Greetings readers! I hope that you liked the previous stories!
This is the fourth one-shot and it directly follows the events of the previous two books and the first three one-shots.
If you have landed on this one-shot by chance, please read the first two stories and the three one-shots or else this one-shot won't make any sense and it will also spoil the two stories. Both stories are thirty chapters each and have around 389K words, so give them a try! The stories are:
The Tale Of Perseus: Beginnings(Book 1)
The Tale of Perseus: The Trojan War(Book 2)
Friendship (First One-shot)
Family (Second One-shot)
Reminiscence (Third One-shot)
If you have already read those prequels, I hope you enjoy this one-shot.
All credit for the characters goes exclusively to Rick Riordan.
Athena's life had become a living hell for the past century. She had been tormented by Percy's sacrifice for one hundred years and would have succumbed to the intense emotional trauma if it hadn't been for her aunts and father. But that didn't mean she was not miserable. In fact, she was going through a hallucination right now.
"Athena, you the goddess of wisdom. I informed you long ago that I may one day lay down my life but you didn't listen to me. You should have walked out on me so that you could be spared of this pain." Athena's hallucination of Percy shouted. This one had a hardened glint in his eyes, long hair pulled into a ponytail and had a trimmed beard. His soft sea green eyes conveyed resigned maturity.
"Watch your tone cynic. Athena's will is unbreakable. She will weather through these painful times and one day, we will wake up and give her the life she deserves. We definitely would not have walked out on her if the roles had been reversed. This is what true love means." Athena's second hallucination rebuked. This was a younger version of Percy, with shorter, spikier hair, a clean shaven face and his swirling sea green eyes glowing with determination.
"True love? Please, don't joke around. How long did it take for us to forget about Calypso? Two decades? Three decades? We don't deserve Athena's love. She doesn't deserve to suffer like this. Not anymore. She has torn herself apart in the past century. How much longer do you want her to be miserable? Centuries? Millennia? Eons? All eternity?" Older Percy questioned with a steely glint in his eyes.
"It was different with Calypso. We had no choice. You know as well as I do that anything we would have done at that moment could have caused a civil war. We were forced to let go because the fate of the world depended on it. There was no hope. This is not the same thing. We are not dead. We may be in a state of suspended animation but that doesn't mean we will never return. Hope cannot succeed without patience and perseverance. Miracles do not happen overnight." Younger Percy angrily answered.
"It is cruel to make her wait for something that may never happen." Older Percy stated with a scowl.
"It is also unfair to ask her to just discard everything she feels for us and move on. Gods are not used to loss. Like it or not, there is a part of you and me that is and will always be mortal. It means that we have always been subconsciously better at dealing with loss. She does not have the same luxury." Younger Percy retorted with a similar scowl.
"You are naïve and foolish. You think that hope, patience and power can overcome any obstacle. But that is not true. Destiny is a cruel master. No amount of hope, patience and power can overcome it. What is supposed to be happen, will happen. It is inevitable. All you can do is learn from it and move on. And that is what she needs to do." Older Percy stated with a resigned sigh.
"You are wrong. Destiny is only what we make of it. You have heard the Fates say it countless times. Our fate is a reflection of our own actions. You know as much as I do that we are doing our best to come back. To come back and live out our shared dreams with Athena." Younger Percy defiantly stated.
"Doing our best? Don't make me laugh. We are suspended in a water tank like a vegetable. We are just an inch away from death and probably won't be conscious ever again. Yes, it's true that we are the ones who determine our own fate but here's the thing - we made our choice. We chose to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of everything we loved and this is our fate. This is our destiny. And there is no going back on this." Older Percy stated with an air of finality.
"I don't believe that. As long as we are not truly dead, there is always hope. As long as our string of fate has not been snapped definitively, there is always hope that we can one day laugh, smile and dance with her again. This is not the first time we kissed death and came back. And this will definitely not be the last." Younger Percy shot back, his vibrant sea green eyes glowing with indomitable willpower.
"Why don't we find out once and for all then? She has waited for one century. That's long enough. Let her see our lifeless form and realise that there's no point in waiting for a dead man." Older Percy declared.
"I agree. Let her see that we are not dead yet and realise that this is something worth waiting for." Younger Percy concurred and Athena looked at them in bewilderment.
"What are you saying? I don't know if I am ready for this." Athena nervously stated.
"It's now or never Athena. You cannot live like this for the rest of your life. You need to decide on something." Older Percy stated, his eyes softening.
"Cynic here is right. You need closure Athena. One way or the other." Young Percy gently stated.
"One way or the other." Older Percy repeated in a low voice and Athena made her decision after being trapped between two pairs of sea green eyes.
When Amphitrite had visited Athena in the morning, she had not expecte goddess of wisdom to accompany her back to Atlantis, to see Percy's state. And while Amphitrite was a bit surprised, she had acquiesced to Athena's request and they now found themselves in front of the door that lead to Percy's resting place.
"Athena, are you sure about this? You may not like what you see. No one is forcing you to do this. You can take as much time as you want." Amphitrite softly stated.
