Just picture it, tiny ten year old Percy getting mouthy and picking a fight with an evil being so powerful that he makes the gods look weak. I think it's a miracle the other Kanes haven't had total breakdowns yet honestly. Also, please please please keep the reviews coming it makes me so happy!
Replies:
Thickneck: Carter at some point in the future, watching his baby sister crushing on multiple girls: I sense I have made a mistake.
rage2091: Carter would just be so done with it though, like: Of course she found a way around it who was I kidding this is Percy.
Guest: No her eyes are still the same, but you'd be surprised how much such a drastic change of hair color can change things- it's one of the first things you notice about a person really, and while it'll make her stand out it wouldn't make them think of Poseidon. And yeah, Carter's just going to be like: Of course, of course she's dating girls, it's like she goes out of her way to find loopholes!
Guest: You'll have to wait and see for any other characters cameos and stuff, and yes that line was referring to her being a child of Poseidon specifically.
Drizzle: Carter will have many regrets about saying that. Percy will forever mock him for it.
Zephyr0f8: Thank you for your review, I think it's a mix of a lot of things really but I like hearing thoughts.
Jubby1905: Let's face it, you need to add Sadie in the background just cackling finding it hilarious.
Undeath9087: yeah that was silly of them, though to be fair as far as they knew she knew nothing.
Guest: Carter will regret it I say that much.
The room behind the criosphinxes was filled with so much stuff it was hard to take in.
A life-sized wooden Anubis stared down from his pedestal. Atop a replica of the scales of justice sat a golden baboon, which Khufu immediately started flirting with. There were masks of pharaohs, maps of the Underworld, and loads of canopic jars that had once been filled with mummy organs.
Carter passed all that by, and Percy stuck to his side like glue as he led the way to a long papyrus scroll in a glass case on the back wall.
"This is what you're after?" JD frowned. "The Book of Overcoming Apophis? You do realize that even the best spells against Apophis aren't very effective." Carter reached in his pocket and produced a bit of burned papyrus.
"This is all we could salvage from Toronto. It was another copy of the same scroll."
JD took the papyrus scrap. It was no bigger than a postcard and too charred to let them make out more than a few hieroglyphs.
"'Overcoming Apophis…'" he read. "But this is one of the most common magic scrolls. Hundreds of copies have survived from ancient times."
And Percy blinked, because the other magician wasn't wrong.
"No." Sadie spoke up, "Apophis is only after one particular version, written by this chap."
She tapped the information plaque next to the display. "'Attributed to Prince Khaemwaset,'" Sadie read, "'better known as Setne.'"
And Percy felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head- tensing up as JD scowled.
JD scowled. "That's an evil name…one of most villainous magicians who ever lived."
"So we've heard," Sadie said, "and Apophis is destroying only Setne's version of the scroll. As far as we can tell, only six copies existed. Apophis has already burned five. This is the last one."
JD studied the burned papyrus scrap doubtfully. "If Apophis has truly risen from the Duat with all his power, why would he care about a few scrolls? No spell could possibly stop him. Why hasn't he already destroyed the world?"
"Apophis is afraid of this scroll. Something in it must hold the secret to defeating him. He wants to make sure all copies are destroyed before he invades the world."
"Sadie, we need to hurry," Carter said. "The attack could come any minute."
Percy felt dizzy, her head was hurting, "I-" she swallowed hard, "I- he-" because she'd seen into his mind- she should know this- she knew it, somewhere in her head was the answer but she was scared of what would happen if she tried to push those thoughts, the shreds of Apophis that had been left in her mind when she'd forced him out.
And Sadie was moving closer, peering at the scroll closely. Percy didn't look- she didn't want to see the hieroglyphs- she knew roughly what they'd show- and she hadn't told Carter or Sadie that somehow she'd picked up a gift for languages since her possession.
