A/N: Hello, lovelies! I have returned with another chapter to the story! :D This particular chapter is favorite of mine because I just enjoyed typing out Seria's reactions to the modern world. I hope you like it too. Now to respond to another review from I am Katie Daughter of Demeter.
To my wonderful Beta reader: I'm sorry for using curse words, I didn't know it would 'cause a hinderence to the story ;A; SO I'll make sure to watch my language from now on. Thank you for the praise and thanks for agreeing to watch over my grammar and how the story goes on from here. Love you lots! :D
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians; it belongs to Rick Riordan. This is just a fanfiction; written for the amusement of others. :D
Now that's done; let's get on with the story! Please leave me a review when you finish; it means a lot to hear some feedback from the readers. :)
The last thing Seria ever remembered before she was turned to stone by Medusa was the cold sensation that enveloped her as her life was sucked out and the horrible feeling of her skin and body hardening; flesh turning into stone is not a nice event to experience. After her vision went black, Seria remembered standing in a dark, misty area with a river of dull green; she had been sent to the Underworld. Everything from there was pretty nice for her, she enjoyed being in the Underworld and her father, Hades, respected her brave sacrifice and allowed his daughter to live her afterlife in Elysium, the Land of Heroes; just like its title states, Elysium was the closest thing to heaven for Seria. It was where all the heroes and good people go when they die and to be frank, there just isn't a good enough word in human language to even describe the area. The closest thing to an accurate description was simply, heaven.
Then she woke up and met the bluest pair of eyes that she had ever seen; bluer than Apollo's and she should know, she was friends with the God of the Sun. But when she woke up this time, she no longer met with the same blue eyes...instead she was staring at a pair of sea green ones.
"Oh hey! Sleeping Beauty's awake!" chimed the boy, flashing Seria a friendly grin. What Seria did next was something he didn't expect; the young girl whipped out the ring from her left and it instantly morphed into one of her swords (which were called The Gorgon's Eyes, a present from her father in case you've forgotten) and pointed it straight at the boy.
"Oh gosh! Percy!" yelped a dark-skinned boy as he backed up against...a cab door?
Seria slowly took in her new surroundings; she was now inside a cab, not that god awful island (Thank goodness). Besides herself there were three other people in the vehicle; a boy with dark brown hair, sea-green eyes and was currently backed up against his seat in attempt to avoid getting his head sliced off and whose name was apparently Percy, a girl with blonde hair and silver eyes and simply radiated with wisdom and knowledge despite her youth (she was currently glaring daggers at Seria and was slowly inching towards her dagger), and sitting next to "Percy" was a satyr with copper colored skin and curly black hair and a goatee to match (pun not intended).
"Who are you?! W-where am I?! Where are you taking me?" hissed the daughter of Hades, pressing her sword's blade closer to Percy's neck, "Tell me now, pretty boy. Or else I'll behead you on the spot."
The boy narrowed his eyes, "Calm down would you? We're on your side." Seria still refused to put down her sword, signaling that she'd still need more convincing, "I'm Percy Jackson and this," he points to the girl next to him, "is Annabeth Chase. We're both demigods, like you. So no need to get all worked up, okay?"
Narrowing her dark gray eyes, Seria cautiously and slowly withdrew her blade, allowing it to return to its ring form. "I'm Grover Underwood, by the way! In case...you wanted to know." murmured the satyr, a little peeved that his friends forgot to introduce him.
Seria stared outside the car's window; the passing blurs were green and brown, enough evidence for her to tell that they were in a forest area. She glared daggers at the trio sitting next to her, "You have still yet to answer by other two questions: Where am I? And more importantly, WHERE are you taking me?"
"For the first question, you're in New York City; the forest area just outside of the city to be exact," The one who answered Seria's question was none other than, Annabeth, "and for the second one; shouldn't you already know the answer by now?"
"Camp Half-Blood..." Seria murmured her eyes wide with realization. It's been so long since she had last stepped into her home. How long has she been...dead? Is Chiron still there? Are...are her friends even still there? Shaking that negative thought out of her head, Seria looked at Annabeth and grimaced, "You're a child of Athena aren't you?"
The blonde perked up at the immediate recognition, "Oh, you figured that out already? How'd you know?"
"All of her kids are nothing but smartasses."
A sudden silence fell over the group of demigods (plus the satyr) until...an eerie chorus of cackles erupted over in the driver's seat; startling everyone out of their shocked stupor. "Good one, my lady!" said one of the scratchy voices.
