Chapter 9
Revelations
I do not own PJO!
PERCY'S POV:
"She has been through much, Percy; you must calm your feelings about her. I realize she took your sword, but we need to help her in whatever way we can." Chiron stated.
We were sitting on the porch of the Big House, waiting for Alyia to wake up. Her recent spell knocked her unconscious, so we needed to give her a brake before she showed us the rest of her past. Annabeth, Thalia, Chiron and I sat around the pinochle table, Nico was still inside with Alyia, watching over her and making sure she didn't run away. Chiron gave us some lemonade to help us pass the time, and I gulped mine down in a flash. Hey, I was thirsty!
"I realize that Chiron and you know," I said, "I always try to help anyone who needs it, but I'm telling all of you, that girl is bad news."
"What's your deal Kelp Head? We will find Riptide and then what do you have left to be mad at her for?" Thalia countered, "She needs our help! Obviously something evil was involved and she is some sort of "vessel" for that power. That must explain her almost albino skin."
"Anything that has to do with Hades is evil Thals," Annabeth commented, taking a sip of her lemonade.
"I realize that Annabeth, but look at me! I'm a daughter of Zeus and I wear a lot of dark stuff, but that doesn't mean I'm evil!"
"Well not all of the time anyways." I snickered.
Thalia glared at me and opened her mouth to say something when we heard a voice:
"HEY GUYS, SHE SAYS THAT SHE'S READY NOW!" Nico yelled out to us.
"Let us go now," Chiron said, "and Percy?"
"Yes sir?"
"Please, don't do anything to rash."
"Alright…"
We filed inside the room where Alyia was laying on the bed. Nick sat in a chair next to the bed, handing Alyia some ambrosia, giving her some strength back. She ate the ambrosia willingly, and she gained a little of her color back. (As much color as an albino could have anyways.) She sat up and looked at us all, as if she were expecting something from us. Her bottomless eyes landed on me. They were very dark in color; it was hard to get any emotion from them. I thought I caught some glimpses of hate, compassion and pity though, although they were gone too quickly, I wasn't completely sure that I had seen them in the first place. The only thing that I could see for sure was a suppressed evil, as if it was there, but she was holding it down, keeping it tied up in her mind. I stared back into her eyes, trying to get a glimpse of betrayal or some hidden plot, but seeing none I broke our gaze. Her eyes were unique; anyone could look into them and get lost in their bottomless depths and if they weren't careful, get lost in them for what seemed an eternity.
"Alyia," Chiron asked, "do you have enough strength to continue?"
She nodded. Her hands and eyes gave off the black aura and she spoke the same incantation as before. The black screen appeared before us once more and a scene flashed to life on it…
*flashback* (*Percy's thoughts*)
"Where are we going Uncle Charon?" the little girl asked.
"I'm taking you to a hotel, a very fun place where you are going to stay for a little bit until daddy has his house ready for you." Charon answered. He grabbed the little girls hand and clutched the two twins close to him. He spoke a few words in ancient Greece and they suddenly disappeared. The screen clouded and the next thing the little girl knew, they were standing in front of a hotel room. Number 1313.
"Alright then kids, here is your room!" Charon said joyfully.
"YAY!" Jeremiah and Mickey ran past their uncle and into the hotel room. The little girl followed, although not as quickly as her twin brothers. The room looked as if it was made just for them: one twin bed and a bunk bed, a television and a bookshelf, full of every kid book and movie they could ever think of or dream of seeing. The wallpaper was a light yellow, with lotus flowers printed on the top and bottom border of the walls. The beds coordinated with the room, white comforters with the light yellow lotus in the center. Between the colors and the tropical décor, the whole room gave off a serene, safe feeling.
*I recognize this place…*
"What is this?" little Alyia questioned.
"This is your room for now, your home away from home for now. And this isn't even the best part! Mickey, Jeremiah! Stop jumping on the bed and come here for a minute! I'm going to show you the best part of your temporary home!"
The group walked down the hallway, and got into the elevator in the corridor. The doors closed and Charon turned to the large amount of buttons on the side of the doors.
"These are all the different places you can go kids. This row," he pointed out the bottom row of buttons, "is the places that kids your age are allowed to be in. The rest are for adults or off-limits. You stay away from the rest of the buttons, okay? And whenever you want to go back to your room, this is the button you push." He pointed to a large gold button with a lotus in the center.
"Alright."
