Abandoned- a pertemis story Ψ ☑️

Silver Lining. Chapter 9

'Sup. It's me. Ya boi. I've gotta give thanks to AlexusAP for allowing me to use her OC. (Hmm, I wonder who that could be?). I hope you like this chapter seeing as it won't have much if any Percy Jackson or Artemis. Any takers on Carmen's mom? Lemme know. Enjoy- Internet Head

ΩCarmenΩ
ever since I could remember I had always felt the small burn of fire within my body. I never knew why and I never questioned it but it was always there, beating in my chest. Sometimes I could feel it flaring up, threatening to burn up everything inside me. Whenever I used my abilities it would roar up like hellfire and made me feel like I was going to throw up. That night, the day I met Percy Jackson, the flames inside me felt as though they were going to burst. Whenever I saw any time of fire, I felt a gut wrenching tug towards them. Annabeth's funereal pyre made me want to die myself. There was something about the flames of the dead that was particularly nasty. My heart and the heat were very different. The fire inside wanted me to rise and burn all that stood in my way while my heart told me to run away from my problems. It was hard to find a balance and even harder to control both. I thought about this as I traversed the forest looking for my least favorite Hunter. "Stupid girl. I know your a Hunter and all but still... running off by yourself is just stupid." I growled to myself as I hacked aside some particularly thorny looking bushes. I pushed leaves out of my face as I came to a river. What are the chances a Hunter will follow the river? I grinned to myself. I started walking down the shoreline as I drew a long line in the dirt with my sword, a mark that told me where I had been. I whistled a melody to the world as I made my way down the stream. Gods. She sure knows how to get lost. I filed the information in my "witty material" cabinet. I looked down at my line and examined how my sword didn't seem even slightly dirty as it glimmered in the sunlight, whistling an ever cheerful song as I did. Just then, while I was distracted, an arrow came flying out of the forest. By pure instinct or reflex I caught it with my empty hand, snapping it like a twig before I had a chance to process what I had done. I looked at the broken arrow in my hand with a frown "I need to stop doing that." I confided in myself just before another few arrows came out to plunge themselves into my body. I flicked my empty hand and a shadow crawled down my arm, filling my hand with the solid nothingness before forming itself into a sword that was the same yet different as the sword. This one was a scimitar, black Stygian iron making up most of it while the edges were coated in a bluish white thing that had cold steam or mist not unlike the kind you see over a lake on a cold day. The middle of the blade was plating with ethereal silver, mostly for aesthetic reasons though it did help for certain monsters. The very fine tips of the edges were normal mortal steel, so it would be effective on any sort of mortal that tried to get the better of me. This was my sword that I called Haze and the one I didn't use often as I liked to keep my dual wielding a secret. My other sword was called Nightmare, not by my choice. That was a mighty long explanation so why don't I just get to the point. I used my sword to slice the arrows out of the air, all except for one which continued it's path. It was aimed for my face which wasn't a sobering thought. It flew close and I felt the flames inside lurch upwards, growing, burning, exploding, and scorching everything as I inhaled. I blew out in a long stream, the air crackling with heat before igniting into fire, and the arrow disintegrated before it managed to hit me. The fire inside me felt like sticky lava that latched onto my stomach as I breathed "whoever shot those I hope you'll come out and meet me face to face, unless your too cowardly of course." I smirked tightly with pain, knowing who it was. Alexus appeared as she dropped from a tree, landing with her legs bent before walking over to me grudgingly "that was low. Calling me cowardly." She gave me a glowering look "I had a feeling that it was the only way to get you down here." My smug face still glowing as my weapons slunk back up my sleeves "very possible Though it's a little hypocritical that you called me a coward." She leaned on her bow, twanging the bow string she had recently drawn "hypocritical? In what way." I gasped, feeling attacked "you have fire. Secrets aren't welcome in the hunt." Alexus responded, the smile of a predator adorning her features "you call me a hypocrite yet you keep your own secrets." I said back as our eyes met, narrowing in suspicion of the other "such as?" Alexus dared me "feral. You've gotta be a runaway. I can tell." I stared at her, feeling tense "how do you know? 'I can tell' my ass." The hunter rolled her eyes with that sarcastic canine smile of hers "I'm serious. The way you're always in a position to run. That look you give me. The scars. The way you tense up when another demigod comes close. How you subconsciously try to intimidate everybody." I rattled off, watching her body ripple with tension as though she were ready to spring on me if I didn't shut up "so. What." Another dare, her grey eyes seemed to become like ethereal silver. It had the same ghostly white glow, despite the bright day. I watched her carefully, hesitating in my response "all of those are telltale signs of a runway. It takes a feral demigod to spot a feral demigod." I winced at my own words, fearing they were too dramatic. Alexus watched me with that dark glint in her eye for a long tension filled silence before answering "well played. I