Chapter Text
Three days later Regulus had already learned basic combat as well as how to use his daggers, and the rumors about him only got worse..
I heard he sent the Minotaur straight to hell
I heard he threatened to send his family to Tartarus
I heard he’s a spy, he’s the reason for all of this.
If it wasn’t for Sirius he’s pretty sure he would’ve been cast out of Camp Legacy by now. Anytime a camper had come up to Regulus questioning him, Sirius would be the first to defend his little brother. Dorcas helped with that as well, once she was out of the infirmary and got caught up on everything, she’d been training and going to classes with Regulus. Between the two, he was never alone, but when he was there was always a chance that James would try to talk to Regulus.
With the trouble he’s been having with Lily, Regulus definitely didn’t want to get involved now.
The last straw was at breakfast this morning.
Regulus arrived at the group's normal table with Sirius’ other friends, and a fight was already ready to break out.
Lily, looking desperate from across the table, ”Look I’m just saying-“
”No!” James yells, “You can’t.”
”This isn’t your decision! It isn’t your life James.”
James slams his fist on the table making the others jump. He stands up, walking away fuming with anger. Lily sighs and follows after him shortly after.
”The hell was that about?” Regulus asks.
”They’ve been fighting since you’ve arrived, its only getting worse.” Remus says. Sirius makes a joke about it trying to lighten the mood, the rest of the table going along with it not wanting to acknowledge what the hell just happened.
. . .
Flashback to now, Regulus, Sirius, Remus, and Lily are together in the Hades cabin trying to research more on what the gods are on about with their relics being stolen.
”It must be nice having a whole cabin to yourself.” Lily says.
”I mean, I guess. It’s lonely though.”
Remus injects himself into the conversation,”Everyone like some alone time though, I would KILL for a cabin to myself.” He plops onto one of the dusty beds, setting a few books beside him, “Imagine all the reading you could do without the distractions of neurodivergent kids…”
”I think his parents got confused and chose loser nerd gay son…” Lily whispers to Regulus. He hides a laugh and sets another stack of books down.
”Well, have we found anything important yet?” Sirius groans. Nobody had asked him to be there, he just showed up one day complaining that there wasn’t anything else to do. “I’m getting tired of doing this all day now that you’ve been trained.”
”No one asked you to be here, you know.” Remus says.
Sirius dramatically falls over Remus’s lap and throws a hand over his forehead, “Oh but what would you three ever do without me and my sarcastic commentary?” Remus pushes him onto the floor with a loud thud, making Regulus and Lily erupt with laughter.
”I think we could replace you easily.” With that Dorcas finally lets herself in and throws her piles of notes on the bed.
”Tell me how there’s nothing of how all of these relics have been stolen? It’s an impossible job, no god would ever dare do this.”
“Well that’s one way to say hi.” Regulus smirks, he pats the floor besides him and Dorcas gladly sits down, “And, you’re definitely right. There’s no way in hell this could ever happen, but it did and now we gotta deal with this mess.”
”Well what if we aren’t thinking deep enough? What monsters could have done this? And are they working for some god to cover up their tracks? Who would ever try to do this, not even thinking about blaming it on some kids.” She sighs and picks up a book, “There’s so much history of each and everyone of the gods, their loves, their lives, their losses, so what could this thief be targeting? And even then-“
”What if it wasn’t a god or monster, but a half-blood?” Everyone turns to Sirius who’s still laying on the ground, playing with strands of his hair.
”Really Sirius? A half-blood pulling a stunt like this? C’mon atleast be realistic.”
”No I’m serious!…pun intended.” Everyone groans and Regulus throws a pillow as hard as he can.
”Jeez dude are you drunk?”
“…maybe.” he pulls a small flask from inside his leather jacket and takes a swig, only causing Remus to snatch it away from him.
”What if he’s right?” Remus says, tucking the flask in his pocket, “I mean they would know what to expect from the gods and have an alibi for ‘being at camp’”.
”Remus, there’s so many flaws in that plan there’s no way in hell it would work. Why would a half-blood even attempt to go on that suicide mission?” Lily says, “I mean maybe if-“ a knock at the door interrupts her. Heads turn to see James at the door where he awkwardly smiles at the group.
”Hey guys, I was wondering if I could borrow Lily for a moment? It’ll only take a second-“
”She’s made it clear she doesn’t want to talk to you.” Remus spats out
”Remus, its okay.” She sighs and rubs her fingers against her forehead, “Guys I’ll be back in a moment.” She steps outside of the cabin with James, closing the door behind them.
Remus runs a hand through his hair, “God I can’t believe him. Really? After the sh*t he pulled at breakfast? C’mon man…” Sirius gets off of the floor and sits next to Remus on the bed, running his hand along his spine. Regulus senses something between the two but won’t say anything unless they say it first.
”What’s been happening with them? Do you know?” Regulus questions. Even if he wasn’t able to pine after James anymore, he still wanted to know why he was trying to hurt his friend, to everyone that’s what it clearly looked like.
