Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Note: I don't really like OC characters... So here's a story with one.
IIIII
Sun shining in the sky, overly bright over the camp as always. Eris glared through her fingers at the offending rays. Knowing Apollo was doing it as he did it every morning. It was rumored it was the god's way of 'helping' the campers wake up and start the day. A rumor she firmly disagreed with. The more likely reason, and what Eris personally believed, was that the god just liked to torment them.
From what she'd heard from older campers, there wasn't much for the gods to do, and they had to get their amusement somehow. Hence why they had children, demigods. Now Eris wasn't sure she completely believed that. The demigod's who'd first said it had been pretty cynical. Even more so than usual for their age, just shy of being twenty-two. The longest anyone at camp had survived before they'd died, leaving their record behind. All the same, however, on days like today. When Eris just wanted to sleep in and waste away. She found herself contemplating how true that rumor actually was.
Receiving another blinding flash from the sun through the window, Eris groaned, slowly forcing herself to get out of bed. A trying task, but it had to be done. Well, not really. But it did if she wanted to get some breakfast before it vanished. From how empty the room looked, something the Herme's cabin seldom was. The other demigods had already left to go eat, which meant if she wasn't quick, there'd be nothing left.
Making her way to the bathroom, Eris skipped the shower and hurriedly brushed her teeth, throwing her long hair into a bun. Then, she changed into the usual orange camp shirt and a random pair of jeans she'd picked up from the corner of her bed. Dressed to go, Eris was just about ready to race out the door when she caught sight of the clock on the wall. The arrow hand was at ten o'clock. Breakfast ended at nine-thirty, which meant she'd just rushed through her morning routine in record time. All for nothing.
"Great, just great." Rolling her eyes, Eris flopped back onto her bed, staring at the ceiling. Food had been the one thing she'd been looking forward to today. Without it, her day was going to be dull until lunch. A consequence of living at a camp with no friends and her rather unfortunate status as an outcast among outcasts. It left her little to do or look forward to all year round beside's attending the camp's mandatory classes.
Not that she really cared much. Hades knew Eris had encouraged it more often than not with her actions. For example, a while back, after hearing a girl comment about her lack of parents and unclaimed status. Eris had none too gently, grabbed the back of the girl's head, and yanked down, giving the other demigod whiplash before punching her in the gut. Then after that, Eris had dropped her hold and let the girl fall face first into the dirt as she gasped for breath. Something that hadn't done her any favors with the rest of the demigods in the Aphrodite cabin.
Of course, if that was it, Eris would only be disliked as much as the Are's cabin, not an outcast as she was now. No, the reason she was an outcast was simple. She enjoyed messing with people and hurting them. That was why she'd beat the daughter of Aphrodite, the insult merely an excuse to do it. It was as simple and easy to understand as that, and everyone in the camp knew it. They'd known it for years. It was, in a way, a poorly kept secret that Eris had never tried to keep secret. After all, when one was abandoned at the camp at only thirteen months old. It was a little tricky to keep things like that hidden from the people you grew up with for almost fourteen years.
Because of that reputation, though. Eris was isolated, and her days for the past few years had been filled with nothing but boredom. Something she'd thought might not be the case almost two years ago when the new kid Jackson had arrived at camp. A rather interesting boy who killed a minotaur if the camp gossip was to be believed. But, right when Eris had planned to meet the kid. She'd learned he'd been swept off on some quest along with two others she didn't bother remembering the names of to retrieve something for the gods.
That had been annoying, but Eris figured she'd meet Jackson when he returned. Except that didn't happen because of the whole Luke betraying the camp and Jackson returning to his mom to go to school. So, she waited a year, trying to find way's to cure her boredom. Hoping another kid besides the son of Poseidon would show up. None did. So when the kid returned to camp, only to get pulled on another quest, well, Eris had been a little more than just annoyed.
This year, though, when Eris was waiting for Jackson's arrival. At this point, her desire to mess with the kid was gone. Replaced with just wanting to see what he looked like and meet him. Eris had discovered for the third year in a row. Jackson and his two friends had vanished on yet another quest. It was ridiculous, and even now, after the summer was almost over. She still had no idea how she missed them.
Sighing to herself, Eris glanced off to the side, catching her reflection in the mirror across the room on one of the other girl's bunks. Why it was there, she didn't know. In Eris's opinion, the girl who slept there wasn't very pretty and had nothing to admire about herself. But to each their own. It let Eris enjoy looking at herself without moving from her bed, so a win-win situation for all.
