A Fire Burns Within Me (completed)

Ashes

Previously:
"I'm so very tired of waiting," a scratchy voice-Sorrow-said now. "When will Elpis and Alke come? It has been so long since we've seen them and this planet is wearing on me."

That is what I was waiting to hear. I trained my sharpened ears harder.

"Yes, me too, Sorrow," Despair said now. "Earth is draining."

Despair did not know how true those words were. I turned to Shadow.

"Come on," I breathed into his ear. "I've heard enough. It's time to return."

"Finally," he said. "Their evil aura is heavy."

"This truly is a beautiful world," Despair said, looking around the over grown forest we'd landed in.

"Shame you came from so far away to destroy it, right?" I said sarcastically, eyeing the being carefully.

Not one to understand sarcasm, Despair shrugged. "Not really," he said then swung his massive sword my way.

Let me back up, these past couple days have been crazy. It all started when I sent Shadow to leave a letter on the front steps of the Throne Room. It said exactly this:

We, the last of the demigods, gods, Titans, immortals and mortals, declare war on you, Despair and Sorrow. For the right and ownership of the planet called, Earth. Surrender or be destroyed, you foul pieces of space waste.

"Don't you think that letter was a little mean?" Shadow asked as he returned.

I shrugged. "So was stealing Earth from its natural inhabitants," I answered.

Shadow considered it and nodded in agreement. "So what now?" He asked. "We were in the largest room of the head quarters, watching all able bodied fighters train.

I shook my head in frustration. None of the mortals were anywhere near the level they needed to be. Most of the gods and Titans were too weak to train their powers so they only fought without them. And it had been so long since they've done that, they're almost as bad as the mortals.

My dad and Hades actually were not too bad. It was Zeus, Atlas, Hermes, even Athena and Ares that were so horrible. Aphrodite, surprisingly, was better than them all besides my mother-also surprisingly. Neither of them are much fighters.

Having enough of Ares and some of the Titans complaining about how they were all powerful so they didn't need to train, I stormed to the center of the training room, dragging Shadow behind me. "That's it," I muttered. "Shadow, let's spar. We need to show them they need to train harder."

"You got it, Fire Lord," the stupid ninja wouldn't stop calling me that. Not that I minded, he's must the only one who did. At least he's not calling me 'boss' that was reserved for Blackjack, who did not survive the attack on the camp.

We squared off and suddenly Shadow disappeared. Well, he actually just blended into his surroundings but since he was so good and it was so dark, he disappeared from sight to all not used to the Golden Ninja's techniques.

"Where'd he go?" Someone asked the same time I blocked a punch aimed at my jugular.

"Go, Perseus!" A familiar voice came as I punched to where I could vaguely see as Shadow's midriff.

"Shut up, Piper!" I said as I only barely dodged Shadow's sweep for my legs. I almost did not see it from Piper's distraction. Not used to people calling my name in the middle of a fight and not need my help.

Our fight moved all over the training grounds, interrupting my dad's fight with Hades.

"Who are you fighting, Perseus?" Hades asked, not seeing Shadow.