Homecoming (LEAR PLOT, Private)

Nestor crashed through the front door of the house and immediately found himself facing the arms of a Cyclops within half a second. He managed a small thought meaning Holy sht in his head before he crashed against the monster's arm and landed on his back. He moaned painfully, and he was certain he broke a tooth (turns out he didn't). He made sure the Greek fire/Hydrogen bomb was secured. Safe. He grabbed his sword and slashed at the monster as he got up quickly, although his attack was kinda weak due to the huge @rse pain on his neck.

Another punch to the lower part of Dimitri's torso, and he wasn't feeling very good about it. It would have been one thing to be smacked or hit by or from the side, but direct wound up punches from these things were going to leave more than just a bruise. Dimitri knew that the best strategy wouldn't be his hands, or even his weapons, but in the moment, he was in a blind rage and didn't want to do anything but pummel this thing to death. Sadly, he was out-muscled by a landslide. If he could just land one good hit in, Dimitri knew he could take this thing down, even without his sword.

"I'm gonna kill you." Dimitri defiantly barked out, though not in a scream. With all things considered, Monster Mash playing in the background, Dimitri truly wasn't going for intimidation. Killing this monster was personal now.

Mentally, Dimitri grasped and grasped for a water source, until he felt something internally. He pulled and pulled at it, frantically, as though he was playing tug of war and the center was a one-way ticket to hell. Finally he felt a release in it's security, and he heard something burst not far from him, likely a water tap. Dimitri couldn't tell how far away it was, or even how much was spouting out, while it was dark, but he yanked at some, forcing it over with great speed onto the cyclops above him. Dimitri threw as much force as he could against the titan with his own physical body, hoping to finally turn it on to it's back.

At the very least, Dimitri had water. Though, it was far more useful last time, when it was boiling. Dimitri didn't think about the last time he'd seen the one eyed monsters. He hardly was aware of his surroundings outside of this scuffle. He'd seen Nestor fall to the ground, and Dominika struggling, though likely having a better time than the son of Athena. He wouldn't forgive himself if something happened here.

Nestor only had raise his other arm to block the tire, but the Force was strong within this one. He tumbled backwards through the front door of fhe house, moaning as he tried to get up. "B!tch, how many Kylo Grams was that thing?" Even in pain he still tried to make a joke. He moved backwards, into the darkness of the household. He placed his nightvision contact in front of one eye, and got to his feet quickly. Nestor knew he would have a better chance in the dark. Unless these monsters were Force-sensitive and they could sense him in the dark. Or if they had cat eyes. Or if they had the same lense he possessed.

He ran up the second floor to figure a plan.

Even if Dimitri had tried to dodge the punch coming to him, it simply wasn't going to happen. With a large knee digging into his chest, his body wasn't moving anywhere. While it did leave the cyclops open to some attacks, the punch landed just below Dimitri's collarbone, leaving an unreal pain within the demigod. Dimitri let out a blood curdling grunt of pain, but Dimitri still wasn't deterred from his goal. He wanted this cyclops to suffer. The monster didn't know it know, but he was attacking the wrong demigod, minor parent or not, Dimitri would see this monster wish for eternal death if it was the last thing he did.

As though time had slowed down, Dimitri acknowledged within himself that the monster's torso was wide open. He could end this if he pulled his knife on the cyclops's body, or at least turn the tides heavily in his favor. His smaller blade had never failed him since he'd started carrying it. Hearing another cyclops shout out in pain encouraged Dimitri to make a choice about his strategy.

Dimitri chose not to use his knife.

Dimitri's stray hand dug and dug around the soil, while his other hand continued to help channel the water into the cyclops. Only a moment later, his hand connected with something jagged, cold, and hard. Dimitri grabbed the rock, clenching it in his hand as tightly as possible. His expression changed from tormented to enlightened in the moment, and his hand with the rock slammed against the cyclops's other ear, as hard as he was able to his him with it. Dimitri stopped channeling the water the second after he made contact with the rock.

