I blame it all on people sending me asks on tumblr.
Come yell at me on tumblr: Percabeth4Life
Please be warned that this is dark. Heed my warning.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy pulled himself out of the water with his good arm, tears burning his eyes from the pain in his bad shoulder. Did that work?
It was a last-ditch attempt to save them, to get rid of Iapetus.
There were no sounds for a long moment.
Was Iapetus-
"Not a bad attempt, Jackson," said the familiar voice of the Titan.
A splash accompanied it as Iapetus seemed to swim towards Percy.
Percy's stomach dropped.
He was too weak to move away, he was barely keeping the river from him as it was.
He'd tried. It wasn't enough.
A hand landed on his injured shoulder and Percy bit back a cry of pain. The grip tightened, fingers digging into his injury and Percy gasped, tears spilling over as he tried to keep silent.
"A shame that the river doesn't work on immortals," Iapetus mused as he pulled himself out of the water, yanking Percy up with his injured arm and causing Percy to cry out.
"You didn't do too badly at fighting though," he said. "I'm impressed."
Fuck, he didn't even have a scratch. What were they supposed to do now?
Percy fell to his knees when Iapetus let him go, trying to draw air.
"Percy!" Thalia cried, raising her bow, Nico right beside her with undead shoulders charging forward.
"I'm not often impressed," Iapetus drawled. "I think I'll keep you."
Thalia let her arrows fly and the last thing Percy heard before pain exploded in his head was a dark laugh. And then his world went dark.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy gasped awake, his dreams of pain and war and Thalia's and Nico's crumpled forms fading away as he jolted up in a bed.
It was a single, just large enough for him to lay on it. The covers were a plain black that matched the rest of the room. The bed seemed to be the only piece of furniture there. He looked around slowly and noticed two doors, on adjacent walls.
He swallowed and took stock of himself. His shirt was gone, but his shoulder was wrapped in bandages. There were a few cuts and bruises on his arms, and his head was throbbing, but otherwise he seemed alright.
He poked his shoulder, wondering if it was healed, and hissed in pain. That was definitely not healed.
He left it alone and tried to figure out where he was. There weren't any windows. Maybe he could go check the doors?
That would probably be best.
He shifted to a sitting position on the bed, wincing when his shoulder rebelled, and was about to get up when the door clicked, making him falter.
The door swung open to reveal Luke in the entrance.
"Hello, Jackson," he said with gold eyes gleaming.
Gold eyes, this wasn't Luke.
This was Kronos.
Kronos' gold eyes studied Percy closely, gaze lingering on his shoulder and a faint smirk crossing his lips.
"Had some trouble in the underworld?" Kronos questioned lightly.
"What do you want?" Percy snapped instead of answering.
He started to stand, then gasped as his shoulder flared in pain. He grit his teeth as his vision darkened and took slow deep breaths.
That was not good.
He was in bad shape.
"I wouldn't recommend standing, Jackson," Kronos drawled as he stepped closer. "Iapetus only healed you enough to keep you from dying, and that's a very nasty injury there. It'll get worse all over again until it's fully healed."
Percy was pretty sure Kronos was smirking at him, but there were three of him, so it was hard to tell.
Percy glared in his general direction.
"Are you here to gloat before you kill me?" Percy asked. He kept his expression as determined as possible and hoped Kronos would attribute his shaking hands to his pain rather than fear.
"Oh no," Kronos said cheerfully. "See, I was going to kill you, had it all planned out even. But Iapetus decided he was impressed by you, and it's not often he's impressed.
Percy frowned, was that a good thing or a bad thing? He thinks he remembers Iapetus making a comment, but his memory was fuzzy.
"He's decided to keep you," Kronos said with a smirk. "It's been awhile since he found anyone interesting and he likes to keep them close when he finds them. And I'm assured that he at least will be able to keep you under control. He's broken stronger men than you, Jackson."
Percy faltered, what did that mean?
"I do hope you enjoy your stay," Kronos crooned. "Iapetus is good at keeping his favorites alive… though not necessarily in one piece."
Percy frowned, "Wait-"
"He'll come pick you up in a bit," Kronos continued, ignoring Percy's attempt at talking. "I recommend you be on your best behavior. My brother doesn't like having to enforce his rules… or perhaps he enjoys it too much."
