The Darkness Within the Sea

by GallifreyanDemigoddess

Persephone Jackson, the two-times Heroine of Olympus, was not recovering well after the war(s) and Tartarus. She moves to a small town in Virginia with her family, hoping to have a normal life. There was only one problem: Mystic Falls was a monster-infected town. There, as new friendships are formed, she explores the darkness within the sea (within herself) in an attempt to heal.

13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo don't belong to me. Neither does the Vampire Diaries & The Originals.

English is not my native language so I apologize for the mistakes I might have.

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Chapter 13

...

The newcomer inclined his head in acceptance as he approached.

Percy narrowed her eyes, straining her eyesight as much as was humanly possible, but he was too far away to be properly seen, not to mention the thick cape of fog that covered the whole garden.

"You know about me?" He had an accent.

"My mother told me someone called Elijah was looking for me," Percy explained with a shrug. "Wasn't hard to put two and two together."

He was finally close enough to be stared at.

When she read about the Originals, she had pictured five old vampires. Granted, she herself should know that the oldest beings in the universe were usually bathed in youth, (the perfect example being the gods), but somehow she had pictured them (since they were the very first vampires of history) as old and decaying (a lot like the vampires shown in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that was mainly her first impression of every vampire).

The man in front of her was everything she had not expected.

He was tall, with dark brown hair and mesmerizing hazel eyes. His features were angelic and divine- which was a perfect example of irony- high cheekbones, strong jawline, and a straight nose.

"Yes, Sally," Elijah smiled a widely, which made the demigoddess tense. "Charming woman, I must say."

He stopped right in front of her, though there was a considerable amount of personal space between them, so that the girl would not feel intimidated or uncomfortable. She noticed his effort, and tilted her head to the side.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you," The vampire told her, inclining his head again.

"I'm Persephone Jackson, though you already know that," Percy offered him a forced smile. "The pleasure's all mine."

The green-eyed demigoddess decided to be as polite and well-mannered as he was being. So far he had not attacked nor demanded anything, which was a good signal. From up close, his power was more palpable, more strong; she didn't need to be a daughter of Athena to know that she was bound to show him some respect, or otherwise would have to pay the consequences for disrespecting him.

"I wish we could've met under more pleasant circumstances, if I allow myself to be honest." In one swift movement, he was facing away from her. "But I am afraid I have my own selfish motives for seeking you out. In other words, I want something from you."

His scent was intoxicating.

Vampire's scents made her want to heave, but this new scent coming from the Original vampire was the exception. It was, beyond imaginable words, the most alluring and intoxicating smell she had ever been graced with.

Her insides were trembling with exhilaration; intrusive thoughts racing through her head at impossible speed. How powerful was him?

How hard would it be to fight him?

How good would it feel to have his blood on her hands?

"Are you going to threaten me and my family if I don't help you?" She sneered at the thought of the other monsters who did that. "Because if you are, I advise you to get in line."

Elijah's reaction surprised her; he couldn't hide his amusement by her words, he shook his head, turning to gaze at her with those mesmerizing eyes of his. A small smirk pulled at his lips.

"I assure you, Ms. Jackson, threatening you never crossed my mind." That made her raise her eyebrows, which only seemed to increase his amusement. "It would be highly idiotic of me to seek you out in your own territory just to threaten you, don't you think?"

Percy couldn't help the way her lips pulled at that; it sounded like he was making fun of the Salvatore brothers and all the other monsters that approached her with threats and ended up swallowing their words.

She eyed him before looking down at the steps of the porch and inviting him with a gesture to sit.

Elijah adapted to his audience by taking a seat across from the young demigoddess there on the steps.

"I'm curious," Percy admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "I'd like to say I know what you came here to talk to me about, but I'm lost. Tell me, what do you want from me?"

"I did not come here to order you to help me," Elijah clarified, thinking it necessary to be as clear as possible with her. "I am here to ask you for a favour."

"A favor?" Percy raised her eyebrows, contemplating the choices she had. She didn't believe him fully when he said he wouldn't threaten her; every monster always said that before attacking.

Elijah settled his eyes on her, a small glint there that confused the young girl. "Ms. Jackson, I'd like to know if I'm free to speak with you without having to..." He sought a word out, twisting his fingers distractedly as he did so. "Withheld anything from you."

Percy narrowed her eyes at him, moving her body so instead of facing towards the garden, she was facing him. "Why would you have the need to hide something from me?"

Elijah merely shrugged. "The story of my family is long and complicated, not easily discussed so late at night. Many things are going to happen now, things that have to do with my family. Now, I reckon none of them involve you directly, but as the protector of this town, I thought you'd like to be informed of said things."

Protector of Mystic Falls.

Was that how she was perceived as?

That tittle alone made the young demigoddess wince. So far, the only good thing she had done for the town was keeping the Salvatore brothers from killing any innocent mortals, and that was- truly- easier than breathing. They were so easily intimidated; with just one look she managed to make Damon shut up.

She knew she was capable of protecting mortals from whatever dangers Elijah wanted to tell her about, but the vulnerable part of her was worried.

How was she supposed to protect a town she didn't even fully know yet?

She said to Katherine that she'd deal with the Originals when the time came, but it appears that the time to do so came too soon.

"I know a little about your family," Percy lied. "I don't lose sleep over the thought of them causing me any trouble here in town. So-" She shrugged.

She did lose sleep over-thinking things, but those things were never related to Mystic Falls.

Elijah gave her an amused look, though she couldn't understand the emotion she saw on his eyes. "Is that so?"

"I've had my share of immortal families." She sounded a little tired, though it was easily hidden. "A family that's been alive for thousand of years, creating enemies and destroying those that oppose them," Percy gave him a sarcastic grin, the one that always got her into trouble with almost every deity. "Sounds a bit familiar to me."

"Hardly, I reckon your family is even bloodier than mine." Elijah wasn't faced by her insolence, he simply decided to ignore it for the moment being. "Perhaps you could understand our situation better if you knew our story."

He moved one elegant hand to touch her face, though before he could even gaze her skin, one of her owns hands grabbed his and held it on the air tightly.

What was he doing? Percy's anger flared dangerously. Her cordiality had a limit; she wasn't some strange thing to be poked at.

"Do not touch me," She managed to keep her voice monotone and neutral, though her eyes were hard and fierce as she stared at him.

"Relax," Elijah's voice was soft and gentle. "I can show you."

She only shook her head and released his hand. "My mind is not to be messed with." Not again.

"This is nothing like compulsion, I assure you." Elijah promised, keeping the same gentle and low tone of voice that mesmerized the young demigoddess, though he didn't seem to notice the effect it had on her. It was just so easy to listen to his voice, it was so calming somehow. "If anything, you'd be on my mind."

He didn't know Percy's reluctance of having someone on her head went beyond that; it was bigger than vampires and their abilities of controlling mortals. One way or another, the gods were always on her mind, reading her thoughts and anticipating her moves.

Now that she hadn't interacted with many gods in months, it felt like being free; like she could think whatever she wanted without fearing their reaction if they listened to her thoughts.

She didn't even let Asclepius in her thoughts; and after his outburst at her, she was glad she never really opened herself to him.

"I'd be on your head?" Percy forced herself to think it through. If seeing his memories was faster than just talking, it was worth a shot. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?

He could kill her.

He could seriously harm her.

He could enter her mind and see her weaknesses.

After a second, Percy realized she was so tired she didn't really care.

"May I?" Elijah moved his hands as though wanting to cup her face.

Reluctantly, the young demigoddess gave her consent, and only then, his hands came to rest upon her cheeks.

His contact was warm against her cold skin, but the second he touched her, Percy's shoulders tensed.

She'd been sure of her decision- anything to finally get that conversation done- but now that they were closer and that he had advantage over her as he was holding her face on his hands, she started to worry a little.

"Relax, Ms. Jackson," Elijah's voice meant to reassure her. Hearing her heartbeat was enough for the oldest vampire in the universe to know she was entering a state of adrenaline induced numbness. By then, her mind was probably racing through a million things.

And he wasn't wrong.

She could only think that, with one swift movement, he could crack her neck and end her life.

Then it was, what if he was just wanting to sink his teeth on her flesh?

"I need you to close your eyes," Elijah told her.

Percy obliged, though her shoulders were tense and she could barely breathe.

"Ms. Jackson, I advise you to breathe if you wish to continue being conscious." Elijah's voice sounded a little irritated, but his words made the young demigoddess open her mouth and inhale sharply. "If I wanted to harm you, you would've known it immediately. Trust me, if just for a second."

Percy couldn't trust him. However, not wanting to anger him further, nor to make the situation longer than it needed to be, she forced herself to relax, trying to think only of pleasant things and not about how close to each other they were.

She felt the pull when their minds connected, she could never truly describe the sensation, but it felt as though she was in two places at once: her own body, and his mind.

"In the beginning, our family was human," His words were spoken out-loud, but with every word, Percy was able to see new images crossing her mind.

A small gasp left her mouth, for she was surprised and startled. It was like trying to think of an old memory, it certainly felt like something she had to struggle to see, but, at the same time, easier.

"A thousand years ago now."

The demigoddess saw who looked to be Elijah- human Elijah, with long hair and extremely old fashioned clothes- laughing as he battled with a handsome young man, almost his same age, with long blond hair and blue eyes. A breathtakingly gorgeous blonde girl- who looked an awfully lot like the man Elijah was fighting- smiling as she watched them.

"Are those the other Originals?" Percy asked, though she knew the answer. She was trying not to feel dizzy with the multiple images crossing her head and mixing with her own thoughts.

Elijah made a sound of agreement. "Niklaus and Rebekah."

Then the image shifted and the raven-haired girl found herself seeing another man, one that looked a little younger than Niklaus and Elijah, though the resemblance between them made it quite obvious that they were related. He was laughing as he made a small child float on the air.

"A sorcerer," Percy recognized easily. "Or whatever you mortals call it. Wizards? Warlocks?"

"Kol and Henrik," Elijah supplied quietly, not answering her question. "And here comes Finn."

The man that approached the laughing boys looked to be the oldest of them, and also the most serious. Instead of rejoicing at the joy the little child was showing as he floated on thin air, he reprimanded the other man and told him to put the kid down.

"You need to get that stick out of your bloody arse already, brother," The young warlock gave his brother a look before gently lowering his arm and making the young child touch the ground again. "It was only but a game."

"You said your family was human," Percy commented, eyes still closed as she tried to take in as much as she could from what he was showing her. "But he's not."

"We were," Elijah pursed his lips. "My mother dabbled in the dark arts, a trait only one of us was able to inherit."

The image shifted again so they were back at watching Elijah and Niklaus sword-fight. Percy couldn't help but smile in amusement when she saw the blond man unbuckling his brother's belt with one swift movement of his sword.

"Now that's a move I haven't done yet," Percy laughed, unable to hide her amusement. "If only it were that easy."

Elijah chuckled. "Yes, I imagine that unbuckling someone's belt won't help much in a real sword fight with someone from your world."

