The rest of them were already gathered when Luke and Jyn slipped into the meeting room, a collection of them all standing about the card table in the center, strangely devoid of all the papers that Luke had seen just hours before, the surface of it now occupied solely by the map. One glance to the seat upon which

Reyna had been sleeping revealed to him where the papers had all moved, now piled precariously high upon it. Luke and Jyn weren't quite noticed when they walked in, and Luke soon saw why.

As he looked about the room, taking in the features of the men and women, consisting solely of his fellows from space, aside from Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and immortals, in the case of Dionysus, Morpheus, Athena, and Apollo, looking rather irritated, gathered there, he saw that many of them were still exhausted, the bags beneath their eyes and the glazed look in them seeming worse than it had the night before, and Luke had a feeling that he wasn't the only person that hadn't slept well.

Rowan was reclining across the room from him, her elbows on her knees, angled high from where she had fallen onto a low bench, her head hanging low. Beside her, Cassian leaned his head up against the wall, his eyes slipping shut no matter how hard he attempted to combat them. Rowan glanced up when Luke walked in, and there was a glimmer of amusement in her eyes as they drifted to Jyn. She winked at Luke, and Luke shot her a stinging glare. Undaunted, she lowered her head once more, a chuckle ripping through her. Cassian glanced down, his eyebrows raised in confusion, a gentle smile tilting up the corner of his lips, a laugh glimmering within his eyes.

Clover stood silently beside Romulus before the table, glancing over at the werewolf's stiff form as he did so, and Luke couldn't help but note that the satyr seemed to be subconsciously attempting to mimic the werewolf's posture, looking him up and down. Luke repressed a laugh at the sight, looked to the others there. Bohdi, a man he hadn't ever truly spoken to, but that he remembered from the ship, was glancing about himself with a startled expression, looking over his shoulder with each passing moment. It took Luke an effort to wrench his gaze away from the nervous quivering in the man's lips, endlessly combating the permeating weariness in his eyes.

Beside him stood Baze and Chirrut, the only two that looked as if they had received any semblance of rest, standing tall, almost as tall as Romulus, but without the gravity of the werewolf, their faces devoid of the grimness in his. It hadn't taken Luke long to realize that Chirrut was the idealist of the pair, Baze the fighter, and the balance presented itself here as it had in all the other situations Luke had seen them manage, but the signs of exhaustion lingered in them, too.

Luke and Jyn moved about the table to Rowan and Cassian, who had risen from their bench, leaning against the wall in an attempt to rouse themselves, meeting each other's eyes with a deep concern as the time for the meeting drew nearer and nearer. Luke saw Rowan shift a little closer to Cassian, almost involuntarily, and he found a small smirk slipping across his features, thinking of the look she'd given him when he'd come in with Jyn. She was still behind him, and he could feel her keeping close till they reached the opposite wall, steps seeming loud in the muffled, silent dread of the room.

"Good morning," Rowan said when they arrived. Mischief still lingered in her eyes.

"'Morning," he returned, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at her. She seemed to sense this, for her grin widened.

Suddenly, there was a bang to their right, and all eyes turned to it as Reyna strode into the room. She'd cleaned herself up from the haggard mess that Luke had seen earlier that morning, and her eyes were wide, flashing with a bright wakefulness that was not reflected in the eyes of the others there, unless it was panic at the sudden, jarring entrance. Anticipation flowed like a current though them all, and they followed with trepidation the movements of their leader.

She held their gazes as she turned, taking them all in, coming to a standstill at the table. Meeting the eyes of Rowan, Cassian, Luke, and Jyn in the corner, she beckoned them forward, and then raised her voice to speak to the rest of them.

"In order for us to understand our next steps, you need to be informed as to the state we're in," she said, her voice deep and grave, gaze heavy. "I must ask you to keep whatever I tell you to yourselves. As much as we wish the opposite, our current position is a difficult one, and any indication of this to our troops could be fatal for us. This is top secret information."

There was a collective nod. Rowan found herself holding her breath in the weight of the room, feeling the resistance to it building within her, the urge to run, to fight, but she stilled herself, tried to ease the tension in her muscles.

Reyna began then. "Ouranos's attack began four months ago. Since then, the earth has seen cataclysmic events worthy of the Apocalypse. Our first order of business was to protect the mortals who had no defense against it, and so, with the help of Calypso, Hera, and Demeter, we've been able to relocate most of humanity to Ogygia. Those left are being sought out by a few teams of demigods we have in the Labyrinth, transporting them to Ogygia. Of all the defensive measures we've taken against Ouranos, this has been our most successful, and it's been the most important… Up till now."

She glanced back to Apollo. Luke realized the irritation on the god's features hadn't been irritation at all; he was exhausted. It permeated the whole of his face, sinking deep within lines that Luke had never anticipated for an immortal. There was age in the ageless, and horror disfigured Luke's features when he looked back to Reyna. Her expression was grave.

