“But the monotheists, how can that be real if you are here?” Aaron asked.

  “You kidding me? So none of your leaders have ever wanted to be the one true King or Emperor, above all else? With a divine right to rule above all others?”

  He was lost for words.

  “I don’t know how many are real. All I know is what I’ve seen and lived,” replied Thanatos.

  Grace reached for her bag and pulled out a tablet. She began frantically flicking through pages as if looking for something important.

  “What is it?”

  “The prophecies, Aaron. If they exist, maybe they are destined to happen?”

  “And you believe in that, in destiny? That we cannot change our fate?”

  She shrugged. “I believe what I can see and what I can prove. The gods falling and the crown being shattered, these things have happened. Maybe we’re merely playing out a story that has already been written.”

  “Na, I refuse to accept that.”

  “So do I. I had choices that led us to this place, and I will not accept that the responsibility was out of my hands,” added Thanatos.

  “Here, this is it, the crowning of Hades.” She flipped the tablet around to show them. There were lines of written text that none of them could understand, but she clearly could.

  “What does it say?” Aaron asked.

  She sighed as she turned it around. “It’s ancient Greek. It basically says exactly what we were discussing, that Hades will be crowned.”

  Aaron and Luca went over to look over her shoulder as she skimmed through several pages until finally she reached an old drawing of the prophecy.

  “There,” she said, pointing to Hades at the center, with his soldiers standing around him, and the crown being lowered onto his head.

  “Wait a second.” Luca rubbed his eyes to get a better look.

  ‘What is it?” Aaron asked as Grace flicked through to other pages.

  “Go back to that, that image.”

  Grace couldn’t understand why, but she obliged, and zoomed in so that it took up the whole screen. Luca was squinting as he carefully studied the image as if something was familiar to him.

  “I…I know this place,” he said as he ran his fingers in front of the screen, following the patterns on the wall behind Hades and his soldiers.

  “What do you mean you know it?” Aaron asked in disbelief.

  “I mean seriously, I’ve been there before. Those lines, that architecture, I know it.”

  “How? How can you know it? This is thousands of years old.”

  “But it’s prophesizing an event happening around us now, isn’t it?” He racked his brain to understand what he was seeing.

  Thanatos said nothing and watched at what was unfolding before his eyes. He was the only one not surprised by what was happening, but he had lived these stories all his life, so it was nothing new to him.

  “No way, I used to play there, a long time ago.”

  “What?”

  “Seriously, Aaron, it’s underground, under the city.”

  “What city?”

  “Our city, man, it’s under Manhattan. That design, I know it. I used to see it. Back about ten years ago or more there were a few ways into the tunnels that we used to go in. We weren’t supposed to, and they got sealed up eventually. Old railway stations, basements, passages, and disused sewage tunnels. All sorts. There’s a whole other city down there that we just shut off years back.”

  Aaron looked dubious.

  “He’s right. The city has been abandoning old cities like that for the last hundred years or more. Just leave them. Seal up access and forget about them. Some of those places can’t even be found on city maps anymore, until some construction or maintenance worker accidently breaches one. Some of the artifacts we have found because of things like that, you wouldn’t believe. The history of our city is down there,” said Grace.

  Aaron still looked doubtful, but he was starting to come around.

  “This is for real? You really know this place? Not somewhere with a passing resemblance, that actual place?”

  Luca took another glance and followed every line of the complex architecture before nodding.

  “I promise you, man, I know this place.”

  “And you could find it again?”

  “I mean, we’d need a way in, but yeah, no problem.”

  Thanatos had crept up and was peering over their shoulders. They hadn’t even noticed.

  “Remarkable. Of all the places I could have manifested after being cast out, and it was right here, on top of it all? Right where this was all due to take place?”

  “You think that was some accident, a coincidence?” Luca asked.

  “When this many things add up, when there is this much of a pattern, it has gone way beyond that,” replied Grace.

  “What are you saying?”

  “That none of this happened by accident, Aaron, the battle at the Met. This many gods in New York, and the crowning to take place beneath our city, this was always going to happen. Nobody could stop it.”

  “But I did this. I sided with Hades, and I took down Zeus with him.”

  “Maybe, or maybe that was always going to happen, and it was only a matter of time. An empire never lasts. You know that, right? No matter how powerful and how impressive they are, they always fall, or have you learned nothing from however many what, thousands of years you have been alive?”

  Thanatos was dumbfounded, and for once it was he who had a lot to take in. He sat back down.

  “If this is all true, can it even be stopped?”

  Ever the realist, Max had taken it in his stride, and was not trying to find a solution.

  “He’s right. Maybe this was always going to happen, and we can do nothing to stop it.” Aaron slumped back and drank his beer. He looked exhausted, physically and mentally.

  “What do you say, Doc? You’re our expert.”

  “Prophecies, they’re just that, Luca. Sometimes their existence is more important than what they are portraying.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “That your reaction to what is going to happen is what matters, Aaron,” replied Max.

