You have no idea how sorry I am for not updating for such a long time. But do not fear, I have not abandoned this story.

Thank you for all the favorites, follows and reviews this story has received till now.

I have edited the last three chapters, but I did not change anything major, so you don't have to read them again. Anyway, have fun reading.

Rating for this chapter: T

Summary: Death gained a whole new appeal the moment I became a daughter of Hades. Self-Insert


Edited on the 22nd of June 2016


Chapter 5

A Different Kind Of Family


"This is part of what a family is about, not just love. It's knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work."

― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie


3 September 1939

Persephone wasn't a pleasant woman. Nope, not pleasant at all.

Actually she was rather horrid. I could not fathom what my father saw in her.

Through the last few minutes of our 'family' breakfast she had insulted me more times than anyone else-in both of my lives-before. But she was rather smart about doing it. The goddess knew that she couldn't just outright insult us. So she used thinly veiled insults like:

''I thought you would be home by now. Luckily, someday you will go far away. I just hope you will stay there.''

''It is really sad that your mother is only mortal. Such fickle lives they have. It is such a shame you inherited that from her.''

''I like that your mother tries to compete with me for Hades attention, at least she has a goal. Unrealistic and unattainable, but it is still a goal.''

''The fates create everyone for a reason, I never doubted that before I met you.''

''The first time I saw you, I wished I was blind.''

Oh, and those were the nice ones. My siblings couldn't see the true malice behind some of them and that made me more than glad. But it was rather unfortunate that she called us three, as often as she could get away with it, bastards. Persephone also referred to our mother as 'the Whore' with a capital 'W'. Luckily, my siblings were too young to know what those words meant. If mother ever heard us use them she would wash our mouths out with soap.

Still, it was really hard to control myself. I wished that I could hit her but that would have been suicidal.

However, that did not mean that I had to play along nicely. Game on, bitch.

"Papa, what is a bastard?" I asked innocently.

Hades send a quick glare towards his wife and turned to look at me. "A bastard is a child born out of wedlock. For example, when a married man has an affair with a woman who is not his wife and she bears him a child."

I pretended to look thoughtful. "But isn't Lord Zeus married to Lady Hera." I leveled my gaze on Persephone. "Doesn't that make you into a bastard, too, Lady Persephone? You know, because your mamma had an affair with Lord Zeus."

I watched with a certain pleasure as her eyes filled with anger. That probably should have worried me. Did I start to developed some sadistic tendencies?

Hmm, nah I was doing just fine.

As for Persephone, I still wasn't finished with her. I plastered a sickeningly sweet smile on my face. "Oh, and if my mamma is a whore, yours must be one as well."

Persephone's chair scrapped against the floor when she stood up. For a moment, as I felt her furious aura brush against my skin, I regretted ever talking back to her. She looked ready to kill me. "Why you little..."

"Sit." Hades commanded.

The goddess's sat down on her chair once again, her face was twisted into an ugly grimace.

"Did I say something in...inaprodiat, papa?" I looked at my father. I could see his eyes soften at my mistake and the look I was giving him. I knew that we three had him twisted around our little fingers. Was it wrong of me to use that?

Hell, no. I was sure father could feel my smugness through our bound, which essentially meant that he knew that I wasn't as innocent as I pretended to be.

''Inappropriate. No, you did not do anything inappropriate, Nora.'' His voice was steady, but I could see the pride in his eyes.

After breakfast we spend a leisurely two hours getting familiar with the castle. Father showed us the different parts of the building and told us about the 'forbidden regions'.

Every time we encountered a servant, I would end up feeling extremely uncomfortable. They always bowed before us as a sign of respect.

I mean, I understood why they did that to my father, but my siblings and I, well, that was just plain awkward. The servants did not only bow to us, but also called us 'prince' and 'princess', a title I was sure we would keep for years to come.

I only wondered what made them do that. Was it our father? Did he somehow announce us being the new Prince and Princesses of the Underworld? Or was it our clothes, which practically screamed royalty.

Waking up that morning we were greeted by a bunch of servants. They had silk clothes prepared for us. The Greek garments were fastened with silver clips. Bianca's and my hair was neatly combed and put up into elaborate designs. Lastly, each of us received their own crown.

Anyway, I liked the clothes and did not truly have anything against my newly acquired title, I just did not like the attention. I haven't liked too much attention on me in my previous live, now I disliked it even more. Having so many pairs of eyes on me made my instincts kick in and I had to stop myself from choosing between fight or flight.

I think it was noon when we arrived in a big hall. I couldn't really tell with us being in the Underworld; Sadly, they did not have a pretty sun down here which would indicate the time of the day. A shame, really.

Like all the things in our fathers domain, the hall was dark and somewhat elegant. What surprised me was that it was empty. There was no furniture, no paintings, nothing. Just an empty room.

Closing the door behind us, father lead us into the middle of the room. With a wave of his hand he made four chairs appear in front of us to sit down. And that's exactly what we did. We sat down on the comfortable-with comfortable I mean really comfortable-chairs and looked at our father expectantly.

He copied our actions and gave us this really intense look. Suddenly, a box appeared in his hands. Hades opened it carefully and showed us its inside. The best way to describe it was, well, jewelry. Only my future knowledge made me realize what this jewelry was.

I could easily recognize the black skull ring. It was Nico's sword. Which meant that the other two bracelets and earrings were also weapons.

Great. So father was gifting us with weapons at such a young age. In my previous life something like this would have been completely socially unacceptable. I could already imagine how our neighbors would start calling some social services. But now, it was a relief because it meant that Hades would teach us how we could protect ourself and each other.

"Each of those has a special ability. You should choose wisely which one you want.''

