Opening the door to the house, John tried to shake off some of the rain as he noticed the three people standing in their half-completed sitting room. "I'd say to make yourselves comfortable but we've yet to buy sofas."

They all turned to look at John and he held his ground under the scowling expressions darkening three faces. Vera's lip twitched upward, as if to sneer at him, but Bricker put a hand on her shoulder. It kept her back, like a dog heeling at her master's command, but she strained the leash as Bricker closed the distance between them. It put them toe-to-toe for a moment as Bricker examined John, appraising him like a piece of art before speaking.

"Where's your wife, Mr. Bates?"

"I don't know."

Bricker's eyebrows rose. "I doubt that very much."

"And I can't say I care about your doubts." John shrugged, "It's the truth. I've no idea where she is."

"Then, perhaps, you'd be so kind as to tell us where she might be." Green pushed himself out of the corner and John noted an odd shaped bulge in the pocket where Green's hand rested. "I'm sure you've got ideas."

"Like whatever ones you've got for her if you find her?" John nodded at the trio. "I can't imagine her testimony against you helped your cases any. Especially not if you had to cut a deal to get yourselves here."

"What a lovely euphemism for the throats we slit. 'Cut a deal'… Very apt and ironic." Vera gave John a smile that had him shuddering. "But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you John? Slitting throats to survive?"

"That was different."

"Not so different." She joined Bricker to face John. "Where's the trollop you married so we can get what we came for?"

"I don't know where she is." John tried to stand his ground but a second later a hand wrenched on his arm, tugging it behind his back.

Before John could respond, Green's foot impacted behind his right knee. The pain sent him to the ground and with his left arm halfway up his back, John could not twist or turn to respond. Even worse, if that was possible, a second later the cold but familiar barrel of a gun pressed to the base of his skull.

"Now, I don't know what the Japs did to you when you lost to them in Singapore, but I'm sure you saw them blow the brains out of a few people in your platoon. And since you'd hate me to spoil the artwork of this house with your insides, you'd better start talking." Green pressed the barrel harder against the base of John's skull as he forced him to bend double. "Where's the bitch and we leave you be while we get her."

"Even if I knew," John gritted out, hissing when Green's foot pressed on his right calf, "You think I'd tell you where my wife is to save my skin?"

"I think you're a fool and a gutless wonder." Green shook John to further contort his body and increase the pain of his position. "Where's your wife?"

"I don't know." John looked over the room, noticing Kali and Os standing just off the shoulders of Vera and Bricker. "She drove off. I don't know where."

"Well," Green released John's arm, stepping back to relieve the pressure on John's leg. "I guess you'll have about… Five seconds to make a guess."

The barrel pressed to the back of John's head again. He closed his eyes, almost willing the shot to fire, but noticed Kali's hand move. It took a moment for him to understand the way her fingers traced letters on her opposite hand but once he did John could not stop himself blurting out what he saw.

"School. She's… She's at the school."

"See," Vera nudged Bricker as Green hefted John to his feet. "I told you he's a coward. Sell out his own mother if she'd been alive to let him disgrace her further."

John only slumped into Green's hold as the gun pressed to his side. "Come on then. Let's see if she'll give it up to us in exchange for you… Worthless as you are."

They hustled him out to their car, hidden back off the drive in an overshadowing of trees, and shook as much rain off themselves as they could before entering. Green shuffled John into the backseat and kept the gun trained on him while Vera took to the driver's seat. Bricker folded himself in as a passenger, smoothing water from his hair with the flat of his hand.

"I guess Ms. Smith… My apologies, Mrs. Bates wasn't so cagey as to not tell her husband where she hid it." John kept quiet for a moment too long and Bricker turned over the seat to frown at him. "Unless you're completely ignorant of what we're talking about."

"You think that little wretch'd tell him anything?" John met Vera's eyes in the rearview mirror as she drove them down the hill and into town. "Knowing that he'd sell her out to save his own skin? No. He's as ignorant as anyone. More so, even."

"Whatever you think Anna told me," John tried to adjust in his seat, holding his leg to keep the pressure off where it still pulsed in pain. "You're wrong. I don't care about her life before."

