Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marigold was a 25-year-old woman, throughout her life she volunteered to clean up the waters, parks, forests and beaches, she protested against politicians and laws that allowed companies and businesses pollute the sky and air, she sheltered homeless people and foster kids until they could go off on their own, creating her own little family.

She was also a clear-sighted mortal, taking in demigod kids until it was time for them to go, only a few ever got back in touch with her, but she knew how dangerous being a demigod was. She’d go through foster kids and kids up for adoption, searching for those who needed safety. Who knows what would happen to the ones forgotten in the system? That's what she was here for, to save them so they don't have to suffer as much.

And that is why she was here today, walking through the building looking in the rooms, she could feel that one was near, but she wasn't sure where. It was a rainy spring day outside, it appeared that the winter was harsh to the plants outside, since so many didn't come back up this spring. She wished it was sunny out, it had been on and off raining for the past few days and though she didn't mind, she missed the safe warm glow of the sun.

She walked past a room with a small girl inside wearing a red hoodie with her nose in a book about the Greek gods. She paused, something was off about her. She turned to the worker that had accompanied her, “what's her name?”

“Florence, Florence Nekros, she quite a curious girl, she’s almost as blind as a bat, but she loves to read those silly books of hers, she loves the outdoors and gardening, are you interested in taking her?”

“May I ask why she's here?”

The woman nodded grimly, “She was left here a few days ago, just as the rain started. Her mother had passed away, and her last guardian just recent got into a horrible accident in the forest and was unable to take care of her, though she seems way better here than she was there.”

She glanced back at the small girl, who was looking up at her now, she had pitch black eyes and a bat nose, she smiled at her, showing off her fangs. She smiled back at the girl.

“I’d love to take her in” and as they left, the rain had stopped, Marigold bent down and plucked one of the blooming asphodels and tucked it behind Florence’s fluffy black ear.

Chapter Text

Florence Nekros was a normal kid, weird sure, She was used to the silent eyes watching her. She tended to creep people out, since She seemed to have the skill to go unnoticed until she was right there and apparently when you sneak up on your friends, causing them to spill their drinks on themselves one too many times you tend to not be friends anymore. She was the school loner, keeping to herself, not talking to others, though she seemed to change into a different person if you brought up plants.

I was pretty much a walking plant encyclopedia, which is why I seemed to flourish in the school's gardening club. One day, as I was working on my self-made plant fertilizer, my teacher Mr D, a tall somewhat chubby man with long black greasy hair he had pulled up in a ponytail, came over to me and handed her a slip of paper.

 “We’re going on a field trip to the American museum of natural history, have your guardian sign this and give it back to me tomorrow, we go next Monday.” He side eyed me before walking off to talk to another kid.

I didn’t know why, but Mr D always seemed suspicious of me. One time she saw him with a list of names of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses with certain names crossed out on the list, Mr D got mad when she pointed out that he was missing a bunch of gods. She still didn't know what that was for to this day.

Next Monday rolled around and Florence was loving the trip. It had taken some time to get her mom to agree to let her come, but in the end she caved. The trip was going swimmingly, although the tour guide's assistant seemed to be eyeing her weirdly, but she didn't think anything of it. She was used to getting weird looks, sometimes she would worry that they could see her claws, or her fangs, or her bat-like ears.

They pass by a room with statues of 4 people, Florence silently snuck away when she thought no one was watching and went up to the statues, the first one was of Dionysus, next being a minor goddess Chloris, goddess of flowers. Florence decided she would do more research on her at home. Next up was Demeter, and looking closely at her, I thought she looked familiar to someone, but quickly moved on.

I checked out the last lady, a statue of Persephone. I paused at the familiar sensation again, mesmerized by the statues, she didn't notice the tour assistant had snuck up behind her. She looked just like-

“Good choice, Persephone is one of my favorites, is she yours?” She turned around, startled. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you enter. I guess she’s pretty neat, I think all the gods are cool.” She glanced behind her at a strange shadow on the wall, it looked like wings. The lady followed her gaze before smirking

“I guess I should get back to the group, I don’t want Mr D to get upset.” I said, kind of freaked out by the interaction, I tried to push past her, but she blocked my way, letting out a small growl. “I'm sorry, little princess, but your very existence is a threat to our lord, and we cannot have that.” I noticed the wings again, but this time they weren't a shadow, they were real. The lady seemed to transform into a bat looking creature, fangs and all.

She backed up against the statue, praying to whoever was listening to help her get out of this mess before she ducked out of the way of the bat lady, who was desperately trying to grab at her. She didn’t know what her deal was, but she definitely wasn't about to become monster food. She ducked behind the Dionysus statue when a strange man appeared, chasing away the strange creature. 

The man turned and locked eyes with her for a moment, the man's hair was paper white, but if she squinted it looked black. Florence blinked, and the man was gone. She snuck back in with the group. After the tour, when Mr D approached her and asked her where she snuck off to, she had pretended he went to the bathroom.

He didn't seem to buy it, but he just shrugged and shooed her away.

When she got home that day she told her mom about the crazy encounter, she tried to remember what the bat lady had said but couldn’t remember. My mom tensed up, I and began to worry that I had made her upset when she spoke up. 

“I knew this day would come. Come over here, I need to tell you something.” She patted the spot next to her on the couch, and I slid up next to her, laying my head on her lap as she braided my hair. Unlike her mom, who had brown hair, I had blonde hair, with green ends. “You know how you’re adopted? Well, I haven’t been completely honest with you.” 

She paused nervously, before sighing “You’re a demigod, whoever your original parents were they fell in love with a mortal, creating you. It’s very dangerous being a demigod, depending on your godly parent you could get attacked. I wanted to wait a little longer until you were older, but it seems we will just have to leave early.”

“Leave early?” I asked, “Why are we leaving? Where will we be going?” She smiled at me, a sad smile. “We’ll be leaving for a camp for kids like you, where you will be safe, go pack your things, we’ll be leaving as soon as you're done.” She sat up and went to her room, glancing back one more time at her mom, she seemed to be deep in thought.

She packed a few pairs of jeans, some shirts, her favorite jacket, as well as an extra one. Some pots and seeds, she didn't know where she was going, but she hoped they would have some stuff for her plants. She grabbed a long necklace from the back of the shelves, hidden behind her empty notebooks. 

She carefully clipped it on, it had a little torch charm on it, it was the one thing she had from her birth mother.

She closed her bag, and went to meet her mom out in their car, it was a silent ride, she hated those silent rides, they almost always meant she was in trouble. She didn't try to get in trouble, but she always seemed to do something that ended up in a fight. At her last school, she was a target for bullying, and this one girl had tried to take her toy, so she pushed her away, it wasn't her fault the plants tried to choke the girl out.

They were pulling up in front of a hill with strawberries all along it, when she saw something charging at them, it looked like a bull, but bulls don't stand on two legs, her mom parked the car and practically dragged her out, running up the hill, now that they were higher up, she could see a bunch of buildings off in the distance, but when she turned around she was face to face with the bull man, when realization hit her. “You’re the Minotaur…”  there's no way this is real, she glanced over at her mom who was now pale as a ghost. I felt panicked, unable to do anything as the Minotaur reached up to grab her, but before it could, her mom pushed her out of the way, getting grabbed instead. Florence tried to grab at her, but the Minotaur pulled her out of reach, crushing her under its fist, before letting her drop to the ground with a loud CRACK sound.

Florence laid there in shock, she had no idea what was going on or how it was even possible, her mom was dead, the Minotaur is real and trying to attack her, her mom was dead. She was confused and frustrated and angry and her mom was dead . She was dead and was crushrd by the Minotaur. She was crying and running and ducking wherever she could, her mom was dead her mom was dead her mom-

She called on a familiar buzz on the back of her neck, as she slowly clawed her way up after ducking behind a tree, the trees! She felt the buzzing become louder, bigger as she warped and bent the trees, commanding them to attack.

The Minotaur swatted the branches away, though with the sun starting to set and the trees closing in it was getting harder for it to dodge, but being a creature of the dark, Florence knew it wouldn't be long until it would overpower her, so she had to take it down now, or be taken down.

She kept at it, slashing at the Minotaur while staying out of range so it couldn’t attack, until a (un)lucky branch flew at it, stabbing through one of its horns right into its head, before the monster melted into gold dust and disappeared. Florence went over and picked up the horn, already tired, before turning to her mom, whose body was still laying on the ground.

Everything hit her in one big wave of grief, as she let out a sob. As much as she wanted to stay, to curl up and lay with her until the earth consumed them both, she knew it wouldn't do any good, she carefully had the plants around them wrap around her, branches and leaves swallowing her. She sat for what felt like an eternity next to her final resting place before grabbing her bag tightly, her new horn in one hand, as she descended down the other side of the hill toward the camp.

