Chapter 17: Warriors of God

Asgard

Percy POV

After taking a bath which I was surprised to see was already drawn to me by one of the servants in this place, I emptied my luggage into the new room in front of me. It was nice, like really nice. It was like something out of a movie! The walls were a nice relaxing gold and the windows showed a nice and peaceful garden. The bed was nice and soft and I felt like I could sleep at any moment I wanted to.

"How are you finding it?"

I turned to see Annabeth next to the door. She had changed into a pair of tracksuit pants and a blue shirt with "Havard University" written across the front of it.

"It's amazing!" I sighed.

"Yeah," she agreed. "It's a beautiful place. I didn't know that this would be so real."

"What's real?" I asked.

"Kian said this was Asgard. We just met Thor," Annabeth said. "Percy, don't you see? We're in the homeplace of the Norse Gods?"

"They seemed friendly," I said. "Especially Thor."

She nodded. "I'm not sure if we should tell them we're Greek Demigods. It might start some kind of war."

"Don't overthink it, Wise Girl." I smiled at her. "I don't think anyone here cares whether we are demigods."

She sighed. "Let's hope so too. Are you going to be okay staying here by yourself you want some company…later in the night?"

"What?" I asked as I just about finished unpacking my stuff.

She laughed. "Forget it."

I heard footsteps and saw Thalia and Nico outside my door. "Guys!" Thalia said happily. "This place is amazing!"

"Beats sleeping on the streets," Nico agreed.

"I still forget that you used to do that, Nico," Annabeth said. "Out there in the world without anyone else to help you."

"I'm not proud of that," Nico said sadly. "I was just so angry that everything-"

"You don't have to explain yourself," I said to Nico. "You're safe now, that's all that matters."

"Besides, nice move holding back that Nivan guy!" Thalia punched him lightly in the shoulder. "That was cool."

"I should have held him for longer. You could have got something out of Split."

"I got enough," Annabeth replied. "But I still don't know if he's telling the truth. He told us about how Kian slaughtered all of Empena's army and that he's a monster but I don't think that's correct. Then again, we did just see Kian almost kill Rashomon with that Reaper state of his and we know he can be violent if he wants to. I don't know who's right or who's wrong."

"I'm not sure either anymore Annabeth."

Annabeth turned to me. "So who do you think is right and wrong here?"

"I don't know." I sighed. "But I trust Kian. If Empena has the Warp Gate or whatever Kian called it, then we have to help Kian defend his planet against her."

"Agreed," Thalia stated. "If she succeeds, then our parents, all the Olympians are dead."

"We don't want a repeat of what Kronos tried to do happen again." Annabeth agreed.

"Camp is my home and I still want it to be there. I'll help out." Nico shrugged.

I was glad that we all decided to trust him. If I could take away one thing from what just happened was that I wasn't seeing the whole story. I only knew so little about him so I have to ask him more.

I heard a knock and turned to see Harry and Mia standing outside my room. Harry wore a simple black shirt with some white trousers making him look more human than a machine. His brown hair was choppy but slicked back slightly. Mia wore a red-blue shirt with some black shorts.

"Hey," Harry said softly. "How are you guys doing?"

"We're fine," I said. "Just getting used to the place."

"You'll get used to it after a while. I wish I could have shown you around the whole place but we're only just staying the night," he explained sadly. "Asgard is beautiful."

"You have to see the gardens and the waterfalls. You can get famous if you posted those pictures on Instagram." she agreed.

"What brings you around here?" Thalia asked him.

"To see how well you were holding up after Empena," Harry explained. "How are you doing really?"

"We're fine," Annabeth explained. "Really."

"Good, glad to hear that," Harry sighed. "The reason I asked is that you guys are the first group of people from Earth to encounter Empena. Especially the first Greek Demigods so we had to make sure that you were all ok."

"We're fine," I said. "We've faced a lot worse than this!"

"I know you did but hey, I'm just making sure you're all ok. Fighting someone like her can affect you in ways you didn't know was possible."

"Harry," Annabeth turned to him. "Was what Empena told us about Kian true?"

"What stuff?"

Mia explained what Empena had told us about Kian in her ship.

He sighed and his hazel brown eyes reflected the light outside of the room. "Kian's a warrior, he's our Leader, our Squad Captain. What he wants to do is to protect as many innocent lives as he can. It's one of the core pillars when you attain that rank. Sometimes to do that, to fulfil his duty, he has to do things that he's not proud of, things that make him look like a bad guy to others. He never tries to do that but when he does, he always blames himself when it happens. He's always been like that."

"His-our enemies always try to push us back, bring the very peace that we worked so hard for back to ruin." Mia continued. "And the fight against Empena…is personal to him. It's his fight which makes it ours too."

"What do you mean personal?" I asked him. "Did she do something to him?"

