BLOODSHOT . . . piper mclean

01.

RUN. RUN. RUN.

The voice was loud, echoing. It screamed in Eden's ears over and over again.

"Eden, run!" Annabeth screamed. "You can't die out there! You can't exhaust yourself!"

"Why?" Eden asked her, but she knew why; she was their best fighter. Was, because Percy had gotten the Achilles curse blessing thing that made him invincible in battle, so he couldn't get hurt. Meanwhile, Eden could, though she tried to avoid that the best she could. She'd only gotten cuts from this entire war so far, so she was safe for now.

Eden was trained to be Percy, but she was glad she wasn't him. She would've yielded to Kronos by now. Especially if he'd had Silena. Who she was hopelessly in love with, which was wonderful.

Also, Eden was a decent healer. The Apollo kids were tiring, and they needed her with them.

"They let me be out here!" Eden retorted, slicing a cyclops in half. That felt good. "And you need me out here. For right now, at least."

"Eden, if you die out here, we'll lose this," Annabeth snapped, and Eden felt like she'd been slapped in the face. She was only here because this is what she'd trained for her entire life, she had to be a part of this.

But the reality that they were still alive because of her fighting skills? And they could die without her skills? Ouch. That was a win in her villain arc, but her entire life was her stabbing her villain arc. That couldn't happen. Yet.

"Good thing I won't die, then," Eden grinned at her. "Besides, y'all almost didn't kill that giant ass pig. Those statues saved my shit brother's life."

"That just happened," Annabeth gaped at her. "How—"

"Words from the injured," Eden threw a throwing knife at a monster, effectively slicing off its head. "And also, I saw it. How can I not resist at watching my idiot brother flail from a rope in the air?"

She let herself charge into battle, guns ablazing and a javelin to strike monsters with, naturally.

Not your usual demigod weapon, guns. But Eden was one of the best ( second best, because of Luke. He's only better because he has a Titan in his body. ) because of her knowledge with mortal weapons. Demigods tended to favor the aesthetic™ for no particular reason, but Eden quite liked her guns.

Even if it made her a monster, both in the mortal and demigod world. Easily corrupted by weapons, she was, but monsters made monsters. That was something Eden valued as much as her weapons. Grueling words.

Because Eden had always been searching after the answers to her questions, ever since she was born, ever since she was thrown into this demigod world.

Why did she have to grow up so weirdly? Why was she chosen to be bred as the child of the prophecy, and then wasn't? Why was she fighting for this side?

Of course, she knew the answer to that one: because Silena. Duh. Otherwise? Not even Annabeth's words would've persuaded Eden to stay on that side of the battle.

And then the roar happened, and no, no, no, no, no—

Eden had to get out. She needed to leave, but her body couldn't, it wouldn't—

She gasped as she woke up, kicking to the open side of her bed.

A hiss was right next to her; Eden's vision cleared and Annabeth was doubling over in pain. Eden looked behind her and saw that Connor wasn't here. Huh. He must've left early.

"You should've known by now," Eden lifted up Annabeth's shirt, slapping her hand away. "Dude, I'm a healer. Chill. Just eat this." She brought up a piece of ambrosia before dousing the bruises in nectar. "What'd you want?"