Protector no more

Jericho rubbed his temples in frustration as he found himself coming to the stern of the Liontamer for what seemed to be the hundredth time in the past two hours. 'Raven, Jazz,' he thought as he leaned over the stern railing to stare out into the darkness of the sea, illuminated only by the full moon overhead and the twinkling of the stars. 'You two b******s owe me, big time.' As per the agreement, Jericho was stuck watching over the boys while Raven and Jasper spent some actual quality time with their spouses, and man, was he beat. It wasn't like he was totally aggravated; he liked the boys well enough to see them as 'nephews' of some sort, but they seemed to be running on super strength energizer batteries with the sheer amount of energy they had.

As Jericho caught a breath from dealing with the youths, he happened to spot another, larger ship about a mile in the distance. At first, Jericho paid the vessel no mind, knowing that Lindos was a port that enjoyed a fair amount of the same traffic as Rhodes, but after a moment of staring at it, Jericho noticed something off. 'That's not right,' he thought, cocking his head to the side in confusion at the vessel. 'Any sailor worth his salt knows how important it is to keep at least a light on.'

The ship was completely dark, nothing like a cruise ship off shores, or like any other ship...unless it was military. With that fact in mind, Jericho squinted his eyes, subconsciously using his ki to enhance his already stellar eyesight. 'Oh boy,' the Canis thought as he got a good look at the ship, which looked like one of the older U.S. dreadnoughts: definitely a military ship. If that wasn't enough to raise Jericho's alarm, the large, multicolored flag with the white cross flying off the bow of said ship was. Jericho knew that banner anywhere; it was the regimental flag of the Swiss Guard, which never meant anything good flying off of a warship that was historically known to boast a considerable amount of firepower.

'We got company,' Jericho thought, hastily pushing himself off the railing as he could feel the adrenaline start to rush through his veins. "Rome, Taj, Q!" Jericho yelled. "Get this ship cleaned up; we're going back to port." Jericho felt a little bad that he was about to crash the Edge patriarchs' quality time, but he knew that as an Exemplar, Raven would want to know of this as soon as possible. 'The times when you need to have your phone turned on.'

***

Nestor finally made it down the long flight of metal steps, which in actuality turned out to be a staircase of over 100, to emerge in a large, stone room that seemed to be hewn out of the bedrock itself. And by large, the room rivaled the size of a high school gymnasium. Before the Roman empire ever experienced any influence on the world, Rhodes was where some of the world's strongest Sovrumano warriors trained, right here in this sanctuary, hidden to the world as they honed their more secretive skills. For this reason, this sanctuary was never recorded in any sort of blueprint or book: perfect as a place to hide Soulbreaker from the likes of Ut Puri.

At the far end of the room, there lied a massive block of lustrously gleaming metal, nearly double the height of Nestor himself, even though the top of said block was still a good fifteen feet from the ceiling. Looking at the block with a gaze of trepidation, Nestor took a shaky breath as he grasped a hold on his ki. 'It is time,' he thought as he took a straight walk to the block, stopping once he reached it to place his hands on its cool surface. 'Unseal!' he commanded in his mind as he forced his ki into the metal, preparing to introduce Soulbreaker to the light of day for the first time in over two millennia.

***

Nestor's ki usage was too potent to be hidden, even deep in the confines of the acropolis' hidden sanctuary due to the sheer amount needed to unseal a twenty foot block of pure adamantium, so it was easily picked up on by the two Swiss Guardians. Hezekiah cocked an eyebrow as he felt the substantial strength of Nestor, looking towards the lone access with a look of mild respect. "Old man's got some strength."

Julian scoffed as he wiped some stray blood off of his cheek. The dozen Sovrumano that had attempted to stand guard for Nestor had stood no chance against the Daeva manslayer. Whereas Jasper had earlier struck out of self defense with a great deal of restraint, Julian spared no mercy on the helpless warriors. There were chunks of body parts strewn around the dark manslayer, eviscerated without remorse from the Daeva, who too was stained with their blood, splotched on his clothes as if someone decided to use him as a paintball target.

"He still wouldn't pose a threat," Julian said with a pleased smirk. "Look at how his so-called defenders fared."

Hezekiah smiled at Julian's confidence as he made his way towards the staircase. "At least he had the heart to face the Nycest, ever," Hezekiah said jokingly, knowing that it would mess with Julian's mind. He could literally feel the glare Julian was shooting him from behind, but he paid him no heed; Julian would be the first one to back off from Hezekiah if push truly came to shove. "Stop that with your eyes," Hezekiah said as he stepped into the entryway. "And come on. You might just get your chance to prove yourself towards that old monkey."

