TheFourthFate4Ever: Thank you, as always, I love seeing your comments! ^_^
"We're leaving tomorrow, so make sure you get anything that you need."
"It's not like I have much to actually take with me." Zoe said from the other side of the cabin.
Armani stood from her bed, having just woken up a few minutes ago, "You can probably borrow some of my clothes then, we're around the same size, and I'm sure having more than one outfit would be more convenient."
"I have no inclination to dabble with fashion." Zoe scowled, "It's not something I care for."
Armani chuckled, she understood that sentiment completely, "I feel the same, but that doesn't mean you don't need some other clothes. We could probably go out looking if any of my clothes don't fit you, besides, it might be fun if you let it be."
Armani shrugged, Zoe looked like she wanted to object, but no words came out of her mouth and she simply went back to checking her arrows and polishing her bow. Armani watched her for a moment longer before standing, she didn't have any other clothes to change into either, so all she really needed to do was… nothing. For once, she didn't need to do anything in between now and tomorrow.
"I'm going to meditate. I'll be back in a bit." Armani said as she shrugged open the door.
"Take your time." Zoe called as the door shut, and she would, Armani needed time to recharge, literally. Now was the perfect time to do it. She sighed when she looked down at herself though, her shirt and jeans had numerous gashes and holes in them now, and for once she wished she had brought another change of clothes. She could ask Thalia if she had any spares, but she wasn't really in the mood to talk to her at the moment.
As Armani walked through the camp and towards the forest, she noticed that the number of campers had decreased somewhat, most likely leaving temporarily for the holidays. A good chunk of the ones left avoided her completely, and the others only waved nervously. It wasn't the weirdest reaction she had received, but she can't say she didn't expect it after her debut here.
The wood nymphs greeted her as she entered the forest, which wasn't surprising in the least considering her lineage. She walked for a while longer than she needed to, just taking in the atmosphere of the forest itself, and all of the nature around her.
Eventually Armani found herself where it had all started, the river border used for capture the flag. It held some good memories, the first good fight she'd had in a while, letting her shake off her rust. But it held some bad ones too.
Armani still couldn't say whether she regretted her decisions or not.
She sat by the riverbank, the smooth stones beneath her weren't the most comfortable thing to sit on, but she'd had worse. The sound of the river flowing swiftly was a nice bit of noise that let her calm much easier than she could have in complete silence.
Entering a state of meditation wasn't a problem for her, not now at least, she always found it easier when she had expended more energy. Even if that was a rare occurrence, and on most days, it was a lighthouse in a dark storm, something grounding for her to grab on to.
But today, it was agitated, like all of the Nature Energy around her had been attacked directly. It sickened her, the feeling that the very source of power she drew from felt almost poisoned, she didn't pull back immediately though. Instead, opting to extend her senses, she felt like she'd been doing that a lot more recently, but it only meant more practice for her.
It was all around her, the suffocating feeling that felt like it was looking at her. She steadied her breath, she needed to keep the connection, needed to find what this was. She looked for a thread, a connection, like the thing she used to connect to Percy. If she could backtrack it then- there!
She found the connection and began following it back, the strength of the thread meant the source was close, alarmingly close, close enough to be right outside the camp barrier.
She was close now, almost to the end of the connection and-
Suddenly, out of nowhere, she felt as if someone was trying to rip a piece of her away. She immediately dropped the connection and bolted upward, her breathing was heavy, and she had begun to shiver.
Those eyes.
Before she had cut the connection, she had seen something, a pair of red eyes, not bloodshot, just pure red irises, eyes that held a void of emptiness. She didn't know why, but in the moment she stared into the void in those eyes, she felt herself stare back.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm her shaking body as she walked out of the forest. Whatever that was, it was here for her, and she needed to know what it was. So her first step would be to open up her connection to Percy.
"Something's outside the camp, and it's here for me, warn the others."
There was a feeling of shock and the acceptance from Percy's side of the link as she walked through the forest, there were no nymphs this time, whether they were hiding because of her aura, or whatever this other thing was, she had no idea.
She exited the forest a few minutes later, she wished she had recovered more energy, but this would have to do for now.
Percy, along with Thalia, Zoe and Chiron, were gathered at the bottom of the hill. Each had varying looks of concern, while Chiron seemed the most calm out of them, she could still feel the small amounts of fear that rolled off of him.
"Armani, what's going on?" Thalia stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders, she certainly looked more perplexed then afraid.
Armani lifted her arms and pushed Thalia's hands off her shoulders, "Something's here for me."
