Short chapter, but necessary.

Question: Did the alert not go out for the last chapter? I didn't get the usual buzz and chime on my phone when I updated, at least. I hear this happens to other people to. I guess there is a lot of fan fic on this site, and so there are bound to be issues.

All that stuff that I usually put at the beginning and/or end of a chapter! Enjoy, review (please no hate) and such.

:)


First Person: Kaze

I'm not sure how long I was running, where I was running, or when I stopped, but I found myself in a forest when I finally came to a stop and fell to the ground. I wished that Onesan would just understand, I wished she'd just open her mind and see Mother's point of view.

Your father left because of you.

Because he left, your sister - your mother - died.

You killed your mother.

"Stop it!" I shouted, holding my head. Tsuchi wasn't killed because of me…I didn't kill her.

She was stupid and got pregnant as a teenager, as an orphan on the run. She was stupid and didn't try and fix her life once you'd been born. It's her fault she died and you were left alone, not Hermes'. No, wait, it was your fault, wasn't it? The moment she was pregnant with you, he left.

Your existence is the reason she suffered. It's all your fault.

It's all my fault, isn't it? It's all my fault, it's all my fault, it's all my fault…

"My child, do not cry."

"Mother?" She formed in front of me from the ground, her sleeping face calm and serene, yet also filled with sympathy.

"It is not your fault."

"But it is! If I had just never been born, Tsuchi…she could've been happy, she could have lived, and Hermes wouldn't have left her! If I had never been born, Tsuchi wouldn't have…!" It was better to blame myself than Tsuchi for her sadness. All Tsuchi did was get manipulated by a god into loving him, only to be given misery in return, only to die a painful death. This was Hermes's fault too. If he had never targeted Tsuchi, she could have had a happy life without all this god crap happening to her. If he had never given her me, then he wouldn't have had to leave her.

"Do you know the real reason why Hermes left your mother?" I looked up to Mother in confusion.

"Real…reason?"

"Why Hermes left you, despite not wanting to."

"Because the gods can never stay around when we demigods are born. If Hermes had never created me, then he probably could've stayed with Tsuchi for as long as they wanted to be together. Tsuchi could've been happy, and she wouldn't have died alone. She wouldn't have died like she did, begging for Hermes to come, but him being unable to since I was around."

"Hermes would've helped you, even if he couldn't be there physically," Mother said. "Under normal circumstances, the gods do keep an eye on their children, and answer some of their most desperate pleas. Hermes was a special case, though. You were a special case. He was ordered never to help you by his father, Zeus."

"Zeus? The king or whatever of the Olympian gods? Why…? But…what have I done to deserve…? Why would he order Hermes…not to help us? Why would he order me and my…my mother to die?!"

"He was afraid of you. It was said, in one of Apollo's prophecies, that you hold the power to turn the tides of this war, and in fear of the possibility of your turning against the gods, he wished you killed. After consulting Apollo prophecies once more, it was deemed his best course of action was to forbid Hermes from making any contact or helping you in any way. It was said in Apollo's prophecies, that you would die before you reached ten were he to do that, before you could become a proper threat."

"Did he…? Is he working with that goddess manipulating…?" I couldn't call her Onesan, I just couldn't. But I wanted to desperately, to believe she really did care about me, that everything we had wasn't all just a lie.

You were afraid of being alone, huh?! You couldn't handle the thought of being without your precious mother! When I came along, you just wanted someone to fill the hole in your heart! You just wanted to have someone there for you in her place because you're a big baby who can't handle himself in the dark without mommy and daddy there to hold his hand!

I hate you!

She hated me. She only became my friend so that she could perform that weird curse thing on me that had killed me. All for that stupid goddess she worships so much. If that goddess was working with Zeus, who wants me dead, then that means that Rei most likely wants me dead too. She purposefully killed me under her goddess's orders, who was working with Zeus. But I knew she hated it. I had seen the hurt in her eyes when she did what she did. So at first she only agreed to take me along with her because her goddess told her to, and then we became real friends? Real family? Was that what happened? Or did she just go along with me so that I'd trust her and she could kill me once more?

"Yes, they work to keep me and my children in check, and are fully willing to turn on family if they pose a threat to their reign. Zeus stood back and watched up in Olympus as you, your mother, your father, and your sister all suffered." Those evil gods have hurt so many people all for their own selfish needs. The gods were worried about the possibility that I'd go against them and so they thought that I deserved to be killed, that Tsuchi deserved to have her life ruined and to die alone, that Rei deserved to have her life taken away from her and to make her do things that she hated, things that she would've never done otherwise. If there's even the slightest possibility that someone poses a threat to their rule they're killed mercilessly. We mean nothing to them. Those gods have destroyed so many lives, and they'll never stop. Especially Zeus.

"Will you destroy Zeus painfully?" I muttered.

"Indeed. He has many crimes to pay for. Of course, the power he was so afraid of still lies within you. I can teach you how to use it, and if it is your desire, you can be the one to kill him with the power he ruined your life for."

"What is it? The power?"

"Your power alone can tear down anything in your path. If we collect four others and have them work with you, you could destroy the gods by barely lifting a finger. Zeus would be helpless against you, even with all the gods by his side."

"What about my father? Would he stand by Zeus?"

