Chapter 10: Saving Pete

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CHAPTER 10

Saving Pete

            Kaia couldn’t shake the memory from her mind. Each time she was certain it was gone, she closed her eyes and there it was, Pete’s blood-stained body towering over the scarlet remains of Stile Cortez.

            Why did she accept this? Why did she join in this impossible crusade to return Pete to reality if her endeavor would only lead to death?

            It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Pete wasn’t supposed to kill Stile. They were merely going to engage in an innocent battle between gods, draw attention to themselves and initiate a manhunt that would keep Pete off the streets and as disconnected from the reality he’d created as possible. That was the purpose, to convince Pete that he needed to wake up, not to make him a murderer.

            Poor Stile, Kaia thought. He’s always so angry, and now he was actually killed. Death is so painful. I hope he woke in reality without any physical impairments.

            Kaia was a god, and while she wasn’t as old as Holly or even Pete, she’d experienced enough lifetimes for a thousand generations. She’d met so many people, she went on adventures and learned as much as she could, but as a god, she’d also experienced death. Accidents happened, humans were chaotic, and sometimes the gods were worse than others. Sometimes their curse pushed them to insanity, sometimes they were curious or wanted to test the extent of their abilities. Kaia had died six times in her life, murdered twice. Dying wasn’t the hard part, it was the excruciating agony that went along with it.

            Kaia sat on the shabby leather couch in the living room of her decrepit Brooklyn brownstone. It reflected the current state of her mentality. That, and she was poor in this world and her friend Gal that’d pretended to be Leone Gallaway insisted that they live on a dime.

            Kaia sighed. She couldn’t stop thinking about the atrocity that’d happened earlier that day. Why did her favorite god of all unhesitantly murder Stile? Surely he was still the same person as before. The man Kaia adored would never kill… would he?

            Kaia shook her head.

            No, this was different. This was an alternate universe, something Pete had created to escape the pressure of reality. He was a brilliant architect, an expert in psychology, and he’d designed this new world so intricately that even his own personality had been rewritten.

            I was his best friend for twelve years, Kaia thought. I grew up with him. Even I was oblivious at times, but once I saw that he really was the man I used to know, I realized that he was different. 

            Gods were strange in that sense. Most of them were always the same, but sometimes they changed. They could do that. They could do anything imaginable if they thought hard enough. For example, Kaia was once the adopted daughter of a well-off family. She wanted to experience what it was like to be a child again, so she changed. Even though she was immortal and had become immortal at the age of twenty-two, she could look however she wanted and act however she pleased.

            Of course, changing who you were wasn’t that simple. You had to really believe that you were somebody else and make a commitment to maintain this change. Gods didn’t perform magic tricks. They followed the Laws of the Universe exactly how they were written, and it took an exceptionally determined god to set aside their old ways and follow these Laws in a new way.

            Kaia was only busying herself now. What else was she supposed to think about while she waited for Gal to return with the criminal Peter Glass?

            Kaia sighed.

            She was doing so well. For a full ten minutes, she hadn’t thought of that dreaded nightmare, but just like before, the memory returned to haunt her.

            She curled up into the fetal position and squeezed her eyes shut as she watched the blood and gore splatter across Bryant Park.

            Allen, she thought. You disappeared at that moment. Where did you go? Why did you leave me?

            Kaia never told Gal about Allen’s sudden appearance. After she’d returned home last night, she called Gal into Pete’s alternate universe and told him that Pete was becoming too dangerous in this world, and it was true. He was beginning to manipulate reality without even consciously acknowledging it, creating people and events that’d never existed. Allen was a product of his imagination that Kaia had never heard of before, but he was real, and after what’d happened today she realized that she shouldn’t have kept his existence from Gal.

            If Pete gets killed

            Suddenly, there was a loud clap of thunder. Kaia looked up, and a hobo crash landed in the center of the room.

            Kaia gasped and sprang to her feet. “Gal! Pete!”

