Sorry for not updating! Real life got in the way!
Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this again? I'm a girl. I'm English. I would not have sent Percabeth to Hell. I'm not Rick Riordan. I only own Billy and Ankhaile's domain.
The boy ran through the door, his friend following close behind. They ran through the corridors that had been silent before, now filled with the desperate shouting of the others. They were shouting at them, shouting for them. They were screaming in pain, shouting in horror.
"Oh gods!" his friend shouted. "Something's seriously wrong!" The boy nodded, still running. "Hang on!" his friend yelled. "We're coming." Their shrieks started to die down.
"We're not gonna make it in time!" the boy shouted. They ran, and opened the far door. They froze at the sight that lay before them, as their enemy chuckled, then screamed.
Percy felt like a complete loser. He'd had one of his episodes while he was meant to be helping Nico. He remembered the smell of burning, and being dragged into water. Then someone was thrashing about, and he blacked out. He actually blacked out when he was meant to be helping kill those snake women.
So technically it was his fault that he was now trudging through miles of sand searching for the son of Hades.
He'd been going half a day now, and he felt exhausted. There wasn't a sign of Nico, and Percy just wanted to have a nice long drink. But it was weird; when he turned around the sea that brought them there had gone. He was alone, with only the heat and the sand for company.
He stumbled along the dry desert floor, longing to hear the gently sounds of the ocean, to know his father was there. But he knew that he was alone in this. Percy assumed Poseidon had helped them, but if that was true, the sea god wasn't supposed to be helping in the first place, so he doubted he would get more assistance now.
"Nico?" his voice cracked and sounded hoarse. Percy cleared his throat and tried a little louder. "Nico?!" He walked and strained to hear something, but nothing reached his ears.
Just then a harsh wind blew sand into his eyes. He groaned and rubbed at them, annoyed. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't he have had one of stupid fits some other time?
That was when he spotted the limp body lying a few feet away. They were soaking, even in the middle of the desert, covered in black. Nico.
Percy began to run towards him, and now he could hear the faint muttering and curses coming from the body. Just as he was about to reach him, Nico began to sink into the ground. Slowly at first, but definitely lowering into the sand. Percy made a desperate sprint towards him, but Nico finally sunk fully under the grains as he arrived.
"No, no, no," Percy muttered as he stuck his hand under, trying to reach the son of Hades. "You are not getting captured by Gaia, you understand?" No answer, of course.
When his own hand grabbed a piece of clothing, and Aviators jacket, he wanted to whoop for joy, but began to tug harshly. He briefly wondered why he wasn't sinking, but waved that thought away. He had to concentrate.
The weight suddenly became a lot easier to pull, and within seconds he had tugged the jacket out of the ground. As in, just the jacket. Nico must have slipped out on the way up.
Percy growled in frustration slammed his hand into the ground. Nico was gone now, and what was to stop Gaia from wiping him too? Then the others would have no hope.
He looked around again. Where even was he? He blinked in confusion. The water was back, as if it had always been there. But when he tried to skim his hand through it, he could feel only sand. Oh, gods. He must be hallucinating. It must have been his thirst. He could swallow a gallon of water. Funny. He was completely submerged in water one moment, the next he would give anything to be back there.
His throat had clogged up. He just wanted a sip, just a single sip of water. Percy stumbled to his feet and squinted at the distance. Were there any cactuses to get water out of? No. there was just sand.
He wanted to collapse, but his mind refused to listen to his legs. He was Percy Jackson. He'd fought Titans and Gods and monsters. He was not going to be defeated by a desert. But he needed to hear it.
"I'm Percy Jackson," he whispered, but even then he could feel his exhausted eyes starting to drift closed. "I am the slayer of Kronos. I have fought titans. I have fought Gods. I have fought monsters. I have fought demigods. I have always won. I will win this battle. I will not be defeated. I will win this battle. I am Percy Jackson..."
He didn't know how long he'd been rambling. His lips were chapped and sore. The heat was driving him to his boiling point, and he regretted not wearing any sunscreen. He wanted to just lie down and never wake up, but that would be betraying the others. And Nico. He still had to rescue Nico.
Part of him wished that Gaia would take him too, just so he could be out of the unbearable heat. But another part chided himself for feeling that way, seeing as he'd be no use to the others locked up. The last part protested that he was no use to them walking and dying in a desert.
