The Cult of Kronos (16 page)

“
Jason!” Zach screamed.
Kronos scooped Jason up by his foot. Jason dropped his gun as he was
yanked upside-down into the air.

“
I have your human,”
Kronos said with a smile, the blood from his eye dripping into his
mouth. “What should I do with him?”

“
Let him go,” Zach
shouted.

“
Did you remember, Zeus,
when you got your memories back? Did you remember how Prometheus
betrayed you?”

Zach changed his form,
slipping into the mortal-safe image of Zeus, complete with beard and
palla. Lightning crackled from his fingers.

“
Did you remember how one of
your own sold you out?”

“
I remembered that you were
never supposed to be in charge.”

“
Would you like me to tell
you who it was?”

“
We already know!” Lewis
shouted. “It was Hestia. You're not gonna shake us, you moron.”

Kronos sneered, his fun
spoiled. He looked at Jason, dangling upside down, trying to shake
free. He looked back at Zach, keeping eye contact as he whipped Jason
hard into the concrete.

A horrible crack was followed
by silence. Jason was dead. They all knew it. Nobody could survive
that. Kronos dropped the mortal's body, bloody and broken, and wiped
his hand on his suit. Even Lewis was silent.

Then someone screamed.

Nick had picked up the black
bundle of cloth from the underworld and charged, screaming, into the
open street. “Hey Kronos!” he shouted. “Yeah, Pop!” He held
the bundle high in the air as he transformed, taking on the wild,
bearded form of Poseidon. They all followed suit, shifting to forms
that represented their god selves. “You know what I have right
here?”

Kronos swung at Poseidon, but
the earth fractured and the Olympian rode a concrete wave to dodge
the falling sickle. “This is a blade dipped in the styx, just like
yours.”

Zach—Zeus looked down at his
own hand. He was gripping the dagger. Whatever Nick had bundled up in
that black cloth was a bluff. Zach tucked the dagger behind his back
and sidestepped away, letting Nick draw focus.

“
And I'm gonna stick it so
far up your backside that you choke on it,” Poseidon shouted.

“
You think you can kill me?”
Kronos asked.

“
Oh, I know it.”

“
What are you going to do,
ask some fish to hold me down?” Kronos asked, taunting Poseidon.

“
Har har. Telling jokes
instead of taking action. What are you,” Poseidon asked, “Craven?”

Kronos ripped his feet loose
from the entangling vines and rushed forward. He swung his fist.
Poseidon dodged. He swung his sickle. This time the Olympian wasn't
quick enough. The tip of the curved blade went into side and sliced
straight up to his armpit.

“
Weak!” Kronos shouted as
his blade ripped Poseidon apart. It was a final death, one that not
even a god could return from. It was just the distraction Zeus needed
to run up beneath Kronos and surge to twenty feet tall, planting the
dagger between his ribs.

Zeus tugged the blade, tearing
a deeper wound. The rest of The Pantheon charged, knocking the sickle
from Kronos's hand and descending on him. The Titan thrashed about,
but dark red blood, almost black, blossomed from the hole in his suit
and spread. They held him down as he died from his wound and shrank
to the size of a mortal man.

Blue lights splashed across
the war-torn street. Ahead of the police, a white van raced down the
street. June was driving, and the others were inside. Devon had
kissed the original driver and told him to give her the keys.

“
Get in!” June shouted.
Teddy threw open the door and helped usher them in. The van shook as
they crossed the broken street and then sped off.

“
Where are Nick and Jason?”
Celene asked.

Zeus had shifted back to the
form of Zach Jacobs, and he shook his head. Tears cut a clean path
through the dirt and blood on his face. “I'm sorry,” he said.
Thunder rolled overhead. “I'm so sorry.”

“
Even
a wolf will not stay - Where sounds no bleat to offer hope of prey
.”

-Greek Proverb

XVI.

They left the bodies in the
street. They felt terrible about it, but there was nothing else to be
done. Their faces were on the news; for every pawn of Kronos there
had been witnesses, and enough people had recognized the faces of The
Pantheon from the traffic cameras overhead and the little bit of
footage that survived the chopper crash. A few of the fleeing
citizens had even stopped to take video on their camera phones,
putting their addiction to social media above their own safety. The
secret was out. Authorities were looking to question them, and the
collateral damage was enough to create a public outcry.

“
We need to split up,”
Zach said, pacing the floor of an empty warehouse. They had been
camped out for three days, taking different forms to go out for
supplies and keeping watch. They didn't have to worry about Kronos
anymore. After that battle, they didn't expect a fuss from another
Titan anytime soon. This time it was the military they feared. They
had seen what Kronos could do with the minds of a few innocent
civilians. They knew they could still be threatened by an
well-organized, highly-trained, yet mortal force. “It's only a
matter of time before someone finds us, and they know we can change
shape.” Lewis had seen the video on the news at the gas station the
day before.

The door opened. On high
alert, everyone whipped around, ready for a fight. Peter had returned
with the wine skin from Jason's house.

“
How was it?” Celene
asked.

“
The place is crawling with
cops. They almost walked right into me a few times.”

“
His kids?”

Peter shook his head. “His
dad was there talking with police. I assume they're with his aunt.”

Peter tossed the wine skin to
Minnie. “Drink up, but leave enough for June.”

June and Minnie took turns
drinking. As Minnie lowered the skin from her lips, her eyes glowed
white and she froze. After a minute she smiled. “Oh yeah,” she
said. “All of that.”

“
Woah, that was freaky,”
June said, hesitantly reaching to take the drink. “I'm not too sure
I want to know.”

“
Well you need to unlock
your memories to shift. We can't hide very well with you looking like
that,” Zach said.