It took all her willpower to not collapse as she struggled to walk over to the big barn house, she knocked on the door, about to fall over when a man in a wheelchair answered the door, the man looked upset but not surprised to have seen her there, the man looked at her, a 10-year-old covered in dirt and cuts with no one with her with pity, and before Florence could say her name she collapsed, effectively passing out.

It was a few weeks before she woke up, in between then she had some weird memories, seeing a man with long black hair, and red eyes. He looked so familiar to her, but she didn't get a closer look before she fell back asleep, next time there was a red haired girl with sky blue eyes who was looking at her sadly “You should rest longer” She gave me something before I fell back asleep

The next time I awoke I stayed awake, I looked around at the other kids, one kid had plants in their hair, I almost laughed, but I stopped myself, another looked like they had some type of burn marks on them. She sat herself up and looked around, trying to remember what happened.

The memories hit her all at once, feeling a pang in her heart. She saw the brown-haired girl from earlier enter the cabin. She lit up as she saw her awake, turning and whispering to a kid outside before they ran off. The girl approached her gingerly, like she could snap at any second.

“Are you okay? The last time you woke up, you were mumbling something about plants.” The girl suppressed a giggle. “You were sure beat up when you arrived” That explained why she was so cautious with her. She mumbled out “I’m fine” before she noticed the shirt she was wearing. “Camp Half-blood? What's that?”

The red head girl looked down at her own shirt before smiling and looking back up at her, “I'm Helen Emily, are you okay to walk? We have a lot to cover today.”

Chapter Text

Camp half-blood had its quirks, After finding out that her school teacher had in fact been the god Dionysus in disguise and everything about Camp Half-blood, she was definitely disturbed, though compared to the campers, nothing was far-fetched.

When on the tour, guided by Helen, she found that all the unnatural features she had kept hidden were the norm, she saw two twins with little wings on their feet trying to steal from this girl with what looked like flaming gold hair, but they got caught. Helen introduced her to a girl named Katie, who was the head councilor of the Demeter cabin, I smiled at her, she smiled back. Her snake fangs were so cool.

It was cool being able to show off my little quirks, no one looked at me weird for having bat ears or my fangs, or my slightly weird obsession with pomegranates, I can't help it they taste so good. They didn’t question the black claws or the super hearing, though she quickly got overwhelmed by the noise. They didn't even look at her slightly black nose differently or the fact that if she stood somewhere for too long, flowers started growing around her feet.

She set up her little spot in the back corner of the Hermes cabin, after a long day of exploring and explanations she was quite tired, though laying in the sun always tended to help, it was nice to just soak in the warmth of the sun, it always seemed to re-energize her.

Being cooped up inside just seemed suffocating. 

After finally getting comfortable, and giving death glares to a handful of kids who kept eyeing her bag, a boy with curly brown hair and sea green eyes approached her, his aura was muted, for some reason she couldn’t see it, and he had a long gnarly scar on one side of his face, as well as an eye patch.

“Hey! I’m Micheal, Micheal Hailey. You can call me Mike, though. I’m the head counselor.” He held out his hand to shake, I just nodded at him. “I’m Florence, so you’re the head counselor? Can you keep those other kids from stealing my stuff?” I gestured over to a group of kids, who quickly looked away from us. He laughed, “If I could, I would, but they just won't listen.” I let out a nervous laugh, clearly I would have to tuck away my stuff for my time here.

“So far I’ve gotten lucky, and they haven't targeted me, maybe you’ll get lucky too, anyway I wanted to ask If you knew your godly parent yet or not, sometimes we get kids of minor gods in here who have no cabins dedicated to themselves. It's fine if you don't but if you do, it would be pretty neat to meet your half siblings right?” The bad smell from him weakened, and I relaxed slightly, not realizing how tense I was.

I was about to say something when Chiron blew his horn, signaling dinner. I got up and followed Micheal out to the pavilion. We sat down at our table. I had to squeeze in at the end, before I took my turn to go up the fire, dumping my entire plate into the fire, taking a moment to figure out who to pray too, before settling on Hermes, for letting me stay in his cabin, and Dionysus for going and seeking me out. I glanced over at him but couldn’t catch his eye.

I sat back down next to Micheal, looking at my empty glass compared to his glass full of a golden liquid. Micheal noticed my curiosity and explained that you tell the cup what you want, and it’ll fill with it. I quickly said “pomegranate juice!” and when it filled up with the dark ruby liquid, I chugged it down, to the shock of the surrounding kids.

“What? It's so good!” I smiled sheepishly, Micheal burst out in laughter. It was even better when the cup instantaneously refilled. It was a good night. Chiron stood up and announced we would be playing Capture the flag Friday, and everyone erupted into cheers, I had to quickly cover my ears to avoid getting overwhelmed, I chugged down a few more cups of juice (about 50) much to Mike’s dismay.

It was a good night.

Chapter Text

Today was capture the flag. I was nervous, because after the week of training, I still felt underprepared. I was supposed to do sword training with Mike, but I was terrible with a sword. I worked better with a longer range, but I wasn’t all that good with a bow either. At the moment, I was training with this guy from the Aries cabin, named Damian Ellis. They had given me a spear to work with, which I was pretty good with, but Damian didn't seem to like me that much. he always went rough on me, even though he had been told many times by chrion to be more understanding

I met up with Helen as we made our way down to the creek, meeting Mike and another kid named Cory, an Athena kid, who were discussing their plan for today. Helen was placed in some other group, and I was placed on border control. As the horn blew, I paced by the creek, carefully placing flowers in the waters as I watched them get submerged and float down the creek.

 Off in the distance I heard rustling of twigs and branches, I turned around to try and get a better look at what was making the noise before there was a shout behind me. I turned just in time to block a hit from Damian. He let out a low growl as he tried to slash at me again. I carefully dodged, trying to avoid his specialized electric spear.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to use my powers like I had the night with the Minotaur, I swung at him, but missed as he sidestepped and stabbed me in my side, I crumpled to the ground, unable to move because of the electricity. He smirked and brought his spear up over me to attack me again, when I grabbed my necklace and yanked it off, the torch charm transforming into a long black two pronged spear, a faint green glow from the fire on the tip of it.

Damian stepped back surprised, and I backed off into the creek. As I got a boot of energy I sprung into action, slashing at Damian and landing a hit, using the power of the spear to cause him to fall to the ground.

It was no electric spear, but a weapon that could suck part of a person's soul out to use as an energy source. I poked him with the handle of my spear, making sure he was alive, when he suddenly grabbed it. I could have easily beaten him but caught by surprise, he managed to grab a vial from his back pocket, a bright green liquid swirling inside.

What the hell is that?!

Far off in the distance I could hear my team cheering, running back over here with both the flags, If I could hold him off for a bit longer they can get down here before there was any serious damage. I quickly flipped my spear around, knocking him back about a foot, he let out a loud gasp followed by much coughing.

He glared at me and just as my team erupted from the bushed in celebration he threw the vial at me, as I burst into a ball of green flames, or the spot I was as I appeared on the other end of the creek, frantically trying to put out the flames that were on my arms as I freaked out.

After a few minutes trying to put out the flames, and caring for the burns, we had a smaller celebration, the mood successfully ruined by Damian, who was now passed out and getting carried off to the Apollo cabin to be healed. I heard the weird noises from earlier again, closer by. 

The sound got louder as a giant black and gold dog emerged from the bushes, It looked right at me and charged, but after everything I was fed up so with a crazy thought I yelled and the hellhound “Sit!” the dog quickly froze and sat down, and just before a storm of arrows hit it, it melted back into the shadows, leaving only a bunch of arrows in its place.

Tired and exhausted, I turned, planning to just go lay in the sun for a bit to find everyone staring at me, no not at me, above me. I looked to see a golden torch glowing above me, but at times the symbol would flicker, and I would see a black skull instead.

I zoned out for a bit, I knew what was happening, Persephone, my mom, had claimed me, but for some reason, someone was covering it up, using the mist and making it seem I was a child of Hades instead, I was brought back to reality very rudely as Chiron yelled out over everyone. “HAIL FLORENCE NEKROS, DAUGHTER OF HADES” 

Gods, talk about catching everyone's attention.

Chapter Text

Green streaked across the sky as thunder sounded off in the distance, I sat alone in my cabin like I had for the last week. After I was claimed it took a few days as they debated on if they should build me my own cabin or keep me in the Hermes cabin, it took a well worded “NO” to get them to sway.

Everyone was pretty much avoiding me, even Helen, though she still talked to me, it wasn’t like before, she looked at me like I was a dead person, and I probably looked like one too, with all the stress of the past week my corner of my cabin was overgrown with plants, and my once vibrant hair went from a green to and almost brown or orange color. After getting claimed, I also have seemed to have a Black streak in my hair now, I wonder if it was a side effect or something from whatever was at work.

One little symbol flipped my whole world around, I went from bets being placed on how much juice I could down before Mike could stop me, to sitting alone away from other campers, after losing my only family I thought I found another, just to be pushed away as soon as I was a potential threat.

