722 Years Ago

Under the sea

It's been years now. Aphrodite—sure she was a lot like a primordial goddess—but she wasn't that smart. So Percy managed to get a few information out of her about his problems. He's changing into something that Aphrodite doesn't know what. For all he knows, if the dove tattoo lets the transformation take place, he'll become a monster. He knows that the energy is rampaging his natural defenses, so without the dove, he was like a walking puppet for the taking for anyone who notices it. But. He doesn't get why Aphrodite wants him to disappear. Or how.

He couldn't just disappear. A lot of the gods were watching him. Especially, since the arrival of her sister. Dee. Oh, how she hated him. It was the same for Nico and Thalia too. And he wondered if the three of them were too obvious because of what they did.

When Dray, Drew and Dee appeared, they were welcomed like kings and queens. They were, after all, a fresh batch of candidates for the Prophecy of the Champion. Percy doubted it. Not with what was going on with him, Thalia and Nico. Their fathers wanted them to train their siblings back in their domains. And they had flat out refused to train them there.

While Thalia reasoned with a more humane logic (she refused to train his brother on Olympus on the pretext that she didn't want to bear any more of Hera's hatred by having two children of Zeus in Olympus), Nico reasoned out what they expected Percy to. He refused to take Dray down to the underworld and rob him of the chance to be a normal demigod in Camp. Percy refused to train his sister, a non-immortal, under the pressurized sea. Even if she was a daughter of Poseidon, staying and training underwater was two different things. Percy even went as far as saying that his training might accidentally break his sister.

So it was agreed upon that for a time, the three cousins would be free to go to Camp and train their respective siblings. Of course, Dray, Drew and Dee hated the three of them for robbing them a chance to spend time in their fathers' domains and do something to make them proud or whatever.

Percy sighed as he weaved his body to the left so as to dodge a blow. He wondered when he could sneak out of the palace again—maybe he could sneak out Thalia too and bring her to back to the Hunt for some time. Thalia, Nico and Percy were still somewhat at odds with each other. Neither of them had stopped pushing each other away, but…it could be worse.

They knew Nico was hearing voices in his head. He denied it, of course. He refuses to acknowledge it and said that all the meditation he was doing was solely because he thought it was an interesting thing that mortals did. Pfft. Yeah, sure.

Percy jumped from a swing courtesy of his half-brother. Percy groaned. They know that Thalia bargained with the fates during the Giant Wars. But they still haven't figured out what exactly had transpired between her and the moirai.

Of course, they knew Percy wasn't exactly banging Aphrodite every two weeks or so. A closer inspection on the dove tattoo (that everyone assumed was some sort of mark Aphrodite put on him to mark him his) would easily reveal that it was an energy leech. So they knew Percy was draining his energies to an unstable point for a reason.

The dove tattoo with him was fresh. So, he felt slightly more energized that usual. He could probably pull off sneaking Thalia out of Olympus tonight—

Clang

Triton had disarmed Percy with his own signature move. He frowned. He groaned when he noticed it took Percy a full second to actually realize he wasn't holding his sword. "I don't want to spar with you anymore," Triton told him, as if he took away a privilege from Percy.

"No! I'll pay attention, alright? I just…you know. So come on, Lets spar"

Triton shakes his head and tells him he's bored and wants to skip their session. Percy groaned. Triton was kind of like a fish version of Apollo sometimes. Triton swims away and Percy follows. He asked Percy if he could feel Lord Poseidon anywhere. Percy felt a shiver down his spine, as if warning him something bad was going to happen.

Triton was spouting off something about Theseus being some kind of stiff for a son of Poseidon and the next thing he knew, he was grasping the Trident. His fingers were touching it—but it felt like he was grasping the whole existence of the Trident.

Olympus

Same Day

Thalia was sure that this was not his father's room. Nor has it ever been. She was gravely mistaken before. She had felt a god's presence in the room and it definitely didn't feel like her father's. She didn't understand how it could be anyone but her father's. According to the texts his found in the room, this was supposed to belong to the heir of Cronus. Well, she guessed she really couldn't consider Zeus as any sort of heir since he had to wage war to get his throne. But if it wasn't Zeus's, whose was it?

