A/N: Yeah, so I think Ranger might've died or something, thank goodness. Either that or she just ran out of things to say. Maybe if we're really quiet, she won't come back!
Foolish mortal. I shall never leaveth thou.
Ah, Styx.
Doeth thou the new disclaimer.
Oh, right.
Disclaimer: WARNING! Some conversations from the past and future chapters were taken from the CW's The Flash. Blame the logical one for her lack of creativity.
Really guys?
Favorites: ZeAwsumOtaku, Death's Desolation, Jrpn, and TheEmeraldBadger.
Followers: ZeAwsumOtaku, Death's Desolation, Jrpn, nightwatcher55, budhayes, and TheEmeraldBadger.
CharlotteHarrison: Truly, I admire your dedication. You sure did that fast. One might even say it was done in a...flash. :)
Daughter of Trickery: Not totally sure which part is wow, but...thanks! :)
Turtlepower12: Yeah, I accidentally put a lot more serious feelings than I had ever intended to put in this entire story. I'm not totally sure if I like it. I just might have Percy call Oliver Queen of Archers to his face at some point, just for kicks. I would also really like to hear cats meowing "Amazing Grace". That's be awesome. But, yeah. Emotions are running high after that last chapter! Mwah ha ha ha ha ha! :)
Hope4All: Yeah, he will tell Iris that Savitar's back. To be honest, I ended it there because I felt like people were using Savitar as a one word answer too much, even though that's really all you need to say with Team Flash. The stone Cisco was referring to was the Philosopher's Stone. Writing the accents for Nazi Percy and Annabeth was actually really hard. Not so much the ze's and zis's, but all the other little nuances and stuff. As for Nazi Percy and Annabeth aligning themselves with Kronos, I think that would honestly be a pretty typical behavior. Nazis valued strength, right? Well, Kronos definitely had that. I happen to love Harry Potter, and I hope my reviews helped. :)
the Bass Beast: Thanks! I'm so glad you liked the little mini story. That's just been sitting in my Drive for a while. Anyways, it's possible that Percy will have a role to play. You'll have to wait and see. Mwah ha ha ha ha ha! Yeah, I'm super excited to bring in Leo and Jason. Enjoy the chapter! :)
BisexualKitsune: I'm so happy you liked the little mini chapter! And yeah, I'm ready for Percy to kick some serious booty too. I'm getting frustrated too, even though I'm writing it. I think that's partly because I don't know exactly how this story will end. I have a vague idea, but... :)
Guest: Not sure what you mean by that, but uh...thank you? :)
Allonships: So glad you liked it! Enjoy the chapter! :)
RosettaQueen20: Yeah, I might incorporate a little bit more of that later, but I'm not sure. I was trying to keep this story very light and silly without delving into some of the darker stuff brought up in season three and in Percy's personality later on. I've never really liked the way I wrote more serious situations, but if it's good enough for you guys, it's good enough for me. Well, not really. But I'm glad y'all seemed to like it. :)
Ocean Girl: Glad you enjoyed the chapter and mini story! And yeah, I almost (read: totally) cried (read: bawled my eyes out) at the end of the crossover for several reasons. For one: STEEEEEIIIIIINNNNN! Also, the weddings were just so beautiful. :)
FavFan: Well, I've always though that's just the kind of person Percy is. Even if he's mad at you, you are still his friend and he's still loyal to you. Although personally? I would've torn Barry's face off or something. :)
nathanblack55: Well, that's not really the story I like, per se, but I thought it was fun to write. Yeah. There were really only a few words in German, and they said something along the lines of "Intruder! Intruder in the camp!" and "Why do you speak the wrong language?" :)
"Why didn't Wally say something earlier?" Iris asked quietly. Funny thing: everyone seemed to be treating Iris like this fragile little piece of glass that would break at any moment. I had a feeling that was exactly the opposite of how she wanted people to interact with her. Yeah, I might not know her all that well, but I knew Annabeth, and I think those two have the same spirit. I know Annabeth would want everyone to push her harder than they had before, if anything were to change at all, because she would want to live the last few months of her life to the fullest.