"She's killed many people that he cares about," Harry said sadly. "His godmother, his friends-"

"She killed our teacher and his protector," Mia said wiping her tears. "Mr Silva was one of the best teachers we could have asked for. He didn't see teaching us as a job, he saw it as something he loved. To him, we weren't students, we were like his children."

"Kian blames himself for his death every day even though he shouldn't, he couldn't have done anything against her when she caught us in an ambush," Harry explained further. "The only way Kian can stop those thoughts is by killing her."

"That's some vendetta," Thalia said. "Does he have to kill her?"

"If he doesn't, the whole universe will be in danger. Empena wants all of existence to be under her command and that isn't a good thing," Mia explained. "She conquers worlds; turns them into worlds where she drains their resources and people from them for her armies. She's everything the Celestials hate."

"She's been the Celestial's greatest enemy since Lucifer rebelled. She destroyed Incini to stop the only ones who could stop her just so she could carry out her plans of universal conquest."

"It's a vicious cycle." Mia agreed. "Celestials raze Empena's planet, Empena drives them to extinction and because of her actions, because of her hatred towards the Celestials, Kian wants to kill her."

"You don't like this, right?" Annabeth asked him.,

"You're right, I don't."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Try and talk it out, come to a diplomatic solution, but I know that's not possible. Neither side wants to let the other live, especially after what they have done to the other. The only way this will end is by one of them dying and I'll do everything in my power to make sure that Kian survives this fight. I'll stand by him to the very end if that's what it takes."

"I stand by Kian as well, she's hurt the people I've loved and cared about." Mia agreed. "We can't let her just go free. We have to stop her, either by getting her to stop or the more likely outcome..by killing her."

Harry turned to me. "You're all fighting because she'll kill your parents right?"

"Last year, I saved the world from a Titan named Kronos. He wanted to do something like Empena, destroy the Olympian Gods. He wanted a new 'Golden Age' like when he was in power. The only golden age that would have happened was the Titans ruling over the world and killing as many humans just because he could. All of us-all my friends and I managed to defeat him in New York and I can't let Empena just undo that."

"Good. Glad we agree Percy. So that whole freak weather in New York last year was you fighting against Kronos?"

"How did you know that?" Nico raised an eyebrow. "You weren't there were you?"

Harry laughed. "No, I wasn't. I was about 40,000 lightyears away from Earth but I heard the news. All sorts of explanations but after what Kian told me, about the Greek Gods, it made sense about what happened."

"What else do you know about us?"

"Just who you are, what you can do," Harry explained. "And everything that led up to the fight at New York. It's amazing, a whole different world just existed just in front of our doorsteps."

"If we hadn't stopped Kronos, would you have stopped him?"

"I don't know Percy, a lot of things could have happened," Harry shrugged. "But I'm glad you stopped him. Come on, let's go and have something to eat, you must be hungry."

XxX

Banquet Hall

We sat in a large banquet hall. It was a beautiful place and faced a blue ocean and a clear blue sky. The arches in the walls framed the scene and I could feel the fresh cool breeze blow through the hall and make the room feel nice and refreshing.

In this hall, there were more of Kian's friends. A tall blonde guy called Chris was Mia's older twin brother and sat next to her. There was a short red-haired boy with white streaks in his hair who was called Leopold and finally, there was a pretty Asian girl called Sakura. She wore a denim top and black tracksuit pants that made her look like she popped out of a fashion magazine.

We sat down on one side of the long rectangular table. The rest of Kian's friends who we met down in Seattle were either checking tablets or eating or doing a mixture of both as they were discussing something.

"Where's Kian?" I didn't find him at the table.

"He's just taking longer than usual," Mars said, he was scoffing down a piece of lamb from his plate. "Which is a shame because I want to go finish the rest of my sparring."

"So what do we do until he turns up," Annabeth asked.

"Well we just talk," Chris explained. "Have you tried Asgardian Goat Stew?"

"What's that?" I asked.

His blue eyes lit up and he grabbed 4 bowls for us. I looked at mine and the smell of spices and warm meat filled my nose. The stew contained medium-sized chunks of goat meat and lots of vegetables.

"Try it. It's delicious. It's good at replenishing you after a fight." Chris insisted so I grabbed a golden spoon nearby and dug in.

"Wow, it's really good." I agreed with Chris as I swallowed a piece of goat meat. I turned to my friends and they agreed too.

"Asgardian Cuisine is amazing," Chris explained. "Kian did really set us up for life by saving Thor's life."

"How did he do that?" Annabeth asked as she ate a green bean.

"I'll give you the short version. Thor and Kian didn't get along when they first met, Thor thought that he was a little naive kid and Kian thought he was a stupid man who just smashed everything in his way. Then they saved each other's lives, stopped a frost giant invasion together and then started to get along."

"Quite a story," Nico said.

"We've had a lot of adventures," Chris said. "Seriously we could write a book which we-"

"That's for another time," Harry said. "I don't want to even think about Veniza 5, especially the …Dungeons…" He shuddered as he finished the sentence and that made me curious.

"What happened there?"

