The manticore advanced slowly, relishing in its power over Clover and Luke. Both seemed uncertain as to what to do, until Luke decided to engage it in conversation, taking the hint that it wanted to talk, most likely to satisfy its pride.
"'More half-bloods'?" He asked, getting the feeling that he knew exactly whom the manticore was talking about.
The manticore seemed flattered that Luke wanted to talk. "Oh... You must be Luke Castellan." It mused. "I met your sister a few days back. Lovely girl. Interrupted my killing the titan's son."
Luke's heart dropped to his stomach. He had no idea what the manticore meant by "interrupted", but he had a feeling it wasn't something good. Rowan's interruptions in battles had often resulted in her own harm. He bypassed the thought, focusing on the creature before him.
"You start all this?" He asked, gesturing to the battle behind him.
The manticore grinned widely, madly, maliciously. "Of course I did... Mortals are so much more stupid than us, aren't they?"
Luke simply raised his eyebrows, nodding as he pondered the manticore's arrogance.
"How?" Clover asked, and Luke was almost scared out of his wits; he'd thought the satyr would be frozen in terror for at least a few more minutes. But Clover had spotted something moving toward them that Luke hadn't in his concentrated examination of the manticore's features. When Luke looked at the satyr, confused, he saw Clover's eyes fixed upon a point above the manticore, and Luke followed his gaze as the manticore spoke.
"Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Apparently a mortal's brain reacts very strongly to ambrosia: makes them go a little mad." The manticore seemed to be laughing at his own joke. "After that, it was easy to rile them up. Lots of dead makes for lots of prey."
Revulsion boiled in Luke's gut; he resisted the urge to charge the manticore then and there as he pictured the dead that littered the ground behind him, more casualties of the war raging between what appeared to be the Rebellion and the Empire. That anyone, even the loathsome creature before him, would capitalize upon the bodies of the dead, the dead that had sacrificed themselves for a cause so deeply significant and noble, so heartlessly seemed to bring fire to Luke's veins. But he forced himself to calm as the black speck on the horizon approached.
As it came closer, the waves of heat rising from the sands pulled away from it like a series of curtains, revealing it steadily to have arms and legs and a head, and finally, revealing it to be Romulus. The werewolf had a concentrated expression of thoughtfulness upon his face: his eyes grim, his mouth tight. But Luke couldn't have been happier to see the man.
He jerked his attention back to the manticore, who was eyeing Clover hungrily. Clover's attention had rapidly been turned back to the manticore.
"Then you must have grown fat," Luke taunted, finally finding the words to respond to the monster.
Evidently, the manticore was insecure, for it roared: "Fool! You stand before me, armed with nothing but a treacherous sword!"
"Ah," Luke mused, pouring as much arrogance and insult as he could into his voice, "but you are a slug, if what you say is true. I think I'll be okay." He threw in a smirk at the end, unable to resist the urge. Behind the manticore, Romulus grinned.
The manticore, however, was not amused. It charged forward, bellowing its rage.
- - -
When Rowan walked out from within the shadows that enveloped the alley leading directly to Eros's temple, she saw that all hell, in fact, had broken loose. With something of a more irritated expression, she snuck into the shadows on her right, creeping her way along the walls of the crowded buildings until she reached the source of the shouting, explosions, and screaming.
Saw's rebels had attacked what appeared to be an Imperial tank. Cloaked and hooded rebels stood upon roofs and in the midst of crowded and screaming men and women, armed to the teeth with grenades and blasters. Rowan immediately removed hers from its holster, holding it relaxedly at her side as she scanned the panicked area for any sign of Cassian or Jyn; she had a feeling they would be in the midst of it.
Her eyes, upon observing the chaos before her, widened a little, and emotion returned to them, though they had suddenly attained the quality of appearing much older than they were. Dust plumed and bodies flew as grenades were tossed about randomly. The tension of Jedha had finally burst in flame and blood; before her lay the result.
