Storm Flash

   "Zion! Zion! Wait for me!" Zion turned around with a frown on her face, followed by a roll of her eyes as she watches a boy run towards her.

   "I heard Chiron talking about you-"

   "You heard him right, Percy. I'm leaving camp." Zion ended her words with a bite on her lower lip, before turning her back on the boy, only to halt when Percy grabs her wrist, making her look back at him.

   "Leaving the camp? Why?! We just won the war, Zion. We won! Why leave?" Percy's grip tightened around Zion's wrist. His eyes filled with questions he couldn't answer by himself.

   "Yes, Percy. We won the war. The war with Gaea, but not the war within myself! I've been here for years! I trained myself every second of every day of my life, but all those times, I've never felt that I belong."

   The rage that Zion was feeling, was so evident in her eyes, that even Percy felt it. Her eyes twinkling with malice and anger, such emotions Percy tried to ignore before.

   "Never felt that you belong?! Zion, you helped us win the war! You helped us, me, since the first day. You helped me coped up with everything, aside from Annabeth. You were the first one to welcome me with no doubt and fear. You even followed me and Annabeth down to Tartarus and almost died for helping us to get out. What don't you get?"

   Zion forcefully pulls her hand away from his grasp, and point an accusing finger at Percy. Tears streaming down her cheeks as she looks at him. Pain and rage, finally taking control of her body.

   "That's not enough. None of it was ever enough! I spent all those years here, watching everyone get claimed by their godly parents, while I, remained waiting! I wait, and wait, and wait until I finally got tired! I trained my goddamn body and mind, until I can't breathe, just for Him to acknowledge me! It was never enough! Do you still expect me to stay here, knowing that no matter what I do, it wouldn't be enough to have Him claim me?! To have Him, acknowledged my existence?! No, Percy! I'm sorry. But you can't change my mind."

   Percy tried to stop her once again, but she was completely out of reach anymore. All he can ever do was watch her figure fade into the dark. Feeling so regretful that he didn't even notice what the girl actually felt all this time.

   Zion stepped out of the taxi she boarded and went straight for the back. She pulled her two duffle bags and a backpack out of the compartment, and close it. The taxi speed away, leaving her standing alone in front of an apartment complex, where she'll live her remaining life until the end of her days.

   Zion roams her eyes around the neighborhood, and quickly notice how few the houses are. There are also a few people out, unlike the count she witnessed earlier while traveling around Central City. Shrugging to herself, she fishes out a paper on the pocket of her jacket, momentarily setting her duffle bag on the ground. She looks at the numbers and words written on the paper, before looking back at the three stories apartment complex in front of her. It was the address her mom sent her through Annabeth's phone, which she borrowed before leaving the Camp.

   She only needed to sign in at the front desk, and state her reason upon coming to the apartment before finally climbing to the third floor. She stopped in front of the door, which was the last one in the six rows of it on the floor. Without hesitation upon the knowledge that she has never seen her mother for a few years, she curls her hand into a fist and knocks at the door. One try was enough, as the door swings open. Revealing a redheaded woman with astonishing deep blue eyes.

   "Zion?" The woman asked, standing straight at the sight of her.

   "Hi, Mom." Zion timidly greets, wondering how her mother remains looking the same since the last time she saw her, seven years ago.

   "It's you! It really is you!" The woman beamed, jumping to hug the daughter she hadn't seen for seven years. The daughter she left in front of Camp Half-blood after she finally had enough of running away from hideous monsters, every day, for ten years.

   "Yeah... It's me." Zion stated, clearly not enjoying the interaction.

   The woman might have noticed it, because she quickly pulls away, and fix herself. She smiles at her, before letting her inside the house. The woman closes the door behind her and runs after Zion who went straight to the living room.

   Zion looks around, setting her duffle bags and backpack on the floor as she waits for the next thing her mother would say.

   The room was a lot spacious inside than what it looks outside. Consisting of a huge living room, a kitchen on the left side along with a room behind it, and two more rooms on her right. Probably, the rooms, which Zion was sure that one of them belongs to her.

   She turned around to look at her mother, unintentionally catching her reflection on the human size mirror hanging on the wall, near the corridor they just came from. And once in her life, she realizes how similar she looks to her mother.

   White pale skin, almost as pale as the dead, and striking bright red hair. Red like the blood, which was the most astonishing thing everyone can find about her mother's features. Zion walks towards the mirror, unconsciously tuning out her mother's voice, as she took in her appearance. She has quite the height. Above-average the normal heights, every girl has. 5'10, the same height Percy has.

   "You know... You have your father's eyes." Zion looks at her mother through the mirror. She was standing behind her, with a height an inch taller than her.

