Chapter Twenty: Timent fallaciae

Disclaimer: Baa, baa black sheep
Have you any wool
Yes sir, yes sir
Three bags full.
One for my master
And one for my dame

And one for all the people who're gonna stuff it in their ears every time I say I'm not Rick.

Author's Note – Dunno who reads my A/N's and Disclaimers, but I'm proud of them. I love them and think they should be reviewed independently and in depth. No pressure though lol. Maybe drop a follow or a favorite if you like the story? Love watching that mail pop up tbh.

Also, I am very sorry but I'm very busy so updates may be slow :(

The Dark Fallen Fairy – are you sure you didn't mean Gouda Bye? *laughs at the horrible pun*

Callum Runchman – I mean…. if you want I can just repost my previous chapter again. That'd make it the same. xD

Olympus Angel – Thank you so very much! Sorry about the cliffhanger :(

Merendinoemiliano – Your advice has been noted and will stay in my mind.

1234 Booklover – Thank you so so much! I always HEART it when people like my disclaimers :)

CalRedEss – AWWWWWWWW DUDE YOU THE BEST PERSON EVER! I love Annabeth so much and you're gonna see so much more of her badassery I promise. Actually, thank Seaweedbraens for opening my eyes in that regard

The needle-sword expert – DUN DUN DUNNNN. Awwww thank you so much! I love the fact that you like the agony I put people through except not really coz idk how many people care.

SingularSpeck77 – Wow thank you so so very much. It warms my cold dead soul when I see such heartfelt reviews, so thank you for that! :)

I wrote today's quote as well.

"A cornered hyena is far more dangerous than a proud lion."

Percy's POV:

How long had it been? An hour? A day? A month? Gaea had somehow managed to capture me. Using a sea monster no less – at least the irony was amusing.

"Why is it that you only appear when a demigod is alone? Scared of confronting us all together?" I taunted.

It was true after all. She had appeared to me here and in the tar pits, had talked to Annabeth when she had almost died in a bog in Alaska, to Hazel in one of her flashbacks and to Leo as well. In each and every case, she had only tried to mess with our heads when no one else was around.

"Be that as it may, demigod, you are well and truly alone right now. After all, no sane person would assume that you were alive after watching you get eaten. Your friends have already abandoned you son of Poseidon – you're not getting out of here."

I scoffed.

"Lady you're gonna have to do better than that if you wanna convince me."

"Yeah…maybe being a smartass when you've been captured by a nigh invincible primordial with a very slim chance of success is a bad idea." My brain suggested.

Of course, me being me, my reply was "Shut up, brain."

Turns out you should sometimes listen to your head too. Huh.

Gaea's face darkened.
"By the time I'm done with you son of Poseidon, you'll beg for a death as merciful as Gorgon's blood." She snarled.

"Isn't that supposed to be a highly corrosive poison?"

She smiled sadistically. "Yes, exactly."

She snapped her fingers and I was plunged into darkness once more.

I'd never been afraid of the dark before. That was before I spent hours in pitch black darkness, convinced that the occasional sound of a footstep was either someone who was finally here to kill me or someone who was finally here to rescue me.

The mind is far more effective at creating fear out of nothing than people, or gods could ever be. That's why Gaea left me in the dark for hours, anchored with chains to the "floor." Though I could never resolve the image of the cold, stone floor with the softness and squishiness I felt.

Time became irrelevant. So did food, sleep and water. All that there was was darkness. And all that there would be till the next time Her Majesty the Dirt Face deigned to speak with me would be darkness.

Except…..there was a difference today. I was bound, yes, but it wasn't dark.

In front of me was Jason, bound like me, with a gag through his mouth. He was on the floor, trying to get up. With mounting horror, I realized what was being shown to me. Jason. In Athens. With a sword over his head.

"NO!" I shouted, straining against my bonds.

The sword descended.

"It could've been you." Gaea's voice murmured softly.

"It should've been you." She continued.

"This isn't real." I said firmly, though my body betrayed my terror.

"Isn't it? Why do you think I've finally shown you this Perseus Jackson? You've been here for months. That right there, that was my victory. The blood of Olympus has already been spilled. All that's left now is this." She said, pointing to a different part of the altar.

"Piper." I screamed desperately. Just like Jason, she was bound. I could see her bruises, a scratch over her left eye, a cut on her wrist, a long scar that ran from her left shoulder right down to the elbow.

"You could've stopped that from happening." Gaea whispered, just as the massive axe fell, and Piper died, her last expression not of defiance as so many books show, but of shock, of utter unpreparedness for how sudden it was.

Beheadings are cruel that way.

Suddenly, the very ground started bubbling and churning, and Gaea appears, forming straight out of the ground.

"AWAKE AT LAST." She shouts, and her voice alone evaporates some of the lesser monsters in the area. I can practically feel the power churning around her.

She isn't Kronos, she isn't Echidna, heck, she isn't even like Typhon. She gives off more power than the entire Olympian council put together.

Then suddenly, there's darkness once more, followed by a stream of images – Camp Jupiter up in flames, the Field of Mars turned into a vast smoking crater, the Via Principalis blown to smithereens, Camp Half Blood – destroyed, Thalia's tree now nothing more than a stump, Peleus' body broken and mangled, Clarisse, Will, Lou Ellen, Nyssa, Mitchell and so many other demigods either dead or dying, Chiron, with his legs broken, arms twisted awkwardly at his sides.

And I can't take it anymore.

As if to taunt me, the images speed up, showing me Hazel, dying and buried up to her neck in mud, Frank being stabbed in the back with an imperial gold pike, Nico, slowly being defeated by two giants with snakes for legs, Reyna facing off against Porphyrion, the giant laughing maniacally. Then there is Leo – who seems to be facing a fire wielding giant himself. I watch as the giant touches his face and Leo – grinning, joking, annoying but dependable Leo freezes. Then, all too soon, steam erupts from his skin, and small cracks appear on his body. His eyes glow a little and I'm confused for a second before I realize what's happening.

He's being burnt from the inside out.

I shout, scream, twist, try to break my chains but it's futile.

He's dead already – and not even ashes remain, flying up in the wind.

I can't take this anymore. I close my eyes.

But in this hellish mindscape, I can't do a dam thing, and Gaea knows she has already won.

"Open your eyes. Watch Perseus. I told you you would beg for death, didn't I?" she asks, and there's only cold steel in her voice.

"Just stop." I say, too tired for anything else.

Gaea laughs cruelly and snaps her fingers again, and the world is plunged into darkness again.

"Something's on my mind
Always in my headspace

But I know some day I'll make it out of here
Even if it takes all night or a hundred years
Need a place to hide, but I can't find one near
Wanna feel alive, outside I can fight my fear"

Author's Note – I'm sorry that this one was so late and so dark and so short but I wanted to establish a prior fear before Percy falls into Tartarus and aggravates that fear coz I am sadistic like that. Also for those who want a reference, what Percy is experiencing right now is kinda like the Tsukuyomi used by Itachi (Anime reference - Naruto). Time does not matter and the illusion is so strong that everything feels real and all. Anyway, I wanna target for 16 reviews in this chapter so that I cross 200. Drop a review, a follow or a favorite!