AN: Hello, true believers. :)

Near the end of this chapter we will begin moving into the final arcs for this volume. Enjoy!

Chapter 13: Road Rage

Soft green eyes pierced Scott's soul. Aria's lower lip poked out slightly, even as she leaned forward for emphasis. Much had happened in the night, since the tag team training session had awakened Rhea's understanding of love and carried it to bold new heights. Now, while they were on Earth, she demanded things, a certain thing to be specific.

Scott gazed thoughtfully at his fiancé, but after a moment he calmly told her, "No."

Aria's pouting intensified. She batted her eye lashes at Scott. "I'll be good..."

"Please Scott?" asked Ero, once again human-size. "Rh— Aria, wants it so fairy badly. Give it to her Scott."

"Yeah," said Aria warmly, before leaning forward a soft smile on her lips. "Give it to me, Scott."

The two girls stood side-by-side united in common cause. There was nothing he could do in that moment, so long as Hebert wasn't around he was outnumbered.

Aria reached up and clasped a lock of hair, and lightly stroked it. "I promise, I'll be good..."

Scott sighed loudly, defeated by the sheer power of cuteness and sexy girl posing. He held up the set of car keys and said, "Fine, you win."

"Yes. Yes, I do," said Aria in a spunky manner, before snatching the keys from his hand. "Ha! It's time to ride!"

"Yay!" cried Ero, before rushing over to the newly restored pink convertible. Aria preferred that body style over the others, so the car shifted back and forth at need to elude the police.

Scott hopped in the back, as Ero needed to see how Rhea operated the vehicle. It promised to be one hell of a ride.

Aria pulled out of the driveway slowly, carefully. She performed all the proper safety checks. Everything seemed perfectly right and proper for all of one minute until she was on the street. She looked up into the rear view mirror grinned at Scott, and winked playfully.

"Ah, no," he shook his head at her.

She nodded at him, her smile growing wider. A soft laugh echoed merrily through the air as Scott cried out, "No. No. No. No!" even as she gunned the engine. Tires squealed excitedly as the convertible tore off down the street.

Ero cried out wildly, laughing all the while. "Driving's fun!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Says the girl who can fly!" exclaimed Scott while clinging to his seat belt for dear life.

Aria turned sharply at high-speed causing the back-end of the car to fish-tail widely. She pressed the gas pedal down harder and the car shot forward faster than before.

"Now this is what I've been waiting for!" cried Aria before weaving through two cars on the road ahead. She narrowly avoided a head-on collision, but no doubt gave the poor woman in the on-coming car a heart attack.

"Music, I think..." said Aria. She drove using her foot for a moment while checking the channels.

"Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!" cried Scott, just before Aria cut a hard right and whipped down a new street. Cars whizzed by, their horns honking angrily at the insane driver on the road.

"Back seat driver," said Aria cheerfully, before she found a cute little pop song to listen to while she happily broke all of the known traffic laws.

Unfortunately, Ero proved to be an attentive student, she learned many things on their road trip that day. Such notable gems as, red means stop, unless it's just a little red, and speed limits meant that the driver needed to travel that speed at minimum.

Surprisingly, it took an hour of running rough-shod over the laws of man and common sense, before the police actually began a proper attempt at bringing them to justice.

Six black and gold cars from the local sheriff's department chased the pink Cadillac at high-speed down the busy interstate highway. Aria laughed uproariously as she swerved around cars with expert timing and skill.

It was not long before they came across a barricade in the road. Aria merely gunned the engine, a demented light in her eyes. Police officers dived for cover as she bore down on the obstructions in the road. At the last second, the car hopped over the tire spikes, the orange cones, and the cop cars placed in the way. Much to the absolute surprise of local law enforcement, the pink Cadillac continued on its merry way.

Needless to say, Scott aged several years during that hair raising experience. The police eventually picked up their trail, but no matter what they tried, they were no match for a perky goddess playing Twisted Metal in real life. Surprisingly, no serious accidents occurred. Well, it was surprising for anyone but the people in the car.

It became obvious after a while, that Origin had some sort of collision avoidance going in her wake. A few cop cars did get damaged, though the officers were perfectly fine. A few cars end up flying into local barns and landing inside bales of hay. A few others ended up in a river or two. The property damage for the county would be quite significant.

"You're really something. You know that?" asked Scott after Aria shifted the car's appearance to something less conspicuous, an orange '69 Dodge Charger with a confederate flag painted on the roof.

"You don't like it?" she asked sweetly.

"I kind of want to sing about being good old boys running from the law and not meaning no harm, but that's beside the point," said Scott with a laugh.

Someone pulled out ahead of Aria, forcing her to screech to a halt. She stuck her head out of the driver's side window and shouted in a high-pitched tone, "Hey! Learn how to drive!" before narrowing her eyes. She gripped the while tight then began chasing the car down in hot pursuit.

The foolish driver who'd angered the goddess of road rage fled for their life as Aria continually blew the horn. Every time she blew it, the horn played a fanciful version of the first twelve words in the song, Dixie.

Scott sighed loudly and did his best not to laugh at her antics. This was a side of her he rarely saw. It was disturbing, and possibly homicidal, but still quite endearing in its own ridiculous way.

