"...heroic action this afternoon, Ms. Inverse. Please, what were you thinking when you raced headlong into the apartment building?" The woman was shoving the microphone at Hera's nose, which had turned up slightly with distaste. Hera, or Ms. Inverse, didn't seem to like her at all.

"I was thinking of the TV reporters, poor things, and how they needed a story." She said offhandedly. The woman looked confused, her teased orange hair not moving as she tilted her head sideways.

"What do you mean?" She ventured, shoving the microphone still closer to the annoyed Hera. Hera smiled sweetly, leaning forwards. The woman leaned in too, expecting something really good.

"Really, you all need material, and I thought that a 'Heroic rescue' would give you much more airtime than a 'Tragic death of four poor kids' would have been allowed." Teeth were bared. Unfortunately, the reporter did not take the hint. However, she did turn towards the camera and start talking to the audience, much to Hera's apparent relief.

"What is it, Jenny?" A short, overweight man entered the room, kicking stray trash out of his way. He hadn't shaved in about two weeks, and he hadn't washed his cloths in longer. He held a beer bottle in one large hand and a bag of chips in the other, swaggering over to the couch. Jenny turned to him, face shining and excited.

"Look, Daddy, it's the lady who saved me!" It had already been decided that Hera had leapt, rolled, and managed to get Jenny out of the way before Jenny, paralyzed by fear, had known what was happening. It didn't help that Jenny was still convinced her name was Hera, not Ms. Lina Inverse. Her father, had he thought further than the next relief check, would have probably sent her for help. "She's on TV now!"

"Why should I care..." He trailed off, staring at the young woman standing behind the reporter as if she really wanted to be somewhere far from where she was.

"For those of you just joining us, I am here with Lina Inverse, rising--"

"Risen," Lina interjected, looking annoyed.

"...young lawyer who single-handedly today saved four children in what could have been a total massacre." Here Lina muttered something that the microphone did not pick up. "After saving a young girl from a raging semi, Ms. Inverse saw it roll straight into a nearby apartment complex. While police outside thought everyone had been evacuated, Ms. Inverse acted on instinct and forced her way past the officials attempting to bar her from entrance." Lina rolled her eyes and said something about stupid young people now running into fires and getting themselves killed on 'instinct'. "Watchers on the street say she first grabbed the two youngest children and leapt from the seventh story with them in her arms, handing them to a nearby museum curator who she was familiar with. She then raced back inside to take the older two with her at a breakneck pace down the stairs and far enough away before the semi exploded, taking most of the apartment with it. Miss Inverse, how did you know there were children inside?" Lina sighed and looked angrily at the camera. "I knew because I saw them. It had nothing to do with instinct, just good enough vision that I could see the oldest one through the window."

"Why didn't you jump with the other two as well? Why take them down the stairs?"

Lina Looked at the woman with open disbelief. "The eldest was almost as big as me! Besides, how do you expect me to make that jump twice in a row, much less burdened with more than my own weight?"

The reporter paused, then stared at Lina thoughtfully. "How did you make a seven story jump, anyway, Ms. Inverse?" She asked slowly.

Lina's face paled slightly and she laughed. "They weren't very tall stories," She managed vaguely, "And besides, I used to do skydiving a lot when I was younger. My legs were really hurt, but it's easier when you're relaxed." Indeed, Lina was on crutches. "The only thing that got me up and down the stairs was adrenaline. Can I go now?"

The reporter smiled. "Of course, Ms. Inverse. This has been--" Jenny's Daddy turned off the television, turning angrily to her. Jenny stared up at his face, wondering nervously what she had done this time.

"Why didn't you tell me she was a lawyer?" He yelled angrily, turning away to the now black set. "Now we've waited almost more than is polite!"

This was the first time she'd seen her father worry about what was 'polite'. Jenny pushed herself back into the cushions, as if she could escape that way. "I'm sorry daddy, I didn't know. She just ran in afterwards, and then you drove up and got me." She paused, then ventured a question, "Daddy? Why does it matter?"

He grinned, already flipping through the phone book. "Because lawyers make a lot of money, sweetie. And you just gave me an excuse to get to know this one."

Jenny didn't voice her seven year old opinion that no one who made any money would want to be anywhere near enough him to give him any and slunk off towards her room.

* * *

Lina slumped into her chair and tossed the bedamned crutches aside. She wished they were only pretense, but she actually needed them. She healed faster and better than humans, and wasn't injured as easily, but a seven story jump was enough to crunch her knees. She cursed under her breath and glared at the knee braces fastened to her legs.

"If I had more power, I wouldn't be hurt at all. But if I had been, I could heal you in a second." She muttered to her injured knees, earning a "you're working too hard again" glance from her peacock. She ignored it. "In fact, it would be as easy as this--" She twitched her fingers, the gesture not losing its perfection despite the years of disuse.

As suddenly as if a knife had swept down and cut every nerve, her legs stopped hurting. Lina stared at her legs as though they were a separate entity that had suddenly begun singing the hedgehog song before reaching down and gingerly removing the braces.

Her knees were fine. When she moved them and placed pressure on them, they gave no twinge of pain from the crushed disks. She stood and stared at her hand.

"Don't tell me that worked. I used every vestige of power to save that little girl!"

Lina's peacock strutted into the room, lay its head on the ground near her feet, and offered her the 'obviously you did, why worry about it' look to her mistress. Lina shot it a glare and wished momentarily that life was as simple as animals saw it...if she had done it, then it was done, why worry?