"You don't want to know!" everyone on the table said loudly at once.

Deciding to change the subject from this Venizia 5, I swiftly moved on. "You said that you locked the Warp Gate right? So we've got 3 days?"

"Invasion Protocols have been activated. The last time Empena did this…no one knew what to expect and we didn't have as advanced of a defence system back then." He stood up slightly and waved his hand upwards. A holographic display of a big ship took up the middle of the room.

"What is that?" Annabeth looked at it with curious eyes.

"Holographic displays. Beats boring PowerPoint presentations every time." he smiled. He turned to me, Annabeth, Nico and Thalia. "You guys were in Empena's ship, what did you see?"

"Just…ship stuff?" Thalia said. "We didn't know what to look for?"

"It felt like…" Nico started. "Like it was a source of evil and darkness."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Harry agreed. "The last time we went there-"

"Wait, you went there?!" I asked him. "Why did you?"

"It was a few years ago. We didn't know who was inside and…we ended up losing two people because of it. Turns out Empena doesn't like uninvited guests."

"How long ago?"

"We're almost 18 now. That happened when we were 16." Harry answered. "That ship brings us so many nightmares. It's like an omen of destruction. Wherever it goes, only death follows."

"Lovely."

Harry waved his hands and a picture of a solar system appeared. "What you see in front of you is Genesis Star System, it's close to the centre of the Milky Way. Do you see that planet with 7 moons? That's Locus."

7 moons orbited the very blue and green-looking planet. It was the third away from the sun of that solar system and if I didn't know beforehand, I could confuse it for Earth.

"Why does it look like Earth?" Annabeth asked. "For an alien planet, it's no different."

"Life needs water to start, this one is no exception," Harry explained. "Besides, the planet was made to look like Incini and Earth. Do you see those 7 planets around it? All of them sustain life but the most populated is Locus. They can act like exploratory outposts and in the case of someone trying to invade the central planet of Locus, defensive barricades."

The displays show the planets shooting little beams of light towards an object to demonstrate what Harry said.

"There's a network of war satellites across the whole solar system, across each planet. Incredibly powerful weaponry, weaponry that once belonged to massive Celestial Warships, now all controlled by an incredibly complex AI called SCARS." Harry continued. The display changed to show an incredibly complexly designed structure with a blue orb of light in the middle of it.

"Who made it?" Annabeth asked. "You seem to know a lot about it."

"It's because I made it," Harry said proudly. "I spent so much time programming it, making it able to communicate with others and even made it launch satellites across a solar system. I made the first-ever Warmind. An AI that protects the entire system."

"He got an award for it," Mia said happily. "This warmind stopped so many threats to the planet."

"Anyway," Harry continued. "If this was a thing back when Empena first invaded Locus, I'm sure she would have arrived on Locus with a quarter of her army."

"It's really powerful," Chris spoke up. "An asteroid the size of Jupiter was forecast to hit the planet but the Warmind blew it to atoms."

"And it's not just a warmind either. It's in our suits.

"Armours?"

"Didn't you see my suit?" Harry said. "It has an AI in it. Not all of us here have it but for those who do, it works as an assistant and our life support."

"Is that an acronym for something?" Thalia asked him. "You keep saying it like it is."

"Super Cool Automatic Reactive System," Harry said casually. "Took me a while to come up with one that fits."

"Have you always had this?" Annabeth asked. "Surely if this is a thing, then you don't need to worry about Empena, right?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "This is pretty recent and well, you're right Annabeth, we don't need to worry about Empena…unless she comes in with her whole fleet!"

"Her whole fleet?"

"Did Kian mention something about Universal Transport Network?"

"Yeah?"

"That's what everyone else uses. Kree, Xandarians, Skrulls. It's good…but nowhere near powerful and easy to use as the Warp Gates invented by Celestials." Harry explained. "You could open a wormhole to the other side of the universe and it would be like stepping through a door. You could transport a planet's worth of people to one side of the universe if you wanted to; which back in the days of the Angel-Demon war, they did. With UTN, you can only get maybe 40 jumps before the warping of space-time tears you from the inside out.

Annabeth nodded. "And she can't bring her whole fleet because of that, right?"

"Exactly. UTN cannot bring her whole fleet at once and like I said before, even if she brought a quarter of her fleet, SCARS would blow it up before it got even close..,,"

"Can't you make this Warmind of yours stronger?"

"We would need more warsats." Harry sighed. "A single warsat takes 6 months to build and in terms of Earth Money, takes about $2 million to build, test and launch. It's not something that can be done within 3 days."

Annabeth sighed and shuffled on her chair. "You mentioned she did this kind of thing before right? What happened then, why would she have done that?"

"Because of me."

I turned to see Kian walking into the banquet hall. His hair was a little messier and more black strands hung over his forehead, his purple eyes bright behind them. He had gotten out of his dirty suit and wore mostly dark clothes.

"Kian?!" Harry started. "Are you-"

"I'm fine. Can I take over?"

