"Witchcraft"
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Hermes arrived in the Underworld in only a flash of golden light in the center of what looked to be someone's home, Hermes and his three passengers looking a bit green in the face from the journey.
"I think I'm gonna hurl." TK moaned as he held his hand over his mouth and stumbled back into a chair.
They were in what looked to be a living room, only it was dark with a large fire place and windows that showed off the fire and brimstone that was outside.
"Welcome to the home of Hades and Persephone." Hermes said spreading his arms out.
"Wow, they're into the Halloween spirit all year round." Dai said, then grunted as the owl dug its talons into her shoulder more.
"I want you dead so much." She growled lowly to it.
It just squawked at her as she stuck her tongue at the feathered beast.
"Please don't piss that thing off." Koichi requested.
"It pissed me off first." Dai's voice rose a bit at that and she sounded annoyed.
Barking and growls then made the group all turn to see some creatures with panther like bodies creeping over, their spines having tiny spikes going down it, their faces looking more like that of a wolf with saber fangs and their bodies were pure black and their eyes glowed red.
TK got out of his seat and pulled out his bow and arrow from the quiver he wore on his back and took his stance, ready to fire at the beasts as they growled at them, swiping their claws as well to frighten the group.
"Are those hellhounds?" TK asked.
"Yep. Oh, Persephone!" Hermes called in a song.
Someone then called out words in ancient Greek making the pack of hellhounds turn away from the group and sit down like good little house pets.
A woman with long caramel colored hair, dark olive skin and hazel eyes came walking into the room, her black dress hugging her body.
She looked at the group and tilted her head to the side curiously.
"Hermes, why did you bring these Half-Bloods here, especially your own daughter?" she asked.
"We have a problem. You see, Hecate's owl is causing problems." Hermes explained.
Persephone looked at the owl and frowned at the sight of it, the owl hooting at her as its talons dug into the daughter of Hermes's shoulder again which made her grit her teeth in pain and mostly anger.
"Do you need some help?" the Goddess asked.
"Please, before I forcefully remove this thing and make a feather boa out of it." Dai growled.
Smiling a bit in humour, Persephone spoke another spell in Greek making the owl go stiff like a statue, then Koichi gently pried the talons out of Dai's shoulder making her sigh in relief.
"So Hecate is trying to make a comeback? It makes sense. It is Halloween and the new moon. She needs a crossroads to walk to be able to enter our plane so this would work in her favour. New moon on Halloween night, the day of the dead. All we have to do is keep the torches away from the owl until midnight so he can't bring them to Hecate." Persephone said.
"Great, so how do we do that?" TK asked as he put away his weapons.
Persephone eyed Dai, a plan forming in her mind as she smiled.
"You. How would you like to learn a little magic?" she asked.
"Magic? Me, really?" Dai blinked as she pointed to herself.
"Deadly fighter and deadly spell caster. We're all screwed." TK whispered to Koichi.
The son of Ares chuckled nervously at that, but he agreed completely with his friend.
"You're young and have great potential inside of you. Not only that, but I know that you have the power of the Golden Radiance inside of you. It'll keep you from becoming corrupted from the power." Persephone said.
This stunned the three pre-teens.
"How do you know about the Golden Radiance?" TK asked.
"You didn't tell them?" the Goddess asked Hermes who gave a sheepish smile as the others looked at him.
"No. The Golden Radiance and the Crests were all created by the Gods. When I created the Digital World, Zeus knew there would be conflicts and wars going on, so he decided that we should make the Crests and gave them to humans so that they could use that power to keep the balance. We agreed on creating the Golden Radiance as well in case the children of Light and Hope became corrupted or were killed by evil." Hermes explained.
If looks could kill and Gods could die, Hermes knew his daughter would have ended his life in the most painful way when he saw the fearsome glare she gave him that would match Ares himself.
"Why did you never tell us this?" Koichi asked.
"You never asked." Hermes shrugged.
