As Percy sank into the blue depths his body was completely still. He kept descending and descending, past the point at which light could penetrate, leaving him in complete darkness. It was lucky that Percy was a son of the sea god as the pressure at his depth would kill any other mortal or half-blood. Yet even past this point he sank still. Only settling on the sandy seabed after seemingly an eternity of sinking. The half-blood was a mess, his skin had all but been ripped off his body, his face was not much more than a bare skull with a few scraps of ligament still attached, he was missing whole limbs and he had no more blood left to bleed, if it were possible you see at the depths a red trail following his path of descent would be visible, a stream of his lifeblood. Any reasonable person would mark the hero of Olympus as dead, already on his way to a recording studio somewhere in Hollywood, yet this was not the case, as while his body was ruined and lifeless, Percy's mind remained active.
X-=+=-X
Percy found himself, like most of the times he lost consciousness, in a dream. Except this one was significantly more pleasant than his previous experiences. He didn't see Gaia this time, he didn't see Kronos, he didn't see monsters and best of all, he didn't see the pit, which had been living rent free in his mind ever since he took his reluctant journey down there just weeks prior. This time Percy found himself in a large hall, not unlike the one that was at the top of the Empire State Building. However, this was different, rather than being lined with shiny white marble, golden braziers, and large statues and of heroes and their feats, this hall was a dark granite. The lighting was provided by large windows with an endless void of white behind them, almost as bright as the sun.
The main similarity to Olympus other than the size of the room was the thrones. They encircled a hearth at the centre burning a blue flame that flickers with images of seemingly mundane things, but with a few recognisable moments. Percy saw the battlefield and all the Gods standing around along with the remains of the seven. He also saw Camp Half-Blood and the Athena Parthenos standing proudly atop half blood hill. The campers and romans stood around a destroyed field where a battle had obviously recently taken place. He saw Reyna and Nico, breathing a sigh of relief, glad that they were alive.
Percy turned his eyes from the flames and surveyed the room once again, there was no exit, which Percy presumed was the reason that the thrones were in a circle. Examining said thrones the son of Poseidon looked at each in more detail. The one that stood out the most was the largest one, it was glossy black, encrusted with stars and galaxies, the detail was incredible! Moving around the circle to the right he saw one that looked to be a cross section of the earth, with a fiery core at the bottom, leading to a layer of magma topped by bedrock and then dirt. Next was a throne made of seemingly solid air, it was almost completely transparent and had clouds moving about within it. Then was a Throne in the shape of a mountain, with a snowy peak atop it. The next throne caught Percy off guard a little, it was a camping chair, made of rigging and foldable steel, much like the ones he had caught his dad fishing in previously, shaking off his confusion he moved around the circle once again, he wasn't even half way through yet. Next was a throne made of red marble, with fire and purple gemstones adorning it, then there was a throne made of seemingly pure shadow. It seemed to be crumbling at the top though. Then was a throne similar to the previous one except this seemed whole it, was made of rock, the darkest Percy had ever seen. It seemed to be constructed of pure shadow. To contrast this however, the next throne was positively luminous, it was as white and bright as the void outside the windows. The one next to it followed the new trend and was also bright but had a hint of blue in it, leading it to have a warmer colour.
The throne after that once again took Percy by surprise, it was light pink, with hearts everywhere and was inscribed with pictures of lovers, it held nothing back and would definitely be considered explicit, it was safe to say, Sally wouldn't approve. The last two thrones finished the circle, one was purple and made of solid mist that seemed to pulse and move, the arm rests of this one however were woven with wool. The final throne was golden, and the arm rests were supported by hour glasses, with sand shifting in multiple directions within it. That brought him back to the large throne directly in front of him.
Percy was confused, usually something would have happened by now if this dream intended to continue the trend set by his previous ones. Some nefarious force would come out and scare the living daylights out of him before promising him a painful death or something similar. Percy waited a few more seconds before exhaling and looking back into the hearth at the centre of the room. After a minute Percy was starting to get agitated and fidgety, ADHD tended to do that. Percy looked up to the domed roof of the room, inspecting the carvings on the roof, they seemed to depict a story of creation he was unfamiliar with. It was something he always wondered about his world, most pantheons had a widely known creation story, Percy could not recall ever being told about the Greek one. Annabeth would know. That thought made him remember the events of the last battle he was in, and his current state. He had lost her, he had not been there, when the spike came through the ground and pierced her, he had failed her. He was brought some consolidation by the fact that he was most likely on his way to meet her again, hopefully this was a brief pit stop for his soul on the way to the underworld.