"What," Percy sniped. "And you like disobedience?"
Kronos quirked an eyebrow, "I would show you exactly how I handle disobedience, but I'm sure Iapetus will teach you to curb your tongue. And I wouldn't want to take the fun away from him. See you later, Jackson."
"Kronos-"
But he turned and left, the door snapping shut behind him.
OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO OO
Percy spent about an hour trying to figure out a way out of the room before giving up.
Frist thing he'd done was check his pockets, but Riptide was missing.
That was bad, but there was nothing he could do about right now besides hope it returned.
Then he'd had to check the door out, and that was a wreck. He'd barely been able to stand without wanting to pass out.
He'd followed the wall and slowly reached the door, finding it locked and very sturdy. There was no way he was getting out through there.
He'd then moved to the second door, finding a bathroom hidden behind it.
There was only a plain shower section, a sink set sturdy in the ground, and a toilet. There were no other supplies, and nothing that Percy could even begin to weaponize.
He'd given up for now. For one he felt like he was going to pass out, there was no way he was escaping in his current situation. And for another, the room was sealed tight, no chance of him getting out.
He made his way back to the bed and slumped down. At least it made his head spin less. He probably had a concussion, he was pretty sure he'd been knocked out with a hit to the head.
He wondered if another part of the building had a window. If this was Mount Othrys (which he was pretty sure it was) then the sea should be right there. And if he could reach the sea he'd be okay.
Maybe he could-
The door slammed open and he jumped, jolting up and hissing in pain as his shoulder twinged.
He turned to the entrance to find the silver eyed Titan striding in.
He had a smug smirk on his face as he glanced over Percy, "Hello Jackson, good to see you're awake. It's time to get move, get up."
Percy grit his teeth, moving carefully to a sitting position and hiding a wince at the pain in his shoulder.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," he denied firmly.
He preferred this room right now, he could rest and let his shoulder heal some… surely it would heal.
And it would be better than whatever Iapetus had planned, Kronos had made it seem bad.
Iapetus tilted his head, "Oh? You're not?"
He casually strode closer and Percy tensed.
"I'll give you a chance to change you mind, because I'm nice. Stand up."
Percy took a deep breath, "No."
Iapetus shrugged, "Then we do this the fun way."
His hand landed on Percy's hurt shoulder and squeezed.
Percy's world exploded in pain, his shoulder on fire. It was like it was being clawed open all over again and he could barely breathe.
He scrambled to pull Iapetus' hand off his shoulder, tears spilling over his cheeks, but Iapetus' grip was like iron.
His vision was swimming, black edging it, and he was vaguely aware he was begging for Iapetus to let go.
It hurt, like fire in his veins and daggers in his shoulder.
He gasped as Iapetus pulled his hand away.
Percy curled up, leaning away and struggling to pull himself back together.
He didn't dare touch his shoulder, not when it felt like someone had poured magma on it then used it as target practice.
"So," Iapetus drawled. "Wanna try standing now?"
Percy swallowed hard, blinking the tears out of his eyes. He did not want Iapetus to do that again, he really really did not want that to happen again.
Obeying seemed like the best option for the moment.
But he didn't think he could stand right now, not without collapsing.
"Just- one sec…" he managed to get out, his voice thick and shaky.
Iapetus hummed, "You have ten seconds, because I'm a merciful Titan."
Percy took another shaky breath, then one more, before blinking back more tears and slowly uncurling.
He grit his teeth, biting back a noise of pain as his shoulder ached. His head was throbbing too, and his vision was blurry, but he slowly pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily on the bed.
"Wonderful," Iapetus said. "Are you going to thank me for giving you a second chance?"
Percy blinked, thank him? He just- he just practically tortured Percy!
Percy blinked weakly at him.
Iapetus pat his shoulder, his injured shoulder, and Percy nearly collapsed at the flare of pain.
"I said," he repeated. "Are you going to thank me for giving you a second chance?"
Percy grit his teeth but took a deep breath.
"Tha- thank y- you," he got out shakily.
"Wonderful," Iapetus said. "You're welcome. I'm glad to know you can listen to your betters when given the right motivation. Don't worry though, we'll work on that."
Percy did not think he'd like them working on that. Not at all.
