HOO and PJO one shots

Delve into death

The first time I met her it was not with the most pleasant circumstances. She was young and immature. Her hickory skin was raw and rich, her curly hair frizzed, as though it had been brushed. She was tired but she put up a strong front. Her powers were stretched thin with overuse. She had spent her nights ripping gems from the Earth's crust and her days at school with her only friend, Sammy. I felt bad for her. The mother of hers was terrible and cruel. She had been brainwashed. My dear friend had tried to make it right, unsuccessfully of course. He loved her, even if she didn't believe it. He loved all of them.

This poor young girls, facing the darkest Goddess ever. Her creation, powerful and shining, was destroyed. She would not stand for it anymore. This would be the last straw. She died, with her mother clutched tightly to her thin frame. They died united as one. I moved on.

It wasn't until a hundred or so years later that I met her again. This time she had come for me. She saved me, I owed her. The titan had taken me hostage and tortured me. She was my night in shining armour.

Not long after that I came for him. I do not particularly enjoy my job, but it is necessary. He was weak and dying. His emprisonnent was cruel and he barely survived. He was sitting out in the sun, atop the mast on a flying ship. The craftsmanship was exceptional, whoever had built this was undoubtedly the spawn of Hephaestus. I sat and watched him a minute. Another one. My dear friend, losing his children from left to right. The strong girl who saved me, the daughter who turned her back on men and now the boy in love with the sun. Just as I was about to take him, she came up. I never have and never will forget the favour she gave me.  Her face was wary and she seemed older. Of course I knew what she had been through, I had been cleaning up the carnage she left behind.

"Oh Nico. Would you please eat?" she begged him. She was desperate. That moment I made a decision that changed many lives. I left. Without him. We were even now.

He lived, the brother of the girl I had reaped.