Merry Christmas! Here is an early present.

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Summary: Amelia Babineaux died in a sea of wine, as a daughter of Dionysus she lived again. [SI, Self-Insert/OC-Insert]

Enjoy.

Chapter 8

Game Of Survival

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Where She Chose To Fight

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."
― Maya Angelou

Diana was one and a half years old when she realized how far Zeus' influence could truly reach and how unbreakable his rules were. It was around that time that her father started distancing himself from her.

The process was almost unnoticeable at first. Dionysus started spending slightly less time with her in the morning and then he only visited her every second day. Soon those visits changed into once a week until even that ceased happening.

Had Diana been a normal child, she would not have been capable of doing anything against these changes. She would have started crying for her father until the day when she completely forgot that he even existed.

But Diana was not a normal child.

She was a demigod and a reincarnated soul. Both factors gifted her with a wide variety of advantages that helped her come up and execute a plan that would force her father to spend time with her.

Zeus might have forbidden his son to visit and take care of her—Which was completely laughable. They lived in a camp together. No matter how hard her father might try to avoid her, he would not always manage to do so.—but this prohibition did not apply to her as well. Not even Zeus could expect from a toddler to understand his so called rules. Neither could he harm Diana to keep her away from her godly parent.

Attacking her inside Camp Half-Blood would be like declaring war on all the other gods. None of them would stand for such a transgression.

(...Or at least she hoped that...)

Thus Diana devised her next course of action almost fearlessly. It was nothing special, of course. The whole thing mostly consisted of escaping her caretaker and finding her father afterwards. She had no idea how she would convince him that it would be totally awesome if he started visiting her once again. Tears were probably a weapon she would be forced to use.

However, that was something she would worry about later. For now she had to somehow get away from Ichneutae who had thankfully left the door of her cabin open to let some fresh air inside. They were currently occupying the living room because Diana had asked to spent some time outside of her nursery. Ichneutae did not see the point of denying her such a simple request which led to him unknowingly completing the first phase of her plan.

The next one consisted of waiting more than two hours for the satyr to finally make his second mistake. By the time he proclaimed that he needed to take care of some 'business', Diana was almost ready to just storm out of the room. Patience never did belong to her virtues and her newly acquired ADHD did not help either.

This meant that she was visibly trembling in excitement when Ichneutae stood up to 'take care of some business' in the bathroom. It would most likely take him at least five minutes which was enough to slip out of the cabin and hopefully out of sight.

''I'll be back soon. Don't do anything stupid, Diana.'' The fact that he forgot about the opened door probably said a lot about how suitable he was for taking care of a toddler.

Diana adored him anyway.

Smiling adorably, she nodded her head. ''Promise.''

As she watched the young man disappear inside the bathroom, she could not help wondering momentarily if gods had to use the toilette as well. Before her mind could wander too far, Diana forced herself to stand up and turn towards the ajar door.

In the last few months she had continued learning how to walk, but that did not mean that she had mastered the skill. It was surprisingly hard to get her legs to work properly without falling on her but every few meters. Right now she had no other choice than to toddle towards the door on unsteady legs and hope for the best. She passed the couch without a problem, using the furniture to keep her balance. Her plan got a little trickier once she had to walk without support, though it seemed as if the Fates had chosen to show her some mercy that day.

Triumphantly, Diana raised one of her fists into the air once she finally reached the wooden door of her cabin, ignoring how silly that gesture must have looked on a child.

And then with a single push and ungraceful stumble, the young demigod found herself standing outside in nothing but a long-sleeved shirt and diaper. It certainly wasn't one of her proudest moments.

Most of the campers were eating their dinner, thus she did not have to be too careful while walking behind her cabin and then towards the Big House. Besides, not many of them would probably care enough to stop her from running around camp without any supervision. Diana had by now gotten used to the way in which they looked at her, however, that did not make her feel any better.

Considering her fair coloring and bright yellow outfit, staying in the shadows did not help to keep her hidden. Still, it was better than walking down the main road in search of the Big House.

Dionysus was somewhere near it, his aura beckoning her to move forward. He might as well have been holding a huge sign with the short message 'I'm here' on it and a glowing arrow pointing at his head.

Her biggest problem did not lay in finding her father but reaching him. Another challenge was keeping her feet unhurt. She had not had any time to spare, as such she was walking outside barefooted. Not a very bright idea. The skin of her feet had already been cut at two places, but Diana knew better than to give up because of something so superficial. This was most likely one of her last chances to somehow pull Dionysus back into her life. She could not waste it because of some shallow cuts.

(...she could only hope that they would not get infected...)

Leaning against the back of the Dionysus cabin, Diana took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. Due to the physical weakness of her body, she found herself already tired. The small legs of a toddler were not made for running around Camp Half-Blood. They were burning and trembling from exertion.

Resolutely, the toddler pushed herself away from the wall. There was no point in dallying and waiting to be found by Ichneutae. The satyr had most likely noticed her absence by now.

