She sat down a very comfortable chair—well, sometimes it was a chair. And then, sometimes she doesn't know what it is except that it's dark and that it feels like she could sink into the darkness of what she was sitting on. She was neither tied down nor chained. She could shift her body and move her hands and legs. But whenever she moved with the intention of getting up, she suddenly couldn't control her body. She should be frustrated, but after centuries, these things only amuse her now.
She crossed her legs. She was balancing the tip of her dagger with a finger. They didn't take her weapons. She doesn't know who exactly put her here. She doesn't know how long has passed since she's woken up. She feels fine. She is fine—except for the fact that, technically, she is taken captive.
Where was she? It was cold. Very cold. The sky was a purple wound and the trees were made of darkness. Sometimes, they weren't trees anymore. Everything was made of the same thing. And everything changed from time to time. The ground she was sitting on felt like and looked like fog.
She felt a headache come on to her.
It hurts badly. It's been maybe the fourth or fifth time it happened. She wasn't sure. But every time, she felt like something colder than the air surrounding her was coming for her. Every time the headache appears, she felt like she should be remembering something important. And every time she tries to think through the headache—she can't.
And in that precise moment where she gives up and deems she's incapable of figuring out whatever she needs too, the headache disappears like a dream. And she felt whatever was coming for her retreat. Then it was a matter of waiting for the next headache.
Only, this time, the headache intensified. The stranger's unwanted presence haunts her more strongly each passing second. And she figures out what she's trying to find out through the headache: where was she?
She goes through her thoughts again. Where was she before she woke up here? In a camp site. Yes. And afterwards? She felt cold. It was very cold. And there was someone here with her before! Someone. Something. Nothing here seemed tangible. Everything seemed to be made out of darkness, and—the headache disappears.
She's in the Shades.
Suddenly, there's a whole new cold and darkness seeping through her whole being, and the presence suddenly lets its presence known with a booming dark laugh. And it makes her remember everything. The voice was back.
"Very good, very good!"
It laughs heartily and amused. It came from nowhere. Everywhere. The voice came from afar, but too loud to be anything but near. She growled. She tried getting up from whatever she was sitting on even though she knew it was pointless. But this time, she actually tries.
She unlocks one energy block. She lets herself get consumed by her own energies. She is energy. And for a moment, her shadowy chair recoils from her, she breaks free and lightning shoots up everywhere to beyond this otherwise silent and dark place.
She stands up, finally. She's had enough. She's waited long enough to figure out who captured her. But oddly enough, she doesn't feel as imprisoned as much as she should be. She scoffs. "What. The. Hell. Did. You. Do. To. My. Energies." She demands.
The deep and rich voice hums and the shadows around her vibrate. "Hmm…we don't know yet. I must commend you, though. You're locks around your energies are very intricately woven. The birthright becomes you, Thalia Grace."
Thalia shivered at her name. She growled. "How do you know of the birthright?" Thalia had to tread lightly. If she can play this off, she can get out of here fine with minimal information loss. But. Whoever's captured her should never know about the Isla de Dios. Never.
"The question is how did you come across the birthright? How did you surviveit, immortal demigod—oh wait. You're not a demigod anymore, are you? What did you and your kind name yourselves again?"
Thalia steeled herself. Memories were threatening to surface in her head. Her mind felt like an arcade game: a claw machine. The shadows clawing at her past—failing, for now. But. If you've got enough coins to waste, at one point, you'll be able to grab the prize.
"We are immortals," She gritted out. "Nothing else."
Suddenly, every shadow got fifty shades darker. Thalia felt her whole body freeze and she knew the shadows controlled her then. Nico had never ever taken her will like this, never went this far.
"Don't lie to me!"
Thalia cringed. And that was all the darkness needed to be able to fish a few memories from her. She heard him rumble out a laugh as her past flew in her mind like a dream
721 Years Ago
Alaska
"What did you do!" Nico demanded, flailing his arms as he watched Percy pacing back and forth. Percy was combing his hair with his hands. It only seemed to make his hair look wilder. The tension was thick. Percy groaned frustrated, "I didn't mean to, okay? Gods of Olympus, I didn't mean to." Nico wanted to pull his hair out.
"And it wasn't my fault!" Percy exclaimed in defense. He could feel Nico's thoughts and he felt really attacked. "I had no idea he was talking to some deity, okay? Let alone Tartarus!"
"If you would have just stopped running away and accepted the freaking pit god—"
"Ay gamisou! I will not, got it, Nico? I will not. I'm going to put him back to sleep."
"And what good is that doing right now! The gods, Percy, stop running away. I did. Thalia's in a god knows comatose because she did too—"
"Okay, stop! This is different from you!"
"I had to bathe in all the Rivers of the Underworld! I faced them. And now I control them. They don't control me anymore. And Thalia faced her Birthright. She's in a comatose because she's almost done succeeding—"
"And if I didn't do what I did, Drew would have a legit right to fight for the Birthright!"
That made Nico stop his tracks. "What?"
