Leah's POV

"So he's looping back," I frowned, following Emily out of the room Thia had claimed as her own. "Why?"
"My best bet, and no ones going to like it-is that he can sense Thia." Emily's expression turned grim. "He's probably not certain, but it's enough to make him give up hunting gods and come back here."
"Seems about right," Thia nodded. "It's the good old Grace family luck kicking into gear."
"Well, if he wants a fight we give it to him," I decided, already figuring out our best shot of survival.
"I don't know if we can pull off something like that," Emily worried, chewing nervously on her thumb nail.
"We'll be fine," Thia insisted, but there was a hint of nervousness to her voice.
"You're staying," Reyna called from behind, jogging to catch up with our group.
"What?" Thia stammered. "No. No way."
"It's best if we keep you hidden for now. You don't have the strength just yet, and if he's paranoid about you and he doesn't find you-that's one advantage we have," Reyna determined, giving Thia the glare all mother's had of 'don't argue just listen.'
"Fine," Thia huffed, kicking angrily at a small piece of worn brick.
"Now, to figure out how we fend him off," Emily mumbled.
"Look alive kiddos," Thalia suddenly appeared hanging half upside down through a sewer grate with Frank peering over her shoulder, "company is very close."
"Aye aye captain." Saluting jokingly, I followed Emily to where a set of legionnaires had been prepped for battle.
Each of them looked rightfully nervous, but they still clutched their weapons and shields with a purpose. Emily gave them sympathetic smiles: only a few returned the gesture. With a single command the soldiers filed into an ordered rank marching swiftly down one of the tunnels to the exit.
Climbing the rungs of the ladder caused echoes to pulse down on either side where armored feet crashed into metal. One by one the legionnaires broke onto the surface squinting against dull light. Some of the sun's rays refracted like daggers off of golden armor.
"You first." Giving Emily a boost up to the suspended ladder I pulled myself up behind her. She lost her balance at one point on the slick steps but I managed to hook my hand in her belt. Once steadied. she moved on, "I got ya."
"I know," came the breathy reply.
Hoisting myself up and out of the sewer I rose to my feet inspecting the land before us. On the horizon a dark mass seemed to be gathering in the clouds. "He's closer than I thought."
"I ran ahead and scouted. Thankfully, it's just him and no allies," Thalia gestured to the dark mass with the tip of her spear.
"So we wait?" Emily swallowed tightly.
"We wait."
— — —
His footsteps sent small tremors through the ground and I was reminded once more how truly horrible he was. His aura sent chills down my spine and the other legionnaires shifted nervously from it too.
"So this is your army," Came the gravelly chuckle. "I expected more from you."
"Sorry?" Frank frowned, giving the Titan lord a shrug.
"So," Kronos' eyes scanned the small cluster of armored individuals, "where is she?"
"Who?" Emily asked, stepping forward rather bravely. Frank looked like he wanted to snatch her up and tuck her safely away behind himself.
"You know who."
"Voldemort?" Emily asked with a frown.
"No!" Kronos bellowed. "The girl. The savior. She's here. I sense it."
"Listen, she's dead." Emily lowered her head, "give it up already like the rest of us did. I don't know what it is you sense but it's not her okay? She hasn't been seen in years."
"Little actress," Kronos smirked, his teeth flashing like a shark's.
"She's right," I interjected. "Whatever you're looking for-you won't find it. Thia's dead. The person you fought no longer exists. Besides, anyone would have died. I saw what you did to Artemis. It would have been an easy kill."
"I won't be fooled!" Kronos snarled, his amusement quickly disappearing. "If you don't bring her to me I will take her."
"You won't find anything," I insisted, matching his glare with my own. Before anyone could move, a large scythe materialized in his palm, and the blade arched down towards Emily. For a moment, not matter how small, my heart stopped. She was dead. She had to be, but then, all of a sudden I realized something had stopped the blade.
In less than a second Frank had read the attack and transformed into a dragon intercepting the weapon with his mouth. A mighty roar bellowed from his throat and with a thrash of the neck he succeeded in throwing Kronos off balance.
"Atta boy!" Thalia grinned evilly before disappearing in a flash of lightning. The battle was on.
I wasn't too sure what happened. Everything was going by quickly one moment and slow the next. There was no way to make sense of it and yet I understood everything.
Frank received a gnarly punch to the jaw sending his dragon self stumbling to the side. A massive clap of thunder sounded overhead before lightning blinded my eyes. When my vision came back albeit dotted part of Kronos' armor had melted from the heat. It only made him angry.
He attempted to snatch up the daughter of Zeus but she was quick enough to remain out of reach for the time being. Before the Titan lord could officially recover the earth opened pooling liquid metal up around his shins. The previous material frothed and bubbled searing Titan flesh. The smell was horrible.
Still, Kronos was quick to turn the tables. Tearing free of the expensive and blistering mess he struck the ground with his scythe. A shockwave threw Thalia off balance at last sending her skittering across the ground in a heap. Frank, shifting into a bull and tried to guard her from the Titan lord but a firm kick sent him aside like a rag doll.
