Broken men with broken promises((James))

[Alexander Orion]

Alexander kept his eyes closed. It was easier to imagine her there with him that way. It was easier to imagine Eros’s words that shattered his world in two. It was easier to imagine their first and last embrace. Easier to imagine the tears welling in her eyes and the softness of her. Easier to imagine her darkness, the only darkness he has known to match his own. The girl of his dreams. Not the kind you dream about when you were a young and filled with ideals about the perfect relationship. Rather it was the type of dream that haunted you late into the day after you have awoken and realized it wasn’t real. She visited his nightmares more than his happy dreams now. She would be bleeding from many wounds. He couldn’t ever do anything to save her.

He opened his eyes. It was the first time he had been back to the clearing in the forest since he had been claimed. It looked virtually the same. The bush were the doe had emerged still remained in its place. The tree Alexander had punched until his hand bled remained steadfast in its original position. It looked as if the moment that had changed his life hadn’t happened at all. The world was unaffected by his pain, his suffering, his joy, his love, and especially his despair. The world kept turning. Unaware of the problems that plagued Alexander Orion. His left hand began to sting as tears welled up in his eyes. The ring was telling him to quit his whining, to let the feelings he felt subside. He was getting better at ignoring it. It was humorous to him that the only connection he had to his father was a botched ring that didn’t do its job very well.

As he stood, Alexander flashed to his embrace with the love of his life. Momentarily he felt her head on his shoulder, her tears rolling down his stomach, her hands across his shoulder blades. It came and went so quickly he fell back to his sitting position in shock. He began to truly cry. All the women in all the world could not fill up the hole she left. He could almost feel it. A gutshot. Right through the son of Eros.

A gentle breeze rolled through the clearing and sunlight fell through the leaves that had hidden the sky from him. He stood, dusting the dirt and leaves off his black jeans and orange shirt. He probably should have put something on that didn’t attract every sort of eye. In truth, Alexander hadn’t expected to find himself here. He let his feet guide him and this is where they stopped. The demigod realized then that a part of him was calling to this clearing all along, the part that was searching for the missing piece. And since this was the last place he ever saw that piece, it was a good place to start looking.

A twig snapped behind him, and before he was even thinking about what it could be his bow was drawn with an arrow nocked and leveled at the source of the noise. Alex thought of the deer turned human that had emerged from the very same bush he now aimed at. The noise she had made had been very similar. Alexander almost wondered if she had returned, with a second ring to replace the terrible excuse of a godly gift. He could almost hear her words. “Your father is still proud of you. He apologizes for the inconvenience of his terribly made ring. Here is your handy dandy replacement that actually turns into a bow every time you need it to!”

Instead of firing blindly into the bush as he normally would, he called out. “Unless your are a very attractive blonde that is under five foot and six inches that is looking for hot sex, I suggest you turn around and walk the other direction. I’ve laid claim to this particular patch of nothing and I am quite willing to kill your ass for it.” As good as that sounded in his head, his voice made an atrocity out of it. Great going, he thought, that will scare away the monsters.

[James Demarco]

James atoned for his past sins. He begged for forgiveness. From the Gods, from Alex, from the wilderness, from himself... only silence. Daggers in the night, wounds festered and soiled. Trapped in a desolate place with his thoughts, his twisted view of the world. Nothing he could do would make up for the attempted murder of Alex's supposed love, and his good friend. The Daughter of Hades had a lot in common with him, the outcasts for different reasons. He wanted nothing but a good life for her, and he ruined it with his blade.



Like Alex, he had been wandering in his grief, wallowing in it as much as his fractured mind would allow. Flashbacks, reminders of forgotten demons... the Woods which always suited as a home away from his former cabin loomed in shadow and teeming with unknown threats. His ornate crossbow and bastard sword at his hip ensured any threat would be dispatched. Little did he know he was stumbling upon his former best friend in the clearing where he had been claimed before. He blundered through a bush absentmindedly, in his dreamlike guilt.



Immediately, the arrow was nocked, and the dark eye of Alexander Orion looked past it and onto him. A target. He revealed himself fully, his light brown eyes glimmering in the darkness of the wood, standing tall, almost beyond his own humanity. He looked upon Alex with a stranger's eyes. His stoic nature must have surprised Alex, immortalized like the statues of their fathers.



"You claim the patch of nothing which defined you as who you are, Alex. Where you proclaimed your love to a girl with stunning blue eyes who only ever wanted you as a friend," James seemed stern, but gently so. But who was he to judge this boy?



James slowly walked into the clearing, his thumbs hooked around his sword belt. His Hunter Armor made him blend into the shades and leaves of the trees, shifting his already obscure shape due to the lighting. He seemed just as amorphous as his father. If it were anyone else, it would be almost be justified to shoot.



"I feel it still. The aches on my arms and legs, the dagger gripped in my hand. As if it were a feverish nightmare. I suppose it was. I wish I could change things, brother. I wish I could go back and repent, tell her I am sorry. Tell her I only ever wanted the best. She has left us both, and we will never be the same," James's bright eyes locked with Alex. The intensity there... not quite human. The stars glitter brightly behind him.



