As Percy slowly awoke, the only thing he could focus on was the splitting headache pounding through his skull. It was painful enough that all he could do was lay there, groaning in pain. He didn't know where he was, but it was dark and quiet, and he thanked the gods for small mercies.
"Rise and shine, Percy," rang out an obnoxiously bright voice. "That's five syllables, right, Perce?" Percy let out a louder groan than before and rolled over. Apollo, out of all the gods was there to wake him up. He sent a silent curse to Tyche and the fates for his shit luck.
"Get out," he snarled, as he pushed the pillow over his head even harder.
"You know we're cool man."
"If you speak in haiku one more time I will kill you."
"You know, now that you're a god you really shouldn't make threats like that," said Apollo with mock hurt. "Some people might take it seriously." The memory of the throne room ran through Percy's mind, and he buried himself deeper into the bed as he recalled what had happened. Maybe if I get far enough beneath the covers I'll find himself back in my old life, he thought bitterly.
"Really though, you do have to get up," said Apollo with a rare touch of sternness. "Doctor's orders." Percy grimaced beneath the sheets. All he wanted to do was nurse his headache and feel miserable, but he doubted Apollo would take no for an answer. Thalia had learned that firsthand when she unwillingly drove the sun-chariot, and the memory of his friends made him even more miserable.
"Last chance, Percy, or I'll vanish the bed."
"Go fuck yourself," was his eloquent response, but he started moving anyway. Getting up was hellish, but he figured that even as a god getting your face slammed into the floor would suck. It was slow-going, and he felt worse than Gabe after poker night, but he eventually managed to pry himself out of the sheets.
"Gods aren't supposed to curse like that," Apollo singsonged. "But if you're going to, at least use Ancient Greek." Percy didn't grace that with a response. He didn't have anything nice to say, and if he cursed at Apollo again he'd probably just get louder and brighter.
"Where am I?" Percy rasped, feeling like Mount St. Helens had dropped on him again. He remembered Zeus saying it would be painful, but he hadn't expected to feel worse than after his dip in the Styx.
"The Olympian Infirmary, headed by myself of course," said Apollo with his usual flourish. "I am the god of medicine as well as awesomeness." Despite himself, Percy let out a small smile. Even if his entire world had shifted, Apollo was still an idiot, and the thought stabilized the ground beneath him.
"Why does it hurt so bad?"
"You remember that sphere you touched?" Apollo asked, waiting for Percy's nod. "It burned away your blood and replaced it with ichor. Not a fun time."
"No. Not fun," deadpanned Percy. He thought he'd gotten used to Apollo, but having to deal with him as a god was a different ballgame. He gave a silent prayer to Artemis for having to put up with him for the past few millennia, and idly wondered whether his prayers still worked.
"I'm glad I never had to go through it," said Apollo, breaking Percy from his thoughts. "Ha, I remember when Dionysus ascended. It took him two years to wake up!" Just like that, the world started to fall out from under Percy again, and he grabbed the bed to steady himself.
"Two years?" he asked, hating the way his voice trembled. "Tell me you're joking." For once, Apollo's light dimmed the slighted bit and he faced Percy with uncharacteristic seriousness.
"I probably could've broken that a little easier, huh?" Apollo said quietly, but Percy was too shell-shocked to care. Two years of his life had been ripped away from him. His mom, Grover, Annabeth: they'd probably lost hope that he'd return.
"This is what four years of service to Olympus gets you, isn't it?" Percy asked no one in particular. "A gift I never wanted and all my friends and family ripped away." His words were petulant, but he didn't care. The gods deserve worse than a little defiance.
"This might not be the best time to mention this, but…" Apollo trailed off, nervous of Percy's reaction. "It's been three years," he finished lamely, wringing his hands. Percy let out a humorless laugh at that.