Koichi and TK both walked behind Dai and grabbed onto her waist before she lost it and attacked her own father as Persephone picked up the still frozen owl and set it in a cage that she used for one of the hellhounds when they misbehave.
"Now dear, would you like to learn how to use magic?" Persephone asked.
Taking in a deep breath to try and relax, Dai let it out and then looked over to the Goddess with a confident spark in her eyes.
"Yes, I would." She agreed.
Persephone smiled at this, but then she heard footsteps that stomped around letting her know that her husband was now searching for her.
"Persephone, where are you!" he yelled.
Groaning in annoyance, the dark hared beauty turned to the hallway where the voice came from.
"I'm talking to our visitors!" she yelled back at him.
A man dressed in leather pants, boots and a fishnet shirt walked into the room, his hair long and curly.
It wasn't what they would expect a God to wear, but then again, Hermes usually wore jeans and t-shirts when he came to the human world and Apollo dressed in dress shirts with slacks and Ares dressed like a scary biker, so they really shouldn't be too surprised by this.
"Guests, eh? Ah, sons of Apollo and Ares. How wonderful." Hades quipped
"Hades, be nice. We're here on business." Hermes smiled.
"Really? Is that why you brought your precious daughter?" Hades asked.
"She's here because I'm teaching her the Craft to beat Hecate before she crosses over onto our plane." Persephone explained defensively.
"Really? How cute. Go on, how fun. At least you won't be around these men screwing with them." Hades waved her off as he walked out of the room.
He sounded a bit drunk, but then again any man would be unhappy if his wife, whom he had forced to marry him, wanted to spend more time with other people who came to visit then with her bastard husband.
"Jackass. Why don't you just dump him or drop a phonebook on his crotch while he's sleeping?" Dai asked.
The men in the room shivered in fright at that while Persephone laughed at that and walked over to the girl, cupping her face.
"Oh, I just love you. Come down to visit whenever you want. Come on, we got work to do." She said leading the girl out of the room.
"I'm scared of leaving those two alone." TK said.
"Ah, kid, we all are." Hermes cooed ruffling up his hair.
Dai looked around the hallway she was being led down, one of the hellhounds following them as they went.
They came to two oak doors and Persephone pushed them open to reveal a room filled with stacks of books, some in piles on the floor rather than on shelves.
"Close and lock the doors. We don't need the owl getting in here." Persephone instructed.
Nodding, Dai did as she was told as the hellhound sat to guard the door and Persephone walked over to where a wooden trunk lay with a large lock on it.
The Goddess pulled out a key from under the trunk and unlocked it, revealing two torches that had black metal wrapped around the top where the flame would be lit and the metal had red jewels placed around in a circulate.
Picking them up, Persephone turned to Dai and jerked her head to motion the girl over.
"These are Hecate's torches. We'll be using them. Now come." She said.
Dai walked over curiously, but also felt a bit excited and fearful at the same time of being around the weapons of the Goddess of Witchcraft.
"Now sit down. We're going to have you meditate first. Do everything I tell you to." The Goddess instructed.
"OK." Dai sighed as she sat down cross legged.
"Now close your eyes." Persephone said.
Doing as she was told, Dai did not see Persephone placing the torches on the ground on either side of the girl, then the Goddess stepped back to observe how the girl would do.
"Take deep slow breaths. Listen to the world around you. Connect." Persephone instructed.
Breathing in deeply from her mouth, then releasing it from her nose, Dai went into a peaceful state as she then sensed out the life forms in the palace.
Without knowing, the torches lit with an amethyst flame and began to float beside her, one on each side as she kept breathing and searched out for the beings in the palace.
Slowly, she started to lift off of the ground making Persephone smile at the progress the girl was making and it was quite impressive.
"Good. Now tell me what you feel." Persephone said.
"I feel…pain. People are screaming. I think it's the souls of the dead here in the Underworld. I can also feel worry and fear from my friends. And hunger from your hellhound at the door." Dai responded.
