Athena's POV

We just barely made a landing onto the island that Persephone and Anubis guided me to, Charon passing by us with what seemed like an apology for something, "Sorry". His words still echoing through my mind but I'm not sure why.

"Something on your head?" Persephone questions me as I feel the frown on my face release itself from the strain

"Nothing more important than Percy at the moment, let's continue for him!" I run past them, holding the amulet in my hand that's flickering with Percy's light slowly fading out

Running through the radiant darkness I gradually lessen my pace upon sensing something staring at me.

"I hear this land retains the dreams of those who passed...and those to come" Anubis catches up to me, placing a hand on my shoulder and softly tilting my neck towards a cyan fruit. The previous feeling of sharp eyes on me now lining up to be the fruit itself.

"Queen..." It whispers to me as I place my palms together and form a cup under it. The fruit falling into it like a second nature. Blooming open and releasing a cyan haze around me that forms into a familiar figure...it's me.

"You'll get the role you've always wanted...the role you've always dreamt of. He's right there." The gas like figure of myself leans in and places a kiss on my cheek while smirking to herself. Opening her eyes as she backs away to reveal a translucent green within them.

"What!?" Anubis yells out and stomps his foot on the marsh floor. Bursting the haze away and causing it to dissipate. 

"Was that truly needed?" I question him in annoyance but ultimately just remaining curious to the figure we saw. 

"Look." He places both his arms on my shoulders, now staring down at me with questionable intent. "And...why..." I quicker than I started I shut up, observing Chris' previous eye colour being replaced by a neon green. 

"I'm sorry for ruining the moment but that's absurd. Only those who carry my blood are able to use these eyes. And I. Do. Not. Have. Children." He firmly states while walking ahead of me, almost as if trying to hide himself from something.

"Apologies about him, him and Hel...couldn't ever conceive a child upon their own wishes. As to why I guess we'll never know" Persephone stumbles behind us, lifting her dress as she trots through the land. Passing me with a slight smile but continuing to stare down in case she steps on anything.

'I wonder what having kids would feel like' I ponder to myself, allowing her to also walk in front of me while I take my time to think about whatever I just saw. 

-

Making our way to what seems like the centre of the land from the sound of the water reaching it's loudest here I notice Anubis crouching not too far from the opening to the spring. 

"Be quiet and follow behind me." He deadpans without any further instruction, his hairs on his body standing up but he ignores the sensation.

The scent of blood mixed with an almost charcoal like smell wafts through my nose, strands of white and black hair leaving a bread crumb like trail towards what sounds like two women arguing with an increasing intensity. 

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" She blurts out, drowning out the sounds of the water

𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩

"Nothing but fight for our own survival, you should be thanking me. I did this for us." The other one defends, keeping to a calm demeanour

𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩

"THEY COULD DIE!" 

𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩

"We...have guests it would seem" The argument stopping as we come to the opening of the centre, her hunched stature turning to us and allowing for a full view of her bloodied head that drips down past her eyes which only adds to her crazed waving hair, flickering back and forth past her green hued eyes. 

"Hel...?" Anubis asks as if in denial at his own wife

"Anubis, and why are you here at this moment?" Her hair drops upon noticing his existence, her double coloured hair slowly turning to a full black and dropping it's insatiable appearance. 

"What did you do to Percy?" He jumps right to the point while Persephone walks around her as if trying to gain a fighting advantage against her already.

"Why is it always Percy? Why can't it just be me?" She steps forward, causing us all to take two steps back. "Is that how it's going to be...? Look what we used to be Anubis, look what we had." She swirls on the spot with her hands in the air, pointing at what I can only assume to be the underworld she's referring to.

"What did you do with Percy!" I exclaim, causing her attention to be locked onto me now. 

"You're powerless here in that form...have you not came to terms with that yet? Without the wolf soul given by my divine brother's blood, you're nothing but a Human here." She laughs at me, although confronting the fears that I've been holding back since we entered. I can't feel a connection to the water anymore, nonetheless I can't speak to my wolf. 

"As for that shell...he's alive."

"And where is he!?"

"He's alive for as long as they don't kill each other" She smirks to herself, spitting a black substance into the water and giggling like a maniac. 

"HEL!" Persephone slams her foot on the ground, causing vines from the forest to wrap around Hel's body. The vine's thorns sticking into her and leaking blood onto the now tainted grass. "See, I knew you never liked me!" She laughs even harder, uncaring to the damage being done to her body and once again flicking her green eyes at me. 

