I found Kara sitting on a yoga mat in the garden. It was one of the more remote sections and once I awkwardly managed to get on the ground beside her, she peeked open one eye and smiled.

"You're back."

"Miss me?"

"Always." She breathed in as she raised her hands up above her head and slowly exhaled.

I set up cushions and got comfortable beside her, tempted to nap in the shade and as my eyes closed, a slightly sweaty Kara was suddenly joining me. She squeezed into the space beside my pillow fort, adding a couple of her own.

"Alright, speak."

"Cain proposed and I fucked it all up." I confessed

"I meant about Gaia but, we can start with that." She stopped herself from taking a drink of water to look at me. "Like, marry me, proposed?"

"Somehow, he still managed to put this on my finger. Dad gave it to him. It's a family heirloom and so pretty." I held up my hand which was promptly snatched to be held in front of her face. "It was the worst. Me. I was the worst. I just froze and first responded with no but I meant like no, no way this was happening and then we almost got into a fight about his next girlfriend."

Kara dropped my hand and fell backwards laughing. Tears ran down her cheeks as she held her stomach and throwing the nearest pillow at her only made her laugh harder.

"Not funny." I snapped.

"It's a bit funny and clearly has a happy ending. Congratulations!" She took a few deep breaths and managed to sit back up before shaking her head. "Next girlfriend?"

"Don't ask."

"Noted. You don't seem happy though, I mean, Blueberry aside, you didn't have to say yes? Nothing about you two is exactly normal and I spent enough time in your realm to know how marriage is and the expectations along with it. I also hate to sound repetitive or negative but you are young. Penny and Colton, despite who they know, are still Hunters and their life will move at a different pace to yours."

"It's nothing like that. I just never saw it happening. It would be something we did at some point probably to get Mum off our backs and maybe my mortality is showing because I do like the idea of it all. We're happy in our relationship and will focus on us later, when we can so when it happened, I just froze. We've got so much going on, good things happening terrify me. Not only that, what if he was doing it to keep my parents happy, thinking he had to? Blueberry is intense enough, nevermind formalising til death do you part."

"You deserve to focus on yourself and each other despite the crazy. I'm glad he did it. Besides, mortals have also normalised divorce, so I doubt your immortal life will be greatly impacted by a piece of paper you signed before you were even thirty years old, young and in love."

"Helpful. Considering we went from friends, to a year apart, fighting each other to taking it slow before we're suddenly twin flames, expecting a baby while facing primordial-"

"Twin flame? Back it up a bit Elise."

I didn't just tell Kara about Gaia and the Nieve ultimatum. I told her about everything, not skipping over anything now and by the time I was done, the afternoon sky was getting dark.

"Wow. Well, a trip to Tartarus, dealing with Gaia, everything, explains the brain freeze. He gets it, Elise and that's why he did it. And why you said yes." Kara looked around, possibly for the quickest escape route to get as far away from me as possible yet I found myself doing the same thing. Something felt - wrong. "I miss the days when our biggest issue was what to watch for movie sundays while we felt like dying after too much mead the night before. All of that aside, what do you need? What do we do next? We can send Art's huntresses out to locate Nieve. For all her flaws, they know how to track down practically anything. I am worried about Hecate though, something I never thought I'd say. Athena should be back tomorrow hopefully with the Valkyrie, possibly with Ares if he survived the trip and or the Valkyrie."

"He'll be back. I'd put money on it and as good as they are, Cain was going to get Hades to use his resources to track Nieve, less chance of anyone being physically caught." Kara nodded. "I'm starting to worry about Hecate too. I thought she'd have made an appearance by now. More than a tarot card."

"And Gaia isn't open to discussing it?"

"Hecate seems to be a sore spot but Gaia isn't exactly giving me warm and fuzzies about any of this, not just Hecate. I dont think it's on purpose or done with malice and on some level she does have good intentions. She's just old and lacking the right set of communication skills?"

