Hello lovelies,
I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, but I was barely at home the last
few days.
Hope this makes up for it though!
I don't own the characters, except my OC.
This chapter is probably my favourite, it was so great to write, and
I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Again I'd like to thank you guys for being so faithful to this story, for
making Lenelope seem more real than I'd ever dreamed they would be.
Thanks to every guest reviewer as well, as I can't thank you guys via PM.
Also, I would like you all to know that Phoenix McLean is an amazing
artist, she drew Penelope for me and I absolutely love it! Thanks again, Phoenix!
Right, so now I'll leave you to read this, and hopefully enjoy it.
Please review to tell me what you think!
Chapter fifty-four: Resurrection
~Leo's POV~
The goddess looked at Leo, and he got the feeling she was sizing him up.
"An ambitious endeavour. And what makes you think that the girl can be brought back to life?"
Her voice was completely void of emotion, and Leo noticed how she said the girl and not my daughter.
"You're Hecate." Leo answered, fighting down his nervousness "You're one of the oldest gods, actually you're a titan. Zeus honoured you, he left you your control over some parts of the sky, the sea, and the underworld." Hecate showed no reaction, and so Leo kept on talking.
"In ancient times, people called you the soul of the world, because you hold keys to the underworld
and can converse with the dead. That's why I think that you can bring Penelope back to life."
Here he stopped, waiting for an answer.
The silence in the circular room was uncomfortable, and Leo felt tempted to let his gaze wander,
the balls of light and the altar attracting his attention like glowing beacons. But he kept his
eye contact with Hecate, and after another moment of silence, she spoke again.
"What you say is true, hero. Every soul on this earth will pass through my realm, and then continue
to travel to Hades' domain. You can see some of them here" she said, and waved her hand at the balls of light. Leo stared. They were souls?! Was it possible then, that maybe Penelope...?
"I know what you are thinking" Hecate said, her eyes as bright as molten silver. "But she is not one
of these souls, who are on the brink of their journey to the underworld."
Even as Leo watched, one of the balls started to glow brightly for a second, and then disappear, leaving only a faint trail of misty light behind. Almost immediately after, a new ball appeared, so that there was actually a constant motion which Leo hadn't noticed before.
"As you see, son of Hephaestus, they are continuing their travels." Hecate explained, in that low but powerful voice, which completely lacked Penelope's melodic tone. "Her soul however still remains in my hold, although she is as good as gone. You are too late, young hero. You cannot save her."
It was as if she had stabbed his gut with a shard of ice. The words rang inside his head, making his
heart contract painfully. It couldn't be true, it simply couldn't.
Leo had not come all this way only to give up now, and he felt a certain resilience creep up inside
him.
"No." he said, his voice sounding firmer. "You're the goddess of magic, you're a titaness! Your
powers are among the greatest of the gods, there has to be a way you can bring her back! Or don't
you want to save your own daughter?!"
This outburst seemed to surprise the goddess, for she raised her eyebrows an infinitesimal amount.
"You call her my daughter, Leo Valdez? An interesting term... I certainly created her, and gave her
the powers she possessed. It was difficult, as normally only the Fates can determine a person's, well, fate, and creating life without them playing a part was indeed challenging." Leo wasn't sure he
wanted to hear the rest of Hecate's monologue, but something made him listen. Maybe it was
because he owed it to Penelope to learn about Hecate's motivation, or maybe he just wanted to
know for himself. "I used part of another soul to create her in fact" Hecate was already continuing,
in a slightly musing tone. "Samantha Davis, a powerful daughter of mine, who died on a quest for the god Janus. As she passed through my realm, I decided that her life force was exactly what I needed for my creation. And it worked perfectly..." The goddess trailed off, and Leo stared at her in horror. She had used her own child to create another person? Had she harmed Sam's eternal
soul in the process? Was Penelope actually a reborn Sam?! And why, why did the goddess even do things like that? Leo was about to ask her, but she came across him.
"You are horrified at my actions, hero. But I caused no harm to Samantha's soul. She was taken into
Elysium almost instantly, I merely extracted some of her abilities and her human energy beforehand, neither of which she would have needed in the underworld. And as for my motivation,
which you question so greatly, let me tell you this: Perseus Jackson is already one of the most powerful half-bloods of all times. And he will become even more powerful, until he will be a danger to the Olympians. The Fates did not deem it wise to let him live longer than he already has,
and so they decided to curse him, to bring him down.
But Hera realised what it would mean if Perseus died: The end of the human race. Without that particular hero, Gaia will not be defeated. He will not accomplish it alone, oh no, but he is the
heart of the resistance. And why would we, the gods, aim to save the humans you may ask? Well,
hero, they are our source of life. Without them we would die, and that would indeed not be to our
advantage."
She finished, looking at Leo, awaiting his reaction. There was no horror in Leo now, only anger.
How could she talk about these things like they were of no importance what so ever? How dare she call Penelope a mere creation, like an object or complicated machine she had built?!