Thalia glanced at the figure that looked exactly like her. The figure, as always, was just staring at her. There was a time when she thought that the figure would attack her or whatever. But, if anything, the figure seemed to be helping Thalia handling the birthright. Right. The birthright. Apparently, birthrights have been around for as long as time. And she and Jason weren't the first to receive the birthright. Hercules had it. And it had gave him many great things. But it drove him to the edge. Every emotion amplified: lust, pride, madness. No wonder Hera easily made him insane enough to kill his own family. Thalia grimaced. If that was how Hercules took the birthright, she wondered what would happened if the birthright festered inside Jason right now instead of her.

Then again she wasn't really doing that well herself considering that there was a figure constantly shadowing her. She decided to call it Thania. It was getting annoying referring to it as a figure. The figure suddenly growled. Thania could feel her thoughts. And Thalia smirked thinking that Thania didn't like the name. Well, she didn't aim to please anyway.

Suddenly, there was a pain on her arms, and a mark formed. She cursed Nico. A year ago, she couldn't believe he had the nerve to mark her with his energy signature. Seriously, some energies are not compatible. It hurt like hell. Before Thalia could kill him, he had explained it was necessary to connect them. He had promised to remove the energy when it wasn't needed anymore. Thalia was just surprised the gods didn't feel Hades's spawn energy within her here in Olympus. But then again, it was just a minuscule, the minimum amount to be connected. As revenged, she induced some of her energy into Nico too.

They had learned about that ability through the texts in the room. The mark allowed them to contact each other, and find each other. Although, as frustrated as Nico was, he couldn't sense Thalia whenever she was in this room. Or was intending to go this room. Lucky for Thalia.

She seethed from the pain. It was reacting badly, that means Nico needed her badly. But that also meant, her energies were reacting badly. She couldn't control the little crackles of lightning going through her body.

Alaska

Percy was an idiot, Nico decided. One moment he felt his death and the next he couldn't feel him any where. Nico shadow travelled to the borderline of the land beyond the gods. He took a deep breath and searched within him to get a hold of Thalia's energy that was within him. He told her that this would come in handy someday. Grabbing the energy was practically getting electrified. It was painful.

But he'd deal with it. Percy was in trouble, he knew it. He crossed the border and the moment he did, he knew where Percy was. It was pretty obvious. The amount of energy from Percy miles away was crippling, he had to amp up his own to be able to cope with it. No wonder he went to Alaska. If this happened anywhere else, a hundred gods would've noticed right away.

He was about to jumped into a shadow when he felt the air cackle. The next thing he knew Thalia was with him, every inch of her skin was amped up with electricity. There was a frown of concentration on her face. Seems like he wasn't the only one being crippled by the amount of energy waves Percy was releasing. He also noticed that Thalia was getting better at controlling her 'lightning speed.'

Thalia grabbed him, for a moment, he thought he was going to get electrocuted. He saw her smirk as if to tell her, you think I can't control my energy to not electrocute you? He rolled his eyes and jumped to a shadow, taking Thalia with him. Usually, Nico was against shadow travelling in one of the Beyonds. Especially in Alaska. Ice. Ice everywhere. And it was hard to come by a shadow under water, if he made a mistake. He could drown, with no god knowing. He'd be helpless.

But it didn't matter. Besides. He had a destination in mind. Over the years, he didn't need much concentration for shadow travelling as much as he used to. He could go by with abstract ideas. Abstract, but definite. If that made sense. For example, he had no idea where he was going, but he allowed Percy's energy's pull to guide him out of the Shadows.

"NO!"

That was the first thing he heard stepping out of the shadows—for gods' sake, he was almost thrown back to the shadows because the moment he stepped out, a wall of ice pushed them away. What the hell Percy? Nico growled.

