Previously On: Healing a Broken Angel
After Kian remembered and paid his respects to the deaths of his friends and allies against the many battles that they fought against Empena, he was suddenly ambushed by the Grigori, a group of people that wanted him dead led by a man called Colborn. Despite the sudden ambush, Kian turned the tides on his attackers and defeated them with ease, rendering them limited in their numbers but as he went to finish off Colborn, the sudden appearance of a woman in all black complicated the whole situation leaving the Nephilim unsure of what to do next.
First Day of the Quest
The next day…
Percy's POV
Time: Around 9:30-10AM
Location: Entrance of Camp Half-Blood
Percy's POV
All 4 of us waited outside Camp entrance, bags packed and ready to go on this quest as we stood outside the golden arches. Me, Thalia, Annabeth and Nico were waiting for Kian to arrive, gazing at the morning horizon multiple times.
"How long do we have to wait?" Thalia played with her bracelets. "We've been waiting forever!"
"I don't know," Annabeth turned to me. "Did Kian say what time he was going to be here?"
I shrugged. "Not really."
"So we could be here for hours then?" Nico deadpanned and pulled his aviator jacket tighter around his shoulders.
"He better arrive soon or he's getting an arrow up his-!"
"Anyway," Annabeth interrupted Thalia. "While we still have time…let's double-check our stuff. We all have our weapons right?"
"Check." Me, Nico and Thalia raised our swords and bow respectively.
"I brought my spear like old times!" Thalia tapped the celestial cylinder on her hip.
"Good, me too," Annabeth pointed to her knife. "Extra clothes?"
"Enough for a day, maybe 2." Thalia pointed to the rucksack on her back. "Annie, I don't even know why we're packing for that long, it's going to be in and out of Seattle right?"
"Yeah." I agreed. "This might be the shortest time we've ever been on a quest. "We take down this "God Killer" and then we're done."
"I don't think it'll be that easy, Percy." Nico started. "Kian is the only one that can defeat this God Killer. Honestly, I don't even know why we're on this quest."
"Nico, that doesn't mean we can't help him."
"What can you do?"
"Kian's been teaching me how to fight so if the God Killer tries to hurt any of you, I'll protect you." I turned to Annabeth. "Right?"
"What a gentleman," Thalia giggled.
Annabeth blushed a little but regained her focus. "If all goes to plan, then we won't have to fight her. At least…that's what I hope happens."
"The prophecy about this quest…" Nico started. "Who do you think…you know, is going to die?"
A moment of silence passed between all 4 of us. "I-I don't know.." Annabeth spoke first. "I'm hoping that it's just a red herring…and it means something else."
"I don't know Annie," Thalia whistled. "The line: "To win, a half-blood must die in a bright and fiery glow." sounds pretty straightforward to me."
"That's not always the case, Thals," Annabeth replied. "Remember when we all thought that Percy would die on his 16th birthday? Then it turned out to be Luke…and…-" she took a moment to speak again. "-and then well here we are."
"Annabeth's right," I defended her. "Prophecies aren't clear so…let's just hope for the best."
Thalia sighed but nodded. "At least this will be a one day mission. So many things to do in Seattle, do you think that we can see the space needle?"
"Haven't you been there?" Nico asked her.
"Of course not," Thalia replied. "The closest I got was chasing down a couple of cyclops that was causing some trouble. I've never stepped foot in there."
"I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures of you in the Space Needle," Annabeth joked. "You can show off to all your hunter friends!"
"I will," Thalia nodded. Now where is Kian?!"
Then as if on cue, as if Kian was waiting for a mention of his name, we hear a roar of an engine and a flash of green was seen on the road. The same green BMW that I had been given a ride to Camp last month came to a stop just in front of us.
"Morning, sorry to keep you waiting."
A door opened on the right-hand side of the car and Kian stepped out. He was dressed in all black: jacket, shirt, trousers and shoes. "Glad you're up. I'm glad that I don't have to drag you out of bed for this."
"Is that your car?" Nico looked at the BMW next to him.
"It would be illegal if it wasn't."
"How can you afford that?" Annabeth asked. "A BMW like that must cost-"
"Must cost a lot, I know, I know," Kian cut her off. "This is a gift from a friend of mine. Insurance and all the costs have been paid for by him."
"Finally!" Thalia exclaimed and stood up. "Teleport us and let's get this quest done!"