"That's putting it nicely." Kara mocked. "Probably used to getting her own way, and you're not asking her how high when she tells you to jump so like all of our elders, has a tantrum when they don't get what they want. Can you imagine how bad it was during the Titan Wars?"

I'd rather not.

"Maybe if she asked nicely instead of cryptic messages and trips to hell I'd be more motivated to start waving a Team Gaia flag? Maybe even get a t-shirt with her face on."

Kara laughed. "I doubt that would make a difference. You've always had an issue with authority."

"True and it's not like I have anything better to do with my time." I mumble dryly.

It was then Deimos appeared, looking equally relieved and also worried. In a blink, Kara was up and I'd just got to my feet when Apollo arrived right behind him. I had that same feeling of wrongness return and knew I should have paid more attention.

"What happened?" I demanded.

"There's been an attack." Deimos stayed cryptic and looking at him for more was pointless.

"Maybe come back to the main hall, let these two deal with it?" Apollo suggested. "It's safer there should-"

"No. When we were gone the Furies set up an attack that was really nothing. It just set off alarms." I already knew it wasn't the same, but with Hecate's message fresh in my mind I clung to the final moments of normal. "Maybe they know we're back and are doing the same thing?"

"It's not like that." Apollo grabbed my arm. "Come with me. Please. You don't need-"

"You've been there?" Kara instantly looked pissed off.

"Artemis took Zane to check it out when we were alerted to the disturbance." Deimos kept it brief. "We came to you as soon as they returned."

"Deimos?" I looked at him needing to hear what I already knew as my stomach flipped.

"They were too late. There is nothing left for you to see."

"What does that even mean? Take me there, now." Kara ordered. "I should have been told before they even left!"

I didn't wait for a response, closing my eyes I felt the pull to exactly where they were talking about and Deimos was right. There was nothing here to see because whatever had been here was gone. My chest tightened at the thought of this happening at the hospital in my world, but the fact it had happened here didn't make it any easier. Dropping to my knees I just stared at the field of red that surrounded me now.

It was too much, too heavy.

Death hung in the air with the smoke that was still rising up from building remnants. The sky was burning amber as the sunset became lost to the haze. Hecate had warned us and I just stepped into the vision.

"Elise?" Apollo called, falling down beside me. "Are you hurt, what's wrong?"

What a stupid fucking question.

"What was this place?" Apparently I could ask them too.

I knew where we were. I did the second I arrived which made it hurt so much more because the last time I'd been here the Prophet had cemented the Empress as some kind of saint. The new Queen was locked into place and change was coming. Closing my eyes I saw Hecate's first card; fertile fields, the same ones she had made flourish and bloom were the ones now bare.

Lifeless.

"A village in the far south." I looked at the ash covered dirt and saw something sticking out that resembled a bone and quickly looked to Apollo. "There's nothing left here. No survivors."

"How did this happen?" Anger replaced the shock as Kara and Deimos joined us. "How didn't we know? We put things in place to make sure these regions would be protected. They weren't to be forgotten and ignored anymore!"

I spun around, looking for something or someone that would give me answers and instead froze as down the road there was one part that had made it through the absolute destruction of this town.

"Fuckers." I pushed past Apollo, skipping the walk to stand in front of the shiny, new statue positioned in what would have been the centre of the village.

The Empress stood poised and alert, her sword raised yet the blade was broken with melted streaks running down her hand and arm. The flowers at the base were wilted and dead, ash and debris destroying the garden that had been planted.

I closed my eyes, releasing my power as far and wide as it needed to go, beyond the village and lands that were shadowed in the distance - where the forests still stood and so many of the people from nearby areas were moving through to find out what had happened. I could practically see what they saw, their fears my own as the blast shook windows, spooked horses and made the earth tremble. Boats in the ocean felt the tides change, and the wind in their sails were filled with the screams not heard as the blast would have rivalled a nuclear bomb. The hit had been direct and from above. Birds were vanquished mid flight, there was no warning, no time to prepare or escape yet around the very edges of the doomed village Apollo was wrong.

