Chapter 1- Long live the Queen

"You are just like your mother aren't you?"

I assume that somewhere is this world there are fathers who say that to their daughters in fondness and love. I assume that there are some daughters who take those works as a compliment. when my father says these words to me they are as far from a compliment as one can get.

I am told I look like her, I am told that my hair, my face, my nose, are all hers. My father's golden eyes looking at him day in day out from the face of the woman who abandoned him.

He must have loved her, once. She told him she named me after the one place where she was ever truly happy. With him. In the earth.

My name is Semele. My father is Hades. My mother is Persephone. We don't talk about her.

I don't remember my mother. Apparently when all the villains were banished to the isle both she and my father were stripped of any godly power and left for dead along with the others. It took her all of three months after I was born to pray to her mother and beg her for salvation from this a little girl I wanted to believe she thought about taking me along but couldn't, that one day she may be back for us, but I don't believe such silly notions anymore.I try not to blame her either- my grandmother, Demeter the goddess of fertility and the harvest, could provide her with a get out of jail card and was only too happy to provide it. apparently being just another broken creature on the isle doesn't hold as much appeal as being queen of the underworld. The one place she was happy. The place she named me after.

I don't answer my dad anymore as he mutters that old insult at me. Once I used to. Everything from-

"Nah dad, I won't let you keep me here because of a fucking pomegranate!"

To some really hurtful stuff like

"Maybe if you bothered killing a baby yourself mom wouldn't have left"

These comments and retorts got me nothing but a scolding or a beating. These arguments were cruel and ugly and neither of us deserved them. I didn't deserve it because I can't even remember her,and he didn't deserve it because for all his faults he actually did his best to be a good father when he could.
When he was still strong he taught me how to wield magic, how to cast spells and understand magic until it could one day be better nature,and how to talk to the dead, how to deal with spirits and demons. There is no magic on the isle but my father insisted that I must still know it's working in and out so that one day "it won't catch you with your pants down and you wonder why the hell is it nothing like you expect. Magic is messy, if you don't tell it where to go or have a good enough spell it will take you with it and you won't like where you end up."
My father tried to teach me to hold a sword but I was a skinny thing as a child and could not hold the damn thing firmly. So he gave up and taught me how to use daggers instead. How to hide them and draw them as quickly and naturally and breathing..

But the most important lesson he taught me= was how to not show weakness. He taught that by punishing it when it showed, not to cry, not to be caught in a lie, to always have the upper hand. He taught me to suspect the worse and be ready for it when it strikes, to not trust anyone with my life or powers and be ready for when they try and betray me. And every time I broke he would straighten me up forcefully, band up my wounds and say "I won't always be here to fix you. You have to be stronger than this"

So I was. I forced myself to me. I didn't understand what he meant by not always be here… he was a god. Stripped of his powers or not he was still a god. What could kill a god?

Turns out the answer was in the question.

I look at him now and I can hardly see a god in him anymore. What could kill a god? Take away his power, take away his believers, remove him from everything that was his domain. That's how you kill a god. Consider all of this and it's a downright miracle he made it this far.

The blue flames are sickly and yellow, the fire in his eyes is nearly gone. It won't be long now.

The door to our apartment clicks shut as the doctor leaves. He is a lanky, tall and dark man and he carries with him his bag of voodoo and nightmares. He is not a kind man, none of them are, but as his eyes meet mine he everts them immediately.

"So?" is all I can say

"I'll be back later tonight" he says. His deep voice barely more than a whisper.

"So he will be alright?"

"You should go be with him" he suggests "I will be as quick as I can"

With those words he all but runs down the stairs and back to his shop. I stand there, leaning against the decaying wall and trying to will him to come back. To explain. To not leave me alone. I want to run and get someone. Anyone. Aunt ursula, my cousin. My friends. Anyone. But I know it would do no good. I take a deep breath and walk back inside.

Our apartment is small, a kitchenette, my father's room that is also his study. When we first moved here he hanged some sheets and made a room out of one of the corners, when I grew out of my crib we hanger a hammock and I decorated the sheets with pictures of the underworld and the kingdom I have never seen.

"Semele" I hear his weak voice calling me from the other room

"What did Faciliar say dad?" I take the walk across the small room to his bed and sit beside him. I feel like I am supposed to reach to hold his hand now but I am not quite sure how to go about it. We were never a very touchy family.

He looks at me but I am not sure he actually sees me.

"It's cold" he says, barely bore that a croak

"I'll get you another blanket" I say and rush of to get one, I find an old ragged thing and pile it atop the other two he is already covered with "better?" I ask.

"No" he says and I can't help but smile. He never sugarcoats anything. Even now.

"Dad what did Faciliar say?" I try again

"That he will be back later with a potion to make it hurt less" he says.

"Is there nothing else he can do? I could try fetch aunt ursula maybe she could-"

"Don't bother" he interrupts me "I would like to sleep it off actually. Sounds nicer than actually being here"

We sit in silence for another few minutes. I shiver with a chill that I know is not caused by the cold. I wanna reach out to him, hold him but it's as if my hands forgot how.

