The Ambassador of Athena

Great, here we go. Never trust a vision you see while you are drooling in your pillow.
The tuxedo guy definitely startled us all, so we were way too late before we got our weapons ready. From the entrance to the chamber centaurs flooded the room, but not nice and friendly ones like Chiron, these here wore animal skins, leather straps and bones all over their bodies. But the most remarkable things about them were the horns sprouting from their foreheads. They quickly surrounded us and pointed their various weapons at us.
“You really thought we didn’t know you were eavesdropping in your dreams?” The tux-guy snarled “We are still capable of figuring out when someone is listening to us. Stheno has a really good sense for that.”

A rope ladder was thrown down to us and he started climbing it down. The two gorgons unfolded their wings and circled around the ladder downwards. It looked strange, like a mobile.
“We knew some foolish demigods were after us, one of them with the gift of Morpheus.” he continued and walked over to us. “And due to the fact that only a demigod can open this chamber, which I am not, I decided to lure you here and open it for us.”
He leaned against the statue and smirked.
“What are you talking about? And who are you?” I asked carefully. I slowly moved my hand towards my vembraces, waiting for the right moment. I saw that Jessy laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, unnoticed by our guards.
The tuxedo guy just laughed.
“Oh, I am a former Commander under Gaias command; she saved me from the fields of punishment, so I owed her a lot. Even after her defeat I fought on. I went undercover, hid with the help of a… mighty friend. It has always been her backup plan to destroy this statue, but she hadn’t had the chance to execute it. So here I am now, executing her plan so she is not disturbed when she’s rising the next time.”
I shook my head.
“But you don’t know when she is rising again!”
He laughed hysterically.
“I really don’t know when she will rise again. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 100, or even 1000? I don’t care, when the gods can’t interfere she will rise, and I will get my kingdom.”
“You are crazy, a crazy, old man.” Jessy yelled.
The man’s eyes pierced Jessy. They looked white now, with no black in it.
“You have no idea who you are talking to, young hero.” He spit out the word hero as if it tasted like garbage.
And now comes the part when everything went wrong, as always, this time in form of Jessy snapping.

He just kicked his centaur guard with his elbow in the face and drew his sword. Of course he had no chance against 20 centaurs in the room.
A huge centaur with a brown body and impressive ram horns just clubbed him down, and concerning his previous injuries I have to admit I felt sorry for him.
Johanna and I screamed while the bad centaurs calmly managed the new situation. Two hurled Jessy up, blood colouring his hair, and the rest of us got an extra guard. The rest of the centaurs started to tie ropes around the statue, careful not to touch it. I looked over to Johanna to see how she is doing. Except she was dirty, her hair looked like a mess and she had a pretty bad scratch on her cheek she seemed alright.
One of the centaurs guarding her noticed my glance and grinned.
“I’m sorry we scratched your girl.” he snarled, his voice deep like a bear. “I am sure she’ll be better when she marries me.”
The other guard looked offended.
“Excuse me? Come on, Imbreus, as if she’d want to marry someone like you!” he laughed out loud and bounded his fist to his chest.
The other one, Imbreus, let go of Johanna’s arm and drew his sword.
“I am sure I misheard you, Mimas. Could you repeat that for me?”
Mimas drew his sword too and faced Imbreus.
“I am sure about what I’ve said.”
Obviously the tales about Centaurs were true: Hot tempered and not the brightest. But before the two could start smashing each other to pieces the tuxedo guy interrupted them.
“Boys, I am sorry, but I fear these pathetic heroes are part of the… payment to my protector. I want to pay my debts, especially since this… friend is not someone you want to owe anything.”
The centaurs flinched and saluted.
“Of course, father!” they said unisono. The man drew a face. “Yeah, whatever.”
He turned around and looked at the two guards that held Jessy.
“Pull him over to the panel next to the door and press his hand against it.” he told them “It will open the ceiling so we can bring our big friend out of here.”

They did as they were told, and with a creaking the ceiling opened. He pulled out a walkie-talkie and said: “Bring him down.”
From outside the sound of a helicopter could be heard coming closer, until it hovered right over the hole in the ceiling. It was a huge transport helicopter in army colours that also looked like an army model.
“Where did you get that helicopter?” I asked astonished.
The tuxedo guy laughed. “Oh, I always preferred the more human servants, and since humans can never resist money they are easy to lure, especially if you have all the wealth of mother earth.”
More ropes were thrown down from the helicopter and fixed to the statue. After one of the gorgons gave the thumbs-up sign to the pilot it slowly rose and pulled the statue with him.
The other gorgon went over to the tux guy, looking uneasy.
“Master, we probably should leave now. Your… friend is coming, and we should be gone by the time he arrives.”
She looked nervous, as if meeting the mysterious friend wasn’t on her to-do list. The man sighed and signed the centaurs to leave. Our guards dragged us to the place where the statue stood and tied us together, and then they left too.
“We should go too, it’s a long flight east and the Antonov will not wait forever.” The tuxedo guy said to the gorgon still standing next to him. Obviously that was all she waited for, because she unfolded her wings, jumped into the air and flew after the helicopter. The man looked at us for a last time and bowed slightly.
“A pleasure to meet you, I hope you are juicy enough for my friend.”
And with that he walked out of the chamber as if he was a simple tourist without an evil plan to destroy the gods.

“Great” I thought. “robbed at the finish line, following murphy’s law, whatever can go wrong went wrong. Exactly what I ever wanted, dying together with Johanna…”
I stopped thinking at that point. Now it’s easy to say, but that was the moment I realised that, after all those years, after all the troubles I’ve gone through one thing hasn’t changed: I’d still go through hell for her, I’d do everything for her, because I still loved her. I held on to that thought, to the thought that after we are dead we might have time to talk in the underworld. Maybe we’ve done enough to reach Elysium, so we could be reborn and really have a second chance…

I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again the sun blinded me. Johanna was snoring silently and Jessy was still unconscious, so it was my turn to do something.
I tried to get my hands free, but the centaurs knew how to knot knots, so I had no chance. My tries were interrupted when a big shadow fell onto us. I looked up to the edge of the roof, but all I could see against the sun was a big shape. It leaped down to us, and after my eyes readjusted to the dim light in the chamber I saw the last monster I expected:
A car-sized fox.

Notes

I am so sorry it took me so long to type that chapter, but I've spent a month in Minnesota with friends, and since I can only type on a computer I couldn't do that there!
I hope you forgive me and you like the new chapter, more are coming soon ;)