There were survivors. Not many, and I felt their pain, their wishes for death. They shouldn't exist, only they did. I brought them to us, one by one as the ground turned green beneath my feet and they were laid to rest as best I could manage.

"Heal them." I didn't look at Apollo as I felt him by my side.

Deimos joined us, tubs of water appearing as the wounds would need a miracle I wasn't sure Apollo was capable of. I left them to it, unable to break my focus as pressure weighed down onto my powers. The people coming would want answers, and need promises I - none of us could make right now. That wasn't where the problem was coming from though, they were more like anchors of confusion and fear and not what I was sensing as the reason for this sensation.

There was a stinging pinch of an attack on my powers. For some reason I imagined a million tiny ants, biting and pushing against the net I had spread out. I was being attacked, forced back and away by power that was trying to stay hidden, but unable to resist the opportunity I presented.

I could be the bait.

I could also regain control of the land, and the prickling sensation of another's power against my own earning my attention now I had revealed it. That was what was tainting this place, beyond the destruction and death. Seeds left to fester and grow, sent with the blast with the intent to do more than what had already been done.

This power didn't belong here.

I reached deeper down, grounding myself as Hades had once showed me but on a level I don't think he'd ever want me to reach. I sought out Gaia from the depths, the faintest pulse of her existence was all that remained. If I hadn't seen her so recently, made a memory of what her presence and power felt like I would have missed it. She created this world and she would again. My power snaked around it, using hers as a guide to recreate what had been to extinguish each fragment of foreign power that had no place here.

Uranus did not get to claim this land as his.

"What is happening?" Kara whispered, and opening my eyes, the earth began to tremble. "Elise? Is this you?"

The ground rose up, bulges of dirt shaking loose what remained as new, green life emerged with each second that went by. Fields once nurtured and tended to by farmers bloomed back to life as they would have before the people came to clear the trees and mark out the roads. Trees emerged as if by magic, marking out the houses and shops that should surround us. We couldn't bring back the people, but we'd give them a place of peace to rest until one day, perhaps others would come and create a new beginning in a world where these gods didn't place so little value on their lives.

I watched the statue melt, collapsing into itself until there was little more than a pool of smouldering metal at our feet. The ghosts of this town would haunt me until the day I died, and they did not need a reminder of how badly I, we, had all failed them today. I turned away as a new statue reappeared, one that all would admire and adore because she was the Mother of All. To get through this, the people would need something beyond us to believe in.

"We're not enough, not anymore." I look at Kara.

"Is that Gaia?" Kara looks pale, whispering her name as if it was a curse.

Maybe it was.

Artemis and Zane joined us, and while Artemis ran to help Apollo and Deimos Zane came to stand with me and Kara. He said nothing, he didn't need to. His eyes were red-rimmed, and haunted, his face an unreadable mask as I imagined his brain working to process and make sense of what happened here. This had just introduced him to what it meant to be a part of this world. We weren't messing around with rebellious vampires or a werewolf on steroids anymore. There was no more training and from here on in, this would be the reality.

War.

I didn't doubt him, or his abilities but I also didn't have time to protect him from the hard truths coming. I already tried to prepare him. I just hoped that would be enough for him to still be here once it was over.

"These regions are desperate, scared and now they will be hurting. It's always been bad here, now it's going to be worse. Uranus is all over this. He'll be back, and ready to use it to turn our people against us. I don't have to even try to think too hard about it, because I can see the civil war that's next. We will be distracted and divided and-"

"We will not burn as one." Kara added, lowering her voice as she came closer.. "You've just made it very clear the side you're taking in all of this."

"He didn't give me a choice. We have hours if not less to take control of this situation. We are all hurting by what happened here today, and these acts of senseless violence and disregard for life will not be tolerated. Gaia herself has come to mourn and has vowed her allegiance to us in order to see it end." I decide.

Zane went to speak, coughing instead before trying again. "Are you expecting her to?"

"No, but she can't ignore it. Not now and if she truly does want Uranus stopped, she will see that it happens. I can only do so much and her hands can't stay completely clean. Plus she owes me one for Tartarus."