"Yeah. Just one problem. I-uh can't teleport."
"What do you mean you can't teleport?" I asked him.
"I can't teleport."
"Why?"
Kian took a moment to think and brushed his right shoulder. "I was attacked-"
"Attacked?!" Thalia asked him. "Who?!"
"By Zeus?!" Annabeth asked. "Or any of the Olym-"
Kian scoffed. "Oh please, if they did try to attack, you know what would happen to them. No, it wasn't them…I handled it on my own but because of… what happened, I can't teleport anymore. The rest of my spatial powers work fine but I just can't teleport."
"What are we going to do now?!" I asked him. "You could teleport us and if you can't do that then-"
"I've already thought of a solution, don't worry. I..have an idea..but.." Kian looked around the place. "It's better if we go to my place to discuss this."
"Wait your place?" Thalia asked him. "You mean your house right?"
"That is what a house is, yes." Kian rolled his eyes. "Come on, we're wasting time."
"Halt!"
All of us now turned to see someone we didn't really expect, especially right in the morning before a big quest. She was dressed in a silver parka, camo leggings and black combat boots.
"Artemis…" Kian turned to face her. "What brings you here at this time of day?"
"Lady Artemis?" Thalia raised her eyebrows. "Why are you here?"
"Thalia, my lieutenant." Artemis addressed Thalia. Her appearance was much more like a teenager close to our age which surprised me. "I took it upon myself to hand you these items. Your parents thought it would be unwise for you to travel without these."
She pulled a bag from thin air and handed it to her. "I hope these will aid you."
"Thank you so much Lady Artemis," Thalia placed the bag down but still looked confused. After a while of thinking, she spoke to Artemis. "I don't understand this, why couldn't Lord Hermes deliver these to us."
"He would have done so….but I made a request to do this personally."
"Why?"
"Because of him." Artemis turned to Kian
"Me?!" Kian raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, you."
"What do you want with me?" Kian asked. "Are you here to turn me into an animal because of how I showed all you Olympians up a month ago? Be warned, I-"
"That was very entertaining." Artemis cut him off. "But no, this is a matter I need to speak with you privately about. There will be no transformations here."
"I doubt I need to know any new information regarding this mission."
"You are correct."
"Well, then what is it about? Is this how you lure me in and try to put me under a spell where you try to mind control me?"
"Kian!" Thalia shouted. "Artemis isn't like that!"
"I know she isn't but she could be under orders to do so from Zeus," Kian glanced at Thalia and back at Artemis. "So…are you?"
"I assure you, I will not do such a thing," Artemis said softly. "If you are the key to defeating this god killer, then I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. This is just a talk, nothing else, nothing more, young man."
"One more question," Kian crossed his arms. "If I'm correct, Alveus told me how you take the form of a 12-year-old to relate to young women right? Why change to an older form now?"
"Perhaps a 12-year-old speaking to you might make me seem foolish, especially since you are clearly not a young girl or a child."
"Fair enough," Kian shrugged. "Your 12-year-old form might make my sister listen but I doubt she would pay attention to anything that isn't barbie dolls and fancy dresses. She's at that age."
"So he has a sister?" Annabeth whispered to me.
"I didn't know that," I whispered back.
"What is your decision, young man?" Artemis asked.
Kian hopped off his car. "I'll entertain you this time but if you make any attempt on my life, I will retaliate with full force. Is that understood?"
Artemis nodded.
He pressed a button on his key and the trunk of his car popped open. He turned to the rest of us. "Pack your things guys, I'll be done soon."
On the way to Kian's house
"So what did Lady Artemis speak to you about?"
Thalia sat in the backseat as she asked that question. I was sitting on the passenger side to Kian's left instead of the right which probably was because the car wasn't from here. It was a nice car, containing nice leather seats and a modern but sleek interior and felt nice and warm.
"Nothing special." Kian glanced at Thalia for a few seconds before looking at the road. "How are you guys all doing?"
"We're fine," Annabeth replied.
"Yeah me too," Thalia said
"I'm cool," Nico grunted
"How about mental wise?" Kian asked again. "You're about to face something you've never faced before."
"That was every quest since I was 12," I laughed. "Every time it was different."
"But this time it is different!"
"How?" Annabeth asked. "What, are we going to fight giant robots or something?"
Kian ignored her silly joke. "Just stick around each other. There's strength in numbers."