"Aw," Vera feigned a pout, "The forgiving type are you?"

"I know what she did for you and I don't care."

"Well we care." Green jabbed John in the side with his gun hard enough to bruise. "She's our ticket out of this mess as sure as she was our ticket into it. And we're going to find what we're looking for."

John held at his side. "I hope you do. The sooner you find it the sooner you're out of our lives for good."

"And risk you telling the Feds where we've scarpered off to?" Vera snorted, shaking her head as she steered them through town. "No. There's a patch of dirt with your name on it Johnny and we'll make sure your pretty little wife gets one right next to yours as death does you part."

The rest of the short ride was mercifully silent save for the rain that continued to beat on the car like artillery. A sound that beat almost like the drums before John's inevitable demise as they parked in front of the school. Green extracted John from the car while Bricker manipulated a ring of keys to get them inside the building. A building that, with the dark of the clouds, the spring break, and their after-hours tour left it feeling eerily empty. The sight of Os in the corner only led to John's growing sense of impeding death in the modern-day mausoleum.

But they traversed the halls all the same. From their parked car, utilizing the delivery entrance, they walked toward the science wing and the chemistry room where Anna had worked in apron, gloves, and goggles almost a lifetime ago. A room that once operated as the factory for the enterprise Anna helped demolish with John's urging to topple it.

Part of his wondered if that had been a good idea at all.

They pushed into the room, John stumbling as his right leg lagged, and searched it in a three-man pincer move. John limped to a desk and sat in one of the confining chairs that allowed him the awkward but soothing position of stretching out his right leg. As the three moved around the room, slipping around the chemistry equipment still in glass bottles and vials, John noticed Kali and Os coming to his side.

"Lot of help you two are."

"This isn't our fight. At least not on the plane you're fighting it." Os put a hand on John's shoulder while Kali put one on his leg, immediately remedying the ache in the muscles there so John could shift his position in the chair. "We're the distraction, John. For what comes next."

"What comes next?" John looked between the two as Kali rose up to stand beside Os. "What's going to happen?"

"Fire and blood." Os tapped his temple before moving to place his finger on John's. It rested for only a moment but John saw the inferno engulfing the town again in that instant before Os removed his finger. "It starts tonight John."

"Hey!" John turned in his seat, looking to where Green and Vera approached him, the gun leveled in his direction. "She's not here."

"You asked for my guess and I gave it to you." John raised his hands but the barrel of the gun broke across his cheek. His tenuous position on the chair forced him to the floor as he lost his balance. Pain exploded over his face before Green's foot connected with his side and sent John into the fetal position. "I did what you asked and gave my best guess."

"Then," Green's hand wrenched John to his feet by the collar and marched him awkwardly to the main table at the front of the classroom. The other side of his face hit the surface hard enough to dot stars over John's vision before the barrel of the gun pressed to his temple. "Guess again."

"Will you stop with that gun and focus on searching this place?" Bricker called from the other side of the room.

The rebuke provided enough distraction that Green's hand loosened on John's neck. Just long enough that John could clearly see the bottles in front of him. His hand grabbed for one and he brought it around in an arc to break over Green's face. With a howl the other man let John go, furiously scrubbing at his eyes as he dropped the gun to the floor now covered in glass.

John grabbed the gun and held it up to keep Vera and Bricker back as they tried to help Green, still clawing at his burning eyes and stumbling into desks as he continued to scream. "I wouldn't do that."

"What, or you'll shoot us?" Vera tried to goad him but John's steady hand allowed his thumb to pull back the hammer.

"Don't tempt me." John put the table between them and better inspected the bottles before him. "I may not've been much for science in school, but the skill of the speaker lends greatly to the attention I pay to the subject. And my wife's a very brilliant chemist. She talks about the chemicals she used in her work with you, and other chemical reactions in general, so I've got a fair idea of what some of these'll do if you allow me the second I'd need to do to you both what I did to Mr. Green there."

Both Bricker and Vera turned in Green's direction as the man writhed on the floor, his hands pulling away enough to reveal his red eyes and burning skin. "The effects of hydrochloric acid aren't pretty. And his suffering's not going to end soon so I'd suggest you tell me what the hell you're looking for."

