This took a lot longer than I thought it would to get out. However, it's not my fault this time. It's my school's fault, for shutting down the website for the last week of summer in order to do renovations when I had this story and all of its chapters saved on it. So, there, the blame has been shifted off of me, go sent hate mail to my school. :P
Thanks to…
Lizzie6410
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SkittlesRAWR
AnAbominableSnowman
SweetJay21
NeonEnigma88
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I'm. .addict
Andromeda Athena
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Outsiders, Percy Jackson, or anything else I throw in, except that random voice. That's mine. So, don't even think about trying to steal it. -.-
We arrived at the new camp site with days to spare. Apparently, the local nymphs were so excited to be hosting such a large group of famous Demi-gods that they decided to help the Cyclopes make camp for the last few days. So, by the time four of us got there, the perimeter had been completed, the basis for the cabins had been laid down, the amphitheater had been created, the climbing wall have been constructed, the mess hall had been made, the forges had been put together, the stables, arena, armory, arts and crafts building, and big house had all been built. They even left a section of the new camp empty for the strawberry fields that Dionysus, Pollux, and the Demeter cabin will work on once they arrive. The four day wait left me in boredom. The only thing to do was help the Cyclopes and nymphs but they just grunted and giggled at us if we even stepped near them. Except for Percy, they liked Percy. They would actually say 'There is no need to help, Young Lord'…Suck ups.
After the first two days of nothing to do, I slowly realized that I was running out of Percy-Nicknames. As such, on the third day, I was reduced to sitting at the edge of the new canoe lake muttering to myself.
"Kelp-for-brains? No." None of these new nicknames fit! Either that or they were too close to previous nicknames, which made them recycled nicknames instead of new nicknames. "H2Dope. Already used that one. And it took me forever to think of it! Why did I use it in such an offhanded way. Why?!" Damn, I'm bored. "I heard that Mr. D calls Poseidon Barnacle Beard…but Percy doesn't have a beard. Hmm, what about the horse aspect of Poseidon? I could call him Mule, or Pony. But he might not think of that as an insult, Nico did tell me about the Party Ponies. Hmm. Ponies…Pony…Ponyboy…"
Nothing gold can stay.
Stay gold, Ponyboy, I mused.
"What about Fish Bone?"
"Coyote's giant-!" My head shot to my heart, gripping the skin as my body practically convulsed in shock. I gritted my teeth. Not right now. Later, later.
"Isa!"
"Oh, Nico, it's just you. Don't scare me like that."
"Don't use other, non-Greek, gods as slang. They won't like that."
"And they like it when we use their name in slang? Doubt it. Now, what do you want?" Please, I begged silently, be quick about it.
Andale, andale!
"Can't a big brother just want to hang out with his little sister?" I glared at him. I like to be by myself, a side effect of my powers and past no doubt. Nico knows this and usually lets me be, for him to bother me, something must be bothering him. "I don't want you here. There is something about this place. It sets all of my senses off." Nico continued hesitantly.
"I know. I can feel it."
Death and murder and death and blood and death and death and deathanddeathanddeathanddeath
"And yet you want to stay." Nico questioned quietly, sitting down next to me, careful not to let his feet slip into the water, knowing that the naiads will most likely try to drag him under and drown him. They tend to do that.
"It seems exciting. I have been bored." I answer, just as quietly. The air was still. I shifted slightly as I felt my bare feet start to slide on the moist earth surrounding the lake, almost as if a magnetic pull were tugging them towards the treacherous water. "It feels like death."
Death and murder and death and freedom and death
"This is more your area of expertise, Isa. I can only tell that it is something dangerous." Nico shuffled worriedly. The fact that this is now part of my domain means that Nico can't keep me from it. It would be like trying to convince Ares to wear a pink dress without using Aphrodite and her charm speak/seduction. Nico's domain consists of a little bit of all of our Father's aspects. He can raise the dead, speak to the dead, visit Hades without repercussions, control the earth (mainly boulders and the occasional valuable stone), shadow travel, and control hellhounds to a degree. I mainly have the death aspect for my domain. I can call upon the dead (as ghosts), bring back the dead as zombies, I can feel the life energy of a person and use that to know how powerful/dangerous they are, where they are (which makes the fact that Thalia can sneak up on me all the more embarrassing), their overall health, and other general facts about the person, and, if necessary, control beings of death. No shadow abilities though, which is why I have Rosabella, Rose for short.