"So Kian...Do you know anything about this God Killer that we need to know?"
Kian stopped at a red light and took a moment to answer. "..This God Killer is highly-no, extremely dangerous. If you feel your blood start to tingle, your arms shake and you feel a cold shiver run up your spine, you know you found her."
"So, the God Killer is a woman?" Thalia asked.
"I-" Kian's eyes widened as he turned the corner. He sighed and nodded. "...Yes...she is."
"How do we fight her?" I asked
"That's the neat part. You don't. That part you leave that to me." Kian glanced at me and his eyes went back to the road. "Facing the God Killer on your own is suicide and I don't want any of you to die. Only an Archangel stands a chance of fighting her."
"We don't want you to die either," I replied. "If we find her, we'll fight her together."
Kian scoffed. "Not making that mistake again."
Before I could reply to him, the car came to a stop at a parking lot.
"Alright, we're here."
All of us got out and stood in the shadow of the apartment block, which with the cold breeze was enough to give me a slight chill. With our backpacks and rucksacks on our shoulders, we looked around the place.
"You live here?" I asked.
"I think you already know the answer to that, Percy." Kian's car beeped shut and he put the key in his pocket.
Annabeth looked around. "A high rise apartment in the middle of New York with a grocery store, hospital and a high school nearby. Your parents really picked a nice place."
"Yeah…parents," Kian said dryly. "Follow me."
XxX
We followed him until we came to a stop at a brown door. Kian turned to us. "Take your shoes off before you come into my living room."
He opened the door and we followed, making sure to take our shoes off like he asked.
"This is a cool place," Thalia said as she stepped foot in Kian's apartment.
The whole place was pretty cool. It was very well furnished, having a beige corner sofa, a clear coffee table and soft carpeting all around the spacey living room. The room was lit up by the outside light, allowed in by the flat glass door adjacent to the sofa. There was a flat screen on top of a TV stand in one corner with various games consoles and games underneath.
Annabeth observed the place. "Your place is very tidy. That's not what I was expecting."
"Please elaborate," Kian glanced at her.
"Well, when I always visit Percy in his cabin, his stuff is all over the place and I thought…" she glanced at me and then back at Kian. "I thought it was a rule that boys were very messy. I guess I was wrong."
"Hey, I keep my room clean sometimes!" I protested.
"Seaweed Brain, I found a pair of your underpants on your bed," Annabeth giggled.
"I was sorting out my drawers!" I could feel my face heating up.
Kian chuckled. "You won't find underpants on my bed, I'm not Percy. I like when my place is clean, it makes me relax."
So where are your parents?" Thalia looked around. "They know they were expecting guests right?"
"Why do you want to see them?" Kian raised an eyebrow.
"You know, just curious.." Thalia whistled.
"Well, they aren't here."
"Are they at work?"
"No, they aren't here, not in this apartment or on this planet." Kian's voice cracked a little. "Sorry…b-but I live alone."
"Alone?!" Annabeth furrowed her brow. "Did they kick you out or-"
"No, of course not!" Kian cut her off sharply. "I made that choice. I have to live on my own someday, so why not start early? Find a place to sit, I have some things to tell you."
A chair flew into Kian's outstretched arm from his kitchen and sat down on it while we sat on the sofa. "This place is protected against anything. Mystically and Physically."
"Why?" Thalia asked.
Kian squeezed the armrests of his chair. "There are a lot of people who want to know where I am, to try and surprise me and not in a nice way. That includes the people who attacked me. I don't know how they managed to track me down so I thought it might be safe if we talked about what to do here."
"Who attacked you?" Nico asked Kian. He was sitting next to us on the corner sofa.
Kian sighed and then sat up on his chair. "...They call themselves the Grigori….think of them like a small but powerful army. Highly specialised and good at their jobs which includes taking out powerful targets, including a Celestial like me."
"Isn't that impossible?" I asked. "You said you didn't have any kryptonite!"
"Kryptonite?" Annabeth looked at me and chuckled. "Come on Percy, this isn't a comic book and he's not Superman"
"I don't," Kian answered. "But not everyone is truly invincible. You can be killed with a bullet from a gun and yet, you don't call guns or bullets your kryptonite do you? Stab me with an extremely durable blade in the right place, I'm as good as dead."
