Son of Chaos: A Story from the world of Percy Jackson

The Trouble of Being Eris's Only Mortal Child

Erin sat at the edge of the training battlefield watching the other half-bloods train and perfect their fighting skills. He always hated the idea of having to use a sword or any kind of weapon to fight. After all, why use weapons when you can use your mother's genetic magic to cause disruption and chaos? Erin was a very beautiful and cunning 16 year old. He had a light tan complexion with a slender yet fit body and a head of long, dark and curly hair with slight purple streaks running through it, stopping right at the middle of his back. He was always wearing red of some form and black, whether the mesh shirts under his Camp Half-blood shirt were red and his jeans were black, or vice versa, or he'd wear all black with accents of red, even if he was wearing his Camp Half-blood shirt. Needless to say, he was always wearing the colors of his mother. His eyes were a gold hue of hazel and his face had a natural colored finish to it, with mauve tinted eyes and naturally dark pink lips, and he had four distinct tattoos. One around his left upper arm being that of a red hissing snake, one around his right wrist as a band of thorns, one on the side of his neck being his mother's Golden Apple of Dischord, and one on his thigh in the emblem of a phoenix. While he always knew who his mother was, his father was a different story. All he knew of him was that he was half human half phoenix, meaning he was in actuality a tri-blood and two times immortal compared to the other half-bloods. He sat with his legs crossed and reading an old book his mother had given him, the title reading "Spells, Hexes, and Jinxes Galore". As he read, a large figure approached him and heavily shadowed him. From the sound of the clip clops of horse hooves, he already knew who it was. "Hello Chiron, making the rounds and watching the troops going well?", he asked, not looking up at Chiron. Chiron chuckled. "Yes it's all going very well. At the moment my focus is on you." Erin already knew why, but he was annoyed because he knew why, so he asked him anyway. "Aaaand why is that?" Chiron cocked his head with a smile of obviousness. "Erin, of all my students, you're the one I usually have to keep my eye on." Erin was now entirely annoyed. "Gee I wonder why." "Because you're the only heir of your mother", Chiron said,"and you, lucky for me, have her same taste for trouble making-" "Occasionally", interrupted Erin. "Most of the time", Chiron corrected him,"and because of that you know you're not allowed to use any of your mother's trinkets or memorabilia that she gave you at Camp Half-Blood, including", he said as he reached a hand for Erin's book and grabbed it from his hands,"a book of spells and hexes that she gave you for your birthday last week." Erin looked up at him and tried to grab the book back. "Oh come on Chiron!" Chiron closed the book and stashed it in his satchel around his waist. "You know the rules Erin", Chiron said with raised eyebrows,"this book should've been turned into me the second you got it." "And why do you get any say in what I do and don't get to do with MY things?", inquired Erin. "Erin, you know as well as I do what you could do with all the gifts your mother sends you", began Chiron,"you have your mother's power inside you. We don't need you getting any ideas with whatever is in those weapons she sends you." Erin looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. "Weapons? Are you serious right now? You confiscated my snake bracelet two weeks ago and now my mom's birthday present to me? What is this, prison??" "They might as well be called weapons", said Chiron,"Erin do you still not understand why I do this? Your the son of Eris, the goddess of Dischord, the goddess who literally started the Trojan War and many others. She wants you to follow in her footsteps! One deity whose soul purpose is to create chaos and destruction is enough, we don't need two." "For Peet's sake it's just a damn book Chiron!", snapped Erin. "Well in your hands it's not!", shouted Chiron. "Well then what's the point of me even being here?", demanded Erin,"how am I supposed to better myself and what I can do if I can't use the tools my mom's given me?" Chiron took a moment to compose himself and make himself more of a help to Erin. "Erin, my boy, you do not need to use your mother's so called tools to better yourself. You have that power alone within you, you just need to tap into it." Erin looked at him with a sad frown. "Chiron you know those gifts from my mom are my only way to feel close to her. I used to see her all the time and now she's having to, I don't know, work under Hermes and my grandma and I never see her anymore. You can't just take them from me." "I'm sorry Erin", said Chiron,"but we can't risk you causing trouble, accident or not. I know some day you'll understand." "Well can some day be now?", inquired Erin. "Unfortunately not", Chiron replied. "Now come on, there's better ways to train and one of them starts now." Erin slouched and rolled his eyes. "Uuugh, Sky Fighting? Really?" "Yes really", said Chiron,"now come along." Chiron started clopping from the battle training field and Erin reluctantly followed him. They