The green eyed demigoddess thought she'd have to try that move with her cousin and friend, Jason.

She could picture his embarrassment and Piper's laughter already. It made her grin a little.

Nico would probably laugh too, he loved making Jason embarrassed for all the times he embarrassed him in the past.

"You seemed pretty much like a normal family, apart from the magic," Percy didn't open her eyes, knowing that it could make her even more dizzy than she already was. Elijah hummed in agreement, his eyes closed too. "So what happened?"

"For better or for worse, we were happy," Elijah removed his hands from her face, though the images kept coming.

After happiness comes pain, sorrow, heartbreak. That much Percy was completely sure of; it was how her whole life always went. It appeared that it had been the same for that specific family.

She didn't open her eyes, but once she saw what the new images were about, she wished she had broken the connection somehow.

"That is, however, until one night, our youngest brother- Henrik- was killed by our village's greatest threat. Men that could transform themselves into wolves during the full moon."

Niklaus was crying desperately as he carried the corpse of a small child- barely big enough to look eight years old, the same boy that had been laughing as his brother made him levitate. The state his body was under made it hard for anyone to look at for longer than a second; it was almost unrecognizable, with skin missing in some places, and blood- so much blood.

Percy stopped breathing.

She forced herself to open her eyes, not standing to look at it anymore.

She'd seen enough dead children in both wars to see another one.

"Our family was devastated, none more than Niklaus." Elijah paused for a moment. "Desperate to protect the rest of us, our father forced our mother to call upon her black magic in order to make us stronger."

She didn't like where the story was going. Tempting the Fates in such a way would only make things worse.

She could understand that woman's pain, but making her sons and her daughter immortal was only going to make them suffer twice as much as they usually would. The Fates (and also the gods) do not stand when mere witches use spells of such capacity.

The Olympian gods only accept immortality when it's them who grant it. For it is a gift, but also a punishment.

By making her family immortal, that witch was only cursing them for all of eternity. The Fates would take it upon themselves to make their lives miserable. That much, Percy knew from second-hand experience.

"She can't do that-" Percy started, then bit her tongue; she shouldn't care about the fate of monsters.

Elijah laid his hand on her cheek once again, the contact making the young girl close her eyes, bracing herself for the next images that would surge.

The young demigoddess saw a gorgeous blonde woman, one that could only be the mother of the Original family, for she was making a spell as an unknown man watched, probably her husband. When it was done, the unknown man held the bleeding arm of an unknown person in front of the blonde girl from before.

"Drink!" The man roared.

Crying and shaking with fear, the girl obliged and bit hard into the bloody wrist.

Percy felt disgusted, a feeling that only increased when she saw the man doing the same with the others. Every single one of them was forced to drink blood.

Then, afterwards, she felt her eyes widen when she watched the father of the Originals kill them one by one in cold blood.

"Thus, the first vampires were born." Elijah's voice was devoid of all emotion.

Percy opened her eyes, making him blink when he found himself staring right into sea-green orbs. It was like staring right into the sea.

"Your mother turned you into immortal creatures...because she was scared of watching you all die?"

Percy couldn't get that thought across her head, no matter how hard she tried to.

She'd heard about the birth of countless monsters; the Minotaur, Arachne, Medusa, etc. But none of them had been born- or created- out of love.

Between the gods themselves, parents never did anything generous for their children.

Hera threw Hephaestus out of Mount Olympus because he was born with special needs.

Zeus sexually assaulted his own daughters.

Rhea let her husband commit cannibalism with their kids.

Demeter developed an unhealthy obsession with Kore (Queen Persephone's birth-name) and almost destroyed the whole world in a temper tantrum after discovering she got married.

Percy shook her head and tried to concentrate better. "Is that how you became vampires? Or was there some long process after the spell?"

"With this speed, this strength, this immortality that we were granted, came a terrible hunger that we felt immediately after being reborn."

"And since you were made immortal by drinking blood, I imagine that was the only thing that could satisfy that hunger you felt." Percy thought of spells and how tricky they usually were.

"You're smarter than people give you credit for, Ms. Jackson." Elijah complimented, nodding curtly at her. "No one felt this hunger more than Niklaus. When he killed for the first time, we knew what he truly was."

What he truly was?

Percy gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Then the flashes started again, and she had all the answers she needed. When she saw Niklaus attacking someone and drinking all their blood, she grimaced in disgust, to then gasp when his bones started to crack and he fell to the ground with multiple screams of pain.

"What is happening to me? Father! It hurts!"

In a second, she knew what was happening to him. She thanked the gods for never been present when a werewolf turned- because it was bloody and dangerous- but she knew the process they went through. And that, whatever happened to Niklaus, was exactly how a werewolf transformation started.

The father of the Originals gave him a disgusted look. "He's a beast, an abomination."

The connection abruptly ended when Elijah removed his hands from her face.

"He wasn't just a vampire."

"He's a vampire," Percy scowled. "And a werewolf. How?" The werewolf gene was passed genetically, which meant someone on their family had to have been a werewolf.

"Niklaus was the result of an indiscretion our mother had hidden from us all. An affair, with a werewolf."

Percy knew she should've seen it coming.

That look of complete and unadulterated disgust shown on that man's face as he eyed Niklaus was one Percy was used to seeing everywhere.

It was the same look Amphitrite adopted when she was forced to spend time with her.

"Your father was an asshole," Percy finally broke the silence surrounding them. "He let your brother suffer, but your brother was not to blame for what your mother did."

She should feel annoyed that she was now practically defending a monster, but she could only think of her own situation. She'd seen so many gods taking all their anger out on the children their significant others had with mortals; she'd received so many disgusted looks from both Triton and Amphitrite...

She took it as a personal offense every time something like that happened to anyone; even if it was a monster, she hated with all her soul to see that kind of disgust on someone's face.

"No one was to blame, but our own father-" Elijah paused. "Had he been more affectionate with our mother, she wouldn't have felt the need to seek love somewhere else."

Percy shook her head. "I'm not defending her, don't get me wrong. Lonely or not, if you're married, you have to be loyal. Your mother-" She shook her head, deciding against continuing with her train of thoughts. Her mind was too full of more important things than a woman being needy enough to cheat.

Elijah thought he understood the reason for the demigoddess to defend his brother, though he had the reasons wrong. He thought she was thinking of her own situation- and while she was, it wasn't her main concern- for he knew that she was a bastard child, too.

But in reality, she felt offended at the thought of someone being married and being not loyal to said sacred oath.

More than religion- she really couldn't have an opinion about it when she was the daughter of a Greek god- it was about love. Marriage was an oath of love, of understanding each other and fighting for each other, for as long as they were living.

It was the biggest form of loyalty, and maybe she was just a hopeless romantic or a fool, but she felt disgusted and uneasy with the thought of such an act being broken by something as disgusting as cheating.

Elijah broke her train of thoughts by saying, "My intention is not for you to sympathize with us, but to understand what you could end up dealing with." He smiled thinly, "Because although I will try to keep you out of my family business, something tells me you'll find yourself dragged right in."

"Obviously," Percy replied dryly. "I often find myself involved in things I never wanted to be part of. That's my luck, that's how much the Fates love me."

"My brother spent centuries obsessed with your kind," Elijah added. "I imagine he'll destroy me before he misses the chance to meet a real demigoddess."

"Niklaus-" Percy started, worried, with an ugly feeling pressing into her stomach. An Original hybrid obsessed with her?

Elijah shook his head. "No, not him."

The demigoddess' heart almost stopped. "Wait. Does that mean the other Originals are also coming?"

She'd seen them as mortals and had to admit they looked pretty harmless, but a thousand years had passed since then.

Enough time to turn anyone into a monster.

If being around Elijah, who was kind and polite, felt like being around a bomb that could detonate at any moment, just how dangerous could the other Originals feel like?

His power alone made Percy feel intoxicated, how could she survive having five more powerful beings in town? The thought alone made her feel new waves of stress entering her body.

Then she felt angry, what right did they think they had?

How could they just march into town and behave as though they owned it?

She was about to open her mouth to inquire more about their arrival in town, but he was quick to interrupt her, looking quite impatient.

He said, "From the very beginning of our conversation I've tried to make you understand that the deal I'm offering you favours you more than it favours me. I only ask for a couple of things from you, while I promise to protect you and your family from my brother's wrath and any other danger that might come to you in this wretched town," He was now on a roll, he even took a step forwards and stood closer to her.

Percy stood her ground, watching him as intently as he was watching her, though a little curious as to his sudden urge to get her help.

"What do you require of me?" Percy tilted her head to the side. For her, it made no sense. He was immortal, rich, and powerful. Not to mention, one of the first of his kind; which meant he was to be respected among his kind.

What could he possibly need from her?

"Ms. Jackson-" Elijah sounded exasperated and angry. He composed himself with a sigh, and said, "It's about Niklaus."

Percy tensed after hearing that, though she was positive it had to do with him.

Hybrids were the ban of her existence; almost every monster she'd fought was a hybrid of some sort. Usually, they were the hardest to kill, the ones that made her strain the most to destroy them.

"The hybrid," Percy sighed in annoyance. "Of course it has to do with him."

The only hybrid she could stand was Bessie, innocent and cute Bessie.

Something told her that Niklaus, who was a hybrid of two horrible mortal monsters, was obviously more dangerous than Bessie- the ophiotaurus- could ever be.

"He's not a hybrid," Elijah's words made the demigoddess scowl and turn to face him. "You see, my father forced our mother to cast a spell that suppressed Niklaus' werewolf side, denying him any connection with his true self."

Percy's mouth hung open with shock at that. Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Your father is so disgusting."

"Afterwards, my brother changed-"

"As was to be expected," Percy pointed out. "Not only were you all turned into monsters, but he was also stripped of every single thing that made him himself. That's how monsters are made, dude."

Elijah blinked at how quick she was to accept that they've turned into monsters, but then decided that it probably had to do with her own life and how she'd seen many people become monsters very easily.

"I cannot excuse his behavior, but you must understand that our father hunted him- hunted us- for centuries, and every time we found a moment of happiness, we were forced to flee and start again." Elijah looked uncomfortable, not used to share so much personal information with anyone. "Niklaus became vindictive, full of rage and hatred."

Percy watched him intently as he spoke, knowing it was probably hard for him to say so much about their personal lives, but not stopping him.

"He often struck down those that opposed him," Elijah's voice was, once again, devoid of all emotions. He looked away from her, setting his eyes on the destroyed garden. "No matter how close to him they are."

The green eyed demigoddess had an idea of where that was going. Disgusted, but at the same time, having heard similar stories before, she thought that meant Niklaus had done something to his own family, probably to his other siblings.

"What did he do?" She asked.

"The ocean." Elijah answered, voice soft. "He buried them there."

There was a long pause in which both parts were equally quiet.

The horror of the situation reminded her of her own family and the kind of punishment they had for each other.

She didn't know how to feel, mostly because she had thought the gods were the only beings capable of being so cruel and horrible.