He managed to stay standing though, which he thought was very impressive seeing how there were five Iapetus's and eight doors. And everything was hurting, his shoulder the mot but his head was too. And the rest of his body was shaky and weak and a dull ache.
His shoulder was burning though, he was scared to so much as twitch.
"Now then," Iapetus said. "You'll be staying in my rooms, so I can keep an eye on you. I could just knock you out and carry your there, but I shouldn't be forced to do such menial jobs. So you're going to walk, got it?"
Percy swallowed hard but nodded, then winced and decided nodding was bad for his head.
"If you try to run away on the way there," Iapetus paused, humming lightly as he looked Percy up and down. "You don't need legs that badly do you?"
Percy blanched.
Okay, so no trying to run away until he's certain it'll succeed.
"I- I understand," he got out. "I won't- I won't try to ru- run away."
Iapetus smirked, "Good. Now come, I have things to do that don't involve moving kids."
He swept out of the room and started down the hall, leaving Percy to stumble after him.
Percy bit back a cry of pain as his shoulder burned. This was not going to be a fun walk.
His head was throbbing as he stumbled out of the room, seeing Iapetus turn a corner ahead of him, down a long hall, that he now had to work his way down.
He bit his lip and used the wall on his good side to slowly make his way down the hall.
Each step jolted his shoulder and made it burn anew, and every blink made his head throb with more pain. He slowly inched his way down the hall, breathing hard as he reached the end and stumbled around the turn, and right into Iapetus.
He had been leaning against the wall, but now he stood straight, one hand steadying Percy.
"One would almost think you'd been trying to make a break for it," Iapetus mused. "With how long you were taking."
Percy paled, eyes drawn to the spear that had not been there before.
"N-no- I was just- my shoulder-"
Iapetus raised an eyebrow, "Your shoulder doesn't keep you from walking."
Percy swallowed, gaze on the spear.
"It just… hurts a lot…"
Iapetus tilted his head, "And here I thought you were interesting. You seemed more than capable of handling the pain before to protect your friends. Or do you require friends to be present and in danger to deal with the pain?"
His eyes gleamed and Percy had a bad feeling that Iapetus would bring his friends here if he thought it would make Percy deal with the pain.
"No- I just- I'm just not used to a lot of pain after a fight…"
He hummed, "We'll fix that."
Percy swallowed.
"For now, try to keep up."
He nodded and did his best to straighten as Iapetus stepped back and started down the hall again.
At least he wasn't trying to fix Percy's pain tolerance right then. Hopefully he'd forget about it.
Percy took a deep breath and stumbled after Iapetus.
Despite Iapetus' comment, Percy felt that he was being tested. Iapetus wanted to see if he'd try to escape, and no doubt would follow through on his threat the moment Percy did.
He didn't take the bait though. Right now, there was no way he'd be able to get away, his shoulder was in horrible shape and he couldn't even see right. He'd take the time to heal, and hopefully he'd get to heal quickly, and then he'd escape.
He had to play along, just until he could get away.
The walk was far longer than it should've been, and Percy spent a lot of time leaning against walls and breathing carefully.
By the time they arrived at a door (that Iapetus opened and held open for Percy to walk by) Percy was shivering and hot and struggling to breath. His shoulder had moved beyond pain and he was only walking straight by virtue of the wall.
He ran into the door jam before he managed to stumble into the room Iapetus had led him too.
"Hmm, yeah we'll really have to work on your pain tolerance. Until you can walk normally with your arm in that state it won't be any fun."
Percy bit his lip, resisting the urge to cry. He hated this, he could barely think through the pain and Iapetus wanted him to feel it constantly?
"Now then," Iapetus murmured. "Your room is through that door. Unless I get you you're not to leave it. If you're found outside of it then there will be consequences."
Percy managed to find the door he was pointing to, it was probably one of the three moving doors.
"Go on in," Iapetus said. "I'll bring food by later. It's your first day here so I'll be merciful."
He slumped in relief and stumbled to the doors, squinting and trying to pinpoint which one had the doorknob.
Iapetus snorted, "Yeah, we have a lot of work to do."
A door swung open, the one on his right damn it, and Percy stumbled in.
He was too exhausted to bother fighting with Iapetus, and he didn't want to be put in even more pain right now.
The door snapped shut behind him and he collapsed on the bed.