A Demigod out of time
The Lightning Thief VI
He was in the Underworld, running away from the Pit. He had no idea how he landed in this situation, all he could remember was running and running some more running.
But it was a futile venture. No matter how much he ran, he couldn't escape the Pit's gravity.
He tried as hard as he could to pace forwards, and later, when he noticed that it was useless and he was pulled closer and closer to the Pit anyway, he tried to hold on whatever he could find to keep himself in place. Still, the pull got only stronger and at some point, after what felt like an eternity, he fell into the darkness.
"You are too exhausted to continue fighting..."
"You were outmatched from the start, but now?"
"Give up now, and I will grant you a quick and painless death."
The only thing that filled the endless darkness was Kronos voice, repeating the things the Titan Lord had told him once before in the throne room of the gods, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make a sound of his own to drown out the titan's voice. It was as if someone had used a remote control to mute him like a noisy TV.
"At least you can die with the knowledge that it was the new ruler of the world who killed you..."
Suddenly there was a blinding light and the next thing he knew was that he stood in front of Thalia's Pine Tree.
His eyes widened. The tree wasn't like he remembered it from before he took off with Annabeth and Beckendorf, but like the time Luke had poisoned it. In fact, the tree looked even worse than it had back then. If he were forced to guess, he would say that the tree would be dead before the end of the day.
"You failed me!"
He jumped around while his hands reached with one hand for his weapon, only to find Riptide missing. The moment he saw who had spoken though and took a shocked step back.
There was Thalia, looking not much better than the tree behind his back; her skin was yellow, there were dark bags under her eyes, and her head missed bushels of hair in some places as if it had been ripped out.
He opened his mouth without knowing what would come out of it, only knowing that he needed to say something, but someone beat him to it.
"You couldn't safe me!"
Like out of thin air another person appeared at Thalia's side, a young girl his age with silky dark hair and black eyes that gleamed with as much hate as he could see in Thalia's gaze. He would recognize her anywhere, remembering how he was responsible for her death; Bianca di Angelo.
He looked at the girl open-mouthed, letting his eyes tailing down on her shredded and blood-soaked clothes and her broken limbs. "No," he croaked, "I didn't-"
"You promised me!"
There, at Bianca's side, appeared a little boy who could not be older than ten; Nico.
"You promised me you would keep her safe, that you would bring her back! You promised!" the boy said accusingly, and Percy couldn't help but think that it was wrong that the younger boy wasn't screaming but talking with a normal volume.
There was a 'thud' and a sudden pain in his chest, and when he looked down he saw Riptide stick out of his body.
"W-What the-" he gasped as blood filled his lungs and mouth, and slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder to see a copper-skinned girl with long, dark hair glaring at him with dark brown eyes.
"Z-Zoe, why-" he began, only to be interrupted.
"You're not worthy of my sword anymore. Not after breaking it, not after all your failures."
The last thing he could see before the world went black once again were the stares the four people were sending him, disappointment and anger gleaming in their eyes, and when his vision went blank he would swear he could hear laughter in the distance.
Percy woke up with a gasp, throwing his head hectically from one side to the other and only calmed down when he couldn't see any person from his dream standing close by.
He sighed and tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of sweat running down his back. He had had the occasional nightmare since he arrived in the past, but none of them had been as bad as this one.
Maybe it's because I'm on a quest again?
Another short glance over his shoulder showed him Beckendorf sitting at a small fire a few meters away, and Annabeth laying sleeping not too far away from him. He was relieved that neither of them noticed him waking up, the notion of them trying to talk with him about his dream making him uncomfortable. He stayed at his place for another few minutes to calm hie heartbeat, indecisive what to do, before deciding that he would probably not find any more sleep this night and that he could just as well keep watch and let Beckendorf rest a few hours before the went on their way.
Beckendorf had 'convinced' Annabeth and him that he would keep watch all night, arguing that the both of them needed the break more than him and that he was used to staying awake all night from the times he worked on some project in the forge anyway, but Percy thought it wouldn't be too hard making the other boy go to sleep. Used to it or not, it wasn't easy staying awake all night if you hadn't had anything to do.