It wasn't like he was still in her mind, it was just fragments left behind, nothing that could do any harm she was sure but- still, whilst she would once have been happy at suddenly being able to speak pretty much all languages, now it was tainted by the fact that she'd picked it up from a being of pure chaos. And really, what a stupid thing to pick up from it.
But- well, chaos wasn't bound to certain languages, so it did make sense that the evil snake could speak every language and it did make sense that things were left behind.
And yet somehow the dyslexia was still a problem with all languages other than Greek, which was annoying to say the least.
Sadie?" Carter pulled Percy out of her thoughts, "Anything?"
"I don't know yet." Sadie grumbled the words, "Give me a moment."
And Percy paused.
She wasn't sure what it was, a feeling deep in her bones, a crawling sensation all over her skin.
"We don't have a moment Sadie." her voice was tight, "He's coming I can sense it." she ignore the confused looks that JD, Alyssa and Felix gave her, that mix of confused fear.
"Right-" Sadie was trying to hold back her panic, Percy could hear it in her voice. "We'll have to take it with us then. I'm sure I can figure it out with a little more-"
The building shook. Khufu shrieked and leaped into the arms of the golden baboon. Felix's penguins waddled around frantically.
"That sounded like—" JD Grissom blanched. "An explosion outside. The party!"
"It's a diversion," Carter warned. "Apophis is trying to draw our defenses away from the scroll."
"They're attacking my friends," JD said in a strangled voice. "My wife."
"Go!" Sadie shot Carter a glare, "We can handle the scroll. His wife is in danger!"
And JD clasped her hands. "Take the scroll. Good luck."
He ran from the room.
Sadie turned back to the display. "Walt, can you open the case? We need to get this out of here as fast—"
"HE'S HERE!" Percy screamed the words, suddenly she could feel it, sense him all around them.
"Yes. Yes I am." evil laughter filled the room, familiar laughter, and a dry heavy voice, as deep as a nuclear bast was echoing all around them. "You didn't think you could banish me for long did you Percy Kane?" and Percy felt like she'd been hit by a truck, even as Carter was pulling her closer protectively.
"Leave her alone!"
"I don't think I will. The little girl is the only one to have ever managed to wield my own power against me. Either she becomes my Eye, or she dies-"
"You're afraid of me." Percy breathed the words, "Y-you're afraid of me." she could feel it- it wasn't much fear, just a tiny hint. Because she had forced him out, forced him back into the Duat, she'd done something that shouldn't have been
possible and she was alive. "I'm a threat to you."
"Once you're gone Percy Kane, there will be nothing to stand in my way. Not the gods, not the House. Nothing-"
And Percy tore herself free from Carter, her eyes darting around frantically- he was all around them, she couldn't see the tell tale red mist yet but she could sense him. It made her angry. "You want me dead! Come on then!"
"Percy!" Sadie shrieked Percy's name, "What are you-"
"Come on you asshole!" Percy was angrier than she'd ever been before- she could remember how helpless she'd felt when he'd possessed her, totally powerless.
But now? Now he feared her. If he didn't he'd have already seized control of her again. But now- now he didn't have total faith in his ability to control her, which should have been absolute for a being like him. And she could see Felix, shaking, could see Alyssa pulling him behind her protectively as Percy span around.
And she could see Walt, gripping Sadie's arms tightly, and Khufu holding Carter back.
"You have nerve, Percy Kane, but I have no need to get into your mind to kill you. I think I'll destroy you with the guardians of Ma'at. Yes, yes that will be amusing." At the entrance to the room, the two obsidian criosphinxes turned.
They blocked the exit, standing shoulder to shoulder. Flames curled from their nostrils.
In the voice of Apophis, they spoke in unison: "No one leaves this place alive. This time Percy Kane, you will not defeat me."
And Percy blinked at that.
"Uh- uh oh?"
And then the criosphinxes attacked- the first casualties were Felix's penguins. The criosphinxes blew fire at the unfortunate birds, and they melted into puddles of water.
