Chapter Text
Us demi-gods don’t last long in the world. We’re born to die; destined to walk the hero’s path until Charon ferries us across the River Styx to an eternity in the Underworld. Most of us go unclaimed by our beloved godly parent unless they decide to look down on us with mercy and claim our sorry asses for their own personal glory.
All the stories we hear are about those bigger gods’ kids getting their powers, being claimed, and going on quests of great peril have created a false idolized world in demi-kids heads. Most hope for that same doomed hero's fate. This, however, is not a story of some magnificent group of demi-gods who fight the Titans, get claimed by their parents, or end up at some fancy ass camp where a pine tree protects them from the bloodthirsty horrors that hunt down the cursed blood that flow through our veins.
This story is a shipwreck in comparison to the tales and mythos you’ve heard a million times. We aren’t heroes. The quests we do get result in hardly any reward and are often just chores for the gods. We aren’t strong or even cool. We’re high school students with blood from gods who don’t even want us and probably look down on us with a bowl of popcorn while they watch the shitshow of our lives unfold.
We are The Unclaimed.
The Museum
The sun is shining over The Museum of Mythos on a typical Friday in the middle of September. Children run around while their parents attempt some reverence in this place of “great history”. A bus pulls along the curb to let out thirty teens and two adults for a day of “educational fun at the museum”, with the name Thornewood Academy painted along the side in dark navy blue.
Half of the students are already yawning and dragging their feet, while the other half act like the buttons on their perfectly pressed Thornewood uniforms are the most interesting thing since their phones were confiscated before the thirty minute drive here even began.
Cliques group up as the History teacher, Mrs. Myres, and the vice Principal, Mr. Jones, attempt to get everyone’s attention. Before you ask, no, this is nothing like Percy Jackson’s visit to the museum. At least that was more interesting than this, y'know, since he got to fight a monster and ended up kicked out of school. This is just another one of our boring class trips that we get forced to go on since that’s what normal kids do.
“Pair or group up!” Mrs. Myres says a tad too cheery, before handing maps to each of the groups. Teens groan and drag each other into the museum with Mrs. Myres and Mr. Jones tailing them. Most groups split off towards the Greek Gods exhibit since mortal children assume the great gods and goddesses sound interesting enough to hold their short attention spans. Thank you, social media. But the most interesting thing about Greek Mythology is hardly those narcissistic assholes.
A girl and four boys head into the museum; all of them hauling themselves with the weight of a shared secret on their shoulders. Amber–the only girl of this band of outcasts–grabs her best friend, Killian, by his pale ass arm and drags him off towards the lesser gods’ exhibit. Mac, the group’s comedic relief, follows after them both; wearing red Aviator sunglasses–inside–and stuffing his hands in the pockets of his Aviator jean jacket.
The remaining two boys walk into the Aphrodite exhibit. The taller one, Danny, tugs the other, Nani, to a well hidden corner of the exhibit.
“Are we really doing this now?” Nani asks, rolling his eyes.
“You have an objection?” Danny replies, pressing a kiss to the side of Nani’s neck. Nani shivers and sighs softly, then yanks up Danny’s chin to kiss him.
“Only if we get caught.” Nani retorts with a smile tugging on the corners of his lips.
Amberly, Killian & Mac
Killian glances over his shoulder to watch Danny drag Nani off; stormy jealousy blooming in his chest. He pushes down the feelings and turns his eyes towards Amberly with a sigh.
“Whar are we headin', Amber? These exhibits are a bit dull, aren’t they?” Killian asks in his soft Irish accent while she tugs him towards the exhibit for the smaller gods. Calypso, Iris, Melinoë, Telesphorus, and Hebe’s statues stand tall around the room; each capturing their godly essence. Each statue has an explanation of their god or goddess on a plaque by the bottom.
“Careful, Irish boy. Your accent is slipping.” Amber teases up at him.
Killian looks away with a self-conscious tint in his eyes as Amber keeps talking. He truly hates it when his accent gets called out, especially after the years he’s spent trying to bury that part of himself.
“To answer your question, Killy, we’re saying hi to our parents.” Amber determinedly pulls Killian to the statue of Hebe. The goddess of youth is on her knees with a goblet in her hands to represent ambrosia and nectar. Evergreen shrubs are growing around her statue's base.
