It was silent, save for the rumble of the engine as they drove through countryside. Percy took a sip of coffee from his thermos and he frowned, he should have added more creamer, it was a bit too bitter for his taste. He put the thermos back in the cup-holder and adjusted himself in the seat. It was early enough in the morning that the roads were pretty much empty. Driving through New York City had been a breeze, and by the time the sun started rising, they were on the other side of the city.
As soon as he got Meg free, Percy took her back to his apartment for first aid. He called Zatara as he cleaned up her wounds and gave her some first aid. It hadn't taken much to convince Meg to get in the car to get out of town. Kid hadn't said a word since Percy pulled her out of the building, not that he was all that surprised. She had come face to face with the reality that demigods were not invincible. It was a lesson they all had to learn eventually, but some lessons were learned far more painfully than others.
Percy had slipped some sleeping medication into her drink before they left, and by the time they hit the road, the girl was fast asleep in her seat. Leaving Percy to drive peacefully for the past several hours.
"So what, no lecture," And the peace is broken. Percy looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "You really need one?"
She shrank into her seat, and looked out the window, "That's what I thought," Percy said with a nod, "You don't need me to tell you that you've been a fucking idiot."
"No," She softly, "Just figured you'd have some kind of speech. That's what the others will do. Yell at me about being reckless or something,"
Percy snorted, "You're not my responsibility, just a pain in my ass. Haven't slept more than three hours a night for the last week 'cause I've had to try tracking you down."
She frowned, and changed the subject "The others…" She said, "Are they ok?"
"Do you really care?" He asked, but didn't give her a chance to respond, "Yeah they're ok. Blessed by Fortuna maybe, since one of 'em was bleeding out feet from my apartment. But they'll live, they've been back at camp for a few days now."
She flinched, and curled into herself a little, before she frowned, "Wait," She said, looking at him, "They didn't ask you to find me?"
Percy scoffed, "Ask? No. Like I said, I found your friends in the alley by my apartment and got dragged into this mess. Gonna have a long chat with Chiron about keeping you kids out of my city,"
"What does that mean?" She asked,
"Never you mind kid," He said, "Don't talk down to me," She snapped,
"You tried to break into Arkham and manipulate one of the most dangerous people on the planet. I'll talk to you however I damn well please!" Percy snapped back,
Her eyes widened, "It was you!" She said, "You're the one who destroyed my plants!"
"Damn right I did," He said, "Lucky I did too. Better it was me who grabbed you rather than someone else,"
"Lucky?" She shouted, "Because of you, I had to go back out! If you had just left well enough alone, I would never have been ambushed by those monsters,"
"Yes you would have." Percy said with a roll of his eyes, "Those things made you the second you walked into the city. They were just waiting until you were nice and vulnerable. When you ditched your pals, it was a matter of when they jumped you, not if."
"Bullshit!" She said acidly, "It's because of you that-"
Percy cut her off with a caustic laugh, "It's always someone else's fault, never yours right?" He said bitingly, "Can't ever be your fault, you're just always the victim. Can't be held accountable for your own shit because you were provoked right? Gimme a break," He rolled his eyes,
"What would you know?" She said hotly, "You got no idea what its like, being the child of some 'middling' goddess, you're the son of one of the three!" Percy just stared over at her, and she smirked in triumph, "Yeah, that's right, I know who you are Percy Jackson. Hero of the Battle of Half-Blood Hill. Slayer of Titans, all that crap. What would you know what it's like. You must have been worshipped from the time you could walk,"
"Ah," Said Percy, as realization dawned on him. "This was never about saving the planet was it kid? This was your little cry for attention," He laughed bitterly, "Let me guess, people give you shit for your mom, say that you probably don't even deserve to be at camp because she's so weak, right? Maybe they even say that you were sympathetic to Gaia during the last war, claim you're a traitor to your race. They bully and belittle you and you get tired of it. You decide you're going to show them exactly how strong you are, so you make a little plan. Poison Ivy just so happens to be someone you can use to show the world exactly how strong you are. You know how to brew and craft pretty well, given who you mother is it isn't a surprise, so you leave to complete your mission, and it doesn't matter how many innocent people get caught in the crossfire."
"I wasn't going to let her go to the city. Just let her smash around the Asylum a little. The only people who would have been hurt would have been cops, not like anyone would feel bad," She said, "She says to the police detective," Percy said pointedly, and she averted her eyes. "Aside from the fact that I was hot to your little plan, and that you'd have an easier time sneaking onto Themyscira than Arkham, you're forgetting that there's a little bat in Gotham, who I can promise you doesn't like our kind stomping around his city. Guy's territorial like that."
"Like I said, you wouldn't get it," She said defiantly, and Percy sighed. Hitting his turn signal, Percy pulled over to the side of the road.
