Ariadne was falling.
She didn't know how she fell. She remembered-- she didn't remember much. Was she at sea?
Her chest hurt as her surroundings glowed softly in a warm light.
She was with Apollon. That's right. The two of them were on Delos. He was weaving braids into her hair. He was one of the few that saw it outside of its buns. Dressed in one of his chitons, she was filled with happiness.
He pressed kisses into her skin at random times as he finished off her braids. He had pulled her into his arms and she fell into his embrace happily.
But she didn't?
She was somewhere else.
There was some weird sticky string wrapped around her. It was choking her alongside some weird necklace… was that hazeloid?
"Percy," she heard around her. Her head felt heavy as she turned looking for her brother. Where was he?. "Percy… the water." Water? Why did the water matter? They were the sea. She tried to tell the voice this. "Percy!" A flash of irritation filled her. She wasn't her brother. The voice should stop calling her that.
Her chest tightened as the world around her glowed a pretty yellow. It reminded her of Apollon's beautiful blond curls.
Color seeped into her gaze and oh, the voice!... it was Annabeth.
Was she sick? She looked pale and dirty, What happened to her? "Chase, what's wrong with you," she tried to demand. But her tongue felt heavy. The other godling didn't seem to notice. Her body felt heavy as she recoiled when the girl pressed her lips to her ear. "I love you."
Gross. Annabeth was dating her brother. And though the other girl was pretty, she'd put a dagger through her own heart before getting with her.
Gods above, she was cold. Where were they? A hand grasped hers and she turned slowly to look. A small curly haired child was holding onto her. His hand was on fire. "Who?"
"Aw come on, Katarra. Get the river."
Does he know his pretty little flames will go out? She squinted at him slowly before she followed his pointer finger. Her breath caught in her throat. Where were they? Was that-- was that skin? A smoky essence flowed over it like a poisonous cloud of mist. But there were things that pulsed like boils… like organs.
What kind of fresh hell?
Carvings dug into the ground like indents from scratches. Rivers of-- was that fire? She turned sharply at the boy to her side but he had been replaced with another blond. This one reminded her of Helen. "Ari, help us fly." Fly? She didn't fly. She stood on a very thin layer of water and slid around on said water in an imitation of flight. Only children of Zeus could fly.
Was he?
His hair lit up with electricity bringing a bright light and awareness back to their surroundings. Now that she thought about it-- the electricity looked like the veins on the body that they were on.
[What kind of monster was this big? Did they get trapped in one of the god's nifty little pocket punishment dimensions?]
Her chest hurt.
And the world swam in a golden glow. She wasn't falling anymore.
"We're tourists," she heard from behind her. Spinning around she came face to face with her brother once more. He and Annabeth were standing there in front of shifting shadows. They looked horrible. What happened to them? Who did this to them? She'd end it where it stood.
The shadows grew denser in darkness.
"Mom's favorite, " they seemed to hiss.
It was so dark.
And she was walking around. It was so dark. She couldn't see anything. She couldn't feel anything. She wanted to go home. She wanted her dad. She wanted Apollo and Hermes. She wanted her brother.
"Ari."
That--that was Percy.
Turning in the direction that she thought he was in… she still couldn't see. Where was he? Where was Annabeth? She was with him right? "Ari." He sounded closer. "Percy, where are you?"
"ARI!"
"PERCY!"
Her chest burned as the darkness evaporated at the slightest touch of light. Her mind categorized everything she was seeing. Bile churned in her stomach. Those were fingernails. And those were veins. A swirl of darkness pulsed around her like inhaling lungs.
A woman was staring at her, pupils moving like shifting shadows. "You see too much, godling."
"Who-who are you," her voice was raspy as she tried to shift her stance. The woman smiled, amused, "I am where things go bump at. I am the night. I am Nyx."
The primordial. That lived in--
Tartarus.
Ariadne felt something inside of her crack.
But it wasn't her mortal anchor?
She blinked and she was standing in front of an elevator?
Percy and Annabeth were there. Alarm rushed through her. They were surrounded by monsters. No!
The ground shook under her feet as something--something stood up.
Something inside of her fractured.
"Be honored, little demigods." Her lips were pressed together to hold in a scream. It was looking right at her. "You will be destroyed by Tartarus himself!"
Ariadne shattered.
And the world faded into a mix of golden purple.
Percy hadn't been sure what awaited him when they returned to Castellan. His sister had snuck away with only a parting message stating that she'd catch up later.
And yet when they walked into the country, the spirits of their friends and Rachel were agitated. He felt a little uncomfortable seeing as they were crowded around what was once his sister's glass coffin.
He shared a look with the others before Will and Thalia were leading the DiAngelos over to Nakamura Town to stay. [He'd never get over walking through the kingdom the first time. It was like watching through a ghost town. Some of the homes even still had decorations up.]
Percy grasped Annabeth's hand tightly as they moved closer. His heart was already filling with dread as they got closer.
His worse thoughts were confirmed as he saw his sister.
She thrashed around wildly in the water. His father and stepmother held her gently as her limbs flew around her. Her scream mirrored a dolphin's screech in its pitch. Their parents had tears streaming down their faces as she continuously fought against them.
The lyre symbol on her chest pulsed against her chest. It flashed between flesh color and gold. Their dad was murmuring something under his breath in what looked like a prayer. But whatever he was doing was only making her react worse.
And then cracks started to appear in the pipes as it shook. The two gods shared looks before the shaking slowed to a stop. Percy got as close as he could.
