The Battle for Sanctuary: The Titan's Legacy: Vol: 2 (Volume 2) (17 page)

“
What
was it?”

“
Well,
we called him the Prince of Shadows.”

Puzzled, Dominic repeated the title
aloud and then asked “But why did you call him that?”

“
Because,
if there were any shadows nearby, Crius had to ability to step into
those shadows and literally disappear.”

“
Whoa,”
Dominic said.

“
That
would be awesome, Dom,” Jason exclaimed. “Just think of
what you could do with that. You could scout ahead, make sure things
are safe, spy on enemies; all kinds of stuff!”

Prometheus agreed. “All of that
and more. Think on it a while, lad. We'll talk in a bit.”

Dominic nodded and seemed a bit dazed
as he found a patch of grass to sit down on and stared off into the
distance.

Justin approached the old Titan. “You
seemed a bit disturbed that Dominic's ancestor was Crius,” he
said quietly. Prometheus looked down at him and smiled wryly.

“
Was
it that obvious? Perhaps I was, but what I said was true. My brother
was a good, quiet man who, except for the occasional joke, never
misused his powers. And I don't say that this lad will misuse his.
But as I said earlier, keep an eye on him. Any of your powers can be
misused, and not necessarily intentionally.” He cleared his
throat and spoke up so that the entire group could hear him.

“
My
friends, I'd like to invite you to remain in my home for a day or
two. You can clean up, get some rest and I shall teach you all how to
invoke your powers.”

There was an obvious sense of relief
as all of the teens agreed to stay for a while. Justin was glad. He
was exhausted by the events of the last day and had been eying the
pool for some time; he was still dirty from his earlier pursuit of
his friends through the hot, sand-covered halls of this level.

He watched everyone spread out and
relax. Prometheus left for a moment and then returned with several
bowls of fruit and pitchers of juice.

“
My
guards dropped off another load of food outside of the room. Please
help yourselves,” he said jovially.

Justin went and got some glasses and
handed them out to everyone. Then he spent a few glorious minutes in
the pool, swimming back and forth and getting rid of the accumulated
sand and dirt that had built up in his hair and on his body.

When he got out of the pool, he
looked at his clothes distastefully. They were filthy and he was
reluctant to put them back on. Fortunately, at that moment,
Prometheus emerged from the other room with a handful of different
colored robes.

“
I
thought you all might like to wash your clothing while you're here,”
he announced. “I have several cakes of soap that work well when
washing clothes by hand and you can wear these robes while your
clothes dry off. Just spread them out over the bushes and they will
dry quite quickly.”

Soon everyone was busy beside the
pool washing their things and joking around. Aaron spoke up and said
they looked like a bunch of monks doing laundry by a lake; a comment
met with laughter and a few splashes in his direction.

After everyone had tossed their
clothes over the bushes and left them to dry, they grabbed some food
and then most of the teens settled back and started napping. Justin
sat back by the pool and watched as the dirty water was swept away by
a continuous flow of fresh water.

Aaron looked at the water and sighed.
“Interesting how this place was built, isn't it? Water
continuously refreshed, fruit trees growing for food. It's like a
totally separate world from the one outside.”

“
Yeah,
I guess that was the point, bud,” Justin said sleepily. He lay
back and looked up at the lights in the ceiling. “After all,
they built it as a place of retreat and refuge. I guess they wanted
it to be as comfortable as possible.”

Aaron just grunted a reply and Justin
realized his friend had fallen asleep. It seemed like a good idea and
he soon nodded off as well.

Justin was dreaming. He found himself standing in an
unlit room, somewhere, whose only light source was a pillar that
silently rose out of the floor in front on him. Atop the pillar was a
hollow filled with a luminous liquid. Its light did not extent beyond
a few feet around him.

“
And
so, you've come at last, son of Cronus,” came a voice out of
the darkness. It sounded like a woman.

“
Hello?
Who's there?” Justin peered through the inky blackness but
there was nothing to see. He wanted to move forward, find whoever had
spoken but somehow he couldn't seem to move his feet.

“
This
is the heir of Cronus?” a male voice spoke out derisively. The
voice was deep and grating, like two rocks rubbing together. “He
is barely a Titan. Weak, pathetic, little boy.”

Justin felt a rush of anger but didn't say anything.

“
What
would you have him be?” said another male, his voice higher
pitched but equally cold. “A giant striding amongst men? How
long would that go unnoticed?”

“
Enough!
We have no time to engage in petty squabbles.” It was the
woman's voice again. “Justin, we needed to speak to you and
this may be our one opportunity to do so, while you have a short
respite in your journey.”

Still angry, Justin just shrugged. “This is just a
dream. I don't really care what you have to say.” And then he
added angrily “And starting off by insulting someone you want
to talk to is not very smart.”

A moment of silence passed and then the rough male voice
spoke again. “You are correct, Justin McLeod. I was unkind. I
apologize.”

He didn't sound very sincere but Justin nodded stiffly
and waited.

“
You
are not dreaming, child, no matter how dreamlike this seems. There
were no other methods by which we could reach you, so we've chosen to
enter your subconscious while you sleep. The comm units are shut
down. The water Gates are blocked. All entrances to the main level of
Sanctuary are locked and guarded. Your friends and comrades are
prisoners, or worse. And Fitzgerald is missing.”

