Jackson's POV

Step by step I glance at the floor changing terrain every now and then, their numerous conversations coming to an end and new ones arising. "Jackson!" Someone calls from behind me with a distressed gaze.

"Yes?" I turn to meet Percy's face.

"I-" He hesitates.

Athena grabs his shoulder, walking in his place."I think what he's trying to say is, how are you feeling?"

"I got what I wanted, I remembered." I continue walking ahead of them all despite their curiosities to speak to me.

"Arthur we'll see her again, don't stress about it" I hear Nimue speak to her brother. Referencing Cliodhna telling them to go back without Gabriela, they're not firmly sure how to help her and so they left while we were in the Cathedral, not wanting to delay them anymore.

"I know" He sighs while moving his sheathed sword away from his legs.

"So...this golden sword within stone, where is it?" Adam asks.

They look between each other for an answer, eventually laying eyes on me. "Eur-I believe I know someone who would know where it is" I inform them, bringing context to a memory I once lacked.

"And without this sword we can't kill those Shades, right?" Athena questions.

"Wait so...Hemsa, and that other thing. They're still here!?" Adam panics a little bit, running his hand through his hair with a tensed look on his face.

"We'll be prepared for the next time, let's just be as ready as we can" Percy soothes him alongside Arthur's agreed nod, clearly wanting to get his revenge.

Athena stops us just as we pass the portal we once came through, "Wouldn't it be quicker to pass through this Underworld entrance then head back through to the other one connecting to the pack?" She suggests.

"We're not heading directly to the pack" I inform.

"So where are we going?" Percy jumps to question me next.

"Piece by piece my memories are returning to me, throughout my time with Oracion it was me, him, Irene and another voice I recognized but never put together until now."

"And who could that possibly be? No offence but if they're as old as the three of you then I'm sure they'd stand out to us." Arthur laughs.

"Not if you weren't able to see him until now. Kindreds can see each other, but this one in particular has the personality befitting of his owner. He only showed himself to me earlier on, refusing to appear to Irene for who knows what reason." I step over what's left of the vile field of death, placing my foot on the untainted dirt of the forest.

"So what about Irene? How come we can't consistently see her if not at all?" Athena asks. Stirring something inside me that doesn't want to honestly answer.

"Jackson?" They pry.

I turn around on the spot, stopping my advancement."Imagine your mate was stripped from you, the entity that's regarded as half of your very soul. That mate defines you as you are them and they are you." I point towards Adam and then Percy. "Now imagine knowing someone here signed him a death wish, something they did willingly and something that cannot be undone. That's what it feels like knowing Irene and me cannot be one again. Knowing that sooner or later one of us will simply cease to exist."

"Jackson I did feel like that, I felt like that the first weeks I met Percy. Knowing something was inside him gripping away at him piece by piece ready to take him away at any moment. And then when that day finally came I thought I already lost him, and so we all fought for him. We didn't know what we were doing other than saving someone we loved and even still now I'm uneasy about what's growing inside of him once again. So, I'm sorry that caused grief on you, but do not blame us for being let in." Adam explains, pulling Percy in defensively.

"Didn't Veritas agree with it, hence why they allowed Percy to leave?" Nimue cuts in.

I hesitate to speak again but eventually find my breath, "Veritas is Veritas, Me and Irene make up Veritas. But he is not us, he doesn't think like us or act like us. That egotistical being just wanted its fun to last and its boredom to be cured. But, I can't defend myself...I guess you're right." I hold my tightened chest, looking down to the floor. "I just...don't know what this thing in my chest is. From knowing nothing to suddenly remembering everything all at once. I...don't want it anymore."

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"Jac-"

"Let's move before we get trapped in the dark again" I interrupt Athena, continuing on towards the cave entrance.

-

"He's in here" I head deeper within it, eyeing the torches one by one as a sort of distraction.

"Again, what's in here?" Nimue impatiently asks.

"Percy, you still have some qualities of a Lycan. I can't see them but I know they exist because of Oracion telling me, can you?" I flow my hand through the air, hoping to be in the general direction of them.

His eyes beam to the gold and violet although placing his hand over his stomach in response,"Yeah I can, but I thought only gifts can leave the scarlet clouds?" He looks around, reaching his hand out to them.

"What clouds?" Athena asks with curiosity.