She was clearly wrong.

It was strange to think that mortals- or mortal monsters, if she was technical about it- were also capable of so much cruelty.

"I'm sorry," Percy said at last, and this time, she truly meant it.

Certain parts of the ocean had so many pressure in them that it immediately destroyed a human body. And, as much as those vampires were immortal, their bodies were not.

If Elijah wanted her to find his siblings and take them out, it was to properly bury them.

"I know I'm asking much of you, I don't know exactly where they are-" Elijah was speaking in a whisper, and when he turned to lock eyes with her, she was finally able to see all the pain he was holding into.

She found herself shaking her head.

She loved the ocean, and being on it always made her feel useful and good, almost a normal teenager. To find those vampires, she only had to call in a few favors from the deities her father had in his realm; it would be easy.

It was her domain, after all. If she couldn't get them out, no one could.

"No worries about it, man," Percy forced herself to give him a smile. "I'll find them."

Elijah looked grateful, a smile lighting his whole face. She never thought she'd receive such a look from a monster, but she was a little glad that she managed to make him happy.

She'd never admit it, but she missed feeling useful; it was the curse set on demigods: they constantly needed to feel useful and to be doing something.

What good was it to be a hero if you weren't helping anyone?

That past month had been so boring, so monotone, part of her craved adventure and something new to distract herself with. She hated herself for it, but that's how she felt.

"May I ask you something?"

She looked towards him, and shrugged. "Sure."

"What made you accept my request?"

Percy didn't think much of it, though the lie came bouncing off her lips. "You gave me a choice." When he looked up and tilted his head to the side, she continued. "Not everyone does that."

Elijah allowed himself one last smile. "I'm a devout feminist, Ms. Jackson. Women are capable of taking their own decisions, more so when it's about an important matter."

"Meet me tomorrow," Percy said when she noticed the sky was starting to change colors. "It's getting too late."

Elijah stood, held out a hand for her to stand up too. She hesitated, but then decided there was no danger in accepting the kind gesture, and allowed him to help her stand on her own feet. He walked her to the door, where he waited until she had opened it and was safe inside her house.

"Good night, Ms. Jackson." Elijah hesitated before leaving, something she noticed. At last, he said, "Thank you."

But Percy only nodded in answer, trying to push down all the guilt she was feeling. While his story had captivated her, she wasn't doing him that favor out of the kindness of her heart.

She know had the perfect excuse for seeking her father. What she wanted was to see Poseidon, to enter his domain.

Because, even when she felt offended and hurt by his absence, the truth was, she missed him.

...

Two hours later, a sleep-deprived Percy was standing in front of her vanity mirror, getting ready for school with as much velocity as her numb limbs let her. Her body was running on only thirty-minutes of sleep, which contributed to her usual distracted self even more.

She wasn't aware of half the things she was doing.

One of her hands grabbed the small makeup bag close to her perfumes, then was forced to cough loudly and almost puke when she applied perfume on her mouth instead of lipstick; then shortly after, she was forced to sit down on the bed and close her eyes when she realized she applied mascara on her cheeks instead of blush.

She needed to sleep a little, or she'd end up getting herself seriously injured through the day.

She was already losing consciousness when her stepfather came to knock upon her door.

"Sleeping beauty, wake up." Paul chuckled.

She made sound that was half protest, half whimper.

"Come on, pumpkin, we're going to be late." Paul moved to take her backpack before she could protest. "You can sleep in the car."

She almost fell off the stairs a couple of times, but in the end she managed to go downstairs. Paul was waiting for her in the kitchen, looking at Sally with love and adoration as she massaged her slightly swollen belly distractedly.

Her mother brightened upon seeing her, and promptly offered breakfast, which the young girl was too sleepy to accept, and then somehow, when Percy blinked, they were already inside Paul's car.

"Go back to sleep," Paul told her gently, driving away from the house. "I'll wake you up when we get to the school."

She didn't need to be told twice.

Paul turned the radio on, and for a long time, Percy was in a state of sleep where her body was completely unconscious, but part of her was able to listen to her surroundings. She heard Paul softly singing along to some of those songs on the radio, she heard him speaking to someone on the cellphone, she heard him complaining to himself about the traffic...

Then, as she entered deeper into Morpheus realm, everything got quiet for a little while.

Then:

"Persephone is alright, brother-"

"How can you say that?" That voice. Percy knew that voice. Her heart started to thump loudly, and she, scared that somehow they'd hear her erratic heartbeat and discover she was there, took a step back against her will, stumbling into something she couldn't see. Everywhere she looked, she was met with darkness.

She didn't dare to move, didn't dare to breathe.

What was happening?

Where was she?

Why couldn't she see them?

"She's a strong woman," Artemis. That was Artemis' voice. "You have to trust her-"

"I do trust her," Apollo snapped. "And I am not ignoring her strength. But you cannot tell me not to be furious right now. You two promised my son would help her overcome this dark shadow that's settled over her like a pesky plague, but it's been two months and her situation has only gotten worse!"

Something must've been written on the god's face, because another familiar voice interrupted the maiden goddess, and said, "We honestly thought Asclepius could help. Brother, we didn't know his patience could wear short."

"She was asking for me," His voice broke, then the next thing that Percy heard was his deep breathing, as though he was trying to collect himself after a breakdown. "My girl was asking for me, and my son refused to answer her-"

"Asclepius is not to blame for his silence," Artemis was quick to defend her nephew, though there was a certain degree of disgust laced on her voice. "You know very well that our father has forbidden everyone to utter a single word about your punishment to anyone."

Apollo sounded angry when he replied, "It didn't stop Aphrodite from gossiping about it with the nymphs. It didn't stop Poseidon himself coming down here just to mock me for being weak-"

Hermes interrupted him, surprise on his voice. "Uncle Poseidon did what?"

"Our uncle came here, against our father's orders," Apollo sucked in a breath, as though it hurt him to remember the encounter, or maybe he was just under a great deal of pain. He certainly sounded pained. "To laugh at my misery and rejoice at the sight of me." He made a sound that was half a scoff, half a laugh. "His words, you two should've heard him."

Artemis sounded surprised too. "He was cruel?"

Out of everyone on their family, Poseidon was usually the uncle they appreciated the most. They knew him enough to know the sea could be cruel and harsh, but they honestly never expected him to be so direct towards his feelings with Apollo when, in the past, he had been through that same punishment Apollo was currently going through.

"The truth of his words were the only cruel thing about his visit," Apollo replied, voice now devoid of all emotions.

"Were those words about our beloved cousin?" Hermes inquired, not a sign of malice on his voice.

Artemis sounded exasperated when she answered him, "We're talking about Poseidon, Hermes. Of course it was about Percy. Everything that comes out of his mouth is about her. Which leads me to believe that, what he said to you, Apollo, was only cruel because it involved her."

There was a small pause.

Hermes whistled and looked down at the marble floor. "That's low, and petty. Though extremely reasonable." At the looks he received, he shrugged and continued. "Come on, we're talking about the father of your ex-girlfriend. Of course he'd hate you."

"But he's also his uncle," Artemis stressed. "Our uncle."

"And Percy is his favorite daughter-" Hermes shrugged, as if that explained everything.

"He said I never made her happy," Apollo interrupted the fight that would most definitely start between the messenger god and the maiden goddess. "And I suppose he's right, because look where we are now. Look how we ended."

"That's not true," Artemis and Hermes said, almost at the same time, which would've been strange, had they not been too involved in Apollo's words to notice. "You two were happy-"

"She's suffering," His voice broke, which would've been a pathetic sign on any other deity. But he did not care, and neither did his siblings. "And I cannot be there to help her."

Hermes and Artemis shared a look, then looked away.

How miserable his existence was, forced to hear about his lover's tragedy, but unable to do anything to help. He imagined that must've been how Patroclus felt when he was forced to stay in the underworld, knowing that his beloved Achilles was suffering from his absence and avenging his death in the most brutal of ways.

"And now my son won't even help her overcome those feelings-" Apollo hissed in pain, then groaned.

"Don't move so much," Artemis chided, her voice strangely gentle. "You're only going to hurt yourself more."

Apollo made a sound of protest. "Do not approach me, sister, you know what will happen if you touch me."

"You'll infect me," Artemis chuckled a little, though the joke got lost on Percy's confused ears.

Apollo chuckled too, though there was no humor on his voice. "I wouldn't call mortality an infection, my dear little sister."

That enough made the goddess scoff angrily, then stomp her foot hard on the ground, like a child throwing a tantrum. "I am older than you, Apollo. For how long do I even have to continue correcting you-"

"There's something else," Hermes interrupted them, his voice full of exhaustion. They've had that discussion every day for almost four thousand years. Artemis was born first; she even helped Leto deliver Apollo. Didn't they grow tired of the same argument?

"We're listening."

Hermes pursed bus lips, deep in thoughts. "I don't know if it's something father has done, or if that wretched town hold something far more dangerous than we originally thought, but for some strange reason, I cannot enter Mystic Falls."

Artemis' annoyance evaporated, and she actually considered what her brother said. "Do you think there's something deeper lurking in Mystic Falls? Something capable of stopping a god from entering?"

Mentally, the goddess made a list of creatures powerful enough to do so, but every single one of them were buried in the deepest parts of Tartarus, so she resigned to having to look into it another time. What mattered in that moment was her brother; she had to cherish the limited time she got to see him before he was, once again, taken away.

"We're talking about Percy, with her luck, it could be." Apollo then made a sound of pain again, "Fucking hell, to what use am I if I can't even help her? Gods-"

Suddenly, young demigoddess was pulled away from the darkness and into a white room, where, after blinking a couple of times to adjust her eyesight, she was able to see a young girl, seemingly around ten-eleven years old, with auburn hair and dark skin that contrasted against her silvery eyes. By the little girl's side, a man in his mid-thirties stood in all his handsome glory, with hair dark enough to mold into the shadows, and light eyes full of mischief.

"Artemis, Hermes," Percy's voice sounded far away, even when she was standing almost in front of them. She looked around, but couldn't see anyone else.

The maiden goddess was the first to notice her presence there, and after widening her eyes in recognition, she took one step forwards as if to touch her, but then Percy's image flickered, and she stopped in contemplation.

"What is happening?" Apollo demanded. "What are you two looking at? What's out there?"

"Percy," Artemis sounded startled. "She's here." Not on body, but on spirit.

"She's dreaming about us," Hermes corrected his sister, which only made him receive a pointed glare. "Hello, sweetheart."

Percy stared at them, green eyes full of confusion. She tried to speak, but no words came out of her mouth.

She looked around the room, looking for the owner of the voice she'd heard before, but could not see anyone else there.

"Where is he?" The demigoddess blinked.

There was no need for them to ask who she was talking about, but none of them knew how to react. At first, they shared a worried look- Percy was literally standing in front of Apollo, how could she not see him?- then their confusion grew even more when their own brother stared blankly ahead.

"I can't see her," Apollo sounded desperate. "Where is she? Why can't I see her? Where is she?"