"I know. I can feel the power running through their veins."
Death and power and death and blood and death
"Their? As in more than one? Isa, are they more powerful than us? I need to know!"
I smiled gently, feeling the energy flow around me caressing my exposed neck and feet, softly brushing against my clothed hands and arms. A trill echoed in my head.
Soft, soft, stay, stay, darkness of mine
Still in a slight trance, I answered my brother's questions. "Seven. There are seven that feel of death and power. Six that feel of life. Two that feel like blood and death. And two more that feel like blood, power, and death. So many…so many…" I trailed off, reaching out, nearly desperate to grasp onto this new and interesting turn of events. I reached past the feeling of humans, of tar and rotting fruit, past the feeling of a new born baby, of sugar and apples (a boy), to grab hold of that feeling of power, as if this being was born from the blood of the gods themselves. But, this darkness that lies beneath, it…destroys them. What is it? What is this familiar feeling of death and perfection? I…I…
Mine!
Devourer!
Soul Stealer!
Tracker!
Liar!
Thief of our flesh!
A headache blossomed in my mind.
"Isa!" I snapped my head towards Nico, who at some point had been joined by Percy and Annabeth. "Isa, tell me, tell us; are they a danger to us?"
"So…familiar." I muttered, barely knowing what was escaping my lips, so focused on energy that lurks just outside of the boundaries. "They…are so strong…but…so weak. They hunger. They fear. They live, but they do not live. What are they? Blood, they hunger."
They hunger, they hunger, they hunger –
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
Hungry like the wolf
"Isa. Isa, you're not making any sense. Annabeth, can you see what's wrong? Annabeth!"
"She has completely submerged her mind into the aura of this creature. She's trying to split her mind, one half focusing on the energy and the other half trying to figure out why such an aura is familiar to her." Shh, voices, I'm thinking. Bother me tomorrow.
"Isa. Isa! Listen to my voice." I don't wanna. "You are Isabella Marie-Anna, you control yourself." I know who I am, annoying voice, of course I control myself. "Isa, you are an idiot." I'll show you! Go hit yourself! "Isa, your last name is Swan." Yes, yes it is, thank you for pointing out the obvious.
"I don't think this is going to work, Nico."
"The fact that she is not blinking is starting to creep me out."
"Shut up, Seaweed Brain."
"Shut up, Percy. Now, Isa, Bella, Bells. Belly." You are seriously starting to push it. "I. hate. Unicorns."
Kill the non-believer
Kill…
"Dammit, I'll freaking kill you!" I roared, shooting up from my lying down position on the ground and stumbling forward slightly.
"Isa, careful." I turned to that obnoxious voice that claimed to have hated unicorns. "You have been unresponsive for four hours."
I ignored this fact and stumbled over to Nico, flopping done onto his lap in exhaustion "Unicorns…will…rule…the…world…you'll…see…you'll…al l…see…dammit." I managed to mutter out between pants.
"She's fine." Nico stated to Annabeth and Percy, who were practically leaning over his shoulder to get a look at me. "Isa. I don't want you to get involved with those auras. They completely put you into a trance." I scoffed. Like that was what caused that headache. Nico glared at me. "Isa, you started to walk towards the lake, your feet were under water before I dragged you out. You know first-hand what happens when we go in the water, so there is no other reason for you to do so. Do not, I repeat, do not get involved with the owners of those auras, for your own safety."
"Poopie-head." I pouted. That aura had been intoxicating to my Darkness, so I understood Nico's concern, even if he can't feel its effects yet. However, I won't tell him or Chiron for that matter. This is the most interesting thing that has happened since Nico and Dad found me. I can taste the change in the air.
Soon, soon
"Bella," Percy spoke up, "We need to know, are these beings stronger than us?"
I blinked and thought about the creatures that I felt. "They have the possibility to be, if they catch us by surprise. But, with Nico and I, the chances of us missing such an aura are slim to none. Nike would shine on us should we enter battle against them." If there are not an over whelming number of them. Weaker than us or not, being out numbered is still a way to lose.
