Heather took one last pull from her bottle of beer. Empty. She put it on the glass top of the coffee table with a quiet clink of glass on glass.
"I don't know," she told the couple sitting in front of her. "What is it that you expect me to be able to do for you?"
"Just talk to Anna," John said, leaning forward intently.
"Don't do that," Heather said.
"What?"
"Don't look at me like that. Makes me think you are going to mess with my head again, make me do things I don't want to do."
Amanda sat back on the couch, looking at John, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry," John said. "I told you. I knew that Anna was going to need some kind of control or she would seek it out either from me or some other dangerous place. I wasn't in any condition to be able to look after her since I was being stalked by Red Eyes- "
"What the fuck? 'Look after her?' What kind of bullshit thing is that to say? You mean you weren't able to make her be your little slave."
"Right. Whatever you want to call it. I was going to put her to work for me, yes. I told you I was going to have her use her powers to let me get control of all the crime bosses at once and shut down each cartel by having them turn themselves into the police. It was taking me too long on my own, and her ability to span time and distance would have allowed me to get it done at once."
"Jesus."
"She wasn't listening to me, wasn't willing to work with me, so I was going to take control of her, use her powers, and then release her."
Heather shook her head.
"I don't believe you."
"It's true," Amanda said quietly.
Heather looked sharply at the blonde woman on the couch. Amanda looked exhausted.
"How do you know?" Heather demanded.
"I know everything about John," the other woman replied. "We
connected
. I don't know how else to describe it. But when we did, I saw every bit of his, I don't know, soul? Whatever you want to call it. It's like we are one person now."
"I still don't know why I should help you, 'Just' John. You're a fucking asshole. You made me leave my life and my apartment behind and move in with Anna-"
"You're happier here."
"That's not the fucking point!"
"It was for me, after a while. You told me that you loved her on one of our phone calls- you won't remember this- but when I heard you say that, I realized I had to leave the two of you alone. And I wanted to. I did! But the Detective won't leave you two alone. He wants the Spider, and he'll get her. I have no idea what he will do with you at that point but judging from what he did to my... my Lynda, I wouldn't bet on it being good."
"What was that, exactly?"
"He made that superheroine- you know, the Power? He made her take my Lynda up into the sky and drop her to her death. She tried to save me like she always had before and she couldn't and he killed her. I loved her more than anything in the world, and he threw her away like she was nothing. That's what he'll do to you. That's what he'll do to both of you."
"Fuck," Heather said. She got up and went to the kitchen and got out three more beers. She opened the bottles, the gentle cold spray bursting across her hand.
Walking back, she handed two of the bottles to her company.
"And let's say I talk to Anna, not like I even know where she is," Heather said. "Let's say I do, then what? Then you go back your bullshit mind control games, what? How do I know that next time you get in a fucking jam- and you sure seem to get in over your head- that you won't just show up here, or make a phone call, or whatever and take control of me and Anna again?"
"He won't do that," Amanda said, taking a sip of her beer.
"How do
you
know that? Shit, you follow him around, you take care of him, you look like you haven't slept in
weeks,
woman. How do you even know that he hasn't mind zapped you, made you his little slave also?"
"He can't do that to me anymore, even if he wanted to. I'm a lot more powerful than he is at this point, anyway."
"Better hope so."
"John and I want to get free of the Detective. We want to get out of the City. We want to go to a quiet place and live our lives together. I won't let him do any of this shit anymore."
Amanda leaned forward and put a hand on Heather's knee.
"I'm going to need the father of my child in my life, Heather. Please help us."
Heather looked into the other woman's pleading eyes, saying nothing. She nodded her head. The two women turned and looked at John.
"Wait," John said, taking a gulp of his beer. "What?"
Amanda looked across him and gave a shy smile.
"Yep," she said. "You know, now that I think about it, I should not be having this second beer."
******************************
The Hawk dropped the glass on the floor of the domicile. It shattered with a metallic crash.
"Crush the pieces with your boot," he said from above her.
The Detective was losing control of his physical form again on Black World, growing longer, his body distending. At this point he was around eight feet tall, his head bobbing well above the woman. He was standing very close to her.
She crushed the glass.
"Smaller pieces, please," he directed. "Grind it up to almost powder."
"Yes, Master," the Hawk said.
He said nothing for a minute.
"You call me 'Master'", he said absentmindedly. "I didn't finish making you mine, however."
"I want to serve you," she said simply. "I don't know. Maybe it's all I've been through lately- getting beaten and hurt out there. I was scared, and when I'm with you, I'm not. I know you can punish all the evil out there and I want to serve you while you do it."
She crushed the last of the glass, and looked up at him, into his black and expressionless eyes.
She gave him a wan smile.
"If you'll have me, Master. I can serve you well. Maybe later, after we send the Red Eyes to kill John Claire as a demonstration of your power, you can finish making me yours."
She lowered her eyes to the floor.
"Sweep up the broken pieces," he instructed her. "Dig a hole in the sand and bury the debris. No more glass here."
"Yes, Master."
He walked over to the wall and dragged his long finger across the stone. A red and cold fire burst from it as he prepared a portal to take him back to earth.
He paused by the wall and looked back at the Hawk.
"What you say is acceptable to me."
She smiled as he stepped through the portal.
******************************
The Hawk laid the small shovel next to the hole she had dug in the black sand. She poured all the broken glass into the hole, and covered it back up.
She looked up at the alien sky, shuddering slightly. Although there was nothing out there that she could see, it felt
wrong,
this world. This place.
Maybe I'll get used to it someday, she thought. She stretched her wings up towards the sky. He would be gone for who knows how long. She didn't know where the Spider was and didn't want to talk to her anyway.
Maybe flying would help. Clear her mind. Make her feel free again. It had been so long she had been able to soar.
She heard a footstep behind her. The Hawk spun around, alarmed.
She breathed easier when she saw who it was.
"Good morning," she said. "If it
is
morning. I never can tell here."