Axel felt the rock slam into his head and it disoriented him, but not enough to get him off of the demigod. He roared with pain and batted at the arm with the stone in it, then punched for the demigod's face, still halfblinded by the punches, water, and now little black dots.

Stem continued to stamp about angrily, holding his eye. He felt himself run into something and kicked it hard, which resulted in a grunt from Axel and Stem getting punched hard below the belt. "Wrong target!"Axel barked at Stem. The cyclops grunted acknowledgement and turned around to stamp out a different target.

Bolt saww the cowardly little demigod run further into the house. He was torn for a moment on whether to go help Stem or Axel, or run after the little jerk. In a split second, he grunted and ran into the house, stopping to listen for movements. Upstairs. The Cyclops couldn't see really well in the dark, but fair enough, as well as any demigod could.

He moved up the stairs quickly, keeping his eyes and ears open for the pest. Once on the upstairs landing, he flipped the light switch on with his tire iron. Two doors. He picked the farthest one, because the door was somewhat ajar, skulked over to it and kicked it in violently with his wrapped arm in a defensive position and his tire iron raised at the ready.

Nestor was fortunate the Cyclops picked the farther door. He'd kicked it, tatter it so that it seemed like he was in it. Instead he was in the storage room. He waited for the monster to pass, and eventually he knew his plan was beginning to work. As the Cyclops broke down the door, he readied his sword. As soon as the monster began to enter the room, he leaped at the monster and grabbed him, one of his hand held the monster by its neck, one sent the sword at the monster from its back. He tried his best to keep balance, so that he wouldn't fall off the monster.

Dimitri's arm flickered away in instinct, avoiding the fury of the cyclops's arm. His head acted in the same instinct, but there was no real way to avoid the punch. The fist connected to Dimitri's head, leaving a loud sound and a sharp pain. Dimitri could only hope that he didn't have a concussion. Dimitri's hand clenched a tighter grip on the jagged rock, the the point where he might have been causing his hand to bleed all on his own. Before Dimitri could even strike, the cyclops on him was hit by another. Did that thing hurt Dominika?

Rage continued to pour into Dimitri's soul. Without an ounce of mercy or regret in him, Dimitri swung the rock at the cyclops with all of the strength he had, making contact with his scalp. He could hear everything going on still. The ground shaking from the other cyclops, and he heard a lack of the third one's presence. Above all else, that song was still blaring out. But Dimitri's primary focus was to just end this things time on the planet, until it reformed, at least.

As Nestor's sword was pulled out of the monster's back, his head slammed backwards and hit his nightvision lense. Everything happened so quickly he couldn't comprehend it all. He could no longer see in his left eye. He blinked, but pain pressed into him. He felt some sort of liquid trickling down his cheek. Then as he was slammed backwards, away from the Cyclops, he touched the liquid, and peered at it

Blood

He couldn't see clearly anymore. The nightvision lense was gone. He grabbed a piece of it, which had pierced the skin under his left eye. And Nestor understood briefly of what happened.

The lense shattered. And it pierced his left eye

He lost his left eye sight.

Dimitri felt furious force against his chest and lower body, from the cyclops's legs. The feeling wasn't pleasant, especially with the being having been so large, but it was a nice change from the shoulders and the face. When the cyclops started panicking, Dimitri took notice. Despite the head injury, the bruises, the cuts, and the tattered clothes, a smile had crept onto Dimitri's face. Not even he knew if it was a smile for relief or not.

Dimitri could feel the jagged edges of the rock cutting into his skin in his hand, but he didn't even slightly loosen the grip. Anything short of his absolute hardest, and this cyclops would have just killed him by now. The demigod wound his arm back again, he knew that he himself was injured, but evaluating his own injuries wasn't viable while there was a cyclops on top of him. Dimitri grabbed the cyclops's head and pulled himself up to the cyclops. There were a lot of things that could go wrong, but with the increased leverage, Dimitri began to swing the rock with as much rapidity as he could muster.

