AN: Hey there. So this is the third Interlude. This one features Alabaster, from the short story Son of Magic. If you haven't read it yet, you should go check it out. It's in the Demigod Diaries. Anyway, here you go.

Interlude – Alabaster

Alabaster Torrington slammed his locker shut. He hated this. He had fought in a war, for gods' sake, he didn't belong in High School, not after watching all of his friends get slaughtered by the forces of the Olympians, not after being exiled by the gods. He sighed. Luckily, he thought, tomorrow is a conference day. No school.

His mother had told him that he should try to blend in as best he could, and that meant going to High School. He hated it. The classes were dull, the food was terrible, and no one seemed to like him. His whole appearance screamed, "You should pick on this kid!" He was tall and lanky, and the freckles splashed across his face made him look childish. If they knew the powers he had, no one would dare pick on him, but demigods weren't supposed to attack mortals, and so Alabaster let himself get picked on, going through his day to day activities hating it all.

As he left the school, his backpack slung over one shoulder, a girl approached him. Alabaster vaguely recognized her as one of the popular girls on the cheerleading team. She was very pretty, with long, strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She looked the part of the stereotypical blonde cheerleader.

"Um, hey," she said to him. "You're like, Alabaster, right?"

Alabaster tensed himself, ready to fend off bullying. "Yes," he said curtly.

"My name is April," she said. "I um, think you're really cute, and I wondered if you, like, wanted to go out tonight."

Alabaster stopped, trying to process the words. "You… want to go on a date with me tonight?"

April nodded. "There's like, no school tomorrow."

"This is some kind of joke," Alabaster said bitterly. "Or maybe a dare or something. You don't really want to go out with me."

"No," April said. "It's not. I like… really like you and stuff."

"And stuff?" Alabaster drawled. "Well, I'm sorry April, but-"

"Oh come on, Alabaster," April pleaded. "You always act so like… lonely in school. You should have fun for once."

Alabaster knew he should turn her down again, but something in her words made him really want to. He sighed, and said, "Okay, sure. Where are we meeting, and when?"

"Like, right now," April said with a smile. She grabbed his hand and dragged him off. Confused as to why he'd said yes, Alabaster followed nonetheless. First they went to a pastry shop where he had a great cinnamon roll, and he and April got to know each other a little better.

Next, April dragged around Main Street for a little while before they went to get dinner. After eating, it was getting dark out. "Hey," April said, "I know this is like… forward or whatever, but my parents are out of town tonight. Why don't we go over to my place?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Alabaster said quickly. "First date and everything." Also, Alabaster was really starting to get tired of her saying "like" in every sentence.

Suddenly, April leaned in and kissed him, full on the mouth. Alabaster was stunned, and he felt his senses getting all muffled and jammed up. April pulled away. She giggled. "You're like a really good kisser. Come on Alabaster, it'll be fine."

"Well, I-"

"Please," April said, giving him a puppy dog stare. Suddenly, Alabaster found himself compelled to agree. And so, April led him off towards her house. When they arrived, she pulled the door open and led the way upstairs to her room. It was fully night by now, and the house was dark. April pushed open the door to her dark room and pushed Alabaster down onto the bed. She climbed on top of him, straddling his waist, and leaned down to kiss him again. We she sat back up, she reached for the lower hem of her shirt. She was about to pull it off, when several things happened at once. Someone snapped, April froze completely, like she had been a robot that was suddenly shut off, and ropes wrapped around Alabaster's ankles and wrists, pulling tight. The lights flicked on, temporarily blinding Alabaster. When He regained his vision, there was another girl in the room. She wore jeans and a plain black t-shirt. One of her arms was in a sling, and she supported herself with a crutch. She had brown hair, and her eyes glowed yellow.

"Alabaster!" she said. "Nice to officially meet you!" Then she seemed to realize April was there. "Oh right, you. Go stand in the corner." April climbed off of Alabaster and went to stand in the corner, her face expressionless. "Face the wall," the brown hair girl said impatiently. April turned around. The girl focused her attention back on Alabaster. "Sorry about that. Do you like the bed? I bought it from a friend of mine named Crusty. He makes the best beds, and they come with built in shackles."

"Who are you?" Alabaster snapped. "What do you want?"

"Well well," the girl said. "Someone is impatient. Very well, Alabaster. Introductions. I am Helen Kazam, daughter of Hecate."

"Impossible," Alabaster said. "I know all of my siblings, and I don't recognize you at all."

Helen laughed. "Of course you don't. As far as the gods are concerned, I died when I was ten. In reality, that didn't happen, as you can obviously see. I became Kronos's secret lieutenant. Very few knew of my existence. Only Luke, Kronos, a few of the other Titans, and Andromeda. You are familiar with Andromeda, yes?"

