The Return of the Titans (36 page)

“I think I can get us
there, Aaron. You know, the whole ' heir of Cronus' thing. This
rune,” he held up his throbbing, bandaged hand, “seems to be like
a, I don't know how to describe it, a generic rune? I think that it
doubles for all the other ones.”

Aaron looked at him dubiously. “You mean it
could act as a gate rune?”

Justin glanced at Aaron thoughtfully then
back at his own hand. “I think it can act as any rune, Aaron.” Then
he shrugged. “But that doesn't really matter now, since we don't
have any water to try a gate.” He looked over at the other teens,
all of whom seemed to be frozen in shock. He suddenly realized that
his fight with the servitor had terrified them and they were still
trying to figure out what was going on.

“Hey, you guys okay?” he
asked. Several of them jumped but one, an older girl with short
curly brown hair, seemed to be steadier than her fellows and, after
swallowing nervously, spoke up.

“I think so,” she
answered. “What was that?” she asked and pointed a shaking finger
at the heap of melted slag.

“It was a servitor,” Aaron
answered as Justin coped with a wave of pain that had suddenly shot
up his arm. “The Titans built them ages ago to serve them, but I
didn't know that they could be turned into...something like
that!”

They all jumped as the servitor's head
snapped off of it's neck and plopped on to the floor. Several of
them giggled.

“Looks good on you,” Aaron
growled at the melted head. He looked at Justin. “I think we should
move, Just. Those guys will be here any second, I'm
sure.”

With a wince, Justin managed to get to his
feet. He staggered a moment and Aaron steadied him with a quick
hand under his elbow. Justin smiled at his friend.

“We can't, Aaron. Unless
you can pull some water out of mid-air, we're trapped in
here.”

Aaron looked at Justin for a second then he
blinked. “Oh, yeah. About that.” He slipped a hand inside his
jacket, rummaged around for a bit then pulled out a full plastic
water bottle and handed it to Justin. “There you go,” he said.

Justin stood there staring at Aaron. “How
the hell did you get this?” he finally asked.

“Well, you know when I was
looking in the fridge, back at your apartment? There wasn't much in
there except a few bottles of water, so I just grabbed one. You
know, thought we might be thirsty later or something.”

“Aaron, you are a freaking
genius!” Justin looked at the bottle just as they heard a distant
yell. He looked over at the door. “Someone close the door. Lock it
if you can,” he yelled. One of the boys slammed the door shut.
There was no lock on the inside and the guy just looked at them and
shrugged.

“Nothing we can do about
it,” Justin said. “Okay, have any of you traveled by water gate
before?” Judging by the head shakes and confused looks, none of
them had. “Alright, no sweat. Just, um, stand in a circle, as close
together as you can.”

The curly haired girl stared at him. “What's
the point of that?”

Trying not to sound impatient, Justin said
“Trust me. You saw me beat that machine,” he glanced down at his
palm, “barely. But I know what I'm doing, honest. This is our way
out so please, just do as I ask.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay, I'm with you,
Justin. My name's Maria, by the way.” She turned to look at the
others. “Come on, guys. Get in a circle.”

It was obvious from their response that the
teens were used to listening to Maria. Justin could tell that they
considered her their leader and was pleased that she was giving him
the benefit of the doubt.

“Great. Okay, Aaron, get
into the circle.” Justin slipped in between Maria and a blond boy
who looked at him nervously. Justin tried to smile at him
reassuringly as he opened the water bottle and poured it's contents
on to the floor in the center of the circle. He tried to make it as
large a puddle as the water would allow.

When he saw that Maria was about to speak,
he shook his head. “I'll explain later,” he said quickly. “Now,
everyone join hands and on the count of three, all of you jump into
the puddle.”

“Oh, this is stupid,” said
one of the other boys. “Those Titan guys are going to charge in
here and tear us apart and this guy wants us to play in a damn
puddle!”