The only thing that remained consistent was my training with Damian, and even he seemed to be taking pity on me. Due to me rarely leaving my cabin I was in no way in a good shape to fight, sometimes he wouldn’t practice with me unless I took time to re-energize, it was nice to see after all the thorns he was a caring person.

I finally decided to go to the pavilion and eat, something I hadn't done in a few days, I would just grab a drink and come back instead of sticking around. I could feel the eyes on me as I went and sat at my table, I could see kids glancing up at the incoming storm, Chiron told everyone not to worry because of the camp's protection, it would just avoid us, but now with the clouds overhead I could tell everyone wasn’t sure if it would miss us like normal.

I walked up to the fire pit, waving at the young girl who was sitting up there as well. I gave most of my food to both Hades and Persephone, before heading back to my seat, another green flash streaked across the sky as it started pouring, kids ran to get to their cabins.

I wandered through the now empty camp, taking in the outdoors. It was nice being out again, the raindrops dripping gently, like an old friend. Nature didn’t judge her, unlike the campers. I stumbled upon Chiron and Mr D playing a game of cards in the barn, Chiron looks up at me, mildly surprised as another flash of green shone above in the sky, this was definitely not a normal storm.

Chiron seemed to notice what I was thinking. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you, clearly someone at camp was trying to harm you with that hellhound, so I think it would be best for you to leave for a bit until it is safe.” He dropped his cards on the table, a royal flush if I remembered correctly.

“I thought we weren’t allowed to leave, unless we have a quest.” I paused, “Are you sending me on a quest?” Chiron sighed as he fully turned towards me, I pretended not to see the sunny aura behind him. “Do you know what's going on in Olympus right now?” I shook my head, though with the appearance of a crystal aura by the vase of flowers, a mix of dead and roses, it must be serious.

“Earlier this year, Zeus’s master bolt was stolen, prior to this he had been in an argument with his brothers, and believed that they had gotten a hero to go steal his bolt, you see, a god cannot steal another's symbol  of power directly. Now that Hades has claimed you, he believes you are the thief.”

I let out a small gasp of offense, laughing to myself as the vase has now turned from glass to a small explosion of different crystals. I was about to argue when there was a thud from upstairs, I looked up and almost recoiled at the cursed aura seeping through the ceiling.

The crystal aura that was once by the vase was gone, now replaced with a human aura, mixed with prophecy and curse. I tried not to stare, but Chiron seemed to glance to the side where I was looking. “How about you go upstairs and get your quest, we’ll talk more when you comedown, if you’re still sane.”

“Wow, thanks for the concern…” I mumbled under my breath as I went up to the attic, for a cursed aura, the faint aura was not threatening, but more of an old vibe, something from a past era. I shut the door behind me as I looked around the attic, at the other end the rain tapped on the window where I saw a mummified corpse, wearing a tye dyed dress and a rainbow bandana, her aura overwhelming the room.

I carefully approached the girl, unsure what would happen, her aura shifted, as prophecy seemed to overtake it, when I realized this wasn't her aura as the green mist shifted to a form, I froze, planted to the ground, the few plants in the room starting to twist and grow in defense. The plants were reassuring, this man was dead, he was not here right now, I had made sure of that many years ago.

“Thou shall go west and face the god who turned, thou will seek what is stolen and see it safely returned, thou shall be betrayed by one who calls thy friend, and thou will fail to save what matters most in the end.” the mist shimmered in the light of a lightning bolt before disappearing, the girl's aura returning to normal, though the green shone more brightly than before.

“I wonder who cursed you like this, you don't deserve this.” I mumbled, I looked around and found a strange blue chair with a bunch of water stains on it, I pulled it over to the window, before carefully moving the oracle into the seat. The sun seemed to peek out a bit as I went back down to Chiron. “How did it go, child?” Chiron asked as he saw me, I just nodded at him before going out on the porch, down the steps, and just laying down in the rain for a bit to reorganize and think. After a few minutes I went back inside, sitting down across from Chiron and the sunny aura.

“So, how did it go?” Chiron looked at me, intrigued. I noticed his eyes seemed to have a swirling gold color in it, among the pool of black. It was much like his and Mikes aura, but clearly he did not like this part of him, as his older aura of teaching, a deep purple, seemed to constantly be drowning the gold.

I realized I was staring and quickly filled the silence, “The oracle said I must go west to face the god that has turned.” I paused, debating on if I should bring up the rest. “I shall get what is stolen-the bolt, obviously- and see it safely returned to Olympus.”

Chiron looked at me, he probably knew I wasn't sharing everything, but it was my right if I thought it was best to hold back with our audience. I gestured behind him “I’m assuming you volunteered?” the sunny aura seemed to warp as Helen came in view, looking at me startled “How did you know I was there?”

I just grinned at her.

Chiron coughed and we both turned to look at him, “Florence, you can choose one other person to join you on this quest.” I pondered for a moment, considering all my options, out of everyone here, the only people who weren’t really avoiding me were Helen, Cory, Katie, Mike, and “Damian. I want Damian on my team, is three a good number?” Chiron nodded and sent me and Helen to pack our stuff as Chiron went to inform Damian of his inclusion on the quest.

As I entered my cabin, I was met face to face with the strange man from the museum. He stared at me, like he was expecting a reaction.

I frog blinked at him instead.

He smirked back.

“I see you made yourself at home.” He gestured over to the corner where my plants were still growing wild across the walls and floor, I grimaced to myself at how dead they looked, I was clearly lacking in both mine and the other plant's care. The man chuckled.

“I am just here to give you my own request, as well as supplies for your quest.” He pulled a dark red duffle bag with a pomegranate embroidered on the side, clearly this guy did his research on me. “My helm of darkness has been stolen, I believe whoever stole the bolt stole my helm as well, on your quest if you find it and return it safely to me, I won’t reveal your identity, and help you on the quest.” I squinted at him in suspicion. “Your Hades yeah? Why did you pretend to claim me? For blackmail?”

The man laughed gain, tiny crystals started to shine through the walls. “Of course, how else could I get you to do this for me? That and my wife wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if I didn’t.” He grinned down at me, “You know, she really cares about you. She would visit you right now, but I insisted. I mean, I have the right to meet my wife's other child, don’t I?”

“Oh dam, it must be pretty awkward having to pretend to claim your wife’s affair baby, huh? Sorry sir, I guess.” I looked off to the side, avoiding the man's curious gaze. “No, no no, you got it all wrong, but that's a story for another time. First you get this done, you have to stop a war first, remember?”

I woke up the next day and met Helen and Damian out by one of the pine trees on the border, If I looked for too long I could almost see a girl with long brown and sky blue hair with blood dripping down her face staring back at me. Her aura, her soul , her story was not over yet, behind the moon and the sparks, I could tell that she would be making an appearance sooner or later.

Wonder why the others hadn’t noticed her yet, she seemed fatally injured.

A strange man that was entirely covered in eyeballs met us as well as Chiron, “This is Argus, our head of security, he will be driving you to the bus terminal, after that you’re on your own. I am hoping you packed well?” We all nodded and just as we started descending the hill, Mike caught up with us, holding a shoebox that was just emanating cursed energy.

 “Here, I thought these might be useful for your quest like they were for me, better than them sitting around collecting dust.” He handed the box off to me, opening it to reveal two red shoes with golden laces. “Maia!” Mike commanded as the shoes lifted into the air, the muted green aura struggling to shine through the radioactive yellow that was whatever curse was placed on these.

I thanked him through a strained smile as he ran back to the camp, though once we got to the bus stop I left them in the car. “Why’d you do that?” I turned to face Helen as Argus drove off. I shrugged, “Those things were emitting a cursed aura, I didn’t want to risk it.” Elsewhere, I felt like I altered something, I didn’t dwell on it. The bus ride was uneventful so far, we had sat near the back, Helen fiddled with her bracelet, a sky blue bracelet with little knots around it and a single sun charm on it, if she twisted it a certain amount she seemed to flicker out of existence, just thought it was my trashy eyesight.

Damian kept side-eyeing me, he was probably surprised that I picked him of all people to come on the quest with me, after what happened during capture the flag, but even if he seemed to growl at me every time I said it, I considered him my friend. The bus pulled to a stop as what looked like 3 elderly women got on, they sat down in the front, two of them crossed their legs in the aisle, and though it was innocent enough it was a clear message.

No one leaves, luckily she sucks at following rules.

Helen glanced over at me nervously, whispering

“Do you think they're here for you?” 

I shrugged at her before getting up and walking up to the ladies, despite the pleads of Helen and the shocked look Damian shot me.

“Hi, you’re the kindly ones, right? Why are you here?” I asked in my nicest voice as I stuck out my hand to the one who looked like the fury from the museum. She hesitantly took my hand, I tried not to wince at her claws digging into the back of my hand.

