Killing Olympia

"This is something we should've done a long time ago," mom said. The old whiteboard in the garage had been moved inside the house and placed in front of the TV, and with a marker in her hand, she looked just like the kind of person she always had—too smart for her own good. Except this time, she wasn't tending to monsters in dark basements. She wrote two words on the board: divergent virus, then, with her back still turned as she kept writing, said, "But in the sake of everyone's time, I'll give you a very brief summary of what it actually means to be 'super.'"

I sat on the couch cross-legged, my hand smeared with some kind of special ointment that stank of cloves making the bandages wrapped around it wet. Becca sat beside me, a laptop out and not paying attention. Kayana was upstairs making some kind of phone call, meaning this lesson was mine and mine alone which, look, if you grew up the way I did, it felt kinda special, alright? Mom's always been smart, smarter than I'll ever be. I mean, Gods, the lady changed the world out of pure frustration, and sure, she made the one thing that can kill an Arkathian in the process, but she didn't know it at the time, so like a lot of things in my life, I'd just have to let bygones be bygones. I wasn't perfect, and she wasn't either, and at the very least, she almost looked excited to teach me something. We'd only ever sat down to do homework together once, which ended with me getting sent to my room as she finished it for me and sent me to bed early. Long story. I owned up to that, though. A reaction out of her meant she actually saw me, and not just something she grumbled past in the morning on her way out the door.

"Your mom was this close to teaching an undergrad Cape History class once," Becca said, face illuminated by the screen in front of her. "But the lec told her to zip it and follow the textbook instead of arguing with him."

"Mr. Langley was old and uninterested in learning new things," mom said, turning around again. "Last I heard, he's now retired and lives with his cats somewhere off the West Coast. I sent him flowers for his birthday a few years ago." She paused, then smiled a little. "I might've also sent a picture of the PHDs on my office wall."

I leaned back on the couch and smiled. "Did he ever reply?"

"He blocked the house number."

"What's with Addams and holding grudges?" Becky muttered.

"It's genetic," mom said with a shrug. "But one thing that isn't, is the Divergent Virus." Mom tapped the whiteboard with the pen and looked at me. "This is going to be easier if you tell me what you know. We'll fill in the gaps and make sure we're all on the same page. It's the fastest way to make sure nobody gets confused tonight, too."

I blew a strand of hair off my face, then said, "I dunno. I guess all I really know is that humans usually just get one superpower. If you're strong, that's what you are. If you're fast, that's all you've got. But every Supe is a bit tougher than everyone else. Like, if I punched one, I'd maybe break their jaw. But if I punched a regular guy just minding his business doing crime or whatever, they've got this really bad habit of exploding all over the place."

Becky stopped typing, frowned, then looked at me. Mom stared at me as well, nodding slowly.

"What?" I said.

"We'll unpack that later," mom said quietly, then rolled her hand. "Continue, but…less graphically."

I thought for a moment, then said, "Some of them come in different batches. There's S-Grades and below, but I haven't heard much about people using that system anymore to class 'em. My opinion? I guess it's pretty hard to know what a Supe can really do, because trust me, I've been in fights against things and people who should not have gotten back up from being put down by me, but they ended up doing things that I couldn't even imagine."

Mom nodded and smiled, and for whatever reason, I felt weird inside, almost hungry for more of that bright look in her eyes as if I'd just done her proud. "That class system is actually on its way out. Some people think it's old, some people think it's oppressive to 'weaker' Supers, but all in all, you're on the money—adrenaline, fight or flight, and a whole mix of other things means humans react differently, and here's the best part: the reason some of them seem a lot stronger in their do-or-die moment is because they're afraid. The Divergent Virus is what it says on the label: a virus. The more it's active, the more it learns, the more complex it gets and thus the more powerful."

"You're gonna have to slow down a little, V," I said. "I flunked high school history, relax."

Mom paused. "You did?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know, man, you didn't come for my graduation, and I wasn't there either, so I don't even know if I actually did graduate in the first place. Just pretend you're talking to someone really young."

