Homecoming
Chapter 9: Alone Among the Crowd
Hands tightly clasped and fingers entwined, Percy and Annabeth walked shoulder to shoulder through the fields of Camp Half-Blood. Despite their feigned, easy pace and forced smiles they affixed to their visage, their eyes roved the familiar setting, glancing over landmarks that had once brought joy or comfort, yet were now looked upon with a bored sense of reserved disinterest.
They made no secret that they had intended never to return to this location, too many memories, too many lost and buried friends that only added to their present state of mind, anxieties and stresses they continually suffered. Overcoming the trauma of Tartarus was a daily hazard for the pair of demigod heroes, yet more and more they became besieged by memories that would trigger a panic attack or nightmare, and Camp Half-Blood was saturated with such memories.
While at home, they had been ever cautious to hide this fact from Sally and Paul, but the nightmares, while decreasing in frequency, were becoming more intense. Memories of their quests, the wars, the deaths they had witnessed would crash upon in the still of the night, crippling them with fear that buried them deeper. The only reprieve was the infrequency of the occurrences. The normal nightmare may hit two or three times a week, but the intensity of the night terrors would visit them only in sparse moments, once or twice a month, leaving them catatonic or paralyzed until the surge of their terrors would subside.
The antithesis however, was that the panic did not always arrive at night. Some moments they could be watching television and be hit with a sudden fear that they were in the pit once again. Other times, they may be having a playful banter when their bodies would become frantic or rigid, eyes wide as if witnessing the world beyond the visible vale. These panic attacks were generally unprovoked, and the hardest part was that there was no rhyme or pattern to how or why they would be triggered. Even talking through the ordeal did little to halt their arrival, which led Percy and Annabeth to spend much of their time in their room, lest an attack alert Sally and Paul how fragile their minds still were.
The rings Percy had had made were a great counter to the fear however. Simply uttering the word 'home' to initiate Hestia's blessing would help guide their minds from the grip of terror, leading them back, emotionally and mentally, to the one who mattered most in this world. That however, did not stop the tears, guilt and shame at having fallen apart and succumbing to the horrors that plagued their minds, and despite all the reassurances from each other, there was still an ever-growing hopelessness that they would never get out from under the weight of all their pain.
And so here they were, back in a location they neither wanted nor desired to ever return to. Their minds were continually drawn to specific points among the campgrounds, inciting memories better left abandoned. The creek that ran through the woods, the spot where Percy had been mauled by the hellhound during his first capture the flag game, or even the site along that same creek where Luke had summoned the pit scorpion that nearly led to his death.
For Annabeth, Thalia's tree was an unsettling focus of reflection, the point where she had to watch her protector and guardian...her sister...give her life under the flood of monsters that had savaged her. In the worst of times though, her mind would torture her, changing the memory and replacing Thalia with Percy. She would imagine herself standing atop the hill, watching as he fought bravely against the storm of monsters, only to be overwhelmed. She would scream for him, but would feel the arms of Luke pick up her seven-year-old self and drag her across the border, while she was forced to watch the creatures rend his body into bloody chunks. When her visions would subside, she would cling to Percy, it was all she could do to stave off her greatest fear.
Despite the torments or their minds, they arrived to camp to partake in the celebration to be offered, the purpose of which was to honor the councilors who would be attending college in the coming fall, and relinquishing their status of councilor to their cabin mates. It was a passing of the torch to those who would still remain, and while such an event was generally a quiet occurrence, with so many preparing to embark on their lives beyond camp, a celebration was organized. While it was still only early January, it was a slated opportunity to give the older councilors the chance to train and prepare their successors in taking up the mantle of leadership for the camp.
For Percy and Annabeth, they were adamant about not returning. Malcolm had already taken up the position as head of the Athena Cabin after the second Giant War, and Percy had no siblings to take his place, yet the notifications of the ceremony had begun bombarding the pair shortly after Christmas. While Chiron mentioned it only once to them, many of the campers began hounding the pair to visit. Iris Messages, letters and even visits from campers had badgered the pair with repeated demands of their attendance. In the end, the persistent harassment proved too much for the couple, and they finally relented and agreed to attend.
