Chapter 14: The Fall

Chapter 13

Mark

I met Caligula again in the middle of the throne room. This time I was somewhat prepared for his power, and dodged his attacks instead of taking them head on.

“Hmm, moving around like a little rabbit are we?” He asked, but I didn’t bother to answer. He slammed his blade into the ground in front of me, and a crack started snaking towards me. I dived to the side and the crack stopped growing as Caligula removed his blade and faced me again.

“I am surprised that you children actually reached me here. That Caligulan Steel was quite ingenious, and Brian Germanicus has kept the forging skills of his past life to make excellent automatons.” He chattered as if we were best friends. I slashed at his arm, but the cut was shallow and healed quicky.

“Brian Germanicus? Don’t you mean DeFaux?” I asked, trying to keep him from attacking while I thought of a way to defeat him. He slashed at me before responding.

“Hmm, ah yes. Ages ago I found a way to sneak people into rebirth without having to get them through the Lethe. As Hades was torturing me I also found that I could contact my most loyal minions in the underworld. Most did not end up in the Fields of Punishment as I did because they were simply following orders, so I sent them to be reborn. Without them loosing their memory. Once Gaia brought me back, first thing I did was send out the signal to get a hold of the ones who were useful to me. Brian Germanicus was once a child of Vulcan. The only one I trusted to make my armor. Over the years he has been trying to bring me back, but this lifetime he was reborn as a child of Ares. With my rebirth he assisted me in finding out what I needed to know to come here. He also forged those lovely automatons.” I made him swing wide and stabbed Ignus into his face, then sliced down.

Unfortunately, did not kill him. Sand fell out of the wound as it zipped itself up, a scar left over.

“That is rather annoying,” he said to me while frowning. Then Alex landed on me and we flew to the side. As I slammed into the ground, I glanced over at Brian to see Sean floating in the air, with the winged shape of Mercury around him. Brian laughed at something Sean apparently said, then picked up a draceane by one of the tails and threw her at Sean. Sean slashed down and she disappeared into dust before reaching him.

The entire hall began to shake as reinforcements arrived.

A tall man dressed in a business suit walked in through the front doors of the throne room. On his left arm was a shield that looked like a woman with snakes coming out of her head. He looked around and frowned at all the monsters and in a flash of light they were all gone. The air smelled of ozone. He stepped forward and tapped Anna, Steve, and Jackie on the head. They each fell asleep. Sean floated down to the ground and the superimposed image of his father stepped aside and solidified. Mercury tapped Sean on the head and he fell asleep too. A motorcycle roared up the wall outside and into the throne room, pulling to a stop near us.

“That’s my girl!” The big biker guy said as he got off, picking up Alex and clapping her on the back. “How do you like the new toy?”

“Thanks Dad,” she said smiling from ear to ear. “The Thorn is awesome!” He laughed at the name and clapped her on the back a few more times. I got up and he grabbed me by the front of the shirt, which was impressive because I was facing away from him. He pulled me until we were face to face. “You take care of her punk, or your gonna have to deal with me.”

Before I could respond he let me go and I fell onto my butt again. Alex helped me up as Ares, Mercury, and Jupiter walked up to Caligula. He was staring at them in shock.

“Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter himself. Come to grovel as you are destroyed?” He gloated. Then the throne behind him exploded outward, pieces of it sticking into the wall and flying out of the window. Where the throne used to stand was a big switch, which flipped itself and the City of Gold started loosing its color and becoming a simple City of Stone.

“Not so much, no.” Jupiter said. “Caligula, you are a fool. You think that you can handle the powers of a God, when they would simply cause your body and soul to incinerate. Hades would be upset then, because he couldn’t torture you if that happened, but the rest of us wouldn’t care about you. You think the little things that you have stolen will save you from us? They will not.”

“Then why are you here?” Caligula demanded. Mercury answered that one.

“You had to open your big mouth and state, out loud for us all to hear, that you violated the laws of the Underworld. Knowingly. Your previous transgressions after Gaia brought you back were things we could not very well interfere with. You were trying to do things many mortals try, and only partially successful. You couldn’t get any further, and Vulcan’s son here would stop you on your most daring attempts. Once we knew that you violated a true law of the world, we were able to step in.”

Jupiter raised his hand to stop Mercury from talking any more. Then he started to glow. Alex spun around and blocked my view with her face, then kissed me. My eyes closed and my whole body tingled like it was being electrocuted. Our heartbeats blended into one and I could hear nothing for a little while. Not until I heard a throat being cleared behind Alex. I opened my eyes. Alex was looking back at me and smiling from ear to ear again, I was smiling back. We were about to kiss again when we heard the throat being cleared again. Alex turned around and we looked to the source of the noise.

Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury were standing over a pile of ash, with blast marks radiating out from them across the entire room. Our friends Sean, Anna, Steve, and Jackie were all fine. A second pile of ash in front of one of the doorways had a hammer lying in it.

“No more of that for now. You children have done well in stopping Caligula from succeeding here. His abominations are destroyed, his forces scattered. You have done Olympus a great service this day. We will now bestow gifts upon you son of Vulcan. The others over there,” he waved vaguely towards our friends, “as well as this girl,” he pointed at Alex, “have not done as much as you have to defeat this upstart.”

“You may choose; we can increase the power you have gotten from your father, but you must return to the Roman Camp and forget the memories of the last five months. Or we can let you keep the knowledge and memories of what has transpired. I know of my wife's plans. I will let them progress, or fail, as they will.” I thought about that. Then I looked at Alex.

“I choose to stay with the Greeks.” I said. Mars’s scowl deepened.

“Very well. You will stay at the Greek camp. Live well Centurion.” Lightning flared and we hugged each other close, closing our eyes. When we opened our eyes again we stood on the hill of Camp Half Blood. It was dark and the kids were sitting at the campfire singing camp songs. Jack snored, hugging Steve close to her as they both slept. Alex put her hand on my face.

“Not much of a gift huh?” She asked.

“But it was a great gift,” I said. She looked at me confused. “I get to stay with you, and remember everything we have done.” She smiled and kissed me again, but only for a second. When she moved her face away from mine I felt the edge of a blade against the back of my neck for a second, accompanied by the words “if you hurt her, we are gonna have problems you and me.” I smiled.

“What is it?” She asked.

“Some things, their just universal.” I replied cryptically. Then I poked Steve and Jackie with my foot. They woke up, saw they were in each others arms. The flew away from each other with squeaks, and got up red faced. They looked around in confusion for a second, then saw Alex and I arm in arm.

“Finally,” Jackie grunted. “Where are we?” She asked. I told her.

“How did we get here?”

“Once we meet up with Chiron, I don’t want to say it more than once.” Then Alex and I walked down the hill.

Epilogue