Percy POV
… Darkness... Darkness… surrounded me. Surrounded everything. Darkness… consumed me. Consumed everything. Was everything. Was me. I was darkness and it was me… it consumed me and I became darkness. As darkness I consumed darkness itself. Darkness became me and I became darkness…
Much time passed in my confrontation with darkness. I finally regained sense of self, and saw only darkness. I was in a land of darkness, but how? I died… I should have gone to the Underworld. So why was I here?
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I began to see a faint silver glow. Looking around, I could not determine the light's source, but then I looked down and realized that the glow was coming from me.
Taking a look at myself I noticed some… odd differences. For one, I was shimmering silver and black. Also, my clothes seemed to shimmer in the same way. That's weird, I thought.
A minute or two later, a flash of silver came from behind me. I turned, and saw that there was a girl, maybe a little older than I was, standing in front of me. She had honey-blonde hair, tanned skin, and chocolate-brown eyes. She was shimmering silver and black, just like me. "Who are you?" I called out to her.
She walked up to me until she was an arm's-length away. When she stopped, she gave a little bow. "My name is Sierra, what is yours?"
"Percy…Percy Jackson," I replied.
"Nice to meet you, Percy," Sierra said. She looked a little closer at me. "Now, what might you be?" she asked, her gaze not leaving me.
"What do you mean, what am I?"
"What kind of Shadow Person you are."
"Shadow Person? What's a Shadow Person?" I asked.
She looked up at me. "Basically, when you died, your spirit somehow got caught in the realm between life and death- the shadow realm. Your spirit became a part of this realm, and you gained powers that blossomed from your loves and your skills when you were alive. Make sense?"
"Er… I guess so."
She nodded. "Well, we should get you to HQ. Everything will be sorted out there." She put her hand around my wrist and suddenly we were in the middle of a city, shimmering in black and silver. I guess everything around here does that… I looked at all the buildings around us, but the building right in front of us took the spotlight. A massive structure easily two miles wide and three times the height of the EmpireStateBuilding took up most of my vision. I stared at it in awe.
"That's HQ," Sierra said beside me. "It's the center of everything. Literally. It's right in the center of the city. It's where basically everything happens to keep us all running. Intelligence, power, those kinds of things."
"This city…" I stammered, "What is it called?"
She smiled. "This grand place is Aurora, the city of the shadows. Our home."
"Wow…" I responded, trailing off. There was too much to take in, this place could leave me entranced for hours. I just stood there, staring at it all in awe.
A minute or two passed, and then Sierra nudged me. "Come on, let's go and find out what we're gonna do with you."
"What you're gonna do with me? What-"I got cut off by Sierra, who grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the huge building.
Walking into a large room that was heavily windowed, she pulled me up to a desk, where a man was sitting. He looked up at her. "New arrival, type unknown," Sierra stated. "Needs classification and briefing."
The man entered something on a computer on the side of his desk, and then turned back to Sierra. "Floor 314, Room C. Your usual place," he added.
"Thank you," she said, then put her hand around my wrist again. Our surroundings shifted, and we were in a room that looked like a conference room on one side, a bedroom on another, along with a lab of some sort and someone's personal work area- a desk with a single computer and a standing lamp next to it.
Sierra dropped my wrist and yelled, "Pence! Get in here!"
A moment or two later, a guy about six or seven years older than I was appeared. He had blonde hair and chocolate-colored eyes. I realized that he looked a lot like Sierra, and I asked, "You two are brother and sister?"
The guy, Pence, walked over and ruffled Sierra's hair up. "Yep, we're the odd pair that somehow died together, and both of us became Shadow People. That doesn't happen too often."
"Cool," I replied, and he nodded.
"So, you're…" he looked at a tablet computer (shimmering silver and black like everything else) that had popped into existence in his hands, "…Percy? Yes… and you don't yet know your class. Don't worry, that won't be too hard to figure out. It's easy, all I gotta do is…" He placed a hand on my forehead, and a rush of memories came to me. He's… downloading my memories? I thought. The flow ended, and he placed his hand on the tablet. After a second, a delightful little 'ding!'' was heard. The light from the tablet flashed against Pence's face, and he just stood there, staring at it for a second. "That… that can't be right…" he muttered, pacing.
"What? What is it?" Sierra asked, trying to look over his shoulder. When she finally saw, she stopped and stared at Percy.
"So… is anyone gonna tell me what is so incredibly interesting about me, or do I just stand here and look cool?" I wondered what it could be that would cause them to react like that.
Pence looked up from his muttering and pacing, and his eyes seemed to analyze me. "You, Percy, happen to have become the most powerful Shadow in existence. You're an Elite, a Shadow that has the potential to possess completely unmatched strength and skill that tops all others. You contain a huge amount of raw power that, with the right training, can turn you into an insanely powerful force." He dropped his gaze and continued pacing.
Sierra continued for him, "Elites are the most powerful Shadows of their class; they surpass all others, hands down. Their natural potential exceeds even the power of those who have trained to their max. Speaking of which… Pence, what's his class?"
"Warrior," he replied, as he continued to wear a groove in the floor with his pacing.
"Wow… a Shadow Warrior Elite…"
As they were talking, I checked my pockets for Riptide. Nothing. I frantically searched every pocket and patted them down, but no. Riptide was gone. "Uh, hey guys, where's…" I trailed off, a blank look on my face.
"Oh," Sierra said, "right. Er… items made with magical metals and items with magical abilities don't follow you into death… not much does, really. Sorry about that…" she trailed off.
"Well… we can create copies, using Shadow Steel," Pence amended. "It would mean finding it in the living world so that I can scan it, but we can do that for you. You want to do that?" he asked.
