The Darkness Within the Sea

by GallifreyanDemigoddess

Persephone Jackson, the two-times Heroine of Olympus, was not recovering well after the war(s) and Tartarus. She moves to a small town in Virginia with her family, hoping to have a normal life. There was only one problem: Mystic Falls was a monster-infected town. There, as new friendships are formed, she explores the darkness within the sea (within herself) in an attempt to heal.

14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, and Trials of Apollo don't belong to me. Neither does the Vampire Diaries & The Originals.

English is not my native language, so I apologize for the mistakes I might have.

...

Chapter 14

...

Sally and Paul were having breakfast together in silence, both of them wearing exact same masks of exhaustion, both having pronounced dark bags under their eyes. Their hands were locked, but none of them felt energetic enough to truly acknowledge each other's presence.

There was the inevitable truth that made them stay silent: they didn't know how to address everything that happened the previous night.

None of them knew how to reach the inevitable matter that was their daughter's health.

It wasn't easy to talk after witnessing their little girl being so desperate and so pained that she caused an earthly phenomenon.

"I think it's time for us to leave," Paul was the first to break the tense silence. His wife was staring at him, not blinking, attentively listening to his words, which somehow made it harder for him to express his thoughts.

"I know," Sally answered quietly, finally looking away.

"I think-" He hesitated, putting his cup of coffee down, the empty sound it make against the glass table making them both wince. "I think we should be closer to Camp, like we were before."

She knew he was right, but they'd just gotten Percy back after being without her for nine months, and she also knew that the moment her daughter stepped into Camp- or even into New York, in general- the gods would find a way to involve her in their schemes.

That was how it was always done.

It was always her daughter, always the daughter of Poseidon.

She didn't want to lose Percy again after just having started to make up for the months they lost.

"You don't like the idea." Paul broke the silence once again, knowing enough about the woman he loved to recognize the worry etched into her relatively young face.

"I wanted my daughter to be away from-"

He waited for her to finish the sentence even when he knew what she wanted to say. Away from the gods.

She didn't finish her statement, simply choosing to look away and to act as though everything was fine, something she did quite a lot.

Paul leaned towards Sally, gently taking her hands on his own, leaving soft caresses and gentle kisses on her knuckles, trying to make her feel better; somehow he could sense her distress even when her face was a perfect mask of blankness.

"It's part of her," Paul said at last, hesitating as he did so, not knowing if those words would offend her. "They are part of her, Sally. She could never be fully away from them-"

"I know that," Sally snapped, moving her hands away from his, for she had known and accepted that for long before Percy was even born; she'd accepted that unknown world and the fact that her daughter would be part of it ever since meeting and falling in love with Poseidon, ever since she'd gotten pregnant with a child that was never meant to exist.

But things had changed, her daughter had suffered too much, and if her safety and her happiness depended on trying to extinguish that part of her that was tied to the gods and their mess, that's what Sally wanted to do.

She didn't stop to think, not once, that Percy would never want to extinguish that part of her.

She wasn't thinking at all, Sally's understanding nature had reached an explosive and violent end, she could no longer be comprehensible about the gods and their actions when said actions had caused her daughter so much damage.

"We don't have money to move," Paul added as an afterthought. "We invested all we had on this house." He thought for a few moments, then added, "We could go to Montauk for a week."

"That won't help in any way." Sally gave him an exasperated look, a nerve breaking inside of her at that suggestion.

"What's wrong with my idea?" Paul questioned, smiling a little as his excitement started to grow.

It was one of the few places that his family- Percy and Sally- had gone to that he hadn't. He was constantly hearing from them that it was a wonderful place, he knew they loved the little cabin they always rented, and that they loved the water, even when it was too cold to swim in.

He continued when his wife ignored his question. "I think it would do her good to be somewhere familiar, somewhere she loves-"

Sally cut him off, a little harshly. "I don't think Percy still likes the things she used to love, Paul."

Paul let the matter drop after that.

And silence reigned in the room.

Only that now, it was tense between them.

Paul knew Sally's hesitation to go there had more to do with her own story with Poseidon than she would ever dare to admit.

There was always an excuse not to go to Montauk together as a family. Whereas it was lack of money, or that he had offered his idea during her unfortunate time of the month as a woman, and now the fact that Percy had changed and didn't like the same things anymore, there was always an excuse not to go there.

In a way, he understood her reasoning, because, who would like to take their current husband to the place they fell in love and conceived a child with their first love?

What really angered him- and had angered him for a long time- was the knowledge that, deep down, Sally had lied to everyone about her relationship with the Greek god.

Paul drained his cup of coffee in one long gulp, then raised from his place at the table, and left the room without another word towards his wife.

He loved them both- Sally and Percy- with all his heart and all of his devotion, but, sometimes, he felt suffocated by their world, though it was mainly their lies and their numerous secrets that overwhelmed him.

"I love you."

Paul halted on his steps for a moment. "I know." He assured her, then, after a small pause, he added, "And I love you, too."

Sally swallowed down the thick lump that had settled on her throat as she heard him leave the room, somehow imagining what was going through his mind, and feeling awful over her own actions and how it seemed to affect him.

As Paul was reaching the staircase, he found himself looking back towards the vast kitchen and locking eyes with Sally, who was watching him with raw emotion on her eyes, one of her hands thrown over her stomach, where their unborn child lay.

And there, watching her, he wondered how it was possible for a woman to hold so many secrets within without turning into one herself.

He'd been trying to approach the subject for a long time, but he never found the strength to do so. Every time he'd been about to talk about the matter- like that morning- fear would settle upon his body, and he would push those doubts back where they belonged, hidden away with the rest of his thoughts. It could shatter their whole relationship, or at least, damage it deeply. That was something he never wanted; he was extremely happy with Sally, and they'd worked very hard to build a good life together.

They had everything they needed to survive: they had a good house in a friendly neighborhood, they had stable jobs, they were expecting a baby...

Paul wouldn't just throw that away just because he had doubts. Just because there were things about her past that didn't make much sense.

Like the fact that Sally mentioned that she'd been with Poseidon for only one summer, but if that was the case, how was it possible that Percy's birthday was in August?

Sally might've seen something cross through her husband's eyes, because she looked away, her shoulders tense, as though she'd read his mind, and so Paul was forced to simply stare for a second at the back of her head, an uneasy feeling settling on his chest and refusing to leave.

Was their life enough?

Poseidon had promised her a life of luxury: a kingdom by the sea full of servants to please her in everything she could ever need. The life of a Queen.

Was she disappointed now? Paul could only offer her a suburban life, and all of his love.

Was it enough?

Was their love enough?

Then he shook his head, swallowing down everything he wanted to say and every single doubt that crowed his mind, and simply continued his way upstairs.

Some things were better left unsaid.

He passed through Percy's open door, and hesitated for a second. She was asleep, after crying for what seemed to be the whole night, she had fallen unconscious into what seemed to be a peaceful slumber, which she deserved after the terrible nightmare that overwhelmed her senses and made her shake the earth.

Paul watched her for a moment, then convinced himself that she was fine, and moved away, leaving her door open in case she woke up and needed anything.

He prepared himself for work within fifteen minutes, and as he was passing through the hallway, he stopped before Percy's room- wanting to see if she was still asleep and that she was safe- only to find that the bed was empty.

Panic took hold of his body for one moment.

He strained his hearing to hear if his stepdaughter was downstairs with her mother, but the only sound that came from downstairs was the sound of Sally washing the dishes.

His heart hammered against his chest, and he found himself barging into the room, looking in the closet and everywhere she could be hidden at, but she was not there.

He barged into the bathroom, but it was empty.

He checked the music room, and Sally's studio.

Then he went to the staircase. He stood at the top of it for a moment, breathing hard as he tried to convince himself that everything was normal and fine, that his stepdaughter was somewhere on the house, that she was safe.

Percy couldn't have disappeared again, it was not possible, not so soon.

Paul made so much sound coming downstairs that when he entered the kitchen, Sally was already looking back at him with confusion written on her face. When he saw that she wasn't in the kitchen with Sally, he went back and scanned the living room, his limbs trempling, his face pale.

Where was Percy?

"What's wrong?" Sally followed him around, concerned. The first initial thought the young woman had was that he'd seen a monster. He couldn't see through the Mist in the same way that she could, but he could catch small glimpses of unnatural things most of the time.

Paul went outside, looked through the porch and the garden in the distance.

At last, he turned to face his wife, and the fear written on his face only aggravated the building concern that the young woman was feeling.

Swallowing thickly, he found the courage he needed to mutter those simple, but familiar word's that had, once, destroyed them completely. "I can't find Percy."

The same fear they had felt only a couple of months before was coming back to them in full strength.

Sally didn't waste a second. She started to scream, "Percy!" as she helped her husband look around the garden and the garage, and then they dared to venture a little into the woods behind their house, but the path that lead to it was clear and empty of footprints, which let them know that she hadn't been around there.

For a moment, they stared at each other, standing in the middle of the garden.

Realization seemed to hit them at the same time. Percy wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere near their house.

Percy wasn't there.

With a sharp intake of panicked breath, they bolted back into the house. As Paul moved towards the landline phone to call Percy's friends in town, Sally went upstairs to make sure her daughter wasn't there.

Paul called Emma first.

The girl had already gone out to school, so her mother answered the call. Mrs. Darcy claimed she had never met her daughter's friend, and then when she seemed to realize the reason for Paul's anxious call, pity took hold of her as she assured them she would tell them if she heard anything about her.

Paul looked through the small notebook where he'd written the names and numbers of Percy's friends, but was forced to look up when he heard someone coming downstairs. Could it be Percy? He breathed a sigh of relief, perhaps they had overreaced, perhaps she was in the house...

His hope died away when he saw that it was just his wife. His eyes shot down to the notebook again, trying to see who else to call.

Sally was starting to hyperventilate, which might've been bad for the baby, but neither of them could think about anything that was not their missing daughter. The blue-eyed woman approached her husband, reading over his shoulder the list of contacts written on the notebook, but none of them seemed useful, they were all of Percy's friends from Manhattan; from Camp Half-Blood and from Camp Jupiter.

There were only two persons with whom Percy had grown close to in Mystic Falls.

"Emma-?"

"She's not there."

"Damon?"

Paul moved towards the nearest window, the one in the living room, moved the curtains aside, and strained his sight to stare at the Salvatore's Boarding House. As far as he could see, the house was empty; all its lights were off.

"Nobody's home."

There was a small pause full of tension.

Sally and Paul had hoped that their daughter would be with the Salvatore brothers, for that would've meant she was close to them and safe from any dangers, that she had gone out on her own, that she was not kidnapped.

"I'm going to call Chiron."

"What for?" Paul snapped, his anxiety getting the best of him. He turned and met his wife's annoyed glance, a scoff leaving his mouth as he said, "She can't be in Camp Half-Blood already. She was here five minutes ago."

"I'm trying to find my daughter!" Sally snapped, annoyed by his tone of voice and terribly worried about the whole situation. "Forgive me if I don't recall how much time has passed since we last saw her here."

Through her mind, memories of the past nine months spiraled wildly, filling her whole self with an immense amount of dread, worry and fear. The last time their daughter had disappeared in that way, without leaving any trace behind, they hadn't seen her in almost a year.

Sally wasn't sure what she'd do if her daughter went missing again.

She wasn't sure she could stand another nine months without her.

She'd spent those months wondering if her daughter was still alive, hoping to the gods that Poseidon would protect their daughter, wherever she was. But something must've happened during those months she was gone, because the Percy that came back to them wasn't the same they'd known and loved.

Sally liked to pretend that she didn't notice, but she knew her daughter wasn't as fine as she claimed she was.

They never knew the precise details about the war; they never knew what she had to go through those months Hera had her, they never knew what she'd gone through in the war...

They only knew the little things Percy dared to mention about the war, and the details Chiron had given them, which were as simple and short as the ones Percy mentioned. The war was won; Gaea was put to sleep again by three integrates of the Seven of the Prophecy, the Greeks and the Roman demigods are now at peace with one another.

That was it.

They didn't know anything about the multiple missions they were given all the time, they didn't know about the suicidal quests they were forced to follow through...they didn't know about Tartarus.

Percy kept everything inside of her, locked deep within herself, and never dared to open up.

Sally had noticed those things- what kind of mother wouldn't notice their daughter was suffering?- though she never said anything.

Percy used to tell her everything, even the bad parts about her quests, and the fact that she had stopped trusting her bothered Sally more than she would've liked to admit.

Though, it also worried her. What if her daughter's hesitation to talk about what happened was because she feared Sally's reaction? Because she didn't want to hurt her? Sally couldn't bear the thought of it. Her daughter was supposed to trust her, no matter what.

Sally wondered- those times where she saw Percy forcing herself to be playful- if Percy always held a storm inside of her and she'd never noticed, or if something happened during those blank months that turned her into one.

Before disappearing, Percy had been happy.

There was no other word that could describe in full capacity the girl she used to be; she was playful, joyous, bright. Full of life and hope and so, so much happiness.

She had been like a lazy ocean anyone could get lost in, one that was soft in the way its waves crashed against the shore, creating beautiful patterns in the sand that would be erased constantly by new waves, the one that rocked people back and forth, calming their nerves and gently massaging their bodies with the soothing rhythm of its waves, the one that everyone loved, the one that no one ever feared.

That had been the ocean Sally had fallen in love with, once. That had been the ocean Sally had been happy to see living inside of her daughter.

But then everything changed.

Percy disappeared.

And when she came back, it was like meeting an ocean before a thunderous storm approached; still and quiet; about to drag you to the bottom of the ocean with a single, powerful and unexpected wave.

The playful attitude that characterized her for so long was gone. Everything about her was new, the pain that now lived on her sea-green eyes was so fresh and so raw, that there were times in which Sally couldn't make herself gaze upon them.

Her daughter had been hurt in the war against Gaea, in ways that Sally might never get to know or understand. She did not know what to do with that knowledge. What was she supposed to do after realizing that her daughter was hurt, but that there was nothing she could do about it?

"I just- Sally choked on her words, only then noticing that she was crying. "I don't think I can see her like this anymore."

Paul grabbed Sally's elbow and forced her into a hug, where she melted against his arms and started to weep.

It seemed like it had been forever since they'd held each other like that, and only then did she realize how much she missed the comfort he offered her.

"Everything will be all right, you'll see," Paul meant to sooth her nerves by saying that, but it came out more like something he wanted to reassure himself with, too. "We'll find her."

"I don't want her to disappear again," Sally admitted, the words coming out of her lips without her permission. She had never dared to voice her thoughts in such a way. "I fear I might not recognize her when she comes back."

