div class="uhNote" style="text-align: justify;"strongTW in this chapter: Swearing /strong/div
p style="text-align: justify;"strongHell./strong/p
p style="text-align: justify;"I would give each and every one of them hell. I wouldn't mourn when they fell into Tartarus. Oh no. I would say: emyou belong. /em/p
p style="text-align: justify;"Yes./p
p style="text-align: justify;"I can imagine it./p
p style="text-align: justify;"But I must focus. I must find someone to guide me onto the path. Trekking up the cliff, I searched everywhere I could see for any signs of life. When I found none, I decided to listen to the oh so annoying voice in my head and go to the Phlegethon, the river of fire. Annabeth had once told me the Phlegethon's purpose was to keep the wicked alive so they could endure the torments and pain of Tartarus./p
p style="text-align: justify;"Torments?/p
p style="text-align: justify;"Pain?/p
p style="text-align: justify;"I could see none. But I remembered that Percy and Annabeth weren't like me. They could see the torment, the pain, and they felt it. /p
p style="text-align: justify;"Me?/p
p style="text-align: justify;"I belong here. This was my home now, and it always was, even when I had to endure the lies that demigods believed to be the truth from the gods. /p
p style="text-align: justify;"I finally reached the Phlegethon, and was shocked at the beauty of it. How could something so beautiful do something so cruel? It was a mix of orange, red and yellow, flowing calmly and peacefully in its bank. Dark, jagged rocks surrounded it, and splintered glass was embedded on the floor. The Phlegethon illuminated everything surrounding it, making it seem like the fireworks on July 4th./p
p style="text-align: justify;"It was beautiful./p
p style="text-align: justify;"I walked to the very edge of it, and sat down, my eyes never leaving the river. I wondered what Annabeth and Percy saw when they looked at it. Maybe pain, hurt, and ugliness? Yes, that was probably what they saw. The gods had cursed them so they never saw the true beauty of the 'dark, cursed place'. /p
p style="text-align: justify;"This was my home, and it was good to be back after so many years. /p
p style="text-align: justify;""Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice asked behind me. I whipped around to see a man, emgod /emthat looked like he was in his twenties./p
p style="text-align: justify;"He had windswept blond hair, and a deep but musical voice. His gold eyes pierced into my soul, dragging out the darkest secrets that lurked there. His tanned skin and build made him look like Apollo, just more ancient and wiser./p
p style="text-align: justify;"That comparison made me realise who I was looking at. I walked up to him, just looking at him, wondering how he had changed so fast./p
p style="text-align: justify;""Dad," I breathed. The dad I hadn't seen in years. He was standing before me, in his glory despite the dark surroundings./p
p style="text-align: justify;""Aria," he replied. I walked up and hugged him tight. I just wanted to stay in that position forever, holding someone who truly cared about me. But a life of a demigod isn't that simple, and neither is the life of a 'demigod' like me. /p
p style="text-align: justify;"I pulled away, my eyes never leaving his. /p
p style="text-align: justify;""What are you doing here?" he asked me. I opened and closed my mouth several times, with no sound coming out. I wanted to tell him about everything that had happened, but I couldn't find my voice. I wanted to speak, I really did, but the thought of telling him about me being banished just was too...humiliating./p
p style="text-align: justify;"I finally plucked up the courage to tell him. /p
p style="text-align: justify;""Annabeth...banished me. She convinced the gods I was working against them, that I was a traitor and she banished me. That was her wish for doing a service for Olympus when all she did was sit on her ass and watch me do all the heavy lifting. After everything I did for her, after all the shit I went through for her, she just banished me!" I realised I was on a rant. I realised that every time I said Annabeth, I choked up. I realised this and so did my dad. /p
p style="text-align: justify;""Is that all?" he asked me. His eyes were full of worry, and I couldn't maintain the dam I built to hold back my feelings. It all came flooding back./p
p style="text-align: justify;"I started to sob. Helios opened his arms and I retreated into it, my heavy sobs making my body shake./p
p style="text-align: justify;""The Seven...they all just sat on their idle asses watching me do fucking everything. I fucking helped them, and this is how they fucking reward me. With fucking banishment." I looked at my father, my eyes watering./p
p style="text-align: justify;""What did I do? What did I do to fucking deserve this? I did every fucking thing they asked me. Dad tell me, what did I do?" I asked between sobs. I couldn't take it anymore. Helios looked at me with worry./p
p style="text-align: justify;""Language, young lady," he scolded me. That earned a sad chuckle from me, and I looked up at him./p
p style="text-align: justify;""emYou /emdid nothing. It's them, they were the ones to do everything. So we can give them hell. We'll storm Olympus and give them exactly what they gave us." my dad turned serious. That was where I got my thirst for revenge from. But a question lingered in my head. /p
p style="text-align: justify;""What about Dad?" /p