Disclaimer: Own nothing
Summary: Clarisse La Rue has a message to give to Frederick Chase for his neglect of Annabeth. ClarissexAnnabeth inside
Avenger:
"Please promise me you won't go after my father and stepmother," had been Annabeth's plea, looking up at Clarisse with hopefulness. Clarisse hadn't needed to ask what that gaze was about. Annabeth was only trying to be optimistic that her lover wouldn't try to kill Frederick Chase, Annabeth Chase's father.
As Annabeth slept, recovering from her encounter with a minotaur that she, Clarisse, Percy, Grover, Hazel, Piper, Jason, Leo and Tyson ran into while coming back from a quest, Clarisse had chosen at that time to sneak out of camp and make a little visit with Annabeth's biological father.
She knew Annabeth would be alright. Chiron had gotten all the specific medicines needed, and she was under the watch of Percy, Piper, the rest of their friends and the rest of the camp. She was being looked after. No need for her to worry about Annabeth. Clarisse grimaced as she thought about Annabeth's wound. Her fists clenched so hard that her fingernails dug into her palms. Yeah, Annabeth was going to be okay. Sure...
That was all more the point for why Clarisse was doing this. Clarisse was a daughter of Ares. Her main purpose in life was what she had inherited from her father. She was meant to destroy. So Clarisse realized to that end, that she was doing exactly what she could do for Annabeth. She knew nothing about healing or medicines, so she'd be of no use to her girlfriend there, but what she could do was avenge Annabeth's pain by going after the blonde's neglectful father.
It had been nearly impossible saving the money to get the tickets for the plane to transport her from Long Island to San Francisco, but she had managed. When she had learned how Frederick Chase and his wife had done to Annabeth, the daughter of war decided that a long but necessary trip to where the two lived was worthwhile. After hearing from Annabeth where her father lived, Clarisse had developed a plan to make Frederick Chase feel pain-pain for all the years he had the chance to be a good father to his daughter, but instead abandoned and ignored her-had paid no heed to the blonde's cries and calls for help.
If avenging was all Clarisse was able to do for Annabeth right now, then so be it, she would act out on her desire to do so as furiously as she could. Frederick and his wife had had this coming for a while now, it was time karma came to bite them on the ass.
Once the plane landed, Clarisse had gathered herself, dashed out of the airport, and taken a taxi to where she knew Frederick Chase lived.
She walked nonchalantly up to the road, surrounded by small colorful houses. Ah, the suburbs. Clarisse felt like she was going to be sick. Reminded her way too much of where her mother lived. Thankfully she was only going to storm in there for one purpose; to give one of the structure's occupants two very black eyes.
She pulled out the small, crumpled piece of paper, seeing the number of the house on it that she had written down and walked briskly to the house.
It was something Clarisse knew was wrong. So completely wrong. But Annabeth's story still haunted her. Knowing that Annabeth had suffered and was left to the bites of those spiders attacking her and Annabeth's father did nothing to help. It made Clarisse's blood boil. One thing she knew for sure was that she would always be there for Annabeth; to commit whatever action she needed to for the blonde, and if she had to skin Frederick Chase alive to give Annabeth some solace, even if the blonde berated her endlessly for it, then Clarisse would be all too willing to make the man feel an ounce of his estranged daughter's pain.
Finally, after what felt like forever, Clarisse got to the dark brown wooden door with the number and letter "107" embroidered on the wooden slab, right above the peephole. Clarisse stared, eyes broiling with rage-her scorching gaze almost incinerating the offensive door. She stomped up the granite steps to the door and slammed her fist in a brutal exaggeration of a knock, several cracks splitting some of the wood within seconds.
Five seconds passed and Clarisse could feel her irritation start to rise again, when she then heard a pair of tentative steps come closer from behind the door.
There was a nervous voice, "H-hello? Who is it?"
Clarisse had to use every piece of restraint that she normally possessed to not snarl, "I'm here to kick your ass!" But instead, took a great effort to at least sound calm as she spoke, "I'm a friend of Annabeth's. She just wanted me to come over and tell you how she was. May I come in?"
There was no sound or action but after what must have been a minute and after Clarisse's stomach clenched, assuming that she had been too aggressive and had failed, but resigned herself to the fact that she might just have to break the door down…the brass knob of the door turned and slowly, the door became ajar; a slender, middle aged man appearing in front of her.
"Yes?" The man asked, brown eyes curious, looking concerned, "Is Annabeth doing okay?"
