Dazai POV
From what I could tell, we arrived in Midtown in just enough time to keep our forces from being overrun ahead of schedule.
As we ran through the war zone, the remainder of the Athena cabin, the Hunters of Artemis, and the nature spirits that could leave, slowly divided themselves up amongst the little skirmishes that had broken out all over the area. Though Chuuya and I both knew that we could easily deal with any of the small fights on our own, we both also knew that this was the time to stop distracting you with small play and pull out the better cards.
The pair of us weaved through the crowds of demigods and monsters, pushing as close as we could get to the Empire State Building, to where our defenses needed us the most. For the next hour we fought like the world was ending, watching one another's backs while keeping the careful distance between us that would keep each of us alive.
The moon had been high in the sky for a long while by the time that we were pushed back to only a block between us and the Empire State Building at any given direction. I knew that had it just been me and the rest of camp, we would have been pushed back to this point a long time before this. The other demigods weren't as used to fighting so late in the night as Chuuya and I were, nor for so long. They were growing tired and that was making them reckless. The number of injured demigods lying on the ground or missing in general were enough proof of that.
Off in the distance I could see a golden shine that might have been mistaken for the early morning sun if it wasn't for the straying lights circling around it. Kronos was riding towards us on a golden chariot as an easy dozen Laistrygonian giants carried bright torches around the titan. He was moving at an easy pace, leszurly even. Something that I noticed that he tended to do when he was feeling overly confident, not because he was as cocky as he appeared to be, but because he was saving his energy and letting the enemy wear themselves out first. Smart tactic, but extremely annoying to be on the other side of.
The enemy had managed to back us up ten more feet before worry started to seep into my movements. It was far too early for us to be taking this fight up the Olympus just yet, we needed to hold out for longer, but the allies around Chuuya and I were dropping fast. But just as those thoughts started, they were stopped by a sudden and blaring noise tearing across the battlefield.
A hunting horn.
It wasn't just one either. After the initial noise, a whole symphony of the instruments sang out from all around us, creating their own haunting concert echoing through Manhattan.
At some point in the battle Thalia had made her way over to Chuuya and I as all of the forces, enemy and allied alike, were scrunched together. I glanced at the girl and found her frowning at the noise.
"This isn't you guys," the Hatrack guessed from her expression as I had, "is it?"
The forever younger girl shook her head at the question. "No, all of the Hunters are already here," she confirmed. "This isn't us."
The haunting melody grew louder and louder as the source of it drew closer, the echo throwing off my sense of just which direction it was that they were coming from and how many there were, but I knew that they were coming fast.
I looked down at Chibi, but found him already looking up at me, the dagger that I had given him glinting dangerously in his hand as his one in Yokohama would be when we're in situations like this when he could afford to take reckless shots at the enemy and hit an alley.
"Enemies?" He questioned, the dagger glowing dangerously in his hand as if it would burst into flames at any given moment, just like the original explosion that had created Suribachi City.
Tearing my eyes away from the older teen, I glanced around the field and took in the information that I could gleam from it.
"No," I decided, taking a hint of pleasure from the confused look on the other mafioso's face. I pointed at the clump of lights that had gotten much to close for comfort. "Look."
The shorter teen followed my gaze and saw the field as I did, watched their body language as Kronos's honor guard sent unseat looks between one another, unsurarity apparent in their every move.
"They don't know what to make of the new guys either," the slug realized, a small smirk forming on his face. "Which means-"
"That they're ours," I finished.
Thalia was looking at us like we had finally lost it and she was mildly surprised that we hadn't before. But we knew that we were just as sane as we had always been.
Only a moment later something close to a hundred monsters cried out in pain and surprise from our left as they were overrun by fast moving creatures. The horn blared a final time and an entire calvary showed up before us. Volleys of arrows rained down faster than any mortal could have ever hoped to shoot them. It was an army of mythological creatures that I hadn't seen since I was thirteen, but was pleased to see nonetheless.