"We should linger here not, Isa. We agitate the waters." Nico muttered, picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder. "The others should be arriving tomorrow. Sleep now Isa, sleep." Nico's shadow covered my body in a chilly embrace and slowly lulled me to sleep. "Hush little Bella, don't say a word, brother's going to find you a un-i-corn…"
Sing sweet nightingale….
I snapped my eyes open, suddenly alert. I was in a bed. Which made absolutely no sense as the last time I checked, the four of us had been sleeping in sleeping bags and tents for the last three days, so that leads to the question of where, exactly, I was?
"Oh, you're finally up. You sleep like the dead Isa."
"Silly brother, the dead don't sleep. Now shut up while I submerge myself back into the world of im-a-gin-a-tion." I drawled out, turning around in the bed and shoving my face into the pillow.
"So you're not going to ask where you are right now?"
"The thought crossed my mind, but I have more important matters to return to." I answered, my eyes firmly closed.
"You're in the new Hades Cabin. They finished it yesterday. The first to be finished I might add. Though there are still decorations that need to be done" Nico continued on.
"You're quite proud of that fact, aren't you?"
"Yes, yes I am."
"Bella!"
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Bella!"
"That!"
"I hear nothing, sister of mine."
"You're so full of it that it's not even funny anymore."
"Bella!" Something slammed open behind me. I sat up and cautiously spun to look at the ecstatic Sea Prince that had just intruded on a perfectly good Sister-Brother Moment.
I ignored the décor of the new Hades Cabin in favor of the spastic demi-god in front of me as Nico pouted. "Yes, Percy?"
"They're here! They're here! They're finally, finally here!" Percy shouted, practically bouncing off the walls, before racing back out of the dark Cabin and into the blinding sun.
"Nico."
"Yeah?"
"Did ya hear? Apparently, they're here."
"I think Annabeth gave him coffee. Or a Monster. Either or."
"That evil witch."
There was a slight pause.
"Nico?"
"Yeah, Isa?"
"Get out."
Nico high-tailed it out of there faster than Percy did.
"Huh. Slightly suspicious." I muttered, dragging myself out of the comfortable bed and over to the nice dark mahogany dresser, two that were right next to each other. I opened the one that had my tiara, necklace, and knife resting on top of it, correctly assuming that it was mine. I grabbed some black jeans, black sneakers, a black long sleeve shirt, a black leather jacket, a pair of white dress up gloves, and a skull ring that Dad gives to all of his children as a way to contact him if we are ever kidnapped. Deciding to make Nico sweat, I looked around my new home. There was the door, a solid Andean walnut wood door, that when I squinted at I could see tiny carvings of skulls dancing across it. On the wall right next to the door was a tinted window, allowing the occupants to gaze out, but the sun light and the eyes of any peepers to be blocked. Underneath the window was a mahogany desk. On the next wall was a mirror nearly covered the entire wall, with a mysterious notch in the middle of the mirror. The next side of the Cabin consisted of a triple dark teak wood bunk bed, with a black roll-y chair that looked extremely comfortable pushed up to the bottom bunk, which seems to have been claimed by me. The final wall was where two mahogany dressers were, the two being separated by a dark cherry wood door.
I ignored the grinning skull heads that decorated the ceiling and rolled my eyes at the blood red candles that occupied nearly every flat surface. Upon closer examination, I noted that the walls were, in fact, basalt stone mixed with little gems, including emeralds, onyx, moonstone, opal, tourmaline, iolite, tanzanite, citrine, aquamarine, dumortierite quartz, diopside, Hematite, tiger's eye, etc. I lost track after I saw my fourteenth diamond. The gems glittered in the weak light of the candles. I looked up to see no lighting. Confused, I glanced around and saw fake (At least I hope there fake – with my brother, one never knows) torches lining the walls. I blinked, now that I thought about it, my feet aren't cold, not that cold really affects us, even though I know that the flooring and walling of this cabin is rock. Eyeing the ground, I noticed that there was a fancy red carpet that covered the ground. I twitched as I finished putting on my second shoe, double checking to make sure that I had the jacket unzipped. At this rate, I'm not sure if Nico designed this place or if Dad did.
