Aleka, The Fourth Fate

Nico

A maelstrom of thoughts swirled in Nico's head as he followed Alex towards the oldest building in the camp. Alex, who was supposedly the fourth fate and a daughter of Nyx. Just when he thought there would be peace, some Egyptians stumbled into camp, claiming to know Percy and Annabeth. Alex, a fate.... He had only known her a day and a half, and it turns out she was lying through her teeth about who she was. Alex, of all people......
She reached the door, and, after waiting impatiently for them to catch up, opened the door and walked through, the others following her to the rec room. How could she know where the rec room was? Better yet, how did she know where Chiron and the others were? Upon reaching the door, Will reached out, turned the knob, and pushed open the door, only to be met with complete pandemonium.
Apparently, Chiron had called a war council after his discussion with the Egyptians. Seated all around the ping-pong table were the head counselors of each cabin, looking as confused and frustrated as Nico felt.
The magician refugees, an African American man of about 25, an Egyptian girl with raven black hair of perhaps the same age, a blonde haired guy that smiled at Sadie when she sat down next to him, another African American man with a navy blue suit, hat, tinted spectacles, and braids with beads of the same color. Even Rachel Dare was there, the camp's former Oracle of Delphi, who now only visited during the summer.
Everyone was shouting, arguing, and demanding answers. Chiron, in wheelchair form at the head of the table, was trying to quiet them down, unsuccessfully. Nico, Annabeth, and Will had already had already sat down amongst all the uproar, but Nico noticed that Alex had remained standing.
She leaned against the doorframe, her expression that of amusement. Then, out of nowhere, she held out her hand, and a staff as tall as her appeared. It was crafted out of a gnarled and twisted black substance, which Nico guessed were ashes, from the way it shifted and whirled. It was covered with silver markings, hieroglyphics, words and phrases in both Greek and Latin, and other odd runes. It was topped with a medium sized glass orb, filled with a cloudy silver mist.
She examined it for a moment, satisfied, then, gripping it with both hands, struck the ground with it. It made a loud CRACK-ing sound, leaving actual cracks on the floor, and stunning all in the room into silence.
"I apologize," she said, though she didn't sound very sorry. "I would've shouted, but I do love to be dramatic." Her staff crumbled into ashes that disappeared after touching the ground. After dusting her hands off, she looked at all the blank faces and said, "Now, before you all start me swamping with questions, or worse, start arguing again, let me just introduce myself. I am Aleka, the Fourth Fate, the daughter of Nyx, the embodiment of Fate. Yes, I lied, get over it. And don't look at me like that, I'm not here to spout prophecies and scare the daylights out of everyone. I'm here to explain, and I'll call on the most fit to do that."
Alex clapped her hands together, and a lanky man with blonde hair who looked to be in his early twenties appeared next to her. He was dressed like a regular mortal in a t-shirt and jeans, but he radiated power. Nico could feel his eyelids getting heavy, and the only thought he had was that of putting his head down and taking a nice nap. He blinked twice, and told himself to snap out of it.
The man, looking surprised, gave Alex, no, Aleka, one look and paled. "Look, I--" and was cut off by Aleka socking him in the stomach, winding him. "I KNEW this would happen, yet I listened." She hissed. "I lasted about a day, drunk with my own freedom, and in that time, our mother destroyed the Brooklyn House, captured the Egyptian gods, and sent her army above ground."
"How do you know her army's above ground?" the man, whom Nico took to be Hypnos, wheezed, scowling at Aleka.
"No, of course it's not her army. Whose army do you think it is?"
"It could be Chaos's." He said, straightening up.
"Chaos doesn't use the Ashanti to do her bidding." She said, gritting her teeth. "Now, explain to these poor souls what is going on, or so help me, I'll--"
"Okay, okay! Calm down!" The god said, his palms raised in defeat.
She scowled at him at him, and opened her mouth to say something, when she was interrupted by a voice saying, "Oh, do shut up."
Aleka turned, her eyes flashing, and her gaze rested on Sadie, who seemed annoyed. "Are you two going to explain anything, or just argue?" She seemed angry, and Nico could see why. Her eyes looked as if they were once filled with a light, but it had dimmed, possibly because of the destruction of her home. There was an aura about her, an aura of.....loss.
Aleka seemed to notice this and her face softened. "Well, I suppose I am putting it off, aren't I?" She sighed and looked at her brother. "You start," she said. "I'm starting to get a migraine." She leaned against the wall, pulled her dagger out of it's sheath, and turned it between her fingers, and Nico noticed, for the first time, that she had a silver eye.
Hypnos glanced at her, cleared his throat, and began. "As you all probably know, after the Second Giant War, Gaea was lulled back to sleep, her forces diminished, most monsters retreating to Tartarus. But all these wars-- the Second Titan War and the war against Gaea-- have stirred something inside the heart of Tartarus, both literally and hypothetically. What I mean is this: A war is coming, and no god, prophecy, or oracle can tell you of the carnage to come. I've seen...." he said, hesitating, then started again. "I've seen death so great, that rivers of blood, both from mortals and demigods, will flow in the streets. Bodies will be scattered everywhere, their rotting stench inescapable. I've seen worlds and beasts so old Time himself forgot them, now awake. Nyx, Tartarus, and Chaos will combine their forces to rise and destroy the Olympians. They've already captured and chained the Egyptian gods, and locked them away deep in the midst of Chaos, where no one, god or demigod, can venture with a hope to rescue them. Well, every Egyptian god but Anubis." Hypnos's eyes flitted towards one of the magicians' faces for a moment, the man with blond hair and a psychotic amount of amulets around his neck, for a moment, and continued. "But even he cannot re-enter his own domain, for Night's forces have infiltrated and taken over the Underworld. The Duat-- in a way, their form of the Mist-- has been sealed, inaccessible to all. The battle will come in parts, and it may be years until the final battle, the one that will determine peace for six millennia. With smaller problems in between. Not any wars, though."