"Apollo?" Percy breathed out, able to hear his voice. Her heart beat so fast and hard against her chest that it almost hurt.

"Percy-" Apollo choked. "Why can't I see you?"

"I'm right here," Percy shook her head, desperate to understand what was happening. Part of her wanted to see him more than anything else, the other part was scared to even think about it. How was she supposed to react? Everyone ever said that their behavior had to change after a breakup, but truthfully, she could care less what they were- friends, lovers- she just wanted to see him and make sure he was okay.

"I can't see you." Apollo lamented, heart beating so hard and so agitated against his chest that he worried he could have a heart attack now that, as part of the process he was forced to go through, his body was more vulnerable. His father would most definitely be furious if he died of something as human as a heart attack before his punishment took place.

He moved a little, desperate, which caused a familiar clicking sound to echo through the room.

"You're chained-" Percy realized with a start. "Your punishment. Apollo, what have they done to you?" Percy forced herself to sound reasonable, to control her heartbeat and to think with clarity. "Are you okay?"

Hermes and Artemis were glad the demigoddess couldn't see him, because his state was truly painful to watch. Both physically and mentally, he was destroying himself there, all alone. Or rather, Zeus was destroying everything godly about him.

When he shook his head, and muttered something about him not mattering and instead inquired about her health and her well-being, both his siblings were utterly shocked to the core of their immortal existence.

Apollo was one of the most vain, self-centered gods in all of Olympus. He never wasted an opportunity to talk about himself, to gain sympathy from others. Very few times he let others see what he really cared about- because, honestly, he never cared about himself- so Artemis and Hermes cherished that small part of himself that he showed them when he asked Percy how she was feeling.

And, as they watched the demigoddess answering his questions, they realized she knew it too.

She knew Apollo more than they did.

"I'm sorry," Percy said at last.

It was hard to talk to him without being able to see him, and it was weighing her down. It was almost as exasperating as communicating via letters, which they tried to do after Poseidon discovered about them and threatened to separate them.

Hermes and Artemis didn't know what she was apologizing for, but when they looked at Apollo, they realized he knew perfectly well what she was talking about. His eyes were full of unshed tears, and he struggled to remain quiet against his chains.

"I am too," Apollo whispered gently. There was a short pause between them, one where the girl simply stayed looking down at the floor, and he kept his eyes closed. Then, he cleared his throat and sough another topic, "I apologize for my son-"

"He doesn't matter," Percy scoffed, shaking her head. "He wasn't really helping me anyways."

Apollo looked down and nodded, though the movement hurt him to the very core of his being. He tried to find the right words, which was new, because with her, he never had the need to seek words out. Talking to her used to be as normal and easy as breathing. Now he didn't know what to do or say, how to apologize for the failure that he was, how to try to fix the friendship they were forced to lose.

"I wish I could be there for you," Apollo said at last.

Percy smiled a little, though it didn't reach her eyes. "And I here, for you."

There was so much they wanted to talk about, so much they still needed to discuss. But there was no time, no opportunity to speak when they couldn't even see each other, when she wasn't there at all, when Artemis and Hermes were carefully watching their encounter.

"Percy-" Apollo started, his voice fading out.

The connection they had seemed to break, because the young demigoddess could not hear him anymore.

"Dear child," Artemis stood in front of Percy, watching as her figure shifted. "You are not supposed to be here."

"Demigods cannot have demigods dreams anymore," Hermes added. "It's literally impossible since Apollo is-" He stopped himself.

"What is his punishment?" Percy was starting to get annoyed with the secrecy everyone had about it. No matter how hard she looked for in mythology books, no matter how hard she tried to interrogate the gods she saw, she couldn't discover what it was.

All she knew was that it was bad.

"I'm sorry," Artemis talked then. "We can't tell you."

"This is a dream," Percy reminded them, "I'm technically not here. You wouldn't be breaking any rule because I'm not here."

"Smart girl," Hermes praised, grinning. "Listen closely, because I will only tell you the story once-"

Though Percy could never hear the end of his sentence, because with one unpleasant pull, she found herself back on the car.

It felt like those situations where one is asleep and suddenly, you're harshly awaken by a strange pull on the chest, as though you were falling from up high and into a bed- or in that case, the car's seat.

Percy took several deep breaths, hating the horrible sensation that made pressure on her chest.

Fucking hell. She hated so much those fucking demigod's dreams.

"Oh, you're awake! Good," Paul sounded too happy for the young girl's liking. How could anyone be happy so early in the morning? "We're almost there."

Percy groaned in response, rubbing at her eyes before remembering she had mascara on, and, groaning again, she took the small mirror she had on her bag and started to clean the smudge she'd created by rubbing at her eyes.

"I never use makeup for this exact same reason," She tried to shake the sleep off her body, but ended up yawning and almost falling back to sleep. "I always end up messing it up."

"What made you wear it today?" Paul gave her a curious look. "Someone you wanted to impress?"

The girl half-shrugged, choosing to ignore his last question. "Well, I don't really know, I just felt like it." And that was a phrase that could perfectly describe the life of an ADHD person.

Paul nodded, acknowledging her answer. After a small pause, he hesitated before daring to ask the question that had been running through his mind for a couple of days by then.

"Dear?" And when she made a sound that meant she was listening to him, he inquired, "Have you been getting enough sleep lately?"

The young girl didn't look at him as she answered, eyes set on her backpack as she carefully secured the small mirror in one of its pockets. "Not as much as a human is supposed to."

Paul stole a glance at her before looking right ahead. "Nightmares?" His knuckles were almost white from how tight he was grabbing into the steering wheel.

Percy considered her chances, then decided against lying; it was easier to be truthful with Paul than with Sally, for some inexplicable reason. Besides, he looked pretty concerned. She thought he deserved the truth.

"Yes."

They didn't speak more of the situation, though they felt closer to each other than before. He didn't know that, but she had been more sincere with him with that single word than she had been with her mother in months.

Percy loved her mother so much she didn't want to worry her.

But in her attempts not to worry her mother, she was slowly losing the connection they had.

"You have my permission to sleep on class," Paul said at last.

Percy stared at him.

He allowed himself a smirk. "Only if you promise to read Hamlet instead of simply copying Ms. Darcy's work."

Percy groaned. "Fuck, I forgot about that shit. I hate it so much."

"Language," Paul chided. "And Hamlet is not shit, it's actually pretty lit."

Percy snickered at his attempt to speak like teenagers did. "Maybe, but I just hate the original version so much. I don't understand half the words he says."

"I'm going to tell you a little secret, dear," Paul smirked some more. "No one understands what Shakespeare wants to say. There are an awful lot of jokes about the male genitalia, though."

"Dick jokes?" Percy raised her eyebrows, suddenly interested. "Such as?"

Paul gave her a smirk. "Read the play and you'll see."

She was definitely not going to read the play. She was, however, going to make Emma finish reading it, and afterwards, she'd ask her about those dick jokes Paul talked of.

There was a pleasant silence between them, but as time passed, Percy's smile started to die away.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked immediately, as though he had a sixth sense that told him when something was wrong with his stepdaughter.

The young demigoddess thought about dismissing his question as her being tired, but something inside her protested at that idea. She wanted to talk about the dream, she realized with a start, and if it wasn't with Paul, it had to be with Emma or Damon.

Her demigod friends were harder to get a hold of now that, for some reason, Iris wasn't accepting the offerings they made to her, which meant that no one could use IM's as a way of communicating.

Then she thought about Emma and Damon, and how hard it was going to try and find a way to explain to them everything about the dream without revealing much about her world.

Paul was her best- and safest- option.

"I had a demigod dream."

The effect those words had on her stepfather was instantaneous. His whole body tensed, and he straightened on the seat as though expecting something bad to happen right then and there.

"What happened?" Paul quickly inquired, then turned back to stare at the road, not wanting to have an accident. "Do you need me to drive you to Camp? Are your friends okay?"

"Yes, yes-" Percy was sorry she'd mentioned that, she never meant for him to get worried. Truthfully, she didn't know what to make out of that dream. All she knew was that the pressure on her chest wasn't only because of lack of sleep; she had heard her ex-boyfriend's voice after not hearing it for months, and even worse, she didn't know how that made her feel. She couldn't even understand how it felt to talk with him after so long. "No one is in danger, everything's okay, I swear."

Paul seemed to breathe again, his shoulders slacking as he relaxed a little. "Then what did you see?"

At first, she thought about making something up, but, once again, she started to speak without her brain's permission first.

"I saw Artemis and Hermes," Percy hesitated.

"Your friends," Paul recognized those names.

"Gods cannot be friends with mortals."

Paul scowled. "You were friends with the sun god before dating him."

The sun god- it was easier for him to call Apollo that rather than his name. His wife had often said names had power, and he believed her.

The daughter of the sea tried not to think of the past, thought it was all her mind could ever focus on. She couldn't find the words to explain that, her relationship with Apollo- both the platonic and the romantic one- had been special. The weren't enough words in the world to describe how important it had been without it sounding as though she believed she was a "special snowflake", as Ares often said.

The struggle to answer was clearly written on her face, for Paul looked a little sheepish after saying that.

"He was never just a god for me," Percy tried to explain herself a little better, but no words came to her.

She'd been perfectly aware of his status as an Olympian god, that was never the problem. But, what she really meant to say, was that he, with her, was never just a god. He was always a person, he was always a lover, a passionate and endearing being full of love and beautiful qualities.

But she realized there were not enough words to describe that.

"What were they doing?" Paul gave her a curious look. "What were they talking about?"

"Me," Percy blinked, trying to ignore the fact that, soon, they'll be at school. She would rather be at home, on her bed, sleeping. "They were talking about me."

That worried the mortal man more than he could like to admit.

"Have you annoyed them in any way?" That was the first thing he asked.

Percy couldn't help but smile a little at that. He smiled too, and she shook her head as a response.

(She was definitely not going to tell him that the previous night she'd angered a god so much he almost pulverized her.)

"Maybe I said something that offended their very sensible selves-" She smiled coldly. "Frankly? I don't give a fuck. Maybe, if they minded their own business, they wouldn't feel offended-"

She was interrupted when the sky darkened, lightning striking down on a nearby tree. Paul jumped at least two feet on the air, bumping his head against the roof of the car, and steered away from the burning tree. Percy rolled her eyes, getting tired of all the constant thunder and lightning in her life, while lifting a finger and watching through the rear-view mirror as waves of water came out from nowhere and engulfed the tree, putting the flames out.

"Your uncle is angry." Paul chuckled nervously. "Maybe you should stop being so..." He couldn't find the right word; he had one in mind, but it would offend her.

"I just hate them so much," Percy spit out, surprising her stepfather. She missed the worried look he threw in her direction, just as she missed how the air seemed to get a little tense after her words. "Specially Zeus."

Paul forced himself to look away, for there were a lot of things about that conversation that he didn't like.

He could understand it if she said she was tired of the gods and their drama, but to go as far as to say she hated them...

