We got a couple long ones here but there's just so much happening now. Woot. I'm trying to organize everything in this story as well as a couple side stories, beating a couple stories, existing in general, but I accidentally got sucked into the Persona series - specifically Persona 5 - and now so many hours have gone to waste trying to please a dozen of my virtual friends and increasing my star of personality traits!
Anyway, have a double update because these two chapters were initially one until it started getting looooong…
Enjoy! :)
First Person: Veon
"Well this is going well!"
"WHAT?!"
"I said THIS IS GOING WELL!"
"NO IT'S NOT!"
"I WAS BEING - ugh, you know what? - GET BELOW DECK! NOW!"
Frank, Annabeth, and Piper had joined Hazel and Azrael below deck. Their efforts to get the ship in the air had proven futile, and they were safer inside the boat than outside on deck.
I'd practically spread the Kako into every conceivable nook and cranny of the ship, holding together the rigging by a thread. Leo's engineering had already beefed up the defenses on the ship, making it sturdy, and his little project had helped as well, but the Kako were needed to keep all his hard work from going down in flames - or rather, in salt water.
Ariel the water-steed was still frantically circling the ship, ramming into waves of water and then causing them to redirect their course before emerging again - becoming the waves and then changing their direction with her sentience. Audrey had been sucked into one of the waves, but I wasn't too worried about her drowning or anything. Maybe she was fighting underwater monsters, but she was a Poseidon child - in her home court.
Percy, Jason, and Kaze had disappeared not long ago, and based on the fact that Azrael had come sprinting up the stairs before he was pulled back down by a frantic Annabeth, I guessed he wasn't happy to hear about Kaze's dive. I had a sense of intuition (maybe some deathly senses or something) that he was watching over Kaze through the Veil.
Rei was still on deck fighting off lightning - an impressive feat for sure, but I had a hint she had probably died more than once considering how well she was holding up. I'd learned to see the subtle hints of her mother's blessing coursing through her veins, and when it was just her or the energy was from her Primordials.
I moved towards her instinctively, keeping a bit of distance so that she could still pull lightning bolts from striking the large ship from any angle, but still enough to feel her presence. Even when Tartarus was having a calm period, I still felt better when by Rei's side.
She shot away another bolt and then slumped slightly, breathing hard, but even I could see she was smiling through the heavy rain and winds.
"HAVING FUN?!"
"THE TIME OF MY LIFE!" And she genuinely seemed to mean it.
I couldn't help but laugh along with her. Here we were, the only two beings keeping this ship from exploding into flaming chunks of wreckage and keeping half a dozen lives from drowning. We had the weight of Primordials who didn't understand the true meaning of being human within us, slowly corroding at everything that made us who we were - Rei especially had it even worse. We were probably being used to set off the end of the world somehow, regardless of how long it took or what path we got there on.
Our powers were borrowed, our lives just a means to an end, our fates doomed no matter which angle you looked at it from - and we could still laugh. We could still enjoy ourselves because we were facing hardship together.
Somehow, it warmed my skin, covered in freezing ocean water seeping through my clothes and being windblown by savage storm spirits. Warmth and security pooled in my stomach, as though this moment of turmoil and terror was actually a breath of fresh air - a moment to relax and feel like we were actually on top of the world.
Rei fell forward and grabbed my arm, laughing with the chaotic winds and crashing thunder above and roaring waves around us. She was laughing with me.
Being one with an all-powerful being wasn't as freeing as this moment of laughing with her.
Her touch still made me feel right again. Even though nothing was wrong at that moment, even though Tartarus had been quieter than ever after his long rant and panic attack upon hearing Emily had been kidnapped. For some reason, her energy still made me feel better - only now, instead of calming the raging Primordial within me, she raised me up from just fine to absolutely amazing.
The ship listed to port. We were nearly knocked off our feet, but I summoned a pool of tar beneath our feet to grab us as we knelt together on the deck.
Ariel came swooping in to intercept the wave and push it back, restabilizing the ship again. The moment she emerged from the wave, she flew down and landed on the deck, hooves clopping against the wooden surface.
"What is it?"
She whinnied and bobbed her head frantically, as though trying to convey a message.
"I don't speak horse! I can't tell what's wrong!"
"VEON!" Rei shouted. "AUDREY!"
"She's in trouble?!"
