Chapter Two: Family Vacation

Aion's POV

"Aion," a familiar voice, female, called out at the large pavilion crowded with soldiers on their lunch breaks. It contained a whisper of hope, relief, and happiness all at once. He loved that voice with all his heart. "Aion," it called again.

His head swiveled to the sound of her voice, finally turning around to face his wife, Zoë Nightshade. Yes, Zoë; the very same person that was part of the Hunters of Artemis long ago.

He smiled, putting his arms around her, pulling her into a delicate embrace and gently touching his lips to hers. They stood in silence for a moment before pulling apart, holding hands.

"How was your day?" Zoë asked.

Aion took a steady breath. "Ah, the usual. And yours?"

"Our daughter shot a bulls-eye today."

Aion raised a surprised eyebrow. "And she's only twelve years old. Hard to believe, really."

"Well, she's been taught from the best."

Aion laughed. "Yes, yes you are, my love."

Zoë smiled, making her way toward the archery targets. She watched her daughter as she notched an Eon Silver arrow and shot it, earning herself another bulls-eye.

"She's still improving." Aion noted.

"Yes," Zoë looked up at her husband. "Though she'd rather use a sword."

Aion smiled, his sea green eyes trained on his daughter, a white-clothed figure in the process of notching an arrow. "Then you've taught her well," he said.

Zoë laughed a light three syllable laugh. Their daughter turned toward that oh-so-familiar laughter, allowing her bow to disappear in a faint cloud of silver light. She grinned brightly, dashing to her parents in two seconds.

"Dad, you saw that, right?" Her eyes were an excited, dark green.

"You've definitely improved," he ruffling her jet black hair in the process. "Though you'd prefer a sword, yes?"

She nodded.

"I spoke with Lord Chaos today," he spoke the words like they were nothing. Even though Lord Chaos treated everyone as equals, no one really spoke with him on their own accord. It was more or less that he summoned them. "And he said sword."

Artemis grinned. "I thought he'd side with the bow."

Aion had it all figured out. "You'll be training with my Lieutenant during the week."

"Your lieutenant..." Artemis mused. "Luke? Luke Castellan?"

Her father nodded, saying simply: "Yes."

"Great," Artemis concluded. She turned and walked toward a couple of girls her age at the tables, sitting with them.

A moment of silence tensed between them as Zoë broke the quiet, turning toward her husband. "Her whole life will change, do you know that?"

"Yes," he was serious. "It's her choice."

"I guess you're right," Zoë said. "Though knives-throwing challenge before you leave again?"

Aion smiled, narrowing his eyes. "You're on. But know that you've already lost."

Zoë grinned in an all too vicious manner, a fierce kind of light in her onyx eyes. "You're horribly mistaken, Commander."

"Oh, so you know about that already?"

In reply, Zoë only shrugged, the smirk displayed on her face speaking for her.

Aion laughed. "You're so going to lose."

Lord Chaos, Creator of All, was sitting at his desk, sorting through files. Files, you ask? Well, yes, files.

Files and files of all sorts; paperwork that could fill halfway up toward the ceiling. Tedious things such as this came as a price to him, the First Creator. Oh, how he utterly hated it.

"Please, Lord Chaos," a voice, male, said through the mini fist-sized black portal that was floating to his right. The background was a very bright shade of gold. And two figures that each deemed powerful auras (not as powerful as his, of course) sat nearby him, one on each side, on their thrones. Chaos mentally sighed.

"We're begging you. Each and every one of us for your help in the war."

Lord Chaos looked directly at the speaking figure. He kept an impassive face. "Why?"

"Why?" Anger weaved itself into the voice as it repeated Chaos's one-worded question. "To help us win the war!"

Chaos frowned, looking back down at the pile of paperwork on his desk, a pen in hand. Yes, he preceded to do things by paper. Many things could have went wrong with a computer. "Aiding you in war when you've banished me with nothing..." he mused; a grumble, really.

A series of mumbling broke out among the other figures from the portal, but the voice continued to speak above them. "We're terribly sorry, my Lord; we now know the error of our ways. We need your help and we need it now. We're begging you, my Lord, please."

Chaos sighed, closing his eyes. He hated the Greeks. He knew this would be a decision he would come to regret very soon. It was all in due time. All in due time. "Nothing else you require?" he asked, giving the Greeks yet another chance to deem themselves merciful. Not even an apology...?

"No, my Lord," the voice said.

Chaos took a deep breath. Oh yes, he'd regret it very much later. "Very well," he said. "Expect a ship's recruits in a week's due time."

"Thank you, my Lord." The voice said, in a surprised manner. "We thank you for eternity." And the connection was cut, the black portal swirling with images disappearing with an invisible breeze.

Lord Chaos internally groaned. The Greeks, in turn, had been the ones to enslave him to his own dimension- void of any single thing common to one's universe. And now here they were, begging for his help- his help- in a war started by his own granddaughter. Why did he accept?

Sure, Gaea was, well, his granddaughter. But that didn't make her invincible from any crime she could commit. Chaos had always known Gaea to be a good person, a bit rebelling, but good. When did she have the time to turn this hostile?

In the first war, if Chaos remembered correctly and he always did, the gods had barely lulled Gaea back to sleep. So, looking back on history, why couldn't they do it again? They had the gods all there- well, most of them. The demigods, too. It wasn't that much of a difference, he thought.

There must have been some serious problems going on within their little group on Olympus, Chaos decided. Or maybe they were fighting with their Roman counterparts. Chaos always hated that. Why couldn't they just decide on one form and stick to that? The last time that happened... No. Those were the utterly horrible of times. He wouldn't remember.

Snapping himself out of his thinking, Chaos turned back to the paperwork. All of the Ten were on missions, and he'd just sent out a remaining on another. So that had left... His new commander, Aion, and Aion's wife, Zoë.

Chaos frowned. He could tell, Aion wasn't going to like it one bit. Revealing his identity to the whole Olympus... Even the First Creator was merciful. He would bend some rules. He didn't want his new commander and spouse to revisit the bad memories, before they had joined his force.

And so they wouldn't. Ever since Aion's daughter, Artemis, had walked all the way down to his office, Chaos could admit, she was pretty powerful for a girl at her tender age of twelve. Guards were posted at the ends and beginnings of every hallway. For her to even step foot in his office... Well, there was a lot of hallways one had to take to even find his office; he almost felt bad for them- almost. Judging from that Aion could bring his daughter as well on the mission. It would be educational, too; in proving how lazy the Greeks really had gotten.

A little family vacation, Chaos could call it. A little family vacation indeed.