Disclaimer, I don't own Percy Jackson
i dOn'T BiTE
Nico POV
Location- Brooklyn, Blue Lodge Crater, Upper Ruins
4 years ago…
Timber creaked and crashed, families screamed and fled, dragging themselves out of ruined buildings as sea green puddles splashed and dripped, washing away all that remained. All without a sound.
To be absolutely honest, my inner dork (as Percy so fondly called it) always pictured boss music playing when I took my last breath. The whole orchestra of doom, final-final form apocalypse symphony screeching in the void as I died a hero's breath.
Dead silence had no place in that vision. Neither did Perseus. His miserable glow was burned into my retinas as I fought to sit up, clothes signed and melting, gawking in numb horror at the carnage. My monster had razed the street. Blue Lodge was gone, the two apartments across the street were gone, the street behind that was gone, nothing but rubble, fire and those ever-growing sea green pools.
Perseus was nowhere in sight, but neither was Will or Lou Ellen or Cecil or Clovis. Even Morpheus had vanished, his godly aura vanquished in an instant by the might of a Godkiller. Numb horror faded, giving way to bone aching terror, every cell in my body singing out as I flopped back to the debris, unable to free a leg trapped beneath a beam.
I had to get up.
Perseus must be stopped. How, I wasn't sure. The banishment had been spot on, his erasure should have been 100% donezo, no chance of him ever returning. Yet there he'd been in the flesh, larger than life.
The shadows ignored when I called, so did the spirits. Every ounce of magic and myth had been drained, that dreadful bubble expanded to ungodly levels. No way out but the mortal way- the boring way as Percy would probably call it.
Thinking of him was a mistake, adrenaline and panic sucker punching me as the situation settled in. I had unleashed a monster, a walking doomsday with the power and motive to wipe entire pantheons off the face of existence.
This was really not part of the plan, like the plan was shot, dead, and buried in a galaxy far, far away from me. Not that I could blame it. What was I thinking? That I could save Percy? That I could save us and so many others? That when the time came he wouldn't have too… that I wouldn't have to suffer losing…
It was going to work.
A silent boulder crashed near my leg, good incentive to leave the fumbling justifications for later. Shimmying my sword out, I pried my foot free, using the blade as a cane while I stalked over the rubble, searching for any trace of the van.
My friends names spilled like lead off my lips, devoured in the quiet, something sick cursing my heart and crushing my mind. A feral growl followed those mangled sounds, raw desperation carrying me foot after foot. The blast had thrown me up the street, miraculously unscathed apart from the whole walking dead syndrome.
Guilty rage propelled me on as I ignored a half-melted hand sticking out from under a door, grinding my teeth as I kept shouting to my friends, trying to make a sound in this damned silence. I finally stumbled back onto our street, eyes finding the wrecked Blue Lodge.
Relief bubbled up as I spotted our overturned van, tipped upside down near another apartment's stairwell. Lou was hanging upside down behind the wheel, the windshield half smoky and cracked but unable to hide Cecil and a lump that looked suspiciously like Clovis.
I hobbled over as fast as I could, playing a total Percy and not paying attention to what was right in front of me. The road had collapsed, a pothole you could trap an elephant in plain sight. If I had my magic I would have felt the deep dark before I put my foot out, sending myself spilling down a hole.
Almost.
A loose grip tighter than a black hole struck like a cobra, tattooed fingers coiling over my wrist. I swung there, unwilling to look up, my saviors grip unyielding, content to hold me aloft like an underweight teddy bear.
"Silly Nico. Angels don't fall. They fly!"
That stolen voice chuckled dryly as I dangled, a gentle tug tossing me up into the green stained firmament. There was no control as I passed the third, the fifth, or the sixth floor of the apartment across the way, not until I began to plummet, determination keeping a firm grip on my sword as I arced back towards the snowy disaster zone.
That same grip caught me an instant before impact, all that momentum lost as if I had never been airborne at all.
"Woah. That… that was awful. Guess the rule doesn't apply to Di Angelo's. You just fell like one of those flying squirrel posers. You didn't even fall in style."
Perseus tossed me aside like a broken toy, strolling upwards. Rubble shifted around us, crude steps rising to meet him, the sinister green pools coalescing and streaming together, fat droplets defying gravity as they trickled skywards.