Paul tightened the hug.

He could understand what she meant, there were times in which he didn't recognize the young girl that lived with them.

Everything about her was new and startling; the episodes of rage, the natural phenomenons she seemed to be causing, the nightmares...She hadn't been that affected after the war against Kronos.

It made him wonder if they had made a mistake when they took her away from Camp and moved her Virginia. After the war with Kronos, Percy'd stayed in Camp for a long time, she'd been surrounded by the people she loved and the people that made her feel safe...

Percy had been well after the first war.

She'd mourned her fellow campers that perished fighting, but it never seemed to affect her much. She never changed much after that war, or at least, not that they noticed.

He couldn't help but wonder if Percy was more affected after the war with Gaea because she didn't have the support of her friends and her family from Camp after it ended, or if the war had actually been harder than the first one.

He could never know, it could be both reasons, it could be none.

Either way, Paul felt guilty.

They shouldn't have moved so drastically and unnecessarily. New York had everything that was once familiar and comforting for the demigoddess.

Paul realized they never should've made her move so far from her safe-space. It had been her decision, but they never gave her much choice in the matter. After being separated from them for many months, it was obvious that Percy would choose to be with them, even if it meant moving away and turning the comfort and help that Camp offered her.

His thoughts halted to a stop when Sally separated from him.

His eyes trailed over her face, seeing how she moved one hand over her eyes and cheeks, cleaning the remaining tears away. He saw how she forced herself to be strong, successfully pushing her distress down and trying to keep a clear mind.

In that way, Sally and Percy were more alike than they knew.

They both liked to push their feelings away.

"What if she was taken?" Sally voiced their main fear.

The look that crossed Paul's face made her swallowed thickly, realizing that he also shared that concern.

She was going to say a name, then remembered most of the gods' attention was easily caught after saying their name out-loud. "The Queen of the gods-"

"She couldn't have taken her again," Paul said, trying to convince himself. "And if she did, hell be damned, I will get our daughter back."

Paul's words were brave and heroic, but they knew better than anyone that they were also empty words.

As mortals, neither of them could go against a deity. If their daughter had indeed been kidnapped by a god or a goddess, there was nothing they could do.

Paul looked towards the door, wondering where to start looking.

Sally, on the other hand, stared hard at the photographs she'd placed upon the walls close to them. All of them were of happy times, most of them from before Percy knew she was a demigoddess; like the one from Halloween when she'd been four years old. There, a small girl with messy black hair pulled back into a braid smiled a toothless smile at the camera, her Little Mermaid costume bright against the dark couch she was sitting at.

Sally's heart felt heavier than before, her whole body filling with melancholy over one of the happiest memories she could recall.

That Halloween, her former husband, Gabe, had passed out from excessive drinking, which allowed the small demigoddess and her mother to enjoy the few candy they'd collected without any inconvenience.

They'd never felt more lucky than in that moment.

When Gabe had woken up, they had already eaten all the candy, and he'd been so hungover that he hadn't cared.

"Come on," Paul's grip on her elbow forced her out of her memories, and forced her to follow him outside. "Let's check the forest again."

Sally tried to picture her next child- wondered if the baby would be as adorable as Percy had been in her childhood- and, without realizing what she was thinking, the young woman found herself praying to the gods.

Please, allow my second baby have a better life than the one my Persephone has. This baby deserves better.

...

The daughter of Poseidon woke up to the feeling of something gently scratching against her cheeks.

She knew something was wrong when that wasn't enough to wake her up completely. A small part of her, the one that was most conscious in that moment, knew she should've woken up immediately after feeling something strange against her face. The most important thing about a demigod was its ability to react quickly.

There was a deep ache etched into her bones, one that left her breathless for a moment, and kept her from reacting immediately.

She tried to move, but an intense feeling of dizziness hit her, and she refrained herself from trying once more.

Her whole face felt warm- a heat that was horribly uncomfortable.

She opened her eyes in a slow way, needing to shield herself from the blasting brightness she was instantly met with.

Then, with what seemed like an internal jump, she regained her senses completely.

The pain ceased a little, enough for her to open her eyes again, blinking slowly to shield her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was that she was staring right at the sky. More precisely, at the sun. She tried to look somewhere that wouldn't hurt her eyesight, but it was a bright day, the sky was strikingly blue and bright. Even the clouds seemed too white to look at. She closed her eyes for another second, taking in the fact that she was outdoors, something that was strange, considering that she was sure she had fallen asleep inside of her house.

What was she doing outside?

A sense of dread filled her senses.

The pain on her bones made it hard to move, so for a moment she did not.

She tried to trace the outlines of the skies with her eyes, trying to find something familiar that would tell her where she was, but she had only learned to do so at night. The stars were good help, but the only star she saw in that moment was the sun, and that didn't help her in any way.

Something scratched at her cheeks again, for which she moved her hands to grasp what it was. Once she had carefully taken it with her hands, she held it in front of her, straining her eyesight to fight against the brightness and to concentrate on it.

Her heart dropped when she finally saw what had bothered her, and she found herself making a pained sound.

It was her necklace. Her Camp Half-Blood necklace.

It was broken, but at least it wasn't lost.

All the beads were there- she counted them- and the charm Apollo had given her was also there.

A familiar sound echoed through the place, the sound of a wave hitting against the shore.

Percy was so startled that her grip on the necklace wavered a little.

She couldn't recall anything since the previous night and the earthquake, which she didn't want to think about in that moment, and her main concern was that someone- monster or deity- had taken her in that moment of vulnerability.

However concerned she was, fear was not one of her main emotions in that moment.

She should've been frightened upon waking up in an unknown place, but it had happened far too often before, and the was something about the place she was that made it impossible for her to feel fear.

She found herself hoping to be at a beach.

The water could soothe her aching limbs, and help her in whatever battle she would be facing.

She inhaled, noticing the familiar and comforting smell of salt lingering on the air.

Feeling hopeful now, Percy tried to move, starting with her legs. She moved her ankles, wincing when they protested against her moves, and then she tried to move her arms, which also protested, but obeyed her commands. Through all the pain on her bones, nothing felt broken.

That was a good signal. If she had been taken but kept alive and healthy, it meant they weren't thinking about harming her.

Her fingers felt the ground that held her, sand dripping from her fingers like liquid gold, and then, just by feeling the small drops of waters mixed with the sand, she knew exactly where she was.

She had been there before, with Annabeth.

Percy forced herself to raise into a sitting position.

Groaning her way through the process, she breathed hard when the pain seemed to crush her lungs. The pain was so strong that, for a moment, she was forced to close her eyes and raise a hand to her chest, forcing herself to keep breathing and to not cry.

It took her a few minutes, but she managed to open her eyes again.

She was met with a heart-wrenching sight.

The shore was red with blood, multiple dead fishes floating on the water.

Before she could see more, a miserable whimper echoed through the air, the sound being both familiar and horrible.

Percy found herself standing on her feet and walking towards the tragedy, part of her unable to ignore such a gruesome sight, the other part of her thinking about helping whatever creature was in pain.

When she approached enough to see what was hurt, her heart stopped. A Hippocampi. It was laying on the shore, one big hole of missing skin where its heart was supposed to be. The heart was still inside it's body, that much was painfully obvious, but it was falling off, as were some other internal organs.

It was a horrible sight, and the young demigoddess almost emptied her stomach right there after seeing that.

"Oh my gods-" Percy was quick to approach, ignoring her own pain and her feat at seeing that, thinking only about helping those beautiful creatures. "What happened to you?"

But the hippocampi screeched when she did as much as take one step towards it, a sound that pierced her soul and made her want to cry from frustration.

She hated seeing animals hurt, more so when it was a sea animal and she could communicate with them.

Their mind was a clouded mess of pain. There were just screams and shouts of pain, of fear, but no coherent words that Percy could use to discover what had happened to them.

She came near it, and the hippocampi screeched again.

"I just want to help you-" But when Percy raised her arms, trying to show the hippocampi she came with good intentions, her heart stopped.

There was blood everywhere. Her fingers, her elbows, her clothes.

One of her nails had a piece of skin stuck in it, and something inside of her seemed to break, for she took one step back, staggering, and found herself unable to move; all she could do was watch the fear written all around the Hippocampus and its thoughts; now it was clear why the beautiful creature didn't want her around, through the shouts of pain its mind was making, Percy could hear how the Hippocampus remembered her attack on it...on them.

Her head snapped to the right, hearing more shuddering cries.

There were more of those creatures, all of them in the same horrible state of suffering.

Their minds were a heart-wrenching chorus of agony, a chorus that invaded Percy's own mind and refused to leave, making her stagger back when it became too much for her to bear. She threw her hands over her ears, trying to shut them out, but it was to no avail, she could still hear them perfectly well.

Together, they started to drift into Thanatos' arms, as though being connected with one another.

Their voices faded away with the wind.

The last of the hippocampi gave one last shuddering cry that pierced Percy's soul and left her wanting to throw up and cry at the same time; then it was gone.

Percy stood there, unable to move.

It happened again, her blackouts. She couldn't breathe properly, her heart becoming an erratic mess.

How could it happen again?

She knew what had triggered her to kill Mason- he'd hurt her best friend, and even what had made her attack that girl from cabin 5- she'd laughed at the thought of being able to kill Frank just by lighting a stick on fire-, but the Hippocampus race had never done anything to her, they trusted her, they saw her as their boss.

Why had she attacked them?

She couldn't understand, nothing made sense. She'd been on her house, after having a breakdown and causing an earthquake, and the next thing she knew, she was there, on that beach, with innocent's blood on her hands.

Percy forced herself to breathe, a panic attack starting to take hold of her body.

Out of a knee-jerk reaction, she took several steps back, but no matter how hard she tried to separate herself from the massacre, there was no way of hiding from her own self.

She looked towards the horizon, something that used to soothe her nerves, but it only made everything worse when she caught a glimpse of multiple dead fishes floating on the surface.

She wondered if she'd caused their death, too.

"Do not blame yourself for everything. You did not cause their death," A voice explained patiently. "The weather controls the sea, no matter how much our father claims to have full control over it. There's a storm coming, you see? It caused the waves to become too violent for the fish to swim in, thus causing their death."

There was a man on the beach, standing close to the demigoddess. The similitude between them were so many that, if anyone saw them together, they would believe them to be twins. His hair was long, and pulled back into a high ponytail, while hers was shoulder-length, and always down. Another thing that distinguished them was their skin: the demigoddess was sun kissed, while the god was aggressively pale.

"And is the storm a result of my actions?" Percy decided not to question his presence there. There were about a million things she was worrying about, the unexpected visit from her immortal brother seemed to be the least of her problems.

Triton raised an eyebrow, turning sideways to meet the gaze of the demigoddess. He looked so much like their father that Percy was forced to look away after a moment, feeling her stomach drop unpleasantly.

What would her father think of her now that she had attacked animals from his domain?

"Why would it be a result of your actions?" The god questioned, a small hint of interest on his voice. When the demigoddess didn't answer, realization crossed his features. "I do hope you remember that other gods cannot indulge themselves into matters involving the realms of other gods. Zeus cannot punish you for your actions, this storm is not a result of your earthquake and-" Triton gestured to the dead hippocampi, meaning their death. "Certainly, I believe our uncle must be amused with this whole ordeal."

Zeus was a little too fond of slaughter.

"Is that why you're here?" Percy moved a strand of hair behind her ear, a nervous habit.

They had never formed a proper relationship, they had never bonded with one another, so his presence there made no sense, unless he had come to punish her for her massacre on those sea-creatures.

It was his domain, after all.

She could almost imagine his joy after finding out he finally had a reasonable reason to unleash his wrath upon her, since he seemed to loath her from the very first time they met.

"No. It's not my place to do so. Only our father can decide what to do with you." He waited until the demigoddess seemed to process his words. "I'm here because I have a message for you."

It came back to her, Triton was the messenger god of the sea.

The green-eyed demigoddess was full of disappointment after hearing those words. She would never say it out loud, but she had hoped to receive some sort of repercussion for her actions; anything that would ensure that she would never hurt anyone- mortal, immortal or animal- ever again.

However, she forced her disappointment away, and inquired: "Is something wrong?"

She feared to receive an affirmative answer that would mean for her more danger and more suicidal missions. There was never a pause in the Olympian's world, there was always something bad about to happen. And, as always, she was the one that was forced to deal with it.

Triton ignored her question. "Our father has suggested that you go back to Camp Half-Blood."

Percy's stomach dropped. "What for?"

There was something on Triton's eyes, an emotion that Percy had never seen on him. They'd been around each other a couple of times before, the few times Percy had visited Atlantis, and their interactions had never been longer than a minute. Triton seemed to hate her, which Percy could never understand, because he had a good relationship with their half-brother, Tyson. That morning, though, there was nothing alike hatred on his familiar green eyes.

It was a startling change, one she never expected.

"You're not the first of Poseidon's offspring to go on a killing spree," His words were devoid of any emotion, though there was something on his eyes, an emotion that she thought was impossible. She pushed that away, concentrating on his words. "Every ocean has a dark side. Our father tends to push away those children he cannot control."

Percy wanted not to believe him, but immediately, she remembered the lonely goddess she had met once, with Jason. Kym, they called her, because her name was too long, Kymopoleia.

A lonely goddess, forced to roam the abandoned ruins of Poseidon's castles; rejected by her own family because of her violent powers.

Violent powers, such as the ones Percy had.

Percy's stomach dropped unpleasantly, as though she'd swallowed a snake and it tried to escape her stomach.

The maddening sense of triumph she'd felt after relishing on her powers and strength only felt a thousand times better, which made her feel disgusted with herself.

Perhaps that was the reason for Poseidon's absence from her life.

He must've seen the resemblance that existed between Kymopoleia and Percy, and decided that he had to push her away in the same way he'd pushed the goddess away.

In that moment, when she was feeling down with betrayal and furious for his absence, that she discovered she couldn't recall if his eyes gazed upon her with love, or if it had been just a reflection of her own love towards him.

Feeling aghast, she looked away from her immortal brother.

Perhaps her father's absence meant what deep down she always feared: that for him, she was nothing more than a pawn.

That's what she was to the other gods, why would it be any different for Poseidon? After all, he'd only claimed her when he needed her to clear his name. He'd used her since the very beginning.

Perhaps it was something she had always known, but that she'd never accepted, out of cowardice and disappointment.

"Is that what he wants to do with me?" The words were already out of her mouth before she could stop herself, they came with more pain than she would've liked to show in front of a brother that never liked her. "Is he trying to push me away?"

