CHAPTER 1:

Sometimes Roren hated the situations he got himself into. Just over two years ago he had been a normal enough fifteen year old, at least if you consider it normal for a teenager to be an enforcer in a Seattle street gang. Now however he was surrounded by more enemies than he could easily count and bleeding from a wound in his side.

'Man, how the hell do I get myself into crap like this?' He thought as he raised his sword in defense.

Flashback: two years and a half earlier

Roren hated when he was partnered up with Dave on these smash and grab jobs. John knew how much he hated guns but insisted that he partner with Dave, who was more than a bit of a gun nut and far too eager to use them.

He turned his ice blue eyes toward his "partner" and fixed him with a cold glare. "Dave, remember how this is supposed to go. Don't go losing it with that piece you're of yours and getting us busted." He warned the ratty looking kid.

Dave took a step back from his rather intimidating partner and reached reflexively into his jacket for his gun. "Hey man, I got this. Nothing's gonna go wrong. This is a cakewalk job for big bucks. You just need to remember to cover you hair. It's way too easy to remember." Dave warned.

Roren felt at his shaggy white blonde hair. He agreed with Dave that it was certainly distinctive, especially since it sometimes seemed to have a blue tint to it. He reached into one of the pockets of his black camouflage cargo pants and pulled out a charcoal gray beanie and put it on his head.

"You ready?" He asked as he pulled a large folding knife out of another pocket and palmed it. Dave nodded and put his hand back into his coat. The two slowly walked toward a large Starbucks shop that was getting ready to close.

They calmly meandered into the shop and took care to avoid the security cameras. The shop was almost completely empty, with only two employees and a guy that was maybe a year older than him at the counter ordering. He separated from Dave and snuck up behind the guy ordering.

He nodded to Dave who quickly pulled his gun. "This is a stickup! Everyone hands up." Dave yelled as he waved his pistol around. The two workers immediately put their hands up, while the young man at the counter simply stared impassively at him.

Roren didn't like the look that guy was giving Dave, and decided to intervene before anything happened. Flipping out his knife Roren grabbed him by the back of his orange shirt and put the knife up to his throat. "Now now now, don't get any ideas." He said calmly as the boy stiffened, shocked by his sudden appearance. "Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone that gets people killed." He said, as he pressed a little harder on the knife, almost hard enough to break skin. "Now everyone empty your pockets and wallets out onto the counter for my partner." Dave instructed.

The young man stiffened further before he let out a frustrated sigh and relaxed, then everyone emptied their pockets onto the counter. What caught Roren's eye were the four large coins, which seemed to be made of gold, the guy he was holding placed on the counter. The thing that really surprised him was that Dave was ignoring them in favor of the small bills. Roren scowled at his partner. "Dude, don't forget those coins." If he hadn't been standing behind him, he would have seen the completely shocked look on the face of the young man he was holding.

Dave gave Roren an incredulous look before he scoffed and scooped the four coins into a canvas bag. The workers quickly emptied out the cash register and the small safe underneath the counter into the bag. As soon as he got all the money Dave smiled cruelly. "Thank you so much for your cooperation, but I don't think we can have you giving out our descriptions to the cops." He said as he raised his gun.

Time seemed to slow down for Roren as he watched his "partner" prepare to execute two innocent people. Without even thinking he flung his hand at Dave and buried his large knife deeply in his forearm. This caused him scream, drop his gun and the bag of money.

The guy that Roren was holding reacted almost as fast as he did, slamming his elbow hard into his gut and spinning around to hit him with his other elbow in the face. He stumbled back but recovered quickly and tackled the young man into the counter; he quickly pulled back and punched him hard in the face several times, knocking him out.

While this had been happening Dave had been able to recover enough to pick up his gun with his uninjured hand. "You son of a bitch. I'm gonna kill you." He screamed as he shakily pointed it at Roren.

He quickly pulled a small hunting knife out of another one of his pockets and stared Dave down. "You don't have what it takes to kill me." He said flatly as he charged Dave. This surprised Dave enough that he couldn't aim and allowed Roren to slash his gun hand, causing him to drop it again. He then followed it up with a very hard and fast forearm to the face that broke his nose, and quite possibly the rest of his face.

Roren quickly jerked his first knife out of Dave's arm and grabbed the bag of money, before taking off into the rainy Seattle streets. The plan had been to head for the gang hideout after the job, but after the way Dave screwed up he wasn't going to head there. Instead he got on the nearest subway train and headed toward Redmond, where he had a squat set up just in case something like this happened. No one knew about it, not even his fellow gang members, and Roren intended to keep it that way.

Roren stopped at a pay phone and called John. "Who is this?" Came John's smoke roughened voice over the phone.

"It's Roren. There's been a problem."

"What do you mean a problem? Did you guys get busted? Did you lose the money?" John asked, sounding angry.

