AN: I decided, after complex calculations, that Dealing with Drama will be 100 chapters, and around the 400K-500K range. Let's see.
Anyway, in case any of you were wondering, like this guy, umm, Sir something, Percy lusts after the girls, but doesn't love them, yet. The line between the two is often hazy, and there will be a future chapter about his confused feelings. Don't worry, he will love them, eventually, but he still cannot get over Annabeth's death, just like that.
Alright, so here we go.
Time: A Few Hours Later
"Are your vocal cords intact, Perseus?!" Athena said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "You shouted for hours at the Olympian Council... are you sure we shouldn't take you to Calypso... again?"
Percy was glum, getting more depressed as Hestia said, superstitiously, "Touchwood."
Aphrodite grimaced beside her, "My ears are still ringing."
Artemis was oddly silent, as the five made their way to the lonely, yet beautiful and cosy house, complete with every luxurious amenities like a swimming pool, surrounded by thick jungles. On the lonely island of Ogygia, with nothing but open sea for miles around.
Percy slid the glass door open, and promptly collapsed on the floor, making Thalia jump a foot in the air. Her full bowl of ice cream was now being put to use as Percy's pillow.
The four goddesses filed in after him, closing the door behind them. The air inside the room was cool, the air conditioner running at full speed to alleviate the heat of the tropical island.
"How was your first Council meeting, Percy?" Reyna asked, smiling at his childish antics.
"My ice cream!" Thalia screeched, trying to pry him off her bowl of everyone's favourite delicacy.
Percy groaned like a zombie, raising his head. His face was covered with caramel ice cream, and chocolate.
"You need to pay for that!" Thalia gritted her teeth, making the twins, and her little sister giggle.
"Have some ice cream, you all." Rachel offered, working together with Atalanta and Cynthia to get the newest arrivals bowls of ice cream.
"It's too hot outside. Cool down a bit, then tell us what happened." Phoebe offered through a cold mouthful.
Athena grumbled, staring at Artemis, "Perseus happened."
At that, everyone not there at the meeting, perked up.
"What did he do?" Neo started.
And as usual, the twins picked up her line. "Dynamite beneath someone's seat?" Rose started, for Violet to finish, "Or MM's confetti?"
"Nothing like that." Hestia groaned, resting her head in the cool wood of the table.
"He shouted at the Council, as loudly as he could, for most of the time we were there," Aphrodite explained.
Thalia wolf-whistled at that, her annoyance forgotten. "What happened, Percy?"
"I gave them a piece of my mind, about what I thought of this harem being forced upon me. I really do not want to deal with this right now, if ever. I was gonna be happy alone, but noooo! You need to live cramped with twenty girls on an island, constantly fearing for your life!" He clapped his mouth shut, looking up with wide eyes. He had let too much slip in his annoyance and irritation.
The son of Poseidon let out a tired groan at the silence of the room. Everyone else was staring at him with slightly teary eyes and sad expressions, except Athena, who was stone-faced, Drew, who was an expert at hiding everything, and Artemis, who was still lost, deep in thought.
"Percy..." Everyone's eyes were drawn to the silent moon goddess, and Artemis finally looked up, boring into Percy's dark sea-green eyes with her own, piercing silver eyes. "I have an idea."
He raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued. "I never took you to be the thinking type. I thought it was more of Athena's job."
The wisdom goddess, feeling slightly insulted, elbowed him again, indignantly parting her lips to scold him.
Percy interrupted before she could start on a relentless tirade. He had found that it was the most effective way of silencing the Athenians. "What?! I was complimenting you!" Nevertheless, he shied away from the angry goddess.
Artemis smiled at his antics. "I was wondering if I can share my power with you. That way you won't have to invite Nyx, Styx, Eris or Nemesis to the island." She hurriedly added, "Even if it does work, obviously, none of us will protest their entry! It's for your benefit!"
He stared at her through half-lidded eyes. "That's a terrible idea. How long did you think about it?"
She flushed bright gold. "Well... for a few minutes, I was bored while you were shouting at the others at Olympus... and it just came up."
Atalanta provided her input. "Transferring power between gods is not so easy. It's like blood transfusion in mortals. You just need to have similar domains, instead of similar blood types... as gods don't have genes... they have immortal ichor..."
Phoebe slapped the back of her roommate's head to stop her usual, nervous ramblings.
