A/N: Yes, long wait again. This time, it was due to back-to-back family reunions. I hope you guys aren't mad at me; I'm just one guy! Enjoy Chapter Seventeen!
Chapter Seventeen
After a good minute of sprinting away, the two Swords of Damocles in Delphi Academy had slowed down enough to talk comfortably. And boy, did Jacob have something to say.
"That was real smooth, Vanessa," Jacob spat viciously. "'Oh, that scrawny kid is concerned about his sibling? Let's break both of his shins!' You can bet your life Damian will be hearing about this."
"Go ahead and tell him," Vanessa snorted in reply. "He won't care. We're here for the girl; she's the only person in this school he gives a flying Styx about."
It took every bit of self-control Jacob had not to deck her then and there. "He's not like you. Damian's better than that-"
"You really think so?" Vanessa asked with mock innocence. "You think he's still that pathetic excuse for a Sword he was with his father around? Sorry to break this to you, but Damian Valdaire is a child of Nemesis, a real one now. He's finally learned something he should've picked up a long time ago: the ends always justify the means. Now he wants the daughter of Eris, for whatever reason. I can guarantee that, as long as we help him with that business, the collateral damage he use to care so much about won't even occur to him. He's exactly like me, idiot."
Something snapped in Jacob as he heard this. Maybe it was because Vanessa was trivializing everything Damian was going through like it was nothing. Maybe it was because he was tired of hearing Damian's own sister call the real Damian, the person he was before his father's death and James' betrayal, weak. Or maybe it was because she was voicing every fear running through Jacob's head about who his best friend was now. All he knew for sure was that he wanted her to stop.
Jacob put on a burst of speed to get ahead of Vanessa and fully retracted the weapon at his waist: a weapon known as a glaive, a four foot-long pole with a razor-edged blade at one tip. Vanessa slid to a halt as he turned around, a surprised look on her face. Then she sighed, as if she were disappointed.
"Aw, is this because I called you an idiot? Thought that one might have been too far-"
"Take...it...back," he warned dangerously, spinning the weapon slowly behind his back. "All of it. Every freaking word about Damian. This mission doesn't mean anything to me; I'll stay here as long as I want. Which means you will too."
Vanessa did her best not to look intimidated, though Jacob noted how her free hand was hovering close to the chain-release mechanism on her gauntlet. "If I do take it back, can we return to the very-important job at hand without you having another hissy and holding me up again?"
"That depends on how you talk from here on out about the High Blade. You're dead wrong about him, Vanessa."
Vanessa eyed him cautiously, then dropped her eyes to the floor. "...Whatever you say, Jacob," she said hesitantly, her sardonic tone strangely absent. Jacob wasn't sure if she was just saying so to appease him, or if she was actually second guessing what she had said. A tense moment passed before she looked up again.
"Well? Can we get on with it?" she asked indignantly, looking past Jacob's shoulder down the hallway behind him.
"...Fine..."
"Good, 'cause I think we just got a lucky break," Vanessa said as she walked towards him, never moving her eyes from her new target. Jacob made no move to stop her as she strolled past him, a small smile growing on her face.
He turned and understood why; just ahead, the hallway split into a T, and posted on the far wall was a large display of school-related bulletins. One of which contained a map of the dorm building. If the Eris girl was here, the two Swords were now that much closer to finding her.
The battle raging around the Central Colossus of Delphi Academy was slowly devolving into a bitter stalemate on the ground. While the Academy Guard had initially possessed a tactical advantage between infantry and low-caliber artillery, the carnage unleashed by the assaulting Polaris' cannons had forced the Academy forces to huddle together in tight formations to avoid being picked apart by Wraith models.
The Illusionist's son smiled with cold satisfaction as he stared down at the battle unfolding below him. While most of his mental effort was going towards maintaining the electromagnetic polar shift around the Academy, and a good chunk of what was left going towards commandeering the Polaris, he still had more than enough cognitive ability to appreciate the plan he had set in motion.
Major defensive support pieces have been compromised, as expected. Remaining pieces are segmented, cluttered together and boxed in. Infiltration tactics are at optimal capacity; at this rate, I'll have the primary objective achieved any minute now. Perhaps I can make sure that insolent, half-wit Headmaster is cut in half like she was supposed to be before taking leave. Curse those traitors, siding with Olympian-Spawn; family members make for the worst variables-
His train of thought was interrupted by the clanking of heavy metal armor behind him. "I'm back," a familiar voice said sharply.
