~*~
"It was my mother." I quietly said.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Yuta said.
"It's ok." I wiped the tears on my cheek. "Sorry you have to see me like that."
Yuta snickered, "when will you stop apologizing?"
"Sorry, —" I stopped when I realized what I just said. Then I let out a chuckle.
"This earth is horrible. I wish I could transport everyone to my earth, no— to any earth. No one deserves to live like this." Yuta said, his eyes were reflecting the flickering fire in front of us.
"You're from another earth?"
"Yeah. I am from an earth dimension where gods and monsters exist, but mortals— I mean normal humans are not aware about our existence, unless you tell them, and they believe you." Yuta said.
That doesn't sound bad at all.
I found out that I am not from earth, I'm from the Fire Nation. How did I get here? Why here? Out of all the possible earth dimensions?
Mai.
Victor knows Mai.
Mai also talked about Victor like she knew him. Mai warned me about demigods, and their kind.
Was Mai from this earth? I have a strange feeling that she was not, and I don't like it.
This means she lied to me too.
Why do the people that are supposed to be by my side always lie to me?
I let out a heavy sigh.
"You okay?"
"Mai— she wasn't really my mother y'know. I mean she technically was, because she was all I had that is close to a mother figure."
"It doesn't matter then."
I nodded, agreeing with him. "Makes me wonder what my real mother is like, or was."
My biological mother, the one who was carved into the only marble statue in the institute.
The Fire Lord's wife.
A queen.
A shot of pain came rushing to my head. The block on my mind was reacting again. I took a deep breaths and exhaled, trying to calm down and think of something else.
"You okay?" Yuta held my shoulder to get my attention.
I nodded.
"I wish I had a different mother." Yuta mumbled.
Hearing him say that made my heart ache. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"You probably wonder why I fight like an airbender when I am not." He said. "My own mortal mother, agreed to send me to the bending world because she thought it was safer since there aren't monsters that will come to me."
That makes sense to me, what his mother did. "Have you ever wonder how hard it was for her?"
Yuta let out a sarcastic laugh, "no. She never even wanted me. She was too busy with her movie shoots, hence she never wanted to have a child."
"How about your father?"
Zeus. The lord of the sky, Heavens. King of Olympus. I wonder what it's like to have a really powerful parent like that.
"He might not be the greatest father, but he's always there for me, at least for most of the time." Yuta said.
Then there was silence. I leaned my head to the side of the tree, and watched Yuta.
Everyone had it rough. Who am I to complain about every little thing that I am not happy about.
"What is it like?" My voice came out as a faint whisper.
Yuta's gaze shifted from the fire to me.
I looked away from his eye, "what is it like to be a Half-Blood? To be the child of one of the Big Three?"
Yuta looked away at my question, "a pain. In the ass."
It was the first time Yuta used a normal swear word, instead of demigod swear words. I couldn't help it but to laugh.
Yuta smiled as he turned to watch me laugh. My laughter died as soon as I saw Yuta's soft smile. His face was half lit by the fire, and kept his stare at me.
"Is it true? that Air temples are so high that you need to fly or a flying bison to reach them?"
"Yeah. I had a flying bison once." He said, he sounded hurt.
"What happened?"
"I had to move to the institute, so I had to leave... him."
My heart ached hearing Yuta sounding so hurt. He must've loved his bison so much.
"What's his name?"
"Sora, he's a really big guy." Yuta smiled to himself. "You know, I feel so grateful for the things that have happened. If it were to be different, I would've ended up in Camp Half-Blood and would never meet Sora, and the 127."
I wish I could say the same,
"I've never had crazy pets, or even friends." I said.
"You'll love him when you meet him, he's really fluffy."
I grinned hearing Yuta sounding so sweet at talking about his flying bison.
"How did you like it in the bending world? I wish I could visit one of the nations." I said.