-Armani P.O.V.-
As soon as I said it, I could feel someone's opinion toward me harden, I looked around, and my eyes immediately settled on Chiron, he wasn't very good with keeping his thoughts in check. His disdain for me so far was clear enough.
"What is it?" Percy asked, drawing my attention away from Chiron.
"I don't know," I answered him honestly, "But it felt familiar, and… it was hurting."
"Hurting?" Zoe asked.
"Yeah, like it was missing something, and I-"
I tensed, turning back towards the barrier around the camp, the words from everyone else didn't reach my ears as I was solely focused on the spot where the new energy was radiating from.
"Stay here, Chiron, get the other campers away from here, now."
I hated being a leader, and yet here I was, doing it again, even if my friends wouldn't listen and still followed me anyway. It didn't take long to reach the hill, and once we were there, the one that the energy belonged to was now visible. I heard the others gasp, and it wasn't hard to guess why.
Across from us, was me.
My thoughts were spinning, because it was me before all of my mutations, shorter, black hair, no wolf ears or tail. The only other major difference was the blood red eyes that quickly darted over the four of us.
No one spoke, none of us even dared reach for a weapon just in case they attacked.
Suddenly, they spoke, their voice quiet like they hadn't spoken in a long time.
"The Hunter," She said, eyes locked on Zoe before switching to Thalia, "Stormruler," then to Percy, "The Cataclysm."
Finally, their gaze moved over to me, looking at me for a moment longer than they had all the others, "...Mother, My Originator…"
Putting aside the fact that this person had just called me 'mother', the fact that it called me its originator was slightly more concerning.
"What are you? Are you a monster?" I asked.
They tilted their head, their bangs falling, and slightly obstructing their eyes, they let out a small giggle, "Well that's a silly question, I'm you."
"Why are you here?"
My copy looked startled by the question, like she had been expecting something different, she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She started scratching her right hand like she was annoyed, her mouth continued to open and close, like she couldn't piece together why she was here, or anything else.
She just seemed to be getting more irritated, and I could tell it was beginning to startle the others, so I stepped forward, my hands up.
"Hey, it's alright," I approached slowly, "why don't we just go down to the big house and talk, alright? Where no one will bother us."
The copy of me looked over my shoulder, an eyebrow raised, "And them?"
We all turned to see the amassing amount of campers that had gathered down by the big house, some of them already had weapons in hand. I hear Thalia mutter from behind me, "Damn it, Chiron… I'll go talk to them."
Thalia walked quickly down the hill and left the rest of them there.
I turned back, "No one is going to hurt you, I won't let them." and I meant it, whatever she was, she was definitely hurting, and she definitely didn't have an immediate intent to fight anyone. If she did, she was hiding it very well.
"Ok-" She started to say, but stopped when energy seeped out of her exposed hands, darker than my own, not quite black but it was close, "I- I can't control it very well, I'm sorry."
"It's alright-" I started to say as her body spasmed slightly, "I can help you…"
I reached out to grasp her shoulder, I didn't expect what happened next though.
A large amount of energy burst forth from both of us, the differing colors clashing and molding with each other, I could feel it. The missing piece that was causing the poisonous feeling. Grabbing at my own like it was begging for air, her very essence was…
"By the gods, what happened to you?" I whispered, the feeling of her aura, it was like dipping in a lake in the middle of the winter. Like my very essence was being sucked away, I was almost unable to pull away.
"You were taking in my essence," I said, curiously, the girl had stopped her slight spasms, and now only looked slightly uncomfortable. Her flushed face made me want to snicker despite the timing, I would be embarrassed too.
"I'm sorry-" she tried to justify herself quickly, "Ever since I started traveling I've been pulled towards you, or, I thought it was you. Now I realize it was actually your energy…"
I watched cautiously as she stretched her hand towards me, only to retract it at the last moment. After the last display, I was glad she hadn't actually tried.
"They were right, you're perfect." Her eyes scoured my body like she could see everything about me, like I was some kind of set of data and not a person. "Your DNA, your body, your everything."
Apparently Zoe had gotten tired of just standing there and listening, and I thought Percy was the impatient one. "Who are you talking about?" Zoe asked the girl, who's eyes darted over to the ex-huntress for little more than a second before focusing back on me.
I could feel the absolutely dismal mix of emotions coating the girl.
"Let's take this somewhere else, yeah?" I tried to steer the conversation for the moment, I didn't want the girl running off, and I certainly didn't want any prying ears around.
A certain centaur came to mind at the thought.
The girl nodded hesitantly, following behind us as we walked down the hill, Thalia and Chiron were still in conversation. The cough that escaped my lips drew their attention from each other, to me.
