We walked out of the infirmary, and down a hallway, and ended up in some sort of dining room with weird walls, like a summer camp video. Seven kids were sitting there, but I only recognized two of them; Nico, and the guy with the sword from the crash, Percy.
The other people there looked a bit older than Nico, but younger than Percy and Annabeth. One guy had short blond hair, a cute but serious face, and a little scar on his upper lip. Another was Chinese-looking and really muscular, with a shaved head-unlike the other guy, who was skinny with curly hair, and the face a guy at school would make before he tells a stupid joke. There was a really pretty girl with choppy brown hair and, eyes that looked like a bunch of different colors marbled together. The other girl, the one that looked closet to my age, had curly, cinnamon-y hair and eyes that reminded me of my mother's…don't think about it. If you think about it you're going to start crying and if you cry everyone's going to get a terrible impression of you…
I started blinking really fast, but I got the tears to subside. I realized that they were all looking at me. Annabeth put her hand on my shoulder lightly.
"Guys, this is Marissa. She's a daughter of Hades." Nico looked shocked for a second, then I think he smiled for a second more before putting on a bemused Well, then face. The youngest-looking girl's eyes widened, which didn't help me ignore them. Everyone else just stared, until one spoke.
"Seriously?" The serious blond guy said. Annabeth nodded with a sort of finality. "This is wrong. It has to be wrong. Not only did the prophecy only name seven, but we already have Nico with us!"
Percy and Annabeth both looked at him, like they were saying Pity her. The pretty girl with the choppy brown hair studied me.
"Hades? No offense, but you don't look like the typical Hades kid." She stole a glance at Nico.
"It doesn't matter, though. I'm Piper. That blond guy who's being kind of a jerk right now is Jason. The really buff guy's name is Frank. He can turn into a bear. The one that looks like an elf with a lit firecracker is Leo. And she" Piper pointed at the girl with the curly hair, who was sitting next to her. "She's Hazel."
I nodded awkwardly. "And…you're all demigods, too?" The word felt awkward in my mouth. Demigod. She nodded. Then the Leo kid spoke up.
"Also, we just so happen to be the demigods with the supermegaawesome special powers. Frank can to a bear, yeah, but also any other animal, Hazel can summon gems and gold that's cursed and is also from the 1930's, Jason can fly and has a lightning pony, Piper once stole a BMW just by asking for it," He made a big deal of pausing, holding up a finger and gasping for air, before he continued. "Percy can control water and is pretty much invincible in it, Nico can summon ghosties and is from the 20th century as well, I can make fire with my hands, and Annabeth…well, Annabeth's smart." Annabeth shot a joking glare at him.
"Um, wow, ….okay." I felt my face get hot. "So…what happens now?"
Percy had been thinking the entire time, I guess, because he said something almost right away.
"You have to go with us to finish the quest." This time, everyone looked at him with an Are you serious expression, mouths open and eyes wide; except for Annabeth, who stood by me, looking like she knew this was going to happen.
"It isn't safe for her back in Rome, especially as a kid of the Big Three, we definitely can't go back to America just to leave her at Camp Half-Blood, and nobody's going to be able to come up here to get her."
"Well, where's she gonna sleep?" Hazel asked, and I could hear a bit of an accent. Everyone's expressions changed.
"I could probably build something for her…but no mattress." Leo said. Hazel smiled.
"You can share with me." Hazel said, and Leo looked at her like she was completely insane.
"It's a thing that girls do, Leo." Piper said. "And they are pretty much sisters." Leo just shrugged.
"Are you hungry, Marissa?" Piper asked, her kaleidoscope eyes way softer than Nico's or Annabeth's. "We have pizza."
I looked down towards the floor. "I'm vegetarian." It was stupid to even be thinking about with everything that's been happening, but I've been a vegetarian as long as I could remember, and it was something to hold onto in the middle of this mess.
"Me too," Piper smiled. "It's cheese."
I looked up to Annabeth, kind of asking permission. She's been taking care of me, apparently, and I felt like he was someone to lean on. She nodded, and I walked over to the table, but there weren't any other chairs. Piper noticed, and she scooted over. I carefully sat down, and grabbed a piece.
"Isn't it a little cliché, eating pizza in Rome?" I managed a weak smile, which looked tiny compared to the grin that crossed Leo's face quickly.
"I think I like you, Marissa." He said through the smile.