”Well, she was wanting to tell you guys herself so it's not my place to say. I’m sure she’ll tell you all when she’s ready so don’t take that in a bad way.” Regulus knows not to pester anymore and picks up one of the books from his stack.
”It’s alright, I understand what that’s like.” He smiles at Remus and opens the book to the first page and begins reading. It’s a book about the history of godly relics. Where they came from, who wields them, blah blah blah…
Hours later Regulus wakes up to see the others sound asleep around him. Dorcas laying in his bed, a book open on a pillow, and Sirius and Remus laying together on the floor. All three of them looking as calm as they could.
Then footsteps thud across the floor.
Regulus jolts from the grogginess, standing up and getting his daggers out. He scans the room for anyone else and sees no one.
“Trust….no one….” a voice says.
“Who are you? And what do you want from me?”
“Oh dear…I thought you would recognize me.”
“I mean you're just some creepy ass voice speaking to me? How the f*ck would I recognize you?”
“Now, that's no way to talk to your mother.” Regulus’ eyes widen as he turns around to see his mother standing before him in all her disgusting glory.
“I thought- I-I-”
“You thought I died dear? Oh please, you know I'm stronger than that. Now tell me what you've learned from this place.”
“What? No! How are you here?”
She laughs and walks closer to Regulus,”You really thought my ex husband would kill me just like that? No! He spared me and made me one of his head commanders of hell.”
What? No, I saw how he had hated seeing her in that house. This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This. Isn't. Real.
“You're lying.”
Her smile vanishes from her face,“Oh I didn't think I'd have to resort to this” her eyes grow pitch black and her teeth slowly grow into fangs, “Now my dearest, darling,-”
She deadnames Regulus.
She calls him her precious daughter.
And Regulus?
Oh. He snaps.
“No. That's not how things happen anymore. I am not her anymore, and I am DEFINITELY not your daughter.” He throws a dagger at her face, it only missing by an inch. “That's a warning.”
She doesn't respond. Only a smile growing on her face, making worry grow in his gut. The room slowly fades into the same pitch black as her eyes, the lights dying out, “You know what doesn’t work on me.” She holds her palm up and Regulus’s daggers fly away into a corner of the room. “I really thought you knew better than that…” She walks up to her son, looking him dead in the eyes, “You will never be my son.” She smacks him across the face, letting the boy fall straight to the floor.
Regulus’s eyes fill with tears, paralyzed with fear. He can’t even stand up to defend himself anymore. His daggers appear in her hands, she throws it into one into his thigh and screams in pain.
“This is why you should’ve stayed with me, we could’ve ruled Olympus together.” She smiles at her child, crying with pain, blood pooling around him.
“Please…enough…” he begs
”No. You’ve made your choice.” She kneels down by him and cups his face in her hand as the other dagger pierces through his chest.
“REGULUS!” Sirius yells, shaking his brother's shoulders frantically. Regulus sits up in a cold sweat, the others surrounding him with relief in their eyes, “What the hell was that? I don’t even remember us falling asleep!”
Everyone is silent, waiting for him to respond.
But he can’t.
His hands curl around his chest and he cries.
And cries and cries and cries.
He feels his brother's arms wrap around him as the others shuffle out of the room. Sirius begins to rock him back and forth in an attempt to comfort him, which only makes Regulus’s breathing become more staggered.
”Reg, remember when this happened back at home? What did we always do to help the pain go away?” Regulus looks at his brother and takes a deep breath in, slowly letting it out, matching his breathing with his brothers. His heartbeat slows down and the tears stop flowing after only minutes of this. “Did you see something in your dream?”
”Not something, someone.”
”Ah” he doesn’t need any more detail to know it's about their mother, “Well when talking about her she really is something.” Having nightmares like this wasn’t new for the Black Brothers. Throughout their childhood they had woken up many many times to comfort the other through these horrific dreams, and it definitely wasn’t going to end anytime soon.
“Do you think…she would ever kill us?”
”Kill us? You don’t remember the sh*t she used to do to us?” He takes off his jacket and points to a long scar across his forearm, “She threatened to chop my arm off, I doubt she never thought about killing us atleast once. The only reason she kept us was because she thought we were her keys into Olympus.”
Regulus’s eyes widen, “Her keys into Olympus?”
”Yeah, that’s what I said.”
”Sirius, I think you’re onto something for once.”
”Really?”
”Yeah…” he stands up and lends a hand down to his brother, “We need to go see Pandora immediately.” Sirius stands up, in hand with Regulus. Sirius begins to question but Regulus runs out of the room, dragging him along with him. They run past Remus and Dorcas, seeing the confused looks on their faces they follow after them as well, yelling after the pair.
”What’s going on?” Dorcas shouts. They make it to the mansion and Regulus turns to face the other three.
”I think I know who did this.”
”…well who was it?” Remus says.
”Our mother, who I doubt was ever a human to begin with.”