Spears arched in the air piercing through chinks in his armor but all that accomplished was irritating the Titan. Three metallic dogs came snarling from the shadows tearing into the achilles of Kronos and it was then that I snapped from my daze. We all needed to do something and fast.
Shaking my head I surveyed the area. There had to be something we could do in order to fend him off. Even just for a day. Then it hit me. "Andy!"
The boy came staggering forward at the sound of his name, "Yes Ma'am?"
"Do you recall the war games storage station? Where the equipment is kept? With all of the good machines?" As I spoke he nodded enthusiastically. "Take the Vulcan kids with you and bring out the best you can find."
"Of course," he smiled, "just hold down the fort! We got this!"
I watched him disappear into the small army and prayed my idea worked in time. We couldn't beat him off of pure strength like this. As strong as we all were, Kronos was a Titan. He didn't have a mortal host anymore and there was little limit to his power. The only reason he hadn't annihilated anyone was from fear that Thia would somehow spring from the ground and slaughter him.
"Alright ugly." With a sigh, I rolled my shoulders and drew my sword. "Let's have a little fun."
Rolling to avoid the arch of his scythe I sprang back to my feet and shot straight for the legs. The hounds were resilient and left golden blood to drip down Kronos' armor and skin. Kronos though, seemed to predict my intended tactic and my plan went out the window quickly. Something sharp and large shot down in front of me nearly going straight down through my head and body. He launched some form of a knife from his gauntlet. "Not so fast little girl."
"I'm not a little girl." Glaring, I tore the weapon from the ground and hurled it as hard as I could at his knee. The blade pierced his skin sinking hilt deep and drawing an angry cry from the Titan lord.
With a fire in his eyes he shifted weight from one leg to another and shrunk down to a more human size. Grasping a legionnaire by the throat the sound of an esophagus breaking nearly made me vomit. The poor kid was tossed aside like a rag doll. Eyeing the corpse, a sense of dread worked its way into my chest.
"One by one," he breathed, "one by one."
"Suck a dick would you?" Glancing over my shoulder I spotted Andy perched on the back of a ballista cocked and ready to fire. With a rather dangerous gleam in his eye he launched the large bolt straight at the Titan lord. Ducking not to have my head taken off I was aware of Kronos intercepting the projectile, but the force had knocked him back.
Snarling, he cracked the bolt across his knee sending it tumbling in two to the ground. "Nice try, but splinters won't do much little boy."
"I have friends," Andy smirked, then with fingers to his lip he let loose an old New York whistle he'd been taught. From behind one of the nearby buildings a large machine hurtled forward. I recalled it from the War Games 2 weeks ago: a huge, smoldering, feisty, enormous gorilla. Some of the Vulcan kids had been obsessed with King Kong and took things into their own hands. It'd seemed ridiculous at the time, but now I was glad I'd given them permission to make such a beast.
"Might wanna back up," Emily stammered, grasping my arm and tugging me away as the gorilla lunged. It's huge fist slammed straight into Kronos' face with a brutal crack. The Titan Lord's jaw went completely sideways. With a shaking hand, he grasped it, gave a viscous jerk, and his jaw set with a sickening sound of flesh on bone.
"Enough!" Suddenly, everything went still. The gorilla was mid swing, mouth open, teeth flashing, eyes fiery, and rage frozen.
It was strange to watch. Strange to be stuck in time. Strange to know that this was probably going to be the last thing I saw: a crazy ass gorilla and a maimed Titan lord. If I wasn't surprised enough already the universe just added onto it.
A blast of bright light which was actually unfortunate since I couldn't close my eyes, was followed by one thin individual dressed in white leaping onto the back of the Titan and plunging a knife repeatedly into his chest. Golden blood oozed from the wounds as a large hand reached back grasping the individual by the collar. He held her in front of him smiling faintly. Nothing was said before he vanished.
"Ooohhhh I hate that." Emily shivered, shaking out her arms. She looked pale and frankly I felt dizzy myself as the world went back into motion.
"Get the gorilla," Marianna called, gesturing to the confused animal. Andy gave a sharp clear whistle once more drawing its attention. The metallic beast was escorted calmly back towards its waiting cage.
"You realize there's no more hiding right?" I asked, as Thia looked disgustedly down at the blood which had drenched her.
"Yeah," she nodded, looking a bit ashamed and bashful. "But I have a plan."
"It better be good, because I don't think he's going to be patient anymore." Kronos had barely batted an eye at being mince meat under Thia's knife and I knew he was only playing nice for the sake of his plan. He'd drawn her out, and he knew she was alive. No more surprises would be happening.
"We need to find them," Thia set her jaw.
"Who?" Emily asked.
"The Gods. All of them. We need to track them down."
"That'll only get everyone in one spot," Frank pointed out looking worn from shape shifting.
"At this point there's safety in numbers. If anything, he's targeting them so we have no assistance. It's about time we rounded everyone up and had a real force to be reckoned with. One that would give a Titan lord something to really fight against. History repeats itself and I have a feeling it will again. Only, this time, there's less of the titans and more of the Gods. We just have to get to them before he does," Thia glanced back to the horizon. "And I know who to find first."