An ichor stained gaze surveyed the street with unabashed glee, Perseus giggling as the air crackled and dimmed in his wake. His touch had left a raw echo, an inescapable drain leeching until there was nothing left to feel. The grip on my sword never wavered for a second, even as I trembled and shook, his sickness overbearing.
Percy's ADD decided it was time to shine- Perseus' attention was abruptly lost in a world he was suddenly a part of. Questions of how and why weren't important, our window of escape was closing fast.
Dead silence worked to my advantage for once. Perseus forsaken magic muted my shuffle to the van, even dampening the shattering of the windshield. My voice was gone when I shook Cecil, never letting my monster out of sight, willing Will to show his stupidly right face already.
Cecil and Lou were stirring, Cec's temple bloody as he groped my arm, soundlessly begging for help. I squeezed in, stiffening when a weak shadow twisted at my desperation. This was the edge of the bubble. Adrenaline beat my head in as I slid over shattered glass to the other side of the van, holding Cecil and Lou tight, angling a foot to poke the passed out Clovis.
Wonderful, beautiful magic swept through us and we all tumbled into the darkness. I'd come back for Will once I was sure these three were safe, we'd come up with a plan for Perseus. Somehow. The shadows blossomed, I could see the light of a warm, welcoming streetlamp, empty darkness waiting to shield us in the night.
"Yoink!"
Perseus grabbed the back of my shirt through the shadows, doing exactly that. I lost my grip on my friends, watching them spill out onto the pavement while I was dragged back into unfamiliar blackness. I was drowning in overwhelming Percyness, fighting tooth and nail out and upwards, chocking on cursed blood.
With an overdramatic flourish, he lifted me out of his own shadow like a rabbit from a hat, spinning me around in a macabre dance through the levelled street.
"Don't go running off angel, you'll hurt my feelings. More that you already did. And nobody wants that, do they? Besides, can't let you fly away after taking me this far! You and I are going to go find Percy and bring this world to its knees."
I was going to have to just say no, a big hell to the no. I voiced my concerns with a definitive stab to the heart. Perseus twisted out of the way with ease, dropping me to the cold stone with a coy smile as I braced myself on the blade.
"Aww- is wittle Nico upset? You're adorable angel. I can see why he loves your temper tantrums."
I swung fast and hard, kicking out at the same moment. Perseus slid away, swaying out of range with his arms behind his back, patient and happy as a clam. It wasn't a good sign. Percy won our fights. There were hundreds of times I'd floored him, but head on Percy almost always won in the end. Perseus had none of his restraint and all of the motive needed to murder me and every other living being without a second thought, this fight was over before he even showed up.
What else was I supposed to do? His fixation on me was the only thing keeping a true monster from rampaging. And once I was down… All these years waster building a future, one I'd thrown away on a stupid urge. How were we supposed to come back from this?
yOu DOn't.
My mind went blank and I rushed him, swinging wildly, always one step behind and Perseus always a hairs breath away, literally dancing and skipping about. I cornered him against a pulverized doorframe, lunging fast.
Nimble fingers moved impossibly fast, Perseus tugging my sword over his shoulder between his index and middle finger, his other hand at my throat, pulling me close enough that we were breathing the same air, shimmering dangerously.
"I came out for a good time and honestly I feel so attacked right now. You're lucky you're so cute." Perseus purred, grip tightening for a moment before he gently pushed away, sending me sprawling. "You hurt me angel. And I NEeD to hurt you now."
He was suddenly close, close enough to curdle my blood and have me chocking on my own breath, every cell dying at once.
"You lied to me, ERaSEd me. Tried at least. Talk about an epic fail."
He traced my cheek, lingering on my lip, my invisible scar flaring up at his touch. I bit at his fingers and he giggled, smacking me to the ground, head cracking against asphalt hard enough to stars.
"I got lucky. You rushed your little scheme, never specified which Tartarus you were sending me to be erased in. I popped back to mine- what's left of it. Had just enough to come back- even wasted the last bit of what I had to make a body. Just for you."
He rolled his eyes at my feeble stab at his kidney, flicking it away with a bored demeanor. The wrong Tartarus- he got lucky… Cruel hope kept my heart beating as he loomed over me. All I had to do was trick the insane Godkiller who would never fall for the same trick twice, recreate an equally insane and perfection demanding ritual, actually fighting said Godkiller this time around, and figure out how the hell to distinguish between our Tartarus and another so we could properly erase this monster once and for all.
