“It’s time you used the powers she gave you, the clock shall now strike 1.” Cat quickly looked up to see Phtonus standing at the mouth of the cave smiling towards my writhing body. Cat quickly turned back around in time to watch in astonishment as the mark slowly crawled up my arm once again, save for this time it was not doing so to heal me. Cat understood that what was happening was bad, but decided, this time, that she needed to act to try to help me. Cat dropped down and wrapped one of my arms over her shoulder before helping me up on to Lukos once again. With me in front this time and Cat behind to steady me, Lukos quickly leapt passed Phtonus who made no attempt to stop us. Cat knew that the only person close-enough to help was Hermes, who had just raced to the top of the mountain, so she made Lukos head for the peak of the mountain. As they got closer, Cat could make out two forms standing at the peak: Hermes and Hades. As they reached the top of the mountain and descended near the two, their voices could be heard as Hermes turned to Hades.

“What is the meaning of this brother, you said that Cronus had been released, and yet here we stand on his cage still intact. And why are you here and not the underworld?” Hermes questioned Hades in bewilderment at the actions beginning to transpire. Hades at first didn’t acknowledge this question, leading Hermes to move closer as Cat dropped down from Lukos leaving myself sitting there. As Hermes moved closer however, Hades unsheathed a concealed dagger and firmly stabbed it into the chest cavity of Hermes, slicing open his heart and left lung. Hades withdrew his hand quickly as to not get blood upon it, but left the dagger in place and grabbed hold of Hermes’s arm as to not let him fall.

“Hermes, as the god of regret, it is only natural for me to regret many things in my long life. I believe it is only right that I enlighten you on some of the regrets you and your brothers seem to think I feel. I regret having ever called you my brother Hermes, you were weak and didn’t deserve that title. I regret working with you all to imprison the titans, their way of rulings was more correct than your own and I will help the cause of putting them back in power. The only thing I really don’t regret my dear Hermes……is this. Killing you is my atonement for all my regrets, and now I move forward a new man towards a new world. Goodbye Hermes, we shall not meet in the underworld.” As Hades spoke, he softly lowered Hermes to the ground in a lying position, and once he finished he slowly sank into the ground, moving back to his home once again. Cat quickly moved to Hermes’s side, leaving me trying to cope with the pain coursing through my body as the mark reached my shoulder and moved down across my chest. With tears streaming down her face, Cat held Hermes’s head in her arms as he tried to speak once more.

“Catarsus……warn gods of Hades……Gaia will destroy all………run with the wind.” With these last words, Hermes weakly kicked off his winged shoes, the icon that Hermes had become known for, before pushing them towards her. With this final act, Hermes closed his eyes and breathed in one last breath, before moving on from this world. Cat couldn’t stop crying over the loss of her uncle, oblivious of the problem beginning to arise on Lukos. My torso was mainly covered by branches from the mark at this point and I can’t even think straight anymore. Nothing matters to me anymore except getting rid of this pain. My eyes fell upon Cat by chance and watched as she cried and screamed over the dead man’s body, and I felt the pain start to lessen. My body was starting to go numb as I watched her cry, and then I heard a soft whisper seem to go through both ears at once.

“I can make her stop crying you know, I can heal her of all her wounds. All you need to do is release the power inside you, release the powers and release my son, do that and I will mend her wounds.” The whisper alone meant nothing until I heard it say it would heal her wounds, that was all that mattered me. With my mind clear of my body’s pain, I willed myself to drop down from Lukos, much to his disdain as he growled at me and stood between myself and Cat. Why he did that, I do not know as I finally couldn’t feel the pain. I simply needed to move over to Cat and I could help her, it was all I needed to do. Slowly I started walking past Lukos, who continued to growl but did nothing else to attempt to stop me. As I moved closer, Cat turned to look at me and I felt a small amount of happiness ripple across my numb body as I knew I was going to help her smile again, but this wasn’t what Cat saw.

What Cat saw before her was my body covered entirely with the branches from the mark save for my face and my eyes were glazed over with a yellow glow. My legs didn’t move as I moved closer, seemingly hovering over the ground as I was carried towards Herme’s body. My body seemed lifeless in itself as I arms seemed to dangle when I reached his body. The feint glowing around me started to die down as I was lowered to the ground on my knees next to Hermes’s torso. My left arm is brought up over the dagger still wedged inside Hermes’s chest and, without moving, the sword is suddenly pulled out of him. Levitating above his body, the dagger held motionlessly for a few moment before being cast aside, and without it in the way, my hand dropped down on to gash the dagger had left. Once my hand touches Herme’s blood soaked shirt, my body glows a bright yellow and my voice can be heard in a deep scream of pain as the marking completely cover my face and then rush down from my body into my hand. Once they all build on my hand, it is pushed in to Hermes body, leaving only the original sign behind. Once the markings leave my body, all of my energy seems to be drained as I fall to the ground beside Cat motionless. The markings that were left my body rush through the gash in Hermes’s chest, leaving a feint glow around the wound as they start to mend things hurt from the stabbing, but as they finish they go down into the ground instead of back out of the wound. Once finished leaving his body, the feint glow dies down and a sudden intake of breath can be heard from myself and Hermes simultaneously. Cat is left speechless having watched Hermes be brought back from the dead as he sat up breathing quick breaths, looking around in confusion.

“Catarsus what happened? I……I should be dead.” Cat was beside herself as she now sat with my head within her hands, a steady stream of tears of joy coming down her face.

“It was Justin Hermes, he saved your life. I don’t know how he did it, but he did.” Hermes eyes opened wide as he noticed the feint glow on the sign of Gaia on my left hand.

“No….Catarsus please tell me he didn’t use the sign of Gaia.” Cat looked up slightly confused, but could only nod slightly in response. Once she responded, Cat was quickly, to her confusion, hoisted up over Hermes’s shoulder before being carried to Lukos’s back, leaving myself and Hermes’s winged shoes lying on the ground. “We need to leave, quickly or he will kill us all!” Hermes slapped Lukos lightly on the shoulder giving him the sign to leave as Lukos quickly pushed off the mountain side and leapt into the air. Cat looked back in time to watch the mountain start to break apart from the inside as cracks started to form all around my body. Cat thought back once more to what Phtonus had said, “this boy will be the death of you”. The words continued to replay in her head, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t leave him behind with how she felt right now. So with a deep breath, she pushed herself off of Lukos and leapt back down on to the ground, rolling to avoid injury.

“Catarsus don’t!” These were the last words heard as a hand, no bigger than my own, pushed its way out of the earth beside my own body.

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