Uniting As The Ten- Part Two Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Eight

Jason's POV:

I manage to control the winds again and let it roam aimlessly around the kitchen in the penthouse. The moment I hear a random thing get knocked down, I let go of the winds. I hear Curtis, Bryce and Octavian stop in their tracks and, after a moments silence, their footsteps pounding towards the kitchen.

Both Eight and Ivan are frozen in place so I grab one of their arms and drag them up and pull them out the room. I'm not sure where to go. I turn into a random hallway, and I realize that I'm heading for the Lecture Hall, where hundreds of traps and weapons are stored.

I drag Eight and Ivan to the Lecture Hall and they follow me there without question. Soon enough, after tense and silent sneaking around, we make our way into the Lecture Hall, which is completely devoid of any other person but us. Where is everybody?

Well, one other person besides us.

"Jason Grace." The familiar male voice drawls. I freeze in place and it actually feels like someone has dumped a bucket of ice down my shirt. I whip around towards the direction of the voice and I see him standing there, his Imperial gold gladius in his right hand. He looks the same from when I last saw him; dark hair and sunken eyes.

"Michael." I reply, mentally slapping myself when I realize that my voice is slightly shaking.

Michael Varus, son of Janus, leans against the wall, near a pile of guns. He looks calm, relaxed. Not at all dead, like how I remember. Does anyone ever really die in this world? Gods, seriously.

Michael stares at us, a ghost of a smirk on his face. My mind wanders back to that one memory of him stabbing me in the side in Odysseus's palace. A memory I'll never forget, now that he's back.

"Jason, who is he?" Ivan asks me, glaring at Michael in front of us. His right hand rests on the hilt of his sheathed Mogadorian sword, ready to swing it at a moments notice. I glance at him and I can see his obsidian black eyes flickering from Michael to my hands and back again. I look down at my hands and notice that they're actually kind of shaking. I automatically try to make them stop, then glare back up at Michael.

"Michael Varus, son of Janus." I reply, my hand inching for the gold coin in my pocket. Juno and my father, Jupiter, were able to remake Ivlivs, my Imperial gold coin/sword with the help of Vulcan (Hephaestus). Thank gods I don't have to use Juno's gladius anymore. I don't want to use anything passed down to me from her.

Eight slowly unsheathes his Mogadorian sword, also glaring at Michael. "We know about him." I vividly remember the other Seven, Reyna, Nico and I recalling all our adventures during the quest for the Prophecy of the Seven. Everyone knows about Michael Varus and everyone knows what he did.

I nod my head and Michael raises an eyebrow at me.

"I'm flattered you talk about me, Grace." Michael says, now fully smirking cockily. I can hear Ivan growling at Michael from behind me.

"Let me guess; you're working with the Mogadorians." Eight guesses, looking straight-up bored. I'm also done with traitor demigods. Michael smirks wider.

"Exactly. And I can call over the other three right now if I want to. Ya know, telepathy." Michael's smirk turns sinister and I know exactly what he wants to hear. I hate to say it, but I have to. I clench my teeth in anger.

"What do you want?" I growl. Michael chuckles darkly and I can just now see the single black vein creeping up the side of his neck. The Mogadorian serum. He took it, and he obviously has legacies, as well.

"Ya got it, Grace. I want a specific person." Michael answers slowly, flipping his gladius in his hands. I shake my head.

"We're not giving you Max Jackson."

"Come on, Grace. Just hand her over and we'll leave the rest of you alone." Michael says but I know he's lying. They want Max to use her resurrection legacy so they can finally beat us in the war, and I'm not letting that happen, nor am I letting Max get hurt, and what I see out of the corner of my eye lets me know that Ivan isn't, either. He looks peeved. Like seriously peeved. I've never seen him look so angry. It's actually a little startling.

"Just leave her alone! She's been through enough!" Ivan yells at Michael, his fists clenched at his sides tightly. His sudden outburst surprises me. I've seen him angry and frustrated before, but I've never seen him like this- full-out shouting, an evil cold death glare, looking ready to kill without hesitation. I know he loves Max, but gods is he protective. I actually kind of like it.

Michael raises an eyebrow at Ivan and glances at the open door to the hallway, in the direction of the kitchen.

Silence. None of us say anything for seconds.

"Don't worry, Ivanick." Michael starts and I pray to the gods that he doesn't say another word, or all Hades might break loose.

"Max's death will be painless."

And all Hades breaks loose.

Ivan starts towards Michael and I have to hold him back. I push him back and he fights against me. Eight helps me and we're able to push him back from Michael.

It doesn't last long. Eight is suddenly thrown across the room by an unseen force, which I recognize immediately. Telekinesis.

I whip around to the door of the Lecture Hall and the three Demigods of Death themselves are standing in the doorway. Octavian has his arm out towards Eight and he slams him against the floor one more time before letting go of him. He smirks at us and unsheathes his Imperial gold sword along with Bryce and Curtis. These stupid traitor demigods are getting on my last nerve.

I suddenly feel a blast of heat coming towards me from where Michael is. I look back to Michael and a huge fireball is hurling towards Ivan and I. I'm frozen in place. Out of all legacies Michael could've gotten, he got fire?

I've been in thought too long. The fireball is only an inch away from me. I can feel my skin burning already.

Ivan grabs me and tackles me to the floor, the fireball soaring over us. He lands on top of me and despite the dire (fire?) situation, I can feel my face heating up without a flame. A shirtless Ivan on top of me. Hooray (again, please note the sarcasm).

Ivan climbs off of me and glares at Michael.

"There's a lot more where that came from." Michael says and a smaller fireball appears in one hand, and in the other hand, he creates a dagger made of pure ice.

Ah schist.

-INSIGHT-

The amount of guys falling for Max isn't as absurd as it seems, because I copied the amount of people that have fallen for her brother, Percy Jackson, throughout the original series; Annabeth, Rachel, Reyna, Calypso and Nico, plus a minor crush by Kinzie the Amazon warrior in 'The Son Of Neptune'. That's five and one small one. Now Max; Leo, John, Ivan, Adam and Octavian, plus a minor crush by Five as shown in the end of book two in this series. That's five and one small one, just like Percy's.