I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to say or do in a situation where clearly a lot of crap had gone down that I'd missed. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened: Zorya Nightbringer had been reborn as Agata and Bloodstorm's daughter. It was just as the gods had claimed would happen. I tried to imagine what that would have been like and despite the fact I was probably the only human being on two planets who could relate, I couldn't. There was a difference to my finding out I had a reincarnated goddess as a daughter somewhere before being informed at the last minute my child was going to be the host for an alien entity.

  The ethical and emotional fallout for that was something I'd owed Agata and Bloodstorm a face-to-face confrontation with. Maybe I'd even owed them a solution. I mean, yeah, I had no idea what the hell I could have done under the circumstances. I knew, intellectually, that there'd been like maybe five or ten minutes between what I'd found out their child was going to be possessed (merged with?) that someone wasn't trying to kill me. Maybe even that. But guilt wasn't rational.

  "So, hey," I said, looking at everyone. "What's up?'

  Smooth, Aaron.

  Real, Smooth.

  "Aaron, I love you," Bloodstorm said, walking up to me and putting his hand on my shoulder. "But I am going to hit you now."

  Given he had the strength of Joe Fixit AKA Gray Hulk, I wasn't sure if that would kill me or not. Ranger I might be but I was still a Squishy Wizard that just so happened to not have an utterly shitty Constitution score.

  "You are not hitting Aaron!" Agata said.

  "Thank you," I said, breathing a sigh of relief.

  "Because I want to hit him!" Agata said. "With a fireball."

  Okay, so they were a little mad.

  "No one is hurting Aaron," Ania said. "That's including me and I have every right to hurt him."

  "Yes, you do," I said.

  "I was mind controlled," Jon said, raising his hands in surrender. "Aaron, however, was completely in his right mind when he betrayed you."

  Rachel dope slapped him.

  "Ow!" Jon said. "Hey, I waited a full three seconds before throwing him under the bus! That's long for me."

  Rachel facepalmed.

  "I do want to know, though," Ania said, taking a deep breath. "Why?"

  I paused. "I figured pointing out the Witch Queen at Veles would be better than her being pointed at us. So many people have given their lives to try to destroy the Dark Lord, I was wondering if maybe, just maybe, we could avoid sacrificing any more of the people we care about to bring him down."

  "That plan failed miserably," Jon said. "FYI, your dad is dead, Kragen. Your mom is dead, Rose sisters. Oh, and if anyone cares other than Aaron, so is Alek."

  I turned to look at Jon. "Are you just biologically programmed to be an asshole or was it a learned skill?"

  Jon seemed to take the question seriously. "I honestly don't know."

  "Poor Alek," Joan said, frowning. "He was someone who could have been a great man but kind of sucked at it."

  "I liked him," Sparky said. "We had similar names! Alek and Alexi!"

  No one else was thinking of Alek, though.

  "So, Ol Maelor is dead, huh?" Bloodstorm said, frowning. "He deserves a king's funeral. I don't think they give those here on Earth, though."

  "Not in America, at least," I muttered. "That might change under the new regime, though. Ania, Agata, I'm sorry, I tried to talk to Maria--"

  "Our mother was lost a long time ago, Aaron," Ania said. "I read those shitty books by Larry C.C. Weis. I know what happened to and that she spent the past twenty years focusing more on her vengeance than she did on recovering her children. We could have been a family again, but she refused to believe it was possible."

  "Her family died at Blackwoods Bog," Agata said. "She was a vampire, you were an elvish terrorist, and I was pretending to be the Mad Queen's supporter. The people she left behind were not the people we became."

  :"Which goes to show she was a shitty mother," Ania said. "What sort of woman abandons those children she gave birth just because they don't live up to the standards she wanted?"

  "A typical one," Rachel said, speaking more as a goddess than a person. "Children are often abandoned in the woods to die when times are lean and far too many are cast out for arbitrary distinctions. The fact you did not abandon my sister is something that I hold you in great esteem for."

  She was referring to Nightbringer. "So, yeah, how about that?"