Sighing, I shuffled out the door, inwardly claiming the sun as my eternal rival and planning to thoroughly destroy Apollo. One way or another, my vengeance shall be fulfilled. Still grumbling to myself, I slumped to the entrance of the new camp, noticing that multiple other cabins had been finished when I had not been paying attention (I did not faint because of an intoxicating aura or overwhelming headache. Only girls do stupid stuff like that).
"Percy, Baby Bell is denying the fact that she's a girl again."
"Stay out of my head Annabeth." Sheesh and they call me rude.
"I heard that!"
"Good!" I shouted, finally arriving at the new gateway, and with enough time remember the mad driving of those harpies. Ah, I remember the last time we went driving with one of them. I wonder if the New Jersey police have found their cruiser yet.
"WHAT?!" Annabeth shouted, spinning around to stare at me, horrified. Damn, I thought I told her to stay out. Nico and Percy stared, but Annabeth ignored them, shifting seamlessly into lecture mode. "What do you mean, 'if the New Jersey police have found their car yet?'?! What was it that you and that harpy did!?" I said – thought – whatever, cruiser not car, if Annabeth is going to go mind surfing, she should at least repeat everything right.
I blinked and widened my eyes, staring directly behind Percy, who was standing between Annabeth and Nico. "Dammit, Thalia." I pouted. As predicted, Annabeth twirled back around to face the road, a grin falling onto her face. Percy glanced behind him with an exasperated look, while Nico just sighed. Both Annabeth and Percy paused for a moment before realizing that Thalia was not there. By the time they turned back to me, I was half way down the hill, heading for the new Forest of Death. "You'll never catch me alive, ahahaha!" As if that secret will ever pass through my lips!
Two can keep a secret if one of them's dead!
I should check to see if that harpy is still around, don't want Annabeth hunting it down and interrogating it.
I flopped down onto a log, finally bored of running through this new forest. It was boring. Not yet stocked with monsters and holding none of the primal fear that I practically feed off of. Maybe I should go back…but then Annabeth will harass me and that's no fun. I sighed. Four days. That's how long we had waited here for. Percy claimed that they're here, maybe Chiron sent an IM ahead of them, saying that they were near but then they got stuck in traffic, or something. Once they get here, the fun can begin. We can roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories and -. I felt my pupils dilate. That aura again. So full of death and power. Nowhere near as intoxicating as Father, but captivating in its own way. Death, my domain, was wrapped around them like a cloak. Did they kill hundreds? Were they created by the death of hundreds, like the monsters of old? Were they death, those fakes called grim reapers that roamed this earth and stole my Father's people? So many questions, so many questions.
"ISA!" My eyes snapped open. It seems that Nico sent himself out as a search party. Dammit.
"I am here, brother dear!" I shouted back, fully knowing that if I don't answer, Nico will send Mary after me. And Mary, an early 19th century ghost, is just plain annoying. Women should never swear. Young ladies don't talk out of turn. Isabella, you're already sixteen, it is far past time for you to start looking for a suitable husband for your standing as a Princess of Hell. Marriage, my flying penguins! As if I'd ever get married! All the demi-gods at camp are like family, to me, at least; can't say the same thing the other way around, and the day I even think of an inferior mortal with attraction of any sort will be the same day that I denounce my life's goal of killing Voldemort!
"Baby Bell, for the last time, your life goal is to worship a unicorn and be abducted by aliens." Annabeth stated, stepping out from behind a tree, Nico and Percy appearing next to her.
"Personally, her Voldemort illusion is far more realistic, Annabeth, I mean aliens, really?"
"Says the boy who sees dead people." I retorted.
"Ha!" Percy said. We looked at him. "What? I actually got that joke! The humor that the two of you show usually only makes sense to the two of you!"
I pouted. "Annabeth, you understand our humor don't you?" She can't say no, I have seen her amusement when Nico and I squabble.
"Honestly? If I did not have access to your mind, I would understand nothing." She stated sheepishly.
My humor…makes no sense?