Julian watched Hezekiah disappear with a steeled look, kicking the partially mutilated cadaver that was at his feet to stem his annoyance. 'Prove myself?' Julian questioned as he made his way to follow after his superior. 'I'll do much more than that. Just wait and see.'  With similar thoughts of mayhem in his mind, the manslayer disappeared into the entryway, preparing himself to add yet another victim to his record.

***

The dinner at Mavrikos proved to be well worth the time and money, as the four Edge adults found themselves sitting back and relaxing, turned towards the small stage that was inside the restaurant, where a local band played the popular Entehkno genre of the Greek islands. It was an upbeat style of music, yet soothing all the same, radiating its island origins skillfully through its tones. "For what its worth, this was nice," Sharon said, laying against Raven's chest as she listened to the band in a half sleeping relaxed daze.

"Am I forgiven now baby?" Raven asked, smiling as he stroked his wife's head.

"Sure," Sharon said with a content smile. "How about you Shonda?" Sharon asked, twisting to look at LaShonda and Jasper, who were in similar positions as her and Raven. "You think this was enough to let Jazzo off the hook?"

"Not my style of music," LaShonda said with a look that masked her emotions, watching her companions as they all shot her looks of disbelief. "Fine!" she half yelled, finally showing her true amusement before giving Jasper a peck on the cheek. "I forgive you Jazz. Just next time we go out like this, please, can you find somewhere that plays some hip hop?"

The four adults shared a laugh at that, all of them knowing that LaShonda and the rock genre of any kind didn't suit her tasted. "So," Jasper said after the laughing died down. "What are the plans after we take care of everything tonight Rave?"

"Really?" Raven asked, feeling all eyes turn on him as he shot a half mocking glare at his brother. "You're going to put me on the spot like this?" Raven and Jasper, on the way back from the acropolis earlier, had a short, yet vital heart to heart as brothers. The biggest subject that had come up was Raven's plans for the future: Jasper was in a state of 'retirement', having an extremely large sum of money in the bank that he and his family lived off of, so he actually got to spend ample quality time with his own.

Obviously, that wasn't the case with Raven, being a man of multiple important titles. Whereas Sharon and the rest of their family supported Raven's ambitions, Jasper had pretty much laid it bare for the Exemplar that something had to give. 'The needs of the many are more important than the needs of the few, but please don't forget about you' is how Jasper had put it. Raven had been thinking about his brother's words since then, and it seemed that the man had finally called him out for an answer.

Seeing that the three other adults were waiting on an response from himself, Raven cleared his throat to address the question. "I have a promise to keep as an Exemplar," Raven said, carefully choosing his words lest he mess this pleasant evening up. "But, I don't plan to call this vacation over." The brothers shared a smirk noticed only by each other as they saw the looks of excitement on their wives' faces. "Yeah, vacation," Raven said with a nod. "After I clear up my end of the deal, we can take a cruise of the Mediterranean with Jericho and the kids, then go back to the states in the next two weeks so the kids can make their first day of school."

"I like that idea," Sharon said as she nuzzled deeper into Raven's chest. "No jobs, no missions, no worries."

Jasper and LaShonda smirked at the scene, both of them taking pleasure in seeing their shared brother/sister in laws happy and content. "Come to team Nyce," LaShonda said with a wink at Sharon. "You'll find out how good it is to have your man with you all the time."

"Well sometimes he does need to give me space," Sharon said with a lighthearted chuckle. "But I can live with not having to worry about my stronger half."

"And I with my better half," Raven said whilst wrapping Sharon in a one armed hug.

Their good mood only lasted for a few more moments before Jericho suddenly burst through the entrance, wearing a look that screamed 'problems'. "Raven!" Jericho yelled with a great amount of concern in his voice. "Jasper!"

'Of all times,' Raven lamented as he turned, trying to ignore both Sharon's annoyed glance at Jericho and the headache that was already cresting. "What?" Raven asked in a voice that equally said 'this had better be good'.

"We got a problem," Jericho said, not a shred of question in his tone. "Now."

The Draco brothers shared a look before getting up from their seats, making a beeline for the door with their wives' at their heels. Once they got outside, Raven grabbed Jericho by the shoulder and spun him to face him, not pleased in the least with the disturbance. "Jericho this had better be worth my time."