It felt like the most horrible betrayal she would ever face, bigger than when she found out the friendly boy that had welcomed her to Camp was, in fact, a traitor that intended to kill her and their family.

After all she had done for her father, he wanted her away from his life and his domain, away from the normal life that Mystic Falls offered. He wanted her to be in Camp, where people would be controlling her moves and watching her at all times.

She was starting to feel like a prisoner, like her immortal sister.

Triton's silence was all the answer she would get, and while there were no words, the answer was extremely clear for both parts.

"It's for your own good," There was something alike kindness on his voice, surprising Percy to the extent that she could not say a thing. "Camp is a safe space for those of your kind. You'll be safe, you'll be training. Perhaps, with time and care from those that live there, you could learn to control those emotions that haunt you."

Percy believed there was no amount of time and training that could help her overcome all that suffering and all that rage that she constantly felt, though she sensed she could not tell Triton that.

He could never understand how haunted she actually was, because while he had been an active participant on many wars, he had never known the vulnerability that came with being a mortal fighting a war that was meant to be for immortal beings.

Gods had a special ability that allowed them to push everything that caused them even the slightest of sorrows away- something very alike to the internal switch the vampires had. They could decide what they wanted to suffer from, and how long they wanted it to last. They could control their suffering. If that didn't work for them, they were able to find distractions in everything; they were beings that could appear at the same time in different places, they could have about a million different thoughts running through their head at all times forever. They could distract themselves from the pain, and when that didn't work, they simply chose to catalog their acts as the will of fate.

They murdered someone in cold blood, leaving a whole family devastated? The will of the Fates. The will of the gods; it was an honor for the family that lost their beloved to the wrath of a god, it was beyond reproach.

That was how the gods could deal with their problems, with their impulsive actions and with their pain.

As a mortal, Percy Jackson could not do any of those things.

She wished she could have the ability the gods had to push everything away and be completely fine after every tragedy they encountered. She wished she could push the memory of Tartarus away from her mind, but she couldn't. She had no control over her thoughts, over her sorrow and her rage. It was something that was always present, no matter how much she tried to push it away.

Triton would never understand that.

He probably thought that, with care from those she loved, she would get better. He wasn't aware that her guilt and anger only seemed to grow when she saw her demigod friends and remembered all they went through. He wasn't aware that her rage grew more and more towards the gods with every passing day.

Everything they had made her gone through was only just settling into her mind.

She was just starting to realize and fully process everything that the gods had destroyed about her life.

Five years of pure torture, five years she had been their pawn...

But no more.

She refused to go through that again, she wanted- and needed- the next five years of her life to lack the tragedy that the previous years had.

The only thing she could feel was rage- there was no way that could be fixed in Camp.

Percy was tempted to tell him that she wasn't going back to Camp Half-Blood out of spite, that she was angry at her father and therefore would not listen to any suggestion he made, more so when said suggestion was intended to push her further away from his life.

Instead, she sought a different approach; another excuse:

"I won't leave my family alone. If someone finds out I've left them unprotected, they're going to be in great danger."

As soon as her remorse had started, it disappeared, and was replaced with an infinite amount of indifference.

A first, Percy didn't realize the change, but once she did, she forced herself to remain controlled. Perhaps those emotions had disappeared for a reason; feeling remorseful over her actions wasn't going to help anyone, it would never bring them back.

Those Hippocampus were just animals, she thought indifferently. She didn't have to suffer their dismissal as though she'd killed a precious friend.

Her rage had blinded her- for in her emotional state, she forgot that some hippocampi had helped her multiple times in the past, that they trusted and loved her- and she could not see that the death of an animal was as meaningful as the death of a human being.

Rage was always easier to manage, at least for her.

It made her feel focused, even if it was because part of her was expecting her to jump and attack anything that moved out of anger. It made her feel conscious, it made her feel aware of her surroundings.

It was the only emotion she knew how to control.

A worried scowl made way into Triton's face. "Your family will be safe, Persephone. No one, except from a selected few in Olympus, knows about your instability. This incident won't reach the ears of anyone else, apart from us."

She snorted disdainfully, grimacing and looking away. "Just give it time. Once the news of what I did spread out, everyone will know."

He shook his head, and explained himself better by saying: "I'll make it seem as though it were me who killed them."

Everyone would believe him without a doubt, for gods were often slaughtering creatures and humans in blinding rage.

Her rage wavered for a moment, feeling too surprised to allow another emotion in. It could work, his idea of covering up for her, but there was one thing she couldn't understand: The Triton she knew would never take the blame for anything she'd ever do; on the contrary, he would gladly place all the blame upon her, anything to watch her suffer.

She narrowed her eyes, thinking that there was an ulterior motive behind it.

"Why would you do that? I thought you hated me."

"Oh, no, child. Don't mistake this as an act of kindness." He said, not realizing she wasn't naive enough to believe in a kind act coming from a god. "I'm not doing this because of you."

That sentence gave Percy a small pause, where she wondered if he had been forced to be there with her in that moment. Perhaps another god had forced him to take responsibility over the massacre she committed.

It made sense.

They probably needed someone to cover up growing instability. It wouldn't do them any good if titans or giants found out the god's favorite heroine (pawn) was mentally unstable. They could start to conspire against Olympus- as always-, and without a healthy Percy there to save them, they would be lost.

She was about to make a sarcastic retort to that when she realized that- in the moment she'd been distracted thinking- her brother looked different.

It was as though he'd purposely dropped his barriers and showed her a part of him no one else had ever seen, a part of him that resembled humanity.

His jaw was locked tightly, his lips pursed, something very alike pain gleaming on his eyes.

Percy was so startled that she did not know what to do. Never before she had seen an emotion on him that wasn't arrogance.

Luckily for her, Triton never wanted her to acknowledge his vulnerability. He started talking after a small pause:

"I made a promise, long ago, to never let another sibling of mine go down a path of darkness and destruction." He locked eyes with her, the same emotion Percy couldn't quite decipher vividly present on his eyes. "So, yes, I loathe you, but I won't let you become a monster, like many of our siblings have."

Percy felt too overwhelmed to know what to say. She had never expected her brother to say those things, so she did not know how she was supposed to react.

She thought the gods had turned their back on her, and there he was, the god she would've never imagined to be willing to protect and defend her, acting in ways that he thought were suitable to defend her.

"Triton-" Percy's throat felt dry, as though she'd swallowed sand. "I fear you might be too late."

Triton shook his head. "It's never too late."

He had seen nearly all of his half-siblings become obsessed with the overwhelming and never-ending power the sea offered them, then eventually, as their powers grew and they couldn't control them, he had seen the gods doing what they thought was right- killing them, for they posed as a threat to Olympus, rather than as the heroes they had wanted to be.

Percy's case was a different one, she had never sought those powers out in the way her half-brothers had. Tartarus had broken something inside of her, the thin line between morality and triumph. He could almost see the internal battle she seemed to be having at all times, a battle against her moralities and everything she used to believe in, and the triumph that came with making others suffer. She never wanted to grow obsessed with those powers and that triumph, but, he knew that, once darkness touches one light soul, it will forever be tainted.

She was trying, though, no matter how much she failed at controlling her emotions and powers, she was trying, which was more than her brothers had ever done.

They had simply let themselves be consumed, becoming as vengeful and cruel as the gods.

That's how Triton knew there was still time for Percy.

She was different, she was a real hero- regardless of how much he'd mocked her for her bravery.

He hated her, and part of him wanted nothing more than to see the gods destroy her for once and for all, but he knew that if she tried, she could overcome those familiar urges.

If she was willing to try.

"That's so corny," Percy found herself shaking her head. "Like a line out of a bad book: "It's never too late". You see, it is too late for me."

Triton rolled his eyes in a manner that was extremely un-godly. "What would you know about it? You're only seventeen-"

"Don't do that," Percy complained, frowning. "Don't belittle me just because I'm young. I know more than you believe."

Triton pursed his lips. "I doubt you could identify when it's too late to recover from an obsession even if the god of obsessive behaviors appeared before you and told you."

"That's beyond the point-" She protested.

He gave her one of his usual glares, You've never seen a demigod grow obsessed with their powers. I have."

A small pause followed suit.

There was a tense edge around them, a feeling of imminent danger threatening to emerge. The demigoddess knew her immortal brother was dying to revert to his original behavior towards her. She could see it, the struggle he was making to remain polite and guarded with her.

There were several signs that she could still see, though: the disgust he tried to hide when he looked at her, the way his mouth curled unpleasantly when she talked to him.

The way his mouth seemed to be about to call her bastard, but refrained itself at the last moment, everytime he said her name.

The demigoddess glanced at his eyes, finally finding a name for the emotion he had hidden when he mentioned their lost siblings.

It was sorrow.

She wondered if that meant that there had been a half-sibling that he had actually loved, but lost to the darkness.

It seemed like a far-stretched thought, since Triton seemed to hate the demigod children of Poseidon, but she could never be sure. He had a good relationship with Tyson, after all.

Perhaps there had been other siblings he had liked, perhaps he only hated her.

She asked: "Has it happened a lot?"

"What?" Triton gave her an exasperated look. "It was a metaphor, Persephone, there is no god of obsessive behavior-"

"No," She gritted her teeth. "I meant the hallucinations, the blackouts, the rage- to our siblings."

"Every case is different," Triton hesitated before answering. She took it as a negative answer, thinking that it meant that she was the only one to get hallucinations and blackouts. "You went to Tartarus, something none of our siblings ever did."

She couldn't compare her PTSD to the obsession the other children of Poseidon had eventually developed once they figured they could control everything containing water, even the human body.

"What happened to those of them that couldn't control themselves?" Percy asked carefully, though the answer was already at the back of her head. She knew better than any other demigod what happened to those that posed as threats to the gods.

Triton's silence was enough answer for the young demigoddess.

A sickening sense of doom overpowered her.

She looked away, refusing to become another victim of the gods and their paranoia. She had fought two wars because of them, she had been under serious danger and had almost died- multiple times- because of them.

She was not going to be their victim; she would never let them disregard everything she did for them just because they feared her powers.

She refused to be the next victim of the gods.

"You need to go to Camp," Triton insisted. "It is not only what our father suggest, it is what I suggest. Camp has always been your home, and in moments like this, I believe it would do you good to be in a place you feel comfortable in, accompanied by the people you love and care for. People that bring the best out of you. Your friends, your family."

Percy found herself unable to say anything else. Her mind was crowded with too many thoughts, all of them leaving a gigantic weight upon her.

-There was the fact that she had blacked out, again.

-There was the fact that she saw a new depth to her immortal brother that surprised her and left her with a million more questions.

-There was the suggestion that both Poseidon and Triton made.

-There was the imminent realization that Poseidon wanted to push her away.

She didn't know what to concentrate upon, then decided to mention what bothered her the most, concentrating on her rage.

"You never answered me if our father was trying to push me away by sending me to Camp Half-Blood."

Triton seemed to rejoice in the way her words were laced with pain.

"He doesn't need to push you away, girl. You're already far from him."

Percy didn't like how that sounded. She was about to ask what he meant when he continued talking:

"Our father has never been around, he's never been close to you." Triton pointed out, venom dripping from his mouth at the our. "He visited you a couple of times, allowed you into his Kingdom, gave you gifts and blessings, but that's about it. He was trying to make you feel loved, to assure your loyalty to him if another war ever threatened to come. The few times you two have seen each other is because there is a matter that needed to be discussed."

Percy drowned his voice out.

She was conscious of the fact that her father had never been around, gods were never around for their mortal children, but she needed him there with her, and all he had done was send a message. It was a small, stupid action when compared to all she had done for him.

Poseidon was not even trying to be there for her.

And, if what Triton said was true, he had never wanted to be in her life.

However, Percy knew she could never believe anything that came out of her brother's mouth if it involved their father. Triton loved making her feel like the unwanted, little bastard that she was.

Poseidon had showed that he loved Percy, in his own way. He had protected her when she needed his aid in a mission, he had been on several of her birthday parties, he'd said she was his favorite child...

All of that could be empty words, empty actions to assure her loyalty to him, a voice alike Triton's whispered to Percy's mind.

It was too much for Percy to bear, even rage paled in comparison of all the pain she felt in that moment.

Demigods only wanted affection from their godly parents; and the realization that she might not have it...

It was destroying.

She forced herself to hide how much it affected her, knowing that her brother would only rejoice in the sight of her distress.

Percy realized Triton was expecting her to say something about his words, it took her a great amount of strength to say: "I know." without her voice wavering.

Triton seemed bright with relaxation and relief upon those words. He nodded profusely as he added:

"Gods are selfish beings, Persephone."

Her anger exploded, but not in the way she imagined it would. Instead of snapping and yelling, she found herself taking a deep breath and looking away, feeling exhausted and washed with a new sense of disappointment.

Somehow, that was all the explanation Triton could give her for their father's behavior. He had been immortal since his birth, it was something he- as a god- considered normal. Triton could never understand the affection and love Percy craved from their father, just as she could never understand how could anyone be content with that kind of life.

For gods, power was more important than love.

They were more important than their children.

It made sense, then, that Poseidon had disappeared from her life the moment the wars ended. His kingdom was secured and safe, his immortal life no longer threatened.

There was nothing else he could want from Percy.

Gods cared more about themselves than about their family.

Perhaps that was something that would never change. Once, Percy had believed that anyone was capable of change, that even gods could learn to behave like normal families and love their children as much as they loved themselves. She'd been blinded by the few gods she knew that cared for others- like Hestia-, but now she was starting to know better.

Hermes said once that gods could never change.

Percy was starting to believe that to be true.

It felt like a destructive blow, the realization that she'd been wrong all of her life. She thought she was rather mature and that she understood perfectly well how the gods' mentality worked, but she was starting to realize that there were still matters concerning the gods and their behavior that she was still too naive to comprehend.

Naive and stupid. Percy couldn't believe how blinded she'd been.

Percy was the Heroine of Olympus; the gods knew her strength and her weakness, they could bring her down in a blink if they wanted- the fact that they hadn't her after all she had done meant that they still wanted something from her.

They kept seeing her as their pawn.

Anger filled her senses, only that this one didn't make her want to act upon it. It was the sort of anger that made someone want to cry from it, the kind of anger that was more frustration and disappointment than actual fury.

She was tired of the gods. She was tired of the gigantic mess they caused every day. She was tired of them using her, of making her believe they loved her only to assure her loyalty to them.

She started to think: When had the gods done anything for her? Anything selfless and kind? She thought about Apollo, and Hestia and Hermes, but the thought of them wasn't enough.

