Her heels made muffled thuds on the carpet as Pryvani hurriedly made her way down to the medical lab. It was time for what had become her daily visit to the sick human, to check up on his progress.

She keyed in the access code and the door whooshed open to admit her. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the comparatively dim environment in the lab but when they did she was pleased to see the little human just where she’d left him. He was sitting on the makeshift bed she’d made for him.

When he saw her he immediately rose to his feet, although he did so slowly.

Pryvani rushed across the room until she was looming over the little human. “Zhan be careful. You’re still not at full strength.”

“Of course my lady.” Zhan smiled, but remained standing. “I’ve just been in that bed so long; it felt good to get up, just for a bit.”

“You’re looking much better today Zhan!” Pryvani smiled brightly at the little figure standing on the table in the medical lab. And it was true. His vitals were improving, he looked much better- not nearly as pale and sickly as he’d been- and he was even able to stand and walk a bit, although he was limited somewhat by the number of tubes that were attached to his body.

“Thank you, my lady.” Zhan replied pleasantly. “I feel much better as well.”

“Well then,” Pryvani purred happily, “Perhaps you feel up to continue your harrowing tale?”

“Of course!” Zhan brightened and sat on the edge of his bed. “Where was I?”

“Hmmm…” Pryvani rolled her eyes to the ceiling, as if trying to recall. “I believe we last left our intrepid hero just as he managed to enter my home…”

“Ah yes.” Zhan nodded.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Zhan woke up later the next day, or at least he assumed it was the next day. Being indoors and sleeping in a literal hole in the wall seemed to mess with his sense of time.

Regardless, he crawled out into the massive hallway he’d discovered himself in the night before and took a look around.

The ceiling seemed to be as high as the sky itself, and lit by strange flat lanterns set into the wall where they met the ceiling. Looking to either side, the hall seemed endless.

However, he knew he wasn’t going to find his Goddess standing around, so he picked a direction at random (Left) and started hiking.

It wasn’t easy going by any means. The featureless landscape made determining how far Zhan had travelled impossible and the plush gray carpet, which came up to his shins, made it feel like he was trudging through a winter snow.

After what felt like a few hours of walking (but, again, the lack of any landmarks made it hard to determine exactly how long) Zhan suddenly felt a tremor travel from the floor and up his legs.

The vibrations were steady, like a drumbeat that shook the whole earth. In a panic Zhan looked around frantically for some place to hide. For all he knew, the Goddess had some sort of monstrous guard dog that roamed her palace looking for trespassers to devour.

Lacking any other option, and conscious of the fact that the tremors were getting stronger, Zhan pressed himself against the wall and waited, hoping and praying that whatever… thing was heading in his direction would pass him by without incident.

He was knocked to the ground as the earth shaking force became too much to withstand. His heart pounded furiously in his chest and his breathing became ragged as he screwed his eyes shut and curled himself into a compact little ball, praying that if he was going to die that at least it would be quick.

Through his tightly squeezed eyelids, Zhan saw a shadow pass over him, accompanied by a pair of tremors so massive they actually threw him into the air.

And then, everything became still. Cautiously, Zhan opened his eyes… and his mouth fell open.

Directly in front of him, in the center of the hallway, was a wall of black leather.

He blinked and the image came properly into focus. Boots. He was looking at a pair of boots.

Only, these boots were roughly five times his own height. As he craned his neck upwards, he realized that they were being worn be a large feminine figure more than big enough to fill them.

She looked bigger than the goddess, if such a thing was even possible. She was wearing olive green pants and a white shirt. Her hair was long, black and appeared to be done up in a startling amount of braids.

Any more than that Zhan was unable to determine, because she was facing away from him.

Zhan laid on the floor where he’d fallen, gasping for air and fighting the urge to panic. Was this the Goddess? His frantic mind wondered. It was possible; he knew she was able to assume other forms if she wished. She’d done it many times before according to the records. Maybe this was the form she wore when she was in her own home.

Zhan could only assume she chose the other form to walk among her people because she was afraid this one would scare her worshippers to death.

He was just about to call out to her, to make his presence known to the Goddess and beg her aid when suddenly he heard a voice.

“Rixie, Seriously, where are we going?!”

Zhan’s mouth fell open in shock. The voice had been faint, as if he were hearing it from a bit of a distance. But more than that, it had been a male voice.

“Here.” The voice of the goddess-like being answered the male voice. Zhan noted that if this really was the Goddess he knew, then her voice was different as well. It seemed even more powerful, yet still pleasant.

The Goddess held her palm in front of her. It was hard for Zhan to judge given the angle he was standing at relative to the Goddess, but he was reasonably certain she was holding something in her hand.

Or possibly someone.

“And… what exactly is ‘here’?” The male voice asked, and now Zhan was almost certain it was coming from the palm of the enormous being’s hand.

