Chapter Forty-Eight

Lenzie

“If you do this,” I say, laying out a map and grabbing a pencil. “And attack from this angle, while doing a simultaneous strike at this angle, then they would all rush here first.” I circle the spot on the map. “To keep you from getting up to Olympus. Which leaves the back entrance, here, open for access.”

“Then how would we get to any of the Olympians?” Terri asks. “They’ll all rush to protect the boundaries, you just said that.”

“No, I said they would. Never said who,” I say.

Terri narrows her eyes at me.

“The Olympians will retreat back here,” I say, grabbing a different color and circling the room farthest from the main hall. “It’s their bomb shelter in a sense. I helped my mother build it. It normally holds all their weapons.”

“The Olympians will save themselves and leave the lesser gods to fight,” Clato says, in utter disgust.

“Exactly,” I reply, pointing my pencil at her.

“You said that the weapons were normally stored there. As in, they’re not anymore?” Brian asks.

“Yes and no. Right now they are, but in about two days they will receive a very persuasive note saying that there is a plan to break in and steal their objects of power. Signed by a very important spy,” I say. “That not even Athena will be able to deem authentic.”

“So it would leave the vault completely empty and they’ll be completely vulnerable,” Emma says.

“Once again yes and no,” I say.

“Explain,” Helga says. “Please.”

“The vault is going to be empty, that is true. Aside from them anyway. But they will not be vulnerable. Not until we set off this,” I say, placing a small ball on the table. “This works in the same sense as the serum that you got from Hypnos. It will neutralize their powers. Unlike the serum it is only temporary, not permanently. But it should give us enough time to inject them.”

“How does it work?” Ian asks.

I glance up at Waverly, “You should probably leave for this part.”

She nods once, “How far away must I be?”

“The bombs have a range of twenty feet. Anywhere outside of that is safe,” I explain.

“I’ll be in Atlanta,” Waverly says with a sarcastic smile. “Just to be safe.”

“That would be best,” I reply, matching her smile.

She rolls her eyes and disappears.

“It’s rather simple to operate,” I say as I start to explain.

۝

“Gear up,” Clato tells us. “We go in for attack.”

Everyone grabs one of the bombs off the table and heads back to their rooms to get in their armor.

“You ready for this?” Clato asks, walking up to me.

I meet her eyes, “Lets go change the world.”

“Let’s go save it,” she adds.

I nod once. And then we were off.

۝

What if your whole life you’d been told one thing? Your whole life you’d been told that the gods were good. They were saviors. But as you got older they appeared more like destroyers. Now what if you knew this, and you could do nothing about it?

And you live in a whole town of people who knew the real enemy. That enemy being the people I now worked for. Except everyone here was just humans. With the same beliefs as that entire town of people, they were just acting out against it. In a way that we never would’ve done.

What was one supposed to do when their sense of good and bad was warped forever? What did you do when the real enemy seemed to be within the town you had called home for so long?

I did the only thing I could.

I ran.

۝

Olympus was silent as we made our way up the back steps. Two other teams were going to attack through the front, as our distraction. Which left us to take the gods. To me, this was not a betrayal, to me, it was simply something that needed to be done.

“You ready?” Clato asks, crouching beside me.

“Go,” I reply, and then she was crawling forward, and I followed.

I knew that everyone in Godville would hate me for what I’m doing. What I had become. But Godville could not be trusted.

“We have to get into that vault before they seal the door,” I whisper.

Clato nods and leaps up, slipping into the vault, I follow. Just as I dropped down in a shadowed corner the first teams bomb went off.

“No weapons,” Clato says. “Your plan worked.”

“Of course it worked,” I reply snarkily.

She laughs lightly, “Sorry, I didn’t mean any offense.”

I glance at her in the opposite corner, “You didn’t.”

We lay there in silence for a while, we were really only in here in case our team was unable to make it through the doors after the gods. Speaking of, the gods rushed in. Aphrodite first, quickly followed by Zeus and my mother.