"It keeps getting better, doesn't it?" Percy said scathingly. He sat up on the infirmary bed, desperate for any support he could get, and held his head in his hands. The gods had taken his life from him, and it was too much to handle. Percy sat that way for a long time, dead to the outside world. He didn't notice when Apollo sat next to him and only faintly recognized the tentative hand on his shoulder.
"I know it's hard, Percy," Apollo began tentatively. "But it won't be forever. Dionysus could tell you that."
"Dionysus wanted this," Percy said, still not looking at Apollo. "He had a choice. The gods made mine for me. I didn't save Olympus for, for this." There was venom to his words, and he felt Apollo's hand tense on his back for a fraction of a second.
"You're one of us now," Apollo chided lightly. "The sooner you can accept that, the sooner things will start to get better."
"I don't want things to get better!" Percy shouted. "I want my mom back. I want to go back to camp and go on quests. I want…" His voice stuttered to a stop, rage already spent. As Percy looked up, he saw Apollo staring at him with naked pity.
"I've lost lovers too, Percy," Apollo said heavily. "I'm sure you've heard of Hyacinth." Percy gave a small nod, too tired to hold on to his anger. "Two thousand years later and I can still remember the warmth of his hand on top of mine."
"What's your point?"
"There will be others, Percy. It seems like the end of the world, but you have forever to get over her. That's what's great about being a god."
"You still don't get it," Percy said bitterly. "I didn't have to lose her. I was happy. You gods think all mortal lives are miserable compared to being up here, but I didn't want this. I never will."
"Just try to accept it," Apollo said, lifting himself off the bed. "It won't be a fun eternity if you don't. And you really should talk to Dionysus. He's the closest thing we have to a therapist, and he'll understand you might think." Percy gave no indication that he'd heard him and made to stand up as well, but immediately regretted it. His vision went black, and he collapsed onto the bed, spent.
"What- was that?" Percy choked out, tired beyond belief.
"That, is why you need a checkup, my friend," Apollo said cheerfully. "You haven't moved for three years, and it always takes a while for the new gods to get used to existing. You just need rest, that's all." Apollo grabbed an instrument that Percy couldn't place and moved closer to the bed. "Well, rest and some magic," he finished.
"I need to go home. I need to see my friends," Percy responded, still out of breath. "When can I leave?"
"Because you're a god now and also a pretty cool guy, I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Perce. Just don't say I never did anything for you," Apollo said with a sly smile. He'd hoped Percy would be intrigued, but he slumped the tiniest bit after seeing Percy's dull gaze.
"What is it?"
"Sheesh man, try to sound a little less excited. This is prime intel!" Percy kept staring at Apollo blankly, and he finally took the hint. "Alright, Alright. Here's the big secret: you can do pretty much whatever you want." Percy started to shift on the bed again.
"Are you telling me the Ancient Laws are a lie?" Percy said with a dangerous tone. "We went to war over a lie?"
"Well no," Apollo replied placatingly. "But as long as you stay within the bounds of those, you can do pretty much whatever. Oh, and don't mess with Zeus. It does not end well."
"So I can go back to camp, then?" Percy said with a gleam in his eyes, and he heard Apollo let out a deep sigh.
"Technically, yes. You don't have any kids there yet, so nothing's stopping you. I wouldn't recommend it though." Percy didn't listen and started trying to push himself out of the bed again, desperate to leave. Apollo sighed again. "You leave me no choice, my friend." He gave two quick snaps and golden ropes shot from each post of the bed, winding around Percy's wrists and ankles. He thrashed as hard as he could, but they were fastened tight and had no give. "Now, are you ready to listen?" Apollo asked like a disappointed parent.
"Will you let me go if I do?"
"You know what, sure," Apollo said with an eye-roll. "You're one of the big boys now, and eventually you'll have to learn on your own. You can leave after I say my piece and get you healed up."
"Good," Percy shot back. Apollo gave him a light smile in return as he summoned his medical bag. He almost wanted Apollo to match his rage, to give him something to fight against, but the god was too breezy for that. For once, he was looking forward to seeing Ares.