"Anubis...why does she have green eyes...?" I turn to ask him, making him turn his head away in almost disgust.

"When we married...I gave her some of my blood to make it official, that removed her old colour and replaced it with mine." He admits, making her butt in with a slight giggle

"That's right! But baby, do you not realise something?"

"Hmm?" He peers his interest back onto her

"The underlining big twist that's oh so obvious!" She taunts to him as he impatiently listens, "The perfect most utmost-" Anubis interrupts her "Speak your mind already!"

"You're ruining the moment, but I'll let it slide since I love you so so much!" She gleams happily while the thorns continue to dig deeper, not even making her give out so much as a wince of pain. "You see Anubis...you're not in your original body are you?" She questions him once again

"Go on"

"Okay okay well then, where did you get your green eyes from? I saw them when we met in the palace earlier" She moves to scratch her own head in a twitching motion, but only to be slapped back into place by a vine.

"I do not understand" He stares down, clearly distraught with endless thoughts.

"𝘞𝘦 couldn't have kids because of my power of rot...𝘚𝘩𝘦 could, the Hel who had a life. That perfect white haired tease that hid this all from us." She gleams with joy written all across her face

"So..." 

"She cursed herself...paused her own pregnancy for the sake of survival until she just got so so lonely...she let go and undid it. That last attempt we had? We share the same body...not the same mind, my sweet lover" Her words causing him to gag in reflex

"The body you are in. Is not a human, Anubis. Christopher, the boy she raised. The boy she let go in risk of my own son Oneiros catching him" She bursts out in an uncontrollable laughter, the vines around her gradually degrading into dust with her increase of emotions.

"Argh-" Persephone slightly drops in pain but hushing me away when I try to run to her, only to then pull my leg with a thorn-less vine towards her.

"Why-" She hushes me once again

"You'd of gotten caught in it..." She wraps the surrounding nature around us as if in defence from something, only adding to my confusion. Not being able to contain my thoughts anymore I go  to demand an answer from her but a sickening snap that sounds all too familiar resonates within my head.

Immediately noticing the change in Hel's posture, she wasn't laughing anymore. My eyes moving from a her body towards a growing shadow of the figure I once recognised. His fur sticking through his skin and legs entirely reconstructing themselves in an instant. 

"I was right! That form would only be possible with something tying you to your own blood!" She blurts out as if forgetting the situation she's now put herself in. "You can stop now sweetie, there was nothing else to be mad about" She almost stutters in fear, seeing her break the previously sickening stuck up character now making me feel a sense of uncomfortableness. The space that we're speaking in suddenly being filled by swirling particles of sand

"These...aren't my emotions...they're his" Anubis' already husky voice sinking even further, his height now matching to that of Aeon. "I feel it...his untameable hate, images of that night. The emotions he felt as all his hope drained from his life. The image of the girl that he looked up to with a burning desire, reduced to nothing but a head right in front of him. You...your altered white hair waving in the wind and bouncing the light off your skin in an almost angelic sense of beauty. You could of helped him...if I am truly his parent I can't view myself as nothing but a failure to him. But I can at least give him this...go rampant Christopher. The ever growing sandstorm picking up in it's pace, pieces losing their momentum and dropping to the floor to cover the ground.

"It was all her! She tricked Percy into coming here! She left you alone!" Hel begs, stomping like a child having a tantrum but being ignored by Chris' advances. Each step he makes followed by the burst of flames from his soles.

"I needed this." He grabs her arm before she can even begin to think of decaying him. Tearing it off and spilling her darkened blood across the floor, affecting the nature around it like a corrosive liquid.

"THIS ISN'T FAIR ANUBIS! I WON'T TAKE THE BLAME FOR ALL OF THIS!" She falls to the floor from a smack of Chris' oversized hand, standing up and showing deep claw marks dug within her face. "I WON'T STAND FOR THIS!" Her animalistic nature returning with her frenzied hair as she charges towards Chris, unbeknownst to her the now sand textured floor pulls her foot in. The sheer grip of it along causing her leg to snap off from her frustrations, "It's okay...it's okay...I'll heal...I'll heal." She chants to herself with a hint of regret. The sand now pulling her half under, keeping only what's above her torso above ground.

