"Come on Mal," the orderly said softly crouching down beside her. "You should at least try to eat something."

Mal said nothing, didn't even move. She stayed in the corner, staring out the window. For a mental institution, they had a beautiful view of a forest outside her window. She was at the back of the place, facing the expansive forest that bordered the six-story building. It's exterior comprised of red brick, while the interior was all pale gray concrete. She once thought the stuff was horrible, now, it seemed like the most comfortable thing in the world.

The orderly sighed and sat down with her. "Come on sweetheart, won't you say something? You have a beautiful voice, but I haven't heard it in so long."

Mal still ignored the young man. A set of dark clouds were rolling in over the trees off in the distance, a storm was coming in, and it promised to be a good show. The weather was a source of entertainment for her, one that didn't require her to think about its story, that didn't play with her already broken emotions. The weather was safe, and she wanted safe.

"You still in there Chase?" A voice called the hallway. "Get your ass moving we still have other meals to deliver."

Chase sighed and got up. "I'm worried about her, she hasn't eaten in a couple of days."

"She's just a crazy bitch man, she'll eat when she's hungry."

"She's not animal Reggie." Chase said in a dark tone. "She's a person, who's been through some traumatic shit. Not everyone is like your great-grandmother who took a beating and kept on ticking like it was nothing. Some people do get broken, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're supposed to be helping them, not make them feel worse than they already do."

“No, we’re supposed to be feeding these wasted sacks of flesh.” Reggie spat. “That’s all.”

“Keep talking like that, I’ll have you written up you piece of shit.” Chase threatened.

Reggie was silent. Mal had only interacted with the man once, and she knew he wasn't the kind of person who understood why people had mental breakdowns. He thought it all to be a huge load of crap. He worked at the hospital because 1) he needed the money and it had great benefits, 2) no other place would hire him anymore due to poor conduct. Apparently, he was only able to be hired because some relative or family friend got him the job.

She knew for certain he treated all of the patients like trash. Her included the one time he brought her her meal. When she'd thrown it back at him, he was never allowed to serve her again. She also knew he was screwing the woman down the hall in room 602. During the lunch rounds, the woman would cry and beg for his love, due to the other orderly's he ignored her. At night, however, he would sneak into her room, and they weren't exactly quiet about what they were doing. Still, it wasn't her business. If the woman down the way thought the solution to her problem was to open her legs to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that came her way, that wasn't Mal's concern.

Reggie was merely the most recent in a string of orderlies that woman had seduced. While she had been here less than five years, the exact amount of time she wasn't sure, but it was definitely less than five, that woman had gone through six orderlies. Mal thought for a moment when Chase was hired that he would soon replace Reggie. However, Chase proved to be a good man, and didn't exactly spurn the woman's advances, he played them off as jokes. After a week the woman gave up and stuck with Reggie.

Mal stopped listening after that. Too much drama, too much emotion. The weather suited her more.

Clydesville Mental Institution was comprised of six floors for a reason. The first floor was for the visiting patients who had appointments with the Psychiatrists. They only came by once a week, but should the need arise, and they had to stay for an extended period of time, there were floors and ample space. The doctors who built this place had that in mind.

The second floor was for the suicidal's. With bars over the windows, and every security measure in place for their safety. But, in case if they failed, a fall from the second story would hurt, not kill. The third was for the people like herself who had mental or emotional breakdowns to the point they could no longer live in society, but if left alone were docile enough. The fourth floor was for the sexual abuse victims and sex addicts who sought rape or committed it.

The fifth floor was for the violent types and the padded cells needed to contain some of them. With the windows on that level being very small, a cat could fit through them, but not a person, the occupants would have to get to the lower levels to escape. Designed that way, so if on the rare occasion one of them got out, there was no way they could get down five floors to get out. They would be caught, and hopefully not damage themselves or anyone else on their way.

The sixth floor was for stock, there was a service elevator for when the big inventory came in. Mal watched some of the trucks come and go. That elevator only had two stops, the ground floor, and the top floor. It was safe entertainment, and big deliveries were rare.