"Are you sure you're okay after what happened with-"

"I'm fine," Kian said. He turned to the display and took up Harry's place. "Like I was saying, Empena invaded Locus 12 years ago…to try and kill the infant Nephilms."

"Nephilms?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "There's more than one?"

"Hi." Marcel waved toward her. "I'm a Nephilim."

There are 7 Nephilms in existence but Empena only knows that 3 of them exist. She tried to kill us when we were kids. but..she failed. She wants to make sure that her prophecy doesn't come true."

"What prophecy?!" my ears picked up. "Like-"

"It's a simple one really, no poems involved. A long time ago, Empena met a fortune-teller, someone who had an accuracy rate of 99.9%. She told her: "Your universal conquest will be stopped by a warrior in red and blue." So in classic megalomanic fashion, she decided to kill not just the Vorakians and Evians who at the time were known for their glowing red and blue eyes respectively but the entire planet of Incini, you know just to cut the weed before it grows in the garden."

"There were three Nephilms that she tried to kill that day. Me. Marcel…and her." Kian pointed at the screen.

The picture of the planets changed to that of a girl. She had olive-tanned skin like she had lived on the beach her entire life. Her face was regal and strong, a warning to anyone that she would win against anything that they would throw at her. She had short bright red auburn hair that fell around her face and wore a green costume similar to that of Kian's. She stood strong and had this fiery look of determination in her eyes. This was the same person I saw back in Seattle, just wearing more black and with longer hair.

I saw Kian's eyes turn sad at the appearance but he shook it off quickly. "She's a…close…friend of mine, a close friend of all of us," he said the word close like it meant something more than a friend. "I t-thought she had died in the attempt to defeat Empena last year but….I was very wrong."

"What happened to her?" I asked him. "Who is she?!"

"An incredible warrior and a really good friend." Kian's voice broke slightly as he said it. "She could run at speeds not even Rashomon could even match. She's one of the toughest girls I've ever met."

"So a teammate?" Annabeth asked.

"She's more than a teammate," Marcel spoke. "She's like a sister to me. She always told me off for every little thing before and I wanted to punch her lights out sometimes and I wished I could talk to her again. I couldn't go to sleep when I thought she died." he laughed bitterly. "Now I find out that she's alive." He slammed the desk and the whole table shook. I'm going to kill Empena!"

"Get in line Mars," Kian said casually. "We all want to kill Empena."

"She ran through the entire city to just get me the parts for one of my suits," Harry told us. "Managed to get them in time before we went out to fight someone. The parts she got saved my life,"

"And she taught me how to fight," Violet said. "I thought that at first if I stood away from fighting I could help more but I realised that sometimes fighting can help people more than what I wanted to."

I turned back to Kian. "So what happened? You said she died?"

Kian sighed and turned to face the sea. He then turned back to me. "I'm going to show you what happened and the reason why I hate the other part of me."

"Your Demon side?" Annabeth asked

"No, the other part of me. The Reaper in me." Kian explained. "Look into my eyes."

Kian's eyes glowed the colour of sky blue and everything changed.

xXx

I saw him fight a large army with an army of his own, an army that was slaughtered by Empena one by one. I saw Kian's tear-filled eyes mourn the loss of each fallen soldier as it whittled down to just 2. The skies were bright red, and flames and burning buildings hosted this war.

The other was the same girl that Kian describes. Her wild red hair was shorter but braided to not be so loose. She was quick, flashes of orange as she struck at Empena with her long spear. She wore a green body suit with shiny green armour, an orange lightning bolt on the middle of her chest

Empena's army tried to kill the pair but they were easily defeated, either Kian or the girl covering for the other while they fought Empena. Her army then decided that getting killed by the pair wasn't worth it and just watched the fight.

They fought excellently, their rhythms syncing with each other as they fought Empena to a standstill. Kian and the girl drew a deep slash across Empena's chest making her scream out in pain.

"Not close enough!" the girl grunted. Her green eyes stared down at her enemy, her armour covered with blood

"Then try harder Bella!" Kian replied.

Empena's body healed and she attacked the pair again, drawing her scythe and releasing a violent burst of red and gold light that created a wave of destruction that the pair barely avoided. Bella stomped on the ground and a huge slab of the very Earth hit her on the floor.

"Kina, what should we do?!" Bella asked him.

Kian grabbed his blue sword tightly. "WHAT DO YOU THINK, KILL HER!"

"IT'S NOT WORKING!" Bella shouted at him.

"WE HAVE TO TRY HARDER! SO MANY PEOPLE, OUR FRIENDS...THEY DIED AGAINST HER. WE HAVE TO TRY HARDER" Kian screamed. "Come on, let's go!"

Empena exploded from her tomb on the ground and looked at the two. "You cannot kill me…"

"Kina," Bella began. "I have an idea.."

"Oh?"

"But you're going to have to fight her on your own for a while. I need some time to charge it up."

