AN: The advantages of having a joint family system as I have with twenty-five family members living under one roof? The younger ones have unlimited teachers. I just spent the entire morning teaching Lace (my six-year junior girlfriend, who also happens to be my cousin) the quantum mechanics model of the atom because she was trying to apply the Rutherford-Bohr model in her college assignment, because she skipped higher chemistry.
Time: Same Time
Percy broke out of the trance, feeling somehow... different.
He was alive, more than before. Raw, unadulterated energy coursed through his veins, as if he had just had several cups of coffee.
Not only that, he felt at home with the insanity infesting his shattered mind. It was a part of him, in the same way, his Poseidon powers and weapons were.
His eyes were closed, and he intended to keep it that way. He had no intention of dealing with the world right then. He concentrated on the pressure behind his eyes, the pounding headache threatening to come on, the hunger in his stomach. He concentrated on anything to keep him anchored to reality.
The water of the ocean felt cool, and soothing against his skin, gently pushing him about by the force of the waves. The searing heat of the sun was gone, leaving darkness all around him. He felt the soft sand and rough coral beneath his bare feet and legs as he sat cross-legged on the ocean bed. Small fish still flocked around him, lightly pecking his skin to make him stir. The shark was still there, it's scales smooth, soft and cool against his skin, as it brushed up against him, seemingly asleep. It's limp body gently swayed in the water, slightly moving about.
He reflected on Annabeth's words.
The fifteenth Olympian. He wondered what he would have to do as an Olympian. Judging from what he had heard, not much. Just attend some council meetings or shouting matches, whichever your preferred, every now and then.
The God of Heroes, War, Darkness, Fear, Horror, Nightmares, Insanity and Time. He assumed it was apt.
The time domain was probably from killing Kronos, he reasoned. But that was not the main reason he found himself in such a pickle.
The darkness in his mind purred with joy at the domains he had received. Percy just hoped he wouldn't turn into an Ares 2.0.
He felt despair. His heart sunk lower and lower the more he thought. Godly domains were a representation of who you were. Despite the thick, and almost impenetrable mask he wore, now, everyone would know who he was really. His friends... Artemis, Thalia, Hestia, his sisters, Calypso, Piper, the Hunters, Reyna, Rachel... all the girls in his harem, Apollo, his own father, Poseidon, Chiron, everyone would abandon him.
He knew, and had seen how the Dark Gods- Eris, Nemesis, Thanatos, even Hades, the like- were treated and shunned.
Annabeth's words rang in his mind.
She would not be able to influence anybody, true. But she was living in an eternal party, everybody mourned her, he grieved her loss.
He wanted to be with her, for her to hold him in her arms, and make all his worries go away. She had said that she would always be by his side. Now, she was gone.
The fact that she was watching from the Isles of Blest did not comfort him. She had wrapped everything up, just been cut off from the rest of the world, leaving Percy hanging by a thread.
Was it selfish for him to blame her for her death and his Dark domains?
Maybe it was.
But Percy did not care.
The darkness was rushing up to him. He could see the shadows lengthening again, the whispers telling him to die, to destroy, to exploit his power.
He did not need to be like this.
No, everyone else would be like him. He could abuse his power, spread chaos and discord across all the worlds. Olympus, Atlantis, the Underworld, even Tartarus, were at his mercy.
He could feel his connection with the darkness as a Dark God. He could feel the entire plains of Tartarus, the overwhelming darkness in each and every monster that dotted the plains, the mind-numbing pain of the Fields of Punishment. He could feel the power given off by the Sea of Chaos, lapping at his own godly power.
He latched a hold onto the power from the sea, which was only gently pressing against him, like an obedient dog. And he pulled the overwhelming, almost endless, infinite power towards him, as if his life depended upon it.
It was instinctive for him. His godly side dictating things.
Percy's last hope shattered, plunging him into absolute darkness when he saw the power he wielded, a majority of the Sea, which arguably made him one of the strongest deities in existence.
He could feel, and almost see, the pain and negative emotions fuelling his godly power meter.
He realised why all the Dark Gods were a bit crazy. Okay, a lot crazy.
The power was exhilarating, intoxicating. His adrenaline pumped when he utilised it, wrapping the darkness around his godly form. His mind, his very consciousness urged him to spread his darkness across the world. The nightmares and horrors faced by the innumerable mortals across the world made his heart sing with joy and pleasure.
It was almost as exhilarating to Percy's dominant inclinations as when he tied someone up and brutally abused their body.
In short, it was an orgasmic experience for him, to feel, and be, one of the strongest Dark Gods out there.
He realised the complex web that the Dark Gods formed. Each protected the other, forming complex webs without any clear hierarchy, because each was shunned by the rest of the world. Each suffered in the darkness, that is why each embraced the other, sought solace in one another.
Percy knew he was not alone. Not truly, anymore. He had a family, a true family among the darkness, people who understood him.
The complex web connected each to every other, making it practically impossible for one to kill, or harm another.