He kicked some random stone lying around.
They have been on the road for about two hours now, and he started to get bored. Logically he knew that this was stupid, that he should enjoy every moment of peace he could get and that they would probably be attacked by some monster soon enough, but he couldn't help himself. Walking around and not doing anything was just boring, and it gave him even more time to think about stuff he didn't want to think about at all.
"Didn't you sleep well? You still look dead on your feet." Annabeth broke the silence first, looking at him expectantly and waiting for his answer.
He suppressed a grimace. He didn't want to say the truth, but lying to Annabeth was easier said than done. His only advantage was that she didn't know him too well yet, making it a bit harder for her to look through him. "Nah," he said without looking at her, "it's alright. I'm just no used to sleep with only a sleeping bag between me and the hard ground. Not really comfy, you know?"
She nodded but didn't look like she was truly listening to him, and Percy got the feeling that she did want to ask him something else and only used this as a transition to get to the real topic.
"You know," Beckendorf spoke up, "you could have slept some more. Comfortable or not, more sleep would have done you well. Annabeth is right, you don't look fit."
Yeah, he doubted more sleep would have helped, thank you very much.
"I'm alright," he said dismissively while rolling his eyes. "I couldn't have slept any more even if I tried anyway."
"By the way, you really did well yesterday. It's actually hard to believe you only found out about the Greek World less than a week ago, you know? The way you fought the monster yesterday without freezing at its sight was really impressive," Annabeth changed the topic.
"Thank you, I guess," he said, trying to sound casual and maybe a bit embarrassed while his thoughts were running wild to find some excuse for his behaviour during the fight. He should have known that Annabeth would notice it that he acted more like a veteran than a newbie, damn it!
"Have you fought other monster before, Percy?" Beckendorf asked, and the moment he saw the other boy's gleaming eyes he was sure that he wondered the same thing as Annabeth. Luckily this question gave him exactly the excuse he needed.
"Well, there was my pre-algebra teacher, Mrs Dodds. She tried to kill me at a school trip, but later Grover and Chiron, who was my Latin teacher, by the way, used the mist to make everyone forget about her. Made me think I went mad or something. Chiron kinda appeared at the last possible moment and threw me a sword, and then I somehow managed to kill her. Now that I think about it, it was just like yesterday; I just knew what I needed to do, how to swing the sword, and how to move to not to die." He gave them a small smile. "Honestly, it's still kinda hard to believe that one of the Furi-"
"Don't say its name!" Annabeth and Beckendorf exclaimed at the same time.
"Honestly Percy," Annabeth continued, "you should know that saying a monster's name is dangerous. I told you myself just yesterday!"
He blinked, slightly surprised at their strong reaction. "Well, yes, Chiron and my mom said the same thing, but nobody actually explained why it's so dangerous."
Annabeth crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Names have power, Percy. Speaking them out loud might can dire consequences."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, wow, that explains it of course!" he said sarcastically. "Thank you, Wise Girl, for this detailed and instructive explanation!"
She seemed confused for a moment, making him realize that he had called her by his nickname for her for the first time, but then she opened her mouth to answer only to be beaten to it by Beckendorf:
"It's so dangerous because they can feel it if you say their name. It doesn't matter so much at Camp Half-Blood because its barriers stop monsters -but not gods- from noticing us, but we still try not to use their names even there to not get used to doing so."
He blinked. Honestly, he was part of the Greek World for years now but no one had ever thought to explain this to him? "So I only need to say their name and they will come flocking to me?"
"Well, not exactly." Beckendorf shrugged. "If they are too far away they wouldn't notice. But considering that we have no idea which distance counts as 'close enough' it's not worth gambling our lives on it, is it?"
"Probably not, no."
He just wanted to continue the conversation -hey, no better time for some team bonding than during a walk in the woods- when he saw something between the trees ahead of them. He frowned, somehow recognizing the building but not rememb-
No way, he thought disbelieving.
There in front of them was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary, and with a neon sign reading "AUNTY EM'S GARDEN GNOME EMPORIUM".
