Rifts (9 page)

"Well that was entertaining to watch." Athena smirked at me and pulled herself up onto the balance beam in her studio.

"Yeah, who says that physical therapy is over-rated?"

Had it really been an hour that we'd been fighting? It had felt like only minutes.

"I was glad to see you incorporating new moves. You kept up with him well. He's one of our best fighters. I should know, I taught him myself." She smiled before balancing herself on her hands.

"Sometimes I forget that you're brother and sister."

"Yeah, sometimes I do, too. But then, I feel the unholy need to whip his ass and I'm quickly reminded that I can because I'm older." Her feet kicked in a scissoring motion and she twisted herself around before vaulting to her feet.

"Part of me really wants to talk to him," I sat on the mats and stretched out sore limbs. I couldn’t look her in the eyes when I said it. Shame clouded my emotions. It wasn't something I was comfortable admitting.

"That is completely understandable. You two have an undeniable bond that you shouldn't ignore just because you feel angry and betrayed. I know Adonis. I truly believe it wasn't malice that caused him to keep you in the dark. Your world had already been thrown into chaos and he didn't want to upset it any further."

I nodded and laid back onto the mats before twisting my body into a bridge. Bringing my legs up, I kicked one over the other and completed a graceful finish.  Athena had been teaching me to fight, yes - but more so she was teaching me how to control each of the muscles in my body so that I'd be in tune with every aspect of my movement.

"Good, that was nicely controlled. Now I want you to walk with your hands across the mat. Make a complete turn every fourth step."

"Got it. What do you think I should do here?"

"I think you should stand on your hands and do a complete turn every fourth step."

"You know what I mean. What should I do about Drew?"

She sighed. "I think that you should stand on your—"

I interrupted her. "On my hands…blah blah blah. Got it."

"You won't be doing yourself any favors when you go up against Hope again if you're thinking about him and this situation. I've received reports of her sniffing around here - more at your house. She's not sure where you are, but she won't stop - not until she finds you and acts out whatever bizarre fantasy she has planned."

"I'm not going to lie…ooomph!" The breath exploded from my body as I twisted wrong and landed hard on my back. "Guh…I haven't been thinking about Hope much since I've been up here with Dylan. I know I should, but it's hard to feel threatened when I'm perfectly safe."

"Get back up and continue." She watched as I executed a perfect handstand and started back across the mat. "You
should
be thinking about Hope and you
should
be very afraid, Grace. She's got a hard on for you that won't stop until she's finished. Plus, she can get into Olympus. The only reason you're safer here than at home is that you have people watching you every minute of the day."

"Oh." The word was filled with all of the trepidation and dread that I could muster. Instead of curling up in a ball though, I continued across the mat – focusing on the weight bearing down on my hands.

"What is…uhn…the purpose of this exercise anyway?"

"Your legs aren't straight. Straighten them out. There was no purpose. It just amuses me to see you walking around on your hands."

The smile was evident in her voice, although I couldn't see her. Sighing, I lowered my legs and stood up. The blood rushing out of my head made me a little dizzy, but I had enough presence to turn around and scowl at her.

"Very funny."

"I thought so."

"So you think I should talk to him?"

"Yes, but first I want you to try out this new contraption I've built."

"Of course you do," I sighed and followed.

She walked across the studio to a metal exoskeleton and ran her hand down a pole lovingly. "Well, Heph built it for me. It should provide complete body resistance as you are going through your sword exercises. Come closer and stand with your back to it."

I hesitated and really looked at the skeletal structure. Athena had a wicked sense of humor and the thought of putting myself at her mercy left a small amount of doubt.

"C'mon don't be a chicken. It won't hurt you. We want to see if we can build your strength."

"Okay, but if I get stabbed, bent at unnatural angles or broken in any way, I'm telling on you to Zeus." Was that petulant? Maybe, but her brief scowl made my reluctance a bit more valid.

"Just get into the suit, you big baby."

Standing with my back to the skeleton, I stretched out my arms and legs to fit against the poles. "What is this made of?"

"I'm not sure. I just told Heph that I needed something that would provide resistance to the entire body and he modeled it after those Bow-thingies but with more flexible materials."

"Cool. Okay I'm ready, strap me in."

She ran her fingertips over the back rod. Metal cuffs circled my limbs evenly to disperse the tension and weight. To my credit, I didn't panic.

"Okay, now I want you to walk across the room while it adjusts to your balance and weight."

