The Rovena heritage - Prologue: Anger issues

Scorched Dessert, Egypt - 11th of July, 6:48 PM local time

The fierce female warrior ducked just in time to find cover behind a half collapsed stone pillar to avoid the brute force of the explosion ahead of her. Still, a layer of dust and stone rained down on her. A timer popped up in Rovena’s HUD, time the Athenist would need to reload his rocket launcher. She waited a second, drew a deep breath, ready to step out of her cover to eliminate the threat.

Then a chirp caught her attention. Another twitter DM, another message in a heated discussion. A discussion where she did not fully understand why it got heated in the first place. Chirp … Chirp … Why could people not just send everything in one fucking message?

The timer was running out so she read the message while she jumped onto the pillar that had served her as cover. Several of the Athenists opened fire with their Ak47 rifles but the German instinctively dodged them or deflected them with the shield made of pure ice on her left forearm.

Rovena sprinted along the pillar to gain elevation and shot with both pistols at the poor man who just had finished reloading his rocket launcher. She kept shooting and targeted the remaining cultists. Like a action hero she did not reload and just kept shooting. Like so many of the current occult weapon tech the two highly customized weapons were able to shoot just with energy being channeled into them. And energy, was what the woman had in excess these days.

chirp chirp

More messages came in. “Yeah bitch, I get that she has changed but fuck you, you know I’m not exactly a human either, right?” She yelled so loud that few of the cultists even forgot to shoot and just gave her confused looks.

But only a few. Others were smart and took the opportunity to change their position and open fire again. This time to German was too distracted, too enraged for a defense and the bullets hit their mark. One went right through Rovena’s calf, throwing her off balance. More hit her chest and while the protective vest was holding, the power of the impact made the woman fall.

She screamed in pain and rage but before she it the floor large wings formed of ice had formed on her back and smoothed the landing by a lot.

“Fuck.” She spat blood into the sand and reviewed the positioning of her enemies on the HUD. A deep breath and a silent prayer to calm herself down again.

chirp

“Ahhhh” Rovena screamed again and holstered her pistols. These emotions, this energy, it was too much, she needed to vent. And vent fast. You bitch tell something like demigod that she will be outclassed by another in a few month and think is not offensive? Who do you think you are?

She grabbed her whip, swung it around a damages statue a level above her. Then she pulled herself up, feet against the partially destroyed stone wall and rushed up. She was too fast for the cultists to get a decent aim, too fast for the human eye to fully follow as she pushed herself to the limits.

A few steps, a leap and she was using the wings to glide through the air. Once above the remaining cultists she let the elements rain down on them. Mostly ice and lightning but there were traces of them all.

1 hour and 20 Minutes later

Rovena leaned against a rock at an Anima well and sat in the sandy grass, waiting for a pickup by their pilot Drizzle. The footage was already altered and she had done everything needed to cover up the incident at the site. Not like anyone would be looking for something this far out in the desert but one could never know. It always was better to make sure no traces of the supernatural were left.

While she did not need the well, the extra in Anima there helped a lot with the healing of her wounds and in a way it had become a habit of hers to sit close to the wells and think. Had been part of her daily life as for two years now. First as mandatory therapy, now because of habit.

She sighed deeply. Just when she had landed she had send another tweet as an answer, tried to explain why she found the comments offensive. And only a second later, when the responses came she realized that Alicia might actually not know about Rovena’s powers.

The German had send a short and somewhat halfhearted apology but the topic was nagging her mind since then. Could her secret still be well kept? She had gone over it a dozen times in the last hour but her mind just dragged her there again.

Jessica knew about it and Rovena was not sure if her friend had passed it up the chain withing the Illuminati. Maybe it was justified that she was the only person Rovena trusted unconditionally and throughout.

She bit her lower lip and nodded. Rovena would not disclose anything she knew about Jessica either. Even Kyle and his people never got the details. Speaking of him, he knew about the German’s past and powers as well. But he would never tell anyone outside his organization and technically Rovena was still counted a part of that. Also he knew she was crippled by Charcot again and she never told him about the healing.

A stone flew into the sand and another sigh escaped Rovena’s lips. The trust that once had been their strengths was broken. And she finally had accepted it. She had become pretty careful about what to tell him. They both were really good liars and agents …

Tears started rolling down her cheeks. One day in this life we will fight each other. Deep in her heart she knew it and she felt terrible for it. Still, Kyle would not expose her secrets, not now at least.

This only left the Templar and Vanessa. The doctor was ruled out immediately. No way she would betray Rovena. She would rather die before telling someone anything about her.

So the Templar. This was the frustrating part of the cycle in her thoughts because she did not exactly know what the Templar knew. The fact was there were secret files about her but even in her days at the Order she had not gotten any chances of getting access. And even some high ranking friends did not had a chance.

Sure, her normal file only held a few hints about how powerful she was and it could get easily mistaken as a warning of her social influence and her abilities as investigator …

“Fuck.”

She slammed a fist into the grass. Alicia probably really does not know. And she still thinks I am a normal human …

But then again, there were the people that cleaned up her incidents, changed her memories and made sure her abilities are not usable.

The cycle was about to start over again.

It did not. The sound of Drizzle’s helicopter broke the thoughtful silence and before he landed Rovena was her cold and professional self again. Jessica’s words still rang in her mind.

“I thought you were better than that. Stronger. You’re supposed to be the stronger one, aren’t you? You know what the price of immortality is, Rovena? It’s pain.”

Yes, it was pain. But finally she was accepting it a few weeks ago and by now, the last inhibitor had been removed. Until the weekend she still had taken occult drugs to keep herself closer to a human but a friend being in danger changed that.

For a few days now she was buzzing with power again, more than ever. The German still had to figure the being strong part out. The constant voices in her head, the anger issues, she still was not able the control them.

But those needed to be fixed. Rovena could not always snap like this at one of her very few friends. She had to understand why she was what she was, find out her true origins. Maybe there was something her memories still did not tell her. She finally had to go to her grandparents house. No more procrastination, no more searching for the right person to go there. Just go there.

Alone.

“You know what the price of immortality is, Rovena? It’s pain.”