Embrace the Shadows
Chapter 3
-Percy-
"So when do you think the fools of Olympus will show up?" Percy asked Damian as they were kicking back in the stands at the arena.
"The immortal ones or their kids?" the son of Thetis asked in reply.
"The immortal ones who love their chairs more than their kids." he said in reply knowing full well that several gods and demigods were listening.
As he finished talking there were twenty two flashes of light as the Olympian Council, Hebe, Persephone, Hades, Thetis, Hestia, Erebus, Chaos, Nyx, Thanatos, and Hecate appeared. Suddenly Hecate ran forward yelling "Little Brother!" before scooping him up and swinging him around laughing while Thanatos walked more sedately while chuckling at his predicament.
"I missed you too Hecate." he said hugging her back once his feet were on the ground.
"Aaw you're hugging your sister, wimp." Ares mocked thinking it was funny but only his nearby children laughed.
"At least my sister wants to hug me." I shot back, "Actually at least my sister actually likes me, and my brothers. Nobody really likes you very much.".
"Hey!" Ares yelled indignantly.
"It's true Ares." Apollo said "The only gods who like you are your parents, Aphrodite, your twin sister, and your kids.".
Before anything else could be said a little voice happily exclaimed "Percy!" as he looked down to see the goddess of youth, Hebe, attached to his leg, Hestia had brought her for a visit once and she had become attached to him.
"Hello little one." he said laughing as he placed her on his shoulders.
"Put down my daughter demigod!" Zeus yelled at him angrily.
"Hey Zeus look it's your demigod child!" I exclaimed pointing to the crowd of demigods.
"Where?" Zeus asked stupidly as Hera got angry and kicked her husband between the legs.
Shaking his head he asked "I thought we were here because Ares wanted to get his ass beat?".
"I'm here to crème you punk!" the war god yelled out, "They say you're better than Achilles but I still have thousands of years of experience. What do you have?".
Raisin an eyebrow he said "A smaller ego." before calling forth his weapons, the Blades of Darkest Night. They were chained blades with the blades extending fifteen inches past the handles. The blades, cross guard, and pommel were made of pure black metal devoid of any other color save for the veins of bright luminescent silver.
"What are those?" Ares asked laughing "Toothpick? This is a real man's weapon!" and he pulled out a spear that was twenty feet long and, still in his fifteen foot form, got into a fighting crouch.
"These are the Blades of Darkest Night." he said simply as he gently picked up Hebe before handing her to Hecate all traces of mirth vanished from his face, "And they shall be your downfall in this battle.".
-Damian-
"This is going to be really bad." Damian muttered.
"Of course it is," Zeus said arrogantly "it is a mortal against a god. What else would you expect?".
"No I mean that Percy gets really pissed whenever someone insults his weapons." he said rubbing his temples, "Those blades are forged from three different sets of chained blades from the second age that were all wielded by the being who killed the gods and titans of the first two ages. His spirit trained us in the Underworld.".
"But gods can't die." Athena said confused "How?".
"Percy will explain everything on Olympus after the meeting as he knows the most about the topic." Chaos said and laughed when the Olympians only now seemed to notice him.
"Quite!" Nyx snapped "My son's fight is about to begin.".
Turning they watched Ares charge forward, clearly trying to muscle his way to victory, only for Percy to sidestep his thrust and swing his weapon by the chain cutting through the shaft of the spear before tugging the weapon back into his hand. Looking at the severed weapon Ares growled "That's it Punk! I'm not going easy on you anymore." before he drew a giant two handed sword made of silver.
Percy simply raised an eyebrow before he raised the chains above his head and began swinging them around in a circle fast until they became a blur but the chains never tangled. "How…?" Athena began clearly annoyed at something she didn't know.
"The chains are enchanted so that they can pass through each other like smoke if he wants them to." Damian said not taking his eyes off of the fight as Ares was struggling to block the cyclone of slashes. "He can't do it for very long but it is a powerful technique.".
As he said this Percy's blades wrapped around Are's sword before pulling it out of the war god's grasp before both blades were thrown forward and impaled Ares at the point where his arms met his shoulder. "Do you yield?" Percy asked in a flat tone that sent shivers down the spines of those who didn't know him.
