Dazai POV
"Again?" The other boy asked as we cut through the streets.
The way that the older teen handled the scooter furthered my idea that he should never be let anywhere near an actual motorcycle, at least not with me on it as well. The boy somehow managed to drive like some kind of deranged speed demon despite this only being a Vespa, at least if I wasn't riding with him, he'd be able to use his ability to make his antics seem less life threatening to the teen that actually seemed to care about the whole living thing.
"Monsters don't stay dead in the mythological world," I explained, leaning closer to the other teen so that I could be heard easier without having to speak as loudly, "not really anyways. They die for a while and then revive sometime later."
The older boy nodded, his hair brushing against my skin as he did. "So why do you want him dead so badly then if he's only going to revive again?" The teen asked, a reasonable enough question that only reminded me of how little the other knows of who I was before.
"He tried killing my mother when I was twelve," I said carefully, keeping my voice it's normal emotionless calm. "She was all that I had growing up."
Between the teachers, the other students, and my god damn lousy excuse of a step father, she was the only person that I had back then that protected me when everyone sought to cut me down at the knees. It was a self sacrificing kind of love on both of our ends, something real built only on lies. But it was the only thing that kept me alive back then.
The other ability user only gave a quiet, "Oh," the was almost swallowed up by the night as we got closer to the battle.
The bridge was ablaze like the night sky on the Fourth of July as we came closer to it. Cars burned in such a way that only paled in comparison to that of what was left of the green flames sparking from the tips of arrows on both sides of the battle. There was a quiet rage to each of the flames, as they fought the night winds, desperately clinging to life just as their creators did.
Explosions violently shook the ground as we rode closer. They were the only thing that was able to cover up the sounds of the mortal screams echoing through the night. Monsters charged forward and roared as they turned to dust as arrows sunk into their hearts, but only laughed wickedly as they were harmlessly blocked by the creatures' armor.
Hellhounds ran rampant across the bridge, teeth bared in an open declaration of war. Most were killed with the endless volley of arrows being gifted to the enemy ranks, but some managed to slip past and feasted upon whoever the beast could reach.
Everything about the scene before us was that of an endless symphony of death and yet I felt at home. War didn't ask for its composers to be kind, nor did it look down upon them as monsters when they were cruel. War lets you lay your soul bare to it and take with you what was left with of it at the end. It takes all of the lies that you were created by and turns them into every inch the truth that you always pretend them to be. War will forever be something gruesome that poets ripped apart and turned into something much more beautiful than it ever had the right to be.
War was what I was created for.
We abandoned the Vespa as close as we could to the battle without immediately being drawn into it. Chuuya and I faced one another and I couldn't help but think that if this was a book, this would be the part where the characters say something beautiful to one another in case this happened to be a final goodbye. But neither of us have ever been much for beauty, not when we were shaped by everything but. So we didn't speak aloud, but studied one another for a moment as if carving the memory of one another in our minds forever, turning the other into something that could never be forgotten.
The older teen brushed his fingers across my back, sending a jolt of lightning up my spine as he put himself in his spot on my blind side.
I knew that we would both make it through this. We had to.
Either both of us make it, or neither of us does. I won't live in a world where I'm the only one.
—-
Chuuya POV
We ran towards the battle with all of the reckless abandon of the teenagers that we are. But we were careful to keep a careful distance from one another, holding one another at arm's length so that our abilities would not interact and interfere with one another. It wasn't the first time that we had done this, but it was by far the hardest time for me to do so.
Even as I watched the younger boy tearing the stray enemies that had managed to make it this far into the Apollo cabin's ranks, handling them with a sword art that I knew that Ane-san would be proud of if she were here to see, I couldn't stop myself from seeing the boy that only orchestrated the battles that everyone else fought, only stepping in to handle the ability users that most other couldn't. Here, the bandaged teen's only true defense back home was useless. I just had to remind myself that none of the weapons would ever leave a mark on the other boy, not after the idiotic stunt that he pulled in the Underworld, and focused on my own task.
The mackerel and I ran through the ranks of those on our side, pushing towards the front of the conflict where the two tides met and tried to tear one another apart, blatantly ignoring the way that the demigods called out to us and tried to tell us to stop.