I turned my head to Percy, "Take her to the Artemis Cabin, it should help for the moment."
"What are you gonna do?" He asked, his eyes drifting momentarily to Chiron before they settled back on me, there was no worry in his eyes, just a look of genuine curiosity. He knew I could handle myself after all.
"Try and make sure that our resident lightning cable doesn't electrocute Chiron." I said with a smirk, eliciting a snort from the girl and Percy.
"Lightning cable?!"
"Go, Percy, I'll be there in a minute." I walked away from them and over to Thalia and Chiron, "Yes, Thalia, a lightning cable. Now, what's the problem?"
"Armani, who was that?" Chiron asked, gesturing to the retreating figure of the girl who looked just like me, "Your warning gave us all quite a scare, and I had assumed…"
He trailed off, his eyes never leaving me. I could get where he was heading with this, however, it wasn't unjustified considering the sound of my warning.
At least I hope it wasn't unjustified.
"I'm still trying to figure that out," I said honestly, "but right now, she's unstable and I won't get any answers out of her while she's like that. I'm going to need some time to learn anything else."
Chiron stroked his beard and let out a tired sigh. By the looks of it, it wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"There's only so much I can do, Chiron."
"I know, child," He stopped stroking his beard, "I will leave it to you."
He nodded to me, and bowed his head slightly in what I assumed to be an apology to Thalia, and turned to walk back toward the other campers.
"I must calm the campers now, you caused quite a stir after all." He chuckled mirthlessly, and as soon as his gaze left us, I wasted no time in moving toward my cabin, and Thalia was right behind me.
"What were you arguing about with him anyway?"
I didn't need to look at Thalia to see the look that probably crossed her face, I could feel it, the stench of disdain. It really did make me wonder just what he had said.
"He was going to get some of the Apollo kids ready to shoot her if something went south." She trailed off, "They didn't seem particularly onboard with that plan."
"I'm sure, what did you say that made him stop?"
"I told him I'd burn his quilt collection if he did."
In the time it took for her to catch me up to speed, we had arrived at the cabin. It didn't stop me from making more ridiculous comments, however.
"Quilts? Really? That's all you could muster? Burning his quilts?" I said with mock anger while I opened the door.
Thalia threw her hands up in response, "You put me on the spot! What was I supposed to do?"
I hummed, "If I remember correctly, you volunteered to talk to Chiron."
"I- You-"
"Will you guys stop arguing and get in here already? We have a problem!" Percy called from the main room of the cabin. As we walked in, it was immediately obvious what he was talking about.
The girl from before sat on the floor in the middle of the room, in a similar position I used for meditation, but different. Instead of her legs crossed, she sat with her legs underneath her and her knees pointed forward like she was about to transition to a bow.
But that wasn't a problem, the problem was the girl herself.
I watched on with shock, and slight horror, as electricity jumped off the girl's fingers and to the floor around her, interacting with pooling water at her feet.
"What happened?" I asked quickly while getting as close as I possibly could to the girl, "How is she doing this?"
"I don't know!" Percy exclaimed as he moved to my side, staying away from the water pooling on the hardwood floor, "She was fine when we entered, but when she sat down, I thought she was meditating like you. But then she started muttering about 'reports' and she just started doing… whatever this is!"
Zoe, who had said nothing up until this point, finally spoke from the other side of me.
"She pulled water from the air."
"What?"
"There's no other explanation, there is no other way for it to have gotten in here, and yet, here it is. And if she can generate electricity like that, then it stands to reason that the water was hers too."
I nodded, but Thalia and Percy didn't seem to catch it as quickly as Zoe or I had.
"What does that even mean?" Thalia asked.
"It means," I took a deep breath, "that things are more complicated than I originally thought."
"Meaning?"
"Ok, think about it like this," I said, "A girl shows up to camp randomly, she claims she's been following my 'light' ever since she started 'traveling'. Now, not only does she look exactly like me, which is weird on its own. But then she starts using abilities that belong to two demigods of the Big Three?"
Realization dawned on Thalia's face, "So you're saying-"
"There's something bigger going on here, and I think I know what, I just need the answers from her."
"And how do you plan to get those answers if she's not responding to any of us?" Zoe asked, her eyes not leaving the girl, luckily, the electricity and water were not expanding or lashing out, for now.
"She was looking for me, so it makes sense that I would be the one to wake her up."
"And you plan to do that, how?"
I didn't answer Thalia as I began to lower myself to the ground, easing my way into my usual seance type stance.
"Did she just ignore me?"
Whatever came after Thalia's words never reached my ears as the entire world surrounding me, and the girl faded into a space void of color, and for the moment, sound. And for what felt like the hundredth time that day, I reached out, letting my senses permeate the space around me. Letting my body disperse into the very essence I was sifting through.
