Hey Guys! This is a fair warning for the ones with a soft stomach, this story gets a little gory at points, if you don't like to hear this kinda stuff, I'd recommend you'd read this will extreme caution. Enjoy! Also a disclaimer- I don't own any of the PJO/ HOO characters. But I do own Isabelle, and Jonathan as characters. Thanks again.
-AEDTFI
Percy POV-
All I have felt these past three years was pain. Pain took over my body. I don't even remember what it feels like to not be in pain. Before I thought traveling through Tartarus was the most painful experience I was ever going to experience. What I have been going through these past 3 years, that walk across Tartarus seemed like Elysium.
There was a certain schedule for my torture, Annabeth, being her organized self, probably forced the Titans to follow the schedule. They thought it was a fun schedule, while I thought of it as the school schedule of hell. Here how it would go:
At probably 1:00am, Oceanus would wake me up by snapping my left leg in half. Then he would continue to break every bone in my body.
3:00am: Oceanus would throw a huge saltwater wave at me to heal all my bones.
3:15am: Once my bones healed, it was target practice time with different sizes of swords and daggers, performed by Annabeth
6:00 am: Another wave would heal me and it was game time, it was called, "Which Poison Makes Percy Scream In Pain The Most." Hyperion would come in with hundreds of different vials of poison and he would shove a single poison down my throat and record the results while laughing. He would then splash some water on me to remove the poison.
12:00 am: Kronos would take his scythe and slice at my soul multiple times until I was on the verge of death, more water would heal my wounds and Kronos repeated this about 5 to 10 times a day.
3:00 pm: Annabeth would come in a try to convince me that no one is coming for me and to join the titan's army. I would refuse and she would just grab a quiver of celestial bronze arrows and practice her shooting, which was perfect, always hitting her target. Another salt water bath came my way, healing me.
5:00pm: Kronos and Hyperion would take turns slicing at me or breaking my bones. Oceanus healing me every time they take their turn. Annabeth would be in her room, polishing Piper's dagger, the one she took from Piper after Annabeth killed her.
8:00pm: Annabeth would come in a lodge Piper's knife in my chin, so I would be forced to watch horrifying glimpses of the future. She would stand by and laugh with joy as I cry with tears of pain and misery. The images would just repeat over and over until she took the knife out.
10:00pm: Art time. They would like extra long and thin knives and carve words into my arms, legs and abdomen. Like WEAK, COWARD, FAKE, K, H, A and O. K, H, A and O were my torturers initials, so I would forever be their plaything.
12:00pm: Annabeth would repeatedly stab me in the abdomen until I passed out from pain.
That was my good days, some days, when Annabeth wasn't paying attention, The titans would do some other things that they found entertaining. Burning me, hacking at my limbs until they are nearly off, slicing me open all over the place, and… and things that I wished I couldn't remember.
I thought Annabeth and I were meant for each other. She was so convincing to me, we had the perfect love story. She at first thought I was a complete waste of time, and I thought that she was a bitch, someone who spoke their mind and did what she wanted. But as we did more and more things together, we slowly realized that we were in love with each other.
Or at least I thought that. Annabeth ran away from her home at age 6, not 7. In that one year, Hyperion took in Annabeth and she learned to be evil. Hyperion taught her what to do, how to act and who to "love". She then, with her new evil and devious mind, tricked Thalia and Luke into thinking that she couldn't survive on her own. When Thalia turned into a tree, Annabeth was actually smiling about that, Luke just thought that she was dreaming something happy. She then grew up in Camp Half-Blood waiting for my arrival. She was one of the ones to care for me not because she secretly cared, but to actually see her assignment. All of her kisses, her loving words towards me and "I love you"s were all fake.
When I slept, I only dreamt pain. Annabeth smiling as she hacked away at me, her kissing me in the lake, but in my dream, she somehow drowned me. It was always about her and how she has hurt me physically, mentally and emotionally.
Tonight, I have been sleeping than I usually do, maybe they are resting me up for an extra painful day today. I thought. But instead of defying them, I continue to sleep. I am in the strawberry fields in Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth lays next to me, laughing. I tilt my head and I just stare at her. Her golden curls loose around her shoulders. Her storm grey eyes light with happiness. She wears her CHB orange t-shirt and a pair of jean shorts. She is simply beautiful.
She finally stops laughing, she looks at me, her stormy gray eyes wander off, thinking. I love the way she is always thinking, always calculating what to say next.
