Chapter 26
Disclaimer: It's official. Disney refused my offer. I can't say I didn't see this coming, and I only have myself to blame. I shall redouble my efforts, but as of this moment in time, I do not own so much as 0.0000000001% of PJO. I trust this fills all of you with as much sadness as it does me, but I hope we can come together in this dark time, and help each other. So, to sum up, I no own, Disney pls no sue.
Also thanks to Anon516 for betaing this chapter. As always, any quality of life improvement to this story, are down to them.
Percy's scream had been enough to mobilize half of Olympus to his hospital room. Apollo made it there first. He started checking Percy for any injuries but found nothing new. By the time Artemis, Aphrodite, and his father had arrived, he could barely even speak anymore. All he could do was gasp the same words on repeat.
"I can't feel my legs!" he would whimper, "I can't feel my legs!"
They'd had to sedate him. It hadn't been easy. He was thrashing his upper body around, pure panic visible on his face. Apollo tried the "sleep" thing, but it didn't work. They ended up pumping dangerous amounts of drugs into his body. And they had to keep up massive dosages to keep him unconscious. The downside of healing so quickly meant that he burned through any medication in his system within seconds. Every 5 minutes he went through enough anesthesia to kill 10 people. And it was just barely enough to keep him under.
He was kept that way for 2 whole weeks. When he woke up, he wanted to throw up. That was one of the side effects that anesthesia had on normal people and the amount he'd gone through in the last 2 weeks had been pretty intense. He felt like shit. It took a little while for him to remember where he was, and why. Then it took him a little longer to remember why they had sedated him.
That same panic as before flooded his system. He tried moving his feet again. They wouldn't move. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He was taking big, gasping breaths, in the hope of getting oxygen into his system, but he couldn't feel it working. The big, gasping breaths made his heart rate go through the roof and the monitor beside his bed started beeping. A few seconds later, his room was flooded with people. His father was there. Artemis too. All of his friends from Camp Jupiter. Apollo. Aphrodite. And Sara. Sara was there. While he was fully lucid. She was there with him.
Instantly, they all surrounded him. Apollo started checking him over, Sara sat by his side and grabbed his hand gently, and everyone else stood back a few paces to make sure he didn't feel closed in. Sara was talking to him. He couldn't hear her. He couldn't hear anything over the sound of his racing heart. But the mere sight of her was helping. Her holding his hand was helping too.
It took a good few minutes, but eventually, he was calm enough to talk and listen. Based on the fact that Apollo had rushed into the room with a syringe of something, Percy was willing to bet that he hadn't calmed down purely by his own effort. He didn't really care. He was just glad.
"Percy? It's me. You're going to be ok. I promise you. You'll be perfectly fine," Sara told him gently.
"Really?" he asked, looking around the room.
Everyone looked confident.
"I spoke to… You-know-who," Sara told him.
He perked up, "Really? What did they say?"
She looked relieved that he had understood who she was talking about.
"You'll be ok. Your healing will eventually fix the damage that was done to your back. But it's a lot. It'll take a while."
Percy swallowed heavily, "How long?"
She hesitated, "She couldn't say. It could be anywhere from a few weeks, to a few years," he told him quietly.
"Years?!"
"But that's only the worst case. You could be totally fine in a few weeks. Maybe even days!"
No one said anything for a while after that. It was tough news to swallow. But only for him. The rest of them had presumably been told as soon as Sara arrived. They were just being respectful and letting him adjust to the idea of being effectively paralysed for an unknown amount of time. Until his father spoke.
"Son," he started gently, "This is good news. You're going to heal. That's what's important right now."
"Yeah, sure, Dad. But how long until I do?"
"As your friend said, the worst case would be a few years."
"Yeah, that's not exactly 'good news', dad."
"Yes, it is!" his father urged, "You have partial immortality, right?"
"I do," he said slowly.
"Well, there you go! My son, you're going to live for centuries, or maybe even millennia! And once you've lived that long, you're barely even going to remember something like this. It'll just be a blip by comparison, I promise you that."
Percy thought about it. His father had a point. If he really lived for so long, then a few years would be pretty insignificant.
"But that's hindsight, dad. I'm more worried about the now! What happens in the meantime?"