The horse bobbed its head.
"I'll take that as a yes. But what can we do?! You'd be able to help her better than me!"
'Yes, that's it…" Tartarus's rumbling voice was drawn to the forefront of my mind. He'd been quiet just a moment ago, but now his voice was ripped through my body and torn out of my mouth. "Let me through!" he snapped.
I tried to catch Rei's expression from the corner of my eye, but she looked just as confused as I felt. And just as panicked. She wasn't Khaos right now, she had no control over what Tartarus was doing.
Audrey.
Audrey and Ariel had a connection, and Audrey was in trouble. Was Ariel suggesting something or was Tartarus doing this or both? Did he think he could use Ariel to connect to Audrey and save her?
It was risky. Using Tartarus's power still strained me even now - and I was used to it, being trained to handle it. But if whoever was causing this storm was endangering a child of Poseidon…giving her a little power for just a few moments could mean the difference between all of us surviving or all of us dying. Well, our friends at least.
"Do it!" Tartarus and I ordered. For once, we'd come to an agreement.
Before I could regret this choice and what I might be doing to Audrey, Ariel clopped forward and then transformed into a wave of water that consumed me. A few moments of feeling like I was inside one of those tanks from Final Fantasy 7, my vision went blurry and I felt the semi-familiar feeling of Tartarus's power taking over my body and soul.
And somehow, it felt like he was getting farther and farther away, leaving me in the empty, all-consuming darkness…
First Person: Kaze
Basilisks sucked.
The little scum-suckers loved to burrow into places to annoy demigods of all kinds. Jason hated them, since they enjoyed burrowing under the temples in New Rome, and when Jason had been a centurion, his cohort always got the unpopular chore of cleaning out their nests.
A basilisk didn't look like much - just an arm-length serpent with yellow eyes and a white frill collar - but it moved fast and could kill anything it touched. Even Jason had never faced more than two at a time. Now a dozen were swimming around the giant's legs. The only good thing: underwater, basilisks wouldn't be able to breathe fire, but that didn't make them any less deadly.
Two of the serpents shot towards Percy and Audrey. Percy sliced his in half while Audrey speared hers with her trident and shook its corps off the weapon. The rest of the basilisks swirled around them, just out of their weapons' reach. They writhed back and for in a hypnotic pattern, looking for an opening. One bite, one touch was all it would take.
Audrey and Percy went back to back in the water, watching the basilisks as they slowly turned in the water, keeping an eye on the whole 360 degrees while working together.
I dashed towards the swirling basilisks and shot out a wave of wind blades through the water taking out at least half of them. Audrey and Percy each shot forward through the water and sliced their weapons at the disoriented serpents. Polybotes barely batted an eye as another dozen - even more than before, actually; more like two dozen - basilisks fell from his hair. Their numbers were getting too thick for comfort. I shot out larger wind blades, but that meant that I had less range, and my ventus was running out of juice. I needed to give it some time to regenerate air.
I flicked my blades free and shot forward to slice straight through the basilisk line. They scattered swiftly, but I managed to clip at least three of them, slicing them in half before they could get away. Using speed mode was harder underwater, but I could still easily keep up with the serpents.
One of the serpents shot towards Percy from behind, but Audrey shoved him out of the way and held up her arm in defense. Her jacket was bitten by the basilisk, but she stabbed the serpent straight through its head and threw it away. She shook off her arm, but the fabric of her jacket hadn't been pierced by the serpents' fangs.
"Thank Dad for the protection…" she muttered. Her jacket was zipped up the front, so at the very least her torso and arms were protected, but that still left her legs, hands, neck, and face exposed - even if she pulled up the hood.
I swam forth and sliced my swords through more basilisks, using my body as a shield for the two of them. Unlike Audrey and Percy, my body was entirely made of enchanted clay and ceramic - nothing organic to poison.
"Hey!" Jason yelled. "How about some love over here?!"
The snakes completely ignored him. So did the giant, who stood back and watched with a smug smile, apparently happy for his pets to do the killing.
The three of us were dashing around in a frantic game of tag as the basilisks darted around and we moved to try and attack without Audrey or Percy taking a hit. It only took one touch for them to be debilitated, and debilitation might as well mean death. There were cures to basilisk poison, of course, but even for the Poseidon children when underwater, it would not be easy nor quick to cure.
