Disclaimer – Oh, come on, we all know that I don't own PJO and Claymore… do I really need to keep doing this?
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. ~ Yoda
If you walk down the path that you believe is right, you cannot be wrong. ~ Shirou Emiya
Time skip-
Percy POV:
I was standing on a… beach? Something about it felt almost… familiar. There was some sense in my body that was telling me that I'd been here before… that I'd seen this before… something was giving me some serious déjà vu, but I couldn't understand why…
Although it didn't matter, since my thoughts were washed away with the next wave as it lapped against my feet… that sensation almost always calmed me down instantly. Taking in a long breath of the ocean-scented air, I couldn't help but relax, as I sighed away all my…. Worries?
Right, worries. The last week had been really hectic… it had been one hell of a roller coaster ride to get Athena to agree to let me marry her daughter. But now, the week was over. I could relax. Sighing once more, I sat down on the beach, patting my pocket to check if a certain box was still there.
Content with how it had all turned out, I put my hands behind me to hold myself up as I let the presence of the sea calm down my senses. Just the sound of the water lapping up against the sand and the almost… salty smell of the ocean put my nerves at ease, while my powers used the water to heal all the little scrapes and scratches that now littered my body.
'Now, all that is left is actually using the ring in my pocket.' I thought to myself, as I waited for the tired sensation in my body to go away. And just as the soreness was washed away, I heard the sound of crunching sand from behind me. Opening an eye, I turned my head around to find Annabeth standing there with a raised eyebrow.
"So, this is where you've been all this time? I've been looking for you, you know." She asked me in her usual tone, as she sat down to join me on the beach. With a slight chuckle, I gave her a white lie as a response, "Yup, just needed a little rest from all of the constant godly drama that goes on around us."
And so, we just started light conversation as we watched the sun lower in the sky, bit by bit. Soon enough, however, with Apollo's chariot on the horizon as it was, painting the sky in wonderful hues, I couldn't resist the opportunity, and I stood up and offered my hand to Annabeth, who took it with an inquisitive look.
We started taking a leisurely stroll along the beach, as the sun's final rays created beautiful patterns of orange and gold across the sky. "So, Annabeth, do you remember that night in the stables aboard the Argo?" I asked, discreetly watching her reaction. As I felt the heat rush up to my cheeks at the memory, I saw that she had had a similar reaction.
Stopping dead in her tracks, she just gave me a curt, "Yes," as a response. Stopping as well, I turned around to face my girlfriend. Looking her in the eyes, I was just about to give a beautiful speech worthy of Athena, but there's always that one BUT.
Just then, the eternal harbinger of fucking destruction had to come stumbling in! The ever-so-prideful son of Zeus had arrived to rain on my parade! Again! Just five fucking minutes, bro! Would that have been so hard for you, Tyche!?
I was ready to scream from sheer frustration – this kid was seriously starting to annoy me now – but I had to keep a calm face for the sake of the occasion, at the very least. Through gritted teeth, I was just BARELY able to get my next sentence out as I did my best to control the emotions, "What... Do... You... Want?" It was genuinely significantly harder for me to get each syllable out this time than it was to read words in the English script!
Since he was panting so much, he was barely able to get his sentences out as well. At first, I couldn't make any sense at all of what he said, but on asking him to repeat, I heard him say the words, "Chiron… camp… in trouble… monsters… need help." And now, I suddenly feel like a douchebag for being rude to the kid. Why, many, many thanks to the great goddess of my amazing fortune.
Six years of living as a demigod had given me enough paranoia to believe anything at all when it came to monsters, and the feeling had only been incensed by our fall into Tartarus. With fear in my heart for what had happened to Chiron and the camp, I dropped my guard completely and turned back to the ridge in the direction of the big house. And, just as I started bolting up the hill, I heard a scream of pain from behind me.
Stopping dead in my tracks as I recognized that scream, I turned around to find Annabeth with a dagger in the middle of her upper back. And that bastard Max was holding it there. I rushed forward to the duo and punched the asshole straight in the middle of his face, causing him to stumble and fall back down as I caught Annabeth as she fell.
The already dark note this night had taken was now even darker. All the thoughts going through my heads was different versions of, "NOT AGAIN!" The similarities were so great that I was unable to stop myself from momentarily flashing back to the battle of Manhattan.
In my delirious state, I couldn't do much but shout and scream for help as the tears fell from eyes onto my girlfriend's dying body. For a few seconds, I completely forgot about the murderer sitting a few feet across from me, as my head filled with thoughts of fear.
Fear of Annabeth dying, fear of losing her, fear of having to live in a world without her in it. For as long as I had known about this strange World of Gods and Monsters, I had had her there by my side. From the very beginning, from that time where I woke up inside a farmhouse as an oblivious idiot who was grieving his mother's recent 'death,' she had been there right next to me.
And now, to lose her…. The delirium was starting to take its hold. Suddenly, I was reliving two timelines at once… Ethan Nakamura, Maxwell Rayne. Annabeth. Daggers. Stabbing. Fear…. And then, that fear started to condense. The hollow cold of desperation was quick to be replaced… replaced with a burning heat – the heat of anger.
