SANITY; heroes of olympus

05.2

[act five; chapter two     -     to die a roman]

Andy hadn't missed the weight of a weapon in her hand. In fact, she had even grown to resent it. Resent the way that the calluses of her hand had been moulded to Mania's hilt. Resent the way it channelled her power and caused every bit of insanity in her mind and ichor of blood to thrum in her mind, begging to be released.

But she couldn't. She had to hold the leash and she had to hold it tight. Not now, she told it, sealing the well, not yet.

She raised the bronze and gold blade, watching it shift from sword to pilum, watching it catch the light of the sun. She pulled her arm back and launched it forward, the weapon an extension of her arm as it sailed through the air, as it pierced through not one, not two, but three chests, knocking them down like dominos.

As it sailed through them, Andy was knocked to her knees by an invisible force, one that ravaged through her mind, trying to tear it apart, force its way in. She heard a scream but didn't know who it belonged to, if it lay within the confines of her mind or escaped the chamber of her mouth. It felt as though her mind was being torn into, cleaved apart as Dom tried to shield her from the invisible force, from the goddess breaking into the fortified prison of Andromeda Storm's mind. Flashes of blood and red hair and fire and the earth splitting in two blinded her. She felt hands under her arms, hoisting her up, followed by a demanding, "Wake up!" But she couldn't. She couldn't get rid of that taunting, controlling, ancient voice in her ear, not even as she tried to push and push and push.

Until finally...relief. Andy crumpled, falling into the arms that were wrapped around her, Piper's arms. She tried to push her away, force herself to her feet, to keep fighting, but the daughter of Aphrodite was adamant in stopping her.