"Our defensive lines are failing. You became acquainted with our last asset." Her voice seemed to drop an octave, grating with despair. "It would have been a momentary collapse of Ouranos's attack, long enough for us to retreat to Ogygia and hold our last defense there. With the arrival of Typhon, that plan would have failed. Leo's suicide would have been followed swiftly by our own. Thanks to you, we've been able to recover some of the ground we've lost, but our war is no longer solely defensive- we can't maintain that. We've got forces in the open now that had originally been scout troops. Our hope is to strike some small, but fatal blow to our enemy, but even that has been failing. Rowan, you were lucky to be in our medical ward at a time when it wasn't filled. That's been a circumstance that has come few and far between. Your prophecy," her eyes fell to Luke, "is our last hope."

Rowan glanced down to the map, noting the red and blue markers all over the surface of it. Bypassing the last comment of Reyna, she gestured to them.

"What are those?"

Reyna furrowed her brow, confused, and glanced down, noting where Rowan's finger was pointing, and nodded in understanding. "The red marks where Ares and his troops are gathered. The giants are roaming the land once more, and they're hunting them. Alcyoneus has given us a little bit of trouble," she added, giving Rowan a significant look.

Rowan's head shot up at the name, her eyes flashing. "He was imprisoned in Tartarus," she said, her voice low, threatening, but Reyna's eyes were grim, and Rowan remembered that the woman had spent some time in the Underworld. There was the pall of it in her eyes, the hidden scars of a time spent there, deep within the confines of the dead, and Rowan almost regretted her tone, but the urgent, seething fear was still there.

"That's the other problem," Reyna nodded. "Tartarus is with Ouranos. They've formed an alliance."

Rowan's breath caught in her throat. "And my father?" Her eyes were dangerously hard when Cassian glanced down, tracing their gaze to Reyna, who stiffened beneath it, her own flashing out in rebellion.

"His forces are large," Athena said from the right, moving out from the shadows of the corner. Her voice was low, soothing. "Of all of us, his forces loose the least ground, but," and here she paused, hesitating, "Tartarus hasn't fully risen yet. We don't know the true extent of his forces, or whether or not he's exhausting Hades's force before sending out his full power."

Rowan shifted her weight on her feet, stepped closer to the table. "Let me go to him," she said, her voice low, directed to Reyna. But Reyna's eyes were dark, regretful even in their firmness.

"I understand your desire to see him and help where you may, but our fight is here. Hades has not sent out call for help, and so we must respect the dignity of his actions and assume that he does not need it. In any case, we cannot spare the resources," Reyna explained. Cassian felt Rowan stiffen beside him, saw the frustration tensing in her shoulders, wished he could support her in her fight, but the logic of Reyna made more sense than he was willing to admit, and he looked to her, nodding his understanding.

Rowan fumbled with her thoughts for a moment, the ferocity of her nature, with such a penchant for passion, wrestling with the cool but compassionate reasoning of Reyna. Finally, she glanced to Cassian, saw in his eyes his understanding, and his agreement with Reyna. She sighed, a barely perceptible exhalation, her eyes flashing before resuming their usual expression, turning to Reyna.

"Alright," she was able to force from between her lips. "We solve the prophecy," she said, but then her features tightened. "Then I go to my father." The words were hard, unyielding, and Reyna nodded with a slight incline of the head.

"Solve the prophecy, and we'll give you what resources you need to get there," she offered, and then looked back to the rest of them. Cassian noted, however, that she shot Rowan one last look, an impressed one, her eyebrows raised in admiration for the fiery determination of the demigod that had not diminished in the years since they had last fought beside each other. She felt suddenly grateful for her presence there, knowing full well that the forces of Ouranos and Tartarus would quail before her should they do even the smallest thing to cross her. Reyna's eyes then drifted to Cassian's, and saw there the command, the absorbing calm of the depths of the sea, and recognized from whence the power to quell Rowan's towering fury originated.

Luke, who had been following her gaze, met her eyes when they landed on his with a knowing smile, glancing to his sister and the son of Kronos.

"Now," Reyna sighed, all merriment fading. "The prophecy." She paused, recalling to mind the lines that Luke had recited over and over, forcing down the ball of hopelessness that had gathered in her throat. She cleared it, looked to the others, took in the new faces with what she could manage of a reassuring smile, though it came out somehow twisted, and she highly doubted it had done them any good.

"The first line seems simple enough," the words came from the young woman beside Luke. Reyna recalled her name was Jyn, inclined an ear toward her. Rowan glanced to Athena then, noted a frown of confusion on the goddess's face, and wondered what it might portend.

Rowan tugged her gaze away to Reyna, who had picked up on Jyn's train of thought. "The sighted shall enter the half-blood's domain would imply Earth. As those of you that aren't demigods," here her eyes took in those of Baze, Chirrut, Bohdi, and Jyn, "have obviously been gifted with clear sight, we may be able to assume that this part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. But the rest of the lines don't appear to be so clear…," she let the sentence trail off.

