Love & Chaos 2: A New Pharaoh for Egypt

Chapter 23

Angels

Zia

If she was being honest, ever since they recruited a bunch of demons and monsters, she was anticipating something to go wrong. Sure, monsters probably had the whole "nature versus nurture" thing themselves, but deep down, she was always kind of afraid that they would turn on them. They were what they had been taught to fear, and it was strange to be working with them.

Regardless, it was Zia's job (as well as some others) to help ensure the demons could protect themselves. Liz had noticed in her time fighting that the demons and monsters on Chaos's side always seemed to die sooner. They were built differently and not as resilient from wounds as a human, so Liz was worried that the ones on their side also ran a higher risk. Zia volunteered to help because she liked being a part of everything, but it was admittedly strange. Of course, she didn't anticipate getting up at four in the morning for it.

"Your shield is not a hindrance or a mere object of defense. If you want to use your shield in an attack, then do it!" Liz commanded, standing in front of all of them. The demons and monsters followed her motions, but it was still rather clumsy. "Again!"

Zia guided the motion of a demon that looked like they were still unclear about what they were doing. After she helped them turn their body with the motion and lead with their elbow, though, they seemed to be doing much better.

"Good, again!" Liz barked from the front.

Sometimes Zia thought she was a little harsh in training drills, but after the battle two days earlier, she understood. She did have to admit that Liz's crazy training régime helped her fight off Circle members, even if it did seem strenuous at the time.

"See, now that was sloppy. Do it again!"

"Do you ever listen to her and wonder what her training with Artemis must have been like if this was what she learned?" Leo asked her as they walked around, inspecting.

"Sometimes, yes." She stepped away to straighten someone out so that they had better balance. "She can be a hard trainer, but she does it with love at least."

"Yeah, she's driven by the need to keep us alive."

"Again, come on! Your enemies are real out there!"

"She must be pretty nervous about moving out into Alexandria tomorrow," Zia noted as she aggressively swung her shield in demonstration.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get worried about her." They flinched as she showed one of her favorite jump-spin-kick-stab-smash moves.

"At least you'll be there to look out for her," Zia pointed out. "I'll be on a completely separate mission."

"You two really have gotten close," he observed. "But, yes. I'll be there to keep her safe. I'm sure Holly will be back by then, too, and protecting Liz is pretty much her job, so..."

"Holly's sword can't protect her mind," Zia pointed out. "That takes a best friend."

"Oh, I dunno."

"It does. Come on, where would Liz be without you?"

"More like where would I be without Liz."

Zia sat down beside Carter, watching the sun climb the sky.

"The dawn feels alive, doesn't it?" Carter noted, putting his arm around her.

"You can almost see Eos' rosy fingers tracing the sky," she agreed, leading against him. It was hard to find time in life to stop and watch the sunrise, but it was always beautiful when she got the chance. That morning, though, she could tell that Eos was awake.