Percy Gets More Than He Excepted
One year after Gaea and a couple of days before his birthday ….
Percy hadn't been back at Camp Half-Blood for long, but it was already getting to him. After the Titan War, everybody viewed him and Annabeth as not only heroes but the leaders of Camp Half-Blood. While the respect was always present, that didn't stop anybody from joking around and being themselves with them. Hades, even the Stoll brothers were still stupid enough to prank the Athena cabin knowing full well that they would later face the full fury that is the power of Poseidon and Athena. But after Gaea...everything changed in more than one way. They would walk on eggshell around him.
The death of Annabeth was...is the worst thing that Percy could never imagine. Annabeth was meant more to Percy then even he could explain. Hades' Underwear! Sometimes even he didn't understand everything that Annabeth meant to him. It just left a gaping hole, not just in his heart, but in his soul and brain. He could even hear her teasing voice saying, "what brain? Your head is filled with seaweed." At the burning of her shroud, all he could imagine was her walking into her own funeral. If he could do it, why shouldn't she be able to do it! All his thoughts were consumed with ways Annabeth could have survived, maybe like him Annabeth was sent to Calypso island or maybe she was still stuck in some other country desperately trying to make her way back or maybe she was taking overdue vacation sightseeing around the world.
Deep down, he knew that she was as dead as Leo or Jason or Piper. To be fair, there are many more death friends Percy could compare her to, but that would only make him sadder, so why do there? Anyhow, Percy still had friends but there were too many memories for him to be able to enjoy himself without the lingering shadows. Gods, he was starting to sound like Nico. At least that little ball of darkness had found his ray of sunshine. Nevertheless, being at neither camp required Percy to act as if he was fine, and he was tired of acting. His response was to take as many quests as he was able to, staying away from both camps and his own home as much as possible. Of course, they were all solo quests. He didn't need any more blood on his hands. Any quest with more than 3 demigods was a death wish begging to happen. After all, he learned his lesson with Zoe and Bianca and then again with the Seven; Hazel, Frank, and Percy made three, just like it should always be. But he was much better on his own.
Mostly it was returning lost items, both big and small, but whatever the job he took as sweet. He had decided to take one more quest before going back to camp to celebrate his birthday. He had to show up to his own party. It apparently a hush-hush secret quest because Apollo refused to tell him in broad daylight. He could only assume that Apollo once again left his magical lyre with a one-night-stand. It was a miracle how this man could be a God! He was as dumb as Percy, not that Percy had one-night-stand or even a magical lyre. After finding a nice tall tree with plenty of coverage, Percy settled down for the night but not before securing himself to the tree. His demigod dreams were no joke and tall trees were well tall. He was still on the road from his last quest, so there was no need to return to Camp Half-Blood. Plus, he was only planning on staying for this birthday party and leaving as soon as it ended.
Percy drifted off to sleep as the forest settled down to sleep as well. A couple of sounds could be heard from the scampering of the nocturnal animals, but not loud enough to wake the demigod. It didn't take long before he found himself in a cabin with Apollo and Hermes. Really a cabin in the woods? Are they secretly trying to kill him? Can they even kill him in a dream? Percy quickly pushed those thoughts away from him. Both gods were nervously pacing around the empty cabin making Percy think this was more than a little silly quest. Last time, Hermes was this nervous was when he lost Martha and George. It must be important. Turns out that as a drunken bet, Hermes has stolen Kronos' scythe from a protected island and has then proceeded to lose it. None of the other gods know or even suspected anything so far, but the scythe had to be found before it fell into the wrong hands. Before Percy could lose it on these two Gods, he was rudely interrupted.
"We were in Kanssssasssss I think. There were sssssome grassss and cavessss. They are good hiding ssspotsss for ratssss. They have the bessst ratsss you know. Sssssssay, while you're at it, can you get uss ssssome ratsss," George helpfully supplied.
"George that's not helpful very helpful and we were in Arkansssasssss, not Kanssasss." Martha scold George for maybe the billionth time. Percy often found himself wondering if she ever got tired of her job and if she could quit. Hermes was the nicer one of all the gods, but something told Percy, Hermes would not take it well if Martha decided to turn in her resignation.
"What?! Kanssssasss ratsss are no good. And I happen to have a very refined tassstesss." George quickly replied.