"He…"Cisco faltered. "He thought it was in his head, I guess. He didn't want us to worry when he thought he was just hallucinating."
Joe frowned. "So Savitar must get out of wherever he is eventually, but he's still trapped for now, right?"
"Yeah," Barry agreed. "I need to talk to him again."
Caitlin walked back into the room. "Good news. I finally got ahold of Julian."
"Good," Barry answered. "We're going to need him."
Finally, I stopped just leaning against the wall and watching the conversation passively. "Okay, sorry to interrupt, but why do you need that Draco Malfoy dude?"
Everyone looked at me funny. "Draco Malfoy dude?" Caitlin repeated. "What do you mean by that? His name is Julian."
I stared at her. "Come on, don't tell me you haven't noticed he looks exactly like an older version of the actor who plays Draco Malfoy. And besides, the Philosopher's Stone? Might as well just take me to Hogwarts now."
Barry glared at me as if to say, Now isn't the time, idiot.
I scowled right back. You're walking on thin ice, buddy. Remember what I said earlier.
Barry finally backed off a little and just answered the question. "Julian was connected to Savitar through the Philosopher's Stone. So, we can speak to Savitar through him."
HR raised a hand tentatively. "Not to be a joy-kill," Cisco shook his head at HR's messed up slang, "but didn't we throw that stone into the Speed Force? We can't connect them anymore."
"Actually, we can," Cisco corrected. "We still have Savitar's special frequency. I think that'll be enough."
Julian rounded the corner and walked in. "What's going on?"
"I don't even know," I said shaking my head. "They wanna talk to this speed demon, apparently."
Barry turned to look at Julian, a slightly pleading expression on his face. "No," Julian responded flatly to the unvoiced question. "No. Not again." He turned and stalked off into some unknown room in STAR Labs and Caitlin, after looking after him for a few seconds, followed.
Barry sighed and pulled Iris closer to him protectively. HR blew out a huge gust of air. "Whew. Crazy stuff, right?"
Cisco drew his hand across his throat in a not now gesture. Or it could've been I will slit your throat and watch you bleed out. I always find it hard to differentiate between the two.
There were a few moments of awkward silence, but before it got like, super weird just watching Barry and Iris cuddle, Oliver and Kara came back, Big Belly Burger bags in hand. Again, no McDonalds, thank the gods.
Oliver cleared his throat awkwardly, which wasn't a sound I had ever expected to hear from his throat. "So, Barry…" Barry looked up at him curiously. "Kara and I were talking, and we think it's time for both of us to go home."
"Yeah," Kara agreed. "I mean, the cats are taken care of now, right? Well, at least, they're caged," she corrected herself.
Barry nodded hesitantly. "Yeah. Yeah, I get it. We all have our problems, right? Yeah," he continued. "We can get you home."
"I'm taking the train," Oliver insisted. Relatable. Barry might think running at super speed is fun, but it really does a number on the stomach if you aren't used to it. Although personally, I don't get motion sick, because Poseidon.
"Okay. Yeah, um...thanks for helping out guys. Cisco, do you wanna…?"
"On it," Cisco replied. "Come on, Kara. I'll show you to the breach room." Kara stepped forward and gave Barry a quick hug before following Cisco out the room.
Oliver looked Barry dead in the eyes and said, "It'll turn out okay. You'll see." Then he, too, turned and headed out the door.
Barry's eyes turned to my direction, not quite looking at me, but looking close enough to me that no one else could really tell. "I suppose you want to go home too?"
I thought about it for a second. On one hand, it might be nice to go home. I could see Annabeth, help them with the cats over there, rescue the new campers being trained by Clarisse. But I also felt bad for Barry. Even though I was technically still mad at him, the guy was trying to save his fiance from a terrible death that seemed inevitable. I could relate. Not the fiance part, but - actually, you know, maybe pretty soon…
Ahem. Anyways, Barry was pretty obviously out of his depth, and believe me, I know what I'm talking about. I am the son of the sea god, after all.
