Present Day
Atlantis
Athena stood at the top of the arc. She could see that the leaders were slowly losing their energy. Even Zeus, who had been the pillar of strength for centuries, had left because he needed to rest for a moment in his old office.
It was getting more and more difficult for them to fight the Earthlings as their replacements were getting closer to completion. She wondered how much longer they had left before they would cease to exist. She also wondered why Queen Amanda and her friends were taking so long to get back to the future. She hoped they hadn’t run into any trouble. Just as she was about to go to the large mirror at the top of the arc to see what they were up to, they appeared before her.
“Thank goodness you’re here!” she exclaimed, running over to Queen Amanda. “The replacements will be waking up very soon. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Demeter are already in the process of dying.” She turned to the Infer. “I don’t know how you managed to elude death all these years, but I’m glad you did. We need you to stop the maturation process on the clones. What is the password to override that system?”
“I don’t know,” Pallid said. “When did you teach the Infers this password?”
“In your advanced lessons,” she told him. “I discussed the possible backup plans the six leaders established if Atlantis ever got attacked.”
“Did you actually say the password?”
“I know I did, but I had to encrypt the way I gave it in case the enemy caught one of you and extracted your memories. When you go to the location of the replacements, you must study the panels along the incubators. Each incubator has a pattern. When you combine the patterns, then you will have your password. I taught you where to look in each pattern, but my memory was wiped of the password for security reasons.”
“In case the enemy got a hold of you,” he said.
She nodded. “We did everything we could to preserve and protect Atlantis. Perhaps, we did too good of a job.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Thirty minutes. The others are failing fast. They won’t last much longer. Once the replacements open their incubators, the Stone of Immortality will cover them. You see, when we created them, we thought the original people would already be dead, so we never worried about the stone transferring its power to the new leaders.”
“We don’t have much time then.” He glanced at Amanda, Jake, and Katherine. “Is it safe for us to leave the building?” Pallid asked Athena.
“Yes and no. We managed to clear the city of the military personnel, but the machines Zeus, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, and Ares were operating are out of control. I would turn them off, but only their owners know how to do that.”
“Another security measure?” Amanda asked.
Athena nodded. “We thought it was the wisest thing to do at the time.”
“Where are the others now?”
“In their offices. I’ve been trying to contact them through my telecommunicator, but only Ares will respond. My guess is that the others are unconscious. I was ready to check on them when you arrived.”
“What else do you need besides my finding the password?” Pallid asked.
“Help with the spaceship and getting everyone back on it.”
“This place must be destroyed once and for all,” Amanda said. “Now that I’ve seen its past, this type of civilization shouldn’t exist. People should be appreciated for who they are instead of how they look.”
“I agree,” Athena replied. “This city must be eliminated. In order to do that, you have to set it to self-destruct. The instrument that does that will be located near the replacements. Your magic will enable you to do this, but I ask that you wait for everyone to get on the spaceship first. The city will only take a few minutes to eliminate all the technology. Once that is destroyed, then Atlantis will self-destruct.”
“Katherine and I can help you get your companions into the spaceship,” Jake offered, looking at Katherine to see if she agreed.
She nodded. “We don’t have anything else to do.”
Athena turned to Pallid and Amanda. “We will come for you at the building where the replacements are when we finish moving everyone into the spaceship.”
Pallid and Amanda indicated their agreement and left.
***
Pallid and Amanda left the arc. Hordes of locusts and giant snakes ran amok through the city. Worse than that, the harsh wind and sheets of rain made it more difficult to navigate their way through the streets. Thunder and lightning lit up the sky, emphasizing the doomed atmosphere.
The wind wrapped Amanda’s hair around her face so that she couldn’t see anything. She struggled to move her wet hair away, but it was no use.
“Here. Let me help you,” Pallid said as he put his cane safely in a doorway where it wouldn’t blow away.