The event however, was little more than ceremony at this point, and both heroes had argued there was no need for their presence, but as senior councilors, it would be a great insult by their peers for them not to be in attendance. Further aggravation of the situation was added when, upon arrival, they learned that neither Leo nor Piper would not participate. Leo had set up shop in Chicago, along with Calypso. As for Piper...no one had heard from her since Jason's funeral. She had abandoned all communication with the demigod world and rejected the world of gods and monsters in an effort to live as a normal teenage girl. Thus, as heroes of the Prophesy of Seven, and senior councilors, the duty had fallen to Percy and Annabeth to be 'masters of ceremony' of the entire event.
This only built on their bitterness. Leo and Piper were permitted to ignore the ceremony, get on with their lives, yet Percy and Annabeth, who had given and sacrificed more than any other demigod, were were dragged back into this place where so many locations could lead to a panic attack. They were not provided the luxury of that courtesy, and the demands upon them made them unexpectedly resentful.
This was made only worse by the younger campers who would look upon them in a state of reverence. They would often come to the pair and ask about their adventures, the monsters they fought, what it was like in the wars. The worst was when they asked about Tartarus. Percy had spoken to Grover about this, and even though he and Annabeth had steeled themselves to the bombardment of questions about their pasts, they were not well-equipped to handle the blatant worship foisted upon them by younger demigods.
At first, they would gently rebuff any inquiries. In time, those rejections became more direct until at last, Annabeth and Percy would simply avoid everyone to escape the constant badgering of their fellow campers. When they would be forced to interact however, conversations would often be concise and direct, and the topics they discussed limited, with either Percy or Annabeth guiding the discussion and leading it away from any potential topic that might trigger a memory or event that would incur and attack.
Many of the older campers, those they knew and grew up with would try, and often fail, to hide their looks of deep seeded concern and even in some cases, pity over the state of mind of the two heroes. It was no secret that they would have long conversations with Chiron of how best to help them, yet the centaur knew, time was the best ally. Distancing themselves from the events, giving them time to rationalize and accept that they had made it out would eventually allow them to crest the hill of their grief.
This message however, did not resonate with the younger demigods. Many of them grew resentful. Having heard so many tales of the feats of Percy and Annabeth, they could not deny they were beginning to feel resentful towards the young couple. This was driven in many of their minds that the distance the pair had placed between themselves and everyone else in camp was not a barrier to safeguard their fragile sense of security, but as arrogance, as though they felt they were above their fellow campers.
Their opinions, did not effect them, at least not outwardly. The whispered gossip and quiet accusation by the younger demigods who attended camp stung the pair bitterly. They had been approached too many times already, eager eyes of younger teens wanting desperately to hear the stories of their exploits. But for Annabeth and Percy were simply not emotionally prepared to retell those moments of near-death terror, especially given how so much of their current lives were spent reliving those tragedies.
This added a new layer to their frustration, because they desperately wanted to enjoy their time at camp. For them, it used to be a safe haven from the chaos of the world, but that was no longer the case. It was a heavy realization for them both of how little joy they found within the world. Christmas had been a reprieve for them, but so much was becoming burdensome. The expectations of everyone around them to simply 'get over it and move on with your lives' hurt beyond words. No one understood what they had dealt with, what they had experienced and endured just so the earth could keep on spinning. The only safety that had from the madness of their lives was each other, and so few people seemed to understand or appreciate that fact.
And so they had spent their time ghosting their way through the camp, avoiding conversations and meetings with so many who wanted to occupy their attention. Often times, campers would attempt to separate the pair, either to have Annabeth teach tactics and strategy or Percy to teach swordsmanship. But the fear of being apart led them to openly reject those requests, until the campers finally stopped asking.
As way of distraction, they would often find their way to the wreckage of the Argo II. It was with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia that guided them to this place. As of yet, the camp had not decided what to do with it. Some argued that scrapping it and harvesting the Celestial Bronze would be the best use of its resources, while the Hephaestus cabin was adamant about repairing or even rebuilding it. Still others believed they should just leave it, let it remain where it lay as a monument to the battle against Gaea and to celebrate and honor the heroes who fought and died in the war. This final option was the least popular as the broken hull of the enormous trireme was a mitigated eyesore.