What if Triton was right? What if everything the gods did was to control her?

She thought about the way Apollo treated her. How their friendship had been the most important thing from him since the very beginning, how he'd broken many ancient laws to help her, not caring about the consequences. She thought of the first time he said he loved her, of how vulnerable and scared he had looked the second after he'd said it.

He'd been scared of her not reciprocating his feelings.

He was the only god that had treated her as a human being, instead of as a pawn.

Apollo and Hermes. They were the only ones that had treated her with kindness and love, like the family they were supposed to be, and not as someone that could deal with their problems.

Hermes had asked her to try and make Luke realize his mistakes, he never forced her to. He never blamed her for not being strong or smart enough to save Luke. He was good to her, he was friendly, he was supportive...

Which was more than she could say about the other gods.

Triton turned back to stare at the horizon, as though the sea was talking to him. There was a frown etched upon his handsome face when he turned back to look at his sister.

"There's something else, another message." When she focused her attention on him, he continued, "There's a great danger coming to town, one you'll mistake as a friend."

She scowled, unable to hide her bitterness as she said, "Well, it's a good thing I only have two friends here."

There was always another thing about to happen, a new danger about to arrive in her life.

Triton didn't find her statement amusing in the slightest.

"Be wary of those that you do not know and that try- out of nowhere- to befriend you. In that same way, be wary of those two friend that you already have here, you might never know what kind of darkness of their own they might be harboring."

The demigoddess accepted the advice, though she doubted her friends could be harboring anything imminently threatening towards the whole town or towards her.

Emma was sweet and kind, shy even with her own family. And she was mortal. Damon had grown to care about Percy more than he would ever admit, and he only threatened town when Elena's safety was involved, and the doppelgänger was safe.

She had no idea what that message could mean.

Not knowing what else to say, but knowing it would fall upon her shoulders to protect town, she gave a small, tired nod of her head.

"Farewells, Persephone." Triton returned the gesture.

She opened her mouth to say goodbye to him, but he was already talking again:

"I hope to see you well the next time we see each other." Triton walked towards the thin line where the sea met the sand. He looked back and locked eyes with her. He had cruel smile on his lips, one that Percy had expected from him since the very beginning of his arrival. "If, for any reason, you do not work for your mental health to improve, I will forget about my oath, and end your existence once and for all."

That was the immortal half-brother she remembered.

His body started to melt into the water, and the demigoddess barely had enough time to shield her eyes before he showed his true-form. A soft splashing sound followed, then the smell of salt lingering on the soft breeze.

Once she was sure Triton was gone, she opened her eyes.

For a second, she stood there, staring at the corpses of those beautiful animals she had killed.

She saw their form start to evaporate in a beautiful flash of white light; melting into the ocean in the same way their lord had. She watched until the last of them was gone, and until the soft waves crashing against the shore cleaned any remains of their blood off the sand.

After what seemed like an eternity passed, Percy looked down at her hands, still red with blood.

She guided one of them towards her pocket, and pulled out her Camp Half-Blood beaded necklace.

She thought about Chiron, and how concerned he would be if he learned what she'd done.

She thought about Nico, who had told her once that if things ever got rough, she needed to go to Camp and train herself.

She found herself looking at her hands again. I need to learn to live with this, because while it might not go away, I won't be controlled by it.

However, perhaps her best chance at getting better was not in Camp Half-Blood. Going back there was what the gods wanted her to do- not what she wanted to do.

The spite she felt towards them was bigger than her love for Camp- they wanted her to go back, so she was not going to do it.

She wondered if her immortal sister had refused the gods' will in the same way that she was starting to. If she remembered correctly, Kym had rebelled against them, and was punished by being forced into an unwanted marriage with a monster.

Percy wondered how they would punish her- if they punished her, because the gods seemed to be doing whatever they could to keep her on their good side.

Whatever the case would be, she found that she did not care.

"Sister," Percy told the ocean, hoping that, in some mystical way of the gods doing, her forgotten sister would hear her voice. "My promise still stands- Camp Half-Blood will know about you."

Jason and Percy had promised to make her existence known, to build monuments for her- at the moment Percy didn't realize how a goddess could fall for those empty promises, but as she started to have a taste of what loneliness was really like, she couldn't blame her sister for wanting even the smallest gesture of recognition.

There wasn't much Percy could do for her, she was no architect.

Once Camp knew about her existence- and once she talked with the Hephaestus cabin- the recognition the goddess wanted and deserved would be assured. Percy's promise would be fulfilled.

Percy was tired of the gods, but she needed to make things right with those deities that she had fooled. With deities like her immortal sister, deities who were alone and unloved; those that only wanted recognition and affection from others.

She tried to remember what other deity she had promised sacrifices and offerings, but couldn't recall another one. There was Hestia, though, who still remained in Camp Half-Blood under disguise, and with whom Percy had promised to speak more, but had never actually approached her again.

It wasn't her fault, though, she was always busy when in Camp- every time she was there, something was happening- war, attacks, missions, etc. She had little time to socialize with anyone, more so when Apollo decided to pay her a visit and ended up taking the whole day off with her, filling her afternoons with laughter and joy.

A new thought appeared on her mind, a realization that startled her: she had spent more time with Apollo than with her own father.

Apollo probably knew her better than Poseidon.

It felt so wrong, to be so connected with a boyfriend, but not with a father.

She felt disgusted with Poseidon's lack of presence in her life, and pushed her thoughts away, knowing that thinking about the past would do her no good. It always started like that, remembering good moments, then it crashed and became a full flashback about things she never wanted to remember. A flashback was the least she needed in that moment.

She forced herself to focus on her surroundings.

Now that everything had passed, she realized how complicated her situation actually was. She was almost out of Mystic Falls, in a beach that had taken her hours to find.

How was she supposed to go back to her house?

Couldn't her brother magically send her closer to her house? Or at least give her a horse or something?

An exasperated sigh left her mouth. Of course he wouldn't, he probably hoped a car would run her over as she walked back into town.

The sun was shining too brightly. It made her clothes hang to her body in an uncomfortable way, sweat making her feel more suffocated than she actually was.

I've traveled more treacherous paths before, Percy reminded herself, pushing her discomfort away, At least I'm relatively safe here.

She started to walk, grunting to herself every time her bare feet- apparently, her blacked-out self didn't think it necessary to put shoes on before leaving the house- stepped on the hot ground.

The consequence for neglecting her training all those months she was in town could only be felt there, when she was walking back to town, and her limbs ached with every step she took.

If a monster decided to chase her down, she would probably collapse after a minute, and die pathetically by their hand.

The thought was so horrifically disgusting that she vowed to exercise more often, even if all Mystic Falls offered was a low-maintenance gym and streets that were too crowded to offer an effective running path.

In the distance, a crossroads could be seen- both their sides looking identical, but leading to different places.

Percy blinked in confusion, not remembering having seen a crossroads there before, but allowed herself to approach it carefully, as though it would be the end of her.

In a way, it was, because she couldn't remember which side lead back to town.

The odds of getting to her house before her parents noticed her absence were growing weaker with each passing minute.

She was about to choose the left side when a car appeared from the right side of the crosswalk. She thought it would ignore her presence- anyone in their right state of mind would ignore the sight of a young girl in blood-soaked pajamas and bare feet. But a second later, the car stopped in front of her.

Percy scowled, but allowed herself to feel a small spark of hope- perhaps they could give her a ride back to town.

The windows of the car went down, and she found herself staring into a familiar face of a sharp-dressed, handsome man, with dark hair and eyes, a straight nose and a string jawline.

Elijah.

Percy's hope died away, replaced by a small hint of fear- she was unarmed, her pajamas had no pockets, so Riptide had not appeared on her.

She hoped he wouldn't see that as an opportunity to destroy her- then remembered they had a deal, that he needed her to find his siblings, and relaxed a little.

He couldn't harm her.

"Ms. Jackson," Elijah's eyes were upon her own green ones, respectfully choosing to ignore her attire and the blood that covered it.

"Hey," Her throat protested against the motion of speaking, and she swallowed thickly to appease the ache she felt.

There was a tense moment between the two of them, both not knowing what to say.

At last, she gathered her bravery and said, "Would you be terribly annoyed at me if I-?"

He was already nodding, one of his elegant hands motioning for her to enter the car. "Not at all, come on in."

"Thank you," Percy wasted no time, she crossed the hot pavement and entered his car, carefully closing the passenger's seat door and putting the seat-belt on.

He drove away instantly, which made her realize he'd only stopped because he'd seen her.

"We'll be in Mystic Falls in no time," He promised, with a conversational tone of voice. He allowed himself to give her a friendly smile, one that she returned easily.

"I hope so," She said, "You've just saved me the trouble of walking, not to mention I didn't even remember the way back to town."

He chuckled. "You're lucky your friend tried to kill me an hour ago, if he hadn't, I wouldn't be on my way back to town."

"Damon-" Percy stopped herself, "Never-mind, I'd rather not know."

Percy took in his appearance between short moments where she dared to look at him while he drove. He was dressed in one of his usual suits, but there was something different this time: the buttons of his suit were open, showing the white dressing shirt he wore, which had a stain of fresh blood.

Elijah seemed to notice her curious eyes wandering all over his figure, because he cleared his throat subtly, one of his hands leaving the wheel to button the loose buttons of his dark suit. Immediately, Percy looked away, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment.

He didn't ask about her blood-soaked clothes, so she did not ask about his.

"I believe we never finished our chat, did we?"

Percy shook her head, then realized he couldn't see her as he was staring at the road, and added, "There's more to the story that I should know?"

Truthfully, she had too much on her mind to be able to fully concentrate on what he wished to speak with her. But also, in a way, it could help her remove all the things she was overthinking.

If she concentrated on Elijah's story, she would be pushing away her own mess.

It was something she found herself wanting to do; she wanted to have a long conversation with the Original vampire, anything to distract her.

Elijah made a sound of agreement. "I'm quite positive I told you the story of my family was far longer and far more complicated than you'd ever believe."

Percy nodded vaguely. "You did."

He made a small pause, then inquired, "I suppose you haven't found anything yet-?"

Something told the demigoddess that the Original vampire was used to receive what he wanted rather quickly.

She'd been through so much in a day and half- the nightmare, the earthquake, the blackout, the massacre- that she'd completely forgotten to ask Triton when she saw him about the other Original vampires buried on the sea.

"I'll find them," She promised. "Just give me time."

She'd have to look for them on her own if she wanted to keep the mission secret from Poseidon. He wanted her out of his life, so that was exactly what he'd get. Only that not under his terms.

Instead of going back to Camp and turning into a prisoner there, Percy was staying in Mystic Falls, and she was protecting it from every danger that might ever threaten to come- even if it came disguised as a friend.

Elijah accepted her answer, though he seemed rather impatient. She could understand his emotions, if the case had been reverted, she would've done everything she could and more to find her missing siblings.

"What was the last matter we discussed yesterday?" Elijah inquired, wanting to test her memory and concentration.

Percy tried to remember. "When Niklaus became full of rage and hatred, when his parents cursed him and repressed his true nature."

When you mentioned he attacked his own siblings for opposing him.

"I see," Elijah sought the right words out. "The curse my mother placed upon Niklaus."

His right hand left the wheel as he turned his palm up in front of the radio- offering her to take his hand.

She hesitated- something Elijah must've noticed- but in the end, she allowed her hand to fall upon his own. She started by delicately touching the point of her fingers on his wrist, then she moved them through his whole hand- all the while, she didn't notice how her actions made him still for a moment, the contact causing a familiar tickling sensation cross his whole body, looking away from the road to stare at her- then finally settling her whole hand on top of his.

She was concentrated on their hands, her lips tightly pursed together in a way that resembled a pout. It was an adorable look on her fierce face, one that Elijah couldn't help but smile to.

Percy had expected the connection to start immediately, to be sucked into his memories as soon as they touched, but that did not happen. He had to open his mind for her, which was more complicated than she expected.

She looked up into his face, locking eyes with him, curiosity written on her delicate features. The contact overwhelmed him for a moment. She had the ocean on her eyes, he realized, an ocean he could not recognize, but that part of him couldn't help but respect.

Percy looked like a normal person. If someone saw her on the street, they wouldn't think much about the tall girl that crossed them, only that she was physically attractive, with an easy smile that screamed trouble. Elijah had been momentarily fooled by her disguise; he had to remind himself that she was more than a normal person, more than a teenager; she was the Heroine of Olympus, the daughter of Poseidon.

The sea that lived inside of her was strong and alive.

As a supernatural creature, Elijah could sense it.

He was able to see through her disguise, and for a moment, it shocked him. It was startling to see all the strength and the power that lived inside of such a young person.

"Is something wrong?" Percy asked seriously, narrowing her eyes.

Fearing the connection had backfired and allowed him into her mind instead of the other way around, she moved her hands from his as thought burned from the contact.

Elijah forced himself to push his thoughts away, realizing that he had stopped the car in the middle of a crowded street, and that he had not opened his mind to show her the rest of his story.

He shook his head, "Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere else."

The honking cars behind their back agreed to his words.

Percy nodded, grimacing as she glanced back to the cars that had honked at them. "Yeah, that's might be a good idea."

"Are you hungry?" He inquired, driving away once again.

"Very," One look at the clock and she realized she'd missed breakfast and lunch. There was no way her parents hadn't noticed her disappearance by then. "But not in the conditions to eat anywhere with a dress-code."

Elijah was too much of a gentleman to trail his eyes over her figure in the way he wanted, but he allowed himself a small glance at her clothes- the first one in the short time they'd been together- and had to agree with her words.

"Nothing compulsion can't fix," His right hand moved from the wheel to his pocket, where he took out his cellphone and offered it to the demigoddess. "I reckon you should call your mother to tell her you're safe."

Percy stared at the cellphone for a moment. She dreaded the concern she knew she would hear on her mother's voice; she hated worrying Sally, more so now that she was expecting a baby.

But Elijah was right.

Her parents needed to know she was safe.

Percy feared the kind of things they would believe had happened to her.

The demigoddess thought of a reasonable lie to give her mother- the truth would never soothe her nerves. Sally could never know she had blacked out and committed a massacre, and if she knew her daughter was somewhere with an unknown man, she'd think the wrong thing.

Lying was the only way to make things right.

Percy took the cellphone Elijah offered her, pushing away the worry of attracting monsters by using technology. She was already in a car with a monster, there wasn't much she could do them anymore.

"Thank you." She added as an afterthought, to which he nodded.

"Call your mother," He repeated. "We might take a while."

They had things to talk about during their lunch together, which meant it would be a slow afternoon, not to mention that the trip back to town was longer than he'd admitted- two, three hours top.

