A/N: Gah, this chapter is sooo long. It was over 6,000 words; that's twice my usual size. I just couldn't find a way to end it any earlier than I did. So, you're welcome I guess.
DISCLAIMER: Me no own Percy Jackson or Maximum Ride.
Perseus
I was getting really tired of being a guinea pig. And coming from a guy who was once transformed into a guinea pig, that was saying a lot. Of course, the last time I had been turned into an actual rodent - orange fur, tiny claws, the works - by an evil, man-hating witch (not the best experience); this time it was just metaphorical.
Why was I now a metaphorical rodent? Well, apparently the Fates had been getting bored and decided, "Hey, Percy's life doesn't suck completely yet. I mean, he's battled Kronos, had his memories wiped by a goddess, fallen into Tartarus, and fought in two wars. But has he ever been kidnapped and experimented on by some evil mad scientists? Now there's an idea!"
So, here I was, stuck in a cage in the middle of a desert being forced through endless traumatizing tests and trying not to smash my skull in from being trapped in an animal crate. I had already hated tests to begin with, and that was just the normal high school kind. But now? Well, I was definitely rethinking the whole college thing after graduating. I think this place had me all tested out. As for a career, Marine Biologist was off the table for good; you couldn't get me to touch science with a fifty-foot stick.
It wasn't like I haven't tried to escape or anything. On the contrary, in the short span that I've been here, I've already attempted two prison breaks. Key word there: attempted. On my first try, I didn't even make it out of the kennel before an Eraser turned on the shock collar. The second time, I was slightly smarter and waited until Chuckles was shoving me passed the thick steel door for another experiment before giving him a sharp right hook in the face, putting all my strength behind it.
The good news was that the punch had knocked the mutant right out. The bad news? It had also broken my hand. The other two goons took me down pretty easily after that, though I did manage to roundhouse kick one right in the soft spot. It was pretty satisfying to see him on his knees singing an off-key soprano, even if the other wolf-man had grabbed my injured hand and twisted it hard enough to make me pass out right after.
Now, I was sprawled out as far as I could in the small cage that had become home. My right hand was curled in my lap, screaming in pain.
"Um, isss your hand okay?" Alazne's voice timidly spoke up from her own little home cattycorner from mine.
"Yeah. Just a little bruised is all." I lied, not wanting to bother her with it. She had her own problems to worry about, like the fact that her teeth had been chattering for the past hour.
"No, it'sss not. My mom was a nursse, remember?" Well, schist. I was hoping that she hadn't picked up anything from her mom. Or her dad, the God of Healing. It wasn't like she could do anything for it while trapped in a metal crate. "Lemme sssee it."
I sighed dramatically, but put my swollen limb under the dim light shinning from one of the bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The unclaimed demigod gave a small gasp when she could finally see the full extent of the damage.
"Your hand isss bigger than Mickey Mouse's." She said. I agreed; it had swollen to twice the normal size and was turning a sickly shade of purple. If I'd had any food in my stomach, it would've been all over the floor by now. I retracted the broken hand and carefully cradled it to my chest, silently wishing for some ambrosia or nectar. Heck, I'd even settle for Advil at this point!
After a view moments of silence, Ali whispered, "You ssshouldn't have done that."
"Done what? Punch the guy? He totally had it coming. Plus, seeing him drooling all over the floor was so worth it."
"No, I mean try to escape. It'sss impossible."
"I'm the master of doing the impossible, Al." I plastered a cocky grin on my face, but even to me it felt forced.
"You don't get it." Her voice was shaking and tears formed in her blue eyes. "I've been here monthsss, Percy. Some of the othersss had been here even longer. But not onccce has someone escaped. The only way you leave isss in a body bag."
I swallowed the lump that formed in my dry throat. I've only been here for a little over a week, at most, and already I was starting to unravel. The idea that some of these kids had been trapped for months was incomprehensible. Just the thought of being caged and subjected to months of experiments made me queasy. I absentmindedly wondered how long it would take for my ADHD brain to completely lose it in here. Maybe I'd become like one of those insane asylum patients, banging my skull against a wall and talking to voices in my head.