As he was hurled backwards by the tire, he had time to register the pain in his eye and on his chest. Nestor took his sword, slashed off a piece of fabric of his shirt and covered his eye with it, while standing up and dashed toward the window. The monster was already fleeing toward the van. Nestor tried to follow. He dragged himself out of the window, and slid down the edge of the roof, eventually landing on the ground. And he broke his ankle in the process.

As he was halfway through the field, the car began to start up. No! he cried in his head. Nestor dragged himself across the field, but the car was beginning to move. Too late. Desperate, he snatched the hydrogen/Greek fire bomb from his pocket. It wouldn't kill the Cyclops but it would most definitely destroy the car and stall him.

When he was in range, Nestor pulled the latch of the bomb and tossed it with full force. If it worked, the car would be consumed alone by the fire. He estimated that the fire wouldn't reach the barn. Or the house, mostly. No one would die tonight, but the Cyclopes.

Dimitri had now lost all sense of grip he had, any plans or ideas in his head retired for the time being. Every fiber of his being now worked in harmony to complete the task. The jagged edges of the rock buried themselves further into the skin of his palm and fingers, and with each pinch of pain he felt, he knew it was only hurting the cyclops more. The cyclops kicked and fought, trying to knock the boy away from him, but Dimitri didn't stop being relentless. The rock rammed against his head again, and again, and again, never letting up in force. With each strike, the cyclops's movements got slower and lazier, less and less of a will to fight existed within him.

After so many strikes, Dimitri managed to turn the cyclops over, now placing himself above the cyclops. The cyclops was on his last legs, with very little fight left, if any. Through glass breaking, and various other noises around him, nothing stopped Dimitri from what he desired. He continued to bash at the cranium of the cyclops, again and again, until there was no fight left in the beast under him. Even then, Dimitri didn't stop for even a moment, until the being under him blew away into a cloud of golden dust.

Dimitri released the tightened grip on the rock, the rock, despite the loosened hand, lingered before it fell out, as it was semi-latched into the skin on his hand. Some blood lightly trickled down from his fingers and palms. The demigod stood up again, the hair on his head now covered in sweat, and layering down, some into his face. He returned back to the world again, instead of it being just him and the cyclops, everything began to come back. He caught sight of a van leaving, and panicked. His instinct picked up, and he quickly gripped what he could from the water pipes, launching it in a wave at the truck. It, however, hardly even reached behind the truck as it was leaving. Even if it had made contact, it wouldn't have been nearly enough to stop or damage the van, Dimitri wasn't even sure if he could muster that wave up in good health, let alone now.

Dimitri's eyes narrowed, and his head tilted as he saw something disastrous. A little pod followed the van, and while Dimitri couldn't see where it landed, it detonated. The van suffered some sort of hit, even the bumper began hanging from the truck, but ultimately held on by the edge. Dimitri's eyes immediately deterred from the van and to the fire. "No, no no!" It was Greek fire, and it could spread fast, and on top of that, water didn't work well.

He didn't see Dominika, and fear went through him. He sprinted to the fire, the only way it was going out was through smothering it. All of the roots and weeds that had come from no tending on the property, they were now going to be the downfall of the property. The fire was still small, but Dimitri had seen Greek fire before. He attempted to kick dirt and smother it out on his own, but it just wasn't working fast enough. Panic set in. He'd lost his family, and now, if he couldn't do anything, he was going to lose his home. And now? He could lose his girlfriend with it. Dimitri eyed the other cyclops running. They would have to do this fast. He wasn't leaving this place with a home.