But for Percy and Annabeth, the Argo II had become their personal hideaway. They would often find themselves venturing into the ship, reliving memories that were not so unpleasant to bear. Mostly, this was time spent in the stables, holding each other and speaking softly to one another, sharing their comfort, warmth and above all, their love, and at night they would crawl into Percy's bed in his cabin aboard the ship. Chiron would not permit them to share a bed in the big house, despite their many pleadings that they could not be apart, so they took it upon themselves to limit their chance of nightmares that would come if they were not together.
The reality of the situation, and what they would only admit to each other, was that they would do it all again, because their lives were simply incomplete without the other half of their heart.
This time however, their journey to the Argo II seemed to be a deeper purpose than in prior days. A reverence of sorts had settled over the pair, and as they approached the Celestial Bronze hull, Percy glided his fingers in silent reverence over the cooled metal frame.
"She was a good ship," he said simply, turning his eyes to Annabeth before continuing, "seems a waste though, doesn't it?" he asked quietly, his voice soft and reserved as he continued to speak, a sad smile that dawned upon his face and held more meaning than the expression relayed. "In the service of the gods you create a weapon for a war and then, when it's all over, cast it aside and forget about it, just ignore it and leave it here to rot and waste away. It's not right."
Annabeth's expression softened as she moved towards her fiance, wrapping her arms around his left arm and hugging it close to her. She knew him well enough to know that no one gave him enough credit for how insightful he really was, and she also knew that he was not talking about the Argo II, but about them. Kissing his shoulder before laying her head against his arm, she whispered, "I'm sorry," her soft response coupled by squeezing his arm in an effort to alleviate his tension. "I shouldn't have agreed to this, shouldn't have let them make me feel guilty and..."
"Hey," Percy smiled as he turned his head towards his precious Wise Girl, "You never need to apologize to me, okay? Maybe in some way this will help, I don't know, give us some closure or something you know? As long as we're together, that's all that matters." He moved his fingers to gently cradle her cheek as he captured her lips in a kiss that was so filled with love that he revealed every emotion that resided within the depths of his heart.
Annabeth's eyes were still closed when he at last pulled away, withdrawing his arm from her grasp to so that he could embrace her fully. Her smile was delicate and full of love as she encircled her arms around his waist, her head resting against his chest. "I know Percy," she said in response to his statement, and her arms tightened in relation to his warmth, bringing him closer to her. "I know you didn't want to come back here...I didn't either, but, I don't know. Maybe I felt some obligation to Chiron, maybe I felt guilty that I was forsaking my duties as head councilor, I'm not sure why I accepted this but..."
Percy shifted his arms as he moved one around her shoulders and the other at the nape of her neck, pulling her close to him while resting his cheek against the cotton soft curls of her hair. "It doesn't matter, we're a team right? Where you go, I go."
"And where you go, I go," Annabeth finished as she tightened her arms around Percy. "I don't know how many times a day I just stop what I'm doing and think how lucky I am to have you. It never ceases to amaze me though, thinking back on our time together, thinking of those silly, naive twelve-year-olds we once were, how simple everything seemed, before we got thrown into the world on our first quest. Sometimes I miss our twelve-year-old selves."
"I know, I miss them too," Percy whispered softly as he kissed the top of Annabeth's head before resting his cheek once more in the cushion of her hair. "That was probably the biggest reason I didn't want to come back, too many memories of all the things that tried to tear us apart. And of course, remembering how blind I was to see how our relationship was changing, and not knowing what to do about it." A chuckle escaped Percy's lips as he considered his next words. "You know, back then, I honestly believe I would have wanted to have fought Kronos one-on-one before ever admitting I had a crush on you."
Pulling back to look at Percy, an expression of incredulous bemusement dancing across her eyes, she pursed her lips as though trying not to laugh. "I wasn't that scary Percy."
"Ha, try telling that to a fourteen-year-old boy. Nothing ever seems as intimidating as telling the girl he likes he has a crush on her. What if she rejected him? What if she did like him, but then, how do you navigate changing a relationship from best friends to girlfriend and boyfriend? Would I ever survive my mom's teasing if we got together, of course, she did tease me mercilessly before we started dating and I survived that, so, yeah, ignore that part."