"Christopher...I named you...I basically birthed you...I MADE YOU!" She screams out in denial at her fate

"And I'm giving you back this gift of life...I know what you've done to people, Anubis' memories showed me. His blood cannot heal what he has rejected. Goodbye, Mother." She stares at him with bewilderment and shock whipped across her face, trying to escape the sand's grasp but failing to do so. The already sand filled air now increasing in warmth as Chris leans down towards Hel, whispering something in her ear and making her shriek in rage before opening his mouth to reveal a blinding light of flames. Persephone shielding us from the unyielding heat that gradually loses it's concentration as it reaches our fragile skin. 

After what felt like an eternity, the flames subsided. Chris stood back to where he was and looks down at Hel's burnt appearance. His face riddled with anything but happiness or joy, he looked sad in his own way. 

"Possibly two of the last individuals who can bring out the full power of a God's meaning, one now reduced to mere chunks of charcoaled meat" Persephone smirks to herself, unveiling us and allowing me to walk up to Chris.   

"Are you..." I go to place my hand on him but stop when his green eyes turning down to meet mine, retaining that emotionless gaze. His giant frame reminding me of Aeon and honestly scaring me in a sense. 'I scare you'. He whispers into my head, turning his body away from me upon realising my actual feelings although the fear got replaced by me getting caught off guard by his ability of telepathy.

"I'm sorry!" I run to catch up to him and slam my arms around him in a hug, feeling his breathing slow with a calming pace but his body begin to shake, feeling a wet but warm substance fall on my wrists I realise...he's crying.

"He-" 

"CHRISTOPHER!" A demented voice calls along with the rumble of the ground bursting from the floor, tossing up all the previous sand and blinding us briefly. 

"I'M NOT GOING ALONE!" Hel's disfigured body turns to us despite her burned out eyes, launching herself at me with a breakneck speed and latching on with her remaining teeth that dig into my neck. 

"NO!" Chris flicks around with my weakened grasp along his waist, I feel it...my very blood cells decaying with each second that I stay awake.

"ATHENA!" Persephone catches my fall with vines, lowering me down slowly.

"HEL!" Chris screams with an unmatched animosity...it's getting harder to stay awake...maybe I should just rest...for a bit. I gradually begin to close my eyes but not before witnessing Chris crushing Hel's skull and throwing her into the surrounding water, my vision fading to black as I barely glance at the silhouette of his giant figure running back over to me.

Christopher's POV

"Athena...please...it's me, it's my fault. Again it's my fault." I punch the sand surrounding us, flicking it up and making me think of something. Glancing at her skin slowly losing it's colour and chipping away piece by piece, 'I'm losing time'.

'Anubis, all I have to do is accept her right!?"

'Are you sure you want to do this.'

'ANUBIS YOU OWE ME THIS, CAN I SAVE HER!?"

'You'll be tethered together through life, you aren't even sure if she has a mate or not and you're going this far?'

'She's important to Percy and he's sure as hell important to me!' I argue back at him, hearing him sigh before informing me of how it works.

'Draw blood, accept her. Make her accept you. Remember, you cannot do this again. With anyone.' He firmly states before fading back and observing me.

"I'm turning my back on the rule of nature and undoing the curse of death placed upon her" I claw down my forearm, tilting her head upwards and pouring my blood into her. "I can't lose another one...not when I have the power to change it this time, please" I beg to the near fully petrified Athena

"I accept you, and your soul! Accept me Athena!" I wait for a response...but nothing. 

"ATHENA!" 

"I accept you." Her lips move as if in slow motion. The Underworld itself shaking as if like a baby kicking from the womb. 

"The son of Anubis and the descendant of Fenrir, I see nothing wrong with this. Alas welcome...to your new home and I welcome the new Royalty" Persephone albeit looks in shock still but retains a look of approval from me, "Ask it...one desire, it'll comply". She waves and heads in another direction, not waiting for another moment or me to respond to her. 

"Chris" Athena calls from under my arms, opening her eyes and replacing her previous faint yellow eyes with a neon green. "Let's get our Percy back" I smile to her, putting my head down and touching it against hers. I'm going to protect the things I love, I have that power now. And I'm going to be using it. 

 

Author's Note: Extra long chapter, I've been absent the past 2 and more weeks cause coursework but I've done it all now! One more exam then I'm done this 2nd year of uni! For now I can't promise a regular upload, but after this week I'll be able to get back to it.