And again, that same cold, jagged presence made itself visible to me. Stabbing at my senses like a vicious attacker- No, like a wounded animal.
Meditating was a constant in my life, centering myself was a constant in my life.
Walking around inside of someone else's head, was not a constant in my life.
So when I saw the glass door that stood alone in what should have been an empty space, save for the energy between us. I knew this was different, that she was different.
I reached out to touch the glass door, "What are you…?"
As soon as my hand touched the cold, foggy glass of the door, it cracked, and even though I pulled my hand back as fast as I possibly could. It shattered, unveiling a cold metal hallway lying just beyond.
I stepped through, careful to avoid the hanging glass left in the frame. There was nowhere else to go but ahead. So I walked, and walked, and walked. The hallway felt endless, no doors, no windows, no people. It made me wonder if I was looking at this girl's mind, or a construct of her energy.
But just as soon as I began to think I would be walking forever, a large, screeching sound, like claws on metal, pierced my ears. Alarms started blaring, from where I had no idea but in the end it didn't really matter.
A few feet in front of me, to my left, the wall suddenly dented inwards, like it had been punched from the other side. Before I could even begin to move to investigate, the wall burst open, and a man, or what I assumed to be a man, flew through it.
Bloodied and mangled, his legs were completely twisted backward as he was somehow still alive, gasping for air and trying to claw himself somewhere, anywhere, with his hands.
He didn't make it very far.
Out from the hole in the wall, stepped the same girl that I had just entered the head of. She was covered head-to-toe in deep, crimson blood, and other various forms of liquid. And as the man tried to crawl away, she calmly walked up to, and over the man, planting a foot on his twisted spine.
The howls of pain that escaped his lips simply weren't human.
"Through the teeth, and past the gums…" She sang as she bent down near the face of the man, his screams had been traded for a look of pure horror as he saw her blood stained teeth.
"Look out stomach…"
She bent closer, silence, that was all I could hear as she got closer, and I was so grossly intrigued that I could hardly move from where I was to get closer.
So I could only watch.
"Here. It. Comes."
A long time later, and I would still never be able to get the image out of my head.
Of this girl, covered in blood, that looked exactly like me. Completely and utterly killing this man as she ripped his throat out with her teeth.
And ate it.
If I wasn't inside her mind, I was sure I would vomit whatever was left in my stomach from the past few days. But as it was, I couldn't, and yet, I still wanted to know.
Why?
What was this place? Why was she here? Why was she like this?
Who is she?
Almost like it was responding to my will, the scene shifted, the girl and the man- what remained of him, disappeared. The blood? Gone. It was like it had never happened in the first place, except that the hole in the wall was still there, and I could feel the pull.
Something wanted me to see what was behind it.
So I moved, and as I got closer to the large gaping hole in the wall, the anxiety in my stomach grew. This was far, far beyond something that I wanted to see for my morbid curiosity, this was something I needed to see. I could feel it.
I grabbed the end of the hole in the wall, and almost immediately pulled my hand back, it felt like I had been shocked. I disregarded it quickly, it wasn't going to surprise me more than anything else so far.
The room beyond was dim, save for the slight glow that a few computer monitors were giving off. So I continued, the only sound being my footsteps as I slowly treaded across the metal floor.
Once I reached one of the computer monitors, as if on command, it sprung to life. Words and photos began to pop up and filter around each other. A quick look at the top of the screen told me they were being sorted through by date but…
Who's doing it?
I discarded the slot and began looking through the documents.
Entry Number 001: 2005, xx, xx
"The Dna gathered from the respective subjects- See manifesto, has been roughly gathered and compiled into a new DNA strand. While the girl still makes up the majority of the strand, the others included have taken nicely to the overall structure. However, a problem has arisen in the form of a binding agent. While the growth process has begun, it seems to mutate whenever exposed to stimuli. Countermeasure; the data, and subject 013, has been moved to a more remote facility, with less chances of extreme stimulation."
Another entry popped up as soon as I finished the first, and the more I read, the more disgusted I became, and the more of the truth I could see.
Entry Number 067: 2012, xx, xx
"Lord Kronos has given us the go ahead to begin using growth accelerants on subject 013, their intelligence is… above average. This was predicted to have been a possibility, but not to the degree seen. This… child, for lack of a better term, has attempted to escape multiple times, with no luck whatsoever, all the while babbling on and on about 'the light'. Whatever it is, she seems to be drawn to it.