She stopped fighting the wind and rain and let him take care of the situation. She was relieved as he succeeded in pulling her hair back into a ponytail.
“There. Now you shouldn’t have any problems,” he said as he picked his cane up.
“Thanks,” she replied, smiling.
A large snake slithered towards them.
“You don’t want to get near them,” he warned as he pulled her into a doorway. “They will wrap around you and suffocate you.”
As the snake neared them, he pressed into the doorway with her. Her face flushed as his body pressed against hers. Good grief. They were in a dangerous situation, and all she could think about was how much she wanted him? She was the Queen of Raz. She had more important things to think about.
“Stay still,” he advised. “The snake is pretty stupid. If you don’t move, he won’t pick up on your vibration.”
The green and yellow snake inched by them, looking in all directions for any intruders it could kill.
She held her breath as it passed them. It was so large that it was up to her waist. She cringed at the thought of one of those things suffocating her.
After it slid by them, she released her breath. “Thank goodness,” she replied.
“It’s one of Hades’ specialties,” he said. “Not friendly at all and effective in keeping unwelcome visitors out of the Underworld.”
“You know this from personal experience?”
“Yes, I do. One of them almost killed me.”
“That must have been awful.”
He turned away from the retreating snake and looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. Her breath caught in her throat as he brushed her cheek with his fingers.
“Adrian,” he whispered.
She furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”
“My name is Adrian.”
His heartfelt confession was so unlike his cold exterior that she didn’t know how to react. Fortunately, he saved her from having to make the decision.
He cleared his throat. “Come. We need to find those replacements.”
She reluctantly followed him as he walked down the street.
“The building we need is two blocks away,” he yelled over the roll of thunder.
She nodded, trying to ignore the swarm of locusts that surrounded them. She cringed as their wings fluttered angrily against her face and hair. These things were nasty, and there were so many of them that it was difficult for her to concentrate on her task. She didn’t blame the Earthlings for evacuating this city as soon as these monstrosities came out.
He took her hand and led her through the street. They turned onto another street where more locusts came after them. All at once, they began to sting her. She screamed at the painful sensations. Pallid yelled at the insects and waved them away.
She wondered why they were only stinging her. Then it occurred to her they were used to him since he had lived here. She was the foreigner, and they had undoubtedly been programmed by Hades to get rid of anyone who wasn’t a native of the city.
Finally, he managed to fight them off so that they were no longer stinging her, but the damage had been done. She didn’t know what was in their stingers, but she knew it had to be some type of poison.
“Amanda,” he said. “Are you alright?”
His voice sounded strangely far away. Before she could respond, she fell to the ground while a numbing paralysis crawled through her body.
Adrian was telling her something, but none of his words made sense. Finally, she felt him put his cane in her hand. “Hold it!” Though he screamed in her ear, she could barely make out what he was saying. “It won’t work if you don’t hold it.”
She forced her fingers to wrap around the cane, which was oddly cool and comforting to the touch. Her vision grew dim, and she lost consciousness. The moment seemed to suspend for an eternity as death engulfed her. She found that it was a rather pleasant experience, despite her fear of it.
And just as she gave into the sensation, it disappeared as another sensation washed over her. It was the strangest thing she’d ever experienced, but now she knew what he meant when he had talked of it. She was being regenerated to her original condition of health, and she was aware of every cell and organ in her body as they resumed their normal functions. As she became more aware of her surroundings, her grip on the cane tightened.
She heard him utter a word of relief but was still too weak to respond. He picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the building before another swarm of locusts or a snake could attack her.
Once they were inside the building, he gently laid her on the floor.
When she could manage it, she opened her eyes.
He smiled at her as she continued to gain her strength back. “That was close,” he softly said. “You are almost fully healed. Hold onto the cane until you are.”
“You’re right, you know,” she whispered, hardly able to speak. “That is the weirdest feeling in the world.”