Percy's parents deserved to know their daughter would be getting home late.

The demigoddess dialed the house's number, but it went straight to voicemail. She tried Paul's phone, but he never answered calls from unknown numbers. She dialed Sally's phone, and her mother luckily answered rather fast, as though she'd been expecting a call.

"Mom?"

Sally gasped. "Percy-"

Elijah concentrated on the road ahead of him, respectfully acting as though he wasn't eavesdropping on their whole conversation. The demigoddess, regardless of the fact she noticed his action, felt uncomfortable and exposed.

"What happened?" Sally demanded, changing her relief for annoyance, something she had never done before, and that surprised Percy a lot. In the distance, she heard Paul inquiring: "Where is she?"

"I never meant to worry you both," The green-eyed girl said, not answering neither of their questions. "I'm sorry. I can't explain right now, there's something I have to do-"

Percy made it sound like a mission on purpose; for she knew that Sally would never blame her for disappearing if a new mission had been assigned for her. Sally had always been understanding about those matters...

"You said you were safe," Sally interrupted her, accusation on her tone of voice. "Are you?" And after Percy repeated that she was safe, Sally continued: "Then explain."

The demigoddess found herself closing her eyes and swallowing a groan. The one moment she could not speak- the one moment she was in the presence of a dangerous mortal monster- was the one time that Sally decided not to be understanding about the situation.

"I cannot explain-" Percy toyed with one of her rings distractedly. "I have something to do."

"Yes, while you're out there doing God's knows what, we've wasted all of our day looking for you," Sally snapped, pregnancy hormones making her anger explode- or that's what Percy thought. "We deserve a proper explanation."

She was taken aback with the tone her mother was using on her, and for a small moment, she could only stare ahead of her, the phone still pressed against her ear.

"And I will give you a proper explanation, just that not now."

"No, Percy. Enough lies. We want the truth. We've been looking for you all day!"

Percy's cheeks were red in embarrassment, for she had tried to act mature in front of the dangerous Original vampire, but bickering with her mother was probably the most childish thing she could ever do. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed that he was purposely staring at the road ahead of him, even when the road was clean and empty of other cars.

"I never asked you to look for me," Percy hadn't meant for that statement to come as harsh as it did. "It's not the first time I leave the house without notifying you beforehand. You're overreacting."

Sally sounded offended and hurt, "Would you rather we stay home doing nothing while you disappear for another nine months?"

That was a low blow, something she never meant to say in such a direct way, but the words were already out of her mouth and she could not do anything about it but wait her daughter's reaction.

Percy's heart stopped for a moment, not believing her mother would use that against her.

Those nine months she'd been away hadn't exactly been a paradise, it wasn't as though she had wanted to disappear.

The demigoddess knew that Hera had damaged many things when she took her against her will all those months back, but she never imagined that one of those things would be the relationship she had with her mother.

"I'll be home in a couple of hours, not months," Percy said at last, her words coming out colder than she intended them to be. "I trust you know the difference between being kidnapped by a goddess and having an important thing to do."

The demigoddess ended the call, ignoring whatever answer her mother would come up with.

It wasn't good to start a fight with the only person she could truly count in- with the person that had always been there for her, but she was still full of rage from her former actions, and as much as she claimed she could control her rage, most of the time she could not control her mouth.

Elijah extended his hand, not looking towards her. She placed the phone back on his extended palm, and looked away.

The Original vampire had about a million questions he would've liked to ask, but instead of making his curiosity known, he said:

"I hope you like Chinese."

Percy finally recognized the area they were covering- they were crossing a small street at the outskirts of Virginia, close to the main entrance of town (close meaning an hour or two) where the streets resembled one big market place. There were shops at every corner, most of them being food courts, the rest being souvenir shops. She had lunch there with her parents when they were first driving into town, all those months ago.

The demigoddess tried to look through the window and see if she could find a familiar restaurant, but everything seemed to be closed. The usually crowded street was deserted and lonely, all the shops closed- all but one, in the distance, a Chinese restaurant.

"Where's all the people?" Percy scowled, unnerved by the lack of mortals around. A place like that was bound to always have long crowds of people.

Elijah looked at the clock. "I take it from your tone that it's not usually this deserted."

It was around mid-afternoon, a time when people were out looking for lunch; he shared her surprise at the lack of humans around.

All the answer he received was a non-verbal sound of agreement.

"Should we?" Elijah hesitated. "Perhaps it will be better for us to speak without having to fear eavesdroppers."

In other words, no mortal would feel frightened by the face she'd make while entering his mind.

After all, she had to close her eyes to concentrate, and it would look highly strange to be touching any part of Elijah while closing her eyes and leaning back.

She'd look like a psycho, or a pervert- Percy wasn't sure which was worse.

"Maybe," Percy conceded. "Park there-" She pointed to a spot in front of the restaurant, "It's closer than the actual parking lot."

The parking lot was completely empty, but it was better to park close to the restaurant in case something happened and they had to escape.

Something about the whole empty street bothered the demigoddess more than she would ever admit, making her cautious of the whole situation.

It felt like a ghost street, though she'd been there two months before that moment and it had been a normal street, full of costumers and of noise.

When they got out of the car, the silence that stretched around them was more unnerving than the lack of people. They were standing right in front of the restaurant, yet no sound could be heard coming from it- not even the sound of anyone preparing food.

It was beyond strange.

Something felt wrong about the place- though Percy didn't know if she was just being paranoid.

She must've looked uncomfortable, because Elijah offered her his arm, a silent question burning through the air between them. The gesture was familiar- Apollo fancied such old-fashioned gestures: linking arms, kissing hands, opening doors for each other, slaying monsters together, that sort of stuff-, and she welcomed the unexpected familiarity in such a strange place.

"This place gives me the creeps," Percy admitted after a moment, grimacing as they stepped through the doors.

Elijah looked at her- they were the same height, so there was no need to look up or down to lock eyes. His eyes asked things his mouth would never ask out-loud. It appeared he was smarter than she'd thought- sometimes talking about things that weren't usual would only make a situation worse.

She shook her head. I don't know if there's something wrong, it just feels like it.

He pursed his lips and looked around.

The place was smaller than they thought it would be, more so considering the strange way the tables we aligned with each other. They were arranged in a way that left one big circle in the middle, as though something- perhaps a show of some sort- would keep the people on the tables entertained.

"Which view would you like to have?" Percy raised her eyebrows, sarcastically inquiring: "The middle or the room or the middle of the room?"

"The middle of the room sounds wonderful, thank you."

She couldn't help but giggle, never expecting to receive an equally sarcastic answer to her sarcastic statement.

He smirked at her, and as she moved towards one of the tables- they were all the same, so it didn't matter which one she choose- he moved towards the empty counter and rang the bell upon it, patiently awaiting for any employee to take his order.

The seconds stretched into minutes, and they still had no answer.

Percy was about to tell him to forget it and leave when there came a loud sound from the kitchen, and then, through the open window that divided the counter from the kitchen behind doors, the sillhouette of a woman could be seen. The woman was old, or she appeared to be old, for her silhouette showed a woman leaning against some kind of cane.

An eerie voice called out: "Order?"

Something about it made Percy's skin crawl, though she didn't give it much thought. A faint smell of food lingered on the air, making her stomach groan in desire.

Elijah glanced back at the demigoddess. What do you want? He received a helpless shrug as an answer, so he took it upon himself to study the menu on the board and to choose what to order. He didn't know what she liked, but since she seemed to be okay with whatever he picked, he chose the one he thought sounded more delicious.

The woman in the kitchen limped away, making a sound of agreement.

Elijah went back to the table.

"I'm not sure how healthy the food will be-" He moved a finger though the table, picking up dust as he did, and grimaced.

Percy couldn't help but feel disgusted. A feeling that only grew when the woman in the kitchen coughed loudly for a couple of consecutive moments. Elijah had his eyebrows raised, but said nothing about the whole ordeal, though he looked as disgusted as she was feeling.

She wondered if he had ever been inside of a bad restaurant- like that one they were in that moment, since he was rich and immortal. He could probably compel himself a nice spot on the finest restaurants of the world.

"Shall we start?" Percy inquired after a moment of silence. "Our food might take a while."

Elijah nodded, and once again, extended his hand towards her.

This time, the connection started instantly, sucking her into memories that did not belong to her.

She saw the rest of the Original's story.

She saw them finding out their mother made their father a vampire to haunt them down once the other witches made her see the abomination she had created. She saw them running away from their father- at times, she saw them lining happily and rejoicing life, only to be forced to flee once their father found them. He tried to kill all of his children, though he seemed to have reserved a special amount of hatred only for Niklaus.

Then she saw Niklaus' desperation to break his curse; Percy finally had an answer about Annabeth's discovery about the Sun and the Moon curse, which was more satisfactory than she would've liked to admit.

After all those months wondering what was the truth behind that fake curse, she finally had an answer: She saw Niklaus and Elijah writing the Sun and the Moon curse, wanting others- vampires and werewolves alike- to feel so tempted by that to try and break it for them.

Percy saw the reason Katherine had been running from the Originals- she saw how Niklaus had been at the verge of breaking his curse, but he'd been sloppy and the doppelgänger had discovered what her fate was and she'd run, turning herself into a vampire to escape her fate.

More importantly, she saw what was needed to break the curse: a witch to cast the counter-spell, the moonstone, a vampire, a werewolf and a doppelgänger to sacrifice.

Not any doppelgänger, it had to be a Petrova doppelgänger.

Elena Gilbert.

Percy broke the connection as immediately as the memories started to move faster, time passing by. The last thing she saw was the Salvatore brothers trying to protect their beloved Elena from Elijah, eventually managing to drive a stake through his heart.

The green-eyed girl closed her eyes for a second, trying not to succumb to the dizziness that made it impossible for her to breathe. The connection had been longer than the last time, the memories more intense. It had almost been to much for her mortal mind, though she'd never admit it. Those memories felt stronger than her hallucinations, but they left the same sickening sensation of doom all over her body.

It felt as though she couldn't have control over her own mind- it was very unpleasant.

"That's why you're here," The young girl realized, unable to keep the accusation off her voice. "Niklaus intends to break his curse. Mystic Falls has everything he needs: a doppelganger, the moonstone, witches, vampires. All he's missing is a werewolf."

"I'm here because it's only a matter of time before my brother comes into town," Elijah corrected. "The news of Elena's existence reached me, which can only mean that it has also reached Niklaus. However, I fear you might be mistaken in your assumptions, I'm not here to aid Niklaus-"

Percy shook her head, remembering what she'd seen on his mind.

"You want to kill him."

Elijah seemed taken aback by her correct assumption. For a moment, he said nothing, then slowly, he glanced away, trying to come to terms with the fact that he wanted to do what his father had tried to do all his life.

"He's my brother," Elijah said at last. And I love him. "However, he has done terrible things, some which are too treacherous to be forgiven."

Percy shook her head at him, moving her hands as though to stop him from talking. "You don't have to explain yourself, I'm in no position to judge."

Her own family had a large record of murders.

Elijah seemed to accept her answer. He sought another topic, saying "Do you understand now why I thought it important for you to know the whole story?"

Percy nodded. "The whole town might be affected once Niklaus tries to lift his curse."

Doppelgängers weren't that common, which meant Niklaus would never let Elena escape in the same way Katherine escaped him; he'd destroy the whole town before letting her escape.

The thought alone gave Percy a new wave of stress.

She just hoped Elijah would keep his brother controlled, as he claimed he would, because once Niklaus started to kill mortals around town, she'd have to deal with the whole situation, as her main duty was protecting mortals, however tiring it was.

"There will be casualties," Elijah agreed, looking uncomfortable at that admission. "I'm afraid I cannot assure you the safety of mortals around town once my brother arrives, but I do promise to protect your family and friends from him."

"For as long as I search for your brothers," Percy added.

She wasn't stupid, she knew that a bond as strong as the one that existed between Elijah and Niklaus couldn't have been so severely damaged as to extinguish the love that existed between them.

She had a feeling that, as much as Elijah claimed he was going to kill Niklaus, he wouldn't actually do it. He'd been trying to redeem his brother for centuries, it was something that couldn't be easily erased. Perhaps Percy was mistaken, but that was what she thought of the matter.

Elijah observed her, sensing something was bothering her. "I will make sure to keep my brother as far from you as possible, Ms. Jackson. You won't be involved in any of our problems. If that's what's bothering you-"

She interrupted him. "I believe you. We made a deal, I know you won't back out on your word." When he gave her a curious look, she explained herself, "You're the one they call honorable."

"But there is something on your mind," Elijah guessed, tilting his head to the side as he watched her attentively.

"Do you really think you can fool me into believing you'll kill Niklaus?"

Elijah didn't like the tone of voice she used on him. "My plan is to end his existence-"

Percy snorted, leaning back against the chair and staring at him. "How do you plan on doing so? Your thoughts move around the possibility of waiting until the full moon is at its highest point, to then tear his heart out, but then what? We both know your kind is the only species capable of surviving to have their heart ripped out."

Elijah's face was a perfect mask again. For a moment, he regretted letting her inside of his mind, though it had been the only way of properly having her whole concentration on him and the story- he knew people with ADHD couldn't concentrate easily.

When he spoke, his voice was cold and harsh. "I thought you said you wouldn't care about the outcome since it was none of your business."

"It's none of my business, but I won't be part of a web of lies," Percy shot back. "We made a deal, and I believe in your word, but you have to trust me."

"You think I've been deceiving you?" Elijah seemed to be losing his patience. "Ms. Jackson, the only weapon that can kill me and my family was destroyed centuries ago. I haven't found a way to strike my brother down, but I assure you that I will."

Percy thought of all the times she saw Elijah forgive Niklaus and continue standing by his side, even when he claimed not to.

She said: "You've forgiven him before." Their promise of always and forever was a strong one.

"He had never gone as far as to punish our siblings in a way they could never recover from." Elijah shot back, having lost his patience, and therefore, dropping his walls. "He went too far this time. There's no way to be redeemed from that, I won't forgive him for that."

There was only raw sincerity on his voice- raw emotion, raw pain. It seemed like a strange gesture of vulnerability, something she never thought she'd get to see from the stoic man in front of her.

There was nothing about his statement that she could turn against him; she knew the kind of pain he was feeling, and knew he was being truthful about his words.

She sought something else to discuss.

"Niklaus need the moonstone to break the curse. You tried to keep Elena safe and failed. I think you need to speak to her without the Salvatore brothers knowing about it, they tend to become blind when they think someone wants to harm their girl." He agreed with her words, though she continued before he could say anything. "I have the moonstone- I can give it to you."