His legs were tired and numb, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. Percy suspected that his feet were bleeding, but he couldn't be too sure. He'd already had delusions today, so it wouldn't be anything new. But still, he refused to give up.
The sun was beating down on him. He needed water, and soon. But there wasn't any. Even when he looked into the distance, still no sign of civilisation.
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"You look tired."
Percy was lying on the floor, ready to give in to the desert. The sand stretched on for miles. There was no way he'd get there without collapsing anyway, and he'd probably die from thirst. He wanted to laugh bitterly. After all I've been through, I'm beaten by lack of water. Of all things, the thing my father has full power over.
He finally opened his eyes to see the speaker, who turned out to be a young girl about his age, wearing a Greek dress and smiling. Just being close to her sent a whole new wave of burning heat towards him, but he was too tired to move away.
She helped him stand, much to his surprise. As he was leaning on her, the heat seemed to die down, though a warm feeling still remained. Her curly blonde hair reminded him of someone, but he just couldn't place it.
"Who are you?" his raspy voice whispered. She smiled kindly.
"I am Ankhiale, Greek goddess of heat. You and your friend wound up at my domain, don't ask me how. Gaia took your friend, but I surrounded you in my heat to protect you, but now I must get you away from here. Come with me."
Ankhiale led him away in another direction, but he was so tired he couldn't really concentrate. Sweat was pouring down his brow, but he had a feeling that Ankhiale was trying to make him cooler. Percy leant further against her, ready to pass out. She sighed.
"Go to sleep," she whispered into his ear, and he felt himself drifting off. "I'll carry you."
The last thing he saw was her honey blonde hair, and a memory flashing before his eyes of a girl with that hair and grey eyes, before he drifted off into a deep slumber.
When he was jolted from his sleep, Percy looked around frantically to find he was on a boat, with a grubby, overweight fisherman watching him warily. The man handed him a glass of water.
"That girl, she said you'll need a lot of water," he grunted as Percy eagerly downed the water. "My name's Billy, by the way. You?" He looked up to see Billy watching expectantly.
"Percy," his voice sounded hoarse and raspy. He had more water. "Percy." His voice was clearer this time.
Billy nodded, though he clearly wasn't comfortable having a total stranger in his boat.
"Well, that girl went off somewhere. Dunno where. Actually, I dunno where you came from." He shot Percy a suspicious look. Percy tried a weak smile.
"I was asleep," he tried, nervously. Then he looked around. He was sailing towards land, and the boat was surrounded by water. He'd never been so relieved to see his father's element. "Where am I now?"
"On your way to San Francisco. We'll be there in half an hour." Percy cocked an eyebrow. San Francisco? Seriously? Ankhiale had taken him that far?
She's a goddess, stupid, a voice in his head said. And you don't even know where her 'domain' is. Who knows how far you've travelled? But on the outside, he smiled politely as if this didn't surprise him at all.
"Well," he took another big gulp, finishing his water. "Thanks, but I think I'll swim from here." And with that, he jumped off the side of the rickety boat, ignoring the fisherman's incredulous look.
Under the water, Percy was able to travel much faster. He zoomed past fish telling him to slow down, trying not to wrinkle his nose at the amount of litter. He saw a hippocampi at one point, giving him a really confused look, like what are you doing here? Percy just smiled hurriedly and carried on.
When he climbed out, avoiding people so they wouldn't notice that he was dry, Percy stumbled, still weak, and tried to find a drachma in his pockets. He pulled out a single dirty one, and chucked it into the water.
"O, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Nico di Angelo at Gaia's lair." That sounded cheesy, and he didn't think that it would work, but the mist shimmered and showed him an image of Nico.
The son of Hades didn't seem to notice the message, but carried on pacing in a small room made of dirt. There was no visible door, and Percy could see that his Styagon Iron sword obviously wasn't on him, along with the Aviators jacket, still abandoned in Ankhiale's domain. But, other than that, Nico was no different than he had looked in Alaska.
The ground rumbled in the mist, and Nico glanced down at it, annoyed.
"You filthy coward, Gaia. You aren't even facing me, and you're actually that weak that you have to capture me to stop me. You disappoint me."
