Hermes' POV
Ok, so let's recap, shall we:
Apollo and I decide to prank Artemis—Super.
The prank we chose, including the use of aphrodisiac—I'll admit, not so cool. But in hindsight, we weren't really thinking of the consequences when we decided to do it.
Running all the way across the globe till our lungs burned—Not cool, not cool at all.
Stumbling into a random room and barging in looking for a place to hide—a necessary evil.
Stumbling across a naked girl bathing, coincidentally—not our fault, but smirk.
Said girl bearing my blessing, controlling water, sending me flying across the room, also bearing Apollo's blessing, offering to help us from our predicament and then pushing us into a portal only to be surrounded by a bunch of scary-looking metal soldiers and having about a dozen swords pressed against our necks from all sides. And on top of all that, our powers being restricted—NOT COOL! Definitely, absolutely not cool. Bordering horrifying. I'd be proud of the fact that I haven't pissed myself... yet... I won't lie, it almost happened when a 50-foot dragon just appeared and roared at us so loudly that it reverberated through the air. I'm pretty sure I've gone deaf in one ear. Can you blame me for being scared shitless? We're rendered powerless here!
So here we are—both Apollo and myself—with our hands held up in surrender and about three dozen blades pressed to our necks. "No matter what you do, don't move!" Apollo's voice squeaked as soon as the swords had come to a halt against our necks. As if I were going to move. I like my head attached to my neck, thank you very much!
I am a statue—an immovable statue; I do not want to nor need to move—was what I kept repeating to myself as beads of sweat dripped down the back of my neck.
Or that was what I tried to convince myself. In reality, my muscles started to ache from holding my hand up in surrender for the past three hours. It's not fair, these soldiers are made of metal, they could stand like this for months and not feel tired, I can't!
Oh, gods, don't tell me I'm going to be standing like this for months!!!
Taking a cautious look around, I gathered we were in a domain—Poseidon's domain, to be more specific—given the water all around us. But how? We abandoned our domains eons ago. We figured once we left, the domains would naturally decline due to the absence of our power to sustain them. So how? How can this domain look as good as new? So beautiful?
And why was that throne so small and dainty—I mean, I know it's a weird thing to focus on with all that's going on but can you blame me for wondering? Usually, the thrones were big enough to accommodate us at our normal height. And how in Hades could that girl open a portal to this domain at will? What in Zeus' name is going on here?
The air rippled in front of us, forming a portal, and the smokiest woman I've ever laid eyes on waltzed through it. She waltzed right past us, heading towards the throne and regally took a seat, glancing down at us. "Apologies for being late!" a velvety voice breezed out of her mouth as her sea-green eyes looked down on us, pun intended. The corner of her pink-colored lips twitched in disdain, as though we were a piece of gum caught on the soles of her shoes. I'd be offended if I weren't more bothered by the blades and all.
"You don't look sorry!" Apollo observed, his hands still held up.
"Well, I'd be more sorry if I hadn't spent the past 3 hours cleaning up your mess!"
"Allow me to introduce myself. Persea Jackson, so-daughter of Poseidon, obviously." She motions at her obvious appearance—the sea-green eyes were a dead giveaway but when you add the olive complexion and the jet-black hair, she looks exactly like a female version of Poseidon would, so much so that it's eerie. It's like suddenly thinking Poseidon looked hot! And that's just wrong... I think... She's like really hot so I'm all confused now.
She offers us a sweet smile that has my heart racing and my gut clenching all at once. "Now then, beat them up!" Her voice was harsh as she commanded the soldiers to attack us. My eyes widen as my brain registers her command merely seconds before the weapons come down on us. All the weapons were dropped in an instant and a series of metal punches came raining down on the two of us. Apollo and I were yelping and jumping around, trying not to get struck, while she watched with steely eyes. "Wha-Wai-STOPP!!!" Apollo yells out in pain.
"Why are you doing this!??!" I exclaimed from the floor, where I had curled up into a fetal position to avoid getting struck anywhere that would hurt too badly, i.e., my jewels. Is it just me or are these soldiers all attempting to target us in one general area?