Clarisse glared. The man was brown haired and brown eyed; not at all like she had been expecting, however, she knew that Annabeth got her looks from Athena, not her father. But that wasn't what made the daughter of the god of war seethe.
It was Frederick Chase's question. How dare he ask if Annabeth was okay?!
Before either of them knew what was happening, Clarisse was moving and slammed her hand to his throat, lifting him up and thrusting him against the left white painted wall of the house.
"What-" Frederick coughed out as Clarisse was slowly strangling him, her eyes murderous. She tightened her powerful hold on him, forcing him to gasp for air now. "You have the right to ask if anything's wrong with Annabeth?" Clarisse sneered, "You actually think you have that right?!"
Clarisse moved her arm and brought Frederick dangerously close to her face as she hissed, "You told her she was just trying to get attention by saying she was being attacked by monsters. You stood by and did nothing while your daughter was suffering. She needed help because she was being preyed on by spiders and monsters and yet you did nothing. You ignored her cries and only cared about your new wife." She squeezed his neck so hard that his eyes started bulging out of their sockets.
"I should snap you like a twig for what you did to her!" Clarisse growled, the mental images of a terrified little Annabeth trembling in a corner of her room, hiding from her eight legged assailants dominating her incandescent mind.
A woman's voice suddenly called out, "Frederick?! What are you doing to him?!" Clarisse turned to see a woman, who she assumed was Annabeth's stepmother running over, looking terrified.
Clarisse smirked. "Well look at that," She said, grinning, "It's the whole household of stupidity. You two deserve each other."
The frightened woman grabbed Clarisse's wrist of the hand that was holding Mr. Chase up by his neck. Clarisse gave a malignant smile at her. Grabbing her was not such a good idea. She pivoted and threw Frederick to the floor, sending him sliding into the farthest wall and then set her viperous stare on Mrs. Chase who was now trembling.
"What's the matter, lady?" Clarisse mocked through the cage of her clenched teeth, and ripped her hand away from the woman's now very delicate grasp that had wavered easily and gestured at the woman in a threatening way, "You are responsible for no one being there for Annabeth, and for making her feel like no one cared about her. She had to run away to save herself." She stepped closer, appearing as if she was about to be set on fire in her irate state, and her right tightened fist shot out, connecting with the wall right next to the older woman's head.
There was a loud "thud" from the impact and Mrs. Chase jumped, tears starting to well in her eyes. "Please," She whimpered, "We didn't know that the monsters were real. We thought she was making it all up. We just thought that it was a child's imagination. Please…we love her…."
The crazed wrath ignited within Clarisse again when she heard that. How dare these two pretend to care about Annabeth?
"You never loved her." She spit out, putting her baleful face close to the quaking woman's, "You never held her or comforted her like I have. You never listened to her like I did, and you were never there for her. Go to Tartarus where you belong, whore." She grabbed the woman by her frail shoulders and threw her to the ground, eliciting a scream of pain from her. As Clarisse sent the woman careening to the floor she glared over at Mr. Chase, who was getting up and grabbing at the left side of his back, his face a mask of complete agony. Hmm, it looked like she had really injured him when she had flung him across the room.
Clarisse grinned fiendishly. So she had seriously hurt the bastard? Good. It was far less than he actually deserved to have happen to him.
Clarisse now stood erect and intimidating. "Neither of you will ever see Annabeth again," She snarled, "Now go back to your petty, pathetic normal lives that you both wanted so much. It's artificial and all you deserve."
A small voice called out behind the two now bruised adults, "Mommy? Daddy?" Clarisse's teeth stopped grinding together in her rage when she heard the voice. She looked curiously in the direction of the voice, hearing soft footsteps and saw a small boy emerge from behind the opposite wall. He looked very young and was small with dark hair and dark eyes; a great deal of baby fat still surrounded his young face. He probably was only four or five years old. He was wearing green pajamas with a dinosaur on it.
With the sight of this child, Clarisse's rage ebbed. She wasn't going to hurt a little kid. This boy wasn't responsible for Annabeth being neglected. There was another sound of footsteps approaching and another small boy, appearing identical to the other boy came out from the hallway, startling the daughter of the god of war. He was wearing blue pajamas; the shirt had the Superman emblem on it. Clarisse stared at both boys with just as much curiosity as they gave her.
"Bobby! Matthew!" Mrs. Chase cried, "Get away, quickly." The boys now looked uncertain and nervous. Clarisse shook her head as she turned, "Don't worry. I won't hurt them. Unlike the two of you, I don't hurt small kids. You two have your little family. You don't need Annabeth, so you can stay in your plastic little happy self-absorbed life."