"Where's the kids?" LaShonda asked, a second before being scared out of her mind when the three boys collectively jumped off the roof, landing in front of her and Jasper. "Nevermind."

"It is Dad," Roman said, he and the other boys wearing a similar look as Jericho. This rung alarm bells in the parents' minds; Quinton, Taji, and especially Roman were never this serious about anything. Add that to the no-nonsense look on the face of the older Canis, and the elder Draco knew something big was up.

"Uncle Jericho said he saw a Swiss flag on a battleship," Quinton said, which had the effect of Raven and Jasper's attitudes immediately switching to a battle mentality. "A Swiss Guard flag."

Jasper and Raven shot each other a knowing look: whatever Ut Puri had in store for Rhodes, they were assuming their positions as they spoke. "A battleship with the flag of the Swiss Guard, coincidentally near Lindos?" Jasper asked with suspicion thick in his tone. "I'm not liking this coincidence."

"I don't like em' at all," Raven said in agreement, the two brothers sharing the same thoughts.

"Soulbreaker!" they both yelled, a mere second before a large explosion was heard. The two brothers looked to the skyline in the direction of the acropolis, where they watched in horror as a large mushroom cloud of fire seemed to erupt from the ancient grounds. "Ut Puri!" As they yelled out, the group seemed to be swarmed by a sea of red, yellow, black and blue as they were quickly surrounded by a large troop of Ut Puri corpsmen, all armed to the teeth with both melee and ranged weapons.

"Stand down Exemplar!" one of the corpsmen yelled, bravado clear in his voice as he aimed his rifle at Raven, who only stared at him with an impassive look. Seeing that his threat wasn't having much of an effect, he made a show of cocking the weapon. "On the ground! All of you, now!"

'Seems like they had this planned,' Raven thought as he took a quick count of the Ut Puri contingent. 'Only a hundred?' he thought, feeling mildly insulted at the low numbers that expected to capture he and Jasper. Even by themselves, a mere hundred corpsmen were little more than an annoyance, but they also had the likes of Jericho Irvine in their group, not to mention three rambunctious Draco kids who had an itch to scratch in terms of actual combat. "And what, do you expect to do with that?" Raven asked, obviously questioning the corpsmen's mental competence.

Really, did the guy realize who he was holding at gunpoint?

"You might not want to find out Exemplar," the corpsmen said in an unconvincing tone. Apparently he knew who Raven was, as the corpsmen was doing all he could to not shake in terror from Raven's presence. Even still, he, as well as the rest of the contingent, were failing in that effort as the Sovrumano in the group could see their fear in their stances.

"Ok then," Raven said with a humored grin, reeking of mischief. "Your funeral. Jericho!"

Jericho smirked before taking a staggering leap into the air, uncaring of the salvo of bullets that quickly followed. The Canis ship captain spun like a top as he tossed a slew of brown seeds around the rival squadron, where they glowed before exploding with green foliage, vines, small bushes, and trees alike. While Jericho manipulated his plants as a distraction, Raven and Jasper fazed out of sight as bodies started to fall. All while this was going on, the boys took to a triangle formation around their mothers, displaying a bit of their training as they moved to defend them.

It took only a matter of seconds for Raven and Jasper to deal with the contingent, only reappearing when the last Ut Puri corpsman hit the pavement with a thud, knocked unconscious by a shot to the bank of the neck from Raven. The Exemplar gave the defeated troop an impassive look as he gazed at the three Sovrumano's work with a set of fiercely glowing eyes. "Get them back to the ship Jericho," Raven said, his and Jasper's gaze trained solely on the acropolis in the distance. "This is too organized to be a one off occurrence."

"Raven!" Sharon yelled, forcing her way past Roman and Taji to run up to her husband. This wasn't the first time she had seen him deal with Ut Puri agents, but this had been a first in a very long time, hence the look of trepidation on her face as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Be careful." She made sure to give him a kiss on the lips; such was the tradition between them whenever he had a mission to complete. 

"Aren't I always?" Raven asked, returning the gesture of affection before turning his head to talk to the boys. "And you three," he said with complete seriousness. "Listen to Jericho; think of him as your commander on a mission or something."

"Gotcha Unc!" Taji said with a thumbs up.

"Yeah," Roman said with a matching gesture, his face radiating confidence. "Those guys won't know what hit em'!"

"I hope so," Jasper said with a grin, yet serious all the same. "Watch my baby for me Jericho." Jasper gave his wife a quick kiss before giving a nod to Raven. The two brothers bumped fists before darting off, literal blurs to the group left behind.