We all stared at the box for a few seconds. Surprisingly it was Bianca who made her choice first. It may be weird, but when I saw the ring I thought that Nico would snatch it the moment he got the chance. But like I said, Bianca was the first who made her choice by picking the two earrings from the middle of the box. Nico was the second, obviously, choosing the ring. Which left me with the bracelets.

''Why are you giving us jewelry, papa?''Bianca frowned slightly. ''What special abilities?'' She added, fingering her beautiful earrings. They looked like two small butterflies, made out of a dark silver material which looked almost black. Dozens of bloody red rubies were embedded into them. Those two earrings must have been worth more than our whole house in Italy.

I had to stop myself from laughing at Bianca's expression, the moment she saw the earrings change into two daggers. It was something between shock and awe.

As I turned my head to look at Nico, I saw a giddy expression appear on his face. He started fingering the silver skull ring, the same way Bianca did with her present. It was only a few moments later that the ring changed into a dark sword. At that an awed gasp escaped him.

Then all eyes turned towards me, watching me curiously. I rolled my eyes at my family's dramatics. Something like this could be expected from my siblings, after all they were still children, but my more than four millennium old father looked far too thrilled by the situation.

I looked at my two bracelets. One was a simple silver band, woven around a few small red rubies. The second was a bracelet with three charms. Quiet ironically a helmet, a skull and what looked like a three-headed dog, Cerberus. I pulled at one of the charms and watched in slight fascination as the two bracelets changed into two spears. One was longer and one was shorter.

''Each of you will learn how to use your own weapon. After you have mastered that you will learn fighting with your siblings' weapons as well.'' Hades gave us all a stern look.

"We will be heroes?" Nico asked innocently.

That seemed to be the wrong question. Something in Hades expression darkened. Was it disapproval that I could feel through our bound? "You are no heroes, Nico, and neither will I teach you to be ones. You are survivors and I will teach you how to protect yourself and your sisters." He frowned."Heroes die young, survivors preserve. I am the god of the dead and it would be quiet ironic if I lost you to death."

Nico's eyes widened slightly. Shock was evident on his face, yet there was also something entirely different on it. Understanding? Perhaps. "So, if I was a hero I would lose Bianca and Nora?"

The god's answer was short and maybe a little brutal for a child as young as Nico, yet it was also the truth. "Yes."

"Then I do not want to be a hero." My brothers voice was full of determination. ''Nora and Bianca mean everything to me.''

Our father smiled at that. I could feel the pride he felt. But how could he be proud when he just told us that we couldn't be what we were born to be? The ultimate goal of a demi-god was becoming a hero to make your godly parent proud, yet he told us he did not want us to become ones. Don't get me wrong, I never wanted to be a hero. I did not want to die a premature death once again. It's just that I thought we would have to be ones anyway. I thought our father would wish for that. I thought we would need to do that to have his full acceptance.

And yet he told us the complete opposite. All he wanted from us was survival. His last sentence made me realize practically said that he would not lose us to death. Did that mean that he planed to spend an eternity with us?

I shouldn't have had those thoughts, I knew that. After all they may lead me to question dangerous things. Hades was a god. In his life he had had countless of children. What made us so different?

Strangely, the smallest hope of having an eternity with my father and my siblings, made me happier than anything else.


A few hours later our first training session ended. The smiles we had on our faces at the beginning of it had long since disappeared. Before we started training I had been happy about learning how I could protect myself, but now the only thing I wished for was a warm bath and sleep.

One might think that being our father would motivate Hades to not be too harsh with us. Unfortunately, the truth was that it's the other way around.

Hades was a slave driver.

He did not start teaching us how to use our weapons and wouldn't do that till we were physically 'fit enough' to wield them. So he made us do work outs.

Four hours long work outs.

The only breaks we could make was to drink something and to catch our breath. Then he continued drilling everything into us. We had to run, jump, do sit ups, things that would strengthen our muscles and many other exercises.

I think that his decision to not let us die made him into quiet a madman during this session. What a way to show love.

''Now that's enough for today.'' Father moved his hand in a way that beckoned us forward.

I sighted involuntarily and wiped the sweat of my forehead with my right hand. ''Finally.''

Nico muttered in agreement which only seemed to amuse our father.

"The training session may be over for today but you still have a lot to learn." He shook his head slightly. "Food will be served in an hour. The arae you have met yesterday will help you take a bath. After dinner we will continue with some instructive lessons."

I could only hope that those lessons wouldn't be as taxing as our previous ones. My muscles seemed to be made out of lead, sitting down wouldn't be a good idea. I was sure that following such an action I wouldn't be able to stand up ever again. My siblings probably shared that opinion.

I won't mention the next few moments, as I am too embarrassed by my own actions and weakness, but I never wanted to be rendered into such an state again. I wasn't the only one, of course, however my siblings were to young to properly understand the situation.

Let's just say that without our father's help we wouldn't have gotten anywhere. He had to carry us to the bathing chambers.

The arae was already there, waiting for us. The bath was warm and smelled nicely of lavender. Who would have thought that there were such smells in hell? I certainly didn't.

Anyway, after she finished bathing us, we were escorted into the dinning room. You can't imagine the relief I felt when I noticed that Persephone wasn't joining us. The food we ate was delicious. Just heaven on earth. I suspected that they put ambrosia into it.

After we finished eating, father gave us another mythology lesson. What was surprising about it was that he talked about the Roman one.

By the gods, Bianca's and Nico's faces were priceless when they found out that there are 'two' of our fathers. He spend about an hour explaining the whole thing to us. It was actually quiet interesting to learn about his Roman opposite.

Our young exhausted bodies did not manage to stay awake for much longer afterwards.