She had never said anything like that.

Demigods who said that were the ones that rebelled against the gods, the ones that were tempted by darker forces and ended being almost possessed by them. Demigods like Luke.

As discretely as he could, Paul stared at her while driving, trying to see if there was something in her that was strange. But his stomach dropped when he realized she looked, though more tired, the same as always.

There was nothing different in her. Those thoughts and that intense hatred towards the gods...that was all her.

He looked away.

"Anyways," Percy started to say, not knowing the thoughts racing through Paul's head. "The dream was useless, I didn't find out what I was supposed to."

"Sweetheart?" Paul started, hesitating as he tried to ignore his worried thoughts about her strange behavior. "Maybe you're not meant to know what the dream tried to show you just yet. Maybe, as time passes by, you'll know why the Fates thought you needed to see that, to see them talking about you." He let his words sink in, then added, "Have you thought about that?"

Percy shook her head, and then they were silent during the rest of the way to school.

She didn't tell him she talked with Apollo on her dream, because that would be a whole new argument, not to mention that he'd immediately say that was the reason for the demigod dream; that she'd been so obsessed with him that her subconscious had, somehow, allowed her to talk with him one last time.

She knew no one, specially her parents, would believe her if she said she hadn't tried to contact him so directly.

In reality, the demigoddess like to think- if only for a second- that the demigod dream's main purpose was to let her know that people still cared about her; that, somehow, Apollo still cherished their friendship, or what had once been a friendship.

But she knew she was just being stupid by thinking that.

Artemis and Hermes hadn't been able to speak much to her, and, because of Zeus and the Fates- and maybe it was even her own fault, and Apollo's too- she wouldn't ever be able to regain the friendship she had with Apollo.

She was smart enough to know and accept that.

...

Her school day passed without any memorable thing happening.

At lunch, she ate alone because Emma skipped school that day for some unknown reason, and she didn't have more friends to be with.

Without her mortal friend to keep her distracted, Percy's mind had no other choice but to destroy itself slowly. Her thoughts were a vicious circle she could not escape.

Between Tartarus, Apollo, Elijah, Asclepius and her SAT's, she was swiftly becoming more stressed than was humanly possible.

The problem was that thinking about Tartarus made her think of Apollo, which obviously made her think of Asclepius, which brought everything about Tartarus back, which made her focus on the new trouble she'd be facing: Elijah and his family, which, somehow, made it go back to Apollo and Tartarus.

It went on and on, over and over again.

She thought that her last two classes, History and English, would be somewhat better, because she actually liked the teachers. But when she arrived at Alaric's classroom, and saw what he had written on the board, her hope died away.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Jackson," Alaric grinned at her when he saw her. "Today's class, as you can see, will focus mostly around the Greeks and their beliefs, so please take a seat, the class will be starting as soon as everyone arrives."

The young demigoddess sighed. "Hi, Alaric." He allowed her to call him by his name since her dyslexia made it hard for her to pronounce his last name correctly.

"You look wasted," Paul raised his eyebrows. In that same moment, Elena Gilbert entered the classroom, followed by Stefan and Bonnie. "Let me guess, Damon?" At the mention of the blue-eyed vampire, the doppelgänger stared at them.

Percy forced herself to hide the amused smirk that threatened to cover her face. Feeling rather mischievous, she said, rather loudly and with a voice full of innuendo, "Oh, you know Damon. He's just so good at...mm, keeping me awake."

Alaric raised his eyebrows, amusement filling his features as he realized what the young girl was doing.

One small glance at the now scowling Elena, and he realized the green-eyed girl was successful at making her jealous.

Then they looked at Stefan, and felt bad about it.

"Hi, Percy," Stefan said quietly.

"Hi, Stef," Percy gave him a sheepish look, knowing that, as much as he tried to hide it, he found himself bothered with the reaction his girlfriend had when it came to Damon. And he, too, knew that Percy was lying as she implied she'd fucked with Damon.

She was impulsive, but she would never, ever, fuck a monster. He was attractive, that much no one could deny, but to go as far as to have a sexual relationship with him? She didn't think she could do it. There had too much monster in him for her to find herself attracted to him in that way.

It would be like trying to fuck a corpse.

And she was not into necrophilia.

"Everybody, please-" Alaric called to attention, beckoning the other students to take their seats. "Let's start, shall we? Yesterday, we discussed a little bit about the origins of our democracy, which brought us to the Greeks. As some of you must know, the Greek civilization originated many of the terms and activities we know use-"

"Will we be talking about Greek Mythology?" Asked a girl Percy could recognize but didn't truly know. "The gods and all that bullshit?"

"Language," Alaric reprimanded, then moved towards the board and draw a familiar name on it.

The name struck like a blow to the head, and Percy forced herself to look away and try to control her erratic heart. The effect had been so instantaneous, she hated herself for being so weak and vulnerable. So pathetic.

"Kronos?" The same girl asked. "Why start with him? He was a Titan."

"He was also the father of the Olympian gods. We cannot talk about them without talking about him first."

Alaric started to talk about their story, but Percy couldn't- wouldn't- listen to it.

She looked away. Wasn't anyone aware that names had power?

The girl from before was talking again, "Okay so I know that Rhea fed him a rock instead of baby Zeus and when he grew up Zeus managed to fool him into throwing up the rest of the kids-"

Alaric's words seemed to get louder with every passing second. "Yes, you see, Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach."

"That's disgusting," The girl groaned as the whole room seemed to laugh at that idea, obviously not believing a word about that story.

Alaric merely smiled at their reactions. "The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld-"

Percy stopped breathing.

Flashes of the Underworld passed through her head, almost like the images she saw when Elijah connected their minds together, only that these she was seeing were her own memories.

She saw herself fighting against Hades and his army, fighting alongside Nico, then drowning for the first time in the River Styx. She felt the pain she'd felt while being there as if she were going though that again. The spot she'd selected back then as her Achilles Heel now hurt, which made her gasp silently.

She emerged from the deepest part of the river, and saw two people standing side by side at the edge of the river, waiting for her to come out. She took a deep breath, finally able to breathe after seeing Achilles, and watched as they grinned at her; Annabeth, with her Yankees' cap on, which was strange, because she turned invisible when she had it on, and Apollo, with his lyre out, as though ready to sing a song about that new adventure.

"Come on, sweetheart," Apollo urged her, his perfect smile making her melt. "Come out of the river."

"You're such a Kelp Head," Annabeth grinned at her. "Don't make us wait."

"Ms. Jackson?"

Percy blinked back to reality, only to find that the whole classroom had turned to look at her. Alaric's face was full of concern.

"I'm sorry, sir," Percy closed her eyes briefly, moving her hands to cup her own face and hide her shaky breathing.

Why had that felt so real? She could almost taste the horrible flavor those dark waters had.

"You look faint. Do you want to step out for a while? Get some fresh air?" Alaric asked her kindly. "Guys, give her space."

And around her, everyone close to her moved their seats away, giving her space to properly breathe.

Percy was going to accept the offer to leave, but when she looked towards the door, her whole body tensed, her head swimming around. Kronos was there, staring right at her with his harsh eyes and his feral grin, as though he was ready to eat her up in the same way he'd ate his children.

"Percy?" Stefan's voice was also laced with concern. It took her a second to realize he could hear and smell her fear and all those reactions her body was having.

The green-eyed girl shook her head. "It's okay, I'm just a little light-headed..."

"Stefan, take her to see the nurse, please-" Alaric knew Stefan was probably the only person that Percy could trust enough to let him wrap his arms around her and help her out.

Matt Donovan was already on his feet, moving to help Stefan, when Percy shook her head and raised her arms, successfully stopping any of those men from coming anywhere near her.

"Don't," She said, sounding shaken. "I can go alone."

The truth was, she didn't trust herself enough to be safe for any of them while getting trapped in so many flashbacks from the past. What if she ended having a blackout and killing them?

"Ms. Jackson-" Alaric sounded worried.

Percy opened her mouth, ready to protest, then she was forcefully sucked into something entirely different from before, and her whole body lost consciousness. The last thing she saw was Kronos' smirk, then nothing else. Tyler Lockwood, who was closest to where she had been standing, managed to catch her before she could hit her head on any of the desks.

Everyone gasped collectively, and Alaric took one step forwards, quick to help his student.

The young, rich boy was careful to take all her weigh upon his arms as he started to walk towards the door. "I'll take her to see the nurse, but I need someone to take her bag..."

Stefan moved to take her bag and follow them, since Percy was a friend, when Elena took hold of his arm and forced him to stay at her side. He frowned down at her, but then the frown was directed at Bonnie, who now had Percy's bag on her hands. The young witch looked ready to empty the bag and examine its content, which made the blonde vampire scowl and take one step forwards.

"Bonnie," Caroline forced herself to sound sweet and kind. "Stay here, Matt and I will take her bag."

The witch's eye flared angrily, but since everyone was looking at her, and Matt was already extending his hand to take the bag, she had no choice but to oblige.

Stefan locked eyes with Caroline as she walked away, and gave her a thankful look, one which the blonde vampire silently returned with a small nod.

"Class dismissed," Alaric called as he, too, moved to exit the room. "Um, homework: write an essay about Kronos and the reason he swallowed his kids." Collective groans filled the room as he moved to the door, only to be stopped.

"Where are you going?" Elena scowled, unable to believe all the chaos that happened just because that girl had fainted.

"Your English teacher is her stepfather," Alaric explained hurriedly, annoyed with the interruption. "He needs to know she fainted." And he was out of the door before the doppelgänger could distract him with more questions.

Elena turned to look at Stefan, who looked upset with her behavior for some strange reason she could not comprehend. She scoffed and started to secure her belongings into her own bag, frowning to herself as she felt her boyfriend's look on her figure.

"What?" She finally demanded, looking back at Stefan.

"What is your issue with Percy?" Stefan crossed his arms over his chest. "And don't try to deny it, we both know you despise her."

"Can you blame me?" Elena shot back, copying his posture and crossing her arms. "She's dangerous, Stefan. It's not my problem that now everyone, and I don't even know how, trust her and believe her to be innocent and good and I just-"

"Is this about Damon?" Stefan interrupted her, annoyance crossing his eyes as he stared at her. He had all the answers he needed when she sucked in a breath, eyes wide. He scoffed, and turned to leave.

"How can you trust her?" Elena demanded, making him stop. "None of you knows what she is, only that she's stronger and, somehow, more dangerous. And I just cannot understand how you can welcome her into your house and not fear for your safety-"

"For God's sake, Elena," Stefan was, beyond words, exasperated with the same conversation. "She's our friend."

