#After Amity betrayed him and almost got him double killed

[nelkcats]

The Spiteful Ghost

Danny loved space, and loved exploring it almost as much as he loved the Realms (yes, apparently he had made a home there, and learned to love its quirkiness, who could knew right?). The problem was that over the years the halfa acquired another characteristic: He hated heroes.

It might seem ironic, considering his teenager years but he just couldn't stand the concept of heroism (he never chosed to be one), not after all he had been through. Not after losing his family and ending up with more than deep wounds, not after humanity called him a villain for protecting the ghosts, not after the world chosed to sacrifice him after all he did for them (Amity was his world, and the city handed him over on a silver platter to save itself, they forced him to take drastic measures, actions he should never have taken, but when you're alone it turns out that no one can stop you)

They say that rancor can change you, the halfa can confirm. The point is, Danny hated heroes (he hated what they had to go through, hated that adult heroes weren't there for him, hated what it took to be a hero, leaving everything for the world was absurd, why would you accept something like that?). When the ghosts told him about the DC dimension he didn't take it exactly well. Although at least those heroes had a base in space.

Clockwork forbade him to go for a few months (he understood his grudge, quite personal, but he didn't want it to destroy him, he didn't want him to destroy himself), but when he saw him lost and depressed he allowed it, probably because he knew it would cheer him up for a while. Maybe he saw some future where he reconciled with the "profession", or maybe he thought he needed it (the halfa wasn't evil, Clockwork knew he wouldn't hurt anyone).

So, Danny arrived in the hero dimension and set out to be the world's biggest nuisance: moved chairs, ate their snacks, disappeared their stuff. He wasn't doing anything exceptionally big until he overheard an argument between the Red Hood and Batman.

After that, Batman ran out of gadgets in no time and Red Hood found little desserts everywhere. By the time they called JLD, it was pretty obvious they had an invader (the invader strangely loved Young Justice, and anti-heroes, seemed to hate Batman thought).

John Constantine entered feeling that he was walking to his funeral, why the hell had the Ghost King installed himself in a hero base, if it was rumored that he hated them to death?

#dpxdc #ghost king danny #The GIW went too far #and killed everyone that Danny cared about #Amity blamed him for those deaths #They blamed the ghosts for everything #and soon after that the whole city called him a villain for protecting the ghosts instead of just collaborating with the GIW #But Danny couldn't do that #the ghosts comforted him #the ghosts gave him a home #they understood #dp x dc #dc x dp #He ended destroying the GIW and leaving Amity #After Amity betrayed him and almost got him double killed #he couldn't stand the concept of heroism after that #he began to hate everyone who called themselves a hero #everyone who abandoned family and chosed the world first #because deep inside him Danny felt that that was the wrong choice #but even if it was he didn't like killing or anything #so he did some pranks to the JL #He sabotaged their equipments and was a nuisance in general while helping teenage heroes who didn't know better #Danny hate heroes #danny is tired

[thegoodgayshit]

Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter Thirteen: We Make a Fort out of Thorns

Willow found us a nice little camping spot by a creek about a fifteen-minute walk outside the wealthy suburb where they’d left Orpheus. Luz was glad they could rest, she would never tell anybody, but despite her strength growing since arriving at camp, her weak little nerd arms probably couldn’t have carried Amity much farther.

Willow drew her sword and started weaving a protective barrier of foliage in a circle around us, large thorns protecting any monsters from barraging through easily. Gus reached into his stuffed backpack and pulled out something labeled “pop a tent” and opened the lid pointing it back towards a tree. Out popped, well, a tent. Luz’s mouth opened in awe. It was a six-person family tent, and it had already magically nailed itself down. Despite the rain, there was a slicker cover over it to shelter them.

Luz wanted to ask him where he’d got something like that, but her body was slowly starting to betray her. Her arms were now shaking carrying Amity’s weight over two miles, and when she opened her mouth nothing came out. She would have been embarrassed if Amity had noticed, but her worry was quickly overtaking her too. Amity had tucked her head against Luz’s shoulder and had somehow fallen asleep there, and her breathing was lightly coming in and out with every step Luz took.

Considering how shaky Luz’s steps had been, she must have really been exhausted to be able to fall asleep.

Gus zipped open the tent, gesturing inside. “Put her down in here, I’ll grab Willow’s medical supplies.”