Percy finally stopped pacing and decided to sit down. They were in an ice castle made by yours truly. They've decided making it their first Base. It was the perfect Base, because no gods will reach them there. He sighed. "Tartarus was giving him dreams. That's why I felt warry of him. I felt him in Drew. And Drew was pulling off another Luke. Sneaked into the gathering during the Solstice. But he wasn't trying to steal the lightning bolt. He was trying to tamper with it. And. If a son of Zeus ever gets too exposed to the Master Bolt and survive, you know what'll happen. It'll trigger his energies. And he would have a somewhat pull on the Birthright. We can't have that now. Not when, for the first time in the History of the Gods, someone is finally succeeding the Birthright. Not when Thalia's finally doing it. We couldn't have Drew messing with this. Our secrets would be at big risk of exposure."
"So you decide to cut him off from his godly gifts for good?!"
"What was I supposed to do!? If I had gotten near him, Zeus would've sensed my residual energies in his bolt! I had no choice to destroy his energy flows!"
"Oh my gods," Nico just sighed and sat down too. He buried his face in his hands. "I still can't believe you pulled it off. I…I don't know how it'd feel like if you cut me off the Dead and Shadows."
Percy cringed. He felt flabbergasted too. "I'd never do that to you, okay? I wouldn't do that to anyone. Taking that away is like getting a part of you ripped off. I just…I had to," Percy said with a broken voice. "I…" He got a grip of himself. "I think I can still heal him, Nico. Just after Thalia completely succeeds the birthright. I mean. He won't be able to control lighting as much as before, or fly at all for that matter. But. It'll get some sort of flow in his chi going again."
Nico stayed silent for a few moments. "He's going to try to kill you, of course."
"Yeah."
"And he'll probably try to get you out of camp."
Percy had no answer to that. He had more worries than getting kicked out of camp permanently. If anything, the Drew situation was a minor thing, right now. But. He didn't dare voice it out to Nico. Especially since he knew why he was so wary. Even Thalia felt estranged when Percy found this new power months ago.
It was before they had first involved Lady Hestia in all of this. They had done their research. Nico finally found the problem he was facing. He wasn't going insane. He was cursed. During his trip to Tartarus, one of the Arai let out a curse that his soul turn to shadow lest he bathe the Rivers of the Underworld.
Percy wondered who had cursed him, but Nico never said. He didn't push. Percy wondered if whoever cursed Nico knew what resulted in it, would the curser still curse him at all? Nico had come out stronger, instead of broken. It was stupid to curse either a child of the Sea or a child of the Underworld to bathe the Rivers—it would be very painful, and the chance of them dying and their soul disintegrating were high. But surviving ensured mutating their soul further. Surviving ensured power. And that was exactly what Nico gained.
It was a scary prospect: the ghost king now bearing the powers of the Rivers. But. The most important thing was that Nico, at least, felt whole again. Figuring out what to do with the new power over the rivers was something to worry about later.
All the while, Percy was forced to contact the Greek spirits and personifications. The gods tend to forget about them. And they were all phenomena—he figured they had more freedom under the reign of gods. It's not like the gods could do much to capture phenomena. They were safe to contact.
Specifically, he had managed to convince Bia, the Greek personification of raw energy, to help him. It was working, for now. Bia was sworn to secrecy of Percy's connection to the Trident—not that it was needed apparently. Bia couldn't care less where the flow of raw energy leaned to because no matter what happened, the energy in the world is constant and she wouldn't be affected, really. She could not disappear nor fade.
But. Then. Maybe Percy learned too much. In understanding the energy in him, he began a subconscious understanding with energy itself. And with it, he could block the flow in someone's body. He could take away Thalia's or Nico's or anybody else's abilities at will. And that was something that bothered Thalia and Nico to the bone. In one dark instance, Percy mused that maybe he could even do it to a god. Thalia and Nico had shared a worried look then. They had both noticed the edge in Percy's mind and the darkness within him festering.
Like Percy said, they had more important problems than Drew: although, Percy was relatively safe from Tartarus taking over his body, it didn't put Tartarus' essence back to slumber.
Nico took a deep breath. One problem at a time, he tells himself. Thalia first.
"Agh!"
Nico crumpled to the ground. Thalia's energy that was embedded in him suddenly became potent. It's been happening every few hours or so, ever since Thalia went comatose. Percy helped contain the energy. It was a bit hard when he had to make sure Nico's and his energy don't end up attacking each other in the process.
"Thalia's almost finished," Nico gasped. The more painful the energy outbursts were, the closer the end was. Percy attached some weird metallic arm bands around Nico. Nico relaxes a bit. It's better to block out his energies for now.
"What happens when she wakes up?" Percy asked. Nico just shakes his head. "Hestia won't tell me, either, okay?" Percy's eyebrows furrowed. Hestia. The goddess was watching them, more closely than Aphrodite ever did him. It was a bit unnerving. Did he like the goddess? Yes. Did he trust her? He has no choice. He doesn't have the slightest idea what Hestia's intentions were. He has a feeling that Aphrodite and Hestia were thinking in similar lines. Only. Hestia seems to know more.
