AN: Okkk... so for those who cannot follow anything till now, here's a short summary. Actually, there is nothing much to say.
Annabeth died during a final battle in ToA, showing in Prologue Part 1. In Prologue Part 2, I show their relationship a few years before. Now, after Annabeth's death, Percy takes a fatal injury, which almost kills him. To save him, the gods give him immortality, and to help him deal with his loss (but really to keep him under his thumb) Zeus gets him a harem. Percy is OP, obviously. However, due to complications during the rituals to get him harem, Percy falls into a coma, which he wakes up from six months later. After recuperating for a few weeks, he learns of Annabeth's death, because he forgot it in the trauma, and attempts suicide. After surviving the attempt, he meditates to find his godly side, and becomes a Dark God.
Follow me so far? Here is the next chapter to scramble your brain. Try to cram all the information I'm dishing out in this chapter, and you are a genius.
Time: Same Time
Percy woke up with a start, jumping up and wielding the newly christened Doomslayer. Anaklusmos held firmly in his other hand, he surveyed his surroundings, thankful for the armour still covering him.
The pain in his shoulder, and the exhaustion weighing him down, were gone, and so was the overwhelming, intoxicating energy he felt under the Sea of Chaos. The power that he had gained as a Dark God still lingered, but most of it was locked away in his mind, for him to use as he saw fit. After concentrating for a minute, he saw the same connections he had felt, and was reassured. None of that had been a bad dream.
More proof was the armour he was still wearing, and his transformed weapons. Percy thought of how to reduce them, and immediately, as if responding to his thoughts, the armour shrunk back into his skin, his weapons shrinking to two rings. The rings were simple, yet elegant. One was gold, for Doomslayer, the other bronze for Anaklusmos. Both had black streaks running through the band, and a spattering of tiny emeralds, sapphires, black diamonds and rubies that fitted perfectly like shiny sand on the band of the rings.
He was under the ocean, again. The soft sand and rough coral feeling oddly familiar, yet alien to his bare feet. The waves tousled his long, raven hair, lightly pushing him about and tugging at his clothes. He could see perfectly even in the darkness of the ocean. Small nocturnal fish swam about in search of food, flocking towards him when they felt his aura as a god, and a son of Poseidon. Soft seagrass and weeds swayed in the waves, the little sunlight filtering through the waves forming beautiful patterns on the ocean bed.
The shark which had been nuzzling him obediently like a lost puppy, jerked upwards with joy, the underwater equivalent of jumping. It rubbed its soft, smooth scales affectionately against the god, and even went to nibble him lovingly, but Percy resisted its advances, not being so sure if it was safe even for children of Poseidon to be 'nibbled lovingly' by a full-grown tiger shark. Its stripes, though, looked beautiful as it reflected the sunlight, and Percy rubbed its dorsal fin affectionately, as if he was giving his puppy ear rubs.
'Nice shark you got there.' Percy jumped out of his skin in fright at the voice that appeared out of nowhere in his mind. Did he now have schizophrenia, too?
'Scaredy cat.'
'Dark deities do not get such puny diseases.'
He faintly recognized them to be his four, hot and sexy, female subordinates.
'He thinks we are hot and sexy.' Nyx spoke, a lingering touch of satisfaction and desire in her voice.
'Hmm... are the admissions to your harem still open, Dark God?' Nemesis' voice floated over.
'Can you stop digging around in my head?' As always, he was ignored.
'I can't see what you see in this rude brat.' Percy felt offended that Styx had called him a rude brat.
There was a collective huff in his mind, before Eris added, 'And to think, that it was you who could not sleep for several days when he bathed in your river. You whore.'
Percy could almost feel Styx's furious blush over their mind link. He seriously did not need to know these things. He had his hands occupied right then.
'That much is true.' Nemesis teased him. Over their mind link, he could faintly hear Styx and Eris engaged in an escalating and embarrassing shouting match that involved throwing each other's crushes and kinks at each other. Percy seemed to come up majority of the time, except times when they said-
'You crushed on Perses!' Eris shouted.
