"I can see where all the blue clothes come from, now," I smirked. Percy had taken me to visit with his mortal family about a week after Nico and I returned from the Underworld. In that time, Nico showed me the ropes of the Underworld, I pissed off Persephone 5 times, found out that Hell-Hounds were just good dogs in a bad mood, and hit my head on the Hades' cabin doorway 3 times. Speaking of the Hades cabin, it was built and finished, fully obsidian with a real and/or decorative skull above the door. It was small, as Nico was the last living son of Hades, but definitely had a good vibe to it. Upon dealing with some of the skeletons questionable aesthetic choices, Nico let me stay in the Hades cabin with him after getting his father's blessing.
Hades was a really nice guy once you got to know him, and if you weren't an Olympian, and if you didn't piss him off. He never did explain the little moon thing, but he seemed to at the very least tolerate my company.
The Underworld is one hell of a realm, no pun intended. I can feel the overload of power ready to be drawn from beneath, no doubt because of the natural ambience of the land of the dead. However, when Nico and I went exploring a bit, I felt a presence whenever we would step within 200 meters of an entrance to Tartarus. Likely my mother's mansion, calling to the dark force.
Nico seemed happier, but only on the surface. After hours of just talking and rambling to each other, I felt that he knew me better than I did. I would soon leave to deal with some godly things, one of which may or may not be bitch slapping my father, and I wouldn't want to drag Nico around with me. He didn't plan on staying at camp much anyway. Hades always offered his palace for Nico to stay in, as long as he didn't stir too much trouble. I had heard some of the spirits gossiping about issues in the Underworld, and Hades seemed to as well. Nico would likely be helping his father with the dead's problems.
Camp was different, as to be expected. Nico and I were seen as heroes for a while, along with the other brave heroes of Olympus, but in time, it changed. Nico began retreating back away from people, and I was pretty sure I knew why. The stubborn brat that he is. I did all I could and just stuck around. He needed someone to return to, someone who would stick by him, so I ensured that if I could, I would. Percy had never seemed happier or sadder than he did now. The deaths and sacrifices of so many good people ached in the back of his head, but he himself was living the glory of being a demigod hero. Today, he was feeling extra homesick with Annabeth berried in her blueprints, so I offered to shadow travel him for a little road-trip. He, being the good son that he was, asked to visit his mother and step-father.
Now, in my light form and one of Percy's less blue t-shirts, I stood beside the son of Poseidon as he leaned on the countertop and stuffed his face with blue cookies. Sally, his mother, was kind, and ecstatic to see her son home and well. A soft-voiced man walked in through the door behind me, laughing heartily at the sight of his step-son.
"And what would your name be, kiddo? I assume you're one of Percy's camp friends?" the friendly man chided. He must have seen my array of scars that ran like a sleeve, and probably saw the bandages snaking around my torso to cover my missing arm. I timidly fiddled with the fabric in my basketball shorts' pockets before offering a small smile to the mortal.
"I'm Seth, they/them pronouns. I'm not as cool as Percy here, the hero of Olympus, but I do pack quite the punch when needed at camp." After subtly laughing at breaking Percy's nose, I composed myself to try and hide the baggage I held with me. The encouragement from Will, Percy, and Annabeth made me promise to try my best in gaining confidence in my identity as non-binary. I started small, saying my pronouns every time I introduced myself, and Will said I was improving. He, being as straight as a ring, encouraged me to wear the non-binary flag bracelet that my half-siblings made me. They had all spent a day weaving and tying friendship bracelets, and Will had made me a black, purple, white, and yellow striped one. I tied it around my peg leg, at first; too nervous to actually wear it around my single wrist. After a few days of nagging/encouragement, Will had the Hephaestus kids make me dog tags with the flag carved into the back. Those, I wore now, with the flag resting against my chest for only the light to see.
Sally and Paul smiled, nodding to me. As Paul reached over Percy's shoulder to snag a cookie, Sally looked me over again. "I'm sure you can both hold your own quite well. Who would your godly parent be?" Percy met my eyes with slight shock and panic. I didn't think this through. Clearly he didn't either. Do I tell them I'm a god? They're mortals, I don't wanna freak them out...