Stomping on the ground, I let my ability run rampant through my body, watching as the world turned into a shade of red and that was all but invincible against everything but a certain shade of blue. A hole formed beneath my feet as the broken bits of the bridge rose up into the air around me, each one as sharp as the arrows that the campers behind me were firing, but a hundred times more deadly in nature.
Hands in pockets, I rose up into the air, crouching on a large chunk of concrete just as I had done all of those months ago outside of Rando's mansion. Everyone and everything looked small as I towered over them all. I thought about the situation at hand and looked at it as I thought that Mori and Dazai would have me do, using the advantage that I had to strike while not restarting to an overwhelming amount of violence that could get myself hurt as well.
Using the rock shards still floating around me, I fired projectiles down at the enemy ranks like a sniper operating beneath the guise of night, aiming for those that were getting too close to the archers for my own liking. I watched with glee as some of the smaller, less armored monsters turned to dust as the rocks pierced their hearts or ran straight through their brains like a bullet.
But I could only hold back like this for so long.
Down below I could see the other ability user making his way through the demigods and monsters that were bent on killing the boy before he even had the chance to see the age of sixteen. He cut them down unsparingly and without bias of whether they were monsters or demigods, though he did pretend to at least keep the pretense of handicapping the children of the gods whenever the move allowed him to do so rather than right out kill them. I didn't pretend that this was out of some misguided belief of saving them, knowing that he couldn't care less whether or not they lived or died by his blade. He only spared some of their lives so that those watching from our side wouldn't be suspicious of either of us.
It wasn't until the boy reached the heart of the enemy forces that I properly rejoined the battle, because I knew that with what he was about to do, he'd be too preoccupied to handle the monsters slipping right past him.
Dazai had found the Minatour, and was holding him at the tip of his blade.
—-
Dazai POV
My world went dark as it narrowed down to the monster before me, the tiredness of the fight slipping away as I got the horrid beast within my sights. Last time the beast of the Labyrinth had been dressed in nothing more than rags, but today the Greek monster was adorned with armor as if he thought that it would save him from his fate.
Among the armor that was strapped to his body from the waist down, protecting the half of him that resembled a mortal, there was a double bladed axe strapped to the monster's back. A heavy weapon that looked like it could take my head off before the swing was even complete. I knew that the Curse of Achilles should make my body invincible, but I thought that it was best to avoid testing just how well that rule worked against attempted decapitation.
The monster sniffed the air like one of the drug dogs that the boss had brought to mafia headquarters one day last year to test if any of the lower ranking members were smuggling supplies in again instead of selling it as they were supposed to.
When the beast's eyes locked onto mine, there was a violent fury rampaging in them, a barely contained, relentless anger that seemed to be the only thing keeping the monster alive. I couldn't help but wonder if the Minatour would have fought on the side of the gods if I had joined Kronos's forces just so that he would have been able to have the chance to kill me, something told me that he probably would've.
There were still some monsters between the two of us, but I stay where I am and none of them dare touch me after I caught one of the javelins that a dracanae was foolish enough to throw at me and sent it right back at her, piercing her heart before she ever had the chance to react. The less intelligent monsters, such as the hellhounds, moved forwards anyways, lunging towards me with every intent of testing my theory on decapitation, but I either sidestepped the beast or slashed at them in a lethal arc, turning the monsters to dust.
More of the monsters surged forwards, some were smart enough to avoid me like the plague, while the more foolish ones were stopped by a loud roar from behind them, something that was powerful enough to them all scatter and clamor over each other to get out of the way of the incoming Minatour. Maybe they were just scared of the beast as I knew that I should have been since he towered over us all, or maybe they all just knew that even if they were on the same side right now, the monster would not hesitate to kill his own allies to get what he wants.
Raising my sword to the beast, I saw a bright red flash out of the corner of my eye and I knew that the other ability user was done holding back and hiding in the skies. A cruel grin split across my face, a look that no one would ever mistake for something belonging to a hero.
That means that I can let loose as well.
The half bull unstrapped his axe from its spit on his back and twisted it in his hands as if he had been waiting to use it until he could use it on me. The consideration almost made it sweet, except I wasn't actually allowed to die at the moment, not until we got back to Yokohama.