In about five minutes or less.
Brilliant sunlight burned into existence down the street, bleeding the dark out of the night sky. Perseus grinned, sitting up enough for me to spot Will at the edge of the bubble, a fiery arrow as bright as the sun notched in his bow.
My monster laughed hysterically, pumping his chest and throwing his opening in welcome as Will took aim.
"You two are adorable," Perseus chuckled, wining at my best friend as the dead silence reached a crescendo. "Hit me with your best shot sunshine!"
Instinct screamed to roll out of range. Will's Sunshot was a gift from Apollo, a trump card delivered by the sun itself, our medics last resort when the demons got to tough, burning all to ash. And as powerful as it was, I knew without a doubt it couldn't even singe Perseus.
Being right never felt so bad or so cold. The bow sang, and the street flooded with light as it sailed straight and true, zeroing square between his eyes. That gorgeous Sunshot flared angrily as it popped the bubble, that light flaring crimson, the arrow sputtering out and flopping to the ground a good twenty feet away, useless and spent. Wills face was hard and stoic, bewilderment refusing to break his fearless façade as he notched another arrow.
"What even are you?" His voice carried eerily, echoing forever and never.
Perseus' tattoos flared, sea green starting to stream upwards in torrents, a terrible pool forming high above.
"I am very, VeRY crazy, and very sure NO oNE can ever stop me sunshine. So bring-" He paused when I failed to shish kebab his lower intestines, shooting me a pitying gaze that quickly turned playful. "When we're done angel, you're gong to be begging me to kill him. Until then, let's have some fun!"
He snagged my leg and flung me at Will, my best friend to surprised to dodge. Will, for all his respect for my personal bubble, loved to glomp me out of nowhere, a bad trait he shared with Percy. This was kind of like that-if Will had been chucked out of a catapult.
We smacked across the frozen asphalt, the road tearing my pants and rubbing long strips of flesh raw. I didn't have the luxury of pain, we were outside of the dead zone, I could feel the shadows and whisked us away.
Our escape didn't last long. The shadows spasmed behind us, Perseus was closing in. A look back into the blackness showed those sea green sigils clawing closer, faster than we were dropping. We'd never make a full trip, had to drop out now. I let go of the darkness, tumbling onto a roof six buildings up.
"I need any other Sunshot's you have, I'm gonna drop you off and you need to make this fast, don't let him catch you-" Damnit, Perseus had melted into existence behind us, the used up arrow aimed squarely at Will's head.
With not a second to spare I shoved the ritual page into Will's fist, sinking him into the shadows and taking his place as Perseus caught me. The arrow stopped a millimeter from my jugular as I attacked hard and fast, using the dirtiest tactic I had left, begging the Fates that it would distract him from Will.
Perseus laughed in the face of death- he'd probably killed Thanatos himself, and every other Death out there. Laughing in my face was different; probably because I went for his lips instead of his soul. His skin was harder than steel and kissing this new form was like kissing a black hole. The weak feeling that spread to my knees was worth my agony, he recoiled, the glow fading into his eyes as he stepped back, giving me enough time to slip into the shadows.
He caught me halfway in, blackness morphing into waves as we flew out of melted snow, Perseus growling as he launched me against a wall.
"yOu Don'T gET to Do THaT!" The air was suddenly thinner life and Mist leeching out of the air in his fury.
Snow melted and bumbled in an instant, the earth rumbling as he stomped over, wrenching me up by my hair. An undead rat screeched at him, leaping from my shirt to defend its king only for him to crush it into sea foam, freezing the shadows when I summoned them.
Words failed him as he finally let out a roar, turning and hurling me as hard as he could at the opposing wall. It was a short flight- one moment I was dangling in his grasp, the next the city was a blur as I reached lightspeed. Luckily my tombstone wasn't about to read 'Wall related death.'
In that same second, he had caught me again, angrily letting me flop to the ground as he tried to calm down. I breathed hard, body shaking, glancing into the shadows, hoping Will was on track. I hadn't managed to snag a Sunshot, but I doubted even that distraction would do us much good.
I slipped into my own shadow, Perseus reaching in after me only to stop, that angry smile turning towards a nearby street, the sound of sirens clear in the air. I couldn't hear his words, but I felt a wave of nausea hit, the antithesis of a godly aura flaring up around him as he leveled his arm towards the city.