Before Justin could say anything, Maria
spoke up. “I trust him, Dominic. Now if you want to, you can leave
the circle, or wait until we all jump. But if it works, you'll be
the one standing here alone facing those animals. But it's your
choice.” She glared at the boy.

Dominic's faced paled under her gaze and
then he nodded silently. “Good,” Maria said. She looked at Justin.
“Whenever you're ready.”

He squeezed her hand briefly as a thank you,
then he closed his eyes and pictured the entrance pool in
Sanctuary, the way he remembered it from his first day. Convinced
he had the image locked in his mind, he opened his eyes and looked
at each of his fellow Titans.

“On three then. One,
two...” The door was smashed open and a huge man that Justin had no
trouble recognizing as an adult Titan stood in the
doorway.

“Hold it, you brats!” he
shouted.

“Three!” Justin yelled and
jumped forward. He saw all of the circle follow his lead and he
caught a glimpse of the Titan leaping toward them. Too late, you
jerk, he thought as he heard a tremendous splash and felt himself
sinking into deep water.

Wow, it worked, he thought.

Justin held his breath and tried to be
patient. He worried about the others and if they would panic at
this new way to travel. Not that there was anything he could do
about it. And as the seconds passed, he remembered his mother. He
couldn't think about how she died so he thought about his life with
her and the thousands of moments that they had shared.

His revery came to an abrupt end as he
landed on a hard, irregular surface accompanied by a loud
splash.

He stood up as quickly as he could as the
others appeared around him along with gallons of water that soaked
quickly into the dry floor. The others lay gasping for breath
except for Aaron who stood up and looked around the room.

Justin bent down over Maria, who was trying
to catch her breath. “You okay?” he asked her.

Still breathing hard, she gave him a brief
smile and a thumbs up.

He checked each of the other teens. All of
them seemed fine, if a little confused. Justin stood up again just
as he heard Aaron call him.

“Justin, where are we?”
Aaron asked in confusion.

“What?” Justin looked at
his friend and saw him looking puzzled as he looked around the
room. Justin glanced around and then realized what Aaron was
talking about.

It was definitely an entrance room. But it
wasn't the one that he had first arrived in.

The floor was covered with dust, washed away
here and there by the water that had appeared at their arrival.
Little piles of rubble lay scattered on the ground and when Justin
looked up, he saw that the high ceiling was dense with cobwebs and
had little holes where the rocks had fallen out. The walls were
also covered with dusty cobwebs and only two of the half dozen
torches were still lit, their flames low and sputtering.

“It's definitely
Sanctuary, Aaron,” he said as he stared upward. “But this is a
different entry. Let me find a communications carving and I'll ask
someone for directions.”

“Okay. I'll try to explain
a bit about the place to the others while you're doing
that.”

“Good idea. Be back in a
minute.” With that, Justin headed through the low arch that led out
of the room and into a dark corridor.

When he emerged from the short corridor into
the main hallway, Justin became even more confused. The hall was
lit by the usual lights hanging from the high ceiling, but here too
there was dust and cobwebs coating most of the surfaces. The dust
on the floor showed no evidence of tracks and he could tell that no
one had used this part of Sanctuary for a long time.

He had never gotten a satisfactory answer on
how big the place was but with everything he had heard, he knew
Sanctuary was immense. This could be a section that hadn't been
used in centuries. But why did they end up here. Justin was sure
that he had precisely envisioned the original entry room of his
arrival, but somehow here they were.

Well, at least we're in Sanctuary and safe,
he told himself. At that thought, he shivered slightly. Were they
safe? He dismissed the idea. Of course they were. This was home
now. The sooner he got in touch with someone in authority, the
sooner they'd get back to their rooms and have a chance to eat and
rest. They sure would be surprised when Justin told them what had
happened! And when they saw the other teens that he and Aaron had
saved.

These thoughts made him eager to get out of
this area and he examined the walls, looking for a comm node.
Finally, after brushing away a bunch of dirt and dust and coughing
as a cloud of grit engulfed him for a minute, he found one. He put
his uninjured hand on it and pressed firmly.