"Kid," Percy said, turning to look at her, "Whatever you think you know about me, forget it, you think my life was all sunshine and rainbows because Helena has always been hot shit around your camp? News flash, that wasn't me." He reached out and grabbed his thermos, and turned so he was resting against the door as he was looking at the girl.
"Who are you to talk?" She demanded, "You ran away, you turned your back on all of us and hide. You're just a coward who's too scared to even live around us anymore." Percy sighed, coming to a decision,
"I'm going to tell you a story," He said,
"I thought you weren't going to lecture me." She said bitterly,
"That was before you insulted me," Percy said, "Now shut up and listen, you might actually learn something." He took a sip from his coffee, and started his story,
"After my mother was told what my father was, she did what she had to in order to protect me. She marries this deadbeat alcoholic. A real piece of shit. His scent was so foul no monster would find me there. And this mother fucker had quite the rage to him. Liked to take it out on me. Well, when mom found out, she decided that she would take the beatings instead. One night, Gabe gets a little too drunk, and decides that he's going to go off a little more than usual. Beats mom to death right in front of me. It was the first time I'd used my powers. I burned him alive from the inside out, boiled his blood away until there was nothing left. Lupa found me, standing over the body."
"Lupa, She took me away and to camp. If I thought going to camp would have gone well for me, I was in for a rude awakening. See the thing about Romans, is we're a mighty superstitious people. In spite of all our power, we can be easily spooked. Especially around someone who's more powerful than we are. It's why they don't like son's of the sea. They think we're bad luck, hard to blame 'em honestly, we get too scared? Flash flood. Too stressed? Hurricane. Too angry? Earthquake. My brothers and sister? We're walking natural disasters waiting to happen." He chuckled darkly around another sip of coffee,
"So there were those who decided I wasn't fit to live amongst the rest of them. Some of 'em were subtle about it. They placed me in the Fifth Cohort to tell me that nobody wanted me, they gave me shit details or denied requests for leave of absence or gave me obnoxiously difficult punishments for menial mistakes. Others just used training as a means of venting their frustrations." He leaned back and placed a hand behind his head, as he got lost in memory,
"I took it all though, took it all without saying a word. Lupa had stressed to me in the time I was with her, that it was my duty to bear the burden of Rome. That I would be hated and ostracized, but that I would be strong enough to bear it, strong enough because that's what was needed. I was a patriot, as devout to serving my people as any good Roman would be. So I took it. The beatings, the mental and verbal abuse, all of it. And if I had to cry myself to sleep when I was younger once or twice to cope? So be it. I dealt with it. I dealt with it because it was what was expected of me, but more importantly, I dealt with it because I'm a stubborn bastard and I wouldn't give them what they wanted."
"What did they want?" Meg asked, seemingly unable to help herself as she became engrossed in the story.
"An excuse," He said, "They wanted me to snap, to destroy something or hurt someone. To break and cause destruction on an unparalleled scale. Almost happened a couple of times, would have happened if Jason or Reyna hadn't been there for me." His eyes gained a far off look as he became lost in memory.
"Eventually they stopped. I grew too rapidly, became too strong for them to cross outright. The right people became aware of what I was capable of, and at the order of the gods, I was rewarded for my devotion. Rewarded for not being what they all thought I was. At least, that's what I thought it was. Turns out, the gods and the power brokers just realized that I was better off a tool than I was a punching bag. I was useful, good for dispatching against the vast array of enemies against us. So that's what I became. A tool, a weapon of war given human flesh. For years I filled my role dutifully. I fought during the battle of Othrys, I was there when Jason killed Krios. I was there for Gaia's rise, for the attack on New Rome, and during all of that, I did not break. I did not falter. Not until the final battle."
He closed his eyes, and wished that he had brought a bottle of rum to pour into his coffee, these were memories he hadn't had to deal with in years.
"For days we fought. We battled, we bled, and we died. The momentum swung in our favor when Diana arrived with reinforcements from Themyscira, but we were running out of time. The body count was rising and we had received no word on the state of the battle in Greece, and we were running out of time. In the middle of the battle, for the first time in years, I hear my father. He gives me a message, telling me, ordering me, that I needed to let go. It was the only way to save the legion. The only way to buy enough time for Gaia to be defeated. So I did. For the first time in my life. I let go. Because I was a good soldier, because I was a good Roman, because I always did as ordered. I caused a hurricane, I shook the earth, and I summoned a tidal wave. I caused destruction on a scale that still haunts me to this day. When the dust settled, every monster on our side of the field had been laid to waste. All destroyed or washed away. But I wasn't the only one on the field that day. The entire First Cohort had been there with me. Men and woman who had trusted me, put their faith in me to lead and protect them. And when the dust settled, the water washed away, the storm cleared, and the earth stopped shaking, the monsters weren't the only ones who had suffered. The entire cohort. All forty half-bloods dead. Dead at my hands."