Seria rose up slightly from her slouched position in the car, she recognized those voices. She constantly heard the same voices bickering nearly every waking moment back in the Underworld. "Anger? Tempest? Wasp? You're...you're driving a cab?"
"Taxi is the more modern term." screeched Wasp, who then violently yelled, "WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE, YOU OL' BAT!"
"Well, maybe you haven't noticed but...I CAN'T SEE WITHOUT THE EYE!" yelled Tempest.
"Modern? What are you-" Seria didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence as the taxi came to a sudden stop; throwing not only Seria, but Percy, Annabeth, and Grover out of their seats and into the window pane that separated the passenger seats from the driver's. "Argh...I...I can see your driving skills...haven't changed at all." Seria was now pressed uncomfortably against the metal pane with the weight of both Percy and Grover on her.
"Of course we haven't changed!" cackled Anger, the single tooth dangling from her old, cracked lips, "We haven't changed one bit for the last thousand years~!"
"Oh by the way, mistress," cooed Tempest, looking down at the group of entangled demigods, "Your father had quite a scare when your spirit disappeared so suddenly from Elysium. Be a dear and make sure to Iris message him, okay? Wouldn't want him to cause Armageddon, do we~?" Then without warning, the doors to the passenger seats flew open; literally flinging the demigods and satyr right out of the taxi. Then the smoky vehicle zipped away, a trail of black smoke was the only thing that showed that the Gray Sisters has been there.
Percy was the first to recover from being flung out of the taxi. When he got back up on his feet, he looked at Seria with an odd look, "H-how do the Gray Sisters even know you? And why did they call you my lady and mistress?"
"And what did they mean by, 'Your had a quite a scare when your spirit disappeared so suddenly from Elysium'?" piped up the satyr, who was currently trying to get rid of a kink in his neck from the lovely joy ride from the Gray Sisters' Taxi.
"I thought it'd piece together by now," Seria grunted, throwing herself back up from the ground, "I'm a child of Hades."
The trio fell silent, all three looking at Seria like she had sprung out extra heads like a Hydra. "You...you can't be serious." Percy was the first to break the awkward silence, "You can't seriously be a kid of Hades."
"Child..." Seria corrected, narrowing her eyes at Percy, "and what do you mean I can't be his child? I knew Hades was my dad for the past...seven years now."
Annabeth looked between Percy and Seria uneasily, she knew if Seria really was another child of the Big Three than this could get messy real quickly. So she did the most rational thing anyone could do in this current situation; she stepped right in front of the both of them with her hands raised in a "calm down" sort of position. "This is no time for fighting!"
"But she can't be a child of one of The Big Three, Annabeth." argued Percy, glaring at the blonde girl in front of him, "You know their oath."
"Which your father had broken." Annabeth retorted, satisfied when Percy backed down immediately, "Despite their oath, Poseidon had a child once more; you. So you really have no say in this, Percy."
That was when Seria stared at Percy with wide eyes, "Wait, your dad's Poseidon?"
"Yeah," Percy stuck out his hand for Seria to shake, "Listen...I know we got off on the wrong foot and all but, let's make bygones be bygones. I'm Percy Jackson, Son of Poseidon."
Staring down at Percy's hand, Seria...hesitantly grabbed Percy's hand and shook it slowly. She was a little uneasy with this sudden act of friendliness, especially with a boy. Most of the boys back in Camp Half-Blood were extremely rude to her, pretty much because of her race and paternal god; well...at least they were the last time she was in the camp. "Nice to meet you, Percy. I'm Seria Amagi, Daughter of Hades. Oh and..." Seria smiled shyly, "sorry about that threat earlier with the sword."
"Nah, it's okay. I've been through worse." Both demigods chuckled; they agreed on that subject. Being the children of The Big Three often lead to more constant monster attacks on them, but that also meant more practice with their fighting skills.
"Hate to break this, Big Three Bonding Time," snapped the blonde know-it-all, "but we still need to get into the camp and tell Chiron about this. And of course, check if the Golden Fleece really did work."
"Chiron?" Seria's smile widened considerably, "Chiron's still here?"
"Well," Grover chuckled nervously, "More like, he just came here. We just proved to the gods at Olympus that Chiron was innocent of poisoning Thalia's tree, aka the tree that protects the boundaries of the camp and that it was someone else."
"But let's let Chiron explain everything to you." said Annabeth, she grabbed Seria's hand and dragged her into the camp, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."