Artemis nodded her head, making her auburn locks bounce up and down. "Yeah, I have a domain of the moon, or, by extension, the night, same as Nyx. If he can accept power from her, he can accept it from me."
"I'm not sure it works that way..." Angela was cut off by the eager, excited Artemis, who was on a roll, "An-and I have the domain of the Hunt, which coincides with his domains of Heroes and War."
"If it goes wrong, it will have severe repercussions," Athena warned.
"It's still worth a try, if only to see if it will work. Call it scientific curiosity." For the first time, Calypso spoke up, making her opinion known.
After that, everyone's opinion was cemented.
"Great." Percy groaned, "I'm being used as a guinea pig to conduct potentially life-threatening experiments."
Thalia patted his back comfortingly, smirking at him, "At least, if you die, all of us will be comforted that you died proving that, in fact, Artemis cannot transfer power to you. For the sake of scientific progress, Percy." Her electric blue eyes shined with mirth as she teased him.
Percy growled, leaning in close to the daughter of Zeus to whisper in her ear. His warm breath tickled her slender neck, her smooth skin inviting him to kiss her senseless. The gentle, fresh fragrance of her lemon-scented shampoo was heaven to his sense of smell. "Don't dare me to bend you over my knee and spank the shit out of you, Pinecone Face."
Thalia blushed, sputtering angrily at him, but Percy had already left the room, following the others to the infirmary. He looked back at the sexy and beautiful, indignant lieutenant of the Hunt, sending a teasing wink her way.
Within minutes, Percy regretted ever agreeing to the girls' collective decision.
"Don't worry, Percy. If this works, the benefits you will have are manifold. We might be able to undo the disadvantages of the harem bond as laid in the Ancient Laws." Calypso comforted him as she hooked him up to several machines, inserting several needles into his arm.
Percy wondered if he should explain to her exactly why he could share power with the four Dark goddesses, but then, decided otherwise.
He might be digging his own grave, but the girls were immensely hopeful and excited at what they desperately hoped was a miraculous breakthrough, and not a disastrous accident. He could not bear to wipe the joy off their faces.
It was not like they were going in totally unprepared. If anything happened, they had the best medics in all the worlds at their very fingertips. Godly medicine was very advanced, but so were their diseases and injuries.
He took a shuddering breath, trying to suppress the blinding smile that threatened to break out on his face as he roved his eyes over the occupants in the room, their smiles infectious, their uplifting emotions as contagious as COVID-19.
He knew things could, and if Murphy's Law was any true, would, go horribly wrong. He just had to keep himself optimistic, not a difficult feat surrounded by twenty girls fussing over him.
He took a look at the sky, following Joakim's advice. An advice people followed throughout the dawn of mankind.
The clear, azure sky was like a shining sapphire, with the sun high up in the sky, bathing everything on the tropical island with golden light. The day was hot and humid, the golden sands of the beach blinding as they glinted and shined in the sunlight. A slight breeze swayed the tall palm trees on the beach, their green leaves rustling in the wind. Innumerable albatrosses soared across the sky, their white feathers dark and shadowed against the might of the sun. Pervy could imagine their shrill screams and cries in his mind's eye, sounds that he had been accustomed to since his few happy childhood days on vacation at Montauk beach.
Take a look at the sky just before you die, Percy sang to himself.
It is the last time you will.
He almost felt the urge to snort as he looked at bright, beautiful weather. Nightmares? PTSD? Insanity? Impending death?
Only virgin noobs got stressed when faced with such prominent death and demise. Surrounded by all the girls that he loved more than himself, Percy could die in peace, knowing that Annabeth had been replaced.
Unknowingly, yes, but somewhere along the line, during the peace, and during the turmoil, they had found a permanent, safe spot in his loyal heart. Twenty girls all sharing his love and his heart.
Well, to be fair, Percy had a lot of love to spare, unused over his twenty-three years of life.
The only thing that completed the beautiful, peaceful scene was some heavy metal. Or death, or black metal. Percy had nothing against those the way he had an obsessive objection against pop or hip-hop.
He grimaced as he felt a sharp sting in his right arm, and he looked up to see another needle stuck in his skin, this time, an opaque tube connecting him to Artemis' arm, which was bound in a tight looking tourniquet. Her eyes were closed, and the moon goddess was taking deep breaths to calm herself, and to concentrate her power as Atalanta attended to her.
"Are you going to be okay, big brother?" Rose asked, her sea-green eyes, a lighter and brighter shade than his own, wide and shining with worry.