"Stay back," Percy almost whimpered. Nico and Thalia looked at each other, dread working their way up the body. They might not get to Percy in time. They were on glacier. Everything (aka water and ice) was responding to Percy's emotions. And they were quite a few meters away from him still. Nico closed his eyes. One by one, he let his own energy out. This was dangerous. By not holding back, he is exposing himself to whoever randomly possessed him. But he needed all his strength for this. And holding back wasn't a choice.

In a way, every part of his body relaxed. It's been years since he ever let his blocks gone. Years since he had no handicapped. Years since his energies ran rampant.

Thalia groaned. She had no idea how to unbind the leashes that holds her energies back. And she was afraid that if she did, she wouldn't be able to handle the sheer power of her birthright. She tensed. Out of the corner of her eye, Thania the figure made her way to her. This is bad. Now was not the time to explain to Nico why a creepy girl who only she could see was following her around.

Accept me

Thania's voice was hallow. It seemed some kind of pit. Thalia gritted her teeth, her jaw was set. She remembered the last time Thania had said those two words. She almost died. Thalia fell to her knees. Another wave of Percy's energy was crushing her body. It didn't help that Nico seemed to have lost his own handicapped too. But still, even though Nico stopped holding back, he seemed to crouch over, his arms around his stomach, still very much bothered by Percy's energy waves. She wouldn't last long without Thania.

She wouldn't last long with Thania.

Nico gasped at the sudden weight of Thalia's new presence. She too had stopped holding back, but before he could properly contemplate on whether or not he had imagined a Thalia-look-a-like merging with Thalia right before she released her energy locks, Thalia was gone. She whizzed through to Percy, faster than his eyes could truly follow. Gods, he hoped none of the three of them destroyed Alaska by the end of this. That'd be kind of hard to explain.

Darkness seemed to be emanating from Nico as he went to Percy. Percy was at the edge of the glacier. He was on all fours. His hands were gripping the edge of the ice and he was screaming as if something was skewering his back. Thalia was beside him and they were having a shouting match. Not much of a match, though, Nico could see Percy barely able to talk through the pain.

"What the hell—" Nico couldn't finish. Percy rolled himself over, curling like a ball for a moment then gasping for air. If it weren't for Thalia's support, Percy wouldn't have been able to sit.

"Dove," Percy managed to croak out. Nico's eyes widened, the dove tattooo on his chest was glowing a wild green, and the skin and flesh surrounding it was being torn apart. Grotesque, that was what it was. "I swear I'm going to kill Aphrodite—"

Thalia was interrupted as Percy wheezed trying to say something. "Dove—" pants "Explode" more wheezes "—Getouttahere" gasps for breath. "destroy, a-alaska" a scream of pain here. Okay, so maybe Nico's fear of destroying Alaska didn't really come out of nowhere. Great.

Thalia made Percy lie down the ice, and the ice seemed to be responding to Percy. It was enveloping him, as if trying to heal him or ease something. The ice around Percy starts to melt into water—it seemed like water healed him faster. But the way the ice went to him, it felt like they were making him a death bed. "Damn you, Percy. You are going to tell me what the hell is happening to you—"

"So not the time, Thals!" Nico exclaimed. Thalia glared at him and he yelped.

"—after we stop you from destroying Alaska." Thalia finished. Thalia knew what the problem was. The energy leech was sucking too much energy. Obviously, the love goddess was the only one who can remove it. But. Knowing Percy went out here, it meant that no god should know about this. They had to do it themselves.

Nico had the same realization. Nico groaned. Now he understood why the god's energy could incinerate a human being. No wonder they were so gung-ho about the three of them getting energy locks when they started getting too powerful a few years ago. Energy locks. That was what Nico had just released within him moments ago. Nico took a sharp breath. Thalia was on the same page.

"Do you feel that?" she hissed. "Percy still has his energy locks on. What the hell happened to him? It's like a nuclear powerplant was shoved in every part of his cell!"

Nico was starting to panic—but wait. He knew how to deal with it.

"I might kill him. But we have no choice. The only other option is for us to absorb his energy and release it. Any form of release of energy of that amount will destroy Alaska!"