Percy thought it was better if Elijah kept the moonstone safe- that way, Niklaus would have no reason to seek her out, and therefore, she wouldn't be under the imminent threat that was encountering him.

She wanted to keep the immortal hybrid as far from herself as she could.

The Original vampire looked surprised at her words, having thought the Salvatore brothers had the moonstone, but eventually, he nodded slightly in her direction.

"I'll keep it safe and away from Niklaus' hands," He promised. "Thank you."

Percy offered him a tentative smile, hoping not to regret her choices.

Everything could backfire and end up tragically- Elijah could back out on his word and let Niklaus live, bringing chaos into Mystic Falls and wrecking the peace she had formed when she put a leash on the Salvatore brothers- but, after all, her life always backfired, so she was pessimistically expecting the worst.

The woman's eerie voice returned: "Ready."

Her voice was followed by a series of banging sounds coming from the kitchen, as though all the cooking pots had fallen to the floor.

"Is she talking to us?" Percy scowled. It was hard to be sure when she hadn't even moved from the kitchen, they had never seen each other face to face.

"Perhaps she means our order is ready," The vampire seemed to shrug, though there was some sort of caution on his actions as he stood from the table and approached the counter. "Ma'am? Is our food ready?"

"Ready." The woman's eerie voice repeated. "Ready. Ready. Ready."

Percy tensed. Something was wrong. "Mr. Mikaelson, I think you should get back-"

Elijah looked back at her, a frown on his face. He seemed to hear something coming from the kitchen, because his head turned towards the small window, then his eyes widened. A green twig approached him with fast speed, then wrapped against his calf and pulled, dragging him into the floor and inside the kitchen.

Percy cursed and sprang from her seat instantly.

She moved swiftly towards the place where he'd been previously standing, then looked back at the main door, only to find it had been closed.

She didn't waste more time, she moved into the kitchen.

The first thing she noticed was that the green thing that had caught Elijah was not a twig.

It was a tail.

It came from the rear end of a young woman, the woman that had been cooking for them. She had long, pretty dark hair, and was dressed in a short, summer-dress. Percy couldn't see the woman's face, but she knew it was probably unpleasant- the inhuman and sharp tail that she possessed was hideous and of a sickening green that probably meant it was poisonous.

The monster was doing something to Elijah, though her whole body blocked whatever it was, so Percy had no idea what was happening or to what she would be going against.

Percy tried to sneak behind the woman, but at once, the tail straightened and then drove towards her at an amazing speed- she ducked, throwing herself behind a counter.

The woman made a sound of pleasure that disgusted the demigoddess. "Come out, little girl. Don't be scared."

Elijah made a guttural sound of anger. Percy wasn't seeing him, but she imagined he was trying to fight against the monstrous woman; it would be to no avail, he was a powerful vampire, but the monsters from Percy's world were stronger and more dangerous.

Behind the counter, Percy tried to come up with a plan- she was unarmed, the first thing she did was look around, trying to spot anything that could serve as a weapon; she saw a small kitchen knife and took it. The next thing to do would be try to find out what she was going up against- that way she could know how to defeat her.

The monster seemed to lose its patience: "COME OUT!"

Percy obliged, then staggered back at the sight she was met with.

The woman was young- horribly so, probably younger than Sally-, though her skin was green and decaying, her mouth a hideous red that resembled blood. She had a pair of sunglasses covering her eyes, though that only made if creepier- who wore sunglasses inside a building?

"Why are you doing this?" Percy demanded. "Who are you?" She evaded one specially sharp blow from her tail, moving to the other side and holding her improvised weapon tightly on her hand. "Identify yourself!"

The woman staggered back, as though the question had taken her by surprise. She threw her head side to side, as though driven mad by her own thoughts, then her hands came up and grabbed her own forehead, screaming for a moment in despair.

Percy was too startled to take advantage of the situation.

"What is your name?" Percy pressed on, this time more gently. The monster hadn't made another movement to attack, but she stayed with her guard up.

The woman didn't hear her. She continued grabbing her forehead and mumbling things that came out too fast and too low for the demigoddess to hear.

For a moment, it looked as though the monster was in deep pain.

Her green eyes shot back to where Elijah was. She could finally see what the monster had been doing to him, though it wasn't safe for her to try and approach him- the unstable monster was in the middle of them.

The Original vampire had been placed inside of a gigantic cooking pot, his skin all irritated and red from the vervain that kept him trapped there. It must've been an incredible amount of vervain, for Percy knew that some vampires could stand vervain if they tried- and something told her that an Original vampire could, most certainly, stand it enough to escape.

Percy lowered her voice until it was mere audible, "I'll deal with this, but I need to know what I'm up against."

Elijah groaned when he tried to shift on his restrains and the vervain pierced his skin. He didn't speak, but one of his hands moved enough for him to move one of his long fingers and point it at his chest. He made several circular motions, then when she didn't seem to be understanding, he mouthed the word: name-tag.

Percy's eyes shot back to the woman, only to find that she had been staring directly at her, which made Percy's heart jump.

"Daughter of Poseidon." The monster licked its lips- her tongue was lacerated, like one of a snake's.

The demigoddess tensed. She didn't like it when monsters knew about her but she didn't know about them.

Her eyes found the name-tag placed on the monster's dress, but the distance and her condition only made it impossible to identify what it said.

"M-" Percy stopped herself. "Mail?" That didn't sound right. The letters kept shifting places and getting blurry, so now it seemed to say a whole different thing. "Liam? Liam?"

Elijah banged against the cooking pot that held him, drawing the monsters attention to himself. The woman hissed at him, pointing with her claws and tail in his direction, which only seemed to disgust the Original vampire.

"Quiet. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet." The woman snapped, trembling. Her tail made a movement as though ready to sting the vampire, but she held it on her hands, preventing it from touching the other monster in the room. With her whole body turned towards him, he could easily read the name-tag she wore.

"Lamia," Elijah pronounced, his accent making the name sound more exotic than it originally was.

Percy's choked on a breath. "Lamia?"

The woman screamed, turning towards the demigoddess and hissing at her. "Do not speak that wretched name!"

"If you didn't want people to know your name, why would you place it on a name-tag?" The demigoddess shot back.

"She took my children!" Lamia cried in despair, her sunglasses falling off her face to reveal the hideous truth- she had no eyes, only empty sockets. "My poor babies!" She made a guttural cry that penetrated Percy's bones and made all of her hair's stand on end.

Something about her words didn't feel right, something about her story wasn't quite right.

The green-eyed demigoddess found herself pausing and considering the whole statement before asking, "Lamia took your children?"

"NO," The monster screamed. "I AM LAMIA."

Lamia's tail threw a blow close to where Percy was, grabbing into one of the counters instead of her. The vicious woman made pressure on the counter, squeezing it until it turned to dust before their eyes. Something told the demigoddess that Lamia had thought she'd grabbed into a human instead of a counter.

Suddenly, it all appeared on Percy's mind- the monster's full story. Around Camp, stories about her atrocities were used for scare the younger campers.

"You're the child eater." The green-eyed girl blurted out before she could stop herself. "You steal children and devour them. Out of envy and sorrow...because your own children were stolen."

Suddenly, it made sense why she had trapped Elijah inside of a cooking pot. Though it was doubtful that she'd actually cook her victims before eating them- that was something that only happened in Hannibal.

Real monsters were as cannibal as the word states, using their teeth to pierce the skin and penetrate the bones, ripping their victims apart with their mouths and eating them raw.

The image of Kronos devouring the gods appeared on Percy's mind, and she gritted her teeth.

It was disgusting.

Lamia was just another example of how monstrous the families from her world actually were.

Elijah seemed to have reached the same conclusion about his fate that Percy had. His face had not morphed into the beast he held within, but there was only venom on his voice when he spoke, enough rage hidden on his words that Percy found herself flinching.

"I'm a grown man, not a defenseless child. If you even attempt to devour me, I will rip you apart."

Lamia remained unbothered by the threat.

As many monsters from Percy's world, she took her time into explaining her situation to the demigoddess; for whatever reason they did that, demigods could never know, but they were glad for their egocentrism and idiocy, for it gave them enough time to think of a tactic powerful enough to destroy them.

"Lamia," Percy called her attention. "What happened to you?"

She knew the story, everyone that was around Camp Half-Blood in Halloween knew the story.

But she still listened attentively when Lamia seemed to believe her curiosity to be innocent and chose to answer her question. It was always different to hear the story coming from the actual monster than to hear it coming from the supposed heroes.

"Hera stole my children." As Lamia talked, Elijah fought silently against his restrains. "Zeus promised to save them, but he ended up choosing her over our babies." Her tail twitched in anger as she spoke. "I tried to find them on my own, but Zeus tore my eyes out-"

"No." Percy scowled. That was not how the myth had gone. "You never tried to find your children. You went around the world, full of grief and anger, and started devouring all the children you found."

"I only wanted to find my babies-" She stressed, hissing.

"You devoured your own children when you found them," Percy shot back in the same persistent way. "Lamia, you turned yourself into a monster. It was all you."

"NO." Lamia cried. "I never meant to hurt my babies! Hera made me do it-"

"Hera kidnapped your kids, but it was you who started to eat children around the world, eventually finding your kids again and devouring them, too." Percy gave her a disgusted look. "You turned yourself into a monster."

Lamia's tail threw a sharp blow in Percy's direction, but the demigoddess was able to evade it easily. In its rage, the monster seemed to lose the little patience it had, and moved as though to jump her, only to stop when the daughter of Poseidon opened her mouth and said:

"Hera took me away from my family, too."

Those words seemed to shake the monster, for it stopped its movements and stared hard at the young girl in front of her.

Percy continued, "She destroyed the relationship of trust I had with my mother."

Lamia started to nod, almost maniacally.

Percy wondered if the part of the myth that said she'd been driven crazy by her grief was also true.

"You understand, then," Lamia licked her lips, eagerly trailing her empty-sockets over her figure. She also wondered how Lamia could see if she had no eyes. "You understand why I'm doing this. H-Hera deserves a punishment."

"Yes," Percy nodded profusely, mockingly smiling in her direction. "Hera deserves a punishment."

"Y-Yes-" Lamia hissed in pleasure. Her whole body trembled with anticipation. "T-The gods love children. I have to eat them all, all the children in the world," She savored the thought, her fangs growing in size with each word. "Then Zeus and Hera will finally feel the grief I felt."

Percy was tempted to laugh.

All the gods cared about were themselves, only a few of them actually cared about their children and the children of mortals. If Lamia wanted them to feel grief, she had to try to eat them, not their children.

Nonetheless, the demigoddess nodded and kept smiling.

She opened her arms wide, as though expecting a hug from the monster, and said, "Come and get me. Zeus would surely be angry if you eat me before he gets the chance to kill me himself. I'm the perfect bait."

Elijah snapped. "Ms. Jackson!"

Lamia ignored the Original vampire, and obliged to the demigoddess advice.

As soon as the monster lunged for her, Percy twisted the small knife around her hand, then stabbed her in the chest as soon as she was upon her. The monster screeched in pain, it's tail wrapping itself around Percy's body. She found herself suffocating instantly, the tail crushing her whole chest with an immense force she never expected- meanwhile, Lamia kept screaming in despair and rage as her stomach bled out.

Percy started to see little dots appearing on her vision, and then, as suddenly as she'd started to suffocate, the feeling stopped, and the tail moved away from her body.

Lamia was staggering back, the blood that came out of the wound on her stomach moved before their eyes, trailing a path upwards and into her open mouth.

As soon as the demigoddess could properly think, her rage grew, and she found herself willing the blood to move faster towards her mouth, making her choke on her own blood.

Lamia kept choking, but didn't die. A monster of her kind would never die in that way, all she could do was pass out.

Percy caught a glimpse of a bigger knife- a cooking ax- on the other side of the kitchen.

The demigoddess walked slowly towards there, seemingly having no concerns about the whole situation since the monster was immobilized by her lack of oxygen.

Once her hands wrapped themselves around the ax, Percy walked back to where Lamia lay crouched on the floor, staggering and retching as her blood kept moving towards her throat and into her lungs.

For a small moment, all Percy did was watch her suffer- it felt good to be causing a monster that kind of pain.

All Percy could think was of the poor kids she had devoured through the centuries.- but then, her hands fisted a lock of her dark hair, and she pulled, forcing the monster's face to be facing her own as she drew the ax to her neck.

"N-No," Lamia choked, blood everywhere. "My babies-"

With one swift blow, Percy decapitated her.

In an instant, her whole body turned to dust, then scattered with the soft breeze coming from the window.

She might have left Riptide home when she blacked-out and ended on a beach, but she had not left her defenses back there. That sword was only her favorite weapon, the one she could work better with, but she could still make weapons out of anything. Perhaps that ax hadn't been as powerful as her sword- which was made with celestial bronze, the material that killed monsters instantly- but it had been enough to kill that particular monster.

She turned to stare at Elijah, moving her hand and making water appear out of nowhere. Once she did, she moved the water until it washed all the vervain from the chains that held him trapped. He hissed in pain once the cold water touched his burnt skin. When the chains were free of vervain, he freed himself with one swift movement of his wrists.

"You heal faster than a normal vampire," Percy noticed, watching how one second he had his skin blotchy from the contact with the vervain, and the other one, it was normal and healthy-looking. "You okay? Anything irreparably damaged?"

He shook his head.

She took a small moment to savor the triumph and rest, leaning against one of the counters for support as she struggled to remain conscious.

It had been a long day, she'd used her powers too many times in such a short amount of time- she had no ambrosia or nectar to heal herself. She had been running on full adrenaline, since she hadn't eaten proper food since the day before.

But now the remains of that adrenaline burned out, leaving only exhaustion on its place.

She was able to hear Elijah moving around, though she was too tired to care about his actions. He could murder her if he wanted, and in that moment, she wouldn't care if it meant she'd have some rest.

"Perhaps there's something you could eat before leaving," Elijah mentioned casually, "You need energy."

That probably meant she looked wrecked. "Thanks."

"I do not mean it like that. I can practically hear your body protesting against every attempt at movement you do. When was the last time you had a proper meal?"

That was not something she was wiling to discuss with a monster.

For him, she was probably a decent meal (Damon kept mentioning over and over again that her blood smelled delicious) however affectionate and caring he sounded when he questioned her health-choices. She had enough with the Salvatore brothers acting as though they were her siblings; she didn't want another vampire to try and care for her.

Nonetheless, she found herself shrugging and answering. "Yesterday, maybe."