Sticking out her tongue, Eris trailed it along the small ring piercing she had at the corner of her lip. It was one of a set of five, an onyx color with a little spike-like arrowhead at the edge of it, as for other piercings. They were located on her ears, two on top, one on the bottom, symmetrical in style. Something that had gotten her bizarre looks after she'd disappeared for a day a few weeks ago only to return with the new additions on her face. No one in the camp had anything like it, which was precisely why Eris had done it.
Living in the Herme's cabin as an unclaimed demigod, or in other words. An unwanted and most likely accidental surprise baby. Everyone, even Herme's own children, wanted to be noticed, distinguishable from the other teenagers and kids living there. Eris, while she'd never admit it aloud, was no different.
So when a few girls in the Aphrodite cabin began overly tanning, their skin becoming a light copper color like Eris's natural complexion, a few of them even went as far as to dye their hair black. Trying to blend in with the Hermes' cabin pretending to be Eris. Well, she'd taken that personally and gotten the piercings knowing no daughter of Aphrodite would dare to go that far. Something that, in hindsight, may have been a little impulsive. Those girls Eris knew were only doing it as petty revenge for what she'd done to their sister before. But all the same, it had gotten to Eris, and what was done was done...
Not that she minded it, Eris liked the look. The five piercings plus, along with the fact she didn't exactly look greek. Her high cheekbones and gold-colored eyes meant that Eris had a rather unique look among the demigods in camp.
"Hey, everyone, Percy's back!"
Hearing the shout coming from outside through an open window in the cabin. Eris stopped her somewhat narcissistic admiration for herself, jumping out of her bed, running past a few Hermes' kids who looked to be returning to the cabin, taking steps two at a time. She wasn't about to miss Jackson this time, and she was also curious as to what the whole quest had been about. Oddly enough, no one seemed to know the answer... Or possibly just wasn't willing to tell her.
A few minutes later, Eris reached the crowd gathering at the edge of the barrier, voices, and shout's coming from all directions as people chatted. The whole event looked more like a celebrity returned than someone completing a quest from the gods. Even Chiron was there in the middle of the crowd, next to a boy who, from everyone's gaze, Eris could only assume was Percy Jackson and his two friends standing by his side.
Taking in the wavy black hair, sea green eyes, and the embarrassed grin on the boy's face, Eris couldn't help but say the first thing that popped into her mind aloud. "He looks like a pipsqueak."
Jackson was short, which for a fourteen-year-old, he was probably the average height. But from the stories Eris had heard, she'd somewhat and probably unrealistically expected someone more... Awe inspiring based on the rumor's circulating camp. Someone taller, broader, and... Heroic. Now that she saw the kid, though, the disappointment of it all instantly removed any thoughts of meeting him. The fun of it was gone now that her expectations were crushed.
Separating from the crowd, Eris silently made her way to the woods, getting onto a beaten dirt path and following it deep into the woods with no real direction in mind. The thoughts in her mind swam as she realized she was now without a goal. As pathetic as it might have seemed, meeting Jackson for the past few years had been her goal. Fighting, while fun, had become dull with the same people in the camp. Those that were even willing to fight her, that was. Classes, while interesting, were repetitive and filled with stories of the gods... Too many, in her opinion.
Other than those two things. There wasn't much else beside's the events that happened throughout the year to get excited for. And Eris had grown bored with them long ago. This left her with nothing to do, to look forward to, and nothing for her future. No quest that many demigods trained their entire lives for. No romance. She honestly had never met anyone she might have even remotely been interested in at the camp. No, family. The gods and demigod's around her didn't count, and she was unclaimed anyway...
Sitting on a log, Eris held her chin with her palm, gazing into the darkening dusk sky, a bitter smile pulling across her lips as more and more depressing thoughts went through her mind. Thought's she usually never focused on or ignored with little effort. Yet today, something was different, and she just couldn't help herself.
"My dear daughter."
Hearing a soft voice flow through the air behind her, Eris, entirely on instinct, ducked her head. Forcing her body into a roll off the log through the dirt before spinning around to face the voice. However, she found nothing there. There was no voice and no person or even Dryad in the area she could see.
"Look up."
This time resisting the urge to dodge again and put some space between her and the voice. Eris looked up and froze. Above her head was a woman floating, a kind smile on her face yet at the same time it also looked sad. That wasn't, however, what made her freeze. What made Eris freeze was the inhuman beauty and almost overwhelming power coming from the woman that had Eris's mind screaming danger at her.
"H-Hello?"
"No need to be afraid, my dear Eris. I won't harm you. You have no idea how long I've wanted to reunite with you again after all these years." The woman sighed before floating to the ground, standing next to Eris. "I'm so sorry for what you've had to go through."
As the woman spoke, Eris felt her mind begin to connect the dots. Something that really shouldn't have taken as long as it did, the woman had called Eris her daughter. But she had been so focused on an enemy attack that she'd pushed it to the back of her mind.
