Hey guys! More amnesiac Percy, and honestly I think part of the reason I didn't enjoy writing this one so much is the fact that it is very similar to cannon in a lot of ways because of the amnesia. But there are important events and scenes that need to happen.
Replies:
Weirdhead: Yes he isssss. And yep, you were the first review.
The Official Clarisse: That should be the secondary title for Captured Queen and Legions crown, it should just be Fuck Hera part one, and Fuck Hera Part two.
Undeath9087: She remembers Annabeth and Rachel because she is very much in love with them- and as much as she loves Luke it's slightly different. And she does have flashes of Luke's face.
dxlxtxd xccxxnt: I do get that- that's the only problem with amnesiac Percy, a lot of stuff is going to stay quite similar to cannon, but there are scenes that are important so I needed to do it.
Oujiswan: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you're enjoying.
JjlovesPJO: Percy is just like 'I remember nothing, I have done nothing, and yet I have to keep killing these bitches.'
Guest: Percy doesn't fully remember anyone but she does get flashes and it drives her insane- poor Percy knows she has people to go home too- she doesn't know that they don't know her. And yes the minific and this one all happened after the events of Captured Queen.
Guest: A couple of typos, sorry about that! I fixed it I think.
PJ Fan 285: They will go to the library- I love Ella and I love how she and Percy interact in this one, Percy is truly her mothers daughter. And as for your point about Alabaster- you will have to wait and see- though I will say Frank is lovely and heroic and we loves him.
Guest: I don't think so- though I do wonder about Canon- because in Canon Percy has come out with Latin phrases on occasion, and he understood the Latin, which I don't believe we see any other demigods do and there's no mention of Jason understanding any of the Greek I think- if I'm wrong tell me I'm honestly curious. That's part of why I came up with the Roman AU.
"Y'know-" Percy said quickly, giving her most winning smile as she pushed away the strange flashes of memories that she couldn't grasp. "Since I, y'know, don't remember anything and apparently you're just after me because of something some brother I'm not even sure I have did, could we just call a truce and talk about your specials? I'd love some Cheese 'n' Weiners." Stheno gave her sister a pouty look, which was hard to do with giant bronze tusks. "Can we?"
"No!" Euryale's red eyes bored into Percy. "I don't care what you remember, daughter of the sea god. We know who you are and we know of your family-"
"Which is more than I know-"
"And Medusa still has not returned from Tartarus-"
"Again that isn't my fault!" Percy was really struggling with all of this- it was so not fair, she wished she remembered anything from before- she had to have known about all of this stuff- if she had her memories she'd understand why she was being hunted down, why the monsters wanted to kill her- but there was nothing she could do about it. "Listen, how about we just call it quits." she tried, "I can't kill you, you can't kill me. If you're Medusa's sisters or whatever- she turned people to
stone right. Shouldn't I be petrified by now?"
"Heroes!" Euryale said with disgust. "They always bring that up, just like our mother! 'Why can't you turn people to stone? Your sister can turn people to stone.' Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, boy! That was Medusa's curse alone. She was the most hideous one in the family. She got all the luck!"
Stheno looked hurt. "Mother said I was the most hideous."
"Quiet!" Euryale snapped. "As for you, Percy Jackson, it's true you bear the mark of Achilles. That makes you a little tougher to kill. But don't worry. We'll find a way."
"The mark of what?"
"Achilles," Stheno said cheerfully. "Oh, he was gorgeous! Dipped in the River Styx as a child, you know, so he was invulnerable except for a tiny spot on his ankle. That's what happened to you, dear. Someone must've dumped you in the Styx and made your skin like iron. But not to worry. Heroes like you always have a weak spot. We just have to find it, and then we can kill you. Won't that be lovely? Have a Cheese 'n' Wiener!"
That made sense at least- even if Percy couldn't remember anything about taking a dip in the Styx- she had to have something on her side after all, she should have been killed dozens of times during this game of catch with the Gorgons.
She glanced backwards, down the mountain. Would she survive? Maybe, but- she didn't even know where this weak spot she apparently had was so she probably shouldn't risk that. Not without something to slow the fall or some kind of sled- she paused, eyes shifting back to Stheno's large silver platter of free samples.
It was crazy- then again, a voice in the back of her mind was whispering 'That's what you do, the crazier the plan the better it works' and she felt herself making her mind up.
Stheno must have noticed the look on her face because she beamed, "You're considering? Very wise, dear. I added some gorgon's blood to these, so your death will be quick and painless."
Percy's throat constricted. "You added your blood to the Cheese 'n' Wieners?"
"Just a little." Stheno smiled. "A tiny nick on my arm, but you're sweet to be concerned. Blood from our right side can cure anything, you know, but blood from our left side is deadly—"
"You dimwit!" Euryale screeched. "You're not supposed to tell her that! She won't eat the wieners if you tell her they're poisoned!"
Stheno looked stunned. "She won't? But I said it would be quick and painless."
"She's only just come back-"
"What are you two talking about! Come back from where?!"
"Never mind!" Euryale's fingernails grew into claws. "We'll kill her the hard way—just keep slashing until we find the weak spot. Once we defeat Percy Jackson, we'll be more famous than Medusa! Than anyone! Our patron will reward us greatly!"
Percy gripped Riptide tightly- she'd have to time it right of course, a few seconds of confusion were all she needed, she had to keep them talking. Besides- maybe she could get some answers.
"Okay, okay but before you slash me to bits could you at least tell me who this patron you mentioned is? Who did I piss off that badly?"
Euryale sneered. "The goddess Gaea, of course! The one who brought us back from oblivion! You won't live long enough to meet her, but your friends below will soon face her wrath. Even now, her armies are marching south. At the Feast of Fortune, she'll awaken, and the demigods will be cut down like—like—" "Like our low prices at Bargain Mart!" Stheno suggested.