Leo would not accept this, he would not allow for the gods to be this cold. He could already feel his
fingertips growing hot as the rage inside him mounted and he said, his voice taut and filled with
held back anger: "Penelope isn't a machine. She was, no, she is a real person, with real feelings.
How dare you talk about her like that? You might have 'created' her, but that doesn't give you
the right to talk about her as if she wasn't alive! It was us who found her, Camp Half-Blood that gave her shelter! Pen might not have had a life before you tossed her into the ocean, but she has one now. She's found friends to fight with, a home to return to and most importantly a family worth
dying for! She chose to die, she gave up her life for us" his voice cracked "You gods can't just go around playing with lives like that! Just because you're more powerful than us doesn't mean you can do that! You talk like Penelope wasn't your daughter, but she was, because your own family accepted her as a part of them! Chleo, even Callister! Do you want to hurt your children like this?! Doesn't family mean anything to you?"
Leo ended up shouting. He realised that talking to a goddess like this could easily get you killed, but he didn't care. He didn't care if he got pulverized, or turned into a pile of centaur poo, or was fed to
one of Hecate's monstrous servants! He revelled in telling the goddess these things, it felt so good
to say them, to shout them out, so that the world could hear. Heroes weren't mere tools, they were
family, and parents should protect their family, always.
When his breathing had calmed down a bit, he realised Hecate still hadn't said anything since his
outburst. She was looking at him, her bright and penetrating eyes just like Penelope's, Leo noticed.
Was he mistaken or was the aura of power pulsating more around the woman? Was she getting ready to vaporize Leo? Probably. But he wouldn't beg, he would die with his head held high, if he
had to. Closing his eyes, Leo waited for the blow.
But it never came.
Instead, after what felt like an hour, the low voice of the goddess sounded around the temple room
again, but it wasn't angry. It was just as neutral as before, and made Leo open his eyes again.
"Poseidon gave his blessing, so she could live. It was her life energy, the one she would give to the son of Poseidon, but which made my creation complete. Now, it is gone, and without it, she cannot
be revived."
No. No that couldn't be true. Leo couldn't have come all this way and survived his outburst at the goddess for nothing.
When he spoke, his voice was no longer firm, but shaking with suppressed fear.
"Can't...can't Poseidon give her another blessing?"
Hecate let out a soft laugh. "The god of the Sea will not go against the Fates again. He only did it
the first time out of love for his own son, to save the child he is most proud of. And without a powerful attribute like that, I cannot recreate life. It is a boundary, so I do not go around making new heroes all the time, and it makes sense, son of Hephaestus. No god can create life the way I did
except through reproduction. What I did was an immense exception, going against every law, and only with the help of Hera, who hid my undertaking from the other gods, and Poseidon, who gave some of his power to the new soul, did it succeed. But now, it will not."
I cannot recreate life. An immense exception.
The words swirled around Leo, taunting him. His last hope was dying.
Poseidon would not give Penelope another blessing, and without that, she couldn't come back to life. Leo could feel a cry of despair building inside his chest, but he fought against it, unwilling to
let it out. Hecate was watching him, as if to see what he would make of this news.
Watching to see what he would do...What he could do...
'A powerful attribute'. Tía Callida putting him in the flames.
'A blessing'. No son of Hephaestus had received a blessing like that in over four hundred years.
Sacrifices...sacrifices to wake the goddess.
Sacrifices were more powerful than anything in this world of gods and magic. Gaia was planning to
use them to reawaken, to rise from a sleep as deep as...death.
Suddenly, Leo knew there was something he could do. Something he could sacrifice.
"Take mine." He said, his voice more like a whisper.
Hecate looked at him, unresponsive.
"Take mine." Leo repeated, louder this time. He held out his arms, feeling like he was baring
his very soul to the goddess. And maybe he was, but he didn't care.
It was nothing compared to the agony of living without Penelope. He would give up anything for her, he realised, something that made even him feel a little uneasy. But it didn't stop him.
"My father, Hephaestus, granted me the gift of fire. I...I give it to you. You can use it, to bring her back. That would work, right? Sacrifices are that powerful, aren't they?"
The goddess held up a hand, and purple flames danced across it. "Pyrokinesis." she murmured,
her silver eyes an eerie shade of purple as they reflected the fire in her palm.
"A gift I do not bestow lightly on my children. Only on the most talented ones. You are right, a sacrifice like that would be powerful enough."
Leo's heart leapt. It could work!
"But bare in mind, young hero." Hecate continued, and the flames in her hand vanished. "That once
given, a gift like that can never be returned. You will be vulnerable to fire, it will be able to destroy
you. Your father will very likely be enraged at you for giving away his blessing, and it might
alter the entire course of your life. You are choosing a direction at your crossroads. Are you certain you wish to proceed?"
Leo thought. His dad would probably be really angry with him. But he'd never been there for him. Okay, so maybe he'd given him the power over fire to help him in life, but if Leo let this chance to save Penelope pass by, there wouldn't be much of a life left for him to have.