Anger at whoever made my life such a big pile of schist, anger at this fucktard for hurting my Annabeth, anger at myself for not noticing his cloaked dagger and letting Annabeth take the fall for me. But that wasn't it. There was one last stage left to reach.
As the gravity of the situation dawned on me, I had never felt such pure HATRED for anything, or anyone. Kronos was a moron, but he had a REASON to be like he was. His kids had turned on him and cut him to pieces with his own scythe. Then there was Gaia, who was trying to avenge her late son. But here and now, this was a whole different situation.
In my entire life, I had never done a single fucking thing to this absolute dickhead son of Zeus. In his quest for pride, this arrogant bastard had constantly been a thorn in my side, pricking me as I tried to enjoy the beauty of the rose that was life at Camp Half-Blood. And now, he had tried to kill me, and my girlfriend had payed for it. He killed her. She was gone, the love of my life, the one damn person I could always depend on, now she was gone.
Eyes burning green, I stood up slowly from my place and started taking individual, heavy steps towards the kid who was staring at his blood-covered hands with an expression of panic on his face. Just looking at him fueled that fire within me; it stirred my deepest, darkest memories.
Being in Tartarus had taught me a lesson that this kid was still yet to learn. Everything had consequences. Painful ones. Pulling up the memory of Akhlys to the surface of my mind, I stretched out a hand in his direction, with the palm facing him, and I started searching for the fluids in him.
Considering that his body was made of 75% water, it was damn easy. I took control of that liquid component of his body, slowly bringing it to the surface, causing him to… bulge slightly.
He started screaming and writhing in pain, shrieking out near-incomprehensible sentences about his innocence. But I wasn't going to care, not today. This guy was no human or demigod; he was even worse than the Titans. So. Much. Worse. They did say, "Like father, like son," but this kid was way worse than his father. His father may have been an asshole, but he hadn't stolen the most important things from my life out of spite. He hadn't killed Annabeth to please his own fucking ego.
Concentrating on the liquid portion of his blood, I started to channel my energy into it, causing it to start heating, cooking and burning the son of a bitch from inside out. The screams got louder, the writhing became more prominent, and the shrieking became completely unintelligible, but I kept going. I turned up the heat, bit by bit, until he was just ready to pop like a balloon, before turning it off entirely and giving him a few seconds of respite.
I would have kept going for literally ever, but a frail call of my name alerted me to the third, dying presence in the area and I momentarily lost my concentration, causing the dirtbag the pop and shower blood over everywhere and everything in the surroundings. Ignoring the end of his useless existence, I rushed to Annabeth and held her tight to my chest as the light started fading from her eyes, just as the campers, along with Chiron came over the ridge to check on what was going on.
"Pe-Pe-r-cy…", she croaked out, gasping from the pain of breathing, "I lo-ve you." And with that, everything faded to black around me as my nightmare came to an end.*
I shot awake in my bed, with sweat soaking my sheets and clothes.
I put my face in my hands and rubbed my eyes as I felt my breathing slow down. Even now, my mind was still trying its hardest to come to grips with reality…. That dream had been painfully accurate. 'It was just another nightmare. Just a bad dream. Nothing to worry about.' I thought to myself, and it would have worked too, had the dream not also been my reality.
That was where the problem lay. There was a difference between this dream and 'any other' demigod dream. It was that this WASN'T just a bad dream. This time, it had been real. Those things that I had just watched…. They had ACTUALLY happened. This wasn't just some nightmare… this was a flashback… this WAS my past… this WAS my life…
"Oh, dear god…" I muttered to myself as I threw the covers off me and slid out of bed. It was during times such as these when I seriously started to miss literally anything and everything about my past.
I would rather be an oblivious little 8-year-old child living in Manhattan than live like this. I would much rather be a demigod again… Heck, I'd even do Tartarus all over… but life like this… this was some real bullshit.
And even if I couldn't go back to my previous life, I was just perfectly fine with living the way I used to when I was younger. No memories, no pain, no nightmares… what a dream. For heaven's sake, even life with the Organization was so much better than this!
At least, they had some real strong alcohol that I could drown my sorrows in. Here, the best thing I could get was so watered down that my Yoki-enhanced body naturally filtered it out. For the first time in literally… forever… I was able to understand the point of making Dionysus an Olympian. And just thinking that an old, useless camp director such as himself was worthy of being a god… Yeah, my brain was about to explode.
Stumbling my way to the mirror, I realized that I was looking like shit. A scruffy beard had grown on my face, and although it shouldn't be possible, I had bags under my eyes. Apart from all that, I was feeling like shit as well… tired and frustrated.
Which shouldn't have been possible, considering that I had just taken a nice long nap… which I hadn't needed in the first place. Feeling tired shouldn't have been possible, right? Well, clearly not. I was officially feeling worse now than before I went to sleep. Shouldn't be possible, but the gods and the fates really do hate my life, so…
Inexplicably illogical things aside, I was tired of being tired. It wasn't a good feeling to have. Like, at all. On one hand, I felt like crashing on my bed, and on the other, I wanted to get as faraway from the thing as possible because I never wanted to dream again.