"Alright!" Jericho announced, seeing that at least for the moment they were safe and un-pursued. "Back to the ship! We'll go a few miles offshore and try to wait this one out in the background."

That idea didn't sound right to either woman, with LaShonda being the one to voice her displeasure. "Oh no," she said with a shake of her head. "What about my husband?"

Jericho sighed; he really wanted to get moving, and every second spent talking was a second wasted in his opinion. "They'll get in touch when they need to," Jericho said, sure in his words. "That's how those two have always operated since childhood." Jericho's stance softened a bit once he saw the looks of genuine worry on the women's faces, but he still had a job to do. "Don't worry," he said in a calmer tone. "It'll be a cold day in hell before Ut Puri can do anything worth mentioning to those two. Let's roll!" 

The women took one last gaze at the direction their husbands darted off in, noting the flames shooting from the acropolis, and knowing that somehow, that was their destination. 'Be safe Raven, Jasper,' Sharon thought as they finally turned to follow Jericho and the boys. They would listen to their husbands; as Jericho had said, it would take an act of the divine to beat an in sync Raven and Jasper.

***

Nestor's whole body shook as he fell to his knees. The exertion of unsealing Soulbreaker from his handmade adamantium seal was almost too much for his old and sick body to take, but he had done it. Laying on a stone pedestal that seemed to have a mold of itself embedded in the two giant slabs of adamantium that now rested a foot away from its edges was an intricately decorated longbow. The bow looked to be made of pure gold, with different stylized grooves engraved in its frame. There were seven diamonds inlaid in the frame; two at the ends where the string was fitted, one in the middle, and the other four spaced evenly throughout. The string itself looked to be made of silvery substance, and just from its looks, hadn't lost any of its tautness in its captivity. This was the legendary Soulbreaker, one of the relics of the primordial Scions, and the instrument of death that had ended the life of Achilles himself.

A slow, mocking clap pulled Nestor's attention, with the older Simia warrior instantly standing up and turning around. "You!" he yelled, his gaze hardening the second his eyes met the purple ones of Julian's. "What happened to the others?" he demanded, taking up a defensive stance. "How did you get down here?"

Julian let an evil grin slip across his face as his eyes widened, actively generating his ki judging by his own eyes glowing a deep purple. "They're dead!" Julian yelled with a sick sense of amusement. "And in a matter of moments, so will you!" The Daeva manslayer didn't waste another second as he charged at Nestor with murderous intentions, a sinister smile on his face as he struck.

'This isn't good,' Nestor thought as he narrowly avoided a punch from Julian. He felt his chest tighten with discomfort as he tried to take a breath; that was the last thing he needed to happen right now. 'Raven!' Nestor thought with desperation clear in his eyes as he made an effort to defend against Julian. 'Rhodes needs you, now!'

***

A blaze of fire illuminated the night as Jasper fired a raging breath of ki at yet another contingent of corpsmen that seemed to be adamant in halting the brother's advance to the acropolis. The few corpsmen that weren't immediately roasted alive by the breath of fire were swiftly taken care of by Raven, who had foregone using any outward ki projection in favor of his wicked speed, easily incapacitating the contingent of mostly human corpsmen before they were able to detect him. After dealing with this group, the two Draco took a breather to analyze their surroundings.

"Just like old times?" Jasper asked with a lighthearted smirk as he wiped his brow, more for the habitual motion than his tiredness.

"Feels like China again," Raven answered with a smirk before gazing back to the acropolis. The plumes of fire had since stopped, but Raven was getting worried due to the two ki signals he had been feeling. "Nestor's in trouble Jazzo," Raven said with a pointed look at the distant acropolis. "Julian decided to show himself at last."

"Hmm," Jasper said, humming as he thought about the famed mass murderer. "He might have been one of our watchers," he said, thinking about how Nestor's acquaintances had first been drawn to their spar. "If he was it makes sense; Julian's the type of guy to kick a man when he's down."

"Well," Raven said, preparing to dart off once again. "I feel like kicking that shadow freak around some; seems every Edge besides me has had a chance to stretch their legs so to speak."

"Let's roll then," Jasper said nonchalantly, nodding his head towards the acropolis. With a nod of agreement, the two Draco disappeared once again, this time with fighting intentions as they continued to keep tabs on the two warring ki signals.