"This thing weighs a metric ton of shit."

"Yeah, it will lighten as you walk. Or it should, it's calibrated to my strength right now and it's obvious that I'm stronger than you."

"You think?" My legs stretched and groaned in response to the resistance in the bands. She was right though, the further I walked, the easier it became. By the time I'd reached the far wall, it simply felt like I was moving through water instead of mud.

"Okay, this isn't so bad. What's next?"

"Materialize your Katana - I want to do some tai chi with you in the suit. The movements should take you through the entire range of your motion."

The decorative sword appeared in my hands, and I began the flowing motions. Tai chi wasn't necessarily meant to be performed with a weapon, but it made Athena happy to see me practicing so I went with it. Both arms gripped the hilt, and I raised it in front of me before opening my chest and widening my arms to my sides. From there, my arms strained against the poles before executing the 'Painting a Rainbow' move.

"Good," she ran her hand down my arm and straightened my elbow a bit. "How does that feel?"

"I can definitely feel the resistance and it's not terribly painful. It's uncomfortable enough that I know I'm going to need a massage and a hot bath after, though."

"Perfect. That's what is needed. If we can develop your strength as well as your balance, Hope is less likely to knock you flat on your ass the next time you take a shot at her. Drew did it completely wrong. Sure, you can survive an encounter but maybe not with someone who has training and strength. I don't know what he was thinking. Oh wait...yeah I do…"

"What was he thinking?"

"Less talking and more breathing. Legs should be shoulder-width apart."

I rolled my eyes, adjusted my legs and continued twisting my body and the skeleton in a beautiful dance of motion.

"He was thinking that he wanted you to stay alive and he didn't have enough time to do it properly. He was also probably thinking about what you'd do to his balls when you found out the truth of your son's parentage."

I simply nodded in response.

"Honestly, I'm glad it came out now. We can properly train Dylan by knowing what to expect from his power source. The kid's going to be seriously full of juice, Grace. We need to be careful with this one. Not only does he get your parentage, but he's got Dad as a source too. His humanity is so small that I'm surprised that he didn't start zapping people as a baby."

"I'm grateful that he got the time to be normal. He's more likely to be humane in his decisions and use of his powers because of that."

"I can't disagree." A short laugh burst from her lips and she nodded toward the door of her studio. "So, my brother has been standing patiently at the door for the last thirty five minutes listening to us. I imagine that I can spare him the torture and let him in…unless you're not ready."

My shoulders slumped. "I have to do it as some point. May as well rip off the bandage."

She nodded and the locks binding the doors closed while she was in sessions clicked open. Cool air drifted into the room and brushed against my skin, drying the sweat. I didn't look my best. This was probably a good thing. I didn't need to worry about how I looked with Drew. Okay, let me rephrase that. I didn't
want to
worry about how I looked with Drew.

"You took your damned sweet time," he growled.

"My studio, my rules. When you're done, Grace, I believe that Father wants to talk to you about starting Rift training."

"Thanks ‘Thena. I appreciate the help."

"Always, my friend." With that, she disappeared silently through the door into the sounds of training and children's whooping.

I looked at Drew with a stony expression. "You have twenty minutes. Get to the point quickly."

"Can you teleport yet?"

"No, why?"

"Good." He grabbed me and the world blinked.

Son of a bitch!

If I made it out of this little adventure alive, I was going to petition Guinness to create a category for most kidnaps in a lifetime. I felt like I had a sure win coming. Annoyance replaced fear as I realized that the only reason people were getting away with this was that I couldn't figure out how to teleport.

Humans simply could not move their bodies through space and time from one point to another without a vehicle of some sort. It continued to escape me that I was nowhere close to being human. However - having been raised as such for the brunt of my life - there were some ideas about physics that I couldn't leave behind.

"Crap, Athena forgot to take this contraption off of me before she left." I scowled down at the bands circling my limbs. I wasn't sure where he'd taken us, but it was likely that we were still in Olympus. The room looked familiar but wasn’t a place I remembered being in.

"She probably did it so you wouldn't kick my ass again. Let's hear it for sisterly love."

"Heh."

"So I—"

"Have twenty minutes and then I'm storming out of this room as fast as I can with this suit on." I interrupted.

He grinned at me and it was hard to stay mad. The problem was that when he wasn't around to keep me grounded, something inside of me longed to have him near. I didn't want to think of those things - especially when he was in the room and could read my mind.

"Right then, I guess I should get right to it. I owe you an apology."