walked passed the cabins of Aphrodite and Hermes and Ares. As they walked by there were a few of the half-bloods belonging to each cabin outside playing around and talking. They all looked at Erin, the Aphrodite kids giving him dirty looks, the Hermes kids giving him half smiles, and the Ares kids waving and saying hi to him. He waved back at them and nodded. They reached the open field of the camp where the trees surrounding the area made a large and wide open circle to the sky. There were racks of spears, arrows, swords, and shields at the front of the area, each being taken up by the half-bloods who were also doing the training. Most of them were children of Hermes and Apollo. The only other one who wasn't of either was Percy Jackson. He was putting on a pair of the winged convers he'd kept from Luke. Erin looked at Chiron and gave him and exasperated look and Chiron nodded to him and gestured his arm forward. Erin lumbered over to the middle of the field to join the others. He came up next to Percy who was also accompanied by Grover and Annabeth. "Hey Erin", said Percy,"Chiron gave you crap for that book didn't he?" Erin rolled his eyes and looked at him. "Not now Percy, I'm really not in the mood." Will Solace walked up to the trainees and stopped in front of them. "Alrighty, let's see who we've got here. Cabin Hermes, Cabin Apollo, Cabin Poseidon, and Cabin Eris." He looked over at Annabeth and Grover and raised an eyebrow. "And why are Cabin Athena and a satyr here?" "Oh, I'm just here to assist", said Annabeth. "And I'm Percy's protector", said Grover,"so I gotta make sure my boy doesn't die in the sky, ya know?" Erin smiled while rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "Why is he still Percy's protector?", he asked himself in his head. Will looked over at Erin and the side of his mouth curled up while he raised an eyebrow. "Looks like it's Cabin Eris's first time here. Sure you won't start an all out brawl by the time we're done?", he chuckled, as did the others. Erin rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, very funny. Last time I checked your dad writes dumb song verses and plays around with lights like a house cat. You really wanna talk about who's gonna screw up sky battle training?" Will pursed his lips and scowled at him. "Well I see one thing's consistent in your family." Erin raised an eyebrow and scowled back at him. Will walked to the weapon racks and faced the trainees. "Alright troops, grab your weapons and prepare to take to the sky!" The Hermes and Apollo kids and Percy ran up to the racks and grabbed their weapons. Erin stayed in place and used his magic to summon two swords made of the gold power. Annabeth looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "You know you might wanna get a real sword and shield, you might be able to actually survive the fight." Erin looked over at her with his eyes somewhat closed. "Annabeth, if I want battle advice I'll ask Clarise", he said in an annoyed voice,"she actually knows how to fight and win full on battles." She frowned at him. "Hey I'm just saying, my mom's Athena so I should know." "Yeah well her dad actually knows how to fight and win wars", he said to her,"my mom knows how to start and fight in wars. All your mom does is use 'battle wisdom and tactic'." "Hey my mom fought in the Trojan War!", she snapped,"a war your mom started!" "Yeah", said Erin,"and exactly how well did that work out for your mom?" "Why you little!", said Annabeth angrily. Before she could finish her insult Erin spoke again. "Look Annabeth I'm not tryna be mean, okay? I'm just not in the mood for anyone else telling me what to do, I'm really not. We don't have problems so let's just keep it that way." Annabeth retracted herself and did her best to gain her composure. "As long as you take back what you said about my mom", she said with her arms crossed. Erin looked at her with an eyebrow raised and an expression that said "Are you serious?". "Uh, Annabeth, I can't take back something that's true." Annabeth's face went berserk and her speech started to sound impaired as she tried to make a comeback. "Girl", said Erin,"ya know it's true. Also, you're the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, you more than anyone should know that's true." Grover chuckled slightly and Annabeth looked back at him with offense. "What?", said Grover. "Well I-I-I-", began Annabeth. "Well I mean he's not wrong Annabeth", said Grover. Annabeth's eyes went wide. "Whaaa-", was all she could say. "Girl, just-just let it go", Grover said half chuckling. Erin started chuckling as well. "Girl I'm sorry I just couldn't deny the truth-" "Erin!", shouted Will,"get your butt over here!" Erin looked at him like he was crazy. "Alright shut up already!" He looked back at Annabeth and Grover. "Gotta go!" He ran over to the other half bloods and stood next to Percy. "Hey sweet blades", said Percy. "Thanks", replied Erin. Will stood in front of them and quickly went across the trainees with his eyes as he examined each of their weapons. He got to the end and looked at Erin's magic-made gold blades and grew a stark expression on his face. "I see someone thinks they're objective to the camp's provided weapons." Erin sneered at him with his eyes