One by one all the ‘important’ gods file in.

“SEAL THE DOOR!” Zeus thunders.

Hephaestus goes to do so, but before he can the rest of our team barges in.

“Not today,” Terri says.

We had thirteen members on our team. One for each Olympian. Minus Ares since he’s already been injected.

“Tell me, Ares,” Clato says, standing. “Are you a mortal yet?”

“What?” Ares sputters.

“You know, you were injected with this stuff already, when you betrayed the gods and decided to work with Hypnos. And then he had no more use for you, so he injected you with a Mortal Serum. I’m curious, how long did it take to make you mortal?” Clato asks.

I had stood up by now refusing to met the eyes of my mother.

“See, Lenz here, she gave us a five week estimation. And she’s usually correct,” Clato says.

Ares clenches his teeth and refuses to answer.

“It seems she was correct once more,” Clato says with a little laugh.

“YOU!” Athena shouts, glaring at me. “YOU sent us here! Weaponless! YOU went against your own kind! How could YOU do this?!”

I don’t answer, instead I take out the bomb. Spinning the top and the bottom in opposite directions, before pressing down at the top. Which presses the bottom outwards. I flip it over and unlatch the bottom, pressing the button that was hidden under the latch.

And then I drop it. There was a buzzing sound, and then a purple-ish liquid pulses out of the bomb. I pull out the syringe with stormy grey liquid, and walk over to Athena.

“Because the world would be better without the gods, and without demigods,” I say, injecting her.

“And you think that you can save the world? By yourselves?” she asks, smiling even though agony rippled through her body. “You will DESTROY it!”

“Not any worse than you did,” Helga snaps.

“YOU CANNOT TAKE AWAY THE GODS!” Zeus yells. “THE GODS ARE IMMORTAL! YOU MAY KILL US BUT OUR RACE SHALL STRIVE! THE GREAT CREATOR HAS MADE IT SO!”

“The Great Creator is dead,” Clato says. “He left us the same day you all did.”

“You used to be such a sweet girl,” Hera says, shaking her head. “Look at what they did to you. Must’ve been your father’s genes.”

“DO NOT SPEAK OF MY FATHER!” Clato shouts.

“A sorry excuse for a god, even worse excuse for a father,” Aphrodite adds. “There was no love in that relationship.”

“How is your sister anyway?” Athena asks, smiling even though blood dripped down her chin. “How do you and her get along? Is that curse still keeping you apart?”

“Your mother didn’t want you,” Ares adds. “Neither did your father. You got stuck with us! Because all they could see was your sister.”

“Then they didn’t even want her,” Hades adds.

“Such foul creatures! Both of them! To do that to their children! Disgusting! Absolute pigs the both of them,” Artemis mutters.

“STOP IT!” Clato shouts, her breath coming out in fast pants.

“Clato get out of there. Now,” Waverly says through our earpieces. “They’re trying to get you so mad that you literally blow up. Don’t ask how, just trust me.”

“Not to mention the fact that they tried to murder you when you were born,” Poseidon asks. “Drown you in the ocean as it were.”

Clato’s eyes were wide, and on the verge of spilling tears. I touch the earpiece.

“Wave, I don’t think that she can move. She’s in shock, it’s like they’re doing some kind of magic on her,” I say.

“That’s exactly what they’re doing,” Waverly replies. “What’s the level of the gas bombs?”

“We just set another one off three seconds ago,” I say.

“I gotta say, I was hoping for a different response,” Waverly says.

“Wave, you can’t. Coming here would kill you,” I say.

“And they’ll kill her,” Waverly says.

Before I could object anymore the vault door was blown open. Waverly stood there. Her eyes glowing and she marched straight into the room and slammed her foot down.

Almost immediately the silver hue that had been forming in the edges of the room disperse.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN TRY AND KILL MY SISTER?” Waverly demands, voice booming. “YOU DARE USE MAGIC ON HER?”

Waverly turns to Clato, grabbing her shoulders, “WAKE UP!”