The place was efficient, and Mal had seen much of it during her time here. After losing her son, and the baby girl she was pregnant with, the first floor she'd been to was the fifth. But she supposed after taking a knife with the intent to kill her husband, holding her there for a few days made sense. Didn't help that to keep herself from actually killing Drew she had stabbed the knife into her own leg.

The physical pain blinded her from the emotional pain she'd felt for a moment, and when the authorities came, she'd stabbed her leg a few more times to add to it. She didn't really fight them, but she did struggle because when they took her, it hurt. Physical pain overshadowed the emotional, and that's what she wanted. She didn't really remember her time on the fifth floor, the drugs they'd given her had kept her docile and more or less asleep the whole time.

After the fourth day, she was brought down here. She'd been offered the chance to go home many times, one time she accepted, and shortly thereafter, had another breakdown. She couldn't do it. Why would she want to go back out into a society where people purposely ruined others life just for fun? Others laughing as if it were a big joke? Why would she want to go back among people who were going to look at her as if she was an escapee of the loony bin? People who would try to avoid her for fear of physical harm. Those same people would have hindered her every attempt to live a normal life and try to get better. Just like they had the last time she was released.

She'd been out less than a week, and she ended up screaming and locking herself in her house. She'd had to unplug her phone because of the constant threatening messages, and the complaints about her being out. She tried to go grocery shopping was thrown out of the store. When she didn't make it to her follow-up appointment, one of her doctors went looking for her. She forgot who it was now, but they found her at home, curled up in a ball on a mattress in her closet. Everything is house was in disarray and used to block the doorways. Immediately, he called an ambulance, when she screamed at the strangers in the house, thinking they were there to hurt her, she was sedated, when she woke up, she was back in this room.

It was safe, so she welcomed the familiarity numbness. She had no life waiting for her out there, and she didn't want to deal with the monsters of humanity. She didn't want to deal with any of it. She would gladly live and die here, watching the weather and the seasons change as her way to pass the time.

"Is the patient still inside?"

Mal blinked. Having been lost in thought, she'd lost track of the argument between the soft-hearted Chase and the ass hat Reggie. Now, there was a newcomer, one she did not recognize, and the voice was something else. Something inhuman.

"Yes, ma'am." Chase said automatically. "She's been unresponsive. I got a sigh out of her when I gave her her meal, but that was it."

Had she sighed at Chase? Really? That was more emotion that she'd shown anyone in a month. How long had she been unconsciously reacting to him?

"Very well then, I shall go in, see to it that we are not disturbed." The newcomer said patiently. "That means by your endless streams of complaining Reginald. I want you to continue the rounds alone, Chase will stay here to stand guard."

"You can't be serious!?" Reggie hollered in outrage. Causing an endless stream of crying.

There was a loud slap, and the newcomer spoke in a dark tone. "Leave at once! This was the final straw! How dare you raise your voice like that when you know several women here are victims of abuse! Get out of this hospital and never return! Move to another town, another place, go to hell for all I care! Because you are never working anywhere in this town again by the time I'm threw with you!"

With that, a woman, looking to be in her late twenties entered the room and looked at Mal. One look and Mal knew for a fact this woman wasn’t human. There was an ethereal glow about her, and her voice radiated with power. She was dressed at the doctors of this place, but her hair was a long sweeping bright turquoise, unadorned by anything, falling from her head to her waist. Looking as if it were liquid and not hair. Mal used to spend her time reading about Gods and mythical creatures, why one would visit her now, she didn’t know.

The woman looked at her with a bright smile. Her equally turquoise eyes twinkling. "Do you prefer to be addressed by Mal or Mallory?"

Mal shrugged.

"I suppose I shall call you Mal." The woman said looking away and tapping her foot. "Everyone here seems to know you by that. Everyone in this town knows you by that name. Apparently, you went to great lengths to get "Mallory" used less, and "Mal" used more often." She looked back at Mal. "I respect the effort you put into that, so I shall call you Mal."

Mal could only star at the mythical woman in front of her.

She smiled gently at Mal. "You may speak with me child, no one outside this room will hear us. They will just hear me asking the usual mundane questions you have to deal with."

Speak? When was the last time she’d actually used her voice? A month? Longer? Could she even do it anymore. Mal opened her mouth, and supposed, she would know when she used her voice.