"Yes," Alabaster said. "She was always good at disguise magic. But she died in the battle for Manhattan."

"No she didn't," Helen said. Trust me, she escaped. But the gods believe she's dead, just as they believed I was dead."

"So you secretly served Kronos? But the war is over. And anyway, I was on your side during it. What's going on here?"

"I'm getting there, little brother," Helen said. "Kronos opened me up to my full potential. I thought you needed incantations, runes, and relics to cast magic, but Kronos showed me the truth. I no longer need incantations to cast magic. Not only that, but I have the ability to invent my own spells now. Take April over there (daughter of Aphrodite, by the way, that's why she was able to convince you to go out with her; she was charm speaking you). She's under the influence of a spell I invented myself. I based it off of the Imperious Curse from Harry Potter. I'm sure you're familiar with it?"

"Yes," Alabaster said, quietly. He was thinking quickly, trying to think of a spell to get him out of this situation.

"Unfortunately, my version of the Imperious Curse has some limitations," Helen continued. "Firstly, I can only cast it on one person at a time. Also, it doesn't work on demigods who are aware of who they are, or mortals who have the Sight."

"So, April doesn't know she's a demigod," Alabaster said. "That's why you were able to use her to charm speak me and lure me here."

"Yes," Helen said. "You catch on quickly, Alabaster."

"Incantare," Alabaster started, but Helen let go of her crutch and waved her hand. Alabaster lost his voice completely.

"Nice try, Alabaster," Helen said, "but I am the most powerful magician in the world. More powerful than you, more powerful than those fools in the House of Life, and more powerful than our mother even." Helen snarled. Alabaster was confused. What was the House of Life, and how could a demigod be more powerful than his mother? "Mother. I joined Kronos long before she decided to. Kronos had promised to install me as goddess of Magic under his new world order. He told me that he would dispose of our mother when she had served her purpose." Helen stared down bitterly. Alabaster tried to speak again, but his voice was still gone.

"You're probably wondering, Alabaster, why I hate our mother so much," Helen continued. "Let's just say that she betrayed me in my time of need. But enough about our mother. After Jackson defeated Kronos, I hurried back to Mt. Othrys to find that the Roman demigods had invaded it and destroyed the fortress there. I thought it was over. That was until I was contacted by Krios. He had been defeated by Jason Grace, but he was somehow already regenerating. I do not know how this is possible, but I intend to find out soon enough. But anyway, he proposed a plan in which the Titans would strike again, and where I would become the goddess I so rightly deserve to be." Helen paused, basking in her imagined glory as goddess of Magic.

"Of course," Helen continued, refocusing on Alabaster, "you will be wondering what you have to do with all of this, and why I have lured you here, and why I am holding you hostage. You see, I need two things. The first was to get you out of your house for the evening so I could sneak in and steal some of your potion ingredients. You see, I was running low, and needed to restock, and why go questing to find the supplies when I could just steal them from you? The second thing I need, is to test a new spell. You will remember that I created my own version of the Imperious Curse, but it's not the only spell I based off of ones from Harry Potter. And so, I'd like to introduce you to my version of the Cruciatus Curse."

She took her hand off of her crutch again and pointed at Alabaster. Massive pain arced through Alabaster's body. He felt as if ever inch of him were on fire whilst he was being simultaneously electrocuted. He screamed, the pain from the spell breaking Helen's silencing charm, or perhaps Helen had lifted it purposefully in order to hear him scream. The pain continued, and Alabaster kept screaming, the pain destroying every sense and making him forget who he was. All he knew was the pain. After a few minutes, the pain subsided, and Alabaster lay on the bed, still bound, panting. Slowly, his senses recovered.

"Why?" he panted. "Why… are you… doing this… to me?"

"Well for starters, it's fun," Helen said. "And I really did need to test the spell. Besides, I need you out of the way. You see, I need mother grieving, and what better way than to kill her favourite son?"

"Incantare," Alabaster tried again, but once more Helen silenced him.

"The first time was a nice try, but that time was just desperate," Helen scolded. "Honestly, Alabaster, I thought you might be better than that. Andromeda always spoke so highly of you. Oh well." Helen gripped the top of her crutch and it transformed into a sword. She limped forward, positioning herself precisely. "Don't worry, Alabaster," she said. "I'm going to cut your head off. One quick blow. You won't feela thing."

Alabaster closed his eyes.

AN: And before people leave comments saying that Alabaster can't die yet because the events in Son of Magic haven't happened yet, I will remind everyone that we are in an alternate timeline as heavily discussed in the dreams Percy has featuring Kronos. So what did you think? Got some of Helen's backstory, so that's pretty neat. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it.