"No Aunt Amphitrite, I think I have waited enough. I desperately need some clarity right now. I cannot live the rest of my life like this. I need to either wait hopefully for Percy's return or decide to move on." Athena stated in a low voice.
"You have done a good thing Athena. This decision is yours alone to make and you can be there for as long as you want, you will not be disturbed." Amphitrite stated with a sympathetic smile.
"Thank you for everything Aunt Amphitrite. I should have done this a lot earlier." Athena whispered.
"My dear, it is better to not rush some things because some things take a lot of time. And after all, we are eternal, we have all the time in the world. Just know this niece, you are like a daughter to me and whatever you decide, you will have our full support." Amphitrite gently stated and Athena immediately hugged her.
"Believe in yourself Athena. I know that you will make the right decision." Amphitrite confidently stated after pulling away and offered Athena one final reassuring smile before walking away. Athena rubbed her palms together to ease some of her tension before pushing open the door and walking into the room.
Athena's breath become sharper and shallower as she noticed the beautiful murals around the room, narrating Percy's life and his seemingly impossible achievements. She came to a halt when she saw a mural that brought tears to her eyes.
It was a mural that depicted them tenderly kissing in one of Olympus' beautiful gardens under the soft, illuminating light of the full moon. It was an old memory, a memory of their first kiss together.
It reminded her of how passionate they had been about each other and how much joy they had filled in each other's lives. It took Athena a few minutes to regain her composure, steady her heart and wipe her tears away before she approached the tank filled with enchanted water housing Percy. She cautiously approached the tank and with a loud exhale, she forced herself to see Percy. And instantly, a fresh batch of tears made their way down her cheeks.
Percy looked nothing like he was supposed to look like. His sun kissed skin that was once an enthralling and light shade of bronze was now deathly pale. His hair which was always set in a windswept yet regal way was now loosely dangling and his intimidating, chiseled muscles had lost some of their shape and size.
His sea green eyes which held an entire ocean of emotions were now closed and instead of the royal silk robes he usually wore, barring his face, his entire body was covered in golden bandages.
Worst of all, she could see that his chest was completely still. His roaring yet comforting heartbeat that she had loved listening to was not there anymore. And Athena fell to her knees as sobs of grief erupted from her.
"You can see what I have become Athena. Saying I am not dead right now has the same amount of truth behind it as saying I was not a full immortal before my death. Both statements are technically not true but for all practical purposes, you can say otherwise." Older Percy reappeared and stated with a sorrowful expression.
"Don't listen to him Athena. Look at all these murals around you. There is only one singular message behind them. I always accomplished the impossible. This will be no different." Younger Percy stated with a determined expression.
"Get out of my head. Neither of you is the real Percy. You are only an illusion. The real Percy is in front of me." Athena hissed.
"And like or not, the real Percy is dead. The only way you will get rid of us is if you forget us. Aphrodite can wipe every single memory you have of our time together. Ask her to do it and move on." Older Percy sternly stated.
"The real Percy is not dead Athena. But he will definitely die if you give up hope. He told it himself. Death is not when your heart stops beating. Death is when those you loved think you are not worthwhile remembering." Younger Percy angrily shot back.
"Leave me alone!" Athena shouted and instantly both her hallucinations disappeared. Her legs trembled as she stood up and she shakily placed her palm on the glass above Percy's chest.
"Hey Percy, I am so sorry for not coming earlier. I just could not muster enough courage to see you in this state and I am sorry if I made you wait too long." Athena softly stated.
"If you saw me right now, you would be very upset to see how the headstrong goddess you loved has turned into a fumbling, broken mess. But for the past century, the only thing that I could ever think about was you. I know that our entire family would probably be rotting in Tartarus if it weren't for your sacrifice but it's been so hard to not have you around." Athena confessed as her voice cracked in the end.
"I keep getting hallucinations of older, cynical and younger, determined illusions of you. One tells me I should give up on you and the other tells me I should never give up hope. But both made a valid point when they told me that I had to decide for myself whether to wait or move on. And that's what I am here for today Percy." Athena declared.
"Percy, please, if you can hear me, show some sign that you are not completely lifeless. The faintest of heartbeats, the slightest flicker of your mortal soul, the smallest of immortal essences, anything will be enough to convince me to wait for you for as long as required. I will wait for decades, centuries or even millennia as long as I know that I will be reunited with you one day. But I need some sign that you are not really dead." Athena stated with desperation laced into her voice.
Athena waited for a response. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours as Athena stood motionlessly, staring unblinkingly at Percy to catch even the slightest movement.
Finally, after hours passed and Percy hadn't shown any sign, Athena placed her head held in between her hands and the harsh reality that Percy had not shown any signs of life for the past century and that there was no guarantee that he would ever wake up hit her. And it hit her hard as she let out a heartbreaking, guttural scream.
In a separate metaphysical plane, a man and a woman stood on a glowing yellow cloud, surrounded by a brilliant sky with a golden hue.
The man was tall and muscular and wore shimmering golden robes that matched the colour of his neatly combed hair and his eyes were a solid gold. Next to him, the woman was wearing similar robes but they were a blinding white, matching the colour of her luscious white hair which cascaded over her shoulders. And her eyes were also completely white. These two were Chronos, the Protogenos of Time and Ananke, the Protogenos of Destiny.
