Godsend

Disclaimers: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people are coincidental. If you are under the legal age in your area to read erotic literature, please stop reading this and go somewhere age appropriate. If you are offended by homosexual material, please stop reading this and go somewhere your bigoted little mind can handle. If you're looking for pure sex, and plot/character development only get in your way, this story is definitely not for you. The rest of you, please enjoy chapter thirteen of this tale.

Author's Correction: It seems I made an error in the previous chapter. When Min and Stef were saying goodbye to their fallen gods, Stef wished them well in Tartarus. Seeing as Tartarus is closer to the Christian idea of Hell, it should actually be the Elysian Fields, or Elysium. Thanks to Jay for pointing out the mix up.

----------------------- Godsend Chapter 13: Reunions

There was a cool, soft breeze coming through my window, playing with the curtains. Crickets chirped in the darkness outside, and the scent of the flower garden made everything seem right.

"This is your world," Min said. "There is much for me to learn of my old home. I wish for the opportunity to do so when this is over."

"I'll go tell mom you're here," I said. "She'll get the guest room ready, and..."

"I apologize," Min said, lifting the ball from my hand, "but K'lemut and I must begin work immediately." He embraced me, then. "Be strong, Stefan. The situation may become dire, but remember who and what you are. Take your strength from that and you can overcome impossible odds."

"I will, Min," I said. "Take care, and good luck with your project. I have hope now that we can get through this."

"No," Min said. "It is important that you ask your parents for enough water from the river Lethe to forget the last hour. If you do not remember your escape and that there is hope, the O'onerut will not be able to suspect it."

I hated the thought of forgetting, but I knew it was necessary to wipe my memory of the meeting with K'lemut. I nodded and then Min was gone. "Thank you!" I yelled out, then remembered that it was the middle of the night.

I heard a glass break and the slap of bare feet running on hardwood floors. My light flashed on almost immediately as the door to my room flew open, blinding me briefly. In the door stood a very disheveled goddess of love. The hair was in disarray and there were bags under her eyes. The look on her face was a mixture of disbelief, relief, and joy. This was not Aphrodite, goddess of love, this was Mom - frazzled and freaked out mom.

"Hi mom," I managed to say before being strangled in the tightest hug of my life. "Air," I managed to squeak out, and she let up a bit.

"How did you escape?" She asked. "Are you ok?"

"I'm alive and in one piece," I said, "but there is something very important I need to ask."

"Let me call everybody in and we can..."

"Mom!" I interrupted. "This is urgent!" She stopped and her pose shifted from excitement to full attention. "I need enough water from the river Lethe to wipe the last hour from my mind. O'onerut cannot know what I know or we will all die."

She was about to say something as a reflex, but she snapped back into rationality quickly. "I understand," she said. "You're...different," she added, looking at me with a tilted head. "You've matured."

"God I hope not," I said with a smile. "I plan on regressing when this is over. Seven was a fun year, if I recall."

Mom gave me a warm smile and vanished quickly in a glittering pink puff of smoke. She appeared shortly after with a glass of water and a teaspoon. At that point, my father walked into the room. "Honey, what's going...Stefan!" He dashed over to me at his top speed.

"Air, dad."

Mom chuckled. Dad relented. "Are you ok? Did he hurt you? How did you escape?"

"Honey," Mom said. "He said he needs to forget the last hour or so if we're to have any hope of beating O'onerut. I'm inclined to believe him. A spoonful of Lethe water?"

Dad looked at her like she was crazy, then realization set in. "Yes, a spoonful will wipe out about an hour. I wish the only way to protect a secret wasn't to forget it."

My mother handed me the spoonful of water and I downed it. Then I jumped back away from them. "Mom? Dad? How did I get here? Where's Min?"

"Calm down, son," Dad said. "You just took a spoonful of Lethe water to forget the last hour. You didn't tell us how you escaped, and said that you learned something that you needed to forget so O'onerut couldn't learn it."

"Did you say Min?" Mom asked.

"Yeah," I said. "O'onerut took him when he went after the Egyptian gods. He wanted to claim Min for his own, but Min turned himself into a Vaneel to escape. Oh God, Mom," I said, my eyes watering. "What he's doing to those people to make them Vaneel - it's horrible."

