I DO NOT OWN THE PJO/HoO SERIES, RICK RIORDAN DOES!!! THIS IS JUST A FANFICTION!!!

Chapter 13

Celeste had never moved faster.

She swam at an incredible speed, maybe even faster than Nora had, she didn't know.

The familiar sound of panic at the palace as they realized she was gone made her go even faster.

The currents pushed against her, obviously her father, but she easily bent the ocean to her will. Her father wouldn't stop her that easily.

She swam and swam and swam until her limbs begun to ache from the effort. She stopped, catching her breath and trying to rest.

"Celeste...I'm coming for you..."

"SHUT UP!" Celeste screamed.

There was no response.

Celeste stared longingly up at the surface, thinking about her brother once more. The stinging reminder that he no longer remembered who she was made a small, choked sob escape her.

"Why me?" Celeste murmured to the sky.

"Don't give up hope, young one." A voice said from behind her.

Celeste whirled to see a woman draped in darkness, her eyes cold and dark as night and her mouth etched into a thin line.

She looked as if she'd been to hell and back.

"Who are you?" Celeste asked, rising to her feet.

"That is not of import, but I do know your father." The woman said.

Celeste grumbled. "If you're here to take me back to him, I won't cooperate. I may be 6 years old but I can still defend myself."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "I have no intention of taking you back to him. That man is a fool. I'm here to speak to you."

Celeste looked at the woman skeptically. "Can you at least tell me your name?"

The woman sighed in annoyance. "Night. I am the goddess Night. Now enough foolish games. I need to speak to my daughter."

"Your daught-" Celeste cut off in a gasp as the woman, Night, placed two fingers on Celeste's forehead.

Celeste's bright sea green eyes rolled black and melted into dark black ones, similar to the goddess's.

"Hello mother." The demon child, Kayla, said through Celeste's voice box. "What an unexpected surprise."

"Enough child. Your antics end now. I care not of this girl's life, but you will stop this killing nonsense." Night scowled.

Kayla scoffed. "First you kick me out cause I'm not dark enough for you, not evil enough, and when I finally come up with a brilliant plan to take down Olympus, a blood bond on one of the most powerful demigods of this era, you tell me to stop!? If that's not mixed messages Mother then I don't know what is."

Night snarled, grabbing Celeste/Kayla by her neck.

Kayla just smirked as she felt her half-sister's wind pipe closing.

"Celeste protects me. All harm goes to her, not me. My body and soul is safely locked away in the corner of her mind. Soon, I will have complete control over her. You can't hurt me." Kayla said hastily.

Night released the small girl and watched her drop to the ground with a harsh cough.

"I may be dark, but I do not want to get on the bad side with the rulers of Olympus. And neither do you. You may be an immortal goddess Kayla, but that gives you no right to create a blood bond, one of the most dangerous forms of magic out there." Night said.

Kayla laughed through Celeste. "That's cute. You think you're protecting me!? You cast me out when I was 4 years old! Because I was too good! You said I had too much of my father, too much of the sea, well forget that! Celeste here has my problem. This little brat is my one way ticket to revenge. And nothing, not you, my father, or any of the gods of Olympus, can stop me from changing my mind."

Night's black eyes flickered dangerously.

"I don't want to have to kill you Kayla, but I will." Night hissed.

Kayla smirked. "Go ahead and try."

Then Celeste dropped like a stone.

Night stood over the unconscious demigod girl's body and waited as she slowly came back to consciousness.

"Wh-What happened?" Celeste croaked, rubbing her head.

"I think it's about time for you to leave, Celeste." Night said softly.

Celeste groaned. "No, I already said I'm not going back to the palace!"

"That's not what I meant." Night said with almost regret in her voice.

She unsheathed a small Celestial bronze dagger from her belt.

Celeste gasped.

She bolted the other direction but found herself frozen.

"Help!" Celeste screamed.

Her powers flickered inside her and the dark rage swirled within. She felt the spell start to break and prepared herself to dash for it.

