A Dishonored Demigod

Mother and Child

The cavern is ominously quiet as everyone's eyes are on the mud filled pit, watching as it shifts and bubbles at random. Suddenly the quiet is broken when a bare arm smoothly breaks the surface and braces itself on the stone floor before another emerges and does the same. Slowly a body covered in the foul mud pulls itself out of the pit and flops onto the floor when it tries to get to its feet. After a few more failed attempts it stands on shaky legs and looks down while flexing its hands as the mud slowly sinks into its skin.
When all is said and done words of an unknown language are scrawled all over his, for the figure can only be a male, body in black. His hair is bone white and he is only clad in a pair of threadbare jeans,"Boss?"
His head perks up before he slowly turns until half his face is visible,"Thrafs...ma?"
The monster frowns as a single golden eye stares at him with confusion before slowly rolling around in its socket to survey everyone else,"..."
He fully turns to face them and the group automatically takes a step back at the sight. Black mud is caked around his left side to form a giant misshapen arm while the left side of his face seems to resemble a wolf's. A pinprick of red is set deep inside the socket as it swivels around,"You okay there man?"
"Ah," and Perseus tilts his head to the side,"I can hear screams, a lot of them. This is...really annoying. If this is what the original had to put up with I don't blame him for going a little crazy."
He raps his knuckles against the side of his head,"Oi! Quiet down in there. I'm having a conversation!"
He waits a few moments before letting out a blissful sigh,"Damn voices finally shut up. Now, why are you all looking at me like you've seen Hades in his boxers?"
Thrafsma holds up a finger,"A: I did not need that image in my head. B: look at your reflection now."
Perseus gives him a weird look but waves his hand to freeze the water in the air into a mirror,"I don't know what you are s-oh. Well, that's new."
His hand trace over the half formed feature and opens his mouth to see the muzzle is full of sharp canines. When he closes his mouth he groans and grabs ahold of his head,"I have got the mother of all headaches. I thought I told you to shut up in there?!"
After a moment he relaxes and looks down at his master,"So, you've won the game. What is your wish?"
Sakura mulls her wish over as her servant makes his way over to her until he's standing directly in front of her,"All of you, return."
The residents of his body are swallowed up in his shadow and the usual pressure surrounding Perseus returns,"So, your wish?"
In his hands a golden chalice forms from nothing. When Sakura's eyes land on the object she swallows her doubt and takes the cup from his hands,"I wish that I can live out a life of my own choosing."
A tiny smile makes its way onto her servant's face as the grail works to fulfill her wish,"A good wish, one that mirrors my own."
He watches as the purple in her hair is pushed outwards by white and her eyes turn from their lilac coloring to a stunning gold. A glow surrounds her as the grail works to rewrite her DNA and sever any existing connection she has to the Matou and Tohsaka families. When all is done Perseus has to support her as she adjusts to her new body,"How do you feel?"
She looks down at her hands to see her pale skin has taken on the shade of a healthy tan and her fingers are slightly longer. When her servant create a mirror she can see the changes done to her entire body. Her overall height has remained the same, but her body has become slightly more slender. Her face is the least affected with her cheeks becoming narrower. All in all she looks like a mini version of Perseus as he is now,"It seems to have worked. If I didn't know better, I would have never known who you were before."
Sakura nods and slowly closes her eyes as the drain from the transformation catches up with her and forces her into sleep. Without effort Perseus picks her up with one arm and keeps his hold on the chalice in his other hand. He makes his way to the surface and checks the surveillance runes for intruders before he puts his master to bed and returns to the entrance,"How're you feeling?"
Kariya Matou hand twitches,"It itches more than anything."
The bandage covering his other hand reeks of antibiotics,"Yeah, well it was either cutting your hand off, or cutting away the layers of skin under heavy sedation."
Kariya shivers at the memory of his hand being practically flayed like a fish,"Go take a look at your niece. I think you'll be surprised at her wish. I've got a few loose ends to tie up."
The man departs and leaves Perseus alone to address the night,"I know you want to talk. Come on out."
A layer of blue fire erupts from underneath his skin and forms into Thrafsma,"I'll get down to it, I want to awaken my mother and get some answers from her about my slumber. You mind if I head out for a little bit?
Perseus shrugs,"Go for it. I could feel your annoyance and, frankly, it was getting very troublesome to ignore."
Thrafsma nods and becomes a stream of flame that writhes through the air, heading north out of the city and deep into the countryside.
****
Blue fire dances around Thrafsma as he soars through the air, continuing even deeper into the countryside until he can neither see more sense any sign of human life. When he's sure he drops to the ground, creating a small dirt cloud as he lands. With barely a thought he starts drawing in the ground with the stinger at the end of his tail,"You know," he addresses the air,"I wondered what happened to put me to sleep for so long. Since Perseus managed to tear control of the planet away from you, that means you probably will never awaken enough to answer my questions."
With a flourish his tail finishes scratching the first circle of writing and starts on a second inner circle a few inches away from the first,"Here though, you're both strong and conscious enough to enforce your will on abnormalities without having a true body."
The second circle is done and a third is started,"I guess I just got lucky that Perseus was sent here by The Outsider. I can finally get my answers."
The third is done and Thrafsma gets on a knee with both hands pressed against the ground,"Awaken. Manifest before me, mother."