The beast swung the twin blades at me in a powerful and lethal arc that was filled with harsh beauty. Each of the blades held the shape of an omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, allowing for the blades to be as large as they were and not hold as much weight that would slow the holder down. The shaft that the blades were attached to was easily as tall as the Minotaur himself, almost making the weapon look more like a staff than an axe, if not for the blades at the top. Tied at the base of each of the twin blades were beaded necklaces with leather chords holding them together. I didn't have to be close to the monster to know exactly what they were. The unfamiliar spike of anger in my chest was enough to get me moving.
The monsters gathered around us cheered as the Minotaur surged forwards and swung his blade at me with every intention of killing me, but I dodged the swing just as I had seen Chuuya do countless times before, twisting my body with nimble movements and careful precision. A graceful slash with all of the percisiness of someone cutting a flower petal into two as it falls to the earth cuts the monster's axe in half between the handholds.
A confused look split onto the monster's face that only deepened the horrific smile that was already carved onto my lips. I charged forward as the monster was still stunned and lept up from the ground, slashing at the beast, taking off both of the Minatour's horns in the same move. The monster tried to grab me from the air, but he wasn't expecting for me to purposefully land on the thick arm reaching for me and use his upwards swing to flip off of the beast and land away from him with a shadow of the graceful movement that the other ability user was known for.
Putting Riptide away as the monster stumbled back in mute shock at what I had just done, I grabbed a discarded half of the Minotaur's axe, holding the hefty object in my hands with less strength than I would have liked. But strength wasn't really what was important right now, not for my end at least.
I watched as the Minatour ran forwards as fast as he could, his body curving down as he tried not to trip over his own feet, just as I thought that he would. With a small upwards swing, I used the forwards momentum that the monster was gathering all on his own and let the beast run right into his own blade, embedding the half of the axe that I had been holding into the Minatour's head, splitting the beast in half from the chin up.
"Thanks for playing," I told the beast, moving away from the body as it turned to dust on the bridge.
I turned to what was left of the army and drew my sword out once more before charging right at the mass, working my way through the crowd towards the natural distaste in mortal form.
—-
Third Person POV
The strange pair of boys that had come to camp only a few days before moved through the crowd of monsters as if the creatures before them were nothing more than helpless lambs to the slaughter.
The dark haired boy tore through the monsters with a ruthless gratefulness that made him seem almost as bad as those that he was slaughtering. The younger boy slashed at the monsters, rolling and dodging, getting under each of their guards as he killed each of them in a gruesome onslaught, leaving piles of dust in his wake.
The other boy wasn't much better as he moved like a wild animal, taking the heads of the monsters around him off with nothing more than a swing of his leg. The smaller teen crushed them beneath the weight of his gravity, dusting some of the weaker monsters immediately while others found themselves losing limbs and vital organs to the rock shards endowed with more gravity than they should have had, tearing holes through their bodies as well as any mythological blade could.
Though they didn't know it, the two boys circled one another, killing off any enemy that would stand to attack the other from behind. They were monsters as much as the ones that they were killing so easily were, the pair long before having abandoned any ideas of humanity as they stepped onto the battlefield. They became beasts in their own rights, natural disasters wearing human skin.
The demigods that stood on the other side of the bridge as the pair's allies were silently thankful that they were, knowing that none of them would have stood a chance had they been on the other side of the bridge facing off against the two teens. When the pair had come to camp, everyone had looked at the cold duo with a sense of detachment, silently envious that they got to just come to the camp and declare that they would fight after shying away from the war for so long, but now... the demigods knew that they wouldn't have survived much longer without the duo.
The pair met as only about ten of the original two hundred or so monsters were left. The smaller teen spread whatever flames it was that encased his body to the monsters, forcing them to their knees as the taller boy slashed through them, turning what was left of the army to dust. There were tired smiles on both of their faces, not that anyone in the Apollo cabin could see that from where they were on the remains of the battlefield. They only knew that the pair was the most devastating duo that any of them could ever imagine.