"Percy?" Annabeth says. She attention is now fully on me. I smile at her and cup her chin with my hand.
"Yes?" I ask, she is now grinning maliciously. I know that I should be scared, but I'm not. I giggle and I kiss her, catching her off guard. She squeals in shock and the hand behind her back moves, causing a glimmer of metal. I stare for a moment before closing my eyes.
"Do you love me?" Annabeth mumbles on my lips. I smile and kiss her deeper.
"I shall love you till the ends of time." I say, kissing her. She smiles against my lips and I match her smile.
"Well, times up." She says, I stop kissing her, but before I can pull back, Annabeth pulls out her bronze dagger and stabs me in the back, right into my heart. Annabeth is staring at me, laughing. Struggle to get the dagger out of my back, but its just out of reach.
"Why?" I ask, blood pouring out of my mouth. Its painful to breathe, each breath feeling more painful than the last. Annabeth's eyes glaze over, she looks at me plainly. Her smirk disappearing.
"PERCY! WAKE UP!" Annabeth screams at me with a voice that is male, definitely not her own. She grabs my shoulders and shaking me. The dagger in my back suddenly disappears and I can breathe normally.
I snap my eyes open and the first thing I see are golden eyes. I scream and push the person away. My heart pounding from a mix of startelement and fear from my dream. I look around, scared as hell. I'm in a infirmary, white walls, white beds and white furniture.
The golden eyed person turned out to be Apollo. He looks at me with worry.
"Are you okay?" I whisper, trying to stay quiet. Apollo starts laughing. I look at him in confusion.
"Am I okay? Yes, I am grand. But you should be asking yourself. Are you okay?" He asks, his smile fading slowly. Worry in his expression.
I nod, not trusting my voice. Am I alright? No, I am not. The so called, "Love of my life." Tricked me and gave me to my greatest enemies, and helped them hurt me. I don't know if I'll ever be okay again.
Apollo nods back, but I can see that he doesn't believe me. He hands me a glass of water, but I turned it down. Being fed only once every 6 months ,and that was only a shriveled piece of toast and a couple drops of water, made my stomach the size of a flax seed. Seeing all that water makes me feel sick. Apollo must have seen this because he put the glass back and leaned in.
"How ya feeling buddy? Physically, I mean." He says, his golden eyes pleading for me to talk.
"Okay, I think." I look at my bare arms and wince. They are covered in scars, some even are words. The ones Annabeth wrote. Tears threaten to appear, no not in front of people. I will not cry in public. Thank the gods I didn't cry because I heard a clatter and a deep voice yell, "PERSEUS!" I look to the source of the voice and I see my father running towards me. I see the silver tray and a salad scattered on the ground.
Father envelops me in a massive bear hug, nearly suffocating me. I pat on his back, indicating for him to let go. He let's go and I am able to breathe again. I cough a little, but I end up coughing blood. I whimper and wipe it on a tissue. Apollo notices this and hands me the water. I shake my head in refusal, if I drink that water, I will be sick.
"Percy, you need to drink something, you are coughing up blood, this can help. Just drink it." Apollo says, his eyes begging me to take it. I stare at the water in horror.
"Please Percy, it will make you feel better." Poseidon says. No it won't, I wish I could say, but when I try to talk, I cough up more blood. Finally giving up, I grab the water and down it. The crisp, cool liquid burns my scarred throat, I cry out quietly.
"You good?" Apollo asks. Concerned.
"Yeah." I croak. Apollo smiles and gives me a pat on the back. My father gives me a genuine smile.
"See? I told you that you'll feel better." Father says, my stomach churns and as a response, I throw up on myself, blood and water mixed together. I feel faint from the sight of my blood. So I lay down, my eyes fluttering.
"Oh my gods." Poseidon pales, fear in his eyes. He summons some water and washes away my face, I completely lose control of my movements, so I just lay there dazed.
"Oh, Percy." Apollo, in a shocked state. He grabs so medicinal herbs and creates a mist. He sprays the mist on me and my nausea disappears. I moan is relief and relax a tad. Apollo snaps his fingers and my bedding and shirt are removed and tossed in a laundry bin. Before Apollo can get new shirt on me, my father sees my mutilated body for the first time.
Poseidon bellows in rage, "Who did this to you?!" The seas storm in his rage below.
I hesitate before answering the angry sea god, "The t-titans a-and… and Annabeth." I whisper in shame. I have beaten them all once before, but they have combined forces that I couldn't overcome. My father should be disappointed in me. I failed to stop them, and I paid the price. I was fooled by a woman who used her charm against me. I failed to catch the clues. But, he looks at me in pity.