"How?" Elena insisted, exploding too as she realized nothing she said seemed to enter his mind. "She's different every time I see her! She's got like a million different personalities and all of them seem to be dangerous! One day she's all laugh and she jokes around and she's happy, then the next day she glares at all of you as though you disgust her and-"

"She's human, Elena," Stefan raised his voice. "Her personality isn't written on stone, she has more than just one trait. Of course she's different every day. Humans are different every single fucking day, people change, people grow, she is not a fucking machine-" He took a deep breath, calming himself down. "She's a living being, one that is allowed to change perspectives and to have different moods regarding certain people. If she was always, let's say, harsh towards us, she would be the strangest creature-"

"Why are you defending her?" That was all Elena got, not his words, but the fact that he was defending her.

Stefan sighed deeply, then decided to simply leave.

There was nothing else to say to Elena, once her stubborn mind was made, she wouldn't drop her hatred towards that young green-eyed girl.

"Don't you dare leave me hanging-" Elena snarled.

But he was already out of the room.

And she was alone.

...

"We're making a pregnancy examination," The nurse, an old woman with strict features and a nasty grin, told Paul and Percy, who were sitting together in the crumpled, disgusting couch on the small nurse's office.

That's something else she hated about that public school: the poor health system it had. On her previous private schools, there were real infirmaries with more than one nurse ready to help. That one nurse in Mystic Falls High seemed to be older than the school itself, and she had only one test she wanted her to take: the pregnancy one.

When she said she felt hot, she got a bag of ice and nothing more, the nurse didn't even try to take her temperature to see if she had a fever.

"I'm not pregnant," Percy insisted, for the millionth time that day.

Paul gave her a look, one that told her he wouldn't believe her until the results came back. She groaned, moving to cover her face with her trembling hands.

"The results will come out in a few minutes-" The nurse started to say.

"I am not fucking pregnant!" Percy exploded, begging Paul with her eyes to believe her. "I want to go home, Paul, please-"

"You fainted, Persephone," Paul gritted his teeth. He never used her full name. "We're waiting for this test to be over, and then we'll go home. Understood?"

Percy wanted to scream at him, to tell him he wasn't funny when he tried to be a strict parent with her. Part of her wanted to remind him that it was literally impossible for her to be pregnant, but the way he looked at her made her stay silent.

He looked worried, yes, but he also looked angry and exasperated.

As though he, like the nurse and the whole school- she'd heard whispers from the hallways close to where they were-, honestly believed there was a chance of her being pregnant.

She wanted to cry.

"I'm not pregnant," She said quietly. "You have to believe me."

Paul couldn't meet her eye. He wanted to believe her, he honestly did, but she'd been behaving way too different those last couple of days. He didn't know if it was something on her, or if it was someone else making her change, he didn't know anything. Just that he was concerned about her.

He thought back to all the time she spent with the Salvatore brothers, and with Emma, who had a little brother. It could've been very easy for her to have sex with one of them; and it was all because Sally and him were liberal and let her go wherever she wanted to.

"Sweetheart-" Paul started. How could he explain that he was worried about her? That he knew her, and he was sure she didn't have the maturity enough to be a mother at seventeen.

Percy interrupted him, too angry to care about the noble motives behind his concern. "It's impossible for me to be pregnant. Unless, of fucking course, a gods' semen can last months insides my uterus without creating a fetus-"

She didn't use protection?

Paul focused on the wrong thing about her statement, he turned to look at her with disgust and concern written on his face. "You let Apollo cum inside of you?"

Percy groaned and hid her face between her hands again. "I hate you."

Apollo could never acquire any disease, it was literally impossible for him as a god. When they had sex, they used protection, but only to prevent her from getting pregnant and becoming a teenage mother. The only time they'd fucked- not making love, it was pure sex that day- had been after the second war, when both of them were too lost on each other to remember to use protection; they'd been separated from each other for such a long time that they couldn't care about anything that was not the feeling of each other's body, warm and familiar and welcomed; their love spilling out like an avalanche, blinding them.

Paul froze, not believing what he'd just heard the teenage girl say. "Percy-" He sounded hurt and offended.

Percy tried to swallow the ugly feeling, hating herself for hurting Paul. "No," She said quietly. "This is stupid and unnecessary. I want to go home."

"You're behaving like a child." Paul looked away, hiding the fact that a couple of tears had escaped his eyes. He had a mixture of feelings on him, though the one that predominated was anger.

Percy didn't move for almost an hour, which was shocking, for she usually needed to move around a lot, thanks to her ADHD. She stayed there, with her hands on her face. She didn't want Paul to see the tears that were running down her cheeks, nor the horrible blush that had covered her whole face.

She wanted children, but that was a far-away thought. Something she thought she'd have in the future.

She remembered once, how, after meeting one of Apollo's children, he'd looked at her with adoration and pure love. He really loved his children, even if he claimed he couldn't remember most of their names.

And back then, when everything was perfect between them, they'd thought about having a family together. But it was only that, a thought; something that, deep down, both of them knew would never happen. She was too young, he was too old. She was mortal, he was immortal.

Besides, the moment she'd get pregnant, he'd be forced to leave her.

That was how it worked, that was the main rule. Gods weren't allowed to see their mortal offsprings, which meant they wouldn't ever be together again.

"Five more minutes and it's done," The nurse's voice reached her ears, and Percy felt Paul tense.

Anger filled her senses. I am not pregnant. Percy rubbed her hands over her face again. Why can't they just believe me?

When the nurse came back with the results, which were obviously negative, a tense silence lingered on the room.

Paul wavered, doubtful as though how to apologize for acting the way he did. Percy waited for a couple of seconds, them scoffed and stormed away from the room. Of course he wasn't going to apologize.

"Percy-" Paul moved to follow her, only to stop when the nurse told him he had to sign some papers to be able to go home.

When he finally managed to escape from the nurse's office, he looked for Percy everywhere, but she was nowhere to be found.

...

The young demigoddess walked all the way from school to her neighborhood, where, instead of going to her own house, she walked towards the Salvatore's Boarding House. She knew it was just a matter of time before Paul got home, and she didn't want to see him.

She found Damon by the garden, hanging wet clothes on a string connected from one tree to the other. She watched with curiosity, never used to seeing him doing domestic chores.

"Who murdered your puppy?" Damon raised his eyebrows. He didn't need to turn to know she was annoyed, he could feel it on the air.

"Damon, do I look like a whore?"

The question made him scowl. "Um, no?"

He found a pair of women underwear on the bunch of clothes he was hanging, and turned to show them to her, as though saying I'm the real whore, look what I've got here.

"That's disgusting," She told him, which made him grin and mutter a "I know". Then she raised her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side. "Those are actually cute ones. If you don't know who they belong to, I'd be happy to keep them."

"Now who is disgusting?" Damon laughed, but threw the panties over his shoulder, knowing she'd catch them. "Anyways, why do you ask if you look like a whore?"

She raised her arms as if trying to find an answer to some existential question. He forced himself to hide the amused smile that was trying to cross his face.

"So, for some reason, a girl fainting is an obvious signal of said girl being pregnant. Regardless of the fact that she hasn't had sex in months."

A smirk grew on Damon's face, and Percy just knew she should've stayed quiet. "Is that why you're in a foul mood nearly all the time? You haven't had a good fuck in months?"

Percy rolled her eyes, a gesture she was starting to associate with the icy-eyed vampire. "You can thank my illnesses for my mood changes, not my lack of sexual life."

Damon's playfulness died away. "What do you mean?"

It was then that she remembered she hadn't told him about her conditions just yet. Now that she came to think about it, she realized she'd never talked much about herself with him, apart from the normal things anyone would know, like her favorite color and her least liked movie. But to talk about her own person in a depth level with him, not yet.

She scratched at her neck, almost distractedly. "I have ADHD and dyslexia." Also PTSD.

Damon studied her for a second, then pushed aside whatever he was thinking. He shrugged and turned away, having finished with the clothes, and started to walk towards his garage, knowing that the young girl would follow him.

"So?" Percy asked after a while, following his movements closely as he looked for something on some cupboards close to where he'd parked his car. Mostly, it were mechanic tools, so she ignored everything he did.

"So?" Damon repeated, raising an eyebrow at her.

"You're not going to say anything?"

The vampire straightened and turned to look at her, shrugging exaggeratedly. "About you having ADHD and dyslexia? Not really. It actually explains a lot of things about your personality."

"I'm trying not to feel offended," Percy crossed her arms. "Such as?"

"Such as the fact that your attention span is shorter than my love for humanity," Damon gave her one of his infamous sarcastic looks, one that she had grown to adore. "Like the fact that you repeat something about a million times without realizing it. And the fact that you're either too loud or too quiet, but never both at the same time. You also cannot focus on something even if your life depended on it-"

Percy defended herself, though his voice held no malice as it listed her traits. "ADHD is not an excuse, it's an explanation."

"I know," Damon assured her. "One of my buddies from the Army had ADHD too. His plans weren't the best ones, but we survived."

One of the things about their friendship that she was starting to dislike was the fact that, apart from the conversations they had everyday, they didn't know much of themselves. For example, he did not know that she was dyslexic before that moment, and she never knew he'd been in the Army.

She wanted to get to know him, the real him, not the one he allowed everyone to see. It would've scared her, a couple of months previous to that moment, the thought of getting so close to a monster to actually want to talk about her life with them, but Damon was different from other monsters.

For once, she could read him easily, which meant she pretty much knew how to control him and how to recognize the signs that meant he was about to go into a murderous rampage, and she knew how to stop him.

And, he was her friend.

Annoying as he was, she cared about him. Though she was just realizing it, not to mention that she would never admit that to anyone.

"When were you in the Army?" Percy asked, trying to see how he'd react to it.

Damon tilted his head to the side. Through the months they'd know each other, she never showed any interest about his personal life, and so he tried to hide his own curiosity about hers. Her effort now was noticeable, and, joyful, he wondered if that meant she started to trust him a little more.

"I was human when I joined," He answered easily. "During the Civil War- yes, the one they teach you about in History. Before you ask, no, I don't have any memorable memories about it, unless being a prisoner of war counts as one."

The teenage girl moved to sit over an old table full of more mechanical tools. Looking at them made her think of Leo, so she forced herself to concentrate only on the vampire watching her carefully. Once she was comfortable and he started mending his car again, she requested something of him, "Tell me more."

"Alright, goddess-" He cut himself off when he saw her smirking to herself. "What's so funny? Is it the nickname?"

Percy gave him a fond look. "It's a private joke, you wouldn't understand."

"Maybe you could make me understand."

She nodded, a perfect mask falling into place as she hid all the paranoia the thought of being more honest with him made her feel. When she spoke, a playful smile was plastered on her face, and her voice was as sarcastic and mischievous as always.

"Someday," She promised, and the part of her that wanted their friendship to keep growing, held into that promise.

She stayed all the afternoon with Damon, only to leave when Elena and Stefan arrived at the Boarding House.

Damon wanted Percy to stay for dinner, but, truthfully, having the doppelgänger and the daughter of Poseidon in the same room was a bad idea.

So she went home just in time for dinner, which passed by slower than she would've liked. Paul tried to talk with her, but she ignored him and went directly towards her room.