Styx mock retched. 'And you crushed on Atlas! Blegh, even saying his name has left a bad taste in my mouth!'
'You know I did not! You are just a masochistic whore who secretly likes being tied up and spanked hard!'
Everything fell silent. Percy mentally slammed his head into a wall.
'Look at that arousal.' Nemesis giggled.
'Would you like to tie me up and spank me, Percy?' Styx added sultrily, making Percy's face heat up.
'How do I get out of here?'
Nyx, who had been quiet all this time, finally interrupted. 'Just stop talking, my stupid judge. You can do that easily, no?'
'From his track record on pissing off immortals, I don't think so.' Eris added, making the others giggle.
Percy again felt the need to slam his head into a solid brick wall. Jason would have loved that.
He shut off the mental connection, amid giggles at something Nyx had said, about him, undoubtedly.
Percy shook his head at the four. Who knew the three Dark Goddesses, and one Primordial of the Night, whom everybody shunned, and thought of as cruel, could gossip and tease like schoolgirls?
Wading through the deep water, he headed towards Ogygia, where he could finally sleep, and satisfy the hunger in his growling stomach. The water parted in front of his knees as he walked underwater, the sand yielding and soft beneath his toes.
He waded through the water for a few minutes before he caught his first sign of the girls. Rose and Violet were swimming about, searching for him in the lighter waters in their pyjamas, their hair flowing everywhere, thrown about by the waves.
Percy waved his hands, not changing his relatively slow pace. Violet was the first to see him, and she drew Rose's attention by poking her roughly. Percy could see her indignant expression even from his distance.
That soon changed when she caught sight of her big brother.
The twins reached the Dark God a few seconds later, swimming at an incredibly fast speed that only children of Poseidon could reach.
Rose gestured at her wrist, indicating time, while Violet just waved her arms in excited gestures. They had still not mastered the art of speaking underwater as he had.
Percy threw his head back and laughed, messing their long, raven hair, despite the ocean already having accomplished that. "Come on, squirts, we'll first have a nice meal, then stories."
Rose nodded, and grabbing his hands, attempted to pull him along, while her twin pushed him in an attempt to make him go faster.
Percy sighed, shaking his head, despite the small smile tugging at his lips. "Come on, I can't wait for the meal." Saying so, he pushed off the ocean bed, and with complex manoeuvres, he could pull off, he left them far behind in the dust.
Literally. He had kicked up a lot of dust as he took off, speeding faster than any dolphin could ever hope to achieve.
There were slightly muffled sounds of indignation, and the twins gave chase, seeking to do the Herculean task of beating him to the island.
And they succeeded.
But that might have been largely because Percy chose to wade through the waist-deep water, covering the last stretch to the island on foot, and enjoying the bright sunshine warming his skin, the air blowing against him, buffeting his skin and tousling his long hair. The sounds of the soaring albatrosses screaming in the blood-red sky was music to his ears after days underwater. The palm trees swayed in the breeze, the briny scent of the sea breeze in his nostrils. He looked up, for once, relieved to see the accursed chariot of Apollo, which always harkened the dawn. The sun was peeking over the horizon, tinting the eastern horizon bloody, the light rays sharp and bright, piercing through the fabric of night that veiled the rest of the world.
Percy waved at the cheering girls on the beach, absentmindedly noting that Aphrodite's make up was impeccable, as expected. Almost the entire female population of Ogygia seemed to be on the beach, with the exception of, of course, Drew and Athena, and, a big surprise here, Hestia. Percy felt a small pang of hurt that she had not come out to greet him, and then thought of his domains. It was natural she would not come to greet him.
Did she know his domains already? Did she loathe him for it? Was it his fault to push Hestia away?
When the water to his knees, almost everybody on the beach rushed him, jumping through the shallow water to reach him, not caring if they splashed others, or got wet themselves in the process, and chasing all negative thoughts from his mind.
Percy jumped back to keep them at bay. "Back, back, I tell you! No dogpiling in the middle of the sea! I'm hungry, damn it! You'll all get your hugs, can't you hear me!" He didn't mean it, but the last part came out in a shout.
