PERCY
Oh gods. I've finally found a loophole. If I die on someone else's blade during battle, it counts as dying in a battle. I can die. I can see my friends and my mom again.
Yes, it was painful when the flesh of my stomach was pierced by the blade. But the pain was overwhelmed by the enormous relief I felt at seeing my family.
I open my eyes. It's too bright, but I can see Jason. And Piper. And Leo. And Frank. And Hazel. And… and Annabeth. I can feel my eyes tearing up. I run towards them. They run towards me. We meet in the middle, and I'm enveloped in a hug with the entire Seven. I'm sobbing and there all comforting me and hugging me and, "Shh, shh, it's all right Percy, you can cry."
"Oh gods. Guys, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I'm no hero."
Hazel punches my arm. "Percy Jackson. You are not allowed to say are the strongest, most powerful demigod in centuries. You have stopped the world from ending twice. You are, without a doubt, a hero.
Frank smirks. "Clarisse is waiting for you in Elysium. She says she wants to pummel you. But first, Annabeth is going to kill you."
They step aside, letting a fuming Annabeth come up to me. "SEAWEED BRAIN! How dare you commit suicide to be with us! When you actually die, I'm going to hunt you down and kill you!"
I shake my head. "What do you mean? I'm dead."
Annabeth rolls her eyes, and I smile at the familiar exchange. "Seaweed Brain, you aren't dead. Hades won't let you die. He's just letting us visit you for a little while."
I want to scream. Why, WHY won't the gods just leave me alone?
Annabeth sees and smiles at me. "Percy, it's not your time yet. You need to help the elves. They are in a… a war of sorts with a group of rebels. I don't exactly get it, but you should help them. But Percy, promise me. Promise you won't control what isn't meant to be controlled."
I wince. "Annabeth… I-I can't really control it. Sometimes it just happens, and people stop like they've run into a brick wall, and it's awful and I can't stop controlling them, and then I feel like a monster, but I can't cry, I can't be weak, I can't let my emotions control me."
"Okay, then. Percy, promise me you won't control things on purpose."
I nod, tears streaking down my face. I can do that. "But Wise Girl. What if I can save someone's life with it? Like, if someone is about to stab them, can I freeze them?"
I smile as Annabeth's grey eyes become stormy with the moral dilemma. "Yes. If it's to save a life, go ahead."
Leo and Jason come up to me. "Hey, bros! How's Elysium?"
Leo grins maniacally. "I have come up with so many pranks. The Stoll brothers are helping me out. And there's this pair of twins with red hair who are amazing at tricking people."
Jason rolls his eyes. "They're all driving everyone mad. Every morning we wake up with shaving cream in our toothpaste, or whoopie cushions on the chairs."
I smirk. Elysium sounds like paradise. Wait. Elysium is paradise. Hmmmm.
Piper's suddenly in front of me. "Heard my mom gave you charmspeak."
I nod. "Haven't really been using it. Don't know how."
Piper eyes me. "I can teach you."
And that's how I ended up making Leo act like a duck. Piper is a good teacher.
Suddenly, the Seven all cock their heads. "Hades is calling us back, Seaweed Brain. We have to go."
I panic. "No! Don't leave me! Please, don't go!"
They all smile sadly at me, shimmer, and disappear. I scream and fall to my knees, pounding at the ground. I feel arms envelope me in a hug. "It's okay, Percy. It'll be okay."
I look up to see my mother. Her brown hair is in a braid, and her blue eyes sparkle. I practically throw myself into her arms, sobbing. "Mom… Mom. You're here."
She smiles at me. "Of course I'm here, Percy. And I'm telling you to help the elves. They need you. They don't know battle, and their version of a war is a series of small skirmishes."
I scoff. Small skirmishes? That's my everyday life. "Hey, Mom? I could use some of your blue cookies," I say quietly.
She laughs. "I knew you would say that. I brought some." She holds out a bag of blue chocolate chip cookies. I gasp in delight and start eating.
"Soon, I'll have to leave, Percy. Know that I will always love you, son. And you'll be hearing about me sooner than you think." She winks. "Do you still have the marble I gave you?"
I take the gem-inlaid marble out of my pocket. "Still got it, Mom."
She sighs. "Good." And then she shimmers out of sight. I sob.
SOPHIE
I scream. Everyone is screaming. There is so much blood. Sandor looks horrified. He picks up Percy and runs with him into Havenfield. We all run after him.
Grady and Edaline burst into the room. "What happened!" I just point at Percy.
When they finally see him, Grady goes pale, and Edaline stumbles back. "Who is he?" "What happened?"
I quickly explain what happened, and everything that I know about Percy. "Okay," Grady breathes, "okay, so we have to get him to Elwin. Take the leaping crystal and leap to Foxfire." I nod, then light leap with Percy, Sandor, my parents, and my friends(minus Keefe) to Foxfire.
"ELWIN! WE NEED YOU!"
In a flash, Elwin is there, taking in the injury with wide eyes. "I think this boy may be dying. We need to get him to the infirmary right away."
Sandor carries Percy into the infirmary, where Elwin starts to grab some bandages to patch up Percy's stomach wound. He begins to wash the wound with water. "Whoa," he whispers.
We all rush over to see the skin touching the water beginning to heal and knit back together. In no time at all, the wound is completely healed. Elwin is really confused. "What? How? The water-the wound-WHAT?"
Suddenly, Percy begins to scream, not in pain, but in distress. You can hear that he is devastated. The room begins to shake, as if Percy's grief could cause an earthquake. Then, he relaxes, and the earthquake stops. The only way we knew something happened were the shattered vials all over the floor.
