'Born of night and darkness they come;
By their might banish the pit yawning wide;
By their hand does Olympus bleed and divide;
And the sixth age shall begin.'
Dionysus and Chiron stared at Rachael with blank faces. Then they dashed to her as she crumbled.
"That was a prophecy, a Great Prophecy. But why were her eyes glowing black?" Chiron wondered.
Chiron began to recite the prophecy,
"Born of night and darkness they come;
By their might banish the pit yawning wide;"
"Tartarus!?" wondered Dionysus and then recited the rest,
"By their hand does Olympus bleed and divide;
And the sixth age shall begin."
There was a momentary silence into which Dionysus said in a low voice with a hint of fear,
"Sounds like its set in stone."
Chiron was thinking of the last line. 'And the sixth age shall begin.' Every age ended with utmost destruction. He looked up in fear at the ceiling. But what he was truly gazing at in his mind was Olympus.
"Thanks." said Jade as those who hadn't yet wished her and Lucian 'a happy birthday' were now wishing them as they started to sit around the campfire for the sing-along.
"Happy birthday . . ." a voice said and then added, "mutts!"
She turned around to see that it was Clarisse. Jade took a step towards her but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder; Lucian's.
"If only you are as good with swords as you are with you words." he said with a small smile.
Clarisse growled but did nothing. Her eyes fell on his hand; he was fiddling with the bracelet which she knew transformed into a long sword. She could never defeat Lucian. Their first match, he toyed with her so much that Chiron himself had to step in. He always had a comeback for her every taunt. He slipped through every ambush she had placed. He dragged his twin sister away while looking at Clarisse with a small sneer. Clarisse's eyes fell on the Hunters of Artemis; they were glaring at Lucian as well. Few months ago, as he was hunting a monster, he had stumbled upon them bathing. Enraged, Artemis cursed him only to find that her curse had no effect on him. Apparently what irritated the goddess most was that he was not bothered with any of them, they might as well have been the rocks and trees behind them, and he went after the monster. Then her eyes fell on the Aphrodite's cabin; they were also glaring at the twins. Aphrodite was jealous that Jade had caught Ares' attention and also that Jade could look upon her even in her divine form. Clarisse hated Jade because her father started to have a thing for her, ever since Jade had beaten seven Colchis bulls into a pulp on her own.
Many cabins went along quite well with them, few didn't; namely of Ares, Artemis and Aphrodite. For some reason the twins refuse to near Nemesis' cabin and look at it with irritation. Everyone there knew that there was something odd about them; for one, they didn't have ADHD and dyslexia like the others. There was a time when everyone thought that they were legacies but their demigod abilities stood out more, confusing all.
They were all by the campfire singing with the Apollo's cabin leading them when it happened. There was flickering in the surroundings as if the lights in a darkroom had loose connections. Everyone pulled out there weapons while looking around. This went on for a couple of seconds and after that there were sounds of gasps. Slowly everyone's attention was turning to the birthday twins. Black mist was converging on their heads. Percy immediately knew that it was a claiming. But he had never seen such sort of claiming. Slowly the mist solidified to form a foot wide disc seemingly made of obsidian without any shine on each of their heads. Slowly white glowing markings began to form on the discs. Both discs were identical with two signs; one on each face. One was a crescent moon with three stars to complete the circle; second was two crescent moons one inside the other making a ring of sorts.
Percy recognised one of them, hearing Annabeth murmur 'impossible', so did she.
"What kind of gods are those?" Clarisse sneered.
Percy turned to her and saw Aphrodite's and Ares' cabin laughing at them. But Annabeth's voice made him turn to the other side.
"Mr.D, Chiron, how is this possible?"
Percy saw Chiron and Mr.D has the same look as Annabeth only more intense. As Percy neared them, he heard Chiron say in a low voice,
"Born of night and darkness they come."
He turned to Mr.D who looked back with the same horror. As if those words meant something, there was a massive thundering and lightning in the sky right above them unlike any they have ever seen.
"The brat is trying to smite you both." a voice said.
They turned to see man dressed in black aristocratic cum warrior attire standing behind the twins looking up. He was in his late twenties, black hair, light beard but his eyes were black with white embers as his pupils.
"Dad!?" went Jade shocked.
"Why . . . did we forget about you and mom?" Lucian asked.
"I sealed your memories before I sent you here." he said.
He started walking towards the dining pavilion. On seeing him near them, Mr.D and Chiron got down on a knee and bowed low while saying,
"Lord Erebos."
This sent a wave of gasps and panic all over.
"Where's mom?" Jade asked.
Erebos merely waved his arms around with a smile.
"She has been itching to claim you both for the last two years."
"What!?" went the two confused.
Then Erebos' eyes fell on Annabeth and Percy instinctively stood before her shielding her while taking out his sword and pointing at him. Percy was just standing there but his mind was blank as he was looking at the face of the primordial of darkness. Behind him, Lucian was irritated while Jade angry at Percy for daring to point a weapon at their father.
"Cute." he said not at all sounding amused, he then went on, "Annabeth Chase and Peruses Jackson."
He turned back to his children and continued,
"It's because of the prank these two pulled on your mother that you both are here."
Now there were flashes all over. Within seconds there were several gods standing there. Some looked very serious, some nervous and some curious; only Zeus was angry. Erebos didn't even look at them and kept on walking towards the dining pavilion.
