by Kate O'Hearn
Diana nodded. “That explains it. I am glad they will live.”
Agent B approached, and Emily introduced him.
“You’re Agent B?” her father cried.
The ex-CRU agent nodded. “It’s nice to see you again, Steve. But, unfortunately, I think our meeting will be brief.” He looked back at the raging battle. “Has anything stopped them?”
Emily’s father shook his head. “No, everything we shoot at them just goes right through them. Neptune and Triton brought a massive tidal wave and crashed it down on them. All it did was flood the land.”
“The Titans are our last hope,” Diana said. “But I fear they are too late.”
Emily’s father caught hold of her. “Em, listen to me. I want you and the boys to take Agent B and follow the Sphinxes. Get to Xanadu. Olympus has fallen; it’s just a matter of time now.”
“No!” Emily cried. “The Titans are here. We have to give them a chance.”
Diana shook her head. “I am grateful for Saturn’s help, but it will not save us. Nothing can stop them.”
Her father put his arms around her. “Emily, you are everything to me. I have loved you from the moment you were born, and will love you forever. But you can’t stay here. I can do many things, but I can’t watch you die.”
Emily looked back to the battle, feeling more guilt than she could imagine. She had created the mutants. She was the cause of this disaster.
As she watched, the blobs cast out tendrils and plucked Titans out of the sky. They were quickly consumed in the grotesque mouths. Her father and Diana were right. Her hopes for a Titan rescue had failed.
Pegasus approached her and nickered softly. He pressed his head to her, and Emily knew exactly what he was saying. The time for the final decision was upon her. She nodded at him and turned to her father. “No, Dad, we haven’t tried everything,” she said sadly. “There is one more thing I can do.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” he said.
“Neither do I,” Agent B agreed.
“Em, what are you talking about?” Joel demanded.
Emily looked around at those she cared most about. To save them, she would have to accept the final metamorphosis. “Dad, I think I can stop them. But to do it, I must change again, and it will be permanent. I won’t be the same person you knew. There will be no coming back for me, and my destiny will be set.” She looked at the stallion. “But somehow I have the feeling this was always meant to happen.”
Pegasus whinnied and nodded.
Emily didn’t know what he was saying, but she had a pretty good idea. “You’re right. This was always going to be my destiny.” She reached up and brushed the white hair from his eyes. “It’s just like long ago when I had to walk into the flames at the temple to save you. I did it back then, and I’ll gladly do it now if it means keeping you safe.”
“Em, you’re scaring me,” her father said. “What are you going to do?”
Emily embraced her father tightly. “The only thing I can. I’ll be all right, Dad, I promise. And no matter what happens, whatever I turn into, I will always be your little girl.”
“Emily, do not do this,” Diana said. “We will find a way.”
“There is no other way,” Emily insisted. “And we all know it.”
“No!” her father cried. “Em, I’m not going to let you give yourself to those monsters in exchange for our lives.”
“I’m not. I promise,” she said. “That wouldn’t stop them anyway. They must be destroyed, and I can’t do it the way I am.”
“I don’t understand,” he cried. “Emily, tell me. What are you going to do?”
“Yeah, what are you planning?” Joel demanded. “Let us come with you—Paelen and me—we’ve always been a team.”
Emily took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She went up on her toes and kissed him softly. “You can’t come with me, Joel. Neither of you can. Not this time.”
“Why not? What are you going to do?”
She looked at all of them. “The thing I was born to do. I am going to accept my final metamorphosis and become a full Xan. Then I’m going to stop them.”
Their shocked voices followed Emily as she climbed back up on Pegasus and he trotted away. Right before the stallion opened his wings to fly, Joel came running up to her. “Em, wait!”
Emily looked down at him. “Don’t try to stop me, Joel. I have to do this.”
“But what do you mean you’re becoming a Xan? You’ve already got some of their powers. What more can you do?”
