Chapter Text
The wind howled into the night as Perseus Jackson, the hero of Olympus on countless occasions, stumbled across the forest. He was far from the ocean. He was far from the water. Something’s chasing him. He doesn’t have any energy left. He stabbed his sword down on the ground, panting heavily as he struggled to catch his breath, Riptide was so heavy. It was never like that before.
Something was stirring…
He couldn’t fight back as he fell forward, falling to the ground.
Whatever was chasing him was going to get to Percy Jackson, and that will be the end. He won’t grow old. He won’t see his girlfriend. Or his mom. Or his baby sister. Or his father. This was it. As he closed his eyes for the final time, he caught a glimpse of a shimmering appearance of… figures. He couldn’t make out their faces as he passed out.
One of them gasped, “Could it be…?”
“Oh no, please don’t tell me he sent us all the way down here to find him ,” another complained, kneeling beside the unconscious demigod. “Oh, it’s him alright.”
“No way…” another voice grumbled. “Why is he all the way out here…? Where’s everybody else?”
“I’ll do a quick scout, but I do not believe people are with him,” a more regal voice informed before darting out of the forest.
“Um… Everybody, something is there,” another raised their bow, pointing it at the darkness.
That got their attention immediately. Each of them raised a weapon. Three of them had bows. Two had swords. The other three held smaller or even larger weapons… one was a dagger, another was an ax, and the final was a large claymore.
A total of 9 individuals that had surrounded Percy Jackson.
“Stand guard. We don’t know what’s coming,” one of their allies grumbled just loud enough for them to hear. “Do not let your guard down. Wait for them to strike first.”
“We seriously need to get butter at this…” their friend muttered, but it didn’t seem the others heard. “Seriously, what happened to stealth and never getting noticed?”
“The more you talk, the more obvious we get,” one of them gently nudged the person with their arrow.
“On my ready…” one of them reached into their toolbelt that was attached around their waist. “Be ready to get some light.”
They waited a few moments. They kept their eyes peeled at the darkness of the forest with their breaths shaking a bit. It wasn’t everyday where they felt this kind of… uncomfortableness .
“Fall down!” The soldier that had run into the forest appeared behind them once more. “Something is not right. That monster…The beast in the forest… It’s been chasing Perseus Jackson. If even he could not beat it, what makes us?”
“What is that supposed to mean?"
“I saw the back of the beast. It’s an afairό .”
“A what ?”
They took a shaky breath in, “It’s an ancient beast… Something older than the gods… older than the Titans, even older than the Giants. I’ve never seen one before… but I can tell. It’s that beast. Without proper training, we can not defeat it… and it’s set its eyes on our fallen friend over here.”
The person who seemed to be their leader lowered his blade and nodded, “Come on. We’re going to bring him back with us.”
“Huh?!”
“Well, we can’t let Percy Jackson die here and now, now can we?”
* * ✦ . * ✦
“So, you picked him off the streets?” a man that sat at the very end of a long dinner table raised his eyebrow, his feet kicked up on the table.
“Dude, can you not?”
He gasped, “You did not just ‘dude’ me, Yew.”
“I totally did.”
“And we did not just pick him off the streets,” another defended themselves. “Tell him, Zoë. Tell him what we ran into.”
The girl’s eyes widened a bit, a slight flicker of fear appearing in her eyes, “Chaos… It was an afairό .”
The man stopped. He lowered his legs off the table and straightened up, “Are you sure?”
She nodded, “Absolutely. I could never forget the snare that was in the books… An exact copy.”
Their leader didn’t speak. He didn’t speak for a while. He glanced at the faces of his commanders. The commanders of the different sectors of his army. Luke Castellan, second in command and commander of Sector II. Zoë Nightshade, commander of Sector III. Charles Beckendorf, commander of Sector IV. Silena Beauregard, commander of Sector V. Bianca di Angelo, commander of Sector VI. Michael Yew, commander of Sector VII. Lee Fletcher, commander of Sector VIII. Castor Amarone, commander of Sector IX, and finally, Ethan Nakamura, the commander of Sector X.
Each of them, a fallen hero down on Earth, but now, a leader in the universe.
A total of 10 armies, but only 9 commanders.
That was the problem. The previous commander of Sector I… was nowhere to be found. She was killed a few months ago, and he couldn’t find somebody to fill in. Then, he turned to look at the entrance of the dinning hall.
Just down the hall would be a bedroom, where healers are currently doing their best of their abilities to fix up the demigod that his commanders had brought in.
Chaos, the lord of the universe and the creator of all, smirked.
The commanders felt a shiver go down their spine. It was never a good thing.
“Oh no.”