▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ━︎━︎ 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐀 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐩 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 Artemis home with the help of John. She sat on the bed, watching her daughter sleep. She hadn't woken up yet and Aphrodite was beginning to think that she wouldn't. She held her daughters hand, trying to hold back the tears that wanted to fall down her face. She couldn't lose her. She just couldn't. Artemis's hand suddenly tightened around her own and Aphrodite sat up straighter, looking at her daughter and watching as she slowly but surely began to open her eyes.

"Oh, thank God." Aphrodite softly said, placing a kiss to her forehead.

"Mom?" Artemis asked, confused. "What happened?"

"You passed out, honey. You got hit a lot harder than you originally thought." Aphrodite told her, running a hand through her daughter's hair. "How're you feeling?"

"My head really hurts." Artemis answered. "And my throat's dry." She frowned before she began trying to get up. "Lauren. Lauren, is she okay?"

Aphrodite grabbed onto her daughter, gently pushing her back down. "She's fine, Art. You need to rest." Aphrodite stood back up. "I'll be right back." She walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind her. John looked up from the table, watching as Aphrodite grabbed some Ibuprofen and a glass of water.

"She awake?" John asked.

Aphrodite nodded. "Yeah. She's awake."

John stood up and walked over to her, noticing her teary eyes. "Hey, hey she's okay."

Aphrodite nodded again. "I know. I know." She blinked away the tears, shaking her head. "But what if she hadn't woken up?"

"But she did." John told her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"She's the only family I have left, John. I can't-I can't lose her."

"I know. And you won't. I promise." He pulled her in for a hug and Aphrodite tightly hugged him back, closing her eyes as she forced herself to calm down. She pulled away from him before giving him a kiss. She grabbed the water and pills before walking away.

She walked back into Artemis's room, handing her the water and pills. Artemis took them before snuggling in her bed again and pulling her blanket up over her head. Aphrodite softly sighed before walking out of the room. John greeted her with another kiss and she couldn't help but smile.

"I have to go. I promised Reed I'd help him train."

Aphrodite nodded her head. "Alright. Be safe."

John smiled at her before giving her another kiss. "I will." He walked out of the apartment and Aphrodite made her way into her room, petting Zingo as she passed the dog and crawling in the bed, letting herself fall asleep.

Not even a few minutes later she was being shaken awake. Aphrodite slowly opened her eyes to look at John. "They bombed a church."

Aphrodite sat up quickly. "What?"

"The purifiers. We have to go. Shatter's waiting for us."

"What about Art?"

"She'll be fine." John assured her. "Come on."

Aphrodite got up and fixed how she looked before following John out to the car. They drove for a little bit before pulling up to the place where they were supposed to meet Shatter. Aphrodite got out of the car, looking around for a moment before closing the door and following after John and Marcos, Clarice standing beside of her.

Shatter greeted Marcos with a handshake. "It's too bad this is what it takes to get your ugly mugs up here."

John walked forwards, giving Shatter a handshake as well. "Shatter, good to see you, too." John nodded.

Shatter turned towards Aphrodite and held out his arms with a smile. "Winter." She walked forwards and embraced him in a tight hug.

"It's good to see you, Shatter."

"You too. How's Art?"

Aphrodite sighed. "Oh you know her, always getting into some sort of mischief." Aphrodite moved from Shatter to stand beside of John. "So what's the situation?"

     "We got about 20 refugees from the bombed church." Shatter explained. "They've been filtering in all day. And we already got a full house to begin with. Things have gotten worse ever since that hospital attack last week."

     "Uh, great. The Inner Circle makes the mess, we clean it up." Marcos said, looking around.

     "Oh, it's the worse than that." Shatter claimed. "The human groups that used to help us, they won't even take our calls."

     Aphrodite let out a sigh. "Of course."

     "We need to get the names of the people who came in and start making some new IDs. I'll get my equipment." Reed said before moving towards the truck.

     "We'll get on names." Marcos agreed before walking into the building with Clarice following him. Aphrodite followed behind them, walking next to Shatter. She watched as he stopped, turning to look at Reed and John.

     John was asking Reed if he was sure he could do this without accidentally disintegrating anything which naturally lead into a heated discussion. Shatter nodded his head towards them as he asked, "What's going on over there?"

     Aphrodite sighed. "You don't know?" Shatter shook his head. "Well, my dear friend, Reed has discovered he has his own abilities. He's one of us now. John has been trying to help him train, as you can tell it hasn't been going as planned." The two of them entered the building.