"That would be incredibly awesome, can we really?" I brightened at the idea of getting my weapon that I had been using most of my life back.
"Yep, we really can. We're gonna need you to come along and guide us, and we're all gonna have to be invisible to the living. You think you can figure out how to do that?" he asked.
I thought about it for a second. Raw power… unmatched potential… hmm…, I thought. Maybe… I can use some of that raw power, and use its potential to achieve what I want. I just need to guide it… I grinned and closed my eyes.
I imagined that raw power within me, and I saw in my mind's eye what I wanted to happen. I saw myself dropping out of visibility, and I filled that thought with the raw power and then expelled it into reality. I opened my eyes and looked down. I saw a shimmering silver-black outline of myself, but nothing else. I looked up at Pence and Sierra and saw that they looked like that as well.
"Don't worry," Sierra said. "Only Shadow People can see that outline. To any living thing you are completely undetectable."
"Sweet. Time to go?" I asked.
"Sure," Pence said. "So, we gotta shadow-travel to the living world. That will be easy enough for us, but it's gonna be hard for you. If we go to where you died, the link between you and that place will slightly lessen the toll that shadow-travelling is gonna take on you," Pence informed me. "That is, if you do it yourself," he continued, "if we do it for you, it won't drain you at all. So which do you want to do?"
"I want to do it myself. It'll make it easier to do it if I do it often, yes?"
He nodded. "You're right, but the first time… well most of the time people pass out for a really long time. You sure you want to do it yourself?"
"Definitely. It would only be delaying the inevitable, right? Besides, I want to take every chance I can get to grow stronger."
"Good point. Cool. So, you think you got this? You ready?
"Ready," I replied.
"Awesome. Go ahead and we'll follow."
I nodded, then closed my eyes. In my mind's eye, I drew the raw power to me, and imagined the small clearing where I had breathed my last. I saw myself using the power as a gateway to the living world. I held that thought and expelled it into reality. I opened my eyes as I did so, and I saw my surroundings change. I was now in the clearing, and the sunset shone in the distance. I mentally celebrated… for about two seconds. Then my vision started going dark and I staggered. The ground rushed up at me.
Before I hit, I was caught and I felt myself being carried, then put up against a tree trunk. "Tiring, isn't it? See, I told you," I heard Pence say, but I was too tired to open my eyes.
"Hey, he didn't pass out. He's a lot stronger than most. Remember when YOU first did it?" I heard Sierra defend me. "You passed out for a week and a half," she continued, "and he's only very tired. So quit acting all cool and stuff. Really."
Pence may have said more, but I felt myself slipping into a darkness that was warm and soft and VERY inviting. I gladly obliged, and sank into the deep comfort of sleep.
I awoke some time later. It was dark, so it must have been about two to three hours. Pence was on the ground, snoring away. I slept through that?
Sierra was sitting with her back against a rock, and she was staring up into the night sky, which was filled to bursting with stars. I sat up and stretched. She heard the noise and beckoned me over. I walked over and sat down beside her. She smiled at me, then turned her gaze back to the star-filled sky.
"You know," she said, "I don't get to see much of what happens in the living world. Aside from my position, which is staying in the shadow world and welcoming new arrivals, time… well, time in the shadow world is wibbly-wobbly sometimes. It sometimes will slow down, speed up, go backwards or forwards. Currently, it's actually pretty close to normal. I think that the living world is a few days ahead, more or less. Or was it a few days behind…" she trailed off, thinking. "Hmm, I don't know. But yeah, this century's time is pretty close to correct."
"Wait… this century? How long have you been a Shadow Person?" I asked.
"Oh…" she thought for a second, then continued, "about… seven or eight hundred years. I don't know how long ago living time."
I looked at her. She looked only about a year or two older than me. Seemingly reading my mind, she said, "Once you become a Shadow Person, you don't age. You can die, but you will never age."
I thought about that for a second. "How do Shadow People die?" I asked.
"Well, there are two ways. First way is to fade. If you lose the will to exist, you will slowly start to stop existing. With enough time, if you continue to have no will to exist, you will fade. Your soul won't go to the Underworld. You will simply cease to exist.
"The other way is if you do something that takes more energy than you possess. Say you use a huge magical attack, but you didn't have the energy to do so. You will still execute the attack, but it will feed off of your life-force instead. You will collapse, and your entire being will start to dissolve. It takes about five minutes for most people. Once it is complete, you cease to exist. It's more common among the more powerful Shadows," she added.
"Wow, sounds fun. So, rule number one is don't give up. Rule number two is don't do something if it takes more than you got. Rule three is if rules one or two are broken, you will die. Period."
"Well, not really die. We already died. Nonexistence is the price for that, not death."
"Oh, gee, such an improvement." I rolled my eyes.
Sierra laughed. She looked up at the stars one more time. "You think you're ready to go?"
"Hmm… yeah, I think so."
"Sweet, let's go then." She kicked Pence. "Wake up, lazy bum."
Pence rolled over, yawned, and sat up. "Well, what are we waiting for?" he asked.
Sierra snorted. "You, Sleeping Beauty."
He ignored her and stood up. "You ready to go?" he asked me.
"Yup," I said, and I stood up. I offered my hand to Sierra, who smiled and took it, pulling herself up.
"Well, let's go then!" He started walking off.
"Hey Pence," I called after him.
"Yeah?"
"You're going the wrong way."
"Oh," he said, turning around and running back to us. "I knew that."
"Sure." I rolled my eyes, and began invisibly walking towards the camp, with my two new friends right beside me.
Publisher's Note:
Thanks for reading, next chapter should be up soon, please R&R. :)