—-
Dazai POV
Chuuya and I met as the last turned to dust before our eyes. The older boy had a tired smile on his face that replaced the normally gloomy expression that he would have after a mission like this. Chibi, ever since I met him, has never enjoyed the taking of life. He's always enjoyed the adrenaline rush of beating others. He liked being able to protect the people that he was loyal to. The guilt that he feels afterwards is just a side effect that he's willing to live with to keep those that he cares for alive. Even when shrouded in the darkness of the mafia, he still loves as if he's in the light. It's what makes him the most human person that I know.
But this was the tired smile of someone who's fought a battle and won and felt no guilt for it.
It was beautiful.
"Let's go before the adrenaline high wears off," Chuuya suggested, his body glowing lightly from his ability as if he intended to bounce all of the way back to where the Apollo cabin was camped out behind an overturned school bus.
I felt my body go still as distant sound could be heard from not so far away, getting louder as it drew closer to us. Spinning towards the direction that the enemy forces had originally come from, my eyes locked onto what was supposed to have been renimformemts for the original invasion force, but was now just reduced to nothing more than a second coming as there wasn't anything to reinforce.
"Dazai," The other teen hissed.
"I know."
The reinforcements were about thirty or fourty demigods, each of them dressed in full Greek battle armor and mounted upon a skeletal horse. At the head of the demigods I could see a man taking off his helm as if putting on a type of show. It was too dark of a night and the man was too far away for me to be able to realistically tell just who the other is, that is if it wasn't for the glowing golden eyes shining like candle lights for all to see.
"Chuuya," I called out, pulling the other boy's attention away from the incoming onslaught and back towards me even as I kept my eyes trained where they were, "go, fast. Tell the Apollo cabin to retreat and then come back."
I didn't look to see if the other had done as I said, I didn't have the time. No sooner were the words out of my mouth than the invasion was on me, swords drawn and shields brought up to protect themselves. The calvary circled around me as they slashed at my body and yelled geers that I didn't bother to listen to. I only had eyes and ears for the titan that was leisurely making his way towards me through the crowd of his crazed followers.
I aimed for his men, slashing and cutting at the mounts as well as their riders. I knew that if I could hurt the skeletal mounts then the riders would have to dismount their mounts, or risk being hurt as they disintegrated from beneath them. I swung out at each of them, slashing the demigods's throats and any other parts of the body not shrouded by armor. I knew that I wasn't killing monsters, that I should feel some sense of guilt for killing my own, for killing the very same people that might have once been my friends before we each left camp, but I didn't. I've killed more than my share of ability users and they were as much of my kind as these demigods were, as the mortal that I've brought down. I didn't care about my movements, not until I did.
A bright flash of blue light with symbols dancing in the rings emanated from my body as a once rose colored boy fell from the sky. The demigods surrounding us that remained all jumped back in surprise, watching as the blue bands made up of a runic language disappeared. The older teen put some distance between the two of us, just enough that we wouldn't touch, before turning towards me.
"They're all out," he confirmed, pulling out the dagger that I had given him on the ride here and holding it with as much ease as he would the one that we had to leave in Japan.
I nodded at the older teen and turned my back towards the other boy and looked out at the crowd circling the pair of us. I wasn't surprised when what was left of the skeletal mounts suddenly took on a red hue and crumpled to the ground, turning to dust beneath the weight of the gravity placed upon them, though I knew that the demigods that hadn't seen the fight from before were.
"Interesting," the titan remarked, still sitting upon his skeletal horse as he attempted to tower over the pair of us.
I didn't have to look at the other mafioso to know that he was smirking as he took away the gravity of some of the rubble around us and spun his body in a tall kick, his hands stuffed into his pockets as the gravel shot like bullets towards the possessed demigod. If I were to have been looking I'm sure I would have seen the other teen's signature smirk falter into something much less self assured than before. The gravel slowed down until it looked like it wasn't moving at all anymore though you could still see the red outline encasing it.
"Mackerel?" The smaller teen questioned, the unsettling sound of unsuraity drenching the other boy's tone, making him sound a way that the teen that I knew never should.
"That's Kronos," I explained, keeping my voice low enough so that he and I could hear, "the titan lord of time."
"I must say Percy Jackson," Kronos started, dismounting the skeletal horse before letting the suspended gravel rip it apart, "bringing the vessel of a god here really was a bold move on your part, though I am still a titan and could destroy him easily if I wished." The demigod vessel stepped forwards as if examining the pair of us. "Maybe I should kill you both and tear you apart to study as Olympus burns."
