Chapter Text
When Pearl arrived to the gates of Hades, she wasn't particularly confident. Sure, she was ready for combat, she prepared herself.
Still, there was that doubt creeping in her mind.
Nyx's voice still echoed endlessly in her head.
"you are replaceable"
It hurt. It hurt a lot. Pearl wouldn't be so native as to commit hubris but she was pretty damn useful.
She was Nyx's strongest, most loyal pawn afterall, right? She was the Goddes of the Dark's champion!
Nyx obviously said that but meant nothing of it ! Right?
...
right ?
Pearl shock her head. She didn't need to think about that. All she needed was to get to the underworld, find the champion marked by Nyx, keep them alive, win the games, go home to her mistress.
Easy.
Pearl pushed the gates of Hades expecting fire and intolerable warmth to hit her.
Instead she was met with coldness. The cold of death, of lives that ended brutality.
She felt her eyes water but quickly composed herself.
As she looked around, Pearl saw only a lifeless field of dead grass that seemed to never end.
"W-What is this..." She asked herself out loud. In all her years of service to Nyx, she never had been to the underworld.
She expected monsters and challenged but was only met with... Nothing. The absence of life in its purest form.
"Welcome to Hell." A voice said from her left.
Pearl was quick to raise the weapon at her belt but the stranger seemed unimpressed.
Still, they slowly raised their hand, looking more bored than threaten.
"I don't want you any harm. I'm Abolish. Nice to meet you." He slowly extended his hand.
Pearl cautiously shook it while looking the man up and down. He wore no armor but didn't seems nervous. His smile was sharp and his eyes red.
For a second she wondered, was he marked Nyx ? Was he the one she was supposed to protect ?
No. Absolutely not.
"Come ! I'll show you the others." Without waiting for her answer the man started to walk in a direction that seems purposeful, at least to him.
With no other information, Pearl followed hil from a distance.
After a few minutes they arrived to what seemed to be a settlement. There was a fire. There was tents. But most importantly, there was People.
Pearl couldn't see them all from her first glance but each time she looked, another person seemingly add themselves to this weird camp.
Abolish turned toward her, finally acknowledging her existence again.
"We've been waiting for a while! The old man said he'd only let us pass once we have 12 people. So far we're 3 people short."
He paused to look at her.
"Two people short now that you're here."
Pearl was about to ask him what he was talking about, but a scream interrupted the both of them.
Apo didn't mean to cause trouble, truely she didn't.
When she arrived, guided by a kind man named Sausage she met on the way, she thought it would be fine.
Surely she'd cross the styx and be able to stay alive long enough for whatever tournament this was to end.
The coldness of The Underworld was hard on her skin and her newly form wings. She tried to cover herself with them as much as she could.
They really didn't like it here. Sure, the people were fine. All champions of the Gods with objectives common to theirs.
But some of them were... colourfully characters.
And between that and the cold that forever ate at them, Apo felt horrible.
She long wonder why she chose those clothes or even why everyone else didn't felt nearly as cold as her.
Sure they had fire but even that didn't seem to make the cold any more manageable. They hated the land of the dead already.
Everything there was grey and rotten and they missed the comfort of Cherri hugging them goodbye before they left.
"Everything will be alright, Apo" she told her.
"You'll be back before you even start missing me" she told her.
But that was a lie. Apo already missed Cherri so much and they were not ANYWHERE near home.
Apo decided to go walk. They got up from beside the fire that failed to kept them warm.
The unpleasant sensation in their leg from being unused so long didn't stop them to go walking.
As they walk, Apokuna imagined themselves long gone already. At the end if those useless trial. Going home to the family they had.
BAM
Apo barely had time to react before she hit the ground. A loud SPLASH of water followed by agitation around her.
Two bystanders rushed to help, but not her. A girl she'd never seen before and Abolish nearly jumped in the Styx to drag out something...
Someone.
As the scene replayed in her head, Apo pushed herself up in horror as Abolish and the new comer dragged Owen, champion of Chronos out of the water of the Styx.
All stood froze in terror as Owen's body laid on the dry grass...
A bit pass, then another...
And Owen finally coughed.
But nobody had time to sigh of relief because he immediately went off on Apo.
"Did you just Push me INTO THE STYX ?! I Could have DIED-" he went to grab them but the girl from earlier stopped Owen's hand.
"Don't." She warned. "Just don't."
Owen was half dragged away that looked at The both of them like he was annoyed at getting babysitter duties.
Apo didn't dare to look up at the woman who saved them from having to deal with Owen but she did say a little : "Thank you"
She extended a patient hand toward Apo.
"My name is Pearl."
Apo took Pearl's hand. It was the only thing warm that they'd touch in a long time.
"I'm Apokuna."
Finally, they looked up to see the wings on Pearl's head. Although if they'd not at their face, they would have noticed Pearl was focused on their wings.
Pearl noticed her staring and quickly schooled her gaze. "Feather buddies ?"
Apo nodded. "Feather buddies..."
Then unsure she added, "Those who hold feathers stick together?"
Pearl's shined with a pride that Apokuna didn't understand yet.
"Exactly."