To Anonymous Person Lucky 13- No, tree man didn't kill Arnie, but he knows what happened to him and the other three. It's the bad guy knows everything trope :P
To 8Ball3- You don't have the best luck with reviews, do you? XD EVIL TREE!
To NeverWritesAlwaysReads- Hehehe *evil*
Popadom watched them struggle and fight. He had gagged Harvey when he started to mumble spells, his hands incapacitated. He gagged Lizzie when she cussed him out with some of the finest Australian barbs she could summon, although it was clear no-one had any idea what she meant. The dryad did not move from Louisa's side, enjoying her torment the most. Tears speckled her eyes, she was fading in and out of unconsciousness, moments from passing out altogether from lack of air. He was waiting for that, his fingertips resting on her forehead.
"I heard much about you over these last few years." He said. "So much. It took me a little while to understand everyone's interest in you, but I got there in the end. Must be an… interesting future, the god-killer." Jessica's muffled protests swam up. "Oh, shush!" Popadom scolded, waving his hand and burying her under more shadows. "Your mother is very annoying." He remarked, voice softening again as he spoke to Louisa. "Do you know how much more use the god-killer is to me than your blood?" She went cross-eyed at him, one last second of defiance before she could stay awake no longer.
The dryad smiled to himself. He flattened his palm across her forehead. "This took me a while to learn." He said. "I haven't really practised it beyond theory. So, if it works, yay me. If it doesn't work… well, the pain won't last long. You'll be dead."
His other three victims screamed, fighting and cursing him some more behind their restraints. He ignored them, melting into shadows that covered Louisa. For a few seconds, they could not see her. Then the darkness faded, even falling away from her, freeing her. Her eyes opened, filled with power.
Not her power though, not green. It was pitch black instead, concentrated shadows.
She sat up, sword in her hand, studying her reflection. She touched her face, turning this way and that, examining herself in the shiny surface. She smiled a smile that was not Louisa, looking to the other three.
"That went better than expected." She said. Her voice was her own, but the words were not. She got to her feet, wobbling a little, throwing her arms out for balance. "The size difference will take some gettin' used to, I must admit." She threw her hand out. Shadows skirted away as the road buckled, a pipe bursting beneath and sending up a geyser of sewer water almost a storey tall. "Mm. I'll have to figure out these powers as well. You there." She turned to Harvey, kicking his shoulder. "You are magic. You can teach me." Harvey couldn't move his head, but he mumbled his discontent, mustering a glare as best he could. "OK." Louisa-Popadom nodded. "OK, let's try it this way. Teach me to use this girl's powers or I shall kill them." She swept her hand out to Jessica and Lizzie, clenching her fist. The shadows writhed, cocooning around the women, who screamed, terrified and in pain.
Tears burned Harvey's eyes. He tried to protest again, tried to shake his head. "No, you don't want me to kill them? Or no, you won't teach me? Hold on." She waved her hand and the shadow-gag fell away. Harvey inhaled sharply.
"Don't… don't kill them…" He rasped. Louisa beamed at him.
"So, you'll teach me then?" Harvey nodded, not looking at either woman as they yelled at him. "Excellent! Up, up!" With a snap of her fingers, the shadows swirled around Harvey, lifting him to his feet. They snapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides, and around his ankles, making sure he couldn't move much more than walk. "Good man. I really want ta know how she does that green thing. I've never seen that before, you must tell- ow!" She clutched her head, stumbling backwards. The shadows flickered, taking on greyer hues. Jessica got her arm free, reaching for Lizzie, brow knit with concern. Lizzie managed a nod, her gag falling away with a shake of her head, gasping for air. "Ow!" Louisa-Popadom said again, screwing her eyes shut. "What was that?"
Harvey gave a little laugh, relief cooling the panic in his chest.
"That would be the original owner of the body. I don't think she wants you in there."
"Well, tough!" She defied, straightening up. A grimace now pulled at her features, but Popadom was determined to hold onto this form. "This is what she gets for callin' me Popadom!"
"Yeah, why is that?"
"I don't know, she was a horrible little six-year-old brat!"
"Well, now she's an even more horrible little nine-year-old brat." Harvey countered. Louisa-Popadom glowered at him.
"Are you gonna help me or not?" She motioned to Jessica and Lizzie again, the shadows wriggling around them, forcing them to sit up, then tripling their restraints. "It'll only take seconds to squeeze the life out of them. They're only mortal." She smiled sweetly, the shadows in her eyes glimmering with darker hues. Harvey hesitated, but he didn't get a chance to respond as Louisa-Popadom smacked herself in the face. "OW!" She cried, clamping her hands over her nose. "What was that?" Another slap. "STOP DOING THAT! You!" She jabbed a finger at Harvey. "Tell her to stop doing that!"
"Lou, stop doing that." Harvey deadpanned, knowing full well his words would fall on deaf ears, only proven after a heartbeat with another smack, harder this time.
"ARRGH! STOP THAT OR I WILL KILL YOUR FAMILY!"
The smacking stopped. Louisa-Popadom waited for a few seconds, hands spread as if balancing herself. Then, when satisfied no more attacks were coming, she straightened, rubbing at her nose and wincing. "I hate this child." She grumbled. She frowned up at Harvey, sighing. "Let's go then. We've got work to do."
The pool of shadows whisked themselves into a whirlpool, one that rose and encased both demigods in a tornado of darkness. It dissipated just as quickly, leaving no trace of them. Master gone, the remaining shadows began to return to their original positions, releasing their last two captives.
"What the hell?" Lizzie gasped. "What the hell?"