"Now where do you want to go first? There is the pool, the waterpark, the game room, the library, the 360 trampoline room and the 24/7 kiddy restaurant! Where to Mickey? You get to choose first!"
"Uhh.. how 'bout the twampoline woom?" He asked sweetly.
"Trampoline room it is!"
Charon pushed the button and the 3 children were jerked to the floor as the elevator took off sideways. Less than 5 seconds later, the elevator stopped and the doors dinged open. Imagine for a second you are a 7 year old girl (or a 4 year old boy). Imagine a room the size of a soccer field, and 20 feet high. Every wall is covered with trampolines and the ones on the sides curved inwards, so that any kid that bounced off of them flew across the room to the other side. On the far end of the room was a large foam cube pit. A ladder reached up 10 feet and had a small trampoline on top. The room was filled with happy, screaming kids, not one looked over the age of ten. As a little kid, this would be paradise.
Alyia looked at her uncle and asked: "What about daddy? Will he pick us up soon?"
"He will come when… everything is alright for you to come back."
The kids ran screeching with joy and huge smiles on their faces onto the trampolines, joining the other kids in their endless fun. Charon had a sad smile on his face when he saw the kids sprint toward the fun. He walked back into the elevator and shut the doors. As they closed, the doors connected to form the words: Lotus Casino.
*I knew it!*
…..
The vision clouded and the next image appeared was much later. Little Aly herded the tired twins back to their room from another crazy day. They had been in there for a long time, for they had each aged two years. Alyia was now 9, and the twins were 6. The boys flopped down onto their bunk bed, content and stuffed from the buffet. Their sister tucked them in and they soon started snoring quietly. Alyia looked tired, but she didn't go to bed. She walked over to the sliding doors and out onto the balcony. She looked content outside, looking up at the stars she began to talk to herself.
"I really, really like it here daddy, but why won't you come get us? Uncle told us you were preparing a new home for us. Why is it taking you so long?"
She turned around, locked the sliding doors so her brothers couldn't follow her, and started climbing up the fire escape, up towards the roof. As she climbed, she continued murmuring to herself.
"You may not know it daddy, but ever since you left us here, I have become Jeremiah and Mickey's mommy. I have had to grow up twice as fast to take care of them and be the grownup here. I have been watching over them in the fun rooms, making sure no one hurts them, even if that means getting hurt myself." The wind blew her nightdress, showing her thigh, covered in bruises and dried cuts.
"I miss you mommy. I don't think daddy cares about me and my brothers anymore. I may be only nine, but I am no longer a little kid. I have experienced pain mommy. Daddy knows about when I get hurt." A tear slid her cheek and she pulled herself onto the casino's roof. She walked to the opposite end and sat, her legs dangling over the edge. She lay back, staring up at the stars.
"Whenever I was real little and you were still here, daddy always knew when I got hurt, even if he wasn't there at the time. He always seemed to find me, no matter where I was and make me better. I asked him all the time how he knew and he just told me that he had a gut feeling that something was wrong. I know he has that gut feeling now. I have whenever Jerry and Mickey are in trouble. He doesn't come anymore, mommy. He doesn't come."
She started crying, tears spilling from her eyes. She rolled herself into a ball and rocked back and forth. Crying from the stress that was, but shouldn't be, on her life. She sniffed and looked out at the city view and saw something new that wasn't there the day before. A clock tower was right next to the casino, glowing neon white and navy. Her crying paused for a moment; and she stood, pondering over the clock.
"Strange," she sniffed, rubbing her eyes "how can people build a giant clock tower in one day?" The clock started chiming and began to flashing the time, date and year.
9:55, December 2…
2011?
Her brow furrowed. "That clock must be wrong. It's not 2011, its 1993. We came here in 1991…"
Something was wrong. She climbed down the ladder, all the way down to the bottom of the ladder, farther down than she had gone before. She perched above the streets one story above the sidewalk. She saw a man wearing a blue and white baseball hat directly below her. He was talking to someone on his phone; after the call ended he took it away from his ear and started playing a game with a slingshot and green pigs? Another woman walked by, tapping out an email, or a message, she was too far away to tell. The tablet was about the size of a book and she sat down next to the man and started playing another game. This one had a little green monster, jumping from platform to platform. She saw newer cars, and stores she had never heard of and things she didn't even know existed.
"That's it. EXCUSE ME?" She called down to the man.
The guy and girl looked up and gave her a questioning look. "What's up kid?" the man yelled, " Other than you I mean! HAR HAR HAR!"
"Funny, hey do you know what the date is?"