The runes glow an angry red that lights up the dark space and sends wildlife within a two mile radius running. Energy dances over the circles and barely avoids the monster in the center as plants around him are vaporized from the sheer magnitude of energy being released. He can feel the will of the planet locking onto his location and collecting in an effort to suppress his act of magic, and growing even denser when it fails to stop it. The runes suddenly explode in light and Thrafsma quickly jumps away as a storm of energy forms in the center of the matrix before compressing into a female form familiar to Thrafsma.
A body made of stone, soil, and vegetation rests in the center of the rune matrix. Veins of lava thrum under her pseudo-skin and her head lifts up to reveal a pair of dark green, almost black, eyes. Her eyes sweep over the area,"What is the meaning of this?! Who dared trap me?!"
"Mother..."
The word leaves Thrafsma's mouth as a breathless statement. Gaea's head snaps over towards him and her eyes widen in both shock, and hope,"Who are you? You look like someone I knew from long ago."
Thrafsma shifts into his true form and his voice drops to just above a whisper,"You once told me,'You're special. You'll be stronger than them all. Someday no one will be able to call you weak, my little boy. My little hollow.' And a hundred years after that, your promise came true."
Gaea crosses the distance in a second and proceeds to squeeze the life out of Thrafsma's body,"I can't believe it! My son is alive! My son is...you're alive."
Her words devolve into shaking sobs and Thrafsma's arms circle around her,"It's been a very, very, long time mother. I...I've missed you so much!"
They both sink to their knees and cry into the other until no tears are left to be shed. When that happens Gaea looks up and cups his face with her two dainty hands, brushing her thumbs under his eyes and gives him a watery smile,"I just can't believe it. All those years ago, I saw you die to that man. I saw the blade pierce your heart and destroy your immortality. So, how? How can you be here, alive and in front of me?"
Thrafsma's heart drops,"Mother, what are you talking about? The last thing I remember is you pulling my soul from my body and putting me to sleep."
Gaea's smile dims,"No, I felt you die. The humans felt my rage when I ripped the continents apart in my anger. I saw Chaos destroy you!"
Her eyes look over him once more,"You look like my son, sound like my son, and even your flames feel like the ones belonging to my son. But you aren't him are you? Who are you?"
Thrafsma sighs and reluctantly lets go of his mother,"I am the one called Thrafsma, the last of the children born from the union of Nyx and Gaea. A divine beast who roamed the land of Hueco Mundo as the first Hollow long before the time when Prometheus created the first clay humans. The originator of will-o-wisps, as they were born from the remains of the souls I turned to ash. The one who ended the unrecorded war between the Titans and my siblings by forcing both sides into a truce when your wellbeing was threatened. The man who made the mountains and seas turn gold from the ichor of the Olympian War. Uncle of your granddaughter, Hestia. The Soul-bound partner of my vessel, Perseus Estacado. And...and a traveler from a different dimension where you've been forced into an endless sleep."
Gaea embraces her son once more and quietly tells him,"Almost all of that is true. Everything up until you defeated your siblings for the first time happened, before Chaos struck you down. He wanted you to join him as one of his, for you to swear your eternal loyalty as one of his dogs. He did so out of fear that one day you would find a way to make your flames devour not just souls, but immortal essence as well. When he asked you though he didn't count on the amount of self respect you possessed or the freedom from expectations that you treasured so dearly."
She takes a deep breath,"I remember that day like it was yesterday. The skies split apart, thousands of miles of forests were reduced to nothing from your battle. You wounded him dearly, permanently scarring the left side of his torso before his blade found your core and obliterated it. The fallout was terrible as the destruction of your core caused your fire to explode outwards and create the Sahara Desert. Somehow though, your body endured because it was your fire and Chaos decided to leave it as a warning for others to not defy him. I made sure to hide it away inside my core so even Chaos' existence would be at risk should he decide to retrieve it."
Thrafsma gave his mother a small smile,"Thank you. From the sound of things my mother in my world did the same, but somehow kept my soul together so she could insert it into a vessel so I could regain my strength. Other than that the only real difference is that Chaos must've ambushed me with Zeus' help, because I think I would remember giving him a scar."
He continues to hold his mother for a few minutes until she makes a request,"Tell me what could've happened if you survived here. I want to know what my son has done."
He buries his face in the vines making up his mother's hair,"Sure. I guess I can start with how I came to be bound to Perseus. You see it was the end of the second Giant War and a demigod named Leo Valdez sacrificed himself..."
The next hours are filled with melodious laughter and shouts of anger as Thrafsma recalls the experiences his host had experienced, with him and Empathy tagging along. He describes the attack at Hubbard glacier, the fight against the Kraken, and actually meeting The Outsider. He recalls the various jobs he'd helped perform, sharing space with The Darkness, and then the attack on Chaos' home dimension. By the time he finishes describing the time he'd spent as a servant fours hours had come and gone,"I need to go."
They both knew that it had to happen, but neither were wanted it to,"I know."
"I wish I didn't have to."
"I know."
"I don't want to."
"I know."
"The runes are at their limit."
Gaea gives her son, her dead child, one last long look. She memorizes his face before he allows his head to be pulled down low enough for her to plant a soft kiss on his forehead. When she's done she brushes her tears away and gives him one last message,"I never told you this, but you probably already know you are my favorite. That holds true even if you're a different version because you're still my son and nothing will ever change that. I love you sosososo much, my little hollow. Thank you for letting me see the face of my son one last time."
The runes around them are dissolving as they've reached their limit, but Thrafsma refuses to let go of his mother,"I love you too. More than you'll probably ever know."
His arms pass through air as the will of Gaea rushes outwards and returns to monitoring the planet, leaving him alone in the clearing to cry and roar so all who may be listening will know his sorrow.