“A lot,” Emily said. “Not long ago Riza’s father came to me and gave me a choice. I could stay as I am and live as an Olympian, or I could become what was always meant for me, a Xan. But when I accept, I will be expected to work with Riza on Xanadu. The power is already in me, Joel. I just have to embrace it. But it will mean another change.”
“Will you be alive?” he asked.
Emily nodded. “If this works, yes.”
He reached up and caught hold of her hand. Bringing it to his lips, he kissed it tenderly. “Then whatever you become won’t matter. You could look just like Riza and it won’t change how I feel. I love you, all of you, no matter what.”
In this, the worst of times, those were the best words she could ever hope to hear. “No matter what happens to me, Joel, I will always love you too.”
Joel took a step back. “You be careful, Emily Jacobs, and come back to me!”
“I will!” she promised.
Pegasus opened his wings and started to fly.
Emily felt a strange calmness descend on her as she and Pegasus climbed higher in the sky. They circled over her family and friends, waving and calling to them, before heading toward the mutants—and her destiny.
• • •
Emily looked at the devastation around her. Was it already too late to save Olympus? Was the damage too great?
Up ahead she spied Jupiter, now on the ground. He was standing with his two brothers. They were holding hands and summoning the power of the Big Three, working in tandem with Saturn and his brothers. But it was useless. No amount of power could slow the blobs.
When Jupiter saw Pegasus and Emily in the sky, he tried to warn them away. Emily waved back but shook her head.
“Take us closer, Pegs,” she said. “I need to face them when I change.”
Pegasus whinnied and climbed higher in the sky. Moments before they rose above the monsters, they heard them calling her name. “Emily!” they cried as one. “Give us your power! Feed us!”
“Emily, get away from here!” Hyperion called as his chariot passed close beside them. The winged horses whinnied at Pegasus but followed Hyperion’s command and kept flying.
“You know what’s coming. I have to do this!”
Hyperion bowed to her and moved his chariot away.
Pegasus flew closer to the blobs, as they pulsed and grew excited in anticipation. “Yird, I pray you were right,” Emily muttered.
Just as Emily prepared to call her mother’s name, she felt invisible arms catch hold of her and Pegasus. The strength in the grasp was so much stronger than it had been under Charing Cross Station. In that instant, Emily feared that they were now too powerful even for the Xan.
“Feed us, feed us, feed us,” chanted the two monsters.
Pegasus screamed as he tried to break the invisible grasp, but the power of the creatures was too strong. Emily suddenly realized this had been a terrible mistake. She was too close to them and shouldn’t have tried it without Riza.
“Feed us, feed us, feed us . . . ,” they chanted.
Saturn saw her distress and shouted for his fighters to expand their efforts. He was trying to buy her time to change. But the Titan effort was in vain. The invisible hands of the creatures contracted further. Emily couldn’t breathe, and Pegasus stopped screaming and could only struggle weakly in the deathly grip.
Emily had only seconds. But as the blood raced in her body and her mind was starved of oxygen, she fe
ared that she needed to actually say the name aloud and not just in her head.
“Mom!” she called with her mind as panic set in. “Mom, open the door!”
But nothing happened. Her full name, Emily suddenly remembered. She had to say the full name.
“Sarah Jane Brady-Jacobs, please open the door. Let me become a Xan!”
24
EXPLOSIONS WENT OFF IN EMILY’S mind as the final door to power burst open. Her brain flashed with memories older than time itself. Yird’s whole existence was there for her to see—then his parents and their parents before them and every generation back through the depths of time. The lives they had lived, the good things they had done for millions of endangered species across the universe and beyond.
Colors flashed as worlds flew by. The Xan traveled at the speed of thought. Cared more deeply for one another than she’d imagined possible, and their love for all life forms was limitless. For all their exterior calmness, the Xan were filled with deep emotions.