It was saddening… and complicated. Emotions… not even Athena's brains were able to understand them… Like I said, sad and complicated. Too complicated for me to even try and deal with as I was right now. I was exhausted, both mentally and physically. That was no good condition to deal with high-classed issues.
'It would be better to get away from this… better and easier.' I thought to myself as I splashed some water on my face to drive the drowsiness away. 'Getting away would be nice…' And of all the things I knew, there was only one that would clear my mind at this point…. I needed to eat… that always helped.
-Line break-
I looked up at the innkeeper once more, just to check whether he was kidding or not, but his face was still as stoic as a poker player's. A really, really good poker player's. Seriously, he was charging me around 40 times the price for a one-night stay, but his face belayed that he was completely serious about it.
Completely bewildered by the man's absurd pricing, I decided to give him a chance to explain himself, because, even though it would have been easier, violence was not ALWAYS the best solution, "And, uhhh… WHY do I have to pay so much?" He looked me straight in the eyes with that 'Are you being serious right now' expression on his face and said, "Seriously, man? You stayed up there for a whole month, so I'm charging you for a whole month! It's really not that hard to understand. And the extra bit is because you extended your stay without notice."
The exasperation in his tone was enough to confirm his statement for me. It was like a punch to the face, hearing that. I had stayed there… for a whole month? I was sleeping for 30 days!? And I was STILL so tired? What!?
Meanwhile, another part of my brain was busy rolling around laughing over the fact that I was 'tired of sleeping.' How hilarious. Thank you, old habits of ADHD. Thank you.
A snap in front of my face brought me back to reality. 'Oh, right… this guy is still here.' I thought as I looked around the deserted room. Turning back to the extremely irritated man in front of me, I said, "You know, your lobby is really a bit too white." Seeing his completely baffled expression, I elaborated, "Here, see, let me paint it for you!" And off fell his head. Ah, the benefits of carrying a sword around.
"Well, guess you're dead now," I said to the head now rolling on the floor behind the front desk. As it came to a stop, I got a look at the guy's dead, lifeless eyes and came to the conclusion that dying… sucks. It was sad, really, considering that this guy was already dead and there was nothing that could be done about it… well, there was one thing… "But don't worry… I'll make sure you don't get lonely in the underworld! Here come your friends!" And with that, I shot out of the building's front entrance at a blinding speed, holding my claymore off to my side.
A neat trick that I had found a way to use. With a burst of Yoki sent to my legs, I was able to move faster than any regular human eye could see, which was no small feat. The human eye was pretty fast, and for it to not be able to see me as I move… I would have to move at something over 50000 miles per hour… Needless to say, that kind of movement required a LOT of energy to facilitate.
Energy that nobody could naturally have. I had used an excessive amount of Yoki to pull off that move. On one hand, everyone on the streets was currently dead and it had been done quickly, but on the other, there were warriors who could have sensed that Yoki on this island.
'Well, it's not like it really matters. I'll just leave before anyone else can get here.' I thought, as I watched the blood start pooling on the floor. Lifting my left hand up, I forced the blood to start moving towards my outwards-facing palm and relished in the feeling as my mind started to forget all the distress and the pain from a few minutes ago.
It wasn't nearly as good as the feeling you got from drinking one of Rimuto's oldest wines, and it definitely didn't compare to actually feasting on human guts, but since I didn't have time for that, I would make do with just absorbing the blood. It was quite a… natural feeling anyway, since blood was mostly water, with some added nutrients. 'Huh, would you look at that, it's like water and food in one… no wonder it's so damn good…'
As the last of the blood snaked its way into my palm, I sighed and started to make my way out of the town, not really caring about the other inhabitants of the place. So long as nobody had seen me, I didn't really care about this town in general. It was some place far to the south, located so far from normal civilization that it had taken me a whole day of walking to get here from my house back in Sutafu. And when you put my abilities into consideration, that was a LONG walk.
Stepping over the now dried-up husks that were once bodies, I started making my way towards the general north area through back alleyways. Even though I had planned to leave quickly, I had wasted a lot of time in standing there and waiting for the blood to soak into my veins and get converted to energy. Depending on the events of the next thirty minutes, I could even say too much time.
The problem was that I had been forced to rest in an inn because I didn't want to rouse any suspicion amongst the already angsty villagers. And the inn was at the opposite end of the town as the entrance. And the town was walled in. And there was a MASSIVE Yoki signature closing in on my location.
So, in effect, I was trapped in here. There was no way I could get out in time from this place… that Yoki signature was moving in too fast. If I used my Yoki to enhance my movements… then, whoever that was would easily be able to track my signature anywhere across this island. And if they were able to report to some Organization member about it… then, I would be facing some serious issues.
Of course, there was always the chance that I could outrun the warrior. His aura was quite large… And he clearly did have some speed… but I was faster. If I started running now, and I found some place to hide in… then, I COULD miss him entirely. No, wait, there were two great ifs implied in that statement. There was always the possibility that the Organization had made another equally strong warrior. If that was the case, then running would only increase my problems. Was I really willing to take that chance?