For a moment nothing happened and Justin
wondered if these things could actually wear out or break. Then the
carving began to glow slightly and a soft voice could be heard.

“What do you want? Who is
this? Don't you know the rules? No comm use! You'll get into
serious trouble.”

Justin stared at the carving, momentarily
surprised as he recognized the voice.

“Mrs. Mallon? Is that
you?”

“Yes, of course it's me,”
Mrs. Mallon replied, still almost whispering. “Who is
that?”

“It's me, Mrs. Mallon.
Justin. Justin McLeod.”

“Justin?” he heard the
shock in her voice. “But how is that possible? We were told you
were captured, possibly killed.” Her voice broke for a second and
then she seemed to recover. “Oh Justin, it's so good to hear your
voice! And Aaron. Is he...?”

“He's okay,” Justin
assured her quickly. “He's here with me. And we rescued six others
that were being held by the government. But when we gated back, we
ended up in some part of Sanctuary that I've never seen. We need a
little guidance to get back home.”

“I'm sorry, Justin, but we
don't have much time to talk. Now listen carefully.” She seemed to
take a deep breath and Justin waited, still puzzled.

“Sanctuary's been
captured. I don't know exactly how they did it, but Titans have
taken control of the upper levels. Mr. Fitzgerald is missing. The
Destroyers have been routed; I don't know if any of them survived.
I've been set to answer the comm nodes because I'm 'harmless'. I'll
give them harmless,” she muttered.

Justin smiled at her comment but he was
reeling in shock. “But how did they get in?” he asked. “I thought
the place had been sealed or whatever.”

“It was, Justin. The story
is that Mr. Benson found a way to communicate with his father, a
rather powerful man I take it, who got in touch with the Titans and
got them into Sanctuary. Exactly how, I don't know. What matters
now is that they are here. All of your fellows are imprisoned. Lord
knows what will happen to them. And, if I'm reading this correctly,
you are literally on the lowest level of the installation; miles
below us.”

Benson, Justin thought. It figures that
arrogant bastard was up to something. He looked back at the
carving. “So should we gate to another part of Sanctuary or go for
help or...?”

“It isn't that simple,
Justin. You may have been able to gate into Sanctuary, but all gate
travel from here has been sealed somehow. You won't be able to get
out. I'm afraid you're stuck here.”

Justin heard a sound behind him and turned
quickly to see Aaron, Maria and the others coming towards him. He
held up his hand as Aaron was about to speak and pointed at the
comm node.

“So what should we do,
Mrs. Mallon?” he asked. Aaron's eyes widened as he heard to name
but he stayed quiet.

“Honestly Justin, I don't
know. There have been rumors for years about what kinds of things
live in the lower levels. Old Titan experiments, weird machines,
traps of all kinds. I can't even begin to guess what you will face
down there.” She paused for a moment and then whispered, “But you
and the others are Titans. You are the direct descendant of Cronus
himself. If anyone can find a way, I believe it is all of you.”
There was a moment of silence. Justin was warmed by the woman's
faith in him but he wasn't sure that he felt as confident as she
did.

“Justin, someone is
coming. I have to go. Don't risk using the comm nodes again.
They'll be able to find you if you do. I'll erase the record of
this conversation. I don't know what you'll find when you make it
back here, but we won't give up the fight. Don't you give up
either!”

“We won't, Mrs. Mallon.
Please, take care of yourself. I hope you'll all be
okay.”

“You too, Justin. And your
friends. I hope we'll see you soon.”

The glow from the carving faded and Justin
turned to look at the others.

“What's happening, Just?”
Aaron asked quickly. “Why was Mrs. Mallon answering the
comm?”

Justin quickly filled them in. Dominic
groaned. “Great!” he said. “He brings us to a place that's supposed
to be safe and now we're trapped miles underground? Some
rescue!”

Aaron stepped up to him and the other teen
quickly backed away. “Maybe you'd rather be back in your cell? I'm
sure you'd be nice and comfy right up until the moment those Titans
killed you!”