Percy decided to interrupt the conversation now before the conversation got completely derailed. He was pissed no he was livid, but at least know he was able to talk with blowing a major fuse. Before he could say a single word however, he was rudely awakened by a car crashing into his tree. The bright sun in his face forced him wide awake. Quickly, he climbed down the tree. There was a nice blue car had crashed into the side of the tree. It wasn't the worst accident he had seen, the car still looked like it worked. Inside the car, was a teenaged boy who looked mostly fine, so Percy has no qualms about pulling him out of the car. He had a huge bruise on his forehead from hitting the steering wheel but other than that he was fined. Percy did the most logical thing and got in and driving toward Arkansas. After all, wasn't that what insurance was for? And he had that rich kid vibes and had woken him up let's not forget that. Ok, also blue sports cars are Percy's favorite kind of car.
The drive wasn't too bad, couple monster here and there. Nothing, he hadn't seen before. It was fairly easier and aside from the huge gash on his upper arm, he was completely fine. Halfway there, he had to trade out the car for Blackjack; at this point, he wasn't sure what was more expensive gas or donuts. This quest was shaping up to be easiest in a while. Percy knew something was wrong; nothing in this world was this easy especially for him.
It didn't come as a surprise when Percy found a creepy looking cave that was just calling his name. Man, he wished Hazel was here with him. No, he wasn't scared of the stupid cave, it just gave him the creeps and it was super dark, too. Not even the glow from Riptide was enough to for him to see even a few feet in front of him. While it was normally humid in Arkansas, it was rather dry in the cave, so his powers weren't helpful. After, the whole poison thing, Percy found that his powers didn't have many limits when it came to water.
He needed light and he knew just how to find it. First, he gathered enough dry grass and sticks to start a fire and found a couple of big branches to make a torch. That's right he wasn't completely useless without Annabeth. As he said, there was this teasing voice in the back of his head pointing out all the obvious solutions he seemed to overlook. He made his way carefully through the cave, waiting at every turn to find a hideous monster that had found the scythe to take over the world or worse to revive Kronos. After exploring cave after cave, Percy was almost to his breaking point. The caves seemed to be getting creepier and creepier the longer he stayed there. It was unsettling to be underground in the first place, but this was next level. As he came to a fork in the cave, he could sense something to his right. He carefully made his way to the right, his hair on his arms standing up straight. So, imagine Percy's surprise when he literally stumbled upon the scythe. It was invisible but he knew it was there because he tripped over it. If it was the scythe, what had tripped him? Apart from a couple of scratches on his hands and knees, he was fined.
In retrospect, Percy should have known that bleeding only caused problems. After all, it was his nose bleed that awaked Gaea. He picked up his torch with one hand and with the other he wrapped his other hand around the scythe. Or at least he tried to. After several minutes of groping the air like an idiot, he made contact. The blood on his hands seemed to activate the weapon because as soon as he touched it started to shoot golden sparks and glow. In his surprise, he accidentally dropped both the scythe and the torch. The torch happened to fall on himself. The fire quickly burned the bottom of his shirt and the torch was still shooting sparks. It was a total disaster. At times like this Percy almost always seemed to forget that he had magical powers. More specifically he had water powers. As soon as his brain started working again, he remembered one of the only things he had learned in school. "Stop, drop and roll, seaweed brain," the voice said. The fire was extinguished with that show of brilliance that seemed to be more common with Percy nowadays. Just as he was going to congratulate himself, he happened to swallow a golden spark. That right he swallowed something that shouldn't even be near his mouth. That was probably the biggest mistake of his life. As soon as he swallowed the spark, the golden energy seemed to notice him. In a mad rush, all the energy quickly pooled together and dove into his opened mouth. You would think, he would have enough brains to close his mouth after swallowing something he shouldn't. But frankly, he was too shocked that the golden spark had down that his jaw just dropped open. His mother has always told him to keep his mouth shut before he caught flies. Schist, his open mouth had caught a whole lot more than flies. If was being honest it tasted like orange crush- orangey and bubbly- overall bad. With that brilliant observation, Percy pulled a Jason and passed out.
This chapter mostly sets the stage for the story. Percy won't meet Harry until the fourth or third chapter.
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Thanks, Raven :)
