Day Terrors

noun.

Similar to night terrors. The uncontrollable act of receiving traumatic flashbacks and visions while awake.

Red and black.

A cruel swirl of the colors, mixed into an ugly combination that made him want to vomit.

He gagged, a dry heave throwing his entire body to the ground. He couldn't help but gasp for air, his lungs pulsing and his ears ringing. He couldn't stop staring at the ghastly sight in front of him, and yet his entire being was screaming to look away at anything else.

"Perseus."

There it was. A perfect excuse to tear his eyes off the disgusting heap in front of him. Still, he couldn't do it.

"Perseus." The voice repeated. Even without looking, he knew who it was. The Lord of the Underworld's deep, distinct voice was all too unique. "I'm sorry."

Those words… He couldn't recall ever hearing them from a god other than his father. The phrase was small. Miniscule and insignificant. And yet, at the same time, it was all too impactful. His eyes burned in a collage of terrible depression and raging fury.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." He said, his voice hoarse and his words deathly quiet.

"..."

"Percy." For some odd reason, his tone shifted to something softer, lighter. And for an even odder reason, his barely corked bottle of anger consumed his restraint and overwhelming sadness, bursting forth in an explosive outrage.

He turned, his arms clenched and his hands in tight fists. His jaw was clenched and his eyes glowed a powerful green. He didn't know what he was doing, and yet he knew that all he wanted was to release this boiling tension within him. He wanted to tear the nearest person limb from limb, because how else would he sufficiently get rid of this hatred that was overloading his body? Hades just happened to be the only one near him.

"What do you want!?"

He blinked.

"Diana?"

"Percy." Where he expected Hades to be staring down at him, Diana was curiously gazing at him with concern etched all over her features. "Are you alright?"

"What happened?" Percy asked. His body was suddenly extremely sore, and he was actually lying down on a pretty comfy couch.. He stretched with a groan and looked around in confusion. Yeah, this was not where he was just moments ago.

"That's what I was going to ask you." Diana said, sitting down on the olive green couch next to Percy. "You said you were going to take a quick nap here after last night and I went to answer a call from work before I came back to find you like this. It sounded like you were having a nightmare."

"Ah." Percy clicked his tongue. "I remember now. Yeah, it was just a nightmare."

"At 10 in the morning?" Diana raised an eyebrow. Percy glanced toward the nearest window. It was definitely bright out. Shit.

"How long were we out last night?" Percy asked in surprise.

"Someone was a little excitable for his first time out." Diana looked at him pointedly. "I was gone for like five minutes, how in the gods' names did you get a nightmare that quick this early in the day?"

"Demigod dreams?" Percy shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "They don't really care what time of the day it is."

"Thank Hera I don't get those." Diana subtly shivered, as if the idea itself disgusted her. She looked at Percy with a gentle expression. "Was it bad?"

He lifted a shoulder in a half shrug, suddenly vulnerable. "I've had worse. To be honest, it was more of a flashback than an omen or vision or anything like that."

"Is it usually not flashbacks?" Diana frowned. He cocked his head for a moment before again he gave a half-hearted shrug.

"I mean, sometimes, I suppose. But usually there's some ambiguous, confusing as fuck message that's supposed to come from it." Percy said. He sighed. "There didn't seem to be any underlying meaning. More of just a regular nightmare, although I haven't had one like that in a while."

"You wanna talk about it?" Diana offered. Percy smiled, but shook his head. A pale white corpse flashed through his mind.

"Not particularly." He said apologetically. Diana nodded understandingly, although she still looked a little disappointed. "I'm fine, promise."

Diana studied him for a moment, but must've been satisfied as she eventually nodded and acquiesced. "Alright, you're off the hook. But don't think I'm gonna forget about you running around my city like you own the place when you were supposed to be following me."

"Sorry." Percy smiled apologetically. "I promise it won't happen again."

"Please take that back." Diana immediately replied. She sighed, resigned. "We both know it's going to happen again. Just… try to let me show you the ropes before you do something stupid."

"Yes ma'am." Percy saluted. Diana promptly rolled her eyes. He frowned. "What does showing someone the ropes even mean? It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Don't question it, you'll only hurt yourself." Diana said. Percy suspected she didn't know either. "Alright, clean up and shower and then I'll get you back to your place. Wouldn't want you to miss work."

