A Percy Jackson story

PPOV

It was a couple of weeks after the big Titan War that the Olympians won, thanks to us half bloods with help from the gods. Life was looking up. There weren't as many monsters as before and no one went on quests that often, and if there were any, they were small minor ones.

I smiled to myself as I approached the Empire State Building. I just left my apartment, and it was the middle of winter. I zippered my hooded jacket on and kept the hood up.

I met the man at the front desk. "Percy Jackson", I mumbled. He nodded and slipped me a little key card with access to Olympus. "Thanks."

I went in the elevator and slipped the key card in the slot, the 600th floor button appearing. I was in the elevator alone as "Don't Stop Believing" came on. I smiled. Just a couple of weeks ago it was "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head."

The elevator doors opened to reveal Olympus. It was looking great, considering it was still recovering from the effects of the war.

I walked through the open doors of the Olympus throne room. I saw a few of the gods, and I was showered with hellos.

I walked into various rooms, looking for Nico. I asked him for a favor before, and it was time to go.

I found myself in a room with said person in it, along with Poseidon and Hades. They were just talking aimlessly, Nico looking out the window and down below.

"Hey, Nico!" I called.

He turned to me. "Hey, sup Perce?"

The gods smiled warmly at me—well, however warm you can get with the Lord of the Dead.

"Percy, my boy!"

"Hi, Dad. Hey, Hades."

He smiled. "I must thank you for giving me my proper throne up on Olympus."

I grinned. "It was no problem. I had a promise to keep, and I might have well thrown that in. It wouldn't be fair, and I think you deserved it."

I turned to Nico. "Nic, you ready? I told you we were going, like, an hour ago."

"Sure, Percy. Gods, you're acting like a girl."

I rolled my eyes and hit his arm. "Let's go, I need to get this over with."

Hades raised an eyebrow. "Going to the Underworld?"

"Yeah—Elysium. I need to talk to someone about… something they did."

He nodded. "Well don't die down there."

"I'll try not to, thanks. Knowing me, I'll probably be close to."

We waved goodbye and set down to Manhattan. From there, we shadow traveled into the Underworld.

We talked on the way to Elysium. "So who ya visiting, Perce?"

"Luke."

He smiled knowingly. "Ah."

It was a silent walk, but we finally arrived at Elysium. "Hey, Nic, can I go in alone? This is really something I have to do on my own."

"Hey, don't sweat it, Percy. I'll wait out here; tell me when you're ready to go."

I nodded gratefully. "Thanks."

I made my way in the doors of Elysium. It was beautiful in there. It was like a tropical island, and it reminded me of Calypso's. People were playing or talking or laughing. It was a nice life when you were dead down here.

I looked around, and I finally saw a familiar face. He was laughing with some other dude who I didn't recognize.

I breathed deep, realizing I was the only one. "Luke."

Luke turned around, still laughing. His smile faded into seriousness. "Percy?"

I nodded.

"Wait, did you die? What happened? Why do you look solid?"

I chuckled. "I didn't die. I wanted to talk to you."

Luke sighed. "I knew this day would come. Well, come sit down."

We sat down on a couple of stools next to a bar. I shook my head in disbelief. "You guys have a bar down here", I stated bluntly.

He nodded. "Pretty much everything, actually."

I raised my eyebrows. "Okay."

"So what'd you want to talk to me about?"

I sighed. "Why, Luke?"

He understood immediately. "It was tempting. I didn't want to be bad. I swear. It's just… Kronos has some good make believe offers up his sleeve. I felt unappreciated, my whole life, and I just wanted it to get better.

"I felt like Hermes didn't love me. Like no one did. Like I was just there to fill in the empty spaces. That feels terrible. Kronos promised me power and a family that appreciated me, and I took it. From there, it all went downhill. He started threatening me and thwarting me. He said if I didn't do something he wanted; I'd either die or be tortured.

"I was a stupid 19 year old, I'll grant you that. In the back of my mind, whenever I was fighting you, I reminded myself that I didn't want to fight you and you were my friend. But then Kronos had to ruin everything and ask me if I wanted power and appreciation or not.

"He made me believe that the gods did nothing for me; which I still kind of thought was true. But then I realized that maybe they're not all bad. And Kronos and I went too far and… well here we are."

"That makes… sense. In a way."

Luke nodded. "So what did Kronos do to you?" he asked, sipping on a martini.

"He sent me dream after dream, vision after vision. When I would sleep, he would ask me to join him. When I was awake, he asked me to join him. When I was having fun, he asked me to join him. When I was doing absolutely nothing at all, he asked me to join him. He sent me visions whenever I was with people who cared about me, and the visions were that they would one day betray me and they just used me my whole life..."

That caught Luke off guard. "Percy Jackson? Give in?"

I shrugged. "Not quite. Evil isn't really my thing, ya know?"

"Wow…" Luke trailed off. "All this time we were trying so hard to get you to join us. You're very powerful, you know that Percy?"

I shuddered slightly and winced. "I tried not to think about that, actually. When you're a child of the Big Three, you have to accept it, though."

Luke laughed and looked down. He changed the subject. "So I heard you kept the promise, huh? I knew you would", he leant across the table and ruffled my hair. "Any new siblings?"

"Nope", I said, relieved. Luke detected that in my voice.

"You don't want any siblings?" He asked, confused.

"Not really. I mean, it may be pretty cool and all, but you know, I'm pretty content with being by myself, just me and Tyson."

Luke nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense. Like I was an only child and I really adapted to having five million siblings for almost 7 years."

I sighed, getting off topic again. "So we saved Olympus. Too bad you had to die, though."

"I deserved to. You don't."

I shook my head. "How could you say that?"

"I've killed so many people…"

"Look, don't you think I feel that way, too? Half of the kids at Camp Half Blood died in this war, all because of me. Beckendorf died, Bianca di Angelo died, Michael Yew died, Leneus, and other people that had lives to live out."

"I'm sorry, Percy."

"Sorry? For what?"

"We both started this. We were what the camp has been waiting for. I would betray them and you would save them. You were the better person in all this."

I cracked a smile. "You taught me all those awesome sword moves."

"I know, but I'm still better."

"Did I mention? I teach sword fighting now", I said proudly.

He smiled in praise. "I really taught you good, eh? That's great, Perce."

I smiled. We talked on and on for what seemed like forever, when finally Nico came in.

"Dude, I've been waiting outside for like two hours, I only just came in once to see Bianca. You ready to go?"

I nodded. "Yeah, one sec, I want to say goodbye."

Nico just noticed Luke. "Hey, Luke."

He smiled. "Hi."

I turned back to Luke. "I'll visit soon, okay?"

He chuckled. "I'll look forward to that. It's nice talking to you. Now I feel bad that I almost killed you a thousand times over."

"I can forgive you."

"Thanks, Perce. That means a lot. So I'll see you soon, ight?"

I shook his hand. "Later, Luke."

Nico and I walked out the doors of Elysium.

We ended up back on Olympus. Upon passing the throne room, I saw Hermes. I winked. He smiled gratefully and winked back.

The other gods just watched in curiosity.

But we knew what it meant.