"As much as I hate my mother for sending me there, I love the Air Nation. It's my home. I feel like I've always meant to be there. I spent most of my life there until four years ago, my father decided that it's best for me to train in the institute, and because he doesn't trust that witch to keep her peace with me around." Yuta said.
He must be talking about the dark witch.
"Why?"
Then, as if it was possible, I felt that the atmosphere became darker. "Have you ever heard of the Two Heroes Prophecy?"
I shook my head as a no. "I lost my memories because of the war. I don't even remember anything about my life in the bending world."
Yuta shifted his gaze to me,
"A child of the sky and a child of fire
For storm and fire, make great power
With love and hatred, come a promise to hold
A promise that will win against all odds." He said. "That's the next Great Prophecy, as Apollo declared it to be. It was spoken right after Lisa took on the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi."
"What does it mean?"
"No one really knows what it means, because if we understand it, we will try to prevent it, or vice versa. All we can do is just guess, and everyone has the same guess."
"What is it?"
"The child of the sky, is me." He said gravely. "Because I am currently the only child of Zeus that is alive."
"Who's the child of fire?"
Yuta let out a dry laugh, "you see, I keep telling everyone that it's impossible, because I will never work with the her." He said. "The child of fire is ... the princess of the Fire Nation, the Avatar," he said with so much bitterness in his voice. "A thief."
~
"You guys ready?"
Ever since I found out about how Yuta truly thinks of me if he knew who I really was, I started to feel like he was holding a knife on my neck.
How am I a thief? What have I stolen?
I squeezed my left arm under my jacket where a bounty hunter carved the word T H I E F on it.
We were standing by the edge of the cliff, bracing ourselves to jump down.
I really hate this Natural Portal in Atlanta, I really do.
"I wish I will never have to comeback to this earth." I mumbled.
Jeno and I nodded a yes as a respond to Yuta. We held on to each other's hand and then we finally jumped off the cliff.
We fell, then we were drowning in water, then we swam up to fall again.
My face met the cold, hard rock ground. I got up and held my face in pain, it was stinging.
"I swear I fucking hate this." I mumbled.
I looked over to check if the boys landed with me. Jeno were laying on the ground, catching his breath, so was Yuta. They looked like they have just finished a running marathon.
"I feel like... I'm so... thirsty, and... sleepy." Jeno mumbled between his breaths. "Hey, Yuta... you wouldn't happen to have anymore... of those bags—"
"No." Yuta immediately cut him.
"Come on, I'm sure they have more of those in the institute." I said, as I was already on my feet.
Yuta got up to sit on the ground, his eyes bored into mine. "How come you're not drained of energy? Like the last time too?"
"I—uhm... I..." I stammered as I didn't know how to explain. "I... exercise a lot..?"
I really wish he wouldn't suspect me to be the Avatar, just because of this.
He was still glaring at me like he wasn't buying what I said.
"Let's go guys," I said as I started to walk to the institute.
We walked together to the institute, but I was at the front. The boys behind me were walking slower, so I had to stop and waited for them to catch up with me.
I couldn't help but think that Yuta was piercing my back with his suspicious stare. I couldn't wait for us to part once we get to the institute.
We finally reached the front gate. There were Victor and two guards, armed with tall spears.
Jaehyun was there with them too. He immediately ran to me.
He seemed like he was about to pull me into a hug, but then he stopped right in front of me instead. "You were a day behind schedule," he said. "I was so worried."
As sweet as Jaehyun was being right now, I was not in the mood.
I looked down, didn't want to meet his eyes. I didn't want him to be worried because I don't think I could hide what I am feeling right now, after everything that has happened.
I smiled as best as I could. "Sorry to make you worry."
Jaehyun bent down, like he was trying to get a better view of my face. "Hey," he called me, as he tilted his head to meet my eyes. "Did something bad happened? Are you okay?"
"Jaehyun," Yuta called. "That's enough."
"No, it's okay—"
"I was talking to Juli, not you, Airhead." Jaehyun hissed.