"Welcome the first round of reinforcements," I said to no one in particular, though that didn't stop me from having multiple pairs of eyes glaring at me in a way that said that they didn't find my boasting as entertaining as I did at the moment.
The self proclaimed, Party Ponies, ran rampant through the streets of Manhattan, hundreds of centaurs dressed in an outlandish array of colors filled the entire block. They ran at the enemy forces, tearing across them and running over the smaller monsters while shooting down the stronger ones. I knew that this wasn't a fix, but it bought us some time as dawn drew closer.
Thalia and Chase understood the situation just as I did as when I went to wave them down to help with corralling the demigods towards the Empire State Building, they were already doing just that. The Party Ponies enthusiastic and overzealous screams tore through the air louder and more obnoxious than any demigod, other than maybe the Hermes cabin on a good day, could hope to be, so it was a slight surprise when the other demigods actually heard us screaming for them to fall back.
"We're drawing back?" Chuuya asked as he ran at my side to the building.
I nodded. "Only partially," I confirmed.
We haven't given up access to Olympus, not just yet.
—-
Chuuya POV
With the time given to us by the centaur invasion, Dazai, Chase, and Thalia were able to work together to set up a two block perimeter as the sun rose, keeping the enemy forces at bay. A temporary command tent was also made, which was where Chiron gave us the numbers on just how many centaurs he had brought with him. The answer was roughly close to five hundred, the largest amount of reinforcements that I had ever seen in my life, but from Dazai's calculated expression, I knew that it wasn't close to being enough.
"That was more fun than the last convention in Vegas!" One of the centaurs exclaimed once things had calmed down and the titan's forces had retreated for the time being.
"Yeah!" Another one shot back excitedly, neither caring to keep their voices down. "We totally wasted them."
I watched with a look of interest as Chiron tried to corral his relatives before ultimately all but giving up and sending them away to a diner within the perimeter that apparently had root beer, something which the other centaurs were very excited about. Seeing them like this made me never want to give any of them even a sip of actual beer.
I tugged the mackerel's sleeve, having him lean down so I wouldn't have to speak loud to be heard. "They're like the American frat boys that you see in the terrible college seasons on t.v. shows," I whispered from my place at his said.
The younger teen let out a light chuckle that I actually believed was true. A lightning strike of surprise went through my body at the other boy's action, but he didn't seem to have even noticed what he had just done as he just continued on.
"Yeah," the other teen agreed, whispering just as I had. "Chiron is kinda the gray sheep of the family."
My eyebrow arched at the other's words. "Gray sheep?" I questioned, wondering just what bullshit Dazai had decided to spew this time.
The taller teen shrugged lightly before answering. "Doesn't fit in with the rest of the family, but isn't exiled like the black sheep of the family would normally be."
Ah, so the bullshit that makes sense on some level, but is still complete and utter bullshit. Got it.
"Of course, 'cause that's a real thing."
Instead of answering my obvious call on his making up of his own terms, the demigod turned his attention to the only centaur that still remained after sending all of the rest away. "What's the status on Typhon?" He asked, crossing his arms in a way that I knew meant he just wanted a simple answer but was preparing for a long one that he didn't want to hear.
Chiron's face visibly darkened at the younger teen's question, something that told both of us all that we needed to know about what was going on beyond the titan's and goddess's barrier.
The centaur told us of how drained the gods were becoming from the continuous fighting. He said that Dionysus had been taken out from the sky and that no one had heard from the god since. The instructor told us that the god would heal, but not in enough time to actually be of any use to us anymore. He told us that the gods had managed to slow down the titan's approach, but that he would arrive in New York by day break tomorrow.
The Hunter sighed heavily before forcing herself to her feet. "I'll see about setting up new traps around the perimeter," she declared, though it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself to do it by telling others that she would be. Anyone that took one look at the eternal teenager could tell that she was beyond tired.
"I will go help her," Chiron reported tiredly. "I need to keep an eye on my brethren so that they don't go too overboard in the city."