"Seth's pretty special, I'll say." I was about to swat the Kelp-Head's hair when I spotted a dark object flying towards my face. Upon pure instinct, and ADHD, I intercepted the projectile by shooting a beam of dark force at it, then absorbing the energy back into my one hand. Looking down to my chest, I checked to see if I was stupid. Yes. I am stupid. My scar lights were glowing through the clothing I had borrowed from Percy, and I almost didn't look back up to the pair of mortals.
"Uhhhhh..." I stammered. Percy was snickering, and patted my good shoulder a few times before I used some dark force to flick his face to the side. There was no hiding it anymore.
"Y'know for a god, you look like a cute little kid when you're nervous." Percy pinched a piece of blue cookie in between his fingers to show me what I had just disintegrated. I wanted to scowl, but sent a nervous glance towards Paul and Sally.
"You're a god? Of what?" Paul questioned. At that moment, he noticed my peg leg just below my shorts, and tried to distinguish my dog tags. Sally just smiled, and tried to get her son to stop throwing cookies at me.
"I mean... kind of?" I hesitated. Percy seemed to beat me to correcting myself, though.
"What do you mean kind of? You were born a god." I glared at him as Paul's eyes only widened. With a sigh, I put a wall of darkness between me and Percy's goofy face.
"I'm the spawn of Apollo and Nyx, you know them?" I started. Being the step-dad of Percy Jackson meant that he and Sally must have some tolerance for accepting all of the supernatural shit happening around them, right? The English teacher nodded slowly.
"Yeah, for my purposes, Apollo's side gave me some powers involved with music, light, honesty, healing, and truth. Nyx's side gave me power and manipulation over dark energy, the thing that makes up your night sky and shadows. I'm still mortal, meaning that I live, age, and die like any half-blood." Hoping that my explanation was cohesive enough to make sense, I let the wall keeping Percy silent down. He put me into a loose headlock and gave me a nuggie with the side of his fist.
"Don't forget that-"
Breaking him off from continuing, I finished the sentence for Percy. "I'm also the embodiment of balance. That's me: Isorreth, mortal god of the dark force, and embodiment of balance." I rolled my eyes at the name and title, only for Percy to nudge my good shoulder with his hand. Slapping his hand off of me, I playfully scowled at him.
Paul ran a hand over his face, "Well then... I never would have guessed. You look quite... young to have such titles, no?" Sally leaned into his side lovingly, sending me a friendly gaze. I looked to Percy, who was licking his fingers of cookie grease. He chuckled at me, then met his step-father's eyes with the smoothness only a sea prince could pull off.
"You would have never guessed, right? I still remember when you were freshly beat out of that gods damn home..." He trailed off as I sent him an uncertain look. It was unintentional, but I still didn't want to ruin this perfect family moment Percy had by relapsing right now.
In my time spent in the infirmary, Will determined that I likely had PTSD from the foster system's abuse. It wasn't too bad, I don't think. I just had to avoid thinking about it too much, or if I did, I needed to have someone there to ground me. Most of the time, that person was Nico. He was there when I would wake up suddenly in the night with a silent gasp, and he was there to snap me out of seeing a flashback when my mind wandered. Percy didn't know. No one knew but Nico and Will, and I planned on keeping it that way.
Sally looked curious and concerned to Percy, and Paul looked between the 2 supernatural beings with a hurt look on his face. The sea prince sent me an apologetic look and mouthed sorry before I nodded. Through only facial expressions, I gave permission for Percy to tell his parents what my previous situation had been.
"Seth got bad luck in the system... like, really bad." I was glad that Percy kept it vague, but the look of sympathy and anger from Sally and Paul made me uncomfortable. "They ran away, straight to camp without knowing it. When Chiron told us that there was a strong and injured aura nearby, he told Annabeth and I to run to try and save them from a minotaur. I got there and you were just standing there with its head severed!" He tried to lighten my mood, and it was effective. I smiled at the memory.
"You know it. And I did it with a broken arm. Beat that, fish face!" I flicked bits of dark energy onto his cheek, which he wiped off. Sally still looked sympathetic, as if I was currently bloodied and bruised in front of her. Paul looked mad, and his knuckles were white, but otherwise he concealed his anger. Percy laughed, and ruffled my hair again.
"You really are cute when you're nervous! I remember when the rocks fell-" I sent him a glare powerful enough to spar with Hades, but all it did was make him start giggling.
