Percy's POV
"Aaaand we're here!" Persephone skips towards us, pulling our hands towards the palace entrance. Not having the energy left in myself to fight it me and Athena just go along with it, the front garden first displaying two symmetrical fountains on either side. The black stoned floor lined with patches of moss that oddly forms a path, Athena's enthusiasm suddenly returning to her as she jumps to the grand doors. And running in without a word, only her teenage girl giggles can be heard from inside.
"I-Uh-aren't those meant to be closed?" - Anubis
"The gates were closed so it isn't like someone could of just wandered in, not to mention everyone else here is quite literally either dead or has no business here" She shrugs her shoulders and follows the laughing of Athena inward.
"No matter" Aeon comments, brushing past me and heading through the doors himself. Leaving just me and Anubis outside staring at each other.
"So...Chris is still in there right?" I ask, finally breaking the barrier of fear that I lost him back there.
"Oh don't worry he is, a while after the fire he just sort of went to the back of our unconsciousness to himself." He wanders over to me and places a hand on my head, "I wouldn't ever replace him, don't worry" Giving me a little smile and following the others.
-
"PERCY DO YOU SEE THESE!" Athena practically licking the stainless silver walls merged with black stone to create an unorthodox but satisfying pattern. Similar engravings from my bracelet also carved into the metal. Blue flamed lit candles hanging from the chandelier seemingly attached to nothing as it floats above us, flickering the shadows on the floor.
Persephone stares around for a bit and frowns to herself, "The treasure room for that mirror is just up ahead, but I need to get my key so I'll be heading this way towards my garden. Feel free to explore other places, for the time being. We can meet up in a bit." She hurriedly wanders off into a half open double door, her heels chattering across the floor and echoing around the room.
"In that case, there's a place I've been wanting to check out while Hades wasn't here. Do you mind?" Aeon points to a direction and alerts Anubis, winking at each other as if he knows what he's referring to. "Leave too far from my presence and I'll know" His eye trailing on me briefly before he marches further down the hallway in the opposite side from Persephone.
"That just leaves us three then?" I announce between them but Athena's already whispering to Anubis
"It's that way, enjoy yourself" He lifts his hand to guide her
"I'll be back!" Athena's ear to ear smile gleaming at me before prancing towards me and taking my hand in hers, carrying me off to who knows where.
"I'll be waiting here, don't worry" He slightly waves before walking towards the treasure room
-
"Where-are-you-taking-me" I breathe out in-between her leap of a run
"A surprise" Her voice making it clear that she's smiling, heavy sliding doors along with the sound of a flame brushed with wind tells me we've entered a new room. She settles me down and turns me around to reveal a library bigger than the one at the rainmaker's.
"I could stay here forever" She whispers to herself as her hair lifts her on top of the shelved books, her feet tapping on the wood in a small dance of happiness.
"Remember what we came here for, and it's not for you to swallow all these pages and knowledge!"
"Yeah yeah saving your life alongside the world and what not, the usual" She sighs in remembrance but helps herself to a book in front of her, still yelling out to me whenever she finds something new.
"Are you looking for anything in particular?" I ask her in curiosity
"It's been bothering me actually now that you mention it, they're keeping something from us"
"Such as?" I wander my hand across the dusted books, coughing somewhat when a gust of it washes past my face
"I'm not too sure, just call it my intuition. But I guess it must be for a reason if they've been so open with us up until this point" I hear her footsteps above me now, the sounds of books being taken out their slot and placed back in like a rhymical beat.
"Oh!" She calls out, scaring me a little bit from the moment of silence
"Find something?"
"Yeah! It shows all their names here as if the books are specifically owned by each of them. Persephone, Hades, Anubis-" Her voice slowly fades out as I get distracted by a light humming in the distance. Making my way towards it and catching a glimpse of black strands brushing past the bookcases, footsteps leading outward followed by the sound of a door opening.
Following it out and hearing the same humming surrounding me, the song sounding familiar to me for some reason. Or rather, one that I should know. Blinking a few times in confusion and walking into a fountain that I didn't notice, the doors leading to an outside part of the palace I guess. The dripping of water resonating to the humming as I glance past the droplets, seeing a girl sitting on the other side. Her white hair tied up in a ponytail behind her, soft hands swaying in the water as she continues to hum to herself.
"Hi?" I call out from behind it, making her jump a bit before looking at me
"Hi, I'm sorry I didn't notice you!"
"I'm sorry for scaring you" We both apologise to each other and laugh a little as she extends her hand towards me, "This is gonna sound weird. But do I know you?" Her eyes appearing reflective and full of a recognisable glimmer
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"I'm not sure, but you definitely haven't been here before so I take it we haven't!" She cheers out
"Name's Percy, and yours?"
"H-" Her voice making me dizzy as the vocal gets replaced by static crashing through my ears, making me closing my eyes in pain
"Percy why are you out here, I was just reading something out to you and you disappeared?"
"I saw her at the corner of my eye and found myself out here with-" I turn to face the girl but the image of her fades from my head..."what did she look like again..."
"Who?" Athena shakes me a little bit
"I...don't know but can we go back now?" A headache starts to make my head feel heavy like the repeated knocking on a door.
"Whatever, come here" She grabs my hand and pulls me along once again, her other hand holding what seems to be a book, maybe the one she was looking for.
-
Aeon's POV
The material of the walls stops me from seeing the reality I'm used to, all these routes blocked off by stone walls with nothing but my faint memory to guide me. Seeing a giant door with a paw print on it, slightly uncomfortable with the size of it even dwarfing me for once. "Not like anything here could harm me..." I press my hands on the doors and force them open which reveals a sandy beach with a clear ocean connected to it, taking an interest in it I walk forward across the ocean and toward the shore.
