Sunflower

2

Tw for blood

Her knees are tucked under her as she sits in the center of the clearing. Nothing is around her, or at least they aren't moving around. All are too mesmerized by the yellow light radiating off the girl. Around her on four trees are glowing black runes, marking the clearing as hers. Her eyes are a glowing yellow as she moves her hands majestically. Anyone who would come near would have heard her Latin chanting as she worked her charm. No more than a minute later does a blast of light explode in front of her. She holds her hand out and grabs the dagger that is hanging in the air. Her eyes go back to their normal darKer golden color as she relaxes.
    "And now," she whispered to no one, "to summon the sun god."
    She bows her head, hiding the dagger behind her. She whispers silent prayers to the god, making up a lie about an attack on camp.
    In front of her is another golden light. When it leaves the god Apollo stands before her in a cropped tank top and jeans. In his hand is an iced coffee that he lifts to his mouth slowly, looking around.
    The girl quickly notices the gold bow strapped to his back along with a sleuth of arrows that match in color.
    "When was the attack?" He asks, his eyes finally settling on the girl.
    She's still kneeling and she keeps her eyes glued to the ground, "That's a funny story actually..."
    In a matter of seconds she's on her feet and she sliced her celestial bronze blade across the god's arm. She's blown back into one of the trees and she falls to the ground with a groan. When she looks up Apollo has two of the arrows in his bow, aimed right at her.
    She sits back with a sigh and holds her hands up in a surrender. She tosses the dagger away from her before standing up again. "Calm down there Sunny. No need to get your arrows in a knot."
    "Nemesis?" He keeps his bow up and his eyes locked on her.
    She raises her eyes, "What?"
    He lowers his bow, "Nevermind."
    "You're going to explain that later. You are extremely jumpy for a god you know that?" The girl mutters, snapping her fingers.
    A vile materializes in her hand as she walks toward Apollo. She sees his arms twitch as he goes to raise his weapon again. She holds her hands up again before pressing the vile to where she cut him. He hisses pulling away, "So I've been told. What the hell was that?"
    "I needed the blood of a god." She says as if it was no big deal.
    "You could have just asked." He mutters, frowning at his cut.
    "The rules I'm going by beg to differ."
    He studies the girl as she snaps her fingers again and the vial disappears. "Please tell me what you're planning to do with my blood."
    "I'm bringing someone back from the dead." She hardly looks at him as she lowers the runes from the trees, "I will certainly not deny you're a strong god. These were meant to weaken you."
    "I'm an Olympian, what did you expect?"
    "I would get it from the big three. But I still fail to see anyone but little Lester when I look at you." She smirks.
    "You're hilarious." He says flatly, "So who are we bringing back?"
    "Not we, me. And maybe Nico, but I don't want to drag him into this." She corrects him.
    "And why not? Isn't he the one who usually deals with all that death stuff? Or am I thinking of someone else?"
    She sighs, "He's dating your son. I would think you would know who he is."
    He shrugs and brushes that off, "So who? I have the right to know, it is my blood you're using."
    "You're never going to let me live that down are you?" She leans back against a tree.
    "No, I'm not." He smiles, "So you might as well tell me."
    "You can't tell anyone else. If this doesn't work I don't want to get anyone's hope up."
    "You have my word."
    She bites her lip, "I'm bringing back Jason. Or at least I'm going to try to. So if it doesn't work, sorry for attacking you."
    He stares at her, "Aelia..."
    "You can't stop me. I know what I'm doing." She growls.
    "I won't let you trade your life for his!" He replies clearly just as angry as the girl.
    "You have no choice but to let me." She whispers, "To raise the dead, Thanatos needs a soul that has cheated death. I've cheated death many times before."
    Apollo looks down, "I'll stop you. I will figure out a way to."
    "Try. Go for it, I won't stop you. I'm doing this dad. I have to, Jason didn't deserve to die."
    "Neither do you." Apollo stands in front of her.
    Aelia shakes her head, "You don't know half of what I've done. I need to do this."
The two stare at each other, their eyes glowing. Both of their skin is the color of soft caramel. Clearly Apollo tried to mimic his daughter's appearance as the two look extremely similar as they stand in front of each other.
    Aelia turns her head when she hears someone come into the clearing. Leo tumbles out of the brush cursing, "I saw an explosion."
    "Well there was one so good job?" Aelia sighs, and her eyes dim.
    He nods and smiles at Apollo, "Long time no see hombre! What brings you here? You know I bet Meg would be happy to see you."
    Apollo smiles sadly, "Just had to do something. But I need to leave." He turns back to Aelia, "Reconsider what you're doing."
    With that he dissolves and leaves the two demigods alone. "Reconsider what?" Leo asks, confused.
    Aelia shakes her head, "Don't worry about it. Just something about what I'm going to do after my high school years."
    "And what is it that you want to do?" He asks as she starts back towards camp.
    "He wants me to continue school, and I don't see the point if we all die young anyways."
    He nods, "You've still got a while to decide, you'll be alright. Also before I forget." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a rectangle device, "I finally figured out the phone thing. So that one is yours, now when you use it, it won't attract monsters."
    Aelia stares at the black device before sliding it into her own pocket, "Thank you. I knew you'd be the one to figure it out."
    He looks down, "It wasn't too hard."
    "It must've been if only now demigods figured it out."
    Truth be told Aelia had no idea what a smart phone was. She, like Nico, was in the Lotus Casino. She was born in 1895, so long before any of her friends, which is funny because biologically she's the youngest. She promised herself she would figure out how to use that phone if it was the last thing she did before she brought back Jason, you know just to have one thing she could say she did herself.
    The two demigods walk back into camp and when Piper spots them she challenges Aelia to a spar.
    "You really want to lose McLean?" Aelia laughs, taking off her sweatshirt to reveal the orange camp shirt under it.
    "What do you mean? You're the one who's going to go back crying." She smiles.
    They both step onto the sparring mat and Leo starts their spar, "Ready... set... SPAR!"
    Instantly Piper lunges across the mat and Aelia dodges her easily. Aelia loops her legs through Pipers, and flips her onto her back. The crowd around them cheers as she hits the mat but Piper gets back up quickly and makes a clean swing at Aelia. It hits her side and she stumbles back. Piper takes her chance to go in for another shot but Aelia grabs her wrist and flips her over again onto her side. Piper rolls off the mat and lays there.
    Aelia holds out her hand to Piper when Leo yells from the first round to be over. "You okay?"
    "Never better." Piper mutters with a small smile.
    Leo starts the next round and the two girls circle each other before launching themselves at each other. Eventually both of them are on the floor trying to push the other off the mat. When Aelia tries to get to her feet, she's knocked back down by Piper. She lands roughly beside her friend who is now back on her feet. Her body full of adrenaline, Aelia stands back up and tackles Piper. Somehow Piper flips Aelia over her and off the mat.
    Piper helps her up and they both stand there out of breath. "Alright last round. Try not to kill each other will you?" Leo yells above the crowd of campers.
    Both girls smirk at each other. Leo starts it again and they circle each other again. They both make a move at the same time. Piper made a high swing and Aelia kicked low. Only Aelia hit her shot but Piper steadied herself before sliding behind the other girl. Piper does this extremely intricate move and Aelia falls to the mat, smacking her face on the ground. She groans, but pushes herself to her feet. She feels the hot blood dripping from her mouth where she'd bitten her lip. Piper grimaces and mutters an apology. Aelia shrugs it off and goes to flip Piper again. This time Piper is more prepared and she steps out of the way just in time. Piper jumps in the air and spin kicks Aelia. Aelia is prepared for this as well. When she lands back on her feet Piper narrows her eyes at Aelia. She'll admit, Aelia is an amazing fighter. It's always been hard to beat her. Aelia lowers herself to the ground and runs at Piper, tackling her backwards into the grass. The cheering starts as Aelia stands up, her feet still on the mat.
    Piper sighs before seeing the hand in her face. Aelia helps her up and wipes the blood from her face. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't think you'd land that hard." Piper says.
    Aelia shrugs, "It's not the worst I've gotten. But you can tell me where you learned that. I was impressed, and I want to learn it."
    "So you can use it against me next time?" Piper smiles. These two have sparring matches every week now, just became a habit after Jason died. Originally it started as a coping mechanism to realize they're anger and grief but eventually it became a game to them. To see who was stronger that week, "It was Jason who taught me. So technically, he learned from Reyna. But it was just before we broke up, so it's still fresh in my mind. I bet if you asked Reyna to teach you, you'd learn it better."
    "If I don't see her before our next match, I'm forcing you to show me."
    "That's fair. You did good today." Piper smiles as they move to one of the empty benches surrounding the mat.
    "You aren't too bad yourself." Aelia returns the smile.
    "Are you sure you're okay? Your teeth are red." Piper says.
    Aelia could take the blood in her mouth, "I'm fine Piper. I bit my lip that's all. Though you have bruised me with that punch, it was solid."
    She looks down at her hands sheepishly, "My hand hurts from it. And so does my back. I don't understand how someone so small can flip someone bigger than them multiple times in a matter of a few minutes."
    It's true. Aelia is especially smaller compared to her friends. Maybe minus Nico and Hazel who are naturally small as well. "Just had a lot of practice I suppose."
We drift into a silence before Piper whispers something, "All I can think about after we do this is him. We used to spar all the time, and now we never will. I messed up so bad before he died. I broke his heart, I'm just like my siblings."
    "You're better than your siblings." Aelia says quickly, "You didn't want to break his heart. You found something out about yourself that isn't the easier thing to accept. I get it, it's hard. I know you feel guilty for being with your partner, but I can promise you if Jason was alive, he would be right beside you supporting you. Because that's just who he was."
    "He was too good for us wasn't he?" Piper whispers with tears threatening to fall down her face.
    Aelia nods, "He was the best of us."
    "I miss him so much it hurts. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I should never have let him leave after we heard that prophecy. I knew it would happen to one of us, it should have been me."
    "Don't say that. It was most certainly not your fault. You couldn't have done anything."
    "I was right there! I saw him die in front of me." She sobs.
    Aelia wraps her arms around her friend, "You'll see him again."