Well. Lots of feels in the previous chapter.
I'm just going to put this out now: one of the Olympains will die, though I'll leave it to you to find out who fades.
And no, it's not Ares.
Blink.
Blink.
Blinking meant that you weren't dead, right?
Blink.
Blink.
After all, if you were dead, how could you move?
Percy tried moving. Nothing happened.
All he could do was blink.
Grunting slightly, he exerted himself more and realized why he could not move before.
Pain.
More pain than he could ever imagine.
Phantom memories of where his spots of blood emerged in his head and wracked his body.
So much pain.
Desperate to control himself, and to alleviate his irrationally dry throat, he attempted to create some water, ignoring the exhaustion that threatened to put him back to sleep.
Bad idea.
All that exertion meant there was very little effort in holding back the walls of pain that threatened to enclose him and they tore through his body.
Gasping, he hurriedly doused himself in the water.
The coolness of the liquid slowly eased away the conflagration of agony that permeated through his body as well as giving him the energy to move, although was far from enough to help him regain control over his nerves.
Grunting, he finally managed to sit up.
All he was greeted with was white.
Well, not blind. Just a completely white room.
Everything. Was. White.
Well, except for the outside, but that didn't count, did it?
Wincing at the dulled pain, he whirled his fingers around his head and just called for a massive downpour of water to just fall on him.
Finally gaining enough energy to move without overexerting himself, he stumbled off the bed and lumbered out the door.
"Holy Hera, what are you doing up out of your bed?!" exclaimed a voice. Percy looked up and found that it was Dionysus.
"... where am I?"
Dionysus looked at him before sighing. "Let's get you back to bed, lad."
Slowly, the wine god led a disoriented Percy back to his bed.
"I'm sure you have a lot of questions."
"Yeah."
"Well, from what we've gathered, there's a new prophecy centered around you that we received after Apollo brought your near-dead body up to Olympus."
Shaking his head in disbelief, Percy managed a weak facepalm.
"Ugh, I can't catch a break."
Dionysus looked at Percy with an awkward look before sighing. "Perseus ..."
Percy looked at Dionysus with wide eyes, it was one of the few times that the wine god said his name properly."
"I suppose I haven't thanked you properly before, but just in case something happens ..."
Dionysus faltered, but Percy knew what he meant.
If he ever died.
"I'm not the most emotional god out there. There's a reason why wine is good for masking troubles and regrets. You kept on of my sons alive, and for that I am grateful. It was painful enough to lose Castor, but I don't know what I would have done if Pollux was to be lost as well."
Percy said nothing, not wishing to make this more awkward than it already was.
"You already know why I hate demigods. I'm not going to deny it, I still hate them. But somehow, you've managed to convince me that not all heroes are prone to betraying someone that cares about them.
"Perseus, I don't know if I'll survive this upcoming war. Bacchus is the actual fighter out of the two of us and even then, we lack true fighting potential. If anything, I feel as though I'm just going to be another hindrance in the war.
"It pains me to say this, seeing as though you've given up so much for us and yet we can hardly repay you, but please ..."
Dionysus looked at Percy in the eyes, slightly tinged red from overwhelming emotions.
"Can you please keep Pollux alive once more?" he pleaded.
Percy said nothing, but a ghost of a smile landed on his lips as he nodded.
After Dionysus left, Percy was left gazing at the ceiling.
He had never taken the god to be so vulnerable.
True, the god was rather lazy at first appearance and rarely exerted himself, but Percy had seen what the god could do.
With a simple wave of his hand, he could cause people to either rise out of or fall into insanity. The god had no qualms on taking human life either, seeing as he had basically dissociated himself from the rest of the world.
For Percy, that was actually scarier than meeting Zeus when he was 12.
After all, it mean that there was basically nothing keeping the wine god from destroying all of humanity.
Except for his wife and his son.
Attempting to sit up once more, he felt the surge of pain course through him yet again.
"Ah, shit," he muttered. "Am I really going to goldbrick my way out of this?"
Struggling to move once more, he decided to just douse himself in water again, but found that he could not access his powers.
He tried using Hestia's healing but saw that nothing happened. Desperate, he tried flaring out his wings.
Nothing. They just remained limp on his back.
"Oh, you're awake," a voice rang out.
Percy turned to source of the voice and found himself looking at Apollo with a serious expression on his face and clad in a doctor's suit.
"Let me guess, can't access your powers? It's to be expected; you basically blew a fuse in terms of deitic energy. I advise not overstraining yourself for now; you're literally our last hop," Apollo said in a defeated tone.
"You okay? You sound kinda bitter."
Apollo sighed and sat down next to Percy with his hands on his head.
"Honestly? No, I'm not okay. The doctor part of me is screaming to put you in a freaking bubble so that you can actually heal for once. However, the realistic part of me knows that you have to fight because of the damn prophecy. All this is pitting my morals against my common sense."
"Apollo ..."
"I just can't deal with this. What happened to the world where anything we wanted, we could get with a snap of out fingers. Sure, we were pompous idiots, but at least it wasn't too bad.
"Now? We're fighting humans. We're fighting people that can die. People that won't ever reform, because they chose the path of the blade. They aren't like us, where we will come back because we can. We won't ever see them again.
"And the worst part? Some of these people are family."