The room was deadly quiet. No one moved, no one spoke. Everyone just looked at the god of sleep in horror. At last, Chiron spoke up.
"How--how will we prepare for this war? We are disorganized, unprepared, and we have no idea of how to defeat these forces! My lord." the centaur amended.
"That's where Aleka comes in. Aleka?" Hypnos turned to find his sister deep in thought, her eyes transfixed on her silver etched dagger, unaware of everything. He leaned forward and snapped his fingers under her nose. She looked up, startled, and blinked. "Oh, um, I--"
"First you make me explain, then you don't pay attention." The god sighed. "What did you see?"
"The usual," she muttered, and turned to the pale spectators. "So, basically, it might be two things: the end of the world, or it's redemption. Your choice. There is only one way to end this, and to know how, you need a prophecy, because, I'm afraid, no matter how you and I detest them, they're quite needed. Ms. Dare?"
Rachel looked up sharply. She had been listening, stony-faced, the entire time, and seemed surprised when she said, "I don't have control over the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi, not after the the Second Giant War. No more prophecies, remember? I thought you of all people would know that."
"Oh, I do know, and I wasn't expecting one. I merely wanted you to come forward."
Aleka cocked her head at the redhead as she stood up and made her way towards her. "Now, give me your hand." Rachel hesitated, then placed her right hand on top of Aleka's, who turned it over, palm facing up. She pulled out her dagger again. "Now, this may burn just a bit."
She placed the flat of her blade on the other girl's palm. A cry of pain tore from her lips and she yanked her hand away. "What the hell was that for?"
"Necessary precaution." She said. "Now, look at me."
The former oracle straightened and uneasily locked eyes with the fate.
A minute passed, then two. A single bead of sweat trickled down Rachel's neck, but she remained standing, her gaze fixated on the silver and brown eyes of the girl standing in front of her.
Then, Aleka touched her forehead and Rachel doubled over, words in dozens of languages rapidly pouring out of her mouth, too fast to make out. Percy, Piper, Annabeth, Jason and a few others leapt to their feet.
"What did you do to her?" Piper cried, rushing to the convulsing girl's side, whose maroon hair obscured her face.
"No! Don't touch her! She'll be fine, I promise. Just don't go near her."
Jason put his hand on Piper's shoulder and gently pulled her back, glaring at Aleka. "Why should we trust you?"
"You shouldn't," the girl replied, "But you don't have much of a choice."
She knelt down in front of Rachel, who had stopped spouting foreign phrases, and just stood there, still bent over, clutching her stomach, panting as if she had run a mile.
"Rachel," she said, her voice surprisingly gentle. "Can you hear me?"
Slowly, Rachel nodded."Good. Now, listen closely. Think. Picture it. Picture my home, my throne, crafted of fire and pain, overlooking the Acheron. Can you hear the wailing of the Damned? Their cries for mercy, their begging and pleading? Think of my mother, the Night herself, my grandparents, Chaos and Tartarus, Hell and Creation. Picture the House of Night, where unspeakable tortures take place, tortures beyond mortal comprehension, where one glance will obliterate your sanity. Delve deeper into it, the darkness, the hopelessness, the layers of pain and twisted memory, and find them. Find the shattered, jigsaw-like pieces of what is to come, of Fortune and Fate, of Future and the After, the Unreachable. Defy their wishes, go deeper, farther, sift through Time, Space, the Broken, and there. There they are. Reach out. Grab them. The solution to the woes to come. Do you have them in your grasp?"
Rachel nodded again, silent and otherwise unmoving.
"Good, good. Hold onto them, and pull back. Pull away from the Abyss, away from Fear and Endlessness, and come back to your home, and feel relief, Ms. Dare, for you have come what Apollo couldn't do. Now speak, and tell us what you have retrieved."
The former seer straightened, her expression blank, her eyes glassy, and a bright silver.
Nico's stomach had an unpleasant knot of tension, getting tighter and tighter with every word Aleka had spoken. Looking at his friend like this, a friend he had known so long, in a state of frightening indifference, jarred him.
"What did you--" She held up her hand as she rose to her feet, and he fell silent. It felt weird, to be quieted by someone who looked younger than him, so like everyone else, though Nico was starting to see change in the girl he had known for less than a day.
Her disguise was starting to fade. There was a growing streak of white in her hair. He saw the way she carried herself, the power and grandeur that outlined her, that he felt the others were starting to see too. The diminished pride that still thrived, and something that commanded respect. Her ever-beautiful face, the face of a goddess that used to be in chains, that came to the surface only to protect his race, his family, his friends, people she had never knew personally, but was willing to risk everything for, someone more powerful than any god or Titan.
Aleka leaned forward and snapped her fingers.
Rachel's mouth opened and thick black mist spilled out, covering the floor where she stood. Then, a voice spoke. Not the rasping voice of Delphi, no, a different voice, one that pierced the air and filled it with pure, cold, dripping fear.

