Jackson's POV

The same two arguments echoing throughout my head...my world. A male and a female from what I can tell. His roaring shouts, her screeching belts of vocals. I hold legs to my chest, rocking myself side to side.

"And what are we supposed to do here!?" She screams

"You're the self-proclaimed perfection that none of us could reach! You think of something!" He returns

The sounds gradually becoming muffled as hands cup my ears from behind, briefly letting go so that she can crouch in front of me. Her clear speech reaching through my ears, watching her lips move as the two behind her continue to take a more physical stance to each other.

"Are you okay?" She asks. Returning a nod to reassure her. "That's good to hear!" She momentarily looks behind her with a concerning look. "This hasn't happened to us before, so I'm not really sure what to do next" She tilts her head to the side with a stumped gaze.

Shaking her hair from her face she meets eyes with me, "Why is it you don't remember this time Jackson? It's like you've just been born again..." She strokes my hair with a sympathetic look. The once peaceful facial features turning into one of horror as she immediately turns up with a twist, standing in front of me and now facing the two figures.

"-the girl" I hear the woman speak with an obsessive tone as the large man leans down through the doorway with a deep growl.

-

"Hey wake up!" I feel a pressure against my face as Nimue grabs hold of my cheek, pinching and moving back and forth.

Finding myself staring down at her this time I notice my lack of connection to the ground, a familiar itch crawling against my skin as Athena carries me on her back. "You were conked out like a log, sleep well I take it?" Nimue continues to speak. Eyeing the rest of the group I notice the change in environment, the home we were previously at, no longer within eye distance.

"Where are we?" I question.

"We're almost there, as to where. I have no clue" She shrugs with a laugh.

"And Luka?"

"Gone, same with the rest of the house. We all woke up beside each other outside of it. When you weren't waking I was panicking so Athena wrapped you up so we could keep moving before we spent a whole day there." She bashfully scratches the back of her head. Tapping Athena's shoulder for her to let me down.

"Looking for something?" Percy notices my concerned look as I look around for Irene.

"N-no, it just felt weird to go from soft grass to this hard surface." I poorly lie, but admittingly I didn't understand what we were actually standing on. The sounds of our feet trotting against the black marbled floor that appears raised from the stoned mountain.

"Is...this it?" Arthur places Gabriela down from his back, watching her nod but tighten her grasp around his hand. Her once shaky figure now firm as she marches ahead of us, letting her luminous green hair flow freely through the newly formed fog.

"You know I never noticed it until now...but do you think it's possible-" Athena ponders out loud, looking towards Percy and Adam before a smile whips across her face. Meeting the gaze of the two starstruck guys as if something clicked into their head.

"How?" Percy asks, only adding to my confusion.

"Who knows" She shrugs back, continuing to walk with a little energy to her step.

"What are they talking about?" I stare up to Nimue but she appears just as confused as me.

"I mean...if we're right about this, then you'll see" Adam's deep laugh dissolves the anxiety that was building within me, walking beside Percy as they walk through the fog to catch up to the others.

Similarly having my hand pulled by Nimue as we walk alongside them. An unnatural green glow lights up the once white fog, "Shouldn't we be going around this? And not directly through it?" Nimue calls out.

"Well with the way Gabriela's acting, this seems to be exactly what we want!" Adam calls back, shouting despite the short distance between us.

"Wait!" Arthur calls out, causing us all to pause.

"Wolves..." A feminine voice hums out. Her floaty frame gradually forming from the green fog with rugged robes and lanky clawed fingertips. Our natural instinct to group up almost going against us as another appears.

"Here they come..." She circles us alongside the other one.

"And here they die..." More circle out from the fog, joining the others in a silent parade.

"Banshees?" Percy questions towards the others.

"Gabi!?" Arthur calls out, reaching for the fog with an empty hand. A look of betrayal whipping across his face as his once fear ridden look is replaced by one of rage. Unsheathing his sword and aiming it towards the spinning Banshees.

"W-we just want to talk" I try to reason with them, extending my hand out to one but Nimue pulls me back defensively. Cold sweat dripping down her head as she continues watching them with an angered gaze.

A sudden pause in their spiralling, tilting their heads to the air with a hushed whistle. An insanely deep inhale, whispered through the fog and returned to their bodies.

"Loch" Adam whispers before I turn around to him. The realisation of what's about to happen only now hitting me as the hairs on his fur stand up. Recalling the sight of Percy who I already believed to be huge, now rethinking my judgement as Adam's eyeline still sits far above my own.

"WAIT ADAM!" She tries to warn but he's already thrown himself in the direction of two of them.

I attempt to break free of Nimue's grasp but her hand tightly grips my wrist, crushing it almost. Her left arm raised and covering her other eye in a quiet panic. "My-vision" She murmurs out, unable to feel my tugs.

I quickly look back to Adam after hearing a clank burst through the deafening silence, his growls full of desperation and anger as he viciously bites down on the object. "My...you are a lively...one, Adam" An icebound voice sings out. Immediately causing him to release his bite, backing up and standing guard of Percy.