"Now, let's get you healthy!" Apollo said with his usual enthusiasm. "Then you can go make terrible, life-altering decisions." Apollo scanned Percy with the strange instrument he pulled out earlier and with nothing better to do, Percy considered the god's words for the first time.
"Why is going to camp such a bad idea?" Percy asked, curious despite his frustration. Apollo wouldn't stop him, but he wanted to understand the sun god's reasoning. Apollo didn't stop his examination, but Percy could tell from the pinch of his forehead and the tensing of his shoulders that he'd had the conversation before.
"Mortals and gods aren't meant to live together," Apollo finally replied. "It never ends well. "
"Doesn't stop you from sleeping with them," Percy shot back. Apollo winced, unable to argue to the point.
"Sleeping with mortals isn't quite the same as living with them, Percy," Apollo said carefully as he continued his check-up. "You'll realize that soon enough."
"You're wrong." Percy had stopped tugging on his restraints, realizing the futility of it, but the new god's stubbornness was still evident in his voice.
"Remember, god of prophecy here," replied Apollo as he gestured to himself. "But I don't need my gift to know that this won't go the way you want it to." Percy made to argue again, but Apollo quickly shushed him. "I'm not going to stop you, I just want you to be prepared," he said, and Percy felt himself relax.
"Thanks, Apollo," Percy said, surprised to find that he meant it. He was still angry, but Apollo had been nice and was the closest thing he had to a friend on Olympus. He'd earned a little gratitude.
"Don't mention it, man," Apollo beamed. "If you want to thank me, just try and temper your expectations. Now, just one more thing and you're free to go." He held his hands over Percy, and they let out a warm glow that began to spread over his body. It grew brighter around him and Percy started to felt his exhaustion start to slip away.
"All done!" Apollo said after several minutes. "You can leave. Just make sure to take it easy." He snapped again, and the ropes that held Percy vanished. Percy stood up and rubbed his wrists absentmindedly. The golden ropes were finely crafted and hadn't bitten into them, but it was an old habit. "Oh, and before you go, one last thing: no flashing."
"I'm not really into that sort of thing," Percy joked distractedly. It was half-hearted, but crappy jokes were another defense mechanism he'd never managed to lose.
"I meant teleporting, obviously," Apollo said with another eye-roll. "Just don't do it. Trust me, it won't end well."
"I'll make sure to take a cab," he replied with mock contrition. As Percy stood, Apollo laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a serious look.
"Try not to let it overwhelm you when you get there," Apollo warned gravely. "I know you've been frozen, but time marches on whether you're there for it or not. Things won't be the way you remember, and it'll be a tough adjustment." Percy felt something uncomfortable shift inside him at Apollo's words, but he tamped it down, unwilling to consider that the sun god might be right.
"I have to see it," was all Percy said, and both men knew it was the end of the conversation. Percy strode out of the infirmary, fragile hope still in place, while Apollo watched him leave with a sad and knowing gaze.
The ride to camp was oddly normal. The Gray sisters hadn't answered his call, so he'd opted for a regular cab instead. The man inside had no idea that he was sitting with a god, and for the first time since his awakening, he felt like a normal sixteen-year-old. Nineteen-year-old now, he reminded himself. It was a jarring thought, and it left him in a sour mood that the cabbie must have sensed. The taxi had already been doing ten over, but they shot up to sixty-five on the dirt road leading to Half-blood Hill, leaving fields of strawberries in their wake. When they arrived, the driver pushed Percy out of the car as quickly as he could and sped off, not even waiting for him to pay.
"So much for feeling normal," Percy muttered as he trudged up the hill. The grass was beginning to brown, and Percy realized that fall was beginning. It had the middle of summer before he'd ascended, and the reminder made him uncomfortable. He shrugged it off as best he could and walked until he reached Thalia's pine. The look on her face when she'd popped out had been gold, and the memory left him with a bittersweet smile.