Further testing has shown that the added DNA did indeed have effects on the subjects body. On multiple occasions the subject has been seen moving water out of a glass without even looking at it, and entire wings of the facility have lost power with no explanation. Further testing is needed to determine if this was actually caused by her, but all signs point to this being the case".
Entry Number 231: 2013, xx, xx
"There was an unfortunate accident with the subject today, upon pushing her to further call upon her power to manipulate water, she was introduced to a large surface area of water. However, upon submerging herself in the water as ordered. Her other power to manipulate and generate electricity activated. And considering where she was at the time, well, to put it in layman's terms, she should be dead. Readings indicated that she did, indeed, die. But only for a few moments before her heart had started again. At the time of 'regeneration' an odd black miasma could be spotted leaking from subject 013's body. Further studying and questioning needed".
Entry Number 872: 2015, xx, xx
"Lord Kronos has given the order to cease development of the vessel project. While the work put into the project may be going to waste, I am almost glad. Recently, subject 013 has begun acting strangely, and just the other day, when she was brought her food, she attacked the guard, ripping a chunk of flesh from his body and swallowing it whole. The guard survived, but not unscathed as one can imagine.
When prompted as to why they had done this, subject 013 only responded saying that she 'wanted to be whole.'
If the subject has begun evolving to be aware of its own main originator, then it stands to reason that it may feel it's own incomplete structure. However, if this is the case, there is no telling what they may do to feel that completion. It makes them deadly, just what we wanted, but there is no longer a way to control the subject. As any conditioning that has been done up until now has been recently shaken off. The amicable, obedient subject that once existed, was now replaced by a devilish, hungry thing."
Entry Number 998: 2015, xx, xx
"This will be the last entry uploaded to these servers. While I'm sure these will be wiped at some point, I feel it is important that some things are said.
What we made here, this… thing. Should never see the light of day, under any circumstances. Even with the help of the monsters supplied to us as muscle by Lord Kronos, we were barely able to get the subject into a stasis tank. They are secure now, but not before sucking the very essence of the monsters from them, killing them immediately and filling their own strength. They only continued to get stronger as they fought back, the blows they received did nothing and the only reason we were able to stop them at all was due to-
-Connection Terminated-
"What the-?"
The computer had locked me out, or maybe it had wiped itself. Whatever the case, I knew more than I had before.
But something didn't line up.
The girl I met… is nothing like these entries describe…
The sound of someone whimpering drew my attention back to reality, I was still in the same room. But I could see more than before, tanks lined the walls, some full, some empty. But each had a designation.
The one that drew my attention the most, however, was the one in the very back of the large room. The one with the shattered glass and the fluid leaking from it.
As I walked closer, I could hear the sounds of someone breathing, increasing in volume with each step. It was, and is, terrifying.
When I finally got close enough to the tank, I could see that whatever had broken it, had been from the inside. At least that's what I had to assume based on the glass littering the floor around the outside of the tank. There was also an inscription on the metal base of the tank, one I had to bend down to read.
[3200194-N1X]_[COPY/A.C.]
The tag meant nothing to me, not at first, but the initials at the end could not have been more obvious to me.
But before I could begin to piece it all together, a sniffle broke me out of my thoughts.
It was the sound of a child crying.
I thought I was crazy; A child, here? If anyone was here it should be the girl, not some random child.
Unless it's another memory.
Because that had to be what I had seen earlier, the sheer display of violence and gore right in front of my eyes, it could be nothing but that.
The sound itself sounded like it was coming from behind the tank. So, slowly, I stood and creeped my way around the large capsule. Making sure to make as little sound as possible while I covered the distance.
After what felt like an eternity, I reached the other side, and when I saw where the noise was coming from, I couldn't help but curse myself.
It was indeed a child. But that wasn't what threw me for a loop, it was the fact that this child looked just like me when I had met Percy and Sally.
At first, I thought it was me, being projected into this twisted mindscape of memories. But there were subtle differences, things that told me that this wasn't the case.
Her eyes, which were staring straight into mine, were not green, as they were now. But blue. She was smaller than I had been, it was like looking at homework someone else had copied from yours, similar, but not quite the same.
And in that moment, the only thing I could think to do was offer solace to who I was beginning to believe was someone else entirely.
"Hey… I'm not gonna hurt you," I reached my hand out slowly, the girl did not pull away, only continued to stare directly into my eyes.
"You shouldn't be here." She said quietly.
"I don't think anyone should really be here-"
"No, she only wants you."
"Who?" I asked, not really liking where this was going.
"Me."
Before I could even turn around, a cold hand grasped my shoulder, and suddenly I was flung backward with little to no resistance. The wall I hit immediately gave way to the sheer speed I was traveling at. After another moment I became aware of the cold air and the sudden chill as I plummeted into a snowbank.
