Chapter 26: The city of fallen Angels
Thanks to ambrosia my wound healed quickly. Alex and Hectar had some nectar to clear up their cuts and bruises. They had come out of this fight unharmed but they had made the same travel Luke and I had. Luke seemed fine, we hadn't really talked about his leaving yet. I figured it had to wait until Alex and Hectar were sleeping. We were going to get to Los Angeles now, there was no time for stops or anything. Every time we stopped something tried to kill us so we weren't making that mistake any more. It would be nearly a full day to get there but it didn't matter. It was better than losing another car or running into any more monsters. Alex and Hectar couldn't drive (well mostly Luke and I didn't trust them behind the wheel so we convinced them that both of us had been driving for years.) It was night now, I was driving. We figured that was most logical. Luke would sleep during the night and I would sleep during the day. I was more active at night anyway so it was fine by me. We would only have to do two switches. I would drive through tonight, then Luke would take over in the morning and I would take us the final bit. It wasn't a big deal. The first part of the drive was hellish though. Jones and Garner were singing along, laughing and not doing the one thing that I wanted them to do which was go to freaking sleep. Luke was driving shot gun and while Alex and Hectar were singing along with the radio I whispered.
"Do you think anyone would miss them if we did them in right now?" Luke looked back at them to see them using two bronze daggers as microphones and making weird faces. He looked back at me with sincerity in his face.
"I highly doubt that." The trip went on like that for a while. It was past midnight when Alex and Hectar finally lost their energy and fell asleep. Luke and I were sitting there, we both knew we had to talk but we didn't know where to start. The radio was playing. There was a song by Rise Against playing, apparently it was from their new album. It was pretty good, I did think Rise against had better albums. It was hard to beat Appeal to Reason, their 2008 album.
"So what did you do after you left?" I asked simply. I didn't sound very angry but I was. He had come back (perfectly timed as well.) but that didn't change that he left. He had given up for a while, how could I be sure that he wouldn't again?
"I walked to Howardwick, Iris messaged Maria." Luke said. I figured she must haven been happy that was on his way home. Her boyfriend was safe, she should have been happy. "I thought she would be happy but instead she was pissed off. She couldn't believe I let you continue on your own. She said that if she saw me back at camp without seeing this through till the end she would drop kick me to Los Angeles." Luke laughed a bit. He sure had a girlfriend with some fire burning inside.
"Why didn't she do that in the first place? Would have been faster." I joked. We didn't laugh, laughing seemed harder now. When we started the road was filled with jokes. Now every joke we cracked, quiet followed.
"By the way there's something you should know." Luke said sincerely. I wondered what now. Every time there was something I had to know I heard bad news. It made me less eager to hear these things every single time. "There's someone else missing from camp. I think he's come after us as well." Luke said. I wondered who that could be. Who else would try to find us without permission? Alex and Hectar were stupid enough to do that but who else was? Luke probably saw that I was trying to figure out who it was, so without waiting for an answer he spoke. "Lucio Fortis. He left shortly after Alex and Hectar did and he's a lot more resourceful, especially now that he's angry." Lucio, son of Hypnos. The guy had tried to kill me once before and apparently he hadn't given up yet.
"Do you have any idea where he is?" I asked. Was there a chance that he was right behind us? I doubted it. How was he supposed to get here? He seemed smart enough not to hitch-hike but he was way too young to drive himself. How was he supposed to get to Los Angeles? I worried about him. He had tried to kill me but I didn't feel a grudge against him. I understood his rage, I just wished he could let it go.
"Nah, but I think we'll run into him somewhere along the road. He's obviously very determined to kill you." Luke said. He seemed to feel less bad about it than I did. I think he understood like I did but in the end this didn't really involve him. He had been friends with Evie but he had gotten through his grief. But Lucio hadn't. He still had all that rage cropped up inside and the only way that was going to come out was if he fought me. So what was I supposed to do? At this moment in time nothing at all. Better to just keep going, there more more important matters going on.