"Because, darlings... you fed your sister, a maiden goddess who has sworn to protect her virginity, aphrodisiac. You need a good beatdown for your stupidity!" She smirked, waving her hand for the soldiers to stop. They bow and take a step back, remaining on guard, while the two of us cautiously stand up. Every inch of my body was aching and I could just picture the black and blue welts that would cover my body by tomorrow.
"Do-does that mean you helped Artemis?" My voice came out strained from all the screaming and pleas for mercy. She tilted her head to one side and snapped her fingers and before we could even react, two soldiers appeared before us, punching us right there.
OH, SWEET ZEUS!
Oh, my jewels!!!
I bit back my strangled scream and drew in a painful breath, my eyes filled with tears as I tried to will the pain to go away. Newsflash, it didn't!
"Who even are you?" I gasped.
She titled her head to the side again, and my hands rushed to protect myself but she simply smirked, "I thought I told you—Persea Jackson. Daughter of Poseidon!" she repeated with a shrug.
"That's impossible! We'd have known if you were."
"You talk as if you're aware of every demigod born and alive at this second." She retorts sarcastically.
"Who are you to the blonde?" Apollo asks the question I was thinking. That's one thing that didn't make sense. The one who sent us here was a teenage girl with blond hair yet the one in front of us was a jaw-dropping, lip-smacking, stunning female Poseidon-lookalike who seemed to derive pleasure from seeing us in pain.
"Oh, I am the blonde." She informed us in a bored tone while checking her nails. "It's a long story, really. I was originally a male. Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon. I was born in the future; I lived my whole life for the sake of my father and Olympus, only to end up being executed for something I never did and then I woke up here, 1000 years in the past, in the body of a girl—but that's fine; I've resigned myself to my fate. And a few days after I decide I want nothing to do with you immortals, guess who comes barging through my doors." She let out a frustrated sigh. "But that's fineee. The fates and I were never really close so I get the fact that they love ruining my life and peace."
"That's impossible!" Apollo exclaimed while I bobbed my head dumbly.
"Well... How else do you explain your blessings?" she pointed out with an unconcerned shrug, "You both obviously never met me, let alone blessed me. Yet I bear your blessings."
It couldn't be. It seemed inconceivable. Even for us. Someone can't just wake up from their death in the past! Even if you consider reincarnation, she would have to be reborn many years after her death, not millennia in the past. And there is no way she'd retain her memories. But how else do we explain the fact that there is a child of Poseidon here, living hidden among the humans, bearing Apollo and my blessings?
"OK. Assuming what you said is the truth..." I start.
"Which I am. I mean, you do have the god of truth standing right beside you. Wouldn't he know if I were lying?" She cut me off, looking at us with an eyebrow raised, as though we were idiots. I whipped my head towards Apollo, having completely forgotten about the god-of-truth part, and gave him a questioning look, to which he nodded his head, indicating she wasn't lying.
"Ok... So it's the truth. Even then, seeing that we gave you our blessings, we must have been close to you, right? So why are you attacking us?"
"You're right. You two were my friends—my brothers—yet you betrayed me, chose your throne over my life, and let me die. So even if I wanted to kill you, I'd be justified, don't you think."
I look to Apollo again, hoping she is lying but seeing the look of horror on his face only confirms that she was telling the truth. We obviously cared enough to give her our blessings and yet we let her die? "Are you going to kill us?" Apollo asks in a small voice. I could see why he was afraid. We were trapped here without our powers, and she obviously had the right weapons to kill us or even imprison us here and torture us.
"Oh no." She says with a snort, I'm not like you two. I'll let you go." I let out a sigh of relief, only to take it back at her next sentence. "Only if you swear that what happened here today stays here. You see, I very much like my life the way it is and I would love to not be dragged into any of your dramas so I need to set precautions. You will swear that you won't reveal anything about me, whether it is the human or demi version of me, to anyone. Not a single word, even remotely related to me, will slip out of your mouth. If you do that, then you're free to leave. If you refuse, I'll let you experience the torture I was put through and trap you here for all of eternity. Nobody will ever find you or even know to look here." she openly threatened with a smirk.