"That's exactly why we have to escape, Alazne. We have to keep fighting - keep hoping - or else they win. If we don't at least try to leave this place, then one day we'll end up just another failed experiment." I stared into the daughter of Apollo's slitted eyes, trying to get her to understand. I didn't want her to end up like the pig boy - I couldn't let her. After witnessing so much death in my seventeen years, I didn't think I could handle another one. Alazne was innocent, not even in her double digits yet, but apparently she had drawn the short stick on life. Plus without Wise Girl around, Al had become the small ledge that I was clinging onto so as to not fall into the endless pit of my own darkest nightmares - though my hand was already starting to slip. If she were to die, then I could say bye-bye to my sanity.
Alazne either agreed with my inspiring speech, or she read the desperation on my face. Her blonde head bobbed once in agreement. "Okay. I won't give up." Though her voice quavered slightly, the determination in her eyes as she said this shocked me; it reminded me of Annabeth's intense stare.
Suddenly, it felt as if I'd been sucker-punched. It had been over a week since I'd last seen my girlfriend. She had to be a mess right now, searching everywhere for me. I remembered talking to Grover one day about my first kidnapping, and he'd let slip that during those long months without her best friend slash boyfriend, she had become slightly unhinged - threatening everyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way with her knife, like Clarisse after the first (and last) time the Stolls had pranked her.
If that had been her reaction before we'd been separated for six months and fallen into Tartarus, I could only imagine what she must be going through now. Not that I doubted Wise Girl's strength or anything - the opposite really; she was way stronger than I could ever hope to be, the strongest and most capable person I knew - but we had become a little...codependent since everything that happened in the past year. Sure, we had gotten better over the past months - it was a very slow process but we had been recovering little by little - but that had been when we were together, and I wasn't in the hands of crazy, scalpel-wielding psychopaths. Now, I think we were probably both regressing back to the days right after the Giant War. Her nightmares had to be just as bad as mine were, if not worse. After all, at least I knew that she was safe at camp; she had no idea where I was.
The throbbing in my hand eventually dragged me out of my thoughts. How long did bones take to heal naturally, anyway? Because I was already fed up with it. Usually I'd just take some ambrosia and soak the injury in water until I was good to go, but I had neither at the moment. Would ambrosia even work on me anymore, with my sudden powerlessness and all?
"Don't suppose you have any ibuprofen in there?" The look Ali gave me was all the answer I needed. "Great, just great." I muttered as I settled against the hard bars of my cage, getting ready for one extremely uncomfortable night.
A thick layer of mist engulfed me. It was a python, wrapping around me in sinewy coils and trying to suffocate me. It tugged on my feet as if trying to pull me under the ground and drown me, like an Alaskan bog. I shivered as its cold tongues lapped at my exposed skin, causing goosebumps to arise wherever it made contact, as if a disease was consuming me.
A shrill laugh suddenly echoed in my ears. At the sound, the gray mist thinned until it finally dissipated. Without the heavy fog obscuring my eyes, I could clearly see where I was. The ground was made of black shards that crunched as I shifted my weight, and the sky was the color of fresh blood mixed with cement. About ten paces in front of me was a cliff, and under the cliff...nothing, just an endless abyss of darkness - of Chaos. I stumbled, finally realizing where I was. But, no, I couldn't be here! We'd gotten out! We had found the Door and escaped - Bob and Damasen had made sure of it!
The high-pitched cackle sounded again, this time from right behind me. I quickly spun around, but what I saw froze me to my very core. Annabeth, shrouded in Death Mist, was facing off with Acklys. Though every fiber of my being screamed at me to help, I remained a statue as my girlfriend desperately slashed and stabbed at the Goddess of Misery with her ivory sword.
