Two Months and Ten Days ago

The Donec Pretium orbited above a planet known to humanity as Gliese 581g. A planet that space faring races called, Vulcia. The official home base of Lord Chaos. Half the planet was set as Chaos' land, the other half was given to whoever wanted a piece. The population rose from zero to four billion in just six short centuries. Things worked well for a while, until the Numbare cartel set up shop. They took a quarter of the planet as their territory. Leaving only a small portion for the rest of the universe. A portion that quickly turned to a slum, a den of crime where the Numbare were judge, jury and executioner. A portion that Chaos ignored. A place called Aliquam Paradiso. It was a melting pot where every race that ever existed combined. Hybrids and genetic splicing began to occur. Yet the atrocities were ignored by the higher authorities for millennium. Extreme crimes were still punished, but to qualify for extreme you had to kill a Numbare member. Public executions were common. The forces of Chaos, the only ones capable of ending the anarchy that ruled the streets, never stepped out from behind the walls of his fortress. Sure few soldiers left every so often, but only to check on the few interests that the army had on the other side of the wall. Like it or not, there was a lot of money to be made in Aliquam Paradiso. Several of the higher ups in the army owned property in the slums. A good test for new recruits was to send them over the wall and into the slum, to check on various things. A test that took nearly one earth week. It really separated the men from the boys. On more than on occasion a recruit had stepped on a Numbare toe and had their head chopped off. Although once in a while, a higher up would volunteer to go into Aliquam Paradiso. And at the moment, that was exactly where Alyssa Holt was.

Being out of the compound isn't something that happens often, but to acquire a crossbow that worked on both mortals and monsters. It was a request so odd, so uncommon, that I had to venture into Aliquam Paradiso. A venture I do not take lightly. One slip up, one mistake, and the Numbare will take you and execute you in a various violent fashions. Technically I was here to check on Commander Stryker's property, but I was really here to visit an old friend of mine. An exile from the army, a Numbare warlord named Franklin. He wasn't human, but he wasn't alien either. He was a hybrid, between human and another race. His human side was more dominate but from the fact that he had pitch black skin and snow white hair added to the fact that he wasn't normal. He had been kicked out of the army after 'accidentally' blowing up Chaos' previous warship. The Donec Pretium, while one of the largest vessels in space, is only temporary until the Morsus is complete. Fortunately for him, the Numbare noticed his mishap, and gave him a place to run to, along with a rank and a good bit of power. He was one of my best friends while he was in the forces, but now he is a good guy to know if you need to get something that isn't exactly legal.

While in Aliquam Paradiso, it isn't a good idea to look weak, but it is a worse idea to attract attention. The Numbare will kill anyone who takes the respect off them. The only thing that is a good idea, is to look like a soldier of Chaos. I am a captain in the legion of Chaos. I wore my combat fatigues with an Infernux whip on my belt. I wasn't bothered. Franklin had agreed to meet me, but he didn't know the reason. He was curious as to why I wanted to meet in Aliquam instead of the Numbare region of the planet. The reason was simple, I needed something from the warlord. Something that a presumptuous guard looking to get ahead would find useful. I needed the guards distracted with security. A Numbare warlord traveled with a large entourage, mostly guards, normally few concubines and assorted other members of the cartel went along as well. Why would the guards snitch on a warlord you ask? Even the Numbare have rules. Rule number one, never sell merchandise that could hurt the group to anyone outside the group. Who sells the merchandise? Warlords. That rule only applied to those on Vulcia however, any off worlders who wanted a cooporium warhead, they got it. As long as they could pay. I needed a crossbow for a certain daughter of Zeus on a planet very far away. The problem was I was on Vulcia, which broke the rule. Making my life that much more difficult.

Franklin D'Vanii had a particular bar that he liked to inhabit when he had to venture into the slums, a place that didn't have a name. It was just a door that lead into a hallway with the cliché metal door with an eye slot about three quarters of the way up. If you got past the door you ended up in what would pass for a rave back on earth. But on Vulcia it was a bar. Franklin didn't stay in plain sight though. He was always in one back room surrounded by guards and concubines. He took to his life of crime like a bird to flying. Today was a good day to be in this bar, it was packed. Getting past the front door is easy, its getting to the back rooms that is the hard part. A mass of pulsating bodies filled the room, a DJ at the far end of the room was keeping them all happy. The bass from his speakers made my hat shake on my head. A soldier of Chaos normally attracts a lot of attention, but not here. Here I would be lucky to get a second look. Here is where the Numbare made the bulk of their money. Drugs. There probably wasn't a single person in the whole room, besides me, who wasn't rolling on one thing or another. And I had to get through all that.

Through a series of events that involved me shouting 'Captain of Chaos, Clear a path!' I made it to the other side of the room. Where four guards outside the door gave me a weird look. One in particular, whom looked strangely like a giant bulldog, raised an eyebrow at me. "What's a Chaos bitch doing down in Aliquam?" I shot him my favorite death glare and he crumbled like a pile of dirt. "I'm here to see Franklin D'Vanii, any of you have a problem with that?" They all looked at me like they wanted to tear my head off, but they had known Franklin was having a visitor. It wasn't advertised who was in the back rooms, so the fact that I knew he was there was a plus. The one standing to the left of the door nodded and made some unintelligible clicking and clacking noises before opening the door.