"Never." Ares growled furiously.
"So be it." Percy replied before ripping the blades from his opponent's shoulders and bringing the pommels down, slamming them into either side of the war god's head rendering him unconscious.
"He beat Ares." Zeus whispered on shock, "A mortal beat the god of war." which made him chuckle.
"What are you laughing at!" Hera snapped, worried for her son.
"Percy will explain it." he said waving it off.
"Then we shall take this to the council room." Zeus said and slammed his master bolt onto the ground before the gods present, Percy, and Damian vanished onto Olympus.
-Percy-
Settling onto his throne Zeus was about to begin when Nyx interrupted, "Zeus there are a few more people who should be present.".
"Who would they be?" he asked irritated at being cut off.
"The Hunters of Artemis and three specific demigods form Camp Jupiter." she said and Zeus shot to his feet.
"The Greeks are forbidden…" he began before Chaos interrupted him.
"Percy is a demi-primordial which means that he is not bound by all of your laws." Chaos said smugly "And Damian was raised by us and knows of the secret already.".
"Fine." Zeus grumbled scared of the creator of the Universe and flashed in the Hunters while Nyx flashed in Hazel, Jason, and Aria.
"Emperor!" the three Romans said kneeling before him while he rolled his eyes.
"How many times have I told you to not call me that?" he demanded.
"Every time we do it." Jason said simply, keeping a straight face for a moment before he burst out laughing and they clasped hands.
"Yeah, yeah Sparky laugh it up." he said swatting the son of Jupiter on the shoulder.
"Hey Hazel, Aria." he said gathering the two demigoddesses into a big hug as they laughed.
"Hey Percy." they said in sync kissing his cheeks before turning to Damian and said "Hi Damian." while waving still in the air.
"Having fun you two?" Damian asked laughing as he saw his friend and his twin sister in his honorary brother's arms.
"Of course." they said still staying in sync.
Setting down the girls he turned to Zeus "I'm guessing you have some questions?".
"Yes we have questions!" the king of the gods snapped, "For starters where did you get weapons from the second age?".
Sighing he thought back to when he got his weapons and began his story,
-Flashback-
Walking slowly seven year old Percy and Damian were wandering through some unexplored caverns and tunnels in the Underworld looking for anything interesting when they felt the ground start to shake and suddenly the ground under Percy gave way and he fell, rolling down a slope into a cavern several dozen feet down.
"Percy!" Damian yelled down, "Are you okay?".
"Yeah!" he called back "Go get our parents to get me out of here!".
"On it!" Damian yelled before running off.
Once Damian was gone he turned to look at his surroundings and saw what looked an underground fortress of in the distance and at the bottom of the mountain which he found himself on he saw a dark running river. "where am I?" he wondered aloud until he heard stone crunch behind him.
Spinning around he made his body shift into its seventeen year old form which he had managed to master in the last year. Before him was what appeared to be a spirit of a man. He had pale white skin, like ash and red tattoos on the left side of his face and chest and a gigantic scar wound on his stomach. The only clothes he seemed to wear were two armored gauntlets, three pieces of golden armor on his right arm, a pair of armored boots that went to just below his knees, and a tattered piece of cloth around his waist that looked like it had once been part of a fine garment but had been destroyed over time. "You are in the original Underworld." the spirit said.
"Who are you?" he asked slightly worried because he didn't have any weapons on him and the spirit before him looked strong.
"I am Kratos," the spirit said "the last being to live in the second age and the one who started the third.".
"Nobody from my world knows about the first two ages and very little of the third." he said in slight awe.
"Then I shall enlighten you." Kratos said, "The first age was that of the original Titans, they were massive beings, able to crush mountains but very few could use magic and those that could usually could only do a few specific things. Their main attribute was their enormous size and strength. Eventually the Titan King Kronos swallowed his children out of fear of being dethroned but his wife, Rhea, saved their sixth-born son Zeus.".
"Okay mostly the same as the fourth age so far." he said nodding his head.