"With hope will the sun rise again," Luke repeated, glancing outside to the profound black that had enveloped the earth. "I wonder if that means that Nyx will be defeated." Involuntarily, he glanced down to Jyn beside him. Cassian, on his other side, watched the exchange, looked to Rowan and saw there an amused glitter in her eyes despite the troubled look brewing deep within.

"The next line might refer to that as well," Morpheus interjected, then, and his voice seemed to come with a forced vagueness, though his eyes drifted to Rowan as he recited it, some form of remorse deep within them. The trials she and Cassian had suffered still haunted him. The god of dreams hadn't gotten much sleep that night. "To shadow must the darkness fall," he finished.

Reyna nodded approvingly, and Rowan was glad that none of the other eyes in the room turned to her, preferring the anonymity of Cassian's shadow to the searching gazes of all those gathered. Though she had saved Luke's life years ago, it had been a moment of desperation, of a tearing, wrenching passion that had woken her enough, invigorated her enough, to heal him. Even on Scarif, her powers had been somewhat erratic, ungoverned. Though she knew she had a potential for it, a potential to be great, she was sure that defeating Nyx would be impossible were it left to her.

"Erebus, her husband, is protogenoi of shadow, though," the words came from Athena, whose gaze had flicked from assessing Rowan's expression to those of the others there. "There is a chance he may turn on her if we can recruit him to our side. He's one of the lesser protogenos, but his power is still formidable, rivaling the titans, even."

"Where are they?" The question came from Cassian, the first he'd spoken in the presence of Reyna since the his emphatic refusal to lose Rowan on the beach. He'd kept his silence even during the meeting with Rhea, and Reyna was struck once more by the harshness of his voice, the edge to his words, calculated, careful, but fierce, principled. She looked to him, and inclined her head, understanding.

"Most of them have been chained up in Tartarus, specifically our allies. They were our first defense, and kept back those forces till we could evacuate most of humanity. Of those remaining, Atlas and Hyperion are working together to hold up the sky, and Bob works to keep our titan enemies imprisoned," she explained. "We've heard no rumors of Kronos moving." It was a comfort, but the images that had burst from the blade haunted Cassian's mind, and he could not rid himself of the picture of Kronos rising high above him, fiery eyes bent with a maddening destruction upon him. He suppressed a chill that ran down his spine, and Rowan moved an inch closer to him, pressing her arm reassuringly into him.

"We can only assume that the fourth line applies to you, Cassian," the statement came from Romulus, and Cassian turned to the werewolf, reading in there a compassion and a trust. "And titan's child will stand tall," he recited, turning his eyes onto the rest of the gathering, awaiting their consensus. It was unanimous, and Cassian rose to meet it with a reassuring bravery in his expression. "Of course," continued Romulus, "we don't quite know what it entails."

"A lonely road shall lead to doom," the words came, shivering from Bohdi's lips. He was still pale, though he had regained something of his original constitution, his eyes bright. "Wh- what does that mean?"

All eyes turned to Athena, but the goddess looked disappointed. "I'm afraid I don't know," she said. "But to whomever it applies, I fear it will be a heavy burden to bear."

A pall of dread settled over them, and Clover struggled to break the silence, but his voice started to fail when he recited the next line. It did not bring them much hope. "And all shall fail at sky's tomb."

However, Athena's expression seemed to loose its darkness. "There is a rumor," she began before anyone else had the chance to speak, "but it hasn't been confirmed, that the parts of Ouranos's heart that were still floating out in the open were gathered together and placed into something of a tomb by an early cult of demigods that worshipped him as the rightful heir to the earth. If it is true, then the place would be reeking with dark magic, but would also give us a place to hunt for. I can request that Hermes send out scouts to search for it."

She fell silent, and the others looked to Reyna, who was nodding. A glimmer of hope flickered to life in her eyes despite the fore-coming despair predicted by the line. She could only hope it was a defeat that would lead to victory. "Very well," she said. "It gives us a starting point."

"The exile returns in a chariot of flame." Rowan's voice rang out, and she met Romulus's eyes, then Morpheus's. "That could refer to any of us three," she said. "The chariot of flame could have been the U-Wing." She winced at the thought of its wreckage, glanced to Romulus, who luckily seemed to have gotten over the momentary tragedy of his ship's loss. Reyna furrowed her brow in confusion and cocked her head. "Spaceship," Rowan corrected, a small laugh bursting from her despite the weight of the atmosphere.

"A broken world will never be the same. But broken is not defeated, and there is hope there," the words came from Chirrut, low, intent, his milky white eyes hidden as he angled his head downward. He had not spoken throughout the meeting, preferring to listen closely to the words of those gathered about them, to feel the tones in their voices, the urgency, the despair, the puzzlement, the hope. "The Force is strong," he muttered at the end to punctuate his speech. Reyna furrowed her brow, regarding the man in a quizzical light, but the eyes of the others there were cast down, and the large man beside him was grinning somewhat at them, as if urging forward the conviction of his friend's words.

Rowan was grinning when she looked up, and, bolstered by Chirrut's faith, her tone was brighter than it had been moments before.

"So," she said, fixing her gaze on Reyna. "What's the plan?"