"That was very cruel what you did to Reggie." Not what she expected to say, but there, some words were spoken. At least she knew her voice box was still working.

The woman's face became dark with rage. Her twinkling eyes went dark and her hair began to ripple away from her body as heat radiated out from the woman. "That beast has gotten thirteen different women in this place pregnant! Not all of them are like that woman down the hall who parts her legs willingly. Ironically, she is trying to get pregnant, but she won't be the one to bear his child. All of the ones that are will be unable to keep their children because of their mental state! Six of them will die in foster homes because of neglect in the first year alone, four of them will die of drug overdoses when they are teenagers, two of them will die of STD's before they are thirty, one of them will be beaten to death, and out of that thirteen, one girl, one precious little girl, will live to see adulthood.

"She will grow up, fairly happy, find out she was adopted, seek her birth mother at the age of eighteen, and go into medicine so she can help women like her mother. She will be killed in a car accident at the age of sixty-three. All because of that, as you so adequately put it, ass hat. The least I can do for those children is make sure their father suffers for his crimes in a most horrible possible way."

"You could have fired him before that happened."

The woman looked at her remorsefully, "Then that last child wouldn't save the lives she's meant to. Sadly it's the bigger picture we Gods are cursed to forever see. Yes, fifteen lives, fifteen innocent young girls will perish horribly, but, because of a surviving one, over two thousand lives will be saved. Of that two thousand, eighty percent will go on to live wonderful lives, and have good children who will contribute to society and later go one to save other lives as well."

"I suppose that is a comforting thought, even if it is a curse for you." Mal said looking out the window again. “What will become of Reggie? I'm assuming you have everything all planned out for him. Being a goddess and all.”

“He will leave here today, go to a bar, drown his sorrows. Start applying for jobs tomorrow. He’ll fail, as every other place rejected him before he got hired here. His wife will start to get upset with him, there will be more fighting. The babies will be discovered, and DNA testing will be done. Reggie will be found to be the father, and since he will no longer work here, the hospital will villainize him and not try to cover up what happened. He will be held accountable. His wife will leave him. He’ll spend a few years battling the court, in the end, his sentence will be carried out. He’ll go to prison, be some man's bitch for a month, contract AIDS, then die having been drowned in one of the toilets after a series of men take a piss in it.”

"Why drowning in piss?"

"He will go from one man's bitch to five, to ten, to fifteen."

"One for each girl lost."

"Yes. Anyway, one day he will assert himself and tell them all to piss off. So they will, then they'll drown him in it. As all of them are already serving life, there's not much the system can do to them. This state doesn't have the death penalty."

“Guess that goes to show you, never piss off a God.”

The Goddess chuckled. “Too true my dear. Too true. If you think I’m bad, you should see some of the things the others have done. I’ll spare you the specifics, but I will say this, mine hardly ever contain bloodshed, but the other Gods, well, let’s just say after everything they’ve done, we could make a planet entirely out of blood.”

“Do you have a name?”

“Elements. We took the names we are the patron Gods of.”

“Not very original.”

“I agree. I rather liked the idea of Elementia, but then Love, I’m sure you can guess what she’s the patron Goddess of, didn’t like the individuality of my name, so I was forced to go with Elements to keep the peace of the heavens.”

“You didn’t come here just to have an idle chit-chat with a broken woman in an asylum.”

“No, that I did not.”

"What does a Goddess want with me?" Mal asked looking back at her.

Elements sat down on the bed and looked at Mal with patient eyes. Mal noticed they were back to their bright turquoise color, but the twinkle was gone. In those eyes, Mal saw the same pain she felt when she allowed it back in.

"Because you have nothing to lose. You have been broken in every single way a woman can be broken. Yet, despite your initial reaction, have remained sane. At least sane enough to know you can't go back outside these walls without ending right back here, but in worse condition. You are the kind of Champion I need."

"If I have to leave these walls, then answer is no."

"You will have to leave these walls," Elements confirmed. "But you won't be in this world."

"Go on."

Elements smiled, there was triumph there, but Elements rightly kept it in check. Mal knew because there was still no twinkle in her eyes. Elements didn't have a victory yet. "The world is called Taimin. It's a place myself and other Gods created."

"Why?"