The main conflict was here, in a small city square, four alleys leading to it. Rowan searched it, panic growing in her as she beheld the devastation, hoping beyond hope that Cassian and Jyn were far away from there. But they weren't.
Rowan spotted Jyn a ways away, the woman grabbing hold of a young, screaming child and dragging him to shelter. The mother soon arrived to save the little boy, thanking Jyn weepingly. Jyn simply lay there, knocked to her back by a nearby blast, stunned at the battle raging about her.
Suddenly Rowan heard a voice near her, a Stormtrooper. "Hit the tower," he was commanding, his voice as emotionless as they usually were.
With dread, Rowan realized that Jyn was directly beneath it. Rowan didn't think; she moved. She was up in a second, sprinting into the fray, her blaster clutched in her fist, her eyes alert and fiery as she watched the tank's cannon readjust itself, moving ever so slowly, ever so ominously, to aim and fire upon the ramshackle tower and crush Jyn. Just as it fired, Rowan grabbed hold of Jyn's arm, dragging her away, roaring, "Move!" at the top of her lungs.
Jyn did, a little surprised at the sudden arrival of Rowan. Rowan dragged her to the only sheltered space in the square: the space between the two front wheels of the tank. When they got there, Rowan threw her back against the wheel, breathing heavily. Across the clearing, she spotted Cassian, who was watching them both, blaster out and arms stiff, ready to fire. Suddenly, she watched his eyes travel worriedly to a point above both of their heads, and she followed his gaze to see a man raising his arm to throw a grenade to the place they sat hidden.
Her eyes jerked back to Cassian, raising his blaster to fire, and then to Jyn. The woman was watching the world about them carefully, eyeing every escape she could find. When the bullet left Cassian's blaster, Rowan moved, leaping out from her position and charging toward him. Jyn followed. Rowan turned her head to watch the extremist fall, dead, to the ground. Just as he landed, she crashed into Cassian, who grabbed hold of her, steadying her. It was a pointless gesture, for the grenade of the extremist went off just then and rocked the earth. Rowan and Cassian fell in a tumble, Jyn landing next to them.
It seemed with this explosion, the Empire was able to regain a little control, for the area quieted, and Rowan, Cassian, and Jyn stood slowly to their feet, staggering a little as they hurried into a side alley.
"This way." Cassian gestured and they followed, Rowan realizing she had lost her blaster in the chaos.
- - -
"Leo..." Calypso's voice was soft, broken, and in it, Leo could hear the repressed tears. "Leo, why?"
Leo ran a hand through long-unwashed hair. "I'm the only one who can do this, Calypso... Sunshine." He attempted a smile. It didn't work.
Calypso laughed a little, resisting the urge to reach out and cup his face in her hands. But she was far, far away, and the Iris message, the misty rainbow, was far too cruel. Behind her, the world was changing, men and women hurried into vessels that would take them from where they were to Ogygia. She never thought that she would ever find herself actively herding mortals to the land she had always regarded a prison, treating it as if it were their savior. It was.
And now Leo.
Her life would be less than a life if he... The word escaped her, too horrible to conceive. Leo could not die. He was there before her in the mist from the underground spring they'd found in the Labyrinth, transformed into a rainbow by the flashlight Annabeth was holding. Annabeth had been quiet throughout the whole conversation, looking at her feet.
"I'll go with you." Calypso suddenly said, and Annabeth looked up quickly.
"No, Sunshine." Leo was firm. "I can't ask you to do that. We don't even know if it will work. It probably won't. I'm not letting you die that way."
Panic had entered Leo's voice; his eyes were bright in fear and desperation.
"And I'm not letting you die alone." Calypso retorted, putting her hands on her hips. Leo smiled a little at the familiar posture.
"But- but-" Leo protested.
"Leo..." Calypso's voice softened. "The last sacrifice you made, you made alone, and you made it for me." Her heart was beating harshly now when she remembered the day that he had come out of the clouds, clothes singed, face covered in ash. "This time, you don't have to do it alone."