The centaur left, leaving the mackerel and I alone in the command tent. The other teen looked exhausted as he pulled himself to his feet, but I knew that he would be okay, the pair of us ran on little sleep back home. The most stinking difference between Japan and here wasn't even all of the fighting, but just how much of a mess the other boy has become. We've both become.
Dazai had enough tears in his clothing that all of it would need to be thrown away as soon as this was all over. Though I doubt he or any of the others have even realized it just yet, the bandages lining his arms were frayed and falling apart from all of the abuse that they have taken during the fight with the titan and everything that happened after. They had even started unraveling at the top of his arms. It was honestly nothing short of a miracle that they were still on at all.
I was only in better shape than the invisible teen because I could use my ability to repel all of the snags and tearing that would have happened without it. Back in Yokohama, it was a cold day in hell when the other boy had more than a slightly messy outfit because he didn't get into this level of combat. The last time that I saw him anything close to like this was when we were fighting Randou and his ability had taken over the old boss's corpse, attacking Dazai with his scythe of all things.
Thinking back to that day, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised as I was that things turned out something like this. The bastard was much too adept at fighting the ability back then for a normal fourteen year old. In a way that fight had just been a precursor of sorts for what happened on the bridge and what will happen later when the time bastard and the mackerel meet once more.
"I swiped some bandages from the Apollo cabin back on the bridge," I told the other teen, pulling the rolls from out of my pockets. "Why don't we replace those?"
The younger boy nodded stiffly, something that I noticed he did a lot when it came to his bandages. Dazai could be a very vocal person when he wanted to be, but when it came to the white linings on his body, to the damage permanently tattooed on his skin, he always went quiet. The reason behind all of the scarring there was a mystery to everyone but all of those that put them there, and though I know that I all but promised not to pry, sometimes I really just wanted to know.
We moved to a spot in the open tent where those passing by wouldn't be able to see without having to actively look for one of us before the younger teen sat down once more and let me get to work. Unrolling the bandages, I could feel the other boy's eyes on me like a weight as he focused on me and not on his own skin. You didn't have to be a genius to guess why, there was an inglorious history written there, something that even the owner might not want to see.
—-
Dazai POV
My eyes stayed glued on the smaller boy as his fingers ran over the raised skin there. Fighting back a shiver, I thought about anything but how truly vulnerable I always seemed to become around the older teen, with or without the Curse of Achilles. And yet it wasn't an unwelcome sense. But the almost pleasant feeling didn't last long because suddenly my mind wasn't there, it was someplace foreign that I had never been before.
The next thing I knew I was standing in the middle of a rundown bar with neon signs that the owner seemed to believe made up for the horrible stature of the place, as a small mob of obnoxiously drunk adults partied like they were the ones going to war. Country music blared loud enough from the speakers to make my ears hurt as my brain struggled to comprehend the words being sung through the accents. Men with more muscle and some with more fat on their bodies than either group could ever need crowded and bunched up at the bar, as waitresses carried around tray after tray of drinks while yelling at one another over the music. Even just being here in a non corporal form that I inhabited was enough to tell me that if I lived long enough to actually sit down and drink at a bar, it would have to be somewhere quiet. The exact opposite of this.
"Good, you're here," a man at an arcade machine that I didn't recognize said without bothering to look at me.
The man had pudgy features and was drowning in mismatched bright colors and prints that would have made Chibi have an aneurysm had he been here to see it. With how bad it was, it made me miss the mafia black color scheme far more than I had already been after being surrounded by orange for days on end. He had a punchable face with a bandage wrapped sloppily around his head in a fashion that made me want to cut it off and force him to put it on again properly. Everything about the man set me on edge, but that was mostly because he's always reminded me of a mortal long turned to stone.
"Dionysus," I greeted, my voice a little more formal than it strictly needed to be.
The god sighed, not taking his eyes off of the small yellow dot and the colorful ghost-like creatures chasing after it as it tried to eat the gray dots all over the screen. "It's been a while, though I'm not sure what name I should call you by."
