Chapter 19

"Do you, now?" A sickening sweet voice asked from behind us.

I turned to find a beautiful woman standing in front of the mirror we had watched ourselves from in the dreamscape. It was Psyche. She was quite different than the last time we'd seen her, but it was still the unmistakable urge to barf that defined her. Lisa had on a calm demeanour, almost cold, but very calm. Her face was expressionless. It made her seem almost scary. A man was with her. He looked a lot like Lisa had in the dreamscape form, but older, and more rugged. He had a fire in his eyes, that made you want to secure all your valuables, and guard them with a sword.

"Hello, dearest brother. And of course, now this all makes sense. You two are the masterminds behind all of this, aren't you? Psyche wants to control love, and Auto wants power. It would take a very convincing person to get all the monsters to work together. And Auto, well, I suppose you're here to kill me, aren't you?" She asked.

He smiled, "You always were too smart for your own good. Yeah, we are here to kill you. Are you happy? You've bothered me all these years to take away your immortality. Are you glad? Are you going to get a joy out of dying? Are you going to be with the ones you protected, or the ones who betrayed you? Or do you want to stay, and be with the one who never betrayed you, and your friends here? Do you want to stay in this world because of a promise?" She kept her calm demeanour, but Sal was getting angry. The air was thickening around him.

"I did make a promise not to let myself die. I swore on the river Styx that I wouldn't. So, it sucks to be you." I almost smiled.

Psyche sneered, "You little idiot!" She blasted Lisa with a pink light. Lisa fell backwards, but Sal was standing right behind her. She started to breathe heavily and her eyes fluttered halfway between opened and closed. "How did you survive that? That should've killed you." Lisa laughed.

"You blasted me with love. The problem with that is, I've loved and been betrayed so many times, that that's something that just doesn't affect me much anymore. You also forgot the fact I'm still immortal. Auto has to touch me to take it away." She was still very calm. "Goodbye." She turned to walk out the door.

Psyche called, "I let you see a potential future of what you're true form is when you are sixteen. Don't you want that?"

"Do you even want to know your real name?" The man asked. She turned on the spot.

"Well, what is it? I'm listening." She asked.

He smiled. "Let me take away your immortality. I will tell you your name."

"Even Zeus doesn't know my name. How am I to know you know it?"

"I named you, little sister. I raised you. You don't know anything of your life before the age of 8, do you? You have only guessed who you grew up with. Your mother died in childbirth. I was asked by the fates to bring you up, that you would be one of the greatest warriors of all time. They said you would be one of the most lovely women in all the world, and that you would go through much heartache and trial. They told me that I would give you immortality when you reached sixteen. They told me monsters will fall by a many named female warrior. They said she would destroy her father who is her brother." She laughed.

"You don't know anything, do you? A father is the man who raised a child. If a brother raises his sister, he is also her father. I am not going to go into a battle of wits with you because I would surely damage your ego. If I am to destroy my father and brother, so be it. If you wish to take my immortality, so be it. If you wish to kill me, good luck trying. I wish you peace of mind brother." He made fists with his hands, as did Lisa. "Anyone got any gloves?" She asked. I scanned the room. I saw a pair of gloves, but they wouldn't cover her entire hand. I tossed them to her. She quickly put them on and shrugged. "They'll work." He lunged at Lisa. She blocked. By that time, we had all moved to the sides of the room. They moved so fast, I only saw a blur. When they came into focus, the man had Lisa pressed against a wall. He put his thumb on her forehead.

"I name you Gemma, daughter of Hermes, jewel of Delphi. I claim your immortality for the fates. I claim your life for the fates." She screamed in pain as a golden light outlined her behind and flowed to the man. When all the light disappeared, she collapsed.

Psyche said, "Let them watch her die, so she may see love, only once," when the man moved towards us. The two disappeared in a flash of light. We all ran towards Lisa. Sal set her against the wall. She was pale and shivering.

Sal asked, "Do you have any nectar or ambrosia?" Nico nodded. He handed Sal a squished plastic bag full of ambrosia. "Come on Lizzie. You can hold on, just this once. You promised me. I made you swear on the Styx, even though I was 13. You promised." He loved her, genuine love. Not that weird 'I love you you love me even though we're only teenagers' crap, but love that doesn't have to be said. That was why he didn't betray her. He fed her ambrosia and held her hand. She was unconscious. Nico had his eyes shut, and was murmuring something under his breath. When Sal was about to feed her a fourth ambrosia square, I stopped him.

"That could burn her up. She's mortal now." I said. "You've given her more than a normal demigod can take without burning up. Don't make it any worse. We all care about her, but you can't give her anymore." He handed the bag to me and listened to Nico's words

"That's an ancient chant, to stop the living from dying. It's to warn death that she's not ready yet. I don't know if he can help her. He's extremely powerful, but it's not likely to help. If the fates were saying that she would destroy her father and brother, maybe they'll let her live. What did she say about her life? Did she value it, or did she wish to end it?" He asked me.

I replied, "She seemed to hate her life, before about 300 years ago. Do you know what happened then? She wouldn't tell us anything after 250 years ago. She mentioned you, but not your name, just a child of Neptune." Lisa started having a coughing fit, which was an improvement on being unconscious. Nico opened his eyes and smiled widely.

She said, "Thanks. I was really hoping you would try to pull me out. Charon is so chatty! Plus, Hades owes me a few favors. Helping out the gods can save your life. I hate it when gods go back on their promises."

Nico asked, "DOA studios?"

"No Nico. I didn't go to the entrance to the underworld because I died then came back to life." She said in a very sarcastic tone. She quietly said, "My name is Gemma. Jewel of Delphi, what an interesting title. I like the queen of speed much better. Come on, help me up." Sal out his arm under her shoulders and lifted. She was leaning on him completely. "Andy, can you grab the bow?" I walked over to the table and grabbed the bow. Shannon had already taken the scarf and stored it away. It turned into a bracelet, which I put on. We walked out of the room, and out of the park. That was a very interesting few hours.