Present Day
Greece
Artemis gulped. She was bound to him through an Accord. And while that ensured her safety with Perseus's…future plans (regardless of how he insists he has none), the guilt still seeps her. She is a traitor to Olympus. Olympus feels so fragile right now. And she feels as if it has been fragile for centuries only that no one noticed. Because no one found Perseus. Even now, she's still trying to piece things together. And she can't help but feel a little bit helpless from the realization of her ignorance of all of this. So many big things happening behind Olympus's back. If anything, Thalia, Nico and Percy—Hestia and Mars. And all their Allies—they were brilliant.
"I don't understand why it wasn't us? If for anything, why not Ares? Why not Hephaestus? Blood of the King and Queen of the Gods." Artemis softly demanded, her eyes never leaving the campfire. They were sitting beside each other now.
Percy watched her skeptically. He wondered what on Earth she could be thinking about. He watched her silver eyes get specked with orange—his orange (his fire, afterall)—that was reflected from the fire. "The Birthright was with them. Ares and Hephaestus. But the fact that it rejected them meant that they were born gods. And that was the problem."
Percy cringed suddenly. Blood seeped out of his clothes. Artemis sharply turned her gaze to him. "Thalia." He explained as he ripped off his clothes and gathered water to him to try to heal it. Thalia's energies were being tampered with. The fact that even the littlest residues of energies of hers, such as the one that was purposely left in him, (like they did with Nico all those years ago) responds to her in the Shades this badly is a bad sign.
Artemis goes to him and gently removes his hands. Percy raises an eyebrow and jokingly asked, "You won't even let me heal myself, woman?" Artemis rolled her silver eyes. "I can heal you faster, you and I both know that." Percy nodded his thanks and he stared at her as she tried to heal him.
"At least, Thalia's energies won't bite you back. Daughters of Zeus," Percy muttered. Artemis just smirked at him. "Nico will get your lieutenant back," Percy said in a more serious voice. Artemis returned his stare at this as she heals him. She regards him carefully. "Has she ever been my lieutenant at all for the past few centuries?"
That's when Percy looks away. "Of course, yes. But she wasn't ever just a lieutenant. You know that, now."
"Why her?"
Percy looks at her again. "If history wanted to repeat itself, then the Birthright's host shouldn't have stayed a god—because, in the first place, the next possessor of the Birthright shouldn't be a god. He should've changed. And they almost did. That's why both of them are so messed up. But they stayed a god because they really were gods. Their energies were that of a god's. No part of their energies were malleable like ours."
Artemis couldn't help but laugh at him. "I get what you're trying to say. But I think you oversimplified it." Percy just shrugged and tossed her a goofy smile. "I'm still no Annabeth at explaining this." Artemis finished healing him. And the pain had left. It must mean that Thalia got a grip of herself or she lost consciousness and her shields had continued working again. Artemis still didn't remove her hand from Percy's chest though. She was too in thought to notice she was tracing the scar. Plans were formulating in her head. And she had yet to decide if she would double cross Perseus—or rather, if there was any way she could go around the Accord. There has to be. And if there is, and should she decide so, she will find it. The first step to that is her long lost predecessor, Selene.
Percy let her trace the scar. She had a right to, given what really happened in the original healing process of the scar. But, as if he was reading her thoughts, he asked, "What would you do to Selene if you find her?"
Artemis looked at him cautiously. "When you take me to her." Percy scoffed. "Fine, when we take you to her, what'll you do?"
"You would know, wouldn't you? Although, I haven't the slightest clue why you kept her for me. If it was solely for this—" Artemis says as she motions her fingers tracing the scar "—then you wouldn't have kept her captive for so long."
Percy snorted. "Captive? Is that what you think of me? I wouldn't take her captive."
"And how else would you make her stay?"
Percy waggled his eyebrows, "Wouldn't you want to know?" She pushed him off the log they were sitting on. "Hey!" Artemis just scoffed at him. "Vile pig. You're lucky I won't turn you into a jackelope just yet," she says. Percy just rolls his eyes. He knows she was just playing around…in her own way…he hopes.
"The Birthright. It's the thin line between a revolution and a succession. Tell me what happened after Thalia successfully accepted i—" Artemis stopped herself and all other actions and Percy stiffened. "We have company." She says. She didn't stiffen like Percy did. She was completely relaxed. Percy hummed. "Yes, lots of company."
Percy stood up. "Tell you what. If you kill more monsters than I do, I'll continue to tell you more about the Birthright and bring you to Selene right after we go to the Fates. But if I kill more monsters, you'll have to tell me what you really want from me and what plans you have with all the information you've learned about us and swear on it before I tell you more of anything." He said a bit coldly. Just a bit. But his eyes were still ever playful.
The first monster appeared in their site. It was baffled at their presence. But as the monster's face morphed into anger and before he could even charge at them, a silver arrow had embedded itself in its heart. Artemis smirked.
"Deal."
A/N:
Thanks for the everlasting support guys!
Thanks so much :) I appreciate all of you readers and followers and those who review! Thanks again for sticking with me and hopefully you're still here ;)