Poseidon took a breath, "For now? For now, you deal with it. You accept that this has happened to you, and you carry on with your life as best as you can."
"Carry on with my life? I don't know how exactly I'm going to do that, dad. For the last few months, my life has been on the move with the hunters. That's not going to work out for me right now. For the last few weeks, my life has been taking out the groups of monsters at the camps. I can't do that anymore either. Not to mention the fact that I can't fight, I don't even feel my powers anymore! So I'm a powerless invalid for the next few years, maybe! That's not exactly compatible with my current lifestyle, wouldn't you say?"
Everyone went quiet again and Sara furrowed her eyebrows at him.
"Wait, you can't use your powers?"
He shook his head.
"Your water powers, or your shadow powers?"
"Neither," he said miserably.
Sara blinked. Her forehead wrinkled and her lips pursed into a thin line.
"What?"
She looked almost startled that he had spoken. He knew she got like that sometimes. She got so caught up in her thoughts, that the entire world just faded away.
"No, nothing, it's just… Well, I haven't heard of anything like that before."
He stared at her.
"You haven't?"
"Never. Typically, when something comes from you-know-who, it sticks forever. No way to get rid of it unless you-know-who removes it. Do your senses feel the same?"
He tried. He cast them as far as they would go. He noticed with a start they'd started to come back They weren't what they should have been with Chaos' blessing, but they weren't quite human either.
"Kind of. But they're not what they should be."
"How much can you hear?"
"I guess I can hear the conversations around 2 floors down. But nothing further."
Sara looked concerned while everyone else looked pretty stunned by that, and the fact that it was considered to be less than normal for him.
"What about the rest?" Sara asked him.
"I guess my sense of smell isn't too bad. I can tell what everyone in this room has had to eat or drink over the last 30-ish hours. Still a decent bit to go, but I think that's an ok start."
Sara nodded and the rest of the room immediately became slightly more self-conscious.
"Eyesight?"
He turned to look at the rest of the room.
"Leo has 4 biscuit crumbs on his shirt from earlier this morning."
Sara turned to look at Leo, who all of a sudden blushed and started swatting at his T-Shirt, trying to clean it. She nodded in agreement with Percy.
"Ok, say he's 13 feet away… I think your vision's almost fine."
He nodded in agreement.
"What about touch?"
"I'm starting to feel the components of the sheets again. Same with the pillows."
"Good. What about taste?"
"I can taste the Merlot that Piper had with diner last night."
Piper went about as red as the wine she'd drank and brought a hand to her lips.
"But… But I brushed my teeth last night and this morning!" she cried indignantly.
Percy shrugged at her, but Sara decided to be nice and elaborated a little bit more.
"You can brush your teeth as many times as you want to. Hell, you can bathe in mouth-wash if you'd like. It won't remove the smaller traces of flavor on your lips."
Everyone in the room stared at the ground, blushing lightly.
"Does that also work on Gods?" Apollo asked.
"Yep," Artemis told him.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"And how do you know that?"
"Percy demonstrated it to me a few weeks ago. It was… interesting. To say the least."
"I think we're getting off-topic here," Poseidon said, bringing them back to the realms of relevance, "Percy, if your senses are already improving, then I'm certain that your powers will come back to you with time."
Sara nodded.
"Your father has a point. It's completely unheard of for someone to just… lose their powers. It just doesn't work that way. They'll come back to you."
He watched her for a few moments before speaking.
"Hey, everyone? Thank you all for being here, it really means a lot. But can I please have a moment with Sara? Just a minute or so?"
His friends went first and shuffled out after giving him quick hugs. Then his dad winked at him reassuringly and walked out. Aphrodite gave him a smile that doubtlessly would have made his knees go weak if he could still feel them, before leaving the room. Artemis looked like she didn't want to leave but reluctantly did so. She gave him an awkward smile and walked away.
Sara turned to him and they just looked at each other for a second, taking in the sight of one another. She spoke first.
"How bad is it?"
He knew what she was talking about.
"I can't feel anything below the waist," he said quietly.
She sighed and cursed under her breath.
"What'd Chaos say?" he asked her.