I sighed. "Nah, I'll stick around for a little while longer. Like you said, we've all got our problems and the cats are mine. I'll do my best to help you guys figure out how to stop them for good." Barry nodded his thanks.
Only a few seconds later, Julian, Caitlin, and Cisco walked back into the Cortex. "Alright," Julian announced. "I'll do it."
Three minutes later, we were in some fancy room deep in STAR Labs. Julian was hooked up to a bunch of machines and was obviously nervous.
Cisco was still attaching various wires to things, but finally finished and passed some kind of headset to Julian, who grabbed it. "Julian, you're gonna be okay. You know the drill. Just let your mind go blank. We'll take care of the rest, okay?"
Julian put adjusted the headset and put it on. "Just let Savitar back into the driver's seat once more. Brilliant."
"Thank you," Barry said almost instinctively.
Julian glanced at him. "Let's just get this over with, yeah?"
Cisco hit a few buttons as Julian closed his eyes a put his head back. The machines whirred as Julian breathed deeply.
Before even two seconds passed, Julian gasped suddenly, startling everyone in the room. Then, just as suddenly, he stopped, and his eyes shot open. "Bow before my greatness." I snorted. "Be in awe, as you are in the presence of the Almighty."
The other members of Team Flash rolled their eyes, but I took him at face value. If this guy was gonna claim to be a god, might as well treat him like one, right? Right.
I chuckled as I stepped forward. "Look, buddy, if you're really a god, you should know that I ain't bowing. Percy Jackson does not bow; not even to Zeus. And If I don't bow to Zeus, I sure as Hades ain't bowing Hindu-wanna-be-Olympian psychopath."
Everyone in the room, including Savitar, slowly turned to look at me like, Do you have a death wish?! I actually don't know. I mean, I seem to get that reaction a lot, so maybe.
Savitar stared at me through Julian's eyes, unblinking and kind of crazy looking. "Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon," he said in that distorted voice. "What are you doing here?"
I smiled brightly. "Oh, so you have heard of me! Well, that's great, because I hate to brag, you know? And I really didn't want to have to tell you about the time I defeated Medusa. Or fought Atlas. Or held the sky. Or defeated Kronos. Or Hyperion. Or Gaea."
"You would be wise to fear me," Savitar asserted. "I am a god."
"Enough with the religious nonsense. You were just a man. Like me," Barry interrupted.
Savitar didn't scowl, but his head slowly turned in Barry's direction. His contempt was palpable (ooh, that's a good word) in every word he spat. "I am nothing like you, Barry. You're cruel. You're selfish. From my perspective, you're the big bad."
HR and I scoffed in unison, "Stupid."
Savitar ignored me and talked to HR instead. "Still here, pretender? Still trying to find your place?"
"I found my place," HR corrected cooly. "It's standing here with these people, against you."
Savitar smiled cruelly. "You know, the sad thing is that you live. You survived my wrath. The coward. Irony."
"Where are you? You said that I trapped you in the future, where?" Barry asked. Wow, I thought. Way to not let him know what it is you want to know and wait for him to accidentally volunteer the information.
"The only place you could think of," Savitar rasped. "The only place that could hold me."
Barry cocked his head slightly. "How long have you been imprisoned?"
"Long enough to lose my mind several times over."
I snorted. "Well, that explains a lot."
But Savitar ignored me again and kept talking. "It's only my will that keeps me this side of sanity."
Cisco frowned. "You know, it's funny, when I think of sanity I don't necessarily think of Savitar."
"Well, that's because you're small, Cisco," Savitar retorted.
"Dude, he's not that short," I argued raising a hand in Cisco's direction, but Savitar ignored me yet again. What the Hades was wrong with this dude?
"You've always been small. Reverb told you you could have been a god. But instead, you'd rather work as-" he sniffed distastefully- "tech support."
"You want to tell me why we're enemies?" Barry asked.
"Because we had to be," Savitar responded immediately.