"Can you say a First owes you anything? You might just piss her off." Kara's frown deepened.

"Yes. I can and good. It might make her start jumping herself for once." I decide. Gaia wanted my help, well this is how she could seal the deal. "Up the presence of the soldiers. They are useless if there ever was another attack like this but the people need to see us helping. Anyone that can, needs to go out and drop off supplies how you did with the flooding. We need to be seen everywhere. Increase defences, create food supplies and remove any gaps they could use to get in. Now is the time we give them the miracles they have come to expect from their God Killer Queen and the Empress. Give them the Gods, the Powers, they want and deserve, ones that care and protect them not sit back in a palace while the world burns only to throw a bone to the masses when you can't ignore their cries."

Cain wanted to make changes and met resistance on both sides. The damage Zeus had done would take more than he had been able to give, beyond Zeus, Cronus and the Titans and beyond would see it would take generations to take their new Queen seriously no matter what she did to prove herself to them. This attack had the power to destroy everything or unite in a way that hadn't been possible. The God Killer had given them hope, but they'd been burned too many times to trust in her how they did as their Queen.

No one said anything. Zane looked like he might faint, and forcibly swallowed, mumbling something before he went over to the trio who were working hard to help the survivors.

"Uranus wants to be seen as the saviour this time. It's similar to how Hecate set you up to be the Empress, how she was able to get the people to accept me as their new Queen. After Dionysus, we came through those villages looking for the Furies and-" She paled, spinning around as I saw the second she really did understand everything I was saying. "This was that girl, Yasmins village. Oh Elise."

She held up her hand to touch me, yet hesitated. A new level of pain flashing across her face as she instead hugged herself. We looked around with a different view on things and as I pulled back my powers, the regeneration didn't cease. The switch had been flicked, and old knowledge came back to life to recreate what had nearly been lost.

Deimos, Artemis and Apollo join us with Zane walking past as he takes in the view from the peak of the hill. No one said anything straight away, and I braced myself for bad news.

"I couldn't do anything. They were too far gone." Apollo says softly.

Artemis puts an arm over his shoulders and while at first I think he's going to push her away, he relaxes.

"You tried." She assures him.

"I removed the last of their fears and let them leave peacefully." Deimos adds. "She's right. You tried."

"People are coming from the East. They need answers." We were all hurting and we could process that later. "Kara?"

"I'll handle it. Artemis, please come with me. Deimos, take Zane and put out the new orders. I want our armies spread out everywhere. The Cities that hold their own will need supplies. Act as if the worst has - act as if we are already under attack and this is the response. I need defences up, support offered, supplies shared. Use whomever you can. If any Power able to help refuses, put them in the dungeon and I will see to them later. They are not above helping the Others. We are all in this together." Kara gave the order, and as she looked at me I nodded.

"As you wish." Deimos and Zane vanished.

"Threatening to put them in the dungeon won't help." Artemis frowned.

"It will give them time to think." Kara sighed, her yoga wear altering to something more regal. "As I said, we are all in this together and there is no room for ego and no life is to be valued over another."

"You might push them to seek the Furies out. Swap sides." She argued, leaving Apollo to stand in front of Kara.

"That's why they'll be in the dungeons." Kara smiled but it wasn't friendly. "Or if that's where they are able to position themselves, they will fall with them. We have the support of Gaia behind us. Tartarus himself released our Empress to stand in their way. Good luck to any who dare stand against us."

Apollo looked at me, his surprise taking over the look of defeat he'd been wearing and Artemis took a step back towards him.

"We are wasting time. Are you with me, Artemis?"

She wisely nodded, dipping her head slightly. "Of course. I was just making an observation."

"Noted."

"Apollo should go too." I decide.

"Elise, you need-" Apollo started.

"I know exactly what I need, Apollo. I need you two to go with Kara as a united team. I'm not stupid or oblivious to how things are in the cities. You two are well known, respected and would win more than one popularity contest if it ever came to it. Stand with Kara and make them believe in whatever she says." I hesitated, but then he looked like he wanted to lecture me anyway and I didn't want to hear it. "And you will be expected to stand by the God Killer. Your absence could make them question what they are being told, more so if Artemis doesn't look like she believes in it either."

