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The field was terse, soot and fire covered the ground and filled the air, fizzling out in sulphuric bubbles.

The air used to be invigorating; the ocean would crash and whisper against the sand. The laughter of children travelling across Long Island sound, the giggle of naiads in the water, the hiss of insects in the forest.

The forest had now been turned to ash.

In the midst of the blaze and charcoal, a girl stood.

Percy swore she grew a couple of inches, towering over the valley like a deadly force. Her shoulders straight, muscles clenched, albeit weak and bruised, but all the same firm.

Percy sat amongst the sediment in a state of shock, staring dumbly at (Y/N) like she was from another planet. Something about her green eyes, dark hair and tanned skin made his blood burn, it was so offbeat from the angelicness of her white hair had and the bottomlessness of her warm eyes.

"Duh," she said with a grin. Her face had warmed up, cheeks no longer hollow and sunken in, and the bags under her eyes had disappeared. She looked healthy and vibrant.

"What?" Hades roared. "How are you even standing!"

The Cerviels moaned as his voice rose.

Annabeth's eyes twitched, looking more pissed than confused.

"Someone paid me a visit in my dreams," (Y/N) cast a glance at Percy, but he was already staring at her. She managed to show him a meek smile.

"Damn-it Hestia, damn-it all!" Hades snapped.

The hellhounds by his feet grovelled, whimpering as Long Island Sound started to churn and toss in violent waves.

"She told me about my parents. She told me everything. Your curse has no effect on me anymore," (Y/N) said as she started towards him.

Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed, scrambling to her feet.

"It all makes sense now. It was Hestia that told her the truth, not Hades!" Annabeth's eyes widened. "Her powers stayed adrift, locked away, with the probity of her past,"

"She's a kathréftis. A soul switcher." Chiron muttered.

(Y/N) now understood Kronos vocations, from the moment they met, they were destined to each other, linked for better or for worse. Percy had chosen her. She had chosen him. It was all subconscious; like the missing puzzle piece clicked and now everything was clear. The mirror was no longer foggy.

"You hurt my friends," (Y/N) grumbled under her breath.

The sea behind her gurgled in anticipation, rising and falling with the light moon. Her fluorescent eyes sparkled, adrenaline surging across her veins.

Hades gawked as her hair started to float, as if it had a mind of its own. The ocean called to her, following her every move, and Percy watched to rapt silence as she slowly walked towards him.

"Damn you!" Hades bellowed.

The hellhounds snarled, deterred by their masters words.

(Y/N) rubbed her hands together, as if she was cold, and the air around her rippled, like she was cast inside of a bubble of water.

The hellhounds by Hades side whimpered and started to paw at the ground.

Seawater churned in the bay, waves crashing violently agaisnt the shore. Darkness surrounded the beach, water lashing out like a snake and hitting the sand dunes, slamming down agaisnt the rocks and cracking them in two.

"Stand up and fight cowards!" Hades roared.

The hellhounds barked, grovelling before they reluctantly charged the girl. They shook their hands and wailed in fear as they pounced on her with slobbery gobs and bared fangs.

"Watch out!"

A dog leapt at her, but it barely got close to her before she kicked it right in the face. Percy thought her foot would crumble under the dog's ballast, but the Rottweiler was sent flying back into its friends.

(Y/N) pivoted her foot and splayed her hands out wide, watching the ocean hiss under her command. A hundred-metre wave rose from a frothy birth, and in an instant loomed across the valley, casting a heavy shadow across her friends. (Y/N) curled her hands into fists, watching with riveted attention as abrupt tendrils of water snapped out from the provisions, lashing angrily at anything nearby.

One tendril pierced a rank of some Cerveils, and before the poison could even escape their papery bodies, it was absorbed into the water.

"No way..." Annabeth stumbled back onto her knees, caught up in the intense power (Y/N) was emitting.

(Y/N) dropped her hands to her sides, and the wave followed her command and flattened an entire quadrant of hellhounds. They screamed, swept away with the pressure of a hurricane, and forced into nothingness.

