A/N: HoneyGoddess57 and I co-wrote this chapter. I wrote the beginning, and she contributed to the heroes' interactions with their doubles. Enjoy.
Chapter Seven
The Second Betrayal
Taylor's portal deposited him, and his fellow duplicates in the Olympus High School parking lot. The moment everyone had stepped through it, Jessica headed directly for the school's front entrance. She strode confidently across the parking lot and into the school with her gang trailing behind her. As soon as the entire group was inside, Jessica turned to address her troops.
"This is it," she declared. "Our moment of triumph is at hand. Soon we will have the power of the gods, the power to rule the world."
Taylor resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Jessica continued to speak. The way she was talking, anyone would think they'd already won, and that they owed their victory almost entirely to Jessica's brilliant leadership. Taylor knew better. Their victory would really be his victory, and when it happened, he would be the only one celebrating.
Finally, Jessica stopped talking, and turned to lead her team down the hall toward the janitor's closet. She walked with supreme confidence as if the school and everything in it was hers to do with as she pleased. This time Taylor did roll his eyes.
Enjoy your delusions while you can, princess, he thought.
"Not much to look at is it?" Jessica commented once she'd used her purloined pendant key to unlock the janitor's closet door.
"If I were a god I'd hide out in a five star hotel with room service," Nat grumbled. "This place is disgusting. Why would the gods want to live here?"
This time Taylor wasn't the only one who rolled his eyes.
"They don't actually live here, dummy," Olivia reminded. "This is just the entryway."
"I know that," Nat snapped. "I just don't see why they couldn't have chosen somewhere classier to conceal it."
"It's called being inconspicuous, genius," Olivia fired back.
"That's enough," Jessica barked. "You can waste time with your petty arguments later right now we have work to do."
"I think you mean I have work to do," Taylor corrected, pushing passed her and walking into the janitor's closet. "So the rest of you can either stay here or come and watch the show, but if you're coming, you'd better hurry up."
He reached up to grab the cord for the light, and everyone immediately rushed to find a space inside the closet. Helen had scarcely squeezed her way in, when Taylor pulled the cord, slamming the door shut, and plunging the room into darkness.
"You nearly caught my hand in the door!" Helen yelled.
"Shhh!" Jessica hissed as the portal opened. "We don't want them to know we're coming."
There was a fair bit of pushing and shoving as everyone vied to be the first one through the portal, and into the gods' hidden sanctuary. Eventually, Taylor won the shoving match, and stepped through the portal with all the calm self-assurance of a king about to survey a newly conquered territory. Jessica was close behind him, feeling more than a little annoyed because she thought that, as leader, she should have been first.
One by one, the rest of the crew joined them until all seven of them were standing in the school's secret Titan Wing. They saw no sign of any gods or goddesses, and Jessica breathed a silent sigh of relief. Their entry had gone undetected, and soon the gods would quite literally be powerless to stop them. Jessica turned to Taylor, a cruel smirk twisting her features.
"You know what to do," she said.
Taylor smirked right back at her. Oh yes, he knew exactly what to do. His phantom rose from his body like a wraith. It flowed from him like a living shadow and disappeared into the gods' sanctuary with Taylor and the others hot on its heels.
They rounded the corner just in time to see the phantom swoop down on an unsuspecting Hermes, passing through him, and stealing his powers before he had a chance to react. He watched in stunned silence as the phantom returned to Taylor who immediately summoned Hermes' Herald's Staff.
"Lame," Taylor declared a moment later. "Where's Zeus? I can't wait to fire off some lightning bolts."
Having finally found his voice, Hermes opened his mouth to either shout for help or call out a warning. Unfortunately, he never got the chance. Jessica grabbed his arm, and twisted it behind his back.
"Make a sound, and I break it," she threatened.
Hermes nodded his understanding without hesitation. He had no desire to learn what a broken arm felt like.
"Lead us to Zeus," Jessica ordered. "Now!"
Slowly and reluctantly, Hermes guided them toward one of the many doors that opened onto the foyer. He pushed open the doors to Zeus' office, stumbling slightly when Jessica shoved him. Zeus, who'd been in the middle of a conversation with Hera, looked up at the unexpected intrusion.