He had no idea how this was possible. He remembered quite vividly that Medusa's lair had been located at a two-lane street with a closed-down gas station on the other side, and not too far away from the main street. This was certainly not the case right now; not only was there no sign of a gas station, but the lair was had seemingly somehow appeared in the midst of the woods with only a one-lane street that could only hardly called a such leading away from it.
He was suddenly remembered of the Monster Donut shop he and Annabeth had encountered some years ago, and what she had told him about them. What if Medusa's lair had some similar magic that allowed it to appear close to whatever demigod was in the area, similar to the way Monster Donut shops appeared out of thin air because of the was they are connected to a monster's life force?
And now that he was already thinking about magic, hadn't there been some sort of enchantment that confused the mind?
"Okay, am I the only one who thinks it's highly suspicious that a gnome emporium is located here of all places?" Beckendorf asked.
Annabeth slowly nodded. "It doesn't seem natural, no."
"So it's probably a trap," Beckendorf grimly concluded before suddenly starting to grin slightly. "Shall we trigger it?"
He could feel his lips twitching upwards as well. Why not kill Medusa again? They had managed it before, and if the incident with the Minotaur proved one thing, then that it was possible to repeat his actions from the other timeline in this world. There was nothing the three of them couldn't achieve!
Besides, he needed her head anyway. After all, how else could his mother possible petrify Gabe? She needed the money from selling his 'statue' to go back to school, after all. He needed to kill Medusa.
He was just making the first step in direction of the warehouse, his hand already grabbing for Riptide, when Annabeth finally spoke up to answer Beckendorf.
Annabeth answered his grin with one of her own. "Well, why not? What are the odds that it's something more dangerous than the Minotaur?"
He stopped in his tracks. Had Annabeth just said a monster's name out loud? Literally less than a minute after they spoke about the dangers of doing so? There was no way she would do something like this, unless...
Unless something was wrong with her mind!
Damn it! he thought. He had just thought about how something had affected his and Annabeth's mind the last time they had been here. He knew that this was the case and still had nearly fallen for it. Nah, scratch that, he had fallen for it! Only because the effect was slightly different from before, manipulating their pride instead of their hunger and exhaustion, he had nearly overlooked the obvious. He needed to be better than this!
But this revelation doesn't change the fact that your mother needs Medusa's head, a dark voice whispered in his head. Would it be right to take this away from her? Wouldn't that mean that she needs to stay with "Smelly Gabe"?
He hesitated just for one moment, unsure what to do before he shook his head to banish these thoughts. There were other ways to get rid of Gabe, he would do it himself if absolutely necessary. Or maybe just inform the Hunt, he doubted they wouldn't take care of him if he told them some of the things he knew about the man.
Decision made he turned to his companions.
"No!" he said forcefully. "Why should we risk our lives in an obvious trap if we can just walk around it?"
Both looked at him as if he was the crazy one, and it was Annabeth who spoke up first with this irritating 'I-know-better-than-you-so-shut-up' look on her face that she got sometimes. "Percy, why should-"
"Spiders," he interrupted her dryly, using the same strategy he had once used to break her out of the magic of the Lotus Hotel. "Big, hairy spider."
She blinked in surprise, and he felt relieved when he saw her eyes regaining the focus they had lost under the effect of Medusa's magic. "What?"
"Come on, Percy," Beckendorf chimed in. "This is a chance to prove ourselves! Don't tell me you don't want to show off to your father, make him proud?"
Freeing Beckendorf from the magic's effect was a bit harder, and he would need to gamble, but he was reasonably sure he knew what he would need to say. "Do you think Silena would like you to throw your life away in a quest for fame? Because I doubt it."
The moment his eyes lost its glassy look he know he had won.
"What the-"
"We have no time for that!" he interrupted Beckendorf before he could finish his sentence and gabbed both him and Annabeth at one arm. "Come on, let's get away from here before the monster decides to come looking for us instead of waiting in its lair."
And with that, he started to pull the two with him as fast as they would let him, ignoring all their questions for now.