Getting up took a moment, but somehow, I hadn't broken anything- Could I even be hurt here?
"You nosy little cockroach."
My head snapped up to the source of the voice, and I couldn't even find myself surprised too much by what I saw.
It was the girl, but not the one from camp, and not the child from before. This was the girl who had torn the throat from that man just minutes ago. But now she was different, her bodysuit replaced by actual clothes, nothing special to speak of, just boots, jeans, and a jacket. Probably taken off whatever corpse she had come across.
"You couldn't just leave well enough alone? Could you?" She snarled, the dried blood on her face flaking off with the sudden movement of her mouth.
I stood on shaky legs, "Well you know, knowledge is key and all that blah blah blah."
"Gods, you're just as immature as they told me."
"I don't know who they are," I said sarcastically, my mind running at breakneck speeds to try and figure out what the hell was going on, "But surely they told you how funny I was too?"
"Enough with your word games!" The girl snarled, blood and spit flying from her mouth, "Are you going to give me what I am owed, or will I have to take it from you."
Ok, so no games then.
I scored my expression, "You mean my 'light'?"
"Yes!" She smiled, made even creepier and eerie by her blood soaked teeth, and the flesh that hung between a few of her teeth.
"I need it! I must be complete!"
"And you think having my 'light' as you call it, will make you complete?"
"It will. I know it will." She growled at me, her fists slowly clenching and unclenching, like it was taking all she had not to attack right here and now.
"How do you know?" I shook my head, "Let me tell you something, you're an experiment, whatever they told you was a lie. They work for Kronos, hell, you were going to be his vessel by the looks of it. Are you really going to listen to what they said?"
"I don't care, if I have even a chance to be real, to be acknowledged, then I will take it!"
"You'll never be real! You came from me! Everything about you was grown in a test tube!"
"Shut up!" The snow and ground cracked beneath her, "shutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshutup-"
"I WON'T LET YOU DENY MY EXISTENCE!"
"If you want it!" I dropped low, my right hand outstretched and my left hand curled into a fist at my side, "Come and get it!"
Our energies clashed, and for a moment, I forgot that this was all inside this girl's mind. I was sure at any moment, the whole scenario around us would shatter to pieces.
The girl was fast, but sloppy. A punch, a counter, a jab to the stomach. We tarded blows over and over again.
"Just die!" She screamed, energy rushing from her hands like a tidal wave caused by her emotions.
I took the full brunt of it as I tumbled backward, the lower half of my shirt was completely burned through, along with most of the skin on my stomach. I regenerate fast, yes, but not faster than I could burn.
I felt like a weakling.
I went down that fast? What the hell is wrong with me?
All my thoughts came to a halt as I felt a foot stomp on my burned skin, I howled in pain. The hair on my body and the fur on my extra appendages stood on end.
But it didn't end there, she lifted her foot, driving it deep into the burned skin and muscle, smiling at the sound of my anguish. This, in hindsight, felt worse than having your body being dispersed into nothing.
"Ah! Now if that isn't music to my ears!" She laughed, "Only when you have suffered thoroughly, when I have shown you the absolute desperation you can reach in life, only then, will you have my permission to die."
It was hard enough to think with the pain that made a stab wound feel like a papercut in comparison, but even more so, that I could feel exactly what the entries had described.
She was taking my energy, and there's nothing I can do about it.
"Now, let's have some fun, shall we-?!"
The girl was never able to finish her sentence as she was suddenly met with a boot to the face, and she wasn't sent tumbling through multiple snowbanks.
"Sorry, but that's not happening."
Barely able to open my eyes, I could only barely make out the figure above me.
"You son of a bitch."
"Sorry I'm late, You're heads a bit of a mess."
"And who the fuck are you?!" The girl screamed, angry, that her victory had been interrupted.
The figure turned, to face the girl, "The name's Ren, and I'm here to clean house."
"Is that supposed to scare me?" she snorted, a sadistic and manic laugh pushing past her lips, "Because I'm going to be honest-"
"Do you ever shut up?" Ren asked as he put his arm around the girl's shoulder, "If you put half as much effort into your situational awareness as you did with your comebacks, you might have been able to keep your arms."
The girl was momentarily confused, but the sudden feeling of emptiness brought her look downwards to where her arms had indeed, previously been. The blood from the arms draining into the snow, dying it a deep crimson red.
"You know, they say it takes a couple hours to drain someone completely of their blood…" Ren whispered into her ear, "Do you wanna test that theory?"