"Kymopoleia." Jason tried his best to pronounce her name right. "You have to stop this."
She regarded him with her glowing white eyes. "Why would I do that? The Earth Mother has promised me unrestricted power. Could you make me a better offer?"
A better offer…
He sensed the possibility of an opening - room to negotiate. But what did he have that a storm goddess would want?
The basilisks were getting unnervingly close. Audrey and Percy blasted them away with currents of water, but they just kept shooting forward and charging in again. I sliced at them with my speed, but chasing down one for even half a second too long let another dash in to try and strike out at their targets. I hated how slow being in water was, but feeding power into my ventus, I managed to help hold the line.
"Hey, basilisks!" Jason yelled.
Still no reaction. He could charge in and help, but the battle was already raging at a stalemate, and he couldn't take on as many basilisks when he barely had control over his ventus yet. He needed a better solution.
He glanced up. A thunderstorm raged above, but we were hundreds of feet down. He couldn't possibly summon lightning at the bottom of the sea, could he? Even if he could, water conducted electricity a little too well. Rei had been training him in electricity control to target it, but air was a serious insulator, and so it wouldn't let lightning just shoot out like an uncontrollable beast trying to rip itself free. It would follow the path of least resistance, and it was a lightning wielder's job to direct where that path was and not let it be dragged anywhere else. Underwater, the electricity might not be contained so easily.
But he couldn't think of a better option. He thrust up his sword. Immediately the blade glowed red-hot.
A diffuse cloud of yellow light billowed through the depths, like someone had poured liquid neon into the water. I shot forward and grabbed Audrey and Percy, slicing downwards through the water so that we were as far away from the basilisks as possible. The light hit Jason's sword and sprayed outwards in over a dozen separate tendrils, zapping the basilisks and narrowly avoiding the three of us. I could feel the tingle of electricity in the water, but it wasn't fatal from our position.
The basilisks' eyes went dark. Their frills disintegrated. All of the serpents turned belly-up and floated dead in the water.
"Next time," Jason said, "look at me when I'm talking to you."
Polybotes's smile curdled. "Are you so anxious to die, Roman?"
Percy gripped his sword and darted forward, pushing off the floor where I'd shoved him and hurling himself at the giant.
"Percy!" Audrey screamed.
Polybotes swept his hand through the water, leaving an arc of black oily poison. Percy charged straight into it faster than anyone could yell, 'Dude, what are you thinking?!'
Percy dropped Riptide. He gasped, clawing at his throat. The giant threw his weighted net and Percy collapsed to the floor, hopelessly entangled as the poison thickened around him.
Audrey shot forward with her trident before her, diving down towards Percy and pushing away the poison as she went, trying to clear the water. She shoved the prongs of her trident through the net, scooping up the weighted prison and swimming upwards with her torpedo-ing power to try and lift it.
She didn't get far with the heavy weight of the giant's net before another basilisk shot from Polybotes's hair. Audrey instinctively threw up her arms to block, but the heavy weight hanging from her trident wouldn't allow her to lift it to protect her face, and so it slipped from her grasp. Luckily, her jacket blocked the basilisk's poison, but as she turned to snatch back her trident - her fingers just barely brushing the metal - Polybotes flung a wave of poison into her face. Audrey screamed and clawed at her eyes and throat, kicking her foot out to blast herself away blindly through the water and kicking the poison aside.
I dashed in and sliced at the basilisk, gritting my teeth as another swarm was released in our direction. With both Percy and Audrey incapacitated, I would be the only one defending them. I didn't count on Jason being able to summon anymore lightning bolts - at least any time soon.
Audrey was actually managing to blow away the poison - maybe using her power to control the poison - but then something shot out from beside Polybotes.
For a moment, I thought it was another basilisk, but upon slicing down a swarm of them in front of me and turning towards Audrey to intercept, I slashed my sword only to realize it was a bolas - a throwing weapon with a pair of weighted balls that could be thrown for capturing purposes. Even underwater, they nearly moved faster than I could keep track of.
I recognized the craftsmanship.
The rope and the metal balls were weaved with celestial bronze. Inside were some circuits and devices that automatically wrapped the cord around the target and locked into place, the rope malleable until it caught something and then condensed to conform to the target. This design made them resilient and strong enough to capture even me when I was running at speed - my ankles, no less, the fastest moving part of me when I'm running. I'd been captured by them before. They were wired to give a shock to stun the target if they struggled.