You disappoint me, son of Hades. When I took you, you were so weak you couldn't do more than lie there in the sand, Percy heard her say through the message. Nico scowled.
"Yeah? Well-" the message was cut off. The soft voice of Iris asked for another drachma, but Percy didn't have one, so he frowned and walked off. He needed to find Reyna. She would probably be able to help him. Just one problem – he had no idea where Camp Jupiter was.
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He must have been wandering about San Francisco for ages, and still no sign of anything. He was starting to feel the same way he had in Alaska; desperate for a monster to fight. He always chided himself for feeling that way, and assumed that it was the ADHD, but he was just bored.
Then he saw a house.
Almost immediately his legs began to buckle. His vision blurred, and Percy practically collapsed onto the floor. That familiar feeling came back to Percy. That feeling of being about to puke, and the feeling that he should know something, but he didn't.
He'd been lying when he told Nico that he didn't remember the glacier. It had stuck a cord in him, and the names his friend had mentioned rang bells, but no matter how hard Percy focused, the memory just wouldn't come back to him. When he was watching Stheno and Euryale, he'd recognised them, the things they said, how they treated each other. It had sent a tingle up his spine, and seconds later he'd had another fit. That couldn't be a coincidence.
Percy was beginning to suspect that the machine had worked for him after all, just not as well as they'd hoped. These fits always seemed to happen when something seemed just the slightest bit off, and now if they were familiar. He wondered where he'd seen this house before.
Someone came out of the house, a middle aged man with wacky hair. He saw Percy having his fit, and rushed out to him. The man seemed familiar to him as well, like he'd met him before. When he looked at him, he thought of helicopters and an old fashioned girl correcting something. But the memory was gone as soon as it had come, and the man carried him inside.
Even the inside of the house seemed familiar to Percy, as if he'd been there before. But on some family pictures, with two boys and a couple, he could almost see a teenage girl, the one with curly hair and grey eyes, at the side of the man. But when he did a double take, she was gone.
He was layed down on a couch, but he couldn't really concentrate. He vaguely heard some people muttering, and some smaller children being ushered out of the room. Then a woman filled his vision, asking if he was alright. Percy shook his head slightly, and she frowned sympathetically.
Pretty soon the fit was over, and he was sitting mortified in someone's living room, as the two adults observed him. The woman handed him a glass of water. He took it with a polite thanks.
"I'd better go check on the boys," she informed before walking out, leaving Percy alone with the man.
"So," the guy said awkwardly, adjusting his glasses. "You gonna explain what happened out there."
"Um – well – I – uh…" he stammered, before managing a lopsided grin. "I have these fits sometimes. They come randomly. I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble." The man didn't seem bothered. In fact, he seemed intrigued.
"Epilepsy?" he questioned, looking Percy up and down, as if he was seeing the demigod in a completely new light. He grimaced and shook his head.
"No. Doctors don't know what it is, but they're not seizures. I'm Percy, by the way. Percy Jackson." He extended his hand, and the man grasped it firmly.
"I'm Frederick Chase." This name struck something in Percy, something deep down. Something buried, something he knew he should know.
Another fit took him by surprise, and Frederick called his partner back, for help. Percy himself was surprised. Fits didn't normally come this soon after the last. They were random. Like he said. But he was beginning to suspect more, especially with the familiar feeling. He had been getting it off Chase, but it was even worse now he knew his name. He should know this man. And not just him, someone else. Someone close to the both of them. He was hit by a memory of something heavy on him, and the sounds of a battle ringing around him.
He fell out of his chair, and onto the floor. The woman rushed back in, leaving the door wide open and the two boys from the photos gawking at him. Percy didn't care though. He cared about the girl he was starting to get flashes off. He remembered her kissing him, so this could only be one person, one that Nico mentioned several times. Annabeth.
It hit him like a ton of bricks. Hadn't he been listening to Nico? Of course it was Annabeth. Who else would be so close to him in all his memories? Percy still couldn't remember her completely, but little fragments had started coming back to him. And this man. This man was Annabeth's father.
But Annabeth had been wiped. So this man wasn't her father, not in this world.
Percy looked around the room. This was more than familiar. This was Annabeth's house. That was why he recognised it. It made him want to hurl, both physically and mentally. That was why he felt like he knew this place. Because he did.