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The Forbidden Daughter

A Riordanverse fanfic. Riordan is very much action with a side plot of romance. I prefer to think that this will be romance with a side plot of action. A sheltered demigod must go on her first quest in order to regain her place in her family and perhaps finds love along the way. Timeline wise, it is post ToA

Warnings: None in this chapter.

Chapter One

Words:15777

It wasn't the first time I'd been struck out of the sky by a bolt of lightning. However, it was the first time I was struck directly and to say it hurt like a bitch would be putting it mildly.

I'm sure you've all heard from my cousin, Percy Jackson, about how being a half-blood is just one day of pissing off the gods and getting chased by monsters after another, but I'd genuinely thought I was over the hump so to speak. I mean, I'd been on Olympus for a decade, and was about to finally explore the real world when suddenly I'm hurtling through the sky so fast that I'm sure I would break the sound barrier.

It's hard to think when you're in that position. The little voice in my head just kept screaming: "This is it, this is it, I'll never go to college, I'll just be another statistic, another half-blood dead in their teens. I can see the obituary now, Leia Narsonos dies after splatting on the pavement, a tragedy made all the worse considering the eighteen-year-old had never even been kissed." And that was when I saw the sun in all it's beautiful, bright glory, and then I had a glimmer of hope.

"Apollo!" I screamed his name, but the wind quickly whisked the sound away. Buildings flew by beneath me, I was thankfully still up too high to be turned into a pancake on the side of a skyscraper. My body flung over trees and houses, the blue horizon of the ocean getting closer and closer, until I finally started to lose altitude. I closed my eyes tight and prayed for the first time in a while, "Uncle Sy, coming in for a landing."

And then the world went dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I like to think I'm a fairly rational god. My many forced mortal adventures have mellowed me out over the years. I've been more responsible when it comes to my children, and I've been better at listening to people instead of just listening for when they talk about me.

That was how I heard my name being screamed as I was driving the sun chariot over the Eastern Seaboard. I paused for a moment, confusing my horses, as I turned to track a comet across the sky. Except, it wasn't a comet. It was a girl. And not just any girl. A girl who was supposed to be waiting for me back on Olympus for when I finished my run.

I turned automatically, following the arc of her fall. I pushed my horses hard, but she was always just out of reach and then she started to drop like a stone. I barely registered the beach at Camp Half Blood in front of me as I practically crashed into the sand.

"Apollo, what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked me from the docks. She was already running towards the shore. "Do you have anything to do with the girl that just crashed out of the sky?"

I stumbled, tripping over my typically graceful feet as I ran towards the water. "Where is she?"

"Percy jumped into the water to get her-"

I was up to my knees in the water by the time Percy Jackson emerged, a limp body in his arms, water pouring off of her.

His face crumpled in confusion. "Apollo?"

I gingerly took her from his arms and laid her out on the beach. Her green chiton was charred and torn. A tree of burns grew from the middle of her chest and she wasn't breathing. Lichtenberg figures. Only one person I knew was capable of causing those. I placed my hands on her chest, about to start chest compressions when my mind went blank. Was it supposed to be to the tune of 'Another One Bites the Dust'? Or was it 'Stayin' Alive'? My hands hovered for a moment. I was wasting time, but I was frozen. What if I messed up? What if I couldn't save her? I was vaguely aware of the campers closing in around us. The sound of hooves let me know that Chiron had arrived.

"Dad, is she going to-"

I snapped my head up to see my son, Will, pushing through the crowd. He knelt down next to me, grimacing at her chest. And then he did what I couldn't do. He didn't hesitate. He just started chest compressions. I watched as his hands pushed and pushed and pushed. I watched as he paused. My chest felt like lead when she didn't breathe.

The chittering of the crowd had quieted down. I finally looked up to see the water parting into a walkway as my Uncle, Poseidon, strode onto the sand, a stern frown on his face. He pushed both of us out of the way before brushing her hair out of her face. He placed one hand gently on the center of his chest, on the trunk of the tree of burns and then slowly pulled his hand away. I was transfixed as the water in her lungs flowed into his hand. Her eyes opened wide, green as the forests I used to race Artemis around in.

They swung to Poseidon before settling on me.

A languid smile grew on her face. "You came."

I took her hand. "You called." And then her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"She'll have to go to the infirmary," Will said. "She's a demigod, right?"

Chiron stamped his feet nervously. "Yes. She is."

Will gently traced one of the red lines on her chest. "Zeus did this?" he asked.

"Yes." Poseidon straightened her chiton where the straps had fallen.

"How did you know to come?" I asked him.

"Only one person calls me 'Uncle Sy' and she rarely prays to me," he said, smiling fondly down at her.

Percy snorted. "'Sy'?"

"She was eight. Poseidon was hard for her to pick up." Poseidon shrugged.

"Who is her godly parent?" Annabeth asked. The campers all started to speculate, calling out guesses. I wasn't going to confirm or deny, waiting to see if she decided to claim her.

Almost as if it had been a challenged issued, a silver polos appeared on her head and a bouquet of lilies rested in her hands.

"I've never seen that before," Percy said.

"You wouldn't," Annabeth said. "Because Hera doesn't have children."

"You're right," I said. "Hera doesn't have children. She has a child."

"That's impossible," Annabeth replied, shaking her head at me. "Hera would never cheat on Zeus. It goes against everything she stands for."

"She didn't," Poseidon said, scooping Leia up in his arms. He turned a stern eye on me. "You need to go. It's starting to get dark. The mist can only hide so much from the mortals."