Diana started running towards the Big House as fast as she could, the cool wind ruffling her hair and making her eyes tear up. Subtlety got lost along the way, but she had no time to correct that. What did it matter that some campers saw her when none of them chose to stop her before she disappeared out of their sight?

By the time she managed to reach her destination, the toddler's feet were cut at a few more places and stinging unpleasantly. A few almost white strands of hair clung to her forehead and her skin had broken out into goosebumps along the way. The run had winded her. Gasping breaths escaped the girl's lips as she carefully climbed the stairs leading to the porch of the Big House. Because of her height that endeavor was rather difficult to complete.

At the end, Diana was forced to use both her legs and hands to successfully reach the veranda.

For a second, the girl thought that she might have heard Ichneutae shouting her name in the distance and this startled her into action. After straightening her body, Diana approached the door of the Big House and knocked on it without an ounce of hesitation. A minute or two later, a man whom she guessed to be Chiron opened the door. It took him a few precious seconds to realize that his guest did not even reach his waist which allowed Diana to slip into the building without being stopped.

Though he did notice her presence when one of her arms brushed against his front legs. Fortunately, the centaur seemed to be too surprised by her presence to immediately scoop her into his arms.

When he finally did choose to address her, Diana had already wandered down the hallway and was about to enter the room her father was currently occupying.

''What are you doing here, Diana?'' He asked, his voice sounding slightly bewildered. ''Where is Ichneutae?''

Instead of answering him, the young girl continued following her plan and pushed her last obstacle open.

Dionysus was sitting at a wooden table with a deck of cards before him and a diet coke in his left hand. His violet eyes were unsurprised and focused on her form. Just like her, he must have been capable of feeling her aura which meant that he must have known that she was coming.

Two weeks had passed since she had last seen her father. The relief she felt at his sight was curious and slightly disconcerting. She did not like the fact that she had become so dependent on another person that she could not imagine living without them.

Before she could formulate another thought, her legs moved as if on autopilot and her small form collided with one of her father's legs. Diana was surprised to feel a few tears sliding down her cheeks.

''You shouldn't be here, Diana.'' Dionysus' deep voice rumbled as he leaned down to pick her up and then proceeded to put her onto his lap. His touch was gentle and so achingly familiar that a sob passed her lips.

She had missed him and that's exactly what she told him once their almost identical eyes met. Unwittingly, his gaze seemed to soften and a hand reached out to brush a few bangs out of her face. ''I'm here now, my sweet child.''

(...he did not specify for how long he would stay, though...)

''You can't leave me alone,'' mumbled Diana as she took a tight hold of his violet shirt. ''You can't.''

Earlier, the girl had thought that she would have to force herself to cry, but that was truly not the case. Fact was that Dionysus was the only family she had in this life as well as the only one who could keep her truly safe. He was her father, her savior and her protector and Diana had gotten so used to his presence that she had actually started to feel desperation due to his absence.

Diana needed her father. She did not want to lose him because of her selfish and cruel grandfather. ''Please.''

Her grip on his shirt tightened some more and she allowed herself to fall forwards against his chest. Almost hesitantly an arm was wrapped around her tiny waist while a hand patted her tangled hair.

''You can't leave me alone like she did.'' It was a low-blow. Mentioning and comparing Dionysus to her biological mother was something she would have normally never done and yet she did not regret doing it now. There wasn't much she wouldn't do to keep her father at her side.

(...Diana might have had slight abandonment issues, though she would never admit something like that...)

Her words seemed to have the intended effect. This was proofed by the tightening of his arm around her waist and the madness that seemed to suddenly appear in her father's eyes.

For a moment, Diana could not help but wonder what had happened to Alda after she had abandoned her, but she quickly decided that it did not matter. The woman deserved whatever her father might have done to her.

''It's not that easy, Diana.'' His voice reflected the anger he felt as well as his reluctance to even utter such words.

''But it is.'' Never before had she spoken in such full sentences, but now was not the time to care about revealing her true identity. ''If you don't stay with me, I'll continue trying to find you. Some day this might end badly.''

To prove her words, Diana looked down at the floor. There were small bloody imprints on the wood that had been left behind by her injured feet.

Blackmail wasn't something she was hesitant to use. Especially when she saw how well it worked on her father.

''You're bleeding.'' The silence that followed that statement was as unnatural as it was frightening.

Diana only felt a pleasant warmth blooming inside of her due to the fact that her father so obviously cared about her well being. ''I had to find you.''

Narrowed eyes looked down at her and seemed to see straight through her. Diana did not doubt that Dionysus knew exactly what she was trying to accomplish with her behavior. The god was ancient and he had certainly met many people who were more subtle and successful with their manipulations in long life.

That did not mean that hers weren't working.

''You're a sly little thing, aren't you, daughter?'' Murmured the god as he regarded her shrewdly.

Diana just bit her lip and gazed down at his lap to hide the dark amusement in her eyes.