"Hold up, hold up. You're my mother?" Eris held up her hands, possibly a stupid decision given that if the woman was her mother, she was most definitely a goddess. But Eris didn't care. She wanted answers. "Why haven't you claimed me then? Even if you're a minor goddess, it would have been better than thinking I was the result of some fling."
Of course, even if she was claimed by her godly parent. That could still have been what resulted in her birth. But Eris ignored that, feeling a little incensed that her mother knew who she was all these years and deliberately ignored her. It was ridiculous. It wasn't as if the woman was an Olympian. She clearly wasn't Athena or Hera, and Eris wasn't even going to bother considering her mother might be Artemis. That would be an absurdity of the highest order. Which begged the question, why had her mother left her unclaimed for so long?
"No, I'm not." The woman chuckled, threading her finger's between Eris's. "But unlike what you're thinking. I do have a good reason to keep you secret. My name is Persephone, queen of the underworld and wife of Hades... Who is most certainly not your father."
"I... I see." Eris replied hesitantly. She felt as if Persephone was acting as if she was telling some shocking news, but Eris didn't feel shocked. So what? Her mother was Persephone, and she was married to Hades. That didn't seem to be a big deal. Though Eris had never heard of her mother having a demigod before. She knew Hades had dozens, at least before the whole pact between the big three had happened. As did most of all the gods, married or not. It didn't seem to matter unless you were a goddess named Hera.
"No, you don't." Persephone denied, shaking her head. "Hade's has kept me trapped in the underworld together with him for millennia. And unlike him, I can not leave without permission, the rare few time's I'm allowed. So you, you are the first child I've ever given birth to, and as Hade's saw it when he discovered you. Proof of my infidelity to him. Never mind the many strings of women he's slept with in our marriage... Not that I care. If only he would allow me the same courtesy when it comes to you."
Raising her eyebrows, Eris listened with a bit of disbelief as her mother spoke. How was she the very first demigod Persephone had? It didn't make sense. Unless you were named Artemis, or Hestia, every god and goddess had multitudes of children. Both in the past and now.
"I suppose without some context, it is still unbelievable to you," Persephone smirked, the action close to a carbon copy of the way Eris smirked. "Very well. When I say you're my first child, I don't mean only mean demigod child. You are my first child ever. I've borne no other.
"How's that possible?" Eris's eyebrow's furrowed in confusion. She didn't mind not having siblings. However, the thought that she was the firstborn of a goddess, probably thousands upon thousands of years old, was just plain weird. "And who's my father then?"
"Eh." Waving her hand, Persephone shrugged. "He was some warrior prince. I only vaguely remember him now. It's been Millenia since then. As for how it's possible, that's simple. Before Hades abducted me to the underworld. A seer prophesized what would happen in the next year. So, wanting to get some revenge before marriage, I visited the mortal world, and you are the result."
Dead silent, Eris pursed her lips as she stared at the goddess, her mother. The bomb that had just been dropped on her was a little hard to swallow. The biggest being that no, unlike what she'd at one point thought. She wasn't a random baby from an unexpected bar encounter. Her birth was on purpose and no accident, but from the sound of it, being born by accident may have been better than being some tool for revenge.
"How am I fifteen, if you gave birth to me thousands of years ago?" Eris questioned after another minute of silence. If her father was dead, there really wasn't much point in asking about the man. Especially from how Persephone was talking about the subject, she didn't even know his name or care. But that part about her being born thousands of years ago didn't add up to Eris's actual age.
"A deal with my mother," Persephone replied simply. "And that's all you need to know for know... That and to be wary of Hades. My husband, unfortunately, know's who you are. He's the reason why I've been unable to visit. Another deal that allowed your life to be spared."
"And you can now?" Eris asked, a weird feeling in her gut. Something in the story, or maybe even the entire thing, wasn't adding up correctly.
Her question apparently brought Persephone up short. The goddess looked hesitant, biting her lip. "Not exactly. Hades is with his son at the moment. So it left me alone to check up on you without anyone paying attention... Yet when I saw you, and the thought's running through your mind, I couldn't help myself. I needed to speak with you. Let you know who I was. Even with the risk of my husband discovering us."
"...So, you broke a deal. A deal with your husband, Hades, god of the underworld. A deal that kept me safe from harm. Because you wanted to see me?" Eris chuckled, her back becoming slick in a cold sweat as she thought of what would happen to her if Hades knew what her mother had done. She'd read the stories depicted by mortals about the gods and their brutality. Her being a bastard child of the wife of Hades, who apparently took the goddess's infidelity personally, wasn't painting a pretty picture.
"Don't worry so much. Tell me about yourself. I've missed out so much. I want to hear everything." Persephone rolled her eyes, smiling.
Smiling back as best she could, though it probably looked way too fake to be natural. Eris nodded and tried to think of herself and anything she could tell her mother that wasn't about the goddess herself. Eris had a few particular things she wanted to say but forced herself to avoid even thinking those thoughts knowing her mother was probably still reading her mind. An angry goddess, mother or not, wouldn't be ideal.
"Uh, I punched a daughter of Aphrodite?" Eris murmured quietly, wanting to kick herself right after she said it.
"I know. I happened to see that one. You were quite good." Persephone replied, oddly enough looking a little proud.
"O-Okay." Blinking a bit at that, Eris relaxed a little, an odd feeling of comfort falling over her that she couldn't remember ever feeling before. It was weird, strange, and... She kind of liked it.
Over the course of the next few hours, Eris shared everything with Persephone. From what she'd learned growing up in camp half-blood to her status as an outcast. With Eris going as far as to encourage it. Something that seemed to amuse her mother to no end. No reprimand or scolding that might have come from someone like Chiron came from the goddess. She was simply listening, no judgment, like the mother's in a few books Eris had once read a few years back.
"-And I'm done... There's really nothing else left." Eris shrugged, her smile having turned genuine sometime earlier during their talk.
"Oh, I'm sure there's more. But for tonight, it's enough." Persephone replied, her smile bright, reminding Eris of a blooming flower in a way. An analogy she'd never thought of connecting with a person, but with her mother, it just fit. "After meeting with you tonight. After all this time apart. I'm not going to stay this long away from you anymore. I'll find a way to meet with you soon..."
At that, Eris watched as her mother faded out of view, the wind picking up, wrapping around her in a hug-like fashion before vanishing, the forest falling quiet in the night air. Peaceful yet also somehow warm after her mother's departure. "Goodbye, mother."
Knowing it was time to head back to the Herme's cabin, Eris turned around, ready to begin walking, when she felt the air around her drop a few degrees. Shuddering for a moment, Eris looked around her but saw nothing. So, choosing to ignore the feeling, she looked back at the path... Then felt the blood in her body freeze.
There, standing in the middle of the woods in front of her, was a man. One who looked to be more than seven feet tall, hair a darker black than anything Eris had ever seen before. As well as chalk white skin that looked like it should belong more on a corpse than a living breathing being. The scariest thing about the man, however, was the eyes. They burned with cold rage and disgust that wasn't natural for someone she'd never met.
"So, you're my wife's spawn." The man said, lips lifting up in an arc.
Swallowing thickly, the realization of who the man was, or more accurately, who the god was, evident in his words. Eris looked up at him and, trying to hide the fear curling in her chest, gave a slight bow. "Hello, Lord Hades."
"Well, at least you are respectful." Hades snorted, stepping closer. "Not that it does you much good. Please, girl, tell me how I should deal with you now that my wife broke our deal. Kill you? Curse you to never reach Elysium?"
Now, despite her fear and the terror of being in front of a god who probably wanted to kill her, and with good reason to do it. Eris couldn't resist the comment that slipped out of her mouth. "None of the above?"
An odd look appearing across his face, Hades stared at Eris. Then slowly, his lips twisted into a smile, a light chuckle escaping from him. "...You know, if it wasn't for who you are. I think I might actually have grown to like you. But as it stands, that is an impossibility... However, while I'm in a bit of a rush. I'm feeling generous tonight. So I'll give you a chance to survive. If you escape, I'll leave you alone. You'll be free to live as you wish. Though understand it will be without my dear Persephone in your life."
A little unsure if it was wise to make a deal with Hades, but knowing there wasn't much she could do. Eris glanced behind her, then back at the god. "Is there any way we could just forget this and pretend we never met?"
"No. Time's up." Hades sneered, lifting his hand, chains forming from the shadows around his body and shooting towards Eris, binding her arms. Then with his other hand tightening into a fist, Eris watched as a portal swirled into existence beside her. The inside was pitch black with no markings or any sign of light anywhere to be seen, an aura of terror and despair flowing from it that scared Eris more than Hades's sudden appearance.
Without warning and unable to even scream. Eris was yanked by the chains into the portal, the shadowed metal squeezing tightly against her wrists as she was forcefully dragged further down the abyss. Looking up above her at the slowly closing portal, the little light illuminating her descent getting smaller. Eris saw Hades smiling face, the god of the underworld giving her a cheery wave goodbye before everything faded to black.
IIIII
Note: The part with Hades at the end here is rushed. However, as Hades is a god. I think it makes a little more sense than him wasting time talking with someone he believes will die. Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed chapter 1!