Reaching behind my back and pulled out the gun that I had stuffed into my waistband, raising it and pointing the firearm at the titan before he had the chance to react. "Don't you fucking touch us," I snarled.
The lord of time grinned with a smile much to close to the one that the doctor always wore before testing a new series of drugs on me. "Now isn't this an Interesting sight?" The titan asked. "But such a useless move on your part though."
I felt myself smile in a way that I was sure mirrored the titan's to a T. "Your right," I conceded, "it would just be nothing more than a waste of a good bullet against you. Him however," I moved my arm, pointing the gun at the demigod that had made it through the bombing of the Princess Andromeda, the one eyed demigod, Nakamura. "I know that you don't give a damn about any of the members of your ranks, but I also know from experience just how frustrating it would be to find a new right hand so late into the game."
"The gods won't take you back if it turns out that you have the guts to do that," the titan remarked, looking much too sure of himself.
I moved my arm to the right, pulling the trigger with an unflinching gaze, never taking my eyes off of the lord of time. A shot rang out through the air, causing Nakamura to jolt as the demigod next to him crumpled to the ground in a heap of flesh, the back half of his skull splattered across the bridge and those around the demigod. I trained the gun back on the one eyed demigod with a practiced ease. "I don't care if the gods won't take me back."
The titan's smile turned into something crazed as his golden eyes bored into mine. "Now this is such a sight," he started. "The prophesied hero of Olympus isn't even a hero at all." The deity laughed as if this was the best thing that he had heard all night. "Between this and whatever abnormality it is that you and the little godling share, I almost regret sending you away all of those years ago. You would have made a much better vessel after all."
"Sending me away?" I asked, my brain running through the information that I had of that time as fast as I could before the details became a muddled mess, tainted by emotion, that could no longer be processed.
Back then I knew that Luke was the reason that Thalia was healed to the extent that she was, the reason that she was alive and walking around today. But even with all of the intelligence that I had obtained since leaving New York, I had no idea just what the other was referring to.
The titan laughed in a way that I knew that Luke never would have. "You didn't know?" He asked in turn before answering his own question. "Of course you didn't," he decided. "You know it was so easy, all I had to do was say the word and then an apartment building was up in flames," the titan explained. I felt my fist clenching at my side as my fingers tightened around the trigger of the gun still aimed at the one eyed teen. "I thought that with your history you would just be arrested, but then you went and ran off to somewhere that not even the gods could follow, effectively erasing yourself as a player from the board." There was an unnecessary amount of glee in the titan's voice, as if he truly found all of this to be amusing. I was decidedly against being on this side of the manipulation.
Fast as lightning, the water below us surged up and grabbed hungrily at the demigods still standing on the bridge, ripping those that weren't fast enough to get away up from the ground and pulling them ceaselessly down into the water waiting below. I felt the bodies hit the water and willed the stream to drag them down deep below as the rest of the water slashed forwards violently reaching for those that had managed to escape.
"Dazai," Chuuya whispered not unkindly, drawing me back to him, "what are the chances that we kill this bastard?"
"Zero at the moment," I told the older teen, putting my gun away as I switched Riptide over to my dominant hand.
"So let's smack him from behind then," the other ability user suggested, "and kill the bastard another day."
A different kind of smile curved across my lips at the other's words, an unlawful glee taking over my body at the way that the other knew me and understood what I needed in that moment, and at the chance to hurt the titan, even if we don't kill him just yet.
"Let's," I agreed.
We surged forwards as a unit, the titan meeting us halfway as we knew that he would, the same crazed smile glued to his lips. The lord of time swung his significant scythe around, aiming for the pair of us, but the slug only jumped up into the air before twisting and gliding gracefully down behind the deity. I chose to meet the titan's strike head on with Riptide, connecting with the dual edged blade. The titan's smile wavered as the impact shook what was left of the bridge after Chibi had been slowly eating away at it during the previous battle, and I held my ground.