Time stood still as Emily’s body changed. Each cell, each tiny piece of DNA, was rewritten and altered or, perhaps, restored to what it should have been. As she changed, somehow she understood that this was always meant to be. Perhaps a caterpillar didn’t know that they would ultimately turn into a beautiful butterfly—but they knew by their nature alone that a monumental change was coming.
Emily, too, knew this change was always coming. She had felt it all her life—a haunting siren song of destiny calling to her. That same song was what had drawn her up to the roof so many years ago, that night when Pegasus had first crashed there.
It had called again and led her to Olympus. It had invited her to accept the first part of her metamorphosis to become the Flame of Olympus. And little by little, that same voice beckoned her to this moment, when she would finally burst free of the cocoon that had been Emily and emerge a full Xan.
The metamorphosis finished and her mind burst free. Emily could feel everything, hear stars singing in the eternal cosmos as suns were born and died and reborn again. She could hear the beating heart of every Olympian and Titan as they struggled to fight the monsters.
When Emily came back into herself, she realized she couldn’t feel the life force of the mutants. They weren’t alive. They weren’t dead. They just were. All she received from them was a deep insatiable hunger that could never be satisfied.
Shaking her head, Emily felt Pegasus fading away beneath her as the life was crushed out of him.
“No!” she howled, and her voice, the voice of the Xan, echoed across all of Olympus. At the speed of thought, she put a bubble of protection around herself and Pegasus, breaking free of the mutants’ grip.
“Pegs!” Emily cried. She touched his neck and offered him all the healing power she possessed. When the life within him returned, she transported her beloved Pegasus to Xanadu and away from danger.
Across the vast distance, Emily could feel the strong beating of his heart and blazing life force. She rejoiced, knowing he was safe. Now alone, she hovered above the mutant Titans and summoned her powers to destroy them. But it was as she feared. Not even the Xan had the power to destroy them.
Emily held out her arms and used every ounce of focus she possessed to lock the mutants in a bubble. If she couldn’t destroy them, maybe she could contain them long enough for everyone to evacuate Olympus.
The two blobs screamed and shrieked in rage as they realized they could no longer consume the world around them. But as the moments ticked by, Emily realized this was only a temporary solution. She couldn’t hold them long enough to save the Olympians. It was only a matter of minutes before they broke free of her grasp.
“Riza, if you can hear me, please help me,” Emily called out to the universe.
“I am here.” Riza appeared in the sky beside her.
Emily stole a glance over at Riza and could feel her “sister” was recovered. “I can’t hold them for long. Please help me destroy them.”
Riza gazed down at the mutant Titans and shook her beautiful head. “We can’t destroy them. They are too powerful now. Soon they will break free and devour everyone.”
“No, they won’t!” Emily insisted. “I have an idea how to stop them, but I really need your help.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Are you strong enough to transport everyone off of Olympus and get them to Titus? It’s not far.”
“Send them to Titus?”
“Yes,” Emily cried. “Can you do it?”
“I think so, but that will only give us a bit of time. They will follow us. You know they will.”
“We won’t give them that chance.”
Emily glanced down and saw Saturn and his fighters landing on the ground near Jupiter and his brothers. For as much as Emily’s powers contained the mutants, it also kept the Titans and Olympians from attacking them. Directly beneath her, the two gelatinous blobs screeched and tried to break free of the bubble that bound them. The more they fought, the harder it was for Emily to hold them.
“Riza, please, get everyone to Titus. Then I need you to tell the Big Three to turn the Solar Stream, just like they were going to do to Earth because of the clones.”
“Yes, I remember. But they can’t turn the stream now. My father changed it.”
Emily cursed—it seemed everything was against them. “What if the Titans joined them? If Saturn and his brothers united their power with the Big Three, would that be enough?”
“If I also joined them, yes. What are you planning?”
“You know what I’m planning,” Emily cried. The strain of containing the mutants was starting to show, and she could feel herself weakening. “I need them to turn the Solar Stream on Olympus. Destroy it. Destroy it all and the mutants with it!”