No, it would be much better for me to just handle it here… even if it was going to be quite an… inconvenience. Or maybe I could just hide it out? There was always that possibility. I hadn't killed everyone in the town – and nobody had even seen me so far… so, I would be able to blend in with the crowd… ideally speaking. And I did have some seriously heightened Yoki suppression… the best warrior of the 'great' first generation himself hadn't recognized my aura – from just a few feet away.
That HAD to stand for something, at least. So, I made the dangerous choice. I decided to take the risk and just wait. Whenever the guy came in, I would join in as a part of the welcoming crowd that was bound to gather at the gates. And while he searched for some Yoki aura within the town, I would quietly slip out and leave. No quarreling, no problems. If the warrior did manage to single me out from the crowd, then I was prepared to fight. And I wasn't hungry anymore, either. "Sounds like a good plan, then." I muttered to myself as I walked out of the alley, hearing some screaming coming from behind me.
'So, somebody finally found the dead bodies. Well, now there's definitely going to be a welcoming party at the gate.' I thought, as a smirk appeared on my face, only to be replaced by an expectant grimace as I thought about what was to come. No matter what happened, the following 30 minutes were going to be seriously stressful, if not physically straining.
-Line break-
"The-The-There… de-de-dead bod-dies."
The speaker was a middle-aged woman who looked like she had just crawled out of hell itself. She had that sort of haunted look in her eyes… it was almost identical to the one I myself had once had after Tartarus – and she was shivering as if she was trapped in a blizzard… even though we were actually in the middle of a southern town. And it would be perfectly normal to comment that the climate was HOT here!
But since the woman had stumbled in, mumbling about the 'dead bodies' she had seen, a crowd had started to form. "Perfect timing," I muttered under my breath as I felt the other Yoki aura arrive at the rough location of the town's gate.
And the aura had stopped moving, which meant that the 'Claymore' was currently dealing with the city's gate guards. It would be really nice if they just didn't let the guy in… that way, I wouldn't be having any problems at all…
"Hey, hey, it's alright. Tanaka-san has already gone to tell the gate keepers about the Yoma. You'll be alright."
And I suppose that I shouldn't really have been disappointed with that – Tyche pretty much hated me, so there probably hadn't even been a millionth of a chance that I would be able to get away easily because of stroke of good luck – but it was still quite saddening to have your hopes constantly crushed like that. And just as my mind was about to wander off into its own universe, I felt the Yoki aura grow fainter… before it started to move again. That caused me to chuckle quietly… 'Yoki suppression won't work with me, kiddo.'
I closed my eyes and moved to the extreme center of the crowd, surrounding myself with as many people as possible, before focusing all my concentration on suppressing my own Yoki, so as to lessen the chance of being caught and singled out.
And then, the now ant sized Yoki arrived in the town square where I was standing. Still, I kept my eyes closed. I heard everyone around me go quiet – probably as a reaction to the new arrival, and still, I kept my eyes closed. Slowly, whispers of disbelief and slight fear started to go around… whispers of "So that's a Claymore," "Half-human, half-Yoma," and smaller, quieter whispers of, "There's no way someone like that could kill a Yoma!"
Someone right next to me had said it, and then, someone behind me gave a response, "Yeah, there's no way she could even wield that huge sword! She looks like she's made of glass!" 'Wait a minute,' I thought, 'she?'
And so, I made a slight mistake. A tiny error. A miniscule, yet brutal fault. I lost concentration, and I opened my eyes.
Sure enough, there was a woman standing there. Over the tops of the crowd's heads, I could see a blonde girl standing about 35 feet away. With long, curly hair. Princess curls, to be precise. And grey eyes. 'NO, NO, NO! No, she's dead. No way…' I thought as I started to stumble backwards.
Even her voice was near identical, as I recognized while she pointed out that one of us was a Yoma. They were far too alike. There was no explanation for it, but this… This WAS her. Slowly, my mind started to fragment between reality and fiction. Straw-blonde hair slowly started to turn into the color of honey. Sharp silver faded into stormy grey.
Suddenly, I was living in two places at once. In front of me… was Annabeth... she had a small, serene smile on her face as she stood on the beach at Camp Half-blood, with a beautiful sunset in the background. And then, in front of me… was this Claymore… But then, they were far too similar for my mind to differentiate.
Then, I was standing on white sand, watching lovely blue waves crash against the turf. I felt my body turning around, and I found myself facing Annabeth. And suddenly, I wasn't there anymore. With a loud BANG, I was suddenly standing in front of my own body. I was watching myself holding Annabeth in my arms… and she was saying her last words… "Pe-Pe-r-cy… I…"
And then, I was back in the real world. I was lying flat on my butt, staring as everybody turned their eyes to face me. Slowly, they all started to back away… all except one. Annabeth just stared at me from there, before she pulled out her Claymore. 'Oh no…' They had found me out…. My reaction had sealed the deal.
As my dead girlfriend's duplicate advanced on me, my mind started to shatter. She took a running start and aimed a basic downward slash at my head. If left to me, I wouldn't have been able to move. My mind was literally breaking apart… I could barely even understand what was going on. Luckily, it wasn't just left up to my mind's capability for rational thought. I had some basics of muscle memory left in me.