Mac snorts and stands beside the two.
“We’re saying hi to gods that don’t have the decency to claim us? Awesome.” He scoffs with a smirk stretching his lips. Mac’s never not smiling or cracking jokes.
Killian stares up at the statue of Hebe before sighing and looking over his shoulder at the statue of Iris. A fabric rainbow wraps around her statue with a prism in one hand, a pegasus in the other, and butterflies in her hair.
“Why d'ye make us do this every bleedin' time? We're not claimed, Amber jack.” Killian complains with a burning look of longing in his eyes. “We don’t really matter to 'em, ya know.”
Amber links her arm with Killian’s and sets her head on his shoulder. Her soft auburn waves cover his shoulder in rolls of brownish-red while the black haired boy looks down at her.
“Stop complaining you two. You know the gods still demand submission and worship, even if they don’t choose to acknowledge us.” Amber reaches out and tugs Mac closer to her and Killian.
The three stare at Hebe’s statue while silently saying their own versions of curses prayers to parents they don’t know. Maybe one of them will be worth enough to their all mighty godly parent and get claimed.
Killian and Amber have been best friends for years since they both grew up at this Sanctuary for unclaimed demi-god children. Nani grew up with them too, and the three of them became inseparable. When they started at Thronewood, they met Mac by pure chance before finding out he’s an unclaimed demi-god too.
They all know they’re demi-gods–either because of their powers manifesting, or because they’ve had their run-ins with monsters or sent on errands quests for the gods. If you can count those chores as quests. None of their godly parents have claimed them worthy enough to know for certain, but a couple of the kids at the Sanctuary, like Mac or Killian, have a pretty good idea of who their godly parent is.
“Let’s just 'ave a perfectly normal field trip, aye?” Killian sighs out.
Famous last words.
Killian separates from Mac and Amber for a bit to sit on a bench by the statue of Iris. The goddess of rainbows has always offered a strange comfort to Killian. Perhaps because he finds solitude in himself when he reads about her, or just the depictions of the beautiful goddess reminds him of a far off dream of his own mother. His powers have always dealt with color and rainbows, so he’s often fantasized about Iris claiming him as her child.
His hand slips into the pocket of his uniform jacket to fiddle with a small glass prism he keeps on him at all times.
Perhaps he’s just not worth enough to her…
Amber and Mac explore further until they end up in a room dedicated to Greek rulers and government figures.
“Up for something crazy?” Mac asks with a mischievous smirk. Amber narrows her eyes but matches his scheming energy with a tilt of her head.
“Always.”
Mac tugs Amber towards a part of the room that’s roped off and has a sign to tell the public that the exhibit is still under construction. They muffle their rule breaking giggles as they look around the off bounds room.
Statues of stunning women surround them; some covered by sheets while others look like they’re being fixed up a little.
“Wow…” Mac breathes out, looking up at a stunning statue of a girl on a pedestal. The stone perfectly captures her curly hair, smooth skin, and layered jewelry. She’s sculpted in flowy, layered robes with a high waisted tie belt, and sandal clad feet. Her hair is put up in a poof of curls with twirling bangs over her forehead.
Amber glances up at the statue before doing a double take and walking over. Mac is in awe of the statue. If only she was real. He thinks before running his fingers over the white stone and looking down at the plaque.
“Lysandra Benolva. Looks like she was a Greek priestess from Thespiae.” Mac begins to read the plaque while Amber stares up with narrowed eyes.
“Let’s get a better look at this beauty, shall we?.” Mac suggests playfully and steps up on the pillar. He reaches up to run his fingers over the stone girl’s face before the sound of cart wheels steals both Amber and Mac’s attention.
“Shit- Mac, get down! We need to hide.” Amber whisper-yells urgently and grabs the sunkissed Italian by the arm to drag him off of the pillar.
The janitor wheels her cleaning cart into the exhibit from a connecting room. Her beady dark eyes look up from behind a mop of silver hair while her lips curl into a sickening smile.
“Look what we have here. Two demi-gods lurking where they shouldn’t.” She hisses at the two teens.
Mac and Amber gasp and freeze up. Mac instinctively puts an arm out in front of Amber as a slight protection from the strange janitor.
“How do you know what we are?” Amber demands and grips Mac’s other arm harder.