“You think you’re slick? We know you plan on killing us like the others.” She gestured to my friends, who were looking at us with wild looks.

“Well, to my knowledge you weren’t sent here by Hades, so why are you here?” I asked, trying to feign innocence, Hades told me the Kindly ones weren’t truly under his command, so he couldn’t stop them if they tried to attack again, so it was best if I got on their good side first.

“You must’ve stolen his helm like you stole Zeus's bolt!” One of them hissed. The one that had my hand squeezed it tighter, I could almost feel the blood start to drip onto the floor.

“Wow, rumors travel fast, did you know Hades claimed me as his kid? That's the whole reason I'm on this quest, to get them both back to prevent a war, I thought I would ask if you had any idea where to start?” I slightly smirked, hiding it in a smile. They looked me up and down as if trying to sniff out if I was lying. I sighed, “Do you need proof or not?”

They sneered at me, “You are no child of the underworld, you reek of life and earth.”

I just sighed before shifting out of the one’s grasp, appearing on the other side of them next to the driver. I had been practicing my abilities all night since I talked with Hades. They gawked at me, surprised I was able to do that. Somewhere else, I could almost feel someone else right next to me as well when doing it, like this had played out differently at some point. 

I shrugged at them. “So, can you help?”

“Wait, so you think Poseidon might have the bolt?” Helen stared at me.

“Well think about it, with Zeus accusing Hades, who's the one left to gain from all this?” Damian interrupted. The bus pulled to a stop, and we got off before walk down a strange path in the forest until we found a restaurant called Aunty Em’s. We chatted as we went up to the door. An older woman opened the door, looking mildly surprised.

“Hi, do you know where the nearest train station is?” I asked, ignoring the sound of snakes.

Chapter Text

“3 tickets to LA please!” I gave the man behind the counter my card that Hades gave me, I told him I wouldn't need it, but it was really coming in handy now.

We shuffled down the hall to our cabin, Damian getting on my case the entire time.

“Did you really trick Medusa , the famous hero killer, into letting us go? Are you CRAZY?!” he huffed behind me as I sat down on one of the benches, Helen shouldered past him and sat down next to me, sighing in relief.

“That could have been so much worse, though, imagine we fought her?” I winced at the thought, the edges of my eyesight turning green as we heard a bang down the hall, Damian insisted on checking it out as Helen and I stayed back in our seats.

“That was really dangerous, you know, what you did.” Helen looked down at the notepad she was sketching on, freezing at an earlier drawing of a snake.

“Would you have rather we had fought her like Damian tried to?”

“No but what if she attacked us still, we would have been unprepared and unable to fight back”

“I knew we would be fine”

“But you didn't though, you are so sure in yourself but none of us knew how that would turn out”

“It was the obvious answer, I knew we would leave fine”

“NO YOU DIDN'T.”

I glanced back over at Helen, who had scribbled all over her drawing, tears pooling in her eyes, her sunny aura dampened.

“You put not just yours but our lives at risk without warning us, I'm sorry, but did you really expect to pull a stunt like that, and we would just be fine with it? That was terrifying for me, because I wouldn't have been able to do anything but pray to the gods that you could pull through.”

“I-” I tried to apologize, but she got up and went down the hall to where Damian was, leaving me alone in the cabin, the echoes of her words hanging around like a ghost. Maybe I was being careless, but was it all that bad if it worked on the kindly ones and medusa, who wasn't all that bad really.

I got an uncomfortable aura in the room, and I grabbed both mine and Helen's bag, assuming we’d be back for Damian's and I went down the hall to where they were, I kept wandering the train until I got to the snack cart as someone pulled him into a booth, it was Helen and Damian.

“Hey, how come you grabbed her bag and not mine?” Damian pointed out

Helen cut him off “There's a monster on here with us, when Damian checked out the noise earlier” She gestured towards him

“Oh yeah, Something came up behind me, and I had to run around the train, like, twice before I lost it. We have to get off as soon as possible” He shrugged. “Still, why’d you grab her bag? Now I have to go grab mine when you could have just grabbed all of ours.”

“We should go get your bag, together so if anyone tries to attack us we have each other's back, then we come back here and plan?” they both nodded in agreement, and we got up together and went to the cabin, and out the window we saw the famous arch. 

“Hey, since we're here, want to do some sightseeing?” I smiled and nodded to the arch right out the window. 

“Come on, are you seriously scared of heights?” I teased, Damian snarled at me as he glanced back up at the arch. It was surprising that a child of ares like Damian would be scared of something like heights.

“I'm much better on the ground, thank you,” He glared at me and Helen before sitting over by the fountain. I shrugged, his loss , and turned back to Helen, a wide grin on my face.

“Are you ready?”

We crammed into an elevator, a woman sat across from us with a small dog carrier, the Chihuahua inside was growling and barking at me as we went up. The woman was quietly cooing at it, “now sonny, not right now with all the nice people” she stroked its nose before smiling back at me.

“Is his name sonny?” I asked, trying to fill the awkward silence between me and the monster lady, I pretended to not notice the forked tongue, the scales, and the tail.

“No,” She smiled like that was supposed to clear it up. I turned to Helen, who was pale as a ghost as she scribbled in her notepad. She quickly wrote ‘Get Damian’ before scratching it out, so the lady wouldn’t see. 

We continued to sit in still silence other than the dog barking, its mouth slowly lining with a green froth. The doors to the elevator slid open as we stepped onto the observation deck. Helen slowly inched her way towards the exist door, while I kept an eye on the weird lady. I wasn’t sure what kind of monster she was, but she was definitely a powerful one. She seemed to emit a feeling of empowerment, an ancient aura.

The dog's barking grew louder and the others on the deck seemed to be freaked out, so with a subtle nod to Helen she pulled the fire alarm , the lights flashed as civilians rushed to the elevator doors. The scaley lady slow approached me as a shooed Helen to the elevator to warn Damian, her aura suffocating the area.

I glanced at the elevator, but it was full, no way could I get on, I was stuck up here with the woman. My hand reached up to my necklace, my fingers tracing the small torch charm on it.

“You see, you’ve been causing problems for us little princess, you cannot finish this quest alive, so I have been sent here to deal with you, and as a good mother,” the woman smirked proudly at herself “I made this annoying little trip a great practice opportunity! He would’ve needed to learn somehow, so why not let him practice on a snotty little brat like you.”

I glanced around, we were the only people on deck other than…”The chihuahua?” 

The woman glared at me “I thought you were smarter. No dear, not a chihuahua, a chimera !” and at those words the dog seemed to grow, with ever bark and snarl it grew a foot taller until it was almost as tall as the room, I could clearly make out the words on the collar. ‘Chimera, Rabid, breaths fire, if found return to underworld in LA’

I took a step back, my hand grazing the cool wall behind me as the giant dog huffed then blew a ball of fire at me. I narrowly dodged as i fell to the side frantically trying to put out my hair as it burned , oh god got to put this out FAST. half of my hair burned away from my mid-back to just past my shoulders.

I quickly rolled out of the way as another ball of fire blew past me, I glanced back and saw a giant hole in the floor, I could see the ground below and sighed to myself. A soft glow, the color of parchment, and owls appeared next to the hole, seeming to lecture me about the damage.

I grabbed my charm and swung at the chimera as my spear appeared, the end blazing with Greek fire, I paused, getting flashbacks before the chimera tried to bite down on me, and I quickly had to stab it through its mouth and head. The woman screeched and tried to charge at me, but as the chimera sulked and exploded into gold dust, I stumbled back and fell down the hole down to the ground.

I looked down one last time, my eyes searching the crowd for my friends, and I smiled as I saw Damian and Helen by the fountain, away from the danger before I plunged into black, the ground seeming to swallow me up.

Chapter Text

I open my eyes to more black . I reached around but couldn't reach any walls, unable to see or feel anything other than the fast wind and me, I felt overwhelmed.

I started to cry, I was alone and scared and was on the verge of death. I curled into myself as I continued to descend. I must’ve been falling forever.

What a horrible way to die, I thought to myself. At some point the hole got a bit smaller, and as I reached out my hand grazed dirt and rocks. I quickly pulled my hand back before I cut it on something and glanced underneath me, and at the very bottom of the hole was a gold glow. It was much different than the one Mike and Chiron had, this one was warm and welcoming, it looked like spring.

I braced myself as I rapidly approached the bottom, when I felt something on my back and my descent slowed, I took a minute to taken in my surroundings, I seemed to be in a small little cavern, and there were plants everywhere crawling up the walls. I heard a small pop sound and whipped my head around to see a woman with long green hair, leaves sticking out in different spots. The woman had similar nails to me with long black claws, the green color on her fingers climbs all the way up her hand to her wrist. She had large black bat wings, and she had vibrant pink eyes the color of a sunset.

I was staring face to face with Persephone.