She gave me a warm hug to comfort me. "It's ok," she said. "You're safe now. You can tell us about that later, if you want. Where's Min now?"

"I...I don't know," I said, sitting with a thud on my bed. "I was following him through secret passages, and then I was here. He was taking me somewhere important, since O'onerut gave me access to all of the rooms. I guess it was really important, since I had to forget it, wasn't it?"

"You seemed to think so," Mom said. "But everything will be fine, now. You're home and we're together again. I'm going to go tell the rest of the family. Would you like to call Kelly? I'm sure she will be glad to know her best friend is home safe. You`ve been gone so long, we were all in a bit of a panic."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I've only been gone half a day."

"Son," Dad said. "This may be hard to take."

"What, Dad?" I asked, bracing myself.

"It's been two years. O'onerut's been on a rampage the whole time. He claimed you had escaped and that he wanted you returned to him. Since none of us honestly knew where you were, he left us alone, just so that, if you did show up, he would be able to learn of your whereabouts."

I fell backwards onto the bed. My head was swimming. "Two years?" I asked.

"Are my friends in college? Has O'onerut advanced a lot?"

"Kelly, Cade, and Mike all went to the local college so they'd be around when you returned," Dad said. "Kelly had a strong feeling that you would come back after lying low for a while. She wouldn't have left town anyway, though, since she's in advanced Goddess training.

"Cade would follow you to the ends of the earth, but you know that. He came out of the closet last year, but he has turned down every gay guy in the state it seems. He tells them all that he's in love with someone already. He's been miserable, and I don't think he would have made it this long if it weren't for Mike.

"Mike came out as well, but he isn't holding onto memories like Cade. He's been dating a lot, but hasn't had a boyfriend yet. He's young still, but I don't think he actually wants one."

"He does," I said to my dad. "He loves me. He's bonded himself to me, and I can feel that bond. It's one sided, though. I don't love him."

"That explains things a bit," Dad said, sighing. He looked up at the posters on the wall. "You have the same problem as your mother. Males fall in love with you, because male love is your aspect. It's like an aura around you."

"Great," I said, "I have a gay aura." Pausing, I let that sink in. Cade was wasting away, pining after me, and Mike was taking care of him. Mike also loved me, but he knew what Cade and I had and knew he couldn't compete.

Kelly was at least doing what she was supposed to be doing with her life. "What about the situation with our people?" I asked.

"I can answer that," Angie said from the door. She had blossomed even more over the past two years than she had before I left. It really sunk in when I saw her, looking almost completely adult, that I had really lost two years. She sat on the corner of my bed and opened up the laptop she had been carrying under her arm. This businesswoman was the next goddess of love? "By the way, welcome home, Stef." She clicked a couple of files and showed me the screen. "I made lists of the gods of both pantheons. Their color denotes their status. They're either in black text for alive, blue text for missing, or red text, for dead." The entire Norse pantheon was green and red, while the Greek pantheon was still mostly black. "As you can see, the Norse gods, having no ties to you, were eliminated one by one, though a few may still be at large. Our family, though, is still mostly intact. O'onerut isn't hunting us as of yet. He is, however, popping in and reading our minds periodically. He seems to know that you will return, though he doesn't know when. He said something about a toy of his and potency degradation."

I was more confused now than ever about my escape. I was also unprepared for a running body tackle, which is what came next. "Hektor, you've grown!" I gasped out under his weight. Behind him, my grandparents walked into the room with my mother. "The whole family's here," I said. "I was afraid."

"Honey, you should have known everyone was fine when you saw your father and me," Mom said. "If one of our incarnations is alive, all of them are alive.

If one is killed, we all die."

"I forgot," I admitted. "Things have been so tense lately..."

"I know," she said. "It'll all be ok now."

"Don't lie to him, Mom," Angie said. "He's my brother and I love him and all, but let's not fill his head with false hopes."

"I know," I told her softly. "I know things are bad and getting worse. Mom was just trying to make me feel better. I think I share in her feeling that we'll win. I don't know why. Maybe her optimism is getting to me, but I truly feel O'onerut will lose."