"I never forgave myself for that night. I do not think you have either."

[Alexander Orion]

Alex’s will wavered when he saw his old friend. His first friend. His last. His bow arm remained steady, but his legs quivered. The son of Eros knew he should put his bow down. He shouldn’t keep his arrow aligned with the son of Morpheus’ head. But something deep inside him kept him aiming down the spine of his arrow. Alexander sized up his friend. He looked strong, powerful even. Not the scrawny little boy from the day Alexander arrived at camp. Not the slightly built man from before the accident. Certainly not the mess of a man from the night of. The one thing that drew his eyes more then anything else was those damn eyes.



Alex went into his mind and saw things with startling clarity. James carrying him when he was broken and bloodied. Laughing as Alex told him of his latest girl. The brutal honesty he used to give to the son of Eros. The air of sadness and mystery around him remained. But other then that the only thing that remained were those eyes. The eyes that looked into his eyes just before Alexander’s fist smashed into it. The eyes that crinkled when Alexander cracked a joke. “Damn you.” Alex whispered through gritted teeth. “Who are you to say what this piece of dirt is to me? Who are you to say what she meant to me?”



Alex kept his arrowhead pointing at James head as he watched him move. He watched him speak. Allowing the words to flow over him, allowing the anger to rise in him. “I wish you could change them too, but you can’t. The things you did will stay with you, and with me, for the rest of our lives.” Alex didn’t mention how short their lives may be because of the damnidible war that was coming. He also didn’t mention how he could end James right then and there, with his shiny armor and all. Even as he thought it the son of Eros was already taking it back. He couldn’t kill James, not even if he had to. Regardless of the terror and grief James just brought back into his life, he couldn’t even hurt the guy.



“You ruined us, Jim. You killed what we had left.” Alex thought of the blood and the darkness and the horror. He thought of the blonde and her bloodied shoulder, he thought of James and his bloodied face and arms and legs. “Ever wonder why you never saw me after that? I couldn’t face you, I couldn’t face Arista. I loved her. I know I did. I somewhat of an expert on the matter. I watched you stab her. How could I forgive you? How could I face you ever again?” Alex knew he was starting to add venom to the words, he felt tears run down his face, not the sobbing kind, the kind of frustration and anger.



Alex almost fired. Right then and there. He could almost see the arrow go through James and out his back. He could see him collapse onto the leaves and dirt, bleeding all about. With that on his mind, he knew he could no longer trust himself. He lowered his aim and fired the arrow straight into the ground at the son of Morpheus’ feet. Then he dropped his bow onto the ground and walked up to James until they were almost toe to toe. “Why? What happened to you that made you feel like killing yourself, what made you feel like killing her? Huh?” Alex wanted to punch him in his gut and feel his bones crack on impact. He hadn’t been this mad before, and he started scaring himself. “Best be good, Jim, it better be damn good.’

[James Demarco]

James wounds were more or less healed, salve poured into them and making the falsehood of health. He had come to terms of what he had become, and who he was today. His mind was different, sure, but he had the same good intentions and beliefs as the youth who climbed Half-Blood Hill so many years ago. Now, he had skills and gifts which made him who he was that day; a true Hero, and a friend. So as Alex remained his aim at his chest, his hands trembling, his emotions seeping through him like blood from a torn scar, James kept his demeanor. He stood tall, a giant compared to Alex.



He allowed Alex's words to wash over him, feel the pain he did then renewed. He deserved this much for his friend, if not so much more. He had always been a passionate bugger. He was confident he could calm the Son of Eros enough to allow them to speak as they once did, this man whose life he saved more than once. No, James remained silent as Alex completed his torrent.



Alex shot at his feet, James remained stoic. Alex got in his face, and James had a hint of a smile. It was only after a silence, where Alex's heavy breathing was the only thing preventing James from listening to the white noise of the Woods, that James finally spoke.



"Do you wish to know why I can Hunt as well as I can? Why, to their own fear, I can get into a monster's mind and destroy them internally? Make them dread the next time they leave their wretched pit?"



James kept the distance between them. If Alex needed to punch him, that was fine. He had been a punching bag for the Son of Eros before. But his words grew with conviction and power. James spoke truth.



"My own twisted visions made me one. I delved too greedily into my powers and they drove me mad. For a while, Alexander Orion, I was a monster. I prowled the Woods, hunted my prey, both beast and monster. I scavenged garbage for food, and I never spoke a coherent word. It wasn't until Apollo healed me that I began to form human thoughts again," James looked onward with wild eyes, "I still know what that feels like. To be cast down from humanity and into squalor. I deserved every day of misery. My penance is paid. And all I can do now..."



James calmed himself, his cool and reserved demeanor back from the heated feeling of instinct and savagery. He saved those for the Hunt. Instead, he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.



"Is ask for forgiveness. From someone who I cherished as a friend and a brother once. Would eagerly do so again. For the person we lost, who we both loved in our own way, and for us."



James looked earnest in that, at least. That he wished to make amends for the crimes he committed, and redeem himself in any way. He wanted his friend back, and would do anything for him to forgive him.