28. A Daunting Hope

Planet Vima'at,

Rimor's pov

Vima'at was a beautiful planet. It was the perfect mix between technologically advanced and nature friendly. On a normal day, he would have loved to explore more of the planet and meet the natives but right now all he wanted was to teleport out of there. To do something that would get him out of this confrontation. If he had known that they drag him to interrogation after he had saved their lives, he wouldn't have bothered. Then again, he could not have left them to die and he would not have bonded with Regina if he had.

Now here he was, sitting on a bench in the palace. Did he mention he was sitting in the throne room?

Olympus was definitely put to shame compared to Lady Order's palace. The architecture was exquisite and complicated yet it fits in like a puzzle piece. He could see a couple of Greek and roman styled pillars but other than that it was nothing like Olympus. The throne itself was a high marble throne with a maroon cushion and the symbol of order etched on to it. There was a hieroglyphic he recognized as well, it was the Egyptian symbol of Ma'at. Now that he thought about Ma'at was worshipped by the Egyptians and is supposed to be representing order and harmony. It made sense that Order had that on her throne seeing as she is Ma'at's embodiment.

Though this did bring another wave of confusion as the Egyptians had fought Apophis who was most definitely evil and tried to make the world fall into chaos. Yet they believed that he was the embodiment of chaos but now that he has discovered the universe and its ways he can very well go as far as to say that Apophis could not have been the embodiment of Chaos and Chaos himself is not evil or hellbent on spreading unneeded chaos throughout the universe.

This thought puzzled him greatly and he wondered how it all fit in and what was the story behind it all. A cough brought him out of his inner musings as he looked up to see the three fighters standing beside him. "Yes?" he asked.

The fire-resistant girl who he learned was named Malika glared at him and said," Her Majesty, Lady Order will be personally attending to you so you better have your answers straight or hello to prison life."

He looked at her incredulously, "What's your problem? Why are you looking at me like I kicked your injured puppy?"

Malika's glare only intensified and she gritted her teeth, "My problem is that you just had to butt in when you were not needed."

"That dragon was going to maul you to your death before I as you so eloquently put it 'butt in'. So sorry, for not leaving you three to die brutally." he said while rolling his eyes.

"Why you little-" "Don't mind her. She's just irritated that we had to be saved by a civilian when we were trained to protect them," the girl whose bruise seemed to have been healing fast interrupted. Her name if he had heard correctly was Julie.

"And we are grateful that you distracted the dragon and saved us in time," she continued and the boy in the middle whose name was Kam nodded in agreement and signed something that he wasn't able to catch.

But Julie seemed to have fully understood and said, "Kam would also like to thank you but one of the scales of the dragon pierced his through slightly and he can't talk for the next few weeks."

Rimor smiled at them and said, "Your welcome, and I hope your voice gets better."

Kam smiles back at him and gave him a nod. Malika glares at them both and insists, "We would have been fine if he had stayed out of it. I could have handled that dragon."

"Clearly," Rimor muttered under his breath but Julie seems to have heard it. She turned to her friend and said, "Just drop it, Malika."

Just before she could give another retort a bright flash erupted in the centre of the room. When the light died down, a woman stood in its place. She had fully black skin which shone in the light and little twinkles of stars could be seen. It was like the entire galaxy could be seen in her. As soon as she stepped forward, waves of ancient power washed over him. The three others bowed and got one knee in unison as if they had done this before.

The realization of who was standing in front of him hit him and he too bowed like the others. They got up once she told them to rise. Julie stepped forward, gestured to him, and respectfully said, "Your Majesty, Lady Order, this is Rimor Elpis. We found him or it was more like he found us on Planet Ferora when we were patrolling Area F34. He saved our lives."

Malika looked like she was about to argue that last point but chose to stay quiet. Lady Order looked at Rimor curiously while he blushed in embarrassment. "Give me a full report of what happened in area F34," she commanded.