A few eyed him with worry, recognizing his half depressed look, and knowing his shouting to be what it was- just an outlet for all his self-deprecative thoughts.
But, nothing could dampen their mood. Most were still cheering, hailing their god as they crowded him on his way to the dining hall and subsequent rest.
Percy took a deep breath to calm himself, looking around his backyard/frontyard. The majority of the house was still plunged in darkness, the only light coming from the dining room, falling through the sliding glass door to illuminate a part of the mown lawn. The swimming pool was calm, with only slight ripples, and the occasional leaf littering the water, which reflected the setting silver moon. The smell of a fresh, hot meal on the stove wafted through the open door, along with the faint sounds of someone watching a movie at the large television spanning one wall.
He stepped through the glass door to see Drew complaining about something to Athena, who was paying rapt attention to the daughter of Aphrodite, for once ignoring the book on the table in front of her.
As soon as he entered, the two threw him nasty looks, and grumbling slightly under her breath, Drew switched off the television, carelessly flinging the remote on the table and made her way back to her room.
Athena stayed, which was probably nice for her. But Percy reasoned that it was probably so that she could shout at him some more.
However, even those two could not dampen his mood when he saw the steaming, piping fresh meal of simple, homemade garlic bread and meal, and the smiling hearth goddess accompanying it.
Hestia smiled at Percy serenely as she gave him a hug in greeting, which he returned eagerly. Her presence never failed to light up his day. She seemed to understand Percy's state, exhausted and battered, and he was thankful for that as she served him quietly, so different from the other girls. She enjoyed herself in silence when the time called for it, and she was the loudest when the time called for it.
But this posed another problem. Did Hestia not know about his domains? It made everything much more complicated.
Percy had just torn off his first piece of garlic bread, the delicious smell like Elysium to him. It was not his day.
The food had just touched his lips, warm and smooth and comforting, when Athena interrupted. Of course.
Percy felt the need to snort as he reluctantly set down the uneaten piece of delicious garlic bread.
"What are your domains?" She was crisp, to the point, her tongue sharp enough that he could physically feel her cuts.
Percy gulped, his appetite gone. He knew Athena only stayed because her overwhelming curiosity as a goddess prevented her from being ignorant about his domains, but he would have really appreciated it if she had waited for him to finish his meal.
Despite his best attempts, he could not pin the entire blame on her. He could see the rest of the girls inch forward in their seats, their eyes eager and curious as they leaned in. Reyna ignored her elbow in the piping soup- Percy did not feel regret, he knew he wouldn't be able to finish it anyway. That is, if he even got to taste it. Phoebe almost sat on Thalia's lap as she leaned in, but the daughter of Zeus ignored her, her eyes concentrating on him, and him alone. Sydney, who had been sitting on the island as was her habit, was standing now. The air was apprehensive, Percy could hear all their hearts beating with excitement.
He gulped. He could feel Athena's eyes on him, akin to a predator, watching his Adam's apple bob. He knew she had a victorious smirk in her face, her eyes shining viciously in anticipation of the kill, her inarguably superior mental faculties already having processed his hesitation. It was not a question of if, just when.
And Percy did not have long, surrounded by eighteen eager, excited girls and one bitch. His only other option was to lie, but that choice had serious repercussions in the long run. He would be found out sooner or later, if not immediately. Several of the girls within the room were much smarter than him, and knew everything about him. One of them was the twin of the God of Truth, for fuck's sake!
His sisters watched him with unveiled admiration, their eyes shining. Percy's heart broke at the thought of letting them down.
"I-I am..." His palms felt sweaty, his heart rate picked up as everybody crowded closer. He was feeling claustrophobic, the shadows were stalking him again. There were whispers in his ear, whispers telling him to die.
He jumped when a cannon went off again in the distance.
Damn, being the god of Nightmares evidently did not stop him from having nightmares.
Recognising the signs of a mild panic attack, the girls backed off immediately, giving him some space to recover.
Percy breathed deeply, attempting to calm his racing heart. Seeing Annabeth again had just made his loss more real, not bandaging his mental wounds in the slightest.
Athena tapped her foot impatiently. "Well? We are waiting."
