First chappie's shorter than the prologue... Need to work on my proportions...
Chapter 1
Point of View: Sapphire
I slashed through the clear formation, shocking them into disorder. I dropped my dual blades into their sheath with one hand and a spear shot from the ground into my other waiting hand. I showed no mercy and the spear turned into a whirling disc, slitting more than 10 throats before it returned and I drew my bow and notched and arrow to shoot a cowardly deserter. And it hit bull's eye.
I turned back to the papery colored lieutenant, Avery, and said, "Work them up harder. I do NOT want to see this craziness again. Understood? Back to training, Lieutenant Avery Cross."
She swallowed visibly, and answered, "Yes, Sapphire." she said, then bit her tongue and added, "I-I m-m-mean Commander S-Sapphire." It wasn't hard to know what she was feeling. Fear was plastered all over her face.
"The last lieutenant, Iris, died by MY HANDS for shirking. If you want a re-play, that's fine with me." I replied calmly, a slight steely dangerous edge to my tone.
She gathered the troop leaders and started discussing battle strategies.
"Plus, I don't want stiff formations. I want flexibility and the ability to react correctly to different kinds of dangerous or surprising events."
That made her even more pale.
I walked out and took off my cloak, which disappeared the moment I tossed it into the air. I walked on, now with a familiar black hoodie and leather knee-high boots. I notched an arrow to my bow, and as I pulled and released, I deer fell with a thud, noiseless. I walked over and chopped off the useless parts, like it's head, and hauled most of the body into a sack. I teleported back, and once I was there I threw the sack to a troop leader carelessly, leaving him to skin it and use the meat for his troop's dinner.
I walked into the scout's tent, finding unexpected guests.
I flickered out of view and walked up in front of them, picking out my sword. In one swift movement I used the hilt and knocked them to their knees, then flicked out of invisibility to stare them in the eye.
By that time my appearance had already changed, my once unruly hair lay in a sleek, black ponytail, tinged slightly red in some places with blood, that lengthed up to my waist, my eyes still able to flicker into different colors, so I decided to keep them silver while in front of them. My clothing now, was a bit more casual, so I end up with boots and hoodies a lot more than before.
But anyways, the point I'm making is that they could no longer recognize me, for I had changed a lot.
They had been a blessing, so they flashed from under my sword point to behind me, but I was prepared and I did a backflip over them, and since they looked a little green, I took advantage and sliced a deep gash in Alexandra's thigh. Blood fountained out, and she cried out in agony, but as they tried to get revenge I did an aerial over their swords and once I landed, dropped and rolled beneath their strike and as I did so I drew my knife and sliced through Shay's ankle who dropped to one knee and started wrapping gauze over his wound, but I didn't give him the chance. I ripped his sword from his hand and held it in my hands.
"I hate to be all claws and teeth, but sometimes," I paused, and pressed on Shay's throat, and what I did next finished the sentence for me.
I slit Shay's throat.
Alexandra shouted, "How could you!" but halfway through her sentence I gagged her and supplied a slash to Jack's chest, and while he was extremely stunned, applied another to his stomach.
By now Luke has ran all the way over from the other side of the base, and panting, his eyes widened and unsheathed his sword, and started hacking and slashing with his sword, untying all the scouts, who were evacuated to the main base. Then, he joined me in the fight, though by the time I had them all tied and gagged, Shay laying limp to the sides, Alexandra overcome with sadness, Jack looking overly rebellious, perhaps just a bit more than what I would've liked. I ungagged Jack
"Explain yourself, Jack."
"How do you know my name?" Jack hissed.
"Oh, I make it my duty to know who I am fighting against." I replied, my voice flowing out like silk.
"Nothing happened, Sapphire's daughter or whatever you are." he growled mockingly, "I never knew she would let her daughter continue her war."
"First, I am not a what, and second, I am most definitely not her daughter, as I thought of course you would notice."
"I think I noticed that."
"So now, explain yourself."
"Nothing happened!"
"Well, tell me about your little journey here."
"Teleportation."
"And what you did once you got here."
"Nothing!"
"Then what are those?" I said, impatient, while gesturing towards the broken bindings and gags.
"Well..."
"Nothing?"
"Yeah..." he said.
I snapped my fingers, and both of them disappeared.
"Hello, Order. Nice name to indicate your so called great attitude and you sunny side, but you have no sunny side at all. If I were you, you'd end up swapping names with your sister, or, if you'd prefer, my mother, Chaos."
"How...who..." He answered, looking behind me.
"Oh, just your failed servants. Anything wrong with that?" I added, right up to his disgusting face.
He pointed at them, though I blocked the power source with my own. "No tricks for you. I could let them and you all go, I've been wishing for a nice fight. They haven't been doing much lately, except putting up futile raids that is no fun for me."
"Sapphire, my darl-" he rasped, but I cut him off.
"What did you say?" I said, my temper rising, but as always, it was not shown.
But the word "Sapphire" dropped to the floor like a stone.
"Sapphire?" Alexandra tried, "Sapphire, you… it was... Luke… Shay… you did that? You dared? You… Luke..." At that mention, Luke walked in.