Hades stumbled back, narrowly missing the water lost all personification and drifted back into the shore.

"Hypocritical coward," (Y/N) muttered as the ocean rose up to her aid and scooped her into its current.

It was almost ethereal watching her fight; (Y/N) stood amongst the water, ice angrily snapping at her heels. And then she started walking, slow and graceful like everything was under her control.

The water followed under her feet like slime, sticking to the soles of her shoes, urging her forward into great, powerful strides. Her hair flowed with the ocean, like its own body of water, rippling with the tides and currents. Her eyes glowed and narrowed as she lowered herself, face to face with Hades.

Hades dark eyes perforated into her own, his teeth gritted in anger. He looked cruel, cold and very angry. Rage melted off him in layers, the shadows curled around his feet, responding to his fury.

"Curse you Diana, curse you and you're heritage."

(Y/N) didn't even flinch, it was like she was an entirely new person. She wasn't the cold, trembling girl Percy used to know. She wasn't closed off, angry and cynical. She wasn't malicious and bitter. Her true spirit had finally blossomed.

Percy had noticed it before; her determination and fearlessness, but now she had the strength to back up her claims.

Before she had cowered under Hades malevolent stare and now she snarled back at him defiantly.

The god raised his fist, threatening to hit her, and she replied with a sickening slap agaisnt his pale cheek. The crack against his skin seethed, filtering into the air until it grew eerily quiet.

The god stared at her in disbelief, shocked that she would do such a thing.

Percy and his friends stared in disbelief as (Y/N) turned the water to ice. The hail grew and sharpened, and Hades eyes widened as it poked out from the deadly wave of water, and slammed right into his ribs.

He was sent stumbling on his feet and fell back, tipping up on hid sark robes. Shadows curled under him and softened the landing, but the look of unadulterated shock on his face never fell.

"You look a little scared, Hades,"

Hades eyes snapped open again tinged with the most menacing look she had ever seen.

"I'll kill you..." He grunted. "I'll slaughter everyone here,"

Hades collapsed into a puff of black clouds. His disappearance seemed to agitate (Y/N) further and the ocean rumbled darkly and capsized the field, washing over her and wiping out the entire Cerviel army.

Water burbled and splattered the ground, washing away everything. Plumes of juniper and wildflowers were destroyed in the wreckage. Trees were uprooted and sent flying into the sky, hit and destroyed by roaring thunder and angry lightning.

Hellhounds were flattened until their skin peeled off; wiped from existence.

(Y/N) disappeared into the churning waves flattening the fields, engulfed by the sea.

It seemed that angering a Kathréftis was a very bad idea.

The water consolidated again. Hundreds of snake-like tendrils snapping and lunging back and forth, exactly like Medusa.

(Y/N) jetted out of the water like a shooting star, balancing on a pole of ice. Her hair was stuck to her skull, matted with water and the phosphorescence in her eyes hardened.

Percy wondered faintly, amidst a raging storm what she was going to do, but his questions were answered when she jumped.

Jumped, yes jumped.

At least 50 metres in the air, mesmerised as she summoned the sword she found in the artillery shed what seemed like years ago, and pierced the wing of a flying bat.

It screamed, beady eyes widening as it banked left. (Y/N) forced herself into the bat, using all the momentum she could to throw herself into the air. While managing a mid-air flip, she cleaved the head of the bat right off its shoulders, and it dispersed into a puff of dark mist.

It was by far the luckiest jump Percy had ever seen someone do, and judging by the gruelling look on (Y/N)'s face, it was unquestionably intentional.

The ice post from before materialised again, jutting-out from the stagnant wave, allowing her a safe landing.

Lightning clapped across the clouds and (Y/N) didn't even flinch. She threw her straight through the hail and rain, and pegged the second bat right in the head.

Annabeth gawked at the precision of her shot. (Y/N) had always come off as the kind of person without a strategy, just running head-long into battle waiting to get killed. But she would've had to calculate the physics and wind trajectory of that kind of strike, using the rain not only as an aid but as a smokescreen as well.

Annabeth huffed sourly, surely it was a fluke.

