There was an absolutely ear piercing scream that shattered through the darkness. I was just starting to drift off to sleep, just coming out of my drunken state. My head still pounded and my body felt sluggish. I scrambled up to my feet and raced outside to the back of the ship, and down a few steps to a slightly lower platform.
What I found there was absolutely sickening. Thalia was laying on the ground, her eyes wide with what looked to be shock, her hands shaking as she hovered them above the wound in her chest. A long dark pink arrow was sticking out of her chest, and Daniel.
Oh God Daniel.
He was screaming for help, his eyes looked blank and milky. “P-Please, please. Please. Not again! Not again!” He snapped over and over as he seemed to be trying to figure things out.
“What happen-” Dr. Drakos’s was mind sentence and I felt his jepei aura pulse from pure rage and an even louder roar escaped his lips. “Thalia!” He pushed me out of the way and gathered his granddaughter into his arms. His shoulders heaved and his breathing sharped like a wild beast. “Helena!” He roared towards the other boat.
I saw a flicker of pink out of the corner of my and on pure instinct I pushed Daniel out of the way. As another pink arrow was shot our way. The sky was starting to shine with shard of pink as I summoned my three sided staff and a simple twist got it out to it’s full length. I summoned myself in a protection aura as I began to twirl and spine my weapon around blocking the barrage of arrows that kept coming one after the other. “Get her inside!” I ordered, as I moved faster and faster blocking these arrows shattering them into shards of pink jepei that faded away.
I stayed down here until Thalia was up and was taken inside. I saw that the other ship was starting to come out way and I could see four jepei auras spilling into the sky. One deep brown, one dark red, one bright pink and white a solid white color. “They are done waiting,” I mumbled to myself. “We need to get out of here!”
I turned to Daniel who was just standing there. His blank look slowly turned into a deep look of fury and rage, he held his hand out as deadly looking blade with a curved hilt appeared in hand. “Let them come,” he mumbled. As push one foot out and held his blade up so it was held in his face, almost looking like the character Count Dooku from star wars.
Knowing that it was gonna be useless to get the boy to leave now. I quickly ran inside warning Dr. Drakos’s that the other ship was on the way. “Of course she is.” He said drapping Thalia atop a table, her eyes fluttering open and closed as she fought to keep awake. “Keep her awake, do not let her fall asleep.” He ordered a blond woman. “Get the captain up and get us moving.” THe entire crew went to work racing to and from, he opened a nearby cabinet and handed a man a shotgun. “Protect, my granddaughter and what we have gathered with you life, if you don’t know them, shoot them.” He then summoned a large warhammer and cracked his neck a few times. “As for you,” he said, looking at me. “Get Xaiver up, and we will defend this place. Until we are ready to leave.”
I didn’t need to be told twice as I raced to the sleeping quarters of this ship and what I found next made me stop in my tracks for a moment. Xavier was sleeping in his bed, he had no blanket on, just wearing dark blue pajama pants and no shirt. His entire body seemed to be letting off a deep purple and blue mix of jepei that was swirling around him. “Xavier!” I said once I was snapped out of this odd scene. I raced over and shook the boy a few times to try and get him to wake up, and when that didn’t work. “Sorry,” I mumbled before slapping him as hard as I could.
That did the trick as his body jolted up and he sat up in daze. “What happened?”
“Thalia got shot and we are under attack!” That was all Xaiver needed to hear before he scrambled to his feet and followed after me. When we reached the deck of the ship. I could Dr. Drakos’s was fighting against the larger man, whose name was Gabriel. My eyes flew to the bottom part of this ship where I could see flashes of white and red jepei aura crashing against each other. I had to assume that Daniel was fighting the other boy, Asher. I saw no sign of the girl though, just an occasional arrow shot from the other boat that was much closer now. “What do you want me to do?” Xavier asked, looking back and forth at the chaos.
I took a deep breath summoning some of my mother’s leadership skills. I had many options but the best one to help us get away from this was simple. “Leave this to us.” I pointed my long staff towards the ship that was now about 100 yards from us. “How about you do what krakens seem to do best, and go sink that damn ship.”
Xaiver looked at me before giving a slight nod. “With pleasure.” He leapt over the side of the boat disappearing into the water with a loud splash.
“Victoria, go help Daniel.” I said sending my ape towards the boy. “Stay safe and protect him. I will handle him.” Victoria nodded her head as I ran towards Dr. Drakos’s. The older man had been thrown against the railing of the boat, and he wasn't getting back up. He was older and was probably far out of his prime. This Gabriel looked stronger and far more deadly than I originally thought. I barely had time to slip between him and his large ax. Blocking it against my own staff.