     Shatter nodded. "I see."

     "Call for me if you need me." Aphrodite said, giving him a small smile before walking away as she began gathering names. She handed the list to Shatter who gave it to Reed. She helped where she was needed, helping people grow comfortable by giving them blankets and food. She walked over to John and the others with John wrapping an arm around her waist and tucking her into his side.

     "I think we have a problem." Reed told them.

     "Is it a problem we can ignore?" Aphrodite silently begged. Reed just shook his head and she sighed, dropping her head in defeat.

     "What is it?" John asked.

     "I spoke to a bunch of refugees from the church about what happened. None of them were injured."

     "Isn't that a good thing?" Clarice asked with a confused frown.

     "Does seem kind of strange." Shatter said, backing him up.

     Reed continued, "If a bunch of Purifiers bomb a church to hurt mutants, why were none of them hurt?"

     Aphrodite frowned, sharing a worried look with John as realization dawned on his face. "Cause it's a trap." John pulled his arm from her, walking a little ways away before kneeling and placing his hand to the floor.

     "We have to get everyone out of here now." Marcos warned.

     "I'll stay with John." Aphrodite said. "Go." They went to separate but stopped when John spoke.

     "It's too late." He looked towards the front. "They're here."

     "Damn," Aphrodite breathed. "I'm not letting these people get hurt, John." John looked at her before nodding his head in understanding. When Jace's voice could be heard outside, Aphrodite had to refrain from rolling her eyes.

     "We have you surrounded." Jace called through a megaphone. "Anyone in the Mutant Underground who wishes to surrender will not be harmed. You'll be handed over to the proper authorities." Instantly, chaos erupted. People began frantically trying to gather their things as Aphrodite, John, and Clarice walked up to a barred window, looking between the cracks of the wood.

     "It's Jace Turner again. He was at the clinic." John muttered. "He must have tracked us here some how."

     "He's almost as good as you." Clarice said, causing John to look at her.

     "Look, if you can portal everyone there, we got a straight shot to the road." He pointed to a place away from the purifiers.

     "They're going to notice when we pop up behind them like gophers."

     "Not if they're distracted." Aphrodite said.

     "Eclipse, Skyler, and Naya can cover us." John said. "Shatter and I will run interference."

     "John, I can take them down with the flick of my wrist." Aphrodite argued, looking at him.

     "I'm not putting you in danger."

     "Oh, please." Aphrodite scoffed. "I've been in plenty danger before, what's to change now?"

     "I don't want to be the one that has to tell your daughter why her mother didn't come home." John easily answered. Aphrodite clenched her jaw and John walked away, followed by Clarice as they quickly instructed everyone on what to do. But before Clarice could open a portal, a shot came through and a gas entered the room.

     "Everybody get out!" John yelled.

     Aphrodite quickly let her hands glow, wrapping her powers around the gas and concealing it before lifting it and throwing it back out of the window it had come through. Instantly both of her hand went up, throwing out a large barrier that covered the front of the building. Multiple gas chambers were shot inside. "Go!" She yelled. "Get out!" When everyone was out she dropped her hands, sending the gas flying at her.

     She coughed, quickly covering her mouth as she fled from the room. Her breath became ragged and she felt her vision began to blur. She fought her body as it tried to grow unconscious, pushing through the door where the others were and falling to her knees as she coughed. She closed her eyes, kneeling there for a moment as she inhaled fresh air. "Why are we just standing here?" Aphrodite asked.

     "They're blocking the exit." Marcos told her just as John kneeled beside her, checking if she was okay. She waved him off, taking note of Clarice who was unconscious on the ground.

     "We gotta get out, man." Shatter said, panic in his voice. "With those guys by the trucks, we're sitting ducks."

     "What do we now?" Skylar cried.

     "Is there another way out of here?" Reed pushed, running towards her.

     "There is, there is a service tunnel on that side of the building." A teenage boy that had escaped told them. "But it's on the other side of the wall. We use it to bring people in, but we can't get to it without going back through the gas."

     Reed looked down at his hand. "I can help with the wall."

     "Okay, well, we're still going to have to deal with the guys outside." Marcos informed.

     "Maybe I can take 'em out." Shatter suggested.

     Aphrodite snapped her head towards him. "Shatter, no."

     "My body can handle most small arms fire."

     "No." Aphrodite denied, shaking her head. "You'll die."

     Shatter placed his hands on her shoulders. "I can do this, Winter."