"What are you going to do about those cop cars?" asked Scott.

"The police are going to get a nice fat donation. Don't you worry," said Aria with a giggle.

Ero threw her hands to her cheeks, widened her eyes dramatically, and ecstatically exclaimed, "Screw the rules! I have money!"

Everyone laughed at the silliness of it all. They were, at that moment, nothing more than a trio of idiot teenagers having fun. Their true ages notwithstanding, it was a beautiful time had by all and worthy of a laugh.

She gripped the steering wheel casually and sighed happily. "That felt great..."

Ero glanced at her then looked back at Scott. "I'll have what she's having."

Scott laughed at the goofy expression on the fairy girl's face. Today proved to be fun after all. As ridiculous and reckless as it was, the antics of Aria flying down the road helped out greatly. Recent events were somber and melancholy at times. The last few hours spent cuddled together, and this road trip adventure worked wonders for team morale.

Aria changed the appearance of her car once more, this time to a black van with tinted windows. On the side of the van the words, I Got Candy were painted in dynamic colors. Scott whapped her on the back of the head playfully, and she changed it to a regular black van.

"Well, I thought it was funny," pouted Aria.

"Of course it was funny. That's not the point," said Scott before offering an amused chuckle. "Do you even have candy, though?"

"You're right... I don't," Aria's eyes widened significantly. "My life would have been a lie."

The trio laughed themselves silly once more at the ridiculousness of it all. The road trip continued for quite some time, until Aria switched off with Ero at an abandoned parking lot near the outskirts of town.

"It's an automatic now, right?" asked Ero thoughtfully while sitting in the driver's seat. She looked at the various levers briefly while biting her lower lip.

"Yes. You only need to crank it, put it in drive, and step on the gas," said Aria helpfully.

"Drive is... the, um..." Ero fidgeted nervously. She paid attention throughout the road trip, but Aria did not park even once until now.

"You have to shift this lever to move the little red thing. You have to go from the P to get the D," said Aria while pointing at the little letters.

Ero cautiously shifted the vehicle into drive then clapped when the little red marked landed on the D. "Yay! I got the D!"

"Yeah you did," said Scott before waggling his eyebrows obscenely. "Now what are you gonna do with it, gurl?"

Aria pushed at him while Ero laughed. "I have some fairy good ideas, Scott," said Ero suggestively.

"Oh, don't tease me," he said with a grin. "Show me how you work it."

Ero giggled excitedly then stepped on the gas. The car jerked forward and raced down the parking lot. "Waah!" she cried as the beast sped forward faster than she realized that it would. She braked suddenly and the van jerked to a stop. She coughed once then tried again. It took a moment before she figured out the exact amount of pressure to apply.

"Yes!" cried Ero enthusiastically as she drove around the parking lot in happy little circles. Her driving lesson went on for quite a while. It was a good time had by all, but eventually the fun little outing came to an end. Aria needed to head back to work.

Back on ARS, now in the guise of Rhea, she leaned forward and kissed Scott softly. Ero cleared her throat then leaned forward with her lips puckered. Rhea rolled her eyes lightly then gave the fairy girl a kiss as well.

"That's what I'm talking about," said Ero giddily. Rhea shook her head and laughed at little despite the mild embarrassment.

"I'll see you later, Scott," said Rhea sweetly. She embraced him warmly and they whispered sweetly to each other for a moment. Another series of kisses passed between them afterward. Rhea did the same for Ero, sweet kisses and all, before the goodbyes were said. Not long after, she logged out completely.

Scott turned to Ero. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment then Scott lightly ran his hand down her cheek. Her eyes began to shine softly even as her lips lightly parted. Slowly, then leaned forward at the same time. Their lips pressed sweetly together just before slipping into a tight embrace.

Ero's eyes widened slightly as Scotts hand slipped down to gently massage her rear, then widened further when his hand slid further down to massage something else from behind. "Scott..." she whispered huskily.

"I love you Ero," her whispered in her ear. "See you soon."

"You're such a tease," she said in a throaty dulcet tone before biting his ear. The cute little fairy was feeling the love.

Scott picked her up and pressed her hotly against the wall. Her legs slipped apart and wrapped his waist expectantly. There was a little time left before he needed to leave, after all.

What followed between them was both sweet, and disturbingly erotic. Promises were made, broken, and then made again before being broken a second time. Neither of them complained.

Eventually, the constant shifting from fairy to human size took its toll of the fairy girl. Throughout the day, she'd had to change sizes several times when she became worn out. It was not a good time to say their goodbyes.

They parted sadly, but with smiles. They would all see each other soon. Ero went to find Karsi. Scott left to go get Herbert. He was certain the grass rat would be more than a little concerned at his absence.

From the divine city, Origin watched what transpired the moment she left. A soft, wistful, sigh escaped her lips but for the first time the spike of jealous did not completely overwhelm her. There was a strange sort of happiness within her now. After the events of the last few hours, there was no longer a sense of despair or fear of losing Scott to Ero. Sharing him would continue to be hard, but if it was with the little fairy then it was possible. She knew that now.