Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 16

"You... want us to go too?" Gallea said.

"No." Darian shook his head, and walked past Pegasus and into the corner of earth between buildings where Chimera slept. Where Medusa's body lay hidden beneath sheets. "You can stay."

Medusa looked at him, confused, wide-eyed, and he gave her a small shrug.

Her wide eyes turned to wince and grimace when he slowly pulled the blanket from her coiled body. Her head sat with severed neck to the grass, eyes closed, with snake hair limp and hanging. Her snake half was in a coil, and her human half lay upon the earth, arms by her side, neck exposed.

"Gods, that's... Darian, I'm... so sorry you... had to deal with this." She reached out for him with a hand, and her ghostly fingers slipped into his. "I... I... don't know what to do."

"I do."

He couldn't see the colors anymore, but he could still feel them. And as he knelt down beside her head and body, he could feel the cold, dead colors of her corpse. Her corpse. Just looking at her severed head had his insides wrenching again, and his fingers trembled as they took it into his hand. Lining up her head to her neck, drained of blood, pale and stiff, was making his fingers drain of blood as well until they were just as pale.

"How are you going to do this?" Otrera said. After patting the giant's chest a few times, she stood up and looked at him, flinching whenever her eyes crossed the corpse of Medusa.

He'd offer her a small smile, but it'd be pointless with the mask.

"I... I don't... I don't know if we should," Medusa said. "Um, what if... what if they..."

He stopped, put his hands on the grass around her body, and looked up at the beautiful ghost woman standing next to him.

"Medusa," he said. She looked down at him, and trembled. "You saw how the city treated you when you came back."

"But I look human right now... sort of! What if—"

"You look like something out of a nightmare right now," Otrera said. Said it with a chuckle too, just an edge of humor to try and dismantle the woman's fears, and Darian's no doubt. "After Sophia, and Rhea, and the sea creature, and everything you did during the battle? They'll be fine Medusa. More than fine. They'll want to thank you."

"T-thank me..." Her eyes drifted upward to the sky, and her hands fell to her sides. "I can't even imagine."

Darian could. He knew what it was like to have crowds of people cheering your name with adoration, to have people throwing gifts at your feet, to have money and women, banquets and festivals, parties galore in your name. And, he had to admit it, much as he struggled to find his place in those things, it had been enjoyable. To see the smiles of people he'd saved had, at some level, actually made him a little happy.

If it made him a little happy, Medusa would probably explode from too much joy.

He held out a hand for her, his fingers colored a hint of white from the light of his mask. "... I want you in my arms again, snakeskin included."

Pinna squeaked. Everyone turned to look at her, and she put her hands to cover her face.

"Sorry! Sorry." She smiled between her hands, hopping a little in place, face bright red and her whole body shaking. "It's just... that was..."

Gallea tried to look embarrassed for his wife, but in the end, he just shrugged and grinned.

Medusa did too. With a heavy, long sigh, she put out her hand for Darian's; they touched, the power of the mask coursing through his veins. Smile turned to frown, and she got down onto her knees next to him. And from so close, he could see the pain in her eyes as she stared at her corpse.

"Patrius did this to me. Athena did this to me." She reached out for her head, and eased her fingers through the flesh of her body. "I... Darian I..."

"If you say you're sorry, I'm going to punch you when you're alive again." He chuckled, but it came out flat, and wrong. "Are you ready?"

"... I am."

Thank the gods. "Then... lay down... inside yourself."

Medusa nodded, trembling, and crawled over to align herself with her corpse. One slow inch at a time, the ghost woman crawled onto, into the human half of her body, eyes wide and body shaking, but determined. She glanced Darian's way several times, each with a more worried glance than the last, before she had at last almost disappeared into the flesh of her corpse.

"Just... relax," he said.

"I'll try." She managed her own, flat, forced chuckle.

The double layering of her ghost inside her snake half was nauseating, and Darian gulped down the rising bile and fear in his gut. He had no idea if this would work.

But wearing Moros, he could feel things, feel life, feel death, feel all the things a person shouldn't feel. Feel them like the vibrations in a string, the sound of a flute, the rumble of an earthquake. He could silence, pluck, move, alter them as easy as moving a finger, like an extension of his being. The power of a Moirai. Disgusting.

For now, it'd be power that served him.