Though the design had clearly been upgraded and modified for underwater usage, I knew exactly who had thrown them.
I increased my speed mode as high as possible and then turned and swung my sword with the flat of the blade, blasting my ventus to shoot myself back and away.
I struck a grenade that instantly exploded upon the hit from my sword, and I abandoned the weapon knowing that it wasn't worth salvaging. A weighted net exploded from the grenade, and if it weren't for my ventus and my speed mode, I would've gotten completely tangled in it.
Audrey had been caught by the bolas, which tangled around her wrists (despite her flailing her arms up above her as far apart as they could go) and pulled them together. The metal balls spun like they were being remotely controlled, tangling her wrists up and then coming together. The moment the metal balls touched with a sharp click, they instantly started humming and Audrey's wrists were dragged downwards with an abrupt jolt - taking her body along with them, obviously - as if the bolas had suddenly become a million kilograms.
"Ack!" The bolas hit the floor hard and Audrey struggled to pull her arms from above her head where they were bound and stuck to the marble floor of the palace. The rope holding her wrists fast didn't even have any give. The metal balls might as well have been a part of the cavern floor. "What the hell?!"
Her eyes were still blinded by the poison, but she shoved her head forwards and backwards; she wasn't just struggling, she was trying to use her head to bend the water and poison to help her regain her sight.
But Polybotes didn't let up. He casually dropped another cloud of poison on top of her, and though Audrey kicked her feet frantically, she was consumed by it, hacking as her scream was consumed by noxious wheezing and hacks.
"Let them go!" Jason's voice cracked with panic.
The giant chuckled. "Don't worry, son of Jupiter. Your friends will take a long time to die. After all the trouble they've caused me, I wouldn't dream of killing them quickly."
Noxious clouds expanded around the giant, filling the ruins like thick cigar smoke. Jason and I scrambled backwards. Jason didn't move fast enough, but his ventus proved a useful filter. As the poison engulfed him, the miniature tornado spun faster, repelling the clouds. Kymopoleia wrinkled her nose and waved away the darkness, but otherwise it didn't seem to affect her.
What I was concerned about was what was hiding behind Polybotes and his poison. I conserved my ventus and then dashed forward, swinging my sword and striking at Tsuchi Yamasatchi - or at least the Reanimation of her.
Grass-green pupils surrounded by black sclera stared up at me. Her outfit hadn't changed - jeans, camo shoes with a wedge, a black T-shirt, fingerless gloves, a bag at either hip hanging from her belt, and an olive green trench coat similar to my shimmering white and pale blue one. Her brown hair that was normally in a braid had been pulled up into a braided crown behind her head. We had identical pale, smooth skin, like porcelain, but hers was visibly cracking while mine I had hidden behind a light glamour thanks to Azrael's Veil - also hiding my black sclera.
"Mother," I greeted flatly.
"Hello, son."
Neither of us were used to referring to each other as mother and child. Tsuchi had raised me saying that I was her little brother because she was only a teen when she'd gotten pregnant. I'd only learned about our true relations recently, and it still felt odd to think of her as my mom.
Having retreated from the fight back at the House of Hades, she and Rei's father Kandai - another Reanimation - hadn't been seen since. They were being hunted by Azrael's parents, Reapers who served Death (Thanatos) to collect rogue souls like ghosts who were trapped within the Veil between life and death.
Tsuchi Yamasatchi had gone to Punishment before Gaea brought her back, Kandai had supposedly gone to Elysium, while I had gone to the Fields of Asphodel - granted my soul had been broken and killed by the Primordials to the point that it wasn't possible to dip my soul in the Lethe. The three of us each definitely needed to be brought back to the Underworld, but Azrael had gotten me a temporary pardon so long as he was around to keep me in control rather than Gaea.
Tsuchi…I wasn't entirely sure about her. She was very good at pretending like she was aware of herself and in control, and for a while there, I had questioned whether she was actually planning a rebellion against Gaea, trying to wake Kandai up and make him aware of himself as well.
They'd been hiding, on the run, perhaps still working for Gaea. And I had been looking for my mother for a long time, so that I could return her to hell.
With a cry of rage, I summoned my full power to fight Tsuchi.
