18

                                    

                                          
The war had been going smoothly, but who's side, Perci did not know. All she could see were blood and golden dust covering the once green field. Persephone Jackson did not care about the war, though, not with her mother's ghost in front of her. The young goddess could feel her blood ran cold as she stood there, making an eye contact with the warm eyes that she had missed so badly. Her mother, Sally Jackson, was here in front of her, smiling.
                          
Persephone Jackson was not glad, though.
                          
The young goddess did not feel any sort of gratitude or whatever. It was the opposite.
                          
Her mother was dead. Sally Jackson was killed.
                          
Could people just leave her alone?
                          
Hades, out of all people should not do something like this. He knew how much Persephone Jackson hated how people used her mother to make her do something. It was a low blow. Everyone knew how much she loved her mother, and to make her mother to persuade her to do their biddings was downright sick and disgusting. What did she even have to do there? She was not a demigod anymore. She was not a Greek demigod anymore.
                          
Right there and then, the goddess just wanted to help the enemies to kill the demigods and overthrew the Olympus for using her mother. Persephone was furious. She just wanted to wipe them all clean, to just send them all to Tartarus. She could not believe how low the Gods would stoop. The Gods she had been helping and supporting ever since she was twelve.
                          
For a few minutes, nobody talked.
                          
"I'll leave you two to talk." The God of Underworld finally said and left. Persephone glared even harder towards his retreating figure, cursing him through her mind and eyes, wishing him to just died. On the other hand, Sally Jackson was watching her daughter. The mother was sad that she had to meet her daughter like this, but Sally never liked unnecessary sacrifices, so she agreed to help the Gods.
                          
"Perce," Sally said. Her voice was still the same full of love Perci loved. It was still full of affection and warm. The young goddess wanted to just hug her mother and cried but, she could not look at her mother right now. 
                          
Perci was full of resentment, not only towards the Gods, but also her own mother. She knew that her mother was only there to persuade her to help her father and her 'family', but Perci could not just do that. She was not a pawn who could be tossed around anymore to do the Gods' dirty biddings. No, she was a goddess. 
                          
Sally, her poor mother, probably did not know what had happened the past two years. Her mother probably did not know how much her daughter had been wounded and hurt, betrayed and set up. Sally probably did not know how much pain her darling daughter had to endure because of some hateful demigods who hated her and wanted her gone. 
                          
Persephone wanted to believe that her mother did not know, because, if her mother knew it, would she still be here, persuading her to help the people who cast her aside after she was deemed useless? Of course, it was all just a wishful thinking. Sally knew what had happened to her daughter.
                          
"Persephone, darling, look at me." Sally asked. She lifted her hands to cup her daughter's face. "You are strong and everyone makes mistakes, you know that, right?"
                          
The heroine did not know how to react.
                          
Should she be mad at her mother? She knew how much Sally did not like wars and unnecessary deaths, but how could a mother did not stand by her daughter's side? All the bad memories about her father disowning her returned to her mind. The pain, sadness, and the betrayal she felt that day were all coming back to her. What should she do then?
                          
"Perci, baby, how about you forgive and forget?"
                          
If the woman in front of her were not her mother, Persephone definitely would kill her again, ghost or not. Wow. Even her mother wanted her to forgive and forget? What kind of mother she was? How could people be this selfish?