Percy stayed silent as he listened through Apollo's monologue. He honestly didn't know what to say.
"Haven't you gotten used to it already?" he quietly asked the sun god.
"Not the way you're thinking. I've gotten used to killing off my distant cousins: basically any monsters. But children? Demigods? Family? It hurts. It tears you apart, knowing that someone that looks up to you finds themselves staring at your direction with a wide-eyed expression as the life drains away from their face.
"Mortals claim that though we act human, we aren't. We have our flaws, but ultimately we have absolute control over everything but fate. Well, they were wrong. We basically are humans.
"Take our actions from the myths. We were petty. We were sinful. But we didn't care. We indulged in hedonistic desires and waged war on those that were virtually similar to us.
"Your species should know this above all. What is the difference between a human from Africa and one from Europe, besides the natural adaptions to survive in those areas? On a metaphysical comparison, is there any difference between a Chinese man and a Japanese one? Do Indians have a different biological factor that enables them to be superior than, say, Native Americans? What was different between the Polish and the Nazis at the core? Virtually nothing. In the end, they were still human. They still loved their neighbors. They participated in global economics. And yet, one fell to the strike of the other. The Germans and the Greeks come from the same roots, yet one is hopelessly entwined in the other one's fingers in order to survive. Why? Because that's just who we are.
"When your kind was first born, they were unblemished. They were perfect and imperfect at the same time. They could not think for themselves, yet were physically perfect. When Prometheus populated this world with your kind, he gave them fire, but tat was enough to allow your kind to think, albeit slowly. Because of this, you lost your carefree innocence and became imperfect. When Pandora's pithos was opened, all the darkness that we kept from your eyes were revealed to you. Truth had been unleashed, and, to quote the monotheistic scriptures, "Paradise was lost." However, it was enough to spark true cognition, driving you forward to continue adapting. It gave you the need to survive. It allowed you to populate and improve on your own.
"I watched your kind grow with fascination. Now, with a heavy heart, I must watch another human sacrifice himself for the sake of others," Apollo bitterly wept, his trademark smile seeming to have never existed.
Percy gripped the sun god's shoulder in comfort, but knew his meaning.
And he would gladly accept that fate to protect others.
Apollo led Percy out of his ward and carefully escorted him to the throne room.
Hera quickly flashed from her throne and engulfed him in a hug. "Oh, my child, you're all right!"
Percy smiled faintly as he returned the hug. "Hey, mom."
"How is he, Apollo?" asked Hestia from the sidelines.
"Physically, his recovery is enough that he'll be able to fight in the war. Mentally? He won't go crazy in the middle of a fight. Emotionally? I don't know."
"Thank you once again for helping him out.
"I owe him that much."
Soon Percy released his mother and looked at the council.
"So, I heard we're getting into a new war. With who?"
Zeus sighed. "Basically everyone that hasn't been destroyed yet since before the the assault on Manhattan. We're bringing the campers and the Romans here to discuss war plans."
Percy froze. If the campers were coming, then that meant that ...
"I'm afraid that your ex-girlfriend will also be here."
"Very well."
Surprising the majority of the council, Percy had handled the news fairly well.
Zeus cleared his throat. "Well, if that is all, then let us teleport the campers and the Romans here."
He then looked to Hermes. "Rally up any allies that Olympus still has. We'll need all the help we can get for this battle."
As the council left to do what was necessary, Artemis found herself walking up to Percy.
The two stared awkwardly at each other, until she attempted to dispel the tension.
"So ... um ... are you ... feeling better?"
"Y-yeah."
Percy started feeling self-conscious in front of Artemis. Not that he never was before, but now, without a lot of his strength at hand, he felt vulnerable.
Like her eyes were peering into his soul.
If he actually had one, that is.
Apollo was about to walk back to Percy but when he saw his twin next to him, he thought against it and went somewhere else.
"Listen," she started hesitantly. "I know that I've done a lot of questionably dumb things recently, but I hope that ..." She faltered off, guilt rising inside of her as she saw his injuries.
Percy managed a weak smile. "I should be the one apologizing. I'm your champion, and I can't even protect myself from myself."
"But ..."
"My Lady," he began, causing Artemis to wince slightly at the formality. "It was my duty to protect you and your hunters. What happens to me is irrelevant. My job to is protect my ward, and my ward is you." He gave a real smile after this that brought a few tears to her eyes. Noticing them, he opened his arms for a hug, which she walked into and returned.
"It's just ..." she whispered, seeming uncharacteristically weak. "I don't want to see someone die again. With Zoe ... she was like a sister to me. And you ..."
"Hey," he said gently. "What did I say before? It doesn't matter what happens to me. All that matters is that you guys are safe.
"This I promise."
At long last, another Pertemis moment.
Now the initial plot when I revamped this story was to set them up around now, but that wouldn't work. That would make Artemis too OOC.
Anyways, yeah feels. I bet none of you saw Dionysus coming, did you?
I've mentioned this in a few other stories, but right now, this is the only way that I know of dealing with depression ATM. I need something with more feels or humor to override myself. And since I can't do humor, I'm sticking with feels.
I'll probably make a feels moment for each Olympian by the time this arc closes. There will be a few more fillers after this chapter (like one or two) before the war begins and the final arc is set.
See ya.