Without me even willing it to do so, my body rolled out of the way before the sword could bisect it. My slowly fragmenting brain couldn't think of anything right now. Anything except the girl in front of me… and why she had just tried to kill me. "An-nabeth?" I asked with an ever-so-slowly fading smile, "H-how? Wh-Why?" The girl completely ignored my question and hefted her sword once again with a small frown on her face.
'Annabeth wouldn't attack me, would she?' As the thought entered my head, my mind started to flash between the past and the present once more. Suddenly, the landscape around me became purple. I was standing amidst tall black, branchless trees that towered over the landscape.
And then, a shadowy outline dropped in front of me. A wrinkled hag, with bat-like wings, brass talons and glowing red eyes. An image that had haunted my dreams for a whole year after Tartarus. Arai.
And then, I was back to seeing in real time, as I was forced to dodge a few sets of lateral strikes. Briefly, I remembered a small fact about the Arai… They could manipulate your memories and your senses… 'Is that what this is?' I thought to myself, as I felt my own body move instinctually and punch the woman in front of me.
Third Person POV:
Yoki suppression required concentration. And since Percy's mind was currently… unable to focus, practically none of his Yoki was actually suppressed. Which meant that a punch from his hand would easily be enough to dissolve a normal human. Or any other kind of monster.
But not this girl. The punch sent her flying back, making her slam into a building, before her momentum made her go straight through the structure, causing it to collapse as soon as two of its opposing walls were shattered.
Meanwhile, Percy himself was horrified. He had just punched Annabeth. Through a wall. And through another wall. Annabeth. The love of his life. And now there was a building that was going to crash on a hundred other people. And now those people were dead. Killed by falling rubble.
Then, out of that same rubble, a very hurt, and very angry Claymore came rushing at the now distracted Percy, punching him square in the face. Due to his distraction, he hadn't noticed her until it was too late, and when he did, it really was too late. As he turned his face to look at her, he promptly got punched square in the right eye.
On one hand, that was a great inconvenience for Percy… not being able to see. But on the other, with Percy's current mental condition, that was a horrible mistake on the Claymore's part.
As Percy went flying back at maximum velocity, the pain that he was feeling slowly burned itself into anger. A mind as fractured as his couldn't retain any coherent sense of memory for more than a mere second, and without proper memory, decisions could only be based on emotion.
He stood back up from the rubble, with a raging anger burning behind his left eye. Who the hell did this bitch think she was? Sensing a minor Yoki movement behind him, he turned back and delivered a flat-out punch straight to the girl's face, with no recognition at all in his one remaining eye.
Their claymores lost somewhere in the dust, the two resorted to resolve the fight with their fists alone. As the girl went flying back, Percy used all his Yoki to shoot forward, causing the very ground under his feet to shatter like glass. Leaving a 10-foot crater where he was standing, the demigod dashed forward at literally maximum speed. Faster than the airborne girl could even react, Percy appeared right next to her and delivered an overhand to her navel as her body was parallel to the ground.
Unable to stop himself, the doctor of death sped right into the next building, causing rubble to rain everywhere. Not that it affected either of the combatants. Their Yoki-enhanced skin was tough enough for them to just shake off buildings, and their marvelous regeneration rates covered up for any damage that they took almost instantly.
Shaking his head to clear the disorientation, he stood up once more and started marching over to face his opponent, who was currently lying in a massive 30-foot crater into which he had punched her. She had dared to try to kill him… that was a straight challenge. And Perseus the Slayer NEVER backed down from a challenge. She wanted a fight? Then, fine. He would give her a fight… and then, he would kill her.
As these thoughts passed through his head, he reopened his eyes to search the clearing. His Yoki sensing was practically useless when this much Yoki was being used and his mind was simply unable to use the rest of his abilities right now. It was torn between anger, sadness, hate and malice. There was no space there for anything else.
Searching the area, he saw a blonde girl standing up with obvious fury behind her eyes as the last remaining wounds on her body repaired themselves. Wait, those eyes… that hair… this was Annabeth? He wanted to kill… Annabeth? The angry aura around him fading, the demigod version of Lucifer stumbled backwards as he realized what he was doing. "No, no, Annabeth, I'm sorry… what's going on?" He started to mumble as his mind lost control once more.
(No, I didn't casually forget that I've already written that. It's just that his mind is so broken that he doesn't remember who he's fighting at this point. He's just feeling emotions, it's as simple as that. There are literally no thoughts going through his head right now.)
Tripping as he stumbled backwards, he fell over a burning log and landed promptly on his ass, as he started to crawl away from the now-approaching 'Annabeth.' Meanwhile, the generation's number one warrior was starting to get seriously angry with this Yoma. Apart from not turning into its monstrous form and fighting properly, this beast simply refused to die.
And then, there was this stupid drama that the creature was enacting. At first, she had believed that he was actually scared of her aura, and had tried to kill him with one, swift blow – a pity strike. But that had ended up being humiliating. For the next 2 minutes, the Yoma had danced around her blade with its eyes closed and a ridiculously irritating smile on his face just to publicly ridicule and humiliate her.
