Percy settled into his jet black Lamborghini, the car was already part way within the shadows, his presence allowed the car to bathe in them. The cold edges traced over the edge, to an onlooker it probably looked like a mist, an illusion. Percy was silent. His eyes shut as he thought about what he was doing and where he was.
He had managed to find himself on the quest for Artemis. He knew the prophecy referred to him, and it seemed the fates were intent on carrying it out, The son of Pluto included. He quickly reached into the shadows, and pulled out a piece of black paper. The gold writing on it told him of the current affairs of the underworld.
He had been tracking down escaped souls, from his fields of punishment; his pitiful luck meant they were spartoi, and he also landed with Zoe's quest. He scanned the document, soaking up every detail, major and minor.
Elysium was never a problem, it turns out that people don't really want to escape from paradise after death. There was a few cases of mindless souls wandering out of asphodel, which had to be enforced, those who had done no major good or evil in their lives stayed there, not deserving Elysium but undeserving of the eternal punishment he oversaw.
He looked over the routine sheet. Nyx's hellhounds had arrived, and he silently thanked her for her assistance. The shadows that be bathed in seemed to glide along his skin. A cold invisible finger seemed to trace his jawline, and he shivered at the feeling. He heard distant and faint laughter, The primordial laughed at his situation and he cursed himself for letting his guard down. It was moments like those that got people attached to others, attachment was a weakness; one that he knew the fallout of all to well.
'that's the problem with teams. If you don't win together, you die together.' The mantra rattled around in his head. Solo was always better. Watch your own back, don't trust another to do the task for you, they'll only fail you.
He turned his attention back to the document, and revised the patrols and security he had on the fields. Routine patrols of skeletons accompanied by one or two hell hounds typically made up the standard patrol, keeping the trapped souls within their eternal punishment. The fact that the spartoi escaped worried him. His father had almost for sure noticed, and wouldn't hesitate to remind him of his failures.
He steeled his resolve and began making intricate notes on new patrols and a new emergency response force to tend to any attempted breakouts, rather than ear the patrols away and create more openings for more of the eternally damned to escape.
Just as he finished his notes and threw the document back into the shadows he felt a god flash in. More accurately, Apollo. The god let of a glow similar to a glowstick, and Percy privately thought if Apollo's kids bone's glowed when they snapped. He smirked and looked at the god. The almost abundant light shooing most of the comfort of the shadows away and making his skin itch and become irritated at the lack of the cold embrace of his father's domain.
The god smiled, almost blinding the demigod with his ungodly white teeth. "Why are you here Apollo." Percy asked neutrally. He had no positive or negative opinion on the god, so stayed neutral in belief and tone.
"Checking in on the quest to save my 'lil 'sis." He answered nonchalantly. Percy scowled. "what? I am!" he replied at the look.
"Sunwest railways." Percy said skeptically, "Isn't Zeus going to realise that you're helping us? I seem to remember a firm belief of non-interference." Percy shot back.
Apollo nodded but replied, "Well, I'm sure you would be as involved as possible if you wanted to get your sister back."
The god didn't miss the way the boy flinched and broke of eye contact with him, he could see around and get a small glimpse of his eyes of the reflected in his wing mirror, and was inwardly surprised to see the a weak and vulnerable look within the void orbs, the gold no longer visible. Apollo was a bit suspicious of the reaction, and reached out into the demigod's mind.
Percy felt the mental invasion, and realised what was happening. He tensed immeidialty, his back rigid, eyes looking straight ahead, sheer desperation within them. He hastily tried to throw up some form of mental barrier, but felt them being pried apart by the sun god. A splitting headache manifested itself suddenly, and Percy tried everything to throw the sun god out of his mind.
Sweat dripped down his brow, he was shaking. Apollo's mental invasion seemed to be prying apart his very being, and he curled up into himself to try and keep his sanity. He knew what a mental invasion could do to somebody. His head pounded, as if tendrils of light seemed to be roaming over his brain, prodding at everything, leaving no memory unturned, his eyes watered as it stepped up a level, he was shaking badly now, and Apollo seemed to be unaware, focused on scouring over his every waking moment he had stored within his skull.
Suddenly, it stopped, the god pulled away, seemingly satisfied with his search results. "So, Bea." Was all Apollo said.
Percy grit his teeth. The god had the audacity to invade his brain despite his protests, though being a god, he probably had a warped sense of consent, he thought. The immortal then had the nerve to begin to pry further by interrogating him about his dead sister, a topic he held very close to his heart.
"Dead." Was all Percy replied, unwilling to reopen locked away feelings of guilt, remorse and self loathing for his sister's death.
"I gathered." Was Apollo's response. Percy almost let out a wolf's snarl, a souvenir of his training with Lupa. "Tell me about her." The god all but demanded.
Percy gave in, digging up the buried and locked away thoughts about his big sister. "She was always there. Always." He began, trying to stop his eyes from misting over with years worth of unshed tears. "No matter the time or problem, she was ready to listen and help." He continued. "She cared for me when mum wasn't around; Breakfast Lunch or Dinner, and never raised a fuss." Percy was crying now, no matter how much he denied it, tears slowly made their way down his face.
