Locked Away/ My OoO AU

Welcome Home

Artemis' POV

Xylo had managed to find Artemis and had started to walk him over to the house.

They were taking a small path that was covered in flowers and beautiful trees which Artemis was admiring as much as he could as he while they walked by.

Eventually, the path ended and they got to a house surrounded by more flowers that seemed almost as if they were frozen in time due to the fact some of the flowers didn't grow in the current season.

"Well, I guess now it's time for me to tell you, welcome home"

"Wait, I used to live here!?!"

"Yup, your sister has been coming by every now and then to keep the place fixed up and hired a couple people to care for the flowers"

"So I'm going to guess the inside is as nice as it is outside then?"

"I personally haven't seen what the inside has looked like since your siblings moved out for safety reasons, but knowing your sister, probably"

They continued to go inside and Artemis decided to look around eventually finding a room with his name on a cute sign that sat on the door.

He entered the room and saw a fair sized room with a crib in the corner, a large wardrobe, a large bed, and a desk.

Artemis was mesmerized by it, he didn't know what to expect, but he was presently surprised.

He put down his bag and was about to take out his phone to text his friends, but before he could, he heard a crash somewhere in the house.

Scared as to what the crash could have been, Artemis grabbed a small spear he found in the room while he was looking around, then went to where he heard the crash coming from.

Eventually, he made his way to the living room where he saw Crystal groaning on the floor and saw Xylo rush in shortly after.

"Are you ok?" [Artemis]

"Yeah, I should be fine, my body just doesn't like that I'm trying a new skill to get this to actually work" [Crystal]

Artemis looked around the room to find something he could use to help Crystal when he noticed a small gem that seemed to have a rainbow glow to it.

Curious as ever, Artemis reached for it and Crystal quickly noticed and tried to follow Artemis to warn him of something.

She touched his shoulder as he touched the gem, then everything turned to black.

When Artemis opened his eyes again, he saw Crystal with him, but they were in some kind of void like area.

Crystal opened her eyes soon after and it was clear she was trying to remain calm.

"Alright, demigod lesson 1, if something has a glow to it, don't touch it"

"Yeah, I probably should have figured that out sooner, any idea where we are"

"Not a clue, I've literally been to hell and back, but I've never been here"

They both remained quiet until they heard a familiar hum, both of them tensed up once they heard it start, but Crystal soon went from tense to relaxed which startled Artemis a bit.

"There is no need to worry, my dear boy, there is no reason to be scared" [???]

"W-who's t-t-there?!?" [Artemis]

"Someone you still have yet to meet" [???]

Suddenly, someone appeared in from of Artemis and Crystal, it seemed as if Crystal already knew who it was because she moved right over to him and hugged him while repeating something in another language.

The stranger looked over at Artemis with calm eyes, and he realized who it was based on photos he had seen, he was looking at Bryan, his other father.

"Am I dreaming?" [Artemis]

"If you were dreaming, I wouldn't have given you the equivalent to a lecture" [Crystal]

"That was a lecture? then what was you yelling at Atlas after I was taken?" [Artemis]

"That was a scolding" [Crystal]

"I don't even want to know" [Bryan]

"Anyways, how did we get here? we were in the house one second and here the next" [Artemis]

"Well, both of you were in contact with my soul crystal, so I allowed you both to enter my conscious" [Bryan]

"It's empty, you haven't been conscious to the outside world since you were kidnapped, haven't you?" [Crystal]

"That is unfortunately true, I want to be more awake and aware, but part of my soul crystal is missing, so I can't wake up" [Bryan]

"Then I think I can fix that in a few days tops, us being here answers the question of if the gem was a soul crystal fragment or not" [Crystal]

"Soul crystal?" [Artemis]

"I'll explain it to you during training" [Crystal]

"And I hope I'll get to explain and maybe show you one day" [Bryan]

Both Artemis and Crystal realized that they were fading and realized that their time was almost up.

"I'm sorry, papa, but it seem our time is nearly up" [Crystal]

"Then let me do this before you both go" [Bryan]

Bryan moved over to both of his kids and gave both of them a hug.

Both kids had their eyes closed as they hugged their father, and when they opened their eyes, they were both laying on the couches.

Artemis was exhausted from the energy it cost him just to be in what they decided to call Bryan's realm.

He noticed Crystal was already getting up and checked the box that the gem was in and then closed the box.

"It's nearly midnight, why don't you head to your room and I'll bring in something for you to eat so you get some of your energy back"

"Yup, sounds like a plan, can I suggest something with a lot of sugar?"

"Don't worry, I already had that in mind, sugar is always the first thing anyone in our family asks for when they try something that uses soul energy"

Artemis got up and started to walk over to his room when he couldn't help but feel like something wasn't right.

He had a bad headache because the whispers he heard when he met his grandfather were back but this time he also heard a voice that kept repeating don't fall asleep yet.

As Artemis got closer to his room, he heard Oreo barking his brains out, which worried him because Oreo was fairly calm during the night.

Eventually, Artemis was in front of the door and the bad feeling had gotten worse, so he opened the door enough to get Oreo and quickly went to the kitchen where Crystal was frozen in place with her ears twitching to every little sound.

"Crystal?"

"Hm, I froze, didn't I, sorry, I thought I heard something but it was probably just you"

"Can I sleep on the floor in your room tonight? I feel uneasy going into my room"

"Sure, I need to grab a few things from a few other rooms, there's a plate of cookies over there for you, I'll meet you there"

Artemis went to Crystal's room and grabbed a spare pillow and blanket that she had next to her bed, ate what his sister left for him, then fell asleep.