  "You tried to warn us," Bloodstorm said. "I appreciate that. Which is why I was only going to punch you and not drive an ax in your head."

  "Uh, thanks," I said, not sure I was actually grateful or not. "The gods did you dirty."

  Yeah, I didn't have much to say. There wasn't really a greeting card for 'sorry your child was possessed by an evil goddess before being artificially aged to adulthood. Aside from Xena or the X-men, I didn't even know whether there was an equivalent.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "The gods were more merciful than they might have been," Agata said, surprising me. "When Nyx was born, we were transported by Perun's messengers to the World Above. We got to raise her for the next twenty years of her life while no time passed in the real world."

  I blinked. "Huh."

  That was a lot nicer than I expected of the gods.

  "You look good for a woman in her fifties!" Jon said, pointing at her. "Got that Demi Moore thing going."

  Rachel swatted him on the shoulder.

  "I'm getting a lot of bruising here," Jon said, rubbing his shoulder. "Hit Aaron, he's the one who tortures himself over all this. Seriously, dude, you're going from Ranger Spider-Man to Ranger Daredevil."

  "I'm not sure we aged there," Agata said, as if spending a couple of decades in Polish Olympus wasn't the weirdest thing ever. "However, I managed to learn many things about the true nature magic as well as the world. Things that will be beneficial in our fight against Veles. Bloodstorm as well."

  "Speak for yourself," Bloodstorm said, frowning. "I was going crazy in that place full of air conditioning, instant meals, alcohol that doesn't get you drunk, and everyone preferring talking to fighting. It was like being trapped in fucking Star Trek, only it was full of absurdly hot angels."

  "Oh, you poor thing," I said, sarcastically. "That sounds terrible."

  "I know, right!" Bloodstorm proclaimed.

  "Well received a blessing while you were...doing your thing," Ania said, still obviously pissed at me but trying to be reasonable. It was a bit like a shark trying to be nice to minnows. Ania was not wired to be reasonable. Proof positive that she loved me, I had to admit.

  "Blessings?" I asked, still trying to catch up.

  "Of the gods," Ania said, as if it left an unpleasant taste in her mouth. "My biological mother...well, whatever the hell you want to call her, Mokosh, awakened some more of the demigod inside me. Joan received a power up from Mythras--"

  "Please don't call it a power up," Joan said.

  Ania ignored her. "Sparky also got a gift from Svarog as the God of Fire."

  "I burn things good!" Sparky said. "Even better than before."

  "Glad to hear it, kid," Jon said. "So, by going off to join Team Evil, we got screwed out of a bonus. Of course. I swear, these games never treat the antihero paths with any dignity. Be a Paragon and Shepard gets showered with cool shit. Play Renegade Shepard and the galaxy is fucked. That's from Mass Effect, ya'know."

  "I know, Jon," I said, sarcastically. "So, everyone got a boost, huh?"

  "Except you three, yeah," Ania said. "Hopefully, that makes you think next time you go off to do something stupid."

  "Probably not," I said, admitting the truth. "I am still average WIS at best."

  Ania smirked.

  My bracelet pinged, right on time.

  ANIA ROSE HAS REJOINED THE PARTY

  AGATA ROSE HAS REJOINED THE PARTY

  KRAGEN BLOODSTORM HAS REJOINED THE PARTY

  POPE JOAN HAS REJOINED THE PARTY

  ALEXI "SPARKY" POPPY HAS REJOINED THE PARTY

  NYX BLOODROSE HAS JOINED THE PARTY

  AGATA ROSE IS NOW A CELESTIAL ARCHPRIESTESS [Chosen of Mokosh]

  ANIA ROSE IS NOW A HEAVENLY ASSASSIN [Demigoddess]

  KRAGEN BLOODSTORM IS NOW A PALADIN OF WRATH

  POPE JOAN IS NOW A SAINT OF MYTHRAS [Chosen of Mythras]

  ALEXI "SPARKY" POPPY IS NOW A CELESTIAL ARCHDRAGON

  "Aaron's choice of actions, ones I endorsed, did have some positive effects," Rachel said, interjecting. "It was not a complete failure."