"I suppose because of Zeus," mom continued, but not before ignoring Becky's slow shake of the head at her. "You technically really are quite young. You'll live longer than most humans, but you already know that. The oddest thing about you is that you're not fully Arkathian, but you'd think their blood would eventually be the one that's dominant inside of you, but that's not the case—your body is constantly at war with itself, and you'll feel that in your bones, in your joints, and I remember during puberty, you used to complain about your skin always itching and your back always hurting. It's simply because one side of you quite frankly really hates the other, Rylee."

I slowly flexed my bandaged hand, and for that whole aching part, she was right. There's barely ever been a day in my life when I've felt fantastic. When I have felt great, it was better than when Lucas was using Ambrosia to keep my powers in check and my body actively rotting. The second time was on Cleopatra's farm drinking that nectar she makes—now that is the sole time ever that my body has felt so perfectly normal I could just about melt.

"So…" I said slowly. "Frankie was right about what she said to me, that I am partially dying?"

"In a sense, yes," mom said, but the words didn't seem to want to come out of her mouth as quickly anymore. "But it's strange. Zeus' blood means that you'll always regenerate, you'll always be stronger, faster, and just that little bit more durable than a normal Superhuman, but it's not the side of you that wants you gone—it's the human side of you, my side, that is tearing apart your cells just that little bit slower than your body can heal them. In essence, your body is on a scale—one side is human, and the other is Arkathian. Over the past few months, you've leaned on one side more than the other, the side of you that means you can be Olympia. But that's forced the human side of you into overdrive, producing antibodies that want that part of you dead, because it thinks it's a threat to the entire system. I've tried to understand why your powers have dimmed considerably ever since you fought Adam"—'fought is an understatement,' Becky muttered—"and what I've come up with is pretty simple: your body was under so much stress because of all that power use, that it's essentially just tipped the scales in you."

I frowned and folded my arms. "So…hang on, you're saying that I might actually lose my powers?"

"No, they'll be back eventually. That's for sure. What I'm saying is that the Divergent Virus inside of you, and the Arkathian blood inside of you, are like oil and water. You can stir them, you can force them together, but it's never a pretty process, and it's never something fun to try and separate again—and that's where Supers come in." She turned around and wrote Virus = Death on the whiteboard. "This one's easy: what do viruses always do?"

Becky answered. "They learn, they adapt, and they don't make the same mistake twice."

My brow furrowed as I thought for a second. "So Superhumans are always evolving?"

"Exactly," mom said, pointing the marker at me. "But why? It's not like anyone's ever found a cure for it. There's not a single person on the planet who has the powers to 'heal' another person, so what's making it evolve?"

"Viruses need to die or be tested to change," Becky said, looking at me. "They need stimulation."

"Something that forces them to adapt, to learn, and to not make the same mistake twice," mom said.

They were both staring at me, so I guess that meant I was supposed to give them an answer. And for just a moment, it felt like I was back in history class caught daydreaming about flying through the clouds when I've suddenly been picked to answer a question I haven't heard. I shifted on the couch, a blanket on my shoulders, and thought for several seconds. They both patiently waited as the sound of Cleopatra moving around upstairs echoed.

"Can I take a guess?" I asked them.

"We're here to make sure you learn," mom said. "It's what normal parents do, so I thought I should try it."

I chewed my tongue a little, then shrugged. "I don't know, other Supers? I mean, if you fight more, then your body is gonna need to be stronger, so the virus is going to react by making itself a lot stronger over time?"

"That's not half bad, kiddo," Becca said, grinning. "Not totally correct, but that's true—it's just that when that does happen, it takes such a long time for it to take place. Think about the jumps in generations, because it can also work backward. The villains the Golden Age fought were a lot tougher than the Silver Age. Sure, you had your standouts, like Liberty and maybe Enchantress, but your average villain in this era would probably rip apart a higher end Supe back in the Bronze Age. Times change, and so do powers. Being able to run fast now means being able to almost look like you just teleported way back in the day when Peacemaker was marching around with his stars and stripes and big old shield. Long story short, you're almost there, just not pointing in the right direction."

"What else do you think might force the Virus to change so drastically?" mom asked. "I know you know this. You've got shelves worth of comics upstairs. You've got boxes and boxes of old superhero interviews. But let me make it a little easier: why did everyone always call the Silver Age the Forgotten Era, or the Darkest Decade?"