The goddess stood in front of her. "I'm sorry, Celeste. But this is for a good reason."

The spell was almost broken when a sharp cold blade priced through Celeste's abdomen.

Her mouth opened in shock, and she thought it was a silent scream, but the pain never came.

Panicking, Celeste glanced down to see the blade going through her.

It wasn't injuring her at all.

Night's eyes widened. "Impossible. Celestial bronze is the most deadly metal in the world. How is this even possible?"

"Blood bond..." The voice whispered in Celeste's head.

Celeste wanted to be annoyed, but she was too shocked.

The goddess and the demigod stared at each other for quite a long time before Celeste finally broke the tension and bolted for the palace.

Forget running away, she needed help and she needed to figure out what was wrong with her.

•••

Celeste's small fist pounded on the palace doors with surprising firmness.

The large door squeaked open and revealed a merman in guard uniform.

His eyes widened in relief on seeing Celeste. "Your Majesty! Your daughter had returned!" The guard called.

Celeste followed the merman inside to see her father glance up and dash towards her.

He pulled her in a hug and then gave her a stern face. "What were you thinking!?" He boomed. "I told you stay in your room!"

"I needed answers." Celeste said firmly.

"And?" Poseidon asked expectantly.

Celeste sighed. "I got them. From Night."

"You what!?" Poseidon exclaimed.

"Celeste!" A voice rang from down the hall. It was Nora and her eyes were red and puffy from crying. When she saw Celeste back in the palace, her face broke into a relieved smile.

She darted towards her friend and tackled her in a hug. "Don't do that again!" She said nervously.

"I'm sorry, but I need to talk to you and my father about something." Celeste said.

"What is it?" Poseidon asked.

"A woman, a goddess, spoke to me when I left. She said her name was Night." Celeste said. "And she tried to kill me, but the blade went through me. I didn't even hurt."

Poseidon and Nora were silent for a moment. Then, Poseidon's eyes narrowed into slits and he stormed away. "I'll be back soon. Nora, watch her!" He rumbled.

Nora nodded and grabbed Celeste's hand. "Come on, do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. But I can't shake the feeling that she wanted to talk to my voice, not me." Celeste said.

"And why would you say that? Do you think your voice is...controlling you?" Nora asked cautiously.

"It would explain why I don't remember killing Francis or anything else." Celeste said with a sigh.

Nora's eyes filled with pity and she stroked Celeste's black curls. Nora pulled the necklace out from a satchel around her waist.

"You forgot this." Nora said with a small smile.

"Oh, Nora, about that, I'm sorry, I was just upset and-"

"It's okay. Here, take it." Nora said.

Celeste smiled and took the necklace. She wrapped it around her neck and looked happily at the pendant.

She put her eye to it and saw Percy eating dinner with Sally. They were having blue spaghetti.

Celeste laughed, dropping the pendant.

Nora cocked her head. "What did you see?"

"Just my crazy brother." Celeste said with a sad smile. "I miss him so much..."

"I know. I miss my brother too. But we have bigger things to deal with, right?" Nora said.

Celeste nodded. "Yeah. What do I have to do?"

"Fight it as long as you can. I know Poseidon has a plan to fix this, whatever it is." Nora said.

Celeste smiled and followed her friend back to her room. They allowed themselves to relax, blissfully unaware of the horrifying future ahead of them.

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A/N

I don't know if anyone will read this (XD) but thanks for 10K on Daughter of the Sea! Also, I'm SO sorry I haven't been updating a lot. It's finals week at my school and it absolutely sucks. Plus, I've been suffering from writers block recently with this story. However, I do have a lot of plans for this series so hopefully you guys are excited! After the next two weeks, my updates will probably get better at being closer, but in the meantime you guys will just have to be a little patient. :) thank you to everyone who reads my books and I hope everyone has a happy holidays!

PS - should I write more of these author notes or do you guys not want them? I don't mind either way, but it's easier than sending a message to all my followers. Oh and also, write more comments! I like talking to my followers and being interactive :)!