"Not willingly. There are many that only follow Zeus because they have no other choice, because they fear his power. If Zeus is killed, many of the gods will fall just from despair, and others will stand down to join our cause without their dictator to force them otherwise. We must crush the demigods that stand by the gods and force their wills against us. We will break down their unfair system and free those trapped in their evil grasp. If your father is one of those people, he shall be freed. With your power, we could free your sister from the goddess that manipulates her. If my children gain control of the Underworld, even your mother could be brought back to you. Your entire family could be reunited, Kaze Grigora. All you need do is follow my instructions, and win this war with me."

"Hai," I agreed.

"First, I have a task for you. You are to join the twins Ephialtes and Otis in holding prisoner a few people in a bronze jar. Your sister's little "friends" will most likely be coming for them. You must not let them succeed."

"You mean the jar holding Veon's brother, Nico?"

"Yes. If they succeed in retrieving the location of the Doors of Death and, against all odds, find a way to close them, a good deal of my children will be trapped in Tartarus until they can reform, which will take many years, and it will be near impossible to retrieve them for the war for their freedom."

"Then I'll stop them." I nodded, and she held out her hand. When I took it, she pulled me under the earth.


When I came out again, I stood in a large room, like a parking garage, filled with numerous things, from pulleys, trenches and gears, to actual animals like hellhounds in hamster wheels. Above, there were a variety of live animals suspended in cages. A small ways ahead, on a raised dais, between two empty, oversized praetor chairs I saw a bronze jar about five feet in diameter and about five feet tall. It looked like it wouldn't hold a lot of people, maybe three or four at most.

"So you're the boy sent to assist us, eh?" The giant with purple hair asked me in surprisingly fluent Japanese. He was short by giant terms, maybe twelve feet, and his outfit was…eccentric, to say the least.

"Yes. You are Ephialtes?"

"Yes, and this is Otis." He motioned to his twin with green hair. "I assume we don't need to go through introductions and everything has already been explained to you."

"Stop the so called heroes when they come to rescue their friends in the jar. Simple. I want to gods taken down, Zeus in particular."

"Strong words, coming from a demigod. You understand that if you die, your soul shall be deemed a traitor to the gods, and they will most likely send you to Punishment until the rest of us either succeed, or you stay there forever if we fail."

"I understand that well. The gods hold all of us hostage, threatening us because they're more powerful, and therefore keeping their dictatorship going. I'm going to stop them, and I am not going to die unless Zeus is going down with me. He'll pay for what he's done to me and my family just because it was convenient for him."

"Very well. When the heroes arrive, we have a plan for a grand entrance and a show for the battle. We can teach you what we have prepared, though we are short on time."

"I think I'll settle with just welcoming them or something," I said nervously. Really, I wasn't in the mood for learning about these giants' bad performances they had planned, especially if they were going to try and get me into one of those outfits.

"Nonsense. We'll give you the basic outline of the plan at least."

"I'm still thinking a ballet would be wonderful after the-"

"For goodness sake, Otis! No ballets!" The two twins began arguing, as Otis seemed very passionate about this whole ballet thing. As long as I wasn't forced to be a part of it, I didn't really care. They began to go over the outline of their plan, but I was only half listening as my eyes wandered over to the jar that was holding Veon's brother, Nico di Angelo. Veon seemed like a pretty nice guy, I'll admit. He was probably only against Mother because his brother had been taken by her. Maybe I could talk to him, work this out and get him to see Mother's point of view. Maybe he can help me convince Rei too.

Rei. Stubborn Rei. Being manipulated by the gods into doing terrible things, having her entire life controlled and ruined by them. Yet she still doesn't see it. She's willing to give up everything, even me, even her own life, just for those selfish bastards. I had to wake her up, I had to make her see what I did.

The big question now was whether I should let Nico di Angelo live. He was Veon's brother, and if I wanted him on our side, his brother's death probably wouldn't help us. He was only meant to be bait to draw the others here. It probably wouldn't be too much to let the kid free once the others had arrived. Sure, he held the location of Tartarus, but so did Veon. There wasn't any point in killing them if we could get them to see our side and then work with us.

"…and we'll make sure their deaths and our victory will be remembered for millennia!" Ephialtes finished confidently.

"Don't underestimate them," I warned. "I've spent some time with them, and I know that despite appearances, they've got tricks and luck on their side, and sometimes, that's enough to win any battle."

"They can't defeat the two of us without a god, and what god would help them?"

"You never know. They tried making a sacrifice to Dionysus, and a pretty big one at that."

"What did they give?"

"A ship's worth of gold, jewels and such. Chrysaor's ship, to be exact."

"If Dionysus accepted that as tribute, we must've overestimated our opponent for all these years. Dionysus may pale in comparison to us, but even he's a worthy enough adversary that he wouldn't help them just for a ship of gold and jewels. Honestly."

"If you say so. Still, they have many allies, and they've been able to make it past many of Mother's traps and schemes. They've made it this far, so I wouldn't underestimate them."

"You're a weird kid, you know that?" Otis randomly blurted in a slightly more inept Japanese accent. I was so used to hearing American accents and bad Japanese accents by now that I was still able to translate it, but after our short meeting, I've already figured out which twin is the smarter one.

"I've heard," I responded, straight-faced.

"You might make a good actor someday. What tricks do you know?" I explained some of my powers, but that was a pretty bad idea, since the two twins began thinking of acts that I could be a part of. Okay so maybe Ephialtes isn't as…err, respectable as I assumed. Never thought I'd hear two giants argue about making a performance before they killed their enemies. Oh boy. What had I gotten myself into?