   "Which one? Because as far as I remember, I am completely heterochromatic. I have sea green for the left, and electric blue for the right. Which one are my ever so loving father's eyes again?" Zion's mother stares at her through the mirror, and let out a tired sigh upon her obvious sarcasm.

   Zion watches her through the mirror, as she walks towards where Zion left her things, before bringing them into the living room and settling them down on the couch.

   "Are we going to argue about how your father won't claim you?" Diana, Zion's mother, looks back at her daughter with the looks Zion remembered seeing the night she left her in the middle of the forest, in the middle of the cold raining night.

   "No. No need to. I mean, what could you say? He also left you before you even give birth to me. If there's one thing I'm glad about my relation with him, it would be the powers I inherited. Might have enjoyed it as much as I despise his blood inside me. Where's my room?"

   Her mother told her that it was the right one from the two doors on her right. Zion just grabs her things before heading towards it, instantly locking herself within the moment she got in. Sighing to herself, Zion throws her backpack and duffle bags on the bed, before climbing on the bed after it. She didn't bother taking all her things out or place her clothes on the empty drawer on the side of the room, on the feet of her bed. She only grabs a new pair of jeans and a black hoodie, and change into it.

   After tucking her head inside the hood, she went to open her backpack. Revealing a separate brown bag inside, where the nectar and ambrosia lie within. The godly foods help demigods heal their wounds at a fast rate. She wasn't planning on bringing any of it, originally intending to forget anything that will remind her of the camp, but Chiron, along with Percy and Annabeth, insisted that she brings some with her. Which, wasn't some, considering that the nectar was in a tall tumbler Annabeth gave her, and the brown bag of ambrosia alone was full. Too many considering she's the only one who can eat it around Central City.

   Shaking her head, Zion slowly pulls the zipper back to close the duffle bag, only to stop when her eyes spotted something inside the bag. She pushes her hand inside, and fishes out a necklace with a lightning bolt pendant. She twirls the pendant around to have its back facing her, which reveals a small silver motion sensor. The size of an ant.

   "Zion Astralline. Listen to me, Baby. You see this?" Diana asked her daughter, showing the five years old, Zion, the necklace in her hand.

   "Yes, Mama." The kid answered politely, clearly intrigued by the twinkling necklace in her mother's hand, that seems so real. As if staring at it, brings you a tingling sensation running from your head to your toe.

   "This is your father's gift for your sixth birthday. He told me to give it to you when the time comes." Zion patiently let her Mom wear the necklace to her. Kissing her forehead, before kneeling in front of her once again.

   "Mom. This is pretty, but why can't Dad give it to me himself?"  Diana's smile slips off her lips. Her reaction changing just as fast as taking off a mask.

   "Because, Daddy has a very important work, Baby. He can't come home." Diana's voice was now void of happiness. All Zion can hear was sadness upon the sound of it.

   "He was never home."

   Zion runs her thumb across the silver motion sensor, and watch as the pendant merge with the silver lace, slowly turning into a silver sword made out of Adamantine. An indestructible and the hardest metal from the Greek Gods. Zion remembered Chiron saying, Perseus, had the same substance on his sword, the one he used to decapitate Medusa.

   She thrust the sword in front of her, still amazed by how it'll glint every time light reflects on it. She pulls it closer to her, running her fingers along with the lightning that was carved into the silver edge near the hilt. Immediately feeling a spark from it when her skin grazes the symbol. Denying with all her might, how she was related to the gods of gods. How couldn't she feel that way? He never claimed her for the whole seven years she stayed in the Camp. As if he never wanted her in the first place.

   Sighing to herself, she once again runs her thumb across the lightning, and it slowly shrunk back to its necklace form. Zion wears it, before closing the duffle bag, and standing up from the bed. She looks at herself in the small mirror above the drawer beside her bed and smiles at herself. The necklace might remind her who her father was, but it wasn't him who made it. It was her grandfather. Her mother's father.

   She slipped out of her room, without her mother noticing at all. Diana was in the kitchen, preparing something for lunch, which most likely Zion won't stay for. She runs out of the house, only closing the door behind her without making too much noise. She jogs down the street of the quiet neighborhood, towards the city where she remembers passing a lot of cafe shops and restaurants. Zion thinks caffeine would settle the undying ADHD that doesn't want her to stay still. One of the main reasons why she chose to jog instead of grabbing a cab.

   She passed a lot of people as she near the cafe, CC Jitters. while she was on her way to the apartment. She also noticed in a short span of time how each one of them, either carries a phone or a laptop. She thought of having one, but when Zion decided to finally leave her demigod life behind, she thought that it will only bring her unnecessary attention. Unnecessary, consisting of Hellhounds, Furies, Manticore, and other more annoying things.