"Shower?" Percy asked. He looked around, suddenly aware of his surroundings for the first time since he'd woke up. This was not his apartment. And it was entirely too nice and entirely too big to be a hotel either. "Where are we?"

"Did you hit your head when I wasn't looking last night?" Diana asked. She rapped him on the temple with her knuckles. Percy jerked away and scowled. She grinned.

"I doubt it."

She smiled, and shrugged. "Just take a guess."

"I dislike you." Percy stated. Diana didn't look bothered. He sighed in exasperation, but nevertheless stood up with a stretch of his arms and a groan. "Ahh, great. You're gonna make me look around?"

"You really shouldn't have to." Diana said with amusement. "If you just stopped and thought about it for a moment, you'd save yourself the headache."

"Are you doubting my intuitive skills?"

"No." Diana said simply. "I just think you're not thinking about this at all."

"Blah, blah, blah." Percy responded maturely. He paused for a moment and looked around.

After inspecting the rather clean, rather large room they were in, he found what he was looking for and padded over to the curtain-covered windows. Grasping the blackout curtains, he slid them open and revealed the outside world.

The first thing he noticed was that they were near the ocean. It technically could've been just a large body of water, but he could sense that this was no ordinary lake. Now that he could sense it, smell it, feel it; he was surprised that he hadn't noticed its presence before.

Second thing he noticed was that he was definitely not in Colorado. Or at least, the city he resided in. Months of exploring the various nooks and crannies of the city had allowed him to recognize most of it.

Yeah, this was definitely not his city.

"I'm drawing a blank." Percy stated bluntly. Diana sighed from behind him, but walked forward so that they were side-by-side.

"Percy." Diana smiled. "This is my home."

"..."

"It is?" He asked skeptically. He frowned, turned around, and scanned the room. "It's very normal."

"I'll take that as a compliment." She chuckled.

"And it's just… a house?." Percy said, now wandering to more closely get a look around. He was curious, if nothing else, about the area in which she chose to live in.

"Just a normal, two story, white-picket fence house in a regular suburban neighborhood." Diana confirmed.

"Yuck." Percy said sarcastically, sending Diana a grin. He leaned down to inspect a shelf filled with old-looking books. Seriously, Annabeth would've had a field day explaining which century-old geezers had authored them. "How long have you lived here?"

"Few years." Diana said. "Before I moved into here, I tended to move a lot between different states. I decided I should just settle down and try to make myself comfortable."

"And I'm assuming this has more than a few bedrooms and bathrooms?" Percy asked, looking explicitly at Diana. He grinned suggestively and raised an eyebrow. "Waiting for someone?"

Diana shrugged nonchalantly, not backing down and returning his stare challengingly, "Maybe."

Neither of them tore their gaze for a few moments. They were competitive like that.

"Do you have any coffee?" Percy finally asked and interrupted their staring contest.

"I thought you don't drink coffee." Diana challenged.

"I do when I get 10 minutes of sleep."

Diana continued to stare at him. He sort of felt uncomfortable, but he tried to stand as straight as possible.

"Fine." Diana said. "I started a pot earlier. Come on."

"Where are we going?" Percy asked, still following Diana.

"The kitchen, dummy."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Diana sent a smile his way. He saw the back-end of an eye roll. "Oh."

They made their way through a spacious hallway, passing a few closed doors while they did so. Percy's motherfucking brain told him to start whistling. He didn't listen.

"By the way, we need to get you a suit." Diana said. "I don 't think wearing jeans and a t-shirt is gonna work if we're gonna do this regularly."

"I could just take a dip in the Styx and wear whatever I want." Percy suggested sarcastically.

"You do that." Diana responded uncaringly as they entered the kitchen. "I'll ask Bruce to mock something up. Any suggestions or preferences?"

"Uhhh…." Percy furrowed his brows and tapped his chin. "No scales - I've had too many fish jokes in my lifetime, don't make it too tight, don't make it too heavy, make it blue-themed… I kinda want a trident. Is that weird?"

"Do you even know how to use a trident?" Diana asked skeptically, taking out two mugs and pouring a pot of coffee into both.

"Hades no."

"Then why do you want a trident?"

Percy shrugged, "Sounds cool."

"That's a terrible reason."

"Eh, dad always looked really cool when he had it. And if one of the Big Three has a trident as one of their symbols of power, I feel like it'd be pretty useful." Percy said, taking Diana's offered mug with a thank you.