            She didn’t know why the great god of empathy still looked like a hobo, or even why his teleportation created such an alarming sound, but she couldn’t think of these things right now. Pete was lying on the ground with blood dripping down his chin and soaking the clothes on his chest. He might’ve been a god in the real world, but here he was only mortal.

            She quickly knelt down beside him. “What happened? Was he shot?”

            The hobo shook his head. He held one hand over Pete’s forehead while the other covered the wound on his left side. “He didn’t want to die yet, so I stuck him with my knife. He should’ve healed by now, I should’ve been able to heal him, but nothing’s happening.”

            "So you stabbed him and skewered his lung?" Kaia didn't understand his reasoning.

            Gal glowered. "I wanted him alive so I could question him here where it's safe, but I don't know how much longer he'll hold out."

            Kaia gasped. She reached over and grabbed him by the sleeve of his ratty coat, begging for his complete attention. “No, you can’t let him die. He can’t die yet! He has to die with his brother.”

            Gal frowned. “What? But Pete doesn’t have a brother.”

            She bit her lower lip and looked down at Pete. Once again, she felt ashamed for not telling Gallaway sooner. “He thinks he does. He convinced himself that he has a twin named Allen, and then yesterday after school he actually showed up."

            "What! Kaia—"

            "I know, I should've told you. I honestly didn't know how severe this situation was until a few hours ago."

            "Did you at least figure out why he imagined himself a brother?"

            Kaia nodded. "I managed to take a DNA analysis when I kissed Allen at the park. They have a different number of chromosomes, but their DNA matches perfectly.” Kaia returned her gaze to the hobo. “Pete replicated himself because he subconsciously knew that he was going to die soon. He’ll never wake up if one of his replicas is still alive, and they can’t die at different times because the other might resurrect and keep him trapped in this reality. We need to find Allen, and Pete cannot die.”

            Gal released a breath. “All right, so we can’t let him die.” He looked down at Pete. “What do we do, then? I was only a doctor in the dark ages, and this universe wasn’t designed to benefit gods. The database has nothing on modern operations. I’d have to bypass Mona’s subconscious firewall to download the information I need to save him.”

            Gal, the ancient god of empathy, was a technology fanatic. He knew computers as well as he knew the Universe, and oftentimes he used technological terms to describe it. The Universe was the motherboard, gods were the administrators, the Laws were stored in a quantum database, and each god had so-called “firewalls” that prevented other gods and people with high authorization from accessing their “external hard drives,” or subconscious minds. His unusual analogy fascinated Kaia, but his technological terms confused her.

            Kaia frowned. “Can’t you just heal him? Why isn’t it working?”

            Gallaway pursed his lips and shook his head. “Hmm… I’ve managed to make his right lung inhale so he can stay alive, but his left lung is collapsed beyond repair.”

            “What!”

            “I’m sorry, Kaia. Something went wrong. Pete is subconsciously aware of what we’re doing here, but because his conscious mind is still oblivious, we have no way of knowing what he’s doing beneath the surface.”

            “B-But that’s simple to fix, isn’t it? Just access his subconscious—”

            “He refuses to grant me authorization. Look, Kaia. Before this world was created, he and I made a deal where I was granted partial administration over this world.”

            Kaia frowned. “What?” It was the first time she’d heard about this. Of course, she knew that the gods had limited access, and she knew that they were there to manipulate Pete into waking up, but only Pete was supposed to have control over this world. He’d created it, him alone, but now Kaia was learning that Gal had something to do with this? But why? It made no sense.

            Gal pursed his lips and released a heavy breath. “There was another world before this one, a strange one, and it took place on Ecual.”

            Kaia’s eyes widened. “Ecual? You mean…”

            “His name was Eidan in that world, but he was a lot different from Pete. Everest found him first. He was able to interact with Eidan for a while until… well, basically, Everest and I found a way to kill him, but once Eidan was dead, he refused to wake up. The old world still existed, and even though Eidan was definitely dead, nothing happened. So Everest used some voodoo magic to summon his spirit—don’t ask, it was a universe thing—and there he was, Monaxia in the flesh.”