"Look at the poor girl Chronos. My heart goes out for her. She is in so much pain and she does not even know that he will wake up one day. We have to do something to give this suffering girl some hope. We have to show her that he will come back to her. Can't you accelerate the growth of his immortal essence?" Ananke gently questioned.
"I can accelerate it Ananke but you know that in order to maintain balance, I will also need to accelerate Kronos' rate of reformation. If I only accelerate the growth of young Perseus' essence, we will be breaking the oath we made millennia ago to not meddle into the affairs of lesser beings and shift the natural balance." Chronos stated with a sigh.
"That didn't stop Tartarus from taking a physical form and rampaging around just for the sake of getting even with Perseus." Ananke argued.
"Tartarus never agreed to the truce. Unlike Erebus and Nyx who were interested in ruling the world, all Tartarus ever wanted was to wreck havoc and spread chaos. Once he corrupted mortals, he did not do anything until now. And Erebus and Nyx have honoured their part of the oath until now. So if I am going to do this, it will also mean that the gods will have to face the Titans much earlier. Will they be ready for it?" Chronos answered.
"Chronos, the longer it takes for Perseus to wake up, the darker the actions of the gods will become. Athena herself can turn into a very cold, amoral person if his rejuvenation takes too long." Ananke revealed.
"I cannot accelerate his recovery too much Ananke, the residual energy from such an action will wash over the entire world. The world is already suffering from the consequences of residual energy." Chronos stated.
"His recovery does not need to be accelerated to that extent. Just do enough so that Athena knows that Perseus will be back one day." Ananke softly requested.
"Alright my dear, anything for you." Chronos stated with a small smile as his staff with a sandglass on top materialised in his hands.
He slammed the staff into the cloud below him and instantly, the sand in the sandglass started falling much faster and a golden wave erupted from his staff and disappeared a moment later.
"Perhaps Atropos is right. We may be a tad bit too attached to Perseus." Chronos stated with an amused smile.
"He's a lovely boy Chronos. Clotho may have created his string with an intent to restore balance but the actions and sacrifices that led to him becoming a beacon of hope were his own choices. He reminds me of what the world was like before Tartarus corrupted it. Perseus even had the raw tenacity and sheer willpower to make the world a peaceful haven once again, reminiscent of the times we once ruled it. Even if it stayed that way only for a few decades, I had dismissed such a task as an impossible one." Ananke stated with a glint of respect in her eyes.
"Tartarus was right. He does remind me of us when we were new to this world that father had created. He was a beacon of hope not only for his family but also for the rest of the world. He gave me hope that he could make the world a better place. And he didn't disappoint. This is the least we could do." Chronos agreed with a similar tone of respect.
"I would love to share a glass of Nectar with this fine young man one day." Ananke stated.
"I look forward to it as well. I am sure that day will eventually present itself." Chronos concurred.
"I thought that I was the one who was supposed to be the personification of destiny." Ananke stated with a teasing smile and Chronos heartily chuckled in response.
They had done the right thing. It was one small action but an action that would eventually make the world a better place. Besides, they owed it to Perseus and the other gods for protecting the world from Tartarus.
Back in Percy's resting place, the golden wave of energy appeared out of thin war and slammed into Percy's chest, breaking the tank and drenching Athena in the process.
As soon as the wave of energy slammed into him, Percy's eyes opened and his sea green eyes glowed with life and energy before they closed a few seconds later. Athena barely processed what had happened when she heart what she had been desperately looking for. A heartbeat.
She immediately scooped Percy into her arms and placed her head on his chest. And a wide, watery smile broke out on her face when she heard his heartbeat. It was not as loud or as fast as it should have been but all that mattered to Athena was that it was there and that it was steady. And to her relief, she could also feel a small but slowly growing immortal essence in him.
"You heard me. You reckless, stubborn, stupid, amazing man, you actually heard me." Athena stated with a hoarse chuckle as tears flowed down her cheeks.
She was feeling the rush of hope, a rush she had craved for a century and she leaned down to kiss Percy. Even more tears of joy sprung to her eyes when she didn't find his lips as cold and lifeless as last time.
There was the characteristic salty warmth in his lips, it was barely noticeable but at that moment, all her fears were quelled because now, she knew for sure that her Percy would one day come back her.
Hey guys! So this one-shot ended up taking much longer than anticipated so sorry about that. I had actually had this chapter ready four days ago but I deleted it by mistake and had to rewrite it. However, I am much happier with the rewrite than the original so I hope that you enjoyed it!
This chapter was meant purely to portray the raw pain Athena was experiencing and those two hallucinations of Percy were the personifications of the two different parts of her mind.
I also sneaked in a little experience by our favorite protogenoi and ended this on a hopeful note. Now, we only have the one-shot detailing the rise of the Romans before we move on to the next story.
I am also sorry for not answering reviews for these one-shots but I want to let all of you know that I still feel very motivated by them! And I will definitely be answering reviews as well in the next story!
Read and review, I hope that all of you enjoyed this one-shot! Have a fantastic day!