  “What?” Luca was confused.

  “Prophecies don’t necessarily have to come true. They can exist to drive or trigger certain responses. The fear or threat of something can create a response,” replied Grace.

  “So it’s a test?”

  “Maybe. Or a chance for good people to do the right thing.”

  That was a lot to think about. Max sighed and passed out another drink, for they all needed it. Thanatos was the only one with a smile on his face as he drank.

  “How can you be enjoying yourself at a time like this?”

  “Aaron, we have a fire, friends, and drink. If these are not times to be enjoyed, what are?”

  Aaron finally smiled in response. He lifted his bottle and clashed it against Thanatos’ beer.

  “Friends, that what we are now?”

  “We have fought for each other’s lives, is that not friendship?”

  “Considering you once called Hades a friend, I’m not sure how to take that.”

  Thanatos smiled as he tried to brush that off.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

  “That location, you really do recognize it?” Thanatos asked Luca.

  “I promise you. I’d never forget it, why?”

  “If that’s true, it changes everything.”

  “How?”

  “We have to stop Hades gathering all of the shards of the crown, but if we know where it will all come together, we’ll have one final shot at stopping him. Just pray we do not need it.”

  “Pray to whom?” Grace asked.

  “Whichever god you think will help you through.”

  Aaron finished his beer and felt his eyes closing once more. He didn’t even have the energy to take off his armor and slumped back into the sofa once more. He was out of it in seconds.

  * * *

  Aaron opened his eyes and found it was daytime once more. He’d been asleep for a long time, and was stiff and sore, but refreshed. He could hear a conversation going on outside, but there was nobody left in the room with him, not even Vulcan, and that made him suspicious. He leapt up and reached for the sword beside him. He went to the widow and pulled the net curtains aside. A group had gathered outside, including Theodosia. He pulled the door open.

  “Ah, he lives,” said Luca.

  Aaron didn’t like the fact he’d slept through whatever was going on, but he was also glad his partner had let him catch the rest, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Vulcan was standing amongst them with bandages about his body. He looked weak, but still alive. Max was opening up a workshop attached to the cabin. The doors swung wide to reveal and old jeep, and beside it a small forge.

  “You use that?” Vulcan’s curiosity was instantly drawn in as he spotted the old anvil and tools.

  “Sure, nothing like hitting some metal to beat out the anger. I make knives, axes, other tools.”

  Vulcan looked impressed, even though it was modest compared to his lifetime of work. Aaron could see a deeply concerned look on Theodosia’s face.

  “What’s up? What’s wrong?”

  “Hades has recovered another shard.”

  “Okay.”

  “There aren’t many left.”

  “They told you about the prophecy, and that we know where the crowning will take place?”

  “Yes, but none of that matters if we don’t have an army capable of defeating him.”

  “We have Vulcan now. We can make the weapons we need,” said Thanatos.

  “Yes, but we don’t have the soldiers to use them. We’ve lost many in the past weeks, and Hades had begun recruiting more fighters. Capable with swords.”

  “What fighters?”

  “Swordsmen from the Black Vipers.”

  “Vipers? Those assholes?” Luca asked.

  “You know them?” Theodosia sounded surprised.

  “Yeah, it’s run by a couple of ex-Yakuza assholes. They’re crazy, but they can fight.”

  “With blades, you’re sure?” Thanatos asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Hades has been doing this all over. Recruiting swordsmen and equipping them with Olympian weapons.”

  “How? How can he have so many?” She looked to Vulcan and waited for him to explain it.

  “When Zeus was about to fall, I gathered as many weapons from my forge as I could, and brought them with me when we were cast out.”

  “What? How?”

  “How doesn’t matter. I needed to make sure those weapons were protected.”

  “And you brought them here with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many?”

  He didn’t reply, but clearly it was a lot.

  “I’m sorry. I tried to protect the blades as best I could, but Hades himself came to my door. I fought for as long as I could, but I could not win.”

  “That’s where your wounds came from?”

  “Hades left me for dead,” he said with disgust.

  “Didn’t do a great job, did he?” Theodosia asked angrily.

  “None of us could have survived that beating,” said Thanatos in his defense.

  “So what now?” Aaron asked.

  “I can make more weapons.”

  “Really? In that state?”

  “Whatever it takes,” he replied.

  “It doesn’t change the fact that we need fighters to use them.”

  “How many?”

  “As many as we can get, Aaron. Do you know where we can find good fighters, trained with a blade?” Theodosia asked scornfully.

  “Yeah…actually, I do,” he replied with a smile.

  She looked doubtful.

  “Aaron, what are you doing?” Luca could see where he was taking this.

  “The outcome of this war is going to affect all of us, isn’t it?”

  Theodosia nodded in agreement.

  “But those are our friends. They aren’t cops, and they ain’t soldiers.”