"You're an adorable dork when you ramble, do you know that?" She smiled up at him her gentle smile so rarely a part of her normally stern and over-calculating expression. This was a smile she reserved solely for him, in these quiet times when cherishing the closeness of their love for one another.
"You may have told me that once or twice," he said, returning the smile as he took a moment to simply relish feeling her body against his, her closeness, the fierce strength in her arms that she had wrapped protectively around his waist, the love he felt radiating from her. Gods, he knew he would spend the rest of his life proving he deserved her. "The only regret I have about any of that is that it took me so long to get the courage to tell you."
"You mean you stumbling over your words, trying to tell me you wanted our relationship to change? Please, if I hadn't taken pity on you, we would have been there half the night while you worked up the courage."
"I would have gotten to it," Percy said, his voice softening as he leaned in to claim Annabeth's lips once more. As Annabeth moved her hands upwards, threading her fingers in his hair and pulling his face closer, a conch horn echoed from the campgrounds, separating the two lovers as Percy frowned in frustration. "What's that for, it's too early for dinner," he said, looking at the position of Apollo in the sky and calculating they still have three hours before evening dinner.
"Damn it," Annabeth muttered under her breath, her face following in the movement of several demigods making their way to the arena. "The combat tournament. Remember, all the retiring senior councilors were to have a tournament? It was one of the things Chiron insisted we participate in."
Percy's body seemed to deflate as he sighed in resigned acceptance before draping his arm over Annabeth's shoulder leading the pair towards the arena. Neither were particularly eager or even willing to make a spectacle of themselves, but there was a sense of guilt within them. As Annabeth had stated, the pair was harassed continually until they had agreed to attend. In many ways, they both hated that they had not spent more time with those they had grown up with, the Stole brothers, Katie, Malcolm, even Clarisse. They had wished they had spent more time with them during their week at camp, but fear of the direction any conversation they had would take them to places that would only draw out the nightmares led the pair to skirt spending any more than a few scant moments with their fellow councilors. For their own part, the other cabin heads seemed to understand and accepted that distance from the camp leaders, wishing to give them space to cope with whatever they were dealing with.
They had known them long enough, and respected them enough to give them space to work through those issues, to which Annabeth and Percy were deeply appreciative of.
So, as they had stood in the arena, the cabin heads who would all be passing leadership to their siblings stood shoulder to shoulder. Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, Travis, Katie, Pollux, Jake, who had taken back leadership after Leo had left, and Drew, who likewise was head of the Aphrodite cabin after Piper's departure, all stood facing the crowd of demigod children who waited to see the spectacle presented to them. A few others, such as Chris Rodriguez would be leaving camp as well, but their numbers were not included within the tournament as it would throw off the bracket.
"I feel like a goldfish in a bowl," Percy whispered as he leaned in to speak to Annabeth, who merely drew her lips together and nodded in understanding.
As the bracket was set, the first round competition was between Pollux and Drew. Despite her advantage with charmspeak, Pollux was able to counter as, being the son of Dionysus, god of wine and madness, he was able to use his powers to prevent the manipulation of her words long enough to score the victory. Even with that, Drew had surprised many in attendance as she was a more capable fighter than anyone had known. Still, Pollux was victorious over the daughter of Aphrodite and moved to the next round. Then came Travis and Jake. The fight was quite back and forth, with Jake having the advantage in strength while Travis was more agile. In the end, it came down to a feint that drew Jake into a strike that led to him getting disarmed, with Travis declared the winner.
The next round was one that caused quite a bit of excitement, Clarisse squaring off against Percy. Many of the younger campers in attendance had only heard of the amazing feats of Percy, so to see him in action against the strongest fighter currently at camp was something they had all eagerly wanted to witness. "Pay attention punks," Clarisse had taunted to the crowd as she smiled menacingly at the son of Poseidon, "you might learn something."