He had to do this, no matter the consequences. A warm feeling spread through him, as purpose and
surety filled him up.
"I'm certain." he told the goddess, over whose face might have passed the flicker of a smile, yet it was so brief, Leo couldn't be sure he hadn't just imagined it.
"All right, Leo Valdez. Come forward." she motioned to the altar behind her, and stepped aside so
Leo could get passed. He walked forward, and a shiver ran down his spine as he came to a stop next to the goddess.
The familiar necklace was still lying on the altar, but Leo now noticed that it had changed. Before,
the pattern had been a mix of purple and white diamonds, whereas now there were only purple ones.
"What do I have to do?" he asked, his gaze fixed on the necklace. He could picture Penelope wearing it so vividly, it hurt.
"Set it on fire." Hecate answered, and Leo wondered if that really was all. He did so anyway, reaching out his hand to touch the piece of jewellery. It was ice cold.
Leo let the familiar prickling feeling in his hand grow stronger, and within seconds his finger were
ablaze. However, the necklace seemed immune to the heat, it neither warmed up nor caught fire.
"Give everything up." the goddess told him, and Leo realised what she meant.
He closed his eyes and pictured all his power, all his heat and energy flowing through his arm into his outstretched hands, the way it had inside Talos' head.
A flowing sensation filled him, his power building up, before he let it loose, let it flood out of him,
and into the diamonds on the cold stone table.
A voice echoed around his head, a memory of a dream long ago: Whatever happens, don't lose your power over fire, Leo! Beckendorf's voice seemed to call to him, a last warning.
But Leo did not heed it. Even if he'd wanted to, it was too late to stop.
Finally, as Leo felt he couldn't go on any longer, the necklace burst into flames.
Leo stumbled backward, feeling a little weak, but excitement provided enough energy for him to
stay straight. He watched, entranced, as the flames engulfed every diamond and the black leather cord, and as the whole thing burnt to ashes. They weren't black though. They were pure white,
and when the flames had gone, they started to float, and drift around in the air.
"What..what's happening?!" Leo asked, and Hecate called. "My creation is coming back from the dead" Her voice sounded more powerful than ever, and when she looked at Leo, he could
see purple flames in her eyes again, only they weren't reflections this time.
"You have succeeded, Leo Valdez. But be warned, my daughter might not be the same after death. Some of the powers she had before will be gone. Coming back to life can alter her, might even erase her memory of the life she had before."
"What?!" Leo yelled, but his voice was lost in the sound of Hecate's chantings, now filling the chamber. The pieces of ash were whirling in a wild shape on top of the altar, and with every incantation the goddess uttered, they grew brighter, until all Leo could see was a bright form over
the stone table.
His heart was beating fast, and the pulsation of power that surrounded him made him feel like he was burning. Properly burning.
Just as he thought he could take no more, there was a brilliant flash of light, and the chamber grew
dark again. Leo had backed away from the altar, and had closed his eyes as not to be blinded.
When he opened them again, his heart stopped. There, lying with her eyes closed, looking just as
she had the last time he'd seen her, was Penelope.
Leo wanted to hug her, but Hecate held up her hand. "You must wait, hero. Her soul is re-entering
her body right now, and it must not be disturbed."
He held himself back, although it was hard. There was still a glow around Pen, and when Hecate waved her hand, Penelope started to float, and turn, so she was standing in mid-air. Her face was pale and still, and she didn't look very alive at all. Her hair was as dark as ever, and when he compared the two, Leo could see how much Penelope actually resembled the goddess who had created her. Hecate looked at her daughter for one moment, and Leo thought he could see something like pride in her silver eyes.
The goddess spoke: "I will leave now. You must hurry to Epirus, do not linger in this temple, for it will vanish soon after I am gone. Good luck, Leo Valdez."
With that she faded into the darkness around them, and Leo couldn't even thank her, for as emotionless as she was, she had brought Penelope back. But now she was gone, and Leo returned to watch the girl in front of him.
Finally the last glow around Pen darkened, and there she was, standing on the ground with her face back to its normal, creamy colour, her dark wavy hair tumbling down over her shoulders.
Leo was transfixed, and he held his breath as she opened her eyes. Their bright turquoise colour
shone through the gloom, and for a moment Penelope looked confused, as if she didn't know what
was happening.
Please remember was all Leo could think, his heart pounding.
When Pen's gaze focused on his face, there was a terrible moment in which she didn't seem to recognize him. But then her eyes widened and with a cry she stumbled forward, and Leo rushed up to catch her. She fell into his arms and it was the best feeling in the world, holding her close.
For the first time since she'd disappeared, Leo felt whole again.
"Hey there" he muttered, burying his face in her hair.
He could feel Penelope's shoulders shaking in his arms.
"You came back for me" she sobbed, and Leo felt relief as he had never felt it before.
"Of course I did." he whispered, holding her tightly, vowing he would never let her go again.