Kian grinned widely and swung his sword. "You better have something that works."

A single tear drop fell from Bella's green eyes. "Y-yeah I will. Just do your job."

Empena charged at Kian with her scythe, trying her best to kill him but Kian defended himself excellently against Empena's attacks. If I thought him fighting against Ares was the best he could do then I was wrong. Both of them moved incredibly fast, only a blur of red, blue, gold and black was what I could see.

I turned to see Bella hold something, a box that was being charged up by green and red lights. She was crying as she stared ahead and I didn't know why at first. She held it by the side and eventually it glowed almost like a very star.

Kian had cut Empena's non-scythe carrying hand and she regenerated it almost immediately. "You can hurt me as many times as you want, I'll only return to normal. The same cannot be said of you!"

She moved in a flash and drew her scythe across Kian. He narrowly dodged the attack but deep blood poured from his forehead, his black hair sticking to it at his forehead. He stopped slightly but he kept strong.

"Even if I lose an arm, even if you cut my limbs from my body, I'll still kill you!" Kian growled. "Doing less would make me unworthy of my title."

Empena went to attack but a sudden wall emerged from the ground and slammed into her. Two more walls, sharp as blades popped by either side and slid forward cutting both her arms off.

Kian turned back to see Bella jump and land over him and into Empena's neck. The device was nowhere to be seen as she had drawn green wires of light across her neck and started to choke her.

Empena's arms regenerated and tried to get her off him but Kian's blue light cables popped out from his fingers and stopped her almost instantly. He pulled them back tight and stamped on the ground, creating a set of blue light clamps on the floor to stay strong.

"Bella, what's your plan?!" Kian grunted against his cables.

"This."

Bella brought out the square-like device and placed it against Empena's head. Kian's face dropped at the sight.

"BELLA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he screamed. "THAT'S A-"

"I know," her eyes were filled with tears. "It's a Supernova Case. Belial showed how us how it worked."

"YOU'LL DIE!" Kian screamed, tears dripping down his face.

"It's the only way." Bella tightened her green wires across Empena's neck.

"THERE HAS TO BE A ANOTHER WAY, WE HAVE TO TRY SOMETHING," Kian said, eyes now full of tears. "I-I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU!" P-PLEASE BELLA!"

Bella was crying too as she held the device. She pressed something and it started ticking. "I thought Mum was selfish in what she did but now…I see that she was doing the opposite. She was saving us. Now I'm saving you. Before I go-" her voice broke. "-I want to tell you something. Knowing you, and training with you for the last 4 years were some of the best of my life. I didn't have many friends, I was the outcast and after meeting you, I felt at ease, like I was with people who understood who I was. We did so many cool things didn't we?"

"STOP!" Kian screamed. "BELLA, STOP!"

"Before I go, I want you to know one more thing. I know you hate this stuff but you don't have to be scared of it, it's a normal feeling to have. It's how we progress." Bella didn't bother to wipe her tears.

"Kina," she began. "I lov-"

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM

An explosion of pure white shook every cell in my body and I looked away. I looked back, I saw Empena's headless corpse and Kian on his knees. He was crying, not caring about the fact that the army around him had shielded themselves with something as he bawled his eyes out.

To my shock and horror, Empena's arms started to move more than her legs and then she slowly stood up. Her head was being replaced by new cells. First her skull, then tissue until her face was fully replaced.

Kian just stared with wide eyes at what happened, not bothering to wipe his tears. She looked back at Kian and just smirked. "Was that the best you could do?!"

She cackled and turned to her army who followed in her actions. "Look at this foolish boy, he thought he could kill me!"

"Serves him right!" one of the army members screamed. "He thought that he could kill the ever-powerful mistress."

"Let's kill him now!"

"Foolish kid!"

"Now, to kill the next Nephilim," Empena went to grab her scythe but her arm was chopped off.

"What makes you think you can survive while she died?!"

Kian had stood up, legs and arms shaking, his red eyes glowing brightly, even more than when I saw him in Seattle against Rashomon. An aura of black and red surrounded him as he stood there and the skies turned a dark red and black. His skin was darker, lined with pulsing lines of red energy that I had seen earlier. He closed his fists and let out a painful scream to the skies that began a rainstorm.

Empena went to speak but found Kian's arm in her chest. She tried to pry him off but Kian grabbed it and tore her arm off quickly. Empena tried to remove herself from his grasp but Kian kept his grip strong.

"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE!"

With a roar, Kian tore open her chest and reached inside. He grabbed her heart and tore it from her, drenching his face, his body and hair with her black blood. The heart was still beating and was pulsing with gold and red light.

Empena fell backwards and her army collectively gasped. "I'll still-" Empena coughed up blood. "-regenerate. You cannot kill me!"

Kian crushed her heart in front of her in an explosion of blood. "..I don't care anymore…" He stamped on her face until her head was crushed into a puddle of blood and bones.

He started to cackle and looked at the army who was just looking at him with horror and fear.