Angie looked up to me, here eyes watering. "I really want to believe that. I really do. But...I don't know. I just don't see it ending well for us."

"Stef will save us," Hektor told her. "That's his destiny. That's why God made him." I suddenly felt very ill.

My destiny.

I was destined to save mankind. Nothing and no one said that I was meant to save the gods. They could all die and I'd still be able to fulfill my purpose. "Could I be alone?" I asked. "I need to make a call and then think for a bit."

"Sure, honey," Mom said warmly. I think she caught my sudden mood swing and knew the reason. I just realized that I was meant to save total strangers, but might not be able to do a thing for my loved ones. My heart sank as they left the room.

I picked up the phone from the cradle on my nightstand and dialed. "Hello?" asked a sleepy voice.

"Kel," I said. "It's me."

There was a pause, then a hopeful, "Stef?"

"Yeah," I said, "I just got home." There was sobbing on the other side. "Stop, Kel, you're going to make me start, too," I told her.

"Shut up," she chuckled. "Ok, give me the rundown on the escape."

"Don't know. Apparently I learned something so important I had to wipe it from my memory with Lethe water. My escape either had something to do with it, or just fell within the erased time. Whatever happened, only a half a day has passed for me since I left."

"You serious?" she asked.

"Completely. I hear you`re doing a lot better than Cade and Mike."

"Yeah, gods are more resilient than humans. Mike seems to be coping decently, but Cade..."

"I know," I said. "I should probably call him tonight."

"No," Kelly said. "He'll have a breakdown if you do. I'll call him and ease him into the idea of you being home. In the mean time, you get some sleep. You sound like you've been through hell." I hadn't realized how tired and raspy my voice sounded until she pointed it out to me.

"All right, Kel," I told her. "See you in the morning?"

"First thing," she said. "Bye."

"Bye, Kel," I said, ending the connection.

I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking that I'd have a really busy day awaiting me in the morning. When I opened them, the sun was shining through the window. For a moment, I was confused. I wondered if I had mysteriously lost even more time. How many more years had slipped by? I wiped the sleep crud from my eyes and understood. It was morning. What day of the week was it? What was the date? Was I going to have to go back to high school while all of my friends went to college?

I shook my head. I'd have to find out one thing at a time and work from there. I looked at my clothes. A little rumpled, but still ok. I headed downstairs to the sounds of dishes clanking and people chattering. When I reached the dining area, I saw my family with three other people at the table.

Then I understood who they were. Kelly, it seemed, had accepted her beauty.

He hair was now curled and halfway down her back. She had actual makeup on, and clothing that made her figure stand out - way out. She was stunning. She asked for things and passed them with poise and dignity, and I could tell she had finally found comfort in her own skin.

Mike had let his hair grow out a bit and it seemed as if he'd traded his weights for a jogging regimen. He was still tall, and still had plenty of muscle tone, but it was leaner than I remembered. He looked like a stud. He smiled and laughed with my father as he told some story or another. The smile was kind and genuine. Mike was actually happy.

Cade, on the other hand, broke my heart. He hadn't changed much physically, but instead of an assured teenager, I saw a broken and lost man. His confidence was gone, replaced by a timid shyness. He was also a bit on edge. His gaze was darting to the clock and to the food, back to the clock, then to someone at the table, then back to the clock, and so on. I felt guilty about turning him into this, even though I hadn't even tried. It was time to try and fix that.

"Morning everyone," I said. I knew I was grinning, but I couldn't help it. Everyone I loved was here and most of them doing very well.

Kelly jumped out of her chair and didn't waste a second running to me. She was giggling the whole way and threw her arms around me. "Promise me you won't disappear for another two years," she said.

I held up my hand in an oath. "I promise," I said in a dignified manner. Then we both started laughing.

When we calmed down, Mike stepped up. He punched me in the arm. "Next time call me when you get back," he said with a grin.

I punched his arm, but it may have hurt my hand more than his arm. "Next time leave a forwarding number where I land," I told him back. We both had a laugh and he gave me a rib-crushing hug.

I looked over at Cade, who still hadn't turned around to look at me. "Cade?" I asked softly. He didn't respond. "You'll never know if I'm real or not if you don't at least look."