Percy leaned his head back and rested it against the window, the cool glass felt good against his head.
"For ten years I didn't lose control. For ten years, I proved that I could be trusted, that I was different, and that I wasn't what they said I was. Then in one cool stroke, I kill forty of our finest. Forty of my friends, and my family. I was overcome with grief, who wouldn't be right? I'd killed forty people in cold blood, because I did as I was told. I couldn't handle it, and worse still, is that I had proved that I was every bit the monster I had always been painted as. The gods covered it up of course, told the legion some bullshit story about how the cohort had been outnumbered and overrun, and only I had managed to stand against the tide. It was un-fucking-believable. So when the gods summoned us to their chambers after the battle to offer us a boon, I saw my way out and I took it. Up until the last few weeks, I've been pretty good about staying away from the life. But I guess the past always catches up with us sooner or later."
Meg was quiet. As she stared at her folded hands in her lap. Percy stayed quiet himself. It had been a long time since he'd talked about what he had. About his life before. He'd always done such a good job of moving forward, of forgetting his past sins, and having them all brought up again like this was leaving him considerably conflicted.
"So…was I supposed to get some kind of a moral out of that story?" She asked, "Because whatever lesson you think I should have learned, I don't think I did."
"There's a lot of things you can learn from that story." Percy shrugged, "The gods suck," There was a crack of thunder and Percy looked up, "Bite me." He looked back at Meg, "Or that people suck, or trust but verify. But really? I just want you to realize that life fucking sucks. It's cruel, and brutal, and unfair, and there isn't shit you can do about it. Some people are just born to suffer and that's it. But just because life sucks, doesn't mean you get to take your shit out on other people, especially when those other people aren't involved."
"So what, I just sit back like you did, and take the abuse?" She demanded, "Wait until I crack and kill a bunch of people?"
"No," Percy said, "I said not to take your personal shit out on other people. These kids are giving you beef? Well fight back. If they kick your ass, suck it up and learn from it. Come back, and kick their asses twice as hard. You fight back against the people pushing you into the ground. You say you're not getting respect? Well I'll tell you one way nobody is going to respect you, and that's by putting innocent lives in danger, innocent lives like your friends that tried not let you kill yourself, and nearly died in the fucking process."
Meg flinched again, "But-but," she stammered,
"But nothing." Percy said hotly, "You think Jason, or me, or Helena got as good as we are because of our Dad's? Get out of here. I can tell you personally that Jason spent at least three hours every day dedicating himself to his own personal training. Same with Helena." "And you?" She asked, and Percy snorted,
"I spent six." He said, "I needed to work twice as hard, because I needed to be twice as good. Jason had to work hard, but I had to work harder. Same with you. You want their respect? Earn it the old-fashioned way. There isn't a short-cut to it. You can't cheat your way to strength, not without consequences, and there are always consequences."
Percy started the engine and put the car back in drive,
"Now come on, I think you got work to do."
BREAK
Percy watched as Chiron escorted Meg back over the boundary line. She looked back at him, just before stepping over, and Percy gave the girl a small nod. She returned the gesture and disappeared behind the magical wall of the boundary.
"Thanks Percy," Jason said at Percy's side, watching the boundary line as well.
"No problem," Percy said, as he leaned back on the hood of his car. Jason matched his posture, "So you living here now or what?"
"Nah," Jason said dismissively, "Your sister just called us out when Chiron called her about it. We're staying in a place in Montauk, but we'll be packing up and heading back to D.C. Soon."
"Right," Percy said with a snort, "Forgot you were mr. big time lawyer man these days," Jason just rolled his eyes and gave Percy a shove, but Percy just chuckled,
"You sure you won't stick around and see your sister?" He asked, and Percy just shook his head.
"Why I came so early." He said, and Jason sighed,
"You gotta talk to her sometime man," He said,
"If I do, then it's because she came to me, not the other way around. I don't owe her anything, and I'm not about to welcome crazy back into my life man." Percy said,
"Easy frater, I get it," Jason said calmly, patting Percy on the arm, "Believe me, I get where you're coming from. The Greeks can be a little…free-spirited,"
Percy snorted, "You would know, you married one,"
"Easy," Jason said warningly, but he was smiling,
"You hear from Reyna at all?" Percy asked,
"Not since she went overseas," Jason said, "But she'll be fine. Got a pretty cushy posting in Qurac last I heard." He let out a small laugh, "She was righteously pissed about it too. All that training and all that time at West Point, and she's thousands of miles away from any of the fighting."
