21. Time And How To Alter It

"I'm far from home. I'm all alone.
This hole is way too deep.
And I left behind my happy life.
And I'm still wondering just how I died."

Blessthefall-Pray

Point of View:
Percy Jackson

To be completely honest, the Doors of Death only a few days ago looked like a Five Star island resort compared to what they look like now. The usual black and white lighting was nothing but a memory now. Instead, it flashed all sorts of dark colors. But, odd to say, everything was solid, but nothing seemed solid. It looked like someone had a TV projector on this whole cavern with a really depressing version of a Beatles music video playing on repeat. Minus the good music, that is. It transferred from black, to grey, to white, to brown, and then all back around. Ew, that rhymed. Let's pretend that never happened, alright?

My first reaction to everything was to reach for my throat. It seemed as if, once again, any wounds that I had seemed to heal. So I died twice, but I'm still alive? Wow. Talk about a paradox, huh? But does that mean every other descendant that had been killed is now alive? Nothing was really adding up. But I guess it didn't need to. Apparently we had been doing something right, because right now the Doors of Death looked like they were having an intense stroke.

The giant double doors kept slamming open and shut, like someone had a string tied to the doorknob and just couldn't find the right trajectory to pull their tooth out. Sorry, no tooth fairy for you, death stringer. I guess you won't be getting that one dollar under your pillow you were promised. Somehow, I think that my imaginary tooth puller would find a way to get over it.

But, all corny jokes aside, the Doors did look pretty panicky. If I wasn't aware of how serious of a situation this was, I think I'd be laughing my ass off right about now. But hey, I'm American. We're proud to laugh at stupid things.

I stepped forward, the colors spiraling all around me. "Damien, what's going on here?" I asked in awe. Everything seemed like it was moving. It was unrealistic. I couldn't believe what my mind was processing. Don't get me wrong, I hated the Doors of Death and all, but in a weird sense it looked almost…beautiful. Like a piece of art. It was almost a shame that I had to destroy them. I use the word almost loosely, if you would imagine.

"I suppose that the Doors of Death rely on the energy of the descendants. I suppose that would make sense. And since technically you and my siblings are the only descendants left, and they're not very strong adversaries, they only have you and little of them to feed of off. It must be panicking, with good reason." Damien replied with a wicked sneer.

"I guess we should get to destroying these things, then." I said, taking a deep breath, letting my Old God energy flow through my veins fluidly. I felt my skin start to burn up; my eyes start to transform colors. I took down every barrier that I had been holding against the old energies. I allowed my two spirits to combine into one, and for some reason it felt wrong; like I was violating my inherited powers from my father Poseidon. It's like I've lost touch with my Greek God side altogether, and I didn't like that one bit. Like everyone, I have my regrets. Except mine are a bit more…eccentric, then other people's.

Damien nodded in agreement. He was ready. So was I. His flesh was glowing red, so I assume that his powers were let loose too. For some reason, I thought of Damien and me as beasts now. With every passing second, our power grew, and we became less and less of ourselves. This was the ultimate price we had to pay. We had to sacrifice our very personality, and even our lives, for this world. It was a life unworthy living. Sure, people thought of me as a hero. But if you asked me, if I could go way back to when I was twelve years old, I would NEVER go on that stupid field trip with Grover. I'm sure I would have been dead by now if I never went with him that day, and that should be the way it is. I should be dead. No one deserves to bear the weight that I do. I just want a way out. Depressing, I know. But when the last five years of your life has had more sad endings than an Edgar Allen Poe story, you know that something's gone amiss somewhere down the line.

"So, how do you want to go about doing this, Percy?" Damien asked me, pushing his black bangs out of his face. "I mean, I know I seem like I know everything about this kind of stuff, but I really have no idea of how to do this."

I let ideas flow through my brain, a bunch of different plans half-making themselves up. "I guess we should just attack them like we would attack anything else." I answered. "Only maybe we should just use blasts or something like that. The only thing that I know is that those Doors are freaking the Hades out of me."

Somehow, despite the circumstances, we both shared a laugh. It felt fitting. That in our final moments, we could say that we were truly happy. It felt right, and that's all that I could ask for.

I approached the Doors of Death in long strides, taking deep breaths the whole time. I was pumped for this now. Whatever these Doors did, they would never be doing it again. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure what the Doors were actually for. It seems that all they has use for was bringing me back to life. Nothing made sense at all.

I turned to Damien, my eyes starting to water over, for some odd reason. "Damien, if you make it out of this, I want you to find out everything about the descendants. And these damn Doors of Death. I want you to know it all. I want at least one of us to know that we did this to stop something that was worth stopping."

"I promise, Percy." He replied, his eyes starting to tear, too. That was the first time I ever saw Damien show even a little actual, pure emotion. It was heartbreaking to know that I would never have the chance to see that again.

Our eyes met for a moment, and we saw every pain that both of us has ever faced. Everything that had gone wrong or right in our lives. I felt very connected to Damien at that moment. Almost like we shared the same heart and soul.

I turned back to the Doors. "You've caused me so much trouble, you know that?" I said with a half-chuckle. I think it would be even funnier if the Doors answered me back. At least then I'd have confirmation that I was, in fact, crazy of the highest degree.