The older teen aimed a well placed kick at the titan lord's head while I swept the deity's legs out from under him, causing his blade to skitter across the pavement out of the titan's easy reach. I stabbed downwards with Riptide as the other boy aimed for the titan's neck, but the deity just rolled out of the way of our attacks and regained his footing away from the pair of us, his scythe flying back into his hands as if it couldn't bare to be away from its wielder.
"You even had the courage to visit the Styx since you came back," the deity observed. "It took me months to convince Luke to do so and you just... if only you had become my vessel all that time ago." The titan shook his head violently as if to shake the useless thoughts away. "No matter," he decided, "I'll just kill you now and not have to deal with those messy little regrets."
The titan slammed his scythe down onto the ground, creating a shockwave with the force behind it that kicked both Chuuya and I back to the middle of the bridge where the Apollo cabin had been camped out earlier. The slug recovered first as he pulled a move similar to what he had done the day that we met and flipped from the force, using his gravity manipulation to land on his feet while I stumbled from the force, rolling over several times after my intal landing before pulling myself up to my feet.
The force from the minture shockwave had caused irreparable damage to what was left of the bridge as the suspension cords whipped around uselessly and small chunks of concrete fell down into the water below.
"Chuuya," I called out, turning to look at the teen in question.
The boy flashed me a cocky smile that reminded me of the one that he had been wearing the day that we met. "Already on it, you shitty bastard!" the boy exclaimed before running forwards in the direction that we had come from.
The ability user moved closer to the weakest point in the bridge before stomping on the ground with all of the force of a god, endowing the bridge with all of the gravity that he could stand to muster. I watched in a stunned silence as the older boy lit up a fiery red that spread like a poison around him, sending what was left of the bridge into the East River a hundred and thirty feet below. It was beautiful destruction.
The older teen was quick to leave the edge of the fifty foot casam that he had created, retiring to my side. I knew that he didn't feel safe either, even with the distance that he had created. Enough of the suspension cords were still attached and mostly intact that if one was desperate enough they could climb across that way if they wished, not that I really thought that Kronos would have his men do that.
The titan lord studied the pair of us once more, but he didn't look as angered by the development as I had thought that he would've.
"Until this evening, boys," the titan said before smiling across the chasm at us and turning back the way that he had originally come.
"That bastard..." I whispered, cursing harshly beneath my breath.
He's too much like me, like him.
—-
Chuuya POV
We sneaked slowly into the woods that Dazai and I had left the scooter in before joining the fight, heading to the area that I'd brought the Apollo cabin to rest and dress their wounds as best as they could while the demigods advanced on the bandage waste. My mouth filled with a bitter taste at the memory of abandoning the younger teen, even if it had been at his own orders.
What was left of the Apollo cabin was bunched together in small groups around where I had left them. None of the ones that had lived through the fight were seriously injured enough to need anymore than whatever drug it was that all of the demigods seemed to carry around in little ziplock bags on their person.
"So what now?" I asked, bending down to swipe one of the many rolls of bandages scattered across the ground from where the Apollo cabin had set up a temporary camp. I knew that the other mafioso was as likely to get hurt as I was these days, but unlike me whose clothes were included in that deal, his bandages were not and were sure to be a little torn in some areas.
One of the blond heads popped up to look at me at my question before pushing himself to his feet. "The other demigods have set up camp at the Plaza Hotel," he explained. "We were waiting on the pair of you to finish at the bridge before heading over there in case one of you was hurt."
The mackerel nodded at the other boy's logic. "So," he started, a tired look that showed that the other boy might actually sleep for once when we got to the hotel rather than staying up as he tended to, "I guess we walk then."
There were multiple groans from the various demigods gathered around us, but no outright complaints as they all knew as well as we did that there was no real other way to get where we needed to be.
There was a dark look on the bandaged boy's face as we walked to the hotel, something that was alien compared to the teen's normal hooded gaze that he tended to have during missions and during meetings when dealing with Mori. This was a gaze that had actual emotions hidden behind it.
I knew that we were going to have to talk about what the titan had said on the bridge, even if it's only to make sure that the other ability user continued to be the voice of reason between the pair of us- or at least that was the lie that I was telling myself- but I knew that it would have to wait until after we both got some resemblance of rest.
Maybe the sun will bring us a chance to see the end of this drawn out family affair.