"Anything else I should know?" Luke obviously had more knowledge about what was going on than I did. He still had contact with camp unlike me. I didn't even know how to Iris message. Even if I did the only one I would want to talk to was Grace at the moment. Who else would I want to speak to?
"Nothing really." Luke said. The song ended as Luke and I fell into silence again. The next song was fitting I suppose. Paradise city by Guns N Roses. It was about Los Angeles, a good song. And given where we were going very fitting. I turned it up a slight but praying Hectar and Alex wouldn't wake up. I listened to the song as I continued to drive down route 66. Luke had fallen asleep by the song's end. I was still wide awake.
I drove for hours just wondering about what I would come across in Los Angeles. I was actually kind of happy that there weren't any people left that knew me. Those that did were probably dead or spread around other orphanages and other than the orphans there was only one man that I knew over there. Lou Seyja. The person who changed Michael, and therefore he changed me. I hung around him a lot in my last year at the orphanages. He was an all right guy and taught me a lot of things...things I'd love to forget. If anyone made me a good killer...it was Lou. He taught me so much 'useless things. Lou thought knowing every vital blood artery in the human body was useless. It had made kill quite easy over the years. Of course Colt didn't use it to kill...he used it not to kill. He avoided everything vital so that the pain would last. He had a mind for killing that was for sure. I remembered the first time I actually talked to Lou. It wasn't long after Peter got stabbed by little Ed.
"Do you think he'll make it?" I asked as Peter was carried onto the ambulance. I was scared even though I had an expressionless face. I couldn't show weakness in the orphanage, not even for a second. Even among my friends I could never be weak. It was hard sometimes but over the years I had grown quite cold, it got easier to know no sadness or pain.
"He should be fine." Lou said calmly. This was his job, he couldn't show a sign of weakness either. While we stood there he got a pack of Marlboro cigarettes out of his pocket, got one cigarette out and stuck it between his lips. As he put the pack back in his pocket he pulled out a simple electric lighter and lit his cigarette. The tip burned and Lou started to smoke his cigarette, it seemed to make him a bit calmer. Back then I hadn't smoked yet. I had my first cigarette when I turned eleven. At this moment I didn't even feel the urge to smoke even though pretty much everyone else did, I thought the addiction would only slow me down. I never really got hooked as I stuck with the occasional cigarette, but I was sure that it would have slowed me down even now. Of course a slowed down me wasn't such a bad thought, not in those days anyway.
"How do you think someone could think of doing this? Without any reason or cause, how would they think of this?" I had seen so much violence at the orphanage but no one had ever tried to kill my best friend without there being any kind of fight or struggle. Ed had gone straight for the kill. I wondered how he thought of doing that, maybe Lou knew. Of course he didn't know any of this involved Ed. No ratting, that was the most important rule at the orphanage. You never ratted on anyone. The story here was that I found Peter and no one saw what happened, even Peter didn't say a word, but he was in shock so that didn't really count.
"Many men have done things no one can explain." Lou said as he took a pull from his cigarette. I didn't really understand what he meant at that time. Lou's teachings of serial killers and methods of murder came much later. At that time I thought what Ed did was the worst thing anyone had done, even my revenge was an act of lesser evil in my opinion.
"Do you think I could do that sort of things?" I asked him. I didn't know Lou very well at this moment in time. I didn't think he would answer normally. After all I just asked him if he expected me to be able of stabbing someone in the shoulder with a screwdriver. Not something you normally ask your medical adviser. He looked at me with wide open eyes, the cigarette was still clenched between his lips. He took it out without taking a pull this time, his eyes remained focused on me.