squinted and his eyebrows raised. "Just be glad I even have weapons Will, cuz if I didn't you'd probably have a real problem on your hands." Will pursed his lips. "Point taken." "Alright troops", Will began,"you know the rules, aim for the opponent, hold your weapons steady and firm, guard your heads from head on attacks, and most importantly, don't get sent to the infirmary on my watch, it looks bad on me as an instructor." Will put on his helmet and the other half bloods did as well. Erin's eyes turned gold and a helmet was formed around his head with his magic. "Alright troops", said Will,"take to the sky!" He and the other half bloods used their winged shoes to fly into the air. Percy looked back to see Erin still on the ground. "Erin?", he said. Erin's eyes were still gold. He then closed his eyes and gold specks started appearing from his back and began forming the shape of wings. Though they didn't sprout directly from his back, they grew large in size, several inches above his head, massive in size, breathed in flames. He opened his eyes and flew up to meet Percy and they flew to join the rest of the half bloods. Just as they reached the others, one of them came flying right at Erin and his wings flew him out of the way just inches before he could strike him and Erin came down with one of his swords and hit the half blood on the back with the hilt, making him jolt forward as Percy kicked him away. "Nice one Erin!" "I know", replied Erin. When the half blood turned around they saw he was Chris Rodriguez. He had a grumpy look on his face. "Really, a double team attack?", he questioned them. "Hey I hit you he just decided to kick you", replied Erin. "But it was a pretty good double team if you ask me", chuckled Percy. Erin looked over at him with a grossed out face. "Ewww", he said. Percy looked at him and became baffled at the unintentional innuendo. "Wha- not like that, gutter brain!" "You know you can't give me a variation of a nick name you already have, seaweed brain", Erin teased. "Hey only Annabeth calls me that!", said Percy. "Guess what, now I do", Erin teased again. Erin then flew off into the rest of the battle. He looked around at the other fighters. Most of them were Hermes kids. He saw Connor and Travis Stoll and Alice Miyazawa circling Will and Kayla Knowles. Connor and Travis were playing with their knives and spears to taunt Kayla and Alice was readying an attack for Will. Erin examined the Stolls and saw the way they were focusing their eyes on Kayla. He decided to play some games with them. For a quick second his used his magic through a mind spell he'd learned a few days ago and he used his subconscious to look through theirs. He saw how their eyes were looking at her and examined how they were angling their spears and knives at her. With the position the weapons were angled in, he calculated the right timing to strike them with a chaos bolt. Letting go of the spell, he watched as they launched their attack. Just as they came a foot away from Kayla, he pointed his finger at them and his gold magic rapidly swirled from his hand and shot from his finger in the shape of a static bolt and the bolt zoomed at Connor and Travis. Just as it struck them, their spears knocked into each other and they were forced into a rapid rolling motion that sent them spiraling to the left and they knocked into Alice. During the Stoll's spiraling their knives were sent flying from their hands and imbedding themselves into two of the trees and their spears knocked into Alice's and sent hers flying toward Percy. Thankfully Percy had managed to dodge the spear before it hit him. "Hey! Erin!", he shouted at him. "Sorry, not my fault Alice can't get a grip", replied Erin in a playful tone,"then again she never can." "Hey I heard that!", shouted Alice. "Yeah you were meant to", replied Erin with a snarky expression on his face. Alice became enraged and grabbed a sword from the sheath on her back and charged at Erin. Erin used his magic and disappeared from her line of charge. He appeared behind her and kicked her back. She summer-salted and repositioned herself to charge at him again. Her sword was aimed at him and he used his blades to block hers. They then began to exchange strikes. Left, right, left angle, right angle, left, right, attack, defend, strike, block and redirect. She attempted to strike him again as he blocked with his blades. She started using force as he held it back. He looked behind her to the left and saw her spear lodged in a tree. He smirked and used his magic. His eyes turned gold and the spear became controlled by his magic and was dislodged from the tree and positioned itself to aim at Alice. He looked at her with his smirking expression and raised an eyebrow. "On your left." She frowned in confusion and he widened his eyes. She then heard a rapid sound coming toward her from the left and saw the spear coming toward her just inches away from her. With a gasp she quickly flew backwards and backflipped out of the way as the spear zoomed past and went straight towards Will and Travis. Will saw the spear flying right at them and quickly backflipped out of the way while Travis had to dodge it at the last minute. Will looked down and saw Erin floating there staring at him. "Are you tryna