Everyone threw her harsh glares as she disregarded Percy's panic attack with callous apathy, pressurising him to speak things that he obviously did not want to.
"I think we should..." Calypso started, only to be cut off. "No-no. I need... to do this... yes, I need to." Percy's back straightened, the hot meal in front of him forgotten as he composed himself, slightly out of breath and gasping for air. His chest hurt from his racing heart, and he could feel a throbbing headache coming on. Tears pooled in his eyes, but he managed to keep them at bay for some more time.
"I don't think...," Piper was ignored promptly, Percy's eyes only on the blonde wisdom goddess. How could someone who gave birth to his angel, be so cruel? Her stormy grey eyes, so like her.
Percy shook off Artemis' hand and ignored Thalia's pleading as he stood up, slightly wobbling on his feet as he struggled to stand from hunger, exhaustion and pain, both physical, mental and emotional. Ruby and Atalanta stood up to help him, but he waved them away.
"I am... the God of..." he panted, gasping out the words in a raspy voice which made everyone save for the blonde bitch to look at him in worry, "the God of Heroes, War, Darkness, Fear, Horror, Nightmares, Insanity and Time." He waited patiently for the outburst which he knew would come.
Silence greeted his declaration. A few were marvelling at his powerful domains, the majority were wondering at his dark domains. Domains of a god were the reflection of who a god was as a person, or, well, god. It reflected their personality, and often, Dark Gods had evil, cruel, twisted personalities.
Had they judged their 'hero' incorrectly? Had they pledged themselves, their bodies and minds, to a psychopathic, insane god?
Their hesitation to come to his aid hurt Percy more than anything Athena could have ever said or done. Artemis, Piper, Calypso, Hestia, Rachel, Reyna, his sisters...
"So... you are like an Anti-Hestia?" Thalia seemed to have been infected by Atalanta's (and his own) disease of not thinking before talking.
No one refuted her.
Whatever was left of Percy's conscience, any last shreds of hope, was shattered when Sydney inched backwards from him.
Athena noticed the movement, however inadvertent it might have been, and laughed shrilly, a cruel, cold sound that chased all warmth from the room, plunging it to bone-chilling cold.
"See, they are afraid of you! You are a monster, as was my own daughter for sheltering you!" She seemed to be pulling out all stops now that she had gained some solid ground. "You caused her death! Yes, if you had not been there, then Annabeth would have been alive now! Not only her, Zoë, Silena, Charles, Luke, Jason, all of them would have been alive today! And now, look, Artemis and her Hunters, who apparently love their lieutenant for millennia, have pledged themselves to her murderer!"
"Shut up, Athena!" Artemis screamed at her half-sister, her face red with rage. "Don't drag Zoë into this! Percy is a good man, the best man, the only man I would ever allow within ten miles of any Hunter! Just because you're having problems doesn't give you the right to go on bad mouthing him with lies and unsound arguments that even a Cyclops with brains could refute! I can feel my brain cells dying from listening to you, wisdom goddess!"
The moon goddess sneered, showing off the kickass Artemis that was feared by all across the mythological world. "So, do us all a favour and shut your trap!"
Never one to back down, with her hubris fueling her rage, Artemis only seemed to spark off another rant from the wisdom goddess, as she raged at the unfortunate son of Poseidon, her nostrils flared. "It seems that his vile aura is affecting you too, sister. You're attacking me to protect what you have sworn to hate most!"
Artemis gritted her teeth. "I've sworn to hate rapists and vile filth, and Percy couldn't have been far from it last time I checked."
She was ignored, as Athena turned her wrath towards Percy. "Yes, a murderer is what you are! Destroyer, that is what you are! Everything you touch dies or is destroyed! Now, you have touched us and Ogygia," she sneered at Calypso, who was trying to burn holes in the wisdom goddess' head, "thanks to the naïve Titaness there who could not handle isolation and rejection, now all of us will die! I know I will, and it is my duty to disillusion the others, however blind they might be!"
