Love Across Lifetimes

Right when Justin thought he could relax, maybe get some rest, he saw the Minotaur marching across the plains with an army of monsters at his back.

He was garbed in armor with a giant battle axe in his right hand. His horns were long and came to a dangerous point.

To his back, there was dracanae, telekhines, and hell hounds. A formidable force against a regular sized army, let alone six teenaged demigods.

He hated waking Rose when she looked so peaceful, but it was time to fight. She woke up immediately and now she is waking the others, and getting everyone ready for a fight.

Justin is tense, but he is ready. He swings Riptide around, bouncing on the balls of his feet, getting loosened up.

His friends come up to him, weapons drawn. Looking nervous, but determined.

Rose looks to Justin. “We need a plan of attack.”

“I already have a plan, attack.” He starts to run, but is immediately grabbed by Rose.

“No! No way Barnacle Brain! They outnumber us 100 to 1! We need tactics!”

“Fine! Anyone have any bright ideas?”

Gabe says, “Actually, I do. I packed a few Greek Fire Grenades before we left. Also, Grace could maybe cause some rock spires to shoot up. Cause some damage from afar. Plus we can use the few arrows that we have to thin out some of them.”

“Sounds great, let’s do it,” Rose says. “I don’t want to go hand to hand with that many monsters unless we have to.”

Justin shakes his head, he wants to go now, but he knows Rose is right. He reluctantly gives in and grabs a grenade and prepares to throw it.

Justin and Ally prepare to throw the grenades while Gabe and Grace prepare to do their thing.

“Rose, tell us when to throw, Charley, you direct where they land using air currents.”

“Incoming!” Rose yells as she and Charley dive out of the way of a large rock. It just misses them.

“Fire!” she yells.

Ally, Gabe and Justin release their ordinance. They all find their targets. Meanwhile Grace is having rock spires shoot up, impaling monsters.

The small group keeps up the assault for a while, but quickly run out of Greek fire. That’s when the monsters start throwing boulders again.

They don’t ever find home, but they get close. Justin and his friends have many small cuts from debris. Soon the monsters will be on him.

Justin turns around to look for something to use to help when he hears Rose yell at him. “Justin, look out!”

Then he is shoved to the side, just as a large rock lands where he was standing, shattering into a million pieces.

He stands up and he turns around to see Rose lying on the ground, bleeding from her head. His heart drops to his stomach.

Immediately, he rushes to her and feels for a pulse. He feels a weak one. She’s alive! “Ally! Get nectar and give it to Rose! NOW!”

He sounds harsh, but he doesn’t care.

He picks Rose up to move her to safety. Setting her down gently behind a boulder, he kisses her forehead. “Thank you Ro.” He stands up and meets eyes with Ally.

“Watch her, I got this.”

“Okay…” she looks terrified.

“No one touches her, got it?”

“Sure, you’ve got it Justin.”

He walks away, feeling the anger build up inside of him. He walks past the other three right out into the field. The monster army is getting nearer by the second, but Justin doesn’t care.

He has never felt this angry before.

Charley calls after him. “Justin, what are you doing? You can’t go out there alone!”

Justin turns around to face Charley. His gaze must have been really harsh because Charley shrinks away, “Never mind bro, good luck. If you need anything, let me know.”


Justin turns back toward the monster army. He starts to let his rage come up from deep within. All the anger that he felt inside him. Anger toward Hades for showing him Rose getting hurt, getting taken away. Any time that someone made fun of him, or put him down. Then toward the monsters for actually hurting Rose. Every bit of anger starts boiling to the surface. Now is the perfect time to let it out.

He feels a yell wanting to come out, he figures, might as well let it out, maybe it will scare some of them.

He doesn’t really remember the yell all that much, but his friends described it to him as bone chilling.

All he remembers is that when he started to yell, everything around him started to shake. Just a little bit at first, then everything started shaking like crazy. Rocks are falling from the ceiling, the spires that Grace made are crumbling like sand, and giant chasms open up everywhere.

I’m causing an earthquake. He can’t believe it, he is actually causing an earthquake. The chasms widen, throwing most of the monster army back to the depths of Tartarus. The Minotaur though, he stands his ground. He starts to charge, roaring loudly.

“Oh, you still want some? Good! Bring it on Burger Boy!”

Justin starts running at the Minotaur, Riptide drawn and ready for blood. They meet a short distance later, Justin just dodging a swing of the giant axe. I need to make sure that doesn’t catch me, one hit from that I’m done for.

He keeps dodging the axe, ducking down, jumping over as it swings. He realizes that the earthquake is still going on. He can use this to his advantage. He starts walking backwards towards one of the chasms that is still open, making his opponent think that he is getting tired.