Percy smiled, and nodded his head, pressing his lips to her soft palm in a gentle, platonic kiss before he let her go.
Everyone was ushered to a safe distance within the room, and they watched with worried eyes as the four medics on the island- Calypso, Atalanta, Hestia and Piper- bustled around, with Athena volunteering herself to see the process go without a hitch.
Calypso sat beside Percy, pressing her nimble fingers against his wrist. She closed her eyes, and let out a soft command, "Atalanta, release the block."
Percy couldn't help but admire the Titaness at that point. Her beauty was otherworldly.
Calypso's pale, creamy skin seemed to glow in the light, her eyes closed. Long, curly eyelashes lined her almond-shaped eyes, and Percy had her perfect amber shade committed to memory. Her soft, small hand wrapped around his larger wrist, looked delicate and fragile, despite him knowing her enormous strength to rival gods. Her beautiful caramel hair was done in her usual elegant braid, and thrown over her shoulder, a glowing silver moonlace flower in her hair. She wore the impeccable white dress, the only dress she had, which seemed to similarly glow silver, the lace covering her back giving Percy a prime view...
Percy was conscious of something happening to his body, something foreign trying to invade his person, something which he recognised as Artemis' power.
However, he was too engrossed in Calypso to take note of what was happening to him.
A few moments later, the pain hit.
A wave of raw, burning agony washed over him, like molten lava straight from the bowels of Tartarus, as he felt himself being eaten up from inside. His bones groaned in protest as he gritted his teeth tightly, hard enough to snap a mortal's jaw. Power welled up inside him, pressing against his insides as if he would burst into golden, immortal mashed meat at any moment.
He was, in other words, a literal ticking time bomb as his Dark power fought Artemis', engaged in a deadly match for dominance inside him.
He felt his power pressing against his skin, seeking escape. His innate power to torture pressed against his eyes in a pounding migraine, as his primary ability pressed against the skin of his palms, finally escaping. The part of the bed he had been clutching tightly, turned to dust. He felt Calypso jump up in alarm from his side, though his eyes were shut tightly. He gritted and gnashed his teeth, baring his sharp canines, glistening with golden ichor from his bitten tongue.
He felt a great pressure on his chest, and he struggled to breathe. He could feel his bones snap under the pressure building up inside him.
Through the pain, he could hear shouts and cries to stop, but they seemed so... so far away, that he thought it must be the beautiful angels calling to him, to let him know his time was up.
Unknowingly to him, somewhere along the line, the angels had changed from a singular daughter of Athena to twenty, beautiful female figures that he had become quite accustomed to seeing on Ogygia.
But still, the unbearable pain carried on, and Percy sought out its source.
Desperate and almost in an animalistic, mindless state in his pain and agony, Percy clasped his hand over the needle connecting him to Artemis, tugging with all his might.
Calypso jumped at him as he tried to pry himself free, abandoning her post trying to undo the connection. "Don't Percy! You'll hurt yourself! Someone, help!"
She tried to restrain the god thrashing in raw pain and agony on the bed, pinning him to the bed with her immortal Titan strength.
Percy screamed in pain, thrashing his head side to side as he was pinned to the bed by the Titan daughter of Atlas. He felt as if his arm was going to be torn off as he pulled at the syringe in his right arm with his immortal strength, his body still locked in the throes of pure, sheer pain and raw, burning agony. He felt himself cough up ichor, cool, yet warm, moistening his lips and chin and staining the bedsheets.
Finally, he managed to dissolve the opaque tube of torture connecting him to Artemis, freeing him from the overwhelming pain. He felt like a fish, finally put back in the water after hours on land.
He felt it had been days in the agony, something which far outclassed any pain that he had ever felt, except the one time Hestia tried to heal him.
Percy let out a groan as he lay limply on his back, on the infirmary bed, surprising everyone that he was still awake, let alone moving.
The Dark god had crossed the threshold between pain and numbness long ago, with all his nerves fried. He just felt a slight throbbing and stinging wherever he was injured, but much worse were his collapsed lungs. He could not breathe- a boulder was resting on his chest, impairing his ability to breathe. Percy tried to panic at the feeling of being suffocated, it was almost as if he was drowning in Gaea's quagmire again, but this time, it was in the open air. He felt a throbbing pain in his skull, an excruciating spike of burning agony right behind his ears.
He tried to remember how he had ended up there, or what he had done, but in vain. He could not recall anything.