"Gah!" Euryale stormed toward her sister. Percy took the opening. She grabbed Stheno's platter, scattering poisoned Cheese 'n' Wieners, and slashed Riptide across
Euryale's waist, cutting her in half.
She raised the platter and Stheno found herself facing her own greasy reflection.
"Medusa!" she screamed.
Her sister Euryale had crumbled to dust, but she was already starting to re-form, like a snowman un-melting. "Stheno, you fool!" she gurgled as her half-made face rose from the mound of dust. "That's just your own reflection! Get her!"
Percy slammed the metal tray on top of Stheno's head, and she passed out cold.
She quickly put the platter behind her, said a silent prayer to any gods who might be watching her with amusement, and she jumped off the side of the hill.
She hit the ground with a painful jolting sensation, which made the small of her back ache, and then she was moving- she hadn't anticipated how quickly she'd build up speed- she was willing to admit that. And she was also willing to admit that it had probably been a bad idea to try sledding on a freaking snack platter.
The main problem was the lack of steering, she realised that pretty quickly- and at fifty miles an hour you really, really wanted to be able to steer.
She managed to miss a tree, glance of a boulder and then she spun a three sixty as she shot towards the highway.
She could hear the Gorgon sisters screaming behind her at the top of the hill but she didn't have time to worry about that.
In a strange way a part of her was enjoying it- it was like a roller coaster but even more terrifying because there were no safety precautions- it was life or death- and for some reason the thought of death didn't scare her- it felt familiar.
Still she didn't actively want to die, so she had to focus on what she was doing. The roof of the apartment building loomed below her like the prow of a battleship. Head-on collision in ten, nine, eight...
She managed to swivel sideways to avoid breaking her legs on impact.
The snack platter skittered across the roof and sailed through the air, the platter going one way and Percy going the other.
As she fell toward the highway Percy had millions of thoughts flashing through her mind- the most prominent one being the mental image of her body smashing against some poor mortals car, the chaos it would cause- and that wasn't even considering the fact that she'd probably be dead on impact.
By some sort of miracle a gust of wind caught her and suddenly she was being blown to one side, it wasn't a huge change in direction but she missed the highway and crashed into a clump of bushes instead- not a soft or pleasant landing, but it was better than it could have been and Percy took a moment to suck in a desperate breath before she was forcing herself to her feet.
She was aching something horrible but she wasn't too badly hurt at least, no broken bones- and there wasn't even a scratch on her, though her dress had a few tears in it from the rough landing.
She let out a breath, looking around as she did- Riptide was nowhere to be seen, she must have lost her grip on it but it wasn't too worrying- she'd get it back soon.
The sword always made it's way back to her.
She let out a breath as she glanced up the hill. The Gorgons were hard to miss with their colorful snake hair and the bright green Bargain Mart vests. They were picking their way down the slope, going slower than Percy but with a lot more control. Those chicken feet must have been good for climbing. Percy figured she had maybe five minutes before they reached her, and that was if she was lucky. She rarely was but that wasn't the point.
Next to her a tall chain-link fence separated the highway from a neighborhood of winding streets, cozy houses, and tall eucalyptus trees. The fence was probably there to keep people from getting onto the highway and doing stupid things—like sledding into the fast lane on snack trays—but the chain-link was full of big holes. Percy could easily slip through into the neighborhood. Maybe she could find a car and drive west to the ocean. She didn't like stealing cars, but over the past few weeks, in life-and-death situations, she'd "borrowed" several, including a police cruiser. She'd meant to return them, but they never seemed to last very long.
She glanced to the east- just as she'd figured a few hundred yards up the hill the highway cut through the base of the cliff. Two tunnel entrances, one for each direction of traffic.
They stared down at her like eye sockets of a giant skull. In the middle, where the nose would have been, a cement wall jutted from the hillshide with a metal door like the entrance to a bunker. It might have been a maintenance tunnel. That's probably what mortals thought, if they noticed the door at all. But they couldn't see through the Mist. Percy knew the door was more than that.
Two kids in armor flanked the entrance. They wore a bizarre mix of plumed Roman helmets, breastplates, scabbards, blue jeans, purple T-shirts, and white athletic shoes. The guard on the right looked like a girl, though it was hard to tell for sure with all the armor. The one on the left was a stocky guy with a bow and quiver on his back. Both kids held long wooden staffs with iron spear tips, like old-fashioned harpoons.
Percy felt a flood of relief mixed with dread.
Her internal radar was going off like crazy- after days and days of terror, of running away from monsters who wanted her dead she'd finally reached her goal. Her instincts were screaming that if she made it inside of that door she might just find safety for the first time since the wolves had sent her south.
And yet- yet it felt wrong- wrong wrong wrong in a way that she couldn't make any sense of.
But- she couldn't afford to let that slow her down. Not with the Gorgons coming for her- they were scrambling over the roof of the apartment complex. Three minutes now. If she was lucky.
She swallowed hard turning her head to look to the west- a part of her wanted to run there- she'd be safe there, she could feel it deep in her bones. That was where her power would be strongest, she was a child of the ocean it was where she belonged- it wasn't here. This place wasn't hers, it was dangerous.
But- her memories- she wanted her memories back so badly and Lupa had wanted her to come here, that much she was certain of.
So what was she supposed to do? Not for the first time she cursed whoever had done this to her- if she could just remember- and she knew someone had done it- she was sure of that. She just didn't know who it was.
But that didn't change how things were now, Percy let out a breath- she could run to the sea, or- or she could go to the place that her instincts told her was so very very wrong. So dangerous that she was almost trembling.
And then, as if reading her mind, a voice came from right next to him. "You're right of course."