If I stared for too long, her from seemed to shift slightly, though she looked much the same, but it seemed like her soul had meshed with another when she changed. I could help but blush from embarrassment, here I was in front of this goddess, let alone my mom in my horrible condition, if I focused too hard I could almost smell the burnt hair, I must’ve looked like a mess.

The goddess let out a small laugh before appearing behind me, fiddling with my hair as she quietly hummed. I sat there awkwardly, I slowly relaxed and gave myself time to breathe as she continued playing with my hair, which I slowly realized was her evening it out, until my hair was all the same length. Surprisingly, when I looked at my newly cut hair, the green tips seemed to adjust to the new length, though now a much darker more muted forest green.

“I don't have too much time now, darling, your friends will be looking for you.” She was carefully picking out flowers and gently weaving them into a flower crown, at times she seemed somewhat translucent, constantly fluxing between forms. “I need you to go to LA and find me and Hades in the underworld. And please, don't trust the gifts.”

She carefully placed the flower crown on my head, and helped pull me up from the floor. I glanced behind me and noticed two black wings on my back, I tried to open them, though was unsure how to do so, and when I figured it out I got a good look at them, they were bat wings.

“How did I-” I muttered, looking at the wings in awe. 

The woman let out a laugh. “Those are your wings honey, don't worry, with training you’ll be able to hide them unless you want them out. And be care fully with them, they’re very sensitive! But now you really must get going.”

She put an asphodel behind my ear before planting a small kiss on my nose, and the next thing I knew I was just off the banks of the Mississippi River, quite a few feet away from the arch. I struggled to my feet, feeling weirdly off balance. I thought I had gotten used to teleporting, but this was something different.

Off in the distance, I could see Helen and Damian Looking for me. I shuffled my way over to them, Helen sprinting over to me as soon as she caught sight of me, with Damian in tow, his tail whipping behind him. They both threw me to the ground as they tackled me.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” Helen shouted as punched me in the arm. I quickly covered my ears from her yelling “Jeez calm down I'm not deaf, I'm in fact the farthest thing from it so if you could not shout directly in my ears please that’d be nice.”

“Hey, YOU didn't have to watch your one friend fall out of a 600-foot building, just disappear!” Damian argued. He looked a lot better, though it was clear he was still very stressed.

“Aww did you just call me your friend?” I joked to lighten the mood, it was nice to hear someone actually call me their friend, I smiled to myself, “I didn't get along with most people a lot.”

Damian looked up at me slightly surprised before looking away embarrassed, “Well yeah, I’m not well liked at camp, and even then the closest friends I got are my half siblings.” his eyes darkened, I smiled at him and lunged at him, grabbing him in a hug.

“Well, I consider you two my friends too!” I laughed as Helen threw herself on top of us, making a huge pile of tangled up limbs. “You guys are my friends too!” she said in her usual sing-song voice.

After laying there for a while, we all got up to plan what to do.

“All right so I got a visit from Mo-Persephone, she said I have to go to LA so her and me can talk more, then we can head to Santa Monica and confront Poseidon, all we have to do is figure out how we can get from here to there within” I paused, doing the math “Within 5 days, we could probably do that, right?”

After sitting in the grass by the banks for the river for a few moments more, the group decided to go to a diner close by to get some food. On their way there I noticed a fountain and quickly separated from the group, pulling out a drachma.

“Alright lets see if i can do this correctly,” I held up the drachma until it was shining in the sun “O Goddess, Accept my offering!” as tossed the golden coin into the mist, I paused waiting when I remembered with a quick shrug “oh, yeah. Camp Half blood!”

I smiled as a familiar view of camp came into view, it looked like the porch of the big house, off in the distance I could hear fighting. In front of me was a man with very familiar curly brown hair.

“Mike! Hey, how's camp?” I smiled, glad to see him again.

Mike looked around before turning and see me, ‘Flower! I'm glad you remembered what I showed you, How's the quest?” He smiled a smile that could brighten a room. I found myself blushing

“I told you to stop with the silly nickname!” I scolded him, but my heart wasn’t in it, it was nice that I had my own nickname. “Anyways the quests been fine I guess, Hows the camp? I can hear the fighting, whats happening?” I paused, listening into the arguing for a moment “Why are cabins picking sides?”

Mike paused, looking at me with a look of pride on his face “wow, you heard all that from over here, through the IM? You weren’t joking about that super hearing. Where’d you get that from anyway?” He seemed to be deep in thought, it didnt take much to tell he was upset and frustrated.

“Word got out about the Hades vs Zeus drama, and cabins started picking sides. We still don't know who did it, but it was probably the guy who summoned the hellhound. Anyway Apollo and Ares are backing Hades and Athena is backing Zeus, though we’ll have to see if any others join in. Personally, I’m not picking sides.”

I sighed, “this whole mess was totally blown out of proportion.”

Mike nodded “Anyway Flower, I wish I could be there to help you, I can’t do much from here, but listen. It has to be Poseidon, right? He was there on Olympus when it got stolen.”

I paused, something wasn’t adding up, I ignored the sea foam aura that was hovering over the water fountain. “I thought the gods weren’t able to take each other's weapons, at least not directly. Unless the research I did was wrong?”

Mike looked more and more troubled. “Yeah, but I mean, he’s the only one that makes sense, right? He’s trapped Zeus before, you probably know it since you do your research.” He gave me a teasing grin and i found myself nodding, trying to hide my blushing. “He might be plotting to just overthrow him this time, since it didn't work last time.”

Mike stopped, seeming to be in a trance. “How are the shoes working for ya? You are using them, right?” He had this mischievous glint in his eyes, which shone more yellow than green.

I stuttered out a response, I couldn’t tell him that I left them in the car when we left, he’d be heartbroken, and I didn’t want to lose another friend. “Yeah, they’ve been great.”

The mist disappeared, and the IM started to fade out “I'm glad, well I’ll see you if you get back, oh and tell Damian it’ll be fine this time, no one will end up a pine…” and with that Mike disappeared. I wondered what he was talking about but decided to drop it.

I had to go and catch up with my friends, but imagine my surprise when I walked in and at the table they were at sat war himself. Ares.

Chapter Text

I squinted at the god sitting across from me for a good few minutes, though his aura reeked of blood, boar, war and…alliance? He looked nothing like Damian, though it was hard to tell.

“I’m surprised to have found you here, demigod, this is no place kids like you, you should eat some real food.” Ares leaned back, letting out a long sigh.

“So I heard you beat Damian at his own game during capture the flag, knocking him unconscious? That's pretty impressive to do to any of my kids. Surprised to see him tagging along with you.” Ares smiled at me

he seemed to flux between forms, but as his form settled he looked similar to Damian, black hair with some red streaks in it, but unlike Damian’s, whose hair hung just above his shoulders, Ares’s was buzzed like he was fresh into the military, but his eyes were much older, pitch black voids that showed horrors unimaginable to ones mind.

“He was being mean at the time, but he made up for it,” I shrugged, eyeing the god again. “Why are you here, don’t you have more important things to do? And why are you being so nice ? Thought you’d be antagonizing us or something.”

Ares nodded thoughtfully, thinking. “I got a deal for you kids, I was out with…a friend of mine, and left my shield there. I need you three demigods to go grab it for me, and in return I’ll set you guys up with a ride to wherever you need to go.”

The three of us looked at each other, unsure on whether to take up this offer, it was pretty solid….suspiciously so.

“Why don’t you just grab it yourself? You wouldn’t need to bother helping us, and you’d just get it back without anything tied to it.” Damian blurted out, he quickly covers his mouth and looked down, embarrassed about talking back to his dad.

Ares’s eyes seemed to turn ablaze, yet there was no fire. Some type of gold mist seemed to be holding him. As he turned to face Damian, I quickly interrupted, “we’ll do it”

Ares seemed to calm down and I could see the golden mist disappear. “Alright, and to make sure you guys come back, I’ll be keeping Damian here for a little talk .”

Helen and I glanced over at each other, nervous on what to do, we couldn’t leave Damian here after that little display, but we also knew there was no way we were going to get to LA in time without Ares's help.

I sighed and looked back at Ares, “Alright, where do we have to go?”

 We stood outside the closed down water park. Helen and I exchanged glances, and we stared at the giant gate, it was locked up with many chains and padlocks, and over top was barbed wire.

“How do we get in? I'm not climbing over that.” Helen gestured to the barbed wire, looking over at me.

“I have an idea, but you’ll have to trust me on this, okay?” I smiled mischievously at her. She sighed and shook her head “As long as it doesn’t require you falling from a building” She elbowed me jokingly, I nudged her back.

“I can shift us to the other side, or teleport, whatever you want to call it” I shrugged “Just know it's kind of a weird feeling the first many times, so you might get a bit nauseous.” I gave her a sheepish smile as she groaned.