"Something I gave them." All three heads turned to see Tohil, appearing taller and larger than ever before, as he ducked his head under the doorway to enter. His arm, now fully encased in barbed wire, swung wide as he took space in the room. "I told them I needed it back but it really isn't important. It was mostly a way to get them to scurry and shuffle to obey me… And to bring you to me."

"Me?"

"Of course John." Tohil leered at him. "You're the crux of their whole plan, aren't you? The important cog in the machine to bring me down."

"I don't-"

"Yes, yes, I know. You're not sure how you fit in to all of this or why you're important but that's not really something your tiny mortal mind could've comprehended even if they told you." Tohil leveled a finger at John. "The fact that they saved you from the visions I gave you, the ones meant to incapacitate and destroy you, proved that you're important to them."

Tohil left John gaping a little as he turned to Vera and Bricker. "As for what you came to get…" His hand impacted one of the ceiling tiles, breaking it and allowing a massive pile of cash to tumble to the floor. "It's just money, at the end of the day. It'll do me little good and neither of you'll live long enough to spend it anyway so it's mostly just fuel for the fire."

With a snap of his fingers, the pile of cash ignited and John stumbled back into the wall at the flare of light. His arm blocked the glare until his eyes could adjust and he finally took in the sight of Tohil. Appearing like the ancient Mayan god in all his wrath and glory as his form expanded.

John swallowed, lowering the gun. "Why are you here?"

Tohil faced him, a smile pulling back over red teeth that matched the tattoos that now appeared drawn in blood over his skin. "Because you called me here, John Bates, and I answered the call."

"What?"

Tohil pointed to Green, who stopped writhing on the floor. "You offered me a blood sacrifice and I accepted. While not as gruesome as I prefer, it did the job."

"I didn't…"

"But you did." Tohil bent slightly, so his fiery eyes met John's. "You called and I came. You called me with blood and I could not ignore it."

John dropped the gun to the floor. "No. I didn't…"

"You may not've intended to but you did." Tohil shrugged, "The awkwardness of facing the consequences of your actions."

"I defended myself."

"What do I care what killed Mr. Green if he's dead all the same?" Tohil flexed his hand, curling it into a fist. "And I gain power from it."

"But you didn't draw us here." Vera called out and John almost put out a hand to bid her stop, to beg her to stay quiet in the face of the god of War. "We brought him here. Brought him to help us find what you promised us."

"Mortals have always been so easy to manipulate." Tohil moved to where Vera stood and laid his hand on her shoulder. "They're so simple and greedy and prideful. Each thinking they're better than all the others."

"You promised me…"

"Many things." The side of his hand stroked down her face before the same hand curled around her jaw. The sheer size dwarfed her face by comparison. "I promised you many things because you were foolish enough to believe me."

John fell back into the blackboard as Tohil broke Vera's neck and tossed her to the floor like discarded rubbish. Bricker almost passed out in the corner as Tohil turned to him. His hands clawed at the wall behind him as he tried to escape the notice and attention of the towering god before him.

"I don't want anything. I'll just go and that'll be-"

"That'll be what? Fair? Satisfactory?" Tohil grabbed Bricker by the neck, cutting off all hopes of pleading as blue immediately tinged the man's face, and lifted him from the floor. "There's nothing fair about war."

John scrunched his eyes shut at the crack and crunch that followed. The dull thud of a body being tossed to the side forced his eyes open as he faced Tohil crossing the distance between them. The god's hands practically vibrated with the power flowing through him, blowing the fire higher as if his breaths fanned the flames there. And the satisfied pull of breath to expand his chest so it filled the room left John trembling.

"Blood sacrifice. There's nothing better in the world. It keeps me strong and the finest tonics of it is the shed blood of those who serve me."

"You lured them here?"

"They came to me." Tohil put a finger to his chest, dragging a smear of blood down it to join his other tattoos. "The wicked always do. I simply take what's offered to me by the willing and welcome."

"And me?" John tried to stand tall but the tremor in his right leg only worsened under the baleful gave of the titan before him. "Am I welcome?"