First Person: Azrael
It took time for me to calm down enough to properly enter the Veil.
The Veil was cold, built for souls and the undead alone. My mother described feeling no heat nor cold nor pain as a real Reaper, but most of the ghosts she and my father collected felt the cold of death and often the fear and pain of their moments of death that got them trapped in the Veil in the first place. It was my parents' job to retrieve ghosts who were so scared and traumatized or enraged and stubborn that they tried to stay in this world. The only ones they couldn't retrieve were those who were tied to physical objects that needed to be broken or purified before they could properly steal away the ghost.
But for me, who was born dead and alive all at once, the Veil was cold and sometimes scary and also comforting. To enter, I needed to let my heartbeat slow, keep myself calm, let the rest of the world pass by.
But that wasn't easy when I was panicking and trying to rush to get to Kaze. I sometimes wished we could trade powers, so that I could speed through the world and move so fast that no one else could possibly disturb me - that I never had to fear time passing before my eyes and missing out on things that now mattered to me. For so long, I'd only wanted time to pass and to let the painful world pass me by, but now I had things I cared about - things I wanted to pay attention to, things I didn't want to miss.
I finally stepped into the Veil, trying to keep myself focused enough to stay there, before floating through the world and pulling myself towards Kaze. Kaze's soul was tethered to me, and so finding him was as easy as breathing.
I exhaled and found myself standing before a portal to some underwater ruins. I couldn't exit the Veil without drowning myself, but I could still peek out from the Veil.
Around me, normally, was a white, empty void. But I just needed to concentrate and I could lower the opacity so that I could see a scene around me. Sometimes I just looked through a portal, like a looking glass to see what I needed, and other times I transformed the entire environment around me so that the world was a ghostly image being the Veil's barrier. Now, I did the latter.
While to me, the real world was like a hologram, partly transparent to the white void of the Veil, I was invisible to regular eyes and probably looked like a ghost to anyone with Underworld senses - like Veon or Nico.
"Kaze?" My tug on his soul suddenly began to weaken. It was like the air slowly being sucked out of my lungs, and soon, I wouldn't be able to breathe. "Kaze!"
I ran into the large, underwater palace ruins, only to find a nightmarish scene before me.
Percy and Audrey were writhing under clouds of poison - Percy trapped under a net that was tangled with Audrey's trident, while Audrey's hands were pinned to the marble floor by ropes that were almost breaking through the tiles they were weighted down so heavily.
Kaze was clashing at high speeds with another blurry figure, and upon really looking, I realized it was another Reanimation that I'd met just vaguely before - his mother, Tsuchi Yamasatchie.
But if Tsuchi was here, then that meant one or both of my parents had to be nearby as well in the Veil. I called out to them frantically, rushing over to the fight and trying to remember that I wasn't really there; I was in the Veil, I could float up to where they were clashing in the poison-filled clouds of the ruins.
Jason charged to help Percy and Audrey, but the giant Polybotes blocked him with his huge trident.
"Oh, I can't let you ruin my fun," Polybotes chided. "The poison will kill them eventually, but first come the paralysis and hours of excruciating pain. I want them to have the full experience! They can watch as I destroy you, Jason Grace!"
Polybotes advanced slowly, giving Jason plenty of time to contemplate the three-story-tall tower of armor and muscle bearing down on him. He dodged the trident and, using his ventus to shoot forward, jabbed his sword into the giant's reptilian leg. Polybotes roared and stumbled, golden ichor pluming from the wound.
Polybotes turned. "You are a pest, son of Jupiter. You will be crushed!"
Jason tried to summon more lightning. Nothing happened. If he ever met his dad, he'd have to petition for an increased daily allowance of bolts. Jason managed to avoid the prongs of the trident again, but the giant swung the other end around and smacked him in the chest.
Jason reeled back, stunned and in pain. Polybotes came in for the kill. Just before the trident would have perforated him, Jason's ventus acted on its own. It spiraled sideways, whisking Jason thirty feet across the courtyard.
'Thanks, buddy,' Jason thought. 'I owe you some air freshener.'
If the ventus liked that idea, Jason couldn't tell.
Meanwhile, Kaze was dodging and moving to strike at Tsuchi, both of them moving almost too fast for me to even see the blur that was their forms. Luckily their trench coats were contrasting light and dark colors, but I could barely grab one or the other to pull them into the Veil to slow them down.