“Fine, it's not like there's any other options.” She looked over at me and took my hand as I focused on the other side, it was really useful that the sun was setting, it made more shadows for us to shift into. I closed my eyes as I fluxed and melted into darkness, I could hear Helen gasp next to me and when I opened my eyes we were on the other side of the gate. I grabbed her before she could fall over, carefully sitting her on the ground.

“That...was the worst feeling ever. It was like there was no warmth, no sun, no light at all. Gods, I think I'm going to be sick…”

I let her have a moment as she heaved for a few minutes, by now the sun had almost complete set and Helen wasn't looking any better. We wandered around for a while, exploring the place. At some point we found a souvenir shop, and were quick to change into new clean clothes since ours were quite messy.

After walking for a little longer, we found an empty pool with a bunch of cupid statues around, with an entrance that said ‘Tunnel of love, this isn't your parent's ride’ and a boat. After looking for another way in but not finding one, we ended up having to ride the ride.

“Why would anyone go here for a date? Especially a god? Is it just me or is this kind of suspicious…”

Helen looked at me, startled. “You think there's a trap or something?”

I sighed, it was seriously suspicious that a god would be scared or nervous to come get their own shield from a water park, it was clear something else was going on, but what.

“In history, Ares and Aphrodite were a thing, no? But Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus, so isn’t it strange that Ares wouldn’t come back here? I think it has something to do with that.”

Helen nodded along thoughtfully, “They tend to have to go to out of the way spots because Hephaestus likes to embarrass them and broadcast it to all of Olympus, it's kind of a game to them to see if he can catch them or not.”

“So you’re saying Hephaestus makes traps for gods, do you think that's why Ares wouldn’t come back? Cause this is one of his traps?” I pointed out.

“Maybe, but-hey, look up there! There's a platform!” I looked to see where Helen was pointing, up ahead there was an out-of-place platform, a tall shadow loomed over top and as we got closer we could see a giant statue, and in its arms was a familiar shield

“Alright, this is a pretty slow ride, but still be careful jumping out, these are some pretty rough waters.”

I jumped first, then helped Helen over, before turning our focus to the towering statue in front of us, all around were cupid statues, but this one looked familiar “who's this statue of? It looks familiar, but I just can't seem to place it.” 

We walked around the statue, trying to see if there were any traps. The statue was of a somewhat curvy woman, a veil over the face in classic ancient Greek clothing. She was giving off some similar energy to both the Aphrodite and Hephaestus kids from camp.

“Hey, I can shift up there and grab it, then we can run, in case something activates.” I pointed up to the statue where the shield was. “Plus, I can give you a heads-up if anything is attached so we aren’t caught off guard.”

Helen nodded and gave me a thumbs up before I shifted up to the shoulders of the statue, which was no easy feat with the lights blazing down on us. I looked down at the shield, noticing a wire attached to the shield, I poked around but couldn't find away to safely disarm whatever trap was set up.

“Hey just prepare yourself, there's a tripwire attached to this so when I grab this something is going off!” I shouted down at her. She nodded and seemed to brace herself. In one switch moment I grabbed the shield and carefully swung myself down from the statue as…nothing happened.

I looked over at Helen, who looked as puzzled and on edge as me. Suddenly there was a loud creak and the tunnel started to flood. The cupid statues turned towards us, revealing cameras, as overtop the loudspeaker someone started counting down. “GOING LIVE TO OLYMPUS IN 59…58…57…56…”

I Grabbed Helen and dragged her over to the river, and down the tunnel I could see another boat coming, until out from the walls came millions upon millions of mechanical spiders, and I froze.

“33…32…31...30...29...”

I screamed and backed away, still dragging Helen who was trying to help calm me down when I tripped and fell backwards just for it to go black, then we were outside again. I got up and looked around, next to me was the shield and in front of me, laying passed out, was Helen.

I rushed over to her, making sure she was okay. She was pale and very warm, and it was clear she had gotten sick. I picked her up and grabbed the shield, before starting to try and get back to the dinner, trying to forget the spiders. When Helen woke up I would have to do some serious apologizing to do.

After what felt like forever, I finally managed to get us back to the diner, where I was met with a puffy eyed Damian and a smoking Ares, like he literally looked like he was about to burst into flames and there was literal smoke coming off him. Damian helped me lay down Helen as Ares just mumbled to himself about how weak the newer demigods were, I shot him a glare, and he stopped muttering out loud, but I could feel his glare on me as I went back to focusing on Helen.

I shoved the shield onto the table before turning to Ares. “We got your stupid shield, now you were saying you could get us a ride to LA, right? Or are you going to fail to uphold your end of the deal.”

Ares scoffed before snapping his fingers, calling a waitress over, giving her an order before shooing her away. “Your rides outside, but I figured I might as well feed you brats, or how else will you guys going to complete the quest, I'm cold but not heartless.”

He stood up, giving us one last look before point over at Damian, who visibly stiffened. “Remember what I told you, okay? Take care of it. Oh, and here's some stuff I guess” He then tossed us a backpack and left, out the windows you could see him driving away on his chariot.

 After eating, we looked around outside for our ride, but all we could find was this truck that said kindness International; Humane zoo transport! And left without any other options, we hopped in the back and hid ourselves amongst all the stuff inside.

It took awhile, but the van finally started moving, and we were on our way to LA.

Chapter Text

If I wasn’t illegally in this van I’d try to talk to a manager, not because it smelled like animal dung, well that was part of it, but because of the state of the animals.

There was a gazelle, a zebra, and a lion it two separate cages, the food clearly swapped as the zebra and gazelle had a tray full of hamburger beef and the lion, which no one would get close to base off the urine all over and its matted mane, had a giant sack of turnips and hay.

The zebra had wads of gum in its mane and the gazelle had a balloon tied to one of its horns, I carefully removed the balloon and tried to get the wads of gum out of its mane but in the end i only managed to get out a few, and quickly using my spear to swap out the food while Damian took care of Helen, who was more or less awake.

“When we stop, I am letting them out. Humane zoo transport?  How is this humane at all!” I gestured to the confined space, “I can't imagine how it must feel for the animals”

Helen mumbled in agreement, now being able to sit up. Damian and I got her caught up and Helen, still being tired, went back to sleep for a bit when Damian turned to me “hey, can you cut my hair? As short as you can make it.” He sounded upset and had this feeling of gloom around him

“Are you sure? You seem off after your talk with your dad and-”

“JUST CUT IT OFF! Gods, why are you making this so hard…” He huffed and turned away from me, “I’ll just wait for Helen to wake up.”

“I’ll do it.”

He turned to me, surprised by how serious I was. We dug around in both our bags to find something to cut it with, and some story telling as we found a dagger in his bag to use.

“How come you had nothing to cut my hair with when you came out of the arch with super short hair, I mean it was down to your back, and now it's above your shoulders!”

“Oh well my stepmom- gods it feels weird saying that- Persephone wanted to chat with me, I told you that, didn't I? Well, while she was giving me advice, she was evening out my hair because while I was fighting the chimera it burnt most of my hair off on one side.”

“Oh seriously? She’d do that for you, considering you’re her husband's affair child?”

I cringed at that comment, sighing “yeah…. His affair child, it's so weird she helped me…”

We sat in silence for a bit as I tried to clean up his hair. He looked so weird with short hair, it didn’t suit him or his aura at all. It was still a bit choppy and would definitely need to be cleaned up by a professional with actual scissors.

“Hey, so I IM’d Mike earlier, and he said something about pine? Does this have something to do with the girl next to the pine tree before we left?”

Damian froze, he looked back at me in horror. “You can see her?”

“Am I not supposed to? I mean, I was worried about her since she had such a fatal wound to her head, but otherwise I just thought she was another-” I stopped, realization dawning on me.

“She's dead, isn't she?”

Damian seemed to be deep in thought, muttering and looking back and forth. “How can you do this…if you can do this then…maybe…”

“What? Maybe what?”

Damian stopped, realizing he was thinking out loud. “Well, I just thought that if you can see ghosts, maybe you can talk to them. Or bring them back! Since…uh…you know…you’re a Hades kid.”

I internally screamed at myself. I really shouldn’t have gone along with this. “I don't know, I shouldn’t have asked about her, I'm sorry. We should probably just go to sleep.” I slid over and wiped the hair away. Damian looked like he wanted to say something, but just nodded and laid down himself. I rested my head on a sack of potatoes and tried to fall asleep.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a white void, with nothing but a desk and chair. At least I thought until I looked over and saw a familiar girl with brown and blue hair. Tears streaked her face, though she didn't look like she was crying. She looked fierce, brave, and a bit surprised.

“Who are you?”

It took a moment for her to register that I was talking to her.

“Nila. Nila Aerliyn. How are you seeing me? I've tried so hard to in the past…”

I pitied her, I don’t know what I’d do if I was trapped alone, unable to reach out for help or comfort. “I’m Florence Nekros. Daughter of…” I paused, I knew this might cause some trouble later, but I needed to talk to someone. “I’m the daughter of Persephone.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I got fake claimed by Hades, and now I'm on this whole quest.”

