Hahaha hello there. First things first! Sorry for not being around much, I have been working on a secret project recently. I'm not going to spill any details here, except that it is an original work! Also you kind soul if you are looking for an awesome story about magic and war and unemotional magicians, then jungle321jungle has the book for you! Please check it out called the "Origins of Chaos" it's the best!

Now if you haven't watched the anime K, I suggest you do. It's really good! I tried not to spoil anything, so read this and then go look up K on Netflix. (It's basically about gangs, and magic and gang wars, aka super awesome)

And one last thing, this is in honor of me going to my first Prom tonight so wish me luck. Don't die my readers and I'll be back asap with an update of...something, I'm sure.

And Then We Joined A Gang

“What do you mean, you couldn’t?”

Luke Castellan swirled his coffee with one hand purposely adding in an inhuman amount of sugar. He watched the white crystals fall, doing his best to pretend like nothing was bothering him at all. The waterfall stopped short with a sharp snatch of the sugar container and coffee mug right out of his hand.

Ethan Nakamura leveled his eye at the son of Hermes, “Well?”

Luke sighed shoving his hands into his armpits so the other two wouldn’t see them shaking. “I couldn’t pass the express line to get to Rebirth.”

Ethan cursed impressively. He was the son of Nemesis, the goddess of Revenge and he lived up to the name in looks. He wore a black sweatshirt, and jeans with perfectly preserved black high tops. A glinting silver chain hooked from one of his pockets and it jingled threatenly whenever he moved fast. The gaping hole where his left eye had been was covered by his eye patch, and had been the butt of one-too-many “look me in the eye” jokes.

Ethan set down the sugar container to rub his temples. Luke could only imagine the bite of pain that was sparking in his head. He was hypersensitive to balance, a gift from his mother. He’d once explained it to Luke, “It’s like having a metal detector in your head. It starts going off when the scales are out of balance, and gods, it hurts sometimes.” He had taken about four pain killers right after, and grimaced. Luke had no idea why Ethan stuck around if he had to pop pills every four hours just to stay sane.

On Ethan’s other side, was the third and most unlikely member of their group. She was a strong-willed, sharp tongued girl who went by the name Bianca Di Angelo. She had died younger than both Luke and Ethan, but that had never stopped her at anything. She was a daughter of Hades which gave her more authority than she knew what to do with. Plus just about everyone loved her.

The three of them made a strange trio, (“Tragic!” Luke had proclaimed once “A Tragic Trio!”). Bianca was undoubted a hero, meant for Elysium. Whereas, Luke and Ethan had more than enough neighbors who’d gladly see them in Tartarus. Everyone told Bianca to steer clear, even Luke had once told her she was better off not being around them. But she had waved them off.

“I’ll hang with who I want,” she had told Luke. “Besides, you are the only guys who don’t tell me I should be avenged all the time. I made my choices, and there’s nothing anyone else can do about them.” She then crashed on his couch and slept for three hours.

“Damn it!” Ethan growled, “You spent all that time filling out that paperwork to go to Rebirth and they wouldn’t even let you through the doors?”

“Did they tell you why?” Bianca asked cautiously. She took off her green beanie to fix her hair and her frown made her freckles stand out in the artificial light of the kitchen.

Luke sighed, “The Fates Decree.” He leaned back disheartened.

Ethan cursed again, “This isn’t fair! What more could they want from you?”

When Luke had died the Fates had personally taken his body. It was an open secret. The panel on his judgement had been perfectly even between wanting to throw him into Tartarus and place him in Elysium. So the Fates, the three creepy grandmothers who knitted the lives of everyone into a tragic play, had cut Luke a deal. He could go to Elysium as long as he followed their rules. Apparently the new Decree included him not being allowed to be Reborn.

Luke shrugged helplessly. Bianca replaced her hat with a newfound determination.

“Are you sure this is what you want, Luke?” She asked, “To be reborn?” She waited for him to nod, as if they hadn’t had this conversation last night when they helped him fill out the paperwork. “Alright, I go talk to my dad.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow with a scornful snort, “Not even Hades is going to go against the Fates, Bi. It won’t matter what you say. What if we went to the Fates directly?”