"I doubt it Michael. The way you took care of your friend today. I don't think you're capable of intentionally hurting someone like this." Lou said. I remember his words to this day. Then they made sense to me, now I wished he had been right. I remembered that when I killed Ed, Quinn, William and whoever else came after his words echoed through my head. How wrong he had been. It never made sense to me why he told me all the things he did. Maybe it was because he believed I wasn't capable of hurting someone in the ways he taught me. Maybe it was like he said, he needed someone to tell these useless things. I wondered how he never found anything out though. I used torture methods he taught me on Seth. How could he not have seen that? I would probably never find out. I had no intention of seeing Lou ever again, that seemed for the better. Although I wondered where he went after the orphanage closed. Maybe he had started working at a proper hospital, maybe he had quit doing anything with medics. He always said he had seen enough blood in one year at the orphanage than most doctors would see in ten years. It always seemed far fetched to me. But he would know better than I would. Lou always was a mystery to me. It didn't really matter but going to my old home town made me think of him more than anything. He had been one of my two parental figures I guess. My mom of course, what little I remembered of her were good things. And then there was Lou. He had taught me more than my mom, than my dad or Jake for that matter. They may not have been good things. But hell no father is perfect. It was stupid, but if you're a kid living in the orphanage of hell you're ready to cling onto anything that resembles normal. In my mind I started bringing up more memories of Lou than I originally planned to. But it made the lonely drive easier.
I went on through the night listening to music and staring at the road ahead of me until Alex and Hectar woke up at about 8 in the morning. They continued as if they never slept at all chanting and screaming away. It made the drive a lot more annoying. Not long after that Luke woke up. We stopped at the nearest gas station, fuelled up, got something to munch on and left. The whole ten minutes in the store I had my hands in my pockets ready to grab Shadow-edge at any time. Of course the one time I'm ready for it nothing happens. I could have known that from the start. There was no one in the store other than Luke and I and the guy behind the counter was about my age wearing doofy glasses, a stupid looking work outfit with an oversized hat and had serious acne issues. He was certainly not a monster but I didn't want to take any risk. As soon as we got back into the car I fell asleep. I was exhausted, I didn't know why exactly but some sleep in times like these worked miracles. Of course some actual sleep without nightmare's was too much to ask.
I was alone on some kind of mountain. I knew what mountain it was. This was where Jake, Ashlyn, Sophie and Darius fought Hyperion. I saw Jake, Sophie and Ashlyn standing there, Darius was no where to be seen. I figured this must have been after the fight. Ashlyn and Sophie had tears rolling over their cheeks. Jake was standing over the edge of the mountain. Not long ago Hyperion had let out a burst of energy that blew him right off the mountain, no one could have survived that. And now they were realizing that their dear friend was gone. I knew what this was like. First they wouldn't believe it, he was fine, he couldn't be dead. They were lucky that they didn't have to see his lifeless body. If you saw your friends lifeless body there was no phase of denial, you couldn't deny what your eyes showed you. Of course they wouldn't realize that luck. When a friend died luck wasn't a thing you thought of. It was all I got to see of this moment. The scene shifted. I wondered why I dreamed about that. Usually my dreams had meaning, something I had to get out of it or something I needed to know but how was that particular moment important? I didn't have long to think about it.
I saw Samael and Maximus. They were standing in front of a metal gate with wooden boards saying do not enter. I knew this building, although I couldn't believe the state it was in. The three buildings looked like ruins. It was the sort of place kids would dare each other to enter. Rumble everywhere, stone, wood and other construction material. It didn't look like a very happy place, of course the orphanage never was. That wasn't what was important here. The question was, what were Samael and Maximus doing here, and was Phthonos there too?
"Are you sure he'll come here?" Maximus asked. They stood in front of the gate seemingly without purpose. What were they doing there? There was nothing of importance there, it was just a run down orphanage.
"Oh he'll come." Samael answered with certainty. Who was he talking about? Phthonos or me? Maybe it wasn't either. Just seeing them there...it made me want to go. I had to go there, if Samael and Maximus were there. I would be on my way. They started pulling down the boards and cut the chain lock of the gate. The gate opened with a crack. How long had it been closed? Samael and Maximus walked on the orphanage grounds, memories returned to me. They sat down on some broken pieces of stone and wood and waited. "He'll be here soon enough."