"Ehem…" A gruff voice said and then coughed. This shocked Percy and made him jump with fright, he immediately looked behind him where he heard the voice from. His eyes settled on the throne to the left of the main one, the golden with hourglass handles.
"Finally, we meet, it has been a while, well a relatively long time." The figure on throne said as Percy looked toward him. He was an old man, and looked to be about seventy-ish, but Percy knew that looking old or young in his world didn't mean shit. Chances were, everybody was wayyyy older than they looked. He wore a tacky golden suit which Percy thought made him look a bit like a pimpy Santa or a really old Apollo. Flecks of gold could be seen in his long white hair and beard. The most striking though was that similar to the figure Percy saw on the battlefield, the man had golden eyes, no pupil, and no white of his eyes. He wondered if this was the same man who had saved his life.
"Who are you, what do you want?" Percy replied in a hostile manner, he knew from experience that if someone was appearing in his dreams that chances were, they were not just stopping by for a friendly chat.
"Someone with an interest in you and your future… and well your past. You don't need to know anything specific at the moment, this is more of a preliminary assessment, a meet and greet if you will." The old man replied, "You are going to be very important in the future, or the past I guess." Percy was confused.
"Are you the guy who stopped Porphyrion's sword?" Percy inquired; the man looked confused for a second before chuckling as if to remember something.
"Oh him, no, I'm not, you'll meet him eventually. Forgive my confusion son, we haven't had this conversation in a while." The man's response only served to confuse Percy even more.
"What do you mean, we haven't had this conversation in a while? I haven't ever met you before." Unless he had and had forgot, he was like that sometimes, Annabeth would remember. The man sighed and closed his eyes for a second.
"I think it's best if we cut this off here, don't want to confuse you too much, you will understand everything in time." The man cracked a small grin at the last word, as if he had just told a joke. Percy gritted his teeth and prepared to give a response.
The man held up a hand to silence him, which Percy begrudgingly accepted. He still had more questions, namely who was he? But ultimately was convinced that these would not be answered, at least not yet. The man stood from his throne and walked over to Percy, putting a hand on the young half-blood's shoulder.
"Oh, by the way before I forget, don't attack Gaia when you wake up, you broke the curse, she poses no threat." Now this really confused Percy. Curse? What curse? Wasn't Gaia dead anyway, he specifically remembered her disintegrating. Percy could not help but ask.
"Wait, what? Gaia is dead, and what curse?" The demigod inquired to the man, who by now he trusted not to try and kill him. The man once again looked contemplative, a trend for the conversation so for.
"Is it alright if I go over it briefly? my wife is expecting me back and even me being here is breaking her ever so precious rules." Percy begrudgingly nodded. "Okay, a few million years ago, Tartarus put a curse on Gaia and made her pop out some babies for him in order to destroy the gods that were yet to born yet, this made her kind of cranky and he influenced her to help Kronos 'kill' Uranus" the man made air quotes on the world kill. "Are you following?" Percy nodded and motioned for him to continue, even though he did not believe him. "Anyway, after the gods chopped up Kronos, the anger kind of transferred to them and she wanted the gigantes to destroy them." The man took a long breath. "Anyway, last time, when the gods won, Gaia was merely put to sleep and the curse remained. She held the grudge all the way up until now when you kind of 'rebooted' her." The man continued using air quotes once again.
"Wait so she isn't evil anymore." Percy asked and the man nodded. Clearly, he was insane, he had watched Gaia slay hundreds, kill his friends, and ruin his life. Percy scowled that the man would even come up with something so absurd. "When you said I should not attack her when I wake up, you mean to say she isn't dead? And that I'm not dead?" The man nodded once again.
"Yeah, that's why I said rebooted. The loss of power and energy has reverted her back to her previous self. She is like she was when she was created. Also, you aren't dead!" The man said, as if were amazing news. Once again Percy found this preposterous.
"Lets say for a second that I believe you…" Percy started. This irked the man.
"Why wouldn't you, have I done anything to prove I am untrustworthy so far?" He questioned Percy.
"No, but you haven't done anything to prove you are trustworthy either." Percy responded.
"No need to be so cynical son of Poseidon." Percy scowled.
"Okay, as I way saying, if I believe you then you are implying that Tartarus was behind all of this. A mastermind and Gaia was just his puppet." The man nodded. "Does that mean he's gonna shoot his shot next, that we have to prepare for war again?" Percy asked, exasperated.