"If you wanna talk about cute, you have to meet Cerberus. Honestly, he's the goodest boy of the Underworld AND Overworld." I fondly thought back when I met the 3 headed dog guarding Hades palace. Nico had woken from a nap without me in the room, and panicked when he heard Cerberus barking from his window. When he found the source, he watched beside his stepmother in confusion as I gave the 3 headed hound a bellyrub on Hades' steps.
Okay, maybe it had to do with my ability to talk to hell-hounds, but Hades was a lucky god to have such adorable pets guarding his house.
"You're crazy, you know? Cerberus almost ate me last I saw him." I snickered at Percy's response. Cerberus fed off of darkness like me, so he naturally didn't like a sea prince who had nothing but light within him.
"Probably the smell. I don't know how you can stand smelling like salt and sand all the time!" Percy threw another cookie at me which I caught in my hand. Paul scolded Percy for throwing food, but Sally just laughed with her son. I went to place the half-eaten cookie back on his plate, but a gentle hand stopped me. Sally held my wrist, gesturing me not to place it back.
"You can eat as much as you want, dear. You look a little thin." I watched Percy's mother, shocked. Nico and I didn't have the best eating habits, but we made it by fine on our own. I had grown used to not eating a lot through a childhood of neglect, and Nico had been on the streets or in the Underworld for around 2 years. To be completely honest, the 2 of us simply didn't have the appetite teenagers like us usually would.
"Thanks, but I'm okay. I'm not really hungry," Sally looked to me concerned, and Percy simply looked sad. There had been many occasions in the infirmary and the dining hall where the water boy would nag at me to eat bigger meals, but I refused or failed each time. I wasn't as skinny as I could be, or even as skinny as Nico was. The main part was that the intense training from Eris toned my muscles well, so the skin clung to the curves and grooves of raw strength tightly. Nico in general didn't have much body mass, but he spent a lot of energy using his powers, so he naturally burnt more than the average demigod. "Besides, I need to prove that Cerberus is the cutest thing in this world to your son."
I chucked the cookie into the sea prince's open mouth, landing it perfectly. With a laugh, I went to cross my arms before remembering that I only had 1 arm. That was still weird. With a sigh, I looked at my shoulder stump thoughtfully. I was wearing a t-shirt right now, and the short sleeve sagged over most of the wounded area. It was still tender as scar tissue settled neatly on the side of my torso, but Will had insisted on keeping it covered with bandages after I reopened it right after returning to the Overworld. I may or may not have tried to lean on a tree right after shadow travelling to camp.
"He's not! If anything, Mrs. O-Leary's easily cuter," Percy objected. He quickly looked at my missing arm, then returned his gaze to the cookies.
"Is that the dog who came here with that little skinny boy? What was his name?"
"Nico." Percy and I responded in unison. He smirked and nodded while I side glanced at him. I mean, can you blame me though? There was only 1 little skinny boy who hung out with Percy enough to be around Mrs. O-Leary as well.
After a few more comments, explanations, and uncomfortable answers, the cookies were devoured in the stomachs of Percy, Sally, and Paul (mostly Percy, though). Paul had welcomed Percy and I to go upstairs to Percy's room, and that's when the next topic started. He told both of us to get comfortable and kick our shoes off. I hesitated to take off my shoe, not wanting to make a scene by having to maneuver the prosthetic. That hesitation led to the topic anyway, with Paul's eyes widening.
"Oh, I didn't realize. How did you..?" his gentle voice had a level of comfort behind it. I looked to Percy, not knowing what to say. Luckily, Percy knew.
"They defeated Kronos, uh... with a cost." I avoided the gazes of my best friend's family as best I could. Sally led Paul away to give Percy and I some privacy as he led me to his room. With accentuated exhaustion, he collapsed on his bed to leave me to close the door.
"Sorry about all the questioning, they're just worried," he apologized. I nodded once, trying to will the scar light to stop glowing through my skin. After a moments hesitation, he looked to me with gentle and honest eyes. "You're not alone, y'know." Meeting his eyes, I raised an eyebrow.
"I mean- you're not the only one who's had to deal with... child abuse." For once, his voice was soft and shy. I was surprised, but only continued looking him in the eye. "My first step-dad..."