"Oh," I said. "Why didn't you start with that? That's easy: it only got called that after the Olympians were put together, which was when people really started looking at superheroes as something really special, and not just like costumed public defenders. Things changed. Louder personalities. Bigger battles. Flashier superpowers. It made the Silver Age look pretty dull in comparison, so now it was in the Golden Age's shadow. The darker times weren't all that dark, but their comics were pretty good—maybe a little cookie-cutter, but still pretty important."

"Look at that," Becca muttered. "Maybe reading comics really is educational."

"You're so close," mom said. "But why, Rylee? Why was the Golden Age better?"

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I shifted a little under her gaze. "I just told you, it all started 'cause of the Olympians."

"And who was the face of everything, truth, justice, and the American way?"

I opened my mouth to speak, then the final little coin slid into place. "Oh." They nodded. I sat back and stared at the whiteboard, mulling over my thoughts. "Arkathians," I whispered. "We're the reason it developed."

"That's it," mom said, smiling. She wrote it down on the whiteboard. "Zeus and Titan's arrival meant that Earth's biosphere as a whole was affected, and I'm not only talking about people, but plants and animals, and even the weather itself, too. The Earth shifted when the heavens opened, when the stars gifted us two of their bloodiest champions, because suddenly, the Virus—which is in every single living organism on this planet—was opposed."

"Suddenly," Rebecca said, "the world just wasn't going to be the same for us normal folk."

"That's why the Golden Age heroes are so much stronger?" I asked. "Because of them?"

"And drugs," Becca said. I looked at her. She shrugged. "A lot of them who weren't making the rounds anymore because their time was up and the new kids were stealing all the spotlight had to make something out of this entire superhero industry. Ambrosia was the leading drug in the latter stages, which only sped things up, but it also meant a lot of capes burnt out faster than they should have. You poke and prod a sickness inside of you too long without actually tending to it, then you're gonna get a very bad case of turning into things like Wasteland."

"Holy shit," I whispered. "So, hold on, lemme get this really straight—dad jump started this thing?"

"Hypothetically, yes," mom said. "But not entirely. Arkathians have been here much longer."

I uncrossed my legs and sat forward. "How much longer? Because I saw the writing on dad's tomb way down in the sewers, and it pretty much looked like some of that really old Nordic stuff, maybe a little Greek, too."

"You practically answered your own question," Rebecca said.

I stood up and ran my hands through my hair, then said, "Seriously? Dude! Why are you guys so relaxed about this? Those guys are maniacs! And not the human kind, but the kind that would really like to enslave us all."

"That's the part that always stumps me," mom said, putting the marker down. "Whoever came here first, whoever was the very first one, didn't seem to want to do that. Maybe they didn't consider us at that time a threat. Maybe they figured we were far too simple to even bother conquering, but the Empire doesn't do generosity and blind-eyes to lesser species. For whatever reason, they came with their technology and left it scattered around the Earth, and then they just…left, and they haven't been back since almost two decades ago when Zeus arrived. What happened in between those thousands of years?" She shrugged. "It's the one thing I was never told, and being on that planet wasn't particularly…fun. It was educational, it was eye-opening, but it also made me understand that, for whatever reason, the Empire was wary of coming back here. They've taken over most of the inhabited planets—"

"Pause," I said. She stopped talking, and Becca stopped typing. "They've done what?"

"I thought your cousin would have told you by now," mom said. "Well, yes—apart from a few other planets here and there, maybe a few dozen pockets of life out there, Earth is probably one of the few left now."

"Jesus Christ," I whispered, and suddenly, the night sky outside wasn't so silent.

"The real kicker, kiddo?" Becca said, hanging her arm off the back of the couch. "Kaiju are probably the best shot we've all got at making it out on the other side. Listen, I've never been the kind of Supe who'll save the world. Not when there are people like you who can be across the city in half the time it takes me to get to the front door. My problems are here, on the ground, and one thing I've learnt is that Kaiju pre-dated the Divergent Virus."

"I mean, sure," mom said. "If you believe in their online forums and scribbled scripture."

"Your daughter's soul was sold to an entity, V," Becca said. "You can't tell me you don't believe in life that exists outside of normality anymore. I mean, come on! You had sex with a guy who single handedly shifted Earth."

"I really appreciate having that image jammed into my head, Aunt B, thanks," I said.