***

"Can't this thing go any faster!?" Saraya yelled over the sounds of the crashing waves to the apparent displeasure of one Ricardo. It took Saraya actually leaving the Alexandrian church and looking out at the Mediterranean sea to realise that she wasn't making it to the island without some sort of transportation. There were no flights going to the island, and the one flight that was going to Athens from Alexandria didn't leave until the next day. The savior of the day for this conundrum was Ricardo, a proud owner of a speedboat that he had personally modified to face the open waters of the sea.

"It's going faster than it's supposed to!" Ricardo yelled over the waves. The speedboat itself was souped up, boasting 675 horsepower and eight tanks of Nos, but in their haste to make it to Rhodes to warn Raven of Ut Puri's plans, Ricardo had been steadily using his Avis ki manipulation to severely lessen the effect of gravity on the boat, which stepped up their speed to the point where they had no choice but to sit unless they wanted to take a quick swim. "We'll be there in the next hour Exemplar!"

'Alright,' Saraya thought as a dark feeling rested in the depths of her soul. She hated that feeling with a passion; in her experience, that feeling was always the precursor to something horrible happening. 'Please Raven, Jasper' she thought, a little mad at herself for not being ablt to communicate with them telepathically, something that her father would have done without a second thought due to his power. 'Be careful.'

***

Nestor's body crashed against the wall with a sickening thud, with the man sliding down to the floor in a pained heap. 'This is ridiculous,' Nestor thought, wishing that he was ten years younger so he could actually give Julian a better fight. Nestor could admit one thing: Julian's moniker as a manslayer was aptly fitted for him. The Daeva was relentless in his attacks from the start, giving the older warrior no room to breath, and barely a second to muster a defense. That was just his physical skill: Julian had been assaulting Nestor with a combined physical and ki assault. Fighting him one on one was hard enough without having to worry about twenty or so shadow tendrils trying to impale you from all angles.

"Are you done resisting now?" Julian asked with an impassive look, hands crossed over his chest as a cluster of shadow tendrils, looking like large arms and hands, waved menacingly behind him. "I don't have all day you know." That was a fact; Hezekiah had already picked up on Raven and Jasper's fast approach, and he was doing everything he could to stall them, even if that meant sending the bulk of his forces at them as cannon fodder.

Nestor flashed Julian a steel glare as he rose to his feet. He was hurt; bruised battered and broken, but he wasn't dead yet. "As long as I have breath in my body," Nestor spat, giving Julian the fierce stare of a resolute warrior even with his injuries. "You will not take Soulbreaker from this chamber."

Julian smirked at Nestor, knowing that the man was on his last legs, while he was still relatively fine. "You talk as though you can stop me."

Nestor chuckled as he forcefully slapped his hands together, using what was left of his ki to form the large chunks of adamantium that had sealed Soulbreaker into a variety of bladed weapons. Swords, spears, maces, daggers, even senbon: Nestor knew that this was to be an all or nothing shot, and he wanted to hit the bullseye. "You kids need to learn your place!" Nestor yelled as his eyes shone brightly. "Telikí̱ ýpsi̱ baráz lepída!" he yelled in his native tongue, sending tens of thousands of knives flying at the Daeva manslayer with no remorse.

The attack was definitely a damager...except that Nestor's opponent had the ability to jump into a shadow and move with it. "I tire of your futility!" Julian yelled, sinking into one of the shadows cast off the sea of blades. Nestor realized this a second too late, eyes widening in shock as he desperately tried to call the weapons towards him to defend. "Die!"

One strike from the shadow covered hand of Julian later, and Nestor found himself staring at said hand, impaled through his chest. Nestor started choking on his own blood as he felt his body go numb with cold, his expression of surprise etched on his face as Julian pulled his hand back before unmercifully kicking the man to the ground. Julian smirked as he saw the airborne weapons shake before clattering to the ground, useless. "You wont get away from here alive!" Nestor said in between violent coughs, seemingly content with the fact that death was only seconds away.

"Oh, but I will," Julian said with a malicious smirk before summoning his ki yet again, engulfing his right hand in his trusty blade of shadows. "Too bad you won't get to see it!" With the last word, Julian sliced at Nestor's neck, decapitating him with the ease in which a person would slice freshly baked bread. the manslayer held an impassive look as he grabbed Nestor's skull by the little amount of gray hair that was on his head to raise it to eye level, literally looking into Nestor's visage of death. "Pathetic," he said before spitting in the face of the dead man and tossing the skull away carelessly.

And so, Nestor, the last Protector of Rhodes, had finally met his end. His killer? Julian Draven, Ut Puri's Daeva manslayer.