Continuing Kratos said "Zeus was hidden by the Titaness Gaea but when he was grown he decided to try and destroy all Titans no-matter what they had or had not done and he released his fellow gods to do so. He eventually made a sword known as the Blade of Olympus which he used to store excess power for him to use later. Eventually a demigod son of Zeus was born… me. I was driven out of my birth village for being born a bastard child and my mother and I settled in Sparta where I eventually became a captain. My forces grew and grew as I lead a path of conquest to spread the name of Sparta. Eventually I was on the ground about to be killed by a Barbarian king when I called out to the war god Ares saying that if he saved my life and destroyed my enemies I would pledge my life to him. He did so and for the next five years I fought for him as he had replaced all of my humanity with the need to murder. Eventually my army and I came upon a small village of Athena worshipers and, under the madness of Ares, I ordered the village burned to the ground. I myself went to burn and kill those inside the village temple. As soon as I entered Ares took me over completely and slaughtered the two inside… they were my wife and daughter that Ares had placed there to die.".
"He did what!" he exclaimed in outrage at what the original Olympians had been willing to do.
Nodding Kratos said "Ares caused the death of my family all for the sake of me becoming the perfect warrior. As I created a funeral pyre for my family Ares' head appeared in the flames where he told me he placed them there and did what he did so I would have no more distractions and could become his perfect warrior." Kratos spat out the last two words.
"As I left to leave the village and the service of Ares I was stopped by the village oracle who cursed me. She used magic to make the ashes of his dead wife and daughter stick my skin and force me to re-live the deaths of my family over and over again in my dreams until the end of my days. I spent the next ten years serving the rest of the gods to try and redeem myself in their eyes and have them remove my curse.".
"Did they?" he asked, feeling empathy for the man who had been cursed by the gods like him.
"After the tenth year Ares decided to try and overthrow Olympus starting by attacking Athens. I was sent to get the one item that could give a mortal the power to kill a god, Pandora's Box. Zeus had placed the power in the box and had a mortal architect construct a temple to house it. The mortal man, Pathos Verdes the third, spent the rest of his life designing and building the temple. Both of his sons died during its construction and Pathos eventually went mad and killed himself and his wife when it was done. The giant temple was then chained to the back of Kronos who was sentenced to wander the Dessert of Lost souls on his hands and knees until the swirling sand ripped the very flesh form his bones.".
"Ouch." he muttered grimacing at the punishment.
"Very." Kratos agreed before continuing, "I managed to navigate my way through the temple gaining several powers, weapons, and blessing from various gods who didn't want to die at the hands of Ares. Once I got the box Ares sensed it and plucked a stone spike from a ruined building in Athens and hurled it, sending it through the dessert and impaling me through the stomach, pinning me against the wall.".
"He was that strong?" he asked in shock.
"Back then the gods could take forms that were about a hundred feet high." Kratos said as he whistled in appreciation of the fact. "I found myself in the Underworld but managed to fight my way out before I became part of it and got back to Athens, stole the box back from Ares, and used its power to grow stronger. I grew as tall as Ares and fought him, eventually killing him.".
"Did the gods remove the curse?" he asked the man he was coming to respect.
"No," Kratos said sadly "they said I was forgiven but they would never allow me to forget what they said was my fault.".
"So they were as dumb then as they are now?" he asked and got a chuckle out of the war god.
"Yes," Kratos said smirking "they forced me to become the new god of war until Zeus feared that I would usurp him and he tricked me into draining my immortality and powers into a weapon. I was then killed by Zeus but once again escaped the underworld and went on a journey to get the sisters of fate to send me back in time to change the past. Along the way I gained the last pieces of magic from Kronos and Atlas as well as stealing the main source of Typhon's wind powers as he lay trapped in his mountain. I also gained a powerful spear, the hammer of the barbarian king who almost killed me, and this golden armor on my arm. I eventually killed the fates and took control of time. I went back in time to try to kill Zeus and had him defeated, I would have succeeded but Athena threw herself in front of my sword.".
"Wow she was dumb then and is dumb now." he said smirking, "Some goddess of wisdom.".