Elijah exhaled deeply.

At first, she thought it had been because of her words, but then he said, "If you're squeamish, do yourself a favor and don't look here."

That was not a good thing to tell a very curious demigoddess. Most of the time she wasn't squeamish, but she was always full of curiosity.

Moving towards the place the vampire was standing in front of the fridge, she peaked through a small gap between his arm and his head, and caught a glimpse of the thing that Elijah had found: frozen human limbs inside of the fridge. They were everywhere: in every single space of the refrigerator, in every meal she had stuck there, there were even bottles of blood in beer cans, and a frozen hand wrapped against one of those bears.

"Holy fucking gods," She breathed out, disgusted, taking one step back and moving one hand to her nose to block the unpleasant smell of rotting skin. "I'm really glad we never got to eat the food she was preparing us."

Elijah didn't look faced with the sight, which disgusted the demigoddess once she realized it was because he was no stranger to those sights- he had probably mutilated bodies in that way, too. All vampires were sadistic monsters, no matter how refined they seemed to be.

"There's blood there," Percy hesitated, unable to hide her disgust. "If you need to feed-"

"That's child's blood," Elijah interrupted her, looking equally as disgusted as her. "I don't feed off children."

A vampire with morality, that was new.

Percy hesitated, then shrugged. "Fine. As long as you don't snap in the middle of the road and decide you'd like to have a divine bite-" She trailed off, one eyebrow raised in contemplation.

"Like I said, I don't feed off children." Elijah paused, he doubted she knew he meant her. He then changed the conversation before she could fully realize what he meant. "I cannot fully process the fact that she was ready to eat us."

Percy laughed humorlessly, "Welcome to my world, buddy. Nothing ever makes sense. People eat each other all the time. It always involves some kind of revenge."

"She was selling customers food that contained human limbs," Elijah stressed, raising one perfect eyebrow in bewilderment as one of his fingers poked what seemed to be a fried eye. "And afterwards, judging by the lack of people in the street, eating them."

"Once, a monster disguised himself as an ordinary salesman that sold beds that stretched you until your limbs popped out of its sockets once you tried them on." Percy rejoiced in the skeptic look Elijah bore in that moment, grinning as she added: "That was one of my first quests. Fun times."

Elijah places his hands on his pockets. "Let's improve our deal, shall we, Ms. Jackson?"

Percy gave him a curious look, tilting her head to the side. "What do you have in mind?"

Elijah continued. "I keep you out of my family's problems, you keep me out of your world's business."

Percy was tempted to laugh.

That was all she had always wanted out of the deals she had done in Mystic Falls. She just wanted to remain out of people's business and to have them away from her own business.

She sensed that his request was mainly out of frustration. He had been powerless against Lamia, who had been relatively easy to kill, that could be a blow to anyone's ego.

At last, Percy nodded. "I think I can happily agree to that new condition."

"If there's nothing else you have to do here, we need to leave." Elijah moved away from the fridge. "I'll take you somewhere else to eat, hopefully somewhere with no abominations trying to eat us."

...

Emma's father was a war veteran turned artist.

After his service as a soldier, he'd gone out of his mind, full of grief and sorrow over his actions on the battlefield, and had eventually decided to do something better, something that would help him fill the hole that the war had left on his chest.

He followed his main passion, which was art, and started painting.

He started to give free art classes once he discovered he knew how to teach others. His classes were free because he never needed the money, he had enough with his veteran salary, and all he wanted was to help others find their passion for art.

Thirty years after he opened his art-study and started giving classes, his first daughter was born. He was already an old man, being on his mid-forties, but his young wife was happy with the arrival of little Emma, followed shortly by their first son, Andrew.

When Emma was old enough to properly hold a brush, her father had taught her how to paint, starting by the basics and then progressing into different kinds of techniques- oil painting, acrylic painting, watercolors, tempera, etc, though her favorite had always been watercolor; she liked the way the colors molded together, creating new shades and becoming one.

She'd learned to paint before learning to speak- it was something that she loved wholeheartedly, and that reminded her of happy times- when her parents were together (their age difference had made things difficult between them, which in the end, drove them to get divorced), when she had no concerns for anything, when school was easier and people liked her...

For that reason, on the few moments that she felt hollow and empty, she relied on the familiar feeling that holding a brush and creating beautiful patterns over a clean canvas offered her.

It was the only thing about her life that would never change, it was the one thing that never failed to make her happy.

Her father still lived in Mystic Falls and had his study open for public, but he almost never got new students to teach, which made him feel depressed, and had him eventually stop going to his own study.

He sent Emma there from time to time to check on the place, since he didn't fully trust the employees he'd hired.

That day, since Emma was particularly feeling down, she was happy when her father texted her to ask her to check the place. It was the perfect excuse she needed to stay there for a while and paint.

However, there was an unknown man in her father's study when she arrived there after school. He was staring directly at the few paintings his father had on the wall, some made by himself, others by talented students he'd had. The presence of the man wasn't alarming, though it seemed strange that there would be someone there when Mr. Darcy never let anyone into that part of the study if he was not present (and he hadn't been present there for quite some time), for there were too many valuable things upon those walls, paintings that were too personal to be seen by anyone, paintings that meant a lot to him.

"Excuse me," Emma called politely, though she remained distanced from the man in case he was hostile. "You're not supposed to be here."

The man turned, a look of surprise flickering into his face. "I'm not?"

He was extremely handsome, with dark, blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes that seemed to portray all the life he had.

He placed his hands on his pockets and offered her a charming smile, "I apologize for the intrusion, then."

Emma relaxed a little; thinking that he was probably one of the students.

"It's okay. I'm sure Mrs. Nolan simply forgot to mention that beginners can't enter this part of the studio without supervision."

Mr. Darcy was never around the study, which made it hard when actual students appeared asking about the classes. Mrs. Nolan, the receptionist, was supposed to schedule the newcomers that wanted to take classes, to have them all together on the one day Mr. Darcy would finally go back to his study.

It seemed strange the old receptionist would let a man roam freely through the place after scheduling him, it was something she never did.

Amusement crossed through the man's eyes. "I'm not a beginner, though, love." The corners of his mouth twitched.

Emma tilted her head to the side, giving him a curious look. "You're not?"

Perhaps that was one of the men that wanted to teach classes there; the place received thousands of job solicitudes, but Mr. Darcy never hired anyone. For one thing, he liked being the one to teach. Secondly, he wanted to keep the classes free, and if he hired another teacher, he'd have to pay them.

He grinned, gesturing to the wall as he added, "I assure you, I'm more than capable of creating art more strikingly impressive than those."

Emma tried not to feel offended, for many of those paintings had been done by her. She found herself teasingly saying: "Is that so?"

"Allow me to show you," The man offered, sounding as equally teasing as she was being.

Emma's good mood started to drop. She wasn't supposed to let anyone touch the art materials if her father wasn't present. He was the one that had the talent of teaching others, Emma was too kind and sweet to be able to correct anyone doing a mistake without feeling horrible about it. She didn't want to break one of her father's rule, but part of her was actually curious about the man's art talent.

He must be good if he claimed he could paint better than Mr. Darcy and his students.

Emma smiled easily. There was nothing she could lose by letting him paint, and even if there were something she could lose, her father would never know.

"All right. Follow me, sir."

"Klaus, please," The handsome man followed her. "My name is Klaus."

Emma slowed her pace until they were walking side by side, locking eyes with him as she said, "I'm Emma."

"Lovely name." Klaus complimented, something alike fire brightening his eyes. Something about his smile seemed almost feral in that moment, though she chose to ignore it- thinking that it was probably a trick of the light. "It suits you."

Emma gave him a bright smile.

They crossed a hallway, then she opened a door and turned the light on, moving aside to let him inside the room. There were tables all around, all of them full of art materials, and then, at the other side of the room, were different styles and sizes of canvas. She motioned for him to chose one, and as he moved to examine them, she sought something to talk about, bothered by the silence.

"Have you always liked art?"

His answer was nonverbal; he nodded profusely.

Then she asked, "What do you like most about it?"

That seemed to be the question he was hoping to receive, a smirk flickered on his face when he answered: "Panting is a metaphor for control. Every choice is mine, the canvas, the color. As a child, I had neither sense of the world nor my place in it, but art taught me that one's vision can be achieved with sheer force of will. The same is true of life, provided one refuses to let anything stand in one's way."

Emma processed his words, then found herself giving him an admiring look. "That's a nice way of putting it. I've never thought about it in that way."

Klaus chose a canvas, them moved towards one of the tables. "May I?" When she nodded, he took a seat and started preparing his materials.

She watched him for a while, noticing how familiar he was with the materials. A familiarity that was only visible in someone that had been painting for a long, long time.

Emma couldn't help but picture her father there, where Klaus was. The way they moved and arranged their materials was very similar.

"Does your father still paint?"

"Yes, of course." The question didn't surprise Emma; her father was known around town as the art teacher, since he'd been at it for more than forty years.

Klaus nodded, looking down at his palette before meeting her gaze again. There was something alike curiosity on his eyes, then, though the younger girl couldn't understand the reason for it.

"Emma," Her name sounded almost special coming out of his lips, "You really don't remember me?"

Emma blinked. She was certain they had never seen each other, when she looked at him, there was not even a small feeling of having seen him before. His face was new to her, though she couldn't find a polite way of saying that.

"I'm sorry," She said at last, sounding sincere. "Have we met before?"

Klaus looked only a little disappointed. "No matter, love. Human memory is unkind. I didn't expect you to remember me."

Emma tilted her head to the side, "Does that mean we have seen each other before?"

"Years ago, your father fell into a deep depressive episode of self-hatred." Klaus explained patiently, though there was something not patient about the way he organized his colors and chose his brushes, almost as though his thoughts were getting the best off him. He looked almost agitated. "He tried to kill himself. You were here, with him, in this same art study."

Emma's heart fell to the floor, a sickening sense of fear settling over her whole body.

That couldn't be true, she had a good memory, she remembered a lot about the past, and she was certain she wouldn't have forgotten something as serious as her father trying to kill himself.

"Your mother sent him to a mental hospital, Emma," Klaus said gently, his voice softer than it had ever been. "I took care of you-"

"No." Emma's voice broke, which she hated. "My father is not crazy."

Klaus shook his head. "I never said he was. Seeking professional help doesn't make someone mad-"

"Stop," Emma spat, only then noticing her nerves had gotten the best out of her, and that she had started to silently cry. "You don't know anything about my family."

Klaus calmly poured two colors into his palette, moving one brush to soak it on the first color, then moved the brush towards the canvas. "I met your father a year before he marched straight into war, then a month after he got off the military service, I welcomed him into my house until he could find a place to live at, then at his wedding, I was his best man. I've known your father for far longer than you've been on this earth, Emma. I was here when he tried to kill himself, I took care of you when your parents left you alone."

Emma snapped. "NO."

In a blink, he was standing in front of her, cradling her face on his hands. Emma gasped, trying to move away from his touch, but he was too strong for her to fight the contact. But then, before she could do much else, their eyes locked, and something inside of her seemed to break and make pressure on her head. She could only focus on him, on those mesmerizing eyes and on those words that were coming out of his pair of plump lips. Everything else felt blurry and impossible to stare at; if she tried, the pressure on her head grew until the pain became so horrible that she could barely see and breathe.

"Remember, Emma," Klaus commanded.

The locked memories came back to her with such strength that she almost crumbled.

When she was 4 years old, before Andrew was born, Emma had been with her father when memories from the past plagued him and he ended up having a breakdown- he kept seeing a soldier he had accidentally killed, and that blamed him from his death. He was driven to kill himself by that image of the young soldier he had accidentally killed. Klaus, who was visiting his friend for the first time in almost decade, managed to stop him before he could traumatize the young girl that stared at him with unblinking eyes.

The rest was a fuzz, even with her memories back, she couldn't fully recall what happened.

She saw herself being held by a strange creature with red eyes and a pair of fangs, a creature that then shifted his face until it was a normal, human face- the face of Klaus.

Everything passed too fast; her mother followed her husband into the mental hospital, staying with him at all times, for Mr. Darcy only felt safe when she was around. Emma would've been alone, had Klaus not taken her into his home and raised her.

For four years, he took care of her.

The rest was a blurr.

She couldn't remember everything- she didn't know what happened to make her mother go back to her, or why Mr. Darcy had been allowed to leave the hospital, but she knew enough to understand the missing pieces of her childhood.

Klaus raised her.

He taught her how to write and read.

He walked her to school on her very first day of school, holding her hand as she nervously approached the building.

He calmed every temper tantrum, he soothed every fever and treated her with care during every illness that she had.

He held her when she cried because her classmates were mean.

He protected her from everything.

He loved her.

Emma opened her eyes, choking on a sob.

All her life, she wondered why she felt as though she was missing something when she had everything. The answer was clear then: she had missed her father.

For a moment, none of them knew how to address the situation.

Klaus was a little nervous and hesitant. He had been dreaming about reuniting with his little girl since the very day he was forced to leave her behind. He'd imagined all sort of things, though most of them revolved around the fear of having her hate him for leaving her.

He was scared of having lost her to all those years they were separated from each other.

He never wanted to leave her behind, he'd been forced to.

Back when he was still raising her, Rosalie Darcy had found out he was an Original vampire and had reacted horribly, taking little Emma away from him, even when she had never seemed to care about her daughter enough to properly care for her.

What followed had been terrible: she'd summoned Mikael, waking him from the slumber that the witch Abby Bennett had forced upon him; all so that the Original vampire hunter could kill Klaus.

Needless to say, Rosalie Darcy was not on Klaus' good side.

Before leaving, Klaus compelled Emma to forget about him, hoping that one day he would be able to reunite with her. He wanted to take her with him, but it wasn't the right thing to do. She had been just a child, and Mikael would've still struck her down if it meant harming him. Klaus didn't want her to be forced to live a life of constant paranoia when she was so young.

She deserved better; her beloved girl deserved better.

As he looked at her, and saw realization crossing her features, he hoped she could forgive him for leaving her alone. He hoped there would still be any part of her that loved him- because he never stopped loving her.

"Emma-" Klaus stopped himself. Hesitantly, he decided to say, "Hello."

Emma was too surprised to react instantly, though she muttered a soft, "Hello" back to him. Five second later, she seemed to make her mind, and then she threw herself at Klaus' arms, who immediately returned the warm hug, closing his eyes and leaning into his daughter for emotional support.

Emma kept muttering "Nik," over and over again, as though trying to reassure herself that he was there. It was tearing her apart that she'd forgotten that there was someone, beyond her parents, that had loved her unconditionally.

