(UNKNOWN, UNKNOWN POV)
I made sure to mask my aura completely, because being found out now would be very bad. I was still crouched in the corner as I watched the now transformed Dionysus square off with the agent of Aion.
"Pontus does not appreciate Aions' meddling in his plans for the Olympians, so I suggest you skimper back to him and tell him to back off," snarled the icy wine god.
"HAH! So the wimpy party god gets a taste of power and thinks he's unbeatable, huh? Very well then, let us see just how well Pontus's blessing will hold up against one of my lords greatest agents," the woman snarked back as she lunged at the god, swinging her ethereal blade at his chest.
Dionysus quickly brought his blade up to parry her strike, but his smirk shifted to a disgruntled look as his silvery blade connected with her sword and instantly at the point of contact it turned pitch black, and the black began to spread and enveloped the whole blade in seconds.
With a yelp, the god dropped the blade as it dissolved into air. "it"ll take more than that puny blade to challenge me, fool," the woman smirked as Dionysus grew frustrated.
"Very well, then let me show you why I'm a god and your a pathetic mortal grasping at immortality!" the wine god yelled as he held out his hand of solid ice and an icy staff with a frozen cone at the top materialized in his outstretched hand.
"This fight just became a lot less one-sided," I mused as the gods symbol of power released a terrifying chill into the room.
(LIMBO, CLARISSE POV)
My mind was racing, my blood pulsing through my body so quickly that it hurt. Which made no sense since my mind was sluggish, and my veins felt like they were filled with sap, moving so slow that I shouldn't even be alive.
The last thing I remember was going to sleep, but that doesn't make sense because I'm wide awake.
The only thing that was constant was my pain, every single source of pain for body and mind was present, growing unimaginably worse by the second. But it wasn't that bad, because every second felt like an eternity, but I could tell that time was going faster at an exponential rate.
So far in this odd and terrifying hell I have lived through countless lives and scenarios, every single one having only pain and misery in store for me.
The only other constant in this hell was Percy, looking at me and smirking as I underwent every kind of torture imaginable. I had slowly begun to resent his cold, smirking features, untill the only thing in my mind was my hatred for him, what he stood for, and what he was as a person.
As soon as this thought of hatred formed fully I was roughly ejected from where ever I was, and as the pain subsided and my memory of that place and everything within it subsided from memory, I slowly regained consciousness. All that was left was a dull ache and a slight dislike of the person lying in bed next to me, Percy.
Now that I think about it, I can't beleive I ever thought I was in love with him. "The musings of a fool misguided," I thought to myself as I slowly extracted myself from Percy's embrace, and left the cabin as quietly as I could, retreating to the familiar Ares cabin in the dead of night.
(OLYMPUS, APHRODITE POV)
I stared in amazement as the roaring fire that was Clarisse's love for Percy was extinguished in matter of minutes, reduced to dying embers.
Lifting my eyes off of my trusty mirror I layed them on the god whose true power I have just witnessed.
"Morpheus... just what was that?" I asked, my breath catching. The god in question smirked, glad that someone could finally see just how powerful he was.
"I entered her dreams and fused her subconscious with mine. This is something that can alter the mind of the person in question, and if taken too far could even form a whole new person, different personality and everything. All I did was mess with the portion of her subconscious that influenced love, and I used minimal force." The god of sleep explained with a proud smirk.
"That's... terrifying, but ok. Thank you Morpheus. Now, for your reward," I said with a sly smile as I closed the door and locked it, and Morpheus sunk into my large bed with a blissful smile. 'The things I must do for Percy,' I thought with a sigh.
(CAMP HALF-BLOOD, GROVER POV)
There was no turning back now, I made my choice, albeit maybe foolishly, and have gotten myself involved with forces greater than Olympus. Now I had to carry out the mission given to me by the dark god, or risk a fate worse than Tartarus.
As I stepped out onto the porch of the big house in the dead of night, tears slipped out from my eyes. How could I not get emotional, I had grown up with her, and held her bery dear to my heart, but she messed with the dark gods plans, and that's equivalent to a death wish.
I started towards the Poseidon cabin when i saw the woman in question leaving the sea gods cabin and walking towards the Ares cabin.
'Perfect,' I thought to myself even as the self-loathing at such a thought formed just as quickly as the thought itself.
"Clarisse," I called out, knowing that this would be the last time I would ever see or talk to her again.
"Woah! Grover you startled me," she said as she dropped her guard down. She changed her course and began walking towards me. "Hey I missed you these past few days, what's up?" she asked, making my heart clench.
"Well, first off let me say I'm sorry Clarisse, you don't deserve this, and if I could I would rather take the fall then you," I said as her eyes filled with trepidition.
"Grover what are your saying?" she asked as her hand slowly inched to her spear. "Grover what is happening? Tell me right now!" she demanded as I rasied my hand now shrouded in darkness up.
"I'm so sorry, Clarisse," I said as a final tear slid down my cheek before her whole body was absorbed by the darkness, and she existed no more.