I woke up late, very late. I had slept through the entire day (and Alex and Hectar's hyper hours thank gods.) It was dark outside, I couldn't even find the moon and there were very few stars in the sky. Luke was still driving the car. The road wasn't empty like the night before. There were a few people driving. Of course these were busier roads. We were hitting California very soon.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked. Luke shouldn't have to drive for this length of time. We should have switched at about eight while it was past ten already.
"You deserve some sleep." Luke said.
"I was asleep for a full day not long ago." I was feeling tired even though I had. Apparently that wasn't just sleep, that was sleep or die and when you wake up you'll still feel tired as hell.
"Yeah I guess." Luke stayed behind the wheel. He didn't seem to have the intention of changing seats. In that case I just stayed put. Luke was a better driver than I was. So if he wanted to drive I let him. I sat straight up and looked outside of the window. At every crossing I was afraid to see that black SUV again. When Luke drove up to us with a car it was get in or get eaten, But now I was sitting here and had nothing to think about other than Samael trying to kill us or slowing us down. I was never sure which one it was. I hadn't told Luke about my dream yet, maybe I shouldn't. Luke seemed to want to go straight to the underworld. I had been told the entrance was in some kind of recording studio. I didn't really know for sure. I wondered if I had ever seen the entrance to the underworld. I had roamed the streets of Los Angeles for a while, it was likely that I had. "So did you have any dreams?" Luke asked. For a second I doubted about lying but in the end I decided against that. I had asked I had to tell the truth.
"I saw Jake, Sophie and Ashlyn right after the defeated Hyperion. And then I saw Samael and Maximus at the orphanage I grew up in." I said.
"We're not going there." I didn't understand Luke's problem. I hadn't even said that I wanted to but I did. If we could beat Samael and Max there we didn't even have to go to the underworld. It seemed like a better plan to me.
"Why not?" I had to know why Luke was so snappish on the subject. What had changed over the course of day?
"Look Angel." Luke seemed to doubt again I seriously wondered what was going on in his head. "Every time we stopped for anything we nearly died. And you heard the prophecy. 'Alone the lord of the dead he shall face'." Luke quoted. "I don't know who Rachel meant here but one of us will head down towards Hades alone and there's four of us left. Maybe only one of us actually gets to speak to him or something like that but what if the prophecy means that everyone else died? That line is part of the reason why I didn't want to go on Angel. If you were alone then it would definitely be you. Then I thought about it. What if none of us actually meet him, what if one of us died. Then I had send you into certain death. This line Angel, it's the worst of the bunch." I had to agree with Luke. The others I didn't really understand but this one line, I knew that was bad.
"Okay then, let's head to Hades...all of us." I said. Now Luke shook his head. What was his problem now.
"We're not taking them two." Luke shook his head towards the back. "They're not ready to go to a place like the underworld. Hades won't like us being down there and it's going to be hard enough to get two living past Charon." Luke said. I figured he was right. He knew more about these things than I did or anyone else I knew for that matter. "It's better to keep them away from Hades as long as possible." That's when I noticed something about Luke I always knew but never realized. He cared about everyone, not just Maria or his friends, everyone. He thought Hectar and Alex were just as annoying as I did but he still cared about there safety. I would have their backs in a fight but I wasn't nearly as protective as Luke was. After I nodded the quiet returned. We drove to my home town in silence. Seeing the Los Angeles skyline from the road was weird to me. I remembered how I had left Los Angeles after the robbery and what I did to my room-mates, now I was returning in order to defeat a god. I had gone up in the world. The city hadn't changed much. I still saw the same streets, it was just as busy and you had to turn your head away from most alleyways in order to stay sane. It was a beautiful city on the surface but if you had seen it's back streets and alley's it was hardly beautiful. Maybe that was only my experience, many people loved LA even when they had seen it's ugly face.
"So do you know where we are going?" I asked Luke. He usually seemed to know but did he know where the entrance to the underworld was?
"Kinda." That didn't give me much hope. LA was hard to navigate through at times, especially when it 's busy. But Luke seemed to know where he was going, maybe he was just making random turns though. As we hit the same crossroad for the third time I realized:
"You have no idea do you?" I asked.