"Emma," Klaus breathed in relief, for she wouldn't be hugging him if she didn't forgive him. "My darling girl."

"Nik," Emma whimpered, feeling like a child rather than the teenager she was. "Where were you?"

The question wasn't as hard as Klaus had feared it would be, for his sweet child didn't sound angry at all. At most, she sounded worried.

"I was forced to go, love," Klaus said softly. "But now I'm here, and I won't ever leave you again."

A light frown covered Emma's sweet face, she straightened herself to remember more about her past, and at last, a scowl appeared on her face.

"What happened?" She asked. "Where are the others?" A new thought appeared on her mind, one she concentrated fully upon: "Are you safe?"

Klaus knew what she really wanted to ask: Was Mikael dealt with? Emma had been young, but she'd understood everything about the world that surrounded her better than any other mortal he had ever known. While she never knew that the reason for his departure was Mikael's presence in town, she knew that he had been an imminent threat for his family and him.

Klaus hesitated.

Emma had all the answer she needed. "You daggered them?"

She'd been eight years old, at most, when she opened a coffin and found one of his daggered siblings.

Klaus flinched, worriedly watching her reaction to see if she bore any kind of disgust at his actions. "I did what I had to do to keep them safe."

Emma raised her eyebrows. "They are safe?"

Klaus nodded. "I only daggered them to keep them safe. Mikael is still around, they were being reckless and impulsive, hardly avoiding being exposed to the whole world, which would've consequently made our father find us."

"So," Emma hesitated, biting her lip in contemplation. "You won't wake them until Mikael has been dealt with?"

That was exactly what Klaus planned. Once his curse would finally be broken, he would have enough strength to destroy his father, once and for all. Only then, once their biggest threat was gone, he would wake his family from their slumber.

Klaus knew his siblings wouldn't forgive him easily for daggering them again, but eventually, he was sure they would understand the reason for his actions: he wanted to protect them.

"Have you been alone?" Emma sounded concerned, which surprised and warmed Klaus' heart. "All this time, if your siblings are daggered, does that mean you've been alone?"

"Elijah-" Klaus hesitated, then admitted: "Elijah's not daggered. He's already in town, it would seem. Only that this time he does not stand by my side."

It took Emma a moment to process those words. "What did you do to annoy him?" It must've been terrible, for Elijah was always by his side.

Klaus swallowed thickly, looking away. "He believes I buried our siblings on the sea."

"Why does he think that?" Emma blinked in confusion.

"Because I told him that."

Emma widened her eyes. "Nik, what the hell?"

"I was in a rage-" Klaus stopped himself. Emma had never experienced his episodes of rage; he'd carefully hidden that part of him when she was young. Part of him feared what she'd think once she discovered all the horrible things he had done on his life.

The thought of losing his beloved girl after finding her was unbearable.

Emma looked down. "As long as it doesn't damage the relationship he has with you..."

That was another thing Klaus only realized: she'd never fully noticed, in her childlike wonder, how damaged their relationship had always been. Not just between Elijah and himself, but between the rest of his siblings too.

"All I care about is my family," Klaus then said, "All I care about is you. But you have to trust me, love. I might do horrible things in the future, but never doubt, not for one second, how much I care for you."

Emma smiled, moving forwards to hug him again. Klaus realized it had been ages since someone had properly hugged him with all the affection that she did.

"I know who you are, Nik. I've always known it, and I trust you." There was only sincerity on her words.

Klaus' smile died away for a moment. "You know who I am?"

"You're the strongest in the world," Emma smiled simply. "Strong enough to keep the bad things away."

"No harm will ever come to you," Klaus promised then. "I will do all it takes to keep you safe, my lovely little Emma. I assure you, you will never fall by my hand."

"I know," Emma grinned widely. "I trust you."

Klaus was too overwhelmed to properly react; he simply allowed himself to feel all the love and affection that she offered him.

Then he remembered the main reason for seeking her out in that specific moment, his good mood drifting away.

"Love, there's something I need you to do for me," He broke the silence that surrounded them. She looked at him, curious. "I hate having to ask you, and you must know that you are under no obligation to agree-"

Emma waved his nonesence away. "What is it, Nik?"

At once, he was overwhelmed by the loyalty she showed him.

Then he told her his plan.

When she heard everything, Klaus saw a little speck of doubt on her eyes, and hated himself for asking her to do that. But then Emma nodded, and a smirk appeared on his face, triumph overcoming his senses.

There was only one thing Emma wanted to know. "Why me, though, Nik? Wouldn't it be easier for you if you were to posses a man?"

Truthfully, Klaus had thought about using Alaric in the same way he planned to use Emma, but then realized the local vampires knew him too well, they would recognize the change in his behavior rather quickly, which would damper his plans.

Then he'd thought about using Andrew Darcy, Emma's younger brother.

But then again, the truth was, Andrew was not a good boy. He was capable of everything and anything; he was the kind of boys that girls saw on one end of the hallway and turned away from him, the kind of boy that no one could ever trust because they knew the kind of bullshit he always caused. He was beyond problematic, in every aspect of the word.

Emma, on the other hand, was a sweet, kind, innocent and pure young woman. She was kind to everyone she met, and her social anxiety kept her from getting herself into trouble with anyone- not counting the times she defended herself from disgusting men that annoyed her, that was a whole different thing- she was, in general, a good person. She was someone that everyone seemed to trust, no one would ever believe her to be the author of anything remotely bad.

That was, in fact, the perfect disguise for a vindictive monster such as Klaus Mikaelson.

For, who could ever doubt someone like Emma Darcy?

...

There's a great danger coming to town, one you'll mistake as a friend. Triton's words kept coming back to Percy at the most unusual of times.

True to his word, Elijah took Percy to her house, not before stopping at a local fast-food store for junk food that he did not eat, though she suspected that when he left for the bathroom and came back looking healthier and in a better mood, he had actually drank someone's blood. Disgusted, but not interested in discussing his culinary choice, she ignored it.

As soon as the demigoddess entered into her house, her mother came to find her.

Percy had believed her mother would've gotten over their little petty quarrel already, but when they talked with each other, Sally's eyes were cold and unyielding. She looked concerned and, at the same time, relieved to see her daughter safe, but as she listened to the lies her daughter told her, she looked cross.

It made the green-eyed demigoddess worry.

Her mother had never acted that way after one of her "missions".

"You fought a monster alongside Lord Triton?"

It sounded impossible, more so coming from Sally's lips. Her mother knew how terrible their relationship was. In fact, everyone did. None of them tried to hide their hatred for each other.

"I know," Percy tried to sound amused, though it was hard to when her parents were staring at her in such a serious way. "It sounds strange even for me."

Perhaps, she though then, I should've invented something else.

"Did he hurt you? In any way?" Paul and Sally asked at the exact same time, which would've been sweet in another moment.

Percy shook her head, her curls bouncing with the movement. In a way, Triton's words had hurt some part of her, the part that craved her father's affection. On the other hand, their encounter was more cordial and polite than it had ever been. She couldn't say he'd hurt her in the same way that he had in the past, for his words weren't as hurtful as they usually were.

"We had a cordial encounter," She finally said. "Which was even more strange. In general, today was extremely off-settling."

"You must be tired," Sally waved her away, still looking slightly off. Percy wondered if she was still angry at her, but it couldn't be that, Sally was understanding and kind, there was something else bothering her. "Go ahead and rest, we'll call you down later."

It was as though she wanted Percy to be away from her.

The demigoddess swallowed. Her mother was that angry?

Paul nodded in agreement, looking equally serious, "There's something we need to discuss with you."

Percy did as she was told.

She went upstairs without a second glance to her parents, wondering all the while what they had to talk with her about. It sounded important, but if it could wait, perhaps it wasn't that serious.

Upon entering her room, the demigoddess went straight to her bed, where she collapsed and closed her eyes, too exhausted to take a bath first.

She was almost asleep when a familiar image appeared on her mind.

She could feel Gaea's tongue exploring her mouth, leaving a path of mud everywhere it touched; she could feel Kronos' erection rubbing against her back, his agitated breathing against her neck.

Percy's eyes shot open, her whole body trusting forwards into a sitting position, choking a scream down all the while.

Desperately, her hands tried to grab something- anything- to protect herself with, and in the end, she found Riptide carefully secured under her pillow. Her weapon stared back at her, the glistening Greek letters that adorned his name calming her nerves down- having Riptide on her hands always gave her a false sense of security.

Truth was, she knew she was overreacting.

She started to calm down, forcing her breathing to remain controlled.

It had only been a small glimpse of her last nightmare, of the last thing that had plagued her mind and refused to leave.

All day long, she'd been distracted enough to forget the horrors she felt the night before when her mind turned against her and made her dream that Kronos and Gaea, the most horrifying titans in all of history, were forcing themselves into her.

But in that moment, when she was alone and at relative peace, the dream came back to her with so much strength that she would've crumbled had she been standing on her own feet.

It felt real.

She was probably overreacting, but, truth was, it felt too real.

The way they kissed her, the way they touched her, they way they whispered things into her ear...it was too real for her to be able to ignore it.

She could still feel their burning touch on her skin.

She wanted to tear her skin off.

She never wanted to feel Kronos- or Luke, for one frightening moment she wasn't sure if his eyes had been golden or blue- touching her; she never wanted to feel Gaea touching her. It was something she never imagined, something she never wanted. It made her think about the countless stories of deities raping each other, it made her think of the poor deities that went through that. It made her sick to her stomach.

It's only a nightmare, Percy kept telling herself. It didn't help in any way, it didn't make her skin feel less tainted.

The only touch her body knew was her own, and Apollo's warm one. She'd thought about how it would feel to be touched by others, now that she was single, she found herself wondering how certain attractive people she saw on school would touch her; though it was never serious, she didn't like the thought of sleeping around. She didn't like the shameful sensation that came with thinking what others would think of her body; it had taken her a lot of time getting used to the unconditional love and adoration and desire that Apollo bore when he had a glimpse of her naked body. He had been mesmerized and in love with every single part of her, and it had been an usual thing, something Percy never thought possible, because while she probably looked good with clothes on, she felt as though her scarred, naked body could never turn anyone on.

Perhaps it was one of the many values that Sally had implanted on her as she grew up. Sally had been quite clear about the subject, and had explained how intimate the act was supposed to be, she'd said that such an act wasn't meant to be done out of an impulse nor out of lust. It had to start as an act of love.

Sleeping around wasn't remotely related to love.

Percy didn't want that, she didn't feel comfortable with the thought of being completely naked in front of someone that only wanted her body.

It was the main reason as for why Percy felt so disgusted with her nightmare, apart from the fact that she never wanted Kronos or Gaea to touch her, she didn't like the feeling that came with thinking that they had tried to force her into an act she considered intimate and important.

It made her sick.

It also made her refuse to close her eyes again.

If she did, she was sure she'd end up seeing and feeling their touch again.

Sighing deeply, Percy raised from the bed, her legs trembling, her skin feeling as though it were about to caught fire.

She moved towards her drawers, where she collected a new change of clothes; then she moved towards her closet, where she had hidden the backpack that contained her other weapons- a small dagger, in case something happened to Riptide- a map of New York, several changes of clothes, and medical supplies. Relief flooded through her when she had a glimpse of a Ziploc bag full of square sized Ambrosia bites.

She took one on her right hand, observing the small square sized food of the gods, wondering if it would taste the same as it had always tasted. It felt like a small relief, the thought of having something be the same as it used to be before everything went downhill. She placed it upon her mouth and chewed slowly. Chocolate-chip cookies.

Instantly, everything changed for the better.

Her once-exhausted limbs regained full strength, her exhaustment being replaced by a deep sense of awareness.

Feeling greatly improved, Percy placed the Ziploc bag back into her backpack, which she secured carefully back into the closet after making sure it remained hidden from view.

She didn't dare eat more than just one small square of Ambrosia, for her wounds had been almost nonexistent, her biggest issue being her exhaustion after using her powers a lot in a day. She felt renovated, all of her exhaustion disappearing instantly, so she thought it better not to eat more.

She didn't want to have an overdose and spend the remaining of the day feverish and sick.

After making sure everything was where it was supposed to be, Percy took the change of clothes she'd selected previously, and made her way towards the bathroom, planning on taking a long, relaxing bath that would wash away the sickening feel of Kronos and Gaea's touch on her body.

She was just getting into the tub when a knock on the door startled her.

"Percy?" It was Paul.

The demigoddess swallowed a groan- it was normal since the house had only one bathroom. But she had planned to stay in the water for a long time, something she couldn't do if her stepfather needed to use the bathroom, too.

"Yes?" She called back. "Do you need to use the toilet?"

"No," His answer made her sigh in relief, which amused him for a moment, before he remembered the reason he'd knocked on the door. "Your friend called to ask if he could visit. We said yes, so he's on his way. He'll probably be here in a couple of hours, two or three."

"Okay," Percy shrugged, pushing everything aside and simply closing her eyes, leaning down into the tub and relaxing. "Thank you for letting me know, I'll get ready soon."

She thought he meant Damon- not realizing that her step-father had mentioned something about the visit being delayed by two or three hours, which meant that the friend that would visit her would not be from town. Truthfully, she was so used to no visits from her world that every time her parents mentioned a friend, she thought only about Damon and Emma.

However, Damon was busy protecting Elena, who'd been kidnapped the night before after she left the Salvatore's Boarding House. Naturally, the blue-eyed vampire felt responsible for the situation, for he had been the one to tell her to go home so late at night. He had been too concentrated on the frightening sight he saw- Percy causing the earthquake- to make sure if Elena had gotten home safely.

Truthfully, there were many things that could've let the demigoddess know that her visitor wasn't going to be Damon Salvatore, but she missed all those signals.

She would've thought the visitor to be Emma Darcy too, had she not heard the pronouns her stepfather used. Her mortal friend had the tendency of making sure she was welcomed somewhere before actually getting to said place, which was a nice thing.

Thinking about Emma made Percy realize she hadn't seen her in almost two days, and, distractedly, Percy wondered if, perhaps, she could call her, then remembered she'd already used the phone that day, and that testing her luck twice wouldn't be wise.

She never had much luck to begin with.

After finishing his message, Paul turned away and walked towards the music room, which he entered in hopes of being alone for a few moments, needing to think about many things.

There were about a million things that plagued his mind; it had been an extremely stressful day.

He was glad for the visit that they would receive, for, perhaps, their visitor would be of great aid for them.

After all, Percy's first best friend had always been Grover Underwood.

Who better than him to be there when Sally and Paul tried to convince Percy to go back to Camp Half-Blood?