The fight began with the standard testing of the others defense. A jab followed by a parry, a slash that would be blocked by the other. They soon began moving in a steady pattern of blows and strikes that were little more than a blur. Arcs of deadly accuracy tore through the air in a beautifully deadly dance of death. Yet no sooner had the rhythm began to reach a pitch than the sword had been dislodged from the combatant and spun from their grip. Clarisse's blade aimed at the throat of the black haired teen. The silence the followed was palpable, and Percy seemed unconcerned that he had been so easily disarmed, his eyes moving from his sword that lay on the ground to Clarisse, as though waiting to see what she would do.
For the daughter of Ares, her eyes flared in anger as she stared at the hero she had begrudgingly come to respect. She wasn't sure if he was playing a joke on her, or had taken her too lightly, but she let the fury pass across her face. But as soon as the expression flared upon her face, it died as she looked into his eyes. Her mind was drawn to the memories two years prior, seeing the tortured expression and pained horrors that had shredded the broken eyes of Chris Rodriguez. She was desperate to save him, to heal his fractured mind when he had returned from the labyrinth. It was that very same broken, shattered expression Chris suffered that was mirrored when her when her eyes locked onto Percy. The understanding of what she was seeing, the shell of the hero before her caused her jaw to tighten as she reigned in her emotions.
She watched Percy's shoulders deflate as he moved from the arena and took his seat next to Annabeth. Clarisse felt angry however, yet she wasn't sure who she was mad at, Percy for falling into Tartarus and coming out a shell of who he had been, the gods for putting him and Annabeth through the lifetime of hell that they suffered, or mad with herself expecting everything would be fine. As she watched Percy return to his seat in the stands, she could not ignore the muttering of the attendees whispering in accusatory disappointment at the display shown by the Hero of Olympus. In response, Clarisse stormed to weapon rack, slammed her sword into its place before kicking the rack over and spilling its contents.
As the next match was preparing to get underway, Clarisse had stormed up to Chiron, and though they were far enough away that words could not be heard, they were obviously in a rather intense discussion. No one had bothered to pay them any attention however, as the final combatants of the first round entered the arena. Annabeth had stood stoically as Katie had stepped forward in challenge. Though she was more than a little nervous to be facing off against the blonde daughter of Athena, she offered a smile of encouragement to her fellow combatant.
As the bell sounded however, Annabeth merely dropped her sword at Katie's feet and turned and left the arena, taking her place at Percy's side. Katie's eyes swam with hurt and confusion, not that she had refused to fight her, but that the action was so unlike Annabeth, that Katie was left unbalanced by the action. Her eyes swiftly swept over the stands, finding Travis and Conner, each a furrowed look of serious concern painting their faces, to Drew, who had even stopped applying her foundation and chewed her lip in confusion of the act. Pollux looked confused as well, and Will Solace narrowed his eyes in suspicion, automatically turning towards his right, only to remember Nico was currently in the underworld. Malcolm's eyes swam with a myriad of emotions at the display of his half-sister and Percy.
At last, Katie turned her attention to Clarisse, who stood beside the stands, her arms crossed, and a deep frown marring her hard features. Yet, despite the bitterness she showed, her eyes seemed overly bright as she met Katie's gaze, before turning her attention back to the ground. But it was the attendees who had seemed to turn hostile. First, the legendary Percy Jackson was disarmed in less than two minutes, and then the equally famous Annabeth Chase had chosen not to fight at all. The younger attendees in the audience did not seem to understand, only that they had somehow been cheated out of the opportunity to see the two most famous demigods in the last two hundred years prove they could not live up to their legend.
Without Percy and Annabeth in the competition however, Clarisse claimed an easy victory over all of her challengers. She had received the laurel wreath in recognition of her victory, yet she refused to accept. She understood it wasn't her victory to claim, and she was still reeling from the understanding of Percy and Annabeth's mental state, and the realization of what had happened to them on their last mission.
With the tournament's conclusion, the collected demigods made their way to the pavilion to begin evening muster. As the dinner progressed, Percy and Annabeth had chosen to sit together at the Poseidon table, both sitting so closely they appeared as one being within the ever-darkening dining pavilion.