Disarmed, (Y/N) bolted across the beam as the last bat came for her. She flipped, bent her back so low it looked like a model rendition of the matrix and dodged the bat's pincers. The water splintered, lunging to her aid and ripping the bat to shreds.

Hades army had been slaughtered, and yet (Y/N) still stood, her expression very telling of a person who was readying up for the real fight.

The water remaining started to thrash, the night was loud with chaotic.

"Come out, Hades."

(Y/N)'s eyes glowed radiation green. Her expression was steely and it reminded Percy of Chiron when the centaur was very angry. She looked unreadable, the winds thrashing around (Y/N) like her own personal hurricane.

It was quiet for a moment before Hades rematerialised in front of her, six metres tall and oozing eery corruption.

"What is that you want from me...(Y/N)?" Hades murmured, his expression souring.

(Y/N) hesitated, and dropped her guard.

Percy wanted to scream at her, tell her to strike him down, get it over with before he turned on her and killed everyone, but his mouth was sealed shut.

"The truth," her voice cracked when she spoke this time, and she looked suddenly defeated. "I want the truth,"

Hades sighed. "Who's truth?"

"Why you?" (Y/N) muttered. "Why did you have to be the villain?"

Percy couldn't make out anything they were saying, it was like they were speaking in riddles. But (Y:N) question seemed to spark something in Hades, because he smiled sadly.

"I mistook you for a fool. It seems it wasn't too hard to unravel,"

"Kronos was the one who cursed me," (Y/N) said.

Annabeth's eyes bulged. Percy stared dumbly at them as the clouds parted and sunshine shot through the muck like a golden halo.

The wave of thrashing water dropped lifelessly and surged backwards; settling into the dunes and slithering across the bay, disappearing into the sparkling waters.

Hades chewed his lip and waved his hand. They both dropped their high vantages and landed on the charred grass.

"When you were born, Kronos wanted you erased from existence. You were an unusual exception to his rule of illusion and dilapidation, even as he slumbers in the pits of Tartarus. You have Kathréftis blood running in your veins," Hades explained.

(Y/N)'s eyes softened and her lips quivered, like hearing the truth stung deeper then manticore poison.

"Hestia sheltered you from the world, bathed you in ice with the power of the Hyperborean Giants and Poseidon sunk you deep underwater,"

"Why was it you," (Y/N)'s voice hung in the air and an uncomfortable silence consumed the campers.

"I was drawn to you," Hades said.

(Y/N) eyed him carefully, trying to mask her confusion. "You were a gentle, bashful baby, always giggling and playing. I'd never seen someone so...at ease in their own skin. I wanted you for my own, to light up the iniquity of my existence.,"

"Being the God of the Underworld, my brothers never allowed it," he sounded sad, so incredibly sad and it made (Y/N)'s stomach flip.

"At the Winter Solstice when you submerged from the waters of Olympus, I thought it was my chance to be happy again,"

The sky crackled and the sunlight glistening through the clouds was consumed by darkness again.

(Y/N) eyes sulked and swarmed over in stormy colours, like a tsunami, trying to digest the information she was given.

"My brothers refused to let me have you as my own. They said I would corrupt your probity and that you would be unsafe in my care...being so close to Tartarus and all," Hades eased his voice back but the darkness remained.

Percy found it strange to see (Y/N) so quiet and tormented. It was like she was a completely different person.

"My brothers banished me from seeing you and I was so...so angry. I would be the scapegoat to fool Kronos. If I distracted my father and washed you in my shadowed presence, then it wouldn't alert him of your presence. But it seems I was too late..."

"Hades..." (Y/N) mumbled, looking down at her feet in shame.

"And now he knows your alive, and he will come for you, and he will destroy you,"

The camp went silent as the clouds tossed and turned and tore themselves apart. Sunshine raged across the sky, piercing the dark clouds and driving them away. The dark chaos churned slightly before disappearing completely.

It seemed as though the prophecy had been played out, but not in a way Percy had ever expected.

Annabeth always said the Oracle spoke in double meanings.

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