A new age of Divinity: Theomachy

Out on the Sea

Beth showed Nate around the ship, which was very large despite there being only five of them. It was an entire cruise ship, which Nate found hilarious. The plan had been to take a smaller vessel, but instead they took something that was meant to house over two thousand passengers excluding a crew. Here, they had complete reign over the entire place because of a spell Mikayla had put on it. To any other passing ship, it would seem like they had a bustling cruise... not seven twenty something year olds. The ship had seemingly endless food which they probably wouldn't finish. They were only going to have the ship for a few days and it was stocked for an entire two week long cruise. Luckily, Eden and Kenneth knew how to cook and Tracey had taught Beth the basics.
"So... you decided to take a big ass ship?" Nate asked while looking out at the vast sea that seemed to stretch on forever "Didn't think they'd look for it?"
"By the time they find us, we'll be on our way back," Mikayla replied while walking up to him "Everything's gonna be fi- mph."
"Shut it," Nate told her with his palm over her mouth. "Every time someone says everything's gonna be fine, something always goes wrong."
"Fine," She muffled before pulling his hand off of her mouth "Hey, I had a thought. We know Kronus is gone and the rest of the Titans probably have very little drive to fight again, but what about Typhon? He kicked Zeus' ass, he should be able to slap Athena's shit around if we needed it. He could be a good ace in the hole?"
"Mikayla, Typhon is a monster made of pure hatred and rage. You think he'd stop at Athena or even Zeus?" Nate reminded her "If he beat Zeus again, and did the smart thing in killing him this time, he'd probably lay waste to the Mortal Plane as well, and I don't feel like having to stop the Father of all Monsters."
"I... okay, yeah, that's all true. I don't even think we're going toward him."
"No, we're not, but it's fine. That's why I'm the smart one, and you're the destructive one. You know how long it is 'til we get there?"
"Eh, I dunno, you're the smart one." She turned and walked away with a cheeky grin and Nate chuckled with his arms folded while looking out at the ocean.
Beth was laying on her bed, happy to finally be able to rest after being on the go for who knows how many days. The sleep she had gotten the night before was horrible as she had to sleep in a tree to keep herself from being seen. She took her thigh mounted dagger off and her armor and quickly fell asleep. She didn't even bother taking her shoes off or even getting under the blanket, she just passed out right then and there.
Eden was in her room and bandaging her wounds, the bloody battle with the bear twins having torn a lot of her body apart. As she was wrapping a deep gash in her arm, Kenneth knocked on her door. Without getting up, she called for whoever it was outside to come in, and of course, Kenneth walked in.
"Hey," She mumbled while she finished bandaging the wound.
"Hey," He replied "Can I sit down?"
"Mhm." She didn't look up from the bandages as he walked over and sat down next to her on the bed "How are you doing?"
"Uh, not bad?" She replied while wrapping another wound "Agrius and Oreius took a lot out of me."
"I can tell. Want me to get that back wound?"
"Yeah, that would be a big help." She turned and sat with her back to him "You know what you are doing, right?"
"Kind of," He admitted "I learned by whatever you tend to do."
He wrapped the bandage around her stomach and back enough to stop the bleeding, but they were stained a glistening golden red. After wrapping her wound, Kenneth got up, and left her alone to recover and find something to occupy herself. He walked out to the main deck and found Nate sitting and listening to the sounds of the ocean. He walked over to him and sat down on the chair next to Nate's and they just sat in silence for a moment. There was so much he wanted to ask his friend, but he didn't know how. How had he survived his fight with Athena? Why did he attack Beth the second he woke up? Every question he thought of, he knew Nate would have an answer for, but he didn't know if he wanted to know the answers.
"She got distracted by the chaos and I was pissed."
"Ah! Stop doing that!" Kenneth exclaimed "But uh... so you survived-"
"Off of dumb luck, yes," Nate groaned with his arms crossed "But I kinda figured if I stopped fighting back, she'd stop, and step outside. So it's not like it was all luck, but it was a large percentage."
"Okay, that is fair enough," Kenneth sighed "Can I ask another question?"
"Mhm."
"What do you plan on doing if we all survive this?"
"Dunno," He admitted "See places I've never been, learn things I never knew. Ya know, the usual life stuff. What about you?"
"I would like to be a normal person for a change. Hopefully I will be able to get into college."
"You know everything you'll need?" Nate asked, his eyes still closed and his arms crossed.
"Uh... probably not, but we are all quick learners. It should not be too difficult."