The Illusionist's son didn't bother turning around; the scene before him was too enthralling. A true work of art that deserved to be appreciated. "Report."
"It's not good. This isn't some technical problem; some of the garrison Wraiths stationed near the breach were found literally sheared in half. I saw one of the offline cannons myself. Same deal. High-grade Demisteel barrels, almost two inches thick, completely demolished with at most a couple of swings. Only the Swords could pull that off. They're in the Polaris."
"Naturally," the Illusionist's son replied quietly, trying not to lose his temper again. "Now that I think of it, tonight was their most optimal chance as well as ours. That girl sure is popular."
"Should I remain on your security detail?" the armored young man asked. "I doubt that you could handle a Sword of Damocles in your current condition, and yet..."
"No. This intruder need to be found as quickly as possible, before they can manage to do even more damage. I'm not willing to rely on automatons for this. I trust you won't disappoint me, Abel. I hear how much my father relies on you."
"I'm flattered," he said calmly. "Nonetheless, I'll leave the Guardian prototype here in addition to the rest of the detail, in case our guest sneaks past me. it's a big ship, after all."
"I'll accept your terms; you have your orders and your target. Dismissed."
Though Abel carried his armor exceptionally well, the clanking it made on his withdrawal still grated on the ears of his superior. Likely just noise sensitivity, he deduced. I'm not overtly surprised; I've never manipulated a magnetic pole for this long before. It won't be long now, though. The Wraiths will find the girl, and I'll finally be rid of this place.
As if on cue, a blue light began flashing on the display at his side. A Wraith model was requesting his visual confirmation through a camera in the automaton's head. About time, he thought pleasantly, a smirk on his face. He enabled the visual transmission in moments, fingers trembling in anticipation to finally see the fruits of his labors.
What he saw through the feed in real-time was confusing, to say the least. The figure in the Wraith's sights (unexpectedly close, in fact) was obviously not Emily Peterson; though the camera seemed to be experiencing streaming difficulties, the person had dark hair. The figure was facing the other way, so he couldn't deduce anything else, other than the fact that something was in the person's hands. A long, metallic object, one end braced into the ground in front of the person, the other presumably aimed just below the camera.
What in Tartarus... am I looking at? Why...
The Illusionist's son tried to angle the camera controls, but to no avail. The image before him came together slowly.
Faulty? No... malfunctioning. The person has a weapon in their hands. They actually impaled this Wraith!? Who could possibly...
The figure in the picture turned his face to the camera. Solid black eyes glared back as he began mouthing a clear message.
"I know you can see me, Tristan. I will kill him for what he did to me. Daughter of Eris isn't going anywhere."
With that the connection timed out, along with the last vestiges of Tristan Sharos' composure.
I hope the message got across, Tyler thought moodily as the body of the impaled automaton crashed to the ground, leaving only the gargoyle-esque headpiece fixed to the end of his pike. Hate to think I was talking to broken camera.
The high-altitude wind whistled loudly through the shattered window in front of him. Other than that, the entire dorm room was silent.
"Emily? You're still here, right?"
The crunching of broken glass led his eyes to the couch. A blonde head peeked cautiously over the back of it. "D-did you just-"
Tyler sighed loudly. "Yes, I can do cool demititan things too. James and Sophie aren't the only ones, shockingly enough. Are you alright?"
"Yeah," she said, making sure to check her legs and arms for glass cuts as she said so. "I'm all good. I mean, I wasn't the one who took an entire pane of glass shards and a three-hundred pound piece of scrap metal to the back. How'd that go?"
Tyler looked down at his now-shredded clothes. His body had a couple of minor cuts here and there where glass had broken the skin (no mean feat when considering the durability of a demititan's body, including skin), but his sweatshirt was almost completely destroyed. Tyler thanked the gods (albeit reluctantly) that his pants were still holding up. Being found with his pants down in front of a twelve year-old would have been forty different flavors of awkward.
"Better than you'd think," Tyler reassured Emily, motioning to his pike. "Silverlace took the brunt of the scrap metal, and is still looking fine as ever. As for the glass... I'm pretty thick-skinned, I suppose."
"Laaame," she groaned light-heartedly.
"I'll be here all week."
Emily looked slowly around the dorm, assessing the damage with a somber expression. "Do you have any idea why the Hades that just happened?"