Franklin was seated upon a very large couch with a Numbare concubine on either side, they were both naked as the day they were born. They stared at him like he was the greatest thing ever. At least fifteen armed guards were behind the couch, sitting at tables, watching tv, doing various things of that nature. Each was clearly armed but they also had other weapons laying around. Franklin had his face buried in the bustier of the two concubines chest, they were laughing, his guards weren't paying attention. I rolled my eyes. "Franklin!" He about jumped out of his skin, "Fuck! Alyssa, don't fucking scare me like that!" He had a heavy french accent so that sounded pretty funny. I smirked, I never get tired of scaring him. "Get your whores outta here Frankie, just breathing the same air makes me feel sick." He frowned but he ushered the girls off the couch to go be with the guards. I went to sit on the couch nearby, but not in the same place as those whores. The fact that there appeared to be stains in those spots added to my reasons. Franklin sighed before slumping back into his chair. "So what is so important to talk about that you needed me to come all the way down to Aliquam?" Now we were finally getting down to business, "I need a favor." He groaned and leaned back into the couch, falling behind some cushions in the process. "Just once, I wonder if you will contact me because you miss me." His voice was muffled by a cushion, I chuckled light heartedly, "Frankie, I saved your ass more times than I can count. Now that you've got some pull around Vulcia, I can finally start cashing in those favors." Franklin muttered something unintelligible under his breath and waved his hand as if to say, 'Go on'.

An hour later, I was the proud owner of a new crossbow with a thousand pound pull, but it easy to draw back the string thanks to some weird enchantment Franklin didn't fully explain. It came with some specialty bolts and a few features that I wasn't going to tell the three about, not for a while at least, all for a grand total of fifty thousand credits. Equivalent to about fifty denarii. Franklin shook his head after I handed over the funds, "Do I even want to know what this is for?" I smirked, "Nope." He shrugged, looking defeated. "They're sending me to Deimos, Alyssa." I froze. Deimos was one of Mars' moons, but it was famous for changing hands continuously through battle after battle. The legions of Chaos avoided the area unless absolutely necessary. At the moment, the Numbare controlled the planet but that could change at a moments notice. Why such furious fighting? The answer is simple. It was the largest base in the human solar system. At one point in time it was a flourishing tourist planet. It had a great view of the human planet, and it had the most advanced cloaking system to prevent any human scientists from finding the metropolis. As far as humanity was concerned, it was nothing but a lifeless rock. But, in reality, it had shifted from a tourist haven to a war torn hell hole, drained of nearly all resources, that power that remained was barely enough to keep the cloaking system on. But no one wanted to admit that the planet was dead. No one wanted to attract enough attention for Chaos to come raining down. The bosses of the galactic syndicates decided the best plan was to just keep throwing men and resources at the problem til one side or the other gave up. It hadn't happened yet. The last time the Numbare had been kicked off of Deimos, they had been completely wiped out. Not a single cartel member lived to tell the tale. That is why being sent to Deimos is nigh on a death sentence. I looked at my long time friend, he looked back. He stood there stoically. We both knew he would more than likely be dead soon. I knew I might never see my friend again.

I left the club and made my way back to the fortress of Chaos. Franklin and I didn't exchange anymore words. The cross bow was contained in a duffel bag I had slung over my shoulder. My trip back was uneventful. I felt afraid for my friend. At any moment a rival faction could decide that they wanted Deimos and attack, and he could die. I didn't speak to anyone,even after the fortress doors opened. I went straight to my quarters and dropped the bag on the floor. I collapsed onto my bed and cried.

A Week Later, Back on Earth

Getting back earth side took much longer than normal, the forces of Chaos had been drawn away to the other side of the milky way for some uprising. So I basically had to hitchhike all the way to Deimos and pay to get smuggled back. The gun runner I'd been working for was confused as to where I'd been. He asked a lot of questions to that effect. Thankfully, he was a bit forgetful when it came to me. So I told him I went on vacation, and that I had informed him I was going to do so. That problem was quickly solved. So on the same day of getting back from the other side of the galaxy I was back at my normal job. Leaning against a door in a back alley in LA, selling guns to idiots with fifth grade educations.

We hadn't heard anything from Alyssa in so long Nico was starting to freak out. He had been known to disappear for hours at a time before, but now. We didn't see him for two days, granted he came back with a duffel bag full of money, claiming he had been really busy on the east coast. But it was the premise of it that irritated us. Then we found out what he had gotten, along with the money he had a large ziploc bag full of drachma. While he was mum as to where he got the coins, he wasn't shy about informing us of the quantity, "Two hundred and thirteen." He told Thalia and I, right after we asked where he got them. It shut us up pretty fast. Just then, Nico's cell rang, it was Alyssa, she had called to tell us that the crossbow was in her possession and she was just waiting on us. He told her he would be there as soon as we could. He grabbed the bag of drachma and stuffed it into a back pack I hadn't noticed he was wearing. "I'm going alone." With that he turned and headed for the nearest shadow into which he disappeared.

