At The Empire

Alistair's POV:

I jumped out the second the ship touched the ground at The Empire. I couldn't handle being in the small space with only my thoughts for company. They reminded me continuously that I was a murderer, and the small space just made me think of Tartarus, which didn't help at all. I dragged my feet the entire way towards Chaos' office, hoping I could get rid of the gloomy look on my face by the time I got there. I ended up sprinting almost the entire way anyway because I soon realized the slower I walked, the more time my mind had to run free.

I got to Chaos' office a lot faster than expected, but thankfully I wasn't breathing like I just ran a marathon. I knocked on the door and entered after the doors opened by themselves yet again. Chaos' turned around in his chair, and he looked at me with a shocked look on his face for a moment before gaining his composure.

"I didn't realise you'd be back so soon, Alistair. Did you complete the mission?" Chaos asked with an inquisitive look on his face.

"I followed the GPS on my watch to Dusta, which led me to an abandoned warehouse. I snuck inside, and Dusta was there with another man, most likely a drug dealer, but they were surrounded by twelve guards. Soon after the other man left empty handed. I climbed up to the rafters where I shot down the twelve guards with sleeping darts. I jumped down in front of Dusta, red him his crimes, and then killed him. I immediately came here." I replied emotionlessly.

Chaos gave me a worried look before he dismissed me, telling me to be here at the same time tomorrow for another mission. I bowed my head before leaving the office. I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding. I walked towards my room, which was thankfully decently close to his office. The other assassins were in the living room across from their rooms. I tried to walk past quickly, but unfortunately, Luke spotted me.

"Hey, Alistair! You're back really early! How'd your first mission go?" Luke asked excitedly. I couldn't even look up into his eyes. If he knew who I was he would hate me for sure. Every single person in the room had died because of me except for Amanda and Valerie, but if I stayed long enough or got even remotely close to them, I'm sure they'd die, too.

Remembering Luke's question I answered quickly and curtly, hoping he'd let me leave. "It went fine, but I'm very tired so I'm going to go to my room." I turned and left the room quickly before pausing right outside the door.

"What'd you do to piss him off, Luke? He sounded like he'd rather kill a puppy than talk to you." I didn't recognize the voice, so it must have been Amanda or Valerie. I was about to go in and apologise, but then I thought about it. If they hated me then they'd stay away from me right? If they hated me they'd live!

Before I could walk to my room I heard Luke speak again. "I don't think I did anything, but everybody's first mission is pretty tough especially when you only trained for as short amount of time as he did. I'm sure he's just tired, and I'm pretty tired myself. I'm going to hit the hay. 'Night guys." I ran to my room before he saw me.

How hard is it to make someone hate you? Luke had more patience than any human in the universe. I decided to take after Luke and get some sleep as well. I layed on my bed for at least another hour before I finally succumbed to the darkness awaiting me.

I thought that maybe since I had been adopted by Chaos and gained a bunch of powers that finally the demigod dreams would stop. During training, I had worked from dawn until dusk without stopping, so by the time my head hit the pillow, I didn't have time for dreams. Now I have a lot more time on my hands, and a lot less physical work to keep my mind busy, so while I'm sleeping my dreams get a mind of their own.

I'm walking through a street I faintly recognize from Godalva. The crumbling buildings that once stood there were now piles of ash. Smoke surrounded me, and the longer I stood in the same spot, the more it felt like I was being suffocated. I tried to run away from the smoke, but my feet were glued to the ground. I looked down and realised my feet were trapped under the bodies of all the assassins, but the longer I looked the more bodies appeared. Annabeth, Nico, Thalia, Mum, Paul, Chiron, Hannah. The bodies kept piling up until only my head was above the bodies. I was trapped under the bodies of all the people I loved, and I could feel their blood running down my arms and legs.

Suddenly, all the bodies and smoke disappeared. I was laying in a bathtub, but instead of water, the bath was filled to the brim with blood. I looked to my left and saw the body pile again, and all the bodies were bloody and torn up. i looked down at my hands and saw they were covered in blood. I tried to wipe it off, but it just kept reappearing. I started to freak out and claw at my skin, but then I felt somebody shaking me.