He put his hands over Medusa's chest, and plucked at the vibrations. One plucked at her ghost, at the cold and faded hums of her essence. The other plucked at her body, at the icy and muted vibrations within her empty veins. Like playing an instrument, finding which notes worked together, which notes warmed, which notes brought the heart to flutter and brought the soul to ache, he found the resonance of her, where the two halves were the same, and plucked.

Her body began to glow. Medusa's eyes, the ghost's eyes, drifted closed, and her wisps of hair, skin, and clothes faded. A white glow, the same as his eyes, mask or not, began to fill her, cover her, bury her from head to the toes of her soul, and then into the snake half of her. And as the white light poured over her, the world began to hum. Like the sound of a mother's song, but heard through the ears of a child with their cheek pressed to their mother's chest, a gentle hum that filled the air and body alike. It grew louder, but the tune remained the same, always warm, always gentle, always soft and inviting, always understanding and accepting.

Her song.

He smiled from the depths of shadow within the mask, and plucked at the strings louder, at the colors he could now see once again as her song overtook the dulled, dead sounds of her ghost, and her corpse. Until the warmth of the song overwhelmed it all, until he couldn't feel the vibrations of the grass, the insects, the wind, the city, or his friends.

A drop of life from Moros's reservoir, a drop of red, a drop of blue, a hint of green. Other colors too, a hint of purple, a pinch of yellow, and even a dash of gold. A rainbow of rainbows, of the tiny, intricate knot of life that he found in everything, in everyone. A thing Medusa now lacked. A thing she now had back.

As the knot of life sank into the center of the song, a vibrant glow and ping of tone within her song, he ceased his playing. He set his hands at his sides on the grass, and let the resonance fade, let the colors hide within the skin and blood and meat, let breathing and thinking of her body carry the vibrations into her core and into the knot. Into her, until they were her.

Medusa opened her eyes. Yellow snake eyes looked up at him from where her head rested on the grass, black slits vertical through the beautiful depths of yellow. Her breath came back, a gasp at first, and then slowed as she smiled up at him, as her snake hair started to rise and slither in the air with flicking, curious tongues. A thin line circled her neck, almost invisible, but enough he could see it with his regular eyes, a scar. It was a much more enjoyable sight than the cold, dead flesh of her neck cut from her body.

"Hey you," she said.

"Hey you," he said.

Slowly, Medusa started to rise. Her tiny claws grazed the ground as she got a feel for her body again, but it didn't take long for her to lift her human half off the ground entirely, and hover it using her snake half as her anchor.

"Alive again. I can feel it now, a... I don't know, ssssssssomething in my chesssss—damn it!" She slipped her fingers into her mouth and plucked at her long tongue. "I missssss my old tongue. I—"

She snapped out her hands, and caught the oncoming mass of hooves and fur. Pinna landed in Medusa's arms, giggling and crying at the same time.

"It worked! Oh my gods, everything was glowing, and I could hear a strange sound!" Pinna buried her face in Medusa's bosom, and squeezed her tight enough Darian could see the gorgon struggle to breathe. "You're warm, and alive, and... and..." The little satyr's giggles turned into sobbing wails, until Gallea came up to her to try and help remove her from Medusa. No good, she was thoroughly secured to the gorgon's waist.

Darian stood up, and smiled. He'd no idea Pinna was so attached to Medusa. He knew they were friends, but Pinna was clinging to Medusa like she'd disappear again if she let her go. It wasn't until Otrera joined in and took the crying satyr by the wrist that Pinna finally let go, and stood beside her husband. Gallea had tears in his eyes too, but he held his wife's hand, and yanked her back a few times whenever she tried to jump back to Medusa.

Medusa looked around, at herself, and raised her arms to stretch them out above her. "Back to the way things were."

"They weren't so bad, were they?" Otrera said.

Medusa blinked at her, and then returned the Amazon's smile. "No. No they weren't."

As Darian took a few steps back, she slithered up to him and grabbed his hand before he could get further away.

"You," she said. "You... you..." She shuddered as the telltale signs of crying started to hit her, but she breathed deep, forced them down, and took him by the shoulders. "That mask. It... you have the power to do whatever you want, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"To... to make any change you want with that mask. Anywhere."

"... yeah."