"Are you not worried we will come back for revenge?" I asked, attempting to instill fear in her, but I immediately regretted it as her smirk grew. She pushed herself off the throne and walked slowly toward us, raw power oozing from her being. She stopped a few inches from me with a sneer on her face, and I had to physically stop myself from taking a step back. I gulped.
"You're absolutely free to." She replied, her voice dripping with confidence. "I am perfectly capable of beating the two of you to oblivion, all by my lonesome, without this domain holding your powers back, without all these soldiers fighting with me. I can make your pwetty pwetty face permanently scarred, and I will enjoy every second of it. So don't threaten me, Hermes; you don't know who you're up against. Now either swear or I'll have my soldiers lead you to my dungeon. I don't have all day."
"We'll swear!" Apollo exclaimed all too quickly. "I, Apollo, swear on Styx that–"
"Let me stop you right there." She interrupted, holding up her hand. "I know all about your gods' oaths on Styx and I know how useless they are. So no, you will not swear on Styx."
"Then how do you want us to swear?"
She tilted her head for a minute to think, taking a sweep of the domain before bringing her face back to us with a smirk and saying, "Swear on Chaos."
Horror washed over Apollo's face. "What?!" He squeaked, "You want us to swear on the first being in existence?!"
"Yes! If you swear on a powerful being like Chaos and break it, I can only assume how serious the consequences would be."
"We would die! Our existence would be wiped out!" I exclaim.
"So just make sure you don't break the oath!" She shrugged "Unless you are planning to break the oath after all. This is why I don't trust you gods one bit. You want to swear on Styx because you know that the consequences are minimal yet you don't dare swear on Chaos because if you break it, you die. So yes, you will swear on Chaos and then you can leave. There is no other way to leave this place. It's the whole reason I let you in here."
I clenched my fist. We were fooled right from the start. She didn't send us in here to help us from Artemis. No, it all came down to this moment. From the start, she wanted us at her mercy so that her identity would be safe and hidden from the other gods. "I am not asking you to betray your family, to protect me, or even to never try to kill me. All I'm asking for is that you keep your mouths shut. I think I am being very reasonable here."
I look at Apollo, who gives me a defeated nod, which makes me sigh. What choice did we have? We were played from the start. "I, Hermes, sw---swear to Chaos that I will keep Persea Jackson's identity secret. Not a single word, even remotely relating to her, will spill from my mouth." I felt an ancient power flowing through my veins and tightening itself around my heart as the words left my mouth and I just knew breaking this would lead to my permanent demise. Persea nodded at me with a satisfied look before turning her face towards Apollo, who repeated my oath.
"Good!" Persea said when everything was over, waving her hand towards the door on the other end of the path, which opened, to show Olympus on the other side. "Here's to never seeing each other again!"
I looked at Apollo again as we crossed the portal and I could tell he thought the same thing I did. I don't intend for this to be the last time we see each other. We may have sworn never to speak of her but we never said anything about seeing her again. I could tell Apollo was as curious about her as I was and as guilty for letting her down in the future because we gods do not carelessly give our blessings to others unless we trust them and are close to them. That's why the knowledge that there was someone we gave our blessings to and yet let them down to such an extent was heartbreaking. We will make it up to her. We'll keep her secret and try to befriend her again.
What could possibly go wrong? Right?
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So I wanted to know how I did with Apollo's, Hermes', and Artemis' POVs. Did I capture their nature? Did I do them justice? While reading, did you feel that it sounded like them??? In my head, Apollo and Hermes are more laid-back, somewhat comical gods so I tried to portray them like that. It's been a while since I actually read the Percy Jackson-related books so I don't know if my portrayal aligns with Rick Riordan's.
Are you satisfied with Percy's confrontation with the three gods and how she reacted in their midst??
Don't forget to like, comment, and follow :):):)
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