Percy felt his connection with Tartarus himself. The same Tartarus that he and Annabeth had escaped from, in... Tartarus. Tartarus drew on his domain of Pain, dependent on him, but at the same time, it generated a lot of pain, feeding his domain and strengthening him. So, conversely, he was dependent on Tartarus to feed him power. Godly bonds often went both ways like this, very complicated stuff, it was.
He felt Nyx also 'subordinate' to him, feeding his domain of nightmares and darkness with power. He felt surprised that so many Primordials were feeding him power, but whatever he felt was soon swept away by his confusion at the complex power web. Each dark god fed another.
He himself fed Perses, the Titan of Destruction, and Nemesis and Eris with power through his domains of hatred, nightmares and insanity.
He was conscious of parallel power flows, equivalent power flows between others, such as Styx and Erebus. The amount of power he transferred to them, was transferred back to him, leading to a net zero power exchange between them. Percy assumed it was due to them having the same domains.
He felt a one-way connection with Dionysus and Ares. They were constantly feeding him power, but received none in return. Percy understood that they were not Dark Gods- their godly power was sickeningly bright- so they could only supply, but not take, any power from the web.
He searched for his Uncle Hades in the web, and found him after some time. Hades had a parallel connection with Tartarus, much like he himself had with Styx, and was fed by Thanatos and...
With a jolt, Percy realised that Hades drew on his domain of War, and supplied him with power through his own domain of Pain.
Percy was also conscious, instinctively, of the fact that all the other Dark Deities, Gods, Titans and Primordials, knew of the newest addition to their ranks. After all, such a massive shift in power caused by his inclusion in the power web, could not be ignored.
And lo!
"Who is this newest addition to our ranks?" A rough voice echoed through his mind.
Immediately his mind was assaulted by all of them speaking together, eager to meet him like eager relatives meeting a newborn.
"Welcome, Dark God!" A softer voice, followed by a cacophony of several voices, "Hello!", "Welcome!", and of course, innumerable, "Who are you?"'s.
"Silence!" Another deep voice interrupted, making everything stop. Percy realised with surprise that it was Hades speaking in his mind. "We'll sort this out like civilized people!" He snapped.
"Dark God, chant this prayer in your mind, and focus on the darkness within your being. Χαιρετίστε τις Σκοτεινές Θεότητες!" The soft voice that he had heard earlier, returned, soothing and comforting. And after saying that, eerily, almost simultaneously, the overwhelming number of presences drew from his mind.
Percy reflected on the mantra he had been given. "Hail the Dark Deities." He whispered softly, as if testing out the words on his tongue, but nothing happened.
Those words felt perfectly at home on his tongue, as if he had been born to say those words. Percy realised the power behind those words, his godly half again whispering in his ears. It could protect him from death quite indefinitely, as it connected him directly to the infinite power in the Sea of Chaos. His bond with his godly side became stronger than ever, as if those words were some kind of initiation.
Percy concentrated on the darkness 'within his being' as he had been instructed. It was not hard, seeing that his entire godly power, pumping through his ichor, was darkness itself, sucking in all light, and spreading hatred. He manoeuvred through the sharp edges of his shattered mind, trying not to give in to insanity... yet, and go on a killing rampage.
His godly form was there, so similar to the gods' immortal forms, the only difference being that instead of being obnoxiously bright that you had to turn away, it seemed to be composed out of the night itself, the fabric of darkness composed out of cloth blacker than his hair, so that it almost had a purplish tinge.
It seemed to lure Percy in, like a beautiful trap, an addictive drug. Yet, he knew, it only existed to serve him. The key here, was not to let power corrupt. He was its master, he decided how it would exist.
Percy's hope resurged. He could control his darkness, he could use his domains to his advantage to control the suffering in the world.
Holding onto the orb within his consciousness, Percy chanted the words he had been given, almost like a medicine or salve. "Χαιρετίστε τις Σκοτεινές Θεότητες!"
His mind seemed to collapse into itself, the fabric of reality crumbling around him, sucking him into a vortex. Percy panicked, he could feel his heart racing, his mind not being able to fully comprehend the pain he was going through. It was like being sucked into a black hole, the excess gravity disorienting him.
The mortals said that before being sucked into a black hole, one would undergo the 'Spaghetti Effect', where the gravity would stretch your body till you were ripped apart.
Percy wondered if that was happening to him.
'What a spectacular way to go!' His treacherous mind supplied, before adding, dejectedly, 'Sad news there's no one to see me getting spaghettified!'
"It hurts... right?" The voice that made him realise that the pain was gone, though leaving a slight aftershock, started off as casual, attempting to surprise him, but ended up shocked, and surprised.
There were no words spoken after that.
Percy cracked an eye open to check his surroundings, only to almost fall out of his throne in surprise. Wait, when had he appeared on a throne?
He was in what appeared to be a regular council chamber, with several chairs arranged along a large square table. There was a projector on the table, but instead of pointing at any one wall, it pointed straight upwards. Investigating further, Percy realised that the top of the chamber was an enormous mirror. Or at least, it resembled a mirror. It seemed more fluid than anything, dark, yet highly reflective water swirling around behind the glass. With a jolt, Percy realised that it was the Sea of Chaos. He was under the Sea of Chaos!
