ANTI-HERO, j.grace

THIRTY THREE

WHY?

It was her first coherent thought, emerging from the shadows of her unconsciousness and resting at the very forefront of her mind. Why am I awake? Why am I breathing? Why am I alive?

Why?

It was promptly followed by the "how?"'s - each and every "how is this possible?", "how could this happen?", bouncing around the inside of her head like a rubber ball that was ricocheting off the floor.

There is a moment - fleeting in nature, but a moment nonetheless - that Klein Maddox nearly cries. She is nothing short of exhausted (she'd been drained since August), every single inch of her body managed to have absorbed some sort of ache and pain, and despite that she's left inside with a profound emptiness. And it's in that moment, that minuscule, fleeting moment, that the next thought crosses her mind. Just once, but it's aggressive and loud and it makes sure its presence is known: why couldn't I just stay dead?

Why. Why. Why - it's an endless cycle of "why?", an obnoxious cycle of questions that Klein Maddox usually directed towards Kieran's death. But now her own death, her own resurrection...

Was it a resurrection? Was any of it even real?

Why was everyone looking at her like that?

Sure, to die was a stunt baffling enough on its own. However, to die and then come back to life... it was a feat on an entirely new level. Each of the five faces that peered down at her, they expressed every ounce of shock and confusion possible.

When Klein Maddox finally reopened her eyes the entirety of the surrounding group sucked in a breath, almost too scared to show any signs of relief. Perhaps they were right on that front, for her eyes momentarily flowed a pure and familiar gold and the first thought to any of their minds was how the Maddox girl was about to do the same thing Hera had done: set off a supernova of monster - or, perhaps demigod - killing energy, and kill the rest of them right off. But almost as fast as it had appeared, the golden light faded and her eyes returned to normal.

More-so, as normal as could be expected given the mass confusion and look of complete and utter distress that overtook her features.

"What the fuck?"

Famous last words be damned. 'What the fuck' had become Klein Maddox's first words, and Leo Valdez was absolutely going to share that with anyone and everyone who could possibly listen.

Jason Grace didn't share the son of Hephaestus's amusement over Klein's lively sentiment, however, he was exceptionally relieved to hear any sort of cuss coming from the girl once more. What the fuck? Really, Klein had it right with the query. Jason was still standing there in complete and utter disbelief, half sure he had lost it and was imagining the entire ordeal, and half (or just a little more so) sure he could drop dead right then himself.

Even the Queen of the Gods seemed to be stuck pondering the very same question of 'what the fuck?'. Her jaw had dropped in shock, her eyes widened with a look of such disbelief that the demigods surrounding her were positive she had never once worn before.

"Impossible! You - impossible!"

That's what they say to Tom Cruise in every single Mission Impossible, but he's still doing his own stunts. She wasn't exactly jumping off skyscrapers, but it seemed Klein was taking her own stunts to the next level.

Unsurprisingly, Jason was the first one to the Maddox girl, dropping back to his knees beside her as his eyes remained wide in shock. Like most situations involving the girl, he was unsure what exactly to do - hug her, yell at her, or maybe stick kick Hera's ass anyway. While the last one was definitely the front runner, Jason couldn't help the way his mind went blank the second Klein's eyes met his.