The Return of the Titans (35 page)

“But once we get our
people, colonel, how do we get them out of here?”

The man raised an eyebrow slightly. “I
assume the same way you got in, Justin.”

“But...” Justin looked at
Aaron who leaned forward and whispered quietly. “We have to try a
water gate, Just.”

“Do you think we can do
that?” Justin muttered.

Aaron shrugged and nodded toward the
screens. “Do we have a choice?”

Justin swallowed. “Guess not.” He looked
back at the colonel. “What about you, colonel?”

The man seemed surprised at the question.
“You're not concerned for me, are you, lad?”

“Maybe I am, colonel.”
Justin looked at screens again. “I doubt that these people are
going to be very gentle if they question you about us.”

The colonel actually laughed. “I assure you,
Justin, if they get by my people and make it this far, there won't
be many of them left to ask questions about anyone. Now, get going
you two.” He nodded toward the door.

Chapter 22

The two boys looked at the colonel one last
time and then hurried out of the room and down the corridor. The
building was eerily quiet, considering the fact that hostile forces
were trying to enter it.

They reached the end of the hall and stood
in front of the door that the colonel said led to Justin's mother.
Justin tried one key and lucked out. The locked clicked open. He
handed the keys to Aaron and said soberly “Go get the others.”
Aaron nodded and headed toward the other room.

Justin hesitated a moment, then he reached
out and slowly opened the door.

As he entered, he saw that it was indeed the
room that he had seen in the monitor. He had been bracing himself
in case it was a trick by the colonel but the room was the same and
across from the doorway, his mother lay on a couch unmoving.

He hurried across the room and gently shook
his mother's shoulder. “Mom?” he said quietly. “Wake up. I'm
getting you out of here.”

She sighed softly. “Justin? Is that you?”
His mother opened her eyes and looked up at him. “You came!
Somehow, I knew you would.” She reached out and Justin grabbed her
in a gentle hug. His eyes were stinging. Then they broke apart. He
pulled his mom into a sitting position.

“Mom, we're in trouble.
This place is under attack and we have to get out of here, right
now.”

His mother's eyes widened with fear just as
Justin heard a commotion at the door. He spun around but it was
only Aaron followed by several teens.

Aaron nodded. “They're in pretty good shape
considering, Just.” He waved them all inside the room.

Justin turned back to his mother and was
surprised to see her standing next to him. “You okay, Mom?” he
asked anxiously.

“We're under attack,
Justin? By whom?”

“Don't know, Mom. I'm
guessing it's the renegade Titans. They want us pretty badly. But
we have time to get away before they arrive.”

His mother reached out and grabbed his arms.
“Are you sure it's them, Justin?” she asked.

Justin was confused by the question. “Well,
yeah. I guess so. I mean, who else could it be?”

“Who else indeed,” she
muttered as she tightened her grip on his arms.

Justin squirmed as his mother's hold on his
arms began to hurt. “Mom, relax! We have time to escape.”

“Escape?” She looked at
Justin and suddenly smiled. Her grip was beginning to cut into his
skin and he let out a moan of pain. And then she laughed. “Oh no,
little boy. You can't escape. This plan has gone perfectly and now
you are caught.”

Even as he writhed in her grip, it occurred
to Justin that his mother could never hold him so tightly that it
would hurt him. I jumped out of a third story window and wasn't
even scratched, he realized. And then, suddenly oblivious to the
pain, he glared down at the woman and said “Who are you?”

She laughed even louder. “Don't you
recognize your dear, sweet mother, Justin? The one person in the
world you would leave your safe haven to rescue?”

Justin stared in horror at this stranger
with his mother's face. Her laugh became deeper and wilder and he
gasped as her face began to develop cracks along the edges near her
hairline. The cracks quickly traveled across her cheeks,
crisscrossed over her nose and up over her forehead as though her
skin was made of hardened mud instead of flesh.