The janitor lets out a raucous laugh. “Your god blood might be less potent, but I can still smell you from the other room.”
Her body contorts in on itself before turning into a horrific creature–a fury. Huge black wings of leather sprout from her back and–fuck, this is Percy Jackson.
Ok…so maybe this trip isn’t as boring as we thought it would be, but regardless, this is insane.
“You’ve got to be fucking with me.” Amber groans out and pulls off her dagger pendant from her necklace. The pendant turns into a real dagger which Amber adjusts her grip on.
“Whatcha gonna do with that, Ambs? Kill her with a paper cut?” Mac sasses sarcastically while anxiety boils in both of their stomachs.
Amber scoffs and readies for a fight. “Well I don’t see you offering up a better plan!” She snaps.
Just as the fury shakes off the effects of her transformation, the statue they were looking at begins to crack. All heads whip to the stone beauty as rock crumbles away and reveals the real girl. Her skin is a warm, stunning brown, tanned by years in the golden sun. Her hair is a dark brown and even curlier than the statue’s had been. Her robes are a crisp white with a purple piece layered from her right side, across her breast and over her left shoulder. Gold jewelry decorates her body endlessly and makes her shine in the low light.
Lysandra’s amber eyes open, dark lashes fluttering disoriented. Without thinking, Mac lunges to catch her when her body fails to stay up straight. She collapses like a damsel in distress into the rusty blonde boy’s arms.
“Hey there.” He says roughly; lips curling upwards.
Lysandra blinks up at her smiling savior with confusion.
“A thousand thanks.” She chuckles lightly, taking in the marbled grey-green eyes staring into hers.
“Mac, focus!” Amber yells angrily as she dodges the swooping slash of the fury’s claws. It nicks her cheek, leaving a line of crimson that only beads with blood but doesn’t spill.
Mac shakes his head to focus himself back on the task at hand. He whips his head between the girl in his arms and Amber’s fight with the fury.
“Right, right- uh, run!” He yells, setting Lyzandra down and pulling her towards the main exhibit. Amber dodges the fury’s attacks and lands a strong kick to its ribs before running after Mac and Lysandra; heart pounding in her chest and threatening to break through her ribs.
“You little shits!” The fury screeches and lunges after the three.
Amber waits until Mac and Lyz pass her before she twists on the balls of her feets and chucks her dagger at the fury. It lodges between the fury’s ribs and she lets out a bloodcurdling scream of agony. The fury bursts into a puff of ash and forms a pile on the floor for the real janitor to have to clean up later. Not our problem.
“Come on.” Amber sighs out; with relief or annoyance, she’s unsure. Probably both.
The three head back into the main exhibit room to find the mortals clueless as ever. Damn normal people are so fucking cluesless sometimes. It might be the Mist’s fault for their oblivion, but they’d miss it if a fury slapped them in the face.
Lysandra looks around with a mix of confusion and awe before her gaze finds Mac’s already on her.
“Where am I and who are you?” She asks in a gentle voice.
Mac smiles and bows his head playfully.
“You’re in Jersey, I’m Mac, and that there is Amber.” He introduces them both with an out of character elegance.
Amber rolls her eyes at Mac’s clear flirting attempt while Lyz looks lost.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mac and Amber; but where is Jersey?" She asks with a frown. “How did I get here? The last thing I remember was being in Thespiae.”
Mac’s smile slips and he shares a side glance with Amber.
“Jersy is in the United States. America.” Mac explains.
“America? Σκατά, how long was I in stone?” Lysandra gasps out.
“A couple thousand years, give or take.” Mac mumbles.
Lysandra is about to ask more questions when Killian notices the two- wait, three. He’d seen them rush out from behind the roped off room. He walks over calmly; used to Mac and Amber’s rulebreaking antics.
“So, did ye lot just bolt outta that clearly off-limits room, and with a Greek actress too, eh?” Killian jokes while glancing Lysandra over.
“Greek Priestess, actually.” Lyz corrects with a smile. Killian raises a brow at the priestess’s bluntness then glances at Amber and Mac for an explanation.
“Greek Priestess, is it? An' whar'd ye stumble upon this Greek Priestess, then?” He tilts his head and crosses his over his paint stained uniform like a disapproving mother.
“She was a statue, then the janitor turned into a fury, and we killed it.” Mac deadpans in his usual don’t-give-a-shit way, yet a giant smile is on his lips.