            Kaia’s heart was racing. She felt a smile dance onto her lips. “Mona? You actually saw him?”

            Gal smiled and nodded. “Yes, I did! But he wasn’t happy. First he yelled at us for interrupting him—apparently he was reviving shions, whatever that means—then he scolded Everest for using sorcery. Finally, after a quick banter, we got down to business. Mona couldn’t wake up, and although he didn’t explain why, he said he was forging a new world as we speak. He said that as long as I promised to check up on him and make sure he was okay, I could have partial administration over his new world.”

            “And?”

            Gal frowned. “And what? I told you all I know. After that, Everest and I returned to reality, saved Mona from his captors, and you know the rest.”

            Kaia slowly nodded. Evidently, Gal hadn’t pieced two and two together. Allen was murdered on Ecual while his father was watching, and Eidan’s situation was exactly the same. So how was any of this possible? How could Monaxia, who was currently Pete, pull his former self from another world and introduce him as Pete’s brother? It was possible, she supposed, but maddening. Why would he do something so difficult when all he needed to do was forge an identical clone? They didn’t even have to meet, and yet Pete insisted on reuniting with Eidan instead.

            There has to be a reason, she thought. We’re missing something. Allen and Pete are both Monaxia, there’s two of him in order to prevent us from murdering him like before, but why would he want this? No, why didn’t he wake the first time around? Something’s chaining him to his made-up universes. But what?

            Gal released a long held breath. “Anyways, I’d like to be able to help him right now, but he refuses to grant me access. He’s even deleted several of my abilities. Look at me! I’m a disaster!”

            Gal gestured to his body, to the filthy form of a meager human dressed in rags and worn by time. He didn’t make an attractive hobo, and his voice was too high pitched and accented. Kaia wanted the old Gal back. He was much more pleasing to interact with.

            And then, as if in answer to their prayers, Gal’s hobo body quickly morphed back into his natural form.

            He wasn’t a very beautiful god, but he was charming, and his amiable countenance always made Kaia feel good. Unlike most gods, he preferred to present himself exactly how he appeared when he became immortal. He was forty-three years old, his short black hair graying in several locations, and he had deep brown eyes, fair skin and glasses. He was average in height, and he was actually pretty strong, but Gal had a notorious sweet tooth, so he was kinda leaning on the chubby side.

            Kaia smiled, glad to know that Pete was subconsciously listening and was kind enough to return his gift of biokinesis.

            Gal looked just as relieved. “That’s better,” he said in a sigh. His voice was soft and melodic, and he looked happier now, as if a thousand curses had been removed from his record. But as soon as he glanced at Pete, Kaia could see the heartache written in his eyes. Gal had always been a very emotive man, even before he became immortal.

            “So much pain,” he said. “Will you let me heal you now? Hmm, it seems he wants this. I understand. I’ll just have to operate.”

            Gal slid his arms beneath Pete’s limp body and lifted him from the ground.

            Kaia was confused. “I don’t understand,” she said, coming to a stand. She watched as the living room transformed into something that resembled a morgue. Pete must’ve returned several of Gal’s administrative abilities. “Why must you operate? Why doesn’t he want to heal?”

            Gal set him down on the metal table at the center of the room. He held out his hands and his hobo attire changed into a white lab coat over his usual sweater and slacks. “For some reason, he wants to remain oblivious as Pete. I don’t know why, but we must respect his wishes until we can communicate face to face.”

            “Yes, but why must you operate? I still don’t understand.”

            Gal pursed his lips. “You saw what happened. His abilities are returning to him. If I healed him now, they’d continue to return until he became too strong. However, if I remove his collapsed lung, it should put a handicap on his body and his apotheosis development will retard.”