Clato doesn’t move, staring there shock etched in her eyes.

“CLAY! WAKE UP!” Waverly screams. “PLEASE! SNAP OUT OF IT! COME ON! DO IT!”

Waverly shakes Clato lightly, but it does nothing.

“I WILL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! PERSONALLY!” Waverly screams, turning to glare at the gods.

The gods stare up at her, with eyes the size as saucers.

“I’m sorry Clay,” Waverly whispers. “For everything. I am so. So sorry. Like you have no idea. I don’t need you to forgive me, I understand why you hate me. Just please… Don’t hate me forever yeah?”

Then Waverly closes her eyes and silver and gold light transfer from her fingers into Clato.

“WAVE don’t!” I shout. “You’ll kill yourself! You need to get out of here! NOW! STOP IT! She’s fine!”

“NO!” Waverly says. “I WILL NOT LEAVE! Not until she is in perfect health!”

“You’re killing yourself!” I shout.

“So long as she’s alive after I die I do not care!” Waverly retorts.

“You don’t have the energy or the power to save her! Not without killing yourself!” I argue.

“Then I will die,” Waverly whispers.

She doesn’t stop the transfer of power, not until the steady streams of light sputter out and disappear. Then she turns to the gods, fire in her eyes. Eyes that were slowly dimming.

Waverly opens her mouth to speak again but instead drops to the floor, coughing.

“WAVE!” I shout, dropping next to her. “I told you NOT to come!”

Waverly looks at me, her eyes unfocused, “They. They were going to kill her Lenz.”

“What do you think is happening to you?” I ask.

Waverly closes her eyes, her whole body beginning to shake like crazy.

“She’s okay. That’s all that. That I care about,” she whispers.

“Waverly!” Clato cries dropping next to us. “What the hell? Are you that stupid? By god are you really that stupid?!”

“Yeah, you welcome,” Waverly mutters.

Kit, a son of Poseidon comes over.

“I’ll get her back to base,” he says, touching Wave’s shoulder.

Then they were both consumed by water. But not before we all saw Waverly draw her last breath.

“NOOO!” Clato screams, the sound so full of absolute pain that even the gods flinch.

۝

Little did any of us know, Clato’s scream of pain could be heard by everyone. Little kids covered their ears as the sound threatened to shatter their soul. Adults dropped to the floor and cries out with her, feeling her pain as if it was their own.

Godville literally shook as everyone remembered all the pain they had ever felt in their entire lives. They relived the dying of lost friends. They once again fought in a ended battle. Plagued by memories they thought were gone.

The ocean and all Earth’s water turned from a bright blue to a dull green and grey color. Like it was sick.

The sky… Well the sky turned black. And rain poured like Rhea felt the pain as well. The ground withered and died, as animals ran to hide.

The pain did not leave, and it did not leave anyone when it extended it’s wrath. Gods. Demigods. Animals. Monsters. Satyrs. Titans. Mortals. All of them relieved their mot painful memories.

۝

I place my hand on Clato’s shoulder, “Come on, we have to get back to base. I have a plan. We might still be able to save her. It’s a long shot, and it really only relies on you, but it could work.”

She looks up at me, tears in her eyes, “What?”

“You told me that your deepest regret was that you haven’t gotten to have a relationship with your sister. Because you were jealous,” I remind her. “Full of hate. Is that still the case?”

“What?” Clato repeats.

“Your sister just died for you,” I tell her. “But are you still jealous and full of hate? Because if so, then this isn’t going to work.”

“What’s not going to work?” Terri asks.

“Let’s go back to base,” I repeat. “I’m not explaining it in front of unwanted ears. If you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, you were very subtle with that one,” Helga laughs.

I roll my eyes at her, before turning back to Clato and holding out my hand.

“What do you say, Clay?” I ask. “Wanna go save your sister?”

Clato grabs my hand.

۝

I had always thought that Clato was robotic. Even when I first came on board with the team. I had thought that she had locked away all human feelings and flushed them.