"No, you most certainly are not." John looked to the doorway, Tohil copying his motion, to see Os standing there. Immaculate as ever but the threads on his suit glowed and unraveled, pulling back from his body like snapping ropes. "You're here at my invitation and that means you can't be his."

"Death would challenge War?"

"War would forget that the sacrifices that strength you also feed me?" Os slapped his chest with a hand and the threads completely disengaged from his body to spin about him, bathing them all in a black light that glowed alternatingly jade or scarlet until the great god Osiris stood in Os's place. His head bore the dual crowns of Egypt and he held the crook and the flail in his hands. "Those deaths brought me as much strength as they brought you."

"But you'd be a fool to challenge me on your own." Tohil hissed at him, shaking out the arm covered in barbed wire to form it into a shield while his other hand plucked an obsidian blade from the burning pile of money.

"Who said he was alone?" All three of the men turned to the other side of room where Kali, with her ten arms flayed out from her body to each hold a weapon, and Aph stood.

"You think I'm intimidated by Time and Love?" Tohil's sneering laugh shook John to his core. "I'm timeless and without feeling."

"Shame." Aph shook herself out until she held a spear and a small shield. When John frowned in confusion at her she only shrugged. "Borrowed."

"Enough talk." Tohil's sword caught the edge of the fire and he threw it in a circle around him, catching bits and pieces around the room to set much of it ablaze. "No more games or dancing around. We end this here and now and I prove, once and for all, that you're useless."

"We'll see who's useless." Kali closed the distance in a second and stabbed forward with one of her many swords.

John ducked and crawled for the door. With the glass breaking from their blows and the heat of the fire, he covered his head and finally made it into the corridor outside the chemistry classroom. But it only took a moment for the four gods to break through the wall, bringing the fire with them, and force John to run for his life through the abandoned hallways of the school.

He reached the outdoors, almost falling to his knees in relief at the bludgeon of the rain on his body, but hurried to his feet as another impact shattered half the school and brought down the walls. An explosion took the roof off the science wing and John dived toward the car as debris hailed down. His knees held to his chest, body shaking as the sounds merged with memories he tried so hard to bury, John only opened his eyes at the tinkling sound hit the pavement by his feet. There, despite all the odds of landing elsewhere, were the keys Bricker used to get into the school. The same keys where the car key dangled.

Wrenching the door open, John got the key into the ignition and spun the tires in the mud before peeling away from the crumbling school.

In his mind's eye he could see it. The fight taking down the rest of the building before the quartet plunged into the earth. The earth that, below them, held one of the smaller pockets of coal.

John's foot pressed the pedal to the floor and he fishtailed into town. His hand pressed to the horn, continuing the obnoxious sound to try and rouse people from their homes and jobs. They came out in curiosity before trying to flee in terror. But John changed the tune on his horn and tried to tap out Morse code. Or enough of it to get the attention of any veteran who might recognize the signal.

Some did and followed his car as he wound it toward the hill where the Church waited. But it took a few rounds through the town to get people heading there in their own cars until they packed the lot and the road as people streamed out into the rain to gather on the hallowed ground. Ground where John finally let the car die as the last of the petrol in the tank died. It forced him to walk the rest of the way, soaking him to the bone, but he made it and forged through the confused crowds until he reached the interior of the building.

Anna waited there, throwing her arms around him tight enough to strangle until they could manage words. "She told me to wait here. Said she'd get you out but that she had to go. That I had to stay. I didn't want to but-"

John quieted Anna, moving them to a corner where he could look out the window. "Is everyone here?"

"Everyone who was in town." John turned to see Robert, as soaked to the bone as he was, "Any of the others'll be along as soon as they can be."

"Good." John nodded, flinching with all the rest as an explosion shook the ground under them and screams mixed with gasps in the air as the town's buildings started to light with flames.

John saw it then, the vision Os gave him. The vision of the town aflame as it burned despite the strength of the rain. Burned as the fuel of the coal under the school ignited and blew the remains of the institution sky-high.

He wondered if anyone else saw it. If they could gaze on the sight of veritable titans struggling with one another. If any of them noticed that, as the dam further up the river broke, the water allowed three of the gods to successfully pierce the blood-stained flesh of a fourth. If any of them saw or understood what they witnessed when the water flooded the town and put out the fires that ravaged through it to leave nothing but soggy husks clinging together by force of will.

