Short oneshot since I wasn't very active over the past few weeks. Don't read if you haven't read BoO yet.
Percy remembered when Poseidon had told him last summer that he would send him some more siblings over the summer. He definitely didn't think that one of them would be this weird twenty-foot tall lady with jellyfish hair. He didn't expect for her to be trying to kill him with Polybotes too.
His mind flashed back to when he was in Tartarus with Annabeth. "THE SEA GOD'S SON! HE IS CLOSE!" Gods… he had nearly died down there. He couldn't explain how relieved he was when he didn't run into Polybotes during his time there. He probably would've been melted into a puddle of poisoned seaweed.
Yet, he was here despite all of Percy's efforts, with his basilisk dandruff that were as disgusting as ever.
Percy started panicking inside, feeling the water around him. What was he doing here? He remembered drowning in the muskeg in Alaska. He could still feel the mud pressing against him, and not being able to breathe. He had only experienced drowning in real life twice. Once at the River Styx almost a year ago, and then in Alaska. Okay, well, three if you count the nymphaeum in Rome.
I'm the son of Poseidon. I don't drown, he told himself. He thought he was getting over it, but it looked like being in Tartarus reopened his fears. Seeing his father's enemy didn't help his nerves.
Unfortunately, his mind was still in Tartarus-mode after seeing Polybotes. He couldn't do anything when the basilisks swam out. In the back of his mind, he thought, They can swim? He didn't do anything to protect himself, even when they surrounded him.
Um… Are you stupid? Are you going to let yourself be killed by dandruff? his mind said.
Can't do anything. You're my brain. Can't you feel the fear that I'm feeling? His body said.
He was about to slash at them with his sword, but the voices of the arai rang in his head. He could literally see the water fading around him until he was back in Tartarus surrounded by the arai, only this time Annabeth wasn't by his side.
Kill them, Percy Jackson! Add to our numbers! their voices hissed.
Percy felt the faint throbbing in his chest, like the curse he had unleashed upon himself. He could even feel the pain of the gorgon's blood working itself down his intestines.
It's just a stupid vision, he told himself, but that didn't help his fear.
He shook his head, and he came back to the present, but the voices of the arai still whispered in his ear. He blasted away the basilisks when they got too close with rippling currents of water. Ripples. Poison.
Yes, Percy Jackson! You will feel the curse of Akhyls soon enough. Oh, your death will be sweet!
If only he could say the same for them.
He heard Jason yelling faintly in the background as he kept the basilisks away, trying not to think of Akhlys. Lightning flashed, and it was a miracle that Percy didn't die. The basilisks floated on their bellies, dead. Thank the gods for Jason.
"Are you so anxious to die, Roman?" No.
Percy tightened his grip on his sword and charged at Polybotes. He saw the trick coming. He knew what Polybotes was going to do, but he still didn't stop himself. He imagined an arai in front of him, and instinctively, he swung his sword. He scowled when he realized that it was just a hallucination. Then he hit the poison.
It was so immediate, it was like he actually killed the arai and this was its curse it had to give. He clawed at his throat when he inhaled the poison. He felt like his nose was on fire. His throat burned, and his skin started swelling. Polybotes threw his net, and Percy was caught. Too weak to do anything.
The arai laughed. Yes! Endure Akhlys's curse! You may not be in Tartarus, but you will still take the curse!
He should've known not to mess with poison. Poison was a thing made for killing. Why would he inflict its pain on someone else? He wondered if Akhlys felt like him—being defeated in their own spheres of powers. Both humiliating and painful.
It angered him even more about how weak he was. He spent his days trying to fight his way out of Tartarus which was literally hell and even endured the gorgon blood, the sequel. Even if he couldn't control the poison out of Tartarus, he could've protected himself with the water around him.
Right… the water. He tried to call on the ocean for help, but it didn't respond. It was there, but it didn't help him do anything. The smoke got thicker around him. He shuddered. It was like the smoke was acting like a barrier. The water was there, his need for survival, just an arm's reach away, but just as far.
Percy started gasping for air, but only got poison gases instead. Did he come this far just to die in his father's home turf—literally? One of the many jokes Gaea got to laugh at—Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, dies in the ocean of his father's old home. Dying because he didn't act fast enough.
He heard Jason talking, but he only caught brief catches of what he said. "cowering! … cabin… Camp Half-Blood…. even… action figure."
Was he hearing right? Maybe his sick brain was hearing things. That was so unlike Jason, unless he changed that much.
If I die, Percy prayed, at least let Jason go safely. Let me know that at least died in exchange for someone else's life for all those lives that I had wrecked.
It never occurred to him until Tartarus that monsters were living beings too. Same with Titans. They all held grudges. Monsters that came out to the mortal world from Tartarus were instantly killed by demigods, saying that their lived were endangered. Well, being killed infinite times wouldn't be nice—especially if you had to go through Tartarus after each death. No wonder they were so malicious.
At least once demigods died, they didn't have to fight any more monsters, but for the monsters, it was like a never-ending cycle.
His lungs started clogging with the poison. His mind started thinking of all the thoughts he had in Tartarus like he was still speaking in his head. Give up, then. No more suffering. What's the point of struggling?
That's right, Percy thought. He wanted to just give up to the pain. Why was he even bothering? Because Seaweed Brain, you have a future you can look up to.
Annabeth, he thought. That's right. Their dream future at New Rome. But it was only a dream.
Are you giving up that easily? After all we've been through since we were twelve?
Percy tried to clear his head. What was he thinking? He couldn't leave Annabeth alone, especially after everything they've been through. He dared to look up once more, and saw Polybotes's head get chopped off… just like what he did to Procrustes. Did Crusty leave a curse for Percy too?
Then the pain stopped. It was still there, but the pain stopped growing. He saw Jason in front of him through his blurry vision. The air from his anemoi thuellai gave Percy some oxygen and cleared out his lungs.
"Ugh. Thanks," Percy said, trying to sound better than he felt.
"You had me worried there bro," Jason said.
They talked with Kym for a while, and Percy tried to hide his insecurity with his usual comments. He wasn't making up those comments, but he was just saying them more, hoping that they wouldn't notice how weak he was. He didn't know how Annabeth did it. She was mostly back to her old self, though you could see that she changed if you looked at her shattered eyes.
Hide the pain, he thought. I'll recover.
Hopefully.