"Calypso..." Leo's face was contorted with pain. "Calypso, we're gonna die."
A tear trickled down Calypso's face. She wanted to hold him so badly. "But we're not going to do it alone."
Leo nodded, unable to accept, unable to reject, paralyzed in the face of the overwhelming presence of death. Oh, how he didn't want to die. Oh, how he didn't want her to die.
Calypso knew what was running through his head; she knew it as well as she knew him.
She chose to be decisive for him. "It'll take me around a day and a half to get to you." She explained. "Wait for me."
Leo looked defeated; his eyes were ages older than they had been before when he looked up into Calypso's eyes. A tear was making its lonely, weary way down his dirty cheek; his eyes were bloodshot, cheeks pale and sunken. But gratefulness flickered in his features and filled his voice, relief at her companionship on the lonely road that all men take to death.
"I will." He assured. "Love you, Sunshine." He choked.
"Love you, too, Mr. McShizzle." She attempted a joke, but it fell flat, murdered by the pain shared between them. Wishing she could gaze upon him for just a little longer, capturing the face that hovered before her in the dim light of the Labyrinth, she swept a hand through the mist, and the rainbow disappeared, Leo's face fading like a wilting flower into the dark.
"I need to pack." She told Annabeth, whose eyes had returned to the ground.
Annabeth only nodded, and pulled her friend into a hug. The two had grown close over the months that they'd spent wandering the ashen remains of Earth, searching for exits from the planet into Ogygia, where Calypso had assumed they would be safe for at least a little while. All animosity in relation to Percy had been put aside to make way for a fierce companionship.
Annabeth would not counter Calypso's decision; she had known the woman long enough to recognize the look in her eyes, the iron resolution, the adamantine will. And so she hugged the woman, her arms wrapping around the muscular frame, pushing as much comfort into her friend as possible.
When Calypso pulled away, her eyes were red, but her expression forbade all pitying from Annabeth, who simply moved out of Calypso's way as she hurried to the sleeping bags they'd laid out in the dark on the cold ground.
- - -
The first Stormtrooper was an easy kill. Cassian had charged forward, shooting it, Rowan close on his heels. And then a whole group of them came flooding into the alley. Cassian spun around, and the three of them hurried to find shelter in the small gaps between houses. Rowan threw herself against the wall, closest to the alley and the approaching Stormtroopers, as Cassian's back hit the wall father in. Jyn took shelter across the alley, her eyes moving to the Troopers that hurried forward, armed.
This was when Cassian noticed something was wrong with Rowan. Her carefree demeanor, so quick to joke and laugh, had been replaced by a grim, angry one. She was breathing heavily with the emotions that she fought, suppressing it with a glare as she kept herself out of view. Her eyes were shimmering, too, though they burned with anger, in a way that Cassian had never seen. The emotions that were obviously boiling in her became too much to bear when the Stormtroopers got close, for she leapt into action.
"Rabdí!" She roared as she leapt out of the shadow of the buildings, her ring forming into a tall, black staff.
The first Trooper was felled with a blow that nocked his head backwards upon his neck and broke it, sending him crashing in a pile of armor to the dust below. The next, she smacked across the face, snapping his neck just as easily.
From the small alley, Cassian inched into the larger one, his blaster at the ready, his face plastered with confusion as he watched Rowan swiftly dispatch the remaining Stormtroopers in the fury of her rage. Her eyes were fiery, her hair whipping about as she moved with all the contained energy of a pouncing lioness.
When she was done, she straightened, commanding her staff to slide back into its ring form. She stood there for a moment, her body heaving with released emotion and the effort of her muscles in the fight. Her hands were still twitching until she rubbed her face, evidently to rub the tears that had gathered in her eyes. Then she pushed har hair back and it clung to the top of her head, dripping with sweat. She turned to Cassian, some form of her old demeanor returning to her eyes as she forced herself into the state she had always inhabited.
"What happened to the rendezvous point?" A smirk lifted one corner of her lips, her eyes twinkled a little, the darkness in them receding uncertainly.