He forgot his pain as he watched his
attacker's face begin to break apart, clumps of dried flesh, just
like clods of mud, beginning to cascade off of her head and on to
the floor. And beneath the desiccated flesh, he could see glints of
bronze-colored metal.

The face disintegrated faster, and the skin
on her exposed arms shriveled and peeled away, and suddenly Justin
realized that the creature under the disguise was a servitor! But
it wasn't like the ones he had seen in Sanctuary. Those had had
human looking faces and expressions. But this...thing was a
horror.

The blazing yellow eyes were too large for
the head, the wide mouth split the face with a maniacal grin from
ear to ear and the shiny bald head was covered with cracks and
bumps that made the monster look misshapen and battered, as though
it had been smashed over the head many times.

“Justin! What's
happening?” Aaron yelled. The servitor yanked Justin off the ground
and swung him around as it turned to face the doorway. It tightened
it's grip on him as it's insane laughter stopped.

“Hold it right there,
little Titan!” it growled at Aaron and the group of teens crowding
behind him. “I'll pull his arms off like ripping the wings off a
fly if you try to interfere.”

Aaron had begun to move forward but now
stopped and stared at the mechanical man, his eyes wide.

“Wise move, little Titan.”
The servitor turned it's gaze back on Justin. “Now, my masters will
take care of that colonel and his soldiers very quickly but in the
meantime, we have the chance to have a little chat.” The maniacal
grin spread from ear to ear and the machine's voice lowered to a
harsh whisper. “So tell me, dear Justin, just how you did it,
hmm?”

“Did it?”Justin gasped.
“I, I don't understand. Did what?”

The servitor dropped him and Justin fell to
his knees, his arms numb from the monster's crushing grip. But
before he could take another breath, the machine had put it's hands
on both sides of his head and Justin could feel their burning,
titanium touch begin to squeeze his head between them.

“Oh such modesty! Now,
now, little boy, you know what I mean. How did you get those oafs,
those hunks of mindless metal at your so-called Sanctuary to attack
my masters, hmm? What was your secret?”

Justin found it hard to think as his skull
was being crushed by the servitor. “I, I'm not sure,” he gasped
out.

Suddenly an massive explosion shook the
room. The servitor staggered and dropped Justin, who collapsed face
down on the floor, trying to breathe and focus through the stabbing
pain in his head.

“Aha! That colonel had a
little surprise waiting for my masters. No matter. It will only
slow them for a moment.” The metallic monster turned back and
looked down at Justin. “Now then, where were we? Ah yes. You were
going to tell me your secrets, weren't you boy?”

The servitor reached for Justin again, then
froze at as Aaron shouted “Don't do it, Justin! That thing won't
kill you!”

The machine straightened up and fixed it's
mad gaze at Aaron and the small group huddled behind him. “I
won't?” it said with a high-pitched giggle. “And why do you say
that, little Titan?”

“Because,” Aaron replied
as he glared back at the servitor. “Your so-called masters won't be
pleased with you if they can't question Justin for themselves, will
they?”

The machine paused. Justin took the
opportunity to catch his breath. He knew Aaron was buying him some
time, hoping he'd have a plan. But there was only one chance and
the thought of how much pain it would cause him made him cringe
inside. But still, if it was the only way...

The servitor nodded, it's neck creaking.
“You are a clever one, aren't you? Yes, the masters will want the
pleasure of killing you all themselves. But they won't mind it
I...damage him a bit. As long as he can still talk, what are a few
broken bones or a cracked skull between friends, hmm?”

As it reached for him again, Justin listened
aghast as the monster said “After all, I had the pleasure of
killing the boy's mother before I took her place. That was so
satisfying.”

Seeing Justin's expression, the servitor
chuckled. “Oh come now, boy. How else was I going to be able to
keep her quiet while I waited for you to arrive. The mighty hero!
Shall I tell you how I did it? And how I disposed of the, um,
remains?” It threw back it's head and roared with insane
laughter.