"Yea, it's something in December, 2007."
Her eyes grew wide. "2007. 2007? 2007?" she screeched, her voice growing more and more panicked by the minute.
The man looked up at her like she was some sort of insane girl that escaped the asylum, but he quickly went back to his game.
Alyia ran back to the ladder, sprinting up the stairs and the constant ladders, in her haste, she slipped and gave her a rather nasty cut on her face, right above her right eye. It bled into her eye; hot sticky blood running into her eye. Even with the cut, she kept up her pace and reached her room. She struggled with the latch, but as soon as her trembling fingers opened the door she ran to her brothers, who were sound asleep, and shook them awake.
"Wha-what's wrong sissy?" Mickey rubbed his eyes and stretched.
"Yea, I was SLEEPING!" complained Jeremiah
"Listen guys, WE ARE IN THE FUTURE!" she yelled
The twins were silent for a while.
"How can we be in the future Aly? Last time I looked out the window, there aren't any flying cars out there." Jerry said, hands on his hips.
"Gah! I know there aren't any flying cars but there are books that move like televisions and play games with monsters, red birds, green pigs and slingshots!"
"… Jerry I think our sister finally cracked. I think that cut is making you see things." Mickey said, holding down laughter.
"UGH! Come with me, I'll show you!"
*on the bottom of the fire escape*
"SEE! Do you believe me now?"
"Yep!" the boys said simultaneously, "we officially live in crazy world!"
"Crazy world? This is 2007! We arrived here in 1994! We have been here for 13 years!"
"13 YEARS!" the boys screeched, Mickey looked as If he was about to cry.
"But… but I'm not that old!" Jerry said
"Something seriously wrong has happened now.
"But isn't daddy coming to get us?"
…
"I don't know. It's been 13 years! We need to get out of here."
"How?" Jerry asked.
"We just grab some money or those cards that we use to pay for everything and then I'll lower you down to the ground!"
"… It's not that I don't trust my sister, but are you sure it's ok that we are leaving?" Mickey wondered
"You're not going anywhere!" A voice boomed from behind them. Charon!
"Uncle! You came back for us!" Alyia and her brothers embraced their uncle in a hug, almost knocking them over.
"Yes. I did. But your father wishes you to come to his palace now." He grasped their arms and they were gone in a whirlwind of darkness.
…...
The group appeared in the center courtyard of Hade's palace. When the children finally regained their balance they saw their dad sitting on a black marble throne, surrounded by three women. One had a dress that looked like it was made out of grain.
*Demeter!*
The other woman looked as if she was a witch right out of a fairy tale, she had a black ripped dress and a pointed hat.
*Hecate!*
The last woman was terrifying. Her left side was black and hardened like a mummy. Her right side was pale and chalky as if she were drained of all her blood. She wore a golden dress and a golden shawl, and her eyes were empty, lifeless, black voids.
*Melinoe!*
"Daddy!" The kids screamed and ran towards their daddy, ready to embrace him in a giant hug, a hug that would make up for the 10 years that they were separated.
"Quiet." He raised his hands and they stopped in their tracks, frozen in place, still able to speak, although not able to move.
The two women came over to the kids and grabbed Mickey and Jeremiah and dragged their paralyzed bodies over to behind the throne.
"Da-daddy what are you doing?"
"Aly, there was a prophesy about you a long time ago. You are to be a very important part in a bigger game. Have you ever heard of the being named Chaos? Of course you haven't. You are just a kid! The prophesy was about a child of Hades that would be the vessel, the storage tank and the transfer of his power. You will be that vessel."
"What? I won't do that! My brothers need someone to take care of them! If you, their daddy won't be there for them, I WILL! Just let us go! You may be my father, but you are NOT my daddy!"
Hades burned with rage. "You are wiser beyond your years daughter, but there is something you did not expect. The prophesy also said that the vessel's sibling's souls will be taken by force from you. No matter what you choose, whether to become the vessel, or to somehow elude me and get out of here, your brothers will be destroyed!"
"I will never leave my brothers!" she screamed.
"Then you do you agree?"
Alyia paused. She seemed to think about her choices for a while. She muttered to herself: "I can't leave my brothers. They need me. If I get that power, I'll be able to get out of here and take care of ourselves on our own, we wouldn't need anyone." She raised her eyes to her father. Before she told him her decision, she said under her breath: "I swear; I will ever love you. I hate him."
"I will do it…"
That's it!
I do not own PJO!
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