Luz nodded and moved forward, ducking her head under the tent door and walking in. The inside was a decent size, with three sleeping bags already laid out on the left side of the tent. On the right side, there was a pile of blankets on the floor, a place clearly meant for sitting and relaxing. There were a couple of sleeping bags and other camp supplies stacked in the back corner. Luz hesitated, not sure where to go until Amity spoke up quietly from her shoulder.

“The blankets are fine,” she whispered. Her voice was raspy like she had just swallowed sand.

Luz gently set her down on the blankets, and Amity exhaled. Luz couldn’t help but perk up at that. It was almost a sigh of relief, but not quite.

As she collapsed into the blankets and settled in, Luz walked over to the camp supplies and took out an extra sleeping bag and a pillow.

Gus poked his head inside the door, dropping Willow’s bag near the entrance.

“Willow thinks she sees mortal hikers in the area so we’re going to try and magically conceal the campsite.”

Luz nodded, “Ok, I’ll be right out.”

Gus shook his head. “No, stay here. We won’t be long.” Gus left fairly quickly, with the promise that they would yell if they needed help.

When he left the tent, Luz walked back over to Amity and handed her the bag and pillow, who thanked her quietly. As she took it, Luz looked at her wrists and gasped. Her wrists were covered in deep purple bruises from the chains.

“Amity,” she started in horror, and the girl quickly covered her hands with her sleeves.

“It’s nothing,” she tried, but Luz shook her head.

“That’s not nothing,” Luz retorted. “And don’t try to tell me it doesn’t hurt either.” She wasn’t usually so stern, and with a jolt, she realized she probably sounded just like her Mami when Luz came home with an unexplained injury. Under different circumstances, she might have been embarrassed, but now she had a job to do.

She picked up Willows backpack and unzipped it, reaching inside to pull out the mortal first aid kit and a canteen of nectar. Underneath the canteen, Luz pulled out this Ziplock baggie of what looks like some kind of square food, and Luz’s brow furrowed. Amity chuckled at her expression, reaching over to take it from Luz and open the baggie, popping a square into her mouth and chewing.

It was like life immediately came back to her face. A lot of the bruises began to fade from her body, including the ones on her wrists. Her face started to go less pale and more to the tan color she’d had when Luz first met her at camp. Her gold eyes brightened, and Luz noticed with a smile that she looked a lot better. Amity finished chewing and looked at Luz, her cheeks pinkening.

“What?”

Oh, she was staring. Luz looked away quickly, her own face coloring.

“Nothing. I just have never seen that before. Does it do the same thing as nectar?”

Amity nodded, smiling softly at Luz’s curiosity. It was a weird look on Amity. For a while there when they met, Luz didn’t think she could do anything else besides scowl and stare blankly. “It’s ambrosia. If nectar is the drink of the gods, then ambrosia is the god's food.”

“I didn’t think the nectar would taste like my mom’s soup,” Luz admitted, and Amity laughed. It was a clear sound that rose in a crescendo, and Luz didn’t think a noise like that would have ever come out of her mouth. She wanted to try and make her laugh again.

“It tastes different to every demigod. It’s supposed to be your favorite tastes wrapped into one bite or sip.” She ripped off a little piece of the ambrosia, holding it out for her. “Here, try some.”

Luz hesitated, which was so out of character for her she almost couldn’t believe she’d done it. “Won’t it burn me up if I’m not injured?”

Amity laughed again, and Luz couldn’t help but smile. That was easier than she thought. “No, not an amount this small. Besides, I saw Orpheus step on your back. This will help with the pain.”

Luz felt her face heat up at the memory. Now that Amity had mentioned it, her lower back was killing her. But she would never admit it, not with Amity as injured as she was. “I’m alright.”

Amity pointed her nose up at Luz. “You’re not alright,” she said, mimicking Luz’s earlier tone. Luz’s cheeks flushed deeper and she decided it was worth shoving the ambrosia in her mouth if it meant Amity wouldn’t tease her anymore. The second she started chewing she hummed in approval. Her mouth was filled with the delicious sugary cinnamon taste of reganada’s.

“So good,” Luz said in awe, never wanting the taste to leave her mouth. Amity was quiet, watching Luz in amusement. When she finally did swallow, she realized that she had been right, the pain in her back was now gone, and the exhaustion in her arms from carrying Amity all the way here was also easing up slightly. Feeling embarrassed she’d almost denied needing the help, she smiled sheepishly at Amity.