I looked up and saw the lifeless body of Annabeth shaking me ruthlessly. Her mouth was moving, but the first few times she spoke I didn't hear her. Finally, as if earplugs were pulled out of my ears I heard what she was saying, but it wasn't Annabeth's voice. A deep voice that rattled my bones spoke the same words over and over again.

"Wake up, Alistair. Wake up, Alistair. Wake up, Alistair. Wake up, Alistair. Wake up, Alistair! WAKE UP, ALISTAIR!" The voice got progressively louder and louder until it was screaming while shaking me like I was a rag doll. It softened abruptly before it muttered almost inaudibly, "Beware, Perseus Jackson."

As if ice cold water had been dumped on my head, I shot up out of the bed and tackled whatever was closest to me. When I finally regained my bearing, I realised that I had Chaos pinned under me. I jumped up and immediately helped him up before I dropped to my knees.

"Lord Chaos, please forgive me. I had a nightmare, and I was extremely on edge, and I guess you woke me up, and it scared me. I am so sorry, m'lord." I said quickly, trying to get everything out in one breath.

He looked at me with a surprised look on his face, but then he smiled. "Alistair, you need not worry. Remember I adopted you. You are my son, and you never should feel the need to call me lord. I was just surprised you managed to wake up and tackle me so quickly. You have good reflexes, Alistair. I came in here to make your room sound-proof because the other assassins almost broke down the door before I got here because you were screaming so loud. I assured them you were fine, but expect an interrogation tomorrow after your mission. Now, try to get some sleep. You'll be useless in the morning if you don't."

With that he teleported out of the room. I sat up most of the night wondering about my dream. What could that dream possibly mean? I decided to think about it the next day, and my eyes slowly slipped closed, and I fortunately fell into a dreamless sleep.

In The Assassin's Living Room

3rd Person POV:

After the wonderful wake up call that was Alistair, none of the assassins could even think of falling asleep. After Alistair's murder-like screams had stopped thanks to Chaos, everything had become blissfully silent. All the assassins had met up in the living room, so that they didn't disturb anybody. Amanda and Valerie were sitting in the corner of the room playing chess, Silena and Beckendorf were just staring at the warm fire, Zoe and Bianca were looking at one of the many books in the room, Castor and Lee were playing tic-tac-toe, and Luke was just standing and surveying everyone.

The silence was comfortable, but there was an air of concern and curiosity over the entire room. As if he could feel the emotions flowing through the room, Chaos appeared in front of the fireplace, scaring Silena and Beckendorf greatly. Luke was the first to regain his wits, and started shooting questions at Chaos rapidly. "Is Alistair alright? Is he alive? Why was he screaming? Did something try to kill him? What happened? Why is your hair messed up?"

"Luke, calm down. Alistair is fine. He had a nightmare, and it scared him quite a lot. As for my hair, Alistair has very good reflexes, so when I shook him awake, he tackled me to the ground. Everything is alright now, and you all need to try and get some sleep." Chaos replied with a hint of humor at Luke's rapid fire questions.

They said their goodnights, and everyone went to bed soon after. The hall was silent except for the even breathing of all the assassins and protectors. The next day awaited them.

Still In the Assassin Hall

Alistair's POV:

I don't know what I expected to wake up to the next morning, but I definitely hadn't expected to wake up unable to breathe because Fia was sprawled across my chest. The black panther opened her eyes momentarily, saw I was awake, shifted so she was laying next to me, and closed her eyes again. I silently laughed at Fia's antics. Over the past year we had become extremely close, and I couldn't go longer than ten hours without seeing her. During training I had learned how to work together in a fight with Fia, and we quickly became the best of friends.

Finally dragging myself out of bed, I glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. The clock read 5:47 am, so I got dressed quickly in identical outfit to yesterdays. Black t-shirt, black jeans, black dress shoes, black cloak, and a full face mask. I quickly learned that this was the only choice I had to wear if I didn't want to wear the formal uniform of a prince. I grabbed a granola bar on the way out the door with Fia directly on my heels.

I arrived at Chaos' office with three minutes to spare. Upon entering the office, I saw files scattered everywhere, and Chaos had laid his head down on the desk. I stifled my laugh, but Chaos looked up anyway.

He groaned quietly and muttered, "I hate paperwork so much. Can't these people figure how to solve their problems themselves without the help of my soldiers?"