"We got sidetracked." Cassian returned, choosing not to acknowledge the elephant in the room, or, rather, the alley, until he was alone with Rowan.
Rowan raised her eyebrows, laughter brimming in her eyes in place of tears as she opened her mouth to respond.
Just then, a K-2 unit entered the alley, moving much the same way K-2SO did. Without hesitation, Jyn raised her blaster and shot it dead between the eyes. It fell with a crash and a plume of dust to the ground, only to be replaced by yet another K-2 unit.
"Did you know that wasn't me?" K asked, seeming highly put out.
Rowan smirked. "Good to see you, K."
"I thought I told you to stay on the ship." Cassian was facing K now, repressing his laughter and reloading his blaster. Behind him, Rowan rubbed muscles sore from disuse. Jyn simply stared at the droid, a laugh finally in her eyes.
"You did, but I thought it was boring, and you were in trouble." K returned indignantly. "There are a lot of explosions for three people trying to blend in."
He finished speaking just as yet another group of Stormtroopers began to flood the alley behind him. One threw a grenade and it sailed directly toward K as Rowan, Cassian, and Jyn moved slowly backwards away from the approaching Troopers. Jyn was nodding to the Troopers, trying to indicate to K that they weren't alone, but K caught the flying grenade without anything resembling a second thought.
"Freeze right there!" A Trooper shouted, but was unable to say much else as K tossed the grenade back behind him to the Stormtroopers just as casually as he had caught it.
The explosion killed the Troopers and rocked the buildings around them, as Rowan, Cassian, and Jyn watched the droid with new amazement flickering to life in their eyes.
"You're right," K's voice held so much sarcasm and arrogance that Rowan snorted. "I should just stay on the ship."
Cassian raised his eyebrows, mirth and respect brewing in his eyes as K led the trio out of the alley, back into the open, and right into the presence of a large troop of Stormtroopers. Rowan's heart dropped to her stomach from its high brought on by adrenaline and amusement. The trio froze beside K-2. Rowan stood between Cassian and Jyn, glancing at the former from the corner of her eyes, trying to gauge what to do from her friend's expression. He was as clueless as she was.
Together, they turned to walk away, slinking from the clearing like thieves from the site of their crime.
"Halt!" Came the shout, the classic shout, from behind them, and the four froze. "Stop right there!"
Wincing, Rowan turned with the group, praying they would get out of this one. With a flash, she remembered Jedha's prison and forced down the panic starting up in her chest.
"Where are you taking these prisoners?" The Stormtrooper turned his words to K-2, and Rowan breathed a sigh of relief. They might make it out of this alive. And then she remembered K-2's skills when it came to lying, and groaned inwardly at their luck.
Her dread wasn't unfounded. "These are prisoners?" K-2 asked, naïveté evident in his voice. Rowan breathed a sigh of disappointment beneath her breath.
"Yes." The Stormtrooper returned, moving forward. Rowan believed his blaster was rather uncomfortably close. "Where are you taking them?"
"I am taking them..." K-2 paused, completely blowing their cover. "To imprison them... In prison." The droid fumbled over the words.
Beside her, it was Cassian's turn to wince, his face contorting in an imperceptible flash of pain and grim hopelessness. There was no way they could fight their way out of this, and he knew that.
"He's taking us to-" Cassian started, attempting to remedy the damage of K's blatant lies, but he was cut off by K himself, smacking Cassian across the face. Cassian stumbled a little, and Rowan moved to grab hold of him as he cradled his cheek, now truly wincing in pain.
"Quiet!" K commanded in mock authority, obviously trying to repair his own mistakes. "And there's a fresh one if you mouth off again!" He threatened, and Rowan couldn't help but release the snort that had been building up at the droid's antics.
The Stormtrooper sounded unimpressed. "We'll take them from here."
"That's okay." K was scrambling. "If you could just point me in the right direction, I can take them, I'm sure. I've taken them this far..."