Thalia nodded. Nico tried to not allow fear grip in his voice, "I can only hold it for so long, the moment it's safe enough, I want you to rip apart that damned dove and throw it was far as you can." Thalia nodded again.

Percy was barely seeing things as it was. Everything was blurry and all he could feel was pain. The cold was doing little to numb it. He barely remembered how he managed to swim so fast so far to reach Alaska. And he had no idea when Nico or Thalia arrived at his side. He wondered if he actually managed to get out the warning in his head or if it was, in fact, just in his head. It was the dove that was making this oh so extremely painful.

And the memories that were flashing in his head were not helping. The trident couldn't feel him out here in Alaska—which was good, but the dove made it so impossible to control anything. It was like some kind of addict and his energy was its drugs.

And then he went numb.

It started from arm. There was no pain in his arm. His arm felt hallow. And there was this darkness enveloping his soul. It was like his arm was blind—how do you make something without eyes blind? He heard Nico wheeze, gasping for breath, as if no gulp of air was enough. And each gulp of air down to his lungs were poison to him. The darkness was spreading, Percy panicked until he somewhat heard Thalia screaming for him not to fight it. For a moment, his eyes focused and he saw Thalia holding down Nico who was in real pain as he held Percy's arms. Percy understood what was happening. And what he needed to do.

Nico was consuming him into his shadows, numbing the pain. But their energies aren't exactly compatible. It's a defense mechanism they can't control. As their energies touch, they go into this self-defense mode. That's why Percy felt threatened, an unknown essence was touching his. And his essence were retaliating to the foreign one, thus Nico writhing in pain.

Percy took a deep breath as the numbness spread, trying to ignore the pain in the parts where Nico's powers still hasn't. He let his mind go blank, and allow the memories to go over him, while in the back of his mind, he controlled his own energy. Aphrodite had done everything to suppress it, but he had never let the goddess truly have control over his energies. It obeyed to him along. And through the few years, he'd try to master it. He hadn't still, but it had to be enough to reign everything in.

The numbness was almost complete. Percy's muscles released their tension, but then suddenly—

"NOW THALIA!"

Nico managed to gasp out, and before Percy could even process it, Thalia ripped the dove out as fast as light, and Percy screamed at the pain. It was one thing for Aphrodite to take it the way she does, but it was an altogether different intensity of pain when it was ripped out by someone who didn't even have power over it.

Thalia was getting overpowered by the dove, she didn't know what to do with it. It was going to explode. He didn't know how he did it with the pain (he felt like someone shot a whole through his chest), but he managed to control the waters beneath them into what seemed like a fist and it grabbed the dove out of Thalia's arms and had it dragged to the bottom of the waters. And then the whole glacier they were on was swerved to the right. The waters were moving wildly.

The ice started wrapping itself around Percy as if to support him, as Nico and Thalia had to hold on to whatever they can, mainly ice, for dear life. Thalia flopped herself to Nico's back, and his grip almost gave in. He was so weak. And drained. He grabbed for Percy and, from Thalia's light, had them all jump into the Shadows for safety.

Nico made a mistake. Where would they go? Nico didn't know. He had no time to think were he could flop himself to that the gods wouldn't know. Shit.

Nico woke up with a scream. And then, the next thing he knew, Thalia was behind her wrapping her arms around him in restraint. "Nico," Thalia tried. He heard her whisper his name over and over again trying to calm him down. He broke from her sharply, and looked around their surroundings. They were in an island. And Percy—where was Percy? They were on a shore. And Percy, being, Percy was near the water. His whole chest were bandaged up but what seemed like ripped shirts. He noticed that neither Percy nor his shirts were anywhere to be found, so he assumed it went to the bandages. A blob of water clung to Percy's chest.

"Where are we?!" Nico asked sharply, remembering his failure of an attempt to shadow travel.

Percy must've heard him, since he snapped away from staring at the sea and to Nico. Percy grinned widely. And turned to walk towards them, cringing only slightly at the slight movements of his chest that caused him pain. That didn't escape Nico's notice.