“Thanks.”

She chuckled, “no problem.”

They were quiet for a few moments, neither of them sure what to say. Well, Luz knew what she wanted to say but her ADHD brain was running a hundred steps ahead of her. She wanted to ask about the prophecy, about what had happened in Colorado, about the man in the mountain. Amity seemed nervous, and she bit her lip, wringing her hands together. Just when Luz felt like she was about to burst, Amity finally spoke first.

“What did it taste like?”

Luz blinked. She definitely hadn’t been expecting Amity to ask that.

“Uh, reganada’s.”

This time Amity looked confused. “Huh?”

Luz chuckled softly, rubbing the back of her neck. “They’re like Mexican cinnamon cookies. When we lived in upstate New York closer to my Mami’s family we would have them after church or at baby showers and stuff. My Mami usually gives them to me when I managed to not get expelled from school that year.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Amity said with a smile, sharing the happy sentiment. Luz flashed her a nervous smile, fiddling with her hands. She always had a hard time making friends, and she didn’t want Amity to think she was a weirdo. She was lucky that Willow and Gus wanted to be around her, but she found that their friendship was easy, almost effortless. But with Amity things were tense and charged, likely because of their initial dislike for one another and the now shared double prophecy they were still skirting around together. Luz didn’t want to mess up and make Amity hate her again.

“What about you?” Luz asked, trying to keep it going. “What does ambrosia taste like for you?”

Luz knew it was a bad question the second she asked it. Amity’s face fell, and her mouth twisted into a frown. Luz immediately started apologizing.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“No, no, don’t apologize, it’s not a bad question.” Amity cut off quickly, shaking her head. After a short pause, she quietly added, “for me, it tastes like cherry pie.” She bit her lip, deep in thought, and Luz felt herself leaning in curiously as Amity seemed to get lost in the memory.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Luz began softly, and Amity hummed, looking at her with a smile, but it wasn’t soft like the other ones. This one was tense, almost sad.

“I’m sure Willow already told you anyway. When she first came to camp, she and I were friends. We used to play hooky from the campfire and steal cherry pie from the kitchens. We built a fort in the forest and ate it with our hands. We’d sit there for hours away from everyone else, keeping each other company.”

Luz smiles at the cute mental image. She had heard the story about how Willow and Amity had been friends, but when Willow had talked about it she was a lot more tense and upset about it. Luz couldn’t figure out why Amity was talking about it so nostalgically, especially since she had been the one to abandon Willow for her new friends. At the same time, she wasn’t opposed to Amity wanting to reconcile with her other friend, especially since they would be together on a quest and needed to work as a team.

Plus, Luz couldn’t help but think that she’d done something different with Amity and gotten her out of her shell a bit. Maybe she could create some shenanigans to get her and Willow back as friends. She was so lost in thought, she had to snap back to reality as she processed that Amity was still rambling.

“Nectar tastes like buttered popcorn for me. That’s another memory with Willow. We first became friends at movie night during Willow’s first week at camp. They were showing Disney’s Hercules, and all the other kids were mocking it for how incorrect it all was, but Willow just sang the songs to herself and smiling at me and soon I started joining in. After that night we were inseparable, even once she was sorted into the Demeter cabin and we couldn’t see each other as much but then after that year….”

She stopped, swallowing hard and looking ashamed. She tucked her knees up to her chest and looked away from Luz. “Well, I’m sure Willow told you what I did.”

Luz didn’t know why she felt sorry for Amity, especially since she just basically confirmed that Amity did in fact abandon Willow because of her interesting goldy parentage. As a friend, she should stand up for Willow, and call Amity out for being cruel. But instead, she just sat down next to Amity on the blankets, gently reaching out to touch her arm reassuringly.

“Look, Amity. We all do things we regret. All that matters is that we acknowledge what we did and try to move forward.”

The green-haired half-blood scoffed, keeping her eyes trained on the floor. As Luz scanned her face with her eyes, she realized that this look wasn’t just out of exhaustion or regret. She almost looked haunted. “I don’t deserve to have a person like Willow in my life. Why are you being so nice to me? I was terrible to you at camp.”

Luz shrugged, nudging Amity with her shoulder playfully, trying to cheer her up. “Most people tend to be terrible to me when they meet me. It must be a half-blood thing.”

Amity managed a half-smile and a weak laugh. Luz took that as a cue to move forward. Now she was more curious than ever. She just hoped she wouldn’t do her Luz thing and be too much. She leaned down to look Amity in the eyes.

