Page 82 of Lovesick Titan

Such a familiar chill…

One.

A shock of lightning made the hair on Mal’s arms stand on end and Ludgate was gone.

Jerking his head to the left, Mal sawDannyin the clothes he’d been wearing yesterday, having bowled Ludgate over onto the floor. He straddled him and glared down at the man wearing his face as he trembled and continued to spark like he could barely keep his powers in check.

When Mal slammed his hand down on the ENTER button, a shockwave rippled over every surface in the morgue as though they had been painted opaque. Danny froze where he sat atop Ludgate, gaping at how the Miasma Maker was affecting their enemy.

Mal was right—Ludgate was wearing the dark Zeus suit—but now it was impossible to see all the tiny mirrors, because Vaughn’s program made the suit transform into a dull, muted grey. That was how Ludgate had been doing this, projecting a perfect replica of Danny and augmenting his strength because he had a thousand mirrors at his disposal in the shape of a man.

Danny leaned off Ludgate past the belt to the suit, looking dirty and pale and weak, like he’d barely had the strength to reach them. But as everyone began to cry out and race toward him, he snapped to his senses and lunged forward like he might rip Ludgate’s head from his shoulders. Instead, he tore off the mask.

“It’s not me…” Danny said, more amazed than angry, as if part of him had believed this other Danny was the real him.

Mal’s attention was drawn to Ludgate’s eyes, because they should have been teal, a Light Elemental, they’d been sure of it, but one of them looked…grey.

Ludgate wore a sneer for all of ten seconds before he grinned. He still had the amplifiers!

“Danny!” Mal called, but the other man didn’t fire. He slammed the amplifier across Danny’s face, and because of how weak he was, how sluggish from whatever Ludgate had done to him, Danny toppled with a groan, and Ludgate scrambled to his feet.

“Don’t even think about it!” he yelled, aiming both amplifiers at Danny—who wasn’t wearing a suit to protect him and already looked so beaten. Mal felt the others close at his back, but in that moment, all of them froze.

“You think you’re faster than a blast of ice,” Ludgate looked behind Mal, at Oz, he presumed, “or Helios’s fire? Go ahead and try it.” Sneering down at Danny, who was still shaking his head from the blow, he addressed him, “Oh, Zeus. You always have to ruin everything, don’t you? I thought you’d learned your lesson by now, but no, no…you just keep asking to be hurt.

“Ioweyou. For my powers. Mysorrow. It’s your fault he’ll never know what we’ve made of each other.”

What?

“But if you think this was the extent of how much I can make you suffer, just you wait.” He laughed, all the while inching closer around the desk to the computer, keeping his hands aimed at Danny, then at Mal, then Danny again.

“You don’t know suffering,” Mal said, cold and deadly, “but you will. That’s a promise.”

“Careful, Prometheus. You’re giving mechills,” Ludgate taunted, then jammed down the ENTER button to turn the Miasma Maker off.

“Hermes!” Mal called, and as soon as Ludgate turned to dive into the window’s reflection, Oz was on him.

Oz appeared behind the bastard before Mal had even finished saying his name, grasping after him, but he only managed to snag the amplifiers from his wrists. Ludgate vanished into the glass, and without having to be told, Oz twisted around and struck the ENTER button again to cut off his return.

Mal dropped to his knees without another thought. “Danny,” he said, reaching to gather the kid to him from where he’d fallen.

Danny stirred with another groan, allowing Mal to manhandle him into his arms, but only when he looked up and met Mal’s gaze did he cling like his life depended on it.

He still had the greyed out mask clutched knuckle-white in his grip. Mal reached for it, touching Danny’s hand gently, and tried to coax his fingers open. It took a moment for Danny to understand, but once he did, he threw the mask away and reached for Mal with renewedfervor, twisting his fingers into his duster and burying himself against his chest.

“Mal. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me…”

“Of course not,” Mal said. He felt the others crowd around them like a cocoon of shadows over their huddled forms, but if they spoke, he didn’t hear them. He didn’t look up. He merely held Danny as tightly as he could. “It was never you.”

“The black eyes…”

“It was Ludgate, Sparky. Only Ludgate.”

Danny nodded, and when Mal closed his eyes and hugged him tighter, it was easy to pretend they were alone.

“I’m sorry,” Danny whimpered, his voice tired and small. “I’m sosorry.”

He kept saying it until Mal shushed him. Mal could feel in the way Danny leaned against him, all his weight sagging, that he couldn’t hold himself up. Only then did Mal glance at those above them, oozing concern. He caught the doctor’s stare, and even with her arm in a sling, she grabbed Vaughn to drag him off and begin getting the med room ready.

---