"Nope."
"Ah come on!"
"We've been driving around for like an hour!" The protests from the back continued. I just started to go through my every memory. I knew I had heard about DOA recording studios before but where. Did I see it? I searched my memories for every street I had ever walked through, I still knew Los Angeles pretty well. I looked everywhere in my mind for DOA recording studios, until I found it.
"I know where it is." Every head in the car turned towards me. "I saw it when I was a kid, not long after my mom died." Coincidence never left me alone. I had to start wondering, was it really coincidence. I gave Luke the directions from where we were. My memory was weird like that. I forgot about things easily but once I remembered I knew every little detail. And as I thought, there we were. DOA studios. Even from outside the place seemed cold. Luke parked the car not far from the main entrance. He had driven all the way ever since I fell asleep that morning. I was quite impressed with Luke. He had his doubts along the road but he had stuck around even now we were going to go towards the underworld. I barely had a choice in doing this, it was pretty much my only purpose in life. But Luke was doing this willingly, I was amazed by how strong and loyal he was. It was something I had never seen in a person. Even the friends I used to call families didn't know loyalty this way. I still cared about Pete, Joey and Eve, I always would. But in a situation like this would they fight alongside me till the end like Luke? I wasn't sure that they would.
"Awesome, underworld time." Jones said. We hadn't really told them that they weren't coming, we weren't going to either. As they tried to step out of the back of the van Luke and I looked at each other and nodded. Simultaneously we both hooked one of the two. I hit Alex straight in the face (I won't lie given how annoying he could be I kinda enjoyed it) and Luke knocked out Hectar.
"Think they'll understand why we did this?" I asked Luke as I closed the doors of the van.
"I highly doubt it." Luke looked the car with the laser key he held in his hands. After that we had to go in. We stood in front of the door for a while, we both doubted. I didn't want to be the first entering and Luke didn't either. Maybe we were just being stupid but this is the underworld we're talking about. Eventually neither of us had to open the door. They opened without either of us moving an inch. We knew there was no way back, we had to go in.
Inside was just as easily described as outside. Cold, the carpets and walls were steel grey and the lighting was so bright that it hurt your eyes. It reminded me of the thirteenth floor. There were a few leather couches and chairs there, an elevator at the north end of the room and a stage like stand on which stood a dark skinned man. There were more people there sitting on the couches and chairs, they seemed to be waiting for their bus or something like that. I wondered why they were there. What I did know was who the dark skinned man was. He wore a white Italian suit that matched his military styled hair. He wore shades and had a little smile on his face. He had a name tag on his left chest: Charon. This was the ferryman, the one that would bring me and Luke into the underworld.
"What's this?" Charon talked smoothly with a sense of evil in his voice. He was on a raised podium in front of us. "Two living godlings walking into my little palace, should I be flattered?" At first Charon doesn't really resemble your standard version of evil. He was a sharp dressed man if anything.
"We need to speak with Hades." I asked. I didn't want to make small talk with the ferryman of the dead. Better to get past him as quickly as possible. Of course pissing him off wasn't a smart idea. This guy probably packed a lot of punch, I couldn't know for sure. As far as I knew no one ever got into a fight with him.
"You want to speak with the man downstairs?" Charon raised his eyebrows and looked down on us making his shades slide down his nose. I could see his eyes now, eyes of a dead man. They were empty and without any sign of life. I had seen someone die. And that was the empty vacant stare of a corpse. "Even the dead rarely get that right. How do you expect a living godling like you gets to?" Charon said.
"It's about his daughter." Luke looked at me with a look that pretty much could be the described: 'What the fuck are you doing!' I had known for a while now that Athena never told Hades about us being on our way. She never struck some kind of deal with him. The only way we would get Hades to help out was by using his deceased daughter. It might be harsh, but Hades would only be temped with revenge. I felt bad using Jeni like that, I had only met her once but she was all right.