"I have to use the restroom," he said, his voice trembling. He got up from the table and walked past me, his head down the whole way.

"Cade!" Mike said, but I put a hand on Mike's arm to stop him.

I waited a few moments, then I followed. "I'll talk to him," I said. "I think we should have started with a private meeting anyway." I walked out of the dining area, and Ben, standing in the hallway, pointed toward the nearest bathroom. I knocked on the door. "Cade?" I asked. "Can I come in?" There was no answer. I gently turned the handle and it opened.

Cade looked up from where he was sitting on the closed toilet seat. Tears stained his cheeks and I realized he had been crying since before I even walked into the dining room. His eyes grew wide when he saw me, but he didn't move. He just sat there, transfixed, like a deer in headlights. "Cade," I said. "I'm here."

The shock broke and I finally registered to him. "Stef?" he asked. I nodded with a bit of a warm smile. He stood and ran to me. He held me, sobbing, his arms over my shoulders, his face buried in my neck.

"I'm home, Cade," I told him. "I'm really home."

"So the last time we talked was just yesterday to you?" Cade asked me. He had eventually stopped crying and had let me go. I thought he must have remembered that I was still straight. He was now sitting on the toilet again, and I was sitting on the floor with my back against the door.

"Weird, isn't it?" I said.

"I was so freaked out about you being all different after all this time, and it's only tomorrow to you," Cade said sardonically. He sighed. "I guess I must be a total mess to you."

I shook my head. Then I nodded and smiled. "Yeah, a bit," I said. The roll of toilet paper bounced off of my head, having been set in motion by Cade's right hand, just as a pitcher would throw a fast ball. I laughed, and Cade joined me. "I'm glad you're smiling again."

"Yeah, well, after O'onerut took you, and the Vaneel took Jacob and Darren, I didn't have much to smile about," he said.

"They took Darren," I repeated softly.

"About a month after you left," Cade replied. "People saw that the Vaneel only took the fighters, so they stopped fighting. After a few weeks, the Vaneel switched to killing people who cowered, until someone stood up to them to stop the killing, then they took that person. People went from fighting to protect themselves to fighting to protect their loved ones. Either way, they're still gone."

"Those people," I said. "They're not in their bodies any more. Their minds are destroyed after their bodies are changed."

Cade nodded. "We figured as much. They only took the fighters, so we figured they were becoming a part of O'onerut's army. When we tried to communicate, we got no response. The mind was completely alien when they scanned the brain of a captured Vaneel."

"That's because it's the brain of the insect on their head," I told him. "I saw people get changed. It was horrible. I saw Jacob..." I couldn't go on.

My eyes began to sting, and I knew the tears were on their way.

"Oh, Stef," Cade said, coming to me. He sat down against the door next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I let go, crying onto Cade's chest as I curled next to him.

"All those people," I sobbed. "All screaming in pain. They were going crazy from the pain. Most of their minds were already dead before the insects got to them."

"We'll beat him," Cade said with a fiery passion I wasn`t expecting. "We'll think of something and we'll get rid of him forever."

"No you won't," I said firmly. "You're going to stay in your home or dorm or wherever you live, and you're going to keep yourself safe while the gods sort this out. I'm not losing you to him."

"I...I didn't know you cared that much," he said.

"You and Kelly," I said, looking up at him, "you mean as much to me as my family does. Hell you two are family as far as I'm concerned."

Cade sighed. "I was afraid you were going to say that," he said. I opened my mouth to reply but he shook his head. "Don't say it," he told me. "We've had this conversation before and it always depresses me. I know how you feel. I know it would take something drastic for you to change yourself on purpose, and I know I'm not willing to force it on you."

I sat up and placed my forehead on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," I said. "You don't deserve this.

He lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. "If you apologize for being yourself one more time, I'll hit you with a rolled up newspaper."

"Arf," I barked with a smile. He sat back and laughed.

"The hell are you two doing in there?" I heard Mike ask from the other side of the door.

I stood up and Cade followed suit. Unlocking the door, I said, "we're playing bad doggie."

Mike walked in with Kelly right behind him. "You both are freaks, you know that?" Mike said, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Cade and I both smiled and nodded in unison.