"I cannot reveal the exact reason yet, that must only be revealed in a time when you are willing to accept the exact nature of the truth." Elements answered patiently.

"Cryptic, and makes me skeptical." Mal said neutrally.

Elements nodded. "As right you should be. We will lie to you, we will keep secrets from you."

"What a way to sell this lady."

Elements threw her head back and laughed. "Yes. I suppose I am botching this, but I must be honest, or as honest as I can be." She looked at Mal remorsefully. “I find myself in a situation much like you have been in your entire life. Everything and everyone falling to pieces around you. Even the man you loved most hurting you in ways you never thought he would. You are mortal, and there are limits to what a mortal can handle. But I am God, so my limits far exceed yours. Even so, I can feel it, my limit, and I need someone who's been there, who understands what it's like when this all comes to an end.”

“You seem sane to me.”

“You are sane, you just grieve deeply.” Elements sighed. “I have never lost a child, but I think, were I in your place, I would be exactly where you are now.”

“A Goddess admitting to being fallible.”

“We are not infallible, contrary to popular belief. We do make mistakes, and we are weak, and susceptible to things just as much as mortals. Though my comrades would never dare admit it.” Elements leaned in and dropped her voice, "Actually, I’ll tell you a little secret about a mistake and something the Gods would never admit to. Demon and the Love had this little one-night tryst, and they both got sick. They had been very very drunk you see, otherwise, Demon never would have bedded Love.

"Anyway, given all of the fluids that had accumulated over their mating and their being violently ill, both from being hung over then realizing what exactly they'd both done, the two of them left behind enough of their essence the resulting mass gained sentience and life. A mass of gray took a humanoid shape and began to travel space, multiplying its self. Some of them found earth and loved the color green so much they changed their skin to match it."

After a long time of never smiling, or laughing, it felt and sounded odd to her ears as Mal's face broke out into a grin and laughter escaped unbidden. Elements smiled affectionately, watching and letting Mal laugh till it was all out of her system. When Mal looked back at Elements, she nodded approvingly, and triumph was there. The twinkle had returned to her eyes. In place, and not going anywhere.

"Yes, you are my champion, and you can be healed from the current break in your soul." She said softly. "I have faith that you will be just fine after some time on Taimin."

"Let us commence then." Elements said waving her hand. A blue screen appeared in front of Mal. "The other Champions get to pick their abilities and their items, you, won't have that choice. Your powers are pretty much mine, though they will advance as your power grows. I'm just giving you the chance to read over your ability, then I will show you what item you will be given."

Champion of the Elements

This champion has complete and utter control over all of the elements.

Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Light, and Metal.

Can summon them at will and use them as he/she see's fit

weapons are pointless, as the elements are constantly surrounding the champion, and better serve their wielder

having power over the elements will allow the champion to predict the future, manipulate the world of Taimin it's self, to freeze time, to tell what people are thinking, to manipulate people if need be

there is no limit to what the user can do.

"Oh-Kay." Mal said drawing out the word. "Talk about freaking OP. I'm almost scared to ask for my item."

Another box appeared with multiple options. This one didn't have anything to do with items.

Character Alteration Hair Face Body

"Your one item is the one-time use of the Character Alteration setting." Elements explained."The other Champions don't have access to it. If they choose an ability that altered their appearance, then this setting was used so that the God could alter the Champion to suit that ability. You, get to choose."

"Why?"

"Because if I were starting a new life, in a new world, I would, at the very least, like my hair to look decent."

Mal couldn't help the chuckle that followed Elements joke. She took a careful breath and clicked hair. Beside the options, was a mirror, allowing her to see what each hairstyle looked like as she scrolled through her options. She always had short hair. Her mother always kept her daughter's hair short, and as Mal got older, it was just easier to deal with.

When she landed on the option of long hair, she liked the way it looked. There were a couple of different styling choices and when she found the one she liked best, she moved on. Long, with a small chunk of it pulled into a bun on her head, with braids going from her temples then wrapping around the bun to hold it in place. She thought it was beautiful, and she already looked drastically different than she did before. Elements was right, already she felt a little better.