Damien stood beside me, his head held high. "The Doors are in for a rude awakening." He said, a small grin spreading across his face.

"That was such a stupid thing to say," I said, a smile coming to my face, too. "It seems like it's already awake, don't you think?" And we shared another laugh. There have been a lot of those weird moments lately.

And suddenly my instincts kicked in. I sensed something about to come right at the two of us. I shoved Damien to the side and flipped backwards, feeling some sorts of energy singe the edges of my hair.

I landed on one knee and looked back to see what I had barely dodged. A beam of energy had been shot out of the Doors of Death. It seems that it's not too happy about our plans to end it for eternity. Heck, I wouldn't be very happy either. I really can't blame the Doors.

"I guess the Doors have started the fight already!" Damien exclaimed. It sounded like there was a hint of excitement in his voice. And I can't lie; my blood was rushing, too. I was made for battle, so this was second nature to me.

I grabbed Riptide form my pocket, a three foot black blade appearing between my fists. "Let's do this!" I screamed, the Old God's voice screaming right with me. The full power of the Old God was mine, at the moment. I knew it was true. So utterly true. And the stupid Doors couldn't do anything about it.

The ground cracked beneath my feat as my power elevated. Chunks of rock came free from the ground and floated in the air. The same was happening where Damien was standing. Eventually, the whole room had small rocks flying around frantically. We were blurs of red and purple, our energy rising higher and higher.

The Doors shot a blast at me again, but I teleported to the side in a millisecond. "Looks like that attack won't work for you anymore." I said with the blood rushing through my body, my adrenaline rising at a mile a minute. I dashed at it, my feet pounding against the ground. I jumped high in the air, shooting a beam at the Doors. It hit dead on, a crack forming on the surface. At least I knew that these things weren't invincible.

Damien followed suit, shooting at the Doors while dodging its oncoming attempts at an attack. It was almost like I game, if you think about it. A video game, even. Only if we die here, it's not like we could just come back with another life. Or is it? I don't even know anymore. It's all so confusing. It's best not to think about it, I suppose.

Something struck me in the back of the head. Immediately, I felt blood coming from the wound. And lots of it, at that. I spiraled to the side, slashing Riptide with haste. I missed whatever had hit me, but now I saw it, as I looked deep into the doors. Dark, grueling tentacles slithered from its depths, coming straight for us. There were spikes where the octopus-like suction cups should be. So I assume that I got stabbed in the back of the head by armed tentacles coming out of magic double doors that I was attacking in the first place. Wow. I really realize how messed up my life is. Or WAS, actually.

"Damien!" I shouted, gesturing towards the tentacles.

"I know!" he hollered back. I looked in his direction. Tentacles were surrounding him, and I saw a look of panic in his crimson eyes. Anger swelled up in me. I shot forward, flipping and slicing my way through the tentacles. With every tentacle that was slashed, an eardrum-shattering roar emitted from the Doors of Death.

Only now more tentacles came from the Doors. It seemed like every single one we destroyed, three more appeared. We wouldn't be able to win this fight. It seemed infinite.

Another one smacked me in the back, creating a huge gash. I let out a scream of agony, falling to the floor. My vision started to blur. Everything looked blood red. My senses started to retreat on me. I knew that I was dying. What would happen if I died in the Doors of Death? I had so many questions and no answers.

And then I had an idea. It was crazy, but it might work. I was a descendant of Kronos. The Lord of Time itself. I ran one of the lines of the prophecy in my head, about controlling time being easier than it seems. I knew what I had to do.

I took a piece of paper from my pocket and grabbed a thin, loose rock that lay on the ground near me. Damien was fighting off the tentacles and dodging blasts. He wouldn't last too much longer. I had to be quick.

I dipped the rock in my blood that fell from my head and back, scribbling on the parchment paper. It was pretty bad handwriting; but hey, I was writing with a rock and blood, what do you expect?

I folded the note up and started to limp towards where Damien was fighting. "Damien, come down here!" I yelled, my voice cracking with strain. He did, avoiding tentacles along the way.

"What is it, Percy, I'm kind of busy?" He said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Don't ask questions, just open us a portal to camp." I replied.

He nodded and closed his eyes, a dark portal appearing in front of us. "Now what is this for?" He asked.

I shoved the note that I wrote into his hand. "Give this to Annabeth." I said right before I pushed him through the portal. The last thing I saw of Damien Shade was shocked expressions appear across his eyes.

I immediately spun around and fell to my knees, closing my eyes. I had to act quick if I didn't want to die by a bunch of stupid tentacles. I focused on the flow of time. I imagined every second ticking on a clock, every minute passing and turning into hours. Every hour adding up to days, and every day turning into months, and every month turning into years, and somehow turning back into seconds. I felt a new energy rise up in me. It felt evil, but I had to take advantage of it. After all, the power did belong to the infamous Kronos himself.

Everything around me started to slow down, turning black and white. Everything looked grainy just like in an old time movie. Everything but me, that is. Nothing but me moved. It was like everything was suspended in time. Which, in all reality, it was.

Dear outside world, you'll probably never see me again. Sorry about that.

Goodbye.

Farewell.