"Basically what I said she'd said in front of the others. I gave her the run-down on what happened and she told me that you should make a full recovery. With her second blessing, you should be able to heal from almost anything. Eventually."
He nodded.
"I'm glad you're here," he said, changing the subject completely.
She looked up at him, "I'm glad I'm here too. It's good to see you. Obviously, I'm not happy about why, but I'm trying not to let that ruin it."
He felt the corners of his mouth rise a fraction but he didn't say anything. Naturally, Sara noticed.
"I guess this is what happens when I'm not with you. Maybe I should start babysitting you," she teased lightly.
"Yeah, well, don't you go getting big-headed on me. I'm not too sure you could have done better!" he lied.
She laughed gently. He had missed her laugh.
"Yeah, Percy, I'm sure I would have been helpless," she drolled.
"You would have!" he carried on sarcastically, "You need a demigod and a God working together to kill a Giant."
"Yes, and by total coincidence, I would have had you, a demigod, and Artemis, a Goddess, right there with me. I'm sure I would have been fine."
"Ah, so you're saying you'd only have been fine if I was there with you, gotcha!"
She didn't reply to that. She just laughed. He couldn't get over what a wonderful sound it was.
She got up from her place by his side and lay down next to him in the hospital bed. There was enough room. She was a rather small person. Deceptively so. Once she was comfortable on the bed, she turned her head to look at him.
"I missed you," she said quietly.
"I missed you too," he replied, matching her tone.
And they didn't need to say anything else. She just laid her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes for a spell. He closed his eyes too. It made him realize how tired he was. If he had to guess, he would have said that healing was taking up all of his body's energy. He'd only been awake for about half an hour, but he already felt drained.
"Hey, do you mind telling them I'm pretty tired? I kinda just want to sleep, you know?"
She lifted her head and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Yeah, of course. You need to rest as much as you can."
"Thanks," he said.
She nodded and got up. She left the room and presumably told everyone what he had just said. He didn't listen in.
She returned a few moments later but didn't come in. She just paused in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
"Ok, they said they'll be back tomorrow. Do you need anything before I go?"
He blinked, "Oh. You're going too?"
She paused for a second, "Um. Yeah, that's what I figured. Why?"
"No, nothing, I just… I guess I was hoping you could spend the night here, you know?"
She smiled at him. She looked relieved.
"I'll stay if you want me to."
"Well, I want you to."
"Then I will," she said simply.
He made some room and she crawled under the sheets with him. Instantly, she curled into his body, instinctively. It took her a second to realize that she'd even done it. When she did, she blushed and moved away a few inches.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have done that."
"No, I liked it."
"Are you sure? I mean, we're not a couple anymore, so we probably shouldn't…" she trailed off.
"We're not doing anything wrong. I just love feeling you close to me. What's wrong with that?"
"I guess it's just not in the spirit of platonic friendship like you said you were aiming for," she said with a small smile as she curled back into him.
"What's un-platonic about this?" he asked jokingly.
"Oh, really? Am I going to find you like this with Leo one day?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
He paused for dramatic effect and Sara gasped theatrically before bursting into giggles.
"Seriously though. I really missed the feeling of you curled into me. I don't mind if you want to do it again."
"You sure it's not just gonna make it all harder?"
"I don't know. But right now, I don't really care."
She smiled lightly and wrapped her arms around his torso and draped one of her legs around his. She rested her face in the crook of his neck and he felt her smile. Despite everything, it made him smile too.
—-
Percy woke up in the Olympian hospital for the last time. Or at least, that was what he told himself. In spite of the circumstances, he had honestly had worse wake-ups. Sara was still wrapped around him, sleeping soundly. That was great. He couldn't use his legs or any of his powers. That was less great. But he digressed. He was determined to have a better attitude about his current situation. He was going to get through it, and he was going to be stronger for it.
He was going to talk to Apollo the next time he saw him, and ask to be released from the confines of his room. He wanted to get out for some fresh air. He wasn't sure how he was going to do that though. Maybe he would be stuck in a wheelchair for the next few days/weeks/months/years. Or maybe the Gods had worked out some other method for disabled people. Or maybe humans had. After all, he'd been gone for 20 years. Maybe they had invented something new.
