4
They just won't break.
"G'night mom," Percy sighed as he went up to hug his mom. She smiled at him, her heavily pregnant belly protruding. Percy smiled at the lump and hugged it too.
"Is that homework done?" Sally asked. She was currently working on one of her novels, one about children growing up with a single mother. She spent many late nights up writing away until her fingers were stuck in typing position. She often helped Percy with his homework, and he found it a great help to have both her and Paul in the house to help him.
"Yes," he yawned. He had retaken his senior year, considering that he had missed most of it because 'his aunt wanted him to go through an exchange program with his cousin', according to most of the school population.
"Get a good night's rest. I'll see you in the morning," Sally smiled. Percy yawned again and stumbled towards his room before crashing into his bed without even brushing his teeth. He might not have impenetrable skin anymore, but the stress of school was enough for any kid to drop like Medusa was staring them down.
The only unfortunate thing about sleeping constantly was his nightmares. Tartarus had given him horrible PTSD… something which her had been diagnosed with and then figured out meant post-traumatic stress disorder. A lot of demi-gods had it, due to living through two wars and watching plenty of people die.
Percy and Annabeth, however, had it much worse than many others. The only person who got worse nightmares was Nico, since he had gone through hell by himself.
The corpse stood in front of him, smiling in a grin that looked like Annabeth's but was too evil to be her. He was on his knees, causing the goddess of poison, Achlys, to drown in her own poison.
Annabeth let out a sadistic laugh, and Percy did the same. They both watched in rapture as the goddess begged them to be let go, and Percy made the poison go down her own throat faster.
Annabeth smiled at Percy, looking eerily dead in the darkness of night. She looked - dead. So, so dead…
Percy jolted awake, shocked by the callings of that moment in Tartarus. One of his biggest fears had been that if Annabeth hadn't stopped him from hurting Achlys, he would have hurt her bad enough to put her one step away from death.
It wasn't that he felt sympathy for the goddess of poison - it was far from that. He just had never been close to releasing the part of his power that came from dark before. He thought about it as if it was the fourth of him that was his paternal grandfather. As much as he hated to consider Kronos his family, he was. And just like Luke, Percy could fall for his lies. Percy was strong, and quite a lot of people knew that. He didn't want to be tempted to the dark side of things…
What scared him the most was the realization that if Annabeth hadn't stopped him, he would have killed Achlys. He would have sent her to the point of no return.
He grasped his head, his heart pounding hard in his chest. He sent a fearful glance at his pillow. He couldn't do this - he couldn't back to a terrifying world of dreams.
The air next to him shimmered. He almost banged his head on his headboard as an IM glittered into life.
"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth's voice whispered. "Are you awake?"
"Yeah," he said, groggily, eyes blinking as he took in the light glaring behind his girlfriend.
"Oh, sorry. Did I wake you up?" she asked, worriedly.
"No, you didn't. I was already awake. No problem."
"Good."
Percy leant in closer to the image and took in Annabeth as the sleep cleared from his eyes. Her eyes had bags under them, her hair was a rat's nest, and she was breathing hard. "Nightmare?" he asked.
She curled into a ball. "Yeah. We were in Tartarus and I didn't stop you, Percy. I didn't stop you from killing her. It was… so, so scary."
"I had that dream too," he whispered. He wished he could hold her. "Annabeth, I would never do that. Please. I won't turn into that monster. Please believe me."
"I do," she said, eyes wide open.
The message dissolved.