Julie stepped up and gave a full description of what happened up until the point that Rimor distracted the dragon and made it chase him far away from them. She then turned to Rimor and looked at him expectantly. Rimor just stared back blankly.

Malika who was the closest to him nudged him in his gut with her elbow harshly. "Tell us what happened to the dragon, idiot," she hissed in low voice.

He lightly clutched his stomach and stammered out, "Oh uh right." He cleared his throat and glanced nervously at Lady Order. "Well, I uh saw the dragon was about to kill them so, I panicked and threw one of my pink smoke bombs at him, hoping to distract him. I have good speed and endurance so I ran in the opposite direction and the dragon chased me. I knew I wouldn't last long because it was flying and my speed would not compare to it, so I threw another one of the smoke bombs and hid in the nearest intact building."

"I waited it out until it flew away and was on my way back to check on the three when they came there halfway. From there, I realized they were Agents of Order, and uh they dragged me here on your orders. So, well here I am," he finished.

They didn't look very convinced and Lady Order was staring at him like she was looking into his soul. It was unnerving. Sure, he had been in the presence of all-powerful beings before but this was one of the creators. It was a big deal and on top of that, he was lying to them. Why he was lying, he did not know but there was an intense urge to protect Regina's identity and existence from others.

"Rimor, why don't we continue this elsewhere," Lady Order said and gestured for him to follow her. She gave a small nod to the others. They bowed once and filled out of the room. She walked over to a door at the right of the throne room. He followed her slightly jogging to keep up.

She leads him through him a corridor filled with an assortment of different styled doors.

Perseus Jackson

What? What was that? The voice seemed to echo itself thrice creepily. He abruptly stops in his tracks looking around for the voice that spoke his name. The name that did not go with his current look. When Lady Order gets quite a good distance ahead of him, he runs silently to catch up trying to ignore the voice.

Perseus, you have to reveal your true identity.

'Who are you?' he asks in his head. We are not your enemies.

The image of the three old ladies knitting the sock from his last at Nancy Academy coms into his mind. 'The Morai. You're the fates,' he states telepathically.

You are quite observant and clever for someone who used to be called seaweed brain.

Rimor slightly flinched at the old nickname. He took a deep breath and asked silently, 'What do you want?'

You must tell your true identity to Order. We sense great discord and destruction if you do not take this chance.

Rimor panicked at that. 'But I can't. She'll send me back if I tell her. I don't want to back.'

Calm down. You must, if you do not there are worse things than returning there.

He sighed quietly and calmed himself. He knew there were worse things than going back but he would prefer to just not go back. A warning from the fates themselves was something he could ignore. In the end, there wasn't really a choice was there?

At last, they came upon a simple wooden door with intricate designs. Lady Order opened the door and Rimor followed her. It was a simple working space. Nothing too fancy. A pile of paperwork lay on the desk. Order sat down behind the desk and gestured for him to sit in one of the chairs in front. He sat down nervously and glanced at Lady Order who looked to be scrutinizing him.

An awkward moment later, she spoke up, "Let's talk shall we."

He nodded and she asked curiously, "What species are you?"

"Well," he dragged the 'll', "the look I've adopted is from Mori." Lady Order's face was now completely blank yet her eyes seemed to show shock, a little interest, and a bit of irritation. "But I was born under a different name."

He dropped his appearance and it changed to what it was originally. His hair turned raven black, his complexion was tanned and his eyes the most notably changed to swirling sea green with a rim of orange. "I was and sometimes still am Perseus 'Percy' Jackson, born on the forbidden planet of Earth."

Lady Order gasped in surprise. It seemed that whatever she expected, this was not on that list. He silently cheered that he had completely surprised one of the creators of the Earth. Not many could say that they could. Then again, he was known to do the impossible.

"All this time you were gallivanting in the galaxy. No wonder we couldn't find you," she muttered. If he had not been sitting close to her, he would not have heard that. Why as a creator of the universe looking for him and who's 'we'?