"I've been thinking about your situation," Sara said against his neck.
He was mildly surprised. He hadn't even realized she was awake.
"Have you? When?"
"Since we last spoke," she replied simply.
"How long have I been asleep for?" he asked worriedly.
He felt her smile again.
"Around 4 hours."
"And how long were you asleep?"
"Same as you."
"Then when did you do that thinking?"
"In my sleep," she answered as if it was obvious.
"Yeah, you're gonna need to elaborate on that."
"Well, it took a while for me to learn how to do it, but a long time ago, I figured out how to completely control my own dreams. And I mean, completely. Whenever I need to give any matter some serious thought, but I also need to sleep, I make it so I'm sitting alone in a room with anything I could need, and I think things through. It's fantastic. I can use visual aids if I want, or bring up small details from my memory that I wouldn't ordinarily be able to access."
He blinked.
"That's ridiculously cool, you know!"
"Oh, I know," she said in a faux-serious tone.
He snickered, but his heart wasn't really in it. He was a little hesitant to hear what Sara had to tell him.
"So, what conclusions did you arrive at?"
"It's psychosomatic," she told him.
"My paralysis?" he asked, bewildered.
He couldn't see or sense it, but he was sure she rolled her eyes.
"No," she drawled out, "Not your paralysis. Your powers being gone."
He thought about it.
"Really?"
"Well, I think so. I could be completely wrong, of course."
"Walk me through it."
She untangled herself and propped up on her elbow, facing him.
"First, I need to check some things with you. Could you talk me through the battle? As much detail as possible?"
He stared at her for a second.
"Um. Sure, I guess. The whole thing with the Giants, or do you want me to start earlier?"
She shook her head, "No, start with the Giants."
With a degree of hesitation, he started telling Sara the story about how he was nearly killed. She cut in a few times to clarify certain points, but aside from that, she just let him talk and talk. He felt weird talking about it. Going through it after the fact, he felt strangely detached from it. Like it wasn't him that had gone through it all. Like he was just an observer as it happened to someone else. When he was done, neither of them said a word. Sara was deep in thought.
"Yeah, it's psychosomatic," she said eventually.
He didn't say anything. He just waited for her to elaborate.
"I think your mind is reacting to what happened to you, in a pretty shitty way. As would be expected of course. I think you might have a type of PTSD. You fit the bill. You went through some pretty severe trauma, and you're certainly stressed about it after the fact. I think that's acting as a type of blocker for your powers. Your conscious mind is trying to use them as you did before, but your subconscious is recoiling from them. It's trying to avoid exposure to the same triggers."
"So, when you say 'triggers'...?"
"Using your powers," she explained, "Your conscious brain tries to use them, but the subconscious has associated those powers with what happened to you, and rejects it."
He thought about that. She might have had a point. And she'd been alive a lot longer than him, and as such, had seen a lot more than him. Not to mention the fact that she really was quite smart.
"Alright. Let's say you're right. What am I supposed to do about it?"
"I'm not totally sure. But I do know one thing; you need to work on this. Actively. Otherwise it's never going to 'heal'. It's never going to get better. You'll be like this forever."
"I guess you're right, but how would I do that? How would I work on it?"
"I'm sure there are people here on Earth that specialize in this kind of thing? Talking people through psychological problems? Maybe like those ones in Chaos' realm, except not assholes?"
He smiled faintly.
"Psychologists," he said, "Or psychiatrists."
She blinked. Oh. Those aren't the most imaginative names I've ever heard, but whatever."
He breathes out slightly harder than normal as a form of minor laughter.
"We kind if like to keep things simple over here, in terms of how we name things."
"Evidently."
None of them spoke for a moment. It was clear to Percy that Sara was deep in thought about something or other. Maybe she had interrupted a mission to be there for him. Maybe she had to get back.
"I'm leaving today," he told her, "I'm pretty much done with this whole 'hospital' thing. I want to get out on my own again."
She thought for a second before nodding.
"Ok, that's fair enough. I'll talk to Chaos about getting you a ride back to-"
"I'm staying here," he cut her off.
"What? Why?"
"I still have a mission here. It's important. I can't just up and leave."