Annabeth got in a few good cuts and looked to be gaining the upper hand - that is, until Acklys played dirty. Flowers started blooming around the daughter of Athena, causing her to stumble. But, that wasn't the worst part. No, the worst part was when poison started to flow out of the brightly colored blossoms. The goddess sneered as Annabeth's zombie face slowly filled with horror. The bubbling poison poured around Misery's ankles, hissing as it made its way towards the blonde demigod.
"No!" The word ripped itself out of my throat as I strained to break the invisible restraints that bound me in my spot. It felt like Medusa had turned me into stone.
"And what are you going to do about it, oh mighty hero?" Acklys's mocking voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Another shrill laugh that could put the Wicked Witch to shame erupted from her lips, turning her bleeding face more grotesque than it already was.
The fatal river of poison was now only feet anyway from Annabeth as she continued to inch backwards. However, she was starting to get close to the edge of the cliff...
"Annabeth!" Hearing my voice, her stormy gray eyes rose to meet my sea green ones. In them, I could read all of her fear and desperation. Gone was the strong, calculating mask she usually wore. I had to do something to save her. I had to!
Poison was partially a liquid, right? So, in theory, I'd be able control it. I mean, I've controlled lava before, so poison shouldn't be that far of a stretch. With that in mind, I reached down inside myself to call on the deadly liquids. It should work - wait, it has worked! However, instead of the tugging in my gut, a burning sensation filled my stomach. I cried out and collapsed to my knees, cutting my palms on the sharp shards on the ground.
"Percy, help!" Annabeth's frightened voice reached my ears.
"Yes Percy, save her." Acklys taunted. I held my breath and attempted to call on the poison once again, but the fiery pain only intensified, leaving me screaming. Tears blurred my vision as I watched Annabeth trip on a loose shard of glass and drop her sword. When she finally caught her balance again, she was mere inches from the edge, the drakon-bone blade tumbling over the pit. My breath caught in my throat.
"Watch, Perseus Jackson, as your beloved falls into Chaos's Abyss. Watch, and know that it was because of your failure that she perished." The voice that came out of Misery's mouth was not her own. Instead, it was strangely calm, and I couldn't tell whether it was male or female, nor the age of it.
The poison had now reached Annabeth's feet. As it made contact with the toes of her tattered shoes, the rubber started to melt. I redoubled my efforts in controlling the liquid, pushing passed the intense, searing agony that encased my body. The daughter of Athena took a step back, only to find that there wasn't anywhere to go. As Annabeth teetered on the edge of the cliff, our eyes met for a split second - green on gray. Her lips formed three last words, "I love you."
Then she was gone, falling into the eternal nothingness. When her final screams reached my ears, the ball inside of me shattered, and this time, Wise Girl wasn't there to pick up the pieces.
All I could hear was screaming. A scratchy, terrified, ear-numbing scream. It took my mind a couple of moments to register that it was actually me screaming. But, why was I screaming? Where was I? Images suddenly flooded into my head: Tartarus, Acklys, poison, Annabeth...falling. What was I going to do? Annabeth fell into the abyss because of me. She had died because I had failed to save her!
Wait, no. That's not right, a little voice in the back of my mind whispered. You escaped the Pit; you got her out. She's safe.
But a louder voice was yelling at me, drowning out the other one. She's gone - dead - all because of you. You couldn't save her; just like you couldn't save Beckendorf, or Silena, or Luke, or the countless other demigods that died because of you! You deserve to be in Tartarus.
My hands clenched my head, pulling at the raven-colored hair on my crown. I didn't know what to believe; I didn't know where I was. Where was Annabeth? I needed her. My thoughts swirled around my head like a cyclone, too fast for me to comprehend. However, a single word stuck out to me, like the eye of the hurricane: escape.
My eyes flew open and dashed over my surroundings. The area was dark, the only light source being a few dingy bulbs. It gave the space an eerie feel - though that could also be attributed to the many rows of empty dog crates, like a kennel. My breath quickened. What kind of place in Tartarus was this? More importantly, where was Annabeth? Did the monsters get her somehow? My hand reached for Riptide, only to find that my pants didn't have pockets. That didn't make sense: I always made sure my pants had pockets, for exactly this reason. I felt on the urge of a panic attack, the air not quite reaching my lungs.