"I heard someone calling my name?"
"Luke… Sapphire… She… Shay… "
"Huh? What?" Luke said, puzzled. Then he scanned the group, but did not find Shay. He turned to me.
"You… You murderer. I hate you."
"Wanna join your group again as the third peacekeeper?" Order said, amused.
"Sapphire… I can't believe...yes. I never want to see you. Ever. Again."
"Now can we go?"
I lashed out with my hands and Order was released. They all teleported away.
Leaving Luke, hands over his cheek.
And I left him there, doors open, and I don't exactly know or care what happened after that.
All I knew was that Luke has betrayed me.
So I let them go.
For there was no more family in them to be found.
Once again…
I am alone.
Point of View: Alexandra
Mentally, I let out the most bloodcurdling, ear splitting scream ever.
I cannot believe, Sapphire had just killed, KILLED, my brother, whom she has known ever since birth, without any emotions!
Like, look at the indifference on her face! I would have welcomed anger if she saw us because that meant she felt something. But noooo, she treated us like we were just one more task to complete before she tore down Order's throne, before she makes her 5th primordial fade, before she made her 8th Olympian fade, captured a second Olympian, befriended one more, and sent us three Olympians, OLYMPIANS go running! For god's sake, Shay should've bled ICHOR! All of us should've! Did she really have to show her amusement, her indifference, her skill with her powers, which we had never questioned?
Looking at my comrade's expressions, we are thinking, more or less, on the same lines of thought.
I took a few deep breaths, and scanned the broken and torn up throne room. Hermes' seat was left untaken, Hephaestus, Athena, Poseidon, Hestia, Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Shay's thrones were fallen beyond repair, for their owners had fallen long ago. Zeus grumbled on his throne, and me, Jack, and now Luke (subbing for Shay), took our seats among the thrones, eyeing Zeus for a minute, who cleared his throat.
"Now, Artemis, I have heard that your relative, has gotten Chaos to give up her throne for her daughter."
"Well, Sa-" Artemis began.
"Do NOT mention her name!" Zeus roared.
"Ummm, she, well, kinda, emmm, sorta, well, killed, umm, Shay, god of the night." Artemis began again.
Zeus grumbled nervously, and Apollo whimpered at the power of my long time friend and really recent enemy, or to say, to some degree, his sister, or called, his relative.
Jack was about to break the silence, but suddenly an Iris Message appeared right in front of us.
"Ahhh, hello, Alexandra." Hades appeared, Shay under the burden of the sky, streaks of gray running through his hair, right at his side, Atlas besides him, and a murderous looking Sapphire in the background, sharpening her knife.
"We're just here to tell you we've decided to revive Shay again as a mortal, and we've managed to get him here, and with Atlas freed we could do anything!" Hades said gleefully, and Sapphire in the background walked over to Shay and poked him in the ribcage with her knife, and she looked disappointed when Shay just stumbled and didn't get crushed under the severe burden of the shy, crashing and tossing on his shoulders.
"Hmmm. Let's see if he could survive that again," she said, then placed her knife right back besides Shay's ribs, and this time I cried out:
"Stop! I'll take the sky for him! He can't die again! I won't let him!"
Sapphire smiled and showed me the way in, and I stumbled under the weight. I kicked Shay out of under the sky, but surprisingly he wasn't there. Then I heard something that really angered me go right through the Iris Message.
"Seems like Hecate's magic fools even immortals like you." Sapphire mused, this time actually materializing with Atlas and Hecate in front of the gods. Hades appeared a second later, as Sapphire tossed Atlas a hand to help him up, which he took gratefully. "Well, we must get going! And that's Alexandra down too. The twins gone, that's nice. Oh, and no worries. We'll be back for you guys, just you wait." She said, a smug face of amusement appearing upon her face, and I grimaced at the apprehension.
And then the IM disappeared, and my vision blurred under the extreme pain of holding up the sky.
Back At Camp Half Blood:
The talk about the missing, faded, captured, and killed Olympians, primordial, and the titans are still the talk of the camp.
Everyone there was still following their schedules, training, going on quests, all the normal stuff.
But deep in the dark, everyone knows, a dangerous shadow is lurking, unknown.
Everyone knows that there is danger coming, and soon it'll crash over them like a wave, for after all, Kronos is coming.
Everyone only had one wish now, one thought, even the gods, the Olympians. There is a war waging, and to survive they have even made mortals without and ounce of Greek blood, into Olympians, all in the futile choices to withstand this war. Sapphire had betrayed them, or rather like Zeus and Jack and Luke and all that had betrayed them. They were only having this conflict because of Zeus' mistakes.
Their mistakes.
Sapphire used to be their hero, Their leader, but they know what she had thought: Are you guys fighting and letting the gods use you just because you're okay with it, or is it because they're your parents? All you guys have done is use me, use me, and use me. Again and again. Why?
So she left.
Everyone was thinking only one thing, while this sickness like a cloud has covered them, although none thought aloud, they all knew that they were thinking the same thing : They want their hero. They want Sapphire to come back. They need her.
