Chapter 10 – The Warning
A/N: Sorry it took me so long, working on other projects as well as making shit for YouTube. Check me out; RedThunder. Or wait for a channel link at the end of the chapter.
It was something that was constantly dancing along his senses, a serious form of addiction that had slowly addled its way through his brain, something that was transcending everything that he thought he knew about the concept of 'needs', for instance, right now he desperately craved feeling the sensations of those soft lips pressing against his, it was why he'd not asked Artemis for that kiss when he was in her moon chariot, but rather, why he'd stolen that kiss from her.
He couldn't deal with the concept of her not letting him have it, because it was a solid addiction that was playing upon his need of HER. That was the astounding thing, there was genuinely something strong enough in the universe that could put HIM in such a position to call it a solid addiction. And he could pinpoint the exact thing that he was addicted to.
Firstly, it was the texture, her lips on his, soft yet just as needing of that particular fix than he was. Secondly there was the scent and the taste, and that was the real kicker for him, it was delicious, something that he was sure would have changed his childhood fixations over blue cookies and turned all of his camp meals into something else entirely. Artemis' lips tasted like a dash of cinnamon, and smelled much the same except with a hint of pine. A Goddess whose domains lied within something that rested outside of the atmosphere, and the other that lied directly in forests all over the world.
Why was he thinking about his addiction to kissing Artemis? Because here he was explaining to Reyna exactly how he'd ended up creating a crater in the middle of her camp, yet having to omit certain details involving a silver Goddess. He just wondered exactly how much he could cut out of his story before Aurum and Argentum would start growling. Especially if the daughter of Bellona happened to ask him the pivotal question of, 'is that all?'.
"You know," She began with a sigh, reaching out with one hand to grab the bowl of never-ending m&m's that sat in front of her, "If anyone else had told me all of this, I would have called them out on it immediately, but it really does seem like you to go missing and in the three months you've been gone from us, have actually been through some serious shit in Tartarus before returning nearly one hundred and sixty years later as the Grim Reaper." She gave off another sigh. She was tired, so very tired from holding this camp together by herself. She really needed a day off, but that was so unlikely to happen with the current state of things.
"I don't really know what to say to that, I mean, yeah, I doubt anyone else would have survived the things I've been through but it's not like I had any choice, it was either become Death or fade for eternity, and I just wasn't ready to die. Ironic now that I look back on it." He chuckled slightly before deciding that he'd already spent WAY too much time in New Rome. He had places to go and people to beat up, or at least, that was his assumption. "Anywho, I've got to go to Alaska now. Good seeing you again for all of about an hour." He waved at her over his shoulder before fading from her sight completely. Death moved across the states and into the northernmost part of the land mass.
"Huh, how about that, somewhere that I can't naturally flash straight into. Strange." He muttered to himself, convinced that there were none watching him. He was stood a meter out from what was very much the border to Alaska.
"Hey!" He heard someone shouting, it only just reached his ears and even so it was faint in the winds that were picking up with speed. He turned around to find himself looking at a rather chubby asian kid. Kid might have been the wrong choice of words as he was physically a very similar age to Percy, he just wasn't anywhere near as old as Death really was.
"Can I help you?" He deadpanned as the kids caught up to him. They had a very familiar reek about them. He didn't exactly need to go off of that to understand that they were campers, especially as Nico was with them. Percy raised an eyebrow at his cousin, why was he here when only a mere hour ago he had asked the son of Hades to deliver the mortal's body to the fields of Asphodel and deliver the message to his father.
"Fancy seeing you here Perce. I'm stepping in to help with this quest as the main choice for this great prophecy ended up turning into possibly the single most powerful being in existence. Good work Perce." Nico snidely commented with a huge grin on show. The girl, someone that Percy had actually met before, Hazel Levesque was actually a daughter of Pluto, and by extension, a cousin to Percy and a sister to Nico.
"What are you doing here Percy?" Hazel asked, clutching her coat even tighter over her body after seeing Percy in that long black overcoat with nothing on underneath. It seemed that being Death had a few perks, especially with not feeling the cold.
"Freeing Thanatos, what are you doing here?" He asked just as quickly. Looking around Percy could see nothing aside from thick swathes of snow that was threatening to engulf the ankles of his boots if he didn't watch his step and stick to the main road. These parts could be dangerous to mortals, but it would just be annoying to him.
"Freeing Thanatos, it's part of our prophecy that we do it as its in Alaska, no Gods can go past the border, how did you expect to free him?" Frank asked him incredulously. How could Percy have been so thick?
"Because I'm not a God, I'm a Horseman. One of four, if you collect us all you get an awesome consolation prize." Percy responded dryly, giving Frank a deadpanned thumbs up before turning his back on them and confidently stepping over the border to Alaska.