"Well in that case..." A smile appeared on Charon's face. His teeth were sparkling white and again I could see those dead eyes. He stared at me as if he was reading my mind. I wondered if he could actually do that. "It will be one drachma for the both of you." Charon stuck out his open hand. I knew there had to be a catch. I looked at Luke hoping for some advice. He went into his pocket and took out a drachma. He mouthed the words 'last one' and passed it to me. So there I was ready to give the last of our divine money to the ferryman. I was just stretching out my arm to pass him the coin when he closed his hand. "Before you do, I implore you to look over at that couch to the left." If I hadn't, Luke and I would have entered the underworld together, things might have been completely different. But I looked. There on the couch sat a girl. She had straight hair, wore ripped up jeans, dirty shoes and a simple t-shirt. She was about ten years old and was pretty. It was a girl I knew very well. "Peter and Joey were brought down years ago, Joey right after he died. The cops paid for his funeral and we just added his soul being shipped downstairs to the bill. Peter had a grandpa who had some savings for little Pete. It wasn't much but it was enough. Poor little Eve, she had nothing. No one paid a dime for her. No one cared." I tried not to listen to Charon. He was trying to get to me. I didn't know why, but I knew the methods better than anyone. Inside my head lived a guy who used them whenever he could. I walked over to her. She seemed so much weaker than she did. She had been sitting here for six years.
"Eve?" I tried. She didn't seem to hear me. She had a vacant stare and looked like she was barely there. She was dead after all. The burning marks I saw on her when I found her were gone. She had clearer skin than she ever had. But here she was. She had died in a horrible way, and she hadn't even been allowed a final resting place. "Eve?" I tried again as tears started to form in the corners of my eyes.
"She can't hear you." Charon said. He had no emotion in his voice. He didn't feel a thing for any of these dead souls. I didn't really care for them. But this was Eve. She had been part of my self acclaimed family. She didn't deserve this.
"One drachma?" I asked. Charon nodded. Luke knew what I was going to do. I doubt he liked it all that much but he didn't protest. I flipped the coin towards Charon. "Give her some peace." I said. I knew I should have done that. I should have gotten Luke and me into the underworld. But I owed her this much. When Charon put the coin in his pocket, Eve's endless gaze broke. She looked up at me and tried to smile.
"Thank you." Now the tears started to roll. Back when I knew her I was a few inches taller, now I towered above her. I wondered what she would have looked like if she had become my age. I wondered what my life would have been like if she had never died. It would have been different, I would have so much less to redeem myself for. Not for Seth, William or Quinn. And if she had been there...I wouldn't have done what I did to that cop or to anyone I killed later in life. Because I would have someone there with me, and even though I didn't always succeed I tried to hide my vile side from Eve whenever I could. But she had died, but at least now she could have her eternal peace. Another tear ran over my face as Charon took her into the elevator at the north end of the room, and left Luke and I waiting. Charon wasn't going to let us into the underworld any time soon.
Luke and I left DOA recording studios defeated. Where would we go from here? We couldn't get into the underworld, we didn't have any drachmas (or dollars) left and we were both so tired. Alex and Hectar were still knocked out in the back of the van. Luke and I sat in the front for a while not knowing what to do. I sat in front of the wheel, Luke was tired of driving. He went for shotgun leaving the driver's seat for me. I didn't know what to do. We'd failed. We weren't getting into the underworld, not any time soon. Well...there was a way of course. It was a plan I had been considering for a while now. There had been many things I had been secretly considering. I had never shared them with Luke or Maximus because I was scared to. Some of them were really bad ideas. Although I knew I would have to share them soon enough, but not now. It was a last resort back up plan that I wouldn't share until we needed it. Eventually I pushed my foot on the gas. Luke wasn't going to like this, but it was the last shot we had at ending this before my last resort.
"Angel where are we going?" Luke asked me. He knew, he just wanted me to say that I wasn't going there.
"We're going to meet Samael and Max." It seemed like the best thing to do. It was a trap no doubt but if we could defeat them then Phthonos wouldn't have any candidates to make his ultimate minion.