I pushed the man away from me, earning a slight look of respect from him. “Stronger than I originally thought, however, my fight is not with you, daughter of Penelope.”
“You hurt him and his granddaughter,” I said standing up and lowering into my stance. My legs bents and my staff resting over my shoulders, one part of it dangling from the chain that kept all three sections of my staff together. “So their fight is my fight.”
“I would rather not harm, the daughter of Lady Hearthstone.” The tall greek man let out a heavy sigh before straightening back up, his shoulders and wrists cracking as he started to stretch. “That being said, there is a difference between killing and harming someone. So if I make your death quick, there will be no harm done.”
“Olive,” I heard Dr. Drakos from behind me. “Be careful, he is much more powerful than he looks.” I turned my head slightly to look back at the old man who had a bit of blood leaking from his mouth.
“I’ll be fine.” I said as I started to spin my weapon around me, enjoying the sound of it tapping on the ground and the railing of the ship. I had spent my life trying to master this weapon, years practicing with smaller versions of it when I couldn't summon a netrix weapon. There was a slight pause before I moved first, covering the distance between us with two long strides. He met me head on, swinging the bigger side of his large ax. I twisted out of the way letting him embed his ax deep into this part of this ship, before spinning on my heels and cracking him across the face with my staff.
He took a step back shaking his head a bit from the impact of my weapon. He spat out a single tooth before looking at me with a deep and greedy look. “Now this will be a bit more fun that I thought.”
I had no idea how long we had been going at it. Weapon against weapon, his axe against my three sectioned staff. I had a much longer reach than he did, I could attack from short, medium or long range, depending on what part of this weapon I grabbed. Yet every slash of his axe sent dull pain running though my bones. Each one I blocked threatened to overwhelm me, knocking me across this part of the ship. Every kick I landed felt like I was hitting a solid wall. Each punch he landed cracked through my protection aura like a rock through a window leaving me dazed for a moment until I moved back to gain more space between us to rebuild it.
As I leapt up onto the railing of the ship to gaze down at the tall man who had little to no signs of injury on him aside from the hit I landed earlier. A sharp pain filled my stomach as I let out a cry of shock and nearly fell off the railing into the water behind me. I shared the pain with my animal spirit, and up till bow than Victoria either had not been hit or had not joined in the fight with Daniel truly. However, I felt a deep pain as if I had been stabbed through my lower stomach. In my moment of weakness, a large hand wrapped around my neck and lifted me high into the sky. Gabriel saw my moment of weakness and with a bear-like roar he threw me towards the other side of this part of the ship. I slammed deep into the railing, bending the metal and knocking the air out of my lungs. I gasped and unsummoned my weapon to hold my arms up as his large size 13 boot came down onto them. A pained gasp escaped my mouth as he delivered stomp after stomp, to my arms. Each one sending me deeper into the metal, he was trying to kick me through them and into the water!
One last stomp cracked through my protective shield of jepei and I just lay in that wreckage. I saw waves of darkness starting to fill my blurred vision, the familiar black swirls and shapes that pulled people deep into unconsciousness. My arms were burning and I thought something might have cracked. “Go away,” I mumbled under my breath but for a minute I couldn’t even find the strength to lift my hand and brush those images of darkness away.
“Gabriel!” I think it was Dr. Drakos’s who was screaming. I was so out of it that I couldn’t really understand what he was saying in greek. All I knew that whatever he said, made the strong man turned around and dropped his axe.
“By all means I will honor your request old man.” A different sound filled the air, a sound of what was probably hand to hand combat instead of weapon to weapon.
As this went on, I lifted my hand to my gemstone. “Vicky… are you okay?” I was more concerned with my ape daughter than my own pain right now.
“J-Just a graze,” I heard her answer back. “What about you?”
“It’s going great,” I lied as I pulled myself free of the metal wreckage. My arms scraping against some of the sharp points of this metal. I took a deep breath and held my hand up to my head, focusing my vision on the point of my knuckle and letting my breathing overtake the darkness. I was not gonna let myself passout just yet and when the pain was gone enough that my vision was okay. I wasted little time in moving forward, wrapping my arms around Gabriel’s large waist and lifting him up with all the strength I could. I leaned backwards before dropping him on his upper back with suplex. I rolled back to my feet as did Gabriel who again showed no sign of any injury or that my attack even bothered him. Meanwhile, my body was aching, my cuts stung and I had lost a lot more jepei than I originally thought.