I was pissed. Immortally so. I had spent so much time with her over the past weeks that I was confused when she disappeared for so long with no word whatsoever. It was like she had gone to another planet or something. I was really confused. I popped out of the shadows in her alleyway with a pissed off look. I wanted to yell I wanted to be mad, but how could I? I didn't have any reason to. She wasn't my girlfriend. She was barely my friend. With that in mind, I bitterly shoved my anger down my throat and approached her. She was just standing there like always, leaning against the door, with not a care in the world it seemed.

Nico was gone, which gave Percy and I some time to ourselves. Time that we had no idea how to spend. Normally when he was gone we would just make out or see who could do the most flips off the mattress piles, but at this point in the day, we had done those things already. Suffice to say, we were bored out of our minds. We were just sitting in our room, staring at the wall. In the months we had been on the run from the gods and the government we had talked about everything we could ever talk about. Each others family, why his mom made lots of blue food, and on top of all that, what we regret most. A subject that he had answered quickly, he regretted not telling his mom goodbye when he left for camp. When he asked me what mine was however, I couldn't speak. My mind wouldn't allow me to answer, I thought he would freak out. Today in the silence of the warehouse, he brought it up again. "What do you regret most Thals? Why wouldn't you give me an answer?" He looked at me with those big green eyes and a rush of guilt flowed over me. I couldn't keep his gaze, turning to stare down at my bare feet. While we were walking around the warehouse, we didn't bother wearing much clothes. It was rare for Percy or Nico to wear a shirt. A sentiment that I appreciated greatly, in relation to Percy. I didn't wear much either, normally it was just a t-shirt and lingerie, sometimes I would forgo the shirt. Right now though, I was afraid of telling Percy one of my deepest darkest secrets. "I'm afraid of what you'll say." I murmured, before I felt his hand under my chin, his skin was rough but soft in its own way. He lifted my head and turned it toward him, but I wouldn't look at him. "Thalia, look at me." I felt my eyes begin to water, but I looked anyway. "There is nothing you can say, that would change the way I feel about you." Just as I was about to answer him I heard something, a sound that didn't sound like the prince of death knocking over mattresses.

Percy was still looking at me, "Did you hear that?" I questioned. "Don't change the subject!" He obviously didn't hear it. "Percy, I think someone is in the warehouse." That got his attention, "It's probably just Nico." I pointed out that Nico probably wouldn't bother shadow traveling into the warehouse proper, and that he likely won't be back for a while yet. He got out of bed and went to get his gun, I did the same. "No, you stay here. If it's the cops there is no point in us both getting caught." He looked genuinely worried, walking across the room to stand eye to eye with me. More like eye to neck, since he was a bit taller than me. "And I don't want you hurt." It was statements like that, that made me melt and do what he said, normally. "Jackson, you need someone to watch your back. So throw me a shirt and let's go find whoever it is." He frowned, upset that he didn't get his way, but he did as asked.

A few minutes later we were wandering the aisles of mattresses looking for the source of the odd banging sound. Thalia, being stubborn as ever had refused to stay in the room. Silently I prayed to whatever gods didn't hate me that it was just Nico testing out some new weapon. After about thirty minutes we had cleared most of the warehouse close to the back offices where the rooms were. The only other real place to check was the place where the building had collapsed into the river. There of course is where we found the intruder. He was sitting in the water, staring down into it. He didn't appear to be wearing a shirt, but he seemed to be alive. We both trained our guns on him. I spoke first, "Stand up very slowly." The man's head lifted, and he stood thankfully he was clothed. We had to kick a naked hobo out once before. "Turn around, and don't try anything." Thalia interjected. A sigh was heard, and the man turned around. I hadn't noticed what he was wearing before, I had just been glad he was wearing clothes at all. But now I took notice. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, that had a large red stain on it, and Bermuda shorts. He had a tan that could only come from spending an eternity on a boat. He was none other than the god of the seas, Poseidon.

Poseidon wasn't awake for long when we found him. He looked us both in the eye and said, "Hello son." Before his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed forward. Percy didn't let him hit the ground. He caught his father before even a second had gone by. Poseidon looked frail. He looked fragile, like he might shatter at any moment. He was a god, supposedly immortal, but he looked as though he was knocking on Thanatos' door. "Little help here Thals?" Percy called out, a distressed tone in his voice that worried me. I immediately went to his side, he gestured with his head. "Take his legs. Damn gods are heavy." Together we managed to heft him as far as the offices. Since we were in a mattress warehouse, places to put him were not exactly at a premium. This was a very good sign, it proved that Percy had been right. That his father wasn't dead after all, and for a time, it gave us hope.

I see you over there hanging off a cliff.

Anyway, in this chapter I decided to bring the science fiction aspect of this story in a bit more. Epic eh? Oh an its pronounced NUMB BAR E. The e makes an a sound. Just wanted to clarify. Not sure what kind of a role they will play at this point. Still working on that part. Enjoy the update. Please review, the more reviews I get the faster chapter 12 gets uploaded. Until then. ~Muffin