As the celebratory dinner began winding down however, Chiron had stood at the head table and stamped his hoof, drawing everyone's attention. As he stood, smiling over the gathered heroes, his hands raised in appreciation of the fact that so many of his students were in attendance. "It does me proud to see you all gathered together. I lived many years and have trained so many countless heroes, that they may well number the stars," he began, his eyes moving fixedly upon each camper, halting in their course as they settled on every senior councilor who would be moving on to college in the next year.
"I have treasured every demigod that I have trained, and while I am ever pleased to know that so many of you are moving on to a, gods willing, better path in life, I am reminded of all the times I have gotten to know each of you. My heart is filled with joy to know you, our senior councilors will be attending college, but there is also a touch of sadness as well. While it may be selfish of me, and please forgive me my weakness, I want those of you who will not be attending camp in the coming years to know, you always have a family here, you will always have a home so long as you need it." At this, his eyes locked upon Percy and Annabeth, as if desperately hoping they understood the underlining message he wished to leave them with.
"Now, we have a few more days left to honor our retiring councilors, but, we have one special gift we'd like to present, to commemorate the Heroes of the Seven," as he waved his hand to the side, several campers began wheeling in a large trolley that had an enormous sheet draped over the contents that were to be presented. With a quick pull of the fabric, the material was removed, revealing seven marble statues, one for each of the seven heroes of the Great Prophesy. "While we are only blessed with two of the great heroes of our age in attendance, I wished to present this monument that will adorn our amphitheater for decades to come. Never forget all that you've accomplished."
A respectful, if not half-hearted round of applause was echoed from the gathered demigods as all eyes were fixed on Percy and Annabeth. Yet, as the two young lovers hesitantly accepted the praise, a plate of food was thrown at the statue, draping the sculpture of Percy with spaghetti and meat sauce.
All eyes turned to Marcus Pike, a seething young son of Ares who had only recently been claimed. "You have got to be kidding me," he screamed, his eyes burning as they fixed the two heroes with a contempt that marred a resentment of their very presence. "I mean, is this some kind of joke?"
Instinctively, Travis stood up, his eyes narrowed in anger at the outburst and above all, the disrespect this young hero was spitting. Immediately, Conner rose to stand by his side, but it was Clarisse who had spoken up. "You're going to want to shut the hell up Marcus, before I put in you the dirt."
"No!," the young demigod screamed, shrugging his shoulder out of Clarisse's grip. "Ever since I arrived, all I've heard is Percy this, and Annabeth that. I was looking forward to meeting them, to see what all the hype was about. And when they come here, they ignore us, as if we lowly peasants are beneath their notice! Then to see them in the arena, Percy gets disarmed in nine moves, I counted, nine freaking moves, and Annabeth is so gutless she refused to fight. And we're supposed to respect these cowards?!"
At those words, several of the older campers stood and stared dangerously at the abrasive young man, yet many of the younger heroes began echoing Marcus' words. It was so odd to see demigods in Camp Half-Blood threaten to start fighting each other over something so frivolous as a tournament, that would would have been amusing if not so heartbreaking to those who knew, respected and loved Percy and Annabeth.
"You tell us all these great things that they've done, yet they can't prove it," Daniel Reed, another new camper from the Apollo cabin yelled. He stood up, challenging the notion that these two legends live up to the praise that was always granted to them. "Marcus is right, why should we respect a couple of legends who are nothing more than a pair of self-entitled, arrogant cowards!"
While Chiron stamped his hoof to gain control, Percy slowly rose from his seat and turned to face his accusers. "You really want to know?" He had asked so quietly that only those close at hand heard the statement slide past his lips. When the crowd finally fell silent as many became aware that the son of Poseidon had risen to his feet, his eyes seemed to burn with memories that challenged to overwhelm him. "You want to know what we've done?"
"Oh, we've heard the stories," Marcus challenged again, his voice snarling in contempt of the image of Percy and Annabeth, saviors of Olympus who couldn't even find the courage to compete in a simple tournament, and yet the younger campers were somehow expected to treat the heroes with reverence. "Prove it to me why you're so damn great, oh legend among legends..."
The taunt was enough for Percy to lock his jaw, and in a movement no one could even track, he had turned toward the Poseidon table and flipped it. As it spun out of the dining pavilion, spiraling into the open air, it landed several dozen feet away before Percy turned back to the arrogant campers mocking their accomplishments. The aura pulsating from Percy was so palpable, it caused even Chiron to hesitate.