As she was about to walk away, one of the boys spoke.
"Annabeth?" The boy asked, making Clarisse freeze. She turned and looked a the boy that had spoken, "Annabeth? Big sister Annabeth? Where is she? Can we see her?" The boy with the dinosaur on his shirt was asking in such a vulnerable tone that Clarisse couldn't even feel her anger anymore. The demigod looked at the older Chases.
"You told them about Annabeth?" She asked, not even trying to mask her shock at the idea. She'd have thought after Annabeth had run away that both Frederick and his wife would have been happy that she was gone and wanted nothing more to do with her.
Frederick, helping his wife up and still wincing in pain managed, "There's nothing either of us can do to make up for what we did to Annabeth. But if she's willing to give us another chance, she has family here."
Clarisse stepped back, not prepared for this. She had been waiting for any kind of excuse. She had been hoping to cut the people that had hurt Annabeth so badly completely out of the blonde demigod's life. She was not ready to hear this-not in the enraged state she had previously been in. Too flustered to deal with this, she turned and bolted out the door, almost running down the street.
As she was about to turn the corner of the street, she heard a voice say, amused, "That was a long way to go, all just to brutalize the two people that mistreated your love. But then, I commend you for it."
Clarisse halted her steps. She knew that voice. Turning slowly, her eyes were met with the sight of the salacious goddess of love standing a few feet behind her on one of the house's lawns. Clarisse's eyes nearly enlarged to match the size of her fists.
"Aphrodite?" She asked, stunned.
The blonde haired goddess smiled serenely. "You were expecting Demeter or Hera, perhaps?" She chuckled, moving towards Clarisse in her pallid Greek robes, flipping her white blonde hair back from her shoulders, "I suspect that you feel some sort of content, knowing that you hurt those that did nothing to help Annabeth."
Clarisse was about to say something-though in her surprise, there wasn't much thought that she could process at the moment except for ask questions-however, before she could open her mouth, Aphrodite started talking again.
"Do you think Annabeth will be pleased to know that you did this?" The beautiful goddess asked, cocking her head as she observed the daughter of the god of war.
Clarisse recovered from this little bombshell long enough to give a snide retort, "And what? You don't like it? You can't honestly tell me that the goddess of love really disapproves of someone avenging their lover." She narrowed her eyes and added, "And are you going to tell me that Athena isn't glad that her daughter's "father" just got what was coming to him?"
Aphrodite sighed, eyes serene as she carried on, "A child of Ares….typical. You are very much like him, you know? Not that I'm complaining. No, Clarisse, Both I and Athena are happy that you've avenged Annabeth's past, but I know that Athena's daughter will not be happy with what you've done. Especially since she asked you herself not to harm either of the elder Chases."
Clarisse brushed off the sting of vexation at knowing about her and Annabeth's lack of privacy and forced a neutral tone.
"And what has that done?" Clarisse asked, shrugging, "At least when I get back to camp and tell Annabeth, she might be angry, but if nothing else, she'll know that there's someone that will be the first to rip someone a new asshole if they ever fuck around with her."
Aphrodite nearly laughed, "How quaint of you. From defending your love's honor to….as you so politely put it, 'ripping someone a new asshole' for disrespecting her. I have to say, you two do amuse me."
She smirked, supplying some more, "And I have to say, Annabeth is quite lucky for having a lover who has….her father's skills."
Clarisse's face went aflame, and her whole body was flushed. Soon she glowered and snapped, trying to hide her humiliation, "I don't need to hear about your and dad's sexual life. And I don't want you of all goddesses observing what I'm doing, just leave it."
Aphrodite locked eyes with the child of the god of war and said in a calm, even tone, "Interesting that you have no fear of disrespecting a goddess, and yet, I can tell you're afraid of Annabeth finding out what you've done. You must love her very much if you're willing to do this for her, despite being worried about her reaction."
Aphrodite stepped forward again, smiling, "Yes, I believe that you love Annabeth unfathomably."
Clarisse glared. Of course she loved Annabeth.
Aphrodite's smile widened at Clarisse's indignant look and added, "If you want complete honesty, Ms. La Rue, Athena's glad that her daughter has a mate that will kill anyone who mistreats her in any kind of way." She nodded and said, "Honestly, I'm glad Annabth has you for a partner too. I think the two of you are beautiful together."
Clarisse stopped short of whatever it was she was going to say. Well, there was something she'd never thought she'd hear from any of the Olympian deities. Being both somewhat insulted and praised at the same time.
