Power of the Gods

Chapter 21

Justin was standing in a room that looked exactly like the one that was made in the temple. The same bunkbed and everything, the only difference being the large amounts of dust everywhere. "Why can't I remember any of this?" Justin asked himself. "This all feels like something I should know."

Justin walked around the room, stopping when he saw a framed picture sticking out from behind the nightstand. He moved the nightstand and pulled out the picture, carefully wiping away the dirt because some of the glass had been broken.

Looking at the picture made Justin feel a knot in his stomach. It had him and the couple from his dreams in it, smiling happily outside of what he assumed was the house he was standing in. He noticed more dirt on the picture, on the spot next to the younger him. It looks like it's covering something, he thought. He rubbed at the dirt, trying to remove it, but it wasn't moving. Upon closer examination, he found that it wasn't so much dirt on the picture as it was damage to the picture itself.

Justin gave up on trying to fix the damage and proceeded to find out about the people he was with in the picture. A sudden realization came over him. "I've been here before," he said to himself, turning to face the center of the room. "In fact, this is my room."

Justin noticed a large dark spot on the carpet near the bedroom's doorway, something he had overlooked when he came in. He crouched down so that he could investigate the dark spot, which he noticed had a slight red color to it. Blood, he thought. And a lot of it too.

Justin started to stand when his nose started bleeding. His head began pounding as he gripped it tightly. "My head!" he cried out in pain. "So much pain! So many...memories!" Justin's eyes glowed white and energy began flowing out of them. Then in a flash, he was gone.

Outside, everyone was still locked in combat. The sound of clashing metal and loud roars echoed through the air, but it was silenced when a beam of white light came down in the center of the battlefield. They all stared in awe as a person wearing a silver chest plate, grievers and gauntlets, each with black trim, descended into the area. His hair was white and he had a chain whip hanging from a white leather belt. In his hand was a large sword, unlike one that anyone had ever seen. The sword looked incomplete since it only had two sharp blades going up the sides of the hilt. The handle ran up through the center of the blade and was surrounded by white energy that was connected to the sword by the two blades. His eyes glowed white as energy streamed out of them and he had a halo above his head with four angel wings sprouting from his back.

Sam rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing things right. "Justin?" she asked. "Is that you?"

The angel turned to face her. "I remember," he said, giving Sam a smirk. "I've gained my memories back. Which apparently came in a bundle with a new form. Archangel." He turned to Scarecrow and Lion. "As for you two, I know that Striker hired you. I also know that he hired you to kill me, not the others. Either fight me or run away with your tails between your legs, but either way, you're not achieving your goal."

Scarecrow sneered at Justin. "You've got some nerve," he said. He lifted his scythe and pointed at Justin. "Whatever new powers you may think that you've gotten, they won't be enough to take down the two of us."

Lion's claws grew out and a low growl could be heard from under his mask. "We never retreat from a mission," he said. "We've been trained to either succeed or to die during a mission. Failure is not an option."

Justin was soon surrounded by lions. The others were about to go to help him, when he stopped them. "Don't," he told them grabbing the chain whip. "This is between me and them. Stay out of this." Justin's face turned serious as he began swinging the whip around him, spikes appearing on the chains and a blade appearing on the tip. The lions disappeared into smoke as the chains struck each of them.