Laugh until the dead all cry, for if we can't laugh, we'd all go insane.
How can you laugh when life feels like its laughing at you?
By laughing back at it.
Smile, till the sun stops shining and the buildings start burning and the people keep cry while the world crumbles and you laugh all the same
Whispers, whispers, whispers. Not now, never now. Wait until later, when the Darkness reigns.
Wait, wait, wait, till the stories all end and the truth is blinded by the light.
"Annabeth? I think you killed her…"
"Nonsense Percy. What makes you say that?"
"She's so pale."
"She's always been pale Seaweed Brain, she's the daughter of Hades!"
"I meant paler than normal…hey, where's Nico?"
"Are you idiots coming or not?! Isa, stop playing opossum, they're here!" Huh, so they are. Would you look at that?
More friends, more shields, more places to hide the truth and the lies.
I rolled onto my back and in a quick motion, flipped back onto my feet. "Oi! Slow pokes, let's go! Hey, Rose, give me a lift?!" Rose appeared right next to me as I race through the woods, Annabeth and Percy yards behind me. It seemed that the way there was longer than I had thought. Rose grabbed the back of my jacket with her teeth and leapt into a tree's shadow. I have to admit, no matter how many times she does this, I will never stop feeling the adrenaline the surging through me when I'm flying at thirty miles per hour (one of her slower speeds) into a giant tree. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that she was trying to kill me. However, I do know better, and I know that she will probably spit me out right next to Nico on the top of the new hill.
I appeared next to Nico.
"Thanks Rose!" I shouted, waving as my behemoth of a dog trooped back to wherever she was before I called her.
"So…"
"So…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"...seen any good unicorns lately?"
"Isa, what am I going to do with you?"
"Love me, feed me, never leave me."
"Isa…"
"Nico…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…I'm hungry."
"…Same."
"I thought you said that they were here."
"I was bored."
"So they're not here?"
"Soon, Isa, soon. Remember, patience is a virtue. It is a necessary lesson to learn if you ever wish to wed a good husband, Bella-bear."
"Nico. You hurt my pride. Prepare to die." I lunged at him, my right hand reaching for his throat and my left hand reaching for my tiara.
"Oi! Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dumber! We have been waiting here for the last five minutes. So, stop dawdling and help us!" A familiar voice piped up stopping both of us in our tracks.
"Great Mictecacihuatl!"
"Bella! What have I said about using other gods not part of our pantheon as slang!?"
"Not to." I muttered, pouting. Not that I'm going to listen to you. "Hey, Thalia, Malcolm, Drew, Jake, Will, Nikki, Clarisse, Travis, Katie, Conner, Kevin, Rachel, Rachel, Pollux, Chiron, Austin, Kayla, Sherman, Mark, Butch, Bobby, Clovis, Kaya, Chris, Lacy, Laurel, Lou Ellen, Miranda, Mitchell, Max, Sasha, Lissa, Maia, Alex, Tess, Robert, Sam -"
"Bella! We get the idea. Stop saying hello to every damn person and start helping us unload!" Thalia snapped, her left eye twitching.
"Whose Laurel and Austin? Since when do we have two Rachel's anyway?" Nico asked as the two of us moved to help Lacy unload some weapons.
"Since forever." I stated.
"But-"
"Thalia!" Two excited voices shouted. Percy and Annabeth were running up the hill, bright grins stretched across their faces.
"Dear Ra, that looks like it hurts." I muttered.
"Dammit Isa." Nico glared at me. Everyone quieted down, however, when they noticed Chiron, in wheelchair mode, being lifted down from the back of one of the buses with help from Kevin and Clarisse.
"Everyone here?" Chiron asked. "Good. Now Athena Cabin, you will be leading this remodeling. Half of you help the Cyclopes with the rest of the building. The other half can help any other group. Hades, walk the perimeter. Make sure that there are no monsters inside our lines. Poseidon, investigate the lake and the river. If not large enough, make it larger. Work with the naiads. Hunters, please do check with the dryads, we don't want to bother them much. Hephaestus, go help the Cyclopes. Hermes, unload the buses, I'll be watching you, so no stealing anything. Demeter, there should be an empty plot of land somewhere around here; please do start working on a strawberry patch, Pollux will be helping. Aphrodite, go decorate the finished cabins that have yet to be decorated. Hestia, go with them and make sure that they don't go overboard. Apollo, the Cyclopes have yet to work on the archer's field, so get to that. Ares, move the weapons to the armory and start testing the climbing wall. And the rest of you, go help where help is needed. Also, if anyone attempts to skip out on helping then there will be no dessert for three months, for everyone. Now, go, go, go!"
