40. Medusa

T hat was immensely satisfying. Ancient Greeks were big on revenge. We had an entire god for revenge and retribution. Nemesis would have been proud of me. Benji, too. Yahweh seemed to be more forgiving than how he was portrayed, but he was from a different time than me and there was no one else like Benji.

When we got back to the front lawn, it was a completely different scene. All the gore and dead angels were gone. The rest were on their knees while Yahweh addressed them. A lot of them were still missing their wings. It was a pretty tense scene, and I wasn’t exactly sure we should get involved anymore than we already had. The issues on Earth were mostly resolved, but I didn’t think there was much we could do about their civil war or afterlife.

But Yahweh noticed us and beckoned us over.

“I think we’ve mostly come up with a solution to everything while you were busy.”

“Oh?” Pax asked.

“Yes. We still need to fix my realm, but we need to fix this one, too. Jeqon wouldn’t have been able to exploit the humans into torturing supernaturals if they hadn’t lost their way. I don’t want to destroy anyone’s faith, whether they be my followers or someone else’s, but we do need to correct their paths.”

“How do you intend to do that?” Hades asked. “They have free will. No one can take that from them.”

“Belief. It’s a powerful thing. It created us and an entire afterlife system. You can take everything from someone, but you can’t take that. People have these twisted beliefs now because we have backed away. They know the Greek gods are real. They saw the angels in Times Square. I’m not saying go ‘controlling ego freak’ like back in the day, but we can be more involved. It would also benefit all of us because we get our power from belief.”

“Maybe,” Dionysus said. “I was always more involved here than the other gods because it was too dangerous to be in Olympus. It’s not as simple as all that. They either don’t believe at all or everything has become so twisted.

“But I remember how it was back in the day when they knew us. They blame us for things we can’t even do, beg awful favors, and don’t even get me started on a Demigods. Everyone either wants one or they claim their kid is one to get them ahead in life. You really don’t want my father back on this realm. Especially if Hera is here.”

“That’s why we’re transparent this time, up to a point. We clear up any misconceptions. We have the internet and social media this time. We can do that. These angels have agreed to help us if I restore them. I’m stuck here until those sigils are destroyed.

“Gabriel and the archangels are famous. They will be helping me spread the message to stop hurting supernaturals while the rest go back and forth destroying those sigils. I’ll feel it once I can go back home. I can work on the civil war after that and then my afterlife.”

That was a big fucking order, but I could see the beauty in it. I also liked that he was including other gods. There were people who still worshipped my friends and plenty of the other old gods. He could have swooped in and done some damage to their belief if he didn’t kill it altogether.

But Yahweh wasn’t doing that. What he wanted was to usher in a new golden era with all the gods and that was probably going to be a good thing. We needed to handle Benji’s father first, but we could do that.

I just had one major question first. I knew every god had unique powers and capabilities. They could all heal for the most part, but they couldn’t restore something that had been lost. At least, the ones I knew couldn’t. They could heal someone from a nearly fatal stab wound, but they couldn’t regrow limbs or restore hearing or eyesight.

That was one of his things, right? His son did it if I was remembering my history right. If Yahweh could give all these angels their wings back, could he restore Pax’s eyesight?

I asked because no one else had. Benji got his parents back and his revenge. Someone should at least find out about Pax’s eyesight. Yahweh just looked at me sadly.

“That was a miracle that was over-exaggerated. None of us can restore something that was lost if it’s completely gone. The angel’s magic was in their wings. Their wings had been transfigured into sand and the sand was still there. I told the sand to go home and go back to its rightful form.

“That wasn’t normal sand. It was teeming with magic. In the wrong hands, someone could have done terrible things with it if they’d stumbled upon it. I put it back where it belongs and removed what couldn’t out of the equation. I can’t do the same with vision, hearing, or severed limbs because it’s not the same. I have the same healing as every other god. I didn’t heal the angels. I just manipulated what had been manipulated.”

Ugh. It made sense, but I felt terrible for Pax.

“It’s okay,” Pax said, wrapping his arms around my waist. “It’s much more manageable in the modern world and now that we’ve met you, I can see through your eyes. Maybe I can finally watch a movie when this is all over.”

“Dude, we are so making a puppy pile and watching the cinematic masterpiece Gremlins 2 when this is all over,” Benji said.

“I was thinking of something award winning.”

“There’s no accounting for taste. Gremlins 2 should have swept the Oscars.”

“We can watch all the movies once we save your dad,” Cas said.

“I’ll go with you,” Michael said. “It’s the least I can do after everything and you might need an angel.”

“Thanks, Michael. You’re one of the good ones,” Benji said.

I guess at least one of the angels had earned his name back.