K never got the chance to finish as the Stormtroopers advanced and promptly handcuffed Rowan, Cassian, and Jyn. Rowan smirked when she remembered that the last time she had been handcuffed was when she had met Cassian.
"Hey, wait a second!" She protested, jerking her hands away from the Trooper, who persisted lazily.
"Take them away." He commanded in the same lackadaisical tone.
Two Stormtroopers escorted them away, one on either side of the three.
"Wait!" K-2 protested, hurrying to catch up with them. Rowan looked back, her eyebrows knit together in concern as she watched K. Cassian was just as alarmed, resisting the Troopers that led them.
"Hey, droid!" One of the Troopers shouted after K-2. "You can't take them away! You need to stay here. We need to check your diagnostics!"
K-2 sounded highly offended when he spoke, freezing in his steps. Complying with their resistance, the Troopers hesitated to lead Cassian, Rowan, and Jyn any farther. "Diagnostics?" K-2 exclaimed. "I'm capable of running my own diagnostics, thank you very much!"
As Rowan watched the proceedings, stress etched into her features, she noticed a figure emerge from a doorway, watched by other civilians that had gathered like flies to dead flesh to view the proceedings. When K-2's protestations got him nowhere, the figure spoke in faltering English, wrestling with the phonetics of the words that fell from his lips, mysterious and awe-inspiring for their courage.
"Let them pass in peace." He said, coming into the daylight that streamed from between the buildings rising about them.
The only response was dead silence as they observed this new addition. He was obviously blind, his eyes a milky white and blue and mesmerizing. He was small, about the size of Rowan and Jyn, cloaked in tans and browns with the sudden appearance of bright, blood reds that occasionally exploded with color from the depths of the rest of the blandness of his clothes. He carried a staff, and Rowan got the feeling the staff was not just for walking.
"Let them pass in peace." He repeated, this time firmer. "The Force is with me, and I am with the Force, and I fear nothing, for all is as the Force wills it."
"Hey, stop right there!" A Stormtrooper shouted, aiming its blaster at the blind man. The others followed in suit. Rowan couldn't help but wonder why Stormtroopers always commanded people to do things "right there", and almost missed the comments thrown at the blind man that stood tall in the face of all the blasters he could not see.
"He's blind." One Stormtrooper stated. "Is he deaf?"
"I said," The Stormtrooper who had spoken first repeated, "Stop right there!"
As the Stormtroopers' fingers began to adjust on their triggers and their feet shuffled into the right position, Cassian grabbed Rowan, gesturing to a space to hide behind part of a fallen wall leaning against the building. Jyn followed the two as K ushered them there, and the three peeked out from their hiding space, K-2's head protruding awkwardly above them all, as they watched the blind man spring into action.
He had cocked his head when the Stormtroopers were preparing to fire, as if listening in on what was happening, and Rowan remembered what she had learned about blind men, how their hearing was oftentimes better than the average human's.
When the first shot went off, the blind man ducked, and charged. With his stick, his feet, and the use of his cloak, he quickly incapacitated the Stormtroopers before them in a flurry of action.
Beside Cassian, Rowan muttered a small "dang" beneath her breath. Cassian smirked beside her, watching the blind man dispatch the Troopers with the ease of an expert. He stood tall amidst the bodies around him when he finished, and Rowan could see a hint of a smirk on his face as another troop of Stormtroopers flooded the perimeter of the area, surrounding the blind man at a distance, blasters aimed at the blind man's head.
Just as Rowan was despairing for the life of the man she had come to respect in the last few minutes, rapid blaster fire erupted from behind him, felling the Stormtroopers in the span of two seconds. Rowan raised her eyebrows in surprise.
From the smoke behind the blind man, another man emerged. This one was large, tall, muscular, intimidating. He was armed to the teeth with blasters, an especially large one in his hand and hooked to a huge tank upon his back, strapped to him like a backpack. It was a heavy repeater cannon, and Rowan was amazed, struggling to pull her attention from the man's weapon to his face. It was old and tired, hard and well-worn. His hair was long and messy, a deep brown compared to his friend's soft black, short locks.