"Now…To deal with you!"

To describe what happened would take too long to explain. It was cruel what he did to them, even when they surrender their weapons, Kian cut them up into pieces. They did their best to stop them but they were no match for him. He went through them like a knife through butter, slaughtering anyone that got in their way.

He had created piles of bodies around him and he was covered in blood, a mix of his and his enemies. He collapsed to his knees, bawling and crying his eyes as he returned to normal. He covered his face with his hands and then looked at them with abject horror, realising what he had just done. He screamed to the skies one final time and as the red skies turned to a dark grey.

xXx

I returned to the present and now I understood both parts of the story. My mind was made up on who to trust and I knew I was right.

"What you didn't see was me cutting up Empena into pieces and burning her, hoping that she was killed for good. I thought that her sacrifice meant that Empena stayed dead for good but her regeneration ability is incredibly strong. At this point, I'm not sure even throwing a star at her will kill her." Kian looked at the sea.

I just stared at what I saw and had to try my best to remove the violent scenes I had seen. Kian looked at me and spoke.

"You asked me a while ago if I had been to hell before, that was it. That was my hell. I see that every single time before I tried to go to sleep.

"I understand why you did it," I sympathised with him. "Look if the same thing happened to Annabeth then I would do the same thing."

"Really?" Kian asked me. "Would you have-"

"Yes. A year ago, when Ethan Nakamura stabbed Annabeth, I went into a frenzy thinking she was hurt badly."

I looked at Annabeth who held my hand and smiled at me. She looked at Kian who turned his eyes at the sea again.

"Did you guys know that happened?" she asked the rest of his friends. "You-"

"How could we not see what he did?" Varahard answered "We've seen stuff like before so it didn't affect us too much but, it wasn't pretty. So many bodies, so much blood…" Even he looked shaken up as he described what happened.

Violet's hands shook as she spoke. "W-We had to pick out the dead bodies of our dead friends. We couldn't stop crying and after Kian told us she had sacrificed herself to stop Empena, we couldn't do anything except cry."

"Dead friends?" Thalia asked

"Everyone you saw Empena kill in my memories was part of my squad. I knew them all personally." Kian wiped the tears from his eyes. "I went to school with them, slept under the same roof with them when we trained together and I dragged them into something that took their lives. Empena laughed as she took their lives."

. "If you knew how powerful she was then-"

"Because I thought I could do it," Kian sighed. He turned back to me, arms crossed. "I thought I could change the future, change what Alveus saw."

"What did he see?" Nico asked him.

Kian's eyes turned dark. "He saw Empena dying but it was at the cost of so many others. In a way what he saw was right. For a moment, she was dead and it came at the cost of my friends' lives. I thought it was enough but then a few months later, Alveus told me that Empena had come back to life. I investigated and my heart dropped at the news. My friends died in the attack to end her once and for all so imagine my feeling when I saw her walking normally as if nothing happened."

"How did you attack her base?" Thalia asked.

"Well, Auras knew where it was-"

"Wait, Auras?!" Annabeth stood up sharply. "What does he have to do with this?!"

"Empena is her adopted mum," Sakura explained. "Well..was. Around 12 years ago, she lead an invasion on the planet of Locus and because of that, so many people were left without a home, without their parents. Someone associated with her took him in and Empena took him as his son."

"That's horrible," Thalia shuddered.

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Kian asked Violet. "He was here right?"

"He's back on Locus," she answered. "Said he wanted to go home. I'll tell him we're coming."

"Her first invasion caused so much damage." Leo started to explain. "Eden was run by the nicest billionaires you could find. Eden's founders wanted everyone to be a hero but after the invasion, they were killed. The only people we could turn to keep Eden Academy alive was a bunch of snotty-nosed businessmen who only cared about making a profit."

"A profit?" I asked. "Like for money right?"

Leo nodded. "That's right. Eden Graduates are some of the most powerful heroes you could ever find. The more people that would attend the more money you could get but the new owners didn't see it that way, they only wanted the 'strong' to attend and not the 'weak'. They made it so that only family of the graduates, current heroes could attend."

"Locus didn't like it, no one did But they could do whatever they want, they owned the most valuable school for heroes in the whole galaxy," Harry explained. "It was like that for 6 years, then everything changed."

"What happened?" I asked

"I blackmailed them into making it open for everyone," Kian said proudly. "Normally they could have just ignored me but see, there's an important piece of legal information when it comes to owning Eden Academy that they thought would never happen. The public could decide on who owned the school, if they were unfit, a sudden vote could occur anytime they wanted to with the permission of the highest ranked hero at the time. Eden was for the planet, not for their gain and they learned that the hard war."

"How long ago did this happen?" Thalia asked him.

"6 years ago, my first year in that school," Kian chuckled. "The owners agreed to what I wanted to do but they kept trying to privatise it. Eventually, the founders of the school were able to gain control of the school with the old owners being voted out. I couldn't stop smiling at their faces when they walked out of the school for the last time."