"Excuse me, sir," a nervous voice said. "You really can't be here." Percy winced at the sir and turned to face the voice. It came from a short boy who looked to be about eleven and held a wary look on his face. "Do you need any help getting back to the road?" the kid continued with a little more spine.
Percy gave his best disarming smile. "I'm a half-blood, kid," he said. "Or at least I used to be." The kid remained unconvinced, and Percy was proud of his caution. It was annoying, but every demigod needed it. If he'd seen a mysterious stranger come up to the hill when he was 12, he probably would've slashed first and asked questions later.
"I should still check with Chiron." Percy sighed in annoyance and started walking forward. He really didn't have time for this. "H-Hey, you can't do that!" shouted the kid, shocked that the barrier didn't stop Percy. He charged forward and swung with the flat of its blade, but Percy didn't bother stopping it. The sword bounced off his skin, and the look on the kid's face was almost worth the annoyance.
"Are you done?" Percy asked with an unimpressed look. "Because you'll probably hurt yourself if you keep trying." All he got was an open-mouthed gape in response, and he figured that was the closest he'd get to an agreement. He started walking again while the camper picked his jaw up off the ground and scrambled to keep up. "What's your name, kid?" Percy asked, trying to make peace.
"Sam, but that's not important. You can't just break into camp!" Sam's insistence made Percy laugh. The kid had a good head on his shoulders, but he was too brash for his own good. Like I used to be, he thought, feeling a thousand years old.
"If I was a monster Thalia's tree would've stopped me," Percy pointed out. "Plus, I haven't killed you yet. How dangerous can I be?" Sam stared at him, awed by Percy's audacity.
"I don't have any say in this, do I?" Sam said dejectedly.
"Nope. You're a demigod though, so you should be used to it," Percy advised. There was a lull after that, and they walked towards camp in uncomfortable silence. Percy's words were too true to be funny, and both of them knew it.
As they came up to the Big House, Percy felt a jolt of nerves shoot through him. The camp still looked the same, but three years was a long time. There could be another Tantalus running the camp, or maybe Dionysus had decided to take charge. He shuddered at the thought but regretted it when he saw the look Sam gave him. Percy decided to ignore him in favor of searching for Chiron. It took him a while, but he smiled when he finally saw the ancient centaur escorting a group of campers to the creek.
"Chiron!" Percy shouted with excitement. "It's been too long." Chiron turned to face him, but his usually open face was oddly hard to read. It looked like a mixture of sadness and excitement, but it was difficult to tell in the low afternoon light.
"Lord Perseus," Chiron said quietly. "It has been a long time indeed." A chorus of whispers broke out from the campers, and Percy started to feel sick. Chiron had always been more formal than most, but he'd never spoken to Percy so coldly.
Sam looked floored. "Lord? He was trying to sneak into camp!"
"The gods often test us in mysterious ways," Chiron said, and Percy felt his world shake. The campers sensed something was amiss and shared uneasy looks. "You must have passed Lord Perseus' test."
"Lord Perseus? Isn't he an Olympian?" rang out a voice from the crowd, and Percy was sorely tempted to try out his smiting powers. The campers surrounding him quickly started kneeling in deference. Their worship made him want to hurl.
"You're here on business from Olympus I presume," asked Chiron, giving him an obvious out. "We can discuss this in the Big House."
"Of course," Percy said weakly, as he followed Chiron up the steps. He nearly banged into the post on the right side of the house, and he took the stairs slowly, barely aware of the world around him. The house felt emptier than he remembered, and after what felt like an eternity they made it to the conference room. They sat on either end of the table, both silent. The gap between them spanned years, and neither knew how to bridge it.
"You should not be here, Perseus," Chiron finally chided. "It's inappropriate." Percy kept sitting silently, unable to process his words.