"Yes, Hermes is there a…" he trailed off abruptly when he caught sight of Jessica and her crew.
Instantly, he summoned a lightning bolt.
"Who are you?" he thundered.
"Settle down, grandpa," Jessica mocked. "We wouldn't want you to have a stroke."
"How dare you!" Zeus roared.
He was about to unleash the full force of his fury against them, when Taylor's phantom passed through his chest, and stole his powers. A moment later, it had stolen Hera's powers too.
"Much better," Taylor announced summoning a lightning bolt in each hand. "Now I finally have some real power."
"I think you mean we finally have some real power," Jessica corrected.
"Of course," Taylor agreed.
Outwardly, Taylor appeared calm, cool, and collected, but inwardly he was seething. How dare Jessica presume that his power belonged to all of them? He didn't intend to share his power with anyone. He debated simply destroying his so-called teammates immediately, but decided to wait. Only when he was certain that they had entirely outlived their usefulness would he rid himself of them. Until then, he would do his best to hide his true feelings and intentions from them.
"We should start rounding up the others," Jessica decided. "The sooner we steal their powers, the better off we'll be. I don't want to risk someone trying to stop us."
There she goes with that "we" stuff again, Taylor thought, irritated. I'm the one doing all the work, so only I deserve any credit.
"Why should we go to them when we can get them to come to us?" Taylor asked aloud.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" Jessica questioned snidely.
"Very simple," Taylor answered. "We send the former Messenger of the Gods out there, he tells them that Zeus wants to talk to them, and the second they walk through that door my friend will be waiting for them."
Taylor's phantom briefly floated above him, helping to illustrate his point.
"Why would I willingly lead my friends into your trap?" Hermes demanded.
"Because if you don't," Taylor sneered, "there won't be enough left of mommy and daddy to fill a matchbox."
He turned to aim his lightning bolts at Zeus and Hera, and Hermes knew he wouldn't hesitate to follow through on his threat.
"Is there anyone in particular you'd like me to retrieve first?" he asked resignedly.
"Someone powerful," Taylor replied. "Perhaps Ares or Hephaestus, you can choose which one."
Hermes just nodded and hurried out of the room.
"You do know that she's not Hermes' mother, right?" Olivia asked, gesturing to Hera.
"Do I look like I care?" Taylor snapped.
Wisely, Olivia chose not to respond. The group waited silently until Hephaestus pushed open the door.
"Hermes said you wanted to see me," he began only to stop short when he realized that someone other than Zeus was sitting on Zeus' throne.
Instantly, balls of fire sprang to life in Hephaestus' palms, but before he had a chance to use them, Taylor's phantom swept through him stealing his powers
"Put him with the others," Taylor commanded, waving lazily in the direction of Zeus and Hera.
Helen took care of Hephaestus, dragging him over to join Zeus and Hera in a corner of the room. Meanwhile, Taylor continued to lounge on Zeus' throne ignoring the increasingly hostile looks Jessica sent his way.
How dare he act like he's the leader? she thought. I'm the only leader in this group, and if he thinks I'm about to follow his orders he's crazy.
For the next several minutes, Taylor kept himself and his cohorts entertained as he stole the powers of every god and goddess Hermes sent his way. He wasn't really that interested in the goddesses' powers since none of them had anything that compared to Zeus' lightning bolts, Hephaestus' fire or Hercules' strength, but he wasn't about to let them keep their powers either. Eventually, the flood of immortals became a trickle, and then, it stopped altogether.
"Is this everyone?" Taylor demanded when Hermes finally returned.
"Yes," Hermes answered.
"Oh really?" Jessica sneered. "Then where are Hades and Poseidon?"
"They, um, they aren't here," Hermes explained a little uncertainly.
If these people were who he believed they were, then, they should know that Hades and Poseidon never spent time in the school's secret wing. They were too busy with their own responsibilities.
"Now who's forgetting their double's history?" Taylor chided. "You know Hades and Poseidon don't spend time here. Don't worry though I'll track them down eventually."
"So what do we do now?" Aaron questioned, sounding bored.
Jessica opened her mouth to respond, but Taylor beat her to it.
"What else," he smirked. "We wait for our do-gooder doubles to arrive."
"And then?" Aaron pressed.
Taylor smiled coldly. "And then the fun really begins."