     Aphrodite searched his eyes for a moment and he gave her a reassuring nod. "Fine. But if you die, I want everyone in this room to know there will be hell to pay and I won't back down."

     Shatter managed a small smile. "Wouldn't expect anything less. This is the only chance we got." He gently pushed her out of the line of fire as they gave a count down before Shatter ran out.  Immediate gunshots went off and Aphrodite held up her hands, creating a barrier for the open door to stop them from getting hit with bullets while Reed began working on the wall.

     She watched as Shatter ran forwards, turning one of the men to marble and when a man went to shoot Aphrodite quickly shot out her hand, sending the man flying backwards. She turned her head towards Reed only to turn her head back towards Shatter when she heard him scream. She watched as he fell to the ground and her eyes widened as she yelled his name. "Shatter!" Aphrodite stood up straight as he eyes began to glow.

     "Aph," John warned, watching as her entire body straightened. "Aph, don't!"

     But she ignored him. She pushed Marcos away when he tried to grab her and she stepped outside. "Turner!" She yelled his name, making the bald man turn to look at her. Instantly, all weapons were pointing at her.

     "Kaos," Jace called. "Don't make us hurt you."

     She glanced at Shatter's body before looking back at Jace. "You already have." She held out her hand, ripping the gun from Jace's hand and placing it in her own. She cocked the gun, holding out her hand and blocking the rain of bullets that came her way. She watched bored as they bounced off her shield, crushing the gun in her hand and tossing it aside before throwing her hands forwards and sending all of them flying backwards.

     "Dove, we gotta go!" Marcos yelled.

Aphrodite took a few steps backwards before quickly turning and running back into the building only to find Reed had successfully gotten through the wall. Marco lifted Clarice before going through the hall with Aphrodite following after him.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐈𝐓 back to their base and the first thing Aphrodite did was check on her daughter who had fallen back asleep. John and Marcos were waiting for Lauren and Caitlin, Reed having not been able to stop destroying things since he destroyed the wall. Aphrodite laid beside her daughter, gently playing with her hair as she slept. She glanced up when she heard the front door open, gently pressing a kiss to her daughters forehead before standing up and walking out of the room. She closed the door behind her and looked up at John who was leaning against the bar with his arms crossed over his chest.

     Instantly, a sigh fell from her lips. "Don't tell me you're mad at me."

    John looked at her in disbelief. "Damn right I'm mad. What the hell were you thinking?" He pushed himself off the counter, walking towards her.

     "I was thinking that you guys needed to get out of there alive and our distraction got himself killed. You should've sent me out of there when I first suggested it and none of this would have happened, John."

     "I'm sorry that I wanted to keep you out of danger."

     "I don't need your protection!" Aphrodite snapped. "I do not need you to keep me out of harms way because you have an emotional tie to me. I go out there to do my job. My job is to keep other mutants safe, to keep them from getting hurt. News flash, Proudstar! Your girlfriend happens to be one of the most powerful mutants that exist! And when you don't let me do what I need to do in order to keep people safe just because we're together, it pisses me off. I do not need you checking on me, or worrying about my safety. I can handle myself."

     "I know that―︎"

     "Do you?" Aphrodite cut him off. "Cause it sure as hell doesn't seem like it. And don't you ever bring my daughter into it ever again. She's almost eighteen years old, she understands the risks, she knows what I need to do. Trust me, we've talked about it plenty of times. I will always do everything in my power to come back home to my daughter. But we both know that there may be a day where that doesn't happen."

     "She shouldn't have to prepare for that." John said. "But the way you acted today, you keep acting like that you might as well sign your death certificate."

     Aphrodite clenched her jaw as she looked at him, shaking his head. "Tell Marcos I said hi."

     "Aph," John said.

     "I need to calm down before I say something I regret." Aphrodite told him. "I don't need you around me while I'm trying to do that. So, you can stay with Marcos or Clarice tonight. I don't care. Just not here." She turned and walked into her bedroom, quickly shutting the door behind her. John stood there for a moment, staring at the closed door with a clenched jaw before turning and walking out of the apartment, doing everything in his power to keep his anger at bay and stay calm.

     He knocked on Marcos' door. Marcos opened it with furrowed brows. "Hey, man. What are you, uh, what are you doing here?"

     "Can I crash here for the night?"

     "Dove kicked you out?" Marcos asked with surprise. John clenched his jaw in response and Marcos opted not to push any further as he stepped aside and let John in.