"It's why Scarlet thought Chris was a Lycan, since he could see them. But there's an unnatural hue in the air that leaves a sort of trail to show a gift has been used." He explains.

There's something in me preventing me from talking or even thinking about her, but I may have just found the loophole. "What you call a gift was referred to as a curse by Cliodhna...but those just refer to its heritable trait."

"What?" They call out, making me change my tone so they focus more.

"Athena you described it as a voice but it has a different name" I explain, watching as she closes her eyes in an attempt to follow her own example and listen for it. "You're not going to hear it, your gifts allow you to listen for the voices of certain spirits. But that's only due to it recognizing the faint traces of it within your blood, in your case Athena and Adam, it would be the whispers of the water and the minds of others." She and Nimue look keenly to me, focusing more than the others.

"So what does this have to do with this Kindred you're showing us?" Percy ignores the hint, disappointing me but nonetheless I move on. "He's further ahead." I walk forward into the grand opening, "It's a soul tied to an object, raised beside the life of the individual and shown the memories of...another." I point towards the black engraved sword, dug deeply into the stone.

"Oracion's sword?" Percy walks up to touch it but I pull his arm back.

"You really want to touch the thing that's sworn to cut down Fenrir, life after life?" I reason with him, making him flinch away from it and back to Adam.

"From what I know, each wolf had a pack that it reincarnated into. Skoll was Keyon's, Hati was Yue's and Fenrir was Adam's. But we don't have the leverage of Yue or Keyon that would ease the rage of the sword, so...Adam or Athena, do you want to try and bring it out?"

They look at each other, almost challenging each other without the fear of being hurt and instead the stubbornness of two kids. "I'll do it!" They both call in unison as expected.

"How come one of us can't do it?" Nimue questions, pointing at me as well.

"I'm physically not strong enough to pull this thing out, I'll admit that. Maybe Irene is but...she's not around from what I can tell." I stare throughout the open space but I don't see the glimpses of her white hair, catching myself subconsciously rubbing my arm as a cold chill runs up it.

"Let me give it a go" Nimue urges, hopping onto the rock and arching her hand over it.

"If you can't do it then I'll go next" Athena worries, jumping ahead of Adam.

"Wait why you and not me!?" He yells but she ignores him.

Silencing himself when Nimue reaches her hand to the blade, using her right hand and gripping it with her full might. The fabric covering her arm completely bursting off as razor sharp wind cuts up her face and arm, forcing her back against the wall.

"Nimue!" Arthur runs up to her but she already helps herself back up, ready to re-grab the sword again.

"Again!" She tries to force her hand to it but Athena stops her.

"Remember what happened to Adam when the water rejected him, stay in your lane." Athena humbles her, helping her down before going up there herself.

Grabbing the sword and wrapping her hair around her arm to reinforce it, "Not fair!" Adam yells just as Percy covers his mouth to hush him.

She tilts her head down, taking a breath in and releasing it. "The Storm" She whispers in reference to his title as the winds gather around it once again. Swirling stronger than before as veins run along her hands, breaking away some of the rock that it sits in. Rather than rejecting her, the gushes of wind fold around her. She raises her head with a clenched smile, losing focus for a second and causing the wind to throw her back into the wall similarly to Nimue.

"My turn?" Adam hops up to help her before reaching for the sword.

"No, that's enough" I call to them, watching as the stone wiggles a bit. Emptying dark purple particles from itself and making a clone of itself, reforming the shape into the scribbles of darkness I saw earlier on within the temple and in this very cave.

"Who are you?" The shadow's irony once again resonates into my head.

"Jackson" I speak, making him smile a bit this time with a reaction.

He floats down, looking towards them but resting his eyes on Athena. "You almost picked me up with the false feeling of Oracion, your connection to the underworld also felt the same as that man who first placed me here. Who are you?" He asks her.

"The new Queen, Athena. You might of felt Oracion's mark, sorry to give you the false hope of it being him." She explains, briefly showing him the interlocking triangles on her back.

"So this is the thing we're getting answers from?" Nimue looks towards him, now meeting his stern gaze as he looks toward her with a horrid look of disgust.

Bringing the attention back to myself I reconcile with him, "I'm sorry I didn't remember you before, Saint"

"It is fine" He picks his own sword up, eyeing it and planting it eye level with himself, slashing away at the air and leaving a black and red trail in its wake. "So what did you want to know?"