"Shhh, hey, everything'sss fine. You're okay, everything isss okay..." A voice reached my ears. In my panicky state, the words sounded muffled and unreal. "Hey, Percccy. Perce, look at me."
Once the words clicked in my mind, I decided to listen to the calming voice. My green eyes searched through the semi-darkness until they rested on a little girl hunched over in a cage to my right. "Good job, Percce, that'sss great. Now, just focus on my voicce." I briefly nodded. The girl's voice was soothing, with a strange hissing undertone that made it somewhat hypnotic.
"You're not wherever you think you are. You're at the Sschool, remember?" My memories slowly started to click back in place. I was at the mad scientists' laboratory, not back in monster hell. It had just been a nightmare; Annabeth was perfectly fine.
I let out a shaky breath. "T-thanks, Al." My voice was scratchy from screaming in my sleep. I couldn't remember when the last time I felt properly hydrated was.
"Sso, do you wanna talk about it? It might help." She asked me this after every nightmare, but I always turned the offer down. How could I explain to this little girl that I had literally fallen into hell? Why would I even want to? She was living in her own personal hell; I couldn't crush her by telling her about the actual one.
So instead, I stayed silent, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart. Alazne sighed, shifting into a position to conserve the body heat that she obviously didn't have. Not one for staying quiet for too long, Ali spoke up again. "Who'ss Annabeth?"
Upon hearing my girlfriend's name, I startled. "How'd you know that name?"
At this, Alazne's cheeks reddened. "You were, um, yelling it. In your sssleep." It was my turn to blush now.
"Oh." I coughed slightly before deciding to continue. "She's my girlfriend. My dream was just about her, you know, dying and stuff." The picture of Annabeth's terrified face right before she fell flashed before my eyes, causing me to wince and all my muscles to bunch up.
"Oh..."
"Yeah..." I finished awkwardly.
Then, I pulled my legs up and wrapped my left arm around my knees. My entire right arm had turned to pins and needles sometime throughout the night, but I knew that the pain would soon come back with a vengeance, so I carefully placed that arm beside me to make sure I didn't injure it further.
I didn't know what to do. Drowsiness threatened to overtake me, but I didn't feel mentally stable enough to fall asleep. Just as I was seriously considering singing 99 Bottles of Nectar of the Wall, Alazne started to hum. I didn't recognize the tune - Ali herself probably didn't even know - but her humming-hissing combination slowly worked to relax my tense muscles. The sound washed over me; it was beautiful in a unique, strange way. It reminded me of when Piper sang to those snake people in Athens.
That thought, however, caused me to be ripped out of the peaceful trance. My friends - what were they doing right now? Jason was probably worrying his head off, Piper being not much better but putting on a brave face for everyone else. Leo, well, I'm not sure what Leo would be thinking - his mind was kind of scary to imagine. Hazel and Frank would be frantic, though Reyna would hide all her emotions behind a brick wall. However, Rachel was the one I was most worried about, as well as Grover.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare, with all her Oracle-ness, was able to see the future, among other things. Was she able to see me right now? See all those horrible experiments the whitecoats had done? For her sake, and everyone else's at camp, I hope that answer was a big no. Even though it would be great to be rescued from this place, what happened behind those thick lab doors was, well...ineffable. I didn't want my friend to have to see me like that.
Also, Grover and I still had our empathy link. Could he feel the pain that I was in? We had talked about my little trip to Tartarus a couple weeks after the Giant War, and he'd said that at one point the Satyr had collapsed while visiting Camp Half-Blood. It had probably been during my near-death experience after our last run in with the Curses. Just the thought of having put my best friend through that had made me want to cut the link right then, but Grover had assured me that the pain he went through was probably nothing compared to experiencing it firsthand. I had relented after that, but now I wished that I hadn't.