Sally was curious about the whole matter, but didn't ask either of them. She thought they had to work their differences and problems by themselves, she didn't want to get in the middle of them, because Paul was her husband and Percy her daughter. Her loyalties were divided, though part of her was always going to love her daughter more than her husband. So, it wouldn't be fair.

When the demigoddess entered her room, she was quick to collapse against her bed and stare at the ceiling.

It was then, just as she started to go over every event that happened to her that day, that she realized the Original vampire never came back as he said he would.

It was a good thing, because, since other things happened and distracted her, she didn't have time to try to contact Poseidon and ask for his help in getting the other Originals from the ocean.

Somehow, while thinking about everything she still had to do, she fell asleep.

...

The green-eyed, dark-haired demigoddess knew where she was before knowing what was happening. She could never forget that place, for multiple reasons, one of them being that it was too breathtakingly beautiful to be so easily forgotten, the other being that it held too many memories- both good and bad ones- for her to be able to delete it out of her memory.

Olympus.

She walked aimlessly forwards, not knowing where to go but unable to stop walking.

Percy remembered the summer she spent up there with the daughter of Athena, helping her re-built what had been lost in the First War; the multiple occasions she slept there, on a bed the size of Mystic Falls, wrapped in the loving embrace of a warm god.

"Hello?" Percy found herself calling out.

She knew then that she was dreaming, because she always hated when people in movies called out for someone when a place was scarily empty.

She passed a couple of Muses- Calliope and Erato- and said, "Hey, girls, I don't understand-"

They were crying their hearts out, and when Percy tried to touch their arms to stop them from walking away, her hand passed through them as if made of air. Panic settled at her stomach, but then she forced herself to remember it was normal in most dreams.

A demigod's dream.

Another one.

"Girls, if you could just tell me why I'm here," Percy called out to Calliope and Erato. As was to be expected, they just cried and continued walking. "...so you can't even see me."

She was having another demigod dream? Two in one day? How?

She immediately thought the worse; the last time she had a demigod dream about Olympus, nothing good happened. She could still close her eyes and see the events of the second war. It was all so fresh, but at the same time...

The same amount of time had passed between the first and the second war. The same amount of months; did that mean another war would rage now? Was it time for another war?

She felt like puking into Hera's plants.

Who could be Olympus' enemy now? Kronos and Gaea were pretty much the main antagonist of every massive war, and they were already defeated.

Maybe Olympus' next enemy could be a cute bunny, one that could be easily defeated with lots of hugs. That sounded like a war Percy would love to be part of.

She forced herself to keep walking. The dream would only end after she saw whatever she was supposed to see, that much was common knowledge.

"And here I thought Olympus could never be creepy." Everywhere she went, she was met with an emptiness that was getting on her nerves. Where was everyone? Where was the music, the laugher? The annoyingly handsome deities walking around?

Why were Calliope and Erato crying? Percy knew them- she actually knew the Nine Muses- and they were always happy, always inspiring and bright. What could happen to make them suffer like that?

She crossed one of the hallways that had been destroyed in the First War, the memories that came back were so unbearable she had to turn away and walk in the other direction. Thinking about the First War made her think of Kronos' plan- she always ended up thinking about him- and a new thought settled into her mind.

Olympus was the home of the gods.

But now it was empty.

Kronos had wanted to defeat the gods and empty Olympus for far longer than humanity itself.

In the First War, he wanted to destroy the Hall of the Gods. The place where most of their council meetings were held at, the place where their thrones were at. A god's power is connected to their thrones, so destroying their throne was one of the ways to defeat a god-

Percy sucked in a breath. The throne room.

She started to run in the direction of the Hall of the Gods, not caring if that was not where she was supposed to be at, nor caring if she missed whatever she was supposed to see and would end up being stuck in Morpheus realm forever. She could only remember what Kronos had attempted to do, what he'd almost managed to do, what it would've caused.

That was what would've happened if Kronos destroyed their thrones back in the First War: Olympus, empty and deserted of every deity, and the ones remaining, lonely and suffering.

Was that happening then? Was she seeing Olympus' downfall?

When she got to the throne room, her fear evaporated when she saw it in all its glory, no sign of destruction in the most important room of all Olympus. Her knees felt weak for an unknown reason, which made her walk slowly inside the room.

It had been so long since she'd been there...

She crossed her father's throne, and smiled a little when she was met with the familiar smell of salt-water and sea-breeze. She was tempted to do what she'd done all those years back, to sit there and have his attention on her. But it wasn't worth it; he wouldn't notice her, it was a dream, she wasn't really there.

"Oh, father-" Percy sighed. "I miss you lots."

Somehow, she found herself in front of Apollo's throne. He'd let her sit with him there, one of the times where Zeus wasn't bothered with her presence and had let her stay for one of their usual divine meetings. Poseidon had been reluctant to see them together, but when he saw that they were just together, not doing anything at all, he relaxed.

Apollo just wanted to hold her hand through the meeting, - those were so boring, he loved when he could have Percy there to extinguish his boredom- and she'd been pretty silent, scared of messing up and gaining the wrath of twelve powerful gods at the same time.

Afterwards, Apollo would tell her that if she just accepted immortality, she'd always have a throne to sit at in those boring council meetings. He made it sound tempting when he said they could make fun of everyone else together in every meeting.

And some days, she'd consider it. Immortality sounded quite nice- even when she didn't want it- when it meant being with the person you loved the most forever.

Percy groaned and looked away, disgusted with herself. "Love-struck idiots. Pathetic. Hopeless romantics. Fucking idiots..."

But she stayed by his throne for a little while, enjoying the familiar warmth it emanated. His warmth. She closed her eyes and fought against the pain that tried to make its way into her heart.

Why did she miss him so much? She was supposed to be over it- and to some extent, she could go a few days, a few hours, a few moments, without thinking about him- but then some days she woke up thinking about him, and ended her day with him still on her mind.

And honestly, hearing him speak with his siblings about her, and hearing that he still cared and that he missed her as much as she missed him, didn't help at all.

Then she opened her eyes, and a scream caught at her throat.

She staggered back, almost falling into Hestia's hearth in the middle of the room. She started to cry- unable to stop the tears from falling not the screams from leaving her mouth.

Her father, Poseidon, lay on the nearest throne- which was not his'- mauled and cut into pieces. His head was on the seat, his arms by the floor, his legs on the armchairs. His eyes followed Percy's movement, tears on his own immortal gaze. His mouth had been sewed together, so no words came out of it.

Percy fell to the floor, shocked and confused and so overwhelmed she had no idea what to do.

Then it got worse when she looked around and found out that the other twelve Olympians were in the same condition that her father was.

Ares and Aphrodite, their bodies so mutilated and together no one could ever find out which limb belonged to whom. Dionysus, with one of his feet stuck on his screaming mouth, as if he'd ate himself. Hermes, strangled by his snakes and seemingly green with their venom; it looked as if Martha and George had ate him and then puked him. Athena, decapitated, then stitched together in a way that made no sense; with her head where his right arm was supposed to go, and vice-versa.

Apollo, his eyes- his beautiful, gorgeous eyes- laying by the floor, almost in front of Percy's own feet. His face, full of beastly scratches and red marks, empty sockets full of blood where his eyes were supposed to be, his head still glued to his body, but no legs nor arms, those were at the other side of the room. His internal organs were laying in a pool of blood by his abdomen.

Seeing him, Percy screamed louder and started to puke, unable to stop herself from emptying her stomach and unable to stop crying.

"Percy- Percy-" Apollo's voice was barely audible, but she heard it.

The gods were immortal- the realization that every single one of them was alive and conscious in that moment made her want to throw up again.

She cried harder. She extended her hands towards him, but couldn't move. She was frozen, covered in her own vomit and lightheaded from the shock.

"Help-" Hermes couldn't move his lips, the venom coursing through his body being too strong for him to even blink.

Percy's body didn't answer her distressed desires to do something- anything!- to help them. She tried to approach them, but her legs wouldn't hold her weight. She tried to crawl towards them- towards her father, towards her friends- but every time she tried to, an invisible pressure pushed her against the floor.

"Don't-" Apollo gagged, they'd even cut his tongue out. "Don't touch her..."

"Percy-" Hermes tried again. He tried to move, to do anything, but could not. "Watch- Watch out."

Poseidon kept making distressed sounds, but no actual words could come through the thick thread tying his lips together.

The other gods were too weak to attempt to ask for help, too weak to move. But their eyes, bloody and damaged and some even missing, followed her every move with desperation; making it worse for her to concentrate.

Percy screamed and screamed, wearing herself out every time she tried to help them, to move towards them, to run away...

She had to look out for whoever harmed the gods- if it was powerful enough to harm them, it could easily kill her- but the more she tried to stand and do something- even if that something was run away- the more she was pushed into the ground.

"Look out!" Apollo and Hermes cried out at the same time, followed by Poseidon making strange, strangled sounds.

Percy ducked, which made the person meaning to attack her fall to the floor in front of her. Percy wasted no time and pinned her against the floor, only to stop when that woman turned around and snarled at her.

Startled, Percy took several steps back, bumping against one of the god's limbs and falling on her butt.

It was like looking into a distorted mirror.

She knew that she was seeing herself, but the picture was not quite right.

Percy looked at Apollo and Hermes, wondering what was going on; what kind of monster could morph itself to look just like her, to then gag and look away when she was met with the empty socks of her ex-boyfriend and the melting face of the messenger god.

"Cat got your tongue?" The girl taunted her.

What disturbed Percy the most was how feral she looked; how she grinned with all her teeth and how her eyes were so wide they almost seemed to bounce off her face. It was disturbing to look at, more so when she looked so much like herself.

"Who are you?" Percy demanded, though trembling from head to toe. That girl looked so dark, so dangerous. "Don't make me ask twice, introduce yourself."

That girl laughed loudly, a familiar laugh that made Percy's blood run cold. It was a mix of her own laugher, but with a hint of distortion that made her think of those movies where the protagonist was possessed and their voice sounded strange.

Was that some kind of demon?

Percy's head could think better now that she wasn't forced to look at the gods anymore, she could think more clearly now that she was staring right back at herself, or someone that looked like her.

The girl groaned in disgust. "I can't believe how pathetic I was. Look at you- I can't believe I behaved like that." She was talking as if Percy and her were the same person.

A deep sense of fear settled at Percy's stomach and made her feel breathless once again; that couldn't mean...

"Who are you?" Percy breathed out, this time more quietly.

The girl raised her hand towards her.

And Percy was choking.

From her insides to her outsides, choking; on her own internal fluids, on the water that ran through her body, choking unlike ever before.

It struck her then, and Percy wasn't sure if she was still choking or if she was simply blacking out, the realization that, since that girl had her powers and her looks, that meant she was not a monster; that was just herself.

"This?" The girl laughed. "This is you, in the near future."

"Don't listen to her-" Apollo choked. Percy couldn't look at him, she couldn't look at any god in that room. Had she really done all that? "That's not- that's not true."

"What would our Golden Boy know?" Kronos appeared besides that girl, and then at her other side appeared Gaea. The three of them smiled at Percy in such a way that made her flinch. "Right now he can't even see you."