Preferably I'd like to grab Tsuchi, but I was more concerned about Kaze losing himself again. He was angry at his mother, more angry than he was about anything else. He hated her - he hated that he hated her, that she'd ruined his chances at loving his mother or even loving a sister. He was angry at Tsuchi for taking away the potential family they could've had together, and for the monster she'd allowed herself to become.
And hatred powered his Reanimation.
I couldn't let him lose himself, even if it meant stopping her.
I tried to snatch Tsuchi, but she was moving so fast that it looked like she passed straight through me. Yes, I was still a ghost in the Veil, but as a Reanimation and therefore a terrible creation of death within this form given to her by Gaea, I should've at least been able to grab her soul the same way I could touch Kaze's.
I wasn't strong enough, I guessed. Tsuchi had only been growing in power ever since she'd been revived, and my parents had been hunting her for a long time.
"Azrael!" I felt a shifting in the Veil and strong arms were embracing me.
Hannah Der Meister von Allem had been a young woman when she had died and was frozen in time as a Reaper. Her long, dirty-blonde hair was pulled up in a messy braid, she had an eternal mild tan and blue-green eyes that always felt wild, moving around constantly as though she was always thinking about things at light-speed. She reminded me of Kaze, in a way, as a daughter of Hephaestus.
"Are you all right? Are you hurt?" Her German was so soothing and familiar. Though I'd been using the Veil to translate things for so long into German, there was nothing like her real accent and voice as she formed the proper syllables that made up her mother tongue.
Technically, Hannah had been raised in a traveling circus, so she knew many languages - including the Japanese of my father, Ithuriel, and their friend Kandai - who was Rei's father. I was once again reminded of Kaze as my concern for him grew once more.
"No. None have touched me. But Kaze-"
Her eyes hardened and she nodded, her jaw set. Hannah was beautiful in the sense that somehow her rugged look of both an inventor and a fighter looked natural on her. She wasn't pretty, a supermodel of perfection like an American Caucasian with smooth skin and symmetrical features like a doll, but she was still very beautiful in her own way.
"Right. Let's get to work."
"Is Ithuriel-?"
"Tracking Kandai at the moment, yes."
"Why do you not come together?"
She ran her hand through my hair. Her skin was rough with callouses; she was big for a woman, and her hand nearly cupped my entire head like a basketball. "Because we can't let them go unchecked. Besides, I can handle Kaze's mom. I have to."
I nodded. "And I must save Kaze."
We looked up to the clash as Tsuchi threw a variety of grenades towards Kaze who dodged by a narrow hair each time even as he was pushing his speed as high as possible to the point that I was beginning to lose their positions.
"Focus, Azrael. The Veil has no concept of time - we are never too slow if we don't want to be. We are the guardians of this realm and so it will bend to our will. Use it to increase your awareness, to take in everything that you need."
I nodded and sucked in a deep breath, letting the comforting power of the Veil wash through me. The Veil was home, the Veil was my friend and I was its protector.
My eyes darted to Kaze as he threw a sphere at Tsuchi that exploded into a mini-flash grenade, and I followed as Tsuchi dodged and then threw a bolas as Kaze - one that would likely hold him down the same as the one holding Audrey. Though since Kaze was technically stronger, it might not pin him, but being weighed down even just a little would slow his speed too much to keep up with Tsuchi.
My stomach clenched as I saw Kaze's black sclera and his emotionless face as he targeted Tsuchi with the same single-minded determination that came from a Reanimation given orders.
"Grab Kaze's soul and remind him who he is," Hannah ordered. She knelt and placed her hands on my shoulders. I was getting more weight on me and growing more now that I was free of the Wards and Kaze was insisting I try to find new foods that I liked, but Hannah was still over three-quarters of my height even when on her knee. "You're a strong Reaper, Azrael. I'll have time to teach you properly one day, but for now, save the one you chose to bond yourself to - the one I know you can save. Kaze Grigora is not like his mother; he deserves to live, and you are the only one who can give him the second chance he truly deserves."
I nodded.
"Then let's go."
She stood and moved swiftly through the Veil, flying towards the fight. I jumped towards Kaze, letting the bond I had to help keep his soul human guide me. I was the Veil, I could go anywhere I needed, I didn't need to chase Kaze around and hope that I would catch him - I could just be with him.