"What did you mean, dad?" Jade asked.
"After the prank they pulled, she was saddened a bit that your siblings stopped caring about her." saying so he half turned back and scowled at the gods standing there.
Percy saw that some became immediately interested in other stuff, some jumped behind other gods while few were mouthing trying to say something. Erebos turned forward and walked on.
"Still, can't believe that she's so gullible." seemingly murmured to himself. "Anyway, she wanted demigods, children who would love her. So we both took on mortal forms and had you two."
They had reached the dining pavilion. As they looked on a new ornate table began to form, black like the night itself with a pulse of energy going through it every now and then. Regal chairs formed of the same material and the three sat down.
"Something doesn't add up." said Lucian.
Erebos nodded his head. He replied,
"I carved out a bit of the mortal realm just for the four of us. We raised you there until you were thirteen. Nyx was mollycoddling you two way too much. I told her that you need to make friends, have fun, live. Finally I managed to convince her to send you here."
Lucian opened his mouth but Erebos spoke,
"Getting to it. You see, in that realm, one year equalled to a day here."
"Meaning, we aged thirteen years in thirteen days." said Jade looking at her hand.
Erebos nodded and then he sighed. Seeing this Jade said,
"There is another reason you came here."
Erebos nodded again. He opened his palm and a ball of black light formed. Out of it a female voice came,
'Born of night and darkness they come;
By their might banish the pit yawning wide;
By their hand does Olympus bleed and divide;
And the sixth age shall begin.'
"That's us!" said Lucian shocked.
"I'm afraid so." Erebos said. "I came to know of this prophecy right after your birth. It was one of the reasons why Nyx didn't want to let go of you."
He remained silent for a moment and then said in a low voice that it felt like he was talking to himself,
"I just wanted you to have a normal life. It seems your sisters thought otherwise."
He then looked up and explained,
"Gaea and Ouranos were the fortunate side of the family. On the opposite side are me and Tartarus. Somewhere along the middle are your mother and Akhlys, Nyx nearer to us than them. Tartarus is making a move, now that Gaea and Ouranos are temporarily out of commission."
"Can't you . . ." started Jade.
"Stop him? I have been, since the beginning. Why do you think I'm down in Hades, right above him?" Erebos said. "The thing is I can stop his source from rising up but the forms he can take . . ."
He shook his head.
"I could destroy him but there are problems with that. The most important one, the fight among those born of Chaos could wipe out all of creation. Our powers are not sunshine and rainbows like Gaea and Ouranos. It is also a reason why I stay in Hades, away from everything so as to avoid annihilating anything by mistake. Your mother is the only who can withstand my devouring nature. After all, the night is another form of darkness, is it not?" he said with a smile.
He stood up and said,
"Don't think too much of the prophecy. When it will come to pass, it will come to pass. Until then relax, enjoy, have fun. Hope you like your new cabin."
"What cabin?" asked Lucian.
Erebos pointed to the large black cabin outside the ring of the cabins. It wasn't there five minutes ago. It was the largest of them all with galaxies, stars, comets seemingly moving inside it.
"Almost forgot. You might have noticed that you are not like the other demigods."
They both nodded.
"You are superior to them, even the Olympians. But the fact remains that we were mortals when you were born. So you are bound by its limitations. You have a fatal flaw each. Lucian, you like your mother have a lack of empathy, causing others to perceive you as cold and unfriendly. Be more understanding; it will work wonders. Jade, you like me fear yourself, of what you are capable of, thus shutting others out to protect them from yourself but only to be looked on as antisocial. Open yourself to others, let them know the good side of you."
Then he looked up and frowned. The twins turned to see what it was. But there was nothing. Erebos spoke in a grim voice,
"Hmmm, my presence is beginning to affect the space around here. Until we meet again. Be good you two."
He gave a small fond smile and disappeared in a flash of black light. It was then they saw that parts of the space around them were reappearing out of the black spaces. Then suddenly Zeus raised his lightning bolt aiming at the twins.
"Ahem." said a voice.
They turned to see all of Nyx' and Erebos' children glaring at them. Eris spoke,
"Our father is considerate. We are not."
Zeus roared,
"You dare threaten me! I am Zeus! Your lord and ruler!"
Declaring so, he raised his lightning bolt. But Hera came up to her husband and said something in his ear. He looked up. Others followed suit. They saw that the sky had become a black void. It felt like a misstep could end with them falling into it. It wasn't that; it felt like the black void was descending. Zeus' bolt started losing its lightning. Zeus looked at it and back up. With a growl, he disappeared in a flash. Others followed; some glared, some looked worried, some afraid, some amused and some impassive. The sky returned to normal within moments.
The twins' siblings came up to them and hugged them and all. Slowly they left as well leaving a ringing silence. The newly claimed siblings were looking around at the fear, uneasy and anger in the faces of their fellow campers.
"Shall we call it a day?" Jade asked.
"Yeah." said Lucian.
The campers literally jumped out of their way as the siblings started towards their new cabin. The cabin was larger than the rest of them but when they went in, it was a just short of a palace. It took them over an hour to find their rooms. And when they did, they hit the sack as if knocked out cold.
"Let the games begin." the voice came from the depths of the pit.
The voice was full of such pure malevolence that it made the monsters around the pit look tame.
