Villainous

Pantheon

[MACK]

There's blood everywhere. 

On the floor, on the walls, up and down my arms. I'm not sure who's it is, mine or a stranger's, or what's the better option. My mind's moving through quicksand as I slowly rise up off the table. There are bodies, unconscious along the floor. I make my way towards the mirror on the far side of the room. 

Only, it's not my reflection staring back at me, it's Levi. 

His face has a dark bruise along the side, blood smeared over his cheeks, and his eyes hollow but it's him. It's as if I'm looking through his eyes. And then the door swings open and the guards dressed in white zoom in at inhuman speeds and tackle me to the floor.

"Gah!" I shoot up out of bed still shaking from the nightmare, "Please, please be a dream." But a little voice in the back of my head is whispering that there's more to it. What if this is a Prime thing? What if these dreams are really just my connection to Levi? Is this what's he currently seeing? 

"Mack?! Are you ok?" my father asks from the doorway, flipping on the lights to my room. "You were yelling."

I'm thankful for the interruption from my thoughts. "Yah, just another nightmare. It's probably best I get up anyways. I'm supposed to meet the Olympians today."

My plan yesterday went better than expected. After a little miscommunication where Atlas punched Finn for a bit, we talked it out and I explained how I want to stop General Hudson. Despite his past, Atlas is a hero at heart, so it didn't take much to convince him to help out. Plus it helped that Cammie used her charm to work him over to our side.

Speaking of Cammie...

You can say my best friend is a little pissed I toppled a building on her. 

"Warn a girl next time," Cammie had snapped at me once we were alone. I understand she's mad but I needed to lure Atlas out and I knew Finn wouldn't let anything bad happen. It worked, didn't it?

"I"m sorry Cam," I had told her, "Won't happen again."

"Darn right it won't happen again. You can find a new damsel to put in distress."

But Cammie didn't stay mad at me for long (she was angry for literally five minutes) because she was head over heels again for Atlas. Once I gave my okay that I didn't hold a grudge against the guy for kidnapping me Cammie re-revved up her crush full throttle.

"I have something for you Mack," my father says, pulling me from my thoughts once again, "It's what Mr. Flowers and I have been working on for a while now. I didn't want to tell you prematurely because I didn't want to get your hopes up."

He shows me a black box sitting on his lap and when he opens the lid there are a bunch of syringes, laying in a row, filled with a purple liquid.

"I call it the Serum," my father explains, "We were able to isolate the part of the Cure that takes Supers off mind control. If you use this, it'll free them without compromising their powers or changing their memory."

I'm almost in disbelief. My father might as well be showing me the elixir of eternal life. This Serum is greater than great, it's my one chance of freeing Levi. All I have do is find him, stick him with the Serum, and he'll be off of mind control.

I rush to my father and tackle him with a hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the best mad scientist dad a girl could ask for."

He returns my hug before pulling away solemnly, "It'll work Mack but I have to warn you, Levi might not be the same after. I don't know what they did to get him back under control but it might have permanent effects on his brain."