"Sounds long and complicated." I yawned.

"It is. Empena created all those problems to try and bring it down but thanks to some complicated laws, we brought some stability."

"You just don't care about the laws do you?" Harry asked him.

"I don't get along with authority," Kian shrugged. "Never did."

"How do you know him?" I asked him.

"He tried to kill me when I was 12, then came to me for help a few years later. It's pretty complicated but he wasn't a bad guy when I learned what happened to him." Kian answered. "I rescued him from Empena and he's been an ally to us ever since."

"Why didn't any of you help him against Empena?" Annabeth turned to Kian's friends. "He might have won!"

Harry sighed. "We wanted to, we did but we had our jobs to do. The only reason Kian got so close to killing her was because of us. We completed our assignments."

"Which was?"

"Take out and or neutralise the Dark Moons. There were over 100 Dark Moons when we started it, now only 5 and you've met what remains."

"What happened to them?" Thalia asked.

"That's simple. We killed them."

"What? But you guys…you're heroes, right? Like Kian?" I said confused. "Heroes don't do that kind of stuff right?"

"You're right Percy, they don't." Kian laughed bitterly. "But after what we've done. We're not heroes anymore. We're soldiers."

A moment of silence passed around all of us present at the table. "What do you mean soldiers? Angels don't do that-"

"Angels are God's soldiers, his army, his warriors his way of watching over this universe" Kian cut Annabeth off. "I told you that the humans got us wrong. We aren't baby angels who sprinkle fairy dust on people, we don't dress up in tights and rescue kittens from trees. Angels are soldiers, warriors of god, warriors who defend the innocent from those who would do them harm.

"Is everyone here a soldier?" Nico asked, his mouth open slightly. "Have you all…killed someone before?"

No one bothered to answer him which was an answer itself.

"So when Empena said that you killed the Grigori she brought with her-" Annabeth said with tears in her eyes. "She wasn't lying?!"

Kian sighed. "She wasn't."

"Why would you do that?!"

"Because they were going to come after you!" Kian answered her. "After you, after Percy and after every single demigod for Empena to harvest as weapons to kill the Olympians? They were going to kill you Annabeth, they were going to kill all of you. Did you think I wanted that to happen?"

"We aren't proud of it," Marcel started. "But we only did it to protect people. It's no different than when a police officer shoots a suicide bomber because they refused to listen."

"How did it happen?" Annabeth asked. "How did you become soldiers?"

"Locus's military was devastated from a previous battle with Empena's forces. They had no recruits and the active heroes in my world didn't know how to fight her. We were the only ones who could fight against her so we took up the mantle."

"We chose to be soldiers. We had to if we wanted to see Kian again after he gained Archangel status. All members of an Archangel Team receive intense training to improve their physical and mental abilities." Harry explained. "We hated it, we wished to die to get out of it but the rewards were amazing."

"Except the killing people bit," Annabeth said sarcastically. "Makes you sound like the bad guys."

"There are no good guys or bad guys in the real world," Kian answered her. "That depends on where your standing. To the Grigori, we're the bad guys who are trying to stop Empena from bringing 'peace'. To Locus, we're their heroes, their saviours, their superheroes. If I kill a Grigori member, I'm a hero to Locus but an enemy to Empena. You see now?"

"So what do you want to do?"

"Simple, kill Empena."

"Then what?" Annabeth looked at him. "Then what will you do? Revenge against her for what she did to you won't make things right

Kian scoffed. "Killing her will make things right. That's how it is."

"After that?"

Kian shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe become a gardener. I don't know. I can make that choice with a much clearer head when she's dead."

"Why did you lie to us?!" Annabeth slammed her hands on her table. "You said you were a hero, that you help people. I thought that there was someone who looked out for us! For all mortals but right now…you're sounding like an Avenger!"

"A what?!" Kian raised his eyebrow. "How did you know her callsign?!"

"You want to harm to or punish the person responsible for something bad done to you or your family or friends to achieve a fair situation. That is an Avenger." Annabeth explained. "You want to do that to Empena right?"

"Oh, that makes sense." Kian nodded.

"So all that talk about protecting the world was just lies?"

"I wasn't lying Annabeth about anything I said in the throne room or at Camp Half-Blood!" Kian clarified. "I never said I was a hero and I'm not after what I've done but I'll protect both my planets because it's the right thing to do and I'll use whatever I can to make that happen."

"So what?" Annabeth asked. "You'll carry on killing?"

"Don't look at me like I'm a serial killer," Kian rolled his eyes. "If I kill Empena, she won't get the chance to conquer Earth. If she's dead, there won't be dead gods, people won't be harmed and there won't be any oppressive regimes. Trust me on this, she'll make North Korea look like a nursery school."

"We're going to need more than just that," Annabeth stated. "What will she do to Earth if she were to conquer it? What will she do if you let her live?"