"No man, no!" Luke said, but he wasn't behind the wheel any more. "You know it's a fucking trap!" I knew, that didn't change anything. Luke threw a few more reasons why we shouldn't go to the orphanage around. He was right about all of them but I had to try this. So I drove to the place I used to know as home. I knew exactly where to go, it was a few traffic jams away from DOA recording studios though. When we got there I felt light in my head. I had seen this place in my dream but seeing it for real again, it was weird. It had been home, but it had been a horrible place. I had a lot of good memories, and a lot more bad ones. This building had been my life for years, and returning to it now wasn't something I saw as a good thing. I stopped the car in front of the gate and got out of the car. Luke got out as well.
"Are you sure they are here?" I just nodded. They wouldn't show themselves from the start, but they were here. I walked on, through the gate and into the courtyard. It was exactly like I saw it in my dream. A wasteland of stone, steel and wood. The building left of gate was north dorm, it also had the lobby and the offices. It was still in pretty good shape compared to the other two building. Across from us was the burned down ruin of south dorm, Eve had died there. Then there were east and west which looked like they were about really to crumble down. For a second I wanted to look inside East dorm, just to see what it was like. How much had changed, was my room still there? So many questions. I wasn't going to get them answered. As we got further towards the end of the courtyard behind us the gate closed. Luke and I turned around lightning quick and we both drew our weapons. There at the gate, stood Lou Seyja. Luke didn't know what to think, and I was stunned.
"Hello Michael, I knew you'd return here eventually." Lou said. How could he be here? Why was he here? I hadn't seen Lou in years and here he was at the orphanage where I met him. I stood there with Shadow-edge in my hand. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. I didn't understand anything any more. Who was he? Lou walked past Luke and I. He walked towards the ruin of south dorm. He looked down on the trap door that lead to the basement where I tortured Seth into madness. "I remember when we pulled him out of here. I was so proud, I had taught you a lot about torture but that you were able to do it so well. Of course I could have known. You killed Ed when he hurt your friends, Seth knew who killed your girlfriend." Lou smiled. He knew I killed Ed and tortured Seth? He was proud of me? How could he think like that. I knew Lou wasn't really normal but this was mad. "Then William and Quinn, now that made you one promising candidate. You were perfect. Of course I meant for you to be that way. Just like Max, I controlled you. You just didn't know."
"No...NO!" It couldn't be. It couldn't be him. He had to be lying! That's when Lou's face changed. He looked younger, more perfect. His simple clothes turned into a fancy suit and his eyes went from their normal green to a piercing blood thirsty red.
"Oh it's me all right." Phthonos said. I couldn't believe the truth. Was this really happening? Was the man that taught me so much really a lie? What did that make me? Was I anything but a puppet? Jake's plans, Phthonos being the one that turned me into a monster, was there any choice I had made myself? All these questions, I couldn't answer them. The despair couldn't be taken away, all I could do was turn it into anger. I regained control over my body. I was going to kill Phthonos for this. He had controlled myself, turned a simple boy into a master of murder and torture and now he was trying to kill everything I cared about. He wasn't going to get away with any of that. I would make sure of it.