All he had wished for was a restful night of dreamless sleep, but he should have known better by now; that wasn't about to happen anytime soon.
He was standing in some dark cavern with spirits of the dead drifting around him, and he needed approximately three seconds to recognize this place as the Underworld. And of course, he wasn't just anywhere in the Underworld but close to the Pit, and the moment the voice started to speak to another unseen person he remembered the last time he had listened in to such a conversation.
"The son of Poseidon is different from what I expected," Kronos drawled, his numbing powerful voice addressing his subordinate. "We might need to change our plans."
"I don't understand," the other person, which Percy now knew was Luke, said. "You said manipulating Ares into giving them the bolt would be an excellent idea, why change this plan now? And wouldn't it have been much easier if I had brought it directly to-"
"You failed in that task, little servant," Kronos' amused voice cut him short. "This plot with Ares was just a little idea I came up with when I needed to save you after the fool of a war god caught you, even if it was a very successful one."
"But then, why change it now? What's so special about the boy?" Luke asked tensely.
Kronos scoffed. "I'm not surprised you didn't notice. The boy is too aware, too confident. The way he freed himself and his companions from the magic surrounding Medusa's lair is just another proof for that."
"Medusa's lair...?" Luke murmured comment was ignored by Kronos.
"The danger of the boy noticing the weapon is too great. No, we will play it safe and wait a while longer. Let Ares think that he is in control, let him use the weapons as he sees fit to start a war between my sons. Once this war started it will be easy enough to get the weapons to me, especially with everyone's attention being elsewhere."
"When you say Percy is 'too aware' you're not only talking about his ability to sense magic, do you?" Luke asked, making Kronos laugh.
"Good, good. That's why I chose you, because you're clever." His voice got serious again. "You already know that a demigod's aura gets stronger once they know what they are. What you don't know is that this isn't a sudden process; while it's true that a demigod's aura gets exceptionally stronger the moment they are told the truth, it continues to grow for several weeks. This boy's aura is different though, it didn't grow any stronger since the moment he arrived at your little camp. His aura is also stronger than I would have expected such a child young to posses, even if he's one of my son's children."
"Does that mean he was told the truth earlier? That he lied to everyone?" Luke exclaimed, and Percy could hear real surprise in his voice. There was a moment of silence -Percy suspected Kronos gave Luke time to phrase what he wanted to ask- before Luke continued. "Then why don't manipulate him? The prophecy-"
"The boy doesn't resent his father, or the other gods for that matter. Oh, I can feel some lingering anger, some disappointment, but nothing that would be enough to turn him. In fact, he seems to hold his father in surprisingly high esteem. I suspect his mother told him about his heritage much earlier than the boy has claimed; probably filling his head with lies and half-truths. No, the boy will never join us."
"...what's you plan, my lord?" Luke asked hesitantly.
Percy felt the room temperature fall, making him think that he would be able to see his breath had he had a body in this dream, and Kronos voice cut through the room like a knife through butter. "He's too dangerous. We need to make sure that he isn't the child of the prophecy, or all our plans might fail."
He paid only enough attention to his surroundings to not walk into a tree while he followed a few meters behind Annabeth and Beckendorf, ignoring the looks they were throwing at him when they weren't whispering conspiratorially with each other.
The dream last night had disturbed him greatly, and he was glad that Kronos hadn't noticed him listening in this time around. He didn't want to know what the consequences would have been otherwise. But he had other things to worry than to think about, like the very real consequences of what he had heard for example.
Kronos wanted him dead, apparently, which hadn't been the case last time around. This meant that there wouldn't be any grace period (actually, had there been one the last time? He didn't know) during which the Titan Lord would try to make him turn against the gods. Who knew what kind of monsters he would send after him now?
Also, more immediate, Ares would probably not give them the lightning bolt. Or Hades' helm, for that matter. If that was the case, he would need to get his hands on them somehow differently, but he didn't know how...
You shall find what was stolen, but a price must be paid, that's what the prophecy had said. It probably meant that he would need to give Ares something that would make him give up the objects on his own, without Kronos' influence. If he only knew what this was...