Dimitri looked to the inured demigod, conflicted vile feelings filled him, but he still rushed over to him. He ruffled through Nestor's bag, finding one of two stashes of ambrosia they packed. "Nestor, take this!" Dimitri whispered, though his voice was fierce, he'd only whispered to keep the cyclops away. Between the sounds of Monster Mash and the newfound fire crackling, and even the van in the distance, as long as they were quiet, the cyclops wouldn't pose to huge of a thread. "Dominika could be in there, I gotta go." Dimitri said again. "Don't engage the cyclops. Get to the barn if you can. If you see Dominika, do not let her come into the house."

Dimitri, with haste, still under injury and blood, rushed back into the house. He needed to be in and out before the house was engulfed in flames. A darkening feeling he had never felt before devoured him as he ran in, and while it didn't deter him from his task, he felt a something in him fade away.

It was ironic. They'd built the house so far away from fire hazards so that if a fire happened, it wouldn't reach the house.

After registering the pain again, Nestor realized the horrors of what he had done. The bomb splashed against the side, and it detonated. The hydrogen combusting, mixed with the Greek fire, caused the fire to lit up the night, and it began to spread. He ran toward the barn, only to find Dimitri. The demigod quickly scrambled through his belongings, until he gave the demigod a stash of ambrosia. "Ok. I'm sorry. It's my fault. I screwed up" he apologized, but then followed Dimitri's instructions. He dashed toward the barn, and found Dominika leaning against the wall.

"Here, take this ambrosia. We gotta get out of here." Nestor urged, clutching his injured arm in the process, while simultaneously pressing on the bandage that held the blood from streaming down his eye. He was blind on his left eye.What was he going to tell his father? Or Rey? He focused back on the present. Nestor needed to keep Nika from pursuing Dimitri. But then what was he supposed to tell her? That her boyfriend ran into the house that is about to be consumed by fire? He knew instantaneously that with Dominika's personality, she would run after Dimitri immediately. It would make him guilty for lying to her. "Dimitri ran ahead of us. He's chasing the Cyclops, and it's headed for the truck. We gotta move, now." The fire was still spreading wide, and the barn began to catch on fire. First the foundations, then the walls were lit up in a bright yellow conflagration.

Nestor still felt guilty for being the arsonist that would take away Dimitri's former home.

He had ran into the house, passed some flames. If there was any luck in the world, only the house would go. Though, with it being Greek fire? Dimitri had a feeling that he might not be so fortunate. Plans were going south now, and fast. They had to go, and fast, otherwise police would become a problem.

Dominika was the priority, in case she had found her way back into the house, Dimitri had called out for her a few times, and checked every room in his house. He moved with haste, which was a painful concept, as these would be his last few minutes in his home. She wasn't anywhere, and she wasn't answering, granted, he wasn't shouting, as he didn't want to draw her into the house from outside. When he hadn't seen her in any room, he made the call that it was time to start collecting what was irreplaceable. To Dimitri, the whole house was irreplaceable, however, some things took priority over others. Woven blankets, oddly shaped seeds, and little mementos were very precious to Dimitri; they all represented memories. But so few could be saved. Photos, jewelry, anything written by his parents, they became the priority. He only had a small amount of time.

It wasn't long until the heat was intensifying. Seeing the fire engulfing the main main room, one inch at a time, was surreal. It felt like Dimitri was going to be pulled right out of reality once more, but he resisted. It almost seemed fitting that he should stay with his home, and if it died, he would go with it, but the person with whom he had built a second home with was out there still, at least he hoped so. With what he could fit in his arms, he had rushed outside, a few times in the house, bits of embers had fallen on him, burning various parts of his torso, though he covered them to smother and oxygen before any of his clothing could light on fire.

The demigod had rushed upstairs. He took one last look at his room, and the orange glow coming from the hallway. Dimitri stuffed what belongings he had been able to grab into his bad. "I'm sorry..." Dimitri whispered. He climbed out the window, using his arms to prop his body down so that the fall wouldn't be deadly. He kicked off of the wall, to avoid catching fire from the foundation of the house. Parts of his body burned, but he couldn't afford to stop now.

