WHOO! Next chapter. Always is refreshing to get this stuff out there. This is the 17th chapter. It's really hard for me to believe, but it's awesome to see. Anyhow...

Disclaimer: No, I don't own them, quit asking me.

A Haunting Memory Returns...

Chapter 17: Gods

Jinx was convinced that the other Titans had breathed in some of that toxin. They expected her to go to Maine with Wally on a leash. He tried to kill her, what made them think he was calm enough to willingly go to Maine to help people who hate his bud Angelo? It was ludicrous.

She could still feel the sting from that goddamn punch. It had one Hell of an effect on her. Sometimes she'd be perfectly fine, and the next thing you know she's down on the floor with a piercing headache. No one cared to give a hand. "It's just an effect of the strike, Jinx." "It'll wear off, Jinx." "Stop complaining and take a fucking aspirin, Jinx." She wasn't sure if these people saw her as anything more than just someone who's just there—just one spare, useless part that you don't want to get rid of in case of it increasing in value later. That's not what she wanted to be known as. She wanted to be something more. All of a sudden, Wally's argument made a lot more sense.

She packed at a leisurely pace; she didn't want to leave the comfort of underground life. Imagine her surprise when Wally walked in and sat down in the exact same seat that Elmer had not too long ago. She pretended not to notice him, but he broke the silence when he said, "He talks to me... tells me things... I want to lock him out of my head, but I only end up locking him inside."

Jinx turned to face him, but she didn't look at him in the eyes. She didn't want to see them again. Ever.

"Who?"

"I don't know..."

"Angelo? Dracul?"

"I don't know."

She decided to let it go. The last thing she wanted was another fight with him, since her head was still pounding, and she didn't want to add to the stress on the medical team who have been complaining about her.

"I want to believe you're her, but I just can't see it." Wally continues.

"Who says you need to see it?"

"He does."

"Tell him to shut the hell up then."

He laughed at this, a flare of his original personality showed, before going dark again.

"They say that... something's wrong with me—what the Hell is wrong with me?!"

Jinx forced herself to look into his eyes, and they had the glow of a hurt and confused child trying to make sense of the fucked up world around him. She would have hugged the guy if she wasn't half-convinced that he'd start strangling her if she did.

"What are they going to do?" Wally asked anxiously.

She looked away again and answered, "They want me to take you to Maine with me to see if we

can stop Dracul. They think we might find an antidote for what he's done to you and everyone else."

He laughed.

"You think that I'm stupid? Do you honestly think that the guy made a fucking antidote? Why would he? It would just defeat the whole purpose."

"You never know."

"Yes I do. I just don't want to acknowledge it."

…

They were sent off two hours later. The plan was that they traveled on foot out of Jump City and to the closest city with a working air port. They would then land in Vermont, and travel on foot to the eastern edge of Maine. Though it would have been easier for Wally to just run them over, it would have attracted unwanted attention. Besides, it wasn't as if he was entirely comfortable with Jinx or the other Titans. So they'd travel slowly, and the other Titans would arrive slowly.

Everything seemed to be going fine the first two days as they walked to a functioning airport. It wasn't until the third day until things started to turn sour. Weather didn't seem to be on their side, and they received an uncomfortable amount of rain the third day. Then, somehow (Though Jinx was sure it had something to do with Wally) all of their food had disappeared. She decided to take the foraging as an advantage to get away from him due to his disturbing, detached state.

Jinx examined the environment, she didn't think she'd find anything since they were traveling along a railroad, and if there was any food, it'd be impossible to find in this accursed rain. She kept following the path, and she couldn't believe it when she actually found a basket of apples under a bench. They seemed freshly picked as well.

"Somebody must have been in a real hurry." she mused as she picked the basket up.

She felt accomplished with this find and decided to head back. Ten minutes down the path she began to shiver uncontrollably.

"Damn cold."

Jinx's panic arose as she began to feel as if she's lost—oh God, was that the same bench? The thunder was now bellowing with an eerie intensity. The wind was blowing in a way that she thought it was talking to her. Maybe she shouldn't have gone by herself. She heard something hit the ground behind her and quickly spun around and threw a hex at an unknowing squirrel. She sighed with relief before turning back around to feel the pain of a needle being injected in her trapezius and two glowing red eyes staring back at her.

…

She was falling backwards now, her legs shaking uncontrollably under her. He had to grab her to make sure she kept her balance. Her face was woozy and she struggled to speak. Her chain of thought has weakened considerably. Here eyelids became heavy and he was forced to keep them open.

"D—Dracul?" she stammers.

"Was it really that much of a surprise?"

…

Jinx woke up what seemed like ten minutes later. She was on the ground now, looking up at the sky, her neck was aching, and she managed a groan. She saw Dracul spinning around with his arms reaching outwards as if it were some wondrous occasion.

"Isn't it amazing?" he bubbled, "An entire armada of bacterium pounding against us with such momentum—we're literally among life near its simplest!"

"Why...why...?"

"Why? Well my dear it's a simple answer! Y'see, it all started with..."

"No, not that. Why did you..." she struggled to find the words, "am-bush me?

"Ambush? Simply because I could! Besides, it's been too long since our last conversation. You need intellectual stimulation my dear!"

"The bombing."

"Yes, yes; old news! Very tiring." he said as he yawned to prove his point, "Now, back to my point, all these miniscule bacterium, all dropping down onto us through their medium, rain. You never really think about it, but you're actually being pounded by Gods."

"Germs aren't God." Jinx interrupted.

"Gods. You children and your monotheistic ways. G-O-D-S. Anyhow, bacteria would count, would they not?"

