Page 121 of Lovesick Titan

Danny’s thoughts drifted in the throng of additional questions and the murmurs from people in the courtroom. He’d never felt so exposed amidst a crowd. Everyone’s eyes were on him as much as they were onLynn or any of the evidence being brought to light, seated at the DA’s table as he was in full Zeus costume, waiting for his turn to speak.

The defense attorney had hoped to get the case dismissed outright due to Ludgate being half-cracked, and while Danny believed the man to be truly, deeply psychotic, hewasfit to stand trial and deserved whatever punishment a jury of his peers deemed fitting. He knew what he’d done, and Danny and the others were confident that Lynn’s testimony would prove that and the hearing would not be where this ended.

There was enough evidence. The whole city had seen the footage of their last fight. But footage could be doctored, especially from Ludgate. So Andre, as the leading CSI on Ludgate’s cases, had taken the stand first to explain the man’s unique abilities and how he’d used his now destroyed belt. But the judge still wanted something more to prove that this case was ready to go to trial—a live witness.

In any other city, a masked vigilante unsanctioned by the government would never fit that bill, but in Olympus, these people believed in Zeus and were willing to listen to him without asking for him to remove his cowl.

Danny took the stand next. Once he was seated, he could see the whole of the courtroom. Ludgate, scarred and bandaged still, was next to his attorney with the DA on the other side. Danny was acting as an anonymous witness, just in person. They’d played it out that Zeus had revealed his identity in private to Captain Shan as an impartial representative of the law.

The DA approached Danny first. They’d rehearsed this as best they could before the hearing. Danny knew what questions she’d ask, knew several of the likely questions the defense would throw at him as well, but it still rattled him, the way Ludgate grinned from his seat as he looked at Danny. He wished he had Mal’s face to seek out in the crowd to calm him, but as that wasn’t an option right now, he looked instead to Stella. She smiled and he felt his confidence pick up again.

Detailing out the times Danny had seen Ludgate commit a crime was easy. There were several cases still open that would soon be pinned on him, bringing up the counts against Ludgate to several cases of robbery, assault, destruction of property, attempted murder, and kidnapping.

“But as you yourself just testified, Zeus, what the people of this city saw was not your father,” the DA said, “it was a decoy made to look real with the defendant’s abilities?”

“That’s correct,” Danny said, “but my father was still taken. As you know, he has elected to not come forward in order to protect my identity since the public wasn’t shown footage of his face, but the kidnapping charge isn’t only for him. It’s for me.”

A slight murmur flitted through the courtroom.

“Before the incident last week that all of you witnessed on TV, Ludgate took me and held me prisoner while he used his tech to masquerade as Zeus around the city. Captain Shan already testified to those reports that the businesses chose not to make public because they knew I wasn’t the one who’d robbed them—it was the defendant.”

The DA had a few more questions that Danny dutifully answered, and then it was the defense attorney’s turn. He was a severe man, but he didn’t seem cruel or biting on purpose. He was merely doing his job. Danny tried to remind himself of that when the blows came early.

“Tell me, Mr.…Zeus. Why should we trust anything you say when you won’t even grant this court the privilege of seeing your face?”

Danny took a breath. “Anonymous witnesses aren’t unheard of, councilor. Truth is, I’d gladly reveal my identity today, but I already know what happens when the wrong people know who I am. They threaten my family.” He cast a cold gaze on Ludgate.

The attorney nodded calculatingly. “You believe my client kidnapped you, attempted to murder you and several others, but without your father’s testimony, if what was witnessed of his abduction proved to be an illusion, isn’t it possible the rest was an illusion too? Maybe a delusion of yours, and we’re simply dealing with a sick man whose abilities revolve around building impressive fantasies.”

“Ludgate—”

“Forgive me for being skeptical, this city owes you many debts, but we are talking about a man’s life here, and your own personal vendettas aren’t how we decide that. After all, some of that footage revealed that your heroics against Thanatos, my client’s father, Cassius Dougal Senior, included you taking the law into your own hands and ending the man’s life instead of running him out of the city as believed.”

Even knowing the questioning would lead here, Danny couldn’t avoid how much he tensed at hearing that said aloud to so many spectators, but he couldn’t escape the truth anymore. He’d killed a man and he had to own up to that.

“You seem to have a lot of pull in this city,” the attorney went on. “Captain Shan convinced the mayor to give your accomplice, Malcolm Cho, a pardon, after all, and immunity if either of you testified today. Yet he’s not here, just you.”

“Mr. Cho is still recovering from—”

“Mr. Cho, is it? I thought to you it was ‘Mal.”

Danny bristled, struggling to keep his temper in check, even though he’d expected this too. “You don’t have to play that game, councilor. I won’t deny what I said on that video. Everything the public saw was the truth. I was there—”

“Everything was the truth? You just said that what the city saw of your father was a decoy. Maybe my client isn’t the only one impaired from the ordeal.” He approached Danny on the stand, meeting his gaze steadily. “How’syourmental state these days, Zeus? All the things you believe my client did to you, it’s a lot for someone to go through.Murderis a lot for someone to live with—or, excuse me, killing in self-defense, was it? Difficult to charge someone with murder when there’s no body, just a stray bit of evidence supposedly acquired at the power station last year that happens to match my client’s father.”

Now came the hard part, but Danny needed—no, hewantedeveryone to know.

“It wasn’t self-defense,” he said, causing a quiet hush to fall over the room, “it was retaliation. To help put Ludgate away, I’ve been given the chance to confess that crime without consequence, and some of you might not believe this, but part of me didn’t want to take immunity at all because I believe I should be punished for what I did.

“Thanatos was a monster, but killing him almost turned me into one too. I am sorry for what I did. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop myself after he killed all those people. I should have made sure he ended up here, like his son. I just hope the city can forgive me. I wish you could someday too, Cassius,” he looked at Ludgate, not to be petty but honest in his remorse, “but I doubt that will ever happen. The most I can hope for is to continue working to forgive myself. My penance isthat I will protect the people of Olympus City for as long as they’ll have me.

“What matters,” he spoke on before the attorney could interrupt him, “is that I know what I saw. Ludgate manipulated me with an image of my father, he manipulated me in many ways for months, but I watched the footage he broadcast to the city. Everything else that was shown is what I saw with my own eyes. He is not sorry for what he has done, and he’s not some lunatic who doesn’t know any better. He’s cruel, damaged maybe, but he committed these crimes and he needs to answer for them.”

“So you believe criminals should be punished when they do wrong?” the attorney asked.

“Most of the time, I do. But if someone can be rehabilitated, that is always preferable to them rotting in jail. Some people might not agree with me on that either, I’m just glad our mayor does.”

“Speaking of yourself, Zeus, or Malcolm Cho again?”

---