Almost Heros

Preface

A young woman sat still in a room. There was something unusual about that woman though, for she was the Godess Leo, a guardian of all mortals. She resembled that of a cat, with spotted skin and a pair of whiskers that stuck out from her nose. Her hair was black and barely existing, cut off so short that you could see the skin underneath it. She sat in a bronze cage, with golden bracelets wrapped around her arms and a white piece of fabric sewn around her as a makeshift dress. In front of her, uncaged, was somebody known as "The Smiling Man," an enemy to all of the Gods. He was pale and bald. His eyes were pupils over a dark shade of red. He didn't have irises. But more disturbing, where one might have a mouth, there was a cut out of a smile, the inside a simple dark whole. 

For weeks he had been trying to convince Leo of one thing. One thing that could change existence as people knew it.

But if Leo was anything, she was stubborn. And even as she was locked up in a cage, her powers diminished by the golden bracelets that were made specifically to weaken her, she refused to give the smiling man what he wanted. She didn't care if he was offering to let her go, she didn't care if he was offering her power, and she didn't care if he was offering to return to her the gem that contained her only daughter's soul. There was no way that he could convince her to give him the Anima. She was born to protect it, and she took her job very seriously.

Still, as the Smiling Man stood in front of her, holding that sparkling green emerald in front of her like bait, she refused. Despite how he reminded her constantly that it was the emerald that kept her daughter inside, she sat still and silent, relentless. 

Finally, the Smiling Man spoke once again, "You know, Leo, you're giving me a headache. All I want is-"

"The one thing I can't give you."

"You make it seem like it's an evil wish."

"It is an evil wish."

He rolled his eyes, pacing in front of Leo's cage, "Even if it was, why would you care? Giving it to me would only affect the mortals."

"I'm supposed to protect mortals, you Mutt."

"Oh, yes, I'm aware of your little position as guard of all humans," the Smiling Man sighed, stopping in front of her cage. He leaned down in front of Leo, "But is maintaining your job worth the destruction of your only daughters existence?"

"Yes."

"Than you're a horrible mom."

"I know."

Angered, the Smiling Man reached through the cage and caught her wrist, forcing onto it yet another golden band. Leo frowned, but refused to let herself scream as the bracelet burned into her arm. 

"I should kill you," he told her, "but I need you. Tell me, Leo, do you like fire?"

Leo just narrowed her eyes further.

"I see, well if you won't respond than I suppose we'll just have to see for ourselves than, won't we?" He truly smiled then, and with the snap of his fingers, Leo burst into flames. She screamed, able to feel the pain but unable to die. Fire, like gold, was one of the only things that could hurt her.

Then it stopped, and she looked up at the Smiling Man. 

"If you think torturing me will get you anywhere, you're wrong."

"That's what you think," he told her, standing and turning away from the cage, "but one day you'll break. And when you do, I promise to clean up the mess you made."

And he walked away, leaving Leo alone, inprisoned in a dark cage, trying to figure out her next move.