Even Gods Bleed

|Chapter 13| The Goddess of Heroes

Hazel Levesque is the goddess of heroes.

She could remember every detail the day she had been named a goddess. It was on Sunday, August 28, 2010, that she had been made a goddess. The very same day, mere hours after her mortality was stripped away, the Greek Gods revealed themselves.

When Jupiter - technically it was Zeus - had listed her deific designations, she had asked about why she was the goddess of heroes. Why not Percy, Annabeth, or even Jason?

Jupiter - Zeus - had grinned at her, a rare sight. (It seemed that the lord of the sky didn't hate her as much as she hated Percy or Nico.) He had asked her a question in return, his voice echoing against the marble, and in her ears.

How old were you, Hazel Levesque, when you thwarted Gaea's plans and stopped her rise to power?

She had only barely understood, yet she took her role as a goddess, leaving all of her mortality behind her.

That night, she had cried into her stepmother's arms, wishing that she had refused the offer. She was exactly four months shy of her fifteenth birthday.

She was very, very young.

Hazel went to school for a few months, but after the attack on her and Nico that Halloween, she hadn't returned. Her cover had been blown, but Nico's, that lucky duck, hadn't.

She spent her days helping people. She aided people in rescues, giving them the strength to be heroes. She blessed young children who had great futures and helped people on the streets.

She did this all, looking like a 20-year-old.

She felt like if she showed up to something, as a 5 foot 8 inch, fifteen-year-old who still spoke like it was 1941, she wouldn't be believed. But if she showed up older, she would seem more authoritative, and people would listen to her more.

Her parents had told her multiple times that she didn't have to look older. She had insisted she did. Nico, who probably didn't like his sister looking even older, had said that she needed to be who she was. She tuned him out.

Frank had said he liked her how she was, yet she only half listened. Percy and Jason had teased her, saying that she looked ready to kill someone wearing that armour. She had stuck jewels through their shoes. (At least they laughed at that.) Annabeth had said that it was her choice, and Piper had hugged her and told her she understood. Leo had said she was an old lady. She punched him in the face.

Spoiler alert: He cried.

But today when she walks through New York, she looks her age. She's just sightseeing, taking the day off, and letting her responsibilities go for a day. She's doing the very thing that is going to make her parents frown at her over dinner tonight, and they might chide her for being careless.

She really doesn't care.

She's a normal girl, out for a casual daytime stroll. She looks impossibly normal, with normal brown-black eyes, a white fleece sweater, light blue jeans, and a pair of well-worn converse.

She found herself in Lower Manhattan, wandering through Battery Park. She came upon a World War Two memorial and stopped to read the names of the thousands of soldiers who had lost their lives.

She traced her hands over the carved out letters, then moved to face the eagle. She laid her hands on the pedestal and looked up in the carved eagle's eyes.

Her peaceful day was cut short by a loud, blood curdling, ear-splitting, shriek.

Her head whipped around to face the sound. She couldn't see anything, but could still hear the sound and mortals screaming. She summoned her Spatha and took off. She did not see the mortals in the square, but she could feel their stares on her back.

As she ran, she let her armour adorn her but forgot to change her age.

She runs into the clearing, and circling just above is a herd of Stymphalian Birds. They're shrieking and screaming, letting their feathers rain down like arrows. There doesn't seem to be a demigod in the area, so she assumes they were attracted by her scent.

The downside of being a demigod made into a god: You don't lose your demigod scent, and monsters are too stupid to tell that you're a god. They just think you're some powerful demigod, who will be a real tasty meal. Aka: you just get to kill more monsters.

Hazel has no bow to shoot them down, but she is a child of Pluto. And those Celestial Bronze talons are just begging to be brought down. She reaches out her hand and pulls it down, taking the birds with it. The second they hit the floor, she uses geokinesis to bind them to the floor.

She stabs them one by one, hating the shriek that goes with it. Once the final bird has turned to dust, she lets her spatha return, loses her armour and turns to face the crowd.

She sees many different people. She sees a family, and the mother seems to be comforting her crying child. There's a businessman, still holding his phone to his ear, yet his jaw is slack and is obviously not listening to his phone.