"Some historians," mom quickly went on, "agree that several Kaiju families do go back in heritage to a time when Divergent Virus stories were few and far between. Tails of people who could lift stones heavier than huts and make rivers flow upstream instead of down during floods only really ramped up around the same time the Greeks started figuring out that maybe the stars weren't just useful to use as compasses. But…" Mom sighed. "The problem I've got is simple, and that's because Earth's history is a jumbled mess. What I know for sure is that what's inside Bianca is organic, it's not inherited, and it's a strain of the Divergent Virus that no longer really exists here."

I folded my arms to keep myself still. "But those things in the basement, underneath Cassie's building."

Mom nodded, and now she was just that little bit paler. "Those were natural. They occurred when a certain strain of Ambrosia was used to probe the dormant Virus into reproduction, causing it to violently lash out at you."

"And the reason they targeted me is because the Virus is after Arkathian blood?" I asked quietly.

"I didn't study them long enough to know for certain, but I'd have to be a fool to disagree."

I shut my eyes and tilted my head back, because of course.

Of-fucking-course.

"So Bianca…that thing inside of her, is gonna try to kill me?" I whispered.

"Rylee—"

"Just give me a straight answer," I said, my throat dry.

"We…don't know," Becca said. "If that was really the case, Ben would've tried to go after Zeus."

"Which he didn't, so there's a chance the host—"

"She's got a name, mom, and I'd prefer if you called her by it."

A heartbeat of silence, then: "Bianca, with the right amount of care, will be just fine."

What did I ever do to piss you off so much, universe? Can't you give me just one fucking break?

I opened my eyes, then looked at mom. She was a little closer, but we'd barely ever been the touching kind of relationship—she'd made those boundaries very clear when I was younger. We'd hugged recently, and before bed, she would squeeze my shoulder, which was a lot more than it sometimes used to be. But now there was a distance between us, a breach, and a look on her face that almost made it seem like she was shouldering this issue.

I guess she just felt guilty for some reason, but that wasn't going to do anyone any kind of good.

"It's hard to explain," I said, cutting through the silence. "But my powers have changed a lot since last year, and I don't know if that's because Lucas stopped me from developing, or if something's changed inside of me, but I'm not normal, I know that, and maybe it's because one side of my body is constantly being attacked, so it's been forced to change and adapt." I flexed my fingers, the joints in my bones aching. They felt tight, strained. "I can do things regular Arkathians can't, and that goes for other versions of me, and as far as I've seen, Rhea and the others can't make golden lightning explode from their hands. They might be stronger, but my powers are different."

"A mutation all on its own," mom said, her eyes widening. "Amazing. Arkathians rarely ever have variations in their powers, excluding the Royal Line. But if you've somehow managed to make yourself better—"

"I can kill the Virus," I said. That made her teeth click as her mouth shut. "The lightning I make fries whatever that thing is and kills it, so…so I'll be fine, and if you guys were planning on making sure I stay away from her, then that's not happening. I can defend myself just fine, and this is Bianca we're talking about—the one good thing in my life that doesn't carry around its own issues everytime I think about her. So if Ben can keep that thing under control, then she can do it, too. And at least this time Lucas isn't around—she'll be better trained."

"Rylee," mom said slowly. "I understand that you care a lot about her, but…that strain of the Virus is old. Very, very old, and it's smart, to the point that it doesn't only adapt, but it can listen, it can see through her eyes. It's as much a part of her as your lightning is a part of you. It's an extension of herself, but I also know what it's very capable of doing to people, and if it really is the apex of what the Virus can become, then for her sake, maybe…"

"You want me to back off from her?" I asked, my throat raw. "After I just got her back?"

"Ben wasn't around Arkathians often," Becca said, getting the laptop off her lap. "His Virus didn't lash out or develop as it technically should've done, only because he always made sure he was as far from Zeus as possible. There's a reason he never joined the Olympian's younger team. There's a reason he preferred to just fly solo."

"Goddammit," I swore, laughing a little. "Do you guys have any fucking clue what the last seven months have been like for me, and now, the literaly night after I have one of the best afternoons of my life, you say this?"

"It's a risk for the both of you being so close together," mom said softly. "Rylee, it's for her sake, too."