"So, explain to me how you know that she's a kid of the old bag of bones?" Nico asked, not eating; just drinking a purplish-red juice that might've been pomegranate.
Annabeth's slight smile instantly vanished. "She was upset about not being able to see her family, and she was getting worked up, but she started glowing black. It was…empty. I…I felt…like I was back in T-" This was the first time I'd seen Annabeth look scared. "Tartarus."
Percy's expression grew unsettled, too. "Are you…are you serious, Annabeth?"
She nodded grimly, and Nico's eyes changed, getting even more intense.
"I need to see this, Annabeth."
"Nico, she-" Annabeth tried to argue, but I felt the need to prove myself, to be more than just dead weight…poor choice of words. I stood up quickly from my scarce seating on the edge of Piper's chair.
"I can show him, Annabeth, I'm fine."
"But-" Annabeth tried again.
"Annabeth." I said, and I felt my vision go a little gray, before going back to normal.
"Come on, I'll take you to the armory room." Nico said.
I went on another adventure through the hallways, this time going down a steep set of stairs, as well. We ended up in a room with padded walls, a lot of weapons, and a few targets. Nico turned to face me.
"Okay, so I guess you should show me first. Try to get angry."
It wasn't hard; I just thought about all of the awful, unfair crap that's happened to me over the past few days, and I was glowing black again. Nico looked surprised, and confused, but like all of his other emotions, they only showed up for a second.
"I guess now you try to do something about it…try to channel it." He shrugged, disturbingly nonchalant. "Focus on that target." He pointed to one of the smaller targets.
I focused on it. I kind of gritted my teeth and stared at it, not really sure what to do. I got frustrated thinking about everything for so long, and I screamed. There was a really loud burst, and a lot of black. My vision had to clear, and then I saw the wreckage. The target, wall around it, and some of another target, were blackened, and you could see purplish smoke clinging to it. The black kind of slid around the wall towards the general area of the target, and it collapsed in on itself and disappeared, leaving a dark outline of a circle where the target had been.
Nico whistled. "That's rather impressive…you should work on controlling that, though." I blushed, my vision cleared, but then started to pale quickly. My knees buckled, and I fell to the ground. Nico was by me pretty fast, and I was pretty sure he actually looked concerned. I heard a loud noise and a lot of footsteps, and the other kids were there.
"Dude, what was that-oh my gods…" I heard what sounded kind of like Percy's voice, but I wasn't sure; I wasn't all that familiar with his voice yet.
"W-what happened to her?" I heard another guy talk, and it was either Frank or Jason-I couldn't really discern the two.
"I—I don't know…she…she was trying to use her…darkness stuff…target got absorbed..." From my weird view on the floor, I could see his arm go off in the direction of the wall.
"But, what was the explosion, and the scream? Why is she on the ground?" Annabeth's voice registered with me, and I could hear her concerned frown through her words.
"The explosion…that was her using her…power, I guess it is. I think that using it shocked her system," Nico answered, shaking his head slowly.
"I'm…o…kay…" I managed to get out weakly. Annabeth stopped frowning, and bent down, so her face was closer. The pale started to melt from my eyes, but I'd landed on my broken arm, and I bit my lip, trying to keep from crying any more than I had these past two days.
"Gods, your arm! You need to get off of that!" I could tell it was Hazel; she had a faint accent. I saw Frank's head, and I was lifted and propped against one of the blue pads on the wall.
"Ow," I moaned.
"Gods, sorry, Marissa...I didn't mean to hurt you." He said, and I felt a little bad, but he'd grabbed me by my shoulders, and it had hurt.
The white had faded away from my eyes. Annabeth turned to Piper.
"Can you go get her ambrosia? Just a square." She requested, and the brunette nodded and left the room. Everyone talked nervously, but it was all way too fast for me to follow, and I was tired, so I just closed my eyes.
"Wake up." I heard a really strong voice, and I opened my eyes, even though I was still tired. I couldn't help it. I was back in the weird hospital room, but this time only the girl with the eyes, Piper, was sitting there.
"You fell asleep, and Annabeth, Nico and Frank freaked out and said you needed to go back to the infirmary." She said with a calm, kind, expression on her face. I tried to rub the sleep from my eyes.
"Piper, since you're here, could you…" Piper stood up, but like she was ready to get something for me.
