A/N: A one shot on Greek Mythology, with one of my own characters taking the lead! Hope it is enjoyable! And before I forget – a thanks to Smous and JenniePearl2013 for their support and advice!
One Wish, One Dream, One Chance
Dusk. The sun had started sinking, far away in the horizon, into the dark blue sea. Below, lights were coming on and the streets were buzzing with new life; cars stuck in traffic and people going about their daily lives not even trying to go against the flow of time and their predestined fates. All of them unaware of events that took place on a higher plain of existence – Olympus!
A single girl was standing on top of the highest point of the mountain towering above the city. A cool sea breeze rustled through the few trees that edged the top; her hair danced upon this very wind. Her hair black as night, skin fair and eyes shone bright, reflecting the sea itself.
"Aren't you going home?" A man had asked her. The smell of salty sea around him, hair just as black as hers, gentle turquoise eyes and his skin tanned; a light sandy brown color. His voice caressing, yet rough as the ocean waves.
"Why?" Came her reply; soft, caring, wise and just.
"A storm is approaching."
"That's not my question! You'd think you self-proclaimed 'gods' could see past the obvious meaning of that one little word! So let me rephrase! Why do you care, when your kind is planning to wipe mankind off of the face of the planet?" She asked with a fiery passion.
"You're one of the chosen few who will help recreate the new world, you who has been blessed with the power to reign over the tides of the sea!" He said with pride.
"What power? What new world? I'm powerless; I can't even tell anyone of your plans not that they would believe me! That world you envision is one that will end just as chaotic as this one, just as tragic! It will be filled with even more hate, revenge, desire, pride, prejudice, arrogance and narcissistic, egocentric, conceited people; because now they would believe to be even greater and better than another!" She argued.
He gave a silent sigh_
She had yet to discover her ability; that which could change life as she knew it, the mistress of floods!
"Even demigods are doomed if you've found them incompetent! Your own flesh and blood…" She clasped her hands together against her chest as if to pray.
"You treat us like objects and not as humans, like your belongings and not as individuals!" A tear fell, shining bright like the stars when it shattered upon black rock.
"We can change_" She said barely audible. She turned towards him with a look of sorrow, and within that split second he had vanished from her sight, the mountain top suddenly shrouded in mist!
She took her time descending from the mountain and by the time she reached her home it was almost midnight; the moon shone brilliantly at its peak of height! A shooting star graced her and upon it she hanged her own wish…
"Oh shooting star so bright, give wings for my wish to take flight, so no evil can reach nor steal that what lies dear and near to my heart! Give me strength to continue and hope that my future_ our future can be changed!" She whispered under her breath; half singing the words like a lullaby.
She entered her home (an orphanage); she was greeted with a stern look filled with angst and anger!
"Where have you been Eclipse Moon? You know very well that curfew is at eight!" The woman's voice cold and stern.
"Sorry Misses Heinz! I was up on the mountain to look at the sunset when the mist came in so I took my time to come down!" She explained; not that it would have calmed the orphanage mother!
"To bed with you and as punishment you are on cleaning duties for this month!" She stated, her word now law!
Eclipse went up to her room that she shared with five others; none her friends as everyone seemed to instantly despise her, why she had no clue. She tied her shoulder blade length hair into a pony tail and got into bed.
'To think that there exist people that have lived amongst us for decades with that much power_' the last of her thoughts before she fell asleep.
Her sleep was troubled by nightmares of forests on fire, cities drowning, nations at war and thundering skies proclaiming death – the end! A single voice was finally heard amidst the chaos!
"I refuse to accept your will as righteous, and I will never falter in my faith!" Came the daring voice of a little girl's firm declaration!
At the time everyone was trying to escape a burning building; children were panicking, orphanage mothers counting their charges – noticing that only one eight year old was missing; Eclipse!
A storm was raging outside that had delayed the fire department; Misses Heinz was frantic; begging everyone near to see if they could find her and asking if they had seen her perhaps exit the building– maybe she just got lost within the crowed (hence the mayhem)! But when she asked a man with black hair, he instantly raced inside searching every room till he found the girl resting peacefully; at last!
"You've unconsciously awakened your powers; but I sense that this is just the tip of the iceberg!" He whispered into her ear. She strained her eyes open before nagging that she just wanted five more minutes of sleep! He laughed at this and picked her up; carried her outside and without one person's notice laid her down, just out of the fire's reach.