"Dad I am scared"

"Of what?" he muses

"I don't know. Of being alone" I say. Tears sting in my eyes and I dig my fingernails hard into my palm to try and stop them. Focus of the pain. On this pain. Of the pain I can handle. Focus.

"We were always alone" he says "we don't know how else to be. You will be fine" finally he adds with a toothy grin "you will finally have your own room"

I try to force a dry laugh but it escapes out of me as a sob. I see him frown and I wish I could take it back.

"Don't do that" he says "don't… what did I always tell you"

"I'm sorry" I sob, now unable to stop my tears, they stream down my face and fall of his cold hands and the blankets and the whole room becomes nothing but a blurry mess as I try to focus harder on the pain in my palm. On the light. On anything but him.

"Semele" he draws my attention at once as his icy palm holds my warm one "there is nothing to cry about"

"You are dying" I sob as I hold tighter to his hand with both of mine

"I am death" he says "I am going home"

We stay like this for another hour as he runs me through all the things that need to be taken care of, trivial stuff like rent from his tenants down the other side of the isle, to important stuff like how I should "send him off"

When doctor Facilier returns he is already gone.

After an entire day of funeral I am thoroughly sick of people saying that they are sorry for my loss.

I am tired of people walking up to me to shake my hands, and I am tired to people lying to me that they are here if I need anything.

I sit on the shore by the funeral pyre long after everyone else of his friends and relatives leave..By now it's just a bunch of red coals even then I don't move. I am not sure where to go. I sit on the beach and stare and the file of embers and ash that was my father.

"Is this seat taken?"

I look up and see a familiar face framed my sapphire and emerald braids. My cousin is smiling at me a smile that is true and warm and, unlike so many others today, completely non condescending. Even better, she has a bottle of rum with her.

"All yours" I say and she sits beside me on the cold sand.

"A bit dramatic with the whole pyre thing don't you think?" she muses as she opens the cork of the bottle with here teeth.

"It's what he wanted. Had to run around the entire isle to find two silver coins, he was very specific about that one point"

"Where did you find them?" ahs asks as the finishes a heart gulp and hands me the bottle

"Lucas Rathcliff.. I had to break his wrist for them" I say as I accept the bottle and take an equally long sip. Sweet smoky taste greets me and is quickly followed by the feeling like liquid fire down my throats. It's exactly what I needed.

"Nice" uma laughs

We sit in silence for another few moments, nothing but the crackling of the final embers of the pyre and the soft hissing of the waves.

"What will you do now?" she asks

"Don't know" I admit "I've been taking care of him for almost a year now, I am not sure what to do next. Do I still have a room in the gang?"

"Always" she says "but this is not what I meant"

"Then what did you mean?" I ask

"Your mother"

This comment feels as though uma reached into my chest and dug her nails into my heart. Is brings out a feeling that is pained and angry and ugly. She probably sees is because the next thing she says is

"Don't you wanna confront her?"

"Of course I do!" I yell "but it's not exactly like I can stroll of the isle and go to a temple can I?!"

"Not yet" she says

"Wha-"

"Look, I am not holding against you the you missed all that happened with to auradon brats" she says

"If you haven't noticed, I was a bit busy" I spit

"I know" she raises her palms up, clearly not looking for a fight

"Then?" I invite her to continue

"This prison is not as perfect as it seems" she says, her eyes gleaming with wicked delight as she snatches the bottle back "every time this barrier comes down there are more ways off the island that just the bridge, especially if you are quick enough"

"An able to breath underwater" I correct her, she gives me a grin before taking a long gulp of the rum "look, cus, I heard of what you did in the cotillion. It was great but I don't think it would work again"

"They are bringing more VK's over there, Dizzy Tremain was the first but there would be others. We can sneak a small team over when they do and cause some real havoc they would never forget"

"A small team" I say

"It's all we will need. Me, Gill, Harry, a few fine others, and you"

"Why would it work any different than the cotillion" I challenge her. I can see through her eyes that her fantasies of vengeance and justice for her crew are carrying her away. She is drifting away from me and I want to pull her back before it's too late.

"Because this time" she purrs "we have the queen of the dead"

Her words hit me hard, I look to the pyre, almost burned out and the consequences of my father's death that I didn't even consider.

"The king is dead" she says as she offers me back the rum.

I smile devilishly, and take it from her, I take it to my mouth and drink heartily, liquid courage setting my insides aflame.

"Long live the queen"

Author's note:

Semele is ancients Greek for "earth" or "under the earth". since in Greek mythology the underworld was consider to exist quite literally under the world Semele's name "under the earth" could also mean "underworld" which in Greek mythology simply called Hades as well.

this is my first fanfic in english and I've been writing it rather frantically for a few days now. I am aware that there may be some spelling or typing mistakes- unfortunately english is not my first language and I don't have a Beta reader for this.

I hope you enjoyed it.