She then frowned as she sensed another presence that wasn't supposed to be there.
"Pride from Dad because he's spying on us from the door." She said.
"Hermes!" Persephone yelled and there was a thump like the God had hit his head on something.
"I'm leaving." He called.
A few seconds passed when the child of Miracles opened her eyes.
"No you're not." Dai called.
"OK, fine. Now I am. Really." Hermes called and there were footsteps being heard going down the halls.
"How am I related to that guy?" Dai sighed before she then noticed what she had done and that made her fall onto her butt, the torches clattering to the ground.
"All right, get back into position. We're going to reach deep within yourself to awaken your Greek roots to help you learn the spells. You need to know the language to use the magic." Persephone clapped her hands in a 'chop chop' fashion that a teacher would use.
Sighing, Dai went back into position and started her deep breathing to get back in tune with the world around her like she was before.
(At the dance…)
Music was blasting around the gym as everyone danced, ate the Halloween styled food such as skeleton cookies and such, drank punch and had fun.
Cody was getting dragged off onto the dance floor by Yolei while Ken spoke with Kari, the two looking around for their missing friends.
Joe and Izzy were just eating while Matt and Tai danced with Mimi and Sora.
Koji as in a corner by himself and had just gotten off of his phone when he called Chiron to warn him of Hecate's comeback when Takuya walked over to his friend.
"OK, I'm worried sick. How are we going to stop a Goddess, especially one that will bring the dead back to Earth to kill us all?" Takuya asked.
"I don't know, but we have to put our faith in Dai, TK and Koichi. They'll come back with a way to help us. All we have to do is make sure Hecate doesn't get her torches until midnight." Koji reminded.
"Right. So is Chiron sending any backup?" Takuya asked hopeful.
"Yeah, he's sending Ryo, JP and Zoe to help us out." Koji answered.
"Only them? I think we could use more help." Takuya whined.
He really didn't want to face someone as powerful as Hecate when they were around so many innocents that could get hurt in the crossfire.
"We'll have you, me, Matt, Mimi, Dai, Koichi, TK, JP, Zoe and Ryo to fight. If we have to, we'll even get V-Mon, Patamon, Gabumon and Palmon to fight with us." Koji said.
He then placed his hands on Takuya's shoulders making the brunette lock chocolate brown eyes with sapphire blue.
"We'll make it." Koji assured.
The Prince of Thieves smiled at that, then grew serious as a thought occurred to him.
"OK, but if for some odd reason I don't make it, I want you to look after Dai and Shinya for me. Can you promise that?" Takuya asked.
"You're not going to die. No one is. We're all going to survive, now stop worrying." Koji said.
"Just promise me." Takuya stressed the words.
Koji looked into his best friend's eyes seeing the seriousness in them and sighed.
"I promise. If anything happens to you, I'll look after them." He vowed.
This made Takuya release the breath he was holding and smiled just as they heard a small commotion and turned to see that the backup had arrived and were ready to fight with the sword and shield that Ryo wore, the quiver filled with arrows on Zoe's back as she carried her bow and JP held a large sword in his hands.
They were an interesting group as they walked in dressed in normal people clothing with only boots, arm guards and chest plates, so it intrigued the mortals as to what they were dressed up as.
Mimi and Matt broke away from the Digidestinds to join Koji and Takuya in the back of the room.
"They sure know how to make an entrance." Mimi said as she looped her arm with Takuya's.
"It's Halloween; they don't have to hide the weapons from anyone." Takuya responded.
"And I doubt the Mist will hide anything tonight. Everyone will just assume it's some hoax or form of entertainment. At least we'll escape suspicion." Matt said.
"Hey, so when's the party starting?" Ryo asked as the trio made their way over.
"My guess is about 11:00 pm." Koji answered.
Zoe looked at her watch and frowned at the hour.
"It's 10:47 right now. The time is coming up soon." she said.