“I know those memories must be painful for you, but what happened to you guys? And why are you both trying to hide it?”

Amity sighed tiredly, and Luz thought that despite being her age, Amity had an old soul that Luz could probably never understand. But Hades be damned she wasn’t going to try.

“There are a lot of things in my life that stop me from feeling like a real half-blood.” Amity started quietly, and Luz’s eyebrows pinched together in confusion. She thought that Amity was as real a half-blood as she could get. I mean holy Zeus, she was chosen for the quest because of her skill and her reputation. But she didn’t voice this, instead, she did her best to listen and fidget as little as possible.

“I know you know that my mom is Aphrodite, but I don’t know if you knew that Edric and Emira are my full siblings, not just half like the other Aphrodite campers.”

She shook her head. She hadn’t known that.

“So, you guys have the same mortal father?” Luz concurred, and Amity tensed.

“Yes. But we also have the same mortal mother.”

Luz had never been more confused in her entire life. Thankfully, Amity didn’t want to continue.

“My parents are also demigods. They went to camp with Eda and Lilith as kids, and that’s how they met. They worked together to run a successful business inside of Olympus, and are well renowned by the Olympic Council. But they didn’t get together until after my father fell in love with Aphrodite. The twins were babies when my parents got married. My mother said she didn’t mind, she hadn’t planned on having her own children anyway. But then, when they were two and a half, Aphrodite left me on the doorstep. My mother was not happy about this.”

“Amity…” Luz began with a gasp, already knowing where this was going. Though it was clear how hurt she was telling the story, she still continued, swallowing hard before moving on.

“My mother told my father that because of their reputation on Olympus, and their status within the community, she would forgive him. She said as long as we turned out to be just as respectable as she was in the eyes of the gods, I would be welcome in their house. By the time I was three, I was taught to swing a sword. I already knew what camp was when I arrived, and I already had been given a standard to uphold. I had to be the best, the strongest, the most skilled, the most honored. Otherwise, I would always be a mistake.”

“So that’s why you stopped being friends with Willow,” Luz whispered softly.

“She was never the weak one, or the freak, or the half a half-blood,” Amity confirmed, her eyes betraying how ashamed she really was of this. “Willow is the strongest demigod I’ve ever met. And I had to be better, and that meant I couldn’t be her friend.”

There was silence, as Luz took time to process all of this. She couldn’t believe what Amity had just told her. She had known that being a half-blood was always going to be complicated, but Amity was like one of those massive puzzles her Mami never finished. How could you even unpack all that in one sitting?

“Is that true?”Luz and Amity jumped at the voice from the tent entrance, and Amity flushed with embarrassment when she saw Willow standing there, watching her with blank, unreadable eyes. Luz’s heart started hammering in her chest, worried that Willow was either going to snap at them both for talking behind her back or that Amity was going to yell at her for eavesdropping.

There was a tense and uncomfortable silence as the two of them stared each other down. Willow with those unreadable green eyes and Amity with gold eyes blinking in shock. Luz would have killed a thousand white eagles to know what would have happened next, but as all half-bloods have to deal with, they were unfortunately interrupted.

Gus screamed in terror from loudly outside the tent.

“Guys!” He yelped, and Luz could hear the click of his watch as he drew his shield. “We’ve got company!”

Luz jumped again, touching her ring and drawing the sword version of Aletheia. Willow and Luz shared a look before racing outside of the tent, and when Luz saw what was there she couldn’t help but think that maybe she was starting to understand why half-bloods were so unlucky.

Luz didn’t know a lot of Greek myths off the top of her head, but after meeting the guy, she had brushed up on his saga of quests with Gus just to see what all the fuss had been about. This monster was straight out of his legend, a massive man with the head of a bull, and huge horns circling his head. He was dressed in a Greek chest plate, and he was slashing down Willow’s thorns with his huge ax. They fell to the ground like he was slicing paper.

It breathed in a fury and roared so loudly that Gus shrank from behind his shield. Willow was soon at her side, and despite the fact that Luz knew she was way too exhausted to fight, Amity was there too, her own xiphos drawn, the amethysts glowing in the sun.

The four of them stood together, waiting for the Minotaur to tear down the last of the thorns and charge.

#the owl house #Percy Jackson AU #lumity #luz x amity #shelby speaks