"You have a headache, Mike?" Cade asked.

"Getting one," he said. "I thought we'd have more time to reconnect before it started back up again, but we don't." When I was about to open my mouth to ask him what he was talking about, he raised his hand to stop me. "O'onerut is on TV. He says he knows you're back and he demands your presence on the city hall steps. He has a cage full of people and he says he`ll kill one an hour until you come to him."

"How could he know?" I asked. "I just got back."

Kelly shook her head. "No one needs to tell him anything. He delves into at least one of our minds each day. He doesn't even make himself known. He just stops outside our houses and probes us from there. Once we knew you were back, he was going to know within the day."

"I should have expected as much from him," I growled. "Fine. Kelly, call city hall and tell them to let O'onerut know I'm on my way and not to kill anyone. You're staying here because he wants the gods dead and out of the way. Cade and Mike...wait. I was going to tell you to get in the car, but if you get captured and turned into Vaneel, it'll kill me. You stay here with Kelly, too. I'll drive myself."

"No, man," Mike started, but I interrupted.

"Mike, stop," I told him. "He knows where I am and where my house is. He could just come and take me any time he wanted. What he's doing, he's doing for the cameras, not to get me back. You going with me won't protect me, and it only puts you in danger. The same goes for you stopping me. O'onerut has the upper hand right now and he knows it. The less muscle he needs to flex to prove it, the better." Mike crossed his arms and slumped against the wall. Let him pout if it kept him safe and alive, I thought.

Someone had brought my car back home, as I thought they probably would have.

Ben held out my keys as I walked toward the front door. I thanked him quickly and left.

The media circus was in full swing outside City Hall. As I pulled up, all cameras turned to me. I stepped out of the car and walked to the bottom of the steps. O'onerut stood at the top, his expression gloating. I felt him inside my head.

"Excellent play drinking the Lethe water and forgetting your escape, and what happened to Min and my belongings. You are a crafty young godling," he told me.

"You could have come to my house and kidnapped me," I yelled up to him. "Why the big publicity stunt?"

"I want your people to know the truth about you, Stefanos Kereanoi," he said. "They need to know about your secret desires." I was now deeply confused. As far as I knew, I didn't have any secret desires. "Yes, this boy here only has physical desire for women." O'onerut paused, then looked at the crowd with disgust. "Wait, that is normal here? What kind of a backwater society do you people live in?"

"So you came here to shame me in the face of my society and you didn't bother checking to see if I was being shameful or not?" I asked. I feigned boredom. "Can I go home now?"

O'onerut glared at me, red in the face. "I will not be made a fool of! If it is your desire for women that keeps you from me, then I shall eliminate the temptation. Stay there." He vanished. Then there was a bright flash in the sky and a quick tremor in the earth.

He returned. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, and of the world, hear my words. I have fired a beam from the home of your gods through the earth. It passed through the other side, and from there it is slowly spreading outward. Every woman that the resultant wave passes through will turn to ash and be blown away on the winds. Men will be unharmed. The energy wave will eventually converge on Olympus and then into the home of the gods themselves. No woman will be safe. All will die. Any woman who wishes to escape this fate and become Vaneel, pray to me for my mercy, and I will send a Vaneel to collect you. Until the wave has ended, the Vaneel will cease collecting humans against their will, as a sign of my benevolence.

"To be clear on my reasons, I will state in front of you all that this boy before you has angered me, and I am doing this both to punish him and to force him to submit to me. Until I say otherwise, I will leave him to you."

He vanished again, probably to his ship. I couldn't really think of anything past that.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see an officer next to me. "Stefanos Kereanoi," he said, "you are under arrest for crimes against humanity."

Author's note: There you have it, dear readers. The gauntlet has been thrown by O'onerut, and now he awaits an answer. Tune in next time for the next chapter of Godsend. I'd really like to have the next one done in a week, but I have a lot to do in the real world. So I'll say my deadline is Wednesday, Nov. 29th, two weeks from now, with the option of shortening it by a week if I am able. There will be no in-between, so if it doesn't show up on the 22nd, I'll be using the full second week. Taa Luvs.

I can be reached at academygm@hotmail.com .