That got a laugh out of Kratos as he agreed, "Alright now after that I brought the Titans back from the first war and led them on an assault against Olympus. Gaea eventually admitted she saw me as nothing more than a pawn and before throwing me off of her back after I had killed Poseidon. I was in the underworld for a third time and again I made my way out. I continued on my path of destruction killing almost every god I came across as I went back and forth from Olympus and the Underworld through a passage I found. I gained several more weapons and eventually I killed Zeus and Gaia at the same time by stabbing Zeus into Gaea's heart as we fought inside her chest. Zeus's spirit attacked me though and it was only through the power from Pandora's box that I survived. The power of Hope which can only be used when a person has a hope for their future. After I destroyed Zeus' spirit the ghost of Athena tried demanding the power of Hope. The world was in Chaos with my being the only living creature left and Athena's spirit liked it that way. I took the blade of Olympus and stabbed myself with it releasing the power of hope and all of my magic as well as that of Zeus and Gaea into the world starting the third age in which the world was rebuilt. The chaotic ruins of my old world became your underworld as the new world grew over it.".
-End Flashback-
"After a while of talking Damian and our parents found us and they came down. Kratos led us to where his weapons were and gave them to us. He also joined us in the newer underworld to train us." he finished.
"Why did he only call to me when he had no choice?" Ares asked confused from his throne.
"When he was a child Are and Athena led an army of centaurs to attack Sparta and find the "marked warrior" to kill him. Kratos' brother had a birthmark that Kratos believed was the mark they wanted so he tried to hide him. Ares eventually found and grabbed his brother only for Kratos to rush him and attack. Ares knocked the young child back into a bile of wood giving him a scar over his eye and would have killed Kratos if Athena hadn't pointed out that they already had what they wanted. They left and Kratos took his tattoos, which were identical to his brother birthmark only red, as tribute to him and vowed to never again falter.".
"As king of the gods I demand these weapons!" Zeus yelled in a mixture of fear and anger.
"No Zeus, he and his warrior shall be keeping them." Chaos said exerting his authority. "I have become disgusted with how most of you Olympians have been ruling so my son here shall be your judge, your jury, and if need be your executioner.".
"What?!" Zeus yelled in outrage.
"Not all of the gods are down for death right now." he said shrugging, "For example Hades actually does his job without whining like a little baby when he doesn't get his way. He does more work than any of you but is one of the least respected.".
"I'm guessing that the three romans there are loyal to you and your mission?" Athena asked still shaken from the knowledge that her original self had become evil.
"Yes." he said smirking as they pulled out their weapons from Kratos' stash.
"Jason wields the Nemesis Whip which can conduct lightning and is made from the Omphalos Stone by the original Hephaestus." he said as the son of Jupiter brought out the black chained weapon. "Hazel wields the Blade of Judgment which was forged by Nemesis herself to deal blind justice." the daughter of Pluto brought out the elegant weapon. "And finally Aria wields the Gauntlets of Zeus which gives incredible strength and can even shatter stone or iron without so much as a scratch appearing on the metal.", the daughter of Thetis showed the golden clawed gauntlet that adorned her hands.
"Why did you want my Hunters here boy?" Artemis demanded from her throne.
"Because I wished to let my ally in your little group know that she can finally join us." he said as the hunters and Artemis gasped in shock at what he claimed.
"Zoe, come forward and take the weapon saved for you form the stash." he said firmly as the beautiful daughter of Atlas stepped forward smirking at Artemis. "I give to you the Blade of Artemis," he said handing her the glowing purple curved sword "the very weapon that the original Artemis used to kill a titan.".
Smiling she kissed him on the cheek and stood by his side as he glared at the Olympians. "Know this," Erebus said darkly, "get your act together or our son shall destroy you. But to be fair he will let you know if you are in danger of being killed so you at least have a chance of redeeming yourselves.". At these words everyone from the council who only just met Percy looked nervous.
AN: Yes before anyone asks I used the God of War plotline for the first two ages and the weapons. This is not a true crossover it just has some elements and uses it for historical reference.
AN2: Okay I want everybody to vote on something. I was wondering if you wanted me to keep my current updating cycle or do a new four story one which will have "A Battle of Subtlety and Manipulation", "Harry Potter, King of the Amazons" (which I will describe if anyone wishes), "Embrace the Shadows", and "Son of the Moon".