Chapter 8 - Aftermath
Disclaimer: I own precisely 0% of PJO.
2 weeks later
It had been 2 weeks since Percy's world had crumbled. It had also been 2 weeks since Percy had spoken to another person. It had also been 2 weeks since Percy had eaten anything. It had been 2 weeks since Percy had slept. It had been 2 weeks since Percy had done absolutely anything, except sit on his bunk, and stare into space. Many people tried to come in and talk to him, but he wouldn't let them. The only people in the world that he let inside, were his brother, Chiron, and the people that had seats at the central table in the dining pavilion. No one else could even get past the door.
They all tried to comfort him in some way, but none of them had been able to do anything. None of them had even been able to make him speak. The closest anyone had come, was when Percy put his arm around the shoulders of a sobbing Thalia. Aside from that, he might as well have been a statue. But, there were 2 exceptions to that. The first, was when Percy left his cabin to attend Annabeth's funerals. There had been 2. One at camp, where they had burned her shroud, and one of her mortal family and friends. Percy had attended both. He hadn't spoken a word to anyone there. The second exception, was when he had attended his mother's funeral. He hadn't spoken a word there either.
Aside from that, he hadn't even left his cabin. Jack was trying to get him to speak again. He was determined to get his brother back. Jack was sitting next to Percy on his bunk. But if anyone looked at Percy, they might have thought he was utterly alone. He wasn't speaking to his brother. He wasn't giving any indication that he was listening to him. He wasn't even looking at him. Just staring straight ahead.
"Come on Percy. It's been 2 weeks. 2 whole weeks! Look on the bright side! At least you don't have to move to that other camp now!" Jack was saying.
Percy slowly swiveled his head towards his brother. The first time he had looked at him in 2 weeks. With exception to the Thalia incident, the first time he had demonstrated awareness for another person in 2 weeks.
"What did you just say?" he croaked. First time speaking in 2 weeks.
"What?" Jack looked confused.
"What the fuck did you just say?"
"I said I'm glad you're not moving to the other camp," Jack replied nervously.
"No. That's not what you said."
Jack stared at his brother.
"Jack, where were you the day Annabeth and my mother died?"
"What do you mean Perce?"
"Where. The fuck. Where you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I was at camp."
"Where at camp?"
Jack was silent for a moment.
"I had sword fighting in the morning, then-"
"Did you go?" Percy cut him off
"Yeah, of course, I did."
"No, you didn't. I was looking for you. I checked if you were at sword fighting. You weren't."
Jack gulped nervously.
"Maybe I'd gone to the bathroom when you checked, and you missed me?"
"I asked them. They said that they hadn't seen you all morning."
"They must have been kidding. I don't know what to tell you, Perce." Jack said helplessly.
"How about the truth, Jack," Percy said menacingly.
Jack paused for a while.
"I'm gonna ask you again Jack. Where were you the day Annabeth and my mother died?"
Jack was quiet for a long time.
"OK, fine. You got me Perce. But I did it for you! I know how much you didn't want to go to that other place! I know she was making you go! It's ok bro, I get it. She's gone now. It'll just be you and me, ok?"
Percy stared at him. His brother. His own brother was responsible for ruining his entire life. And he did it because he thought he was helping him.
"Um, Perce?" Jack said nervously, watching as all of the water in the Poseidon cabin started vibrating.
Percy hadn't even known he was doing it. The water had simply reacted for him, as an extent of his own emotions. But Percy didn't release his control over it. He doubled down. He sent all of the water crashing towards Jack with such force, that he flew straight through the wall of the cabin and out into the main area. Percy was right with him, following his brother through the hole in the wall.
He decided that he wasn't going to use his powers anymore. Nor riptide. He was going to beat him to death, with just his bare hands. Before Jack could even realize what was happening, Percy was on him, beating down on his face. Percy was exceptionally strong, even for a demigod, so each punch landed like a blow from a hammer. If Jack hadn't had the extreme resilience that came with being a demigod, he would probably be dead already.
Before very long, they had attracted quite a crowd. There were dozens of demigods surrounding them, trying to pull Percy off of his brother, with very little luck. Percy kept raining down blows like a machine. He had never felt rage like that in his entire life.
"Percy, stop!" a voice sounded.
Percy stopped suddenly. He wasn't sure why. He looked up and saw that Piper had been the source of the voice. She must have used charmspeak. Percy was quite resistant to it, but it had been enough to make him pause momentarily. He was about to get back down to business when he felt something slash across his stomach. He looked down and saw that Jack had his hand around a knife and a murderous look on his face.