"So what, are they still around?" Thalia asked
"No, I managed to take care of a majority of them," Kian rubbed his shoulder. "But the ones that are left, they'll want revenge. They have a thing against me. I would tell you who they are but I have no idea who's left."
"Is that how you lost your ability to teleport?" Nico asked
"I think I ingested something that I didn't know about. I believe that is stopping me from doing so." Kian answered. "I don't know how to stop it interfering with my power either at the moment."
"So what are we going to do now Kian?" Annabeth asked. "If you can't teleport and there are these "Grigori" that are around, how are we going to go to Seattle."
"The Grigori won't attack with full force again, they won't want to lose more foot soldiers.." Kian smirked lightly. "That being said…I have a way to get to Seattle..but it involves me doing something I don't want to do."
"Do what?" I asked him.
RING RING
The doorbell rang and Kian walked over to the door.
"Is that the Grigori?!" Annabeth drew her knife. "Kian stay back-"
"Relax, Annabeth. The Grigori are less than subtle when it comes to attacking me, and remember, they can't track me here." Kian chuckled and put a hand on the door. He sighed and looked back at us. "I really wish I won't regret doing this in the future."
Kian opened the door and out of it, a short blonde girl stepped in. She wore a brown knee-length jacket, blue jeans and purple trainers. "Hi everyone!" she smiled and waved at us. "I'm Mia, nice to meet you all!"
All of us stepped back slightly, trying to understand what just happened.
"Are these the demigods? The Greek Ones right?" the girl asked Kian.
He nodded. "Yeah, they're the ones."
"They look so human, just like us." she scanned us with her bright blue eyes and looked at me. "You look just like him when he was younger."
"My name is Percy," I announced. I turned to Kian. "Kian, who is this?!"
"This is my friend." Kian stood and gestured to her. "Her name is Milena-she prefers Mia. You can trust her, I've known her since I was 12."
"That long?" Thalia asked her. "So what…are you a human or-"
"I'm half-angel." She answered.
"What's she doing here?" Annabeth asked
"She's our ticket to Seattle," Kian answered. "She can transport us there without any difficulty."
"How?"
"I'm a sorceress," Mia stated.
"Magic?" Annabeth turned to Kian. "Do you mean magic tri-"
Kian and the girl chuckled at what Annabeth said. "Magic tricks are to entertain small children," Mia answered. "I'm taking magic that lets me call down lightning strikes on my targets."
"Well, How's she going to do that?" Nico asked. "Do we have to clap our hands or something?"
"Oh no, I'll take care of that," Mia replied to Nico. "Don't you worry little Marcel."
"Who's Marcel?" Nico crinkled an eyebrow.
"Don't worry…." Kian waved it off. "That's just someone we know." Kian gave Mia a slight glare and sighed.
"I'm going to get my stuff ready, you should relax while we have the chance. Mia, don't get too friendly."
"I won't." she smiled.
That was the last of what I heard Kian say as I heard him run up the stairs. My eyes now went to this Mia girl, a half-angel witch that appeared out of the blue.
"So," she said with a smile. "What are your names?"
"I'm Percy," I replied. "This is Annabeth, Thalia and Nico-What are you doing?!"
Nico had a remote in his hands, switching in between channels "What," Nico shrugged. "I'm watching TV. It's not every day that we get to use electronics in a mystically protected place."
"I don't know about that," Annabeth crossed her arms. "You know we can't use electronics because-"
"Well, whatever the reason, nothing can get through my protection spell," Mia said proudly.
"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?" Thalia asked her
"I'm the one who cast the spell. Nothing except the people I or Kian want to be here can get in here."
"Does that include gods?"
"Of course."
"Huh," Thalia nodded and turned to Nico. "Move over Nico, let me see what's going on in the rest of the world!"
While Nico complained, I turned back to Mia. Despite being several inches shorter than me and Annabeth, I felt like there was something more to her. She carried herself with such grace and confidence that she looked like she could gave fitted in a girl band or a singer in a concert. There was something about her aura that made me feel safe, like if she was here, she could protect me from almost anything.
"So," she looked at Annabeth. "Can you tell why you can't use any electronics?"
"Well, whenever demigods try to use mortal technology, there's a high chance that a monster will try to kill us," Annabeth explained. "The more you use it, the more it'll happen."