“These are called holosuites.” The goddess spoke again. “They project three dimensional real-time holographic illusions. They’re mostly for recreation, but the military often uses them for simulations.”

Zhan couldn’t understand a word of what the monolithic woman had just said, but evidently the male in her hand understood perfectly

“Oh. Like on Star Trek.”

“Um… sure. Like on… Star Whatever.” Zhan felt his heart begin to pound and he pressed himself against the wall again as the strange massive form of the Goddess being compacted in on itself as she knelt down to the ground. Her hand lowered to the floor and the figure of a man, no doubt the voice she’d been conversing with, came tumbling out of her palm. “…Anyway. You go in one, I go in the other. They’re synched up so they project the same images to both of us, but they’ll give us each a holographic avatar of the other so that we’ll both appear the same size.”

The enormous woman stood up to her full height again, leaving the human on the floor at her feet.

The human turned to his large companion. “The same size?” He asked. “In order for this to be fair, shouldn’t I be Titan-sized?”

‘Titan sized’? Zhan wondered curiously. ‘What is a Titan?’ He hadn’t understood any of what they’d been saying, but that word stuck out to him.

“Oh no.” The giant woman chuckled. “Not this time, not this soon after our little spat. Maybe later.”

“Chicken.” The man muttered, shaking his head.

“Okay, program’s loaded” The giant woman spoke. “See you on the other side.”

Zhan fell to the ground in shock again as in front of them the entire wall seemed to split into four sections. Two black holes appeared in the walls as massive doorways, each more than big enough for the woman to enter through, opened in front of them.

The other male seemed just as frightened by the spectacle as Zhan was. He could see the other figures legs shaking as the doors rumbled open and shook the floor underneath them all.

And then it was over. Zhan watched awestruck as the woman entered through one door casually, and the male ran into the other at a panicked sprint.

Before Zhan could gather his wits and decide whether he wanted to follow or not, the doors rumbled closed again, seeming to disappear into the wall.

Zhan was left on the floor, breathing heavily. His own heart pounding in his ears the only sound he could hear. He lay like that for several minutes until he managed to calm himself down.

He stood and hefted his pack of supplies. He knew he had no way of following the strange figures, so he didn’t even bother to try.

He wondered if that giant woman had been the Goddess he was searching for. It was entirely possible, he knew, because she often changed her form… but there was something in him that urged him to search onward. Some voice in his head that was telling him that if he kept looking he would find what he sought.

Zhan assumed this whispered voice was his Goddess, so he trudged onward down the corridor in the direction he’d been originally travelling in.

He walked for another span of time that seemed like hours. But it began to feel like he wasn’t moving at all. The walls stayed the same, the carpet was the same and every door he walked past looked the identical to the one before it.

Then, suddenly, he passed by an opening in the wall much larger than any of the others he’d hiked past before. Inside was what looked like a massive garden full of beautiful flowers, each as tall as trees. There seemed to be blooms in every color of the rainbow represented, and in a shocking variety of patterns and forms.

Zhan gazed at each plant and explored that wondrous garden for at least an hour, taking this chance to have a simple meal from his supplies, before that voice appeared in the back of his head again, telling him to move on and continue his journey.

So he hefted his supply pack and moved on again.

He hiked for another indeterminate amount of time until he found himself at an intersection. He was about to make a decision when he suddenly heard a commotion coming down the left corridor.

He peeked down that hallway to see, much to his shock, another giant woman walking in his direction. This one had straight blonde hair and a rather angry look on her face.

“Trell wait!” Suddenly another giantess, this one redheaded, appeared in the hallway through a door.

Zhan’s mouth fell open in shock. How could there possibly be two of them? A goddess who changed her form, that he could accept… but he knew there was only one Goddess. This was an immutable fact of the universe. The only logical explanation, as far as he was concerned was that one of them must be some sort of demonic entity.

Perhaps this had been the case for that other gigantic figure. Perhaps she too was some malevolent spirit that had invaded the Goddess’ home. But, she had seemed rather nice to the human she was with… Perhaps she had been the true goddess.

It was all very confusing for Zhan and he leaned against the wall as his head began to spin.

Meanwhile, down the corridor the drama between the two giant women continued to unfold.

The blonde woman froze, then suddenly whirled and faced the other angrily.

“What Brinn!?” She snarled. “What do you want? Do you want to tell me ‘how much everybody misses me’ and how I ‘should never have left for so long’? Is that what you want?”

As Zhan watched fascinatedly, the blonde woman advanced on the redhead, forcing the other to take a defensive step back.

“Get this through your head, I don’t care about you or Mom or Dad.” The angry giantess yelled. “I LEFT FOR A REASON. I was sick and tired of dealing with your trash, Brinn. I was sick of you always being the favorite, of you always getting everything you wanted, just because YOU were older.”