She shook her head, "No, come on. I'll take care of that. You should just focus on getting better."
"No, I can't just go. I need to take care of this. Personally."
She watched him carefully for a moment. She looked calculating.
"I can't convince you otherwise, can I?"
"No, I really doubt you can."
She sighed through her nose. A long frustrated sound.
"Fine. I guess I'll stay here too then. Make sure you're ok."
He shook his head at her, "No. I'm guessing you have your own mission to take care of. Am I right?"
She said nothing.
"Right then. You should go. Take care of your own stuff. I'll be fine here."
She hesitated a little bit more.
"Are you sure. If not, I could talk to Chaos. I'm sure she wouldn't have a problem with me taking some time to be here with you. She likes you."
"She likes you too," he said, "But that's not the point. You should go deal with whatever you were doing."
She looked reluctant, but nodded.
"Fine, I guess. So, what are you gonna do? I'm guessing travelling with the hunt isn't going to be an option."
"I guess I'll find a place in New York. Or somewhere else. Doesn't really matter where I'll be. I can take care of things from virtually anywhere. As long as I have some computers and wifi."
"Ok. That makes sense."
Then they lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. They knew it was time to say goodbye. It was easier said than done.
"This still isn't forever. We're gonna see each other again before too long," he said.
"I guess you're right," she said unenthusiastically.
After that, they sat in silence for a while. Saying goodbye the last time was hard enough for both of them. It was a heavy enough thing, and there was nothing more to say about it. They just needed to get it done. Like ripping off a bandaid.
Eventually, Sara leaned over to him and kissed him softly on the lips. He kissed her back as gently as he could. He was trying as hard as he could not to cry. Sara leaving felt like the straw that broke the camel's back after everything he had been through recently. But it had to be done. She had things to take care of. It wouldn't be fair for him to let her stay around, when there were people that needed her help a lot more than he did.
A minute later, she pulled away from him, looked him in the eyes for a moment, and then he watched her walk away.
—-
Weirdly enough, Aphrodite was the next person in the room. He'd been sitting in the hospital bed for about an hour, head in his hands, trying desperately not to let the tears fall from his eyes. It wasn't going too well though. But then she walked in. He looked up at her, sniffled, and used the sleeve of his hospital gown to wipe his face. Then he just looked up at her expectantly, assuming that she had a reason for visiting him. But as it turned out, she didn't really. She just walked over to him and hugged him tightly.
"I heard Sara left," she said simply.
He froze for a moment, and then hugged her back. He wasn't sure what was going on with her. Maybe something had happened to her while he'd been gone? She sure didn't use to be like that. But for reasons that he couldn't fully explain, he felt good around her. Safe, weirdly enough. Assured. Maybe it had something to do with her powers? He wasn't sure. But in that moment, he didn't really care. He was just glad she was there with him.
Aphrodite stayed with him for a while. There wasn't much conversation. She basically just comforted him until she had to go. Not long after she left, Artemis swung by.
"Did I just see Aphrodite leave?"
Percy nodded, "Yeah, she dropped by to say she was sorry about Sara leaving."
He decided not to mention the fact that most of the Love Goddess's visit was one long hug. That didn't seem like information Artemis would appreciate. He figured he was right when she just nodded at him.
"I've been meaning to talk to you about that. Or rather, about her," Artemis said, her lips curling distastefully at the end, as if the word 'her' was somehow poisonous.
He tilted his head, "I'm not sure what there really is for us to talk about."
"Well… I guess I've just noticed that she's been acting… strangely around you since you've been back. I mean, I told you about how a bunch of us formed a council of our own to protect you from Zeus, and she's on it. That's not something I could really imagine her having done for anyone else. And during the meetings, it's obvious that she cares about you."
"What are you asking me, Artemis?"
She paused.
"Is there anything going on between you two?"
He raised an eyebrow, "No. There isn't."
"Are you sure?" she pressed, "Because in my experience, Aphrodite only gives a damn about 3 groups of people. People she's sleeping with, people she's going to sleep with, and her kids. And you aren't her kid, which has to put you in one of the two other camps."
He shrugged, "Maybe she's grown. Maybe she's learned to care. It's a miracle," he said with growing frustration. He didn't like being accused.