I scoffed, forcibly shaking off my discomfort and moving closer so that I could watch and see the game better. We didn't have this one at the arcade back in Yokohama, and I never had any friends to go with to arcades when I still lived in the states. Even if I had, I was either at boarding schools or just didn't have the money to spare.
"You've never had any problems calling me by whatever you liked in the past," I remarked, watching as the little yellow creature ate a pink ghost, sending it away to a little ghost jail to respawn. The whole thing reminded me of a demigod killing monsters only for them to come back from Tartarus like brand new.
"That was before you ran away from camp and took on a fake name or two," the god said hurriedly, running away from the angry ghost as whatever fruit he had eaten had worn off, meaning that the ghost could kill him once more for some reason.
Shrugging, I chose not to answer and let the god come up with whatever sorry excuse for a name he decided on this time. I could have answered the deity, but I didn't want to hear the first name that I had chosen for myself coming from his mouth, didn't want to ever hear it spoken aloud at all.
"So why am I here?" I asked, turning my back to the god and watching the idiot mortals stumble drunkenly over one another. "I know that it wasn't just to chat."
"I brought you into my little impromptu party time to give you a warning: We are in danger."
A humorless laugh echoed through the air and after a moment I realized that it belonged to me. "Well no fucking shit," I cursed. "I figured that out all on my own, thanks."
"Don't sass me, Jorgensen. I'm already in a bad mood from Blinkey here," the deity warned, sparing the time that it takes to point an angry finger in my general direction. "I'm smite you before you even have time to celebrate being sixteen."
"Go ahead," I mummered.
I thought I saw the god falter, but I figured that he must have just made a bad decision with the arcade game and brushed the reaction aside as meaningless. "Listen, the situation is much more dire than you can imagine. If Olympus falls, not only will the gods fade to nothing, but so will everything connected to us as well. The very fabric of your little society will unravel."
"Thank you so much for telling me more things that I already know," I scoffed. "That's the entire reason that I even bothered with coming back," I explained, "because I didn't know what would happen if I didn't and they lost." The god grumbled and angirly moved the little yellow ball around as I spoke, but was too focused on his game to threaten me or try to physically hurt me like I thought he might. "Look, can you tell me something that I don't already know?"
The god huffed loudly, but wasn't as put out by the attitude as he should have been because he'd just advanced to the next level. Two hundred fifty-four to be exact. I didn't even want to know just how many levels there were to this game, or just how long the deity has been playing it since being swatted from the sky.
"Within a day at most, dear old dad will burn away the mortal body that he has now and will take on the true form of a titan," the god informed.
I nodded solemnly. We had already figured that Luke's body was only a temporary body for the titan lord of time, but this gave us a better time frame than just sometime soon. With this, the decision that will save or destroy Olympus will probably take place very soon before the deadline comes, the fates always seemed to cut it close like that.
"Kronos will be ten times more powerful than the gods in their true form once he comes into his," the god of wine continued. "His presence alone would be enough to turn you to less than dust."
"Thanks for the tip," I told him, some small, miniscule, part of me actually meaning it. "Can I go now?"
"You demigods are so ungrateful these days," Dinoysous remarked, something that made me actually chuckle since the gods have never given us anything to actually be thankful for. "I just have one question first. My son, Pollux, is he alive?"
My body jerked lightly in surprise. Sometimes I couldn't help but forget that the gods, even if only for fleeting moments at a time like this, actually cared for their children. The deities used us all as pawns in their little power schemes enough that it was an easy thing to forget as you got older and saw all of the flaws in the beings that were supposed to be without them.
"...The last that I saw him he was," I told the god at last.
"Okay then," Dionysus said calmly, almost as if reassured, before switching back to his annoyingly obnoxious tone. "Go now. You have some nasty surprises to deal with, and I have a screen demon to vanquish."
I made a noise or disapproval, wanting to ask what the bastard had meant but the god only waved his hand in a dismissive manner as the bar dissolved just as fast as it had come.