For now, he ignored these questions and pleaded," Please don't send me back to Earth. I know that I am not supposed to be away from Earth but I-I just I can't go back there." He was pretty sure that he was hyperventilating now.

"Perseus." His name was spoken in a kind and soothing tone. He looked to Lady Order whose eyes now swam with mirth. "I'm not sending you back."

His eyes widened and some of the tension left him when that statement was made. "I saw the aftermath of what happened in that camp and was able to figure out what exactly happened but I was too late to find you. It had already been months after you left that I decided to check the camps on Earth. Now, I guess the reason for not being able to find you is because you weren't on Earth but traveling the universe under a different name and look," she continued to finish.

"Thank you so much for not making me go back there," he said with a watery smile.

"Of course," she dismissed his gratitude with a small smile of her own. "But you will owe me a favour whenever I want."

"Anything," he accepted hastily. His answer made a mischievous grin appear on her face. "Well then, I wanted to interrogate you on what happened with the dragon but since you are being the best swordsman on Earth, I would think you have taken care of it?" she stated more than asked.

"Uh yeah, I did," he replied. 'If making friends with the Draconis and bonding with her with taking care of it,' he thought in amusement.

Regina mentally snorted in laughter at this thought.

"Well then, inform Julie and Malika to take you back to Planet Ferora where your ship must be waiting," Lady Order said casually.

"Wait how did-" he abruptly stopped when walking towards the door. "Oh, and you might want to change your appearance back," she suggested not wavering at his unfinished question.

He cursed mentally and with a snap of his fingers, his appearance changed to that of a native to Mori. He did not question how she knew he had a spaceship waiting and, shoved it into the category of things one of the creators would know. He then bowed to her and went out the door saying goodbye. A pair of amused galaxy eyes trained on his retreating back.

Order's pov (1st person)

As soon as Perseus or Rimor as he is calling himself in the rest of the universe exited the room, the door automatically closed softly behind him. I must admit, I was not expecting him to be Percy. It came as quite a shocker to me really and I may not be omnipresent but I do most things of what's happening in my sector of the universe. When I had researched about Rimor Elpis, I had found out that he had visited many planets like an explorer and sold rare jewels or artifacts as a living in different planets. His life before those two years was not known but I did not dwell on it because Morians hardly ever document anything about their population.

Now I suppose I should have dug deeper but then again nothing fruitful would have come of it. I'm glad that he decided to show his identity to me or else I might've suspected his lies and thrown him into prison like a common criminal.

I did care for the hero after all he had done to save his family and friends no matter the risk and danger. It had enraged me that they had cast him aside based on such a shallow spell but I restrained myself to not wreak havoc and command justice. Honestly, the Egyptians are much better. Although locking up their gods in my name was not their most brilliant idea.

Letting Rimor go freely in return for a favour was the least I could do. Now I could have let him be free but I have a feeling that I might need him one day whether it'd be a small or a big job. I would've offered him a place in the agents of Order or may even offer him to be an Angel of Order but his soul unfortunately already had a claim on it.

Another reason I let him go free because it is such sweet revenge against my dear brother. I waved my hand and a hologram appeared showing Chaos's office. A large gold desk was filled with piles of paperwork. His face was hidden by the towers of paper on all sides of the desk.

"Behind on your work, Chay?" I asked dryly. The sudden loud question startled him enough to jump three feet off his chair. He slid the towers of paper aside to look at the image of his sister in the hologram. My eyes zoomed in on the small container in his hands. "Is that Gelato?" I asked incredulously.

He looked at the gelato cup in his hands before quickly swiping it out of existence. "I-I wasn't really. I was just catching up-"

"Was what? Eating gelato when you are supposed to do work?" I asked sarcastically.

Chaos looked affronted; his black skin sparkled much like mine. The perks of being his twin, I suppose. "Well, I have piled up work because I have to lead my army and do the paperwork myself. You know that nobody other than me and my Army's Commander elite would be able e to do this. You have your elite Angel to share your work."