She then messed with the color dial, testing to see what colors there were. She laughed again when her hair was orange, but stopped when she reached the palest pink. She really liked how that looked. She always talked about dying her hair a different color. Not the usual blond, red, brown, or black. She wanted a color like blue, or purple. But this pink, something about it, just made her smile. After selecting to make that a permanent change, the texture changed to match Elements. She wondered if that was something to do with the powers of the elements themselves.

The only other thing she changed was her eyes. They were a darker blue, like sapphires, but it didn't look right with the pale pink. Instead, she turned them to a pale blue. That matched much better.

She didn't really have a problem with the rest of herself. Perhaps if this was years ago, before her breakdown, she would have decreased her bust size and her waistline. However, presently, her waist was slimmer than it had been before. Healthy eating, the occasional exercise she was allowed, and the meds she was given lowered her weight and her body size. Her bust, she hadn't worn a bra in years, and it didn't occur to her to change her cup size at all.

She looked back at Elements, she had a worried look on her face and didn’t notice Mal had finished.

"What now?" Mal asked softly, getting Elements attention back.

"This is where you would ask for one favor, but I’m afraid, I have to change the rules a bit."

"Why’s that?"

“I’m afraid Love has gone against us and chosen a Champion that could mean the end of you all if we do not intervene.”

“Who did Love choose?”

Elements looked back at her worried. “Anna.”

Mal sat there stunned. She knew Elements meant her younger half-sister Anna. Mal became very puzzled by this. Why would a Goddess of Love choose Anna? Anna had nothing to do with love. Obsession, lust, sex, all of that Mal could understand, but love, as the concept was originally intended? No. Anna was not the type of person to find true affection with anyone.

If that was the case, why would Love chose Anna? Surely a Goddess of Love would want someone who wanted to help others find that affection. If not, then what did that mean about the Goddess, for the other champions? A champion that could mean the end of them all, Elements had said. Did that mean Love had her own agenda, separate from the other Gods? If so, what, why?

Elements was seething while Mal was confused. She rose while Mal stayed still and paced.

“Bad enough Hero chose your ex-husband as his champion, Love had to go and choose your sister. Whose sins are worse than even you are aware of.”

“I’ve made my peace with Drew.” Mal said honestly. “As for my sister, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by all of this. I know she's made some pretty terrible choices and enjoyed them, but you're making it sound like something far worse than what I'm thinking.”

“Because it is!" Elements yelled before calming herself. "I'm sorry, Mal, you will be going into that world slightly broken because of what that woman did. The former Champion of Kings is still in a broken state because of what the last Champion of Love did.” Elements seethed. “If Love had chosen one of the ones I suggested, you would have been fine. You would have been healed, the Champion of Kings awoken, and you all would have been fine. But now,” Elements stopped and looked down at Mal. “Now I must ask something very drastic of you.”

“I’m listening.”

“You are Anna’s greatest weakness.” Elements said softly coming to kneel in front of her. “For while you may not know all of her secrets, you know how she thinks, how she operates. You know the truth about her that she would much rather keep hidden.” Elements cupped Mal’s cheek. “I chose you before I knew what Love did, for you are so much like me. Were you anyone else, I would have offered you the chance to back out, but now that is not an option. I’m afraid it must be you.”

“Drew could easily tell truth about her.”

Elements shook her head. “Drew cannot save the Champion of Kings, but you can. I have never chosen a Champion before because I never found the right one. Now I have. If I back out now, everyone that was chosen today will die. You can help keep them alive.”

“How do I do that?”

“By telling the truth. When asked, don’t hold back, don’t sugar coat it, be honest, be brutal, be blunt. When they ask why; tell them everything I have said, and your thoughts that followed. I cannot answer the questions you have, but you are right to have them, and you must see to it the others have them as well.” Elements took hold of Mal’s chin and held firm. “And by the Gods Mallory, when the time comes, and you’ll know when it is, do not hesitate. Do not question, and do not doubt.”

“I don’t want to kill Anna.”

“You may yet change your mind when you learn of her greatest sin.” Elements stroked her hair. “Taimin has a way of revealing things others wish were kept hidden. That includes us Gods.”

Mal nodded. "Alright, I guess I can play along for now. At the very least, I can see where this goes. So how do I get there?"