"No, nothing like that. It's Dave. After we got in and got the money he lost his damned mind. He was gonna pop three people in the shop. I had to stop him." He explained.

"You did what?" John yelled at him. "You stupid little shit. Dave was supposed to get rid of those people. It was the plan and you ruined it."

Roren was stunned. "What the hell do you mean 'it was the plan'? This was a simple smash and grab. There isn't supposed to be collateral damage on a job like that. We avoided the security cameras and the employees were more worried about Dave's gun than either of our faces. There's no way the money we got is worth the heat of killing three people."

"It's not about the money you idiot, it's about sending a message. You are so worthless; I never should have partnered you with Dave for this. You never follow orders the way you're supposed to. I should have gotten rid of you a long time ago. You are dead Roren, you just don't know it yet." John threatened before the call disconnected.

Roren was completely floored. John had intended for Dave to kill those three people just to send some kind of message? And now he was on the outs with his own gang? He was certain that by morning John would have leveled a death sentence on him to every member of the gang, probably a bounty of some kind too. He needed to get out of town, but first he needed to think and plan.

In short order he made it to his squat and headed inside. He knew he needed sleep but he was too wired for that, so he decided to count the money from the robbery. He took the canvas bag and upended it onto a small table. It was a decent enough haul, but again he knew it wasn't worth the heat of a triple homicide. What caught his eye again were those strange coins.

They were actually pretty big for coins, about the size of a Silver Dollar, and much thicker, and they seemed to be made of real gold. Roren picked one of them up and looked it over. One side had some woman's face stamped on it and the other what seemed to be the empire state building. The three other coins all had the empire state building on it, but they had different faces. One had a different woman it, and the other two both had the same man's face. He didn't know why but everything about these coins felt very familiar, like he should know whom those faces belonged to or what these coins were called.

He sighed in frustration and set the coins down. He quickly counted the remaining money on the table, which was around a thousand dollars. He needed to think about what he was going to do. Cleaning and maintaining his knives always made thinking easier. It calmed down his severe ADHD and allowed him to focus. There was no way anyone in the gang would back him against John. Roren had never been very well liked in the gang, but while his ability to fight had gotten him some respect, he knew it would never be enough. So his only real option was to leave.

Leaving wasn't something that really bothered him; he had no family or friends to speak of in Seattle. Sometimes getting kicked out of an orphanage at eleven had its advantages. The only question was where he should go. His eyes were drawn again to one of the strange gold coins on the table, specifically to the image of the empire state building stamped on it. Maybe New York would be a good place to go? It certainly couldn't be any worse than Seattle. His decision made, he lay down on the cot in the corner and went to sleep.

Roren had always been a sound sleeper, if he'd had dreams he rarely if ever remembered them. Tonight was definitely not one of those nights. As soon as he closed his eyes, he was on a mountain somewhere. Looking around, he saw several huge men standing around a table. One of them looked like a statue in full bronze armor, another had on full gold armor and seemed to have an extremely harsh light emanating from him, the last one was who truly drew Roren's attention. He was as tall as the other two and wore midnight black armor, but his back was turned so Roren couldn't see many details. He could tell that they were talking but couldn't make out what was being said.

The scene suddenly changed to a snowy landscape, and in the distance Roren could see large mountains. He felt something in the distance pulling at him, he blinked and suddenly he was standing at a cave entrance, he blinked again and he was in an interior chamber looking at some sort of altar, he blinked a third time and he was standing directly in front of the altar, looking down at a beautiful sword.

The swords hilt was bronze with an amazing flowing cross guard. The blade was leaf shaped, blue and looked like frosted glass or possibly ice. Even in his dream he could feel the extreme cold coming off the blade, but the feeling comforted him, as though it was right and normal. Before he could do anything else the scene changed again.

This time he was standing in front of a strawberry farm of all places. The air was still very cold, but to Roren it felt pleasant. When he looked around he could see storm clouds moving toward the farm from what looked like New York City in the distance. Watching the large snowstorm heading in Roren was surprised when they suddenly parted around the farm, he somehow knew that whatever caused the clouds to part was not natural. He also felt that this place was important, and with that last thought he woke up.

Roren woke up with one of the worst headaches he had ever had in his life. 'Whoa. That was one weird ass dream.' He thought as he stretched and got up off of his cot. He had made a basic plan to head for New York the night before, now he just needed to figure out some details. Working through the pain in his head he started working some of them out. The money he had would be more than enough to get him to New York and then some, but he wasn't sure what he would do then. That strawberry farm from his dream kept popping into his head but he pushed that thought and the pain aside. He didn't care about some random strawberry farm he dreamt about. He just needed to get to New York and start over.

His eyes were drawn back to those strange gold coins on the table. He didn't have the faintest idea where he would fence them at, but he knew they would be worth a lot of money. Roren decided that was a decision he could make at later. First he needed to get himself to the Sea-Tac airport and onto a one-way flight to New York. He left his knives, all four of them, at his squat. He liked them a lot, but it wasn't worth trying to sneak them onto a plane. He knew he could pick up new ones in New York once he got there.