And so, the demigods all fell into silence.
Little did they know, Sapphire would return, to have broken away from the titans. Not to join them, though.
But to fight a war against the titans and against them, too.
Point of View: Shay
I opened my eyes to a world of chaos.
"Hades," there was one female voice, "release his soul to the void. Now. If I have to pay another visit to claim what's mine, I swear you'll end up in no better position than I have Persephone in."
And there was another: "Ummm so you were here for, emmm who again?" This voice was trembling, but since Hades had joined the titans, I've never really met him, so I'm only assuming it was him.
"Shay. Plus, he's waking up, if you haven't noticed, which signals the dead line for you, and if you still resist then a few minutes later that would be your death sentence settled." The female voice said again.
I opened my eyes and found swirling black eyes as deep as the universe staring back into mine. I tried to pull away, but she used her finger to lift it back up and made me stare into her eyes. I tried to swat her hand away as from one finger vines sprouted out and wrapped around my neck and the back of the chair, and then she pulled gently on the vine, tightening it and securing it into place, and there was something familiar in her touch. Something delicate and gentle that snagged on my heart and won't let go. I knew I was her prisoner but there was something familiar in the way that she wants eye contact with me, something familiar that Sapphire used to do.
The word 'Sapphire' snagged on my thoughts though the others flew away like fluids running down a drain.
What is wrong with you, Shay? You are not in love with her, right?
Although I tried hard to say no, I blushed visibly.
Across from me, the person with the swirling bl-
Only Chaos and Sapphire had those eyes, though!
"Let's start by introducing ourselves." She said, "My name is is Sapphire, I am somewhat 167 years old, and I'm Chao's personal assassin, commander of her little army that she's no longer in charge of and all the stupid titles that I don't even bother to take a look at and memorize. What ab-"
She was rudely interrupted by someone else who walked in, saluted and said, "Queen Sapphire, I believe you had let down orders to release the Olympians."
She turned around and said, "First of all, do NOT interrupt me, second of all, yes, I have let down these orders, and third, will you just stand still and let me introduce you guys? Shay, this is Chaos, my mom, and Chaos, this is Shay, the fallen Light's Peacekeeper." Sapphire said, exasperated.
My jaw dropped.
First, Sapphire is very much alive, second of all, she killed me, third of all, she knows I have a crush on her, and fourth of all, she has her own army, fifth of all, she is the Creator of the world, and sixth of all she is a queen!
Like those eyes and that hair and that soft pale skin it's just… perfect.
Wait a sec what?
She said something?
"I said, Chaos, will you wait 5 minutes? I have to let the Olympians know that I want decent fights. These Olympians are a bit too easy to defeat. Even they aren't properly trained." She said.
"Um, I'm actually here to tell you that the titans decides they want to kill you. You'd better run." Chaos said, nervous.
"Run?" Sapphire said, her tone dangerous.
Then the titans burst right in, Atlas in the lead.
"You managed to defeat a lot of Olympians, huh? Let's find out how good her fighting actually is." Atlas roared.
She hissed, and held out her palms. Her dual blades appeared in her hand, and I just watched in silence as she dodged, rolled, and slashed with her swords.
But then Kronos sent out a strike towards her neck, and she dropped her swords in surprise, making an awful clang, and the fighting in the room froze.
She stepped out of range, and her hands hovered protectively over her sapphire pendant necklace.
After a few long moments of silence, Kronos broke the silence, signaling the room into fighting again.
"Go for her necklace!" Kronos screamed at the fellow titans.
She sidestepped dodged, and rolled under several swipes and thrusts all aimed at her throat. Her hands fumbled with her necklace as I frantically worked on my bindings. I watched as she took down her necklace, tossed it into the air, and when it landed back her hand it expanded into a staff, one that I had never seen her use before. I always thought that her necklace gave her more or less some comfort, but now I realized that she was really fond of her necklace.
Her expression looked raged as she spun her staff, morphing it into her dagger while rolling under Kronos strikes, swords while sparring with Atlas, controlling time slightly sometimes to slow the titans down. Once they came to a break in the fighting, and Atlas risked a comment about how bad her fighting is, and surprisingly, she replied. "Well, lucky you. You're just about to find out." She hissed.
She thudded the floor with her staff, and it turned back into a pendant, already up on her neck. Then she growled once, and her body changed…
Her size grew, and in one second, she was herself, and in the other, she was just a supernova of black, flowing power, and she became uncontrollable. I've never seen her fight like this, and it took all the titans to hold her back, and even that wasn't enough. She was up to her ankles with all the blood and ichor she had spilled. And soon she had overpowered the whole titan army.
When she left, she had only one comment before she cut my bindings and walked out, as I followed.
Suddenly more than a dozen IMs appeared, and she addressed all of them:
"Every drop of blood I have to spill makes my heart tighten in sympathy. But if I have to kill all to reach my goal, I will do it. And remember one thing:
When all you loved and cherished burn down,
I'll be there, and I'll be making smores at the top."