Her last sentence sounded particularly painful. She
seemed to find Mr. Fitzgerald's disappearance harder to accept than
anything else that she had mentioned.

“
You're
fond of Mr. Fitzgerald?” he asked tentatively.

A moment's hesitation. “Yes, we are. He spoke to
you of us once, did he not? When he mentioned a Council that
controlled Sanctuary?”

Justin remembered. He had been urging Mr. Fitzgerald to
organize a rescue attempt for his friend Wilson and the man had told
him that the Council had forbidden it.

“
So
you're the ones who refused to save Wilson?”

“
We
are,” the female answered simply. “It was not an easy
decision, Justin McLeod, and not one that we made lightly, but the
resources of the Guardians are not infinite. We are spread very thin.
Between protecting the families of our young Titans and manning
Sanctuary itself, there simply was no one to send to aid Wilson.”
She paused a moment. “It was a heavy loss, for all of us.”

Justin didn't know how to respond. There was real regret
in the woman's voice but the pain and anger at Wilson's death was not
something he could simply erase from his mind.

“
Why
am I here,” he asked coldly. “And why don't you show
yourselves?”

Ignoring his second question, the female answered, “As
I said, you are here because we needed to talk to you. Forces are
moving against you and the others even now. The rebels who are
holding our people in the main level of Sanctuary are aware of your
presence below. They are preparing to stop you.”

Justin felt a cold stab of panic deep in his stomach.
“But how?” he blurted out. “How could they know
that we're even in Sanctuary?”

“
We
are unsure,” the female began, but then the rough-voiced male
cut her off.

“
It's
plain enough, isn't it? You have a traitor in your midst.”

“
A
traitor?” Justin stood there stunned. “No, that's not
possible. I mean, if that were so, how could this traitor even tell
the rebels where we are? We've been together the whole time.”
He shook his head. “I think you're crazy.”

“
Crazy,
are we?” The male sounded amused. “Perhaps so. You will
know soon enough. And when you are captured, when you see your fellow
Titans torn to pieces because you did not take our warning seriously,
how will you feel then? Will you still think we were crazy?”

“
Enough!”
the female said stiffly. “Justin McLeod, you do not need to
believe us. All we ask is that you take care, that you take the gifts
that Prometheus is giving you and learn to use them as well and as
quickly as you can. Trust no one entirely and always try to weigh
your decisions dispassionately, using logic instead if emotion.”

Justin took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
“Fine,” he said hesitantly. “I suppose that's good
advice, whether I believe you or not.” He thought of something
else. “What about Prometheus?” he asked.

“
What
about him?” the female replied.

“
Why
don't you help him? He's a full-blooded Titan. Wouldn't having him on
your side help in the fight for Sanctuary, and against Hyperion?”

“
Indeed
it would.” And now Justin heard a distinct note of sadness in
her voice. “But Prometheus will not hear us. He believes his
imprisonment is justified. He feels that he must pay for his crimes.”

“
He
thinks it is his fault that Atlantis fell all those years ago,”
the rough male voice said. “Guilt-ridden fool.”

“
We
are very pleased that you found him and that he is helping you. But
that is all the aid that you should expect from him. Remember, stay
alert, watch for signs of the rebels and above all else, never
trust...”

“
Hey
Justin, wake up!”

Justin sat up with a snort. Aaron laughed.

“
Man,
you were really snoring! You must have been exhausted.”

Looking around, Justin saw the other teens talking,
eating fruit or getting dressed. Apparently their clean clothes were
dry. He shook his head and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

“
Geez,
that was a weird dream,” he said, still feeling groggy.

“
What
was it about?” Aaron asked as he offered Justin some juice.

“
Thanks.
I'm not sure. It's a bit blurry. Someone warning me about danger, or
the rebels or something.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because we're
totally going to forget how much danger we're in. Ha! Not a very
useful dream, Just.”

“
No,
I suppose not,” he said and sipped his juice. Then he ran his
fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes and thinking
that he really needed a haircut, before he got up and went to get his
clothes.

What was that dream about? Something about a traitor?
The more he thought about it, the more elusive it became. Well, it
can never hurt to be cautious, he thought. After all, the only one in
the group that I'm really sure about is Aaron. He tucked that idea
away in the back of his mind and started to get organized.

After getting dressed, he put his robe on a pile with
the others and went over to talk to Prometheus, who was chatting
pleasantly with the other teens.

“
Ah,
Justin. Good. I'm going to inscribe the bracelets of your friends now
and then we'll start with some easy lessons on how to access their
talents.” The Titan smiled widely. “And I will show you a
few tricks as well.”

“
Sounds
good, sir,” Justin replied and stood back to watch.

“
Now,
I'm sure you all observed what I did with Justin when I activated
his, let's call it organic, rune. Now don't be alarmed,”
Prometheus said at the sudden looks of consternation on the faces
around him. “It won't hurt. I'll be inscribing your bracelets,
not your bodies, so no pain will be involved.” The group looked
relieved.

“
So,
shall we have the same order as we had earlier? Good, Maria is up
first then.”