"What happened," Annabeth questioned their friends as they got closer. Rachel turned to them, sadness fully across her features. "We don't know. She had just appeared alongside the river on the back of a Hydra. Lord Poseidon and Lord Apollon were here already and managed to get her into the pipes. Apollon has gone back to Olympus to find something to help her and Queen Amphitrite came in worry."
Percy placed his hand against the glass catching their attention. His father grimaced before nodding his head to the door of the glass telling him to come in.
Before he could though, he shivered as his shadow suddenly froze him in place. He turned to see the rest of their family appearing.
Nico was holding onto some necklace which he stuffed into his pocket as Ariadne's scream increased in pitch. The others yelped in alarm at the sight of her. She started to mumble something incoherent as she thrashed even more widely. Her eyes shot open, from her pupil to her sclera was glowing the same shade of blue as her eyes. Her fingers clenched around the air as one hand wrapped around her neck. Amphitrite pulled it anyway and snaked her fingers through her hand to keep it from going back. " Annabeth… Ja--...Le--... PERCY!"
The lyre on her chest suddenly glowed even more, overtaking their view before fading away. They were left to see Apollon straddling her waist, one hand pressed against her chest, and his lips pressed firmly on hers.
Dionysus' hands were cradled around the crown of her head as the rest of them watched on nervously. Aphrodite was standing to the side gnawing softly on her lip. His father and stepmother were still holding her hands as whatever the two gods were doing calmed her.
Apollon reached a hand out and Hermes opened a jar of something out to him. Apollon dipped his finger into it before drawing a series of symbols across her skin. Her eyes slipped closed as she relaxed into their arms. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.
It was silent for a moment.
No one knew what to do.
Percy felt Annabeth move, wiping at her eyes. "Wh-what was that?"
Apollon and Dionysus looked grim. The sun god sighed and wiped at his forehead, "Did she ever speak to a mental healer?"
Clarisse and Silena stepped forward shaking their heads, "No. The only person she was content to talk about her struggles with was Hermes. She could be convinced to talk with others. I know before we came back in time she had been opening up a lot to you, but if Hermes wasn't available… she kept her thoughts to herself."
His dad held onto her tighter as Apollon drew his hand out of her chest. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Apollon's lips twisted in displeasure, "She held my essence before once yes? And I powered her attack on Ahkilles' so long ago." The god turned to look at the sky with furrowed brows. He looked back down at her as she snuggled deeper into their stepmother's embrace. "My children are more attuned to the strings of fate than most. But she had my essence alongside Poseidon's. The sea had always been the water of sight long before my birth. She held the power of a seer twice over."
His dad looked frustrated as his stepmother's lips pulled back into a snarl, "Yes, but what does that mean?"
"She can see more than she should," Dionysus stressed. His own brows furrowed. "The mist is sliding off her mind and digging into the thoughts that linger in her mind. Whatever she saw in the future was twisted by what she saw in her mind and worsened."
Apollon huffed, "Her mind was not even here. She somehow managed to mentally travel to Alaska. And the Hydra that she bonded to recognized the danger that her soul was in and brought her home instead of taking her body to where her mind resided." They all flashed outside of the water coffin. Percy moved closer to his sister brushing her hair from her face. The freckles in her face were beginning to fade away. "And then she traveled elsewhere. She has seen the horrors of the world in its true form."
The Olympians paled at his words. Dionysus nodded grimly, "I've managed to block most of the madness from her mind. She would need to come every few decades to keep them sealed away."
"Even outside of that, her mind is broken," Apollon told them. "I recom--No, its not even a recommendation. I'm demanding that she has sessions with Aphrodite and I three times a week. The whispers that I heard as I healed the cracks that the sealing left behind was worrying."
"Worrying," he questioned. Apollon grimaced just a little at the sight of him before looking at him sadly, "Your sister loves you very much. Much more than herself."
"Are you saying this is Percy's fault," Will demanded from his father. But Apollon shook his head, "This is everyone's fault. And apologies Percy, but it started with your mother. Putting you before Ariadne has affected her deeply and she's now operating in the belief that the only way to be worthy of life is to make sure you're never hurt. She has made the decision to tackle all your problems by herself to make sure that no harms come to any of you."
"But why," Katie cried softly. Aphrodite smiled just as gentle, "Because she loves you all. Because it is so easy to see that she has always put everything before herself. I once told her that she needed to forgive them for the hurt. She's waiting for an apology for their actions and it's weighing her down. She needs to let go of it for herself, but it seems as if she's only staying stagnant in her progress."
Chris' inhaled sharply, "I told her that I wanted her to heal from things that people never apologized for."
Percy frowned as he took in their words, "My sister is one of the strongest people I know. She has been protecting me for too long. Its time that I do the same for her." She'd hate him for this but-- "Can you take her away from here? If she stays here with us as we move through with our plan, she will never get better."
He looked at the others, "We'll make sure that no harm comes to her. We'll show her that she is more than a weapon to point at our enemies." He still struggled with the idea that his mother couldn't be loving but he'd make sure that they drown his sister in so much that she'd get sick with it.
"It should be slow going during these years, right," Percy wondered aloud. "We rebuild Castellan. We'd travel the world bringing in our siblings for protection. We give them the safe place that they need."
The others smiled, "We build a safe place for her."
Percy nodded his head decidedly, "Okay. We have a plan. We can do this."
Nico suddenly froze, gaze turning away from them, "Percy… why do I feel Bianca?"
Hahaha fuck.