The shadows shook as the street was torn apart, fissures ripping open, waves pouring upwards, melting solid stone and steel, a hurricane roaring into existence, threatening to raze all of Brooklyn. Hiding wasn't an option. In the end something had to take the brunt of his wrath, and if it wasn't me, this city would burn.
Perseus didn't laugh when I shot out of the shadows, a flurry of rocky spires cracking up, shadows exploding up, and a small army of undead pets rushing for his ankles. He was untouchable as I blinked around the street, throwing everything I had at him, appearing close for swipes before dancing away, going for every possible angle, praying he wouldn't be able to keep up.
It turns out he didn't need to. He killed his own apocalypse with a frown, cracking his neck slowly before he struck like a snake. I was still in the air, sword raised only an inch behind him when he caught me by the throat, holding me high off the ground. Fight or flight beat common sense and I dropped my sword, clutching at his fingers, my to bored and angry to meat my gaze as I chocked in his hand.
Perseus was lit up like a menacing Christmas tree, brutal wind starting to gust by, that sea green pool above infecting the clouds and blanketing the sky. "mAybE Percy WouLD aPpReciaTE a ReAl AnGel… noT a BacKstaBBinG rUnT. Easy FiX. He'LL loVe IT. hE'Ll LOvE Us."
There wasn't any point to fighting him off as he tossed me to the ground, I didn't have the breath to even try. He ran his hands through my hair before they found a grip on either side of my head. I tried to spit in his face as he leaned close, but my mouth went dry, Perseus' fingers burrowing into my skull like it was swiss cheese.
Sea green engulfed my vision, burning under my flesh like a livewire. Oh gods, Percy's evil clone was going to kill me, this was literally right out of one of my nightmares. Percy! My eyes were squeezed shut but I could still see my killer as he melted my brains, growling over my soon to be corpse.
My heart hurt, and for a split second, that perverted color turned warm and the tattoos faded, a terrified Percy flickering over Perseus. He howled and stomped away, buildings crumbling around us, screaming so loud I was sure the whole world could hear/
"PErCy?"
I wheezed for breath, watching silently as Perseus spun around, desperation creeping into his voice as he called for a boy we both knew was long gone.
"whY wOn'T HE leT Me KilL yOU? AlL theSE meMoRiEs… Your future…" My monster was back suddenly, reaching into my shadow greedily. "Our future. All those spoilers… I saw your head, I know what you're up to. Now we'll see!"
"No! You can't-" My protests were silenced as his hand choked me once more, seemingly taking comfort in the fact that even though he apparently couldn't kill me, he could still very much hurt me.
With a vicious tug, his hand emerged with my journal, waggling it in triumph.
"I can do anything Nico. You saw the future, you saw all kinds of tricks, you were scheming against us. But not anymore, you can't stop me. I can kill gods, I can burn worlds, I can…" He paused frowning as he flipped through the pages, scrunching his brow, an irritated frown slowly forming. "I apparently can't read your handwriting. What kind of chicken scratch is this?"
Laughing probably wasn't the best idea- three broken ribs decided to announce themselves as I choked out the sounds, but it felt good knowing he was thwarted by my bad handwriting. All his curses and magic didn't matter as long as he didn't know what was coming, as long as he couldn't stop it.
"Read it or I will kill EVeRyONe." Perseus promised, relaxing just a tad off my throat, nails tracing blood.
My silence wasn't the answer he was hoping for. The world flashed sea green and I screamed again, the sound cut off into a gurgle as sea green liquid filled my lungs and heart, images and memories swirling by in my head, Perseus digging around in my head, ripping apart my brain piece by piece.
There was Odyssey Cove and Kronos, Jason and Annabeth had just shown up- No!
I was perched on the edge of the roof, shrouded in shadows. The wind was cold and sharp, biting at any scrap of skin it could find, whipping its fingers through my dark mane. I pulled my aviator jacket closer, glaring across the street, waiting. He had gone in there a little while ago with his blonde lackey at his side.
There had been crashes and explosions, an earsplitting boom, followed by a sharp tug in my gut as something dark and Underwordly occurred in the depths. The pawn shop had collapsed in on itself, but I knew that wouldn't stop him from coming back. Almost on cue, I saw movement in the rubble.
