A terrible vision of the future. Or is it just a trick?

The situation was bad. Everything had gone wrong, horribly so. Buildings kept crumbling around us, fires were started and people kept dying. I had no idea about how any of this happened, I just knew that this was my fault. Either I told Felicia too much and Faux Paws was somehow able to report all of that back to her boss, or a fight with one of the Legendary had gone awry or I just did something really stupid.

I couldn’t really tell what it was that I was guilty of, I just felt in my bones that I was full of poison and that everyone who had gotten too close to me was doomed because of that.

The answers slowly trickle down and come to me. I wish they hadn’t. I can’t accept them, I can’t live with them.

They all seemed to be sleeping, all of them were 'sleeping' right in front of me. The twelve took center stage, surrounding me like the markings on a clock. All of them seemed so peaceful. Their bodies were covered in white roses, with a single red rose located in each of them like it was a gunshot. Further away from them, it was hard to distinguish faces, but I could feel that it was my friends who were laying perfectly still.

The normal friends, the human friends, the normal human friends who had no business getting involved in the conflicts of titans and had still chosen to try to help me. It didn't do them much good, except for letting them have a wonderful spot to be buried.

Further away from them were more heroes and heroines, one I knew a lot of and others who I had only the vaguest idea of who they were.

The white roses and the single red rose remained a constant. I looked at my hands. They were holding onto bouquets of reds. I didn't want to dwell on it. I didn't want to be here.

And then… Flashy found me. She found me and she cried for me. She held my corpse next to her chest, hugging me like if she put enough strength into it I would go back to life just to ask her for some breathing space. And then she could deny my request and hug me even harder while telling me that I was retiring at that very moment whether I liked it or not because she wouldn’t take another scare like that. But that didn’t happen, because it couldn’t happen, so Flashy just cried louder and louder. And her sadness turned into anger as she lashed out at me for being so selfish and stupid and-

“Hera! Hera! Wake up babe! You’re scaring me!” Flashy was still crying at me, but now she had dried up most of her tears and gone back to sadness instead of rage. And her name wasn’t Flashy, she was Regina. And I wasn’t dead, just in the bedroom.

I had never felt the same need to be protected as I felt at that moment. And thankfully, Regina was as enthusiastic to return the hug as I had been to start it. The two of us were crying, ugly crying, but at least we were still composed enough to keep it to quiet sobs rather than loud whines. Last thing I wanted was for Shayne and Mark to walk in and get me even more emotional.

“Master- I mean, Hera, what the hell just happened to you?” Regina shook her head, confused and worried over what she had witnessed. “One moment you were just fine, sleeping the way a human is meant to, and the other you were suddenly crying in pain and horror as if you were possessed. I’ve slept with masters as they had nightmares before, I know what that looks like, but what happened to you was unlike anything I had ever seen before.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. I want to tell her the truth, of course, but how will that make her feel? Surely, she will just become more worried than she already was. Should I do that to her? Can I even- “Look,” I speak out to stop my mind from going away from me. I have to be honest. “There’s no easy way to say what I need to tell you, and I need you to promise to not get more worried over it than I am. I really need you to promise me that.”

“And this is a promise I have to keep?” Regina asked me, which I guess was her way of saying ‘This is serious, isn’t it?’

“I’m afraid you’ll have to. If you want me to explain all of this to you, I need that guarantee that I won’t just make you feel worse and that I won’t know what to do to help you get back on track.” I explained as I held her hands.

There was an uncertain look in her eye. But then I felt her hands grip mine with a lot of strength, more than I thought she had, and she gave me a little laugh. “You’re such a special case, Hera. You’ve literally just suffered something horrible I’ve never seen a previous master of mine have to deal with, and you’re more worried about how it affects me than how it affects you. You’re not allowed to ever doubt that you’re a hero again, just like I forbid you from now on from putting my needs above yours.”

I couldn’t keep myself from smiling at that. The praise, the appreciation, the everything. Heavens above, when did I start feeling so much love for Regina? “Thank you. Honestly, thank you. But I still need that promise.”

Regina nodded. “Right. Of course, I promise to not freak out over this more than you’ve done. I promise not to escalate this. I promise not to make things worse. And I also promise to not let you sleep without me sharing the bed with you ever again.”

“That last one wasn’t really needed. Or even asked for.” I tell her, fighting back some laughter.

“Oh, you didn’t ask for it, but I can promise you that you needed it. That’s all over your face, babygirl.” Regina winked at me, and damn me if I didn’t want to kiss her at this moment, regardless of how this was absolutely not the moment for stuff like that.

“Alright, don’t let me convince you otherwise. But how am I meant to have sex with other ladies, which you clearly want me to do?” I couldn’t help myself but to tease her. I clearly had to after that wink and, more importantly, it gave me some extra time I needed to process everything that I was about to have to share with her.

“We can sort those details out later.” Regina dismissed it. “I know a deflection when I see one. If you need some time just ask me for it. We can even talk about something else in the meanwhile if that helps you think, but I’d rather us be honest about this. I’m not going to let you get your hopes up over me potentially dropping the subject.”

I hugged her again. We held onto that hug for what felt like hours. For some reason or another, we both went topless during that hug. We remained silent, but Regina naturally turned herself so that her back would be against my chest, and this lead to me putting legs around her hips and massaging her breasts. It was a relaxing mindless task, that allowed me to feel better about myself while I still thought about those horrible things I had seen in my dreams. The moaning and the compliments ensured I kept smiling the whole time. It should be a crime for some lady, any lady, even an ancient and beautiful lady, to be so sexually charismatic. And if Regina could hear my thoughts, she would spin that one into me wanting to arrest her for it and ‘deal with it’ in a hand-on manner. She wouldn’t be incorrect.

I didn’t quite understand how she knew that this was just the thing I needed to do in order to relax, but hats off to Regina. I was now sharing with her every depressing detail about what I dreamt.

It didn’t exactly take much of an effort for the two of us to figure out what actually happened. The puppetmaster, the same mind controlling villain who held the Legendary 12 as her mental prisoners, somehow had managed to find a way to implant my mind with mental suggestions. Either distance or lack of knowledge about me or some other factor present that we hadn’t considered prevented her from hijacking my body like she had done to so many others by this point, which led her to using the best option she had available to her.

“Well, she doesn’t know who I am, or who our friends are, or who you are outside ‘The lady who is going to kick my fucking head in’. That seems good to me.” Regina shrugged her arms, presenting the positive spin on what we had learnt.

I sighed.“But she knows how to get into my mind, even if she’s stuck at the entrance because every door to the important rooms is locked. We need to figure out a way to prevent her from finding the keys. And we need to push he out of that entrance, because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep again if that’s what's going to keep on happening.” It was really hard to not feel overwhelmingly frustrated over the whole ordeal.

“Every ill has a cure, Hera. She might be strong, but the ring is stronger. She might be clever, but I bet you’re far smarter than her. And we might be playing catch up to her, but she doesn’t have someone like me to advise her.” She turned her head to look at me face to face. She was grinning.

“You have a plan?” I was curious, but hopeful.