Chapter Thirteen: Goodbye
Aion's POV
He realized quickly, fighting these particular wind spirits was getting him nowhere fast. After hacking and slashing, destroying their weapons to pieces in the process, the anemoi would reform once more to their former glory. He just couldn't lay a dent in their forces.
He kicked at a glowing scythe, the responding wind spirit flying fifty feet back. He struck a sword in half, flipping his attention immediately to the next charging target.
Soon Aion grew sluggish in his movements. What was swift and clean became rugged and messy. It didn't take long for his adversaries to gain the upper hand.
"Attack, my pets!" Ouranos screamed, his words echoing even past his kingdom.
The wind spirits paid heed to his statement, their bows transforming in size, their swords and scythes growing sharper, more powerful. The anemoi struck with an impervious kind of force at Aion.
Instead of fighting back and landing in strikes on his own, Aion was now fighting for his mere life. For Artemis, he reminded himself. For my daughter Artemis.
Kicking the wind spirits would leave them in a moment's daze. The archers' fired arrows were doused with Ancient Greek fire, extinguished once they pierced his dark assassin's clothes.
The wind spirits surrounded him, punching him, striking him with their assorted weapons. Strangely enough, this reminded Aion of when he first joined Lord Chaos's outfit: he had trained, trained, and trained- all day and all night; risen up the ranks from foot soldier to one of the Ten. He remembered when Lord Chaos himself had interrupted his training session. Aion would have let his knife fly in his Lord Chaos's direction, had he not stopped himself just in time.
"My apologies for the timing, Aion," Lord Chaos had said, "I believe you are ready."
"Ready for what, sir?" Aion grunted with effort, pulling his knife from his target's back. He turned to acknowledge his master.
"The whole council has agreed." Lord Chaos folded his arms behind himself as he presented the demigod with the single choice that he would later know changed him for eternity: "On my behalf of the council, we would have the honors of asking you to join the Ten."
Aion's emotionless eyes grew wide; he couldn't be thrown off guard in battle to be surprised but this had truly astonished him. News and gossip spread like wild fire through the compound. Aion had heard quite enough of the rare Ten: their impossible, sometimes decade long missions from Lord Chaos. Only ten of Lord Chaos's soldiers made up the group, and if he was being accepted in... Someone must have seen the last of their days. That was a rare sort of thing for the Ten, he knew that. Rumor was it they were given a god-like immortality. Aion would come to know in time that wasn't the case; not at all.
"How did the last soldier die?" he whispered, more to himself than to Lord Chaos.
An aura of extreme sadness radiated off of his master as he spoke. "It isn't my place to tell you. Do not let your past's choices affect those you make today," he said carefully. "Choose."
This was Aion's choice, all of it. He had known well Lord Chaos wouldn't be making the decision for him.
"I..." he cleared his throat and tried the phrase again, this time more firmly. "I accept the invitation, sir."
His master smiled. "I believe you made the right decision." Gesturing to the portal in the threshold, he said, "I also believe you two have met?"
As if the act was timed, a female stepped out of the vortex. She was donned with not the regular Chaos's soldier's garb, but an assassin's outfit absolutely no soldier would be caught dead in. The black color ran down her graceful form, careful of letting the harmful-looking light of Aion's arena expose any of her limbs.
Despite Lord Chaos's words, Aion would not have recognized her. On a closer inspection, he picked out her ebony irises, the highly familiar notion she held herself with, as if he were in the presence of extreme leadership. He thought she had landed among the stars. Instead she was here; here of all places.
The female released her midnight hair from her ponytail, entirely proving Aion's thoughts correct. The person who was standing in front of him was Zoё Nightshade, Artemis's former lieutenant of the Hunters.
"Zoё Nightshade?" was all he could ask.
Zoё smiled, a mirth he hadn't ever seen before taking place in her mesmerizing eyes. "Perseus Jackson."
He grimaced at that name. "Aion is fine, thanks. The name Percy- or Perseus- just brings back many past experiences... Some I really don't want to think about twice."
Zoё nodded in understanding, the mirth completely leaving her eyes. "I know the feeling," she said.
A moment of silence passed.
"Yeah."
And another.
Either to lighten the mood or to bring everyone back to the task at hand, Lord Chaos clapped his hands- a reverberating sound cracking the quiet around them. It did its job sufficiently, switching Aion and Zoё's attention immediately over to their master.
"A very pleasing reunion," he sighed, "Reminds me of the day my lovely Nyx and I reunited after the war..."
Zoё smirked. "Lord Chaos, you've never mentioned a Lady Nyx before."
Aion was ready to see Zoё join the choir invisible for a comment like that. Instead, Lord Chaos merely blushed.
"You thought I was the lonely Creator of the Universe with no avocations?" he asked. Zoё laughed and Aion joined in.
After the laughing had subdued, the Creator of All continued on, absently brandishing a tan colored folder and handing it to Zoё. "Take our newest member with you on the mission- I'd rather you didn't let him get killed, if you don't mind."
Zoё's eyes widened. "But- sir, are you sure he-"
Lord Chaos smiled, a challenge weighing itself in his expression. "Aion is more than able to take care of himself. Take into consideration the Second Titan War, perhaps, mere centuries ago." He reminded her.
"Holding up the Sky will be nothing compared to this!"
"I never said how difficult the mission would be," he replied in an unflustered tone. "Trust me, he's ready. Newly recruited or not, he's ready..."
Of course Aion was ready. Throughout his whole life, he figured, he had been trained for the possible chance of Lord Chaos giving him the choice of a lifetime of joining his outfit.
Aion was taught to endure much harsher situations than Ouranos, by far. But how was he losing? He had never grown exhausted in battle before; not even against hundreds of those robots in his personal arena. It didn't make sense.
The anemoi gathered around him, striking his body with their assorted weapons. Strangely enough, Aion didn't feel the pain of each hit. Maybe it was because he was dying? No. As one of the Ten, he was given immortality, and not just any old Olympian's immortality.
Aion was blessed with a similar immortality to Lord Chaos's.
Exactly, he reminded himself. So I can't die.
"Liar!" Ouranos's chortles echoed in Aion's mind. "Liar."
A numbness from the pain of the wind spirits spread through Aion's entire body, encasing him in an equally harsh reality. The first thing he realized?
Pain was real there.
And Aion was still laying, helpless, on the shifting ground of clouds. A figure was standing in front of him: Lord Chaos, frowning, shaking his head disapprovingly. All Aion could think was, Please, no.
"All persons are capable of escaping death, Commander Aion," his master calmly said.
Lord Chaos melted into a dark flame of smoke, Ouranos standing in his place. "But no one can evade him for long..." he smirked.
The blurriness in Aion's vision cleared, the numbness retreating rapidly as each second ticked in its eternal clock. The anemoi paused in their beatings with a single command; "Halt."
There sounded a ruffling noise, like clothing being folded together... Like the Earth's ocean on its brightest days...
Then a whisper in his ear, an everlasting whisper. "One could only wish you joined us. You had your chance, you know. Had a chance, wasted it," the whisper seemed to get only quieter and rasping. "Αντίο forever. To your wife, to your daughter, για πάντα."
Aion couldn't even manage a reply. With a swift hit to the head, he was knocked out cold.
Αντίο για πάντα... Goodbye forever.