I leaned forward, ignoring the dizzying drop below, watching as the blonde pushed open a door to the now exposed basement, moving debris out of the way and struggling to make it to the surface. He was right behind him. I heard them laugh before the blonde whined, yelling nonsense about lost gold, earning laughter from my nemesis. Percy's head twisted a full 180, a confused look watching me in confusion.
"Nico?"
Perseus tattoos writhed across his skin and onto mine, glowing scars opening up, stitching me apart. A hurricane had overwhelmed Brooklyn, there was no escaping the light, he was everywhere, it was all over.
Another familiar tug came to my stomach and I jerked up, readying myself in case it was the same beast from earlier. The club was full of monsters, but all of them were just dancing and partying along with the others, it was all the same. I took a few hesitant steps towards the crowd, carefully scanning it all.
The tug in my gut pulled harder, and I followed it, eyes catching onto a blonde girl with gray eyes in the corner. She was sitting in a high-backed chair, talking animatedly with someone else, someone obscured by their own chair. Ignoring the possibility of being seen I let the shadows move me, reappearing on the other side of the room and turning back.
It was Percy.
Of course, it was. He was always here. He always came back to haunt me one way or another. He laughed at something the girl had said, shaking his head before his eyes suddenly found mine through the crowd. His smile melted away, a sad, worried look coming to his face.
Good, he should be worried.
But the more I stared at him, the more I thought about what I had found out about him, a horrible truth started coming to mind. He wasn't worried about what I'd do to him. He wasn't worried about the unfathomable tortures I was going to put him through for what he'd done to me. He was worried about me.
I angrily stomped away, the crowded party around me, heading for the door. Percy Jackson was a monster. He didn't worry about people because that's not what monsters did. Nothing could change what he was.
But then he caught me, Percy spinning me around, looking panicked. "Nico, what's happening? Nico!"
Clarity was coming back to me, the hurricane was blowing, but I was calm, in the eye. Perseus didn't matter anymore, he was lost in the future, seeing things he was never meant to see. Things that I shouldn't have messed with, a new path we had carved out of fear and hate.
People don't tend to look up if they're worried they'll be followed, and he was no different.
He sprinted out of town and down the road, heading into the woods. I went ahead of him, reforming in the shade of the trees, careful to stay out of sight. Where was he going?
He kept running for a good five minutes, finally slowing down and coming to a stop in the middle of an overgrown glade. Even at that breakneck pace he wasn't even breathing hard, looking entirely at ease as he stood there, silent and waiting.
I peered through the shadows, making sure to stay well out of sight. Was this some kind of rendezvous with some of the other, lower monsters?
"Is this far enough for you Nico?"
My heart stopped beating and my breath caught in my throat. No way, he couldn't know I was here, he had never even had me in his range. I held my breath and crouched low.
He turned around, eyes searching the shadows around the glade and I relaxed a little. He didn't know where I was. But he did know I was here.
"I need to talk to you," He pleaded, still searching "And I need you to listen."
Like hell was I going to do that! He must be crazy. I had nothing to say to the monster that had destroyed everything I ever cared about.
"Fight back, you can't let him win! We can do this together, but you have to fight back!"
Percy? Is that you?
"What's got into you girl?"
There wasn't anyone out here. I sent a pulse through the shadows, nothing moved aside of the leaves in the trees; there wasn't a living soul within a good mile. Mrs. O'Leary growled again, ignoring me as I stroked her mane, soothing her as best as I could.
I tried to smile into her ruby eyes, breath catching when I saw the golden light reflected in them. When I turned around this time, there was definitely something there. A pair of glowing, golden eyes hovered in the darkness, boring straight into me.
Gold turned green, Percy tackling me out of the shadows and back into the streets of Brooklyn where I could see myself on the ground, Perseus straddling my chest, about do destroy everything we had ever built.
Perseus couldn't move, he was trapped in a future that wouldn't exist, a thread about to be snipped. My head was working again, I could breath, raised my lead heavy arms up to his head, reaching for the face of my corrupted love.
Percy spun on me, I flinched, ready for a punch… Percy hugged me tight, holding me with no intention of ever letting go. He was shaking hard, I didn't know what to do, the dream was blurring around us, pushing Percy and I together until I wasn't sure who was who.
When he spoke, I wasn't sure if it was with my lips or his, we were one ruined disaster of a boy now.
"Don't leave me alone with this."
