Aaron knew nothing but agony, agony and weakness as the spirits sank their metephorical teeth into him. His life, his living soul, was being drained to feed them, to reanchor then to the living world. He had enough sanity and focus to know this, to understand just how badly he had screwed up.
"You..." he groaned from his place in the veil. "You've been planning this, for a long time. Diane to build my connection to the Earth, Agnes my connection to you all... you wanted to feed on me, on my lifeforce and connection to the living world."
Agnes' face formed, swirling in the endless Mist of the Void. She looked solid, almost alive, her skin a dark tan matching her brown hair and eyes. She was a rare radiant beauty, comparable to a child of Aphrodite. She was growling at him, her tone deep and ruthless matching the utter insanity in her eyes. "You were to be a perfect trade, to free us from the living hell of nothingness, the emptiness of the Afterlife. We are nothing there, no thoughts, no dreams, no emotions. Just constant nothing and for what, to serve the worthless gods and their machinations. I lived my life serving my king, doing dirty work that no one else would to keep our kindgom strong but it wasn't enough to enter Elysium.
I was cast aside, like countless others, not good enough as I was not a hero... Diane served Pan and the Spirits of Nature, healing countless gardens and saving thousands of Nymphs from destruction. Elizabeth, the Priestetss of Hera served Hera loyaly and with distinction for fifty years. The two mortals, one was a firefighter and the other was a mother who raised her son to become a mighty hero but it wasn't enough. It is never enough...
We want... need freedom. We would get it at any cost and that includes you, so yes we raised you to become the perfect trade. Your life for ours, as a living powerful conduit you could have freed at least two of us, your soul worth more then one of us. We would have shared your body too, willingly in order to be free... and then we sensed her." The word her was said with such passion it scared Aaron more the anything. He shivered, eyes wide. "Thalia, her soul still imbued with a mighty sacrifice, a child of Zeus, her soul would have been imbued with tremendous power. We could have freed all of us... Then you ruined it."
"How is that possible?" Aaron asked, his tone not anywhere as confident as he felt. "One soul for one soul, you wouldn't have been alive if you all... went out... you weren't even aiming for life, you were aiming for freedom. Just a chance to escape, that is it."
Agnes' power radiated from her like a thunderstorm, crackling in the void. "That is all we wanted, freedom from nothing. Nothing is worse then the Fields of Punishment. I would experience that for a century before I returned to Asphodel... but I won't have too. With you in the veil, you are helpless, unable to draw from the Earth or us, you have no natural power so all you are filled with will give us the power to break free and escape away from the Underworld and into the world."
Aaron's eyes turned behind her, to where he saw a sad Diane looking at him, tears in her eyes. They just made him more angry, more hateful. "You know this isn't natural, what is dead should stay dead. You served nature, you get that!"
Diane turned away. "Freedom from nothing is more then you know, child... I do not want to hurt you but I will not return to nothing..." her tone was shaky but absolute. He knew she meant it and would fight for the live denied her.
He hated her for it and yet he understood her entirely. The nightmare of nothing haunted him more then anything, it drove him to be amazing, to show the gods he was deserving of Elysium... there was a reason he served them despite knowing how monsterous they were. He was no synchophantic tool, he was not one to serve evil.
A wave of agony and emptiness shot through him and his vision faded, he felt faint, like he was falling. Diane stepped forward, her form almost physical in the emptiness of the veil. She put her hand on his forehead and sighed, before a rush of power flooded his body, pooling in his head before being siphoned straight into her hand. He saw it, the Mist gathering around her arm, making her more and more solid as it passed into her chest.
He collasped into the nothing, his vision fading, his everything fading away...
His name...
His goals...
His drive...
His spells...
His magic...
His him...
Him...
The last thing he remembered, and even that was fading into nothing, ripped apart of the magic of Asphodel, was the sad eyes of Thalia looking at him knowingly as she fell into his talisman... he hoped she was safe... and then that was gone...
Leaving him nothing but a chattering fool, drifiting towards Asphodel...
"""
Endless grey, a distant keening... the echo of death... he fell towards it.
"Go back!"
Like a brick wall, he slammed into the words as a wheat field filled out before him, millions upon millions of souls spanning out, the empty sound of nothingness greeting him... was he was a him... or an it... it didn't matter...
Nothing did.
"Go back!" The voice slammed into it again, like a wave of... something, knocking it back, chattering at the sound angrily. Empty eyes roamed, looking for the offending sound, the source of distress and change.
A single rose, blossoming the color of blood caught it's attention. It looked so... alive, in the sea of empty grey... it was distracting and alluring. It took a step closer, and closer... reaching out, it touched the petals, and lightning exploded through his body...