Two days had passed when she finally woke up in hospital. She had suffered from heat stroke with some dehydration and minor burn marks that were already perfectly healed, surprising all of the nurses and doctors there! Her dream of the end frightened her, but her instincts told her that she had to fight it; but fight what? Is she really the only one who could?
xXx
"Zeus give them another chance?" Came a wisdom filled voice belonging to Athena.
"No! No more chances, they poison the air, infect the earth and contaminate the seas! Only those that still cares for all of nature are allowed to live, that includes our mortal children!" Zeus' thundering voice sounded.
"No, Athena is right! We should give them a chance to change; give them a reason!" Hera spoke up.
"Absolutely not!" Zeus stubbornly said.
"A wish has been laid onto a star and seeing how just and selfless this wish is I'll do everything in my power to fulfill it! I'm sure everyone here who heard this wish would agree that it's one that should not be ignored; considering that it is one of the chosen ones' wish!" Asteria announced within a little group; finally after everyone's bickering was silenced by Zeus' anger!
"And as one that sees to it to bring hope along with every new dawning day; I will help you Asteria!" Eos offered her help. Poseidon barely heard any of the conversations that had now aroused once again; bringing Zeus' temperament to a boiling point when he had heard this among the gods and goddesses that resided over the stars and skies!
"Well whatever is decided I don't care, I'll either have more slaves together with the heaps of work I'll have to do when you decide to end the world, or I'll just continue with my uneventful days in luxury!" Hades chuckled a bit; putting some of the more life preserving gods and goddesses on edge.
"And besides when did everyone start having the right to partake in these types of counsel meetings?" Hades pointed out to the few that had his attention.
"Themis can you tell me whether or not the chosen ones' powers could be different than what we had blessed them with or whether it's possible for them to have more than one power?" Poseidon asked.
"Well most that I can tell have never possessed any powers before receiving it from one of us, and you should already know by now that they're too weak to even possess that one gift to its fullest! If you want more details you'll have to ask Apollo. Why do you ask?" Themis answered with all the wisdom over prophesies she once had and still resides over in fragments of; ever since the honor went to Apollo to be care taker over the Oracle of Delphi.
"It's just that the one mortal of I have to see to had just awoken her abilities, but it is not that over water, the tides, rather fire and I sense more to her!" Poseidon continued his private conversation with Themis. Eirenne overheard this_
"Besides; how did Zeus decide on the mortals that are to life, when we discussed erasing mankind?" Dionysus Asked also having eavesdropped on their little conversation.
"Everyone can I please have some silence?" Eirenne asked firm, just and respectfully.
"If what I have heard from all of you it is that mankind should be judged, but war and violence has never been effective in the past before; so why not come to a more peaceful conclusion?" She ushered towards Dike and Athena to help her out in her debate.
"You mean to let them be the judge to their own demise?" Dike asked fully aware of Eirenne's plan.
"In a way, yes." Eirenne smiled a peaceful smile.
"How then?" Ares asked maliciously.
"Through giving them a hero or heroine they can look up to and can never defy!" Athena answered.
"There will never exist such a mortal and I'll never allow such a mortal to exist!" Zeus finally snapped with all the talk of helping the human race when they had decided a year prior to extinguish them!
"But there already exist such a child!" Apollo said in remembering the prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi, being responsible for it.
"What?" Zeus now was furious!
"Why was I never informed?" He asked.
"It was not of importance then! It was almost eight years ago, when we had decided to send your daughter along with three other demigods to find the Pegasi and their riders that was stolen by those Cyclopes; for their stew of all things!" Apollo said.
"But how does that have to do with that… that human?" Zeus asked frustrated by everything and everyone by now.
"The prophesy mentioned that a Pegasus will rescue the future of mankind, when daughter of Zeus and friends ally together to find the captured children of god and man alike in a valley to the south. A power threatens the corrupted plans of the future when she'll step up to face what is right, even when death nears her! I didn't think much of it after that mortal girl died in that confrontation with the Cyclopes, remember that mortal who tried protecting her baby sister, she was able to fight on par with them – better than even our little demigods!" Apollo gave a smirk smile thinking back to how a mere mortal could have outwitted Zeus' daughter if had given the chance; if only she didn't try to show off and prove herself better than that human girl. Zeus gave a death glare to any and every one that dared mention more than Apollo just had upon that 'little' accident caused by jealousy!
"Eclipse Moon!" Eirenne spoke up.
"Eclipse has strength at heart, that's what gives her power! She seeks truth, justice, love, hope and peace! Personally I think she can teach us some valuable lessons that we've never had or just have forgotten!" Eirenne smiled calmly and peacefully.
The majority of the gods and goddesses agreed to let the girl; Eclipse; have her chance to change the world, per her wish; but also decided that she needed protection till she could do what was needed!
