Gemini

Chapter 30* The Beginning

Short recap: 

“You look like her.” Gemini’s eyes were troubled. “Like my old love.”

Zoey pulled away. “So you like me because I look like someone you once loved.” She wouldn’t say it, but that hurt.

“Initially,” Gemini said. “Now I like you. The real you, not some shadow of her.”

Zoey hesitated. Part of her still felt second-rate, but another part knew that Gemini was telling the truth. And anyway, time was limited. “That’s fine with me,” she said, finally, laughing in tears. He pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss before embracing her with his arms. She laid her head on his broad expanse of chest and listened to his heartbeat. Gods had a heartbeat.

“Why didn’t you say this at the meeting?” she said, after a while.

“They would never have allowed the plan to go forth if I had. Humans, foolish as they are, love each other with a depth and complexity a god cannot begin to imagine.”

“You’re a god,” Zoey said sadly.

“Yes,” he whispered back, “I’m banking on that.” 

Chapter 30* The Beginning

The familiar sight of the teleporter brings a wave of memories flooding to the edge of my mind. Teleporting to the safe house, to the mountains where Prometheus the Titan was chained. Good old days.

Behind me, Jeremy is bundling along two little kids. One is a girl with blond hair streaked with dirt, and the other a scruffy little boy with grimy skin. Despite their disheveled appearances, they are smiling. As they pass, I hear Jeremy say, “It’s not playtime, Penelope, Jack. It’s fighting time.”

“Playtime!” they both yell with toothy grins. The smile slips off my face.

We’re the last group to go. Already the others have assembled in little pockets, groups of about four or five, at least three adults and the rest young teenagers or kids. I go around, holding their hands and murmuring encouragement, the way one might at a hospice. It’s horrible.

“Alright,” Atermis’s voice carries over the throng, low and clear. “It’s time.” Her clear eyes meet each and everyone’s in the crowd, sending them silent encouragement, silent strength. Everyone stands a little straighter. “The first group.” She gestures to a small huddle of people in the corner of the hall. A woman, two men, and a child. The woman’s jaw is locked and her shoulders are squared, while the two men simply look ready. The child is clearly oblivious, and keeps glancing delightedly at the rocks and slingshot he’d been given. I am suddenly terrified for them.

One man joins their group. He is from the next group to go, and will take the teleporter back and go with his own group, with a man from the third group to go. The teleporter is already in his hands, cleaned up and shiny with the scratches polished off.

“Godspeed,” one person calls. The rest take it up. “Godspeed,” they all murmur. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

I never really knew what we looked like when we teleported. I was always in it, and always figured that there’d be a flash of light and maybe a dramatic bang, and- poof- you were gone. Not true. All of them join hands and the man presses the button. It happens really fast, but their outlines blur and sort of implode. Twists in on itself into nothingness. Nothing is left behind but wisps of smoke.

“Remember what it feels like,” Sam says with a smile in his voice, nudging me. I smile.

One by one, the groups vanish. The Hecate group. The Athena group- the brainiest people I know. The Poseidon group. The crowd gets smaller and smaller, until everyone is gone but us and the sick and the young.