That was something to the effect Jessica was thinking, staring at the space Harvey and Louisa had been. Next to her, Lizzie curled up, her head falling on her mother's arm. She hugged herself, a bewildered, almost mad laugh bursting out of her. "This is insane, this is insane, this is insane…"
"I did warn you." Jessica mumbled detachedly. She gripped Lizzie's elbow, rising and coaxing her to her feet too. "It's OK, we can figure this out."
"I'm sorry, did you see the magic tree man attacking us with shadows and then mind-controlling the supposed god-killer and kidnapping her and the magic man you've got a date with later this week?!"
"What does that last bit have to do with anything?"
"Incentive!" Lizzie countered with another delirious laugh, throwing her hands up and then letting them drop onto her head to pull at her hair. "I thought I'd get to meet sharks or something, not Peter Pan's shadow on crack!"
"Um…"
"I am processing! Shush!"
"OK. Carry on."
"I will! I'm stealing that shield! And this pointy thing!" She snatched up the pilum and then marched off. "And this pointy thing too!" She grabbed the dropped sword, tucking it under her arm so she could reach down for the shield. "Fuck, this is heavy. No, no! It's mine! I can do it!"
Jessica left her to it. She had a lot to work through, so best to just leave her be, muttering and cursing and complaining that she wanted to swim with dolphins. Jessica had work to do too, although… where to begin?
Harvey had known nothing about this dryad or anything like it. The magic Popadom produced, the influence he had over the shadows, it seemed to be beyond Harvey's knowledge. And the possession? Was that a thing dryads could do or just Popadoms? Jessica rubbed at her temples, feeling a headache coming on. If a son of Hecate couldn't figure this out, how was she, a normal mortal with a recently acquired magic bat, supposed to?
She tuned back in to Lizzie's ranting. "Do gods have Ghostbusters? But, like, for monsters and stuff? Are they in the Yellow Pages? You've got a Yellow Pages, right? What do we do? Can we do anything? Do you want the sword or the other pointy thing? I don't know what it's called. I need a lie down."
"The gods don't have Ghostbusters, they have demigods. They're not in the Yellow Pages, but yes, I do have the Yellow Pages. I'm not sure what we do or can do, I'm still working that out. And I'll stick with my bat, thanks."
"Where is it?"
"Somewhere."
"Can I nap now?"
"Help me find your sister and you can sleep for as long as you like."
"Um, and your boyfriend."
"He is not-" Jessica caught herself, taking a deep breath. This was just Lizzie trying to get some semblance of control back, she shouldn't get mad. "Just help me look for my bat."
Having a tree in your head was… well, not an interesting and not a fun experience, but it was definitely one for the history books.
She had no idea what Popadom had done, but it felt like she had been pushed down, down, down by an unseen, unrelenting pressure that made it hard to breathe. Then again, he was suffocating her, so that might have had something to do with it. Now, she was sat in a bubble of darkness, somewhere in her own mind, trapped and unable to slap him more. The bubble had come in after the threat to kill her family, but she had had to smack him- her? Oh, this was confusing.
It'll only take seconds to squeeze the life out of them.
That's what he had said. Those words resonated through her, searing her skin, but also filling her with immeasurable coldness. Being in her own head, the memory pounced on her, piling around her as if she was actually back there, recreating the scene in the cavern with Polybotes. She saw Huxley in his hand, brave brave Huxley who had only wanted to save his friends. She could not look away, her mind would not let her. Polybotes squeezed and squeezed and squeezed until Huxley's body could take no more. Then he was dropped. Louisa screamed, waving her arms, shooing away the memory in blind panic, but she still heard him fall to the floor. She would always hear him fall to the floor.
She couldn't let that happen again, pushing her will down into her arm. It would probably hurt her later, but she didn't care right then. She just needed to smack Popadom in the face, so she did. Three times. Rewarding her with a nice, shadowy hamster ball that would not break no matter how much she kicked or punched or yelled at it.
She had no idea what was going on beyond the bubble. She didn't know if the others were OK. She didn't know what Popadom was doing. And she didn't know how to get out of this.
The bubble was not just darkness, she discovered after a while- no clue how long 'a while' was, time was not a thing here- but also her entertainment, if you could call all your worst memories being thrown at you over and over and over again entertainment. There was no closing her eyes or covering her ears, this was not her physical body, she couldn't block it out. Ma Gasket's leering red eye burned across her vision, she could hear Arnie's last attempt at calling her. Blood washing down a stream, sticky warmth and biting cold, hot tears flooding her cheeks as she gasped for air that didn't taste like copper.
That monster that used Arnie's voice against her. How her friends had saved her, rallying together and beating that horrible creature and looking after her as she broke down. It just reminded her that she couldn't repay the debt and save them.
Ruby choking to death on poison, screaming and coughing and spluttering, suspended in a cage no-one could get to.
Raijin lying lifeless on Huxley's chest, staring across the cavern at her.
Huxley, again, the life squeezed out of him as though it was no more substantial than a candle flame.
Marsyas, handing over the lyre to ease the suffering that would encompass her life, just because of her father.
Then her father, as if pulled in from that memory, aiming a trident at her head.
Two, the snake-lady that had taught her to sword, facing her and her sisters down for a second time to help Cluck the horse-chicken.
So many monsters, snarling at her, grabbing at her, clawing and biting and attacking, whether she was alone or with Storm or Arnie or Huxley, Ruby and Raijin. Manticore, Chimera, Minotaur, hydra, that grey ghost thing that scared Storm away, the terror she had felt at losing her.
There was always some beast after her, but as her friends' deaths cycled around again, thoughts clamoured for her attention, horrible grasping thoughts she could not shake. Monsters killed demigods. Her friends were dead because of her. Did that make her a monster?