Vita Mortis

Chapter 5

~PERSEUS~

Once it's dinner, I make my way to the Pavilion, meeting Persephone and Nico along the way. "What'd you guys do?"

"We spent some quality time together, and he caught me up on everything," says Persephone. She gives me a knowing look. She knows. "Long time no see, Alexei," she says in Russian.

"Long time? It's been a year, Lia. A year. You just disappeared out of nowhere. I woke up one morning to all your stuff still there, five billion dollars and your phone on the table, you missing, and any connections you had were severed, even to me. I would know; I spent all my free time this past year searching for you." I glare at her.

Seph's expression softens. "Sorry, Lex, but they were after me, and I knew that once they found me, they couldn't find out about you and go after you, so I ended everything."

"You both know I don't speak Russian. What are you guys talking about?" interjected Nico.

"It's a surprise," answered Seph as we reached the dining pavilion.

"We're talking about this later," I finished. She nodded as the three of us sat together at the Hades table. I looked at my bowl as a blue chicken noodle soup appeared, with a plate of blue cookies on the side and a blue Coke. I love blue food. I looked over to Nico's plate, which had gnocchi, and Seph's, which was empty.

"Just picture what you want, and the plate will have it. It's magic." I told her. She looked up at me and nodded before staring back at her plate, which now had some weird grayish-brown-looking sludge. "What is that?" I wrinkle my nose. It looks disgusting, though I've seen it all before.

"It's what HYDRA gave me. Why?"

"You are not eating that. That isn't real food," protests Nico, grabbing Seph's plate. The gunk on the plate disappears, and some lasagne appears. Seph's eyes widened.

"I can't eat that much."

"Then just eat as much as you can," I suggest before standing up and walking to the fire at the pavilion's center, sacrificing a blue cookie. To Poseidon. Nico follows, scraping part of his gnocchi into the fire as Seph observes. Next, she sacrificed about half of her plate to the gods, muttering "to Hades" under her breath before joining us back at the table.

"Why'd you sacrifice to Hades and not Poseidon? Is it related to why you wanted to stay in my cabin instead of Percy's?" asks Nico. I know why, but it isn't my place.

"I hate Poseidon. Simple as that. He's a lying, self-centered pig who couldn't care less about his children," she spat. The ground lightly trembled beneath us, a warning from the god himself.

"Honestly, me too. He once told me he was sorry I was born." I reply. She knows that, too, but as far as Nico knows, we've never met before today. "Anyways, how was your time with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"It was okay, honestly. It wasn't as bad as I thought, and they didn't treat me like HYDRA did. They were nice. Except for Pirate Nick. I think he hates me." Seph frowns.

"You called him that? To his face?" she nods. I chuckle. "No wonder he wanted you out of his nonexistent hair as soon as possible."

"Seems like all children of the sea have a habit of pissing off powerful people." Nico grinned.

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568 Words

Dam this one was insanely short