The only thing his clogged brain registered was that he was on smooth, soft bedsheets that he lay on. He could not see, nor hear anything. The only thing he could see beyond the shadows dancing in his vision, was a pair of familiar, silver eyes filled with worry, standing out in a mass of screaming, shouting and hazy faces. His ears rang.
"Artemis..." he wheezed, "I don't feel so well... Help... Save..." He felt ichor flooding his windpipe, choking and drowning him in his own life-blood. He tried to speak further, but couldn't. All he could, before he lost himself into the cold, comforting embrace of the swirling, chaotic darkness in his mind, was to mouth, 'Me.'
Percy swam in and out of consciousness several times. Each time was only for a few seconds, but the sheer agony he felt, made him want to pass out and die again.
Voices always rang in his ears, sometimes vague whispers, sometimes loud, obnoxious shouting that distorted and fried his auditory nerves. Faces swam in a grey world in his vision, flashes of colour appeared here and then, but as soon as they came, they were gone.
"It isn't working! He isn't responding!" Someone shouted, and Percy felt someone touching him, scrubbing his body, sticking something into his arm, pressing defibrillators to his chest.
Percy remembered himself as a kid, a scared, abused child stepping out of his home for the first time. He remembered Gabe, who stood for all the ugliness, and his mother, who stood for all that is beautiful in the world.
"It is hurting him, Calypso! I can't use my magic on him without killing the Dark god!" Sheer agony washed over him, setting his nerves on fire. He felt like someone was constantly pounding his bones to dust with a large, sizzling hot hammer. Blinding white light flooded his vision, frying his sensitive nerves, and making Percy mentally scream in agony.
He remembered his first steps into Camp, when a scared child finally grew into his own, living alone in a Cabin, taught by a traitor, loved by few, surviving mostly on his own. He was surrounded by people his age, people like him, but even among them, he was alone.
"Here, Nyx! We don't know what happened to him, help him please!" Percy felt several people standing next to him. Someone was sobbing somewhere. A soft hand ran through his soft, raven, hair. He felt a cool, wet cloth being removed from his hot forehead, only to be replaced a few seconds later.
He remembered a smart, blonde girl with stormy, grey eyes. He had called her Wise Girl. She was the only one, apart from his mother, who had ever cared for him. He had loved her, too, with all his heart, always doing his best to please her, to be with her, to see her safe and sound. And now... she was gone.
"He is out of danger. He just needs some rest." There were soft, relieved laughs and choked sobs of happiness. Someone pressed soft lips to his hot forehead, before the wet cloth he had felt earlier was replaced. Percy felt a lot better, he felt energetic, he could breathe without trouble. It was almost as if several thousand tonnes of metal restraints were lifted from his chest.
He would never see his Wise Girl again. She was gone because of several wars, wars he had fought for people who did not care a bit about him. She had seen horrors which an angel like her never deserved to witness. The same horrors which had left him broken, shattered and insane, seeking refuge in the warm comfort of her welcoming arms and gentle, soft touches.
"He is coming around. Stay quiet, everyone."
Her name was Annabeth Chase. His Wise Girl.
"Come on, Percy/Perseus/Jackson." There were whispers around the room. The air in the room was tangible with worry and excitement, thick enough to be cut with a knife.
Percy remembered snippets from the recent past. He had a harem, made of twenty girls, girls he held close to his heart. Not as close as his Wise Girl, yet, but as time went, they crept closer to where she had been, threatening to even surpass her. A fearsome battalion of twenty girls all fighting for his heart, which he had already half-given to them. He held his heart only by a finger.
"I love you. We love you." There were whispers and silent prayers from the people in the room around him. People he struggled to recognize.
But his mind did not need to recognize them to respond.
I love you all, too. I love you, too.
AN: Haha. Okay, get a load of this.
People are crazy about Japanese cherry blossoms, or red-orange leaves littering the ground during fall. But, right outside my room, the street is laden thick with bright pink, orange, red, yellow and white flowers like a carpet, as beautiful as the pictures one can see on the Internet. Indian springs... a bit hot, but beautiful and colourful, and tasty, too. The breeze, though hot and dry, brings down these bright flowers, rustling the green leaves of the trees just like I describe in my books. Can you imagine the sounds, the smell and the sights? It is as beautiful as heaven on earth. Other times, it is the dirtiest place on the planet. Such is the transient nature of the affection, human beings hold for their homes.
Keep calm and CR7!! Keep calm and LM10!! (Messi)