"Can you tell me about this quest?" I finished. Piper looked surprised for a second, but nodded seriously. She told me about what had happened to Jason and Percy, and Nico, and Annabeth; and how there weren't only gods, there were titans and giants, and the giants and the oldest goddess, Gaea, are evil, and they're trying to keep them from remembering the world.
"Uh…wow." I felt more like baggage than I had before. "I feel useless."
Piper shook her head. "You're a daughter of Hades, Marissa. That god isn't always our favorite, but he's a big deal. It can't be a coincidence, and even if it is, you can't be left to die. And Nico…" Piper bit her lip. "He lost a sister before, according to Percy. He can't lose another."
I believed her. I didn't have a reason not to, but I feel like she could've been my kidnapper and I would've believed anything she said.
"Well…I feel fine now, so can I leave?" I asked, and Piper laughed and nodded. It was kind of disturbing how all of their laughs were weighed—tied to a sort of bitterness.
I got up and walked out to the hallway. "I'll take you to Hazel's room."
We had to go back up the stairs, and we were in front of a hall with seven doors, not spaced very far apart. Piper knocked while I kind of stood there awkwardly. Hazel opened the door, and her serious face morphed into a small smile.
"Marissa!" She said cheerily, but kind of like she was surprised, like I was a friend that surprised her and expected to stay the night. "Come in, I guess."
It was simple furniture wise—a small bed with a gold blanket, a black desk, a black dresser. But the walls were covered with tacked-on drawings, and on the ceiling, there were a bunch of crystals arranged like constellations. Only…those looked…sharper than crystals.
"Are those actually diamonds?" I asked, and I felt my eyes go wide, but Piper and Hazel just laughed.
"Yeah, but don't take them; they're cursed." I stared at them, kind of hoping my eyeballs didn't fall out of their sockets.
"I-I-I wasn't going to-" They just laughed again.
"Good," Hazel said, then she walked a little closer to me and started looking at me.
"I wasn't sure if it was possible for a child of Hades to have hair like that." She said, reaching out to touch it, but she just blushed and moved it back to her side.
"Seriously. It's gorgeous, though." Piper said, getting up from Hazel's bed that she'd been sitting on and walking up to face me. "And you can trust me," She added, using a flamboyant British accent and flipping her choppy hair. "I'm a daughter of Aphrodite."
She and Hazel started laughing again, but it was different. It sounded natural, like they were just two freshman hanging out at lunch. It was kind of sad how they could seem so serious and bitter, but then start acting just like normal kids.
"Speaking of Aphrodite, what are you going to do for clothes?" Piper said. I looked down and realized that I was still in the clothes from my audition…a black leotard, white tights that had a lot of holes and runs in them, and one of those see-through-ish light blue skirts layered over it. I really hadn't had time to think about clothes, what with finding out I'm part god and having my mom…well, that.
"You might be able to fit into my clothes…they're going to be kind of big." Piper offered. "I would say Hazel's, but she doesn't really have much more than what she's wearing…she kind of had to leave in a hurry." Hazel laughed, but not like she had earlier. It was weighed again. "Let's go to my room."
Her room was just next door. Hers was much simpler than Hazels, just with plain wood furniture, and a weird horn thing on the dresser.
Piper walked over to her dresser and opened it. She pulled out a pair of jeans and an orange tee shirt that said "Camp Half-Blood" on it.
"I didn't have much either; most times half-bloods leave in a hurry." She handed the clothes to me. "I got these from other Aphrodite kids, so they might fit you better than anything of mine would."
I looked down at the clothes, than back up at them like I was stupid. "So…um, where can I change into this?" I asked.
"You can go back to my room too change." Hazel said. I nodded, and left awkwardly.
It was weird to change in her room-I was scared someone was going to walk in—but I got everything on okay. It wasn't a perfect fit; the jeans were a little bit looser than I was used to, but they stayed on fine. The shirt was fine, and surprisingly soft for a camp tee shirt. I've been to a few summer camps in my life, and the shirts they have are usually rough. I walked back over to Piper's room. Hazel smiled, and Piper clapped, which was weird. I figured they were just trying to get my spirits up, but Piper kept going.
"You look rather fabulous, if I do say so myself." She laughed. "I knew that would fit you. Actually, how old are you, Marissa? We don't even know."
"I'm twelve." I blushed. I didn't want to get dismissed because of my age again. Hazel raised her eyebrows for a second.
"I figured you were thirteen." She said casually. "You're pretty mature, and you look older." I blushed even harder.