Trell, or so Zhan assumed she was named, continued to stalk towards the other giantess- Brinn- until the redhead was pressed against the wall behind her.

“The fact of the matter is, Brinn, I didn’t want to ever see ANY of you again.” Trell snarled into Brinn’s face. “So just do me a favor and keep away from me while you’re here!”

The blonde giantess whirled away from her frightened opponent and began stalking back up the corridor towards where Zhan was hiding.

Zhan pressed himself against the wall again. He was completely certain that he didn’t really want either of these women to find him.

The redhead apparently wasn’t finished with the encounter, however. She stomped towards Trell and grabbed her by the shoulder, roughly spinning her around until the two of them were face to face once more.

“Wait just a minute; I’m not done talking to you.” Brinn glared at the blonde woman, a furious snarl drawn on her features. “Is that what you think happened? You think Mom and Dad just ‘gave me everything’ and nothing was left for ‘poor neglected little Trell’?”

The two giantesses were practically nose to nose at this point, fury blazing in both their eyes as they squared off.

“The truth is, you couldn’t stand that they gave ANYTHING to me at all!” Brinn was forcing each hate filled word past gritted teeth. “Everything I had had to be yours as well, because you were a spoiled, rotten, greedy little child who would scream and rage and throw a fit whenever things didn’t go your way. I can see things haven’t changed a bit since we were kids, have they Trell?”

The redheaded Brinn took a step back, never breaking eye contact with the woman who was apparently her sister.

“You’re the same mean spirited little slag you always were.” She spat, venomously. “I take it back, Trell. I’m glad you left. It’s obvious we’re all better off without you.”

WHACK!

Zhan’s eyes widened in shock as the blonde giantess, Trell, suddenly lashed out at the other woman. She struck her with her open hand on the cheek, the sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed down the corridor.

Brinn reeled back, hand flying to her face and eyes widening in shock as if she couldn’t comprehend what the other woman had just done.

Trell wordlessly turned on her heel, stomping down the corridor and heading straight for where Zhan was crouched by the corner.

Zhan turned and sprinted back where he’d come, now certain that these were not the people who he wanted to find himself in their clutches.

“That’s right Trell, storm away!” Zhan could hear Brinn taunting from down the corridor, but that wasn’t his main concern.

He was more worried about the giant angry blonde woman who just turned the corner and was heading in his direction.

It didn’t take long for her to catch up, despite his best efforts. Her steps rattled the floor underneath him and he became overcome by animalistic fear. He collapsed into a ball on the floor and began screaming in terror as the world around him shook.

His eyes squeezed shut and he felt the displaced air of the massive boot landing near him, but it didn’t matter. He was reduced to blind panic and couldn’t stop himself even if he wanted to.

Suddenly, everything became still. He lay curled in a shuddering ball for almost a full minute before he’d regained control of his senses enough to sit up and look around.

Unfortunately, he found himself once again staring at a pair of black boots.

His frightened gaze traveled up the length of the footwear, past shapely legs and up until the met the calculating brown eyes of the blonde giantess.

Trell.

She looked down on him, an amused smirk playing on her lips. “Well, just when I really needed a toy…” She snickered, reaching down for him. “The universe provides.”

He felt her fingers wrap around his body and everything went dark.

*.*.*.*.*.*

“Alright darling, I think that’s enough for now.” Pryvani gently stroked Zhan’s hair. She could tell he was getting worked up and wasn’t sure it was good for his health.

“Oh no…” Zhan responded weakly. “Really, it’s okay. I can keep going.”

“Of course you can.” Pryvani smiled soothingly. “I’m the one who needs a break. You’re about to get to the horrible part, I know, and I need a chance to prepare myself for it.”

“Oh.” Zhan leaned back against the pillows behind his head, inwardly happy to have an excuse to stop. “Well… If you really think you need a break…”

“Of course I do.” Pryvani continued to stroke him softly until his eyes began to droop. “And you need your rest. You can tell me the rest after you’ve gotten some sleep.”

“Okay.” Zhan sighed.

Carefully, Pryvani rose from the chair she’d been sitting in and walked softly to the door of the medical lab.

There she saw Zara, leaning up against the door frame, Sophia perched on her shoulder.

“Interesting story the kid’s been telling you.” The dark haired Titaness remarked. “Wish I’d’ve known he was there that day, if anybody but her had picked him up his life would have been a whole lot nicer.”

“Yes.” Pryvani agreed. “He does seem to have had a run of bad luck.”

“So are you going to tell him the truth” Sophia wondered.

“I have to.” Pryvani sighed. “After all he’s been through; he deserves the truth at the very least.”

“When are you going to tell him?” Zara wondered.

“Not until he’s stronger.” Pryvani decided. “I don’t want it to kill him. And in his condition… it just might.”