"And even if she did want to be with me," he continued, "That doesn't mean anything. I'm my own person, and I'm capable of independent thought."
She crossed her arms.
"So you're saying that even if she threw herself at you, you would say no?" she said disbelievingly.
He shook his head, "I'm saying that it's my decision, Artemis. It's not yours, or my fathers, or anyone else's. And for the moment, yes, even if she threw herself at me, I would say no. I'm only here temporarily, remember? I'll be gone before long."
She froze for a moment.
"Right," she said quietly.
She had forgotten that he was leaving eventually. He felt kind of guilty for bringing it up.
"But I'll be back one day," he told her.
She nodded mutely. They sat in silence for a while before Artemis got up and excused herself. He asked her to get Apollo on her way out, and she did. 2 minutes after she left, the God of the Sun walked into his room.
"Perce? I heard you wanted me?"
Percy nodded, "I'm leaving. Today."
Apollo's eyes bugged out, "You're leaving?"
He nodded, "Yes, I am. I've spent enough time in hospital rooms. I need to go."
Apollo sputtered for a moment, "Where will you go? What will you do?"
Percy shrugged, "I'll find somewhere to go. I'll find something to do. But I can't stay here."
The healing God paused. Then he took a long breath and sighed it out.
"I suppose I can't stop you from leaving…"
Percy nodded again, "No, you can't."
"Percy, are you sure about this? I really don't advice this. You could spend some more time here; as much as you need."
"No. I've had enough."
After that, Apollo nodded somberly and walked away. Percy was left alone for a while before the sun God came back with a wheelchair. It was a classic thing. No mechanical parts. Just a seat with wheels. As soon as he was in the modern world, he would probably replace it with something more modern. Something easier to use.
Apollo helped him out of the bed and into the wheelchair. He offered to help him change out of the hospital clothes, but Percy said no. He would find something to change into later. At that moment, he needed to get the hell out as quickly as he could.
He wheeled himself out of his room and found Artemis waiting for him. She was leaning against a wall, quite casually. She looked pretty good. She was wearing a simple dark green hoodie, pale blue jeans, and silver sneakers. Her hair was flowing down her back. Her silver eyes were trained on him. Almost assessing him.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, not hostile, just curious.
She shrugged in response, "Apollo told me you were leaving, so I'm here to pick you up," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
He raised an eyebrow, "Pick me up?"
"Yes," she replied slowly, in the same tone as before.
He rolled his eyes, "You wanna tell me where you're planning on taking me?"
The Goddess looked genuinely confused.
"Back to camp," she told him, confused that he would even ask.
He crossed his arms over his chest and fixed her with a hard look.
"I'm not going back to Camp Half-Blood."
Her head tilted to the left the way people did when they were befuddled.
"Why would I take you back to Camp Half-Blood? Percy, I'm taking you back to my camp, with the hunters."
He blinked. He hadn't even considered that as a possible option.
"Are you serious?"
She nodded, "Honestly, I had initially thought to take you to an apartment in New York, or wherever you asked to go, and leave you there until you recovered."
"But," he asked, drawing out the word.
"But," Artemis echoed, nodding her head, "The girls asked if you could come back with us."
Prcy furrowed his eyebrows, "They know that I can't even walk, right?"
She nodded, "Of course they do. I told them it would be pretty tough to work it out, but they swore they would do whatever they could to help you out, and they were willing to try if you were."
He blinked. He wasn't entirely sure what to say. He felt slightly overcome by it. He was really touched.
"Ok. Sounds good."
Artemis offered him a smile. She seemed happy that he agreed.
She walked around behind him and pushed him out of the Olympus hospital. Once they were outside the building, Percy came face-to-face with a horde of mythological beings. There were several banners, and it was all very colorful. They looked like they were celebrating something. They were cheering and whooping. Percy craned his neck to look back at Artemis.
"What's going on?" he asked curiously.
She smiled at him again, much softer that time.
"What does it look like? People are happy to see you doing better."
His eyes widened, "This is all for me?"
The Goddess scoffed behind him.
"Who else would it be for?"