For he was a a he, a boy... a mortal boy. A witch.
What was his name...
"A... ar... Aaron. My name is Aaron." he said. his tone weaka, shaky. Images danced before him, the rose all but oozing his real self, all that was taken from him.
He stood, shaking off the cold empty Grey of Aphodel. He fell to his knees, weak but almost alive. He grasped the rose, squeezing it tight, feeling the agony of the thorns digging into his flesh... for he had flesh. Agnes was right, pain was better then nothing.
"I am alive... how, how do I remember... anything. They took it all, tossing me to forget in the Fields of Asphodel." He turned, looking for the voice. The voice that slammed into him... and he saw it, standing there... "Your me, how?"
The other him was taller, muscular and leaner. He radiated power, like a god, like a king.
"Death strips you of all you could have been, that is what I am. Are you willing to give that up, to forfeit me for them? The idiots who thought it was a good idea to cross you, you? The mortal who's done more for the gods then any demigod in centuries. You built shrines to the Gods, honored Hades and Persephone, learned from the Dead, harnessed the power of the Earth. In a year you've done more then most demigods do in a lifetime. You made choices, you choose to be more then your blood said you had to be, you choose to be better, stronger, wiser.
Stand tall, declare yourself and rise above them all. You aren't the petty gods, repeating history, you are a boy making your history. You are making your own fate, and you will rise above them all. Mortal or not. That is what I am, the possibility of that future. Are you willing to give me up?"
Aaron laughed, long and hard, each words the other him said was beyond anything he had ever realized. He felt powerful, mighty, endless with his words. "No... I will never give you up. I can't you are me, the side of myself I hide out of fear the gods would punish me for Hubris. I never own up to the satisfaction I feel when I kill a monster, overcome a demigod, show off any ounce of skill... but I am great, I am great because I choose to be great. Now, how do I leave this place to become you. How did I regain my memories in the first place?"
The other him laughed too, a rich beautiful sound. " The Rose, it is the connection to your garden. Weakened by your near death but still present, your power made it so it is remains in it's core. Your magic brought you back."
"My magic... that's right, you have magic, not just channeling it from the Earth but have it independently... and so will I..." he looked at himself, in the eyes and something clicked. "So do I. I have earned it, the right to use magic, to make my own power...and that is what you are. You are my potential to wield my own power, not just borrow it."
"Yes... so what are you going to do with me?"
"Accept you entirely... and get my ass home." Aaron stood, shakingly and weak but with enough purpose to look confident. He took a step forward, and grabbed his otherself by his shoulders and brought him in. The world blurred for a moment before Aaron turned around, his mind clear, and power, his own magic, charging through his soul.
He had done it... he had power... and no one could take it from him. Not even Zeus. This wasn't the power of the Divine, something of blood never earned... this was magic, the power that had marked his soul and changed it's very fabric, so that even if he was turned into a god or monster he would keep it.
It was his power, his might and he would never forget it.
Stepping closer to the rose, he turned his head skyward and nodded.
"Get me back to my damn body."
And the world blurred, the sky erupting into existance before him. The scent of roses danced in his ghostly nose, the sound of a pond and gurgling fish. He turned around and knew where he was, he was in the Earth Spring Garden, where the Spirits of Asphodel were worshipped. He was free from Hades... he just had to get to his body.
"AHHHHHHH!" He turned to the scream and saw a thick Mist gathering in the Apollo Cabin. He wasted no time and charged it, gathering his power... and realized with some fear he could not draw from the Earth to fight back. His only weapon was his own power, nothing great... yet. Not on Agnes' level...
It would have to be enough.
It would be enough.
Somehow he reached the Cabin just as Agnes, Diane and the three others formed around his body, which lay still with white hair and a dead look to it. He felt it calling to him, searching for him... He would reach it, soon enough.
Will was on the ground, chains of Mist wrapped around him, as was three other sons of Apollo, their powerful auras dimming as Agnes fed on their powers.
"No..." Aaron said, shaking with rage. "You will not!" He waved his hand, his power slashing out shattering the chains and sending Agnes' back. She looked at him, startled at the sight. "Yeah, bitch, I am alive and I have magic, my own magic. I have to thank you, for giving me the chance to gain this power, without your betrayal who knows what I would have had to do to gain my own power."
He stepped forward and the Mist surged around him, seeping into his body, making him stronger and stronger, the forms of Agnes and the others fading.
Agnes growled. " You cannot take this from me, from us!"
"It wasn't yours, your borrowing power, the power my body can channel and have channeled. The might of the Earth, but that power is for the Living. It is not yours, you cannot command it... but I can."