Annabeth however immediately went to his side, one hand finding its way to his Achilles spot, while the other rested over his heart. "Percy, never mind, let's just go home, okay," she said, her eyes pleading for him to ignore the slights and mocking and to just leave.
"No, it's alright Annabeth, they want to know..." he said, his smile creeping onto his face in a dark reflection of all that he had witnessed. "Let me guess boy," he spat the word at Marcus as though it were an insult. "You want to hear about Tartarus don't you...you all do." As Percy paused for a moment, the gathered heroes remained uneasily quiet, the name of the pit breathing across them like a nightmarish thing.
"The worst of every nightmare you've ever had are made reality in that pit..."
"Percy," Chiron spoke, cautioning the young demigod to not continue his exposition, yet he would not be deterred.
"Oh, everything you've ever witnessed, ever dreamed, ever feared lurks in every, single shadow in that pit. Everything down there wants you dead. Every monster you've ever seen, faced, killed, or seen destroyed lingers in that hell, waiting for their time to come back to the surface and start it all again. Annabeth and I got, maybe two hours total sleep while we in that pit. We couldn't risk resting more than that. The paranoia was killing, every moment we saw a shadow shift, we were certain a horde of monsters had found us."
"Percy, no, come on baby, let's just go home," Annabeth pleaded again, yet the young man continued on as though he could not hear her. His breathing began to hitch in shallow gasps as he turned his eyes to the gathered demigods, many too stunned or frightened to speak. Yet they could do nothing but listen to his words.
"Then, there are the voices," he said in a shallow tone that only added to the realization that, though the curious among them wanted to know about the pit, they deeply began to regret their curiosity. "Those voices in your head, the doubts that you've always had, undermining your confidence, telling you you'll never be good enough...yeah, those words are whispered in your ear, they echo in your brain, not only telling you you're going to die, but how you'll die. Usually in the most graphic and horrifying ways imaginable. Those voices worm their way into your brain, taunting you and mock you, taunting everything you've failed at and constantly reminding you there is no escape. There's no way you're going to survive. It feeds on your greatest fears, and it never leaves, I can still hear those taunting words, even now, months after we've gotten out, they're dancing around in my head like some sick festival."
"Oh, no, but you don't want words do you, you want proof don't you?" he said, his arm gently moving Annabeth to the side as he stepped away from her. In one swift, angry movement, he ripped his shirt up over his head and aggressively threw it to the ground. His torso, sculpted and chiseled from hard work and hundreds of hours of activities that shaped his body to physical perfection, yet was marred and tainted by numerous scars that crossed his body like a road map.
"Is this what you wanted to see, what Tartarus did to me? Here, take a good look," he barked, his voice almost manic as he continued to taking ever shallowing breaths. He held his arms out to fully display the scars of his marked body. "Take a good look, because this is what Tartarus did. But these are only the physical one, gods know how many hours Annabeth and I have tried to crawl our way back to some ideal of normalcy. We didn't want to talk about our adventures because every memory threatened to drag us back to that hell, or some other memory equally damning!"
"Percy, please Percy...please stop," Annabeth begged as she clung to him, desperate to keep his mind from slipping back into the nightmares.
"But you don't care, you just want to hear the glory without knowing the pain that follows. Do you know what it's like, do you have any idea knowing that I can't even change my clothes with the lights on, because every scar is a memory of some monster that tried to eat my guts, tried to kill me, tried to rip me away from Annabeth. But here, you want to know don't you, so lets look at this one," he stated, using his index finger to point to a jagged, purple scar that began just below his right collarbone and traveled diagonally across his body, ending just above the waistband of his pants. "This one was given to me by Kampe, yeah, she's still down there, or was, Annabeth and I killed her...again. She says hi by the way. Or how about this one, this was fun," he stated, pointing to the scar in the center of his chest, moving vertically down the length of his sternum. "This was given to me by a arai, a curse demon if you don't know, but it bled for six days after we escaped the pit. No amount of ambrosia or nectar would stop it from bleeding. Yeah, trying going up against a group of giants when you've lost half your blood and you're so weak you can barely raise a sword."