Elements smiled. "Merely take a nap, and when you wake up, you will be with others on the World of Taimin."

Feeling rather tired, Mal laid down on her bed, closed her eyes and drifted to sleep. She felt Elements run her fingers through her hair, coaxing her off to sleep. She drifted off to sleep and saw her heart. As if it were a glowing jewel, shattered to pieces by what happened in her past. There, she saw her broken heart, trying to repair its self, but only being able to fit the pieces together before they fell apart again.

Then, a light surrounded her heart, encasing it in a glass box. There the pieces remained. Suspended in the air. Not put back together, but not jumbled together in a messy pile as they had been before trying to reassemble its self. It was a spell, of some kind, she was sure. But what spell, and what it meant, she didn’t know. She guessed she would deal with that in due time.

She sighed as she opened her eyes a bit. She wasn't in the hospital anymore, she was in a clearing, others surrounding her. She closed her eyes and decided to rest for a bit longer. Knowing who was waiting here in this clearing, she wanted to get as much peace as she could before it began.

She didn’t get her wish.

A familiar shrilly scream echoed throughout the clearing almost immediately after Mal closed her eyes again causing her to sigh. She sat up slowly and looked to find her younger sister Anna staring down at her furiously. Anna looked different as well, slightly taller, with long blonde hair that looked like liquid gold. Her bust size was also larger, Anna always had a smaller cup size than Mal, but now it seemed they were evened out.

Mal wondered briefly what her sister would do if Anna knew her Goddess had sex with a demon and begot the vile alien race Anna detested.

Anna pointed her and began screaming again. "You bitch! How dare you defile the place of the God's Champion! How dare you show your face in my presence! What the fuck are you doing here!?"

So Anna was still playing the superiority act. Mal knew that she was going to have to keep an eye on her sister, keep her in line. Still, Elements didn’t say she couldn’t have a little fun with it.

She looked at Anna confused, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

At last, her sister seemed stunned into silence.

"Mal."

She looked across the clearing, and there he was. Drew. He too looked slightly different. Also taller, more muscular. He stood as well and approached her. It was true, she made her peace with what he did, but the sight of him still caused her pain in the past. As it was, she felt the glass case around her heart shudder, but that was it. She didn’t feel like crying, she didn’t want to scream at him or hurt him. Matter of fact, she wanted to reassure him. But she couldn’t. She had a part to play, having started it. So, again, she looked confused.

"Do I know you?"

Drew, looked utterly heartbroken. "You - you really don't remember me?"

Mal shook her head.

"I'm your husband."

Not anymore. Mal couldn't help but think. And she honestly had no desire to rekindle what they had. Even if her heart wasn't in suspended animation, she would have rejected Drew as a potential partner on principle.

"Excuse me." Anna snapped. "You mean her ex-husband. She divorced you."

"Circumstances have obviously changed." Drew said softly.

"So what was last night huh?" Anna demanded, sneering down at Mal before looking back at Drew determined. "You practically busted down my door to get into bed with me, and now you're trying to make up with miss weak ass bitch over here!?"

Drew looked at her now. "Last night was my trying to get you to shut up and stay down for a little while so I could leave town without you trying to stop me. That's why my God chose me. I wished to disappear from that life completely so I could forever be rid of you. Had I known you would be here, I would have said no."

Anna faltered at that.

Mal knew what he had planned to do, and she had supported his choice. He had gone through it, and she was glad he succeeded in his attempt. She knew Drew wished more than anything to disappear from the town they were raised in and its people. Whereas Mal couldn't face society as a whole, Drew could. Just not in that town. She firmly believed if he was in another place, he could atone, and she wanted that for him. It didn't surprise her that his God heard him, heard the sincerity in the wish, and granted it. Drew was willing to do anything to make his life better, and better for others if he was able. He was a fine choice, Mal could admit that.

However, knowing what was about to happen when Anna recovered from the momentary shock, Mal stood.

"I'm sorry, but I really don't know either of you. I was sent here by my Goddess, as I'm sure we all have been sent here by a God, or Goddess. Past grievances can wait for another time."

The two of them didn't look happy about this suggestion from her. Still, they didn't exactly have a choice. The other champions stood, and it was time their journey began.