Killian stares at Mac like he’s crazy before Amber scoffs and steps forward, grabbing Kill’s arm.
“We snuck in there just to explore but stumbled upon these statues of Greek priestesses. Mac was just looking over Lysandra’s statue before this janitor came in and turned into a Fury.” She lowers her voice to keep from others hearing them all.
Killian’s gaze widens with realization and he reaches up to swipe his thumb over Amber’s cheek and rid her skin of the blood. Then, he wipes it on her shoulder.
“Yer bleedin', Ambs,” He deadpans with playful disgust, ”and I reckon the fury's gone, is it?”
Amber shoves Killian's shoulder but it only fuels his smirk. Mac nods and folds his arms.
“We killed it, but I have a bad feeling about it. Plus, we need to figure out this whole statue-turned-girl situation.” He murmurs the last part, gesturing his head in Lyz’s direction while she’s distracted by the lights and people’s clothing.
“Right, first things first, so we’ll find Nani an’ Danny, an’ then we’ll sort out where t’ go from there.” Killian decides and the other two agree with nods.
Nani & Danny
Nani kisses Danny deeply; fingers tangled in the other's hair. They break apart to catch a breath after their intense make out session hidden in the shadows of the Aphrodite exhibit. Nani is the first to start laughing a little.
“We’re gonna get caught.” He chuckles while Danny smirks and lays a gentle kiss to the shorter boy’s pulse point.
“You worry too much, Nani.” He murmurs roughly.
“Danny, Nani! Enough shoving your tongues down each other’s throats. We have an emergency!” Amber’s voice causes the two to jump apart with the look of two guilty teens caught by their parents.
“Told you so.” Nani murmurs to Danny smugly.
“For fucks sake, Amber.” Danny sighs out with a slight tinge of annoyance.
Nani sets a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder to offer comfort before stepping towards the auburn girl.
Killian watches from slightly behind Amber; hazel eyes shifting with that jealous ambery-red color at the way Nani touches Danny.
“What’s wrong, Ambs? And who is that?” Nani frowns while glancing past her to where Lyz is standing beside Mac.
“It’s a long story. Her name is Lysandra, she’s from ancient Greece, was a statue but turned into a girl, then a fury attacked us, we killed it, but I’m positive we’re not safe.” Amber rambles out in one breath.
“Shit. Why must you three cause us problems everywhere we go?” Danny curses and drags a hand down his freckled pinkish face.
Just then, Mr. Jones and a museum security guard strides up with an angry look.
“Macam Scott, Killian Doherty, Amberly Reddings. You’re in big trouble.” Mr. Jones says with an angry tint in his eyes. All three teens share a guilty, nervous look.
The group drags themself into the Sanctuary after a long day on the field trip. Danny opens the front door and holds it for the others to walk in. Amber and Killian start heading for the stairs, intending on hiding away, while Mac gestures for Lyz to follow him towards his room on the first floor. Nani brushes his hand over Danny’s shoulder affectionately before Aunt Jess storms out of the kitchen.
“Kicked out of the museum for public disruption?!” She barks out disapprovingly, her southern accent slipping “Why is it always you three? I swear, one day ya’ll are going to get arrested-” Aunt Jess starts rambling angrily. Killian and Amber slowly attempt to sneak upstairs before Jess’s hand whips towards them.
“Killian, Amberly, get your asses back here! Macam, one; who the hell is that girl? Two; don’t you dare think you can get out of this either, young man. You’re in just as much trouble as Killian and Amber are!” She yells, whipping her fiery gaze from Kill and Amber to Mac and Lysandra.
Killian cringes at being called out while Amber groans with irritation. Mac steps up and gently urges Lysandra forward with a hand on her lower back. Aunt Jess sets her hands on her hips and cocks her head to one side.
“Aunt Jess, this is Lysandra. She was a statue at the museum, but we decided to keep her.” Mac smiles brightly while the other four mentally facepalm at his idiotic response.
Amber strides over and pushes Mac out of the way with her hand to his face.