Jack managed to get out from under Percy and rose quickly. He was about to try and slash at Percy's neck, but the elder sibling brought his arm up to stop the knife before it gained any momentum, stepped inside Jack's guard, and delivered a colossal headbutt. If Jack had been a normal human, the headbutt alone would have been enough to kill him. Jack stumbled back and was about to dart back at Percy, when suddenly, Percy was nowhere to be seen. He had simply vanished.
Percy had just headbutted his brother when he blinked. When he opened his eyes, he was in a whole other place. He had no clue where. He looked around the room, but he had never been there before. It was just a white room, with nothing in it except a bed right in front of him.
Percy spun 180 degrees when he felt a presence behind him. He came face-to-face with a woman. She looked 20 years old. She was relatively tall. Quite slender. Pure black hair. Pure black eyes. Pure black clothes. Before Percy could say a thing, she tapped him on the forehead.
"Sleep."
And, before he knew it, Percy was falling backward onto the bed. His eyes closed without him telling them to, and he was totally unconscious 1 second later.
When Percy opened his eyes again, he was in the same room, but a few things had changed since he had fallen asleep. Or rather, before he had been made to fall asleep. The first thing he noticed, was that he wasn't wearing his usual clothes anymore. He was in some sort of hospital gown. The second thing he noticed, was that he had stitches across his stomach. It took him a moment to remember why he had needed stitches there. When he remembered, she shot out of bed like a bullet. He had a brother to kill. But then he came to another realization. He wasn't alone in the room. But the person in there with him wasn't the woman that had put him to sleep. She was a blonde girl, with deep blue eyes. She was pretty short and quite athletic. She was maybe around 18 years old. She looked like she was staring 'bored' in the rearview mirror.
She glanced over at him when she saw that he was up.
"Finally, you're up. I thought I was gonna have to stay here forever, "she said before she tossed him a bunch of clothes, "Get dressed."
"Where the hell am I?"
She glared at him.
"I told you, get dressed."
"Look, I'm not doing a damn thing until you tell me where the fu-"
The girl interrupted him by dashing towards him so fast, that he barely even registered the fact that she had moved. She grabbed his arm, wrenched it behind his back, and used it as leverage to force him to bend at the waist, so his face was pressing into the mattress.
"Ah! What the fuck!?" he yelled in pain.
"I'm gonna tell you one more time. Get dressed. Or I'll break your arm."
And with that, she let him go. He was tempted to punch her, but he had a feeling she wasn't bluffing about breaking his arm. Something told him that this woman wasn't to be trifled with. He also figured she was a hell of a lot older than she looked. Reluctantly, he got dressed. The clothes she had given him, were his own. They were the clothes he had been wearing when he had arrived at... wherever the hell he was. But the cut across the shirt was gone. So either they had fixed it, or they had gotten identical replacements.
The mean blonde lady had stayed in the room and watched him as he dressed. Once he was done, he looked at her questioningly to ask what was next. She just smirked at him.
"Good boy," she said mockingly, while she patted him on the head.
Whoever this bitch was, Percy could tell they weren't going to get along. She just turned on her heel and walked out of the door. She paused in the doorway and looked back to see that he hadn't moved from where he was.
"Well? You think I have all day?"
"I don't know how much time you have. I don't know a damn thing about you," he replied, crossing his arms.
"Now wait a minute. You mean you didn't get the gift basket?" she said, putting an arm over her chest, with her eyes going wide in mock horror, "Well, I do apologize. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is none of your goddamn business. And I'll tell you all you need to know about me. I do not have all day, so move your fucking ass."
"Well, she's colorful."
"Pretty name. French?" he asked sarcastically.
She narrowed her eyes at him. She dashed across the room at him again. This time, he had been expecting it. He'd been trying to rile her up. He managed to sidestep in time. She was going too fast to stop in time, so she shot straight past him. He whipped around and grabbed the back of her head as she went by, and swept his legs low to kick her feet out from under her. As she lost her legs, Percy shoved her head straight downwards. The effect was fantastic. Her stupid face crunched into the ground audibly. It was very cathartic for the disorientated demigod. Percy knew for a fact that she would have been knocked out from the blow if she were a demigod, and killed if she were a mortal. But he made a bet with himself that she wouldn't even be unconscious.
He was right. Her arms started thrashing at her side, trying to find something to leverage to pull herself up so that she could kick his ass. Percy was pretty against such a thing happening, so he lifted her head, and shoved it back down again. He was about to do it one more time when he sensed another presence behind him. It still wasn't the woman that had put him to sleep in the room. This time, it was a guy. A massive guy. He was probably around 6'5 and built like a mountain of muscle. He had blonde hair, cropped short. No facial hair. He looked pissed off.