All three of them shared a mutual moment of frigid shivers at the suggestion. Except for Luke, The Fates had no control over the dead, but it was ingrained in the minds of demigods to not do anything to piss them off. Luke wasn’t sure but he guessed that distracting them from their cross-stitching of misery might be doing just that.

“Alright so not to the Fates.” Ethan mumbled, “But they can’t keep you here forever.”

“It could be worse!” Luke protested, “They could have confined me to just this apartment! Or had me be eternal servant to Lord Hades and Lady Persephone!”

“Oh yes because you’d really miss things out there!” Ethan waved towards the window that overlooked the street. “Half the town hates you, the other half barely tolerates you!”

“You’re over exaggerating.” Luke insisted, “There are some--”

“Michael Yew tried to push you into the River of Misery, yesterday.” Ethan said in a level tone, “Lee Fletcher graffitied the shrine to Hermes in the town square just so you had to clean it again.”

“The couple that run the mini mart in town refused to serve you.” Bianca added, “I’ll talk to my dad and see if I can have him persuade the Fates to change the rule. At this rate your injustice will make Ethan die all over again and then where will I be?”

“Still here.” Luke pointed out. He moved to take his coffee back and this time neither of them stopped him. Ethan grunted, and pulled out a bottle of advil from his pocket. He popped two of the pills dry and shook his head.

Bianca smiled and stood straight. “Alright boys,” She said, “I’ll see you later. I promised to meet Zoë so we could go to the archery range.”

Luke winced at the name. Zoë Nightshade was a Hunter of Artemis before her death at the hands of her father on account of Luke’s own insidious plots. There was bad blood between the two of them that not even Bianca’s friendly chatter could thin.

“I don’t know why you practice with a bow an arrow.” Ethan complained, “I’ve seen you cut vegetables in the kitchen and then turn around and knife people way too smoothly.”

Bianca gave him a sugary smile and headed out of the room. By the door frame she paused light on her feet, “Luke you do know you put salt in that coffee right? Not Sugar?”

Ethan gave him a pointed look as the Daughter of Hades left. Luke glanced at the coffee and swirled it again. He shrugged and took a sip anyway.

***

Luke had never been to the Palace. In fact, he'd actively tried to avoid even looking in the direction of the castle. So maybe Luke hadn't directly offended the Lord of the dead, but he didn't see any reason to tempt fate. The first decree he was forced to follow had told him not to engage with either of the underworld gods unless explicitly called for him. 

Luke trembled as he shuffled behind the skeleton guard. He kept his head down and his ghostly breathing even. If they weren't looking close enough, Luke might have seemed perfectly content with his visit to the castle.

Luke was not content.

He was the opposite of content. Uncontent. He was a nervous bundle of nerves and it didn’t help that the skeleton had marched right up to him as he was scrubbing graffiti off Zeus’s underworld shrine in the middle of a crowd of people and demand he come with him immediately. This was it. This was the day the Fates decided to take back their deal and throw him so far into the underworld he’d find his old flying converses. He wouldn’t even have time to say goodbye to Ethan or Bianca or listen to another one of Zoe’s scathing remarks on his past choices.

As they had left the clearing, Lee Fletcher had nudged Michael Yew in the side and they both had shared a sharp set of smiles.

Walking through the Palace was similar to walking through the Labyrinth in Luke’s mind. There were confusing tunnels every which way, ghoulish guards handling gods-know-what, hollow howls that might have been the wind or people screaming. Luke lost track of time, keeping his head only high enough to make sure he didn’t lose his skeletal leader.

They stopped right before the Throne room doors.

“Castellan!” A voice called to him.

Luke looked up, feeling both miserable and relieved at the sound of the voice. Ethan stomped towards him, surpassing his own skeleton guard and socked him in the shoulder. Had Ethan been any good at punching, it might have hurt, but they were both ghosts and Ethan sucked at punching things (His excuse had always been “I don’t want to break my hand.” To which Luke had suggested he actually learn to punch. Ethan told him all the reason a knife was easier.).

“What did you do?” Ethan demanded.

“Nothing!” Luke said honestly, “I swear I haven’t done--”

The great oxyn doors shifted and with a loud groan they opened.