For the next hour, I remained in a half-lucid state that I had near-perfected after being trapped in a cage for so long. It was sort of like meditation - though instead of trying to become one with reality, it was me trying to escape it.
The steel door suddenly opened, causing Ali's humming to come to an abrupt stop. I shifted uncomfortably and licked my dry lips, though there was no saliva to wet them. Another day, another round of torture. Six muscled Erasers filed into the large room, half of them fully morphed into their wolf form. I could see Chuckles leading the pack towards me, and I noted with a smug smile that the right side of his jaw was completely covered in purple bruises. Seeing my smirk, Chuckles barred his fangs at me, but that did nothing to mar my happiness.
"So, what's up fleabags?" I addressed all six as they stopped in front of my crate. "What brings you to my humble abode?"
They all snarled in response, their rough hair bristling in agitation. One of the fully morphed ones bent over to unlatch my cage before grabbing my shoulder and dragging me to my feet. Another wolf-man stepped over and wrenched both of my arms behind my back, handcuffing them together tightly. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out from the rough treatment of my broken hand. Seeing my pained expression, Chuckles laughed. I resisted the urge to spit in his face as he shoved me forward. Not that I had any spit left, but still...
"Get moving. Another day of experimenting awaits." Wow, he said a word with more than two syllables. Color me impressed.
As my escorts and I passed by Alazne's cage, I winked at her. She gave a small, timid smile in return but remained mute, her terror of the wolf mutants overpowering her talkative mouth. Seeing the snake-girl so quiet made waves roar in my ears. The Erasers reminded me of the bullies from the many schools I'd gotten kicked out of (the learning kind, not to be confused with Frankenstein's School for Wackjob Scientists): even though they were just like every other student - or in this case mutant - they acted like they were better than everyone, and mercilessly teased those they thought were under them.
My cheek was most definitely bleeding now from how hard I bit it to keep from attacking the six Erasers. Not that I'd get anywhere with my hands cuffed behind my back - one of which was broken - and being so dehydrated that I could barely walk straight. Apparently my body hadn't gotten the memo, though. Adrenaline still flooded my systems, making my skin crawl from anticipation. My flight or fight instinct was starting to kick in as I continued to be led through the white-walled hallways. Although, admittedly my flight instinct was practically nonexistent; I'd long since established that Percy Jackson never ran from a fight, even when facing the God of War at the tender age of twelve.
We passed many clear windows that looked into various rooms. I refused to look inside, instead keeping my gaze on my dirty bare feet as I walked. One reason was to make sure that I didn't trip - my head pounded like Blackjack had kicked it again, and the nausea made me feel worse than a seasick Hazel aboard the Argo II. The second reason was that I really didn't want to see what was happening behind that glass - just the thought of it made my knees weak.
Almost subconsciously, I reached out for the water around me, just to be able to feel its calming embrace. Instead, I got a fire-poker to the stomach that made me want to hurl. Figures. On the outside, I looked completely collected (and probably a little pissed), but on the inside... Inside, I was a wreck. Not being able to constantly feel the gentle pull of the surrounding water was really starting to get to me, like I had lost my security blanket. How was someone able to block my powers? So far, I hadn't even seen anything to do with the supernatural except for Alazne, the unclaimed demigod. The only evil people I met here were mortal. So, how could they be doing this?
I was halted in my thoughts when a clawed hand gripped my shoulder. The jagged talons dug into the flesh there, ripping through the thin fabric of my shirt and drawing blood. I thought of how easy it would be for the man-beast to slice my throat right here and now.
"Enjoy the maze, lab rat." The Eraser snarled in my ear before shoving me through one of the many doors. Hopefully the mutant was being, like, metaphorical or something, because the whitecoats had already made me run through a maze, and it was not something I enjoyed at all. It had brought back many unpleasant memories of being trapped in the Labyrinth and the resulting battle.
As I stumbled in, mentally cursing the stupid Eraser for pushing me (because seriously - pushing? What were we, five?), I took stock of the room. It was white (surprise, surprise) with gray tiling on the floor. In the center of it was a metal hospital bed bolted to the floor with several surgical instruments laying beside it on a small table. I gulped.