Justin keeps falling back, one step at a time. When his foot finds the end of the cliff, he stops. He waits for his opponent’s next attack, when he swings, Justin dives between his legs and grabs the monster’s legs causing it to lose balance and fall forward. As he falls to his knees at the cliff edge, Justin stabs with Riptide, right between the monster’s shoulders and his blade sinks deep.

When he pulls Riptide out, the bull hasn’t disintegrated, but he is very weak. Justin places his foot right on the spot he stabbed and pushes with all his strength, sending the Minotaur falling down to the pit.

Justin turns around, expecting to see the rest of the monster army, but only sees his five friends. Rose is leaning on Ally. Her arm around Ally’s shoulders, looking weak, but she is alive. He immediately runs up to her and wraps her in a tight hug.

“What the hell were you thinking Rose? Why would you do that?”

“I’d do anything for you Barnacle Brain,” she says with a small chuckle. “How did you do that? Creating an Earthquake? You probably caused a lot of damage on the surface with that.”

“I was just so mad, and scared. I just let it all out.”

Ally came up to him, she still looks scared, she said, “I have never seen you look so scary before. I’ve seen you mad, but you looked terrifying.”

Charley came up to him, shaking his head and chuckling, “Yeah man, I mean, you looked so pissed off that you probably would have freaked Ares out.”

He can’t believe what he is hearing, he scared his friends. Not like a joking, “Ha ha, got you!” way, but an actual, “You’re a monster,” kind of way. He lowers his head, looking straight at his shoes. What if I am a monster? What if I am too dangerous? Then he feels a hand rest on his shoulder. A soft, gentle touch, one of compassion and love. He looks up to see the owner of the hand, and it’s Rose.

She is giving him a look, not of hate, but of love, understanding, and worry. “What’s wrong?”

Justin can’t believe it, she isn’t scared of him. She actually wants to get closer to him. But how can that be? She should be repulsed by him, he is too destructive, too dangerous. But the look in her eyes shows no signs of fear.

“Guys, can you give us a minute?” she asks the rest of the group.

“Yeah, sure Rose, no problem,” Grace says. She and the rest of their friends head back to where they camped to gather their things and scrounge any supplies they can from the battle.

When they are out of ear shot she asks him, “Justin, what’s wrong? You can tell me.”

“What if I’m too dangerous for everyone? Look at all the damage I did here, what if I lose control like this on the surface?”

She puts a hand on the side of his face, “You could never do something like this in a harming way. You are too kind, you always think about the wellbeing of others before yourself. This is just another power that you will have to control, I know you can master it.” She smiles at him, “Besides, if you tried to do this to harm innocent people, I’d kick your butt before you’d succeed.”

He gives a soft smile, trying to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. “I was just so afraid that I’d lost you. Seeing you lay there on the ground, bleeding and unconscious… It’s something that I never want to see ever again. I was ready to tear down the thrones of the Gods to get you back.”

Tears are starting to run down his face now. He wipes them away, he doesn’t want to look weak to Rose. He wants to be strong for her. When all of a sudden, his face is lifted up and her lips are pressed against his. He feels a warm liquid running down his cheeks, but they aren’t his tears. Why is Rose crying?

The thought quickly leaves his mind though, he starts kissing her back, and it feels so right. It is almost as if they were made for each other. When the kiss breaks, he looks into her stormy gray eyes. He wipes the tears that are falling from them.

He wants to say something to her, but his brain seems to have lost all the words during the kiss.

“I’m sorry that I scared you, I only pushed you out of the way because I knew that rock would kill you, and I- I couldn’t take the thought of you dying, I was scared that you would get hurt. It killed me watching Hades torture you, and I don’t ever want to see you hurt ever again.”

Tears are rolling down her face still, faster than before. Justin starts to understand a little better now. The feelings that he has had for Rose for a long time, the ones that are more than just friendship, she has them too. She feels for him, the same way he feels for her.

He cups her face, and pulls her toward him until their foreheads are touching, “Ro, if you promise me to not do anything to get yourself hurt, I will promise you that I won’t do anything to get myself hurt, deal?”

She smiles at him, “Deal.”

They just sit there for a minute being in each other’s company. Justin feels like he has a purpose to fight now. Not just to save the world, but something personal. He will always fight for his friends, but now, he has Rose. Someone who is special to him, and someone that feels the same way for him.

After they calm down, they head back to their friends. Everything is packed up and the group looks tired and dirty. “So, shall we continue on toward the palace?”

Rose nods her head and says, “Yeah, but I need to tell you some information that I learned from the dream I had before the attack. We don’t have much time so I will explain on the way.”

Notes