The girl jumped back as far as she possibly could, as she did, bone and tissue quickly regenerated in the space where her previous arms had been, knitting together like they had been sewn together.
Ren just gave her a bored look, "Wow, pretty impressive. That regeneration speed is pretty fast. But is it faster than mine?"
In less than a second, ice sprouted from the inside of Ren's body. Dipped in blood, no, made completely from his blood.
"You wanna see how far you can go against me?"
The girl shuddered, where as previously she had been sure of her victory. With Armani falling as quickly as she had, she had seen that she would win, she would gain control of her body, and move on with whatever life she wanted.
She was the apex. The predator, no one stood above her.
But now she could see it, this teen… man- could he even be called that? His posture went against everything she felt from him, his sheer presence made her bones creak under it's pressure, her instincts screamed; Run! GO!
And yet she could not move, rooted in place.
This was no predator.
No human.
This was nothing short of the presence of a god, and then some.
"What was it you said earlier?" Ren rubbed the back of his hand with his free hand, like he was trying to remember something, suddenly, he snapped his fingers.
"Ah yes, I can't even begin to describe how happy I am to try my style out on you… then, after everything, and only then, do you have my permission to die."
The very ice on the ground was nothing compared to the coldness that his tone suddenly took when he spoke those words, how the air dropped in temperature even more than it somehow already had.
"D-Don't come a-any-" The girl stumbled backward.
"'D-Don't-' Silence!" He roared, "You petulant child! You attack my vessel! And you beg? For mercy? From me?!"
He kept walking, each step leaving cracks in the ground, each step tearing himself from the very glaciers he left in his wake.
"You're slight against me may have been waved in the past, but now?" He stopped, bedding down to her level as she could only cower at his words, "Well, you're in a bit too far for that, wouldn't you agree?"
She tried to crawl backwards, but a wall of thick ice rose up to meet her attempts at escape, her mouth opened, but no sound came out as she tried to find a way out.
"Did you really think you would get away? That you would get some happy ending? That you would make it out of here with your life, and my vessel's?"
He shook his head, "Let me tell you something. People like you? Copies? Clones? Fakes? You never get a happy ending. You will live your entire life in the shadow of your original self and no one will ever know you were there. No one will care when you die, no one will care when you disappear, and not even the fleas will mourn you."
'I've dealt with your kind before, you all lead to nothing but trouble…"
He stood and turned, walking away from where she was still laid on the ground, and suddenly, she found herself able to breathe again. But just as she took that breath and thought she might live, she felt like there was a pit in her stomach. Like everything had suddenly dropped at once.
"Oh, that looks like a nasty injury, might wanna get that checked out." Ren said casually, waving his arm at her midsection, looking down, her stomach really did drop at the sight of the large gaping hole suddenly there, or, it would have, if she still had a stomach.
Intestines fell limply into plain view, and she found herself in pain for the first time since she had materialized on this plain of existence.
And just as she began to stitch herself back together, another hore appeared in her chest, no residue, no tearing. A perfect circle. She looked at Ren, his hand was outstretched, like he was shooting something from his palm. But there had been nothing, no projectile-
"You know, I'm glad Armani passed out," Ren said, lightly pushing her unconscious body with the end of his foot, "She doesn't know this yet, but you wanna hear something interesting?"
He didn't wait for an answer, no that she could give one as, suddenly, one of her lungs was gone.
"Nature Energy, I'm sure you know what that is, and if you don't, well, you're smart so you'll figure it out." He chuckled, "Regardless, Nature Energy exists in all things. The air you breathe, the water you drink, time… space."
Her eyes widened the more he continued his little lecture, but suddenly, she was missing an eye, and whatever line of thought she had was cut off by her own screaming.
"So noisy…" He sighed, "Anyway, I can see you were beginning to catch on there. Nature Energy is so much more. And at this current moment, I'm using it to displace the matter of your body as far away as possible, at least it makes for clean cuts. And you just keep regenerating, because you can't turn it off, can you?"
He turned back to her, his smile so sickly sweet that it made her want to vomit.
"So tell me, how does it feel?" He walked closer to her, "To lose yourself? To feel and think, but not be able to call out as you are slowly rendered to nothing? To not be able to die?"
She could feel it, her consciousness slipping away, back into the ether of all the energy around them. But she didn't, a spark in her core and a slap to the face brought her back, face-to-face with Ren.
"Did I say you could die?"
She could not answer, even if her body was restored, she lacked the energy, or the nerve to respond.
"Answer me. Now." He gripped her chin, leaning in close, after a moment, he snorted in disgust, "You're a waste of my time."