So it was gonna be one of those days.
Someone cleared their throat, making my head whip back to the left side of the room. Standing there was a short whitecoat. He looked to be in his early sixties with a gray combover and watery blue eyes. The more I looked at him, the more and more he resembled a toad; Annabeth probably would have made a comment about him being the male equivalent of Umbridge. The thought made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
The scientist wasn't watching me, however. He was looking at the six escorts behind me. I turned to see that only two of them had followed me inside. At the whitecoat's level gaze, the remaining two Erasers gave low growls before grumpily stomping out to join the others on the other side of the door. Once the metal door was firmly bolted behind the last wolf-man, Dr. Umbridge hurried over to the table, motioning me over silently with a wave of his hand. I complied, glumly walking over to stand in front of the man. And when I say stand, it was more like tower. I was over a whole head taller than this guy - he couldn't be much taller than five feet.
"Turn around, let's get those handcuffs off." I'd expected his voice to sound like Umbridge's too - all annoying and pompous - or like the other whitecoat's, but instead there was a some sort of underlying...kindness, maybe? It shocked me, so much so that I actually followed his instructions to turn around without any sarcastic comment. Next he asked me to take a seat on the metal bed. I knew enough about this routine to know not to retaliate. The first time I had tried, I learned that whitecoats carried around those handy dandy remotes too, so trying to overpower one of them would only end up with another shock and no numbing medicine during the 'procedure'.
"Okay, now let's see that hand of yours." He said, surprising me again. Please, let this not be punishment for trying to escape, I prayed to any god that was listening as I carefully lifted my broken appendage.
Dr. Umbridge held my hand like it was a fragile baby bird. His stubby fingers ghosted over the bones in my hand, causing me to cringe whenever he got too close to the break for my liking. If this was what it's like having a broken limb, I now have a whole new respect for my girlfriend, who had to trudge through Tartarus on a fractured ankle.
"Hmm, you have an oblique break on the neck of your second metacarpal bone, and also a transverse fracture on the shaft of your third metacarpal bone. Luckily, neither punctured your skin," He said, addressing me. I was confused for a moment, because most of the scientists spoke as if I didn't have enough brain cells to comprehend English. The other reason for my confusion was that I didn't understand half of what he said. It reminded me of how Will Solace, son of Apollo and number one medic at camp, always insulted people using medical terms.
Then the doctor's hand moved towards the various torture - I mean medical - devices. I squashed the overwhelming urge to flinch as his hand drifted over the tray, searching for the best tool to dissect me with. He finally found what he was looking for and picked up the small bottle. I tried to read the label, the letters scrambling like they had ADHD as well. Entohla? Tehonal? Ethanol? None of it was ringing a bell, so I just hoped it wasn't poison, though judging by the chemical smell that wafted up to me, it just might be.
Imagine my surprise when he poured the stuff on a strip of gauze and started to gently dab it on my hand. The liquid whatever-it-was sizzled as it made contact with my bloodied knuckles, reminding me of the times I would fall off my skateboard when I was a kid and Mom would have to pour Hydrogen Peroxide on my skinned knees. As if reading my thoughts, Dr. Umbridge said, "It's just some antiseptic so the cuts don't get infected. Aaaaand there. Now for the bandage."
Now the old scientist grabbed a small roll of white bandages. He wrapped them firmly but carefully around my broken appendage, making sure that the bones couldn't move and that it wasn't too tight. After he finished wrapping, he held the bandage together with two butterfly clips, like a bow on top of a present. "There. All done." He announced, sounding like the kid doctor I used to go to when I got sick. I almost expected him to give me a lollipop and a sticker.
Before I could tell him thanks or anything, the door burst open. The whitecoat looked startled for a moment before his eyes settled on the figure that barged in. An angry glint flashed in those baby blues, but it was gone in a blink, leaving me wondering if I had imagined it.