suppose you want to trade stories now?" She said sarcastically "actually yes." I sat down near the river and patted the dirt next to me. Alexus looked at me incredulously before reluctantly coming to sit down next to me "no funny business! Or I'll rip your neck in half, got it?" She snarled, recoiling away from our sudden closeness "I have no doubt that if I try to make a joke you will castrate me." I said sagely, hoping that I wouldn't get my face clawed off for her nails were menacingly sharp yet somehow feminine. Can't reject men without being a queen, no doubt no doubt. Alexus only growled and sat with her arms wrapped around her legs. Despite the situation, despite how much we obviously hated one another... I smiled at her. A true, genuine smile. Nothing forced for a joke or to make people satisfied. I didn't know why I smiled but it must've been along the lines of: a Hunter just sat next to me!!!!! And she didn't try to stab me as soon as she sat down!!!!! Oh yeah!!!! That was pretty much my thought process. Alexus must have noticed because she gave me a weirded out look "wipe that dorky smile off your face." She said aggressively "smile? What smile?" My grin grew wider, for some reason her angry face was irresistibly hilarious "that smile! That. Stupid. Smile!" She shoved a finger in my face, jabbing at my exposed teeth "this isn't a smile! This is a grin so technically you were wrong!" I laughed a little "nobody calls their smile a grin! Why are you so stupid? Freaking males..." she gave up, sighing as she sat back down "so... storieeeees." I drawled out the word, leaning over to her dramatically "quit! I never gave you permission to get so close! Why should I trust you? You're just some stupid male!" She tried to shove him off of her "What if I told you a story first! Then would you trust me?" I said to her, pushing my full weight onto her "I don't know! Just. Get off!" She finally succeeded in pushing me off of her "okay. What do you want to know." I asked her, calming down. She seemed thrown off by the question, a look of shock and surprise on her face "uh... you said you hated the word feral. Why?" She asked after a long time. A roll of emotion went through me, the natural fear and hate mixed together that came with the question "that question first, huh. Alright. This is a little hard for me so... bare with me." I told her weakly and she nodded, reluctantly interested "when I was younger I got involved with a Runaway Demigod Syndicate. Basically a group of demigods that have banded together to survive. Most of the time they Engage in illegal or unbecoming activities. Most of them have come been rejected from Camp Half-Blood or ousted from Camp Jupiter. That's the gist of it. Anyway, I was part of this band of runaways. Me and my unit were usually assigned to do bounties, dead or alive, and protecting certain targets and errands and stuff. One day I was assigned to protect this high up syndicate boss's daughter, she was a lot younger than me. Like nine, ten." I took a deep shuddering breath, preparing for the next part of my story "In the end the guys who came after me were the best of the best. Elite assassins, better than anyone in my syndicate. I tried to fend them off but they outsmarted me and lured to the wrong place. I failed to keep her alive." I hung my head in shame, the guilt still fresh in my mind. Alexus looked at me, her face dark. I wouldn't blame her if she tried to strike me dead on the spot. After a long silence I continued the story "Obviously, this is a syndicate. They wouldn't just let me go. My unit tried to hide me as best they could but those Elite guys were the one's to come after me, and my unit wasn't equipped to combat them. I tried to escape but I couldn't win against the more experienced. Luckily they didn't want me dead, but they wanted to capture me which was just as bad. They took me to the girl's dad who was the boss, as previously mentioned." I said, trying to maintain my good storytelling skills "they threw me at his feet. He had this whole mafia boss look. He sat at a desk. He had rat hair, sunglasses, far too little teeth, a ring, and a wrinkled three piece suit. The whole shebang. Anyway, he wasn't all that happy with me. He grabbed me by the neck and looked me in the eyes and I could just see the hate there. He wanted to kill me, that was the worst part. He watched me for a bit and then he shook me and said 'no wonder you let my daughter die. Your nothing but a Feral Wolf, weak and pitiful. It's not worth killing you but there has to be punishment. You understand that right?' And then he took his knife and slashed my eye. That's were I got this." I traced the scar down my left eye, the skin was lighter than the normal skin around it "if I hadn't moved back I would have had my eye gouged out. I ran and he let me, laughing the entire time. My unit tried to protect me as best they could but they didn't cut it. Everywhere I went people always called me 'ágrio lýkos' or 'Feral Wolf'. I couldn't escape it. Whenever I hear that word. Feral. I just... I can't." I stopped, my head in my hands. I couldn't keep talking, the guilt and embarrassment coming back to me even after all these years. I had been talking for a while now and it was beginning to look like I was self centered. I sat silently, hoping that Alexus wasn't too disgusted by me. She looked at me, her face a showing sympathy as well as annoyance "that's why you hate the word feral?" She asked "yeah. I just... I hate it." I said sheepishly, feeling embarrassed "I can't say that's not a good reason. That's a bit of a deep story for something so simple." She responded "that's usually how it is." I murmured to myself. I would never call it simple.