Percy realized then that it was not a demigod's dream.

It was just another nightmare.

That place wasn't real, Kronos wasn't real, that girl wasn't real, none of the gods were real.

It was hard to convince herself of that when everything felt real.

"And our poor daddy-" The girl smirked. "Oh, excuse me, I don't mean Apollo. I mean our actual, biological daddy." Percy looked at Poseidon, an invisible force making it impossible to look away. "We can say he lost his head worrying about you."

"You're not real," Percy said, though it was more for her own benefict than for theirs.

"You can say that for as long as you please," The girl gave her an amused look. "It won't change the fact that we're pretty much real, and that, thanks to you, we're getting stronger."

"I love it when you use that tone of voice," Kronos purred, leaning down and capturing her earlobe between his teeth. His hands gripped her hips and pushed her against his chest. "Do it again."

The worse happened when she pushed her ass against his crotch, smirking when he moaned and assaulted her neck with his mouth. Percy started screaming, which made Gaea smirk at her and then join the other two in what they were doing. The old woman started to kiss her on the lips, and she was kissing right back.

The worse thing was, everything they were doing to her, Percy could feel it as if they were doing it to her own body.

She could feel Gaea's tongue exploring her mouth, leaving a path of mud everywhere it touched; she could feel Kronos' erection rubbing against her back, his agitated breathing against her neck.

Percy gagged and started choking, though this time it had nothing to do with her powers. She started to scream and cry as loud as she could, but her voice broke every time she tried to.

"I'm dying to get out of Tartarus already," Kronos' eyes flared dangerously, and for a long, frightening moment, Percy didn't know if it was Luke or Kronos who was lusting over her. "I can't wait to make you mine."

...

When Damon Salvatore felt what could only be described as an earthquake, his first instinct was to check on his little brother.

It was a knee-jerk reaction, something he was used to do when they were humans and a phenomenon of the such happened.

So he moved as swiftly as he could towards Stefan's room, never imaging how hard it was going to be to move around; that was quite a powerful earthquake.

He wished he'd stayed in his room when he saw Stefan hugging the naked figure of Elena Gilbert, who was wide eyed and apparently very scared of what was happening.

"What-" Stefan started, quickly covering the body of his girlfriend as swiftly as he could with all the movement around.

"Earthquake," Damon told the happy couple, grinning sarcastically at them. The books in Stefan's bookshelf started to fall to the floor. "In case you didn't notice."

Before Stefan could make a remark about his observation skills, they heard a scream pierce the air in the distance.

Both looked at each other before Damon used his inhuman velocity to gaze out the window. Stefan tried to do the same, but Elena wouldn't let him move from her side.

"This is the longest earthquake I've ever felt," Stefan called out, the movement and the friction were so strong he could barely hear a word he said. The earth made a sound as it moved, which was normally rarely ever heard, but that day it was as loud as could be.

Damon looked towards the only house close to his own, the Jackson's residence, only to find out it was shaking harder than the rest of the place, and that the screams were coming from there.

"The screaming comes from my girl's house," Damon scowled, wondering if that meant any of them was hurt. "I'm going to check on her-"

"This is not normal," Elena whimpered, interrupting him, "Earthquakes are not supposed to last this long. Please don't go."

She was ignored; who could take her seriously when she was naked on Stefan's arms yet asking Damon to stay in the house with them?

"Percy might need my help," Damon looked at Stefan, his glacial-blue eyes filled with concern. His brother scoffed, and Damon was forced to roll his eyes. "Alright, never mind."

Stefan chuckled a little. "Remember how she punched you when you opened that jar for her? She called you sexist and said she could've opened it herself."

"She gave me a speech about feminism and how girls can do pretty much everything a man does. Not sure what it had to do with me opening a jar for her," Damon smirked bemusedly.

Another scream pierced the air, making his amusement die away.

"Do you think she's hurt?" Stefan frowned in concern.

Damon groaned. "If I go check on her and she's fine, she's going to bite my head off. You know she hates to feel weak."

"Maybe she's just scared," Elena gritted her teeth. "Anyone would be terrified of this thing-"

"Not Percy," Stefan and Damon answered at the same time. "Sometimes I think she's not scared of anything."

Elena scowled at them. "You two have gotten really close to her, huh?-" She swallowed the bittersweet lump on her throat, looking at Damon instead of Stefan when she asked, "So now you like her?"

Damon gave her a look, and said, "Ask me that when you're not naked and on my brother's bed,", which made her blush and look away abashedly. Stefan pursed his lips and also looked away.

"She might need help-" Stefan started to say. "Remember Sally's pregnant, she could be hurt-"

Damon didn't need to hear more, he was already on the street before Stefan had finished talking. He'd never been invited inside their house, so he couldn't enter and check on them, so he jumped on a tree close to Percy's window, and peaked inside.

He saw the most disturbing thing he'd seen in a long time.

Percy was trashing against her bed, screaming with her eyes closed and tears running down her cheeks, almost like a possessed girl or someone having an epileptic episode. Her mother and stepfather were holding her back against the bed while screaming at her to wake up.

…Wake up?

Damon narrowed his eyes and forced his hearing to improve.

"Percy, please-" Sally was crying, that much he could notice. "Please, wake up-!"

"Sweetheart," Paul was using a soft voice that was meant to calm her down. "Please, you need to wake up. Percy-"

How could anyone sleep through that thing? It was hard to even think with all that movement.

The house shook harder than before, in sync with the new scream that came from Percy's lips, almost as if the earth moving had to do with her.

Sally looked at Paul, tears of desperation running down her cheeks. "We need to wake her up before it gets worse."

"I-I have an idea," Paul swallowed. "Though it might make it worse..."

"I don't care," Sally breathed out. "We have to try everything. She needs to wake up before her earthquake destroys the whole town."

What? Damon lost balance for a second, then steadied himself in time to see how Paul took her in arms and then lowered herself into a small fountain on the room. Her earthquake?

The vampire jumped from the tree to the window, wanting to see more closely what was happening. Was Percy causing the earthquake?

Percy gasped when her skin touched the water, but her eyes flew open; though her screams didn't die down. Sally quickly grabbed her face between her hands and tried to calm her down.

"Percy, dear, look at me-" Sally cooed. "Look at me. You're safe, you're home."

"You're safe," Paul repeated, drawing circles all over her back. She stopped screaming, though she kept whimpering. "Please, dear, breathe, you're turning blue."

Percy breathed deeply.

"You're safe," Sally repeated. "You're home. You're safe. We're here with you."

The earth stopped shaking as suddenly as it had started.

For a moment, no one moved.

It took the young green-eyed girl a moment to orientate herself and realize where she was; but a short second to realize what she'd done.

Percy started to cry quietly, body trembling with her silent sobs. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Sally and Paul steadied themselves before sharing a look and taking Percy on their arms, hugging her as she cried and trembled against them. Damon had never seen the young girl look as frightened and shaken as she did in that moment; it was as if he were seeing a completely different person from the strong girl he knew.

It was bizarre.

Damon jumped off the window and into the garden. The small trail he had to walk to get to his house felt like the longest of trips, though in reality it was just a minute or two. He didn't even use his inhuman velocity, he walked like a mortal might walk after discovering something shocking.

He couldn't stop thinking about what he saw.

He stopped when he got to the porch of the Boarding House, and looked back until his eyes met the Jackson residence in the distance. The screaming had stopped, as had the desperate shouts of Percy's parents, but if he strained his hearing enough, he could still hear her soft sobs, he could hear her apologizing over and over again for losing control like that.

For causing an earthquake.

She had caused the earthquake, he could hear her regret.

Worse than everything, if he tried really hard, he could smell her fear. The chemicals that her body produced when frightened were so strong that he, in the other side of the street, almost inside his own house, could smell it if he just tried to.

Damon closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the door, a feeling of impotence eating away at his stomach. That teenage girl, that kid, was his friend. Seeing her in pain was destroying him; more so when he was sure she would never mention anything of the such to him.

Percy would never let him help her, she would never confide in him enough to share her fears with him.

He could never know what was bothering her.

He had never, not even when he realized the love of his life never truly loved him, felt worse than he did in that moment.

"Damon?" Elena was standing in front of him. "Are you okay?" Her voice was so kind, she looked really concerned.

For a split second, Damon wanted to believe her concern had a deeper, more romantic, meaning to it. He was tempted to close the distance between them and crash their lips together for what could be the greatest kiss of his whole life, a kiss that would compete against the Big Bang itself from how glorious and overpowering it was going to be. A kiss that would ignite his damned soul and set fire to his insides and outsides. But then he remembered he'd seen her naked and on his brother's bed countless times before, he remembered she told him she could never love him, he remembered how much she claimed to love Stefan.

He told her to go home.

"What?" Elena blinked, started by his request. She waited for him to say something else- to ask her to stay, Damon realized- but then the silence stretched and stretched until the only remaining sound between them was the sound of a soft breeze passing through the trees, and the never ending sound of Percy's sobs.

Damon couldn't get that sound off his head, even when he was sure she'd stopped crying already, the sound of her pain was stuck in his brain like a virus; it didn't stop, it was like a broken record that wouldn't stop repeating the same depressing verse of the same depressing music, over and over and over again.

"Go home, Elena," Damon closed the distance between them, not to kiss her, but to enter the house and maybe get a drink or two on his system before going to bed.

The young doppelgänger stared at him, taking in the way he looked almost off.

Not in the usual way- he didn't look like he'd killed someone or like he ached to kill someone-, he looked strange in a new way that she had never imagined in him.

"Are you okay?" She insisted.

Damon closed the door almost on her face. She blinked and scoffed in disbelief. He didn't ask her to stay? What was wrong with him?

Elena pondered on that question for a long time, - what was wrong with Damon? Didn't he trust her?- while walking down the porch steps and towards her car. Once inside, she locked the doors and ignited the motor, accidentally looking the wrong way as she put her seat-belt on, and staring right at the house next door. Percy's house.

She gritted her teeth and angrily stepped on the gas pedal, wanting to put as much distance between anything related to that girl and herself as was humanly possible. Whatever was happening to Damon, it had to with that new girl, Elena was sure about it.

New girl. It annoyed Elena how much attention she was still receiving from everyone in school. She wasn't new anymore, she'd lived in town for two months now, yet people still lingered on her, as if she would always be the new girl.

It made her angry that no one doubted her anymore. Damon and Stefan were now, apparently, very close to her. And every time she tried to talk to Alaric about it, the older man quickly steered the conversation away from its original topic, as if he didn't share her thoughts on the matter.

Bonnie ignored her as much as she could, though occasionally the doppelgänger would see her sending glares in the other girl's direction.

Elena just didn't get it.

How could they forget so easily how dangerous she was? She was immune to Bonnie's powers and she was stronger than Damon and Stefan. A girl like that was not normal. Didn't they realize Percy could be a treat to her? Didn't they care about her well-being anymore?