"I think Arthur might have an extra one." Diana rummaged through a cupboard and extracted two containers. "Sugar?"

"An extra one?" Percy questioned, graciously scooping an inhuman amount of sugar and dousing his coffee in it. He could just imagine his body screaming at him to stop. He couldn't do it. The enticing, sweet taste of the tablespoons of sugar was just too much to resist.

"Yeah." Diana said. They settled and leaned against opposite marble counters only a few feet apart, with Diana's back against her spacious island and Percy's head leaning against her wooden wall cabinets. Rays of radiant sun shone through the window above the sink, creating a spotlight at her feet."His trident is his main weapon. I think he said something once about it being passed down between his ancestors."

"Wait a minute." Percy held up a hand, took a sip of the coffee, and practically moaned in ecstasy. "Who's Arthur?"

Diana looked at him plainly. "Do you ever listen?"

"I do." Percy nodded, unbothered. "I just have a bad memory."

"There's no possible way you forgot who Arthur is." Diana said, unconvinced.

"Well, I did. Jog my memory." Percy said. He peered over his cup and saw Diana giving him a look. "Please?"

"Better." Diana mumbled. "He's half-Atlantean, half-human. His mom was a member of an important family and his father was a lighthouse keeper. Do you need me to remind you of the rest?"

"Atlantean?" Percy asked. He frowned. "Why did my father never tell me there was a half Atlantean roaming the Earth, dressed in modified Atlantean armor and boasting his power to talk to fish? I can talk to fish! And horses!"

"So I guess you don't need me to remind you." Diana deadpanned and drank from her mug, cupping it with both hands.

"Scratch the trident." Percy sighed and slouched back against the counter. "Just… I don't know... What's a weapon I could use that wouldn't kill someone on instant contact? I don't think I know how to twirl a lasso."

"With your aim, I think we can eliminate any projectiles." Diana said smugly. Percy scoffed. "You could use a staff - I think Dinah could properly train you - or if you want I could ask Bruce to make a blunt version of your sword."

"Hmmm… I don't know." Percy frowned. He fished Anaklusmos out of his pocket and flipped it between his fingers. "I kinda like how portable Riptide is. I don't know if I'd want to carry a regular sword in a bulky sheathe, even if it would be a familiar weapon and fighting style."

"You're not making this very easy."

"Ooh! That reminds me. Can I get a pouch full of water I can carry on my belt or something?"

"That feels derivative."

"Katara won't care."

"That's because she doesn't exist."

"She does to me." Percy refuted immediately. "Is that a yes or a no?"

"I'll talk to Bruce." Diana said reluctantly. Percy definitely did not fist pump. And he most certainly didn't let out a high-pitched cheer. No sir. "You still need a weapon, though. I don't want you going out bare-handed with only a gallon of water at your hip."

"I'll just water-whip everyone into submission."

"Kinky."

"I hate you." Diana simply smiled over her mug. "When did you get so snarky?"

"Since you forced me to stay up all throughout the night."

"Let's not exaggerate." Percy said. Diana stared at him unblinkingly. "Alright, so it was my fault. I apologize."

"Thank you" Diana gave a little nod. "Now, a weapon?"

Percy sighed and slouched even further against the counter behind him. To make things worse, his mug was now empty, "You know what, just give me a baton the size of my sword and about the same weight. Two of them, actually, if possible. And make it blue."

"Sounds good. Dick uses something similar to that now, although his can meld into a singular, longer staff as well."

"Dick?"

"We really need to work on your listening skills."

"I'm never letting you touch coffee again."

"Me neither." Percy practically felt nauseous from the caffeine pumping through his veins. He could probably explode at any second. Well, that was an exaggeration. But still, he felt as if he could swim across the entire ocean and back without breaking a sweat.

"You sure you still wanna go to work today?" Diana asked worriedly, holding Percy's upper arm to stabilize him as they walked along the sidewalk to his workplace. "Don't even think about running ahead."

"I'm not a child."

"I'm not so sure about that." Diana mumbled. She glanced around for a moment. "Maybe we should do something to burn off your excitability. When does your shift start again?"

"No clue." Percy said uncaringly. Unheeded to her previous warning, he basically skipped down the road, pulling Diana along with him. Despite everything, she laughed. "What did you have in mind? I can just call in for a day off."