But an evil shrouded Zeus' heart_
xXx
Eclipse was taken in by a caring couple for the time being – until the orphanage was rebuild. The lady had golden brown hair and dazzling green eyes with milk-coffee colored skin; she had insisted that Eclipse call her Athena! She had also instructed Eclipse that she would no longer attend school, as she would be teaching her herself. And then there was the very man who had rescued her from her own fire (that burned down the orphanage). He had never though showed himself personally to her. He also preferred her to call him Don; but she regularly heard Athena call him Poseidon. The two had come to a realization that they would need to wait till Eclipse was ready to accept that she was different and needed their help. They often had guest that she quickly guessed were fellow Greek gods and goddesses!
As time passed, within that first year, she had vaguely come to realize that she harbored powers beyond human comprehension, but found it dangerous, having lost control of it quite a few times! She had then and there decided to ask for help in learning to master her abilities, which neither Athena nor Poseidon refused; Poseidon came to love the girl as one of his own and had adopted her.
Athena had arranged that Eclipse be educated in her powers by the gods and goddesses that had the best abilities to help her.
For fire she had Hephaestus teach her, for controlling the currents of air she asked Aura to help out along with Aeolus, for harvesting the strength of the earth Athena confronted Artemis, Demeter and Rhea, then there was the waters – from rivers and lakes to the sea – Poseidon offered his help and was joined by Anchelous, Tethys, Thaumas and finally Amphitrite; Poseidon's wife, she too came to love Eclipse as a daughter and Cymopoleia was just as found over her adopted mortal sister!
For almost four years now Eclipse had lived with the so called gods which she still believed were self-proclaimed and even if it was man who started to call them that it was only because they were immortals – or so it appeared; sure they lived for almost more than two thousand years and have control of most anything, but that didn't make them any less human than she was!
She had formed a plan to start making people more aware of their environment through taking groups of people to heavily sullied places and having them help clean it; plant new trees, flowers, grass, etc. Removing traps to capture unsuspecting animals and rescuing ocean creatures - from dolphins and whales to sharks and starfishes - from the dangers that all humans had come to impose on them. She used her abilities in secret to save others from the worst of the worst and soon came to be known as Shadow Raven (No one knew her identity nor even how she – the ghostly vigilante looked like, all anyone knew was that a raven would just suddenly appear and vanish, leaving only a shadow behind).
Many of the gods were proud of her, but those that never approved of her were plotting…
Zeus was one of them, along with Ares (there were less and less wars) and Aphrodite (because Eclipse was loved by many now and was claimed to be just as beautiful her), even Hades was plotting (he wanted her for himself)!
Years had passed and the world was changing for the better! Eclipse was now of age (16 according to the gods). Then it came; Zeus' disgust with the mortals had lead him to ask Hades to have the tree old hags; the Fates or Graiae named Enyo, Deino and Pemphredo; to cut Eclipse' live string beforehand; of course they weren't all that 'evil', but would consider it if Eclipse were to fall under pressure to – oh say allow one unjust event happen…
And so came Ares' solution to release fiends, upon a city and within that city Aphrodite was to 'convince' a few people to steal, murder, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera! Easy for her with her manipulating beauty!
Hades allowed all this for one price, Eclipse was to be his!
That day came and chaos was everywhere; Eclipse had trouble fighting off all the fiends and was unaware of the crimes that was taking place; that was until she was send flying into the very bank a group was busy robbing (she took care of the problem without a hint of struggle) as she exited the building she saw more fiends attacking innocent people. She fought to get their attention to her and away from the helpless. She was getting tired; noticing more and more people falling prey to the very evil she was trying to lessen. She saw the forest just outside of the city being lit on fire by a lightning bolt!
"This can't be happening!" She shouted out loud hoping that someone (rather one of the gods would come to help) but no one came_
She continued to fight, but it all was just too much for her; soon she couldn't even stand, she struggled to breath, her heart was pounding and the fates saw their chance_
xXx
"What have you done Brother?" Poseidon hissed at Zeus, even Hera was furious at him, he of all of them was taken over by hate – the most controlling 'emotion' (if you want to call it that). Eirenne, Athena, Asteria, Dike, Apollo, Artemis, Eos, Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, Hermes, Helios, heck most every one of the other gods was ready to make war (Not that Ares would mind, in fact he'll love it)! But they all were more driven to help Eclipse now; leaving their fight with their 'king' for later they went their separate ways – smothering fires, getting the mortals to safety and away from where Eclipse was fighting so that she shouldn't be hesitant to fight her best, the more powerful gods and goddesses were fighting the few fiends that escaped from Eclipse, and those that were in charge of justice saw it fit to take care of Aphrodite's doing!