Out of nowhere, a fist slammed into Athena's jaw, accompanied by a blur of black hair, cutting her off. Her jaws snapped shut on her own tongue, making her groan in pain as her mouth was flooded with ichor that escaped her pink lips, trailing down her chin.
All the girls jumped up, shocked as Athena crashed into the bar counter behind her, her arms reaching behind her to check her fall. Her lips were parted, allowing ichor to freely drip from her lips, splattering on the floor and painting it in golden droplets. Slight tears of pain gathered in her grey eyes.
"I've always wanted to do that." Thalia growled out, not looking in the least bit regretful. Golden specks of immortal blood glistened on her knuckles.
Athena glared at the daughter of Zeus, bloodshot grey eyes shining venomously.
Hestia was sobbing quietly, while Aphrodite was trying to comfort her, the love goddess lost in her own world of thoughts.
Athena's emotions and actions did not match up, she could feel it. The wisdom goddess' stony heart, gone cold from years of getting, and giving, hatred, longed for Percy's warmth, to feel loved, yet she kept pushing him away with violence and aggression, with hurtful, scathing remarks aimed at breaking him.
Aphrodite looked at the panting blonde, her eyes shining. This was all an elaborate act by the wisdom goddess, but why? There was something on with her, the question was, what?
Athena turned her burning eyes towards Percy, forcing herself to swallow the lump in her throat. "You should have died!"
She hissed venomously, "You had so many chances over the years, why couldn't you die! Everyone would have been better off! Your mother did not love you, why do you think she let her child be abused for ten years?" Percy's eyes widened at the fact that she knew about his abuse. "No one would want a son like you!"
No, she was incorrect. His mother loved him, she did it to protect him, she suffered, too.
"Thalia was right in ignoring you! She wanted you to die! Why couldn't you die when you attempted that suicide?! Of course, you could not do anything simple without messing up!" Everyone was wide-eyed at this point, shaking with rage.
Thalia grabbed Athena's collar, shaking her violently, before slamming her back into the counter, cracking it under the force of her blow.
"No, no, no, no, no!" The daughter of Zeus screamed at the wisdom goddess, slamming her into the wood with every word.
Athena did not care about the pain she was in. Her emotional turmoil was too much, her emotional pain too great for her to even register the physical. Her eyes remained fixed on the quietly shaking son of Poseidon, her comments still aimed at destroying him, the words that escaped her lips not matching up with the words that she wanted to say. "You should just die. No one wants you. You will be doing the world a great service that way."
Her words were so similar to the whispers in his head all the time.
Maybe she was right.
No one wanted him. No one came to his help, no one backed him up or bothered to stop the wisdom goddess. She was right, he was alone and unwanted.
Annabeth had stood by his side always. And look where that had brought her. She was dead, all because of his undeserving self.
He wanted to be anywhere but there at that time. He did not care where, he just wanted to be gone, away from the shouting, the cruel goddess, his friends and so-called 'family' who had abandoned him to her mercy.
There was a dark flash, and when the light died down, there was no Percy.
The meal was still there, abandoned and slightly cold, it's eater missing. Athena breathed deeply, reflecting over her words as she surveyed the shocked audience. Did she go overboard? She did not think so.
Still, she could not shake off the uneasy feeling sitting in her stomach. The wisdom goddess chalked it down to her tactical, strategic half being uneasy at the fact she had probably pissed off a morally retarded psychopath with power levels that far outshone her own.
The entirety of the dining room broke into utter chaos.
AN: Boom! Why is Athena being so bitchy? You'll discover more as you read on, right here, on Dealing with Drama. Fuck, I'm awesome.
I'm always open to ideas and suggestions, reviews and constructive criticism. All that is welcome, I have as much fun reading your stuff as you do, reading mine.
I was shaving my beard yesterday when Lace barged into the bathroom out of nowhere, and I accidentally shaved off half of my cool whiskers- I NEED MY WHISKERS ALWAYS THERE REGARDLESS OF IF I'M CLEAN SHAVEN OR NOT! Now, I look like a fourteen-year-old who is late on his puberty, and I can't look at myself in the mirror without breaking down into sobs.
Keep calm and CR7!! Keep calm and LM10!! (Messi)