"But I can help her!" I said. "Just tell me how. There's got to be something, right? Some kind of drug you can make to dampen the virus, or maybe…maybe we can go and ask the ELS for help—they've been around ages."

"It's not for forever," mom said, close enough to put her hand on my shoulder. "All we need to do is keep our eyes on her and monitor anything strange. If what you told us is true, then it's already in her head, and she can hear it talking to her. Without Katie, it means it'll be able to do what it likes. That girl probably already knew all about it, and was doing everything she could to make the transition easier, but now that she's gone, the easiest option for everyone involved is to make sure that Bianca stays calm, and unfortunately, Rylee…you're oil and water, sweetheart. Your blood is the reason she might turn into something nobody wants to see, but if we can just watch her for just a few weeks and make sure she's not out-developing her own body, then everything will be fine."

"I can fix this all," a voice whispered. Cold sweat carved down my spine. "Just. Kill. The Witch."

I glanced over my shoulder, but there was nothing there. Nothing but my own shadow.

"Maybe this is some kind of penance," I whispered. "For being such a bad hero."

"Hey, no, it's not—"

I shrugged mom off and walked far enough to lean against the kitchen counter. I shut my eyes and shook my head, then rested my elbows on the marble top and massaged my face. They've got a point, Ry. If I wanted her safe, and if I was the reason she turned out like Wasteland, or something like the thing that nearly tore me apart in that cold basement, then… Come on. Come. On. I slammed the side of my fist against the counter. The stone cracked as I looked up at the ceiling. I was getting really tired of this. Really, really tired of this constant push-and-pull.

Just…How didn't I know? I can hear blood cells scraping against one another on my best days. I can see the scars on ants as they trundle along on the ground. But I could fucking notice that Bianca had that thing in her?

Wrapped up, I had been too wrapped up in my own falling-apart life to ever properly look at her.

If I'd just been better, that little bit more patient with mom, that little bit more heroic, then—

"I bear good news," Kayana said. It made us all look to the top of the stairs. She was dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck that made her shoulders look even stronger than usual. She looked from one face to another, then finally stopped on mine. Something seemed to click behind her eyes as she sighed through her nose, making her shoulders lower as she walked down the stairs and stood beside me. She put her hand on my back, and then said, "News like this was never going to be easy to stomach, and nor will it be easy on your psyche, but if there is one thing we must all agree on, it's that times are changing, and during this period of change, we must keep up. But by doing that, we must also make hard decisions for the sake of the people we wish to save. Remember what I said?"

"That we don't negotiate justice?" I whispered. "That doesn't really apply here, C."

"Do you not deserve normality?" she asked me. "Doesn't Bianca and everyone around her? Is that not wanting to achieve justice?" I massaged my temples as she continued. "My good news will be here soon, and with it, our next steps forward will be much easier. There's little we can do with our current numbers, but much we can do with individuals who stand beside us. Tomorrow morning, we will wait near an abandoned airfield on the outskirts of New Olympus, and there, we will find several people that will make sure justice, in all facets, is dully ensured."

"You're sounding like the Cleopatra who marched through the Soviet Union and demanded heads," Becca muttered, standing up and folding her arms. "It's one thing looking out for her, but it's another letting her heal, and I'm not only talking about physically. The girl's a mess. The last thing she needs is to get thrust into more issues."

"I understand your concerns, but I also understand that she needs to be around people who will very much make her life easier than any of us can right now," Cleopatra said. "And, all due respect, but neither of you have been much help in making sure that Rylee remains safe. You'll give me your excuses, or don't, I quite frankly don't care, but the truth is that you are trying to fix your wrongdoings, and because of that, I'm wary of your opinion on what I might think is right for her, and unless you wish that she doesn't meet someone like her, then be my guest."

I frowned, then looked over my shoulder at mom and Rebecca. They were standing together, both deathly silent, neither meeting my eyes. I looked at Kayana, then said, "Ease up a little, I don't need you guys fighting." You're the only adults I've got left, so that would be great, thanks. "What's this about meeting people like me?"

"Tomorrow," Cleopatra said, "you'll meet the head of the ELS. A friend of mine, Europa."

I blanked.

And I would have spoken, maybe stumbled over my words, but mom spoke first.

"Right," she muttered. "I sometimes forget about the other resident Arkathian."