“I don’t need your sass either, Marcus,” Maya remarked, matching his tired tone with an even more exasperated one, as the older Archon reached down to heave Paul off the cold, bloodied floor. To Maya’s annoyance, her reflexes weren’t as fast as they were before the time warp. As she crossed her arms across her chest, she noticed that her muscle mass had seemed to have decreased as well, leading herself to question if she would’ve even been able to support the Archon of Time’s dead weight. Nevertheless, guilt gnawed at her insides as she recalled the sound of skull meeting metal. She could already imagine the lovely multicolored bruise that would certainly stain his forehead like a morbid watercolor.  [i]Sorry Paul.[/i]

	Maya listened carefully as she trailed behind Marcus towards the medbay.  His explanation, which he revealed rather nonchalantly, caught Maya off-guard. She paused, furrowing her silver brows.[i]Adverse effects?[/i] Part of her felt appalled, almost betrayed, yet it made sense. Their parents, one of them at least, were pureblooded, original Archons. They had godlike bodies capable of withstanding godlike power. Maya and the other descendants, however, contained godlike power within a fallible hybrid meat-suit. While the superhuman capabilities could help sustain their carnal abodes, too much exertion yielded catastrophic cellular breakdown as the body rips apart from the inside out. It would be like trapping a tornado in a house and hoping everything stays perfectly in place. Shaking her head, Maya picked up her pace to catch up with Marcus again. 

	“You never disclosed the reason behind your…affliction,” Maya replied dryly, “I knew better than to ask questions, though. You’re not exactly an open book. This information regarding the detrimental consequences of Archonhood is news to my ears as well. I feel as though perhaps we should have broached this topic sooner.”

[i]What if I had created a tsunami and inadvertently blew my brains out?[/i] Maya thought reproachfully. 

	When Maya first joined Marcus’s brigade, he remained purposefully secretive and maddeningly mysterious. Trying to get answers out of him was like trying to drown a fish. If things were going to work this time, Marcus, as well as Paul and Maya, would have to be open with the fellow Archons in order to create a more unified team. The newbies would have to know what they were getting into before they were up to their ears in blood. The only way all of them would make it out alive was if they pushed through together. 

	The trio entered the sickbay as the sliding doors parted with a soft [i]swoosh[/i]. Maya flicked on the lights and pressed a few buttons, illuminating the machine-filled room in a stark white glow. Various beeps, chimes, and chirps greeted them in chorus as the medical equipment buzzed back to life. After plopping Paul on a bed, Marcus administered a generous dose of oxycodone to the unconscious man. Maya pulled up a stool next to Paul’s bed, watching as the monitors overhead began to register his vitals. Everything appeared relatively normal, especially considering the trauma and exertion he had undergone. Maya felt a slight rush of relief, but her eyes betrayed a lingering sense of worry. Sighing, she ran her fingers gently through his hair. 

	The Water Archon looked over to Marcus as he stretched his “good” arm, noticing that his other arm was no longer composed of flesh and bone. Instead, shiny robotics replaced everything from his shoulder to his fingertips. [i]When the bloody hell did he get that upgrade? I am 95% sure that it hasn’t always been like that.[/i] Taken aback, she cocked her head and raised an eyebrow, but kept her mouth shut. Before leaving the medbay, Marcus informed Maya that she could either stay here with Paul, or she could embark on a mission to start retrieving Archons. Emotionally torn, Maya looked back to Paul. She hated the idea of leaving him after reuniting just moments ago, but a greater sense of responsibility tugged at her conscience.

	“See you later,” she whispered as she leaned over and kissed Paul’s forehead.  
  
	Before embarking on her mission, Maya decided to swing by her room to pick up Capella and change clothes. Wanting to appear inconspicuous, Maya disrobed out of her ridiculous royal garbs in exchange for an all-black [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/26/fa/85/26fa859504f24419534a1df3648fd3de.jpg]ensemble[/url]. Next, she made her way to the bridge.

	“Right, now how do I locate these new friends of ours?” Maya mumbled to herself as she circled around the command room. She scanned the room as she drifted from one display screen to another, hoping that a magical flashing light would tell her where to go. Befuddled, she resorted to sitting in the command chair, contemplatively scratching her head. [i]I should really take the time to learn what all these newfangled gadgets do. I’m almost surprised Marcus even lets me on the bridge.[/i]

	“Aha, gotcha!” she chimed as she spied a square piece of paper stuck to the navigation center. A series of numbers scrawled in Marcus’s notoriously bad handwriting marked the sticky note. [i]Coordinates.[/i] Choosing the second set of coordinates from the list, Maya plugged the sequence into the [i]Leviathan[/i]’s rift drive, causing the ship to relocate above a new planet in a new dimension. 

	She then marched to the hangar where she begrudgingly crawled into a drop pod. Inputting yet another set of coordinates, Maya marked the general vicinity on the planet of where the Archon was suspected to be located. Once all systems were ready to go, she gritted her teeth and buckled herself into the falling pod of doom. While drop pods are great for quick transport, they are also terrifying. These awful metal cocoons plummet through atmospheres like falling stars, only to be stopped from catastrophic impact by a system of airlock brakes. Drop pods, at least in Marcus’s case, tended to either get ripped to shreds or land in the most inconvenient of places. Maya was not thrilled to say the least. 
  
	Clutching the restraints fastened across her shoulders, Maya waited as an automated voice counted [i]3…2…1…[/i] As the pod was expelled forcefully into space , Maya screamed her fool head off. The drastic increase in G-force caused her stomach to feel as though it was twisted in knots. Knowing that there wasn’t much she could do, Maya clenched her eyes shut and hoped for the best. As the pod breached the atmosphere, the deafening roar of metal ripping through the air drowned out all of Maya’s frantic thoughts. Minutes passed by like millennia until finally, the pod’s brakes activated with an angry hiss. The Water Archon braced herself for impact. Miraculously, the drop pod managed to gracefully greet the earth, landing with a solid thud. Maya slowly reopened her eyes.