"Where are, you ask! You're the brilliant one, Nico. I can't believe you managed to think of Alcatraz with everything that was happening!"

Nico frowned. He wanted to tell Percy that he was right not to believe because he didn't manage to think of Alcatraz. He scanned his surrounding area. Yes. This was a good choice. Alcatraz didn't only hold human prisons before, this was also one of the gods'. Used to. They had abandoned the idea of putting monsters in the same place with each other, unless it was in Tartarus. The first and last time they attempted to imprison monsters here—it wasn't the best idea. Most of the gods would rather forget that the island existed. Especially since it still stank of monster smell, even after all these years. It was perfect to mask their scents.

Thalia was awfully quiet; Nico observed. "What happened?"

Thalia helped Percy sit down on the pebbly sand. Nico tried to sit up straighter. "You shadowed travelled us here. You and Percy were unconscious. I didn't know if it was safe to put Percy in the water, Poseidon might feel him. So I had to scout some kind of medium to bring the sea water to him. You were drained of energy, you needed to rest. Some skeletons popped up now and then while you were asleep."

"How long was I out?"

Percy shrugged, not really knowing. "I'd have to guess two days. Maybe three. Percy woke up yesterday." Thalia answered.

An awkward silence enveloped them. Nico grunted. "So, Percy. Do you mind telling us what the hell happened?"

Percy looked at them awkwardly. He sighed and then he told them everything. About Gaea. About the spell. About his energies. About the trident. He told them what he had found out over the years. There's a transformation going on inside him. Aphrodite has been trying to suppress it. She wants him to disappear. He drains himself to suppress the transformation and it's killing him. But. Beyond Aphrodite's knowledge, he's been training with his energies and controlling them. Then he tells them the biggest problem. Something he hadn't even admitting to himself.

Tartarus knows. And he's still somehow awake. He's finding a host. And with this transformation going around his body that seems to be making him stronger, and the fact that Percy's energy within himself is rampant and has also been touched by Tartarus already, knowing he had been there, it was getting dangerous. Tartarus wasn't fully awake to do anything dangerous yet. But his presents keeps on festering in Percy's mind—and right now, he's mind, consciousness, essence, they are all so sensitive and vulnerable with the change going inside.

And then he tells them about the trident.

Nico was whiter than a sheet of paper. But Thalia looked like she was about to burst in tears. "This is all my fault." she blurted out before she could stop herself. They looked at her like she was crazy. As if she had told them that the Earth hurtling towards the sun was her fault. And so. She had no choice but to tell them what's going on with her as well.

She tells them about the birthright. And about the room. She tells them about Thania and about the fates. She tells them about the scrolls and texts in the room she found. How that's why she knew so well about her powers and that that's how she kept getting stronger. She told her what she knew of birthrights. That the birthright could be given to any one with the blood of Kings. That each birthright manifests itself differently for every person it's passed upon, but the birthright itself was always the same. She didn't know what exactly the birthright was really. But she told them her theories. And she introduced them to Thania. They couldn't see her. She told them how she thinks that Thania is the manifestation of her birthright—for now, for as long as she wasn't able to accept it yet.

"We need to find the fates." Nico says as Thalia finishes. They look at him expectantly. "Are you not going to tell us what's been happening to you?"

"Dude." Percy groaned.

So he told them. He told them how he keeps on getting randomly possessed. And how he fears it has something to do with his trip to Tartarus as well. When he went down there, it brought out the worst of himself. Percy understood, remembering how he controlled the poison when he was there. But he was captured they had done things to his mind, energies—he felt like his soul was tampered with. Even after he escaped Tartarus, it was like the worst in him became another Nico. He told them his theory. How the one possessing him was no one but himself, the other Nico. He told them that he fears as if he was ripped into to, and he has no idea who's the real Nico. And it feels like they're battling for ownership of not only his body, but his being.

The air was heavy. Percy just wanted to be free.