Luke hadn’t really been in throne rooms before. He always thought olympus was more like a council office then a sacred place. They took kids on Field trips through the six hundredth floor for crying out loud! The underworld throne room was...pleasant. There weren’t any skulls lingering around and the grays were offset by garlands of bountiful flowers. There was a blood red carpet leading to the two silver polished and ruby studded seats. There was cold chill in the air, but that could have easily just been the air conditioning up too high.

The Lord of the Underworld was seated in his throne looking several centuries older than before. Had it been centuries? Luke didn’t think he had been dead that long. Persephone in her eternal beauty was slouched in her own throne looking both bored and miserable, like a princess who hadn’t gotten the pony she had wanted.

Bianca stood in front of them grinning. She glowed in the pale light, beaming her happiness in a way that seemed vaguely dangerous. Luke was all at once reminded of her promise to him, “I’ll talk to my dad and see if I can have him persuade the Fates to change the rule.” He didn’t know if the feeling the in his stomach was joy or fear.

“Hey guys!” She cheer running to them and swinging an arm over each of their shoulders. She was shorter than both of them so it was more awkward than it should have been.

“Bianca…” Luke asked out of the corner of his mouth. He didn’t dare look away from the gods in front of them, “What did you do?”

She laughed.

Luke walked stiffly to before the thrones. He swallowed hard and bowed before the lord of the dead. As if that would appease him and maybe not make the angry gods want to toss him into the deepest darkest pits of Hell.

“Rise,” Hades said rubbing his temples. Persephone shifted in her seat, looking less unsettled now. Ethan and him got back up sharing a nervous glance towards Bianca.

“Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura,” the Lord of the dead said, “Do you know why you are here?”

“I’m guessing it’s not because you wanted to throw me a deathday party?” Ethan suggested so causally Luke elbowed him in the stomach. He gagged to the side, while Lord Hades sighed deeply.

“I’m going to regret this.” He said, peering at the shadowed ceiling. His faithful wife leaned over and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her pastel nails added a strange color to the silent screaming ghouls of his cloak.

“Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura,” He paused his eyes trailing to Bianca as well, “My daughter, I have a quest for you.”

Luke straightened, his breath seeming to catch in his throat.

“Quest?” Ethan coughed, “But we’re dead!”

Hades waved the thought away as if it wasn’t important at all. Ghosts couldn’t sustain themselves for long in the mortal world; the wind would literally tear their listless souls apart. For them to go on a quest, any quest at all, they would need to be brought back from the dead. Luke had heard of people coming back to life before--after all what hadn’t happened in the Greek and Roman times??-- but for the three of them? It was the oddest choice of questors, especially if you wanted something done.

Plus bringing people back to life could not be easy. It had to involve lots of energy, not to mention breaking a few ancient laws and going directly behind the Fates back. But if Hades waved it off as no big deal then it must be fine!

“What needs to be done is only something that I believe the three of you can do.” Hades said, staring directly at Luke, “In fact it is your duty to fix this.”

Kronos.

That’s what this was about. Luke couldn’t think of another thing it could possibly be. He face a moment of panic because he knew he had kill the Titan rather dramatically too. He had given his own life and had phantom pains in his shoulder whenever he thought about it too hard. Kronos had been scattered into the wind, never to be brought together again. (Thus said the Fates.)

“There is trouble brewing in the mortal world.” Persephone spoke up. Her voice was smooth and light like a spring breeze and it seemed to brighten the room a bit. “There has been a series of dangerous rising and falling of powers. We believe that some organization is collecting the pieces of Kronos with the intention of bringing him back. For obvious reasons this is not ideal.”

Luke flinched. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that raising the Titan was bad. He had seen that himself just fine. Sometimes he couldn’t even sleep so paranoid he was going to start having those dreams again. Then again he was also a ghost so there was no reason for some all powerful being to go knocking around in his head. Also he was a ghost and sleeping wasn’t required.

(Ethan had told him he was missing out on the best part of being dead.)

Bianca nudged him in the side. She looked overly proud of herself, as if this was exactly what Luke had wanted when he filled out the Rebirth Paperwork.

“What do you want us to do?” Luke asked the god, part of him shocked that the words managed to get out at all.

The Lord of the Dead looked pained for a second, “Just...stop it.” He rubbed his temples again, “Don’t start the end of the world, please. Zeus will have my head as is.”

Luke swallowed hard, his ghostly hands feeling clammy, “But what about the Fates? Don’t they like own me?”