"So boring. I thought it would be more fun now that there are more people here." I complained, half an hour later. Nico and I were currently trekking through the forest, in search of something to kill.
"Isa, be quiet."
"I mean, 'walk the perimeter, check for monsters', what does he think that we have been doing for the last FOUR, listen to me, FOUR days. Great Odin, I'm bored."
"Isa, be quiet."
"But nooooo, he doesn't take our boredom (which you can technically die from; I looked it up) into account. If he hadn't decided to suddenly move camp, I wouldn't be so bored. How can you die from boredom, you ask, dear brother of mine?"
Speak freely, with no hesitation, little Child.
"Isa, be quiet."
"Well, it's more of a roundabout death. It is said that people that are prone to boredom will die younger as they are more likely to partake in alcohol abuse, drug addictions, compulsive gambling, and eating disorders, which can all lead to death and/or suicide. Fascinating, huh? Aren't mortals just the bestest? I do say, Nico, you're rather quiet today. Cat got your tongue? Did you know that people think that that phrase comes from torture? Specifically, being whipped by the cat-o-nine-tails, which is said the mere thought of such punishment renders the victim silent in fear. Cool, huh? Did you know that jellyfish are also called Medusa, after the first Medusa? Or that saved by the bell-"
"Isabella, shut up!" I closed my mouth with a snap, shaking off the fuzziness in my head, and blinked at Nico. "Now that you have finally shut up, can you feel that?"
"Well, now that you mention it." I muttered, turning to the right. That aura, so full of death and pain, I could feel my mind buzzing in excitement. What monster lingers so out of sight?
This hunt has only just begun, dear creature of death. Come, stay, and play with me some more.
"Isa. We should not loiter." Nico murmured. "Let us return." I nodded. If not, Nico would know how effected I am by the aura and would tell Chiron. The first shutdown could be chalked up as surprise. However, a second time will be seen as dangerous, and I'll be sent away. I can't be sent away just yet.
The fun has started already.
Upon arriving back at camp, I was in awe. It was starting to look like we had never left Long Island. Though I didn't see any more Hunters, other than Thalia; maybe she let them return to the Hunt or Lady Artemis called for them. Chiron cleared his throat, stomping his hoof on a block of wood in order to gather everyone.
"In hopes of looking a little less suspicious, I shall be sending a select few of you back to school. Twenty-one of you to be exact." Twenty-one campers out of one hundred-five of us? The chances of me going are what? Nineteen percent? Something like that. "Percy from Poseidon, Thalia from Zeus, Travis and Conner from Hermes, Annabeth and Malcolm from Athena, Clarisse and Kevin from Ares, Nikki and Drew from Aphrodite, Lissa from Hestia, Max and Katie from Demeter, Jake and Alex from Hephaestus, Robert and Will from Apollo, Kaya from Artemis, Tess from Hera, and Nico and Bella from Hades, everyone else is to stay here at ALL times except for when you are given permission to leave! That is all!"
I twitched. There was a pause. I twitched again. And just for dramatic effect, I twitch a third time.
"Isa…" Nico warned.
"Ixtab dammit!" I shouted, falling to my knees in despair.
"Dammit Isa, stop using different pantheons!" Nico shouted, startling the other campers who had been ignoring my misery.
I'm doomed.
Yeah, I'm starting to have fun with this. Whelp, I hope everyone is enjoying the fact that Summer has abandoned us and Time has thrown us back in the jail cell labeled school. (In case no one noticed, I'm feeling kinda dramatic right now). Anyway, I've decided to change this story's name a little, in fact, if any of you noticed the change before I make this 'announcement', then I'll send you a copy of Bella's creepy voice(s). Read, Rave, Review.