The closer I get the more darker the tone of the room seems to get, the ocean now a greenish blue and the sands turning to black. Pieces of the underworld gates seemingly scattered along them, my feet banging against each piece as I'm walking into them and kicking them out and into view. Getting to what seems to be the last pieces of the beach image I notice half of a giant medallion that's obviously split down the middle, a long scaled half completed circle, half of a wolf face and half of a woman's face. "And what exactly is this?" I kick it up like the rest of the gate, waiting a moment before it hits the ground once again.
"Clearly I made the wrong turn" Sighing and walking back for the waste of time I look back to where the medallion was, a slight shift in the sand alarming me. An eye full of a blue haze that's peering into me, a quaking of the floor making me stand on guard. The sands revealing a buried body of husk that's now standing up to his full height.
"You" He groans out in a yawn
"And why haven't you been at the gate?" One of his heads snickering to itself in response to me as the middle one stands proud, blue flames croaking out from each of them like a replacement for spit. His snake headed tail uncoiling itself to stare from behind them.
"I was told to wait here, and so I did as my master wished" His gigantic form amazing me still, a battle worn body with a grey thick skin layering it. "Oh and which one of them was that?"
"The first one to go was...Persephone...then Anubis...I fail to remember past that." He laughs to himself in an oddly comforting deep voice. "Just more time off for me" The left head leans towards me and smiles with a toothy grin, nudging himself into me.
"I think it's best if you did head back there, the souls are trying to enter but can't because you aren't there. Go fulfil your duties, Warden"
"Odd, I can feel the return of my masters. Be sure to greet the three of them for me." He stomps with a leg releasing black and blue flames, making even my own body jump into the air. The sand opening up into a gargantuan hole as he dives into it heads first...?
"Hold on, three? Maybe Hades made his way back here without even informing the others"
-
Persephone's POV
My garden is one that holds an unrivalled beauty, but today it's been tainted by the hands of a parasite. The thorn vines briefly twisting around my body in a warm greeting and grass lighting up in colour around me, "You're there, aren't you?" Her sinister laughter in the shadows confirming my intuition.
"And since when did you get back here? You left the door open, then again I didn't expect anything less from your idiotic adolescent memory" I stare into her blue flared eyes, black hair stretching out and floating with it's own will as she sits in the lone dark place under a grove. Plucking the petals from one of my flowers as it tries to bite her each time her finger gets close.
"Are you just not going to respond?" I walk along the stone pathing and towards her, the surrounding plants hissing towards her in animosity.
"Persephone you've always been too much of a bitch, always sticking her thumbs into the dirt and licking them up like dog scraps, but I'm unwelcomed as usual. So I'll be on my way." A snicker leaving her purple lips before fading back into the dark and decaying the plants behind her.
"Perfect, an uncaged dog on the loose. Nothing but another thorn in my side as usual" I reach towards my prized Narcissus, tilting it's head down and making a key fall out. Now to get back them.
-
Anubis' POV
I lean against the golden door of the treasure room, facing upward at the humming of a woman before me. Her soothing hum feeling nostalgic to me for some reason, her body still at the far end of the hall but seemingly phasing in and out like a glitched memory. The curtain like veil of lights beaming through the windows welcoming her while I stand up to face the the woman once she comes close enough to me, her hand stroking my face gently as she softly breathes out her words. "My little Christopher..."
A deafening ring in my head sounds out as I get forcibly swapped out by Chris, looking down into my own hands and seeing tears flooding from my eyes. Her ethereal body melting into the door along with Chris calling out to her, "Mum!" He runs after her, his hand just as easily going through the door and into a room full of darkness. His footsteps slowing in pace but his breathing getting heavier the further we get into it.
'Chris I'm not sure what you're doing, but that very clearly can't be her!" I try gaining control back but he continues pushing me out, instead he starts running once again. The shattering sound of glass surrounds us, he looks around dazed and confused as the pieces fly around him and swarm around. Slicing the air they spin around, barely visible in the darkness but still poorly reflecting some unknown source of light. The chattering storm of glass crunching itself together and rising into the air out of visibility. "Mum...?"
A mirror familiar to me comes falling down with a whistling tune, hitting the floor but remaining in one piece. Spinning in a circle like a simple plate, revealing the iconic sun patterned metal under it. He walks over and looks down into the reflection, the engravings lining the semi oval shape and writing out the letters. "Ammy, Amako, Amaterasu" The truth revealing mirror, still holding the names of it's owner.
"Smash it..." Her lingering voice echoes through the shadows, Chris stares down into it and reveals our true form. A jackal like being with swirling green pupils voided out by darkness, an appearance that much resembles my original body..."but that shouldn't be possible, not with a completely different body nonetheless one that isn't tied to me"
"You didn't know" A small laughter in the back followed by her insanity driven chants, "Smash it!, smash it!, smash it!" Her voice becoming more condensed as Chris's intense gaze into the mirror makes his body shake with a flustered hatred.
"Christopher...I need you to break it, please?" She comes out from the dark space, her feet softly patting the ground as she reaches up to his face once more.
"But-Percy...needs it" He sobs out in memory of her, clearly fighting something inside himself
"You can help him a different way...trust your mother please Christopher" She lifts his hand to her white hair, making him brush it as tears fall from him once more.
'Chris you cannot trust her!" I call out but he again ignores me
"ANUBIS! TURN THE MIRROR TO HER!" Persephone runs in with the others, screaming with a determined look in her eyes that breaks Chris' zoned out gaze. Using the opportunity to take a little control and use his body to lift the heavy mirror, the light from above shining down and onto the woman. Although after a moment of silence...she laughs with her spine chilling reveal, making me weak to my knees. "You've never seen me like this, have you? My most dearest husband, Anubis."