He looked ahead of him again and paid closer attention to the banners. They all had his name written on them. There were several messages that all shared the common tone of 'Glad you're ok now'. Of course, they weren't exactly worded like that, but it was the gist.
Artemis wheeled him through the virtual parade that had gathered, and he just awkwardly sat there and waved occasionally. Once they were out of all the noise, he turned back to Artemis again.
"How did they even know I was getting out? I only told Apollo about an hour ago."
"Word gets around fast on Olympus," she said with a half-shrug.
He just huffed out a mini-laugh and turned back around.
She led him to the elevator and a minute later they were on the streets of Manhattan.
"The hunters are in a hotel a few blocks from here, so we'll meet up with them and get started."
"You put the hunters in a hotel?"
She smirked behind him, "Pretty much. I rented out the top floor of the Four Seasons. I only needed to leave them for a few hours, so I didn't want to take them all the way to camp, and then all the way back. And we didn't have a camp set up anywhere. So, I just decided to leave them there for a while. Honestly, I'm a little nervous to see what they've done while I've been gone."
"Top floor of the Four Seasons? Fancy."
"Well, I am a Goddess. My home is a literal palace, and I can summon mortal money with a wave of my hand. You think a hotel is going to make me flinch?"
"Fair enough. Do they have anything to do up there?"
"When I left they were jeering at cheesy romance movies. They seemed to be having a pretty decent time."
"Makes sense. Well, if you don't mind, could we make a quick stop on the way back to the hotel?"
"Sure. Where to?"
"Nowhere out of the way. Next clothes store we see, let's go in? I need to get some stuff."
"Sure."
They found one within a few minutes. It was a little discount place that he hoped had the sizes he would need. He hadn't really been doing his laundry. He had agreed to clean all of the hunters' clothes, and he had been, but he hadn't been cleaning his own. He really just couldn't be bothered. So he'd been throwing them away when they got dirty. The system had been working for him pretty well so far. The only downside was that he had to keep buying new stuff. He didn't really mind that though.
They went inside and he went straight for the person working there. The person in question, was a woman in her mid-20s. She had pure black hair, with a few blue strands throughout. Her clothes were also completely black. She looked supremely bored. She made an attempt to brighten up when she caught sight of Percy and Artemis. It wasn't entirely convincing, though not for the reason he had expected. It wasn't that she was totally disinterested in them, but rather she was immediately pitying Percy. The thought made him tense uncomfortably. If there was any one thing he loathed, it was being pitied. He didn't know why exactly, but it was true. He could deal with people hating him, or being completely emotionless towards him, but pity pushed his buttons. He realized that he was going to be getting a lot of that until he healed. The thought made his jaw tense. He decided not to comment on it, and to get through his shopping as quickly as he could.
He plastered a fake smile on his face and looked the young woman in they eyes.
"Hi!," he told her brightly. As if life was nothing but a series of sunshine and rainbows.
"Hi" she said softly, as if she was worried about waking a sleeping baby. Her eyes were starting to show obvious concern. She was leaning over the counter, kind of like how people leaned over strollers to get a look at sleeping babies and coo over them. The effect was ruined by the fact that they were basically the same height, with Percy's torso being longer than 99% of the population's.
"I need to buy a few outfits, but a lot of stuff doesn't really fit me. Do you think you have anything in my size?"
"I bet we do," she told him, as if talking to a 5-year-old who had asked her if they had any cookies, "Do you know how long your upper-body is?"
He took great care not to sigh audibly and told her it was a little over 22 inches in length. Then, in the same tone, she asked what his waist size was, and he told her it was a little over 45 inches around.
The young woman looked vaguely concerned and started looking around the shelves. She came up with a few shirts and pants. They were hardly fashionable, but they would do. He wasn't looking to impress anyone with his amazing wardrobe. They would fit, and they would be reasonably comfortable, and that was all he needed.
He paid and then they left. It was only a few more blocks to the hotel. They went rather quickly. They took the elevator up to the penthouse and the moment the doors opened, the mayhem within became obvious. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside. There were arrows in the walls, the paint was chipped, there was glass all over the floor, and there were squeals and screeches permeating through the walls. But they were playful, not distressed. The hunters were engaged in some kind of faux-civil war, firing blunt arrows at each other and taking cover behind upturned couches.
