A/N: Again, nothing else to say. Thanks for reading though!
Thamolwan Poopradubsil: Well, regardless of who you think that person might be, hope you don't spoil it.
TalentedTal420: Thanks! And I hope you like my other stories as well.
Guest: You're just feeding my ego right now. Thanks though!
Fangirl101: Cue the Linkin Park music.
DreamCatcher06: Yeah, gotta make it hard for the main guy.
Onwards!
Chapter 10
Percy found his way back to his home behind the waterfall. There, he meets Zoe and Bianca. Bianca was a sleep and Zoe was busy . . . um, undressing.
"Hello?" Percy called. As he entered, he saw Zoe in her jeans and white tank top as she took her parka off.
When Zoe turned around, their eyes met.
At first, Percy thought she was going to lash out at Percy and was going to chase him to the ends of the earth while firing arrows at him. To his surprise, Zoe breathe out a sigh of relief and rushed to hug him
Zoe hugged Percy, to which he doesn't know how to respond. "Um,"
"Don't you ever do something like that ever again." Zoe said as she stepped away.
"Uh, sure." Percy said. His mind was still trying to figure out what happened. Zoe doesn't normally do that. She also doesn't normally hug people, especially males.
She seemed to know what he's thinking. "Oh, relax Percy." Zoe said. "I think of you as a friend."
Percy wasn't sure about that. Sure, Zoe might be gorgeous and beautiful but he wasn't sure he could be in a relationship with Zoe. After all, they're just friends. Why would he start having feelings for her?
Why would him having feelings for her at all is an option?
Why would that be a problem to anyone?
Percy shook those thoughts out of his head. Clearly, the exhaustion is getting to him. He'd fought an army. Of course he'd be tired.
"Oh and by the way," Zoe said as she sat down to watch the TV. "We found another relic."
"Where is it?" Percy asked. Zoe gestured at a ring on a table. The ring was silver, except for the embedded jewel on top of it which was bright pink. He picked it up and studied it. As he tried to put it on his finger, the ring expanded to his finger size. "What does it do?"
"Gaia said that it's called the Morph Ring." She said. "With a drop of blood from a person, you can look exactly like that person for a day."
"Cool," Percy said. He thought about trying its powers but considering that Bianca and Zoe were the only ones here, he decided against it. He went on and put it in storage. "Zoe, I'm heading to bed now."
"Sure," Zoe said. He heard the TV's volume being turned up as Percy crashed onto his bed.
Surely enough, he had dreams.
Percy stood at the familiar place of Mount Tam, where Atlas is holding up the sky. The darkened clouds swirl around on top of the mountain, where Atlas is straining to hold it up.
"What are you doing here?" Atlas bellowed in anger. Percy jumped. At first, Percy thought that the Titan General was talking to him. But then he realized that he wasn't.
"Is that your way of greeting a fellow relative?" A voice said around Atlas. Percy didn't really see who it was but whoever it was, it sounds . . . ancient. Percy have heard Kronos' voice and Gaia's voice.
This is something much more powerful. The sheer power coming from this thing's voice almost made Percy's head explode and this is in a dream.
"You . . ." Atlas sounds terrified. Percy didn't know who else could terrify Atlas. "Why are you here? You shouldn't be here!"
"Alas, here I am," The voice said. Percy's head was spinning. His knees buckled. Whoever this voice belongs to is way out of Percy's league. "And I am here to relieve you of your punishment."
"What are you talking about?" Atlas said frantically. "You can't do that! The gods made sure of it. If you free me, who's going to take the burden of the skies?"
The voice laughed manically. "Did I say I was going to free you?"
Then what happens next was too weird that Percy doubted he'd have the creativity to come up with it.
Atlas made choking sounds as the stomach area of his body starts to twist. It was like someone had used Photoshop to make Atlas contort like that. Then he started to twist again as his body got smaller and smaller, absorbed by a singular dot in the middle of his gut. Atlas made pained expressions but he didn't scream. Or most likely he couldn't.
It was gruesome to watch. As this was going on, the skies began to lower as the ground trembled. The heavens were going to fall on them.
As Atlas gets twisted and contorted into nothing, the sky stopped to descend. What remained of Atlas disappeared with the sound of a sharp snap of the fingers.
"Such weak and primitive creatures." The voice said. "As if Ouranos would dare descend in his current state."
Then Percy felt an icy grip around his throat. "And as for you, Perseus Jackson." The darkness seemed to surround Percy, leaving nothing but darkness around him. "Such an ignorant mind. So desperate. So easily manipulated."
Percy tried to struggle, but he couldn't move. He couldn't shout. He couldn't even see anything. He was helpless.
"Be careful where you tread, Perseus." The voice said. "And watch your back around my daughter. She'll be going for your head."
The darkness swallowed Percy as he woke up gasping for air. He felt suffocated. The air seemed heavier and felt harder to breathe in. His body was heating up and he was sweating heavily.