“They have control over life and and progress of life. Once they decide to cut your string, you are under my command.” Hades stood up, his pale figure standing out with the background of his blackened cloak, “I allowed them to play their game for now, maybe they intended for this to happen.

“Let me make myself clear, Luke Castellan.” He said stepping forward. Luke straightened until he was tighter than Zoë Nightshade’s bowstring. The wailing faces of Hades’s cloak appeared to him for a moment, reminding him of all the horrible ways to spend eternity. “I do not trust you, spawn of Hermes. My wife does not trust you. There is not a god out there who trusts you. We are immortal, and we do not forgive easily.”

“You know that is the reason---” Ethan started, stopped from whatever snarky remark he was going to say by Bianca’s sharp jab to his stomach.

Hades stared down at Luke, “The only reason you are being allowed to do this one thing is because my daughter has her mother’s stubbornness. She has promised hers and Nakamura’s life on this and quite frankly we are desperate. If the three of you should fail, Tartarus is where you will find yourself very, very quickly, Castellan. Any other questions?”

“I don’t think so.” Luke said quietly.

“Find the power of Kronos, which knowing the gods will probably be anything, destroy it, beat up the guys who started this, don’t fail.” Ethan ticked it off his fingers. His eye looked weary despite his upbeat tone. Or maybe in spite of it. He gave a catty grin, for someone who was just told that Bianca had bet his afterlife on this one. “Got it.”

“Good.” Hades said. He looked at each of them in turn, his gaze softening when he got to Bianca. “You have one week.”

“One Week!” Ethan exclaimed, “You expect us to be able to do all this in one week!”

Hades gave him a look, something that made goosebumps pop up on Luke’s arms. “Yes.” He said coldly.

“Cool,” the son of Nemesis seemed to shrink back into himself, hands slipping into his pockets. “So when do we start? Is it like next week? Tomorrow? So we have time to prepared and stuff--”

Hades looked at Bianca with a raised eyebrow, “I can’t tell if he is joking.” He looked back at his wife, and when she shook her head he shrugged, “For what it’s worth, I wish you three good luck.”

Luke barely had time to blink before the god waved a pale hand in their direction and everything went black.

***

Luke had never shadow traveled before, but he was pretty sure from Bianca’s comments that’s what had happened. He stumbled out of the inky blackness tripping over his own feet, and hit the ground in an unceremonious heap. Which in and of itself, would have been normal.

Ethan landed on top of him, like a sandbag.

“Son of Hera!” Luke spit out. Ethan groaned something that might have been an apology.

“Yikes!” Bianca’s fragile voice called out. Luke felt a jerk across his legs and the sound of her gasping. “I’m so sorry!”

Luke looked up, scarcely believing his eyes. Sounds and smells hit his senses like a tsunami, incomprehensible, powerful. Cars-- actual cars, people living ones! All around him was the signs of life and normal mortals who had never had to worry about gods and monsters. The smell of fast food and motor oil and steel buildings….the taste of it all in the air. The sounds of cars honking and people talking incoherently. Luke wanted to cry. It felt like so long ago.

“Oh shit,” Ethan said.

Bianca looked unsteady on her feet as she was kept standing by some guy who must have been nearby. He looked to be Luke’s age, maybe younger but not by much. His shirt was a cotton white and a red hoodie was tied around his waist. A pair of headphones hung limply around his neck and he used one foot to steady both him and Bianca and the other to hold a skateboard in place. His face was notably bright red.

He smiled awkwardly a little at the daughter of Hades and said something in Japanese.

She blinked at him. Luke blinked at him. Ethan made a noise that sounded like a dying cat.

“Are we in Japan?! Did the Lord of the Motherfucking Underworld just send us to Japan?” Ethan hollered, “With. No. Pretenses. Who does that?!”

Luke looked at him helplessly, “You speak Japanese though, right? I’ve heard you!”

Ethan scoffed like that was the most ridiculous idea he had ever heard, “Don’t be racist Luke! I curse in Japanese; not speak in it.”

Luke felt his stomach sink. He looked up at the sun, trying to remember what this would feel like, because he was getting only one week of this before he was sent to Tartarus.There was no way they could complete a quest without knowing the language at all. At best Ethan might slip up and say some horrid Japanese curse and then they might get killed by an angry mob. Luke was going to Tartarus.