"Imagine little children trained to kill people they've never met, imagine innocent people being tortured just because they dared to say something bad about her, imagine paying so much money just so you could have the right to live in her world. She takes away their freedom and makes her word the law. That is what she plans on doing to Earth and every planet inhabited by intelligent species. It's everything the Celestials hate."

"You're lucky you weren't there when we removed her regimes on the planets she took," Mia explained. "It took a lot of fighting but eventually, we returned their birthright to them."

"Birthright?"

"Celestials believe in one thing," Marcel started. "Both Angels and Demons alike, that God created the universe and let intelligent life exist according to their will and reason, not anyone else's. Freedom is the birthright of every intelligent form of life in this universe and anything that tries to take that away is considered unnatural."

"It's why we have wings, it's the symbol of freedom. All intelligent life in this universe is all free to explore this universe if we choose to do it. " Kian finished

"So why did you come to Goode Highschool," I asked him, earning a look of surprise from him. "Sorry, Kian it's just I don't know why-"

"I left because I couldn't take it anymore," Kian's voice broke. "I saw my friends die in front of me. The people I have cared about have thrown themselves at Empena to keep me safe, why would they save me when I can't even kill Empena properly?! I came back to Earth I wanted to be a normal kid, go to school, go to university and get a normal job and for a moment, pretend I was human again"

"What changed?"

Kian laughed bitterly again. "You can stop trying to be an Archangel but an Archangel can't stop being you. Alveus told me when Empena was planning out her genocidal plan a few months ago maybe in March and while Empena exists, I'll have to be an Archangel, I'll have to bring her to justice.."

He wiped the tears from his eyes. "And now, the girl I swore to protect, the girl I saw die in front of me is now working for Empena. I swear I'll return her to normal."

"How are you going to do that?!" Marcel asked hum. "Do you have a plan?"

Kian clenched his fist and rubbed the lightning bolt ring on his finger. "I have some idea."

"What do you want us to do?" Annabeth asked him.

"Well I would have returned you to Earth but you want to bring Empena down so you'll be sticking around. I have to get our destination ready."

"Leo," Kian turned to him. "Return to Locus immediately and warn them of what's coming. Prepare four more beds for some time in our dorms."

"On it," he nodded.

He turned to Harry, Violet and Varahard "You four go back to Earth and make sure that the Grigori didn't cause too much damage. Remove all traces of us ever being there."

"Yes, Kian," they said in unison.

"Marcel show the demigods what you can of Asgard before we leave for tomorrow night," Kian asked him and he turned to Harry."When you get to Locus, make sure SCARS knows what Empena's capable of and make the warsats stronger."

"Sure," Harry nodded. "Do you want me to use those old warships your parents showed me?"

"Do it, use the nuclear fusion cannons," Kian smirked. "Make Empena regret her choices the moment she enters the outskirts of the system."

"What's with the sudden tour?" Nico asked him.

"So you can have some time to decompress," Kian answered.

"About you being a killer?" Annabeth said sourly.

"We're not any different. You've killed monsters haven't you?"

"Yeah, but they come back eventually."

"But you still ended their lives for a while, didn't you? It's pretty much what I do but more permanent. Honestly, if your monsters died permanently it would be so much easier wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, but we can't change that, that's how our world works." Annabeth clarified. "You should have shown us-"

"What I did before you met Empena?" Kian asked. "I'm sorry but I don't think that was important at the time. I only showed it to you because of the complications that occurred-"

"Because she came back from the dead?"

"Exactly."

"Who was she to you?"

Kian took a moment to answer. "I told you, a comrade and an ally. This information became relevant only after what happened in Seattle. So excuse me if I didn't feel like I wanted to show you slaughtering innocent soldiers and seeing my friends die at the hands of my greatest enemy."

"We just wanted to help, you could have told this before,"

"You can help by listening to me."

"Why can't we go back to Earth?"

"Harry, Violet and Varahard know how to clean up our footsteps," Kian explained. "We all do but it's a waste of time if we all went. I don't want SHIELD trying to convince me to join their super secret team. After what you saw, you definitely need some time off."

"I think I'm fine."

"Percy, you're sweating, you're eyes are dilated. You need a break. Now."

I checked my forehead and I felt a wet patch of water on it. I looked back at my forearms and saw the same result. I turned to see Annabeth have the same result and share the same look of shock as I did. Thalia and Nico too.

"Wait.." Annabeth asked. "Her name," she looked at the girl on the display. "Kian, can you tell us her name?"

"Her name?" he chuckled. "I think you should all know it by now, don't you? But if what you saw made you forget, I don't blame you. Her full name is Jazmine Isabella Garcia but me…I just call her Bella."

He looked at Mia. "I need your sling ring. Now that we need to go to Locus, there's still some stuff I've left back on Earth."

"Sure." A small gold piece of jewellery was thrown across the room and into Kian's hands.

Kian turned to the rest of his friends again. "You know your orders, you know what you're doing. Team Dismissed. Get some rest, see you in the morning."