Adira ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the pen, tracing every intricate line and detail.

It had been just over a year. Just over a year since she’d its glossy surface one last time before locking it away in a safe.

A lot could happen in a year.

Adira had spent most of it traveling abroad. Taking classes at several colleges and visiting family and business contacts in different parts of the world. A year full of meeting new people, going on dates, taking pictures, and trying desperately to forget that Destiny City even existed.
Destiny had been a place that she had loved. The first place where she had moved out on her own, away from the tight control of her mother. A place where friendships were formed and broken, love was found and lost, both a safety net and a free fall. Leaving it was hard, and returning had been harder still.

Leaving was easier than losing grip on a city you had once loved. It was easier than spending your days studying and your nights fighting monsters that belonged in Lovecraft novels or after school children’s specials. It was easier than nursing bruises, scrapes, cuts, and burns. It was easier than trying to organize those fighting on the same side into any semblance of a team or a fighting force against the overwhelming powers of darkness.
The first month was bliss. She’d left behind the darkness to explore Paris, the city of light. Everything seemed different here; carefree, simple, and clean. Adira spent her days shopping, eating, and practicing her horrible French. Her nights were spent going through pictures and getting the first real sleep she’d had in months.

After Paris was Rome, after Rome came London. Then came India, China, and Japan. Occasionally while sleeping she would catch a murmur of Perseus itself, calling to her from her dreams. For the most part, Adira shook them off with coffee and toast in the morning and tried to forget all about it during the day.

She was resolved to deny that part of her soul, to focus on being Adira instead of being Perseus. It took around 9 months for her to realize that she could not be at peace while denying a whole portion of her existence. Yoga and meditation did less, people and places blurred together, and traveling became a chore. It didn’t take long after that for a feeling of loss to settle in. Destiny City, despite its darkness, had provided a home for her. A system of roots to hold her to the ground and an identity that was one and the same with her very being. After a month of weighing pros and cons, Adira arranged her flight back to DC.

The flight back to the United States and Destiny City was uneventful. She’d called to make sure a maid came to deep clean her apartment before her arrival. With a strange feeling of peace, Adira departed the plane and greeted her family driver with affection.

The commotion once at her apartment was excruciatingly long before the door finally closed behind her. She touched a shining countertop briefly before making a beeline to her safe. Inside were a few mundane things, but only one thing that really concerned her.

Her henshin pen.

As soon as her fingers closed around it, she knew what she had to do. It felt like seconds before she was standing on her rooftop, overlooking Destiny City. It seemed to sprawl beneath her, lights starting to flicker on as the sun passed the horizon.

“Perseus Cosmic Power Make-Up!”