            Kaia grimaced. She didn’t like this plan—Monaxia needed to be perfect and powerful—but she had no say in it. She was only the mortal best friend of Peter Glass, and she’d maintain this identity until Pete’s world was destroyed and everything returned to normal.

            She moved to the other side of the table where she watched Gal begin his operation without the proper medical equipment. At least the scissors he used to remove Pete’s shirt weren’t rusty. Gal was so frugal he’d buy only one ice skate if it was cheaper.

            “You should give him anesthesia… or something,” Kaia said. She might’ve been a god, but death and gore had always shaken her. It’d never interested her to learn anything concerning injuries or the medical world. Everything she knew came from movies and television.

            Gal faintly smiled. “I understand, but there’s only so much I can do with the parameters I’ve been given. Regardless, he’s perfectly unconscious. He shouldn’t feel a thing.”

            “What if he wakes?”

            Gal grinned. “I once amputated a man’s leg without any form of pain medication. I was going to hit him over the head, but he passed out before I received the chance.”

            Kaia was horrified. She looked at Gal, then she turned to Pete. How could Gal risk being so careless? Pete was only mortal in this world. He could die, and then he’d never be able to return to reality because Allen would still exist.

            “Have you done this before, Gal?”

             The man nodded. “You have my word that I will not kill him. I understand the severity of this situation and will do everything I can to ensure that Pete stays alive.”

            Kaia never received the confirmation that Gal had performed a similar operation, but this was Gal, the great god that made it his first priority to help those in despair. He was an empathic marvel, he always understood everything so clearly, and Kaia knew that if there was anybody she could trust with this responsibility, it was him.

            She tried to smile, but it felt uncomfortable. “Alright,” she said. “I trust you.”

            Gal smiled and held up a scalpel. He nodded.

            Kaia didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. Instead, she turned and left the room before Gal or anything else could be stained with red.

                                                                  *     *     *     *     *

            Pete sat up and looked around him with a frown.

            He was in his own bedroom, sitting on his uncomfortable mattress in an outfit he’d never seen before, and everything in his room looked normal. It was as if nothing had ever happened, like it was all just a terrible dream that was impossible to forget.

            But it wasn’t a dream. I know this.

            He touched his hand to his chest and inhaled deeply, and only his right side rose and fell. Frowning, he lifted his shirt and found two new scars on his left side. One was where the sword had pierced him while the other was shaped like a hook. It started near the puncture scar and stretched all the way up to his left shoulder blade.

            Pete’s breaths became uneasy.

            What the hell is this? he thought. He touched his fingers to the long scar. It looks like I had surgery, but is my lung really gone? Impossible. They couldn’t have just

            His bedroom door clicked open, and he jumped and sprang to his feet.

            “What the hell did you—?”

            His breath caught in his throat.

            The man that’d entered was the spitting image of his father—the real one, not a mockery like his brother Allen. However, this time his eyes were neither blue nor green, but brown, and his hair was incredibly shorter. He looked strong but lazy, his stomach bigger than Pete remembered, and he was old. His dark hair was speckled with strands of silver, and the strange man wore glasses and the type of sweater that only old people and the wealthy wore. 

            Immediately, Pete remembered what’d happened before he fell unconscious. He was stabbed by that annoying hobo who always carried a sword umbrella, then for the slightest of moments, that hobo became Leone Gallaway.

            Pete was conflicted. Had his father just attempted to murder him, or was he really losing his mind?

            The stranger faintly smiled. “How are you feeling?” he asked. He took a step deeper into the room.

            Pete wanted to trust him, but he was so anxious about what’d just happened—who he’d just killed—that he didn’t know what to feel. Was this Gallaway? He looked the same, he even sounded a bit familiar, but was this truly the same person? Maybe because he was a Kinetic he just aged strangely. Maybe his eyes were actually brown, and maybe this wasn’t Gallaway at all.

            Pete croaked a response, his body shaking from a tsunami of overwhelming emotions. “W-who are you?”

            The stranger gave a low bow and

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