He stepped closer, the power expelling from the Children of Apollo, each of whom gasped as if the very breathe returned to them. They started to stand, looking at him with shock. Though Will's eyes were more smug.
"Bout time, it's been three days since you passed out. I thought you were going to chicken out and die for real."
Aaron just laughed, a sound so living and warm it filled him, literally, with a light that burned through the Mist of Death around him. Agnes shrieked, as did the others, even sweet Diane. Aaron turned to them and flicked his wrist. They gasped, and collasped, fading into bare shapes and outlines. "I am taking back my power, cause it is... MY POWER! You are thieves, parasistes and I am done with you, each of you... but I am not without mercy. I felt that nothing... that emptiness... if you go to the rose garden growing in Asphodel, our prayers will give you life for a short time." Aaron kneeled down and petted Agnes' hair, feeling her fear, her pain, her utter terror. " I want to call you evil but in truth you were just desperate... and I cannot fault you for that... but I can fault you for destroying me. So go, return to the Underworld and just maybe you will avoid ever lasting torment."
They all turned to him... their eyes filled with tears, terror and doubt but there was something else... something he understood more then that all...
Hope.
Agnes sighed, her voice no longer living and present but echoy and spiritual. 'You won... we will depart... do not forget us or what you experienced, son of Man... for it will be your fate should you not impress the gods...'
And with that, she faded away, they all did, leaving Aaron the only spirit in the room.
The children of Apollo started cheering, roudy and powerful, Aaron felt powerful and mighty and he turned to them. " So... how about getting me into my body?"
They laughed as he walked towards his body, sitting in his own lap before laying down and sinking into the void of his body. Like led forming around him, he felt warmth once again and opened his eyes, feeling the magic of his very soul oozing into his body, mixing with the magic of the Earth he was passively drawing on.
He had done it... he was an offical witch, one that had his own power... it wasn't much, not even comparable to a demigod, but it was his and it would grow as he did.
Will's eyes were wide as he looked at him. "Your wounds have healed but... I can't fix the hair. Whatever they did to you, it is permanant."
Aaron just laughed. "Silena can color if for me. Maybe purple?" Standing, Aaron walked over and hugged Will close. " It is good to be alive... I have a promise to fulfill." He walked out of the Infirmary and hurried back to his garden. The moment he reached it he grabbed a rose and channeled his own power into it. "I haven't forgotten you... and no one will. You, my old friends, will feel the power of memory and prayer even in the Afterlife. You will not be forgotten, even with this crime of yours..."
"Aaron?" The sound of Dionysius and Chiron, both worn and worried and ready for battle came from behind him. Aaron turned around to see both armed, Dionysius with his Thyrus and Chiron with his bow, most likely to charge towards the Infirmary and confront the sound and power they felt surge from it. Seeing him, alive and oozing power must have distracted them both.
"I'm back, can't believe it took me so long... but I am back. Thank me, my potential self... it is what saved me, as did this garden. So thank you I guess, Mr. D."
Mr. D just nodded, slowly before reaching out. "Your... your alive... and you have magic."
"Yup. Something about nearly dying, it changed my soul enough, exposed me to enough power that I gained power."
A smile crossed Mr. D's face. "I'm glad... this is yours, dear child." He summoned Aaron's bone talisman, handing it to him. The power it held now included Thalia's soul, making Aaron smile as he put it on.
"The souls of the Dead, they may have betrayed me, but I understand why... they are still to be honored but not channeled unless it is the most extreme situations. I went past my limits, a newb channeling the dead, it was my own fault... but I will learn from this and become better. I learned so much, I will study magic on my own with what I know and become great without them."
Chiron sighed. " I know more about magic, mostly for healing but I can write it down for you to learn."
"Appreciated my dear Centaur."
"It will have to be soon though, as I have been fired..."
Aaron choked. " What, why?"
"The tree... there are those that do not trust me on Olympus for whom my father is?"
"The same father that birthed the entire first Generation of gods?" The sky rumbled, as if to dare him to question their pathetic edict. Aaron glared for a moment before sighing. "I will watch over camp for you, my friend. I am sorry... you will be missed, no matter how long this happens to last."
The Centaur nodded. " I appreciate that... I leave tommorrow, now that you are awake."
"The I will have to begin my watch sooner then later." And he meant what he said, he would watch over this camp as best he could for as long as he could, for it was his home and the grounds in which he would prove himself to the Gods and free himself from the inevability of Asphodel...
He had only so much time, and with the dangers of his life that time could be very, very short. He had to impress the gods very, very quickly... and by any means.
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was so much fun, one of my best chapters...
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.