We were falling, together, one body, one mind, one soul, twin memories blurring together, out of focus and wrong. Black met sea green, overlapping, promising something it had never promised before, and sea green accepted, two becoming one in all the wrong places. Until…
"Together." We said as one, Percy helping lift my arms as I clasped Perseus face.
The boy let out a strangled gasp, falling off my chest, convulsing as the glow drained from his eyes, our hands never leaving his face. He tried to push us off but Percy was in my soul, we were stronger than he could ever be, billowing color and sound back into the world, Perseus starting to flicker in and out of existence.
He desperately shook his head, hugging us tight, begging over and over again. "i SeE iT! I CAn HElP i DiDn't REAliZe- NIcO PlEASe, NoT Again! PeRCY I Don'T WannA gO!"
Percy wasn't with me anymore, Perseus' grip cracked my shoulder and added five more broken ribs to the list, but then his arm went right through me, and Perseus evaporated in a shower of droplets, nothing but droplets in the snow.
I collapsed into the snow, miserable inside and out, weakly smiling at the quickly freezing droplets, my hand reaching for my heart. Percy… I'd felt him. My Percy, the real one. We'd done it. Hadn't we? The sea green pool still hung menacingly in the sky, but there wasn't a trace of Perseus anywhere.
Hardly deleted though- I felt him with Percy, racing against his soul like a fly caught in a jar. Not a comforting though, knowing that Percy was trapped with that psycho now. But he was gone. No more Godkiller's running free threatening to bring the world to its knees. Only a couple of destroyed city blocks and an ominous floating bubble. We could work with that. We still had a future.
We… Oh right we! Was a lot easier to have a 'we' when I actually had a team. Will was probably back at what remained of the Blue Lodge, and I was pretty sure I knew where left the others. I'd get them- nope, my broken bones decided that Will was first, I needed my medic.
Only, he wasn't at Blue Lodge. I frowned as I popped out there, an undead dog emerging to help me hobble around, whining quietly as we surveyed the damage. There wasn't a soul in sight, or a sound. It was starting to get on my nerves actually. Dead silence would have been more comforting- it was Perseus trademark, I knew that kind of quiet.
This... this quiet felt different. The sounds of the night were all there, only tame. Sleepier. All the explosions and waves should have warranted some emergency service- where were the sirens from earlier? We needed ambulances and cops, at least the mortals did.
My zombie friend growled and I turned my head, spotting a familiar leotard sporting woman crouched on the steps of a nearby apartment. I readied my sword, hating that I couldn't hide the wobble in my stance. Not that I needed to. Bast made no move, just stayed crouched there, eyes shut, and… purring? I risked a few steps forward, realizing that she was leaning against a pole, fast asleep. Sadie was on the other side of the stairwell along with her brother-Walt. A few other magicians were there as well, all out cold, snoozing the disaster away.
A familiar pink blanket caught my eye and I gasped when I saw Clovis in their sleepy pig pile, the rest of the gang hidden just out of sight as well. Egyptians and Greeks side by side- wait, their magic was in the air, feeling fresher than the scars Perseus had forged. What could they have been fighting, Will would have surrendered, they would have asked for help.
Unless…
Oh gods, Morpheus! My dog barked once before collapsing at my side, my only warning. The shadowless god was right behind me, I spun on the taller being, slashing up. My sword stabbed into his coat, sinking to the hilt but never coming out the other side, caught in a void as the shifting god splashed something in my face.
I recoiled, confusion hitting my head like a runaway train. What in the… He gently helped me to my knees, patting my shoulder and reaching into my shadow, emerging with the journal that…. That um… the boy? The boy with the eyes the color of… I couldn't remember the color, it was carved into my heart but I couldn't see it anymore, everything was fuzzy.
"You have been busy child. Such a disaster. Fret not, the Lethe will undo your mistakes."
Lethe? Oh gods that water! He was wiping my mind! I tried to hold on, to remember every detail, focusing on Percy and Will, putting the pieces together as fast as they were falling away. In the corner of my eye I watched as Morpheus burned my journal, letting the charred remains fall to my feet, wiping his hands clean as he studied my face.
He raised my chin so that he could meet my gaze, voice chiding and slow. "The Fates design is unquestionable. If Olympus had heard of your heresy, they would have destroyed you, and sent Hades to war. I know not what demon you summoned here, and no other shall. I shall bring you to the underworld- you will be unable to cause more harm there."