"Has anyone tried that? To see if that happens?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if you want to see if something has a direct relationship, you perform an experiment, right? See what happens if you try your hypothesis," Mia explained. "So…have you tried that or seen that happen?"
"Well actually…" Annabeth went to reply but her grey eyes soon stared at empty space. "...Wait...I don't think...I've ever seen that happen. We know that demigods and mortal technology don't mix so"
"We can test that out later. Maybe you can get phones and I can protect you from them."
"You can do that?"
"Of course!" Mia smiled. "What kind of monsters do you think will turn up if we tried it. I'm thinking of a minotaur."
I was about to tell her how seeing the minotaur again wasn't going to happen anytime soon because I killed it twice, but before I could open my mouth, something happened.
"Is that Kian?!"
I glanced towards Nico and the flashing images on the TV grabbed my attention.
"Eyewitness reports captured this footage of what appears to be two people fighting. We can't be sure who they were or why they were fighting but we can see that it was frantic and highly dangerous. If you have any information regarding the individuals in these videos, please do not hesitate to contact us. This is only one of the strange incidents reported after a hammer..."
Kian wielded his red and blue swords against a woman in all black, herself wielding a long black spear, like I mean the thing was huge, almost like a telephone pole! The fight was lightning quick, faster than anything I'd ever seen before. Kian and the lady moved like a blur and the sparks of metal against metal were the only indication that I knew there was movement taking place in that fight.
"Wait…w-was that Kian?" Mia tilted her head at the news report.
"Was that what?"
I turned to see Kian walking through the door, this time with a large backpack and a bag over his shoulder.
"Kina, what is that?!" Mia pointed to the TV screen.
Kian looked at the TV and just sighed. "Dammit I should have made sure to scramble all the video recordings before I left. I doubt they think it's extraterrestrial."
"What about your face? They can see you right?"
"I doubt they can, even if they did, they probably won't have a chance to get a clear enough picture to recognise me from. I made sure all my records were really hard to find."
"How did you do that?" Annabeth asked
"Magic."
"Well, you better be right." Mia sighed. "Unless you want a repeat of the Acochester Incident."
"The what incident?" I asked
"D-don't worry about it, Percy." Kian waved it off quickly. "Now can we just-"
"Kina, those black clothes…" Mia asked again. "Is that…"
"Yeah, it's the Grigori," Kian answered softly. "They also attacked me-"
OMPH
Mia jabbed at his arm. "Why didn't you tell me that?!"
"I thought it wasn't important!"
"It's the Grigori, you know how many-" she stopped and rubbed her forehead. "What happened?"
"Tried to attack me, I defended myself and then got my ability to teleport removed," Kian answered.
"How?"
"I don't know. But it won't be a problem. Now, if you may, can you open a portal to Seattle?"
"You have to stop keeping so many secrets Kian, I'm your friend." Milena sighed and put her left hand out. She started to inscribe a circle with her right hand and as she did it, orange sparks of light started to appear from thin air. Eventually, a bright orange circle appeared that showed something different on the other side.
"Ta-dah," Milena announced. "Our Ticket to Seattle."
"Good job-" Kian turned sharply to Milena "-wait..Our?!"
"I'm coming with you Kian," she answered. "I haven't spent any time hanging out with you in over a year."
"No way!" Kian protested.
"Why not?!"
"Because-"
"Are you scared that I might embarrass you in front of your new friends?"
"It's not that," Kian said. "It's just…the prophecy said 4 Campers must go. There's 4 people here so-"
"She doesn't count as a camper," Annabeth stated. "Us 4 only do."
"But-"
"And it's better if we go as a 6."
"Why 6?" Kian raised an eyebrow.
"Well, prophecies are usually done with groups of three and bad things happen when it's more than 3."
"Isn't 6 more than 3?"
"It is but…6 is two groups of 3 so.."
"I'll come along even if you say no Kina," Milena giggled. "You can't stop me."
Kian sighed and massaged his temples. "It seems like I can't make you not come along so fine, stick around but don't be annoying."
"How can I, you're the annoying one." she replied.
"Funny," Kian scoffed. "If we've gotten all our stuff ready, then let's go."
With that, we stepped through the portal and thus began the first day of the quest to defeat this God Killer!
Hope you guys enjoyed this shorter chapter, this was going to be longer and include a fight scene but I felt like this would take away from having Kian being vulnerable. Until the next time. I hope you guys liked the short recap at the beginning!