Eclipse was just about to give in, when she felt Athena and everyone else watchful eyes and encouraging call…
"I won't give up! I'll die trying to protect that what I've believed in for so long!" She screamed; finding new breath to go on! This not only reached the people near to hear, but also Zeus' ears!
"She is fighting her destiny; whatever led you to hate mortals so much to wipe the slate clean, can't be you! You stood so many times in the line of fire to protect them same as she is now! I've come to see her reasoning that we're just as human and fragile as they, the mortals, are! She'll die today, unless I have something to say about it; she is as a daughter to me now, and I'll help her create her vision of a perfect world by letting her become one of us if you'll let it be as such? Let she takes reign over the tides of time and of the sea, as her name suggest to shadow the moon and also let her passion be a flame for all of us and the rest of the world, let her become the protecting wings for the weak, let her be their strength!" Poseidon tried reasoning with his brother after everyone left to help the sixteen year old girl!
Zeus heard the girl's determination as she kept fighting, falling more than she fought! A gasp escaped him when he saw from high upon Olympus the girl being cut down by the fiends' claws!
"Yes!" Zeus answered without hesitation having come to realize his own flaws!
With that single little word, just as the Fates were about to cut her live string, Eclipse took flight on snow white feathered wings and her string became the same as all immortals' strings - golden in color and as strong as diamonds_
"Aaggghhhhhh!" A dark figure growled and screamed in agony rising from behind Zeus' throne. Vanishing in the blink of an eye just as Zeus now had snapped back to reality.
"Zeus!" Poseidon stepped closer
"Hey-oh!" A cheerful voice came from the opposite end of the throne and also the counsel room.
"What? Iris don't ever do that again; especially when something or someone, like Erebus, just showed up out of nowhere!" Poseidon lectured the little goddess who served everyone with great joy and enthusiasm!
"Erebus? Oh! Yeah about that I knew he was up to no good but he threatened me if I was to tell anyone, so it's not like I just now showed up; I was here ever since, well Big Z ordered the mortals' end if they didn't change their ways! It, though, was all Erebus' doing!" Iris explained trying filling in the missing details for Zeus and informing Poseidon.
"Erebus wanted you, Z, to end up in despair, so that he could rule the world, you then being his lit… I mean big puppet! He knew all about the few mortals that possessed powers equal to some if not most of you guys – by that I mean what the mortals would call the 'lesser' gods like me! But I don't think he even realized that that girl was this strong! I know I couldn't have kept him from controlling you completely forever, but it was as if just now her determination weakened him giving me the chance to chance him away with the bit of light I can control!" She looked up into Poseidon's eyes and saw just how proud he was of her fighting Erebus on equal grounds for more than a year!
"Let's go get our new family member!" Poseidon held out his hand towards Iris, turning towards Zeus just before his flashy exit!
xXx
The fiends were fleeing now back to the underworld, Ares furious that his little gallivanting fun had come to an end! Aphrodite was now more than ever showing her green monster of jealousy as now Eclipse was truly as beautiful as an angel! Hades was fuming, his once in a blue moon chance to get another beautiful gall down the drain!
"Hades!" Demeter shouted from down the hall.
"How many times must I tell you? I'm your WIFE!" She scolded him
"How dare you try to cheat on me again?" This was by now really getting old, why didn't the Greek goddesses just leave their cheating, scheming Greek 'godly' husbands?
Ares and Aphrodite got their own lecturing from Hera; throwing them with the "We're supposed to look out for them not get them to fight and do our own bidding" not that she didn't like being waited on by hand and foot!
Soon everything was back to normal, and as the years had gone by, no one mortal now even remembers that there was ever a watchful guardian that went by Shadow Raven or Eclipse Moon.
You'll be glad to know that Aphrodite's jealousy was calmed by Eclipse who thought that she was so beautiful; Aphrodite loves her compliments!
Ares got a great sparring partner, no one could get him quite in a fighting frenzy like Eclipse and finally, Eclipse now had family; yeah, yeah I know I told you she thinks them to be self-proclaimed gods, but she was one of them now – the goddess of the seas, the moon, the earth and of the skies, time and of justice; a minor 'goddess' she might be but always human at heart!
A/N: Hope you enjoyed my twist in Greek Mythology! If you have Ideas for future one shots on any Myths or legends PM me! Remember please review, review, review, REVIEW! And thank you!