Justin's mind went blank. The pain in his
head was forgotten. Mom, dead? This thing killed her? A rush of
memories threatened to overwhelm him. His mother's strength through
her long illness. Her warmth, her endless love for Justin and for
his Dad. But then something rose within him, and pushed back the
tide. Something almost primordial. An anger that choked him. A
hatred for this creature and for those that controlled it. Finally
the servitor stopped laughing and reached for him again.

“You said you wanted me to
tell you how I controlled the Sentinels, didn't you? What the
source of my power is?” he asked the machine. He could barely speak
through the rage.

It stopped and stared at him with it's huge
eyes, it's jester’s grim widening. “Ah, decided to talk, have you?
Sensible boy.” It leaned in eagerly. “Tell me, how did you do
it?”

“Justin, no!” he heard
Aaron shout. Did Aaron mean don't tell? Or did he realize what
Justin meant to do? Either way, it was too late.

“I did it...” he whispered
harshly, “like this.”

And then Justin raised his hand and slapped
his palm between the monster's burning eyes.

His rage could not mask the intense stabbing
pain that shot through his hand as the rune on his palm made
contact with the titanium of the servitor's head. Justin cried out
in agony but his voice was buried by the bellow of the mechanical
man.

The servitor reared back but Justin's hand
seemed to be fused to it's metallic skin and he was dragged as the
machine tried to get away from the pain. A burning light blazed up
through his hand where it was connected to the monster's head and
Justin could see his bones illuminated by the brilliance. But pain
or not, he was almost mesmerized as he watched the servitor's skull
begin to bubble and melt in large droplets of titanium under his
touch.

The creature's screams became higher in
pitch and Justin was tossed around like a rag doll as the servitor
writhed in agony. But there was no escaping his fused palm and
finally the construct collapsed, it's head a half-melted shell that
exposed a brain of seared wires and glowing gears.

Justin's hand came free as the servitor
convulsed one last time and he lay back, closed his eyes and
gripped his wrist, the blood beginning to flow freely from his
hand. He felt a pressure on his palm through the pain and turned
his head to see Aaron holding a rag tightly over the wound.

“This looks vaguely
familiar,” he joked in a feeble voice.

Aaron glanced down at him and his grim
expression changed to a tight grin for a second. “Yeah, seems we've
been down this road before, doesn't it?” he said gently. As a part
of the rag quickly soaked up the blood, Aaron refolded it and
applied it again to Justin's hand.

“I knew you were going to
do that, Just,” he muttered as he worked

“Please don't tell me I
was wrong, Aaron.” Justin lay back and closed his eyes again for a
moment. Between his exhaustion and his wound, he found that
everything around him would begin to spin if he kept his eyes open
too long. “I had no other choice.”

“I know, bud, I know.” The
pressure on Justin's hand changed and he looked over to see that
Aaron was binding the rag tightly to his hand with scraps of cloth
he had ripped from his own t shirt. “But now what? Those adult
Titans will be here soon and there's no way we can fight them off.
You're wounded, the other kids are scared and hungry and I'm, well,
I'm just useless.” He looked down at the plain bracelet on his
wrist and shook his head.

Justin sat up with a jerk. The room spun
around him but he ignored it as he glared at Aaron. “Don't you ever
say that! I wouldn't have made it this far without you, Aaron. You
think I would have had the nerve to come to this place, to fight
that monster without you backing me up?” Aaron just stared at him,
speechless for once. “You have my back, bud. You're the one person
in this whole mess that I can trust. So don't you tell me you're
useless,” he said fiercely.

“Um, okay.” Aaron's face
reddened and he looked down at Justin's hand and adjusted the
bandage unnecessarily for a minute. Then he looked back at his
friend. “Thanks for that,” he whispered.

Chapter 23

Justin shook his head and tried to smile.
“Don't thank me, you've earned it. Now,” he tried to collect his
thoughts, “ we have to move. If we just had some water, we could
try a gate.” He looked around the room but there was no water to be
found.

“But we don't have a rune,
Just,” Aaron said, sounding a bit frantic. “How can we get back to
Sanctuary?”