Tossing the fiery locks over her shoulder as her suit melted into white robes, Hera looked hard into herself. She impatiently pushed aside the all too familiar, mundane bits of her makeup to one side, looking instead for her power, such as it was.

Usually her power was shown as a net in the center of her heart, glowing on it's own since all her magic was within the power net itself. But now... now it was filled with the pure golden light of goddess power, not a fraction of what she used to have, but more than a hundred times what she had become used to.

If Hera had been Aphrodite, she would have fainted right there and had her peacock call Zelgadis to come and help her.

Hera was not Aphrodite.

"What the HELL???"

* * *

The fireplace blazed like an inferno in the back rooms of the museum, illuminating a rather stuffy looking man sitting in an overstuffed armchair. The light shining from his spectacles rather made him look like a bookworm demon, hunched over an old-looking text as he was. He reached over and picked up his cup of coffee, took a drink, and sighed.

This was what he truly enjoyed-- being alone in silence with a book. As long as there was someone out there if he suddenly didn't want to be alone, it was perfect.

Yes, peace and quiet was certainly--

Ring ring!

Zelgadis turned and glared at the telephone. I'm not here, he thought at it, letting it go until the answering machine picked it up. I'm not in, I'm not here, I'm out doing something...

"...*Beep* --ULLSHIT, Zelgadis, I'm not falling for that crap! Where would you be out? I'm certain you haven't left that stupid museum since this morning when I made you come to breakfast with me. Pick up the phone! ... PICK UP THE PHONE!!!... ZELGADIIIIIIIIIII-*Beep*"

Ring...Ring...Ring...

"...*Beep* ANSWER THE PHONE!!!! Right now, Zelgadis. If you don't I swear, I'm going to keep calling back every time this machine cuts me off until I fill up the goddamned tape!...ANSWER ME!! ZELGADIS! PICK UP THE PH--*Beep*"

Ring...Ring...Ri--

"Alright! what IS IT????"

"Hey there Zel! Guess what?" Zelgadis massaged his temples and gave a long-suffering sigh, taking off his spectacles and leaning on the table. Having friends did have their down points at times...

"What, Lina."

"Be more excited, you moron! GUESS WHAT!!!"

"WHAT???"

"I am a GODDESS again!"

Zelgadis paused, certain he didn't hear right. "To be a goddess, you need true believers." He said slowly, trying to explain it to her. No one truly believed anymore.

"Well I apparently got one!"

"One?"

"Yeah, but...one!" He could hear her victory stance wobble slightly, but she was resilient. "More than I had before!"

"Lina... I think you may be hallucinating. Did you use too much power when--"

"DAMMIT ZEL I HAVE A BELEIVER! Stop making it seem stupid! I healed myself! I actually have belief to work from!"

"And now you will also have other gods trying to stamp you out just in case."

"You know as well as I that the only ones left are God, Buddha and Allah. And God and Allah are the same person!" Lina was making Zel's phone vibrate with excitement. He sighed. "God's got almost the entire world already, and she won't notice lil' old me. And Buddha is a sweetheart. Zel, I have the power!!!"

"And now you sound like a bad movie."

"You're just jealous." a touch of Hera's former pride had seeped back into Lina's tone, and Zelgadis was having a bit of trouble dealing with it. He picked up his spectacles and fell back into his chair, staring at the ceiling.

"I'm not jealous. I just think you have had one mushroom too many." But Lina wasn't listening to him anymore.

"I wonder why I have a believer..." She mused over the line as Zelgadis picked up his book and started reading again. "It could be someone has suddenly converted, but it's hard to become a true believer without one more to bring you to it unless you've witnessed a miracle--" Lina came to a complete stop in her rambling and Zelgadis savored the silence before she started again. "That would make sense... but then, you would have it too... of course, I didn't notice until I looked, so that means you haven't looked yet..." she trailed off. "Zelgadis, I'm gonna sign off now. See you later!" Zelgadis sighed in relief as he hung up the phone and sank back into his chair.

For about fifteen minutes before there was the sound of a door opening out in the museum main.

She wouldn't...

"HADES!!" Hera strutted in like one of her peacocks, her robes floating ethereally about her held to her only by her magenta sash and gold ribbons. She looked every bit the goddess, even without the faint aura of power. Hades promptly forgot his book and stood, Black robes taking longer to fall to the ground than usual. He stared as his own garb mimicked Hera's own with gravity defiance due to the power vested in them. He looked back up at Hera in shock. "But... but how--"

"Think, Hades dear. What have we done recently to promote belief?" Zelgadis thought.

And stared at her. "Impossible. The girl?" Lina nodded.

"That's what I came up with. i suppose the only way to find out is to ask her, or wait and see if her belief goes up a notch. I can trace it now." Hera would have jumped and squealed if it hadn't been further beneath her dignity than wearing tight clothing on street corners. Hades managed a smile as he looked into hs own blue web of power, thrilling at the glow he saw nested within. "This is... this is..." How to say it? How could he possibly put to words the joy he felt at the magic now sluggishly coursing through his veins yet again? How dismal his fall had been, compared now to the inconceivable recovery of even the slightest bit. He turned to Hera, reading the same delight in her own eyes. She grinned.

"Toldja so." Zelgadis resisted splurging his new-found power to hit her over the head with something heavy.