Herry's truck pulled into the school's parking lot with a squeal of tires. Herry had barely brought it to a stop before everyone piled out. Hands on weapons, they dashed across the parking lot uncertain if unfriendly eyes might be watching them.
"We need to be careful," Jay cautioned as they prepared to enter the school, "we have no idea what might be waiting for us."
"Do you think they could have rigged booby traps?" Atlanta asked.
"I don't know," Jay admitted. "I just think we need to be prepared for anything."
"Then maybe Neil should go in first," Archie suggested unexpectedly.
Everyone turned to stare at him in confusion for several seconds.
"What?" Archie demanded defensively. "Neil's lucky, if there are any bobby traps he'll probably trigger them without getting hurt."
"Probably?" Neil squawked not at all keen on the idea of taking the lead into a possible gauntlet.
"Archie does have a point," Jay conceded turning to Neil. "Don't worry," he added, seeing the nervous look on the model's face, "you'll be fine. You're lucky, remember?"
"Right, I'm lucky," Neil muttered trying to psych himself up and failing miserably.
He turned to his friends with a desperate, pleading look on his face.
"Do I have to?" he whined.
"Yes!" everyone else snapped back.
"Fine," Neil grumbled yanking open the door and heading inside with his friends close behind him.
Never had a stretch of hallway seemed so long as this one did to Neil at that moment. He crept down the corridor, startling at every little noise as though expecting an attack at any moment. Finally, his friends started getting impatient with his skittish behavior.
"It's just a hallway, Neil," Archie sighed exasperated.
"I know that," Neil grumbled, "but I don't want to trigger a booby trap."
"There might not be any bobby traps," Jay pointed out.
"But what if there are?" Neil persisted. "I don't think we should take that chance, do you?"
Jay just rolled his eyes. Neil was difficult to reason with at the best of times, so there was no point in continuing to try.
Serves us right for putting the idea of booby traps into his head, he thought as Neil continued to creep down the hallway. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll reach the janitor's closet sometime this month.
Meanwhile, Taylor was lounging on Zeus' throne waiting patiently for Jay and the others to arrive. Jessica had crossed her arms, and was staring hard into his eyes, hating him more with every passing second.
"Hey, when do we get a turn on the throne?" Aaron suddenly asked.
"Never," Taylor answered causing Jessica to glare harder at him.
Taylor laughed. "Oh come on, Jessica! Did you really think that I would let you or anyone else share this throne with me? No, of course not, I did all the work, and now I'm enjoying my well-deserved reward."
"You…" Jessica started.
Just then, Jay and the others burst into the room. They hadn't run into any booby traps, not that Jay had really been expecting them to, what surprised him was that Jessica hadn't thought to post guards to keep a lookout for them. Clearly, she and her cronies were so confident of their victory that they hadn't seen a need to take any precautions. That or Jessica was slipping.
Everyone turned to face their doubles.
"It's about time you showed up," Taylor sneered.
Jay took a moment to assess the situation. He saw the gods and goddesses huddled in the corner, clearly powerless, and suddenly his earlier plan to turn their doubles against each other seemed like a bad idea. They couldn't risk any mishaps if things got out of hand.
Jessica had no such reservations.
"Come on everyone," she screamed, "let's beat them to a pulp!"
"Let's go," Jay called to his troops, "try to keep them away from the gods."
Everyone charged forward, Jessica and Jay in the lead. One by one, the heroes faced off against their doubles. Jessica and Jay crossed swords while Herry and Helen grappled with each other. Atlanta ran circles around Aaron, and Archie and Ariane kept trying to hit each other with their whips. Neil and Nat didn't have weapons, so they just hurled insults at each other, and Odie and Olivia both just glared at each other since neither of them was much of a fighter.
The only one not actively engaged in the battle was Taylor. He continued to lounge on Zeus' throne watching the spectacle unfolding before him with thinly veiled disinterest. Theresa approached him cautiously, knowing how powerful he must be after stealing the powers of so many gods and goddesses.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded when he caught sight of her.
"I'm going to take back the powers you've stolen and return them to their rightful owners," Theresa answered firmly.
"Oh please," Taylor scoffed, "your magic is nothing compared to mine."
"We'll see about that," Theresa retorted.