I sighed knowing it was true. Although I had handled the paperwork much better than Chaos is doing now when my former Angel elite had retired and the new one was yet to be found. It's at least been a century since Chaos's commander died in battle. She was a great person if not a bit uptight. "How is the search for the Commander going?" I asked good-naturedly.

He rubbed his hand over his face and blew inside his mouth. He looked at me and deadpanned, "It's awful." He placed his head on the desk and grumbled, "No one is worthy."

I chuckled at his childishness. Out of the two of us, Chaos was the more immature one and irritating but he is a good brother and I love him dearly. "Perseus was the best choice I had but he disappeared completely. I have no trace of him, no soul, no clue where he could have gone."

Ah finally, the real reason I called. "Well, I'd say you kind of deserve it after you cheated a favour out of me," I pointed out with a glare in his direction.

He did not raise his head but shot back, "I did not cheat. It's how you play the game. "

You see, last century we played a game of family poker. Which meant it was only me and him. We made it so that whoever wins can extract any sort of favour from the other at any time. He won but I am very sure that he cheated but since I couldn't prove it, I owed him a favour. Something that he called in almost immediately. He wanted to place a claim on any soul on earth born in the century that I am its guardian he wanted beforehand and those souls I could not ask to be part of my agents. He will ask them to be a part of his army when they die or if they want a new start. Perseus was one of the souls he had staked a claim on and was hoping that he be worthy enough to be Commander. But we found out very late that he had been betrayed and could not locate him anywhere on earth. So, when Perseus showed me his true self, I let him go traveling as my brother most definitely won't be trying to find him in the universe. A sort of revenge for cheating and staking claims on so many souls during my century. I know it seems petty but he has a century to recruit from the earth and this was mine. So, I may be a bit bitter about it.

Besides, I do not think Perseus is ready to lead an army once again and Chaos can find someone else.

"Anyone else you got an eye on for that position?" I asked, abandoning the former topic.

He visibly brightened up at that. "Yes, this assassin vigilante is roaming around and killing evil-doers along with rescuing hostages. I sent one of my spies to find out more about him because who knows what his agenda is." I nodded in agreement. That is a good idea and I may know which assassin he is speaking of.

"There wasn't much he got. All the kills that could be accounted as his have no traces of him and no evidence of who he is and what he looks like. The only planet that knew his appearance was a few people in Iraam. Apparently, a group of a small army had kidnapped them and were torturing them for various reasons. He saved them and set Chaotic fire on their base. He also had the extinguisher as the fire did not spread to the entire island. He told them his name before he disappeared though. They said he called himself Aleixo. After that incident, there have been a few assassinations but nothing that says it's the same man," he explains.

I frowned, "What's so special about him that you are considering? There are more skilled and fierce assassins out there than the one you speak of."

Chaos nodded but said seriously, "The only difference I see is that this one. It's hard to explain. The assassinations of an evil ruler that he does. Well, it should put the entire planet in chaos and the next ruler would be another usurper but see that's not what happens. It's like the planet had readied itself for a rebellion. The next ruler, one fairer and kinder was chosen and the only thing remaining an obstacle was the corrupt ruler. When he assassinates them, the planet is prepared to fight for its freedom and they win very easily, I might add."

I have never of such a thing. I was pleasantly surprised at this vigilante hero- Aleixo. "You should watch him for a few years to make sure he won't stray from the path of which good and just. Then, perhaps, the answer of whether he is to be your commander will be clear," I advised.

He sighed in resignation and admitted, "That would be the best course of action. Thank you, sister." He then swiped away the hologram and I was greeted with silence. I know I should probably have told him of Perseus but Perseus himself needs time to rest and be away from war and fighting. It gave them both time to figure things out. I only hope that the peace in the universe remains as it is.

Oh, how I jinxed myself by thinking that.