Alexus and I had spent most of the day talking to one another, asking questions and making jokes. She only punched me in the face twice. I looked at her and realized that she hadn't said much about herself "you haven't told me any stories yet." I said playfully, watching her as she showed off a knife that I had asked about earlier "no I have not. Would you like me to?" She said back, almost like she dared me to say yes "yes." Came my reply "alright. What do you want to hear about?" Alexus replied like she was amused "why do you hate men so much?" I asked because most hunters disliked men, some even hated them. But Alexus, she loathed men. She still wasn't completely friendly with me, often getting competitive and annoyed. She picked her nails "I've never gotten along with boys. A good chunk of them are pigs and used to treat me like dirt. My dad-" she cut off, not bothering to finish what she was about to say "-anyway. I just can't trust them. That's my reason anyway. You aren't too bad, for a boy." I was happy to have the compliment, even if it was mixed in with an insult. I didn't push my luck. Some people had secrets that they couldn't just tell. She didn't trust me, there was no reason for her tell me anything about her past no matter how much I wanted to know. There was one thing, however, I couldn't get off my mind "who's your godly parent?" I blurted out before I could stop myself "sorry! I just couldn't-!" I was cut off by Alexus with a shocked look on her face "it's fine. I don't blame you." Alexus stopped and looked towards the river, watching as fish swam by peacefully "my mother is Artemis." She said, almost to herself. I could only think of how she should not exist and how her predicament was worse than mine "I shouldn't exist. But I do it anyway, because the last thing I want is for the gods to decide my future." I looked at her and she grinned at me with her predatory smile "we should get back to camp, yeah? Don't want to keep dear old mom and big sister Thalia waiting right? C'mon Carmen, we've got explaining to do."

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I hope you liked this super OC chapter. I put a lot of thought into it and I'm kinda sad I could put more Alexus in. There'll be more to come though, with more Percy next chapter! We cool? Yeah we cool. - Gamer