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Chapter 3

“Am I still dreaming? Did I just happen to wake up IN my dream?” I say, to no one in particular. My voice kind of trails off towards the end as well, due to pure disbelief. I look to the rest of the group, who seems to be thinking the exact same thing as me; how is this possible?
    With an open mouth and shocked eyes, I look back at Trevil and Athena. Trevil grunts a little and lets out a small laugh, and Athena, seemingly in perfect health, maintains a small smile. “I see some confused faces here, naturally.” Athena says.
    “Yeah so, like… how… what is going… HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?” Cruze blurts out. “I don’t understand how this is possible. I SHOT you. Maybe regrettingly so now, but the back of your head looked like battered meat.”
    “Yes well, with that nice description out of the way, perhaps we can have a more pleasant conversation like we were before? I’m willing to forgive what happened, but I will say Cruze, that was not a good first impression.” Athena responds. I hadn’t thought of it before, but these are the first words these 2 have exchanged.
    “Well, I uh… I don’t know how else to put this, but I felt immense danger the last time you were having a “pleasant conversation.” That’s why I did what I did.” Cruze says.
    “What’s your sixth sense telling you now, Cruze?” Athena asks. Cruze opens his mouth to respond, but nothing comes out. He reels back slightly, as if surprised. “It says… nothing.” he says very quietly, while looking down.
    “Ok, well that’s fine and all but can you clarify the elephant in the room?” Ace asks. “How ARE you alive?”    
    “Well, as you should know by now, you're not the only people in the world with extraordinary powers. You’ve already had the dissatisfaction of fighting Trevil here, have you not?” Athena says.
    “I don’t know if dissatisfaction is the right word, I kind of enjoyed our sparring session.” Ace says cockily. “But are you immune to damage or something?” Ace adds on.
    “Not quite.” Athena responds. “I can feel pain, or damage. I certainly felt getting shot in the head. But my power involves cell regeneration at a rapid pace. I can withstand many normally lethal ordeals.”
    “So are you immortal?” I ask. I step towards her, and stumble. My head is still bleeding, but my amazement is keeping me conscious.
    “Oh dear, I can see the blood dripping from you. Allow me to help.” Athena says. Ace walks up to me to help, but Athena motions to set me down, so he does. Athena rolls me to my side, and softly touches the back of my head where the bleeding is happening. I feel a sharp pain, quickly followed by a soothing, relaxing feeling, and then the pain starts to subside almost entirely.
    “What is that that you’re doing there?” Ace asks in amazement. “Did you just heal him? How in the world..?” But he trails off without finishing his thought.
    I get back up, but still seem woozy. I look at Athena quizzingly, before stumbling again, before Ace catches me. “I patched up the wound, but you’ve still lost a lot of blood. Take it easy for now.” Athena says. “And to answer your question,” she says, while glancing towards Ace, “I can also apply my powers towards others, though not quite to the same extent. If one of you were to get shot in the head, I’m afraid you would just be dead.”
    “Hey Athena, we should really table the rest of this conversation for when we get back inside, it’ll be late soo-” Trevil says, before Athena raises her hand towards him with a flustered look.
    “If I wanted you to speak, I would’ve asked you to.” She says, rather rudely. I look at Trevil, who obviously seems flustered by the remark, but bites his tongue and says nothing. “Besides, it’s up to our guests if they want to come back or not.” She continues, looking back towards me.    
    “I would defer our answer to the rest of the group,” I say, looking back at them. “They aren’t bleeding out the head like I am.” I say, managing a small smile. “Cruze?”
    “I feel mostly safe at the moment, so it might be worth it to go back.” Cruze says quietly.
    “Great! Then let’s try to head back with urgency. Trevil is right, it is getting late. If you don’t mind Ace, could you carry Alph? It would be quicker.” Athena says.
    As if being completely worthless in the fight against Trevil wasn’t embarrassing enough, me, the so-called leader of the group, has to climb on to Ace’s back. Shorty looks at me and smiles. “Aww, how cute!”  and let out a laugh.
    I muster the most disappointed look I can at her, but don’t respond. Ace hoists me up, and we start walking back. Cruze walks ahead of Ace and I and mutters “Can you describe your powers in more detail, Athena? And then maybe mine?”
    “So, like I said, I have rapid cell regeneration. Most things that would be lethal to normal people, I can withstand, but not everything. So, no, I’m not immortal, but I am somewhat close to it, I'd say, if I wasn’t humble.” Athena says.
    “What are you NOT immune to?” Ace asks.
    “Until we’re on a more secure footing, I’d rather not get into that yet.” Athena responds. “I’m sure you understand. As for you Cruze, you probably have as much of your power figured out as we do in just these past few hours. As you know, you are hyper intelligent. Your mind is able to see and process things at a much faster rate, and even able to map out future situations quickly to determine possible outcomes of near future events. You also have some sort of-”
    “Hey hold on, wait a second.” Shorty chimes, before Athena can continue. You didn’t say that whole thing about mapping out situations before. Do you know more about our powers than you told us?”
    “No.” Athena responds firmly. “I just glossed over his powers a bit quicker because he wasn’t there.” Shorty cocks her eyebrow, but doesn’t question it further.
    “You don’t have to try to explain my sixth sense.” Cruze says. I mean, I’m the one who has it and I don't even.. It’s confusing… I don’t know how it works, I mean.” He says, stumbling through his words.
    “Yes, anyhow,” Athena says, “I can apply some of my cell regeneration to other people, to a much smaller extent. And while I’m not technically immortal, the only established ways I know I can die have been kept secret from everyone, for obvious reasons. But my powers aren’t the main thing we need to discuss. We’ve got more pressing issues, but we will wait until we’re back inside.”
    Our walking quickens, as does the fading of light. It’s eerily quiet, as if everyone is too nervous to be the one who breaks the silence. The last beam of light is cut off by the top of the mountain right as we get to the door, and just as we’re plunged into darkness, we’re re-met with light as Athena opens the door we we’re scared to leave a mere hour ago.
    We walk back in quickly, and Trevil slams the door as soon as we’re all in, and then locks it. We head to the elevator, and as we get in Ace lets me down. I feel much better after the walk back; certainly not 100% but ok enough to walk. Athena hits two different buttons to two different floors, but no one says anything.
    As we approach the first floor she buttoned for, Athena finally breaks the long silence. “Trevil, can you show them the sleeping quarters for me please. I will be back to talk to you all shortly.” To which Trevil simply nods.
    The door opens slowly to reveal what looks like a simple room with a couch, that branches off into two hallways. Trevil walks out and lifts his hand up to have us follow him. We all file out of the elevator, and as the door closes behind us I look back at Athena. She seems not to notice, and right before the door fully closes, I see her eyes roll into the back of her head. I glance back towards the group to see if anyone else noticed, but it's obvious none of them did so I don’t question it.
    “All right, so… this is where you’ll be sleeping.” Trevil says. “There’s three rooms down each hallway, and they’re all the same so don’t worry about picking a certain one. Follow me real quick, if you would.”
    He leads us down one of the hallways to the other side, and there's a room similar to the one where we got off the elevator at, but instead of a simple couch, there’s a roundtable with chairs surrounding it. “She will probably want to talk to you here, so feel free to get comfortable with your rooms and then you can wait here.” Trevil says.