Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 53

Jay's father paced in a circle around me, knowing I wouldn't be able to see him from every angle, and continued to speak.

"You know, kid," he said. "You really don't know what you don't know."

I blinked.

"None of this would have ever happened if it wasn't for you."

What did he mean?

He came back into my vision from my left, stopping to look at my eyes as he spoke.

"This is all your fault. You hear me? All you." He waited for a response, but, realizing he couldn't get one, continued walking around me. His voice had risen for just a second, but just as quickly returned to calm.

The metal under us thrummed and hummed as the ocean floor below, the very continents around us thousands of miles away, shifted ever so slowly towards each other.

"The real joke," he said with a laugh, "is that all those metahumans you think I made wasn't even my fault. That was you."

No way. I called bullshit. Neither Jay had the power to do that, and even if they had, I would know. That wasn't anywhere in their memories.

He was lying. They would never do that.

"Impossible, right? I know what you're thinking. Just hear me out." He moved out of sight again. Without the context of his words, it sounded like he was having an actual conversation with his son.

If only he knew that we were both very different from our normal selves.

"The accident that started this mess, where it all began, was that incident with Adam and Jake."

Wait, what?

"I know--it's crazy. You drove that kid insane with what you did, and Jake, too. Well, not you you, I guess." He scratched the back of his neck, having moved around to get in front of me again. "I don't get how you're not nuts from all times you've body-swapped and gotten your world erased. I'm not even talking to the person I think I am, I bet."

The mention of Jake sent a pang of sadness through my heart. I only knew what little of him I had been able to gather from the memories available to me, but it seemed from my reaction that he was important.

Jay's father had continued to talk as I thought, and I tuned back into what he was saying. "Anyway, the explosion Jake triggered spread across the globe, creating every new metahuman that's been around for the last few weeks or so. It also created Zero, but I guess you already figured that part out."

He leaned over me so that we were face-to-face. I could see the swirling blackness of his eyes, two empty voids of nothingness. I couldn't react, and probably wouldn't even if I could. Blood seeped from my stomach into my clothes.

It seemed as if all this fell upon the fault of Jay. The first. The original. That was something I should have known, but...it hadn't really registered. Sure, it wasn't really his fault, either, but who else could take the blame? Jeremiah could only mess up so much. I doubted he had done anything to Jay that hadn't only magnified what was already there.

As a matter of fact, I wondered where he was right now. Dead? Probably.

I hoped not. I was seriously debating whether or not to kill him after all this was over, given the chance. He had the right motivation, but his means were dangerous.

I could feel the ocean stirring around us. This facility was unique in that it was designed to stay upright and in its location no matter what happened on the outside, so—unfortunately—we weren't in any danger. No supports connected us to the ocean floor, so the shifting of the earth around us wouldn't affect us until the job had been done. Then, I assumed, we would all be dead, with the lone survivor being Di-Men.