"We can go to the watchtower, try to find someone you can spar with." Diana offered.

"And I can't just spar with you?" Percy raised an eyebrow back at her.

"I'm curious how you'll do against others." She shrugged. "Plus, I want you to meet some of my friends. I think you'd get along really well with most of them."

"Most of them?"

"Well…" Diana chuckled awkwardly. "Some of them can be a little odd, but they're still good people!"

"I'm sure they are." Percy grinned.

"Just… let's go."

"As you wish, m'lady."

"Oh, shut it." Diana yanked on his arm across the street and pulled them toward a narrow alley not too far away. "Thank the gods there's a Zeta tube here."

"I don't like teleporting." Percy frowned. "Makes me feel all fuzzy."

"Just get in Percy." Diana sighed and lightly pushed him towards the spray painted circle that indicated the tube. "Hera, you drank a cup of coffee, it's not like you're drunk or anything."

"Might as well be."

"Alright, here we go." Diana stood next to Percy and stabilized him with a hand on his shoulder. After she fiddled with her watch, in only a moment, he could feel the uncomfortable sensation of being teleported to a different location hundreds of miles away.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

"At least your breakfast isn't on the floor." Diana pointed out. "That's a win in my book."

"Hello!" Percy shouted out, waving at the first person he saw. As it turned out, he was waving at a woman with glowing green eyes and bright, neon green hair. Suffice to say, she paid him one glance before moving along. "That could've gone better."

"Maybe you should just stay quiet until we get to the sparring room." Diana suggested.

"Who am I sparring?"

"Dinah might be there." Diana said. She waved for Percy to get moving, and get moving he did. They passed random aliens and metahumans and everything in between. Percy had to resist asking what their powers were in fear of Diana chastising him more. "But, if she isn't, we'll find you the best opponent."

"I wanna fight an alien."

"What type of alien?"

"Any alien." Percy bounced on his toes. "I just wanna get that off my bucket list."

"That's a weird item to have on your bucket list."

"I'm a weird guy."

"I won't argue with you there."

While Diana led him towards what he assumed was the training facility, he took the opportunity to note who exactly was wandering the hallways alongside them. Not everyone was clad in spandex or covered from head to toe in bulky armor, which only slightly surprised him, but he did see a good amount of what he assumed to be a hero.

What defines a hero?

Eh. It was too early to be thinking about that type of stuff.

But yeah. It was amazing how versatile the color pallets were. He saw a girl wearing a bright pink spandex suit, a man in red and yellow who looked entirely too 2-dimensional to exist, a man in forest green and a feather cap, a woman who Diana greeted with wings sprouting from her back and a golden-bronze mace at her side.

It was honestly making his head swim, how many colors he was seeing. Or maybe it was the coffee.

Still, along with the varying colors, their surface-level attitudes were all along the spectrum as well. Some of them politely greeted Diana while others didn't even spare either of them a glance, either a passive expression or a frown gracing their features. A few took a handful of moments to have a quick conversation with Diana while Percy was left to bounce on the balls of his feet, and some even included him in the conversation, introducing themselves to him and sparking a rather friendly albeit short talk.

He liked those people the most.

The more he thought about it, though, the more he realized that the Justice League was less a cohesive unit, more a company cobbled together with random people and animals and androids and aliens and everything in between, all sharing the same goal of helping people.

It kinda reminded him of camp. Ever so slightly. Although, from his admittedly short interactions and observations, camp felt more like a family than this.

The residents of the watchtower for the most part were more polite, less combative, and yet that's exactly what made camp home, made it family. Despite all the petty arguments and challenges to the death and accusations of stealing one's belongings, they would fight for one another. They would laugh with one another. They would cry with one another. They would die with one another.

Maybe the Justice League would do some of those wholly together. Maybe they'd do all of them. He certainly hoped so.

"Right here." Diana finally said, drawing him away from his thoughts. A metal door in front of them slid open, allowing the pair of them to enter.

"Perfect." Percy said. "Who am I fighting?"

"Just wait a second, you absolute juvenile." Diana responded teasingly, not even glancing back at him. He promptly blew a raspberry at her. Being the more mature person, she chose not to respond at all.

Ripping his attention off of Diana, he finally gained bearings of his surroundings.

The training room was impressive. That was the least he could say.