"Perseus, its okay. Even the most powerful heroes can be defeated. You are strong. You have fought in so many wars, more than any child should have to go through. You have the heart of a hurricane, strong and powerful. You have nearly killed yourself fighting only one Titan. No normal demigod could even try to fight one. Its not your fault that you couldn't beat 3 titans. You didn't deserve the fate you got, and we will get vengeance for you, Perseus. All the gods of the Council have agreed that harming you was crossing the line. We will attack them and they will stay down permanently. And as for that bitch, Annabeth," I wince at the sound of her name, Poseidon falters before continuing, "she will wish that she was killed by Arachne when she had the chance. She will suffer." I look at him in horror, but he looks back at me with pride and pain. So much pain.
I nod, covering my chest with my blanket, still embarrassed. Apollo taps his fingers musically, and a new long-sleeved shirt is on me. I give him a silent thank you., he winks at me.
"Hey Uncle P, do you think we should call the council in, so we can discuss a few things regarding Percy." Apollo asks, Father looks at him with gentle sea green eyes and nods.
"I'll take care of the immediately." He says, he goes into his thoughts, mentally calling for his brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. In a few seconds time, the gods appear. They all initially see me and gasp, probably because I'm awake.
"Percy! Ma man! How ya feeling?!" Hermes cries out, he's the first one to me, giving a fist bump and high-fiving me. I plaster a fake smile on to ease the gods that I'm okay, even though I am not.
The rest of the gods come and greet me, except Athena. She stands away from the crowd, looking uncomfortable. She must think that it's her fault that Annabeth became what she is.
"Hey, Athena." I wave her over to me, she looks at me with sad eyes. Her stormy gray eyes darker than usual. She walks over a kneels by my bedside. I whisper into her ear, "It is not your fault." She looks at me in shock.
"How did you know?" Athena asks me, and I am utterly shocked, the goddess of wisdom doesn't know something. Wow, I never thought I'd live to tell the tale.
"I can see it in your eyes, your body language radiates it also… your daughter acted the same way when she "felt" that way." I say so quietly only Athena can hear. I could barely push those words out through the thick wall of emotion. The tears return, but I force the down, mentally scolding myself for being weak.
Athena nods silently and stands up, and walks away, but not before she squeezes my hand in reassurance. My fake smile slightly crumbles, but I place it back on before anyone could notice my falter.
"Quiet down!" Zeus bellows, I jump in alarm and Zeus looks at me, sending me a silent apology.
The room immediately quiets down and they all stare at Zeus, waiting for him to speak.
"Now, as you all know, Perseus is now healing from his disappearance." Not mentally I think to myself. "But we must also discuss where he shall reside."
I quietly interrupt, "Why can't I just go home to my mom and Paul?" They must be freaking out, thinking that I died.
"Oh, Percy, I thought Poseidon told you, but," Artemis says, her chin quivering from sadness. "Your mother and stepfather were killed in cold-blood." She says, tears falling freely down her cheeks.
"She wasn't lying. They really did it." I whisper, a single tear flows down my cheek and splatters on the sheets.
"Who wasn't lying?" Artemis asks. She is freely crying now. My heart twists to see her crying.
"Her." Poseidon says, I nod quietly and the Olympians gasp.
"She would t-try to convince me to join her side by telling me horrible things. I tried not to believe them, but they were almost all true." I say in a soft voice. I am slightly trembling, not from ADHD, but from fear and pain. Apollo must have noticed this because he ordered everyone to wait in the waiting room for their turn to speak with me.
"Thank you, again." I murmur to Apollo, he nods in acceptance. He pats me on the shoulder and stands up.
"I am gonna wait a few minutes before bringing someone. I'll leave the room, so you are free to do what you need to do to… recollect yourself. Okay?" He asks, I wanna give him a hug, but that doesn't seem quite right so I nod.
Apollo leaves the room and I sit there. He's expecting me to cry, to break down and sob uncontrollably. But I can't do that, the gods always notice if I've cried. So I just sit there, mentally cramming all of my emotions into an unreachable corner of my subconscious.
After a few minutes, Apollo sticks his head in and looks at me. Shocked probably since my eyes aren't bloodshot and there aren't any tears. "Ready kid?" He asks, and I nod once more. Even though I don't want to talk about my pain.
How do you guys like it?
To my first reviewer- You will see, oh trust me, you will see.