“Daddy,” Gabriel shoulders stiffened in annoyance as we all looked up to see that young girl appear above us with a pair of bright pink wings. Her animal spirit was right beside her in a much bigger form than I had seen last time. The scars looked deeper in this larger form, it nearly brought tears to my eyes again as I looked at the wounded animal spirit. “Momma says it’s time to go,” she called out. I noticed something was in her hands.
“No…” I mumbled as I didn’t know that she had one of the pots in her hands and from this distance she had one of the old scrolls hanging out of the top.
Gabriel looked at me for a moment. “You are impressive, daughter of Hearthstone. I look forward to meeting you again, without any interference.”
“Wait no!” I moved to rush him but he leapt high into the sky allowing that Osprey spirit to swoop under him carrying him away towards the boat.
The boat!
I rushed to back of the boat to find Daniel on his knees a large wound underneath his cheek. Other than that he looked okay, his opponent was nowhere to be found, probably having been saved by the girl from before. I looked out towards the boat to see no sigh of Oscar or Xavier. A moment later, two of Oscar’s sucker appeared out of the water, with a heavily wounded Xavier.
He was not moving.
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I was grateful for Dr. Drakos’s connections now more than ever. The second our boat reached land, there was already a helicopter waiting on the beach that loaded Xavier and Thalia onto it. I had to drive our rental car to Athena where the largest hospital could help them. Silently cursing Daniel who had raced there on the back of his animal spirit against my wishes. However, I couldn’t be mad. I probably would have done the same. Dr. Drakos knew some of the police that had come to help us and I was grateful for a much needed escort to the hospital. I hadn’t heard from Victoria since the end of the battle, where she quickly hid inside of my gemstone holding her side. She seemed more afraid of Daniel for some reason, another thing to question for later.
When I arrived to Athena’s I had no time to take in the city. All I cared about was getting to my friends. I found Daniel’s animal spirit waiting for me outside of the emergency room, and after thanking the officers. I ran inside not caring about where I parked our rental car and was quickly taken to a large waiting room outside of the emergency room. I could already hear shouting coming from the hallway, and when I turned the corner. I found Daniel being held down by what looked to be security guards, and a few scared nurses in teal colored pants and vests. “What is happening?!”
Everyone seemed to freeze as I walked into the room. I was a good few inches taller than even the tallest of these security guards. This man had a bit of a stomach to him, dark hair and seemed to be in his mid forties. “This young man is trying to get back through the emergency doors to see a patient brought in. A Thalia Drakos,” he looked over at one of the nurses who nodded her head. “We have been trying to stop this young man for the last seven or so minutes now.”
“He is my brother, and I will handle him for this disrespect that he has shown you.” I explained putting my hands up in a peaceful manner. “Please, he is just worried and probably scared about our friend. We were on board the ship with Dr. Drakos’s when this attack happened. He saw it close up.” The man’s face sfotened a bit at that. “Please, let him up and I will keep him calm.”
The man shared a look with the otehr security guards before they helped Daniel up. I was surprised to see that the mark on the boy’s cheek had been completely healed already. Xavier told me the boy was fast at using amplification to heal, but I didn’t think it was that fast. I took a firm hold of the boy’s shoulder before dragging him over to a few chairs where we could sit down. “Don’t start!” I ordered firmly, as the boy tried to pull away from me. “You are just gonna make this all worse!”
Daniel didn’t respond at first. Instead he just closed his eyes and rested his head against my shoulder, I was surprised by the soft gesture from the boy. However, my surprise quickly turned into a need to hold the boy, as I felt him starting to shake, and with that shaking came soft sobbing. “W-Why,:” the boy said in a desperate and almost begging voice. “Why do they take everything I love from me?”
I wrapped an arm around Daniel holding him close to me. I had no answer to the questions he was asking. All I could do was keep whispering to him the same phrase that my mom used to keep me calm. “It’s okay, everything is gonna be okay.”
I could only hope that he was gonna listen to my words.
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After what felt like hours of waiting, right as the sun fully rose in the sky. A nurse finally came out of the back, walking alongside Dr. Drakos who was using a walking stick. She informed us that Thalia was stable for now, but they were waiting for someone to come with her type of blood for a blood transfer. As for Xaiver, I was grateful to hear that my friend was also going to be okay and was stable once more. Daniel stood up and followed Dr. Drakos who was gonna take him to see Thalia, and I moved to Xaiver’s room. The dark skinned boy was laying on a bed, his leg being elevated and his shoulder wrapped in bandages. A small speck of red had started to form on the bandages but it was nothing to be alarmed by. Last time I had seen the boy, he had been bleeding heavily from his leg and his shoulder.