"But-"

"Go, Apollo. I'll watch her until you get back."

"Promise?"

He gave me a nod. "I promise."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Comas always look so restful when you see them on tv. I mean, the person is just laying there in a cushy bed while everyone else weeps over them. I don't know if being a half-blood just means that we never truly get rest, but for me, my post-meteor coma was anything but restful. Instead, I got a front row seat to the story of my life flashing before my eyes as if I needed to be reminded about how much I hadn't accomplished before I almost died. I even got to see things I didn't get to experience first hand.

My origin story is fairly straightforward. Boy mets girl. Girl and boy decide they are meant for each other, they get married and try to start a family. Except they can't. Every time they try something happens. Then, clearing out their house during a move they find an old family diary that mentions praying to the goddess, Hera, for help on a fertility journey. At this point, the couple has nothing left to lose, so they do it. It all goes great until a routine check up turns into a cancer diagnosis. Girl has to have a hysterectomy to save her life, and thankfully it does, but it also ruins her chance of having her own child. Still, they pray and pray to Hera as they search for a surrogate, except the fertility journey has bled their savings dry and they can't afford it. Hera can be a merciful goddess when she wants to be, and when she saw this struggling couple who stayed loyal to each other through it all, truly embodying their marriage vows, she decides to help. The couple find a surrogate willing to help them for free. It's not their fault they didn't recognize that she was a goddess. Hera carries the child to term and gives birth to what should have been a mortal baby. After all, her father was mortal, her mother was mortal. However, all the exposure to ambrosia and nectar in the womb has turned the baby into a demigod.

Pretty wild, right? Demigod by osmosis or something. I didn't start showing signs until I was five. My parents used to joke that I was a Disney princess because animals just flocked to me. I didn't learn that I was practically summoning them until much later. Not having a biological godly parent also didn't insulate me from the monster attacks or wrath of the gods. There were a few birthdays that got ruined by things only I could see. But, on a whole we were a fairly happy family. Until the plane crash that is.

I'm sure by now you know Zeus has a temper and an ego. Well, the cardinal rule of dealing with Zeus is to not insult him while in his domain. It was a lesson I learned the hard way. I was eight. We were on a trip across the sea to visit Greece. We'd barely left JFK airport when I asked my parents for the umpteenth time why we were going to Greece.

"Because we're going to visit a temple of Hera and give her the proper thanks she deserves," my mother said.

"Why Hera?"

"Because she is the best Olympian."

Those six words sealed their fate. I looked out the window just in time to see lightning strike the engine. It started to smoke and then it caught fire. The flight attendants had said to secure your own oxygen and seatbelt before you helped someone else, but my parents didn't listen. The plane hit the water and they were sent flying out of their seats. Most of that event is a blur. I just remember a man breaking down the door from outside the plane, in the ocean. I know now that it was my Uncle Sy, opening the side of the plane with his trident like it was a can of tuna. He held his arms out for me and I reached for him. It felt as if I had blinked and then we were walking out onto a beach where my mom's best friend, Auntie H, was waiting for me. She scooped me up and held me tight, crying tears into my already salty hair. "I will send for you. I promise on the Styx that you will not grow up down here as an unloved orphan." She pressed a kiss to my forehead and set me back down on the sand as the other survivors started to make it to shore. One of the flight attendants limped towards me. When I turned back, both Auntie H and Uncle Sy were gone.

I think I spent a week with CPS before Apollo picked me up from school.

I still remember that moment clearly. The sun chariot in all its golden glory hurtling towards my elementary school while we were all on the playground at recess. It had been a miserable day. Dark and dreary. I was alone on the swings, trying my hardest to swing myself even though my feet didn't touch the ground. The most beautiful boy stepped out of the carriage--he looked like a teenager on tv, flawless skin and a stunning smile. After scanning the crowd, his eyes lit up as he saw me and walked over. He held his hand out towards me and I took it. His warmth seeped into my skin and somehow I knew it would all be okay.

He spent the ride back to Olympus pointing out various landmarks and places he'd visited or inspired people to create, but there was a sadness to him.

"You're lonely," I said.

He sputtered. "Ab-absolutely not. I am the sun god. People literally pray for me to visit. I can be around anyone I want."

He wasn't fooling me. I shook my head and tapped his arm. "S'okay. I'll marry you when I'm older and then you won't be lonely anymore. My parents were never lonely because they had each other."

That made him laugh. It was a musical sound that made something flutter in my chest, and I suddenly wanted to hear more of it. It had been a long week and no one had been so carefree with their laughter around me, treating me as if I were fragile. As if I would break at the slightest mention that my world had been turned upside down.

We landed in Olympus, where I was ushered through the back of Hera's palace and dressed like the various nymphs in her employ. Hera raised me in secret, making sure I learned everything I needed to know, and telling me stories of my parents so I wouldn't forget them. "To find love like they had, little star, that's a blessing. One that I hope you'll have some day." She'd say before she kissed my head and tucked me in at night.

The years in Olympus blur together. Mundane days broken up by visits from Uncle Sy (usually bearing gifts) or Apollo. I looked forward to those days with Apollo, chasing each other around the garden and learning how to play the lyre. Somewhere between those races and him guiding my hands as I strummed, he became my closest friend.

That was why I was waiting on the balcony when Zeus arrived. I was waiting for Apollo to tell him that I'd gotten accepted into college. He'd helped me with my applications and had the muses tutor me for my essay.

That was why he was the first person I called for as I fell, because I could trust him to save me like he did that day in the schoolyard.

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