He was going to throw up.

Or he would have if Bianca hadn’t blushed furiously and replied to the young man’s sentence in fluent Japanese.

“What.” Ethan breathed dumbstruck.

She glanced back at him with a coy grin that made her freckles stand out, “I got bored, so I started learning languages! I bet you’re happy now!”

“I could hug you.” Luke said, stepping forward. Ethan’s eyes widened suddenly and his arm jutted out between them.

“Nope!” He said, “She’s a hunter!” He kept his eye averted, watching a group of business men cross the street and a mother try to calm her wailing child on the sidewalk. There was a faint gleam to his cheeks and if Luke didn’t know better he would assume that Ethan was trying to protect him from Zoë NightShade’s malevolent wrath.

Bianca gave them both a critical confused look. She tugged on her beanie and Luke watched the Japanese boy laugh. His hazel eyes looked them all over with a mischievous gleam.

“You speak English?” He said, in admittedly not great English. But then what did Luke expect? Everyone to know and understand English?

Bianca replied with something in Japanese. He listened, kicking his skateboard up into on hand, and letting the other fiddle with the padding on his head phones, the tips of his ears still slightly flushed. They talked for a few seconds. Luke couldn’t make heads or tails of the phrases, but Ethan seemed to grow gloomier with each word. Bianca twisted a strand of her hair absently as she listened to the boy speak.

Bianca laughed. Luke watched Ethan cross his arms angrily. Luke hadn’t ever been to highschool but if he had, he bet it would have gone something like this. He gave Ethan a reassuring pat on the shouder.

“Guys,” Bianca said, smiling, “This is Yata. He said he could show us around the city.”

He held out his hand, “Pleased meet you.”

Hesitated for only a second before clasping his hand, “Luke Castellan.” Yata thought for a moment before nodding, as if he had to rearrange the words for them to make sense. It was just his name so Luke wasn’t sure why. Yata held his hand out to Ethan.

The son of Nemesis ignored him entirely for popping another advil.

Yata said something, which made Bianca turn white. Ethan’s head snapped over to him, a snarl on his lips. He spit out a Japanese curse that Luke had heard a million times before and never understood.

“Ethan!” Bianca said sharply. Her words bit the air leaving him scowling at the ground. Luke saw the corners of Yata’s mouth flick upwards.

Oh yes, this quest was going to be the greatest thing they ever did.

***

“Ma’am there seems to have been a huge burst in energy in the city just now!” A voice called out. Seri Awashima whipped around to face one of the her subordinates. She was one of the only female recruits they had other than Awashima herself, but for the life of her Seri couldn’t remember her name. The recruit held out a clipboard of notes and an independent PDA.

“Where is it?” Awashima asked. Her sword hung at her side. It had been far too long since she had received a reason to use it. She took the clipboard reviewing the notes with a practiced eye.

Another figure moved down the hallway, a slow and deliberate step, “Red’s Territory.” Fushimi Saruhiko said lazily. His glasses glinted in the artificial light.

“This the third one this month.” Awashima said, “Do we know what’s causing them?”

Fushimi shurgged, “I’ll check the sercurity camera’s again, but everything seems to be shorted out for the five minutes following the swell. Not even PDA’s will work.”

“I’ll talk to the King.” Awashima said. She handed back the clipboard to the new girl and nodded once to Fushimi. “We’ll send out a team. Fushimi, I want you on it.”

He clicked his tongue, but didn’t argue.

The Lieutenant turned away, already putting together a team in her head for the mission. Without the intense Rivalry between the gangs anymore, it seemed that everyone had free time on their hands. As long as they were fast, they might have a chance at actually finding what was causing the mysterious burst of energy.

“Excuse me, Lady Awashima!” A voice stopped her. Seri turned back to face the eager eyes of the new recruit. “May I…” She started fumbling for words only for a second, “I would like to be on the team, M’Lady!”

Awashima glanced at Fushimi briefly who offered a lazy shrug in response. His gaze flickered over the new girl, and one of his old maniac smiles threatened to tug at the corners of his mouth. He was interested.

“What’s you’re name?” Awashima asked.

The new recruit wore a smirk, and placed a hand on the belt loop that held her sword, “Nightshade, M’Lady.” She said, “Zoë Nightshade.”