Taking the subway to the Sea-Tac airport did not go at all the way Roren planned. As he was standing in line, with his continued headache, waiting for his train to arrive the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood up. He didn't know why but he had the urge to hide. He pulled out his gray beanie and put it on his head, not a strange sight in the middle of winter in Seattle, and pulled his heavy dark blue jacket closer around himself to try and blend into the crowd.

At first he didn't see anything that caused his sudden anxiety and he started to relax again, when suddenly there was a yell that no one else seemed to pay any attention to. Roren narrowed his eyes and quietly made his way toward where he heard the yell. Weaving through the crowd he finally saw what happened. One of the homeless guys that inhabited the station was laying on the ground with some…thing kneeling next time him.

The thing looked kind of like a woman, but that's where the similarity ended. It had deathly white skin and was dressed like a prostitute but the part that freaked Roren out the most was the flaming hair, a head of hair literally made of fire. Along with a left leg that was of some hoofed animal and a right leg made of metal, it was pretty freaky. Getting a closer look, Roren noticed that she was drinking the homeless guys blood straight from the neck.

The blood drained from his face as he watched the grisly scene. He was about to shout out and warn the people around him, but something inside him forced him to stop this course of action. She seemed completely unconcerned with the fact that she was attacking some hapless guy in the middle of a crowded subway station, and looking around Roren noticed that no one aside from himself was even paying attention to what she was doing or even seemed to see her.

'What the hell is going on?' He thought as he quietly backed away from the craziness in front of him. Suddenly the demon/vampire/hooker lifted her head and sniffed the air, turning from side to side. Roren quickly turned around so she would not see him looking at her.

"Mandi." He heard another female voice say. He turned toward the sound of the voice and saw another of the demon/vampire women. She was walking toward the first, who was still sniffing the air intently. "What in the name of Tartarus are you doing?" The second monster berated her companion.

Mandi waved the other demoness off and rose from her crouch. "Be quiet Seres, I smell a demigod nearby."

Seres also started sniffing the air. "I don't smell anything Mandi. Are you sure you're not getting confused?" She asked with thinly veiled sarcasm.

Mandi hissed at her before she continued sniffing. "Yes Seres, I am sure. There is a strong demigod nearby, though the scent seems both faint and strong at the same time." She said as Seres resumed sniffing at the air.

Roren decided that this would be an excellent time to get the hell out of dodge. Whatever these things were, he wanted nothing to do with them. Turing and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, he headed back toward the front of the crowd. His train was just arriving and he needed to be on it and get away from these crazy demon/vampire creatures.

He made it onto the train and it took off without those two… things getting on board. As soon as the train took off Roren let out a huge sigh of relief. Again he felt as if he should have known what those things were, just like with those gold coins. With everything the had just happened to him his headache became worse. He sat down on the bench and held his head in his hands.

The remainder of the train ride was uneventful, just the way Roren liked it. However his headache did not abate in the slightest. As he made his way through airport security, one thing that struck him as odd was that again no one paid any attention to the gold coins as he absentmindedly put them in the little change tray. None of the guards so much as glanced at them, as though seeing huge gold coins was an every day occurrence and not worth noticing. When he realized this, his already massive headache redoubled its efforts to make him miserable.

Once he was through security he quickly made his way to one of the many bathrooms and splashed cold water on his face. He hoped that continuing to put water on his face might help his raging headache, he was wrong. Deciding that his head would not stop pounding, he pushed the pain aside and made his way to his terminal to board his one way, non-stop flight to New York. As soon as he was boarded Roren asked the flight attendant for several aspirin and took them before passing out from the pain.

In his dream Roren was once again standing in the middle of a snowy landscape with mountains in the distance, he recognized it from his last dream. This time he couldn't move anything except his eyes, so he looked around as best he could before he blinked and the scene changed. He skipped over the stops from his previous dream and was again looking down at the beautiful blue crystalline sword.

Suddenly the scene in front of him dissolved and he again saw the huge warrior in the midnight black armor. This time he was standing alone, overlooking the side of the same mountain he was on before. He suddenly turned around and looked straight at Roren. "Ah it looks like it is finally time for my hidden piece to take the field." The warrior said. A large helmet in the shape of a bear's head mostly obscured his face, but Roren could see his smile and his piercing ice blue eyes. "Go now boy and see what awaits you. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens." He waived his hand and the dream shattered.

Roren jerked awake on the plane, the dream still very vivid in his mind. 'What the hell is going on with me?' He thought as his headache came back with a vengeance. The plane landed in short order at New York's JFK Airport. The headache was still as persistent as ever and Roren didn't know what he would do now that he was actually here. Leaving the airport he hailed a cab and decided to head toward what had brought him here in the first place, the Empire State Building.