She just ended up rolling her eyes. "Yep," She grumbled, "You're weird alright."
This earned her a light laugh from her father's lover. Aphrodite's face then became serious as she spoke, "But Clarisse, what about those two small boys? Both Athena and I am aware of what Frederick Chase and his wife did, but Matthew and Bobby Chase didn't do anything. They hadn't even been born yet when Annabeth ran away. And I don't think Annabeth would appreciate being separated from her family. Those boys are her brothers."
Clarisse was now uncomfortable. She glared at the ground, jaw tightening. "I didn't even know those two existed. I wasn't ready for that."
Aphrodite shrugged. "No, you weren't," She agreed dismissively, "You went in there like a wild animal ready to kill anything that harmed the woman you love. You were willing to crush and rip apart anything that hurt your Annabeth," Aphrodite smiled, eyes glistening as she continued, "I've seen your father do the same thing."
Clarisse snapped her head up, staring at the goddess, eyes wide again. Aphrodite's smile became even bigger. "You wanted things to be simple," She offered the befuddled demigod, "You had things set pure and simple in your mind. You had the targets that hurt Annabeth and you didn't want distractions. So you didn't know how to react when those boys showed up. After all, those two hadn't done anything."
Clarisse frowned, expression sour and dry. "Are you sure you're not Athena in disguise?" She asked in a lackluster voice.
Aphrodite giggled, "Oh, Zeus, no. I adore Athena, but really, she needs to have a bit more fun." Clarisse rolled her eyes.
Aphrodite said, amused, "Come with me. I'll take you back to camp Half-Blood. You don't have to go all the way back on the plane." Aphrodite reached out her hand in offering.
Clarisse, uncertain at first, met her hand with Aphrodite's and walked into the small vicinity of the golden haired goddess. The flirtatious deity circled Clarisse around her for a moment before pure white light started to eventuate from her divine form, starting to surround herself and the daughter of Ares.
The light started to become thicker to the point that it looked like ashen fog, encasing the demigod and the deity in its phantasmal grasp. Clarisse didn't mean to, but her fear started to show when she gripped Aphrodite's hands hard.
She heard a chuckle in front of her and she glared at the goddess. Aphrodite was wearing a smirk as she spoke, "Annabeth was right. You are surprisingly beautiful when you're angry."
Clarisse wanted to snap, but stopped herself and just shook her head at this ridiculous goddess, glaring.
Aphrodite chuckled, "Don't get annoyed. Annabeth didn't tell me anything, promise. I just picked up on her thoughts like all of us can pick on your thoughts."
Clarisse seethed. Great; the gods were invading their heads? Wonderful.
Three minutes passed and soon the white capsule of the light became a cage without any opening, cutting them both off completely from any sight of the outside world; that being the crimson carpets in the hallway and all the other simple wooden doors of the apartments and it all vanished when they were captured completely by the light, that was until finally, the light began to dissipate and the sight of the dark green flourishing forest around Camp Half-Blood filled Clarisse's vision instead of the bleak suburban life.
The depthless woods surrounding them now was more welcoming to Clarisse than any usual houses or skyscrapers; any signs of urban or suburban life. Rather, Clarisse found that there was comfort in knowing that she was about to enter the barrier around the camp. As far as she was concerned, if Annabeth lived here, then this camp was her home.
The dark, shadowy atmosphere of the woods encompassed Clarisse and Aphrodite's beings and Clarisse turned towards where she saw the eyes of the goddess directing. She looked upwards and saw the large, stone columns connecting to the arch with the Greek writings inscribed on it.
Clarisse was back at camp.
She pulled her hand from Aphrodite's grasp and was about to walk through the barrier when Aphrodite started talking, "Clarisse, I know why you made this elaborate trip. But no matter how many times you avenge Annabeth, it won't heal her."
Clarisse turned, glaring at the goddess, eyes now burning.
Aphrodite just sighed a sad tone as she spoke to the sixteen-year-old, "Don't blame yourself for Annabeth being injured. You can't protect her all the time. Hurting people that hurt her before won't heal her wounds. The best you can do for her right now is stand by her bedside and tell her you won't leave her. You can't take care of everything."
Clarisse clenched her fists again, teeth grounding. She bit the inside of her right cheek so hard that she tasted something metallic. "What the hell would you know?" She snapped, "You wouldn't know the first thing about being loyal to someone you love. Thanks for the ride back, but just leave."
Clarisse turned and walked through the barrier, not daring to look back, actually feeling tempted to raise her fist to the goddess as she moved. She needed to see Annabeth now.
End Chapter one