   A small smile slips from her lips when she finally arrives in front of the cafe. The see-through glasses, showing the people inside. Enjoying their cup of coffee or the sweet in their plates. Zion grabs the handle of the glass door and pushes it, the scent of newly brewed coffee and newly baked pasties, swirling around the cafe. She went straight to the vacant table near one of the glasses, and settle down. Zion roams her eyes around the place, feeling glad that once in her life, finally, no one knows who she is. Unlike from the Camp Half-blood, where every one of the demigods residing inside, knows who she is. The Unwanted Demigod. The title she received after a year of staying in the Camp and lasting without even getting claimed.

   "Miss? Miss? Miss!" Zion's snapped out from her thoughts when a woman snapped her fingers in front of her face. She raises her head, about to consider the action rude, but then stopped herself when she thought the woman might be calling her a lot of times, but she wasn't listening.

   "Oh, sorry. Must have dozed off with my thoughts." The beautiful woman with a dark complexion, short black hair, and astonishing brown eyes, smile at Zion and nodded.

   "Sorry for doing that too. I've been calling you, but you weren't really hearing me." Zion pulls down her hood, and smile again.

   "Sorry about it." The woman just nods at her, before pulling out a small notepad and a pen and look back at her.

   "Well, what can I get for you?" Zion looks past the shoulder of the woman, and into the screen above the counter where the menu was written.

   "I would like the Black Eye. Double shot of espresso, plus 6 oz. of drip-brewed coffee. No milk or sugar." As Zion says her preferred coffee, the woman was writing down on her pad. Zion caught the woman glance at her for a moment, then back to the pad, then to her, then the pad again. The woman might be contemplating whether she'll ask her if she was sure about the drink she chose, but Zion was thankful she didn't.

   "Can I get you any sweet to match that?" Zion just shakes her head. The woman smile at her, before saying, "Your order will be here in a minute. If you need anything, call any staff."

   Zion just kindly nodded at the woman again, before leaning her head down on the table. Using her hand as her pillow, as she gazes through the window. Watching each person passed by the cafe. Minding their own business, and not even knowing anything about what's going on around the world. Especially the fight with Gaea, the primordial goddess of the Earth, which the greek and roman demigods won. No one even knows how many of those demigods, sacrificed their own life for the world's greater good.

   "Here's your coffee. Enjoy your drink." The woman earlier beams cheerfully, placing the coffee on the table, in front of her.

   "Thank you," Zion stated, watching the woman leave to attend to another customer.

   Zion felt silly upon smiling at the sight of the hot coffee in front of her. She carefully grabs the handle of the coffee mug and brings it to her lips, before blowing onto the coffee to lessen the heat. Satisfy with her work, Zion takes a sip of the coffee and let out a satisfied sigh. Her nerves finally starting to settle down. But before she can take another sip, a loud explosion erupted. The impact was so strong that it was able to shatter every glass around the cafe. Tables and chairs, getting thrown across the room after the strong gust of wind, followed by smoke. The customers either screaming at the top of their lungs or running away, scared out of their wits.

   Zion looks back at the mug on her hand, and let out a frustrated scream, upon seeing nothing of it. Only the handle hanging on her finger was left of it.

   "Seriously?!" She screamed, squinting her eyes through the smoke to see whoever causes the explosion and smack them across the face.

   Amidst the thick smoke, a shadow is slowly emerging. Getting huge and huge as it emerges out of the mess, it most likely created. Zion instinctively grabs the pendant of her necklace, upon hearing a sound of a menacing deep growl.

   Zion step through the shards of glasses from the window, and out of the restaurant. Letting out another frustrated sigh when she finally got a sight of whatever is lurking in the thick smoke. A four-legged black huge creature that she is well familiar with. Hell, Percy takes care of one, but that one was definitely a lot calmer than the one in front of her. A few miles away from where she stood.

She glanced at the burning car on her right. The creature must have jumped above it. Its strength, crushing the car beneath it. Causing an explosion.

   "Great! Just great! I haven't been here for an hour, and now there's a freaking Hellhound in front of me! Argh!" Zion exclaimed, running her thumb across the motion sensor in the back of the pendant of her necklace, and pull it off.

   The necklace immediately shifting into the silver sword that she knows too well. The familiar strong rush of adrenaline, pumping up on her every veins. Waking up her every instinct. The instincts every demigod was born with. The very thing that kept them alive. That kept Zion alive all this time, despite being unclaimed.

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