Fallen Out Of Grace

22.

Ares sitting alone in his room on his bed, feeling empty without Saphrina and now Nysa, looks to his hands as they shake a bit with anger.

Fisher is in Nysa's room, looking at the paintings she painted, touching the ends as they have her initials.

"How can we be half siblings..." He says to himself trying to fight the emotion of caring for Nysa more than his sister.

Supposed to be packing, Ares goes into Fisher's room to see what progress he's made on getting his things together but doesn't find him until he peers into Nysa's room.

"I told you to get your things and get ready to be transported back to the island," Snatching the picture of Nysa out of Fisher's hands that Fisher was looking at, Ares glares at his son.

"Same blood whether your mother is different, your blood and her blood still come from me. Remember that."

Fisher ignores his father's indigo threat and sighs still having Nysa on his brain.

"How are we going to save her if I'm going to be stuck on that island again? Is this some type of punishment for the way I feel for her?"

Ares ready to hem him up against the wall, counts to five in his head and looks to his son with the little bit of patience he has when speaking on his son's quote on quote feelings for Nysa.

"You need time to yourself, plus you'll be safe."

Fisher scoffs, "Safe? Right."

"Look, son, I don't know what my father is thinking, but he could come here and take you next and I can't risk that."

Walking into his room, Fisher goes to open his mouth but gets stopped by large Titans rummaging through his closet and bed, trying to find something when that something was him.

"D-Dad?" Fisher says to Ares but Ares catches on quickly and has his men grab Fisher and escort him to a carriage outside.

"Dad!" Fisher says as he sees his father grunting in pain as he gets stabbed with a sword in his leg as he's fighting off a few Titans off as they try to get to Fisher.

"G-Go! I'll send for you when I can!" Ares says taking the sword out and using it on two other Titans behind him.

****

Stars from the Underworld shine brighter than the ones where Nysa's home was, but it keeps her feeling safe but still in deep grief missing her mother, father and Fisher as she looks up sitting on top of a rock near Keon's place.

"Mar-I mean Nysa, sorry still trying to get used to your real name," Keon says sitting by her now.

Nysa smiles faintly then looks back up at the stars.

"I keep replaying this memory of mine, it's when I was a little girl. My mom, she was rocking me to sleep underneath the night sky, singing a lullaby but I just focused on these two bright stars pretending I was living on one of them. Of course it wasn't the real night sky as my mom had painted my bedroom ceiling to look like the night sky as we weren't allowed to go out much."

Keon looks at Nysa then asks, "Must of been troubling."

Nysa shook her head then looked at Keon, "No, my mom made the best out of our situation even though it took me twenty something years to figure out why we were kept hidden from the world in some kind of way."

Keon goes to hold Nysa's hand but she holds herself as she becomes cold from the arctic air blowing in and out from where they are on the rock.

"Here," Keon brought a blanket with him and unfolds it covering Nysa.

Nysa smiles low bundling up saying, "I treated you wrongly when I had no idea what you were actually feeling, seems an almost death experience and being in a hole,trapped, gave me some clarity to some things."

Keon sighs feeling guilty for everything his mother had him do and was going to do to Nysa.

"I take accountability though, I wasn't thinking with logic and just wanting to appease my mother, for that I apologize."

Nysa shrugs, "It takes losing someone you love to realize what we could of done differently or reacted so I apologize too."

Keon is inching closer to saying how he feels but gets stopped by a flustered Cupid.

"Oh! Dear! I'm looking for Apollo and his son! Have you seen them?"

Nysa chuckles as Keon nods saying, "I'm Apollo's son, Keon. You must be my dad's best friend, Cupid."

Cupid nods, "Oh yes, so sorry, I would have come with gifts but this place isn't really friendly."

Keon stands dusting himself off helping Nysa stand as she still has the blanket wrapped around her and off her shoulders.

"Come on, I'll take you to see him."

Taking them both to his home, Apollo is sitting, sketching, but stops hearing the fluttering of Cupid's angel wings.

"Cupid? What are you doing here?"

Cupid flies over to Apollo, smiling relieved.

"Oh how it's nice to see you, I need you back where you belong. This place isn't right for you to be in Apollo," Cupid whispers to him but Apollo just laughs.

"It gets a little unwelcoming sometimes, but this is where my son has made his home and accepted his responsibilities to it. I can't leave him and you can't change my mind, I'm sorry."

Cupid stutters as he says, "It's rotten, dead things are crawling around and your son has to keep it all in order but what do you do? Hold his hand? He's a grown man Apollo—just come back and sketch in the gardens and drink all the wine you can find," Trying to pull on his arm, Apollo swipes Cupid's hand away and stands his ground as he tells him again in a more direct way that he is not leaving Keon.

"You may go," Apollo says after clearing off the stone table from his sketching utensils.

He places black roses in a silver vase he's kept in the cooling chamber, wanting to make it as a center piece and since any living thing, especially flowers dies or gets drain of their natural color while being in the underworld, it stands droopy but elegantly upright.

"This isn't the way Apollo, not like this."

Apollo looks to Cupid, gives him a look and Cupid nods in understanding flying out.

Keon looks to his father, getting a sense of guilt for having him think he has to change his life just to be with him as he rules the underworld.