Seria stared blankly at the camp grounds before her; it looked like the camp just went through hell and back again. Some of the cabins were in shambles and a few demigods (no doubt children of Hephaestus) were busy repairing said cabins, while others simply just had a few holes blown through the walls. The area where they usually hold their camp bonfires was totally destroyed; wood and stone that originally made up the section where they lit up the fire was scattered everywhere along the camp. Plus, the camp just reeked with death and sickness; it made Seria's skin crawl.
"What in Tartarus' name happened to the camp?"
"Nothing really, just a bunch of monsters and other beasts breaking through the weakened boundaries and basically did quite a number on this place."
Seria stiffens, another familiar voice, but she wasn't alone here. Both Annabeth and Grover tensed up like statues and stared up at the speaker with wide eyes and open mouths. Slowly, Seria turned around and faced the speaker.
It was Apollo, in all his glory. The sun god smiled down at Seria, "Well, look who came back from the dead! Good to see you live and breathing, Miss Amagi. You know, you should've PMed me or something; I would've set up a whole party for your re...re-arrival!" Apollo still looked the same way he did the last time Seria saw him; he still had that perfect surfer's tan, same sky blue eyes that shone with radiance, and the same messy mop of blonde sun streaked hair. The only difference...was new style choice.
"Apollo..." Seria tried to sound serious but the grin on her face ruined the effect, "What in the name of Zeus are you wearing?"
The sun god was wearing his favorite brown leather jacket, red t-shirt with the words "CAMP HALF-BLOOD" printed out in bold, capital letters, a pair of jeans and red converse. And of course, placed atop his head were his favorite pair of sunglasses.
"Um, normal clothes." stated Apollo, ruffling Seria's messy black strands of hair, "A lot of things changed since you've been...asleep."
"What?" Seria was now worried; Apollo is making it sound like she's been out for an extreme amount of time. Sure, she had just come back from the dead but she was pretty dang sure that the world probably was still the same. The only difference so far was that Camp Half-Blood was a lot bigger now.
Apollo shook his head, backing off from the subject, "Nope, not gonna be the one to tell you. Better if you ask Chiron, I know how much you trust that old coot. So I think it'd be better if you ask him."
Seria nodded her head and looked around the camp; it definitely was much bigger now. "Um...where do you think Chiron would be?"
Apollo grinned, "Still remember the location of the Big House?"
"Of course, I do!"
"It's still in the same spot, I'm pretty sure you'll know where to go." Then the sun god gave Seria a slight pat on the head before walking away.
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover continued to stare at Apollo until he was out of view. Apparently this was their first time to even talk to the God of the Sun, Medicine, and Music and they were still star struck, or sun struck as Seria puts it.
Seeing as how the three of them weren't going to be moving anytime soon, Seria walked away from them and began to walk in the direction that she hopes would lead her to The Big House. On her way there, she made sure to look at the damage done to the camp and of course, the cabins. All thirteen cabins were still there, some looked different now like how the Demeter cabin seems to look more like a greenhouse than an actual place for people to sleep. But currently, most of them looked worse for wear...then she paused by the Hades cabin; Cabin Thirteen.
It was still the same, though a bit run down. The cabin was painted black with a skull crest on the center of the roof. The old wrought iron torches were still hanging outside the cabin; she still remembers how they always emitted a flame whenever night fell. Seria looked upon her old "home" with melancholy; the memories she had here were priceless and she was quite aware that none of her old camp buddies were still here. 'I must've been dead a lot longer than I thought.' Before she continued down the path to The Big House, she lightly traced an inscription that she had written on one of the cabin's columns a few days before she had taken up that dreaded quest.
Μην ξεχνάτε ποτέτις μέρες μαςπέρασεστο στρατόπεδοεδώήμισυ-αίμα.
-S.A.
"Mi̱n xechnáte poté tis méres mas pérase sto stratópedo edó̱ í̱misy-aíma." murmured the Japanese girl with a slight smile on her face. It was Ancient Greek for, "Never forget our days spent here in Camp Half-Blood."
She had carved this with her friends, one boy and one girl. They were also children of The Big Three; the boy was Mark Abhel, Son of Zeus, and the girl was Natalia Arkson, Daughter of Poseidon. They were closer than friends, they were like a family. Seria wondered where they are at the moment, what their lives are like...and how they must've reacted to when they announced her death.
Stepping away from her cabin, she continued to walk towards The Big House with a heavy heart.
Translations!
Μην ξεχνάτε ποτέτις μέρες μαςπέρασεστο στρατόπεδοεδώήμισυ-αίμα. = "Never forget the days we spent here in Camp Half-Blood." (In case you don't know; I used Google Translate for that line. ^^")