“Mac and I snuck into one of the new exhibits when no one was looking. There were a bunch of statues of Greek diplomats. We saw Lyz as a statue and got curious. She just transformed into–well, this–and then a fury found us and we panicked.” Amberly explains with an exhausted eye roll and crossed arms. She gives Jess bitchy teen sass that makes Danny muffle a laugh and Killian looks away to hide his growing smile. Mac doesn’t hide his pride in Amber's sass while Nani rolls his eyes at Amber's impertinence.
Aunt Jess’s jaw drops at Amber’s attitude and anger flares in her eyes.
“Amberly Reddings, I will not have that attitude in this household.” Jess orders firmly, making Amber scoff a little and back down.
Jess sighs and shakes her head before turning with a gentle smile to Lysandra.
“Lyssandra, I’m so sorry about my kids behavior,” she said, “I’m sure you’re dealing with a lot as is. You are welcome to stay here at the Sanctuary for as long as you need. I think Macam and Killian have a spare bunk open in their room.”
Mac’s eyes light up at the mention of his and Killian’s room and smiles brightly.
“We definitely do. As long as she can deal with Killian’s strange rainbow organization obsession.” Mac teases harmlessly while Kill just rolls his eyes and fiddles with the glass prism in his pocket absentmindedly.
Killian, Mac, & Lysandra
Killian pushes their bedroom door open and holds it for the other two to walk in. The bedroom is nothing special, but obviously Mac and Kill’s. Lysandra looks around at the boys’s room, and at how vastly different the two sides are.
To the left, there’s a double bed against the wall with thousands of drawings, stories and paintings pinned to the wall above it. The sheets are all black and the bed is perfectly made. A desk is at the foot of the bed with shelves above it. Tons of pencils, papers, sketchbooks, and pastels cover the desk. A wardrobe is the final piece on the other side of the desk. Its doors have been left open to reveal Killian’s clothes either hung up or folded in drawers. Everything is in rainbow order and covered in varying amounts of paint splatters.
To the right, there is a bunk bed with the bottom bunk fully decked out with red sheets that have not been made properly. A crap ton of pillows with wild sayings on them, line wall, fairy lights dangle from the bottom of the top bunk, an Italian flag is pinned to the wall under the bunk bed, and finally there are energy drink cans stacked on the window sill. A pair of beat up Adidas are tucked under the bottom bunk with a couple old boxes. There’s a desk mirroring the one on Killian’s side, but this one has energy drink cans stacked along the back and blank homework assignments on it. Mac’s wardrobe is closed, but has a mirror on the door. Mac’s dirty–or clean–honestly no one knows which it is, clothes cover the ground by his bed.
“It ain't much, an' Mac never picks up his clothes, but it's ours.” Killian sighs out while tossing his uniform jacket on his bed.
Mac smacks the back of Killian’s head with a smirk and strides over to his own bed to flop down.
“Don’t listen to Killian. He’s just as bad of a roommate.” Mac tells Lyz then sticks his tongue out at the other boy.
Killian rolls his eyes and grabs a change of clothes.
“You can design your bunk however you want. Bathroom is down the hall on the left, and the kitchen is open to everyone so don’t be shy. Killian also has a stash of Skittles in the bedside drawer over there.” Mac gestures around to help get Lysandra accustomed to the new environment.
“Touch my Skittles and I’ll steal your Aviator glasses.” Killian deadpans before walking out of their room to change out of his school uniform.
Mac chucks a pillow at the door just as Killian closes it, chuckling and turning to face Lyz again.
“What are Skittles?” Lyz asks while furrowing her brows in confusion.
Mac’s jaw drops and he bolts up from his bed to slide over to Killian’s side of the room. He pulls open a drawer where more Skittles than FDA probably recommends for teens to eat are all organized by color into containers of the same color.
“These are Skittles.” Mac says, pulling out the blues and opening it up to offer Lysandra some.
Lyz hesitantly takes one and plops the colorful sweet into her mouth. Flavor explodes on her tongue, making her eyes go wide. Just then, Amber knocks on the door and pushes it open. She takes one look at the Skittles and grins.
“We’re raiding Killy’s Skittle stash? Hell yeah!” She cheers and invites herself in to grab the container of reds.
That night marked the shift in our lives. None of us would know it then, but a storm was brewing that we wouldn’t be prepared for. While we all slept so peacefully, the gods above tangled the strings on their puppet children like some sick show for their own pleasure.
Evil would dig its claws into the weak and leave wounds too deep to heal.