“Emily, no!” Riza cried. “You’ll be destroyed with them. I can’t let you do it!”
“Please, trust me; I won’t be destroyed. I’ll transport out the moment it gets here. But we don’t have long. I am getting weaker. Do it now. Please get everyone to Titus and turn the Solar Stream!”
Riza looked down. Beneath them the blobs tried to lift off the ground and push out of the walls that contained them.
“Please, Riza,” Emily begged. “Save the Olympians.”
The beautiful Xan floated in the sky, looking serene as always, but Emily could feel her raging emotions.
Riza shook her head. “Emily, have I ever told you that you’re crazy?”
“No.”
“Well, you are!”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why you love me so much. Now, go, and get everyone away from here!”
Riza vanished, and Emily focused fully on containing the blobs. Their tendrils shot out in all directions and their screaming increased.
“You can’t stop us, Emily. We will absorb you and everyone you ever loved!”
She knew they were baiting her. Hoping she might lose her temper and release her hold on them. She wasn’t going to be drawn in. But the longer she had to wait, the more she could feel her grip slipping. Soon they would escape.
“Riza, hurry,” Emily called.
A moment later all sounds, apart from the blobs, stopped. Emily dared not look down for fear of breaking her focus. But she could feel it. Riza had not only transported the Olympians and Titans off the planet, but she had also taken every other life form with them. She hadn’t left so much as an ant, worm, weed, or even bacteria behind. The land, oceans, and skies were completely devoid of life. Olympus was now a dead, empty world. Empty, except for her and the two screaming mutant Titans.
“It won’t work, Emily!” they screeched. “We will devour you and follow them. There is nowhere they can go to escape us.”
Floating in the sky and using every ounce of power she had, Emily was shocked to hear the mutants start to laugh. It was a high cackling sound, filled with menace. “We will devour you all!”
Soon the hair on Emily’s arms started to stand up. She gazed up into the sky and gasped. A b
lazing ribbon of fiery light was flashing in the atmosphere high above Olympus. She had only ever traveled within the Solar Stream. This was the first time she’d seen it from the outside. It was wondrous and terrifying in equal measures—a living, moving stream of pure energy cutting across the sky.
“You did it, Riza,” Emily said softly as she watched the Solar Stream drawing near. “The Olympians and Titans are finally united.”
“What is that?” the female cried.
“You want to devour it all,” Emily shouted back. “Go ahead. Let’s see how well you digest the Solar Stream!”
The air around them crackled as the roaring Solar Stream approached. Closer and closer it came, burning up everything in its path.
“No,” the mutants cried. “It will not destroy us. We will consume you all! The Solar Stream will feed us. Feed us, feed us . . .”
Emily felt the approach of the Solar Stream like sunburn on her skin. At first it only tingled, and then it started to sting. But like staying out in the sun too long, the burning increased. Soon the blue of the sky and the white fluffy clouds were replaced by the flaming oranges and white of the living Solar Stream.
Emily had promised Riza that she would leave the moment the Solar Stream arrived. She felt guilty for lying to her. But she had to. There was no way she could hope to hold the mutants long enough for the Solar Stream to obliterate Olympus.
“Forgive me, Dad, Pegasus, everyone. I will love you always. . . .”
Emily closed her eyes and felt a searing blast of pain as the Solar Stream flashed across the sky and touched down on the ground, destroying Olympus and taking her and the screaming mutants with it.
25
EMILY WOKE IN HER BEDROOM, knowing it was time to get up for school. Somehow, she always knew when it was time to get up. She looked over to her clock radio and saw that it wasn’t working. The power was still out.
She sat up and felt as though she’d slept a thousand years. Her police officer father had said he’d be working late and that she shouldn’t wait for him. The storms over New York were getting worse, and the police force was stretched to the limit. He didn’t know when he’d be home.