  “Yeah, and we aren’t soldiers either. We aren’t even cops anymore. This is gonna come to their door, whether they want it or not. Right now we need help, and I know where to find it.”

  “Look, Hades could recover the last shards of the crown in a matter of weeks, maybe even days. We don’t have much time left to stop him,” insisted Theodosia.

  Luca didn’t look happy about it at all, but Aaron knew they were running out of options.

  “You can get these fighters on board?” Thanatos asked.

  “I think so.”

  “All right, then, Vulcan, you have work to do. We all do. Three days, and I’ll come back here, and we will decide how we’re going to make our move. Three days, that’s all.”

  She climbed back into a truck and drove off without another word.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Luca asked sternly.

  “Not really, but I have to trust my friends in this, who else is there?” He pulled out his phone and began a call.

  The call was answered, “Ava?”

  “Aaron? Where have you been? I haven’t been able to reach you for days. I was getting worried. I called the station, and they said you’d taken leave.”

  “It’s a long story. Look, I can’t explain over the phone, but I need help.”

  “What sort of help? Is everything okay?”

  “I need you to call our best fighters in. Anyone who can definitely handle themselves, you hear me?”

  “What’s this about?”

  “I’ll explain everything when I get there. You just call everyone in for six tonight, and have the salle closed. Make sure it’s closed, Ava.”

  “I don’t understand, what is this about?”

  “Just know that it’s urgent, like nothing we’ve done before. You call in our best, the ones you can trust, you hear me?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “Ava,” he interrupted.

  “Yes?”

  “I need you to trust me on this, okay? Have I ever messed you around before?”

  “No, but…”

  “Then no buts. You’ll know everything when we meet later. I need you to do this for me. It’s a big deal, and there’s a lot at stake. Can you do this with no more questions?”

  “Okay, but what am I gonna tell the members? They’ll want to know.”

  “Tell them this is the biggest opportunity of their life, and what they have been training for all this time.”

  She tried to get another word in, but he hung up before she could get it in. Aaron looked even more reserved and concerned than before.

  “Don’t say it,” said Aaron.

  But he was determined to get a word in.

  “You’re going to ask fencers, who practice for sport, to fight in the street. To fight in a war,” he said bitterly.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “And you’re okay with that, Aaron?”

  “Not particularly. But they’re trained for it, and this fight is coming to them soon enough. Hell, if we lose this fight there may not even be another chance, it could all be over without a chance to turn things around.”

  “You think things are that bad?”

  “Yes,” Vulcan said.

  Both of them stopped arguing and turned to face the wounded god.

  “Hades will destroy everything you know and love. You will be lucky to live on as slaves in the world he will create. All of this will be gone. Your freedom, all the things you have built here, maybe even your lives.”

  “Why, why would he want to do that?”

  “Because you mean nothing to him, and he will not suffer a people to live on that doesn’t worship him as their master. He wants that crown to rule like Zeus never did. Absolutely, and with an iron fist.”

  “How can you know that?” Luca asked.

  “Because we have known him all our lives,” added Thanatos.

  Luca sighed as he sat down on the porch of the lodge.

  “This sucks.”

  “Look, we’ve been risking our lives for these people ever since we put on the badge. It’s time other people did the same. If we want to live in a free world, we better be willing to fight for it.”

  “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, Aaron.”

  “So do I.”

  “You can take the jeep.” Max reached into his pocket for the keys and tossed them to Aaron.

  “You won’t be needing it?”

  “We’ve got work to do, and I’ve got more wheels if we need them. My garage is just down the road.” He pointed to a path leading behind the cabin.

  “Of course you have, probably got a tank down there, too,” said Aaron with a smile.

  “I used to,” he replied with a straight face.

  Aaron laughed, knowing it was true.

  “We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Vulcan.

  “All right, what can I do?” Max asked, “I can get the forge going, but I don’t have a whole lot of steel.”

  “Yes, you do.” He was looking at the badly beaten up armored vehicle they had arrived in.

  “Ah, no. No, no, no,” he pleaded as Vulcan paced over to it. He opened one of the doors and ripped it from its hinges with ease.

  “This is good steel,” he said as he marveled at the hardened steel.

  “What the hell are you gonna do with that?”

  Max couldn’t believe that he could make use of it, but Vulcan held out his right hand, and his hammer appeared. He held it aloft, and a beam of light shot from the sky. It was as if it had come from the sun and struck the hammer, rocking it in his grasp as though infused with energy, until finally it stopped. The hammer was glowing brightly, and his eyes were lit up as if electrified. He pointed it toward the ground nearby, and in a flash a mighty anvil appeared, beside a forge that was burning bright and seemingly without fuel.

  “What the hell?” Vulcan’s eyes faded back to normal.

  “He is the smithy to the gods. What did you think he was gonna do, bash a few bits of old metal together in your barn over there?” Aaron asked.

  In truth was he was in awe of the scene as much as Max as they watched the God of Fire smash a corner from the armored door into his forge.