—-
I blinked and I was back in the command tent with fingers brushing against my bare skin and the world pressing in. I jerked back violently enough to cause the owner of the hands to freeze and lose their grip on my arms and whatever it was that had been in their hands only a moment before. My instincts clashed against one another as part of me was already mentally halfway across the street while the other half of me reassured me that it was okay to stay. That it was safe.
"Dazai," a soft voice called out as a hand waved in front of my face just as how they had done only hours before. "Come on, mackerel."
Mackerel...
"I'm here, slug."
I looked up and I was met with a pair of blue eyes that I knew better than my own. Chibi's eyebrows were scrunched together with a look of concern that didn't fit his features and I didn't like that I was the one that put it there.
"The gods again?" He asked, slowly picking the fallen bandages back up and reaching for my arm once more in a slow fashion that gave me all the time in the world to pull away. When I didn't he went back to work covering up the rest of my arm.
I nodded. "Apparently they are all incapable of giving any information that I don't already know, but can give vague, unhelpful, references to things that I don't like there's no tomorrow," I grumbled, hearing how childish I sounded but not caring in the slightest. "I mean who tells you that there's going to be a 'nasty surprise' and not even what it is?"
I saw a small smile curve on Chuuya's lips as he listened to my ramblings, but he only shrugged and finished off the last of the bandages when I tried to ask.
Looking down at my arms, I saw that the older teen had done a good job at the bandages this time, a right side better than the other boy's first try back at the hotel. Though I suppose some of that could have been attributed to the events that had come before. I was about to say as much when something that sounded like a mechanical drum sounded through the sleeping city.
Chuuya and I glanced at one another, uncertainty coloring both of our faces as we sprung to our feet with weapons in hand and ran out of the tent into the street.
The sight above did not disappoint.
—-
Annabeth POV
A chopping noise filled the air, something that anyone who had spent any given time in New York would have grown used to and tuned out with the other noises of the busy city, but this morning it blared through Manhattan like an alarm. I ran out into the street just as a few of the other demigods that could move easily on their own had done to get a better look at the source of the noise. Even the monsters seemed to find it interesting as we could hear their jeering from a few blocks over.
The source of the noise was a civilian model helicopter with the initials 'DE' painted in a bright green to contrast nicely with the dark green of the machine. I knew what it stood for without even having to be close enough to read the fine lettering below the initials.
"Rachel," I whispered.
Grover had run across the mortal girl on the quest to save me from Atlas the winter after Percy had left. He had said that she was a mortal girl born with the sight. I hadn't really thought anything of it until that summer when we found the Labyrinth and Rachel had somehow managed to become our golden string, showing us the way out of the ever changing maze. The pair of us had kept in contact since then. We had plans to meet up after the war if the world didn't go to Hades before that, but I had been having visions with the girl in them for days now.
I hadn't expected that she would be brazen enough to come here, or that she would be about to crash in the process of doing something as foolish as flying into an active war zone with a mortal pilot, seemingly without knowing how to fly the aircraft on her own.
I watched in mute horror as the helicopter careened to the side, falling towards a row of office buildings that would make for a violent and deadly landing if it wasn't stopped first.
Without a second thought, I brought my fingers to my lips and whistled as loudly as I could. In the almost silent city, the noise echoed against the buildings, but was quickly covered up by the sound of flapping as the pegasus, Guido swooped down in a hurried arc that told me he understood just what was at stake.
Swiftly, I threw myself onto the back of the Pegasus, the creature taking to the sky as soon as it was sure that I wouldn't fall off once it started to move once more. I was going into this with a half cocked idea and no flying experience to speak of other than what we do at camp with the pegasi, but that was demigod luck for you and I stopped questioning it years ago.
Just hang in there, Dare.
A/N: So I'm going to start cross posting this and my other BSD fic on ao3, so if you recognize anything there that you think came from my stuff... it probably did. Just thought that I'd say that for the people that like reading on multiple platforms so that they would know that nothing was stolen and that if they see it they know that it's not something new either.