Percy shot up to meet him, hoping to end the fight before it could really begin. In his experience, people his size were pretty slow. He was hoping that he could get to him before the big guy reacted. A solid blow to the throat and a follow-up poke to the eyes, and the fight would be over before he could do any real damage. He was wrong. Apparently, this guy was pretty quick too. Before Percy could get close enough to do anything, a heavily muscled arm shot out and grabbed him by the throat. Percy was raised off the ground by his throat, and he felt the guy's other hand land a brutal sucker punch straight into his stomach. Percy felt all of the air get forced out of his lungs. He couldn't take another breath because of the meaty hand crushing his trachea. The guy kept holding him up for another few seconds. He didn't hit him again. He didn't need to. Percy felt his head exploding. His eyes felt like they were going to pop straight out of his skull. He was going to die. And he was going to die without getting his revenge on his sack of shit brother. He had lost. Jack had won.
The last thought breathed new life into Percy's lungs. He would not let Jack get away with what he had done. He needed to pay. No way that wasn't going to happen. Imbued with a new sense of strength, Percy dragged his arm up and sent it flying forward, into the guy's face. His fingers found the guy's eyes. Percy hooked his fingers on the side of the guy's face and pushed his thumb straight into the big man's eye. The little amount of consciousness Percy had left by that point, proved just enough to hear the muscle man screech in agony. The big guy opened his hand on instinct, and Percy dropped to the ground, sucking in mouthfuls of air. Percy was about to press his advantage and go in for another attack on the big guy when he realized he had forgotten something. Someone. The annoying blonde girl from before was still in play.
Percy was reminded of her existence, by her kicking the base of his skull. Percy felt stars explode behind his eyes. A kick to the base of the skull does a lot of things, not the least of which is to debilitate the unlucky son of a bitch on the receiving end. It worked perfectly. Percy had no idea where he was, what was going on, or why his head hurt.
He managed to swing himself around to face the blonde girl again, purely on instinct. The sight of her was almost enough to make him laugh. She was glaring at him so fiercely, that one would think Percy had kicked her puppy and then pissed in her cheerios. He hadn't, but if he could piss in anyone's Cheerios, it would be her's. Her nose was spewing blood like a faucet. She was certain to be missing a tooth. She was going to have a black eye. Percy felt 0 guilt.
The two glared at each other for a few moments, weighing up their next moves. Percy was about to dash at her, but he felt something wrap around his arms, holding them behind his back, and lifting him off of his feet painfully. The big guy must have recovered. The blonde took advantage, charging forward and jumping just as she reached him. He saw her bent knee coming straight for him. He had no room to dodge it. All he could do was watch as it connected with the part of his face right between his eyes, just underneath his forehead. He felt his head snap back from the impact, and his entire world went dark.
Percy woke up again, in the same room as before. The first thing he felt was pain. Pain radiating from the center of his face. Right where that bitch's knee had connected.
"Say what you will about her," he thought, "But that bitch had a hell of a knee."
The second thing he became aware of, was the fact that, once again, he wasn't alone. He managed to force his eyes open and saw the first woman. The woman that had put him to sleep the first time he had appeared in the room. She was staring straight at him with a light smile on her face.
"I thought you might be a bit more receptive to my presence this time around," she said gently.
He decided he liked her voice. It was soft and airy, but he knew that she was probably only speaking like that because he was probably concussed. He imagined that when she spoke normally, her voice would be smooth and caramel-like. She gave off that kind of impression.
And she was right. He much preferred her presence to that of the cause of his aforementioned concussion. The woman smiled at him coyly, as if to let him know that she knew what he was thinking, and it was ok. Maybe she even agreed on some level.
"Yes, she can be a little... Intense." the woman said.
"I think that's putting it mildly."
"In all fairness, you gave as good as you got."
"You're damn right I did. I don't let myself get pushed around. If you people, whoever the fuck you are, have a problem with that then it's your problem."
She smiled at him again.
"You misunderstand. I wasn't criticizing you. That was meant as a point of praise. Most people buckle. The fact that you stood up to her, shows me that I made the right decision with you."
"Which brings me to my questions that the blonde wouldn't answer. Where am I? Who are you? What do you want with me?"
The woman smiled at him yet again.
"I'll answer your questions in reverse order. I want you to join my army. I'm Chaos. This is my realm."
Percy stared at her.
A/N: All right then. I'm going to use this opportunity to remind you guys about the basic premise of this fic. This was set as a little challenge for myself to use all of the cliches that we all know and hate from Guardian stories, but to try and use them in the best way possible. From now on, I think some of those are going to take effect. It's just a little fun anyways. But that's all folks. Stay safe.