"Percy?" A familiar voice said next to him. "Are you okay?" He looked to his side to see Zoe half awake next to him.
Zoe wasn't really the type of woman to be sleeping next to a man, but after what Percy had been through, he hardly noticed. His head was spinning and his hands were shaking. He took off his shirt and sat on the floor as he leaned against the wall.
Everything seemed to be shaking. Percy needed something sturdy to hold on to. His heavy breathing gradually slowed. He could feel his body temperature dropping down. Percy didn't notice it before, but his skin was steaming.
That was no ordinary dream. Whatever power that was capable of doing something like that to Percy in his sleep was not someone he wanted to face. Percy was asleep and yet he felt like he'd been roasted inside out.
Zoe looked at him with concern. Her dark brown hair were messy from sleeping, to which Percy found was kinda beautiful.
Seeing Zoe's face made him calmer. The shaking in his hands reduced to a mere tremble. Percy took a deep breath. "Yeah," Percy said as he swallowed the lump in his throat. "I'm fine."
"You sure?" Zoe asked with genuine concern. "You don't look too good."
"It's okay." Percy took another deep breath. "I'm fine, honestly."
Zoe didn't look assured, but she wasn't going to argue. "Well try to keep it to yourself next time," She said before curling back on bed.
"Wait, why are you on my bed anyway?" Percy asked.
"Bianca already took the couch. Do you expect me to sleep on the floor?" Zoe asked.
"Why didn't you wake me up?"
"I tried but you slept like a rock. I got tired of waking you up so I just sleep next to you."
"You do know that breaks your rule of not sharing the same bed, right?"
"Desperate times calls for desperate measures," Zoe said. "Besides, nothing happened. So relax about it."
Percy decided that he wasn't going to question any further. He put on his shirt and went outside. He needed some fresh air.
Line Break
After the battle, Reyna asked permission from Chiron for the Romans to stay in Camp Half-Blood for a few days. Leo's transporter didn't really work properly. Sure, most of the Romans made it, but some of them got transported to New Mexico.
Go figure.
"Anyway," Reyna said. "Leo said that it would probably take a few days for him to get it back up and running."
"My dear," Chiron smiled. "You are more than welcomed to stay here. But won't you be concerned about Camp Jupiter being left unguarded?"
Reyna smiled. "You don't have to worry about that. The veteran officers are there. They'll defend camp if they need to."
"Well, if that's the case then you're welcome to stay for as long as you need."
"Thank you, Chiron," Reyna said before the centaur cantered off. She turned towards Piper, who'd been expecting to use her charmspeak if Chiron had declined their offer. "I told you we don't need it."
Piper shrugged. "If I don't practice once in a while I'll get rusty."
"Go do it on Leo then." Reyna said as the girls walked towards the beach. "I thought you liked making him do stupid stuff."
"Yeah, but it gets boring after a while." Piper said. As they reached the beach, they noticed Annabeth who was sitting on the sand next to a purple haired girl that looked about her age. "Hey," Piper greeted.
"Hey," Annabeth smiled at both of them. "Oh, this is Lucia," Annabeth gestured at Lucia. "Lucia, this is one of the Roman praetors, Reyna. And she's Piper."
"What an intro," Piper rolled her eyes. She shook Lucia's hand. "Pleasure to meet you."
"Same," Lucia smiled as she shook both Piper's and Reyna's hand. "Well, I should get going. Chiron says he's going to teach me archery."
"Good luck then," Annabeth said. Lucia nodded with a smile before walking away.
"Never seen her before." Piper said. "Is she new?" Piper asked as both of them joined Annabeth.
"Yeah. She'd just arrived today." Annabeth said. "Hell of a fighter though."
"I saw her in battle," Reyna said. "Her style of fighting is . . . interesting."
"Yeah, she used fencing." Annabeth explained. "And she's a daughter of Poseidon as well."
Piper whistled. "So she's the one that created that hurricane during the fight?"
"That was Percy's doing." Reyna said with a bit of a grudge. "Did you guys find anything about him?"
"Other than him being one of the most powerful demigod I've ever met? Nothing." Annabeth said. "But is he really an enemy though? He did help us defend camp."
"But why though?" Piper asked. "None of us know who he is. He keeps popping up everywhere."
"Yeah and it annoys me." Reyna grumbled. "If there's one thing I hate, it's elusive enemies."
"We don't know if he's an enemy." Annabeth said.
"Well, we don't know if he's a friend either." Reyna argued. "We don't know him."
Annabeth wanted to argue back, but another voice stepped in. "But you should know him."
The trio of girls turned around to see Athena standing behind them wearing a white blouse and blue jeans.
"Mother," Annabeth muttered before kneeling. Piper and Reyna followed suit.
Athena smiled. "Rise up, heroes." They stood shakily. "I believe you've made a fair amount of encounter to this man." Athena waved her hand in the air. An image projection of Percy appeared in front of them.