"Yes, we will," Taylor agreed, "but I have another matter to attend to first."
He turned his attention back to the fight in front of him, obviously certain that Theresa would wait until he was ready before trying to attack him.
"May I have your attention?" he called in a loud voice.
Everyone ignored him and kept on fighting. Irritated, Taylor summoned a lightning bolt, and hurled it into the middle of the melee. Miraculously, or perhaps intentionally, he didn't hit anyone, but everyone immediately turned their attention to him.
"That's better," he declared, smugly. "Now that I have your attention, I have an important announcement to make."
"What do you want now," Jessica snapped furiously, "to issue more orders or just to lord it over everyone? You're not the leader here I am, and I'm sick of you trying to tell me what to do!"
"Shut up!" Taylor barked.
"Who do you think you are?" Jessica growled.
"I think I'm the one in charge here," Taylor answered. "I think I'm the one with all the real power, not you, and I think you and all these other dolts have finally outlived your usefulness to me."
"What…" Jessica began.
Taylor never gave her a chance to finish. He aimed a fireball at Nat who screamed once before vanishing in a puff of smoke. He took out all of the others in a similar fashion until only Jessica remained.
"You traitor!" she shrieked. "How dare you?"
Taylor didn't answer. Instead, he rose to his feet, summoned a lightning bolt, a simple fireball wouldn't do in Jessica's case, and hurled it at her. The heroes had to shield their eyes from the blinding flash, as they heard her scream. When they reopened their eyes, they looked for her, but she was gone. Taylor lounged on Zeus' throne again with a cruel smirk on his face.
"You...you destroyed them," Jay gasped, unable to believe his eyes. "Why would you do that?"
"They would only have gotten in my way," Taylor answered, obviously bored. "Jessica actually thought I was going to share my power with her as if I would be that foolish."
"And now I suppose you're going to destroy us, too?" Theresa snapped.
"Maybe, maybe not," Taylor answered.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Theresa questioned.
"Perhaps I'll use you wannabe heroes as slaves," Taylor responded. "Provided you swear loyalty to me or I can always destroy you like I did those useless fools!"
"Oh you wish," Atlanta muttered with gritted teeth.
She was going to attack him, but Archie grabbed her arm quickly, shaking his head.
"He's too powerful," Archie explained. "I don't…we don't want to lose you."
"Oh, that is so sweet. You don't want to lose your perfect girlfriend. How romantic," Taylor mocked.
"Oh shut up!" Theresa shouted.
Everyone stared at Taylor for a moment, wondering what he'd do. Taylor had stolen a lot of power, and they couldn't be sure how he'd choose to use it. They might have already faced something similar with Theresa, but Taylor was far more powerful than she ever was. She had only taken the powers of about ten gods, but he'd clearly stolen the powers of several more, if the mass of former immortals watching nearby was any indication. The other issue was that unlike Theresa, Taylor wasn't their friend, so while she might have hesitated to destroy them, he probably wouldn't, especially if they pushed him too far.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Taylor spoke.
"You have a big mouth," he told Theresa. "Maybe you need another example of my power to teach you the importance of keeping it closed."
A fireball bloomed in his right hand as he turned toward the huddled mass of gods and goddesses.
"Pick a target," he instructed.
"No," Theresa replied.
"Pick a target," Taylor repeated angrily, "or I'll destroy them all."
"Not if I destroy you first," Theresa refuted.
She summoned her phantom, and Taylor instantly extinguished his fireball in favor of summoning his phantom in response.
"Have it your way," he said. "First, I'll destroy you and your pathetic friends, then, I'll destroy these so-called gods."
Theresa didn't bother to reply as she sent her phantom hurtling toward Taylor's phantom. They clashed with one another, each one seeking to destroy the other. Jay wasn't sure how they managed to fight since as far as he knew the phantoms weren't solid, but somehow they managed to trade blows as well as any human opponents he'd seen.
Jay didn't know what to do. He wanted to help Theresa, but he couldn't think of anything that would help. He also wanted to get the gods to safety, but he had no idea where they'd be safe, especially if Taylor won.
Finally, Taylor's phantom withdrew, apparently to give him a chance to gloat.
"You can't win," he sneered, "so why don't you just give up?"
"I will never surrender to a monster like you," Theresa declared vehemently.
"There's that mouth again," Taylor tsked. "You really should learn to control your girlfriend," he added turning to Jay.
"You mean the way you controlled yours?" Jay asked sarcastically. "No way."
Taylor looked annoyed for a moment, but quickly shrugged off his irritation.
"Suit yourself," he said. "I guess it doesn't matter since you'll all be dead soon anyway."
Taylor's phantom merged with him again, and he summoned a lightning bolt in each hand.
"So who wants to die first?" he asked with a malicious gleam in his eyes.
"You're not killing anyone else today," Theresa answered.
"Oh really," Taylor laughed, "and just how do you plan to stop me? I'm the most powerful being on earth. I am a god!"
"No," Theresa disagreed, "you're not."
In a flash, she grabbed Jay's xiphos and threw it at Taylor with all her might. It arced through the air and struck Taylor in the chest.
Taylor stared down at the blade protruding from his body with a mixture of shock and disbelief. Then, he burst out laughing even louder than before.
"Do you really think your pathetic mortal weapons can hurt me?" he mocked pulling the xiphos from his chest. "I already told you. I am a GOD!"
"I don't think so," Theresa responded gesturing to his chest.
Taylor looked down, and his smug expression morphed into one of confusion when he saw the blood running down his chest. It wasn't red like normal blood, it was black, the color the heroes' blood had turned when Cronus had added his blood to create Taylor and the other doubles. He pressed his hand to the wound in an effort to stop the flow, but it didn't make a difference.
"This can't be happening," he protested, sounding just like Cronus when Theresa stole his powers. "I'm a god!"
"No," Theresa reiterated. "You have the blood of a god and the powers of several gods, but no matter how powerful you are, you're still mortal."
Taylor staggered down the stairs leading up to Zeus' throne still clutching his chest. Fury filled his eyes as he drew slowly closer to Theresa. The lightning bolts he'd summoned earlier had vanished after he'd realized he was bleeding, and now he struggled to summon another one.
"If I'm going down I'm taking you with me," he hissed at Theresa through gritted teeth.
The lightning bolt in his hand fizzed and sparked for an instant before disappearing.
"No!" Taylor exclaimed trying desperately to summon another one.
When it became obvious that that wasn't going to work, he tried conjuring a fireball, but all that materialized was a thin plume of smoke.
"I guess I'll have to destroy you with my bare hands," Taylor decided a murderous expression on his face.
He continued stalking toward Theresa, but only made it a few more steps before collapsing.
"I will destroy you," Taylor gasped.
He tried to stand up, but he slipped on a puddle of blood and fell again. He kept trying to get up and falling down, too stubborn to give up. He kept at it, uttering the occasional threat, until he was too weak from blood loss to try any more.
A brilliant burst of light shot out of Taylor's body and separated into several pieces all but one of which flew toward the gods and goddesses in the corner. Each of them connected with a particular god or goddess, instantly restoring their powers. A moment later, Taylor's body dissolved leaving nothing behind but a few bloodstains and some unpleasant memories.
"I'm sorry," Theresa apologized turning to Jay. "I know you were hoping it wouldn't come to this, but I didn't know how else to stop him."
"It's all right," Jay reassured her. "You said our doubles were dangerous, and that we should be prepared for anything."
"Yeah, but even I didn't think that Taylor would destroy his own teammates," Theresa admitted.
"I don't think anyone saw that coming," Jay responded.
"I think you all did remarkably well considering the circumstances," Hera spoke up.
"Yes," Zeus concurred. "Once again you acquitted yourselves like true heroes. Thank you."
"You're welcome," Neil responded without really paying attention since he was busy searching for his mirror.
He found it, then, spent the next few minutes complaining about the state it was in thanks to Nat.
Meanwhile, Hermes was apologizing to everyone for his role in Taylor's plan, and they were telling him not to worry because what happened wasn't his fault.
Jay smiled as he observed the interactions around him. Finally, everything was back to normal.
A/N: I told you this chapter would be longer than the last one. It's actually the longest chapter in the story. HoneyGoddess57 and I apologize if the fight scene wasn't very good, but neither of us is very good at that stuff. We hope you enjoyed our story and will be kind enough to leave a review.