I grabbed Kaze by his very soul, feeling the empty rage and hatred that was powering him and putting his soul into a comatose state. The Reanimation was in control.
"Kaze, please, I need you to come back!"
I vaguely saw Hannah wrestling Tsuchi. Both descendants of Hephaestus were stubborn, resilient, and smart, but I had to believe in Hannah and stay focused on Kaze's soul.
"Kaze-"
A blinding aura of power exploded from below. It took me a moment to realize that it was coming from the poisonous cloud that was engulfing the Poseidon children. One of them had gone nuclear, and I nearly lost my grip on Kaze from the overwhelming deathly energies that were shooting through the underwater ruins. Hannah lost her grip on the struggling Tsuchi, but she was also looking down at the scene in surprise. Kaze grabbed me - actually touched me - and I realized that he could sense it too, and he was so disturbed that his less-than-human state was baffled as Tsuchi, Hannah, and I.
Audrey Mavepo rose to her feet, her weighted bonds still pulling her wrists down, but she was powering past it. Her sclera were a bright blood red, pupils darkening to black - her eyes emanated a sickly dark glow like a black light with red along the edges. Her entire body was pulsating with a dark aura the same colors as her eyes. She stood straight and then easily ripped apart her bonds, turning the celestial bronze to ashes.
She held her hand out and her trident (tangled in Polybotes's weighted net holding Percy down) came to life and was summoned back to her hand. The prong that was latched onto the net brought the net with it as it returned to Audrey's hand. Percy was pulled free of his poison cloud, and Audrey easily swatted away the noxious substance.
When she made contact with her trident, it flashed like it had been set ablaze by lava. She easily sliced through the netting around Percy and reached in to extract him. His body was limp and yet seizing, as if his muscles couldn't control themselves; it was hard to tell if he was conscious, but based on Polybotes's boasting, it was likely he was still fully aware of his pain.
"How I might love to see you suffer, boy, but not today. Right now, I'm in a good mood." Audrey's voice was laced with the deep male undertones of a god - the same thing that happened when Rei or Veon were possessed by their Primordials.
Audrey's eyes locked onto Polybotes, who had also paused in his pursuit of Jason to watch the scene unfold before us. Her face set into a scowl and her very aura darkened and pulsated with anger.
"Return to the Pit from WHENCE YOU CAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!"
Her final word screeched with her sonic power towards the giant, both the sound and the physical pushing force causing him to stumble back. Audrey then blasted forward in the water swinging her glowing trident with the intent to kill. Porphyrion dodged, leaving Audrey swinging and slicing a large chunk of the old ruins away.
She recovered quickly, pursuing Porphyrion with new speed - even for her torpedo-ing underwater in her domain. She dashed over towards where Percy was lying; she dug her trident onto the remains of the weighted net and then flung it forward, letting the weights swing around and smack the giant in the face, tangling him up in the netting.
Her trident easily slipped free and she raised it to strike. Polybotes blocked with his own trident, and despite the size difference, the pair were at a stalemate. He ripped the netting off of himself while the two held their weapons in a clash.
"What is this?" Polybotes demanded.
Audrey's face twisted into a smirk. "A game! An oh-so-amusing game!" Her face switched into a snarl. "You're going to PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"
The two began striking and clashing, Polybotes didn't seem to mean to, but more basilisks fell free of his hair and poison seeped from his body, but Audrey merely swept both aside, occasionally slicing a basilisk in passing. Any time a basilisk turned on Jason, she instantly snapped towards it and shot it with a red-hot laser blast from her trident.
"Kym!" Jason yelled while he had a moment of peace from Polybotes. "Is this really what you want?"
The storm goddess Kymopoleia looked rather bored, idly spinning her metal disk. "Unlimited power? Why not?"
"But is it any fun?" Jason asked. "So you destroy our ship. You destroy the entire coastline of the world. Once Gaea wipes out human civilization, who's left to fear you? You'll still be unknown."
Jason quickly dodged a basilisk and swung his sword to strike it down. His ventus moved him out of the way as Audrey and Polybotes began a serious fight.
Tsuchi took the opportunity to punch Hannah in the jaw and then dashed towards Audrey. Kaze threw me away and then intercepted his mother just in time, blocking the knife she had drawn and wrestling her with their weapons.