"Gods are..."

She pauses, and searches her brain for the next word, "Wholly—holy."

"And what exactly is considered holy? If you really think that there are angels in the sky, you're surely mistaken. When bacterium first came to be, they were...dominant. Because they were original. But as years went by,"

Jinx watched him pace as he continued, "Single celled organisms came to be far too simple for the new eukaryota: the plants, animals, and such. You see, Gods were always old-fashioned, however, we were all taught that Gods were the most powerful beings. Then how is it that we are progressing better than they are? Centuries in the history books and here we are producing more than they could in a decade. Why? Perhaps it's because they're single-celled."

Jinx tried to take in what he was telling her, though she didn't know what relevance this had. Dracul turned back to her; continuing his lecture.

"Now, in terms of Greek mythology, if bacterium were the Gods then who would be the Titans?"

She didn't even try to look for an answer. She was sure that if Gizmo were here he would have gotten it easily, but her, especially in this condition. No... not happening. When he realized he wasn't going to receive an answer he lectured on.

"Yes Jinx, the archaea is correct. Now, imagine this: More than 13 billion years ago, our universe was a blazing, dense, near-empty area. Tell me, Jinx, what happens when an object is at a high temperature?"

This one was rather easy, so she answered proudly, "It expands."

"Good—by the way, you might want to get off of the ground, you don't know who's walked there. I met a man once, who had ears that produced earwax at a fast rate, or so he told me. Often, it'd start to show. He'd have to pick it, and then he'd hide it in his... shoes. Now, when he first told me this, I thought he was a pretty fucked up guy, but then he told me, 'It's not as if it's hurting anybody.' And he was right. It might have had I not stepped in, but I'm a decent man. I slit his throat then, to prevent him to getting rashes on his foot later. Anyhow, where was I? Ah yes, so our universe begins expanding, and then something begins to happen. As we expand, our universe cools. Now, if heat and cool were to represent the chaos of our universe, what would represent Gaia, Ouranos, and Tartarus?"

He waited for an answer that wouldn't come. This was far too complex (and random) for her.

"Gaia would represent protons, Tartarus neutrons, and Ouranos the electrons. You may ask yourself, why would Tartarus represent neutrons if it was the most negative? Now that's the thing. I could sit here and argue about how Tartarus wasn't actually living and how it couldn't have given opinion, but let's stick with facts. The electrons took thousands of years to finally link with the nucleus. As did Ouranos come last. So now, with all three parts together, their arrangements change and elements are created. Later, six key elements would come to the creation of life: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur. With these elements, the first form of life, the Titans as I've said before, the archaea. Now, elements would then begin to bond to create...?"

"Compounds." Jinx answered.

"Good, good. So then come the compounds representing the Hecatoncheires, and viruses representing cyclopes. But they won't come to make their mark in history yet. Now, the Titans, or the archaea are created, Greek mythology takes its crazy turns with this killing that and all of the bologna that doesn't make a difference. But wait, out come the Gods, as I have said. The bacterium! Now, they have become much more complex than the archaea, and the Titans Era ends and the Gods Era begins. So they have their little reign until our kind begin to appear on the face of the Earth. We've evolved from bacterium and we begin to become something more. We begin to have more than one cell per organism. The eukaryota rise and we eventually reach our period of time."

Dracul looked at her, an aura of excitement surrounding him, as if he had come up with a brilliant idea.

"Your point?" Jinx asked.

"What would it be like, if we could go back to the days of the Gods, or even earlier? What would it be like?"

She tried to look into those glass eyes and wrap her head around what he was asking. He wants to become bacteria? What possible benefit could there be in it? Dracul stared back at her, before tilting his head and asking, "By the way, what is with the phrase 'Oh snap'?"

Jinx didn't know what he meant by that. Oh snap meant oh snap.

"Why 'Oh snap'? Why not 'Oh clap'? Clapping is easier for people to do isn't it? So why 'Oh snap'? Are they discriminating those who can't snap? Is that what people in this country do? Is that what modern people do? Discriminate? Against something so stupid such as that? That brings up the question, why are the terms that we use the terms that we use? For example: Let the cat out of the bag. What the Hell is that supposed to mean? Why not 'Let the dog out of the box'? It makes you wonder..."

With that he walked off leaving her there. What was that? Why was he so... strange and random? Why did he ambush her like that just to let her go? It didn't make sense, and she felt paranoid to say the least. She stared up at the sky as drops of water ran down her face. She forced herself up and decided that she couldn't think straight that she'd just pick one direction and hope that for once in the Hell of a life she had, that she'd have some good luck come her way.

…

Jinx actually managed to get back to the camp. Wally was asleep, his hands firmly clinging a pillow. She set the apples down and looked at him. He seemed just as goofy as ever now. She tried to ponder what Dracul's lecture meant. It was random, and the tiny snippets that he fit in regarding clapping versus snapping and the man with the earwax boots didn't help make it feel otherwise. It just seemed like the rambling of a crazy, old man trying to make sense out of the senseless. She decided that she'd sleep on it. That was the only sensible idea that came out of all of this. That and that she should have taken Crazy West with her. Her downfall has always been pragmatics. It just didn't come to her like other people. Maybe she should have brought Elmer with her.

End of Chapter...

Things are only taking a turn for the worse, as Dracul plans are beginning to unfold slowly. More of that coming soon. Anyhow, tell me what you thought of this chapter, and let me know what you thought of Dracul's part in this chapter and his Gods lecture/monologue. Also, do you think Jinx and Kid Flash can get back together again? Does Dracul even have a bloody antidote? Let me know with some speculation. Thank you and good day.