He stood back up, she tried once again to move, but couldn't, her own body betrayed her commands.
"And here I thought you'd be more fun… Oh well, I guess there's no more need to keep you around then, Puppet."
"W-Wait… P-Please…" She stuttered out, trying to beg for her life, or what she had at that current moment.
But Ren did not listen, only point his hand at her like he was pointing a finger gun.
"Bang."
Suddenly, and without any warning, the girl's body completely vanished, nothing was left behind to indicate that she had ever been there in the first place. Ren only sighed, taking out the trash was his only job at the moment after all. He was just a little upset that his time had been wasted so thoroughly, which begged the question…
How did this faker get the jump on Armani…?
He looked around, something was at the very edge of his senses, but he couldn't quite figure out what. It was like there was some kind of barrier blocking him from seeing what it was.
But before he could move to investigate it, he saw his hand begin to fade.
He chuckled, "Well, I guess my time is… up…"
And as quickly as he came, Ren disappeared, the only sign he had ever been there at all was the large glaciers and blood he left behind.
What he didn't notice before he disappeared, was that Armani's body was no longer in the snow, and she was no longer unconscious. Instead, while Ren had been having his final moments with the clone. She had moved silently back inside the building, back to where the girl was. Safe inside the barrier she had made in the split second before she was thrown out into the snow.
Luckily, by now, she had completely healed, which was odd. Considering that something like that should have taken her multiple hours to heal, or at least one if she was pushing it.
Regardless, she brought the barrier down. Thankfully, the kid hadn't found a way to get out while she was gone, or she would have banged her head off of one of the empty tanks. She waved, fatigue clear on her face.
"I'm back." was all Armani could say as she fell to her knees.
"You're going to die if you don't leave soon." The child said tonelessly, if not slightly unnerved by the look on Armani's face.
"No, you're 'friend' has already been taken care of," She huffed out a breath, "Thank the gods for that one."
The two sat in silence for what felt like a few minutes, the first one to speak was Armani.
"Well, kid-" She scowled, "Do you have a name? I don't want to keep calling you kid."
The girl shook her head, "A test subject does not need a name." She said in a monotone.
Now, Armani was no expert when it came to kids, but even she could tell that this isn't what one should sound like. Even she hadn't been this bad.
"Well… Do you want one?"
It was a simple question, one that shouldn't have generated the first speck of emotion she had seen from this kid. The small drop of surprise that passed through her eyes before almost returning to what they were before, almost.
"I-"
"Don't worry, I can think of one." Armani said, running her hand through her hair, brushing the snow out of it, wracking her mind for names that would fit the kid.
Would she hate it, or find it funny if I just called her 'junior'-
Suddenly, her train of thought jumped to the label on the tank that she had seen earlier.
"What about Nix?" Armani suggested, hoping that didn't sound stupid.
The child tilted her head, "Nix?"
"Yeah, your designation was N1X, right? Or at least I assume that's what it was. So how about that?"
She was quiet, like she was thinking, "That is… agreeable, I guess."
Armani smirked, at least she had accomplished something productive today.
'Alright, let's get out of here then, yeah?" Armani stood and stretched, "I don't want to be in this hell hole any longer than necessary. How about you?"
"Okay…" Nix stood, and Armani could see that she had been right, Nix was smaller than she had been at that age.
I guess that's what happens when you mix a bunch of DNA together in a lab.
She held out her hand for Nix to grab, "Then let's get going then."
Nix looked at the hand, like it would bite her if she actually grabbed it, eventually, however, she grabbed it. And the two were enveloped in a bright light, and suddenly, that world was no more.
And in its place, two sets of eyes opened, now matching in hue.
Author's Notes:
Well hellllllllllllllloooooooooooooo good viewers :)
It had been quite a while since I've deigned to speak on here beyond just a regular update. The reason is that, well, I got a bit fed up with this site.
Not due to viewers, or reviews, no, it was mostly due to a bunch of formatting errors that I kept getting. Some of which were so bad that I wasted 3 hours trying to fix it and eventually gave up. So I stopped updating over here and didn't worry about it too much, since I've been updating on AO3 this whole time.
Which is also why there was such a huge influx of updates l posted around a week ago, hopefully, the updates should be more frequent now, Since I'm no longer having any issues with formatting.
We're nearing the end of Part one, and by the end, I mean this is the last actual chapter, with one teaser as a 'chapter' and part two will be posted either immediately, or soon after.
Another thing, this chapter has obviously gone very far off the rails of what Percy Jackson normally is, and I'm just here to say that things like this have been my intent since the beginning, and I want to introduce new concepts that can make sense in this universe.
That's all for now, hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. :)