kill us?", Will shouted at him. "You think I was aiming for you genius?", Erin shouted back. Travis went to retrieve the spear that was now lodged in a thick branch on one of the trees but Erin quickly flashed his eyes gold and made the spear disappear before Travis could reach it. Will became frustrated with Erin and decided he wanted to teach him a lesson. He brought his sword to his side and launched himself toward Erin. Erin pointed his finger at Will and a chaos bolt shot out and zoomed right at Will. Will flipped out of the way and Erin flew up above Will's position in the air and came down with his blades just as Will had to refocus himself. At the last second he saw the two blades about to strike him and quickly brought his sword in front of his head and Erin's blades struck his sword and magic sparks shot out from the impact. Erin took one of his swords and went to attack Will's side. Will saw the sword coming at him and flipped backward. Erin was annoyed now. "Are you gonna just keep doing backflips every time you're about to get hit or are you actually gonna put up a fight?" "Hey I put up good fights", rebuttalled Will. Erin looked at him like he was stupid. "So then what have you been doing this entire time? Cuz it doesn't look like fighting." Erin then got an idea to spice things up a bit. He used his magic and summoned a fire ball. "Maybe you'd like it if I gave you a real fight", he said mockingly. Will's eyes went wide. Erin threw the fire ball at him and Will had to quickly get out his shield. The fire ball struck the shield and sent Will tumbling back. Erin summoned another fire ball and was about to throw it when Chiron came clopping into the battlefield in the ground and saw what he was about to do. "Erin stop!" Erin looked down and grew an annoyed look on his face. "Oh come on I'm fighting aren't I? That's what you wanted right?" Chiron gave him a stern, disgruntled look. "Magic and fire balls won't always help you win a fight. Sometimes relying on your weapons is a more useful strategy." Erin raised an eyebrow and purses his lips. "See that's where you and I are different Chiron." Chiron rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Alright everyone, training is over. Come back down." "Oh man!", said the Stoll brothers. "Thanks a lot Erin", said Alice. "Oh up yours Alice", said Erin. Everyone landed back down on the ground and Erin's wings disappeared. He also made his blades disappear. Everyone began walking off the field when Erin was stopped by Chiron. Erin looked at him and rolled his eyes. "Ugh, what is it now Chiron?" "Erin, I find myself becoming more frustrated with you. You know the rules and you know there are specific ones I've told you you need to follow and you continue to completely disregard them." "Oh here we go with this again", said Erin, completely disinterested. "Well maybe if you actually followed those rules we wouldn't continue having this conversation", Chiron said. "Well maybe if you stopped tryna control my life all the time we wouldn't have any problems at all", Erin fussed back as he pushed Chiron's arm away from him and walked off. Chiron watched as he walked away and sighed. "Oh, that boy."
It was dinner time and everyone was at the patio getting their food and taking their seats at the benches and tables. Meg McCaffrey and Billie Ng from cabin Demeter were serving out the food to the line of campers. Erin went behind Percy and Annabeth and Grover went behind him. "So Erin", Grover said,"you're pretty extra feisty today huh?" Erin raised an eyebrow and smirked. "How could ya tell?" "Oh I got a feeling just watching the training", Grover replied. The four of them picked up their plates and waited for Meg and Billie to serve them their food. The campers in front of them got their food and walked off to their tables and Percy and Annabeth got their food. Billie put Erin's food on his plate. Erin spotted a bright red apple on the table and picked it up. Meg gave him a suspicious look. "You're not gonna turn that gold and use it are you?" Erin looked at her like she just said the most stupid thing ever. "I don't know, depends if there's gonna be a lucky recipient." Meg raised an eyebrow in suspicion and slight concern. Erin then stared at her blankly. "No, I'm gonna eat it cuz I'm hungry", he replied in a dry mocking tone. Grover looked at her with a playful scared look on his face. "Sorry about him he's feisty today." "I heard that!", shouted Erin to him. Erin sat down in front of Percy and Grover sat down in front of Annabeth. Erin was so hungry he practically hoovered his food and drank it down with his apple juice. The only thing left on his plate was the apple. Percy looked at it and then at Erin. "So, are you actually gonna eat that?" Erin stared at the apple for a moment and then picked it up to look at it up close. It was a perfectly ripe red apple. No marks, no brown spots, just perfect. "Actually, I'm thinking about giving it as an offering to my mom", he replied,"I actually haven't talked to her in a while." Percy looked at him with an empathetic smirk. "You miss her a lot huh?" "Well, she is the only living parent I have and I rarely get to see her anymore, so yeah", Erin replied with a somewhat sad look and an obvious pointed tone.