Fingertips ran along his jawline, and along the mask's edges. Heavy snake eyes pulled at him, and a tiny pout ripped the energy and intensity from his chest.

"What are you going to do?" she said. No need to add that he'd never be able to kiss her again, never be able to ever really feel like himself with her again. No need to say the ultimatum; she'd probably stay with him even if he did keep the mask on.

He sighed, and let his head drop to look at the ground. Only one thing to do, but now that it was in front of him, he could feel the temptation to not. He really could do anything he wanted to. He could march back down into the underworld if he wanted, free more souls, people he'd killed, and resurrect them in new bodies. He could kill the Moirai, the gods. He could take over kingdoms, rule them, rule Greece and beyond. He could kill anyone, he could do anything. He could protect Medusa.

No wonder Moros had managed to start the apocalypse in the past. The power in his fingers called to him, demanded to be used. He relished the memory of the Erinyes exploding into gore, of crushing Zeus into the ground, of holding the life of the Fates in his hands. The rush, the power, the wine of violence and the satisfaction of vengeance. It was sweet.

But, nowhere near as sweet as the serpent holding his chin.

He reached up to the mask, to the hooks that dug into his flesh, and unhooked them from his skull.

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~~Medusa~~

At last.

Her poor Darian. With the mask off, he lowered it and held it in both his palms, eyes downcast and his body still. Even as she held his shoulders, he didn't move. Her hands roamed down to his wrists and held them, but his body had gone limp, the mask dangling from only slightly hooking fingertips. She roamed her hands to his chest, felt his heart beat, and then up to his face to cup his jawline in her palms, and lift his chin.

He looked sad. She'd seen it in how he moved, in the steps he took, in the weight of his shoulders. Ever since she'd yelled at him, her little warrior, she noticed the change in his behavior, his movements, the distance. All the jokes they'd made about how they could have become dark, brooding people, and how silly it was, back on her island. And now Darian was doing all those things.

Enough was enough. She pulled him in while she leaned toward him, and kissed him.

"Thank you," she said. But before he could respond, she kissed him again. He tried to pull away, to get a word in maybe, or to try and brood and be depressed over his brutality in the underworld. She would have none of it! No, not after everything her love had done to save her. So she kissed him, and held onto him as she did.

Only once breathing became an issue did she let up, and press her forehead to Darian's.

"You... you're welcome," he said. "You're not—"

"No, I'm not." She shook her head and squeezed his cheeks together. "I'm happier than I ever thought I could be, and it's because of you."

"I... but—"

Nope, he still didn't get it. So she took his squished cheeks, pulled him in, and bathed him in more kisses. She got her hands behind him, held him to her as she kept their faces in sync while she also started to turn them around. Each rotation meant more of her snake body circled them, and soon her love was coiled, arms pinned at his sides. He could do nothing but stand there, helpless, as she hugged him, kissed him, and let her snake hair nuzzle into his neck and hair.

"I," she said, "am going to hold you closse, and love you with everything I have. No tricksss, no lies, jusst truth. I love you. And I love the way we are now. Sssssnake and all." The long tongue within came out, and she flicked it along his nose as she purposefully drew out her S's. Not that she needed to do it purposefully, but it was fun to emphasize the sound.

She wanted to emphasize her snake parts? The thought made her chuckle.

"I... love you too."

"Now tell me you want to be with me."

"... I want to be with you."

"Tell me you don't want to leave me."

"I'd never want to leave you."

"Tell me you don't mind the sssnake partss."

"I love your snake parts, you know I do."

She smiled down at her man, and tightened her coils just a bit, just enough to make it harder for him to breathe. "And I love everything about you. Everything." Course, she knew her stubborn lover wouldn't be able to accept that, despite their history, despite all the things that'd happened. So she set her chin on his shoulder, hugged him, and stayed there. "I like that you can be mean when I can't. I like that you're dangerousss. I like that you're capable of aggression that I'm not. I like... I like that your ssoft sside is my ssssecret."

"Not so secret anymore," Pinna said.

Medusa raised her head and blinked at her friend. The satyr grinned at her, shrugged, and motioned to the few dozen people that were all sticking their heads out from behind buildings.

"H-hey!" Otrera got up from Chimera's side and started waving her hands at the onlookers. "I swear to the gods, I am going to break some limbs. We can't have a little peace and privacy?" With a holler and a growl, the little woman marched down the street toward the city and fleeing people.