"Unfortunately, yes-"
Tyler was interrupted by a pounding on the door behind him. "Tyler, let us in!" a muffled voice yelled through the door. "It's Sophie and James! Are you guys alright?"
Tyler cursed to himself as he made his way to the door, stopping only to launch the Wraith head off the tip of Silverlace. "They are not going to like this," he mumbled as he unlocked the door.
James' lungs felt like they were trying to dig their way out of his chest by the time he and Sophie had made it to the Southern Dorm Platform. By the time they made it to the Elder Dorms, he was positive that they'd turned inside out, and on top of that his branded wrist was stinging with pain at this point. He didn't care. He had sprinted as hard as possible the entire way, dodging and slicing through the stray Wraiths that came their way. There was no way in Hades he was going to let anything happen to Emily or Tyler.
When he'd opened the door, Tyler looked like he'd been run over by a lawn mower. While that wasn't generally a good sign, he seemed, for the most part, okay. As okay as one could expect to be, all things considered.
"...Is...pant...Emily...pant..." Sophie started slowly, probably trying not to hyperventilate from the sudden drop in activity.
"She's fine," Tyler reassured, "but you two look like you're going to die. Especially you, James. Must be the armor."
James still couldn't speak without potentially throwing up, so he replied with a weak thumbs-up. Tyler took that as his cue to help support James as he stumbled into the dorm.
"Mind the glass."
"...pant...pant...pant...SERIOUSLY!?" James gasped as he saw the carnage in the dorm room. The back window was completely shattered, the wind howling from outside. As Tyler had warned, glass shards of various sizes had all but powdered most of the carpet. Worse still was the decapitated Wraith lying prone on the ground near the window, its entire body folded grotesquely torwards the neck. A sure sign Tyler had impaled it through the freaking head.
"Just be happy I was able to brace Sliverlace," Tyler remarked. "That thing would've barreled down the coffee table and the couch too if I hadn't."
"Well, that just makes me...ecstatic," Sophie said sarcastically, voice returning to normal. James was still getting there.
"Where's...the head...to the Wraith!?" James managed to spit out.
"Right here," a voice called to the right side of him. James turned to see Emily tossing the disfigured head around in her hands, as if it were a football. His entire body shook with relief that she was alright and unhurt.
"Well, glad to see we're all still alive and in possession of all our limbs," Sophie remarked.
"Haven't lost a finger or toe yet," Emily said cheekily. "Already a week in. Is that good?"
"For you? Very good," James replied with a weak chuckle. He was only half-kidding; if her first week was any indication, the poor girl was in for a trip.
Tyler groaned. "If you guys are going to group-hug or something, make it quick. I want to get the Hades out of here."
Sophie snapped her fingers. "Not yet," she said, walking to the coffee table. "I don't want this to get lost."
The old Illiad tome was laying open on the coffee table, opened to a page close to the front. James saw Tyler's little bookmark off to the side, along with the sticky note he'd left.
"You been going over this again, Tyler?" James asked. "I know you got a good vibe from it and all-"
"Not me," he replied, staring pointedly at Emily. She held up her hands helplessly. "What did you expect? Can't just leave me in a room with a guy who doesn't talk and expect me not to look through your guys' stuff."
"Fair enough," Sophie said passively. "It's nothing personal, anyway. We were just trying to get a better idea of why everyone's so interested in you lately-"
"The Apple of Discord?"
All eyes turned to the daughter of Eris. "Where did you hear that?" James asked cautiously.
Emily stared hard at him, making him flinch. "Well, first time was underneath a certain set of bleachers this morning. I figure that's the only way I'll ever be included in this kind of stuff anyway. Secretly."
James felt the blood rush to his face. "I was going to tell you later! How am I supposed to trust you with information if you're spying on me all the time?" he asked indignantly.
"I don't know, maybe because it's my mother you're talking about behind my back. Trust is supposed to go both ways. Why don't you trust me with information about my own family!? And by the way, I'm sure you would've told me later; your own version of it, anyway. Censored enough for you to consider it 'safe' for me."
James was starting to get mad. He could already begin to feel his eyes heat up, brightening into crimson. His brand felt like it was getting smashed with a hammer. "Do not talk to me about what's 'safe' to know. Do you think I'd be wearing a freaking gauntlet on my arm every single day if I thought it would be okay to tell the entire world about my screwed-up life? Some things are better left hidden, Emily, trust me. And as long as we're being so honest, I don't care if you feel differently. I'm not doing anything wrong by picking and choosing what I tell you if your life could be put in jeopardy if I don't guess right. We're dealing with some really sensitive information here, and until I know telling you something isn't going to hurt you, you won't hear anything from me!"