"Hello, Dr. Lavelle." He said, his tone stiff and formal. I resisted the urge to groan. Great, Dr. Psycho was here herself!
"Dr. Barrett." Mette replied coolly. If she tried to hold her nose up any further, she'd probably fall flat on her back. "I see you will be helping me during this...operation."
"Hey Maggie, nice seeing you too." I smiled cheekily at her, enjoying the scowl that etched itself on her face. I gathered she was regretting telling me her name, and it took all my self-discipline to hold in my laugh. Too bad for her that Margaretta had like, a hundred different nicknames for it (thank you, Mr. D). She sort of reminded me of Annabeth in that sense, who hated anyone calling her by a different form of her name. Then realizing that I had just compared my girlfriend to a psychopath, I shuddered.
"You won't be laughing for long Subject 17," the way she said Subject 17 made me grind my teeth together to keep from lashing out at her and breaking my other hand. "Soon you will break. And on that day, you will be mine." My left fist clenched, the knuckles turning white. I remembered Gaea's taunts of becoming her 'little pawn,' and before her, Krono's.
"And how are you going to do that? Not even hell could break me," I scoffed. Okay, that was a tiny bit of an overstatement. I remembered my fight against the Goddess of Misery, and the exact moment when my insides had shattered into a million little pieces. But it wasn't like Dr. Frankenstein could catch my bluff; she couldn't know about the existence of Tartarus - that my words had been more than just a metaphor.
A crazy spark lit up her eyes, and a demonic sneer twisted on her face. "Why, with this of course." Her hand slid into one of her lab coat pockets, pulling out a syringe filled with a light blue colored liquid. Seeing the long needle that she attached to it, which had to be more than six inches long, I practically flew off the hospital bed.
"Restrain him," she said simply, and immediately two Erasers filed into the room. They easily subdued me and strapped my wrists and ankles to the metal bed, making sure to jostle my broken limb. As Dr. Lavelle slowly approached me, I had the sudden thought that this bed looked a lot like those tables at the morgue in one of those cop shows my mom liked to watch. That thought only caused me to thrash myself around harder, though it was no use. Dr. Umbridge stared at me from the corner of the white room, his sky blue eyes - the same color as the serum - grave as he saw my useless struggle.
"Now, this might hurt a little," Mette said haughtily. I was about to call her out for being cliche, but then she jammed the long needle into my chest and injected the liquid.
The effect had not been instantaneous. In fact, after a couple seconds of nothing happening, I raised an eyebrow at her. However, the next moment all my smug thoughts vanished as pain suddenly flooded through me. It felt as if my blood had been replaced with the river Phlegethon. A burning sensation that had begun in my chest started to spread like a wildfire. I could feel my organs rebelling from the foreign substance, and my bones felt fused together with a blowtorch. It was like I had been dipped in battery acid, or maybe some of Polybotes's poison. Though it wasn't as bad as my bath in the Styx, it was definitely worse than the Gorgon blood.
My thoughts became hazy and the world blurred around me. One second I was strapped down on a hospital bed, and the next I was collapsed on ground made of splintered glass as the Arai loomed above me. The pain of all the curses was too much; I knew I was dying. I knew it because my mind could finally see the true realm of Tartarus - the utter horror of it all. But then my body decided that it had finally had enough, and I sank into the blissful peace of unconsciousness.
A/N: What is this? Is Percy finally going to get his wings? Just took me 'til chapter ten, huh. Hope it was worth the wait!
Dr. Barrett (aka Dr. Umbridge) was actually inspired by my freshmen Biology teacher, who actually did resemble a toad. He was really nice, though, so I figured he would make a nice addition to the story.
Oh, and shoutout to Spilledink82 for the awesome review that gave me a huge ego-boost. To answer your question: no, not all of the whitecoats know about the gods. Let's just say that it's need-to-know information, and very few - if any - need to know.
Thanks to everyone else for your fabulous reviews! They always make me smile after reading them. Love you guys. :3
Au revoir!
~Wrendsor