"I guess we'll have to pray that Koichi, TK and Dai get back here soon." JP said.
"Why is that?" Tai asked as he and the other Digidestinds walked over.
The sudden appearance made the Demigods go tense as they felt nervous from having to come up with a quick lie.
"Oh, uh, so they don't miss the show!" JP laughed nervously.
The Chosen Children looked suspicious of what was going on and were annoyed that Matt, Mimi, TK and Dai were keeping secrets from them.
"OK, just where is Dai and TK, huh?" Yolei demanded.
"We're all getting worried. We haven't seen them in hours." Kari frowned sadly.
Zoe walked over to her and held the girl's hands, the daughter of Athena's emerald eyes sparkling.
"Don't worry about it. I know them both, including Koichi. They're strong and they'll be fine. All they're doing is just getting some last minute preparations done for the dance." She said.
"You three are also from the camp?" Cody asked.
"Uh huh. I'm JP Shibiyama, this is Ryo Akiyama and his half-sister Zoe Orimoto." The heavyset male introduced.
"What is it with this camp and half-siblings?" Yolei asked.
"It is strange. Is this camp made up of people who are related to each other?" Izzy asked.
"Uh, well, my dad is Dai's dad and he's a total womanizer." Takuya rubbed the back of his head with a nervous grin that showed off his teeth.
"Wait a minute. Jun and Dai don't share the same dad? That explains why they aren't close." Tai mused.
He had always wondered why the Motomiya sisters looked more like their mother who was a redhead with pale skin and brown eyes than their father who had brown hair, peach toned skin and black eyes.
Jun got most of the looks from her mother while Dai must have been a cross between her biological dad and mother.
Just then, lights started flashing up on the stage making everyone turn to see what was going on.
It seemed that a tear was created in the air and it was slowly coming apart making all the students look at it curiously.
"What's going on?" Sora asked.
"It must be something done by the auto visual club to make things more interesting." Yolei waved it off.
Unknown to the Chosen Children, the Demigods had all drawn their weapons, even Mimi had a thin sword in her hands, to get ready for the battle that was sure to come soon.
(In the Underworld…)
The owl awoke and started to screech making TK, Koichi and Hermes look at it in worry as the creature phased through the bars and started to fly off in the direction that the females were in.
"Oh no, he must he looking for the torches!" TK gasped.
"We need to stop it. Come on." Koichi said as he drew his blade he hid.
The two Demigods ran off down the hall as Hermes watched in worry, the grandfather clock behind him indicating that it was now 11:00 pm, so Hecate would be making her appearance in the Human World now.
TK and Koichi raced down the halls after the owl, the archer firing his arrows at the creature but they passed through it as if the owl were only a hologram.
Finally, they made it to the library and the owl went through the doors.
On the other side, Dai was standing in air ten feet from the ground as her hair blew around her head, the torches floating beside her as Persephone kept watch.
When the owl came into the room, the hellhound let out a howl and pounced on it making the Goddess and Demigoddess gasp as they saw the owl.
"Hecate must be entering the living world. Quickly, take the torches and use them to seal her back." Persephone ordered as Dai was back on the ground holding the torches.
"Are you sure?" Dai asked.
"You are an even better student than Hecate herself. I know you can defeat her. Now go show her." Persephone encouraged.
Nodding with a confident smile, Dai ran to the doors and held the torches at the owl, reciting a spell that made the owl transform into a harmless mouse.
The hellhound growled at it, then eat it so that it wouldn't be a problem anymore.
"Ew. Awesome job." Dai smiled at the hellhound that barked at her with its tail wagging.
"Go now." Persephone said.
Dai then unlocked the doors to find TK and Koichi were there with their weapons drawn, both relieved to see the Princess of Thieves was safe.
"What happened to the owl?" Koichi asked.
"He's dog food, now let's go. Hecate's coming." Dai said.
She then ran out to find her father, TK and Koichi following as Persephone watched with a worried look, but still had confidence in the girl.
To be continued…