  "Really? Because it looked like a complete failure to me," Jon said. "I also continue to blame Aaron for all of this despite it being Susanos' plan and my taking part in it. Mind control is the absolute best get out of jail card there is. Nevermind that I probably would have done the exact same thing without it."

  "Veles is severely injured," Rachel said, as if listening to some unseen sound. "You can hear his screams in the aether. The fact he's had to destroy a substantial chunk of his forces here on the Earth in order to survive is something that we can take advantage of."

  "Really? Because from my perspective he utterly spanked us," Jon said, looking skeptically at Rachel.

  "He could have simply destroyed us outright," Rachel said. "Instead, his desire to show off has turned his omnipotence into a joke. The UMC field was also destroyed. It wasn't the only one, but it was the largest and most powerful. We've effectively turned off the spigot for the flow of magic to him. Despite what you might believe, it was a victory."

  "You're right," I said, nodding to her. "I don't believe it's a victory."

  Ania looked at me. "Due to the vagaries of time travel, dimensions, and other bullshit, we arrived here before you. It's been about six months of us living in the shadow of President Veles."

  I nodded. "Joan mentioned something like that."

  "Nyx's presence has kept us secret," Ania said. "Her divine presence or whatever keeps us hidden from Veles."

  "How's that work?" I asked.

  "I have no idea," Ania said. "It's magic bullshit."

  Spoken like someone who wasn't a wizard. Mind you, I 100% agreed. "Fair enough. What have you been doing."

  "Trying to undermine him," Ania said. "We've established ties with the resistance but Americans are not--"

  "I really don't want you to finish that sentence," I muttered. "I'm glad to hear not everyone is rolling over for Veles but we need ideas for actually defeating him."

  "I have a few," Nyx said, looking at me.

  "Oh, hi, nice to meet you," I said, "Uh, Nyx, is it?"

  "Yes," Nyx said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to engage in an elaborate headgame over a year to make you think I want to have incestuous sexual relations."

  "Oh thank God," I muttered.

  "Wait, that was a headgame?" Bloodstorm asked.

  Agata swatted his arm like Rachel did.

  "What?" Bloodstorm asked. "Non-elves and ogres are just plain weird."

  "You have ideas?" I asked Nyx, glad to finally be off this.

  "Yes," Nyx said. "We can harness the remaining divine power in your bracelets."

  "You mean finally get Aaron to become a god?" Jon asked. "Really, I'm all down for that. I mean, I would have made a better one but you take what life gives you."

  "No," Nyx said, pausing. "Though Aaron could attempt that, I was thinking we could harness the magic of the two remaining Marks of the Champion and create a divine weapon capable of killing Veles."

  "Is that possible?" I asked.

  "Yes," Nyx said. "With both me and Rachel working together."

  "Okay, that a plan," I said, pausing. I wasn't sure how good a plan it was but it was at least a plan. "Anything else?"

  "Contact Mat Zemlya," Nyx said. "The Goddess of the Earth and mother of all its pantheons. She was originally Veles' bride but turned against him. If she is still alive then she might prove one of the few gods capable of aiding us against him."

  I wasn't so sure about that plan. As every experience with the gods so far had taught me, they had their own agendas that rarely coincided with what you wanted to do. I didn't think they were evil, or even bad guys, but they had the kind of arrogance that kings or CEOs had. Okay, maybe they were bad guys with that comparison, but I liked some of them.

  "Well, that's certainly a plan," I said. "I take it you haven't been able to contact her yet?"

  "No," Agata said. "I suspect she's only able to be contacted by a fellow deity. Which might be an argument to make the full transition to god. There's no reason not to now that we know Veles isn't playing by Weis' rules."

  I would have pointed out that both Rachel and Nyx were full-fledged gods themselves but I was more interested in any other ideas the youngest member of the group might have. "At this point, I'm for whatever works in bringing down Veles. He has to be getting desperate now. What's your last idea, Nyx?"

  "We should fine Susanos' soul jar and use it to bring her back," Nyx said.

  Everyone stared.

  Okay, I regret ever asking her for advice.