"Sir, I am here to receive my mission for today." I said. At the mention of my mission he groaned quietly again, but continued to look worried for me.

He handed me a file before laying his head back down on the desk.

Who: Igetis Kako, Malum Nocere, Scuro Morire, Kwaad Doden, Mal Tuer, Ubel Sturben, Pomoc Neskodny

Age(s): 54, 48, 42, 37, 22, 19, 11

Crime(s): Have murdered hundreds of innocents together

Punishment: Restrain Neskodny/ Kill Others

Last Seen: Kardia, Kalasi (Planet 6)

Time Limit: Two Weeks

My eyes widened slightly at the age of Neskodny before I saw his punishment. I nodded at Chaos and exited the room hurriedly. I didn't want to be on this mission any longer than I had to be.

The ship was already set when I arrived, and a guard stood outside the door. When he saw me, he bowed before opening the door. The ship took off and I looked back at the mission file to see if I missed anything. Near the bottom there was a paragraph in bold letters that if Neskodny refused to go with me, I would have to kill him.

When we arrived at Planet Kalasi, I could understand why criminals would like the place. The sky was a hazy red, and the air felt like poison going into my lungs. The ground looked like tiny razor blades were laying all over the ground, and I instantly thought back to Tartarus.

Pulling my mind from the dark thoughts, I started walking towards the city of Kardia. The ship dropped me off about two miles from the city lines, so about fifteen minutes later, I was on a hill overlooking the entire city. The buildings were all very short, but they were very wide, and from what I could tell, they all had many levels underneath.

Tracking down the group was the hardest part. They were all in different parts of the city, and if I killed them one by one, they'd notice something was up and run away. So I waited, and waited, and waited, until finally, almost five days later, they planned to meet up in Level L of an underground parking garage, which was the lowest point in the city.

I showed up two hours before the scheduled meet up time and positioned myself directly around the corner of the entrance, so that when the walked in, I could kill them one by one and restrain Neskodny without a commotion.

A hour and almost forty minutes later, what looked like Kako from the file, walked in. I grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth before swiftly breaking his neck. I dragged him over to the corner of the garage before going back to my spot. I did the with the next five, and now I just had to wait for Pomoc.

Ten minutes after the supposed meet up time, he walked like a scared little puppy. I grabbed him, put his hands behind his back and tied them loosely with some rope. I spun him around so that he was looking at me, and spoke calmly. but authoritively.

"My name is Alistair. I am the Commander of Chaos' army. From the look on your face I can tell that you didn't want to be apart of this group, but we didn't want you to fight back. I'm taking you back to The Empire, and Chaos will decide what to do with you." After he nodded frantically, I teleported us back to the ship.

I sat him down in one of the chairs and I leaned up against the wall. He was an innocent looking kid with blonde hair and bright green eyes. If I didn't know he was eleven, I probably guessed he was eight because of his size. The flight back was a quiet one, and once we arrived, I led him to Chaos' office silently.

Chaos once again looked surprised by early arrival home, but told me I was free to go, but to take the boy to one of the extra rooms and lock the door. I did as he said and then began the trek back towards my room exhaustedly. Unfortunately, Luke didn't seem to realize how tired I was and decided to question me relentlessly,

"Hey, Alistair! Are you okay? Chaos told us you had a nightmare, and it sounded bad. By the way how was your mission? You're back really early again? Who'd you have to hunt down? Where'd you go? Why are you looking at me like that?" No matter how much I liked Luke, by the end of his questions, I was ready to punch him in the face.

"Hello. I'm fine. My mission went fine as well. I had to kill a group of seven murderers who had killed hundreds of innocents in Kardia, Kalasi, and I'm extremely tired. If that is all." I said blankly. I turned around and walked into my room without another word. I didn't realize how hard making them ignore me was going to be until now.

Like ignoring them is going to work. Your mere presence will be enough to kill them. You actually think that separating yourself from them will work? Nobody wants you around. All you do is kill people. Did you see Luke's face before you walked away? He was devastated. You hurt people without even meaning to. You're a failure. Stupid. Killer. Murderer. Murderer. Murderer.

With those final thoughts, I fell into a fitful sleep.