We all look around, wide eyed. Dex says, "Yeah, that's definitely something we're going to be asking Percy about when he wakes up."
Tam snorts. "Okay, sure. 'Hey, Percy. How does water heal you and how do you make earthquakes in your sleep?' That totally sounds like a reasonable thing to ask." Tam has been in a good mood since he's returned from the Neverseen.
We all turn back to Percy, watching as tears begin to spill from his eyes. "Mom…" he whispers.
I feel awful. How can this boy be so sad all the time? I walk up to him, then change my mind, remembering that the last time I tried to wake him up, I ended up on the floor with a sword at my neck. So I stay back.
Elwin looks at me, then goes to get a bottle of Youth from one of the cabinets. He goes up to Percy, and starts to shake him awake. He touches the small of Percy's back to lift him up in the bed.
Percy's eyes flash open, and then they start to glow. His mouth is stretched in a sadistic smile. Elwin stops moving. He looks panicked as he walks away from the bed Percy is lying on. Percy gasps, and his eyes go back to normal. He stretches a hand towards Elwin, then yanks towards himself. Elwin stumbles backwards, looking scared.
Percy looks terrified,too. Not of anything else, but of himself. He curls in on himself, whispering, "Monster, I'm a monster, monster, monster."
We all stare at him in shock. What was that? "Um… Elwin? What just happened?" Fitz asks. Elwin is really pale. He looks like a ghost. "Come with me."
He leads us outside. "I-I haven't ever felt anything like it. Suddenly, I couldn't move. I wasn't in control of my body anymore. When he looked at me my legs started moving away from the bed. Without me doing anything. They just moved and I couldn't stop them. Then, when his eyes stopped glowing, it was all normal again."
"Do you think it was Percy? Do you think he was controlling you?" I whisper.
"Considering that his eyes were glowing and the reaction he had to the… the incident, I would say it is very likely that it was Percy."
We all look nervously at each other. Finally Stina says, "I'm going to ask him about it. All of it. Just going to ask him. Not going to stop until he answers." I nod. Not a bad plan. Many things have been divulged because Stina was being annoying.
We all walk inside the room. Elwin stays outside. Percy is still rocking back and forth muttering, "Monster, monster," under his breath. I sit down next to him. His eyes start to glow again, so I'm about to scramble back, when he growls at himself. "No. Stop. You promised her. No more."
"Hey, Percy?" Stina asks, "What was all of that? The water that healed you, and the earthquake, and the thing with Elwin?"
Percy looks up, his face streaked with tear marks. "Elwin? Is that the guy I… you know?"
I nod. He looks away. "Tell him that I'm sorry and I didn't mean to, and that no one should ever touch the small of my back. Ever."
I look at him. "What? Why."
He exhales. "That is a very long story that I don't want to tell right now. Or maybe ever."
Stina looks annoyed. "Um… Percy? The magical stuff that really reminded me of elvish abilities?"
Percy closes his eyes. "I-I really can't tell you that. I physically can't."
I narrow my eyes. "I can drag it out of your head."
Percy glares at me. His eyes are full of rage, and I unconsciously scoot back. "You can't. I won the bet. I won the spar. You do not read my mind. Ever. Unless you want me to kill you."
I realize that I haven't breathed in the past thirty seconds and take a breath. "Okay. So you can't tell us about that. Can you tell us anything?"
Percy thinks for a moment. "I can tell you what powers I have, but not why I have them."
I nod. That will be good enough for now. "Okay. Go ahead."
Percy shakes his head. "I want to go out of here. Somewhere else."
I shrug. Fair deal. "We'll light leap to my house."
Percy narrows his eyes. "Is that how I got here?"
"Yep."
He shudders. "So, no. I hated that. Do you have a picture of your house? I can just teleport there."
He can teleport? Is he like me? "Teleport? You're going to explain that later." He rolls his eyes and nods. "Okay. I can transmit you a picture. It doesn't require me going into your head, just sending a message."
He looks suspicious, but nods. I transmit him a picture of Havenfield. He thanks me and closes his eyes. I raise my crystal and light leap, and my friends do the same.
When we get there, Percy isn't there. Suddenly, the air gets a little misty, and he just appears in front of us. "Hi."
How did he do that? I lead us inside the house, sit us down on the couches, and gesture to Percy to begin.
Percy blows air through his lips. "Alright. Let's see. Well, I'm good at fighting, but that's not really a power. Um… I can control water," here Linh lets out a gasp, "and pretty much anything that has water in it: a lake, a Coke, a human body." He looks at all of us meaningfully, then continues. "Hmm. Ice, vapor, I can do this thing called vapor travel where I turn myself into vapor and then basically teleport. I can… heal wounds, make storms, earthquakes. Talk to horses and sea creatures. I can lie to anyone, tell when people are lying, and steal anything. I can convince someone to do pretty much anything. I can create water, but I prefer not to do that. And… I'm sure I'm missing a few, but you get the general gist of it."
We all openly gape at him. He winces and turns away, muttering in Greek and Latin, "hate the Fates," and "stupid frickin' powerful father, and very quietly, "they know you're a monster now."
I run through his abnormally long list of powers in my head. Definitely a Hydrokinetic, a Froster, a Guster, a Beguiler, a Mesmer, a Teleporter. And then there are the other ones that don't fit in a category. Earthquakes? Vapor? Healing wounds? What the heck is going on?
I can tell my friends are just as confused as I am. Dex is thinking through it logically, asking a million questions to Percy, who doesn't answer. All there is is that flash of pain in his eyes with every question.
Linh is looking at Percy, and I can tell that she's thinking about the water. Everyone else is just sitting there in shock. Then they all start yelling.
