was she that she never noticed Zara’s hand appearing above Sophia until the giant woman’s long fingers wrapped around her gently. She was lifted towards the Titaness’ face; then the hand opened and Sophia was left laying in her palm.

“I think you should tell me another story.” Zara laughed, as she carefully rolled the little woman onto her front. Using the tip of her finger, the Titaness began to gently massage Sophia’s back.

“Mmm…” The human moaned contentedly. “You know, now that I think about it, there is a part two to the Prometheus story.”

“Oh?” Zara muttered, listening intently. “How does it go?”

Well…” Sophia sighed. “The gods had punished Prometheus, but they decided that they should find a way to punish mankind as well.”

“How nice of them.” Zara grinned.

“Yeah. So what they did was they all got together and made a woman.”

“They ‘made’ a woman?”

“Yeah out of, well, probably clay or something. They’re gods. They can do that.”

“I see.”

“Yeah so they make this perfect woman, and they each give her a gift. You know: beauty and grace, and curiosity and a nice rack or whatever. Stuff that everybody thought women had to have back then.”

Zara snorted derisively. “Sure.”

“So they make this woman, and they name her Pandora, and they show her to Epimetheus and they say ‘Here: We made a wife for you.’ And Epimetheus doesn’t stop to think ‘gee, they got mad and punished my brother, why are they giving me a custom-made wife?’ Because he doesn’t really think that far ahead.”

“He’s kind of an idiot, isn’t he?” Zara smiled as she continued to stroke the tiny form in her hand.

“A bit, yeah.” Sophia laughed. “So, the wedding rolls around and the gods give the happy couple this jar as a wedding gift. It’s sealed and they tell Pandora that she can never open it.”

“What kind of a gift is that?”

“You’ll see, now shush already.”

Zara’s mouth snapped shut and she nodded mutely.

“So for a while, everything is good for the two of them.” Sophia continued. “The jar is sitting in their house and Pandora doesn’t really think about it. At first. Then suddenly, one day, while she’s dusting the jar off; she starts to wonder: ‘Just what is in the jar anyway?’ But she knows the gods told her not to open the jar. So she doesn’t.”

Sophia wiggled in Zara’s palm, trying to get more comfortable. “And for a while longer, she forgets about it again, until the next time she comes across the jar. This time, the feeling of curiosity is a little stronger. Surely the gods wouldn’t have given her a gift they didn’t intend for her to open… would they?”

“Uh oh.” Zara chuckles. “She’s starting to rationalize.”

“Yes she is, but hush and let me tell the story.”

“Right, right. Sorry”

“She manages to forget about it again. But, eventually, she happens to come across the jar once more. This time the desire to see inside is so overwhelming that it’s almost driving her insane. She figures one little peek inside can’t hurt, right? Just a quick look. No harm done. She reaches for the jar and is just about to break open the seal… when her husband walks in and catches her.”

“What happens then?”

“He yells at her and reminds her they were instructed not to open the jar. So he puts it in another room and tells her to stop thinking about it.”

“But she can’t.”

“Of course not, she was given the ‘gift’ of curiosity, remember?” Sophia chuckled. “So she can’t stop thinking about the jar, and what might be inside of it. It could be anything, gold, jewels, silk. All kinds of amazing possibilities fly through her head until she can’t stand it anymore.

“So one night, she sneaks out of bed and to the room where her husband hid the jar. She picks the lock on the room and breaks in. There’s the jar. It’s seems to be taunting her, and she can’t control herself. She needs to at least take a peek. She dives at the jar, only intending to open it a crack so she can see inside.

“But once the seal on the jar is broken, the lid flies off and out of the jar comes every evil thing. Hate, greed, jealousy, war, sickness and disease. Every horrible thing you can imagine goes flying out of the container. Pandora slams the lid back on the jar, but it’s too late. All the world’s evils escaped to plague mankind. All but one, the only thing she managed to trap in the jar.

“What was it?” Zara’s voice was quiet with rapt attention.