And then, when she had been just on the edge of using her Yoki, he had punched her through a fucking building. The audacity! And now, he was trying to do the same thing all over again. What, did he think she was a fool? She would prove that she wasn't. She would take this monster's head back to the Organization, and prove that she WAS, indeed, worthy of her own rank. There was no Yoma out there, no matter how aged and experienced, that could defeat her. That's why she had been made number 1!
With rage fueling her fire and adrenalin coursing through her veins, she stomped her foot down and let out 40% of her total Yoki, watching as the effects took place almost instantaneously. Veins started to throb and become visible under her skin's surface while her muscle mass started to bulge and increase, causing her appearance to shimmer like a mirage. Her eyes took on a lovely reddish-golden hue and her senses received a slight enhancement, causing her to feel omnipotent.
With a power boost like that, she felt like she could take out any beast in a single punch. There was no way a lowly Yoma could survive such a hit! All that power would incinerate it… Offense may not have been her category, but that didn't mean that she wasn't good at it.
Pushing the Yoki to her legs, she bulleted towards the Yoma, arriving next to him in almost no time, before punching the creature straight in its face as it tried to crawl away from her, smirking as she sent the man-monster flying.
As Perseus was thrown back by his opponent's punch, he smashed head-first through multiple building, causing his head to hurt even more. Now, the only coherent thoughts that both the hemispheres of his brain could agree on were about how insulting it was to be ridiculed by some random Claymore. Or Arai. Or ghost, whatever this woman was.
Insulting and dreadfully painful. Apart from the splitting migraine Percy was having, the multitude of cuts and bruises on his body weren't helping either. Luckily, his Yoki had still managed to shield him from most of the damage by reinforcing his skin and flesh with metal-like properties, but due to his lack of focus, he had lost a lot of blood. Not that it mattered. Being part-Asarakam as he was, that hit only resulted in some pain and lots of rage for him.
However, rage was a dangerous thing. Even under normal conditions, it could blind someone's logical capabilities and force them to make harsh, drastic decisions, and unfortunately, Percy was not simply facing normal conditions. His mind was under extreme stress – it had been subjected to some serious torture when those old memories of Annabeth and the Arai had come up – and it was slowly starting to shut down under the constant pressure, and sadly, in such a state, it just wasn't possible anymore for Percy to control his own emotions.
As the dust blocked Percy's view of the blonde, he had to resort to his Yoki sensing. Due to the heavy amount that he himself was using to heal his own wounds, he could barely sense ANYTHING at all that wasn't his own. But still, even the faintest of movements were seriously helpful. And there was some faint movement coming from directly in front of him, at a distance of about 20 feet.
Cocking his fist back, Percy pushed all his Yoki into his right arm, coloring it the shade of jet due to the IMMENSE amount of Yoki condensed into the one limb.
Then, just as he saw the silhouette of a person forming in the dust in front of him, Percy charged it. Rushing towards the black outline in the dust, he did the only one thing that made sense to him. He jumped up and delivered a perfectly executed haymaker to the shadow's face. Well, almost… it was only perfect till he missed.
But… no matter how you do it, when you release a lot of energy in a very short span of time... that usually means an explosion. And the light show that followed with Percy's punch was not disappointing in the least. In a massive explosion of blinding light, deafening sound and scorching heat, the entire city was wiped off the map.
All that remained within the area after the blast were two bodies and some evidently indestructible weapons. Two charred piles of flesh that had nearly been stripped down to the bone itself, two longswords, a dagger, and a spear.
-Line break-
Sistina, the Divine Oracle groaned as she finally got up. After what seemed like HOURS of grueling pain, her body had regenerated enough of itself for her to be able to use her legs on her own without causing herself too much of a problem. However, her lungs were still in bad shape, which she realized only when the endless coughing and wheezing fits began.
Luckily enough for her, the warrior had sensed Percy's attack and blocked it just in time by using her Yoki as a shield of sorts. Which meant that she had taken much less of a hit than she could have. Moreover, she was a defensive type of warrior, which meant that she could regenerate very easily using moderate amounts of Yoki. Combine that with the fact that the Yoma hadn't hit her directly, and it was quite easy to see why she was the first to stand up.
Meanwhile, Percy's body had been almost shredded to the bone. For the first time in 8 years, the 'Crimson-Bladed Devil' had completely flunked his control over Yoki. By concentrating it all in his hand, he had, indeed, managed to demolish everything… but, on the other hand, it had left him completely open to damage.
Between the shrapnel ripping at his skin, the heat searing his flesh and the noise splitting his head apart, he had actually taken more damage from the hit than his adversary had. And, now, with his mind in such a horrible state, you could even say that he was as good as knocked out.
He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, and he could barely feel anything could feel the gusts of wind hitting at bare flesh in most parts of his leg – a sign that his skin and muscle mass still hadn't regenerated. His only solace lied in the fact that he couldn't sense any movement in his immediate surroundings through his sixth sense. At the very least, his opponent was still in horrible shape.