"Yes," Annabeth said. "How did you know?"
"Well, my sister appears to have encountered him as well." Athena said as the image disappeared. "Needless to say, it didn't go well. After that, I did some research and found this."
She showed her palm to the girls and a metal disc shimmered into existence on her palm. It looked like a drink coaster with the shape of an owl pressed onto the surface.
"Use this and you will know who Percy Jackson is." Athena said.
"Um, is he a big deal?" Piper asked.
"Oh, very much." Athena said.
"How big?"
"Big as in 'we would all be dead if it wasn't for him'." Athena said. "Well, I'll leave you girls to it." She said before disappearing in a puff of gray smoke.
"Wow," Piper muttered. "That's pretty big. We should call the others so that they can have a look at this too."
"Annabeth," Reyna said, her tone was slightly on edge. "You noticed that too, didn't you?"
Annabeth nodded nervously. Her face was pale. "That wasn't my mother."
Line Break
Percy stood on the edge of a cliff that overlooked over a sea of trees. It's uncanny how remote this place is, despite it being a few hours away from the nearest civilization. The warm cool breeze blew his face gently. The sound of leaves rustling filled the calm atmosphere.
Is something on your mind, Perseus? Gaia spoke in his head.
He wanted to tell Gaia about his dream. The ridiculously powerful entity in that dream was starting to make him nervous. He wanted to tell her everything, but for some reason he didn't.
"Just another dream." Percy said. "About Annabeth."
Do you miss her?
"Of course I do." Percy said sadly. "Our encounters are short and I'm sure she pretty much hates my guts."
We must do this in secrecy, Perseus. This is so we can save them.
"Yeah, I know." Percy sighed. "I just wish we can talk."
I understand. Gaia said solemnly. I wish we could finish this early so you can go back to your old life.
Percy shrugged. "To be fair, this kind of life isn't so bad."
Hmm?
"I mean, I'm helping my friends as I collect these relics. I can train myself. There's also Zoe with me along with Bianca." Percy said, not even realizing what he'd said.
Ah, do you have feelings for her? Gaia asked.
Percy frowned. "Who?" Gaia stayed silent, as if Percy should know the answer. "You mean Zoe?"
You seem to be quite fond of her. Gaia stated out. Do you like her?
"What? You're being ridiculous." Percy insisted though he didn't sound convincing. "I don't like her. I mean, I like her. But I don't like her like that."
Are you sure? Gaia asked.
"Well, no." Percy sighed as he sat down and dangled his feet on the edge of the cliff. "I can't say that I haven't found her . . . attractive, these past few days. When we were on a quest together a few years back, she'd been so determined on saving Artemis that we didn't really talk much. Plus, she scares me back then."
Percy took a deep breath. The evening sky was now turning to night. Percy could already the full moon. "Now that we've got the chance to talk more, I found that she's . . . um . . ." Percy couldn't find the right words for it.
Perhaps you just miss the girl? Gaia said. Or are you having second thoughts?
That really was a hard question. If Percy's being honest with himself, he really loves Annabeth. He really does. But this thing he has with Zoe is complicated. Was it love? Was it something else entirely? Percy didn't know what to call it.
"I don't know," Percy said sadly. "Maybe I'm just an idiot for thinking all this."
"I think it's normal," A voice said behind him. He turned around and paled when he see Zoe. The orange sky washed over her face to make it look like she'd been painted to perfection.
"Oh, Zoe," Percy struggled to find his words. "H-How long have you been there?"
"Long enough," Zoe smiled. "It was almost nighttime and you haven't returned, so I went looking for you."
"Oh," Percy said. "I'm just getting some fresh air." He stood up and brushed off the dirt on his jeans. Zoe took a few steps until she was now face to face with Percy. "Um, Zoe?"
"Yeah?" She said in a low voice. Percy could almost feel his heart beating against his chest.
Zoe looked at him with her volcanic black eyes. At first, Percy had always thought her eyes made her look unnerving, kinda similar to Annabeth's grey eyes.
Now, they both had that same seducing effect on Percy.
"I don't think that this is a good idea." Percy said. His mind was getting blurry by the moment. He could feel Zoe's breath on him.
"Don't think what is a good idea?" Zoe asked softly. Their faces were inches away. Zoe wrapped her arms around Percy's neck as Percy's hand automatically went around Zoe's waist.
Did he really want this?
He stared long into Zoe's eyes.
Fuck it.
Percy pulled Zoe into a deep and passionate kiss. For a minute everything was pure bliss. His head felt light and his stomach had butterflies in it. He felt like if an asteroid had struck the earth, he wouldn't have cared. He finally had something that he cared about more than his life.
As they pulled away, Zoe smiled and pulled him into an embrace, in which Percy returned happily. "Thank you." Zoe said. She leaned closer to his ear and whispered: "For making this so easy."
SHLUCK!
A/N: Oh yeah, I'm a prick. DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNN!