The Ascendance of Darkness (Percy Jackson Twin fanfic)

When Luck Runs Out, Love Runs In

... Okay. So I have to be completely honest. I was in math class one day and the teacher was playing this song for us to work with and I completely got the inspiration for Poseidon's character from the Sorry For Now by Linkin Park. I linked it above.

Wait. You wanted to know about my terrible update time? One word. Whoops.

"Parry!"

Clack!

"Thrust! Slice! Roll!"

Clack!

Clack!

Thud!

"Faster! You would have been dead a million times over already!"

Ryker couldn't bring himself to stand. After almost two year of this, he was exhausted. But he sucked it up. Because the last time he had tried to quit, his father had made him understand.

It had started as a simple exercise routine. Running. Swordplay. More running. The occasional spar.

As time passed, however, it got more brutal. Sometimes Ryker would go back to Milli's house with cuts and bruises. It got to the point where he would stay there every night because he didn't feel welcome in his own home anymore.

So one day he snapped.

He had hit the ground after his father had pushed him. He was still lying there, listening to his father scream to get up.

"Why are you doing this?" Ryker had demanded, "I've been dealing with this every day for the past thirteen months and for what? Do you even love me? Are you sick in the head? Because I'd have to assume you are if you'd think Mom would've ever stood for this!"

Quicker than he could have imagined he was in the air by his throat. His airway was cut off. He was lucky he had just taken another breath to launch a rant when his father picked him up.

"I've given up too much just to fail now."

Ryker's eyes widened, and not just from lack of air. By the time his father had dropped him there were black spots dancing across his vision. As he gasped for breath he'd found himself staring up at his father, who had turned away from him.

Even though Ryker was the one who was almost choked out, his father was breathing heavily. "We took you on knowing that in doing so, we would be losing our lives for the good of the world. And of course I had to have a wimp for an adopted son."

"Demigods are half god. They can live to almost two hundred years old. Most barely even make it to seventeen. We were given this island by the gods so that we could live forever in peace. But we just had to be heroes. Your mother always wanted a child, someone besides me that she would die for."

When he'd spun on Ryker, with the burning anger of a broken heart in his eyes, the boy had never been more afraid. "There is no easy way out in the life of a hero. If you don't understand that, then the Fates obviously chose the wrong boy."

When Ryker had finally found the courage to talk, there were tears in his eyes. "Why this way? How is any of this love? News flash. It's not. There is no line between love and abuse because they are not connected."

"You are going to face a lot more than just me," his father snarled, in his face now, "And if you can't handle even that there is no future. A scratch? A bruise? You really haven't got it bad, Ryker. My cousin lost her arm. My half-brother lost his leg. My teacher lost her mind. My best friend lost his life. What have you lost but a couple of skin cells?"