Percy laughed, "Sounds like her brand of luck," Percy said,
They were silent for a few minutes, just enjoying the cool autumn morning. The sun was just beginning to peek over the tops of the trees, and Percy closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the warmth it offered. He could smell the spray of the sea even from here, and his body hummed in happiness at the close proximity.
"Percy," Jason said after a while, "I know we talked about this already, but I need to say it again. Please don't drop off the earth on me like that again," Percy opened his eyes and looked at his friend. Jason's eyes were swimming somewhat, and he had that look on his face he tended to get when he was feeling particularly strongly about something.
"I won't," Percy reassured, "Not like I can really hide anymore if I wanted to. I keep running into you people everywhere I go." He added with a smirk, and Jason just rolled his eyes, but matched his grin.
Percy knew he would need to go soon, he was exhausted, and he was very much looking forward to some uninterrupted sleep. More to the point, he didn't want to still be here when his sister finally woke up, that was a battle Percy didn't need or want right now. But he was also loathe to leave his spot. He had missed his best friend, and it had been too long since Percy had felt at peace, so he just leaned back, and enjoyed watching the sun rise. Beside him, Jason did the same.
It was moments like these that reminded Percy why he fought, and why he would continue to fight. Not for the fate of humanity, not for personal wealth or glory. But for these small and intimate moments. Moments where he could forget all his worries and all of his stress. Moments where he could just sit in the sun with the man he loved as a brother, and be a normal man.
Percy smiled.
BREAK
It was early evening when Percy got back to his apartment. He tossed his Big Belly Burger into the trash as he kicked off his shoes. He was exhausted. Nearly a week straight of minimal sleep had even him running on empty. Hauling himself to his bed, Percy didn't even bother taking his clothes off, before he collapsed into his bed. Within thirty seconds, he was asleep.
It felt as though he'd only been asleep for a few minutes, when he was suddenly torn from sleep. He was jerked awake at the sound of metal crashing into metal just outside of his apartment. Sitting up in his bed, Percy walked over to his window and looked down. On the street below, two cars had barreled into one another. It was just a nasty looking fender-bender, and Percy didn't think that it was anything worth dealing with until something else caught his attention. That hadn't been the only accident. All up and down the street, cars had crashed into something. Buildings, fire hydrants, other cars, and that wasn't all.
As Percy stared down at the street, he could see children running around, most were crying or screaming. Others were helping get kids who were trapped in cars out. But nowhere could Percy see any adults. Percy listened more closely but he couldn't hear any sirens.
"Nearly a month in Gotham and I don't think I've ever not heard a siren before," He muttered to himself. Walking over to the tv, he turned the channel to the local news network, but there was nothing there but a pair of empty seats. Same with the national networks. "What the fuck is this?" He asked, before shaking his head. He had other priorities. Grabbing his coat, he dashed from the apartment, and hopped down into the street. There was a group of kids trying to get to a child who was trapped in a car that had been flipped upside. The door was blocked by the bumper of a taxi, and the kids were trying to push aside the taxi but to no avail. Percy approached the kids,
"Out of the way kids, I'm a police officer," They all looked up at him, and immediately backed away. Grabbing the bumper, Percy grunted in exertion, but managed to push the taxi away from the trapped child. Not bothering with even trying to hide his abilities, Percy gripped the car door, and with one smooth yank, ripped it from its hinges. Grabbing the infant inside, Percy tried to hush it as it bawled in his arms. Percy turned back to the gathered kids, and knelt down, "Can any of you tell me what's going on here?" He asked,
"We don't know," One of them, a pale-skinned girl said,
"Yeah," Said another dark-skinned boy, "One minute, all the adults were there and suddenly, poof, mom and dad were gone!"
"It looks like everyone over eighteen is gone!" Said an older looking asian boy. "My brother is only eighteen and he's gone too!" Percy nodded,
"Send out a message on social media, start directing everyone to the nearest school or shelter you can." He ordered, and the teen nodded, and pulled out his phone,
"Why are you here sir?" Asked the girl, "And how did you do that to the car? Are you a superhero?"
"No," Percy said,
"I'm just a cop."
AN: Well, there we have it. The reason that Percy hates using his powers, the reason Percy removed himself from the divine world. Curious to know how ya'll feel about this, some of you probably saw something like this coming, but it seemed fitting with the way I've wanted Percy's character to go in this story. Next chapter? A lot of fun. A lot. I get to dive into something I've been wanting to do for a while and explore parts of the DC Universe that doesn't get nearly as much love as I think it deserves.Thanks again for all the love and support you all have shown, and I'm glad you're all enjoying the ride as much as I am. As always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I think I've accidentally started a cult, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week!