Which was why Percy had at least managed to regain his skin and 3 of his senses by the time his adversary had managed to find her footing. He was still missing two eyes, an ear – both eardrums, and a few fingers and nails, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
(With the Claymore)
Seeing her Claymore lying in the dust, the silver-eyed oracle started to stumble towards it, looking to end the monster lying there, once and for all. She had been way too close to Awakening there… she had actually crossed her limit and gone far beyond when she had shielded herself against that hit… but that explosion had used up nearly ALL of her Yoki reserve, and had, in effect, reversed the Awakening process. That's how dangerous this beast was… he had been able to completely destroy her even while she was at max power. She NEEDED to kill him, right here and right now, for the sake of mankind.
If there was one thing the Organization had taught her, it was that the Yoma needed to be put down… the Claymores were meant to kill and eventually eradicate the Yoma, regardless of how it affected their numbers. They had been created solely for this purpose and, so long as they didn't turn into Yoma themselves, nobody cared about their health and safety. She was supposed to kill the monsters so that the human race could survive, even if it was the last thing she ever did.
So, as she picked up her lost blade, the only thoughts crossing her mind were about ending the creature in front of her. She realized that she would probably die on that day. Her condition was actually much worse than she had first thought it to be. Her Yoki had drained out again, and her body was in no condition to generate more energy.
And without that energy, there was no way she could stop the bleeding. And even if she didn't die of the blood loss, which was already making her feel light-headed, she would still have several lung punctures and wound infections to combat – without her Yoki, that is. And without any sort of medical attention or equipment.
(At the same time, back with Percy)
Meanwhile, Percy didn't have even the slightest clue of what was going on… he couldn't see, he couldn't hear, and he didn't have it in him to activate any of his other senses. To him, the world was just one massive darkness that encompassed him on all sides. And without the ability to perceive any sound or light, he was in a blissful state of peace.
At least until the nerves on his back regenerated, and he felt the sharp rocks he was currently lying down upon cutting into the freshly regenerated skin on his back. The rocky and dusty floor of Percy's little crater was extremely uncomfortable, and it made for a terrible bed.
Now, Percy had really enjoyed those last five minutes where there had been nothing to disturb him at all. Oblivious to the world and the people around him, he had been able to just relax and do absolutely nothing… a feeling that was quite addicting. So much so that even Percy could not help but want to feel more of that same nothing.
But to feel that nothing, Percy would need to find a better bed, like the one he had back home. Speaking of which, where in the world was he? He remembered waking up in an inn… and then arguing with the owner… but everything after that was a bit hazy. He could remember being hungry, and then getting injured, but the details of it all were out of place.
And with razorblade-like rocks cutting into his back, Percy was unable to focus enough on those memories to clear the mental haze. Getting increasingly annoyed by his predicament as time passed, Percy started to channel his Yoki into his legs and hands, causing the muscles there to regrow to their original shape and size, so that he could stand up and get off the stone-riddled ground.
First, he pushed his Yoki into his hands, then his legs and then, his ears. And just in time, apparently, because as soon as her could hear again, his perception of the world around him took a 180 degree flip. The first words he perceived were feminine in pitch and timbre, and clearly spoken through pain and anguish, "So, in the name of that same Organization… I'm going to kill you!"
Hearing the swoosh of a blade coming from his right, he instantly rolled to the left and kicked upwards. Something that the near-dead Claymore hadn't predicted. He had hit her right in her sword arm, causing her to lose her grip on the blade, making it fly off and land somewhere between her and Percy, with a loud and audible clang.
Now, Percy couldn't see what was going on, but he had got the basic idea. Something or someone was there trying to kill him… probably whoever had given him the injuries to begin with. But it was clear they were struggling.
The person – 'a Claymore,' Percy thought as the memories slowly started to return, – had been too weak to even hold on to her sword as Percy's leg had sent it off course, and still hadn't charged him again, even though they could clearly see that Percy was blind and bleeding from about fifteen different places.
The problem with that was that he just didn't have the time to use his Yoki to heal. Re-creating a small, thin patch of skin, tiny enough to fit in his ear was no big deal, especially when you had Yoki that was received from an Awakened Asarakam itself, but reforming all the multiple complex structures in his eyes, along with the millions of nerve patches between the eyes and the brain was quite the time-taking task.
Hearing the 'schlink'-ing sound of the sword's metal tip being dragged along the floor, Percy was able to register his opponent's movements. She was standing somewhere to his right, and was dragging the sword behind her, almost as if she didn't have the strength to hold it up properly. Then again, that could just be a side effect of the fact that she was using no Yoki at the moment.
Normal human bodies, after all, weren't strong enough to lift Claymores single-handedly. Which was why Percy couldn't pass her off as 'not a threat.' She still had eyes, ears and a massive sword, and was coming at him regardless of how bad her condition might have been. All she would need was one lucky shot, and he would get split down the middle – a hit he wasn't sure even he could recover from.
Hearing the clanking noise of her armor and boots coming from the right, Percy decided to use a little test to figure out how dangerous the 'Claymore' really was. His memory of her still hadn't returned in full strength, so he didn't know her abilities yet, but it was only a matter of time.