“Oh, That must be fun. I’m a child of Zeus, and it has its pros and cons. I got saved on the verge of death, but also got chased by monsters.” She shrugged as best she could. I let out a small laugh.

“Hey, why do you look like you’re crying all the time?”

Suddenly she froze, the dream morphing until I was in a black void with strings and green mist all around.

Y̶̞̚o̸͙͒Ù̶̫ ̴̂͜a̶̰̿R̴̞͂è̵͈ ̸̖͆M̷̬̈́ẽ̵̡s̵̫͛Ṣ̶̈S̴̛͓i̷̩̔n̵͊͜Ǧ̶̮ ̶̗̋W̶͈̾ǐ̴̩t̴͎́H̷̱͂ ̶̗͑f̶̤̿À̵̱T̷̗̅Ḙ̵̌

I woke up to shaking as Damian was over top of me, shaking my shoulders trying to wake me up.

“Hurry! They’ve stopped the van, we have to hide!”

I looked around and saw the familiar sunny aura off next to the door up against the wall. Damian and I ducked behind some crates of hay as I heard the men shuffle their way over and the back door opened.

“Hey, you get those two over there, I got the lion.” One man said. The other man made his way over to the cage the zebra and antelope were in. “I wish I hauled appliances instead, luckily we’ll be getting rid of you this stop stripes. You like magic shows? They’re gonna saw you in half!” the man laughed as he refiled the water container. The man who was talking earlier refiled the Lion's water, splashing some on the lion's face, much to the lion's displeasure.

The men were lured out by banging, with Helen sneaking back in, looking healthier than she did the night before. “Come on, help the animals out and let's go !”

I used my spear to break the locks, as I thought about getting a smaller, more practical weapon. I didn’t even realize I was muttering blessings to them until Helen asked me what I was doing.

I could hear the men turning the engine on as the door began to shut. We ran out of there, and watched as both the men and the animals leave off in the distance. It wasn't until afterward, we realized we forgot Helen and Damian’s bags, leaving us with only one bag of supplies, plus the one Ares gave us.

“Come on, let's find a place to crash for a little bit, preferably with air conditioning and water, that van was hooot” I complained, getting a laugh from Helen, Damian shaking his head in disappointment, but he was smiling too.

After walking for a while, we found a strange hotel with a giant flower over top. The surrounding area seemed warped, fluxing and changing. This was some weird magic, so after some convincing we decided to only stay for a day, then we’d leave and to not touch anything before I made sure it wasn’t tainted by whatever magic was around this place, although I don't think they were taking me completely seriously.

And so we entered the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

Chapter Text

The place was giant inside, video games, food, different table games were going on, there was even a slide. For a split second I thought it wouldn’t be that bad if we stayed a little longer than planned but when I noticed the fog that started to swarm around both Helen and Damian’s heads as they looked around I quickly snapped out of it.

I dragged them with me as we looked for someplace to check in at, when a worker came running up to us, the same fog around their head.

“Hello! Welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino! Here's a room key for you three!”

I stopped Damian from grabbing the card, eyeing the worker. “Sorry, you must have the wrong people. We haven’t paid yet.”

The person paused, their smile still on their face, “Oh don’t worry about that! The bill’s been paid for, so if you need anything you can call the front desk! Here, these are your LotusCash cards you can use them on games, rides, and at the restaurants. If you need help finding anything, just let us know!”

I decided to see how much I can play with whatever magic was going on here, clearly it wasn’t designed to be fought with if the workers pause before saying anything was to go by. This wasn’t a normal hotel, based on everything we’ve seen as well as the other occupants who all had the same fog around them, this was a place to trap people.

“I am so sorry but again I think you have the wrong people!” I feigned denial. Of course, they had the right people, there was no bill to be paid other than your life. “If you could show us to a manager of some sorts we can get this all sorted out.”

In real time you could see the worker blue screen. The smile never left their face, but they definitely were more irritated, their helpfulness and kindness seeming forced now.

“Sure! Come right this way, I’m so sorry your time here has been so unpleasant.”

I smiled to myself as we followed. Helen had seemed to snap out of it, though Damian was still confused on why we were putting up such a fight. I was sure we’d just be led around to no one, but It was a surprise when we were shown a table where there sat a familiar aura of luck and strawberries. 

“Hermes?”

The god turned to me with a familiar smile. I could see where Mike and his siblings got their looks from. “Well, what a surprise. You’re a clear-sighted demigod, meaning you can see spells and magic. That’s very rare, you know. That tends to be an Apollo kid ability, you’re very lucky!” He gestured to the seat in front of him. I told Helen to watch Damian and make sure he doesn’t get lost.

“So, would you like something to eat? Maybe some juice?” He winked at me before summoning a cup of pomegranate juice.

“Lotus free, if you can please” I smiled. He waved its hand and I saw the fog disappear before I took a sip.

“So, why are you here? I didn’t think you’d need to see me during your stay.”

I shrugged, “I wanted to mess with the magic fog. I didn’t expect to be brought to a god. Honestly at the bare minimum if you could make it so we don't get trapped here that's all I’d like.”

He laughed, waving his hands again dismissing me “I don’t think you’ll need my help with that demigod, but consider it taken care of”

I smiled as I got up to go find Helen and Damian. “By the way, could you check-in with Mike?”

Hermes stopped, the surrounding area dampening, “Why, has he gotten into some trouble?”

I paused, thinking how to word it. “You two have very similar auras, or souls, if you want to call it that. But it seems that he has something, like, attached to him? I’ve seen it on a few other people, but his was the only one that seemed to be directly interacting with his soul.”

Hermes seemed to be in deep thought, a concerned look on his face. “I’ll make sure to do that when I have the chance, thank you for telling me.”
I smiled meekly, nodding before I went off to find my friends.

“Gods…where could they have run off to?”

It felt like an hour, and I still could not find them. I sighed in relief as I heard a familiar hissing sound of Damian. I started to run over to it when I ran into someone

“Oh gosh i'm so sorry let me help…” I paused as I looked at the boy. He had a very familiar aura to him and I felt strangely connected to him.

“Hi, I'm Florence, what's your name?”

The boy stared for a bit, and as we looked at each other I could almost feel a bond forming, this kid was someone I knew, but not yet. “My name is Ciro.”

I helped the boy up when I could hear a girl calling his name. “Thats my sister, Thana. I got to go.”

“Wait!” I yelled after him. I quickly picked up the cards he had dropped. Some game called ‘Mythomagic’. I pocketed it, hoping to run into him again as I continued to run over to Damian. After some convincing we found Helen who had allowed herself to get distracted and was also looking for us and we ran out without any one stopping us.

Chapter Text

“So, where did she say to go exactly?”

“I don’t know, she said to go to LA, but she didn't exactly give me a location.”

Helen paused before pointing at me again, “Didn’t Hermes say you’re strong sighted? Maybe you can see where it is! We just have to walk around until you see a hint or something!”

I cringed a little. “I don’t think that’s how this works, I mean I’ve seen curses or sometimes see what the correct choice is, but otherwise I don’t see that much magic, I just can see it more clearly, like how some mortals can see through ‘the mist’. Sure you can see more stuff, but otherwise not that useful”

Damian frowned, “If you can see the correct choices, is that why you didn't kill Medusa? Why you wouldn’t let us stay at the hotel? Not like it changes much, we were in there for a whole day. You got to tell us this stuff!”

I put my hands up, “In my defense I didn’t realize it was just me until I talked to Hermes! We can try and see if it’ll apply to me finding wherever we need to go, but I really doubt that it will.”

We were walking for a while, though it felt like circles. Every street looked the same, and the noise was so disorienting that I couldn’t tell if I was seeing any hints or signs or not. I think Helen could tell the sound was stressing me out because she stopped in a store and got me noise-canceling headphones, which helped a ton.

At some point I realized we were looping back to the same shop, a mattress store called ‘crusty’s water beds’ and as I looked inside the edges of my eyesight glowed green again, meaning we were heading in the right direction.

“I guess this is it. You guys don’t have to come with me, I mean, I’m going to the underworld of all things. I would never expect you guys to come along.” I glanced back at my friends, and to my surprise, Helen piped up.

“We’ve come all this way. We’re a team, we stick together, fight together. I’m not just going to bail on a quest!”

Damian nodded “Besides, we’re going to your dad’s realm, if anything this is safer than going into the ocean at this point. Plus, how often do you get to go to the underworld?”

Their faces were full of determination, and in that moment I truly realized that they weren't leaving. I grinned, and pushed open the door. A faint bell rang, and a man turned towards us, a snide grin cut across his face as he approached us.

“Hello there, valued customers! Come, come, try out these lovely beds. Let's see…” He analyzed Damian before dragging him over to one of the beds. “This one should fit you just fine! Come, try it out!”