"To drive away what has arrived,
You must bring back the one you always believed had survived.
You must gain allies, and retrieve the ones' you have,
The forces of the pharaoh will continue to halve.
Attend the vast council of the lords of black magic,
The stories heard will indeed be tragic.
Piece together what has dispersed,
Listen to the harrowing, cursed verse
Of a being of great power that had been wiped from existence
And only came above upon the world's insistence.
Despair my heroes, for what you will face
May redeem your world or cover it in malicious deface.
For it does not end here, oh no,
There is still more to show.
Possession of one who relates,
Fallen and captured, they will be bait
For one's scarred, broken heart, a romance so great.
A kingdom, a myth among myths, will ascend,
A new leader will have to give all power and fend
For its people and pride, like an angel they'll be,
Against the forces of corruption, evil and greed
The final battle, you will see
Death, destruction, and misery.
That's all I can say, I'm afraid
It'll take more than bravery and perseverance to win this crusade."

Her legs gave away, and Percy reached out and caught her before she hit the ground. He looked at Annabeth for a split second, who nodded, and he carried her to a nearby chair and placed her on it. He seemed shaken, as did the rest of them. The words spoken seemed to have proven something to them, that the two weren't lying. Nico could feel the knot get tighter, and slight panic welled up inside him. Finally, someone spoke.
"Couldn't you have done that yourself?" Piper asked. She was trembling slightly, and crossed her arms to steady herself. "You know, being a fate and all."
"I don't exactly qualify to issue prophecy, especially such an important one." Aleka began to twirl her dagger skillfully between her fingers again. "And besides, I couldn't, even if I wanted to."
"Meaning? I thought it was easy to look into the future. And shouldn't you know how all this will end?" "Ignorance." she muttered, her gaze on the ceiling.
"Pardon me?"
"Ignorance, dearie, ignorance. Something that you all seem to have quite a lot of."
Piper's cheeks turned a deep shade of red, and her eyes flashed.
"Who do you think you ar--"
"Your savior. Because, without me, you'll all be dead by tomorrow morning. So I'm afraid you'll have to put it with me."
Percy stiffened, scowled, and said, "What the hell is your problem?"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me; I don't care who you are, you have no right--"
"Funny, I have every right. I came from the pit of Hell to save your sorry lives. There is nothing in this for me. When this is over, one way or another, I'm going to be sent back, back to where I came, so give me the luxury to be bitchy."
"Aleka--" Hypnos began, but was cut off.
"I have every right to to be a sarcastic, horrible being, because I have the weight of an entire race on my shoulders. If I fail, I'll be punished; if I succeed, I'll be punished. There is nothing good in my future, Perseus Jackson, no freedom, no happy ending, so either you shut up and listen, or you'll pay the price, not me. I'll just get what I had before, what I'm used to. If I hear another idiotic thing come out of your mouth, I'll have your head, and with my level of sanity, I'll actually take it. You got that?"
Percy stood there, shell-shocked. The rest of the room seems to be in the same state, no one daring to even breathe.
She turned to the others, a fierce fire burning in her eyes. She examined them for a moment, then said, "I'll need an hour or so to figure the prophecy out. In the mean time, why don't you ponder the ominousity of Ms. Dare's words, hmm?"
With that, she turned, walked out the door, and slammed it so hard behind her that the table shook.
A few minutes passed in uncomfortable silence, and was only broken when Hypnos spoke the following:
"That went surprisingly well."

Notes

....Well, this is awkward. Let me start of by saying it wasn't my fault. We had to drive from Texas to Cali with no internet for some family emergency or something. I wrote most of this on the Notes App onthe way back.
Also, to everyone who is familiar with this fanfiction, I suggest you go back and read the summary again and the character descriptions and the previous chapters, from chapter 1 to here, as I have edited them slightly.
I'm feeling really driving sheepish right now..... My reads have gone from, like, 256 a day when I updated regularly, to, basically, NO reads a day.

#SheldonYouReadMyMind
I hope this chapter is good enough, as I spent pratically three months writing it or something.
please enjoy, and try not to hate me.....
~Marium ☆