Erin didn't really have any other immediate family but his mom Eris. He hardly ever got to see her because she was under Hermes' command and basically worked for him. It was a punishment Zeus had dolled out to her for her actions in causing many wars, and because of it Erin's contact with her was extremely limited. He also didn't know much about his dad. All he ever knew about him was that he was half human and half phoenix, which was why Erin was able to produce wings of fire and his lifespan was tripled, but other than that, the only other thing he knew about him was that he was dead, or if he had resurrected, he didn't want anything to do with him. Erin didn't like to dwell on it, so he decided to not talk about it much. He decided to turn the conversation back to Percy to be a friend, or at least try his best at it.
"What about you", Erin asked,"have you talked to your dad much recently?" Percy scrunched his face and shook his head. "No, I honestly haven't really heard anything from him lately." Erin raised his eyebrows for a second and looked off to the left. "Yeah well, I guess that's just the life of a half blood. You never talk to the one person you wanna see the most." "Well", said Annabeth,"I don't think it has to be that way for all of us." Erin turned his eyes to her and raised his right eyebrow and furrowed his left. "Has to? Annabeth all of us here hardly ever see or talk to our immortal parents. I don't think there's any 'has to be that way' to it, especially for those of us who's parents are practically imprisoned by other gods." Annabeth frowned and pursed her lips to the right. "I just mean that I don't think that's fair to put on all our parents. I actually hear my mom's voice talking to me a lot. I get a lot of advice from her." Erin gave her a half smile. "Well you are one of the lucky few, that's for sure."
About ten minutes later, everyone had finished their dinner and Mr. D had come to the front of the patio, obviously having just secretly drank half a bottle of wine. "Oh great, looks like Mr. D got into a forbidden bottle of wine", said Grover. Mr. D clapped his hands rhythmically for five seconds and shouted at the top of his lungs. "Attention campers! Attention!" Everyone turned around to look at him. "It's now time to give your offerings to the gods. Or in other words, time to give your foods scraps to your parents who you never see." Erin frowned and pursed his lips. "Wow, that wasn't bleak at all." "Well, time to go talk to our old folks", said Percy. Erin looked down with a somber expression and wondered if his mom would actually be able to answer him this time around, but he highly doubted it. Everyone slowly got up and took their plates with them, but Erin just sat there. Chiron came up to him and put his hand on his shoulder. "Come now Erin, you should go talk to your mom. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you." Erin raised his eyebrows and gestured his jaw to the side. "Yeah, if she could actually talk back to me", he said with sadness,"but we all know that Zeus doesn't want her talking to her only mortal child and possibly planning another war with him", he said in a mocking tone. Chiron felt a bit of sorrow for him. "It doesn't hurt to try. I'm sure Hermes can spare her at least ten minutes to talk to her son."
Erin grabbed his plate and went to a quite place in the surrounding woods. He gathered some wood and used his magic to start a fire. He then summoned a knife and cut the apple in half. He plopped the right half into the fire and took a few minutes to think about what to say. He looked down at the fire with a deep sadness and loneliness in his eyes, with an immense feeling of longing welling up in him. "H-hi mom", he said in a low and somewhat shaky voice,"it's me, Erin. I...I don't know if you're able to hear me, if you're even allowed to talk to me right now, but...I just want to say I miss you. I really miss you. I...I feel like I can't be myself here. I feel really lost without you. But, then again, I always feel lost. I wish I could get some advice from you. Some bit of comfort so I would feel like I'm not just walking through the world not knowing what the hell I'm doing. I feel so...so held back here. And even worse...I...", he started to cry. The tears welled up in his eyes and started streaming down his face,"I feel like I'm losing my connection to you. All your gifts you sent me for my birthday and other occasions were taken away by Chiron. He doesn't understand. He doesn't get it. He isn't living the reality I'm living. He isn't the one with a dead father he never knew and a mom who's locked up in another god's domain with no contact with her. If that even is the truth about my dad anymore. I don't know. I don't know anything. All Chiron thinks I am is troublesome, but...the truth is I just wanna feel closer to you. I do all these things I think you'd do because I feel like it might make me feel closer to you, but I don't know if that's all it is anymore. I just want to know where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to do. I...I...oh who am I kidding? You probably can't even hear me. I guess all I'm gonna say is I love you and I miss you, and I just wish, more than anything, that I could talk to you and get a hug from you. But I guess that won't happen, ever." He wiped his tears from his eyes and his face and blew out the fire and set the other half of the apple in front of the firewood. He began walking back to the camp and took the time to regain his composure. He took a few steps when he thought he heard something. He turned back only to see the smoke coming off the dead fire. He turned back around and continued walking to the camp. However what he didn't see, what he didn't know, was that the half of the apple he'd set down was now pure solid gold, and the inside of the half was marked with words spelled in Greek. The words read,"I love you my son."