"Why am I being made out to sound like the problem here?"

"Not now Art." Apollo answered dryly. "Bun- the Empress is right. We understand what has to be done."

"Good." I started to walk away.

"What are you going to be doing?" Kara called.

"I'm going for a walk."

"Come on, show time." Artemis sighed.

"And we're going to let her just walk off alone after what happened here?" Apollo argued.

"She isn't what you think, Apollo. We need to move, now." Kara ordered and a second later I felt their presence leave.

I idly twisted the ring around on my finger, following the naturally forming path as the silence around me was growing louder. The wind made the new leaves whisper, rumours swirling around above over how this all came to be. I walked until my legs ached and the darkness made it dangerous to keep going as there was no moonlight to help me now.

My torch soon highlighted a rock to sit on, and as soon as I did Nieve appeared.

"Not who I was expecting to see, but I'll take it." I sighed, my sword poised in seconds as the space around us lit up as if we found the light switch.

"It's not too late, girl. This is only the beginning."

"Of the end." In seconds my power had her contained; pinned against a tree yet any further pressure I applied was restricted. She pushed back and for a second there we felt evenly matched. "You chose the wrong side."

My words were lost to her scream as every inch of strength I had went into lodging my sword through her heart. I wasn't playing, no more games. I wanted and needed her dead yet as the blade found the hard bark of the tree behind her, her screams turned to laughter. Golden light poured from her in place of blood and in the blink of an eye, she was free and standing beside only, there were three of her. No six.

"Stupid girl. I am more than this physical shell. My essence was pulled from the Great Mother, united as one. You think you are special, but you are nothing." She spat.

Bracing myself, the attack that followed failed to surprise. My defence was solid against her attack and this time she screamed in rage. I felt the earth vibrate beneath my feet, her attack coming in at all angles but I wasn't alone and as ancient power that now offered her protection felt the flicker of the similar yet different one that surrounded me it all stopped.

Gaia was right. They would not go against each other - not directly and this sudden change seemed to be one Nieve hadn't expected.

I moved quicker than the former Crone could process, and clearly her abilities were not enhanced as I would have thought as she should have seen it coming. This time I stabbed her in the stomach, her instincts kicking in quicker than I would have liked and it made me miss my mark. I felt the humm of joy from my blade as it was rewarded with a taste of blood, the sight of the red as I withdrew it only making me more determined instead of eager to throw up. I used my powers to slam her onto the ground, not giving her time to plan her next move yet as her eyes glazed over, my attack was pointless as the next three moves were keenly blocked.

Someone got their visions back.

Adrenaline had my heart racing, my aches from earlier gone and my focus solely on the old woman who now seemed intent to toy with me as each move was apparently predictable and foreseen.

I wasn't going to win this way.

So I stopped.

"How's the hand?" I asked, pointing my sword towards her.

"You little bitch." She snarled.

"Big words. Clearly becoming super powerful is doing wonders for your vocabulary." I took a risk and sat down on my rock. "And stamina. The Nieve I knew needed Adala around to babysit her. Shame she's dead and not here to make sure you're getting enough sleep, eating right, or not doing anything insane. Is that why you're here and not anyone else? I mean, I tried to keep it as easy as possible for you to all single me out."

"I saw you. Your youthful arrogance and alliance with Gaia makes you think you are untouchable."

"Pot kettle black only, old arrogance cause we both know you're on the wrong side of the hill to be considered young." I shrug. "You're so old, even the Maidens power is confused at how it still ended up in you."

"They think you can be controlled, brought into their fold and made to bend into what they want you to be. I know the truth, and to save them the trouble, I will simply remove the only obstacle in his way to succeed and bring about a new era of -"

"You need to work on cutting down your speeches and making new ones. I nearly fell asleep," I fake yawned, yet I felt my body shake with anticipation on my next move. "Oh sorry, you weren't done yet? I've just heard it so many times."