"Actually, Jason Grace," Kym said, studying her fingernails, "now that you mention it, I do enjoy being feared by mortals. I am not feared enough."
"I can help with that!" Jason dodged a swipe of Polybotes's trident as Audrey moved in to swing her weapon and chopped off a section of Polybotes's hair as he quickly moved away.
She surged forward and managed to shove the butt of her trident into the giant's eye.
"AUGH!" The giant staggered.
Percy was writhing on the floor, his movements sluggish. Jason knew he needed to hurry. We needed to get Percy to the sickbay, but if the storm kept raging above us, there wouldn't be any sickbay to get him to.
Jason flew to Kym's side. "You know gods depend on mortals. The more we honor you, the more powerful you get."
"I wouldn't know. I've never been honored!"
She ignored Polybotes, who was stampeding around her, trying to swat Jason out of his whirlwind while Audrey played a game of striking and retreating to help keep the goddess between them. She laughed with her multi-tiered voice, muttering about the fun she was having.
"I can change that," Jason promised. "I will personally arrange a shrine for you on Temple Hill in New Rome. Your first ever Roman shrine! I'll raise one at Camp Half-Blood as well, right on the shore of Long Island Sound. Imagine, being honored-"
"And feared."
"-and feared by both Greeks and Romans. You'll be famous!"
"STOP TALKING!" Polybotes swung his trident like a baseball bat.
Jason ducked. Kym did not. The giant slammed her in the rib cage so hard that strands of her jellyfish hair came loose and drifted through the poisoned water.
Audrey's two voices laughed.
Polybotes's eyes widened. "I'm sorry, Kymopoleia. You shouldn't have been in the way!"
"IN THE WAY?" The goddess straightened. "I am in the way?"
"You heard him," Jason said. "You're nothing but a tool for the giants. They'll cast you aside as soon as they're through destroying the mortals. Then no demigods, no shrines, no fear, no respect."
"LIES!" Polybotes tried to stab him, but Jason hid behind the goddess's dress. "Kymopoleia, when Gaea rules, you will rage and storm without restraint!"
"Will there be mortals to terrorize?" Kym asked.
"Well…no."
"Ships to destroy? Demigods to cower in awe?"
"Um…"
Audrey held up her hand and blocked Tsuchi, who had charged past Kaze to get to her. Audrey easily grabbed Tsuchi by the neck and held her in place, eyes flashing. She studied Tsuchi for only a moment before opening her mouth and releasing a wave of what I initially thought was poison similar to Polybotes', but my senses told me that it was more than that - it was terrible soul-energy, power from…from Tartarus?
The black smog Audrey released upon Tsuchi engulfed her, and as Audrey released her, the cloud of dark ink seeped through Tsuchi's eyes and mouth even as she writhed and dashed away, hacking. I wasn't aware it was even possible for a Reanimation to choke. Before any of us could stop her, she bashed her way out of the ruins in a desperate flight.
I glanced over at Hannah apologetically, but she merely shrugged. "The chase continues. Don't worry, young one. I do not ever tire nor grow weary when it comes to my job. Until we meet again."
She vanished deeper into the Veil, zipping after Tsuchi.
Audrey suddenly wavered, her eyelids falling heavy as if she just realized how much energy she'd put into that attack. "No…!"
She fell unconscious, her aura fading and her trident slipping from her grip as she sank to the marble floor. Luckily, while she was underwater, her fall didn't do that much damage, but Kaze still rushed to catch her. Luckily, Polybotes was more than distracted - too distracted to come after Audrey or even notice her falling helpless, her new power gone.
Kaze looked after his mother with mixed emotions in his eyes. His sclera faded back to white, but the brown of his eyes always remained the same. I reached out and took his hand, feeling his soul still perfectly intact…
Kaze probably hadn't even realized he'd transformed to use his Reanimation's full power. Kaze was completely in control of himself the entire time.
I sighed through my nose. 'You probably don't even need me anymore…'
And I faded back into the Veil with a twisted wave of sadness consuming me.
I woke lying on the bed in Kaze's sister's room that we'd been sharing. For a long while, I hid within the passing time of the Veil, trying to forget the sorrow of realizing I was losing my reason to be with these people - with Kaze. And once my usefulness was over, I would be alone and adrift to be returned to the Wards once more.