It was massive, with high ceilings and wooden floors and scattered mats and a mind-boggling amount of different equipment. It was a demigod's dream. Or a nightmare, depending on the demigod.

A handful of people were in the extremely large room that probably could've been classified as the floor of an entire apartment complex. Some appeared to be wrestling, a few were in a far corner with some metal dummies, and one was even high flying using a few gymnastics bars. That last guy looked way too young (or small) to be in a place like this, but who was he to judge?

"Over here, Percy." Diana waved for him to follow towards the people wrestling across the floor.

"Am I wrestling someone?"

"You might be." Diana said, giving away no answers. "Come on. I want you to meet them."

"You friends with them, or something?"

"It appears so." Diana replied.

"Which one am I fighting?" Percy asked once they got close enough to get a good enough idea of what they looked like.

"That's up to them." Diana said. "But I have one in mind for you."

"It's not the old man, is it?" Percy asked, catching a glimpse of gray hair. It appeared to be a man grappling with a woman, the man sporting a silverish gray cut of hair and admittedly large biceps. He gulped. "I don't wanna be responsible for beating up a grandpa just because I'm a little energetic today."

"Don't worry." Diana smiled. "He's not the one I had in mind."

The opposite of the man was a smaller woman with blonde hair and a black tank top. Only a couple of seconds after they stopped in front of the wrestling pair, the woman slammed the man face first into the mat, holding him in an armlock behind his back.

"Yeah." Percy tsked. "I don't know if there's a right decision here.

"Don't worry." Diana said. "She'll go easy on you."

"You realize I'm a swordsman, right?" Percy scratched the back of his head nervously. "I think the last time I fought someone hand-to-hand was during our wrestling portion in PE back in high school. I lost, by the way."

"I'm sure you were holding back."

"I wasn't."

"Well then I'm sure you've improved."

"I haven't."

"I don't give a damn." Diana said, flashing him a wicked grin. "Think of this as punishment. You made me stay up all throughout the night, I'm making you get beat up by my friend. Fair's fair."

"Fair is definitely not fair." Percy grumbled.

"Hey Di!" The woman popped up onto her feet once the old man yielded, grumbling about distractions and something or other.

"Dinah." Diana smiled and inclined her head. "Having fun?"

"Always fun beating up gramps over here." Dinah, apparently punched the man in the shoulder. She smirked and jutted her chin out towards Percy. "Finally found yourself a boy toy?"

"I wish." Percy's eyebrows rose at that. "No, this is Percy, remember?"

"Ah, new recruit then." Dinah nodded and extended her hand. "I thought you didn't want part of this life."

"I was undecided." Percy responded quickly and tilted his head. He shook her outstretched hand. "Had my first night out yesterday, though. Diana's too strict for her own good."

"This guy decided to go until late morning." Diana slapped the back of his head ("Ow!").

"I remember my first days with Ollie." The blonde smiled nostalgically. "Those were fun."

"That's becau-"

"Don't even." Dinah interrupted playfully, sharing a secret smile with Diana. "So what are you two here for, then?"

"Percy here needs to calm down." Diana gestured like she was unveiling a new fucking product to the public for the first time.

"Ah." Dinah grinned immediately. "Just give me a few minutes, and I'll be ready."

"Perfect." Diana replied as Dinah and the man next to her went off to the side to rest after their fight. Dinah opened a small fridge next to a wooden bench and pulled out a bottle of water.

"This is definitely not perfect." Percy protested.

"Stop being a baby." Diana giggled at him. He felt offended. "You're stronger, tougher, and quicker than any regular human. What are you worried about?"

"I'm worried that I'm not fighting a regular human." Percy deadpanned.

"In every possible way, I promise you that Dinah's a normal person."

"..."

"Okay, maybe she isn't." Percy nodded knowingly as Diana laughed. "But, trust me, your fight isn't going to be affected by her enhancements, so you have nothing to worry about."

Percy sighed. He still doubted Diana, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious. He'd be more enticed if they were fighting with something other than hand-to-hand, but this'd have to do. "Fine. At least tell me you have ambrosia or nectar with you."

"Why would I have either of those?"

"Cause you're a demigod?"

"So are you."

"Just take my keys and let me get ready, gods dammit."

I can either pick up next chapter with the spar or skip over it to post-fight interactions. I don't care either way. Choice is up to you guys. Just leave a review for what you want and I'll write what the majority choose.