No! I needed to stay up here, I had to get sent to Odyssey Cove to be with Percy and stop Kronos! I had to remember the plan, we were going to save everyone from what came after! After… I couldn't remember what happened next anymore, I couldn't remember most of Odyssey Cove either.
Morpheus had fixed the street- Mist was running rampant, buildings repaired, empty and missing tenants who wouldn't be coming back. Why wouldn't they be coming back? Did I know them? That person- a boy or a girl I couldn't remember-had done something, they were important.
That glowing light in the sky, that was the color of their eyes though. That sea green color cut through the haze like butter, my sleepy brain jolting, an echo in the mirror whispering in the back of my empty mind.
I CAn HElP.
No… no that didn't feel right. I knew that voice, it was a voice that sent shivers down my spine and pangs through my heart. I trusted that voice with my life, but it was wrong. Wasn't it? I couldn't remember anymore, Morpheus was back, pulling out a small vial of Lethe, whispering about damage and resistance.
ReMEmBER mE. The voice changed, just enough that I couldn't ignore it anymore now. We can do this together, but you have to fight back!
A trick. I shouldn't trust them; my skin was crawling. I was scared though, more scared of Morpheus, scared of losing something. And so, I did the only thing I could. I said yes.
Morpheus frowned as I raised my arm slowly to the sky, enough clarity shooting through to realize my mistake a second to late. The bubble high above popped, the sea green vanishing in the night, not a trace of it to be seen. I could feel it though, even as my eyelids drooped and I yawned, even as Morpheus screamed, a horrific crunching sound bleeding through the night.
A ghost of a touch shook me awake- I opened my eyes, expecting the god. Instead I found a boy, splattered with gold, a dissolving body in his wake. He was fading, or I was sleeping, I wasn't sure which, he couldn't keep me upright. Hate spilled through me though, his words hammering into my head.
YoU WiLL RemEMbeR Me. WE arEN'T DoNE dI AnGelo. We'Re ONThE SaMe Side. I SEE ThAT noW. yOU aRE Mine.
This time I wouldn't listen to that voice, I remembered the name, two names. I had a mission and no matter what happened, what I forgot, in that moment of clarity I burned those thoughts into my head. He wasn't going to win, I'd remember the truth in his lies.
My mind faded out and I chanted to myself, repeating the words over and over and over as the world faded and I lost everything, sea green spinning behind my eyelids as it all fell away.
I was going to kill Perseus and save the world. I was going to save Percy Jackson no matter what.
I was going to kill Perseus and save the world. I was going to save Percy no matter what.
I was going to kill Perseus and the world. Was going to save Percy no matter what.
I was going to kill Perseus and. To save Percy no matter what.
I was going to kill Perseus. Save Percy no matter.
I was going to kill Percy.
Ψ-X-x-X-x-ψ-Ω-ψ-x-X-x-X-Ψ
Odyssey Cove wasn't the best place to plan revenge. It was small and on the coast- Percy Jackson would have every advantage when he hunted me down to finish the job. I hated it here- hated being with my aunt and living in a shack, living with all these idiots.
Hazel was the only good part of all this, and even she was out of the loop. I didn't want to get close. She'd be the first victim if Percy knew she was family.
So, I stayed distant. Tamed a hellhound, converted an abandoned barn in the woods into a base. Tried and failed to talk to my sister. All I had left from school was that burnt journal and Ouija board, my monster had taken everything else from me. And I would make him pay for it. Even if thinking that hurt for some reason.
Feeling skeletal butterflies when I saw his stupid picture and crying when I though about him was just stupid teenage stuff. Hormones, whatever. It didn't matter. I had a mission, justice had to be served no matter what, because I had lost everything, and there was only one way to settle the score.
Odyssey Cove wasn't the best place to plan revenge. But when he came- and I know he would- I'd be ready. No matter how much time it takes or how much it hurts, how much I want to be with Hazel and make friends, to stop up this empty space echoing in my heart, I will finish this. Because I'm ready.
And when he comes for me, I'm swear on Styx that I will kill Percy Jackson.
Barely made it on time, enjoy! Also, the Kill/Save thing was supposed to look way cool and merge, but Fanfiction said no to that, if you want to see what I mean check up the awesome version on Archive of Our Own. Thanks!