"Well, I'm in dance so I guess I'm a bit more developed, and the rest is just genetics I guess." I semi-rambled.
Piper and Hazel started laughing. "Calm down," Piper said through her giggles. "We aren't going to put you in diapers." I started laughing, too. Hazel and Piper were nice; I shouldn't be so freaked out.
There was a knocking on the door, and Annabeth walked in. She looked surprised to see all of us laughing. "Well, you're getting used to this all pretty easily." Annabeth said.
She sat down on the bed. She'd brushed out her hair, and I noticed a streak of gray for a split second, until she tucked it behind her ear.
"Piper, can I have a sandwich or something? I didn't get to eat much dinner, you know with-" She looked at me for a moment, then changed topics. I figured they'd been talking about me, especially after Piper told me how big of a deal this whole "quest" was.
"Sorry." I said, and Annabeth blushed.
"It's just that the quest is a big deal, and finding a daughter of Hades during it isn't just something that can be ignored."
"It's okay." I nodded, and Piper turned to look at Annabeth.
"I told her about the quest," She said, all laughter gone.
Annabeth nodded. "She needed to know. On a less serious note, can I still get a sandwich?" She asked.
Piper smiled, and walked over to her dresser. She grabbed the horn thing, pressed it against her hand, and when she lifted it, there was a grilled cheese sandwich in her palm. She handed it to Annabeth, still holding the horn.
"So…gods, guys that can summon fire, horns that can make food appear…anything else?" Hazel laughed.
"Not at the moment." Piper said. "Do you want one too, Marissa? You didn't get to eat much last night either." I nodded, but then I thought about what she'd just said. Last night. That meant I'd been gone for…three days, and my family had no idea where me or mom were.
"I need to talk to my family." I said suddenly, right in the middle of a bite of grilled cheese.
Annabeth looked at me, and brushed off her mouth for any stray crumbs. "You could Iris Message them." She said. I had no idea what that was, but nodded.
"Piper, can you make mist from that thing?" Annabeth asked the girl, who was just about to put the horn back on her dresser.
"Maybe," She frowned. "I mean, it's water…" She held the horn with both hands, closed her eyes for a second, and a gentle mist started spraying out of the severed end and into the air. Annabeth reached into her pocket and pulled out a gold coin. She smiled for second, like she was remembering something, before she threw the coin into the mist and said, "O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show-" She paused to look at me.
"Olette Reymond at the Barcelo Hotel." I said, choosing the trumpeter because she was the oldest.
"Olette Reymond at the Barcelo Hotel," Annabeth copied.
Her face appeared in the mist, like a screen. You could see her amber eyes widen when she saw me.
"Marissa! What's happening? Where are you? We thought you were dead!" She started asking a million questions, and each one made me sadder and sadder, like sandbags.
"Olette…m-m-mom…mom's…she's dead." I felt tears start to fall down my cheeks but I didn't care.
"Izzy, I-I already knew that." Olette started crying, too. "We got a call…they found her in the car…but—but-you weren't there…are you okay, Marissa?"
I was full on crying again. "I'm okay, Ollie. I'm sorry. I…saw mom before she died," I said, deciding to simplify it. "She told me…I was a daughter of Hades."
My sister nodded, makeup streaking down her face. "Marissa, we all—we all knew that. Mom made us—made us k-keep it from you…I'm sorry." She wailed. I was shocked-they knew?—but I was too sad to be angry.
"Some other…they say we're called demigods…they found me," I gestured to Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper, who were being completely silent. I think I saw Annabeth crying, but I turned back to Olette. "I'm safe, Ollie. I'm safe." She was still crying, but she nodded.
"Stay that way, Marissa. Stay that way. I love you."
I felt two more tears trace my cheeks.
"I love you too, Ollie…I love you, too." I said, and the mist faded away.
Author's note this time...sorry, I'll make this short. I just decided to write this randomly, and it might be silly, but I can't believe I already have two reviews for something I uploaded this morning! But I know OC's get bad reps, and I wanted to try to make one my own. I want to leave everything as canon as possible, to be honest, even the Argo II ship layout. (I'll put a link to the website on my profile!)
I really appreciate anyone who reads this, and I'll accept any ideas or constructive criticism you have for the story! Also-I don't really have a schedule for this, and an (unfortunate) history of disappearing from the face of the Earth, but I really enjoy writing this story and I'll try to write and upload whenever I can!
-dqgilly