"She was always happy, blissfully ignorant to the godly world. She never got overly angry, and always but up with me." Percy held his head in his hands, "She was the happiest until Zeus found us." His voice began to seep with malice over the horribly vivid memory. His scar buzzed, it having faded from a malignant red to almost black.
He turned to look Apollo in the eyes, Anger was within him now; The shadows grew heavy and dimmed the god's glowing skin. "Do you know what it's like, to hold your dying sister in your arms after a godly murder attempt?" He asked. Apollo's brow creased, and he broke the eye contact between the two. Percy knew the god had no such experience, and cursed out the god internally for making him relive such a horrible moment.
The god vanished with his newly acquired information, and Percy bristled at the brazenness of him. He quickly wiped himself of emotion and melted back into the cold and heartless embrace of the shadows.
He sat their for a few minutes before he caught movement out the windshield. Zoe was leaving her car with Bianca, and walking off towards the other questers; seeing his opportunity, he melted into the shadows and emerged in the seat behind her.
"Bianca." The girl yelped in fright, not having noticed his entrance.
She whirled on him, "How long have you been there?" She asked, what seemed to be nervously.
"Just got here." He replied coolly. "How are you." he asked, willing to make conversation for once.
she sighed in response. "I don't feel ready for this."
Percy understood her perspective, being coerced into being onto a quest despite being very fresh to the godly world. "We'll be fine." He tried to reassure her, but even he could pick up the doubt laced into his own voice.
"Your my brother right?" She asked. He nodded. "have you ever had any siblings?"
Frankly, Percy didn't want to have this discussion again, so soon. "Once." He said a lost manner, his tone had enough force to hint not to pry, which he was thankful that his sister caught onto.
They talked about lots of other topics before Zoe returned, at which he made a silent retreat back into the shadows.
-FM-
Sephie had noticed the change in Percy's behavior, and it seemed that Zoe had too. He was more cold callous than she could remember him being, becoming the sentinel of the group. The group had walked in near silence towards Cloudcroft, new Mexico. Zoe stopped and frowned, shooting a suspicious glance at the only boy in the group.
"How did we make it this far in one night?" She basically demanded, resting her hand on her knife for good measure.
Percy didn't flinch and only replied with a one word answer. "Apollo."
Zoe seemed to understand, and didn't pursue the train of thought any longer.
They walked on until a rustle of bushes caught their attention. Sensing the incoming danger, Percy held out his hand and a black spear was ejected from a shadow and into his waiting hand, the other shadows slithering along the floor and encasing him, leaving him in a set of stygian iron hoplite armour, accented by gold lining, the horsehair plume on his helmet was the same shade as the flecks within his eyes, and he cast an intimidating stature.
Five spartoi emerged from the bushes, their hollow eye sockets locking on the questers, who sprung into a ready stance. Sephie withdrew her sword, a celestial bronze Xiphos, and placed herself on his right, while Thalia withdrew aegis and her own spear, taking up a position on his left. Zoe and Bianca were behind them, bows taut.
The first skeleton charged, and Percy thrust forwards to meet it. Ordinarily, an undead soul would be easy to takedown, having not been used to the new mortal world and their restored bodies. Spartoi however had no such problem, and with their souls being from punishment, they set their eyes on the Duke of such.
He batted away the firsts' swing, and allowed it's momentum to carry it forward into a fight with Thalia, leaving Sephie to charge the second. The two hunters began loosing their arrows at another two, leaving one to fight the son of Pluto. The fight was intense, the souls not willing to be returned to his care fought hard, tooth and nail, but it was no match for them against Percy in a one-on-one duel.
He pulled back and ducked a wild horizontal swing from the spartoi, it had overextended, and allowed it's right arm to wrap all the way around it's left side. Seizing the opportunity, Percy plunged his spear into the revealed spine of the soul hosting abomination, and let it disintegrate into ash.
The others were fairing well, holding their own, but Percy could see Bianca beginning to slip. He rushed over and intercepted a blow that would've scored a deep cut into his Greek sister. He placed himself between the combatants, allowing the girl to catch a much need break from the fighting. The Spartoi, seeing their comrade go down and being on the losing side, decided to beat a good retreat, and disappeared from view, allowing the questers to catch their breath.
They turned to see a enormous junkyard, covering miles upon miles of the desert. Only one thing bounced around inside Percy's head:
one shall be lost in the land without rain.
AN
-Sorry for taking a while, i've been getting a bit of writers block recently with this story, and have completely no idea on the route i want to take Perseus, - eldest of kronos in. im waiting for alot of inspiration for that project, so be assured this is currently my main priority.
-this chapter isn't as long as usual as i wanted to get some more background in to Percy's past. To the person wondering of this is the beginning of the end, Nah.
I tend on having him live well into the HOO timeline, but it's gonna be small as he dosen't play a major role in the whole quest.
chapters may well begin to slow down as school is becoming slightly more intense in the workload being given to students, turns out A-level maths really sucks.
Thanks and stay safe, - Dudududuehhehe