"Come with me if you must, if not, leave me alone." He told them, continuing to walk away, or rather, towards where he could literally feel Thanatos' godly energy. The God of Death was about to meet THE Death. Percy just hoped that Thanatos wouldn't see him bitterly, because it would be a great shame to have to destroy him.
Line Break.
Halfway around the world, somewhere vastly different from the cold snowy roads that Death was hiking on, a Horseman made their way across the sun baked pavements, hopeful to finally find what she was sent there for.
Chaos had asked Famine to undertake a particularly difficult mission. To go under the guise of being inflicted with one of Death's seals, to find out the extent of Lucifer's plans. Chaos didn't really mind what happened to the Earth, she had other interests littered throughout the universe, but she knew for a fact that if this world was laid to waste, then Death would not be able to be contained, and he would kill indiscriminately until his rage was completely vented, and that was something that she couldn't allow to happen.
Famine walked across the road, knowing that she was very shortly about to receive some rather angry company in the form of her darling brother. Famine had the seal of Lust, yet she hadn't taken it's power, merely exercised her own as a bluff to Lucifer that she was under control of Percy's power. Only herself and Chaos knew the truth, they were both also fully aware of what might happen if Death was to ever find out that she was, supposedly, a symbol of one of his sins. Famine's life would end horrifically.
The truth was that actually, Famine wasn't the sin of Lust, she was merely pretending to further he own act of gathering intelligence, but nobody knew that. As she walked across the arid streets of Cairo, there was a tremendous earthquake, or that's what the mortals would have experienced. Famine knew better as she found herself staring at the seven foot figure of an armor plated mountain of a man. Underneath the gleaming metal plates that had been created in the Soul Forge was another Horseman. The final Horseman to set foot upon the earth, War.
He'd felt Famine's power play when she was trying to convince Lucifer that she was his ally with Percy's encapsulated Lust writhing within her. She had a high enough sex drive as it was, she didn't need anything added to it.
"You walk an extremely dangerous line, sister." War's voice echoed through his helmet, only his bright white eyes were visible through the metal slots in the framework. It was a magnificent project that Conquest had taken it upon himself to complete. This was something that Famine expected, though she found herself cursing that it was War that had found her. The Horseman with five seals was incredibly powerful in his own right.
"I know the path that lies ahead of me, and trust me, nobody is more aware of the dangers than me, but this is something that has become necessary. If you wish to fight me on Death's behalf then I cannot stop you." Famine announced, slowly bringing a whip out of thin air, just in case War decided to get a cheap shot in, though it wasn't like him to do that. He was a very honorable being and believed that a one on one fight should be fought fairly. That was how the poor fool was continually getting the brunt of the attacks whenever the Four had to ride to solve a problem, though Famine supposed that he didn't exactly mind that either.
"I will not fight my own brethren though if Death finds out then you would wish it were me and not him anyway. I merely came to warn you of what lies ahead if you continue down your chosen path, and I would avoid Conquest if I were you, he may destroy you just as quickly as Death would." War said no more than that, simply leaving an a show of power that the mortals couldn't even see.
Famine took this advice very highly but alas, her 'path' was one that Chaos had asked her to put herself on, so she had. She hated to keep her brothers in the dark about this but at least War trusted her to some degree if he was willing to let her carry on without forcing some sort of intervention on her.
She would have whispered her thanks but War already knew her very well. Now she just had to focus on getting her hands on the seal of Gluttony before it homed in on it's target, after all, the 'target' would be almost undefeatable if it was ever subjected to Death's sin of Gluttony, much the same as the real target for the sin of Lust, besides, Famine knew a good love story in the making when she saw one, and it wouldn't do for either of those seals to reach their final destinations.
She knew of Death's recent adventures after having broken Envy and Greed, he was off somewhere in the cold visiting a subordinate of his or something like that. She held the sin of Lust personally and she was tracking down the burial place of the seal of Gluttony. She knew for a fact that an archangel named Uriel was inflicted with Death's Pride, making her extremely powerful yet the worst case scenario was one that had very much come true; Death's near endless Wrath had gone to Lucifer which was no doubt going to prove to be a very painful mixture to all of them. That made six, Famine worried about the last seal.
Who could possibly hold Death's sin of Sloth?
A/N: A really short chapter here, and I'm sorry for that, but I realized that I really needed to update. Got something special for you here, a teaser of sorts.
Lucifer – Fallen Angel/Devil = Wrath
Uriel – Archangel = Pride
? - ? = Sloth
? - ? = Gluttony
'Greed' - Mortal = Greed
? - ? = Lust
Jude – Demi-god = Envy
I know all of these, I've already planned it all out. IF you're desperate to find out how I've planned it all out, leave a review asking for it and I'll send you a personal message explaining.
If you feel like supporting my other hobby, you can come and watch me play a load of old games from my childhood, a lot of nostalgic playstation 1 gaming happening at the moment, check it out. /channel/UCuR41yuScY68Z7r84rp0nZg