The obsidian walls of the room, smooth like black diamonds, shone with a pale light that somehow illuminated the room brightly. White, polished marble slabs were embedded at regular intervals in the room, some showing macabre scenes like soldiers dying in war, others showing equally horrifying scenes- explosions, terrorist attacks, accidents, crashes, utter destruction and chaos. There was a slab showing the necessity of pain in the delivery of justice, prisoners suffering behind bars. One slab showed a forest fire, and the new saplings that grew from the ashes of the old, given a fresh breath of life with the destruction.
There was an enormous throne at the centre of each side of the table, with smaller thrones at their sides. Percy was sitting in one of the four larger thrones, and he reasoned it to be the cause of the others' shock.
He ignored their whispering and blatant staring, instead examining the other thrones, both large and small. The other three larger thrones were occupied by Hades, his throne was the same as the one on Olympus. Made of pure black obsidian, with bones and skulls adorning the smooth stone.
On another, Percy observed, was a man he had never seen before. He had short-cropped black hair, with a slight stubble on his face, and eyes the darkest shade of black Percy had ever seen. He wore a regal velvet robe, darker than anything Percy had ever seen.
With a jolt, Percy realised that the last large throne was occupied by Tartarus himself, a throne made of magma and half molten rock. He was clad in the same dark, simple and unadorned, yet sharp and dangerous armour that he was wearing when Percy had first met the man.
Seeing Hades sit peacefully with Tartarus at the same table, Percy made the logical decision not to attack him.
His eyes roved over the other occupants, realising that they were minor gods and Titans that he realised were Dark, spending more time on the four women by the two sides of his large throne, four women who were eyeing him with apprehension.
Eris, the goddess of discord, seemed to reflect her domains in her clothes. She was wearing a ripped shirt that revealed her smooth, pale as paper, skin. Her lips glistening with black lipstick, seemed out of place on her beautiful, yet pale face. Her raven black tresses, so like his own untamable dark locks, stuck up randomly, making her look surprisingly cute despite everything. Her dark eyes danced with a slightly insane glint under her perfect eyebrows.
Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, was rocking the same black lipstick, and the same shade of pale skin. Her dark eyes danced hungrily under her dark, perfect eyebrows, recognizing the power rolling off Percy's form in waves. Her straight, silky black hair cascaded past her shoulders, reflecting the light that illuminated the room. Her black leather biker suit, glistening in the light, so like latex, sent Percy's blood roaring. She twirled around chains lazily in her right hand, which somehow made her seem even sexier. The zip of her biker jacket was slightly down, revealing a bit of her delicious cleavage.
His eyes wandered to the next woman, whom he remembered very well. This hot and sexy Nyx did not look anything like the half-crazed woman he and Annabeth had met in Tartarus. Her soft, dark purple hair cascaded past her shoulders, looking soft and inviting. Her pale skin contrasted her beautiful, full, soft ruby lips. She was wearing a tight, shiny black silk dress that hung tightly to her shapely curves, bringing out her large... assets. Her onyx eyes shined with suspicion at him, her high cheekbones making her look aristocratic.
Percy could never have believed that he would be ogling Nyx, of all people, if you had told him that when he was in Tartarus.
Styx sat directly on his right, so close, in fact, that Percy believed he could reach out and pat her head. Her soft, dark hair fell in soft curls, similar to Nyx, reaching till her shoulders. She was wearing a black, off shoulders Amon Amarth shirt, making Percy snort at the irony. Her pale creamy skin glistened in the light, almost glowing, her ruby lips perfect on her beautiful face. She had a look of intense disdain on her face, but somehow managed to make herself look cute.
Tartarus stood up, making Percy clutch his weapons tightly in preparation of any hostility. If the others noticed it, they did not say anything.
Percy did not say anything when he felt his weapons in his hands, he just went with the flow, he had seen far worse things during his time as a demigod, or, as it was now, god.
For example, being directly under the Sea of Chaos.
Anaklusmos was sheathed on his back, trapped between his body and the back of his throne, his right hand resting gently on its pommel. He held his heavy, Imperial Gold axe in his left hand, it's butt resting on the hard obsidian of the floor.
Tartarus raised his hands in a surrendering gesture, showing that he meant no harm. When Percy had relaxed, he continued, "Welcome to the Council of Darkness, Dark God! I see the Chaos has found you worthy to add to our ranks and seat among the Three- now Four- Judges."
He stopped for a moment, letting the words sink in. There were soft gasps in the background, giving Percy the impression that being a Judge was a great respect. Which he assumed to be, seeing Tartarus and Hades themselves were Judges. He knew he himself was powerful, and if it was so, then the stranger, who was another Judge, must have been strong, too.
Tartarus continued. "I think congratulations are in order."
AN: As you can see, I decided to add Nemesis, Eris, Styx and Nyx to the harem, because they are extremely rare in the fandom. I think I can milk ten chapters worth of angst and drama out of this single chapter, which just occurred to me today while I was watching Sabaton History.Keep calm and CR7!! Keep calm and LM10!! (Messi)