Artemis sighed miserably. The damage to the room was insane. Luckily they all stopped their mini battle when they saw their mistress wheeling a 6'7 invalid into their hotel suite. Initially their eyes went straight for Artemis, but then they all dropped to look at him. He felt indescribably awkward. The sheer pity was almost tangible in the room. He felt his cheeks color.
Thalia was the first to speak.
"Percy… Oh Gods…"
He crossed his massive arms across his chest.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" he tried to joke. He would have done anything to help the atmosphere. He failed miserably. Thalia didn't even react to what he said.
She made her way over to him from across the room and awkwardly hugged him. She had to bend at the waist, but no too much. Thalia was incredibly well-toned, but she wasn't very tall, and Percy had a huge upper-body. With Thalia no longer blocking his view, he was pretty much face-to-face with the rest of the hunt. But most of them weren't looking at him. In fact, they were doing pretty much anything in their power not to look at him.
Phoebe and her hunt were glancing left and right, and up and down, unwilling to meet his gaze. Percy could see a few different reasons for that. Either they were grateful to him for saving their lives and getting beaten half to death in the aftermath, and therefore felt guilty for how they treated him before that, or they still hated him, and didn't want to even look at him. Honestly, Percy could see it going either way. He judged the odds at 50-50. Maybe 60-40, in favor of them still hating him.
Thalia pulled back before too long, and gave him a closer inspection, as if she was looking for other injuries. There weren't any. Not visibly at least. He still didn't have his powers. And his senses weren't back to normal. But aside from the obvious paralysis, there was nothing obviously wrong with him.
He felt pretty awkward, so he said he was feeling pretty tired and wheeled himself away. Artemis called after him and told him where the bedroom was, though it wasn't necessary. His senses were strong enough that he knew where it was on his own.
He made himself over there and found his laptop in the corner of the room. It was amongst a bunch of his other stuff that the hunters must have brought with them from his tent. He wheeled himself over to it, put it in his lap, and then managed to get himself into bed. It wasn't too easy, but he still had superhuman strength in his upper body, so it wasn't as hard as it would be for most people.
Once he had maneuvered himself so that he was somewhat comfortable, he opened the laptop and started checking things out. He'd been out of action for a long time, and he needed to know what was happening with his mission. It was important. Life or death. Literally. What he read made his insides go cold.
There had been an attack. In London. A massive bombing. Estimated hundreds of people dead. Potentially thousands injured. Percy's stomach felt like it was twisting in knots. So many people dead. His fault. He hadn't stopped them. He hadn't done enough. Hundreds of fathers who would never see their sons again. Mothers who would never see their daughters again. Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. Friends. So many people dead. Because he hadn't been strong enough. Because he hadn't been able to stop it. It was his responsibility. Chaos had said so when she'd given him his mission. It came down to him to stop the terrorist group from doing something like that. And he'd failed.
He sensed Artemis in the doorway. He didn't look at her.
"Percy… it's not your fault," she said slowly, as if talking to a scared cat.
Percy couldn't help it. He threw up.
Tears stung in his eyes. He wasn't sure if it was because of the news, or because of the act of vomiting. He didn't know of sure. But there was one thing he did know. He deserved it. He deserved to feel like shit. He could have stopped them. But instead, he'd been prancing around with the hunters. He'd been enjoying himself. And people were dead because of it.
A/N: Well, that's that. One thing I hate more than anything in fanfiction that I read, is when the main character of the story isn't punished for anything. I feel like I've already punished Percy enough in my story, since Sally and Annabeth's deaths were at least partially related to him, even though it wasn't even remotely his fault, but the whole thing about the terrorist attack in London, his paralysis, and his lack of powers (which is also temporary, just to be clear), are there to reinforce it. I'm of the belief that punishing your character is one of the best ways to make them learn and grow, and that's really the main point of telling a story like this. So, yeah. Anyway, this is the end of this chapter. Hope you enjoyed. I'm not totally sure when the next one will be. I mean, it was a long enough wait for this one. But anyway. Thank you all for reading. Let me know what you thought. Stay safe, everyone.