If anyone noticed it, none of them said anything. They just cowered with their families and friends in corners of the church or out in their cars. The whole night spent in a restless quiet as the rain finally faded and, a weak sun broke through the clouds to display the town like a diorama.

John, leaving Anna in the capable hands of Mrs. Hughes and Pastor Carson, left the church and wandered to the edge of the hill to look down at the town. A place so ravaged and ruined it was hardly recognizable. But a place saved.

"All thanks to you." John turned to see Aph, back in her leather jacket and her traditional size. "You saved those people and, in a way, the town."

"If that's salvation," John pointed to the remains leaking below him. "I'd rather not see what you call destruction."

"Please." Aph waved a hand, "It was a mercy. The insurance alone'll save your friend Robert's development. It'll recoup the loss of the motel for Mr. Branson and the left-over money from that might help with Sybil's treatments."

"So this was an insurance scam?"

"I'm not nearly so petty as…" Aph stopped, "No. It wasn't intentional, but it'll work out that way. So don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I wouldn't dare." John tucked his hands into his pockets and addressed Os and Kali, as they joined Aph. "Thank you all. You saved me and…"

"You helped us save this place." Kali extended her hand to John, shaking it firmly. "And you helped us save you, which is no small thing."

"No, it's not." John extended his hand to Os and the other man shook it as well. "You've all been…"

"Extraordinary." Os opened his hand to Kali. "Shall we dear? I think there are other places in the world that need our time and attention."

"My husband being one of them." Kali put her hands together and bowed to John before taking Os's hand. "If we ever meet again, it won't be soon enough."

"If we meet again," Os winked at John, "It'll be just enough time."

The two of them vanished in a flash of golden light, leaving only Aph and John standing on the hill. "Showoffs."

"You don't…" John twiddled his fingers. "Whoosh away like that?"

"Not anymore." Aph shook her head as she gazed at the valley below them, cringing slightly. "Sorry we left you with such a mess."

"I've a feeling dealing with gods is never a clean business."

"But sometimes a happy one." Aph smiled but it softened a moment under contemplation. "It's not going to be easy, rebuilding here. And I doubt it'll be very pleasant given what the town's already endured."

"It's a new beginning and those are never easy." John folded his arms over his chest before snorting to himself. "Fire and blood."

"Sorry?"

"What Os said. That it was the end, with fire and blood." John nodded toward the valley, "But he forgot the water. It was cleansed, like the earth, with fire and blood and water."

"How very Biblical." Aph shook her head. "It's grander than I usually go for but I can see the poetry in it."

"We are standing on hallowed ground."

"Yes we are." Aph turned to him. "And this, unfortunately, is where you and I must part ways Mr. Bates."

"Already?" John extended his hand, "And I was only just getting used to you actually speaking candidly with me."

Aph looked from John's hand to his face and back to his hand before wrapping him in a hug. "If you thought that was going to be enough then you're a bigger fool than the idiot who agreed to help me all those months ago."

"I'm a fool then." John hugged her back before releasing and smiling to himself. "I hope you find the happiness you're looking for."

"You too." Aph smiled back at him, "Take care of yourself John. Of your lovely wife and that little baby you've got coming."

"I will."

"And don't forget," She leveled a finger at him. "Be happy."

"I promise." John watched as Aph saluted before stuffing her hands into her pockets and pivoting to walk away. "But won't you need a way out of here?"

"Already got one." She held up Bricker's keys and John checked his pockets as Aph winked at him. "I'll be seeing you John."

He snorted another laugh, watching her leave before turning to see Anna waiting for him. "Did you see that?"

"I saw something." Anna joined him, her arm wrapping around his side to hold herself close to him. "But whatever I saw, it hardly matters."

"No?"

"No." Anna shook her head. "I've got you and all our former problems are out of our lives for good now. That's all that matters."

"For good and proper." John kissed the top of Anna's head. "Forever."

"It'll take about that long to rebuild."

"Maybe not." John shrugged, "Maybe all it needs is a little paint."