Going to the fates was a hassle. Nico insisted they had to go find some pure-blooded new born Greek. Thalia had to agree with him. She didn't want to raise anymore suspicion from the gods. They were in enough trouble as it is: suddenly disappearing from the face of the earth with no warning what so ever, all three of them, at the same time.

Oh. And did Thalia mention that Percy caused ALASAKA TO REPOSITION ITSELF IN THE MAP.

"Aw c'mon, Thals. It was just like, you know, if you had a map, like a few centimeters worth of difference. It was only Alaska!"

Whoops, Thalia thought with feign innocence, did she just scream that outloud? She growled at Percy while Nico just barked out a laugh. So, yes, going to the fates with low profile was preferable. Despite their light banter of heavy consequences, getting to talk to the fates had ruined whatever good mood they salvaged.

Nico scowled had kept scowling at them—respectfully, if you could imagine those two actions being done simultaneously. Being in the presence of the moirai was...suffocating. Nico could feel all of his will gone and he felt hopeless, like whatever he did wasn't really his choices, but theirs. They never would have been prepared to hear what the fates had to say.

Thalia had demanded to know if everything was her fault; Percy was worried that if the fates didn't give her a straight answer, she'd go broken. All the fates did was chuckle, and Nico almost punched them. In Percy's opinion, going to the fates was too much of a hassle. They barely got anything out of them. Which was to be expected. He guessed, at least, they didn't suddenly go swing around their scissors of death or whatever whenever they annoyed them.

"We could end your lives now," Atropos had said rather emotionless. "If you say so, we shall grant you the honor. And you can avoid this cobweb of a fate you've woven yourself trapped into."

Tempting, Percy had thought—it earned him a punch on the shoulder from Thalia.

Lachesis looked at him. "Son of Poseidon" the moriai had mused. She circled him, observing. "If you're father finds out his heir, he will kill you." she said. Percy looked at her stoic. "Maybe." Lachesis smiled. "But if you want to survive, I suggest distancing yourself from Aphrodite's clutches. Tartarus is awake, dear boy" Percy had stiffened. "Albiet, barely. But still, awake enough to be bothering you. If you continue to let Aphrodite postpone what is happening within you, Tartarus will have a hold with you."

Percy muttered, "And if I allow the transformation? The gods will hunt me down."

All three of them laughed. "Do you not know what is happening to you?"

"No! what?" Percy almost growled, losing patience.

"History," Clotho answered him. "Repeating itself."

Percy snapped, "I just want to stop feeling like I'm losing myself over and over again" he said it so brokenly. The moirai ignored him as Lachesis turned her attention to Thalia, "And you! The birthright suits you well." Nico had to hold Thalia back. It wasn't going good. The fates were just toying with them.

"Please," Nico had said, catching their attention. "We just want to know what we need to do," he asked of them clenching his jaw, but some sort of plea was in his tone.

The moirai looked at each other and then eerily looked at them. "Don't ask us. Ask the girl you're with. It has always started with her."

Atropos finally spoke, her voice was the one that sent horrible shivers up their spine. "Your birthright, little daughter of Zeus. Succeed to your birthright, and you will find your answers. Quickly, too. How long do you think this little boy can fight off a primordial god in his essence?" she had said cruelly, putting a finger under Percy's chin. He wanted to flinch. "Or how long do you think before little darkness over here can last over his own Shadow?" and then she looked at them devilishly.

"Everything you need is in that little room of yours, Thalia Grace."

And then the fates laughed. They laughed as if their predicament was the most amusing thing they've seen in centuries. They laughed at them as if they had given mice a map of the labyrinth they were stuck in.

A/N:

Hey guys, as usual, I am so thankful for you reading my updates and my story and all :)) And of course, thank you so much for making this story one of your favorites, or adding it to one of your alerts. You guys are awesome, in however way you support this story.

PS breezspice hey you :) Sorry if it's frustrating XD Im just so greedy with secrets lol
I swear I'm giving them most out already though, in my own slow way hahahaha

Till the next update, demigods :)