"Percy, please..." Annabeth cried, her eyes pouring with despair as she protectively covered his chest with her body and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Don't do this Percy, please don't do this baby."
At this point, the young man's eyes had become unfocused, his vision seeing something visible only within his mind's eye, the words to follow no longer desperate or frenzied but rather quiet and deadened. "How about this one," he pointed to another spot at his lower right stomach, a near perfect circle where the skin was puckered and sunken. "There's an identical one on the left side of my lower back, a Cyclopes hurled a javelin right through me. Perforated my liver, if Leo had been two minutes later feeding me nectar, I'd have bled out.
"Or this one, given to me by Gabe, you don't know him but the drunken jackass he was thought it would be funny to put his cigar out on his 10-year-old stepson," Percy indicated a beveled scar against his ribs on his left side. "Damn near caught my shirt on fire. I never told my mom, was afraid she'd confront him, and he'd beat her too." Tears now began welling up in his eyes as memories of his life of pain, fear and physical and emotional torture began settling upon him.
"Home," Annabeth sobbed, her lips against the seashell of her ring that drew Percy's mind to her, to his home, his life and his love. His eyes slowly focused back to the present as the memories of his horrors from his time in the pit slid to the back of his mind. As he focused on Annabeth's tear streaked face, a sob ripped itself from his lips and he could not restrain the pain of what he had just relived for those in attendance.
The campers stood in silent vigil, not knowing what to do or how to respond, yet Annabeth collected Percy's shirt and slowly guided him, coaxing him from the pavilion and back to the borders of the camp. As they continued their trek, his shoulders slouched and legs buckled as he fell to the ground, Annabeth immediately wrapping her arms about his neck and cradling his body against her in an effort to take away his suffering. In response, he wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face against her shoulder, weeping in howls of suffering that shook his whole body. Annabeth cried her tears as well, desperately hoping to stave off the memories that also began clawing at her mind.
From the pavilion, Travis turned his attention to Conner, then to Katie, all sharing a similar realization that the psychological and physical trauma on display by their two beloved leaders could have befallen any of them just as easily as it had Percy and Annabeth. As they stood in mute impotence, it was Clarisse who was first to step forward and moved to stand over the pair of heroes.
Her face tighten in her own understanding of their suffering as she dropped to her knees and wrapped them both in her arms, holding the two broken and devastated demigods in her embrace. Soon, Katie moved from the marquee to join Clarisse, followed by Travis and Conner, Malcolm and then Will. Pollux, Drew, Jake, Chris and dozens of others moved from their seats to join in the cluster of demigods holding, touching, supporting the two weeping heroes. In the end, the group embrace was not an effort to ease their pain, was not an attempt to comfort their fractured and shattered leaders...it was simply a farewell to the heroes who had given and sacrificed so much of their lives.
As Chiron witnessed all that unfolded, he bowed his head in silent prayer to the gods. He had mourned every child he had trained, every child who had died under his care. In all his many long years in his position, he could not ever recall his heart weeping with as much pain as the with the loss of Percy and Annabeth. He seemed to realize in that moment, even if they were to escape from the horrors of their lives, they may never be the same. Despite everything, he could not help but feel that his inability to protect Annabeth and Percy from all they had suffered was perhaps his greatest failure. No two demigods had ever done more for the world, protected it so completely, and yet were left so utterly destroyed by it. And he knew, he would never forgive himself for that failure.
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A/N: So yeah, took a while to write this chapter, but I was actually torn between two directions for this chapter, one is the one you just read, the other was a conversation with the gods, but it would have been Athena/Percy and Annabeth/Poseidon. I did have an idea for Percy/Athena, but couldn't think of what direction Poseidon/Annabeth would have gone, well, had some ideas, but it would have shows Sally being bitter about Poseidon.
Anyway, next chapter should be lighter, thinking Valentine's Day celebration, then off to San Francisco for a couple chapters, and a couple more planned after that.
But, as always, if you were kind enough to read this far, please drop a review, like, follow, whatever. I really pretty happy with this chapter and hope it lives up to my previous chapters.