There's a young couple who look horrified at what just happened. And there in the corner is a young boy, whose clothes are baggy, and his eyes are wide. She knows, just knows, that the boy is a demigod, and maybe that's why the Stymphalian Birds were there.

He looks terrified as she starts to walk over to him, but as she walks she grows horrified. The kid can't be over 7, and he looks like he's been living in the streets his entire life.

She crouches down and offers her hand. She speaks kindly and softly to him, not wanting to spook him. "I'm Hazel," she says. She meets his eyes, smiles, and asks, "What's your name?"

He doesn't answer, not for a few moments. She can feel the eyes of all the mortals on her, but she is focused on her task. Eventually, he says his name, voice barely above a whisper. "Kyle."

She grins at him, but he starts to coil away. "Hey, hey, hey, it's okay. It's okay Kyle, I wanna help you."

"You're a demigod," he whispers, the accusation bitter. "Stay away from me! I don't wanna come with you!" He shrieks out his words and it's obvious that he is terrified.

Hazel can't help but smile. "I'm not a demigod, Kyle. My name is Hazel Levesque."

His eyes widened. "You're a goddess! Get away from me!" Hazel moves to touch his arm, reassure him, but he's bolting before she can even move.

She stays there, and hangs her head, sighing as she does. The kid isn't going to survive long, not without proper training. She's not surprised monsters are already after him, because judging by his eyes, he's a Ceres kid. Ceres, while not being one of the Big Three, is still a child of Saturn. And of the three daughters of Saturn and Ops, she's the only one who births demigods.

She turns away, but that's when the hellhound tackles her to the ground. She hears the mortals scream, but it's just a minor inconvenience to her. Just another monster to kill. She draws her Spatha, but before she can stab the thing, it bites into her stomach.

She lets out a scream but manages to drive her spatha into the beast. She lays there for a moment, bleeding ichor out onto the ground. And on unsteady feet, she walks away.

She finds a shady secluded spot and assesses the damage. It's bad, and definitely gonna hurt. Before she melts into the shadows, she prays to Annabeth, informing her of the son of Ceres, and asking for Annabeth to arrange a retrieval team. Annabeth promises to have him at Camp Half-Blood by noon tomorrow.

So with her peaceful day ruined, she melts into the shadows and lands on her bed in the underworld. She gets under the sheets, letting the blissfully cool black silk settle her.

Her eyes widen a few minutes later when her door opens. She hears the familiar footfall of her dad. She is in so much trouble.

He sits on the edge of her bed and asks the last question she expected. "Hazel, are you hurt?"

She tries to pretend she's asleep, but he's not that easily fooled. "Don't pretend you're asleep, Hazel. Now answer my question. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not hurt," she says, but her voice cracks halfway through. The wound was definitely starting to hurt.

He sighs, and his voice takes on a softer tone. "Hazel, you are injured, please don't lie to me."

He tries to pull back the sheets, but she snatches them and brings them up to her chin. She's trembling in pain and trying to stop the pain because the godsdamned hellhound basically ripped out a part of her stomach.

The movement makes tears fall, and she's shaking in her bed, clutching the sheets like their her lifeline. He lays a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she knows he can feel her trembling beneath her touch, but she can't focus enough to care.

"My daughter," he says softly, "What did this to you? What happened?" his voice is full of concern, but he also seems uncertain, like he's not sure what to do.

She manages to hiss out the bare details of the story, and once he's done he leaves, promising to be right back. He tells her to hold on, and she tries, she really does, but she passes out in a minute.

When she comes too, her mom is hovering in front of her, face ashen with concern. Her dad hovers behind her, wringing his hands. She is handed Ambrosia, which she eats greedily. She curls into herself, and shuts her eyes, still overcome with pain.

She feels the sheets being pulled back and hears her parents gasp as they see her wound. Nectar is poured onto the wound, and she wants to scream at the stinging but she doesn't.

Somehow, the pain starts to fade, and with that, Hazel Levesque, Goddess of Heroes, falls asleep.