"Yeah, and I had throw Leo's toolbelt to the bottom of the lake when he nailed all the beds in my cabin to the roof." Once more, I was ignored.
"Only one of us could live. You thought that Thawne and Zoom were your biggest foes, but but it's me. It's always been me, Barry."
Joe shook his head hopelessly. "Man, what did we ever do to you?
Savitar's voice remained the same, but I got the feeling that if his voice weren't distorted, he'd be screaming. "You took everything from me! I never asked for any of this, Joe. I am only this way because of you. All of you!"
Barry ignored it. "When do we meet?"
Savitar smiled evilly. "Not long now. You're there when I become who I am."
"You're saying I caused you to get your speed? I created you?"
"Oh, no. I created myself, Barry. Only I can bring out my greatness."
"Your greatness? Well, you're still trapped, wherever you are, and I don't know how you're gonna escape. I mean, we got rid of the Philosopher's Stone."
Savitar's lips twitched. "Did we? I am closer to my freedom than I have ever been. Every step, every move that you make, it only brings me nearer to it. I only need one more thing."
"Why won't you talk to me?" I asked Savitar curiously. He tried to ignore me again, but I knew he heard me. Then something clicked. "I'm not supposed to be here, am I?" I started talking faster, warming to the idea. "You're from the future. You know how everything is supposed to play out, but I'm not supposed to be a part of it, am I? You're scared. You're scared that if I get involved, I'll change things and you will end up losing."
Savitar finally looked at me. "I'm not the one who should be afraid of you." I felt my heart drop into my shoes.
"What?" I finally managed, a faint smile flickering on and off my face.
"Your being here can do far more damage than I could ever orchestrate from my prison. If you had any loyalty to these people, you'd solve your problems on your own earth, not burden these people." He waved his hand around the room. "How can anyone, including you, possibly focus on stopping me when you're focused on stopping yourself?"
He knows. My hearing was nonexistent for a few moments as I processed that. I wasn't even sure the Olympians knew we were having trouble with our powers, and certainly not anyone on this earth except for Oliver and (formerly on this earth) Kara.
When I could hear again, Iris finally spoke up. She looked just to the side of Savitar, not fully acknowledging him. "Man, do you love to hear yourself talk."
"Iris, trying to show that you're not afraid? But I know you are," Savitar assured her. "I'm sorry that you have to die. But it's you or me. And despite your feeble efforts to change the future, you can't, because I am the future Flash."
"Oh my gods," I said. "Oh my gods. Are you serious?! That's who you're the future version of? What the Hades, man?"
Savitar stood and tried to focus on Barry, but his eyes darted to the side every once in a while as I had my epiphany. He tried to talk over me, which meant everyone else ignored me and listened to Savitar instead. "Barry, you've had to suffer worse than anyone. You've endured pain your whole life. Your mother, your father. Trust me, you'll never get over this."
Barry finally stopped Savitar by disconnecting the headset.
Julian gasped as he came back to himself. "Well? Good chat, was it?"
No one listened to him. Instead, Barry turned to me and demanded, "Alright, what the hell was that?"
"What do you mean 'What the Hades was that'? You know what it was! He just told you exactly who he is!" I exclaimed.
They all narrowed their eyes at me. "No, he didn't," Caitlin corrected.
"Yes, he did!" I insisted. "He literally said 'I am the future Flash'."
Cisco shook his head. "Um, there's a comma between 'future' and 'Flash'."
"No there isn't," I countered. "Punctuation saves lives." They all gave me confused looks. "Haven't you heard of that? You know, the 'let's eat Grandma' versus 'let's eat, Grandma'?" They still didn't show any signs of understanding, and I was getting more and more frustrated. "Only in this case, there's no comma and it's your lives that'll be saved, not Grandma's!"
A/N: Quick little note: what happened to Percy right here is actually what happened to me the first time I heard Savitar say "I am the future, Flash." I didn't hear the comma and freaked out. I look at my sister and was like, "OH MY GODS DID YOU HEAR THAT?!" But she didn't hear it the same way. Of course, turns out I was actually right, so...