I figured that she hated her mortal life. She wanted nothing to do with it. I was right on some accounts. Clato didn’t want anything to do with her mortal life. But she wasn’t some robot that didn’t have any feelings. In fact, she cared more than she would let anyone know.

She just didn’t like to show it because she didn’t want to get hurt. I understood that, I respected that.

Because she was just as human as we all were. She was even more so, being honest. And that’s why I decided to trust her and join this team.

۝

“So what’s this plan?” Clato demands.

“When Waverly was saving you, she transferred her powers to you,” I say. “Literally until there was nothing left.”

“What does that mean?” Clato asks.

I sigh impatiently, “Waverly wouldn’t have died if she had just showed up. She would’ve temporarily lost her powers and became mortal for three days. That’s it. What killed her was saving you. She didn’t have enough strength to fight against the effects of the bomb after giving you her power. So it killed her. That’s the fear we had with the gods when we made the serum, remember?”

“Oh! Right! I get it now!” Helga says happily. “All we have to do is transfer Wave’s powers back to her and she should be able to fight off the lingering poison and come back to life!”

“That’s the plan, yeah,” I say, pointing at Helga.

“Except I don’t know how to transfer powers! I didn’t even know I had them! I can’t… Feel them,” Clato says.

“Walk with me,” I say, grabbing her arm and leading her towards the door.

Once I knew that we were out of range of the rest I begin to explain to her everything I had found out.

“Transferring powers is… Really hard,” I say. “It only happens if the person doing it has two things. One: Love for the person they are transferring it into. Two: Emotion. Waverly loved you, and she thought you were going to die, which spiked her emotions up greatly.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I even have her powers!” Clato retorts.

“You do Clay,” I say. “But do you also have hate for Wave still? Are you still jealous?”

“No,” she says.

“ARE YOU?” I shout, turning around and throwing her against the wall. “Because if you are then you are not going to save your sister! If you do then you can have these powers! Wave would be better off dead than with you!”

Clato’s eyes start to glow, one silver, one gold, and she snarls at me.

“I ALREADY SAID NO! I DO NOT!” She screams.

Silver and gold wrap around her, like a cloak. I smile.

“There you go,” I say.

She blinks and looks down at herself, the trendles of light fading out.

“Wow,” she whispers. “It’s true then. I can save her.”

“Let’s go do that,” I say.

۝

Clato

“Please work, please work, please work,” I mumble to myself.

I had given Wave her powers back ten minutes ago, and right now she was still laying there, completely unresponsive. Lenz was pacing from one end of the room to the next, biting her thumbnail.

“It’s not working,” I say.

“Wait for it,” Lenz replies.

“What do you think I’ve been doing again?” I growl.

“Looking like a fish out of water,” a new voice whispers.

“WAVE,” I shout, leaping forward. “You’re alive!”

“Figures,” Wave mumbles. “I wondered why your ugly voice was in heaven.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” I say, smiling.

“I’m a natural comedian,” she says.

“No,” I say. “You’re my sister. And that’s all you ever need to be.”

“That’s all I ever wanted to be,” she answers.

“Told you it would work!” Lenz says happily. “After everything, you still doubt me and my endless wisdom. It’s kind of sad.”

“I promise I will never do it again,” I say, looking up at her.

“Yeah right,” she says with an eye roll and a grin. “You can’t help it. You doubt everything that isn’t of your own making.”

“Thank you, Lenzie,” I say. “Really, thank you.”

Lenzie waves a hand at me, “Don’t you think nothing of it,” she says. “It was all you anyway. You were the hero today. I just pointed you in the right direction.”

“Yeah, but I could’ve killed you in that hallway,” I point out.

“Yeah, so that might not have been one of my best plans,” Lenz says. “Whoops. Better luck next time right?”

“What is going on?” Wave asks. “What hallway?”

“There is a lot that we have to catch you up on,” I say.

“I have the time,” Wave replies.

“Yeah, we do,” I answer.