Minnie rubbed her temples. “I
have access to everything,” she said.

“
It'll take a while to all
fall back into order,” Peter explained. “And the shifting takes
practice.”

Minnie shifted on the spot,
taking on her true form, a glowing white goddess, armed and armored
in shining articulated plate.

“
Right. Forgot. Perfect
memory.”

“
Zach's right,” Lewis said
absently, watching June's eyes glow white as she drank.

“
I know,” Penny said. “Our
lives in Olympia Heights are over. I can never be Penny Davis again.”

“
We were brought back for a
reason,” Zach said. “And though we may never know for certain, I
think it was because Gaia hoped we had learned something.”

“
Learned what?” Teddy
asked from his seat on a pile of packing foam. He felt dirty and
miserable. Shapeshifting didn't relieve his need to take a nice hot
shower. It had been days since he'd brushed his teeth or bathed.

“
Humanity.” Minnie stepped
forward. She took the center of the room. “We each had a domain
before we were taken,” she said. “We were supposed to be
guardians, governors. We were supposed to help people, but instead we
became tyrants. Maybe this is our chance to make up for all of that.”

“
So we just split up and
help people?” Astin asked.

“
Exactly. We go our separate
ways. We assume new identities and we try to use our powers for good.
No superheros, just…an example. A helping hand. Leaders in our
field.”

“
And how exactly do we take
on new identities in this world of social security and DNA?” Diana
asked.

“
I can take care of that,”
Evan said. “All I need is a computer with internet access. I can do
that from the public library.”

Zach reached for June's hand
and held it tight. “Then it's decided. Anyone got some paper?”

Minnie brought Zach the pad of
stationary they had found in the glovebox of the stolen van. Lewis
had ditched the vehicle miles away before flying back to the
warehouse. The pad of paper was mostly used-up; it had been very
helpful in writing lists for grocery runs. Now Zach put a pen to
paper and wrote down a name. He added more details before passing it
to June.

“
Evan invents our records,
and once it's done, we go. Zach Jacobs is dead. I am Zeus. I am
whoever I want to be. You can stay in pairs if you'd like,” he
said, looking at Devon, Frank, and baby Xander. “Once a year Lewis
will find us and we'll meet. This isn't goodbye forever, just for
now.

June scribbled a few notes on
the paper and passed it to Minnie. “We'll have to be careful,”
she added. “If any of you blow your cover, I'll turn you to a cow
and leave you at a slaughterhouse.”

“
Mmmm,” Lewis said, “A
delicious quarter-pound Apollo burger.”

“
Oh right, if anyone gets
busted, it's gonna be you, speedy,” Astin snapped.

They passed the pad around,
each quietly waiting for their turn to come up with a whole new
identity. After this, their lives as mortals were over and a new
chapter would begin. The light of the setting sun shone in through
the cracked and dusty warehouse windows, casting an orange glow on
their last evening together.

“
Tomorrow morning,” Zach
said, “I'll take Evan to the library. When we get back, it's done.”

Teddy stood up and raised a
hand as if asking a question in class. “Uh, is anyone gonna address
the fact that Valerie was the one who stabbed us all in the back, or
are we just going to forget that like we forget everything else about
her?”

Valerie looked wounded by
Teddy's joke. They did always forget her. Every time.

Zach looked at Valerie,
locking eyes with her. Her eyes were kind and warm, but they were
also sad. Zach shook his head. “Thousands of years ago,” he said.
“Water under the bridge.”

“
Oh come on,” Lewis said.
“If it was Nick you would totally ki—”

“
Kill him?” Zach asked.

Lewis looked down at his feet.

“
I think tonight would be a
good night to visit your friends and say what you need to say.”
Zach gave June's hand a squeeze. “And then get some rest. We have a
long day tomorrow.”

Valerie drew a circle with her
finger and started a fire within it. The fire burned without fuel,
never spreading. They used it to roast hot dogs and light the
deserted warehouse. Someone found some boxes and packing tape and
covered the window that could be seen from the street so that the
flickering firelight wouldn't attract police.

Penny and Celene were trying
to decide if they should stay together or split apart. Even Diana and
Astin had decided to split; they would never be as close as they were
before Ryan's death. Peter kept his distance, letting mother and
daughter talk. He held onto no hope that Penny would return to the
Underworld with him. It would be nice if she visited, though, he
thought.

Zach sat down next to Peter
and handed him a hot dog on a skewer. “Eat,” he said. “It's a
long trip back to New Orleans.”

Peter thanked Zach and took a
bite out of the hot dog. “What is this?”

“
Turkey,” Zach said. “The
only thing in that gas station that wasn't expired. Lewis bought a
pack of donuts only to find green mold growing in the bag.”

Peter looked hesitantly at the
hot dog.

“
Cooking kills germs,
right?”

Peter nodded. “Sure.”

“
So…I came to you for a
reason,” Zach said.

“
Not just worried about my
girlish figure?”

Zach smiled. “No. I've seen
your other form. You make Arnold look like a sissy.”

“
What can I do for you?”

“
Nick,” Zach said.
“Poseidon. He's dead, right? Like, dead forever?”

Peter nodded. “He's in the
underworld, but he can't leave. He could be a ghost, but his spirit
can never attach to a corporeal body.”

Zach frowned. “We never got
along as humans.”

“
If I remember correctly,
you had plenty of rivalry as gods, too.”

“
We're brothers,” Zach
said, as if that explained everything. Hades was his brother, too.

“
I'm sorry,” Peter said.
“Nothing I can do.”

Zach stared into the fire for
a while. “Can you…can you give him a job?” Zach asked.

“
I can find something.”