Pegasus stomped a hoof, or at least tried, but a pained whining noise hit him. Medusa uncoiled from her love, and slithered over to the beautiful horse while the onlookers scattered.

"I owe you a lot," she said. Pegasus gazed into her with his dark eyes, and she reached out to run a hand down the bandages that circled his neck. "I—"

Otrera returned, smile on her face, with Hieremias and Tritus behind her.

"She lives!" Hieremias said, jaw dropped and eyes ready to fall out of his skull. "And... Bellerophontes, you no longer wear the mask?"

Medusa looked back to her Darian, and down at the mask he held in his hand. Again her love fell into a brooding expression, heavy eyes on the mask. She'd have to pull him out of it again, but later. For now, she found herself staring at the crowd that stood behind Otrera and the two men. So much for chasing them off.

There were many people with torches, but also other things, things in their hands.

"Well," Tritus said as he stepped up to her, "you look well, Medusa the gorgon."

Medusa the gorgon. She smirked at the man, and raised herself a little higher. Ten feet high was enough for her to not only look down at the two men, make them feel a little small, but to also gaze out over the crowd and the things they each carried. So many people, and as she rose high, the crowd gasped at the sight of her.

But no one ran. No one screamed. No one cried out or panicked or demanded the head of Medusa. No one did anything but stare up at her, until Sophia walked up from the crowd.

"Sorry, I know Otrera told us to stay out of the way, but... you're alive! Alive... and..." Sophia stepped up to her, her child still on her hips, and embraced her snake half below the hip with one arm.

Medusa blinked, frozen, as she looked down at the small boy Elias. The toddler peeked out from his mom's neck, and reached out to touch her belly scales with his hand.

"Hi," he said.

Just when she thought she couldn't cry anymore, she started crying again. She lowered herself back down, eye level with Sophia, and hugged her proper. The tears only got worse when Elias played with her snake hair, laughing and lightly tugging them when they flicked their tiny tongues on his cheeks.

More of the crowd came up, guided by Otrera and Hieremias. Each of them a thing in hand, and as they came up to her and Sophia, each of them offered something.

A gold coin.

A stranger, someone she did not know, smiled at her, and placed it into her hand. And then another did, and another. She blinked at the growing fortune she carried, and the line of people that came with them. The poor and slaves, those without a coin to spare, gave blankets, and baskets, and jars, and clothes. At one point, one of the crowd offered a goat! Which she accepted of course, and licked her lips. The crowd laughed at that, and she laughed with them. They didn't know she'd eat it whole; probably for the best.

Otrera and Darian stood beside her too, and also helped collect the gifts. Otrera laughed, and started putting it all into the baskets they received, until a pile of it was growing next to her unconscious lover.

"Thank you! Thank you... for the gifts." She stared at their pile of goods, unsure of what to do with it all, unsure of how to feel about it all. Gifts? A pile of gifts! The first time in a century anyone had ever given her a gift, and she had a pile of them.

"Where will you go?" Tritus said. "When you decide to leave?"

"Trying to get rid of us?" Otrera said, on a knee and checking the bandages of Chimera.

"No! No, you... you've more than earned a place here."

"Indeed." Hieremias nodded. "Stay as long as you want! We'll find a place for you to stay, and—"

"We'll stay here." Medusa nodded, and slithered back a ways to lower herself down near Chimera. "We can't move Chimera yet. And... and I don't want to leave him."

Otrera sighed, looked up at her, and looked down before she started to tremble. But the Amazon shrugged off what must have been building sobs, took a breath, and sat down beside Chimera with her back against his side. He was big enough, after all.

"You'd... rather sleep out here in the open?" Sophia said. "So close to the forest?"

"We're used to it." Darian stood by Pegasus, and combed his friend's mane with his fingers. "And I felt no vibra—danger, when I wore the mask. The area is safe."

Medusa smirked a little. He'd spoken of vibrations on the return trip. And she saw the colors of the souls in the underworld. How little any of them actually understood life or the afterlife, except Darian, and he probably wanted to avoid bringing it up.

Hieremias nodded, and ushered the few remaining of the crowd back into the city. "Will we hear the tale of how Bellerophontes freed Medusa's soul from the clutches of the underworld?"