"Heh," Nate chuckled. "That'll be something. Child of an Olympian who isn't a total waste of space going to college. I'd say I'd come to your track and field races, but they'd be over before even I could blink."
"Huh, you know, I never thought of that," Kenneth admitted. "If you were to do some kind of contest, something not involving fighting, what would you do?"
"Hm... I dunno. Maybe some trivia or something. Now, I'll ask you a question. You think we're all gonna stay in touch after this is over?"
"When we find the means to," Kenneth replied "We will need phones or computers or... some kind of personal electronics."
As the two continued to talk, the sun began to sink as Helios guided the sun behind the horizon. The setting sun causes the sky to appear as if it were engulfed in an endless inferno. The clouds looked as if they would explode at any moment. The reds, oranges, and pinks were beautiful, but it only lasted thirty or so minutes. Night quickly consumed the world and only a black void glistening with long dead stars remained. Of all the people in the world, Nate was the very few who saw the stars which were still alive, not those who died generations before any of his friends were born. It was scary, knowing how many stars there truly were in the universe... well not the exact number, but seeing ones that no one on Earth would likely ever see, for some reason, it made Nate uneasy. He didn't want to be the only one to see something. He didn't want to be alone. Kenneth had always known his best friend's only true fear, but he didn't know how to always be there to help him. Mikayla had known, but she never thought it was that bad, so she never really tried to make sure he was never truly left alone. He had made sure not to tell either Eden or Beth so they wouldn't worry about him... more than they both already did. The two fell asleep on the deck and let the night play out without them.
Beth woke up in the night and stretched as she sat up on her bed. It was the best sleep she had gotten in literally years, having momentarily forgotten what their mission was all leading to. For just a brief night, she had forgotten they were going to find reinforcements or... anything that could help. She let her mind think that they were simply on a private cruise ship. She got up and looked around, then her eyes drifted to her armor and weapons. Beth sighed, the memory of what they were doing hit her again and she was filled with dread yet again. She looked outside and saw that it was night, but it didn't really matter. As long as Athena had as little idea where they were as possible, they weren't on any kind of time crunch. In the dark of the night, all she could hear and feel was the boat being gently rocked by the water. She decided to go for a walk around the ship just to clear her mind. She figured everyone else would be asleep, but she didn't know where they all were.
"Hm... where would Nate sleep?" She asked herself as she opened every door on the floor she was on.
As she expected, most were empty, but she did find a room with Eden and Mikayla sleeping together, the latter's arms wrapped around the former's stomach in their sleep. She closed the door so as to not wake them. She walked into the kitchen, but no one was there, most of their food was also untouched. She knew Gulltoppr was in the cargo hold and she felt back about that, but there was nowhere else they could keep him. None of them wanted him to fall off the boat and aside from the upper deck, the cargo hold was the only place that he could fit into. She dragged her spear along the floor to keep herself aware. No, she didn't expect anything to be here, but if it was, she would hear it in a disruption in the sound her spear made. She went floor by floor and found neither Kenneth nor Nate, but it made no sense to her. Where could they be? She'd checked every room, every dining room, literally everywhere except the main deck. But why would either of them be up there? Nate, sure, he had always been strange, but why would Kenneth be out there as well. As she stepped up onto the deck, she found them both asleep in the chairs.
"Huh, guess they are up here." She put her spear down gently and walked over to them.
She knew neither were that heavy a sleeper... unless Nate had been awake for two years straight, so she decided to take her boots off before getting too close. When it came to Nate, she knew there was no sneaking up on him, but Kenneth she would rather not wake up if she had the power not to. She walked behind them and sat down next to Nate, except there was no other chair so she just sat on the wood of the deck. From how his head was positioned, she could tell the two Demigods were doing very little other than star gazing. She'd always wondered what he saw relative to the rest of them. If he could see the stars that were really still burning rather than the ones they think they see. She wondered if he could see constellations that man wouldn't discover for thousands more years. She wondered if he could see any of the constellations everyone else claimed to be able to. He had always told her how strange and how much of an outsider he always felt like when people would point out star shapes... that he just couldn't see because they weren't there, and hadn't been there for ages. As she pondered this, she laid down on her back, and looked up at the sky. She tried seeing like Nate did, tried seeing stars that were truly still burning brightly rather than the ones that came to her eyes. However, thanks to their difference in power and abilities, she just couldn't see what he did. Alongside her two brothers, she fell asleep on the deck, several Gods from different pantheons, such as Astraios, Máni, and Ratri watched over them, as they and all of the other Gods like them did in the time on Earth where the sun no longer shone down on its inhabitants.