He laughed. “It’s good you keep a sense of humor. I have to find the replacements and see what I can do about remembering the password. Stay here until you are well enough to stand up.”
She nodded and closed her eyes as her body continued to heal. Adrian, she recalled. He had told her his name. She smiled to herself in satisfaction. He did love her after all.
***
Jake stood in the library, staring out of the window in awe at the beauty of the city. Despite the raging storm and swarms of locusts in the air, the buildings still sparkled in an array of different colors.
A shiver ran through his body as he recalled having seen this before, except he was in Cincinnati when he saw it the first time. He’d seen it in that strange mirror Pallid had shown him. It was odd to know parts of his future before it happened. It felt unnatural, but at the same time, he could understand the appeal in it. No surprises. No wondering what would happen next in life. No making the wrong decisions.
He thought back to the day when the lawyer produced his mother’s letter. He still didn’t agree with the way she had tricked Clark into marrying her and making him think that Jake was his son, but he realized Clark did love him as if he were his son, even after finding out the truth.
Clark never would have permitted him to go to the Underworld. He would have done everything he could to keep him above ground. It was pointless to dwell on what his real father had failed to do. He would never respect that man, but he could be grateful his mother found a man who made a good father. He was sure fear motivated her to create the lie that she otherwise would never have made.
“Forgive me,” she had whispered before her death.
Yes, he could finally forgive her.
And he could forgive his real father. If nothing else, if his father hadn’t been as greedy as he had been, he never would have come to Atlantis, and he never would have met Katherine. Katherine. Just the thought of her made him believe in the goodness of people. The way she cared for others made him realize that, despite a person’s circumstances, they could rise above them. He was thankful he got to meet her.
Katherine entered the room and walked over to him. “Athena says Ares parked the spaceship in the back of this building. We can start taking the gods to it now.”
He looked at her and nodded.
They walked out of the library and down the hallway.
Athena was waiting for them by the entrance of the elevator built into the wall. “Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and Demeter are unconscious in their offices. We will have to carry them to the spaceship.”
They began to descend the steps toward Zeus’ office when Ares ran up to them. “My robots are coming back here,” he warned them, out of breath.
“Then we have succeeded in driving all the Earthlings from Atlantis,” Athena replied. “That’s good.”
“It’s more than that. They are no longer under my control.”
“Explain.”
“They aren’t coming to protect the original six leaders. They are now protecting the replacements.”
Katherine gasped. “Are the replacement leaders already awake?”
“Not yet, but they will be soon unless the Infer stops their development,” Ares replied. “They will kill the original leaders.”
“Ares and I are in no danger,” Athena told them. “They won’t come after us, but we still have to protect Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and Demeter. I am assuming Hera and Hestia are dying on Olympia as we speak. We must hurry!”
“Do any of you know how to use a gun?” Ares asked Jake and Katherine.
“I do,” Katherine replied. “It was part of my training on Raz.”
“I don’t,” Jake confessed.
“But you are strong enough to carry the people out to the ship,” Athena reminded him. “You can do that while we fend off the robots. Ares’ guns are the only kind that can defeat them. Ares, where are they now?”
“They are on their way here, and they are going to be coming in the direction of the spaceship,” he informed her.
Athena nodded. “We’ll form a triangle around the ship to protect it from their invasion. Jake, you start bringing the gods to us, and we’ll prevent the robots from reaching you.”
Jake nodded and ran down to Zeus’ office since it was the closest one. He entered the office and grabbed Zeus, who lay on the floor, halfway between life and death. He picked the leader up and ran to the elevator. He was suddenly grateful for the years he’d spent working out at the gym.
After he dropped Zeus in front of the elevator, he went back for Poseidon, who was in the next office down from Zeus’. He would gather each of the gods one by one, put them into the elevator and go to the spaceship where he would load them in one at a time. This was the quickest way to accomplish his goal. He just hoped that the others could fight off the robots when the time came to get them onto the ship.