Dimitri pulled his dagger, and approached the raging cyclops, he swiftly jammed the dagger into the back of its head, and then it turned into golden dust. There was just no time to constrain and question it, and if Lear was smart, it wouldn't have known anything anyway. Dimitri spotted the pair by the barn.

"You're okay." He said to Dominika, relieved. He hugged her, though the contact burned several parts on his body. He looked to her and Nestor. "We don't have a lot of time."

Nestor justified himself. "He said so!" he replied. "He told me to keep you from going after him!" After Dominika presumably decided against charging into the house, he sighed in relief and pressed the bandage on his eye. A lot of blood was still streaming and he felt like he would pass out any minute. Too much blood loss. When she questioned him about the fire, he was simply too stunned to answer. "I--started it. I tried to take out the van that had the Cyclops, but it missed. I was desperate, alright? It just f*cking make me lose an eye." she may not have noticed it in the dark. "But I'm sorry, anyways."

When Dimitri returned, Nestor pulled himself to his feet and slung the backpack on his right shoulder. "Hell we do. Let's go." he limped, and the blood loss was weakening him a lot. He figured he wouldn't make it far before he passes out. Did they even notice that he lost an eye? Unlikely because they've been travelling in the dark. The treeline made a perfect cover for their vehicle, and it was fortunate the Cyclopes didn't try to find it and take it out first so they wouldn't have anything to flee on. His broken ankle pained him greatly as he strolled along, but he was still standing. He wasn't going to fall now, especially when they've just sorta defeated the Cyclops.

Eventually the car came into sight behind the trees. Nestor limped ahead, and pulled open the car door for them, despite having an eye having been choked out and a broken ankle. Simultaneously. Yet, he was still responsible for the conflagration that would destroy Dimitri's home. The guilt consumed him. He tried not to show that he was the one with the most serious injures, according to him, but that was unsuccessful. Nestor eventually pulled himself into shotgun, and allowed himself to relax a bit, trying to ease the pain. "Hey guys, we're gonna go straight to a hospital, right?" he said as he flipped on the car light. "Because I'm not sure ambrosia and nectar, not even with the quantity I have in my supplies bag, can fix a broken ankle and a blind eye."

"Dominika, I need you right now. We'll have time to express our emotions later." Dimitri told her, gently. She was frantic and trying to light a match, but her hands were shaking while she tried. He slowly took hold of her wrists, gently, in his hands. "Hey, look at me, you can do this, okay? We have good fire out there, and I don't really wanna set this on fire too. All we gotta do is this, and then we're headed home." It had pained Dimitri to use that term, as this was his home, and neither camp was truly his home. But he wanted to comfort Dominika, and he had meant what he said, right now he needed her. There could have been more surprises coming. Now wasn't the time to feel anything. They had to hold together, all of them.

Dimitri let go of her wrists, and grabbed an old pallet from the other side of the barn, and quickly brought it over to the side of what was left of his body. He moved the body onto it, in scattered pieces, including the head. It was a job he just didn't want his girlfriend to have to do. The smell was sickening, and lifting another person's head wasn't pleasant either. Dimitri quickly prepped the body, at least what was left of it, so that it could be burned, as Greek and Roman tradition conveyed. Dimitri and Dominika lifted the pallet and the body with it and brought it outside, in front of the house, just to the edge of the fire, where it quickly caught fire in itself.

The trio had gone to the car, they didn't have a lot of time until police showed up, as the smoke from Greek fire would alert people fast. "She's right." Dimitri had said when Dominika explained that they couldn't stop at a hospital. "Ambrosia is far passed anythin' you'll get from doctors." He concluded. When the trio secured their places in the car, Dimitri pulled away from home; the last time he would ever be able to call it home, anyway. As he parted back into the maze, his eye became fixed on the rear view, on the orange glow that had once meant everything to him.

They had a long drive back to camp. They would have plenty of time to talk about what they had found.

[OOC: That's a wrap, unless someone has something they feel they need to add. Awesome thread, guys!]