I grabbed Helen and slowly inched us towards the counter, gesturing to Damian to not touch the bed. Even without the clear spells cast on the beds, this guy gave me the creeps. The man suddenly twisted towards us, a scowl etched into his skin.

“You two aren't getting away so easily.” And before we could react he pushed Damian onto the bed and snapped, ropes twisted and tied themselves around him as he struggled.

We looked on in horror before he suddenly was grabbing Helen, throwing her onto another bed and doing the same to her. The man then turned towards me, his eyes a pool of blue. “How.”

I freeze, startled by the inquiry. “Huh?”

“How did you know about the traps? You shouldn’t have known what would happen.” He sneered. His face contorted in a grin as he started to laugh. “You can see it, can't you! You came in here to make me a fool!” He pointed a crooked finger at me, “You rude, vile brat! Because of this, I will kill you last, let your friends suffer as you watch.”

As he said those words, the world seemed to slow down, my mind seemed to be filled with some type of fog and my vision seemed to tunnel.

“No one will threaten what is mine.”

That’s the last thing I remember before I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I was finishing cutting the ropes on Damian. My hands seemed faintly stained and my arms ached. I looked up and Helen was hovering behind the desk counter, the creepy man was nowhere to be seen, but in the back of my mind there was a faint ringing.

In silence, we opened a storage closet in the back and went down into the underworld. I didn’t dare ask what had happened, somewhere in my heart I knew. We entered what seemed like a waiting room at the doctors, I walked up to the desk where a skeletal man was mumbling behind it. “Excuse me, I need to talk to my parents.”

The man looked up at me, his name tag read ‘Charon’. “You have payment?” he muttered.

“Do I need payment to talk to Hades?”

Charon stared at me for what felt like hours before nodding behind him, turning back to whatever he was working on. “Just back there, follow the signs.”

“Thank you!” I paused before digging in my bag and putting a few drachmas on his desk, and as we walked past, I could feel his gaze follow us out.

The underworld seemed huge, everywhere you looked there seemed to be floods of people. For the place of the dead, it was quite lively. The place glowed blues and greens, there were many plants and vines covering the walls and ceiling and there were different structures, similar to ruins of ancient Greek and Roman architecture.

“This place gives me the creeps.” Helen muttered

I stared astounded at Helen, ‘What do you mean?”

“It's just-” Helen paused, waves of stress washing over her face,”it's unnatural for me, it's off, not right. It feels like being lost in a forest.”

I tilted my head at her curiously, her description catching me off guard. “Lost? Like, confused?” If anything I thought a child of Apollo would love forests, when it clicked. “Oh, I get it now, if you want you don't have to come along, believe me. You don’t have to self-sacrifice for me, I don't want you to pass out again.”

She gave me a small smile and shook her head, sliding past me. Damian looked back at me and shrugged before following after her. I sighed and shook my head as I followed closely behind to make sure we didn't get lost.

The farther we walked it felt like the space was getting smaller, people funneled into multiple lines, pushing through the people when we came up to what looked like airport security.

“Whoa, so this is how they sort people into the afterlife?” I heard Damian mutter. We carefully went around, passing the fields of asphodels.

'Isn't this the place where people who didn't do much in life got, or was it people with regrets?’ I pondered, trying to remember. Not paying them much mind as they went along, though I did notice Damian’s eyes lingered on the fields longer before pulling them away.

We walked for what felt like an eternity, at some point we realized that we had passed the fields, approaching the house of Hades. Somewhere in my gut I felt something was wrong, it shouldn’t have been this easy, it couldn’t be this simple.

At that moment, the ground rumbled with a giant roar as a crushing force seemed to hit them, flinging them off their path into the distance.

Helen groaned as we all crawled back up, seeming to have landed on some sort of steep hill of sand and gravel. 

I glanced around when I realized I didn't have my bag, looking down the hill to see it tumbling down, my heart stopping as I saw the giant crater at the bottom. I quickly ran after it, trying to not fall down after it, just managing to grab it before it fell into the hole when another roar came, causing me to lose my balance and almost fall in myself.

Damian quickly grabbed me before I fell, with the help of Helen they dragged me back over the edge before we fell into a pile of limbs.

“What the Hades was that?!” Damian sputtered, pulling up both me and Helen.

“I don’t know, but something wanted us down there. This isn’t right.” Helen muttered. In that moment I could see her father in her, imagining this to be how he looked when piecing together the future.

“I’m not sure, but let's hurry, we got to talk to Hades.” Damian said as we started climbing back up the hill.

“Great, now we’re even farther away now.” I peered out into the distance, the House of Hades being now a speck in the distance.

“I really don’t want to walk another hundred miles, can you just ask him to bring us there or something?” Helen queried, she looked exhausted.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, the ground swallowed us up into the dark before spitting us out onto cold obsidian floors.

“Hughhh… PLEASE stop that, I would rather not get sick.” Helen sprawled herself onto the floor

“Whoa! That was so cool! Did you do that Florence?” Damian asked in awe, his hair was a mess

“That wasn't me this time-” I muttered, looking around. The room was made of marbled obsidian with bronze adornments, intricate details carved into the walls and column pillars around the room, vines and flowers adorned the ceiling and on the far back wall was a detailed stained-glass window of a woman and there right in front of them was Hades.

Chapter Text

Florence stared as she sat up on the floor, trying took look more presentable in front of the god.

Sure, she met him in the cabin, but he looked way more majestic and formal here. He had a blue and black chiton with glowing white hair that cascaded down his shoulders and had stunning emerald green eyes.

She took a long look at her surroundings, taking in every detail. She took notice of the window on the far back wall that looked to be a depiction of Persephone.

"Oh my gods..." Damian muttered.

“I apologize for the sudden transport, I should’ve given more warning” Hades said, his white hair seemed to glow against the darkness of the room, complementing his ram horns and feathers.

"So you're the Hades, kinda thought you'd look different." Helen muttered to her self before quickly correcting herself and apologizing for her comment.

“Anyway, I was told to come find you?” I turned back to the familiar god

Hades' face turned serious, “Yes, I hate to get you involved with my issues, but my hand has been forced. You see, my helm has been stolen, disappearing a few days before the bolt was stolen. Now while I doubt Poseidon has anything to do with either robberies, on the off chance he is I wanted to ask you to help beforehand, and give you proper warning. Though he is more merciful than Zeus, he does not take well to accusations against him. The ocean is very possessive of what is its own.”

The silence that followed was suffocating as I exchanged nervous looks with both Helen and Damian, only to be broken by Hades speaking

“Because of this both me and Persephone decided to give you this as a gift and for protection,” He bent down and seemed to grab something from the earth itself, holding up a forest green gem that seemed to spill out of his hand into a silk shawl that seemed to glitter and shine at all angles, the clasp being a beautiful raspberry pink crystal in the shape of a pomegranate.

“The shawl is from me, it will transform into whatever you feel most comfortable to wear. The clasp from Persephone. Remember, the ocean does not like to release what it claims its own, you must be extremely careful, or you could lose it all.”

Something told me he wasn’t talking about just the gifts

He helped wrap the shawl around me, seeming to study the clasp in most detail as he clipped it on. As he took a step back, the shawl changed, transforming into a scarf and the clasp seemed to disappear, just barely standing out against the amount of fabric.

“You know, she would have loved to be here to talk to you too, but as per our agreement she has to stay up in the overworld.” A soft smile poked at the corner of his mouth. “Well It’s time to send you kids off on your own, may we meet again in the far, far future.” Hades swept his hand over all of us, both Helen and Damian disappearing into black

“Wait, I wanted to ask about something that happened while we were on our way here.”

Hades paused, “Something happened to you here?”

I shifted my gaze to the stained-glass window, realizing the woman depicted was none other than Persephone, just for there to be desolate and past it. “While we were walking here, something tried to pull my bag into this giant hole, and when we stopped it, it tried to pull us in too. I worry that if circumstances were different, something worse could have happened…”

Hades seemed deep in thought, starting to pace back and forth in front of his throne, “this is bad, worse than I thought.” He glanced back over at me, pausing his rambling

“You do not have to worry, I’ll make sure to make it more secure, alright, little flower?” He waved his hand over me, and in an instant I was in a back alleyway, once again in LA.

After walking a few blocks, I managed to find Helen and Damian who were looking for me after I didn’t teleport with them.

"alright, game plan is i go and talk to Poseidon and see about retrieving the bolt and the helm while you too make sure that there isnt any loose ends to this that might be a problem and mainly as land support in case something happens." i look to the two of them, Helen and Damian both nodding along as i go

I let out a shakey breath "wish me luck, i got to go talk to my uncle, and sadly he is not known for his temper..."

I wave bye to my friends as i walk onto the dock and as i stared into the deep blue water i almost see a pair of eyes stare back before a took a dive off the dock.

Imediatley as I hit the water it feels like the current is dragging me to the deepest depths and as i try to readjust myself all i could feel was

sinking

sinking

sinking