"You almost shot me!" The blind man protested, hands resting on his staff.
A Stormtrooper moved on the ground, lifting its head to see its surroundings, its blaster following as it aimed to shoot the blind man. The large one didn't miss it, promptly shooting the Trooper in the face. It fell limp to the ground.
"You're welcome." The large man returned, moving about the clearing and examining the bodies for signs of life.
K-2, Cassian, Rowan, and Jyn moved hesitantly from their hiding spot, unsure of their feet, wondering if or when they might need to run for it, though they all had a feeling that running for it would do them no good against this eclectic pair.
"Clear of hostiles." K-2 announced, looking about the clearing.
In response, the large man aimed his cannon at K. The droid's hands shot up in the air.
"One hostile!" He took back his former words, and Jyn ran in front of him, raising her cuffed hands in defense. In the split second it happened, Rowan couldn't help but be impressed.
"He's with us!" Jyn shouted.
The blind man had made his way to a low wall, seating himself in a way that would deceive Rowan's eyes had she not seen the way he had moved with skill and speed beforehand.
"They're all right." The blind man placated his friend, who lowered his blaster.
"Thanks." Jyn returned as K-2 picked the lock to her handcuff. It fell off with a beep, and Rowan was next. She nodded to the droid as hers came off, and moved to stand beside Jyn, looking with uncertainty at the men, rubbing her wrists. Behind her, K-2 removed Cassian's, speaking.
"Cassian, I'm sorry about the slap." He apologized, and Rowan turned to watch the droid and Cassian, amusement in her eyes.
"Go back to the ship," Cassian commanded, though not unkindly. "Wait for my call."
Rowan watched as K-2 loped off into the distance, through the dusty streets. She turned back to the pair with Cassian, whose blaster was now out and at the ready, his arms holding it stiff before him, till he thought better of it and slipped it into his holster.
"Is he Jedi?" Cassian asked, addressing the larger man.
The large man looked tired, as if he had answered the question far too often for his liking. "There are no Jedi here anymore, only dreamers like this fool."
"The Force did protect me." The blind man put in.
Incredulous, the larger man looked at his friend, gesturing to himself, eyebrows raised and voice defensive. "I protected you!"
"Can you get us to Saw Gerrera?" Jyn asked, and the clearing suddenly erupted in activity as extremists flooded it. Rowan suddenly found herself on her knees surrounded by a large group of them, Cassian and Jyn in the same predicament near them.
The blind man protested as he went down. "Can't you see we are no friends of the Empire?" He shouted angrily.
An alien language erupted from the faces of one of the extremists. Rowan had seen his kind in cantinas throughout the galaxy: a bulbous metal head with something like an old microphone for a mouth. In the little bit of alien that she knew, Rowan could translate his words to be: "Tell that to the one who killed our men."
Rowan's eyes traveled to Cassian, who was struggling hopelessly against his captors. Seeing his fight, Rowan jerked her shoulder from under the repression of one of the extremists surrounding her, moving to get to Cassian.
"Back off!" She hissed to the alien, who gave her an apathetic look and shoved her shoulder down in its socket so that it threatened to pop out. She gave a cry of pain, and Cassian redoubled his struggles.
"Anyone who kills me or my friends will answer to Saw Gerrera!" Jyn roared, with more authority than Rowan thought the woman could posses, for the harsh restraining of the extremists lessened.
"And why is that?" The extremist that had addressed them earlier spoke.
Jyn fixed him with a look of disgust and pride. "Because I'm the daughter of Galen Erso."
The alien seemed momentarily taken aback, before he turned to his troops. "Take them!" He commanded, and Rowan found herself with a sack over her head.
A ways to her right, as the extremists forced her to her feet, holding her tightly by the arms to keep her from running, she heard the blind man: "Are you kidding me? I'm blind!"