She would eventually get tired, his eyesight would eventually come back and so would his memory. And once he had the latter duo, he could get rid of the pest in a few seconds. He just needed to dance around her till that happened; make her angrier and more tired.
For whatever reason, his sixth sense wasn't working right now, maybe due to a lack of concentration or maybe due to the number of hits he had been forced to tank, and so, he was reduced to just using his hearing.
When a noise came from the left, he would dart towards it and wait for the Claymore to make a sound of effort while raising her sword, before jumping back a few feet, causing her to swing her great-sword into the ground with no positive result.
He did this once, then twice, then thrice, then five and then ten times, all the while pulling small fragments of memory together, forming up his greater reserve. And while he was only getting that much closer to victory, his opponent was constantly getting more and more worn out.
Every single time she raised her sword, she was forced to tolerate unbearable pain from her punctured lungs, which had only gotten worse since the last time she had checked. Her goal of killing the Yoma was getting farther and farther away with each step she was taking, and her Yoki had only regenerated to the point where it could heal some cuts on her wrist.
It was pretty clear to her that she wouldn't be able to do anything to the beast who was easily evading her blows, even though he was blind and was missing multiple fingers on both hands. At least until the Yoma fell to his knees, clutching his head in pain, and screaming like the world was ending.
She saw that as a last chance… he was only 20 feet away from her, and she could probably get there and finish him off. It was her last chance anyway, and if it was a trick, then it would be better to go down fighting than to just fall down over here and die, defeated by blood loss and infection that had resulted due to a failure in her judgement. At least she would be able to preserve what was left of her dignity in that case.
Meanwhile, Percy's mind had pieced the puzzle together. While he had thought it would help, it had done the exact opposite. He was fighting Annabeth, his Annabeth. Honey-blonde princess curls, stormy grey eyes, orange CHB shirt and a pair of faded jeans. THAT Annabeth.
The one that had died in his arms. The same one, the girl that he had loved; his one true soulmate. But now, she was alive. Alive and here. Here and now. And she was trying to kill him. The love of his life was trying to kill him.
His mind was torn. On one hand, he wanted to just sit down and cry happy tears of joy that his dead girlfriend was alive, before riding off into the sunset with her, all silly dreams of killing Chaos long forgotten, but another part of his mind, the Athenian part, knew how impossible that scenario was. Being a warrior at heart, Percy was inclined to agree with the Athenian part, the part the suggested that he kill the pseudo-Annabeth before she killed him, but his mind still hadn't learned to let go.
It had been what, a lifetime? Indeed, a lifetime since Annabeth had died in his arms and he had given up hope on life. His only solace back then had laid in the fact that he would meet her again in the graveyard of Hades, but that was taken away by the Fates. In a moment of rage, they had offered, no… promised him revenge against a greater foe, and he had snatched it without thinking about the offer's consequences.
In the process, he had never been able to let go of Annabeth. He still loved her with all his heart, and although his mind was trying to be logical, that love was too strong for his mind. All he could was clutch his madly throbbing head and scream in frustration and pain, as he failed to understand why life never gave him an olive branch.
It had led him to this… a somewhat crazy copy of his dead girlfriend was walking towards him with a sword, about to kill him.
He knew what the logical thing to do was… and he knew that it was hard to do it. So hard that he didn't even want to try.
10 feet…. And he was streaking tears from his eyes as the Yoki finished healing them.
5 feet… and suddenly, he was sitting on the beach at CHB once more, with Annabeth smiling down at him. All he could do as he saw her was cry in sadness.
Tears kept falling, and Annabeth kept sadly smiling back at him. Slowly, she put a hand on his chin, and pulled him into a soft kiss.
And then, he was back in the real world. Pseudo-Annabeth was standing above him, ready to strike him down.
She was lifting her Claymore, slowly as it was, and Percy still couldn't do it… it was too hard for him, but even so, just as the great-sword reached the peak of its arc, Percy's heart and mind came to make that one difficult decision.
When he'd been reborn, his fatal flaw had been lost. He was no longer the personally loyal Percy Jackson. That guy was, sad as it was, dead. It was the only thing that allowed Percy to give up on broken dreams and dead friends.
With a loud sob, Percy thrust one boney, flesh-less hand up, straight into his opponent's torso, piercing her heart with three newly-regenerated fingers from the force. A last breath left her lips with a slow, anguished grunt, and she fell down next to him, heart punctured and no longer beating. In one swift move, he killed her. A nearly painless death that took everything he used to love from him.
Then he fell down on the rocky ground one more, tears streaming from his eyes as he finally let go of Annabeth's memory. She wasn't coming back, and now that was reality. She was dead, and that was the final stage of the cycle. The point of no return.
AN – *Because I'm a horrible person, and coz like character development so why not? *insert evil laughter*
Update! : Alright, so I finished the rewrite for this chapter… and voila… here it is. I took some advice from some reviews (Thankyou, gpbumann), and I changed that last scene. Because it was horribly done, and I realize that. Besides, I had to do a story review for my lit project… and I realized how hard it is to characterize MPD… its srsly difficult… all those symptoms and everything… Props to anybody who's writing a story on that…