(CAMP HALF-BLOOD, PERCY POV)
I awoke with a start, and sitting up quickly I looked right next to me, only to find the bed empty. My worries suddenly grew, as the blessing I had recieved from Hades was making my senses go haywire. They were telling me that Clarisse was not alive but also not dead. She was just gone. I quickly rushed outside to not a single trace of anyone, except for the lingering presence of a dark and terrifying power similar in nature to the feeling I had whenever Pontus' power rolled over me.
I quickly rushed over to the big house and found Grover sitting on the porch, bawling his eyes out.
"Grover! What happened to Clarisse!?" I practically screamed at him as he looked up at me with big watery eyes. "Percy! Thank the gods! Someone with the blessing of a primordial destroyed her soul! She can't even go to elysium because she simply doesn't exist anymore! I couldn't do anything to stop him! Percy, I'm such a failure," he cried on the whole time as he spoke, before the realization of his words hit me. Clarisse was dead.
"Which primordial? Was it Pontus?" I growled as my mind flooded with rage. "WHICH PRIMORDIAL GROVER!?" I bellowed at the tearful saytr.
"I-I don't know, but it wasn't Pontus. It was a primordial with powers of darkness," he said as I growled.
"Where are you going?" he asked as I wheeled around and marched off into the forest. I ignored him, only able to think about how everyone I love ends up dead. It's my fault. It's always my fault. First Annabeth, then Reyna, then Clarisse. It felt like I was being played by someone who found my love life very interesting. 'Aphrodite,' I thought. She has always been interested in breaking my heart, something that has happened one too many times.
Just as I was about to march on Olympus itself asking for Aphrodite's head, I calmed down enough to remember that this was out of her scope of power. This was the doing of beings many times older than her, and far more powerful. So the only logical blame I could put on anybody was the fates. They had also taken an odd interest in me as well, which had terrified me to the core before, but not anymore.
"I swear upon the river Styx I will make the fates pay for all the pain they hace caused me and my friends," I growled as the sky shook beneath several waves of booming thunder.
(CAMP HALF-BLOOD, ARTEMIS POV)
My eyes fluttered open as the morning sun shined through the windows of my cabin. As I rolled out of bed, stretching, a terrible wave of trepidition washed over me. Issuing a shout of alarm that awoke all the hunters I rushed out of the cabin and began following what my senses were telling me was the current source of incredible darkness within the camp.
A few minutes after speeding through the forest I came upon a clearing that was incredibly humid, and had enough water drenching the ground to make a mud pool.
Sitting at the center if this unnatural environent on a fallen log was Percy. As I crept up to him he suddenly turned at me, sword in hand, with a terrifying gleam in his eyes.
"Percy, what happened?" I asked as I took another step. Before I coulf attempt to take yet another step he leveled his blade at my chest, a look of crazed fear in his eyes.
I slowly raised my hands up, dropping my bow and knives, which seemed to ease him up a little.
"Percy, what happened to you?" I asked carefully, as the glaze over his eyes finally seemed to go away.
"Clarisse... is dead," he said.
I took a step back as the shock hit me. "You... didn't do anything, did you? Please tell me you didn't play a part in her death," I pleaded with him.
He looked up at me in horror. "Of course not! It was somebody sent by a primordial who controls the powers of darkness or something like that! At least that's what Grover said," he explained as a wave of relief washed over me. Not a second later that relief turned into worry again. 'Not another primordial,' I thought as I stood up from the log we had been sitting on.
"Percy, take some time off, don't worry about helping the hunt or anything. I must go and inform the council that another primordial has joined the fray," I said as he nodded sadly. "Oh and one more thing, don't go off and disappear again, ok?" I asked and he nodded his head again with a half-hearted chuckle.
I flashed to the throne room, surprised to see Ares already sitting on his throne, with a cold aura of pain and anger washing over his unusually calm features.
I sent a summon to the Olympians and one by one the vacant thrones were filled up with their respective gods.
"Why have you summoned the Council again, my daughter? Please tell me it's not to say there is another threat from Pontus," Zeus pleaded as several other gods nodded in agreement. They were all pressed as it is on preparing for Pontus.
I sighed. "Not quite, but it's not much better," I said as worry settled on several gods' faces.
"An unknown intruder entered camp Half-Blood and killed one of the campers. This person was briefly seen by Grover, who described him as using the power of a primordial who had control over darkness. Why they targeted this specific camper is not known to me, but whatever their purpose, theu succeded." I summarized as several gasps arose from the Olympians gathered.
"Who was killed?" Athena asked in a soft voice. I was about to answer when a loud bellow issued from Ares.
"MY DAUGHTER CLARISSE!" He roared.
I scanned the room for reactions and saw Aphrodite look taken aback at the news of Clarisse's death. I could tell immediately that she had been involved in whatever happened to Clarisse, whether it was directly related to her death or not. 'I will find out what your hiding you conniving demon,' I thought as worry set in Aphrodite's usually impeccable features.
AN: Wow its been so long. Honestly my life is just too turbulent to be able to update regularly for extended periods of time but I just refuse to give up on this story. Finally I can get to the really fun part of this story, which is writing the Pertemis part of the fanfic :)