Nieve - powers, age and alliances aside, was still Nieve.

She was so angry, spit and foam actually pooled at the edges of her mouth as she snarled at me. Her eyes were wide and filled with her insanity that clearly had not improved with time and despite the power I knew she held, now Uranus had pulled back, much how Gaia had done for me, I felt hers dimming while expanding so much I wasn't sure if she would explode or deflate into nothingness.

We wanted an update on where she was at with things and I got it. She had no control or ability to control her powers and any part of her mind she still had wasn't going to be intact for long. Every part of me wanted to be there when she snapped, and honestly, I wanted to be the one to do it.

"I forgot to tell you, or do I need to since you're super powerful now?" I held up my hand. "I got engaged. To Cain. What do you think about that, Nieve? Are you going to send us a bottle of champagne to celebrate with later?"

I could see the concentration on her face, the way she blinked and her powers constantly reached out to me for a clue or a sign on what I was doing or what I was about to do. I had no intention of attacking her, imagining us just sitting here, chatting, like old pals. Gaps were left in my shield on purpose, guiding her straight to those thoughts and plans, opening her up the possibility I'd keep her for days. I thought about Blueberry, birthing him in this empty forest and setting up a new home in the trees. Some parts may have got mixed up with movies I could remember which got a little messy when my eras got confused and I drifted towards Downton Abbey.

Doing this also gave me a link to her via her powers. I didn't need to think about what was happening, and happily chatted away about a wedding in the spring while asking her for some guidance as I didn't want it to be too hot or too cold.

"Stop your rambling, girl. All you are doing is delaying time. That creature will not be coming to save you, it'll be a miracle entirely if he even survives what is waiting for him." She snarled yet I felt the rage subsiding just as her confidence increased.

Maybe because I was so close to her, I could see her trapping me on the rock. I saw golden chains on my wrists and ankles before being tossed into the nearby river.

I stood up, refusing to bite at anything she was thinking or saying. "I don't need to be saved. Goodbye Nieve."

The second she realised what was happening, the ground shook and her eyes glowed white. IT didn't matter as I crushed her chest, tightening my powers like a rope. Her wound bubbled, the red freshness of her blood darkening to black as the thin, linen kaftan she had on ripped further as she clawed at herself as if she could get rid of me like that. More of the dark liquid leaked from her nose and ears, thankfully not bothering me as I merely stood there and watched.

I wanted her to suffer.

I wanted revenge for the people who had filled the forest behind me this morning, happy and unaware of how their fate would change but sunset.

There was no what will be, bullshit for her as there had been for Adala and Porcia.

Let the powers of Fate be free to choose new vessels. Let me gain new allies. Let this be over.

Just as her movements stop, and I raise my sword to ensure she is truly dead with no chance of returning, Cain grabs me from behind and pulls me away, putting distance between me and my kill. I push free, and spin around furious to find him looking nearly as bad as Nieve does. The second of distraction is all it takes, and it's his presence that surrounds me instead of the feeling of relief I was expecting with Nieves' death.

"What the hell are you doing?" I scream, feeling the hold I had on her disappearing as Hades replaces it. "She dead, or seconds away from it. Do not take this from me!"

Beyond Hades I see four figures emerge and we freeze. My heart is pounding in my ears as my vision darkens. No, the light we had has been extinguished and reaching out, the trees are filled with a million tiny stars overhead. Nieve hasn't moved, I doubt she was even conscious. Each breath could be her last one if it wasn't already. I couldn't tell because Hades and Cain were keeping me from finding out.

"Go. Just go." Hades orders, snapping into action. From the darkness his creatures emerge, born of shadow and decay they aren't going to stop what is coming. He's focused on the wrong target. "Cain! Get her out of here."

"I am not going anywhere!" I push them both back and away, meeting Uranus' gaze and ignoring Hades and Cain's shouts of protest. "You're just in time to say goodbye."

I am not losing this opportunity.

Nieve has to die.