"She needs her space, give that to her."
"What the fuck's wrong with you?" Jaehyun said to Yuta. "Juli, what happened?"
Yuta placed his hand to Jaehyun's shoulder. "Jaehyun. Seriously. We had a tough time—"
"Hands off." Jaehyun pushed Yuta's hand.
"Enough! Both of you!" I raised my voice to get their attention. "I'll— excuse me."
I walked pass through both of them and went to Victor.
Then I saw, I believe Mark of 127, coming out of the institute running to us. As soon as Mark's green eyes landed on Jeno, he beamed like he was glad to see him.
"Hey bro! Welcome to the institute!" Mark cheerfully took Jeno's hand to shake it.
Jeno frowned and took back his hand, looking uncomfortable.
"Mark," Victor said. "I said before dinner. You are an hour early."
"That's okay! I couldn't wait to greet him the first thing." Mark said. "What's your name?"
"Jeno." Said Jeno.
"Alright! I'll show you around the institute." Mark said.
Victor raised an eyebrow at him.
"—After you guys have... the talk." Mark smiled awkwardly. "Bye for now! See you later, Jeno!"
We all watched as Mark walked back to the institute as fast as he came.
"He gets a little too excited, sometimes." Victor said to Jeno. "So, Jeno. Follow me and I will explain everything as best as I can."
Right, I thought to myself.
"And as for you both," Victor said to me and Yuta. "Well done. You both completed the mission and have come back safely." Then he turned around to walk Jeno to his office.
"Wait!" I stopped them.
They both looked back at me.
"Is Hendery back yet?"
~*~
A/N:
OK.
So we have finally come to the reason why this book is named after the word. YAY! A.K.A the main plot of the book.
Dayum that took me 20 chapters. But yeah, this book will be long just because it is also a drama romance reverse harem book, so there will be a lot of chapters where the main OC spend time with the love interests.
I have been receiving couples of questions, so I decided to answer them here:
Q1: Are Mai, Jaemin, Renjun, and Juli related by blood?
A1: No, no they aren't. Mai is the only mother figure since Juli could even remember and she had been acting like one too. So Juli considers her as a mother. Same goes with Jaemin and Renjun, their bonds are too strong so it doesn't matter if they are related by blood or not.
Q2: Avatar? Clickers? Demigods?
A1: Maybe you have skipped my introduction chapter, but I have said that this is some kind of a crossover between KPOP and :
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (demigods, monsters, gods),
Avatar: The Last Airbender/ATLA (Avatar and benders),
Vampire Diaries (vampires, werewolves, witches). Werwolves haven't made an appearance but will in future chapters.
And finally the game, THE LAST OF US (the post apocalyptic earth where Juli ended up.) if you wanna know more about the infected I suggest reading The Last of Us wikia about the virus and its stage. I won't be bringing up this AU that much because it is not the core of the plot.
Q3: Did I change the Two Heroes Prophecy that were written already on the synopsis?
A3: Yes, yes I did. I like this one better and I wrote it myself of course. With an inspiration from the original Great Prophecies from the PJO series.
Q4: What is the Oracle of Delphi? And what is the purpose of Prophecy?
A4:
I know that maybe not all of you are familiar with every AU in this book so I will try to get your guys familiar with them.
So the Oracle of Delphi is based on the Percy Jackson book series. To put it simply, demigods will go on quests after a prophecy is spoken by the Oracle. The spirit of the Oracle, will inherit her power to a human maiden and for this book, that human is Lisa (Blackpink). Who will make her appearance in future chapters. If you are still confused and not familiar with the Oracle of Delphi, you can go to PJO wiki about this. Because I will only explain it as brief as possible on future chapters.
I hope this somehow clears out some things.... but DON'T WORRY. I won't just put something random into the story without explaining it, in the story. Everything I have written on the QnAs are already explained or will be explained in the story.
CHEERS.