I sat down beside his bed, just looking at his toned stomach rise and fall with each gentle breath he took. He looked peaceful, but it was a peace that I took the blame for. It was my idea for him to go and try and sink that boat. He had probably gotten into a fight with Helena Blackthorn, and clearly had lost that fight. “I am sorry,” I whispered as I lowered my head in shame. “This is all my fault.”
I had made the wrong choice and it had resulted in my friend being hurt. I was supposed to be as smart as my mother, I should have saw this coming. I reached into my pocket and took out my mostly empty flask. I had drunk most of it before I went to sleep but right now I really needed a drink. I needed to get out of my head for a bit, I didn’t wanna face my failure right now. However, I had no choice but to face that failure. There was no amount of liquor that could soothe me right now.
I wanted a lot of things, but most importantly I wanted revenge.
And I would get it.
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When Xaiver had woken up I was overjoyed, just seeing the goofy boy with his eyes open and able to speak was just what I needed. However, what I was expecting next, I didn't see coming. “Hang on a second,” I said, trying not to let my disbelief overwhelm me. “You are telling me that Helena is a relative of the woman that had gotten Adonis and his daughter killed, and she might be after Sarah?”
Xaiver’s look told me all I needed to know. “I can’t be sure that she is after her, but what I can say is that after she kicked my ass. She called out to me saying, tell Sarah that I haven’t forgotten her.” His large hands clutched into tight fists and I couldn’t believe the rage I was seeing in his eyes. “Sarah said in a counseling session one time that a really bad woman had taken her. Had her read Greek texts and there was a wolf there that would bite her or at her if she disobeyed.” From those rage filled eyes I could see a bit of wetness appearing in them, as he held a hand over his face. “Now that I know that it was probably her that is responsible for making my sister into what she is today. I-I don’t know why, but I am furious!” I jumped a bit as the boy pounded his fist on the soft mattress of his bed. “It makes it worse, that that woman has the same blood as that bitch that had Adonis and Rhea killed!”
I reached over onto a small table and took a few tissues to dap at the dark skinned boy’s eyes. “It’s okay,” I whispered, placing a hand on his chest to help him lay back and relax. “We will not let them get Sarah, and we will get revenge for Rhea and Adonis, the best way is to make sure that they cannot get what they are looking for.”
Xaiver tightened up at my touch, I thought I saw his face get darker in a blush but he soon relaxed. His chest was as hard as stone but still had a softness to it, he was a gentle young man, and the more I was around him the more I understood that fact. He was probably hurting more than he let on but he disguised it with his joy and his laughter, the only time he really showed how much he hurt was when he thought about Sarah. Once he had calmed down he asked. “What are our next steps?”
“Right now we have to wait, we don’t know what they took yet. I am not gonna ask Dr. Drakos to look just yet especially after what happened to his granddaughter. However, I think we also need to inform my mother or the council that, the dark order is after what we are looking for. We need to make sure the others are safe too, so I will try and get on a call with them as soon as I can. What I do know is that we have to beat them to the punch. Cause I can only imagine whatever they are after either with or at this tower. It is something that they want to use to help make their false savior of a king.”
Xavier gave a soft nod of his head before laying back. “If that is the case, do you mind helping me out with something?”
“What is it.”
“I need you to find me something to bite on, cause I am gonna use amplification to speed up my already pretty fast healing.” He gave a forced a smile exposing a pair of almost perfect looking teeth. “I am not the best with pain and that hurts like hell.”
“Alright.”
As I left to find something that the boy could bite down on. I finally heard Victoria's voice for the first time since the boat. “Is it safe to come out?”
“Of course.” A smile crept across my lips as Victoria appeared on my shoulder, her small legs kicking to and from. “Are you okay?” I asked, patting her leg.
“I am fine, I did a good job helping Daniel yesterday.” She sounded a bit sad as she added. “Sorry I probably got you hurt when I got injured.”
“I am fine,” I lied, my stomach was still aching as if I had gotten hit by a truck. That Gabriel could pack more power into his punches, and the worrisome thing was he did all of that without an animal spirit out. “Your momma held her own and we got out safe, that is what matters most right now.”
“Is everyone gonna be okay?”
I nodded my head. “Thalia is gonna be a bit tired for a bit, but all of our friends are gonna be fine. However, me and you are gonna do some research of our own, put our big brains together and try and figure out what those people took from us. We are gonna stop them for doing anything bad to anyone else we care about.”
But first I needed to go for a walk.
Find somewhere that sold something strong to drink.
Even if it was for a moment.
I wanted to forget everything for now.
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