“The only thing that was left in the jar was foreknowledge of death. If it had escaped, every human on the face of the earth would know exactly how and when their death would come. If that thing had escaped, there would be no hope for humanity. And that’s how the gods punished mankind for stealing fire.

Zara grinned. “That was a good story. Although maybe next time you can tell me a happier one, yeah?”

Sophia chuckled. “Sure. Then maybe you can tell me one from Archavia.”

“Mm.” Zara murmured, gently planting a kiss on the little human’s back. “We’ll see.”

*.*.*.*.*.*

“You got a visitor.”

Khalin looked up in surprise. The former domestic terrorist was sitting on the floor of his cell, his back against the wall with his legs crossed in front of him.

The door to the cell block clanked as it opened on rusty hinges. After a moment a lone figure entered and made his way towards Khalin’s cell.

He was a pale skinned man, with a head of reddish blonde hair that was starting to recede. His nose was bulbous and his jowls wobbled slightly as he walked. His gaze met Khalin’s and the younger man was startled to see the intelligence in those clear green eyes.

He was quick to cover his surprise with a sardonic smirk, however.

“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Brother Sulphur.” Khalin sneered. “I do hope you’re not here to give me death rites, old man.”

The elderly preacher chuckled mirthlessly. “On the contrary, I’m here to visit with you.”

Khalin’s eyebrow shot up in surprise. “You do realize I consider you as much fodder for the Lady’s appetite as I do the rest of the mindless sheep out there, right?”

Brother Sulphur gazed at the younger man for a moment, as if dumbstruck. Then suddenly broke into raucous laughter.

“Oh mercy!” He cried. “They told me it was true but I’ll admit there was a part of me that refused to believe it.”

Khalin’s brow knit in confusion. It wasn’t every day that people found his threats of divine slaughter amusing. “Sorry… care to let me in on the joke?”

“You, son!” Sulphur guffawed. “You’re actually a true believer. YOU! I thought maybe you were just leading the saps out there on as a power grab, same as me, but no… you actually believe in all this ‘goddess’ nonsense. Even after one of them flat out tells you it’s all shit!”

Despite himself, Khalin’s jaw dropped for a moment before he managed to recover his cool demeanor. “I have seen the dark lady’s power, I’ve felt it.”

“Oh sure.” Sulphur sneered. “Them Titans are powerful, nobody’s denying that, but divine? You really did hit your head pretty hard during that big bitch’s attack, didn’t you?”

Khalin tried to leap at the older man and tear at his throat but the manacles chaining him to the wall prevented him. His outburst only made the phony preacher laugh in delight. Outside the cellblock, there were a series of thumps.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Sulphur muttered. “Still, it takes all kind don’t it? It just so happens I have a job for you.”

The door to the jail house main office opened and six rather large men in dark clothing entered.

Khalin looked at them, confused. They certainly weren’t guards, so who were they.

“Job’s done, Brother Sulphur.” The largest one rumbled.

“Excellent.” The old preacher smiled. “Well, be quick about it, they won’t have much time.”

To Khalin’s further shock, the three men lifted up near identical rings of heavy iron keys and started going down the line of cell doors, opening them and setting his people free.

“What are you doing Sulphur?” Khalin asked, his tone laced with suspicion.

Sulphur smiled. “I’m doing us both a favor. You go free and do what you do, you cause a little panic… and then I provide the comfort of stability and the illusion of control.”

Khalin sneered even as one of Sulphur’s men undid the manacles around his wrist.

“I’ll leave the door unlocked for you, okay?” Sulphur spoke congenially, even as he and his men departed.

As much as Khalin hated that man, he hated being imprisoned even more. He quickly gathered his followers and they departed the jail, passing the unconscious guards on their way out.

“What do we do now, beloved?” Cara asked as they stole into the streets.

“I’ll tell you this, I don’t know what game Sulphur is playing, but I’ll not be a puppet for him. We’ll quit the city, head out into the countryside for a bit to gather our strength.”

“How do you plan on getting all of us out of here? The gates are locked for the night!” Cara wondered.

Khalin grinned. “Well, I used to head the night watch after all; I know where all the laziest and inattentive guards are stationed. Failing that… there’s always the sewers.”