"This was...is my home," Percy said uncertainly. The shaking was back, and he grabbed the armrests of his chair to steady himself.
"It can no longer be," Chiron said gently. "Zeus may turn a blind eye for now, but he will not allow you to consort with mortals as you please." A light rumble of thunder confirmed Chiron's words, and even gripping the armrests didn't stop Percy from trembling. "It's for the best though, Perseus, believe me."
"Why does everyone think they know what's best for me?" Percy asked angrily, and the look of pity Chiron gave him only stoked the flames.
"Have you forgotten your flaw? It is your curse to be loyal, even when the time for it has passed."
"Then let me be loyal," Percy begged. "Please." Chiron gazed at him with the weight of a thousand lifetimes, and even with his emotions running rampant, Percy knew what his answer would be.
"Will you accept it if I tell you why?" Chiron asked, back to speaking quietly.
"Yes," Percy said, obviously lying. They both knew it, but Chiron chose not to call him out on it. Chiron took a pause, and Percy knew he was considering how much he could tell Percy. He consciously straightened up and tried to project an aura of calm, even though he was sure Chiron could see through him. They passed another beat in tense silence while Percy grappled with his emotions, unable to get a handle on them.
"The reason you cannot live with mortals," Chiron told him after he'd composed himself, "is that it makes you too much like them."
"What does that even mean?"
"Have you noticed anything different when you've been angry?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" Percy said, unsure of where his mentor was going.
"Just think about it, please," Chiron said with the aura of a long-suffering teacher. Percy mulled it over for a while, unsure. There had been a million new things in the few hours that he'd been awake, and sorting it out wasn't easy.
"Maybe a shaking," Percy said tentatively. "I'm not sure if it was real."
"You have to understand Percy, as you are a reflection of your domain, your domain is a reflection of you," Chiron told Percy, leading him the way he had for years. Percy thought back to seeing Poseidon as an old man during the height of his battle with Oceanus. His palace had been under attack and he'd never looked as weary and worn. If it goes both ways… he thought, and he paled as the dots started to connect.
"When I felt the earth shake," Percy said, "that was me?" He asked it with horror written across his face, and Chiron's lack of response was the only answer he needed. "That means..."
"Yes, Percy," Chiron finished for him. "You're the god of nature, are you not? Your mood swings affect millions the world over. If you concentrate, you can see it for yourself. "
Percy was afraid to listen to Chiron's suggestion, terrified of what he'd see, but he needed to know what he'd done. He drew deeply into himself until the outside world was a shadow in the back of his mind and focused. For a while, there was nothing but blackness, until suddenly a surge of images overwhelmed him. A crying mother looking for her child in the ruins of a city, hikers screaming in terror as wildfires overtook them, and broken bridges with snapped cables that trailed hundreds of feet into the water. Hundreds of images, each worse than the last, ran into his mind at once and he forced his eyes open to escape the gruesome sight.
"Do you understand now?" Chiron asked sadly. "Mortals lives are too fleeting, too passionate. If you choose to live like that..." he trailed off as he gestured with a hand to nothing in particular. "It breeds destruction."
"I have to go," Percy said numbly. "I never should've come."
"No, you shouldn't have," Chiron replied gently. "You were the greatest hero I've trained, but I pray for your sake and the world's that you never return." Percy had already stopped listening before the centaur finished, too focused on the weight of his failures to care. All of it was too much to comprehend, and he wanted to get away from the place he'd once called home more than anything.
He pictured himself high on Olympus, as far away from the misery he'd caused as he could get. Apollo had told Percy not to flash, but that didn't matter to him. Any amount of exhaustion was worth getting away from his mistakes. He began to pulse with a burning glow, and the last thing he saw before he disappeared was Chiron averting his gaze, unable to look him in the eyes.
AN: This chapter is probably the length I'll shoot for going forward. Chapter 3 should be up next weekend. As always, review are appreciated.