"No!" Felix cried.
The room rumbled, much stronger this time.
Khufu screamed and jumped on Carter's head, knocking him to the floor. Under different circumstances that would've been funny, but Percy realized Khufu had just saved her brother's life. Where Carter had been standing, the floor dissolved, marble tiles crumbling as if broken apart by an invisible jackhammer. The area of disruption snaked across the room, destroying everything in its path, sucking artifacts into the ground and chewing them to bits. Yes…snaked was the right word. The destruction slithered exactly like a serpent, heading straight for the back wall and the Book of Overcoming Apophis.
Percy cursed rather colorfully in French- she'd gotten used to speaking the language when she went on walks with Desjardins- he and Amos were the only ones who knew about her newfound gift for languages- Amos had told Percy that he'd had something much the same after his possession by Set- not necessarily languages but the feeling of shreds of the god almost left behind. He'd reassured her that they could do no harm, that they wouldn't affect her as a person, wouldn't make her evil.
It had helped a little bit at least.
Percy heard Sadie yelling "Scroll"
No one else was moving, no one else seemed to hear.
Carter was still on the floor, trying to pry Khufu off his head. Felix knelt in shock at the puddles of his penguins, while Walt and Alyssa tried to pull him away from the fiery criosphinxes.
Percy didn't even falter, reaching into the duat as she took off at a dead run. She could feel the burn on her neck itching in the presence of Apophis but she refused to focus on that, leaping over cracks that formed in the ground, trying to block her path as she rushed towards the scroll.
When she reached the glass case she already had her staff in hand and she swung it- smashing the glass.
She ignored the pain as some of the shards dug into her arms.
Percy could hear Sadie screaming her name as she snatched the scroll from the shattered case.
"Give me the scroll Percy Kane-"
"And that a big fat no to that one." Percy forced down panic that threatened to rise as the ground all around her started cracking, trapping her in. "What's so important about this scroll eh Apophis? You scared of something other than the teeny tiny Demimagician?" her voice was mocking- it was all bravado of course but hopefully the evil snake wouldn't pick up on that.
Unfortunately that only pissed Apophis off.
Familiar red coils of mist shot out from the cracks, and Percy let out a panicked yelp as they curled around her ankles- and where they touched flared into instant agony.
Percy screamed in pain as the tendrils curled up her legs, tightening around her, wrapping around her waist, around her arms, she tried to thrash, tried to free herself but she was bound tightly. She couldn't hear anything over the roaring in her ears, but she knew Carter and Sadie were screaming her name even so- and she could do nothing but stare
helplessly at the scroll as the tendrils reached it- and as soon as they did it burst into flames, burning her hands- not that the pain was that noticeable over the pain of the tendrils wrapped all around her.
And it turned out that she didn't need to be able to hear over the roar in her ears, not when it was Apophis- he wasn't really in her mind as such, but he was projecting his thoughts she was sure of that.
"I could let them live Percy Kane, I could allow all of them to live- you know what I want from you. Even if you could figure out how to do the spell you will never succeed-"
"Fuck off!" Percy snarled the thought in her mind with as much force as she could possibly muster. "I'll never ever let you use me to destroy the world not ever not get out of my head you stupid stinking snake!"
"Suh-far!" Percy screamed the words- power blazing through them- and for just a split second the spell made the tendrils grip on her loosen.
Percy managed to yank herself free, stumbling slightly before breaking into a run, leaping over the cracks and tumbling into Carter's arms as he folded them around her protectively, his arms were shaking, and Percy was shaking too, guilt flooding through her.
She hated the fact that she'd scared them so much- but... if they got out of here something good might have come from this after all.
Because Percy might not know anything for sure- and she might not know how it would work.
But she was pretty sure she had a rough idea of why Apophis wanted to destroy those scrolls.
Because there was some sort of special execration inside of them. Not like the one Desjardins had tried to perform, a much more permanent one.
One that could kill Apophis completely.