"I'll kill you Phthonos!" I charged. Shadow-edge seemed to grow heavier, but stronger. When I was about 10 feet away from Phthonos I jumped. I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. In half a second my sword would hit Phthonos making it possible for him to kill me in the nastiest ways possible. But someone held me back. As I swung down my sword my weapon connecting with something. Maximus stood besides Phthonos and held his sword in front of him. Maximus had defended his master, or at least that's what I thought at the time. It would take me a long time to realize that Maximus wasn't protecting Phthonos, he was protecting me. If my blade had connected with Phthonos he would have killed me. But instead Maximus stopped me. Of course, I thought he was attacking me. With incredible strength he brought his sword down and pushed me backwards. I landed on my feet but was amazed with Max's incredible strength. That's how Max and I started our fight. Neither of us landed a single hit. We were perfect equals when it came to strength. I wondered if that was true or if we were both holding back. The truth was I didn't want to kill Max, and he didn't want to kill me. All our attacks were easily blocked or parried and we both knew exactly how strong we were, it wasn't hard adapting to each other. Our fight was more blocking than either of us trying to go for the kill. Behind me Luke was ready to join the struggle. He sprinted towards Max and I but was intercepted by no one other than Samael. He looked ever worse than when he tried to kill us near Oklahoma city. He also had a new sword (of course I hadn't actually seen his sword since I took Shadow-edge from him.) It was a celestial bronze blade with a hilt black as night. The blade was crooked and was much longer than Shadow-edge was. Was this Phthonos' gift to Samael? I doubted it was Shadow-edge, if it was he would have wanted it back but he never seemed to have those intentions. He ran past Luke and in his sprint Cut Luke in the leg. Luke fell forwards and hit the floor. His leg was bleeding badly and without nectar or ambrosia he wouldn't be walking any time soon. Now Samael was coming towards me. I was able to fight Max and Samael individually (or so I believed) but together I didn't stand a chance. I doubled my speed as Samael tried to strike me as well as Maximus. Of course Samael did want to hurt me. And it wasn't long before he did. With Samael's skill and speed and the giant reach of his sword he got through my defence easily. He stabbed his sword into my right shoulder, the same should he stabbed me in last time. The wound we shared on opposites sides, and Samael just reopened mine.
"What do you think of Chaos-Eater Michael?" Samael asked. "Pretty neat huh?" I couldn't speak, my shoulder hurt too much. He pushed his sword down forcing me to my knees. "That was the old wound wasn't it?" Samael said as he pushed the blade a little further into my shoulder. "Maxi, fetch the pendant for me." The pendant? What pendant did he mean? Maximus walked over to me and reached in my pockets. He pulled out a small silver pendant in the shape of an owl, the Messor pendant. He threw it to Samael who caught it with his left arm. His reaction seemed a bit off, was his arm still hurting from when I stabbed him? My shoulder had healed fine, until Samael stabbed me again. "Shiny." Samael said. As he inspected the pendant. When he finished inspecting it he pushed the owl and it changed into a shiny silver dagger. Samael looked at the dagger, and then cut his right arm with it. For a moment he looked weakened, he was breathing heavily and he looked like he was going to pass out. Then he smiled, a crooked smile which held his sadistic pleasure for pain. He started raising his sword. Only he wasn't just raising his sword, he was raising me. This strength was inhuman, even Ares kids couldn't do that with such ease. He pulled me up until I was at least a feet of the ground, then he pulled in his sword making me come towards him. He raised his leg and kicked me in my chest. With incredible speed I was blown backwards, Samael's kick had literally blown me away. I bounced of the concrete ground of the courtyard. I realized what Samael had in his hands. That was the real Messor still holding some of Hyperion's power. If that was just a tiny bit still held up in the dagger. What would he be able to do if he had all of Hyperion's power? "Oh yeah, this is the real one."
"Good." Phthonos said. "I have to thank you for bringing it safely Michael. And you Luke." Phthonos mocked us. I didn't even know I had a copy of Messor.
"You had it all this time?" Luke asked me. I had no idea, but Luke apparently thought I had been keeping it a secret.
"Oh no Luke." Phthonos said. "Michael had no idea, well part of him didn't. When you were out chatting with your girlfriend Colt woke up and went to a small suburban house and got this copy of Messor. We agreed ages ago to meet here once you and Angel had hit Los Angeles and so he did. Even though Angel thinks he chose to come here it was Colt at the time." Colt had driven us here? But I remembered, how could that be? Could he take over so easily? And that dream I had when I was in coma...that was real? Colt was doing that while I dreamed. It was all so confusing. "Anyway, we have places to be. Soon my son and Max will be more powerful than any mortal being alive. They will destroy your precious camp and end mortal life." Phthonos had an evil smile on his face. He had won. He had Messor, he had his candidates and he probably knew where Hyperion was ever since this all started. It was all over.