𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎 | Confused, angry and despairing; Luke's current emotions

WHEN Luke had opened his eyes, he had expected to find himself in the Underworld. He had expected to see dark caverns, Charon waiting to take him to be judged so that his ate could be decided.

Instead, he was met with a wood ceiling. His eyebrows furrowed, pushing himself up onto his forearm, with a wince, rubbing at the very real pain in his side. He didn't know where he was, that was for sure.

Twisting, the man stood up, placing his feet onto the cold wooden floor and attempting to stand. As soon as he did, his legs gave out, and he landed on the floor with a thump. Everything went silent, and Luke's past from being on the street kicked in, as he managed to push himself upright, grabbing onto his old sword, which sat in the corner of the room, and hiding behind the door.

It creaked open, with little to no protest, and just as Luke saw the boot appearing in the room, he raised his sword to their throat. The stranger did the same to him, and for a moment, Luke's mind went blank, before he recognised the familiar eyes staring back at him, just as shocked as he was.

"What-?" He trailed off. "Freyja?"

"Luke." But she didn't sound surprised to see him. A thought ran through Luke's body as he began to shake his head.

"Please..." Freyja lowered her sword, her eyebrows furrowing. "Please don't tell me you're dead. Freyja, no."

"Luke."

"You said you'd live."

"Luke, I'm not dead." Luke shook his head. He knew that he was dead. He'd felt himself die, felt Kronos die inside of him. Freyja sighed again, before grabbing onto Luke's hand and pressing it to her chest.

Her hoodie was soft (and looked suspiciously like his) and her hand was warm against his own. Were dead people supposed to have cold hands? He wondered what he was doing until he felt something against his hand. It was the familiar thrum-thrum of a heartbeat, a heartbeat meaning that Freyja was alive.

"How are you here and alive?"

"We're not in the Underworld, per se." Freyja licked her lips, something she only did when she was truly scared.

"Bubbles. What have you done?" She couldn't meet his eye, sheathing Epilogue and stashing it away. "Bubbles."

"Ke. It's nothing you need to worry about."

"If I'm in the human world again, after having you kill me, then perhaps it is something I need to worry about." Luke countered. He noticed the way she stiffened at his words, her shoulders tensing. "What have you done?"

"I've righted a wrong." Freyja's voice was weary.

A horrifying thought occurred to Luke as he stood there. He reached upwards, pressing his fingers to the pulse point on his neck, hoping and praying that he wouldn't find what he thought he would. But sure enough, he could feel it.

Thrum-thrum. Thrum-thrum.

His heart was beating again. Air was filling his lungs and blood was rushing through him, waking his brain and igniting an anger inside of him.

"Freyja. What did you do?" He knew that the only way you could resurrect someone was to barter with Hades. But Freyja wouldn't have done that. Freyja wouldn't have been stupid enough to barter with Hades. "Tell me you did not barter with Hades."

"I did not barter with Hades." There was no lies in her words, and her left ring finger did not twitch. She was telling the truth. "I did not barter with Hades, I swear to you."

"Then what did you do? What did you sacrifice to get me to live? To get a traitor to live?"

"You're not a traitor!" Freyja spat, finally spinning to glare at him. "You're not a traitor. You're a hero. You were right all along, Luke, and I wasn't going to let you die. I wasn't going to let you get to the Underworld when you died because I chose wrong!"

"You didn't have a choice. I asked you to kill me because it was the only way to stop Kronos, to right the wrong that I had created! The titans would have been worse, so the gods had to stay in power. They had to listen to what we had to say!" Luke cried in response.

"The gods wouldn't have listened!"

"You don't know that. They've heard what the demigods have said."

"And ignored it." Freyja hissed. "They don't care about you. About any demigod. They never have, and never will. Even after you died, it did not affect any of them, bar Hermes. They carried on as they always do, as if none of this ever happened."

"You sound like me. I was angry and bitter and confused." Luke stepped closer to her, glaring down at her. "I resurrected a Titan and started a war because of it. Don't be like me. You should have left me dead."

"They didn't listen when you started a war. They didn't listen when Percy turned down immortality and asked nicely." Freyja growled. "I had to do something. I caused this war, not you, or Kronos, me."

"How? You were supposedly dead for the most part?"

"And don't you understand that by me 'dying', I sent you down that path? I changed the course of fate." Freyja backed away. "There wasn't just one prophecy in play in these past few years. There was two. One, everyone knew, and one just for me. I broke a promise, and I almost caused Olympus' doom."

"There was another prophecy?"

"I had a choice, Luke." Freyja backed away. "I chose wrong. I chose to obey my family, and I shouldn't have."

"You chose to obey me. What makes that wrong?"

"I was ordered to kill you long before you asked me to." Freyja revealed. "I was asked to kill you as soon as I demanded to know why I wasn't told about you raising Kronos. I was told I had a choice, serve my punishment, or kill you and gain back the respect of my family. After we spoke, in the Labyrinth, I was persuaded to chose the latter."

"What-?"

"I knew you were going to die from the moment we went on that quest." Freyja shook her head. "I knew my grandfather would never let you live once he found out that I was in love with you. Deep down, I always knew. But my grandfather's clever, he knew that the best way to control me was have some modicum of control over you."

"Your grandfather...?" Luke stepped after Freyja's retreating form. "Kronos?"

"But then he lost the control over you, but gained control of me and he asked me to kill you." Freyja shook her head. "None of the older gods would help me barter, not even Apollo. They wouldn't risk Zeus' wrath. My own mother told me that I should just go along with it. So I did and I killed you, and then listened as they said that they wouldn't honour their promise. They wouldn't honour their oath! Something that I'd been punished so severely for when I told you that I loved you!"

"What oath?" Luke grabbed onto Freyja, planting her in one place. "Freyja, what oath? What have you done?"

"I broke from the Greek Parthenon." Freyja spoke carefully, a tired smile plastered on her face. "I split the relationship between the Norse and the Greek gods. I spat at Zeus' face and wished death on all of them. Then, I gave up all remnants of my Greek powers to resurrect you."

Hiya,

Hehehehehe. We're gonna finally see all of Freyja's Norse powers and what's happened is finally revealed. More will be explained in the next chapter, but it's gonna be juicy.

Anyhow, the meme for this chapter was made by thetrueblackheart and I think it fits perfectly. If you wanna send me memes, please do.

Question of the Day ; Favorite Olympian God?

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx