Heeyyy... I was gonna update last Tuesday, really, but I wrote Out And Proud instead. It's Hetalia, based around Japan coming out to Greece.
Now the shameless self-advertising is out of the way: How is life for you guys? I recently got some new zebra loaches, and that was the most interesting thing that's happened, really. I wanted to get an albino catfish and call it Gilbert, but we didn't. C'est la vie.
In this chapter, our heroes are sent on a quest within a quest. A minigame, if you will. I promised this would be a super long chapter, but I honestly don't know. Oh, and happy Proclamation/Paddy's day! I was going to write a fic about it, but meh.
Immediately, the demigods sprang into action. Percy, Nico and Jason grabbed swords, Leo's whole body spontaneously combusted and Annabeth and Piper pulled out daggers, all facing what looked to the nations like a slightly battered one-legged pigeon. What topped this in general weirdness, however, was that nobody noticed. A young girl also sitting outside the cafe threw the pigeon a few cake crumbs, eyes drifting straight past the half-bloods as if they simply didn't exist. Romano loudly cleared his throat. "Are we gonna go, or are you bastards just gonna go all genocidal maniac on the bird?"
"The bird?" Jason and England took a second to look at him incredulously. England's heavy eyebrows knitted together. "Does this look like a bloody bird to you?"
"Si."
Meanwhile, Piper stabbed the minotaur in the chest. It crumbled into yellow dust. Or, from the Nations' (minus England) point of view, the pigeon got sick of this particular cafe and flew off.
Nico frowned. "They can't see through the Mist."
"But... How can they see us? Can they see us?" Leo asked. He waved an experimental hand in front of China's face. It was promptly slapped away. Leo cradled his not particularly injured hand against his chest. "Abuse! I could sue!"
"It's probably because they already know we're here, and the Mist couldn't really erase us from existence" said Piper. "But how do we remove it?"
"Wait." Jason squinted at England. "You didn't see a bird. What did you see?"
"A flipping great bullman thing!" He twisted around. "How did you guys not see it?!"
"Please excuse him. He has always been a little delusional, seeing fairies and things." France nonchalantly checked his manicure. "What is the Mist, by the way?"
"Well," began Annabeth. "It stops mortals seeing monsters. It makes them look like something more harmless, like a big dog. Or a pigeon. I guess we'll have to find a way to take it off you. Any ideas?"
Nico opened his mouth as if to say something. Then he shut it again. Then he opened it. "Hecate controls the Mist, right? Maybe if we could find her..?"
Annabeth sat down beside Greece. "But how could we find her?"
"Hecate? You guys have to start explaining," said China, looking quite pouty.
"The goddess of witchcraft, among other things." Japan looked quite proud that he'd remembered this. "But how-"
"Witchcraft, you say?" England looked a lot more invested in the conversation, suddenly. "I could summon her. If I could just borrow that computer..?"
Annabeth, very begrudgingly, handed it over. England typed and clicked for a good half an hour, stopping only to choke France on two occasions. "Alright, lads. I found my magic database. I summoned her by accident in the 1500s, and I could do it again. Here's what we need..."
Three hours later, they were standing in an empty alleyway, right where it intersected with a different one, circled around a large pentagram drawn by Nico and Italy. They had hit it off, God knows how. Still, Italy had apparently taken it upon himself to be a sort of guide to Nico, and Nico, to everyone's utter surprise, didn't seem to mind. Germany made a mental note to investigate. England was spreading an odd concoction of herbs around the edges of the pentagram. He carefully placed some bones, courtesy of Nico, inside it, and stood back. Then he began to chant.
"Quero las tijeras,
Je suis facille,
Voy a piscina a los domingos.
Is maith loim tae,
Is aoibhinn loim an fear fionn.
Polla.*"
The first thing Germany noticed was that the bones carefully laid out inside the pentagram crumbled to dust. Then there was a bright light. He had the sudden urge to look away. He somehow felt like something terrible would happen if he looked. He covered Italy's eyes as well. When he sensed it was gone, he opened his eyes. In the pentagram stood a woman.
She had long dark curls and completely black eyes. She was beautiful, undeniably. But she also gave off a slightly off-putting aura of power and danger. This was a person who could kill you using sheer willpower. Well, not really. Willpower suggests that she would have to put some sort of effort into this. 'This was a person who could kill you just by giving it a little idle thought' would be more accurate.
Germany was almost too busy getting his mental descriptions straight that he nearly missed her beginning to speak.
"Who summons me here?"
England, apparently, had a lot of experience in summoning freaky ladies. "I did, Miss."
What with the eyes, it was hard to tell if she was actually looking down her nose at England, but she probably was. "Explain."
"Well, I er... My friends and I are on a quest to find... someone very important. But the thing is that these ones don't have the Sight. We were hoping you could maybe give it to them?"
Hecate's eyes narrowed slightly. "And why should I do this?"
"We're looking for the personifications of Ancient Rome and Greece."
"They are dead to me. Culture has moved." She ignored the nations that weren't America seething in self-righteous anger.
"Yeah, but they're not dead to us. Say we did something for you, and in return you take the Mist off them."
"Are you sure? It won't be easy."
"Positive."
Hecate smirked. "You're very eager. Hopefully your friends are as confident as you. Here's what you must do."
*England's chant was in fact just random phrases from the languages I'm learning. (Spanish, French and Irish) You can Google Translate them if you really want, but it'll spoil the effect seeing as they make no sense.