The metallic object fading back into the luminescent green, a ghastly hand unfit to the size of any normal being. Sweeping the fog around as if making room for something, "Gabi!" Arthur calls out after noticing the green hair flow through the fog, running towards it but comedically sliding across the marbled floor.

"And what would you be wishing of my daughter?" She leans her face through the fog, causing him to drop to the floor in shock.

"What!?" He lays on the floor, lifting himself up with his arms to peer just behind her. Gabriela's shocked face immediately causing her body to rush and help him out, which he gladly accepts. "Are you okay" He brushes his hand down her hair as the figure between them smiles with a curious expression.

"I apologise on behalf of my people, welcome, and hello again. Percy, Athena, Adam...and it appears we have some new faces?" She looks between me, Nimue and back to Arthur.

"So the person she knew would have some answers...was you, ironic how we always end up back to you. Isn't it?" Athena laughs alongside Percy, exchanging greetings with the woman before introducing her. "This is Cliodhna, Queen of these banshees and one of the reasons we were even able to save Percy. Which she has my deepest thanks for. The man's Arthur, his sister, Nimue. And J-"

"Jackson" She completes.

"You know me?" I call out.

"You were with Oracion...for quite some time. Where's the girl, Irene?" She looks around, unable to find her within the group. Looking almost disappointed when she can't find her. "As for the irony, the gift of defying the law of reality, and yet the worst curse of them all. I've been here for quite some time so it wouldn't be unnatural for us to share some faces." She hums out like a song.

"We've got a few questions...quite a few to be exact" Nimue regains herself, immediately reconstructing her attitude to the situation.

"Well that all can be answered, let us find a more suitable place to be comfortable in. And before I forget, these individuals are the only reason as to why you're all free. I'd be thanking them if I were you." She addresses the banshees surrounding us, their malice quickly whipped away by their respect for her.

"Sorry..." They all respond repeatedly. Breaking apart and flowing back to the sides of the dissipating fog.

"As we walk let me first answer your most contained question, I can see it written across your face. Athena." She points her out with the corner of her eye as Athena tries to hide behind Adam with a smug smile. "You're wondering how she came to be, aren't you?".

"How'd you guess?" Athena responds.

"Well it isn't hard. She's truthfully an anomaly through nature, something special that's for sure." She flows her hand through Gabriela's hair, appearing as an exact copy of each other. "Us banshees were born through other means...as given by our forms. Typically a mother who has lost themselves after a deep grief, tied to the gowns of her last body and shrieking out with a bloodcurdling pain of sorrow."

"I'm sorry" Nimue quickly comments.

"Don't be. As from what I know, that is not my story." Cliodhna states, returning back to her explanation. "But as you can see, Gabriela is within human flesh. Although she's anything but that. Given the circumstances I took precautions I wouldn't ever do if it wasn't for my love for her, so understand that I'm truly sorry I never gave any meaning behind your need to contain your voice. Forever keeping that docile and quiet nature about you, sending you off towards the ones I trust and never believing you'd find a scenario to use your voice in. But we can fix that, from what I know." She leads us through to a tower built into the mountain, opening the door and watching us fill it in just behind her. Lighting up the way as we go along with a flame lit candle.

"I would desire an explanation as to what happened to her once I'm done." She looks back to us, receiving a firm nod as confirmation. "When I was given the chance to protect my people I used that orb you received from Cerberus, Percy." We walk past the gathering Banshees as they flow freely to make way for us.

"I remember that, what about it?" He recalls.

"I mentioned Gabriela wasn't human. I'm her mother, so who do you believe to be her father?"

"Cer-?" She rushes to hush Adam's lips with a finger, sliding it off with a smile and continuing her walk forward. His extended jaw in shock as he tries to comprehend her words.

"As old as Gabriela appears she ages at a slower rate, less comparable to humans, much like you wolves. But not everyone lives forever and so before placing them all inside, I had...a friend place a lock of sorts on it. Forcing the individuals inside it to become frozen in time as to not be robbed of their years to come. I had the Moon Goddess alert me of the location of this friend once I reclaimed it as even I lost her whereabouts. When they were released, they were welcomed by this new era, being forced to understand new meanings, species and landscapes. She never really got time to explore the world for herself, always trapping herself within the stories of books and knowledge of the outside from that point on. I feared my overprotectiveness of her took over, giving her the chance to go free, I allowed her there. Living among humans, knowing you all would welcome her." She leads through the carpeted room, lighting up the way and eventually stopping to show off the free space she's granted us.

The group spreads along the chairs, tables and soft rugs while she speaks. "Make yourself at home, I'm afraid we don't nesseciarally need to eat ourselves and so I have nothing to offer. But do rest and stay as long as you would like." She sits on a table, guiding Gabriela to stand next to her. Running a finger across her scarred mouth with guilt.

"We actually want to speak about something that has to do with what happened to Gabriela" Percy begins, taking Cliodhna's interest.

"Go on." She taps Gabriela's back, urging her to re-join whoever she likes. And finding herself beside Arthur.

"What does the name...Hemsa, mean to you?" Adam continues, visibly distraught by Cliodhna's hair suddenly spiking up but not out of rage. But instead...fear.