The man let out a hearty laugh. "Oh, gods no, Tartarus is foul, but he isn't that powerful or stupid. He would never try by himself. Think about it, why would he use Gaia as a puppet if he could just do it himself." While Percy wanted to object, it sort of made sense. "Primordial deities get their power from the prevalence and necessity of their domain. Take for example Gaia, the world, humanity and the gods need the earth and nature in order to survive or even exist, ergo she is powerful and strong, the only people who need Tartarus are the gods, who need somewhere to store their monsters and their parents, therefore he doesn't foster much respect, that's why he barely leaves that dingy hellhole he calls home." Percy nodded along, following the logic before an objection came to him.
"Wait… but if he is so powerless then how did he manage to control Gaia?" The old man looked confused and frustrated.
"I never said he was powerless, just less powerful, he can still do a significant amount of damage, enough to get his hooks into Gaia's mind. Don't worry too much about him, he'll likely stay festering down there for a few millennia concocting a new scheme." The old man explained. Percy decided to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the explanation.
"Go on…" Percy prompted.
"Oh… I'm done, actually wait I feel like I'm forgetting something!" the man exclaimed. He put his palm to his forehead. "Ah… it'll come back to me; I'll tell you when we meet next." Percy rolled his eyes at the man's forgetfulness.
"Now, you should wake up soon, remember what I said, don't attack Gaia, she won't cause any more problems!" Now my friend over here will return you to the shore. Percy was confused.
"Wait, what friend?" The man looked confused and pointed over Percy's shoulder at the throne that was essentially an oversized fishing chair where a black-haired man that looked a lot like his dad was busy tucking into a tin of sardines. 'Has he been there the whole time?' Percy questioned himself. The man nodded at Percy as if reading his mind.
"Okay… wait, what do you mean return me to shore?" Now it was the old man's turn to roll his eyes.
"Well you sank to the bottom of the ocean, and last time I checked, people floated. My friend over here was keeping you down there and keeping your father from finding your presence, gave me a window of opportunity to have this discussion." Percy was getting even more confused but before he could open his mouth to protest, the old man's wrinkly finger covered his lips.
"Save your questions for the next time we meet! Bye!" The man exclaimed before fading into a golden glow and disappearing. Percy turned to the man who was sitting across from him and tried to speak to him. But before he could get any words in the man gave a gruff nod and snapped his fingers.
X-=+=-X
Percy awoke with a start, his eyes flickered open and he breathed in a large gulp of sea air, he concentrated on focusing his eyes and he saw sky above him. He lifted one hand in front of his eyes and inspected his fingers, the last time he saw them, the flesh was peeling from them and he was seemingly being torn apart at an atomic level. Except now they were brand new, free of even the scars, burns and blemishes he had acquired over the years of fighting. His skin felt as smooth as a new-born. He slowly put both his hands to his side to find the texture of sand, he dug his hands in and used them as supports to sit up, expecting aches and pains that never came. He first looked down at himself, much to his shock he was completely naked, and he immediately made moves to cover himself. He looked for his clothes on the ground around him but found nothing. He raised his head up to look around him even more, taking a few seconds to allow his eyes to adjust to the brightness he turned his head to the left.
There he saw a lady sitting a few feet away inspecting him closely, a concerned look on her face. Percy looked at her face with interest, she had auburn hair, pale skin and a dress made of all kinds of flora and plant life. She looked confused and somewhat out of it. In spite of this there was no mistaking, this was Gaia.
"Percy Jackson?" she questioned. Percy reluctantly nodded, fighting his urge to get up and enact his revenge on her, he already felt anger bubbling below the surface. He remembered his dream and the old man, and most importantly what he had told her. Now was the time to find out if he had been lying.
"Wow… you should be dead. That energy burst was quite something." She said in a soft voice.
"So, should you." Percy replied shortly. She let out a small laugh, it was very beautiful.
"I think you'll find it isn't that simple to destroy a primordial." Her voice was almost intoxicating. This definitely wasn't the spiteful angry woman he had fought just hours ago. She left her seated position and crawled to his side. "Thank you, Perseus, for freeing me. I am very sorry about your friends… that wasn't me." Percy felt his anger coming back, she wasn't going to be forgiven that early.
Seeing the scowl appear on his face she put her hand on his bare shoulder and it glowed a pale green. "Shhhh... do not fret demigod, you can air your grievances another time, but now you must rest." Percy felt himself getting woozy, all the hurt fading from his face. "Till we meet again."
"Thank you, once again, Percy." She planted a kiss on his forehead as he drifted off. Before he lost consciousness again, he saw her slowly sink into the white sand beneath them, before being entirely swallowed up by it. His vision faded to black once again, like it had so many times already that day.
Thanks for reading and reviewing guys! Once again leave any suggestions or pairing ideas in the reviews, also any questions!
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