The dorm room got very quiet after James had finished. Emily even noted the wind from the broken window calming down. At least, part of her brain noted it. Most of her attention was put towards the shock of hearing James sound so bitter. James had never been the type to lose it like that; that was so obvious, Emily had picked up on it in under a week of knowing the guy. She honestly had no idea how to follow up on that. Apologize? Agree? Both?
Before she could do anything of the sort, the part of her brain that was constantly not paying attention to the task at hand took its focus away from the quieted winds and aimed it at a barely-audible beeping. Coming from the automaton head still in her hands.
"Does anyone else hear that?" Tyler asked quietly. "That beeping noise?"
"It's coming from this," Emily whispered, tossing the head to Tyler. "Throw it out the window."
"Let some poor Minnesotan farmer find it tomorrow morning," James said, rolling his eyes. "That guy's been getting crap like this for awhile now."
"Give me that," Sophie demanded quietly. Tyler handed it over obediently, minding Sophie's tense tone of voice. She held her ear closer to the head.
"I'm no child of Vulcan, but beeping usually means one of three things," James spoke up, any hint of previous anger absent from his voice. "Agreed," Sophie replied. "Recording, exploding, or tracking."
"Has it ever been all three?" Emily asked nervously. The three older half-bloods shared a glance.
"Well, tossing it out the window solves all three possibilities," James said with a shrug.
"Or combinations thereof," Sophie added sagely. She turned to walk to the window, but stopped immediately upon facing it, her face freezing into a look of barely-contained terror.
"Sophie?" James said worriedly, noticing her expression immediately. "Don't move a muscle," she replied quietly.
The next question he asked sent a new wave of chills down Emily's spine:
"...How many are there?"
Sophie shook her head slowly. "Too many," she whispered, barely audible.
"When?"
"Now. I'm staring at them, and they're staring at me. At least thirty. They're hovering right outside the window."
"...Tyler, listen to me very carefully," James whispered. "You're going to take Emily, and you're going to run. Out the door, as fast as you can down the hall. And I swear to Zeus, if you pick now to develop a debating habit, I'm going to choke slam you and throw you down that hallway."
"...When?"
"When the blades come out. Emily, no matter what happens, stay with Tyler. Same debate rules apply to you. We'll buy you enough time, I promise. Just...run."
Every muscle in Emily's body was fidgeting from sheer terror. These three half-titans, who fought and shredded through practice trainers and monsters like tissue paper, were now convinced that they couldn't even beat these things together safely. She wasn't even sure she had it in her to run; her legs felt cramped and locked up. James must've been able to see the terrible condition she was in.
"Calm down, Emily. Breathe. This isn't some sacrifice thing I'm going for here. I've got a lot of living to do, okay? Sophie and I, we know how to protect each other in a pinch like this. We'll be fine; the problem is that we'd have a really hard time keeping you and even Tyler just as safe. I don't want to take that risk, so I'm going to split us up. Sophie and I will do our part and hold them off, let as few of them after you as possible. But you need to do your part too, okay? You need to run. Can you do that?"
She took shaky breaths as he talked, listening to him try to calm her down. "I-I can do it, James."
James smirked and put his free hand over his gauntlet. "Good. Just keep up with Tyler. That's all you have to worry about. Not me, not Sophie, and especially not these pieces of junk."
Sophie clenched her fists, causing the gauntlet to crack and ring softly. "They just retracted their talons. Now or never."
"T-thanks, James," Emily whispered as he walked to Sophie's side.
James nodded to her in reply, the smile gone as he sized up the automatons. Tyler nudged Emily and turned towards the door ever-so-slightly. Emily mirrored him, still feeling like her legs were made of rubber, but determined to do her part.
She didn't look back to James or Sophie; the second she heard the sliding of the morphing blades, she was off like a bullet, Tyler close behind. After both were through the open doorway, Tyler spun around and slammed the door closed.
Just in time to hear the first ring of steel on metal.
A/N: I've finally established how long this story will be: somewhere around thirty-five chapters! That's what it's going to take to tell, and that's where I'm planning. This of course means that, if I'm going to be writing at the same rate I was during the fall semester, the book is pretty much half over! A two year story... holy crap. I would've never seen this happening a year ago. I hope you all continue to support this story; you guys are really the best.
-Grandmaster4